Akeley, Healey Cady
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MILITARY SERVICE Age: 0, credited to Stowe, VT Unit(s): 2nd MI CAV Service: enl, Grand Haven, MI, 10/23/63, m/i, Pvt, co. C, 2nd MI CAV, pr 1LT/ADJ 11/30/64, pr Captain 7/31/65, m/o 8/17/65, Macon, GA See Legend for expansion of abbreviations VITALSBirth: 03/16/1836, Stowe, VT Death: 07/30/1912 Burial: Soldiers Memorial Building, Stowe, VT Marker/Plot: Not recorded Gravestone photographer: Deanna French Findagrave Memorial #: 139109805 MORE INFORMATION Alias?: None noted Pension?: Yes, 8/14/1905, MN Portrait?: Unknown College?: Not Found Veterans Home?: Not Found (If there are state digraphs above, this soldier spent some time in a state or national soldiers' home in that state after the war) Remarks: None DESCENDANTS (Are you a descendant, but not listed? Register today) |
BURIAL: Copyright notice  Soldiers Memorial Building, Stowe, VT Check the cemetery for location/directions and other veterans who may be buried there. |
Biography
Healy Cady Akeley was born in Stowe on March 16, 1836. His father died when he was nine years of age. He lived in Vermont until he attained his majority. He read law a year in Waterbury, took the law course in the school at Poughkeepsie, NY after which, in 1858, he moved to Grand Haven, Michigan where he opened his law office. After first being refused enlistment due to asthma, he was accepted in October 1863 and served in the 2nd Regiment, Michigan Cavalry with which regiment he served as a private and adjutant until the end of the war.
Henry George Thomas (Akeley's cousin) was born in Stowe March 6, 1844. On June 1 1861, at the age of 17, he enlisted as a drummer to serve for three years.
On June 1, 1861 he mustered in at St. Johnsbury as a member of Company E, Third Regiment, VVI. At 52, in 1896, Thomas returned to Stowe after having lived in Minneapolis since 1869, where he became active in town affairs. In 1900 he organized the Stowe Soldier's Memorial Association for the purpose of raising funds to build a monument honoring the Stowe veterans of the Civil War. Henry wrote to his cousin (Akeley) on December 9, 1900 advising him of this and received a reply in which Healy expresses interest. He went on to say 'monuments are very nice, of course, and worthy. I have always had a notion that it is better to do something for the living than to try and do anything for the dead…..' Healy came East in June 1901 and it was at this time that a memorial building was decided upon. Mr. Akeley's instructions were to '…go on a put up such a building as you want. Build it well, build it nice, so that the town won't be ashamed of it in a hundred years.' Akeley's philanthropic and Thomas's assiduous surveillance brought forth the Soldiers Memorial Building which appears today much as it did at the dedication in August 1903.
The Soldier's Memorial Association collected $909, in small donations from the people of Stowe, and $864 of that paid for the clouded marble wainscoting of Memorial Hall on which appear engraved the names of 242 Stowe men who fought to preserve the Union. Healy Akeley survived the cost overrun of $24,000,(total cost $48,778). "Time has proven that his munificence's was indeed appropriate, permanent and useful."
Courtesy of the Stowe Historical Society, submitted by Barbara Baraw
Obituary
Healey C. Akeley
News of the death of Healey C. Akeley in Minneapolis was received with great regret by the people of Stowe, his native town, and to which he has generously given. Mr. Akeley was born here 76 years ago and was educated in the schools here. At one time he canvassed the town selling maps of the counties of Orleans, Essex, and Lamoille, many of which may still be found in the farm-house attics.
Since leaving Stowe Mr. Akeley led a successful career in the lumbering industries of the West and amassed a fortune. He resided for many years in Grand Haven, Mich., and afterwards in Minneapolis, where he was associated with T. B. Walker, the White Pine King of northern Minnesota.
Mr. Akeley was asked, while on a periodical visit to Stowe, to contribute to a fund for a soldiers' monument, when he replied that he would rather do something to benefit the living. As a result of that conversation he presented the building known as the Akeley Memorial building to the town. The people in Stowe have appreciated the gift. Every citizen feels a sense of proprietorship in it. It provides facilities for all the public needs of the town. Mr. Akeley has visited Stowe nearly every year since its dedication in 1903 and has always been pleased with the appreciation shown by the people.
Mr. Akeley is survived by his second wife and by a daughter, Mrs. Turk of Chicago, and a half-brother, George W. Randall of Waterbury. Mr. Akeley had planned to visit Stow this summer. He has said of it that, to him, it was the most beautiful place in the world.
Source: The Waterbury Record, 7 Aug 1912
Transcribed by Deanna French
Obituary
H.C. Ackley, Millionaire Lumberman, Is Dead
Minneapolis, July 31 - H.C. Ackley, millionaire lumberman and philanthropist, is dead at his apartment in a local hotel after several months' lingering illness of heart disease. He was 76 years old. He is survived by his widow, formerly Mrs. Clara R. Royce, of Long Beach, Cal., and one daughter, Mrs. James Park Quick, of Chicago.
Mr. Ackley, who was a veteran of the civil war, as a philanthropist erected a memorial building to the soldiers of Vermont, and also founded a school at Grand Haven, Mich., where he formerly lived.
Source: Duluth News-Tribune, August 1, 1912
Courtesy of Tom Boudreau.