From ArborWiki

Samuel Willard Beakes (Jan 11, 1861 - Feb 9, 1927) represented Michigan's 2nd District in the US House from 1913 to 1919, after previously serving as Mayor of Ann Arbor from 1888 - 1890. Beakes is buried in Ann Arbor's Forest Hill Cemetery.

Beakes bought the Ann Arbor Argus newspaper in June 1886, and published it until 1898 when it merged with the Democrat and Ypsilanti Weekly Times newspapers to be the Ann Arbor Argus-Democrat. He gave up his interest in the paper in 1905 when he retired.

In 1906, Beakes authored a book, "Past and Present of Washtenaw County" for the S.J.Clarke Publishing Co., out of Chicago. This 1000-page reference volume is accessible via the Bentley Archives:

• Page-by-page scans: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty&cc=micounty&idno=bad1054.0001.001&q1=washtenaw&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=7
• Full text OCR: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moaatxt;cc=moaatxt;rgn=main;view=text;idno=BAD1054.0001.001

Sources:

• Doll, ch 5.Category; Journalists