USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. IV > Part 21
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Many times throughout his long business career Mr. Bornman has been tendered public office as a mark of esteem but has declined all political positions. However, he has rendered valuable service in con- nection with civic interests and from 1909 until 1916 was a member of the city plan and improve- ment commission. Mr. Bornman has also long been a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce and for many years a member of Michigan Council of Na- tional Union. For forty-five years he has been a trustee of St. John's German Evangelical Lutheran church and assisted most generously in building the church. For almost a quarter of a century he has been treasurer of the German Protestant Home for Orphans and Old People and he is a charter member of St. John's Church Benevolent Society. He is like- wise a charter member of the National Union and he is a member of the Young Men's Christian Association.
On December 12, 1861, Mr. Bornman was united in marriage to Miss Anna Martha Hollstein of Detroit, and they have become the parents of two children, the daughter Elizabeth being now the widow of Carl Toelle. The son, Charles F. Bornman, born in Detroit, August 11, 1866, was educated first in the public schools, passing through consecutive grades to the high school and afterward attending a business col- lege. Upon the completion of his college course he became associated with his father's printing business, which he thoroughly learned in every particular, be- ing admitted in 1895 to a partnership in the business under the firm style of John Bornman & Son. The business is now conducted under his management and supervision, for in later years he has largely released his father from responsibilities and activities in this connection. He is married and resides in De- troit. He has two children: Dorothy E., who was born in Detroit and completed her education in Ogontz School of Pennsylvania; and Frederick D., who was born in Detroit and is a graduate of the high school and is now attending Dartmouth College. Such in brief is the history of the Bornman family. Eighty- two years have been added to the cycle of the cen- turies since the first representatives of the name came to Detroit and throughout all the intervening period the family has contributed to the development and progress of the city, and the work instituted by John Bornman is now being further promoted and carried on by his son, the name continuing to figure promi- nently in connection with the annals of Detroit through the activities of the younger generation.
JAMES FRANCIS LANE, member of the Detroit bar largely specializing in his practice in real estate law, is a native of the city in which he resides, his birth having here occurred November 5, 1885, his parents being Michael and Bridget (Haley) Lane, the former an engineer.
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In pursuing his education James F. Lane passed through consecutive grades to the Midland high school. He prepared for the practice of law as a student in the Detroit College of Law and was graduated there- from with the class of 1913. He at once entered upon active professional work and the result of his thor- oughness, close application and his natural ability are manifest in the extent and importance of the practice now accorded him. While he continues in the general practice of law, he largely specializes in real estate law and his work in that department is of a most valuable character.
Mr. Lane is a member of the Board of Commerce of Detroit and cooperates heartily in the plans and purposes of that organization to upbuild the city, to extend its trade relations and to advance its civic standards. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and at one time he was a candidate for congress. He keeps well informed on all the vital questions and issues of the day and his support of any measure indicates his firm belief in its efficacy as a factor in good government or in public progress.
IVIN E. KERR, a well known member of the legal profession in Detroit, is senior member of the law firm of Kerr & Lacey. He was born in St. Anthony, Idaho, June 21, 1885, and comes from a prominent and well-to-do family of that state. His parents are Marion J. and Ella (Merrill) Kerr, who are natives of Iowa but went to Idaho in the early settle- ment of that section of the northwest. The father became well known there as a prominent contractor of the county and state in which he lived. He after- ward bought a large ranch and is now a prosperous agriculturist of Idaho, residing near St. Anthony. The mother also survives.
Ivin E. Kerr, the eldest of a family of three chil- dren, was reared in the northwest and attended the Rexburg (Idaho) Academy, while later he became a student in the Oregon State College at Corvallis, pursuing there a general course. He afterward came to Michigan to enter the State University, in which he took up the study of law and won his Bachelor of Science degree and his LL. B. degree upon grad- uation with the class of 1912. He soon afterward located in Detroit to enter upon the active practice of his profession and has since won marked success as a lawyer, both in general practice and as a special- ist on compensation law and liability cases. He rep- resents the Dodge Brothers and several others of the important corporations of the city and his clientage is now extensive and gratifying. For more than five years he has been legal representative in Michigan of the Zurich General Accident & Liability Insurance Company of Zurich, Switzerland. In 1916 he entered into partnership with Ralph B. Lacey under the firm style of Kerr & Lacey. They have taken a foremost position among the law firms of the state on com- pensation law and liability cases, with a clientage
of over thirty companies, including a number of the largest writing that class of insurance in Michigan.
On the 26th of June, 1913, Mr. Kerr was married to Miss Mary Byrnes, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Byrnes, and they have one child, Winona, who was born in Detroit in April, 1915. Mr. Kerr belongs to the Detroit and the Michigan State Bar Associations and he also has membership in the Law- yers Club and in the Fellowcraft Club. He brought with him upon his removal to this state the spirit of western enterprise and progress, in which environ- ment he was born and reared. He is a man of strong purpose and has ever displayed the utmost thorough- ness in his law practice, especially in the prepara- tion of his cases, while his arguments before the courts are always able and logical.
HENRY ALLYN HAIGH, whose successful career has been characterized by brilliancy and versatility of achievement, has been known as a lawyer of rare ability, as a builder and operator of electric railways, as a respected political worker, and as a business man of initiative and judgment. Henry Allyn Haigh was born at the old homestead at Dearborn, Michigan, March 13, 1854, a son of the late Richard (Sr.) and Lucy Billings (Allyn) Haigh.
The Haigh family is of English origin. Richard Haigh, Sr., was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, Eng- land, May 4, 1811. His father died in the year 1822 and about 1825 he came to America. For a year after his arrival he was employed in a small establishment in New York city for the refinishing of cloth. In 1827 he entered the employ of John Barrows & Sons, woolen cloth manufacturers, also of New York city. His next position, along the same line, was with Peter Schenk of Glenham, New York. In 1828 he went to Poughkeepsie and became an apprentice at the trade of wool stapling with the firm of Thomas Williams & Son and here he remained six years, long enough to become an acknowledged expert at the business. He next returned to Glenham, but in 1835 he went to Rochester, New York, and became a wool sorter for E. & H. Lyon. This mill burned in 1837 and Mr. Haigh then assumed charge of the buying and sorting of wool for the Waterloo (New York) Woolen Mills. In 1842 he was engaged in the manufacture of linseed oil at Waterloo, at which he was very successful until the repeal of the tariff protecting that industry in 1846. For the next five years his attention was chiefly given to the buying and selling of wool and sheep pelts, during which time he located at Seneca Falls, New York, where he established a small tannery. In 1855, in response to the urging of his brother, Henry, who was engaged in the drug business at Detroit, Richard Haigh, Sr., came to this city and within a year after his arrival had purchased the property at Dearborn known ever since as the Haigh home- stead, where he resided until his death on the 5th of December, 1904. During his residence at Dearborn
IVIN E. KERR
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he became well known as a farmer and stock raiser. His original purchase of land here was about three hundred acres, but in 1873 nearly two hundred acres were sold to the Sisters of Charity, who established the St. Joseph's Retreat thereon. Mr. Haigh was one of the organizers of the Christ church at Dearborn and was senior warden from 1866 until his death. In 1836 Richard Haigh, Sr., was married to Bessie Wil- liams, daughter of Thomas Williams of Poughkeepsie, New York. She died in 1842 and in 1844 he was married to Miss Lucy Billings Allyn of Waterloo, New York. She was of the Connecticut family of Allyns, dating back to early colonial days.
Henry A. Haigh received his early education in the local public schools and at Waterloo, New York. He attended the Michigan Agricultural College, from which he received his B. S. degree with the class of 1874. He then entered the law department of the University of Michigan and graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1878.
During the winter months of 1874 and 1875 Mr. Haigh taught school in Wayne county and in March, 1875, he was appointed to a clerkship in the office of the state board of health at Lansing, where he served until September, 1876.
After his graduation from the University of Mich- igan, Mr. Haigh continued his law studies in the office of William A. Moore and later began the prac- tice of law in Detroit, becoming an office associate of his former classmate, Hon. William L. Carpenter, afterwards justice of the supreme court of the state. In 1889 they associated themselves with the late Colonel John Atkinson and the late Hon. Flavius L. Brooke, under the firm name of Atkinson, Carpenter, Brooke & Haigh. In the autumn of 1893 he became the junior partner of the firm of Atkinson & Haigh, retaining this business relationship until 1896. From that date until 1899 Mr. Haigh practiced alone.
In 1899 other interests of importance, such as electric railway construction, banking and real estate matters, began to claim his attention to such an ex- tent that legal matters were subordinated. In 1898 he had assisted Samuel F. Angus and James D. Hawks in securing portions of the right of way neces- sary for the completion of the Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor & Jackson Railway, which was an electric line. His success in this undertaking led to his further association with Mr. Angus in the promotion of the Toledo, Fremont & Norwalk Railway in Ohio. He was chosen treasurer and general counsel for the com- pany formed to carry on the project. He was very active in the construction of the line, which was com- pleted in 1901. This road, sixty-five miles in length, was afterward sold to t'e Everett-Moore Syndicate of Cleveland and is now a part of the Lake Shore elec- trie line between that city and Toledo.
In 1902 the Comstock-Haigh-Walker Company was organized and began the construction of the Rochester & Eastern Railway, an electric line connecting Roches-
ter, Canandaigua and Geneva, New York. This line was finished in 1905 and sold to the New York Central Electric Railway Company. The next enterprise of the company was the construction of the Milwaukee, Northern Railway, a system which connects and serves five important counties in Wisconsin, the first division running between Milwaukee and Sheboygan. Upon the death of William B. Comstock in 1905, Mr. Haigh succeeded him as president of the Comstock-Haigh- Walker Company and also became secretary and treas- urer of the Milwaukee Northern Railway Company. In 1906 he became vice president and a director in the Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor & Jackson Railway Com- pany, retaining that connection until the property was sold to the Detroit United Railway Lines. Upon the death of Andrew W. Comstock in April, 1908, Mr. Haigh became president and director of the Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth Railway, a steam and elec- tric line running easterly from Cincinnati and com- prising about seventy miles of trackage; also of the Felicity & Bethel Railway, an electric line in south- ern Ohio. He was also a director in the Alpena Power Company and for a number of years was president of the Detroit Sanitarium. Mr. Haigh was one of the original subscribers to the stock of the Peninsular Savings Bank of Detroit and has been for many years one of its directors and a member of the executive committee. He is also president of the Peninsular State Bank of Highland Park. He was one of the organizers of the Continental Casualty Company, now of Chicago, and one of the largest insurance companies of its kind in the country; he was for a number of years one of its directors and is now its general counsel for Michigan.
In his political life Mr. Haigh has well merited the reputation of being a hard worker for the re- publican party. As early as 1884 he was active in the organization of the Michigan Club, then the most prominent republican organization in the state, was the first secretary and subsequently its president. In 1887 Mr. Haigh was active in the organization of the National Republican League and in 1892-93 he was the Michigan member of the executive committee. Iu 1896 he was president of the Mckinley Club of Detroit and was active in the campaign of that year. In 1892 he was presidential elector from Michigan and was selected by his colleagues as the electoral mes- senger to carry the votes of Michigan to Washington, D. C. In 1896 he was the alternate delegate-at-large from Michigan to the national republican convention at St. Louis. Mr. Haigh was also secretary of the Michigan State Republican League, organized in 1888. While having passed the activity stage in politics, Mr. Haigh is still intensely interested in the for- tunes of his party.
As a writer upon subjects with a legal hearing, Mr. Haigh has done considerable work which is worthy of note. In 1884 he published "Haigh's Manual of Law," a compilation of the laws applicable to farm
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life and rural districts. In 1888 he compiled and published "Labor Laws of America," a comprehen- sive and authoritative treatise upon the subject. Mr. Haigh has also contributed occasionally to newspapers and magazines, in the main covering such subjects as were objects of his study and experience.
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On the 16th of January, 1895, Henry A. Haigh was married to Miss Caroline Comstock, daughter of the late Andrew W. Comstock, lumberman, banker and vessel owner of Alpena, Michigan. To Mr. and Mrs. Haigh were born two children: Andrew Comstock Haigh and Richard Allyn Haigh. Both of these sons enlisted as privates in the World war, Andrew serving for nearly two years overseas and being commissioned lieutenant. Both graduated from the University of Michigan in 1919. Andrew Haigh is now (1921) an instructor in the Princeton Preparatory School at Princeton, New Jersey, and Allyn Haigh is connected with the firm of Stone & Webster of Boston, Massa- chusetts. The Haigh town residence in Detroit is at 762 Seminole avenue. The summer home is at the old Haigh homestead in Dearborn, where Mr. Haigh was born and which has been in his family for up- wards of seventy years. The old colonial mansion is perhaps the oldest of the early colonial places in Michigan. It was built by the late Colonel Joshua Howard in 1833-34 while he was engaged in super- intending, for the United States government, the con- struction of the Detroit arsenal at Dearborn, which was an important military post for some time but was abandoned by the government about 1870.
In those matters pertaining to public service Mr. Haigh has ever been interested. He was a member of the Michigan state board of health from 1901 until 1906 and a member of the American Public Health Association. In Detroit he has been a member of the Board of Commerce since its inception. Mr. Haigh's other social and fraternal affiliations are with the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, the Detroit Club, the Alpena Country Club, the Univer- sity Club of Detroit, the Grosse Pointe Country Club and Oriental Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Haigh is an Episcopalian and member of the Vestry of Christ church, Dearborn.
LANDER S. HARRIS, who passed from the scene of earthly activities October 27, 1920, was a well known business man of Detroit, for many years prom- inently connected with the cigar trade, while more recently he gave his attention largely to real estate operations. He became a resident of this city when a lad of but ten years, his birth having occurred in the state of New York, September 6, 1868. His parents were Edward M. and Jane (Valette) Harris. The father was a telegraph operator and at one time was employed iu the same office and had the desk adjoining that of Thomas A. Edison, the noted in- ventor. After working along that line for a time he conducted a cigar stand in the old Russell house
of Detroit, this being the initial step towards estab- lishing the large cigar business afterward carried on by his son. There were but two children in the family, the daughter being Mrs. Louis E. White, still a resi- dent of Detroit.
Lander S. Harris, spending his boyhood under the parental roof, began his education in the public schools of New York and continued his studies after the removal of the family to Detroit, when he was ten years of age. When his school days were over he became assistant to his father in the cigar business and following the death of his father took over the business, remaining in the old Russell house until it closed its doors and he removed to 119 Woodward avenue. There he enjoyed an extensive trade for a long period, but afterward concentrated his efforts and attention largely upon real estate operations and promoted many important realty transfers. Among other large transactions which he negotiated was the ninety-nine year lease of Grindley Field. His busi- ness judgment was sound and his enterprise and energy brought to him a substantial measure of success as the years passed.
Mr. Harris was united in marriage to Miss Blanche Burton, a daughter of James C. Burton who was born in 1830 and who passed away July 19, 1915, at the venerable age of eighty-five years. He had for a long period been prominent in marine insurance circles in Detroit. To Mr. and Mrs. Harris was born but one child, Burton S., whose birth occurred August 1, 1902, and who with his mother is living in Detroit. Mr. Harris' political endorsement was given to the re- publican party as a result of his thorough study of the vital questions and issues of the day. He was a life member of the Detroit Boat Club. His long residence in the city and his activity in business brought him a wide acquaintance and the sterling worth of his character gained for him strong friend- ships and warm regards.
J. HOWARD MUZZY is a well known factor in the industrial life of Detroit as president of Muzzy- Lyon Company, manufacturers of bearings and bear- ing alloys, a concern which he organized in 1903. His birth occurred at Romeo, Michigan, on the 23d of February, 1865, his parents being Joel P. and Mary T. (Reade) Muzzy. After completing a high school course in his native town he came to Detroit as a youth of seventeen and secured a position as clerk with the firm of Armstrong & Graham, with which he continued for three years, while subsequently he spent two years in the employ of J. P. Donaldson & Company. He next became manager for the firm of J. T. Wing & Company, which he thus ably repre- sented for fifteen years. On the expiration of that period, feeling that his capital and experience justified him in embarking in business on his own account, he organized The Muzzy-Lyon Company, Limited, in 1903, for the manufacture of Babbitt metal, becoming its
LANDER S. HARRIS
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secretary and treasurer. This was later succeeded by Muzzy-Lyon Company, of which he became president, his son, Howard Gray Muzzy, having assumed the duties of secretary and treasurer. In the conduct of his interests he has manifested a most progressive spirit and his sound judgment and indefatigable en- ergy have resulted in the development of the business until it is now one of extensive and gratifying pro- portions.
On the 4th of March, 1892, Mr. Muzzy was united in marriage to Miss Grace E. Gray of Romeo, this state, and to them have been born four children: Edith Dwight, Howard Gray, Morris J. and Robert William. The eldest son, Howard G. Muzzy, was born in Detroit and obtained his more advanced education in the University of Michigan, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts as a member of the class of 1917. In April of that year, when the United States entered the war against Germany, he enlisted in the Ann Arbor unit of the Michigan Naval Militia, serving at the Great Lakes and on the United States Ship New Orleans, which did a great deal of convoy work. He attained the rank of ensign and was mustered out December 7, 1918. On the 20th of September, 1919, he married Katherine W. Gervais of Chicago. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon, a college fraternity, and also belongs to the Oakland Hills Country Club. In 1919 he became secretary and treasurer of Muzzy- Lyon Company and is thus associated with his father in the conduct of an important industrial enterprise of Detroit.
In his political views Mr. Muzzy is a republican, while his religious faith is that of the Congregational church. He belongs to the Detroit Board of Commerce and to the Oakland Hills Country, Detroit Athletic and Ingleside Clubs. For his recreation he turns chiefly to outdoor sports. His career has been characterized by high ideals and worthy motives and he has won a host of warm friends in both business and social circles of Detroit.
JULIUS KNACK, president and founder of the Julius Knack Coal Company of Detroit, has in this connection become one of the big individual coal dis- tributors of the city, having developed a business to extensive proportions. Mr. Knack was born in Ger- many, May 24, 1860, and is a son of Frank and Eliza- beth Knack, who were also natives of that country, where they resided until 1872 and then sailed for the new world, becoming residents of Detroit, the father afterward lived retired here until his death, which occurred in 1881. His widow long survived him, pass- ing away in 1909. In their family were four chil- dren, three of whom are living: Julius, of this re- view; Mrs. Lena Voss; and August. All are residents of Detroit.
Julius Knack attended the public schools of De- troit between the ages of twelve and fifteen years
and then started out to provide for his own support. His first ambition was to become a cigar-maker, but after learning the trade he decided to follow other pursuits. In 1883 he established a small coal yard and, persisting in this business, his energy and de- termination, combined with capable management and unfaltering industry, enabled him in time to secure a high-class trade. He was obliged to seek larger quarters as his business increased and in 1911 he in- corporated the Julius Knack Coal Company, of which he has since been the president. His yards are located at Adelaide street and the Grand Trunk Railroad and at Holbrook and the Grand Trunk Railroad, while the main office is at Mack and Gratiot avenue, in the Knack building. His quarters are now adequate to all the needs and purposes of the business, for excel- lent rail facilities are at hand for the bulk delivery from the mines to the yards. Mr. Knack maintains a personal interest in every phase and detail of the business and his sound judgment and enterprise have been the forceful factors in winning success. While he is today one of the large individual coal distribu- tors of the city, he is also active in various other fields, especially in connection with organizations that have to do with public benefit.
In November, 1885, Mr. Knack was married to Miss Mathilda Botzon and they have become parents of four children: Werner, born in Detroit in 1893 and now in business with his father; Sabina, who was born in 1897; Herbert, born in 1899; and Harold, born in 1902. All have been accorded the liberal educa- tional opportunities offered in the public and high schools of this city.
Politically Mr. Knack is a republican and keeps well informed on the vital questions and issues of the day but has never been an office seeker. He has done good work as one of the organizers and direc- tors of the Detroit Old Folks Home and in many ways he is constantly extending a helping hand where assistance is needed. He belongs to the Detroit Board of Commerce and also to the Michigan Coal Dealers Association and is interested in all that has to do with benefiting trade conditions and business connec- tions for Detroit.
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