I ran across this on a page at the Library of Congress site:
EDWARD LEWIS YAPLE
Representative from the First District of Kalamazoo County, 1909-10 and
1911-12. Was born at Mendon, St. Joseph County, Mich., Feb. 7, 1874, of
American parents. He received his education in the Mendon Union schools,
Kalamazoo College, University of Chicago, and the Northwestern University
law school, graduating from the latter in 1899. Married. In 1901 he located
at Kalamazoo where he associated himself in the law business with Claude S.
Carney. In politics a Republican.
Mary Hodges sent me this message back in 1997 about Claude:
"In your diggings you may have come across a Claude Carney from Kazoo who
was active in Dem politics ( sorry for the dirty word.) He was a lawyer and
unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1912 and kept active , if not successful.
But the rather wierd story I just heard from the only living older relative
I have found might be fun to track and when I'm in MI next summer I hope to
get over to Lansing. It seems in I think 1938 or 39 a member of the State
Liquor board died while in office. The Gov. appointed my grandfather,
Claude. It was not too many months before he too died suddenly after a
meeting. He had not been ill and my father, Herschel, and his brother,
Fletcher, did not feel right about the death report. June Carney Bailey
maintains that the family refused to let their dad be buried until they had
had all the medical test available to prove whether or not he had been
poisoned or not. They apparently had strong suspicions and June maintains
they were proved right. She says dad did it for their own peace of mind and
did not intend to do anything about it for what ever reason. I had wondered
why there was such a long time between death and burial, but I guess that
could be 1 reason. June further added that Claude was the 3rd person to die
in that office. I have no idea where to go for any info on a autopsy, but I
expect the deaths of people in the office would be pretty easy for me to
find. Fact or fiction it is at least an interesting extra bit from family
searching."