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

1684

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

fought in thirty battles, and was paroled from prison at the close of the
war. Watt Humphrey joined the First Michigan Cavalry in Custer's
Brigade, had a horse shot from under him on one of the days of the
Wilderness battle, was wounded at Trevillian Station, and was discharged from Harpers Hospital at Detroit, in April, I865. Returning
home after his military service, he began the study of law with S. L.
Kilbourne of Lansing, in April, I867.
In the fall of the same year entering the University of Michigan,
he was graduated Bachelor of Laws, in the Spring of I869. His choice
for a place to practice fell upon Cheboygan, where for twenty-one years
he had his home and was steadily rising in rank as a lawyer and man of
affairs. The greater part of this time his practice was individual, but
in the latter years he took in as a partner Mr. Edwin Z. Perkins, making
the firm of Humphrey & Perkins. Mr. Humphrey's career as an office
holder was confined to two terms as county treasurer of Cheboygan
county. His politics since he cast his first vote has been Republican.
Moving to Saginaw, in December, I89o, Mr. Humphrey; on the first of
January following became associated with Robert McKnight and George
Grant, making the firm of McKnight, Humphrey and Grant. Three
years later, the election of Mr. McKnight, as judge of the Tenth Judicial district caused the senior member to retire, and for a time, the
title of the partnership was Humphrey & Grant, and afterwards Humphrey, Grant and Smith, the junior member being Charles S. Smith,
who soon afterwards died and his place was taken by Orlando H. Baker.
Two years later Baker's death occurred, and the firm of Humphrey &
Grant then continued until January, I913, when George M. Humphrey,
a son of Watts Humphrey, took the third place in the firm, leaving its
title as first indicated in this article.
This partnership has a large share of the corporation practice at
Saginaw. The firm act as attorneys for the Michigan Central and the
Grand Trunk Railway Company, the Consolidated Coal Company, the
Second National Bank, the Michigan Sugar Company, and other large
interests.
Mr. Humphrey recently retired as president of the Michigan State
Bar Association, a position which indicates his high standing in the
legal fraternity all over this state. Mr. Humphrey is vice president and
a director of the Saginaw & Manistee Lumber Company; director and
secretary of the Waacaman Lumber Company at Bolton, North Carolina; and has interests in mining and smelting companies in Arizona.
For more than forty years Mr. Humphrey has been a Mason and
holds a life membership certificate with Cheboygan Lodge No. 283, A.
F. & A. M.; also has taken the Royal Arch and Commandery degrees,
and belongs to the Shrine. His social membership includes the East
Saginaw and Country Clubs, also the Hunting Club. Hunting and fishing have been his chief pastime, and nearly every year he takes a trip
to the salmon streams in Quebec, and since I892 has been one of the
Saginaw Hunting party that take a yearly hunt on the prairies of Dakota and Saskatchewan. In the spring of I870 Mr. Humphrey married Miss Cordelia Fisher, who was born in Ohio, but was reared in
Lansing, a daughter of Henry Fisher. The three children of this marriage were: Mina, widow of Thaddeus S. Varnum, at one time editor of
the Detroit Evening News; Mrs. Varnum is now a well known writer on
historical subjects, and current events, is also connected with the State
Historical Society, and a regular contributor to the press. Arthur T.
Humphrey, lives in New York City; Effie G. is the wife of Guy Lamont, a prominent lumber manufacturer of Bay City, Michigan. After
the death of his first wife, Mr. Humphrey was married at Cheboygan,