Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Belding, Alvah N. 1925
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marilyn Ransom mransom311@gmail.com August 29, 2014, 5:00 pm

The Belding Banner, Wednesday, December 23, 1925


Word was received here by F. W. Howard, superintendent of the Belding Bros. & 
Co., of the death Friday morning at ten o’clock of Alvah N. Belding, at his 
home at Rockville, Connecticut.  Death was due to exhaustion and followed a 
three week’s illness caused by grip.  Mr. Belding would have been 88 years of 
age had he lived until next March.

Alvah N. Belding was one of the pioneers in the silk industry in America and 
the last one of the four Belding Brothers, who started and who were responsible 
for the organization and growth of the great silk industry which bears their 
name, with mills in this city, at Petaluma, California; Northampton, 
Massachusetts; Montreal, Canada; Winsted Connecticut, and Rockville, 
Connecticut, at which latter place Mr. Belding made his residence.

He was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, on March 27, 1838, of old New England 
ancestry.  When a young man he came to this section of the state with his 
parents who settled on land on the south side of the river and during the 
several years which he lived here with his parents, Mr. Belding helped clear 
the land which is now the site of the White Mill, or No 2, and also the Belding 
Memorial library, which he built and presented to the city several years ago.

After several years with his parents on the farm here, Mr. Belding returned to 
the east and shortly afterward joined with his brothers in selling silk, at 
retail.  In 1864 they bought an old paper mill at Rockville, Connecticut, and 
converted it into a silk mill and began the manufacture of silk.  In 1886 they 
built their first mill at this city, the Richardson mill at West Main and Front 
streets.  This was followed by an expansion in their business until they had 
large and flourishing mills in all of the cities heretofore mentioned and later 
on built the Red Mill, or No. 1, then the White Mill, or No. 2, and some years 
ago taking over the old casket factory and converting it into the Electric 
Mill, or No. 3.

Mr. Belding was in active charge of the building and operation of these various 
plants and never lost interest in the business.  This city and the company’s 
interests here held much to interest him and as a rule he made two trips here 
each year, usually coming through by motor car.  His mind was keen and he kept 
up as much interest in matters pertaining to the business as any of the younger 
men connected with the concern.  Of late years his hearing had been poor and it 
was a hard matter for him to reconcile himself to this handicap.

In 1881 Mr. Belding was elected to the Connecticut state legislature, having 
received the largest majority ever accorded a candidate for that office up to 
that time.  Mr. Belding was president of the Belding Land & Improvement 
Company, vice president of the Belding Savings Bank of this city and secretary 
of Belding Brothers & Company from the time of its organization, holding the 
office at the time of his death.  He was a director for many years in numerous 
banking and industrial corporations and was one of Rockville’s most loved and 
respected citizens.  This feeling of esteem was also held toward Mr. Belding by 
the hundreds of employees in the mills of this city and also by our citizens in 
general.

Mr. Belding was married in 1870 to Lizzie Smith Merrick, of Rockville, 
Connecticut, and to them were born three children, of whom two are living; 
Florence Belding Nuckols, of New York, and Frederick N. Belding, of Rockville, 
Connecticut, who is associated with Belding Broths & Company as vice president.

Funeral services were held at his late home in Rockville, Connecticut, on 
Monday afternoon at two o’clock and as a mark of the esteem and respect in 
which Mr. Belding was held in this city the company’s mills were silent 
throughout the day.  Flags were flown at half mast throughout the afternoon and 
cards bearing a splendid large picture of Mr. Belding were displayed in every 
store and place of business stating that everything would be closed during the 
funeral hour.  On the bottom of the cards was a line which read “The city of 
Belding has lost a valued friend.”  A large wreath of roses from the members of 
the Belding Board of Commerce was also sent from here to be placed among the 
floral pieces as a tribute to the memory of the man whose past had been so 
closely interwoven with the growth of the industrial life of this community.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/b/belding27968nob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/

File size: 5.0 Kb