subject of this sketch. This son obtained his rudimentary education in the common schools of the neighborhood, continued his course in the more advanced local institutions, and then began the study of medicine in the office of a resident physician. His professional course was completed at the venerable institution then known as Geneva, but now called Hobart, college, where he obtained his degree June 14, 1819.

During the year 1820 Ezra S. Parke married Rhoda Sperry, a member of the family well known in connection with the manufacture of clocks at New Haven, Connecticut, and of which several members are still engaged in that industry. Miss Sperry had also removed with her parents to Oneida county, and resided in the same neighborhood with the Parke family.

In October, 1822, Ezra S. Parke removed from the state of New York and settled at Bloomfield, Oakland county, Michigan, where Hervey Coke Parke was born on the thirteenth day of December, 1827. Dr. Parke had been preceded in his emigration to Michigan by his brother, Captain Hervey Parke, for whom the subject of this sketch was named, and who was engaged upon the government survey of the territory from the year 1821 until 1835 or 1836, during which time he was associated with Mullett, Lyon and others whose names have become historical.

Dr. Parke, when he came from Connecticut to New York, was a member of the Church of England, or rather of its American equivalent, the Protestant

Episcopal church. He found, however, no Episcopal organization in his neighborhood, and associated himself with the Methodist Episcopal church. This relation was maintained after the removal of Dr. and Mrs. Parke to Michigan, that church being, indeed, almost the only one that maintained an organization upon the frontiers. Both were devoutly and sincerely religious. In their house the rules of conduct, especially of Sabbath observance, were stringent. The children were reared in an atmosphere of kindness, but the most punctilious obedience was always exacted and the strictest observance of every religious duty required.

It is difficult, in these days of easy communication and of dense population, to appreciate what was the life of a country physician in Michigan sixty years ago. The field over which Dr. Parke was compelled to ride extended practically from Ann Arbor to Lake St. Clair. Roads were few and bad, patients were widely scattered and often too poor to pay their doctor, yet the doctor always answered calls. Winter or summer, day or night, in sunshine or storm, all was the same to him; he did his duty without a thought of himself.

During the incumbency of General Cass as governor, Dr. Parke was appointed postmaster of Bloomfield, and held the office for many years and under several administrations.

In spite of his arduous professional labor, Dr. Parke was never able to do much more than to keep his family in comfort. This he always did. His

table was amply provided, his children were well clothed and well taught, and his home a refined and pleasant one. Clergymen of every denomination sought his hospitality, after the manner of the day, and never in vain. Still, in spite of a life which the clty physician of today would regard as slavery, he did not accumulate, and when, in 1846, he and his wife were stricken with a mysterious epidemic and died within a few weeks of the same day, he left behind him little besides a good and thoroughly respected name.

At Bloomfield, Hervey C. Parke passed his boyhood and early youth. The residents of the place subscribed for the support of a school, and there was probably no better institution of its grade in the state than that which they secured. During Mr. Parke's boyhood this school was taught in turn by the lamented J. D. Standish, and by Judge Baldwin, now living at Pontiac. It was here that the boy obtained his primary education—an exceptionally thorough and excellent one-which was shared by the Trowbridges, Satterlees, Fishes, and by many other persons who later won success and distinction in a greater or less degree. His indebtedness to the teachers who gave him this early grounding in the old school at Bloomfield, Mr. Parke has always readily acknowledged. During the year 1844 Mr. Parke left home for the first time and had, as well, his first taste of business, removing to Buffalo, New York, where he attended school and was at the same time employed in an upholstery establishment, conducted by a friend of the family.

During this stay in Buffalo his earnings were very nearly enough to support him, and his dependence entirely ceased with the completion of his school days and of his residence in that city.

In 1846 Mr. Parke returned to Michigan and entered the hardware store of George L. Bidwell, at Adrian, where he remained for nearly two years, and until, his health failing, he was compelled to seek a change of employment. Removing to Pontiac, he shortly secured a position as teacher of a school at West Bloomfield, and continued in charge during one winter term. There was in the school at the time a large number of pupils, nineteen of whom were older than the teacher, and in the number were included a few turbulent spirits of the type familiar to every one who has attended a district school in the country. One of these, a young man, older, larger and stronger than Mr. Parke, declared his intention to break up the school, and, by a course of deliberate disobedience and disorder, brought on a collision. Mr. Parke readily admits that he was hardly pressed in the contest that followed, but he retired from the field with the victory in his hands, and had the satisfaction to receive from his antagonist a promise of reform, sincerely made and so far redeemed that the defeated pupil taught the same school during the following year. This service as teacher was a most excellent discipline for the young man, and he has always regarded it as one of the most valuable experiences of his life, serving to teach him selfcontrol, to enlarge his knowledge, and

to more definitely fix his mastery of subjects already pursued. This testimony to the exceeding value of teaching in the education of the teacher, is almost uniformly supported by the expressions of the hundreds of successful men in every walk of life who have temporarily adopted the calling in their earlier years.

In 1848 Mr. Parke again returned to Pontiac and entered the employment of Willard M. McConnell, the keeper of a general country store. Here he became familiar with every detail of a business which provided for almost every need of the rural community about Pontiac. The training was of exceedingly great value in preparing him for his own business career. It gave him what was really his first grounding in the principles of business, taught him confidence in himself and imparted an invaluable knowledge of human nature.

Mr. Parke remained in the employ of Mr. McConnell until 1850, when his health again failed and he was advised to visit the Lake Superior region. In pursuance of this advice, he sought and secured a position in the employ of the owners of the Cliff copper mine which he retained for eleven years, making his home at the mine in Keeweenaw county. He was, from the first, financial manager of the mine, and early developed the tact and skill in money matters which have marked his later life and lie at the foundation of his success. His health, too, was fully established and he amassed a competence, the result of an inflexible rule, early adopted, to lay aside

some portion of the income of every month.

Mr. Parke resigned his position with the mining company during the year 1861, removed to the Portage Lake district of Michigan and made his first independent venture, embarking in the general hardware trade, with a special view to providing for the needs of mines and miners. Here he built up a very large trade and won a remarkable success. His experience with the Cliff mine proved of especial value, and his intimate acquaintance with the needs of his trade, coupled with natural business ability and indefatigable industry, largely increased his accumulations. He remained so engaged until the year 1865, when he sold his business and determined to remove to Detroit. To this end he took passage on the steamer Pewabic, being accompanied by his wife and two of his four children. While on the downward voyage, about eight o'clock one evening, occurred an awful catastrophe which came near ending his career. The Pewabic came into collission with the Meteor in the midst of Lake Huron. Mr. Parke retained his presence of mind and, realizing the extent of the injury which the Pewabic had sustained, succeeded in safely transferring h's wife and children to the Meteor, thus saving them from the fate which overtook sixtyfive of his fellow passengers.

For a year after reaching Detroit, Mr. Parke was not engaged in business. the expiration of that time, he was one of the organizers of the firm of Duffield, Parke & Company, manufacturing

chemists. This association continued only until 1868, when was formed the firm of Parke, Davis & Company, consisting of Hervey C. Parke, George S. Davis, John R. Grout and William H. Stevens. From the day of the formation of this firm, its success has been a matter of constant and enormous growth. Mr. Parke has been from the first its financial head. He knew nothing of chemistry or pharmacy when he embarked in the business, though the inevitable contact with its various departments has since given him a thorough familiarity with the details of its work. He found, however, in Mr. Davis a man competent to spare him all anxiety beyond his own chosen department.

Mr. Davis is a practical chemist and in Mr. Parke's estimation, one of the brightest and most capable business men in Michigan. The two principal partners of the house are complements of each other, and could not be better fitted to work together for a common success. Mr. Parke is careful, conservative and possesses the characteristics of a safe and legitimate financier. Mr. Davis is radical, pushing and enterprising; an organizer and extender of the business.

This state of things accounts for the marvelous success of the house, which makes more than twice the annual sales of any other manufacturing pharmacists in the United States. Twice has it outgrown its quarters and been compelled to seek others, and it now occupies the most convenient and commodious buildings used for the purpose in the world. These are situated well toward the out

skirts of Detroit, where land is comparatively cheap, yet the real estate held by the firm and occupied in its business represents a value of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

About five hundred and fifty persons are employed in the business, twentyfive salesmen travel in its interests, and its markets are found in every civilized country. Australia, New Zealand, the Sandwich Islands, China, Japan, India, and many other Asiatic countries, as well as the whole of Europe, buy the goods of the firm. A regular agent is kept in Australia, and a London agency is maintained, through which much of the foreign business is done.

These results have been reached by the most liberal methods within the house, by the employment, at any cost, of the best skill in every department; by judicious advertising in medical journals; by direct contact with the medical profession, and, above all, by perfect and punctilious honesty in the materials and processes of manufacture.

In 1876, the business was incorporated under the state law, retaining the name of Parke, Davis & Company. Its paid up capital was then fifty thousand dollars and has now been increased to five hundred thousand dollars. All the original partners of the firm are stockholders in the corporation, Mr. Parke retaining a one-third interest. In addition, several of the principal employés of the establishment were admitted to share in the concern, and are now so interested. It is expected that the total sales during the present year will exceed those of any previous year. Mr. Parke has been

president of the corporation from the first, and Mr. Davies secretary and treasurer, though the actual duties of the treasurership fall upon Mr. Parke's shoulders.

The cares of this great business have very largely monopolized Mr. Parke's time, since he first engaged in it, and his increasing fortune has been to a great degree devoted to its extension. He has kept almost entirely away from connections with other business enterprises. He is a director of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' National Bank of Detroit, which is his only financial sociation beyond his own especial business.

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Mr. Parke has returned to association with the Protestant Episcopal church, to which his ancestors were so devoted, and has been for twenty years a member of St. John's church, during twelve years of which time he has been a vestryman. He is greatly interested in church matters, particularly in such as relate to missions, and has for some years been an active working member of the committee on city missions, appointed by the bishop of the diocese. He is one of the trustees of the diocese of eastern Michigan, sharing in the duty of caring for the church property within the diocese. He was recently elected senior warden of the newly organized parish of St. Joseph, and takes an especial interest in the welfare of that young church.

Of St. Luke's hospital, he is a trustee and one of its most liberal supporters. Mr. Parke is a Republican in politics but has never taken active part in politcial life, or held any office.

In 1860 he married Fannie A., eldest daughter of the Hon. James B. Hunt, at one time representative in congress from the district including Oakland county. She died in 1867, leaving five children, of whom two were sons and three daughters. In 1872 he married Miss Mary M. Meade of Detroit, by whom he has five children, of whom four are living.

Mr. Parke has accumulated a handsome fortune, which has not at all lessened the unostentatious simplicity of his character and manners. He lives handsomely, as is due to himself, and gives liberally, and quite without display, to every worthy cause and person. Once every year he visits California, where his only surviving brother and sister live. The former is Lyman C. Parke, head of the great firm of Parke & Lacy, and the latter Mrs. Sarah Parke French.

The unceasing industry and punctilious honor of Mr. Parke's life have won the reward of wealth, and wealth won without spot or blemish upon character or repute. Still in the vigor of his years, he lives surrounded by loving kindred. and affectionate friends, and enjoying the respect of all who know him.

WALTER BUELL.