Henry G. Dykhouse

Page 483-484 - Henry G. Dykhouse has been an influential figure in the lumber trade centered in the city of Grand Rapids, has been associated also with other important lines of industrial enterprise, and through his own ability and well-ordered activities he has achieved that worthy success that now enables him to abate in large degree the close business application that was long his portion. He himself has summed up the situation in the following consistent statement: "I have now so arranged my business that concentrated energy no longer calls upon me." Out of his splendid comprehension of the real values in human thought and action Mr. Dykhouse has evolved a sentiment of distinct significance, and the same is eminently worthy of perpetuation here, its text being as follows: "Success and content in life are born of work, planned by brain and polished by education." Mr. Dykhouse was born at Oldehove, province of Groningen, Netherlands, June 27,1863, and is the only child of the late Gerrit S. and Gezina H. Dykhouse. His early education was gained in the schools of his native land and it was shortly before the eighth anniversary of his birth that he arrived, in company with his parents, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the 18^th of May, 1871. As a boy he here gained experience of practical order by the selling of newspapers on the streets of the city, in which he was successful. He did not neglect the application that was to broaden his education, as is evidenced by the fact that in 1881 he completed his course in the high school that is now known as the Central high school. After his graduation he became bill clerk in the office of Charles J. Hupp, local freight agent for the Grand River Valley Railroad, now the Pere Marquette. In the autumn of 1881 Mr. Dykhouse obtained a position in the office of the Barnhart & Judson Lumber Company, with which he continued in the capacity of bookkeeper during a period of two years. In 1883 he initiated his independent career by engaging in the commission lumber business. Her worked hard, thought much, devised and followed progressive and honorable policies, and his success was of cumulative order. In 1899 Mr. Dykhouse associated himself with David and Benjamin Wolf in organizing the Acme Lumber Company, and this alliance continued until 1906 when he purchased the interests of the Wolf brothers and assumed full control of the large and prosperous business. In 1913 he retired from the more extensive operations in the lumber business, but the organization of the Acme Lumber Company is still continued and the business is conducted in a more circumscribed way. Mr. Dykhouse is still identified with many other industrial enterprises of importance – mainly in a financial rather than executive way. Appreciative of the opportunities that have been his for the winning of independence and prosperity in the land of his adoption, Mr. Dykhouse is loyal and public-spirited in his civic attitude and gives generously of his time and means to all measures tending to the public good. Mr. Dykhouse was married January 1, 1985, to Miss Rose Kelsey, of Grand Rapids, and they have three children: George J.; Pearl, who is the wife of Edgar C. Nichols, of Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Harold K. Mr. Dykhouse’s slogan is: "It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but fight in the dog that wins."