Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1901 — HAZEN S. PINGREE IS SEAD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAZEN S. PINGREE IS SEAD

Former Governor of Michigan Dies in London. SON 13 AT HIS BEDSIDE. Death Come* Peacefully and Without a Meiaage to the One* at Home—End of a Notable Career—Mrs. Pingree Notified. H. S. Pingree, former governor of Michigan, died at London, Eng., Tuesday night at 11:35. His son was the only one present at the time. The attending doctor left Mr. Pingree’s bedside at about 11:15, promising to return shortly. H. S. Pingree, Jr., who had been watching at his father’s side for four days and who had not removed his clothes during that time, noticed a sudden change in his father’s condition. He had hardly reached the patient’s bedside when his father died peacefully, without warning and without speaking one word. Young Pingree wired his mother and his uncle in the United States not to go to London. Mrs. Pingree and her daughter received the sad news at New York City, and returned to Detroit. The body will be

embalmed and taken to his home in Detroit. Hazen S. Pingree’s rise politically was meteoric. For twelve years as Mayor of Detroit and Governor of Michigan—at one time holding both offices—he was a center of public interest, at first by reason of the theories he attempted to work out in State and municipal government, later because of his eccentric outburst and his wars with the Legislature and Supreme bench of the State. As Mayor of Detroit Mr. Pingree advocated the lighting of the city with its own plant, at a saving of $76,000 annually, the laying of electric wires underground, the removal of wooden pavements and the substitution of brick or asphalt, and the equalization of taxes. He compelled the street car companies to fulfill their contracts and forced them to sell tickets at 3 cents; reduced telephone rates from SSO to $25 and gas to $1 per thousand. His potato patch scheme was a side issue for the purpose of utilizing unoccupied land. It was ridiculed at the time, but when it was found that the poor had been fed and the commissioners having charge of the indigent were saved $30,000 in one year the opinion of the scoffers changed. Mr. Pingree was mustered out of military service on Aug. 16, 1865, and shortly after his discharge went to Detroit. There for a short time he was employed, in the boot and shoe factory of H. P. Baldwin & Co. Deciding to embark in business for tjimself, in December, 1866, with C. H. Smith, he purchased a small boot and shoe factory, the entire capital represented by the firm of Pingree & Smith being $1,360. The first year they employed eight persons, and the value of their output was $20,000. The company now employs over ,100 persons, the value of the annual product being $1,000,000. From the beginning of this enterprise Mr. Pingree had general supervision over the complicated details of the entire establishment. Mr. Smith retired from the firm ip 1883, but the firm name, Pingree & Smith, was retained. In 1872 Mr. Pingree married Frances A. Gilbert of Mount Clemens, Mich. They had three children, two daughters and a son.

HAZEN S. PINGREE.