A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH LBERT EDSON SLEEPER was born into the home of Joseph Edson and Hannah (Merrell) Sleeper, December 31, 1862, at Bradford, Vt. Both parents came from the substantial farm folk of Vermont. Industrious, honest and thrifty, the home had always been well provided for although there had never been an overplus of wealth in the generations back. At times one or more of the fllock had gone into the West, among them being his grandmother's brother, John L. Woods, of Lexington, Michigan, and later of Cleveland, Ohio, whose wealth and philanthropy are well known in his native town as well as in his adopted state. While "Bert" Sleeper did not inherit money from his parents, they gave him that better heritage, an honorable name, a father whose honesty was not open to question and a mother with rare executive ability, firm determination and a disposition to help those less fortunate than herself. These qualities have shown in the life of their son as his later career demonstrates. "Bert" Sleeper lived the normal life of the average boy in a small village. When he reached the school age, he went up to the district school. When this was outgrown, he went up to the village to the old Bradford Academy, which boasts the names of some of the great and near-great of the country upon its rolls. At seventeen, he left school to make his own way in the world. There are not many occupations open to a boy or girl in a small village, but young Sleeper, of a naturally quiet and thoughtful disposition, early assumed the responsibilities of life by going to work as a clerk in John N. Brock's general store when he left school. He was anxious to do his best and to do thoroughly the somewhat menial tasks which a green clerk found to do in a store in the middle seventies. Naturally steady and willing to work hard for what he got, he proved himself of value to his employer. Even as in his childhood, he finished his work, sawing wood or weeding the garden before he went off to play. In his early business life, work came first and recreation had to wait a more convenient time. He worked nearly two years in the Brock store and then there was an opening in Stevens & Clark's general store, which was a distinct advancement for the young man. Here he worked with determination to learn the business and it was here that he learned of W. B. Stevens the fundamental principles upon which all business is built. It was not an easy school, but it was a school of good discipline and it was a school wherein many kinds of shrewd, human nature could be studied at close range. Here he stayed for three and a half years, until the September before his twenty-second birthday, when opportunity to go to Lexington, |