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the county and served as township trustee during the trying times of the Civil War. Rufus and Ellen (Cady) Babbitt were the parents of five children, as follows: L. A. Kurnal L., deceased; Hattie, deceased; Carolyn, deceased; and Jennie, who married H. F. Brown, of Highland Park, Michigan, and is now dead. Kurnal L. Babbitt attended the Ypsilanti Normal School, and after teaching school for two years and working in the post office at Washington, D. C., for a short period, he went to Columbia University to study law. Upon the completion of his course at the eastern college, he went to Colorado where he became one of the pioneer lawyers of Cripple Creek, representing the vast Guggenheim mining interests of New York. His death at the age of fifty-five years cut short a career of exceptional brilliance and prominence. L. A. Babbitt was born on the homestead farm four miles from Northville in Plymouth Township on November 4, 1861. After completing the prescribed courses of study in the elementary and high schools of that community, he went to work on his father's farm, only to give up the work after a time to go into the real estate business at Saginaw, Michigan, remaining in that work some three years. The ensuing five years were spent as a traveling salesman for the Globe Furniture Company, of Northville, after which he entered the employ of a Wisconsin firm with which he continued about two years. Though he was successful in these various occupations, he felt that they did not hold forth the opportunities for advancement sufficiently great to attract an ambitious young man. Accordingly, he cast about for a more promising field and in 1892 joined C. C. Yerkes in the organization of the Northville State Bank. That the move of the men was a wise one and that Mr. Babbitt, who has been president of the institution for ten years past, has conducted it along conservative yet progressive lines, are both shown in the fact that the Northville State Bank is one of the most substantial financial institutions outside of Detroit, and no county bank enjoys a better reputation than does that headed by Mr. Babbitt. He has unquestionably been the mainspring in the bank's operations, and his farsighted policy has caused him to be accounted a man of rare business judgment and acumen. Today, there is under construction a new bank building that will be worthy of a much larger bank and city, but the significant fact in the change to new quarters will lie in the fact that Mr. Babbitt has thus brought to a climax three and a half decades of service to his community and the surrounding rural sections of the county. It is no wonder, then, that he is held in high regard by his fellow townsmen and in banking circles throughout Wayne County. His marriage to Flora S. Waid on October 25, 1888, united two families that had come from New York to this county about the same time, and to Mr. and Mrs. Babbitt have been born three children, Helen K., deceased; Marion B., and Kurnal H. A Mason, he is a member of the Commandery and the Mystic Shrine, and he has held membership in the Bankers' Club for more than twenty-eight years. Business affairs have

never conspired to entirely draw his attention away from the civic problems of his community. He was a member of the school board for twenty-eight years, and was treasurer of the village for several years. He and his family attend the Presbyterian Church.

Karl Adams Dietrich, vice-president of Max Broock, Incorporated, is one of the most prominent of the younger real estate and insurance men in Detroit. That he is already a successful business man is not a cause for wonder, because on both sides of his house are men who were leaders in their several fields of activity. His grandfather came from Germany in 1848 and settled at Muskegon, Michigan, where he subsequently became associated with Charles Hackley, millionaire lumberman, in the lumber business. The maternal grandfather of our subject was Hiram Adams who became a member of the firm of Cutler & Savage, lumber manufacturers. Karl Adams Dietrich was born at Muskegon, August 11, 1898, a son of Gustav and Ella (Adams) Dietrich, the former of whom was born in the same city on August 6, 1861, became associated with the Hackley Bank, and then with the Lambrecht-Kelly Company, now the Michigan Investment Company, of which he is now vice-president. He began his education in the public schools of Muskegon, but after the removal of the family to Detroit in 1906, he continued his studies in the common schools here, graduating from the Central High School in 1917. He then matriculated at the University of Michigan, graduating therefrom with the class of 1921 with the degree of bachelor of arts. For a time, he was in the employ of the Packard Motor Car Company, then with the National City Bank, of New York City, for another short period. Upon leaving the bank, he entered Max Broock, Incorporated, real estate and insurance dealers. The company is one of the old organizations of the city in its field, yet the officials have seen to it that it was modelled along the most modern lines in operation. It was not long, relatively, before Mr. Dietrich was offered the position of vice-president of the corporation. His rapid rise in the company has been attributable to but two reasons, his inherent business ability and indomitable energy and sense of organization and administration. The success won by Mr. Dietrich has stamped him among the younger business men of Detroit, as one of the outstanding characters in the development of the city, and those who know him predict that he will one day be a force to be reckoned with in the city. On August 14, 1919, he married Mamie Waldon, the daughter of Sydney D. Waldon, of Detroit, and to them has been born one son, Sydney Waldon Dietrich. Mr. Dietrich is a member of the University Club, the Detroit Golf Club, and of the Real Estate Board.

Edgar B. Cooper, president and general manager of the CooperLittle Company, of Detroit, has risen to prominence in his work as the city of his adoption has undergone its period of most rapid growth and development. He comes of the sturdy Yankee stock that has placed its stamp on the life of a nation, and due to the fact

that his grandfather was a shipbuilder in New England may be assigned Edgar B. Cooper's ultimate advent into structural work, for it was a heritage from his earliest days. His parents were Albert and Charlotte (Williams) Cooper, the former of whom was a native of Maine and the latter of Wisconsin and a daughter of a Congregational minister who subsequently held a pastorate at Chicago. Albert Cooper, like so many of the Maine men, took to the sea at an early age, and by the time he was twenty-one years of age, he was master of one of the famous American clipper ships engaged in the East Indian trade. At the age of thirty-five, however, he left the sea and went to Colorado. There he acquired silver and lead mines, and he it was who named the city of Leadville, Colorado. In 1880, he disposed of his mining interests and returned East, where he died in 1895. His widow survived until 1925. Edgar B. Cooper was born at Boston, Massachusetts, January 13, 1883, and received a common school education in the city of his birth, after which he matriculated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he was graduated in 1905 with the degree of mechanical engineer. His first work in the profession of engineering was with the Ponce Railway & Light Company, of Porto Rico, of which he was superintendent and manager until 1909. Leaving the island in that year, he came to Detroit as an estimator and designer for the Gabriel Company, but soon after he accepted a position as engineer with the A. J. Smith Construction Company, inaugurating his career in construction work in this city. His ability and experience as a construction engineer would not permit his remaining in the employ of others for long, and in 1911 under the name of DeLisle & Cooper he engaged in structural work. He terminated his connections with the firm four years later, and after he had sold out, he became associated in 1915 with Mr. Widenmann in the same sort of work under the firm style of Cooper-Widenmann Construction Company. The formation of the company came at an auspicious. time to assure its success before the country was plunged into the World War which brought the building depression of the post-war period. With the renewal of the building activities and the great increase in this work that Detroit itself enjoyed, the business of the firm grew to mammoth proportions, and in 1924, Mr. Cooper bought out his partner and contines the business today. To those in touch with the building construction going forward in Detroit, enlargement upon the achievements of Mr. Cooper as president of the company is unnecessary. He has been the main factor in building up the business of the organization to the point where it ranks as one of the largest construction companies in the city; an advance that has been primarily due to his managerial and technical ability, the possession of which is accounted somewhat of a rarity in one man. The reliability of the work of his company has become almost a byword among the contractors and builders of the city, a testimonial of which is the fact that for the past two years he has been president of the Association of Building Employers. On November 22, 1909, Mr. Cooper married Buena Hoy, of Albion,

New York, who graduated from Vassar college the year previous, and to them have been born two children, Albert and Charlotte E. Mr. Cooper is a member of the Masonic Order, and also holds membership in the Board of Commerce, National Town & Country Club, the Detroit Engineering Society, and the Detroit Yacht Club. Richard J. Lynch, prominent furniture dealer and banker of Wyandotte, is one of the successful men of the city, for he is interested in enterprises in various fields of endeavor and has taken an active part in the politics of the city. His parents were Edmund and Elizabeth (Cronin) Lynch, the former of whom was born in Ireland, came to this country in 1826 when he was eleven years of age, and located at Detroit in the early days, running the company boarding house for the firm of Denison & Belding, railroad contractors, with whom he continued some twenty-six years. Richard J. Lynch was born at Greenville, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1869, and received his common school education in New York and Canada. After the family located at Detroit he augmented this education by taking courses in night school in this city. He first worked for the St. Elmo Hotel, but after two years he went to work for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company with whom he remained about a year and a half. He then became associated with G. A. F. Peterson at Detroit, and during the nine years he spent in the employ of this man, Mr. Lynch thoroughly learned every phase of the business of photographer. This accomplished, he came to Wyandotte and opened a studio of his own, conducting it successfully for eight years. When he had been in Wyandotte that length of time, he was elected supervisor of the First Ward, holding that position five years until he was appointed court officer in the Wayne County Circuit Court at Detroit, where he continued four years. When he gave up the court work, he returned to commercial circles in Wyandotte when he opened a furniture store under the firm name of Lynch & Ginzel in 1905. This partnership existed until 1915, when Mr. Lynch bought out his partner and then took John L. Sullivan into partnership with him, the name of the concern then being changed to the present one of Lynch & Sullivan. No furniture establishment in the city of Wyandotte can boast of a more modern store than that conducted by Mr. Lynch, who has been largely responsible for the present flourishing condition of the enterprise, for its success has rested almost solely on his executive ability and aptitude for store management. But he has also displayed his versatility in commercial matters by being a prominent member of other organizations, for he is president of the Wyandotte Industrial Bank, a member of the board of the People's State Bank, a director of the De Luxe Theater of Detroit, and a director of the Perch Point Land Company, and Blake Machine Company, and in the affairs of these companies, he has taken no small part in shaping the policies that have spelled success for the ventures. On November 2, 1899, Mr. Lynch was united in marriage to Barbara Campbell, daughter of Donald Campbell, Palmerston, Canada, and in 1920 his wife died leaving two daughters, Mrs.

William J. Knapp, whose husband is in the office of the City Electric Light Company, and Mrs. Earl Stieler, whose husband is paying teller at the Wyandotte Savings Bank.

John L. Sullivan, of the firm of Lynch & Sullivan, is one of the most successful furniture dealers of Wyandotte and with his partner, Richard J. Lynch, of whom there is more elsewhere in this volume, he has been engaged in that field of endeavor in Wyandotte for ten years. His parents, early residents of this city, were Dennis and Margaret (Burke) Sullivan, the former of whom was born in Ireland, came to Buffalo from that country when he was twentyone years old, and later removed to Wyandotte to aid in setting up the machinery for the old iron works, and the latter of whom was also born in Ireland, came to Canada with her mother at the age of eleven years, and then came to Wyandotte when it was hardly more than a village. The eighth child of a family of eleven children, John L. Sullivan attended the parochial schools and the Wyandotte public schools. His first employment was in the capacity of clerk in a grocery store, and after holding several other jobs, he entered the employ of the fur manufacturing concern of J. H. Bishop Company, remaining with that firm until he numbered thirteen years service there. In 1899, he was elected city clerk and discharged the duties of that office so successfully that he was reelected, finally retiring from office in 1904. At that time, he became a bookkeeper with the hardware firm of the Gartner Hardware company. With that company, he remained until 1916, when he went into partnership with Richard J. Lynch in the furniture business, the firm name being Lynch & Sullivan. In the conduct of the business, the partners have worked harmoniously together and to such good purpose that they are the proprietors of one of the leading enterprises of its kind in Wyandotte. The part Mr. Sullivan has played in developing the business since he has been in the company, shows him to be a man of ability and shrewdness in business matters, so that among business men he is accounted one of the more successful men in retail trade in the city. He married Lucy Ann Vroman, daughter of Louis and Cecilia Vroman, of Wyandotte, on June 16, 1903, and they have five children, as follows: Ann Lucille, a sister at the Monroe convent; Lucille Margaret, who is nineteen years of age and graduated from St. Patrick's this year; Dorothy Elizabeth, aged seventeen years; Madeline Ann, thirteen years old; and William Joseph, aged five years. Mr. Sullivan is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Holy Name Society, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Wyandotte Chamber of Commerce.

Conrad A. Roehrig, of Roehrig Brothers, is not only one of the leading clothing merchants of Wyandotte but is also prominently identified with banking and real estate interests that mark him as one of the most conspicuous figures in the business life of his city. He was born in Wyandotte, December 28, 1872, a son of Joseph and Margaret (Caspers) Roehrig, both natives of Germany, the former of whom operated the old Railroad House, the first hotel

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