History of Michigan, / by Charles Moore. [Vol. 3]

1378

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

hard in order to fit himself for professional work, and is in the best sense
a self-made man.
Edward S. Lyman was born in Muskegon, September 20, I88I, a
son of M. W. and Minnie (DeVoe) Lyman. His father was born in
Connecticut in I852, a son of Frederick and Caroline (Whitten) Lyman,
who were also natives of Connecticut and descendants of an old family originally founded in the colonies from England. The grandparents
moved from Connecticut out to Kansas, and the grandfather was a
farmer by occupation. The maternal grandfather, William Devoe, a
native of New York, moved from Michigan to New Jersey in 1838,
only two years after Michigan was admitted to the Union. He was a
farmer and later had a drug business in Kansas. He died in Michigan.
M. W. Lyman and wife were married in I874 in Kansas. His education
was received partly in Connecticut, and partly in Kansas, and his vocation throughout most of his career has been farming. He now lives retired in the city of Muskegon. There are four children in the family:
William D., a physician at Grand Rapids; Helen, at home, and a graduate of the Muskegon high school; E. S. Lyman; and Fred W., who is
employed in the offices of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company at
Muskegon. The family are active church members and the father is a
Republican in politics.
Edward S. Lyman graduated from the Muskegon high school in
I901. He was then twenty years of age, and with an ambition to become a lawyer he found employment at meager wages in a law office,
where he remained five years, and gained much practical equipment to
serve him later. He then entered the law school at Valparaiso, Indiana,
and was graduated LL. B. in o909. For the first year he tried a western field, spending some time at Livingston, Montana, but returned to
Muskegon in March, I9IO, and established an office here. Since then
he has enjoyed a good general law practice, and has license to practice
in all the courts of the state. He is also circuit court commissioner.
On June I8, I913, Mr. Lyman married Sarah Hart, formerly of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and a daughter of William Hart, a real estate dealer. Mr.
Lyman has membership in the Episcopal church, and is affiliated with
Lovell Moore Lodge No. 182, A. F. & A. M., and with the Knights of
Pythias. In politics he is Republican.
CLARK E. HIGBEE is undeniably one of the most successful of the
younger generation of the representatives of the legal profession, and his
career thus far has been one that is well worthy of mention. He is now
Judge of Probate for Grand Rapids, an office to which he was appointed
early in I9I2, and was some months later elected to the post. He is now
serving his first year in the office, and is proving his fitness for the position with every passing day. Judge Higbee is a native son of Michigan,
born in Potterville, Eaton county, on April 28, 1883, and he is a son of
Lewis E. and Ella A. (Cranston) Higbee.
Lewis E. Higbee was born in Niagara county, New York, in the year
I846, and he died at the age of sixty-two in I908. The mother, who is
a native of Michigan, born in Livingston county, in I856, still lives. They
were married in i88I in Barry county, Michigan, and the father practiced
medicine at Potterville, Michigan, for thirty-five years. He was regarded
as a successful country physician, and performed his full measure of good
and kindly deeds in his capacity as medical adviser for his fellows, so
that his life was filled to the uttermost. If he did not always get his reward in coin of the realm, it mattered little to him, for he was of that
type of generous and kindly men who feel that the knowledge of a duty
well performed carries with it its own reward.