Arthur D. Eddy
1861 - 1925
Arthur D. Eddy became one of the most revered men in Saginaw’s history and a community benefactor assured of an immortal name.
But it was not always so. For quite some years, the general impression of him in Saginaw was that he frequently was tough as a tartar, with a strong thrust to his chin, periodically brusque and glacial of manner, a shrewd businessman and, although scrupulous, a tough in-fighter in his dealings.
But the true character of the man and his regard for Saginaw and his fellow man was revealed in his will. After his death here in 1925 at the age of 63, it was revealed that Eddy’s last testament provided for the creation of the C. K. Eddy Family Memorial Trust Fund. This has benefited Saginaw immeasurably in educational, cultural and social aids and advantages for the common good. After Eddy’s death, appraisers set the estate’s value at $3,610,000. It was divided equally among his wife, his sister, Lila Eddy Doebler, and the trust fund. Second National Bank was named trustee. The will stipulated that upon the death of Mrs. Doebler, half of her share of the estate would go to her daughter and the other half would revert to the trust fund.
At the beginning, the family memorial trust principal amounted to slightly more than $1 million. When Mrs. Doebler died, about $500,000 reverted to the trust fund.
Arthur Eddy’s will was a finely wrought document. Proof of the thought that went into its provisions is in the proportions of the fund’s appropriations. Fifty percent may be allocated to charities and welfare activity in Saginaw County. Thirty percent may go to maintain “a good uniformed band” for the city. The final twenty percent of available funds, specified Eddy, are for educational purposes to finance in part or in full the education of young Saginawians between 15 and 30 years old. Judicious administration by the trustee, Second National Bank (now First Merit) has kept the fund sound and healthy. It owns a portfolio of stocks, bonds and some real estate. As of 2011, the principal has grown to $12,869,259. Only income from the principal is used for the fund’s gifts, donations and loans. An average of $700,000 is distributed every year to the United Fund, the Eddy Band, Saginaw hospitals and many, many local charities and organizations. Money from the C. K. Eddy Family Memorial Fund has helped Saginaw in myriad ways. It has benefited thousands of people, young and old. Eddy’s will was 12 pages long. Its crux may be in three lines in which he said: “It is my earnest hope that the people of the City of Saginaw whom I have always loved, and their posterity, may be permanently benefited thereby.”
Arthur D. Eddy was born July 7, 1861, in Ottawa, Ontario, where his father, Charles K. Eddy began lumbering operations that were to make him a wealthy man. The family moved to Saginaw in 1865. C. K. Eddy was on the ground floor of the Saginaw lumber boom and prospered mightily. Arthur and his brother Walter grew up with Saginaw’s lumber bonanza. They worked in camps with the lumberjacks. When they came of age, their father took them into business with him. He trained them well. After his death in 1901, C. K. Eddy and Sons continued to flourish. The Eddy firm was also important in salt manufacture.
Arthur and Walter had inherited money and they used it to make more money. One of their many enterprises was Consolidated Coal Company. Another of their projects was Saginaw Milling Company. They also were interested in Saginaw Plate Glass Company, once a large Saginaw industry. And they were heavy stockholders in Second National Bank and Trust. Always alert to new trends, Arthur Eddy owned one of the first automobiles seen in Saginaw.
Friends believed the patriotic stimulus of World War I inspired Arthur Eddy to draw up his generous community service will. R. Perry Shorts, former president and chairman of the board of Second National Bank, knew Arthur Eddy well as a friend. Shorts once related that Eddy “had quite a reputation as a hard-headed businessman” before World War I. He said Eddy and his wife Charlotte (they had no children) were returning to Saginaw from the west coast by train. As Eddy crossed the country, Shorts said, he saw at every railroad station American youth galvanizing for the fight against the enemy. “Arthur was too old to enlist,” Shorts continued, “and it galled him that he couldn’t get in and help like the young Americans he saw across 2,000 miles of America. It sort of fired him up.”
So when Eddy got back to Saginaw, he organized the Saginaw War Board which involved several hundred people. Indicative of the kind of campaigner Eddy was is this excerpt of a wartime newspaper clipping. Eddy was County War Board chairman at that time. Said the newspaper account: “Saginaw County’s Township Victory Loan organization heard a threat Saturday afternoon. This was the threat: ‘If I see any indication that the Victory Loan isn’t going to be successful here, there will be merry hell in Saginaw County.’ Chairman Arthur D. Eddy of the War Board made it at the mass meeting of the township solicitors Saturday at the Bancroft Hotel.”
After the war, Eddy succeeded in transferring the War Board’s leadership to what was known as the Saginaw Welfare League. This was the ancestor of the United Way of Saginaw County.
In his appraisal of Eddy, Shorts elaborated: “Money and what it can do are big things as far as the usual public interest shows itself. But there was a man, a human being, behind this. He was my friend. He was a friend to Saginaw. This city owes a lot to Arthur D. Eddy.”