Charles Jay Monroe

Notes:

Hon. Charles Jay Monroe. If the people of Van Buren county were challenged to name an admirable product the high type of their citizenship they might with eminent propriety say: "Here is Hon. Charles Jay Monroe--show us his fellow! Behold the fruit and the representative of our civilization! 'of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble-bush gather the grapes!'." In every field of duty and his have been numerous, and in every relation of life, Mr. Monroe has exemplified sterling manhood, elevated citizenship, and all the other fine attributes of the genuine American gentleman.

Mr. Monroe is wholly a product of Van Buren county. He was born in the township of Lawrence on 20 Nov. 1839. He obtained his elementary education and first impressions of his relations to his fellow men in the country school near his home. He grew to manhood on his father's farm and did his part of the labor necessary for its cultivation, acquiring therein habits of useful industry, a practical knowledge of farming, and an interest in his native soil that has grown with his years and been intensified by his experience. The activities, aspirations and tendencies of the people of this locality have also been objects of the greatest interest to him at all times, for he has been one of them and fully imbued with their spirit and in sympathy with their desires.

Moreover, he taught their children in the schools, surveyed their land, served them wisely and faithfully in many important public capacities, and in time became, in large measure, their banker. And when, in the pride and power of his young manhood, he bowed beneath the flowery yoke of Eros, he united himself in marriage with one of their most estimable and accomplished young ladies, with whom he walked life's troubled way for over forty years.

Mr. Monroe is of Scottish ancestry on his father's side of the house. His grandfather, Isaac Monroe, was a physician who lived in Surry, New Hampshire. In 1816 he moved to Hamilton, Madison County, New York, where he passed the remainder of his days. He reared a family of eleven children, of whom his son Jay R. Monroe, the father of Charles, Jay, was the eighth in the order of birth, and came into being on April 11, 1806, in Surry, New Hampshire, where the family was then living.

About the time Charles Jay Monroe completed his seventeenth year the State Agricultural College was ready to receive students, and he was one of the first to be enrolled. He was present at its opening session, and remained under its beneficent instructions two years and a half. Then, on account of weakness in his eyes, he was obliged to give up his studies. His father, however, found employment for him that he was able to attend to by placing him in charge of the land agency business he was conducting. In connection with this he taught school eight terms, and also did surveying in Van Buren and Allegan counties, serving as county surveyor for the former two terms, and being in frequent requisition for work in the same line in the latter, both while he was in office and afterward.

In Jan 1867, in partnership with S. R. Boardman, Charles opened a private bank, which was the first enterprise of that kind in South Haven. In 1871 the First National Bank of South Haven was organized, with Mr. Boardman as president and Charles as cashier of the institution. After serving the bank as cashier for some four years, Charles was elected vice president and the next year president. He held this position until 1889, when the bank was reorganized as the First State Bank of South Haven. He was chosen president of the new organization.

In 1879, Charles pursued a course of instruction in the law department of the University of Michigan, not with any intention of practicing the profession, but to assist him in carrying on his many business ventures. As he stated the case, he had more business than knowledge, so he quit business for a time to obtain more knowledge. In 1880 or 1881, he organized the West Michigan Savings Bank of Bangor, and he served as its president until he sold his interest in it. He also organized the Kalamazoo Savings Bank, and was its president for some years. In addition, he was president of the Van Buren county Pioneers' Society, and one of the most active men connected with that organization.

In politics, Charles gave his allegiance steadfastly and continuously to the Republican party, and as its candidate, was elected township supervisor for three terms, county surveyor for two terms, and school inspector for many years. In 1883, he was elected state senator for Van Buren and Allegan counties, and to this office he was twice re-elected, serving three consecutive terms in all. In the state senate he was chairman of the committee on banks and banking and a member of other important committees. He was the author of the banking law at the time, which he had enacted while he was in the senate. In his last term he was unanimously elected president pro tempore of the senate, and during the term, he was in the chair almost every day.

The interests of South Haven were of great importance to Charles, and he did his part in promoting them. He built a number of brick business blocks and other houses, and did valuable work in many ways for the advancement and improvement of the city. He also gave the welfare and progress of the county his careful and helpful attention, looking after its interests in every field of effort, intellectual, moral, social and business afairs. His farm of three hundred and twenty acres was in the country, just outside of South Haven, and it was a source of considerable addition to the mercantile and commercial wealth of the county. Here he carried on for some years an extensive dairy business, which was a great convenience to the residents of the city and townships, and on the farm he raised large quantities of fine fruit, of various kinds, his peach orchard alone comprising thirty acres, with the other orchards in proportion.

In Jun 1911, he was elected president of the Michigan Bankers Association. He was a Freemason of Royal Arch degree.

Van Buren county has never had a citizen whom its people esteemed more highly or more universally, or one who was more worthy of their confidence, and hearty regard and good will. He had the good fortune of being estimated at his real value during his life, which is a rare experience among men, and must have been due to merit made clear and services beyond question.

Ref: "History and Genealogy of the Lexington, Mass. Munroes", 2nd ed. by R. S.
Munroe - Florence, Massachusetts (1986) - 13-8/11-82

Charles married Hattie Morehouse in 1866. Hattie was born about 1841 in Albion, Calhoun Co., Michigan, USA; died on 22 Jun 1903. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Stephen Blackmar Monroe was born on 11 Jun 1869 in South Haven, Van Buren Co., Michigan, USA; died on 12 Mar 1946 in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Co., Michigan, USA.
2. George C. Monroe was born on 20 Feb 1871 in South Haven, Van Buren Co., Michigan, USA; died in Jan 1933 in Prob., South Haven, Michigan, USA.
3. Cora J. Monroe was born about 1873; died in 1906.
4. Lucy E. Monroe was born on 2 Oct 1875; died on 21 Jul 1905.
5. Charles Oliver Monroe was born on 20 Jun 1881; died on 9 Oct 1949.

Charles married Clara O. Atkinson on 16 Sep 1905. Clara was born about 1841; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In 1816 when Jay was ten, his family moved from Surry, New Hampshire to Hamilton, New York. This was the year that a volcanic eruption in Indonesia caused northern New England to have no summer.

After finishing the local school at Hamilton, Jay was apprenticed to a stonemason, but when he turned twenty in 1826, he took off for the west. He traveled on the newly completed Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York where he continued on by lake schooner to Detroit, Michigan. He supported himself at first as a stonemason, but his ability and force of character were soon discovered and his services were solicited for more adventurous and ambitious employment.

Mr. Campeau engaged him to go with a part of his men on a circuit of the lakes in the interest of his fir trade. After his return he passed two years in the employ of Mr. Campeau and General Cass in locating lands for incoming settlers.

After a trip to his old home in New York, he returned to Michigan and settled at Prairie Ronde in 1830. The greater part of his time was occupied in traveling over the territory of Michigan locating lands for others. He was thrifty and frugal and applied his commissions in the purchase of lands for himself.

His wandering showed him much of the territory in its state of primeval wilderness. He was the first white man to pass over the site where South Haven now stands. In 1833 he built the first house within the limits of the present city. It was occupied by the Thomas family who recorded the first birth and death in the history of South Haven.

Jay made a plat of the village which was embraced in Hannah's plat of 1852, and has been a part of every one that has been made since. Along with other wise provisions, the plan required the reservation of a lot for a schoolhouse.

In 1835, in association with Charles U. Cross, he laid out a road between South Haven and Paw Paw, and what remains of that highway now is still known as the Munroe road. He had previously laid out a road between South Haven and Prairie Ronde.

Jay married Fanny Rawson on 10 Sep 1836. For some months after thir marriage, they boarded in Kalamazoo. In 1837 they settled on the land owned by Jay in Lawrence township. There he worked on and improved his farm of 900 acres. He also continued to act as land agent, and in time he became one of the most extensive landholders in that part of the country. At one time he possesed 80 eighty-acre tracts, or 6,400 acres in all, an expanse equal to ten square miles.

Under the territorial government of Michigan, Jay was appointed a judge, and from then to the end of his life he was always known as Judge Monroe. He was a man of benign disposition, his administration of the law always tempered justice with mercy. He was a friend and adviser of the early settlers. He served as commissioner of the poor in Van Buren County for more than twenty-five years. He was earnest in his interest and active in his support of all public undertakings for the good of the state. He helped to organize the State Agricultural Society, and was one of the founders of the Van Buren County Pioneers' Society. To the end of his life, he was one of the Pioneers' Society's most active members. In politics he was a life-long Democrat. In spiritual matters he was a firm believer in the Christian religion, but not connected by membership with any church organization.

Jay died in South Haven soon after returning from a visit to the Centennial Expositon in Philadelphia.

Fanny, Jay's wife, was universally beloved throughout the city of South Haven. She raised nine children on a farm which was remote from other human dwellings. The nearest neighbor was about a mile distant. She did all the writing and figuring required by her husband's business, including his land agency. Because the home was located in about the center of the county, it became a sort of halfway house for strangers and travelers. There were almost always extra persons to provide for with meals and lodging. After the death of her husband, Fanny stayed with her daughter Eunice in South Haven. She died at the age of 92.

Ref: Lexington Munroes, 2nd ed. 13-8/11-8
Clan Munro files - Elder, Charlotte

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Jay married Fanny Rawson on 10 Sep 1836. Fanny was born on 28 May 1815 in Erving, Massachusetts; died on 31 Oct 1907 in South Haven, Van Buren Co., Michigan, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Notes:

Like his eldest brother Philip, Isaac studied medicine. There is a family tradition that he attended the University of Edinburgh medical school in Scotland. A search of the medical records showed no trace of Isaac, but many medical students attended lectures of the famous Doctor Alexander Monro without actually being enrolled in the medical school. During Isaac's time it would have been Alexander Monro Secundus 1733-1817.

Isaac and his wife, Mary, lived in Mary's hometown of Wendell, Massachusetts until 1793 when they moved to Westmoreland, New Hampshire. In 1801 they settled in Surry, New Hampshire. In 1816, Dr. Isaac Monroe moved his family to Hamilton, New York.

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The following is from the Spencer reference:

«i»Jenny Bommarito says in e mail October 26, 2006 that he died in 1826 and his wife went to live with a child in Michigan.«/i»
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Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Christened:
Church of the North Precinct or Second Parish

Isaac married Mary Sweetser in 1787 in Wendell, Franklin Co., Massachusetts, USA. Mary was born in 1772 in Wendell, Franklin Co., Massachusetts, USA; died in in Hamilton, Madison Co., New York, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

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The following is from the Spencer reference:

«i»Jenny Bommarito says in e mail October 26, 2006 that he «/i»[Isaac] «i»died in 1826 and his wife «/i»[Mary] «i»went to live with a child in Michigan.«/i»
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Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Notes:

Phillip's four oldest children, his first wife, Mary and his mother Johanna all died at about the same time, evidently in an epidemic. His last surviving child at the time was dead by 23 Dec 1749. At this time, Philip was 31 years old. He must have married his second wife, Abigail, between 1749 and 1753. From the 35th to 60th year of his age, 11 more children were born to him and Abigail. She was about 22 when the first was born and 47 at the birth of their last child.

Philip was of Shrewsbury, Boylston and Rutland, Massachusetts. The first Shrewsbury deeds call Philip Munroe of Lexington, Massachusetts. A little later he was called of Shrewsbury. There are 18 land transfers of places that he bought and sold. He lived on one of the places called the 'Roe farm', which was still standing in 1963.

He was living on the "Hill" in what is now Boylston, but was Shrewsbury North Precinct in his time. Two of his children were baptised in the church of the North Precinct or Second Parish on the same day, 2 Nov 1769.

Philip Munroe started acquiring land in Shrewsbury Area about 1763, he sold 5 acres to Jonathan Weelock in Shrewsbury in 1763, and in 1765 he purchased a piece of land from Benjamin Tainter. In the deeds he is called "Philip Munro a labourer". Today he would be called a land speculator. Most of the deeds call him of Shrewsbury, two call him of Rutland.

Two deeds establish his connection to Surry, New Hampshire. The first deed dated 22 Dec 1789, in which he is called a physician, and the second dated 29 Dec 1789. He had established himself of Surry, New Hampshire by about 1783.

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The following is a transcription of RW "Billy" Munro's genealogy notes:

[Abraham Munro] «i»Son of Philip Munro (1718-?) and Mary ___? Baptised Shrewsbury, 4 September, 1763.

Mackenzie Page 587
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«/i»Error alert: RW Munro says Philip was the son of Ens. William Munroe and his first wife, Mary Cutler. Other references say Philip was the son of William's second wife, Johanna Russell. Philip's birth date is after William and Johanna's marriage date.

Ref: Clan Munro files - Griffin, Richard
- Farlow, Donna

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Buried:
Surrey Village Cemetery

Philip married Abigail Parker in 1749 in Lexington, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts, USA. Abigail was born in 1731; was christened on 7 Oct 1750; died on 8 Oct 1801 in Surry, Cheshire Co., New Hampshire, USA; was buried in Surry, Cheshire Co., New Hampshire, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Error alert: There are three people named Abigail Parker who supposedly married close Munroe relatives close to the same time frame. This is either a coincidence or an error.

Compiled and edited by Allen Alger, Genealogist, Clan Munro Association, USA

Christened:
Baptism

Buried:
Surrey Village Cemetery