Edward Hartwick Edward Edgar Hartwick ( 1871 – 1918 ) was an American soldier , businessman and namesake of Hartwick Pines State Park in the state of Michigan . Family . Edward Hartwick was born in St . Louis , Michigan on September 6 , 1871 to Michael Shoat and Jane Augusta ( Obear ) Hartwick . Among his ancestors was a brother of John Christopher Hartwick , a Lutheran minister who emigrated to the United States from Germany in the early decades of the 18th century . Hartwick , New York and Hartwick Seminary , now Hartwick College were named after him . Military career . Edward Hartwick ' s family moved to Michigan and he graduated from Grayling High School in 1888 . A year later , in September 1889 , Hartwick left Michigan to enroll at the United States Military Academy at West Point . He graduated with high honors in 1893 . Upon completing his schooling , he was appointed a second lieutenant in the 4th Cavalry and , shortly thereafter , transferred to the 9th Cavalry Regiment , nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers . He was to remain in the West until the outbreak of the Spanish - American War was to take him and the 9th to Cuba . The following report was officially submitted following the action of July 1 , 1898 before San Juan Hill . An interesting account of the Battle of San Juan Hill appears in Hartwick ' s biography in which he is quoted as saying , among things , " " The above claim of Colonel Roosevelt is not true : " The claim had to do with exactly when and how and why Teddy Roosevelt " led " the charge up San Juan Hill . Private life . Hartwick left Cuba to return to Grayling and on October 19 , 1898 married Karen Bessie Michelson . He resigned his commission effective July 1899 . He became engaged in the lumber and banking industries in Grayling and soon prospered , eventually moving to Detroit . He was a 32d degree Mason , having been a member of Jackson Lodge , No . 17 , F . & A . M . , Jackson Chapter , No . 3 , R . A . M . , Detroit Commandery , No . 1 , K . T . , Moslem Temple , A . A . O . N . M . S . , of Detroit , and the Michigan Sovereign Consistory , Valley of Detroit , Michigan . Major Hartwick ' s clubs were : the Detroit Athletic Club , the Ingleside Club , Detroit Golf Club , Bankers ' Club of Detroit , Fellowcraft Athletic Club , and the Detroit Automobile Club . He held membership with the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges , Detroit Real Estate Board , Detroit Board of Commerce , Detroit Real Estate Exchange , Exchange Club , Detroit Y . M . C . A . , American National Red Cross , Detroit Retail Lumber Dealers ' Association , Milwaukee Junction Manufacturers ' Association , and was president and director of the Michigan State Retailers ' Lumber Association . Return to the military . Following the United States ' entry into World War I Hartwick volunteered for service and was commissioned a major in the 20th Engineers . He sailed to Europe in November 1917 . In March 1918 , Hartwick became ill with meningitis and on March 31 , 1918 , at age 46 , he died near Bordeaux , France . He was buried in Talence Cemetery " with full military honors . " On December 23 , 1920 , his remains were removed to Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit . Ten months later , in October 1921 , a bronze monument was erected there in his honor . In 1927 , his widow purchased more than 8 , 000 acres ( 32 km² ) of land , including the last of virgin pine in Michigan ' s Lower Peninsula . Shortly afterwards , Karen Hartwick donated the parcel to the state of Michigan in her husband ' s name . Thus Hartwick Pines State Park , the largest state park in the lower Peninsula , came to be .