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

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

1243

clerk and as deputy controller of that city. When, in the latter year, the
cities of East Saginaw and West Saginaw were consolidated he was appointed secretary and superintendent of the Saginaw Water Works, a
position that he filled most creditably for four years. Coming from there
to Jackson in 1894, Mr. Maher and his brother, Thomas J. Maher, immediately founded the music business which they have since successfully conducted under the firm name of Maher Brothers. Fortune smiled
on the efforts of this enterprising firm, which in I906 purchased the block
located at No. 120 East Main street, and at once assumed its possession.
Since buying this block, now known as the Maher Brothers Music Block,
the Messrs. Maher have spent about $20,000; in remodeling and adding
to it. It is a large building, containing four stories and a basement, and
is 20 feet by 150, extending from Main street on the front to Michigan
avenue in its rear. This firm carries a large stock of musical instruments
of all kinds, in the interests of their extensive business occupying the
whole of the first and second floors of Music Block and the entire basement, which is finished off as carefully as any part of the building. The
stock is complete in every respect, being equal in quality and quantity to
that of any similar store in the state with the possible exception of some
of the larger stores of Detroit and Grand Rapids. In the stock are more
than one hundred pianos, ranging in price and quality from the cheapest
grades to the finest instruments made. The firm endeavors to keep constantly on hand a sufficient stock of goods to accommodate immediately
the buyer of large means, who demands the finest pianos and piano-players that can be purchased, or the buyer that desires a piano at the minimum cost. Quite as fine musical instruments can be found in the establishment of Maher Brothers as can be procured in New York or Chicago, instruments in fact whose value cannot be expressed in less than
four figures. Every class and grade of musical instruments is carried
by the firm, as well as the musical apparatus and equipment necessary in
such an establishment.
The music firm of Maher Brothers has become a permanent fixture
in Jackson, and has won a deservedly high reputation not only in Jackson and vicinity, but throughout Jackson county and the larger portion of
Southern Michigan.
Mr. Maher is a director, and president, of the Jackson City Hospital,
a position which he has held for five years; and is a director, and treasurer, of the Meadow Heights Country Club. He is also a member, and
a director, of the Jackson City Club; and belongs to the Jackson Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he is a member of the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks; and religiously he is a member of Saint Mary's
Roman Catholic Church, and one of its liberal supporters.
On December 25, 1899, Mr. Maher was united in marriage with Miss
Bertha Nordman, of Jackson.
JAMES FARNAM HARTNESS. In the Detroit building trades the name
James F. Hartness requires no commentary, since its associations with
substantial success is already safe and secure. Mr. Hartness is a young
man, alert and enterprising, and with expert knowledge of his business
has united an aggressive temper which has made his success inevitable.
Born in Detroit March 2I, I880, James Farnum Hartness is a son of
the late James and Rose Etta (Wilkinson) Hartness. His father, who
was born in Schenectady, New York, in I846, died in Detroit March 19,
I909, and was married in that city to Miss Wilkinson, who was born in
Brooklyn, New York, in 1848, and still survives. The late James Hartness came to Detroit a young man, and was for a number of years engaged in the manufacture of soap, and subsequently became a successful