Ryerson, Martin
merchant, was born Jan. 6, 1818. In 1839 Mr. Ryerson engaged with a merchant and lumberman of Muskegon, Mich., continuing with him for two years. Being impressed with the timber wealth of the country and its prospective profit, he bargained for his employer's interest in the saw mill and engaged in the manufacture of lumberat first upon a small scale.
The rise of western towns supplied him with an excellent market, and he gradually increased his facilities until the business eventually grew to be one of the largest of the kind in the west. He erected in Lincoln park, Chicago, a bronze group of statuary in memory of the Ottawa nation, for whom in his early life he had acquired a profound admiration. He died Sept. 6, 1887, in Boston, Mass.