William Shakespeare, one of the prominent men of Kalamazoo County, is a man who has been engaged in various activities and has been successful in all of them, a fact which bespeaks his perseverance and unusual business ability. He was born in Paris, Ohio, April 7, 1844, his parents settling in Kalamazoo county the following year. He attended the public schools of Kalamazoo until he was twelve years old, when he entered the Telegraph printing office. Later he became an apprentice in the office of the Kalamazoo Gazette, at the same time devoting himself to the study of bookkeeping, which he completed at Barnard's Academy at Medina, Ohio. He graduated from here in 1859, at the age of fifteen. He then clerked in a store for a short time, and was only seventeen when he enlisted in Company K, Second Michigan Infantry, on April 12,1861, and was mustered into the United States service on May 25. After more than three years of hard service he was mustered out on account of wounds received in service. He was shot in the charge at Jackson, Miss., and both thighs were broken. Not until he reached the hospital at Cincinnati, thirty-three days later, did these terrible wounds receive attention. Returning home after recuperation, he was clerk in the office of the provost-marshal until the close of the war. At the youthful age of twenty-one he was editor and proprietor of the Kalamazoo Gazette. He entered into the mercantile business in 1867, but he had not yet found his right sphere-his ambition was to be a lawyer. He put in his spare time to the study of law with such good results that in 1878 he was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with one of Michigan's foremost lawyers, the Hon. N. A. Balch. In August, 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Lydia A. Duel Markham. Mr. and Mrs. Shakespeare are the parents of four children, Andrew, William, Jr., Mrs. Cora E. Leech and Edith, all of whom are living in Kalamazoo. The political world also held attractions for Mr. Shakespeare, and he received several nominations at the hands of his party. In I88I he was appointed brigadier-general and quartermaster-general of the Michigan state troops. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Orcutt Post, the Michigan Society of Political Science and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He served as department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1896, and is at present serving as a member of the pension committee of its national encampment of that body. In May, 1896, he established the Central Bank of Kalamazoo, of which he was owner and president for a number of years. In the fall of I899 he' decided to retire from active practice of the law and gave his splendid law library of about thirteen hundred volumes to the Kalamazoo County Law Library. Mr. Shakespeare is also vice-president of the Kalamazoo County Bar Association. He is also a part owner of the Shakespeare and Stier additions to the city of Kalamazoo on South West Street. Now that he has retired from active business, he can look back on his life with the satisfaction that it has been well spent and that he availed himself of every opportunity. Mr. Shakespeare's parents, John L. and Lydia (Pennell) Shakespeare, natives of Pennsylvania, came to Kalamazoo County on May 5, 1845, and settled at Yorkville, where the father worked at his trade, that of a carpenter and joiner. He later came to Kalamazoo and died in 1847, the mother died about 1900. The paternal grandfather, William Shakespeare, was a native of Pennsylvania and came to Kalamazoo in 1846. He was a blacksmith by trade, which he followed at Yorkville and Kalamazoo and died in this city. He served in the war of 1812 with a Pennsylvania regiment and was wounded at the battle of Plattsburg.
Compendium of History and Biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. / David Fisher and Frank Little, editors. P. 335
William H. Shakespeare, was Michigan's youngest soldier to fight in the Civil War, enlisting at the age of seventeen. Upon hearing the news of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the young William Shakespeare was the first volunteer from Kalamazoo to step forward and form Company K of the 2nd Michigan Infantry on April 12th, 1861.
Married Lydia Ann Markham on 27 Aug 1867 in Kalamazoo, MI
"Case 368. — Sergeant W. Shakespeare, Co. K, 2d Michigan, aged 18 years, was wounded in both lower limbs at Jackson, July 11, 1863. He was treated at a field hospital of the Ninth Corps for several weeks, and was then transferred by steamer to Cincinnati, where, on August 12th, he entered Washington Park Hospital. On June 1, 1864, the patient was discharged from service and pensioned. Examiner H. O. Hitchcock, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in March, 1866, furnished the following description of the case: " Shakespeare was struck by a minie ball, which, after passing through the upper third of the left thigh and fracturing the femur, entered the right thigh and either fractured the right femur or perhaps chipped off a piece of bone, making its exit on the outer side of that limb. A minie ball about the same time shattered the head of the left fibula, and another ball produced a flesh wound of the leg ; and while lying on the field he was severely wounded by some missile over the sacrum, From this last injury he suffered long and severely. Before being taken from the field several corps surgeons advised amputation of the left thigh, which operation was opposed by Surgeon E. J. Bonine of the regiment, on the ground that it would not add to the chances of recovery. When the patient reached Cincinnati, union of the fragments had taken place, with about seven inches shortening, the fragments crossing each other at a considerable angle and one of them protruding from the wound. Acting Assistant Surgeon A. D. Norton, on August 14th, broke up the temporary union of the parts of the left femur and extended the limb. Three months later, when the case was examined by several surgeons, the parts were still ununited. At present there is complete union of bone, the right leg being one and one-fourth inches shortened, and the left leg one and three-fourths inches shorter than the right. The left femur is a little straighter than normal; the left leg can be flexed upon the thigh to an angle of about 30°; the foot is contracted, rather stiff, and sometimes painful. He suffers considerably from neuralgia, is not as robust as formerly, and walks with the aid of a cane, his gait being rather slow and halting." Several years afterwards the same Examiner reported that the wound in the left thigh frequently opened and discharged pieces of bone and bits of lead. Drs. E. J. Bonine and II. A. Clelland, late Surgeon and Assistant Surgeon of the 2d Michigan, both testify to the injury of both femurs, as well to the fact of amputation having been advised or ordered to be performed at the field hospital, and that the operation was refused or deferred. The former in his report on October 4, 1874, states: "The present condition of the pensioner, as I find by critical examination, is as follows: 'An open, suppurating, and discharging wound in the superior third of the left thigh,' the bone, having been crushed, lapping in the healing, so as to shorten the leg from two to three inches. Bone denuded ; partial anchylosis of knee," etc. Examiner Hitchcock, at subsequent dates, lastly in December, 1877, added that "there is a sinus leading down to diseased bone in the left thigh, which is open and discharging more or less nearly all the time. The left knee is nearly anchylosed and is swollen; the foot is tender and the toes are stiffened in a deformed position," etc. The pensioner was paid June 4, 1879. Pension Examiner O. H. Hitchcock presented to the Army Medical Museum a card photograph of the patient (Vol. I, p. 2, Card Photographs). A copy is represented in the wood-cut (Fig. 137). -- The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by U.S. Army Surgeon General's Office.
Compendium of History and Biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. / David Fisher and Frank Little, editors. P. 335
William H. Shakespeare, was Michigan's youngest soldier to fight in the Civil War, enlisting at the age of seventeen. Upon hearing the news of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the young William Shakespeare was the first volunteer from Kalamazoo to step forward and form Company K of the 2nd Michigan Infantry on April 12th, 1861.
Married Lydia Ann Markham on 27 Aug 1867 in Kalamazoo, MI
"Case 368. — Sergeant W. Shakespeare, Co. K, 2d Michigan, aged 18 years, was wounded in both lower limbs at Jackson, July 11, 1863. He was treated at a field hospital of the Ninth Corps for several weeks, and was then transferred by steamer to Cincinnati, where, on August 12th, he entered Washington Park Hospital. On June 1, 1864, the patient was discharged from service and pensioned. Examiner H. O. Hitchcock, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in March, 1866, furnished the following description of the case: " Shakespeare was struck by a minie ball, which, after passing through the upper third of the left thigh and fracturing the femur, entered the right thigh and either fractured the right femur or perhaps chipped off a piece of bone, making its exit on the outer side of that limb. A minie ball about the same time shattered the head of the left fibula, and another ball produced a flesh wound of the leg ; and while lying on the field he was severely wounded by some missile over the sacrum, From this last injury he suffered long and severely. Before being taken from the field several corps surgeons advised amputation of the left thigh, which operation was opposed by Surgeon E. J. Bonine of the regiment, on the ground that it would not add to the chances of recovery. When the patient reached Cincinnati, union of the fragments had taken place, with about seven inches shortening, the fragments crossing each other at a considerable angle and one of them protruding from the wound. Acting Assistant Surgeon A. D. Norton, on August 14th, broke up the temporary union of the parts of the left femur and extended the limb. Three months later, when the case was examined by several surgeons, the parts were still ununited. At present there is complete union of bone, the right leg being one and one-fourth inches shortened, and the left leg one and three-fourths inches shorter than the right. The left femur is a little straighter than normal; the left leg can be flexed upon the thigh to an angle of about 30°; the foot is contracted, rather stiff, and sometimes painful. He suffers considerably from neuralgia, is not as robust as formerly, and walks with the aid of a cane, his gait being rather slow and halting." Several years afterwards the same Examiner reported that the wound in the left thigh frequently opened and discharged pieces of bone and bits of lead. Drs. E. J. Bonine and II. A. Clelland, late Surgeon and Assistant Surgeon of the 2d Michigan, both testify to the injury of both femurs, as well to the fact of amputation having been advised or ordered to be performed at the field hospital, and that the operation was refused or deferred. The former in his report on October 4, 1874, states: "The present condition of the pensioner, as I find by critical examination, is as follows: 'An open, suppurating, and discharging wound in the superior third of the left thigh,' the bone, having been crushed, lapping in the healing, so as to shorten the leg from two to three inches. Bone denuded ; partial anchylosis of knee," etc. Examiner Hitchcock, at subsequent dates, lastly in December, 1877, added that "there is a sinus leading down to diseased bone in the left thigh, which is open and discharging more or less nearly all the time. The left knee is nearly anchylosed and is swollen; the foot is tender and the toes are stiffened in a deformed position," etc. The pensioner was paid June 4, 1879. Pension Examiner O. H. Hitchcock presented to the Army Medical Museum a card photograph of the patient (Vol. I, p. 2, Card Photographs). A copy is represented in the wood-cut (Fig. 137). -- The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by U.S. Army Surgeon General's Office.
William Shakespeare, one of the prominent men of Kalamazoo County, is a man who has been engaged in various activities and has been successful in all of them, a fact which bespeaks his perseverance and unusual business ability. He was born in Paris, Ohio, April 7, 1844, his parents settling in Kalamazoo county the following year. He attended the public schools of Kalamazoo until he was twelve years old, when he entered the Telegraph printing office. Later he became an apprentice in the office of the Kalamazoo Gazette, at the same time devoting himself to the study of bookkeeping, which he completed at Barnard's Academy at Medina, Ohio. He graduated from here in 1859, at the age of fifteen. He then clerked in a store for a short time, and was only seventeen when he enlisted in Company K, Second Michigan Infantry, on April 12,1861, and was mustered into the United States service on May 25. After more than three years of hard service he was mustered out on account of wounds received in service. He was shot in the charge at Jackson, Miss., and both thighs were broken. Not until he reached the hospital at Cincinnati, thirty-three days later, did these terrible wounds receive attention. Returning home after recuperation, he was clerk in the office of the provost-marshal until the close of the war. At the youthful age of twenty-one he was editor and proprietor of the Kalamazoo Gazette. He entered into the mercantile business in 1867, but he had not yet found his right sphere-his ambition was to be a lawyer. He put in his spare time to the study of law with such good results that in 1878 he was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with one of Michigan's foremost lawyers, the Hon. N. A. Balch. In August, 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Lydia A. Duel Markham. Mr. and Mrs. Shakespeare are the parents of four children, Andrew, William, Jr., Mrs. Cora E. Leech and Edith, all of whom are living in Kalamazoo. The political world also held attractions for Mr. Shakespeare, and he received several nominations at the hands of his party. In I88I he was appointed brigadier-general and quartermaster-general of the Michigan state troops. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Orcutt Post, the Michigan Society of Political Science and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He served as department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1896, and is at present serving as a member of the pension committee of its national encampment of that body. In May, 1896, he established the Central Bank of Kalamazoo, of which he was owner and president for a number of years. In the fall of I899 he' decided to retire from active practice of the law and gave his splendid law library of about thirteen hundred volumes to the Kalamazoo County Law Library. Mr. Shakespeare is also vice-president of the Kalamazoo County Bar Association. He is also a part owner of the Shakespeare and Stier additions to the city of Kalamazoo on South West Street. Now that he has retired from active business, he can look back on his life with the satisfaction that it has been well spent and that he availed himself of every opportunity. Mr. Shakespeare's parents, John L. and Lydia (Pennell) Shakespeare, natives of Pennsylvania, came to Kalamazoo County on May 5, 1845, and settled at Yorkville, where the father worked at his trade, that of a carpenter and joiner. He later came to Kalamazoo and died in 1847, the mother died about 1900. The paternal grandfather, William Shakespeare, was a native of Pennsylvania and came to Kalamazoo in 1846. He was a blacksmith by trade, which he followed at Yorkville and Kalamazoo and died in this city. He served in the war of 1812 with a Pennsylvania regiment and was wounded at the battle of Plattsburg.
Compendium of History and Biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. / David Fisher and Frank Little, editors. P. 335
William H. Shakespeare, was Michigan's youngest soldier to fight in the Civil War, enlisting at the age of seventeen. Upon hearing the news of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the young William Shakespeare was the first volunteer from Kalamazoo to step forward and form Company K of the 2nd Michigan Infantry on April 12th, 1861.
Married Lydia Ann Markham on 27 Aug 1867 in Kalamazoo, MI
"Case 368. — Sergeant W. Shakespeare, Co. K, 2d Michigan, aged 18 years, was wounded in both lower limbs at Jackson, July 11, 1863. He was treated at a field hospital of the Ninth Corps for several weeks, and was then transferred by steamer to Cincinnati, where, on August 12th, he entered Washington Park Hospital. On June 1, 1864, the patient was discharged from service and pensioned. Examiner H. O. Hitchcock, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in March, 1866, furnished the following description of the case: " Shakespeare was struck by a minie ball, which, after passing through the upper third of the left thigh and fracturing the femur, entered the right thigh and either fractured the right femur or perhaps chipped off a piece of bone, making its exit on the outer side of that limb. A minie ball about the same time shattered the head of the left fibula, and another ball produced a flesh wound of the leg ; and while lying on the field he was severely wounded by some missile over the sacrum, From this last injury he suffered long and severely. Before being taken from the field several corps surgeons advised amputation of the left thigh, which operation was opposed by Surgeon E. J. Bonine of the regiment, on the ground that it would not add to the chances of recovery. When the patient reached Cincinnati, union of the fragments had taken place, with about seven inches shortening, the fragments crossing each other at a considerable angle and one of them protruding from the wound. Acting Assistant Surgeon A. D. Norton, on August 14th, broke up the temporary union of the parts of the left femur and extended the limb. Three months later, when the case was examined by several surgeons, the parts were still ununited. At present there is complete union of bone, the right leg being one and one-fourth inches shortened, and the left leg one and three-fourths inches shorter than the right. The left femur is a little straighter than normal; the left leg can be flexed upon the thigh to an angle of about 30°; the foot is contracted, rather stiff, and sometimes painful. He suffers considerably from neuralgia, is not as robust as formerly, and walks with the aid of a cane, his gait being rather slow and halting." Several years afterwards the same Examiner reported that the wound in the left thigh frequently opened and discharged pieces of bone and bits of lead. Drs. E. J. Bonine and II. A. Clelland, late Surgeon and Assistant Surgeon of the 2d Michigan, both testify to the injury of both femurs, as well to the fact of amputation having been advised or ordered to be performed at the field hospital, and that the operation was refused or deferred. The former in his report on October 4, 1874, states: "The present condition of the pensioner, as I find by critical examination, is as follows: 'An open, suppurating, and discharging wound in the superior third of the left thigh,' the bone, having been crushed, lapping in the healing, so as to shorten the leg from two to three inches. Bone denuded ; partial anchylosis of knee," etc. Examiner Hitchcock, at subsequent dates, lastly in December, 1877, added that "there is a sinus leading down to diseased bone in the left thigh, which is open and discharging more or less nearly all the time. The left knee is nearly anchylosed and is swollen; the foot is tender and the toes are stiffened in a deformed position," etc. The pensioner was paid June 4, 1879. Pension Examiner O. H. Hitchcock presented to the Army Medical Museum a card photograph of the patient (Vol. I, p. 2, Card Photographs). A copy is represented in the wood-cut (Fig. 137). -- The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by U.S. Army Surgeon General's Office.
Compendium of History and Biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. / David Fisher and Frank Little, editors. P. 335
William H. Shakespeare, was Michigan's youngest soldier to fight in the Civil War, enlisting at the age of seventeen. Upon hearing the news of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the young William Shakespeare was the first volunteer from Kalamazoo to step forward and form Company K of the 2nd Michigan Infantry on April 12th, 1861.
Married Lydia Ann Markham on 27 Aug 1867 in Kalamazoo, MI
"Case 368. — Sergeant W. Shakespeare, Co. K, 2d Michigan, aged 18 years, was wounded in both lower limbs at Jackson, July 11, 1863. He was treated at a field hospital of the Ninth Corps for several weeks, and was then transferred by steamer to Cincinnati, where, on August 12th, he entered Washington Park Hospital. On June 1, 1864, the patient was discharged from service and pensioned. Examiner H. O. Hitchcock, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in March, 1866, furnished the following description of the case: " Shakespeare was struck by a minie ball, which, after passing through the upper third of the left thigh and fracturing the femur, entered the right thigh and either fractured the right femur or perhaps chipped off a piece of bone, making its exit on the outer side of that limb. A minie ball about the same time shattered the head of the left fibula, and another ball produced a flesh wound of the leg ; and while lying on the field he was severely wounded by some missile over the sacrum, From this last injury he suffered long and severely. Before being taken from the field several corps surgeons advised amputation of the left thigh, which operation was opposed by Surgeon E. J. Bonine of the regiment, on the ground that it would not add to the chances of recovery. When the patient reached Cincinnati, union of the fragments had taken place, with about seven inches shortening, the fragments crossing each other at a considerable angle and one of them protruding from the wound. Acting Assistant Surgeon A. D. Norton, on August 14th, broke up the temporary union of the parts of the left femur and extended the limb. Three months later, when the case was examined by several surgeons, the parts were still ununited. At present there is complete union of bone, the right leg being one and one-fourth inches shortened, and the left leg one and three-fourths inches shorter than the right. The left femur is a little straighter than normal; the left leg can be flexed upon the thigh to an angle of about 30°; the foot is contracted, rather stiff, and sometimes painful. He suffers considerably from neuralgia, is not as robust as formerly, and walks with the aid of a cane, his gait being rather slow and halting." Several years afterwards the same Examiner reported that the wound in the left thigh frequently opened and discharged pieces of bone and bits of lead. Drs. E. J. Bonine and II. A. Clelland, late Surgeon and Assistant Surgeon of the 2d Michigan, both testify to the injury of both femurs, as well to the fact of amputation having been advised or ordered to be performed at the field hospital, and that the operation was refused or deferred. The former in his report on October 4, 1874, states: "The present condition of the pensioner, as I find by critical examination, is as follows: 'An open, suppurating, and discharging wound in the superior third of the left thigh,' the bone, having been crushed, lapping in the healing, so as to shorten the leg from two to three inches. Bone denuded ; partial anchylosis of knee," etc. Examiner Hitchcock, at subsequent dates, lastly in December, 1877, added that "there is a sinus leading down to diseased bone in the left thigh, which is open and discharging more or less nearly all the time. The left knee is nearly anchylosed and is swollen; the foot is tender and the toes are stiffened in a deformed position," etc. The pensioner was paid June 4, 1879. Pension Examiner O. H. Hitchcock presented to the Army Medical Museum a card photograph of the patient (Vol. I, p. 2, Card Photographs). A copy is represented in the wood-cut (Fig. 137). -- The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Part III, Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume) by U.S. Army Surgeon General's Office.
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