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

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

1447

a local stock company, capitalized at fifteen thousand dollars, and Mr.
Pyle is president and general manager.
In 1887 he married Miss Mary Hewitt, of Muskegon. Mr. Pvle is
fortunate in the possession of two sons, Adam and Clyde E., both of
whom have come into the factory and have proved themselves capable
assistants to their father. Mr. Pyle is affiliated with the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, and the Royal Arcanum, having held some
minor chairs in the latter order and is a Republican in politics. However,
all his time and attention are devoted to his business.
HENRY MARTYN LELAND. Though he recently turned over to his
son the general management of the great Cadillac Motor Company, the
name of Henry M. Leland is recognized as one of the best known in
motor manufacturing circles of the country. That Detroit is now the
"hub" of the automobile industry in America is perhaps due as much
to the enterprise of Mr. Leland as to any other single individual. His
life has been one of exceptional experience and achievement. During
the Civil War period, years before modern inventions, including the automobile, were dreamed of, Henry Martyn Leland was employed in one of
the government armories in making tools used in the manufacture of
army rifles. His mechanical genius in its development from that time
had many turnings, until twenty years ago he engaged at Detroit in the
manufacture of naphtha and other internal combustion engines, used
principally for the propulsion of motor boats. From that the transition
to manufacture of engines for automobiles was natural enough. These
facts show an interesting genesis in the career of a man who has been
one of the principal factors in the growth of the automobile business
at Detroit.
Henry Miartyn Leland was born at Danville, Vermont, February I6,
I843. He is a direct descendant of Henry and Margaret Badcock Leland,
natives of England, who came to America in I625, becoming the founders
of the Leland name on this side of the Atlantic. The original emigrant
died at Sherburne, Massachusetts, April 14, I68o. The parents of
Henry M. Leland were Leander and Zilpha (Tifft) Leland, and both
were natives of Rhode Island. Their death occurred at Worcester,
Massachusetts, the father in I88I, and the mother in I896.
Reared in Vermont and Massachusetts, Henry M. Leland was
educated in the public schools, and was about eighteen years old when
the war broke out among the states. Completing his apprenticeship
at that time, he contributed his services to his country by service in the
United States Armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, and there became
actively attached to the mechanical work which has practically been his
profession ever since. At Springfield he assisted in making the tools
utilized in the manufacture of rifles for the army, and at the close of
the war entered the employ of the Colt's Fire Arms Company at Hartford, Connecticut. After a short time there he returned to Worcester
and was variously employed as expert tool maker and machinist. At
Providence, Rhode Island, the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company had become known as leading manufacturers and there Mr. Leland
became employed as a tool maker, and with that Company he served
for 12 years as superintendent of the sewing machine department.
When Mr. Leland moved to Detroit in I890 he established a machine
business for himself. A little later Mr. Robert C. Faulconer was taken
in as a partner, under the firm name of the Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company, makers of special machinery, and the firm soon
came to be regarded as a leading one in its department of special manufacture. About that time the naphtha launch came into vogue, and the