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

1704

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

of the county, and is heard from at intervals as treasurer of the Eaton
County Agricultural Society.
Mr. Gibbard has been twice married. His first wife was a Miss
Amelia French, a daughter of Edmond French, an old resident of Lenawee county. Six children were born of this union. Five of the number
are living today,-here named as follows: Mrs. Fred Eddey; Mrs. Ellison, a resident of Oregon; Arthur E., a salesman in Oregon; Mabel G.,
living at Brandon, Oregon; and Mrs. Grace Lentz, living on the home
farm'in the vicinity of Charlotte. In I912 he was married a second time,
when Mrs. Martha E. Moger, a widow, and the daughter of Henry A.
Moger, an old and highly esteemed citizen of Eaton county, became his
wife. Mrs. Gibbard has one son by her former marriage,-William
Coonley Moger.
While Mr. Gibbard was yet engaged in farm life, he was elected a
member of the township committee, serving for seven years on that body,
the last six years being spent as chairman of the committee. He was for
four years supervisor of the first district of Chester township, and has
otherwise been active in local politics. He is a Republican and has done
good work for the party.
Fraternally Mr. Gibbard is one of the prominent men of the city. He
is a member of Charlotte Lodge No. 37, A. F. & A. M., Charlotte Chapter No. 682, R. A. M., Charlotte Commandery No. 36, Knights Templar,
and of Saladin Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the
Mystic Shrine at Grand Rapids. For the past seven years Mr. Gibbard
has served as treasurer of the Eaton County Agricultural Society, and he
has done much toward stimulating the interest of the farming people in
the society, and in promoting its work as long as he has been a member
of it. He has been a public-spirited citizen all his days, and is highly regarded in the wide circle of friends and acquantainces throughout the
county that is his.
EUGENE L. HOWE. President of the Standard Malleable Iron Works,
Mr. Howe is the only one of the four original organizers of this company still connected with the business and is at the head of an enterprise
which is justly considered among the largest and most important in
the industrialism of Muskegon. Mr. Howe started in as a workman in
a factory, knows the foundry and general manufacturing business in
nearly all its details, and by sheer force of native ability and industry
has made himself independent.
Eugene L. Howe, who comes of an old American family was born in
Cayuga county, New York, June I9, 1857, a son of John L. and Arminta
(Coonley) Howe. The father, who is still living in Iowa, was born in
1829, a son of Otis Howe, who was a native of New York, was a merchant and postmaster at Levanna, and a man of sturdy ability and much
influence in his community. John L. Howe's only brother, Austin Howe
was killed while a soldier in the Mexican war. John L. Howe during
his early life was a carpenter and shipwright, but in I866 left New York
and settled in Iowa, and has been actively identified with farming ever
since. He is an active Republican in politics, having supported that
party since its organization, and belongs to the Presbyterian church. His
wife, who was born in 1835, and is still living, became the mother of
nine children, and eight are still living. Her father was Samuel Coonley one of the early settlers in New York State, and a farmer by occupation.
Eugene L. Howe grew up in the country and attended the local
schools of Iowa. When fourteen years of age he started out to earn
his own living by hard work on his father's farm, and four years later