Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Preston, Thad B. April 6, 1938 ************************************************ 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: Nan Wheaton wheaton1624@yahoo.com August 11, 2019, 11:54 am Sentinel-Std. - Thursday, April 7, 1938 FUNERAL FOR T.B. PRESTON ON SATURDAY Former Ionia Banker Died in St. Mary's Hospital, Grand Rapids, Following Second Operation on Wednesday. Funeral services for Thad B. Preston, life-long resident of Ionia, public- spirited citizen and one of the most vital individual factors in the last half- century of Ionia's growth and progress, will be held from the Ionia Church of Christ Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock. A private prayer service will be held at the home Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock. Rev. Fred A. Arthur of Detroit, will officiate at the funeral assisted by Rev. C. A. Brady of the Ionia Church of Christ. Interment will be at the Highland Park cemetery. Mr. Preston died in St. Mary's hospital at 4:15 o'clock Wednesday afternoon only a few hours after he underwent an abdominal operation for an intestinal condition which had been discovered in the course of an operation for appendicitis, which he endured Saturday. Mr. Preston had been failing physically for several months but the menace of his condition was not apparent nor was a serious outcome expected at the time he entered the hospital for the first operation. With him at the end was his son, Phillips B. Preston of Detroit. Was Born in Ionia Born in Ionia in 1862, the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Clark A. Preston, Mr. Preston was educated in the Ionia schools and later for a brief period attended the Michigan Agricultural college at East Lansing. Returning from Lansing he entered business for himself and continued through more than a half century to be an active aggressive and progressive personality in the business, industrial, civic and political life in of Ionia. In 1885 he was married to Miss Lida Canwell of Ann Arbor, who at the time of her marriage was a teacher in Ionia schools. Mrs. Preston died in 1927. Surviving Mr. Preston are his son Phillips B. Preston and two sisters, Mrs. Hassie Preston Thornton of Ionia, and Miss Nina Preston of Ann Arbor, librarian in the University of Michigan. Born in the Preston homestead, which stood where the home of Mrs. R. L. Page is now on East Main street. Mr. Preston's entire life was spent in the city of his birth. For half a century he was a motivating power in the industrial and civic life of his community. During all that time he was in business for himself, always conducting his own business affairs and helping actively in community enterprises. In those many enterprises in which he was interested he was a spark-plug, firing others with his zeal for everything which he believed to be for the community's improvement and betterment. A Moving Spirit Few indeed were the civic movements for which he was not a moving spirit. His own business career began in the pine lumber days of Montcalm county when he embarked in the manufacture of shingles from the stumpage of cut-over lands in the vicinity of Edmore and Vestaburg. Later the jobbing business which, with his brother Thede, he conducted in Ionia dealt in cheese, Kerosene, tobacco and other commodities in demand in the developing communities in western Michigan. The Preston brothers had their office in that early day with Clarence B. Wardle, and in Mr. Wardle's office today stands a safe used jointly bearing the names of Preston and Wardle. In 1888 Mr. Preston became associated with the Michigan Clothing company as secretary and general manager, a concern which grew out of the Michigan Overall company, conducted by E. D. Voorhees, in a building in the alley west of the Presbyterian church property. The factory building now standing on South Steele street, known as the Sorosis Garment company building was built for the Michigan Clothing company, which later and still under Mr. Preston's management developed into the Sorosis Garment company. A list of Ionia's industries with which Mr. Preston had been affiliated as a stock holder would embrace nearly all of those concerns which at one time or another made Ionia's industrial history over a long period of years. To mention a few of them there were the Ionia Manufacturing company, The Ionia Pickle company, the Ionia Furniture company, The Hayes-Ionia, the capital Wagon Works, the Stafford Manufacturing company, Michigan Porcelain Tile Works, the Ionia Pottery. It was impossible that a man so active and enthusiastic in furthering the industrial life of his city could fail to be an important contributing stockholder in virtually every important industry that functioned during those many years and probably no Ionian took more interest and gave more support to a long and varied list of manufacturing concerns than he did. He was appointed by Mayor Harvey E. Kidder, Chairman of the citizen's advisory committee, which advanced and handled funds designed to bring industries to Ionia and to permit industries already here to expand. Mr. Preston's interest was not confined to industrial progress. He took an interest in every local activity. He was a prime mover in Ionia County's first program to improve the highways and a substantial contributor toward the construction of the first improved gravel road into Ionia, known as the Loomis highway, now M-16 south of the city. He supported and contributed to numerous others of the first good roads program. He aided in many movements designed to improve the condition of Ionia county agriculture and was always one of the first Ionia citizens approached when any group conceived a program they believed could benefit the rural districts. There was a period of years in which T. B. Preston and Fred W. Green cooperated to galvanize into action group movements of Ionia business men to further the city. It was an expected event of business men's meetings called for the purpose of promoting some civic program,to witness that important matter of raising funds primed by these two. It was expected that when the time came Mr. Preston would rise and subscribe several thousands of dollars in the name of Mr. Green, and then that Mr. Green would subscribe a similar amount in the name of Mr. Preston. If one happened to be absent from the meeting he could always count on having his subscription registered by the one who was present. Many thousands of dollars were pledged to Ionia's progress in this manner. A man whose nature presented many facets, Mr. Preston energized his civic spirit in other than industrial programs. Educational Movements He sponsored and influenced to success for several years, the Ionia Chautatiqua movement which brought a series of lectures and entertainments of the highest quality to Ionia. He was mainly instrumental in organizing the Ionia County YMCA, an organization with a paid secretary which functioned for a number of years early in this century and carried the benefits of its programs to the rural village and city schools. When Ionia faced a housing shortage Mr. Preston sponsored and saw carried to success the Ionia housing corporation which performed a necessary and valuable service at that time. In 1910 Mr. Preston became president of the State Savings bank of Ionia upon the death of Osmond Tower, then president. He continued in that presidency until the closing of the bank in the early days of the depression of 1931-32. A man who enjoyed the finest things in the life and appreciated them, Mr. Preston admired the best in literature and was a lover of flowers, a hobby which he indulged in to the extent that his flower gardens were widely known and greatly admired. Ionians had a general invitation at all times to visit the rose gardens which produced such exquisite blooms at the Preston home. No Public Office Mr. Preston never held a public office. Nevertheless he was influential in his political party. He was a stalwart democrat, whose advice was frequently desired and sought. He was appointed postmaster of Ionia by President Cleveland in 1893 and held that office one term. An original Wilson-for-President democrat, Mr. Preston was during President Wilson's term of office, offered the position of alien property custodian, which he promptly refused, on the ground that he was a busy man and did not care to spend his time sitting around Washington. One of a committee of three in Michigan during the Cleveland administration, Mr. Preston handled all party matters in the state for the national committee. Of that committee one member is still living, Louis P. Rowley of Lansing. Mr. Preston had served as a delegate to democratic national conventions and as chairman of the Michigan democratic state central committee. He had all his life been an earnest member of the Church of Christ of Ionia in which he has held most of the church offices and was one of the eldest and most loyal workers. He was superintendent of the Sunday school for many years and also taught the men's class. Mr. Preston was known to his associates as a man of strong convictions, but one who understood the point of view of others. One who knew him all his life Thursday summed up his estimate of him as a man of "honesty of purpose of unswerving loyalty, ambitions to do anything for the betterment of his community, unfailing in his all-inclusive sympathy for others, generous in anonymous charities, and yet motivated by an extreme modesty which rebelled at accepting thanks or praise or receiving public commendation and spurned all flattery and obsequiousness". Additional Comments: Age: 77 Funeral: Saturday, 9 April 1938 Highland Park cemetery #7-18 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/p/preston9828gob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/ File size: 10.2 Kb