My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES COLBY. In the death of this gentleman, which occurred February 28, 1892, Benton Harbor lost one of its foremost business men and most popular citizens. He was born in Ogden, Monroe County, N. Y., in 1829. His father. Col. Eastman Colby, was a native of Salisbury, N. H., born in 1785, and was for twelve years a commanding officer in the New York militia, resigning from the service in 1822. In 1804, before a single house stood on the site of the now flourishing city of Rochester, he settled in Monroe County, N. Y., and there established his permanent home. He was one of the founders of the Baptist Church at Rochester and officiated as Deacon for many years. His death occurred at Ogden in 1859, and he was followed by his wife during the ensuing year. She bore the maiden name of Hannah Niles, and was a woman possessing many excellent traits of character.

The subject of this biographical sketch spent his boyhood years in the county of his birth, whence, at the age of twenty-one, he removed to Wisconsin and located at Janesville. There he essayed his first business venture, going into the milling and nursery business, and soon acquired a local reputation as a man of unusual ability. Year after year added to his success, until in 1860 he disposed of his milling and nursery interests to good advantage. Changing his residence to Cobden, Ill., he purchased a forty-acre fruit farm and settled down to the quiet life of a horticulturist, and the manufacture, in a modest way, of fruit baskets.

Farming was congenial to one of Mr. Colby’s nature, and he consequently dropped that feature of his business enterprises. Removing to Benton Harbor in 1866, he devoted himself entirely to the manufacture of fruit baskets and crates. He was among the first to engage in that industry in Benton Harbor, and conducted the business successfully. In 1885 he formed a partnership with Myron Hinkly and five years later the firm name was changed to the Colby-Hinkly Company. The demand for their goods had a yearly increase, owing in no small degree to Mr. Colby’s faculty of making and retaining friends during his business trips.

Socially, it would be difficult to say too much in Mr. Colby’s praise. He was a favorite among both old and young, and no gentleman of thirty was a more enthusiastic factor in adding to the enjoyment of his friends than was this old gentleman of sixty-three years. He was one of the conservative school of business men, and believed it better to attain prosperity gradually than to enter the field of speculation in the hope of becoming suddenly wealthy. Consequently his business prospered and grew solidly. His business methods were honorable and his business friends legion. Politically, Mr. Colby was a Republican. While never aspiring to official honors in his party, he was a stanch and faithful worker. So pronounced were his political opinions that he might almost be called a radical Republican, and his party could always depend upon finding him where he could do the most good. He was very fond of hunting, and it was his custom every year after the business season had ended to take a trip to the northern part of Michigan and there enjoy the sport of hunting deer.

In 1852 Mr. Colby married Miss Emily J. Holbrook, who was born in Catskill, N. Y. Her foster parents, Ira and Margaret B. (King) Miltimore, were natives of New York State and died in Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Colby were the parents of four children, two of whom are deceased. Those living are: Emma, the wife of Homer Portman, residing in Benton Harbor; and Charles P., who lives with his mother. The family residence is pleasantly located on the corner of Pipestone and Colby Avenues and is one of the most attractive homes in the city.