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

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

1649

Mr. Hefferan became connected with the Michigan Trust Company in
I896. His first work was of a special nature, being the management of
the Mecosta County Savings Bank at Big Rapids, and a number of other
matters handled by the Trust Company as receiver. On January I, 1900,
he was appointed trust officer, and was elected secretary of this company
December 7, I903, which office he held until October 6, 1913, the date of
his election to the vice-presidency. Mr. Hefferan is also closely associated
with Mr. Thomas Hume of Muskegon, Michigan, under the firm name
of Hume, Hefferan & Company, one of the important firms handling
timber lands and other interests. Under the title of Hume-Bennett Lumber Company his relations also comprise extended lumber operations in
California. Mr. Hefferan is a stockholder and officer in a number
of business concerns in Michigan, being chairman of the Hackley &
Hume Company, Ltd.; a director in the Chase-Hackley Piano Company;
the Amazon Knitting Company of Muskegon; the Richmond & Backus
Company of Detroit; and various other enterprises.
On April 15, I903, Mr. Hefferan married Miss Ella J. Backus of
Detroit, daughter of Frederick H. A. Backus, one of D!etroit's prominent
pioneer citizens. They are the parents of two children: George Backus
Hefferan, borne June I, I906, and Thomas Hume Hefferan, born November 2. 1908. Mrs. Hefferan has membership in the Episcopal church and
many of the ladies' organizations of the city. Mr. Hefferan is a member
and past master of York Lodge No. 410, A. F. & A. M.; a member and
past high priest of Columbian Chapter, No. 132, R. A. M.; a member of
De Molai Commandery, K. T., and of Saladin Temple of the Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Peninsular and Kent
Country Clubs. In politics he is a Democrat.
WILLARD ALBON SMITH. To lead in the vocation chosen for his life
work is the laudable ambition of every man with the ability to understand
what worldly success means, and it is the closeness with which such desires are realized that constitutes prominence and achievement. Beyond
all peradventure, Willard Albon Smith is one of the leading, as he is
certainly the oldest and one of the best known newspaper men between
Osceola county and Lake Superior. Throughout the journalistic world
of the state there is no man more highly considered. Kindly natured and
generous in his disposition, he is yet a man of infinite resource, and is
absolutely fearless in his denunciation of whatever he believes to be evil
or unjust. He has doggedly fought municipal and political corruption
wherever it has shown its head, and has rendered inestimable service to
the community on many occasions of which the public, owing to the conditions of newspaper work, has been blissfully ignorant.
Willard A. Smith was born April 4, 185I, at Malone, New York, and
is a son of Stephen and Polly (Phelps) Smith, natives, respectively, of
England and New York state, both of whom died when he was an infant.
He received no schooling after his eleventh year, for in I86I he entered
the office of the Marshall (Michigan) Statesman, in the humble capacity
of "devil," with which he was connected four years, this now being the
oldest newspaper in continuous service in the state. It may be best to
relate the subsequent incidents of Mr. Smith's career in his own words,
as quoted from a speech made by him before the Northern Michigan
Press Club, in I909, and in which he said in part: "I am an alumnus of
the Marshall Statesman office of the class of '65. Coming out as a journeyman with me was Mr. J. P. Church, a brother-in-law of the late Seth
Lewis, the founder of the Statesman. The fall of '66 found me in the
job department of the Wolverine Citizen, under the late Francis H.
Rankin, Sr. In the spring of '67, in company with Mr. Church, I came