USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. IV > Part 78
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ALFRED RICE
Vol. IV-43
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ward returned to the middle west and became iden- tified with the business of which he is now the head. The parent establishment of John V. Sheehan & Com- pany was started in Ann Arbor forty-six years ago and Mr. Sheehan there carried on business uutil 1895, when he removed his store to Detroit. He later in- duced Mr. Duckett, his stepson, to leave the Federal Mining & Smelting Company and join him in Detroit, where he placed him in charge of the toy department. At Mr. Sheehan's death on the 20th of April, 1916, Mr. Duckett took entire charge of the business, which has since enjoyed marked growth and prosperity, the trade nearly doubling under his management. Mr. Duckett has always maintained the highest standards in his treatment of employes and of patrons. He en- joys the confidence of both. He has a most attractive store, carrying a very extensive line of books and stationery, including all of the leading fiction, edu- cational treatises and scientific work. Every depart- ment of the business receives his personal attention and supervision and profits by his sound judgment and enterprising methods. The store has a floor space of over fifteen thousand square feet, which is an enor- mous area for business of this kind, utilizing four floors and the basement of the building occupied. Thirty-five people are employed in various capacities and adequate service and courtesy are featured by the company and have constituted factors in their grow- ing success. The business enjoys the patronage of the people who are constantly seeking the best in litera- ture and there is also a large trade in toys and art goods, so that the store ranks first among the estab- lishments of this character in the state.
Mr. Duckett was united in marriage to Miss Jose- phine La Barre Vhay, on the 20th of May, 1920, and they have become parents of a little daughter, Del- phine DuBois. In religious faith Mr. Duckett is a Roman Catholic. Politically he is a republican, but has never been an aspirant for office. He belongs to the Detroit Boat Club and also to the Detroit Board of Commerce and is interested in all of the definite plans and purposes of that organization for the city's upbuilding and improvement. While conducting his business in Detroit he makes his home in Birmingham, greatly enjoying the suburban life.
COLONEL LOU BURT. The name of Colonel Lou Burt is closely associated with the history of Detroit as that of one of the representative business men of the city and as a public official who for many years most loyally served in the office of county auditor. His constantly developing powers made for capability of a high order and his faithfulness to every trust committed to his care was one of his marked charac- teristics. Colonel Burt was born in the state of Ohio on the 18th of April, 1852, and his life record cov- ered the intervening years to the 28th of December, 1911, when he passed away at the age of fifty-nine years. He was one of a family of four children
whose parents were Merritt and Cynthia (Brockway) Burt. The father was a well known and prominent railroad official who was born in Pennsylvania and in young manhood learned the trade of watchmaking. He developed high efficiency along that line and was the inventor of the escapement movement of the Elgin watch. Throughout his life he displayed marked in- ventive skill and ingenuity and became the inventor of the auto marine engine, which was later known as the Ferro engine, and the patent thereto was sold by Colonel Burt to a Cleveland syndicate. Merritt Burt turned his attention to railway interests and rose to prominence in that connection.
Colonel Burt, spending his youthful days under the parental roof, pursued his early education in the public schools of Ohio, passed through consecutive grades to the high school and later became a student in Oberlin College, under James A. Garfield, afterward president of the United States. In young manhood Colonel Burt turned his attention to the jewelry busi- ness in Cleveland, Ohio, and developed a trade of sub- stantial proportions, continuing to conduct his store in that city until 1883, when he removed to Detroit. Here he established a wholesale jewelry house and as the years passed his business became one of the largest of the kind in the city. He made a thorough study of every phase of the jewelry trade and his reliability and earnest desire to please brought to him a patron- age that was most substantial and gratifying. At length, however, he put aside business cares, for he was prevailed upon by the republican party to accept the nomination for the office of county auditor of Wayne county. He was elected to the position and reelection continued him in the office for fourteen consecutive years, his record at all times being a most ereditable one. On the expiration of that period, because of impaired health, he retired from the office and was unable to rally his vital forces to meet the onslaughts of disease.
It was on the 21st of May, 1873, that Colonel Burt was united in marriage to Miss Mary Ingersoll, the accomplished daughter of Edwin P. Ingersoll. They became the parents of two children: Elizabeth C., who was born in 1880, and died September 26, 1918; and Lou, Jr., who was born in 1889 and was united in marriage to. Miss Josephine Sparling, daughter of Joseph Sparling. They have one child.
A most interesting chapter in the life history of Colonel Burt covered his experience as a soldier of the Civil war. He enlisted when but thirteen years of age. At a time when most boys are interested in marbles or a ball game he ran away from home, made his way to Cincinnati, Ohio, and joined the Union army as a drummer boy. However, his hope of serving at the front was frustrated by parental authority, for, owing to his youth, his father obliged him to return home. The same spirit of loyalty to country char- acterized Colonel Burt throughout his life. His aid and support could ever be counted upon to further
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any measure for the general good and he stanchly ad- vocated all those forces and projects which were a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. Fraternally Colonel Burt was a Mason who belonged to Union Lodge and attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in the Consistory. He likewise crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and be became a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He belonged to numerous clubs and social organizations and at one time served as presi- dent of the Rushmere Club, which he assisted in or- ganizing. Political questions and issues were at all times familiar to him, for he believed it was the duty of every individual thoroughly to inform himself con- cerning the vital political problems before the country and he gave stanch support to the republican party. He took the keenest interest in marine sports and pleasures, spent much time on and in the water and was a valued member of the Yacht Club. His marked personal characteristics were such as won for him the warmest friendship and regard and all who were in any way associated with him greatly prized his companionship. He passed away on the 28th of De- cember, 1911, when fifty-nine years of age, his remains being interred in Woodlawn cemetery. Mrs. Burt still occupies an attractive apartment at 749 Gladstone avenue and is well known in Detroit as a member of the Twentieth Century Club and the Woman's City Club.
HIRAM WALKER was born in Douglas, Massachu- setts, July 4, 1816, being the third child of Willis and Ruth (Buffum) Walker. His youthful days passed uneventfully, the public schools of his native town affording him his educational opportunities, while his initial step in the business world was made as an em- ploye in a dry goods store in Boston. But the chances and opportunities of the growing west proved to him an irresistible call and in 1838, when twenty-two years of age, he became a resident of Detroit. He secured employment in a store on Atwater street and after- ward established business on his own account as a grocer on Atwater, near Bates street. Success did not attend this venture, however, and he later formed a partnership with Jeremiah Ingersoll in the conduct of a tannery on Dequindre street, where they also en- gaged in dealing in leather. When the tannery was destroyed by fire some time later, this partnership was dissolved and Mr. Walker again became engaged in the grocery trade, but the financial panic of 1857 wrecked the enterprise. That he seems to have been a man of undaunted courage and determination is indicated in the fact that, undiscouraged, he established business in Canada and from that time forward fortune seemed to smile upon him. In 1857 he purchased land just across the river from Detroit, constituting the present town site of Walkerville, and thereon built a steam flour mill and distillery. The plaut was put in
active operation in 1858 and his capable management brought about a rapid and substantial growth of the business. The products of his distillery were known in every part of the world. He also continued in the man- ufacture of flour for more than twenty years and then disposed of that branch of the business to give his entire attention to the distillery. Moreover, his busi- ness affairs and his enterprise constituted a most potent force in the development and upbuilding of the town of Walkerville. In March, 1859, Mr. Walker removed his family from Hamtramck, the eastern sub- urb of Detroit, to Walkerville, his home being an attractive frame house on the river bank known as The Cottage. It was built about 1840 and at the time it came into his possession through purchase was sur- rounded by a large garden, which subsequently became the site of the distillery offices. There Mr. Walker remained until 1864, when he and his family resumed their residence in Detroit.
The activity of Hiram Walker in connection with important business interests of Detroit was of broad scope and in contributing to the city's development and progress he but followed the example set by his ancestors, who through many generations had been important factors in America's progress. In fact his ancestry is distinctively American in its lineal and collateral lines through many generations and is entirely of English lineage save for the solitary ex- ception of Pierre Chamois, a French Huguenot who, as Peter Shumway, settled in Oxford, Massachusetts, about 1650. In the Walker line Hiram Walker was descended from Thomas Walker, who according to the records given in "Early New England Families" lived in Boston in 1661 and in 1664 removed to Sud- bury, Massachusetts, where "he received encourage- ment to keep a free school." There he departed this life in 1699. Among the ancestors of Hiram Walker in direct line was one who served as a soldier and was wounded in the great Narragansett fight in 1675. Rep- resentatives of the name intermarried with some of the most distinguished families of New England, and ancestral connection carries with it the right of ad- mission to the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the American Revolution and other patriotic organ- izations.
It is not definitely known when the name of Walker- ville was first used, for at one time the place was known as Walkerstown and in the early days the uame of Walkerton was much favored by some of the settlers. However, the name of Walkerville was adopted prior to 1864, probably at the time the Great Western Railway built a switch into Mr. Walker's yards-about 1862. The government acceptance of the name came with the establishment of the post office on the 1st of March, 1869, prior to which time the nearest post office was at Windsor. For many years Mr. Walker carried on business under the name of the Windsor Distillery & Flouring Mills and in 1863 Mr. Walker was joined in a partnership by Mr. Mc-
HIRAM WALKER
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Bride, who had been in his employ as a traveling representative. Four years later, however, the part- nership was dissolved, but in the intervening period business had been conducted under the style of Hiram Walker & Company. From 1867 until 1871 operations were again carried on solely under the name of Hiram Walker and when the father was joined in a partner- ship by his son, Edward Chandler Walker, the title of Hiram Walker & Son was adopted. Later other sons joined the father and the final word in the firm name was pluralized. In 1890 the distillery business was organized as a joint stock company, under the name of Hiram Walker & Sons, Limited, and thus the business has been continued, while other business interests carried on by father and sons led to the adoption of the firm style of Walker, Sons & Com- pany. In 1895 the father retired from business and the style of Walker Sons was adopted.
It was in 1890 that the town of Walkerville was incorporated with a special charter and, according to another biographer, "Mr. Walker was a somewhat unique municipal figure, being practically mayor, coun- cil, board of works, controller of fire, water and light department and board of education-all in one." Moreover, he constantly expanded his business affairs and entered many manufacturing fields and at the same time furthered public progress by the building of a church; and when a new public school section was organized became one of the original trustees. He made extensive investments in farm lands until his holdings were among the largest held in individual ownership in Canada. He engaged in hop growing, in the cultivation of a tobacco plantation of more than one hundred acres, in the raising of cattle and horses and also built a railway and developed the summer resort hotel known as the Mettawas, at Kings- ville, on Lake Erie. He was likewise the organizer and promoter of the Ontario Oil & Gas Company, which for years furnished natural gas to Walkerville, Windsor and Detroit, and many other business con- cerns profited by his cooperation and splendid powers of management. The distillery business, however, con- tinued to claim the major part of his time and atten- tion and made his name known throughout the world.
Detroit benefited largely by his initiative and his progressive spirit, for among the enterprises with which he was associated were the Detroit Car Works, Detroit Transit Railway, Detroit & Bay City Railway, Detroit National Bank, Detroit Chamber of Commerce, Hamtramck Iron Works, Minong Mining Company, Cove Land & Mining Company, Michagamme Com- pany, Detroit & Ontonagon Mineral Lands Company, Michigan Land & Immigration Company, St. Clair Mining Company and Valverde Mining Company. He was also connected with the Detroit Medical College as one of its supporters and the Wayne County Agri- cultural & Industrial Society. His real estate holdings in Detroit were also extensive, including much valu- able business property in the center of the city He
had membership in the Detroit, Grosse Pointe, North Channel and Detroit Driving Clubs and to each busi- ness, social and public organization with which he was connected he lent valuable aid and contributed to each important ideas and plans of management and control.
On the 5th of October, 1846, Hiram Walker wedded Mary Abigail Williams, daughter of Ephraim Smith and Hannah Melissa (Gotee) Williams of Silver Lake, Michigan. Mrs. Walker was the first white child born in the Saginaw valley, where her father was serving as paymaster for the Indians. Her birth occurred in 1826 and her death in 1872. She was a descendant of Robert Williams of Welsh lineage, who sailed from Norwich, England, in 1638, and settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts. On the maternal side she was directly descended from James Harrington Gotee, who for seven years was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mr. and Mrs. Walker had a family of four sons and two daughters, of whom Willis Ephraim, lawyer and notary of Detroit, died in 1886, and Jennie Melissa passed away in 1870. The surviving daughter, Elizabeth J., became the wife of Theodore D. Buhl of Detroit, and the sons who became associated with their father in business were: E. Chandler, Franklin H. and J. Har- rington. The two latter are mentioned elsewhere in this work. The mother, Mrs. Mary Abigail Walker, of most charitable and kindly disposition, was one of the founders and liberal supporters of St. Luke's Hospital.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Walker were members of the Episcopal church and for many years he belonged to the vestry. He was most generous in support of the church and of all benevolent projects. At one time he planned the endowment of a school for manual train- ing in Detroit, but his daughter suggested to him the need of a hospital for helpless little ones and he founded the Children's Free Hospital of Detroit, this being built by him in 1896, in memory of his daughter, Jennie Melissa, who had died in 1870. He not only gave the land and building but left to it a splendid be- quest at his death. He endowed both a room and a bed in Harper Hospital and was most liberal in his support of the training school for nurses and other branches of hospital work. Wherever aid was needed for the alleviation of suffering or trouble Mr. Walker gave it freely and generously. He was constantly going around doing good and it was his beneficence and his kindliness, as well as his splendid business ability, that made his name known and honored throughout this section of America. He passed away January 12, 1899, in Detroit, at the age of eighty-three years. Four years before, deciding to retire from active busi- ness, he executed deeds of sale to his three sons of the greater part of his real estate, including all prop- erty in Detroit and much of his land in Canada. He likewise transferred to them his holdings in the various incorporated companies in which he was interested. With these gifts went the request that within three
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years of his death his sons should pay twenty thousand dollars to Harper Hospital, which payment was made in 1902. By his will he bequeathed to the Children's Free Hospital seven-eights and to Harper Hospital one-eighth of all property of which he might be pos- sessed at the time of his death, "to be used by said hospitals for the care and maintenance of the worthy sick poor." The early church which was erected in Walkerville was named St. Mary's, in honor of his wife, and in 1904 their sons erected a handsome new church edifice as a memorial to the parents, this being one of the beautiful churches of Canada. It was presented as a free gift, with an ample endowment, to the Anglican diocese of Huron. The fruits of the good work of Hiram Walker will thus endure for many years to come, not only in the church but in many other projects and organizations for progress, reform and improvement. It is impossible to measure such a character at its full value, and time, which gives the true perspective, only serves to heighten his fame and place him in true position as one of the foremost figures of his generation. Varied and mammoth enter- prises came into being as the result of his initiative and ability, a splendid, thriving town exists as the outcome of his foresight and sagacity and many be- nevolences benefited by his generous spirit. "Not the good that comes to us, but the good that comes to the world through us, is the measure of our success,"' and judged by this standard Hiram Walker was a most successful man.
LUMAN WEBSTER GOODENOUGH, senior mem- ber of the well known law firm of Goodenough, Voorhies & Long, is not only one of the foremost mem- bers of the Detroit bar but is extensively interested in industrial, financial and other institutions that are important factors in the business life of this section of the state. Mr. Goodenough is a native son of Michigan and was born at Ludington, January 1, 1873, a son of Daniel W. and Lodema (Olney) Good- enough. Mr. Goodenough was reared in his native city and prepared for college in its public schools, after which he entered the University of Michigan and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Literature in the class of 1896. He continued at Ann Arbor as a law student in the university until the LL.B. degree was conferred upon him in 1898. Re- turning to Ludington, he entered upon the activce practice of his profession but soon afterward sought the broader field of labor offered in Detroit and in 1899 located in this city, where for a time he was connected with the law firm of Shaw & Cady. Sub- sequent changes and association in his professional practice brought Mr. Goodenough into connection with Irvin Long and later with Paul W. Voorhies, and since September, 1918, the firm name has been Goodenough, Voorhies & Long, representing one of the strongest law firms in Detroit. During the more than twenty years that Mr. Goodenough has been a member of the
Detroit bar he has risen to a high place among his associates. He early acquired a high-class clientele and when comparatively a young man was entrusted with important legal assignments to which many older men aspired. Clean, capable and conscientious, he has long since been regarded as one of the successful lawyers of Detroit. Mr. Goodenough's interests, aside from those of a professional character, are varied and extensive. He is a director and treasurer of the Gray Estate Company, a director of the Merchants National Bank of Detroit, director of the Plymouth United Savings Bank of Plymouth, Michigan, as well as a member of about forty other directorates of manufac- turing, land and investment companies and banks.
In March, 1904, Mr. Goodenough was married in Detroit to Miss Elizabeth Noble, a daughter of the late Charles Wing Noble, and they have two daughters and a son: Elizabeth Lodema; Eleanor; and Daniel W., who was born in Detroit, July 7, 1911. The family attend the Methodist Episcopal church in Farmington, of which Mr. Goodenough is a trustee. He is well known in the club life of Detroit, being a member of the Detroit, University, Detroit Athletic, Bankers, Indian Village, Oakland Hills and Meadowbrook Country Clubs. He is a charter member of the Board of Commerce and was formerly a director and vice president of that organization. In the work and influence of the Detroit Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation Mr. Goodenough takes a keen interest, being a director of that association and chairman of the drive for its war fund. An aggressive power for good in the community Mr. Goodenough has always been actively interested in the problems of his city and state. While he maintains an independent attitude in politics, he feels the keenest interest in everything pertaining to the welfare and progress of his country and was particularly active during the war period, being one of the Four-Minute men and a general speaker in the Red Cross and Liberty Loan drives. He acted as chairman of the War Savings Committee for Michigan in 1919 and as a member of the township war board of Farmington. He was also legal advisor of the American Protective League. Since 1918 Mr. Goodenough has resided in Farmington, where his residence "Long Acres," is one of the attractive country places around Detroit.
THOMAS FRANCIS COMERFORD is the president of the Standard Computing Scale Company and is iden- tified with a number of other important business interests of Detroit. Michigan is his native state, his birth having occurred in Ontonagon on the 21st of July, 1860, his parents being Michael and Elizabeth (Feigh) Comerford. In the acquirement of his edu- cation he attended the public schools of Virginia City, Nevada, for his parents removed to the west during his early boyhood. He afterward attended business college and for two years was a student in St. Mi- chael's College of Toronto, Ontario. He started out
LUMAN W. GOODENOUGH
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upon his business career as a bookkeeper. He dates his residence in Detroit from 1879 and has advanced steadily in business connections, passing from the position of bookkeeper to that of salesman, while later he became manager and afterward secretary and treasurer of the Michigan Optical Company. His iden- tification with the Standard Computing Scale Com- pany covers a period of twenty-two years and he has been president from the date of the organization of this corporation. He is also the secretary and treas- urer of the Michigan Optical Company and is a direc- tor of the Sunny Line Appliances, Incorporated, and also a director of the Sievers & Erdman Company.
On the 19th of May, 1900, in Detroit, Mr. Comer- ford was married to Josephine Warren, a daughter of Charles B. and Julia Warren. Mr. Comerford's stepson, Charles Byron, was born July 20, 1898, and is purchasing agent of the Standard Computing Scale Company. He married Naomi Raiss of Detroit. Mr. Comerford is a republican in his political views. He has held some local offices, serving as a member of the Detroit board of education from 1889 until 1891, while in 1913 he became a member of the board of water commissioners, occupying that position for two years. During the World war he was chairman of Draft Board, Local No. 18, in Detroit. Fraternally he was an Elk for ten years but is not identified with the order at the present time. Something of the nature of his interests and recreation is indicated in the fact that he belongs to the Detroit Athletic Club and the Riverview Golf Club. His purposes have ever been well defined, his enterprise is unfaltering and each year has chronicled his advance from the position which he occupied the previous year.
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