Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Vol 3. [1192-1193] JULIUS E. GUMM - Adapted to mercantile life by inheritance and training, and ardently devoted to his calling, it is not surprising that JULIUS E. GUMM, one of the leading merchants of Onaway, has made a great success of it and is going forward in further progress and expansion of his trade and influence in the business world. He is ambitious in his chosen line of endeavor, and so zealous and assiduous in attention to all its demands that he makes every day tell to his advantage in it, and incidentally to the benefit of the community in which he operates. MR. GUMM was born in Russia on March 14, 1854. He is a son of BERNARD and REBECCA GUMM, also natives of Russia and now both de- ceased. They were the parents of twelve children, seven of whom are living, JULIUS being the second in order of birth. The father was a merchant from his youth to the end of his life, as was his father before him, so that merchandising seems to have been the family vocation by natural design, as three generations have been highly successful in it. Although loyal to his native land while obtaining his education in its schools, it did not meet his requirements in the way of opportunity for advancement, and in 1871, when he was but seventeen years of age, he determined to seek a larger and more open field in the New World. Filled with high hopes of a luminous career in this country, and inspired or sustained with all youth's sublime audacity of faith in his ability to contend with Fate, he turned his back on the associations of his boyhood and bravely dared the heaving ocean and whatever might lie beyond it. On his arrival in the United States he came at once to Michigan and to Detroit. Here he engaged in selling goods until 1884, when he moved to Rogers City, this county, where he opened a store of his own in general merchandise, and in 1901 he came to Onaway where he, in partnership with his brother, M. C. GUMM, and under the firm name of GUMM Bros., opened a store with a limited stock of goods which he housed in a small building. The partnership continued until the summer of 1907, when the brother withdrew from the firm, and since then MR. GUMM of this writing has conducted the business alone. His rule of dealing is to give every patron fair treatment and full value for his money. It is also a cardinal principle of business with him to study the wants of the community in which he trades and keep his stock at all times up to its fullest requirements. Acting faithfully in accordance with these lines of procedure, MR. GUMM has won his way steadily in the confidence and regard of the people, and in the same ratio his business has expanded and his in- fluence in and out of business circles has increased. So rapid, indeed, was the extension of his trade that in 1903 he was obliged to provide more commodious quarters for it, and to do this erected the fine brick store building in the very heart of the city's mercantile life on State street which he now occupies. This store throughout is modern in every respect, no expense having been spared in the installation of conveniences, present-day fixtures and attactive adornments. The store is metropolitan in character and each of its several departments is completely stocked with the best goods the money invested in them can buy, and all purchased direct from the manufacturers. The building, which is two stories high over a basement and 40 by 150 feet in dimensions, is one of the most imposing in the city. In the public affairs of the community MR. GUMM has always taken an earnest interest and an active part. He has served as township treasurer and president of the village board. He is also a director of the bank and connected with other institutions which are of great value to the industrial and fiscal activities of the town. In fraternal life he is an enthusiastic Free Mason of the thirty-second degree, holding membership in Onaway Lodge, Bay City Consistory of the Scottish Rite and Elf Knurafeh Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In 1890, MR. GUMM was united in marriage with MISS JENNIE EPSTINE, a native of Utica, New York. They have a daughter and son, AMY and IRA. The parents are prominent in the social life of their community and highly esteemed as among its most congenial and com- panionable as well as most useful factors. They are zealous in the support of every mental and moral agency at work among the people and exemplify in all the relations of life the best attributes of elevated and progressive American citizenship, the father being as devoted to the welfare and the institutions of the land of his adoption as he ever could have been to those of the land of his birth. He is one of Onaway's best citizens and is held in high regard as such by all classes of its people. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================