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

1396

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

service. The father has membership in the Norwegian Lutheran church,
and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, the Masonic Order
through the Royal Arch and Knight Templar degrees, with the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, and the Knights of the Maccabees. At the
present time the senior Nelson is in the government contracting business,
under the firm name of Burke, Smith & Nelson. In politics the father
has always been a staunch Republican, but during the 1912 campaign was
a Progressive.
P. F. Nelson grew up and received his education in the Muskegon
schools, finishing his junior year in high school. In I894 he was graduated from the business college, and found his first work as a stenographer
for R. J. McDonald, and afterwards in the law office of C. W. Sessions.
Moving to Walim, he kept books and conducted a store there for a while,
but soon returned to Muskegon and was employed in the country treasurer's office. For eight years following he served as deputy sheriff, and
then for two years engaged in government contracting. After that he
went back to the sheriff's office, and after two years was elected sheriff
in the fall of I909. He gave capable and efficient service as sheriff for
four years, and left the office with the thorough respect of all citizens.
In the meantime he assisted in the establishment of a manufacturing plant
for the making of cocoa mats. This business has been brought to a
flourishing position, and has a capital of five thousand dollars. Mr.
Nelson is secretary and treasurer of the company.
On December 31, 1904, he married Miss Corinne M. Laurin, a daughter of Jean B. Laurin, who was born in Canada, and is a resident of Muskegon. Mrs. Nelson has membership in the Catholic church. Fraternally
Mr. Nelson is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees, the Woodmen,
the Foresters and the Elks. He has prospered through his own efforts and
besides other interests has some real estate in the city. He was a private
in Company C, 34th M. V. I., during the Spanish-American War.
CHARLES B. CROSS. The firm of Cross, Vanderwerp, Foote & Ross,
attorneys at law, at Muskegon, Michigan, have the largest practice enjoyed by any firm in that city, and all its members are men of high
standing and first-grade ability in the law. The present firm are successors to two well known Muskegon legal partnerships, the first being Nims,
'Hoyt, Erwin, Vanderwerp & Foote and the second being Cross, Lovelace
and Ross. Mr. Charles B. Cross, who is now senior member of this
firm, has been in practice as a lawyer for twenty-five years, and in the
general branches of the law, and both as a counselor and advocate has
few superiors in this section of the state.
Charles B. Cross was born in Tuscola county, Michigan, December
4, I86I, a son of James A. and Sarah A. (Tenny) Cross. The Cross
family were originally of Welsh stock, and has been identified with
American residence for a number of generations. Great-grandfather
Elihu Cross was born in Vermont, but spent many years of his life in
New York, where he was both a farmer and hunter. Grandfather Luman Cross, born in Vermont, was a young man when he located in New
York, on a farm, and that was in the pioneer times in their section of
New York State. It was necessary to build six miles of road through
the woods, in order to reach the Cross home. James A. Cross, father of
the Muskegon lawyer, was born in Monroe county, New York, in 1835,
and in 1859 married Miss Sarah A. Tenny, who was born in the same
county in I834, and who died in January, 1895. James Cross, in early
manhood, came out to Michigan, where he took up land in the wilderness
of Tuscola county, after making some improvements returned to New
York State where he was married, and then with his bride came back