E. CHATTERTON & SON.

The firm of Chatterton & Son, of Mt. Pleasant, Isabella county, is deserving of a very high rank in local industrial circles, since it has done as much as any other to establish the prestige of this vicinity abroad and contribute to the general up building of the town and county. The adherence to a straight forward and honorable policy and the treating of their patrons with the consideration due them is the key to much of the success of this firm, and that they are destined to continue the upright course they have thus far pursued are familiar and reap still greater financial rewards is the belief of all who with the firm's methods. The personal relations of the members of this thriving and popular firm with their fellow men have ever been mutually agreeable, and the high esteem in which they are held indicates the universal hold they have on the confidence and respect of the people, regardless of class or condition.

The firm was started by J. E. Chatterton and Howard E. Chatterton, and has been doing business under this firm name for over a decade, although not all the time in the present line of business. They first engaged in the retail grocery and meat business in Mt. Pleasant, which was very successful and was finally disposed of. During the time the Chattertons were in this line of business they established the most extensive retail grocery trade ever built up by any firm in Isabella county, during the last year of their business as grocers they sold between seventy and eighty thousand dollars' worth of goods, and employed thirteen persons in their store, which was regarded as a model of its kind and one that would have done credit to a much larger city.

In February, 1903, this firm purchased the Horning elevator, since which time they have conducted that business in a most successful manner, being today among the largest and most extensive handlers of all kinds of grain, hay. wool, potatoes and apples in this section of Michigan. This firm is also very extensively engaged in the handling of beans-in fact, making that line of farm produce a specialty, and employing about thirty-five women and girls in picking beans, thus enabling  the shipping of a very superior article of the hand-picked article to the outside markets. This branch of their business has been far more than ordinarily successful, and they have paid as much as twenty-five thousand dollars in one month to the farmers of this immense section for that product of the farm. Isabella county farmers are engaging very extensively in the raising of beans, the county being among the leaders in this state, and the quantities handled by this firm shows that these gentlemen have established themselves very strongly with the agriculturists of this section, enjoying a reputation for honesty, fair dealing, and paying top-of-the-market prices seldom gained by any firm.

The reputation built up by them, however, is not confined to this locality, as intimated in a preceding paragraph. The reputation they have gained in the large cities for placing a strictly first-class article upon the markets puts them in a position to command at all times the best of prices and make ready sales, thus enabling them to pay the farmer the very best figure. Not only do they ship quite extensively to all parts of the United States, but quite a number of car loads of beans, which have been shipped by them, have been ex- ported to foreign markets. This, firm also does an extensive coal and wood business among the citizens of Mt. Pleasant and vicinity.

J. E. Chatterton, deceased, the senior member of this firm, was born of an excellent old New England family, his birth occurring in the state of Vermont on December 7, 1839. There be spent his early boyhood and attended school some. In 1851, he accompanied his parents to Michigan, locating on a farm in Meridian township, Ingham county, four miles cast of Lansing. There young Chatterton completed his education, also attended the Lansing schools, and later took a three years' course in the agricultural college of this state, near that city. He then attended the Eastman Business College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, from which institution he was graduated in j863. In the meantime he had engaged in teaching school, having taught six winter terms very successfully, from 1859 to 1865. Thus well equipped for a business career, he formed a partnership, in 1866, with his brother, George A., and together they established a mercantile business at Hubbardston, Ionia  county, this state. Four years later Mr. Chatterton purchased his brother's interest, continuing to manage the business until the spring of i88o. In that year he moved to Mt. Pleasant, and since that time has been in active business in this city, at all times being very closely allied with every movement which has tended toward the up building of Mt. Pleasant, and always showing that he had the true interest of the city at heart.

It was through the instrumentality and perseverance of Mr. Chatterton that the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company was organized, and for five years, from 1895 to 1900, he acted as its secretary. The management of such an organization is very largely in the hands of its secretary, and much of the success of the company is due to the foundation laid by Mr. Chatterton during those years. He is a man of keen discernment, ,wise foresight and sound judgment, an organizer and promoter by -nature and he carries to successful issue whatever he turns his attention to, and his life has been such as to warrant the high esteem and confidence in which he is held by all who know him.

Mr. Chatterton was married on April 28, 1867, to A. Elizabeth Adams, of Shiawassee county, Michigan.

The junior member of the firm of J. E. Chatterton & Son, Howard E. Chatterton, a man of marked business ability and commendable attributes of both head and heart, was born at Hubbardston, Michigan, on March 16, 1872  where he received his early schooling, later attending the Michigan Agricultural College, at Lansing, and the Central Michigan Normal College in Mt, Pleasant. He made a splendid record in these institutions and early in life.- In 1895 the younger Chatterton engaged in the grocery business at Bowling Green, Ohio, two years later disposing of his mercantile interests and engaging with a large wholesale house at Toledo as salesman and purchasing agent. Here he continued with his usual success until 1898, when he returned to Mt. Pleasant and became a member of the firm of Chatterton & Son. J. E. Chatterton died on August 3, igo7, and Howard then incorporated the business of which he is manager and principal stockholder. He has also bought an interest in and is president of the Whitney Taylor Company, manufacturers of hub blocks and concrete tiling, being the largest tile (concrete) manufacturers in the world. He is an indefatigable worker and the notable high grade and honorable methods which he ever employs in his business life, and in fact in all the relations with his fellow men, have brought the rewards due him, and he stands today second to none in the industrial world, and is popular with all classes of citizens, being a good  and a straight- forward, unassuming gentleman of correct principles.

Mr. Chatterton was married to Minnie H. Harris, of this city  in 1897.She is a lady of culture and refinement and the representative of one of the old and influential families here.