Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically : together with biographical sketches of many of its leading and prominent citizens and illustrious dead.

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THE PAST AND PRESENT OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN HISTORICALLY TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF MANY OF ITS LEAVDING AND PROMINENT CITIZENS AND ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD ILLUSTRATED THE MICHIGAN HISTORICAL PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION LANSING, MICHIGAN

HAMMOND PRElS W. 3. CONKCY COMPANY CHICAOO

CONTENTS 12C4371 PAGE INTRODUCTION................................................. 1 INDIAN TREATIES................................................. 4 TRADERS.................................................................... 10 THE SHIAWASSEE EXCHANGE................................................ 18 LATER INDIAN HISTORY.......................................................... 23 EARLY SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS............................................... 34 CIVIL ORGANIZATION.................................40 Board of Supervisors..................... 42 Board of County Commissioners............................................. 43 ESTABLISHMENT OF COURTS..................................................... 44 Circuit Court.............................................................. 44 Probate Court......................................................... 46 County Court........................................................ 46 THE SHIAWASSEE RIVER............................................................ 46 MILITARY RECORD OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY.......................................... 51 Second Michigan Infantry................................................ 53 Third Michigan Infantry...................................................... 54 Fifth Michigan Infantry.................................................. 55 Eighth Michigan Infantry..................................................... 58 Ninth Michigan Infantry...................................................... 60 Fourteenth Michigan Infantry................................................ 65 Twenty-third Michigan Infantry.......................................... 67 Twenty-seventh Michigan Infantry.............................................. 69 Twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry............................................. 70 Thirtieth Michigan Infantry.............................................. 71 First Engineers and Mechanics............................................ 72 First Michigan Cavalry.................................................. 73 Second Michigan Cavalry....................... 73 Third Michigan Cavalry................................................... 74 Fourth Michigan Cavalry................................................76 Sixth Michigan Cavalry..................................................79 Tenth Michigan Cavalry................................................. 80 Company H, Michigan National Guard.................................... 82 ROADS AND RAILROAS.... S................. 85 THE COUNTY SEAT................................................ 89 CORNER STONE LAYING........................................................... 91 iii

iv CONTENTS PAGE THE COUNTY FARM......................................... 98 AGRICULTURE....................................98 THE SHIAWASSEE COUNTY MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY....................... 100 THE PIONEER SOCIETY OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY.................................... 101 SCHOOLS............................................................... 101 THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.............................................. 102 POPULATION................................................................ 105 SYNOPSIS OF FACTORY INSPECTION............................................ 105 REMINISCENCES................................................................. 106 WOLF BOUNTIES. o.............................................. 109 TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES o............................... -................. 115 Antrim Township....................................... 115 Bennington Township...................................................... 117 Village of Byron.......................................................... 123 Caledonia Township.......................................................... 125 Fairfield Township.......................................................... 127 Hazelton Township........................................ 130 Village of New Lothrop...................................................... 133 Middlebury Township........................................................ 133 New Haven Township............................136 Owosso Township......................................138 Perry Township............................................................. 140 Village of Morrice.................................................. 143 Village of Perry....................................... 145 Rush Township..................................... 147 Sciota Township........................................ 149 Village of Laingsburg...152 Shiawassee Township.................. 153 Village of Bancroft.............................. 159 Venice Township.................................. 160 Vernon Township..............................................162 Village of Vernon.................,.......... 165 Village of Durand.................................................... 168 Woodhull Township............................ 170 CITY OF CORUNNA.................................................- 173 Schools................................................................ 181 Newspapers............................................ 183 Churches...................................................183 Lodges.................................... 185 Banking....................................:........... 187 Waterworks...............................,.....187

CONTE NTS v PAGE Manufactures............................................................... 187 McCurdy Park........................................................ 189 LEGAL PROFESSION.............................................................. 189 PRESENT COUNTY OFVICERS.............................................................. 193 SUPERVISORS OF TOWNSHIPS...................................0........................ 193 CITY OF Owosso...................................... 193 Early History........................................... 194 City Incorporation, etc..............................................................201 First Charter Election....................................................201 Mills and Manufacturing.................... 202 Banking............................................................. 207 Electric Lines...................................................... 209 Educational.................................................................209 Religious......................................................... 211 Fraternal Associations.................................................. 214 NEWSPAPERS...................................................................... 217 PERSONAL AND GENEALOGICAL....................................................... 221

ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Shiawassee Exchange...................................... 19 Chief John Okemos.29 Court House in 1864.....90 Shiawassee County Court House and Jail................................... 92 Buildings on the County Farm........................................... 96 Main Street Byron............................................................. 122 Main Street New Lothrop.................................................... 132 Main Street Morrice..................................................... 142 Main Street Perry............................................................. 144 Main Street Bancroft..................................................... 158 Main Street Vernon................................................. 166 Shiawassee Avenue Looking North-Corunna.......174 McCurdy Park-Entrance to Lagoon.............................................. 176 McCurdy Park-Residence of Hon. Hugh McCurdy-Casino in Distance.............. 178 Corunna Union Schools...................................................... 180 Looking over the Bridge from Shiawassee Avenue............................... 182 McCurdy Park Corunna Commandery at Drill................................. 184 Corunna Waterworks Plant...186 McCurdy Park-A Picnic Party at Time of High Water.......................... 188 McCurdy Park-Looking from the Lake down the Lagoon......................... 190 First House in Owosso.................................................... 196 Washington Street, Owosso-Looking North from Mlain Street...................... 206 Owosso Churches......................................................... 210 John Appleman................... 227 Catharine A. Appleman.................................. 227 G. T. Campbell................................. 259 John Dyer...............................................................310....... Webster Davis......................... 311295 John Dyer..........................................310 Mrs. Rhoda Dyer...........; 311 Edwin Eveleth........... -. 315 Daniel J. Gerbw................................................................ 328 Mr. and Mrs. William E. Jacobs.............................. 362 Warren Jarrad 365 Col. Philip Kline and Family.................................................. 374 J. D. Leland...................... 380 vi

ILL USTRA TIONS vii PAGE Hugh McCurdy............................... 389 Dr. Joseph Marshall....................................................... 394 Mrs. Joseph Marshall...................................................... 395 Mr. and Mrs. Gershom W. Mattoon.....................................401 William G. Morrice....................................................... 410 John Northwood............................. X................... 417 Harvey J. Patterson (Four Generations)........................................431 Frederick W. Pearce............................... 436 Mr. and Mrs. Rasselas Reed................................458 Cassius S. Reed and Family................................ 459 Mr. and Mrs. John M. Shaft............................... 477 Josiah Turner.......................................................509 Mr. and Mrs. Lyman W. VanAlstine........................................519 H. C. Walker............................................................. 530 Mrs. H. C. Walker (Four Generations)...................................531

PREFACE The greatest of English historians (Macaulay) and one of the most brilliant writers of the present century has said, "The history of a, country is best told in the record of the lives of its people." In conformity with this idea, the Past and Present of Shiawassee County has been prepared. Through the able assistance of George T. Campbell and Miss Mary Carruthers an extensive review of the county has been written. We have also been assisted by an able and capable corps of special writers, who have gone personally to the people-the men and women who have by their enterprise and industry brought the county to rank second to none among those composing the great commonwealth of Michigan. From their lips has the story of their life struggles been told. No more interesting or instructive work could be presented to an intelligent public. In this volume will be found a record of many whose lives are worthy of emulation and imitation by future generations., It tells how many, commencing life in poverty, by industry and economy have accumulated wealth. It tells' how others, with limited advantages for securing education, have become learned men and women, whose influence has been felt throughout the length and breadth of the land. It tells of men who have risen from the lower walks of life to eminence as statesmen. It tells of those in every walk of life who have striven, and records how success has crowned their efforts. It also tells of many, very many, who, not seeking the applause of the world, have pursued the even tenor of their ways, content with the thought that they have acted well their part in life. It tells how many in the pride and strength of their young manhood left the plow in the furrow, the anvil in the shop, the lawyer's office and the counting room, put. aside trade and profession and at their country's call went forth bravely to do or die that the Union might be preserved and peace restored to a distracted country. Coming generations will appreciate.the volume and preserve it as sacred, from the fact that it contains so much that would never have found its way into public records and that would otherwise have been lost to such future generations. Great care has been taken in compiling this work, and every possible opportunity has been given those represented herein to insure correctness in what has been written, in consequence of which the publishers congratulate themselves that they are able to give to their readers a work with few errors. The biographies of some will be missed in this volume; for this the publishers cannot be held accountable. Not having a proper conception of the Work, some have refused to give the information necessary to complete a sketch, while others have been seemingly indifferent. Occasionally some member of the family would oppose the enterprise, and on account of such opposition, the support of the interested party would be withheld. In a few instances, the assistant editors were unable to find the subjects, though making repeated calls at their residences or places of business. In conclusion, we feel assured that our efforts will be appreciated by the many, and that even the skeptical will feel repaid for their cooperation. vil THE PUBLISHERS.

V THE PAST AND PRESENT OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN The recorded history of any portion of our country begins with an event common to the history of all portions-the coming of the white man. That line of destiny which separates the Indian occupation from the establishment of our own race in the land, marks for us the beginning of history: for the red race it was the beginning of the end. In the history of Shiawassee county the line of separation is drawn through the year 1816, an4d was fixed by the invasion of one man, a French trader, who was doubtless intent upon extending his business among the Indians and quite innocent of any desire to inaugurate a chapter of history. How many races may have occupied this portion of the state of Michigan before that date we have no means of determining. All prior human events are traceable through tradition only. There are evidences, in the shape of earthen mounds, that a people superior to the Indians and preceding them, inhabited the country at some unknown period. These mounds, scarcely yet obliterated, were found here in considerable numbers by the early white settlers; and by those who visited them were believed to have been places of sepulture, as nearly all of them were found to contain human bones. One, however, which was a notable exception, was discovered on the bank of the Shiawassee river about half a mile above the bridge at Newberg. This, from its location and its peculiar construction, is supposed to have been built for purposes of defense. It was visited by the late Mr. B. 0. Williams, of Owosso, in 1829. He described it as nearly circular in form and consisting of a parapet inclosing an interior space. It was surrounded by a ditch and had an opening or gateway facing the east, with detached mounds fronting this entrance. Built at the edge of a high bluff on the east bank of the river, it had been admirably situated as a stronghold for some ancient fighters. Looking westward across a broad, wooded flat, which half a mile away rises in a gentle slope, and lying at the apex of one of those characteristic, sharp curves in which the Shiawassee doubles in its course, it commanded a sweeping view of the river to the southwest and to the northwest, and of the surrounding country in every direction. In the neighborhood, it has always been called the "Indian fort," and now, after more than half a century of diligent plowing, its shape is

2 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2 PAST AND PRESENT OF still distinguishable. The farm on which the ruins of this mound was found is now the property of Mr. S. S. Cook. Indians have explained to residents of the county who are still living that a well known collection of mounds in the township of Antrim, instead of being an ordinary burial place, as is generally supposed, marked the site of an ancient battlefield on which the slaughter had been terrific. The Indians knew this simply from the traditions of their tribe, for the battle had taken place so long ago that great forest trees had grown to maturity upon the graves of its victims before a white man had ever seen the spot. But the hand of the white man has since leveled those great oaks and his plow has unearthed from the mounds such an accumulation of bones that the truth of the Indians' statements has been satisfactorily proved. But speculation upon the identity of that lost race, the builders of the mounds, would be unprofitable to our present purpose. The earliest nation of those people whom we term aborigines to occupy the present limits of Shiawassee county are known only through the traditions of the Chippewa nation, whose various tribes were in possession when the first white explorers ventured into the wilderness. The story handed down by many generations, was to the effect that, ages before, "all the hunting grounds bordering the streams which find their outlet in Saginaw bay, and all the forests and openings extending thence west to the Grand river, were held and inhabited by the Sauks, a powerful and warlike people, who not only felt entirely able to keep their own country, but who were often in the habit of making bloody forays into the territory of other tribes, who consequently hated them and longed to exterminate them, or at least to expel them from the region which they regarded as an Indian paradise, abounding as it did with fish, deer, beaver, and almost every kind of game. This desire to subjugate or destroy the powerful Sauks and to seize their teeming hunting-grounds, burned nowhere more intensely than in the breasts of the Chippewa warriors,, whose home at that time was far away to the north. But they dreaded the prowess of their enemies too much to venture an attack, and this consideration held them in check for many years, though their hatred constantly increased, as did their wish to possess the Sauk country. "At last their ambitious desires could be controlled no longer, and * * * * they held council with the Ottawas of the north and the southern branch of the Ottawas, who then occupied what is now southeastern Michigan, asking them both to join in a war of invasion. Their proposition was favorably received, a league was formed, and the confederated bands set out speedily and secretly on their bloody expedition, which was destined to result in their complete triumph." The Sauks, anticipating no danger, were taken wholly by surprise. The carnage began on the Saginaw and Flint rivers, the northern and southern divisions attacking simultaneously. The destruction of all the villages in the valley of the Shiawassee followed, accompanied by the massacre of nearly all their inhabitants. The Sauks were practically exterminated, only a miserable remnant escaping westward through the dense forests. The land thus speedily subjugated was not immediately occupied by the two conquering nations, and it appears that the Ottawas never settled in the Shiawassee valley, but eventually emigrated from their northern lands to

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 3 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 3 the southeast, where they made their homes along the shores of Lake St. Claire and the Detroit, St. Claire, and Huron rivers. The Chippewas, however, in time came into complete possession of the former Sauk country. An interesting reason for the delay of the victors in removing their settlements to the land which had so long been the object of their envy and desire, is given by Mr. Franklin Ellis in his account of the conquest, published about twenty-five years ago. It is set forth as follows: "The conquered, territory was for a long time held as a hunting-ground, which was roamed over in common by the bands of the two tribes, But when they found that some of their young braves who entered these forests disappeared and were never again seen or heard of, their superstitious fears were awakened, and they came to the firm belief that the eddies of the streams and the dark recesses of the woods were infested by evil spirits-the ghosts of the murdered Sauks-who had come back to their old domain, and were thus mysteriously wreaking vengeance on their destroyers. The dread inspired by this belief and the strange disappearance of their young men became at last so strong that they entirely abandoned the country, and for years afterwardno Chippewa or Ottawa hunter braved the terrors of the 'haunted hunting-grounds.' But after many moons, no one can say how many, they ventured back, though still in dread and fear, and finally in favored spots there sprang up many villages of the Chippewas, while their bark canoes sped swiftly over the bright waters of the lakes and streams. And this, the tradition says, was the manner in which the tribe that became known as the Saginaw-Chippewa acquired and occupied the domain which the Sauk chiefs and warriors had once called their own." The subsequent history of the people who obtained the mastery of this fair land by means so foul, were it known, would probably be traceable only through an endless chain of wars. The length of time they occupied the country before it was discovered by white explorers is of no consequence as a factor in its development. Their uncounted generations simply lived on nature's bounty. To-day, the land that nourished them bears as a mark of their long supremacy, only a picturesque influence on its nomenclature; it was inevitable that many of the names they gave localities should have been perpetuated by the people who supplanted them. Possibly the trails their moccasined feet had trod through the forests influenced to some extent the direction of the roads laid out by their successors, but they were only the wandering "paths of least resistance" and not the visible result of past efforts in surmounting difficulties. "The Chippewas of the Lower Peninsula," says Mr. Ellis, in the same valuable account before quoted,, "possessed all the fierce and sanguinary characteristics of their northern kindred. From the time when England wrested the lake country from the possession of the French, this tribe was distinguished for its aggressive disposition, cruelty and treachery, and during the almost continuous Indian wars and conspiracies of the succeeding half century, its chiefs showed a spirit as turbulent and untamable as that of the parent nationthe Ojibwas of Lake Superior. The story of their ravages is found in all the annals of Indian hostilities. They were prominent actors iti the Pontiac war of 1763; in the Indian alliance against America in the war of the Revo

4 PAST AND PRESENT OF 4 PAST AND PRESENT OF lution; in the savage rising which was quelled by 'Mad Anthony' Wayne a few years later; and they were among the most energetic and efficient allies of Tecumseh 'in his prolonged warfare against the United States. They did bloody work at the Raisin, at Sandusky, and on many other fields, and finally they fought with fierce desperation in the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. But that day extinguished forever the warlike spirit of the Chippewas, for then and there the hopes of the red men perished. Their total defeat in that battle and the death of Tecumseh annihilated all possibility of successful resistance to the government and all hope of holding their hunting-grounds against the advance of settlement and civilization. So the Saginaws, like other Michigan tribes, sued for peace, gave hostages for their future good,conduct, received a pardon (which they scarcely expected) for their past offenses, and retired to their villages-sullen and dejected but thoroughly subjugated-and never again made war against white men. Nearly twenty years afterward the Wisconsin chief, Black Hawk, sent emissaries among them to distribute 'war quills' and invite them to join his bands in a new war, but they made reply that the Chippewas would not again raise the hatchet against the palefaces, who were masters of the land and under the protection of the Great Spirit." INDIAN TREATIES The tribes inhabiting the territory drained by the Saginaw river and its tributaries where the first white explorers made their way into the wilderness, were knowrn as the Saginaw tribes of the Chippewa nation. The Indians living in the valley of the Shiawassee river were called the Shiawassee bands of the Saginaws; others living along the Looking Glass and Maple rivers were' sometimes designated by the names of the streams on which their villages were located, but they were all of the same tribe, the Saginaw-Chippewa. A few Ottawas and Pottawattamies were the dominant tribes and were recognized by the United States -government in all treaties as the original owners of the country bordering the Saginaw and its tributary rivers, as well as the great wilderness to the northwest. The government has always recognized the Indians' rights of possession in the lands which they occupied, but has held to the principle that they could dispose of those rights only to the government, and only in open council between an accredited agent of the United States and the 'chiefs of the tribes interested. The treaty by which the Indians first ceded away any portion of their land now in the state of Michigan was concluded on the third of August, 1795, at Greenville, Ohio, by General Anthony Wayne, for the United States, with the chiefs of the Chippewa, Ottawa, Pottawattamie, and other tribes. The tract then acquired by the government consisted principally of a strip of land six miles wide, along the Detroit river. But not until November 17, 1807, was any considerable cession of land secured. This second treaty, concluded at Detroit, by William Hull, governor of the Territory of Michigan, with the chiefs of the several tribes concerned, ceded to the United t

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 5 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 5 States all of southeastern Michigan, including the present county of Shiawassee, except a triangular piece off the northwest corner. The line forming the western boundary of this tract was known for many years after as the Indian boundary line. This line prolonged northward was very nearly identical with the one afterward adopted by the United States surveyors as the principal meridian of Michigan. The Michigan meridian was the first one located for the United States public lands, before the state was organized, and is known as the "First Principal Meridian". It is the dividing line between the counties of Shiawassee and Clinton. The territory ceded by the Indians at the Detroit council embraced all of Michigan lying east of this line as' far north as a point which is now the northwest corner of the township of Sciota. From that point the boundary line ran northeast to Lake Huron. The corner thus cut off from the present limits of Shiawassee county included what is now 'the township of Fairfield and parts of' the townships of Middlebury, Owosso, Rush and New Haven. The Indians, it appears, never understood that that oblique boundary line running northeast towards Lake Huron was far enough north to include even the headwaters of the Shiawassee river. They had the right reserved to hunt and fish over all the land until sold to settlers; which provision explains the freedom with which they roamed over the ceded territory years after the advent of white settlers. Twelve years after the conclusion of the treaty, their possession of the land was still undisturbed. If any of it had been sold in those, years, it had not been claimed by the purchasers. A few French traders, probably two or three at most, had pushed their canoes up the twisting current of the beautiful river, but they assumed no authority over the land and the Saginaw-Chippewas lived in peaceful ignorance of the fact that they were not the sole owners of the valley of the Shiawassee. The story of the treaty of Saginaw by which the northwest corner of the county,-left out by the cession of 1807 and, according to the Indians' reckoning, constituting the remainder of the county,-was acquired by the United States, is a long and interesting one, but the scope of the present work will not permit its narration in detail. Soon after the close of the war of 1812 the tide of emigration from New York and other eastern states began to flow towards Michigan. General Lewis Cass, who was then governor of the territory, saw the new settlements multiplying to the north and west of Detroit. Knowing that the region purchased from the Indians would soon become too narrow to accommodate the rapidly increasing numbers of those seeking homes in the new lands, he set about securing further cessions of territory. Receiving authority from the government, he convened the chiefs and head men of the Chippewa tribes of the Lower Peninsula in council at Saginaw on the 10th of September, 1819. Not only wishing to purchase the land, but also hoping to induce the Chippewas to agree to remove beyond the limits of the peninsula and to settle on tracts to be selected for them beyond Lake Michigan or even farther west, the Governor made elaborate preparations to that end. Expecting Indians from every band of the Saginaw-Chippewas to be present at the council, he arranged with Louis Campau, one of the best known traders in the Saginaw country, to prepare some kind of a building in

6 PAST AND PRESENT OF 6 PAS ANDPRESNT O which the meeting could be held. This Campau did by erecting on the bank of the Saginaw river a somewhat imposing structure in the form of a bower, its roof being composed of the branches of trees. Within, hie constructed a speaker's platform of hewn logs and arranged for seats the trunks of trees. After giving his invitation a wide circulation among the chiefs and sagamores, the Governor repaired to the scene accompanied by a military escort, several secretaries, and a number of Indian traders who were to act as assistants and interpreters. His principal interpreter was Whitmore Knaggs, afterward well known among the early settlers in Shiawassee county. The Indians gathered to the number of two thousand chiefs and warriors, accompanied by their squaws and pappoo.ses. The proceedings were conducted with great formality, Governor Cass opening the council with an address, delivered through an interpreter, in which he explained to the red men what an advantage it would be to all concerned if they would sell their lands to the government at a generous price and go away to a new country -where they might hunt and fish forever in happy security from encroachment by the white man. The Indians failed to see the beauties of the plan submitted for their consideration. The Saginaw valley was home to this great branch of the Chippewas; its giant oaks had sheltered many generations of their people in rain and storm; its forests and streams had yielded them all they wished of creature comforts; it was "their own, their native land" and emigration had no charms for them. Selling their lands and still remaining upon them was an attractive enough proposition, but they bitterly opposed the plan of departure. The council threatened to come to, a speedy and unsatisfactory end. With all his show of civil and military authority, which might have been expected to impress the Indians, General Cass had failed in the outset to gain his chief object. Succeeding only in arousing a spirit of fierce resentment and seeing that he could not accomplish what he desired, he turned the negotiations over to, the traders, with the understanding that they would offer a compromise on the question of removal. The plan for complete removal was to be abandoned and another substituted by which a number of reservations, large and small, some tribal and some individual, should be granted, within the tract to be ceded. The traders, having a much more intimate knowledge of the Indian nature than the Governor had, and bringing to bear their combined influence, were able after several days' earnest efforts to persuade the chiefs to accept the proposition offered. Their keen interest in the consummation of the treaty on these terms may be explained by the fact that some of them had Indian wives and half-breed children for whom they expected to claim choice portions of the land preserved, and others were creditors of certain of the chiefs in considerable amounts and hoped to receive payment out of the price which Governor Cass was prepared to give them in coin (silver halfdollars). Those who were scheming to get land for their families succeeded so admirably that one prominent trader secured about 3,200 acres on the Flint river, which grant of land, says Mr. Gould in his history of Knaggs' Place, "in time made a matter of law and equity that took the courts of the state forty years to settle." But those traders who were hoping to have their debts liquidated were doomed to disappointment. The red men with the cash

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 7 SHIAASSE COUTYI in their hands were difficult to impress with any argument as to the policy of honesty. The treaty was signed with imposing ceremonies on the 24th of September, two weeks after the day the council had been convened. General Cass and one hundred and fourteen Chippewa chiefs affixed their signatures to the document. Twenty-three of the secretaries, military officers, traders, and interpreters signed as witnesses. The reservations made present a somewhat imposing array of figures, the list numbering about thirty and the tracts ranging in size from six hundred and forty acres to forty thousand acres. Only two reservations were laid out in the Shiawassee valley and only one of these came within the present limits of Shiawassee county. It comprised three thousand acres and was located at a place which the Indians called Kechewondaugoning; the first French trader on the river named the place the "Grand Saline", from some salt springs which were found near the river, which name the English speaking settlers afterward altered into the "Big Salt Lick". With the passing of Indian, trader, and the early settlers, the names all passed out of use and the present generation merely knows that there was once an Indian reservation where certain beautiful farms are now located, in the northwest corner of the township of Burns and portions of the adjoining townships of Shiawassee, Antrim, and Vernon. The other reservation on the Shiawassee river was a ten-thousand-acre tract at "Big Rock", which is now the village of Chesaning, in Saginaw county, a few miles north of the Shiawassee boundary. The area of territory ceded to the United States by this treaty is estimated at about six million acres and included most of the southern and eastern por tions of the Lower Peninsula. For this, the government agreed to pay to the Chippewa nation annually, forever, the sum of one thousand dollars in silver coin. The terms of previous treaties which gave the Indians the right to hunt and fish on the ceded lands while they remained the property of the United States, were also included in the treaty of Saginaw. For more than a dozen years longer the Shiawassee bands of the Chippewas remained in happy possession of their bartered birthright. Not until the year 1833 did the advent of white purchasers of the land disturb the serenity of their existence, and it was even some years later when they began to realize that their actual rights were limited by the boundaries of the reservations. Then the idea of inducing the Indians to emigrate beyond the Mississippi or at least to the westward of Lake Michigan, which had been the principal object of General Cass in negotiating the treaty of 1819, was revived. Proposals for removal were again made without exciting resentment as formerly. No, doubt the limitations of life on the reservation were extremely irksome when they became an established fact. Perhaps a longing for the old conditions of absolute freedom in a wide range of country was the persuading influence. The Chippewas were at last willing to entertain the proposition, and early in January of the year 1837 the Indian Commissioner, Henry R. Schoolcraft, met their chiefs in council at Detroit. On the 14th of the month a treaty was concluded, by which the tribe ceded to the United States all the reservations granted under the Saginaw treaty, except those granted to individuals. The lands embraced in the ceded reservations were to be surveyed by the United States and "placed in the market with the

8 I I PAST AND PRESENT OF S PAST AND PRESENT OF other public lands as soon as practicable, and the amount due the Indians from this source to be invested by the President in some public stock, the interest to be paid annually in the same manner as their annuities were paid." The time set for the final evacuation of the Michigan peninsula by the Saginaw tribes was January, 1842, or five years from the conclusion of the treaty of Detroit, but the government's plans for their removal were never carried into effect. Long before the time came for their departure they had bitterly repented of their agreement and begged the government that they "might remain on almost any terms and die in the land of their birth." In the meantime smallpox had been making terrible ravages among them. The bands were broken up, some of them being almost exterminated, and the survivors became too widely scattered to be gathered together for banishment. Some crossed to the Canadian shores, but the greater proportion wandered northward into the great forests. The Pottawattamies, like the Chippewas, had ceded to the United States the reservations granted them by earlier treaties -when they had made a general cession of their lands. They also had repented of their promise to emigrate to a tract selected for them in the west. While their villages were remote from Shiawassee county, lying to the west of the Chippewas' territory, we may properly notice in passing a pathetic incident connected with their deportation, because it occurred within the borders of our county. The Pottawattamies not having become scattered as had the Saginaw tribes, the government insisted that they carry out their agreement to evacuate the ceded lands. Many of them, however, successfully and repeatedly evaded the Conditions, and on the several occasions when bands were renewed, hundreds hid themselves to avoid being taken. In the summer of 1840 a body of these fugitives numbering about two hundred appeared in the northern part of Shiawassee county. In the early autumn of that year, General Hugh Brady arrived at the village of Owosso in command of a detachment of United States troops, under orders to round up the Pottawattamie band and escort it into exile. To gallant old General Brady, who had fought with "Mad Anthony" Wayne in the Indian campaigns and faced death in the bloodiest battles of the war of 1812, this must have been a most distasteful duty, but his orders left him no choice. The Indians were found picking cranberries in the marshes a few miles north of Owosso, in the present township of Rush. Their chief, old Muckemoot, with two or three followers made a last break for liberty, but was captured in the vicinity of Pontiac. The main body did not make much effort to escape, and after the return of the chief surrendered peaceably. They were finally all brought into Owosso and placed under guard. Some of them were quartered in a wooden building which had been erected for a hotel, but more in a log cabin which had been built at the southeast corner of Main and Washington streets as a rendezvous for the supporters of Harrison and Tyler in the presidential campaign of that year. They were kept in those buildings until the preparations for departure were completed. The melancholy manner in which they started on their long-dreaded journey is thus described by an early writer: "A number of four-horse wagons were brought to the place and into them were loaded the women and children, with their few utensils and other movable

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 9 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 9 articles. Some of the men were allowed transportation in the wagons, some rode on ponies, but many were obliged to travel on foot. Formed in this manner and closely guarded by troops in frornt and rear, the mournful procession of Pottawattamies moved out on the road and sadly took their way to the place of their exile beyond the Mississippi." Thus briefly may be told the story of the Chippewas' occupation of the fair county we call by the name they gave to their winding river. Just when the land came into their possession, the time of their terrific onslaught upon the Sauks, how many generations had lived and died between their coming and their leaving are merely matters of conjecture. From their own traditions we have learned that the land became theirs through covetousness, conspiracy, and violence, culminating in a massacre so hideous that the image of its horrors was forever stamped upon the conscience of the nation,-not only -on the conscience of the perpetrators of the deed, but of their last descendants. For aught we know to the contrary, the Sauks had wrested the same country from those nameless builders of mounds in the same savage manner. It was the only way they knew to get what they desired. Oblivion is kind to them, perhaps, in concealing all but the mounds of the one race and the name of the other. But the Chippewas had many witnesses to reveal their history and the character of their people. They themselves have told us how they came to the land. The manner of their going we have been told by those who were here to see their melancholy exit from the stage, the' center of which they had held so many, many moons. We know, too, the methods by which our people in turn became masters of this land which was the red man's land of heart's desire. Whether those methods were blameless a simple chronicler of events may not attempt to determine. If the business of the soil is to produce crops, then the red men were obstructionists and as such were swept aside by destiny's resistless broom. If the ghosts of the possibly defrauded Chippewas ever haunted the Indian commissioners who induced them to surrender their lands or the white settlers who made their homes in the places where the Indian wigwams had stood, that fact has in some way missed being recorded. After a settler had arrived at a certain tract in the untamed wilderness, with weeks of travel by ox team or "by hand" behind him; after he had paid the price the government required for that portion of his country's forest and marsh; after he had built his cabin home of logs felled by his own ax; after he had transported provisions for his family's subsistence forty or fifty miles until a "breaking-up-team" had sufficiently loosened the soil so that a crop could be planted; after burning log heaps; after fever and ague, and wolves; after, in short, he had torn up a section of the forest with his bare hands and converted it into a farm, it would seem unlikely that the usurper ever had any misgivings as to his moral right to own the land he had conquered.

10 PAST AND PRESENT OF 10 PAST AND PRESENT OF TRADERS The first white man known to have set foot within the limits of Shiawassee county was not a missionary bringing the story of the Cross to his pagan red brethren. He was not an explorer looking for a fabled fountain of eternal youth. Had he been a scientist in search of specimens or a prospector looking for mineral or even a government surveyor, his advent would have dignified the opening page of the story of the white man's occupation of the county. Had that first paleface invader been only a "soldier of fortune" in search of adventure, he might have shed a light of romance around the first authentic date we have to record. But a decent regard for facts compels us reluctantly to acknowledge that the man who has the distinction of being the leader of our race into the valley of the winding river was simply a trader in search of "hides,"-a French trader with an Indian wife. His name was Henry Bolieu and the year in which he first paddled his canoe up the current of the Shiawassee was 1816. The principal branch of his business was like that of all the early traders, the purchase of furs. It was the custom oif these traders to establish a post at some convenient point on one of the many small rivers flowing through the dense forests. The trading posts became widely known as centers of trade for the Indians of the surrounding country and landmarks for the settlers who in later years came looking for lands upon which to locate. Bolieu had been trading in the Saginaw country some years previously to his first trip up the Shiawassee river and must have had a wide acquaintance among the tribes inhabiting that territory. Among the traders he was a free lance and did not establish a permanent post as did the others, on the Saginaw and Flint rivers, but instead had several places of residence among which he divided his time. Some interesting facts concerning this pioneer of pioneers have been found in a series of articles which constitute "A Story of the First White Settlement in Shiawassee County," written by the late Mr. Lucius E. Gould, of Owosso, and published in The Evening Argus about four years ago. From one of these papers we are permitted to quote the following: "Not only was he friendly with the Indians and the traders, but was of great assistance to the pioneers wvho came to build for themselves homes either in the beautiful 'oak openings' or in the marshy, briar, and vine-entangled woods along the Flint and Shiawassee rivers. Long before other white men had followed him into these woods he had discovered where the most convenient places were to ford the streams and to each of these river crossings he invariably gave the name 'Grand Traverse.' It was Bolieu who guided Jacob Smith to the Grand Traverse of the Flint river at which place is now located the city of Flint. "At several of these river crossings Henry Bolieu built for himself a log shanty. They were generally erected over or in a hole in the side of a hill, fashioned somewhat after the style of a western 'dugout.' The one exception to this was the log house he built about the year 1816 or 1817, on an Indian clearing in a wide, level field at a point on the Shia

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, 11 SHIA WASSEE CUNTY 11 wassee river which in after years was known as Knaggs' Place. Mr. Edson Lyman says that when he was a boy he saw the ruins of this log house. The only other house that Bolieu was known to have built in Shiawassee county was near Che-boc-way-ting, or Big Rapids, now Owosso. The late Benjamin 0. Williams, who came into the country with his brother, Alfred, as early as 1829, a short time before his death pointed out to L. W. Todd, of Boston, then a boy, the exact place where this log shanty of Bolieu's once stood. And, indeed, parts of some of the logs were still in the ground at the time of their visit. It was situated on land now owned by Mr. Albert West, and on the hillside near the river in the rear of his residence on West Oliver street." In his account of the early traders, Mr. Ellis states that he visited the same scene with Mr. Williams about 1880 and at that time there was still in existence portions of two ancient chimneys and some other ruins. He also states that at the same place there were still to be seen pits in the earth, evidently made for the burying of canoes, and adds in explanation that "the Indians (and the traders, who learned the custom from them) were in the habit of burying their canoes in winter to prevent them from being ruined by the frost." In a later series of papers written by Mr. Gould and also published in the Evening Argus, in the spring of 1902, is the following description of the first journey up the Shiawassee valley of the first white trader. "When Henry Bolieu made his first voyage up the river into the regions of the Shiawassee, he found three Indian villages or settlements. The first one he came to was the Chippewa village of Che-as-sin-ning, or 'Big Rock,' and to-day better known as Chesaning. At this place Henry found not only the largest village on the river, but one of those Indian orchards that made the country through which the Shiawassee flowed famous not only to the Indians, the trader and trapper, but the actual settlers. After stopping for some time at the 'Place of the Big Rock,' Bolieu paddled on up the stream for several days until he came to the village of Shig-e-mas-king, or the 'Place of the Soft Maple.' The word 'ing' or 'ning' at the end of an Indian name means 'the place' or 'spot.' From Shig-e-mas-king it was but a short journey to the place of the Big Salt Licks, or the village of Kechewondaugoning. "Although Henry was well acquainted with the reputation of this place as being the center of valuable hunting grounds which furnished to all the Indians of the region a constant supply of food, and such provisions as were in those early days gathered from the woods, he was more interested in ascertaining the quantity and value of the fur-bearing animals of the country, upon which his own living and comfort depended. In fact our trader and trapper made his voyage up the Shiawassee not so much for the purpose of seeing the Indians and their orchards and gardens, as to visit a colony of beavers that were said to inhabit some of the creeks and-marshes which were two or three miles to the southwest from the river. Therefore, all in due time Henry again took his canoe, this time with a guide, and paddled up the stream from the clearing of the Kechewondaugoning to a small creek which was then and still is, to this day, pouring its waters into the Shiawassee from the west. Here Bolieu left his boat, and his guide conducted him along a well worn Indian trail which now and then crossed the

12 PAST AND PRESENT OF 12 PAST AND PRESENT OF creek as they traveled to the west. This trail and the creek led them over land which in after years was, and is now known as the 'Bradley Martin farm.' At this point they changed their direction from due west to south, and when they had journeyed about a mile were stopped by a large pond of water. This pond was formed by a dam which had been made by beavers. The ruins of this beaver dam were something like two hundred feet in length and were well known to the early settlers of the town of Antrim. "After making a careful examination of this colony of beavers and measuring the length of the dam, as well as estimating the number of lodges contained in the pond, Henry followed his guide in a southerly direction until they came to! an Indian orchard of plum and apple trees. From this point they traveled to the southwest for nearly a mile when they arrived at a group of Indian mounds. From these they turned and after a short walk through the woods came out on the bank of a lake which the Indians in those days called Ketch-e-gan, or Big Lake, as it is named on the map of Antrim of to-day. "Now when Henry Bolieu returned to his camp on the river, he was so well pleased with what he had found while on his tramp in the woods, and so well satisfied with the information he had gained in regard to the resources of the country, he determined to establish his summer home at the Kechewondaugoning. All this happened about the year 1816, or about four years before Whitmore Knaggs established his trading post at this point on the river. But the buildings Knaggs erected were shanties compared with the cabin home of Henry Bolieu * * * *. It was constructed of logs and was covered with a bark roof. For twenty years this cabin was a famous landmark in central Michigan. Situated as it was on the east side of the Shiawassee river, about eighty rods below the present Knaggs bridge, in the township of Burns, not far from a point where three Indian trails converged for the purpose of crossing the river at the one convenient place which was afterwards known as Knaggs' Ford, Bolieu's cabin became as well known to the Indians and the voyageur des bois as was the log house of John Knaggs at a later date. The stone chimney of Bolieu's cabin was built of boulders taken from the bed of the river. It was a French chimney. The same kind can be seen to-day attached to the small farm houses just outside of the city of Quebec. Long after Bolieu's cabin and the cabins of historic Knaggs' Place had entirely disappeared and even after the log houses of the pioneers of that vicinity were gone, that stone chimney was still standing, not unlike a monument to the heroic deeds o'f both the 'pathfinder' and the 'old settler.' "Henry Bolieu showed great foresight in locating his cabin. It was an ideal place for the home of the trader and trapper. We are quite sure the reader will pardon us for again mentioning the reasons why Henry built his cabin on the old Indian clearing of the Kechewondaugoning when he learns that the building of that cabin was the beginning of a series of historical events which by the year 1822 resulted in the setting apart of portions of the region of the Shiawassee to be and become one of the counties of the territory. To the traveler of the wood, the practical value of the location of the cabin was that it marked for him the exact place where to cross the river in safety. If the 'voyageur' chanced to

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTIY 13 SHIA~~ ~ WA5E -UTY1 be a stranger to the wilderness of the Shiawassee and if he asked for directions when about to leave either Detroit or Toledo, the answer he received was usually in the words: 'You must go through the woods to the north or northwest until you come to the seventh river. * * * Now, when you reach the Shiawassee you must search along the east bank until you come to a large clearing in which, at a short distance from the river, stands one of the cabins of "Hank Bolieu." It is surrounded by some apple trees and a patch of corn which the Indians have planted. But you will know the cabin, for it not only has an outside oven but a stone chimney. Going on the Looking Glass, are you? Well, in that case you will find the cabin an excellent place to stop over night. Never mind if the owner is not there. Pull the latch string and go right in. Build a fire on the great, stone hearth and make yourself at home.' "The arrival of Henry Bolieu at the Big Salt Licks in 1816 marked the beginning of the geographical history of Shiawassee county. For more than half a century prior to the year 1822 the boundaries of that wild and mysterious region known as Shiawassee were indefinite. In 1822 Shiawassee appeared upon the map of Michigan for the first time. It was during that year its boundaries were first established by a proclamation issued by Governor Lewis Cass. Notwithstanding the fact that General Cass's proclamation greatly reduced the territory of the Shiawassee known for years to the Indian, the trader and the trapper, it still contained within its legal boundaries of the northeast quarter of the county of Ingham, the north half of the county of Livingston, and eight townships now in the county of Genesee. However, as time went on, the above named counties were organized one by one, and each new organization drew from the territory of the original Shiawassee till it was reduced to its present limits, one of the smallest counties in the state." While Bolieu first came to this neighborhood from the Saginaw he also prosecuted his trading business with the Indians living on the Flint, and, without doubt, with those on the Looking Glass and Maple rivers also. It is probable that his later permanent home was on the Flint, as he married a full-blooded Indian woman, a sister or near relative of Neome, head chief of the Pewonigo band of Indians, who lived at Pewonigowink, on the Flint river. However, their daughter, Angelique, and doubtless the remainder of his family were sometimes with him at Kechewondaugoning. Angelique Bolieu, it is said, was sent to Detroit to be educated. She married a Frenchman named Coutant, and after his death she became the wife of Jean Baptiste St. Aubin, of Detroit. The year 1816, in which the first white trader in his bark canoe made his first voyage up the Shiawassee river, has been referred to as the date that divided the occupation of the county between the two races. That event really was, of course, only the "entering wedge." The white occupation technically began with the treaty of Saginaw in 1819, Governor Cass having waived the claim of the earlier treaty to the territory not understood by the Chippewas to have been included in the cession. But it was not until twelve years later that the first permanent white setlers appeared in the county, the Indians meanwhile enjoying the use of the land for hunting, fishing, and maple-sugar making, which was the only use they had ever wished to make of

14 PAST AND PRESENT OF 1A E it. Even as late as 1837 there were but few settlers in the county and the Indians had not been strictly confined to the limits of their lawful domain, the Kechewondaugoning reservation. By the treaty of Detroit, concluded in that year, when they joined the other SaginawChippewa bands in ceding the reservations, their last claim to the Shiawassee country was relinquished. So it was not until the year in which Michigan became a state that the white race came into complete possession of the county. During the first half of the twentyone years which it took the one race entirely to supersede the other, the whites were represented by only a handful of traders. While the business of these men was primarily to trade with the Indians, they frequently acted as able assistants to the government officials, as was mentioned in the account of Governor Cass's negotiations preliminary to the conclusion of the treaty of Saginaw. Their knowledge of the country, its topography, its resources, and their acquaintance with the Indians rendered their advice of great value to the succeeding Indian commissioners. The first trader known to have followed Bolieu into the Shiawassee valley, and certainly the first to establish a regular post here was Whitmore Knaggs, who acted as chief interpreter for General Cass in the council at Saginaw in 1819. A list of the licensed traders in Michigan in the year 1820 places Knaggs "on the river Shiawassee at the Indian reservation." In that year Whitmore Knaggs came to the Kechewondaugoning and established his post on the west bank of the river opposite the salt springs for which Bolieu had named the place the "Grand Saline." In a picturesque spot convenient to the crossing discovered by the Frenchman four years before was built the first rude cabin of the several which afterwards comprised the post. From that time the various names bestowed upon the place disappeared before the homely, forceful name of Knaggs. Long after the post was abandoned this famous crossing was known as Knaggs' Place by every immigrant and traveler who had visited the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. When in 1838 the township of Burns voted fifty dollars to pay for a bridge across the river, the wooden affair constructed was called Knaggs' bridge. That bridge has had several successors, all built about eighty rods farther up the river. A modem one of iron now spans the river there. Its immediate predecessor of the same type having recently been crumpled up by a spring flood and deposited in the bed of the stream. All these several structures, as well as the settlement which grew up around them, have borne the name of the trader who made his home in the neighborhood for twenty years. The trader also had his successors, though the post was still called by his name. The first of these was a man named Grant, who came in 1824. He continued in the trade for a time but became so unpopular with the Indians that they finally drove him from the country. In 1828 the post was reopened by Richard Godfroy. When, in 1829, the place was visited by A. L. and B. 0. Williams, they found John B. Cushway in charge as Godfroy's agent. The post as it existed then is described as a rude log house and a stable. John Knaggs, a son of Whitmore, was Godfroy's successor. With an assistant, Antoine Beaubien, a French trader and trapper, he continued the post until 1839. During their incumbence the post increased in size and importance. They lived in a more comfortable

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 15 SHIA WASSE~~ICUNY1 manner than the earlier traders, Knaggs having three commodious log houses, one used as a store, and Beaubien and his family occupying three others. Beaubien's home was in a pretty cove farther up the river, near a beautiful spot where the home of the late Mr. T. H. Reeves now stands, under the sheltering branches of grand old forest trees. As long as either Knaggs lived at this best known crossing of the Shiawassee it was the point to which all newcomers were directed, whether they came from the east by the way of Detroit or from Ohioi through Toledo. It was a sort of gateway into the Shiawassee valley, and every new family who forded the river and stopped at the post for a meal or to spend a night were more or less indebted to the traders for directions and advice concerning their weary journey into the woods. Some of the oldest of the early settlers now living in the neighborhood remember the elder Knaggs as a fine looking man, tall and well proportioned, and say that he was also an intelligent and interesting talker. He died at his son's home, near their old trading post, in 1840 and was survived by his son only about six years. In an exhaustive history of the remarkable and extensive Knaggs family published four or five years ago, it was stated that Whitmore Knaggs died at Detroit at an earlier date. This is obviously a mistake, as his death and funeral are well remembered by a number of persons still living at Bancroft and Newburg. In the papers from which we have previously quoted, Mr. L. E. Gould wrote as follows concerning the event: "One day in the year 1840 a lad of six years standing near his father's house situated in the southeast corner of the town of Shiawassee, not far from where that town touches cor ners with the towns of Antrim, Burns, and Vernon, saw what to him was a strange and weird sight. It was the passing of a funeral procession. It had come up over the original Grand river road from 'Knaggs' Place' on the Shiawassee river and was on its way to the burying ground near the then new village of Fremont. For at that early date in the history of the county this funeral procession comprised a large company of people. Not only the pioneer farmers had gathered from far and near, but in that moving throng were to be seen nearly all of the white people who for twenty years resided at or in the vicinity of Knaggs' Place. "At no other place in central Michigan would it have been possible to have gathered such a curious and interesting mixture of races, for in that procession there were not only Americans, but English, French, and Indians. They were all vieing with each other to see who could show the most honor and esteem to the memory of the man who had been a good friend to the man of the woods, to the man who gave to the region known as Shiawassee a place not only in the history of the state, but in that of the nation. "The mortal remains which at that time and place were conducted to the grave with so much pomp and ceremony were those of Whitmore Knaggs. The lad who on that day in 1840 saw the funeral procession of Whitmore Knaggs has for many years been a successful farmer and business man, and is now known as Edson L. Lyman." Mr. Lyman still resides on the farm described. Two other persons now living in the vicinity of Newberg, Mrs. Lucinda Shears and Mrs. Rhoda Snell, who are daughters of Sidney Seymour, one of the early settlers of

16 PAST AND PRESENT OF I..... that village, remember the funeral of Knaggs. They also attended the funeral of John Knaggs, who died in 1846. While his father was buried at Fremont, John Knaggs, for some reason now unknown, was buried at Newburg, in the first cemetery which was located on a slight elevation between the old church and the still older school house at that place. The cemetery was afterward removed and a number of store buildings erected on the ground. In making repairs in a cellar underneath one of the old buildings, in the early '80s, one of the old graves was discovered, containing the skeleton of a man. It had evidently been overlooked when the others were removed, but whether it was the grave of John Knaggs could not be ascertained. Knaggs' post, consisting of a cluster of log cabins in which savages exchanged the skins of wild animals for a few of what we term the necessaries of life, may be considered the extreme of primitiveness in mercantile establishments. To be sure, the traders were not obliged to make a fort of the post and "do their trading from the top of battlement balls," as a writer has recently said the Hudson Bay Company's agents had to do in those days. They did not even have to surround their buildings with a stockade, for the SaginawChippewas had been so thoroughly subdued that none of the Shiawassee bands ever gave the traders any serious trouble. Indeed, the earliest traders, particularly the Frenchmen, are said to have fraternized with the Indians in a degree and especially in the matter of marrying. That is, some of them married the Indians' sisters, though it does not appear that the Indians were permitted to marry their sisters. As civilization drew nearer and the stock began to include a few luxuries, such as firewater and tobacco, which speedily became necessaries when the savages began to live more as their white brothers lived, the place may have had some resemblance to a "general store," but to the end of its existence it remained an isolated outpost of the business world. And yet such a place may have its romances and no doubt the post on the reservation had its share of them. One, at least, of the "hidden treasure" variety, has been remembered and remains to-day, as it always has been, an unsolved mystery. When, some years after the treaty of Saginaw, the Shiawassee country was opened for settlement, others besides immigrants in search of homes began to turn their attention to the rich, new timber lands which the government was offering at the price of one dollar and a quarter an acre, or "ten shillings an acre," as it was invariably expressed by the settlers from New York and the New England states. Speculators began to penetrate the forests, quietly seeking choice sections of lands to secure and hold until the demand for homesteads should raise the price. These men, like all other travelers in this part of Michigan, were fairly sure to spend a night at the Grand Saline with Whitmore Knaggs. While lands that were located in this way would be paid for at the land office in Detroit when they were entered, the men who were making these long and rambling journeys frequently carried money in considerable amounts, and generally in coin, of course. The banking system not then having been extended into the interior of the territory, the method common among travelers for providing themselves with a supply of cash was to wear around the waist a double belt in which the coins or bills were placed.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 17 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 17 This custom, while it was certainly convenient, must have been rather uncomfortable for an opulent traveler, and at times very unsafe. During the time that this class of speculators was most active and in connection with a visit which a party of them made at the post, a story got afloat which credited Knaggs with having suddenly come into possession of a large amount of gold. Whether the elder Knaggs was a skillful or a lucky gambler and won the money in a game with his guests or whether he obtained it in some manner less fair than that does not appear in the story, but the report that he had secured it by some means and buried it for safe keeping gained credence and traveled so far that in time it brought adventurers from distant states to dig for the buried treasure of Shiawassee's Captain Kidd. The first person known to have searched for the gold was a man named Hadd, who, about twenty years after the story was first told, dug in several localities around Knaggs bridge, without success. About 1860 a number of strangers appeared at the bridge and, working mysteriously during the hours of the night, dug up the land along the river in many places. They left without disclosing their identity or the object of their search. The residents in the vicinity of the old trading post have never taken any particular interest in the legend of the buried gold, but at intervals in all the years since the death of the younger Knaggs, men unknown to anyone in the neighborhood have visited the place and all have apparently been there on the same errand. Most of them have besought the inhabitants to tell them about the exact location of a certain spring and a tree. Some have asked to have pointed out a rock in the river known as "Indian Rock." A party of men once called at the home of Mr. E. 0. Byam, and showed him a map of the river at Knaggs' bridge, upon which was marked the rock, the tree, and the spring. They refused, however, to allow Mr. B3am to point out these places of interest to them, preferring to find them themselves with the aid of the map. One act has been characteristic of all the mysterious strangers who have thus far appeared; they have invariably carried on their search by night. Their lights have shone along the river on many a murky night, but no one knows whether any of them was ever rewarded for his trouble. Once when the tale had been in a fair way to die out and be forgotten, it was revived by the statement of an Indian girl, the daughter of Wab-ben-ness, a famous Indian who at one time lived on the Kechewondaugoning reservation. She asserted that she had seen Whitmore Knaggs in the act of burying an iron pot in the river near the rock whose fame has traveled far and wide. "When Knaggs saw me watching him," said the girl, "he told me that the Gil-thi-e-gan would get me if I told anyone. Near the place described, Mr. Lester Roberts, who for a number of years had a grist mill at the bridge, once found buried a jug of a strange and curious pattern, but whether-or not this was the trader's innocent cache will probably never be known. Years hence the sons of those men who traced the rock and the spring and the tree by their maps may return and burn their questing lights up and down the Shiawassee, so fascinating to boys and men is a story of the hidden-treasure brand. 2

is PAST AND PRESENT OF 18 PAST AND PRESENT OF THE SHIAWASSEE EXCHANGE The second trading-station in the county to be occupied by regular licensed traders was also on the Shiawassee river only a few miles below the Knaggs post. It was established by Alfred L. and Benjamin 0. Williams, as agents of Rufus WV. Stevens and Elisha Beach of Pontiac. In 1829 the Williams brothers had made a prospecting tour of the country, visiting the Knaggs post and other places on the river. They returned in 1831 and in August of that year opened the post for business. The location they chose was on the west bank of the river just north of the north line of the Kechwondaugoning reservation. It was within the present limits of Shiawassee township, though very near the boundary line which separates it from Vernon township. A. L. Williams had previously entered an eightyacre tract of government land there. This was undoubtedly the earliest purchase of land in the country made with a view to settlement by the owner. Whitmore Knaggs, it is true,had located here in 1820, and other traders had lived at his post in the intervening years, but they were in no sense settlers, their purpose being to remain only so long as traffic with the Indians continued to prosper. But the case was different with the Williams brothers. They were probably the first white men who came with the full intention of becoming permanent residents and they therefore may be accorded the distinction of having been the pioneer settlers of the Shiawassee valley. With two assistants and a double ox team they made the journey through the wilderness from Pontiac, having to cut portions of the road for their team as they proceeded. Their wagons were loaded with household utensils and building material which greatly facilitated their first preparations for home making. They built a double log house, a story and a half high, to serve as both business house and dwelling, and began what soon developed into extensive operations in the fur trade. From all the river country furs came to their station and also from Clinton county and a large adjoining territory on the south and east, as well as much of the northern country whose products had previously gone to the Campaus and other French traders on the Saginaw river. In 1832 the firm became agents for the American Fur Company, which was the name under which John Jacob Astor carried on his far reaching operations in the middle western states. Trade at the post increased so rapidly that it soon became necessary to enlarge the facilities for handling the business. In 1835 a frame house was erected adjoining the double log house, which itself had been a notably substantial building, the new portion being occupied by Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Williams as a residence. This was a large twostory structure and was a triumph in architecture, considering the difficulties under which it was built, much of the material being transported a long distance through a country almost without roads. The rooms were commodious, those on the ground floor being designed for business offices and living rooms. The fireplaces were wide and deep, and the windows were unusually large, though composed of many small panes. There was even

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 19 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 19 some attempt at decoration, the gables being adorned with ornamental, fan-shaped carvings, and the front, or western side, had a cornice of black walnut peculiarly carved by hand. The frame building was to that new country what the earliest in modern sky-scrapers have been to our large cities, and some years afterward, when it was used as a bank, it became famous throughout central Michigan under the name of the Shiawassee Exchange. In later years it was a well known tavern and finally it became a private dwelling, which it last year of their residence they carried on the business as independent traders, having given ulip the agency for the American Fur Company in 1836. For various reasons the Indians were by that time losing their importance as customers. White settlers began to arrive in rapidly increasing numbers. Among them were many persons who did not scruple to sell the red men whiskey, then easily purchased at the distilleries for twenty-five cents per gallon, and this soon told powerfully on them. In 1834 Asiatic cholera spread SHIAWASSEE EXCHANGE remained to the end of its eventful existence. In 1895 it was torn down and replaced by a modern farm house. In connection with this first frame house in Shiawassee county was the first frame barn, also built in 1835. Henry Leach was the builder, and the lumber of which it was constructed was all drawn from Oakland county on wagons. These buildings, which were much more pretentious than those that made up the average frontier trading post, were occupied by the Williams brothers until 1837. During the over all Michigan and attacked the Indians along the Shiawassee and other rivers, producing convulsions and death after a few hours. Three years later smallpox broke out among them and by the ravages of this pestilence they were so greatly reduced in numbers and so scattered and demoralized that their trade was no longer of any value. The Williams brothers, considering it the part of wisdom to abandon their trading station, removed to Owosso. In that year, 1837, trading with the Indians practically came to an end, al

20 PAST AND PRESENT OF though the Knaggs post was not closed until two years later. When the Williams post was vacated by the owners it was rented to and later purchased by Andrew Parsons and Lemuel Brown for a hotel. Levi Rowe was the first landlord installed. The next two or three years were eventful ones in the history of the place. Provision for the civil organization of Shiawassee county had been made by an act of the legislature, approved March 13, 1837. The organization was completed by the election of countv officers in the following May, at which time Levi Rowe was elected sheriff. The organizing act had directed that the circuit court should be held in such place as the sheriff of the county should provide. The place selected was the home of the sheriff, the tavern, which was known by that time as the Shiawassee Exchange, in consequence of a bank having been established there under that name. The first term of the court began on December 4, 1837. Hon. Alfred L. Williams and Hon. James Rutan presiding, they having been elected associate judges. At this tine the county consisted of four townships, Shiawassee, Olwosso, Burns, and Vernon. The first recorded session of the board of supervisors, representing these townships, was held at the Exchange, commencing October 2, 1838. The board of county commissioners, which for a time replaced the board of supervisors as the governing body of the county, held a meeting there in September, 1839. Soon after the building was first occupied as a public house a company from Ohio arrived, among whom were Messrs. Morehouse, Bell, Toll, and others, and established a banking enterprise under the title of "The Ex change Bank of Shiawassee." The bankers' quarters were in the frame part of the building, which from that time was known by the name of the bank itself. "Shiawassee Exchange" was painted in several places on the building. On the east side, overlooking the river, it appeared in large letters extending the whole length of the house and these the suns and dews of sixty years never entirely effaced from the weather-beaten boards. The designation was also applied to some extent to the locality as well as the house. The old house on the river bank, with its faded sign indicating past activities, was an object of interest to the succeeding generations of boys and girls who boated and skated beneath its shadow and pondered on the wisdom the pioneers displayed in locating a business house in that secluded spot. The river has a narrow channel there and rather steep banks, and it flows swiftly and silently under overhanging trees. The highway makes a picturesque turn close to the corner of the house and dips gently to the iron bridge, which is almost hidden by the shade of long sweeping branches. It is one of the most beautiful of the many charming scenes along the river. The pioneers chose well and no doubt hoped that other buildings would be-the nucleus of a great city. But destiny in the guise of "improvement companies" willed otherwise. In time the locomotives of the Grand Trunk Western with their "vestibuled limited" and mammoth freight trains roared by within a stone's throw. Like a thundering spirit of progress, they left the old place shrouded in smoke and vibrating in the recurring silence emphasized by their tumultuous passage, but it was a solitary habitation to the end. The

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 21 -I..... great cities are elsewhere, and Bancroft, the nearest station, is a mile away. By an act of the state legislature passed December 30, 1837, three bank commissioners were appointed, who were to begin their official duties on the 10th of January, 1838, the owners of the Exchange Bank of Shiawassee having meanwhile based their business transactions upon specie certificates then in use by them to the amount of twenty-seven thousand dollars. In a descriptive account of the Exchange building written by Lucius E. Gould, is found the following reference to! these certificates: "Before us as we write is one of the fivedollar bills that was issued from the Shiawassee Exchange Bank on the 4th of February, 1838. It is printed in the form of a promissory note payable on demand to S. M. Green or bearer, and is signed by A. M. Clark, cashier, and A. Morehouse as president. S. M. Green was the Sanford M. Green who was not only Owosso's first public-school teacher, but one of Michigan's greatest jurists. This bill of old 'wild-cat' money was never carried from the vicinity of where the Exchange building once stood until it was presented to us in October last, by Mr. James Lyman, of Antrim. "In the days when this bill was issued the banks under the law were obliged to keep a reserve fund of five thousand dollars in specie on hand. When the bank commissioner came around to Shiawassee he was invariably entertained by the citizens, with a supper and a ball, which were given in the Shiawassee Exchange building, but not until the money was counted and certified to as the correct amount required by the law. It was then the commissioner was escorted to supper and ball room where, if possible, he was detained until it was quite morning, and while the dance was on and pleasure at its greatest height, the gold or silver money which had been officially counted, was placed in a stout saddlebag and given to a trusty lad who mounted a swift horse and rode away to Flint, where the next bank the commissioner was to visit was located. Of course, when the commissioner arrived at Flint and counted the required specie there, he found it exactly correct. But it was the very same money he had been counting for the last three days, first -at Ypsilanti, then at Howell, then at Shiawassee Exchange, and so on." But there came a day when the commissioner appeared at the bank unannounced and unexpected, after the manner of present day bank inspectors. In the consequent examination of the bank's reserve a small amount of paper and seven coppers were discovered, against which were bills in circulation to the amount of twenty-two thousand, two hundred sixty-one dollars, thirty per cent. of the capital stock having been required by law. Upon the discovery of this fact the Exchange Bank shared the fate of similar wildcat enterprises of the day, and ceased to exist. About 1839 the Exchange farm was bought by Sidney Seymour, who had come to the county from New York in 1836. For some years the place was still known as a wayside inn and ball room, which occupied nearly the whole of the second floor, was the scene of many a winter night's gaiety. It was subsequently owned successively by Joseph, Grace, George Roys and Porter Rogers. Sometime in the '6os it was purchased by Rochus Elsesser, in whose possession it remained until his death about five years ago, and the ownership is still retained by his heir. In 1895 Mr. Elses

22 PAST AND PRESENT OF 22 PAST AND PRESENT OF ser decided to replace the "Old Exchange" as it then had come to be called, with a modern residence. As he wished the new house to stand nearly on the site of the old one, the ancient building was torn down, the plan followed being to saw the entire structure through the middle and leave one half standing and occupied while the new house was building. The second half stood until the spring of 1896, when it too was demolished. Mr. Henry Goodrich, of Bancroft, was the builder of the new house; he also took the old one apart and in the process discovered many interesting things about its construction. The frame was fifty-six feet in length and twentyfour feet wide. It was made principally of oak of a superior quality; the posts, sills, and plates were of hewed timber, but the joists, studding, and rafters had all been sawed by hand, with a whipsaw. Every part of the wood except that used in the sills, which had come in contact with the ground, was found in a perfect state of preservation. The flooring of the second story was of pine boards one inch and a half in thickness, planed and matched by hand; and the wainscotting was also of pine boards, perfectly "clear" and twenty-six inches wide. Every moulding used had been made by hand and the workmanship was of a quality to excite a builder's admiration. The several fireplaces were massive ones of stone, with smooth stone hearths and the chimneys were correspondingly large. The feature which attracted most attention was the walnut cornice mentioned before. It was made from a single piece of black walnut extending the length of the building, and was a combination of cornice and eavestrough. Its dimensions were: Width, sixteen inches; thickness, six inches; length, fifty-six feet, and it consisted of the plancher, the facia, the moulding, and a generous extension which formed the eavestrough, this being squared on the lower surface, the hollow in the upper side being as perfect as if made by machinery. Every inch of this remarkable cornice had been made by hand and the carving and finish were undeniably the work of an artist. There was no piecing in any portion of it; the whole had been carved from a solid block of wood and nowhere in it was the heart of the tree visible. It is a feast for the imagination to think of that walnut tree; of its excellent height which furnished that block of wood fifty-six feet long; of the girth which gave out of one side the sixteen by six inches; of its beautiful straightness of grain; and of the long, long years in which its roots were nourished by the soil of Shiawassee; the years in which its branches reached farther and farther towards the blue arch above them; the summers when its leaves drank dew and rain and sunshine, and the winters when they lay about its foot, returning to the soil the richness it had given. It is a pity that the name of the man who executed that ingenious bit of carpentry has been lost, with a multitude of interesting items of the county's early history, which, if preserved, would have been valued by later generations. It would be gratifying to give the skillful hand the praise it merited; and, moreover, exact information upon which to rely for accuracy is highly desirable in narrating even the minor events of life. So we have taken pleasure in recording the now apparently unimportant fact that Mr. Goodrich is the person who built the new "Exchange," and that

SHIIAWASSEE COUNTY 23 SE it is to his courtesy we are indebted for the facts given in describing the old one. These statements are made for the benefit of some unborn historian who, fifty years from now, may wish to satisfy himself that the famous eavestrough was not a figment of our fancy. In the further interest of that future chronicler it may be mentioned that Colonel George A. Parker, of Bancroft, was at some pains to secure for preservation a portion of the cornice; that he had a cane made from a piece of the historic walnut, and at a meeting of the Pioneer Society of Shiawassee County presented the cane to Mr. Lucius E. Gould, whose family are doubtless in possession of it at the present time. The remaining portions of the wood he treasured and exhibited to his friends as the last existing relics of the pioneer frame house of the county. They were once temporarily in his office at Bancroft while he had as a guest a young nephew from the east. Coming into the office on a chilly afternoon, the Colonel found his guest sitting before the wood stove in which a fire was briskly burning, and was cheerily greeted with the information that the fire had been kindled expressly for his comfort out of "those pieces of old black wood which had been littering up the room." Colonel Parker was inconsolable over his loss, and it is presumed that the fire proved sufficiently warming to satisfy the young man's solicitude when he learned that the fuel he had used was the almost sacred relic of a bygone age. LATER INDIAN HISTORY During the years in which the Williams brothers conducted the fur business they formed a wide acquaintance with their customers, who were the Indians of most of the different bands inhabitating central Michigan. They learned to speak fluently the Chippewa language, and it was through the knowledge they thus gained of the character of the Indians and the conditions under which they lived that most of the history of the Shiawassee bands has been preserved. When the trading post at the Exchange was opened in 1831 the Indian villages or settlements on the Shiawassee river were the same three which Bolieu had found there in 1816. They were Kechewondaugoning on the reservation of the same name; Shig-e-mask-ing, "soft maple place" and Che-as-sin-ning, or "Big Rock." Only the first two were within the boundaries of Shiawasee county, the village on the reservation being the summer home home of Wasso, the principal chief of the Shiawassee bands. The third was at the site of the present village of Chesaning, in Saginaw county, and was much the largest of the three villages. A small settlement on the south branch of the Shiawassee, in what is now the township of Cohoctah, in Livingston county, was abandoned by the Indians about 1830, after the death of its chief, Nabobish. This village had formerly borne the name of the chief, but was known later as Assineboining (meaning "rocky place.") The treaty of 1819 had stipulated that a reservation of two thousand acres be located at this place, but it was merged in the forty-thousand-acre tract near Saginaw. "The reason why the Nabobish reser

24 PAST AND PRESENT OF 24 PAT AN PRESNT O vation was never surveyed and set apart for the use of the Indians is not known, but the fact that it was never done caused great dissatisfaction among them; and during all the years of their stay in this region they never ceased to refer to it in bitter terms as an act of bad faith on the part of the government." "On the Looking Glass river in what is now the township of Antrim, there had been an Indian village of considerable size, but this had been abandoned prior to 1831. On the south bank of the stream which the early French traders called La Riviere du Plain, but which the English-speaking settlers named Maple river, was the village of the chief Makitoquet. This village remained and prospered -as much as any Indian village can ever be said to prosper-for a considerable time after the coming of the first white settlers. There were also villages of Makitoquet's people farther down the river, in the present county of Clinton; they were, however, more like camps than permanent villages, but were always fully occupied during the sugaring season." Away to the eastward, nearly on the boundary between Genesee and Oakland counties, the Fisher tribe of Saginaws had a village called Kopenicorning. Descendants of this band were still living in Genesee county a few years ago and it is probable that they may be found there now on farms which were in the individual reservations, as none of these was surrendered to the government when the tribal reservations were bought in 1837. Some of the Fishers must have removed to the villages in Shiawassee county about the time the first white settlers arrived, for the earlier settlers invariably referred to the Indians whom they knew here in the '30s as members of the Fisher tribe. A few miles south of the southern boundary of Shiawasee county, in the county of Ingham, were settlements of the people known as the Red Cedar Indians, though they belonged to the Shiawassee bands of the Saginaws. Their principal chief was the veteran Okemos. The various bands all belonged to the Chippewa tribe, there being only a few stray Ottawas among them. Speaking of these Indians, in an interview given about twenty-five years ago, Mr. B. O. Williams said: "We found them scattered over this vast primitive forest, each band known by its locality or chief. They subsisted principally by hunting, though all had summer residences where they raised mindor-min (corn), potatoes, turnips, beans, and sometimes squashes, pumpkins, and melons." Such agriculture as the Indians engaged in was carried on in a careless, slovenly and superficial way. Of course they were ignorant of the use of plows, and the few implements which they had were of the rudest and most primitive kind. At or near all their villages on the Maple, the Looking Glass, and the Shiawassee there were corn fields which they planted year after year with the same crops. Fields of considerable extent were situated midway between Vernon and Shiawasseetown. From lack of care and the planting of the same fields for many years in succession, these had become overgrown with grass, weeds and sumach bushes, so that the crops obtained were very meagre, and but for the almost boundless stores of food furnished by the streams and' forests, the people must have been constantly in a state bordering on famine. At Kechewondaugoning there was a small Indian orchard of stunted and uncared for apple trees, and similar ones were found at several places

SHIA FVASSEE CO UNTY 25 S in the county. The Indians had plenty of poor and scrawny ponies, but these lived wholly without care and were never made use of except for riding. It was their custom during the autumn to move from the vicinity of their fields, proceeding up towards the heads of the streams, making halts at intervals of six or eight miles, and camping for a considerable time at each halting place for purposes of hunting and fishing. Upon the approach of winter they floated back in their canoes, which they carried around rapids and other obstructions, and betook themselves to their winter quarters, in comparatively sheltered places within the denser forests. From there the young men went out to the winter hunting and trapping grounds, through which they roamed till the approach of spring, when all, men, women and children, engaged in sugar-making until the sap ceased to flow. The manufacture of maple sugar was one of their principal industries, if the term industry can properly be applied to anything existing in an Indian community of that time. They produced large quantities of this article, and of a remarkably good quality, considering the rude manner in which it was made, with the use of only wooden troughs for catching the sap and even huge troughs made out of logs for boiling the syrup, which was accomplished by heating stones and throwing them into the liquid. After iron kettles were brought into the country the Indians made use of them for the boiling, but the small troughs were used even by the white people for some time after they began to make sugar. These were made of sections of basswood or pine log sawed into pieces about two feet in length, each section being split in two lengthwise. The rounding side of each half was hewed off slightly to form a level bottom and in the straight side a hollow or basin was chopped out in which to catch the sap. These were set at the foot of a tree and served the purpose of the tin buckets now in vogue. Elderly people sometimes fondly insist that the sugar made with those rough utensils had a flavor superior to that of the refined article now produced from the few maple groves left standing in the county. Perhaps the bassvwood troughs had something to do with the flavor and possibly the keen appetites of youth have prejudiced their memories. The Indians' resources were, of course, almost unlimited, for noble groves of maple abounded everywhere. Having completed the manufacture of the year's product they packed it in "mokoks" which were vessels or packages neatly made of birch-bark, and buried it in the ground, where it was kept in good condition for future use or sale. After this process was finished they again moved to their cornfields: then, after planting and harvesting, they fished and hunted up to the headwaters of the streams, again returning to their forest camps or villages to pass the winter as before. Once a year, soon after sugar-making, nearlv all the Indians of the interior repaired to Kepayshowink (the great camping ground) which was where the west side of the city of Saginaw now stands. They went there for the purpose of engaging in grand jubilee of one or two weeks' duration, of which the principal features were dances, games, and feats of strength. As they were usually able to obtain liquor there, these gatherings often brought about quarrels and deadly fighting. "If an injury had been done to one party or another, it was generally settled here, either with property, such as arms, ponies or blankets, or by

26 PAST AND PRESENT OF 26 PAST AND PRESENT OF: X - - the price of life. If the injury had been one of an exceedingly aggravated nature a life was demanded and stoically and unflinchingly yielded up by the doomed party." Many an inveterate Indian feud reached a bloody termination on the great camping ground at Saginaw. "The Chippewas, like all other Indians, were extremely superstitious; indeed, they appeared to be more marked in their peculiarity than were most of the other tribes," says Mr. Franklin Ellis. From his history has been gathered the following interesting comments on this characteristic weakness of the Chippewas. It has already been mentioned that the ancestors of the later Saginaw Chippewas imagined that the country which they had wrested from the conquered Sauks was haunted by the spirits of those whom they had slain, and that it was only after the lapse of years that their terrors became allayed sufficiently to permit them to occupy the "haunted hunting grounds." But the superstition still remained, and, in fact, it was never entirely dispelled. Long after the valleys of the Saginaw, the Shiawassee, and the Maple became studded with white settlements, the simple Indians still believed that mysterious Sauks were lingering in the forests and along the margins of their streams for purposes of vengeance; that "munesous," or bad spirits, in the form of Sauk warriors were hovering around their villages and camps, and hanging on the flanks of their hunting parties, preventing them from being successful in the chase and bringing ill fortune and discomfiture in a hundred ways. So great was their dread that when, as was frequently the case, they became possessed of the idea that the munesous were in their immediate vicinity they would fly as if for their lives, abandoning everything, wigwams, fish, game and peltry, -and no amount of ridicule from the whites could convince them of their folly or induce them to stay and face the imaginary danger. "Sometimes, during sugar-making," said Mr. Truman B. Fox, of Saginaw, "they would be seized with a sudden panic and, leaving everything-their kettles of sap boiling, their mokoks of sugar standing in their camps, and their ponies tethered in the woods,-and flee helter skelter to their canoes, as though pursued by the Evil One. In answer to the question asked in regard to the cause of their panic, the invariable answer was a shake of the head, and a mournful 'an-do-gwane' (don't know.)" Some of the northern Indian bands whose country joined that of the Saginaw-Chippewas, played upon their weak superstition, and derived profit from it by lurking around their villages or camps, frightening them into flight, and then appropriating the property which they had abandoned. A few shreds of wool from their blankets left sticking on thorns or dead brushwood, hideous figures drawn with coal upon the trunks of trees, or marked on the ground in the vicinity of their lodges, were sure to produce this result, by indicating the presence of the dreaded munesous. Often the Indians would become impressed with the idea that these bad spirits had bewitched their firearms, so that they could kill no game. "I have had them come to me," said Mr. Ephriam S. Williams, of Flint, "from places miles distant, bringing their rifles to me, asking me to examine and resight them, declaring that the sights had been removed, and in most cases they had, but it' was by themselves in their fright. I have often resighted and tried them until they would shoot correctly, and then they would go away cheerfully. I would tell

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 27 SHIA WASSEE CUNTY 27 them they must keep them where the munesous could not find them. At other times, having a little bad luck in trapping or hunting, they became excited and would say that game had been over and in their traps and that they could not catch anything. I have known them to go so far as to insist that a beaver or an otter had been in their traps and got out, that their traps were bewitched or spellbound, and their rifles charmed by the munesous, so that they coul'd not catch or kill anything. Then they must give a great feast and have the medicine man or conjurer, and through his wise and dark performances the charm is removed and all is well, and traps and rifles do their duty again. These things have been handed down for generations." A very singular superstitious rite was performed annually by the Shiawassee Indians at a place called Pindatongoing (meaning the place where the spirit of sound or echo lives), about two miles above Newburg, on the Shiawassee river, where the stream was deep and eddying. The ceremony at this place was witnessed in 1831 by Mr. B. O. Williams, who thus described it: "Some of the old Indians every year, in fall or summer, offered up a sacrifice to the spirit of the river of that place. They dressed a puppy or dog in a fanastic manner by decorating it with various colored ribbons, scarlet cloth, beads, or wampum tied around it; also a piece of tobacco and vermilion paint around its neck (their own faces blackened). After burning, by the riverside, meat, corn, tobacco, and sometimes whiskey offerings, they would, with many muttered adjurations and addresses to, the spirit, and waving of hands, holding the pup, cast him into the river, and then appear to listen and watch, in a mournful attitude, its struggles as it was borne by the current down into a deep hole in the river at that place, the bottom of which at that time could not be discovered without very careful inspection. I could never learn the origin of the legend they then had, that the spirit had dived down into the earth through that deep hole, but they believed that by a propitiatory yearly offering their luck in hunting and fishing on the river would be bettered and their health preserved." Of the general character of the Indians of this region and their melancholy fate, Mr. Williams said: "They were hospitable, honest and friendly, although always reserved until well acquainted; never obtrusive unless under the influence of their most deadly enemy, intoxicating drink. None of these spoke a word of English, and they evinced no desire to learn it. * * * I believe they were as virtuous and guileless a people as I have ever lived among, previous to their great destruction in 1834 by the cholera, and again their almost extermination during the summer of 1837 by the (to them) most dreaded disease, smallpox, which was brought to Chesaning from Saginaw. They fully believed that one of the Saginaw Indians had been purposely inoculated by a doctor there, the belief arising from the fact that an Indian had been vaccinated by the doctor, probably after his exposure to the disease, and the man died of smallpox. The Indians always dreaded vaccination from fear and suspicion of the operation. * * * When the smallpox broke out in 1837 they fled to the woods by families, but not until some one of the family broke out with the disease and died. Thus whole villages and bands were decimated, and during the summer and fall many were left without burial at the camps in the woods, and were devoured by

28 PAST AND PRESENT OF 28~~~~~ PATAN.RSETO wolves. I visited the village of Che-as-sinning and saw in the summer camps several bodies partially covered up, and not a living soul could I find except one old squaw, who was convalescent. "Most of the adults attacked, died, but it is a remarkable fact that no white person ever took the disease from them, although in many instances the poor, emaciated creatures visited, white families while covered with pustules. It is a singular fact also that although the disease was so exceedingly fatal to the Indians on the Shiawassee, and, in less degree to those in the valley of the Looking Glass, it was not communicated to the Maple river Indians at all, and they remained wholly unharmed by it. Thus passed away those once proud owners of the land, leaving a sickly, depressed, and, eventually, a begging, debased remnant of a race that a few years before scorned a mean act and among whom a theft was scarcely ever known. I do not think I possess any morbid sentimentality 'for Indians. I simply wish to represent them as we found them. What they are now is easily seen by the few wretched specimens around us." The brothers A. L. and B. O. Williams were men of unusual ability, intellect, and high character, and exerted a marked influence on the early history of Shiawassee county. After their removal from the trading station their interests were principally identified with the growing city of Owosso, where they made their homes during most of the remainder of their 'lives. They were a connecting link between the transient traders and the permanent settlers, and possessed the best qualities of both classes. They were also often the friendly medium through which the settlers and Indians communicated with each other. Know ing the Chippewas' language and understanding their character and customs better than did most of the settlers, they were often called upon to act as mediators when disputes arose between their new white neighbors and their older red ones. While the Shiawassee Indians as late as the '30s could not be classed as warlike, and never showed any real hostility to the settlers, yet it was inevitable that there should be occasional clashes between them, caused by misunderstandings. In the spring of 1836 B. O. Williams, with his elder brother, Gardner D. Williams, of Saginaw, went to the city of Washington, in charge of a party of thirteen Saginaw-Chippewa chiefs, for the purpose of concluding a treaty by which the Indians should sell to the United States the tribal reservations granted them by the treaty of Saginaw in 1819. This negotiation was ultimately successful. The deputation remained about three weeks in Washington, and the whole journey consumed about two months, the means of traveling at that time being by stage and canal. Mr. B. 0. Williams unquestionably knew -more of the Indian history in this region than any of his contemporaries. In the later years of his life he was frequently interviewed by persons interested in the subject. Many of the interviews were published or otherwise recorded and it is mainly through information gathered in this way that an authentic account of the Indians has been preserved. Among the many interesting conversations between Mr. Williams and various recorders of history no others have been so widely quoted as those relating to Okemos, the famous chief of the Red Cedar band of Indians. No history of Shiawassee, Ingham, or Clinton county ever published has omitted the story of the life of

SHI AWASSEE COUNT Y 29 this old chief, for he wvas born in the first, Okemos was born at or near the Grand spent most of his life in the second, where a Saline, on the Shiawassee river, at a date village is named for him, and died in the third; which is not precisely known, but which has he was buried in still another county, Ionia. been placed by some historians at about 1788. The territory of all these counties was roamed HIe was of Saginaw-Chippewa stock, his people CHIEF JOHN OKEMOS over as a hunting ground by him and his followers. It is probable also that no extensive history of the state of Michigan exists in which Okemos has not at least his page. And nearly all of these accounts are based upon the estimate of his character and story given by Mr. Williams. And thus runs the story: having been of the Shiawassee bands of that tribe. It has been said by some that he was the nephew of the great Pontiac, but there is little reason to believe that such was the case, thought it is not strange that he should, ih the spirit of genuine Indian boastfulness, be more than willing to favor the idea that he sustained

30 PAST AND PRESENT OF 30~~- PATAN RSETO that relation to the redoubtable Ottawa chieftain. How or where the earlier years of Okemos were passed is not known. His first appearance as a warrior was at Sandusky, in the war of 1812, and his participation in that fight was the principal event of all his life. On that occasion eighteen young Chippewa braves who were serving as scouts on the side of the British, and among whom were Okemos and his cousin Manitocorbway, had come in from the river Raisin, and were crouching in ambush not far from the fort at Sandusky, waiting to surprise the American supply wagons or any small detachment that might pass their lurking place. Suddenly there appeared a body of twenty American cavalrymen approaching them directly in front. The red warriors promptly made their plan, which was to wait until they could count the buttons on the coats of the troopers, then to deliver their fire and close on them with the tomahawk, fully expecting that in the disorder produced by their volley they would be able to kill most of them and take many scalps. But they had reckoned without their host. When the flash of their guns disclosed their place of concealment the cavalrymen instantly charged through the cover upon them, sabre in hand. Almost at the same instant a bugle blast echoed through the woods and a few moments later a much larger body of horsemen, warned of the presence of an enemy by the firing, came at a gallop to the help of their friends. The Indians, entirely surrounded, were cut down to a man, and gashed and pierced by sabre-thrusts, were all left on the field for dead. Most of them were so, but life was not quite extinct in Okemos and Manitocorbway, though both' were wholly insensible and re mained so for many hours. At last Okemos returned to consciousness and found that his cousin was also living and conscious. Together these two managed to crawl to a small stream near by, where they refreshed themselves by drinking and washing off the clotted blood. Then, crawling, rolling, dragging themselves painfully and slowly along the ground, they at last reached the river, found a canoe, succeeded in getting into it, pushed off into the stream and relapsed into a state of insensibility, in which condition they were not long afterward discovered and rescued by Indians of their own or a friendly band. When at last they again returned to consciousness they were surprised at finding themselves in charge of squaws who were faithfully and tenderly nursing them. Finally both recovered, but Okemos never regained his former vigor and Manitocorbway was little better than a cripple during the remainder of his life. Each had been gashed with a dozen wounds, the skulls of both had been cloven, and they carried the broad, deep marks of the sabre-cuts to their graves. Okemos was but a common warrior in the fight at Sandusky, but for the high qualities and endurance which he showed at that time he was made a chief, and became the leader of the Red Cedar band of Shiawassee Chippewas. After the close of the war he made a permanent settlement with his band on the banks of the Cedar river, in Ingham county, a few miles east of Lansing. The villages of the band were all located in the vicinity of the present railroad station of Okemos, and there they remained until finally broken up and scattered. About 1814, Okemos obtained, through the intercession of Colonel Godfrey, a pardon from the government for the part which he

SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 31 SHIA WASSEE CUNTY 31 had taken in favor of the British, and he never again fought against the Americans. The same was the case with his kinsman, Manitocorbway. The name Okemos, or Ogemaw, meant, in the Chippewa language, "Little Chief," and Che-ogemaw, "Big Chief." After the breaking up of his band on the Cedar, Okemos had never any permanent place of residence. He died on the 4th of December, 1858, at his camp on the Looking Glass river, in Clinton county, above the village of DeWitt. His remains, dressed in the blanket coat and Indian leggins which he had worn in life, were laid in a rough board coffin, in which were also placed his pipe-hatchet, buckhorn-handled knife, tobacco, and some provisions; and thus equipped for the journey to the happy hunting grounds, he was carried to the old village of Peshimnecon, in lonia county, and there interred in an ancient Indian burial ground near the banks of the Grand river. The age of Okemos is not known, some writers have made the assertion that he was a centenarian at the time of his death, while others have reduced the figure to between eighty and eighty-five years. In one account of him his birth is placed in the year 1788, as before mentioned. This would make Okemos about twenty-five years old at the time of the Sandusky fight, and it is almost certain that his age could not have been more than that, since both he and Manitocorbway told Mr. Williams that it was the first fight in which they had ever been engaged and that both of them were at that time young and inexperienced warriors. This, with the fact that until the end of his life Okemos was little in body and elastic in step, showing none of the signs of extreme old age, renders it probable that the year mentioned was nearly the correct date of his birth, which would give him the age of seventy years at the time of his death. Through all his life, Okemos was addicted to the liberal use of ardent spirits, and in his later years (notably from the time when his band became broken up and himself little more than a wanderer) this habit grew stronger upon him, yet he never forgot his dignity. He was always exceedingly proud of his chiefship and of his (real or pretended) relationship to the great Pontiac, and he was always boastful of his exploits. But he sometimes found himself in a position where neither his rank nor his vaunted prowess could shield him from deserved punishment. Upon one such occasion in the year 1832, he appeared at the Williams trading post on the Shiawassee, and, backed by twelve or fifteen braves of his band, demanded whiskey. B. 0. Williams, who was then present and in charge, replied that he had no liquor. "I have money and will pay," said Okemos, "you had plenty of whiskey yesterday, and I will have it. You refuse because you are afraid to sell it to me!" "It is true," said the proprietor "that I had whiskey yesterday, but I have not now, and if I had, you should not have it. And if you think I am afraid, look right in my eye and see if you can discover fear there." The chief became enraged and ordered his men to enter the trading house and roll out a barrel of whiskey, saying that he himself would knock in the head. "Go in if you wish to," said Mr. Williams carelessly, "my door is always open." But the braves were discreet and did not move in obedience to their chief's order. Then Okemos grew doubly furious, but in an instant Mr. Williams sprang upon him, seized him by the throat and face with so powerful a grip that the blood spurted; he

32 PAST AND PRESENT OF snatched the chief's knife from his belt and ordered him to hand over his tomahawk, which he did without unnecessary delay. He was then ordered to leave the place instantly and never, as he valued his safety, to be seen at the trading house again. Disarmed, cowed and completely humbled, he obeyed at once, and moved rapidly away followed by his braves, who had stood passively by without attempting to interfere in his behalf during the scene above described. Some time afterward Mr. Williams visited the settlements of the Red Cedars for purposes of trade, and made his headquarters at the village of Manitocorbway, whom he held in high esteem as an honest, peaceable and straightforward Indian. While there a messenger came to him from Okemos-whose village was not far off-requesting him to come and trade with him. He had not intended to go to Okemos's village, and was not disposed to do so even upon this invitation; but at the earnest solicitation of his friend Manitocorbway he finally went, and was received by Okemos with marked deference and respect. The chief had previously dealt at Baptiste's trading post, on the Grand river, but from this time all his trade was taken to the Williams station, on the Shiawassee. This incident illustrates that Indian trait of character which invariably led them to give their warmest friendship and admiration to those who had boldly defied and chastised them, instead of allowing themselves to be browbeaten by their threats and insolence. It has been stated that in his latter years Okemos degenerated into a vagabond, a common drunkard, and a beggar, but this is wholly incorrect. He was certainly fond of liquor and occasionally became intoxicated, but never grossly or helplessly so, nor was it a common practice with him. Neither was he a beggar: for, though small presents were often bestowed upon him, it was never done on account of solicitation on his part. That he was regarded with a considerable degree of respect is shown by the fact that he was not infrequently entertained as,a guest at the houses of people who had known him in his more prosperous days. This was done by. citizens of Lansing, Corunna, and Owosso; among the latter being the brothers A. L. and B. 0. Williams, the two, earliest white acquaintances of the chief in all this region. From another account, in which the writer grows wildly enthusiastic over the prowess of the old chief, we glean some facts concerning his character and personal appearance. "Okemos was a little man,-in his prime, before age and wounds had doubled him up, scarcely over five feet in height. He had little apparent dignity except when he had occasion to throw himself upon it to check undue familiarity or to impress obedience or subordination and then his 'austere regard of control' * * was imperative, fierce, 'and effectual. But the natural mood of the chief was quiet and his temperament decidedly social. For an Indian he might be called talkative. * * * No better type could be imagined of mad insensibility to danger, coupled with coolness and sagacity than existed in this little warrior. From the outset of his life, as soon as his foot was upon the warpath, he became the implacable enemy of Americans. He first drew his scalping knife as a young brave in the frontier campaigns on the eastern shores of Lake Erie. and, as usual with old men, his clearest recollections were of the first campaign. He fought then tiger-like and held rank from his first

SHIAWASSEE CO UNTY 33 SHIA WASSEE CUNTY 33 battle. Okemos * * * was the greatest warrior who ever held sway in Michigan * * a strategist in battle and had real military genius." The writer of the foregoing speaks of himself as one of those who, "on many a long winter's evening and many a sultry summer's afternoon, had listened to Okemos's broken, but impassioned and forcible descriptions of his skirmishes, ambushes, anl attacks," and refers to the "zest in which every circumstance of carnage and ferocity was brought to remembrance." In the same account Okemos is credited with having commanded a war party of Ottawas who with other Indians defeated General Arthur St. Clair on the Miami river in 1791: with having fought in the battle on the Maumee river, August 20, 1794, when the Indians suffered a severe defeat by General Anthony Wayne; with being in the battle of Tippecanoe, November 5, 1811, and also in the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813, when General W. H. Harrison defeated General Proctor and when Tecumseh was killed. Another biographer of Okemos asserts that, while the battle of Sandusky was the only open fight in which he ever engaged, "he would boast often, when in liquor, of how many Americans he had killed and scalped." This writer continues, "He was accustomed to waylay the express-riders and bearers of dispatches between Detroit and Toledo. His custom was to listen and when he heard one coming to step behind a convenient tree, and as he passed, suddenly spring upon him from behind and tomahawk him." These somewhat conflicting accounts may be reconciled by allowing for a difference in the 3 point of view. To some persons the old chief probably appeared a typical Indian of the old school of romance, and to others with less sympathy and imagination, a degenerate, drunken redskin. Mr. William's estimate of his military record is undoubtedly the correct one, since he had a minute account of it from both Okemos and Manitocorbway. His long acquaintance with the two chiefs and his intimate knowledge of the Chippewa language gave him an exceptionally clear understanding of their story. A detailed account of any of the numerous battles in which he is said to have taken part is nearly certain to resolve itself into the story of the fight at Sandusky. They all appear to be different versions of the same tale. Whatever the battle the circumstances were the same. This, perhaps, may be explained by the statement that "for an Indian he might be called talkative," and the remark that "his clearest recollections were of his first campaign." The natural boastfulness of the Indian, the wounded vanity of a fallen chief, living among the people who had conquered him, a sympathetic audience to stimulate his eloquence, and his imperfect command of the English language,-may not these be reasons for exaggerated stories of his achievements on the warpath? And, yet, should a descendant of the people who benefited by his downfall begrudge him the glory that he coveted or a meed of praise for having possessed in his small body a great man's share of courage and endurance, the only virtues that he knew were such? Reflecting upon the apparent injustice which may accompany the displacement of a race established in a land they love, by a conquering and an alien race, we are impelled to the con

34 PAST AND PRESENT OF clusion that in God's great and perfect plan the soil of Michigan was intended to raise crops. Okemos represented a type of the ob structionists, and the white settler was not a usurper, but the instrument by which a purpose was fulfilled. EARLY SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS In the study of American history the first persons presented are explorers, and the procession has continued up to date, for the country which progresses with marvelous strides and yet ever has its frontier of civilization must always have explorers. The men of that ilk who have gone up and down the half of the world we call "new" present a long array of interesting personages,-from Lief Ericsson and the sublime Genoese to the latest searchers after gold and fame who in this year have lost their lives under the mocking mirage of Death Valley. And "there still is the East"-there lies- Luzon. De Leon's fountain in some form will exist for hopeful hearts as long as human beings sigh for what they have not. While the "lost lead" beckons with elusive, phantom hand, the prospector will follow until he goes over the range into oblivion. So long as a new country gives promise of wealth or adventu re, men will seek their fortunes in that land. The "new settler" is ever a picturesque character and his historical value is enhanced only by his becoming the "old settler." The more personal our interest in the land he settled, the nearer our hearts he comes. As the landing of the Pilgrims is to us a more important event than the Norman Conquest, so the name of Michigan's godfather, our own Pere Marquette, is dearer than Lord Baltimore's or William Penn's. We of Shiawassee are so new in the antiquity business that we scarcely realize that we have a history, but more than three score years and ten have passed since the hand of a white man first held a plow in our fair county, and Michigan's records should have no pages more interesting for us to read than the pages written by those fruitful years. American settlers will never again meet the same conditions of hardships as those endured by the men who first struck their axes into the dense masses of Shiawassee's timber. It took the working lifetime of one generation to clear the forest from the beautiful farms about us, and to that generation we would offer homage. The people who came into the dark oak forest, chopped a clearing large enough to build a cabin in, and there laid their best years on the altar of the world's development, were heroes. Not all of them will have a paragraph in the annals of our busy land; historians are too few. They may have not even a Daudet to perpetuate one of them as a "Tartarin of Tarascon." Many have died unsung, if not unhonored, after rendering to their country a service as honorable as that the soldier gives. No iron cross adorned their breasts, no bugle sounded "taps" above their graves, but the immortelles of a grateful people should lie upon their tombs, for the work they did was of great and lasting benefit to Shiawassee county. As has previously been stated, in this work, the brothers, Alfred L. and Benjamin 0. Williams were the first permanent white settlers in

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 3. 2n C. - -e, ff 35 the county. But the first man who entered land in his own name with the intention of tilling the land himself and making his home on it, and who lived, died and was buried on the farm he first located, was Hosea Baker, And as the first furrow in the county was upturned by his plow, he certainly may be called the pioneer farmer. In April of the year 1833 he and his son, Ambrose Baker, threaded their way with an ox team and wagon through the almost impenetrable forest lying northwest of Pontiac to the Shiawassee river. Mr. Baker had sold his farm in a narrow Pennsylvania valley and brought the proceeds to invest in Michigan's wild lands. About two miles north of the Williams trading post he found the spot that he selected for a home. There the Shiawassee flows in a sweeping curve around the eastern edge of a broad, level tract containing perhaps thirty acres. In this bend of the winding river he came upon an unexpected clearing. Before and behind were masses of hardwood timber, but here was an open meadow for which he saw no explanation. It was not, of course, a "clearing" in the woodsman's sense of the term. Apparently no timber ever had grown there. It is thought that the river's course once lay across the flat. A few similar places were found along the river and they were generally called "Indian clearings," although it is doubtful that the Indians had anything to do with clearing them, unless, as is sometimes suggested, they kept the timber burned from these tracts to provide grazing places for their ponies. It is true the Indians had used a portion of the clearing described as a planting ground, but their cultivation had left few marks and the native grass was growing luxuriantly over its entire surface. - A 1 The timbered land to the west rose in a gentle slope. V A more propitious place for a Michigan settler to begin operations in could hardly be imagined. With the help of his son, Mr. Baker built a cabin at the foot of the timbered slope. It was made of basswood logs, the roof having strips of elm bark in place of shingles and split logs furnished the floor. Only a very limited amount of household furniture had been brought in the wagon, as certain tools and implements and an amount of seed for planting had been considered of more importance. A bedstead was constructed of poles placed in holes bored into the logs forming the side of the house, the poles supported at the opposite end by posts, strips of elm bark joined the two poles and served the purpose well. Other articles of furniture were of the same primitive construction. Mr. Baker began plowing as early as possible and soon had crops of corn and potatoes in evidence. In midsummer he walked back through the woods to Detroit, leaving Ambrose to go on with the farm work, and returned to his former home at Wells, Bradford county, Pennsylvania. On his second trip to the west he was accompanied by his wife and three young daughters, and also a married daughter and her husband, Aaron Swain. In Detroit he purchased a second ox team and wagon with which to transport to the interior his family and the household goods they had brought across Lake Erie by packet boat. During part of the tedious journey through the trackless forest their only guide was the trees he had blazed when going out. The day on which they forded the Shiawassee and rested in their cabin home on its western bank, August 4, 1833, the counties of Shiawassee and... - O" 7-. aV 21

36 PAST AND PRESENT OF -- Genesee could boast but three dwellings inhabited by white settlers, exclusive of the several trading posts. Only two or three other families came into the county in 1833. In May of that year John I. Tinkelpaugh, with his family, arrived and built a log house on the west bank of the river, about midway between the Williams trading post and the Baker home. The place is still known as the "Tinkelpaugh place," although the family did not occupy it many years. Mr. and Mrs. Tinkelpaugh afterward removed to Clinton county, where he died in 1879. Sometime in the summer Henry Leach, of Detroit, (probably the builder of the frame barn at the Shiawassee Exchange) entered about one hundred acres a few miles down the river, where he built a cabin and began clearing his land. At the place where his log house stood a large brick house was afterward erected. This has been known for many years as the "Van Akin place." Within the summer Jacob Wilkinson also came to that neighborhood, which is where the village of Vernon now stands. In the previous year Henry S. Smith had attempted the establishment of trading post below Shiawasseetown, but did not make a success of the venture. He was still living there, but was not engaged in clearing land. These settlers, with the Williams brothers at the Exchange, were the only neighbors the Bakers had in the first hard year of pioneer life. Hosea Baker was a fine representative of the class of farmers who first broke the soil in the Lower Peninsula. He was forty-four years of age when he came to Michigan. His experience had fitted him to bear the vicissitudes of a settler's life. Early in life he had possessed a valuable property, and, through the familiar process known as "signing notes with a friend," had lost every dollar that he owned. To satisfy creditors he gave up all that he had, even to his last ax. Then by hard manual labor he got together enough money to buy a new farm in the woods of northern Pennsylvania. There he built a log house for his family and there they lived twelve miles from a settlement. When he was not clearing his land, he worked in the town, frequently walking the distance between, and it was his commQn practice to walk that distance to attend service at a Baptist church, of which denomination he was a devoted member. In a few years he had accumulated an amount sufficient to bring his family to Michigan under the circumstances described and to purchase six hundred acres of land. Of such stuff were Michigan's pioneers made. The land purchased by Mr. Baker lay on both sides of the river, principally in sections 14 and 23 of Shiawassee township. To each of his five children he gave eighty acres, requiring only that they should themselves pay the taxes. On the portion given his youngest daughter the taxes for the first year were only two dollars and fifty cents, which does not appear a burdensome sum, and, yet, in that first year it may have been difficult to realize that amount as a profit on the investment. Without a market for the timber and with no portion of the soil yet available for raising crops, taxes may have been as much a problem then as in this year of grace, 1906. The eighty acres mentioned in connection with the tax is now that part of Mr. Frank M. Whelan's large and splendidly tilled farm where his residence stands. The land Mr. Baker gave to another daughter is now part of "Riverview,"

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 37 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 3I the beautiful farm owned by Charles A. Whelan. The farm given to, Mrs. Swain was "Roselawn," now owned by Mr. N. A. Harder, and there, on October 28, 1833, was born Julia Swain, the first white child born in Shiawassee county. This land along the river is now among the most fertile and picturesque farming land to be found in the state, but the clearing of such land with the facilities then at hand was work calculated to wear out the strongest of those engaged in it. Nine years of such labor brought the end to Hosea Baker, at the early age of fifty-three. He died January 22, 1842, his wife surviving him only two years. After the timber had been cleared from the higher ground lying west of the meadow found in the bend of the river, the Bakers built a substantial and commodious frame dwelling. This was the northermost house in what afterw%-ard grew into the village of Newberg. This portion of the farm was inherited by Ambrose Baker, who made his home there until the winter of 1854-5, when he sold it to John Carruthers, who with his wife and two sons, Cameron and George, came to Michigan from Bath, Steuben County, New York. Of that family, George Carruthers still lives at Newberg. The meadow on which was the first land plowed in the county is now included in the farm of John C. Carruthers; it lies directly northwest of the iron bridge which crosses the river at Newberg. North of the former home of the Bakers is the burial ground called the Newberg cemetery. At its extreme eastern end stands a magnificent specimen of the forest trees, so many of which were unavoidably wasted in the clearing of the land. It is an oak of immense girth and as symmetrical proportions as it seems possible for a tree to attain. This beautiful oak had been spared by Hosea Baker because of his love for nature's masterpieces, and when he gave the ground to be used as a cemetery, it was with the request that he be buried in its shade. Close by the tree stands a moss-grown slab of marble on which is an inscription in memory of "Hosea Baker and his wife Sally." Beneath its spreading branches their children and grandchildren lie sleeping, and near by many of their pioneer neighbors are resting in well earned repose. The settlements made in the county in 1834 were but few, though entries of land and preparations for permanent occupancy were numerous. In 1835, however, the number of actual settlers was considerably increased, and their settlements were extended northward and westward into Caledonia township, and to the Big Rapids of the Shiawassee, now Owosso. Among those who came in and made permanent location in the two years named were Isaac M. Banks, in Shiawassee; John Swain, in Caledonia, Samuel N. Whitcomb, Josiah Pierce and James Rutan, in Vernon; Zachariah R. Webb, in Venice, and Louis Findley, Kilburn Bedell, David Van Wormer. John D. Overton, and Henry S. Smith, at the Rapids. Overton and Van Wormer came as tenants of Judge Elias Comstock, who had purchased land at the Rapids and had made some improvements in 1835, in preparation for permanent settlements there. In the same manner Henry S. Smith, who had made a temporary halt near Shiawasseetown, moved to the new settlement at the Rapids and occupied a log house erected by A. L. and B. 0. Willm"ms. In this year, 1835, the first settlement in the township of Burns was made by Dyer Rath

38 PAST AND PRESENT OF 38 PAST AND PRESENT OF burn, from New York state. Naturally, it would seem that this part of the county should have been the first settled, for not only was it nearest to the older settlements in the counties south and east and traversed by the old thoroughfare from Pontiac to the Grand river, but it also contained the county-site as then established, and the region contiguous to the confluence of the east and south branches of the Shiawassee was one of great natural advantages. The reason why these causes did not induce the first settlers to locate in this township was undoubtedly because the lands in the most favored localities had been secured many years before by Judge Samuel W. Dexter, and were held by him for purposes of speculation. The year 1836 saw the greatest influx of immigrants into Shiawassee, as was also the case in most other counties of the Lower Peninsula. In that year settlements spread through the county with great rapidity, particularly along the line of the Grand River road (or trail) and contiguous country. The list of those who came in that season is too numerous to be given at length, but mention may be made of a few in several of the townships embracing different sections of the county. In Burns township there came along the settlers of that year, Major Francis J. Prevost, Robert Crawford, John Burgess, Wallace Goodin, John P. Barnum, P. L. Smith, and S. S. Derby, several of whom were members of the Byron Company. Passing westward in the townships of the same tier, there were among the settlers of 1836, Allen Beard, Lyman Melvin, Peter Cook, Alanson Alling, and others in Antrim; Josiah Purdy, in Perry; and Josephus and John Woodhull, in the township which was afterward named for them. Peter Laing came in the same year and founded the village of Laingsburg, in what is now the township of Sciota, and Samuel Carpenter, Mason Phelps and Milton Phelps also made settlements in the same township. Bennington received its first settlers in the persons of Samuel Nichols and his brother James, who had entered their lands in the previous year and came to locate permanently in the spring of 1836. In the fall of that year Jordan Holcomb and Aaron Hutchings came to the same township, and Lemuel Castle and several others came there on prospecting tours and made preparation for settlement in the following spring. In 1836 William Newberry, Ephriam Wright, William M. Warren, and many others located in what is now the township of Shiawassee. John Smedley, Noah Bovier. William K. Reed, and Joseph Parmenter were among the immigrants of this year in Vernon; Captain John Davids in Caledonia (on the present site of the city of Corunna); and Judge Comstock at Owosso. Settlements were also made -in Middlebury, on the west border of the county, by Obed Hathway, George W. Slocum, and some others, and in New Haven by Horace Hart and Richard Freeman. The other townships of the northern tier remained unsettled until a later date. The above brief mention of a very few of the pioneers of Shiawassee is made here merely for the purpose of showing the manner in which the settlements spread from the point where they commenced, on the Shiawassee river to other points of the county. More extended and detailed accounts of the early settlements and settlers will be given in the sep arate histories of the several townships.

SHIA FWASSEE COUNTY 39 The rapid immigration of 1836 brought with it a fever of speculation in wild lands. It was not long before hundreds of speculators from the east were swarming here, eager to select and purchase the best tracts of government land, and this, of course, resulted unfavorably for the progress of the county. Numerous projects of "improvement" were conceived and villages were started, which apparently prospered for a time, but some of which afterward decayed and went down as rapidly as they had sprung into existence, and by the close of the year 1837 the prospect of material progress in Shiawassee county began to assume a less roseate hue than it had worn only a short time before. The situation of affairs at that time at some of the principal points in the county was noticed by Bela Hubbard (who made a tour through this section in the fall of 1837, as an assistant to Douglas Houghton in his geological explorations), as follows: "Byron, in the southeast corner of Shiawassee county was the termination of our wagon journey. The name had long occupied a prominent place on all the old maps of Michigan,-at that time a decade was antiquity,and held out to the new-comer the promise of a large and thriving village. The reality was disappointing. It possessed, all told, but a mill and two houses. At Byron we exchanged our wagon for a canoe, and commenced a descent of Shiawassee river. "From Byron to Owosso, about twenty miles direct, but many more by the course of the stream, our way lay mostly through lands more heavily timbered, but varied with openings and occasional plains. Through this part of the country roads had been opened and settlements had made rapid progress. * * * Shiawasseetown at this time contained a dozen log cabins and as many frames unfinished. One of these was of quite a superior construction, and indicative of the era of speculation through which the country had passed. It was three stories in height and designed for a hotel. The wvhole village was under mortgage and was advertised to be sold at public ventdue. "Corutnna, the county-seat, we found to consist of one log house situated on the bank of the river, and occupied by a Mr. Davids, who a year before, and soon after the organization of the county, had made an entry here. A steam mill was in process of erection. About twenty acres of land had been cleared and planted, and never did crystal stream lave a more fertile soil. "Three miles below was 'located' the village of Owosso, already a thriving settlement, containing a dozen log buildings, a frame one and a saw mill. With the exception of a few scattered settlers upon the plain south of the line of the present Detroit & Milwaukee Railway, such constituted the entire white population of Shiawassee county." The Williams brothers, when they made their first visit to the county in 1829 were young men, the older of the two not yet having attained his majority. "We concluded," said Mr. B. 0. Williams, "that when we became of age we would settle in this new and beautiful virgin forest;" and this intention was carried out two years later, while he was still a minor, the Exchange farm being entered in the name of Alfred L. Williams. Establishing their residence thus early, and living to a ripe age, they remained for more than half a century the seniors among the residents of Shiawassee county. Alfred L. Williams died January 5, 1886, and Benjamin 0. Williams March 25, 1887.

40 PAST AND PRESENT OF 40~ ~ PAST AN RSETO CIVIL ORGANIZATION Shiawassee, which is one of the counties in the fourth tier,-counting northward from the southern line of the state,-has for its western boundary the principal meridian. It is bounded on the north by Saginaw, east by Genesee, south by Livingston and Ingham, and on the west by Clinton. It is now one of the smallest counties in the state, for although it contains the same number of townships (sixteen) which are embraced in each one of several other counties, the western range of townships in this has only about two-thirds the usual width, -this being the result of a mistake or miscalculation in the making of the original surveys. The story of Shiawassee county's civil formation and growth begins in the last decade of the eighteenth century, while Michigan was yet only an ill defined section of that great new part of the United States called the Northwest Territory. The first of the counties of Michigan, as also the first which was laid out to contain any part of the territory afterward included in Shiawassee, was the county of Wayne. This county was first proclaimed by the executive of the Northwest Territory, August 18, 1796, to embrace all of lower Michigan and portions of Indiana and Ohio. But although Wayne, as then laid out, contained a considerable number of inhabitants and sent its representatives to the general assembly of the territory at Chillicothe, its white population was nearly all clustered at its county-seat, Detroit, and along or near the waters of its southeastern border, and its jurisdiction extending scarcely a half dozen miles back from the lakes and navigable streams had no exis tence in all the vast wilderness of the interior. The county was again laid out by proclamation of the executive of the Territory of Michigan, Governor Cass, dated November 21, 1815, this time with a greatly reduced area and with more definite limits. It was then made to include all "that part of the Territory of Michigan to which the Indian title has been extinguished," thus embracing within its boundaries all of the present territory of Shiawassee county, except a small portion (about one-sixth of its area) which had not been ceded by the treaty of 1807; this portion was that northwest corner to, which the Indian title was not extinguished until the treaty of Saginaw in 1819. Out of this great county of Wayne other counties were successively carved, the first being Macomb. While Shiawassee was not included within its boundaries, it was, with other territory, attached to the new county for purposes of government. The second county taken from Wayne was Oakland, which was organized, by executive proclamation, March 28, 1820. At that time, and for two years afterward, the lands which now form the south half of Shiawassee county were included as a part of Oakland; about two-thirds of the north half still remained attached to Macomb, the other third being the northwest corner ceded by the Indians in the previous year and not within the limits of any county. Shiawassee was proclaimed a separate county by Governor Cass September 10, 1822, its boundaries embracing, in addition to its present area, the northeast quarter of Ingham

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 41 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 41 county, the north half of Livingston county and eight townships from the western side of the county of Genesee. The subsequent creation of these three counties cut off those portions of the original territory of Shiawassee and reduced it to its present limits. The organization of the county of Genesee was effected about a year prior to that of Shiawassee, and within that year, Shiawassee was attached to the former county "for judicial purposes," it having been attached to Oakland up to that time. It had also been made a part of the township of Grand Blanc, in Genesee county, "for the purposes of township government." This township jurisdiction continued until March 23, 1836, when the Governor approved an act which provided "that the county of Shiawassee be, and the same is, hereby set off and organized into a separate township by the name of Shiawassee." This township continued to embrace all the territory of the county until March 11, 1837, when an act was approved providing that the north half of the county "be organized into a separate township by the name of Owosso." By the same act the townships of Burns and Vernon were set off, embracing respectively the same territory as at present. The remainder of the county formed the township of Shiawassee. These were the township subdivisions existing within the county at the time of its separate organization, and the above account exhibits the changes of jurisdiction through which the territory had passed prior to that time. The organization of the county was effected under authority of an act of the legislature. approved March 13, 1837, which provided "that the county of Shiawassee be, and the same is, hereby organized for county purposes: and the inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges to which, by law, the inhabitants of other counties of this state, organized since the adoption of the constitution, are entitled." Under this' act a special election was held in May, 1837, resulting in the election of Levi Rowe as sheriff, Andrew Parson as county clerk, Josiah Pierce as treasurer, James Rutan and Alfred L. Williams as associate judges. Elias Comstock as judge of probate, and Daniel Gould as county surveyor. Sanford M. Green was made prosecuting attorney, by appointment. By this election the organization of Shiawassee county was made complete. The next subdivision was made by an act approved March 6, 1838, which provided for the organization of the township of Antrim, its territory being the same then as at present: also of the township of Bennington which included, in addition to its own present territory, that of the township of Perry. By act approved April 2, 1838, the township of Woodhull was created, comprising the present towns of Woodhull and Sciota. By the organization of Woodhull the territory of the old township of Shiawassee was diminished to its present size. The first reduction of the area of Owosso township was made by an act approved March 21, 1839, which formed the township of Middlebury, including in its limits the present townships of Middlebury and Fairfield. The same act also took from the territory of Owosso survey-township 7 north, of range 4 east, (which is now Venice), and attached it to the township of Vernon. On the following day, March 22, 1839, the Governor approved an act in which it was provided that township 7 north, of range 3 east, except sections 6, 8, 18,

42 PAST AND PRESENT OF 19 and 30, "be set off and organized into a township by the name of Caledonia; and the first township meeting shall be held at the house of Alexander McArthur, in said township." By an act approved February 16, 1842, the five sections omitted were taken from Owosso and annexed to Caledonia, thus making its limits coextensive with those of the survey-township. The reduction of Bennington township to its present size was effected March 15, 1841, by an act, which provided that township 5 north, of range 2 east, be "set off and organized as a separate township by the name of Perry." New Haven township was organized by an act of March 20, 1848, and took from Owosso two more townships, being composed of the present towns of New Haven and Hazelton. By an act approved February 16, 1842, Woodhull township was reduced to its present size, township 6 north, of range 1 east, being taken from -its original territory. The new township was organized under the name of Sciota. An act of the legislature approved March 9, 1843, provided that township 7 north, of range 4 east, which in 1839 had been taken from Owosso and attached to Vernon, should be "organized as a separate township by the name of Venice, and the first township meeting thereof shall be held at the house of Neely Sawtell." By an act of March 25, 1850, the township of New Haven was divided, the western of the two towns of which it was composed retaining the original name, and the eastern being organized as a separate township by the name of Hazelton. The last township taken from the territory of Owosso was that of Rush, which was or ganized March 28, 1850. By the formation of Rush the area of Owosso was reduced to a single one of the eight townships which it originally embraced. The youngest township in the county is that of Fairfield, which was established with its present territory by action of the board of supervisors on the 4th of January, 1854. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Shortly after the act was approved (March 23, 1836) which provided that the county be organized into a "separate township by the name of Shiawassee," a township meeting was held at the house of Hosea Baker, who was elected supervisor for that year, and represented the board of supervisors of Genesee county, to which this county was attached. At the time of the organization of the county, one year later, the townships entitled to a representation were Shiawassee, Owosso, Burns, and Vernon; also two townships of Clinton county, which was then attached to Shiawassee. No record is preserved of a meeting in the fall of that year, 1837, but the fact -that such meeting was held is proved by the action of the board at the session of October, 1838, when that body rescinded a resolution "passed in October last," in reference to wolf bounties. The first session recorded as held within the limits of the county commenced on Tuesday, October 2, 1838, at the Shiawassee Exchange, where Lemuel Castle was chosen chairman, and Francis J. Prevost clerk pro tem. At the close of that meeting the board adjourned to meet the next day at the hotel at Shiawasseetown, kept by Lucius W. Beach. The supervisors present were Lemuel Castle, of Bennington; Elias Comstock, of Owosso; H. B. Flint, of Antrim; Francis J. Prevost, of

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY' 43 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 43 Burns; Thomas Beal, of Shiawassee; James Rutan, of Vernon; Jonathan Woodhull, of Woodhull; and three supervisors representing townships in Clinton county. The first business was the examination of wolf certificates, and twenty-five of these were audited, covering an amount of three hundred and seventy-five dollars. The townships of Owosso, Burns, and Shiawassee had made requests to the supervisors for money to build bridges. It was decided to levy the tax for the construction of the bridges upon the county instead of the several townships. The amount to each and the location of the bridges are here given: Owosso (at the village), three hundred dollars; Burns (near John Knaggs), two hundred dollars; Shiawassee, fifty dollars. It is interesting to note that the committee on equalization of the assessment rolls reported, and a comparison of their report for 1838 with the report of the Board of Supervisors for 1905 is as follows: 1838 1905- Continued. Perry.................... Rush.................... Sciota................... Shiawassee............. Venice................... Vernon................. Woodhull............... Owosso City............ Corunna City........... Assessment. $1,186,000 800,000 885,000 1,025,000 1,045,000 1,703,000 500,000 4,430,000 649,000 $19,993,000 Total Tax. $ 19,517.46 9,692.83 10,281.06 19,504.95 17,005.38 37,249.69 6,220.08 104,529.88 22,728.30 $371,689.84 Assessment. Total Tax. Owosso.................. $297,681 $1,714 Burns................... 66,643 487 Woodhull................ 81,025 603 Bennington.............. 96,224 603 Vernon.................. 66,856 532 Shiawassee.............. 66,037 926 Antrim.................. 64,095 448 $738,561 $5,310 1905 The board was in session several days, closing on the 6th of October. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS By the provisions of a law passed by the legislature in 1838, the powers and duties of the board of supervisors were transferred to a board of county commissioners, to be composed of three members. The three commissioners elected in November of that year were Lemuel Castle, Ransom W. Holley, and Ephriam H. Utley (of Clinton county). The board met and organized on the 20th of November, 1838, at the hotel of Lucius W. Beach, in Shiawasseetown, which seems practically to have been the first county-seat, though it was never officially recognized as such. The board convened at Corunna in July, and at Shiawassee Exchange in September of the year 1839, the latter meeting being held for the purpose of adjusting accounts between Clinton and Shiawassee counties, the former having been organized March 12, 1839. On the 7th of October, in the same year, the commissioners convened at Corunna, and accepted a block of land three hundred feet square donated by the County Seat Company, designated on the recorded plat of Corunna as the "public square." The business of the county was transacted Antrim................. Bennington.............. Burns................... Caledonia................ Fairfield................ Hazelton................ Middlebury............. New Haven............. Owosso.................. Assessment. $ 718,000 961,000 1,048,000 890,000 561,000 1,039,000 693,000 930,000 930,000 Total Tax. $ 8,118.26 21,270.14 17,503.84 12,067.85 7,981.62 14,147.37 14,821.68 11,1Q3.38 17,896.07

44 PAST AND PRESENT OF 44 PAST AND PRESENT OF by the commissioners until the office was abolished by act of legislature, February 10, 1842. The powers which had been exercised by the commissioners were then resumed by the supervisors of the county. The first meeting of the board of supervisors, under the law of 1842, convened on July 4th of that year at the court house in the village of Corunna, and since that time the government of the county has been under the control of such a board. ESTABLISHMENT OF COURTS CIRCUIT COURT By the act under which Shiawassee county was organized it was provided that "The circuit court of the county of Shiawassee shall be held at the county-seat, if practicable, and if not, at such other place as the sheriff of said county shall provide until county buildings shall be erected. "The county of Shiawassee shall belong to the second judicial circuit and the terms of the circuit court shall commence on the first Monday of June and December of each year." The first term of the circuit court of Shiawassee county, in accordance with the provisions of the above act, convened on the 4th day of December, 1837. There were present the Hon. Alfred L. Williams and the Hon. James Rutan, associate judges. No circuit judge was present. The sheriff was ordered to appoint constables, and he selected Noah Bovier and Mason Phelps. Sanford M. Green was admitted as an attorney and counselor-at-law. There being no prosecuting attorney in the county, the court appointed Mr. Green to act in that capacity for the term. The following are the names of the grand jurors in attendance at that term: Daniel Ball Daniel Gould, Horace Hart, Robert Crawford Thomas P. Green, Elisha Brewster, Stephen Post, Samuel Brown, M. Bradley Martin, Ira B. Howard, Ephriam Wright, Cornelius W. Miller, James Van Aukin, Joseph Parmenter, Josiah Pierce, John Smedley, Samuel W. Harding, and S. N. Whitcomb. Daniel Ball was appointed foreman. The grand jury found one indictment, charging a man with perjury, and they were then discharged. The records show the following entry: "John Knaggs vs. Phillis, his wife. On motion of Sanford M. Green, counsel for said Knaggs, the court ordered that said Knaggs have leave to present a petition for a divorce from Phillis, his said wife, at the next term of the court; and that said Knaggs shall cause a written notice to be served upon his said wife at least thirty days before the said term of the court of his intention to present such petition and -of the hearing thereof." This was the first proceeding in the county to obtain a divorce. The court adjourned on the second day of its session. The next term of the court was held on the 4th day of June, 1838, by Hon. James Rutan, one of the associate judges. The grand jury were impanelled but reported that they had no business before them, and the court at once adjourned, no other business having been transacted. The next term commenced November 25, 1838, and was held by the associate judge, the circuit judge not being present. The first petit jury ever summoned in the county was

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 45 SE present at this term. The grand jury found five bills of indictment, but no further business was transacted. The first term of the court at which a circuit judge was present began on May 7, 1839, when the Hon. Charles W. Whipple, circuit judge, and Hon. James Rutan, associate judge, presided. At this time George W. Wisner and Alfred H. Hanscomb were admitted to the bar, and were for many years thereafter distinguished lawyers at Pontiac. The first trial ever held in this court was at this term. It was a criminal case and the jury did not agree. At the May term, 1840, the first civil case was tried in this court, a verdict being rendered for the plaintiff for seventeen dollars and fifty-five cents damages. Moses Wisner, afterward governor of Michigan, was admitted to the bar at this term. At the term commencing May 3, 1843, Hon. George Morrell, then chief justice of the supreme court, presided. The next circuit judge of the county was Hon. Edward Mundy, who held his first term in August, 1848, and his last term in June, 1850. Judge Mundy was the first lieutenant governor of Michigan under the first state constitution, in 1835 and 1836, and again held the same office from 1837 to 1840. Sanford M. Green was elected circuit judge and held his first term in the county in May, 1852, and continued so to preside until May, 1857, when he was succeeded by Judge Josiah Turner, who was successively re-elected to that position for twenty-five years. Judge Turner was succeeded on the bench by Judges William Newton, Charles H. Wisner, Luke Montague, Stearns F. Smith, and Selden S. Miner, the present incumbent, who was elected in April, 1905, and commenced his first term of court in the county, January 22, 1906. Shiawassee county had not found it necessary for forty years to call a grand jury, but of late years certain irregularities had seemed to creep into the administration of county affairs and the expenses had increased to such an extent that considerable dissatisfaction was felt. The board of supervisors seemed unable or unwilling to cope with the situation, and finally, in response to a practically unanimous demand of the people of the county, Judge Stearns F. Smith granted the petition offered by Prosecuting Attorney Charles M. Hamper, and a grand jury was called to meet Monday, December 4, 1905. Judge Smith, having previously arranged with Judge Howard Wiest, of the Ingham county circuit, to exchange work, the latter occupied the Shiawassee bench during the entire time of the November term of court, while the grand jury was in session. Hon. Gilbert R. Lyon and Hon. Owen Rippey were appointed assistants to the prosecuting attorney and the following named gentlemen constituted the grand jury: Thomas Cooling, foreman, Durand; George T. Campbell, clerk, Owosso city; Frank 0. Bement, Fairfield; Charles Bolt, Shiawassee; Theodore J. Hicks, Bennington; John F. Lee, Sciota; Elihu Mason, OwossoI township; Theodore Mead, New Haven; Myron H. Redmond, Burns; Martin T. Rourke, Owosso city; William Sawer, Jr., Rush; Silas Scribner, Antrim; Silas B. Southworth, Middlebury; Frank A. Thompson, Caledonia; Harry A. Watson, and Arthur C. Young, Corunna city. The jury was in session for seven weeks and gave a careful investigation into the several matters brought before them, with the result that forty-five indictments were issued,

46 PAST AND PRESENT OF 4 PS A PREEN O forty-four for circuit-court misdemeanors, and one being a criminal indictment. The effect of the investigation was to at once greatly reduce the expenses of the offices complained against, resulting in much good to the county. PROBATE COURT The first session of this court of which any record is extant was held, at the village of Owosso, February 13, 1838, Elias Comstock, probate judge, presiding. The first proceedings were "in the matter of the estate of Samuel Carpenter, deceased." On the same day application was made by Isaac Thompson, of Ionia county, for letters of administration on the estate of Daniel Barker, of the county of Clinton. The first will (that of Orrin Perry) was offered for probate June 12, 1838. Letters were issued April 25, 1839, to Ralph Williams as guardian of Violetta Carpenter, a minor, and a daughter of Samuel Carpenter. Lewis Lindley was appointed, April 1, 1839, guardian of Lucinda Phidelia Bedell, a minor, daughter of Kilburn Bedell. The will of Moses Kimball, one of the proprietors of the Shiawassee Company, was presented for probate. It was dated Norwich, Huron county, Ohio, Septem ber 18, 1837, and recorded in the county of Shiawassee in 1838, as part of the property mentioned in the will was in this county. Judge Comstock served as probate judge until 1841, when he was succeeded by Ira B. Howard. The probate judges succeeding Judge Howard have been Amos Gould, elected 1844; Luke H. Parsons, 1848; Robert R. Thompson, 1852; John B. Barnes, 1856; Hugh McCurdy, 1860; Sullivan R. Kelsey, 1864; Amasa A. Harper, 1880; and Matthew Bush, elected 1888, and still incumbent of the office. COUNTY COURT The county courts which had existed in Michigan prior to April, 1833, were abolished by law at that time, but were re-established by an act of the legislature in 1846. Under the law last named the first session of the county court of Shiawassee was held at Corunna on the 5th of April, 1847, Judge Robert R. Thompson presiding. During the continuance of the county court, Judge Thompson presided until the end of the year, when, by a limitation embodied in the constitution of 1850, the county courts ceased to exist and their business was transferred to the circuit court. THE SHIAWASSEE RIVER THE SHIAWASSEE S SONG There's a song that stills my heartache With its wondrous, golden chime, Cures my soul of all its sadness With the magic of its rhyme, Frees my past from every sorrow And defeats the world's sharp stings; 'Tis a mystic, mellow measure That the Shiawassee sings. A song of woodland places, of home and happy faces, A song of clover-bloom and fields of rye; Of hearts the angels keep while they lie in dreamless sleep, Where the Shiawassee sings their lullaby. Shiawassee-winding river, Your sweet song brings back to me

SHIAPVASSEE COUNTy 47 SHI WASE C7N4 Cherished fancies of my childhood, Mingling with its melody. Dreams the years had carried from me On their swift, resistless wings, Are recalled and echo ever In the song your current sings. With the song there comes sweet incense Floating backward on the breeze, Fragrance from the fields where May flowers Gleamed beneath old forest trees, Fields where flame of Indian blossom Rivaled lily's saintly glowOh, a thousand mem'ries mingle With the Shiawassee's flow. A dream of woodland places, of home and happy faces, A dream of days that come no more to me Of summer's golden sheaves, of autumn's crimson leaves Drifting with the Shiawassee to the sea. MARY CARRUTHERS. It is to be regretted that the exact significance of the name Shiawassee has not yet been definitely established. A number of meanings have been ascribed to the word, some without satisfactory authority, and others which are so inapplicable as to preclude acceptance until further testimony is submitted. The latest of these is found in "Shiawassee County Illustrated," a supplement to the Corunna Journal published December 21, 1905. The meaning there given is "rolling, or sparkling waters." In Franklin Ellis's "History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties," there is a brief note by the author (page 144) stating that the word Shiawassee is a Chippewa term for "straight running river." This is somewhat astonishing information to one acquainted with the river whose best known characteristic is its disinclination to run in a direct line. Without applying to an official survey for verification of the statement, it is quite safe to assert that there is not a straight half-mile in the whole length of the stream. This also seems a singular exception to the appropriateness usually expressed in the names bestowed by the Indians upon rivers and localities. A more convincing statement, and one in some degree explanatory of that offered above, is found in Lucius E. Gould's account of Bolieu, the trader's, first journey up the river. It is as follows: "It is now eighty-six years since Henry Bolieu first paddled his birch-bark canoe from the headwaters of the Saginaw into the river that flows through the country of which we now write. Henry had heard of the great salt springs which were to be found in a wonderful country far up the river, and he was on his way to visit them. In his journey up the Saginaw he came to so many rivers both great and small that he was puzzled to decide which was the right stream to follow. * * * To be sure of the matter, he called out to his friends, the Indians, who were not far off in another canoe, "What was-see (running water or river) will best float Sho-moke-mon's canoe to the was-see of the Kechewondaugoning?" And the answer shouted back to him was this: "Shia (straight, or straight ahead) was-see." Shiawassee, or "the river straight ahead," while subtracting something from the supposed poetical quality of the name, is at least coherent and preferable to "straight running river." As words become altered by the circumstances of their use, so the meaning of a name may be changed with the sense in which it is

48 PAST AND PRESENXT OF 48 PAST AND PRESENT OF applied. This may be a reason for the acceptance by many of the inhabitants of the Shiawassee valley, of "winding river," as synonymous with the name of their beloved stream. In support of this may be quoted the introductory paragraphs of a story of pioneer life, which are in the nature of a commentary on the names found in this region. Among all the dainty lakes and streams with which southern Michigan is so richly embellished, there is no lovelier bit of nature's work than the Shiawassee river. From its source among the hills of Livingston to its merging with the larger Saginaw, it is a tangled ribbon of beauty, stretching "sinuous southward and sinuous northward" across the county that shares its name. Always flowing in a curve from the graceful sweep of a mile to its famous "Ox Bow" bend, it ranges far and wide. Here it swings between broad fields of grain, there steals swiftly through the shade of walnut, maple and oak; now rushing noisily over the "riffles" to meet the running redfin, then dropping slowly past the high banks in almost enchanting silence; but everywhere the same delightful stream, and dear to the hearts of thousands of children, as only such a stream can be, with its lily ponds, its swimming holes, its stretches of flags where the muskrat builds in fancied safety his tell-tale house of reeds, and its incurves, where, through loitering driftwood, first lines were dropped for bluegill or bass. It was surely a poet tongue that named this stream "Shiawassee-winding river." In many a legend, grave or gay, the river is connected with the settlement of Shiawassee county. Along its banks, in three score years, villages have had their rise, a few have grown to cities, and some have had their fall. The names they wear are a curious commingling of the classic and the aboriginal, which attests the culture of some of the early inhabitants. Burns, Byron, Venice, Caledonia, and Corunna mix oddly with the sibilant Chippewa names, Owosso, Shiawassee, and Chesaning. The principal waters of the county are the Shiawassee, Maple and Looking Glass rivers, and their tributary streams. The Shiawassee is formed of an eastern and a southern branch, which, taking their rise in the lakes ofj Oakland, Livingston and Genesee counties, join their waters in the southeast corner of Shiawassee, from which point the main stream flows in a general northwesterly and northerly course through nearly the entire length of the county, crosses its northern boundary nearly at the center of it, and thence flows northward through Saginaw county into the Saginaw river. The Shiawassee river in traversing the county, passes the cities of Owosso and Corunna (the villages of Byron and Vernon, and what might be called the deceased villages of Newberg, Shiawassee, and Knaggs Bridge, or Burns, as the postoffice established for a time at that place was called). The Maple river, taking its rise in the central and southern parts of the county, flows thence in a northwesterly direction into Clinton. The sources of the Looking Glass river are in the northwest part of Livingston county and the'extreme southern part of Shiawassee. Its course through this county is first nearly north, and afterward generally west, to the point where it crosses the west boundary line into Clinton county. Neither the Looking Glass nor the Maple become streams of much size or importance until after they pass out of Shiawassee county. The northeast part of the county is watered by the head streams of the Misteauguay river, which flows north

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 49 49 -I.I.. ward into Saginaw county and enters the Flint river five miles above its mouth. In the first half of the present century, before the days of railroad communication, the people of Michigan, like those of other states, were disposed to place an extravagantly high estimate on the importance and value of their rivers for purposes of navigation, and to favor bold and often visionary projects for the improvement of the streams, in the expectation (which was seldom if ever realized) of securing great advantages from the utilization of these waterways. Such projects were conceived and their prosecution commenced with regard to the rivers of Shiawassee county. The state, at the regular session of its second legislature in 1837, adopted an internalimprovement system and appropriated twenty thousand dollars for the survey of canals and railroads, and fifteen thousand dollars to be applied to the construction of a canal to unite the waters of the Saginaw with the Grand or the Maple river, if the board of commissioners should "decide that it is practicable to construct a canal on said route." After an official survey a route was adopted running from the forks of the Bad river westward to the Maple, at its "Big Bend," in Gratiot county. After considerable work had been done and the sum of twenty-two thousand dollars expended on the "Saginaw & Maple River Canal" the project was abandoned. Ten years later the "Saginaw & Grand River Canal Company" was incorporated, with a capital stock of two hundred thousand dollars, and hope was reawakened that the Maple river was at last to become part of a navigable waterway between the two great lakes; but no work was ever done by the company and the enterprise was finallyv abandoned, never again to be re4 I vived. At about the same time a project was started for the construction of a canal along the Looking Glass river between DeWitt and Wacousta, in Clinton county, but the work was never accomplished, or actually commenced. On the Shiawassee a more practical plan was inaugurated and to some extent carried out. An account of this work published in 1880 read as follows: "The improvement of the Shiawassee river, so as to form a slack-water navigation from the Big Rapids of that stream northward to the Saginaw was a project which had been contemplated by the founders of Owosso from the time when the first settlements were made at that place. Between them and the outside world there were no roads practicable for heavy transportation, and the obstacles to the construction of such for a distance of more than fifty miles (to Pontiac) were at that early day regarded as almost insurmountable. It seemed to them, therefore, that their settlement must continue in its isolated condition and that very little improvement as a village could be expected until they could secure communication with Saginaw by making the river boatable. These were the considerations which gave birth to the idea of improving the Shiawassee, and but a short time elapsed -before they moved toward the execution of the plan by procuring the necessary authority from the legislature. "The 'Owosso & Saginaw Navigation Company' was incorporated by act approved March 21, 1837. By this act Daniel Ball, Alfred L. Williams, Benjamin 0. Williams, Lewis Findley, William Gage, Gardner D. Williams, Norman Little, Samuel G. Watson, Ephraim S. Williams, Elias Comstock, Alexander Hilton, and Perry G. Gardner were

50 PAST AND PRESENT OF 50 PAT AN PRESNT O appointed commissioners to receive subscriptions to the capital stock, which was authorized to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. * * The company commenced the work in 1837 and continued it during that and the following season, expending several thousand dollars on the river in removing fallen timber, driftwood, and other obstructions (principally between Chesaning and the mouth of Bad river), erecting dams, and constructing tow-paths above Chesaning. "The river was thus made navigable for flat-bottomed boats or scows, several of which were built with foot-boards at each side, on which men walked forward and aft in 'poling' the craft up the stream. This poling process was employed on that part of the river which is below Chesaning, but above that place horses were used.,At some points the towpath was made on the east. side of the stream and at others on the west for the sake of economy in its construction, the horses being crossed on the boat from one side of the river to the other as occasion required. Larger boats were afterward used for floating produce down the river from Owosso. One 'Durham' boat, built at that place by Ebenezer Gould and others, carried a cargo of two hundred barrels of flour from Owosso to Saginaw. "The company was reincorporated under the same name.by act approved May 15, 1846, Amos Gould, Alfred L. Williams, Benjamin O. Williams, Elias Comstock, Ebenezer C. Kimberly, Lemuel Castle, Isaac Gale, George W. Slocum, George Chapman, Edward L. Ament, Anson B. Chipman, and John B. Barnes being appointed commissioners to receive subscriptions to the stock, which was authorized to the amount of one hundred thou sand dollars. In addition to the powers granted by the incorporating act of 1837, the company was now authorized 'to construct a canal from some point on Bad river as they may hereafter determine upon, and to make such improvements on said Bad river as will render the same navigable.' "After this reincorporation there were some further improvements made on the river by the construction of a lock at Chesaning, the building of several weir dams, and in other ways; but the company never availed itself of the authority conferred to build the canal between the Bad and Shiawassee rivers. Boats continued to be run on the river at favorable stages of water for some years, and in fact this navigation was never wholly abandoned until the opening of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad suspended this unreliable and uisatisfactory means of transportation. It was then entirely discontinued, after having been used to a greater or less extent for some fifteen years, during which time it is doubtful whether its advantages ever compensated for the outlay incurred in the improvement of the 'river." More practical among these early attempts to utilize the waters of the Shiawassee was the establishment of water powers and the erection of dams and saw mills. A number of mills were built in the year 1836,-one at Owosso. one at Shiawasseetown, one at Byron, and one at Newburg, which was the first erected in the county. At nearly every settlement on the river's banks the entire length of the stream, saw mills were built in the next few years, and later, when wheat became one of the staple crops of the country, flour mills, or "grist" mills, as they were more commonly called, were added at nearly every point where rights

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 51 SHIA WASSEE Co UNTY 51 to the water privileges had been granted Some of the latter are still in use, although steam has almost entirely superseded water as a motive power. The saw mills did a thriving business for a little more than half a century, in which time the country's timber supply was practically exhausted. The old water powers, though, still have a value, being made use of to some extent for running electric light and power plants. That at Shiawasseetown has recently undergone extensive repair and improvement for this purpose, and others doubtless will soon be utilized in the same way. The river's fall between the Old Exchange and Owosso is about one hundred feet, as shown in Bulletin No. 160 of the United States Geographical Survey. Owosso's altitude taken at the crossing of the Michigan Central and Ann Arbor tracks at the Junction is seven hundred and fifty-five feet above sea level. The altitude of Bancroft is given as eight hundred and fifty-seven feet; of Corunna, seven hundred and seventy-four; of Vernon, seven hundred and eighty. MILITARY RECORD OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY Shiawassee county has no military history dating farther back than the beginning of the war between the United States and Mexico. At the breaking out of the "Black Hawk" war, about fourteen years before that time, the entire territory of the county was but a wilderness, containing less than ten white inhabitants; and its condition was nearly the same. when, three years later, the quarrel known as the "Toledo" war caused the mustering of a considerable number of troops which were furnished by the older counties of {he state. At the outbreak of the Mexican war, the circumstances were different. The total population of the county had increased to nearly five thousand people, and included about seven hundred men liable to do military duty, but still there were not many who were in a condition which made it possible for them to leave their families and farms to become soldiers. Of these a few volunteered in the Michigan regiment, and some probably in other commands, and served honorably through the war. A part of the names of those who so volunteered have been found, and are given in this chapter. On the 18th of May, 1846, was issued the requisition of the president of the United States, calling upon the several states for troops to serve in the war with Mexico. Under this requisition the "First Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment" was organized and placed under command of Colonel T. B. W. Stockton. Froni the roll of Company C of that regiment, as mustered at the Detroit Barracks, December 22, 1846, are taken the names of those who enlisted in Shiawassee county, as follows: Charles Baker, Timothy W. Brown, Charles Curl, James Culbert, Charles Harpe, J. Jingall, Lewis Lyons, William H. Lovejoy, Andrew H. Letts, Elisha A. Morgan, enlisted at Corunna; William R. Chapman, H. P. Murray, enlisted at Owosso; Daniel Phelps, Nathan M. Smith, Matthias Schermerhorn, Bartley Siegel, Levi Prangley, enlisted at Caledonia; George W. Ormsby, enlisted at Burns.

52 PAST AND PRESENT OF I I The First Michigan Regiment was rendezvoused at Detroit and on the 25th of December left for the seat of war, going by way of Cincinnati and New Orleans, and arriving at Vera Cruz about the middle of January, 1847. It remained encamped outside the walls of Vera Cruz about three weeks, at the end of which time it moved with other forces to the city of Cordova, in the interior. Colonel Stockton was made military governor of the city, and remained there in that capacity until the close of the war. While there the First Michigan was engaged in garrison duty and occasional skirmishes with guerrillas, while acting as guard to supply trains, but did not participate in any general engagement, though it suffered severely from sickness among the men. The regiment was ordered home in May, 1848, and in due time reached Detroit, where it was mustered out of the service, July 18th in that year. The Mexican war, however, was but a trivial matter when compared with that mighty struggle-the war of the Rebellion-which opened about fifteen years later, and it is with the commencement of that great conflict that the real military history of the county begins. When on the 13th of April, 1861, the tremendous news ran through the wires of the telegraph that a United States fort had struck its colors to a band of armed insurgents, and when, two days later, President Lincoln called on the states to furnish a great army of volunteers to preserve the life of the republic, there was no state that responded with more alacrity than Michigan, and there was no county in the "State of the Peninsulas" in which the fires of patriotism flamed up more promptly or burned more brightly than in Shiawassee. Five days after the issuance of the Presi dent's call, and just one week after the day when the rebel flag supplanted the stripes and stars above the brown ramparts of Sumter, an impromptu mass meeting, the largest which had ever convened in Shiawassee county, was held in Owosso, to take measures for sustaining the government in its time of peril. The Hon. Amos Gould was called to the chair, and Judge Josiah Turner, B. 0. Williams, and T. D. Dewey were made vice-presidents of the meeting. Resolutions were presented and adopted by the meeting without a dissenting voice, calling upon every man to ignore and bury all party differences and prejudices, and to devote life, fortune, and sacred honor to the preservation of the Union. This meeting at Owosso was supplemented by others in many of the townships, and at all of these the same patriotic spirit was manifested. Enlistments commenced immediately. Men left the farm, the store, and the workshop to volunteer in their country's service. Many of these, unwilling to wait for the organization of a company in their own county. went to other places to enlist, and before the ist of May a few men had left for Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids, to place their names on the rolls of companies organizing there. By that time, however, recruiting had commenced in Shiawassee, and on the 4th of May the newspapers announced that a company recruited at Corunna and Owosso was already full and had been accepted by the military authorities of the state. From that time, during four years of war, the county of Shiawassee responded well and promptly to the numerous calls for volunteers. The history of the several regiments in which men from this county served in considerable numbers is briefly traced in the succeeding pages.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 53 SECOND MICHIGAN INFANTRY When, at the fall of Fort Sumter, the President called on the loyal states for an army of seventy-five thousand men to sustain the power of the government against a rebellion which had unexpectedly proved formidable, Governor Blair of Michigan responded by issuing his proclamation calling for twenty companies, with field and staff officers, to compose two regiments of infantry. The war department had placed the quota of Michigan at one full regiment, but the Governor very wisely concluded that a second regiment should be made ready for service if it should be needed, as he believed it would be. Four days after the Governor's call, the state's quota was filled and her first regiment ready for muster into the service of the United States, fully equipped with arms, ammunition, and clothing, awaiting only the orders of the war department. On the 13th of May, it left Detroit for Washington, being the first regiment to arrive at the capital from any point west of the Alleghany mountains. The Governor's call for twenty companies had been promptly responded to, and after making up the First Regiment there still remained ten companies which, having failed to secure places in the First, were ready and anxious to be organized as the Second Regiment of Michigan. Men from Shiawassee were in four of the companies, composing this regiment. On the 25th of May the Second was mustered into the United States service for three years by Lieutenant Colonel E. Backus, United States of America. The field officers of the regiment were Israel B. Richardson, colonel; Henry L. Chipman, lieutenant-colonel; Adolphus W. Williams, major. On Thursday, June 6th, the Second Regi ment, one thousand twenty strong, left Detroit on three steamers, arriving at Cleveland the following morning. From there it proceeded by railway to Washington, reaching the capital on the 10th. The regiment made a stay of several weeks in the District of Columbia, but later moved into Virginia and was engaged in the fight at Blackburn's Ford, July 18th, and in the battle of Bull Run, Sunday, July 21st. The regiment remained in Virginia the remainder of that year, going into winter quarters at "Camp Michigan" three miles from Alexandria. In March, 1862, it moved with its brigade and the Army of the Potomac to Fortress Monroe, and thence up the peninsula, to Yorktown and Williamsburg, at which latter place it took active part in the severe engagement of Monday, MIay 5th, sustaining a loss of fifty-five killed and wounded. The next engagements in which the Second fought were the battle of Fair Oaks, May 31. and June 1, 1862, where its loss was fiftyseven killed and wounded; Glendale, June 30th, and Malvern Hill, July 1st. August 15th it was sent with other troops to the assistance of the imperiled army of General Pope in the valley of the Rappahannock. Remaining in that vicinity until March, 1863, the regiment then moved with the Ninth Army Corps, of which it was a part, to Baltimore and thence to Louisville, Kentucky. The corps remained in Kentucky until June, when it was moved to Mississippi to reinforce the army of General Grant, near Vicksburg. After the surrender of Vicksburg, on the 4th of July, the Second took part in several engagements, remaining in Mississippi until August 5th, when the Ninth Corps started on its return to Kentucky. Arriving August 30th, it spent twelve days in camp and then again took the road for Cum

54 PAST AND PRESENT OF 54 PAST AND PRESENT OF berland Gap and Knoxville, Tennessee. From that time the regiment was moving from one point to another until November 8th, when it began the building of winter quarters at Lenoir, Tennessee. The strength of the regiment was then reported at five hundred and three, present and absent. However, it was learned that the enemy, under General Longstreet, was moving up the valley of the Tennesee in heavy force, and the First Division of the Ninth Corps, of which the Second Michigan was a part, was ordered out to meet him, on November 14th. During the three days following, the regiment was occupied with a number of stubbornly fought encounters and with heavy marches through mud and rain. Then it took a position on a hill below Knoxville, at Fort Saunders, where it remained during the siege which followed. In the eighteen days of the siege, the Second lost nearly one-half its men who were actively engaged. During the year 1863 the regiment moved a distance of more than two thousand five hundred miles. In February of 1864 it was moved by slow degrees to Detroit, where the veteran furlough was given to those who had re-enlisted, Mount Clemens being the place of rendezvous. In April it rejoined the Ninth Corps at Annapolis, and diring the rest of that year took part in much of the serious fighting in Virginia, including the battle of the Wilderness, and remained in that vicinity until the end of the war and for some time afterward. The regiment was mustered out, at Washington, July 28, 1865. It reached Detroit August 1st, and was soon after paid and disbanded, after four years and a quarter of honorable service. Soldiers of the Second Infantry from Shia wassee county: Company C,-Andrew Allen; Company E,-Orren C. Chapman, Frank Collins, Sanford Haddenn, George W. Keyes, James D. Mills; Company F,- Dennis Birmingham; Company K,-Charles C. Loynes. THIRD MICHIGAN INFANTRY The Third Michigan Infantry was recruited in May, 1861, and had its rendezvous and camp of instruction at Grand Rapids. Most of the Shiawassee men in the Third were originally members of the "Ingersoll Rifles." The regiment was mustered in June 10, 1861, under Colonel D. McConnell. It arrived at Washington on the 16th and was soon after assigned to the brigade commanded by Colonel Richardson, of the Second Michigan. Its movements were closely connected with those of the latter regiment up to the battle of Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862. In December of that year the Third fought at Fredericksburg. At Chancellorsville, on May 1, 2 and 3, 1863, it sustained a loss of sixty-three men, killed, wounded and missing. At Gettysburg, July 2 and 3, 1863, the Third fought bravely, with a loss of forty-one men. In August the regiment was sent to New York city to aid in preserving the public peace. It proceeded thence up the Hudson to Troy, where it was stationed two weeks, returning to its brigade, in the Army of the Potomac, in September. Before the end of the year it took part in several engagements. with serious loss. May 4, 1864, the regiment was at Chancellorsville, and during the three following days was in the midst of the terrible battle of the Wilderness, sustaining heavy loss. At Cold Harbor, on the 9th of June, 1864, the regiment, with the exception of one hun

SHIAWTASSEE COUNTY 55 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 55 dred and eighty members who had re-enlisted as veterans, the previous December, and certain designated officers, was ordered home for the purpose of being discharged. The remaining three hundred and fifty officers and men were formed into a battalion of four compaines and attached to the Fifth Michigan Infantry. The order consolidating these regi-, ments was confirmed by the war department June 13th, and June 20th, 1864, the old Third, which had been one of the first to take the field in defense of the government, was formally mustered out of the United States service. The Third Infantry was reorganized and mustered in some time in October, 1864, but the Shiawassee men known to have served in the regiment were all enlisted in the earlier organization. Shiawassee county soldiers in the Third Infantry: Company B,-John N. Foster, Richard Herrington, Aaron Herrington, Reuben Hopkins, Theron Janes, Mortimer Markham, Lyman McCarthy, Ezra Ransom; Company C,-William Choates, Christian Foster, Henry Renbelman, Abijah Southard, Casper Thener; Company D,-Willard McKay; Company F,James Gunnegal; Company G,-Charles T. Goodell, Eben D. Jackson, Patrick Kilboy, Francis Maguire, Lemuel Smith, Charles Shaft, John Shaft, James Trimmer, Arthur Walkins, Philo H, Wier. FIFTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY One of the companies of the Fifth Infantry was raised in Shiawassee and two others contained a number of men from the county. The Shiawassee company-originally known as the "Ingersoll Rifles"-was the first one raised in the county for actual service. By the last of May, 1861, its ranks were filled to about twenty men more than the maximum number. This excess of men afterward joined the Third Infantry, at Grand Rapids. The commanding officer of the "Rifles" was Captain Louis B. Quackenbush, who had been principally instrumental in recruiting the company. The other two original commissioned officers were First Lieutenant William Wakenshaw and Second Lieutenant William K. Tillotson. On the 10th of August the "Ingersoll Rifles" left Owosso, one hundred and ten strong, and proceeded to the regimental rendezvous at Fort Wayne, Detroit, where it lost its recruiting name and was designated as Company H of the Fifth Michigan Infantry. The regiment was mustered into the United States service August 28, 1861, with a total strength of nine hundred officers and men, under command of Colonel Henry D. Terry. Reaching Washington on the 15th of September, the Fifth was directly afterward assigned to Colonel Richardson's brigade, to which the Second and the Third Michigan belonged. The brigade's winter quarters were at "Camp Michigan," near Alexandria, and there the Fifth remained until the general movement of the Army of the Potomac, in March. Williamsburg was the first battle field of the Fifth Michigan, and a wild initiation it was. The regiment went in with about five hundred men and out of the force its loss was one hundred and fifty-three in killed and wounded. The Second, Third and Fifth, with the ThirtySeventh New York formed Berry's brigade of General Phil. Kearney's division. The heroism of these regiments was attested by a special order of General Berry, the brigade commander, of which the concluding words were "They have done themselves great honor, have

56 PAST AND PRESENT OF 56 PAST AND PRESENT OF honored the states of Michigan and New York, and have now a name in history that the most ambitious might be proud of." On the 31st of May, 1862, the Fifth fought in the battle of Fair Oaks, and again suffered terribly, its loss in killed and wounded being one hundred and forty-nine out of about three hundred men who entered the fight. Among the killed at Fair Oaks was Cattain Louis B. Quackenbush, commanding the Shiawassee company. The Prince de Joinville, an eye-witness of this battle, said: "As at Williamsburg, Kearney comes to re-establish the fight. Berry's brigade of this division, composed of Michigan regiments and an Irish battalion, advances firm as a wall into the disordered mass which wanders over the battle field, and does more by its example than the most powerful reinforcements." During the "Seven Days" battles the Fifth fought bravely at Charles City Cross Roads, losing thirty-three killed and wounded and eighteen missing. It was also engaged at Malvern Hill, July 1st, with slight loss. Later it went with other troops to the succor of the sorely pressed Army of Virginia, under General Pope. In this duty it was engaged at Manassas and at Chantilly, where the gallant Kearney fell, on the 2nd of September. The regiment took gallant part in the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, December 13th, in which it lost its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Gilluly. On the 1st of January. 1863, it numbered less than seventy men fit for duty, but this number was soon after increased by recruitments and returns from hospitals. In the spring campaign the Fifth moved up the Rappahannock. May 3rd it took part in the great battle of Chancellorsville, where it again lost its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Sherlock, killed in action. It arrived on the field of Gettysburg the morning of July 2nd, after having been engaged for several days in terrible forced marches, through intolerable heat and dust, and in the afternoon of that day lost one hundred and five men killed and wounded, and five missing in one hour's fighting. In August, the regiment was sent by steamer to New York to assist in quelling the draft riots and, with the Third Michigan. was ordered up the Hudson to Troy, where the two regiments spent two pleasant weeks in camp. Returning to Washington, the Fifth rejoined the Third Corps, Army of the Potomac. In November it moved to the Rappahannock river and remained in that vicinity, taking part in a number of engagements, until the 28th, when the requisite number of re-enlistments having been obtained, it left for Michigan on veteran furlough. In February, 1864, the regiment again proceeded to Washington and took position with its old command in the Army of the Potomac. It was thenceforth in the Third Division of the Second Corps and under command of the brilliant General Hancock. In May it took part in the campaign around the old battle ground of Chancellorsville, in which. on the 6th, Captain Wakenshaw was severely wounded, losing his right arm; and also in the fight at Spottsylvania Court House, when it was highly complimented for gallant conduct by both General Hancock and General Meade. The Fifth arrived in front of Petersburg June 15th and on the following day was engaged with the enemy, carrying the assaulted line of works. During all the memorable but monotonous siege of Petersburg, from the time when the regiment reached the front of that

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 57 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 57 stronghold until the close of the great drama of the Rebellion, the service of the Fifth Michigan embraced a series of movements, changes of position, life in the trenches, marchings, skirmishes, and battles, which it would be too tedious to follow or enumerate. From October, 1864, to the middle of January, 1865, the Fifth occupied Fort Davis, in the front line of works at Petersburg. In the final assault on Petersburg the Fifth took part, and is said to have been the first to plant its colors on the captured works, and at last, on the 9th of April, it was present in the front, in line of battle, at the surrender of the Confederate army by General Lee. The regiment took its place in the great review of the Army of the Potomac, at Washington, May 23d, and remained in the vicinity of the city until June 10th, when it left for the west. Moving to Jeffersonville, Ohio, it remained there until July 14th, when it was mustered out of the service as a regiment. It arrived at Detroit on the 8th, and July 17th, 1865, the men of the "Fighting Fifth" received their pay and discharge. Officers and men of the Fifth Infantry from Shiawassee county: Field and staff,-First Lieutenant and Quartermaster, William H. Allen, Byron; Non-commissioned staff,-Hospital Steward, William H. Allen, Byron; Commissary Sergeant, George A. Winans, Middleburg. Company A,-Samuel M. Atkins, Edward Burgoyne, David Hines, John Little, Isaac Lovejoy; Company B,-Abraham Vandermark; Company C,-John W. Cook; Company D,-Captain James 0. Gunsolly, Second Lieutenant William H. Allen, Edgar Calkins, Anthony Clees, Charles Condon, John Holcomb, Hiram Johnson, David Johnson, Patrick Keveny, William Kinters, Sylvester Nearing, Asahel Rust, James M. Shippey; Company F, -Joseph H. Bennett, Andrew Bliss, Ashley B. Clark, Robert Campbell, Thomas Elgin, Daniel Hurley, Bradford F. Smith, William R. Whitney; Company G,-Otis B. Fuller; Company H,-Captain Louis B. Quackenbush (Owosso), Captain William Wakenshaw (Owosso), First Lieutenant William K. Tillotson (Owosso), First Lieutenant James 0. Gunsolly (Owosso), First Lieutenant George A. Winans ('Middlebury), First Lieutenant David B. Wyker (Owosso), Second Lieutenant John Shontz (Byron), Sergeant Hiram L. Chapman, Sergeant Morton Gregory, Sergeant Lucien A. Chase, Sergeant Washington Howard, Corporal William Bowles, Corporal Orpheus B. Church, Corporal Alpha A. Carr, Corporal Charles Ormsby, Wagner Jerome Trim, John C. Adams, Chauncey W. Anible, William H. Barst, John Beebe, Augustus Breekell, Franklin S. Church, Charles H. Collier, Jeremiah Cassidy, William Cummings, Levi Clark, Egbert Campbell, Alfred B. Crane, Charles Coleman, Marcius S. Cranford, Thomas M. Clay. John W. Close, Benjamin C. Cook, John Q. A. Cook, James Carmody, Isaac Felter, Amos Finch, Clark Fineout, Dwight D. Gibbs, William H. Harrinzton, Melvin Houtelin, Martin N. Halstead, Myron E. Halstead, Allen Herrington, William H, Herrington, Michael Helms, William F. Herring, Christopher Haynes, William A. Hall. Oscar F. Halstead, Henry Herrick, George W. Harris, Stephen M. Hammond, Benjamin Hoag, Richard Haley, Ebenezer M. Isham. Joel M. Jackson, Jefferson Kinney, Henry A. Keyes, John K. Kelly, John D. Keyes, John V. Lindsay, Isaac Lovejoy, Thomas Lawrence, Edgar M. Leonard, Dianiel Martin

58 PAST AND PRESENT OF 58 PAST AND PRESENT OF dale, Orlando Matson, William F. McDivit, Lyman McCarthy, Peter McLean, Alexander McDivit, Edward McNeal, Thomas Murlin, Amos Moore, Jacob Manshaw, Merriam Morehouse, Milton Matoon, William Murlin, William Munshawee, Herman T. Newman, Theodore Odell, Andrew J. Patterson, John M. Ross, James N. Peck, William H. H. Shulters, Charles C. Scott, Abram K. Sweet, George A. Shelley, Samuel A. Sutherland, Oren S. Skinner, James Shulters, William Taylor, Howard Worthington, John Weis, Marcus Wakeman, Patrick Waters. EIGHTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY The Eighth Michigan Infantry was organ: ized in the summer and fall of 1861, by Colonel William M. Fenton, who became its commander and led it bravely on many bloody fields. It was called the "Wandering Regiment of Michigan," and during its existence moved more than seven thousand miles by land and sea. It was engaged in thirty-seven battles and skirmishes, in seven states of the Union. More than nineteen hundred men marched in it ranks. One company of this regiment was distinctly a Shiawassee company, and volunteers from the company were in the ranks of five of its other companies. The Shiawassee company was recruited in August, 1861, under Captain J. L. Quackenbush, of Owosso, and First Lieutenant Albert Bainbridge, of Byron. The EiPhth arrived at Washington September 30th. In October it moved to Annapolis and was ordered on board a steamer which accompanied Admiral Dupont's fleet to South Carolina, arriving off Hilton Head, November 4, 1861. After the engagement in which the fleet reduced the two forts guarding the channel to Port Royal har bor, the iregiment landed and occupied Fort Walker. Moving soon afterward to Beaufort, it remained in; that neighborhood during most of the following winter, taking part in occasional engagements. During May, 1862, the Eighth was detailed for picket duty on Port Royal island and early in June was moved to James island where it took part in the battle fought on the 16th of June. In that battle the Eighth Michigan had a more prominent part and suffered more severely than any other regiment, and its losses were more terrible than it- sustained on any other field during its long and honorable career. General Stevens' command evacuated James island on the 5th of July, the Eighth Regiment being the last to leave, as it had been the first in the advance. July 13th it embarked with other regiments for Fortress Monroe. In August it moved to the Rappahanock river, taking part in the campaign of General Pope. Soon after it moved with the Ninth Army Corps, to which it had been attached, into Maryland, fighting at South Mountain, September 14th, and again on the 17th, in the -great battle of Antietam, in which its loss was severe. The following winter the Eighth was stationed at various points in Virginia. On the 20th of March, being again under marching orders, it embarked at Newport News, on the steamer "Georgia," preparatory to the long series of movements and marches in the southwest which gave it the name of the "wandering regiment." Going to Baltimore, it proceeded thence by railroad to Parkersburg, West Virginia, and again by steamer to Louisville, Kentucky. There it joined the First Brigade, First Division, Ninth Army Corps, which was then a part of the Army of the

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 59 SHIAWAS'S'EE COUNTY 59 Ohio. This corps had for its immediate mission in Kentucky the holding in check of the forces of the guerrilla chief, John Morgan, who at that time seemed to be omnipotent in all that region. About the 1st of June the Ninth Corps, which had been scattered in detachments at various points in Kentucky, was ordered to Mississippi to reinforce the army of General Grant, then operating against Vicksburg. The Eighth Regiment moved with the corps and remained near Vicksburg until the operations against that stronghold ended in its capitulation, July 4th. By the middle of August the regiment was again in Kentucky, and in September moved by way of Cumberland Gap to Knoxville, Tennessee. Then, after some engagements and much marching and countermarching, came the siege of Knoxville by Longstreet, which continued eighteen days, during all of which time the regiment occupied the front line of works. On Sunday, November 29th, two veteran Georgia brigades, belonging to McLaw's rebel division, made a furious assault on Fort Saunders and were repulsed and driven back with a loss of nearly eight hundred men, the Eighth Michigan being one of the regiments which received and repelled the assault. The Eighth remained in Tennessee until the end of the year. In December three hundred of its members re-enlisted as veterans. On January 8, 1864, the command was ordered to Detroit and reached there on the 25th. At the end of their furlough, March 8th, they left for the front and proceeded to Annapolis. where they rejoined the Ninth Corps, which had been ordered from Tennessee to reinforce the Army of the Potomac. When the spring campaign opened, the regiment, moving with the army, crossed the Rapidan, May 5th and on the following (lay was hotly engaged in the Wilderness, losing ninety-nine in killed, wounded, and missing. On the 12th it took part in the assault on the enemy's intrenchmnients at Spottsylvania Court House, losing forty-nine officers and men in the bloody work of that day. The regiment crossed the Pamunkey river and moved toward Bethesda church, where, in the battle of June 3d, it gallantly charged and carried the enemy's rifle pits, sustaining a loss of fifty-nine killed, wounded, and missing. Crossing the Chickahominy and James rivers, it moved by a forced march to the front of Petersburg, arriving there in the evening of the 16th. On the 17th and 18th it took part in the attacks on the enemies' works, losing fortynine killed and wounded. For six weeks after that time it was constantly employed on the fortifications utinder fire. The Eighth remained near Peebles' farm engaged in fortifying and picket duty until November 29th, when it moved again to a position before Petersburg. The strength of the regiment at that time was only about three hundred men fit for duty. It assisted in repulsing the enemy in its attack on Fort Steadman, March 25, 1865, and on the 2d of April, it was engaged in the attack of Fort Mahon, being the first regiment to place its colors on the bastile ramparts. The next day it marched. into Petersburg. The regiment soon afterward proceeded to Alexandria, and on the 9th of May, moved into the city of Washington. It was there engaged in guard and patrol duty until July 30, 1865, when it was mustered out of the service. On the 3d of August it arrived at Detroit, where it was paid off and disbanded,

60 PAST AND PRESENT OF 60 PAT AN PRESNT O and the survivors of the "wandering regiment" returned to their homes. Officers and men of the Eighth Infantry from Shiawassee: Company A,-Elisha Bird, John Minchin, Albert Marten; Company E,-Charles Brott; Company F,-First Lieutenant Oscar P. Hendee (Corunna), William S. Close, Joseph L. Hoyt, Edwin Whitney, Melancthon E. Whitney; Company G,Smith Doubleday; Company H,-First Lieutenant John R. Dougherty (Shiawassee), Captain Jay L. Quackenbush (Owosso), First Lieutenant Albert Bainbridge, (Byron), First Lieutenant Bartley Siegel (Shiawassee), Sergeant William R. Smith (Owosso), Sergeant John I. Knoop (Byron), Sergeant Cyrus H. Roys (Byron), Corporal George W. Love (Owosso), Corporal Edwin Ayres (Owosso), Corporal D. H. Williams (Vernon), Musician Judson A. Clough (Shiawassee), Joseph Ames, David N. Arthur, Alonzo Batchelder, John K. Bunting, Henry Brown, James W. Bronson, Albert Bittner, Frederick T. Bently, Peter F. Camus, George F. Camus. Samuel B. Carsons, Horace L. Clark, Thomas F. Clark, Oscar I. Card, William H. Carr, Philip W. Colman, William H. H. Chase, Benjamin Dutcher, William Demond. Charles Desoness, Martin Decker, Gridson M. Dutcher, John W. Eckman, Charles Freeman, William Freeman, Royal D. Hendee, Henry House, Jacob Hubbard, Reuben Hydon, George W. Jewell, Adonijah Jewell, Frederick Kurrle, Jacob M. Klingingsmith, Francis S. Lum, William W. Lenninyon, J. B. Mathewson, Henry McLellen, Asro Miller, George W. McComb, Alpheus Ott, Edward Ogden, John W. Prandle, George W. Porter, William R. Punches, Walter S. Ryness, John Shourtz, Hiram Spear, William Shissler, Benjamin O. Simons, Dewitt Titus, William Turner, William H. Wood, Francis Whitmore, Benjamin L. Washbourne, Simon Wolf, Charles W. Young; Company K,-John Emery. NINTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY The Ninth Michigan Infantry was raised in the summer and early autumn of the year 1861, its rendezvous being at Fort Wayne, Detroit. In its ranks were more than one hundred men from Shiawassee, principally in Captain George K. Newcombe's company, which was known as the "Fremont Guard" during enlistment, but the regiment was designated as Company' F. The Ninth left Detroit October 25, 1861, going to the seat of war in the southwest, and being the first regiment from Michigan which entered the field in the Western departments. During the greater part of its first year of service the regiment was stationed in Kentucky and Tennessee. In July, 1862, while in the neighborhcod of Murfreesboro, six companies on separate duty were attacked by the enemy's cavalry, three thousand five hundred strong, under General Forrest. After a desperate resistance, with considerable loss in killed and wounded, they surrendered. Forrest paroled the enlisted men whom he had captured and they returned to Nashville. He, however, retained the officers. After being in several prisons in Georgia and the Carolinas they were finally sent to Libby Prison, at- Richmond, where they were eventually paroled. In December, 1862, the regiment, reorganized and with ranks refilled by the exchanged prisoners, was detailed as provost guard of the Fourteenth Corps. The remark was made by General Thomas, on the issu

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY' 61 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 61 ance of the order assigning it to that duty, that he had fully acquainted himself with the history of the part taken by the regiment in its defense of the post of Murfreesboro, and that just such a regiment was what he needed at his headquarters. The Ninth continued to perform this duty until the expiration of its term of service. When General Thomas assumed the chief command of the Army of the Cumberland, after Chickamauga, the Ninth became provost guard at army headquarters. In January, 1864, the regiment returned to Michigan in a body, having received a veteran furlough. On the 20th of February it reassembled, at Coldwater, and again left for the front. In the summer and fall it participated in all the operations of the Army of the Cumberland in Georgia and Tennessee and entered Atlanta on its evacuation by the enemy. From November 1st until March, 1865, it was stationed at Chattanooga. Thence it moved to Nash liam H. Babcock, John Colby, Stephen A. Crane, George Cordray, Justus Colburn, Jacob H. Doolittle, James Drown, Francis Denning, Adam Dubeck, John Doney, Sullivan Fay, Henry T. Fish, Samuel H. Graham, Isaac Gould, Frederick Gutekunst, Reuben Harvey, Lyman Hammond, George Holland, Cyrus Hill, Edward Hagerman, Edward Jones, Bartlett Jdhnson, Morris Jackson, James E. Jackson, George W. Knight, John Lampman, Alfred Lefevre, Herrick Lefevre, Alexander Morris, Edward McKann, Frederick Moore, Frederick Newman, George W. Phillips, Joseph H. Rhodes, Henry Reis, William H. Rhodes, Edwin W. Roblinson, George A. Stickler, Archer Simonds, Rodolph M. Stickler, Obadiah Smith, Philip Schwable, Michael Strahel, Herman Schmitgal, Simeon Spaulding, George Scongal, William P. Treadway, Ira M. Ware, Isaac Wetter, Chauncey D. Whitman, Darius Watkins, Richard Wallace, Daniel D. Wise; Company H,-Levi A. Bronson, Andrew Curtis, Thaddeus Huff, Joseph Huff, Alexander Montgomery, John O'Connor, Willis Palmer, Patrick Quinn; Company I,-First Lieutenant William R. Sellon, Joseph Brown, Charles H. Colf, Jeremiah Colf, Ira A. Johnson, Michael Punches; Company K,-Second Lieutenant Arthur B. Hathaway, David M. Arthur, Leroy Chapin, Cornelius Carson, Eli F. Evans, William P. Horton, George A. Harrington, Charles P. Jones, Daniel McCollum, William G. Rouse, Chauncey C. Rouse, Samuel B. Reed, Albert Snow, Franklin Scougall, William Shattuck, Allen Slater, John Sabine, James B. Sanderson, Alexander Vanwormer, Abel Vanwormer, Elthaner VanWormer; Company L,-Orlando Harrington. ville, where it remained until the 15th of September, when it was mustered out of the service. Arriving at Jackson, Michigan, on the 1.9th, the men were paid off and the organization disbanded. Members of Ninth Infantry from Shiawassee county: Non-commissioned staff,Sergeant Major William R. Sellon (Owosso), Quartermaster Sergeant Arthur B. Hathaway (Owosso); Company A,-Delos Hourd; Company B,-James B. Cummings, Marshall F. French; Company D1-John Miller, James N. Place, Wilson D. Smith; Company E,-Hiram B. Andrews, John K. Holt, Martin Judd, Ransom E. Rhodes; Company F,-Captain George K. Newcombe (Owosso), William W. Brown, Wil

62 PAST AND PRESENT OF f TENTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY In the composition of the Tenth Michigan Infantry there were several companies which contained men from Shiawassee, but the greatest number of these were found in the ranks of Company A, which was largely recruited at Byron and made up almost entirely of volunteers from Shiawassee and the northern part of Livingston county. The name by which this company was known while being recruited was the "Byron Guard," its captain and first lieutenant being respectively Henry L. Burnett, of Byron, and Robert F. Gulick, of Corunna. On the 28th of October, 1861, the "Byron Guard" had reached the minimum number of men, and on the 2nd of November Captain Burnett received orders to report with his company at Flint, the rendezvous of the Tenth Infantry, to which regiment it had been assigned. It reached Flint November 5th, eighty-six strong, and was the second company to report at the rendezvous, the company known as the "Saginaw Rangers"' having reached there three days earlier. In the organization of the regiment, however, the "Byron Guard" received the first letter and the "Rangers" were designated as Company B. The camp of instruction at Flint was named "Camp Thompson," in honor of Colonel Edward H. Thompson, of that city, president of the state military board. At this camp, on the 5th of February, 1862, the Tenth Infantry was reviewed by Governor Blair, and on that and the following day it was mustered into the United States service by Colonel Wright, United States Army., its field officers being Charles M. Linn, colonel; Christopher J. Dickerson, lieu tenant colonel; and James J. Scarritt, major. On the 11th of April a national flag was formally presented to the regiment, at the camp of instruction. On Tuesday, the 22d of April, the regiment, nine hundred and ninety-seven strong, took its departuie from Camp Thompson, its first destination being St. Louis, Missouri. There was then no railroad from Flint to the line of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad, and therefore the men were moved to Holly station on wagons and other vehicles furnished by patriotic citizens. This first stage of their long journey was accomplished in a snowstorm, which gave additional sadness to partings, some of which proved to be final. At Holly, after abundant feasting, the command took the train for Detroit, and after marching through the city to the Michigan Central depot, escorted by the "Lyon Guard" and "Detroit Light Guard," embarked on a train consisting of twenty-three passenger and five freight cars, drawn by two locomotives, and a little before midnight left for the west. At six P. M on Thursday, the regiment was at East St. Louis, and the following day it embarked on the steamer "Gladiator" and moved down the Mississippi. At Cairo, where a short stop was made, the most sensational rumors were circulated that desperate fighting was then 'n progress at Pittsburg Landing (the known destination of the regiment), that the river Paducah was filled with dead floating down from the battle field above, and many other stories of similar import. But the "Gladiator" moved on up the Ohio and Tennessee Saturday afternoon, passed Fort Henry on Sunday and Monday night reached Pittsburg Landing, but was ordered to proceed four miles further up the

SIJIAWASSEE CO UNTY 63 SHIAASSE COUTY 6 Tennessee to Hamburg, which place was reached Tuesday, the 27th, just one week after the departure from Camp Thompson. Two days later the regiment was assigned to duty in Colonel James D. Morgan's brigade, Payne's division, left wing, Army of the Mississippi. On the 1st of May it advanced toward Farmington, Mississippi, and remained in the vicinity of that village until the enemy's evacuation of Corinth, May 30th. During this time it was several times engaged in skirmishing, but sustained no loss except on the 26th, when the adjutant, Lieutenant Sylvester D. Cowles, was instantly killed by the bullet of a sharpshooter, while on picket. The entire summer of 1862 was passed by the regiment in marching, camping, picketing, and similar duties in the north part of Mississippi and Alabama, without any notable event, more than an occasional skirmish, occurring in its experience. The headquarters of the regiment remained at Camp Leighton until September 1st, when it received orders to move toward Nashville. The march occupied nine days. In the evening of the 11th the regiment with its brigade reached a point two miles south of Nashville. There it remained until the 15th, when it moved through:he city and encamped in the suburbs. For nearly two months the force of which the Tenth Regiment was a part (consisting of the divisions of Generals Palmer and Negley) remained at Nashville without communications, surrounded by the forces of the Confederate General Breckenridge, and compelled to live by foraging on the neighboring country, crowding back the enemy every time that parties were sent out from Nashville for this purpose. But, finally, on the 6th of November, the advance of the Army of the Cumberland, moving southward from Kentucky under General Rosecrans, in pursuit of the rebel General Bragg, reached Edgefield, on the north side of the Cumberland, opposite Nashville, thus opening communication with the Ohio river for the force which had so long been beleaguered in Nashville. The Tenth Michigan remained about eight months longer at Nashville, engaged in protecting communication between that place and Murfreesboro and other points. Upon one occasion two companies,-one of them being Captain Burnett's,-while guarding a train between Nashville and Murfreesboro, were attacked by a large guerrilla force of the enemy, but repulsed them, taking fifteen prisoners and killing an equal number without loss to themselves. April 10, 1863, a force of forty-four men of the Tenth, guarding a railway train, were attacked by a body of the enemy's cavalry, in ambush at Antioch Station. Lieutenant Vanderburg, commanding, was mortally wounded, five of his men were killed, ten wounded and three taken prisoners, making a total loss of twofifths of the force engaged. This, with the exception of the loss of its adjutant, was the first loss inflicted on the regiment in action by the enemy. In July the regiment moved to Murfreesboro remaining there a month, when it, again marched southward. Its history during the succeeding four months is that of an almost continuous march, through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. The men became worn out, famished and tattered, and stood greatly in need of rest and recuperation. Late in December the regiment moved

64 PAST AND PRESENT OF 64 PAST AND PRESENT OF to Rossville, Georgia, and built comfortable winter quarters, where the two remaining months of winter were spent in a very agreeable manner. Preparations were made for mustering as veterans. The requisite number re-enlisted and the men were impatiently waiting for the veteran furlough, when, in the morning of February 23d, the regiment had orders to march immediately, with three days' rations and sixty rounds of ammunition. The Tenth had remained three days within hearing of the cannonading between the hostile armies at Chattanooga and had stood in line during the progress of the great conflict at Lookout and Missionary Ridge, but had not been engaged in any of these battles. Its first serious engagement was at Kenyon's Gap, near Dalton, where, in a gallant fight with greatly superior numbers of the enemy, its loss was forty-nine killed and wounded and seventeen missing. Returning to its camp at Rossville, the regiment was relieved and ordered to Michigan, arriving at Detroit, March 11, 1864. At the expiration of the veteran furlough it returned to the part of the south in which most of its term of service had been passed. During the summer it took part in a number of engagements, with considerable loss. At Jonesboro, Georgia, on September 1st, the commanding officer of the regiment, Major Henry S. Burnett, formerly captain of the "Byron Guards," was killed in a charge, across an open field, on the enemies' works. It was claimed for the Tenth that in this action it took more prisoners than the number of men which it carried into the fight. Following the battle at Jonesboro the regiment moved to the front at Atlanta and re mained there until and after the capture of that city. In October it joined its corps, the Fourteenth, which was moving into Alabama in pursuit of the Confederate army under General Flood. Later it returned to Georgia, moving along the Atlanta Railroad, destroying the track and telegraph in its march, the object being to cut all communications with Atlanta, preparatory to General Shernlan's bold march across Georgia to the Atlantic. Approaching Atlanta on the 15th of November, the Tenth, forming a part of the-First Brigade, Second Division of the Fourteenth Corps,. on the following day moved out on the march to Savannah, where it arrived the morning of December 11th. On January 20, 1865, the Fourteenth Corps left the city for the march through the Carolinas. By April 28th it had reached Morseville, North Carolina, and there received the announcement that its campaigning was over and' the war ended by the surrender of Johnston. In its passage through the two Carolinas the Tenth Michigan had sustained a loss of fifteen, killed, wounded, and missing. The regiment reached Washington the 16th of May, and took part in the grand review of General Sherman's army, on the 24th. In June it proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, where it was mustered out of the service July 19th and ordered to Michigan. It reached Jackson the 22d, and was paid off and discharged August 1, 1865. The length and severity of this regiment's marches during its term of service were remarkable. In 1862 and 1863 its foot marches aggregated sixteen hundred miles, its marches in 1864 amounted to thirteen hundred and seventy-five miles, and those in 1865 to six hundred twenty miles,-a total

o r.r SBIA-WASSEE COUNTY 65 SE of three thousand five hundred and ninetyfive miles, this being exclusive of the distances accomplished biy railroad and steamer. There were few, if any, regiments in the service whose marching record surpassed this. Members of Tenth Infantry from Shiawassee. county: Field and staff,-Major Henry S. Burnett, Byron; Non-commissioned staff,-Quartermaster Sergeant George A. Allen, Byron; Company A,-Captain Samuel S. Tower (Byron), First Lieutenant Robert F. Gulick (Corunna), Sergeant Jay J. Parkhurst, Sergeant William B. Pratt, Sergeant Charles Rice, Sergeant Delos Jewell, Corporal John J. Campbell, Corporal' Marcus P. Andrews, Musician William W. Barker, Musician Riley W. Litchfield, Wagoner Henry H. Keyes, Robert Agnew, William Brcwn, Jonas W. Botsford, Henry Baird, Martin Brayton, Henry Brown, Horace S. Calkins, Albert Campbell, Silas Crawford, Jacob Croup, Philip Chamberlain, David C. Calkins, George Coffin, Alfred Conkits, Sheldon Dickson, Luman Harris, Ezekiel Jewell, Thurlow L. Millard, Corporal R. Blake Miner, Albert Martin, William J. Mosely, Corporal George E. Mills, Orlando Mills, Henry Miller, Charles Newman, George A. Parker, Thomas J. Pettis, George J. Parks, Abram Reigle, Philip Richardson, Israel D. Russell, Corporal Auren Roys, Corporal Lemuel J. Smedley, Allen Stephens, Charles F. Stewart, Ira I. Sweet, George Stroud, Edwin R. Scully, William J. Tower, Judd Vincent, Edgar D. Welch, Peter Wooliver, Gideon Whiting, John Walworth; Company B,-First Lieutenant William Pratt (Byron); Company C,-Second Lieutenant George A. Allen (Byron), James M. Gillett, Edgar E. Grilly, Frank Munger, Henry Ostrander, Alvah Remington, Daniel Spear, William E. Sprague; Company G,-Musician Philip Goodwin, George R. Knapp; Company H,Nathan Findley, Albert Hill, John Marshall, John W. M. Parks; Company I,-William B. Gillet, David W. Gillett; Company K,Captain William B. Walker (Owosso). FOURTEENTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY The volunteers from Shiawassee who served in the ranks of the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry were principally in Companies D and E. There were also a few in Company K, which was chiefly composed of Clinton county men. The original first and second lieutenants of Company D were respectively Gilman McClintock and Cyrus F. Jackson, of Owosso. Company E was chiefly made up of men from Shiawassee county. First Lieutenant Goodale and Second Lieutenant Daniel Wait were residents of Owosso at the time of its organization. The Fourteenth Regiment was mustered into the service in February, 1862, and among its officers was Major M. W. Quackenbush, of Owosso. In April it proceeded to the theater of war in the southwest, reaching Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee river, about two weeks after the great battle of Shiloh had been fought, and was assigned to duty as a part of Morgan's brigade, in the Army of the Mississippi. This brigade included the Tenth Michigan and Sixtieth Illinois, and as thus composed remained together during the greater part of the term of service. The fortunes of the Fourteenth were so similar to those of the Tenth, whose history has been traced in the preceding pages, that

66 PAST AND PRESENT OF I6 P an account of its movements would be practically a repetition of the previous narration. During the first year and a half of its existence its duties, like those of the Tenth, were marching, skirmishing, picketing and guarding railroads. In July, 1863, the'regiment was detached from its brigade. Early in September the command was transformed into a corps of mounted infantry and eight of its companies, with a section of artillery, were moved to Columbia, Tennessee. For a period of eight months Columbia and Franklin and the railroad connecting the two places were held by the men of the Fourteenth, who performed excellent service in clearing the surrounding country of guerrillas. In January, 1864, the regiment re-enlisted as veterans and in the spring was sent to Michigan on veteran furlough, at the expiration of which it returned to Tennessee. In May it received orders to join the army of General Sherman, and with that object moved to Dallas, Georgia, where it rejoined its old brigade, which was then attached to the division of General Jeff. C. Davis. From Dallas it moved to Kenesaw Mountain, where the brigade gallantly participated in the battle of the 27th of June. In August the regiment took part in the operations in front of Atlanta. Then, after many marches and movements by rail, on the 13th of November, at Cartersville, with the rest of the army it "bade goodby to the 'Cracker' line and to all communications, and plunged into the Confederacy, with four days' rations, marching south and tearing up the railroad as it moved." On the 15th, at three o'clock in the afternoon, it reached Atlanta, where the Union hosts lay encircling the con quered city, busy with their final preparations for the storied "March to the Sea." Arriving before Savannah on the 10th of December, it took part in the siege of the city and marched in on the 21st. Remaining there until January 20, 1865, the Fourteenth then moved out and took its way with the army on the long and laborious march through the Carolinas. At Avon's Ferry, North Carolina, the cheering news of Johnston's surrender was received, April 13th. Moving on to Washington, the regiment took its place in the grand review of Sherman's army, on the 24th of May. It was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, July 18th, and was ordered home, arriving at Jackson on the 21st. Miembers of the Fourteenth Infantry from Shiawassee county: Field and staff,-Lieutenant Colonel M. W. Quackenbush (Owosso), Chaplain Thomas B. Dooley (Corunna); Non-commissioned staff,-Quartermaster Sergeant Henry 0. Jewell (Vernon), Commissary Sergeant Addison Bartlett (Shiawassee); Company A,-First Lieutenant Marshall Keyte (Owosso), John Groom, Abel Hill; Company B,-First Lieutenant Gillman McClintock (Owosso), First Lieutenant Cyrus F. Jackson (Owosso), Charles H. Allen, William H. Adams, Armead Botsford, Benjamin E. Crandall, John H. Hays, John Hay, Henry King, Walter Laing, Charles McCarthy Aaron Martin, Orman Millard, William C. McFarren, David McCarty, William Price, John Richmonds, Sidney Smith, Peter Skutt, Francis Summer, Edwin R. Scott; Company E,-Captain Edward S. Simonds (Shiawassee), First Lieutenant C. C. Goodale (Owosso), Second Lieutenant Daniel ~Wait (Owosso), Sergeant

SFHIAWWASSEE COUNTYf 67 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 67 Henry Deming (Sciota), Sergeant Evan Roberts (Antrim), Corporal Laselle C. Brewer, Corporal Benjamin F. Stevens, John Q. Adams, Edwin Botsford, Ebenezer Brewer, Benjamin Bagley, Jacob Burtch, John J. Barnes, Jacob Byerly, Leonard Black, Matthew Colf, George Clark, Levinus Colf, Marcus Colf, Ezra Dibble, Byron A. Dunn, Samuel C. Decker, William B. Dunbar, Jacob DeForest, Jesse Fleming, John Folf, William Goff, Jotham Hunt, Charles S. Harris, Nathaniel Hyde, William Hill, Wells J. Haynes, Albert C. Johnson, Valois H. Morse, Thomas Munger, Norman McLenithan, Peter McNelly, Husten Mahew, Nathan Monroe, William B. Monroe, Mason Phelps, Israel Parshall, Ira A. Polley, William Steen, John Seeveard, Daniel D. See, George Swimen, John W. Simpson, William Sargent, George W. Smith, Edward Sanford, Allen Templer, Charles Terwilliger, Dorr Tillotson, William Wiers, Everett Woodbury; Company H,-Owen Miller; 'Company I,Azariah Fitch, Caleb Hall; Company K,Sergeant Thomas Crane (Owosso), John Buck, James E. Crane, Allen Davis, John C. Dellamater, Peter Garrison, Joseph Guyer, William Garrison, Richard Odell, William D. Platt, Andrew Scott, Oliver B. VanDoran, John W. Wester. TWENTY-THIRD MICHIGAN INFANTRY The Twenty —third Regiment was organized in the summer of 1862 under the President's call for volunteers issued July 2d, immediately after the Seven Days' battle on the Virginia peninsula. Shiawassee county furnished for the Twenty-third a full company under command of Captain John Carland, of Corunna, and a few men in each of several other companies of the regiment. Captain Carland was afterward major of the regiment and was in office in the regular army for many vears after the close of the war. The Twenty-third was mustered into the United States service September 13, 1862, with eight hundred and eighty-three officers and men. It left the state by way of Detroit, going first to the neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, where it was assigned to General Dumont's brigade, Army of the Ohio. For nearly one year the regiment was stationed at different points in Kentucky and southern Ohio, engaged in guarding public property and in several expeditions in pursuit of the guerrilla chief, John Morgan, whose band was operating along the Ohio river. In August, 1863, it was incorporated with the Second Brigade, Second Division of the Twenty-third Army Corps. This division, in the latter half of August, made a long and wearisome march over the Cumberland mountains into east Tennessee, where, during the autumn, it took 'part in some severe fighting, in the attempt to check Longstreet's advance towards Knoxville. At Campbell's Station, the Twenty-third suffered a loss of thirty-one killed and wounded, November 16th. The following morning it arrived in Knoxville, before daylight, after a march of twenty-eight miles without rest or food. Then followed the memorable siege of the city, which continued until the 5th of December, when the enemy retreated, and in which the regiment took active and creditable part. During most of the winter it remained in the vicinity of Knoxville, chiefly engaged in scouting, picket and outpost duty. April 25, 1864, orders were received for the

68 PAST AND PRESENT OF 68 PAT AN PRESNT O troops in east Tennessee to join the forces of General Sherman in the forward movement which afterward became known as the campaign of Atlanta. In this campaign the Twenty-third took part in many bloody battles in which it showed conspicuous gallantry. Of the regiment's record, General John Robertson, years afterward, said: "Although the reliable and model regiment acquitted itself with much celebrity in every encounter with the enemy in which it was engaged, Campbell's Station, Resaca, Franklin and Nashville will always be recognized as prominent among its many hard-fought battles, and the memories of those fields will last while a soldier of that noble regiment lives." Arriving in front of Atlanta, the Twentythird took part in the operations of the army which accomplished the capture of that stronghold. In October the regiment moved northward in pursuit of the Confederate General Hood, who was then marching his army toward Nashville. Early in November it again moved through Alabama into Tennessee. On the 30th it arrived at Franklin, where it erected temporary defenses and the same day assisted in repulsing a furious assault by the forces of General Hood. In that desperate struggle, the regiment, in command of Colonel 0. L. Spaulding, made a brilliant counter-charge with the bayonet,-a charge which has been described as one of the most brilliant and effective in the entire history of the war. It again took an active part in the great battles of the 15th and 16th of December, before Nashville, which resulted in the defeat and complete rout of Hood's army. A report of the first day of the battle says: "Colonel Spaulding with his regiment made a most daring and dashing charge in a posi tion occupied by a portion of the enemies' infantry, posted behind a heavy stone wall on the crest of a hill, which it carried in most brilliant style, capturing more prisoners than there were men in the line of the regiment." Soon after the rout of Hood's army, the Twenty-third was ordered to Washington, where it arrived on the 29th of January, 1865. Shortly afterward it was sent into North Carolina, where it was in a number of serious engagements and where it finally cooperated with Sherman's army on its northward march from Savannah. On the 14th of April the regiment marched into the city of Raleigh, where it received the welcome news of Lee's surrender at Appomattox. It remained in North Carolina until June 28th, when it was mustered out, at Salisbury, from which point it began its homeward journey to Michigan. Arriving at Detroit July 7, 1865, the men were paid off and disbanded. and each went his way to resume the vocation of civil life. Members of Twenty-third Infantry from Shiawassee county: Field and staff,-Major John Carland (Caledonia); Company A,James Gay, Daniel R. Nicholson, Edwin A. Walter; Company B,-Alfred M. Burnett; Company C,-Albert D. Livermore, Moses A. Norris; Company D,-Alb'ert Guyer; Company E,-Second Lieutenant James H. Anderson (Caledonia), Daniel R. Munger; Company G,-Captain Benjamin F. Briscoe (Corunna), Sergeant Alonzo H. Crandall, Samuel Garow, Truman Husted, Orson Post, Daniel S. Post, James St. John, William Sterling, Edward Vining; Company H,Second Lieutenant Marion Miller (Caledonia), Second Lieutenant Calvin Smith (Cal

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 69 SHIAASSE COUTY 6 edonia), Sergeant William H. Jones (Caledonia), Sergeant James H. Anderson (Caledonia), Sergeant Caleb Mead (Caledonia), Sergeant Isaac H. Post (Antrim), Sergeant Luther Sawtell (Venice), Corporal Andrew S. Parsons (Perry), Corporal David West (Caledonia), Corporal E. L. M. Ford (Caledonia), Corporal Jason S. Wiltse (Burns), Corporal Ossian W. Coon (Bennington), Corporal George Dippy (Antrim), Corporal Charles F. Beard (Antrim), Corporal John M. Calkins (Venice), Corporal William H. Baker (Burns), Corporal Charles E. Smith (Perry), Oliver M. Able, Uriah Arnold, Israel G. Atkins, William D. Bailey, Alvah D, Beach, James Boutee, Orestus Blake, Archibald Brown, George L. Bailey, Samuel Brown, Ebenezer Ball, Cyrus Brigham, Chauncey W. Barnes, William C. Baker, George Bentley, Henry P. Calkins, Sidney Coy, William H. Coburn, Daniel J. Clough, Asa F. Chalker, Calvin H. Card, Samuel Conklin, Nelson K. Calkins, George Ceraven, Charles Dean, Benjamin F. Dickerson, John L. Dippy, Willett C. Day, Charles P. Day, Benjamin Defreese, Alfred Dunham, Henry B. Dibble, Daniel P. Eldridge, Frank Garabrand, Francis A. Hall, Jerome E. Harris, Merritt S. Harding, George Lytle, Samuel A. Lytle, Perrin S. Linge, Chester W. Lynds, Enos P. Melvin, Philander Murray, Marmon Moore, George N. Macomber, James WV. McKnight, Frederick S. Mitts, Julius W. Piper, Francis Purdy, John F. Piper, William Plase, George F. Prentiss, Mosely W. Potter, James J. Peacock, William H. Ream, David M. Richardson, Charles 0. Russell, Charles P. Seal, Frederick Stickney, Thomas Shaw, Godfrey Shaoutz, John B. Swan, William H. Stickney, Hubert Shurt less, Guy J. Schofield, George H. Spaulding, Charles P. Stevens, William J. Shaw, Orlando Titus, Edward A. Thompson, Austin Trowbridge, Paul Traynon, Edgar L. Tyler, William D. Voorhies, Horace Wakeman, John Walters, Charles- P. Williams, William J. Warren, Alonzo Wallace, Charles Wilkeson; Company K,-Walton Mitchell, Monroe Wolvey. TWENTY-SEVENTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY About a score of men from Shiawassee county served with the Twenty-seventh Michigan Infantry, part of that number in the "Independent Company of Sharpshooters" which was attached to the regiment. Their first service was as a part of the Ninth Army Corps, in Kentucky and the Vicksburg campaign. After participating in the siege of Knoxville by Longstreet, the regiment, with its corps, was sent east to reinforce the Army of the Potomac. There it fought in the battle of the Wilderness, losing eighty-nine killed and wounded; and also at Spottsylvania, where it sustained a loss of one hundred and seventy-five killed and wounded and twelve missing. After a number of minor engagements it arrived in front of Petersburg, where, with the brigade, it took part in the charges on the enemy's works, June 17th. Its loss in that month was again nearly one hundred and seventy-five. From that time the Twentyseventh was on duty in the investing lines around Petersburg until its final evacuation by the forces of Lee, but its changes of position were too numerous to mention in detail. The most brilliant exploit in the record of the regiment was the assault and capture of Fort Mahon, just preceding the evacuation 4

70 PAST AND PRESENT OF 0 PAT A of Petersburg. The number of men engaged in this assault was only one hundred and twenty-three, but they took one hundred and fifty-nine prisoners, and six pieces of artillery and held the captured work during the day, against repeated. attempts of the enemy to retake it. The Twenty-seventh took part 'in the great review of the army on the 23d of May and was mustered out July 26, 1865. Members of Twenty-seventh Infantry from Shiawassee county: Company C,-Walter E. Norton; Company E,-Henry VanVleit; Company H,-Charles D. Beach; Company I,-Corporal Charles VanDeusen (Fairfield), E. Andrews, William Brown, Charles Cole, Reuben Davis, Samuel Davis, Thaddeus Graves, Samuel Isbell, Jackson N. Voorhees, Truman A. VanDeusen; First Independent Company of Sharpshooters attached to Twenty-seventh Infantry,-Herman Ford, Charles H. Hammond, J. J. Kenney, Aaron Munsel, John W. Parker, Horace Tibbetts. TWENTY-NINTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY. Nearly one hundred men from Shiawassee county served with the Twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry in the war of the Rebellion, one of its companies (E) being raised almost entirely in this county, under Captain A. J. Patterson and First Lieutenant Sidney G. Main, of Owosso, and Second Lieutenant William F. Close, of Byron. This regiment was mustered into the service at Saginaw, October 3, 1864, under Colonel Thomas M. Taylor. Three days later it left for Nashville, Tennessee, where it arrived October 12th, and soon afterward moved to Decatur, Alabama. On the day of its arrival at Decatur that place was attacked by the Confederate General Hood, and the Twenty-ninth was ordered to move to the front and occupy a line of rifle-pits and a small defensive work. In obedience to the order the regiment moved forward bravely and steadily, though under a severe fire of artillery and musketry, and held the position until dark, notwithstanding that the enemy made several determined efforts to carry it. The Confederate force during that day's fight had outnumbered the Union troops nearly ten to one, but during the night the latter received reinforcements. For three days the enemy continued assaulting with great determination, lut the Union forces, having been increased to about five thousand men, were finally able to compel the assaulters to withdraw, with severe loss, and the defense of the place was made entirely successful. The part taken by the Twenty-ninth in the fight at Decatur was highly creditable to the regiment, as its men were fresh from the camp of instruction, and had never before smelled the smoke of battle. The adjutant general of Michigan in his report of this affair said: "The exemplary conduct, the vigorous and splendid fighting of Colonel Taylor's regiment and his officers, although less than a month in the field, could scarcely have been excelled by long-tried veterans." The regiment, after this battle, garrisoned Decatur until the 24th of November when it marched to Murfreesboro, and, reaching there on the 26th, composed a part of the defending force at that point during the siege of Nashville and Murfreesboro by Hood, being engaged with a part of the enemy's forces at Overall Creek, December 7th. Having been sent out to escort a rail

SHIAW;ASSEE CO UNTY" 71 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY U way train on the 13th, it was attacked at Winsted Church by a superior force of the enemy, and in the severe action which ensued, it sustained a loss of seventeen in killed, wounded and missing. The track was relaid under, a brisk fire, and the regiment brought the train safely Eback to Murfreesboro by hand, the locomotive having been disabled by a shell. Later it was assigned to the duty of guarding the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, and it remained on this and garrison duty until September 6, 1865, when it was mustered out of the service, being disbanded at Detroit, about the 13th of that month. Members of Twenty-ninth Infantry from Shiawassee county: Company A,-David M. Black, Charles A. Funda, Thomas Graham, Jasper Johnson, James C. Luce, Jacob Layer, William B; Ormsbee, David Struble; Company C,-Robert McFarland, Ebenezer Thusgood; Company E,-Captain Andrew J. Patterson (Owosso), First Lieutenant Sidney G. Main (Owosso), Second Lieutenant John Q. Adams (Owosso), Sergeant A. M. Parmenter (Vernon), Sergeant J. C. Woodman (Shiawassee), Sergeant Charles C. Rowell (Bennington), Sergeant Cyrenus Thomas (Owosso),Sergeant Orrin Drown (Owosso), Sergeant Philetus Waldron (Bennington), Sergeant George F. Brownell (Bennington), Sergeant William G. Merrill (Burns), Sergeant Theodore Creque (Shiawassee), Sergeant William J. Wiswell (Bennington), Sergeant Edward H. Jones (Antrim), Corporal James M. Freeman (Woodhull), Corporal John Huffman (Woodhull), Corporal Richard Chenell (Woodhull), John M. Arthur, William M. Batchelor, Nathan Borem, David Brown, William W. Bennett, William Budds, Jeremiah Carson, Benjamin Codwell, Leonard Crouse, Christopher Cook, George E. Cole, David W. Dunn, John A. Drew, David Dwight, Ladock Gillett, Richard German, William P. Harer, John W. Hagerman, Charles E. Harris, George Hoag, William B. Hendee, Newell Kellogg, Charles N. Kilridge, John Klingensmith, William H. Lavery, Werton W. Lamunyon, Henry Lamunyon, George Lindner, Oscar M. Morse, Jacob Mason, Enos Osgood, Charles E. Perkins, Austin Phillips, Hiram Platner, Leroy Regua, William Sanderson, Sherman Stevenson, Andrew Vandusen, John E. Watson, Seth N. Walter, Stephen L. Woliver, Edward D. Woolcot, Dennis Watkins; Company F,Godfrey Armaugher, George Aldrich, Noah G. Berg, Thomas Graham, Jacob Muffly, David Martindale, David Muffly; Company H,-Isaac Cassada, Charles Hempsted, Alonzo Hunt, Charles Long, Leonard Robinson, William E. Vanpatten, Eli Woodward; Company K,-First Lieutenant William F. Close (Byron), Vorden H. Worden. THIRTIETH MICHIGAN INFANTRY On account of the numerous attempts made hy the Confederates to organize in Canada plundering raids against our northern border, authority was given by the war department to the governor of Michigan, in the autumn of 1864, to raise a regiment of infantry for one year's service, and especially designed to guard the Michigan frontier. Its formation, under the name of the Thirtieth Michigan Infantry, was completed, at Detroit, January 9, 1865. To this regiment Shiawassee county furnished one-third of a company, the greater part of whom served in the ranks of Company K.

72 PAST AND PRESENT OF.. PAS AN PREEN OF".. When the organization was completed the regiment was stationed in companies at various points, one being placed at Fort Gratiot, one at St. Clair, one at Wyandotte, one at Jackson, one at Fenton, three at Detroit Barracks, and one on duty in the city. But the speedy collapse of the rebellion put an end to Canadian raids, and the regiment had no active service to perform. It remained on duty until June 30, 1865, and was then mustered out. FIRST ENGINEERS AND MECHANICS The Michigan Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics was organized in the autumn of 1861. It was the intention in raising this regiment that it should be largely composed of men skilled in mechanical trades, and that upon entering the field they should be principally employed in the work with which they were acquainted, a great amount of which is always required in the operations and movements of large armies. They were expected to enact the part of fighting men when occasion' demanded, and for this purpose they were regularly armed and accoutred as infantry. It can be said of them with truth that they always proved themselves as brave and steadfast in battle as they were skilled and efficient in their own peculiar field of labor, though it was in the latter that their services were by far the more valuable to the government. The Engineers and Mechanics' organization was composed of men from almost every county in the central and southern part of the peninsula, Shiawassee being represented in ten of its companies. though by only a few men in any one. The regiment was in the service from December 6, 1861, to October, 1865. The battles and skirmishes which, by general orders, it was entitled to have inscribed upon its colors, were those of Mill Springs, Kentucky, January 19, 1862; Farmington, Mississippi, May 9, 1862; siege of Corinth, Mississippi, May 10 to 31, 1862; Perryville, Kentucky, October 8, 1862; Lavergne, Tennessee, January 1, 1863; Chattanooga, Tennessee, Octolber 8, 1863; siege of Atlanta, Georgia, July 22 to September 2, 1864; Savannah, Georgia, December 11 to 23, 1864; Bentonville, North Carolina, March 19, 1865. Members of Thirtieth Infantry from Shiawassee county: Field and staff,-First Lieutenant and Adjutant Jerome W. Turner (Owosso); Company C,-Corporal James A. Hoyt (Rush); Company F,-Jerome R. Fairbanks, James Rummer, Johnson Taylor, Charles W. Williams, Alfred B. Williams; Company I,-John F. Cartwright; Company K,-Corporal Ora C. Waugh (Owosso), Corporal Robert Upton (Owosso), Corporal Oscar Bailey (Owosso), Corporal Elnathan Beebe (Caledonia), Leonard Alger, Leander A. Bush, Robert F. Buck, Henry Boslaw, Edward Bright, Ebenezer Childs, John Crane, Andrew Case, T. Fancheon, John Gannon, Lyman E. Hill, George Johnson, Robert Smith, Charles N. Wetmore. Members Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics: Company B,-Nathan Colby, Alexander Kellas; Company C,-Newell E. Cady, Andrew Kinney; Company D,-Second Lieutenant Herman W. Perkins (Corunna), Daniel F. Case; Company E,-Isaiah Slayter, William B. Staner; Company F,-William E. Delbridge; Company G,-Second Lieutenant Rodney Mann (Owosso), John Berkley, Joseph Gest, William Stone, Charles W.

SHIAWCltASSEE COUNTYZ 73 S S U Smith; Company H,-Harrison Hackett; Company I,-Oliver Hopkins, James H. Marble; Company K,-Charles E. Rowell; Company M,- Lewis M. Dickinson. FIRST MICHIGAN CAVALRY In the First Michigan Cavalry, Shiawassee county was represented by men in four companies, principally in Company D. The regiment was mustered into the United States service in September, 1861, eleven hundred and forty-four strong, and went immediately to Washington. During the early part of its term of service it was actively employed in the upper Potomac and in the passes of the Blue Ridge mountains. In the spring of 1862 it took part in the two battles at Winchester and several other of the hard-fought engagemehts in that vicinity, also in a number of other actions in July and August. During the following winter and spring it was employed in grand guard duty along the Potomac river. This duty, besides being of the most arduous kind, was one which called for the exercise of almost sleepless vigilance in guarding against the attacks of the guerrilla bands of Mosley and Stuart. When General Lee invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania in June, 1863, and the Army of the Potomac marched northward to meet him, the First Michigan moved with the other cavalry regiments on the campaign of Gettysburg, and during fifteen days fought in sixteen battles and skirmishes, being almost constantly in the saddle. General Custer, in his report of the operations of the cavalry at Gettysburg, paid the First Michigan a glowing tribute, and concluded with these words: "I cannot find a language to express my high appreciation of the gal lantry and daring displayed by the officers and men of the First Michigan Cavalry. They advanced to the charge of a vastly superior force with as much order and precision as if going upon parade, and I challenge the annals of warfare to produce a more brilliant or successful charge of cavalry than the one just recounted." In the spring of 1864 the regiment joined General Sheridan's cavalry corps and made a brilliant record in the campaigns of the following year. Immediately after the close of the war it was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, whence it was ordered across the plains, eventually going to Fort Bridger and to Camp Douglas, near Salt Lake City. The regiment garrisoned those two stations until March, 1866, when it was mustered out, paid off, and disbanded. Members of the First Cavalry from Shiawassee county: Company C,-Charles Bogue, George L. Foster, William D. Jewell, Joseph Naracon; Company D,-First Sergeant Frank Shepard (Owosso), Corporal George P. Guilford (Owosso), Corporal Joseph O. Hathaway (Middlebury), Lemuel W. Bogue, John Brooks, Bradley W. Bennett, Henry N. Curtis, Jacob Color, William Haukinson, William Hyatt, Egbert Maton, Henry C. McCarty, Charles W. Mosher, Willard Ryan, Samuel R. Smith, Aaron L. Tubbs; Company F,-Gustavus Brenner; Company G,-William Everst, Alvah Laing, William Mabeen, Alexander Mabeen. SECOND MICHIGAN CAVALRY The Second Michigan Cavalry was mustered into the service October 2, 1861. Nearly every company of which it was com

74 PAST AND PRESENT OF posed had a few men from Shiawassee. In November the regiment left Grand Rapids for St. Louis, Missouri, and remained in the neighborhood of that city until the following spring. In May, 1862, it moved to Corinth, Mississippi, and was occupied throughout that summer in cavalry duty in that state and western Tennessee. Its colonel was then Philip H. Sheridan, who had been detailed from duty as a captain in the regular army to receive the colonelcy vacated by the promotion of General Gordon Granger. Early in the autumn, however Colonel Sheridan was made a brigadier general of volunteers and transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and about the same time the Second Cavalry was sent to Kentucky. Afterward it moved into Tennessee, and for several months had its headquarters at Murfreesboro, while it was engaged in scoutings and raids through that region. In the autumn it was engaged in scouting around Chattanooga, at one time being part of a force which chased General Wheeler's cavalry one hundred and ninety-six miles in six days. In the spring of 1864 part of the regiment went home on veteran furlough, the remainder accompanying General Sherman in his Atlanta campaign. After being reunited, in July, it was busily engaged in marching through middle Tennessee, fighting with the horsemen of Forrest and other rebel generals, and assisting in Hood's final retreat from the state. The Second remained mostly in middle Tennessee until March, 1865, when it set out on a long raid through Alabama and Georgia, arriving at Macon the 1st of May. After remaining in Georgia on garrison duty until the 17th of August the regi ment was mustered out and sent home, reaching Jackson on the 25th of August, and being there disbanded. Members of Second Cavalry from Shiawassee county: Company B,-David Barnum, Henry Badder, Abel Cronson, Holland Hart, John Jackson, James H. Lyman; Company C,-Dean Cutler, James A. Farr; Company D,-John Hicks, Warren L. Woolman; Company E,-John Bowman, Thomas Connor, James I. May, Joseph Marber; Company F,-Charles Bradford, Andrew Call, George Hilma, Alonzo Mattison, Sidney M. Shelley; Company G,-John Codger, William Jacobs, George Jewett, Daniel E. Lemonyon, George Laflin, Charles Lemonyon, Archibald McHenry; Company H,-Andrew Kinney, Emmett Mullett, Silas Newman, Owen Otto; Company I,-Sergeant Abram Jones (Byron), James C. Graham; Company K,-Martin Spencer, George Schultz; Company L,-Azariah Martin, Lyman S. Thrasher, Charles VanAlstin; Company M,-Harry D. Wardwell, Henry Wilson. THIRD MICHIGAN CAVALRY Among the many regiments organized in the summer and autumn of 1861 was the Third Michigan Cavalry, which was mustered into the United States service at Grand Rapids, on the 1st of November of that year. Its total strength was eleven hundred and sixty-three officers and enlisted men. In seven of its companies were men from Shiawassee county. The regiment left its rendezvous November 28, 1861, and proceeded to Benton Barracks, Missouri, remaining at St. Louis until early in the spring of 1862, where it joined Gen

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 75 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 75 a eral Pope's Army of the Mississippi. With the army it proceeded to Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee river, where it arrived soon after the battle of Shiloh, and took an active part in the advance of General Halleck's army upon Corinth. Through the summer it was actively engaged in the usual cavalry duty of picketing and scouting in Mississippi and Alabama. On the approach of Price's rebel cavalry it returned to the vicinity of Corinth. At Iuka, September 19th, the regiment was actively engaged and was specially mentioned in General Rosecrans' report of that battle. When Price and his defeated rebel army retired from the field the Third hung on his flanks and rear for many miles, causing him repeatedly to form line of battle to check the Union advance. Advancing with General Grant's army into Mississippi, in November and December of 1862, it shared in the victories and defeats of that campaign. The remainder of the winter it was employed in almost continuous marching, driving out the numerous bands of guerrillas which infested that region, its camp being most of the time at Corinth. From January 1 to November 1, 1863, the regiment marched a distance of ten thousand eight hundred miles, exclusive of marches by separate companies and detachments; and from the beginning of its term of service to the latter date had captured two thousand one hundred prisoners, of whom about fifty were officers. In January, 1864, nearly six hundred of its members re-enlisted as veterans and received the usual furlough, to rendezvous at Kalamazoo. From that place they moved to St. Louis and later proceeded to Arkansas, there joining the army of General Steele, and during the rest of the year the regiment was engaged in scouting and outpost duty in that state. In March, 1865, the regiment was transferred to the Military Division of West Mississippi, under General Canby, to move with the forces designed to operate against Mobile. After the fall of that ctiy, it was employed on outpost duty until after the surrender of Lee and Johnston, and was then detailed as the escort of General Canby, on the occasion of his receiving the surrender of the Confederate General Taylor and his army. On Sheridan's assuming command of the Division of the Southwest the Third was ordered to join troops designed for Texas, and eventually moved across that state to San Antonio, where it remained employed in garrison duty and scouting expeditions for the protection of the frontier until February 15, 1866, when it was dismounted and mustered out of service. Members of Third Cavalry from Shiawassee county: Company B,-Corporal Wilson Wright (Vernon), Corporal John C. Woodman (Corunna), John Blair, William H. Cole, Thomas E. Careyt Roswell R. Hickey, Loren Harrington, Robert Lawrence, George C. McCoy, Ivar Roberts, Charles P. Tillson, Hiram T. Youngs.; Company D,-William M. Case; Company E,-Second Lieutenant James H. Lyman (Shiawassee), Frank Payne; Company F,-Orange Storey; Company G,-Silas H. Alliton, J. G. Bentley, David R. Carrier, Harrison H. Carson, Silas W. Currier, Peter Dumond, Frederick Delano, Oliver C. Gaylord, John J. Gurnee, George W. Hanford, Harvey J. Hopkins, Joseph B. Miller, Austin Miller, Ellis Ott,

7'6 PAST AND PRESENT OF Russell Ryness, Thomas J. Smedley, Valentine Shaeppala, Seymour Shipman, Roswell Shipman, Asa D. Whitney; Company H,Adolphus Campbell; Company I,-Charles Campbell, John E. Herrick. FOURTH MICHIGAN CAVALRY The renowned Fourth Regiment of Michigan Cavalry was recruited and organized in the summer of 1862, Detroit being its place of rendezvous. Shiawassee county was represented in ten of the twelve companies. The regiment was mustered into the United States service August 29, 1862, with eleven hundred and eighty-six enlisted men and the usual complement of officers. The commanding officer was Colonel Robert H. G. Minty, previously lieutenant colonel of the Third Cavalry. The regiment left Detroit for the seat of war in Kentucky on the 26th of September, being hurried forward without preliminary drill to join General Buell's army in its operations against the army of the Confederate General Bragg. Crossing the Ohio river on the 10th of October, it pressed on with all speed to join the army of Buell and was soon engaged in the pursuit of the guerilla, John H. Morgan. Overtaking him at Stanford, Kentucky, the regiment led the column which attacked his forces at that place, Octolter 14th, defeating and pursuing them to Crab Orchard Springs. It also led in the attack on Lebanon, November 9th, five hundred and forty-three of its men pushing in Morgan's pickets at a gallop and driving out the guerrilla leader and his force of seven hundred and sixty men. During the latter part of the year the Fourth was with the Army of the Cumber land, taking part in the advance on Murfreesboro and in the great battle of Stone River, and participated in an important cavalry expedition which drove Forrest's, Wheeler's and Wharton's cavalry beyond the Harpeth river. In all of its many fights and skirmishes the regiment was always brilliantly successful until it reached the vicinity of Chattanooga, where it was several times repulsed. September 19th it fired the first shots in the disastrous battle of Chickamauga and subsequently protected the left and rear of Rosecran's army and the trains moving to Chattanooga. By the 1st of November, 1863, the service of the regiment had been so severe that only three hundred of the men were mounted. This battalion was actively engaged on picket and scout duty throughout the winter, the number of mounted men being reduced by the latter part of March, 1864, to one hundred and twenty-eight. In that month the men received new horses and equipments, and in April the command joined the Second Cavalry Division at Columbia, Tennessee. Thence it advanced with eight hundred and seventy-eight men into Georgia, where the cavalry began its arduous and dangerous service in co-operation with General Sherman's army, then advancing on Atlanta. In this campaign its hardest conflict was at Lattimore's Mill, where it took part in one of the most brilliant achievements of the war. Of the two hundred and eightythree officers and men engaged, thirty-seven were killed and wounded and three reported missing. In the spring of 1865 the regiment took part in a long and eventful raid through Alabama, and on the 20th of April the command

001I11WASSEE CO UNTY 77 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 77 reached Macon, Georgia, where the news of the surrender of Lee was the signal to cease fighting. The Fourth had won an enviable reputation for gallantry and steadfastness on the field of battle, but it was destined to gain still another title to renown by the capture of Jefferson Davis, the president of the now dead Confederacy-the figurehead of the "Lost Cause." While the regiment lay at Macon it became known that Davis and his suite were fleeing through central Georgia in the hope of escaping from the country. On the 7th of May the Fourth, under Lieutenant Colonel Pritchard, left Macon for the purpose of capturing the rebel chief and his party. Having struck the trail of the fugitives at Abbeville, on the 9th, Colonel Pritchard selected one hundred and fifty-three of his best mounted officers and men and moved rapidly by a circuitous route to intercept them. At Irwinsville, at one o'clock in the morning of the 10th of May, the colonel learned that a train which probably belonged to Davis was encamped a mile and a half distant. Moving out into the vicinity of the camp, he sent Lieutenant Purinton with twenty-five men to wait on the other side of it. At daybreak Colonel Pritchard and his men advanced silently and without being observed, to within a few rods of the camp, then dashed forward and secured the whole camp before the astonished inmates could grasp their weapons or even fairly arouse themselves from their slumbers.- The result was that this detachment of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry captured Davis, dressed partially in female attire, and that Colonel Pritchard, with twenty-five officers and men of the regiment detailed as a special escort, took their prisoner to Washington, whence he was transferred to the casements at Fortress Monroe. Soon after this event, the regiment marched to Nashville, Tennessee, where it was mustered out of service on the 1st of July, and nine days afterward was disbanded, at Detroit. Ninety-four battles and skirmishes are inscribed on the record of the Fourth Cavalry, and everyone in the list is an addition to its fame. Members of Fourth Cavalry from Shiawassee county: Company A,-Timothy Hill, Edward Ryno; Company B,-First Lieutenant Chauncey F. Shepard (Owosso), William Armidon, Erastus W. Blair, Baxter B. Bennett, Abel A. Bradley, Albert Babcock, Albert R. Bradley, Daniel F. Blair, Henry J. Pearce, George A. Chase, Charles Dean, Cyrus Dean, Benjamin Dutcher, Welton D. Fox, C. S. Fox, L. W. Harrington, Ira Johnson, George Jacobs, Charles F. Parker, William P. Stedman, Theodore Sanford, John D. Smith, Darias Watkins, William Weswell; Company C,-Ebtenezer Brewer, Thomas Brewer, Thaddeus M. Carr, Edwin L. Howe, Patrick Sweeney, H. H. Stewart, Emery T. Warle; Company E,-First Lieutenant Joshua W. Mann (Owosso), Homer A. Bristol, Edgar P. Byerly, George A. Bullard, Silas Bullard, Dewitt C. Carr, Stephen G. Fuller, David B. Green, L. R. McUmber, John Nelson, George M. Rose, Anson L. Simons, Thomas L. Spafford, William C. Stiff, George A. Underhill; Company F,Gilbert M. Hemingway, James St. John; Company H,-Albert Spinks. FIFTH MICHIGAN CAVALRY The Fifth Cavalry Regiment of Michigan was mustered into the United States service

PAST AND PRESENT OF I August 30, 1862, under command of Colonel Joseph T. Copeland. Men from Shiawassee enlisted in seven of its companies. One of the original field officers of the regiment was Major Ebenezer Gould, of Owosso, who was afterward promoted through the intermediate grade to that of colonel. From Detroit the Fifth moved to Washington in December and remained in camp on East Capitol Hill in that city, through the winter. In the spring of 1863 it was attached to the Second Brigade of the Third Division of the Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. This brigade became widel) famed as the Michigan Cavalry Brigade. It was commanded successively by Generals Kilpatrick and Custer, and is said to have gained the highest reputation of all cavalry brigades in the service. In February, 1863, the regiment crossed the Potomac and was encamped for more than two months at Fairfax Court House. Its duties were arduous and it was several times engaged in skirmishing, but without much loss until the opening of the campaign of Gettysburg. At this time the Fifth was under command of Colonel Russell A. Alger,-afterward General Alger, later governor of Michigan and now a member of the United States senate.' It moved northward on that campaign on the 27th of June, and from July 2d to July I4th, was in twelve hotly fought engagements. It is impracticable to give a detailed account of the almost innumerable marches and constantly changing movements which succeeded during that eventful year. During the winter of 1863-4 the regiment had its headquarters at Stevensburg, Virginia, and was empolyed mostly on picket duty, along the Rapidan. In February it took part in the raid made by the cavalry under Kilpatrick to the outer defenses of Richmond. In May the brigade, commanded by the fiery Custer, crossed the Rapidan and soon became engaged in the great battle of the Wilderness,-fighting mounted the first three days against the forces led by the renowned rebel cavalry leader, General Stuart. On the 9th of May the cavalry corps set out under General Sheridan on his great raid towards Richmond. From that time until the close of the war the Fifth was almost constantly engaged in the Virginia campaigns and at the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, was in the advance, the flag of truce to negotiate the surrender being sent through its line. The regiment participated in the review of the Army of the Potomac, May 23, 1865, and immediately afterward, with the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, was ordered to the western frontier. At Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the regiment was mustered out of the service, and returned to Detroit, where it arrived July 1, 1865. Members of Fifth Cavalry from Shiawassee county: Field and staff,-Colonel Ebenezer Gould (Owosso); Non-commissioned staff,-Sergeant Major Charles Y. Osborn (Owosso); Company D,-Thomas G. Ingersoll; Company F,-John Bemis, Sanford Bemis; Company G,-Second Lieutenant Emery L. Brewer (Owosso), A. H. Clark, Thomas Johnson, Patrick Mitchell; Company H,-Oliver C. Hollister, Robert Purdy; Company I,-Second Lieutenant William D. Ingersoll (Owosso); Company K,-Andrew J. Bemis, Adam Dell, Charles Edwards, William Edwards, Anson Howe, Milton

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 79 SHIAASSE COUTY I Hodge, George B. Lynds, Juliel W. Monroe, George W. Morme, Orville Ogden, Rowell P. Root, Milan S. Warren, Orlando F. Wilkinson, Allen I. Williams; Company M,-Jones H. McGowan. SIXTH MICHIGAN CAVALRY The Sixth Cavalry was one of the regiments composing the famed Michigan Brigade, which won imperishable laurels under the gallant Custer. Shiawassee soldiers were in seven of its companies, though principally found in Companies D and G. The first named of these companies entered the service under command of Captain David G. Royce, of Burns, and the other had for its first lieutenant Harrison N. Throop, of Owosso. The regiment was mustered into the service October 13, 1862, having on its rolls twelve hundred and twenty-nine officers and enlisted men. In the following December it proceeded to the seat of war in Virginia, and was encamped for a considerable time at Fairfax Court House. It saw some service in the early part of 1863, but was not engaged in any notable actions until the time when the rebel army of General Lee moved northward after the battle of Chancellorsville. In that campaign it fought gallantly in many engagements, the last being at Falling Waters, Maryland, July 14, in which the two companies principally made up of Shiawassee men distinguished themselves for bravery. Captain Royce, commanding Company D, died bravely there in the thunder and smoke of the charge. From that time the history of the regiment was practically the same as that of the Fifth Cavalry, recounted in the preceding pages, both regiments remaining in the same famous brigade. The Sixth, however, had a somrwhat longer term of service on the western frontier, net being mustered out until November 24, 1865. Members of Sixth Cavalry from Shiawassee county: Field and staff,-Assistant Surgeon James Sleeth (Byron); Company A,-Freeling Potter; Company D,-Captain David G. Royce (Burns), Commissary Sergeant Henry M. Billings (Burns), Sergeant Samuel C. Smith (Caledonia), Sergeant Alonzo Ferguson (New Haven), Corporal Charles Simpson (Burns), Corporal William H. Dailey (Burns), Musician William H. Rust (Burns), Musician Andrew J. Williams (Burns), Wagoner James W. Rathbone (Caledonia), Orin B. Arnold George W. Aldrich, Jacob H. Alliton, David C. Austin, Peter Boughton, Ezra D. Barnes, George W. Botsford, Augustus M. Barnes, Alexander Crawford, Henry Cole, David Campbell, Henry W. Cramer, Gilbert Dutcher, Edwin J. Emery, Ferdinand Euler, Alva F. Ewing, John H. Green, Philander Gleason, George R. Harris, Hartford Harding, George Hopkins, Jacob Haist, Horace Hart, Ira C. Harding, James M. Hath, John Judd, L. F. James, Edwin Judd, W. K. Kendall, Albert Lyon, D. S. Munger, Thomas Murray, Albert Otis, Truman Osgood, Samuel E. Pitts, Abraham Polly, William E. Parker, Allen W. Rhodes, Samuel Sherbourne, Ananias Stafford, Jacob Sciler, Martin Simpson, William H. Shaft, Joseph Shaffer, John VanDyke, Tiffany S. Wright, Dennis C. Welch; Company E,-George Bennett; Company F, -George Dutcher; Company G,-Quartermaster Sergeant Norton Gregory (Owosso),

80 PAST AND PRESENT OF Commissary Sergeant George B. W. Ingersoll (Owosso), Sergeant Isaac F. Parkhurst (New Haven), Sergeant Daniel I. Wyker (Owosso), Sergeant John B. Kay (Woodhull), Corporal William M. Linsey (New Haven), Corporal James N. Smith (Owosso), Corporal George H. Wyman (Owosso), Teamster Jacob Pettit (Owosso), Farrier Andrew P. Culp (Sciota), Farrier L. I. Eckler (Bennington), Joshua Austin, John Allen, Artemus W. Angel, James Bull, John Covel, Arthur Colyer, George Dutcher, Seth Dutcher, Isaac Duniston, John Duniston, George Edwards, Avery D. French, Henry H. Frain, Albert N. Frain, Samuel Graham, Lewis E. Galusha, John E. Graham, Henry Herst, George W. Judd, John H. Moon, Jesse Monroe, Abraham Ott, Peter I. Putnam, John E. Potter, John P. Ream, Oliver H. Rathbone, John P. Ray, Almond N. Stephen, George Stickler, Samuel J. Southworth, James Vanderhoof, Christian Wolenburgh, William F. Williams, Orange Williams; Company H,-Captain Henry L. Wise (Caledonia); Company K,-Captain H. N. Throop (Owosso). TENTH MICHIGAN CAVALRY Company H of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry was raised in Shiawassee county, by Captain Peter N. Cook, of Antrim, who was its original commanding officer. Company F was largely made up of Shiawassee men, recruited in the county by Captain Chauncey F. Shepard, of Owosso, who had previously served in both the First and Fourth Cavalry regiments. The Tenth was mustered into the service at Grand Rapids, with Colonel Thaddeus I I Foote as its commanding officer. Leaving its rendezvous on the 1st of December, 1863, it was transported to Lexington, Kentucky. After spending some time in different camps in that state it was moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, about the 1st of March, 1864. During the remainder of the year the regiment, was stationed. at different points in Tennessee, and took part in a number of serious engagements in that vicinity, oneat Carter's Station-resulting in a loss of seventeen in killed and wounded. On the 4th of September the Tenth attacked the forces of General John A. Morgan at Greenville, routed them, took a large number of prisoners and killed the guerrilla chief. The remainder of that month its men were continually in the saddle, in pursuit of Wheeler's and other rebel cavalry, frequently overtaking and fighting them, though not taking part in any general battle. In December the regiment marched to Saltville, Virginia, where it assisted in destroying the Confederate salt works at that place. After the accomplishment of the purpose for which the force was sent out, it returned to Knoxville, being engaged in several skirmishes during the movement. Remaining at Knoxville until the latter part of March, 1865, the Tenth, with its brigade, joined an expedition to North Carolina, under General Stoneman. Its next movement was northward into Virginia, where, in April, it took part in the destruction of nearly one hundred miles of the Virginia & Tennessee Railway line. At Henry Court House, on the 8th of April, it was attacked by a heavy rebel force of cavalry and infantry, but successfully held its ground, with only a slight loss. A few more skirmishes in that month fin

SHIAW~tASSEE COUN~lTI-11 81 SHIA ASSE C~UTY 8 ished the fighting of the Tenth Cavalry. When news of the surrender of Johnston's army was received, the regiment was sent on an expedition having for its object the capture of Jefferson Davis, but in this it was forestalled by the Fourth Michigan Cavalry. It was then ordered westward through Alabama into Tennessee and remained on duty in that state until November 11th, when it was mustered out of service, at Memphis, and proceeded directly to Michigan. Members of Tenth Cavalry from Shiawassee county: Field and staff,-Major P. N. Cook (Antrim), Chaplain Henry Cherry (Owosso); Non-commissioned staff,-Sergeant Major L. T. Rounswell (Caledonia), Chief Musician John L. Wild (Caledonia); Company A,-Captain Myron A. Converse (Corunna), First Lieutenant John R. Bennett (Shiawassee); Company D,-A. F. Carlton; Company F,-Captain Chauncey F. Shepherd (Owosso), First Lieutenant John L. Wild (Corunna), Commissary Sergeant Wilson M. Burk (Owosso), Sergeant James R. Conklin (Owosso), Sergeant Eber D. Jackson (Caledonia), Sergeant Albert K. McBride (Caledonia), Sergeant Perry Swain (Vernon), Sergeant Joel M. Jackson (Caledonia), Corporal John Parsons (Perry), Corporal Edward S. Treadway (Perry), Corporal Lewis T. Putnam (Vernon), Corporal Daniel Morehouse (Middlebury), Farrier David W. Palmer (Caledonia), Musician Elisha P. Tew (Caledonia), Saddler Abner Sears (Burns), Wagoner Albert A. Barnes (Caledonia), Henry E. Angus, Alon Beckley, Robert H. Barton, Charles M. Calkins, Daniel Conklin, Oscar F. Card, Edward F. Clifford, Hiram Clark, Charles Conklin, Levi Eldridge, Charles D. Foster, William E. Forney, Elisha Gleason, William Gleason, George Howe, George W. Harris, Reuben J. Holmes, Andrew J. Hovey, Willard S. Hawthorn, Hiram Halleck, Peter Namlin, Andrew Hart, Albert E. Huntley, Samuel Holcomb, Henry Howe, Friend D. Jackson, Carpenter Jacobs, Lambert Johnson, David Kinyon, Charles Kinney, Daniel Kief, Otis Lamunyon, James Mole, Henry C. McCarty, Jerry M. Mallery, Alvin Owen, Daniel Owen, Edward Putnam, Frank Putnam, John N. Pratt, George F. Prior, George R. Simms, John Snow, William Thomas, John D. Thomas, William R. Wolcott, John Woodruff; Company G,Second Lieutenant Lucien A. Chase (Owosso), Levi Hall, James H. Morgan; Company H,-Captain Edgar P. Byerly (Owosso), Second Lieutenant J. Q. A. Cook (Antrim), Sergeant John L. Banks (Shiawassee), Sergeant Lewis Decker (Antrim), Sergeant Aaron Herrick (Shiawassee), Sergeant David F. Tyler (Perry), Sergeant Jacob N. Decker (Antrim), Sergeant Samuel B. Revenaugh (Shiawassee), Sergeant Robert D. Adam (Antrim), Corporal Samuel H. Graham (Woodhull), Corporal William H. Bachelder (Antrim), Corporal John N. Baker (Antrim), Corporal Stephen D. Stedman (Perry), Corporal Platt S. Pelton (Shiawassee), Corporal Andrew Bliss (Burns), Corporal Charles F. Coles (Shiawassee), Musician Gideon Whitman, Musician Samuel H. Bennett, Saddler George Hart, George Bentley, Francis M. Baker, William Battishill, William R. Bugbee, E. E. Barnes, Walter Brown, Hector E. Bentley, John S. Babcock, Edgar Cole, George W. Colf, Ardrew Crowell, Samuel W. Carr, L. A. Decker, Peter Dumond, Benjamin Dufreze, 6

82 PAST AND PRESENT OF 8 PS AND PRESNT O George P. Dean, Samuel H. Graham, Hale P. Goodwin, Daniel B. Herrington, Truman W. Hemingway, Reuben C. Hutchings, Hiram Johnson, Sylvester Ketchum, Alfred Lamunyon, John R. Lucas, John C. Levy, Robert Lyons, Arthur Mead, George F. Merrill, William F. McDivit, Loren D. Peck, Martin Pierce, Thomas Ratigan, Samuel Robinson, William A. Richardson, John W. Simpson, William H. Shaw, Hiram W. Stevens, Almon M. Sandford, William 0. Sherburne, Allen Scott, Allen Terberry, William Vaughn, Frederick Wolf; Company I,Captain William E. Cummings (Corunna), Melvin Haughtland; Companiy M,-William M. Decker, George W. Hickox, William Roberts, Charles Thomas. COMPANY H, MICHIGAN NATIONAL GUARD The history of Shiawassee county's one military organization-Company H, of the Third Regiment, Michigan National Guard -has been one of hard work and self-sacrifice; of conscientious effort well repaid, however, by the important position which Company H occupies in National Guard circles. The first military organization since the days of the civil war was a body of young men who perfected a company on May 12, 1891, with the idea of applying for the first vacancy which should appear in the roster of the state troops. It was called the "Owosso Light Infantry," and its officers were: Paul M. Roth, captain; Fred H. Gould, first lieutenant; and M. Roy Osburn, second lieutenant. The company met in Grow's hall, and though entirely ignorant of even the first principles of drill, except theoretically, went to work with a will to learn the duties and bearing of soldiers. The present captain of the company, W. M. Case, was right guide, as he seemed to bhe the only man who could keep the correct cadence while marching. How he obtained this proficiency was plain to anyone who saw him going to his work in the morning or returning at night, for he wore a sort of "pacingharness" of cord which allowed him to take a step of the regulation military length and no longer. With such a spirit actuating every man in the company, it was not long before the drilling was sufficiently good to secure the Owosso Light Infantry its coveted place in the National Guard. The company was mustered into the state service on Oct. 28, 1891, and became Company G of the Third Regiment. The next year the boys attended their first state camp and, because of the fact that nearly every man was in his teens or very early twenties, G was dubbed the "kid company." On October 19th of the same year forty-one of the members of the company went to the Columbian exposition, in Chicago, and stayed a week. On Thanksgiving day, after their return, the cornerstone of the armory which they now occupy was laid with appropriate ceremony. The present mayor of Owosso, Hon. Stanley E. Parkill, delivered the principal address on that occasion. On the 1st of February, 1893, the company moved into the armory. At the state encampment of this year Owosso furnished a field officer from its citizenship, Captain Roth. The company continued to prosper and was a fine organization when it marched to the train on April 26, 1898, and left for the state rendezvous at Island Lake, war with Spain having been declared.

SHIAW~tASSEE COUNTY' 83 SE The physical examination at camp cost the company twenty-twro men, including its two lieutenants,- L. G. Heyer and Z. H. Ross. Captain Arthur J. Van Epps passed successfully, but much to his regret and that of the men he commanded, was not allowed to go to Cuba with his company, being kept in the states for recruiting service. The company was mustered into the United States service on May 15, as Company G of the Thirty-Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and had a full membership, eightyfour men. When it was decided to raise the regiments to, the war strength of one hundred and six men per company, Company G readily obtained its quota of twenty-two at home, but as events proved, these recruits were to be denied the trip to Cuba. They reached Dunn-Loring, Camp Alger, Virginia, where the company had gone some weeks prior to the enlistment of the extra men, on June 22d, the day the regiment left for Alexandria on its way down the Potomac for Newport News and the scene of war. As part of Shafter's Fifth Army Corps, the Thirty-Third Michigan reached CulSa, by the "Yale," on Monday morning, June 27th, and disembarked at Siboney. One of the proudest memories which members of the old Company G have, is their participation in the attack on Santiago, the historic 1st of July, 1898. The company, together with the remainder of the regiment, was detailed to harass the fort at Aguadores, on the seacoast, at the extreme southwest end of the Spanish fortifications. The regiment lost several killed and wounded in that and subsequent fights at the same point, but there were no casualties in the Owosso company. These skirmishes before Aguadores earned six Owosso men the distinction of receiving honorable mention, on their discharge papers, for distinguished services. The six were Corporal Seth E. Beers, who was wigwag signal man for the fleet and land forces, and Joseph Kelly, -M. J. Phillips, Harry H. Van Dyne, Archie Hammond and Ernest Smith. As sharpshooters these five volunteered to go ahead on to a high hill opposite the enemy's fortifications, and there draw the fire of the enemy, so that his position could be clearly defined for the gunboats and battleships which were co-operating in the attack. There were eighteen sharpshooters in all, and the work planned for them they fulfilled most completely. Those of Company G who died from disease in Cuba were Privates Daniel J. Maloney, and Louis Tick; and Sergeant Henry Conners; those who died in hospitals in America or shortly after returning home were Privates Schuyler Crane, Elbert Peckworth, and Artificier William Simmington. In 1899, the first year after the war, there was no state encampment of the Michigan. National Guard, but there was a reorganization, and Company G, by reason of its order of admission to the regiment became Company H, which letter it still retains. In 1900 the company went to camp with a new commanding officer, George B. McCaughna, who had been chosen for the place by unanimous vote of the membership. The excellent standing which the company had always held was bettered, if anything, and the organization ranked, as it still ranks, as one of the three best in the state service. Under Captain McCaughna's leadership rifle practice was taken up and fostered. In time the captain was promoted to a

84 PAST AND PRESENT OF 84 PAST AND PRESENT OF majorship, and he was succeeded by Captain Z. H. Ross. The high standard was maintained, but the company and the citizens generally were grieved when it became necessary, and in the spring of 1905, for Captain Ross to resign, an unfortunate railroad accident having deprived him of his leg. Captain Willard M. Case, who was second lieutenant of the company in the war, became the captain, by unanimous choice, and it is high praise to say that Captain Case is aiming as high as his predecessors and succeeding as well. If there is any department where Company H excels to-day it is in the most important of all,-accuracy of marksmanship. The company has been a pioneer in this line, and on the teams which have gone annually from Michigan to Fort Riley, Kansas, or Sea Girt, New Jersey, to compete in the national rifle matches, Owosso has had four men. When it is considered that there are about fortyfive places in the state where state troops are stationed, and there are but fifteen men on the team, Owosso's prowess can be appreciated. Major McCaughna, who learned to shoot in the Indian country while a member of the famous Seventh United States Cavalry, is always a member of the team. Within the winter of 1905-6 the company has had several competitions on the gallery range, for three gold medals, and a score or more of excellent shots have been developed. The company has an outdoor range of six hundred yards at Henderson, and so keen is the interest in target practice that every week day during the summer squads of from five to fifteen hire conveyances and drive to the range to perfect themselves in this fascinating branch of a soldier's art. Since it was organized the company has contributed the following field and staff officers to the Third infantry: Majors, George B. McCaughna, Arthur M. Hume; surgeon, Paul M. Roth; captain, Rev. Carlos H. Hanks, chaplain; first lieutenant, Michael J. Phillips, battalion adjutant. The personnel of the company at the present time is as follows: Captain, W. M. Case; First Lieutenant, F. E. VanDyne; Second Lieutenant, G. M. Hunt; First Sergeant, S. M. Campbell; Quartermaster Sergeant, A. Snyder; Sergeants,-C. Gabriel, Frank E. Evans, Charles Layman, Oscar Reynolds; corporals, -W. C, Dick, Miles Cook, D. K. Parker, James Orth, Fred Osmer, Claud Willoughby, George Fuller, Verne Miller; musician,Charles Scheer; cooks,-Charles J. McNally, William McBride; artificer,-E. Hodge; privates,-William Axford, Albert Brandel, O. Bailey, F. Bailey, F. Belz, O. Bartz, L. Byerly, R. B. Campbell, Thomas Crittenden, J. B. Dowdigan, Bert Dutcher, Richard Doane, B. Giffie, F. Girrard, E. H. Hayes, Victor Hollis, Claire Irish, J. B. Johnson, F. Johnson, Edward Lynch, Barney Layman, Harry Loch, Myron McCreedy, H. Nelson, J. D. Priest, Glenn Reynolds, Roy Reynolds, M. H. Rourke, Herman Schlaack, John Schroader, Otto Schroader, Floyd Snyder, Frank Shier, Joseph Shier, Charles Spring, Edward Sahs, R. J. Tick, L. VanWagoner, Steven Watson, Earl Wilber, C. Montgomery, W. Montgomery, W. Pulver, Arthur Moyses, F. Giffie, W. Beyer, P. Bartz, W. Getchel, H. Marrian, B. Hart.

I SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 85 SHI WASEC-NY8 ROADS AND RAILROADS Wherever immigrants of the Anglo-Saxon race have established themselves as pioneers in wild interior regions, the opening of routes of travel between their isolated settlements and the nearest civilized communities has been one of the first labors they have been called upon to perform. In many cases, when the country was heavily timbered, as in the greater part of the county of Shiawassee, this was a heavy task and one to which the pioneer was sometimes obliged to attend before he could transport his family and their movables to the place which he had chosen for a home. If his location had been selected in a country of openings, he still had some labor to perform in clearing a path through thickets or in filling wet places with brushwood, to allow the passage of his team; and even if he was immigrating on foot, without the convenience of either wagon or animals, he sometimes found it necessary to fell a tree or two across a watercourse, to serve as a foot-bridge for his wife and children, with their scanty stock of household goods. And whether the work was light or heavy, the opening of these rude tracks to pioneer settlements was road-making,-the first step in the direction of public internal improvements in all new countries remote from navigable waters. The earliest highways in the section of country to which this history has reference were the Indian trails, several of which were found traversing the territory of Shiawassee county at the time when the first settlers came here. The most important of these was the one known as the Grand River trail, which, leaving that river at the mouth of the Looking Glass, passed up the last named stream on its northern side, through Clinton county to LaingsSurg, and thence through Shiawassee county, by way of Pittsburg and Hartwellville, to a point where an ancient Indian village was situated, on the Looking Glass, in the present township of Antrim. This, the more southerly branch, known as the Red Cedar trail, passed south to the Cedar river in Livingston county, but the main Grand River trail continued eastward from Hartwellville, through Fremont,-passing just east of the present village of Bancroft,-and crossed the Shiawassee river near the Grand Saline, or where Burns postoffice was afterward located (better known as Knaggs' Bridge). From there it bore away southeast to Byron and thence across the southwest corner of Genesee county and the northwest corner of Livingston into and through Oakland county to Pontiac and Detroit. The Saginaw trail passed from the great Indian camp ground at Saginaw up the Saginaw and Shiawassee rivers to the "great crossing" of the latter stream (Knaggs' Bridge), where it joined the Grand River trail. Another trail came up the Maple river through Clinton and Shiawassee counties, joining the other two at the Grand Saline, but its course cannot now be accurately traced. Besides these there were a number of others of less importance traversing the county, and some of them were selected as the routes of early roads to the settlements.

86 PAST AND PRESENT OF 86 PAT AN PRESNT O When Richard Godfroy came to establish his trading post at the great crossing of the Shiawassee, in 1828, he brought his goods from Oakland county by way of the Indian village of Kopenicorning and across the south part of Genesee county to his destination. The wagon in which these goods were transported was without doubt the first vehicle, as the route over which it came was the first road-and that only a wagon track through the woods-which existed within any part of the territory of these two counties. In the year 1833 a road was cut through the woods over very nearly the same route from Kopenicorning, in the extreme northwest corner of Oakland county, to the Williams trading post, this being done mainly by the proprietors of that post, assisted by the few settlers who had then located themselves on or in the neighborhood of its line. The principal one of all the early roads in these counties was that known as the Pontiac and Grand River road running from Pontiac to Ionia. It ran from Pontiac westward through Oakland and passed "HilLman's Tavern" in the township of Tyrone, Livingstone county, whence its route was by the way of Byron, Knaggs' post, Fremont, Hartwellville, and Laingsburg, and thence through Clinton county into Ionia. The pioneer travelers over this road, or at least the Shiawassee part of it, were members of a party of colonists who were brought from the state of New York by Judge Samuel W. Dexter, to settle on lands which had been purchased by him in Ionia county. This party of immigrants, numbering sixty-three persons, arrived at the Grand Sa line in the early part of May, 1833. The trading post was then in charge of John Knaggs and Antoine Beaubien. In the party there were six or seven families, besides several single persons, all traveling with wagons, containing their movable property, and having with them oxen, cows and swine. Their journey westward from the Grand Saline has been described by Mr. B. 0. Williams. The account is as follows: "Having in vain tried to get Beaubien to pilot them, Messrs. Dexter, Yeomans and Wisner came to us for help. I left our planting, taking my blankets and small tent, and in six days landed them in lonia, looking out the route and directing where the road was to be. This was the first real colonizing party we had ever seen-myself having never been farther than De Witt. I then induced Macketapenace (Blackbird), a son of Kishkawko, the usurping chief of all the Saginaws, to pilot us past Muskrat creek, and from there proceeded with the party. At that point a son of Judge and Mrs. Dexter, a child of about two years old, died of scarlet fever. We buried the child by torchlight, in a box improvised by the party. * * * The road we opened was next year followed by others, and was substantially the Grand river road through Shiawassee and Clinton counties, and was traveled for many years after." On the 9th of March, 1844, the Governor approved "an act to establish and improve the Pontiac and Grand River road," over the route which has already been described. From time to time amendatory acts were passed providing for the appointment of commissioners to examine the road and supertend improvements thereon. Under the

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 87 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 87 povisions of these and subsequent acts appropriating non-resident taxes, and by labor applied by the highway officers of the several townships traversed by the road, it was gradually worked and made passable in its entire length. It was for many years an important thoroughfare and is still sometimes mentioned by its ancient name-the Pontiac and Grand River road. The first and second legislatures of the state of Michigan appear to have wasted much presumably valuable time in passing acts authorizing the laying out of state roads. In fact a number of succeeding legislatures, which bodies might have been expected to possess accumulated wisdom, were guilty of the same extravagance. A number of these roads, as planned, ran through the territory of Shiawassee county and most of them were designed to have their eastern termini at Pontiac. Had the state made appropriations even to assist in the laying out of these roads, the object of persons interested in their establishment would be more apparent; but as it was provided that in establishing "any of the roads named the state shall not be liable for the expenses or damages incurred thereby," and since very few of the roads ever were laid out, it is difficult to perceive the benefits derived from the profession of authorizing acts. A few years later, projects for the construction of plank roads became so popular that many persons believed that this kind' of highway was destined to come into universal use and to supersede the common road. Between the years 1847 and 1850 a number of companies were formed, and duly incorporated under the laws of the state, for the purpose of building plank roads from Pontiac, Saginaw, and other places from which supplies were commonly shipped into the interior, to points in the county or beyond its boundaries. None of the companies ever built their proposed roads, but, as the county in 1850 had a population of somewhat more than five thousand, dependent upon horses and oxen for the transportation of the necessaries of life, it is not difficult to understand the general desire for establishment of permanent roads. Very soon after Michigan became a state the legislature passed "an act to provide for the construction of certain works of internal improvement," by which a board of commissioners was authorized to cause surveys to be made for three railroad routes across the southern peninsula. These were called the Central, Southern, and Northern Railroads. In the course of time the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern were built, substantially as proposed in those early plans. The Northern line 'was surveyed and located to run from the St. Clair to Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Grand river, passing through the central part of Shiawassee county. More than sixty thousand dollars was expended in clearing and grading, considerable work being done in the vicinity of Owosso, but the plan was abandoned in 1841. The result of the numerous laws passed and appropriations made for the construction of this roalroad, was the clearing of the route and the grading of portions of it into an indifferent wagon road, which never proved to be of much practical advantage to the county. Many other railroad schemes began to attract public attention. In 1837 a company incorporated with a capital stock of

88 PAST ANID PRESENVT OF 8 PAST AND.PRESENT. OF. five hundred thousand dollars was given authority to construct a railroad "with a single or double track" from Detroit to Shiawassee village, by the way of Byron, but no part of the line was ever built. Not until 1856 did a railroad into Shiawassee county become an accomplished fact. In that year was completed the line now known as the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee division of the Grand Trunk system, the pioneer train reaching Owosso on the 1st of July, amid a joyful demonstration by the inhabitants. Eighteen years before, the eastern link of this road, known as the Detroit & Pontiac Railroad, was completed as far as Royal Oak, the track being composed of strap rails, and even of wooden rails for parts of the distance, and the cars being drawn by horses. In the fall of 1839 the. road was extended to Birmingham and steam was introduced as a motive power. In September of that year the Pontiac newspapers contained the advertisement of "Henry J. Buckley, agent and conductor," informing the public that the trains were then running two trips a day between De-* troit and Birmingham and making connection at the latter place with a daily line of "post coaches" for Pontiac and Flint, and semi-weekly line to Lyons, on the Grand river, by way of Byron and Dewitt. The Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad, as it was first named, enters the county in the township of Vernon, crossing the western boundary in Middlebury, nearly due west of Owosso. The stations on the line within the county are Durand, Vernon, Corunna, Owosso and Burton. The line now called the Saginaw division of the Michigan Central Railroad was opened for traffic between Lansing and Owosso in November, 1862, the entire line being completed in 1867. Its route lies through the townships of Sciota, Bennington, Owosso and Rush, crossing that of the old Detroit & Milwaukee at Owosso. The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company was incorporated in August, 1874, the object of its formation being the construction of a line between Lansing and Flint, as a link in the through line between Port Huron and Chicago. This was cornpleted and formally opened in February, 1877, and was operated as a part of the "Chicago & Lake Huron" road. A few years later the entire line came into the possession of the Grand Trunk Company and it is now known as the Grand Trunk Western. It is an important part of that great system, having an immense freight traffic, and having a double track its entire length. The.road enters the county in Vernon township, having a junction at Durand with three other lines, and passes out of the county at its extreme southeastern corner, its Shiawassee stations being Durand, Bancroft, Morrice, Perry and Shaftsburg. The Cincinnati, Saginaw & Mackinaw division of the Grand Trunk Railroad runs from Durand northward through the extreme eastern portion of the county to Bay City. This is an important branch of the main line and a good feeder, bringing considerable business from the prosperous sections of country through which it passes. The Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon division of the Grand Trunk Railroad runs from Owosso to Muskegon, a distance of one hundred and seventeen miles. This linfe passes through a good section of country,

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 89 SHAASE CONY8 many thriving towns and villages being on the line. The Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan Railroad was projected in 1885 by James Ashley and his sons, H. W. and James Ashley. This road had a varied experience in building and but for the indomitable will of the projectors would have failed. It runs from Toledo, Ohio, in a northwesterly direction across the state to Frankfort, Michigan, and from that point immense steel ferries now transport heavy loaded trains across Lake Michigan to Menominee, Kewaunee, and Green Bay. The road has a large business in hauling ore and grain as well as other products. The road now known as the Ann Arbor enters Shiawassee county in Burns township near the southeastern corner and cuts diagonally across the county, passing out of it through Fairfield township in the northwest corner. The stations in the county are Byron, Durand, Vernon, Corunna, Owosso and Carland. When the railroad was first built the division and shops were located at Owosso, which became an important railroad center. In 1893 the division was removed to Durand and remained there for years, when it was returned to Owosso. The shops have grown in size and importance and build passenger and freight cars and also do all kinds of repair work, being splendidly equipped with all modern appliances. The road has been wisely managed and has become a very important piece of railroad property, which increases in value every year as the northern country through which it runs becomes better developed. THE COUNTY SEAT August 4, 1824, William Woodb'ridge, acting governor of Michigan Territory, approved an act providing for the appointment of commissioners to locate the seat of justice of Shiawassee county. The commissioners duly reported that they had selected the village of Byron and had there established the county site. The county then embraced portions of Livingston, Ingham, and Genesee counties, and Byron was near its territorial center. When the county was reduced to its present size the legislature passed an act, dated 1836, vacating the seat of justice in Shiawassee county, the reason being that the county site was within one mile of its eastern and two and one-half. miles of its southern boundaries, making apparent the necessity for a selection of a new site nearer the center of the county. The governor appointed three commissioners to locate a new site. They were appointed March 12, 1836, and on the first day of the following month filed their report, locating the county site at Corunna. Proclamation was issued by the governor July 1st of that year, confirming the location. October 7, 1839, the board of county commissioners accepted a block of land in the village of Corunna, designated as the "public square" offered as a donation to the county. An unconditional deed to the same was recorded October 20, 1842. Stephen

90 PAST AND PRESENTT OF 90 PAST AN P OF-....-.. Hawkins secured the contract for the erection of the first county building, the cost of which was $382.50. The office building was about twenty by thirty feet in size, situated near the northwest corner of the 'square," and was built of wood. A few years later another building, twenty by thirty-six feet, who were then again in charge of affairs, deemed that it was expedient at that time to take the necessary steps for the erection of a court house, and a committee was appointed, consisting of Supervisors Parsons, Holley, Harder, and Cummins. They reported the next day, recommending a build COURT HOUSE IN i864 was rented for thirty dollars per annum and was used for the purpose of holding the circuit court. In 1842 the commissioners de. cided to submit to the people the question of raising four thousand dollars for a new court house, but the proposition was defeated. In April, 1850, the board of supervisors, ing forty by sixty feet, two stories high, the upper part to be a court room and two jury rooms, the lower part to be divided in the center lengthwise by a hall eight feet wide. The sides were to be divided into six rooms, two of which were to be fitted as a jail, the others for the accommodation of the county

SHIAWASSEE CO UNTY 91 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 91 officers. The walls were to be of brick and the committee believed that the building could be erected for four thousand five hundred dollars. The report was adopted and plans set in action to carry out the recommendation of the committee. The contract for the building was let to George O. Bachman, and the building was to be completed November 1, 1851. It was placed in charge of the sheriff on January 6, 1854, but it is evident the building was used for perhaps two years prior to that date. On July 9, 1865, a resolution was adopted that the offices occupied by the register and treasurer were too small and inconvenient and were also unsafe for the records and that it was desirable and proper that suitable offices be provided. It was therefore decided that a fire-proof building be erected for the use of those officers, not to exceed three thousand dollars in cost. These last two buildings were occupied by the county until April, 1903, when the county having voted an appropriation of seventy-five thousand dollars to erect a new court house, the old building was abandoned and torn down to make room for the new building. The corner stone of the present court house was laid Wednesday, May 4, 1904, according to the forms and customs of the ancient craft of Free and Accepted Masons, Grand Master Fletcher E. Turrell, assisted by the grand lodge officers, officiating. The impressive ceremonies were witnessed by the largest concourse of people that had ever assembled in Shiawassee county on any occasion, the event attracting thousands of citizens who desired to witness a ceremony which ordinarily occurs but once in a lifetime. The building was first occupied by the county officers January 1, 1906. The first regular term of court held in the court room was opened by Judge Selden S. Miner, January 22, 1906. CORNER STONE LAYING The laying of the corner stone for the new court house in Corunna, May 24, 1904, was one of the important events in the history of Shiawassee county; and the committee of arrangements did the most appropriate thing in inviting Judge Hugh McCurdy to deliver the address. This speech has become a part of the history of the county and will be read with interest by generations yet unborn. He spoke substantially as follows: "Last week, at the request of the committee, I called upon Judge Josiah Turner, of Owosso, and requested him to be present to-day as the guest of honor of the county of Shiawassee. I found the venerable jurist in good health for a man of ninety-two years, and his intellect clear and strong as of yore. "He informed me that he thought he would not be able to be present at the laying of the corner stone, much as he desired to be. However, he entertained a lively hope that he would be able to be present at the dedication of the new court house. He also desired me to tender the citizens of Shiawassee county his congratulations for the good work in which they were engaged, and to thank them most sincerely for elect

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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 9 ) SHIA ASSE C~UTY l.; -I ing him to the judgeship of this county for twenty-five years-just one-half of the lifetime of the old court house. However, he hardly expected to preside upon its bench for that long period. "Mr. Chairman, Most Worshipful Grand Master, Brethren, Sir Knights and Neighbors of the County of Shiawassee: The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone in the corner. It is good to celebrate events that conspicuously mark human progress. The records of the race are full of precedents for the spirit that calls us together now. That Bible, ever open upon our altars, which we all venerate and which plays so significant a part in the symbolism of our Ancient and Accepted Order, furnishes many instances of the festival spirit, but none more sharply engages our interest in the laying of corner stones than we find recorded in the Bible, and the dedication of temples of which the Old Testament gives so flowing an account. It would be presumptuous in me to enlarge upon an event with which every Bible scholar here is familiar-and I take it that all good Free Masons are Bible scholars. "Just now we are concerned in a twentieth-century event, but there is solemn majesty in the thought that our traditions directly connect us with that remote Old Testament which attaches to the laying of corner stones. In the book of Job, believed to be the oldest literary production extant, the Great Architect and Builder of the Universe is thus reported to have addressed the Patriarch: 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? I I Whereupon are the foundations fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof?' The importance of the corner stone is further acknowledged by the figurative and symbolical use for which it is often employed. It is recorded in the book of Isaiah, 'therefore thus saith the Lord God: behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation.' "The custom of laying the corner stone with public demonstrations of great pomp and ceremony is of very early origin. The corner stone of Westminster Abbey was laid on the 24th day of June, 1502, by a lodge of Master Masons, at which King Henry VII. presided in person, as grand master. In 1607 the corner stone of the palace of Whitehall was laid by King James I., in the presence of Grand Master Jones and his wardens, who were attended by many brethren, clothed in form, and other eminent persons, who had been invited on the occasion. The ceremony was conducted with great show and splendor. In 1673 the corner stone of St. Paul's cathedral, London, was laid in solemn form by King George I., attended by Grand Master Rivers, his architect and craftsman, in the presence of the nobility and gentry the lord mayor and aldermen, the bishop and clergy and a large assembly of the brethren; and in this country the corner stones of nearly all the public buildings are laid with Masonic ceremonies. The corner stone of the first national' capitol at Washington was laid by Brother George Washington, president of the United States, acting as grand master of the grand lodge of the State of Virginia, on the 18th day of September, 1793; and the corner stone of the capitol of this state, at Lansing, was laid f 4 ~ *,S

94 PAST AND PRESENT OF 94 with Masonic ceremonies on Thursday, the 2d day of October, 1879, by Grand Master Hugh McCurdy and the officers of the grand lodge, and there were present thirty-one subordinate lodges from different parts of the state. The grand commandery of Knights Templars and twenty-one subordinate commanderies were also present. The governor and all the state officers and judges were present, and it was one of the grandest gala days the state has ever witnessed. "Free Masons were originally a company of builders. Their monuments of matchless skill adorn the world and challenge the admiration of the earth. Their masterly models for modern imitation have existed ever since symmetry began to be a science, and the rules of harmony displayed her charms. "The craft were associated not only for the promotion of architectural science, but also for the maintenance of that high order of integrity which is the dictate of divine law. And, although, in the lapse of time, our operative labors have been brought to a close, there is yet a peculiar fitness in calling upon our ancient fraternity to shape and lay the corner stone of this contemplated temple of justice. Though empires of the old world have risen, flourished and fallen, dynasties have come and gone, and ages upon ages have rolled away, yet Free Masonry, true to its history and work, and stronger and higher than ever, comes to-day, at the budding of the twentieth century, to perform a grand and solemn ceremony, taught it by a fraternity that dates its dawn early enough to have had the wise King of Israel for a building master. It may have outlived the circumstances of its origin; and the necessities which called it into existence may have long since passed away, no longer to shape its distinctive features; but the hand of time has not been laid upon its grand living principle of 'charity,' which stands to-day and will forever remain the crowned queen among the virtues. It may have no more monuments of stone to rear; yet never, since the days of Hiram, King of Tyre, did it have nobler functions than it this day performs. "Springing from the source of light, its rays illuminate the world and radiate an effulgent brilliance from all its ceremonies. Its principles, having the sanction of the Great Jehovah, and laying their foundation deep in the truths of His revealed word, inspire its work to-day. In no view, then, is the application of the Plumb, Level and Square to the chosen corner stone an idle ceremony. It must be a perfect square, strong and durable-well formed, true and trusty; and in these requirements as well as in the implements we use, every Mason and citizen may see the symbols of that noble manhood, which, standing on the plain of equality, regulates its conduct by the Plumb line of Rectitude, the Square of Virtue and the Trowel of Brotherly Love. On the corner stone, when it is well and truly laid, are poured the significant elements of corn, wine and oil-the emblems of plenty, refreshment and consolation. May the blessings symbolized by these elements descend upon all who are engaged in the work of erecting this building to be set apart for the use of the judiciary and officials of this county; and may the work prosper to a speedy and happy completion and remain for years to come a monument to the zeal, intelligence and liberality of the county of Shiawassee and to its

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 95 SHIA WASSEE CUNTY 95 devotion to the rights of men and the honor of God. "No matter how minutely we go into craft we shall see that Free Masonry is and always has b'een the promoter of true social advancement, a conservator of morals, a guaranty of good citizenship, an upholder of the history and the personnel of our Christianity, a means of spreading education, a prolific nest of patriotism, and a fabric whose warp and woof are the imperishable and invincible principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity -Liberty, the choicest gift of heaven, without which life were as nothing; Equality, wherein men are brothers, as man and man should be; and Fraternity, the last best fruit, Jean Paul Richter says, which comes to perfection-tenderness toward the hard, forbearance toward the unforbearing; warmth of heart toward the cold and philanthropy toward the misanthropic. "Surely there is somewhat of truth in the old fantastic conceit that 'the heart of man is older than his head.' And where shall we find a greater heart, or a kindlier beating heart, than in the Masonic fold. The life and example of the men I see here form a tree whose fruit must be golden and of good savor, and under the grateful shade of whose spreading limbs men and Free Masons shall refresh themselves and rest during many coming generations, long after our swords are rust and we are dust. "Side by side with the administration of the functions of municipal government shall the supremacy of the law be maintained in this temple. "Devotion to law, fidelity to duty, loyalty to the principles of self-government have ever distinguished the Anglo-Saxon race. The sturdy qualities of mind and body, which have been the glory of this people, have been the sustaining force of the ideas of liberty. Through its history runs this spirit. Its earliest records show a comprehension of the significant fact. that law was created for the relief, not the oppression of the governed. Amid the dim obscurity of the early reachings out after this principle, at times it seems to have been lost in the darkness; yet the vital spark has never been extinguished, and though often hidden from sight, has burnt on as though sacredly fed by the divine hand of the Promethean angel. Its splendid characteristic has been that it did not reach perfection at once. The tests and trials of the centuries were the needed discipline for its development. The recognition of this principle that law should protect and not oppress gave birth to the conviction that selfgovernment was an inalienable right of man. How brightly shines this truth upon the pages of this people's history. From the fatherland it came in the beginning. Deep in the recesses of the virgin forests of Germany it had its woodland temples. Well has it been said that in the woods of Sloswick English parliaments were born. The Saxon banner raised on English soil was the signal of the transplanting there of this principle. The fierce pirate kings of the north swept down upon it, left it crushed, and yet it lived again. The Norman could not shake its integrity. It died not with Harold at Hastings. John could not destroy it. Magna Charta was its early offspring. Behold it transplanted to the shores of the new world. Witness that tempest-tossed bark upon whose deck clustered the little band of Puritan pioneers. Amid all adverse

BUILDINGS ON THE COUNTY FARM

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY I surroundings, there burnt in that precious freight of hearts within the Mayflower the light of liberty to be set again in the dark forests of an unknown wilderness, to be brought to brilliant perfection by the sacrifices of human effort and the expenditure of human activity. A blow from tyranny smote it into living fire. It burnt at Lexington, at Bunker Hill, at Yorktown. Few and insignificant were its defenders, and yet they triumphed. "And at last behold it crystallized into the federal constitution. This is the fabric the centuries have woven. We have tested it on foreign battle fields, among the halls of the Montezumas, upon the coast of the Afric pirate. In internecine strife it has been welded into everlasting strength. It shall never die. The law is supreme-supreme because it is just. "In the beginning God said let there be light and there was light. In that self same moment law was born, the law which bids the day succeed the night, which brings the change of seasons, which bids the stars sing together, the planets roll, which unbars the gates of life and death, which teaches the human soul to hope for immortality. Nations seized the angelic hand extended. That grasp which linked the finite to the infinite has been for good and evil. Yet, amid all its perversions its vital essence his lived to bless men. And to-day men bow to it in reverent love, not fear, for in its preservation they see assured human safety, happi ness and prosperity. To this principle is this monument consecrated. "Beautiful in architectural design as this temple may become, and imposing in appearance, let us remember it is but the harbinger of greater accomplishments and achievement. And when it shall have been completed and accepted by the county, as done in the due course of time, may the purpose for which it is intended ever be held as a most sacred trust. May it become something more than a vast, imposing edifice, something more than a grand monument representing the energy and intelligence of the people of this county; may it lbecome in fact as well as in name the temple of justice. May the goddess of justice never be blind. May the scales of justice ever be equally balanced; equal privileges, equal rights, equal justice to all-rich and poor alike. "Reaching skyward, may these walls ever stand an emblem of justice. Within them may the wronged find right, the oppressed gain relief. May the forum they inclose be ever the theater where innocence shall triumph and swift retribution overtake the guilty. May the eyes of honest men shine with new light as they rest upon this structure, and the face of crime hide itself in its presence as before the flashing sword of an avenging angel. Dedicated to justice and law, may it rise forever a temple of freedom, and at its gates may the solemn acclaim of a free people pronounce for it a perpetual benediction of love." 7

98 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2o THE COUNTY FARM The first action of the county government in reference to the county poor was taken by the board 'of commissioners January 9, 1839, when Sanford M. Green, Isaac Castle, and Hiram Stowell were appointed superintendents of the poor. Nothing further appears of record until December 24, 1841, when the distinction between town and county poor was albolished, and the county assumed the entire charge. The sum of two hundred dollars was appropriated from the incidental fund for that purpose. January 7, 1847, the board of supervisors directed the superintendents of the poor to purchase a farm, not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres, and to erect suitable buildings thereon, for which purpose the sum of two thousand dollars was to be raised by tax. October 13, 1847, eighty acres of land (the south half of the southwest quarter of section 32, Caledonia) were purchased for a county farm. A log house was first used as a home, but at intervals appropriations for improvements were made and in 1859 substantial frame buildings were erected. The report of the superintendents of the poor for the year ending September 1, 1879, shows that the expenses on the farm for that year were two thousand sixty dollars and thirty-nine cents; that the value of products raised on the farm was about one thousand dollars; that the number of persons receiving support there was thirty-two. The county farm is located two and onehalf miles southwest of Corunna and now contains one hundred and twenty acres. The home is a fine modern building of brick, its dimensions forty-four by one hundred and four feet. The number of inmates averages forty-six and they are carefully looked after by Mr. N. E. McKenzie, who has been keeper of the farm for the past twelve years. The present superintendents are Arthur W. Green, of Corunna; James A. Armstrong, of Owosso; and Harvey B. McLaughlin, of Vernon. While they conduct the affairs of their department with rigid economy, every effort is put forth to make the county's unfortunate charges comfortable and happy. Under the supervision of Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie the place has become the model poor farm of the state. AGRICULTURE In the history of its agriculture Shiawassee probably differs very little from nearly all the counties in the southern part of the lower peninsula. The earliest crops raised in the fresh soil of the new land were, of course, only those required for the sustenance of the settlers and their families, first, potatoes and corn in the little clearings close by the cabin homes, and then wheat, as soon as sufficient space had been plowed among the stumps. After the first struggle with poverty was over, and particularly after improved means of transportation were secured, wheat be

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 99 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 99 came the crop upon which the early farmers depended for a revenue in money. In a few years, corn, barley, oats and other grains were produced in large quantities, but wheat was the crop which provided a competence for those who had cleared the land, and it remained the principal one until the great prairie states of the northwest began to pour their marvelous production of that grain upon the markets of an astonished world. Then Michigan farmers turned their attention to other crops, and the raising of beans almost entirely replaced wheat culture in the southeastern part of the state. A comparatively new product of the soil of Shiawassee, and one which yearly attracts increased attention, is sugar beets. The recent erection at Owosso of a factory for the manufacture of beet sugar has given an impetus to the raising of this product, and the convenient market thus afforded makes it one of the most valuable crops now produced. The raising of cattle and sheep has been carried on to a considerable extent, but has never assumed as great importance here as in some other parts of the state. In recent years one of the profitable practices in connection with the sheep industry has been the importing of lambs from the western states for the purpose of fattening them for the eastern markets. This business, which is commonly called "sheep feeding," has become so attractive to the larger farmers as to produce a new style in the architecture of farm barns. Being designed for the housing of sheep, the barns are built without floors and cover an immense ground space, the dimensions of some of the latest examples being seventyfive by one hundred feet. One can now scarcely drive many miles through Shiawas see county without seeing one of these peculiar barns with its spreading main building one story in height and its loft rising above the center like a mammoth dome. In some cases the roof descends the whole distance in a tent-like slope and if the building is painted some color other than the ubiquitous "barnred," the appearance is not unsuggestive of a great tabernacle. The Shiawassee County Agricultural Society was formed in 1850 for the purpose of conducting an annual fair, the first one being held in the fall of that year, at Corunna. At the fifth, held in October, 1854, there were three hundred and twenty-two entries and the total receipts were eighty-one dollars and twentv-five cents. The following year the receipts were one hundred and forty-six dollars. A successor to the old society, using the same name, was organized March, 1860, and began holding fairs at Owosso each year, usually in September. These were continued until 1896. In 1886 a rival society was organized at Bancroft, under the name of the Bancroft Market Fair Association. Its members included many of the most substantial farmers of the southern half of the county as well as the business men of Bancroft. Its fairs were held at Bancroft, on grounds leased ly' the society and fitted tip for the purpose, and the institution flourished until 1901, when the fairs were discontinued. Since that year the time-honored "county fair" has been a thing unknown in Shiawassee. About twenty years ago a new movement began in the line of agricultural societies, which was destined to achieve great popularity. The different fair associations had

100 PAST AND PRESENT OF 10 P been really business enterprises, although the profits had been of most uncertain quantity, but the new society was strictly social in its nature. This was the now well and widely known Farmers' Club movement, which started in this county, February 4, 1886, with the organization, by Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Woodin, of the Burton Farmers' Club, with ten families as charter members. This club is still in active operation. The following year the Maple River Club was formed and shortly afterward the North Owosso Club. Since then clubs have been organized in nearly every township in the county, there being no restrictions, however, as to territorial limits; each club making its own rules regarding membership. At the present time there are ten active clubs in the county, with a membership ranging from sixteen to twenty-four families. There is a county association which is merely a confederation of clubs; but, acting with the state organization, it is a sort of unofficial auxiliary to the Farmers' Institute work. The club meetings are held monthly, during the daytime, at the homes of members, and as promoters of social intercourse among inhabitants of the county have never been equaled. The number attending frequently approaches one hundred and fifty, and is by no means confined to the families of farmers, the members entertaining the club being unrestricted in the matter of inviting guests. The subjects discussed concern the social, moral, political and financial welfare of the nation in general and of the rural population in particular, and the conclusions arrived at sometimes visibly affect the trend of county government and state legislation. An earlier organization, but one less widely known because of its being a secret society, is the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, more commonly called the "Grange" on account of its local lodges b'eing styled granges. The first lodge of the order in this county was formed at Burns, near the old Knaggs post at the Grand Saline, in 1873. Besides the Burns Grange, which has continued in active operation since its organization, there are six others in the county, their total membership being about five hundred. THE SHIAWASSEE COUNTY MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY In May, 1861, Enoch Eddy, G. Sugden, Ezra D. Barnes, N. G. Phillips, Ezekiel Cook, Isaac Gale, Norman Green, Enos Merrill, Benjamin Walker, and William Newberry associated themselves together as an incorporated company for the transaction of insurance business, under the title of the Shiawassee County Mutual Fire Insurance Company. The articles of association limited the territory to Shiawassee county and restricted the insurance to dwellings, barns, and other buildings upon farms. In 1867 the company had three hundred and forty-six outstanding policies, with an assessment that year of fourteen hundred and twenty-three dollars and forty-four cents, and expenses of one hundred and fifty-three dollars and fifteen cents.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 101 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 101 The company has steadily increased in usefulness and is now one of the most settled and substantial institutions in the county. Its annual report for December 31, 1905, gives the number of its outstanding policies as three thousand five hundred and fifty one, covering a total risk of sixty thousand three hundred and eighty-nine dollars and eighty-seven cents. Total losses paid in 1905 were eighteen thousand three hundred and sixteen dollars and seventy-seven cents. THE PIONEER SOCIETY OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY Early in February, 1873, a call was issued through the newspapers for the holding of a meeting on the 22d of that month, at the court house, in Corunna, to which were invited all residents of the county who had settled in Michigan previously to January 1, 1845. A large number of old settlers attended the meeting and an association was organized under the name of The Old Settlers' Society of Shiawassee County. The objects set forth in the constitution adopted were "to cultivate social relations and to collect and preserve biographical sketches, statistics, and historical facts, and reminiscences which are fast fading from memory." The roll of the society showed sixty-six members and twenty-two honorary members, and in the list were many of the most honored names known in the annals of Shiawassee county. Very few of the original members are now living, but the society has been perpetuated by their descendants and others interested in preserving historical data and honoring the memory of those who redeemed Shiawassee from the wilderness. The annual meetings of the society are held at the court house in Corunna on the 22d of February, and in the summer of each year a picnic is held at some convenient point, generally at McCurdy' park, in recent years. At these meetings addresses are made by persons from different parts of the county and papers are read, all bearing on the early settlement and incidents connected with it SCHOOLS The public schools of the county are under the general supervision of a county comimissioner of schools, who is elected for a term of two years. This official and two county school examiners, appointed by the board of supervisors, constitute a board of examiners, whose duties are to conduct examinations of applicants for teachers' certificates. The public-school system of Shiawassee county now includes one hundred and twentyfour schools, two of which are city schools, a number called village schools and the remainder district schools. According to the annual report for 1905 there are about eight thousand five hundred children of school age in the county. Of this number six thousand five hundred and thirty attended school during the year. The number of teachers re

102 PAST AND PRESENT OF I quired to instruct these pupils was two hundred and seventeen. The total cost of maintaining the schools for the year was one hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred and thirty-nine dollars and eleven cents. Plans for reducing the number of rural schools have been proposed at intervals during the last decade, but as yet no substitute for the time-honored district school has been accepted. The cost of maintaining these schools has become enormous in proportion to the number of pupils receiving instruction. Schools which a generation ago had from fifty to one hundred scholars enrolled now have less than a. score, and many schools are kept up through the year with less than a dozen pupils enrolled. Many of Shiawassee's teachers take advantage of summer sessions at our state normal schools. A county normal, free of tuition, is maintained at Owosso, and its graduates go directly into the schools of the county. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION Prior to the year 1836 there was no physician living in Shiawassee county. The settlers who needed medical attendance before that time were dependent upon Dr. Cyrus Baldwin, of Grand Blanc, and Dr. Samuel W. Pattison, of Fentonville. In these days, when a Shiawassee farmer may consult a specialist at Ann Arbor by telephone without leaving his own house, or even speak to one in New York with scarcely greater trouble, one's sympathies are terribly harrowed by imagining the suffering sometimes endured in those little log cabins scattered through the forests, while a neighbor on horseback was riding twenty or thirty miles to "fetch the doctor." Dr. Pattison, after making many hurried journeys by night and day to this county, decided to locate at Owosso, where he practiced about six years and then removed to Ypsilanti. He did not come, however, until 1839, and a number of physicians had before that time settled in the county. One of the hotel, late in 1836, where Laingsburg now stands. He did not practice after coming here except in cases of emergency. The same was the case with Dr. Joseph P. Roberts, who settled in the township of Perry in 1837. Dr. Nicholas P. Harder was undoubtedly the first resident physician in the county who located here for the purpose of practicing his profession. He came from Sullivan county, New York, accompanied by his wife, five children of his own and two sons of his wife by a former marriage. The party drove the entire distance with a pair of horses. Dr. Harder had previously made one trip to Michigan and had selected Grand Rapids as a place in which to settle. Crossing the Shiawassee river in October, 1836, he followed the Grand River road as far as Blood's tavern, four miles east of Laingsburg. There night overtook his party. The roads were in bad condition, the journey had been long and Grand Rapids was many miles beyond. earliest was Dr. Peter Laing, who built a Hearing of a desirable location where the

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 103 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 103 Bakers had settled on the Shiawassee, he decided to return to that point, and did so the following day. He purchased considerable land along the river and became prosperous as a farmer as well as in the practice of medicine. Having formerly lived near Newburg-on-the-Hudson, Dr. Harder named the little village which grew up around his home for that historic place. He was a doctor of the old school, the "Doctor MacLure" of the neighborhood, and had a wide practice in the eastern part of the county until his death in 1863. He was elected county treasurer in 1849. Mrs. Harder died in 1886. The only surviving members of the family party who settled here in 1836 are a daughter, Mrs. R. H. B. Morris, and a stepson, Joseph L. Gardner, who removed to Hart, Oceana county, in 1883. Norman A. Harder, who occupies the homestead, was born after his parents settled at Newberg. His son, Clifford J. Harder, inherited his grandfather's taste for the medical profession. He became a student of the University of Michigan and after graduating practiced at Bancroft several years, but was stricken by an illness which resulted in his death, in 1896. Another grandson, Nicholas P. Harder, now owns one of the farms purchased by his grandfather at Newburg. Dr. Abner Sears settled at Byron in 1838 and Dr. William Weir was a well known physician of Shiawasseetown from 1840 to 1850. Dr. Charles P. Parkill, a native of Niagara county, New York, emigrated to Michigan when nineteen years old and in the fall of 1841 came to Owosso. He was one of the early school teachers in Shiawassee and other townships. In the spring of 1843 he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Pat tison, at Owosso, and graduated at Willoughby Medical College, in Ohio, in 1846. Returning to the county, he practiced at Bennington until 1868, when he removed to Owosso, gave up practice and opened a drug store. He continued in business until his death, which occurred November 28, 1893. Dr. Parkill was elected a member of the legislature in 1857. Dr. John B. Barnes settled in Owosso in 1842, and practiced there until his death. He was foremost in this section in the antislavery struggle, a director of the underground railroad, and intimately acquainted with Garrison, Phillips, and other abolition leaders. Dr. Pierce and Dr. Bacon were early physicians of Corunna; the latter died there in 1869. Dr. Freeman McClintock first came to Laingsburg in 1846. Except a few years spent in California he remained a resident of the village the remainder of his life. Dr. E. B. Ward, a later well known physician, settled there in 1862. Prominent among the later physicians of the county was Dr. Wells B. Fox, who served during the war of the Rebellion as surgeon in the Eighth Michigan Infantry and as surgeon-in-chief, field hospital, First division, Ninth Army Corps. At the close of the war Dr. Fox settled in Antrim township, and some years later opened an office in Bancroft. He had an enviable reputation as a surgeon and was in active practice to the time of his death, May 30, 1893. Two weeks later occurred the death of another able physician of Bancroft, Dr. E. W. Harvey, who was a son-in-law of Dr. Fox. Dr. Jabez Perkins was born in Defiance county, Ohio, in 1820, when educational ad

104 PAST AND PRESENT OF vantages were extremely rare. Home study and two or three, months of school at long intervals fitted him to enter an academical institution at Delaware, Ohio. In 1849 he graduated in the medical department of the Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio; took a post-graduate course at the same place and subsequently two full courses at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York. After practicing a few years in Lenawee county, Michigan, he represented his district in the state legislature, at the close of which time he came to Owosso, Michigan, in 1860. In February, 1862, he entered the service of the civil war as contract surgeon at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and later served in the following positions: Surgeon of the Tenth Kentucky United States Volunteer Infantry; medical director of the Twentieth Army Corps; medical director of cavalry command of the Army of the Cumberland, which position he held till the close of the war. He was then put in charge of a hospital at Nashville? Tennessee, where he remained until he was relieved, at his own request, in the fall of 1865. After a year in New York, in further pursuance of his medical study, he returned to Owosso, which has since been his home. The scene of his labors has not been confined by the county limits. Scarcely a man, woman, or child in the -county but was familiar with him and his I... horse as he drove about in response to the calls of the suffering. No distance so great, no roads so bad, no night so dark, no storm so severe, that would deter him from going on his errands of relief. In hundreds of families he was the trusted friend and confidential adviser. In 1871 he was married to Evora I. Doane, whose parents were early settlers of the county. In the fall of 1903 he was compelled by ill health to retire from active practice, but is still a member of the pension examining board which holds its weekly sessions at his residence. He is now in his eighty-sixth year and in full possession of his mental faculties, though unable to leave his chair without the assistance of two crutches. Dr. Perkins is a Republican and a member of several branches of the Masonic fraternity. One of the earliest physicians of the Homeopathic school was Dr. J. D. Kergan, who came from Canada and first settled at Newburg. He removed to Corunna about 1868 and ten years later began practice in Detroit. He died in California in 1905. The Shiawassee County Medical Association was formed in January, 1880, at which time Dr. Jazeb Perkins was elected president; Dr. A. G. Bruce, vice-president; Dr. L. M. Goodrich, secretary; and Dr. W. C. Hume, treasurer. Meetings are now held regularly.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 105 POPULATION The total population of Shiawassee county returns of that year, was 1,184; in 1845 it in the year 1837, as shown by the census was 3,010; in 1900 it was 33,866. SYNOPSIS OF FACTORY INSPECTION Following is the synopsis of factory inspection of Shiawassee county for the year 1905: Number of factories inspected in Bancroft............................ 5 Number of factories inspected in Corunna............................ 9 Number of factories inspected in Durand............................ 8 Number of factories inspected in Laingsburg....................... 5 Number of factories inspected in Morrice............................. 4 Number of factories inspected in Owosso......................... 36 Number of factories inspected in Perry 3 Number of factories inspected in Vernon............................. 3 Total number of factories inspected in county......................... 73 Number of superintendents who are owners........................... 47 Number of superintendents who draw regular pay....................... 18 Whole number of superintendents... 65 Average daily pay of superintendents.. $3.54 Whole number of foremen employed.. 77 Average daily wages paid foreman.... $2.49 Whole number male employes in business offices...................... 37 Average daily wages paid them...... $2.44 Whole number female employes in business offices................... 37 Average daily wages paid them...... $1.21 Whole number other male adults employed......................... 1,531 Average daily wages paid them...... $1.67 Whole number other female adults employed........................ 368 Average daily wages paid them...... $0.93 Whole number boys between 14 and 16 years of age employed............ 28 Average daily wages paid them...... $0.75 Whole number girls between 14 and 16 years of age employed............ 27 Average daily wages paid them...... $0.85 Whole number employes............. 2,150 Average daily wages paid all employes. $1.58 Average number hours worked each day.............................. 9.9 Average number days worked each month.......................... 25.9 Average number months worked each year............................ 11.2 Average number years factories in operation...................~....... 12.6 *Number accidents reported during year 1905....................... 6 Number Number Number Number power Number power Number power Number power Number who report business good... who report business fair.... who report business poor... of factories having steam of factories having gasoline...... of factories having gasoline of factori....es..........s havin.....g electric of factories having water Cf factories having electric ooo*...................... of factories having no power. CITY OF OWOSSO 1905. 65 8 0 40 15 1 5 12 Number of establishments vis ited........................ 44 Capital invested in manufacturing plants.................. $3,073,262 Cost of material used........... $1,839,005 Miscellaneous expenses........ $233,327 Value of manufactured product.. $3,109,232 Number of salaried officials and clerks......................... 136 Aggregate annual salaries....... $97,648 Average annual salary of each... $718 Number of other employes...... 1,547 Aggregate amount of wages paid annually.................... $665,210 Average annual wages paid each employe...................... $430 (These statistics of Owosso were taken from the report of the census taken last year by the United States in conjunction with the state of Michigan.) *NOTr..-Of the 6 accidents reported, 5 occurred in the city of Corunna and 1 in Owosso.

106 PAST AND PRESENT OF REMINISCENCES Only a very few of the settlers who came to the county prior to 1840 are still living within its boundaries. These were nearly all young children when brought to the new country by their parents, and are themselves now well advanced in years. Among those who remember Shiawassee as it was when the work of nature had scarcely yet been altered by the hand of man is Mrs. R. H. B. Morris, a daughter of Dr. Nicholas P. Harder. She was fourteen years of age when, in 1836, her parents made the journey from Sullivan county, New York, to Shiawassee township, being four weeks on the road and driving one team of horses the entire distance. Mrs. Morris relates many incidents in her father's life as a pioneer physician,-stories of long trips on horseback, with saddle-bags filled with quinine, calomel and lancets. He would sometimes be gone from home a week and return exhausted by the hardships of following a blazed trail, of fording swollenstreams, of sleeping only in the saddle after weary nights in comfortless log cabins, where his presence had been the only shield from desolation for those stricken homes. Two other residents of the same township are Mrs. Lucinda Shears and Mrs. Rhoda Snell, daughters of Sidney Seymour, who also settled at Newberg in 1836. Many interesting stories of the vicissitudes of life in a new country are told by these ladies and it is to be regretted that space can not be given to only a few of them. The migration of the Seymour family from accomplished in two sections and in two ways. The mother came by stage and brought four of the eight children, with a few of their belongings. Mrs. Seymour, of course, made the trip in considerably less time than her husband. At Pontiac the end of the stage line was reached and then she hired a man with a team to bring her party to Newburg. It was late at night when they crossed the Shiawassee river at Knaggs' Place, but, finding no one at home at this trading post, they pressed on, passing the Exchange, where they saw some men at work by candlelight, making a coffin,-said to have been the first one made in the county,and at three o'clock in the morning arrived at the home of Hosea Baker, who was Mrs. Seymour's brother. Mr. Baker at that time was building the first saw mill erected in the county. He had employed as a millwright a Mr. Ball, who lived somewhere near Pontiac. On the day before Mrs. Seymour's arrival the important act of "raising" the mill had taken place. All the settlers in the township had been invited to assist in the event and had cordially responded with one exception. This was Stephen Sergeant, an uncle of Mr. Frank Sergeant, the well known farmer now living in the western part of Shiawassee township. He came to the raising but refused to take a hand in the work and warned the men assembled that a tragedy was about to occur. His explanation was that on the previous night he had been told in a dream that a man would be killed at the raising of the their home near Rochester, New York, was mill.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 107 SHIAWASSEIi COUNTY 107 The story was received with much good natured ridicule and the work proceeded to a successful end. When the raising had been finished and the frame stood in view, complete, a little jollification was indulged in with shouting and swinging of hats and some lively badinage concerning dreams and superstitions generally. After quiet had been restored, Mr. Ball, the millwright, noticed at the extreme top of the new frame something which did not entirely suit him. He climbed back upon the timbers, succeeded in adjusting them to his satisfaction, and then lost his balance and fell to the ground beneath. The fall killed him. It was for him that the -coffin was made at the Exchange on the following night. This death is frequently mentioned by early settlers as the first in Shiawassee county, but whether it antedates that of Kilburn Bedell at Owosso is somewhat of a question. The body of the dead millwright was carried to a small log house which Mr. Baker had built near where the mill was being erected. The teamster who arrived with Mrs. Seymour in the following night returned the next day and carried the remains of Mr. Ball back to Oakland county in his wagon. Traveling in those days was a matter of most uncertain expense, there being no fixed price for transportation by wagon through the roadless forests. Mrs- Seymour, after settling with her driver, found herself in possession of just ten cents, and being too independent to remain longer than necessary the guest of her brother, she looked about for some means of supporting her children until her husband arrived. The little log house in the mill yard was the only vacant building in the neighborhood and she at once decided to move into that and did so on the following day. Finding employment in a country from which the timber was cleared only in spots must have seemed at first nearly impossible. But this pioneer mother learned that there was a store at Shiawasseetown and also some building going on in which several men were engaged. She walked to the store and expended her ten cents for soap, then she proceeded to the place where Mr. William Newberry, with two assistants, was putting up a rather pretentious building which it was then expected would ie used as a county court house. There she engaged to wash the clothing of those three men, and by this work she managed to earn five dollars, which kept her and her children supplied with the necessaries of life until her husband came with the remainder of the family. And this was only one incident in the experience of one woman among the many who braved the hardships of settling in the wilderness. The Seymours afterward lived at the Exchange farm, and Mrs. Snell tells of a thrilling moment in her life when, entering the house by the back door, she found an Indian leaning over a bed on which two children were sleeping, with a long hunting knife drawn above their heads. When he saw her he quickly straightened up and said, "Bushue, che-mok-e-mon's squaw!" and then she found that he only wanted to sharpen his knife on their grindstone and was gazing at the children out of curiosity. Mrs. Cordelia Sheldon Carruthers came to the county with her mother and her stepfather, Martin Post, in 1840. She was then a child of seven. The family settled on section 12 of Shiawassee township, on the farm

108 PAST AND PRESENT OF 108 PAST AND PRESENT OF now owned by John P. Whelan. Mrs. Carruthers, with an older brother, attended the school opened that year at Shiawasseetown. In 1848, when she was fifteen years old, she received a call from Mr. Place, an early settler of Woodhull, who offered her the position of teacher of a district school in his township. "Teachers didn't apply for schools in those days," says Mrs. Carruthers: "they were scouring the country to find teachers." The law required that a school be conducted three months in a year; otherwise a district could not draw the public school money to, which it was entitled. So the school was taken for that time and was taught six days in the week for the compensation of one dollar and fifty cents per week, and board. The nearest house was one and one-half miles from the school house, and "boarding Around" involved some exercise. The school house itself was built of unhewn logs, and had in each of two sides the half of a window, or one sash. It had a stone fireplace, with stone hearth and stick chimney, and had a shake roof and a puncheon floor. The seats were rough slab benches. Along one side of the interior a wide planed board was fastened at a convenient slant and this served as a desk for pupils and teacher when it was necessary to' use one. The desk was the only piece of sawed lumber in the building, but as it had been erected thirteen miles from a saw mill, there was certainly an excuse for a lack of fine woodwork. This was probably a typical school building of the early years of the county's settlement. What can we now know of the lives they led, those dwellers in the forest primeval? How can the college boy of to-day under stand what it was to fell oak timber day after day of long cold winters and all the time think longingly of the schools back in "York state"? Many a bright young man gave up a dream of Harvard or Yale and went on a new farm in Michigan, there to spend the best years of his life making the state agricultural college and the university possible for other young men. And the pioneer mothers! We should reverence their memories. The light of their tallow dips is shining brightly down the years and the good they did lives after them. The hand that sixty years ago rocked a cradle on the western frontier has since been plainly visible in many a crisis of the nation's growth. Michigan and her sister states in the northern timber belt were settled by a people whose work will never be duplicated in America's history. The settler of the western lands need never know the privations of those early farmers. This is not to say that he has not, in the past, had his share of hardships. He has had his blizzards, his hot winds and his grasshoppers, but he has not been required to obliterate a forest inch by inch, and hold his appetite in check while he made a space in which to grow wheat and potatoes. The western settler now has the telephone and rural delivery of the mail at his door almost as soon as he possesses one; automobiles are speeding on his trail and the latest things in farming machinery and canned edibles chase him into the wilderness. A new country is a new country, but never again will it be necessary for men to subdue the forest with no tool but an ax, while they live where their own connection with the

SHIA WASSEE COUNrTY 109 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 109 world is fifty miles of blazed trail. tempt an estimation of the value pioneer's work is a useless task. printed words of praise are small yet it is an honor to be privileged To atof the A few reward, to offer even that. Emulation of their industry and public spirit is the truest praise, and that way our duty lies,-to remember that it is as much the part of patriotism to preserve a nation as to build one. WOLF BOUNTIES Among the dangers and hardships which beset the "pathfinders" of Shiawassee county, not the least were those attending the warfare they found it necessary to wage with wild animals. The beasts of the forest had never ceded any land to the government and evidently regarded the whites as trespassers upon their ancient preserves. Among the four-footed enemies of the settlers, wolves were the most numerous and aggressive. They were recognized as such a common cause of annoyance and loss that the first state legislature passed an act providing for a bounty of eight dollars for the killing of a ful grown wolf, and of four dollars for a wolf's whelp under the age of three months. The county officials also early felt called upon to deal with the matter. The first business of the board of supervisors at the session beginning October 2, 1838,-the earliest session of which a record exists,was the examination of wolf certificates. An additional bounty of one dollar appears to have been added to the state bounty, making the bounty for wolves nine dollars and for whelps five dollars. Twenty-five certificates were examined and allowed, embracing a total of twenty-six wolves and eleven whelps. On the 4th of October, the third day of the session, the board rescinded a resolution "that was passed in October last," allowing a county bounty of five dollars for the destruction of wolves. At the meeting of the board of county commissioners on November 18, 1838, the state bounty only was allowed. They also recorded the names of those to whom bounties were paid. From that time the names of such persons were recorded, together with the date of certificate and the amount of bounty allowed. Wolf-certificates were granted for several years, the last case being recorded on January 5, 1869, when Mr. Rush presented a claim for a bounty for killing a wolf, in favor of B. W. Steer, and moved that the same be allowed. The certificate, however, was referred back to claimant for further proof, and as it was not again brought up, it is fair to presume it was not again presented. The territorial government had been more liberal in the matter of wolf bounties: The first settlers found that eternal vigilance was the price of pork, occasionally of their young cattle, and sometimes even the price of their own lives. At the time the Baker family settled at Newberg, April, 1833, wolves were considered such a menace to the safety of the widelv scattered farmers that the bounty had reached what was probably the highwater mark, thirty dollars. Thus trapping became an important part of the pioneer's work and for a time his most remunerative

110 PA.-2ST AND PRESENT OF 110 PAST AND PRESENT OF occupation. It is an industry which has never quite disappeared. muskrat and mink being plentiful still along the rivers. But in the early '30s it was a serious business, with much of value to gain or to lose. Many are the thrilling tales recorded of nights passed in cabins miles away from any other human habitation, with the gray wolves' mournful howl reverberating through the forest until the light of day dispersed the grim disturbers of the settlers' peace. Many are the stories told of nights of terror spent by pioneer mothers, alone with their little children, while the father was making a long journey with the oxen to get food. The fear of the wolves, the awful loneliness of the isolated homes, and the distance from help in time of need are the familiar warp upon which the personal threads of the different tales are woven. Pontiac was for many years the nearest place at which Shiawassee settlers could purchase provisions in quantity, and women and children were frequently left alone while the men made the journey of fifty miles with ox teams. On one such occasion Hosea Baker - and his son Ambrose started for Pontiac to buy flour, intending to be gone about six days. Soon after they left, a heavy rain swelled the streams until it was impossible to ford them, and there were, of course, no bridges. It was six weeks instead of days before they returned. Ambrose had left traps set for wolves and on these his young sister Caroline, a girl of fourteen, kept a watchful eye. During his absence she managed to trap and kill, unaided, three grown wolves, which brought the fair sum of ninety dollars bounty money. The second summer after the Bakers came to the county they had a somewhat serious experience in consequence of the ever present dread of wolves. Civilization had practically forced the aborigines out of the country, even the earliest settlers having little contact with them. The Indians living along the river were remnants of the Fisher tribe, a branch of the Saginaw-Chippewas. Their early removal left but few traditions of their life here. Their old trails were remembered for a time, but little is positively known of their history. The last chief of the tribe known to the pioneers was Mae-mae-ketche-wunk, a somewhat picturesque character. He sought an interview with the whites, who in turn avoided him and his followers. With small bands from the tribe he wandered about the country, camping sometimes a few weeks or even months in one place, quietly coming and going on hunting expeditions, then suddenly departing for fresh fields. The Indians were never known to molest settlers, but were nevertheless unwelcome neighbors, the whites generally believing their name to be a synonym for treachery. Settlers were still so few and their time so fully occupied with the work of clearing, that there was almost as little social intercourse between themselves as there was between them and the Indians. The nearest neighbors the Bakers had the first year were the families of Henry Leach, living a few miles down the river, where the village of Vernon now stands, and of Tinkelpaugh, the Frenchman, who had built a cabin about a mile up the stream. In the summer of 1834 Mae-mae-ket-che-wunk's band camped near their home. The silent chief, invariably accompanied by a sharp-eared, savage-looking dog, became a familiar figure, but he treated

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 111 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 11 the settlers with proud disdain and evidently regarded them as intruders. The previous spring Mr. Baker had received a visit from his neighbor, Tinkelpaugh, who was in an uncomfortable frame of mind concerning the frequent sales of land along the river, which presaged the arrival of many settlers in the near future. Having no title to the land on which he was living and being then unable to procure one, he came with the proposition that Mr. Baker should buy the land to prevent its falling into less friendly hands and then sell it to him on easy payments. The bargain was made and Tinkelpaugh's first payment was a sow and litter of pigs. By fall the pigs had become fine shoats and, running at large in the woods, were fattening on acorns. In the early dusk of an autumn day a tremendous uproar was heard in the woods where they were feeding. Wolves! was always the quick conclusion when there was a disturbance among the live stock. Mr. Baker grasped his ever loaded rifle and dashed into the woods behind the cabin. Guided by the squealing of the pigs and the noise of their mad scramble over dead leaves and branches, he soon learned the cause of their distress. By the fading light he saw something biting and tearing the carcass of a pig. To level the rifle and fire was but a moment's work. Over on the body of his victim fell that of the vandal. Up came the avenger to secure his booty, thinking that the wolf bounty wouRl compensate for the loss of the pig. But, alas, the supposed wolf, lying lifeless at his feet, was the yellowbrown dog which belonged to the Fisher chief. There was consternation in the settler's home when the result of that shot was known. Visions of a red assassin slaying some member of the family began to haunt their dreams, and when the anger of the chief was reported to them it became evident that an explanation must be offered. Wishing to conciliate the chief and feeling unable to do so without the aid of an interpreter, Mr. Baker bethought himself of the proprietors of the Williams trading post as possible mediators between himself and Mae-mae-ket-che-wunk. They spoke fluently the particular Chippewa dialect which was the language of the Fishers, and were frequently called upon to act as judges in the differences which arose between them and the settlers. So Mr. Baker went to the post and told them of the difficulty in which he found himself. They were willing to undertake a settlement. Later a meeting was arranged for at the trading station, and thither the settler and the chief repaired. Seated in solemn conclave around the great stone fireplace of the log house, the group formed an impressive picture, the three white men, typical of the vigor and determination of civilization's advance guard, and the lone Indian, representing the despair of his race in its futile clutching after one more brief moment of imperious freedom before being swept forward by the encroaching tide. The chief was given the first hearing. His story was brief, but to the point and full of bitterness. The white man had come to his country and taken from him his land. He was planting corn on the spot where his home had been. He was shooting his deer and snaring his fish. He had taken from him all his rights, and left him no chance

112 PAST AND PRESENT OF 112 PAST AND PRESENT OF for life or happiness. And now he had killed his dog. That was all, but the hard bronze features and blazing eyes were emphasis enough. Then the settler arose and, although the chief's knowledge of English was comprised of a half dozen words, addressed his reply to him. "Mae-mae-ket-che-wunk," said the tall, straight Saxon to the dark, tall chief, "I am not guilty of wantonly destroying your property. I have taken no land from you. The land I claim I purchased from my government. You and your people have been paid for this country and have no longer any right to it. You roam over it still to hunt and fish, but only because my government is generous and allows you to do so. I did not kill your dog to injure you, but to protect myself. He destroyed what would have been food for my children and I killed him to keep him from destroying more." This was the burden of the settler's speech and when reported to the Indian seemed to puzzle him greatly. He made no reply. After a long interval of silence he rose sud- - denly and offered the white man his hand, then, turning abruptly, he left the cabin and stalked away through the forest. That day the chief and his band disappeared from the neighborhood and were never again known to camp in that part of the Shiawassee valley. On a cold March morning of the following spring, Ambrose Baker started out to make the round of his traps. Some of them were large steel ones, set for wolves. One of them, he found, had been torn from its fastenings and dragged away over the east bank of the river. The track of the wolf which had thus made its escape, though some hours old, was still plainly visible to the trapper's eye, and Ambrose decided to start at once on its trail. That he chanced to have his rifle with him he deemed a piece of good luck, for it was evident that the wolf was a large one to have escaped with the trap. Away he hurried, keen with the huntsman's instinct. It was hard traveling on the snow crust and sheets of crackling ice, but the pioneer was a hardy youngster and the hope.of saving trap, wolf, and bounty was a spur to his strong young limts. After an hour or two the track appeared somewhat fresher. The sunlight fell with scant warmth through the gray March atmosphere. More and more nearly vertical the dim rays became, but the hunter pressed on without thought of hunger or fatigue. Noontime passed and the sun dropped behind the treetops. The wind grew stronger and stronger and here and there a, snowflake whirled. How many miles he had come Ambrose could not tell; he only knew that he had traveled east and northward. Just before nightfall he reached the edge of a great black-ash swamp. The wolf had plunged into it and he followed. Thinking that he heard the clank of a chain in the distance, Ambrose started on a run in the direction from which the sound had come. Numb with cold and clumsy with fatigue, he stumbled, and, rifle in hand, went crashing through a thin coat of ice into two feet of water. Struggling out of his disheartening situation, he found that the cause of his wearisome tramp was crouching but a few feet from the place where he had fallen. The wolf gathered his flagging energies for one

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 113 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 113 more effort to escape, but Ambrose was upon him in an instant. His gun, now useless, was flung aside and a large club substituted. With a few blows the worn-out wolf was quickly killed. As the also worn-out hunter -gathered up his game, the trap and the dripping rifle, he felt suddenly overcome with exhaustion. The distance between himself and home he knew to be many miles, and it looked a long road to the weary boy. He began to figure on the exact location of his father's farm and to wonder whether he could not return more directly than he had come. To get out of the swamp must be the first move. He would go out the way he had come in and then take a straight line through the woods for home. But that was not to be so easily done. The snow had thickened and become a driving storm. To retrace his steps was impossible, for the ground was being pelted with snow and his track obliterated. He had no idea which way to turn. Gradually it dawned upon his mind that he was lost. He realized that he must do something quickly and the only thing that suggested itself was to halloo as loudly as possible in the hope that someone might be within hearing distance. If wolves should answer? But there was nothing else to be done, so shout after shout he sent out from his strong, young lungs. No sound came back but the whirr of the storm and the echo of his own voice through the tree-tops. Then again and again in long-drawn whoops and quick, sharp calls. Again no reply, and in despair he leaned on his gun for rest before starting to find his way out, or farther into the swamp, as it should happen. 8 He thought he heard the sound of snapping twigs. He strained every nerve to listen. Silence again. Had he been mistaken? No. there it came again, and louder this time. Should he call again, or wait until the sound became distinct enough to indicate what caused it? But it grew fainter instead, and in fear that help might be near and passing by he began to shout frantically. Immediately there came a sound of something rushing toward him through the underbrush and snow crust, and the form of an Indian came bounding into view. His right hand was held high to shield his face from the thick branches, and under it gleamed the long sharp blade of a hunting knife. As he leaped over a fallen tree in front of Ambrose, the young man recoiled as if a spectre had threatened him! The Indian Ibefore him was no, other than the feared and mistrusted Fisher chief. Mae-mae-ket-che-wunk paused and surveyed the scene, and then in his scant English asked what was the matter. Ambrose, when he found that the Indian did not attack him, soon regained composure enough to explain. The chief appeared to understand the situation and to be considering it. Ambrose, shaking with cold, wondered whether he meant to help him, or to leave him to his fate. After a few minutes' silence, which seemed hours to Ambrose, the Indian turned and, beckoning him to follow, walked away in the direction opposite to that from which he had come. Ambrose swung the wolf and trap up on his weary shoulders, grasped his gun in his chilled fingers, and hastened after him. The Indian pushed rapidly on through tangled brush and over the decaying trunks

114 PAST AND PRESENT OF 114 PAST AND PRESENT OF of fallen trees, and the settler followed as best he could. The chief glided from bunch to bunch of frozen weeds; the white boy stumbled through the ice on the water holes between. Night and the storm came on apace. By the time the pair reached the more firm ground of the oak woods it was all the young hunter could do to keep near enough to his alert companion to distinguish his form. Mile after mile he dragged his tired feet on in the wake of his distrusted guide. Hour after hour passed. Ambrose felt that his exhausted frame must soon succumb to the terrible strain upon it; still he forced it onward in a struggle which began to appear objectless and endless. Again and again he braced himself for what he believed would be his last effort. Sutddenlv his legs refused to move. His feet had caught in a tangle of wild grapevine and his shaking body dropped beneath its burden of - weariness and hunger. The Indian waited in grim silence for his companion to rise. Ambrose wondered, as he stumbled to his feet, what the stoic son of the forest would think of his weakness, and staggered on. He felt as if he were walking against a wall of blackness and stepping up and down in the same place aimlessly. His head swam and a light struck his eyes like a blow. He grasped at a tree trunk to steady himself, and presently made out that the light was not an illusion, but that it streamed from a square spot directly in front of him. When his dazzled eyes had adapted themselves to the sudden change, he distinguished the dim outlines of a log cabin surrounding the window from which the light came. He was standing at the edge of a clearing. At his left the sky, gray with approaching dawn, arched to a lower woodland. The ground sloped abruptly away before him. Down the steep bank the snow gleamed faintly in patches among the trees and underbrush, and at the bottom rolled the swollen spring flood of the river. The Indian raised his arm and pointed toward the cabin window; then, silently gliding from the settler's side, he disappeared in the darkness of the wood before the astonished boy had time to speak. Slowly and painfully Ambrose dragged himself across the clearing and sank against the cabin door, in an unconscious heap with trap and gun and wolf. He had reached the home of his father's neighbor, Henry Leach, and there he found shelter and care. That was the last the Bakers ever saw of Mae-mae-ket-che-wunk. It is many years since the last of the Fishers went loitering through the river towns selling baskets. The pioneers sleep under the shadows of the oaks their axes spared, near the spot where the chief's dog was slain. Below, past the sentinel sycamore, flows the stream both loved so well and called "Shiawassee,-winding river."

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 115 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 115 TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES ANTRIM TOWNSHIP The township of Antrim is the third from the principal meridian in the southern tier of townships. It has a comparatively level surface, though containing several ranges of higher land. One of three elevations forms a watershed which divides the township into two distinct parts, the eastern part being drained by the branches of the Shiawassee and the central and western part by those of the Looking Glass river. The small branches of these streams, assisted by artificial means, render the township comparatively free from waste land. The soil is good and in the years when wheat was a profitable crop in Antrim it was noted for its production of that grain. The earliest settlers in Antrim were Allen Beard and Lyman Melvin, two young men from New York, who came to Michigan in April, 1836. Leaving their families at Lodi Plains, in Washtenaw county, they followed an Indian trail northward and finally reached the log cabin of Dyer Rathburn, in Burns township. Leaving the trail generally followed by landseekers, they made their way westward over marshes and creeks until they came to a large level tract on section 19, one of the places described as oak openings. So charmed were they with the beauty of this spot that Melvin declared that he wished to live, die, and be buried there,a wish which was fulfilled. Returning to Detroit, they entered the southeast quarter. of section 19, each taking one-half. In July they returned with three yoke of oxen, a wagon and a small outfit of farming implements and cooking utensils. They built a small hut of bark peeled from black-ash trees and used marsh hay for bedding. After thus providing for their immediate wants, they plowed a piece of ground for wheat, finding a place in the "opening" where there were few trees and little fallen timber. In the fall they returned to Lodi and brought their families to the new home. Mr. Melvin lived on the land located by him until his death, in 1850. Mr. Beard also lived on his farm, to which he purchased several additions, the remainder of his life. The first neighbors of these two settlers were the families of Peter Cook and Alanson Alling, who also came in the fall of 1836. Mr. Cook located land on sections 17 and 18. After living many years in Antrim he moved to Corunna, where he spent the remainder of his life. Mr. Alling entered land on sections 18 and 7, part of which he soon afterward sold to Charles Locke, who settled there and whose son was the first white child born in the township. Among other settlers who came to Antrim in the '30s were Horace B. Flint, who settled there in the fall of 1836; Almon and Harvey Harmon, who came the same year; Chauncey and Daniel Harmon, who came in' 1839. The following year Daniel built the first saw mill in the township. This was afterward well known as Wright's mill, being owned for many years by Isaac Wright. John Ward took up a farm on the northwest quarter of section 7 and settled there with his family, May 2, 1837. Nathaniel Durfee came about that time, from Palmyra, New York, and

116 IPAST AND PRESENT OF 116 PAST AND PRESENT OF lived in Antrim until his death, about twenty years ago. On June 2, 1836, Mortimer Bradley Martin came from New York city to the northeastern corner of Antrim township, having crossed the Shiawassee at Knaggs' trading post, and picked a location on the line of the Grand River trail, about a mile southeast of where Bancroft now stands. Up to that time he had scarcely thought of farming, but he was so delighted with the view from the top of a low hill, where he afterward built a residence, that he at once decided to make his future home there. Mr. Martin was the first settler in the northeastern quarter of the township. He was a man of culture and refinement and did much to increase the natural beauty of his farm. One of his earliest acts was to set along its entire front a row of willow trees, the cuttings having been procured in New York, part of them from a farm once owned by Secretary Seward. These trees, in their nearly seventy years of life, have grown to magnificent proportions and in summer cover one mile, at least, of the old Grand River road with the sheltering shade the forest once furnished for its entire length. Mr. Martin lived at "The Willows" 'until his death in September, 1884. Mrs. Martin still lives, at Bancroft. The postoffice through which the early settlers of Antrim received their mail was at Howell, twenty-five miles distant. When the office was established at Shiawasseetown they found it more convenient, as they could get their mail and "go to mill" at the same time. The first postoffice located in Antrim was established in 1849, at the house of the postmaster, John Near. The name was later changed to Glass River, the office being in commission until about 1895. Antrim was erected a separate township, March 6, 1838. The first township election was held April 2 of that year, at the house of Almon S. Harmon. There being only twelve voters present, they nearly all received one or more offices. None, however, qualified, and a second meeting was held at the house of Lyman Melvin, on the 8th of June, at which the following officers were elected: Supervisor, Thomas B. Flint; clerk, Charles Locke; assessors, John Ward, Allen Beard, Henry Harmon; highway commissioners, Horace B. Flint, Lyman Melvin, Henry Harmon; collector, Lyman Melvin; constables, Charles Locke, Lyman Melvin, Hiram Van Notter; overseers of the poor, Peter Cook, Chauncey Harmon. The township, while it was yet a part of Shiawassee township, was divided into four school districts, but it appears that the districts were not organized until 1839. However, in the fall of 1838, a school was opened by John Stiles, a young man from New Jersey, who had come to Antrim to visit his uncle, John Ward. The school was held in a log cabin built by Horace R. Flint, who had built a more commodious one for a dwelling. The attendance at this school, though somewhat irregular, owing to the great distance many had to come, was from ten to twelve. Mr. Stiles received thirty-six dollars for his three months' service. In the summer of 1839 a log school house was built in the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of section 18, being the same site now occupied in district No. 3. Miss Polly A. Harmon was employed as teacher, at one dollar a week. The next

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 117 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 117 school was taught by Miss Lucretia Purdy. The First Methodist Episcopal church of Antrim was organized about 1850. Rev. David Thomas was the minister in charge. Mr. and Mrs. David D. Adams, Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Howard and Walter Wright formed the class. The meetings were first held in a school house which stood on the site now occupied by the church building, on section 21. The church was constructed at a cost of two thousand seven hundred dollars and was dedicated February 20, 1876, while Rev. George Stowe was" pastor. The cemetery near the center of section 19 was purchased by Allen Beard in the summer of 1842. The first interment within it was that of Mr. Lake, who was killed while helping to raise a building for Lewis Ward, in Perry. Antrim sent six men to the Mexican war, and of the number but two returned. For the war of the Rebellion this township furnished about one hundred and twenty-five soldiers. Some were killed in battle, some were wounded, some died miserably in rebel prisons, and many died of disease and the hardships incident to a soldier's life. BENNINGTON TOWNSHIP Bennington, which is township 6 north, of range 2 east, has a beautiful undulating surface and all the varieties of soil common to Michigan townships, but particularly the sorts well adapted to the culture of fruits and cereals. Originally, timbered openings, about one mile in width, extended from east to west through its center. To the north and south of these openings were heavy forests %of beech, maple, oak, ash, elm and other varie ties of deciduous trees. The township is drained by the Maple and Looking Glass rivers, the former intersecting sections 1, 2 and 3, and the latter crossing the southern part. The people are chiefly engaged in agricultural pursuits, there being in the township but one village, which is also named Bennington, and at which there is a station of the Saginaw branch of the Michigan Central Railroad. The official survey of the township was completed in April, 1826, but the first purchase of public land was not made until 1835. On June 25th of that year Samuel Nichols, Israel Parsons, and Benjamin L. Powers, of New York state, all located on section 24. It was not until two or three years later that anything like a general transfer was made from the government to individuals. Although a few of the original purchasers became settlers, a large majority were merely speculators. Among the earliest purchasers Samuel Nichols was the only one to settle on his land. He built a log cabin and first occupied it with his family and his brother, James Nichols, in the spring of 1836. In May of that year Aaron Hutchings and Jordan Holcomb bought lands on section 28 and occupied the same in the early fall, Mr. Hutchings soon afterward purchasing more land, on section 21. During the year 1837 a number of families from Vermont and New York, and some from the older counties of this state, came into the township. Among them were James Bugbee; Joseph Skinner, who settled on section 21; Samuel Kellogg, the first blacksmith; the Howards,-Ira B., Smith, Jerry, William and John A.,-all of whom came

118 PAST AND PRESENT OF from Washtenaw county and settled on section 36; Samuel Moses; John Pitts, Jr., from whose family the little village of Pittsburg received its name; and David Johnson, from Oakland county, who located lands on sections 4 and 5. In May, 1837, Samuel B. and Harrison S. Bugbee, brothers, came to Michigan from New York. From Flint they proceeded on foot westward along the blazed line of the proposed Northern Railroad to township 6 north of range 2 east. After choosing locations they returned to Flint only to find someone had preceded them; the lands of their first choice were already entered. In June they made a second journey, which resulted in the purchase of the fine farms they occupied for many years afterward. When they made these trips into the interior not a house or an acre of cleared land was to be seen between Flint and Corunna, and the place where the court house stands was a swamp. 'Returning to the state of New York, final preparations were made for removal to Michigan, and in October, accompanied by their father, Solomon Bugbee, their two sisters, and the wife and son of Samuel, they became permanent residents of Bennington. The early settlers must have wished for the powers of St. Patrick, for Mr. S. B. Bugbee related that while taking a short stroll over his newly acquired premises he killed forty snakes, most of which were "rattlers." Bears, too, came close up to the settlers' dwellings and wolves extended attention upon frequent occasions. Before the spring of 1838 others afterward prominent in the history of the township became residents. One of them was Lemuel Castle. He settled in 'Oakland in 1821, and in Bennington in 1837. He became the first supervisor of Bennington, in April, 1838, and served in the same capacity five subsequent years. He was also the first treasurer and one of the first justices of peace. He was then the largest land owner of the township and a highly respected citizen. Several of rhis descendants still live in the county. Nelson Waugh came from Oakland county and settled on land purchased from the government. He voted at the first township election. Marcellus Harris, Peter Harder, and Hiram Davis also were present at that meeting. Archibald Purdy, from Washtenaw county, settled on section 12, having purchased a large portion of the section. He was an early and efficient township officer and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his townsmen. Abner Rice, from Ohio, settled on section 17; William Colf, from New York, on section 15; and John Terrebury, from Washtenaw county, in the southwest part.of the township. Jonathan M. Hartwell, a former resident of Norwich, New York, came to Bennington in June, 1838, traveling by way of the Erie Canal and Lake Erie. Purchasing a yoke of steers at Huron, Ohio, he shipped them to Detroit, where upon his arrival, he loaded the wagon with provisions and resumed the journey toward Bennington. He cleared ten acres on the Grand River trail, partly constructed a log house and returned to New York. Accompanied by his wife and five children, and traveling the same route, he again arrived at his new home November 20, 1838.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 119 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 119 A large portion of Mr. Hartwell's land being in the timber openings, he was enabled to place many acres under cultivation from the beginning. In 1839 he broke and sowed to wheat forty acres, using three yokes of oxen. During the same year he opened his house to the traveling public, the small taverns of Nichols and Phillips hardly meeting the demands of those who journeyed over the Grand River road. He became postmaster of the Hartwellville postoffice, established about 1844, and it remained under the control of members of his family until it was supplanted by the rural delivery system. Honorable Isaac Gale, a native of Albany, New York, came to Washtenaw county in 1830. Later he exchanged his property there for land in the southern part of Bennington, where he settled in 1840, ekcoming one of the most prominent citizens of the township. He served four years as county judge, sixteen years as supervisor, and thirty-five years as justice of the peace. He was vice-president of the railroad company which constructed the line between Flint and Lansing, now a part of the Grand Trunk system. Mr. Gale was called the founder of Morrice and spent the last years of his life a resident of the village. Mrs. Gale died at the same place February 17, 1906. Ezekiel Cook, better known as "Deacon Cook," settled on section 1, about 1839. His name heads a list of jurors drawn in that year. He is credited with having built the first frame house in the township, at the place now occupied by the residence of his grandson, Senator A. B. Cook. Deacon Cook was a highly respected citizen of the township, where he remained until the later years of his life, which he spent in the home of his son, Mr. E. J. Cook, of Shiawassee, which place, however, was just across the township line and only a few rods from the old family home. The civil organization of Bennington took place in the spring of 1838; at which time it included Perry. It was named for the city of Bennington, Vermont, which-was the native state of several of its early settlers. The first election was held April 2, 1838, at the house of Samuel Nichols. There were thirty-one electors present, and Lemuel Castle was chosen -supervisor. In 1839 the electors voted to raise by tax fifty dollars for the support of primary schools. In the village of Bennington the First Methodist Episcopal church was organized about 1869. The early meetings were held in the school house, but a church edifice was soon erected, at a cost of two thousand eight hundred dollars, and dedicated in February, 1871. The first pastor was Rev. John Maywood, and in a long list of his successors appears the name of Rev. Frederick Strong, now of Owosso, who' was pastor of the church about 1880, having the churches of Newberg and Pittsburg also in his charge at the time. Emanuel church, of the Evangelical Association, erected a house of worship in the village in 1875, and the society was incorporated June 26, 1876. The church then belonged to the district which included also churches at Owosso, New Haven, and Chesaning, Rev. John M. Hauk being the presiding elder. About 1879 a church building was erected in the little hamlet of Pittsburg, which was occupied by two religious societies at that place.

120 PAST AND PRESENT OF 12 BURNS TOWNSHIP Burns, descriled as town 5 north, of range 4 east, is the southeast corner township of the county. Its surface is generally undulating and is well drained by the Shiawassee and its branches, as well as by several large artificial waterways. The stream known as the East Branch unites with the Shiawassee river at Byron, forming an excellent waterpower at that village. The soil is very fertile and the township considered one of the best in Shiawassee county. Until September, 1850, parts of section 5, 7 and 8 and all of section 6 were included in the Kechewondaugoning reservation, but at that time it was opened for settlement. Although Whitmore Knaggs opened his trading station here as early as the year 1820 and was succeeded by other traders, the settlement of the township by farmers intending to become permanent residents did not begin until 1835. In July of that year Dyer Rathburn, with his wife and seven children, located on the southeast quarter of section 20, where he built a log house. He brought two yokes of oxen, a span of horses, and a good supply of farming implements and household goods. For nearly a year the family lived in solitude, with no neighbors but Indians, many hundreds of whom at times passed along the trail near the cabin. The trail ran from Detroit to their hunting grounds in the northwest. In the spring of 1836 some members of the Rathburn family, while in the woods a considerable distance from home, heard the cackling of chickens on the north side of the Shiawassee river. On investigating they found the family of Robert Crawford living The first white child in the township was Adelaide Crawford, a daughter in this family, the date of her birth being November 2, 1836. The next two settlers were John Burgess, who located the southwest quarter of section 23, and John B. Barnum who, in June, 1836, settled on section 28. Peter Kanouse came to Burns with his family in the summer of 1836. He settled on the south line of section 27, built a cabin and set up the first blacksmith shop in the township. Ezra D. Barnes settled on the same section about the same time. Peter Euler was among the settlers of 1836 in the southwestern part of the township. He was a native of Germany and while a young man came to Michigan from that country, in 1833. With his wife and two small children, he came directly to the new and almost uninhabited region, settling first in the township of Genoa, in Livingston county. About two years later he removed to section 29, Burns township, where he purchased a farm, which became the permanent home of his family, he and his wife residing there the remainder of their lives. Both died at the venerable age of eightyone, Mrs. Euler surviving her husband two years. The hardships of frontier life were in a way the natural heritage of Americans. "Going west" was the experience of one generation after another, and many family histories are but a repetition of one tale,that of growing up with a new country. To such settlers the experience was not altogether new, but to the foreigner who had come from a land where new settlements in a cabin near the river, on section 15. were unknown, where there was no fron

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 121 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 12 tier of civilization, where a dozen generations of >is ancestors had walked the same streets in the shadow of the same church spires, it was new and altogether strange. His family had not cleared new land and built log cabins for a hundred years, and one wonders at the facility with which he learned the language and adopted the ways of an alien people, and made them his own. And the children of this class of immigrants cannot be distinguished from the descendants of families who have lived in the United States since the battle of Bunker Hill. Several members of the Euler family are still living in the county. Theodore M. Euler, now a resident of Owosso, occupied the homestead, in Burns, a number of years after his father's death, and was elected supervisor of the township when barely past his majority. Later, while living at Bancroft, he filled the same office a number of years for Shiawassee township. Among the other settlers of that year were Thomas P. Green, who helped locate many of the first roads in the southern part of the county; Bright L. Clement; Amos Foster, who built a log cabin on section 22, in which Andrew Huggins is supposed to have taught the first school in the township in the winter of 1838-39, while Mr. and Mrs. Foster were absent on a trip to the east; Aaron Wellman; and Nicholas Braden, who deserves honorable mention among the pioneers of the county. He was born in Germany. While a mere youth, he went to England and then decided to try his fortunes in a new country, reaching New Yorsk at the age of nineteen, without money or friends. After living there nine years, in which he had accumulated some property, he came to Burns and settled in the woods, purchasing the northwest quarter of section 32. Among those who came in 1837 were Ramah Cole, Gideon Drake, Oliver Wolcott and Daniel Kitson. The southeast quarter of section 2 was entered by Roger Haviland in 1838, but he did not settle permanently in the township until 1840. He lived the remainder of his life in Burns and became one of the best known business men of the county. J. J. Gaylord was the first settler on the Indian reservation. The first wedding in the township is believed to have been a double wedding that took place December 17, 1840, at which time Elder Brigham united in marriage Joseph Kanouse to Miss Mabel Drake, and John P. Drake to Miss Agnes Kanouse. Burns was set off from the old territory of Shiawassee township with its present name and limits in March, 1837. The first "town meeting" was held at the office of the Byron Company on the 30th of April of that year, on which occasion ten electors were present, all of whom received one or more offices. In 1838 the township expended fifty dollars for a bridge across the Shiawassee river, near the cabin of John Knaggs, and in 1843 voted to raise one hundred dollars to bridge the river at Byron on the road leading west from the village. In the summer of 1837 five roads through the township were laid out, the first being the road from Genesee county, entering Burns just south of the east branch of the Shiawassee. In 1840 the state road from Byron to Owosso was established. The first school, as has been mentioned,

MAIN STREET, BYRON

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 123 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 123 was taught in the winter of 1838-9. During the following summer several schools were taught in the township, but no school district was regularly organized until 1843. VILLAGE OF BYRON The village of Byron was incorporated April 1, 1873. Its first officers were: President, Charles H. Lemon;: clerk, James Sleeth; assessor, Jazeb Close; marshal, David M. Tillman; trustees, Chauncey Wells, William F. Close, Orlando Lee, Elijah B. Welch, Adam Betterly, and Isaac Barnum. The present village officers are: Fred S. Ruggles, president; Richard G'Hern, clerk; Elmer L. Haviland, 'treasurer; Frank R. Lawrie, assessor; and John Davidson, Ray Chaffee, Charles Anderson, and Floyd Downing, trustees. The corporation of the village comprises the adjacent greater sections of 13, 14, 23 and 24, which territory was located by Judge Samuel W. Dexter, July 13, 1824. The patent conveying the same to him is dated October 20, of that year. June 21, 1836, Judge Dexter transferred the lands to Major F. J. Prevost, C. Smith, P. L. Smith and S. S. Derby, who formed an association known as the Byron Company. The village is situated at the junction of two branches of the Shiawassee river and as soon as the Byron Company was fairly organized, work was started to build a dam across the east branch of the stream, the first dam being completed late in the fall of 1836. The company also built a log house for a boarding house for their employes. This building, which was completed in September, 1836, was the first building erected in the village. The energy of the promoters of the company induced other settlers to cast in their lot with them, and a thriving trading post sprung up, which gave rise to the hope that the village might eventually become the county seat. When the county was organized, however, Byron was too much to one side, and its aspirations could not be realized. In 1840i Byron contained five families, and a postoffice was established with Major Prevost as postmaster. Prior to that time mail was brought from Holly, but soon thereafter a stage line was established from Pontiac to Ionia, which brought mail to Byron until the completion of the railroad from Ionia. Holden White succeeded Major Prevost as postmaster in 1842, and started the first general store in the village. Dr. Abner Sears was the first physician locating in Byron, in 1838. The first attorney was Corydon Lee. The first flouring mill was completed in 1843, the proprietors being Bowman W. Dennis and Sullivan R. Kelsey. They also opened a store, the second one in the village. The first hotel was the log cabin referred to, intended for a boarding house for mill hands. A Mr. Sadler took possession of it and hung out the sign "Cottage Inn" which continued to be the name until 1847. The Byron Hotel was built about 1841. The first regularly organized religious society in Byron was that of the Christian church, Rev. John Cameron being the first minister, in 1840, though several families had united for worship for two years prior to his coming. The Methodist church was organized in 1853, Nut ministers of that denomination had preached in Byron since 1836. Rev. Riley C. Crawford, who is still

124' PAST AND PRESENT OF living here, was one of the preachers prior to 1850. The Presbyterian church was organized by Rev. Seth Hardy June 24, 1845. A Baptist church was organized at an early date, but declined and was reorganized October 6, 1866, as the "Baptist Conference of Byron and Cohoctah." The church edifice was constructed in 1873, and remodelled in 1899. The first pastor was Rev. Thomas H. Cary. Byron Lodge No. 80 Free and Accepted Masons was organized in 1856 and has a present membership of one hundred and forty-three. Its officers are as follows: Guy Braden, worshipful master; Herbert Whitehead, secretary; Clark M. Buell, treasurer. Byron Lodge No. 349 Knights of the Maccabees was organized in 1890 and its first officers were: Jay D. Royce, commander; Fred Carpenter, lieutenant commander; Thomas A. Lawrie, record keeper, and Albert F. Hunt, finance keeper. The present officers are Fred A. Lewis, commander; Asher Hyatt, lieutenant commander; Lyle Downing, record keeper; Elmer Haviland, finance keeper. D. G. Royce Post No. 117, Grand Army of the Republic, was organized in 1883, its first commander being Solomon S. Tower. The present commander is Luther C. Kanouse. There are also the Woman's Relief Corps, Order of the Eastern Star and Ladies of the Maccabees, besides various clubs and societies organized for educational and other purposes. The first school was taught about the year 1840, and the first school meeting was held in 1843. The first school house was built in Byron in 1845. The union school building was constructed in 1865 at a cost of I I-.. two thousand dollars and used until the present brick building was erected, in 1899, at a cost of six thousand dollars. Among the former superintendents may be mentioned Samuel W. Baker, Edwin M. Plunkett, Devere Hall and George R. Brandt. The present teachers are 0. D. Hoag, Kathryn Bowen, Minnie Winans and Berenice Phipps. The members of the school board are A. L. Bramack, moderator; Clark M. Buell, director; Myron H. Redmond, treasurer; William Dyer and Herman J. Meier. The first store in Byron was opened by Holden White, in 1842, in the building opposite the Byron Hotel. Nicholas Gulick, who came to Byron in 1843, was for a time a clerk in the store of Holden White and afterward, buying a small stock of goods at the start, he continued in business for many years. Mr. Gulick was school director for a long time, held various offices in the village and township and was a representative in the state legislature in 1852-4. Following the advent of the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan Railroad, in 1885, a number of brick stores were constructed, all of which are occupied by dealers in various articles of merchandise, who are doing a profitable business in their respective lines. Byron is surrounded by a prosperous farming community, but has no large manufacturing interest. The illegal bonus with its accompanying benefits, has not been employed unless we may except the private donations of a large amount of money and land for right of way given to aid in the construction of the Ann Arbor Railroad. The State Bank of Byron, which, in 1905, succeeded the Exchange Bank, that had been

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 125 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 125 conducted for a number of years by Albert F. Hunt, is capitalized at twenty thousand dollars and is doing a deservedly large business. The president is Luther C. Kanouse, and the cashier F. William Nothnagel. The Byron Herald established about 1895, by the late James Sleeth, is now conducted by William McDonald and enjoys a large advertising patronage. Byron now has a population of four hundred and fifty and is an excellent trading point. Its officers are: President, Dr. A. L. Brannack; clerk, Richard O'Hearn; treasurer, John Fritz; assessor, F. R. Lawrie; trustees, Herman C. Walker, John Davidson, G. W. Downing, D. R. Benton. CALEDONIA TOWNSHIP Caledonia may justly be regarded as one of the two most important townships in the county, because it includes within its boundaries the city of Corunna, which is the county-seat of Shiawassee. On section 32 is also the site of the county farm, which has been described elsewhere in this work. The surface of the township is gently undulating, though in some parts nearly level. The soil is generally of good quality, being somewhat mixed with clay in the northern portion, but becoming more sandy toward the southern boundary. A rich muck is found along the river and this is very productive. The timber found growing in the township was beech, elm, maple, basswood and hickory. Very few facts of a reliable character have been obtainable regarding the township's early history. The earliest settler was John Swain, who came from Chenango acres on section 25. He entered this land in 1834 and built a log house upon it. Mr. Swain had for a while lived at the Williams trading post. He was by occupation a carpenter, and also filled the sacred office of preacher at a very early date. The first religious services in the township were conducted by him and the latter years of his life were devoted to the duties of an evangelist. Mrs. Swain's death, in 1836, was the first which occurred in the township. The farm which had been partially cleared by Swain was afterward purchased by Captain John Davids, the earliest agent of the Shiawassee County Seat Company, who, after relinquishing his official duties in Corunna, removed to the farm and engaged in agriculture. The next settler was Philip Rockwell, who, in 1835, entered one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 36, but did not improve or occupy the land until 1837. A few others came in that year, but Caledonia was settled slowly and for many years much of the land remained uncleared. William H. Jewett located eighty acres on section 4 as early as 1838, and lived upon it many years, but ultimately removed to New Haven, where he died. In the same year Robert McBride purchased a farm on section 36, where he lived more than forty years and where he died in 1879. W. R. Seymour and his two sons, George and Walter, were pioneers in 1839, and Thomas R. Young in the same year entered a tract of land on sections 1, 2, 11 and 12, embracing six hundred and forty acres, part of which he afterward sold. William Lemon, Gerry Tuttle, Auburn Stuart, Don C. Griswold, and Ninion Clark were also County, New York, and located thirty-two

126 PAST AND PRESENT OF 126 PAST AND PRESENT OF settlers of that year. Mr. Clark was a member of the first board of highway commissioners and assisted in laying out many of the early roads of the township. He removed to Shiawassee and later to Vernon, where he died. Prominent among those who settled in Caledonia in 1840 were Benjamin M. Waterman, who located eighty acres on section 4, and Norman L. Jennings, who settled at the opposite side of the township, on section 31. Caledonia was formerly a portion of the township of Owosso, and was separately organized by an act of the legislature, approved March 22, 1839, its boundaries including all of township 7, north of range 3 east, except sections 6, 7, 18, 19 and 30, which remained attached to Owosso. After much opposition these were embraced in Caledonia by another act, approved- February 16, 1842. By the incorporation of the city of Owosso, the west half of sections 18 and 19 were made a part of that city, leaving Caledonia as it at present exists. The first township election was held April 29, 1839, at the house of Alexander McAr-. thur. Mr. McArthur was elected supervisor and also to three other offices. Samuel N. Warren was chosen treasurer, clerk, school inspector and justice of the peace. At this meeting Stephen Hawkins, John Davids, and Ninion Clark were elected highway commissioners, and they proceeded to divide the town into three road districts. They also established two roads that year, both beginning at the south line of the township and running toward the central part. In June of 1840 a road was surveyed running north of Corunna, and in August a highway was opened on the south side of the township. -No definite information can be obtained regarding the early schools of the township. The earliest school house was built in 1842; and a school opened in it by Miss Drusilla Cook, a daughter of Ezekiel Cook of Bennington. Miss Cook instructed the youth of Caledonia a number of terms and her successor is not remembered. Coal Mining.-Among the natural resources of Caledonia township are the coal deposits which are believed to exist under a large portion of its surface. In 1837 a geological survey of the state was authorized and Dr. Douglas Houghton was placed in charge of it. During the progress of the survey Corunna was visited. The examination made by the corps along the Shiawassee river satisfied them of the existence of coal, though none was discovered at the time. Two years later, in 1839, Alexander McArthur discovered coal on his land, on the bank of Coal creek, in the southeast quarter of section 22. It was first taken out in small quantities, and as it became known that coal could be obtained, purchasers (mostly blacksmiths) came from long distances, and trade increased to quite an extent. The coal was delivered on wagons to purchasers for ten cents per bushel. It was not, however, until many years after that any organized effort was made to mine coal extensively. About 1864 some parties from New York city organized a company known as the McArthur Mining Company, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. In April, 1865, Mr. McArthur sold to the company one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 22. A large amount of money was expended in the erection of engine rooms, coal houses, offices

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 127 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 127 and tramways. In addition to machinery and buildings at the mines, an extensive wharf was built on the Detroit river, and an agency established at Detroit. Then the cost of transportation from the coal beds to the depot proved so great that labor was suspended, and in 1866 the company disbanded. The Briar Hill Iron & Coal Company, of Ohio, about 1870 purchased land on section 23, having previously tested the land for coal. This company operated a mine about a year, when the work was abandoned, ninety. thousand dollars having been expended in various efforts, without success. February 26, 1873, the Corunna Coal Company was organized. The incorporators were George F. Perkins, of Akron, Ohio; George Todd, of Youngstown, Ohio; Henry Gilbert and Harry R. Gilbert, of Corunna. In 1874 the lands previously worked on section 23 were purchased and adjoining lands leased. The company began operating the mines in June, 1877, the necessary works for mining and shipping having been completed by that time. Difficulty was at first experienced in obtaining' miners, but this obstacle was finally overcome by bringing them from Ohio. A branch railroad was constructed from Corunna to the mines and this greatly decreased the labor and expense of transportation. Mr. Tod Kincaid, who was secretary and treasurer of the company, became the resident manager as well. Under his supervision the coal mines opened at different places on the company's holdings became steady producers and for many years they furnished Corunna and the surrounding neighborhood with their most important in dustry. The first shaft opened was two miles east of Corunna, and this was operated for five years. A second shaft was sunk in 1881 one mile northeast on the Kerby farm, and was successfully mined for ten years, when a third shaft was opened which was mined for twelve years. Mr. Kincaid is now operating a mine one mile east of Corunna. The Owosso Coal Company was formed about 1895, R. E. & C. F. Travis purchasing a small mine near Kerby. They developed the mine and operated it for several years, disposing of the property finally to Chicago parties. Carl Pickert has been the resident manager for five years. FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP The township which occupies the northwestern corner of Shiawassee county is but a fractional town, as are all of those lying along the meridian line. It contains twentyfour full sections and six fractional sections, equal in the aggregate to twenty-five full sections. The surface of Fairfield is in the main level, but it has a distinguishing feature in a ridge running north and south through the town and causing its water courses to. flow eastward and westward. In numerous localities there are cold-water springs, which are so marked a feature that the name of Cold Springs was first proposed for the new township upon its organization. The tide of immigration which struck Shiawassee in the early, '30s came from the southwest. After slowly moving to ablout the center of the county it appeared to have spent its force and spread out toward the south and west, but did not continue north

128 PAST AND ^PRESEN;T OF 128 AST ND RESET O ward until a few years later. Fairfield, being in the extreme northwest, was the latest to receive settlers and consequently the last to be organized. Previously to 1850 the township was untenanted by white inhabitants, and not until 1854 was any noticeable impression made upon its solitude by the presence of settlers. At that time it was densely timbered with the usual variety of hardwood found in other portions of the county, except along the northern border, where there was a strip of pine woods. A majority of Fairfield's settlers came from Ohio. The first of these who had the courage to pass the settlements of the neighboring townships and push into the heavy forests of town 8 north, of range 1 east, was Lewis Lockwood, and even he did not care to settle north of section 35. From the spring of 1850 until the fall of that year Lockwood was the solitary settler. Aaron S. Braley then moved into the town and located six miles farther north in the wilderness, on section 2. For about one year these two settlers, with their families, were the. only residents of the township. Henrietta Lockwood, born in 1851, was the first white child born in Fairfield, and Mrs. Lockwood, who died in 1854, was the first white person to die there. Her husband died in 1858. The third settler was James E. Rouse, who came in 1851 and located on section 11. Rouse cut a road from his place to that of Hiram Bennett, in Clinton county, a distance of two miles and a half. Carrying water from a place a mile away was among the experiences of life in the woods, for the Rouse family. And the case of Braley seems to have been even harder, for he was often compelled to make a journey of twenty miles on foot to St. Charles, where he sometimes got a chance to work for a supply of flour or other provisions. In the spring of 1853 George B. Munson made a location on section 32. At that time the population of the town included six other families. Beside the three previously mentioned there were the families of Henry Higgins, on section 17, and of Henry Wool and Moses Wool, on section 8. A few others came at different times in 1853, but of all the settlers mentioned George B. Munson was the only one to become really a permanent resident, although Henry Wool owned his farm for a number of years and occasionally resided upon it. At the time Mr. Munson came he owned the only pair of horses in the town. As late as 1862 the supervisor, in making the assessment, found only three horse-teams in the township and about fifty sheep. Other settlers who came in 1853 were Alfred Veltman, John Myers, Henry Stebbins, Abadillah Borden and Uriah Squiers. In the following year a number of settlers came, including two other members of the Munson family, I. L. and G. C. Munson. Another was B. W. Darling who, as one of the early town constables, had some interesting experiences with law breakers; also Oscar Darling and one of the Van Deusen brothers, Ralph; Roe G. Van Deusen came a few years later. Among the other settlers of 1854 were Dory Castle, Moses Leavitt, C. J. Austin, Charles Wait, William Peck, John W. Curtis, Orrin Wetherbee, Merrick Rockwell, and the Brainard and Perkins families. E. F. Bennett, also a pioneer of that year,

SHIAW ASSEE COUNTY 129 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 129 brought his family from Ohio and settled on one hundred and twenty acres of heavily timbered land. An underbrushed road was the only highway in the neighborhood, but this condition of things was soon improved by the introduction of "road bees", which were weekly meetings at which the settlers of a neighborhood gathered for the purpose of cutting roads through the brush, and doing such other work as was necessary to make them passable. The road question was one of absorbing interest to the early settlers of Fairfield, and by the first of the year 1856 they had no fewer than eight roads laid out through the township. E. S. Hambleton came from Ohio in May, 1855, and settled on section 28. He was followed shortly by two of his brothers-in-law, who settled on neighboring farms. They were C. D. Searl and William Oakes, the latter of whom subsequently became register of deeds. In 1856 Elder Ira Allen moved to a farm on section 17, coming from Clinton county. While living in Fairfield he served for many years as pastor of the Baptist church of Elsie. Among the residents upon the Meridian line at that time there were, besides several already mentioned, E. J. Harrington, who built the first frame house in the town, and David Bates. W. C. Dunham settled on section 15, in 1861 and his father, 'W. H. Dunham on the same section, in 162. Asa Burbank was- then living on a place in section 10, which was soon afterward purchased by Andrew Williams. He, however, did not come to remain permanently until 1865, when his nephew, Thomas Williams, came with him and afterward located on section 15. On section 3, in 1861, were James Corp 9 and Enos Gay, and on section 1 was W. L. Arnold, on a place that had been settled earlier by Edward Smith. Among those who located in Fairfield somewhat later, but who may nevertheless be called early settlers, were William Warner, William Peck, Eli Chamberlain, Chester Fox, H. W. Fuller, S. G. Main, C. B. Loynes, J. B. White, and E. W. Washburn. Fairfield's first assessment roll, made in the year 1854, has in the list of resident taxpayers twelve names; in 1855, the number had increased to twenty-six. January 4, 1854, the board of supervisors set off the northern half of Middlebury township and gave it a separate jurisdiction, under the name of Fairfield. Besides the name of Cold Springs and others, the name of Brunswick was sent to the board as one desired by many residents of the town,-Brunswick, Ohio, having been the former home of a majority of the early settlers. For some reason of their own, however, the supervisors set aside all the names suggested and gave the new town a name of their own choosing. The first town meeting was held April 3, 1854, at the home of Henry Stebbins. Twelve electors were present and John A. Borden was chosen supervisor. The first school in Fairfield was taught by Elizabeth Borden, in 1855. She began the term in Henrv Stebbins's house and finished it in the school house built that year. Among the twelve scholars there was only one 'boy, Edwin R., the son of E. F. Bennett. In that year the township was divided into three school districts. A town library system was established and rules for its government adopted as follows:

13a PAST AND PRESENT OF 1. For a grease spot on a book, a fine of twelve and a half cents. If more than one, in the same ratio. 2. A torn leaf, if not torn bad, ten cents. 3. Torn out leaf, twenty-five cents. 4. If more than one torn out, the price of the book. 5. Corner of leaf turned over, six cents. 6. Ink spots and pencil marks, each six cents. 7. A broken or torn off cover, fifty cents. Although organized only in 1854, Fairfield furnished forty soldiers for the national army in the war of the Rebellion. None of these were drafted, and ten of the forty lost their lives in the service. HAZELTON TOWNSHIP In the list of those persons who made the original purchases of lands in Hazleton, from the general government or from the state of Michigan, the name of Porter Hazelton appears a greater number of times than that of any other individual. In each of nineteen sections he is recorded as having purchased tracts varying in size from eighty acres to seven hundred and thirty-five acres, and the date of nearly every purchase is 1849. Porter Hazelton, it appears, was never a resident of the township that bears his name, nor yet a land speculator in the ordinary meaning of the term. The tracts of land in town 8 north, of range 4 east, which came into his possession, were given by the state of Michigan in payment for services performed in the construction of a bridge across the Flint river. Hazelton was a resident of Genesee county; his brothers, George H., Homer, and Edward were engaged with him in the enterprise and became part own ers of the land in Shiawassee, as did also Ezekial R. Ewing, another partner in the work. Mr. Hazelton offered many inducements to settlers and ultimately disposed of his property in the township. The surface of Hazelton is generally level, except in the south and east, where rolling ground is occasionally found. Several streams water the township and give variety to the landscape. Chief among these is the Misteauquay creek, which rises in Venice and flows northward through the eastern part of Hazelton. Numerous small tributaries feed this stream, Onion creek and Porter creek being the most important. When the first settlers came to Hazelton, in 1848, they found the township well timbered with beech, maple, elm and basswood, and some other woods in smaller quantities. The earliest two settlers were Stanton S. Latham and Eli E. Fowles, who came from Genesee county and together located on eighty acres on section 27. They at once built a cabin and began a small clearing. Their limited quarters afforded shelter for -many of the settlers who followed, while erecting homes of their own, the hospitality of the pioneers being in no wise governed by the dimensions of their primitive dwellings. In the family of Mr. Latham was born the first white child in the township, in 1849. In his home also occurred the first death,that of Mrs. Latham, in 1852. His second marriage, which followed shortly, was also the first in the township. Mr. Latham ultimately removed to Oregon. Porter Hazelton, in 1849, gave to a number of persons tracts of forty acres under an agreement to effect certain improvements

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 131 SC within a specified time and also to purchase an additional forty acres each to be paid for as thev were able. Among those who came to the township under these conditions was John Willis, whose eighty acres were located on section 22. He made considerable improvement but finally wearied of the monotonous life in the new town, and in 1858 removed to Missouri. Solomon McIntire was another who secured eighty acres in the same way and located on section 15. He devoted some time to the cultivation of his land, but after a few years removed to Grand Traverse. Otis Burpee was a settler in 1849, coming from Genesee county with horses and wagon, over an Indian trail which was a somewhat difficult road for a wheeled vehicle to follow. He camped three nights on the way to section 10 of Hazelton, where he had eighty acres, procured from George H. Hazelton by an agreement similar to that described in the cases of his neighbors. He, however, was more persevering in his efforts to reclaim the wilderness and in time developed his purchase into a productive farm. J. L. Richardson, another person whose advent is associated with the Hazelton contracts, arrived in 1850. He also had the courage to remain until his wild land was converted into a farm. He was prominent in public enterprises and did much during his official career as highway commissioner toward making various portions of the townships accessible by the laying out of highways. J. C. Smith, in the same year, settled on section 27, where he had eighty acres under contract from Porter Hazelton. He remained several years and the result of his industry was twenty acres of improved land, but he ultimately found a more attractive home, in Wisconsin. The farm first occupied by John Willis was sold in 1850 to Daniel L. Patterson, who came from New York to the township, in that year. He added much to the limited clearing made by his predecessor, though there were many obstacles to overcome. He was an early justice of the peace, and held his court in the log cabin where he lived. His death occurred in 1859. In 1850 there were ten resident tax payers in the township, only one of whom had acquired more than eighty acres of land. This affluent citizen was Stanton S. Latham, who paid taxes that year on two "eighties." Among other pioneers of 1850 was H. S. Allen, whose land lay in section 15. He, however, accomplished less at farming than at his trade, which was that of a cabinetmaker. After a few years he removed to Corunna, and later to Newburg, in Shiawassee township, where he is still remembered for his eccentricities as well as his skill as a wood-worker. Jesse Rhodes, a former resident of Ohio, also came in that year. He found deer, wolves, and other wild creatures still numerous in the forests, and Indians were frequent callers at his cabiin. Mr. Rhodes died in 1869. Two of his sons, Ransom and Marshall, remained permanent residents of the section where their father had settled. During the following ten or twelve years settlements in the township progressed slowly, only one or two a year being added to the number of those who established permanent homes. W. W. Warner came from Pennsylvania in 1852, and located on section 34; C. S. Gillett came in 1853, but later

MAIN STREET, NEW LOTHROP

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 133 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 133 removed to Flushing; John Bowman, a native of Germany, came to Hazelton in 1855, and engaged quite extensively in the lumber business, after purchasing a farm in section 26; in the same year Henry St. John settled on section 35. About this time the Brown brothers, James and Jacob C., came from Livingston county. Some years later Jacob removed to Corunna and James sold his farm to William Eames and went to Grand Blanc to reside. In 1856 John Decker, Amos Lewis and Elijah Coons settled in the southern part of the township. The following year section 7 received three new residents, George Jacobs, Eli H. Day, and R. J. Holmes. They found a neighbor, B. Dutcher, already living in a rather isolated spot, in section 6. Levi Morse came from New York in 1858 and purchased eighty acres of land on section 30. Emery Lewis, originally from the same state, bought considerable land on sections 29 and 31, in 1859. These tracts in time developed into fine farms. F. F. Brewer and L. H. Barrett were among the settlers of the early sixties. Hazelton was organized a separate township, March 25, 1850, and the first township meeting was held at the house of Stanton S. Latham, on April 30. Orrin Smith was the township's first supervisor. The earliest school in Hazelton was taught in '1851, by Mrs. Daniel L. Patterson, in a log cabin standing on her husband's farm, the second teacher in that district being Mary Gillett. The earliest school in the Judd neighborhood was taught in 1854, by Miss Jane Judd. Her father, John Judd, settled in the southern part of the township in 1853 and was influential in pushing the development of his immediate neighborhood, which is known far and wide as Judd's Corners. When the first Methodist church and the Granger hall were built, both were located there. A postoffice was established in 1879. VILLAGE OF NEW LOTHROP In the northeast corner of the county is located the thriving little village of New Lothrop, which dates its settlement from 1850. It now has a population of four hundred and fifty, with a postoffice and telephone connection with all points in the county. MIDDLEBURY TOWNSHIP Middlebury is one of the fractional townships of the western tier lying along the principal meridian, but what it lacks in size is more than made up by the excellence of its soil and the beauty of its farms and farm houses. In 1836 Obed Hathaway, a resident of New York, bought a tract of land in town 7 north, of range 1 east, in the county of Shiawassee. In June of the following year, Hathaway, with his wife and four children, arrived at Henry Leach's place, on the Colony road, in Sciota. They were traveling in a lumber wagon drawn by oxen. They bargained with Leach to guide them to section 21, of the next town north. Mr. Leach went forward "blazing" the route, and Hathaway followed, cutting out the road for his team. A trip of five miles brought them to their destination. Four weeks were required for the building of a cabin, and during that time the family lodged in the wagon. When winter came on, the Hathaways concluded that they

134 PAST AND PRESENT OF 134 PAST AND PRESENT OF would better return to Washtenaw county until the following spring, seeing that there was no chance to winter their cattle and a poor chance to winter themselves. The first land entry in Middlebury had been made by George W. Slocum, also a New Yorker, in the spring of 1836. This was one hundred and sixty acres on section 35. Slocum, however, awaited the arrival of other members of his family from New York, until the closing days of 1837, when his party, also, made their way to Leach's place. The women of the family remained there two weeks, while the men walked to and from their location, spending the scant hours of daylight in building a cabin. With George Slocum came his father and his brothers, Daniel and John. When they moved into the cabin it had neither door nor window. At night wolves gathered near the house in packs and howled dismally, much to the terror of the women. During that winter and until the Hathaways returned, in the spring, the Slocums were the only settlers in the township. But the four men working together accomplished a great improvement. Roads were, of course, of prime importance in that timbered country. In the first year of their residence they underbrushed a road to Leach's place, another three miles east, and still another four miles northwest, toward the Hathaway settlement. These two families went through all the usual experiences of pioneers, making twenty-mile trips on foot in quest of provisions, longer trips to mill, interspersed with bear hunts and deer hunts, with the object of replenishing the larder, in addition to their labor of clearing land. "Going for the doctor" generally meant a night trip on horseback through the darkness of the forest, over most uncertain roads, to Owosso, eleven miles away. Getting to market at Pontiac or Detroit was a week's journey, at the least, and selling wheat for fifty cents a bushel was one of the disheartening experiences of pioneer life. The next accession to the settlement was the family of John Palmer, on section 21, and of William Palmer, on section 22. They had come from Middlebury, New York, and when the new town received its name they had the honor of christening it, just as their father had named the town in New York, in honor of his earlier home in Middlebury, Vermont. The Palmers arrived in the spring of 1838 and about the same time Moses Clark, Jr., made a settlement on section 34. Two brothers, Elijah and Silas Potter, also located on section 25. Moses Clark was afterward joined by his father, who was a Baptist minister and who in that office performed effective service. The northern half of the township received no settlers until 1839, when James McCarty and his son, with their families, ventured to section 3. William McCane followed a few years later. He chopped about eight acres on section 4 and then retired in disgust, declaring that the "wolves were so thick in the infernal country that no white man could live there." In 1843 Roswell and Nathan Herrick settled near the Slocums, Nathan afterward moving to section 28. William Rideout located on section 27 in 1844 and about the same time John Flanagan came to section 22. James Kenney and William Badgerow were also settlers of that year.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 135 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 135 Middlebury's pioneer blacksmith and carpenter in one person was B. F. Tobey, who settled on wild land, in 1848, and opened a blacksmith shop. In 1849 Tobey assisted in the erection of a school house on section 23. There was then no saw mill in the township. Some years afterward Coon & Kline built one, on section 16, but until after 1850 a builder in Middlebury was compelled to go to Owosso for lumber. Other settlers of the same time were Garrison, Lounsbury and Bushrod Warren. In March, 1847, George and David Warren located on section 33, each entering eighty acres of land. William Tubbs also made a location in that year. In the '50s Middlebury settlers became so numerous in the southern portions that a complete list can scarcely be given in a limited account of the township's development. In the northern sections, however, the progress of settlement was very slow until 1860, when the tide of emigration turned that way. The first white child orn in the township was Joseph, son of Obed Hathaway, his birth occurring in June, 1838. The first death was that of Silas Potter, in August, 1843. A legislative act, approved March 21, 1839, organized Middlebury as a separate township. Until January 4, 1854, its territory included the present township of Fairfield. The first town meeting was held April 1, 1839, at the home of Moses Clark, Jr. Only seven voters being present, it was found necessary to elect several of them to as many as four different offices each. William Palmer was chosen as the township's first supervisor. At the election' in 1842 there were ten voters; in 1843, only six, but in 1845 the number had increased to twelve. Although the township was organized in 1839, no school districts were organized until 1845, for the very good reason that there were scarcely any children of school age in the town. The first school house was built in 1849 and in it the first school was taught by Miss Mary Sherman,-a term of three months. Middlebury had at one time two postoffices, though in the days of the earliest settlement the people received their letters at Laingsburg. The first was established in 1845, with the name of Middleburg, and George WV. Slocum was appointed postmaster. Mail was received once a week over the route from Owosso to Ionia. Maple Valley postoffice was established in 1850. Ira Stimson was postmaster until 1854, when Harton Warren received the appointment. Upon the establishment of Ovid postoffice, in 1857, both of the Middlebury offices were abolished. The township now has, in common with the rest of the county, rural delivery of the mail throughout its entire territory. Among the early preachers in Middlebury were several of the Baptist and Methodist denominations, who conducted services at school houses and in settlers' homes. Several societies were organized in different localities, but no church building was erected until 1872, when two Methodist classes-the Warren and Sciota classes-joined in building a handsome edifice on section 34, the church being connected with the Laingsburg circuit. Middlebury has ever been distinctly an agricultural township. The Maple river,

136 PAST AND PRESENT OF 6 PT AD flowing through the central part, with a smaller branch entering from the south, has furnished an excellent drainage for the land. Extensive improvement of the course of the Maple is now in progress, which, it is believed, will greatly increase the productiveness of a large portion of the township's soil. NEW HAVEN TOWNSHIP New Haven was among the earliest in point of settlement of Shiawassee's townships. In 1837 it was probably the extreme northern limit of civilization in the Shiawassee valley. The township at that time was well timbered with maple, oak, beech, and elm, except in an extensive area of swamp land where tamarack abounded. This, however, was not long allowed to lie in its natural state. By careful drainage it was soon converted into the most fertile land in the town. The Shiawassee river runs through the northwestern sections. Six Mile creek, which rises in the central part of Caledonia, enters New Haven in section 33 and flows into the river in section 18, where an excellent waterpower has been utilized since 1869 in running one of the large furniture factories of the Estey Manufacturing Company. Another stream of considerable size flows through the eastern portion of the town. The surface of New Haven is generally level and the soil is very productive. Its earliest highway was known as the "State Road." This ran north from the city of Corunna, entering New Haven at the middle of section 33 and continuing to the center of section 27, whence it angled eastward to the line between sections 15 and 16, and again ran due north to the Saginaw boundary line. The first settler in the township was Horace Hart. He came from Monroe county in 1836, and was accompanied 1y four sons, some of whom then had families, and three of whom became permanent residents, the fourth, after a time, removing to Caledonia. Mr. Hart entered four hundred and eighty acres of land and gave each of his sons eighty acres, retaining for himself one hundred and sixty on section 35, where he settled. The first marriage in New Haven was that of his daughter, Nancy, to Mr. Thomas R. Young. In his family also occurred the first death, that of his son, Robert C., in 1848. The second of New Haven's pioneers was Richard Freeman, who came from England to the forest solitude of- Shiawassee, first clearing a farm for Peter Reid, of New York city, and then locating one for himself, on section 21. He afterward became a resident of Rush, but in time returned to New Haven. humphrey Wheeler, with his family, came to the township in the spring of 1838, having previously spent -two years in Oakland county, on his way west from his former home in Chenango, County, New York. Mrs. Wheeler's father had given her an eightyacre tract on section 15, and there the family settled after building a cabin twelve by sixteen feet in dimensions. The first year they were the victims of chills and fever and consequently did not accomplish much in the way of clearing land. Water for household use was procured four miles from home. The depredations of wolves and bears among the live stock were the cause of much annoyance, and the long journeyings to Detroit or Pontiac for provisions were among the

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 137 SHIA. W.SE COUNTY.13 - hardships experienced. Conditions, however, improved with time, and in 1855 Mr. Wheeler built a large frame house on the state road which ran past his farm. This became familiarly known throughout Shiawassee and Saginaw counties as the "Wheeler Tavern" and was one of the most famous of the chain of taverns which ran across central Michigan and continued to do a thriving business until the railroads absorbed the traffic which formerly passed over the highways. Mr. Wheeler remained the genial host of the tavern until his death, in 1860. His son, James B. Wheeler, was a well known business man of the county, residing at Corunna until about 1890, when he repeated the family experience of pioneering by settling in the new territory of Oklahomaunder modern conditions, however, which can scarcely be compared with those of Michigan's pioneers. In 1839 Spencer W. Stout came from New York and located on section 4, and shortly afterward married Miss Rosanna Hart, a daughter of the first settler. John Dunlap was the earliest settler of 1840, locating on section 33, where he remained until the end of his life. William Durkee, a brother-in-law of Mr. Wheeler, also came in that year but in 1850 returned to Oakland county. Roswell Spencer, in 1842, located upon section 23, where he remained for some time, though he afterward removed to Caledonia. In the same year Walter R. Seymour settled on section 18, the whole of which was afterward purchased by Lewis Findley, an early resident of Owosso. Among the settlers of 1843 was Czardus Clark, who lived here until his death, in 1875, and a number of his sons who remained permanent resi dents of the township. Another was Jesse B. Amidon, who later removed to Hazelton. Francis R. Pease also located here in that year. At his house early religious services were held, being conducted by Elder Patterson. In 1844 the number of resident tax payers was twenty-one. In that year Dwight Dimmock came from Owosso and located on section 28. John Pope also was a settler of that year. George Ott came to the township in 1847 and erected a saw mill, on Six Mile creek, which for some years was operated profitably. The Dumond family, consisting of father and sons, made their advent in 1849. In 1852 Rev. William Cochran purchased of Warren Hart eighty acres on section 23. After living there a number of years he removed to Corunna. He was one of the earliest preachers in that part of the county. The same year Daniel Young located on section 15, one mile from HumDhrey Wheeler's. To the north there were no white neighbors for a distance of twenty miles. Indians of the Fisher tribe, however, were numerous and were frequent visitors. They were great beggars and did not maintain the established reputation of the race for honesty. Among other settlers of the fifties were S. H. and J. Alliton, grandsons of Roswell Shipman; Chester Cram; James H. Desbrough; Phineas Burch, an early carpenter; and J. J. Garner, a "circuit preacher." Samuel P., and Daniel Conklin, Patrick Riley, Jesse D. Hanford and Edward Murray also came about this time. After that time the township settled more rapidly and conditions had improved so that the newcomers were not obliged to experi

138 PAST AND PRESENT OF 138 PAST AND PRESENT OF ence the hardships endured by the real pioneers, although they doubtless felt that they had a sufficient share. While several roads were surveyed at an early date, as late as 1852 there were none that intersected the state road that were in a condition to travel. New Haven was organized a separate township March 20, 1841, but included the territory of the present town of Hazelton until March 25, 1850. The first township election was held at the house of Richard Freeman on the first Monday in April, 1841. Among the officers chosen for the year were the supervisor, Humphrey Wheeler; clerk; Joel A. Hart; treasurer, Lewis Hart. Although the first settlement was made in 1836 no one neighborhood became sufficiently populated to need a school house until 1843, when one was erected in the southern part of section 21. This was a log structure, of course, as were nearly all of the earlier school buildings, and was succeeded in time by a frame building, which in its turn grew ancient and came to be called "the old red school house." In the original log building Ira W. Rush was the first teacher, and among the early preachers who held religious services there were Noah Peters and Elder Patterson. A number of church societies were organized in the township at a comparatively early date, the first being the Wesleyan Methodist, in 1851. A Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1859, and a German Evangelical church in 1860. There was also a church of the Disciples organized in 1875. About the year 1900 the Six Mile Coal Company began to develop the coal industry, the output giving evidence of a good vein of coal. The mine has been operated very successfully and the product finds a ready sale. There are indications of coal elsewhere in the township and, in fact, throughout the county, and new shafts are being opened at frequent intervals. OWOSSO TOWNSHIP This township, which originally embraced the northern half of Shiawassee county, now occupies the territory of a single survey township, designated as No. 7 north, of range No. 2 east. Originally this was a heavily timbered township having beech, maple, oak, ash, cherrv, hickory, butternut, walnut and other deciduous trees common to this climate. Pines of small size were found 'scattered over various sections. Along the Maple river and in the swamps of the northern portion were tamaracks and Mlack ash in abundance. It is impossible now to read without regret of the waste of this wonderful timber supply incident to the clearing of the land. One does not begrudge the pioneers the enormous amounts consumed in the great fireplaces for fuel was the one thing among the necessaries of life of which they were not stinted. But the sheer waste of the burning log heaps! It is painful to imagine that. And again one wonders why the early fathers did not leave the new roads they laid out, well shaded by the magnificent trees which grew along their borders. The surface of the township is comparatively level, but sufficiently elevated to admit of good surface drainage. The Shiawassee winding on its graceful course through the northeastern part and the Maple creeping slowly across its southwestern corner, having also numerous springs and wells whose

SHIA WASSEE COUNtTY 139 SHAWSE CONY 3 waters are strongly impregnated with iron, the township may be considered well watered. Agriculture furnishes the chief occupation. The history of Owosso as a township began in the year 1823, when deputy United States surveyors threaded these wilds and commenced the toilsome work of mapping out townships. The field notes of the surveyors would be interesting to those living here eighty-three years later could they be quoted at length, which space forbids. They range all the way from "Land first rate; soil good," and "Fine Indian sugar orchard" to "Land miserable; not fit even for wolves to inhabit." The hardships of a surveyor's life are indicated by the annotations, "Waded river seven times to-day," and "Three miles from camp and just dark." On the line between sections 9 and 16 was found a white oak "fifty links in circumference seven feet from the ground; sixty feet to the limbs. It is sound and we judged it would make one thousand rails." Alfred L. and Bentjamin 0. Williams entered the first land in the township, August 2, 1833. No other entries were made until the year 1835. The first settlement in the township of Owosso outside of the village was made by Reuben Griggs and Abram T. Wilkinson, in June, 1836. In traveling to their wilderness homes thev cut out the first road leading west from the present city of Owosso. Apollas Dewey, a native of Vermont, seems to have been the next settler in the rural portion of the township. He settled in the southwest part, in the spring of 1839, and soon became one of the most prominent and successful farmers in Owosso. His son, Thomas D. Dewey, also became one of the best known business men in the young city of Owosso. Being first a merchant, he later started an extensive milling business in connection with John Stewart. They also had large farming interests and engaged extensively in breeding fine horses. Ezra L. Mason and his brother, Albert B. Mason, with their families came to Owosso in September, 1839, and settled on section 8, on lands which had been purchased three years before. E. L. Mason's son, also named Ezra, whose birth occurred November 9, 1839, was the first white child born in the township, outside the village. Mr. Mason was an experienced surveyor and performed much work of that character in theearly days. The settlers known to have located here in 1840 were Samuel Shepard, Francis Mitteberger and Waterman Perkins. However, settlements were not made rapidly, and in 1844 only twenty-four names were in the list of resident tax-payers. The total tax levied on the township and village in that year was one thousand and twenty-one dollars and thirty-nine cents. In 1850 Owosso township contained but severty-six dwellings and three hundred and ninety-two inhabitants. Much -that is of interest in the early history of the township was closely connected with the history of the city of Owosso, which is reviewed in succeeding pages. Burton, a station on the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railroad, is situated near the west border of the township. By an act of the state legislature, approved March 11, 1837, the township of- Owosso was formed and included the northern half of Shiawassee county. The first township meeting was held at the house of Daniel Ball, on

140 PAST AND PRESENT OF 140 PAST AND PRESENT OF May 1st, and the following officers were elected: Lewis Findley, supervisor; Alfred L. Williams, clerk; Daniel Ball, Samuel N. Warren, Abram T. Wilkinson, assessors; John B. Griswold, Henry S. Smith, Jehial Dunning, highway commissioners; Daniel Ball, Elias Comstock, Alfred L. Williams, John Davids, justices of the peace; Elias Comstock, Alfred L. Williams, Samuel N. Warren, school inspectors; Henry S. Smith, Jehial Dunning, Abram T. Wilkinson, constables; Henry S. Smith, Samuel Wilkinson, Lewis Findley, poormasters. Owosso township was not reduced to its present limits until 1854, when Fairfield, the last of those taken from its territory, was organized into a separate township. Prior to 1850 but two school districts were formed; after that time others were formed and the boundaries of all contracted or enlarged as circumstances required. Among the early teachers mentioned as receiving certificates were Charles P. Parkill, May 4, 1844; Drusilla Cook, 1847-8; Sarah Pratt, 1848; J. W. C. Blades, Euphrasia Parkill, Clarissa Ingersoll, Sylvia Guilford, 1849; Amanda Guilford, Lucretia Griggs, 1850; Uretta Chase, Annette Wilkinson, C. F. Shepard, Miss R. Cook, 1851. PERRY TOWNSHIP The township of Perry, which bounds Antrim on the west, was originally the south half of Bennington. The first settlement in the township's present limits was made by Josiah Purdy in the fall of 1836 upon land described as the west half of the northwest quarter of section 13, and the west half of the southwest quarter of section 12. Upon the northern half of this land now stands the village of Morrice. While Mr. Purdy was building a cabin he left his family at the house of Alanson Alling, in Antrim. The rude dwelling which he soon completed was the first built by a white man in the township of Perry. An Indian trail passed near the door and over it long lines of the red men often traveled in their peculiar single file.' Evidently their moccasined feet had trod the trail a great many years, for in places it had been worn a foot deep. The Indians were at first totally oblivious to the presence of their white neighlors, but in time Mr. Purdy gained their entire confidence. They would frequently stop at his house during a storm and sometimes spend the night with him in such numbers that the floor of the little front room would be covered with their sleeping forms. In the morning they would silently go away and sometimes, without a word of explanation, would leave their guns standing in the corner of the room, where they might remain unclaimed for several weeks. In the spring of 1837 Mr. Purdy plowed a small piece of ground for a garden and although in the meantime several other settlers had located in Perry, this, it is thought, was the first land plowed in the township. Mrs. Purdy died in 1866 and her husband two years later. Many new settlers made their appearance in the early part of 1837, some of whom remained, others becoming discouraged and returning to parts of the country that were more advanced. Among those who remained were Horace Green, with his wife and six children, who located on the southwest quarter of section 15. They later removed to Kent county. With them came Dr. Joseph

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 141 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 141 P. Roberts, who was the first physician to settle in the township. He, however, gave his attention principally to farming, only practicing his profession in cases of emergency and near home. He died after living here about eight years. Among other settlers who came to Perry in 1837 was George Reed, a native of England, who located on section 8 and with his wife remained a resident of the township until his death some time in the '70s. Jesse Whitford came in the latter part of the year and located on the northwest quarter of section 3. His daughter, born in 1838, was supposed to have been the first white child born in the township. William Lemon entered the southwest quarter of section 1, but did not remain long in Perry. William Morrice, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, came in March and with his family located on the southeast quarter of section 2. Mr. Morrice died in 1873. Phineas Austin was another settler of that year. He had previously entered land on section 4. In the same year Ebenezer Turner located on section 2. The only permanent settlers known to have come to Perry in 1838 were the three brothers of William Morrice, John, George and Alexander Morrice. John located land on the northeast quarter of section 2. He died in 1848. George located on the southwest quarter of section 2. Alexander, however, did not remain long, but settled in Ionia county. The village of Morrice received its name from this family, a number of whose second and third generations are still living in the vicinity. In 1839 John P. Shaft located a large tract of land on sections 19, 20 and 29. He re mained a resident of Perry until 1846, when he removed to Woodhull township, where the village of Shaftsburg was named for him. In 1840 John Spaulding came from New York and purchased a part of section 19, where he settled. Lyman Bennett was an early resident who settled on section 5; also Levi Harmon, who located on the south part of section 25. March 15, 1841, the township of Bennington was divided, the south half being organized under its new name of Perry. The first township meeting was held at the house of Dr. Roberts, the ballot boxes being "a coffee pot and an old tea kettle." Dr. Roberts received five of the offices, no other person receiving more than four. Lyman Bennett was chosen supervisor and was elected to the same office eight years in succession. Among the well known names which appear in the later records of the township is that of Judge Amasa A. Harper. He was elected township clerk in 1865 and in several successive years, was treasurer for two years, and then supervisor from 1874 to 1880, when he was elected judge of probate for Shiawassee county and removed to Corunna, where he still resides. The total valuation of real estate and personal property in the township in 1841, as shown in the assessment rolls, was $63,978; in 1905 it was $1,186,000. November 14, 1837, the school commissioners in the township of Shiawassee, in which Perry and other townships were still included, held a meeting at the "Exchange" for the purpose of dividing the townships into school districts. Township 5 north, range 2 east (now Perry), was divided into four districts.

MAIN STREET, MORRICE

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 143 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 143 The first school was taught by Miss Julia Green (who afterward became Mrs. M. L. Stevens), in 1839. A room in the house of her father, Horace Green, served as a school room and the number of pupils who attended was from seven to ten. For twelve weeks the teacher received the sum of six dollars from the public-school fund. It was the custom in those days for pupils to pay a tuition fee or assessment, but it appears not to have been done in this case. Most surprising facts have been discovered in connection with the remuneration received by the early teachers, but this is believed to be a record of the minimum of wages paid. VILLAGE OF MORRICE. Morrice is one of the thrifty villages of the county, is situated near the east line of Perry township, on the main line of the Grand Trunk Railroad, and has a population of four hundred and fifty. The site was plotted by Isaac Gale, in 1877. The land had been settled on in 1836 lby Joshua Purdy, who had built a cabin just east of the present site of the school house and near an Indian trail that had evidently been in use for a great many years, as it was worn nearly a foot deep in places. In the spring of 1837 Mr. Purdy prepared a small garden near his home, which was the first land plowed in the township. Many families settled near Mr. Purdy's claim, notably William Morrice, who came from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with his brothers John, George and Alexander. It was from this family that the village of Morrice took its name. Morrice was incorporated as a village in November, 1884, and the first election was held December 8th of that year, the whole number of votes cast being twenty-three. The first officers of the village were: President, H. P. Halsted; clerk, J. W. Steadman; treasurer, D. J. Holmes; assessor, John A. Morrice; trustees, B. F. Rann, Seneca Gale, Daniel Waters, Thomas Jones, B. F. Grout, and Henry Horton. The running expenses of the village for the first year were two hundred and twenty-three dollars. At that time the industries were a grist mill, two hotels, two elevators, a saw mill and a stave and heading mill. Charles Tyler was the first postmaster. Frederick Cummings, son of James Cummings, ex-treasurer of the county, was the first merchant. The building occupied by him as a store is still standing and is now used for residence purposes. In 1878 C. W. Sager built a hotel known as the Sager House, a well furnished and commodious hostelry. As early as December 28, 1839, some members of the Presbyterian faith, including the Purdys, Morrices and other well known families, met to organize a church society of that denomination. Meetings were held in the homes of members and in school houses after they were built, until 1878, when the first meeting house was built. Other churches, organized later, assisted in raising funds for building the church and for.years used it jointly. The building cost four thousand five hundred dollars. The Methodist church was organized in April, 1865. They have a prosperous society and a fine brick church edifice. In 1877 the Baptist society was organized. The Catholic society has a large and elegant church and a large membership. The Morrice public schools are well conducted and work is carried on in a large

H_ P4 z4

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 145 HC and well appointed building, occupying a prominent place in the village. The Odd Fellows, Knights of Maccabees, Beard Post, Grand Army of the Republic, Modern Woodmen, and other fraternal societies have a good representation among Morrice citizens. Morrice is a pretty little village nicely located for residence purposes and attractive to persons desiring a quiet home in town. The present village officers are: President, T. S. Martin; clerk, A. W. Blakeslee; treasurer, C. L. Bartholf; trustees, W. H. Davis, W. A. Conley, H. J. Fuller, Williams Case; assessor, A. L. Beard. The village now has a good private bank; first-class hotel; grist mill, with a capacity of fifty barrels daily; an elevator, handling an average of three carloads of grain and beans per week; saw mill, manufacturing about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of lumber annually; canning factory, costing eight thousand dollars; apple dryer; and lumber yard. The village is lighted by electricity and has over two miles of cement walks. Two rural mail routes lead out from the postoffice. VILLAGE OF PERRY. An interesting story is connected with the founding of the village of Perry. It is situated on land settled by Horace Green and Dr. Roberts, who moved into the township and lived in a small shanty, erected during the winter, and situated on the site of the present Hotel Hicks. It was in the chamber of this shanty that the first school in Perry was taught by Miss Julia Green (Mrs. M. L. Stevens), seven pupils being enrolled. The early settlers, like all of their class, lived and 10 labored under great disadvantages, such as can hardly be realized by present inhabitants. Detroit was the principal trading place and the people were obliged to drive there with produce, etc., twenty-eight days being required to make the trip and the expenses of such trip being about forty dollars. W. P. Laing opened up the first store that was built in Perry, and was the first postmaster. The first Sunday school was held in the Hinckly school house. Things moved slowly on in this manner until the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railroad went through, in 1876. Then it was that everything sprang into new life and the most of the little town that sprang up around "Perry Centre," a settlement about a mile south of the railroad, moved down to the railroad crossing and Perry Was the town. With the building of the railroad, however, came a fight between the rival settlements of Perry and Morrice, which are only three miles apart. Isaac Gale, who owned considerable land about Morrice, was vice-president of the railroad and easily secured the location of a station at Morrice and endeavored to have that answer for both places. A majority of the inhabitants of the township were dissatisfied with this arrangement, however, as it had been decided by vote that the station should be located at the crossing of the "Olwosso and Mason state road." With this understanding, considerable, contributions were made, Norman Green having given one thousand dollars and five acres of land 'for a station and yards for the railroad. A mill was built and other business enterprises had been started, but the railroad company refused to receive or discharge freight at this point. A petition to. the com

146 PAST AND PRESENT OF 146 PAST AND PRESENT OF pany had no effect, and finally the people appealed to the legislature. After much delay a hearing was given and the request of the people of Perry was favorably considered. The enterprising citizens donated ties for side tracks and contributed money for building the station. From this time the village took on new life and business enterprises were established and residences built by people coming here to reside. Two large grist mills were immediately erected near the railroad, the present mill being built by R. N. Parshall, now owner of the Owosso City Mills, afterward owned and operated by Dr. L. M. Marshall, who was the first doctor that practiced medicine in this vicinity. Dr. Marshall was very successful in both his medical profession and as a mill owner. He built the drug store now occupied by D. A. Blanchard and was the only druggist here for years. It was through his instrumentality that the successful growth of Perry village was due. The other mill was built by William McKellops and R. N. Parshall, this one being destroyed by fire about fourteen years ago, the present site being now occupied by the large hardware store of Colby & Dunning. These mills at that date were both running to their full capacity and farmers for twenty and thirty miles around brought their grist here to be ground. From this time on to the present the village has grown rapidly and is to-day one of the most enterprising villages in the state'. Perry now has three churches. There is a Baptist, organized May 19, 1838; Congregational, in December, 1879, and Methodist, with a history dating back to 1838-9. The public schools employ six teachers and rank among the best in the county. A large brick building accommodates the school population. There is one flouring mill, two large grain elevators, one pickling station; more live stock is shipped from this place than any other market in the county, the local buyers shipping over twenty thousand dollars worth of live stock to eastern markets in one month; there are two and a half blocks of solid business places; five doctors; one lawyer; two newspapers, the Perry Journal and the Morrice News-Clipper, edited by Thad. H. Halsted. The Perry Glove & Mitten Company with Isaac W. Lamb, the original inventor of the Lamb knitting machines, as president and superintendent, employs over one hundred hands at the factory and gives employment to over two hundred women outside of the factory, as finishers. The weekly pay roll is about one thousand dollars. About one hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of business was done in 1905. Their large new factory building, adjoining the present one, is nearly completed, will be ready for occupancy soon and reports for future business are very encouraging. Land has been purchased in the eastern part of town by a stock company for a new race course, and will be in readiness for track meets, ball games, etc., at an early date. The village will soon be illuminated by electricity. It is also hoped the interurban electric line projected between Lansing and Owosso will pass through this village. The usual number of secret societies are to be found here. The Masons, Odd Fellows, Maccabees, and others have strong societies. A Young Men's Christian Association has been successfully conducted for several years, and a public reading room maintained.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 147 SC Perry is steadily growing. The admirable location of the village, its clean, moral atmosphere, excellent education facilities and opportunities for business commend it to people of thought who are careful about their environments. New residences are constantly being built and new families moving into the village. Although the last census gives Perry as having about eight hundred population, it is safe to say that within a year it will be increased to the one thousand mark. Perry's advantages are fast becoming known and appreciated, and not many years will have elapsed before the whole scope of country surrounding the village will be thickly settled, and those who take hold and help in bringing about this change will be able to look on and enjoy life while the pleasant thought steals over them that they have been of some use to the world. Following are the officers of the village: President, Emery Davis; clerk, H. H. Hawley; treasurer, Will Barrett; council, H. P. Halstead, R. Johnson, Henry Dunning; assessor, Lyman Bennett. RUSH TOWNSHIP Though the settlement of township 8 north, of range 2 east, began in 1839, it was not set off from Owosso township or known by the name of Rush until 1850. Prior to that time progress had been made at a leisurely pace, but after its organization it developed rapidly into one of the most prosperous townships in the county. Rush, like the other northern townships, has a level surface and originally had an extensive marsh in its central portion,-the cranberry marshes which the hunted Pottawattamies made their last refuge in their pathetic efforts to resist forcible extirpation. A dense growth of tamarack timber grew in this low land until by skilful drainage it was converted into fertile farm lands. On the surrounding higher ground, ash, beech, maple, elm and basswood were found in abundance, and a limited quantity of black walnut and butternut. The Shiawassee river flows through the southeastern portion of the township. The Saginaw division of the Michigan Central Railroad passes through the eastern part, having a station at Henderson. The earliest settlement in Rush was made by Ransom White, who, in 1839, purchased ninety acres on section 26. He erected a log cabin and devoted some time to clearing, but after a few years he gave up his efforts to become an agriculturist, and removed to another part of Michigan. The second arrival in the township was that of Avery Thomas, who came with his family in 1842. There being practically no roads at that time, Mr. Thomas embarked with his family, and their household goods, on scows, which were floated down the Shiawassee to their destination. Mrs. Thomas died the year after their arrival, and hers was the earliest death in the township. Mr. Thomas married Mrs. Sarah A. Sampson the following year -and this' was the first marriage which took place in Rush. Henry Rush, with his family, arrived in C4-3 and entered one hundred and sixty acres on section 24. The first clearing was done by his son, Jacob Rush, the father soon after returning to Pennsylvania. He, however, subsequently made his home here, and both father and son died in the township which bears the family name.

148 PAST AND PRESENT OF 148 AST ND RESET O Robert Irland was a settler of the year 1843, purchasing a farm on section 24, where he lived until his death, and where his widow and one son made their home for many years afterward. Jonas Robbins came from New Jersey about this time. He had an unhappy experience in getting settled, being directed to a piece of land which he supposed to be his, but which, after he had established himself there, turned out to belong to another purchaser. In time he succeeded in locating upon his own land, on section 26, where he made a permanent home. William and Samuel Goss came to the southeastern part of the township in 1843, each purchasing one hundred acres of land. William remained there until his death, in 1863, but his brother returned to their former home in New York. Several settlers from Lenawee county came to the northern part of Rush at this time. Among them were Walter Graham and Silas Cark, who located on section 5, and R. A. Sutliff, on section 8. Until the year 1850 the township could scarcely be called settled. Only a few of those who had located here had remained a sufficient length of time to accomplish more than a rude beginning at home making. One road through the northern part of the township had been surveyed by Nelson Ferry, in January, 1845, but was not officially recorded until November 7, 1850. Whether any work had been done on this road does not appear. Another road was surveyed by Ezra Mason in April, 1850, and "Jobs for the chopping, causewaying, and ditching of the above road" were let by the commissioners of highways, May 15th. Small bands of Indians were still wandering aimlessly to and fro through the northern townships, occasionally making trips to the older settlements for the purpose of selling baskets. Deer were abundant and wolves howled at night near the scattered cabins, while bears were dreaded visitors among the live stock. The township was erected by a legislative act approved March 28, 1850, and, pursuant to the requirement of the organizing act, the first township meeting was held at the house of Henry Rush, on the 1st of April. It is recorded that only seven voters were present at this election. The officers chosen for the year were: Supervisor, Avery Thomas; clerk, William Goss; treasurer, Robert Irland; (the same three citizens were elected justices of the peace); highway commissioners, William E. Hurd, Jonas Robbins, Robert Irland; directors of the poor, Henry Rush, Richard Freeman; school inspector, Avery Thomas; constable, Jacob Rush. After the organization of the township, settlements became more numerous. Michael Rourke came from Massachusetts in 1851, and purchased of William B. Hurd forty acres on section 26. A log house and four acres of cleared land constituted the "improvements" on this tract. Mr. Rourke, however, was not disheartened by the prospect of hardships, and remained until he had increased his farm to four or five times its original size. William Sawyer and his son, William, Jr., natives of England, came to Rush in 1853, first purchasing forty acres on section 2, and some years later acquiring a much larger farm, on section 36. Richard Freeman. another Englishman, who has previously been mentioned as an early settler of New Haven, made a second start, in Rush, in 1854, purchasing a farm on section 25, which he im

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 149 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 14 proved and lived upon for many years. In the same year William Noonan and Patrick Rourke each located upon eighty acres on section 26, which in time they transformed into finely cultivated farms. Curtis Devoe was another pioneer of 1854, having located on section 12. He remained upon this farm until his death, in 1877, when it passed into the possession of his son Theodore. George Sawyer, who had come with iis father and brother in 1853, purchased the original home, on section 2, of his brother, in 1871, when the latter removed to the southeastern part of the town. Three former residents of the state of Ohio settled in Rush in 1854 and became permanent residents. They were Samuel Shuster, who secured one hundred and sixty acres on section 15; Samuel Ayres, who located a tract of the same size on section 21; and William Hughes, who started in with eighty-eight acres on section 10. Benjamin Washburn came from Inglam county to the township in this same year, which marked an increase in immigration, purchasing a farm near that of Curtis Devoe, on section 12. He remained on this farm until his death, in 1869, when Joseph Hoffman became the owner. G. Whitfield Drown soon afterward settled on section 36, where he cleared a farm which he subsequently sold to John R. Bush. Among others who came before 1855 and may therefore properly be called early settlers, were Samuel Wood, Daniel Whitman, and John Russell, who settled in the northern part of the township; Patrick and Michael Carmody and William Berger, who located on section 27; William Stearns, on section 24; Andrew Simons, on 25; Solomon Horn, on 26; William Scott, on 30; and D. S. Center, on 36. In the year 1855 the number of resident tax-payers was thirty-three. The first school house in Rush was erected in the Goss neighborhood, on section 25, in 1850, and was known as the Goss school house. Miss Amanda Shepard was an early teacher of this school, but probably not the earliest. The second school house, built some years later, was located on section 6 and was called the Washburn school house. The first house in the village of Henderson was built in 1868, by John Henderson. The village is a station on the Saginaw division of the Michigan Central Railroad. SCIOTA TOWNSHIP The story of the first settlers of almost any township in Shiawassee county is certain to be a recital of hardships endured, of privations suffered, and of hard labor which must have broken the health and shortened the lives of many. Touches of humor brighten most of the stories, for people with the requisite courage for such undertakings usually know the wisdom of extracting amusement from their minor misfortunes, and possibly from those of their neighbors. But the story of Sciota's first settler is only a brief tale of the speedy and sad end of plans for a new home. Samuel Carpenter was this pioneer. He came to the township in the spring of 1836, and upon section 26 put up a rude shanty, in which he lived alone a few weeks, while making a small clearing. Some time in the summer he went to Detroit for the purpose of purchasing a number of oxen, having planned to proceed with some vigor in his attempt to subdue the wilderness. On the return journey,

150 PAST AND PRESENT OF when he had reached a place about ten miles from his clearing, he fell from his wagon and was killed. Just before Carpenter's death Dr. Peter Laing, William Laing and Mason Phelps came to the town and founded Laingsburg village. In the previous year Phelps and his twin brother, Milton Phelps, had located one hundred and twenty acres on section 26, on the Grand River trail. Mason Phelps was a son-in-law of Dr. Laing, and after assisting the latter in starting a tavern he moved to his own place, in December. Among the settlers of that year, 1836, a prominent one was Henry Leach, the same who had settled where the village of Vernon now stands, in 1833, and who built the frame Iarn at the Williams trading post in 1835. Having located some land on section 9, in Sciota township, he built the body of a log house, with the help of Gideon M. Cross, who was in the neighborhood on a "landlooking" tour. Having completed the four walls of the house, they returned to Leach's place in Vernon. In October, Cornelius Putnam arrived withhis family, after a tedious journey by ox team from New York state. The last of the long journey was by a blazed-tree path, branching off from the Grand River trail. This they followed until they reached the cabin which Leach and Cross had "rolled up," and into it they moved, though it was without roof, floor, door or window. An inventory of their worldly possessions disclosed the fact that they were ready to begin pioneer life in Michigan with an ox team and wagon, one wagon load of household goods, one peck of potatoes and six cents in money. After liv his family into a bark shanty which he had completed on his own place, in section 3. For nine weeks after coming to Sciota Mrs. Putnam saw the face of no white woman. One week her husband was absent earning provisions which he had no money to buy, and twenty-four hours of that time she and her children lived on nothing but rutabaga soup. After Putnam began to raise crops, going to market meant a trip to Detroit, where he could get seventy-five cents a bushel in cash for his wheat, or to Owosso, where he had to take half "trade." Most frequently he went to Detroit. For a time he had to go to Pontiac to mill, a distance of seventy miles. A few weeks after the Putnam family were domiciled on their own place, Henry Leach came with his family. Having been successful in his venture at settling in Vernon, he was in prosperous circumstances and came well supplied with provisions and conveniences for carrying on his work. Being of a generous disposition he reached a helping hand to his neighbors and materially lightened their trials and privations. From the first he appears to have been a man of some prominence in the neighborhood. His settlement was made on what was known as the Colony road, which ran from the Grand River road to the Rochester colony in Clinton county. There was considerable travel on that thoroughfare and Leach's place, like many others along those early roads, became known as a place where a few travelers could be entertained over night. True he was accused of selling whiskey to the Indians in such quantities that they sometimes would get villainously drunk and would howl about the neighborhood while the intoxication ing in this cabin three weeks Putnam moved

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 151 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 151 lasted. But he is also credited with breaking up a notorious gang of counterfeiters, who were caught manufacturing Mexican dollars in a lonely cabin west of the Clinton county line. At all events Leach was an active citizen and a good neighbor during the years he spent in Sciota. In 1851 he again struck out for the frontier, this time going to California, where he became a ranchman and where he was killed by an accident, while riding a horse. Gideon M. Cross came to the township with Leach and lived with him until the spring of 1837, when he settled on a place of his own, in section 9. His location being on the Colony road, he also entertained travelers when opportunity offered. He was a shoemaker by trade and opened a shop in his house. By means of diligence in these two branches of industry he managed to keep his family in provisions while he cleared land and awaited his first crop. The first birth in Sciota was that of his son, Charles Cross, who was born March 5, 1837. Among those who came into the Putnam neighborhood in the winter of 1836 were Franklin Herrick, Abram Lewis, and Daniel Dennison, to section 2, and S. B. Fuller to section 10, while early comers into the Leach settlement included Allen Smith and Reuben Rogers. In 1843 Godfrey Wert and Stephen McCarty came to the town, settling on the Grand River road. At that time a number of other settlers were located along this famous old road, among them Masoni Phelps, Moses Wallis, and Mitchell Blood, the tavern'keeper. In 1845 John Scoutten, of Ohio, located on a farm near Laingsburg and in the succeeding years many others moved into that neighborhood. By the year 1849 there were thirty-four names in the list of taxpayers resident in the township. Purchases of about fifteen hundred acres in the northwestern corner of Sciota were made at an early date by Ashbel Thompson, a lawyer of Philadelphia. About 1839 Thompson began making annual visits to the wilds of Michigan, for summer recreaton, being fond of hunting, fishing and forest rambling. During these visits he made his temporary home at the house of William Swarthout, in Ovid township, Clinton county, and became well known to the people of that vicinity, his visits being repeated for more than forty years. In 1850 Thompson resolved that in order to sell his land he must clear it. To this end he engaged Barnet Putnam, a son of Cornelius Putnam, to clear and break some of the land for him. When he came the next year he found that Swarthout's barn contained a crop of wheat gathered from the land Putnam had cleared. When Mrs. Swarthout asked him what he wished done with the wheat, he replied, "Give it to the first poor preacher who comes along." And the first preacher to come along was made happy with the gift. Thompson sold four hundred acres, on sections 4 and 5, to Charles Balcom and James Hills in 1851, and the following year they came on and occupied their purchases. Theirs were the pioneer settlements of the northwestern corner of the township. During the summer of 1838 a smallpox epidemic broke out among the Chippewa Indians, who still lingered about Sciota, which on account of its ravages spread great terror and demoralization among the redskins. No white person took the disease, but in the

152 PAST AND PRESENT OF 152~~~ ~ PAT NDPESNTO following year another disorder was prevalent of which the settlers had a monopoly. This was fever and ague in the form so serious that many intending settlers were frightened out of the country by the deplorable conditions, some patients being too ill to work for months at a time. Stories about wolves and bears and the exploits of some mighty hunters are plentiful among the reminiscences of pioneer life in Sciota. Henry Leach was considered a wolf hunter of skill, and within the space of about four years captured upward of thirty wolves, for whose scalps he realized a handsome bounty. Barnet Putnam achieved a wide notoriety as a bear hunter, and claimed to have killed no less than nine during twentytwo years of his residence in Scotia, the last one being dispatched in 1871. He was also a wonderfully successful deer slayer. During the fourteen years preceding 1862 he slaughtered fully five hundred, with an old reliable shot gun, having in one autumn killed fifty-eight. Sciota was embraced in the township of Woodhull until February 16, 1842, when, by an act of legislature, it was given a separate organization. The first town meeting was held at the tavern of Cyrus Miller, in Laingsburg, April 4th, at which time twentythree votes were cast. The first school in the township was taught in 1837, by the wife of Cornelius Putnam, in her own house, and the pupils were her own children and the children of Henry Leach. The first town burial place was laid out in 1843. On April 3d of that year the town voted twenty-five dollars to purchase an acre of ground for a cemetery and to fence the same with a rail fence. I In the fall of 1836 the rush of "land-lookers" began along the Grand River road and for several years there was a great amount of travel on this thoroughfare. Laing's tavern was the chief stopping place, but it soon became insufficient to accommodate the increasing number of travelers. About 1840 J. M. Blood opened a "temperance tavern" four miles east of Laingsburg, and Blood's tavern too became known the length of the old Potomac and Grand River road. VILLAGE OF LAINGSBURG In 1836 Dr. Peter Laing came to what afterward became Sciota township, and settled on the site of the present enterprising village named after him, Laingsburg. Here he erected a log structure, intended for a tavern, and being located on the great Indian trail between Pontiac and Grand Rapids, and travel being brisk, he enjoyed a profitable business, at the same time offering great convenience to travelers. With the opening of the Grand River road over the route of this trail, Laing's tavern became a famous landmark and popular resort. The building was not large enough to accommodate the large number of travelers and scores of people slept on the ground around log-heap fires. Years later, when a line of stages was put on the road and a mail route established, the tavern became the postoffice and was also made a stage-house. About 1840 James M. Blood opened a temperance tavern four miles east on the Grand River road, but Dr. Laing paid six dollars and seventy-five cents for the privilege of retailing ardent spirits. The tavern continued under his management until his death, in 1865.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 153 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 153 The village was platted in 1860, the settlement having moved at a slow pace, and it was then scarcely more than a cross-roads village. In 1871 Dr. E. B. Ward, then a representative in the state legislature, used his efforts to have an act passed incorporating the village. There was considerable contest in the election, held April 8, 1872, and H. S. Partridge was elected president; James McLeod and Philo Bacon trustees for two years; C. H. Hartwell and J. A. Crippen trustees for one year; G. J. McClintock, clerk; A. F. Place, treasurer; Henry Winslow, marshal; and George Culon, assessor. It was discovered, however, that the election was illegal, and the administration was, by common consent, abandoned. It was not until 1877 that the village was finally incorporated. With the completion of the Saginaw division of the Michigan Central Railroad, the village took on a rapid growth. It was the trading center of a large community of industrious and prosperous farmers. But since especial railroad facilities became the good fortune of neighboring towns and were by necessity denied to Laingsburg, its growth reached its limit and it is difficult to raise the population above the eight hundred mark. Agriculture and stock raising are the resources of this section, unless we include the gains derived from hunting and trapping in the marshes, which are not inconsiderable. There are no industries on a large scale in the village, but two large grain elevators, a grist mill and a flouring mill make a good market for farmers' produce, while a cheese factory uses a large quantity of milk. There are, besides, a cider and jelly mill, an apple dryer, cabinet shop, wheelwright shop and four blacksmith shops. Four rural mail routes center here, and the postoffice, therefore, handles a large quantity of mail daily. The public schools rank high. A principal and four teachers are employed and the schools are oni the accredited list of Olivet and Albion Colleges and the Michigan Agricultural College. The largest church is St. Isadore's Catholic church, erected a few years ago at a cost of twelve thousand dollars. The other denominations represented are the Congregational, Methodist, and Baptist. All have comfortable and commodious houses of worship, which are well sustained. There are, among the fraternities, Masonic, Eastern Star, Knights of the Maccabees, Grand Army of the Republic Post, Ladies of the Maccabees, Odd Fellows, Rebekahs, Degree of Honor, American Order of United Workmen, Modern Woodmen and other lodges, and a very active Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The Laingsburg News is ably edited by H. VanOmmeran, a gentleman of culture and ability. While not experiencing a marked growth, Laingsburg, on the other hand, "holds her own" year by year. The business men are progressive and desirous of caring for the trade from this section of the county. The present village officers are: President, Joseph Watters; clerk, Seymour Pratt; treasurer, W. H. Clark; assessor, H. W. Pearce; trustees, Harry Holder, W. H. Benson, Alva Wert. SHIAWASSEE TOWNSHIP The township of Shiawassee, whose boundaries were once identical with those of Shiawassee county, by successive subdivisions

154 PAST AND PRESENT OF was finally reduced to the territory embraced in survey township 6 north, of range 3 east. This one of the sixteen survey townships of which the county is composed takes precedence of all others in the priority of its settlement. Its forests yielded to the enterprise of the pioneer nearly a score of years before some of the other townships were affected by the presence of the settler, and much of the early business activity of this portion of the Territory of Michigan was at one time concentrated within its limits. The surface of the township, in nearly every part, is sufficiently rolling to relieve it of monotony, and in the eastern portion, through which the Shiawassee river winds. its picturesque course, the scenery is in many localities exceedingly beautiful. The Looking Glass river flows through three sections in the southwestern corner, and the Maple river has its small beginning in a tract of marsh north of the center of the township and flows north and west into Bennington and then to a field of greater usefulness in Clinton county. The "Maple swamp," in which the Maple river rises, will soon be only a memory, it' tamarack forests having already disappeared and its waste land being rapidly converted into fertile fields, through an effective system of drainage. The once heavy forests of beech, oak, maple and elm have also disappeared, only a thin stretch of woodland here and there along the river banks being left to remind the older residents of the magnificent growth which existed even within their recollection. The earlier settlements in Shiawassee township were, as well, the earliest made in the county, and as such have been fully re need be reviewed but briefly here. Alfred L. and Benjamin O. Williams, two young men living in Oakland county, in 1829 made a tour of exploration through the county. After visiting the trading post of Whitmore Knaggs in Burns, they proceeded some distance down the river into Shiawassee township. Being attracted by a beautiful locality in the southeast quarter of section 25, they selected there an eighty-acre tract, which was the earliest purchase of land, with a view to permanent settlement. At this point, two years later, in August, 1831, the Williams brothers established their trading station which was subsequently known as the "Shiawassee Exchange." Henry S. Smith and a partner named Cooley were the only settlers of the year 1832. They attempted the establishment of a trading post on the river, probably on section 11, but the enterprise was not successful. The first settler of 1833 was Hosea Baker, who with his son, Ambrose, in April of that year, built a log cabin in the extreme southeast corner of section 14, and entered six hundred acres in that vicinity. They did the first plowing in the county, the preceding settlers not yet having turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. In August Mr. Baker's wife and children arrived from Pennsylvania, accompanied by the family of Aaron Swain, his son-in-law. The Swains located on section 23, where they built a log house, in which their daughter, Julia Swain, was born October 28, 1833, this being the first birth in the county. In May, 1833, John I. Tinkelpaugh located on section 24, on land which he had previously visited and selected but did not purchase. This was afterward bought by Hosea counted in preceding pages. They therefore

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 155 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 155 Baker, under an agreement to sell it to Tinkelpaugh when the latter was able to buy. After living here a few years Tinkelpaugh, with his family, removed to Clinton county. There were no roads at this time and settlers were obliged to drive their ox teams to Pontiac or Detroit when they desired to procure flour or other manufactured commodities. Venison and other game could sometimes be purchased from the Indians, when they were not themselves successful in shooting or trapping wild creatures that were fit for food. Orin Vary was a settler of 1834, who located on section 22, and built a log house. Two weeks later Isaac M. Banks came from Niagara county, New York, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres on sections 26 and 27. He lived with Vary until he had a cabin erected on his own land. Mr. Banks was at that time about thirty-six years of age and was a veteran of the war of 1812, having enlisted as a sailor under Commodore Perry when only fifteen years of age. In 1853 Mr. Banks built a spacious frame hotel in the hamlet of Fremont, on the Grand River road, and became one of the popular landlords of the county, in which occupation he continued until 1870. He remained a highly respected citizen of the township until his death, in 1891, at the age of ninety-four years. Ephriam Wright came to the township early in 1836 and entered nearly the whole of section 13, where he lived a number of years and built a substantial home. Losing much of his property through misfortune in a business venture, he made a fresh start on new land in Vernon township and again acquired a competency, which he enjoyed until past ninety years of age, when he was killed by an accident while driving a spirited horse. Another settler of the same year was William Newberry, who came from Ohio. His occupation was that of a carpenter and he assisted in erecting some of the earliest frame buildings in Shiawasseetown and Owosso. In 1839 he purchased eighty acres of Ephriam Wright, on section 13. He first built a small frame house, but a few years later erected a large dwelling which stands to-day as one of the best examples of early farm houses and of pioneer carpentry. Mr. Newberry established a reputation as one of the most successful farmers in the county. He died at his home, October 1, 1888, and was survived by his venerable wife about ten years. Two daughters of this family, Mrs. Charles A. Whelan and Mrs. Harriet Pratt, are now residents of the township. 'The only surviving son, John Newberry, is temporarily living in Colorado. William Johnson, a son-in-law of Ephriam Wright, purchased eighty acres on section 15, of E. C. Kimberly, the agent'for Trumbull Cary, who disposed of a great amount of that New York land owner's holdings in different parts of the county. Isaac Secord located on section 18, in 1836, and James Phillips settled in the same neighborhood shortly after that time. William Warren was another settler of that year. He came from Rochester, New York, and purchased a" considerable amount of land in sections 35 and 36, his home being for many years on the Grand River road, just southeast of the limits of Bancroft village. His son, Charles Warren, is now the owner of the homestead. Liberty Lyman, in 1837, located upon land

156 P4ST AND PRESENT OF 1 P O in the extreme southeast corner of the township, a portion of his farm being in the southwest corner of Vernon, and another small part in the northeast corner of Antrim. After a few years of prosperity in the cultivation of the soil Mr. Lyman built a fine brick residence in a beautiful oak grove near his pioneer home. This is now occupied by his son, Edson L. Lyman. Four generations of Lymans have made their home in this handsome old farm house, and no less than five generations of one family, Mrs. Lucina Sykes, the mother of Mr. Liberty Lyman,, having spent the later years of her life there. This is a somewhat unusual record in a county as young as Shiawassee. Edson Lyman is actually a resident of Antrim, his house being in that township, while his barns, a few rods north, and nearly all of his large farm are in Shiawassee. John Herrick came from Niagara county, New York, in 1837, and first located on section 35, where he lived a few years, afterward removing to Fremont. He lived there until his death, in 1877. Four of his sons are well known residents of the vicinity of Bancroft. About 1835 a company made up of citizens of Huron county, Ohio, made a systematic attempt to boom the village of Shiawasseetown, with Charles Bacon as manager of the enterprise. Some good buildings were erected, one with a view to its being used as a county court house. A well organized plan to secure the state capital, upon its removal from Detroit, barely failed of accomplishment. In time, however, the Shiawassee Company discovered that the prospects for founding a city in the midst of the wilderness, existed chiefly in the imagination of their agent, and found themselves the losers of some thousands of dollars. Several members of the company who came from Ohio to assist in managing the venture remained to dispose of the property and became permanent residents of the township. Among these were Elisha Brewster, who was the second sheriff of the county; Moses Kimball, who died at Shiawasseetown in 1837; and Lucius Beach, whose wife was a sister of Moses Kimball. Mr. and Mrs. Beach, during the brief period of prosperity enjoyed by the village, kept hotel in a large building, the capacity of which was frequently unequal to the demands made upon it, as many as forty travelers seeking its hospitality on a single night. Mr. Beach afterward bought a farm, on section 36, and built another large hotel on the Grand River road, which was known for many years as the Beach tavern. It was later used as a residence by N. G. Phillips, a son of Mrs. Beach. The property still belongs to the family of Mr. Phillips, who died in 1888. Sidney Seymour came to the township in 1836 and purchased one hundred and sixty acres on section 23. After building a log house on his land and making some improvement he sold it and returned to his former home, near Rochester, New York. Returning again about 1838, he spent a year on the famous Exchange farm and later purchased, a farm on section 25, where he spent the remainder of his life. Morris Jackson crossed the Shiawassee at Knaggs' Place, with his family, traveling in a wagon, some time in 1836. After making several temporary sojourns between that place and Fremont he finally made a settlement on the Grand River road a mile west of Fremont.

.SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 157 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 157 Jordan Holcomb, Aaron Hutchings and Henry Hutchings, from Ontario county, New York, became settlers of Bennington in 1836, and two years later removed to this township, where they procured homes in section 35. Dr. Nicholas P. Harder, with his family, came from Columbia county, New York, in 1836, and was the earliest physician to settle in this township. Having formerly lived near Newburg-on-the-Hudson, he named in honor of that place the little hamlet, on section 23, in which he made his home until his death, in 1863. One year later Hiram Davis, a son-in-law of Dr. Harder, came from New York and settled first in Bennington and later near Newberg. Mr. Davis made a trip overland to California and another, with his family, to Alabama, where they lived a short time. Each time, however, he returned to Shiawassee. Sometime in the '70s he became a resident of Rush, spending the last years of his life on his farm near Henderson. Both Newberg and Fremont were once thriving villages. When the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad was completed, in 1856, the business of Fremont was diverted to other channels. Newberg, being situated on the Shiawassee river and having both a saw mill and a grist mill, survived its neighbor by some years but ultimately shared its decadence, when the construction of the Grand Trunk Railroad two miles to the southwest left it without a hope of ever having direct railway connection with outside points. Among the settlers of 1839 was James Phelps who was one of the many tavern keepers along the Grand River road. His place was a few miles west of Fremont, and is now occupied by his grandson, William H. Phelps. John Lemon, a former resident of Oakland county, settled on section 15, in 1843, and occupied that location until his death in 1849. Several of his children now live on farms in that part of the township. Erastus Loomis, from Genesee county, New York, was another settler of that year. He purchased a portion of the farm of James Phelps and here he lived a number of years, but later removed to a home a mile out of Newberg, which he occupied until his death, in 1878, his wife surviving him only a month. John S. Harder came from Cayuga, New York, in 1844, and settled on section 22. Mrs. Harder was the daughter of Erastus Loomis. They are among the few pioneers of the early '40s now living in the township, which has been their home to the present time, except about ten years, which were spent at Grayling, in northern Michigan. Among, other settlers of the '40s were D. N. Sabin, who located on section 10; C. D. Chalker' who died in 1905, at his home near Newberg; Joseph Parmenter, earlier a resident of Vernon; Michael Driscoll, who settled on section 2, on the large farm where his son, John Driscoll, now has his home; and Augustus P. Greenman, who located at Fremont. The records of the first township election were not preserved. It is known, however, that it was held in April, 1836, at the house of Hosea Baker, and that Mr. Baker was chosen supervisor. The earliest school in Shiawassee was opened in the parlor of the Beach tavern, at Shiawasseetown, in December, 1840. Judge Wilcox was the teacher for that winter, the second teacher being Andrew Parsons, afterward lieutenant governor of Michigan.

MAIN STREET, BANCROFT

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 159 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 159 The first religious society in the township was the First Baptist church of Maple River, organized July 13, 1839. Prominent among its members was Deacon Ezekiel Cook. An excellent church building was erected in 1868. A Methodist Episcopal church was organized at an early date at NewlJurg, and the society dedicated a substantial building in the autumn of 1864. This society was later absorbed by the Bancroft church of that denomination and the building has been unused for a number of years. VILLAGE OF BANCROFT The land upon which the village of Bancroft stands was originally owned by N. G. Phillips and W. M. Warren and the plat was recorded May 8, 1877. The Hemenway addition to the village, a plat of about ten acres lying south of the railroad and west of the original plat, was surveyed in March, 1878. The building of the Chicago & Lake Huron Railway, now known as the Grand Trunk, in 1877, induced N. S. VanTuyl to establish a lumbering business here, and he erected a frame dwelling, the first on the plat except perhaps two or three log huts. A railroad station was established at Bancroft and H. M. Billings acted as agent and later became postmaster. Others were attracted to the spot and erected homes and business places. Mr. Phillips, in 1878, constructing a spacious and well appointed hotel, which has ever since ranked well as a hostelry. A saw mill, two planing mills and later a flouring mill were erected and Bancroft became the center of considerable business life and activity. A good sized school house was built in 1879. It was in the spring of 1883 that the first election of officers under the corporate laws was held. W. E. Watson and the late F. M. Douglas constituted the first board of registration and L. C. Shelley, deceased, was the first president. He had associated with him in the first council the late S. J. Gurney, as clerk; I. L. Roberts, Dr. Fox, Thomas Copeland (who have long since gone to their rewards), G. H. Fellows, C. P. Devereaux, and T. S. Stanley, trustees. T. S. Stanley is now a citizen of Morrice. At that time there was a strife on between H. F. Hemenway, who owned the property west of Shiawassee street, and N. G. Phillips, deceased, who owned the eastern part. Bancroft has suffered severely from numerous fires and part of the last burned district has never arisen from its ashes. The village enjoyed a steady, healthy growth, and at the time of the construction of the Ann Arbor Railroad Bancroft lost the junction point by being too sure that the air line from Byron to Owosso would ultimately bring the road here, and the town would not grant such concessions as the railroad company needed. However, being situated on a good road and in the heart of a good, productive farming community, it has steadily advanced. There are twenty-three business places, two hotels, a furniture factory, screen factory, and planing mill, grist mill, saw mill, elevator and a foundry. Coal beds are believed to lie under the surface of the marsh just west of town and a local company is now having a thorough test made. A large area of peat land has been purchased by the Bancroft Peat Fuel Company and a large plant has been erected. They also own much of the marl beds south

160 PA4ST AND PRESENT OF 1D of the village and expect to erect a cement plant soon. Three churches are maintained,-Methodist Episcopal, Congregational and Adventist. Bancroft is called the lodge town and maintains organizations of the Masonic order, Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, Star, Modern Maccabees, Lady Modern Maccabees, Maccabees of the World, Woodmen, Neighbors and numerous insurance societies, besides Roberts Post Grand Army of the Republic. A contract with a Saginaw electric company has just been signed to furnish the village with street and private lighting. Part of the Phillips farm has been platted and a number of modern dwellings will be erected there in the near future. Bancroft is situated but a few miles from the old Shiawassee Exchange, and also from the site of the Knaggs' Bridge settlement. It is a progressive little village and its citizens are most kind, hospitable and enterprising. The census of 1900 gives the village six hundred and fifty population and since that time there has been considerable increase. The present officers of the village are: President, Edwin T. Sherman; clerk, W. L. Wright; treasurer, Joseph Garnett; assessor, J. Harvey Hutchings; trustees, Otto Burrire, John A. Watson, Henry P. Shane, George Haun. The Bancroft Commercial, edited by W. L. Wright, very ably reflects the commercial and social life in its weekly issues. VENICE TOWNSHIP Venice, which is designated in the United States survey as township 7 north, of range 4 east, lies on the eastern boundary line of the county. Its surface is in general undulating, though comparatively level tracts are found in some localities. In earlier years there was a considerable amount of swampy land, but an excellent system of drainage has converted those tracts into fine, fertile fields. Beech and maple were the prevailing woods, though oak, ash, walnut and hickory were also found, and tamarack in the swamps. Rush Bed creek, the principal stream, rises on the south border of the township and flows northward into Hazelton. Webb creek meanders through the southern tier of sections and joins the Shiawassee, which flows through the southwest corner. A large proportion of the lands of Venice was held by speculators during the earlier years of its settlement, and improvements were not made so rapidly as in some of the neighboring townships. The earliest settlers to live in the township was Zachariah Rogers Webb. He did not take possession of his land until 1835, although he had entered it the previous year and built a log house. He was a man of scholarly attainments and took an ardent interest in the Indians and in their language, of which he acquired some knowledge. In 1836 his house was destroyed by fire, after which he removed from the township. The land he located passed into other hands and later was owned by Eli Martin and J. W. Clark. Joel B. Goss was the second settler of Venice, coming from the south in the spring of 1837. He purchased eighty acres on section 32, built a log house and began improvements. He, however, did not remain long a resident of the township, and after living in different parts of the county removed to

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 161 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 161 Arkansas. Hiram Johnson, the third settler, came from Livingston county in 1837 and settled on section 29. In his family occurred the earliest birth, that of his daughter, Sarah, in 1838. William Placeway, a former resident of Vermont, settled on section 30 in 1838, made a preliminary clearing and built a log house. In 1844 his farm was purchased by Andrew Lytle, who from that time was a permanent resident of Venice. Nelson Ferry, whose family were conspicuous in the early educational matters of the township, was a pioneer from the Buckeye state, in 1839, locating upon the farm formerly owned by J. B. Goss. He remained until 1842, when he removed to Caledonia, having effected an exchange of farms with Thomas McLaren. He died in Corunna in 1846. He was county surveyor while living in Venice, and is described as a man of marked ability in his profession. Elnathan Brown, another pioneer from Ohio, came to the township in 1839, having purchased land on sectiqn 30. Mr. Brown was for some years the only hotel keeper in the township. His hotel being consumed by fire, he gave up that branch of his business and devoted the rest of his life to farming. One of the most enterprising of the early settlers was Charles Wilkinson, who purchased a farm on section 7, in 1840. A log cabin was standing on his land when he arrived and there were nine acres cleared, to which he added seven the following year. His nearest neighbor was Truman Bunce, a pioneer of the same year, who became a citizen of influence in the township, taking a prominent part in its organization. Indians were then quite numerous and often called at the door to effect an exchange of venison 11 and other game for bread and potatoes. Cranberries were also an article of traffic with them. Daniel I. Like, in 1840, settled on a farm of two hundred and eighty acres in section 33. He had achieved much progress in improving his land, when death suddenly ended his labors, in 1845. He was the first supervisor of the township. In 1841 Palmer C. Card came to Venice from Burns township and purchased a farm. He remained for several years, but ultimately removed from the township. The following year Neely Sawtell, from Oakland county, settled on the southeast quarter of section 17. Arriving in the spring, while the streams were full, he could not get his family domiciled on their own domain for two months on account of the depth of Rush Bed creek, which could not be forded and was, of course, not bridged. Mr. Sawtell remained in the township until 1866. He then removed to Vernon and died there the following year. Alonzo H. Owens removed from Grand Blanc to Venice in 1843, and secured forty acres of land on section 33, as remuneration for one year's service in the employ of Daniel Like. He built a board shanty on his land, out of lumber purchased with "lumber orders", which, owing to the scarcity of currency, were legal tender at that time. After clearing some land and enlarging and improving his house he, in 1847, brought home a bride in the person of Catharine Davids, daughter of Captain John Davids of Caledonia. He sold this land in 1852 and selected another site, on section 28, which he converted into a highly productive farm. The progress of settlements in Venice up

162 PAST AND PRESENT OF 162 PAST AND PRESENT OF to the year 1844 is indicated by the fact that sixteen names then appeared in the list of resident tax payers. During this early period much suffering resulted from the prevalence of malarial fever. The physician who ministered to the wants of the community was Dr. Harder, who lived at Newburg, in Shiawassee township, no physician having settled in Venice at that time. Occasional religious services were held at the houses of the settlers, many people coming to the places of worship with ox teams. Elders Cosart and Stringham officiated on these occasions. The former was one of the earliest of Michigan pioneers in the work of the ministry. He purchased a farm on section 31, to which he retired to spend the remainder of his life, which ended in 1876. Settlement in the township was not rapid until after the '40s. In 1844, one settler, Lewis W. Covell, located on section 17, and two years later Joseph Card made a home on section 31. About the former date B. S. Jones settled on section 29, and in 1845 L. S. and C. L. Cronkite, from New York, were among the arrivals in the same neighbor: hood. Asahel Owen, a pioneer of 1848, located on section 31, and two years later, Samuel Martin, formerly of St. Lawrence county, New York, came to the township and ultimately settled on section 18. With him came six sons, five of whom remained residents of Venice for many years. Mr. Martin died in 1871, at the homestead which was afterward occupied by his son, John L. Martin. John J. P. Gerardy left his native France in 1855 and the same year located in Venice, on the northwest quarter of section 17. A small portion of the land had been cleared and a log house built upon it. Mr. Gerardy made little improvement the first year, having become a victim to chills and fever immediately upon his arrival. His nearest neighbor was George Wren, who located in the same year. Among the other settlers, who came to Venice between the years 1840 and 1844 were Charles R. Yerkes, Alpha Carr, B. I. Buntley, G. W. Priest and Thomas McLaren. The organization of Venice as a separate township was effected March 9, 1843, and the first township election was held at the house of Neely Sawtell, the first Monday of the following April. The earliest school in the township was taught in 1840, at the house of Nelson Ferry, by his daughter Miss Frances Ferry. Later a frame school building, afterward familiarly known as "the old red school house" was erected on section 32, and Mr. Ferry presided as teacher of the district. In the northern part of the township a school was opened in a btarn belonging to Charles Wilkinson, and was taught by Miss Julia Card. The school house in the district, which was the second built in the township, was erected in 1850, the first teacher being Miss Celia Hawkins, who was afterward Mrs. James Wheeler, of Corunna. The earliest road that traversed the township was surveyed by Nelson Ferry, in 1840, and began at the northwest corner of section 31, running north two and one-half miles. VERNON TOWNSHIP The township of Vernon was in point of settlement the second of the townships in the county, having been entered by pioneers as early as 1833. It was then heavily timbered

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 163 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 163 with oak, maple, beech, ash, walnut and maple, the last being especially thrifty in its growth and prolific in its yield of sap. The Shiawassee river flows across the southwest corner of the township and, following a sinuous course through Shiawassee township, returns again to Vernon to water sections 6 and 7. It is here fed by a considerable stream which rises in the south, and, flowing north through the center of the township, diverges to the west and joins the river on section 7. Vernon was the first town in the county through which a railroad was built and is now traversed by more lines of steel rails than any other, four roads forming an important junction at Durand. The first settler was Henry Leach, who came from Detroit in the summer of 1833 and, locating on section 6, at once began the work of underbrushing and clearing. No ground had yet been broken in Vernon and very little land had been entered. Jacob Wilkinson, in the same year, entered forty acres, also on section 6, and thus became the second settler. Hosea Baker, Swain, Tinkelpaugh and Smith had already located in Shiawassee, and these four, besides the Williams brothers at the Exchange, were the nearest neighbors the two Vernon settlers had in the first year or two. Leach remained three years, in which time he cleared twenty acres. The first birth in the township was that of his daughter, in 1836. In that year he removed with his family to Sciota, where he lived until 1851, when he went to California. In 1835 Samuel N. Whitcomb, from Oakland county, located on section 5, built a log house and commenced the lablor of chopping. After living there several years and making considerable improvement he traded his property to Cyrus R. Angel for land in Livingston county, of which he then became a resident. Mr. Angel remained a resident of Vernon until his death. James Rutan, in the same year, became a settler on section 34. Two years later, when the first election of county officers was held, he was elected one of the two associate judges, Alfred L. Williams being the other. Together they presided at the first term of the circuit court, no circuit judge being present. Joseph Parmenter emigrated from Monroe county, New York, and purchased fifty-four acres on section 6, in 1835. Vernon was yet a wilderness. After building a house the labor of chopping was commenced and, with the aid of his father, who had accompanied him, Mr. Parmenter cleared five acres the first year,-the clearing soon afterward being covered with crops. He was actively identified with the interests of Vernon until 1849, when he removed to Shiawassee, where he resided the remainder of his life, on the farm now owned by his son, Amos Parmenter. During 1836 Vernon received a large number of new settlers, most of whom -became permanent residents. Among them were John Smedley, who located on section 29, the farm now owned by his son Wallace Smedley; Noah Bovier, who located east of Mr. Smedley, on section 27; and Josiah Pierce, who came to the same neighborhood, and who was chosen the first county treasurer. Another pioneer of that year was William K. Reed, formerly a resident of Tompkins county, New York, who'entered eighty acres on section 17. With him came his six sons,

164 PAST AND PRESENT OF 164 PAST AND PRESENT OF who aided in cutting the road from the Shiawassee Exchange to their land. Mr. Reed resided upon this farm until his death, in March, 1868, when his son George W. became owner of the homestead. His other sons, Andrew, Abner, Rasselas, William and John, all remained resident of Vernon durinZ the remainder of their lives. Jabez Clark, from Oakland county, arrived in 1836 and entered forty acres on section 8. He remained with William K. Reed while erecting a house. Moses Wolfen, also from Oakland county, entered eighty acres on section 17, and built a log cabin, finding a tem-.porary abode meanwhile with John Reed. He continued to reside on this farm until near the end of his life, in 1871. Another immigrant from the same county, which sent so many pioneers to Shiawassee, was Henry Miller, a brother-in-law of Ephraim Wright, who had already settled in Shiawassee township. Reuben West, a son-in-law of Moses Wolfen, settled on section 17, where he spent the rest of his life, enjoying the reputation of being one of the most thorough farmers in Vernon. His sons, Moses and Nelson, are well known residents of the same neighborhood. George Herrington was another settler of this prolific year. He purchased eighty acres on section 20. This land he cleared and cultivated and resided upon it until his death. His sons, Marvin and James, also lived in the same vicinity until their death, in recent years. In 1837 Nathaniel Chalker, formerly of Seneca county, New York, purchased one hundred and thirty-six acres on section 3, and with his family settled there in that year. His sons, Calvin and Chandler, lived many years in the northern part of the township, the latter being elected many times to the office of supervisor. Another son, Charles, was for a time a resident of Vernon, but later moved to Shiawassee township. John K. Smith arrived in Vernon in February, 1837, having formerly lived in Pontiac. He settled on section 25 and was assisted in the work of clearing by his two sons, Nathan M. and F. B. Smith, the latter of whom was killed in a battle of the war of the Rebellion. Ezekiel Van Wormer was another settler of 1837, locating on a hundred and. twenty acres on section 15. It has been mentioned that Henry Leach, the first settler in Vernon, removed to Sciota in 1836. His farm was purchased at that time by James Van Akin, from New York state, who with his family settled there and made quite extensive improvements. Ten years after coming to Vernon he built the first brick dwelling that was erected in the county, where the first log house in the township had stood. This house still stands, in a picturesque spot shaded by old forest trees, directly west of the beautiful cemetery which is the pride of Vernon village, and at the edge of the high east bank of the Shiawassee. After James Van Akin's death, in February, 1848, his son Henry occupied the place for a number of years. It is now the property of E. M. Hopkins. In the spring of 1838 William Garrison purchased and settled on a farm on section 8, where he lived until his death twenty years later. Four sons accompanied him, two of whom died on the farm; the other two became merchants in the village of Vernon. The earliest death in the township occurred in 1838, at the house of N. Whitcomb. It was that of a settler named Howell, who had

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 165 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 165 been clearing land for Mr. Whitcomb. In 1839 Lewis Sayre settled on section 24. His sons, Charles and Daniel, afterward became owners of a saw mill on section 25, familiarly known to the people of the town. From that date the settlements became so numerous that much space would be required to mention each separately. Among those who came in the '40s were the Sickles family, William Lovejoy, Marvin Wilcox, Daniel McCollum (who is still living, at Durand), Thomas Smith, Samuel Patchel, William Grumley, Caleb Conrad and Hampton Bentley. Edward Holmes and 0!. F. Perry, for many years residents on section 19, were two settlers whose sons are now well known business men of the township. The township of Vernon was originally embraced in that of Shiawassee and was erected a separate township March 11, 1837. The first election was held at the house of William Reed, on the 3d of April, Ransom W. Holley being chosen supervisor. The earliest highway surveyed in Vernon was known as the Baldwin road and followed the south line of the township, running east and west. VILLAGE OF VERNON Vernon village, with a population of five hundred and fifty, is a very neat, clean, prosperous and well kept, pretty village, pleasantly located on the banks of the Shiawassee river, and was among one of the early settlements of this county. The early pioneers of this locality were an honest and sturdy class of people, who were mostly from New York state and who succeeded in making fine homes from what was once a very dense forest of heavy hardwood timber. Some of them remain, and many of the second generation are now enjoying the fruits of the labors of these worthy pioneers, among whom were such well known families as the Garrisons, Reeds, Bryants, Parmenters, Gosses, Clarks, Hollys, Van Akins, Yerkes, Jones and others equally prominent. As early as 1833 Vernon had attracted attention, Henry Leach being the first to penetrate the attractive but unbroken forests and settle at this inviting spot. Other families came in time, but it was not until the building of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad from Detroit to Grand Rapids, in 1856, that there were any great indications of a future village of importance. The coming of the railroad was hailed with delight, and such well known residents as W. D. Garrison, Arthur Garrison, George Goss, and Edward Bryant, worked on the railroad's right of way, in clearing the heavy timber, and R. W. Holly built and gave the railroad the first station building used here. The village struggled along in a small way till the year of 1871, when it had assumed a size large enough to be incorporated into a village. The first village election was held the second Monday in April, 1871, in the National Hotel building, now the Dpowney Hotel, with Joseph W. Yerkes and Thomas Winans as judges of election. The following were the first village officers: President, Russell E. Bell, who was a former engineer on the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad, and later village merchant and who died at Fowlerville, where he later resided. Trustees for two years,-Ephriam Jones, a foundryman, now residing in Chicago, and William W. Starkey, stave manufacturer, who died in Saginaw. William Larry, hard

e:.1. 14.0, ': OXl: t 'MAIN STREET, VERNON

SHIA TFASSEE COUNTY 16.7 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 16 ware merchant, and Thomas J. Garner, hotel landlord, were the trustees for one year. Clerk, William S. Pinney, now a farmer in Genesee county; marshal, H. W. Randolph, now a carpenter in the village; treasurer, Mortimer D. Rhodes, a shoemaker and hardware merchant, now deceased; assessor, Benjamin P. Warner, a carpenter, deceased. In the spring of 1872 a calamity befell the town in a disastrous conflagration, which burned the chief portion of Main street destroying twenty-two buildings. The fire was the work of an incendiary, but the culprit after his arrest and confession, escaped punishment. The fire materially checked the growth of Vernon, but in the same year the enterprising Garrisons erected the large double two-story brick block occupied by them so long. For many years Vernon was the leading town in this part of the county, and people drove miles to market their produce and do their trading, years before Bancroft or Durand had sprung into existence. All the township elections were held here and the most of the township officers resided here, this being the center of population of the township. When the main line of the Grand Trunk Railroad was built, in 1876, it was thought that certainly it would come to this village, and consequently no effort was made to bring it here, and when it went to the east of the town, and Bancroft and Durand sprung up as rival towns, Vernon lost much of its prestige as a trading point. For many years the large paper trade from the paper mills at Shiawasseetown was shipped from here, and it also enjoyed their trade as well. In the early days there was a large trade fr~om the timber in this locality and there were saw mills, stave mills and large wood and timber yards here. W. D. & A. Garrison were the early pioneer merchants and owned a large general store, a bank, grain elevator, creamery, large flouring mill and other industries. In 1893 the village gave six thousand dollars toward a box factory, and also had a table factory, but they were not successful and the village is dependent upon the fine farming community, -one which is as fine and as prosperous as any community in the state. Vernon enjoys a large trade in cattle and grain, and more especially a large sheep trade, as it is one of the largcst centers in the state for this industry,-from thirty thousand to fifty thousand sheep being brought here each year and fed in this locality, and being then shipped to the market. In 1899 the frame school house was burned, and it was replaced by a four-room brick school house, erected at a cost of six thousand dollars. It is a twelvegrade school, employing four teachers. The Greenwood Cemetery Association was organized in March, 1862, and the grounds laid out have in time become one of the most beautiful and well kept cemeteries in the state. Much time and money have been, expended in the adornment of this burial spot. It has an especial interest from the antiquity of some of the memorial stones that mark the graves, especially notable being that of the earliest settler of Caledonia, Rev. John F. Swain, whose life terminated at the beginning of his ministerial labor at Vernon, in 1845. Vernon has one grain elevator, one flouring mill and two lines of railroad. There are also two proposed interurban electric

168 PAST AND %PRESENT OF 168 PAST AND PRESENT OF lines. There are three churches and parsonages,-the Congregational, Baptist, and Methodist Episcopal. The Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1870 and is of brick; the others are frame buildings. The Congregational is an outgrowth of the organization of a Presbyterian church, early in 1837. The change to the Congregational faith and form of church government occurred in 1851. The church is a prosperous and progressive organization. The Baptist church was organized in 1844, by Rev. John F. Swain, and continued under several pastors until 1864 when a church building was erected. The members of the Methodist faith worshiped with other denominations until 1868, when a church was organized by Rev. Mr. Church. The Lodges are Independent Order of Odd. Fellows, Daughters of Rebekahs, Masonic, Eastern Star, Maccabees, Ladies of the Maccabees, Forresters, Woodmen, Loyal Guards and Gleaners. The Odd Fellows' lodge was organized May 29, 1866, and the Masonic lodge February 11, 1870. The Vernon Argus, a weekly newspaper, is the successor to the Vernon Herald, which was established about 1880. Lucius E. Gould, the well known writer and historian, now deceased, was editor of the paper for several years. The present publisher is G. R. Hathaway. Over two-thirds of the people own their own homes, the village finances are in good shape, and there is very little indebtedness against the village, making taxes very low. Two-thirds of the sidewalks are built from cement. G. W. Lindsey is postmaster and the office has two rural mail routes. A. F. Westcott, of Owosso, was one of the first postmasters, in the early '60s, and during the war of the Rebellion. The present officers of the village are: President, Lyman W. Van Alstine; clerk, George Barrett; treasurer, Frank J. Davids; assessor, John H. DeHart; trustees, Milo A. Howard, William E. Crawford, John Reynolds, Frank D. Clark, William H. Cole, Frank Tilden. VILLAGE OF DURAND Durand is one of the youngest villages in Shiawassee county, but because of its location at the junction of the main line of the Grand Trunk, the Detroit & Milwaukee, and Cincinnati, Saginaw & Mackinaw divisions of the same system, and the Ann Arbor Railroads, it has grown in a comparatively short time to the second place in size and commercial importance. A portion of the land on which the village of Durand is located was originally entered by Mary Miller, in 1836. Another portion was entered the same year by William Young and still another by Dr. L. D. Jones. Some of this land passed into the hands of William H. Putnam, who had a portion of it platted, a pioneer plat having been made by James C. Brand. A church and school building had already been erected and some enterprise was being manifested. Mr. Brand built a steam saw mill and an extensive business was done in the manufacture of staves and heading. The village at that time was called Vernon Center. Properly speaking, the history of Durand should begin with the establishment of a postoffice and appointment of William H: Putnam as postmaster, May 8, 1876. The

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 169 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 169 receipts of the postoffice for the first four and one-half months, or from the date of its establishment to October 1, 1876, were thirty seven dollars and sixty-nine cents. The name of Durand was given the settlement in compliance with the suggestions of some of the residents that the postoffice be named in honor of George H. Durand, at that time congressman from the sixth district. The honor at that time might have been regarded as an equivocal one, hut events have shown it to be more of a memorial to the late and honored Judge Durand than a tablet of brass or monument of marble. The timetable of the only railroad of that year, the Detroit & Milwaukee, showed Vernon Center as a flag station. The railroad very soon changed the name of the siding to Durand. The main line of the Chicago & Grand Trunk was completed this same year, and Durand, becoming a junction point, assumed important airs. F. M. Pomeroy was the first agent for the railroads. The lumber industry was being developed and considerable business done, several stores had been established and Durand became quite a trading point. The village of Durand was organized by an act of the legislature, approved on the 7th day of February, 1887, and the population at that time was about two hundred; the village limits were about the same as now, a square mile, with the center of the village as a center. The first village election was held February 7, 1887, at which sixtyfour votes were cast. But little growth was made between that time and 1895, when the division of the Ann Arbor Railroad was removed here from Owosso and the town enjoyed a "boom" and was built up rapidly. To-day it shows a population of about three thousand. The Ann Arbor division was returned to Owosso in December, 1904, but Durand shows to-day no decrease in population or business compared with the year 1904, when the division was here. The town's chief feeder of business is the Grand Trunk Railroad, with its main line and branches and the interests of that road materially add to local property and prosperity. Durand has a municipal electric light and water-works plant; good sewerage system; fine cement sidewalks, covering almost the entire town; Congregational, Catholic, Methodist, Free Methodist, and Baptist churches; high school and a ward school; Masonic Temple; two banks, with ample capital; a creamery and other industries; and it should be mentioned that the Grand Trunk Railroad has erected here one of the finest union depots in the state. The town supports a paid fire department, with a metropolitan apparatus; employs a day marshal and a nightwatchman, and also gives a contract yearly for the scavenger work, which tends to keep the town healthy. The business houses are substantial, while an elevator and flouring mill help draw the farming trade. The National Grocery Company has located here one of its largest houses, on account of the unexcelled shipping facilities. The usual number of fraternal societies are to be found here, among them being a Masonic lodge and chapter and Eastern Star chapter, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Rebekahs, Knights of Pythias and Rathburn Sisters, Maccabees, post of the Grand Army of the Republic and Woman's Relief Corps and other orders, besides literary clubs.

1,0 PAST AND PRESENT OF The Durand Express, edited by M. L. Izor & Son, is one of the best weekly newspapers in the county. The Express has a complete equipment for newspaper and job work. The average citizen of this village "points with pride" to its rapid development from a lumber camp to the place it now occupies in county affairs. The growth was not of the mushroom nature, to easily decay, but is well established and on a firm basis and it is believed will not only be permanent but that a greater degree of prosperity is in store for this community. Following are the officers of the village: President, C. G. Bates; clerk, Fred L. Eldridge; treasurer, F. M. Hutchinson; assessor, F. H. Potter; trustees, R. A. McNamee, J. L. Van Alstine, William McCurdie, P. Hogan, 0. A. Oliver, William H. Putnam. WOODHULL TOWNSHIP The township of Woodhull at the time of its organization embraced, in addition to its present territory, the township of Sciota, which was set off from it in February, 1842. It presents broken and upright ridges, and originally had some low and swampy land. When first settled there were heavily wooded tracts surrounding more open spaces. The Looking Glass river flows through the northern part and Vermilion creek crosses, the southern portion, the two furnishing excellent draining facilities for the township. The township was named in honor of Joseph Woodhull and family, who were its earliest settlers. On the first day of November, 1836, Joseph Woodhull's two sons, John and Josephus, reached the Jittle log cab'in known as Laing's Tavern, on the Grand River road. It was a mere shanty of logs, without floor other than the ground, with no chimney save a hole in the roof, while stones set up in one corner served as a fireplace. Here they met a professional "landlooker" named Johnson, whom they employed as a guide. With him they visited the northern part of the township of Woodhull and selected certain portions of sections 4 and 9, of which they took descriptions. Hastening to Detroit, they learned that they had been preceded by a gentleman who had purchased from their guide the minutes of the same land. They were finally able to buy him off for twenty dollars, and thus secured the land they desired. These "land-sharks," it appears, followed close on the heels of the government surveyors, and, in that new land of hardships, dangers, and privations, preyed on whatever victims came in their way. John Woodhull entered the northeast quarter of section 9. Josephus entered two hundred and forty acres of section 4. They then returned to the frontier with two teams and a supply of provisions, implements and tools for building a house. They were accompanied by William Hildreth, a young man in the employ of.Josephus Woodhull. These two built the first house in the township, while John Woodhull returned to Wayne county for the rest of the family. The house was built entirely of logs, except the door, which was made of lumber from a dry-goods box brought from the state of New York. The house stood on the north part of the east half of section 4. Between Christmas and New Year's John Woodhull returned, bringing his parents and sister, his wife and three children. The settlement at this time, therefore, consisted of ten persons.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 171 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 171 The winter of 1836-7 was long and severe, and prices of provisions and feed for the stock were very high. In the spring Josephus Woodhull bought a load of potatoes, which he had to bring from Brighton, in Livingston county. He also procured wheat, at the same place, in the fall of 1837, and sowed the first field sown in the township. Joseph Woodhull, the father, died in 1840, his wife surviving until 1859. John Woodhull died in 1855. Josephus Woodhull, who was a bachelor when he came to Michigan, married Phoebe Ann Laing, whose parents were among the founders of Laingsburg. In the early spring of 1837 Benjamin Lewitt and Abram Schermerhorn, with their families, came to Woodhull. Together they purchased nearly all of section 5. In 1840 Mr. Lewitt's mother, his three brothers and two sisters came to the township. The mother died soon afterwards and the others moved away, part of the family returning to their former home in England. Some time in the same year Philander T. Maine, a surveyor, came into the neighborhood, and he later married Miss Viana Woodhull. In the fall several families located across the line in Sciota, Oln section 32, Henry Buell and Oliver B. Westcott being among the number. Francis F. Mann came to the township in October, 1837. In the following December, having business at Ypsilanti, he started for that place with a yoke of oxen and a grist of buckwheat. On the way he left his grain at a mill in Hamburg, Livingston county, expecting it to be ready for him on his return. In the meantime the mill became blocked with ice, and he proceeded to the two nights and one day for his grist, arriving home after eight days of absence. Josephus Woodhull had a similar experience when' he and his sister, with two yoke of oxen and a wagon-load of provisions, were nine days in coming from Wayne county to Woodhull. John Graham came to Woodhull in February, 1838, and located four hundred and eighty acres, half of which was for his brother, Samuel Graham, who soon followed him. This land was on sections 10 and 15, near the lakes which were afterward known by their name, Graham lakes. Samuel Graham was a carpenter, and built for Josephus Woodhull the first frame building in the township. Perry Parshall was another settler of 1838, having located on section 4. He died in 1868. His son Harrison afterward lived on the homestead until his death. In the fall of 1838 Patrick Corcoran arrived in Woodhull, having come from Ireland with his wife and their seven children. He located a large tract of land, on sections 32 and 33, living there the remainder of his life. A number of his descendants are still among the well known residents of the township. Among the settlers of 1840 were William Hammond, who located on section 12; Reuben Place, who was a woodmaker of some skill, and suppled the early settlers with chairs; E. Tooker, who settled on section 29; and S. Moon, on section 21. A large portion of the land in Woodhull was held by speculators for a number of years, and this retarded the settlement of the township considerably. The most serious inconvenience known to the earlier settlers was the distance they were compelled to mills at Shiawasseetown, where he waited travel for provisions and repairs. When the

172 PAST AND PRESENT OF 172 PAST AND PRESENT OF iron implements so necessary in clearing new land became Lroken they would have to be carried eight or ten miles to a blacksmith shop. In the spring of 1839 Josephus Woodhull purchased a bellows and a kit of tools and opened a shop in a, little cabin on his farm, by which a most serious want was supplied. A market for produce, after the home demand had been supplied, was almost out of the question, trading of any amount having to be done at Ann Arbor or Detroit,a trip with an ox team occupying from ten to fifteen days, according to the condition of the roads. The summer of 1840 was known for many years as the "sickly season." During the month of August a majority of the people in the settlement were sick with bilious fever. Only one man was able to go from house to house, and he acted as nurse for the whole neighborhood. This was Ralph Williams, who lived north of the Sciota line. Several roads were established in the summer of 1838. The first passed along the northern line of sections 15 and 16; one led to Laingsburg, and another ran south through the western part of the township. In the fall of 1838 the inhabitants of the northwestern corner of the township joined with their neighbors in Sciota and the townships of Bath and Victor, in Clinton county, in establishing a school. They made a bee and built a school house near the west boundary line of section 5, in Woodhull. The first teacher was Oliver B. Westcott, who received ten dollars a month and boarded him self, and his pupils were from the four townships. The money was paid by the parents of the pupils, no "school money" yet having been collected by taxation. The first frame school house was built in 1842. Among the earliest teachers were Martha Spicer, Elizabeth Woodhull and Mary J. Hill. A number of church societies were formed at early dates, but not until 1879 was a church building erected. This was built by the Methodist society, at a cost of ten hundred and fifty dollars. At the site of this church F. F. Mann and Samuel Carpenter donated one and one-half acres of land for a cemetery. Woodhull was erected a separate township April 2, 1838. The first town meeting was held at the house of Peter Laing, Scotia being then a part of the township. The Woodhull brothers were each chosen supervisor a number of times. It is probable, however, that J. G. Marsh, a venerable resident of Shaftsburg, has held that office oftener than any other citizen, he having been elected from six to eleven times in succession. Among those who settled in Woodhull in the '40s was John P. Shaft, who came about 1846, having previously lived several years in Perry, and who founded the village of Shaftsburg. Andrew J. Van Riper, with his family, located here in 1848, having purchased four hundred and eighty acres of government land. In this township he lived to a ripe old age and made a valuable record as a citizen.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 173 SHIA ASSE COUNY 17 CITY OF CORUNNA The city of Corunna owes its location to the judgment of three men who probably never were residents of Shiawassee county. They were John Greenfield and Colonel Garry Spencer, of Detroit, and Samuel Axford, of Macomb county; and their responsibility in the matter was due to their appointment, by Governor Mason, as commissioners to locate a county site for the county of Shiawassee, the one previously established at Byron having been vacated by act of the legislature. While examining different locations the commissioners made their headquarters at the Williams trading post, since known as the Exchange. After three days spent in visiting points proposed for the new seat of justice, the commissioners decided upon the present site, and on April 1, 1836, filed their report locating the county site on the west half of the northeast quarter of section 28, in township 7 north, of range 3 east. Proclamation was issued by the Governor confirming the location, July 1, 1836. The land in section 28 had previously been entered. Most of it was held by parties living in Detroit, who, finding themselves proprietors of the newly established county site, formed an association which they called the Shiawassee County Seat Company, its purpose being "to secure the permanent establishment of the county seat at Corunna and to promote the growth and settlement of a village at that place." The company was organized in August, 1836, and was composed of six men. Prominent among its members the company on the scene of its proposed activities. The first thing accomplished was the building of a log house to be occupied as a residence by the company's agents. This was the first building in Corunna and stood on the site of a brick house which is now owned by Mrs. Margaret Cross, but which was for many years the home of Andrew Huggins, once known throughout the county as a skilful engineer and surveyor. The first agent sent here by the company was Captain John Davids. He remained in its employ only a year and then purchased a farm on section 25, Caledonia township, where he made his home until his death, in 1869. Captain David's successor was Joel L. Ancrim, a civil engineer, whose official career was likewise brief. Mr. McArthur, being unfortunate in securing agents to take charge of the company's affairs, determined himself to remain in that capacity. In 1838 he became permanently identified with the locality as a resident. In that year he built a saw mill, which was one of the essentials to the building industry of the new community and which cut most of the timber used in the vicinity. A number of houses were erected the following year and settlers began to come in attracted by the advertisements of the County Seat Company. Stephen Hawkins was a settler of that year. He was a carpenter by trade and found plenty of employment in the new settlement and the neighboring village of Owosso. He lived several years in Corunna, but ultimately removed to a farm on section 26, in Cale was Alexander McArthur, who represented

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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 175 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY It) donia, which he had entered in 1838 and on which he lived until his death, in 1885. S. Z. Kinyon was among those who settled in the village in 1839. He was married in 1841 to Miss Cynthia M. Day, theirs being the first wedding celebrated in the village. The village of Corunna was first platted June 2, 1837, by three trustees of the County Seat Company. The plat was described as the west part of the northeast fractional quarter of section 28. A lock of land three hundred feet square, designated on the recorded plat as the "Public Square," was offered by the company as a donation to the county of Shiawassee, and this was unanimously accepted by the board of commissioners, October 7, 1839. A contract was made by the board with Stephen Hawkins for the erection of a building for county offices. The sum to be paid was three hundred and eighty two dollars and fifty cents. The building was about twenty by thirty feet in size, was built of wood and situated near the northwest corner of the square. Although the county seat had been located at Corunna since April, 1836, no public buildings had previously been erected and no others were built until several years afterward. A legislative act, approved March 25, 1840, designated Shiawasseetown as the place in which the circuit court should be held until suitable buildings at the county seat were provided for the accommodation of the courts. Thereafter buildings at Corunna were rented for this purpose, but the county commissioners continued to hold their meetings at the hotel of Lucius W.' Beach. at Shiawasseetown, until 1842. The board of supervisors then met and resumed the func tions which for three years had been vested in the board of commissioners. The history of Corunna from that time is inseparably connected with the history of the county government and of the different court houses erected. The first small frame building, when replaced by a more substantial one, was sold to the Baptist church, being used first as a house of worship and later as a parsonage. It was moved to a point south of the present church building, where it is still standing. In 1851 a contract was let to George O. Bachman for the building of a brick court house forty by sixty feet in dimensions, two stories high. This was finished two years later and occupied by the county officials. In 1865 a smaller, fire-proof building was erected in the court-house square to be used as offices by the county treasurer and register of deeds. These buildings in time became dilapidated and inadequate to the requirements of the county's growing business, and after several years' agitation of the subject the county, in 1903, voted to erect a new court house. The antiquated buildings were torn down and on their site was erected a beautiful structure of Bedford stone, one hundred and eighteen feet long by eightysix feet wide, and three stories in height. The corner stone was laid May 4, 1904, by the grand officers of the Masonic grand lodge of Michigan, in the presence of thousands of people who had gathered to witness the impressive ceremonies. The building was completed and occupied by the county officials in January, 1906. By the erection of a court house costing one hundred and forty thousand dollars and designed to last a hundred years, was set

McCURDY PARK, ENTRANCE TO LAGOON

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 177 tled definitely the long existing feud between Corunna and Owosso over the ultimate location of the county seat. The larger city had sought for many years to have it finally established within its own boundaries, and Corunna had stoutly maintained its rights through the long controversy. In 1882 Corunna had practically cemented its claim upon the site chosen in the wilderness by having constructed in the court-house square a handsome building, of brick and stone, which it presented to the county to be used as a jail and sheriff's residence. It is a pleasure to record that the old "public square" is now adorned with structures which are a credit to the county and an ornament to the city with whose fortunes they will be identified for years to come. The primary purpose of the County Seat Company-"to secure the permanent establishment of the county seat at Corunna"-was at last fulfilled, though just seventy years had been required for its accomplishment. The year following that in which the county made its initial attempt at building a court house, 1840, a brick store was erected by Alexander McArthur on the site of the one recently occupied by G. H. Bilhimer & Company. Harlow Beach, who came from Pontiac, was Mr. McArthur's partner in various mercantile enterprises. In later years the store was occupied by Joseph Hulick. Among the settlers who came about this time were Isaac and Lemuel Castle, the latter of whom shortly removed to Bennington, where he became prominent in township affairs. In many of the township records of lands "entered from the government" or purchased from the state of Michigan, appears repeatedly the following name and address: 12 "Trumbull Cary, Genesee county, New York." This land-owner's extensive holdings were in charge of an agent, E. C. Kimberly, who located in Corunna in 1840 and whose name became inseparably linked with land speculations throughout the county. Robert McLaughlin also came from western New York about this time and actively engaged in business, remaining here until his death, at an advanced age. Andrew and Luke H. Parsons were among the early residents of the village. The date of their arrival is not known, though it was probably 1837, as Andrew was one of the partners who in that year bought the Exchange of the Williams brothers upon the latter's abandonment of the trading post at that point. Both Andrew Parsons and his brother were engaged in the practice of law. Andrew was Shiawassee's first county clerk. He was later elected lieutenant governor of the state, and served as acting governor the two years preceding his death, in 1855, the governor having Seen appointed to a place in the cabinet of President Pierce. Luke H. Parsons also held many important county offices. He died in 1862. Among the settlers of the year 1841 were Clement Johnson, Gerry Tuttle, and Dorus Morton, the last named being the mason who constructed the earliest brick buildings in the village. Joseph Clement arrived in 1842 and opened a blacksmith shop. S. W. Cooper, a millwright, came the same year, and superintended the construction of a saw mill for McArthur & Thompson, and of a flour mill, in 1843, for McArthur & Castle. By the year 1845 Corunna had a population of several hundred. Its prestige as the county seat had greatly enhanced its im

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SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 179 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 179 portance among the villages of the county. Several mills in full operation and two hotels gave the place a decided appearance of business activity. Religious services were conducted by a resident clergyman of the Baptist faith, Rev. Mr. Gilbert, a gentleman of much culture. A school house had been erected in 1842. A foundry had been built about the same time and was operated by Pettibone Brothers. In 1844 Pliny Lyman established a woolen mill, in which cloths of common grade were manufactured. John M. Fraser came to the village about this time, and also John Derr, who made Corunna his home until his death, about thirty years later. G. 0. Bachman engaged in the practice of law, but afterward studied theology and became rector of the Episcopal church. Dr. Pierce, a Philadelphian, was the first physician to settle here. Dr. E. M. Bacon came in 1846 and was actively engaged in the practice of his profession until his leath, in 1869. Dr. Harder, an early settler of Newberg, was elected county treasurer in 1846 and practiced in the village while serving in that office. Morris Jackson, the father of Charles Jackson, of Owosso, came to Shiawassee in 1833 and, in 1849, moved to Corunna, where he opened a wagon shop. He was well known among the early musicians of the county. Curtis J. Gale came from Ingham county in 1846, having previously emigrated from New York city to Michigan. He remained a resident until his death and few men were more prominently connected with the public life of the city. He was postmaster six years and filled many other offices. In 1859 he was elected justice of the peace, which office he held almost continuously until his death, in June, 1900. Hiram Smith, of Mexico, New York, located in the village in 1849. He was engaged in different lbusiness enterprises in the city until his death, in 1879. For a number of years he kept a hotel, and the business lias been continued by his son, Clark D. Smith, who is one of the most popular landlords in central Michigan. Mr. Smith is also prominent in county affairs and, as the oldest living ex-sheriff, had the honor of convening court at the opening of the first term held in the new court house, in January, 1906. James B. Wheeler, a son of one of the earliest settlers in the township of New Haven, came to Corunna in 1850 and, with the exception of a few years spent in California, was a resident of the city until about 1890, when he removed to Oklahoma territory, where he is still living. Hugh McCurdy removed from Oakland county to Corunna in 1855 and engaged in the practice of law, of which profession he was one of the leading representatives in the county until his retirement, in recent years. He has served in many public offices and yet found leisure to devote to the interests of the city of his adoption. He has been the leading spirit in the organization of the'various Masonic bodies in the city and has been honored with the highest offices in the gift of the national grand lodge of the fraternity. One of his latest acts in the interest of the city was the presentation of the beautiful grounds surrounding his home to be used as a park, which is now one of Corunna's chief attractions. Since the laying out of the original plat of the village in 1837, additions have been

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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 181 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 181 made from time to time until the city now has an area of four square miles, in the form of a square. The Shiawassee river flows through it from east to west, a little north of its center, and still furnishes an excellent water power, which is used to run the machinery of the Corunna flouring mills. Corunna was made an incorporated village in October, 1858, by the board of supervisors of Shiawassee county, and the first election was held on the second Tuesday of the following December. The officers elected at that time were: President, Alexander McArthur; clerk, 0. T. B. Williams; trustees, E. F. Wade, A. A. Belden, Jonah Fuller, M. H. Clark, E. C. Moore, Hugh McCurdy. The growth of the village was rapid in the next decade. A number of manufacturing plants were located here, among them being wagon shops, a planing mill, a spoke factory a carriage factory, charcoal kilns and a brick yard. The most important of these enterprises was a freight-car factory, which, however, did not prove a success, being operated only a short time and turning out after the manner of many present-day "promoters' " schemes. All of these have passed away or have been replaced with more permanent though less ambitious enterprises. The legislature of Michigan at its session of 1869 passed "an act to incorporate the city of Corunna," which was approved on the 12th of March in that year. Alexander iXIcArthur was the first mayor of the new city, the other officers who assisted in the administration of that year being as follows: Recorder, Spencer B. Raynale; clerk, William Oaks; treasurer, Morris Ormsby; justices of the peace, John N. Ingersoll, Curtis J. Gale; constables, Clark D. Smith, Marvin Miller. SCHOOLS Among the city's institutions one which from the first has continued to thrive and reflect credit upon the community is the public school. The earliest school was taught by Uriah Dubois, in 1840, in a log cabin within the village limits. It was a private enterprise and was patronized by the few families whose members included children. Other private schools were conducted during the next year,-one by the daughter of Alexander McArthur, in a room of her father's residence. A school district was organized in 1842 and there were set apart spacious grounds, which are still adequate to the purpose to which they were devoted. A building was erected thereon the same year. The first term in this building was opened by Nelson Ferry, who had previously been county surveyor, and who was a man of ability in his profession. He had been a resident of Venice before coming to Corunna, where he remained until his death, in 1846. Among the other early teachers was Miss Drusilla Cook, of Bennington, who taught here in 1843. Miss Cook \vas a lady of established reputation as a teacher and found her services much in demand. The ordinary compensation at that period was one dollar per week, with the privilege of "boarding 'round." Miss Cook, whose presence was the cause of some competition in the various districts of the county, was secured by Corunna with the unprecedented salary of two dollars and fifty cents per week, with board. Many able teachers have since officiated in the schools of Corunna, and the excellence of their work has maintained the high reputation established at the beginning.

LOOKING OVER THE BRIDGE FROM SHIAWASSEE AVENUE

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 183 S O Prominent among those remembered by the the generation now active in public affairs were Mr. H. C. Baggerly, principal of the school in 1871-72, and Professor Joseph McGrath, in 1876-80. A teacher of 1876 who has since achieved national fame as an educator and author, is Miss Sarah Wiltse, now residing in Boston, where she has for many years had charge of an extensive system of kindergarten schools established by Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of Professor Agassiz. The one-story frame school house built in 1842 was occupied until 1851, when -the growing demands of the village made more commodious quarters indispensable. After much opposition the school board finally obtained authority to erect a brick building, at a cost of four thousand dollars. In 1866 the wants of the school had again so greatly increased that the city issued bonds to the amount of twenty thousand dollars for the erection of a commodious building which answered the purpose admirably until it was destroyed by fire, in the fall of 1882. It was immediately replaced by the handsome structure now in use. The school is at present organized upon a course of study extending through a period of thirteen years, including the kindergarten, or sub-primary, grade to which pupils are admitted at five years of age. The high school is one of the few in Michigan whose graduates are admitted to the University of Michigan, the State Normal school and similar institutions without examination. NEWSPAPERS The first newspaper established in Corunna was the Shiawassee Democrat, started in the fall of 1841, by William B. Sherwood, and published by him for two years. The Corunna Democrat was published at the county seat later, in 1862, by John M. Ingersoll, and was in 1880 merged with the American, published by George W. Owen. The Corunna Journal was established in February, 1860, by 0. A. Gould. It suspended publication after eighteen months, but in 1880 another enterprise was launched under the same name. Frank Welsh and Frank Johnson are the publishers and the paper is successfully edited. The Independent, another weekly, was established in 1884. Lou Sherady is the present publisher and edits a good newspaper. CHURCHES In the early days Corunna had occasional religious meetings conducted by Methodist ministers of the Shiawassee circuit. The house of Alexander McArthur, himself a Scotch Presbyterian, of the orthodox type, was the stopping place for the Methodist ministers, as indeed it was for ministers of all denominations. About 1840 a Methodist Episcopal class was formed, consisting of three members, who were soon joined tLy others, the society gradually growing until it became one of the largest and most active in the county. The old frame court house which was built in 1843 became the place of worship of all denominations until their churches were built. The present Methodist church building was begun about 1848, but was not completed until some years afterward. The parsonage was first built in 1863, but has since been extensively remodeled. A Presbyterian church was organized by Rev. Seth Hardv, April 27, 1844. The court

I McCURDY PARK-CORUNNA COMMANDERY AT DRILL

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 185 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 185 house afforded a convenient place of worship until 1866, when was erected the substantial brick edifice which is still in use by the society. Of the seventeen members originally composing the society Alexander McArthur was the last survivor. The society constituting the Baptist church of Corunna was organized in 1854, by the Rev. Joseph Gamble, with eight members. The early records of the church were destroyed b'y fire, and no minutes prior to 1867 are obtainable. A brick church was built in 1880, at the corner of Fraser and Woodworth streets. This was destroyed by fire in 1900, but a large, modern edifice was immediately built upon the same site. A church of the Roman Catholic faith was first organized in 1860, under the pastorate of Father Van Pannel, who remained the resident pastor until 1862. During his ministry a house of worship was erected, in the southern part of the city. The church was in a prosperous condition and continued in charge of a resident pastor until after the building of St. Paul's church at Owosso, about 1874. The pastor of the latter church then held a semi-monthly service at the church in Corunna during several years. This arrangement was finally discontinued and the former communicants of the older church now attend service at St. Paul's. The Universalist society of Corunna effected an organization in April, 1865, and for several years was in a flourishing condition. A church edifice was built in 1872. A few years later the strength of the society w-as impaired by the removal of influential members and regular meetings were in time discontinued. In the summer of 1862 a Ladies' Episcopal Society was formed for the purpose of raising funds to employ a minister and also to found a church in the village. The society at first had only five members and they struggled on with slow success until March, 1864, when they were able to secure semi-monthly services, conducted at the court house by Rev. Thomas B. Dooley, of Owosso. The result was the organization of St. Paul's church of Corunna, January 27, 1865. Rev. George 0. Bachman became rector of the church in November, 1866, and under his supervision the society prospered greatly. In 1867 the members felt encouraged to undertake the erection of a house of worship. The work was well begun when the rector was removed by death, and the plan was for a time abandoned. Services were, however, continued, and the building, a handsome one of brick, was finally completed in the year 1881. LODGES The charter for Corunna Lodge No. 115 Free and Accepted Masons, was granted January 14, 1859, and the first officers were: Hugh McCurdy, W. M.; John M. Fitch, S. W.; Eli C. Moore, J. W.; Ebenezer F. Wade, treasurer; Austin A. Belden, secretary; Samuel C. Smith, S. D.; George W. Goodell, J. W.; William Rollo, Tyler. Corunna Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, was organized February 18, 1864, with the following officers: Hugh McCurdy, H. P.; J. S. Hewett, king; G. D. Phelps, scribe; C. S. Converse, R. A. C.; J. Irland, P. S.; J. M. Thayer, treasurer; S. B. Raynale, secretary. Corunna Council, No. 38, Royal and Selected Masons, was chartered February 19, 1874, and elected officers as follows: Hugh

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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 187 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 187 McCurdy, F. I. M.; S. B. Raynale. D. M.; J. D. Leland, P. C. W.; A. T. Nichols, treasurer; J. D. Leland, recorder. Corunna Commandery, No. 21, Knights of Pythias, has as the date of its charter, June 3, 1868, and the following men were the first officers: Hugh McCurdy, E. C.; Seth Pettibone, gen.; 0. L. Spaulding, C. G.; T. C. Garner, prelate; C. E. Shattuck, S. W.; C. J. Gale, J. W.; E. C. Moore, treasurer; S. B. Raynale, recorder. Corunna also has active bodies of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of the Maccabees, Ladies of the Maccabees, Post and Woman's Relief Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic, and other kindred societies, all of which are well supported by the community. BANKING The First National Bank was established in 1865, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Its first officers were Hugh McCurdy, president, and S. B. Raynale, cashier. Among its stockholders and officers in later years were some of the best known business men of different parts of the county. Albert T. Nichols was cashier for many years preceding his death, in 1894. His successor was William A. Rosekrans, who filled the office until 1905, when the time honored institution went out of existence, its charter having expired on that date. Another of the bank's early officers was J. D. Leland, who is now cashier of the First.National Bank of Durand. The business of the bank was formerly transacted in a building, on Shiawassee avenue, which was owned by the bank. This building was destroyed by fire on December 26, 1902, and was replaced by a handsome block of light stone, in which the banking offices were luxuriously fitted up, with all modern equipments in furniture and with fireproof vaults. On January 1, 1905, the Corunna Bank was organized as a successor to the First National. The new building erected by the earlier bank was purchased and the business continued in the same place. The present firm is a partnership consisting of the following members: William F. Gallagher, John Driscoll, Theodore M. Euler, and William A. Rosekrans, the last mentioned being the bank's cashier. WATER WORKS Corunna has a water-works system of which it is justly proud. It is known as the Walker system and was installed at a cost of thirty-two thousand dollars. The water is procured from wells and is of an excellent quality. The pumps are capable of pumping fifteen million gallons of water daily, but as a measure of economy a tank has been erected that holds over sixty thousand gallons. This rests on an iron framework, eighty feet high, and gives enough pressure for domestic use as well as ordinary fires. The plant was accepted'by the city April 1, 1905, and six months later the revenue was sufficient to pay the engineer and full bills. MANUFACTURES Corunna has two furniture factories situated in the southeastern part of the city. The Fox & Mason Furniture Company was organized in March, 1895. Their plant was twice destroyed by fire, but was each time

McCURDY PARK-A PICNIC PARTY AT TIME OF HIGH WATER

SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 189 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 189 rebuilt on a larger and more substantial scale. The articles manufactured are medium-grade bedroom suites and sideboards. The number of employes will average over one hundred. The Corunna Furniture Company was recently organized, for the manufacture of higher grade furniture, quarter-sawed oak, birdseye maple and mahogany being among the woods used. The company has an exceptionally fine plant and while the business is new its prospects for success are bright. The United States Robe Company manufactures carriage robes, buggy mats, imitation "buffalo cloth" and similar articles. It was organized January 17, 1902, and is practically a home company, numbering among its stockholders many of Corunna's leading citizens. I The Shiawassee Light & Power Company was incorporated in August, 1900, with five stockholders and a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars. The company purchased the water power at Shiawasseetown and proceeded to improve it by the addition of a new flume and modern water wheels. In 1904 a new dam of concrete was constructed and apparatus of the most improved modern type replaced that formerly in use. The company now has one of the best water powers in central Michigan, and has not only supplanted the steam power formerly used for lighting the city, but has recently secured contracts for furnishing the villages of Bancroft and Morrice with lights. M CURDY PARK The most beautiful spot within the limits of the city of Corunna or Shiawassee county is Hugh McCurdy's park. This is a piece of land containing about forty acres, lying along the south bank of the Shiawassee river and situated only four blocks from the center of the city. The land was a gift to the city from Judge McCurdy, one of Corunna's most honored citizens. The gift was made in 1900 and the city has since expended generous sums in laying out walks and drives, in erecting a large casino and other buildings, and in improving the naturally beautiful surroundings. The electric railway connecting Corunna and Owosso passes the southern. boundary of the park and this easy means of access makes it the most popular place in the county for public out-of-door gatherings and private picnics. LEGAL PROFESSION The first attorney who practiced his profession in Shiawassee county was Sanford M. Green, who settled at Owosso in 1837. He was appointed prosecuting attorney of the county the same year and held the office until 1842, when he was elected to the state senate. In 1843 he removed to Pontiac. He became one of the most eminent jurists of the state, serving on the supreme lench from 1848 to 1859 and afterward, for many years, as judge of the eighteenth judicial circuit, residing in Bay City. Luke H. and Andrew Parsons, natives of New York, came to Corunna in 1836 and commenced business under the firm name of L. H. & A. Parsons, attorneys-at-law. An

McCURDY PARK, LOOKING FROM THE LAKE DOWN THE LAGOON

SHIA WASSEE' COUNTY 191 HC drew Parsons, after holding a number of county offices, was elected lieutenant governor of Michigan, in 1852. The same year Governor Robert McClelland resigned his office to accept a place in the cabinet of President Pierce. Mr. Parsons became governor, was inaugurated March 8, 1853, and served during the remainder of the term. In November, 1854, he was elected a member of the house of representatives. After serving during the winter session of 1855 he returned to Corunna, where he died in June of that year. Luke H. Parsons was elected register of deeds in 1846, judge of probate in 1848, prosecuting attorney in 1852, and regent of the university in 1857. He continued in practice at Corunna until his death, at that place, in 1862. Amos Gould located at Owosso in 1844, coming from Auburn, New York, where he had been engaged in the practice of law, having earlier been a law student in the office of William H. Seward. The first year of his residence in the county he was elected judge of probate and he afterward served two years as prosecuting attorney. He was supervisor of Owosso for five years and was elected to the state senate in 1852. Judge Gould continued the practice of law in Owosso twenty years, retiring from its active prosecution in 1865, to attend to his extensive property interests. Ebenezer Gould, a brother of Judge Amos Gould, settled in Owosso in 1837. He first engaged in mercantile pursuits, but commenced reading law in 1846 and was admitted to the bar in 1851, when he became associated in business with his brother. He continued in active practice until 1875, except during the war of the Rebellion, in which he served honorably with the Fifth Michigan Cavalry Regiment, of which he lbecame colonel. In 1866 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county. Colonel Gould died at Owosso, September 7, 1877. S. Titus Parsons, a brother of Andrew and Luke H. Parsons, studied law in their office and was admitted to the Shiawassee county bar in May, 1854. He served three terms as prosecuting attorney and was four years Shiawassee's representative in the legislature. He practiced law at Corunna until 1877, when he removed to Detroit. Among the many honored names connected with the judicial history of Shiawassee none is ever mentioned with greater respect and veneration than~ that of Judge Josiah Turner, of Owosso. This distinguished jurist was born September 1, 1811, in Vermont. He was admitted to the bar of that state in 1833 and at once began the practice of law. In 1840 he followed the tidal wave of emigration and settled at Howell, the county seat of Livingston county. After holding many offices in the gift of that county he was, in 1857, appointed by Governor Binghamn to fill a vacancy in the supreme-court bench, and the same year was elected judge of the judicial circuit in which both Shiawassee and Livingston counties were situated. With a view to residing nearer the center of his circuit, Judge Turner removed to Owosso, in 1860, and has made that city his home to the present time. He was elected judge of the same circuit twentyfive years. Judge Turner has held circuit court in forty counties of this state. When, in 1857, he first presided over that of Shiawassee, the county was in proud possession of a

192 P.",4ST AND PRESENT OF 19 PAS AN PRSN OF new brick court house, having occupied but three years,-the first permanent building erected for that purpose. In fifty years that building became an ancient and unsightly pile and was demolished to make way for the beautiful stone structure that now graces the old public square of Corunna and which is the crowning architectural ornament of Shiawassee county. During one-half of the time the old building was in use Judge Turner presided over the tragedies and comedies enacted in its plain, undecorated court room. When, in 1904, the corner stone of the present court house was laid, a masterful oration delivered by Judge Hugh McCurdy opened with the following reference to the aged jurist: "Last week, at the request of the committee, I called upon Judge Josiah Turner, of Owosso, and requested him to be present today as the guest of honor of the county of Shiawassee. I found the venerable jurist in good health for a man of ninety-two years, and his intellect clear and strong as of yore. "He informed me that he thought he would not be able to be present at the laying of the corner stone, much as he desired to be. However, he entertained a lively hope that he would be able to be present at the dedication of the new court house. He also desired me to tender the citizens of Shiawassee county his congratulations for the good work in which they were engaged, and to thank them most sincerely for electing him to the judgeship of this county for twenty-five yearsjust one-half of the lifetime of the old court house." Among other lawyers of the county were David Bush, Jr., who was located at Shiawasseetown; William F. Mosely, who settled at Newberg about 1842, and who was several times elected prosecuting attorney of the county; and Spencer B. Raynale, of Corunna, who was associated with Hugh McCurdy in the practice of his profession. Mr. Raynale died in 1874. One of the oldest living practitioners of the Shiawassee county law is Honorable Hugh McCurdy. He was admitted to the bar of Michigan in 1854 and soon thereafter located at Corunna, where he has since resided. In 1856 he was elected prosecuting attorney by a large majority, and in 1860 was elected judge of probate. In 1864 he was chosen as state senator and again in 1874 was chosen prosecuting attorney. He was also for years a member of the board of supervisors. His legal practice was large and profitable, and he still enjoys the full confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. PRESENT MEMBERS OF THE SHIAWASSEE COUNTY BAR Owosso: Hon. Selden S. Miner, Hon. Stearns F. Smith, Hon. Josiah Turner, Gilbert R. Lyon, William Kilpatrick, Percy Edwards, Frank H. Watson, Odell Chapman, Charles M. Hamper, George E. Pardee, Neil R. Walsh, Warren Pierpont, John W. Thorne. Corunna: Hon. Hugh McCurdy, William E. Cummin, A. E. Richards, Frank E. Welch, John T. McCurdy, Peter N. Cook, Matthew Bush, Joseph H. Collins, J. J. Peacock, W. J. Parker, Albert L. Chandler. Durand: Fred Northway, B. P. Hicks, E. S. Atherton, Seth Terry. Bancroft: M. V. B. Wixom, Charles E. Ward. Laingsburg: H. H. Pulver. Morrice: A. L. Beard. New Lothrop: Bernard Kildea. Perry: E. D. Lewis.

SHIAWASSEE COUATTY 193 SHIA WA 55FF COUNTY 193 PRESENT COUNTY OFFICERS State senator, Albert B. Cook; representative, Charles E. Ward; sheriff, Warren Jarrad; judge of probate, Matthew Bush; clerk, John Y. Martin; treasurer, Albert H. Northway; register of deeds, Jay D. Royce; prosecuting attorney, Charles M. Hamper; circuit-court commissioners, Roy R. Durham, Neil R. Walsh; commissioner of Schools, Howard E. Slocum; drain commissioner, John Boutwell; surveyor, Elmer E. Joslin; coroners, George W. Loring, Verner M. White; school examiners, A. E. Sherman, Thomas Mears; superintendents of poor, A. W. Green, H. B. McLaughlin, J. A. Armstrong; keeper county farm, N. E. McKenzie; county agent, 0. F. Webster; janitor court house, C. A. Potter. SUPERVISORS OF TOWNSHIPS, 1905-06 Antrim, Edward Dippy; Bennington, Francis G. Morrice; Burns, Fred S. Ruggles; Caledonia, Z. D. Humes; Fairfield, P. F. VanDusen; Hazelton, Austin Cronk; Middlebury, Edmund R. Vincent; New Haven, Warren Doan; Owosso township, Frank H. Rush; Perry, Titus S. Martin; Rush, James K. Allen; Sciota, John G. Wert; Shiawassee, Or son Sugden; Venice, Alonzo Griffin; Woodhull, William L. Colby; Owosso city,-First ward, Thomas M. Wiley; second ward, Charles W. Jennings; third ward, William A. Kent; fourth ward, John T. Walsh; fifth ward, Charles W. Parker. Corunna city,First ward, Clark D. Smith; second ward, Delbert M. Lowe; third ward, James J. Peacock. CITY OF OWOSSO The city of Owosso, the most important commercial and manufacturing point in Shiawassee county, is situated on the Shiawassee river, slightly northwest of the geographical center of the county. Lying mainly within the township of Owosso, its corporate limits extend eastward into that of Caledonia, embracing a total area of four square miles. The Shiawassee enters the city from the east, thence rapidly flowing westward over its rocky bed until the west line of section 13 is crossed, when it turns sharply to the north and continues in that direction beyond the northern limits. The city's name was derived from that of "Wasso," the principal chief of the Shiawassee band of Chippewas; who, prior to the first occupation of the county by the whites and for several years subsequently, lived near Shiawasseetown. Upon the organization of the township, in 1837, the letter O was prefixed to the chief's name, and the same adopted as the name of the new township. The hamlet in its midst, as yet without a cognomen other than that of "The Rapids," also, very naturally, assumed the same name. Originally the word was spelled Owasso, but,

194 PAST AND PRESENT OF 194 PAST AND PRESENT OF by common usage, it early obtained its present orthographical form. Owosso of to-day contains about eleven thousand inhabitants. With its great manufactories; its railroads; its river, spanned by five graceful iron bridges; its streets of traffic, paved with asphalt and lined with imposing blocks of brick and stone; its residence streets, adorned with elegant and tasteful structures and shaded by luxuriant native forest trees; its fine modern school buildings and the spires of numerous churches surmounting all, it is the busy, beautiful, and prosperous home of citizens of thrift and culture. Its great natural advantages and beautiful and healthful location, together with its superior railroad facilities, render it one of the most desirable dwelling places in central Michigan. Four railroads have a junction here, all being important divisions of great trunk lines. They are the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee division of the Grand Trunk system; the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon division of the Grand Trunk; the Saginaw division of the Michigan Central; and the Ann Arbor, a part of the great Erie system. From the junction of these roads it is seventy-nine miles to Detroit, seventy-eight to Grand Rapids, thirty-seven to Saginaw, twenty-seven to Lansing, and three miles to Corunna, the county seat. EARLY HISTORY During the year 1823 Deputy United States Surveyors Joseph Wampler and William Brookfield, working separately and accompanied by their respective assistants, ran out the township and sectional lines prevailing at the present time and from their meager field notes we obtain the earliest authentic information concerning the occupancy of this immediate vicinity by the English-speaking whites. Ten years elapsed after the original survey and yet no rude settler's cabin or stumpy fields defaced nature's landscape, and, save occasional visits from the halfbreed French and Indian courieurs-de-bois (forest runners), Wasso's band of Chippewas and the wild beasts of the forest were the only occupants of this portion of the Shiawvassee valley. Then, on a spring or early suimmer day of the year 1833, Benjamin 0. Williams, in pursuing a journey from his trading post to Saginaw, by way of the broad Indian trail which followed the course of the Shiawassee, passed this way in company with the Chippewa chief, Esh-ton-e-quet, or "Little Bear," also known by the French as "Moncousin." Mr. Williams and his guide journeyed on Indian ponies, and as they came out on the open plain which skirted the right bank of the river at the Chi-bac-wa-ting, or "Big Rapids," the sight unfolded to them was most pleasing. A halt was made on the high ground near the present high-school building, where a better and more extended view was obtained. They saw here possibilities for magnificent water-power privileges, and viewed the beautiful rose-willow plains extending to a considerable distance back from the east bank of the river,-the place, in fact, described by William Brookfield in 1823, in these words: "Plains or oak openings. Land first-rate. Good soil. No large timber. It was long ago burnt off. Undergrowth white and prickly ash, poplar, thorns and briars; all in abundance." On the opposite or west side of the river was a wooded tract of

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 195 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 195 dense, heavy timber. After surveying the beauties of nature for a few moments, Mr. Williams turned to his companion and remarked, "What a fine farm could be made here!" "Yes," replied the chief, and then, giving further expression to his thoughts and the knowledge that the white men were steadily encroaching upon the hunting grounds of his people, continued, "Not many more moons will pass over my white brother's head ere the pale faces will have mills, a town and cultivated fields here." Fully determined to possess himself of a portion, at least, of this fair domain, Mr. Williams resumed his journey toward Saginaw. Upon his return to the trading post he acquainted his brother, Alfred L. Williams, with his discovery and urged that they purchase, with what available cash they had, lands at the "Big Rapids." Deferring to his elder brother's judgment, and accompanied by him, B. O. Williams again visited this region the same summer, when the brothers concluded to locate landshere, recognizing its value for mill-sites, and strongly suspecting that it would be a central point in a new county. Acting upon this determination, Alfred L. Williams proceeded to Detroit, and on August 2, 1833, the first land in the surveyed township transferred to individual ownership was entered in the names of Alfred L. and Benjamin 0. Williams, being a portion of section 24. Their means of obtaining ready cash at that time were very limited, and their purchase did not cover as much territory as they desired. Therefore, when more money was obtained, additional lots were purchased, on section 13, November 13th of the same year,-in all about two hundred acres. From the date last mentioned until the summer of 1835, nQ other purchases were made in this vicinity or township. The Messrs. Williams had made no improvements, and "land-lookers" had not penetrated the wilderness thus far. However, in June, 1835, Elias Comstock and Lewis Findley, from Oakland county, entered lands situated upon section 13 (the former upon section 24 also). In July, 1835, the Messrs. Williams entered additional lands upon the same section, and in October of that year Abel Millington, of Washtenaw county; Elias Comstock and Seth Beach, of Oakland county; Peter A. Condrey, of New York city; and Trumbull Cary, of Genesee county, New York, entered lands situated on sections 13, 14, 23, and 24, all within or near the present corporate limits of the city of Owosso. Early in July, 1835, the first settlement in the northern half of Shiawassee county was commenced at the "Big Rapids" by people from Oakland county, some of whom, having purchased lands here in June of the same year, were desirous of beginning immediate improvements upon them. Their party, consi;ting of Elias Comstock, Lewis Findley, Kilburn Bedell and his wife, a daughter of Findley, John D. Overton, his wife and one child, and David Van Wormer, with his wife and one child, left Pontiac for this point, in the first days of July. The women and children, and their household effects, were mounted upon two wagons, drawn by tw~o ox teams; two or three cows were also brought along. July 4th was celebrated by cutting out roads. An Indian trail was followed mainly, but frequently it was diverged from and a route of their own cut out, in the endeavor to keep on dry ground and in the most direct course.

FIRST HOUSE IN OWOSSO FROM A PAINTING BY MRS. J. SHOUT, OF CORUNNA

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 197 S W C 197 Upon their arrival Mr. Findley immediately built a log cabin and settled on the east part of the northwest.fractional quarter of section 13. His son-in-law, Mr. Bedell, located a short distance north, on section 12, while the Messrs. Overton and Van Wormer, who were in the employ of Mr. Comstock, erected and occupied a double log house near the river, which was the first building erected within the limits of the city proper. After the tenants were comfortably housed and cared for, Mr. Comstock returned to Pontiac, where he passed the succeeding winter. During the fall of 1835 another settler arrived, in the person of Henry S. Smith. He was a blacksmith by trade and first located, in the fall of 1832, just below Shiawasseetown, where, associated with a Mr. Cooley, and possessing a few goods and a barrel of whiskey, he endeavored to establish a trading post. His wife, a delicate, nervous woman, and five children joined him there in 1833. The venture at Shiawasseetown did not succeed very well, however, and in the fall of 1835 he was irnduced by Alfred L. Williams to take up his residence at the "Big Rapids" of the Shiawassee. A log cabin was erected on what is now known as block 24, east side of the race, and when occupied by himself and family, they became the first settlers on the site of the original village plat. He was remembered as a genial, liberal and good fellow, who had the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He was elected as the first collector and also one of the highway commissioners, in 1837; was re-elected to the same offices in 1838. About 1840 he removed with Daniel Ball to Chesaning, and later went to Grand Rapids. Of the settlers before mentioned we will here add that Lewis Findley opened the first farm in the township. He became the first supervisor of Owosso, in 1837, and again filled the same position in 1841. After continuing as a resident of this township for a number of years, he removed to Six Mile creek. The first person in the settlement to depart from the cares and troubles of this life was Kilburn Bedell, the son-in-law of Lewis Findley. Apparently in perfect health, in March, 1836, he proceeded to visit the Williams trading post for the purpose of transacting some business. Returning, he arrived at a point near the Methodist church, on Corunna road, when he became seriously ill. People at the Van Wormer and Overton cabin were notified of his condition. They at once hastened to his assistance, placed him upon a handsled and brought him to the cabin. The remedies at hand were of no avail and he died the same evening. The next day his remains were taken to his cabin in the woods, where, after a prayer by Elias Comstock, he was buried on his own land, near the bank of the Shiawassee river. Mr. Comstock also made the coffin, from cherry lumber which Mr. Bedell had brought in to manufacture into tables. Honorable Elias Comstock, who was so prominently identified with the early'history of this community, came to Michigan from New York state in 1823. He first engaged in teaching at Detroit, as assistant to the principal of the Detroit Academy. He next taught school in Pontiac, which then contained less than a dozen families. He remained a resident of Oakland county several years, holding a number of public offices and also clearing and cultivating a farm of eighty acres, where Pontiac now stands.

198 PAST AND PRESENT OF. T A Having sold his possessions in Pontiac in 1835, he then located land on the Shiawassee river, now a part of the city of Owosso. Like others, he located his land with the idea that Owosso was to be the county-seat; but the interests of Detroit land-owners prevailed and Corunna was established. By the settlement of Overton and Van Wormer many improvements had been made upon his purchase; a dwelling house had been erected, and in pursuance of his plans, he settled his family at "The Rapids," May 15, 1836, completing the journey from the "Exchange" in a canoe.,Holding an appointment as justice of the peace of Oakland county, and as this region was then attached to that county for all judicial purposes, he became the first resident justice, and the succeeding year (1837) was elected to the same position in the new township of Owosso. During the years 1838, 1839, and 1840, he served as supervisor. In subsequent years he served as judge of probate, county judge of the circuit court, and in 1852, 1856, and 1858 he was chosen county clerk on the Republican ticket. Judge Comr stock resided in the beautiful little city he had assisted to found until the day of his death, honored by all who knew him. Messrs. Van Wormer and Overton continued as residents here only two or three years. In the autumn of 1835 and the winter succeeding, Messrs. A. L. and B. O. Williams became active in the preliminary work necessary for the establishment of a village on their purchase. The veteran surveyor, Hervey Parke, of Pontiac, came up and platted the village of Shiawassee Rapids, on lands resting on the right bank of the river. The right to build a dam, four feet in height, across the river, on section 24, was granted by the territorial government, March 28, 1836, to the Williams brothers. The act further specified, "They shall also build a good and sufficient lock, not less than seventy-five feet in length and sixteen feet in width, for the passage of boats, canoes, rafts, and other watercraft." Early in 1836 a bargain was completed between the Messrs. Williams and Daniel Ball & Company, whereby the latter became the owners of one-third of the village plat, besides the water power and the land lying between the proposed mill-race and river. Silas and Daniel Ball also purchased of the general government, in March, 1836, lands situated on sections 24, 25, and 36. Daniel Ball was a practical millwright, an energetic business man, and in pursuance of his project to establish mills and to assist in building up a village, arrived here from Rochester, New York, early in the autumn of 1836, with a number of families who were frequently spoken of as "Ball's colonists." Among them were Rufus Collier, Simon Howell, John B. Griswold, William B. Hopkins, Henry Crooks, Daniel Fletcher, a Mr. Siegel, who had served with Napoleon, and others whose names are not remembered. Machinery for Ball's saw mill, and the greater portion of the goods belonging to this party of settlers, had been shipped to Saginaw, whence it was proposed to bring them up the Shiawassee on canoes, rafts, etc. But on the 6th of October came a heavy snow storm, which falling upon trees yet clothed in their summer verdure, caused many of them to bend and fall into the stream, thus rendering navigation impossible until the obstructions were cleared away. In the

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 199 HC long delay which ensued before getting their household articles considerable privation and hardship was experienced by these pioneers. Cabins were first erected and then work began on the mill-race. The race, the dam and the saw mill were completed some time during the year 1837. Mr. Ball occupied a log cabin built by Henry S. Smith for a,store, arid it is believed he became the first postmaster, about the same time. In the spring of 1837 Alfred L. Williams moved from the "Exchange" to the village and established a store. His brother, B. 0. Williams, did not permanently settle here until the following year. The year 1837 was an eventful one in the history of Owosso. It witnessed the formation of the township; the completion of the mill race; an increased number of settlers. Among these settlers were Daniel Gould, who became the first county surveyor; Austin Griffis; Ebenezer Gould, an early merchant and lawyer and afterward known to fame as colonel of the "Fighting Fifth" Michigan Cavalry; Anson B. William, and Isaac M. Chipman, Sanford M. Green, George Parkill, and others. This y-ear also witnessed the survey and location of the Northern Railroad, which was to become one of the most important internal improvements ever yet adopted by any state. It was planned to run from Port Huron, through Owosso and Grand Rapids to Lake Michigan. In 1838-9 much of this proposed line was cleared and grubbed out and grading done at various points along the route. But the scheme was abandoned in the latter year, and except where it was afterward used as the "Northern Wagon Road," the monev expended by the state was thrown away. At this time the Owosso & Saginaw Nav igation Company was incorporated, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. The purpose was to make navigable the waters of the Shiawassee river between the two points named in the title of the act. The work performed in the attempt to carry out this plan has been reviewed in preceding pages, in connection with an account of the projected navigation of the several rivers in the county. In 1838 Messrs. Ebenezer Gould and David D. Fish established themselves as merchants in the village. They were really the first, if we except the small stock kept by Daniel Ball for the accommodation mainly of his workmen, and the goods brought here by A. L. Williams from his trading post. On the 13th of October, 1838, the land now known as the original plat of the village of Owosso was surveyed and mapped by Daniel Gould, surveyor, at the instance of A. L. and B. 0. Williams, proprietors. An explanatory note of the' surveyor says, "This plat includes the following parcels of land: the northeast fraction of the northeast fractional quarter of fractional section 24; the southeast fractional quarter of fractional section number 13, in township 7 north, range 2 east; and the west part of the southwest fractional quarter of section number' 18, in township 7 north, of range number 3 east." Grounds set aside for public use were "Fayette Square" and the "burying ground." The streets, as shown by the original map, ran north and south, east and west. Those running east and west are North, Oliver, Williams, Mason Exchange, Main and Cornstock; those running north and south are Mulberry, Pine, Adams, Water, Ball, Washington, Park, Saginaw, and Hickory. All

200 PAST AND PRESENT OF 200 PAST AND PRESENT OF are four rod wide except Washington and Main streets and Exchange street as far west as Water, these being six rods in width. Dr. S. W. Pattison, who was among the first practicing physicians to reside in the county, came from Fentonville, Genesee county, and settled in Owosso in 1839. Before he came to Owosso, the early settlers, in cases of due emergency, sent to Fentonville, to Grand Blanc and to Flint for physicians. For the treatment of ordinary cases of fevers, fever and ague, etc., many of the pioneers were provided with lancets and common medicines, and in their use became quite expert. Particularly was this the case with Mr. B. 0. Williams, who treated many patients successfully. In the year 1839 the township voted two hundred and fifty dollars for the purpose of building a bridge across the river at the Washington street crossing, and during the same year Messrs. Ball, Green & Company erected the first grist mill. This was a great acquisition to this portion of the country, as previously no grist mills were nearer than the "Thread Mill," in Flint. Other business enterprises, such as wool-carding and clothdressing mills, an iron-furnace and various small mechanical shops soon followed, and the village slowly yet steadily gained in importance and population. In 1844, the tax paying residents of the village of Owosso were: Ament, Edward L., newspaper publisher. Ament, Winfield S., blacksmith. Barnes, John B., physician. Barnes, Erastus. Becker, H. W. Comstock, Elias. Comstock & Pattison, merchants. Comstock, Luther. Collier, Rufus. Collier, Orrin. Carr, William A., cabinet shop. Chipman, Anson B. Chipman, I. M. Chipman, William. Crooks, Henry. Casper, Felix, wool-carding. Conrad, Justus. Fletcher, Daniel, wagon-maker. Foot, Philip. Goodhull, Charles L., merchant. Goodhue, J. M. Griffis, Austin, saw mill. Griffis & Whitcomb. Griffis, Alanson, cooper. Graham, J. N., physician. Gould, Daniel, surveyor. Gould, Daniel & Company, furnace. Gould, Amos, attorney and owner of gristmill. Gould, Amos, and others, water-power, and all the land between the mill race and river, about fifteen acres. George, Oscar. Hardy, Seth, clergyman. Howell, Simon. Moses, Charles M. McGilvra, Daniel. Morton, Benoni. Pattison, Samuel, physician. Perkins, Sprague, brickmaker. Parkill, George, carpenter. Phillips, John G. Parkill, Charles P., teacher. Roberts, J. P. Smith, L. V., carpenter. Simons, Williams. Tyler, David F., blacksmith.

SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 201 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 201 Tillotson, Matthew N., merchant. Williams, Alfred L. Williams, Benjamin 0. Whitcomb, Samuel H. Whitlock, Joseph. It would be a matter of impossibility at this time to follow in close chronological order the further history of Owosso, so far as relates to names of inhabitants, the precise date of their settlement, and the gradual development of business interests. CITY INCORPORATION, ETC. By the completion of a portion of the lines of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad in 1856, and the Amboy, Lansing, & Traverse Bay road in 1862, and the activity created in consequence of Owosso becoming a railroad junction, the people concluded that for their better government a city charter was necessary. The village then contained about one thousand inhabitants, and in accordance with their wishes, by an act of the state legislature approved February 15, 1859, the city of Owosso was created. Extracts from that act describe its boundaries, etc. as follows: "That so much of the townships of Owosso and Caledonia, in the county of Shiawassee, as are included in the following territory, to wit: Sections 13 and 24 in township 7 north, of range 2 east, and also the west half of sections 18 and 19 in township 7 north, of range 3 east, being in the county of Shiawassee, be and the same is hereby set off from the said township of Owosso and Caledonia and declared to be a city, by the name of 'The City of Owosso,' by which name it shall hereafter be known." The city was divided into four wards whose boundaries were defined as follows: The first ward to include that portion lying north of the centre of Main street and west of the centre of Washington street. The second ward all that portion lying north of the centre of Main street and east of the centre of Washington street. The third ward all that portion lying south of the centre of Main street and east of the centre of Washington street, while the fourth ward embraced all that portion lying south of the centre of Main street and west of the centre of Washington street. After arranging for the election and appointment of officers, designating their duties, and the enactment of various laws for the government of the city, it was further ordered that the first election under the charter should be held on the first Monday of April, 1859. The polling places designated were "In the first ward, at the inn kept by Jacob Aberle; in the second ward, at the inn kept by Alfred Stewart; in the third ward, at the store now kept by William Goff; in the fourth ward, at the inn kept by S. J. Harding." FIRST CHARTER ELECTION Pursuant to the provisions of the foregoing act, the electors assembled at their respective polling places on Monday, April 4, 1859, for the purpose of electing city officers, and as a result the following named officers were declared elected: Amos Gould, mayor; John N. Ingersoll, clerk; Daniel Lyon, treasurer; E. W. Barnes, supervisor of the first district; Elisha Leach, supervisor of the second district; Charles M. Moses, Charles L. Goodhue, alderman of the first ward; Daniel L. Thorpe, Thomas D. Dewey, alderman of the second ward; John Gutekunst, George R.

202 PAST AND PRESENT OF 202 AST ND RESET O Black, aldermen of the third ward; Stillman J. Harding, Eli D. Gregory, aldermen of the fourth ward; Ira Merill, justice of the peace for the second district; George K. Newcombe, Amos M. Kellogg, school inspectors; Daniel Wait, M. W. Quackenbush, directors of the poor; Robert Hodgkins, of the first district, and Ephriam Gould, of the second district, constables. In June, 1859, the first assessment was made on the people residing within the city's corporate limits. There were one hundred and sixty-three names on the roll. The total amount of tax levied in that year was $3,984.11, applied to the following purposes: State.................... $ 257.99 County.................. 382.12 City..................... 990.00 School district...........2,148.25 School library............ 25.00 Howard street grading.... 95.00 Highways............... 5.67 Collectors' commissions... 80.08 $3,984.11 FIRE DEPARTMENT AND WATER SUPPLY For several years after its organization the city possessed no fire apparatus of any description, although the common council voted upon the matter frequently. Finally, late in the '60s, fifty leather fire buckets and some eight or ten ladders were procured. In the spring of 1870 a hook-and-ladder truck and eight Balcock fire extinguishers were purchased. A fire company, of which Frederick Wildermuth was foreman, was organized about the same time. But the real organization of Owosso's fire department did not take place until 1876. In February of that year a Silsby steam fire-engine was purchased, and in April fol lowing city fire department officers were elected. An engine company, two hose companies, and a hook and ladder company were regularly organized during the same year. At that time the department's water supply was derived from the river and mill race, and from two capacious cisterns where a large quantity was stored. Water for drinking and culinary uses was obtained from wells. During all the years a splendid volunteer organization has been maintained and the members have won for themselves great credit by their readiness to respond to calls at all times of the day or night and their intelligence in fighting the fire demon. The present organization is as follows: Frank House, chief; Fred Edwards, first assistant; M. F. Blair, secretary-treasurer; Charles Black, foreman hose cart; Will Ross, Nelson Pencer, Ernest Cummings, Edward Wright, firemen; James Browrf, foreman hook-andladder; William Beresford, D. Priest, Orville Angell, G. Osmer, firemen; Ed Martin and William Robertson, drivers. The equipment consists of one hose wagon, one hook-and-ladder wagon, two hand hose carts, one Nott fire engine, one Silsby engine, two teams of horses, and about three thousand five hundred feet of hose. MILLS AND MANUFACTURING Among the early manufacturing interests of Owosso were those carried on in the pioneer saw mill erected by Daniel Ball & Company in 1837; the grist mill built by Ball, Green & Company in 1839, which burned ten years later; Felix Casper's wool-carding and cloth-dressing works, established some time between 1840 and 1844; and the building

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 203 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 203 owned and occupied by the Owosso Woolen Manufacturing Company, which was built in 1867 and burned in 1873. Some of these mills have been previously alluded to, but all deserve special mention as examples of new-country enterprise. The manufacturing interests of to-day are pointed to with a large degree of pride and satisfaction by its citizens and the busy hum of the wheels of industry is the best evidence of the prosperity, peace and happiness of the residents of the city. The twelfth annual report ojf the state commission of labor gives a general idea of the importance of Owosso's industrial condition by enumerating the manufacturing institutions in active operation in the city, and the number of their employes, etc., as follows: Busines - Number NAME Character of Business Employes AnnArborCarShops Car building and repairing............. 200 Ann Arbor Railroad Division.......... Railroad division.... 225 Estey Manufacturing Co. (A).......... Fturniture............. 275 Estey Manufacturing Co. (B)...........Furniture............ 175 E. F. Dudley........ Renovated butter...., 5 Frieseke Bros....... Brick manufacture.. 25 M. L. Parker........ Brick manufacture.. 15 M. Wood & Co...... Handles................. 17 OwossoCasket Co.. Funeral supplies.... 250 Owosso Manufacturing Co............ Window screens.... 300 Owosso Carriage Co. Carriages.......... 75 Robbins Table Co... Tables................. 80 Story Spoke Works.. Spokes................. 15 Woodard Furniture Co................ Furniture............ 200 Zimmerman......... Base ball bats....... 15 Miscellaneous................................. 255 2,157 I I I I I I I I ress have rolled over and well nigh obliterated every vestige of the original village. Electricity and steani have superseded water power and on every hand are seen evidences of the highest and best citizenship and civilization. Early in its history the citizens adopted the principle of fostering and encouraging the location of every legitimate enterprise, and the development of the industrial institutions has been the great secret of the city's growth. The first important move in this direction was when citizens secured the location of the furniture factories of the Estey Manufacturing Company. In 1868 David M. Estey had established a small furniture business at West Haven, in New Haven township, and as a result of the employment given men a little village sprung up there. The offices and sales department of the company were in Detroit and the mills at West Haven. In 1875 the business was concentrated at Owosso, occupying the frame building, near the Michigan Central depot, at present occupied as an office building by the Groton Bridge Manufacturing Company. In 1879 tine company was incorporated with a capital stock of $53,350, paid up, the stockholders being David Estey, of Brattleboro, Vermont, and David M. Estey and Charles E. Rigley, of Owosso. They manufacture bedroom suites, chiffoniers, and sideboards. The development of the company was marvelous and is an evidence of what Yankee energy and ingenuity will accomplish when rightly directed. The original plant was soon outgrown, and for two years the company used the handle-factory building, but that proved inadequate and a site was secured on South Washington street on the line of the Year after year new and important interests were added to those already established and Owosso grew rapidly in population and wealth. The mighty wheels of prog /

204 PAST AND PRESENT OF I Grand Trunk Railroad, where a frame building was erected that seemed large in those days, but in 1879 it was again necessary to enlarge to meet the demands of the constantly increasing trade, and the four-story brick running parallel, with the street was built, and later the store room paralleling the railroad tracks, which connected with the frame building in the centre by means of bridges. Finally in 1889 the frame was moved out and the massive four-story brick that now fills the intervening space was built, giving a total of two hundred thousand square feet of floor space and completing one of the largest and best factories in the state. But even this did not suffice to meet the demands of the extensive business that had been created, and in 1891 the Estey Company made itself famous throughout the furniture world by erecting Factory B, a frame building eighty by two hundred and eighty feet, four stories high and modern in all its appointments. The distinguishing feature of this factory is that it was built in fifty-seven and three-quarters actual working hours on the building and thus earned the title "Sixday factory." Photographs of the building were taken each day at two o'clock showing the progress of the work and proving the claim that the factory was really erected in less than six days. The Estey Manufacturing Company retains in its two factories four hundred and fifty employes. The yearly value of this product is six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and this is increasing each year. The present officers are J. Gray Estey, Brattleboro, Vermont, president; 0. B. Estey, vice-president; Charles E. Rigley, Jr., secretary; Charles E. In 1866 Lyman E. Augustus and William A. Woodard started a furniture factory, the first occupying the site of the old woolen mill, built as early as 1844. This building in 1855 was used as a manufactory for furniture, doors, sash and blinds, and operated by White Brothers. William Woodard conducted the same kind of business and by hard work and close application to business achieved a very large degree of success. The factory was enlarged from time to time and the business developed until it assumed large proportions, employing one hundred and twenty-five men in the several departments. September 3, 1898, the entire plant and some surrounding property were destroyed by fire. The control of the business had, in the meantime, been acquired by L. E. Woodard, who had taken into the company his sons, Fred B. and Frank J. Woodard. Steps were at once taken to rebuild, on property owned by the company and more convenient for shipping purposes, a modern, well arranged factory, and in 1902 the new plant began operations under the most favorable conditions. The factory has a floor space of about one hundred thousand square feet, gives employment to two hundred men, and the annual product already reaches two hundred thousand dollars. In 1880 Mr. Woodard started as a side line the manufacturing of caskets, and that branch of the business developed to a marvelous degree. The Owosso Casket Company was at first composed of four or more interested principals, but L. E. Woodard secured entire control within a year after the organization of the company. The first factory was small and the business started in a very humble way, b'ut the quality of the prod Rigley Sr. treasurer..1.9 uct soon earned for the Owosso factory a

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 205 H S C Y wide reputation, and it became necessary again and again to increase the capacity of the plant, until it now contains about one hundred and twenty-five thousand square feet of space, gives employment to two hundred and fifty men, and the product of the factory reaches nearly half a million dollars. There are no better goods manufactured anywhere than those of the Owosso Casket Company. L. E. Woodard, the founder of these two large factories, died in 1904, b'ut the business has been continued very successfully since. The present officers of both the Furniture Company and Casket Company are president, Fred B. Woodard; vice-president, Frank J. Woodard; secretary and treasurer, Joe C. Osburn. In connection with tfie furniture factory, Mr. L. E. Woodard also established a lumber yard, and the business was continued by him and his sons until 1905 when it was sold to Messrs. Michelson and Mulhall, a very enterprising firm, with ample capital to carry on the enterprise. They have moved the yards from the location on West Main street to the lots just east of the casket works, where they have arranged a model yard and one of the best and most complete in central Michigan. The lots upon which the old yard stood will be built up with handsome residences. In 1885 Alvin M. Bentley established in Owosso a modest little factory, located on the Michigan Central Railroad just north of the depot, and called it the Owosso Manufacturing Company. The building was not at all pretentious and the articles manufactured were wooden hay rakes, scythe snathes, and tool handles. The business was carefully managed and steadily grew in volume. About the year 1889 the company began the manu facture of door and window screens and this branch of the business very soon became the prominent feature of the business. In the meantime the factory was being enlarged each year, until it has assumed mammoth proportions covering fourteen acres of ground, the buildings containing over two hundred and fifty thousand square feet of space. The company employs three hundred persons in the factories and the value of the product aggregates at least five hundred thousand dollars a year. Alvin M. Bentley is president of the company and Arthur E. Stever secretary-treasurer. As outgrowths of the Owosso institution factories have been built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Perla, Arkansas, where the same classes of goods are manufactured. The Owosso factory, however, 'is the principal manufacturing point, and the steady development of the business here is a matter of great satisfaction to all concerned. Still another successful Owosso manufacturing institution which started in its career on a small scale and won a place of greater importance by virtue of the merit of its product and the good management of its promoters, is the Robbins Table Company. Establislied in 1873 by Joseph H. Robbins, Sr., in the small room adjacent to what is now Copas' packing house, at' effort was made to produce as good a table as good workmanship and material could create. The result of such effort could not be other than successful, and in course of time factory buildings erected especially for their use were occupied, with a floor space of one hundred and twenty-five thousand square feet, and the business grew to most satisfactory proportions.

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SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 207 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 207 On the death of his father, the management fell upon Joseph H. Robbins, Jr., who has continued the business very successfully. The company was incorporated in 1899 with Joseph H. Robb'ins, president and treasurer, and C. R. Letts, secretary. Nearly eighty skilled workmen are employed and the value of the output will exceed one hundred thousand dollars per annum. The Robbins Table Company is one of the solid institutions of the city. One.of the most inportant industries to the city and the county is the mammoth factory of the Owosso Sugar Company. Erected in the year 1903, at a cost of one million dollars, it is one of the notable industries of Owosso and the county. The development of the beet sugar in recent years and the peculiar adaptability of the soil of the Saginaw valley attracted to this section capitalists who had studied the subject and were satisfied as to its future. In 1902 a party of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, gentlemen became interested in Owosso as a site for a factory, a committee of local business men having labored earnestly to secure such an institution here. The mammoth plant was admirably located with sidetracks for reaching the three railroads, and in the season of 1903 made its first sugar from beets. The cultivation of the crop was not understood by farmers and some of them had discouraging experiences, but persevered, with the result that the season just closed has been unusually successful for both the grower and the manufacturer. The factory has a capacity for slicing one thousand two hundred tons of beets per day of twenty-four hours. This season the factory handled sixty thousand tons of beets, which represent the product of about six thousand acres of land. Many farmers realized handsomely on their crops, the gross returns amounting to as high as one hundred and seventy dollars per acre. The factory employs about two hundred and fifty men during the season and its pay roll aggregates eighty thousand dollars annually. The officers of the Owosso Sugar Company are President, Captain C. W. Brown, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; vice-president, Edward Pitcairn, Pittsburg; secretarytreasurer, Carman N. Smith, Bay City, Michigan; assistant secretary, Bertram E. Smith, Owosso. BANKING Under the name of D. Gould & Company and the management of Amos Gould, banking business was first commenced in Owosso in 1854. A new building was erected in 1857, and in 1865 the business of exchange and brokerage was merged into that of the First National Bank. The latter bank organized with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Upon its organization Amos Gould was elected president, Thomas D. Dewey, vicepresident and Adam H. Byerly, cashier. Mathias L. Stewart established a bank of ex'change and brokerage in 1869. He came to Owosso first in 1860 and engaged in merchandising, erecting a business block in 1869. In consequence of losing his sense of hearing, he closed out his mercantile business and devoted his attention to banking, the firm name in recent years being M. L. Stewart & Company. In 1882 the brick block on the northwest corner of Washington and Exchange streets was built for banking purposes, and for forty years the institution

208 PAST AND PRESENT OF I was regarded as one of the most substantial in the state. Mr. Stewart was assisted in the bank by his sons, Charles D. and L. Irving, until the death of the latter in 1900. The responsibility devolved more and more upon Charles D. Stewart as his father's age and declining health bore down upon him. July 25, 1903, Mathias L. Stewart died, loved and honored by all, and fortunately spared the bitter experience that was to come upon the business which had been built up by his life's effort. At noon on Saturday, April 15, 1904, a notice was posted upon the front door of the bank announcing that business had been suspended. Utter consternation prevailed, as the condition was not dreamed of, but the influence of the newspapers and conservative citizens prevented a panic. An assignment was made at once by the surviving partner of the bank and the Detroit Trust Company took charge of affairs. An examination of the books gave the liabilities of the bank at $559,381.46 in which the capital stock of the bank was figured at $28,000.00. The assets claimed exactly equalled the above amount $559,381.46 and it was hoped creditors would realize very largely on their accounts. It developed, however, that large sums of money had been advanced to the Owosso Carriage Company, three-fourths of the stock (seventy-five thousand dollars) being held by the bank. Other securities and realestate values dwindled, and after months of effort, creditors received from fifty to sixty per cent. The calamity was severely felt by the citizens, there being over two thousand depositors in the bank. November 14, 1885, there was organized the Second National Bank, with a capital stock of sixty thousand dollars. Several well known Shiawassee county capitalists were intersted and officers were elected as follows: President, Albert G. Nichols; vice-president, Jacob Seligman; cashier, E. M. Miller; assistant cashier, McElwane Miner. This institution has had a very successful career and has been distinguished for its careful and conservative management. January 13, 1901, the Second National Bank was changed to a state bank, taking the name, The Owosso Savings Bank. The capital stock was increased to one hundred thousand dollars and is regarded a good investment. The same degree of success has continued to characterize this institution and it enjoys the fullest confidence of the community. The total amount of business done by this bank, according to its last statement to the state banking commissioner, was $671,276.42, the amount of deposits in the commercial and savings departments aggregating $556,341.09. The present officers of the bank are: President Charles E. Rigley, Sr.; vicepresident, Charles W. Gale; cashier, Asa D. Whipple; assistant cashier, George Sweet. The Citizens' Savings Bank is the title under which Isaac H. Keeler organized a state bank February 10, 1896. The capital stock was fifty thousand dollars. An elegant threestory brick block was erected on the southwest corner of Washington and Exchange streets, and the bank was located on the corner, in quarters admirably fitted for it. The affairs of the bank have been conducted in a manner that has won the commendation of the public, the best evidence of which is the large volume of business transacted by it. Starting out with deposits amounting to $5, 390.09, their statement ten years later

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 209 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 209 showed an aggregate of 560,204.92 on deposit. This remarkable development is scarcely equalled by any bank in the state and is a credit to the enterprise of the gentlemen comprising the directorate. The officers of the bank are: President, Issac H. Keeler, vice-president, William H. Bigelow; cashier, Gilbert L. Taylor; tellers, Jay Matteson and Oliver L. Davis. The directors are J. W. Simmons, W. E. Hall, Albert Todd, M. C. Davis, M. S. Keeler, Rudolph Colly, George L. Keeler, I. H. Keeler, W. H. Bigelow. ELECTRIC LINES Owosso is so situated it will surely become the centre o!f electric railway lines, diverging in all directions. The first street and interurban road was built in 1893, traversing some of the more important business streets and extending to Corunna, thus bringing into close contact the social and industrial interests of the two cities. This line at first used steam as the propelling power, 'but after two years electricity was substituted. The Owosso & Corunna Electric Company has franchises extending from Owosso to Durand, and work on the extension of the line to the latter point is now in progress. At the present time franchises are held by a company having ample capital for a line extending from Grand Rapids to Pontiac, which is to be modern in all its appointments and equipped with the most approved appliances. The line has three divisions, the first to be known as the Grand Rapids & Ionia division, the second as the Ionia & Owosso division, and the third as the Owosso & Pontiac division. Owosso being near the 14 centre of the system will have a large powerhouse and storage plant and be the important point on the line. The road is expected to be in operation by 1907. The Saginaw Bay Southwestern Railway is to run from Bay City through Saginaw, Chesaning, Oakley and on to Owosso, the franchise covering several of the streets of the city. At the same time the JacksonLansing line is pushing northward, having already reached Pine lake, north of Lansing. This line, when completed, will, therefore, give a through line from Bay City to Jackson. With them and the four railroads now passing through the city, Owosso possesses unequalled traveling and shipping facilities. EDUCATIONAL Samuel N. Warren, who officiated as clerk at the first township election, in 1837, and was elected as one of the assessors at the same meeting, taught the first school in the village, in the winter of 1837-8. This was a private school and its sessions were held in an unoccupied log house. Prior to this, however, some action had been taken by school inspectors and the school director, as will be shown by the following extracts from the records:."At a meeting of the inspectors of primary schools of the township of Owosso, held at the office of the township clerk, Tuesday, August 8, 1837, Alfred L. Williams and Elias Comstock were present. Elias Comstock was chosen chairman of the board, whereupon it was concluded to set off sections 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26 in township 7 north, of range 2 east, and sections 7, 8, 17, 18, 19, and 30, in township 7 north, of range 3 east,

OWOSSO CHURCHES BAPTIST CHURCH AND PARSONAGE ST. JOHANNES EVANGELICAL CHURCH CATHOLIC, CHURCH CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH CATHOLIC, CHURCH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH FIRST M. E. CHURCH SALEM EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 211 SC as school district No. 1, and the first school meeting therein shall be held at the store of A. L. and B. 0. Williams in the village of Owosso on the 22d day of August, 1837, at four P. M." The meeting was held and B. 0. Williams elected director. October 2, 1837, he rendered his annual report, as follows: "To the Township Board of School Inspectors: "GENTLEMEN: I hereby transmit you a report of the condition of schools in district No. 1, of which I have the honor to be the director, to wit: The whole number of children in my district between the ages of five and seventeen years is thirty. "There has been no school taught in the district and no moneys have been received by' me. The district has voted to raise the following sums for school purposes, viz.: five hundred dollars for building a school house, seventy-five dollars for the purchase of a school library-case, and ten dollars for the purchase of books. "I have the honor to be, gentlemen, "Your obedient servant, "B. 0. WILLIAMS." The first school building was not erected until 1840. This was a small frame building and answered the purpose until 1858, when a large and substantial brick building was erected. The old school house, repaired and enlarged, was used many years afterward as a house of worship by the German Lutheran church society. The new building was designed to accommodate two hundred pupils, and the school consisted of three grades,-the primary, the intermediate, and the upper departments, where the higher English branches were taught, also the languages and music, both vocal and instrumental. A few years subsequently the brick building was enlarged, and in still later years frame school houses were built in the various wards. These were replaced by substantial brick buildings. The handsome central building, erected at a cost of eighty thousand dollars is well equipped for the work of all the grades. Forty-eight teachers are employed, in addition to the superintendent. The first graduating class was sent out in June, 1870. The graduates of the Owosso high school now number five hundred and fifty-seven. In thirty-seven years the schools have had ten different superintendents. But four of these have occupied the position during the last twenty-seven years. They are 0. C. Seelye, superintendent for six years; A. J. Swain, three years; E. T. Austin, four years; and J. W. Simmons, fourteen years. RELIGIOUS Among the early settlers of Owosso and its immediate vicinity were a number of Baptists. They commenced holding religious services in June, 1836, their devotions consisting of singing and prayer, and the reading of published sermons by some one of their number. As brethern of other denom-. inations came in they temporarily united with these people and greatly assisted in maintaining religious worship. The first sermon was preached in the fall of 1836 by Rev. Samuel Wilkinson. of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was an early resident of the county, a pioneer teacher, also, and subsequently removed to Flint. Rev. John Booth, a Baptist pioneer

212 PAST AND PRESENT OF 212 AST ND RESET O minister, delivered the next sermon some time in the year 1837. On the 13th of January, 1838, a meeting was held at the house of Elias Comstock for the purpose of organizing a church to be known as the First Baptist church of Owosso. The organization was effected, the society having eleven members during its first year. The early meetings were held at houses of Deacon Comstock and John F. Swain. The church continued to hold meetings until 1843. Although it then had received about fifty members, its organization was dissolved. Several of its members united with the Maple River church, where they continued until the formation of the present FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF OWOSSO This church was organized November 15, 1856, Rev. S. Chase of Detroit being present and assisting. In May, 1857, the church was received into the Shiawassee Baptist Association. Rev. Joel Lyon was the first regular pastor, being called to the position in April, 1858. Meetings were held in Gould Hall until the first house of worship was completed, early in the '60s. This building was twenty-four by fifty feet in dimensions and cost six hundred dollars. The society flourished, and in May, 1877, dedicated a fine brick structure, which had been erected at a cost of ten thousand dollars. In 1880 the membership of the church was two hundred and sixty-three. In 1900 a very large and -beautiful church, costing thirty-five thousand dollars, was erected. Rev. J. Alexander Clyde is the present pastor, and the church is in excellent working condition, with a membership of about four hundred. THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF OWOSSO was organized January 18, 1853. The early meetings were held in the small frame building erected for a school house in 1840. A church edifice was erected in 1855 and was occupied until 1871, when it was considerably enlarged, and rededicated. Rev. A. H. Fletcher is believed to have been the first pastor, coming to the church in 1858. When the church had been in existence about twenty-five years its membership numbered two hundred and eighteen members. In 1892 a very handsome stone church was erected, at a cost of over thirty thousand dollars. Rev. Carlos H. Hanks has been pastor since 1899, and has been remarkably successful in his work. The membership now exceeds five hundred, and all the departments of the church are in a very flourishing condition. CHRIST CHURCH, PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL This parish was organized under the ministrations of the Rev. Thomas B. Dooley and the Rev. Henry Banwell, May 10, 1858. For two years previously, however, clergymen representing the Pontiac, Lansing and Flint churches had visited the people here and held occasional services in the school house and in a public hall. The corner stone of a church edifice was laid September 26, 1859, and the building was consecrated by the bishop of the diocese November 18, 1871. The structure was of brick, with tower, spire, nave and chancel; its dimensions eighty by thirty-six feet, and its interior decorations most beautiful. Completed, it cost ten thousand dollars. Not the least among the attractions of this handsome edifice was a sweet-toned bell of two thou

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 213 H sand pounds, from the foundry of Meneeley & Kimberly, Troy, New York, bearing the following inscription: D. 0. M. 1879 Christ Church Owosso. S. S. Harris, Bishop L. B. Stimson, Rector Et Spiritus et Sponsa Dicunt Veni." Rev. Henry Banwell was the first rector of the parish. The church has in recent years been enlarged and beautified and is in good working condition. Rev. R. 0. Cooper, the rector, is a very earnest and capable pastor and preacher. ST. PAUL S CHURCH, ROMAN CATHOLIC This church was organized in the fall of 1871, with a membership of fifty-one. The church edifice was commenced in 1872 and toofed in December, 1874. It is a fine structure of brick and was first constructed with sittings for five hundred people. By the year 1880 over twenty-three thousand dollars had been expended on the building and it is one of the substantial church buildings in the county. Nine years after its organization one hundred nine families constituted its membership. Rev. J. J. Kraemer served as pastor until the spring of 1877, when he was succeeded by Rev. James Wheeler. The latter was followed by Rev. Father Doman, who in turn was succeeded by the present incumbent, Rev. Father Slane, who became pastor in 1896 and has ministered very successfully to the church. A parochial school was instituted in 1902 and has been very successful. Five teachers are employed and instruction is given in English and commercial courses and music. The school is well attended. THE FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH This church was organized about the year 1856. Little can be learned from its records concerning the history of its organization. Their first house of worship was, like that of several of their sister churches, the frame school house, which eventually became the property of the German Lutheran Church. In 1865 the society built a church edifice, at a cost of nearly five thousand dollars, the same having had a seating capacity of about three hundred. Rev. Seth Reed was among the pastors who served the church in the early years of its existence. The church has had a very successful and useful career, and enjoyed the pastorate of several destinguished and able ministers. The present large and substantial church edifice, erected in 1900, is well adapted to the work. Dr. A. B. Leonard is the present efficient pastor of the church, which has a membership of about eight hundred. ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH This church was organized with thirty-one members March 29, 1889. A Sunday school had been conducted for two years previously by Miles L. Parker and others. Thomas E. Heddle was pastor of the church the first six months, until conference time, when Rev. J. J. Smith was assigned to the charge. In a year the membership numbered one hundred. The church was built in 1890 and enlarged and rearranged in 1896. The church has had a very successful existence, and now has two hundred and thirty members. Rev. John Dystant is the pastor.

214 PAST AND PRESENT OF 214 AST ND RESET O SALEM'S (GERMAN) CHURCH A local body of the Evangelical Association, this church was organized Lby Rev. John M. Houk, April 22, 1862. The first services were held in the dining room of the building now known as the Exchange Hotel, of which at that time Jacob Aberle was proprietor. In the year 1864, under the management of Rev. John Meck, a house of worship with sittings for two hundred people was built, at a cost of twelve hundred dollars. The work of building up a church here commenced, however, on 1858, when the Ohio conference of the Evangelical Association sent as missionaries to this region the Revs. Frederick Zeller and Christopher Roehm. A fine church building was erected in 1895, and a parochial school is successfully conducted. Rev. Theodore Hahn is the pastor. ST. JOHANNES EVANGELICAL CHURCH This society was organized in 1894, a numlVer of progressive Germans of that faith desiring to worship in a church of their denomination. Rev. Christian Spothelf has been the pastor since the organization of the church and has wrought most effectively. The membership now numbers two hundred and fifty, and the church is in a prosperous condition. At the time of organization the church bought the building occupied by the Congregational society, prior to taking possession. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION November 11, 1887, the Owosso Young Men's Christian Association was organized, there being twelve charter members. Officers were elected as follows: President, Edmund 0. Dewey; vice-president, George L. Lusk; secretary, Fred H. Clark; treasurer, Charles S. Ensminger. The second and third floors of the business block at No. 110 North Washington street were leased and fitted up for reading room, library, game room, assembly room, gymnasium, and bath rooms. Emery E. Lohnes was the first general secretary and was succeeded in turn by George T. Campbell, E. C. Van Ness, W. L. Harter and George Swarthout, the last mentioned of whom is now performing the duties of that office. The Association has had a very successful career and the value of the work in behalf of young men cannot be overestimated. The leading business men of the community have supported it generously with their time and means. FRATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS OWOSSO LODGE, NO. 81, F. & A. M. This lodge held its first communication May 2, 1855, under a dispensation granted George C. Monroe, grand master of the state of Michigan. A charter was granted January 10, 1856, and on the same date the following officers were installed: Myndert W. Quackenbush, W. M.; Alfred L. Williams, J. W.; Randolph L. Stewart, treasurer; Charles C. Goodale, secretary; Elisha Leach, S. D.; John B. Barnes, J. D.; and William J. Lyon, tiler. The history of the lodge has been one of continued success, and its membership, which is now about four hundred, has included a large majority of the leading business and professional men of the city. The lodge has purchased a fine building site, corner of Washington and Mason. streets, and expects soon to erect a suitable temple thereon.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 215 SHIA WASSEE COUATTY 215 OWOSSO CHAPTER, NO. 89, R. A. M. began work under a dispensation granted early in the year 1873. A charter was granted January 24, 1874, and on the 17th of February of the same year the first installation of officers took place. The first officers were: Myndert W. Quackenbush, H. P.; Anson B. Chipman, king; Joseph Manning, scribe; George B. Hughes, C. of H.; Franklin B. Smith, P. S.; Richard Chipman, R. A. C.; Henry W. Parker, treasurer; Newton Baldwin, recorder. OWOSSO LODGE, NO. 88, I. O. O. F. This lodge was instituted January 23, 1865, by Special Deputy B. W. Davis. The first officers installed were: Josiah Turner, N. G.; William R. Chipman, V. G.; Henry M. Newcombe, R. S.; P. M. Rowell, P. S.; and F. P. Guilford treasurer. ORIENTAL ENCAMPMENT, NO. 59, I. O. O. F. was instituted September 4, 1893, by A. Ferguson, M. W. G. P. The first officers installed were George W. Loring, C. P.; George R. Black, H. P.; Archibald Robertson, S. W.; William R. Chipman, J. W.; Jacob Aberle, scribe; A. Barkley, treasurer. OWOSSO LODGE, NO. 48, A. O. U. W. This lodge was organized June 4, 1878, in Odd Fellows' Hall, where the first installation of officers took place the same'date. The officers elected were: Welcome L. Farnum, past master workman; William M. Kilpaticdk, master workman; C. McCormick, general foreman; William N. Pool, overseer; L. L. Baker, recorder; Charles E. Hershey, receiver; Benjamin S. Retan, financier; Oscar Wells, guide; Thomas Nelan, inside watchman; John D. Evens, watchman. BENEVOLENT AND PROTECTIVE ORDER OF ELKS Owosso Lodge, No. 753, was organized December. 30, 1901, with one hundred and fifty members. The officers for the first year were: Carl Pickert, exalted ruler; Charles Ellis, esteemed leading knight; Ira G. Curry, esteemed loyal knight; Niel R. Walsh, esteemed lecturing knight; Fred Edwards, secretary; Joe Gerson, treasurer; Charles B. Symes, esquire; Wert Johnson, inside guard; Rev. L. C. McBride, chaplain; Ghent Fox, tyler. The membership increased rapidly, until it now numbers nearly five hundred. The old Merell hotel was purchased in 1903 and modeled into a temple, which is well arranged and commodious. The members are active and enthusiastic in carrying forward the principles of the order. OWOSSO LODGE, NO. 81, KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS was instituted under order of Grand Chancellor Commander E. T. Bennett, May 2, 1887. There were twenty-six applicants for the ranks, twenty-two of whom were present and admitted and charged as knights, after which the following officers were elected: J. M. Terbush, P. C.; C. C. Gregory, C. C.; E. A. Gould, V. C.; Perry Edwards, P. C.; O. A. Merell, K. of R. & S.; E. A. Van Giesen, M. of F.; J. M. Beckwith, M. of E.; R. E. Chipman, M. of A.; George J. Begole, I. G.; S. F. Santhony, O. G. The lodge has had a very prosperous history and occupies spacious rooms. Owosso Company, No. 45, Uniform Rank, the military appendage of the order, is a live organization. Owosso has its full quota of insurance orders, notable among them being Knights of the Modern Maccabees, Knights of the Maccabees of the World, Knights of the

216 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2 Loyal Guard, and the organizations for women identified with the above orders. GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC L. B. Quackenbush Post, No. 205, department of Michigan Grand Army of the Republic, was organized December 21, 1883, with twenty-seven charter members. Officers: Post commander, Andrew J. Patterson, captain Company E, Twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry; senior vice-commander, Mark H. Ridley, first lieutenant Company D, Tenth Michigan Infantry; junior vice-commander, Louis Cheeney, captain Company C, Tenth Michigan Infantry; adjutant, John W. Angel, first lieutenant Company D, One Hundred and Eighteenth New York Infantry; quartermaster, Frank Perkins, private, Company E, Twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry; surgeon, Martin C. Dawes, captain Company E, Twentieth Michigan Infantry; chaplain, Rev. J. Gordon; officer of the day, Edwin Burkhart, private, Company A, Tenth Michigan Infantry; officer of the guard, David F. Blair, private, Company B, Fourth Michigan Cavalry; quartermaster sergeant, Samuel Lamfrom, private, Company K, Tenth Michigan Infantry; comrades,-George W. Oaks, sergeant Company H, Seventh Michigan Infantry; Dennis A. Barnum, quartermaster sergeant, Company L, Third Michigan Cavalry; *Patrick Watters, private. Company H, Fifth Michigan Infantry; *John S. Wilcox, private, Company E, One Hundred and Eighty-ninth New York Infantry; David Shanafelt, private, Company I, Forty-first Illinois Infantry; Grant F. North, sergeant, Company C, First Michigan Infantry; *David Dwight, private, Company E, Twenty ninth Michigan Infantry; *Frederick N. Hopkins, private, Company B, Michigan Engineers; *William H. Boyce, private, Company K, Fourth New York Heavy Artillery; Thomas Nelan, sailor, Mississippi Squadron; *Bruce Buckminister; George W. Loring, captain, Company E, Seventh Ohio Infantry; *Jerome W. Turner, first lieutenant and adjutant, Thirtieth Michigan Infantry; Nicholas Johnson, private, Company D, One Hundred and Twenty-first New York Infantry; Charles L. Paris, private, Company G, Fourteenth New York Heavy Artillery; Edgar P. Byerly, captain, Company H, Tenth Michigan Cavalry; *Jacob B. Hathway, corporal, Company D, First Michigan Cavalry. The total enrollment from date of organization to February 14, 1906, is two hundred and eighty-five. Of this number sixty-eight have died. The present membership is eightynine. Probably more deaths have occurred, but many of the old memlers have dropped out and moved away and the post has lost track of them. The post was named in honor of Captain Louis B. Quackenbusi, who organized Company H, Fifth Regiment Michigan Volunteers. He was killed in the battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, May 31, 1862. The above company was recruited in Owosso and was composed of Owosso's best young men and those of Shiawassee county. WOMAN S RELIEF CORPS L. B. Quackenbush, Woman's Relief Corps, No. 26, auxiliary to L. B. Quackenbush Post, No. 205, Grand Army of the Republic, is a *Deceased.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 217 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 217 flourishing and valued organization. L. B. Quackenbush Post, Grand Army of the Republic, had been organized about a year when its members realized the need of the women, so on December 5, 1884, Woman's Relief Corps, No. 26, was organized as the auxiliary to the post. The object of the organization was to aid in perpetuating the memory of their heroic dead; to assist Union veterans, their widows and orphans; cherish and emulate the army nurses and all loyal women who rendered loving service to our country in its hour of peril; and to inculcate lessons of patriotism and love of country among the children. The first officers of the corps were: Mattie A. Tillotson, president; Sarah A. Wiley, senior vice-president; Martha Ridley, junior vice-president; Lucy Wilcox, secretary; Matilda Boise, treasurer; Nellie Whited, chaplain; Sarah Cheney, conductor. Two hundred and sixty-nine names have been enrolled upon t:he roster of the corps, but many have since removed and twentynine have b;een claimed by death. The present membership is one hundred and sixteen. NEWSPAPERS Little is positively known concerning the pioneer newspaper of Sliawassee county, except that it was first published in Owosso in the year 1839, by Edward L. Ament. Its name was the Shiawassee Express & Clinton Advocate, it having a circulation in Clinton county as well as in Shiawassee. Nothing further is known about this journal. It was probably succeeded by the Owosso Argus, as Mr. Ament began publishing that paper in 1841 and was its proprietor until his death, in 1847. Dr. C. P. Parkhill worked as a compositor on the paper during the first year of its existence. The Argus was published about a year by Ephriam Gould, a son of Daniel Gould, when it was sold to M. H. Clark, who removed it to Corunna and published it there, as the Shiawassee Democrat, until 1856. The Owosso American was established in 1854 bv C. C. and 0. R. Goodell, and through successive changes in both proprietorship and name finally became the Shia wassee American. Charles E. Shattuck was the publisher for a time and was succeeded by Ephriam H. Gould and he in time by John N. Ingersoll, who removed the paper to Corunna in 1862 and changed the name to the Corunna Democrat. May 26, 1880, George W. Owen merged his paper, the Shiawassee Republican, with the American, the paper retaining the latter name. The Owosso Press was launched September 20, 1862, by Benton Halnchett and Gilbert L. Lyon. A year later the plant was purchased by J. H. Champion & Company. In'September, 1890, H. Kirke White acquired the property, and in September, 1900, also purchased the American, which had been converted into a daily about three years previously. Mr. White continued the publication of the daily, changing the name to the Owosso PressAmerican. The paper is an able exponent of the Denlocracy and is ably edited and provided with modern equipment. The Owosso Times was founded in 1879

218 PAST AND PRESENT OF by Lucius E. Gould, who published it first at Vernon, afterward at Bancroft and finally brought the plant to Owosso, where he continued the publication until 1881, when he sold the property to George M. Dewey, Sr., and son, Edmund 0. Dewey. Since the death of the former the business has been successfully conducted by the latter. The Times Printing Company, the name under which the firm does business, erected a fine three-story, brick office building in 1889, at the corner of Main and Park streets. Tile Times has always been stalwart in upholding the faith of the Republican party. The Evening Argus was the first successful venture in the daily field. It was established July 23, 1892, by J. N. Klock and R. C. Eisley, and filled a long-felt want. February 25, 1895, the paper was purchased by George T. Campbell, who has since published it. In the fall of 1895 the two-story, brick building, corner of Exchange and Ball streets, was occupied by the publisher, it having been remodeled and made suitable for the purpose. The Evening Argus advocates Republican principles, and its steady growth in influence in the community eviulences its popularity as a newspaper.

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN PERSONAL AND GENEALOGICAL

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY PERSONAL AND GENEALOGICAL PETER S. ACKERSON Tire quiet annals of the lives of our farming people do not read like an exciting story of adventure, but they form a more substantial foundation for a belief in the present wellbeing and the future prosperity of our nation. We are always pleased to give the details of an industrious, honorable life, which has made the quiet virtues of industry and perseverance shine forth more brightly than before. Such a life was that of the one whose name appears at the head of this sketch. Though not a native of this state, all of his maturer years were connected most closely with its growth and development, and he was one of the honored citizens of Caledonia township. Peter S. Ackerson was born at Phelps, Ontario county, New York, July 9, 1832. He was the son of P. P. and Emma (Hull) Ackerson, natives of New York. The father died at the age of eighty-two years and the mother also at that age, two years after the death of her husband. Our subject acquired his early education in the district schools of his native state and lived on the farm with his parents until he attained to his majority, when he went to California, where, for three years, he was engaged in mining. After this experience he went back to New York and was married to Catherine Evendon. In 1860 they came to Michigan and settled in Caledonia township, on one hundred and sixty acres of 221 land which Mr. Ackerson had bought and which was partly cleared, though it had no buildings. Here he built the primitive dwelling which was his first home in Michigan. To this union four children were Sorn: Archie and Emma, twins, are both married and live in Colorado; Anna is the wife of Floyd Bernet, a grocer of Corunna; and Minnie is now Mrs. Ed. Traphagan, of Linden, Michigan. In February, 1865, the wife and mother of this family died, leaving the four small children. November 1-, 1866, our subject was again married, to Mrs. William Van Dyne, who was born in Maine, November 24, 1842, and who is now living on the old homestead. She is a daughter of Joshua and Hulda (Howard) Lake, natives of Maine, the father having been born in 1810 and the mother in 1811. Mr. Lake was a farmer and removed to New York about 1846, there remaining until 1866, when he moved to Oakland county, Michigan, where he lived until his death, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife died at the age of sixty-three years. Mrs. Ackerson is one of a family of eight children, of whom four are living: Chana Lake lives in Oakland county; Eben lives on the old home in New York; Mrs. Ackerson now resides on the old homestead in Shiawassee county; and Mary is now Mrs. Brown and resides in Oakland county. One brother, Uriah Lake, lived and died in Oakland county and at the time of his death he was supreme president of the Patrons of

222 PAST AND PRESENT OF 222 PAST AND PRESENT OF Industry of North America. He. taught school for twenty-two years in New York. Another brother, George Lake, was a member of the Twenty-second Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry, and died at New Orleans, from exhaustion caused by marching. To Mr. and Mrs. Ackerson were born four children: Arville, now Mrs. L. Baldwin, resides at Corunna, and her husband is a contractor; Ray married Dora Jacobs and lives in Detroit, where he is employed by the Grand Trunk Railroad Company as cashier; George married Carrie Allerton and' lives on a part of the old farm; and Katie is the wife of Roy Bailey, a farmer in Caledonia. From the year 1860 our subject had a continuous residence on the farm, and as he prospered he added to his possessions until he owned three hundred acres of good farming land. In the year 1877 the old house was replaced by a large modern, brick house, which at that time was the finest structure in the township. The large barn was built in 1865. Mr. Ackerson affiliated with the Democracy and filled the offices of justice of peace and highway commissioner for several years. The later years of his life he was in poor health, suffering from sciatic rheumatism, which caused his death. He was buried, 'on the fortieth anniversary of the day upon which he came to this county, in the township cemetery, which was formerly a part of his farm. Mrs. Ackerson has erected a fine monument to the memory of her deceased husband. Although Death has laid his chill hands upon the heart of Mr. Ackerson, there is still living the spirit which marked each act of his daily life with nobility and beauty. JOHN ACKROYD This gentleman is a native of England, as were his parents before him. He was born in Wilsden, Yorkshire, England, February 27, 1855. He is a son of John and Mary (Moore) Ackroyd, both of whom were born in the same place as was their son,-the former April 6, 1827, while the latter was about two years younger Lhan her husband. They were married in England and came to America in 1857, first locating in Hamilton, Canada. The father was a blacksmith and helped to build the first locomotive ever run on the Grand Trunk Railroad. He afterward bought one hundrtd acres of land in Lambton county, Canada, and lived on the same for thirty-seven years. He then sold the farm and has since lived with his children. Our subject's parents are both living and are at present with a daughter in Oklahoma. They became the parents of eight children, seven of whom are living: Jonas was drowned in a water tank in Market Square, Hamilton, when nine years old; Alice married A. H. Whittaker, of Middlebury township; John is the subject of this sketch; Annie married Washington Walker, and they live in Sabetha, Kansas; Eva is Mrs. Fancher, of that place; Lydia married Edgar Belyea and they live in Guthrie, Oklahoma; Martha is Mrs. A. Degen, of Logan, Iowa; and Mary Hannah is Mrs. Winters and lives on the old Winters hGmestead, in Canada. Our subject was educated in the schools of Hamilton and lived with his parents until he was twenty-two years of age. He then came to Michigan and worked by the month for one year on the farm of Andrew Sherman, of Sciota township. After this he worked by the day for several years. In the meantime he bought eighty acres of timbered land, in Midland county, Michigan. He cut some timber off this, but never attempted to clear it up or make a home of it. In 1884 he sold it and bought the forty acres on which he now lives. This land had been chopped over, but was full of stumps and brush when he secured it. He first built a small, square frame house, part of which is still standing. He has improved all the land and has it under a high state of cultiva

SHIAW~ZASSEE COUNVTY 223 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 2~3 tion. Although a small place Mr. Ackroyd works it well and makes it pay, thus illustrating the fact that a small farm well worked is far more profitable than a large one poorly looked after. He does a great deal of what is known as truck farming and also fruit growing. He has added to the original home until it is one of the best in the township. He has a large red barn and other fine buildings, the whole making the place a model one in every respect. This farm was purchased from A. H. Whittaker, his b'rotherin-law, who formerly owned it and also eighty acres on the north. *Mr. Ackroyd was married in 1883 to Orpha Albright, a native of Lincoln county, Canada, where she was born June 5, 1860. Her parents were Isaiah and Barbara Albright. Her father died two years ago and the mother passed away when Mrs. Ackroyd was quite young. The latter is one of a family of seven children, all of whom are living, and she is the only one residing in Shiawassee county. The others are as follows: Henry lives in Kent county, Canada; Mrs. Ackroyd was next in order of birth; Agnes lives in Lambton county, Canada; Joshua lives in Kent county, Canada; John lives in Redlands, California; Joseph resides in Tacoma, Washington; Barbara is now Mrs. iMoore, of Kent county, Canada. Four daughters have been born to, Mrs. and Mr. Ackroyd: Harriet \V., aged nineteen years, is single and is a dressmaker at Denver, Colorado; Mary B. is aged seventeen years and is also at Denver, Cclorado; Jessie' M. is thirteen years old and is at home; and Eva A., the youngest, is at home and has seen but five summers. Mr. Ackroyd, in addition to his farm, possesses eighty acres of unimproved land in Owosso township, utilizing the same for pasture. He has always been a Republican, but aspires to no office. He has been county drain commissioner and school treasurer, having held the latter office twelve years. Both he and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He also belongs to the Grange. The whole life of this gentleman seems to exemplify the words of the English earl: "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." IRA E. ANGUS A good citizen is ready to serve his country both in peace and war, and he does serve it alike, whether upon the battle field or in pursuing his usual vocations and by a life of integrity and industry helping to build up the social and industrial interests of the community in which he lives. The reflection of such a life makes the path straighter before the feet of the young and helps to create a public sentiment in favor of straightforward living and mutual helpfulness which is an advantage to the nation. Among the citizens of Caledonia township none is more truly respected for the record he has made both in peace and war than Ira E. Angus. He was born May 4, 1842, at Tyrone, Livingston county, Michigan, and is the son of Bradley and Mary (Thayer) Angus, natives of the Empire state. Bradley Angus was born in New York in April, 1817, and died on Christmas day of 1904. His wife, Mary, was born in October, 1817, and died February 13, 1889. They were married in the state of New York and came to Michigan in an early day. Their first home was in Livingston county, where they bought eighty acres of wild land, 'and by dint of hard work and a goodly supply of energy they cleared and otherwise improved the place and here dwelt until 1852. About that time they sold this first home and bought eighty acres of wild land in Caledonia township, Shliawassee county, the same being a part of the farm now owned by C. B. Young. Again they cleared up a tract of land, building first a log house and later a frame dwelling, and this was the home until eighteen years ago, when the father sold the farm and moved to Corunna and later to

224 PAST AND PRESENT OF Chesaning, where he met his death on Christmas day. Bradley Angus was a stanch 'Republican, though not a seeker after place or office. Mrs. Angus was a consistent member of the Baptist church and lived her life in accordance with its precepts. Nine children came to bless the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Angus, of whom eight are now living: Charles is a farmer residing in Caledonia; Catherine is the wife of G. W. McLain and lives at Durand; the third is our subject; Henry lives in Caledonia township; Lydia is the wife of T. Long, of Durand; Ed is a resident of Caledonia; Ellen is the wife of B. Bristol, of Traverse City; Emma died in infancy. Ira E. Angus, the sulject of this review, acquired his early education in the district schools of Livingston and Shiawassee counties. Two years after the family came to this county, when our subject was but twelve years of age, he went for himself, working on a farm by the month until the year 1863. Our subject enlisted in the Tenth Michigan Cavalry and for two and one-half years was actively engaged in service for the preservation of the Union. During this time he was wounded several times. At Knoxville, Tennessee, he was shot in the arm by an ounce ball, tearing the muscles of the arm loose, the ball entering the side and really making four distinct wounds; again at Jonesville he was shot in lhe other arm, making a slight wound, and still again at Flat Rock, where he received a saber cut on his head. He was sent home from the hospital, after serving the country in its hour of need. Returning to the peaceful pursuits of farm life, he bought forty acres of wild land where he now lives, and cut the first trees in order to make room for a house. Here he has made his home and as he has been attended by prosperity he has added one hundred and forty acres to the original farm, but has deeded the land to his children, with the exception of eighty acres, which he still retains and manages. Ira E. Angus was married October 8, 1863, to Melinda Young, who was born August 28, 1847, and who is a daughter of Thomas R. Young, who is mentioned elsewhere in this volume, in the record of the life of his son, Albert Young. To Mir. and Mrs. Angus have been born two children,-Triphoena Adelaide, born June 25, 1867, became the wife of Frank Foster, who resides in Caledonia; and Cora, born September, 28, 1885, is the wife of Archie Sherrard, a farmer of Caledonia. In politics Mr. Angus is a Republican, though in no sense an office seeker. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Angus is a man highly spoken of by all who know him and rejoices to commemorate with his comrades the stirring days of the civil war. He is closely allied with the other veterans, on account of their having served their country together in time of trial. EDMOND B. ANTHONY The man who can conduct a paying business, whether large or small, at the present time, when competition is great and profits small, would succeed in politics or the professions. The time is past when a man can sit down in his store, transact business with a few customers, sell any kind of goods which he may have in stock, make one hundred per centum profit on each article sold, and in a few years acquire sufficient means to keep him comfortably for the rest of his life. The business man of to-day, if he keeps his head above water, must exercise all the ability used by a statesman or philosopher. The subject of this sketch, Edmond B. Anthony, of Henderson, was born in Oakland county, Michigan, on the 16th of November, 1876. He is a son of A. E. Anthony, who is a respected farmer of Genessee county. His father was born in Oakland county, Michigan, in the year 1854. His mother,

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 225 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 225 Elizabeth (Compton) Anthony, was born in England and is still living with her husband at their home in Genessee county. Of the two children the subject of this sketch is the older. His brother, Alden J. Anthony, is unmarried and is at present engaged in the coal business at Lennon, Shiawassee county, Michigan. Edmond B. Anthony was educated in the district schools of Genessee county, and by spending the last two years of his school life in the city of Detroit. At the age of seventeen years he commenced his business career,-clerking in a grocery store at Lennon, Michigan. He followed this avocation for three years and then commenced working in a drug store at Mount Rose, where he stayed one year. He then went to Saginaw, Michigan, and took charge of a branch drug store for J. Smith & Son. He managed this business successfully for almost four years, and in May, 1901, after resigning his position with the firm for which he was working, he came to Henderson and purchased the store which he now owns. The stock at that time would not compare with the present one Mr. Anthony possesses. At the time he purchased it there were but few goods and part of them were old and out of date and would not compare in quality with the fine new goods which he has on hand. In connection with the drugs which he carries, he also has a full line of stationery, cigars and tobaccos. The same year in which he started in business for himself he married Bessie Cronkhite, of Venice township. She was born October 11, 1880, being a daughter of T. L. Cronkhite and Mrs. (Giddley) Cronkhite, estimable and well-to-do people of Venice township. Her mother died a few years ago. Mrs. Anthony was the youngest of three children, the oldest being Celia, now the wife of James Buchanan, of Detroit. The second child died in infancy. There has been one child born to subject and his wife, but they were so unfortunate as to lose it in its infancy. 16 Mr. Anthony was elected town clerk by the Republican party in 1904 and filled the office with his usual good judgment and business ability. He is a member of the lodges of Maccabees and Modern Woodmen. His past business career leaves but little doubt that he will continue to succeed. CATHARINE A. APPLEMAN This lady is one of the substantial pioneers of Shaftsburg. She is a native of Woodhull township, where she was born April 14, 1855, before the village mentioned had a corporate existence. Her father, Jeremiah A. Van Riper, was born in the Empire state, June 27, 1823. His parents were Andrew and Kate (Dubois) Van Riper, natives of New Jersey. With them he came to Michigan, the family locating on eighty acres of government land in Lodi township, Washtenaw county. A house and barns were built upon this tract and other improvements made upon it prior to its sale, in 1848. In that year the family residence was transferred to Woodhull township, where Mr. Van Riper had bought three hundred and twenty acres of timbered land from the government. Before his death he added two hundred and forty acres to the original purchase, deeding to Jeremiah A. Van Riper one hundred and sixty acres, part of which tract was improved, and eighty acres of partly improved land to each of his sons-in-law,-J. A. Harper and George Colby. The father of our subject was fundamentally educated in the district schools, and was subsequently graduated in the Saginaw Valley School of Medicine, locating at Hawley, Oakland county. After residing there two years, however, he returned to Woodhull township, where he made his headquarters, but traveled through the country treating his patients chiefly with medicines prepared from herbs and roots. He also sold preparations compounded by himself. November 19, 1847, the doctor in

226 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2 P AND PS OF... -... jected a tinge of romance into his life, and romance, 'tis said, "is the poetry of literature." In this connection we might add that, Lord Byron, who had as much romance in his experience as any man who ever lived, says: Parent of golden dreams, Romance! Auspicious queen of childish joys, Who lead'st along, in airy dance; Thy votive train of girls and boys., As we said, the doctor injected a tinge of romance into his life on the date mentioned,by leading to the hymeneal altar a lady from New York state, who, as an infant, had been rocked,-not "in the cradle of the deep"-but in the same order of domestic cradle as had the gentleman in question, J. A. Van Riper. The fruits of this marriage were two children,-Andrew B. Van Riper and Catharine A., the latter being the immediate subject of this sketch. The former was born in Woodhull township, where Shaftsburg now stands; was educated in the district schools, and when twenty-three years old began life as an independent farmer on the old Thompson homestead, of eighty acres. August 24, 1874, he married Alice R. Baker, of Hawley, and lby her had a family of five children, concerning whom record is here entered: Myron A. Van- Riper, who was born October 16, 1877, in Woodhull township, and who married Pearl Hoag, is a farmer, owning forty acres in section 13, and is the father of two children,-Munroe, born March 16, 1901, and Arthur Wayland, born September 21, 1904. J. C. Van Riper, who was born April 13, 1889, in Woodhull township, and who is now a boot and shoe merchant in Shaftsburg, married Myra Shaft and has one son, Wayne, born May 15, 1903. Andrew J. Van Riper, Jr., who was born May 25, 1883, married Mary Towsley, of, Shaftsburg, in July, 1902, and died the following August. Pearl S. Van Riper, who was born June 23, 1886, was graduated from the Shaftsburg school in June, 1903, and is now living at home. Archie Van Riper, who was born June 23, 1886, is a student, living at home. Mrs. Appleman was the second child of J. A. Van Riper, whose death occurred March 24, 1901. He was a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was much respected for the probity of his life. The maiden name of Mrs. Appleman's mother was Julia Ann Southwell, and she was a native of New York state, where she was born June 12, 1838. When a child of six years she came to Michigan with her parents, who settled in Lodi township, Washtenaw county. There her father had purchased one hundred and sixty acres, which he subsequently improved. The eight children of the family were as follows: (1) Ezra Southwell, born in New York state; married Harriet Bradley, in Lodi, and both are now deceased. He was proprietor of a farm in Ingham county. Two children survive the parents. (2) Harriet, a native of New York state, became the wife of James Cook, of Lodi, later a farmer of Jackson county. She was the mother of four children, of whom Martha is the only one living, her home being in Omaha, Nebraska; parents dead. (3) Eunice, born in the Empire state, married Andrew Stevens, of Lodi, who moved to Woodhull and bought one hundred and twenty acres of partly improved land; was the mother of seven children, one of whom, Annie Walker, lives on the homestead in Woodhull township; parents dead. The names of the others living are Philander, Sarah Burpree, Jane Kelly, and Josephine. (4) Martha, born in New York state; married Solomon Burlingame, of Lodi, who settled on a partly improved farm -in Woodhull and later removed to Laingsburg, where he died in 1901, and where his widow still lives. She is the mother of three children. (5) Cyrus, born in New York state; married Electa Cook, in Lodi, but removed thence to the village of Grass Lake; four children in the family; both parents dead. (6) Mother of our subject. (7) Eliza, who

JOHN APPLEMlAN MRS. CATHARINE A. APPLEMAN

I

SHIAPVASSEE COUNTY 229 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 229 died at about two years of age, in New York state. (8) Mary, born in New York state; married Daniel Tuttle in Lodi, who removed to Woodhull, where he purchased a farm. They now reside at Perry, retired from the farm. Their daughter, Etha, lives on the old homestead with her husband, John Van Warner. The subject of this sketch, Mrs. Appleman, received her early education in the schools of Shaftslzurg. December 31, 1870, she was married to Jerome S. Ordway. One daughter, Alice A., was the result of this union, and she was born January 1, 1874, in Shaftsburg. This daughter married William E. Sear, of Mason, May 14, 1902; he is now in the meat business at Flint, Michigan. Mrs. Appleman was married the second time in December, 1900, at Shaftsburg, where she was united to John Appleman, a substantial citizen of that place. He was a member of the Congregational church and the Order of Maccabees. He died December 19, 1904. The father of our subject was the eldest of four children. Next to him in age was his sister Ann, who was born in New York state in 1830, and who became the wife of James Harper, of Lodi; removed thence to Woodhull, in 1848, locating with the family on eighty acres of government land, in section 22, which had been taken up by her father, Andrew J. Van Riper. There were four children in the family, of whom Andrew Harper, who was born in Woodhull, lives on the old homestead, his wife being Mary Marsh, a daughter of Joshua Marsh, of Shaftsburg. Benjamin Van Riper, the third child in the family, was a native of Lodi, a farmer; he married Eliza Tower, of Woodhull. They were the parents of two children, of whom Emma is deceased. The son, Frank, is married, has nine children and lives on the old homestead, in Byron, with his widowed mother. Of his children, Ella died young and Della, born in Byron, married John Williams, proprietor of a livery stable in Byron, and is the mother of two children. The fourth of the family of children, of which Mrs. Appleman's father was the eldest, was Rachel, born in Lodi, and the wife of George M. Colby, a Woodhull farmer who owns eighty acres of improved land on section 22. They have two children,-Charles A. Colby, farmer, with one son, George; the daughter, Elizabeth, married Enoch H. Carl, who is proprietor of eighty acres in section 36; their daughter, Hazel, is attending school at Shaftsburg. Mrs. Appleman has always been a resident of Shaftsburg. In fact, she is a part and parcel of the little village. Although the owner of the old homestead of eighty acres, she has been living with her mother, Mrs. Julia A. Van Riper, in that village, where she is held in the highest esteem for her good works and noble deeds. She is an active and leading member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Van Riper died June 19, 1905, aged 77 years. Who does the best that circumstances allow, Does well, acts nobly; angels could do no more. DANIEL ARTHUR The people of the state of Michigan owe much to the men who have developed the agricultural resources, raising the standard of grain and vegetable, of live stock and fruit, erecting beautiful buildings and making their farms attractive as well as profitable. Daniel Arthur, of section 14, Rush township, is one of the men who is entitled to credit for adding his share to the advanced and more prosperous condition of the farmer. He was born at White Lake, in Oakland county, Michigan, on the 12th of October, 1859, being the youngest child of a family of nine. His father, Robert Arthur, was born in Pennsylvania, January 17, 1813, and died in Clinton county, Michigan, in 1874. His mother previous to her marriage was a Miss Martha White, and she likewise was born in

230 PAST AND PRESENT OF 23Q PAST AND PRESENT OF Pennsylvania. She was a few years younger than her husband, to whom she was married in the state of Pennsylvania. She died November 25, 1891. Shortly after Mr. Arthur's father and mother were married they moved to Oakland county, Michigan, where they resided for several years, after which they moved to Woodhull township, Shiawassee county. Here they purchased a farm of eighty acres, unimproved, almost in a state of nature. The father lived on this farm only about four years, when he died, and the family was unfortunately broken up, the mother going to live with her children. The brothers and sisters of Mr. Arthur are: Eliza, wife of James Morris, lives with her son in Ovid; Katherine, wife of Job Sexton, lives in Victor, Clinton county; Samuel, lives in Burns township; Elizabeth J., died at the age of nineteen years; Martha Ann is the wife of Charles Webb, residing at the city of Lansing; Mrs. Andrew Fillinger resides at the village of Henderson; Morris resides at Perry; and Lydia is the wife of Van Velzor, residing in Clinton county. After the death of his father, Mr. Arthur commenced work on a farm by the month. He was but fourteen years of age, but though only a boy, the courage was in him that marks his manhood, and he was not only able to take care of himself but also to get a fair start in the world. At the age of twenty-one he was united in marriage with Harriet Gardner, the second child of George Gardner, of Saginaw. Mrs. Arthur has the following named brothers and sisters: Jane Gardner; William Gardner, of Eaton county; Rosella Black, of Clinton county; and Mrs. Ida Miller, of Ovid. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur were married July 5, 1880. Shortly after his marriage Mr. Arthur purchased fifty acres of partly improved land, in Clinton county. He lived there about three years, and then disposed of his land and came to Rush township, Shiawassee county, where he purchased fifty acres of improved land, on section 11. This farm he sold in a short time and pur chased his present farm of eighty acres. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur have had seven children born to them and all are living. The oldest, Lena, is the wife of E. W. Convis; Edith, bHorn October 31, 1886, is now Mrs. Baker, of Henderson; Alta, who was sixteen years old in August, 1904, is living at home; Nina, who was fourteen years of age in October, 1904, is living at home; Fern is nine years old since February, 1904; Lou is five years old since December 21, 1905; and Master George was two years old on the 7th of April, 1905. Mr. Arthur in politics is a Democrat, and has been honored by his fellow townsmen, who have twice elected him clerk, once treasurer, and justice of the peace. He has always been a farmer except for a short time when he was engaged in the hardware business at Oakley. He is a stockholder in the Henderson Butter Companvy a member of the Maccabee Lodge, of which he is chaplain, and a member of the Methodist church. His postoffice address is Henderson. ELMER S. ATHERTON Elmer S. Atherton, a prosperous lawyer of Durand, was born in Genessee county, Mfichigan, on the 11th of September, 1870. He is the third of four children, his parents being E. R. and Alice (Holmes) Atherton. His father, a farmer, is a native of the Empire state, and his mother is an English woman by birth. Elmer S. received his primary education in the county of his birth, in the schools of Gaines and Fenton, afterward pursuing his professional studies in the office of Judge Frackelton, in the latter village. He was admitted to the bar in 1894, locating at Durand in November of that year, and has since established a substantial and lucrative practice. He is a progressive Republican and has acceptably filled the office of township clerk and village attorney of Durand. He is also a member of the board of educa

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 231 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 23 tion. Mr. Atherton is still comparatively a young man, and other honors and public preferments are unquestionably in store for him. He is actively identified with various secret and benevolent societies, being a member of the Masonic order, Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen and Foresters. In religious belief he is a Congregationalist, and, all-in-all, is a representative of the best type of the modern professional man. Our subject was married in March, 1896, to Miss Lura Curry, whose father, L. V. Curry, was a well known and respected pioneer of Fenton. ELIJAH F. BABCOCK The subject of this memoir was engaged in general farming at the time of his death, but for many years, in partnership with his brother, he conducted the largest saw mill in the county, doing a very extensive business with the Michigan Central Railroad. He was born in Monroe county, New York, on the 20th of May, 1832, and was a son of Orrin and Elmira (Feree) Babcock. Our subject's mother was born in Pennsylvania, but father and son were natives of the same county, and there his parents were also married, on July 7, 1831. Elijah was the elder of the two children, his brother, Neuman B. Babcock, having been born November 4, 1836. The two were in business until the death of the latter. Neuman left two children, his wife's maiden name being Ada Smith. The father lived in Monroe county until about twenty-five years ago, when he came, fwith his wife, to Michigan to live with our subject, with whom both resided for the remainder of their lives. When Ortin Babcock left New York he was the oldest settler in his township. Elijah F. Babcock received his education in the district schools of New York state and at the Albion Academy, where he pur sued some of the higher branches. By dint of industry and intelligent management he was able to lay aside enough money after the civil war to venture west with his brother. During the last two years of the Rebellion he was employed by the government in building bridges and repairing railroads. While engaged in this line of work he was called to Richmond, Virginia, to assist in building various bridges which had been burned by the Confederates. He was a warm admirer of Lincoln, and had the satisfaction of listening to the last speech ever delivered by the martyred president. 'Originally a Whig, and a supporter of Henry Clay, after the formation of the Republican party he was invariably found in the ranks as a faithful voter, but never as an office seeker. In 1866 our subject came to Michigan with his brother and located on the place where he resided at time of death. Between them they purchased nine eighty-acre tracts, all wild lands, and established a saw mill. At that time there were no buildings upon the land, Elijah erecting the present frame house. The brothers finally operated both a saw mill and a heading mill, and for many years the Michigan Central Railroad was their largest customer. At one time every stick of timber used in constructing the line from Laingsburg to Jackson was supplied from the Babcock Brothers' mill, which also furnished the timber for the first "Blue Line" cars operated oin that road; it not only furnished long timbers for the Michigan Central cars but also the material for the bridges. The saw mill business was very profitable, but with the death of his brother and his own advancing years, Mr. Babcock decided upon retiring from it and devoting himself to general farming. Of the original tract purchased for agricultural purposes, the brothers cleared two hundred and forty acres, and of this amount our subject was the proprietor of one hundred and twenty acres, when he was called to eternal rest. In January, 1880, Elijah F. Babcock was

232 PAST AND PRESENT OF 232 PAST AND PRESENT OF united in marriage to Miss Eva V. Berry, a native of California, born January 31, 1854. She is a daughter of Wilmot W. and Louisa S. (Phelps) Berry, her parents coming to Michigan from the 'state of Maine about 18663. Her father still resides in Sciota township. Mrs. Babcock's maternal grandfather, Selwin Phelps, was one of the early Shiawassee county pioneers, her mother being a native of that county. Mrs. Babcock is the first of five children. The second is Ida, who married E. D. Lewis, of Perry, and is the mother of one child, Beulah. Walter, the third born, married Annette Houghton, and they have one child, Wilmot. The fourth child died in infancy. Louisa S., now Mrs. AlIen, is the mother of two children, Bert and Beulah, and resides in Detroit. To our subject and wife one child was born, Julia G., who is the wife of Herbert See and the mother of one child, Eveline, born September 22, 1904. Their son-in-law and his family live on the old homestead. Mr. Babcock died October 11, 1905. He was a natural mechanic and was the inventor of several devices in common use today. He was the first man to use a threshing machine with belt power. Naturally modest and reserved, few knew his wvdrth and ability. He seemed to understand intuitively machinery of any kind, and he often helped out neighbors and others when their mechanical devices went wrong. He will be remembered as an exemplary, upright citizen, just and honest in all his dealings. FREDERICK BAESE This gentleman hails from the land which gave to the world Frederick the Great, Marshall Blucher, Bismarck, Von Moltke, Von Schiller, Goethe, Richter, Mozart, Beethoven, Humboldt and Copernicus,-all great men in their various spheres, and all men who laid their indelible impress upon the pages of history, greatly adding to the fame of the nation which claims them as her own rich heritage. Frederick Baese, a substantial farmer of Bennington township, was born in Mecklenburg, Germany, April 11, 1828. He bears the name of his father, who was also a native of the Fatherland, where he was born in 1799, and,where he died in 1846; the maiden name of our subject's mother was Mosicky, and she died when her son Frederick was but two years old. His father, who was a farmer, married for his second wife Christina Brand, and he passed his entire life not far from his native place. -Mr. Baese is one of four children, having one sister, one half-sister and one half-brother, but he alone founded a home in America. After his marriage, in October, 1853, he set sail with his wife, from Hamburg, for the United States, their passage being aboard an old freighter which had been transformed into a sailing vessel for passengers, who, upon this occasion, numbered two hundred and twenty. The crew was composed of Americans, but only three of these, two sailors and the cook, could speak German. Six weeks passed before land was sighted and these were weeks of lonesomeness and dreariness. The captain himself, who had been taken sick, was brought upon the deck when the' lookout reported land ahead, and, after taking the bearings of the ship, announced his belief that it was Newfoundland. After continuing the voyage another three weeks, however, the New York harbor came into view, nine weeks and three days having thus been spent in crossing the ocean. When Mr. Baese landed in the metropolis he had one hundred dollars United States money, although he did not know the value of a single piece which he possessed or how to change one denomination into another. Except his wife and her brother he did not have a relative or known friend in the United States, and, to add 'to his dismal condition, before leaving New York he was seized with chills and fever. In a little while his money

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 233 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 233 was all gone and he was sixty dollars in debt to a physician. His cure came unexpectedly, however, through an instinctive and intense craving for water, which he used freely, and thus recovered. A few weeks afterward he removed to Buffalo and for five years found employment with a railroad company there. In 1858 he became a permanent resident of Michigan. He spent one year in Oakland county and three in Genesee county before settling in Bennington township, March 11, 1862. His first location was two miles east of his present residence, where he bought forty acres of land, about twenty of which he cleared, improving the same to the extent of a log house and barn. This tract remained his homestead for eleven years, during which time his buildings were destroyed by fire and rebuilt. Our subject then purchased the farm of eighty acres which he still owns. Although he has not added to its size he has made mnany improvements upon it. About twenty acres of the original piece was improved, having a log house and barn. In 1881 he built a large barn, in 1885 a commodious residence, and in 1892 another house. The last named structure was intended to accommodate a tenant, but proved to be so convenient that he has made it his own home. The entire eighty acres is now improved, with the exception of a wood lot; the farm is free from encumbrance, which it has always been, and in his declining years Mr. Baese has the satisfaction of realizing that his industry, economy and sound business sense, as well as his strict honesty, have enabled him to achieve an honorable place in the community. Mr. Baese's first wife died February 22, 1875, leaving him with a family of eight children. Within a year he married Caroline (Samuel) Rarn, a widow with two children,-Caroline and Minnie. Both of these are now married and living in Owosso. His second wife is still living, at the age of seventy-three years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Baese are in excellent health. To Mr. Baese eight children were born by his first wife: Herman, a native of the Empire state, was born in 1854, is married and is living on a farm in Nebraska; Mary, born in 1854, is the wife of Newton Hutchings, and is a resident of the state of Washington; Charles, born in 1861, is married and is a farmer of Benniligton township; William, born in 1862, is a farmer, is married and is located at Elsie, Michigan; Pauline, born in 1864, is now Mrs. Charles Green, of Bennington, Michigan; Franklin is a farmer of Bennington; Jennie is Mrs. Trask, of Benton Harbor, Michigan; Fred R., who was born in 1874, joined the United States army and during the SpanishAmerican war, on the way to Cuba, he disappeared and has not been heard from since. Mr. Baese regrets that he cast his first vote for James Buchanan, as he has since been an ardent member of the Republican party. He has never been a candidate for office, however, although his friends have often urged him to accept various nominations. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist church and are universally esteemed. ALEXANDER M. BAILEY Alexander M. Bailey is a native of Canada, having been born in Yarmouth township, Ontario, March 9, 1840. His father was Richard Bailey, who was born in Lower Canada, in 1803, and who died in 1890; his wife, Theressa (Flowers) Bailey, was a New Yorker by birth. They were married in Canada and removed from Lower to Upper Canada. In 1846 Richard Bailey found his way to New York, where he bought a farm of one hundred acres and where he lived three years. He then sold out and returned to Canada, where he bought a farm of seventy acres near London, and where he remained for three years. He then sold and removed to Macomb county, Michigan, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres

234 PAST AND PRESENT OF 23 PATADPEETO of improved land. This was in 1851. He kept that farm until 1856, when he sold and returned to the same location in Canada where he had previously lived, there buying three hundred and twenty acres, one hundred and fifty acres being covered with pine timber. He owned that for nine months and then sold the same and bought one hundred and twenty acres. He lived on the latter place four years, when he sold and bought again near there. He did not keep this long, however, but sold out and returned to Michigan. After Lincoln's election to the presidency, in 1860, his face was again turned towards his native heath, where he lived most of the time afterward, meanwhile lumbering in Michigan. At the time of his death he owned seventy acres and a grist mill. Alexander M. Bailey started for himself at the age of twenty-six years. He worked his father's farm in Canada. In 1867 he removed to Oakland county, Michigan, and rented a farm of three hundred acres for eight months. He afterward bought eighty acres at Oxford, in the same county, twenty acres of this being improved. He cleared twenty acres, and sold the property in 1870. He then located in Hazelton township, where he started a grocery store, which he conducted for three years. He then bought eighty acres on section 5, all of which was wild. He built a shanty, and has cleared all of this land. Later he added twenty acres and sold forty. He then removed to Tuscola county, where he bought eighty acres, clearing fifteen acres of the same; he finally sold it and returned to Hazelton, when he was forced to take back his farm, which he had sold on contract. He has since lived there. In 1886 Mr. Bailey was married to Melvina Campbell, who was born in Canada, October 31, 1846. Her parents, George and Ann Campbell, removed to Lapeer county, Michigan, in 1866; there they bought seventy acres of improved land. They lived there three years, then sold and went to Oxford township, Oakland county, where they bought a seventy-five-acre farm, all improved; they sold this, however, and located in Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, buying forty acres. This the father finally sold, and after the death of his wife he lived with his children. Our sulbject's wife was one of seven children. James, deceased, married and had five children; Mary, who lives in Flint, married John Connell and had five children; Martha, who lives at Rochester, married John Hawkins, and they have six children; Menderna and Melvina were twins; John, who lives in Easton, Michigan, married Joanna Wilson, and they have one child. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Alexander M. Bailey: Wilson G., born March 18, 1866, lives at Lothrop, Michigan, being a mail carrier; he married Minnie Wilson and they have two children, Jay and Josie; Edwin A., born April 9, 1868, lives on a farm; he married Hattie Falls, and they have two children, Ernest and Alrin Leslie. Mr. Bailey now owns a forty-acre farm, on section 5, Hazelton township. He is a Democrat in politics and is recognized as one of the industrious and progressive farmers of the township. He has never been a seeker for place or preferment but rather a modest worker in the ranks. He is an active Granger and an enthusiastic Maccabee. In short Mr. Bailey is a good citizen and a successful farmer, being highly esteemed by his neighbors. E. HERBERT BAILEY, M. D. The standing of a right-minded and skillful physician in an intelligent community is one of great honor and repute, but it is one which must be attained through years of hard labor and conscientious pursuit of the work which has been presented. No one knows better than a physician how true it is that a man who would obtain a good standing in

SHIA1WASSEE COUNTY 235 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 235 his profession must work hard and devote himself unflinchingly to duty through all the years of his career. Negligence on the part of the physician is criminal, and is justly considered unprofessional, while the devotion of his best knowledge and highest powers to every case which comes to his hands is only his duty. Such devotion has brought Dr. Bailey to the foremost rank among the physicians of Corunna, which city is proud to claim him as one of her prominent citizens. Dr. Bailey is a Canadian by birth, having been born in the province of Ontario, November 20, 1858. He is the son of Samuel R. and Mary (Long) Bailey, also natives of Canada. The father was born October 28, 1837, and the mother in Toronto, May 14, 1840. They are now residents of Guelph, Canada, the father being a toolmaker and being now engaged in the work of his trade. Our subject was the oldest of five children, the others being: Erminie, who is the wife of Rev. G. J. Powell, superintendent of missions at Fargo, North Dakota; Ernest, who is a resident of New York City; Annie Ethel, who is the wife of Arthur Gausby, a chemist of Cleveland, Ohio; Gertrude, who is at home, being a teacher in the schools of Guelph, Canada. Dr. Bailey attended the Toronto public schools until eleven years of age, thereafter pursuing his studies in a collegiate institute at Guelph for eight years. He taught in the Wellington county schools for one year, and finally was graduated in the Ottawa Normal School, in the class of 1880. After this he went back and was principal of a school in Wellington county. He matriculated in a medical college at Toronto in 1881, and he was graduated in the medical college in the year 1884. After this he came to Corunna and has since given his undivided attention to the practice of his chosen profession. June 5, 1887, Dr. Bailey was united in marriage to Bertha Malcolm, who was born September 17, 1866. Mrs. Bailey is a daughter of Dr. J. R. and Saphronia Malcolm, both of whom were natives of Scotland, Ontario. The father died ten years ago at the age of fifty-five years, and the mother is now living with Mrs. Bailey, at the age of sixty-one years. Our subject's wife was one of two children, the other one having died in infancy. Dr. and Mrs. Bailey have one child, Herbert, Born July 7, 1895. Both our subject and wife are prominently identified with the Order of the Eastern Star. Their influence for good is felt in the community and they are loved and respected for their sterling character and uprightness of their lives. The Doctor is a member of the Masonic order, is a charter member of the lodge of Elks at Owosso, a member of the Maccabees at Corunna, and is also allied with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Dr. Bailey takes an intelligent interest in public movements but is not in politics, as he prefers to devote his time and thought to his professional duties. JOHN BARKER John Barker is a native of Cayuga county, New York, and was born April 13, 1838. He is a son of Orlando Barker, a Vermonter, who died at the age of forty-four years, in New York state, and of Catherine (Eadie) Barker, who was born in Mohawk county, New York, and who died in the same state at the age of seventy-four years. The subject of this sketch was quite young when his father died. It was necessary for him, therefore, to begin work at an early age, to help support the rest of the family,-a labor of love he did manfully, thus giving practical evidence of his duty to his widowed mother, who was enabled to exclaim, "Thanks to the gods! my boy has done his duty." He remained at home until twenty-two years of age, when he began working on the Erie canal, thus continuing for three years. In 1855 he came to Michigan, and worked in

236 PAST AND PRESENT OF saw mills near Dearborn, about nine years. While there he was married to Harriett Bemiss, in 1857. She was born in Shiawassee county, December 14, 1840. Her parents, the names of whom she cannot give, were early settlers of that county. Mrs. Barker is now dead. She had six children, two of whbm died in infancy: Albert, who was born March 1, 1864, married Carrie Dean, and they live in Saginaw county, having two children; Nettie, born October 2, 1866, married John Spitlee, and they live in Rush township; Frank, born September 15, 1868, married Lillie Davis and they live in Genesee county, where he is a farmer, their children being five in number; Lester, born September 30, 1880, is single and is at home. In 1864, Mr. Barker came to Rush township and bought forty acres of land, five acres of which had been plowed, and a log house had been built. The country was then in its primitive state, all woods and few neighbors. Mr. Barker has since bought forty acres adjoining his first purchase, and has cleared it all, the whole being now under a high state of cultivation. He has a large brick house, built twelve years ago. For two years he occupied the log house found on the place when he bought it. He then built another log structure. This he lived in until twelve years ago, when he removed from the old into the new. He has fine barns and other buildings. His son Lester lives at home and assists in working the place. He bought eighty acres of wild land in Saginaw county, and this he has had converted into a good farm; his son Albert lives on the same. Mr. Barker has always been engaged in general farming, and for several years dealt quite extensively in sheep and cattle. He is a Republican in politics, but has never been an office-seeker, nor held any office save that of a member of the school board. He served on the board of review of his township for 1904. He formerly attended the Baptist church, but is not a member. He is a member of the Grange. His grandfather, Christopher. Eadie, was a soldier in the Mexican war. Mr. Barker's father owned a farm of thirty-five acres in New York state, where he always lived. He was a Whig in politics. L. W. BARNES The gentleman whose name heads this sketch lives on section 26, Burns township, and is the proud son of a father, Ezra D. Barnes, of whom he has reason to be proud, because he was a man of sterling character, of push, of energy, of affairs, of results; and results are everything in this life. As the great Carlyle has said: "Everywhere in life the true question is not what we gain but what we do." The pioneers of a country, especially a timbered country like Michigan, achieved results in felling the mighty forests of this state and making it what it is to-day. Few men did more in this line than Ezra D. Barnes, and no pioneer of Shiawassee county has left a better record,-a more lofty monument. Mr. Barnes settled four miles southwest of Burns in 1836, about seventy years ago, and secured from Uncle Sam four hundred acres of virgin land, covered by a dense forest. What a Herculean task to undertake the work of reducing the forest into a cultivated, stumpless farm! He first built a shanty and several years afterward a log house was added, when he moved from the old house into the new, and in those days a good log cabin was considered an up-to-date luxury,-a veritable home in the wilderness! In 1850-51 a large frame house was made to adorn the farm. This, indeed, was a substantial evidence of prosperity and of the onward march of progress. When this sturdy pioneer died he was the happy possessor of two hundred and twenty acres. And these broad acres had been awarded the premium as constituting the best farm in Shiawassee county. This, indeed, was a distinction to be

SHIS WASSEE COU1NTY 237 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 237 proud of. Here were the actual results of hard toil and a high order of good j udgment. Yea, it was in keeping with one of the great laws of nature, for All things journey, sun and moon, Morning, noon and afternoon; Night and all her stars, 'Twixt the east and western bars Round they journey, Come and go! We go with them. The father of our subject was married, in New York state, to Sally Durkee, and they had two children when they removed to Michigan, and later several others were born to them. After the death of his first wife he married Mary Whitcomb, by whom he had one child, but this wife also died. His third wife was Sarah (Mattoon) Barnes, our subject's own mother, who died in 1877, one year after her husband. To the third marriage there were born five children,-L. W., Hattie C., Oscar P., Lester C., and J. F. The last named still resides on the old homestead. Ezra D. Barnes was active in politics and had filled nearly all the offices in the township. He was also one of the originators of the Shiawassee County Insurance company. Our subject was born February 10, 1852. He started his bark in 1873 to navigate life's journey "on his own hook," so to speak. This was after he had passed his twenty-first birthday. He then leased his father's farm on shares, without a dollar in his pocket. Three years afterward, September 27, 1876, he was married to Ella Barnum, a daughter of Isaac Barnum. She was born in 1858, on the farm where she now lives. He built a new house and while absent at Howell, after new furniture, his father suddenly died, although apparently in good health when he went away. Not long after this his mother, while engaged in sweeping, fell to the floor and soon expired. Our subject and his brother then formed a copartnership and were known as L. W. & 0. P. Barnes. They engaged in general farming but made a specialty of handling merino sheep, shorthorn cattle and Poland-China hogs. They exhibited their stock all over Michigan, including the Detroit exposition, and sold it in South America and in nearly all the states and Canada. The largest sale made went to Australia. This business venture proved successful but during the Cleveland panic things with them fell pretty flat, as they did all over the country. In 1891 Oscar fell from a windmill and was killed, leaving a wife and two children. The unfortunate man was aged thirty-four years. Deceased was a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and had just paid his first assessment. He left his wife two thousand dollars insurance, besides other property, making his family comfortable. Nine children have blessed the home of Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Barnes, namely: Earl, who was educated in the Byron school, went from farm to Boston where he remained fourteen months on the Trades Journal of Domestic Engineering, after which he was advanced to the office in New York city; he taught school before going to Boston; Alfred L., a successful farmer, married Nora Boyce, on Christmas day of 1904; Clara A. married Frank Skinner; and Lillie is the wife of George Skinner, a farmer and a brother of Frank; 0. Milan is a farmer in Burns township; Riley C. follows clerical work; Alger B. is in school; as are also Grace and Burnice. In politics Mr. Barnes is a pronounced Republican, and he has been a member of the executive committee of the State Agricultural Society. He is also a Mason and is the second officer in his lodge. He is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees of which he was commander for five years; is a patron of the Order of the Eastern Star and a Granger. Besides all this, he is, as already remarked, an honorable and popular citizen, and has the right to be, because he sprung from good stock.

238 PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLEN BEARD This gentleman, now in the "land beyond the skies," had the honor of being among the first white settlers in Antrim township. He was a native of Ontario county, New York, where he first saw the light of day on the 11th of January, 1810. He was a son of Joshua Beard, who was born in Maryland, February 8, 1787, and who died March 21, 1861. Martha (Blake) Beard, mother of the subject of this sketch, was born in Saratoga county, New York, August 9, 1790. Our subject remained at home until reaching his majority, when he was married to Hannah Arnet, the event taking place March 10, 1831. He began for himself by farming on shares, continuing this for one year, when he sold his interest and with three hundred dollars started for the west "to grow up with the country." He first went to Lake county, Ohio, and remained there eighteen months, then starting for Michigan. April 25, 1836, he reached Lodi, Washtenaxv county, and on the 28th of the following May arrived in Antrim township, his final objective point; for it was here that he rested his "ark"-the scene of his future conquests and glory, so to speak. He was accompanied by his brotherin-law, Lyman MIelvin. They built a log house-the pioneer's castle-on the latter's land and lived there until our subject could construct a house on his own property. He sold a team of oxen to pay for the first eighty acres of land he ever owned, and in the winter of 1836-7 he built on his newly acquired purchase a log house, into which he moved. But six years afterward, in 1843, he met with a great misfortune, in the death of his wife, which occurred in' August of that year. He continued to live in the log house for many years, however, but in 1884 built a large, square frame residence,-the largest and finest in the entire neighborhood. When enough settlers had joined him he helped to organize the township. While Mr. Beard was not an office-seeker, yet he was quite an active politician, and was justice of the peace for twelve years. In early days he was postmaster in Antrim. He cast his first ballot for Andrew Jackson and his last for Grover Cleveland. He was an admirer of Abraham Lincoln, voted for him and named one of his sons after him. To his principal 1usiness of farming, he added that of real-estate investment, dealing largely, in an early day, in tax titles. He was a familiar and conspicuous figure in the conventions of his party, in pioneer meetings, and most all public gatherings. He was one of those sturdy, strong-willed men whom age could not stoop nor obstacles turn. Living to the ripe age of eighty-five years, there were no roads too rough and no weather too inclement to prevent him from going from place to place as his business called him. He was one of the members of the Shiawassee County Pioneer Society, saw its membership dwindle from year to year, and stood by the graves of most of all of his compatriots of pioneer days. He dealt extensively in lands and at one time owned more than twelve hundred acres. He gave each of his children a farm or helped them to buy one. To Mr. and Mrs. Beard were born three children: Martha B., born April 1, 1832, married George Tyler and both are dead; Byron Beard is the subject of a sketch of this work; Chas. F., who was born September 21, 1838, enlisted in Company H twenty-third Michigan Infantry, and was killed November 12, 1863, at the battle of Campbell's station, Tennessee. Mr. Beard married for his second wife Charlotte Thompson, who was born April 13, 1828. She passed out of this life October 19, 1905, at the age of seventy-six years. She took great delight in relating stories and incidents of pioneer life. Mrs. Beard lived on the farm, which she rented, up to the time of her death. The issue of this marriage consisted of the following named children: Allen, born November 13, 1848, died December 12, 1855; Joshua, born April 14, 1850, died December

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 239 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 239 5, 1855; Walter, born September 10, 1851; died September 13, 1858; Eleanor, born January 12, 1854, died October 4, 1858; John C., born November 26, 1856, now lives on part of the old farm; A. L., born April 16, 1860, is a banker at Morrice, Michigan; Sarepta, born February 8, 1864, married George Honecker, and they live on part of the old farm; Maryett, born in 1865, was the wife of Robert J. Marble, now deceased; George W., born in November, 1867, now lives in Bancroft, Michigan. A. BYRON BEARD It has been said by a noted man of letters, that "the race by vigor not by vaunts is won." So it may truthfully be said of the gentleman whose name heads this page. He owes his present success in life to vigor, and his success is something he has reason to be proud of. Who in life has reason to be more boastful than a young man who settled on a timbered piece of land in the early days of Michigan and created of it a beautiful home, with broad, cultivated fields, a commodious residence, large barns and other necessary buildings? This, in brief, is a picture of what A. Byron Beard has accomplished, on section 10, Antrim township. Like many, very many, other citizens of this state, our subject is a native of Ohio. And did the reader ever stop to realize how much Michigan owes to Ohio for supplying her with so many good men and women? As already remarked, Ohio gave birth to A. Byron Beard. He was born in Willoughby township, Lake county, DecembSer 1, 1835. At. an early age his parents, Allen and Hannah (Arnet) Beard, removed to Antrim township, Shiawassee county, Michigan. A sketch of these honored pioneers is given elsewhere in this work. Young Beard was educated in the common schools of that township. He remained at home with his parents until he reached the age of twenty-four years, when he bought eighty acres of land and began farming for himself. This land was nearly all heavily timbered. He first built a small frame house and barn. In 1886 he "builded greater" in the shape of a large frame house, barns and other structures. The erection of these was personally superintended by himself, as he had previously, at "odd times," picked up the carp'entering business. Later he bought one hundred and twenty acres more land, making his possessions of real estate two hundred acres in one body,-a large farm for Michigan. He has since transferred eighty acres of this to his son, leaving him one hundred and twenty acres,-as fine a farm as one could desire. April 26, 1860, Mr. Beard formed a matrimonial alliance with Harriett V. Alling, a native of Antrim township, where she was born November 12, 1838. She is a daughter of Alanson Alling, who was born in the Empire state in 1803, and who joined the silent majority, in Antrim township, in September, 1857; her mother was Beulah (Price) Alling, who was born in Orleans county, New York, in 1810, and who died, in Antrim township, in 1874. Mrs. Beard's parents were married in New York state and came to Michigan in 1836, locating on two hundred acres of land bought from the government at "ten shillings" per acre. They were among the first settlers in Antrim township, Mrs. Alling having been the first white woman in the township. They remained on this farm until they died. Mrs. Beard was one of a family of seven children, and their mother had one child, Antoinette, by a former husband; this daughter married Avery Bacon, but died years ago, in New York state. Concerning the other children the following is brief record: William, born August 31, 1833, died a good many years ago, having married and having lived on part of the old farm; our subject's wife was next in order of birth; Mary, born August 26, 1840, married Amos Young and lives in South Dakota; Henry Rossman died young; Martha, born August 31, 1848, mar

240 PAST AND PRESENT OF 240 AST ND RESET O ried John Bennett and lives in Morrice, Michigag; Volney, born in 1846, married Alice Hill, and they live on the old homestead, in Antrim township; Henry (2d) lives in Morrice, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Beard have only one child-Myron E. Beard. He was born January 5, 1862, and married Florentine Frazier. They lived on eighty acres of the old homstead, the property having been deeded to them by his father, and are blessed with two children-Gertrude V., born May 16, 1897, and E. Spencer R., born April 30, 1899. In politics our subject is a Republican, but aside from that of highway commissioner he has never held any office, preferring to look after the interests of his general farming, and in this regard, he has, as already stated, proved a signal success. WASHINGTON BINGHAM Washington Bingham resides on section 33, Venice township, Shiawassee county. He is a native of New York state, having been born in Columbus, December 19, 1853, and is a gentleman of more than ordinary activity, being one of the most extensive sheep growers in Michigan. In 1886 he sent his son Clare to England and imported sixty head df the first Shropshire sheep ever brought into the United States. The same son has repeatedly gone to England since that time to secure high-grade sheep. Some time previously to this Mr. Bingham commenced fattening sheep for market. At first he bought around home but finally originated the custom in his locality of going west for sheep for feeding purposes. Then he bought in Montana, but he now seeks the Chicago market. During 1904 he fattened six thousand sheep for market, and now has one thousand eight hundred on hand. He is an authority on sheep raising and sheep feeding. Mr. Bingham's father was born in Sherman, Chenung county, New York, September 5, 1811, and there owned a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which he bought from the government and which he cleared. He always lived in that state. Mr. Bingham located on his present farm of sixty acres in 1869. It was half improved at that time. Since then he has built the fine house in which he lives, with four large barns for sheep feeding. One is forty-four by one hundred; one fifty-six by one hundred; one twenty by eighty and one thirty by forty. These are without doubt the largest structures for this purpose in the state. Mr. Bingham is one of twins, the other being Wellington, who is married and lives at Sherman and has three children,-Alice, Lena and Albert. The third and fourth children were also twins,-William and Wilson. William married Frances Harrington and lives at Sherman, having two children, -John and Lewis. Wilson married Julia Manchester, and lives at Sherman, having seven children. Albert, who died at Sherman, married Emma Manchester and had two children. The sixth and seventh children were girls, who died in infancy. In 1860, Mr. Bingham married Emily A. Cove, who was born January 12, 1831, and who died September 11, 1865. She was a daughter of Benjamin Cove, who was born December 6, 1795, and died August 20, 1858; her mother, whose maiden name was Ann Burbank, was born August 7, 1803. Mrs. Bingham's parents were natives of New York state and always lived there, on a farm of one hundred acres. By his first wife, Mr. Bingham had one child, Clare, who was born April 13, 1862, and who lives with his father. For his second wife Mr. Bingham married Della M. Cove, sister of his first wife. She was born November 4, 1838, and died October 29, 1888. His wife's father was twice married,-first to Emily Root, March 18, 1819. She died December 22, 1830. They had five children: Russel F., born December 17, 1819; Royal D., born November 18, 1821; Josiah R., born November 14, 1823;

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 241 H and Theodore, born November 9, 1825, are all deceased. Charles E., born December 1, 1827, now lives at Sherman. Mr. Cove's second marriage occurred January 15, 1832, to Ann Burbank. They had five children: John F., born March 8, 1830, and Joseph, born May 27, 1833, are deceased; the next two were Mr. Bingham's first and second wives; Benjamin John, born March 28, 1845, now lives on the old homestead. Joseph Cove, father of Benjamin, died March 23, 1814, at the age of forty-nine years; his wife, Maria, died March 17, 1812. Mr. Bingham is a Republican. He handles money for eastern capitalists and at one time had one hundred thousand dollars loaned in his locality. He is a gentleman of the utmost integrity and honor and is deservedly popular. EBENEZER P. BLISS Cicero once said that "there are more men ennobled by study than by nature." But what can be said of a man who wrecks his health by overstudy? Is such an example worthy of emulation or is it to be dissapproved? Be this as it may, Ebenezer P. Bliss, who was born in Lee, Massachuetts, April 15, 1820, left a record for faithfulness and long years in the harness as a school teacher that challenges a parallel in Michigan. He came to this state when a young man and bought eighty acres of unimproved land on section 16, Rush township, where the family now live. He built a log house on this land and cleared it up. He afterward taught for seven years in one school in New Haven township. He continued teaching winters and working on his farm summers for several years. He was fond of books. Golden volumes! richest treasures, Object of delicious pleasures! You my eyes rejoicing please, You my hands in rapture seize; Brilliant wits and musing sages, Lights who beam'd through many ages! Overstudy and too much reading finally undermined his constitution and precipitated apoplexy. He died July 15, 1902, aged eighty-two years. He had taught the "young ideas how to shoot" for more than forty terms, a record that challenges a parallel in Michigan, as has been said above. The direct cause of death was hemorrhages and paralysis of the brain, the result of overstudy. He was a son of Joshua and Grace Porter Bliss, and the family traced back to the earliest days of America. The original stock was from England. Ebenezer P. Bliss was the eighth in a family of nine children. He was married January 14, 1858, to Betsey Dellamater, who was born March 16, 1840. She was a daughter of Peter Dellamater, who was a native of New York state, where he was born December 23, 1804. His wife, Lydia, (Bassett) Dellamater, was born in New York state in 1802 and died in 1857. Peter Dellamater was married in New York state, later removing to Canada. In 1856 he came to Shiawassee county, Michigan, and located in Rush township, on section 15, on eighty acres of wild land. He built a log house, still standing, and cleared the land. His was among the first families in the township and suffered all the experiences and privations of pioneer life. There were eight children in the Dellamater family, and besides Mrs. Bliss the others were: Eleanor, who is now Mrs. Henry Teeple; Martin, who died from scarlet fever, when 'young; Angeline, who married Barnabas Allen, and lived in Rush township; John, who is now deceased; N. D., who lives in Rush township and who married Permela Dean; Reuben, who died when a boy, of fever; the eighth died in infancy. When Mr. Bliss and wife located on their land and built their log house in the woods there were but few families in that region. They lived in the house about twenty-seven years, when they erected the large square frame residence in which the widow now lives.

242 PAST AND PRESENT OF Before his death, Mr. Bliss bought fifty-five acres of land, partly improved. Mr. and Mrs. Bliss had eight children, as follows: Grace P. was born December 30, 1858, and died January 21, 1867; Ebenezer P., born April 22, 1861, is married and lives in Brady township, Saginaw county, having four children,-Alva, Gordon, Florence, Bertha, and Lydia; Jesse, born March 15, 1863, married Lydia Hobart lives in Rush township, and has two children,-Howard and Esther Grace; Elmer, born January 22, 1865, married May Webb, lives in Montana, and has one child.-Marv Eleanor; Arthur, born April 12, 1867, is a bachelor and is at home, being a Democrat and a member of the Odd Fellows; Lemuel, born September 13, 1869, lives in Brady township, Saginaw county; he married Emma Appleman and they have one child,-Stanley. Asa V., born March 1, 1872, lives in the west; Alpheus F., born September 12, 1877, died at age of seven years and twelve days, having been killed by a pile of lumber falling on him when a barn was being built. Mr. Bliss was a Republican in national affairs, tut independent in matters local. He had been township clerk, justice of the peace and supervisor-holding all of these offices for several years. He was quite prominent in politics and had one hundred and thirtyfive acres of improved land at the time of his death. His widow still lives on the place, with her son Arthur. LEONARD S. BOWLES Leonard S. Bowles, of Owosso township, hails from Orleans county, New York, where he was born July 8, 1843. He is a son of James BoWles, who was horn in Norfolk county, England, June 20, 1809, and who died in Owosso township, March 8, 1897. He came to the United States in 1829 and first settled in Orleans county, New York, where he bought forty acres of wild land, which he improved, but he subsequently lost the property through a defective title. In 1856 he removed to Calhoun county, Michigan, where he worked for ten years. Then he located in Owosso township, living with his son Leonard until his death and aided the latter greatly in 'buying and clearing his present farm. Mr. Bowles' mother was named Anna. She was born in England and died in Orleans county, New York, when the subject of this article was a small lad. Mr. Bowles received some of his education at Clarendon., New York, and in the district schools of Calhoun county, Michigan, but has since greatly added to his fund of knowledge through his own efforts. Indeed, the latter method has produced the best and most practically educated men in the country. From the age of thirteen to that of fifteen years he worked for five dollars per month. He then had his wages increased, and at the age of twenty-one he enlisted at Marshall, Michigan, August 2, 1864, and shortly afterward was mustered in, at St. Louis, Missouri, with Company L, Second Missouri Cavalry, known as "Merrill's Horse." The regiment was organized in 1862 as an independent organization but was later credited to Missouri, because its colonel belonged to that state. Three companies of the regiment, however, were from Michigan. He was in the battle of the Big Blue. After returning from the war he located in Owosso township and purchased eighty acres of wild land, on section 34, building a log house and stable. At that time there were no roads, no fences, few neighbors `-nothing, in fact, tut trees and wild game. In 1866 a neighbor killed a bear in his yard. In 1892 he added forty acres to his original purchase. This was partly improved and there are now thirty-two acres of the same under cultivation. He has a fine house and barns and in all thirty-two buildings are on the place. 'Tis not a lip, an eye, we beauty call, But the joint force and full result of all.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 243 SHIA WASSEE C 243..-.. So with this elegant farm. The "full result of all" is what makes this beauty spot, this farm, what it is' November 27, 1879, Mr. Bowles married Ida J. McNichol, who was born September 20, 1853. She is a daughter of Turner McNichol, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1796, and who died in Howard township, Cass county, Michigan, in 1881. Mrs. Bowles' mother was Margaret Ann (Glass) McNichol, who was born in Ireland, in 1816, and who died June 29,1890, in the same place as did her husband. They were married in Europe and came to the United States two years afterward. They were located in New York state for a short time and then came to Niles, Michigan, buying eighty acres of wild land in Howard township, Cass county. They built a log house and stables, improved the land and later added forty acres. They owned a good farm of one hundred and twenty acres at the time of their death. Mr. Bowles is the third of four children. Robert, born in 1838, lives in Owosso, is married and has five children,-William, Nellie, John, Frank and Cora. Robert enlisted April 8, 1861, in the Second Michigan Infantry and served about two years. Mary, born in 1841, lives in Owosso township, having married Edward Osser; Anna lives in Kansas, having married Le Pruyne De Armond, and having had one child, now dead. SMrs. Bowles is the youngest of seven children. William died in infancy; Jennie died on the old homestead, having married William Lewis and having had two children,Arthur and Nellie; Mary, deceased, lived at Greenville, Michigan, having married William Livingston and having had one child,Fred; Mattie died at Greenville, Michigan, having married Niles Bowerman and having had two children,-Minnie and Albert; John, deceased, married Julia Annis, and lived at Shilo, Michigan; Arthur, who lives in Nebraska, married Sara Rhodes, and had six children. Mr. and Mrs. Bowles have two children: 16 Floyd, born November 27, 1881, lives in San Francisco, California, and Nettie, born August 5, 1883, is a stenographer in Detroit. Both were graduated in a business college in Ypsilanti, and attended Mrs. Gould's private school in Owosso. Mr. Bowles is a Republican, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is now serving his fifth term as justice of the peace. He makes a specialty of growing strawberries and raspberries, having raised as high as twelve acres of the former in one season. His output of strawberries one year was twenty-seven thousand and fifty-three quarts, with over one thousand quarts of raspberries. REESE BOWLES Pluck and energy have probably accomplished more in this life than any two things that could be mentioned. Indeed, they are the active forces of the business world. The gentleman whose name heads this page has shown these qualities in a marked degree, as his present home and surroundings attest. He lives on section 11, Antrim township, and is a native son of the Empire state, where he was born January 7, 1835. His father and mother, Josiah and Sally (Hicks) Bowles, were both born in the same state. They were also married there and continued to live there for some years afterward. 'When our subject had reached the age of. seven years his parents journeyed to Michigan and located in Genesee county, where the father bought eighty acres of native forest land, built a log house and barn and began active work in making for himself and family a farm. In the course of a few years he sold this property and removed to Lapeer county, where he purchased eighty acres, partly improved, with some buildings. He lived there about fifteen years, then sold and removed to Hadley, Michigan, where he made his home with his children. He and his wife died there, at the respective ages of eighty

244 PAST AND PRESENT OF 244 PAST AND PRESENT OF and seventy years, in the order named. In politics Mr. Bowles was originally a Whig, but when that party ceased to exist he naturally drifted into the ranks of the Republican organization. He never held office, however, neither was he affiliated with any church. At the age of seventeen years our subject began "paddling his own canoe,"' so to speak, -first going to work on a farm, at thirteen dollars per month. This he continued for some time, dividing his time between the farm in summer and the lumber woods in winter. His early educational advantages were quite limited, as he lived a long distance from school and was forced to work when young. This was also the experience of his brothers and sisters. His first purchase of land was in Genesee county, where he secured seven acres. He afterward added to this until he was the possessor of thirtythree acres. This was partly improved and he continued to live there for several years, when he sold and located in Shiawassee county, purchasing the eighty acres on which he now resides. When the property came into his possession there were but few improvements save a log house and stable, He went to work with a will, however, and in course of a few years the forest dissappeared and the log excuses for buildings gave place to a handsome and commodious frame house and a large modern barn. These are kept well painted, and the farm is one of the handsomest in the entire neighborhood. Mr. Bowles having an eye for the beautiful, as the poet says, "Beauty is bought by the judgment of the eye." So with our subject. He has given abundant evidence that the judgment of his eye is not lacking. Not satisfied with his original purchase, he has added eighty acres more, one mile distant. The latter he uses for pasture. He has always been a tiller of the soil, and in view of the fact that he had a stroke of paralysis a few years ago, is now upfitteof for work and has his son work the farm on shares. Mr. Bowles was married in 1856 to Lydia Herrick, who- was born January 17, 1837, in Michigan. She was a daughter of William and Lydia (Roberts) Herrick; Mr. Herrick died on a farm at Goodrich, Genesee county, having passed his sixtieth mile-stone. Mrs. Bowles was one of eight children-seven of whom are still living,-one in Shiawassee county. Mr. and Mrs. Bowles have two childrenJoseph and Williard. The former was born December 9, 1857, and has been married, but he and his wife are not now living together. He is a farmer in Dakota. Williard was born April 9, 1862, and married Hattie Fuller, who is now dead; he lives with his parents. He has one child, Lydia, now Mrs. Earl Shelp. They live on a farm near the old home. Mr. Bowles was one of thirteen children -seven of whom are still living. Thomas lives in Linden, Michigan; Nancy lives in Genesee county, being the wife of E. S. Dart; Eleanor lives in Lapeer county, on the old homestead, and is the widow of James MViller; Evan lives in Shiawassee township; Reese is the subject of this sketch; Frank lives in Hadley, Genesee county; John, now dead, was a solider in the civil war, having served in the Eighth Michigan Infantry; William lives in Tuscola county; Josiah is now deceased; Albert and Edgar are deceased; and Dan and Ann, twins, are also dead. Our subject has always been a Republican. He has served for five years on the board of review of his township, and was pathmaster for several years, but has held no other office. Neither is he a member of any church or fraternal society. He is a highly respected and worthy citizen,-an honor to his town and a credit to the farming fraternity. JAMES C. BRAND As we scan the life of the gentleman whose name heads this review we are struck

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 245 SHAASE CONY4 with three characteristics which stand out in his nature above all else,-good judgment, decision, and action. Promptness of decision is necessary to accomplish desired results, and result are what count in the battle of life. 'Be wise to-day: 'tis madness to defer. Next day the fatal precedent will plead. If any of the old settlers has fairly earned the title of the "Father of Durand," James C. Brand should certainly have that distinction, because he has so entwined his life with the early history of the village that it is difficult to separate one from the other. He was first instrumental in inducing Uncle Sam to locate a postoffice here, but before he could do this it was necessary for him to provide a name for the new aspirant for postal honors; hence the name selected, Durand. It was only necessary to add one letter more than his own name and, with a little transposition, the desired result was reached, and at the same time giving both names a pleasing rythmical sound,-"Brand-Durand." This theory of the matter sounds very well in print, and perhaps this is the way it should have been done, but Durand was 'not thus christened. It seems that soon after Mr. Brand located at "Vernon Center," he met the congressman of that district at Flint and laid before him the necessity for a postoffice at the locality named. He was told by the representative that the first requisite necessary would be to select a name, so that the matter could be brought to the attention of the postoffice officials in the regular way. Upon his return home, therefore, Mr. Brand Conferred with William Jewell, Delos Jewell and William Putnam, and suggested that they christen the place in honor of Hon. George H. Durand, a Flint lawyer, and ex-member of congress. So the settlement at the center of Vernon township thus became Durand, and the postal guide thus recorded it. The first mail was handled from a plain pine bench, but later the postoffice was installed in a little building on the north side of Main street, east of Oak street. James C. Brand was born in Brookfield, Madison county, New York, August 30, 1821. Of his parents we shall speak later in this article. In 1858, when about thirty-seven years of age, he came to Michigan, buying before this removal, eighty acres in Allegan county. The land he had never seen, however, but it proved to be all right. He subsequently secured one hundred and thirty-two acres in Ingham county, paying three dollars and thirty cents per acre for the same. He next bought a yoke of oxen, for eighty dollars in gold, erected a house on his land and cleared seventeen acres. Having partially improved this tract, he traded it for a house in Lansing, which he retained for about three years, exchanging that property for one hundred and sixty acres in Barry county, with a money consideration, the entire transaction netting him some one thousand one hundred dollars. He again invested in Lansing real estate, the outcome showing his usual good business judgment. He first bought two city lots, for which he paid two hundred and fifty dollars, selling them at a profit respectively of one hundred and nine ' hundred dollars. Trading his oxen for seven lots on Cedar street, he sold four of these for more than the entire number had cost him, and then sold the remaining three at a respective profit of one hundred and twenty-five, two hundred and three hundred and twenty-five dollars. These, and other similar details, are given as a proof that Mr. Brand's success in business transactions is not a matter of luck, but has been the result of unfailing good judgment, coupled with quick action. He subsequently embarked in the manufacture of staves, having previously investigated the matter very carefully, as was his custom. With only seventy dollars in money and some wooded land, therefore, he commenced business in the township of Ovid, Clinton county. He first bought the necessary tools and twenty oak trees, paying for the latter one

246 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2443 PAST AND PRESENT OF dollar and fifty cents apiece. His brother, in the meantime, purchased one hundred hogs, in Detroit, and turned them out in the woods to feed on beech nuts. In those days "beech-nut pork" was common in Michigan. While, therefore, Mr. Brand, our subject, assisted his brother in the care of his swine, the latter helped the former during the winter, making staves. About this time our subject obtained other land in the vicinity, amounting to over fifty acres. Some of this tract he cleared and planted to wheat. In the meantime he made a profit of six hundred dollars by converting eighteen trees into staves. The wheat which he raised on his cleared land yielded him two hundred and forty bushels, and this he sold for two dollars a bushel. He also got one dollar per pound for his wool from a small flock of sheep. To cap the climax, he disposed of his original tract of fifty-three acres for one thousand dollars. These transactions placed him in a position to undertake the manufacturing of staves on a larger scale. He therefore removed to Linden for this purpose and there bought timber and began work. He remaiped at Linden five or six years. He next went to Vernon, where he continued in the same line. Later he located at Clayton, and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, much of which was timbered with oak. He erected a stave mill, with a portable engine costing one thousand eight hundred dollars, and his business was now so well established that he not only used all the timber from his own land, but also all he could buy from his neighbors. His chief difficulty at Clayton was in obtaining water, but after the expenditure of considerable money this obstacle was overcome. Mr. Brand then went to "Vernon Center," as it was then called, a little settlement in the center of the township of that name, buying first forty and then two hundred and forty acres in that locality. He was now the proprietor of four "eighties" in Vernon and two "eighties" in Gaines, having cleared and planted to crops some eighty-three acres and having erected a house and barn. In 1873 Mr. Brand built a large stave and saw mill upon the forty acres which he originally owned in Vernon Center. The size of the saw mill was eighteen by eighty feet, and that of the stave mill twentyfour by fifty fcet. The two plants cost eight thousand four hundred dollars. This left him in debt only three hundred dollars. From the first the business continually expanded, and with its development the settlement grew into the proportions of a flourishing village. When Mr. Brand first located in Vernon Center the settlement consisted of only seven houses, four of which were unoccupied, but when his factory was an established fact, these residences were at once occupied and there was a demand for more on the part of those who desired to be connected with the enterprise. Mr. Brand even bought whoop-pole timber in -Canada, and made shipments to the east. As a sample of the magnitude of some of his shipments it may be stated that those to one custenmcr along, idol Never York city, amounted to nine thousand eight hundred dollars, the freight on which cost two thousand two hundred dollars. He continued this line of manufacturing for a period of eighteen years. During this time he sold considerable lumber to the Michigan house of correction, in Detroit, taking as payment furniture and clothes made in that institution and selling the goods to his employes. He thus disposed of the first furniture ever sold in Durand. Both of the parents of our subject, Barton and Charlotte (Crandle) Brand, were natives of Rhode Island, the father having been born November 18, 1790, and the mother, April 7, 1794; they were not only born in the same little state but within half a mile of each other. The families subsequently removed to Brookfield, Madison county, New York, where the lifelong friends became husband and wife, and where their industrious son, James C., was born, as we

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 247 SHA ASE CUNY 4 have previously stated. Barton Brand was a farmer, and settled upon a piece of heavily timbered land which was the nucleus of the homestead which has now been in possession of some member of the family for more than a hundred years. It is at present owned by the family of James Brand's brother. The entire farm now consists of two hundred and forty acres. The original tract amounted to only one hundred and forty-four acres. The land was at first heavily timbered with beech, maple, elm and hemlock. This land Barton Brand cleared and improved, erecting a substantial house thirty by thirty-two feet, with a wing sixteen by thirty-two feet, and ten barns-three of them of very large dimensions; he enclosed this farm with one thousand rods of stone fence, five feet high. At his death, in 1865, there were few homesteads in the locality which had a greater air of solid comfort and prosperity. Before his death he paid a visit to his son, who lived in Clinton county, Michigan. The father was a Whig and a Republican. In religious matters he was a Seventh Day Baptist. His wife's death occurred in 1870. There were ten children in the family, of whom our subject was the third. The names and respective dates of birth of the others are here entered: Anna Maria, February 23, 1817; Roswell E., October 26, 1818; Welcome P., September 27, 1824; Lucy L., July 26, 1826; John A., June 18, 1828; Jared C., February 28, 1830; William M., February 1, 1832; Mary A., June 27, 1833; and Roxania O., April 18, 1835. James C. Brand, the third in this old-fashioned family, laid the basis of his future fortune by working on his brother-in-law's farm, Brookfield, New York, at eleven dollars per month during the harvest, and for seven dollars per month at threshing time, also taking care of the stock in winter. In those days the threshing was done by hand, so that the young men gave full value in work for money received, both winter and summer. In every way possible Mr. Brand has bent his best energies toward the practical development of Durand. Among other improvements which he has assisted in furthering is the establishment of railroad communication between it and the surrounding country. Personally he has given the right of way to several lines, one railroad passing through four of his "eighties." The result has been that the entire community has not only been benefited, but property in and around the village has also advanced in price and Mr. Brand himself has shared in the increased prosperity. He bought five and a half acres near the depot and paid five hundred and fifty-six dollars for same. He still owns six lots, having disposed of the remainder for over seven thousand dollars. He is also owner of fifty-four acres in section 15, village of Perry. Of this he has platted twelve, acres. An incident is related concerning one of Mr. Brand's real-estate transactions, showing him to be a man of pluck as well as of good judgment and decision. While negotiating for the purchase of two of his "eighties" in Vernon, he found that a man held tax titles upon the property, for which he asked one thousand six hundred dollars. This seemed an exorbitant price. Our subject offered six hundred dollars and, upon that sum being refused, he proceeded to look up the original deed. He then went to Clayton, put together the frame of a house, hauled it up to Vernon, cleared a space for it on the land which he wished to purchase, raised it and slept there that night. He completed the house the following day, thus coming into legal possession of the property. He completed the chain of his title by afterward buying the tax title at his original offer, six hundred dollars. Mr. Brand is almost as well known in the Masonic fraternity as in business, having joined the order in 1867, in Linden. He was also for a long time much interested in military matters, especially in the cavalry branch of that service, with which he was connected for a period of fourteen years. He was

248 PAST ANrD PRESENT OF 2D within a few days of having reached the sixty-ninth mile stone in life's journey before he seemed to have a "quickening of conscience," so to speak, touching love affairs, and on August 20, 1890, led Mlaryette Kitchen, a native of Canada, to the hymeneal altar. Mrs. Brand's parents were natives of Canada, where they lived and died. While no children have come to bless the lives of 'Mr. and Mrs. Brand they are blessed with mutual love and confidence in their advanced years. Mrs. Brand is a consistent member of the Baptist church of Durand, of which Mr. Brand is liberal in his support. Mr. Brand relates with pardonable pride that he built the first saw mill, stave mill, feed mill and blacksmith shop in Durand, and was the first dealer in lumber, furniture, and clothing. With a consciousness of having by his own efforts contributed to the material wealth of his home town, he is enjoying the declining years of an active life. WILLIAM J. BROOKINS We do not often find a farmer in these days who has attained the age of thirty-seven years or upwards living on the same place where he was born, but an exception is fQund in the case of the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. His home is in Middlebury township, Shiawassee county, where he was born January 10, 1868. His father, John C. Brookins, was a native of the Emerald Isle beyond the sea, where he was born, in Donegal county, in 1828. He died October 2, 1895, on the farm now owned by his son, at the age of sixty-seven years. His wife, a native bf New York state, where she was born October 16, 1831, also died on the same premises as her husband, October 15, 1901. Our subject's mother went to Ohio in her younger days and taught school there for several years. She then removed to Shiawassee county, a few years prior to her marriage, and taught there for some little time, before and after her marriage. She was a lady who possessed a fine education and an extraordinary memory. John C. Brookins came to America when he was twenty-three years old. He was accompanied by a sister and her husband, whose name is Ramsey. They first located at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where his brother-inlaw engaged in blacksmithing. Mr. Brookins assisted him in winter and in summers he worked on a farm. He remained there seven years, and in 1858 journeyed to Michigan, spending his first winter with a relative named William Crowe, who had settled on what is now the Slocum farm, in Middlebury township, 'this county. The next year he bought forty acres of unimproved land, on section 36, in the- same township. He built a frame house, now a part of the structure in which our subject lives. He cleared that forty acres and afterward bought another forty, which he also transformed into a part of as good a farm as there is in the townphip, showing him to be not only a good farmer but a thrifty business man. He afterward enlarged the original house and erected other needed buildings. The parents of our subject were married December 28, 1860. They had three children, as follows: Alice, who is the wife of Walter Wadsworth, of Owosso township; Mary, who married A. A. Schultz, an implement dealer in Laingsburg, M4ichigan; and William J., whose name initiates this article. William J. Brookins secured his early education in the district schools of Middlebury township, and supplemented this by two years in the Ovid high school. He taught school for nine winters in his home district and those surrounding. The last place in which he showed "the young idea how to shoot," was in his home district, where he most successfully officiated for five years in succession. "'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." He believed in those days, and believes now, that a boy were better unborn

SHIA WASSEE COUlNTY 249 SHIA W than untaught. As a writer of some note has said, "The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seeds of immortality already sown within us; to develop to their fullest extent the capacities of every kind with which the God who made us has endowed us." Mr. Brookins was married November 21, 1900, to Gertrude Mathewson, who was born in Bancroft, Michigan, January 21, 1880. She is a daughter of Omar and Emma (Sullivan) Mathewson. Her father is now a resident of Flint, Michigan, aged forty-eight years. He is a wagon maker and is a native of New York. Mrs. Brookins is the second in a family of six children, five of whom are still living: Wesley resides in Battle Creek; Gertrude is the wife of the subject of this review; Adi lives in Owosso; Leila married Homer Rose and they live in Flint; J. B. lives in Easton, Shiawassee county; and Emma died when four months old. Mr. and Mrs. Brookins have two children,-Dorothea, born September 23, 1901, and John Richard, born September 12, 1905. The eighty-acre homestead now owned by our subject was left him by his father. He has since added forty acres to this, all of which is improved. Extensive improvements have been made on the premises, including a large barn and other buildings. Our subject, like his father, is a strong Republican and is now serving his fourth term as clerk of Middlebury township. He has served three years as school inspector. Mr. and Mrs. Brookins are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, while the parents of Mr. Brookins were Episcopalians. For ten years prior to his death John C. Brookins was in poor health and unable to perform manual labor. The immediate cause of his death was paralysis. He died October 2, 1895, and his wife passed away October 15, 1901. The influence of this worthy family is proving potent for good, socially and morally, as touching all with whom its members come in contact in the varied relations of life. DAVID E. BROOKS David E. Brooks first saw the light of day in Ovid township, Seneca county, New York, March 10, 1830. At the age of twenty-two years he embarked on his own business career, resolved to make for himself a place in the world, and, if possible, collect a little money in an honorable way. With this laudable purpose in view it was not strange that his attention should be turned toward California when the gold excitement broke out in that state. So he crossed the isthmus of Panama in going and coming, and was fairly successful. He conducted a general store for one year while there, chiefly handling provisions. After an absence of four years he returned to New York state and there bought fifty-three acres of land, in Romulus township, Seneca county. This farm was mostly improved and he lived on it until 1870, when he sold it and turned his face toward Michigan. He landed in Owosso township, where he bought eighty acres of cleared land, on section 23. This he sold the same year and purchased sixty acres on section 22, upon which he now lives. Fifty acres of this was wild. A small house and barn were on the place. There are only six acres of this now unimproved. The house has been rebuilt and barns and other buildings added. When Mr. Brooks first located in the township it was no uncommon thing to see wild turkeys in his yard, and one night when returning home he encountered a lynx. October 18, 1854, Mr. Brooks married Rebecca Johnson, who was born in Romulus township, Seneca county, New York, March 30, 1834. In October, 1904, they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Mrs. Brooks' father, Joseph Johnson, was born in Romulus township, Seneca county, New York, July 10, 1799, and died at Geneva, that state, October 19, 1881. Mr. Johnson's wife was Clarica Hogarth, who was born in Ovid township, Seneca county, New York, May 17, 1804, and who died January 22, 1883.

250 PAST AND PRESENT OF 250 AST ND RESET O Mrs. Brooks was sixth in a family of thirteen, as follows: Minerva, was born March 25, 1822, and lives in Interlaken, New York, married De Witt Vorus and had two children, Electa and Augusta. Bradner was born March 30, 1827 and died July 11, 1868; married Elizabeth Knowles and had one son, Scott. Emily was born August 23, 1828, died March 30, 1869, married John R. Stone, and had six children-Carleton, Laura, Emma, Minnie, Guy and Roy. Demott was born April 15, 1830, and died September 28, 1837. Andrew was born October 18, 1832, went to California when gold was first discovered there and has not been heard from since. Hogarth was born February 11, 1836 and died February 24, 1841. Susan was born February 2, 1838 and lives in Seneca county, New York; married Archibald Banker and had two children, both dead. Carleton was born December 12, 1839, and died October 26, 1841. Cordelia was born March 15, 1841, and lives in Geneva, New York; married John Markell and had two children-Eleanora and Grace. Joseph, Jr., was born June 19, 1842, and died October 19, 1881. James P. was born August 6, 1844, and died April 25, 1845. James J. was born October 3, 1845, and died December 25, 1864. Mr. Brook's father was born and died on the same farm. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks had eight sons, three of whom are living. Erastus was born September 21, 1856, and died February 2, 1857; Erastus D. was born December 12, 1858, and lives on a farm in Owosso township; he married Susan Cramer, and they have four children,-George Le Roy, born January 5, 1891; Harold G., born in May, 1894; Mary E., born in June, 1897; and Ashley T., born October 2,1899. Elmer, born March 21, 1850, died March 19, 1893. He first married Eva Bigelow, who died within the next two weeks; his second wife was Mary Williams, who likewise died in a short time after marriage. Andrew H. was born October 5, 1863, and died December 7, 1899. He married Jennie Bradley and they had four children, Iva Pearl, born March 18, 1887 and three who died at birth. James was born December 25, 1868, and lives in Montana being a farmer. He married Ida Tucker, of that state, and they have four children,Eva B., born in January, 1898; David Leo, born in July, 1894; James E., born in July, 1902, and Rebecca, born in June, 1904. William and Willis, twins, were born August 16, 1870, the former dying in 1870, and the latter in 1873. Leo. D. was born March 18, 1877, is married and lives in Montana. Mrs. Brooks' father was a Presbyterian and Republican, and Mr. Brooks' father was a Democrat and member of the Dutch Reformed church. The ancestors of Mr. Brooks were Irish on his father's side and German on his mother's side. The ancestors of Mrs. Brooks came from Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks are members of the Congregational church. He is a Democrat, but is independent in his choice of men for office. He was justice of the peace for one term. Mrs. Brooks' brother James enlisted in the Thirty-fourth New York Infantry and served in the civil war. He died in the hospital at Norfolk, Virginia. EDWIN E. BUNTING Edwin E. Bunting was born in Scio township, Washtenaw county, Michigan, November 22, 1838. His father, John L. Bunting, was a native of Quentin, Lincolnshire, England, where he was born in 1792, and he died at the age of eighty-two years; his first wife, Mary Ann (Binington) Bunting was born in London, England, and was about ten years younger than her husband: Both came to America, locating in Canada, but they later removed to Washtenaw county, Michigan, some years before Michigan became a state. Soon after reaching this state, however, Mrs. Bunting was called to join the majority. Shortly after this sad calamity Mr. Bunting returned to England and in the course of events married a second wife, whose name

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY' 251 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 251 was Mary Ann Todd and she became the mother of the gentleman whose name heads this article. Edwin E. Bunting's early education was very limited, as he attended school scarcely one year in all, for at the age of seven he began driving oxen for neighbors, in breaking land, also working at teaming, sowing, cutting timber and getting out wood and hauling the same to the old distillery in Lenawee county. He worked in this way until he reached the age of fourteen years, and remained at home one year, at the expiration of which he began learning the trade of a carpenter, with Wm. S. Carns and later became a partner of Chas. Haire. While working for the first-named gentleman he learned to write his name from a copy made by his employer on a smooth board. He kept practicing in this way, smoothing the board with a plane when it needed it and then having the copy reproduced on a clean board, until he acquired the art of making his own name satisfactorily. He continued to work at carpentering for more than thirty years. At the age of twenty-one he became a contractor and employer of other men. He chiefly confined his operations to Lenawee county and Shiawassee counties, but did some work in Illinois. When engaged in farming he took great pride in improving his breed of stock in both cattle and sheep. Durham cattle were his favorite and he spent much thought and effort in producing a cross adapted for butter and beef; while in sheepraising he devoted thirty years to developing a species containing qualities best fitted for mutton and wool. The breeds showing the best results in the latter are Cotswold and Merino. In these particulars Mr. Bunting has proven a genuine benefactor to his race. He has not merely drifted with the current of affairs in life but has struggled to solve problems that would add to the world's knowledge and thus benefit mankind. Considering, therefore, M'r. Bunting's limited education, he has proved a strong character in his sphere of activities. Mr. Bunting was married September 27, 1864, to Henrietta Mills, who was born in Lenawee county, August 25, 1839. She is a daughter of E. G. Mills, a native of New York, where he was born February 9, 1807. He died at the age of seventy-nine years. His wife was born in England, November 2, 1811, and died in January, 1905, aged ninety-three years. The parents of Mrs. Bunting were early settlers of Lenawee county, where they always lived on a farm. She was the fourth of eight children, the others being as follows: Amasa, who is now dead; Philo, who was a member of Company G, Eighteen Michigan Infantry during the civil war and who died of consumption; Eliza was Mrs. T. M. Camburn and died in Lenawee county; Edward died in Lenawee county, a bachelor; Ransom married the youngest sister of Mr. Bunting; Sarah Jane is the second wife of T. M. Camburn and they live in Tecumseh; Emma lives in Lenawee county. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bunting lived three or four years in Lenawee county, whence they came to Shiawassee county about 1868. He first bought forty acres of wild land, on section 14, in Rush township. He carried goods and supplies on his back to the land, the woods being so thick that it was impossible to lead a horse through. He built a log house and returned to Lenawee county. About this time there was a mail robbery in some neighboring town and officers were scouring the country to find the robbers. Mrs. Bunting was afraid to stay alone in the house so he returned. They lived in this log house about sixteen years. They own about three hundred and twenty acres, all well improved. Mr. Bunting has himself cleared over two hundred acres, and spent a great deal of money draining and tiling the land. Recently he bought thirty-nine acres in the edge of Henderson village. Upon this he has erected a neat and comfortable residence, which he now occupies, having rented his farm. Mr. and Mrs. Bunting have had four children: Louis, who was 3orn July 19,

252 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2 1865, and who died at the age of twenty-eight years, married Minnie Ball, who is still living, as are also their two children,-Leota and Hattie; Mary, who was born July 23, 1867, married Willits Willoughby, and they live in Rush township, being the parents of three children,-Rena, Ernest and Leland. Edwin T., who was born April 8, 1871, and who is engaged in grocery business at Owosso, married Emma Metuskey, and they have two children,-Harold and June. Ella, who was born July 10, 1873, married Ed. Cheney, who is a paper-hanger in Henderson, and they have one child,-Leston,-aged six years. Mr. Bunting is an old-line Republican, one of the Abraham Lincoln school; and while active in politics, has always been reluctant to accept office; but has served as township treasurer and highway commissioner. He attends the Methodist Episcopal church but is not a member. He is blessed with excellent health and takes a deep interest in everything that pertains to the good of the community. Mrs. Bunting has been crippled from rheumatism for several years. MATTHEW BUSH The subject of this sketch is a native of the Empire state, having been born at Stone Ridge, New York, December 6, 1853. Although his parents were natives of the same commonwealth, he is of Dutch descent. At the age of fifteen years young Bush had finished his primary schooling -a few terms at the village school of Port Ewen and in the Kingston Academy,- and he became a qualified teacher, which occupation he followed for one and one-half years. Later he was employed in newspaper work, during which time he also learned telegraphy. This he left to accept a position in an office of the Wallkill Valley Railroad. Meeting with a misfortune, through sickness, he was obliged to resort to the use of crutches. It was doubtless this affliction that caused him to decide to enter the legal profession as a life business. By close application and study, he gained admission to the kar in September, 1876, at Saratoga, New York, at the age of twenty-three years. He first located at Kingston, where he remained for two years, when he decided to come west. He settled at Stanton, Michigan, and later removed to the village of Vernon, Shiawassee county. His ability as an attorney was soon recognized and he early took rank among the leaders of his profession in Shiawassee county. While a resident of Vernon he was for two terms president of the village and for several years village attorney. In the year 1889 he was elected judge of probate for Shiawassee county, which office he has held continuously until the present time. He is now serving his fifth term, and when completed will have to his credit twenty years of honorable service in that office. That a public office is a public trust has been practically verified in the manner of the management of the affairs of his office by Judge Bush. His reputation as a probate judge extends to the borders of the commonwealth, as evidenced by his having served for some years as president of the state association of probate judges. His is a natural legal mind, by which he is enabled to weigh the evidence and reach just conclusions. It is said of him that his construction of the statutes is seldom at fault and that no decision of his has ever been reversed by the supreme court. The widows and orphans of Shiawassee county have in Judge Bush a true friend, and they go to him in confidence for the adjustment of their claims, and are never disappointed. Judge Bush has met with more than average success. Hie has carved out for himself as a legal adviser a reputation of which any man might feel justly proud. He began at the bottom, but by pluck and perseverance, and actuated always by correct motives, he to-day occupies an exalted position as a citizen and an attorney.

SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 253 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 253 Judge Bush's first wife was Miss Flora McKercher, of Vernon, who lived but three years after their marriage, leaving a son Walter M., who is now in partnership with his father under the firm name of Bush & Bush. The present Mrs. Bush was Anna E. Verney, to whom he was united in marriage in 1887. To them have been born seven children as follows: James V., September 22, 1888; Russell Alger, January 15, 1890; Lowe-lI M.. November 13, 1892; Helen E., June 19, 1894; Oliver N., December 1, 1895; Wendell H., August 9, 1897; Homer M., January 22, 1900. This is a family that would delight the heart of President Roosevelt. Mrs. Bush's parents, Rev. James E. and Elizabeth (Buckthought) Verney, were of English origin, coming to - Michigan from Canada in 1867. Mr. Verney had several pastorates in this state, and was a well known Congregational minister. He died in 1886 and his widow passed away in 1895. Fraternally Judge Bush is a Mason, being a past commander of his commandery Knights Templar, and is also a Maccabee and a member of the Michigan Club, of Detroit. The family are members and warm supporters of the Presbyterian church of Corunna, in which Judge Bush holds the office of elder. The family are among Corunna's highly esteemed residents, than whom it has no better. JOHN BUTCHER John Butcher is an Englishman by birth, having been born in Kent, December 9, 1829. At the age of twenty-one. years he immigrated to the United States, crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel. He was six weeks on the way and first worked on a farm sixteen miles west of Schenectady, New York, at ten dollars per month. He remained there three years and after this he had a decidedly interesting and somewhat varied career in many respects, showing him to be a gentleman of convictions of his own and decision of character sufficiently strong to assert those convictions,-a characteristic conspicuously absent in the case of the average man. There is an old maxim that reads: "Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do." Before leaving his English home for America John Butcher promised his widowed mother to return and make her a visit as soon as he could conveniently do so. After an absence of three years he kept his promise to his mother and made her heart glad by greeting her again in the flesh, as he told her he would. He remained in England fifteen months, and while there Cupid used his heart strings as a harp. The object of his attention was Charlotte Tolburst. As the poet puts it: She knew she was beloved by him,-she knew, For quickly comes such knowledge, that his heart Was darkened with her shadow. On April 11, 1854, he was married to that lady, who was born in England, July 31, 1828, and died December 1, 1899. Immediately after being married Mr. Butcher and wife started for America, coming directly to Oakland county, Michigan, where he worked on a farm by the month until 1,61, wheni he removed to Shiawassee county where he bought eighty acres of wild land, on which he is now living. At that time there were few settlers. In less than one week Mr. Butcher had chopped and hewn sufficient logs to erect a log shanty, and with the help of neighbors soon had a place in which to live. His two oldest children, born in Oakland county, were quite small and his wife encountered the usual hardships incident to pioneer life. But his courage was undaunted, and, aided by his wife and children, he caused the woods rapidly to disappear and give place to culti

A~54 PAST AND PRESENT -OF vated and smiling fields. In course of time a good house and suitable barns were erected on the home place, as well as on other farms bought since, and now occupied by children. He has added in all to the original purchase two hundred acres. He formerly raised wheat extensively, often having forty bushels per acre. At the time Abraham Lincoln was elected to the presidency for the first time Mr. Butcher cast his first vote and supported the Democrats, and continued to act with that party for several years. Later, some twentytwo years ago, he became a Prohibitionist. About that time Mr. Butcher experienced a change of heart and was converted, joining the Wesleyan Methodist church. Until that time he had neither read nor written English, but began the study of the Bible. He now reads well and is able to read anywhere in the Bible. The first passage he learned to read was the twentieth verse of the eightyninth Psalm: "I have found David my servant; with my holy oil I have annointed him." He says he received aid from the spirit of God, which enabled him to learn to read, as he had neglected to get an education in youth, having started to work for himself at an early day. He has never been an aspirant for any political office and has filled only one place-that of pathmaster. His parents were members of the Church of England, which is the same as the Episcopal church in the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Butcher have had four children, as follows: John T. was born in Oakland county, July 31, 1856, and lives in New Haven township, near his father's home; Ellen was born in Oakland county, January 10, 1858, became the wife of J. A. Hopson, and died some years ago; George was born June 20, 1862, and lives on a farm on section four one-half mile east of his father's homestead; Charles H. was born July 6, 1864, and lives at home; he was married July 3, 1896, to Eliza Bradford, who was born in Bay City, twenty-nine years ago, a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Dickson) Bradford, the latter of whom is deceased, and the father being now a resident of Fremont, Saginaw county.' John Butcher was the sixth of a family of twelve children, as follows: James lived and died in England, having married and had a family residing in the city of London; William lived in New Haven township and died recently; Thomas died in England; Charles lives in England; Elizabeth, Mrs. Bradford, died in England; Mary lives in England; George, Sarah, and Jane live in England; Edwin lives in New Zealand, and Emily lives in England. E. O. BYAM Truth comes to us from the past, as gold is washed down from the mountains of Sierras in minute but precious particles and intermixed with infinite alloy,-the debris of centuries. It is a matter of no little interest, therefore, to know that the gentleman whose name heads this page now lives upon what is really historic ground, the same being part of a former Indian reservation. It seems that the grandfather of E. O. Byam (Shields by name) purchased the first land sold from the reservation in question. This purchase consisted of two hundred acres, forty acres of which is now the farm of our subject, who was born January 6, 1841, in Guilford, Medina county, Ohio. He is a son of Alfonso and Amanda (West) Byam. His parents were natives of New York state, his mother having been born in Granville, Washington county. At the age of seventeen years, when most boys now-a-days are wondering what they will do for a livelihood, young Byam was struggling with destiny as a farm hand. Within ten years he was proprietor of eighty acres, and he had come into the possession of the same not by inheritance but by dint of hard work and good management. Shortly afterward he bought another forty acres, which he subsequently sold. In a

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 255 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 255 little while after this he bought two "forties" and a farm of one hundred acres. Situated on the latter place was a substantial brick house, which originally cost four thousand five hundred dollars, besides a number of good barns, and other improvements which materially added to his standing as a successful and prosperous citizen. Altogether he now owns two hundred and seventy acres of land. Mr. Byam is the second of three children, -his brothers being John and Samuel. Since his marriage, October 14, 1868, he has resided upon his present homestead. His wife was formerly Mary J. Prior. Their wedding trip was taken to Detroit, and they were accompanied by two other bridal parties: Messrs. Ellison and G. A. Parker and their brides. The former is a citizen of Owosso, while the latter is now a neighbor of Mr. Byam. The parents of Mrs. Byam were George and Ann (Woodthorp) Prior, the father coming from England in 1856 and settling in Shiawassee county. They are both now dead. Mr. and Mrs. Byam have four children: Harry, the eldest, is already a prominent man of affairs; Eva is the wife of Rev. Arthur Ellsworth, of Parkville; Elsie married a brother of the latter, a farmer; and Ward is now living at home. He married Lydia Crome, November 2, 1904. Mr. Byam obtained his early education in the district schools of Ohio and Michigan. Indeed, he never had any other scholastic advantages, but he has been a close observer and an intelligent reader, avenues of instruction which have enabled him to become well posted on all questions of the day. " 'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." For fifteen years Mr. Byam has served as treasurer of the school board of his district and he has also filled other local offices. In politics he is a Republican. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a Knight Templar and a Granger and is enrolled on the roster of the South Vernon Farmer's Club. Mr. Byam's oldest son, Harry, was born in 1869. He has worked his father's farm and has purchased forty acres of his own, so that he is in pretty comfortable circumstances. In December, 1892, he married Elberteen Greenman, and he is the father of three children,-Wayne, who is attending school, and Grace and Eva. Like his father, he is deeply, interested in educational matters, and is now serving as moderator of the school board. Verily, these are and should be happy homes. Their owners can exclaim with the poet: No eye to watch and no tongue to wound us, All earth forgot, and all heaven around us. MARCUS M. BYINGTON Marcus M. Byington was born in Orleans county, New York, March 21, 1839. He is a son of Riley Byington, who was a native of Vermont, where he was born in 1814, and who died July 10, 18272; his wife, Louisa (Pratt) Byington, was born in New York state, in 1816, and died in June, 1886. They were married in the latter state. Marcus M. Byington started in life for himself at the age of fourteen years and has cared and supported himself since that period. He worked on a farm from the age of fourteen years until he was married. During the winters he labored in the lumber woods, while summers were spent on a farm. He served in the civil war for a short time, during its closing days, having enlisted March 14, 1865, in Company A, Twenty-Fourth Michigan Infantry, but was mustered out on June 30th of the, same year, peace being declared,that glorious peace that thrilled a nation with joy and brought gladness to hundreds of thousands of homes. In 1860 he bought eighty acres of wild land in Saginaw county, but he -did not keep it long. Four years afterward he purchased the eighty acres upon

256 PAST AND PR~ESENT OF 256 PAST AND PRESENT OF which he now lives, on section 29, Venice township, Shiawassee county. He has cleared the same, causing it to "bloom and blossom like the rose." In addition to building the fine house in which he now lives, a splendid array of barns and other buildings has been constructed. The dimensions of the big barn is forty by sixty, with a twenty by sixty foot wing, and twenty feet high above basement, while the latter is nine feet high. Then there is a sheep shed forty by fifty, twelve feet high; a hog pen eighteen by thirty-six; a milk house eighteen by twenty-two; a granary twenty by twenty-four; and a tool shed twenty-two by fifty. In 1869 he bought forty acres more, one-half of which was improved. He has cleared the remainder. October 2, 1866, Mr. Byington married Louisa Revenaugh, a native of Noble county, Ohio, where she was born February 5, 1846. She is a daughter of Dr. John Revenaugh, also born in Ohio, April 19, 1817, and of Clarinda (Blake) Revenaugh, who was born in Noble county, Ohio, May 10, 1820; the parents were married in the Buckeye state, in 1838. Mrs. Byington's father, John Revenaugh, died on his birthday, April 19, 1881; while her mother passed to the great beyond February 20, 1894. Dr. Revenaugh was a physician, having been a graduate of Columbus, Ohio, Medical College. In 1853 he removed to Locke township, Ingham county, Michigan, and settled on eighty acres of wild land given him by his father, Samuel Revenaugh, who had traded a farm in Ohio for half a section in Locke. He built a log house and stable and brought his family there from Ohio, making the journey overland by teams. He remained there for three years, when he sold and removed to Shiawassee village, where he practiced medicine until his death. Mrs. Byington was the fourth of eight children. Aurelius O., born April 4, 1840, lives in Louisville, Kentucky, is married and has four children,-Claude L., Ione, Ritta and Harry. Zenas, born February 28, 1842, died at the age of two years. Mary, born June 20, 1844, married Eugene Kingsley; they have no children. Samuel, born November 9, 1847, died in December, 1893; he married Eva Chase and had four children,-Mattie, Edward, Eva and Ruth. Samuel enlisted in Company I, Fifteenth Michigan Infantry, was wounded in battle of Pittsburg Landing and was discharged shortly afterward; later he enlisted in the Tenth Michigan Cavalry and served until close of the war. Saphronia, born April 11, 1852; married Michael Bowerman, now dead; she lives in Lansing, having had four children,-Permelia, born February 15, 1854, livesat Northville; she married Beach Northrop, and they have no children. Benjamin; born February 13, 1856, lives at Owosso; married Maggie Curtis; no children. There were three Revenaughs whose given names were Samuel. They all were soldiers. The grandfather of Mrs. Byington was in the war of 1812; while she had an uncle and brother in the civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Byington have two children -a daughter and son. The former, Minnie, who was born July 15, 1867, married Fred Miller and they live in Venice township, having two children,-Grace, born June 13, 1889, and Carl, born December 9, 1894. The second child, E. Ray, who was born November 22, 1882, married Myrtie Stewart, and they live with Mr. Byington, having no children. Riley Byington, father of the subject of this sketch, was a shoemaker and worked in Detroit before his marriage. After his marriage he lived in New York state and in 1844 removed to Michigan, having previously purchased one hundred and sixty acres of wild land in this state, without seeing it; he afterward found it to be mostly a swamp. He soon traded it for eighty acres of wild land on section 32, Venice township. On this he built a log house and stable. Later he erected a frame house and barn and added forty acres of wild land, making one hundred and twenty acres in all. This he owned at the

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 257 SHAASECUT 5 time of his death. Marcus M. Byington's grandfather was Nathaniel Byington. Marcus is the second of five children, the first being Allison P., who was born in 1837 and died in 1904; she married Franklin P. Mann, and had three children, two of whom are living-Albert R., born in 1842, lives in Tustin, Michigan. He married Fannie Irwin, who is dead; no children. Levi E., born in 1844, lives at Cadillac. He married Thursa Vincent, now dead, and they had four children, -John R., Mattie, Fred and Maude. Mary L., born in 1857, married Perry McIntosh and is now deceased leaving no children. Mrs. Byington is a Baptist and Mr. Byington is a Republican and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He has been highway commissioner one term, township treasurer five terms and supervisor three terms. MARY CARRUTHERS Mary Carruthers, the assistant editor of the historical portion of this work, is the daughter of George and Mary E. Carruthers, who are among the oldest and most respected pioneers of Shiawassee county. The Carruthers family located at North Newberg, near the famous old Shiawassee Exchange, in 1854 and have occupied a prominent place in the life and history of the county. Miss Mary was educated in the district schools, completing a course in the high school of Corunna. She is possessed of unusual literary ability, as her work in connection with this publication indicates. She has contributed not a little to newspapers, and has composed verses that possess more than ordinary merit. Aside from having lived for a few years in Colorado her life thus far has been spent at the home of her parents, in Shiawassee township, ltut her acquaintance extends throughout the county and she enjoys the respect and admiration of all who know her. PETER CAMERON CARRUTHERS The late Peter C. Carruthers was one of the largest land owners and most respected citizens in Shiawassee county. In his chosen calling he was especially prominent for the success which attended his experiments and operations as a wheat-grower, and he was not only prominent as an agriculturist of modern ideas and practices but was also a leader in the practical affairs of the community, inspiring, as he did, the unshaken confidence of all those with whom he had dealings of any kind. He was a firm Republican, served his fellows as justice of the peace for a period of sixteen years, and was an honored member of the Masonic fraternity. Our subject was a native of New York state, born in Bath, Steuben county, June 1, 18e2, and he died in June, 1895. He was the son of John Carruthers, who was born in Scotland, in the year 1792, and who died at the age of sixty-nine years; his wife, Helen (Cameron) Carruthers, was born in 1790 and died at the age of eighty-five years. Peter C. Carruthers was the third of four children. Jane and Mary, the elder ones, who were born in Scotland, are deceased; the fourth, his younger brother, is still living. His parents emigrated from the mother country two years before his birth, locating first in Steuben county, New York, There they resided until 1855, when they removed to Shiawassee township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, and settled on land which is'still in possession of the family. The original tract, which consisted of one hundred and twenty acres, John Carruthers purchased of Ambrose Baker. After his death his son, Peter C., continued to reside on the farm, eventually coming into possession of it, and making additions thereto, by purchase and exchange, until he was proprietor of about 600 acres of valuable land, improved not only by careful cultivation but by the erection of up-to-date farm buildings,-the substantial evidence of our subject's industry and forethought.

258 PAST AND PRESENT OF On the 21st of August, 1856, Peter C. Carruthers was united in marriage to Frances Adelia Sheldon, a native of the Buck Eye state. She was born in Portage county, Ohio, October 26, 1836, and is now living with her third child and only son on the old farm, which has been her home for nearly fifty years. Mrs. Carruthers is the daughter of Seth Sheldon, who was born in Connecticut, in 1804. He was the son of Samuel Sheldon (born 1776) the son of Simeon (born 1726) the son of Thomas (born 1688). Her mother, Julia N. (Bancroft) Sheldon, born in Connecticut in 1800, was a descendent of Governor Ellsworth, the first chief executive of Connecticut. Mrs. Carruthers is one of three children; Anson is deceased, and Seth lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After the death of Mrs. Carruthers' father her mother married Mr. Post, by whom she had two children, Charles C., who resides in Florida, and Clara, who died at the age of twenty-three. To Mr. and Mrs. Peter C. Carruthers six children were born, as follows: Alice, who is now Mrs. E. L. Devereaux, of Owosso; Mary, who lived to be only four years of age; John C., a sketch of whom follows; Ellen Julia, who died at five years of age; Grace, who is now Mrs. T. J. Spangler, of South Dakota; and Fannie H., who is the wife of Senator A. B. Cook,.-of Bennington township. Among the prized relics in the Carruthers home is a "grand-father's clock," that tolled off the hours in the home of John C. Carruthers' great-grandfather. The clock was brought from Scotland by the family. It stands nearly eight feet in height and is known to be considerably more than one hundred years old. John C. Carruthers, who lives with his widowed mother, has always made his home with his parents. His wife, Ethel (Rippey) Carruthers, is a native of Shiawassee township, born July 22, 1879. She is the daughter of M. H. Rippey, born in Branch county, Michigan, April 13, 1848, and of Marcia A. (Lemon) Rippey, born in Shiaawassee county, December 11, 1852. Thomas H. Lemon, her maternal grandfather, was one of the earliest settlers of Shiawassee county, locating in section 14, Shiawassee township, in 1843. Besides Mrs. Carruthers, Mr. and Mrs. Rippey were the parents of one child, Hulon, born February 8, 1883, now living at home. Mr. and Mrs. John C. Carruthers have one child, Cameron, born September 25, 1902. As has been stated, Mr. Carruthers, with his wife and son, lives upon the family homestead, which he inherited at the death of his father. He carries on general farming and makes a success of it. He makes a specialty of feeding and shipping sheep and cattle. He is recognized as an intelligent and progressive citizen-a worthy son of a worthy sire. Socially the family are among Shiawassee's "four hundred." GEORGE T. CAMPBELL George T. Campbell was born in Louisville, Kentucky, December 27, 1864. He is the son of Zachariah J. and Lucy E., Campbell, the former a Virginian by birth, the latter a native of Indiana. They lived for many years after their marriage in Indiana, afterward removing to Kentucky. When the subject of this sketch was five years old his parents removed to Kansas, locating in the then prosperous little city of Chetopa, in the southwestern part of the state, and this was their home for more than a score of years. Mr. Zachariah J. Campbell was in the mercantile business the most of the time, but his health became impaired and three years were spent on a farm. George was the oldest son left at home and the burden of the work fell on him. Returning to Chetopa at the age of sixteen, he entered a newspaper office, The Chetopa Advance, as an apprentice, and remained seven years, reaching the position of foreman of the of

SHIA W7ASSEE COUNTY 259 fice. He then entered secretarial work in ence Barton and George Wiley, have come the Young Men's Christian Association, serv- to brighten their home. ing as assistant secretary at Wichita, Kan- February 25, 1895, Mr. Campbell pursas, and as general secretary at Sterling and chased The Evening Argus newspaper 01 v 0 0 Pittsburg, Kansas, coming to Owosso in a property, which had been established July like capacity April 15, 1892. 23, 1892. All previous efforts to establish On August 24, 1893, was solemnized the mar- a daily in Owosso had failed and at the time riage of George T. Campbell and Miss Harriet the plant was acquired by Mr. Campbell the I. Evens, and three sons, John Evens, Clar- business was still in an experimental stage. 17

260 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2D He has conducted it successfully and its influence has steadily increased. The paper now occupies its own building and is equipped with all modern requirements, including Mergenthaler typesetting machines, fast presses, and also has in connection a firstclass job office. Mr. Campbell is an active Republican, being a member of the city, county and senatorial committee. He is identified with a number of fraternal societies, being a thirtysecond degree Mason, and is an officer in the Michigan grand commandery of Knights Templar. FRANCIS CHANNON After years of usefulness and toil, what a pleasure it is to have been able to acquire sufficient of this world's goods to enable us to enjoy comfort and repose in our declining years. It is also gratifying to know that we have the respect and confidence of our fellow-men and that our hands are filled with generous deeds,-the golden keys that will open wide the pearly gates of eternity. Francis Channon, the subject of this sketch, was born in Devonshire county, England, October 8, 1823. He is a son of Thomas and Charlotte (Marry) Channon, both of whom lived and died in the mother country. In the family there were five children. Elizabeth died in England; the second child is the subject of this sketch; Ann was married, in the United States, to Edward Wiles, both having been born in England and both being now deceased; Charlotte married Joseph Salter, who conducts a meat market in Devonshire, England; Sarah married a coal and wood merchant of Devonshire, England, and still resides there. The subject of this review was christened after his paternal grandfather, Francis Channon, who lived and died in Devonshire. The maternal grandfather was John Marry, also a native of Devonshire. Mr. Channon received his early education in the schools of England and at the age of eighteen years commenced working in the coal mines of Wales. At this, the hardest of labor known to man, he.worked for a period of five years. He then left the mines, and for one year was engaged in railroading and other occupations. In the year 1848 he emigrated to America, settling in Gasport, Niagara county, New York. Here he commenced his career as a farmer, working two years by the month. He then purchased a farm of his own, in Niagara county, securing forty acres of land, partly improved, and there residing four years. He then sold the land and purchased a farm containing one hundred acres of partly improved land, in Erie county, where he resided about five years, when he disposed of the property and for the next few years worked as a day laborer. Thirty-five years ago, in 1870, he came to the state of Michigan and settled in Perry township, Shiawassee county, upon a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of wild land. Here he laid the foundation of a home by building a log house and stable. These he has replaced by fine frame buildings and his years of toil have changed the one hundred and sixty acres of woods into rich fields and orchards, producing quantities of food for man and animal. Who can say that he has not done a noble work? His farm is in section 20, and his postoffice address is Perry. He was united in marriage to Sarah Harris, in England. Their home was blessed by the birth of five children, all of whom were born in the United States: Thomas, the oldest, who was born in Niagara county, New York; married Addie Miller, of Antrim township, and they now reside in California; Charlotte was born in Niagara county, New York, and died at the age of twenty-five years; Sarah, born in Niagara county, became the wife of Orla Oransby, and died many years ago; Francis, Jr., born in Erie county, New York, married Eliza Newman, and died in California. Mr. Channon's first wife died about forty

SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 261 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 261 years ago, on Easter day, and he later married a second time, being wedded to Elizabeth Rothney. She was born in Canada, and is a. daughter of William Rothney and Elizabeth (Smith) Rothney, the former a native of Scotland. Mrs. Channon was born in the year 1837, being the fifth in a family of six children. To Mr. Channon and his second wife have been born three children. William and George were twins. William married Iva Kellog and resides at Gridley, California. George resides with his parents at home. Benjamin T. conducts the old homestead. All of these children were born in Perry township. Mr. Channon was reared in the faith of the Church of England. GEORGE* CHAVEY For nearly sixty years our subject, his wife, and their respective parents, have been identified with the history of Wayne, Oakland and Shiawassee counties, George Chavey himself being especially prominent in the public affairs of Venice township. In tracing the lineage of the two families it is quite a remarkable coincidence to discover that the parents of both Mr. and Mrs. Chavey were natives of France, and that each couple were born in the same county and married in their native place. Such facts, however, are not such unusual matters of record in the old world as in the new. George Chavey was born in Bautal, France, March 21, 1841, his parents, Jaques and Margaret (Shavey) Chavey, being also natives of that place, where they were respectively born January 3, 1803, and May 19, 1797. The father was a typical French farmer, which means that he was as industrious, economical and skillful as any in the world, obtaining from his small holding every cent which it could possibly yield. In the little village where they were both born and brought up together they were mar ried, on April 19, 1830, the wife being several years older than her husband. When our subject was seven years of age his parents, with their family of four children, came to America. George was the fifth and last of the children, all of whom were born in France and one of whom had already died in infancy. After landing in New York, in 1848, the family came directly to Detroit. The father purchased forty acres of wild land and a house in Redford township, Wayne county, for which he paid four hundred dollars with a horse "thrown in." That same land is now worth at least one hundred dollars per acre. The original tract was brought under a thorough state of cultivation, forty acres being subsequently added to it. At the time of his death, May 19, 1874, he owned the entire eighty acres, forming a compact and finely improved homestead. Mrs. Chavey preceded her husband to the life eternal by about two years, her death occurring April 17, 1872. Peter Chavey, a brother of our subject is still proprietor of forty acres of the old farm. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Chavey were as follows: (1) Catherine, born December 10, 1832, who married Charles E. Nardin, lives in Detroit. They have two living children,-Eugene, superintendent of the Indian school at Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and Emily, a resident of Detroit. (2) James F., born November 9, 1834, married Catherine Peterquin and lives in Redford township, Wayne county, Mich. They have eleven living children-Julia, Paul, Emil, Lewis, George, James, Louise, Elizabeth, Henry, Annie and Edith. (3) Peter, mentioned as living on the old homestead in Wayne county, married Mary Geney, and they are the parents of four children,-David, Mary, Alice and Frederick. (4) The child who died in infancy. (5) Our subject. At the age of twenty-one George Chavey established himself in Wayne county as an independent husbandman, being already the proprietor of twenty acres of land, which

262 PAST AND PRESENT OF 262 AST ND RESET O he worked for several years thereafter. When he was twenty-five years of age he sold the property and removed to Southfield, Oakland county, purchasing there forty acres of improved land. This piece he cultivated until 1874, when he sold it and purchased the eighty acres, in section 7, Venice township, which is now the family homestead. He has himself cleared most of the land and he erected the frame residence in which he now lives. George Chavey was married to Louise Geney on the 12th of November, 1864, his wife being born in Brognard, France, August 27, 1846. Her father, George Geney, was also born in that place, in 1817, and her mother, Margaret (Goll) Geney was born there in 1824. In 1841 they were married at their birthplace, and in 1853 emigrated to the United States. With their family they spent the first eight months in Williams county, Ohio, removing in the spring of 1854 to Redford township, Wayne county, where for the succeeding seven years the father. rented a farm. In 1861 he purchased one hundred and fifteen acres of improved land, in that township, which he owned at the time of his death, in 1862. The mother is still living, being a resident of Shiawassee county. Mrs. Chavey is the fourth of seven children. (1) David, who married Mariette Lewless and is a resident of Detroit, has four children-Ella, Fred, Jessie and Raymond. (2) Mary, who died in Redford township, was the wife of Peter Chavey. (3) Catherine, who lives in Venice township and who married as her first husband, Peter Carlin, deceased, had ten children,-Henry (dead), Julius, Maggie, Clara, Mary, Louise (dead), George, Fred, David and Timothy. She had no children by her second marriage, to George Pardonette. (4) The wife of the subject of this sketch. (5) Margaret was married first to Henry Besaucon, by whom she had eight children,-Alice, George, Clara, Fred, Lydia, Aline, Bertha, and a child who died in infancy. Her second marriage was to Peter Chavey. (6) George, who married Alveretta Grimes (deceased) had one child, Irene, by his first wife; his second marriage was to Martha Young, by whom he had three children,Flavia, Samuel and Iva. (7) Henry, who married Emma Palmer, became the father of five children,-Edna, Floyd, Cliaude, Carl and Ruth. The following are the children born to Mr. and Mrs. George Chavey: (1) George H., born in Redford township, Wayne county, September 19, 1865, married Minnie M. Long. November 26, 1889, and they have an adopted *daughter, Izola. George H. is foreman in a factory at Burlington, Vermont. (2) Emelie A., born April 6, 1867, died eleven days thereafter. (3) Edwin F., born November 26, 1868, married Clara Besaucon, August 3, 1900; no children. (4) Samuel C., born February 3, 1878, married Adelia Burch, and they have had two children,-Harold (deceased) and Edith, born November 27, 1903. Our subject was educated in the district schools of Wayne county, and as a young man, during the civil war, was in the service of the government, engaged in the construction of the necessary buildings at Camp Nelson, Kentucky. His wife's brother David was a sergeant in Company E, Seventh Michigan Cavalry. He enlisted at the age of eighteen. was confined in Libby prison for five months, and honoraby discharged at the conclusion of the war. Until 1896 Mr. Chavey was a Republican in politics, since which year he has been enrolled with the Democracy. His personal popularity and strength are shown in that he has served for five terms as Supervisor, being the only successful candidate on his ticket, which office he still holds. Prior to this service he held for three years the office of highway commissioner; for four years was drainage commissioner; school director for twelve years, and school assessor for thirteen years. He has long been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is an

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 263 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 263 able, moral, upright man, whom the people take particular delight in honoring. JAMES H. CLARK James H. Clark is a native of the Wolverine state, having been born in Genesee county, Michigan, September 1, 1859. He started in life for himself at the age of eighteen years, when he engaged in an educational pursuit,that of teaching. Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot, To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind, To breathe the enlivening spirit and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breast. He commenced teaching at Flushing and made that his work for twenty-one years, save one year, which was spent in a store. He taught sixteen years in Shiawassee county. He is postmaster at New Lothop, to which office he was appointed by President MIcKinley. He taught the school there for eight years after being appointed to that position. Mr. Clark was first married in 1882, to Carrie Fuller, by whom he had one child, Inza, who was born April 22, 1886. She married C. C. Plant and they reside at Muskegon, Michigan. November 13, 1892, Mr. Clark married Cora Dunham, of Montrose, Genesee county. After having been married about three years he adopted Hazel Hicks, an infant six weeks old, from the orphans' home at St. Joseph, Michigan. Subsequently her name was changed by the court to Bernice Alice Clark. Mrs. Clark was born November 11, 1868, and is a daughter of George and Calista (Greeley) Dunham, both natives of New York state. Mr. Dunham was a farmer and came to Genesee county in an early day. Afterward he located in Montrose township on forty acres of wild land, which he cleared. The log house which he bui:t is still occupied. He lived there until his death, in 1890. His widow now lives in Montrose village. Her grandfather was a brother to Horace Greelev, of the New York Tribune, and also, as will be remembered, a candidate for the presidency in opposition to General Grant, in 1882. Mr. Clark's father, Jerome Clark, was born in New York state and died at the age of sixty-seven years, on his farm just in the outskirts of Flushing, Michigan. His wife, Mary Ann (Mosher) Clark, was a native of Detroit, Michigan, and died in Montrose, Genesee county, in 1900. Jerome Clark was a miller, and moved to Flushing with his father. They both worked there for a long series of years, but the father of the subject of this sketch spent a portion of the latter days of his life on a farm near Flushing, where he died. James H. Clark's father and grandfather built the first mill at Flushing. His grandfather was in the war of 1812 and was at one time elected county judge of Oakland county. Mr. Clark was the first of two children, the other being W. E. Clark, who was born at Flushing in January, 1863. He lives in Montrose township and married Isabella Reed, their three children being Winfield, Albert and Gladvs. Alice, sister of Mrs. James H. Clark, is the wife of Joseph Huber of Montrose township, and they have one child,-Edton Stewart Greeley. Mr. Clark was educated in the Flushing high school, in which he was graduated. He then entered the Michigan Agricultural College, but did not remain there after the junior year. He is a Master Mason and a member of the Methodist Protestant church. He has filled the office of township school inspector, and is altogether a highly respected and honorable citizen, a gentleman whose "word is as good as his bond." HARRINGTON CLAY The subject of this sketch lives on section 21, Antrim township, and is a native of England, where he was born on the 6th of June.

'QG4 PAST AND PRESENT OF 264 PAST AND PRESENT OF 1845. His father was George H. Clay, who was born in Lincolnshire, England, October 10, 1823, and who died on his farm, in Antrim township, January 28, 1901. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Caroline Foreman and was born in the same place as her husband, March 26, 1824; she died in Antrim township July 6, 1903. This couple were married in England, when George H. Clay was just twenty-one years of age. He came to America in 1849 and lived in New York for three and one-half years, working on a farm by the month. In 1855 he removed to Michigan, buying eighty acres of timbered land in Antrim township, this county. He built a small log house and cleared up the farm. In 1862 he purchased another eighty acres wild land. In 1873 he built a large frame house, to take the place of the old log structure. He also erected a large barn and other outbuildings. He was a very successful and prosperous farmer and was so considered in the county and township. At the time of his death, the result of heart trouble, he owned three hundred and twenty acres of land, all in a high state of cultivation. His wife's death was caused by paralysis. The property has since been divided. His son Wesley lives on the old homestead; while another son, Fred, has eighty acres adjoining. Our subject is the first of seven children. Clara, who was born September 7, 1847, is the widow of Lewis Dicker, who lived in Barry county, and she keeps house for her bachelor brother, Wesley, on the old homestead; she has three children,-Alonzo, Glenn and Stella, the last mentioned being the wife of Edward Dippy, of Antrim; George Clay, born September 14, 1851, died at age of fortyseven years, having lived on farm in Antrim; Vina, born September 14, 1854, was a Mrs. Colburn, now dead; Wesley, born October 12, 1854, is single and lives on the old farm; Fred, born January 1, 1866, lives on part of the old farm; and the seventh child died in infancy. Our subject received his early education in the district schools of New York. He lived with his parents until he was twenty-one years old, when he bought the forty acres of land which he still owns and occupies. About fifteen acres of this was partly improved when he bought it, the remainder being in a state of nature. There was a small orchard on the place, but no buildings. HIe erected a frame house and soon after his marriage, December 15, 1868, he enlarged and remodeled the same. His wife, whose maiden name was Emma Elmeda Shurtleff, was a native of Michigan, having been born July 16, 1852, and she died March 17, 1897. She was a daughter of Selden and Lucy (Johnson) Shurtleff, both of whom have since died, the father in 1883 and the mother in 1884. Mrs. Clay was one of a family of four children by her father's second marriage, the first marriage having resulted in the birth of four children. Mr. and Mrs. Clay had a family of nine children, six of whom are still living: Charles A., born September 15, 1871, is single and lives in Dakota; Myra A., wife of William Geyer, lives on a farm in Antrim township; Arthur, born October 30, 1875, is single and remains at home; Wells B., died at the age of sixteen years; Caroline is single and is at home; Bessie died at the age of nineteen months; John died at the age of ten years; Harry is aged eighteen years and is at home; Ste'la, aged fifteen years, is at home. Mr. Clay has added forty acres to his farm until he now owns two hundred acres, all well improved. He has cleared about three-fourths of this himself. A few years ago he built a large barn and he now can boast of as fine a farm as can be seen in a day's ride. He conducts general farming and raises beans, potatoes, wheat, corn, hogs, sheep, cattle and horses. He has always been a Republican but never been an office-holder. He is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church, is a splendid man and an industrious citizen, with a wholesome, pure family, and feels as independent as a John D. Rockefeller and a great

SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 265 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 265 deal happier, because he can eat and sleep, conscious that he has gained his property honestly. HEZEKIAH W. COBB, M. D. The village of Perry has the distinction of having a citizen with the most illustrious ancestors of any man in the state of Michigan. The geneology of the subject of this sketch, on his father's side, places him as a descendant of the family line of Queen Victoria. Upon his mother's side he is a direct descendant of General Gates, of Revolutionary fame, and his great-grandfather was General St. Clair, the noble man who bears the honor of having been the first governor of the Northwest Territory. Dr. Hezekiah W; Cobb was born in Orleans county, New York, on the 19th of January, 1832. He is a son of Lucius Cobb who was born in Oneida county, New York, January 4, 1801, and of Electa (Whitney) Cobb, who was born in the state of Vermont, November 23, 1808. To this worthy couple were born seven children. The eldest child, Isaac, was born May 13, 1830, and his home is in Akron, Erie county, New York; the second child is the subject of this sketch; the third, Maria L., was born January 5, 1834, and is the wife of Dr. Absalom Billington, a practicing physician at Middleville, Michigan; the fourth, William, died in infancy; the fifth, Jane E., was born in the year 1838, and she married Charles Rogo, a farmer of Genesee county, Michigan; the sixth, Margaret A., was born in the year 1842; and the seventh, Gertrude F., was born in 1846 and died in 1868. During his boyhood Dr. Cobb attended the district schools in Erie county, New York, and at the age of twenty he entered the Cary Collegiate Seminary, where he pursued his studies for a period of two years. Upon leaving this institution he went to the state of Missouri, where for four years he taught school, in various parts of the state. During this time he was preparing himself for the profession which he had chosen for his life work. In order to have actual experience in the handling of drugs and medicines, that he might the more thoroughly equip himself, he spent six months in a drug store. He then attended the St. Louis Medical College for one year and in 1859 returned to his native state and was married to Sarah E. Fishell of Pembroke, Genesee county, New York. After their marriage they removed to the state of Missouri, where on the 16th of Marclh. 1861, their son and only child was born. The son, Leon R. V. Cobb, after he arrived at manhood, conducted a farm for a number of years, and then secured the position of rural mail carrier on route number two, Perry. Michigan. He married Clara Bridger, daughter of Lewis Bridger, a pioneer resident of Shiawassee county, and they have three sonsStearns, born March 2, 1889; Donald, born December 13, 1901, and Arthur, born in March, 1904. When Dr. and Mrs. Cobb reached Missouri they located at a place called Pleasant Gap, where subject began the practice of his profession. In the troublesome days of 1861, their house and household goods and physician's supplies, in fact, everything they had, was destroyed, and to save their lives they had to escape in the night time. Subject volunteered twice to serve in the civil war and was drafted once, but was rejectedl each time by the examining surgeons on account of being six feet tall and only weighing 130 pounds. After escaping from MNissouri, he located in New York and began the practice of medicine at Eagle Harbor, Orleans county, where he continued till 1868, when he removed to Indian Falls, Genesee county, on account of the enactment of a state law denying a physician the right to practice unless he was a graduate of a medical college, Dr. Cobb was compelled to pass an examination, lasting two days, in which he was successful. He came to the village of Perry in

266 PAST AND PRESENT OF the year 1879, and from that time has practiced his profession at that place. He is a member of Perry Lodge, No. 350, Free and Accepted Masons; of the Order of the Eastern Star; and of the Perry lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife, who was an active member of the M. E. church, died November 21, 1902. Dr. Cobb is a member of the Michigan State MIedical Society and the Shiawassee County Medical Society, being an honorary member of all the branches of the state society and entitled to membership in the American Medical Association. Financially speaking, Dr. Cobb is "on easy street" and, counting his varied experiences, he has good reason for personal congratulations for the favorable circumstances in which he finds himself as the more sombre years of life come on apace. The Doctor has served the village of Perry as president. He gives loyal support to the Republican party, which honored him for six years with the office of justice of the peace. For nearly half a century Dr. Cobb has been connected with the Methodist Episcopal church, regulating his life by its teachings and doctrines. WILLIAM FRANCIS COLWELL The subject of this sketch was born il Springport township, Cayuga county, New York, August 5, 1835. He is now a resident of Hazelton township, Shiawassee county. His father, James M. Colwell, was a native of Cumberland county, England, where he was born in 1809, and he came to America in 1829, remaining in New York state until 1835, when he removed to Genesee county, Michigan, and took up eighty acres of government land. This he cleared, and later procured forty acres more, which he also improved. He lived there until his death, in 1874. His home was situated on what was originally an Indian trail, -~ and he was compelled to go to mill in Detroit. William F. Colwell started to direct affairs for himself at the age of twenty-four years, traveling through Michigan with a wagon, wholesaling and retailing Yankee notions. He continued at this for two years and then engaged in farming in Genesee county, on eighty acres owned by his wife. He improved ten acres of this and then sold the property, buying forty acres of improved land, in Atlas township, Genesee county. He did not keep this long, however, and after disposing of it bought eighty acres, half-improved, and settled on this land, in Elbe township, Lapeer county. He chopped ten acres of this and afterward sold the property. He then removed to his present home, on section 21, Hazelton township. This was in 1871. He bought eighty acres, ten acres of which was partly improved. Mr. Colwell went to work, with the aid of his-son Charles, however, and the result is a beautiful, rich farm,-a monument to their energy and labors. The log house in which the family lived for years has given place to a good frame structure, while a suitable barn has also been added. October 14, 1861, William Francis Colwell married Mrs. Maine, a widow; her maiden name was Harding. Nine children were the result of this union, and five of the number are living: James, born March 2, 1862, died in May, 1862; Charles, born in Genesee county, September 16, 1863, lives at home and owns the homestead; Fred and Frank, twins, born April 15, 1864, died when five months old; Willis, who was born February 15, 1868, and who lives in Hazelton township, married Lettie Lewis, and they have four childrenDelta, Vera, Ethel and Lloyd; Bert, who was born January 1, 1871, and who lives in Hazelton township, married Laura Harding, and they have two children; Lulu, who was born October 2, 1872, and who lives at Crump, Bay county, married Herbert Wood, and they have five children; Della, born August 5, 1874, died September 16, 1875; Harry J., born May 24, 1878, is single and lives with his parents.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 267 SC Daniel Harding, father of Mrs. William F. Colwell, was born in Connecticut in 1804, and died in August, 1883; his wife, Emorillous (Swift) Harding, was born in 1808 and died in 1887. Her father's name was Seth Swift. Daniel Harding came to Atlas township, Genesee county, Michigan, in 1836 and took up eighty acres of government land, which he improved and sold. Then he bought eighty acres of wild land, built a log house on the same and later added two forties. He was nine days on his way from Detroit to the first land bought, a distance of fifty miles. Mrs. William Francis Colwell was the second in a family of five children, as follows: Lewis, born October 24, 1833, lives at Arenac, Michigan, and has five children; Marion Harding, was born in Atlas township, Genesee county, Michigan, January 19, 1839; Delos, who was born June 28, 1845., and who lives in Tuscola county, Michigan, married Grace Gardner, and has two children; Inez, who was born April 11, 1850, and who lives in Atlas, Michigan, married George Campbell, and they have no children; Philo, born January 15, 1858; died at the age of eight years. William Francis Colwell remembers when it was necessary to have fires burning at night to keep the wolves away. He used often to see them trying to get into his hog pen after (lark. The father of Mrs. Colwell used to split 2,400 rails for a barrel of flour. He was at one time chased by wolves when carrying home some fresh meat from'the home of one of his neighbors, after butchering. Had not his wife met him with a burning torch his life would have been in great danger. The convenience of the country store was unknown to the early settlers in those days. It is related of Mr. Colwell's stepmother that upon a certain occasion her home was invaded by a number of Indians from the tribe of the Chippewas. She was boiling potatoes for dinner. These the Indians desired, so she exchanged them for some trinkets the Indians had to dispose of. The potatoes were at once devoured by the red skins, after which they demanded the return of their trinkets. To this the plucky woman demurred, the Indians insisting, when she finally seized a poker and drove the invaders from her home. Our subject's mother, Katharine (Collins) Colwell, was born in Cayuga county, New York, in 1800 and died in 1835. In politics Mr. Colwell gives his influence and support to the Republican party, the "party with a history." JAMES W. CONKLIN This gentleman is a native son of Michigan, having been born in Livingston county, November 3, 1851. He is now an honored and respected citizen of Hazelton township, and is a son of Samuel Conklin, who was born September 16, 1797, in the Empire state. The latter was thrice married, his second wife being Emily (Gould) Conklin, mother of the subject of this sketch. She was a native of New York state, where she was born September 16, 1797, and she passed to the life eternal on June '9, 1853. His first wife was Lydia Mace, to whom he was wedded November 1, 1820. They came to Michigan in 1836, locating in Handy township, Livingston county, on eighty acres of wild land. Here both his first and second wives died, and on June 1, 1854, he married for his third wife Rhoda Gould. She died July 18, 1874. He cleared the land, converting it into one of the finest farms that could be desired. Mr. Conklin was largely imbued with the love of home, of constancy, of permanence-with a strong determination to let well enough alone. These characteristics seem to be giving place in the breast of the average American to the desire to "seek pastures new," to look for the "green fields beyond," so to speak-but these desiderata exist only in the imagination as a general rule. Mr. Conklin, therefore, continued to live on the farm he had thus carved from the mighty forest. The idea of clinging to home, as exemplified by the gentleman in question, is

268 PAST AND PRESENT OF 268 PAST AND PRESENT OF so beautifully expressed by one of the poets, that we quote his words: Cling to thy home! If there the meanest shed Yield thee a hearth and a shelter for thy head, And some poor plot, with vegetables stored; Be all that Heaven allots thee for thy brood, Unsavory bread, and herbs that scattered grow Wild on the river brink or mountain brow,Yet e'en this cheerless mansion shall provide More heart's repose than all the world besi(le. Mr. Conklin did not add to his original purchase of land. In politics he was a Democrat. There were no children by the first marriage, but four were the result of the second. Hugh, who was born February 22, 1845, died at the age of thirty-six years, having been a lawyer in Fowlerville, Michigan. He married Mary Drew, no children being born of this union. The second in order of birth was the subject of this sketch. Libbie, who was born October 10, 1856, died in infancy. Emily R., who was born March 23, 1853, and who is now dead, married Henry Silsby, lived in Webberville, and had six children. One daughter was the issue of the third marriage-Frankyette, who was born June 10, 1855, and died in infancy. James WV. Conklin was educated in the public schools in Handy township and lived at home until the death of his father, after which he took care of his stepmother during the remainder of her life. At the age of twentyfive he sold the old homestead in Livingston county, and set his face toward the setting sun, landing in Kansas, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land. He was in quest of health, but, receiving no benefit in "bleeding Kansas," he sold his property and returned to his native heath, where he remained for one year, his health meanwhile continuing bad. He next went to Nebraska, where he purchased eighty acres, but he didn't like that region and concluded to dispose of his holdings and return to "Michigan, my Michigan." He located in Haze'ton township, where he secured forty acres of timber-land. He first built a board house, in which he lived for twenty-two years. Four years ago he erected a fine large frame domicile, and in 1891 a big barn. He has added eighty-four acres to his original tract and is now rightly considered one of the most substantial farmers in Hazelton,-progressive, intelligent and thrifty, a gentleman who enjoys the confidence of people generally, as being trustworthy and honorable. Emerson says: "Trust men, they will be true to you; treat thenm gently, and they will show themselves great." November 3, 1875. Mr. Conklin was married to Hannah T. Marble, who was born in Deerfield, Livingston county, Michigan, June 3, 1850. She was a daughter of Enoch M. Marble, born in Maine, February 3, 1822, and of Theresa M. (Pike) Marble, born in New York December 30, 1826. The father of Enoch Marble was Ira Marble, who was one of the early settlers of Deerfield, Livingston county. Her parents lived on their farm in Deerfield until thirty years ago, when they removed to Handy township. They remained there some ten years and then changed to Shiawassee county, since which they have made their home with our subject. Mr. Marble is totally blind and is also afflicted with rheumatism, not being able to stand on his feet, but strange to say is not in any pain. His wife, however, is in excellent health, considering her age. Mrs. Conklin is the first born in a family of eight children. William, who was born August 4, 1852, and who died at the age of thirty-five years, married Anna Pardee, and had three children, William, Oscar and Emma. Emma, third child of Enoch Marble, was born July 22, 1854, and is the wife of Elliott Brown, of Morrice, M\ichigan, and they have three children-Mason, Theresa and Cassie. Mason, who was born September 10, 1856, lives in Hazelton. Theresa, born June 21, 1862; died at the age of thirty years. Charles, born June 21, 1862, is living and is a bachelor. Minnie, born September 11, 1864, married Mr. A. Shaw, of Hazelton. Harry, born

SHIA WASSEE; COUNTY 269 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 269 September 27, 1867, lives at Clayton, Michigan. He married May Shaw, and they have two children,-Leah and Burt. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Conklin; Hugh, who was born June 30. 1877, was graduated in the Owosso high school, State Normal School at Ypsilanti, and the American School of Osteopathy at Kirksville, M\issouri. He taught school one year, and is now practicing his profession at Alma, Michigan. He married Ida Maeir. Chester J., who was born September 5, 1884, married Florence Confer, and they live on one of his father's farms in Hazelton township. Roy G, born August 13, 1886, and Claude M., borr January 26, 1894, remain at the parental home. Mr. Conklin has always trained with the Republican party and has thrice represented his township in the councils of his party in county conventions. He attends the Methodist Episcopal church and is altogether, as has been said, a highly honored and successful citizen of his township, of his county, of his state. ERNEST W. CONVIS Ernest W. Convis was born in Vernon township, Shiawassee county, March 10, 1877. He is the son of Edwin A. Convis, who was born in same county February 25. 1847. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Stella (Davis) Convis, who hailed from the Empire state, where she was born April 16, 1856. Her home is now in Henderson, Michigan. The son of these good people, Ernest W. Convis, received his education in the schools of Owosso and Henderson. He lived with his parents until he reached his majority, after which he turned his attention to the agricultural-implement business, entering the employ of Convis & Carmody, of Owosso. HEe remained with this firm for one year, and then began working for Detwiller & Son, hardware merchants. He continued in the employ of that concern for nineteen months, proving a valuable and competent man. In 1898 he bought an interest in business with a gentleman named Palmer, at Henderson, continuing to be associated with Mr. Palmer for two years. Four years ago his father, Edwin A. Convis, purchased Mr. Palmer's interest, when the firm became Convis & Son, which name it still bears. The stock consists of a full line of hardware, lime, cement and plaster, together with farm implements, wagons, buggies, etc. In addition to these lines the firm also manages an elevator, and buys grain and beans for Detwiller & Son, of Owosso. The parents of Ernest W. Convis were married in Michigan and lived on a farm in Vernon township for a number of years. They removed to Rush township about twenty-six years ago, and bought eighty acres of land, partly improved. It had a log house and barn. They resided on this farm five or six years, and then removed to the village of Henderson, after which Mr. Convis worked for Detwiller & Son of Owosso about seven years. He next went to Owosso and was individually engaged in the farm-implement business for one year, afterward continuing in a copartnership in the business about nine years. Four years ago, as already stated, he removed to Henderson and succeeded Mr. Palmer as partner of his son. He continued this business alliance until his death in August, in 1904. He was an Abraham Lincoln Republican in politics and a candidate several times for office. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, was a highly respected citizen and a good business man,honorable and upright in his dealings with his fellows. The stock now carried by the firm of Convis & Son at Henderson is much larger than it was when Ernest first became interested in it; while the volume of business transacted is nearly double what it was five years ago. In building up this fine" and growing business. the words of the poet have been forcibly exemplified: "Honor is purchased by deeds we do; honor is not won until some honorable deed is done."

a7o0 PAST AND PRESENT OF I- P Ernest W. Convis was the second in a family of four children. The first is dead, and the third, B. D., is now engaged in business with his brother Ernest in Henderson, and has also taken his father's place as auctioneer. He married Dora Warner, daughter of George Warner, of New Haven township; they have no children. Rolla, the fourth child, died at the age of one year. The subject of this sketch was married November 15, 1900, to Lena Arthur, who was born January 25, 1884-. She is a daughter of Daniel Arthur, who now lives on a farm in Rush township. Mrs. Convis is one of a family of seven children. Mr. and Mrs. Convis have one child, Ruth, who was born March 30, 1901. Mr. Convis is a Democrat and served as township clerk in 1901. He is now treasurer of the Henderson Butter Company. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and it goes without saying that they are highly esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. ALBERT B. COOK Hon. Albert B. Cook was born at the Agricultural College, Michigan, August 11, 1873, his father, A. J. Cook, being a professor at that institution. His childhood was spent at the college, where he was graduated in 1893, at the age of nineteen. A love of the farm and farming seemed inherent in the young man and from the college he came to his father's farm inll Bennington township, Shiawassee county, where he has since resided. Mr. Cook has devoted his attention to general farming, but since the location of the sugar factory at Owosso he has made a specialty of the cultivation of the sugar beet. He has been active in the farmers' club work and has served as president and secretary of his local club, known as the Maple River Club, and also in the corresponding offices in the State Association of Farmers' Clubs. At the present time Mr. Cook is serving his second term as state senator from the fourteenth senatorial district, comprised of Shiawassee and Ingham counties. In October, 1900, he was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Carruthers, of Bancroft. Two children, a boy of four, and a girl of two, complete their family circle. Their home is the Cook homestead, where Mr. Cook's grandfather settled in 1836. CHARLES B. COOK. The path of success in any calling is usually the path of common sense. The old Greeks said: "To become an able man in any profession three things are necessary: nature, study and practice." These are the very tools that make a good business man. Sometimes men reach success through a series of failures. A striking illustration of this is found in Disraeli, the English statesman and writer. At the outset of his career he was considered a literary lunatic. His opening speech in the house of commons was pronounced a "screaming farce." But, writhing under the jeers with which his studied eloquence had been received, he shook his long fingers at the house and vehemently exclaimed: "I have begun several times many things, and have succeeded in them all at last. I will sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear me." He set himself to work and carefully unlearned his faults, closely studied the character of his hearers, practiced night and day all the arts of speech and finally the house laughed with him instead of at him. He was one of the most ornate and effective speakers of parliament. Crowded galleries and floors hung breathless on his words. The people now eagerly seek after his books, and his manuscripts command almost fabulous prices. He has passed into the history of England as the "Great Premier." This was the result of "nature, study and practice." The subject of this sketch, Charles B. Cook, owes his present success to these

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY sources, and is a living example of what hard study, hard work and hard common sense will accomplish. Before becoming a successful horticulturist and live-stock dealer he was a member of the faculty of the Michigan State Agricultural College. He is a son and grandson of educated, intelligent and progressive husbandmen,-the kind of men who have elevated agriculture to the plane of a science and art, so that the present generation is daily becoming prouder to be identified with it. His parents were Ezekiel J. and Anna (Benjamin) Cook, the father having been born on section 7, Bennington township, October 13, 1839; and the mother, a native of Oakland county, having been born February 10, 1843. Ezekiel remained at home until he was of age, obtaining the benefit of some schooling, and, what was of equal importance, the training in practical and progressive agricultural methods which his father was able to give him. It was through the advice and encouragement of the latter that the young man attended the Michigan Agricultural College for two years. He taught school for five winters in succession, working upon the farm in the summer season. He was afterwards elected county superintendent of schools of Shiawassee county and satisfactorily performed the duties of that position for three years, when he resigned on account of his mother's death. Both in private and public life his example was one which was safe and worthy of being followed. He was married June 14, 1866, Charles B., our subject, being the eldest of three childrenthe issue of this union. Ezekiel Cook, Sr., the grandfather, was a native of Rhode Island, where he was born December 16, 1798. He was first married to Drusilla Castle, November 14, 1823, and three children resulted from this union, his wife dying September 9, 1833. A short time prior to his first marriage he had migrated from Rochester, New York, and located in Oakland county, Michigan, where on February 26, 1834, he was united to Barbara Ann Hodge. By her he had four children,-Seth; Anna, who after ward became Mrs. Hugh Cooper and a resident of Riley county, Kans.; Ezekiel, the father of our subject; and Albert J., a professor of entomology in the State Agricultural College. Ezekiel, Sr., lived upon the old homestead, on section 1, Bennington township, until the death of his second wife, January 20, 1874, after which he lived with his son, Ezekiel J., until his own death, March 12, 1884. The deceased was a stalwart Republican, but devoted his energies and abilities not to political reforms, but to the improvement of the scientific industry with which his useful life had been identified. He was the first man to introduce Durham stock into the county, breeding only the finest. He also actively participated in the work of the agricultural association, encouraging his fellow members to improve the nature of their displays. At the time of his death he not only was highly respected for his progressiveness and honored for his strictly upright life but was also recognized as one who had made a practical success in his chosen calling, owning as he did four hundred acres of improved and valuable land. In his religious affiliations he was a faithful member of the Baptist church, having been one of the organizers of the Maple River society and a leader of the sect for many years. Thus, as stated, to go no further back than two generations, our subject inherits not only sturdy and virile traits of the true American yeomantheir highest intelligence and their staunchest morality. No combination could be better to form the best type of 'American manhood. In the district schools of Shiawassee township, Charles B. Cook acquired a sound basis for his advanced course in the Michigan Agricultural College. From that institution he was graduated in 1888, becoming thereafter assistant instructor in the department of entomology. In this line of work and scientific investigation, so important to the wellbeing and protection of the modern farmer, he spent two and one-half years. Leaving a substantial and commendable col

12 72 PAST AND PRESENT OF 272 PAST AND PRESENT OF lege career behind, Mr. Cook removed to New York, bought a fruit farm and continued as a horticulturist in that state for five years. I-e then returned to Shiawassee township, purchasing a half interest in the farm with which he is now identified. It is a fine tract of two hundred acres, of thoroughly improved land, with a large house and several barns. Mr. Cook makes a specialty of raising White Leghorn fowls, of which he has a large fiock, housed in immense and up-to-date buildings. He has also a fine herd of Jersey cattle, most of them eligible for registration, although his policy is to raise them for individual merit rather than for pedigree. The farm also has a fruit department of about forty acres, scientifically and successfully conducted. Mr. Cook has been identified with the State Association of Farmers' Clubs since its inception, and during the year 1905 was president of the association. His wife, an intelligent and cultured lady, has served the association as treasurer. Mr. Cook is also an enthusiastic member of the State Horticultural Society, having served on the board of directors for two years and being now vice-president of the society, serving his second term. He takes pride in the fact that he is also connected with the New York State Fruit Growers' Association, with which he has been identified for several years. From the commencement of Institute work in Shiawassee county Mr. Cook has been an active worker, and his services as a speaker are often in demand. He has filled the offices of president and secretary of the local institute society and his name is seldom omitted from the programs. He is recognized as one of the most enthusiastic farmers' club workers in the county. The Maple River Club is proud to have Mr. and Mrs. Cook identified with its organization. November 23, 1897, Charles B. Cook was united in marriage to Addie M. McGillvra. His wife is a daughter of Charles McGillvra, now living in Chicago, and of Adeline (Payne) McGillvra, her mother having been born in Oakland county, March 17, 1847, and having died September 10, 1884. Her maternal grandfather, Jabez Payne, was born in Onondaga county, New York, September 18, 1809, and, at the age of ninety-five years is living with his granddaughter, Mrs. Cook, and her husband. He is a son of Ephraim and Elizabeth Payne, and in 1828, as a youth of nineteen years, he came to Michigan and located in Oakland county. For a time he followed his trade, that of a cooper, but afterwards bought land and became a general farmer. In 1855 he removed to Bennington township, residing there until the death of his wife, in 1884, when he went to live with his son Hobart, on the farm now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Cook. Jabez Payne was thrice married. By his first wife, Cynthia (Waugh) Payne he had four children, Norman, a resident of Owosso; Cynthia, now Mrs. Cooper, of Kansas City; William, and Martha. His second marriage was to Maude Howard, and the children resulting from this union were Adolphus, De Ett, Adeline (Mrs. Cook's mother) and Hobart; these children are all deceased. The third marriage, to Amanda Stockwell, was childless. Mrs. Cook was one of five children, as follows: Charles, an Owosso letter carrier; a child who died in infancy; the wife of our subject; Perdie, who lives with Mr. and Mrs. Cook; and Jessie, who resides with her father in Chicago. It will be readily seen that Mr. Cook is a scholar and knows how to make good use of his knowledge. Although a lifelong Republican, his time has been too fully occupied with his studies and his practical activities to devote any part of it to politics. While at Lansing he was identified with the Presbyterian church, which he joined as a student, and he still considers himself in affiliation with that denomination. He is domestic in his tastes, being fond of his home, but has no children of his own.

SHIAWItASSEE COUNTY 273 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 27 JOHN Q. A. COOK Antrim township has produced no more patriotic or worthy citizen than the gentleman whose name heads this page. He was born in that township November 4, 1842. He is a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Dubois) Cook, natives of New York. Both died in Corunna, Michigan. The former was eighty and the latter about the same age at time of death. They were married in their native state and removed to Michigan in 1832, first locating in Lenawee county, where they lived for several years. They then removed to Antrim township, Shiawassee county, being numbered among its first settlers. Peter Cook, Sr., located three hundred and twenty acres of virgin land, built a log house and is said to have turned the first furrow in that township. Ile was always engaged in farming until the last few years of his life, when he lived in Corunna, making his home with his son Peter. In politics he was originally a Whig but later a Republican. For many years he held such offices as county commissioner, supervisor, township clerk and justice of the peace. Peter Cook taught school in Antrim township and also New York state. He was a well educated man for those days. Both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church. Our subject's early education was received in a log school house with a bark roof, and furnished with hewed benches. He well remembers seeing snakes six and seven feet in length crawling through the floor into the, school room. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in Company H, Fifth Michigan Infantry, August 9, 1861, at Owosso, under Captain Louis B. Quackenbush. From there he went to Detroit and thence to Virginia with the regiment, which during its service had on its rolls of muster 1,950 officers and men. Its losses wvere ten officers, one hundred and fortyone men killed in action; six officers and seventy-five men died of wounds; three officers and one hundred and sixty-three men died of disease. Mr. Cook was in all the engagements of the regiment for the first two years, when he was taken sick and discharged for disability. He then returned home and remained for five months, when he again enlisted,-this time in Company H, Tenth Michigan Cavalry. He he'd every office in the non-commissioned line and before leaving the state was made second lieutenant of his company, July 25, 1863. He resigned April 12, 1864, and after returning home attended the Corunna schools for two years. From there he went to Ann Arbor to prepare himself for college, but while in his junior year his health failed, obliging him to abandon his studies and return to farming. He then bought one hundred acres of land, part of his father's estate, although it had changed hands before his purchase. December 11, 1869, he was united in marriage to Clara F. Pierce, a native of Washtenaw county, Michigan, where she was born in June, 1850. She was the daughter of Mowry A. and Frances (Backus) Pierce. Mr. Pierce was for many years one of the most prominent citizens of Washtenaw county. At the time of the civil war he paid the heaviest revenue tax of any man in Washtenaw county. His father, Hon. Nathan Pierce, of Calhoun county, figures conspicuously as a politician in the earlier history of Michigan. He was repeatedly elected as a representative to the state legislature, and later was for several terms state senator. He lined up with Zach Chandler, the Howards, Cyrus G. Luce, and that class of politicians. Mrs. Cook was one of a family of six children, five of whom are now living, as follows: Myron C., a resident of Washtenaw county; Mrs. Cook; Augusta, wife of Peter Mulvaney, of Calhoun county; Helen M., widow of George Farley of Washtenaw county; and Edward, also a resident of Washtenaw county. Mowry A. Pierce was born in the Empire state, April 4, 1818. He died in Washtenaw county, at the advanced age of eighty years. His wife was a native of Michigan and died at the early age of twenty-six years. The parents of our subject had both been

2974 PAST AND PRESENT OF 274 PAST AND PRESENT OF married before they were married to each other. The name of Mr. Cook's mother's first husband was Hood. Three children were the result of this union. George Hood is a resident of Lansing, a teacher of many years' experience, a graduate of the University of Michigan, and father of 0. J. Hood, city attorney of Lansing; Anna is Mrs. Carpenter, and resides in Detroit; James is deceased. To our subject's father and first wife were born four children, of whom only one, Mary, is living, her home being in Minnesota. The others were Jabez, Harriet, and Ann. Jabez was a graduate of the medical department of the University of Michigan, and was a soldier irv the Mexican war. Our subject, and a brother, Peter N., were the only children born to his parents. Petei N. Cook is a practicing attorney and resides irn Corunna. Mr. Cook, since the purchase of the old home farm, has had a continuous residence thereon. A few years after coming into possession he built a fine residence and made other needed improvements on the premises, later purchasing eighty acres more, about half of which he has improved. The farm is under a good state of cultivation and the buildings are attractive and commodious. In 1895 the house was destroyed by fire, with nearly all the contents, including books, records, and other valuables, of which Mr. Cook had a good collection. He immediately rebuilt on a larger and better plan than the first. The house is beautifully finished and is said to be altogether the finest structure in the township. Mr. and Mrs. Cook have no children of their own, but a little girl was adopted when but a wee mite of eight pounds. Her name is KiAtie. Her adoption has been a source of real comfort to Mr. and Mrs. Cook. She is now the wife of Duston Morrice, a prosperous farmer of Perry township, and they have one son, Leon, aged eight years, who spends much of His time with his grandparents and is the light and joy of their home. Mr. Cook takes pride in the fact that his father, Peter Cook, did valiant service for his country in the war of 1812. In his later years, he was a government pensioner., His grandfather also served on the American side in the war of the Revolution. Mr. Cook has always taken an active interest in politics, being allied with the Republican party, the party with a history. A number of years ago he was appointed one of the commissioners for the improvement of the Looking Glass river, serving for two years. He has been supervisor of his township for eight or ten terms. At the time of Cleveland's first election he received the nomination for representative in the state legislature and lacked but few votes of an election. He is engaged in general farming, but gives special attention to sheepraising. He has now a fine flock of two hundred fullblooded Rambouillets. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cook are popular socially and their friends are legion. John Q. A. Cook cheerfully yields to his brother a portion of the space allotted to him, to record some of the more prominent activities of the latter's life. Peter N. Cook raised a company and was mustered into the service of the United States. November 18, 1863, as captain of Company H, Tenth Michigan Cavalry, John Q. A. having been mustered at the same time as second lieutenant of the same company. Captain Cook was promoted to the rank of major, February 18, 1865. He followed the fortunes of his regiment until the close of the war and was honorably mustered out and discharged November 11, 1865, having to his credit two full years of active service in the field in one of Michigan's best cavalry organizations. Returning to civil life, Major Cook entered the University of Michigan, in the law department, from which he was graduated with honor. Later for eight years he rendered distinguished service to his alma mater as regent. In "Phials," an annual publication by the junior class of the Homoeopathic medical department of the University of Michigan, the class

SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 275 of 1901 inscribed the volume to Major Cook, as follows: "To Hon. Peter N. Cook, regent, University of Michigan, in recognition of his faithful and efficient friendship for this department, and as a slight token of abiding respect and esteem, this little book is respectfully dedicated by class of 1901. "The annals of Scottish history present the names of many families; but none is more distinguished or honorable than that of Gordon. The subject of our sketch is a descendant of that house. There is a fable, believed by some, that this ancient family originated in Macedonia. It pleases the writer to be numbered among those who consider the story founded upon fact. He recalls that. vision of olden time when a man of Macedonia appeared, saying, 'Come over into Macedonia and help us.' The splendid example of that old hero who heeded the Macedonian cry was well followed by this descendant of the Macedonian Gordons. "It is history, now almost forgotten, that five years ago the Homceopathic Medical College of the University of Michigan was battered, fractured, contused and helpless. With life almost extinct, it uttered the Macedonian cry, 'Come and help us.' Whether inspired by vision or otherwise prompted, the writer knoweth not, but at that critical time, the strong arm and willing heart of Regent Peter N. Cook restored to life and usefulness this department of the university. "Mr. Cook served his country first as a teacher, then as a soldier, and an officer in the rebellion, and later as a lawyer. He has been honored in many ways by his fellow citizens, and his name and fame are widely known. Himself a graduate of two of the departments, in 1890 he was elected a regent of the university. Those interested in the cause of Homceopathy little appreciated then the significance and importance of this selection. "In 1894, after years of college discord, the regents created a separate committee to consider the affairs of the Homceopathic depart18 ment. Regent Cook was unanimously chosen by his colleagues to head the committee. He accepted the trust and proceeded to reorganize and rehabilitate the Homceopathic college. He looked over the profession and selected a new faculty; he advised with the new men and assisted to formulate a policy, for which his tactful and skillful management won respect. "For nearly five years his energies were spent for the cause so dear to us. With what success, the reader must judge. From the ruins of a dismantled college, without students or prestige, has arisen a flourishing and successful institution, standing well toward the front of Homceopathic colleges in numbers and influence. Instead of a hospital of fifty beds, the student of next year will attend clinics in a thoroughly modern, scientifically up-to-date hospital with one hundred and twenty beds. Homoeopathy, in five years' time, has made advances upon the campus and in the city of Ann Arbor which exceed in greatness and importance all the previous history of our cause in this great university. For most of the progress, not entirely professional, credit must be given to the great hearted and sweet-spirited, the patient and cheerful, the fatherly and gentle, the masterful and tactful, the energetic and resourceful, the nobleman and gentleman, Peter N. Cook. Gladly does one who has witnessed them all attest these splendid qualities." Major Cook's wife, Mary (Rutan) Cook, to whom he was married in 1868, is a daughter of one of Michigan's early circuft judges. Their daughter, Frances, a graduate of the literary department of the University of Michigan, is a successful teacher of years of experience. She is now engaged in teaching in the Lansing city schools, where she has been employed for the past three years. THOMAS COOLING Among the influential farmers of Vernon township, Shiawassee county, we find Thomas Cooling. He is a son of William and Ann

276 PAST AND PRESENT OF 276 PAST AND PRESENT OF Cooling, who were early settlers of Vernon township. At the time of their settling here the country was little more than a wilderness and wild animals and Indians were much more familiar objects than the face of white man or woman. Thomas Cooling was born in the year 1854. His father and mother were born and married in England. He is the youngest of a famiiy of three children and at the age of twenty-one years started out for himself to make a name and living in this great world. He settled on the farm where he now lives, in Vernon township, which is well known as Cedar Wood Farm. In 1880 our subject was united in marriage to Miss Ida Davids, whose parents were early settlers of Michigan. Mrs. Cooling's father is a stanch Republican, while our subject casts his vote in support of the men and measures of the Democrat party. To our subject and wife one son has been born and he is assistant cashier of the Shiawasse County Bank, of whose board of directors our subject is a member. Mr. Cooling is a member of the Farmers' Club and is engaged in general farming. His farm of one hundred and twenty acres of well improved land, with its substantial buildings, shows the thrift and enterprise of its owner. PULASKI COOPER The subject of this memoir, although dead, still lives in good works and in what he accomplished by energy and ability while living. He was born in Brutus township, Cayuga county, New York, May 17, 1825, and died on section 4, Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, January 26, 1904, at a ripe old age. His father Dorman Cooper, was born October 29, 1785, while his mother, Lucretia (Shaw) Cooper, was born March 12, 1790. When one and one-half years old, Pulaski was taken to Oneida, Canada, by his parents. He subsequently met and married his wife there. His father died October 30, 1847, and his mother joined the silent majority October 29, 1826. The father of our subject was a printer, but owned and lived on a farm near Oneida at the time of his death. Mr. Cooper was the third of three children. Arminta, born February 13, 1821, is living in Hazeltown township. She married Caleb Lowson, who died in February, 1905, and they have three children, Lucretia, who is now deceased; Wesley, who lives in Venice township; and George, who lives in Hazeltown township. Eugene, who died in Jamestown, Michigan, married Maria' Phillips, and they had nine children. March 25, 1856, Mr. Cooper married Elizabeth Miller, who was a native of county Wexford, Ireland, where she was born, May 27, 1835. Her father was John Miller, a Scotchman, who lived and died in Ireland, having been a farmer. Mrs. Cooper was the fifth in a family of six children. Of the eldest, John, all trace has been lost; Sarah is dead; MIargaret lives in Canada; Lucy lives in Tuscola county, Michigan; and William's whereabouts are unknown. After his marriage Mr. Cooper continued to live in Canada, where he owned a farm of fifty acres, until 1867, when he sold and brought his family to Hazelton township, this county, where he bought eighty acres of wooded land. He first cleared a place upon which to build a small frame house; then chopped and cleared the remainder of the land. In 1876 he bought forty acres of wild land in section 9, across the road from his original farm. Thirty acres of this also has been cleared. In 1890 he purchased forty acres in Montrose township, Genesee county, eight acres being partially improved. Now all but eight acres is under cultivation. His widow and son, Pulaski, Jr., with the rest of the family now live on the old homestead, in Hazelton township. There were no roads in that country when Mr. Cooper removed here. There were five children born unto Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, only two of whom are living.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 277 SHIAWSSEECOUNT 27I Lucretia, who was born in Canada, February 25, 1857, died July 29, 1887; she married Myron Call, and they lived in Owosso, having had two children,-Pulaski and Ernest. John. who was born in Canada, November 12, 1859, is now living in Hazelton township on part of the first eighty acres his father purchased. He married Susan Perigo, and they have four children,-Pearl, who married Archie Roife, and Ray, Ermie and Eliza. Thus Mrs. Cooper is a great grandmother. Garibaldi, born in Canada, June 31, 1862, died March 14, 1863. Elizabeth, born in Canada, May 16, 1864, died in Hazelton township January 10, 1886. Margaret, born in Canada, July 10, 1867, died in IHazelton township, October 28, 1895. She married Henry Amidon; and had one son Elgin. Pulaski, Jr., born in Hazelton township, January 11, 1871, married Nettie Auringer, who was born March 5, 1874. Their marriage occurred December 13, 1890, and they have five children,-Nina, born February 23, 1893; Elzie, born December 11, 1894; Aubrey, born October 14, 1896; Baby J., who was born January 2, 1899, and died February 8, 1899; and Bernice, born August 26, 1901. Pulaski, Jr., commenced farming for himself after his marriage. He worked his father's farm in Hazelton township on shares until 1893, when he assumed charge of the fortyacre farm in MIontrose township, Genesee county, which his father let him use as his own. In March, 1904, he removed back to the old farm, after the death of his father. He owns fifty acres of that farm, and his brother John owns fifty acres. Mr. Pulaski Cooper, subject of this tribute, was a Republican, a Patron of Industry and a school officer. Pulaski, Jr., is a Republican, but votes for the best men. He is a member of the Maccabees at Montrose. JOHN CRANE We look with pleasure upon improved farmns; and the delights of the cultivated fie'd, of the model farm house and barn, and of well bred stock are the subject of many a conversation, discourse and essay. But the man who has given his life and labor, who has denied himself of luxury and pleasure to achieve the results is often forgotten and receives no word of praise. It is fortunate that in the present volume an opportunity is afforded to record the history of such men and to perpetuate their memories. John Crane, the subject of this sketch, was born in Washtenaw county, Michigan, on the 17th of March, 1849. His father was James E. Crane, born in the state of New York, in 1821. His mother, Lucy (Olds) Crane, was born in the state of Pennsylvania, in 1831. His grandfather, Amos Crane, was one of the early settlers of Washtenaw county, Michigan. James E. Crane grew up and was married in Washtenaw county. He owned a farm, on which he resided for seven or eight years. when, at the call of his country, he left his home and family, and sacrificed his life to save the nation, dying of camp fever, in the army hospital at Iuka, Mississippi. He enlisted in Company K, Fourteenth Michigan Infantry, in 1862. His widow afterward married Myron Bignall, they had one child George N. Bignall, now a boot and shoe dealer at Corunna. The mother died in the village of HIenderson, December 7, 1903. John Crane was the eldest of five children. The second, Viola, wife of La Forest Burnham, lives in Genesee county. The third, Charles, married Etta Green, and is engaged in the undertaking business at Munith, Livingston county. The fourth, Phileta, was first the wife of Henry Barrett and afterward married George Palmer, of Brady township, Saginaw county. The fifth, Mary S., was also married twice, first to William Lewis, and afterward to Cornelius Poulison, and she now resides in Clair county, Michigan. Mr. Crane was reared in Rush township, and received his education in the Goss school house. He lived at home until the death of his father when the family was broken up. Not regarding the heavy debt his family had al

PAST AND PRESENT OF 2.978 278 PAST AND PRESENT OF ready paid. the nation, Mr. Crane, in Decemnber, 1864, enlisted in Company K, Thirtieth Michigan Infantry, at Owosso. His regiment never left the state. They were stationed at different points in the state and were mustered out at close of the war, at Jackson. Although he never saw any active service, he placed himself in the hands of his government to be used if his services were required. After his return from the army he lived for two years with his mother and stepfather, working upon the farm. He then labored for eight years in the lumber woods of MontcaIm and Gladwin counties. HIe then returned to Rush township and purchased eighty acres of wild land, on section 19. This land was all woods and there were no buildings. He immediately set himself to the task of clearing the land and erecting buildings, and the next year was married to Mary E. Carmody, who was born June 2, 1855. She is a daughter of Thomas Carmody, a native of Ireland. Her mother was Ellen (Caiton) Carmody; after the death of Mr. Carmody she married William Hoonan. Mrs. Crane is the oldest of four children. The second Marguerite, is the wife of Charles Henderson, of Detroit. The third, Stephen. lives upon a farm in Rush township. The fourth, Bridget, is the widow of Jake Burner, and lives in Chicago. There were two children of the. second marriage, William and Ellen. To Mr. and Mrs. Crane have been born five children. The first, Orie, is married and resides in Owosso; Oliver is unmarried and lives in Rush township, at home; Erma, aged twenty-two, is the wife of Manasa Mitchell, of Rush township; Jay, aged twenty-one is married and is at home; Leslie, aged thirteen, is at home. Mr. Crane purchased fifty-four acres in addition to his original eighty and at the time of his death, which occurred since this sketch was first written, had one hundred and thirtyfour acres of as fine farming land as' the county affords. All of this land he cleared and improved, having erected two large barns and improved his dwelling house until it is one of the finest in the township. He also owned a house and lot in Henderson. The stock on the farm is high bred, especially the cattle, which are well adapted to the uses for which he has them. He was president of the Henderson Butter Company, to which he sold large quantities of milk annually. Mr. Crane was a Republican politically, and was honored by holding several township offices, including that of supervisor, of which he was incumbent for two years. He was a member of the Modern Woodmen of America of Henderson. The homestead is arranged with all the conveniences for general farming, and he lived to enjoy the fruits of many years of honest toil. AUSTIN W. CRONK Pluck and energy accomplish much for a young man who starts the battle of life emptyhanded and alone, resolved to win out. These sterling traits are exemplified in a marked degree in the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this page. He is a native son of Michigan, having been born in Flushing township, Genesee county, August 30, 1853. He is a son of Walter N. Cronk, who hailed from Erie county, New York, where he was born December 30, 1811; and died in Flushing, Michigan, October 28, 1891. His wife, Harriet (Persons) Cronk, was a native of Wyoming county, New York, where she was born in 1823 and she died in the same place as her husband, in 1864. In 1837 Walter N. Cronk came west and located at Flint, Michigan, where his father had bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild land from the government. He was married, in the township of Flint, to Harriet Persons, and they were pioneers of Genesee county. There were no roads in those days, at least to the land on which these pioneers located, so the father of our subject was forced to cut his way through the woods a distance of nine miles; and it took several days to do this. He built a log

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 279 SHAASE CONT 279 shanty and later a log house. The nearest milling point was Pontiac,-a week's trip. One man used to make the trip, a distance of fifty miles, for the neighborhood. Walter N. Cronk lived on this farm fifty-two years, at tlie end of which he took up his residence in Flushing, where he died. He improved nearly all the land himself, and the magnitude of such a task can only be appreciated by those who have passed through it. When he first came to Genesee county deer were so plentiful that he could kill and ship one out almost any time. He always took his gun with him when hunting his cows, as he generally could then bag some game. He was a member of the Masonic order. Our subject started for himself at the age of twenty-one years, after which he worked his father's farm on shares, and another farm for several years. In 1874 he bought eighty acres of unimproved land, on section 36, Hazelton township, where he now lives; but he did not locate on it until 1879,-due largely to the impassable roads. A frame house was built to start with, and this is now a part of the present fine house,-the result of extensive remodeling. The entire farm is now under a good state of cultivation, the forest having given way to broad, cultivated fields. The original farm was enlarged by the addition of forty acres, all improved land, on section 2, Venice township, and in March, 1905, still another forty acres, adjoining the first forty, in the same township, has been added, thus giving him one hundred and sixty acres in all, -a splendid heritage for any man. The first frame barn which he built was struck by lightning and burned. Six years ago he again remodeled his home and built another barn. October 8, 1879, Mr. Cronk married Ella Twitchell, who was born December 21, 1856. She is a daughter of James Twitchell, who was born in Onondaga county, New York, in 1832, and who died in Flushing, Michigan, August 18, 1897. The latter's wife was Harriet (Hoyt) Twitchell, who was born in the same county, state and year as her husband. She now lives with her daughter and son-inlaw, Mr. and Mrs. Cronk. When twenty-one years of age, James Twitche'l located in Berrien county, Michigan, on one hundred and sixty acres of timbered land, building a log house and stable. He improved the property and just after the civil war sold the same and removed to Saginaw, where he engaged in the grocery business. He was also deputy register of deeds for Saginaw county for several years and was township treasurer in. Berrien county. In politics he was a Democrat, and he also belonged to the Masonic fraternity. In 1870 he'removed to Shiawassee county, buying eighty acres of new land, in Hazelton township and eighty acres in Venice township, all of which he converted into a fine farm. In later life resided in Flushing, where he died, still owning the farm of eightyeight acres. His daughter, Ella, wife of our subject, was the second born in a family of four. Hattie died November 29, 1867, aged fourteen years and six months; Frank, who was born October 8, 1859, and who lives in Detroit, being a nartner in novelty-ware works, married Olivia Hoard, and they have two children,-Hattie and Clara; James Edward, who was born February 27, 1864, and who lives in Detroit, where he is interested in the novelty works with his brother, married Belle Olmstead, and they have two children,Everard and Morey. Three children have blessed the home of our subject and his wife,-Julia, who was born January 14, 1881, and who is a graduate of the Flushing high school, married Albert Sherman, December 25, 1901, and they live at Byron, where he is principal of schools: they have two children,-Marjorie, born November 5, 1902, and Austin, born September 22, 190-; Grover C., born January 1, 1883, lives at home; as does also Arthur, who was born August 12, 1891. Austin W. Cronk was the fourth born in a family of five children; George, who was born in 1842, died April 9, 1905, at Flushing, having been a retired farmer. He married

280 PAST AND PRESENT OF 28 PAS AN PRSN OF Eliza Packard, and they had two children,Bert and Permillia. Abiah, who lives in Grand Rapids, married Joseph Davis, and they had three children,-Austin, Nellie and Norton. James died at the age of eight years. The subject of this sketch was next in order of birth, and Hattie, the youngest, is deceased. Mr. Cronk is well up in Masonry, being a member of the blue lodge, the chapter, the Order of the Eastern Star and the commandery of Knights Templar. In politics he is a Democrat, and he has served as supervisor of I-azelton township for six terms, and as township treasurer for two terms. WILLIAM R. 'CROOK General Sherman once said: "War is hell!" No one knew the truth of this expressive remark better than General Sherman, and its force has been brought home to each of the great army of veterans now so rapidly closing their earthly careers in every part of this broad land of ours. The gentleman whose name heads this page was born in Erie county, New York, August 26, 1836. He is a son of Frink Crook, who was a native of the Granite state, but who passed most of his life in the state of New York, where he died, at the age of sixty years; his wife, Lucy (Kenyon) Crook, passed to the other shore when her son, our subject, was only four years old. The latter was one of ten children, seven of whom are living. None of them has ever resided in Michigan, however, excepting William R.; one brother livesin Wisconsin. Our subject received his early education in the district schools of Holland, Erie county, New York, and at the age of twenty commenced to work by the month as a farm hand. This was his employment at the outbreak of the civil war, when he enlisted for three years, in Company H, One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth New York Infantry, as a private. At the battle of Cold Harbor he was shot through the knee, was taken prisoner and held by the Confederates for three months, most of the time in Libby prison, Richmond. He was then exchanged and sent to Annapolis. He also participated in the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, Virginia, May 10, 11 and 12, 1864, and other smaller engagements. For two years after the war Mr. Crook was engaged in the east in various agricultural pursuits, after which he migrated to the west, as Michigan was then called, and located in Qakland county. At first he purchased forty acres of improved land, near Vernon, residing thereon for several years. In 1880.he removed to his present location, in section 9, Shiawassee township, buying a tract of seventy acres of improved land, with a number of fair farm buildings. He has since added fifty acres, erected a modern residence and other structures befitting an up-to-date homestead, and in his later years is deriving substantial enjoyment, as only a successful and prosperous farmer is able fully to do. He is quiet and domestic in his tastes, and, although a Republican in politics has never aspired to public office. In his religious faith he is a Methodist. Mr. Crook was united in marriage November 29, 1865, to Harriet Rappleye, who was born in Genesee county, New York. This estimable lady died February 12, 1894. She was a daughter of Peter and Ann (Rose) Rappleye, her father having been a farmer near Syracuse, New York. January 11, 1898, Mr. Crook was married a second time, his bride being Elizabeth Cole, a native of Jefferson county, New York, where she was born May 18, 1859. She is a daughter of Franklin and Harriett (Rockwell) Cole. Her father was a farmer of Brownville, Jefferson county, New York, where he was born August 24, 1817, and he died January 31, 1861, leaving a widow and seven children. Mrs. Crook's mother was born January 18, 1823, and is therefore a venerable lady in her eighty-third year; she makes her home with our subject and wife. Her seven children are: Harriett,

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 281 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 281 born March 20, 1847, is now the wife of J. B. Reynolds, a farmer of Caledonia township; Laura M., born April 28, 1848, is the wife of Henry Phoenix, of Middlebury, Indiana; Jane A., born April 30, 1850, is the wife of Charles Helsey, of Pulaski, Nexv York; Herbert F., born December 21, 1852, was drowned June 6, 1872, while washing sheep on the Reynolds farm, in Caledonia; Clarence A., who was born January 7, 1855, and who was a resident of Wisconsin, married Minnie Graves; he died December 27, 1893; William R., born April 22, 1857, married Florence A. Wilcox.and lives in Corunna; and Elizabeth AI. is the wife of our subject. Mrs. Cole remained on the farm which her husband left at his death, faithfully rearing her large family of children, and in 1873 she made her home at Corunna. Mir. Crook has no living children by either marriage. It will be seen, from the above outline of his career, that he has not only proved a good, brave and loyal soldier, but has demonstrated the fact that he is equally as good a farmer and business man, and in his declining years he has the profound respect of a large circle of personal friends. L. G. CUDNEY It is always a pleasure to follow the course of a self-made man, especially if that man be successful in life's activities. Such a man is L. G. Cudney. He was born in Girard, Pennsylvania, November 21, 1853. His father was William Cudney, who was a native of Pennsylvania, where he was born February 20, 1815. The mother of our subject was Cecilia (Silverthorne) Cudney, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1817, and who died at the age of seventy-nine years. Young Cudney lived with his parents until he was twenty-one years old. He was educated at Springfield Academy, paying his tuition by teaching mental and practical arithmetic in that institution. After leaving home he went to Owosso, where he learned the carpenter's trade, under M. M. Potter, for whom he worked three years. In the following year Mr. Potter was employed by Mr. Cudney, and for fifteen years afterward the latter was engaged in contracting and building. MIany of the finest structures in Corunna, Venice, New Haven and Chesaning represent the work of his hands and brain. His father was a farmer and drover and also dealt in land, owning from one hundred and sixty acres to six hundred acres at different times. His home farm consisted of one hundred and sixty acres, finely improved and equipped with first-class buildings. The father and mother kept house together for sixty years, both having been very stout and rugged. William Cudney was active after he became quite old. He did a great deal of hunting and fishing, being fond of this sport. He and Judge A. A. Harper, of Corunna, ate corn bread made from corn cracked on an oak stump, the only method in vogue with the settlers in the early pioneer days. He and other pioneers bought salt from Stephen T. Girard, of Philadelphia, the same having been towed across Lake Erie. Girard was the founder of the great college named after him. Mr. Cudney's father was always a strong Democrat, and several times was elected to office in his town and county. In religion he was a Universalist, and his wife was a Presbyterian. L. G. Cudney was the sixth in a family of seven children, the others being: Henry, who is a traveling salesman; Benjamin, who lives at Perry, Michigan; Jane, who is the wife of Captain A. J. McKee, of Springfield, Pennsylvania; Harriett Amanda, who is the wife of Elder Maynard, of Springfield, Pennsylvania; James S., who is a lumberman and farmer of Springfield, Pennsylvania; and Clarence M., who is a millwright, residing in Owosso. Mr. Cudney was married December 21, 1881 to Leonora Hoenshell, who was born in Ohio, July 21, 1862. Her father was Jonas Hoenshell, also a native of Pennsylvania, and he died in Caledonia, January 1, 1904, aged

282 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2 PT A sixty-nine years. His wife was NMary (Steffy) Hoenshell, a native of Ohio, and now sixtysix years old. She lives with her son, in Caledonia township. Jonas Hoenshell settled on a farm in Caledonia township, in 1864, and here he lived until his death. Mr. Cudney is the second of a family of seven children, the others being: William A., who lives in Owosso; Jacob S., who lives in Gladwin, Michigan; John H., who lives in Caledonia; Lewis, who lives in Caledonia township; Ella, who is now Mrs. Watson, of Durand; and Fred, who lives at the old home. Before Mr. Cudney was married, and while learning his trade at Owosso, he bought eighty acres of wild land, on which he now resides. This land was then all woods and there were few roads in the neighborhood. He paid out his last dollar for an ax and then begun the work of improving his farm. He first built a small frame house. To this he has added until it is now one of the finest in the township. He has a barn thirty-six by seventy feet, built twenty years ago. The other improvements are the result of his own labors. He has also added sixty-five acres more land, some of which had been partly cleared. The land is all in good condition and is under a high state of cultivation. Mr. Cudney is a model farmer. There are no fence corners growing to weeds to be seen on his farm, as he takes great pride in keeping things looking thrifty and tidy. All of the buildings on the farm were built by himself and are of course, first-class in every way. He does considerable buying and selling of stock, at which he is quite successful. With the exception of two years spent in Pennsylvania, looking after his father's business, he has always lived on his farm. He makes a specialty of raising a variety of crops, so that if one fails, another can usually be depended on. In short, he is a careful, shrewd business man, and while he rarely lets slip a chance to make money, he is always honorable and sincere. This 'couple of sturdy citizens have been blessed with four children, all of whom are living, as follows: Cecilia, aged twenty-three years, is the wife of Frank Deyo, of Grand Rapids; Etta, aged seventeen, is the wife of Charles White, who owns a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in New Haven township; Glen V., aged fourteen, is at home and is attending the Corunna school; L. G. Stanley was born February 2, 1903. Always a Republican, Mr. Cudney has never consented to hold office, preferring rather to be in the ranks of the party. He does not belong to any fraternal society. He is a gentleman of excellent habits, and is re-spected in the community. LINN M. CUDWORTH, M. D. Some men in this life of ups and downs and rapid changes have greatness thrust upon them; while others achieve greatness. Of the subject of this sketch, Dr. Linn M. Cudworth, of Perry, Michigan, the latter may be said, as he has already left his impress upon the community in which he has cast his lot, despite the fact that he is yet a young man. He received his early education at Oxford Academy, New York, and Colgate University, at Hamilton, New York. He graduated in the Baltimore University School of Medicine the same year. He was a jeweler with his father at Oxford, New York, prior to taking up the study of medicine. The Doctor is a native of Bainbridge, New York, where he was born February 23, 1870. He is the son of John W. Cudworth, a native of Burlington, Vermont, who was born December 15, 1845. He is now, however, a resident of Cortland, New York, following the occupation of jeweler and optician. The Doctor's mother was Eloisa (Maine) Cudworth and she was united in marriage to his father, in New York state, in 1869. She died at Oxford, New York, January 2, 1894, honored and revered. Dr. Cudworth was married to Lucy B. Snyder, of Perry, Michigan, October 16, 1904.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 283 S His wife is a native of Perry,' and was born June 17, 1882. In politics the Doctor is a Republican, and he served as president of Perry village one term. He is a member of Perry Lodge of Odd Fellows; of Perry Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is senior deacon; a member of Owosso Lodge of Elks, and is also an esteemed member of the Baptist church. Dr. Cudworth, being yet on the sunny side of life and in the enjoyment of public confidence and a good equipment for the practice of his chosen profession, is well advanced on the road to success and a good competency for later years. EDWARD CURLISS This gentleman has a three-fold history, and has had an experience that falleth not to the average tiller of the soil. He is now a well-to-do farmer in Bennington township; but has also been a California miner and a manufacturer. Concerning the Golden state, whither he journeyed in 1855, Mr. Curliss could furnish sufficient data to make a book. Like thousands of others who went there in quest of gold: His daily teachers had been woods and rills. The silence that is in the starry sky, The sleep that is in the lonely hills. Mr. Curliss remained nearly five years inl Cal - ifornia, where he was employed in farming and mining, but returned to Michigan to see his wife, intending to sell his homestead and personal property and return to Californiia, but he was unable to find a buyer, so concluded to stick to the farm. He resolved to make it "win out" or else to engage in some other line of profitable work in which he could also earn for himself a place in the community. Mr. Curliss continued his farmnig operations for a number of years, but in 1866 removed to Owosso and engaged in the manufacture of wooden pumps. He conducted this industry for a period of twenty years, when I he disposed of his factory and, for a time, retired from active business. In 1900, however, he returned to his farm, in Bennington township, where he has since lived, and although seventy-seven years of age, he is in good health, and engaged in general farming. He takes great pride in the remarkable growth of timber in his locality, and being one of the pioneers of the region he has been able to record some interesting personal facts. For instance, when he first located in Bennington township, he remembers measuring a stump which was seven feet and seven inches across. A small elm sprout which he had planted in a lane before going to California grew to be a tree nine feet eleven inches in circumference. Mr. Curliss was born in Oakland county, Michigan, March 15, 1828. His father was William Curliss and his mother Maria (Lulis) Curliss, both natives of the Empire state. In his younger days the father was a cooper, but he spent most of his mature life as a tiller of the soil, in Michigan. When he located in Oakland-county, Detroit was little more than a hamlet of huts. He first purchased a farm near Birmingham, but after residing there for several years settled near White Lake. When our subject was sixteen years of age, his father removed his family to a farm onsection 2, Bennington township, Shiawassee county, his land adjoining that which his son, Edward, subsequently purchased and which is now the family homestead. This was in 1844, and the region was a wilderness. The father, with the aid of his boy, built a little log house, in which he and his wife lived until their death. When our subject was twenty years old he bought, in company with a friend, eighty acres of timbered land, adjoining the family homestead on the west. After three years of hard labor, they cleared it of timber, which they sold for a sufficient amount to pay for the tract. In 1855 Mr. Curliss married Elizabeth D. Cook, daughter of Ezekiel and Drucilla Castle) Cook. Her parents settled in Shiawassee township in 1837. Mr. Cook was born

'2 8 4 PAST AND PRESENT OF. December 16, 1801, and died March 12, 1884; his first wife was born November 16, 1801, and died September 9, 1833. The wife of Edward Curliss was one of three children by her father's first marriage. The first child was Chauncey Cook, who died in Saginaw county in 1888; the second child was Mrs. Curliss; and the third, Drucilla, is the widow of Wallis Gammon, of Sacramento, California. The second wife of Mr. Cook was Barbara (Hodge) Cook. They had four children; The first, Seth, lives in Shiawassee township; Anna is the wife of Hugh Cooper, of Riley, Kansas; E. J. Cook resides in Shiawassee township; and Prof. A. J. Cook resides in Clarmont, California, having been formerly a professor in the Michigan Agricultural College. Mr. and Mrs. Curliss had no children of their own, but adopted as their daughter, Ada H. Hill, who, under the tender care of her foster parents, developed to womanhood, and who is now his homekeeper. For several years she was a teacher in the Owosso public schools. Mrs. Curliss was summoned to the life eternal in April, 1889, having been a woman of many virtues. In politics our subject has always been a Republican, but has never held office nor been an office seeker. He has been an industrious, sturdy and useful citizen, just the kind who, without pretensions, is at the basis of the prosperous American rural community, which, in turn, forms the bulwark of the nation. EDWIN M. CURTIS The subject of this sketch has been a resident of Shiawassee county for half a century: and through his own industry and ability has raised himself to a condition of ideal comfort, although he was for many years the mainstay of a large family. During all of this long residence period he has been deeply and prac,tically interested in educational affairs, and for more than thirty years has served as a school director. Now in his seventy-fifth year, Mr. Curtis is still mentally and physically vigorous, widely known and uniformly honored for his strong moral character. Edwin M. Curtis is a native of Niagara county, New York, where he was born May 21, 1831. His parents were Asa Curtis, also a son of the Empire state, and Mariah (Fillmore) Curtis, who was born in Vermont; they were married in New York, where their ten children were born in the following order: Mariette, who was born in Niagara county, New York, died in Woodhull township; Louisa, born in Niagara county, New York, married Ranthus Tibbits, now deceased, and had one son, Almanson, a farmer; and she died in Macomb county, Michigan. William, born in October, 1825, in Niagara county, New York, was twice married, first to Eliza Slocum, of Middlebury township, by whom he had eight children, and second to Mrs. Harris, who died without issue; Clarissa was born in 18929 and is now living with her daughter, Nancy Parks, in Path township, Clinton county, having been twice married, first to D. Hiram Hart, deceased, by whom she had eight children, and second to Edwin Parks, by whom she was without issue; our subject was next in order of birth; Harriet, deceased, was born about 1833; Caroline, born in 1835, married Samuel Lester, deceased, is the mother of four children and resides in Memphis, Michigan; James, who was born in 1837, and who resides on a farm of 90 acres in Macomb county, married Louisa Torrey and has two sons, Herman and Burt; two of the ten children died in infancy. Our subject received his early education in the district school at Armada, Macomb county, and at the age of seventeen started out in the world as an independent worker. For two years he was a wage earner by the month and for the succeeding six years was employed in a saw mill in St. Clair county. Soon he was operating it himself, his cousin being the proprietor. Still later he moved to his father's farm, in Armada town

SHI 4WIASSEE COUNTY 285 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 285 ship. A good story is vouched for relating to this period of his life. The country was then very wild and abounded in game of all kinds, big and small. One night soon after assumi.ng the responsibilities of a benedict, he was coming home from the harvest field with a sack of flour over his shoulder. Ahead of him was what appeared in the uncertain light to be one of his very fat hogs waddling down the road. He drove the animal along until near the pasture, when to Mr. Curtis's astonishment the beast took to the woods and went up a tree; the fat hog proved to be a big bear. Our subject worked his father's farm, in Armada township, about two years, and then, in 1856, removed to Fairfield, Shiawassee county, and purchased a tract of one hundred and sixty acres. He cleared most of the farm, brought it to a good state of cultivation, erected suitable buildings thereon and made it his home for fifteen years. He afterward rented the place and located upon a farm of one hundred and fifty-two acres in Bath. Eventually selling both properties, in 1878 he bought his present farm of one hundred and eighty-three acres, in Woodhull township. It was partly improved at the time of purchase, and Mr. Curtis himself erected a handsome brick house and a good barn. Besides being comfortable in this world's goods, our subject has gathered a fair store of worldly honors. He has served his community as highway commissioner for two terms, is justice of the peace, to which officehe was elected in 1904, and, as has been stated, has been a member of the school board for a period of more than thirty years. He is a Democrat of the old school, has been for many years affiliated with the Odd Fellows' order, and, despite his years, is quite thoroughly in the active "swim" of life. Mr. Curtis has been twice married. By his union with Mary Ann Blanchard, in 1853, he had eleven children, eight of whom are living: Curtis, the first born, lived but a few months, being born September 15, 1854, and dying January 1, 1855; Charles, who was born March 4, 1856, and who is a farmer in Bath township, Clinton county, married Alice Sargent, and they had one child, now deceased; the third child, Samuel, was born May 14, 1857, married Louie McKay, lives in Kansas and is the father of five children; Asa, the fourth, married Milly Schroeder, has one child and is a resident of Owosso; Edwin, who was born January 27, 1860, married Melissa Machinay, has three children, and is a stockman in Colorado; the sixth child, Willie W4. who was born March 3, 1863, and who is a farmer in section 16, Woodhull township, married Minnie Sergent, and is the father of two children, Mary, born in 1884, and Floyd, a school teacher, born in 1886; Doctor and Henry both died young, the former having been born August 16, 1862, and having died October 6. 1863, and the latter having died eleven days after his birth, which took place November 14, 1863; Manly G., a farmer, at Chapin, Saginaw county, was born July 9, 1868, married Cora Brown and has two chil(ren, John and Eva; the tenth born, George, lives on a farm of forty acres in section 16, Woodhull township, his natal day being April 27, 1870; Delbert, the eleventh, was born December 25, 1871, married Maggie Countryman, has one child, a daughter, and is a Kansas farmer and stock-raiser. Mr. Curtis's second wife was Emogene (Rush) Webb. She was born August 12, 1851, and married Alfred J. Webb in 1873; her first husband died in April, 1895, and she married Mr. Curtis, December 18, 1902. Mrs. Curtis is the mother of seven children by her first husband: Addison Webb, born June 15, 1874, is an Elsie farmer and married Florence Hammond; Edmond, born June 3, 1875, married Florence Harvey, has one child and lives in Perry township; Elmer, who was born September 19, 1876, and who is a farmer, living on section 17, Woodhull township, married M!Iyrtle Coss and has one child; Frank, born December 16, 1877, is a farmer whose residence is in Perry township; Cora, born August 12, 1879, married Charles Harvey, a rural

286 PAST AND PRESENT OF mail carrier of Shaftsburg; Caroline, born December 31, 1882, married Harry Cushman, a farmer of Bath township; May, born May 3, 1885, is living at home. As will be noted above, Mrs. Curtis's maiden name was Rush. It should be stated that Rush township is named after the grandfather, who was the first settler in that township. For a period of six years after her first marriage she lived in Williamston, Ingham county. Mrs. Curtis's first husband, Albert Webb. was a member of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, followed the fortunes of his regiment for three years and was discharged by reason of the close of the war. He was with the command that captured Jeff Davis, and stood guard over the Confederate president one night. DAVID HENRY CUTLER David Henry Cutler, of section 20, Hazelton township, was born in London, Canada, February 4, 1846. His father, William Cutler, was a native of Lawrence county, New York, where he was born February 4, 1821, and he now lives in Sanilac county, Michigan; his wife, Mary Ann (Skuyse) Cutler, was born in Ireland in 1820, and died in Sanilac county years ago. At the age of twenty the subject of this sketch began hustling for himself, and bought 35 acres of land in Sanilac county. He worked in the lumber woods winters and sailed on the lakes summers, to raise money to pay for his land, but in 1862, the great civil war being then in progress, young Cutler, like thousands of other loyal men, hastened to the front at his country's call. In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility, But when the blasts of war blow in our ears Then imitate the action of the tiger,Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. Mr. Cutler did "stiffen the sinews," and enlisted in company B, Sixth United States Cavalry, at Detroit, September 10, 1862. In 1863 he was discharged and transferred to Corn pany B, Eleventh Michigan Cavalry. I-e was with his command in rendezvous at Kalamazoo and afterward at Lexington, Kentucky. He took part, with the Eleventh Cavalry, in the battles of Mount Sterling, Cynthiana, Kentucky; Big Sandy and Saltville, Virginia; and Crab Orchard and Macon, Georgia. While with the Sixth Cavalry he was in the engagements of Fairfax Court House and Brandywine Station. From the time of joining that regiment until his transfer he was in all the battles in which it took part. He was mustered out and discharged at Pulaski, 'ennessee, in August, 1865, and at once returned to the civil activities of life, taking up farming where he had left off, some three years before, to battle for country. His father removed to Canada and embarked in the hotel business in London. He did not remain there long, however, but removed to Sanilac county, M\ichigan, where he bought 40 acres of native forest, built a board shanty and converted the land into a fruitful farm; but some thirty years ago he sold the farm and bought his present homestead farm and engaged in the lumber business. He retired some time ago, however, and now owns two farms of eighty acres each. In 1875 our subject removed to Hazelton township and bought forty acres of timbered land, where he now lives. He was the first man on the side of the section on which he is situated. There were no roads nor had there been even a tree cut. He built a log house, which is now used for a stable, cleared forty acres and later added forty acres more. Twenty acres of the latter tract had been improved, and he reclaimed the remainder. He afterward bought eighty acres, forty acres being across the road on the east. Some of these tracts were under cultivation at the time he secured them. In 1902, Mr. Cutler and his son again added eighty acres of improved land to their possessions on section 17. July 3, 1872, Mr. Cutler married Mary Ann Gilmer, daughter of John and Sara (Peasley) Gilmer. The parents lived in the east and

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 287 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 28 never came to Michigan. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Cutler are enumerated below: Elizabeth, who was born in 1873, is the wife of James Little, of Hazelton township, and they have three children, James, William and Tennie; Willie, born in 1875, died at the age of one vear; John, who was born in 1877, and who resides in Hazelton township, married Stella McGar, and they have two children, David and Annie; H-enry, who was born in 1879, married Ella Boyd, and they have two children, Mary and Kermeth; Annie, born in 1881, died at the age of six months; Ella, who was born in May, 1884, is the wife of George Shannon, of Saginaw county, and they have two children, David Henry and Mary Ann; Eddie, born in 1886, died at the age of eight years; Jennie, born in 1888, died at the age of five years. In addition to his farming, Mr. Cutler has worked for the Deering and the Champion Machine Companies, and he also bought stocks of goods throughout the country. He was also in the employ of 1-. N. Ainsworth, of Flushing, Michigan, for several years. IHe has owned a number of valuable stock horses, such as "Young Napoleon," "Gray Percheron," "Clyde," "English Shire," and "Young What's Wanted," better known as "Nixon Horse." Mr. Cutler was the first of twelve children; John died at the age of two years; Edward, who lives in Sanilac county, married Mary Kirk, and they had six children; Katherine, who died at Applegate, Sanilac county, married James Fair, and had one child; Thomas, who lives in Huron county, is a money loaner and dealer in stocks and farms, being one of the wealthiest men in the county: he has three children by first wife, none by second; Jane is the wife of James Matteson, of Parsonville, Sanilac county, and they have five children; Vernu, who lives in Alpena, married Maria Boyce, and they have no children; William, who lives in Applegate, Sanilac county, married Atta London, and they have two children; Jacob lives in Manistee, is married and in the employ of a lumber company; Margaret, deceased, married Charles Wood; Fred, a bachelor, died in Applegate; Lucy is the wife of James Peeks, and they have two children. Mr. Cutler and his son now own two hundred and forty-five acres of land. In politics he is a Republican, and is a member of the board of review. He is a member of the Free Methodist church. He also belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, and it goes without saying that he is one of the foremost men in his township, honest and reliable in all respects. JOHN R. DANN In section 8, Hazelton township, is located the homestead farm of John R. Dann, who was born in London, Canada, on the 21st of July, 1846. He is a son of William Dann, who was born in Tipperary, Ireland, May 2, 1799, and his mother, Sarah (Rawlins) Dann, who was born in Queens county, Ireland, is now living in Ontario, Canada, at the age of 93 years. William Dann came to America at the age of twenty-six years, his wife having come to this country when she was a small girl. Soon after our subject's father landed in America he was married, and took up a homestead of one hundred acres of land in Ontario, Canada. He cleared up this land and made improvements, residing upon it until the tinme of his death. He was a member of the Church of England, as is also his venerable widow. They became the parents of eight children. The eldest, Susanna, married George White and resides in the northwest territory of Canada; Robert is now living upon a farm in Ontario, Canada; Mary is the wife of Daniel Burnett, of Ontario, Canada; Eliza was the wife of William Wigglesworth, of Hazelton, and is now deceased; the fifth is the subject of this sketch; Edward is living in Ontario, as is also William; Jane is living in a village in Ontario, Canada, and with her resides her aged mother.

288 PAST AND PRESENT OF 288 PAST AND PRESENT OF Subject lived with his parents at home until he had reached his twenty-sixth year. He received his early education in the common schools, and at the age of twenty-six he purchased an improved farm of fifty acres, in Ontario, Canada, and was united in marriage with Lizzie Moore. She was born in London, Canada, on the 13th of December, 1848, and is a daughter of James and Margery (Anderson) Moore. Her father was born in Ireland, and her mother in Canada. Both of them are dead. They had seven children, all of whomn are living except John. James resides in Petoskey: Robert resides in Hazelton township; Lizzie is the wife of the subject of this sketch, Louise is the wife of John Beemish, of Hazelton township; Anna is the wife of E. Beemish, of the same place; and William B. also resides in Hazelton township. John R. Dann and wife moved to Michigan and purchased eighty acres of land near Flushing, on which they resided for one year. The land was only partly improved and subject disposed of it and removed to Hazelton postoffice, where for the next four years he was engaged in the mercantile business. He then purchased eighty acres of land on section 8, where he now lives. The land when subject purchased it was all wild and he rented buildings on an adjoining farm until he could erect a suitable home on his own land. He now has a pleasant country house, and good, substantial barn and other farm buildings. He has redeemed the farm from its wild state and has it all under cultivation. To Mr. and Mrs. Dann have been born six children: Nida died at the age of- thirteen years; Alfred, who runs a hotel at Flushing, married Blanch Hills and has one child, Kenneth; Margery is the wife of Fred Jacobs, of Toledo, Ohio; and Bert, aged twenty-seven, Viola, aged fifteen, and Ray, aged thirteen, are all living at home. Politically Mr. Dann is a Republican, and he has served as justice of the peace for a period of six years. He was agent for the Shiawassee Mutual Insurance Company eight years, and is a member of the Masonic lodge and of the Order of the Eastern Star at New Lothrop. BUTMISTER W. DARLING Probably Michigan does not contain to-day a gentleman who has been more strong and active physically, when in the vigor of his early manhood, than the one whose name heads this sketch. Atlas, we read in ancient song, Was so exceeding tall and strong, He bore the skies upon his back. Just as the peddler does his pack; But as the peddler overpress'd Unloads upon a stall to rest, Or, when he can no longer stand, Desires a friend to lend a hand; So Atlas, lest the ponderous spheres Should sink and fall about his ears, Got Hercules to bear the pile, That he might sit and rest awhile. Our subject is not an Atlas or a Hercules, but a skilled blacksmith, and when no one else could be found to shoe refractory horses and oxen, he would invariably do the work successfully. In "endurance, foresight, strength and skill," he was a marvel. He could seize the reach of a wagon weighing nine hundred pounds and lift it bodily from the ground! He was born in Louisville township, St. Lawrence county, New York, July 5, 1825. His father also was a native of the same state; while his mother, Sophia (Wood) Darling, was a Vermonter, but died in Columbia, Ohio. They were married in the east. When our subject was yet a mere lad, his parents removed to Ohio, where his father bought some wild land, part of which he afterwards cleared. In 1852 father and son journeyed to Fairfield township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, where the latter bought one hundred -and twenty acres of government land, on section 27. On this he built a log house. The Indians used to frequent the place and remain over night with him. He improved and fenced the

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SHIAW ASSEE COUNTY 289 S C N 289 land, built a frame house and barn and lived there until 1901, when he sold the property and bought twenty acres on section twentyone, where he has since remained. In early (lays he pounded corn in troughs made from maple trees, to get meal for "Johnnie cake." Our subject has been twice married-first, to Mary Wells, who was born in New York, in 1827, and who died in Fairfield, in 1898. Ten children were the issue of this union, as follows: Eliza, who was born in 1850, and who lives in Owosso, married Riley Hubble, now dead, and had four children, Irvin (dead), Let, Arch and Nancy; Orrin, who was born in 1852, and who lives in Fairfield township, married Nancy Reed, and they have seven chi'dren, Earl, Nora, Ray, Ina, Paul, Vern and Grace; Ellen, born in 1854, lives in Owosso; Delia, born in 1856, lives in Chicago; Myron, born in 1858, lives in Fairfield; Albert, who was born in 1860, and who lives in Fairfield, married Lottie Swider; Olie, born inl 1862, died in 1875; Cora, who was born in 1864, is the wife of Richard Warner, of Owosso, and they have one child, Mildred; Leon, who was born in 1866, and who lives in Saginaw county, married Melvin Netheway, and they have three children; and Mary, born in 1866, lives in Ohio. Mr. Darling's second marriage occurred February 17, 1899, when he wedded Hattie Greenfield, then a widow, and a daughter of Thomas F. Austin, a native of Kent county, England, where he' was born January 17, 1835. Mr. Austin is now a resident of Fairfield, where he owns a farm, which he bought in 1870 and which he cleared. By the second marriage Mr. Darling has one child, Verl, born November 10, 1904. When he first came to Fairfield there were only ten families there and they were pretty well scattered. He used to walk to Owosso, twelve miles distant, that being the nearest trading point in early days, The journey occupied two days. The first religious meeting in the township was attended by him and he drove to the meeting with an ox team and cart. His first wife was a mem ber of the Baptist church, as is also his present wife. Our subject is a Republican in politics. He was deputy sheriff of Shiawassee county for fifteen years. At one time he arrested three men and marched them to Owosso, a distance of twelve miles, where they were locked up. He has also been constable, highway commissioner and a school officer in his township. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow. MILTON A. DAVIS One of the most prominent and successful farmers of Antrim township is the enterprising gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He is located on section 23 and his well cultivated fields and handsome and attractive farm buildings are a source of pride to the communitv. Mr. Davis is a native of the township in which he now lives, having been born June 26, 1855. His father, Allen Davis, was born in Ireland in 1803. His mother, Rebecca (Co'es) Davis, was a native of Cataraugus county, New York, where she was born in 1806. Our subject does not remember ever having seen his father, who came to America with his parents and settled in Oakland county, Michigan. Subsequently our subject's father removed to Shiawassee county and purchased two hundred acres of land, in Burns township. This he cleared, erecting farm buildings thereon. Here he continued to live until the date of his death, which occurred in the fall of 1855. His widow afterward married Ebenezer Brewer, who lived near Knaggs Bridge, where the subject of this sketch was educated. He also attended school in Antrim township. For about ten years he lived with his uncle, Charles Cole. Before his death his father willed his mother eighty acres of land on section 1, Antrim township. In later years Mr. Davis bought the interests of his mother and brother in this land. Little of it was cleared at the time. It had simply the pioneer beginning of a log

PAST AND PRESENT OF house and a log barn. The intervening years have brought wonderful changes to the place. Mr. Davis not only cleared the land but he has also built a large frame house and barn and other commodious buildings. He was but twenty years of age when he became a landowner. One year of his life he spent in California, where he worked on a ranch and in a vineyard. He then returned to his farm in Antrim, where he remained for the term of eleven years, then selling the place to R. T. Stone. He subsequently bought the eighty acres on which he now lives. This farm was partially improved when purchased by him,. but the buildings were old and badly out of repair. He has since erected a handsome new residence, enlarged the old barn and built a new one, with other needed structures. He has also thoroughly underdrained the land, repaired the fences and put the premises generally in first-class condition, making the farm, as a whole, a thing of beauty to the eye and a credit to the taste and enterprise of the owner. About four years ago he purchased forty acres adjoining, known as the Armstrong farm. Upon this is a small frame. house and barn. Mr. Davis congratulates himself that there are no debts against the property. This condition of affairs is due to the good judgment and business management of the owner. Mr. Davis was united in marriage March 16, 1882, to Alice, daughter of Smith and Catherine (Dutcher) Holcomb, who are residents of Antrim township. Her natal day was May 29, 1856, and the place of her birth, Deerfield, Livingston county, Michigan. She was the -first of eleven children, born to her parents, four of whom are still living. Mr. Davis was the younger of two children born to his parents. His elder brother, Frank E., is a resident of Fentonville, Michigan. To his mother by her secofid marriage were born four children; Peter died in infancy; Truman is a resident of Deerfield township, Livingston county; Nelson was killed in a railroad accident; Charlotte married J. J. Rasbach, and they reside in' New York. Two half-brothers of Mr. Davis did valiant service for their country in the great civil war. Mr. Davis regrets that he has no data at hand respecting their service. Allen was killed in battle. James was wounded. He is now an inmate of the Michigan Soldiers' Home, in Grand Rapids. The following incident related by his brother James indicates that he served in. the cavalry. He remembers having heard him tell that on a certain occasion, when it became necessary for the force to cross a swollen stream, he spoke to General Custer, commanding the force, remarking, "What am I to do, General, I can't swim." "Catch on to my horse's tail and he will carry you safely over," replied the General. He adopted the suggestion and was landed safely on the other side. Among the treasured relics in his possession, Mr. Davis has an old shotgun, which is in good repair, and which is said to be over a hundred years old. It was brought into the county by his father. It was thought to be the first gun brought into the county by a white man. His father supplied the family with fresh meat from the forests when the country was new. Another prized relic is an English bull's-eye watch, carried by his father. Mr. Davis has had this watch in his possession for half a century. In politics, Mr. Davis lines up with the Democratic party. He has served as highway commissioner for five terms and has repeatedly been urged to accept public office, but prefers to look after his cvin private affairs onl the farm, a fact'that has not a little to do with his success and present prosperity. Mr. Davis is treasurer of the South Antrim Telephone Company, also treasurer of his own school district. He is a member of the Maccabee lodge, No. 172, of Bancroft, and also of the Knights of Pythias lodge, No. 138, of the same place. While farming is the main business of his life, he buys and sells horses as'a side issue, thus adding a snug sum to his annual revenue. A fine flock of Rambouillet sheep are his special pride. About seven years since lie spent a winter in Florida, going there with I

i 1I Ii

WEBSTER DAVIS

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 293 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 293 the intention of growing tobacco, but later changed his mind and returned home to Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Davis are still in the prime of life and should live to enjoy many years of happiness and prosperity. WEBSTER DAVIS Carlyle says: "Biography is the most universally pleasant and profitable reading." The histories of the leaders of men and of nations can be written from permanent records but the incidents that go to make up the biography of the average individual can only be written from personal knowledge and, if neglected until after death, the history passes away with the individual and is lost to the world forever. Rich as we are in biography, a well written life is almost as rare as a well spent one. The cold material facts of a man's life are not his history. A man's life is what he is, and his biography is the harmonious grouping together of the incidents of the spirit that moved him. Back of it all lies the motive, and the motive is the man. "A life that is worth writing at all is worth writing minutely and truthfully," says Longfellow. This brief review of the activities of him of whom we write has about it all the charm and interest of romance. A noble birth and fortune, though they make not a bad man good, are a real advantage to a worthy one. He of whom we write lays no claim to nobility of birth, though he was well born. His parents were common folk, intelligent and industrious, such as form the warp and woof of society in any well regulated conmmuinity. Webster Davis was born at Ebensburg, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, June 1, 1862. His father, Daniel J. Davis, was a native of Wales, while his mother, Elizabeth (Evans) Davis, was born in the Keystone state. In the year 1868 the family moved to Daviess county, Missouri, and located upon a farm, where they remained until 1874, when 19 they removed to Chillicothe, Missouri. Up to this date young Webster had made his home with his parents, his duties and advantages for schooling being those common to boys of his time in that section of the country. His first employment that took him from home was that of clerk in a hardware store, where he remained for a year, after which he went with the family to Gallatin, in the same state. Here he took up the occupation of his father, that of shoemaking, being employed at the same until the age of nineteen years. His opportunities for schooling up to this time had been quite limited. His decision at this period in life had much to do with the successes of later years. He believed in himself and had visions of greater possibilities. He resolved to secure for himself an education, and, suiting the action to the thought, he found his way to Lake Forest, near Chicago, and entered the university at that place. His stock in trade consisted in a good measure of push, pluck and perseverance, and fifteen dollars in ready cash. With characteristic energy, he soon found employment caring for the city street lamps, which enabled him not only to pursue his studies through the year but also to assist in the support of the family at home. After a vear at the university he entered the law office of Shanklin, Low & McDougal, at Gallatin, as a law student, having decided to enter the legal profession. Two years later he removed with his mother to Lawrence, Kansas, where he pursued his studies at the state university for two years and where, in the year 1886, lhe was admitted to the bar at Garden City. Here he first entered upon the practice of his chosen profession. Impressed with the need of a more thorough preparation for his life work, he later entered the law department of the University of Michigan, in which he was graduated in June, 1887, with distinguished honor, after which he took up his residence at Kansas City, Missouri. He entered the University of Michigan without means, without influential friends or social station, and yet, though the youngest member of his class of

294 PAST AND PRESENT OF 294 PAST AND PRESENT OF two hundred, at his graduation the class honored him above all others by making him their choice as the orator at the semi-centennial of the university. Oratory with him was a gift of nature. He has been called the Patrick Henry of the west, likened to Ingalls, compared to Clay, Webster (for whom he was named) and a half dozen or more other gifted statesmen of those days when oratory was esteemed a'God-given power. Mr. Davis can well bear comparison with any of these. The magic force of his oratory was tested at Arlington, Virginia, on Memorial day, 1899, when it was said by men who were contemporaries of Webster, that never, even in. his prime, was the great orator able to reach the heights upon which this youthful son of a veteran stands. And again, at the Wash;ington monument, on the 4th day of July, 1899, where he was sent as second to Dolliver, he came away with the honors of the day. Secretary Sherman, who listened to him solely for the purpose of hearing the "orator of the administration," pronounced this effort one of the most magnificent orations that he had ever had the pleasure of hearing. Before the League Convention of Republican Clubs at Detroit, in the year 1898, he further distinguished himself as a political orator, proving himself in political oratory the Bryan of his party. Indeed, the striking resemblance between Mr. Davis and Mr. Bryan does not end at speech-making, as they bear a remarkable resemblance to each other in personal appearance. The portrait of Mr. Davis might easily pass for "the magic orator of the Platte,"-a resemblance of which Mr. Davis -is not ashamed. It was at Steubenville, Ohio, in 1899, that Mr. Davis capped the climax of his brilliant "administration oratory." The city, in making preparations for the celebration of her centennial, sent a committee to wait upon President McKinley for the purpose of securing him to deliver the oration. The president, however, sent them to Mr. Davis, saying that he regarded the talented young assistant secretary of the interior as the finest orator in the United States, and those who heard his brilliant effort on that occasion approved the presidents judgment. He was accorded a perfect ovation and General Dan Sickles pronounced it the most brilliant oration he had ever heard. His mind is clear, rich, active, cogent; his imagination vivid, picturesque, happy; and his diction-as he speaks with inimitable gracepainting word-pictures that leave indelible impressions upon the minds or portraying considerations that move the hearts of men-is pure, classic and serene; yet he is as simple in his style and as unaffected in his manner as a child,-always genial and approachable, tender to old age, respectful to rank, and loved by the younger generation. In the spring of 1896, although fiercely fought by all the old leaders and bosses of his party in Missouri, he came within the narrow margin of three votes of walking out of the state convention with the nomination for governor. Only by the combination of the opposition could he have been defeated. In the year 1892 he was nominated for congress as a Republican in a hopelessly Democratic district, but suffered a defeat. In 1894 he became the candidate for mayor of Kansas City and was triumphantly elected by a majority of seven thousand. As soon as he entered upon the duties of his office, his constituents perceived that they had not overestimated his fitness for the position, for his policy during the two years of his administration was to approve every change that was certain to benefit the city; and the reforms he had promised to effect if he became mayor were effected as far as it lay in his power to bring them about. When he was elected mayor the people were paying one dollar and sixty cents per thousand feet for gas, and when he left the office they were paying only fifty cents per thousand feet. At the time of his induction into the mayorality there were litigations to the amount of more than three mil

S

Misin

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 297 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 297 lion dollars hanging over the city, which did not own its waterworks. When he laid aside his authority all this litigation had disappeared, the city owned its own waterworks plant and the people were enjoying the luxury of cheap water. But these are some of the more important reforms. Many others were inaugurated and carried through successfully by Mr. Davis. Immediately upon the opening of the second presidential campaign of the lamented McKinley, Mr. Davis took the stump, and made over one hundred speeches through the middle west. He soon came under the personal observation of Major McKinley, who determined in the event of his own election to provide handsomely for this "young Lochinvar," who had "come out of the west." This thought reached its consummation when Mr. Davis took his seat, on June 1, 1897, as assistant secretary of the interior, a position of great importance and one in which a man's individuality stands out prominently,-this officer being the final authority in all pension decisions as well as the one who signs letters patent. While occupying the position Mr. Davis rendered many important decisions, which have given great satisfaction throughout the country, especially to the old veterans of the Mexican and civil wars. Few men have more to commend themn to the smiles of fortune than Webster Davis,-a man of commanding presence, pleasing features, earnest manner, and thoughtful face, lighted by dark, expressive and liquid, but rather melancholy eyes; a frank cordiality takes entire possession of you at once. Though all naturally expect a musical voice from one upon whom so many gods have stamped the seal of some grace, yet few are prepared for the eloquence of impassioned oratory which seems to flow in graceful ease from his firmly set lips. His delivery is forceful, yet graceful; his personal appearance is attractive, yet unassuming; his thought is full of masculine strength, yet simply expressed; his periods thrill and inspire, yet remain in the mind of the listener; his voice is strong, flexible, untiring, and capable of almost infinite modulation, vet it has a carrying power which compels attention, while his gestures and facial changes are worthy of a professional actor. It is not strange, therefore, that he is oftimes likened unto the great statesman of New England whose name he bears. Mr. Davis has one of the most attractive and picturesque homes in Corunna and he is known as the. prince of entertainers, a cordial welcome awaiting all comers. His wonderful collection of relics and curios from many lands is one of the finest private collections in the state and is valued at several thousand dollars. Following the political campaign of 1899, in which Mr. Davis stumped the state of Ohio in a six weeks' tour, he was advised to take a long sea voyage to recuperate his wasted energies. He immediately decided to make the trip to Cape Town, South Africa. This was during the exciting days of the South African war. Mr. Davis, carrying letters of introduction from the president of the United States and others prominent in official circles, was given every opportunity to study the Boer problem. Productions from his gifted pen, bearing upon the subject, were read widely both in this country and in England. Mr. Davis' numerous friends and admirers predict for him many honors yet to come. Mr. Davis delivered the following address at Arlington Heights on Decoration day, 1899, in the presence of President McKinley and his cabinet: COMMANDER AND VETERANS: You were called upon to take part in the most terrible war of the nineteenth century. There have been wars of longer duration, but none more terrible than that war of neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, father against son. For four long years the echo of the picket's rifle did not cease. The total number of men comprising the Union forces, in army and navy, during the civil war, aggregated almost three millions. There were over one hundred land battles in

298 PAST AND PRESENT OF which one side or the other lost more than five hundred men. At Gettysburg alone, more than fifty thousand Americans were lostnearly half of them being defenders of the Union. On both sides which participated in that conflict more than half a million lives were lost before its end. Counting those who received wounds not considered mortal but who have been dying since from their effects, nearly seven hundred thousand soldiers who wore the blue have died. How appalling this is when you contemplate its magnitude! If the graves of those Union soldiers were placed side by side they would extend a distance of almost five hundred miles. Stepping from one to the other you might walk from Washington to Philadelphia, thence to New York, thence to a point twenty miles beyond Boston, and still be on the graves,-a distance almost as great as that fronm Washington to Cincinnati, almost one-sixth the distance across the continent, from Washington to San Francisco. These men, together with their comrades, sacrificed everything-the comforts of home and the happiness and hopes of the future; they offered their services and their lives for the service of their country. They turned their backs on fortune. Some turned away from young wives with prattling babe at the breast; some from the dear old mother whose face was wet with tears as she kissed her son fareWell. And they made all this sacrifice for principle. These men were hardened and finely tempered, like Damascus steel, by heroic labors and hardships for their country. The world has never seen grander, braver, or better men. They marched, camped, fought, bled and died together. Doubtless many of them, as they closed their eyes in death, gazed down the vista of the future and saw in part the realization of the hopes and dreams of their banished vouth, and were content with the work assigned them,-that of aiding in saving the imperishable solidity and glory of the Union. And as I see their surviving comrades marching along the streets on Decoration day, bearing the flowers of springtime to the cemetery to place them on the graves of their comrades who have gone before, I notice their tottering steps, their feeble forms, bending under. the weight of years,-some on crutches, some with empty sleeves,-all nearing the end of life's journey. And I cannot help but wonder, is it possible that this remnant of old, crippled veterans is all that is left of that once wonderful army,-the greatest army in all the world? And are these the strong, rugged young Americans who saved the Union more than a third of a century ago? Are these the muscular miners who, in the mines of Pennsylvania, heard the call for volunteers? Are these the men whose eyes were keen as the eagle's as they emerged from the pine woods of Maine? Are these the young patriots whose step was as light as that of the bounding deer on the granite hills of Vermont, and who hastened away to defend their country? Are these the swarthy men of the mountains, sinewy farmers of the prairies, the wild riders of the plains, who went away in the long ago to join the patriot thousands on the wonderous march to glory, filling the forest aisles with their battle-cry, "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong?" Yes, as these survivors march, on Decoration day, by looking closely you can see between the lines those spectre soldiers-the boys who never came home; you can see, also, the phantom flags and banners floating among them,-these were borne by the boys who never came back. Truly the great product of our nation is our heroes. This nation grows men. Some persons will tell you that corn is king; some that iron is king; then, again, others that cotton is king; but all are mistaken,-in this country man is king! And the nation or country that can grow men of such character and such loftiness of soul that they will go down to death, if need be, for an idea, for a principle, can rule the world. For these are the men which make a country great and a nation strong and invincible. The republican idea is that the people can be trusted to govern theniselves; this is the highest type of government known to the world. It had its origin in Persia, then in Greece, then in Rome, and now in America; and if it fails here it will be lost to the world. But it will not fail so long as American freemen are loval to the republic and mindful of its welfare. So long as they feel that this country is their country, that they have a personal proprietorship in its history, in the honor of its name, and in its dignity and standing among other countries, and so long as they are proud of the lustre cf its battle fields, radiant with the common glkries of its heroic defenders on land and bea. We have been told that the great scholar, Fulwell Buckston, was a great giant in stat

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 299 SHI WASE CONT 299.. tre and beloved by all who knew him. Ono day as he walked along the streets of London with a bundle of books under his arm he came to a group of children at play, when suddenly he saw a great, mad English mastiff, with glaring eyes, red lips, and with teeth dripping in poison foam, rushing toward the children and snapping at everything as it came along, while men and policemen were crying, "Mad dog! Look out!" Fulwe'l Buckston heard the cry of the mothers and the children and, dropping his books, he stepped between the children and the dog; the mad brute leaped at his throat and almost threw him to the ground, and it seemed for a time that he was lost; but his fingers closed around the great dog's throat. and, holding him at arms' length, he summoned all his strength; the dog writhed and struggled, but the man held on. Officers and men hurried to him and cried, "Let him go, we have guns; we will kill him," but the hero held on until, finally, he threw the dog to the ground, dead. Knowing that if there was a single scratch upon his hands it meant certain death from hydrophobia, he hastened to wash them; when he had done so, he held them up and said, "They are not touched; thank God, I am saved." Then strong men with pale faces praised him; and baby faces were held up to kiss his bearded face. So, when the various states of the Union, all bound together in bonds of unity and friendship, were each endeavoring to do their part toward the upbuilding of the republic, when peace and prosperity abounded, and thrift and industry everywhere was at work in the mill and factory and farm, then it was that mad treason suddenly rushed at thosq states. But just in the critical moment the brave defenders of the Union grappled at its throat. And as they struggled with it at Bull Run and Vicksburg, at Antitam and Gettysburg, the nations across the sea who hated the republic shouted, "Let it go;" the copperheads of the north said, "Let it go;" but they held on until, finally, they hurled it mangled, bleeding, dead,-at far-famed Appomattox. All honor to every soldier and sailor who took part in that great struggle for the preservation of the Union. All honor, too, to the loyal women who suffered untold agony at home, as they cared for those dependent upon them; and all honor to the women who, in camp, on battle field and in hospital, cared for the sick and wounded soldiers. Ah yes: "The maid who binds her warrior's sash, With smile that well her pain dissembles, The while beneath her drooping lash One starry tear drop hangs and trembles; Though heaven alone records that tear And fame may never know her story, Her heart hath shed a drop as dear As e'er bedewed the field of glory. "The wife who girds her husband's sword, Mid litt'e ones who weep and wonder, And bravely speaks the cheering word, E'en though her heart be rent asunder; Doomed nightly, in her dreams, to hear The bolts of death around him rattle, Sheds holy blood as e'er was shed On freedom's field of battle. "The mother who conceals her grief While to her breast her son she presses, Speaking a few brave words and brief, Kissing the patriot brow she blesses; With no one but her secret God To know the pain that weighs upon her,Sheds holy blood as e'er the sod Received on freedom's field of honor." We rejoice to-day, that we live in a mighty republic, a land of freedom and equality of right; a land wherein every American boy is heir to a kingdom; and the boundary of that kingdom is the limit of his personal capacity. A land where everything is possible to every citizen and where the only restraints upon the full enjoyment of life, liberty and the possession of happiness are necessary restraints of society against the abuse of these blessings. With no tyrant ruling over them, with no privileged classes of society formed in layers, like the earth's crust, as it is in the-aristocratic lands; but a society like the ocean, so broad, so long, so deep, and so free in all its parts that each grain of sand that mingles with the waters at the bottom may rise through all the currents until it gleams like a jewel on the crest of the highest wave. So that here the poorest son or the humblest *man who toils may wind his lowly way over the tortuous paths to final greatness, through all grades of society, from the humble cabin of poverty, until he reaches the loftiest position of honor in the nation. Truly it may be said that: "Whosoe'er our destiny sends forth Its widening circles to the south and north; Where'er our banner flaunts beneath the stars

woo PAST AND PRESENT OF PAT A Its mimic splendors and its cloudlike bars, There shall free labor's hardy children stand, The equal sovereigns of a freeman's land;" With fertile lands yielding an abundant increase, with splendid systems of transportation, with commerce extending to almost every section, with a mighty population increasing in wealth annually-in the presence of blessings like these, thrilling with the consciousness of citizenship in a government more glorious than any that ever existed, surely we should be thankful for a privilege so great. All this is the result of the heroic work of the defenders of the Union. Had they failed the Onion would have been dissolved, the silver cord loosed, the golden bowl broken at the fountain; rival confederacies of states at war with each other; ferocious factions struggling for supremacy; hate, malice and treachery rampant; with one flag here, and another flag yonder, while "Old Glory" would be folded up and laid away among the memorials that preserve the memory of the dead republics. When I think of what these men have done I feel that if the poorest and humblest of their number were placed in rags by the side of the most exalted son of royalty arrayed in the finest raiment of the world, I would hasten to grasp the hand of the old soldier of the Union and hail him noblest of men, for none are titled nobler than the man who is but an American. Surely it is right, just and proper that our government has provided so liberally for caring for the defenders of the Union in their old age by the 'establishment of soldiers' homes, and by proper pension legislation. The money paid for pensions nearly all remains in this country, and it goes directly into the channels of trade, and greatly reduces local taxation for the support of the poor; some of it goes to poor farmers and farmers' widows. In every country hamlet and village, as well as in every city, the physician, the druggist, the groceryman, the fuel man and the landlord, all are directly interested, for as soon as the pensioner receives the pension money the first-duty is to pay for the necessaries of life which have been furnished by their neighbor tradesmen in expectancy of the forthcoming pension. During the awful financial depression in this country, a few years ago, all the banks locked the money up in their vaults, and poor people could get no work because there was no money in circulation with which to pay them or to carry on business. Everything was at a standstill and sorrow and bloom prevailed everywhere. Then it was that the pensions proved of such great benefit to poor people, for that money came regularly from the nation's treasury and scattered contentment and peace throughout the homes of thousands of poor men and women. Truly the pension is the best friend the poor people have today in this country. We are told that men are getting pensions who don't deserve them, because, judging from appearances, they seem not to be deserving. But who can tell by looking at a man what his wounds or ailments may be? I assert that no man could pass through the hardships of war, on march, in the camp and on the battle-field, and emerge therefrom the same man, physically or mentally, that he was when he enlisted. He may never have received a wound, maiy never have been confined in a hospital, but, nevertheless, no human body can withstand the shock and strain of war and be as good as it was before. We hear so much also about the large number of frauds on the pension roll. Of course there may be somhe who are frauds. There are nearly a million names on the pension roll, and 'it would be very remarkable if there were not some which ought not to appear there. Can you gather together a million men and women in this world anywhere and not find some who are frauds? But if the frauds are as numerous among the pensioners as some people assert they are, why are they not brought to punishment? -We have a strong government which is ever ready with a mighty force of officers sworn to do their duty, skilled and well equipped for the purpose of bringing criminals who violate the laws of the country to justice. Let them proceed to arrest all these frauds and let them be punished to the full extent of the law; let no guilty person escape, But when one may be discovered and brought to the bar of justice let him or her be dealt with as an individual pension fraud,-not in such manner as to cast a stigma upon all other persons who may be drawing pensions. Because one member of a large family may become a criminal is no reason that anyone should intimate, by insinuation or innuendoes, that all the other members of that family are criminals. We do not believe that any person should be

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 301 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 3 given a pension who is not entitled to it under the law. We do not believe in throwing open the United States treasury to the pensionseekers. No, not by any means. We want to protect the treasury. So do these old soldiers; they are just as loyal to-day as they ever were; they protected that treasury once with their arms and with their lives, and would do so again, if need be. They do not want a cent to which they are not entitled. But if one of them is entitled under the law to a pension, even but six dollars a month, let the great, rich and powerful republic which they once saved give it in a princely way, as though it were a genuine pleasure to do so, and not in a grudging way, as though he were not entitled to it. Most of the old soldiers are poor; they did not have an equal chance for accumulating wealth with their fellow citizens who remained at home while they themselves went to war. Then, again, those who remained at home and prospered should raise no objection to a grateful nation's properly and justly caring for those who bore the brunt of the conflict which rendered the existence of this mighty nation a possibility. Certain laws have been enacted by congress granting pensions to disabled soldiers and their dependents. The members of congress represent the people,-they are bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh, and blood of their blood; they know what the people want, and they are held responsible by the people for what they do in congress. It was evidently intended by congress to render justice to whom justice is due. Therefore in the administration of those laws a generous and patriotic construction should be given and the laws administered in the spirit of justice and fairness in which they were enacted. Let human justice reflect divine justice as the quiet lake the star. For the first time on decoration day we decorate the graves of men who fought for their country in two wars. Some of the little lads whose hearts were almost broken when father went to war in the long ago are now sleeping in soldiers' graves near their fathers here under trees in Arlington, while the mother, old and gray, comes with two bunches of forget-me-nots,-one for the husband's grave, covered with sod; the other for the son's newmade grave, as yet crowned only with clay. The courage of these soldiers of both wars was the courage of conscience. It was not simply the love of war for itself. It would not have hurried them to the foot of the Pyramids nor across the snow fields of Moscow to set the stars of glory upon the glowing brow of ambition. But it was courage that had the power to brace the spirit for the patriot's fight, to die, if need be, in the defense of the flag of the country wherein they had their homes. Old veterans of the north and south, your cross has indeed been a double one; not only have you suffered the hardships of war, as active participants; but in another war, in your old age, you have sent your sons to battle with a foreign foe. As the regiments returned from Cuba and the farmers were hastening to the village to greet them upon their return, many an old veteran stood at the old farm gate and to the query of the passing neighbor said: "I don't think I'll go in to town to see the boys come back; My being there would do no good in all that jam and pack; There'll be enough to welcome them-to cheer them when they come A'marching bravely to the time that's beat upon the drumThey'll never miss me in the crowd, not one of 'em will care If, when the cheers are ringing loud, I'm not among them there. "I went to see them march away; I hollered with the rest, And didn't they look fine that day, a'marchin' four abreast, With my boy James up near the front, as handsome as could be, And waving back a fond farewell to mother and to me. I vow my old knees trembled so, when they had all got by, I had to jist set down upon the curbstone there and cry. "And now they're comin' home agen! The record that they won Was sich as shows we still have men when men's work's to be done! There wasn't one of 'em that flinched; each feller stood the test. Wherever they were sent, they sailed right in and done their best; They didn't go away to play-they knowed what was in store

302 PAS8T ANtD PRESENT OF 3D But there's a grave somewhere, to-day, down on the Cuban shore!* "I guess that I'll not go to town to see the boys come in; I don't just feel like mixin' up in all that crush and din! There'll be enough to welcome 'em, to cheer 'em when they come, A'marching bravely to the time that's beat upon the drum; And the bovs'll never notice,-not a one of 'em will care, For the soldier that would miss me ain't a'goin' to be there!" Oh! how thankful we ought to be for the era of good feeling that prevails to-day between the north and south. This alone is worth all the cost of the war with Spain. Somewhere to-day two old veterans, one who wore the blue, the other the gray, in the war of '61, will stand by the side of the new-made graves of their sons who fell in the war of '98, and as the tears roll down their wrinkled faces they will grasp hands, and as they are drawn together in sympathy, grief and friendship, they draw together the once divided sections of an unhappy land. All honor to the defenders of our country, on land and sea, living or dead, in all our wars. All honor to our president and his cabinet, to all officers of the armv and navy, to all sailors and private soldiers who are yet fighting in foreign climes. As one people, with one country and one destiny, let us stand together and meet with courage and wisdom the problems of the future. Let loyalty and patriotism be the virtues that shall ever blossom in the hearts of our united people. The young soldiers of the north went away, a few months ago, with the music which their fathers loved upon their lips: "In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea; As he died to make men holy, let, us die to make men free." And the boys left the sunny south marching to the music so dear to every Southern heart: "Away down south in Dixie; In Dixie's land we'll take our stand, To live and die in Dixie." Thus they went away to Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. Led by men who once commanded Union and Confederate armies, they marched, and in the same uniform of blue died in defense of the same flag. And on their return a united nation of patriots greeted them and joined with them in the mighty chorus which filled the republic with melody. It was heard in castles and on thrones in foreign lands, by people in the islands of the sea as we shouted our jubilee: "The Union of lakes, the Union of lands, The Union of states, none can sever;The Union of hearts, the Union of hands, And the flag of the Union forever." JOHN W. DEWEY This gentleman was born in Erie county, New York, June 3, 1818. He is now a respected resident of section 32, Owosso township. He is a son of Apollos Dewey, who was born in Vermont, September 20, 1775, and who died in 1857. Abigail (Wetmore) Dewey, who was born in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1770, was the mother of John W. Dewey, and she died in 1843. Mr. Dewey remained at home until he was twenty-four years old. Previously to this he had bought eighty acres on section 32, for which he paid four dollars per acre. His father had given him one hundred and sixty acres across the road, on section 29. His mother advised him against building a house until such time as he could erect a permanent one, and he acted upon her judgement, which was entirely right, as is the counsel of mothers generally. Of the two hundred and forty acres, he improved all but forty acres of timber. When Mr. Dewey's parents located in Owvosso township they brought plenty of supplies with them, so as to have sufficient until they could raise their own crops. This was in 1839, when Apollos Dewey, with his wife and all of his children, removed to Owosso township, then part of Middlebury township. They walked through the woods, there being no roads. Our subject and his father helped to clear up most of the woods to their section of

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 303 S A C the country. The elder Dewey had, in 1835, taken up two hundred and forty acres of government land. They built a row of shanties 60 feet in length and had to split lumber for floors and benches. Five years later Apollos Dewey built a brick house, with brick made on the farm, and he handled every brick in the structure. He lived in this place until his death. He made his home with his son, John W., for seven years after the latter's mother died. This was during the time of wildcat money. Apollos Dewey deposited some money in a Pontiac bank, but the institution failed before he got around to draw it out. When the subject of this sketch came to Owosso township, Owosso consisted of a few small huts. The first grain grown by his father in M\Iichigan had to be cut with a sickle, threshed with a flail and cleaned by the wind. When taken to the mill in Detroit the farmer was forced to wait for wind before it could be ground. Michigan was then stocked with horses and cattle brought from Ohio. In 1822 our subject's father came to Bloomfield township, Oakland county, and bought 120 acres of government land and built a log house. Mr. Dewey has seen hundreds of Indians in a body, with Governor Cass negotiating a treaty with them. Then the Indians used to go through to Detroit on their trails once a year to receive their pay from the government. He lias seen half a mile of them in a string. Our subject was the first of four children; Thos. D., who was born February 22, 1823, and who lives in Owosso township, married first Philena Gould, no children being born of this union, and his second wife was Elizabeth Carmer, who is survived by one son, George C.; Mary Esther, who was born July 4, 1825, in Michigan, and who lives in Niles, is the widow of Horace Hall and had two children, Lorio and Olin, the latter of whom is dead; Nancy B., who was born June 15, 1834, and who died in February, 1899, married Charles Nichols, and lived in Berrien county, their four childrer being Fremont D., Charles A., John D. and Cora. Mr. Dewey's parents were married February 25, 1817, in North Chili, Monroe county, New York, and his father was in the war of 1812. On May 30, 1844, Mr. Dewey married Fidelia S. Mather, and they had one child, which died in infancy. His first wife, who was born March 25, 1820, died June 27, 1845. For his second wife he married Mrs. Nancy M. Frink, widow of Harvey Frink. Her maiden name was Curtis and she was born October 12, 1878; they had no children. She died February 22, 1899. Mr. Dewey has adopted four children, Burr L. Curtis, now deceased, married Susan McFarland, and they had three children,-Leora, Cora and Edwin; Geo. P. Jenkins, also deceased, married and had one child, which is dead; Ida M. Norris married Dr. A. M. Hume, of Owosso, and they have three children-Ethel, Arthur and a baby. Mr. Dewey does not believe in secret societies. He was, originally, a Whig, but is now a Republican. He represented his district in the state legislature during 1881-2, and was present at every session. He has served as justice of the peace for eight years and highway commissioner three times. He has never sought office, however, the office invariably seeking him. He was educated in the district schools of Oakland and Shiawassee counties. It may truthfully be said of this venerable pioneer that he is one of the best and most worthy citizens of his township and county. EDWARD G. DIPPY Edward G. Dippy is a native of Antrim township, having been born on the farm on which he now lives and which he owns, on section 28. He is a son of Alonzo Dippy, who also was born in Michigan, and who passed to the great beyond on July 18, 1881, at the age of forty-two years; his wife, Elizabeth (Lawrence) Dippy, was born in Canada, is now aged forty-nine years and lives in Dakota, having married a second husband. The par

304 PAST AND PRESENT OF ents of our subject were married in Antrim township. His father belonged to a family of six children, only one of whom is now living, Mrs. Christian Howard of Clare county. The mother of our subject was one of seven children, all of whom are living but one, as follows: Charles Lawrence, ex-postmaster of Owosso; Richard, of Owosso; Mrs. Mary Chapman, of Owosso; Sarah Edgcomb, residing in Canada; James, a resident of Saginraw; Robert, a resident of Antrim township. Our subject was the first born of three children, the second being John L., who lives on a farm in Antrim, and who married Anna Flood. The third was Lila B., who lives with' her mother in Dakota. Mir. Dippy was educated in the district schools of his township. In fact, he never attended any other than the common schools, Despite this fact, however, he has acquired a good education, as he has always made use of every opportunity in the way of reading and gaining knowledge since leaving school. In the language of Wendell Phillips, he early learned that "education is the only interest worthy the deep, controlling anxiety of the thoughtful man." He has always lived at home. Two years ago he bought the interest of the other heirs in his father's old homestead, and now owns it all himself. It consists of one hundred and twenty acres well improved. The idea thus illustrated in our subject is a most laudable and praiseworthy one, that of clinging to the old homestead, the old birth-place. I'll still stay, to have thee still forget, Forgetting any other home but this. Mr. Dippy was married December 7, 1904, to Stella Decker, a native of Barry county, Michigan, where she was born December 5, 1881. She is a daughter of Lewis and Clara (Clay) Decker. Mrs. Dippy's father is dead and her mother lives with a bachelor brother, Wesley Clay, a resident of Antrim township. Mrs. Dippy was one of three children; the other two live with their mother. Mr. Dippy has always trained with the Democrats. Last year he was appointed supervisor of his township to fill a vacancy, and in the spring of 1905 was elected to the office by a good majority,-a notable mark of esteem and confidence, in view of the fact that he is the youngest member of the board of supervisors of Shiawassee county, if not the entire state. He was formerly an Odd Fellow and now belongs to the Gleaners. Mr. Dippy is one of the rising young farmers of Shiawassee county, enjoying the confidence of his fellow citizens to a marked degree. JOY DOUGLASS No nobler tribute can be made a man in introducing his biographical sketch than to say that he or his ancestors have engaged in all the wars that have made and perpetuated our government. Joy Douglass, of section 21, Hazleton township, was born near Fredonia, Chautauqua county, New York. He is one of nine children of Zattue Douglass and Elizabeth (Frasier) Douglass. His father was born in Chautauqua county, January 7, 1796, and his mother in Otsego county, New York, in the same year. The father was a farmer in the county in which he was born and died. On the breaking out of the Mexican war he enlisted with the United States troops and fought utinder General Scott in that great war, in which the states of the south west were acquired. He was one of thirteen children. Our subject's grandfather, Richard Douglass, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and came to this country in the year 1774. He 'enlisted with the patriots in the Revolutionary war, fighting under George Washington. He was in the battle at Lake Champlain, suffered with his comrades at Valley Forge, and followed his commander when he crossed the Delaware and braved the perils of freezing weather and floating ice. In this, his last march, he had the toes of his feet frozen off. The government, for his services in the war,

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 305 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 205 granted him twelve hundred acres of land in Chautauqua county, New York, where he resided until his death, which occurred in the year 1845, at about the age of eighty-five. His wife Mary (Ferris) Douglass was born in England but married Mr. Douglass in Scotland. Joy Douglass started for himself at the age of thirteen years. He was bound out to his brother, somewhat under the fashion of the old country, but he had breathed the air of freedom in America, and ran away and commenced working on a farm in Chautauqua county, New York, where he stayed until the breaking out of the civil war, when he enlisted to fight for the country which he loved. He was mustered in, at Jamestown, New York. September 11, 1862, a member of Company G, One Hundred and Twelfth New York Volunteer Infantry. To give a history of each of the engagements in which he fought would practically be a history of much of that great war itself. W;e can therefore only name, the battles, and when the details of each struggle are read elsewhere some estimation may be formed of the service he has done his country: Lawrence Plantation; Jonnie's Ford; Deserted House; siege of Suffolk,. Virginia, which lasted three weeks; Zoni, Virginia; Chapin's Farm; Drury's Bluff; assault on Fort Fisher; sent to Jacksonville; Charleston, South Carolina; siege of Petersburg. He received a wound in the right leg at Charleston, South Carolina, and was sent to the hospital. As soon as he was able he joined his company. He continued his service until he was stricken down with typhoid fever. He was discharged from the hospital and service on June 9, 1865, by orders from the war department. Politically he is a Republican. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Douglass married Rosa Graves, September 8, 1868. She is the daughter of Elisha and Melissa (Mayhew) Graves, formerly of Flushing township, Genesee county, Michi gan. Mr. Graves died in Kansas, in 1849, and Mrs. Graves died in Genesee county, in 1886. To subject and wife have been born four children: Devillo, born February 5, 1870, died November 24, 1890; Julia M., born December 28, 1872, died January 1, 1900; Daniel W., who was born June 25, 1874, married Bertha Dunster in 1896, and they have three children; Clyde J. was born August 20, 1890. Mr. Douglass came to the state of Michigan in the year 1867, and purchased seventy acres of wild land in Shiawassee county. A log house and barn had been erected on the land but none of it was cleared to speak of. In the log house subject and his wife lived for fourteen years, and in speaking of its comforts subject says that he used to put washers on the children's legs to keep them from falling through the cracks. Subject has cleared and improved the land, has purchased and sold other land, including forty acres which he gave his son. He has earned and richly deserves the comforts which he now enjoys. GEORGE DROUN George Droun was born in Rush township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, May 7, 1860. His father, Cyrel Droun, was for many years a farmer of Rush township, but has retired and is now living in the village of Henderson. He is seventy-six years of age. His mother, Margaret (Newman) Droun, was born in Ireland and came to America with her parents when a little girl. They first settled in the state of Massachusetts, but afterward settled in Rush township. Shiawassee county, Michigan, where the parents of our subject were married. To them were born seven children, the oldest being Mary, now Mrs. Love, of St. Louis, Michigan; the second child is the subject'of this sketch; James lives in Owosso; Martin lives in South Dakota; Steven lives in Wisconsin; Ella is now Mrs. Sorter, of the village of -Henderson; and Oscar died in infancy.

306 PAST AND PRESENT OF 3D George Droun was married to Emma Dellamater September 18, 1881. She is the daughter of Noah D. and Parmella (Dean) Dellamater, her father being a substantial farmer in section 22, Rush township. Her mother died in 1902. Noah D. Dellamater was born in Delaware county, New York, on the 11th of December, 1835, and his wife was born in Canada, on the 11th of December, 1837. There were eight children of the family. the oldest being William H., of Maple Rapids, Michigan; George resides in Brady township, Saginaw county; John lives in Rush township; Emma is the wife of the subject of this sketch; Delia is the wife of John Hale, of Henderson, Michigan; Ida is the wife of Frank Tooker, of Rush township; Ed is a resident of New Haven township; and Peter lives with his father on the old farm, in Rush township. George Droun has always been a resident of the township of his birth and has from an early age relied upon his own resources. By good management and industry he has placed himself in such a financial condition that he can be truly designated as an independent farmer. He was educated in the district schools of Rush township, where he resided with his parents until he had reached the age of eighteen years. He then started Tor himself, working on a farm by the month for six years. He first purchased three acres of land in Rush township, upon which he lived for three years, after which he rented land about twelve years. He then became tired of working for "the other fellow," and he purchased eighty acres of land where he now lives. The land when he purchased it was partly improved, but as compared with its present state could hardly be said to be improved at all. In 1902 he built a new dwelling house and in 1904 a fine large barn. He has fertilized the soil and constructed fences, and at the present writing has one of the finest eighties in Rush township. Politically he is a Democrat, but he has never aspired to or held an office. He is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees at Henderson in which he holds the office of guard. He is also a member of the Grange. Mr. and Mrs. Droun are members of the Disciples church. To them have been born three children, all remaining at the parental home:. Floyd was born November 19, 1884; Lyman was born January 26, 1887; and Flossie was born August 110, 1890. DAVIS DUTCHER One of the most extensive landed proprietors and respected citizens of Shiaxvassee county, Davis Dutcher, comes from a stalwart family of Michigan pioneers. He was born in Salem, Washtenaw county, this state, on the 16th of February, 1831, a son of John and Philothey (Colf) Dutcher. Both his parents were natives of the Empire state, the father having been born in Cherry Valley, Otsego county, New York, December 1, 1797, and the mother in Gorham, Ontario county, on the 26th of September, 1805. The maternal grandfather of our subject, William Colf, became a settler of Bennington township in 1838, and in this county he resided until the time of his death, which occurred at the home of his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Sylvia Jubb, in Middlebury township. He was in his eightysecond year. The parents of Mr. Dutcher were united in marriage, in Monroe county, New York, August 23, 1823. Upon coming to Michigan they located in Washtenaw county where, in the following February, our subject first commenced to make an observation of the world. There, with his family, the father resided about twelve years, within which period he was the proprietor of several farms. In 1843 he removed to Bennington township, Shiawassee county, where he purchased eighty acres of partially improved land, the former having already erected upon it a house and other buildings. This tract of land he in later years transformed into a comfortable homestead,

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY.107 SIAWSE ONY.0 which he enjoyed with his family until the time of his death, March 26, 1859. The subject of this sketch was one of five children, the first born being Johiel, who died in infancy; Mary is the widow of Henry Punches and is a resident of Middlebury, Shiawassee county; Davis, subject of this sketch, was the third child; Seth, the fourth. was a soldier of the civil war, a member of Company G, Sixth Michigan Cavalry, and while in the service he contracted a disease which incapacitated him for military duty; he was brought home from Point Lookout, Maryland, to pass his last days, and he paid -the debt of nature November 7, 1864, at the age of twenty-eight years; Sylvia, the fifth,child, is now Mrs. Jubb, a widow, and resides in California. Mr. Dutcher's early school advantages were limited. For about two months each year he enjoyed an irregular training in the public schools in his neighborhood, but his practical education was obtained from his faithful and intelligent labors upon the home farm and from the filial care and affection which he evinced toward his parents during the later years of their lives. At their death he inherited the old homestead and subsequently added other valuable tracts to his holdings, which now aggregate one hundred and sixty acres. He has given considerable land to his children. July 4, 1860, Mr. Dutcher married Minerva Rathburn. The ceremony was performed at Stockbridge, Ingham county, Michigan. His wife, a daughter of Fernando C. and Eunice (Colf) Rathburn, was born April 23, 1840. The fruits of this union were eight children, as follows: Hiel S. married Catherine Carrick and is now a farmer in Bennington; John died before he was two years of age; Harry J. was born December 28, 1867, and died in 1903; Squire died December 25, 1890, at the age of eighteen years; Dolly passed away on the previous day, both dying of consumption and being buried in the same grave; Lucy is the wife of Leroy Smith, and lives at Flush ing; Ellen May died in infancy, in the spring of 1888; and Alice is under the paternal roof. The mother passed out of this life on New Year's day, 1888. She was a lady with fine musical accomplishments, a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was a strong character, her demise causing general sorrow in the community in which she had so long resided. Mr. Dutcher was united in marriage a second time to Mrs. DeLong, a native of Macomb county, Michigan, where she was born on the 13th of December, 1850. Mrs. Dutchei is of French extraction. Her father, Abram Lavene, was a native of Canada, born of French parents, and died at the age of seventy years, while her mother, Mrs. Clarissa (Blair) Lavene, who first saw the light in Paris, the capital of France, is still living, in the home of our subject, having reached the advanced age of one hundred and five years. In the order of nature, being now in his seventy-fifth year, Mr. Dutcher has entered the decline of life. Surrounded by the comforts earned by his own industry and frugality, nurtured by the love of wife and children, and enjoying the confidence and esteem of his neighbors, his declining years must constitute an almost ideal period of existence. He has retired from activities of life, renting his farm, a portion of it being the home of his son, Hiel. For one of his years, however, he is remarkably vigorous, attributing.his good health largely to his temperate habits and former indulgence in the sports of the huntsman. In his earlier years he made frequent trips to the northern part of the state; and he did not confine his hunting excursions to wild turkeys, foxes and deer-wild cats and bears were no terrors for him in those days. Our subject was a trustee of the Methodist church of Bennington at the time of its erection, and has always been an active worker in that denomination. He has been not only a church worker, but also a doer of good deeds, being a citizen of whom the community has

308 PAST AND PRESENT OF reason to feel proud. He has never aspired to public position, and consequently has never held office; he has been a Republican in politics from the casting of his first ballot. Mr. Dutcher enjoys, to a marked degree, the confidence and esteem of his neighbors. WILLIAM D. DYER It is true that the early settlers suffered many hardships in developing the country.' Their incomes were small but society made but small demands upon them and their methods of farming required but little outlay for machinery. Their sacrifices were great but young men of to-day are making as great sacrifices as their parents, although not of the same kind. Many a young man has given up a career that would have been more to his liking, for the purpose of keeping the family together, and is using his brain as well as his muscle to keep up with the advancement of the present day. This is undoubtedly the age of the educated farmer. He has long been known 'for his independence, but he has added to this the acquirement of knowledge. William D. Dyer was born in the township of Burns, Shiawassee county, Michigan, on the 26th of December, 1867. He is a son of John and Rhoda (Davis) Dyer, both of whom were born in England,-the father, October 10. 1835, and the mother June 28, 1844. John Dyer came to this country in the year 1855, locating in the state of New York. He later spent two years, as a miner, in California, where he got a start in life. He afterward returned to England, where he was married, and he came at once, with his young bride, to America, this time permanently locating in the state of Michigan, upon land where the family now reside, in section 14, Burns township. He early became crippled with rheumatism and was able to do but very little manual labor. The clearing and improving of the land de volved largely upon his eldest son, William D., who has proven himself equal to the task. April 16, 1886, the father died, leaving the responsibility of rearing and caring for the family upon the mother and son. Mrs. Dyer was not only a lady of culture and refinement but was also ambitious, and she met the duties of life bravely. Her name, with that of the father, is greatly revered by the children in the home to-day. She died August 28, 1905. Her parents were members of the Church of England, which is the same as the Episcopal church in America. To Mr. and Mrs. John Dyer were born five children. Mary E., who was born December 10, 1865, is a teacher of many years of successful 'experience. She is now engaged in teaching in the city schools of St. Louis, Michigan; William D. is the subject of this sketch; Elizabeth A., born January 2, 1870, is now the wife of J. K. Courtney, of Detroit; Edith R., born January 28, 1872, married Mr. Frank Guston, and is now deceased; Clifton, born September 3, 1885, is now a student of the University of Michigan, preparing for the practice of the profession of law. He is taking a six year's course. Our subject received his early education in the high school at Byron. He was greatly handicapped in his efforts for an education on account of labors upon the farm, which required much of his time and attention. He is a man, however, not easily discouraged and has succeeded in surmounting many difficulties and has acquired a liberal education. Our subject's father was politically allied with the Republican party, and the son adheres to the same political faith. William Dyer has denied himself many privileges for the sake of saving the homestead and keeping the family together. He is a young man of good address, is uniformly respected, and his word is as good as a government bond. He is now "out of the woods" financially and has one of the many pleasant farms in the township, with good prospects for success in life.

JOHN DYER

MRS. RHODA DYER

I

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY.313 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY a13 JOHN W. EPTON Although a native of Rush township, Shiawassee county, where he was born February 22, 1880, John W. Epton comes from English stock, his father and mother being natives of England. The former is William Epton, who is now fifty-six years old, while the maiden name of the mother was Elizabeth Dennis. She is sixty-one years old. They came to this country thirty-three years ago, having been married in their native country. They first settled in Owosso township, where they lived about three years. They then removed to Rush township, where they bought eighty acres of wild land, built a log house on the same and lived there for sixteen years. They have since built a modern frame house, two large barns and own a splendid farm of two hundred and forty acres. John W. Epton was educated in the district schools of Rush township. Later he attended the Owosso high school and spent nine months in the Owosso Business College. The latter experience has proven a valuable one for him, as it does for any young man, properly fitting him for attending to his own business affairs. For some nine months he was imbued with a desire "To go with a locomotiveto hear the hiss of steam, the merry shriek, the steam whistle, the laughing locomotive!" Dur ing this time he was employed as a fireman on the Ann Arbor Railroad. On March 27, 1902, he bought a geneial merchandizing business in Henderson, in company with James Agnew, Jr. in June, 1903, the latter gentleman died. since which time Mr. Epton has conducted the business alone. The stock consists of boots and shoes, dry goods and groceries. He enjoys a fine trade, has telephone connections and employs a young lady to assist him in the store. Mr. Epton is the youngest of two children. -the other being a sister, Anna, who is now the wife of C. H. Barnes; she lives in Owosso and her husband is a fireman on the Ann Arbor Railroad. They have no children. Mr. Epton was married April 8, 1903, to Minnie Peters, who is aged twenty-three years and who is a native of Indiana. She is a daughter of A. C. Peters, a Methodist Episcopal minister. Mrs. Epton is one of four children, the others being Perry, Alfred, deceased, and Ephraim. Mr. Epton acts with the Democratic party and was township clerk in 1903-4. He is now township treasurer; he is a member of the Masonic lodge No. 81, of Owosso; of the Odd Fellows lodge, No. 153; and of the Henderson Modern Woodmen of America lodge, No. 10851. By force of character, close attention to business and square dealing, he has obtained for himself a good name and a competency. DAVID M. ESTEY This gentleman died in New Haven, Connecticut, September 27, 1903, aged sixty-two years, of rheumatic fever, after an illness of nine weeks. He was buried at Owosso. Of the latter event an Owosso paper said: "The funeral of David M. Estey was held at 2 o'clock this afternoon from his late home on Park street. Rev. E. L. Little, of Alpena, a former pastor of the Baptist church officiated. There was a large attendance at the services, the large home being filled with friends and old acquaintances of Mr. Estey. Floral pieces from old friends, from men who were formerly in Mr. Estey's employ in the furniture factory, from fraternity friends and from the family graced the casket containing the *departed man's remains. The funeral services were in charge of Owosso Lodge, No. 81, Free and Accepted Masons, of which Mr. Estey had been a member for many years. A large representation from the Masonic lodge, Mayor Arnold and city officials, and workmen from the Estey factories accompanied the remains to Oak Hill cemetery, where Worshipful Master W. E. Aten and the wardens of Owosso Lodge administered the beautiful burial rites of their order. The funeral was one of the largest in Owosso in a long

314 PAST AND PRESENT OF 314 PAST AND PRESENT OF time. During the hours of the funeral many of the business places suspended work and drew their window shades out of respect to Mr. Estey, who was for' many years one of Owosso's most prominent business men." The Michigan Encyclopedia, in 1900, said of Mr. Estev: "He was born at Hinsdale, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, on February 9, 1842; when he was four years old his parents removed to Massachusetts and from there to the state of Vermont. At an early age he engaged in the lumbering business in a small way for his father, his father taking his wages until he had nearly reached his majority. In the winter of 1861 he commenced for himself by taking a logging contract. This winter he swung an ax weighing five pounds and two ounces, losing but one-half day of the entire season of three and a half months, and from, the wood cut during this time be became quite famous with the ax and saw, on several occasions cutting one cord of four-foot oak, beech and maple wood in two hours and twenty-five to twenty-seven minutes. This winter's work was done on a contract, from which he cleared one hundred and seventyfive dollars, with which he purchased a large tract of land in Windham county, Vermont, with his brother, Hon. S. W. Estey, incurring an indebtedness of nearly six thousand dollars. This investment proved a great success. But now the country was torn with civil war, and he patiently laid aside his business and served six months in the Federal army. Soon after the close of that war he engaged in the manufacture of furniture. He bought a factory and a tract of timber, cutting the timber himself, drawing it to the factory mill with four oxen, and sawing out the logs with an old fashioned sash, up-and-down sawmill, so common in Vermont, doing this work personally. This enterprise which was also very successful, he continued until he was twentyseven years of age, accumulating somewhat over twenty-five thousand dollars. About this time he came west, and settled at West Haven, Shiawassee county, Michigan, and here laid the foundation of one of the largest furniture manufacturing establishments in the country, although for the last five years of the business at West Haven, he was not very successful, meeting with great losses both by fire and water. The ice gorge of 1875 completely carried away the dam across the Shiawassee river that furnished power for mill and furniture factory. Rebuilding this dam at once, during the great freshet, Mr. Estey considers one of his greatest accomplishments. This was built about two hundred and forty feet long across the river, averaging over eight feet high, and in four days, so that teams or horses and wagons were driven across on top of the dam the fourth day, and the factory machinery was put in motion again. Several acres of timber and brush as well as great quantities of straw, stone and gravel were used in its construction. The work was all done under Mr. Estey's personal supervision, he taking an active part in the very worst and most difficult of the work. It was said to be one of the strongest dams on the river. In 1879 he moved to Owosso, and formed the Estey Manufacturing Company, consisting of Jacob Estey, the renowned organ builder, of Brattleboro, Vermont, Charles E. Rigley and himself, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, and with his energy and skill it has grown to be one of the most extensive of its kind in the world, and through his faculty and genius his goods have found their way into every state and territory, as well as many foreign countries. His products are not excelled by any, and the business / has continued to grow almost yearly, until the surplus has largely exceeded the capital stock. Mr. Estey has taken a very active part in the enterprises of Owosso, as well as other parts of the state. He has filled many important places of trust, such as mayor of the city; president of the Estev Manufacturing Company; president of the Second National Bank of Owosso; and president of the Shiawassee Savings Society, which was originated by him, with a subscribed capital of over four hundred

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 3t5 H A I C thousand dollars. He was president of the Owosso city water board; also had large lumber interests, and has been a very large operator in timber lands. He has also large interests in several other companies. During the great depression and panic of 1892 and 1893, he met with heavy losses by decline in values and by great fires." David M. Estey was married August 10, 1862, to Mary J. Norcross. There were three children. Orison B. is now superintendent of the six-day furniture factory, being a hand marked mentality and is in every way fitted for the position which he occupies. Erwin Eveleth is a native of the Empire state, having been born in Darien, Genesee county, New York, on the 6th of November, 1842, and being a son of Charles and Elizabeth (Jones) Eveleth, the father a native of Massachusetts and the mother of New York. The father died six years ago, at the age of eighty-four years, and the mother died when our subject was but a small boy. Charles Eveleth was a farmer and came to ERWIN EVELETH carver and designer by trade. He has learned nearly all the branches of the furniture business. His designs are meeting with praise for their beauty and cheapness. Dora E. is the wife of J. M. Bryson, of Battle Creek, and Florence D. died at the age of five years. ERWIN EVELETH This honored citizen who "Uncle Sam" has seen fit and proper to place at the head of postal affairs in the city of Corunna, Shiawassee county, is a man of integrity and Michigan in 1852, making his first Michigan home at Grand Blanc, Genesee county, where he lived for five years. He then moved to Flushing, where he bought one hundred acres of wild land, securing the same from a man named Perry, who had bought the land from the government. Here he made his home, improving his farm and erecting all the buildings, and here died December 2, 1894. He was first a Whig, then a Republican and finally 'a Prohibitionist, though never an office-holder. He and his wife were members of the Baptist church. Of their three children our subject was the oldest, the other two 20

316 PAST AND PRESENT OF 316 PAST AND PRESENT OF beig Julius B., a farmer living in Caledonia township, and Augusta, who died many years ago. Erwin Eveleth acquired his early education in the district schools of New York and afterward continued his studies at Grand Blanc. Hie graduated in a commercial college at Detroit in the class of 1865. He began business for himself at the age of twenty years, spending five years in a warehouse at Saginaw, and most of the time since that he has been engaged in estimating lumber. Mr. Eveleth has been a resident of Corunna since 1871. He was married in 1866 to Jennie E. Black, who was born in September, 1846, being a daughter of John Black, an early settler of Michigan. This union has been blessed with ten children: Lizzie, born December 4, 1867, is the wife of F. J. Northway, of Van, Michigan, and they have three children: Juanita, Reginald and Emerson; Florence, born in 1867, is the wife of John Drake, of Corunna. and they are the parents of eight children: Ralph, Harold, Tom, Kenneth, Jennie, DeNett, Harry LeRoy and Elizabeth; Charles, born in 1868, married Mary Frane; William S., who was born in 1871 and who married Leah Corlin, lives in Caledonia township, is a farmer and they have seven children: Lucretia, Doris, Leo, Grace, Laura, Kyle and Charley. Grace died at the age of twentyone; Nettie, born February 23, 1875, is a trained nurse, residing at home; Burr D., born June 24, 1876, married Eva Edwards and they have one child, Nina, born September 22, 1904; Ralph Julius, born August 17, 1877, married Hattie Rolfe and they live in Montana, having two children, Ralph and Percy; Nina Ethel, aged twenty-six, married F. L. Stone, of Denver, Colorado, and they have one daughter, Margaret; Erwin, Jr., born February 9, 1889, lives at home. Our subject is affiliated with the Republican party and in 1894 was mayor of Corunna. He served as alderman for several years and has occupied his present position of trust for the past three years. Both our subject and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are among its most active workers. Socially Mr. Eveleth is allied with the Masonic fraternity, including the Knights Templar and Shrine. He is also identified with the Maccabees, and takes a deep interest in each of these orders. In every sphere of life this gentleman is useful and efficient and his example and influence are well adapted to benefit the rising generations. JULIUS B. EVELETH Julius B. Eveleth, son of a Michigan pioneer of the early '50s, is the proprietor of a fine farm in section 10, Caledonia township. and besides being widely known as a successful agriculturist he has made a marked record as an executive and judicial official in local matters. He was born in the Empire state, on the 26th of October, 1844, being a son of Charles and Mary (Jones) Eveleth. Charles Eveleth, the father of our subject, removed from his native state of Massachusetts to New York when a young man. He was married in Genesee county, New York, his wife dying in 1847, leaving to his care two sons and one daughter. In 1849 he started for Michigan, driving overland from Buffalo to Detroit, thence proceeding by rail to Pontiac and by team to Grand Blanc. At the place last named he leased a farm for a period of five years, and after operating it for that period located near Flushing. After a time, however, he retired from active farm life, making his home with his elder son, Erwin, who had settled at Corunna as a lumberman and a merchant. There he died December 2, 1894, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. The subject of this article was educated in the schools of Grand Blanc, Genesee county, Michigan, and while still a young boy assisted his father on the family homestead. Later, he worked hard and faithfully on the Flush

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 317 ing farm. At the age of twenty-one he became his own master in reality, as in name, spending the first season after he had attained his majority in the arduous occupation of driving logs on the river. He again commenced work on his father's farm, continuing to be thus employed until 1870, when he was married to Miss Emma Palmer, a Corunna girl, who was born November 20, 1853. Mrs. Eveleth was only seventeen years of age at the time of her marriage, being the daughter of David and Phoebe (Brown) Palmer. Her father, born October 8, 1827, died at the age of thirty-six, sacrificing his life in the civil war; his widow, who was born on Christmas of 1828, is still living. The wife of our subject is the second of three children. Her elder brother, Benjamin, resides in Corunna, while her younger brother, Charles Palmer, is a farmer at Durand. Mr. and Mrs. Eveleth are the parents of three children, named below in order of their birth: Fred, who is thirty years of age, married Louise Pease and lives upon a portion of the family homestead; Augusta is now Mrs. Walter Derr, of Corunna; and Erwina, aged fifteen, lives with her parents. Mr. Eveleth's fine farm, which is the material basis of a contented domestic circle, originated in the purchase of eighty acres of land by our subject in 1869, the year before his marriage. He has resided there since 1872, although he has added forty acres to the original purchase, and has continually improved the estate and raised it in value, by suppylug it with late conveniences and inventions. Mr. Eveleth is progressive aside from the vocation which he chose for life. He has been justice of the peace for a number of terms, has also served as township clerk and highway commissioner and all the official duties which he has performed have been undertaken with a spirit of uniform faithfulness and unassuming honesty. In his society connections he has been honored with membership in the Masonic lodge of Corunna and in the local organiza-, tion of the Knights of the Maccabees. I.f JAMES FEE The neighboring province of Ontario has furnished Michigan many of her best and most sturdy farmers. Among these is numbered the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch. He was born in Halton county, Canada, May 30, 1851. He comes from good old Irish stock, his father, John Fee, having been a native of the county of Cavan, Ireland, where he was born, March 9, 1816, and he died in Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, February 7, 1891. His wife also first saw the light of day in the same county as did her husband, and was born in 1823. Her maiden name was Arabella Johnson. This couple were married on their native heath, in 1836. In 1839 John Fee removed to Canada, and the same year enlisted in the First Provincial Regiment, for the McKenzie rebellion, serving until the close of that war. His wife journeyed to Canada four years later. The great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch was also named James, was an old soldier and participated in the battle of Waterloo. He lived and died in the county of Cavan, Ireland. All of Mr. Fee's relatives on the fraternal side were fighters, and several of them died in India while in the army. His father, John Fee, spent seven years as an apprentice, learning the cabinet-maker's trade in Ireland. He also worked at that business in Stewartown, Canada, until the spring of 1870, when he removed to Flushing, Michigan, where he spent three years working at his trade and that of a carpenter. He then bought eighty,cres of wild land, on section 1, Hazelton township, on which he built a log house. He and his son George kept "batch" and cleared the land. The old gentleman lived there until his death. James was the sixth of eight children, six of whom are living: Alexander, born in Ireland, December 5, 1837, died there at the age of four years; Anna Eliza, born in Ireland, December 26, 1839, died in New Jersey, in April, 1903, having married Richard Tathem and having had one child, Richard;

318 PAST AND PRESENT OF 318 PAST AND PRESENT OF Helen, who was born in Canada, June 23, 1846, and who lives at Flushing, married John H. Bailey, and they have two children, Herman W. and Arthur; Phoebe, who was born in Canada, September 18, 1847, and who lives at Maple Grove, Saginaw county, married Melvin C. Holly, and had four children, Edna and Burt, both deceased, and Clare and Lloyd. Mary J., who was born in Canada, April 6, 1849, and who lives at Bancroft, married Rev. J. B. Goss, and they have six children,-Geo. W., Amy, Arnold, Stella, May and Jay B.; John M., who was born in Canada, February 18, 1854, and who lives on a farm in Manitoba, married Jennie Cook, and has five children,-Fred, Charles, Ethel, Nellie and Mary; Rev. George A., who was born in Canada, July 1, 1858, and who preaches at Adrian, Michigan, being a member of the Methodist Episcopal conference, married Fannie Partridge, and they have three children,-Robert, Eva and Amy. James Iee started for himself at the age of fifteen years, learning the trade of wool carder, in Canada. He was forced to quit that, however, on account of poor health. In October, 1868, he found his way to Bay City, Michigan. He sailed on the lakes during the summer and worked in the lumber woods in the winter. In July, 1875, he removed to Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, where he had previously purchased eighty acres of wild land, on section 1; he cleared fifteen acres and in 1876 sold the property and bought a forty acre farm on section 11,-thirty acres of which he cleared the same year. He next sold the last purchase and bought sixty acres of wild land on the same section. There was a "shack" on this place and some sixteen acres cleared. He built a frame house and barn and cleared most of the land. In 1899 he sold the last purchase and removed to New Lothrop and opened an agricultural implement store. He bought a pleasant home and adjoining his residence built a store two stories high. It is situated on the main street of the village. He also does an insurance business. On Christmas, 1877, he married Martha Bowden who was born March 9, 1858. Her father, Richard Bowden, was born at Manchester, England, and died in the township of Flushing, Genesee county, Michigan.' Her mother, Mary (Smith) Bowden, was born in Ireland and died in Flushing township. Mrs. Fee was the second in a family of five children: Sara, married C. C. Speers, a resident of Saginaw county and now a representative of his district in the state legislature, and had two children, Johanna and Wyman; Mary married Randolph Bailey and she died three months later, to a day, having lived in Hazelton township; Henrietta, who lives in Montrose township, Genesee county, married Bert Smith and has three children; Irene, married Edward Farrar, and they live in Montrose, Michigan; where he is station agent, having one child. Mrs. Fee's parents were married in Flushing township. Her father came to Flushing, MIichigan, in 1850 and bought one hundred and twenty acres of wild land, on section 7, built a log house and cleared the land. Later he erected a frame house and barn and lived there until the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Fee have seven children-all living: Harry 0., who was born February 19, 1879, and who is a clerk in the postoffice at Denver, Colorado, married Lela Baker of Kansas City, Missouri, and has three children,-Juanita, and Martha and James, twins; Edward J., who was born January 28, 1882, and who lives at Flint, married Miss Nellie Dafoe; Nina A., born August 6, 1886, is a school teacher; Harley R. was born August 21, 1888; Winfield was born March 20, 1895; Mary J. was born January 20, 1898; and Grace I. was born February 14, 1901. MIr. Fee's father had two sisters,-Margaret, born in Ireland, married William Ferguson, and now lives in Sanilac county, Michigan. Ellen, born in Ireland, married John Caruthers, and lives in New York state. Mr. Fee is an Odd Fellow and a Gleaner. He was at one time an organizer for the latter in the counties of Shiawassee, Genesee, Clinton,

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 319 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 3l Gratiot, Ionia, Montcalm and Saginaw. During the time the Patrons of Industry were flourishing he was county secretary of that organization. He is a Republican and has been drain commissioner two terms and is now serving first term as justice of the peace. Mr. Fee is a member of the Methodist Protestant church. FRANCIS FERRY The American sisterhood of states is sprinkled o'er with Scotchmen and descendants of Scotsmen. Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bl'd, Scots, whom Bruce has often led. They are a sturdy and hardy race, intelligent, peaceable and industrious, and religious in their tendency. They are just such people as make the best possible American citizens, —,good farmers, good mechanics, good husbands; good wives. The gentleman whose name heads the page is a native of Scotland, where he was born May 13, 1831. He is a son of John and Catharine (Wilson) Ferry, who lived and died in their native land. Mr. Ferry, who was a stone mason by trade, died at the age of ninety-one years and his wife at the age of ninety-two. They had a family of seven children-Agnes, John, Peter, George, Francis, Edward and Mary. At th'e age of twenty-one years Francis started for America. He shipped from Shields, in the north of England, and was nine weeks on the trip, going in a sailing vessel, this being the only way then of crossing the briny deep. The voyage was slow and tedious, affording him an excellent opportunity of getting acquainted with the "always wind-obeying deep." During those eventful weeks, this young Scotchman might have asked with the poet: Why does the sea moan evermore? Shut out from heaven it makes its moan, It frets against the bound'ry shore; All earth's full rivers cannot fill The sea that drinking thirsteth still. He finally landed in New Brunswick and worked at farming and in the lumber woods for two years. He then went to Ontario, Canada, where he remained about three years, being employed at farming. He did not seem to like the Canadians, however, or rather their ways, and concluded to try Michigan. He located some land where Ovid is now situated, but remained there but a short time, when he sold the property and bought an eighty acre farm in Middlebury township, where he now resides. Very little of this had been improved, but it contained a saw mill, which he operated for many years; had a small frame house and a frame shanty which was an excuse for a barn. He set to work with a will, however, and finally cleared the land, pulled down the old buildings and built greater, until he can now boast of as fine a farm as Shiawassee county contains, showing the skill and taste of the owner far better than words can express. It was a patriotic idea at least, that is from a Yankee's point of view, for Mr. Ferry to celebrate our great national holiday by taking unto himself a wife, who is as, Byron expresses it, the rainbow to the storms of life! The every beam that smiles the clouds away And tints tomorrow with prophetic ray! This was on July 4, 1854, when he was married to Marie Middough, born in Canada May 2, 1834. She is still living. To them were born six children as follows: Cassie C. is the wife of Eugene Beebe, who lives with Mr. Ferry and works the farm, and they have no children; Etta married Everett Munson and died ten years ago, leaving one son, Jay; Emma, who married Elder Evans, died in Middlebury, having had three children,-Arthur, Jessie and Romeo; Frank, deceased, had left three children, and Ned, who lives with Mr. Ferry, is one of them; Ned, Mr. Ferry's fifth child, died in the army, three years ago, in

320 PAST AND PRESENT OF 320 PAST AND PRESENT OF Dakota, having been a bachelor; Robert died in infancy. Mr. Ferry has been an indomitable worker and when he located in Middlebury there were but few roads there, and the site of the village of Ovid was a wilderness. Until a few years ago he continued to operate the saw mill in connection with his farming. He is a Republican in politics but not an office holder nor an office seeker. He still has good health and manages his farm, and stands high in the community as a reliable and wealthy citizen. ANDREW FILLINGER The glory of our nation is in her patriotic sons. The peace and prosperity, prestige and greatness of our government have been won by the men who ventured their lives for a principle, and whose patriotism shines forth a living example to the generations of the present and future. Andrew Fillinger, the subject of this sketch, is one of the men to whom our country is indebted. He was born in Livingston county, New York, on the 20th of September, 1847. He is of the good old German stock, his father, Andrew Fillinger, having been born in Germany,, in 1821. His mother also was born in Germany in 1815, her maiden name having been Christina Hoover. The father and mother came to this country at the respective ages of twenty-one and thirty-one years, being married in New York shortly after leaving the boat upon which they had made the voyage. They lived in Livingston county, New York, until their son was seven years old, when they removed to Livingston county in the state of Michigan. Here they purchased a farm, upon which they resided until the year 1863, when they removed to Shiawassee county where they lived until their death which occurred at the respective ages of sixtyseven and seventy-five years. Andrew Fillinger, the subject of this sketch, was the oldest of eight children. He and two brothers, George and Henry, served in Company A, Twenty-second Michigan Infantry. They enlisted together, at Flint, Michigan. George died in the army, of brain fever, and Henry died at the age of twenty-one years February 17, 1871. They all gave the best part of their lives that the nation might be united and free. Mr. Fillinger during the greater part of his army service was stationed at Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was there when General Hood surrendered his Confederate army to the Union. His company was under the command of Captain Elverson. His company was ordered to Atlanta, but at Calhoun, Georgia, was recalled to Chattanooga. He did duty under General Thomas at Lookout Mountain, where the great battle was fought above the clouds, and was finally mustered out of service at Nashville, Tennessee. He returned to his home in Michigan, receiving the well earned gratitude of the people. Mr. Fillinger's other brothers and sisters, are Gustavus, who died in infancy; Mary, now Mrs. Charles Ortner, of Bath township, Clinton county; Charles, living in Owosso; Emma now Mrs. William Carlton, living in Woodhull, Shiawassee county; and William, who died at Perry, in 1903, leaving a family. After Mr. Fillinger returned from the army he purchased a farm in Woodhull township, improving the property and there residing for eleven years. February 21, 1869, he was united in marriage with Phoebe Arthur, who was the fifth child of the respected family of Robert and Martha (White) Arthur. Mrs. Fillinger was born in White Lake township, Oakland county, January 22, 1851. They moved to Owosso township in 1880 and engaged in farming. They afterward purchased the Lytle farm, of eighty acres, which they have greatly improved, but desiring to take a much needed rest they left the farm and moved to the village of Henderson, where they purchased a beautiful home, in which they now reside. Mr. Fillinger still owns his farm, which he oversees in connection with his busi

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 321 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 321 ness of traveling salesman for The J. J. Munson Buggy Company, of Ovid. Mr. and Mrs. Fillinger have three children: Bert A., was born July 10, 1871, and is in business at Oakley. He married Ella Caldwell and has two children, Waldon and Otha. The second child, Edward, was born December 29, 1874. He was graduated in 1901 in the Owosso Business College and now holds a responsible position in Detroit. The third child, Satie, was born August 13, 1877. She married Jacob Gordon, who is now in business with the oldest son, Bert A. Fillinger, at Oakley. Mr. Fillinger is a member of the blue lodge of Masons at Owosso and is a member, of the Methodist church. A. BURTON FREEMAN A. Burton Freeman, a leading business man of Durand, is a native of Michigan, the date of his birth having been June 3, 1873. He is a son of Dewitt Freeman, a farmer by occupation, who was born in Washtenaw county, Michigan, and of Augusta (Fenton) Freeman, who was born in the state of New York. The elder Freeman continued to live in his native county until the year 1881, when he removed to Muskegon and later to Durand. He was a Republican in politics, and died June 23, 1902. His wife still survives him. They had four children, as follows: Bell, who died when twenty-one years old; Libbie, whose husband, Mr. Bradstreet, is a coal and wood dealer in Durand; Hattie A., who married Mr. Charles T. Parris and died at thirty-two years of age; A. Burton, who is the subject of this review; and Clara M., who is the second wife of Mr. Parris. August 2, 1903, Mr. Freeman was united in marriage to Phebe A. Thomas. When Mrs. Freeman was four years of age she lost her father, who died at Bay City, having lived in Oakland until shortly before his decease. Her mother is still living.- Mr. and Mrs. Freeman have had born to them one child, Lillian Evangeline, who died in 1898 when an infant. After receiving a through preliminary training in the district school Mr. Freeman attended the high school at Whitehall. This was the extent of his book-training, but being naturally of a studious and thoughtful disposition he has since gathered a goodly fund of information from reading and experience, so that for all practical purposes he is remarkably well equipped. HIe early evinced an independence and a self-reliance beyond his years, and at the age of seventeen he commenced to work in a saw mill. Within the succeeding three years he became proprietor of the mill and sold it. This experience in the lumber business was followed by two years' employment in an elevator, and one year in a general store. Mr. Freeman's next venture was with Mr. Parris, in the produce business, chiefly in the purchase of beans. For some eight years following this, he clerked in a clothing store. September 1, 1900, the establishment was purchased by Freeman and Parris, since which they have conducted it. The business, which has been established for ten years, comprises a full line of clothing and men's furnishings. The firm has also opened a store in Flushing under the name of Pryor & Company. Mr. Freeman is an earnest and influential Republican. He has served the township as clerk for two years. In October, 1901, he was appointed to the important office of supervisor for the balance of the year, and performed his duties so ably that he was elected to the position for another year,; and reappointed in October, 1903, to serve the balance of that year. He is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees, the Loyal Guard and the Masonic fraternity, being Worshipful Master at this time, and Mr. and Mrs. Freeman are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and practice its precepts. Altogether, he is a successful business man, and richly deserves the confidence reposed in him, being a gentleman of the strictest integrity and honor. Of him it may be said in the language of another:

322 c PAC4ST AND PRESENT OF 322 PAST AND PRESENT OF By heaven, I had rather coin my heart And drop my blood by drachms, than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash, By any indirection! Mr. Freeman is still on the sunny side of life, and the world should yet hold in store for him many years of activity and usefulness. CHARLES FREEMAN Among thee old family names in the township of New Haven is that of Freeman. It was in this township that the subject of this sketch, Charles Freeman, first opened his eyes to the light of this old world, December 4, 1841. Mr. Freeman is of English extraction, his parents, Richard and Mary Ann (Shepard) Freeman, having both been born in England, the father in Warwickshire, in 1809, and the mother at Princethorp. They were united in marriage in the country of their nativity. When the Freemans came to America, in 1836, their eldest, the first of a family of twelve children, had been born to them. Data respecting the family are here given: Sarah Ann, widow of Joseph Ott, makes her home with her children; Lucy, wife of Samuel Shuster, resides in Rush towniship; Eliza is the wife of Lewis S. Goodale, of Owosso; William enlisted as a soldier in the civil war, was a member of Company I, Eighth Michigan Infantry, and died of disease on board of transport, a sacrifice upon the altar of his country, and was buried at Fortress Monroe, Virginia; John resides upon the old homestead; Charles is the subject of this sketch; Joseph and James were twins, the former being now a farmer in Rush township; James was drafted into his country's service, but was stricken down with disease before reaching his command, and was buried at Nashville, Tennessee, thus giving his life for his country,-none could do more; Henry is, a prosperous farmer in Rush township; Hi ram resides in Saginaw; Richard E. is a wellto-do farmer in New Haven township; and George E. resides in the same locality. When Richard Freeman arrived in the township of New Haven, in 1836, Shiawassee county was practically an unbroken forest. He took up one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government. This was one of the first farms, if indeed it was not the first, located in the township. Mr. Freeman came through by blazed trees for some distance and Lhe last seven miles cleared the way to his new possessions. With characteristic energy or the pioneer, the trees were felled and a log house was rolled up, said to have been the first structure erected in the township. This was later replaced by a frame building, which also has the credit of being the first of its kind in New Haven township. The quarter section located by Mr. Freeman, being too low to live upon, he moved to another tract of land, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres. This place was subsequently improved by him and the family resided there until Charles, the subject of this sketch, was nine years of age. At this time Mr. Freeman moved on to a rented farm of ninety-six acres, in Rush township, where the family lived until the death of the owner, when Mr. Freeman purchased the estate and made this his permanent residence. He later came to be recognized as one of the successful and prosperous farmers of his section, owning at the time of his death nearly four hundred acres of land, together with other valuable holdings. He divided his possessions among his children, giving each a good start in life. In the matter of education his early advantages were limited, but after coming to this county, he felt the need of learning and by his own efforts acquired a practical education, so essential to success. In politics he affiliated with the Democratic party, which honored him with positions of trust and responsibility. He served his township as treasurer and was for some years justice of the peace. Mr. Freeman and his good wife were for many years devoted members

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 323 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 323 of the Methodist Episcopal church. The father died in February, 1881, at the age of seventy-two years, and the mother passed away July 4, 1879, aged sixty-nine years. They rest side by side in the family lot in West Haven cemetery. Charles Freeman has very distinct recollections of his early experiences in the old log school house in his home district, in New Haven township. With him, as with many another farm boy in a new country, it was "catch as catch can" for picking up the fundamentals of an education, but he won out and consoles himself with the thought that it might have been worse. Certainly he has reasons for personal congratulations for the success that has come to him in life. Hie remained at home, assisting in clearing up the farm, until he was a man grown. When twenty-three years of age he purchased fifty acres of unimproved land on section 25, Rush township. This was to be his future home. A small clearing was made and a frame house erected. Later, as he prospered, he built a frame barn, thirty-four by forty-six feet, cleared away the forests and improved the land. In recent years he has added a five-acre tract of wood land. An important event in the life of Charles Freeman was his marriage, December 25, 1864, to Eliza, daughter of William and Ann (Lusty) Meredith, natives of England. Mr. Meredith was born February 14, 1819, and Mrs. Meredith May 24 of the same year. When they came to this country and settled in Bennington township, Mrs. Freeman was but nine years of age. Her birthday was June 16, 1845. Mr. and Mrs. Meredith spent the active years of their lives upon their home farm where they first settled. He died December 12, 1894, at the age of seventy-five years, his wife preceding him about two years, having passed away November 14, 1892; both were buried in the Dyne cemetery. They were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Freeman was the eldest of four daugh ters, born to her parents; Data given referring to the others are as follows: Sarah, born 1848, married Adam Burwell, resided in St. Charles, and is now deceased; Rose makes her home with her sister, Mrs. Freeman; Lavina, wife of John Stimson, resides in Fairfield township. To Mr. and Mrs. Charles Freeman have been born four children, as follows: Cora Ann, born May 21, 1867, is the wife of William Lindsay, of New Haven township, and they have a daughter, Lozina E., born November 27, 1897; William R., who was born February 24, 1869, and who resides in New Haven township, marred Estella Collins, who died in 1899, leaving two children, Hazel and Charles C.; Alta L., born July 17, 1881, is the wife of Wesley Kurrler, and they have two children living, Ivan and Verne D., one child having died in infancy; they reside on a farm near Cheasning; Milton I. M., born in November, 1881, married Ida Shultz, and they reside in Rush township. Early in the strife of the great civil war Charles Freeman became imbued with the true spirit of patriotism, and on the 19th of September, 1861, enlisted in company I, of the Eighth Michigan Infantry, which regiment,was then organizing at Fort Wayne. On the 23d of September he was mustered into the United States service. The regiment, under the command of Colonel William M. Fenton, left Detroit September 27th, bearing upon its rolls of muster an aggregate of nine hundred and fifteen officers and men. Its destination was Washington. By reason of its active operations this regiment was characterized the "wandering regiment of Michigan." The command saw much severe fighting and was known as one of the best regiments from the state. Its loss in service aggregated four hundred officers and men, out of an enrollment of one thousand, seven hundred and ninety-two. Mr. Freeman thus briefly outlines his military experiences: From Washington the regiment was sent to Annapolis, Maryland, and there shipped for Hilton Head, South Carolina, landing November 8th and remaining there

324 PAST AND PRESENT OF until April, 1862, when the command was sent to Tybee island, Georgia, where it remained but two-weeks, then being ordered back to Beaufort. In June they were at James island, near Charleston, where they met the enemy and were defeated. This was the regiment's first heavy engagement, though it had several times met the enemy. In this engagement Mr. Freeman suffered the loss of his index finger on his left hand, the digit having been shot away by a minie ball. From this date to July following he was in the hospital. He rejoined his regiment in Virginia, on what he characterizes as General Pope's "masterly retreat." He was detailed as regimental cook, which position he filled until December 9, 1862, when he received his discharge and was honorably mustered out of service, for disability. In early years he affiliated with the Democratic party, until Cleveland's administration, since which time he has given loyal support to the Republican party, the party with a history. His fellow townsmen have honored him with several positions of trust. He has held the offices of constable, township treasurer, supervisor two terms, and justice of the peace. He claims he has seved his time as a public official and now declines all honors of that character. Fraternally, he is a member of the Grange and the Grand Army of the Republic, being at present the commander of L. B. Quackenbush Post, No. 205, of Owosso. Mr. Freeman has retired from the activities of farm life and now resides in the prosperous city of Owosso. Mr. and Mrs. Freeman are esteemed members of the Methodist Episcopal church. His many friends wish for him years of well deserved rest and recreation. HARRISON W. FULLER No higher compliment can be paid to a citizen of a great republic than to state that he gallantly served his country in the civil war. The memory thereof is a rich heritage to be handed down to a hero's posterity. Indeed, future generations will honor vastly more the brave boys in blue than they; are honored today. The poet says tersely and forcibly: Whether on the scaffold high, Or in the battle's van, The fittest place for man to die Is where he dies for man. The subject of this sketch did not die for his fellow man, but he hazarded his life for his country, as he enlisted at the bugle's call early in the strife, in Company D, First Michigan Cavalry. He was enrolled August 14, 1861, and a few days afterward, August 20, was mustered in at Detroit. In September the regiment was mustered into service with one thousand, one hundred and forty-four officers and men, T. F. Broadhead being its colonel. Company D was placed on detached service as provost guard, and was stationed at Alexandria, Virginia, November 25, 1862, remaining there on that duty until August, 1864, when the regiment was sent west. Mr. Fuller was in the hospital at Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, D. C., nearly two months. He is a native of Osceola township, Livingston county, Michigan, and now resides on section 22, Fairfield township, Shiawassee county. His father, Daniel Fuller, was born in New York, in 1793, and died in Livinogston county, Michigan, March 4, 1843, while his mother, Polly (Gibbs) Fuller, also a native of the Empire state, where she was born in 1806, died March 6, 1881, in Shiawassee county. These pioneers were married in their native state, May 5, 1824. They located in Livingston county in 1833, buying eighty acres of native forest in Osceola township and building a log house thereon. Mr. Fuller was accompanied by an uncle, the former having an ox team and the latter a span of horses. Each brought his family and each had two cows. Mr. Fuller cleared some of the land, but died when our subject, Harrison W., was only three years old. After a time his mother married a second time, becoming the wife of Ephraim Starr, after,which the family removed to the town

SHI AWASSEE COUNTY 325 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 325 ship of Cohoctah, then Tuscola, where the stepfather of our subject owned one hundred and twenty acres of land, part of which he had cleared. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Fuller: Ransom Smith, who was born March 27, 1825, and who died in 1899, having lived at Owosso, married Emeline Fox, who bore to him six children, John, Emily, Vira, Crawford, Willard and Jay, and after her death he married Sara Clough, no children resulting from this union; Jane, borA July 24, 1827, died when about eighteen years old; John Henry, born September 27, 1829, died when about fourteen years old; Ezra Dunton, who was born September 22, 1831, and who died at Owosso, in 1899, married Matilda Appleton, and they had two children, Ida and Etta; Phoebe, who was born April 27, 1834, and who lives in Cohoctah township, Livingston county, is married and has three children, Annie, Royal and Walter; Joseph Stoddard, who was born December 6, 1836, and who died April 29, 1905, at Webberville, Mich., married Ann Appleton, and they had three children, Jane, Daniel and Edward; and Harrison W. is the subject of this sketch. The mother had two children by her second husband, Charlotte, born December 2, 1845; and Amelia Adelaide, born May 21, 1847; both died in infancy. Our subject started for himself at the age of twelve years. The first winter he went to school and in the summers did odd jobs about the neighborhood. When thirteen he carried the mail from Owosso to Lyons, a distance of fifty-five miles, by way of Indian trail. This was a ride of two hundred and ten miles weekly, on horseback. He was to receive only six dollars a month, and out of a part of this he was swindled by his employer, because an old horse died on the lad's hands. He worked by the month and went to school as he could until twenty-one years old, when he enlisted as already stated. In 1865 he bought forty acres of wild land, with not a stick of timber cut, on section 22; he built a log house and barn and has improved it all. In 1890 he added forty acres more, partly improved, and most of this is now under cultivation. December 31, 1864, Mr. Fuller married Amanda Hinman, widow of Mallery Hinman. She was born October 7, 1841, and died November 5, 1900. Her father, John Pope, came to Michigan at an early day, when it was a territory, and settled in Owosso township. He bought and sold a great deal of land, and owned eighty acres in Caledonia township. Mrs. Fuller is the second of six children: Sara, deceased, married William Fox and had two children, Almira and Otis; Annie, who lives in Owosso, married James Byrley, and they have four children, May, Lina, Jennie and Arthur; William, who lives in Belding, first married Zella Horton, who died, having had three sons, Claude, Glenn and Vern, and he later married Mary Conant, their only child being Harold; Lucy is the wife of James Davison, of Colorado, and they have no children; Rachel married Chester Fox and had eleven children, four of whom are living, Willis, Eddie, Barton and Goldie. Mr. and Mrs. Fuller had five children, all of whom are living: Flora, who was born October 10, 1865, married Henry Stanhope October 5, 1889, and they have one child, Hazel; Frank S., born July 6, 1867, married Julia Young, December 12, 1896, who died in September, 1899, leaving one daughter, Iva; Herbert J., born November 22, 1870, residing in Morrice, married Della Campbell, January 22, 1892, and they have two children, Lena and Ava; Ella, born September 9, 1872, married Cassius Loynes, March 22, 1892, and they have four children, Nelah, Cassie, Cecil and Jessie, their honme being in Saginaw county; Mable, born October 30, 1878, married Matthew Buchele October 12, 1898, a~nd they have ine child, Cleo. In August, 1902, Mr. Fuller was married a second time, his bride being Eunice, widow of Cassius Levalley. Her maiden name was Sabin, and she was born in Barry county, Michigan. Mr. Fuller belongs to the Grand Army of

326 PAST AND PRESENT OF 326 PAST AND PRESENT OF the Republic, the Grange and the Patrons of Industry. In politics he is an ardent Republican, and is serving as justice of the peace and has been a school officer for twelve years. OSCAR A. GARFIELD The subject of this sketch, one of the most faithful and prominent Republicans of Shiawassee county, is now holding the offices of both village and township clerk. He has been a resident of Durand and Vernon township since November, 1890. He is a native of the Wolverine state, and for the past twenty-six years has only missed two conventions organized by the party of his choice. Oscar A. Garfield was born in the township of Rose, Oakland county, in the year 1853 and is a son of Leonard M. Garfield. His parents also were natives of Oakland county, his father having been born in Farmington and his mother in West Bloomfield. The father bought one hundred and twenty acres of wild land, half a mile southeast of the village of Fenton, cleared it, and made various improvements calculated to transform it into a comfortable family homestead. The parents are both now dead. Our subject is one of four children, and after receiving the common-school education which usually falls to the farmer's child, started forth when but a lad to make a place for himself. When but fifteen years old he hired himself out as a farm hand, his wages being fifty cents a day. This life proving too nionotonous for his active body and brain, he determined to get into the business world. I-us first venture was as an apprentice in a drug store. He followed that occupation for three years, and then was engaged as traveling salesman for the George P. Rose Manufacturing Company. With this establishment he remained for two years, and after another experience on the road, became the proprietor of a general store, which he conducted about a year and a half. Prior to his permanent loca tion in Durand he also followed the life of a farmer for two years. As has been stated, Mr. Garfield became a resident of Durand in November, 1890, and he commenced his business career here as proprietor of a meat market. He continued to follow this line of enterprise about a year, when he again became a "knight of the road," being engaged in the sale of pianos, organs. and sewing machines. During all this period of business change and wide experience, however, Mr. Garfield was forming an acquaintanceship which was firmly implanting him in the confidence of his fellow townsmen, wvho subsequently selected him justice of the peace for a term of four years. At the conclusion of this term of service, which was eminently satisfactory, our subject established a real-estate and loan' business, which he conducted for a number df83Vears. He has now served three terms as township clerk and two terms as village clerk, and there is no citizen in Durand who has more fully earned the substantial confidence of the people than the subject of this sketch. Mr. Garfield's marriage to Jennie Austin occurred at Hazelton, his wife's father being an old settler of that village. He was a pioneer in every sense of the word; when he first located there, he was obliged to chop his way through the woods to get at his land. He assisted in building one of the first school houses in that part of the country, and did all which fell to the lot of the sturdy frontiersman of his day and which made possible the development of this section of the great west. He was first a Whig and later a Republican. Mrs. Garfield died, childless, in 1897. Mr. Garfield has only one brother living. BYRON W. -GATES Byron W. Gates, of Fairfield township, was born in Wayne county, New York, February 8, 1835. He enlisted for two years in Company G, Thirteenth New York Volunteer In

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 327 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 327 fantry, April 21, 1861, thinking, with Andrew Jackson, that our federal union must be preserved. He was afterwards mustered into the United States government service for three months. At the expiration of this time Governor Morgan of New York turned the troops over to the government for twenty-one months longer. In September, 1861, Mr. Gates was assigned to Company K, New York Cavalry. in which he served until mustered out October 3, 18(4. He participated in the battles of Blackman's Ford, the first battle of Bull Run, Gun Swamp, Goldsborough, Wilmington Railroad, Hexford Station, Stony Creek, Nottawa Bridge, Tarborough, Rocky Mount, Portsmouth, Ream's Station and the siege of Richmond. Under the works of Richmond he was slightly wounded; he was then sent back to camp to take charge of the conscripts, and remained there until discharged. He was a sergeant and second first lieutenant. His captain was taken prisoner at the battle of Ream's Station, after which he had command of the company for some time. After the close of the war he worked on a farm and in 1867 removed to Mahasta county, Iowa, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres, sixty acres of which were improved and under cultivation. In 1872 he rented that property and returned to New York state, where he remained until 1877. In the course of a few years he sold the Iowa farm and came to Fairfield and bought eighty acres, thirty acres of which were improved and contained an old log house. He soon afterward built his present fine house and barn. In 1865 Captain Gates married Helen M. Brown, daughter of George and Lucina (Harris) Brown, the former a native of Rhode Island and the latter of New York. The latter's father was a farmer and lived in Wayne county, New York, where he owned one hundred and seventy-five acres of land. The father of Captain Gates was Joseph W. Gates, a native of Chenango county, New York, where he was born February 3, 1801, and he died in Wayne county, New York, November 17, 1896; his wife, Lucy (Leavens) Gates was born in Wayne county, New York, and died in 1894, at the good old age of eighty-seven years. Joseph W. Gates was a farmer, owning a good farm in Wayne county, New York, and residing on the same for sixty-five years. When he first settled there he owned only eighty acres, but at the time of his death he was the possessor of 350 acres, a considerable portion of which he had reclaimed from a state of nature. Captain Gates was the third of five children: Melvin B. was born March 1, 1829, awas a farmer and died in Wayne county, New York in 1903; he married Rhoda Gould and had two children, Floyd and Lewis. Addison W. was born March 19, 1832, lives in Wayne county, New York, and is a lawyer; he married Sara Biddlecome and they have two children,Winthrop and Curtis; Francis L., born June 10, 1839, is single and lives in Ontario, Wayne county, New York; James W. was born October 8, 1845, lives in Gratiot county, Michigan, and is a carpenter. He married Anna Barnhard and has four children,-Helen, Arthur, Frank and Florence. Mirs. Gates is the fifth of seven children, as follows: Otis is single and lives at Rocklin, California; Lucina, who lives in Wayne county, New York, married Isaiah Nottingham, and they have four children,-Frankie. John, Katherine, Anna and Lizzie, the last named being deceased. Rowena, living in Monroe county, New York, is the widow of John Jarvis, and has no children. Sidney died in California, a bachelor. Mrs. Gates was born July 20, 1840. Captain Gates and wife have four children: Harry S., born in Iowa, lives at home and is single; Fred S., born August 28, 1872, in Wayne county, New York, is single and lives at home; Joseph B., born in Wayne county, New York, June 27, 1877,'is a farmer in Middlebury township. He married Lillian Pervis, March 25, 1903; they have no children. Chas. G., born November 6, 1879, is single, lives at home and is a steam fitter by trade. Captain Gates was educated at Macedon

(t at 0 328 PAST AND PRESENT OF Center Academy, New York. He was supervisor of Ontario township, Wayne county, New York, and was appointed by the board of supervisors to look after indigent soldiers in Shiawassee county, Michigan. He is also a director of his school district. He is a Republican in politics and a gentleman of the highest honor and integrity. DANIEL J. GEROW This gentleman was born in Prince Edward county, Ontario, Canada, March 24, 1862. He is a son of Thomas and Elmira (Eleavens) Gerow, likewise natives of Prince Edward county. Our subject received his early education in the public schools of Linden, Michigan, and at the age of sixteen years commenced working in a handle factory owned by his father. He continued at this for ten years, becoming skilled in the business. There is in a mechanical calling, to a man who has a gift for it, no matter what that calling may be, something quite as fascinating as the attraction offered by professions or of merchandising. Very few men who have thus risen from the shop have failed to look back to the early days in their trade as the happiest ones of their lives. Elihu Burritt never lost his love for the anvil. He had a tendency to dig into languages, but as great a passion to hammer the metal into horse shoes. Brown, the shoemaker, was of the opinion that "a good mechanic was the most independent man in the world." The fact is, the force of merit makes its way in the shQp as well as in any other calling. Pullman was an ordinary mechanic, but he accepted the invitation of his brain, and gave to the world the palace cars, which make traveling no longer a drudge. So McCormick worked with his farm machinery until he "fell" on the idea of the mower and the reaper. After working in the shop for ten years for his father, young Gerow went to the Black Hills in South Dakota, in 1888, and worked for the great Homestake Mining Company, one of the largest and most successful gold-mining companies in the world. He continued with them four years, during which he saw many and many a bar of gold, "bright and yellow, hard and cold." How true it is that: Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families makes debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil war create. After quitting the employ of the mining company our subject came to Owosso and formed a copartnership with H. J. Lavrock, in conducting a feed barn. This arrangement DANIEL J. GEROW continued for six years, when Mr. Gerow succeeded to the interest of his partner, after which he managed the business alone for eighteen months, at the expiration of which he sold to Alfred Sutterby, in the spring of 1900. He then concluded to enter the arena of politics, and announced himself as a candi - date for sheriff, on the Democratic ticket. He was an easy winner in the nomination. Indeed, he was well equipped for the race and proved a popular candidate for this high office, as he was elected, after an exciting campaign, by a handsome majority of eight hundred

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 329 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 329 votes. That he made a capable and popular officer was illustrated by his re-election in 1902, by a majority of one thousand, four hundred. This was, indeed, a flattering honor to Mr. Gerow, and an honor that he richly deserved. He afterward bought the furniture and undertaking business of Knapp & Smith, and after continuing in this for a short time only, effected a consolidation with Frederick W. Pearce, head of the Owosso Hardware company and the subject of an individual sketch elsewhere in this work. The new organization is now known as the Pearce & Gerow Company, and the firm carries the largest stock of goods in their line in the state outside of Detroit. They have one thousand, eight hundred feet of floor space. They also use the basement under both floors, with the first, second and third floors. In addition, to these they occupy the, floors over the Davis drygoods store. Everything in the line of hardware, furniture and undertaking is handled. Both gentlemen are extremely pleasant and popular, keen, bright and up-to-date in every respect, and at the same time are public-spirited and progressive. They employ twelve clerks and two delivery men. In politics Mr. Gerow is a Democrat and is a leader in his party, although in no sense is he an "offensive partisan." He is a member of the Masonic order and is a noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is also affiliated with the lodge and uniform rank of the Knights of Pythias, and is an Odd Fellow, a member of the Modern Woodmen, and an Elk. Mr. Gerow was married May 24, 1886, to Laura B. Saddler. Three children have blessed their home, as follows: Mabel A., born May 12, 1887; Helen J., born May 16, 1888; and Adah E., born May 21, 1891. FRANCIS GLOVER This gentleman was born in Canada, June 4, 1825, and died in August, 1896, at the ripe old age of seventy-one years. As the life of this useful man ebbed to a close, he could exclaim with the poet: Life, we've been long together, Through pleasant and cloudy weather. 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear: Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear; Then steal away, give a little warning, Choose thine own time. Say not "good night," but in some brighter clime Bid me "good morning." The early education of the deceased was received in the common schools of his native town, while he lived with his parents on a farm. March 20, 1855, he was married to Eliza Whitaker, a native of Canada, where she was born May 1, 1836. She was a daughter of John and Charlotte (Disney) Whitaker, both of whom were natives of Ireland. The former was born in 1807 and died at the age of sixty-four years, while the latter dated her birth from May 20, 1815, and closed her eyes in death at the ripe age of seventy-six years. Mrs. Glover's parents were married in Ireland in 1832. They celebrated the event by coming to America the same year-a pleasant and lengthy honeymoon journey. They did not expect to return, however, as they located in Peterboro county, Canada. They were among the very first settlers in that region. Indeed, the deceased owned the second yoke of oxen in Peterboro county. Oxen were then indispensable to the pioneer, because oxen in a new, timbered country are far more useful than horses. Boswell in his life of Ben Johnson tells us that he "who drives fat oxen should himself be fat." We hardly know what Boswell meant when he penned those words, but he certainly was not familiar with the pioneers of a new country, nor with the oxen which they all owned. The deceased secured one hundred and fifty acres of government land and set about the task of converting the same into a farm. This he did, however, and after living on the place for twelve long years, was forced to leave it,-the result of endorsing a note for a friend, in an unguarded moment. The family then removed to Buffalo, New York, where Mr. Whitaker secured a position as foreman in the Rathbun carriage factory.

330 PAST AND PRESENT OF 330 PAST AND PRESENT OF He remained there for six years. He was also foreman in the Eagle tannery at Waterloo, Canada, for some time. In 1849 he went to Hamilton, Ontario county, and thence removed to Halton county, where he farmed three years. Thence he moved to Oxford county, where he farmed ten years. From there he went to Bud Mines, near Sault Ste. Marie, where he was engaged in mercantile business. In 1869 he moved to Toronto. He lived there until his death, in 1873. After this sad event, Mrs. Whitaker came to Middlebury township and lived in the home of her son, A. H. Whitaker, where she died September 3, 1890. Mrs. Glover was one of thirteen children: William, died at the age of sixty-nine years; he lived in Michigan for fifteen years, during which time he was foreman for the Ovid Carriage Company. After leaving that position, he returned to Canada and died near London. Susan married Mr. Mabbitt and lives in San Diego, California. Mrs. Glover is our subject's widow; Mrs. Richard Burn lives in Bayonne, New Jersey. Mrs. Montague resides in Brant Center, Michigan. A sister lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Abigail is Mrs. Buttler, of San Diego, California. Adrian Harvey is a farmer in Middlebury. George died at the age of seven years in Halton county, Qntario. Rebecca died in infancy, and the two youngest were twins and died in infancy. Mr. Glover and his wife lived on a farm in Canada for a few years after their marriage and in 1865 removed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they lived for one summer. From there they went to Edgewood, Illinois, where they remained five years. They next removed to Middlebury township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, and bought eighty acres of wild land. At first they built a frame house, which was afterward rebuilt into a large frame structure, two stories in height. The first barn was a log one. This, however, has given place to a large frame one which still stands. The deceased cleared the land and converted it into one of the very best farms in the country. They afterward increased the acreage, making it one hundred acres. This is still owned by the family. To the deceased and wife was born one child, Charlotte Jane, who is now the wife of George Sinclair. They lived on a farm near Laingsburg for several years, later removing to Jackson, but she died suddenly April 4, 1903. They had one child, Gates M. Sinclair, who is now aged twenty-nine years and who is engaged as a brakeman on the railroad: he married Blanche Shears and they have one child, Clark, aged two years. This makes Mrs. Glover a great-grandmother. The deceased was a Republican in politics, but a very quiet, modest man, never holding or wanting an office. He was a Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, Mrs. Glover still lives in a part of the old home, the other part being occupied by a family who work the farm. She is in good health and does her own housework and looks sharply after her business affairs. VELORUS D. GRENNELL An old soldier of the civil war and a wellto-do farmer of Sciota township, Velorus D. Grennell was born in Homer township, Cortland county, New York, January 13, 1844. He is the son of James M. and Augusta (Pierce) Grennell, his father being born in Littleton, Massachusetts, April 30, 1819, and his mother in Cortland county, New York, February 21, 1820. His parents were married in Cortland county, in the year 1843. James M. Grennell was a man of varied talents, being a preacher, carpenter, jeweler, and farmer. In 1847 he removed with his family to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he engaged in farming, carpentry, and Gospel labors. For fifteen years he was a preacher of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and faithfully covered a circuit of twenty-five miles. He was a stanch Republican, as well as a good Methodist. Removing to Woodhull township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, in 1863, he purchased a farm of forty acres of improved land; this he

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 331 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 33 subsequently sold, and at the time of his death, in 1871, lived with his son, our subject. His wife had died the previous year. Velorus D. Grennell was the first of nine children. The second child, Edgar Eugene, born July 3, 1846, is a widower and the father of seven children, five of whom are living. D. R. Grennell, the third, was born May 22, 1848; he lives in Tuscola county, Michigan. has had three children, two of whom are living, his wife having died in the fall of 1904. Euphema, the first daughter, and the fourth child, was born June 27, 1850; she married Frank Reed, had eleven children, and died at Williamston, Michigan, August 21, 1891. Emelina, the fifth, born in 1852, died at the age of two years. Emelina (2d) was born May 4, 1854, is the wife of Henry Reed of Montcalm county, Michigan, and has had twelve children. The seventh of the children, Arcelia, born in September. 1856, married Wilson Smith, has ten living. children and lives at Bath. Melvin was born in December, 1858, and is a resident of Cheboygan county, Michigan, being a bachelor. Charles B. Grennell, the youngest of the nine. was born September 3, 1862, is a resident of Haslet Park, and has been twice married; his first wife, formerly Miss Lizzie Perkins, by whom he had two children, is deceased. Our subject gave himself to the service of his country when he was only seventeen years of age, enlisting May 18, 1861, in the Fifteenth Ohio Light Artillery. He responded to the first call for three-year men, but only served one year, being discharged because of disability. Soon afterward, however, he reenlisted, in the Ohio Heavy Artillery and was honorably discharged September 26, 1865. Among other engagements in which he participated were the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Iuka, Memphis, Stone River, Missionary Ridge, Bulls Gap, and Cumberland Mountain, and the sieges of Corinth, Knoxville, and Cleveland, Tennessee. He was with Sherman during a portion of his march to the sea, but was sent back to Newbern with a force detailed to 21 guard the stores. During the last two years of the war he held the position of sergeant. After being discharged from the service Mr. Grennell located in Woodhull township. where he purchased' twenty acres of land. which was improved, and he added five acres more in 1866. He lived there for five years. when he traded the tract for thirty-four acres in Williamston township, which he exchanged in 1871 for eighty acres of wild land in section 33, Sciota township. He improved half of this and it is still his homestead. Mr. Grennell has lived an industrious but rather quiet life, although he has been prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic, having been for several years commander of the post at Laingsburg. Uncertain health has forced him to sever his connection with that patriotic order. He is also a Republican, a deacon in the Baptist church, and is a substantial and honored member of the community in general. In 1866 our subject was united in marriage to Miss Cordelia M. Reed, the ceremony occurring at Williamston, Michigan. His wife is a native of Washtenaw county, Michigan, where she was born on the 11th of December, 1848. Mrs. Grennell's parents were Hiram Reed, who was born at Walpole, Vermont, in 1806, and Martha (Shattuck) Reed, who was born in the Granite state, in the year 1812. They were married in Vermont, in 1832, and were the parents of ten children, as follows: George (deceased) married Sally Sulfin, lived at Elba, Gratiot county, Michigan, and died childless; William, the father of two children, is a resident of Laingsburg; Clarissa (deceased) married Justice Kellogg, had four children and resided in Leelenaw county; Lyman, who married Addie Sperbeck, has four children and lives in Chicago; Mary (deceased) married D. R. Grennell, had two children and resides in Williamston; Edwin (deceased) married Mary Fryer, had three children and lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Henry married Emeline, a sister of our subject; the wife of Mr. Grennell was the eighth

332 PAST AND PRESENT OF 332 PAST AND PRESENT OF child; Frank married another sister of our subject, Euphema; and Horace died at the age of seven years. Mrs. Grennell's parents came to Michigan in 1832 and settled on eighty acres of wild land located in Washtenaw county. Mr. Reed erected a log house, cleared nearly all the land, and subsequently exchanged it for seventy acres of partly improved land in Williamson township, Ingham county. He placed twenty acres more under cultivation, and lived upon the homestead until his death, August 21, 1886; his wife died on the 20th of the preceding April. The great-grandfather of our subject was Benjamin Smith Grennell, a sea captain, who came to this country from France during the early portion of the eighteenth century. He retired several years before his death. Mr. Grennell's grandfather also bore the same name, but was a Massachusetts farmer for thirty-five years after his marriage, then removed to New York state, and thence to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he died at the age of seventy-six years. His maternal grandfather, Pierce, was a soldier of the war of 1812. Mr. Grennell is of Scotch and Welsh descent. and has reason to be proud of his genealogy. To Mr. and Mrs. Grennell seven children have been born, of whom five are living. Lyman, born March 28, 1867, married- Emma Pease, and has two children,-Ruth, born March 16, 1894 and Ralph, born in November, 1899; they reside in Woodhull township. Effie, born April 24, 1869, is married to John Brink, and is the mother of three children,-Ellery, born March 11, 1895; Zella, born January 27, 1898, and Sidney, born July 26, 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Brink live in Victor township, Clinton county. James, the third, died January 16, 1876, aged three years and three months. The fourth child, Happy, died in 1876 at the age of two years. Mildred, now Mrs. Wesley Pease, of Sciota township, was born September 3, 1877; she has no children. Sidney, born July 16, 1879, is single, and lives with his parents. Vida, the seventh, was born October 26, 1890, and lives with father. Mrs. Grinnell died September 23, 1905, at the age of fifty-seven years. Mr. Grennell's grandmother on his father's side was named Shepardson. Her brother was governor of Massachusetts. One brother was adjutant general and was a noted astronomer in his day and a writer on the subject of astronomy. ADELBERT J. GULICK The primary purpose of the subject of this sketch in introducing his biography in the present volume is to perpetuate the memory of his honored father, and to give a brief history of his mother, who shared the hardships and privations of pioneer life. Adelbert J. Gulick was born May 23, 1874. in Burns township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, being the youngest child of Jacob, and Julia (H-lammond) Gulick. Jacob Gulick was born in Warren county, New Jersey, on the 17th of April, 1820, and died in Burns township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, April 11, 1893. At the age of thirteen years he left the state of New Jersey with his parents and came to Oakland county, Michigan, where he lived for a period of nineteen years. There he met and married the noble woman who was his loved and devoted companion during the remainder of his life,-through joy and sorrow, sickness and death. She stood by his side when he felled the first tree upon the farm, in Burns township, that was destined thereafter to be their home. The one hundred and sixty acres of land which they located, on section-5, was patented to them by Franklin Pierce, then president of the United States of America, and the property has never been transferred, except to their direct heirs. The condition of the land at that time was the same as all other land of the same date, entirely wild. The Indians were plentiful, but fortunately never molested Mr. or Mrs. Gulick. Jacob Gulick was the seventh in a family of ten children. He was united in marriage to Julia Hammond on the 3rd of October, 1852. On the 14th of March, 1862, a cyclone visited

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 333 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 333 the section in which they lived. They had just completed their log cabin, the lumber and shingles having been hauled from Flint. The storm bore the entire top of the house away, carrying it for a distance of two miles and literally destroying it. Mr. Gulick's father had to return to Flint for lumber and shingles to repair the damage. It entailed a loss upon him of about six hundred dollars, a great sum at that time. What would the young man of the present generation do if he had difficulties, of which this is but a single illustration, confronting him? Our subject's father worked upon a farm for fifty cents the day, and out of this sum saved sufficient money to purchase the land from the government. Ten children were born to Jacob and Julia (Hammond) Gulick. The eldest, George, was born September 15, 1853; Henry Joel was born September 2, 1855; Joseph was born November 23, 1857, and died February 3d, 1858; Emma Jane was born November 6, 1858; Martha was born March 22, 1860; Sarah A. was born May 16, 1861, and died on the 30th day of the same month; Jacob P. was born May 31, 1863; William Franklin was born May 31, 1868, and died August 9, 1868; Louis Edwin was born January 14, 1870; and the tenth child is the subject of this sketch. Adelbert J. Gulick was united in marriage to Celia Gunter, in the year 1901, and she passed to the life eternal in 1904. He is engaged in general farming, and is recognized as one of the best young farmers in Shiawassee county. At the present time he is working the old homestead, having already purchased the interests of a part of the heirs, and he expects in time to procure the title to the entire farm of his father. CLARENCE HAIGHT Clarence Haight was born in Steuben county, New York, October 9, 1857. He is a son of George W. Haight, also a native of the same county, where he was born May 28, 1833. He died in 1901. His wife, Mary A. (Stet son) Haight was born in Yates county, New York, August 16, 1827. They were married in the Empire state, where they owned a farm and continued to reside until 1866, when Mr. Haight journeyed to Michigan, locating in Clinton county, where he bought eighty acres, mostly improved, four miles north of Ovid. He did not remain there long, however, but sold after one year and bought eighty acres in Middlebury township, Shiawassee county. About one-half of this was cleared, but it contained no buildings. He constructed a log house and barn, and these were subsequently torn down to give way to frame buildings, larger and better, as a natural consequence. Mr. Haight afterward added forty acres more and also cleared the same. He continued to live there until four years ago, when he passed to the other shore. Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither, at the north wind's breath, And stars to set,-but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Oh, Death! The deceased was a Republican in politics and was treasurer of his township for two terms. He did not affiliate with any church, and was always engaged in farming. He was a good citizen and was highly respected by the community generally. IHe had four children, only two of whom are now living: Louise died in New York state, aged seventeen years; Libbie also died in New York state; Mrs. Geo. Stanlake lives in Middlebury township, and Clarence is the subject of this sketch. Mr. Haight was a lad of eight years when his family moved to Michigan; hence most of his education was acquired in the schools of Middlebury. He always lived at home until he reached the age of twenty-six, when he married Sophia Schley, a native of New York. Her mother was Katharine (Schwingle) Schley, who was born in the land through which flows the romantic Rhine. The parents of Mrs. Haight are both dead, the father passing away in New York state, and the mother

334 PAST AND PRESENT OF 334 PAST AND PRESENT OF died in the home of her daughter, in Middlebury township. She came to America while yet young and was wedded in New York state, where she lived until Mr. Schley's death, after which she came to live with her daughter, in Middlebury. Mrs. Haight, our subject's wife, was one of five children: Mary is the wife of Nicholas Seiss, of Sciota township, Shiawassee county; Henry died in Owosso; Kate married Henry Fess; Mrs. Haight was next in order of birth; George lives with his sister in Canada. After the marriage of our subject he worked his father's farm for two years and then bought forty acres of improved land, in Middlebury. He lived there four years and then purchased eighty acres, all improved, and containing present buildings. This was known as the Hyde farm. He has lived on this for twelve years. It is very good land, indeed. and is under a high state of cultivation. This is a natural result because Mr. Haight is an excellent farmer, and everything is kept in fine order, with a luxurious farm house and fine, well kept, handsome buildings. His chief products are stock and grain. He never belonged to the "Know Nothing" party, as that existed before he was an actor in the affairs of life; but he now figures conspicuously in the "No's," so to speak, having no children, no church, no office, no society membership. He is a Republican, however, in politics, and stands high in his community, by reason of his true worth and uprightness. CHARLES E. HERSHEY The gentleman whose name heads this sketch was born in Seneca township, Ontario county, New York, August 20, 1837. He was educated in the Geneva high school and in a commercial college at Oswego, New York. When twenty-four years old he commenced working for himself on his father's farm, and in 1868 he visted Ohio and Michigah, but soon returned to his native state. Later he came to Owosso township, Owosso village being then quite small, and he bought two hundred and forty acres of wild land, on section 15. At that time there was a log house and granary on the place, and he subsequently reclaimed all the land. In 1862, when he made a visit to Michigan, the entire township of Owosso was a wilderness and game was very plentiful. In 1870-72 he was postmaster of Owosso, having been appointed to that office by President Grant. For five years he was assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Owosso, of which he was cashier eight years. During this long period he lost only ten days' time from his desk, and nothing detrimental was ever associated with his name or official record. liHe verified the Chinese moral maxim, that "honors come by diligence; riches spring from economy." In 1901 he sold one hundred and twenty acres, the west one-half of his original purchase, and bought one hundred and ten acres on section 14. The latter extends to the limits of Owosso city. It has been chopped over and most of it is stump land, but must eventually become quite valuable. Mr. Hershey's father was John Hershey. who also was born in Seneca township, Ontario county, New York, in 1804, and who died there. His father was Joseph Hershey, who removed to Ontario county from Harrisburg. Pennsylvania, October 5, 1802. He forded every stream between the two places, excepting the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers. He took up and bought from the government seven hundred acres of land in Ontario county, New York, all of which he cleared and some of which is still owned by the family. The amount of taxes on this property was only one dollar and eighty-three cents and at that period it was said the government would become so rich in a few years that there would be no taxes at all. But what a delusion was this, in view of the present general complaint about high taxes in every part of this broad land. Charles E. Hershey's mother, Azulah (Hill) Hershey, was born at Waterloo, New York, in 1806, and died in Ontario county, New York. She and her husband were mar

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 335 I I ried in Ontario county. Her father was Robert Hill, who served in the war of 1812. While he was in the army his wife was often terrified by the Indians, being threatened once with a tomahawk because she'had no pickles to give them! At one time she and her mother, while after some goods which had been left behind. were overtaken by darkness and forced to sleep in a tree all night to escape the wild animals of the forest, then existing in great numbers. John Hershey came into possession of one hundred acres of his father's purchase, referred to above. Charles E. Hershey was the first of two children, the second being Salina, who was born in 1849. She still lives on the old homestead and is the wife of John Tilton. They have one child, Carleton. Mr. Hershey bought fifty acres of improved land, adjoining that of his father, and in 1862 married Emma F. Snyder. who was born May 7, 1838, in Gorham township, Ontario county, New York. Her father was George Snyder, a native of the same county, where he was born June 25, 1811, and he died there August 7, 1888. He was a farmer. Her mother was Emeline (Densmore) Snyder. who was born July 21, 1818, and died April 1, 1894, in the same place as her husband. Mrs. Hershey was the second in a family of nine children: Mary married William Easton, and lives in Saratoga, New York; William, who lives on the old homestead, married Emma Harmon, and they have four children,George, Frank, May and Ford. Charles married Lottie Cleveland. Julia lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is the widow of Vedder De Graff and has two children,-Fred and Emma. Florence died at the age of seven years. Clarence (first) died in infancy; Clarence (second) lives at Racine, Wisconsin; he married Belle Elkins of that city and has one child, Hazel. Fred died at the age of seven years. George Snyder, Mrs. Hershey's grandfather, was a resident of Ontario county, New York, and was in the war of 1812. One child, Ora E., was born to Mr. and Mrs. Hershey, October 9, 1862; he is now living in Kentucky. Mr. Hershey is a Republican. His father cast the first Republican vote in his district and was known as a "black" Republican; his great grandfather was beheaded, on the Rhine, by German Catholics. WILLIS E. HALL It has been maintained by some that every man is endowed by nature with the elements of success, and that if his talents are properly cultivated and the individual finds in life the niche for which he was intended, success is assured. It then follows as a natural conclusion the reason so many do not succeed is because of their endeavor to fill a place in life for which they were never designed. The subject of this sketch, Willis E. Hall, was born and reared upon a farm in Shiawassee county, but while yet upon the threshold of his young manhood he decided to engage in business. His schooling, after the usual course of training in the country district school, was rounded off with the Owosso high school. His first venture was clerking in a grocery, for C. C. Duff. Here he remained for three and onehalf years,-a very complimentary apprenticeship for a young man. This was followed by a five years' term with F. H. Bannister in the grocery trade. Having acquired a good knowledge of the business, in the year 1891 he formed a copartnership with his brother, L. C. Hall. They purchased the stock of groceries of H. H. Hall and launched out for themselves. For twelve years the firm conducted a wholesale and retail trade, each year adding something to their exchequer. In 1903 our subject sold out his interest in the business to the National Grocery Company, of Durand, but was retained as manager of the new concern. In October, 1904, he purchased the business of Hookway & Son, which is now conducted under the firm name of W. E. Hall & Son. The stock consists of a complete line of groceries, dry goods, boots and shoes-in brief, a general store. The firm keeps two finely

336 PAST AND PRESENT OF 336 AST ND RESET O equipped wagons on the road, selling through the country and gathering up produce. Mr. Hall is recognized as one of the solid men of Owosso, being financially interested in several business enterprises. He is a director in the Citizens Savings Bank and is president of the Burnett Knitting Works. Politically Mr. Hall lines up with the Republican party and is proud of its record. While never an aspirant for office, preferring to give his time to personal matters, he has served two terms as city treasurer, acceptably to his constituents. Mr. Hall's parents, Earl S. and Angeline (Fox) Hall still live upon the farm, in Owosso township, where our subject was born, April 16, 1859. His parents were natives of the Empire state, the father having been born in Rochester. To Mr. and Mrs. Earl S. Hall were born three sons and a daughter, Willis E. being the eldest; L. C. born August 31, 1856, is engaged in the grocery trade in Owosso; B. C. Hall, M. D., is a practicing physician, being a graduate of the Detroit College of Medicine; the youngest, a daughter, is the wife of 0. G. Waugh, of Owosso. Willis E. Hall was united in marriage April 19, 1883, to Miss Carrie Langerwisch, a native of Germany, where she was born in Februarv, 1859. Three children have come to bless their lives and brighten their home. Earl F., born January 30, 1884, is engaged in business with his father. He married Miss Anna Lyttle. Lora N., born June 8, 1889, and Helen W., born June 6, 1900, are both at the parental home. Mr. Hall has reason for personal congratulations for the success with which he has met in the business world. He is still on the bright side of life and many years of profit and pleasure may yet be in store for him. He counts his friends by the number of his acquaintances. HENRY P. HALSTED, M. D. A distinguished family of men and women. holding positions of prominence and honor, surrounds a man with somewhat of a halo of glory. His own ability, however, crowns him with the true glory, and his own good character is the only passport to fame and fortune. Dr. Henry P. Halsted, while belonging to a distinguished family, has the personal merit which has added lustre to the name. He was born on a farm in Cayuga county, New York, April 18, 1850. His father, David Halsted. was a native of the state of New York, and conducted a farm in Venice township, Cayuga county. The Doctor's mother, Mary (Mechem) Halsted, was likewise a native of the state of New York. In the family of - David and Mary Halsted there were eight children. The oldest, Milton A. Halsted, was born in New York. Like the subject of this sketch, he was educated for the medical pro-fession, and he was surgeon of the Nineteenth New York Volunteer Cavalry during the civil war. Charlotte, married George T. Fairchild, who was president of the Manhattan Agricultural College, of Kansas, for a period of eighteen years. They moved to the state of Kentucky, where Mr. Fairchild was professor of English literature. He died in 1903. Stanley, who is now dead, was lieutenant in the Seventy-fifth New York Infantry, during the civil war. Adelia died in the state of New York. She was a graduate of Oberlin College, of Ohio. George died at Leavenworth, Kansas. The seventh child is the subject of this sketch. Byron is professor of botany at New Brunswick, New Jersey. Dr. Halsted's paternal grandparents were Johnathan and Elizabeth (Powell) Halsted, natives of the state of New York. Dr. Halsted's grandparents upon his mother's side were Mr. and Mrs. David Mechem. Both were natives of the state of New York and belonged to distinguished families. They had seven children of whom the Doctor's mother was the youngest. The subject of this sketch has spent many years of his life in school and college, his education being largely acquired from his own resources. In early boyhood he worked upon

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 337 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 337 his father's farm in the summer, and attended school during the winter season. He acquired a splendid rudimentary education in the schools at Aurora, Union Springs and Casenovia, in the state of New York. He worked upon the farm until he had attained the age of seventeen years when he entered the Michigan Agricultural College, in which he was graduated with the class of 1871. After his graduation he taught school at Bedford, Calhoun county, one winter. He then went to Denver, Colorado, and from there to Park, Colorado, where he engaged in prospecting and placer mining. The mining did not prove profitable and he abandoned his claim and went to the state of Kansas, where he engaged in his old vocation of school teaching. The following year he returned to Michigan, entering the medical department of the University of Michigan and graduating with honor in the class of 1877. He began the practice of his chosen profession with the knowledge and experience that but few men acquire in a lifetime. Locating at Morrice, in Perry township, he practised there for fifteen years, then removed to Guthrie, Oklahoma. where he held the position of medical examiner for the territory. He returned to Michigan, in 1894, and resumed the practice of medicine at Perry, where he now resides. Politically he is a Republican. Dr. Halsted has the honor of being the first president of the village of Morrice. Dr. Halsted was united in marriage with Jane Northrup, in Michigan, in 1878. She is a daughter of George and Mary Ann (Allen) Northrup of Fayetteville, New York. Mrs. Halsted has two brothers, Fred and Howard. Dr. and Mrs. Halsted have two sons. Paul, who was born January 22, 1881, in Perry township, was graduated in the Perry high school and later attended Olivet College. He is now connected with the Perry Journal. Thaddeus, born July 5, 1884, in Morrice, is also a graduate of the Perry high school and is at present editor and publisher of the Perry Journal. Dr. Halsted is at present a member of the pension board at Owosso and has held many honorable positions. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Dr. Halsted may congratulate himself that he has met with more than average success in his professional career; and enjoying the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens to a marked degree, he is to be congratulated upon the outlook for the future. D. E. HAMMOND This gentleman is a native of Middlebury township, where he first saw the light of day on the 18th of November, 1859. He is a son of Dennis Hammond, who hailed from the,Green Mountain state, where he was born January 23, 1809. He died February 13. 1898. The mother of our subject was Fannie (Woodmansee) Hammond, who was born in New York state, April 20, 1816, and who joined the "silent majority" August 5, 1883. Our subject's father was twice married before he took Fannie Woodmansee "for better or worse." He first married Sally Rice Dodd, who was born September 14, 1805, and who died November 15, 1840. The issue of this union was five children. Susan, born August 1, 1830, married John Smith, and her death occurred in November, 1905. Mary Eliza, who was born March 20, 1832, and who died March 9, 1864, married John Putnam; they lived in Sciota township, Shiawassee county. Phoebe E., born April 17, 1834, died January 28, 1852. single. Rhoda E., born March 27, 1836, died December 8, 1841. Daniel Webster, born April 18, 1838, is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and lives in Arenac county. Michigan. For his second wife Dennis Hammond married Eliza Woodmansee, who was born September 9, 1814, and who died July 15, 1844: she was a sister of his third wife. Two children were born to this marriage: Sally E.,

338 PAST.AND PRESENT OF born August 18, 1842, married George Fish, and they live in New York. Thomas W., born April 9, 1844, lives in Washtenaw county, Michigan. The third union resulted in five children: Charles F., born March 12, 1846. died in hospital July 16, 1864, the result of being overheated while on a march as a soldier in the civil war. Ella G., born September 11. 1847, died September 29, 1848. John H., born August 5, 1848, died August 8, 1854. Caroline L.; born June 13, 1855, lives in Pontiac, Michigan. Dennis Hammond, the subject of this sketch, was employed in building the Erie canal, and worked with a repair gang after its completion. He was married in New York state, May 2, 1845. In 1832 the family came to Michigan, locating in Washtenaw county. Mr. Hammond afterward bought some land from the government, in Washtenaw county. the deed to which was signed by Andrew Jackson. He sold this farm in 1852 and the next year removed to Ovid, Clinton county, where he bought eighty acres of timbered land. This he cleared and he lived on the place for several years. He afterward bought land in Middlebury and shifted about a good deal, owning several different tracts, at one time having two hundred acres. The farm on which our subject now lives had previously been owned by his father. Indeed, the buildings on the same were placed there by the latter. Our subject's brother, Daniel Webster, helped to build the first house in Ovid, Michigan, the same having been located near where the Retan House now stands. Our subject was educated in the district schools and always lived with his parents. He had a deed of his present farm before his father died. Mr. Hammond was married December 25, 1881, to Minnie Dewitt, who was born in Oakland county, December 23, 1863. She is a daughter of John Dewitt, who was born in Pennsylvania, December 11, 1843, and who died in Middlebury township, aged fortynine years. His wife was Sarah Buck, a native of Canada. She was just four days younger than her husband. She is still living. on a farm in Middlebury. Our subject's wife was an only child. Her parents came to Shiawassee county in 1866, when she was but two years old. Her father bought forty acres of land, nearly all of which was in a state of nature, and the buildings consisted of a log house and a log barn. Her parents afterward purchased another forty acres of timbered land, which her father cleared, and improved. Her mother has erected a handsome barn since the death of her husband. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Hammond has been blessed with four children: Erwin, who was born July 23, 1883, enlisted, in Janesville, Wisconsin, in Company A, United States Signal Corps, and is now in the Philippine islands. Lila, born March 15, 1886, married George Finch, and they live in Ovid, where he works in carriage factory; they have two children,-Wilma, aged two years, and Fannie, aged seven months. Francis, born November 10, 1887, lives at home. Dewitt, born June 18, 1891, is at home. Mr. Hammond is a Republican but votes independently in local matters. He is not an office-holder or an office-seeker, preferring rather to be a good farmer and being satisfied to look well after his own affairs. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He stands high in the community as a reliable and progressive citizen. Indeed, he does well that which his hands find to do, and takes a laudable pride in having well cultivated fields and good buildings, with such other surroundings as are calculated to make himself and his family happy and contented. What more could be desired? MERRITT S. HARDING. "If necessity is laid on me, yea, woe is me, if I preach not the gospel." Such is the forcible text from which Merritt S. Harding, at the, age of nineteen years, preached his first setmon, in the school house known as the church school house, in Venice township, Shiawassee county. He subsequently preached in Tower,

ISHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 339 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 339 Minnesota, for three years; in Venice township one year; in Wisconsin two years, and in Florida one and one-half years. He has done circuit and mission work in Michigan for several years, in Virginia one year,-at Gladesville, Virginia, but is not now in the ministry. He may rightly be called the preacher-soldier. He was an ordained elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Whatever he has done in life has been done through a conscientious motive,-goodness controlling his every act. With the poet he has exemplified the idea: What good I see humbly I seek to do; And live obedient to the love, in trust That what will come, and must cofne, Shall come well. Mr. Harding was born in Bath township. Steuben county, New York, June 5, 1844. His father, Elisha G. Harding, was a native of Schoharie county, New York, and died August 23, 1859, aged forty-four years, nine months and eight days. His mother, Asureth (Burdick) Harding, was also a native of New York. She died January 31, 1893, aged sixtynine years. His parents were married in Steuben county, New York. Elisha G. Hardinz was thrice married, his third wife having been the mother of our subject. He first married Eliza Wait, and they had four children; his second marriage was to Olive Slocum, by whom he had four children, including triplets. Merritt S. Harding's parents came to Venice township, October 15, 1852. The subject of this sketch has worked at carpentering all his life, excepting the period spent in the ministry. He built the first frame house in' Shiawassee township. When he came to Michigan this section was mostly in a wild state. Game was very plentiful and deer were the frequent trophies of the unerring rifle of Mr. Harding. One day when looking for cows; he and a Mr. Munger saw three bears together. They afterward secured the aid of some men and killed all of the bears. When a boy he was chased home by a panther. His father and grandfather were Free Will Baptist ministers.! The latter was so old and feeble that he had to be held up by two men while he preached his last sermon. The father of our subject preached on Sunday and died on the following Thursday. Eight children comprised the latter's family, and of the number two died in infancy. The gentleman whose name heads this article, was the first born. Hannah is the widow of Jacob Bentley, and had five children. She resides in Corunna. Julia is deceased. E. W. married Mina Davison and lives in Corunna; they had five children. Annie married Loren Bigelow, who is a Free Methodist elder, and had five children; she is deceased. Cassius and Emma also are deceased. Mr. Harding's father, mother and grandfather died in Venice township. Merritt S. Harding started in life for himself at the age of fourteen years, and began learning the trade of a carpenter, with his father and uncle. In 1890 he bought the fifteen and one-half acres upon which he now lives. and cleared about one-half of it, erecting on the same a house, barn and other buildings. He now works at carpentering again. On June 5, 1882, he married Ursilla (Burke) Swindeman, who was born in 1850. She was the widow of William Swindeman. To them seven children have been born. Samuel M. was born in Duluth, Minnesota, March 22, 1884; Jesse was born in Tower, Minnesota. October 26, 1886, and died in June 1887; Minnieola was born in Florida, May 2, 1887; Ward was born in Venice township, September 26, 1893; Howard was born in Venice township, December 31, 1895; Franklin was born in Venice township, March 22, 1900; and John was born in the same township, August 15, 1902. Mrs. Harding's father was Martin Burke. He was born- in Germany. He came to Ontonagon, Michigan, in 1864 and was a miner by vocation, having worked as such all his life. He died in Ontonagon in 1868. The mother of Mrs. Harding died in 1899. Mrs. Harding was the third of five children, all of

340.LP.ddLST AND PRESENT OF 340 AST ND RESET O whom are living, namely: Barbara, Martin, Mrs. Harding, Christina and Kate. Mr. Harding was educated in the district schools and the Corunna high school. He studied by the light of pine knots and a hickory fire. He is a Republican but was a Democrat until McKinley ran for the presidency the first time. He filled the office of township clerk for one term. He belonged at one time to the Temple of Honor, and the Foresters. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a loyal soldier of the Union in the civil war, having enlisted, at Corunna August 12, 1862. On the 12th of the following month he was mustered in at Saginaw, inCompany H, Twenty-third Michigan Infantry. under Captain Jack Carland. He participated in the following engagements: Perryville. Bowling Green, Washington, Atlanta,-five days' fight, in which his collar bone was broken by a spent ball. He was sent to the hospital at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and while there was made ward master. This position he. held until discharged, November 12. 1865. His regiment was mustered out July 11, 1865. Mr. Harding relates that in the pioneer days his mother made pies from basswood buds and horse sorrel. Johnnie cake and milk constituted a big meal in those days. He has'planted corn with a hand spike and ax. He had been in Michigan for four years before seeing a cook stove or a match, his father lighting the fires by a hemp wad fired from a shot gun, and many times utilizing flint, punk or tinder. The site of the present city of Durand was a wilderness. There were no railroads when he came to Venice, the first one built being the Detroit & Milwaukee. Vernon contained only two farm houses, no village site having been platted. He has met many a bear, wild cat. and wild turkey. STILLMAN J. HARDING One of the best known business men in Owosso is the gentleman whose name is given above. In fact, he was a pioneer of that hustling little city, and has passed through its ups and downs, its day of gloom and depression; has been a part of its very life, of its growth and development; and he now glories in its prosperity. There is probably no other man in the entire county of Shiawassee who has experienced so much of the real practical side of life as Stillman J. Harding. He has fully exemplified the words of the poet: Behold, we live through all things-famine, thirst, Bereavement, pain; all grief and misery, All woe and sorrow; life inflicts its worst On soul and body,-but we cannot die. 'Though we be sick, and tired, and faint, and worn Lo! all things can be borne. Our subject comes from good old Massachusetts stock, having been born in Southbridge. Worcester county, in that state, November 3. 1821, and thus being now in his 85th year. He is a son of Calvin and Lydia (Jackson) Harding, the father having been born at Sturbridge, Massachusetts, February 19, 1798, and having died at Southbridge, in the same state, November 8, 1883; while the latter was a native of Woodstock, Connecticut, where she was born October 25, 1801, and she died at the same place as her husband, March 28. 1870. The grandfather of our subject was Ralph Harding, who was born at Sturbridge. Massachusetts, September 10, 1770, and who died in Southbridge, Massachusetts, in 1856. He married Azubah Goodale, who was born December 14, 1772, and who died February 6. 1833. He was married a second time, to Nancy Goodale, who was born in 1780 and died February 5, 1840. His ancestors came from England to America in 1635 and several of these served in the Revolutionary war. Calvin Harding was the father of Stillman J. and was a farmer who quarried stone for a business and owned thirty acres on which he lived at the time of his death. At the age of eleven years our subject started for himself, working summers for his

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 341 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 341 board and clothes and going to school winters. His education was thus acquired by his own individual efforts. He continued working on the farm until fifteen years old, however, and then, in 1840, commenced peddling dry goods. In 1842 he attended select school at Southbridge for one year and lived with the principal. He then began teachinof school witiners and attending high school at West Springfield. Massachusetts. He afterward attended one term at Worcester, Massachusetts, and a term at Suffold, Connecticut. In 1845 he passed the best examination of teachers of all persons who had ever come before the examining board at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, up to that time. In addition to the above, he taught select school at Burroughville and Manton (now Providence), 1843, and Fruit Hill, 1845,-all in Rhode Island,-and at Windsor, Connecticut, 1846. In the spring of 1847 he commenced working for the dry-goods firm of McKinstry & Company of Southbridge, Massachusetts, and continued with them for one year. He next took Horace Greeley's advice and came west to "grow up with the country." He landed in Muscatine county, Iowa, in 1848. The first summer he taught school in a log cabin on the prairie, and the next fall entered a general store as clerk. There was a presidential election that year, when he cast his first vote for General Taylor. In the following February,-that of 1849,-he returned to his home, securing a position in a dry-goods store in Springfield, Massachusetts. In August, 1850, he was married to Ann Taylor, a native of Springfield, where she was born October 26. 1827, and she died April 18, 1893. The same year, 1850, he was sent by his employer to Buffalo, New York, to dispose of a stock of dry goods there. This he did to the entire satisfaction of his employer. In the spring of 1851 he entered the dry-goods store of Sherman & Company, of Buffalo, as clerk, and the following year he became a partner in a dry-goods store in Clarence, Erie county, New York, where he remained two years. In 1854 he went to Chautauqua county, New York, and conducted a general store of his own for two years. In 1856 he came to Owosso, where he had bought a stock of goods, which he closed out as soon as possible. He afterward conducted the Union Hotel, now the National. for six years. While in this hotel he opened the first barber shop in the town; neither was there a meat market here. He had, therefore. to do his own butchering. When through with the hotel business he traded the furniture in the hostelry for a house and two lots in the city. He next embarked in the livery business,-the barn standing where Christian's store is now situated. At that time there was neither a hack nor hearse in Owosso, and he had both of these vehicles made to order for his own use. After being in the livery business for four years he drove a team to Detroit and then took the cars for Albany, New York, shipping the horses by steamer to that city. He then drove to Springfield, Massachusetts, and spent the summer in visiting friends. He afterward sold the team to a friend in Providence, Rhode Island. This was in 1867, in which year he retraced his steps to Owosso. One year prior to this he exchanged his house and lots for a farm, which hlie now owns. It consists of ninety-four acres, twothirds of it being then unimproved. It is all inside of the city limits now. Mr. Harding improved the land and built the present house and barn. He has since sold about one-half of it for building lots. After returning to Owosso, as stated, he started the -first dairy milk route in the city. In 1867 he was elected a member of the school board and was secretary of same for twelve years. He has served as county superintendent of schools for one and one-half years. In 1858 he was elected alderman of his ward, the fourth, this being at the time the city first received its charter. He has been city clerk for two terms and acted as supervisor of his ward by appointment, for one term. July 17, 1895, he married Mary Ella Omich. born in Richmond, Michigan. Her father was William Omich, who was born in New Jersey.

342 PAST AND PRESENT OF 342 PAST AND PRESENT OF in 1818, and who died at Richmond, in 1887. He came to Oakland county with his parents when a small lad. Her mother was Sara (Baker) Omich, who was born in Elmira, New York, April 4, 1824, and who died at the home of Mr. Harding, in 1897. Mr. Harding had one child by the first wife,-Alice M., who was born April 1, 1852, and who died April 9. 1877; she married John J. Davis and had one son,-Albert Harding Davis, who was born September 25, 1876, and who lives at Byron, Michigan, he married Ada Harding, a widow, and they had one child,-Alice Ida, who was drowned in.Shiawassee river May 2, 1904. Mr. Harding's present wife was one of eight children. Elizabeth, born in 1843, died in 1845. James P., born in 1845, lives in Minnesota; he married Rhoda A. Beebe, and they have three daughters,-Gertrude H., Cora B.. and Grace I. Frank A., born April 9, 1848, lives in Chandler township, Huron county; he married Minnie Headley, and they had two sons,-Charles and Frank. William K., born August 2, 1852, lives in Detroit; he married Elizabeth Russell. Clara B., born April 15, 1855, lives on the old homestead; she married Alonzo Claggett, and has had three children. -Bessie J., Gertrude H., and Elmer E. Myron Elton, twin brother of Mrs. Harding, was born December 31, 1861, and died at the age of seven months. Hattie May, born April 9. 1864, died at the age of three years. Mr. Harding was the first of seven children. Mary Ann, who was born May 19, 1824, married Joel W. Marble, and she died July 17. 1904, at Woonsocket, Rhode Island; she had three children,-Helen A., George and a child which died in infancy. Otis, who was born May 21, 1826, died February 27, 1851. William Henry, who was born March 24, 1828, died October 30, 1851. Nathan, who was born October 13, 1830, enlisted in the regular army in 1852 and was never heard from afterward. Joshua, who was born September 26. 1833, died October 9, 1834. Sara L., who was born November 29, 1841, lives in Southbridge, Massachusetts; she married Albert L. Pelton and had three children-Cora, Frank, and Bessie Louise, the last named having died in infancy. Mr. Harding has two diaries which he greatly prizes, as one was printed the same year he was born and the other in 1778. He came to Owosso one year before the railroad reached here. This was the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee, now a branch of the Grand Trunk system. Mr. Harding is a Republican in politics, and as has already been said, no man in Owosso has been prominently identified with its every interest than he. Harding avenue in Owosso is named in his honor. He is an Episcopalian in religious belief and is a most worthy and respected citizen. WILLIAM HARPER, M. D. There is probably no greater victory achieved by man than the overcoming of disease and the saving of human life. There is no profession to which humanity is so much indebted, and which deserves and is held in higher regard than that of the physician. William Harper was born in the township of Berlin, Erie county, state of Ohio, March 5, 1842. His father, Alexander Harper, was born in Erie county, Ohio, and his mother was born at Scott's Corner, in Semproneus, New York. The father died in March, 1844, and the mother in February, 1880. Dr. Harper is the second of four children. The first, George, died in 1905, at his home in Woodhull township. The second is the subject of this sketch. The third, Louisa, married Peter Lamb, and is now deceased. The fourth, Esther, married James McBratney. The subject of this sketch came to Michigan with his mother and stepfather, David Royce, in the year 1845. He received his early education in the district schools of Deerfield, Livingston county, afterward attending the seminary of Mrs. Dayfoot, at Howell, and the union school at Fenton. He then attended the University of Michigan one year, after which

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 343 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 343 he completed his education and received his degree of M. D. from the Rush Medical College, of Chicago, graduating with the class of 1866. On the 9th of April in the same year he commenced the practice of his profession at the village of Argentine, Genesee county, remaining there for twenty years. He then went to Deerfield, Livingston county, where he practised for nine years, then removing in 1895, to Byron, where he has since lived. On the 20th of February, 1873, he married Leah, daughter of Hon. Benjamin Grace, of Fenton, Michigan. Mr. Grace was one of the distinguished pioneers of the village in which he lived. He was a representative in the legislature of the state of Michigan in the year 1859 and 1860. The Doctor's wife had one brother, John Grace, and one sister, Anna, the wife of Lucius Brockett, of Battle Creek. She also had half-sisters by a second marriage. Subject and wife have three children, all of whom have received liberal education. The oldest, William A., following the footsteps of his father, is a physician and surgeon. In addition to a thorough high-school education, he attended the Michigan College of Medicine, in Detroit for four years, graduating with the class of 1899. He is at present located in Detroit, connected officially with his alma mater. He has performed some very difficult operations and is one of the youngest and most successful surgeons in the state. He is known as the "boy surgeon" of Michigan. Dr. William A. Harper was born January 6, 1877. He was united in marriage in March, 1902, to Miss Carrie, daughter of Elezar and Sarah B. Fisher. They have one daughter, Leah W. B., born February 19, 1904. Mrs. Harper's parents were old and respected residents of the village of Byron. The second child, Louisa, was born November 29, 1880. She is a successful teacher and is a graduate of the Byron high school. The third child, Anna G., was born February 1, 1882. She also was graduated in the Byron high school, with the class of 1899. She is the wife of Edgar L. Bennett, of Lansing. Our subject is politically a Republican, having been allied with that party since Grover Cleveland's second administration. He has always been an active political worker. He has held the office of town treasurer of Argentine, was school inspector for fifteen years in Deerfield township, and for a number of years was on the board of supervisors. The most important office to which the Doctor has been elevated by his fellow citizens was his election to the state legislature, from Livingston county, in 1890. As a member of that honorable body he served as chairman of the committee on the Northern Michigan Asylum. He also served on a special committee, looking into the feasibility of the establishment of an asylum for the county of Wayne. Fraternally the Doctor belongs to the Masonic order. Dr. Harper's parents, he himself and all of his immediate family were school teachers. He has lived to see his children grow to honorable manhood and womanhood, taking the place of leaders in the professions of their choice. Mrs. Harper died April 2, 1894, in Deerfield township, Livingston county. Dr. Harper was active in the establishment of the State Bank at Byron and has been vicepresident and director since its organization. He is a social, genial gentleman whom it is a pleasure to meet. CHARLES D. HARVEY The lamented President William McKinley said: "In the United States we not only honor our great captains and illustrious commanders, the men who led our vast armies to battle, but we shower honors in equal measure upon all, irrespective of rank in battle or condition at home. Our gratitude is of that grand patriotic character which recognizes no titles, permits not discriminations, subordinates all distinctions; and the soldier or sailor, whether of the rank and file, the line or staff, who served his country, is warmly cherished

344 PAST AND PRESENT OF 34 PAS AN RSETO in the hearts and sacred to the memories of our great and generous people." Charles D. Harvey was born in the state of Pennsylvania, October 22, 1876. He is the son of Edwin A. Harvey, who was born in the state of New York, February 27, 1840, and who removed in early life to Pennsylvania, where he engaged in general farming and lumbering. He was married, in 1863, to Clementine Campbell, in the state of Pennsylvania, and in that state their seven children were born, the subject of this review being the fifth child. The father has retired from active business and lives in Shaftsburg, but the mother died, in Woodhull township, May. 15, 1902. The oldest of subject's brothers and sisters is Sarah, born December 16, 1864. She married Henry Graves and resides in Pennsylvania. The second, James E. Harvey, was born February 26, 1867. He resides in California. The third, Willard, was born November 2, 1871. He married Rosa Graves and resides in Pennsylvania. The fourth, Pearl, died in infancy. The fifth is the subject of this sketch. The sixth, Florence, born June 6, 1878, married Ed. Webb, the brother of subject's wife, and resides in Bennington township. The seventh, Edith, born April 23, 1881, is the wife of Olan Hoag, of.Byron, Michigan. Charles D. Harvey married Coralie S. Webb, October 13, 1904. She was one of seven children of the family of Albert and Emma (Rush) Webb. Mr. Webb died in 1896. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey have a son, Edwin A., born October 28, 1905. The brothers and sisters of subject's wife are Addison, Edmond, Elmer, Frank, and Caroline, who is the wife of Henry Cushman. Mr. Harvey received his early education in the district schools of Pennsylvania. At the age of fifteen years he came with his parents to the state of Michigan, and the following year commenced working for himself, by the month, in Woodhull township. In 1896 he returned to Pennsylvania, working there until the year 1898, when, at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he enlisted in the Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, as private. After spending some time at Camp Meade, near the site of the great battle field of Gettysburg, he was ordered with his regiment to Camp Thomas, Chickamauga Park, in the state of Georgia. In August his regiment was ordered to Port Tampa and after remaining there one week they were sent to their last encampment, at Camp Hamilton, in the state of Kentucky. Mr. Harvev served as private in the hospital corps, and received an honorable discharge in November, 1898. He returned to Michigan in 1900, and after passing a successful examination for the civil service was appointed rural mail carrier from Shaftsburg, in 1902, which position he has since filled, giving satisfactory service to the government which employs him and to the patrons upon his route. He is a member of,the Knights of the Tent Maccabees, is a Republican in politics, and is in every respect a good citizen, JAMES E. HARVEY The development of the northwest was effected mainly by the immigrants who came into the territory from New York and Pennsylvania. Sturdy men and women were they who thus braved the wilderness to better their financial condition and to give to their children a better heritage than had come to them personally. James E. Harvey was born February 26, 1867, in the state of Pennsylvania. He is a son of Edwin A. Harvey, 'who was born in the state of New York, February 27, 1840. and who removed to Pennsylvania in early life, there engaging in general farming. Edwin A. Harvey was married in 1863, to Clementine Campbell, in the state of Pennsylvania, and in that state their seven children were born, the subject of this sketch being the second. There were twelve brothers and sisters in the family of the father and five in

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 345 S A C 345 that of the mother. The father is living, but the mother died May 15, 1902, in Woodhull township. The oldest of our subject's brothers and sisters is Sarah, born December 16, 1864. She married Henry Graves and resides in Pennsylvania. The second child is the subject of this sketch. The third, Willard, was born November 2, 1871, married Rosa Graves, and resides in the state of Pennsylvania. The fourth, Pearl, died in infancy. The fifth, Charley, was born September 30, 1874. He is a resident of Shaftsburg, conducting the rural mail route from that place. In 1904 he was united in marriage with Cora Webb, of Woodhull township. The sixth, Florence. born June 6, 1878, and was united in marriage with Ed Webb, brother of Cora (Webb) Harvey, in 1903. They reside in Bennington township. The seventh, Edith, was born April 23, 1881. She is the wife of Olan Hoag, a teacher in the school at Byron, Michigan. James E. Harvey received his early education in the greatest of all institutions of learning, the country school, in the state of Pennsylvania. At the age of sixteen he became a breadwinner, working in the lumber wood of Pennsylvania. He continued this occupation for a period of five years. When he reached his majority he came to the state of Michigan and commenced working by the month at Shaftsburg and vicinity. He then learned the carpenter's trade and followed that occupation for three years, when he and his father rented a farm, which they worked together four years. He then, for the next few years, was in the meat market and hotel at Shaftsburg. He then made a trip to California, where he had considerable experience in the oil fields of that state. On the 16th of April, 1902, he married Lucy Grace. She was born February 16. 1875, and is a daughter of William and Jane (Smith) Grace. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey started their married life upon a farm, and after one year purchased a home of their own in Shaftsburg, Mr. Harvey working upon the Grand Trunk Railroad. Their home was brightened on the 15th of September, 1904, by the birth of his little daughter, Athlene, but was soon afterward broken up by the death of his wife, which occurred October 16, 1904. Mr. Harvey is a man not easily discouraged, and he is at present conducting a meat market in Shaftsburg, where he is doing a profitable business. He is a member of the Knights of the Tent Maccabees, is a Republican politically, and has held, the office of deputy sheriff two terms. [Since the foregoing article was prepared, Mr. Harvey has removed to the state of California.] JAMES J. HAVILAND, M. D. There is no class of men in any community that impress themselves so strongly upon the locality in which they move as self-made men who have carved their way to the front through their own energy, and who take commanding positions in their chosen callings as the result of hard study and close application, showing a determination to be and to do; a firm purpose to climb the ladder of usefulness step by step until the pinnacle be reached. The picture is not overdrawn in saying that the gentleman whose name heads this sketch is such a one. He was born at Gaines, Genesee county, Michigan, March 25, 1869, his father being John Haviland, who is a native of Ireland, where he was born in 1831. He now lives at Gaines, Michigan, but in 1856 he located at Byron, Michigan, and shortly afterward bought eighty acres of wild land in Argentine township, Genesee county. He built a log house and improved the first purchase. Later he added eighty acres of improved land to his possessions. He then built a frame house and barn. In politics Mr. Haviland is independent, voting for the best men regardless of belief or previous condition. He married Mary Gregon at Byron. She was a native of Zanesville, Ohio, where she was born in 1841, and she died at Gaines, February 24,

346 PAST AND PRESENT OF J897. Her mother's father was Michael Gregon, who came to Gaines township, Genesee county, from Ohio. He traded a house and lot in Zanesville, Ohio, for one hundred and sixty acres of wild land, which he cleared and made into a good farm. Dr. Haviland is the third of twelve children, all of whom are living: Francis R. lives at Gaines and is unmarried; M. W. Haviland lives in Argentine township and is a bachelor; Charles lives at Battle Creek and is unmarried; Edward, who lives at Gaines, married Margaret Dullahantz, and they have one child; Mary is the wife of Samuel Tunningly of Argentine township, and they have two sons, John and William; Eliza lives at Durand and is unmarried; Sara, who lives in Deerfield township, Genesee county, married M. W. Connell, and they have two children: Mary and William; Matthew lives at Gaines and is single; Lewis lives at Gaines and is single; Ida lives at Gaines. As already stated, Dr. Haviland is a selfmade man. Starting for himself at the age of nineteen years, he commenced working on the farm to earn money with which to complete his education. He continued at this work until twenty-three years of age. Graduating at the Gaines high school in the spring of 1889, he then spent part of the year at the Detroit Business College, preparatory to taking a medical course. In 1891 he entered the Detroit Medical College, in which he was graduated with honors as a physician and surgeon of the regular school. In 1894 he came to Lennon, Shiawassee county, and engaged in the general practice of his profession, which he has here continued since. He is a member of the county medical association. In politics he is a Democrat, but not an active partisan, preferring to vote for the best men. He has taken a post-graduate course at Chicago, Illinois, and another in London, England. In 1900 he visited the Paris exposition. He enjoys such a large practice that he is compelled to turn away some of it. He is a bachelor.. ROGER HAVILAND In the year in which the United States was beginning its second great conflict with the mother country, a conflict which ended in a second victory and in establishing the prestige of our country as a world power, there was born in Ireland a son who was destined to be one of the leading citizens of Shiawassee county. Roger Haviland was born December 12. 1812, in Londonderry, Ireland. In 1834 he arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After spending one year there and one year in the city of Detroit, he removed to Ann Arbor, where he followed his trade of shoemaker. In the year 1837, on the 16th of February, in the city of Ann Arbor, he was united in marriage with Catherine Ferry. She was born on the 21st of April, 1821, and is a daughter of one of the oldest and most respected families of Washtenaw county, having moved there in the year 1832. Our subject and his wife had no children of their own. They were not lacking in charity and had a warm place in their hearts for all who were in need of friends. They took into their home and reared five adopted children. Roger M., who is now a farmer; Alice, now the wife of Roberc A. Cummins, a farmer in Burns township; Ella. now the wife of Frank Sheldon, a farmer; Joel, who died at the age of twenty-two years, after having gone to California and Catherine E., wife of William Schad, residing on the old homestead; they have one child. Catherine Marie, now attending the high school at Byron, Michigan. Mr. Haviland made his first purchase of land, by buying one hundred and sixty acres near Byron, Michigan, in the year 1836. This was during the administration of Martin Van Buren, who signed the patent. In 1839 he made his first trip to Shiawassee county, and inspected his purchase, upon which he erected a log house, and he then returned to Ypsilanti, leaving the house to season for a year. The

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 347 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 347 following year, on the 3d of February, 1840, he returned to his new home in the wilderness, in company with his wife, and from that time until his death, which occurred on the 24th of September, 1884, he was a resident of Shiawassee county. He received his early education 'in Ireland, and there learned the trade which he followed for many years. He was a man of extraordinary business ability. On his arrival upon his land at Byron, he set to work to clear the land and make improvements. He made boots and shoes for those who, ordered them. taking for his pay a certain amount of labor upon the farm. He acquired a great deal of property, at one time owning two hundred and forty acres of land, besides other property. Before his death he disposed of most of the land and converted the proceeds into paying personal securities. Politically he was a Democrat, and he held the office of supervisor of his town for a period of five years. He did not belong to any church, but was in sympathy with all churches and gave liberally for their support. He was president of the First National Bank of Corunna for thirteen years. He belonged to the order of Masons. His biography can be found in the previously published History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties. And his memory can be found inscribed in the hearts of the many who knew him. Mrs. Haviland is now eighty-four years of age. She has a diary which has been kept in the family for the last sixty-five years. Much of the prosperity which came to her husband was due to her merit, and she shares in equal measure the honor and glory of his life. BYRON P. HICKS Byron P. Hicks, a rising young lawyer of the village of Durand, was born in Tyrone. Livingston county, Michigan, on the 27th of November, 1873. He is a son of Reuben M. and Jane S. Hicks, his father being a native 22 of Michigan and his mother of New York. Both his parents are dead. His father was a substantial farmer, and a lifelong Republican, casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. Our subject is the sixth of a family of seven children, six of whom are still living. He passed his boyhood days and received his early education in Tyrone township, pursuing the higher branches of learning in the Fenton Normal School and the Universitv of Michigan, and graduating in the law department of the latter institution in 1898, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. On the 15th of September of that year he opened an office in Durand, for the general practice of his profession, and he has every prospect of founding a career of solid and gratifying success. Mr. Hicks takes an active interest in politics, his party affiliations being with the "party with a record"-the Republican. He was village attorney of Durand for four years and was the attorney who secured the injunction on behalf of the taxpayers of Shiawassee county, preventing the bondino of the county in aid of the Owosso Sugar Company. When the grand jury was called, the County Grange, farmers' clubs, and safety committee asked that he be appointed assistant prosecutor in the grand jury proceedings. He is secretary of the Durand Improvement Association. He not only has a wide personal acquaintance, but is also a marked character in the secret and benevolent activities of many important orders. He is past chancellor in the Knights of Pythias and past master in the Masonic blue lodge. He has membership in the North Newberg Lodge, No. 161, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Durand Chapter No. 139, Royal Arch Masons; Corunna Commandery No. 21, Knights Templar; Durand Lodge No. 199, Knights of Pythias; Islam Temple No. 57, Dramatic Order Knights of Khorrassan; and Durand Chapter No. 244, Order Eastern Star, of which he is past worthy patron. Probably but few citizens of Shiawassee

1348 38PAST AND PRESENT OF county are better known than Mr. Hicks. He is ever ready to extend a helping hand toward any enterprise which looks for the betterment of Durand. On December 24, 1892, Mr. Hicks was united in marriage to Lillie Rowley, both her father and grandfather being pioneers of this part of the state; the latter, Truman Rowley, was one of the first settlers in Burns township. Mrs. Hicks' parents are both living, being stanch adherents of Methodism. Mr. Hicks' star is still in the ascendancy, and his friends bespeak for him the success due his efforts. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks are prominent in Durand's best social life, and are esteemed for their many good qualities of head and heart. T. J. HICKS T. J. Hicks, a prominent farmer of Bennington township and well known in the public affairs of Shiawassee county, is a native of Michigan, having been born in Washtenaw county on the 22d of August, 1857. He is a son of Jacob and Mary (Booth) Hicks, his father being born in Seneca county, New York, and dying in Washtenaw county, Michigan, at the age of sixty-seven years; his mother, born in Lodi, Washtenaw county, died when fifty-six years of age. The father of our subject was an agriculturist all his life, and located in Washtenaw county, where he was married, about sixty years ago. He purchased a farm of two hundred acres in Lodi township, forty acres of which was improved and contained a house, built partly of logs and partly of finished lumber. He added one hundred and sixty acres to the original tract, and fashioned it all into a comfortable homestead, upon which he passed the balance of his useful life. He was a man who always took an interest in public affairs, but never held office, because he never aspired to it. In politics he was an unwavering Republican. He never professed religion, but was just and honorable in all his dealings and died generally regretted. His wife, the mother of our subject, was a stanch member of the Presbyterian church. To this faithful and worthy couple were born seven children, six of whom are still living: Charles V., the eldest, is engaged in the express business at Alpena, Michigan; Ella M., now Mrs. Detar, lives in Iowa, childless; our subject; Rhoda M. is the wife of B. H. Taylor, a farmer in Bennington township; Tillie is the wife of J. J. Perkins, also a farmer of Bennington; Carrie B. married William Cline, a farmer living in Bennington. The first child died in infancy. The subject of our sketch received his primary education in the district schools of Lodi, but on account of his father's death was obliged to leave the high school two weeks before completing a commercial course. Until he was twenty-four years of age he lived on the homestead farm. He then bought two hundred acres of prairie land- in Lenawee county, Michigan, the tract being at the time quite unimproved. He built upon it a house and barns, and lived there for about five years. Later, for a year, he was connected with a crockery store in Jackson, and for the same length of time was engaged in carpenter work in the vicinity of Bennington station. On March 4, 1886, our subject was united in marriage to Amy Byerly, a native of Bennington and a daughter of the late William Byerly. Soon after removing to Bennington township Mr. Hicks bought forty acres of land in Section 3. The farm included a house and he built a barn, and here he made his home for ten years. Later he purchased the Osmond farm, of thirty-nine acres, which for some time had been sadly neglected, moving upon it a house which he owned at Bennington station. He has since added a barn and other buildings, and otherwise improved the place, until the homestead is now comfortable and modern. To Mr. and Mrs. Hicks has been born only one child -Allene —on March 20, 1896. The

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 349 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 349 wife is identified with the Methodist Episcopal church. Our subject has always been a stanch Republican in politics, and his popularity and the confidence which the community has invariably evinced in his ability and sound judgment are illustrated by the fact that he has held the office of justice of the peace for a period of eight years. In 1900 he also served as census enumerator. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, is a member of the Maccabees and the Gleaners, and, all in all, a citizen of splendidly directed energies and broad activities. REUBEN J. HOLMES. The subject of this sketch, Reuben J. Holmes, is a native of Niagara county, New York, and was born February 13, 1829. His father, Henry Holmes, was also a native of the same county, having been born in 1816. and having joined the "silent" majority in 1886. He owned a fifty-acre farm in Hartland township, Niagara county, New York, most of which he cleared. He lived there at the time of his death and passed a busy and useful life, leaving a good name and legions of friends. His wife, the mother of Reuben, was Mary (Oliver) Holmes. She was born in an eastern state and was younger than her husband. Reuben was the second of seven children. The first was Alvord, who lives at Mundy Center, Genesee county, Michigan. He married Electa Harter and had six children, five of whom are living. Emma, who married Joshua Post and had two children. died at Holly, Michigan. Oscar was the fourth, and he resides at Holly, Michigan. He married Tressie Patterson, by whom he had two children. Henry Holmes, father of the subject of this sketch, married for his second wife Ruth Post. The issue of this union was three daughters-Lydia, who died in New York state when yet in her 'teens; Maria is the wife of Millard Streeter, and they now reside in the state of Washington, having five sons; Martha was the third, and she died in the Empire state, having become the wife of Henry Goodman and having had two daughters. Reuben J. Holmes is a typical self-made man, having carved his way through life by frugality and industry to his present honorable and comfortable position. Beginning life for himself at the age of twenty-one years, he worked on a farm by the month for the next ten years. Within this time, in 1854, he bought his present farm, making small payments on it from time to time. Three years afterward he moved onto the place, which was then a dense forest. He has been married three times. His first marriage occurred in 1857, the maiden name of his wife being Anna Buchanan. She was born December 22, 1829, at White Lake, Oakland county, Michigan, and died June 17, 1867. Four children were the result of this union. The first was Eddie, who was born June 19, 1858. He died March 13, 1897, in Oklahoma; he was married, but had no children. Emma was the second child and was born October 30, 1860. She is now a resident of Oneida county, New York. She married Andrew Thornton, by whom she had five children-Bertha (now dead), Onie, Artie, Wacia and Vernie. The third was Henry, who was born November 7, 1862. He was married March 1, 1905, and resides in Washington state. Clara was the fourth. She was born August 29, 1866, and died in Michigan August 2, 1898. She married Irwin Smith, by whom she had two children-Linton and Neva. Mr. Holmes' second marriage occurred in 1868 to Susan Hosford, who is now deceased. Four children were born of this union: Arthur, born November 25, 1869, died in 1902, unmarried. Effie, born May 25, 1871, now living in Hazelton township. She married Guy Horton April 6, 1893, and they have four children-Glen, Henry, Gladys, and Archie. Lura died when a baby. Mary, who was born

350 PAST AND PRESENT OF I. May 8, 1876, and who died February 11. 1896, married William Horton, and they had one child, Ruth, who lives with Mr. and Mrs. Holmes. The husbands of Mary and Effie above described were sons of Mr. Holmes' third wife by a previous marriage. To her he was married October 5, 1888. She was Mrs. Mary Horton and had seven children, as follows: Rhoda, born August 14, 1851, now lives in Iowa; she married Harrison J. Goddard and had three children-Lola, Ernest, and Edith (dead). Walter, born July 28, 1854, lives in Iowa; he married Estella Simons, now deceased, and they had three children-Florence, Archie, and one other. William, born September 28, 1858, lives in Hazelton township; he married Mary Holmes, now deceased, daughter of Reuben J. Holmes, and had one child, Ruth. Olive, born September 29, 1860, lives in Wisconsin. She married Fredus Ayers and they have several children. (The four children mentioned above were born in New York state.) Homer, born August 17, 1869, in Iowa, now lives in New Haven township, Shiawassee county; he married Myra Knight, and they have four sons-Cornelius, Forrest, William, and Russell. Guy, born in Iowa, March 17, 1872, lives in Hazelton township; he married Effie Holmes, as noted above. Laura A., born in Iowa, February 17, 1874, and now living in New Haven township, Shiawassee county, married Robert Butcher, and they have two children-Hazel and Earl. The present wife of Mr. Holmes was married to her first husband in New York, whence, in 1866, they removed to Iowa, where, in April, 1875, her first husband died. Afterward she came to Hazelton township to visit a sister, but did not return to Iowa. Her father was Stephen Hoyt and her mother's maiden name was Rhoda A. Knapp. Both were natives of New York state and both died on a farm of one hundred acres which her father took from the government. When Mr. Holmes first came to Hazelton township it was nothing but a vast wilderness, with no roads and few settlers. He at once built a log house, a picture of which he has and proudly shows to strangers. He built a frame house in 1887 and a barn in 1884. He cleared the entire eighty acres he now owns. He was educated in the public schools of Niagara county, New York. There is nothing in the eventful and interesting life of Mr. Holmes to which he looks back with such pride and satisfaction as the years he spent in the civil war. He was mustered into the service in Company F, Tenth Michigan Cavalry, October 2, 1862, and was in all the engagements of that gallant regiment to date of discharge, excepting when sick in hospital. He was discharged at Memphis, Tennessee, November 8, 1865, and mustered out at Jackson, Michigan. A more detailed history of his honorable war record may be found in "Michigan in the War." Mr. Holmes is a stanch Republican and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. SYLVESTER M. HOOK This gentleman is a native of the Buckeye state, having been born in Hancock county July 3, 1858. His father, Benjamin Hook, was a Pennsylvanian and died in Rush township February 19, 1899, at the age of sixty-seven years, and his mother, Lydia (Westerman) Hook, like her son, was a native of Ohio. where she was born May 10, 1838, and she died in Rush township, aged sixty-five years. The parents were wedded in Ohio. Benjamin Hook was a shoemaker by trade and worked at the bench for thirteen years. In those days the shoemaker could make good shoes, and would make nothing else. Benjamin Hook owned village property in Ohio. He enlisted in the civil war as a substitute in an Ohio regiment, and was, in some important battles, among them being Mirfreesboro. He served only ten months and ten days, and was never wounded or taken prisoner. In 1865 he came

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 351 SC to Michigan with his family, locating in Rush township, Shiawassee county and buying eighty acres in what is known as Rush Center on section 15. This land was in a state of nature, being heavily timbered. He felled the first tree ever cut on the premises. A log house was built as soon as possible, and in this the family lived several years. For nearly five months there were nothing but Indian trails for ox teams to pass over in going to Owosso. The land was cleared and fine buildings afterward erected, making the spot one of the handsomest and best in Rush township. After the death of this good man, the children settled up the estate without the appendage of an administrator, without a word of dispute, even, thus evincing a commendable spirit of justice and fairness not often seen under similar circumstances, leading one to infer that good blood courses through the veins of this family of children. They gave their mother more than she was entitled to under the law and more than was needed to support her in good style the rest of her days. When she died her property was also satisfactorily divided among the heirs. Leneous, a son, bought the old homestead, which he still owns. The father was a Republican in politics, but not an office-holder or an office-seeker. Our subject's parents were both members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Each spring they would be the first to organize a Sunday school, which was held in the district school-house. They were considered pillars in the church, and were most active Sunday school workers. Mr. Hook was a very temperate man, never having used liquor or tobacco in any form. He never contracted debts to any extent, and if he owed a man five cents in making change he made haste to pay it. His rule was a good one-to look out for small debts and the big ones would look after themselves. There were five children in this family, our subject being the first born; David lives in Owosso and is a carpenter; Leneous lives in Henderson, Michigan, and still owns the old home farm; William lives in Gratiot county, where he owns an eighty-acre farm. Thomas died at the age of seventeen years from the effects of an injury received while wrestling on a straw stack. Sylvester M. Hook was educated in the district schools of Rush township and lived at home until twenty-one years old. He then bought forty acres on section 9, Rush township, near his father's home, and began to clear it. He constructed a frame house in which he lived until it was destroyed by fire. The house and contents were valued at one thousand dollars, and the loss proved a very severe one. He rebuilt at once another frame house, the one in which he now resides. He was married to Augusta Jones September 26, 187 8. She was born in Hudson, Michigan, September 9, 1860, and died September 17, 1895, aged thirty-five years. Her father was Daniel Jones, an early settler of Rush. He cleared his farm and made it a good one. Both her parents are now dead. Mr. Hook had three children by that marriage: Nina Pearl, born September 7, 1886, is living at home; Flossie Fern, born January 27, 1890, died at the age of six months; Walter Waldo, born December 23, 1893, died when three months old. Mr. Hood was married a second time February 9, 1897, when he wedded Mrs. Carrie Myres, who was born December 22, 1863. They have three children: Inez Marie, born September 10, 1898; Harold M., born November 27, 1900, and Christobell, born June 14. 1903. Mr. Hook has been a vigorous and indefatigable worker, and his efforts have resulted in a beautiful farm, carved from a wilderness. He has been engaged extensively in fruit culture. He had a pear orchard of one hundred and sixty-five trees. It, unfortunately, was stricken with "fire blight" and had to be cut down, thus causing a great loss to the owner. One year he shipped one hundred barrels of pears to Detroit and realized three dollars per bushel. He has picked and sold as high as eighteen thousand boxes of blackcap raspberries in one season. A few years ago he raised

352 PAST AND PRESENT OF 352 PAST AND PRESENT OF a great many strawberries, and is now preparing the ground to engage in their growth again. In 1902 he built a barn thirty-six by fifty feet, at a cost of eight hundred dollars, besides his own labor, and paid for it in two years. The wall of the barn is composed of stone and cement, with cement floors throughout. He is getting ready to build a fine new house. He has never owned more than the forty acres, and with the exception of one year has never farmed any other land but his own. Everything he has gained has been produced from this little farm of forty acres. It is fine land, however, and under the highest cultivation. He is a firm believer in the idea that one acre properly cultivated is better than two acres not half looked after. Thoroughness is one of Mr. Hook's mottoes, and he has made this win. In politics he is a Republican, but never has held office nor does he aspire to one. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, but his wife is not a communicant. She is religiously inclined, however. He is a Gleaner and has been conductor in that organization for two years. Like his father and brothers, he is strictly temperate, using neither liquor nor tobacco. He stands high in his township and is indeed a model citizen and a thorough farmer. JAMES A. HOPSON James A. Hopson is a native of Chautauqua county, New York, where he was born November 12, 1853. He is a son of Oliver Hopson, also born in the same county, August 10, 1829. His mother, Julia (Churchill) Hopson, was likewise a native of Chautauqua county, where she was born December 3, 1831, and died January 5, 1891. This honored couple were married October 10, 1850, in the county in which they were born. James' father was always a farmer and owned land in New York state. In the fall of 1860 his father removed to Michigan, locating in Oakland county. He continued to live there until he located in Shiawassee county, in the spring of 1862. His grandfather, Arthur Churchill, who had settled in Oakland county some years previously, assisted the family in securing their new home. They drove there with ox teams. At that time there were five children in the family, James being only eight years old; he drove a team and led a cow. The family lived in a vacant house two miles east while their home was being built. This was a log house sixteen by twenty-four feet, in dimensions, with one window only. They could look up through the stove-pipe hole in the roof and see limbs of trees. For eight or ten years they lived in this house. It was then replaced by a frame building. Oliver Hopson bought eighty acres, which tract is now owned by his son James. The latter's father was one of four children; while his mother also was one of four children. James Hopson was second in a family of seven children: Leslie lives in New Haven township; Frank is a resident of Owosso; Carrie is Mrs. James Warren, of Dakota; Nettie is Mrs. L. G. Cram, of New Haven townshp; Minnie is Mrs. George Butcher, of New Haven township; Arthur died when a small lad. Mr. Hopson was educated in the district schools of Oakland county and New Haven township. He lived with his parents until twenty-two years old when he received forty acres of wild land, part of the old farm. This he cleared and there made a home. He was married December 25, 1876, to Ellen Butcher, daughter of John Butcher, whose sketch appears elsewhere. They had one child, James, who was born January, 1877, and who is now living on a farm in New Haven township. His wife died in January, 1877. Mr. Hopson was married a second time, February 31, 1879, to Esther Smith, who was born in Canada. She died in November, 1887. She was a daughter of Isaac Smith, now deceased. He lived for many years in New Haven township. Of this second marriage two children were born-Nora, now Mrs. Neal Parkinson, of Spokane, Washington, and Belle, who lives at home and is unmarried.

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 353 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 353 Mr. Hopson married a third wife, August 22, 1888. Her name was Mary Brooks, and she was born in Oakland county, November 3, 1866. Her parents are both dead. Two children were the result of this union-Earl. born July 30, 1893, and a baby born February 10, 1905. About nineteen years ago he removed to Edmore, Michigan, where he was engaged in the grocery business for two years. He then returned to his farm and now owns one hundred and twenty acres, the old farm of eighty with forty acres which he bought himself. He has lived on this place for about twelve years, and has greatly improved it by adding to the buildings, etc. He was a Republican formerly, but is now a Prohibitionist. He was treasurer of his township some eight years ago, but he pays special attention to farming. He has represented his party in county and state conventions on repeated occasions. He is a member of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and is a citizen of whom any community might justly be proud. H. WILSON HORN H. Wilson Horn was born in Ashland county, Ohio, June 16, 1850. He is a son of Solomon and Mary J. (Bower) Horn. The parents were both born in the state of Ohio and were married there. They reside on their farm in Shiawassee township, Shiawassee county. The father is seventy-eight years of age and the mother eightv-two. They were married in 1849 and came to Michigan in 1854. They purchased a farm of eighty acres in Rush township, the land being entirely unimproved. There were no roads laid out nearer than the Goss school-house, and our subject's father followed an Indian trail from that point to his land. He built a log shanty, with roof slanting one way, and in this they lived eight years. They then constructed a larger log house, in which they lived for several years, after which they constructed a small frame house. About twenty-three years ago they removed to Shiawassee township and purchased one hundred and sixty-three acres of land, mostly improved, where they now live. At the time when they came to Rush township Indians were plentiful and our subject remembers of their camping in front of his father's shanty. Subject had seven brothers and sisters. three of whom are living. He is the oldest of the family and remembers many interesting episodes regarding the life of the early settlers. His father is a Democrat and has held many town offices. For several years every man in the town held an office, and they still had a minor office or two to spare. The second child, John, died at the age of thirty-six years. His wife and four children reside in Rush township. The third, Marguerite, died at the age of fourteen years. The fourth, Ann. died at the age of thirty-six; she was the wife of William Kohlmeyer, of Rush township. The fifth, Emma, is the wife of A. Amos, of Grayling, Michigan. The sixth, Lucy, died at the age of twenty-one years. She was the wife of William Dutcher, of Owosso. The seventh, William, died at the age of fourteen years. The eighth, Rose, is the wife of De Witt Carr, of Shiawassee township. The subject of this sketch was educated in the district schools of Rush township. He resided with his parents upon the farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-three years. I-e then purchased eighty acres of land, containing part of a frame house, and about two acres had been cleared. He resided here about four years clearing up the farm. He then went to the state of New York and for about nine months was engaged in peddling wares of various kinds. He returned to Michigan and purchased forty acres of land, with about ten acres improved, on which he resided about one and one-half years. He then went upon his father's farm for one year. The following thirteen years he lived upon a farm of eighty acres which he purchased and improved, in Rush township. This farm he sold, and purchased the sixty-five acres of

354 PAST AND PRESENT OF 34 PAST AND PRESENT..FI land where he now lives. His present farm was somewhat improved when he purchased it, but he has added a barn and other buildings. painted the buildings, constructed fences, and generally improved and beautified his surroundings. In 1873 he married Frances A. Leonard. who was born in Rochester, New York, April 18, 1846. She is a daughter of B. F. Leonard and Malancy (Robbins) Leonard, a highly respected family of Rochester. In her father's family there were five children, of whom she is the youngest. Mr. and Mrs. Horn have three children. The eldest, Solomon, born July 2, 1876, married Eva Mitchell, and they reside in Bennington township; Ada, born January 24, 1878, is the wife of William Spencer, of Owosso; William, born April 23, 1880. married Pearl McIntosh, and they reside in the city of Lansing. Mr. Horn is a Democrat. He has held the office of justice of the peace four years. He.has held the office of deputy sheriff for four years, and has been recently appointed for another term of two years. He is a member of the lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Henderson. He is principally engaged in general farming upon the one hundred and five acres of land which he owns in Rush township. J. J. HOWARD, M. D. Among the honorable vocations or professions there are few indeed that offer more or better opportunities for helping humanity and blessing the race than that of the faithful and sympathetic physician. J. J. Howard, son of Timothy and Catharine (O'Brien) Howard. was born at Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 1, 1866. The father was a native of the Emerald Isle, having been born at Cork, Ireland. The mother, though of Irish descent. was a native of the Wolverine state, having been born in Washtenaw county. In the year 1850, at the age of fourteen years, Timothy Howard turned his back upon his mother country and sailed away for the shores of America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave." After his marriage he moved into Ingham county and settled upon a tract of land at White Oak, the tract being for the most part in a wild state. Improvements were made as fast as circumstances would warrant. The land was cleared. buildings were erected and as the years went by five young Howards came to brighten the lives of this industrious couple. The data given concerning the family are brief: Mary C. grew to young womanhood and was for some years a teacher in the public schools. She died at the age of twenty-five years. Our subject was the eldest son. M. T. is deceased. W. J., a lawyer, is located at Houston, Texas, where also resides his brother, M. J. Howard, also a lawyer. Dr. Howard received his early education at the Fowlerville high school, later attended the Michigan Agricultural College, class of 1889., and he was graduated in the Detroit College of Medicine with honor in the class of 1893. receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He also took a post-graduate course in the Chicago Medical School. Feeling himself equipped for the practice of his chosen profession, May 25, 1893, he opened an office at Byron, giving strict attention to his calling and building up a fine practice. For some years he was alone, but later he entered into copartnership with Dr. Albert L. Brannack. While his attention has been given to general practice, diseases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat are his his specialties. October 25, 1905, Dr. Howard removed his family to Detroit Michigan, where he is e;gaged in the practice of his profession. His address is 671 Junction avenue. On January 9, 1894, Dr. Howard was united in marriage to Miss Catharine, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P. Zimmer, pioneer residents of Ingham county. Mrs. Howard was of a family of ten children, both to her parents, five only of whom are living at this date. To Dr.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 355 SHIW E C T 3 and Mrs. Howard have been born three children-Byron, born March 22, 1896; Gladys A., born February 18, 1898, and Austin Z.. born February 6, 1901. All are at home with their parents and in attendance in the public schools. Dr. and Mrs. Howard and their families o' both sides give loyal support to the tenets of the Roman Catholic church. The principles of the Democratic party harmonize with the views of both the Howards and of the Zimmers back to the date of their landing at Castle Square Garden, New York. While the parents of Dr. Howard have passed out of this life, Mrs. Howard's parents are both living. Dr. and Mrs. Howard were among the best of Bryon's good citizens, and counted their friends by the number of their acquaintances. STEPHEN M. HUBBELL Stephen M. Hubbell was born in Northumberland, Canada, March 4, 1853. He is a son of Samuel M\. Hubbell, who also was a native of Canada, where he was born August 18. 1817, and who died January 7, 1895, on a farm in Middlebury township, Shiawassee county. His wife was Sara (Moon) Hubbell, likewise born in Canada, August 9, 1822, and died in Middlebury, April 18, 1903. They were married in Canada and lived on a farm. In 1867 they came to Michigan and settled on one hundred and twenty acres in Middlebury. This the father bought from George Wright. About eighteen acres of it was cleared and contained a log house and barn. At the time of his death all was cleared and under cultivation, excepting a wood lot of sixteen acres. He built a large frame house and two big barns, with numerous other buildings. Samuel M. was the only son of Martin Hubble, a native of Connecticut, who removed to Canada when a young man. Samuel M. had three sisters. Our subject's mother was one of six children. His father was a Republican, but never held office. Both parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Stephen M. Hubbell is one of a family of seven children, four of whom are still living: Louisa was born October 18, 1840. The name of her first husband was Ferguson, and they had two children; her second, husband is named Williams; they live in Owosso township, having had three children, Lovina, born June 7, 1844, married Edwin Nichols, and they live in Fairfield township. William Riley was born October 12, 1846, and died April 22, 1884; he was married and lived on forty acres of land, part of the old home, given him by his father. Neona, born July 13, 1848, is the wife of M. H. Campbelf, of Middlebury township. Nancy, born May 14, 1851, married Thomas Ireland and died June 19, 1881. Martin C., born November 14, 1856, died February 1, 1888, in Owosso. Our subject, Stephen M. Hubbell, received his early education in the schools of his district. He afterward took a three months' term in the normal school at Valparaiso, Indiana. He has never married and may now be considered fairly in the bachelor row. He seems to have forgotten the admonition of Cowper, the poet, in these words: What is there in the vale of life Half so delightful as a wife, When friendship, love and peace combine To stamp the marriage bond divine? The stream of pure and genuine love Derives its current from above; And earth a second Eden showvs, Wher'er the healing water flows. Our subject always lived at home with his parents, and since their death has inherited a fine eighty-acre farm, part of the old homestead. He has made some additions to the buildings and fenced the farm anew, making it a splendid and valuable property. For some ten years he has been engaged in raising regis;tered Red Polled cattle. He keeps about eight cows and sells that number of calves each year for breeding purposes. For the last six years he has been agent for the American Wire

356 PAST AND PRESENT OF Fence Company and has spent a good deal of his time on the road selling that fence. In politics he is independent, always voting for the best men, as he judges them, but he has never held office, nor has he been an officeseeker. Neither is he a member of any church, but he is enrolled on the roster of the Grange. Mr. Hubbell is considered an honorable man in his business transactions and stands high in Middlebury among his neighbors. EDGAR HUGHES Edgar Hughes was born in Rush township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, on the 5th of November, 1855. He is a son of William Hughes and Louisa (Ayers) Hughes. They were married in the state of Ohio and came to Michigan in the year 1854, settling in Rush township. The father purchased eighty acres of wild land, constructed the first log cabin in the part of the township where the land was situated, and started to make for himself a home from the wilderness. It is a grand lesson for the youth of the present generation to contemplate the courage and perseverance required and possessed by our subject's father and mother, who left their home in the state of Ohio and alone, with an ox team and a lumber wagon, leaving behind them their relatives and friends and all that was dear, following mere trails for roads. through a wilderness of woods filled with wolves, bears, and other wild animals, made a trip of over two hundred miles for the purpose of establishing a home and getting a start in the world. Shortly after their arrival their oxen escaped and wandered far into the forest, in the direction of their old home. Our subject's father followed them, but was unable to find their whereabouts until late in the evening. He could not return home that night and after tying the cattle with bark which he peeled from a basswood tree he climbed up among the branches of a tree, where he slept all night, this 'precaution being necessary to protect him from the wolves and other wild animals. He had a logging bee seven years after he came to Rush township, at which every man in the township, numbering eleven, was present. These are but a few of the circumstances which go to illustrate the sacrifices necessary to develop a country. Yet these men found time to be patriotic, and when the war broke out in 1861 William Hughes enlisted in the army, and he died in the service of typhoid fever at Ypsilanti. Our subject has one brother, Wheelock, living in Owosso, Michigan, and one sister, Wilhelmina, also living in Owosso. After the death of the father, the mother married Lafayette Miller, who was killed about thirtyfive years ago by a tree falling upon him. There was one child by the second marriage. Cora, principal of the Emery school at Owosso. Mr. Hughes remembers many of the incidents of those early days, has seen the deer feeding with the cattle and heard the wolves howl about the log cabin-door. He remembers of many of the men who lacked the courage to win, selling their claims for a jackknife and returning to places where life was easier if not so profitable. Mr. Hughes was married December 2, 1885, to Rosa Seelhoff, who was born February 5. 1860. She is a daughter of Frederick and Augusta (Brant) Seelhoff, honored residents of Rush township. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have three children-Lloyd, born January 4. 1888; Blanche, born March 30, 1892, and Florence, born July 18, 1903. After the death of his mother, Mr. Hughes purchased the interest of the other heirs in the old homestead of eighty acres, where he now resides. He has replaced the log cabin by a fine, large frame dwelling house. In 1897 he erected a large and substantial barn, and in 1900 erected a second barn on his land. In addition to the old homestead he has purchased an adjoining sixty, making him a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres of land. Of the last farm purchased, about twenty acres had been chopped over. This he put in

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 357 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 357 a state of cultivation and cleared the remainder of the land. It is a pleasure to look at his fine farm and its improvements, but in looking we should also try to see the days of hard labor and the self-denial it has cost. Mr. Hughes is usually aligned as a Republican politically, but in local affairs exercises his judgment of the man regardless of partisanship. He is engaged in general farming, but makes a specialty of raising potatoes. WILLIAM CHARLES HUME, M. D. It gives us pleasure to chronicle the events in the career of a man whose tendencies have always been in an upward direction. We frequently associate chance with success, but the etymology of the word allows no such association. Success is that which crowns achievement, and there must be vigor and force to achieve. He whose name heads this sketch is a successful man, not only in the practice of his profession, but also in rising to the best ideal that we have of manliness. He is endowed with a bright intellect, and is one who is held in the highest esteem by his friends and associates. Dr. Hume was born in Lenawee county. Michigan, March 23, 1848, and is a son of Alonzo and Elizabeth (Hopkins) Hume, thle father a native of New York and the mother of Lincolnshire, England. The father, who was a farmer, died eight years ago, at the age of seventy-six years, and the mother ten years ago, at the age of seventy-three. Alonzo Hume settled in Lenawee county in 1830, when he bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild government land, his nearest neighbor being twenty miles away. He cleared up the farm and here dwelt until six years before his death, which occurred at Lansing, Michigan. He was prominent in political affairs and gave his support to the Republican party. He was for many years supervisor and also held the office of township clerk. The family were communicants of the Methodist church. Our subject was the fourth of nine children. six of whom are now living: George P., who died at the age of twenty-eight, was married and lived in Colorado; Tane died at the age of ten years; Edwin H., a farmer, resides near Lansing, in Ingham county; our subject was nest in order of birth; Augustus, a farmer, lives near Lansing; Emma H. is the wife of Dan McPherson, of New York; Maria is now the wife of Rev. David Howell, of Lansing, who was formerly superintendent of schools, but who is now a minister; Claudius died when six years old; and Arthur lives in Owosso. Dr. Hume acquired his early education in the district schools of Lenawee county and later in the Saginaw high school. He was graduated in the Michigan Agricultural College with the class of 1873, after which he attended the University of Michigan for two years, and in 1876 he was graduated in the Medical College in Detroit. The young physician first practiced at Bennington, where he remained for six years, but not being satisfied with his field of labor, he moved to Corunna, where he has built up a fine and lucrative practice. December 26, 1878, Dr. Hume was united in marriage to Miss Helen, daughter of John and Jane (Hopkins) McGuffie, of New York. Mrs. Hume was born in Churchville, New York, August 21, 1851. Her mother is now living in Lenawee county, and her father died in Sparta, Wisconsin. She is one of a family of three children, of whom two aie now living. To our subject and wife have been born two children: Hattie, born April 10, 1880, died March 24, 1898, and Irene, born July 11, 1884, is a teacher in the Corunna public schools and resides at home with her parents. Dr. Hume is a stanch Republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and fraternally is allied with the Masons, Odd Fellows and Foresters. He devotes his time to the healing art and his services are in constant demand by the best class of patrons in the community.

358 PAST AND PRESENT OF 358 PST AN PRESNTIO A. F. HUNT The record of the life of every successful business man should be carefully preserved that future generations may have knowledge of the characteristics from which success has sprung. Many a man with a fair start in life has been surpassed by his less fortunate fellow-man, not from ill-luck, but inevitably from folly. A. F. Hunt, of Byron, Michigan, was born in the township of Shiawassee, Shiawassee county, this state, in the year 1865. He is the youngest son of Alfred and Ella (Simpson) Hunt. His father was a native of England, coming to this country at the age of nineteen years. He settled in Shiawassee county, near Bancroft, where he purchased a farm. He afterward disposed of this farm and purchased another, in Bennington township, upon which he resided until the date of his death in 1883, at the age of fifty-four years. There were four children in the family, all boys, the oldest being Thomas Hunt, who is superintendent of Indian reservations at Washington, D. C. The second son is George Hunt, of Alpena. The third is William H. Hunt, cashier of the bank at Laingsburg. The fourth son is the subject of this sketch. He was four years of age when his parents removed from Shiawassee township to Bennington township. Here he received his schooling, and afterward his knowledge of the banking business, with his brother, William H., in the bank at Laingsburg. He thoroughly equipped himself for the banking business, and then assisted in the organizing of the bank at Byron, under the firm name of Hunt Brothers & Rohrabacher, in the year 1889. His thorough equipment counted for the success of the bank and for himself. In 1898 he purchased the shares of the other partners and has since that time been the sole proprietor. Mr. Hunt is also the owner of a large farm in Bennington township, which he manages, feeding as high as three thousand sheep annually for market. He is also a member of the firm of Crawford & Hunt, dealers in and importers of horses. In 1892 he married Anna, daughter of George Rowell, of Bennington township, and to them have * been born three childrenWeston, Ethelwyn and Gale. Mr. Hunt politically is a Republican and has filled the office of town treasurer for many years. He is a member of the order of Masons, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. Mr. Hunt's success in his business enterprises is due to a thorough investigation and knowledge of the business before he attempts.to conduct it, followed by a vigorous and untiring prosecution, until the desired end is obtained. And throughout all of his transactions is found that element, without which no one can continue prosperous and respected -a fixed integrity. GEORGE JACOBS This native Vermonter may rightly be called a soldier-farmer. He enlisted in Company B. Fourth Michigan Cavalry, at Corunna, July 12, 1864, and was mustered in at Flint, August 20, 1864. He took part in the battles of Double Bridge, Montgomery, and Columbus. He was one of a detachment which captured Jeff Davis. He is the possessor of a large silver ladle which he took from Davis' wagon at the time the fleeing chief was taken prisoner. He was born in Orwell, Rutland county, Vermont, February 12, 1831. His father was Francis Jacobs and was also a Vermonter. The latter's wife, Maria (Lincoln) Jacobs, like her husband, was a native of that state, where they were married. Francis Jacobs removed to Oakland county in 1847, and remained there two or three years. He then changed to Genesee county, where he took up forty acres of wild land from the government. He cleared the same, built a frame house and lived there until his death. Jacob was the first of four children. John lives at Caro,

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 359 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 35 Michigan; William E. is individually mentioned in this volume; Sara, who lives at Pine Grove, Saginaw count', Michigan, married Jackson J. Powell, and they have eight children. George Jacobs started for himself at the age of twenty-one years. He first bought sixty-five acres of wild land in Hazelton township. He built a log house and stable, cleared the land and lived there for forty years. Eight years ago he sold the farm and bought four and one-half acres just south of New Lothrop, where he has since lived. There were only eighteen voters in the township when he located there. Deer, wolves, turkeys, etc., abounded in the woods a- that time. The wolves were the first to disappear. Mr. Jacobs has for sixteen years made an annual pilgrimage to the northern woods in quest of deer. being remarkably fond of hunting. In many houses he has mounted deer heads which he shot over thirty years ago. In 1852 he was married to Margery Fenwick, who died in 1860. He had three children by his. first wife: John Fremont, who was born June 10, 1855, married Almeda Cantley, and they live in Hazelton township; they have five children-Pearl, Roy, Margery, Blanche and Otie. Charles, who was born February 25, 1857, lives in Oklahoma; his wife is deceased, having had two children. Darwin, born April 12, 1859, went west when twenty-one years old and has not been heard from in years. Mr. Jacobs married for his second wife Louisa Amidon, April 20, 1862. She was born in New Haven township October 28, 1843. The eight children of this union are all living. Frank, who was born July 24, 1863. lives at Flint; he married Luella Hosmer, and they had five children-Clara (dead), Ralph, Laverne, McKinley and Alice. Flora, born April 21, 1866, is the wife of Charles Birdsell, of Hazelton township, and they have two children-Elmer and Ira. Alice, born June 10. 1868, lives in Chesaning; she married Melvin Augustine, and they had four children-Mar tin (dead), Mirtie, Mildred and Elmo. Nettie, born March 8, 1870, lives with parents and is single. Orpha, born November 29, 1872, lives at Midland, Michigan; she married Guy Petty and has two children-Merle and Rhea. George, who was born April 24, 1875, lives in New Haven township; he married Rena Lyon and they have no children. Homer, who was born January 21, 1878, and who lives in Hazelton township, married Emma Steinhope, and they had three children-Thelma, Milton (now dead) and Milford. Earl, born Decem-. ber 9, 1879, lives with parents. The parents of Mr. Jacobs' second wife were Jesse Amidon, born in Vermont, and Matilda (Dunlap) Amidon, born in New York state. Jesse Amidon came to Michigan about 1840 and first purchased eighty acres in New Haven township, most of which he cleared. He bought and sold a great deal of land and at the time of his death lived on and owned forty acres in Hazelton township, having cleared this farm. He used to haul grain to mill at Pontiac. He died in 1895 at the age of sixty-six years, while his wife joined the "silent majority" in 1897, aged seventy-eight years. In politics Mr. Jacobs is a Republican. He has been a constable, has held the office of highway commissioner for two terms of three years each, was justice of the peace two terms and township treasurer one term. His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. and he belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic. All the men there were in New Haven township-seven in number-at the time he located there, met at the house of Jesse Amidon to organize the township. Hazelton and New Haven composed one township at this time. JOHN F. JACOBS All homage should be paid to those sterling members of society who by hard work and determined activity, coupled with an unfailing energy, have developed the resources of

360 PAST AND PRESENT OF 360 AST ND RESET O a new country, and double honor should be paid them when to their record of industry can be added the story of true integrity, pure lives and beneficent kindness to others.' A high personal aim in life has its good effect upon a community just as surely as sunshine causes the tree to bud and the flower to bloom, and it is as necessary and vital in the development of the social life as the rays of the sun are to the physical. John F. Jacobs was born at Springfield, Oakland county, Michigan, on the 10th of June, 1855. When he was one and one-half years of age his parents, George and Margery (Fenwick) Jacobs, who are individually mentioned elsewhere in this present volume, removed from Oakland county and settled in the woods of Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, where they had purchased a farm which adjoins that of the subject of this sketch. Mr. Jacobs attended the district school in Hazelton township in the winter and worked upon his father's farm during the summer months, learning how to fell a tree with an ax, and skilling himself in the art of making a brush pile and rolling a log. When a little older he took a post-graduate course in plowing amid roots and around stumps, and those who have the privilege of beholding his beautiful and productive farm of one hundred and one acres, on section 18, will bear witness that his early education was thorough and complete. After assisting his father in the clearing up and improving of his farm, our subject, at the age of twenty-one years, purchased the farm which he now owns and to which we have just called the reader's attention. This land was all wild, and in bringing it to its present condition he had to do just what all pioneers had to do-the only difference being that he labored harder and with more care and judgment than most of them, and to-day, as a result, he has a better improved and more valuable farm. His attractive house is partly brick and partly frame, beautifully decorated and furnished upon the inside, with all the conven iences that go to make life worth living, and his large farm-barn is conveniently arranged for grain, hay and stock, is substantially built and fully equipped for general farming purposes. On the 8th of January, 1879, Mr. Jacobs was happily joined in marriage to Almeda Cantley, who was born in August, 1856, her family being numbered among the pioneers who have added luster to Hazelton township. Her father, James Cantley, and her mother, Eliza (McEuen) Cantley, now reside at Gladwin, Michigan, having moved there from Chesaning. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs' home has been blessed by the birth of seven children, five of whom are living. Otie, born April 5, 1880, is the wife of Lorne Veal, and they have two children, Leo and Otto; Blanche was born March 25, 1882; Alma died at the age of nine years; Pearl was born March 29, 1888; Ray was born December 10, 1891; Margery was born July 24, 1893, and Darwin died at the age of five months. Politically Mr. Jacobs affiliates with the Republican party, but his time has been occupied in attending to his farm and his own business, so that he has not aspired to or held any office. He is not a member of any church, but attends the services and Sabbath school in the Free Methodist church and is one of its liberal supporters. While he has devoted his attention to general farming, he has also for eighteen years run a cider mill, and before mills were so plentiful made as 'much as seven hundred dollars in a single season. He has grown from his infancy to sterling manhood in Hazelton township, which, like him, has grown to be one of the best in the county of Shiawassee. WILLIAM E. JACOBS This gentleman may truthfully lay claim to having been a successful farmer, a brave soldier, and a good business man, his record

SHIM WASSEE CO UNTY 361 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 361 being one of exceptional distinction in each of these fields. "'Tis not in mortals to command success," but Mr. Jacobs resolved to deserve it and he has. View the whole scene, with critic judgment scan, And then deny his merit if you can; Where he falls short, 'tis nature's fault alone: Where he succeeds, the merit's all his own. Our subject was born in Orwell township, Rutland county, Vermont, February 23, 1840. His father, Francis Jacobs, was a native of Ontario, Canada, where he was born April 20, 1806, and he died in Vienna township, Genesee county, Michigan, in June, 1870. The mother of our subject was Prudence Maria (Lincoln) Jacobs=, who was born in Connecticut, October 13, 1807, and who died in Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, in August 1871. They were married in Vermont. After this event, they removed to New York, where they remained one and one-half years, and in 1848 they came to Pontiac, Michigan. Then Francis Jacobs rented farms in Springfield, Oakland county, for a time, until he had accumulated sufficient money to purchase forty-two acres of government land, in Vienna township, Genesee county, the deed for which was signed by James Buchanan in 1854. Our subject's grandfather on his mother's side, was Stephen Lincoln, who served in the war of 1812, while ancestors on the same side took part in the revolutionary war. When a lad of twelve years, Francis Jacobs went from Canada to the Nutmeg state, his father having died previously to that time, making it necessary for him to leave home. When he established his home in the forests of Michigan, there were no roads then to his new home,nothing but Indian trails and blazed trees to point the way. But these conditions did not discourage the pioneers of those days. They were made of better metal. Francis Jacobs built a small frame house and afterward a frame barn. Then, little by little, as if storming a citadel, this sturdy man felled the mighty forest trees which towered heavenward, thus laying low the giants of the forest and causing them to give place to broad, cultivated fields. Mr. Jacobs continued to live there until death called him to a higher and better sphere-to "the land of the blue," "a land that is fairer than this." During his early days in that wilderness, Mr. Jacobs killed many deer and much other wild game, the former being plentiful and easily gotten by use of a good rifle in proper hands. Our subject, William E. Jacobs, started in life for himself at the age of twenty years. He had but little cash,-indeed, cash was a scarce article in those days, but he had forty dollars. which he had earned in various ways. This, with some little assistance extended him by his father, in compensation for clearing some land, enabled him to purchase, in 1860, forty acres of timbered land, in Hazelton township, the first payment being the forty dollars just mentioned. When he first visited that land, he traveled five miles of the wav by blazed trees. There was a log house on the place and the timber on a few acres had been cut off. At first he boarded with his brother George, who owned the land adjoining him. About 1872 our subject bought forty acres of timbered land, which he improved, later adding still another forty, giving him now one hundred and twenty acres, one hundred acres of which are under a high state of cultivation. A good house and substantial barns now adorn the place. From 1868 to 1882 Mr. Jacobs conducted a saw mill, originally with a partner, but later alone. In this manner he assisted'in clearing most of the township of its vast forests. When Mr. Jacobs decided to plant an orchard he went to Corunna and there purchased- the young trees and carried them home on his back, a distance of twelve miles. In 1864 Mr. Jacobs was rn4- -A a Maria Halcomb, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Ilalcomb, who were early settlers in Hazelton township. She died one and one-half years afterward. The issue of this union was twins. but they lived only a few hours. October 31, 1870, he was married a second time, Cindona Culver of Branch county, being the happy

WILLIAM. E. JACOBS MRS. WILLIAM E. JACOBS

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 363 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 363 bride. She was born May 6, 1843. She was a daughter of W. H. H. and Lucina (Priest) Culver. Mrs. Jacobs' mother was born July 19, 1826, and died November 11, 1900, in Quincy, Branch county. Her father was born February 18, 1816, died in Quincy, Branch county, July 28, 1891. He settled near Okemos, Michigan, at an early date. He drove a yoke of cattle through from New York state in 1840. In the early days Mr. Culver used to take grain to Pontiac to mill, the trip requiring four days, and his first purchase of factory cloth was made at Ypsilanti, the goods being carried home on his back. Mrs. Jacobs can remember that in those early days the pioneers used to have to cure marsh grass to feed the cattle during the winter, because of the scarcity of cultivated hay. At one time her parents had one-half barrel of strained honey taken from bee trees. During the early days a bear stole a pig from the pen and was followed to the woods by Mr. Culver, who set a trap and succeeded in catching "bruin" the following night. Mr. and Mrs. Culver were members of the Methodist Episcopal church for over sixty years. Following is a brief record concerning the children of Mr. Jacobs by his second wife: Fred, who was born May 16, 1872, and who lives in Toledo, Ohio, being employed by the Ann Arbor Railroad, married Madge Dann, and they have four children,-Linton, Maine, Marguerite and Fred Jr. Dora E., born June 1, 1874, and lives in Detroit. She married R. M. Ackerson, who works for the Grand Trunk Railroad; and they had one child, which died. Mark L., born December 12, 1877, has been in the army for twelve years, having taken part in several engagements, in Porto Rico and the Philippine islands; he has one gold and two silver medals for markmanship, being the best marksman in his regiment. He is first sergeant of Company H, Nineteenth Regiment, and is now in the Philippines for the second time. Carl, born May 10, 1877, lives at home. In 1861 the cry of war was heard from every hilltop and through every valley in the north28 land. "For with a common shriek, the general tongue exclaimed 'to arms,' and fast to arms they sprung." William E. Jacobs heard this cry and was not slow to answer it, enlisting, in October, of that year, in Company G. Third Michigan Cavalry, in Hazelton, and later being mustered in at Grand Rapids. The regiment left for the field November 28, 1861, in command of Lieutenant Colonel Minty, under orders to report at St. Louis, Missouri, but our subject was discharged for disability after four months' service. In February, 1862, he again enlisted, and at Yorktown, Virginia, was mustered into Company K, Sixteenth Michigan Infantry. This regiment shared in the siege of Yorktown, April, 1862, and also participated in the severe engagements at Hanover Court House, May 27, and at Gaines Mills, June 27. He continued with his regiment until again discharged for physical disability, at Hampton, Virginia, in February, 1863. At the time of his discharge he was a corporal and acting as sergeant. In 1892 Mr. Jacobs was elected sheriff of Shiawassee county on the Republican ticket and again in 1894, by five hundred or more votes than were ever given any other sheriff of the county,-a fact that fully attests his ability and efficiency as a public servant. He has served as a supervisor of Hazelton township for several years in succession and has been school director term after term. He also acted as agent for the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company for several years and is now alderman for the second ward in Corunna, his present home. Besides this he is vice-president of the United States Robe Company, which transacts a business of seventy-five thousand dollars per annum, and is a director of the Corunna furniture factory. In the multiplicity of his duties Mr. Jacobs does not forget his social functions, as he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and also the York Rite bodies of Masonry,-the Blue lodge at Hazelton, and the chapter, council and commandery, of Curunna. His wife is a Presbyterian. Mrs. Jacobs is affiliated with the

364 PAST AND PRESENT OF 36 ATADPEETO Woman's Relief Corps, Eastern Star,and the Ladies of the Maccabees. She has been president of the H. F. Wallace Corps, is past department chaplain, is past worthy matron of the Eastern Star, and has been for three years and is now lady commander of the Ladies of the Modern Maccabees. Mrs. Jacobs was one of the pioneer teachers of Shiawassee, Ingham, and Livingston counties, and acquired part of her education at Professor Taylor's private school, at Lansing, Michigan. WARREN JARRAD Citizens of Shiawassee county, as of other enterprising localities, are its bones and sinew, and draw to its centralizing influence such citizens as are of profit and will forward its prosperity. The genuine push and perseverance of this son of New York is noticeable in the marked degree of success which he has attained in his undertakings in life. Warren Jarrad, the present sheriff of Shiawassee county, is a man of noble character and high repute, whose public-spirited services and aggressive and far seeing enterprise have won for him a position of trust among his fellow men,-and to have the esteem of one's fellow men, and especially of those who know you most intimately in the every-day relation of neighbors,.is worth much, and to gain it is a worthy ambition in the breast of any honorable man. Warren Jarrad was born in Livingston county, New York, in 1864, and is a son of James L. and Jane Jarrad, who likewise were natives of New York. The father and mother came to Michigan when our subject was eleven years of age and settled in Antrim township, Shiawassee county. The mother died when Warren was but fourteen months old. The farm, which was new land when the Jarrads located upon it, is still the home of the father. He has cleared and improved this farm, and to-day it is one of the most desirable pieces of property in the community. Our subject attended the district schools of Shiawassee county and upon starting out in life for himself he engaged in drilling wells, following this occupation about two years. After this he went to Buffalo, and for seven years was a fireman of the New York Central Railroad. Mr. Jarrad then came back to the home county and state and bought the well known Morgan homestead and has since lived upon this property. Warren Jarrad was married in April of the year 1884 to Miss Ida Morgan, daughter of James T. Morgan, an old resident of Antrim township, who cleared up and brought to a state of cultivation the farm upon which our subject has so long made his home. Seven children have come to bless the home of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Jarrad, namely: Blanche, James, Edna, Raymond, Earl, Clark Smith and Gertrude; all are at home with their parents. The political views of Mr. Jarrad have brought him into affiliation with the Democratic party and he takes an active interest in all that pertains to politics and the welfare of our country. He served his party in the capacity of supervisor in Antrim for five years. Filling this minor office in an able and painstaking manner, he won the confidence of his fellow citizens and they, knowing that he would efficiently fill the position and serve the people to the best of his ability, elected him to the prominent position of sheriff of Shiawassee county, the duties of which office he entered upon January 1, 1905. The citizens of Corunna and Shiawassee county may, in a measure, thank our subject for the new court house, of which thev may justly feel proud. as he was a member of the committee which introduced the measure for building the 'same. Warren Jarrad is proud of the record of his grandfather, on his mother's side, whose name was John Perkins and who lived to be one hundred years old. He never wore an overcoat and never smoked or drank. He was highly respected and held an enviable position in the 'esteem of all who knew him.

WARREN JA\RRAD

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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 367 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 367 Our subject is prominently identified with the Elks, Eagles, Masons, Knights of Pythias and Gleaners and takes a great interest in the social side of life. The record of Mr. Jarrad as a leading citizen of his county is worthy of imitation. He is a man to whom right principle is paramount and it is said of him that his word is as good as his note. He is a man well spoken of by all who know him and has honorably attained to a broad and true friendship with many. When elected sheriff his majority was four hundred and five. The smallest majority received of any one of the Republican candidates in the county was twenty-six hundred at the time Mr. Jarrad was elected. This offers striking evidence of the estimate placed upon Sheriff Jarrad by the people of Shiawassee county. THOMAS JENKINSON The greater part of the life of the gentleman, whose biography we shall attempt to give below, has been devoted to agricultural pursuits. For the past eight years, however, he has given a part of his time to evangelistic work, seeking the betterment of his fellow men and leading them to see the light that will eventually guide them to the throne of the Most High. He is prevented from pursuing the last named labor of love bv a duty which he owes to his beloved wife, who is ill and requires his attention and care at home. Our subject was born at Cambridge, England, on the 4th day of March, 1845. His father, John Jenkinson, was a highly educated English gentleman. He was born in Westmoreland, England, and came to America in 1849, locating at Cleveland, Ohio, where he died three years later, when subject was but seven years of age. He was a civil engineer and was one of the surveyors for the first railroad constructed in England, running: from Manchester to Maccleofield. The maid en name of his wife was Ann Brown. She was born at Somersetshire, England, and died in June, 1869, at the age of fifty-two years. The subject of this sketch was the oldest of six children. The second, Betsey, now resides in Canada. The third, Nancy, now resides in Gratiot county, Michigan. The fourth, Sarah, resides in Iowa. The fifth, John, died in the year 1870. The sixth, William, died in, infancy. The father's unfortunate death left the mother with a family of little ones to care. and thus our subject at an early age assumed the responsibilities of life. He had received a good general education in the district schools of Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and at the age of eighteen years was his own breadwinner. He was occupied for the next few years in running a stationary engine and in learning the cooper's trade, in a shop at Cleveland, Ohio. The occupation of a day laborer was distasteful to our subject, for he desired a business in which there were greater possibilities. He thought of the advice of Horace Greeley to young men and knowing that one of his schoolmates, WV. D. Underwood, had located in the woods of Michigan, he decided to find him, and succeeded, Mr. Underwood having located on a farm in New Haven township. Liking the country, Mr. Jenkinson purchased eighty acres of land, in section 13, New Haven township, and as his ax sunk into the first tree, a large maple which stood where his beautiful.home now stands he raised his eyes to his Creator and said, "Here's where I'llive and here's where I'll die." Grant himself expressed no greater determination when he said, "I'll fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." On the 7th day of April, 1869,-the same year in which subject arrived in Shiawassee county, he was united in marriage to Alma Cooper, the good woman who is now upon her sickbed. She was born in Ohio on the 28th of October, 1852. Her father, Jacob Cooper, is a native of Ohio, but is now living a retired life, in Owosso. The marriage.

368 PAST AND PRESENT OF 368 PAST AND PRESENT OFI which has been a happy one, has been blessed by the birth of three children: Cortez T., who was born September 25, 1875, married Mina Hyde and resides in New Haven township. Shirley J. was born February 25, 1878, is single and resides in California. Garfield H., born February 26, 1881, resides at home. Mr. Jenkinson has not only kept his promise to reside in Shiawassee county but he has also been prosperous. He is now possessed of one hundred and seventy acres of finely improved farming land, with buildings that do credit to him and his family. Politically he is a Prohibitionist and he has held the office of road commissioner. He belongs to the Free Methodist church and his Christian life and admonition have brought peace to many a home. ANTHONY S. JORAE This gentleman is a native of Victor township, Clinton county, Michigan, where he was born March 30, 1870. He is a son of Victor J. and Theresa (Brookwalter) Jorae, both hailing from beautiful Switzerland, where the former was born July 17, 1822, and the latter in the year 1826. They were married under the blue skies of their native heath and came to America about the year 1854. They first located in Oakland county, Michigan, where the elder Jorae worked on a farm for several years. He then removed to Clinton county, where he bought 120 acres of virgin forest. He built a dwelling, cleared the land and remained there until his death, at the age of seventy-six years. He proved to be a highly prosperous and thrifty farmer, one of the best in the township, and became an extensive land-owner. A few years before his death he divided his property among his children, giving each a good start in the world. He was a Republican in politics, but never held office, nor did he desire one. Both he and his wife were members of the Catholic church, and were very worthy people,-fine specimens, in fact, of the sterling type of the country that gave them birth. They had six children, four of whom are living: Joseph is in an asylum at Battle Creek; Nicholas, who lives on a farm in Victor township, Clinton county, married Ella Plunkett; Theodore, who lives on the old farm in that township, married Martha Ashley. Our subject was educated in the district schools of Victor township, his native place. Later he spent one year in the Detroit College of Medicine. He continued to live with his parents until he was twenty-six years of age, when he engaged in farming for himself, being the owner of eighty acres of land in Victor, left him by his father. But he had a desire about this time to be a "merchant of great traffic through the world." He therefore embarked in the grocery business at Ovid, but remained there for about six months only, when he sold and returned to the farm. Not long after this he disposed of his Victor farm and bought eighty acres in Middlebury township, Shiawassee county, where he now lives. This was all improved when he bought it, having good buildings. It was formerly owned by H. Norton. Mr. Jorae was married June 29, 1899, to Lucy Morse, who was born in Ovid township, Clinton county, September 20, 1871. She is a daughter of Grant and Augusta (Eaton) Morse. Mr. Morse is now dead but his widow lives in Ovid. Mr. and Mrs. Jorae have three children, namely: Harold, born May 10, 1899; Edith, born August 13, 1901; and Alice, born April 7, 1903. Mrs. Jorae was the second of five children, as follows: Alma is now Mrs. Scudder of Ovid; Lucy is our subject's wife; George is a drygoods merchant in California; Charles, who is a Baptist minister, residing in Kalamazoo, married Grace Calkins; Arthur is married and lives in Ovid. Mr. Jorae has always been a Republican but has never held office. Mrs. Jorae is a member of the Baptist church. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 369 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 369 of the Grange, holding affiliation with the organizations of these orders at Ovid. He devotes his entire attention to farming and has a beautiful place. Indeed, our subject evidently thinks with the poet that Beauty was lent to nature as the type Of Heaven's unspeakable and holy joy, Where all perfection makes the sum of bliss. FRANK KARRER The subject of this sketch is not only a good business man, but is also an excellent mechanic as well. For nearly a half a century has been engaged in the work of his trade. He is widely known throughout Shiawassee county as one of the staunchest of Republicans, and for years has been singled out among his fellows as the right man to occupy some local office. He, therefore, served four terms as justice of the peace in Durand, one term in Byron and two in Gaines. He was town clerk in Gaines for five terms and held the same position in Byron, and was also constable for seven years in Byron, and deputy sheriff for two terms in the same place. He is a native of Switzerland, that land of lofty mountains, huge glaciers, and extensive flocks of sheep, cows and goats, and dates his birth from the year 1834. He is the son of Frank Peter and Ann Marie Karrer. His father was an unassuming, honest laborer. Both his parents are now dead. They had six children,-Sophia, Rose, Frank, Vergis, Susan and Julia. The two last named are dead. Mr. Karrer came with his parents to this country when only ten years of age, the family settling in Detroit. He obtained his limited early education in his native land and Detroit. During his residence of nine years in the latter city he learned the trade of tinsmith. Upon reaching the age of nineteen years, he located in Byron, opened a little shop and continued there in the tin business for a period of twenty-six years. Removing thence to Gaines, he continued in the same line for nine years, settling in Durand about thirteen years ago. This makes in all nearly half a century that he has been engaged in that calling. Verily this is a long period to go in and out before a community and keep one's good name intact, as our subject has done. Mr. Karrer's business is one of the most prosperous in Durand, and besides doing general work in the tin and sheet-iron line, he does much in the way of manufacturing and installing hot-air and steam heating apparatus. He also deals quite extensively in stoves. Mr. Karrer was married, when he first settled in Byron, at the age of nineteen, to Ann M. Disbrow, and is the father of five children, as follows: Frank C., a laborer and a resident of Owosso; Delbert D., a painter of Bancroft; Fred L., a shop employe, living at Flint; Edward E., a tinsmith, in business with his father; and a daughter, who is now Mrs. Charles Simmons of Durand. The only secret society to which Mr. Karrer belongs is the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of this he is an enthusiastic member. As has already been intimated, Mr. Karrer is a very upright business man, and as a result is extremely popular among all classes. [Since the foregoing sketch was prepared Mr. Karrer has been summoned to the life eternal, closing an earthly career of signal honor and usefulness.] FRANCIS W. KENT Francis W. Kent, who occupies the old Van Riper farm in Woodhull township and who has controlled large lumbering interests in the south, is still comparatively a young man, having been born on the family homestead in the southwestern portion of that township, in section 34, on the 7th of August, 1863. His father, William Grover Kent, was born December 25, 1825, in Seneca county, New York, and came to Michigan with his parents as a boy of twelve years. He first lived on a

370 PAST AND PRESENT OF farm near Ann Arbor, Washtenaw county, which his father, Elias Kent, had taken up from the government. Here the family resided for six years, when the father sold the property and removed to Wheatfield township, Ingham county, where he had purchased another farm. This he also sold, locating next on eighty acres of wild land in Williamston township. After improving the farm and making it his residence for twenty years, he took up five hundred and twenty acres of government land, in section 34, Woodhull township, making many improvements upon it. A portion of this tract afterward came into possession of our subject when, as a young man, he was at the beginning of his career as an agriculturist. Grandfather Kent was an Englishman, born in 1792, and was one of three children. Shortly after coming to the United States, however, he proved his patriotic worth by enlisting under the stars and stripes and fighting against Great Britain in the war of 1812. He married Hattie Tooker, in New York, where his eleven children were born, eight of whom lived to maturity, viz.: Jonah, Sarah, Fanny, Hettie, William G. (our subject's father), Hannah, Elizabeth and Elias. Prior to his location in Washtenaw county, Michigan, he had engaged with Zachary-Taylor's troops in the Black Hawk war, and after the marriage of his son, he fought in the Mexican war. Consequently in three wars he thoroughly proved his faithfulness as an adopted son of the United States. William G., the son of the original proprietor of the homestead, and the father of Francis W. Kent, married Prudence Warner, in May, 1847. He lived upon the old farm until 1864, when, with his family, he removed to Lainsburg, residing in that place eleven years and then returning to the homestead to pass the remainder of his years. At the time of his death, July 19, 1903, Mr. Kent was the oldest Mason in Michigan, being a charter member of the lodge at Laingsburg. In 1855 he was caught in the California emigration of gold-seekers and spent four years in the mines. He was accompanied by his brotherin-law, S. F. Warner, and in the course of his varied experience, both made and lost several fortunes. Among his other ventures, in 1872, he went to Shreveport, Louisiana, to take charge of a gang of men clearing logs and debris from the Red river. He was, in fact, a man of remarkable energy and varied ability, which he passed down, in good measure to the subject of this sketch. To Mr. and Mrs. William G. Kent three children were born. The natal day of Alice A. was August 27, 1848. She married John Scoutten, of Laingsburg, July 6, 1877. They have had two children,-Frances M., who was born January 14, 1881, and who died September 23, 1884, and Marguerite, who was born October 20, 1883, who was graduated at Laingsburg and Mount Pleasant and who is now a teacher at Charlevoix. Jane E. was born September 7, 1854, and died in September, 1874, unmarried. The third child was our subject. Prudence (Warner) Kent, the mother of Francis W. Kent, was born in Chenango county, New York, February 2, 1831. She was married in Woodhull township, at the age of sixteen years, and died-June 12, 1896. She was a daughter of Smith B. and Hannah (Smith) Warner, her mother dying in March, 1865. Her parents were married in Smithville, New York, where Mr. Warner owned a grist mill, carding mills, and several farms. Disposing of these holdings, he bought nineteen hundred acres of wild land in Ingham and Shiawassee counties, Michioan, most of this immense tract being secured direct from the government, and the remainder being purchased from Samuel Townsend. At the same time he bought three hundred and twenty acres of unimproved land on the present site of Battle Creek. He died shortly after settling in Michigan. Our subject received his early education in Laingsburg, his schooling from books ending when he was about seventeen years old. At

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 371 that time he bought a yoke of oxen and started to farm on his own responsibility, selecting as the field for his operations a part of the original claim upon which his grandfather had located, in section 34, Woodhull township. About the year 1880 he cleared up the remainder of the farm and erected a house and a number of barns on the old homestead. In 1901 he removed to the old Van Riper farm of one hundred and sixty acres, of which one hundred and twenty acres is improved and in fine condition. Besides being a landed proprietor here, he has until quite recently had extensive business interests in the south. Some time ago he went into that section of the country to make some lumber estimates for Chicago parties, which led to individual investments in the lumbering industries of Kentucky and Mississippi. The family are active members of the local Grange and also connected with the Maccabees, Mr. Kent having served two terms as lieutenant commander. In politics Mr. Kent is a Democrat. In 1898 he enlisted, at Island Lake, for service in the Spanish-American War, but was rejected on account of disability. On March 17, 1885, our subject was united in marriage to Kate L. Harper, the nuptial ceremony occurring at Stockbridge, Michigan. They have two children, Kittie Frances, who was born February 27, 1886, and who graduated in the Shaftsburg school, in 1905; and Clay Kent, who was born May 30, 1890. Mrs. Kent was born July 14, 1863, and received her early education in the district schools. Her father, James S. Harper, was a native of Wayne county, New York, where he was born July 12, 1826. He was of ScotchIrish descent. On October 31, 1846, he married Margaret Ann Van Riper, who was born in New York state September 19, 1830. Mrs. Kent is the youngest of four children. Andrew J. Harper, the first child, was born on the 27th of January, 1843. He married Mary Marsh, in 1877, and lives on the old Harper homestead, in Woodhull township; their one child, Maud, born February 22, 1879, is the wife of ex-Representative S. J. Colby, of Detroit, to whom she was married on December 29, 1904; Bertha H. Harper, born August 14, 1854, married Myron C. Pierce, in April, 1870, and is the mother of two children,Kate M. Pierce, born October 9, 1884, and James G. Pierce, born in November, 1879. The latter is a Washtenaw county farmer. May E. Harper was the third born, the date of her birth being November 22, 1860. Her marriage to Neal Dewer occurred at Shaftsburg in 1879. Her husband is a railroad man of Houston, Texas, where their four children were born. Their youngest, May E., died in that city in 1903. The living are Robert, born December 19, 1880; Arthur, born February 9, 1883; and Grace, born October 19, 1885; Mrs. May-Dewer died April 24, 1894. Mrs. Kent's grandfather was even an earlier Michigan pioneer than her father. He came to the territory in 1835, traveling by way of Canada from New York and breaking his way through the forests with team and wagon. He first settled on a farm of three hundred and sixty acres in Lodi township, Washtenaw county. He was an earnest moral, popular man, and held the office of township clerk for a period of twenty years. He was temperate in all his habits, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a substantial and honored citizen. His wife, Berthana (Mason) Harper, was a native of the Empire state, and was the mother of seven sons and one daughter. She spent her last days with her son., Hon. E. W. Harper, a representative from Washtenaw county, in the state legislature. She died at the age ot eighty years, and is buried beside her husband, in Saline township, Washtenaw county. ALBERT E. KILBURN There are men living in every community the influence of whose lives on the side of virtue, morality, and religion will be felt long years after their once familiar forms and fea

372 PAST AND PRESENT OF -I tures have passed out of the memory of.lhe living. It is a trite saying that "he lives most who lives best." The impress for good that men leave upon the world is not to be reckoned by the standard of weights and measures. While the world is loath to admit it, there are as good men living as dead. It seems otherwise only because we.are so constituted that we unhesitatingly let down the mantle of charity upon the weaknesses of of the departed, remembering only their virtues. Albert E. Kilburn is a just and upright citizen, sharing the confidence and good will of lifelong friends and acquaintances. Mr. Kilburn was born in the Empire state at Orwell, Oswego county, February 13, 1854. His parents, Newell and Lydia (Warner) Kilburn, were both natives of New York, the father having been born at Norwood, St. Lawrence county, and the mother in Jefferson county. Newell Kilburn died December 21, 1902, aged eighty years. The mother is still living, making her home with friends in Owosso. Newell Kilburn was a farmer in his native state, where he owned a small farm. This he sold and in 1865 came with his family to Michigan, first locating in the village of Corunna, where he remained one year, after which he purchased a tract of eighty acres of partially improved land, in the township of New Haven. A small frame house had been erected upon the premises, and into the same the family moved, utilizing this dwelling about twelve years. The present commodious structure was then built, and has since been the family home. The father later purchased a small tract in Caledonia township, where he lived for several years, our subject remaining upon and coming into possession of the old home estate, where he still resides. Albert E. Kilburn and his twin sister, Alice, were the only children born to their parents. Alice became the wife of Chester Burch, and died at tile age of twenty-three years, leaving an afflicted and devoted husband and four small children Delilah, Ella I Mina, and Phineas, the last named being now a resident of the township of Venice. Albert remained at home, assisting in carrying on the farming operations. He was united in marriage in March, 1876, to Ida Stewart, who lived only about two years after her marriage, passing out of this life, and leaving a little daughter, Nettie, who was the solace and joy of her stricken father. Nettie married Fred Eveleth and died at the age of twenty years, leaving one child, Anna. February 17, 1880, Mr. Kilburn was united in the holy bonds of matrimony to Mary L., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Bennett, natives of New York. Mrs. Kilburn's father came to Michigan more than a quarter of a century ago and settled on a farm in the township of New Haven, where he has since lived. Her mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca Wellard, died in the state of New York, when Mrs. Kilburn was but a young girl. To Mr. and Mrs. Kilburn has been born a little daughter, Mattie Ruth, whose birth occurred October 4, 1898. In early years Mr. Kilburn affiliated with the Republican party, but when he saw his party drifting under the dominating influence of the rum powers,-as a Christian citizen, realizing the awful curse of the legalized American saloon,-he lined up with the Prohibitionists, thereby giving not only his voice, but also his ballot for the suppression of this gigantic evil of the nineteenth century. In brief, he votes as he prays. In so doing he feels that he is giving the full weight of his influence for the school, the church, and the home, as against the blighting curse of intemperance. Mr. and Mrs. Kilburn are active members of the Free Methodist church at New Haven, in which society they are highly esteemed for the correct deportment of their lives. Though not an extensive farmer, Mr. Kilburn believes in doing well what he does. The family live in the full confidence of their neighbors, and the consciousness of acting well their part in life. Their friends wish for them many years of happiness and helpfulness. *

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SHfIAS WASSEE CO UNTY 375 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 375 PHILIP KLINE It is always a pleasure to chronicle the events in the career of one who has been a brave and valiant soldier and responsive to the call of his country in its moment of trial and need. The life sketch which we now lay before our readers is that of a man who has made his influence felt not only during the quiet days of peace, but also when the dark clouds of war hung over our land. At that time he joined hand in hand with his neighbors and upon the battle field stood shoulder to shoulder with his comrades in defense of the old flag. He now feels that the country for which he fought is dearer to him than if he had remained at home in her hour of distress. This highly respected gentleman lives upon a beautiful and well cultivated farm of eighty acres, known as Cherryvale Farm, in the township of Vernon. The buildings are new and imposing and denote the thrift and enterprise of the owner. Colonel Kline was born in the county of Coshocton, Ohio, June 16, 1839. He is a son of John and Katherine Kline, the father having been born in Pennsylvania and the mother in the Buckeye state. The occupation of the father was that of farming and his political views were those of the Republican party. He embraced its principles and believed in its future. John Kline passed out of this life July 13, 1866. His wife lived to an advanced age and died March 3, 1895. Our subject is one of a family of eight children, four of whom are now living. He received his school education at Bolivar, Ohio. Philip Kline enlisted in the service of his country in August, 1862, and served nearly three years. He was a member of the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His service for the most part was in the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He personally took part in twentysix engagements, among the more notable of which the following may be mentioned: Get tysburg, Wilderness, Winchester and Cedar Creek. He was also at Appomattox at the final surrender of the Confederate forces by General Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant. He served for a considerable time as the colorbearer of his regiment. In the battle of the Wilderness he received a gun-shot wound in his left hand and as a result carries a stiff finger. At the battle of Petersburg he had a very close call, as he received seven holes through his clothes in this engagement. A rare and interesting souvenir of the civil war is now in the possession of Colonel Kline. It is nothing more than a red bandana handkerchief, but it has an interesting history. Judah P. Benjamin was a Lousianian and a stanch supporter of the "lost cause." The Confederate government sent him to England on an important mission and while in that country he had manufactured one dozen red bandana handkerchiefs and these, upon his return, he distributed, as a memento, among twelve Confederate officers. These handkerchiefs were of the finest India silk and a yard square. The body is in red and worked in black. On its surface appear the portraits of Davis, Beauregard, Lee, Jackson, Morgan, Slidell and Johnston, encircled with wreaths of southern laurel and a border of ferns and cotton plants on a white ground, no two wreaths being similar. The workmanship is very artistic and the relic may justly be highly prized. During the battle of Petersburg, Virginia, April 23, 1865, Mr. Kline was colorbearer of the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and a rebel colonel was captured who had one of these handkerchiefs. Mr. Kline asked him what he would take for it and he replied, "You d-d Yanks have got me; now I will have to get some of your money. I will take a dollar for it.", Mr. Klinepurchasedthe handkerchief and has since had it in his possession and prizes it very highly. In the fall of 1865 our subject was united in marriage to Elizabeth J. Belpnak of Ohio, and they have one son, J. Sidney Kline, born July 15, 1866. He is still at home, assisting

4 376 PAST AND PRESENT OF - ----- his father in the management of the farm. He was united in marriage October 24, 1893, to Helen A. Fay, who was born February 22, 1874. They have one daughter, Nellie M., born July 13, 1898. Colonel Kline takes a lively interest in Grand Army matters and is recognized as one of the leading military spirits of Shiawassee county. He has been elected commandant of the county battalion with the rank of colonel. He is also past commander of H. F. Wallace Post, of Corunna. Mr. Kline is also a member of the Grange and is counted as one of the prominent and progressive citizens of the township. He has been for five years presi, dent of the Patrons' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Genesee and Shiawassee counties, an office which he still holds. Colonel Kline is highly respected by all who know him, and lives in the consciousness of having met the duties of life in a manner to merit the commendation of his friends and neighbors. CHARLES LAHRING Charles Lahring, the subject of this sketch is of German extraction. His father and mother were both born in Germany, whence they immigrated to this country. They were of the study German stock-that has given to the American republic so valuable an element, representing honesty, industry and economy, and proving a power for good in all the relations of life. Wherever you find the German you will find industry and economy and that which emanates from it, prosperity. The father of the subject of this sketch was Herman Lahring, and the mother was Katherine Lahring. The mother is living with one of her sons near the home of the subject of this sketch, but the father died in the year 1872, when Charles was but twelve years of age. The mother is now seyenty-eight years of age and is in very feeble health. Herman Lahring was a man who had acquired considerable wealth. At his death he was possessed of two hundred and fifty-six acres of good farming land in Burns township, besides other property. The sons, working upon the principal that in unity there is strength, all remained at home, working together. When the property was divided each received the value of six hundred dollars in real estate, the mother reserving for herself fifty-six acres of the land as her homestead. Of the ten children, the oldest is Mrs. Cecelia Ketson; the second, Lewis, resides on a farm in Shiawassee county; the third, Elizabeth, was the wife of Mr. Mark Boyce, who is deceased; the fourth, Amelia, is the widow of Andrew Lilly; the fifth, Mary, is deceased; the sixth, William, is a farmer in Burns township; the seventh is Charles, subject of this sketch; the eighth, Frank, is a farmer, as are also Culver and Henry. Politically Mr. Lahring is a Democrat. He is not active in politics, but in political matters takes the interest commensurate with good citizenship. He received his early education in the district school,-in what is known as the Cole school house. He worked upon the farm with his brothers until he had attained to the age of twenty-two years. In the year 1888 Mr. Lahring was united in marriage to Victoria Buck, who is of English extraction. Her father was born in England, but had lived in America for a number of years prior to his death. Mrs. Lahring's mother is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Lahring have two children, Lottie, born March 23, 1892, and Mary, born June 5, 1903. Our subject is a member of the Methodist church. He has a fine farm of over one hundred and twenty-two acres of land, in section 9, Burns township, and the same is well improved. He is engaged in general farming of which he makes a success, and is rapidly adding to the wealth which he already possesses. WESLEY LAWSON The neighboring province of Ontario, Canada, has furnished Michigan many, very

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 377 SC many, of her best and most prosperous farmers. One of these is the gentleman whose name heads this article and who now resides on section 16, Hazelton township. Although a native of Canada, as were his father and grandfather before him, he is descended from German stock on his father's side. His mother, Aranetta (Cooper) Lawson, was born in the state of New York, February 13, 1821; she is now living with her son in Hazelton. Wesley Lawson was born January 1, 1857. He was a son of Caleb Lawson, who was born near Hamilton, Ontario, July 7, 1822, and who died in Hazelton, February 22, 1905. He always followed farming and when a young man purchased fifty acres of native forest in Haldimand county, Canada, and set to work at once to build a dwelling on the place. He cleared the farm and made his home there until 1865, when he sold and removed to Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of virgin land, heavily timbered. He first built a log shanty and a few years later a log house, in which he lived until fifteen years ago, when he erected a beautiful frame house and barn, with other buildings. With the aid of his sons, he cleared the land and made the farm one of the best in Hazelton township. A few years ago he gave up farming, selling his property and went to live with his son George, where he remained until his death, February 22, 1905, as stated above. He was always a Republican in politics and was highway commissioner for several years. This, with the exception of being a school officer, was the only public office he ever filled. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his widow, both being quite active in religious matters. They were married in Canada, May 24, 1853, and had a family of three children: Mary, who was born in 1854, died thirty-two years ago, unmarried; our subject was the next in order of birth; George, who was born July 4, 1862, married Alva Burpee, and they live in Hazelton township. Our subject was educated in the district schools of Hazelton township and lived at home with his parents until twenty-seven years of age. January 1, 1884, he was married to Sarah J. Wood, a native of Canada, where she was born March 18, 1862. She is a daughter of Isaac and Harriet (Grace) Wood, the latter of whom died in Canada. Mr. Wood married a second time, and came to Michigan, locating in Hazelton township. Mrs. Lawson was one of five children, three of whom are now living: Mrs. Lawson, John H., of Kalkaska county; and Anna, wife of Riley St. John, of Owosso township. After our subject was married he rented his father's place and worked it on shares, living there for four years. He then bought forty acres of land near his father's farm. This was mostly cleared. He built a house and barn and finished clearing the land. He subsequently bought forty acres more, all improved, upon which he made his home for seven or eight years. He then bought eighty acres near where he now lives and remained there three years. Next he purchased his present farm of eighty acres, which was well improved, and which with the exception of some changes which he has made and including additions to the buildings, is about the same as when he bought the property. He has a large frame house, big barn and other buildings. The land is under a fine state of cultivation and the whole is a model of neatness, impressing the beholder with the fact that the owner is a splendid farmer. He has always been engaged in agriculture pursuits, making no specialty of any one line but conducting varied farming and making rotation in crops. Mr. and Mrs. Lawson have two children,Ethela was born October 18, 1886, and is clerking in Beatty's store, at New Lothrop, Ansel was born March 31, 1888, is single and remains at home. Mr. Lawson is a Republican in politics but never has held office. He is a member of the Grange. Both he and his wife are extremely pleasant people and are

378 PAST AND PRESENT OF 378 PAST AND PRESENT OF highly honored and respected by their neighbors. In short, Hazelton has no better farmer or more worthy citizen than Wesley Lawson. JOEL LEAVITT Joel Leavitt has not been a drone in the hive of humanity, but rather has been a ian of great industry, as the result of which success has crowned his efforts. 'Tis true that "To climb steep hill requires slow pace at first,"-but they scarcely ever fail who try and persevere. So it has been with Joel Leavitt. He has climbed and tried and succeeded, being now a well-to-do farmer in Fairfield township. His patience and toil have been duly rewarded. August, 1862, he enlisted in the navy, at the Brooklyn, New York, navy yard, as a landsman, and was assigned to duty on the battleship Monticello, Commodore Barney, and was discharged from the Moss, at the expiration of one year, the time for which he enlisted. He was engaged in the naval battle of Newport News, near West Point, with some skirmishes on the rivers; he was at Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Leavitt is a native of Hinkley township, Medina county, Ohio, where he was born October 3, 1840. His father, Moses Leavitt, who hailed from Maine, where he was born in 1796, died in Fairfield township, in 1858. His mother, Ruth (Emerson) Leavitt also died there, having been a Vermonter. Moses Leavitt removed to Canada with his parents when a boy, and there met and married Ruth Emerson. After the first six children were born the father of the subject of this sketch removed with his family to Ohio, where he bought fifty acres of wild land, in Brunswick township, Medina county. He built a log house and stable and cleared the land. In 1851 he-sold the property and removed to Fairfield township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of government land, on section 24. In the spring; of 1852 he came from Cleveland to Detroit by boat, and thence with an ox team to his future home. The family lived with a neighbor, one and one-half miles distant while building a log house on the new place. He cleared twenty acres before his death. After this sad event Joel and his brothers worked the farm for a time, but in 1865 Joel bought his present place, on section 14. It consisted of eighty acres of wild land. On this he built a log house and stable, and eventually he cleared the land. At the end of the year the log house was burned. This was replaced with another log structure and later he added forty acres of wild land. This he also cleared. He has now a fine frame house and good barns. In February, 1864, Mr. Leavitt married Achsah Scott, who was born in September, 1845, and who died October 12, 1890. Mrs. Leavitt's father, Jason Scott, was born in New York state, and came to Livingston county, Mich., at an early day, buying land in that county. He lived there until the occasion of a visit in New York state, where he died. Mrs. Leavitt's mother, Sarah (Wilsey) Scott, died near Elsie. Mrs. Leavitt was the fifth of ten children. Laura was married, and died in Nebraska; Walter died in Toledo; Mary was married, and died in Howell, Michigan; Park married Irene Franklin and lives in Carland, Mich.; Charlotte married Levi Leavitt and lived in Fairfield township; Albert died in the west, Caroline married, having been the eighth child; Delia married George Cobb and lives at Elsie, Michigan; Ruth died young. Mr. and Mrs. Leavitt have five children, all of whom are living: Alva, who lives in Fairfield township, married Barbara Snyder, and they have two children, Clara and Norman J. Emma is the wife of Fred A. Dunham, of Turner, Arenac county, and they have two children,-Grace and Erma. Herbert L. lives in Fairchild township, being a bachelor; Helen D. is married and lives in Chapin, having two children, Fern and Elna; Myra I. is the wife of Edward Williams of Fairfield township; they have no children.

I

J. D. LELAND

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 381 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 381 Mr. Leavitt was the eighth of twelve children, the first six having been born in Canada and the others in Ohio: Abigail, who lives in Clare, Mich., married Elvin Lee, now deceased, and has five children-Dwight, Charles, Milton, Nancy and Ruth. Moses D. lives in Medina county, Ohio, is married, and has four children. Amy married Henry Higgins and died in Fairfield township, leaving no children. Rachel married Soloman Smith and is now deceased. Sara died unmarried. Luther lives in Fairfield township, being a bachelor. John lives in Missouri, is married and has three children,-Frederick, Lora and John. Marshall lives in Saginaw county. He had three children by his first marriage and none by his second. Matilda lives in Owosso, being the widow of Henry Ferris, and having had three children,-Harry, Harvey and Martella. Levi, deceased, married Charlotte Scott and they had six children,-Melvin, Ruth, Dudley, Grover and two daughters who died young. James died in Ohio, unmarried. Joel Leavitt is a pronounced Democrat and has been a director of his school district for several years, taking a loyal interest in local affairs of a public nature. J. D. LELAND The safe and conservative conduct of a financial institution plays an important part in the substantial development of a city and community. The part which the First National Bank of Durand has contributed in this direction has been inestimable as a financial factor to Durand's rapid commercial development. The organization of this institution took place August 8, 1898, as the Bank of Durand and in July, 1900, it was changed from a state to a national bank. The first board of directors comprised 0. H. Hobart, N. P. Leland, W. L. Scribler, Benjamin Geer, F. A. Millard, A. Derham, L. Loucks, F. G. Bailey and J. D. Leland. The first executive officers were president, Luther Locks; vice-president, 0. H. Hobart; and cashier, J. D. Leland. It had a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, all paid in at the opening of the bank. The present board of directors numbers its members as follows: L. Loucks, N. P. Leland, J. D. Leland, C. S. Reed, J. F. Hutton, F. C. Gale, M. D. Geer, B. W. Calkins and George Brooks. The present president is L. Loucks; vice-president, N. P. Leland; and cashier, J. D. Leland. The surplus on hand now is six thousand dollars and until this year the bank has paid its stockholders four per cent. semi-annually, but now are paying' three per cent., in order that they may increase their surplus more rapidly. The First National Bank has on deposit three hundred thousand dollars, as much as any bank in the state with twenty-five thousand dollars capital. To the growth and development of this institution J. D. Leland, its efficient cashier, has contributed his best efforts, with gratifying success. A native of the old Empire state, Mr. Leland was born in Orleans county, New York, March 22, 1845, being a son of J. W. and Phebe (Austin) Leland, natives of New York. The father came to Michigan in 1851 and located in Sciota township, Shiawassee county. He died in 1856 and his wife in 1865. Our subject, the second in a family of six children, acquired his early education in the district schools and after six years of such training he attended the Corunna high school, after leaving which he taught in the grammar department for one year. His brother Mahlon resides in Kansas, and his brother William H. lives near Mount Pleasant, Michigan. September 1, 1870, our subject entered the First National Bank at Corunna and was there twenty years, as bookkeeper, assistant cashier and finally cashier. He then went to Saginaw and was assistant cashier in the Bank of Saginaw. From there he came to Durand, in 1898, and organized the bank of which he is now cashier. Politically, Mr. Leland is in full sympathy

382 PAST AND PRESENT OF 2 PT AD P T O with the principles of the Prohibition party. He firmly believes.that the legalized licensed saloon is the one great enemy of the home, the school, and the church, and, as a natural sequence, the natural enemy of man. He views the liquor business as conducted in this country as the great destroyer of human happiness and the greatest curse and danger to our American institutions and to our Christian civilization. As the friend of humanity, he is the sworn enemy of this monster vice of the twentieth century. In 1904 he was the candidate of his party for regent of the University of Michigan. Religiously, Mr. Leland is a valued member and communicant of the Episcopal church, recognized as a consistent Christian gentleman. Mr. Leland has somewhat of inventive genius in his makeup, having recently invented the Eureka adding-machine carriage, a very practical yet simple device, which is especially adapted to be used with the Burroughs adding machine, but which is equally adapted to any other machine and to typewriters as well. He has had the carriage patented and it is being used quite extensively in banks and offices. As an indication of its merits, Mr. Leland is in receipt of many commendatory and enquiring letters from all parts of the country. Mr. Leland also wrote a form for bank books, which is coming into general use. J. D. Leland was married June 22, 1870, to Cordelia, daughter of Dr. J. H. Hascall, who was an early settler of Shiawassee county. To them has been born one daughter, Irene, the wife of F. William Nothwagle, cashier of the State Bank of Byron. Mr. Nothwagle had charge of all German taught in the west side schools of Saginaw for nine years prior to assuming his present work Our subject is a thirty-second degree Mason, was high priest of the chapter and master of the lodge for six years, is a member of all Masonic bodies of Corunna, was first high priest of Durand chapter and is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. J. D. Leland has figured as a capable financier of. the First National Bank of Durand and is a man of more, than ordinary ability. Being of an unassailable reputation, he enjoys the highest confidence and esteem not only of his associates.but also of the numerous depositors of this institution. CLARENCE C. LEROY The early struggles of some of the men who have made a financial success of life are worthy of recountal and make most interesting reading. We cannot too often, in this country of freedom and opportunity, repeat the story of the man who by his own industry and honesty has provided himself with a splendid home and gained the respect and confidence of all who know him. Clarence C. Leroy was born at Long Lake, in Livingston county, Michigan, on the 13th of September, 1852. His father, George Leroy, was also a native of Livingston county, and for many years conducted a hotel at Long Lake. On the breaking out of the civil war he enlisted in the army and has never since been heard from. The mother's maiden name was Catherine Runyan. She is also a native of Livingston county, and at present is residing at Corunna, in her eighty-third year. Unhappily, the parents separated when subject was but a child, leaving him to make his home with his grandparents, where he resided until he had arrived at the age of twelve years, during this time attending school at what is known as the Riggs school house, on the plains. The grandfather with whom our subject resided in his boyhood was known as Judge Leroy and was one of the most distinguished pioneers of Livingston county. After our subject had passed his twelfth year, with a strong little heart but with tender muscles he commenced to work on a farm near Pontiac, being thus engaged for a period of four years. He then went to Davenport, Iowa, where he worked upon a farm one year.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 383 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 383 Returning to his native state he worked one year for Harvey Judd, who resided near Pontiac, and one year for John Northwood, of Saginaw county. He then came to the township which was to be his future home, laboring for four years upon the farm of Freeman Turner. It was while laboring for Mr. Turner that our subject had the good fortune to form the acquaintance of the splendid girl who fate had decreed should eventually become his helpmeet. At the age of twenty-two years he had purchased eighty acres of wild land in Hazelton township, on section 8. Upon this land he erected a log cabin and there he lived alone for four years and, with strong arm and heart that knew no such word as fail, he felled the forest and started to cultivate the land which was afterward to prove one of the most productive farms in the county. Living alone is not an attractive life, and our subject having made sufficient start was happily united in marriage with the girl whom he had met and loved five years before. Hattie L. Felton was born in Genesee county, August 14, 1859. She is a daughter of Chester and Anna (Wood) Felton, who reside near Flushing. Chester Felton is a native of the state of New York, but came in an early day to Genesee county, Michigan, where he met and married his wife, who is a native of England, and who came to this country when she was three years old. Mr. Felton afterward moved to Hazelton township, where he purchased eighty acres of land. Good fortune permitted him to retire about eight years ago. The union of subject and his wife has been blessed by the birth of four children. Arthur Garfield was born January 2, 1880, and married Clara Adams, of Hazelton township; they have two children. Floyd E., who was born December 23, 1882, and who is single and at home. Earl Wesley was born July 14, 1889, and lives at home. Howard was born July 21, 1896, and resides at home. Subject belongs to the Republican party. He is a member of the Free Methodist church. He has added forty acres to his original purchase; the second piece of land lies at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile from the original homestead. When we behold his fine farm and think that it has all come by his individual toil we feel like saying, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." GARDNER W. LINDLEY Gardner W. Lindley, postmaster of Vernon, and a prominent, though not an aggressive Republican, as well as a well known business man of the locality, is a native of. the Empire state, having been born in Rochester, New York, in November, 1857. He is a son of Daniel W. and Lucy M. Lindley. His father was a native of Massachusetts and his mother of New York. When the family first came to Michigan it was the intention of the father to engage in farming, and he bought land in Venice township, with this purpose in view, but his health failed, and he was obliged to return to Rochester. Although by trade a carpenter he was unable at this time to follow that vocation and accepted the position of tollkeeper, dying in 1859, while thus employed. In early life the deceased was a Whig, the Republican party coming into being only a few years before his death, and he was one of the pioneers of the latter political organization. His wife survived him by twenty-eight years, the date of her death being 1887. In 1861 Mr. Lindley became 'a permanent resident of Michigan, when he was four years of age, two years after the death of his father. He was educated in the district and the public schools, coming to Vernon in January, 1873. After leaving school he engaged in various lines of industry, although principally confining himself to house-painting and paper-hanging. He was thus employed until December, 1888, when he established a shoe business, which he conducted until 1894. Mr. Lindley then returned to his old lines of employment, continuing to follow them until he was appointed postmaster of Vernon, July 1, 1899.

l 384 PAST AND PRESENT OF January 1, 1885, he was married to Mary E. Sherman, who was born at Coldwater, Michigan, January 9, 1866, and who came of a good New York family. Her father, who had been a resident of Michigan for a number of years, was engaged in the marble business at St. Johns, and later in Vernon for some time. He was a Democrat in politics, an Episcopalian in religion, and was a steadfast and highly respected citizen. Both of Mrs. Lindley's parents are dead. Mr. and Mrs. Lindley have one child-a son, Harold S., who was born April 15, 1889, and who is a student in the Vernon high school, in the tenth grade. Mr. Lindley has always been an active, consistent Republican in politics, and here, as in other fields of life, he is known as a man of deeds rather than of words. His fellow citizens had recognized his usefulness before the national administration made him postmaster, as he had already held the office of village treasurer two terms and that of village clerk four terms. He has also been actively identified with various secret and benevolent societies, especially the Masonic fraternity, the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen. In his religious affiliations he is a Congregationalist. CLEMENT B. LOYNES among his children. He started for himself at the age of eighteen years and worked for twenty-five and fifty cents a day. His father was Columbus Loynes, a native of Massachusetts, where he was born in 1794, and he died at Columbia, Ohio, in 1876. The latter's wife was Achsah Buck and was born in Mansfield, Massachusetts. She survived her husband and died in Columbia, Ohio. After the marriage of this couple they took up their home at Troy, New York, where Mr. Loynes worked as a moulder. In 1835 he went to Lorain county, Ohio, and bought one hundred and sixteen acres, mostly wild land, in Columbia township. He built a log house and cleared one hundred acres. He lived there at the time of his death. October 23, 1851, Clement B. Loynes was married to Calista Ensign, in New York state; she was born October 3, 1835. The result of this union is five children, four of whom are living. Chas. E., born April 15, 1853, married Lizzie E. Goodell, March 27, 1881, and they had three children,-Hugh, Harold and Vena, the last being deceased. They lived in Clinton county. Lizzie M., born September 29, 1853, married Wright C. Sawyer, August 7, 1875, and they have five children: Pearl married Maine O'Dell, is now studying law in Detroit; Edna married William Peters, and they have two children, Kenneth and a baby; Lyle, Elma and Eva are the younger children of the Sawyer family. Frankie, born October 11, 1860, died March 9, 1861. Lewis H., born April 25, 1868, lives in Fairfield. He married Pearl E. Johnston, May 20, 1888, and has three sons, Joseph, John and Colon. D., born October 23, 1877, married Emma Snyder October 23, 1905, his marriage occurring on D.'s birthday and his father's fifty-fourth wedding anniversary. Mr. Loynes is the third of six children. Columbus Christopher, born in Massachusetts, in June, 1824, lives in Fairfield township; he married Maria Fuller and they had two children-Ira and Byron. Comfort, born in Mas This gentleman is a native of Troy, New York, where he was born July 2, 1830. In 1852 he bought forty acres of government land in Fairfield township, where he now lives. After locating this land he returned to Ohio, where he remained until September, 1857. He then brought his family to his new home and built a log house and stable. Not a tree was there cut between his house and Elsie, a distance of five miles. Mr. Loynes has built and assisted in building most of the roads in his locality. In 1874 he built a frame barn and ten years afterward a frame house. In 1869 he bought eighty acres more of wild land, on section 13, which he has since improved. He has since divided his property s achusetts, in June, 1827, died in Fairfield

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 385 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 385 township; he married Mary B. Ensign, now dead, and they had four children,-Jane, Cassius, Sara and Delbert. Charles C., born in Troy, New York, in June, 1832, lives in Cleveland, Ohio; he married Caroline Smith and had four children,-Leonard, Annie (dead), Etta and Lottie. Achsah, born in Troy, New York, in 1831, lives in Brunswick, Ohio; she married George Bennett and had one child,-Caddie. Cornelius C., born in Ohio, in 1842, lives in Cass county, Michigan; he married Mary Hill and had one child,Frank. The father of Mrs. Loynes was Rev. Erastus Ensign, who was born in Ontario county, New York, April 7, 1808, and who died at the home of his daughter February 13, 1889. He was a Free Will Baptist minister. After his marriage, in New York state, he removed to Ohio, in 1831. He bought some wild land and cleared it. Subsequently he was converted, and he preached at different intervals before his death. The mother of Mrs. Loynes, whose parents were married October 7, 1830, was Elizabeth Prouty, who was a native of New York, where she was born September 28, 1811. Mrs. Loynes was the fourth of seven children, who are enumerated below: Lorenzo and twin were born May 23, 1831; the baby died when it was born and Lorenzo died June 26, 1831. Mary R., born in Ohio, September 14, 1831, died December 22, 1899, having married Comfort D. Loynes. Erastus William, born October 4, 1839, died September 10, 1840. Martha R., born August 11, 1845, married Loren Frisbee, and had one daughter,-Alma. Betsy Jane married William Barber, and bore two daughters,-Mary and Maude. When Mr. Loynes first came to Michigan he worked for fifty cents a day to buy salt and potatoes, and one spring he worked twenty-two days for eleven bushels of wheat,the price of the latter being one dollar per bushel; then he had to carry it on his back for a distance of four miles. A man hauled to mill for him and charged a shilling per bushel 24 for doing so. His hogs were killed by bears when he first located in Fairfield. He did not have a gun but used to hunt mink with a dog. Many a time in the early days it has taken him from one to two o'clock in the morning to get his cows home from the woods to milk. Mrs. Loynes is a member of the M. E. church. He is a Republican, has been justice of the peace for sixteen years, highway commissioner one term and a school officer for many years. His parents were Methodists. Mr. Loynes' motto in life seems to have been, "Work first and then rest." He has certainly gained for himself and family a splendid home and a beautiful farm. These, with the good opinion of his neighbors and friends galore, leave little to be desired. SAMUEL LUCAS The subject of this memoir was an honored citizen of Caledonia township, and his widow, Anna J. Lucas, is the proprietor of valuable farming property, both in Oakland and Shiawassee counties. Mr. Lucas was an Englishman, born in 1835, and died in 1870, at the age of thirty-five. There were seven children in the family, the only one living in this country being Richard Lucas, a resident of Tuscola county, Michigan. His parents lived and died in the mother country, and Samuel Lucas himself came to America in his early manhood. In the year 1865 our subject was united in marriage to Miss Anna Jane Taylor, a native of Newbury, Oakland county, where she was born October 5, 1835. She is a daughter of Andrew Taylor, who was born in county Down, Ireland, and who died sixteen years ago, at the age of eighty-six years, and of Eliza (Stewart) Taylor, who was a native of the Empire state, and who died twenty-three years ago, at the age of seventy. Mr. Taylor was not content to plod along under the discouragements attending the life of a farmer in the Emerald Isle, and when a

386 PAST ANID PRESENT OF 386 PAST AND PRESENT OF young man emigrated to America, first locating in New York state. As he reached the shores of the "promised land" without money or friends, he at once commenced work as a farm hand, and, thus engaged, remained with his employer for a period of fourteen years. He married in New York state and located in Michigan in 1840, being then about thirtyseven years of age. This sturdy and industrious pioneer located in Oakland county, his farm comprising one hundred and sixty acres of wild land, which he cleared, improved and fashioned into a comfortable homestead. A tract of eighty acres was afterward added to the original farm; and here both he and his good wife passed their remaining days. The eighty acres last mentioned came into the possession of Mrs. Lucas, the present owner. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, of whom Mrs. Lucas is the eldest. Ruth Isabella, the second-born, is the wife of George Ramsey, and is a resident of the state of Washington. The third child, Eliza Ann, is unmarried and lives on the old farm in Oakland county, as does also David, a bachelor. Mary Ellen, the fifth in the family of children, died several years ago, and was followed by Margaret, the next born, within a few days. It was during the year of his marriage, 1865, that Mr. Lucas located in Caledonia township, where he bought eighty acres of land, only partially improved, and built a log 'house, as the beginning of the family homestead. This building was burned, and he built again. He was making various improvements until the day of his death, but the family continued to occupy the second log house, and there the widow lived until about five years ago. Mrs. Lucas then erected a handsome frame dwelling, and, with her children, has since built substantial barns and other farm structures, so that the homestead has been transformed into a model of agricultural convenience and comfort, offering to the community one of the many substantial evidences that life, after all, is well worth the living. Mrs. Lucas is the mother of three children, as follows: June, now the wife of Arnold Johnson, of Henderson, Shiawassee county, was born January 18, 1866; Davidc J., thirtyseven years of age, is single, and is at home; Elizabeth Ann is the wife of J. J. Huffaker, who is a miner in Arizona. EDWIN McCALL Edwin McCall, a prosperous farmer whose property is situated near the village 'of Shiawassee, is a son of one of the early pioneers -of the county, and is a native of Shiawassee township, having been born near where he now lives, on the 30th of June, 1867. He is the son of J. H. McCall, who was born in New York state, on the 8th of October, 1824, and who died June 11, 1888; his widow, Emeline (Johnson) McCall, also is a native of the Empire state, where she was born March 2, 1829, and she now lives with our subject. Her parents were Thomas and Catherine (Hayner) Johnson, and were of German descent. They were born, reared and married in New York state, and came west soon after the birth of their daughter, Emeline, Mr. McCall's mother. She was one of thirteen children, and all but two reached mature years. The parents of our subject were married at Fayetteville, New York, on the 16th of February, 1854. Of the nine children born to them seven are living. About 1865, they migrated from New York to Michigan, locating in Shiawassee village, where Mr. McCall followed his trade, that of cooper, for the first two years. He then purchased forty acres of wild land, the same tract now occupied by the widow and her son, our subject.. Mr. McCall's father afterward added twenty-five acres to the original purchase, clesared and cultivated his farm and erected the present buildings with the exception of the barn, which has been 'built since his death. J. H. McCall, the deceased, was a man of

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 387 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 387 great industry, strict integrity, and much executive ability. Besides improving and profitably managing his farm for a number of years, he successfully conducted a saw mill. To his marked ability he added the faculty of making and retaining friends and customers, which accounts for the steady progress of all the enterprises in which he engaged. He was a voting Democrat, but never aspired to office, and consequently never attained it. In his religious connections, he was an Episcopalian, and he was affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Our subject was the ninth of eleven children born to Mr. and Mrs. J. H. McCall. The first, Francis E., is living, his natal day being December 25, 1847. Martha, born June 19, 1850, is deceased. Charles William, the third born December 18, 1854, is living and unmarried. John H. died single, at the age of twenty years. Josephine, now Mrs. G. W. Sparling, born February 29, 1859, is a resident of Oregon. The sixth child, Emeline, born March 1, 1861, is Mrs. DeReese of Chicago. Elizabeth, born August 24, 1854, is the wife of Charles Whitney, of Chicago. Clara E., the eighth of the family of children, was born April 14, 1866, and is Mrs. J. W. Mills, also of Chicago. Nellie, who was born August 18, 1870, lives in Oregon, her brother Chester, born December 18, 1874, the eleventh of the children, also being a resident of that state. Edwin McCall was educated in the village schools of Shiawassee and has always lived upon a farm. Since his father's death he has actively managed the homestead, having purchased the forty acres known as the Hoisington farm and added it to his mother's place. The combined tract gives him one of the most productive landed estates in the locality. Mr. McCall is a Republican, but is too busy to be an officeseeker. He is social and domestic in his tastes. Outside of his circle of friends, his social nature finds satisfaction in his connection with a number of secret societies -the Masonic fraternity, Knights of the Maccabees and the Order of the Eastern Star. WILLIAM McCULLOCH Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, For the lesson thou hast taught; Thus at the flaming forge of life Our fortunes must be wrought; Thus on its sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought. [Longfellow. "The Village Blacksmith."] William F. McCulloch was born in the Dominion of Canada, January 8, 1851. He is a son of David and Sarah (Robb) McCulloch, both of whom were born in Scotland. The father died in November, 1891, and the mother is still living. The parents were married in Scotland and shortly afterward removed from there to Canada. There the father followed his trade, that of shoemaker, afterward running a general shoe and repair store. There were eleven children in the family, of whom the following are now living: Agnes, born in Scotland in 1839, married John Smith; Janet, born in 1812, married George Toval, deceased, of Ontario, Canada; Margaret, born in 1843, is the wife of Alexander Stewart, of Ontario, Canada; John, born in 1847, married Kate Clegg; and William F. is the subject of this sketch. William F. McCulloch received his early education in the district schools of Ontario. When a boy he worked with his father and labored by the day at such employment as he could procure. At the age of eighteen he commenced his three years' apprenticeship at the blacksmith trade, qualifying himself for the business which he has since followed. After his apprenticeship had expired he spent some time in Canada, thoroughly mastering all details of his trade, and becoming a firstclass mechanic. In 1873 he came to the city of Detroit, where he worked for a short time and then removed to the village of Laingsburg, where he opened a shop of his own. He then closed out his 'business in Laingsburg and spent some time in Canada and California, also visiting other sections of the United States. After his return from California, in 1876, he

388 PA4ST AND PRESENT OFI 38 PSADP worked one year at his trade in Laingsburg. He then purchased property in the village of Shaftsburg, where he opened a blacksmith shop and where he has since made his home, having made good improvements on his property. On the 21st of November, 1874, in the village of Laingsburg, Mr. McCulloch was united in marriage with Mary VanWormer. They have six children. John D., born March 13, 1876, is a train dispatcher on the Great Northern Railroad; William G., Jr., born May 11, 1879, is a machinist; Frank A., born April 25, 1881, is a telegraph operator and agent on the Great Northern Railroad; Robert O., born November 21, 1886, is a telegraph operator at Flint, Mich.; Agnes S., born November 20, 1888, and Henrietta E., born October 8, 1892, remain at the parental home. Mrs. McCulloch is a daughter of Abram VanWormer, one of the old and respected pioneers of Woodhull township. Our subject and his wife are members of the Congregational church. Fraternally Mr. McCulloch is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Knights of the Maccabees. Politically he is a Democrat, and while he has not neglected his business for politics yet he has given the attention required of every good citizen. He has served many years as justice of the peace, and stills holds the office. He has also filled the offices of treasurer, moderator and director of his school district. HUGH McCURDY Marvelous changes coming to the lives of individuals in the brief space of a decade or two have long since ceased to startle the people of this age. A few years often transform the messenger boy into the merchant prince. The day laborer becomes the millionaire, and men hitherto unknown suddenly become leaders in their chosen line of action. Names by the score might be cited to illustrate what has been realized along this line in all the avenues of the activities of men in periods in credibly short. The following interesting sketch of the more prominent events in the life.of Judge McCurdy, taken from "Free Masonry in Michigan," is most complimentary to Corunna's venerable citizen who has won out in the struggle for place and recognition: "Hugh McCurdy was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland, December 22, 1829. When only eight years of age he emigrated with his parents to the United States, and settled for the time at Birmingham, Michigan, which the people of the east regarded as the very frontier of American civilization. The sturdy Scotch character that has since stood the man in such good stead was apparent even in the tender lad. His first stroke for fortune was made in the humble capacity of cooper's apprentice. He had early learned the lesson of doing with his might whatsoever his hand found to do, and his work as a cooper very soon began to take on those special qualities of excellence which have since peculiarly distinguished all his 'work' in a field with which the readers of this sketch are too well acquainted to render explanation necessary. He worked with unceasing diligence and faithfulness so long as the business in which he was employed gave hope of any good results for the future. It so chanced that certain broad-minded men who were then prominent in that part of the territory had taken note of this sturdy lad, and by their countenance, though he did not ask for pecuniary aid, he found, or rather made, an opportunity to lay the corner stone of an education. With that purpose dominating his every hope, he enrolled himself among the pupils of J. R. Corson, who had a select school at Birningham. While pursuing his rudimentary studies there he attracted the notice of Dr. E. Raynale, who had in some way informed himself of the ambitious student's pluck and perseverance, and who later persuaded him that the law was the field in which he ought to sow his best efforts if he would reap any commensurate harvest. The thought was audacious! To be a lawyer in those days, and to reach that eminence of

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 389 respectability, starting from the foot with little to back his suit, might have appalled most lads. But not so, Hugh McCurdy. His hardy ancestry, his own indomitable courage and the chance that America gives to every son of toil, were enough for him to begin with, and he began the ascent without a doubt of final triumph. There was within his soul sufficient of the ego to make all possible things seem possible to him, and he very soon gave evidence that he had not overrated his capacity to do and to endure. While yet a student of the law he kept his fortunes moving by divers means. One of his employments was as freight agent, at Birmingham, of the old Detroit & Pontiac Railroad, when strap rails were in vogue and railroading was indeed a primitive science. In 1847 he had so far advanced in general acquirements that he was chosen to teach the village school in Birmingham, and during the following year he held a like employment in the neighboring village of Royal, Oak. In addition to his work of teaching he took up the classics, with C. R. Brownell as guide and tutor. Later, with the little money he had saved out of his scanty salary, he bought the necessary books, and after surmounting what sometimes seemed insuperable obstacles, he found himself actually domiciled at the Romeo Academy. Here was an achievement indeed! Hope gave new strength to ambition's wing, and the now thoroughly aroused student made so good use of his precious academical opportunities that he soon mastered the curriculum and bade adieu to his latest love. His next step was as a regular student in the office of the distinguished law firm of Baldwin & Draper, of Pontiac. In 1854 he was admitted to the bar of Michigan, and his whole life since that crowning event of his tentative period has been marked by successive victories over fortune. It is a part of this personal history that S. Dow Elwood, now cashier of the Wayne County Savings Bank, of Detroit, but in 1854 the leading law stationer of Michigan, sold our subject the nucleus of his fine law library. Mr. Elwood's attention was called to the incident recently. He remembered it perfectly and said to the writer: 'Yes, I sold Hugh his first shelf of law books and took his word that they would be paid for. He was an utter stranger to me, but there was that in his bearing-a frankness and manliness of speech, and altogether a determined, hopeful and confident view of life in what he said and in his manner of saving it-that I never had the slightest doubt of his honesty or of his ultimate ability to pay. I need not say that mine was one of the first HUGH McCURDY debts discharged after clients began to find out the value of his professional services.' "He had, meanwhile, with characteristic foresight, taken 'a long look ahead' and with the extension northward of the railroad, now the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee, he moved to Corunna, the capital of Shiawassee county, where he has lived continuously since he first pitched his tent there and set up his household goods. He has won material fortune, lives in elegant refinement, still enjoys a lucrative practice, and, so far as one may

390 PAST AND PRESENT OF guess, has little left to be desired in the way of earth's rewards for work well done,-for fidelity to personal and professional trusts, and for genial benevolence that never wearies in the good and kindly offices of humanity. "Shortly after his removal to Corunna the office of prosecuting attorney became vacant by resignation of the incumbent, and Judge Green appointed young McCurdy to fill the vacancy. In the fall of 1856 he was nominated by the Democratic convention for prosecuting attorney, and was elected by a handsome majo rity. In 1860 he received the nomination of his party for judge of probate, and although the county gave a majority for Lincoln and the Republican state and county ticket, Mr. McCurdy ran more than a thousand ahead of his party vote and was elected by a large majority. He was elected to the state senate in 1864, and immediately took rank as one of the most active and influential members of that body. Although the county of Shiawassee has been a strong Republican county ever since 1856, yet Mr. McCurdy was again elected prosecuting attorney in 1874. For many years he has been a member of the board of supervisors from a strong Republican ward-frequently elected without opposition-both parties nominating him. In 1865 Judge McCurdy established the First National Bank of Corunna, of which he was president-from its organization down to 1873, when he sold out his stock and withdrew from the business. "Some years ago when his name was before the people in, an important and significant po'litical canvas, these words were written of him by a fellow townsman with whose political opinions he had always been at variance: 'The writer of these lines has known Hugh McCurdy intimately for over thirty years and has had every opportunity to judge of his character in all that pertains to the true elements of citizenship. In the profession of the 'law he stands at the head of the bar, and in scholastic attainments, acquired under the most severe privations, he also takes rank among the foremost. No meritorious person ever applied to him for personal relief and was turned away without assistance; for no man ever had a heart that beat in warmer sympathy with his fellows. Such are the traits and characteristics of'Hugh McCurdy, and such are the personal qualifications of this truly self-made man.' "His Masonic life covers a period of nearly fifty years, he having been initiated in Birmingham Lodge, No. 44, on August 5, 1850. Ten days later he was passed and raised to the degree of Master Mason. "January 10, 1872, he was elected deputy grand master of the grand lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Michigan. January 17, 1873, he was unanimously elected grand master of the grand lodge, something which had never before occurred. The total number of votes cast was eight hundred and thirty-two. October 2, 1873, he laid the corner stone of rhe new state capitol, at Lansing. "November 18, 1873, he received the thirtythird degree and was created an honorary member of the supreme council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the northern Masonic jurisdiction of the United States, at Chicago. September 18, 1879, he was appointed grand marshal of the camp of the supreme council, which office he continued to hold until September 27, 1883. September 27, 1883, he was elected and crowned an active member of the supreme council ad vitam. "August 11, 1892, he was elected, by a unanimous ballot, most eminent grand master of the grand encampment of Knights Templar for the United States of America, at Denver, Colorado, which position he filled for three years, to the satisfaction of the great brotherhood over which he presided. "The extraordinary scope and character of such a record can scarcely fail to stir a spirit of generous emulation in every true Mason's breast. Perhaps honors like these are reserved for the few, but every faithful man in the order may at least aspire to them. At the very least, so conspicuous and noble an exemplification of loyal service rewarded must be productive of lasting good to Masonry."

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 391 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 391 ARTHUR McKAY The history of Shiawassee county would not be complete without a sketch of Arthur McKay, who has been a business man of New Lothrop for the last quarter of a century. He was born in Vittoria, province of Ontario, Canada, January 25, 1848. His father, Dr. Adam McKay, was born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1819. His mother, Janet (Crockett) McKay, was also native of Dumfries, Scotland, where she was born in 1820. Our subjects parents were married in Scotland, in 1840. The father died at Vittoria, Canada, in 1852, and the mother died at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1899. The father, a physician, practiced medicine one year at Rochester, New York and then removed to Vittoria, Canada, where he continued the practice of his profession until his death. He was educated in the schools of Glasgow and Edinborough, Scotland, and was one of the highly educated men of his time. He spoke six different languages and contributed editorials to many of the scientific journals of Canada. There were five children, the oldest being Isabella, Mrs. Charles R. Lyons, who died in Chicago. The second is Helen, Mrs. William C. Janes, of Wheeler, Indiana. The third, Mary, is the widow of C. K. Runnells, of Norfolk, Virginia, formerly of New Lothrop. The fourth is the subject of this sketch. The fifth, William, is unmarried and lives in the state of Texas. In October, 1883, Arthur McKay was united in marriage with Alta Bush, of Hazelton township. She was born December 22, 1862, and is a daughter of Joseph H. and Anna (Parkinson) Bush. Her father and mother were married in Oakland county, Michigan, where the father was born in 1831 and the mother in 1835. They were early settlers of Hazelton township, moving here from Pontiac, where Mr. Bush had been engaged in business. The township at that time was practically a wilderness. Mrs. McKay is the third of four children, the others are Frank, Mrs. Adelbert Tinker and Loretta, the last named having died when but a girl. Arthur McKay started for himself when but a boy fourteen years of age, and continued in business until August, 1901, when he was compelled to retire, on account of the condition of his health. He began his business career by clerking in a general store in Vittoria, Canada, where he worked until the year 1877, when he came to New Lothrop, where he took up the same vocation. In 1883 he went into partnership with James Viets, in a general store. This partnership continued five years, and was then dissolved, Mr. McKay continuing the business alone. He continued to conduct the business himself until the year 1893, when he formed a copartnership with C. E. Mott, this association continuing two years. He was for thirty-nine years behind the counter in a general store, first as clerk and afterward as owner. His example is worthy of consideration by young men who desire to make a success in life. He learned the business and then followed it persistently until, on account of rheumatic trouble, he was compelled to retire from active store work. At present he does a general real-estate and loan business. Mr. and Mrs. McKay have two children: Janet, who was born August 9, 1886, is now in a conservatory of music in the city of Detroit; and Maude, born July 23, 1888, is attending school in the home town. Mr. McKay is a member of the Presbyterian church. His early education was secured in the schools of Vittoria, Canada, but his desire to do something for himself caused him to leave school at an early age and commence his business career. GEORGE G. MARKHAM The past fifty years have seen a marked development in all branches of business. The ox cart has given way to the railroad, the scythe to the self-binder and the flail to the threshing machine. The forest has fallen be

392 PAST AND PRESENT OF 392 PAST AND PRESENT OF fore the strong arm of the farmer, and the log cabins have been replaced by dwellings with modern improvements. It required strong men to subdue the wilderness, but strong men, both in body and character, have accomplished the task. George G. Markham was born in Oakland county, Michigan, January 15, 1855. His father, Sylvester Markham, was born in Connecticut, in 1817, and died in Hazelton township November 14, 1895. His mother Ftnnie(Pinkham) Markham, was born in England and died in 1878. Sylvester Markham came to Michigan when about thirty years of age and bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, mostly wild, in Oakland county. Here he labored and improved the farm, residing upon it until his death. Before coming to Michigan he went to Canada, where he met and married the wife of his choice. They lived in Canada several years after their marriage, and there some of their children were born. The subject of this sketch is the third of six children. Maria, the oldest, now Mrs. Caleb Poyer, of Harbor Springs, was born in Canada. Mary Ann, the second child, was likewise born in Canada. She is the widow of Lewis Bird, and lives in Saginaw county. Harrison, who was born September 23, 1858, is married and lives in Oakland county. Fannie, now Mrs. Newton Clark, was born June 9, 1865, and resides at Pontiac, Michigan. Ida May, now Mrs. Rodger Clark, was born September 11, 1873, and is living in Huron county. George G. Markham began working for himself at the age of twenty-one years, finding employment by the day and month upon a farm. He continued at this employment for seven years, and, being a young man of good habits and business ability, at the end of that time he had saved sufficient to purchase forty acres of land where he now lives, in section 29, Hazelton township. On the 22d of January, 1882, he married Clara Everett, who was born in Oakland county March 5, 1858. She is a daughter of James and Mahala (Lacy) Everett. Mr. Everett was born in the state of Pennsylvania, May 4, 1815, and died February 22, 1897. He came to Oakland county in 1835 and there purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, which he cleared and improved. Mrs. Everett was born in New Jersey, May 16, 1824, and is still living in Oakland county. They had nine children, of which Mrs. Markham is the seventh. Clarissa Ann is now dead. Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Wiser resides in Oakland county; John J. Everett is living at Ortonville, Michigan; Charles Edward Everett died in his youth. Charles R. Everett resides at Clayton, Genesee county; the sixth child died in infancy; Ada Belle Burt lives in Oakland county; and Sarah died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Markham have one child, Mary Luella, born November 3, 1898. Some time after his marriage Mr. Markham moved upon the forty acres of land which he had purchased. He built a log house and commenced to clear the land. Over obstacles that would have discouraged a less determined spirit, he triumphed, laying the foundation of his future fortune. He afterward purchased more land, and he now owns one hundred and sixty acres of valuable farming land. He is a Democrat, but has never aspired to or held any office. He is engaged in general farming, which has always been his occupation and of which he has made a success. JOSEPH MARSHALL, M. D. The profession which represents the beneficent healing art has many noble members whose lives are filled with acts of goodness and whose most strenuous effort is to attain that skill which is necessary in saving life and restoring health. Such a life work raises a man above the sordid motives which actuate many of mankind, and gives to life a meaning which more mercenary callings cannot grant. We are, therefore, always gratified to be able to introduce to our readers the physicians who have won for themselves a high place in the profession of Shiawassee county. Dr. Marshall, of Durand, is one of the prominent physicians of central Michigan,

DR. JOSEPH MARSHALL

MRS. JOSEPH MARSHALL

I

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 397 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 397 and has met with exceptional success in his practice. His office is thoroughly equipped in every way, for the practice of his vocation. An excellent X-ray machine has recently been added to the office equipment. His ability in his profession is noticeable in the amount of consultation work which he does. Our subject was born in Canada, in 1848, and came with his parents to the Wolverine state when three years of age. He attended the schools of Romeo and Armada and was graduated in the high school in the latter place in the year 1870. Dr. Marshall's school life was broken into by the war. In 1864 he enlisted in Company B, Thirtieth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and was in active service, following the fortunes of his command, until the close of the war. After this he entered the office of Dr. F. M. Garlick, of Armada, where he studied for one year, and he then entered the Detroit Medical College, in which he was graduated in 1878. He began the practice of his chosen profession at Gaines, where for fifteen years he was one of the foremost physicians of the community. Here he built up a large practice and had an extensive ride. In 1892 the Doctor took two post-graduate courses at the Post-Graduate Medical School of Chicago, and in 1897 took one course in the Post-Graduate School of New York. In 1893 Dr. Marshall came to Durand and established himself in his profession. Here he has built up a splendid practice and met with success on every hand. In 1893 he was elected surgeon general of the Union Veterans' Union, Department of Michigan, and for one year was honored with this office. In the year 1876 Dr. Marshall was married to Miss Hester Ogden, of Armada. Mrs. Marshall was a daughter of Pendleton Ogden, who came with his parents from London, England, in 1819, and settled in New York. He died in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1864. The mother died at Armada, in 1891. Mrs. Marshall was a cousin to Ann Eliza Young, who was one of the "sealed" wives of Brigham Young, and who was at one time a noted lecturer throughout the United States against Mormonism. To Dr. and Mrs. Marshall one child, Nellie H., was born. She is married to J. H. Swineford and resides in Frankfort, Michigan. Mr. Swineford is an engineer on the Toledo and Ann Arbor railroad. Our subject is of mixed Irish and Scotch extraction, his father, Thomas G., having been a native of Ireland, while his mother, Isabella (Carr) Marshall, was a native of Scotland. Thomas G. Marshall died in Ontario, Canada, in 1898, and the mother of the Doctor died at Port Huron, Michigan, in 1855. In fraternal relations Dr. Marshall is allied with the Masons and is counted as one of the prominent members of the order. He is also identified with the Detroit Mystic Shrine and the consistory of thirty-second degree Masonry in Grand Rapids. Our subject has made his own way, having acquired his early education by hard work, as he went to school during the winter months and in the summer was engaged in whatever work he was able to find. He belongs to the class of "well read" men of to-day, and has in his possession a splendid library. He has in every way kept pace with the progress of his profession. In the early days of his profession he often had to make the trips to his patients on horseback or on foot, but this devotion to his work has been the means of winning for him the success which he now enjoys. Dr. Marshall has some valuable mining interests in the west, consisting of copper, gold and silver. Dr. Marshall experienced the great sorrow of his life in 'the loss of his devoted and faithful wife and companion, who passed to the life eternal on November 6, 1905. The Doctor had been mindful for some time that his wife had organic trouble of the heart, and both fully understood the possibilities, yet her sudden death was a great shock and bereavement. Together they had shared the joys and sorrows that are common to mortals. Mrs. Marshall was a woman of strong and genial personality and gracious presence, and she easily won for herself admiring and trusting friends. Her loss has left a great shadow on the once happy home. Mrs. Marshall had been for many years an esteemed

.398 PAST AND PRESENT OF 398 AST ND RESET O member of the Congregational church. One has truthfully said: "The very memory of sorrow is a gentle benediction that broods over the household like the silence that comes after prayer. There is a blessing sent from God in every burden of sorrow." The floral offerings from friends spoke impressively of the esteem and love in which Mrs. Marshall was held by her friends and neighbors, and also testified to the deep sympathy felt for her afflicted husband. There is comfort in the thought down in this cold world of ours that "earth hath no sorrow that heaven cannot heal." JOHN Y. MARTIN The future of our great commonwealth depends upon the stability and integrity of the young people of to-day, and among those who are contributing to the-general progress is the gentleman whose name introduces these paragraphs and whose life thus far has been crowned with success. It has often been said that the live young men of any community are what keeps the blood of the place in circulation. -The men who are well established in years and wealth are often content to sit back and enjoy the prosperity which they have so hardly earned in their younger days, and they are not so active and alive to the interests of the community, nor so ready to push with a good will any enterprise for the upbuilding of the town. To the younger man we must look for such aggressive action, and in such as our subject is Corunna and its vicinity rich. John Y. Martin, the son of Eli and Sarah (Yerkes) Martin, was born in Caledonia township, Shiawassee county, in the year 1863. His father was born in the Empire state and came to this county and settled in Venice township in the year 1850. Eli Martin was married to Sarah Yerkes in the year 1859, she being the daughter of Titus Yerkes, who belonged to that class of pioneers who gave the best years of their life to, the upbuilding of their adopted country. Eli Martin and his highly esteemed wife are now residents of Corunna, having retired from farming, in -which they were engaged for many years, ten years ago, and they are enjoying the fruits of their early toil. To this worthy couple were born three children: F. S. Martin, who is a resident of Morrice, this county; Augusta, who is the wife of Ed. Adams of Detroit; and John Y., our honored subject. John Y. Martin spent his boyhood as did' other farmer lads of his time, in attending the district school and assisting in the work of the farm. He later attended the Corunna high school, where he finished in the year 1883. He then lived on a farm for a while and for one year was engaged in teaching in the district schools of the county. After this he clerked in a store at Mount Pleasant for one year. John Y. Martin was united in marriage in 1890 to Miss Lillian Holley, daughter of Dr. D. C. Holley, of Vernon, who was an early settler of the county, having come here as early as 1836. Dr. Holley takes great pride in the fact that he was a member of the first class that matriculated in the medical department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. It is interesting to know also that Dr. Holley's father, Ranson W. Holley, was a member of the building committee that built the old court house, and that in the year 1856 he was treasurer of his cqunty. Mr. and Mrs. Martin became the parents of four children, one having died in 1898. Florence, Arthur and Homer are the joy of the home and give promise of useful and upright lives. Socially, our subject is closely allied with the Elks at Owosso, the Masonic blue lodge at Vernon, and the chapter and commandery at Corunna, being also a member of the Gleaners and Maccabees. The Martin family for generations back have been stanch suporters of the Republican party, and all have been active in political affairs, also in social matters, as to the upbuilding of their community, being always willing to lend a helping hand and their means to the betterment of their town and county.

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 399 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 399 Our subject was justice of peace of Caledonia township, was three years treasurer of his township, and served eight terms as supervisor, filling these offices to the best of his ability and in a manner pleasing to the community which he was serving. He was elected county clerk in the year 1900 and is now serving his third term,-an evidence of the popularity of the man. He is reliable in every way and his path in life has been one of honor and uprightness and his many friends wish for him a continuation of the success which he has already experienced. GERSHOM WOODRUFF MATTOON Colonel Gershom W. Mattoon, a brave soldier and a widely known farmer of Shiawassee county, whose holdings are on section 9, in that township, is a native of the Empire state, having been born in Monroe county, New York, on the 12th of September, 1842. He is the son of Gershom Parker Mattoon and Nancy Lavina (Woodruff) Mattoon. His mother was a native of Morris county, New Jersey, born February 28, 1811, and she died May 7, 1896; his father, who was born in New York state November 9, 1806, died on the 23d of November, 1886. The latter was a painter by trade, but always lived upon a farm,. Our subject was of a family of nine children, six of whom were born in the east prior to the coming of his parents to Michigan, in 1846. A home was established in Vernon township, Shiawassee county, where the fainily remained until 1855, when they removed to Clinton county. There the father died. In the earlier years of his life he was a Whig. At the birth of the Republican party he united with that organization and was ever after loyal to its principles. In his earlier years lie was a member of the Presbyterian church, but later adopted more liberal Congregational views. Of the children of Gershom P. and Nancy (Woodruff) Mattoon, six are living: George P., the eldest, also a soldier of the civil war, is a farmer, living in St. Johns, Clinton county; he was born July 3, 1832. Sarah C., born August 7, 1834, is the wife of Edmund Reynolds, of Shiawassee township. Nancy M., born February 3, 1837, is now Mrs. J. W. Hall, of Corunna. Harriet A., born February 15, 1841, married Wm. Sheriff, of Greenbush, Clinton county, who enlisted in the Union army in August, 1862, as a member of the Fifth Michigan Cavalry, and who died in the hospital, of typhoid fever, in February, 1864. Our subject was next in order of birth. Mary A., Mrs. Theron Gladden, was born October 14, 1845, and died December 25, 1873, being at the time of her death a resident of Shiawassee township. Oscar S., born October 28, 1849, died at the age of one year. Vincent S., born May 3, 1852, is an employe of the Ann Arbor car works, and is a resident of Owosso. Erastus J., born October 15, 1854, lives at St. Johns. I The subject of this sketch was educated in the district schools of Shiawassee township and public institutions of Corunna and Owosso. On the 23d of November, 1861, having then but lately entered his twentieth year, he enlisted, at St. Johns, Clinton county, in an organization known as the First United States Lancers. Its originator was a Canadian, and as the command proved to be an illegal concern, it was disbanded by the government. Our young patriot, however, was not to be balked in his purpose to go to the front in the Federal cause, and September 1, 1862, he reenlisted in the Sixth Michigan Cavalry. Colonel Mattoon entered the service as a private and was promoted to corporal in May, 1864, and to sergeant in the following December. He participated in thirty-five engagements, the most important being the battle of Gettysburg. At the request of the publishers, Colonel Mattoon has given the following detailed acount of his personal service. This is a simple duty every soldier owes to himself, his family, and to posterity. This brief record of three active years of daring and doing with the Michigan cavalry brigade is one of which any man might justly feel a sense of pride. Colonel Mattoon says:

400 PAST AND PRESENT OF "The Sixth Michigan Cavalry, to which I belonged, reached Washington December 14, 1862, and immediately went into camp on Meridian Hill. I was soon afterward taken sick and sent to a hospital, where I remained for about two months, when I rejoined my command, in time to take part in doing picket duty around the defenses of Washington, with an occasional raid into the enemy's country for variety. This was the order of things until about the 25th of June, 1863, when the command broke camp, crossed the Potomac and started on what was called the Maryland campaign. We met the enemy for the first time on the 30th of June, at Hanover, Pennsylvania. I afterward participated with rhy company in the following engagements: Hunterstown, Pennsylvania, July 2; Gettysburg, July 3; Monterey, July 4; Cavetown, July 5; July 6; Boonsboro, Maryland, July 8; Hagerstown, July 11-in this engagement I received a severe gunshot wound, from a rebel bullet, fracturing my jaw, and incapacitating me for field service for five months. I was sent to the hospital at Annapolis, Maryland, where I remained until about the last of November, 1863, when, at my own request, I was returned to my regiment, in preference to being transferred to the veteran reserve corps, an organization formed from partially disabled soldiers for guard and camp duties in and about the defenses of Washington. I joined the command while in winter quarters at Stevensburg, Culpeper county, Virgania. The following winter was passed in doing picket and camp duty, with an occasional raid into the enemy's country. This was kept up until the last of February, 1864, when, as one of five thousand picked men from General Merritt's and Gregg's cavalry divisions, about two hundred of which were from the Sixth Cavalry, I took part in the celebrated Kilpatrick raid on Richmond. This was an attempt to liberate the Union soldiers confined in Libby prison. The expedition, though not a success, was very trying to both horse and rider, as about eighty miles were covered in two nights and one day. Nearly a month elapsed before the expedition rejoined the command at Stevensburg, the last of March. From this date until May 4 we were occupied in preparing for the spring campaign of 1864, which began on that date. The command in conjunction with the Army of the Potomac, pushed forward, crossing the Rapidan at Ely's Ford, marching on to Spottsylvania, where the enemy were strongly intrenched. On the 6th and 7th we were hotly engaged at the battle of the Wilderness, and later at Todd's Tavern. On the morning of the 9th our corps started on what is known as Sheridan's raid on Richmond, my regiment leading the column. I was one of ten men selected to act as an advance guard for the greater part of the day. At about sundown we came upon a rebel wagon train with guards having in charge about four hundred Federal prisoners on their way to Richmond, capturing fhe whole outfit. The command soon after arrived at Beaver Dam station, where we captured a large quantity of Confederate rations. On the 11th I was again in action, at Yellow Tavern, where several of my comlrades were killed and wounded. Among the loss on the Confederate side was the wellknown' General J. E. B. Stuart, who was killed. The engagements enumerated below followed in rapid succession: Meadow Bridge, Virginia, May 12; Hanover Court House, May 21; Hanover town, May 27; Haw's Shop, May 28; Baltimore Cross Roads, May 29; Old Church; May 30; Cold Harbor, May 31; Trevillian Station, June 11 and 12; Winchester, August 11; Front Royal, August 16; Leetown and Shepardstown, August 25; Beryville, September 3; Opequan and Winchester, September 19; Luray, Virginia, September 22; Port Republic, October 1; Mount Crawford, October 2; Woodstock, October 8; Toms Brook, October 9; Cedar Creek, October 19; Winchester, November 18; Madison Court House, December 24, closing for me the campaign of 1864. "I was absent on furlough when the spring campaign of 1865 opened and, as the record was short, sharp and decisive, victory had perched upon the banners of the Union forces before I rejoined by command. I was pres

MR. AND MRS. GERSHOM W. MATTOON

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SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 403 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 403 ent, however, and took part in the grand review at Washington, following the close of the Rebellion, after which the Michigan cavalry brigade was sent on an expedition to the far west, going by the way of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, landing in Leavenworth, Kansas, early in June. Here the command was given a new outfit, and on the 17th day of June, started on a march across the plains of Kansas and Nebraska; we arrived about the 28th of July at Platt's Bridge Station, a point on the overland route to California. The command had covered about one thousand, one hundred and fifty miles in forty-one days. The purpose of the expedition was to protect the thoroughfares from roving bands of Indians. This duty was performed until about the first of October, when we returned to Leavenworth, Kansas, where we were mustered out and honorably discharged, returning to our state and homes, every man for himself, happy in the thought that we had met and discharged the arduous duty of soldiers in a manner meeting the approbation of the AmeIican Republic." During its term of service the Sixth Michigan Cavalry carried on its rolls of muster one thousand, six hundred and twenty-four officers and men. Its casualties figured up seven officers and ninety-five men killed in action; eighteen died of wounds, and two hundred and sixty-six from diseases. This gallant command, under the leadership of the brave and dashing Custer, won for itself an enviable reputation of never dying fame. 'Midst tangled roots that lined the wild ravine, Where the fierce fight raged hottest through the day, And where the dead in scattered heaps were seen, Speechless in death they lay. After the civil war our subject located in Clinton county, selecting for his labors one hundred and twenty acres of wild land. He resided there from 1866 to 1869, when he sold his property and removed to Shiawassee township. In the meantime he had married, and in the latter year went to reside on the farm owned by his wife's parents, working it on shares afterward purchasing it. The tract then consisted of about one hundred and twenty acres of land, partly cleared; he has since cleared the entire farm, remodeled the buildings, and erected others, and brought the entire homestead up to the modern standard of cultivation and mechanical conveniences. It is one of the pleasant rural homes of the county, and has been christened "Rockleigh Farm." For many years after the war of the rebellion Mr. Mattoon was a Republican; of late years he has not been a close adherent to any party, but has been independent in politics, as in many other things. He is not bound to any political or religious creed which interferes in any manner with his individual ideas of right and wrong. In short, he has been almost too independent to be a successful politician. He is, however, prominent in local military affairs, being Commander of the H. F. Wallace Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Corunna, and colonel of the Shiawassee County Battalion. The latter organization is composed of soldiers of the county who have served in any war. It is not a secret organization. The members are not obliged to attend the neetings, the binding force being rather of a social nature, founded upon a common love of military affairs and comradeship. Colonel Mattoon was married September 27, 1868, to Miss Agnes A. Lindley, who was born in Niagara county, New York, May 1, 1848, being a daughter of David A. and Charlotte (Sweet) Lindley. Father and daughter were natives of the same county, the birthday of the former being March 18, 1813, and the date of his death, January 12, 1895. Her mother also was born in Niagara county, New York; September 8, 1817, and died January 28, 1892. Both were descended from generations of agriculturists, the family coming west and settling in Livingston county in 1848. In the year 1852 they moved to the farm now in possession of Colonel Mattoon. Mr. and Mrs.

404 PAST AND PRESENT OF 404 PAST AND PRESENT OF Lindley lived upon the old homestead until ten years after Colonel Mattoon's marriage, to their daughter, and then they removed to Shiawassee village. Mrs. Mattoon was the eldest of three children. Her brother, Charles A. Lindley, was born October 6, 1844, and is a resident of Shiawassee township. Mercy E., who married Charles A. Lamb, was born April 29, 1849. Colonel and Mrs. Mattoon are the parents of two children. Britton W., who was born November 20, 1869, married Carrie Hoisinzton. They are the parents of one child, Mildred, born May 28, 1898, and they reside on a portion of the homestead. Lottie L., now Mrs. Allen Goodall, was born June 27, 1874, and is living on the farm adjoining the old homestead on the west. Mr. Mattoon is a man of strong convictions, firm in his decisions, and actuated by the principles of right and justice. SELDEN S. MINER Selden S. Miner, at present circuit judge of the thirty-fifth judicial circuit of Michigan, was born in Livingston county, this state, June 5, 1854, and is a son of Ezra and Ann (Skidmore) Miner, natives of -New York, who came to Michigan in the year 1836. Patriot blood flows through the veins of Judge Miner and on this account he feels that he does, indeed, love more truly the country for which his ancestors suffered in past times. His father was born in Steuben county, New York, and his grandfather, also named Ezra, was born in Connecticut and took part in the war of 1812. He was a sailor on the high seas for twenty years and then settled on a farm in New York, after which he came to Michigan, spending his latter days with a son at Osceola, and dying at the age of eighty years. His father, Seth Miner, was likewise a native, of Connecticut, and was a Revolutionary soldier, having been taken prisoner early in the war and having been kept in prison for six years. Our subject's father was a farmer and came to Michigan in 1836, locating in Hartland township, Livingston county, where he bought unimproved land and devoted himelf to its reclamation and cultivation. At different times he resided in Cohoctah, Conway and Handy townships, Livingston county. He was an extensive land-owner and a public-spirited citizen. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Ann.Skidmore. She was born near Springwater, New York, and died in Livingston county, Michigan. The father died in Owosso, in June, 1903. Mrs. Miner was the daughter of Benjamin Skidmore, an early settler of Lapeer county, Michigan, where he located in 1836. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and died at the age of ninety-two years. Our subject was reared in Livingston county, where he secured his early educational discipline. At the age of seventeen years he entered the Corunna high school, in which he was graduated in 1875. Early in life Mr. Miner had felt a desire to make the law his profession; and he began its study at Ann Arbor and was admitted to the bar in 1887. The young lawyer initiated his practice at Corunna and was there engaged in the work of his profession until the spring of 1893, when he removed to Owosso, having since been counted one of the prominent members of the bar of this city. During our subject's residence in Corunna, he was chosen as mayor of that place for one term, was supervisor of the second ward and president of the school board. June 5, 1879, Judge Miner was united in marriage to Miss Effie Jones, of Washtenaw county, and five children have come to bless their home: Willman; Maud; Harold, who graduates from the University of Michigan this spring and will then enter West Point; and Leon, a law student at the University of Michigan. Mrs. Miner is a member and worker of the Congregational church and is one of its prominent members. The enterprise and public spirit of Judge Miner make him a prominent man in Republican circles. He has always been a delegate to the county conventions and generally to the

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 405 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 405 state conventions. While a resident of Corunna, he was prosecuting attorney from 1888 to 1892, and since becoming. a resident of Owosso he has been chosen by his fellow townsmen to represent them in the official capacity of city attorney, which position he capably and ably filled for two years. He was elected circuit judge of the thirty-fifth judicial circuit, comprising Shiawassee and Livingston counties, in the spring of 1905. Judge Miner is closely identified with the Masonic order, in which he is actively interested. He has ever contributed substantial aid to good causes, and aided in the promotion of measures and enterprises tending to the betterment of society and the advancement of education. The profession which he has chosen has ever received his close attention, and in every walk of life he has played a manly part. CHARLES H. MITCHELL The subject of this sketch is fortunate in being a member of one of the prominent families of Shiawassee county, where he was born on the 12th of July, 1862. It will be impossible within the compass of the present volume to give a complete history of the life of his father, Newcomb Mitchell. He was one of the prominent and thrifty citizens of this county, and in his home his father, who was of Irish extraction, passed the last few years of his life. Polly (Howe) Mitchell, mother of Newcomb Mitchell, died in the year 1873. Up to the age of twenty years Newcomb Mitchell worked at his trade, that of mason, in various cities, sending to his parents the money he earned. In 1848 he came to Shiawassee county and settled upon the ninety acres of land which he occupied until the time of his death. January 1, 1856, he was united in marriage with Eliza Phelps, and it was by their united efforts that the estate was converted into one of the most handsome and comfortable in the county. Their union was blessed with eight chil dren. The first, Adella, born May 21, 1857, is the wife of Seth Newell, of Owosso. The second is the subject of this sketch. The third, Frank, born February 15, 1864, lives in Owosso. The fourth, Rose May, born July 19, 1867, is the wife of William Bently, of Shiawassee township. The fifth, Arthur A., born March 12, 1869, died at the age of twentysix years. The sixth, Lena, born April 25, 1871, is the wife of Charles Sager, of Bennington. The seventh, Edna E., born October 1, 1873, married William Fenner, and both are deceased. The eighth, Effie F., was born August 2, 1879, and is now living with the mother in Owosso. The subject of this sketch lived at home until he had arrived at the age of twenty years. He attended the district school of Bennington township and thus acquired his early education. At the age of twenty years he was united in marriage to Etta Beardsley. She lived sixteen years after their marriage, and bore him one child, Claud, who is at present working in Flint, Michigan. March 6, 1900, Mr. Mitchell married Florence Strong, daughter of Rev. Frederick Strong, of Owosso. She is a sister of Arthur P. Strong, whose biography appears in the present volume. One child has blessed this union, Mildred, who was born March 6, 1901. When Mr. Mitchell started for himself his father purchased for him eighty acres of land, on which he now resides, in section 19, Bennington township. The land was partly improved, having a log house and small farm buildings. When his home was broken up by the death of his first wife he went to the village of Laingsburg, where he conducted a meat market for the period of one year. He spent the winter of 1898 in California and after his return to Michigan spent four years upon the old farm, working the place and looking after the interests of his mother. All the buildings on his farm at the present time have been erected by our subject himself. In 1904 he replaced the log house with a new frame dwelling, which is in keeping with his improved financial condition. He has

406 PAST AND PRESENT OF 406 PAST AND PRESENT OF purchased, in addition to the land he already owned, forty acres of land, making him a fine farm of one hundred and twenty acres. In politics Mr. Mitchell is a Republican. He has held various town offices, and commands the respect of all who know him. JAMES H. MITCHELL James H. Mitchell was born in Bradford, Canada, June 5, 1853. His father was born in the state of New York, and died at Springfield, Oakland county, Michigan, at the age of seventy-six years. The mother of our subject was born in Canada, where she was married and where the family thereafter resided until about the year 1863, when they moved to Oakland county, Michigan, settling in Springfield township. The father bought forty acres of well improved land and there the parents resided until their death, the mother dying at the age of sixty-one years. The parents were members of the Baptist church, and the father was always a stanch Republican, but never aspired to office. In the family there were eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the fourth. The oldest, Henry Mitchell, now resides at Fentonville, Genesee county, Michigan. He has been married twice. His first wife was a Miss Robinson, and to them w~ere born the following named children: Alfred, William, Mary, Ernest and Edwin Howard. His second wife was Miss Emma Bush, and to them were born two children, Charles and one who died in infancy. The second child was a son, Ozias, who lives in Midland county, and who is a carpenter by trade. The maiden name of his wife was Johnson. There are no children. The third child, Laura, is now the wife of James Canada, of Bay City, Michigan, her husband being an engineer in a hotel. They have three children: George, William and Walter. The fourth child, Martha, who is now deceased, married Mr. Mero, of Chesaning, Michigan, and they had three children. The fifth child died in infancy. The sixth child, James H. Mitchell, is the subject of this sketch. The seventh child, Mary, is the wife of George Chase, of Ludington, Michigan. He is an engineer. They have two children. The eighth and youngest child, Wesley, lives at Holly, Michigan. He married Miss Ellen Jackson. They have two children. His occupation is that of blacksmith. The subject of this sketch received his education in the district schools of Springfield township, Oakland county, Michigan, and and lived with his parents until he was sixteen years of age, when he started in life for himself, working for several years on a farm, by the month. He was married November 10, 1880, to Mary A. Flower, who was born in Macomb county, Michigan, June 28, 1850. Her father, Alanson Flower, who was born in New York April 22, 1810, died in Lenox, July 24, 1876, and her mother, Angeline (Collins) Flower, who was born in Massachusetts, March 12, 1810, died February 16, 1888. The parents were married in New York state in 1835, and two years later they came to the state of Michigan, settling at Lenox, Macomb county. They bought two hundred acres of government land. This land they cleared and improved in that early day and there made their home until the death of the father, when the mother went to live with her son, Edwin, in Oakland county, where she died. They had four children; the oldest, who is dead, was named Liddie. She became the wife of James Baird, and lived on a farm in Lenox township, Macomb county. They had three children, two of whom are living, Pearl and Walter. The second child, Norman, is now dead. He married Betsy Bates, enlisted in the Fourth Michigan Infantry, in 1864, and died in the hospital, of fever, in 1865. They had no children. The third child, Edwin, is living in Highland, in Oakland county. He married Sarah Gleason, and they have no children. The fourth child is the wife of the subject of this review. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have one child, Floyd, who was born September 2, and who lives at home with his parents. After his marriage, Mr. Mitchell purchased eighty acres of improved land in Oakland

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 407 SS U county, where he resided about four years. He then sold out and rented land until the year 1887, when he came to Shiawassee county, purchasing an eighty-acre farm, on which he now resides. The farm, which lies on section 10, Hazelton township, was only partly improved, about one-half being under cultivation. The buildings consisted of an old log house and barn. In 1890 he built a fine large barn and in 1892 a beautiful eight-room frame house. He has otherwise improved the farm and it is now one of the best in the locality. In politics he is a liberal Republican, with prohibition sentiments. He is a member of the Methodist church, of the Grange, and of the Maccabees, in which last he was two years chaplain. WILLIAM H. MITCHELL It is a happy provision of nature that youth cannot peer into the future and see the obstacles to be met with in life's pathway, else we fear there would not be, as a general thing, much incentive to proceed on the journey! In the words of the poet Longfellow, then, How beautiful is youth.! how bright it gleams With its illusions, aspirations, dreams! Book of Beginning, Story without End,Each maid a heroine and each man a friend! How truthfully the picture is expressed! It is an interesting fact that a great majority of the farmers of the country began the battle of life when mere lads and with but limited educations. Indeed, it is doubtful if the average sons of the average farmers -were to be "sifted" through various grades of the various departments of our high schools and colleges until they reached the age of twenty-one or twentv-five years, even one of them would become a farmer. But be this as it may, the subject of this sketch began to "bump up" against the world at the age of thirteen years, when he commenced to work on a farm by the month. He was born in Ontario, Canada, 25 June 13, 1859, and is a son of Elisha and Barbara (Huntsberger) Mitchell, both of whom are natives of Ontario, and both of whom died in Rush township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, at the respective ages of sixty-eight and sixty-four years. Elisha Mitchell was of Irish descent, and his wife had the blood of the Pennsylvania Dutch coursing through her veins. They were married in Canada. In 1880 our subject came to Michigan and settled on eighty acres, in Rush township, which he had bought two years previously, and upon which he had caused some improvements to be made. When his parents remove here subsequently from Canada, he let his father have the farm. They built a frame house and log stable, and his parents lived there until their death. The farm is still owned by younger members of the family. Elisha Mitchell was a Republican, but was not prominent in politics, and never held office. In religious belief he and his wife were Mennonites, who are not common in this country. They are protestants, but reject infant baptism and baptize adults only on a profession of faith, and practice non-resistance and abstinence from oaths. They thus combine some of the leading principles of the Baptists, with some of the distinctive views of the Friends. Our subject's father was one of a family of seven children, three of whom are vow living, -Richard in Rush township, Andrew in Middlebury and Nelson in Fairfield. His mother was the first of a family of seven. October 12, 1882, William If. Mitchell was married to Eliza Jane Scott, who was born cn the farm on which she and her husband now live and which Mr. Mitchell bought of Humphrey Scott, his wife's father, who was one of the pioneers of Rush township, having located there when it was a wilderness and having cleared the land and erected buildings, making the farm a splendid property. The old gentleman is still alive and lives in Burton village, aged seventy-six years. The maiden name of his wife was Hannah Ling, and she died about twenty-six years ago. Our subject was the second in a family of

408 PAST AND PRESENT OF.. I eight children, six of whom are still living. Jacob is single, and resides on the old farm in Rush; William H. is the subject of this review; Amos, who died at the age of twenty years; John, who lives in Rush township, married Marilla Shaw, and they have two children; Samuel lives at Colon, Michigan, married Cora Miller; Mary married Fred Downey, of Rush township; Agnes is unmarried and lives with her brother, Jacob; Menasa, who lives on the old farm, married Erma, daughter of John Crane. Mrs. Mitchell comes from a family of four * children, all of whom are living. James is a resident of Idaho; Mrs. Mitchell was the next in order of birth; Libbie married George Coakes, of Owosso township; and Ada mar* ried Ed. Lusk, of Owosso. As previously stated, Mr. Mitchell purchased his present farm of one hundred and ten acres from his father-in-law, in 1904. For ten years previously he had worked land on shares. For several years before securing his new home it had been rented, and naturally it had run down. He is rapidly changing the condition of things, however, and hopes to erect some buildings in the near future. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have two children: Harvey, born September 20, 1883, lives in North Dakota and is single; and Ray, born March 9, 1897, is at home. Mr. Mitchell affiliates with the Republican party, but has never held office. He belongs to the Maccabees at Owosso and the Modern Woodmen of America at Henderson. Mr. Mitchell combines all that goes to make up a good citizen, a kind father and a popular member of the community in which he is now a worthy factor. FRANK G. MORRICE But one man in one hundred makes a success of the business which he chooses for his life's occupation. His success is due to superior judgment and fitness for the work in which he is engaged and in his courage to ad vance undaunted through difficulties that come to all men. Frank G. Morrice was born in Shiawassee county on the 12th day of January, A. D. 1844. He is a son of William Morrice, who was born in Scotland March 3, 1800, and who died in Shiawassee county July 7, 1873. Elizabeth (Cooper) Morrice, mother of our subject, was born in Scotland in 1803, and died in Shiawassee county in 1892. The parents were married in Scotland and came to America in 1836. After two years spent as a day laborer William Morrice purchased one hundred and sixty acres of wild, unimproved land in Perry township. He spent the remainder of his days upon this farm, improving it and purchasing more land until he became one of the largest land-holders in Shiawassee county. A few years before his death he sold his land to his sons, and retired. He died at the age of seventy-three years. Politically he was a Republican, but never consented to run for any office of importance, though often urged to do so. Both he and his wife were active members of the Presbyterian church. They had five children. Alexander, the eldest, served during the entire period of the civil war and died of consumption contracted during his term of service in the army. The other children are William G., mentioned elsewhere in this volume; John A., who died in 1857; Francis G., subject of this sketch; and Mary, wife of Warren Manning, who died in 1870. The subject of this review lived at home until he was twenty-five years of age. His early education was acquired in the district schools and he afterwards took a commercial course at the Detroit Business College. He was married to Irene M. Walters August 11, 1869. She was born in Lodi township, Washtenaw county, August 10, 1847. Her father and mother were David and Emaline (Wheeland) Watters, who were among the pioneers of Washtenaw county, where they were farmers. Mrs. Morrice is one of eight children, of whom Giles, Willis, Delbert and Elmer are now living at Morrice.

WILLIAM G. MORRICE

I

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 411 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 411 Mr, Morrice purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land where he now lives, in section 23, Bennington township, in 1869. The land at that time was only partly improved, with no buildings worthy of mention. This beautiful farm, with its large and commodious house and good barns, offers the most fitting tribute that can be made to a successful man. In 1892 Mr. Morrice erected his dwelling house, which is the last, but not all of his attractive improvements, and he now occupies one of the finest farms in Shiawassee county, consisting of two hundred and thirty acres of land, seventy acres having been added since his original purchase. Mr. and Mrs. Morrice have four children: Amy, who was born December 22, 1870, is now the wife of G. S. Field, of the law firm of Barber and Field, of Detroit; Maud, who was born October 1, 1875, is at present engaged as drawing teacher in the Owosso and Corunna public schools; Ward, born June 6, 1886. is single and lives at home; and Mable, who was born September 1, 1880, died January 17, 1891. Mr. Morrice, like his father, has always been a Republican. He has been honored by his party with responsible and honorable offices, and the length of time which he has served in office is the best testimonial of the fitness of the man for the duties imposed upon him. For twelve years he has been supervisor of his township. He has been town clerk, and held the highest office in the county for. four years, that of sheriff. He and wife are members of the Congregational church. Mr. Morrice is a Mason, being a member of the blue lodge at Perry, of the chapter at Owosso and the commandery of Knights Templar at Corunna. He makes a business of general farming, and has the respect and confidence of all who know him. WILLIAM G. MORRICE In writing biographical sketches of the various citizens of distinction in Perry township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, it will be a pleasure to the reader to have included the name of the son of the prominent pioneer, after whom the village of Morrice was named. William G. Morrice was born in Perry township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, on the 9th of September, 1839. He is the oldest son of William and Elizabeth (Cooper) Morrice. The parents were born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Wm. Morrice, Sr., came to the United States in the year 1836. The year following he sent for his affianced wife and they were married in Detroit, Michigan. He worked on the Shiawassee mill race for the period of two years and then moved to Perry township, where he located a farm of one hundred and sixty acres. The man after whom the village of Morrice was named slept upon the ground in his rude shanty while the wolves howled about the door. The howls of wild beasts could not frighten him, neither could the fear of famine. He traveled sixty miles to Pontiac for his flour and meal and continued the work of subduing the forest that had stood since its creation. In 1862 he bought the forty-five acres of land on section 2, where subject now lives. There were four children of the family, the oldest being the subject of this sketch. The second, John A., was born July 28, 1841. He was united in marriage to Elizabeth Walker, in 1868, and to them were born two children, Agnes and Dunston. Agnes married Earl Rann, and they have one son,'Morrice; Dunston married Kittie Cook, and they have one son, Leon. John A. Morrice died in 1901. His wife survives him and lives in the village of Morrice. The third son is Francis G., a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. Mary J., the fourth, married Warren Manning, of Corunna, and to them have been born two children: Effie, who was born in January, 1869, married a Mr. Berry, of Bay City; and George was born December 24, 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Manning are both deceased. Our subject received his early school train

412 PAST AND PRESENT OF. -,. -.I ing in the district schools of Perry township. He knows what pioneer life means. He was permitted to attend school a short time during the most severe weather of the winter months, but the greater part of the year was spent at hard labor on the farm. At the age of twenty-one he started for himself, working three years for his father. He then came into possession of the forty-five acres of partly improved land, on section 2, Perry township. This land he has improved, building himself a commodious dwelling house and three fine large barns. His business ability and industry are best shown by the fact that from time to time he has added to his original farm until at the present time he is the owner of four hundred and eighteen acres of good land, on section 2. In the year 1860 Mr. Morrice was united in marriage to Ella, daughter of George and Harriet (Mathew) Smith. She was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and came to America with her parents in the year 1854. Her father is one of the old and respected settlers of Perry township. To our subject and his wife have been born seven children, as follows: Eva B., born in 1861, died when seventeen years of age. Lena E., born in 1863, is the wife of George Winegar, a Perry township farmer. They own the old Moryice homestead, and have four children,-Clare, George, Helen, and Mary. Mary Edith married Dr. I. W. Norris, of Corunna, and they have one son, William. Ethel May is the wife of James Hubbard, of Williamston, Michigan. Lillian married M. Rann, in 1896. He is engaged in the mercantile business in Perry. They have one daughter, Marian. Bessie married George McKay, of Morrice. They have one son, named Morrice. William H., the only son, a student at the Michigan Agricultural College, is also assisting his father in carrying on the home farm. Mr. and Mrs. Morrice have given each of their daughters a college education, each having diplomas from either Olivet or Alma college. The family are esteemed members of the Presbyterian church at Morrice. REUBEN H. B. MORRIS Mr. Morris, who has been a resident of Shiawassee township for a period of fifty-four years, is proprietor of a fine farm, in sections 13 and 24, in the township named, and after a test of more than half a century is pronounced by the hundreds with whom he has come in contact as one of the most able and honorable men in the community. He was born in Porter, Niagara county, New York, on the 27th of September, 1826, and is a son of Joseph and Maria (Shelly) Morris. His father was a native of Monmouth county, New Jersey, and in early life was a carpenter and joiner, but later bought the farm in Niagara county, two miles from Youngstown, which was the birthplace of our subject. They were among the first settlers on the so-called Holland Purchase, and there passed the balance of their days. The husband died at the age of seventy years; his wife survived him for many years, dying in August, 1889, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. The mother of our subject was born in Essex county, New Jersey, and came of a family noted for the tenacity with which its members clung to life. Her father had entered his one hundred and third year before he gave up the fight, and others of the family have lived to patriarchal ages. This venerable mother brought fourteen children into the world, two of whom died in infancy. Those who reached maturity were: Levi; Ellen; Samuel, who resides in Shiawassee township; Sarah Jane, a resident of New York; our subject; Mary; Lucy; Frank, on the old New York farm; Joseph, who lives in Vernon; Roxanna; James; and Oscar, the last named living in Morrill. Reuben H. B. Morris attended district school, and worked upon the parental farm until he was twenty-two years of age, when for two years he rented a piece of land near the family homestead. In 1854 he removed to Shiawassee township and carried on a farm which he rented, a few miles south of I3ancroft. In the spring of 1856 he rented the

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY " 413 S farm of Mrs. Hannah M. Wright, the widow of Edward Wright, an Ohio man who had settled in Michigan over twenty years before, but had gone to California a number of years prior to that date and had died there in 1854, while engaged in mining ventures. On October 6, 1856, Mr. Morris married the widow, whose maiden name was Hannah M. Harder. Her father was Dr. Nicholas P. Harder, a pioneer physician of Shiawassee county. Dr. Harder's first wife -was Margaret Snyder, who died when Mrs. Morris was seven years of age. He later married Sarah Purvis. By her first marriage Mrs. Morris had two sons, Charles and Marion, both residents of Owosso. Mr. Morris bought their interests in the homestead, but, on account of failing health, he was obliged to leave the farm for a number of years, and engaged in business in Vernon. He there opened a meat market and also dealt in live stock and provisions. He erected a residence in Vernon, for which he soon paid out of the proceeds of his business, in conducting which he showed remarkable shrewdness and foresight, considering that he had enjoyed little experience in trade. With the improvement of his health he spent considerable time upon the farm, the original of which was one hundred and fifty-six acres. Much of this he improved; he built a comfortable home on a commanding site, erected large barns for his crops and live stock, and engaged quite extensively in buying stock and shipping it to Buffalo. He continued this profitable combination of farming and business until within comparatively recent years. Mr. and Mrs. Morris have been blessed with six children, as follows: Nellie is Mrs. Andrew Huff, of Bancroft; Edward is a resident of Genesee county; Frank R. resides in Golden, Colorado; Denver lives in North Dakota; Donabell is Mrs. Christopher Matthews, -of Durand; and Maggie married Milton Eastwood, of Genesee county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Morris are members of and active workers in the Methodist Episcopal church. It should be added that our subject is a Republican and has served as constable for a period of fourteen years. Although he has already passed the Biblical age of three score years and ten, by nearly a decade, and his health has not been of the best, his temperate habits and well balanced disposition may long keep him with his hundreds of friends who admire him for his unpretentious strength of character. GEORGE MORTIMORE Among the more prominent citizens whom England bequeathed to Michigan and Shiawassee county, none is more worthy of consideration in this collection of pioneer sketches than is George Mortimore, now deceased. He was born in Devonshire, England, February 14, 1835, and died on his farm, in section 26, Antrirn township, in September, 1901. When eighteen years of age our subject came to America, locating near Guelph, Canada, where he subsequently bought ninety acres of timbered land, upon which he built a log house, and in time he converted the property into a good farm. He eventually sold this and removed to Flint, Michigan, then in mourning over the death of Abraham Lincoln, who had been assassinated but a few days previously. Before leaving Canada, however, or, rather, when he was twenty-five years old, he married Elizabeth Barton, who was born in England, May 7, 1842. He bought sixty acres of land near Flint and lived, there two years, when he sold the property and removed to Antrim tovnship, where he secured one hundred and twenty acres, eighty acres of which were improved, being provided with a smal frame house and barn. He cleared the rest of the farm and bought forty acres more, making one hundred and sixty in all. It is now a well improved farm and was owned by him at the time of his death; his widow still owns the property. Some twentyfour years ago Mr. Mortimore built a fine frame house, which contains ten rooms; also, two large barns and several other buildings. His father, George Mortimore, Sr., came to America when about fifty years of age and

414 PAST AND PRESENT OF was a local preacher. Our subject was one of seven children. His brother John came to this country some twenty years before he did and bought land. The wife of our subject is a daughter of Henry and Hannah (House) Barton, natives of England. They came to America when Mrs. Mortimore was seven years old and settled on a farm near Guelph, Canada. They afterward came to Michigan and lived in Flint, where the mother died. The father passed away at Fentonville, Michigan. Seven children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimore: Elizabeth is the wife of Elmer Ellsworth and they live on a farm in Antrim; John is single and lives at home; Mary is the wife of Henry Howard and they live on a farm in Antrim; William lives on a farm in Shiawassee county; George lives near Bancroft; Fred and Frank remain with their mother on the old homestead. Mr. Mortimore was a Republican and was township treasurer for two years. He was also a school officer for several years. Though not a communicant, he attended the Methodist Episcopal church, to which his wife belongs. For several years prior to his death he was in poor health, and within this time returned to his native country, thinking the change would improve him; but this resulted in no benefit. He was a very successful farmer and is highly spoken of by his friends and neighbors. He therefore died leaving a good name and a valuable property as an inheritance to his family. CHARLES B. MUNSON Charles B. Munson, the subject of this sketch, has been a respected resident of Fairfield township, Shiawassee county, since his birth, which here occurred March 30, 1855. His father, George B. Munson, was born in the state of Ohio August 10, 1824, and came to the state of Michigan in 1853, purchasing one hundred and twenty acres of land from the government. He shipped his goods by water to Detroit, and drew them with a team from there to Fairfield township, there being at that time no railroads in this part of the state. Five families constituted the entire population of Fairfield township at that time and in 1856, when the township was organized, at the home of Henry Stebbins, he furnished the dinner for the voters,-then twelve in number. He held office in that early day and was one of the leading men of the community, possessing the courage and indomitable will necessary to cope with and subdue the difficulties of pioneer life. He died in the township which he helped to organize and develop,-on the 18th day of September, 1891. Our subject's mother, Zelinda (Peck) Munson, was born in the state of New York, August 29, 1827, and died in Fairfield township, July 11, 1903. She shared the hardships of her husband and lived to see the forest give place to the field, and her sons and daughters grow up to be honorable men and women. There were five of the children: Almira, born June 30, 1848, is the widow of Beardley Bennett and at present is living with our subject; William, born in 1850, died 1852; Charles B. was the next in order of birth; Edwin R., born January 14, 1863, is living at Ovid; Emma, wife of Albert VanDusen, was born February 7, 1866, and is living at Ovid. Charles B. Munson was united in marriage with Sara Dodge, September 15, 1875. She was born September 29, 1855, and died December 15, 1900. She was a daughter of William and Amanda (Shoat) Dodge. Her father was born in Vermont and her mother in Canada. Her father was one of the pioneers of Gratiot county, Michigan, moving there in 1857. He died the following year, and her mother then moved with the family to Shiawassee county where she died. Mrs. Munson was the fourth of five children. William died in Minnesota; Charles is living at Elsie, Clinton county; Lucinda is the wife of David McCarty, of Fairfield, township; and Francis died in infancy. At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Munson purchased from his father fifty-eight acres of land upon which he now lives, in section 29, Fair

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 415 SC field township. The land was partly cleared when he purchased it, and he has not only succeeded in reclaiming the remainder but has also erected fine buildings thereon, having one of the best barns in the township. He has purchased forty acres of adjoining land, making him a fine farm of ninety-eight acres. He is a man who has made his own way in the world, starting for himself when young and acquiring his property by honest earnest industry. He has two children, twins, who were born April 17, 1882. They are G. Earle and Merle. G. Earle married Bertha Herrington, in August, 1902, and has one child, Algertha, born March 27, 1903. Merle married Gertrude Altoff, in July, 1903. They have one child, Percy, born February 5, 1904. Mr. Munson adheres to the party of his father and is a Democrat. He has been honored by the party in the township in which he lives, having been elected supervisor, for seven years. He was also town treasurer for four years. In 1904 he was placed in nomination by his party as their candidate for county treasurer but was defeated, scarcely a Democrat in the state being elected. He is a member of the Baptist church at Elsie. He has done much for his township and for the county, and well merits the uniform esteem which his neighbors and the citizens of the county in general accord.him. IRVING W. NORRIS, M. D. One of the prominent young physicians who has already made himself a name in the city of Corunna, is the subject of this review. The young professional men of Corunna are an element in the development of this progressive city and are a centralizing force in drawing within its boundaries the best people in that section of the county. By their character and repute they are adding to the reputation of the town and giving it a high standard among other places in the county. Irving W. Norris was born at Holly, Oakland county, Michigan, September 25, 1864. He is a son of William Y. and Amelia (Mason) Norris, the father a native of New York and the mother of Michigan. William Norris was born October 5, 1837, and his wife June 18, 1846. They are now residents of Ann Arbor. Our subject's grandfather, Michiac Norris, came to Michigan and settled in Oakland county on a farm when his son William was but six years old. During the most of his life William Norris has been engaged in speculation and the real estate business. Until 1885 he lived in Detroit, then moved to Minneapolis and later to Ann Arbor, where he now resides. Dr. Norris was afforded the advantages of the schools of Detroit and was graduated in the Michigan College of Medicine & Surgery, in the class of 1901. This young physician first "hung out his shingle" at Morrice, but not being satisfied with the field of his activities, fourteen months later moved to Corunna, where he has since successfully practiced his chosen profession. He is counted among the most reliable of physicians and his counsel is in demand on every hand. June 12, 1901, Dr. Norris was united in marriage to Mary E. Morris, who was both May 5, 1870. Mrs. Norris the daughter of William H. and Helen (Smith) Morris, residents of Morrice, Michigan, and early settlers of this state. Mrs. Norris is one of a family of six children, all living but one. Dr. and Mrs. Norris are the parents of one child, William Arthur, born February 9, 1904. Our subject is a supporter of the principles of the Democrat party, though in no sense of the word an office-seeker, as he devotes his entire time to his chosen calling. Socially he is identified with the Masonic fraternity, Modern Woodmen of America and Knights of the Maccabees. A skillful physician and surgeon, his services are in constant demand by the best class of patrons in the city. ALBERT H. NORTHWAY The cold, material facts of a man's life are not his history. The world cannot know the

416 PAST AND PRESENT OF master motives of his actions. A man's life is what he really is, and his biography is the grouping together of the prominent events and known characteristics that have come into his activities and experience. A life of activity along certain lines establishes for the individual a reputation and character, and so in answer to a query the response is often made "Yes, I know him well," which implies a familiarity with the trend of the life of another. Our subject is a native of the Wolverine state, having been born in Mundy township, Genesee county, Michigan, November 28, 1856,-a Thanksgiving gift to his parents, and judging from the record, one for which they have had great reason to be thankful and proud during all the intervening years. His mother, Eliza (Forbes) Northway, was born at Clarkville, New York, in the far famed Mohawk valley, October 28, 1832, and his father, Alsup Northway, was born in Massachusetts. They immigrated to the wilds of Michigan early in the '30's at about the period the territory was admitted to the sisterhood of states, and they first settled at Fenton, Genesee county, where eighty acres of unimproved land was purchased and the carving out of a home in the wilderness was begun. Within a few years they found themselves "out of the woods," with a comfortable farm home in their possession. In the year 1860 Alsup Northway exchanged his Genesee county farm for one hundred and sixty acres of choice land in the township of Venice, Shiawassee county, only ten acres having been improved. With characteristic energy and perseverance Mr. Northway set himself to the task of clearing away the forest from his new possessions, and before his death had brought about one hundred acres under a fine state of cultivation. The old Northway homestead is known as one of the best farms in the township. The farm had been disposed of but a short time prior to the death of Alsup Northway, which occurred March 18, 1873. The mother is still living, at an advanced age and makes her home with her son Fred, at Durand. Three sons were born to these highly respected pioneers, of whom Albert H. was the eldest; Truman, born January 13, 1859, is a resident of St. Louis, Missouri; Fred J., born December 8, 1866, is an attorney residing at Durand, Michigan: he married Miss Lizzie Eveleth, and they have three bright, promising children,-Juanita, Reginald and a baby. Albert H. Northway added the finishing touches to his public-school career in the Corunna high school, and at the age of twentyone years entered a grocery store as clerk, remaining thus employed for some time. In the year 1880 he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and for two and one-half years was in the employ of the Thomas Mabley clothing house. Returning to Michigan, he was for several years variously employed in clerical work, in the city of Owosso. In the year 1890 he launched out in business for himself, with Albert Todd as a partner in the coal and wood trade under the firm name of A. Todd & Company. This enterprise was successfully carried on until 1904. An important event in Mr. Northway's career was his marriage, August 6, 1880, to Miss Carrie, daughter of William H. Chaffee, a pioneer of Burns township. Mr. Chaffee passed away February 24, 1901, at the age of eighty-seven years.' The wife and mother still lives on the old home farm, and at this writing, is eighty-six years of age. Mrs. Northway was the youngest in a family of five children. The eldest, Eureta, born December 24, 1843, is now the wife of George Eddy, of Burns township; Harrison and Harriet were born October 8, 1847, the former dying in infancy, and Harriet being the wife of W. F. Close, of Byron; Seward, who was born January 8, 1852, married Miss Betsey Ray, of Fenton, and they occupy the old home farm. Two children have come to bless the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Northway: Harry, born June 2, 1883, and Roy, born September 12, 1885. Both sons were graduated in the Owosso high school. Harry is in the employ of Albert Todd & Company, of Owosso, and

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 417 SC Roy is serving as deputy county treasurer, in his father's office. In the fall of 1902 Mr. Northway was named as his party candidate for the responsible position of county treasurer, to which he was elected in the November following. At the expiration of his term of office, he was chosen as his own successor, a position for which he has peculiar adaptability. Mr. Northway is one of the well known and highly respected men of affairs of his county, and being yet on the sunny side of life, has a bright outlook as a business man and useful citizen. Mr. Northway shows the fraternal side of his make up by his membership in the Owosso Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Owosso Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Corunna Commandery 41, Knights Templar; Knights of Pythias; Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Knights of the Maccabees, and the Woodmen, of Owosso. He is lined up politically with the Republican party, the party with a record,-a record of which he is justly proud. He maintains his home at Owosso, although his official duties require much of his time at the county seat. Mr. and Mrs. Northway are among the most highly esteemed citizens of Owosso and their numerous friends wish for them yet many years of usefulness and enjoyment. JOHN NORTHWOOD Nothing is dearer to the patriotic citizen than one of the brave "boys in blue" who sacrificed all that he held dearest upon the altar of our country. The sight of an old soldier who left a limb upon the battle field causes the heart to thrill again with the emotion which stirred the breast in the days of the civil war. Colonel John Northwood was born at Addle Hill, St. Paul's parish, London, England, on the 17th of July, 1838. He is the youngest son and only surviving child of William Northwood, who was born in Shropshire, England, April 19, 1809, and of Mary (Rought) Northwood, born in the county of Norfolk, England, August 29, 1806. The parents were married in London, England, and there the children, twelve in number, were born to them. But two were living, the subject of this sketch and his sister Eliza, when the parents came to this country. Subject is now the only surviving member of the family. JOHN NORTHWOOD The father served in the British army. He also served in the army of the United States, having been a member of the Fourth Connecticut Infantry, serving from May 4, 1861, to May 4, 1864, when he was discharged, at Bermuda Hundred. In the year 1861 his regiment was transformed into.what is known as the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and with this he served until the date of his discharge. After remaining out of the service for one year he enlisted, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the marine service, for four years, but was discharged on the 30th of October, 1867, on account of disability. He died in December, 1870, at Augusta, Maine. Colonel John Northwood came with his parents to Wellington, Lorain county, Ohio, where they lived for a period of one year after which they removed to' New Hudson, Oakland county, Michigan, and from there to Detroit, where the father was engaged in the

418 PAST AND PRESENT OF Wetmore & Company crockery store. In the year 1854 he located one hundred and sixty acres of government land in Maple Grove township, Saginaw county, Michigan. After building a log house the father moved his family to the farm, and it has been the home of the subject of this sketch from that time until the spring of 1905, with the exception of five years spent in sailing on the lakes. The land was cleared and improved under the supervision of our subject and he has added to the first purchase until he now- possesses two hundred and twenty acres of land, so highly improved that it is a monument to the ability of the owner. January 27, 1864, Colonel Northwood was united in marriage to Martha Ann Packard. She was born June 24, 1844, and died May 26, 1903. Her father and mother, Origen and Savillah (Hartsock) Packard, were among the first pioneer families of Flushing township, Genesee county, Michigan, where they lived from the year 1835 to the time of their death. Our subject and his wife had one child, Mary Savillah, who was born in the year 1865. On the death of his sister, Eliza, our subject adopted her son, John W., then nineteen months old, and he now resides in the township of Hazelton. On the 20th of July, 1861, Colonel Northwood enlisted, at Flint, in Company C, Sixteenth Regiment of Michigan Volunteer Infantry, in the service of his country. He was mustered into the service at Detroit and sent to the front, where his blood was offered upon her altar and his name made famous throughout the state of Michigan. He was in the -battle of Big Bethel, the siege of Yorktown. the battle of Hanover Court House, the battle of Mechanicsville, and, last, in the battle of Gaines Mills, where he was wounded in both arms, suffering amputation of the right arm, near the shoulder joint. He was afterward captured at Savage Station and was transferred and confined in Libby Prison for twenty-six days, when he was exchanged. On the 18th of August, 1862, he was discharged, from the hospital at Philadelphia. No man in the state of Michigan merits and has received more political and social honors than the subject of this sketch. Socially he is a Master Mason. Of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows he is past grand master and past chief patriarch of the encampment of the branch of the order. He is a past department commander of the Grand Army of the Republican, of Michigan, and is now commander of the post at New Lothrop, Shiawassee county, to which place Colonel Northwood removed in the spring of 1905. He is also a member of the National League and of the Sons of Veterans. Politically he is a Republican. He held the office of supervisor of Maple Grove township, Saginaw county for seven terms, 1876 to 1883, was elected to the office of town clerk six terms, and held the office of justice of the peace for twenty years. He was elected to the state legislature of 1885, and introduced the bill providing for the Michigan Soldiers' Home, at Grand Rapids. He was appointed paymaster of the Michigan National Guard, with the rank of colonel, by Governor Luce. He served as school director twenty-seven years. Of no man can it be more truthfully said that he has given of his time and talents for the good of his country. His home, completed in New Lothrop in the spring of 1905, is a beautiful structure, handsomely decorated, having all the modern improvements, a fitting abode for a man of honor and distinction. The subject of this sketch was again married on the 24th day of October, 1905, to Mrs. Hattie R. Scribner of Antrim township, Shiawassee county, Michigan. This union, like the first one, is a happy one. Mrs. Northwood's parents were natives of the Empire state. Her father, John Graham, came to Michigan with his parents when but a lad, the family settling upon a tract of land in the county of Livingston. John Graham was united in marriage in the year 1853 to Miss Jeanette Hamblin, whose parents were also settlers of Livingston county. To Mr. and Mrs. John Graham were born

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 419 SC five children. The following brief data are given: Loay M., born in 1855, married W. N. Martin, and died 1889; Hattie R., born in 1860, is the wife of Colonel Northwood: John, Jr., born 1864, lives at Byron, Shiawassee county; Will Alling, born in 1868, lives at Detroit, Michigan; 0. D. Graham, born in 1870, lives at Ionia, Michigan. John Graham was a veteran of the civil war, entering the service of his country as a member of Company I, Third Michigan Cavalry, in January, 1864, and following the fortunes of his command until Febraury 12, 1866. He was mustered out at San Antonio, Texas. He died in February, 1904, at the age of seventy-one years. JOSEPH L. OLCOTT The subject of this memoir was a native of Madison county, New York, where he was born March 8, 1835, having been the only son of Harry and Sarah (Gray) Olcott, who lived and died in Madison county, New York, Joseph L. having been but three years of age at the time of his mother's death. He lived on the farm with his parents until the war broke out. This was a time when There was mounting inhot haste the steed; The mustering squadron and the clattering car Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, And swiftly forming in the ranks of war; And the deep thunder, peel on peel, afar And near; the beat of the alarming drum Roused up the soldier, 'ere the morning star; While throng'd the citizens with terror dumb, Or whispering, with white lips-"The foe! they come! they come!" Mr. Olcott enlisted in Company C, Thirtieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served three years. He was wounded in the right thigh in the battle of Shiloh, and was afterward discharged for disability. In 1866 he removed to Shiawassee county and located in Bennington township, where he died in 1903, on the homestead where his widow now lives. His first wife was Anna Gale, sister of Charles Gale, a banker of Owosso. For thirteen years he lived on his father-in-law's farm. His wife died January 4, 1878. They had no children. For his second wife he married Lila L. Godfrey, who was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania. She is a daughter of Loomis and Eliza (Peer) Godfrey-both natives of New York state. Loomis Godfrey still lives in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and of his four children Mrs. Olcott was the oldest. The others are: C. G. Godfrey is engaged in the furniture and undertaking business in Bancroft; Rose is the wife of Louis Pease, now living in Pennsylvania, and they have one child, Lewis; W. H. Godfrey lives in Dakota. In 1876 Mr. and Mrs. Olcott settled on the farm where she now resides. It consisted of one hundred and sixty acres-all improved except about twenty acres. This was afterward cleared and fifty acres added to the farm. Soon after removing there the house was burned. Another was erected and six years afterward this also was burned. A fine large brick house took its place. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. O1 -cott: Harry is now deceased; Fairy lives in Erie county, Pennsylvania, aged twenty-three years, and is single; Curtis is eighteen years of age, is single, and lives on a farm near Durand, with a man who worked Mr. Olcott's farm in 1904; Lloyd- is aged ten years and is at home; an adopted daughter, Vera, now twelve years old, lives at home and is attending school. Mr. Olcott was always a Democrat but never aspired to office. He was a Mason and for twenty-five years was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. For several years Mr. Olcott was in poor health and during the last four years of his life was a confirmed invalid, the result of a wound received in the war and already referred to. His widow was a graduate of the school at North East, Erie county, Pennsylvania, known as the Lake Shore Seminary. For six years she was engaged in teaching in that institution.

420 PAST AND PRESENT OF 420 PAST AND PRESENT OF She had an uncle and aunt living in Shiawassee county, and was thus induced to remove to this county. For two years prior to her marriage, Mrs. Olcott taught school in Perry village. At the time of his second marriage, and for some time afterward, Mr. Olcott made a specialty of raising fast horses. He was a pensioner and his widow now receives the same. BRAYTON M. ORMSBY The subject of this sketch was but a mere lad when the clash of arms took place between north and south, in our great civil war, as he was born in Lorraine township, Jefferson county, New York, April 6, 1854. In 1861 his father, Loren Ormsby, removed to Michigan, locating in Saline township, Washtenaw county, where he remained until January, 1863, when he enlisted in Company D, Sixth Michigan Heavy Artillery. He saw but one engagement, however, and died from diarrhea, at Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 3, 1863. He was born in New York state, in 1818. His wife, Lydia (Mandeville) Ormsby, was born in Jefferson county, New York. in 1820. She died in Shiawassee county, Michigan, December 30, 1885. - She had been previously married to George Batcheler, by whom she had two children,-Frank, who is deceased, and Mary Jane, who now lives in Three Oaks, California. The latter has been twice married-first to a Mr. Potter, by whom she had one child, Frank, while the second husband was a Mr. Stevenson. The parents of Brayton M. Ormsby had four children, he being the third. The others are as follows: Katherine Rose, who was born in 1848, lives in Caledonia township; she married John Parsons, and has eight children,-Mattie, Bertha, Gilbert, Ester, Flora, Edna, Bessie and Bernice. William A., who was born in 1850, lives in Portland, Oregon; he married and has one child,-Edna. Florence E.,-who was born in 1857, lives in southern California, and has one son, Fred Pixley. Brayton M. Ormsby's half-brother, Frank, enlisted in New York state, for service in the civil war, but was discharged, for disability, before leaving the state for the front. He subsequently came to Michigan and enlisted in the same company and regiment as did his father. He came home at the close of the war. After Loren Ormsby enlisted he bought forty acres of land in Caledonia township, Shiawassee county. It was half cleared but he never moved on to it. His wife, however, afterward, made that her home and proceeded to clear the balance of the forty acres. The family lived there three years and then sold it and moved to Oakland township, Oakland county, where they bought twenty acres, mostly improved land. The family remained there for seven years, when Brayton MI. and his mother removed to Avon township, same county, where the former rented a farm for three years. In September, 1877, Brayton and his mother sold twenty acres in Oakland township, and removed to Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, where they bought eighty acres of wild land. There was a small house on the place, but no barn. Later in 1898, they built a frame house. Brayton cleared this eighty acres and in 1888 he bought forty acres on section 8; all but five acres of this has been cleared. In 1891 he purchased forty acres more,-twenty-five acres of which was timber and fifteen acres stump land. This too, save ten acres, has been improved. In March, 1902, he added to his possessions one hundred and twenty acres of improved land on section 6, upon which he has since built a good house and barn. Fifteen years ago a fawn was shot in his woods by one of his neighbors. September 28, 1879, Mr. Ormsby married Martha Jane Chase, who was born May 29, 1860,-a daughter of Charles B. and Maria (Holden) Chase,-both natives of Steuben county, New York. Her father was born March 29, 1820, and died April 29, 1890; her mother was born February 27, 1826. She is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Koan, in Venice township. Mrs. Ormsby was the fourth of nine children, as follows: Hattie,

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 421 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 421 who was born in 1852, lives in Corunna; she married R. Houghton, and they have two 'children,-Alice and Leonard. Abbia Detta. born in 1854, lives at Port Allegheny, Pennsylvania; she married Edward Chase and has two children,-Cora and Willis. Charles, born in 1856, lives in North Dakota; he married Emma Teirce and they have two children. -Nina and Neva. Timothy, born in 1862. died in 1899, a bachelor. George, born in 1864, is now working on the county farm in Shiawassee county; he married Anna Herrick, and they have no children. Willett and Wilson, twins, were born August 18, 1866. Willett died November 5, 1897, in Venice township; he married Nettie Jacobs, and is survived by no children. Wilson was killed on a railroad in New York state, February 14, 1893. Ora, born in 1869, married Peter Koan, and lives in Venice township; they have two children,-Nellie and Ernest. Mrs. Ormsby's father came to Hazelton in 1855 and bought two hundred and forty acres of wild land. He then returned to New York state. In 1860 he removed here with his family, making his home on the land formerly purchased. He lived here until his death. He first built a log house and eventually cleared all the land. His nearest neighbors were two miles distant. They made beds on the floor when they first came there. He owned one hundred acres at the time of his death. Four sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ormsby, three of whom are living: Loren B., born June 21, 1880, died August 10, 1880; Fred, who was born July 3, 1883, lives in Hazelton township; he married Frances Shooks, and they have one child, Doras, born October 23, 1901. Leslie was born December 30, 1886, and Jay, April 2, 1895. Mr. Ormsby is a member of the Christian or Disciples church, and his wife belongs to the Weslevan Methodist church. Mr. Ormsbv has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for twenty-nine years and is now treasurer of his lodge. He is also a Granger. His wife belongs to the Daughters,of Rebekah. Mr. Ormsby is a Republican in politics and has been director and moderator of his school district. His great grandfather, Almond Ormsby, was born in Vermont, and his grandmother was a native of Holland. H. W. PARKER It is a mark of great esteem to have the confidence of the community in which one lives, because confidence is a plant of slow growth. Emerson says that "Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself." It goes without saying that the gentleman whose name heads this sketch has the confidence: of those who know him, especially those who know him intimately. The fact that a man holds a government or state office, by appointment or otherwise, does not always imply that he is a man above reproach, because many such appointments, sad to relate, are bestowed upon the merest political tricksters and schemers. This is not the case, however, with H. W. Parker, the popular postmaster of Bancroft. He has "earned his spurs," by a correct business and social life, and is therefore entitled to whatever honors he may have showered upon him in this regard. He is a native of Burns township, Shiawassee county, where he was born June 3, 1870, and is a son of George A. and Florence (Gaylord) Parker.. He received only an elementary education, in the district schools, living on the home farm until he was twenty-five years of age. He then engaged in the grain and produce business with his father, under whom he was assistant postmaster at Bancroft from 1889 to 1897, inclusive. Hence, when he assumed the position of postmaster himself, he was well equipped for the duties of the office. He but recently entered upon a third term as postmaster. George A. Parker, father of our subject, was born in Marion, Livingston county, Michigan, August 24, 1843. February 12, 1862, he was mustered into the Union service at Flint, Michi

422 PAST AND PRESENT OF gan, becoming a member of Company A, Tenth Michigan Infantry, under Captain H. S. Burnett. With his command he went to Hamburg Landing, Tennessee, where his regigment was attached to Grant's army. He was in action at Corinth, Shiloh, Booneville, Iuka, Huntsville and Nashville, to Stone river and Chattanooga, and participated in all the engagements of Sherman's grand march to the sea. At Kenesaw Mountain a ball passed through his right elbow, and he was sent to the hospital for treatment. For a year after this he served on detached duty in the post quartermaster's office, at Louisville, Kentucky. He remained in the service until after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, when he was mustered out and honorably discharged. While in active service in the battle at Farmington, Mississippi, in 1862, he was detailed by Colonel Charles McLum to carry a message to Loomis' Battery. While on the way a shell burst near him, knocking him down and, it is supposed, forcing some small fragments into his right eye. This impaired the sight of that member so as to eventually result in its total loss. At the conclusion of the war he returned to the farm and its duties. He was still but a young man, being only a trifle past his majority. During the administration of Governor Rich, who recognized the patriotism and ability of Colonel George A. Parker, the governor gave him the appointment of assistant paymaster general of the Michigan National Guard, which position he retained for the term of four years. To Mr. Parker is given the credit of drafting the resolution which secured to the Grand Army of the Republic in Shiawassee county the beautiful memorial rooms on the ground floor in the new court house, and also of the painting of the corps badges which adorn the walls, in connection with other historic views. It is designed to place in these rooms relics of the war,-a provision that will be greatly appreciated by old soldiers, each of whom will cheerfully contribute something to this collection of ever increasing interest. Colonel Parker has always been prominently identified with the Grand Army of the Republic and other soldier organizations of Shiawassee county, as well as with the state militia. He is a public-spirited citizen who always reflects honor upon the community in which he lives. To such men the public owes a debt of gratitude. David and Sarah (Rust) Parker, the grandparents of our subject, were natives of New York state, first becoming residents of Michigan in 1829. Thirty years thereafter they located in Antrim township, Shiawassee county. David Parker was a man of strong character and clear convictions of duty and received many marked tributes of the high estimation in which he was held. He served with credit as township clerk, supervisor and later as sheriff, being elected to the office last named in 1868, and holding it four years. For a period of eight years he was a resident of Owosso, where he was engaged in the manufacture of brick. His death occurred January 6, 1888, at the age of seventy-eight years. When the father of George A. Parker assumed the duties of the office of sheriff, the latter was appointed under-sheriff, filling the position for four years. Later, George A. Parker removed to Bancroft and established a large and profitable produce business, his customers being scattered all along the route of the Grand Trunk Railroad. As illustrative of the magnitude of his trade, it may be stated that during a single season he shipped seventy-seven thousand bushels of potatoes and forty-seven thousand barrels of apples. He also became quite an extensive land owner, and he has platted sixteen acres as an addition to the city. His service as postmaster was during Harrison's administration and he also filled the office of justice of the peace for sixteen years. He married Florence L. Gaylord October 10, 1868, his wife being the daughter of John and Hannah (West) Gaylord, who, in 1852, located as the first white settlers on the Indian reserve at Nagg's Bridge. A farmer by occupation, Mr. Gaylord held the postmastership of Burns for a quarter of a century. He was a man of strict

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 423 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 423 integrity as well as of wide personal popularity. He was a member of the Congregational church and a practical Christian, his death occurring in 1886. Mrs. Gaylord, the widow, lives at the home of her daughter, Mrs. George A. Parker. Mr. and Mrs. Parker had two children,-H. W., who is the subject of this sketch, and Ethel, who is unmarried, and who lives at home. H. W. Parker has also been honored with the clerkship of his township for two years. In politics he has always been a sound Republican, is a member of the Congregational church and identified with the Maccabees, and the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias. September 21, 1899, Mr. Parker married Helen, daughter of Henry Goodrich, a contractor and builder of Bancroft, the place of her nativity. She is the youngest in a family of three children. The other members of the family are Bert F., a traveling salesman, and Jessie L., now Mrs. Eugene Harris, of Bancroft. Mr. and Mrs. Parker have no children. W. L. PARKER It was said by a philosopher of the old time that "when he shall have succeeded then will be our time to rejoice and freely laugh." If this remark be a truism, then W. L. Parker has reason to "rejoice and freely laugh" over his success in life, so far as business is concerned at least. Men are largely judged in this life by their business success,-by the amount of money they have accumulated, either by fair means or foul; that seems to make but little difference in the eyes of the world. A Quaker once said to his son upon leaving home, "My son, get rich honestly if thee can, but get rich!" But, then, after all is said and done, are the words of Ben Jonson not true, that He that departs with his own honesty For vulgar praise, doth it too dearly buy. Mr. Parker is a native of Michigan, having been born in Oakland county, January 27, 1860,-one of the most notable years in the nation's history, the year that sounded the death knell of human slavery on this continent, in the election to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Our subject's father, W. H. Parker, a native of the Empire state, was born April 1, 1838. The mother was born December 18, 1846, her maiden name being Harriet J. Nichols. W. H. Parker located in Oakland county in 1856. He was a worker in marble, a monument builder, and was engaged in that business in Oakland county. He died, however, in Caro, Tuscola county, November 13, 1902. W. L. Parker was educated at Vassar, Michigan, and after his school days, engaged in the monument business at Caro, with the purpose, in the words of Hamlet, a trifle changed, that graves shall have living monuments. He remained at that place for seventeen years and then, in 1898, removed to Owosso, that growing city offering a larger field for his operations. At first he began in a small frame building, and he and his son did all the work. At the beginning of the second year, however, he found it necessary to expand his quarters, so leased a large brick building. The third year he added machinery, and the fifth year brought the business to so large proportions that he was forced to build a large factory, which is equipped with all the latest conveniences for conducting a business of this character, such as steam power, pneumatic tools, etc. He employs twelve cutters and, with a single exception, conducts the largest monument works in the state. This represents the result of- close attention to business and of square and honorable dealing. On Christmas day of 1859 Mr. Parker married Ida M. Huston, who was born in Groveland, Oakland county. They have two children: Leslie H., born May 25, 1881, is foreman of his father's business; and Harry G., born May 23, 1887, is the pneumatic-tool worker in the institution. The subject of this sketch was the second of five children. Nora is now Mrs. Drake; R. C. now works on the

424 PAST AND PRESENT OF 424 PAST AND PRESENT OF Grand Rapids Railroad; Leo G. is a barber in Tuscola county; Ray conducts a bicycle and gun shop. Mr. Parker is a Republican and a member of the First Baptist church, and is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Knights of the Maccabees. AMOS PARMENTER The remark is not uncommon that such and such a man is "lucky." There is positively nothing in this. Good pluck is good luck!and this is all there is of it. Few farmers have made such a plucky and persistent fight as the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, and the result has proved as satisfactory as heart could wish or ambition crave. Mr. Parmenter was born on the farm which he now owns, on section 2, Shiawassee township, February 18, 1853. He is a son of Joseph Parmenter, who was born in the old Green Mountain state, July 5, 1810. He died May 13, 1892, having made the world better for his long and useful sojourn in it. His wife, Mary (Grant) Parmenter, was born in Sodus, New York, April 21, 1814. She died March 16, 1884,-seventy years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Parmenter were married in the Empire state and came to Michigan in 1835, settling in Vernon township, Shiawassce county, where Mr. Parmenter purchased sixty-three acres of wild land, clearing all but a small portion of the tract, erecting suitable buildings thereon and living upon the place about six years. Exchanging this for one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land at Ovid, Clinton county, he transferred his homestead to that locality and made it the family residence about five years. The Clinton county farm was in turn traded for one hundred and two and one-half acres in Shiawassee township, where Amos was born and still resides. At the time the family took possession of this new home, only about ten acres of the land were cleared, and upon the clearing was a log house and barn. This was the scene not only of our subject's birth, but also of the death of both his father and mother. Joseph Parmenter was a strong character in more ways than one. He was not only an honest and industrious man, but also had a natural aptitude for the conduct of public affairs, and might have made his mark in politics had his lot been cast in a more populous community. As it was, he was prominent as an Abolitionist in the early days, and as a Republican in the latter portion of his life, holding a number of township offices, in which he served with energy and ability. In his religious convictions and professions he was an uncompromising Baptist. Amos, the son with whom we are chiefly concerned in this sketch, was one of eight children, his eldest brother having been the first boy born in Shiawassee county. In the order of their birth the children are mentioned as follows: Austin is at present living in Grand Rapids. Mary and Sarah are twins. Mary is the wife of Levi Rogers, a resident of Petoskey, and Sarah is the wife of Lewis Bogue, of Ypsilanti. Jesse is a resident of Wabash, Indiana. Livonia is the wife of C. Birch of Silverton, Oregon. Samantha is the wife of C. J. Gale, who lives at Corunna. Our subject was the seventh child. Matilda is now Mrs. Bruce Marsh, and is a resident of the village of Vernon. Mr. Parmenter received his earlt education in the district school of his localitv and also enjoyed one year's training at the Fenton Seminary. At the age of twenty-one he struck out as an independent farmer, assisting his father for a few years. After the death of his parents he purchased of the heirs the old homestead, and has since doubled the size of the farm; which now consists of two hundred and five acres. September 21, 1875, Mr. Parmenter was married to Nettie G. Potter, a native of Jefferson county, New York, where she was born November 19, 1858. She is a daughter of WVilliam and Charlotte (Scott) Potter, both of her parents having been born in the Em

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 425 S C 4 pire state. The date of her father's birth was' June 24, 1822, and that of his death, January 24, 1898. His mother was born March 21, 1827, and died in 1901. Mrs. Parmenter also is of yeoman stock, her father having been a farmer. Her parents became permanent residents of Michigan thirty-five years ago, and for many years they lived on a farm in Caledonia township. She was the youngest of their three children. The eldest, Charles, who lives in New York, married Delia Hall, and they are the parents of eight children. The second-born was Sarah, now the wife of Newton Allen, of New York, and the mother of one child. Amos Parmenter devotes his energies to general farming, making the feeding of stock a specialty. He is an upright, progressive citizen and votes the Republican ticket, but his agricultural and domestic affairs occupy so much of his time that he has given no heed to "practical" politics, the extent of his public service having been in the capacity of drain commissioner. Mr. Parmenter is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in good standing, and is identified with the Baptist denomination. His career illustrates what pluck and energy will accomplish for a man. Mr. Parmenter has just entered upon his tenth year of service as president of the Shiawassee Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Parmenter: Grace C., who was born July 30, 1877, and who was graduated in the Vernon high school, was married, September 2, 1896, to Derward Devereaux, and they have one child, Donald, born January 30, 1898. Floyd A., born March 31, 1879, is associated with.his father in the work and management ofthe home farm. Ruth E., who was born October 31, 1886, also remains at the parental home. JOHN PARSONS John Parsons, the well known general farmer and manufacturer of cider and vine gar, is a native of Michigan and for fortyfive years has been a resident of Caledonia township. He was born in Lyons township, Ionia county, on the 16th of October, 1843, and is the son of Benjamin Rich and Desdemona (Holdridge) Parsons. His father was born in Vermont, August 4, 1810, and died in the year 1871; his mother, a native of the Empire state, was born June 23, 1811, and died in 1891. Their marriage was solemnized in New York. Benjamin R. Parsons, the father of our subject, was in many respects a remarkable character. He was not only unusually intelligent, but also was wonderfully versatile. In summer he successfully cultivated his farm, and for thirty-one winters in succession, both in Vermont and Michigan, he taught school, and he was successful in both vocations. A devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church, he was a local preacher, and, although he never had a regular charge, he often officiated at funerals, weddings and church services. The head of the family became a resident of Michigan in 1836, locating at Spring Arbor, Jackson county, where he lived several years. He then decided to remove to Lyons township, Ionia county, where he had purchased forty acres of wild land. The family was loaded on a scow and by that conveyance came down Grand river, the father himself driving the team to the new home. A log house was promptly erected, but cold weather came on before a regular door could be hung, so a blanket was placed before the opening to keep out the cold. Wild animals frequented the surrounding wilderness, howling wolves prowling around the hut. One morning, while the blanket still hung before the door opening, tracks of six of the fierce brutes were found close beside it. It was here that our subject was born, and when the boy was six years of age his father sold the farm and removed to Caledonia township. In that locality he purchased another forty acres of wild land, which he cleared and improved, erecting a frame house, 26

426 PAST AND PRESENT OF which remained the family homestead for more than a dozen years. In 1861 he returned to Jonia county, remaining there three years. In 1864 he came to live with our subject, who, for several years, had been operating the land which subsequently became the homestead of his family, in section 34, Caledonia township. The boy had been educated in the district schools of that township, and was trained to industrious and economical habits and in the knowledge of the science of husbandry, on the parental farm. He profited so well by both methods of training that at the age of nineteen he purchased eighty acres of wild land himself, and commenced to transform it into the valuable farm upon which he now resides. It must be a matter of just pride to the proprietor to realize that all the improvements, including the buildings, are the result of his own good judgment and labors. March 21, 1868, John Parsons was married to Katherine Ormsby, a native of Jefferson county, New York, where she was born May 14, 1849. Mrs. Parsons is the daughter of Lauren and Lydia (Mandeville) Ormsby, who were married in New York, the father being a farmer by occupation. The parents were both natives of the Empire state, where the father was born October 6, 1820. and the mother, December 27, 1821. They removed to Michigan in 1863, locating near Saline, *Washtenaw county, upon a tract of forty acres. Mr. Ormsby was a soldier of the civil war, and died at Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 3, 1865, of disease contracted while in the military service. Mrs. Parsons is a child by her mother's second marriage, the children by the first marriage being: Mary J. Bachelor, now Mrs. Stevens, who resides in California, and Franklin Bachelor, who served in the war of the Rebellion, and who died in Oregon in 1902. Mrs. Parsons is the eldest child by the second marriage. Her brother William H., the second-born, lives in Oregon, and has two children, his wife being dead; Brayton Mandeville, the third, is a resident of Hazelton township; and Ellen T., the fourth child, is Mrs. Andrew Pixley and lives in California, having one child,-a son. The eight children who have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Parsons are all living. Martha J., born November 18, 1869, is the wife of Andrew Frederickson, of Detroit, and is the mother of one child, Earl. Bertha D., born April 22, 1872, is the wife of Arthur Sackett, of Caro, Michigan, and is the mother of two children, Evart and Mildred. Gilbert, born April 5, 1874, is a resident of Battle Creek, Michigan; married and has one child,-Gilbert, Jr.; Esther, born August 3, 1876, is the wife of Ernest Whitaker, of Caledonia, and is the mother of Alice May. Flora Estelle, born April 27, 1878, is living at home. Edna, born October 11, 1880, is now Mrs. Elwood Oddy, of Belvidere, Illinois. Bessie, born August 12, 1885, is living at home. Bernice, born June 18, 1893, is attending school. Mr. Parsons has always been a Republican. He has never sought public office an'i has held only such minor local positions as pastmaster and school director. Both he and his wife are identified with the Methodist Episcopal church. Our subject is recognized as a substantial man, both in moral character and worldly goods. He is the proprietor of one hundred and thirty acres of finely improved land, and transacts a flourishing business in the manufacture and sale of cider, apple jelly and vinegar. His products, which are sold at wholesale, find a ready market in Chicago, Detroit, Bay City and other places, and have even been shipped as far west as California. JOHN J. PATCHEL AThough the son of a New York farmer and himself a native of New Jersey, the prosperous agriculturist and honored citizen whose name heads this article is, to all practical purposes, a son of the Wolverine state. When but a boy he was brought to Michigan and to Vernon township, Shiawassee county. Here he was educated in school and on farm, and as a boy and youth hunted through the woods

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 427 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 427 for game, nuts and berries. He married a Shiawassee county girl, in Vernon township; all his children were born here; here he has attained to prosperity and to honors. If all these circumstances do not sufficiently identify him with the township and county to make him a son of Michigan, for all practical purposes, then all that can be said is that mere ancestry and place of birth weigh altogether too much. John J. Patchel was born in the town of Bloomfield, Essex county, New Jersey, on the 17th of June, 1839. His father, Samuel, was a native of Schoharie county, New York the date of his birth being October 7, 1809. The early portion of his life was spent in his native place, and he afterward removed to Essex county, New Jersey, where he was married. In 1848 he migrated with his wife and family to Michigan. Mrs. Patchel's maiden name was Bridget Garrity and she was a native of Ireland, whence she came when she was eighteen years of age. Samuel Patchel first located in section 9, Vernon township, purchasing eighty acres of unimproved land and erecting a little log house with one wing. Other necessary farm buildings followed, and in the course of years the rude pioneer home gave place to a residence of modern appearance, so that at the time of his death, March 18, 1891, his homestead was one of the most substantial and attractive in the county. He remained firm in the Democratic faith until the day of his death. His wife, the mother of our subject, lived to be eighty-six years of age, passing away in the year 1900. John J. Patchel is one of five children. One died in infancy. The others are Peter, Mary E., now Mrs. A. B. Chalker, and William Patchel, of Springfield, Missouri. Our subject came to Vernon township with his parents when he was nine years of age and finished his school days here. He' was persevering, and what he could not get at school he mastered at home, learning much of his algebra through his own unaided exertions and fitting himself for a teacher. He re mained with his father, assisting in the farm work, until he reached his twenty-second year, when he started his independent career-as a farmhand in the summer and a teacher in the winter. This course he pursued four years, purchasing in the meantime eighty acres of the one hundred and sixty acres which he still owns, in section 10. Mr. Patchel bought the first forty acres in the spring of 1862, and the second forty in April, 1864. He was then in a position to undertake one of the important steps of his life-his marriage to Mary E. Chalker, daughter of Chandler B. and Phebe (Sickles) Chalker, Michigan pioneers, who, as their bridal tour, made the journey to Shiawassee county in 1837, leaving their New York home forever, to give their young strength to their adopted state. Mrs. Patchel was born in Vernon township, Shiawassee county, August 31, 1838, her father having settled in sections 3 and 4. His original purchase was one hundred acres, and to this tract he added forty acres, his property consisting of wild land, which he cleared and improved, erecting two good houses thereon, and otherwise bringing the farms up to a high grade of excellence. Mr. Chalker was a good Democrat, both in the political and moral sense of the word, and held many local offices-an evidence of the unswerving conlfilence which his neighbors and friends had in his ability and unvarying honesty. He was justice of the peace for more than twenty years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Chalker are deceased. The marriage of our subject to Mary E. Chalker occurred on the 13th of December, 1866, and the young couple immediately commenced housekeeping in a log house built by the "farmer school teacher." The dwelling was sixteen by twenty-five feet in dimensions. Eight acres of the farm were already cleared and he continued constantly to cut away the timber and add to the original acreage. In 1882 Mr. Patchel purchased another forty acres. In 1889 he erected a substantial residence, at a cost of about three thousand dollars, and by the addition of a fourth tract of forty

428 PAST AND PRESENT OF 8 PT AD P acres, in 1892, became the proprietor of a quarter section of valuable land, of which he is still the holder. He devotes himself to general farming, although he has done much as a successful breeder of improved live stock. Mr. and Mrs. Patchel are the parents of the following named children: A sketch of their eldest son, Samuel C. Patchel, who is now justice of the peace, will be found in following paragraphs. The second child, Ellen, was born January 13, 1871, and died November 6, 1873. The third, born May 15, 1872 died August 15th of the same year. Helen J. (Harris) was born March 24, 1874. Mary E., the widow of Caleb A. Curtis, who died February 26, 1905, was born June 13, 1875, and is the mother of one son, Harold J. Curtis. John R., born June 23, 1878, is a farmer. Bessie E. (McMichael). Ralph J. Patchel, born September 11, 1882, is a merchant of Lennon. Unlike the other voters of the parental family, John Patchel has been a Republican during most of his life. He cast his first vote for Douglas, it is true, but after the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he permanently changed his political views, and has since been a firm and earnest Republican. His fel4ow-townsmen have frequently evinced their appreciation of his ability and sterling worth by calling him to various positions of local service. Among others, he has held the offices of school inspector and supervisor of the township, his service in the latter capacity extending over a period of four years. All the members of the family are stanch members of the Congregational church, Mr. Patchel himself having for many years been both a trustee and a deacon in that denomination. SAMUEL C. PATCHELL Samuel C. Patchell, the eldest son of John J. Patchell, whose biography precedes this article, is not only a rising lawyer and business man of Shiawassee county, but is also justice of the peace and a prominent Republican in local politics. He was born in Vernon township, October 9, 1867, passing his boyhood days on his father's farm and attending the district school, and finally the Vernon high school. He then took a correspondence course in a Chicago institution, teaching school in the winter and working for his father and others, as a farm hand, in the summer and fall. By industry and intelligent economy he was enabled to purchase a farm near his father's homestead, operating it for some time himself. In addition to his other solid accomplishments, our subject also pursued a course of law in the office of E. S. Atherton. Mr. Patchell's wife was known as Adel Kenyon, the daughter of an old settler of Livingston county. Her father is dead and her mother living. One child has been born to them, Rolland S. Patchel, a Durand student. As stated, our subject is creditably filling the office of justice of the peace, for which his business and legal training peculiarly fits him. In connection with his court duties, he also carries on a growing real estate and insurance business: consequently his time is fully and profitably occupied. He has already served as school inspector and has been honored with the supervisorship by appointment. He is a member of the blue lodge and chapter of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of the Maccabees. There are, in short, few men of his years in Shiawassee county whose standing is more assured or whose prospects are brighter. PETER PATCHELL The subject of this sketch is a substantial farmer, residing on section 9, Vernon township. Not only this, but he is also a prominent figure in the educational matters of Shiawassee county. The fact that he has taken a deep interest in this subject is evidence of a high order of intelligence and usefulness, because it is education alone that can conduct us to enjoyment which is at once best in qual

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 429 SHAASE CONT 42 ity and. infinite in quantity. Mr. Patchell is also well known in fire insurance circles, having served for eight years as secretary of the Shiawassee County Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He was honored with the superintendency of schools for two terms, and served as township treasurer for two terms. It may also be stated that he is a member of the Knights of the Loyal Guards' Insurance. Peter Patchell was born in Essex county, New Jersey, August 22, 1844. His father, Samuel Patchell, was a New York farmer, born in Schoharie county, October 7 1809. He spent the early part of his life in his native place, removing afterward to Essex county, New Jersey, where he was married to Bridget Garrity. The wife and mother was born in Ireland, coming to America when eighteen years of age. Mr. Patchell's ancestry on the paternal side is also of Irish derivation, his grandfather, also Samuel by name, emigrating from the Emerald Isle when a lad of twelve years and locating in New York, where he remained until his death. The father of our subject removed from New Jersey to Michigan in 1848, locating in the same section where his son now resides. At that time the land was wild, but he erected a log house and in after years so improxed his farm that at his death, March 18, 1891, it was one of the most highly improved tracts in the county. Both father and mother are now deceased. Our subject, who is the third of five children, laid the groundwork of his education in the district schools of Vernon township. He taught school for several years and then settled on the land which is still his homestead. It was then fresh from nature, and he sturdily set to work to clear off the forest. This accomplished, he established himself as a general farmer. Within the passing years he set out an orchard, erected substantial farm buildings, including a pretty residence, and brought his homestead to its present high standard.. He is now the owner of eighty acres of valuable land, highly cultivated and very productive. In politics Mr. Patchell gives his support to the Democratic party. February 19, i868, Mr. Patchell was united in marriage to Ann E. Jones, her father being a pioneer of Venice township, where, in an early day, he acquired his homestead direct from the government. Mr. Jones is now deceased but his widow is still living, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. Mrs. Patchell's natal day was July 25, 1849. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Patchell: Frank E., born January 30, 1869, married Mina L. Potter March 17, 1897. Mrs. Frank Patchell was born August 1, 1872. Maud I., born April 19, 1871, married Burt 0. Potter, February 27, 1900. They reside on a farm in Vernon township. The) nave two children, Lucene E., born May 26, 1902, and Irene E., born August 21, 1904. The third child of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Patchell is Grace C., who was born March 16, 1892, and who is still at the parental home. Mr. and Mrs. Patchell are both esteemed members of the Congregational church at Durand and contribute liberally of their means for its support. HARVEY J. PATTERSON This gentleman hails from the Empire state, being a native of Somerset, Niagara county, New York, where he was born January 20, 1848. His father also was born in New York state, in 1825, and died in 1859, on section 15, Hazelton township, the home of the subject of this sketch. The latter's mother, Prudence (Brown) Patterson, was born in Somerset, Niagara county, New York, in 1828. She, too, died at her son's house, in 1902. At the early age of eleven years Harvey J. Patterson started to struggle with destiny. Like the little hero that he was, he worked for farmers until he reached the age of eighteen years, religiously taking every penny of his wages home to his mother-a lasting monument to the memory of any man, and one which.does him credit beyond the power of language to properly describe, so great is its contrast to the conduct of so many young men toward their parentsin these latter days. At the age

430 Ar'",ST AND PRESENT OF 430 PST AN PRESNT O........ of eighteen years, as already stated, he commenced saving for himself. He worked summers for three dollars per month and saved enough out of that to buy a calf, -which he gave to his mother. In 1868 he was twenty years old. He then bought forty acres of land. This is now the corner on which Hazelton postoffice was situated. It is better known, perhaps, as Ratville, a name which he gave it, and since that has been thus called by the residents of this locality. So well known is this title that letters addressed to "Ratville," although not a postoffice name, have reached their proper destination. His father removed to southern Michigan in the '40s, but remained here one year only, returning to Niagara county, New York. In 1852 he came to Hazelton township and traded a span of horses for forty acres. This is where his son Harvey now lives. At that time there was only one-half mile of road in the township, the remainder being solid woods. Two years later he bought forty acres more. He lived on the first purchase a year and then rented a farm near Flushing, Michigan, so that he might earn sufficient money to buy provisions, and thus be enabled to return to his farm, which he did in a year. At the time he located on his land there was a log shanty on it, with some four acres improved. He moved into the shanty. A person could scarcely step about in the woods at that time without seeing deer, so numerous were they. The old gentleman cleared about ten acres before his death. He helped to organize the township. The residents were then so few that one person had to hold two offices. Things are far different now, when there arie hundreds of men ready to take one office! There were only five families in the township when Harvey J. Patterson came here with his parents, and he is now the only one of them left. He has still in his possession a piece of a coffee mill in which he and his brother ground corn for one week when the mill dam at Flushing was washed out. This was the only way they had to make meal. His mother taught the first school in the town I I,. ship. She was married three times-first to the father of Harvey J., second to Daniel B. Holcomb, and third to Levi McCarn, who survives her and lives with Harvey. Mr. McCarn was born in Tompkins county, New York, April 26, 1819. He came to Genesee county, Michigan, in 1850 and bought eighty acres of wild land. He cleared some of it and afterward sold it. He then bought eighty acres, partly improved, and cleared the remainder. He lived there fourteen years, and in 1876 he went to Missouri, where he spent three winters. In 1878 he returned to the home of Harvey J., and has remained.there since. When our subject sold his farm at Ratville, he went two miles west and bought forty acres, ten acres of which were improved and contained a log house and stable. He reclaimed most of the remainder and lived there nine years. He then sold the farm and removed to Oscoda, where he worked in a sawmill one summer. He then returned to Hazelton and bought the grist and saw-mill at Ratville. This he conducted for one and onehalf years, and then traded for forty acres of land north of there. Three-fourths of this was improved. An inferior house and barn were on the place, but he bought a house already built and moved it onto the premises and improved the rest of the land. Mr. Patterson remained on this farm until' March, 1902, when he returned to the old homestead to care for his mother and stepfather. For this he received a deed to fifty acres of the old farm, thirty acres being given to his eldest brother. Mr. Patterson now owns ninety acres. On August 9, 1868, he married Mary Elizabeth Sawyer, who was born April 28, 1852. She is a daughter of Harry Sawyer, who was born in New York state, in 1827, and who died in the army in 1865. Her mother is living in Chesaning, Michigan. Mrs. Patterson's parents located in Ingham county, Michigan, in 1861, and there her father was a hoop-maker. At one time he rented a farm in Ingham township, Ingham county. In the fall of 1864 he enlisted in Company B, Eighth Michigan Cavalry, and

FOUR GENERATIONS MRS. CARRIE EDITH KING HARVEY J. PATTERSON MRS. PRUDENCE MCCARN HAZEL KING

f,

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 433 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 433 died from sickness contracted in the war at Nicholsville, Tennessee, January 2, 1865. Mr. Patterson's wife was the first of five children, a brief record concerning the others being as follows: Ida, born in New York state, June 25, v1857, lives at Oscoda, Michigan. She married Daniel Schultz and they have three children-Erie, Bessie and William. Minnie A., born in New York state, October 17, 1860, lives in Hazelton township. She married James Dillon, and they have seven children-Matthew, George, Grover, Mamie, Harry, Erie and Thomas. Lucinda, born in Ingham county, Michigan, October 7, 1862, lives at Chesaning, Michigan. She married George Nason and has four children-Lulu, Nellie, Robert and Henry. Hattie, born July 25, 1864, lives in Brady township, Saginaw county, Michigan. She married George Smitlh and has three children-Fred, Sophia and William. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson have three children. Carrie Edith, born August 24, 1869, married Frank King, and they live on the forty-acre farm north of Ratville, owned by his father. They have three children-Hazel, born June 18, 1895; Mildred, born in September, 1896, and Leslie, born March 3, 1901. Hattie, born April 23, 1877, lives in Toledo, Ohio; she married George Golden and they have one child-Harvey J., born April 17, 1897. Eva, born January 13, 1881, lives at Kirby, Michigan; she married Allen Brunson and they have no children. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson are professors of religion, but not members of any church. He is a Republican and has filled the office of highway commissioner. He has been a member of the Patrons of Industry and the Independent Order of Good Templars. WILLIAM E. PAYNE Commercial life has come to be recognized as a game of chance, and the man who can die before he encounters bankruptcy is considered fortunate. There are but few Napoleons, and whenever a man finds he can do one thing well it will be fortunate for him if he can be content to stand by that solitary thing. In the gentleman whose name heads this sketch we have an example of that pertinacity and push which cannot fail to win in the battle of business life. Mr. Payne is a native of Isabella county, Michigan, where he was born February 9, 1863-a memorable period in the nation's history, since the greatest war of modern times, if not of all times, was then in progress. He is a son of William F. and Rosanna Payne, both natives of the Empire state. The former was born May 27, 1832, and died November 4,, 1889; his widow still lives and is a resident of Ovfsso. Our subject received his early education in the district schools in Bennington township, Shiawassee county, and at the age of sixteen years entered the high school in Corunna, where he remained for two years. At the age of eighteen years he associated himself with the First National Bank of Corunna, his object being to gain a practical knowledge of bookkeeping. He continued with that institution six months. For three years after this he was engaged in teaching school, but he did not like this occupation, however, despite the words of the poet, who thought it a Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot. Mr. Payne next removed to the northern peninsula of Michigan, where he entered the employ of the Northwestern Railroad Company, and while thus engaged he learned civil engineering. He remained with that company until the end of 1888, when he severed his connection with it, the illness of his father rendering it necessary for him to return home and take care of his honored father. One year afterward, November 4, 1889, his father died. While thus at home our subject engaged in gardening, in company with his brother, E. J. Payne, who lives in Owosso. In 1895 he sold his interest in that business to his brother. He next engaged in the agricultural implement business in Owosso in partnership with

434 PAST AND PRESENT OF I I W. L. Crowe, under the name of Crowe & Payne. During the big fire in that city, in September, 1898, their establishment was destroyed, together with nearly all its contents, involving a heavy loss, with little insurance. This, of course, proved a hard blow, but did not dishearten our subject by any means, as he is not the kind to be thus discouraged. However, it seemed to be a turning point in his affairs; for, as Shakespeare says, There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. to I Mr. Payne obeyed the injunction of the immortal bard of Avon and, taking the "tide at its flood," has, since the fire, "rushed on to fortune," for before the embers of the conflagration died out he purchased the lots on which the burned building was situated and constructed the fine brick structure in which he has since done business. The time occupied in erecting this store was just ten weeks. The new building is one hundred and twentytwo feet in depth and forty-four in width, two stories high, with a basement under the whole. The fire did not stop the firm's business, however, as they continued to wait on customers and sell goods under the blue vault of heaven. In February, 1900, our subject purchased the interest of Mr. Crowe in the business and formed a copartnership with George M. Graham, under the firm name of W. E. Payne & Company. This arrangement continued until 1905, when Mr. Payne became the sole owner of the establishment, and he now conducts the business in his own name. He keeps a splendid and varied stock of goods in his line, such as Clark & Company's buggies, the Pontiac Buggy Company's carriages, Pontiac Spring Wagon Company's buggies, Prouty & Glass. buggies, Milburn farm wagons and "'Pon Honor" buggies, cutters, fur coats, beet tools, Planet, Jr., beet tools, the great McCormick machines, Syracuse plows, the Kalamazoo reed spring-tooth harrows, Dunham land rollers, Empire drills, Fleck's condition powders, the best farm fertilizers, the Great Western endless-apron manure spreaders, Maud S. and Red Jacket pumps, cast-iron tank heaters, John Deere Swath or Windrow hay or bean loaders, Dain hay and bean side-delivery rakes, haying tools of all kinds, Birdsell "Monitor, Jr." clover hullers, Advance separators, with compound engine, "Iron Age" garden and farm tools, the "Improved Caledonia" bean harvesters, harnesses, robes, blankets, fly-nets, etc. In short, there is not a more complete establishment of the kind in the entire state and none but the best goods are kept in stock. The volume of business annually is about fifty thousand dollars. Five salesmen are employed, with a lady stenographer. J. H. Payne, a cousin of our subject, is his able and courteous assistant in managing the details of this prosperous and growing concern. Mr. Payne carries a stock of from ten thousand to twelve thousand dollars. The establishment throughout is very conveniently and tastefully arranged, and the office is a model of neatness. Mr. Payne is one of a family of fourteen children: Ida L., Hazel J., Martha A., William E., Edgar J., Harmon, Allen (died in infancy), Charles (died in infancy), Cora (now Mrs. Burrell Hardy), Ralph E. (now lives in Owosso), Edna, Leora, Lena and Cynthia. Mr. Payne was married February 15, 1899, to Emma Hicks, of Corunna, Michigan. Two children have resulted from this union-Harold, who died in infancy, and Ruth E., born April 17, 1903. Mr. Payne is identified with several social and fraternal orders, being a member of the Owosso lodge of Elks, No. 753; the Masonic blue lodge and chapter, the Knights of Pythias and the Maccabees. In political matters he acts independently, voting for the best men, as he views them. Our subject is a splendid example of a self-made man, having forged his way to the front by integrity, energy and ability. It is unnecessary to state that he stands high, not only in the city in which he lives, but also in the entire region hereabout.

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 435 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 435 CHARLES M. PEACOCK Scholarly men and those who live retired lives often look with astonishment at the busy, rushing and enterprising life of those business men who are known as "hustlers." Their activities are so vigorous and their push and perseverance so undaunted that the wonder is that they do not wear out during their early years and that so many of them retain their vigor till they have had time to win the success for which they are working. The gentleman of whom we write is a prominent druggist of the city of Corunna. HIe was born in Wayne county, New York, January 16, 1850, and is the son of Horace and Angeline (Button) Peacock, natives of New York, where the father's birth occurred in March, 1819. Horace Peacock came to Michigan in 1855 and followed the calling of a contractor and builder until a few years before his death, when he was engaged in the fruit-evaporating business. He was alderman of the third ward of the city of Corunna for nine or ten years, was a Republican in politics, and both he and his wife were members of the Baptist church. He died March 18, 1888, and his widow is living with her son Frank in Corunna. Our subject is one of eight children, of whom five are now living: Frank is in the office of the register of deeds, in Corunna; James J. is justice of the peace in Corunna; Albert F., born September 20, 1851, married Jennie Mead and they live at South Bend, Indiana, and have two children; Edgar J. lives at Schoolcraft, Michigan; Sarah died at the age of nineteen years and two girls died in infancy. Our subject was educated in the city schools of Corunna and at the age of nineteen years started out for himself, by clerking in a drug store. Previously to this, however, he was for a, short time engaged in a grocery store. In 1881 he became proprietor of the drug store where he is now engaged in business, and where he has met with continued success. June 10, 1880, our subject was united in marriage to Catherine, daughter of Joseph N. and Mary J. (Colton) Lemon. She was born in Corunna, June 12, 1860. Mrs. Peacock's mother is dead and her father is living in Corunna. Mrs. Peacock's father was twice married and she was one of four children by the first marriage. By the second marriage there were two children. Mr. and Mrs. Peacock have one child, Louise, who was born February 14, 1884, and who was graduated in the state normal school at Ypsilanti in June, 1905. Charles M. Peacock has always been a supporter of the Republican party and socially is a member of the Masonic order and the Maccabees. Mr. Peacock is an influential citizen and is counted as one of the reliable men of his city. FREDERICK W. PEARCE "Michigan, my Michigan," has produced thousands of sterling and worthy self-made business men-men with great merit and ability along special lines; but it would be difficult to name a man in the state who has apparently made a better success of life thus far than the gentleman whose name heads this article. It has been truthfully said that "on their own merits modest men are dumb." Verily, this may be said of our subject; but he does things, and has done a great deal. More, he is doing things now. He is a factor in the arena of activity. "lHeaven," as has been said, "never helps the men who will not act." As the poet Longfellow says: Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. Frederick W. Pearce was born October 21, 1868, in Fairfield township, Shiawassee county. He is of English extraction, in the agnatic line, his father, H. G. Pearce, having been born in England, and his mother, Lucy (Preston) Pearce was a native-born American. Our subject attended the district schools

436 - PAST AND PRESENT OF 4 PS A P in Fairfield township until he reached the age of fifteen years. Then he entered the high school in Ovid, after graduating in which he taught school for four years, in Shiawassee county. After this he took a commercial course in Valparaiso, Indiana, graduating in 1882. Then he entered the reaT estate office of Detwiler & Company in Toledo, Ohio, where he continued for two years. He went to Oakley, Michigan, where he engaged in a general mercantile trade. He remained there have the only passenger elevator in Owosso, a convenience their customers thoroughly appreciate. The firm have an enormous stock of the best hardware, furniture and caskets which can be procured, and as a result have a fine, lucrative business. They empioy twelve clerks and two delivery men. Mr. Pearce is also president of the hardware firm of Pearce & Company, of Elsie, Michigan, which conducts a large business. His success in life represents but the natural rewards that come to men of intelligence and integrity, energy and push. Mr. Pearce is a most agreeable and progressive gentleman. In politics he is a Republican, but is not an office-seeker, preferring rather to remain in the private ranks of life and devote his best energies to his business affairs and social duties. While at Oakley, referred to above, he was postmaster from 1886 to 1900, inclusive. Mr. Pearce was married March 15, 1893., to Nina E. Palmer, daughter of George D. Palmer, of Henderson, Shiawassee county. They became the parents of five children, as follows: Harold F., born December 15, 1893, died April 7, 1894; Howard W. was born April 10, 1895; Gertrude E. was born August 28, 1899, and died December 28, 1899; Marie G. was born July 20, 1901, and Lawrence G. was born December 14, 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Pearce are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a member of the board of trustees. Mr. Pearce is a member of the Owosso Masonic Lodge, No. 81, and he is also an Elk. It is not necessary to close this sketch by remarking that he is highly respected by the community generally, as there is not a gentleman in Owosso who is held in higher esteem. CAD. BENJAMIN PELTON One of the greenest spots in the memory of this gentleman is his army experience-not that he loved war, but the fact that he was an actor in the dreadful struggle for national FREDERICK W. PEARCE eight years, after which he returned to Owosso and organized the Owosso Hardware Company, which soon enjoyed a large and lucrative business. He continued this for five years, when he consolidated with Daniel G. Gerow, under the name of Pearce & Gerow. They thus combined the hardware, furniture and undertaking business in one mammoth concern. They have eighteen hundred square feet of floor space, and in addition to this they utilize the basement under both floors. They also use the floors over the Davis dry-goods store. A detailed description of this big concern is also given in the sketch of Daniel J. Gerow in another part of this volume. They

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 437 SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 437 existence affords a sort of consolation that cannot be explained on paper. Indeed, this is something that the average veteran is infinitely more proud of than of the possession of mere material wealth. At the sound of the bugle, in August, 1861, Cad. B. Pelton, then in the vigor of early manhood, enlisted in Company B, Seventh Michigan Infantry. This regiment left Monroe for Virginia September 5, 1861, in command of Colonel Grosvenor, numbering eight hundred and eightyfour officers and enlisted men. The regiment lay on the upper Potomac during the winter and was engaged in the disastrous action at Ball's Bluff. In the spring of 1862 the regiment followed McClellan to the peninsula. Our subject remained in the service for three years and one month. During this period he was detailed as a government scout, but participated with his regiment in the battles of Fair Oaks, May 31 to June 1, 1862; Fredericksburg, December 11, 12 and 13, 1862, and Gettysburg, July 1, 2 and 3, 1863. An amusing incident is chronicled in connection with this gallant regiment while it was forming at Fort Wayne. It seems that one C. M. Walker, a young lawyer, who was very short in stature, rendered so by shortness of legs, was extremely anxious to enlist. One morning before the colonel reached his office the young man seated himself at the colonel's table. The colonel entered and sat down, when the young man said: "Colonel, I want to enlist in vour regiment; please give an order for an officer to muster me in." The colonel looked at him; he appeared healthy and strong and apparently of sufficient height, as he sat at the table. The colonel replied, "Certainly," and wrote the desired order. When the young man rose to leave, the colonel, discovering that the young man was but little higher when on his feet than when sitting down, exclaimed, "Hold on, I do not know about this!" But the young man hastily left, saying, "Never mind about my legs, colonel, they are of the growing kind." He was accepted and became a capable officer. At the close of the war Cad. B. Pelton, as he is familiarly called, located at Vernon and engaged in the grocery business, continuing in that line for two years. Later he rented a farm in Shiawassee township, operating the same for three years. He then purchased fifty-five acres in Caledonia township, where he resided until two years ago, when he retired from active agricultural life and removed to the city of Corunna. When he first moved upon the land it was quite wild and unimproved, but under his good management it was transformed into a modern, comfortable home. After selling the homestead he bought a residence and a small piece of land in Corunna, where he now resides with his wife. Mr. Pelton is a native of Oswego county, New York, where he was born October 8, 1840. His father, Platt Pelton, was likewise born in the Empire state, and died in 1846, at the early age of thirty-six years. By trade he was a blacksmith, and he first came to Michigan in June, 1845, remaining in Clayton, Genesee county, until the following December, when he located in Corunna, with the idea of making that place his home. Although he worked at his trade whenever possible he lived only a year thereafter. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Clement, survived him fifteen years, dying in 1861 at the age of forty-five. She contracted a second marriage. Five children were born to her by her first union. Mr. Pelton's early education was acquired in the schools of Corunna and Detroit, somne of the higher branches being pursued in Byron. He proved a most dutiful and loving son and assisted his widowed mother until the time of her death as chronicled above. October 16, 1867, our subject was married to Miss Emma Smith, a daughter of Thomas and Melinda (McCrea) Smith, both natives of New York state. Mrs. Pelton was born October 6, 1845, and her father on March 7, 1802. Both her parents are dead, her mother dying in April, 1853, at the age of fifty years, and her father surviving her mother for nearly forty years, passing away August 20, 1891, at the venerable age of eighty-nine. At the

438 PAST AND PRESENT OF............................ I time of his death he was one of the oldest settlers of Vernon township, having located there in 1850 and having passed the remainder of his days within its limits. He was the father of nine children, six of whom are living. To Mr. and Mrs. Pelton have been born four children: Fred, who was born June 2, 1872, married Mrs. Tobias, and is an expressman at Clare, Michigan; Nellie is the wife of Ernest Desbrough, a New Haven farmer; Mary is now Mrs. Austin, of Caledonia, and Harry R., born August 5, 1882, died January 12, 1905, a bachelor. Mr. Pelton has always been a Republican and has creditably filled several public offices. He served as highway commissioner for two terms and justice of the peace for twelve years. He has also been closely and prominently identified with the Pioneer Society, having served as second vice-president of the organization, and was recently elected to the first vice-presidency. Corunna has no better or more highly respected citizen than Cad. B. Pelton. FORREST B. PERRY At the age of twenty-three years Forrest B. Perry began life for himself, in Waterford township, Oakland county, Michigan. His first venture was the purchase of an improved eighty-acre farm, in 1880. He owned this property two years, and he next bought eighty acres in White Lake township, in the same county. He owned this one year. He then engaged in the meat business, in Metamora, Michigan, continuing this enterprise for one year. He then sold out and returned to farming, buying forty acres of wild land in Hazelton township. He moved into a shanty, cleared the land and in 1893 added forty acres of improved land. In 1895 he sold twenty acres of the first forty acres and purchased forty acres more of cultivated land. He has built a frame house, barns, granary, etc. In 1893 he secured by purchase the old homestead of eighty acres. The same year he traded it, taking in part payment the second forty acres purchased in Hazelton township. In 1902 he bought a house and lot in New Lothrop, where he has since resided, conducting his farm from that place. He buns stock in the fall and sells the same to shippers. He was the first of eight children. The others are enumerated below: William, who died in Missouri, married Clara Button, and had one child-Sophia; Belle, who lives in the state of Washington, married W. A. Carr and has no children; Mattie, who also lives in Washington, married Major M. A. Draper, and they have three children,-Ray, Florence and Russell; Eldon, who lives at Flint, married Mattie Lewis, and has no children; Annie, single, is a bookkeeper at Flint; Arthur, who lives in Lansing, is married and has three children; Milton, who is single, also lives in Lansing. October 1, 1879, Mr. Perry married Elnora B. Addis, who was born February 8, 1861. Mrs. Perry's father, William Addis, was a pioneer of Oakland county, Michigan, where he still lives. The mother of Mrs. Perry was Elizabeth (Buzzard) Addis, who is a daughter of Joseph Buzzard, an early settler in Oakland county; he secured one hundred and twenty acres from the government and lived there until his death, having cleared the land and erected good buildings. Mrs.. Perry's father was born in New Jersey. He came to Oakland county at an early day and secured one hundred and twenty acres of government land, near Clarkston, clearing the land and erecting frame buildings thereon. Mrs. Perry was the first of five children. The others are Grace, who in Howell, Michigan, married W. H. S. Wood, and they have three children,-Pauline, Ruth and Bernice. Lizzie, who lives in Corunna, Michigan, married W. A. McMullen, mayor of Corunna, and their two children are deceased. Stella, who lives in Ortonville, Michigan, married William Warner, and has one child. William, who lives in Brandon township, Oakland county, married Ethel Brunson; they have no children.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 439 SHAASE CONT 439................ Mr. and Mrs. Perry have had two children, one of whom is living-Roy, who was born December 3, 1889, and who is attending school at New Lothrop. Floyd, born December 4, 1884, died February 25 1902. Forrest B.: Perry was born in Hadley, Lapeer county, Michigan, November 5, 1857. He is a son of Oliver H. Perry, who was born in the state of New York August 11. 1831, and who died January 2, 1893. Our subject's mother, Rachel (Praigg) Perry was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1837. She now lives in Flint. Michigan. The subject of this sketch is a Mason and a Republican. He has been greatly honored by his fellow-citizens in the way of local positions of trust. He was a member of the board of review for seven years, treasurer of his township two years and supervisor four years, and all of these offices he filled with honor and great credit to himself. FRANK H. PETTIBONE One never realizes the truth of the saying that all is not gold that glitters as much as when standing before the enticing window of a hardware store, glittering with its 'bright pans and pails and numerous cooking utensils, and for all that one knows perfectly well that the resemblance to the precious metal is specious, there is seldom a housewife that. is not fascinated. Frank H. Pettibone is extensively engaged in the hardware business in the city of Corunna and also in connection with this a plumbing business is conducted. He is a native of Corunna, having been born January 11, 1859. He is the son of Ozro and Amarilla (Root) Pettibone, natives of New York. The father was born in 1829 and died at Corunna in 1861 at the age of thirty-two, and the mother died in 1870'at the age of forty-two. 'Ozro Pettibone and his brother Seth were engaged in the manufacture of fanning mills at the time of the former's death. Frank H. Pettibone was the second of three children: Clarence is living in New York, and Ozro lives in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The subject of this sketch attended the village schools of Corunna until eleven years of age, when he went to work in the dry-goods store of Alexander Commins, with whom he remained three years. He then worked in a hardware store for ten years, for J. H. Shick & Company, after which he engaged in business with Green Brothers, being a partner in the business for seventeen years. Two years ago he purchased the entire business and is now sole owner of the general hardware and plumbing business. December 9, 1885, Mr. Pettibone was united in marriage to Luella Wilcox, who was born September 29, 1852. She is a daughter of Louis H. and Mary (Bradley) Wilcox, who were early settlers of Michigan. The mother died on January 11, 1888, and the father is now living in Washington, D. C., employed in the government printing office. Our subject and wife have two children-Louis Howard, born November 11, 1892, and Mary D., born June 5, 1897. The principles of the Democratic party embrace the views of our subject and receive his support. Ten years ago lie was alderman of the city and for two years he held the position of city treasurer. Fraternally, he is allied with the Masonic order. several insurance societies and the Elks lodge at Owosso. Frank H. Pettibone is an upright man and a good citizen. He began life at the bottom round of the ladder, and.by his industrious and persevering energy has attained to the possession of a handsome property. MILTON A. PHELPS The gentleman whose name we give at the head of this article has the distinguished honor of being the oldest pioneer in Shiawassee county, if not also the oldest man in the county. He may say with Shakespeare, in "As You Like It":

440 PAST AND PRESENT OF 440 PAST AND PRESENT OF - - Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood; Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo The means of weakness and debility; Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, Frosty, but kindly. Mr. Phelps is still living on the land which he bought from the United States government seventy years ago, before ever a railroad had penetrated the territory of Michigan, then a frontier wilderness of the west. When this young Buckeye farmer, then just of age, located in the county there was a bare trail to his log cabin, from whose rough windows he often saw many species of game which roamed the forests. Deer, bears, wolves and wild turkeys were in abundance. Soon after he became a resident of Sciota township the territory was admitted as a state, and during the long stretch of the after years he had the privilege of seeing the wilderness literally "bloom and blossom like the rose." Mr. Phelps was born sixteen miles west of Columbus, Ohio, on the Big Sciota river, December 14, 1814. His father, James Phelps, a native of New York state, was born in 1782 and died in Sciota township in 1844. In 1812 he migrated from Cortland county, New York, to the Buckeye state. Purchasing a tract of wild land, he commenced to clear the same and mold it into a family homestead. A portion of the farm he broke and planted to corn, and, incidentally, it may be remarked that forty years ago, when Milton A. Phelps was on a visit to his birthplace, he found trees fully a foot in diameter, where his father had raised this crop. In 1832 the father of. our subject became a resident of Michigan, settling in the township of Saline, Washtenaw county, on a tract of one hundred and ten acres of land, eighty acres of which were wild. There was a log house on the place and after he had cleared twenty acres and made other improvements it proved a very comfortable homestead. But the prospects were not sufliciently inviting to induce him to remain in that locality, so he sold his farm, removed to Shiawassee county and took up one hundred and sixty acres from the government. He then prepared to found a home for himself and family, building a log house and barn and clearing a quarter of his sectionr. Again he changed his plans, however, removing to Sciota township, where he purchased forty acres of wild land. He cleared a quarter of this tract and passed the remainder of his days upon the little farm. All this is a very fair illustration of the strenuous, plucky life of the pioneer of those days. He had a family of ten children. Rachael married a Mr. Killgore, had six children and died in Shiawassee county; Sally, who became Mirs. Ackley, and who died in Ohio, had one child; Seldon married Manda Chappell, was the father of six children, and passed his closing days in Shiawassee township; Silas, who was twice married, had one child by each wife, and died in Sciota township; Dyer, who married Almira Sody, had by her one son and one daughter, and he died in Shiawassee township; our subject and Mason were twins and the latter is now dead; Liza died unmarried in Shiawassee township; Melissa married Oliver Westcott, lives in California and is the mother of three: Sara, who married Lorenze Dexter, lives in California and had three children, one of whom is living. When Milton A. Phelps was nineteen years of age he and his twin brother cleared twenty acres of the land for his father "for their time," thereby gaining two years for themselves. As each owned at this period thirty acres of land, they found themselves in fair position to make a good start in life. In 1833 they visited Shiawassee county for a short time, and two years later our subject returned and purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land from the government. He first built a log house and in the following year a frame barn, and then commenced a systematic clearing of the land. Fortunately, game was plentiful in those days; but even with this advantage he was many times short of provisions, which could not be purchased at a

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 441 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 441 nearer market than Ann Arbor or Pontiac. For many years he sold virtually his entire grain crop at the latter place. During much of that period he hauled it to market with a team, as there was no railroad either in that vicinity or in the entire state of Michigan. It must be to Milton Phelps a source of deep satisfaction now, to compare his condition then with his present status, as the proprietor of a fine farm of one hundred and ninety-six acres, all improved except twenty acres of swamp, including a small body of water known as Wolf lake, while he is enjoying all the comforts of modern life, as well as many of the luxuries which the metropolitan citizen is denied. In 1844 our subject was united in marriage to Frances D. Kinney, of Rochester, New York, the ceremony occurring at the place named. The young couple started for Michigan the third day after the happy event. The bride was born in Cortland county, New York, March 17, 1819, her father being Elezer Kinney, who passed his entire life in the county named. Her mother's maiden name was Esther Fuller. Mrs. Phelps was the second of five children, the other members of the family being Polly, Henry, George and Charles. George is the only one living. No children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Phelps. Although Mr. Phelps never received more than a primary education, in the district schools of New York and Michigan, he was endowed by nature with sound sense, good judgment and a natural disposition to make the best of the opportunities presented. The result was success. Recognizing that he was able to forward his own interests, his fellow citizens have called him, upon several occasions, to assist in the management of public affairs. He served as constable for many years and highway commissioner for several terms. In politics he has invariably been a stanch Republican and in religion is a consistent member of the Baptist church society. He has also been prominent in the temperance reforms of the community, being especially identified with the Washington Temperance Society. The great sorrow of Mr. Phelps' life came to him January 21, 1906; in the death of his life companion, after they had shared together, through sunshine and shadow, the joys and sorrows of life for sixty-one years. Mrs. Phelps lived to the advanced age of nearly eighty-six years. Mr. Phelps though in his ninety-second year is still hale and hearty retaining all his faculties to a remarkable degree. An adopted daughter, Mrs. Burt, a widow, cares for the home. Like the forest tree standing alone, its fellows having gone down amid the onward march of the passing years, Milton A. Phelps, the revered pioneer, nearing the close of an active and upright life, is able to look out into the vista of the future with a good hope in the life to come. JAMES N. PHILLIPS James N. Phillips was born in Dummeressville, Northumberland county, Ontario, Canada, October 21, 1848. His father, Van Ransler Phillips, was a native of Canada, being born about 1815; he died when James N. was a mere lad. The maiden name of our subject's mother was Hannah Howard. She was born in Saratoga, New York, in 1820 and died in 1860: Mr. Phillips' father was a shoemaker and worked at that trade near Colborne, Canada, the greater part of his life. Near there he owned a farmn, which came to him by inheritance. The subject of this sketch was the fifth of ten children. The first was Emeline, who died in Sanilac county, Michigan. She married Solomon Bradley, and the union resulted in four children,-Maletta, Champion, Jefferson and James. Next was Eunice, who now lives at Owosso. She was first married to Isaac Bradley, and they had one child, Isaac. She was married a second time, becoming the wife of Isaac Tucker and nine children were the issue of this union. Joseph, the third, lives in Detroit. He has been twice married; had three children. The

442 PAST AND PRESENT OF 442 PAST AND PRESENT OF I fourth child was Barton, who passed to the great beyond when a small boy. The fifth was James N. Phillips, whose name appears at the head of this sketch. George was the sixth link in this prolific and notable family, but joined the silent majority while yet a young and unmarried man. The seventh was Lina, who is now a resident of Duluth, Minnesota. She has been twice married and is the mother of three children. The eighth was Sara L., and she is now living in Aberdeen, Scotland, with her husband, Charles Cronton. The ninth and last in this widely scattered family was Martha, who is now dead. She married Charles Hyde and had three children, -Lillie, Carrie and Philip. In view of the fact that Mr. Phillips' father died when he was yet young, the family was soon scattered, and as a result the record of births, marriages and deaths was not kept. At the age of twelve years, our subject commenced working by the month, and two years afterward removed with his sister Emeline, to Lexington, Sanilac county, Michigan, where he worked in the lumber woods and as a hoopmaker, for nine years. He then removed to Armada township, Macomnb county, Michigan, where he worked by the month on a farm for four years during the summer, while the winters were spent in the lumber woods. He then began buying hoop timber and making hoops in that county. In the meantime he bought a small farm, which he sold in 1877, and bought ninety-six acres in Armada township, that county. This was improved and contained good buildings. In the fall of the same year, however, he sold this farm and removed to Hazelton township, Shia. wassee county, and bought eighty acres, thirty acres of which were improved. He cleared twenty-two acres more and in 1877 sold the property and bought seventy acres, mostly improved. This is where he now resides. In 1888 he added, by purchase, forty acres on the east to the original seventy, making one hundred and ten acres in all. He subsequently secured sixty-seven acres in Flushing township, Genesee county. This was all improved and his son George is now living on the premises. On his homestead Mr. Phillips has erected a fine residence and a barn thirty-six by eighty feet. February 22, 1877, MIr. Phillips was married to Frances I. Youngs, who was born June 5, 1857. Her father, Darius Youngs, was born in Armada, Michigan, October 1, 1826. Her mother's maiden name was Julia Aldrich. She was born in Massachusetts, October 30, 1830, and came to Michigan with her father, Seth Aldrich, in 1835. The parents of Mrs. Phillips were married March 15, 1855. His wife's father was a farmer and owns a farm, which he purchased and cleared when a young man. He still lives on the premises. When the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Phillips came to Michigan the country was all new,-practically a wilderness, in fact. He was one of the first settlers in Armada and experienced the privations and hardships incident to life in a new country. Mrs. Phillips was the second of seven children. The first was George, who is now a resident of Armada. He married Stella Calwell, arid they have three children,-Matilda, Ella and a baby. The third was Cassius and he lives in Armada. He married Susie Chamberlain and they have no children. Israel was the fourth. With his sister Minnie he still lives on the old homestead in Armada and thus far has escaped the darts of Cupid. The fifth was Seth, who still lives in Armada, enjoying "single blessedness." Dwight, the sixth, is a resident of sunny Mississippi. He is married but has no children. The seventh link in the chain is Minnie, who, as stated above, enjoys the old homestead with her brother Israel and is unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have six children in the order named below: Wade, who was born June 20, 1878, is a Methodist Episcopal clergyman and is now stationed at Holton, Michigan. He married Myrta Averel, September 16, 1903, and they have one child, Zella, who was born July 2, 1904. George was born December 26, 1879, and lives on his father's farm in Flushing township, Gene

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 443 SC see county. He married Maggie Darling October 13, 1903, and they have no children; Edith was born July 19, 1903; Mary Cecilia, October 5, 1883; Guy, October 18, 1885; and James, February 1, 1888. In politics Mr. Phillips is a Republican. He has been a school officer for a period of twenty-two years,-a fact that speaks volumes for his standing among his fellows. He is a member of the American Association of Equity. He does a general farming business, his chief products being stock and grain. His grandfather on his mother's side was English; and his grandfather on his father's side was German; his grandmother was Irish. The maiden name of his wife's mother's stepmother was Lamisee Wyman. She. was born in Massachusetts August 23, 1817, and married Seth Aldrich in 1845. She died March 18, 1905, at Armada, Macomb county, having been the last survivor of eleven children, and at the time of her death she was the eldest member of the Congregational church at Armada. MAXFIELD GEORGE PHOENIX Maxfield George Phoenix, of Bennington township, is a native of Tompkins county, New York, where he was born April 6, 1830. His parents were Ralph and Catherine (Dawson) Phoenix. The former was born in New Jersey, February 4, 1805, and died August 6, 1837, and the latter was likewise a native of New Jersey, where she was born February 14, 1804, her death occurring June 29, 1879; her marriage was solemnized April 16, 1824. The father of our subject settled in St. Joseph county, Michigan, in 1835, and died when Maxfield was only six years old. The latter then went to live with an uncle, Lyman Bennett, who brought the lad to Shiawassee county, where he lived until he reached his sixteenth year. He then felt that it was time to go to his mother. With the poet he exclaimed in his inmost soul: Mother, 0 mother, my heart calls for you, Many a summer the grass has grown green, 27 Blossomed and faded our faces between; Yet with strong yearning and passionate pain Long I to-night for your presence again. He therefore returned to his mother's home, at White Pigeon, Michigan, where he remained until 1854. He had not forgotten his early impressions of Shiawassee county, and in 1854 he returned here and bought eighty acres of wild land ten acres of which were cleared and contained a log house. The consideration for the property was eleven hundred dollars. He paid six hundred and fifty dollars of this cash. Owing to circumstances over which he had no control he subsequently experienced unusual difficulties. He worked for others summers and chopped wood on his own farm winters. He finally surmounted his difficulties and now boasts of a magnificent home and a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, finely improved. His house is situated on a commanding eminence, presenting a picturesque view of the surrounding country for a considerable distance in all directions. His residence cost twelve hundred dollars and his barn nearly as much. His buildings are supplied with well water through pipes from a wind mill, and the land is in a high state of cultivation, being thoroughly underdrained with tile. Mr. Phoenix was married March 29, 1865, to Wealthy Brandt, who was born in Perry township, August 26, 1847. She is a daughter of Frederick Brandt, who was born in Germany, November 25, 1794, and who died in 1875. Her mother Dorothy (Weazy) Brandt, was born in Hamburg, Germany, and was killed in a tornado, March 14, 1868, at the age of fifty-four years. Mr. Brandt was a butcher by trade and after becoming a farmer worked at that business for his neighbors. He was married in Germany and came to Michigan in 1840, locating on an eighty-acre farm in Perry township. At that time the country was a wilderness, with no roads and only Indian trails to guide the traveler. Mr. Brandt first built a log house, which had no doors or windows,-merely openings for the same. At night they hung blankets over the same to

444 PAST AND PRESENT OF keep the wolves out. But they carved out a good home there and subsequently added forty acres to the farm and replaced the log house by a good frame one. Mrs. Phoenix was the fifth in a family of eight children. John died in infancy; Elizabeth died at the age of thirty-five years; Henry lived in Perry township and died at age of fifty years; Lyman lives in North Dakota; Sarah is deceased; Louise, now Mrs. A. Able, lives in North Dakota; Mary died at the age of five years. Mr. Phoenix is the second of six children. John, born January 17, 1825, died many years ago; Elizabeth, born August 17, 1826, is now dead; Sophia died in North Dakota; Samuel and Henry were twins, the former being deceased and the latter being a resident of North Dakota. Lyman (1st) died in infancy, having been born April 29, 1828. Mr. Phoenix's mother married second and third husbands. The former was Nathaniel Loder and they lived for many years on the old homestead in St. Joseph county. Later she married Mr. Hebbard and after his death removed to Corunna, where she died. There are three children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Phoenix. One, Jennie, is by a former marriage, -and is now the widow of Charles Beemis, of Henderson, Rush township. The other two are by his second marriage: Bertha, born Feburary 17, 1872, is the wife of William Horton and lives on a farm in Perry township; and John H., who was born February 14, 1882, married Lina Van Wormer, April 20, 1904, and they live with Mr. and Mrs. Phoenix; they have a little daughter, Thelma Theo, born August 4, 1905. Mr. Phoenix is a Republican in politics, a school officer and highway commissioner. He and his wife are members of the Baptist church. Being now past the activities of farm life, Mr. Phoenix and his estimable wife are enjoying the fruits of their toil and, surrounded by friends and relatives, are reaping as they have sown, being specially blest in their social relations. CARL PICKERT Germany has furnished hundreds of thousands of excellent men to help populate Uncle Sam's wide domain. Many of these have reached great prominence in various spheres of activity in their adopted land. But whether they have been prominent or otherwise, they are all, generally speaking, numbered among our best citizens. Few, however, have reached a higher standard for honesty and integrity than the gentleman whose name is given above. He was born about ten miles from the city of Berlin, Prussia, February 8, 1862. He is a son of Ferdinand Pickert, who was born in the same place, November 16, 1826 and who died August 8, 1904; his wife, Emelia (Heise) Pickert, was born August 28, 1839, and she is now a resident of Detroit. Ferdinand Pickert was a soldier in the German army and held the rank of sergeant major in the infantry. Later he received a commission as second lieutenant in the heavy cavalry. He became connected with the army in 1848 or earlier. Our subject has his father's discharge papers, covering the period mentioned, but for aught he knows he may have been in the army prior to the date above stated. He came to America in 1874 and located in Detroit. He was a writer and student and taught school in Macomb county for several years. He assisted in platting Elmwood cemetery in Detroit. Ferdinand Pickert was a liberalist or social democrat in Germany but in his adopted land he was aligned with the Republicans. He was originally a Catholic in his religious convictions. Our subject was engaged in the handling of real estate in Detroit from 1887 to 1892. From then until 1894 he devoted his energiesto the music business. This not proving profitable he concluded to remove to Corunna,. where for two and one-half years he conducted what is now the Central Hotel. In 1897 he was appointed postmaster of Corunna, holding the office five years. He then assumed the management of the coal mines near that city, and was afterward receiver of the

SHIA W~ASSEE CO UNTY 445 S A industry, the company having failed. He recently wound up its affairs, since when he has not been in business. Mr. Pickert was married June 21, 1893, to Mildred H. Smith, born in Corunna, a daughter of Clark D. Smith, proprietor of the Central Hotel. She died July 25, 1898; they had one child Mildred M. Our subject was married a second time, September 19, 1904, when he was united to Ella M. Seeley, who was born in Barry county, Michigan, April 18, 1867. Mr. Pickert was the first of the five children born to his parents, and all are living: Ferd E. is a clothing salesman and lives in Detroit; he is married. John lives in Detroit, is engaged in selling automobiles, is married and has three children. Henry A., single, is city salesman in Detroit for the Fletcher Hardware Company. Clara is the wife of Gus Letzering of Detroit. Mr. Pickert secured his early education under the direction of his father in Germany and also in America. He is a Republican in politics, but aside from being postmaster at Corunna, as referred to above, he has held no office. He is a member of the Masonic order, including the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He affiliates with Blue Lodge, No. 115, Free and Accepted Masons; Corunna Chapter, No. 33, Royal Arch Masons; is recorder of Corunna Council, No. 38, Royal and Select Masons; and past eminent commander of Corunna Commandery, No. 21 Knights Templar. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, subordinate and uniform ranks; a charter member of Chapter No. 200, Order of the Eastern Star, Corunna; was one of the organizers of the Owosso lodge of Elks, of which he is past exalted ruler. Mr. Pickert laid out and platted Middletown addition to Corunna and erected some of the first buildings there. He stands high in the community, being not only a "prince of good fellows," but a gentleman of the strictest integrity and honor. He owns one of the many pleasant homes in Corunna. EDWIN O. PLACE 'Tis not in mortals to command success, said a writer of old, but "I'll deserve it" seems to have been the motto of the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, and who is an honored citizen of Owosso township. He is a native of Scio township, Washtenaw county, Michigan, where he was born August 8, 1841, and he is among the prominent and successful farmers of his township having carved his way to the front by hard work, honesty and frugality. He is a son of Reuben Place, who was born in Steuben county, New York, July 11, 1814 and who died April 29, 1879, in Shiawassee township; his wife was Electa (Phillips) Place, who was born July 6, 1812, and passed to the "land beyond the blue," February 17, 1873. This respected couple were married November 9, 1839, in Lodi township Washtenaw county, Michigan. John Place, the grandfather of our subject, was born on Long Island, New York, in 1775, and died in Illinois. Reuben Place first came to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1836 and after working on a farm for some time he and his brother Isaac bought a woolen mill at Scio. They did not keep it long, however, but disposed of it and engaged in operating a chair factory at the same place. December 25, 1841, Mr Place sold out and removed to Woodhull township with his family, having previously bought eighty acres of wild land there. He built a log house, cleared the land and in 1852 moved to Bennington township, where he already owned eighty acres, partly improved land, but containing no buildings. He erected a frame house and barn and soon added one hundred and twenty acres of unimproved land, sixty acres of which he placed under cultivation. In 1864 he sold the place and bought ninety acres on section 12, Shiawassee township. him. In both places there were one hundred acres improved, with good buildings. On the His son Edwin bought eighty acres adjoining former eighty father and son worked together and finally brought most of the remainder u-n

446 PAST AND PRESENT OF 446 PAST AND PRESENT bF der the plow. In 1874 Edwin built a good house and barn on his eighty, and his father, Reuben Place, continued to live on his ninety acres until he joined the "silent majority" in the great beyond. When Reuben Place came to Woodhull township wild deer were so plentiful that it was not an uncommon thing to see eight or a dozen in a drove, and wolves could be heard almost nightly. Mr. Place used to go to Howell, thirty miles distant, for his mail, and go, too, through a dense forest most of the way. He helped to build a saw mill and took his pay in lumber. In those days pioneers used to make doors from drygoods boxes which had been used to transport their household effects. One family had thin bark for floors and roof. Mr. Place brought with him at first, one year's supply of provisions. He traded some of his property for an ox team, plow and chest of tools. He helped to build many of the houses in his locality. He also assisted John P. Shaft, of Shaftsburg, to build a shoe house. In going to church he used to drive an ox team half way and walk the remainder of the distance. In 1862 Edwin O. Place first bought forty acres in Bennington township, ten acres of which were improved. After clearing the rest he sold the tract and bought the eighty acres adjoining the land of his father, already mentioned. He lived with his father until 1873. After the death of his father, in 1879, he bought out the interests of the other heirs to the farm, and in 1883 sold one hundred and thirty acres of the old homestead, but bought another sixty acres, leaving him one hundred and five acres. In 1891 he traded the remainder of the old farm for ninety acres on section 12, Owosso township, to which he removed May 15th of the same year, and upon which he has since resided. There were not more than twenty-five acres of improved ground in all this farm of ninety acres when he got it; but all save some ten acres is now in a good state of cultivation,-splendid, in fact. On September 16, 1873, Mr. Place was married to Jennie M. Cooper, a native of Bennington township, where she was born October 27, 1849. Her father was Archibald Cooper, who was born in the Empire state, November 12, 1809, and who died August 10, 1876, in Bennington township. Mrs. Place's mother, Jane S. (Castle) Cooper, was born in New York state, May 24, 1820, and died March 6, 1893, at Bancroft, Michigan; she was a daughter of Lemuel Castle who was born in New York, and who came to Bennington township before Shiawassee county was organized. He bought a large tract of land from the government, cleared part of it and lived in Bennington township until his death. He was a representative in the state legislature when the capitol was in Detroit. Mrs. Place's father bought two hundred and nine acres, in Bennilngton township, which he improved and which he occupied until his death. Mrs. Place was the fourth of nine children. Lemuel, born August 3, 1843, lives in Bennington township; he married Sara Beers and had three children, -Frank, Katharine and Grace. Duane C., born January 19, 1845, lives at Owosso; he married Anna Herndern and they had two children,-Mabel and Gertrude. George A., born October 27, 1849, lives in Bennington township; he married Hattie Beemis and they had two children,-Lillian and Walter, the former being deceased. Delia E., born October 24, 1851, lives in Shiawassee township; she married P. B. Reynolds and had three children,-Chauncey, Floyd and Leo. John T., born August 24, 1854, died on the old farm, June 12, 1895; he married Blanche King and had two children,-Sadie and Clayton. Angeline S., born April 30, 1855, lives in Caledonia township; she married William Lewis and had five children,-Leon, who was a member of Company G, Thirty-third Michigan Infantry, in the Spanish-American war, died at Montauk Point, New York, hospital in September, 1898, from disease contracted in the service. The other children in the Lewis family are Ray, Thella, Earl and Ralph. William F., born January 26, 1857, lives in Caledonia; he married Myra Vandercarr and had two children,-Florence, deceased, and Fay. Mary S., born November 30, 1861, lives

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 447 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 447 in Bancroft; she married Claude Watson and had two children,-Paul and Louise. Mr. Place is the first of nine children, six of whom are deceased. Calvin, born April 23, 1842, died December 28, 1865; Judson A., born October 18, 1843, died January 26, 1866. James L., born August 21, 1845, lives in San Francisco, California; he married Isabella Melon and they have three children,-Addie, Floyd and Tressie. Grover, born August 9, 1847, died August 5, 1848; Phoebe A., born September 4, 1849, died March 13, 1867. Alvira J., born February 28, 1857, lives in Santa Cruz, California; she married William Waugh and they have one child,-Eva. Eletha, born November 26, 1852, died Februray 9, 1853. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Place, as follows: Anna, born August 30, 1874, died October 3, 1874. Myra, born March 7, 1876, lives at Morrice; she married William Kirker. Neva F., born January 20, 1880, is teaching at Traverse City; WVVinnie I., born February 13, 1883, died February 20, 1893; and Karl J. was born July 2, 1888. The parents of Mrs. Place were Baptists, and her father was a Republican. Mr. Place is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Patrons of Industry. In politics he is a Republican, but in no sense an office-seeker, preferring to be a private citizen. He was once elected highway commissioner, but refused to qualify. This is a modesty possessed by few men. Indeed, if more were gifted in the same way there would be fewer scandals in high and low places. The craze for office in this country has become a national evil, and honesty is at a premium. DANIEL S. POST Among the intelligent and thrifty men of affairs and one who enjoys to a marked degree the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens is Daniel S. Post, of Vernon township. He arrived at Chardon, Geauga county, Ohio, July 12,.1844, coming in over the "stork" route. His father, Orson Post, was a native of the Green Mountain state, and when a youth learned the trade of cabinetmaker. In 1837, while_ yet a young man, he took the advice later given by Horace Greeley and came west, locating for a time in the wilds of Shiawassee township. In 1839 he was united in marriage to Miss Amanda Canfield, an estimable lady and one who proved to be to him a helpmeet, indeed, sharing with him the joys and sorrows of the years of their wedded lives. In the year 1844 Orson Post removed to Geauga county, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch was born. Three sons came to bless the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Orson Post. Stephen A. was born November 16, 1838, and most of the active years of his life were spent in the milling business. Hiram M. is engaged in the hardware trade in Owosso. Orson Post, father of our subject, died December 9, 1888, at Vernon, and the mother passed away just seventeen years later to a day. They rest in Greenwood cemetery at Vernon. Our subject's school advantages were those common to boys of his time in a new country, but, with an eyv to the main chance, he has been enabled to keep abreast with the progress of the age and fill the roll of a patriot and a good citizen. When but a lad of eighteen years, he heeded the call of his country to defend her flag and honor, and on the 14th day of August, 1862, signed the rolls of muster of Company G, Twenty-third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, as a "high private," as he put it. He donned the uniform of an American soldier and marched away.to war. The Twenty-third was raised in the sixth congressional district and rendezvoused at, East Saginaw. It left for the seat of war September 18, 1862, under command of Colonel Marshall W. Chapin, bearing upon its rolls of muster the names of nine hundred and eighty-three officers and men. Its first objective point was Bowling Green, Kentucky, where it was assigned to the tenth division of General Rosecrans' army. During the three eventful years that followed, the regiment saw much hard fighting. Its losses from disease and action footed up

448 PAST AND PRESENT OF 448 PAST AND PRE two hundred and eighty-seven. Young Post followed the fortunes of his command through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, meeting the enemy on nearly a score of battlefields, to the close of the war. He was mustered out of service with his regiment at Salisbury, North Carolina, June 28, 1865, by reason of the close of the war. He arrived home upon the date of his twenty-first birthday, crossing the threshold to full manhood, and having to his credit nearly three years of active service in the field,-a record to which he may point with just pride and personal satisfaction. December 16, 1867, Daniel S. Post was united in marriage to Miss Ella M., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Johnson, pioneer residents of Venice township, where Mr. Johnson carried on farming and was also a horse farrier. Mrs. Post was born October 29, 1851. Mr. Johnson was a veteran of the civil war and received a serious injury by a horse falling upon him. No children came to brighten the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Post and they opened their hearts and home to a little girl four months of age, adopting her as their very own, and now she is a young lady and is known as Lina E. Post. She dates her birth August 31, 1888. Mr. Post's ability and integrity have often found recognition by his fellow townsmen. He served as president of the village of Vernon one year. He was for seven years treasurer and was trustee for the same length of time. Fraternally Mr. Post affiliates with the Odd Fellows, of which organization he has been a member since May 21, 1866, and with H. F. Wallace Post, No. 160, Grand Army of the Republic, at Corunna. Politically his views harmonize with the principles of the Grand Old Party, and he is proud of the record of his party. The family give their moral, and material support to the Baptist church society, of which they are esteemed members. Mr. Post gives the following interesting reminiscence of his personal war experience, and the same will be read with interest: "The first engagement in which I participated was at Campbell Station, November 16, 1863. We spent our first winter out at Bowling Green, Kentucky, where the regiment did garrison duty and guarded railroad trains. May 31st we arrived at Glasgow, and from there we were ordered to Tompkinsville, from which place we started in pursuit, July 4th, of a band of rebels under command of General John H. Morgan. We passed rapidly through, marching to Jeffersonville, Indiana, from there to Chillicothe, Ohio, arriving at Paris, Kentucky, June 29th, just in time to save the railroad bridge from destruction and the capture of the small force defending the town. After a brisk skirmish the rebels withdrew. "August 4th we proceeded, via Lexington and Louisville, to Lebanon, and on to Newmarket. August 17th we participated in the advance of the army in east Tennessee, arriving at Loudon September 4th. On the 15th of September the army made a forced march of thirty miles to Knoxville, and from there to Morristown, returning to Loudon on the 19th and remaining for some time engaged in picket and other duties. We were marched to Lenoir in the early part of November following, and later the regiment with the army was marched to Hous Ferry, attacking the enemy and driving them some miles, later returning to Lenoir. November 16th orders were received to destroy transportation equipage and officers' baggage and turn the teams over to the several batteries. Then commenced the retreat to Knoxville, the enemy in hot pursuit. A warm engagement was put up at Campbell Station, and the enemy checked for some hours. When the retreat was resumed, through mud and rain, the command was tired and hungry, having fought for five hours without food or rest. We arrived at Knoxville at early dawn, after a march of twenty-eight miles. The regiment assisted in the defense of Knoxville until December 5th, when the siege was raised. The winter that followed was a severe one for the Twenty-third. The men suffered greatly from scarcity of rations and lack of tents, blankets and overcoats. Early in May following we were at Charleston, Tennessee, and were destined to participate in the Atlanta cam

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 449 I I paign. Arriving at Resaca, we were ordered to make a charge upon the enemy's works, which was done in fine order, but we were repulsed with a loss of sixty-two men killed and wounded within a few minutes. The enemy, however, soon after evacuated the place, the rebel force falling back upon Dallas. Here we were again under fire almost constantly for several days. The enemy finally abandoned the town and Lost Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochee River and Lovejoy Station fol-lowed in close order. We were with the command that followed General Hood's rebel horde from Decatur northward through Georgia and Alabama to the Tennessee river. After scouring the country the regiment brought up at Jonesville, Tennessee, early in November, where it was stationed for some time and was then ordered by rail to Columibia, where it again joined the forces against Hood. A battle was on and a portion of our regiment was sent in at midnight. We were withdrawn to Duck river and threw up breastworks. Several severe engagements followed in quick succession, the enemy being repulsed. December 1st found us at Nashville, Tennessee, having marched fifty miles in. forty-eight hours and fought the battle of Franklin. Here again the regiment made a gallant charge, capturing more prisoners than it had men engaged. The enemy was put to rout and closely followed to Columbia. The rain fell in torrents and the mud was fully six inches in depth. January 1, 1865, the Twenty-third Corps, to which my regiment was now attached, was ordered to Washington, D. C. A forced march of two hundred and fifty miles was made to Clifton, where we embarked on steamers for Cincinnati, Ohio, and from there took rail for Washington. Here we went into Camp Stoneman, where we remained until February 9th, when we marched to Alexandria and were put aboard transports under orders for Smithville, North Carolina, at the mouth of Cape Fear river. We met the enemy again at Town Creek, where we captured two pieces of artillery and three hundred and fifty prisoners. A march of one hundred and i twenty-five miles, to Kingston, was made in six days. From Kingston we went to Goldsboro and on to Raleigh, where we arrived April 9th, the ever memorable day of Lee's surrender to Grant, at Appomattox. Here we remained until the surrender of Johnson's army, on the 21st, and the war of the Rebellion had passed into history." Mr. Post relates the following personal incident which will be readily appreciated by any one who has had army experience: "At Columbia, Tennessee, I was arrested for foraging. I had received a pass from General Couch's headquarters, got out about five miles, had killed a hog and loaded a part of it on to the horse loaned me at the time by Surgeon James R. Leader. I was caring for the animal for Surgeon Leader. About this time some guards who were patrolling the country came in sight, but as we had a pass, we supposed we were all right. However, there had been orders issued against foraging that we knew nothing of. We were taken back to the officer who was in command of the guard. He ordered us under arrest and took the doctor's horse from me and gave it to some member of his force. At about seven o'clock in the evening we were started for camp in a terrible storm of rain and in almost impenetrable darkness. We had to cross a river on flood wood and some of the party came near to being drowned. We finally reached brigade headquarters, and, to our disgust, were put under strong guard until morning. During the night the weather grew very cold, snow falling to the depth of about two inches. We nearly perished. Morning came, and with it, to our great relief, sunshine also. During the day we were taken to the general headquarters, still under guard. I was allowed to go to my regiment for an hour to see the boys. After returning, the guards paid little or no attention to me, and I was permitted to go wherever I pleased during the remainder of my imprisonment. From Columbia, the army marched to Clifton, on the Tennessee river, about one hundred and twenty-five miles. I had no gun to carry and had the best time of my army

450 PAST AND PRESENT OF 4 P A life. We had issued to us full rations, while the men doing duty in the regiment were on half fare. After our arrival in Clifton General Couch sent for us and we were taken before him. If I remember correctly, no bands of music accompanied us, and I confess I felt' a little shaky, but was soon reassured, as the old general talked very kindly to us, as a father might have done to a son for a similar transgression. He told us not to get caught foraging again. After this we were allowed to return to our command and resume our duties." Episodes of this character were common experiences with the soldier boys in volunteer service. Mr. Post's father was a member of the same company and regiment with him, but was discharged for disability after a few months' service. F. H. POTTER The Empire state has always been noted for turning out splendid specimens of men,men whose hardy physical characteristics correspond to their sterling worth, patient industry and keen insight into business. Such men have proved of greatest value in the enterprises of the newer states where they were sorely needed and where their work and their characters have pushed forward wonderfully the development of those more modern commonwealths. Among these sons of New York, we may mention Hon. F. H. Potter, the popular expresident of the village of Durand. He was born April 8, 1833, being a son of Thomas Potter, who was born in Rhode Island, who was a farmer by occupation and who married Rowena Hill, who was a native of New York. Our subject was one of eight children, being the fifth in order of birth. He was reared in his father's home at Marion, Wayne county, New York, and was educated in the neighboring district school. At the age of twenty Mr. Potter started out for himself, taking for his first work the trade of a carpenter and builder. In 1856 he located at Newberg, Shiawassee county, and besides working at his trade was engaged in the lumber business until 1890, when he came to Durand and there engaged in the same business. Our subject is a follower of the Democrat party and has filled many positions of trust and honor. These positions denote the confidence which the citizens of Durand repose in him and of which he is in every way worthy. He served as president of Durand for seven years and has held the offices of supervisor, township clerk, township treasurer, was highway commissioner of Shiawassee township, justice of the peace of Vernon, and was honored by his election to the position of state representative of the east district of Shiawassee county, in 1882, 1883, 1884 and 1885. As a member of the house he labored faithfully for his people and in every way guarded their interests. He was a member of the committees on the State House of Correction, State Public School, and horticulture. Mr. Potter's father was a straight out-and-out Whig and later a Republican. In 1858 F. H. Potter was united in marriage to Jane C., daughter of Hiram and Eliza Davis. She was born in Shiawassee county, in 1838, her father having been an early settler of Newburg, Shiawassee township, where he was engaged in farming. Mrs. Potter's father and mother are both deceased. To our subject and wife have been born six children, three of whom are living: Fred H. is Grand Trunk agent at Lansing; Nettie Harder is a widow, residing at Durand with her father; and Maude C., the wife of R. C. Mackey, who is a railroad engineer residing at Charleston, Illinois. Fraternally Mr. Potter is allied with the blue lodge, royal arch chapter, Knights Templar and Mystic Shrine, all of the Masonic fraternity. His long residence in the county has brought him prominently into connection with every movement which has proved of value to the people of this section, and his acquaintance with the people is a broad one and has existed for many years.

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 451 SHIWASE COUN HENRY H. PULVER One never feels the truth of the saying that the ways of truth are devious, so much as when considering the intricacy of the simplest case that is under the'legal jurisdiction. Yet of all the liberal professions, in no other is there such mental acumen, such clearness and quickness of perception necessary as in the legal profession. It is of all other callings the one most dependent upon natural endowments, and a man if not having a logical reasoning power, with a ready or facile understanding, might study Blackstone and the whole library of legal lore without ever becoming a lawyer. There are lawyers and lawyers, but the only true lawyer is he who unites with skill in his calling, truth and humanity. Henry H. Pulver, who is a most successful practitioner in the town of Laingsburg, Shiawassee county, is an honor to his profession, being a man whose opinions are not to be moved by any means of corruption. In addition to his law practice Mr. Pulver is the present efficient postmaster of Laingsburg, having served the public in this capacity since January 15, 1902. Our subject was born in Livingston county, New York, September 2, 1843. He is a son of James and Lucinda (Morrell) Pulver, who were likewise natives of New York, where they were born in 1814 and 1821, respectively. The father died in Woodhull, Shiawassee county, Michigan, in October, 1864, and the mother at Laingsburg, in 1897. Our subject's parents were married in New York, about the year 1839, and there the father worked at the trade of blacksmith. He came to Woodhull township, Shiawassee county, in 1855 and located on one hundred and sixty acres of wild land, which he improved, later adding to his possessions a tract of one, hundred and twenty acres, part of which he improved. Our subject's grandfather, John Pulver, came from Holland. The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and the father was a Free Soldier, a Whig, and later a Republican. Henry H. Pulver was the second of six children, all of whom are deceased except himself. James N., born in New York August 4, 1840, died at Woodhull. He married Kate Hardy and to them one child was born, James, who lives on a part of the old homestead. The third and fourth were twins, Middleton and Milton, born in 1847; Milton died in infancy and Middleton in 1904; he married Sara Foland and to them were born three children, Maude, Frank and Budd, and he lived in Woodhull. Mary, born in New York in 1850, died in 1903. She married John D. Haskins and lived in Laingsburg at the time of his death. Jennie, born in Woodhull, in 1856, died at Morrice, this county. She married Gaylord Colby and they had one child, which died in infancy. Our subject started for himself at the age of eighteen years and at the call for men to serve the country in its time of trial he enlisted, August 11, 1861, in the Eighth Michigan Volunteer Infantry. He served with the regiment until November, 1862, and was then transferred to Company A, United States Battalion of Engineers, with which he served until June 29, 1865, when he was mustered out and honorably discharged. He was personally engaged in the following battles: Hilton Head, Crusoe Landing, Siege of Port Pulaski, James Island, White Sulphur Springs, second battle of Bull Run, battle of Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, second battle of Frederricksburg, Gettysburg, Mine Run, battle of the Wilderness, Po River, North Anna, Cold Harbor, siege of Petersburg, Appomattox Court House, being present at the surrender of General Lee. Following his war experience Mr. Pulver commenced the study of law in the office of Gould & Gould, of Owosso, and was admitted to practice in 1869. He commenced his professional duties at Chesaning, later practicing in Iola, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, but since 1877 he has been located at Laingsburg, where the greater part of his time has been given to his profession. Henry H. Pulver was first married to Ach

452 PAST AND PRESENT OF I sah Hardy, and by this union he has one son, Henry H., who lives at Pine Lake. His second marriage was celebrated in 1872, when he wedded Rosalia Feezler, and they have two children: Seth Q., born July 20, 1880, and Ethel, born in 1883. Seth married Grace Galusha, of Olivet, and they have one child, Henry H. Seth is practising law at Caro, Michigan, being senior member of the firm of Pulver and Smith. He was graduated in Olivet College, studied law with his father and took an examination before the state board and was duly admitted to the bar. In 1884 and 1886 the Greenback party honored our subject by his election on its ticket to the office of state senator. He has served the village as president. He is identified with the Odd Fellows and is past commander of Henry Demming Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Laingsburg. Mr. Pulver is strong in his belief in the policies of the Republican party. He is a gentleman whose character and abilities give him the respect of the community, and his enterprise and progressive ideas place him in the front rank among business men. ALEXANDER PURVES Alexander Purves, of Owosso township, is a Canadian, having been borr in York county, near Toronto, January 11, 1841. In December, 1865, at the age of twenty-four years, he left the old home and came to Owosso township, where he bought eighty acres of timbered land, on section 6. He was accompanied by his brother Joseph, who bought eighty acres just across the road from him, in Middlebury township. The brothers "batched" it together for four years, when Joseph married and Alexander boarded with him. The subject of this sketch has improved all his land and in 1875 bought twenty acres more, partly improved, making the farm now one of one hundred acres. Under the fostering care of Mr. Purves the place has reached a high state of cultivation. January 18, 1876, Alexander Purves married Mary A. Ockerman, who was born in Northumberland county, Canada, March 6, 1856. She is a daughter of Nelson Ockerman, a native of Prince Edward county, Canada, where he was born March 5, 1819, and he died in Owosso township, April 19, 1903. He was a farmer and owned one hundred acres in the county in which his daughter was born. This land he bought from the government when it was in a state of nature, but he improved it and in 1862 sold it. In April, 1865, he came to Ovid, Michigan, where he remained one year, at the expiration of which he bought forty acres of timbered land in Middlebury township, Shiawassee county. On this he built a log house, and he eventually cleared the land. In 1864 he sold it and removed to Burton, where his wife died. He then went to Allegan county, where he bought fifteen acres and where he remained about seven years, then returning to Owosso township, where he died. James Purves, father of Alexander, was born in Brunswick, Scotland, January 10, 1813. At the age of fourteen years he went with his father, Joseph Purves, to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he worked with his father at their trade, that of carpentering. In 1834 James Purves emigrated to Burton township, York county, Canada, where he worked at his trade until 1850, when he bought one hundred acres of wild land, in Scarboro township, York county. He had the reputation of being the best tradesman-farmer in the township. He built a frame house of lumber procured from his wife's father, Peter Secor, who went from New York state to Canada when King George gave him six hundred acres of land for his loyalty during the Revolutionary war. Mr. Secor was the first postmaster in Scarboro township, but he was removed from that office during the McKenzie rebellion in Canada, because of his sympathy for McKenzie. James Purves improved his land and in 1860 built a brick house and frame barns. In 1889 he sold the farm. Alexander Purves is the second of 12 children. * Joseph, born December 27, 1838, lives in

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY~T 453 S.WSE C N 453 Middlebury township; he came to Shiawassee county with his brother Alexander, as already stated, and he and his sons own four hundred' and forty acres in this county. He first married Amanda Benedict, now dead, and his second wife was Rebecca Alderson. He had six children,-James A., Franklin J., Amos L., Lillie I., Lloyd L. and Jay. Frederick, born in 1843, died in infancy. Peter, born in February, 1845, lives in Fairfield township: he married Libbie Winchel and they have two sons, Frank and Harry. James and George, twins, born June 8, 1847, both live in Clinton county; James married Matilda Stark, and George wedded Jane Norris; the latter couple having three children,-Frances, Loretta and William. William, the seventh child, was born in February, 1850, and lives in Canada; he married Jennie Grant, and they have three children,-Hildah, Anna and Paul. Sidney, born in June, 1852, lives in Bruce county, Canada; he married -Rachael Duncan and had three children,-Fred, Frank and Loretta. John, born in January, 1858, lives in Owosso, Michigan. Anna, born in May, 1857, lives in Simcoe county, Canada; she married Walter 'Crosby and had four children,-Henry, James, Frances (dead), and Eugene. Sara, born in March, 1860, died in Clinton county, Michigan in 1895; she married Smith Hammell and had four children,-Thomas, Sidney, Florence and Harry. Henry, born in 1862. died at the old home in Canada, at twenty years of age. Mrs. Purves is the ninth of ten children. Helen A., born July 7, 1838, lives at Owosso: she married Harris A. Burke, and has the following named children,-Wallace, Adney, Jennie, Harry, Luke and Lulu. Egbert, born in 1841, lives in St. Joseph county; he mrarried Margaret Lavenev and has five children,William, Bertha, May, Maggie and Egbert. Thomas A., born March 18, 1844, lives in Owosso township; he married May E. Wiggins, and they have six children,-Henry, Sara, Ella, Millard and Mildred (twins) and Minetta. William M., born February 14, 1845, lives at Greenville, Michigan; he mar ried Lucy Herne and they have one child,Frank. Martha, born October 6, 1847, died in Shiawassee county, at the age of twentytwo years. Henry, born April 17, 1849, died in Owosso township in 1900; he married Helen Tobey, and had two children,-Albertena and Claude. James N., born March 5, 1852, lives in Middlebury township; he married May Banghart and they have five childrenCassius, Victor, Percy, Minnie and Addie. Marshall L., born March 22, 1854, lives in Bennington township; he married twice, first to Harriett Matheson, deceased, who bore two children,-Isabella, now dead, and Morton. His second marriage was to Alice Gleason, and they had five children,-Willard, Theressa, Myrtie, Stephen and Alice. Elizabeth, born July 11, 1858, lives at Ypsilanti, Michigan; she married Edward Lewis and had one child,-Maude. Mr. Purves and wife had two children. Ethel M., born October 12, 1876, lives at home; and Olive L., born November 18, 1878, married Dewey C. McKenzie and they live at Durand. James Purves, the father of Alexander Purves, the subject of this article, was born in Brunswick, Scotland, January 10, 1813. - He now lives with his children, and although ninety-two years of age, is well and hearty. His wife, Loretta (Secor) Purves, was a native of Scarboro township, York county, Canada, where she was born March 6, 1818, and she died in January, 1889, at the home of a brother of one of her sons, in Ontario county, Canada. James Purves and wife were married in Ontario county, Canada, in 1837. Alexander Purves is a Republican and has been treasurer of his township for two terms. He is highly respected by his neighbors and stands high in the community, as a gentleman of sterling worth. ELIJAH'W. PUtNAM A sturdy representative of that yeoman class which forms the human basis upon which rests the material wealth of the west, and upon

454 PAST AND PRESENT OF -- which its substantial progress has always depended, Elijah W. Putnam has broken the virgin soil of two states and is the son of one of the early settlers of Michigan. His father, William R. Putnam, was a native of Ovid, Seneca county, New York, where he was born in 1813. Before he had reached his majority he migrated to Michigan and located land within the present limits of Ovid township, Clinton county, but at a time prior to its organization; in fact, he himself was the author of its name, given in honor of his native place. He returned to New York and married Hiss Hannah Waters, who was born in his native town and was two years his junior, and in 1838 he located permanently in Ovid township, his wife and infant daughter joining him two years later. The homestead thus selected consisted of eighty acres of wild land. He immediately set to work to cut the logs for a house eighteen by twenty-four feet. The home for the bride was completed, some twenty acres of land cleared and put under cultivation, and other improvements made before the New York wife also became a resident of the township. At that time there were only four voters within its limits. In 1853 he sold this farm, which he had entirely cleared, and removing to Sciota township, Shiawassee county, located in section twenty-two, where our subject now resides. The deceased was a Democrat and served as highway commissioner for several terms. This first pioneer homestead in Ovid township was the birthplace of our subject, who was born in March, 1841. He was the second of seven children, the first, Elizabeth, being born in New York state in 1839. She is the wife of John Seeley, who had previously been married. Her first husband was Samuel West, by whom she had three children, William, John and Rose. John, the third child of William R. Putnam, married Sarah Bunkerhoff and resides in Nebraska, having seven children. The fourth, William H., Jr., is a well known merchant and ex-postmaster of Durand; he married Josephine M. Delano, and they have two children, Omer and Ethel. Leighton, the fifth, married Rose McCausie, and is the father of two children,-Lizzie and Gertrude. Janie, now Mrs. George Childs, of Sciota township, is the mother of four children, Tedie, Essie, Grace and Robert. Elmira, the seventh child, now Mrs. Gardner, is the mother of Etna and Roy, and resides in Laingsburg. At twenty-two years of age our subject commenced his career as an independent husbandman. He was employed as a farm hand about one and a half years and then returned to the parental farm to assist his father, being thus engaged until he reached the age of twenty-eight. Mr. Putnam did not abandon bachelorhood until quite late in life, his marriage to Miss Delia Burgess, of Sciota township, being celebrated April 25, 1877. After this auspicious event he removed to Iowa, took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres and remained a citizen of the Hawkeye state about eight years. He then disposed of his property and resumed life on the old Michigan homestead, where he has since remained, eventually buying the interests of all the heirs to the estate. Mrs. Putnam is the daughter of Hiram and Betsey (Williams) Burgess. Her parents were natives of Genesee county, New York, her mother being born in the year 1830 and dying in 1860, when only thirty years of age. She was married in Farmington, Oakland county, Michigan, in 1848. Hiram Burgess was born in Livonia, New York, in 1828, coming to Farmington with his father when a boy. He was married before he was of age. He took up forty acres of wild land in Bennington township and built a log house thereon. Here Mrs. Burgess was born. After clearing and improving the little farm he sold it and migrated to Nebraska, where he bought eighty acres. Later he returned to Michigan and lived with his children until his death. Mr. Burgess was twice married. By his first union he had seven children; Sarah Jane and John, the first two born, died in infancy.

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 455 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 455 Mrs. Putnam was the third. Edwin, the fourth, married Effie Kimmis, resides in Oakland county and has two children,-Linsey 'and Mabel. Liza, the fifths is Mrs. Cass Waters, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and is childless. Harriet, who lives in Sciota township, mar-ried James Toms, and has had two children, Harry and Edith, the latter being deceased. By his second marriage Mr. Burgess had four children, Blanche and Belle and two who died in infancy. He died at the home of Mrs. James Toms, on the 7th of January, 1905. Elijah W. Putnam is now the prosperous proprietor of ninety-five acres of land in section 22, Sciota township, all being under fine cultivation with the exception of about seven acres. Although his education was limited to the primary training afforded by the district schools, by industry, perseverance, and honesty he has earned a firm place in the general respect of the community in which his lot has so long been cast. Although domestic in his tastes, he has never had the blessing of chil dren. He is still active in mind and body, al beit he has lived to see many changes since, as a farmer boy of sixteen, he '"geed and hawed" to nine lusty yokes of oxen. CASSIUS S. REED The subject of this sketch is one of the best known farmers of Shiawassee county, having of late years made a successful specialty of sheep raising. He is an active Republican, has been prominent in local governnment and is also identified with the banking interests of Durand. Cassius S. Reed was born and has passed most of his life on the farm, in Vernon township, which he now occupies, the date of his birth being December 16, 1857. He is the son of Rasselas and Eliza B. (Harrington) Reed, being the eldest of the three children. His father was a man of great natural and practical ability and would undoubtedly have bmade a deep impression on the legislature of the state had his health been equal to the strain of public life. Born in Tompkins county, New York, October 8, 1826, he came with his parents to Vernon in 1836, arriving July 25,th, eight months before the township was organized. The first town meeting was convened in his father's house, on the farm now occupied by George Reed, in section 17. In those days even the district schools were few and far between, and the boy, Rasselas, grew up without literary advantages; but he grasped and improved the privileges within his reach, studied at home, read much of the substantial kind of literature, and as his thirst for knowledge was constant and his industry untiring, ere he reached manhood he was noted for his precise and broad information. In his younger years, he was also very fond of hunting and, as the Shiawassee forests were filled with game of all kinds, he became widely known for his skill with the gun; in fact, there were few who were his equal in the county. On the 27th of November 1854, Rasselas Reed married Miss Eliza B. Harrington, and immediately moved to the farm upon which our subject now resides. Although an industrious and unpretentious farmer, his business ability, his unfaltering honesty and the unusual breadth of his intelligence early attracted the attention of his fellow townsmen, and he long served his constituents in local positions before being called to the state legislature. He was elected township clerk for three terms and served as supervisor for five terms, his health being the only obstacle to continuous public preferment. In 1876 he was prevailed upon to allow his name to be used in connection with the candidacy for representative from the first district of Shiawassee county. In the fall of that year he was elected for the first time, being re-elected in 1878. In 1880 he declined the nomination, on account of ill health. During his legislative career Mr. Reed served on several important committees and distinguished himself by wise counsel and earnest labors. But for twenty years his health

456 PAST AND PRESENT OF had been gradually undermined by a complication of bronchial and catarrhal troubles, together with threatened and finally partially developed paralysis. During the last five years of his life he was almost entirely confined to his home. In October, 1883, he left his home for Fort Worth, Texas, hoping to be benefited by a change of climate, but he survived only until January, 1885, passing away on the 21st of the month. Mrs. Reed, the mother of our subject, was a native of Michigan, born in Farmington, Oakland county, July 27, 1831. In 1838 she came with her parents to Shiawassee county, where she continued to reside until her marriage, in 1854. As stated, she then removed to Vernon township,.where she resided until her death, June 10, 1901. She was the mother of three children,-Cassius S., Gordon S. and Nora L. Kear. Gordon S. Reed was only twenty-seven years and nine days old at the time of his death, on April 10, 1890. The cause of his death was quick consumption. He was born in the township and lived there all his life. Mrs. Reed was a woman of deep piety, and during the later years of her life took an active interest in the affairs of the Methodist Episccpal church, with which she united by letter, May 4, 1890. Not long prior to her death she had a severe attack of nervousness, the effects of a broken hip, from which she never rallied. On June 1, 1901, she fell and sustained a severe fracture of her hip. This accident, coupled with her generally weak condition, was the cause of her lamented death, which occurred nine days later. Our subject, the oldest child, was. educated at the district school and the high school at Vernon, working industriously on the family farm during the summer and fall months. His marriage to Fannie M. Clark occurred November 1, 1883. Two children are living, of the three which have been born to Mr. and Mrs. ReedEthel M. and Inez E., the latter being a graduate of the Durand school, class of 1905. Blaine Clark Reed, the only son, was born September 3, 1890. He was a bright, manly boy and a general favorite; was a member of the Durand school and the Congregational Sunday school, and, after a week's illness, died of peritonitis, on September 21, 1904, having but just entered his fifteenth year. The wife of our subject is the daughter of Charles and Celia (Purdy) Clark, her father being born in Freetown, New York, and her mother in Bennington township, Shiawassee county. Her father died in April, 1869, and her mother is still living. As already stated, Mr. Reed is a Republican, and although not an office-seeker, he does not believe in shirking such political duties as come to those who are qualified to administer local public affairs. He has already most acceptably filled the offices of school inspector and township clerk, and has often been urged to accept other positions in the public service, but has been obliged to decline on account of the pressing nature of his own large interests. For many years he has been actively identified with the general farming interests of the county, but of late has specialized in the direction of sheep-feeding. He has erected a stock barn at a cost of two thousand dollars, the same being seventy-six by one hundred and eighteen feet in dimensions, with cement floors and foundations, and showing other conveniences which mark the modern stock-raiser and feeder. In this large and up-to-date structure Mr. Reed will feed and fatten his sheep for the market on scientific and sanitary principles; it is a large project, and one in which he takes a deep and growing interest, as do his fellow,stock-raisers in Shiawassee county. He is feeding at this writing about one. thousand head of Idaho lambs. His farm comprises one hundred and seventy acres of choice land. Mr. Reed is also a director of the First National Bank of Durand. As to his religious affiliations, although not a member of any denomination, he gives his support to the Con

A

- -,-I- MRS. RASSELAS REED

CASSIUS S. REED AND FAMILY

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 461 SHAASECUT 6 gregational church at Durand. He is a member of Durand Lodge, No. 449, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Owosso Lodge, No. 753, Benevolent Patriotic Order of Elks, and Vernon Tent, No. 337, Knights of the Maccabees. Socially Mr. and Mrs. Reed rank among the best of Durand's intelligent citizens. WILLIAM T. REED Emerson, America's greatest philosopher, says that "the first farmer was the first mtan, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land." Then, another wise man calls agriculture "blessed, if one does not have too much of it." Possibly both these opinions are logically sound. At any rate Michigan contains thousands upon thousands of men who do not claim "historic nobility" or anything of that nonsensical nature; but they do claim to be men, and to know all about the use of land. They are in truth the bone and sinew of the country. There is no better example of this class of farmers than the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He is a native of Middlebury township, Shiawassee county, where he now resides, and was born May 1, 1853. His father was born in Pennsylvania July 4, 1825, and died in Du Plain township, Clinton county, Michigan, September 21, 1891. His wife, Henrietta (Sowles) Reed, was born July 19, 1820, and died January 11, 1878, in Fairfield township. The latter's father, Garner Sowles, was born June 30, 1793, and died October 21, 1877, in Fairfield township. James Reed, our subject's grandfather, died in 1861, and after this event his widow removed to Ohio, the father of our subject having been eight years old at the time-1833. In 1846 William T. Reed's father came to Calhoun county; Michigan, where he remained two years. In 1852 he removed to Middlebury township And took up one hundred and twentyfour acres of school land from the state, on sections 3 and 4. There were no roads to the place. He first built a log house and stable, and he cleared all but ten acres, also fencing the farm. The nearest neighbor was distant three miles. Our subject's father was an expert hunter and the former can remember seeing the saddles of twenty-one deer hanging together, the result of his father's skill with a rifle. One night he saw his father shoot a deer by the light of the moon. The latter used to build a scaffold in the woods, mount the same, so as to conceal his presence, then shoot deer while they were attempting to pass by or under him. Once while his father was returning after dark from a job of chopping, his dog treed a bear. When he shot the animal he could hear its blood trickling down the tree. His brother-in-law appeared on the scene with another gun and was dispatched for an old-fashioned candle lantern, but before he returned the bear backed down the tree and was at once attacked by the dog -both the bear and the dog passing between Mr. Reed's legs. The brother-in-law soon arrived with the lantern, which he held over Mr. Reed's head while the latter again shot, killing the bear. Our subject's father eventually built a frame house and barn on his new farm. In 1862 he traded one-half of his farm for eighty acres in Middlebury township, and removed to the new place, improving fifty acres of the same. In 1868 he sold this property and bought eighty acres in Fairfield township, twenty acres of which were improved.' After the death of his wife he sold this and bought forty acres of improved land in DuPlain township, Clinton county, where he lived at the time of his death. He was the first of five children: Thomas has not been heard from since he was a child; James was in the civil war and died in the service; Polly, who lives in Portland, Indiana, married Benjamin Bradley; Sarah, who lives in Ovid, Michigan, married William Barnes. William T. Reed started for himself at the age of twelve years. The first season he

462 PAST AND PRESENT OF worked for an uncle, for his board and clothes and five dollars in money. He worked on the farm in summer and went to school in winter during a period of about eight years. He then rented land and, fairly began to hustle. In 1876 his wife's father gave her thirty acres of timbered land, on sections 32 and 33, Fairfield township. This Mr. Reed reclaimed. When he moved to the place he had thirtyfive dollars, the price of a cow he had just sold. He built a frame house to start with and to this he has since added, besides erecting a good frame barn. In 1893 he bought, in connection with his brother-in-law, Frank L. Wait, forty acres, which they di-vided equally. In 1902 he purchased twenty acres of improved land, on section 1, Ovid township, and he now owns seventy acres in all. September 8, 1872, Mr. Reed married Susan Wait, who was born August 15, 1853. Her parents settled in Fairfield township, and her mother used to conduct the farm, milk the cows, etc., while the husband and father was away working at his trade, that of carpenter. Mrs. Reed often hunted the cows after dark. Her mother was a tailoress and earned much of the money at that time to support the family, having been a very industrious, hard-working woman. Mrs. Reed and her brother Frank plowed and sowed the first piece of wheat put in on the farm. See sketch of Frank Wait, elsewhere in this volume, for family record. Mrs. Reed has a homespun tablecloth fiftyfour years old. It was made from flax her grandfather Wait raised in Ohio. Her greatuncle Hyde wove it and her mother spun it. It is in excellent condition, appearing as if new. Following is a brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Reed: Bertha, born June 18, 1877, died September 10, 1877; Judd, born February 5, 1879, died April 24, 1879; Harry, born November 23, 1881, married Gertrude Simmons, November 22, 1904, and is a bookkeeper in the State Savings Bank at Ovid, Michigan; Florence was born October 25, 1895. Our subject was the fifth of seven children, all of whom are living. Garner, born October 6, 1845, lives in Durand, Michigan; he married Polly Palmer and they had the following named children: Bell, Steel, Bert, Jennie, Webster, Phcebe, Albert, Beulah and William, the last named being deceased. James, who was born October 29, 1846, lives in Detroit; he married Julia A. Tillotson, and has one child, Daffie. Pauline, born September 12, 1848, lives in Idaho; she is the widow of Ebenezer Netheway, and had three children,-Melvin, Smith and Beulah. Alanson S., born October 11, 1850, lives in Owosso, Michigan; he married first Lizzie Smith, and they had two children,-Robert, deceased, and Arthur. His second marriage was to Nellie Garnet, and they had two children-Clara and Clyde. Our subject was next in order of birth. Sara A., born January 1, 1855, lives in Owosso, Michigan, being the widow of Amos Covert. Mary J., born January 26, 1859, lives in Fairfield township; she married Orin Darling and had seven children,-Earl, Ray, Nora, Ina, Paul, Vern and Grace. Mrs. Reed's parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and her father was a Democrat. Her great grandfather, Cornelius Thomas, was a sea captain. He lived at New Haven. Connecticut, and sailed to the West Indies; her grandfather was born in 1795 and was a captain in the war of 1812. Her uncle, Julius B. Wait, was taken prisoner at Murfreesboro, in the civil war and died from the effects of wounds received while in the hands of rebels. Two other uncles, Enos A. and John B. Wait, also were in the civil war. Our subject's parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and his father in politics was a Democrat. He, too, is a Democrat, but votes for men he considers the best, regardless of politics. Mr. Reed is affiliated with nearly all the fraternal orders in Ovid,-the Odd Fellows, the Maccabees, the

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 463 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 463 Grange and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was master of the latter for two years and is now a trustee, and he also is treasurer of the Grange. He has served as school director for twelve years and justice of the peace one term. He has settled several estates and enjoys the confidence and esteem of the people of his township. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. AUSTIN E. RICHARDS Among the native sons of the Wolverine state we may point to few whose records are more honorable and more bright than that of him whose name initiates this sketch. His private life is irreproachable and his public career has been marked with a good measure of success. The bench and bar have many able representatives in Shiawassee county-men who stand high in their profession, because of their deep study of the best authorities on legal lore. Of these various gentlemen of attainments none stands higher, nor are their services more sought, than he whose name heads this sketch. Austin E. Richards was born in New Haven township, Shiawassee county, in 1860. He is a son of William and Rhoda Richards. The father was a native of England and the mother was born in the Empire state. William Richards came to this country with his parents when but a lad of five years, the family settling in Washtenaw county, in the year 1857. They later moved to Saginaw county, where they remained three years, then coming to New Haven township and engaging in farming. William Richards eventually sold his farm in New Haven township and located permanently on a farm in Burns township, where he lived until the day of his death, which occurred in 1871. His wife is still living, making her home in the village of Byron. To William and Rhoda Richards were born three children: Frank, a farmer in the town28 ship of Burns; a daughter, Elma; and the subject of this sketch. Austin E. Richards was reared in Burns township, receiving his early education in the district school. He spent some time in the graded school at Byron and later at Corunna. After this he studied law in the office of Hon. Hlugh McCurdy, of Corunna, and in the year 1886 was admitted to the bar. He immediately began the practice of his chosen profession in his home town at Byron. His ability as a student and an attorney was soon recognized and he readily took rank among the first of the profession in Shiawassee county. Mr. Richards had barely reached his majority when he was elected justice of the peacea position usually reserved for those of more advanced years. A few years later he was chosen to represent his township on the board of supervisors, a position he occupied for several years, during a portion of the time being chairman of the board-a compliment rarely paid to one of his years. In the fall of 1890 he received the nomination for circuit court commissioner and was elected for the term of two years. To better meet the growing demands upon his time and talent he soon thereafter removed with his family to Corunna. Two years later he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney, which position he retained two terms-a period of four years. Some years since Mr. Richards formed a partnership with A. L.-Chandler to better care for the growing interests of his office, while giving his personal attention to his official duties. He was later for a time associated with W. J. Parker, but at present the sign on his office door reads, "Austin E. Richards, Attorney and Counselor at Law." For six years Mr. Richards served Corunna as city attorney, to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. June, 1888, Austin E. Richards was married to Miss Inez, daughter of George H. Fisher, of Illinois. Two children have been born of this union, Hugh McCurdy and Gretchen.

464 PAST AND PRESENT OF -- Mrs. Richards is a lady of refinement and culture, and is an esteemed member of the Methodist Episcopal church, an organization in which she takes a deep interest. Our subject is fraternally allied with the Masonic order, including Corunna Commandery, Knights Templar. Politically Mr. Richards affiliates with the Republican party, taking pride in its history and having faith in its future. He is interested in every movement tending to the betterment of society and the upbuilding of his adopted city. He was one of the park commissioners which laid out at Corunna the beautiful park which is to-day the pride of her citizens. Mr. Richards is active and industrious, and his many friends predict for him greater attainments and larger success in the years yet to come. JOSEPH S. RIDLEY Joseph S. Ridley was born on the 4th of October, 1833, in the town of Beckley, county of Sussex, England, and came to the United States in the spring of 1842, living in the state of New York for twelve years, after which he removed to Calhoun county, Michigan. At the age of sixteen years he began to shift for himself and from that time forward was self-supporting. For three years he worked by the day or month on a' farm, for fifty cents a day and nine dollars a month, in the state of New York, near his father's home. He then moved to Calhoun county, Michigan. With the money obtained through his labors he bought eighty acres of wild land, about eight miles from Battle Creek. He improved twenty acres of it, after chopping out a road for about a mile, and lived there for eight years. During the blighting panic of 1857 he had the misfortune to lose his land and everything else he had accumulated about him. - This indeed proved a sad blow. To a less courageous man it would have proven a blow from which he would never have recovered, but as has been forcibly said, "Calamity is men's true touchstone." This proved true in his case. He did not stop and grow weary, but redoubled his energies. He removed to Marengo township and rented a farm and began the battle anew. He continued to live there until the fall of 1870. A fair degree of success having crowned his efforts, he then changed his home to Shiawassee county, where he bought forty acres of wild land, about six miles from Owosso, paying four hundred dollars for it, and after paying the taxes, he had just one dollar left. He built a log house and moved in, but it being cold, and late in the season, he was unable to 'plaster the house. He filled the cracks with moss from the trees. Later he bought forty acres more, making eighty acres. He lived in the log house ten years. In 1880 he built the house he now occupies, a fine brick structure. His spacious barn was erected in 1876. His father, William Ridley, was born in England, November 19, 1795, and died at the age of eighty-six years, and his mother, Sarah (Offin) Ridley, also a native of England, was born in 1798, and died at the age of seventy years. William Ridley was a laborer and farmer, but never owned a farm, preferring to rent farms. He died at Albion, Michigan, and his wife passed away at Marengo, Michigan. Joseph S. Ridley was the tenth in a family of twelve children, as follows: Henry, Sophia, William, Elizabeth, Francis, Hannah, Mark, John, Mahala, Sarah, George, and our subject. All these grew to maturity and were married, except Elizabeth, who died at the age of fourteen years, and Francis, who died at the age of eighteen years. Strange to relate, Mr. Ridley is the only member of this family now living. He went to a district school when quite young, and later in life did chores for his board and went to district school for three months. 'Mr. Ridley was married March 15, 1856, to Margaret Kennedey, a native of Nova Scotia, where she was born in 1836. Her father was a carpenter and shipbuilder, and died in Chicago.

SHIA4WASSEE CO UNTY 465 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 465 Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ridley. Harriet, born April 8, 1857, died at the age of twenty-two years, of typhoid fever. She was the wife of Daniel Ream and lived in the town of New Haven. They had two children. Edith, who was born in 1876, married Edward Vincent and lives in Middlebury, Shiawassee county;. Alta, born in 1879, married Otis B. Cook, and they have two children, Rolland and Reba. All live with MIr. and Mrs. Ridley. George was the second child of Mr. Ridley and was born May 1, 1860. He died at the age of twenty years, having married Ida Burch and having lived in New Haven. They had no children. Since the death of the daughter Harriet, the grandchildren have made their home with Mr. and Mrs. Ridley. MIr. Ridley has always been a staunch Republican, having cast his first vote for John C. Fremont. He is not a member of any church, but believes in doing as he would be done by. Both he and his wife are blessed with good health, a good home, and a host of friends and kind neighbors. THEODORE W. ROSE The father of the subject of this sketch was a New York lumberman and merchant and later became a hardy Michigan pioneer, and the son, Theodore W. Rose, a substantial and honored farmer residing on a finely improved eighty-acre homestead in section 13, Caledonia township, is himself a native of the Empire state, born in Cortland county, on the 11th of November, 1845. He is a son of Edward and Lucinda B. Rose, his mother dying when he was an infant of one month. The father was born March 10, 1817, and was in early life a farmer. He was married in Cortland county, New York. For many years he was also a lumberman, it often being necessary, in his part of the state, to combine the labors of the forest and the field in order to be assured of a livelihood. As, at other periods in his life, he was proprietor of a drug store in Cortland county and of a dry-goods establishment in Yates county, New York, it is certain that Edward Rose was a man of varied business ability. In 1852 the father of our subject migrated to Michigan, where for three years he followed his old occupation and business of lumbering. In 1855 he purchased eighty acres of land in section 26, Caledonia township. About half of the tract had been chopped but not wholly cleared, and its improvements consisted of a log house and a small barn. But the new proprietor set vigorously to work, cleared up the farm, erected a good residence, substantial barns and other buildings and transformed the primitive homestead into a modern piece of farm property; there he resided, with his second wife and children, until about thirteen years ago, when he located in the village of Corunna and retired from active life. Edward Rose married as his second wife Ann Eliza Crandall, a native of New York, and a resident of Corunna. She has attained to the age of seventy-three years. There was only one child by the first marriage, the subject of this review. The second union brought three children. ' The eldest, Ida, was born in October, 1856, and died in September, 1876. The second, E. L. Rose; was born on the old homestead, in Caledonia township, where he now lives. He was married in December, 1886, to Catherine Rigoulet, a native of France, born December 5, 1867, a daughter of Fred and Catherine (Boure) Rigeulot, who are living on a farm in Caledonia township. To Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Rose two children have been born, Grace, November 20, 1887, who lives at Rome, and Edward. The third child of Edward Rose and his second wife was Minnie, now Mrs. H. L. Towler, of Corunna. Our subject received his primary education in the district schools of Penn Yan, New York, and later attended the high schools at Flint and Corunna. Until he had attained to his majority he worked upon his father's farm, so

466 PAST AND PRESENT OF 4D that he was obtaining also that practical education which comes from contact with continuous and methodical work, the while forming those habits of industry and economy which are of such untold value to those who have their way to make and to keep in the world. For the succeeding seven or eight years he followed the lumbering industry, living during the greater portion of his days in the woods and along the rivers of Michigan. N In 1871 Theodore W. Rose married Miss Catherine Brands, of Caledonia. She was born July 17, 1846, and died February 12, 1886. Of the six children born to them, four are living: David, Percy, Rose, Sarah (now Mrs. Shutteworth, of Corunna), Roy R. and Melbourn, the last two named living at home. Our subject was united in marriage a second time to Mary (Nye) Chase on the 31st of October, 1889. His present wife is the daughter of Myron and Lovina (Tunnicliffe) Nye, her parents being proprietors of the popular Nye Hotel, in Owosso. Tile fruits of the second marriage have been H. T. Rose, born October 16, 1891, and Mabel Irene, born September 26, 1893. Prior to his first marriage Mr. Rose had only forty acres of land in Hazelton township, He there established his first homestead, residing upon the farm three years. He then disposed of that property and bought the sixty acres upon which he now lives, in section 13, Caledonia township. The tract was entirely wild, but he cleared and improved it, added twenty acres to the original farm, and now possesses a homestead which bears every evidence of prosperity and good taste. According to the modern standard, which is the best, our subject is still in the prime of life, and as he is already in comfortable circumstances and enjoying harmonious domestic relations, his status is as satisfactory as usually falls to man. His friends and neighbors have expressed their confidence in him ahd his abilities by electing him school inspector for several years. In politics he is a Democrat. He is a man of unassuming disposition and habits. J. D. ROYCE Among the prominent and influential men of Shiawassee county who, by their good character and habits of industry and thrift, have won a position of trust among their fellow men, we find J. D. Royce. He has shown himself deeplv interested in all movements tending to the betterment of conditions in his county and town and in stimulating the enterprises of the community at large. In this way he has made himself a leader in various movements of importance. Our subject is a native of the Wolverine state, his birth having occurred in Deerfield township, Livingston county, Michigan, in the year 1856. His parents, John A. and Hannah E. Royce, were natives of New York and came to Michigan in 1845, settling in Livingston county. Thirty-seven years ago the parents moved two miles east of Byron, making this the family home, and here the father died in 1873. The mother lived to the advanced age of seventy-three years, her death occurring in April, 1904. J. D. Royce is one of a family of eight children, three of whom are now living: Howard W., a resident of Chicago; L. P. Royce, of Owosso, and our subject. When eleven years of age Mr. Royce moved with his parents to Genesee county and there attended the district school. He received the early educational advantages common to farmer boys of that time, and after leaving the district schools he attended the high school at Byron, thus being prepared for the practical work of a business career. Naturally of a bright and assimilative nature, the subject of this sketch acquired more in actual and practical experience than through his text books in school. He has been a deep reader from his younger manhood and has to a great extent

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 467 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 46 made up the deficiencies in his early education, being an intelligent and well-informed man. Living so near the county line, he was always deeply interested in Shiawassee county. Our subject taught school for a time and then for many years clerked in stores at Byron and Milford. J. D. Royce was married in 1882 to Miss Vira A. Webster, daughter of Dr. H. Webster. Mrs. Royce's father was one of the oldest practitioners in the county. He located at Byron at an early day and died while living with our subject, in this county, in 1898. The union of our subject and wife was blessed by the birth of one child, a son, Vernon W., born in July, 1883. He is now prominently identified with the Chicago Edison Company, in Chicago. Vernon graduated from the Corunna high school in 1902 and afterward took a course in a correspondence school, studying "Mapping and Surveying." The social side of Mr. Royce's life has been cultivated to a considerable extent, as he is prominently allied with the Masons, including the Commandery of the Knights Templars and also the Elks, Knights of Pythias and Maccabees. Our subject has always been active in political affairs. He believes in the principles and policies of the Republican party and in its ability to best manage the affairs of the American people. The father of our subject was likewise a Republican, and during the Rebellion was a very active Abolitionist, but on account of his health was refused for service in the army. He was also an old and stanch Presbyterian and lived his life in harmony with the precepts and teachings of the church. For three years Mr. Royce was engaged in the dry-goods business at Byron. He was township clerk of Burns township and at different times has held various village offices, president, trustee and clerk. In the year 1896 J. D. Royce was elected to the position of register of deeds and he is now has been incumbent of the office the longest of any register in the state, an evidence of the trust and esteem in which he is held in the community. FRED S. RUGGLES, M. D. Dr. Fred S. Ruggles is one of the prominent physicians and surgeons of the village of Byron and of Shiawassee county. He is the son of Ephraim H. and Susan Ruggles and was born in Vermont, June 15, 1856. His parents were likewise born in the state of Vermont. His father is deceased but the mother is. still living in the old Green Mountain state, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. She is a member of the Free Will Baptist church, as was also her husband, and he adhered to the Republican party. They had three sons. Halsey B. and Charles are farmers, and the third son is the subject of this sketch. The rudiments of Dr. Ruggles' education were received in the splendid schools of Vermont, and his higher literary training was secured in the Lyndon Institute, at Lyndon Center, that state. After thus acquiring a splendid preliminary education he entered the University of Michigan and took a course in the medical department, graduating with the class of 1881. On the 29th day of June of the same year he was united in marriage with Adell Knapp. Her father was one of the early.settlers and leading citizens of Salem, Michigan. Both of her parents are dead. After graduating in the University of Michigan Dr. Ruggles located at Byron and conmmenced the practice of his profession. He thereafter practiced in Ypsilanti a short time, but returned to Byron, where he has been a successful practitioner for the last twenty-two years. He is a skilled physician and surgeon, his services being in requisition by the best families of the county. Politically the Doctor is a Republican and he is a member of the Masonic blue lodge of By serving his fifth term. With one exception he

468 PAST AND PRESENT OF 468 PAST AND PRESENT OF ron, and of the Maccabees and the Woodmen. He is a man uniformly respected in the community in which he lives, and has a host of friends and acquaintances throughout the county. He is an active politician and has done much good for the party with which he affiliates. The people of Byron have honored him by electing him to the highest office within their gift. He filled the office of president of the village, with the ability and good judgment that are characteristic of the man. For eight years he has held the responsible and honorable position of president of the school board of Byron. He was chairman of the committee that had charge of the erection of the beautiful monument to Ellen May Tower. His efforts in procuring this patriotic token to the memory of a noble woman were untiring. It is fitting that in connection with his biography should be given the inscription which the monument bears: "Erected by patriotic citizens, loving friends and Michigan National Guard to the memory of a noble woman who died at Porto Rico, December 8, 1898, while serving as nurse in the United States volunteer service. Ellen May Tower." To subject and his wife has been born one child, Agnes, wife of John Foster, a pharmacist at Pontiac, Michigan. SAMUEL RUNYAN This gentleman was born in Wayne county, Ohio, October 2, 1833. His father, Samuel Runyan, also a native of the same county, died in Ohio, at the age of fifty-eight years. Although not very prominent in the public affairs of life as they go, Samuel Runyan is in many ways a remarkable man and has seen and knows much about the activities of the times in which he has lived and labored. Mr. Runyan continued to live at home attending school, etc., until his father's death. When he had reached the age of seventeen years, he began working on the Wabash & Miami canal, running from Toledo to Terre Haute, Indiana. He followed this vocation for eighteen years. He then refused a job as steersman on a steamer, at fifty dollars per month, and decided to come to Michigan and make a home for himself. This was in 1866, soon after the close of the civil war. He bought eighty acres from the government in Rush township, paying two dollars for the entire eighty. At that time the country was a wilderness. He built as soon as possible a log house. This was covered with shaker roof. When this roof was half finished Mr. Runyan had just one dollar in money left. This he spent for butter to put on Johnnie cake for the children. The marsh, which consisted of one thousand two hundred acres of land, was covered with huckleberries, from which, in three weeks, he picked and sold one hundred dollars worth. This proved a godsend, so to speak, as he greatly needed some of the "sinews of war" to keep the wolf from the door. Before removing from Ohio Mr. Runyan killed one hundred deer and after coming to Michigan he added one hundred to this record, besides fourteen bears. Of course, this may look like a big story, but it is sacredly vouched for by Nimrod Runyan. He killed thirty deer the first winter he lived in Michigan. He relates that he carried on his back fifty pounds of meal from Owosso to his home, a distance of ten miles. He split twenty thousand rails for different persons within the first five years after removing to Michigan. Mr. Runyan has always been an indefatigable worker, and though he has now passed the span of three score years and ten he can still dig post holes as well as almost anyone. He owns eighty acres of land, well drained and under a high state of cultivation, with fine buildings. The timbers in the house are eight by eight inches in dimensions, Mr. Runyan having cut them himself and had them sawed. It is, therefore,

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 469 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 469 safe in saying that this is one of the most substantial houses in the township. Mr. Runyan and his brother John were twins, being seventh in a family of nine. The others are: James, William, Deneen, Sarah, Matilda, Josephus and David. His mother, Elizabeth (Clark) Runyan, was born in Pennsylvania, and died in Michigan, at the age of sixty-three years. Mr. Runyan was married in Ohio, October 2, 1861, to Sophia Frank, a native of Pennsylvania, where she was born November 14, 1842. She is a daughter of Daniel Frank, a native of Pennsylvania, who died in Ohio; and her mother, Elizabeth (Morton) Frank, was born in Pennsylvania and died at the age of sixtyeight years. The father of Mrs. Runyan was a farmer, and settled in Ohio in 18-19. Mrs. Runyan was the fifth of eleven children, four of whom are still living. Delinda is a maiden lady; Zachariah lives in Nebraska; William H., Pricilla and Jacob are deceased; Sarah lives in New Baltimore, Michigan; and George,' Almira, Josiah and Viola are deceased. An "even dozen" of children have been born unto Mr. and Mrs. Runyan. The size of this family would undoubtedly make the heart of President Roosevelt glad, as this seems to be one of his cherished hobbies, and, by the way, it is a commendable one at that. Here is the roll call of the Runyan children: Lola is now Mrs. Tattersall, of Rush township; Willie lives in Owosso; George lives in Owosso; Anna Mary; John Henry resides in Jackson; Minnie is a resident of Oakley, Saginaw county; Perry lives in Rush township; Thomas is at the parental home; Alvida is deceased; Oliver is still with his parents;' Sylvester lives in Linden, Michigan; and Rosa is Mrs. James Hows, of Monarch, Michigan. Mr. Runyan has always been a Republican but has never held office, nor is he a member of any church. Although in his seventy-second year he can read as well as ever, never having used glasses. It may truly be said of him that well has he run life's race, nearly to the last mile-stone, and been glorified as few have been! FRANK H. RUSH Frank H. Rush, of section 35, Owosso township, is a native of Bennington township, Shiawassee county, where he was born January 20, 1858. He is a son of Ira WV. and Angeline' (Hall) Rush, both of whom were born near Rochester, New York. They were married in Owosso, Michigan. Ira W. Rush was among the earliest settlers of Rush township, coming there with his father, Henry Rush, at an early day. In fact, it was nothing but a wilderness, just such a place as the poet Cowper must have had in mind when he penned the words: O for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumor of oppression and deceit, Of unsuccessful and successful war, Might never reach me more. 'The Rush family resolved to stay here, and secured from the government a quarter section of land. There were no roads, of course, nothing but Indian trails leading to the spot selected for their future home. They did not have a team nor could they get one to their land even if they had had one. Finally, however, they bought an ox team and in course of time, by dint of hard work and persistence, succeeded in leveling the forest and making for themselves a fine farm. Meanwhile, Henry Rush, grandfather of Frank, took jobs of clearing land for others, and had considerable to do with the regulating of the channel of the Shiawassee river, so as to better accommodate boating on the stream. Rush township was named in honor of this gentleman, thus making him an important factor in its early history and giving him a monument that will endure as long as time shall last. When his son, Ira W. Rush, father of Frank H., started on his business career he bought eighty acres

470 470 PAST AND PRESENT OF - of virgin forest in Rush township, in 1833. He afterward exchanged for a like number of acres in Bennington township. It is evident that the region was then wild, when we recall that there wvas but one house between this place and Owosso, and that house was inside the city limits. But nothing daunted, Mr. Rush went to work with a will, with strong hands and a cheerful, hopeful heart. He not only improved the eighty acres, but also added to his farm, owning a quarter section at the time of his death. In the '50s he went to California for his health, going with a company organized by the Williams, of Owosso. The object of this company was to seek "gold, gold, yellow and cold," the gold excitement in California being then at fever heat. Mr. Rush remained there but two years, however, having regained what he went after, good health, which is far better than great riches-a fact forcibly exemplified in the history of John D. Rockefeller, said to be the wealthiest man in the world, but one who would give all he possesses for a healthy, new stomach. Mr. Rush served as supervisor of his township and also as justice of the peace and highway commissioner. Ira W. Rush died March 29, 1878, at his home in Owosso township, aged fifty-four years. His wife, Angeline A. Rush, died June 23, 1888, at the same place, aged sixty-one years. Frank H. Rush, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the district schools of his township and the Owosso high school. He began work on the old farm after his father's death, when he and his brother worked it on shares, having bought the interest of the other heirs. In 1895 he sold his interest in the old homestead to his brother, and bought eightyfive acres on section 35, where he now lives. This was mostly improved, but Mr. Rush has since cleared twelve acres. He has also added all the buildings now oncthe farm, excepting part of the house. On September 28, 1881, Frank H. Rush married Cora F. Matlock, who was born at Jordan, Canada, and who came with her parents to I I Owosso thirty years ago. Her father, Josiah Matlock, there worked at his trade, that of tanner, for several years, but retired later in life. He died January 19, 1888, aged seventytwo years and seven months. He was a Republican and was an Episcopalian, as was also his wife. But Mrs. Rush's mother, Mary J. (Morse) Matlock, was born in Chippewa, Canada, and now lives in Owosso. Mrs. Rush was the fourth of ten children. Maurice, who lives in Canada, married Belle Raferg, and after her death married Martha Mann. John is deceased. Herbert is living and is married. Nettie is the wife of John Van Camp, of Greenville; they have no children. Laura is single and is living in Owosso. Lyman resides in Montana, being a bachelor. Frank H. Rush is the fourth in a family of eight children, as follows: Rhoda A., who lives ir Owosso, married William Getchell, and thev have six children. Malinda, who also lives in Owosso, married J. W. Angel, and they have three children. Mary is the wife of Frank Payne, of Owosso, and they have two children. George, who lives in Owosso township, was married first to Nellie Stone, now deceased. They had three children, all dying in infancy. As his second wife he married Mrs. Ella Weidman. Fannie died young. William died in infancy. Lena lives in Detroit, unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Rush have three children: Nettie, who was born February 19, 1883, is a graduate of the Owosso high school and is now attending school at Ypsilanti. Ernest, who was born October 10, 1884, is a graduate of the Owosso high school, and is now a student in the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Florence, born May 12, 1889, remains at home and is attending school. Mr. Rush is a Republican and has been honored with the office of supervisor, for eight years; clerk, two years; treasurer, three terms, and school inspector, two years. The mention of this fact alone is sufficient to show the great esteem in which he is held by his fellow citi

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 471 E C T 4 zens and also indicates that as a public official he has proven faithful to the trusts reposed in him. JOHN SCHNEIDER This gentleman is native of the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, as were also his father and mother. He was born March 18, 1844, and when nineteen years old he decided to come to America. He set sail from Havre, France, leaving his parents behind, among the mountains of the beautiful and interesting little republic of Switzerland. It may not be amiss to say in this connection that the name of Switzerland is derived from Schwytz, one of the twenty-two cantons of the confederation. Switzerland is the very pinnacle of Europe, nestling in the Alpine crags, protected from France, Germany, Austria and Italy by mountain barriers. With an area of fifteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-four square miles and a population about as large as Michigan, only sixty-nine per cent. of the land can be called productive and not much of that is really good soil. The stupendous mountain ranges are peculiarly valuable, as they attract tourists, thousands of whom go there yearly from all parts of the world. The first real triumph over the Alps was achieved when the Mount Cenis tunnel was completed. That grand work of engineering is one of the wonders of the world. It was begun in August 1857, and completed in December, 1870. It was thrown open to the public the following September. It lacks only thirty yards of being eight miles long and it cost fifteen million dollars. Trains run through it in about thirty minutes and it connects Italy and France. The swiss are a very simple-minded people. Their one prominent native name, aside from the mythical Tell, is Zwingle, one of the illustrious names of the religious reformation. The national hero of Switzerland was William Tell, whose very existence, though, has been questioned, and certain it is that all that is known of him is more legendary than historical. An Austrian bailiff raised a cap on a pole in the market place of Altorf, and before this every one was ordered to bow down, in token of submission to the government. Tell belonged to an organization formed for the purpose of throwing off the yoke of oppression, that of the Hapsburg, which claimed sovereignty over Switzerland. Tell was condemned to death, but was reprieved on condition that he shoot an apple from the head of his own son. Being a remarkable bowman, he ventured the shot, however, and hit the apple without harming the boy. The tyrannical bailiff noticed that Tell had two arrows and asked him why he had more than one, to which Tell replied "If I had hit my son I should have shot you!" Our subject received his early education in his native land, and was thirty-three days on the trip across the ocean. He finally landed in New York, however, but was in the harbor three days before being permitted to come ashore. He then proceeded to Canada and worked on a farm, for seven dollars a month, near Markham. This was in 1864. He remained there but one and one-half years, when he found his way to Michigan, Canada being then too much like Europe. He worked in Bennington township four years, for twelve dollars to sixteen dollars per month. He spent three months in the lumber woods north of Greenville, and passed one and one-half years in all at lumbering. He.then returned to Shiawassee county, and worked eight months on a farm, for a Mr. Harding, of Owosso. His next important move was to take unto himself a wife, in the person of Mary Wenchell, a native of the Empire state. She is still living. She is a daughter of Frederick Wenchell, an early pioneer of Saginaw county. Mrs. Schneider was one of four children by her father's first marriage. His second mar. riage resulted in eight children. Those were days when men and women believed implicitly in "multiplying and replenishing the earth." One of these children is a resident of Shi

472 PAST AND PRESENT OF 472 PAST AND PRESENT OF awassee county-Mrs. Elizabeth Purves, who lives in Fairfield township. In 1873 Mr. Schneider came to Shiawassee county a second time, and bought eighty acres of virgin forest, in Rush township. He first erected a frame house on this property, and the building is still standing. This was followed in due time by barns and other buildings and he continued to live there until five years ago, when he erected a large new house on fifty-two acres of land, adjoining his original eighty, having bought the property nine years previously. He made a beautiful farm of this original purchase and his son now lives on it and works the place on shares. Our subject thus rents out his farm and takes life easy. Mr. and Mrs. Schneider have seven children, all living: Louise is the wife of Henry S. Northrup, of Owosso, where he works in the Bentley factory; they 'have no children. Elizabeth married Calvin Willoughby, of Middlebury, and they have one child, Myrtle. John, who lives on the old farm, married Mlaude Loomis and they have five children. Gertrude, now Mrs. Jones, is a twin sister of John and lives in Brant township, Saginaw county. Rose is single and lives in Owosso. Henry lives on a farm in Rush township; he is married and has two children. William, who is a farmer in Rush township, is married and has one child. / Our subject has always been a Republican. He is treasurer of his school district but has never held any other office. He was brought up in the Lutheran church but is not now a member. He was formerly an Odd Fellow but is not now affiliated with the order. Eighteen years ago he visited Switzerland, a few years before the death of his parents. He did not find many changes there, however, the people not being so progressive as in this country. He greatly enjoyed his trip but would not like to stay in his native land. His father was a blacksmith by trade, but he was a farmer most of the time. He died at the age of seventy-four years, and his wife, Rachel (Fretche) Schneider, was seventy-eight years of age whei she died. They became the parents of five children, four of whom are living; Anna, who lives in Zurich, Switzerland, married a man named Folcott, now dead; Susan married John Demuth and they live in Switzerland; our subject, John Schneider, was the third child; Jacob, who died at the age of fiftyone, in Switzerland, married a Miss Haugarnter; Henry lives in Fairfield township, Shiawassee county. Mr. Schneider is an excellent farmer and a good citizen and has the respect of all his neighbors. CHAUNCEY D. SEARL Chauncey D. Searl, of Fairfield township, was born in Brooklyn, Ohio (now Cleveland), December 10, 1831. His father, Phineas Searl, was a native of Vermont, where he was born in 1804, and he died in Fairfield township December 25, 1874. Julia Ann (Brainard) Searl, mother of our subject, was born in Connecticut, November 10, 1810, and died at Elsie, Michigan, in April, 1891. Mr. Searl's maternal grandfather, Warren Brainard, was born in Hudson, Connecticut, and died at Strongsville, Ohio, in 1856, at the age of sixtysix years, and his grandmother, Sally Brainard, was born in Haddam, Connecticut, in 1784, and died in Fairfield township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, in 1874. She located in Ohio in 1&14, and after her husband's death came to Fairfield, in 1858, where she remained until her death. Our subject's father was a millwright and worked at the business for many years. He owned several grist and saw mills in Ohio, where he located in 1823, and where he learned his trade. In 1865 he came to Fairfield, where he followed his old business and also that of a carpenter and joiner until a year before his death, which was the result of a stroke of paralysis. Mr. Searl's mother bought thirty-four acres of unimproved land in 1860, but subsequently sold it and pur

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 473 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 47 chased a home in Elsie, where she lived until her death. Mr. Searl is a carpenter and joiner by trade, having mastered the trade in Ohio, where he worked one year afterward. Then he removed to Michigan and in 1855 bought forty acres of wild land and commenced clearing it. Meanwhile he worked at his trade at the same time and hired the land chopped and logged. The farm was all cleared thirty years ago and was one of the first in the township to be in this,condition. While thus engaged Mr. Searl lived with his brother-in-law, William Oakes. In March, 1856, he returned to Ohio, and April 23 of the same year was married to Harriet E. Kelley, a native of Aurora, New York, where she was born July 24, 1833. He returned to Michigan with his bride and lived with his brother-in-law while he completed the building of a log house. This was effected in March, 1857, and he then removed into the new dwelling. He built a frame house in 1889 and a frame barn in 1876. His wife was a,daughter of Stephen Kelley, who was born in Aurora, New York, and who died in Ohio; her mother was Ruth (Blackmor) Kelley, a native of New York state. She died in Elsie. Mr. and Mrs. Searl have three children: Franklin, born in Fairfield, July 26, 1857, lives in Gratiot county; he married Lucinda Lewis, December 5, 1881, and their one child died.at birth. Kelley S., born February 4, 1862, lives at Ithaca, Michigan; he is an attorney and was elected judge of the twenty-ninth judicial circuit in the spring of 1905. He attended school at Elsie and Ovid, taught school one term when sixteen years old, was graduated in a school at Valparaiso, Indiana, and also in the law department of the Michigan University. He commenced the practice of law at Ashley, Michigan. He married Margaret Smith in 1885, and they have three children-Ethel, 1891; Hazel, 1894, and William C., 1897. Annie M., who was born October 30, 1868, lives in Bay City; August 4, 1892, she married James W. Haley, a machinist, and they had three children,-Clara, Glenn and a baby. On December 13, 1892, Mr. Searl married a second wife, in the person of Corintha West, widow of Calvin West, by whom she had four children: Byron M., born August 1, 1858, lives at Elk Rapids; he is a carpenter and is not married. Everett W., born March 19, 1860, lives at Laingsburg and is single. James J., born November 19, 1870, lives at St. Louis, Missouri, where he is superintendent of gas works; he married Edna Wade and they have two children-Theodore, born August 11, 1902, and Delos, born December 10, 1903. Milton B., born November 7, 1880, lives at Flushing; he graduated from Toronto, Ontario, Veterinary College, and is now practicing his profession. He married Maude Pierce. In 1882 Mr. Searl went to Ann Arbor with his first wife for treatment, she being an invalid. The facilities there for an education were so fine that he concluded to remain for five years to afford his two younger children the great advantages thus offered. His first wife died October 6, 1890, aged fifty-two years, two months and twelve days. Mr. Searl was the first in a family of four children, as follows: Mary Jane, born October 30, 1839, lives in Detroit; she married August Buell, now dead, and had two children-Charles E. and Lottie. Sara, born in 1841, died in Fairfield when about thirty years old; she married Almond Bennett, a civil war soldier in the First Michigan Cavalry. They had no children. Charles W., born in 1843, died in Brooklyn, Ohio, June 7, 1860. Mr. Searl is a professor of religion and a believer in the Universalist faith. At Elsie he is one of the charter members of Maple River Lodge, No. 76, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being the only charter member left. He first joined the order at Corunna in 1855. He has passed all the chairs and also held many appointive offices. Indeed, he has officiated in all the appointive places. He is a charter member of the encampment at Elsie and

474 PAST AND PRESENT OF has attended the sovereign grand lodge and encampment several times. He is a pronounced Republican, and has the entire confidence of the people of his township, a fact that is evidenced by his election to the office of supervisor for three terms, clerk for six years, and justice of the peace for fourteen years. He was chosen last spring for another term as justice of the peace, and he has been a school official almost continuously since he came to Michigan. Verily, to be thus trusted is a great compliment. HENRY SEELHOFF Henry Seelhoff was born in the dominion of Canada, April 27, 1866. His father, Frederick Seelhoff, was born in Germany, November 22, 1836, and is now living with his son, Frederick, Jr., in Rush township, being eighty years of age. His wife, Augusta (Brant) Seelhoff, was born in Germany, March 1, 1836, and died June 5, 1890, while visiting a sister at Bancroft, Michigan. Our subject's father came to America at the age of twenty-seven years and located in the dominion of Canada, where he was married. He was a mason by trade and followed that occupation in Canada and afterward in the city of Detroit. He finally located in Rush township, where he purchased forty acres of partly improved land. To this he afterward added eighty acres, making him a farm of one hundred and twenty acres. Here he resided until about ten years ago, when he went to live with his son. The subject of this sketch is the sixth of a family of eleven children. The first, Alvira, is now the wife of Jacob Raff, of Owosso. The second, Rosa, is the wife of Edgar Hughes, of Rush township. The third, Fred, Jr., resides in Rush township. The fourth is Albert, of Rush township. The fifth, Katie, is now Mrs. Kester, of Owosso. The sixth is the subject of this sketch. The seventh, William, who lived on the old farm, died at the age of about thirty years. The eighth, Charles, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, is residing in Laporte, Michigan. The ninth is John, of Rush township. The tenth, Harvey, died in infancy. The eleventh is Frank, of Rush township. Henry Seelhoff was educated in the district schools of Rush township. He lived with his parents until the year 1891, when he and his brother William purchased eighty acres of his father's land, on section 10. About eight years ago he bought his brother's interest in the farm, and two years thereafter he purchased the Harshburger eighty, adjoining the old farm, and has since resided there. The Harshburger farm is all improved and has very fine buildings. On the 3d'of February, 1894, Mr. Seelhoff was united in marriage to Helen Bierwirth. She was born in Detroit, April 9, 1876, being a daughter of Henry Bierwirth, who was born in Germany, and who died in Detroit several years ago. He was a wagonmaker by trade; Mr. and Mrs. Seelhoff have two children: Sadie, who was born November 3, 1895, and Richard, born February 23, 1897. Mr. Seelhoff politically is a Republican. He and his wife are both members of the German Lutheran church, the church of the subject's father and mother. Our subject is one of the young, energetic farmers of his community, keeping up with the times and availing himself of the improved conditions in general farming. His farm buildings are large and substantial and are kept in splendid repair. His farm, of which he is justly proud, is very productive and is excelled by but few in the county. He has, by good management and business ability, made himself practically independent at an early age. JAMES SHAFT It is the custom of historians to record the events which make and unmake nations. They

SHIN WASSEE COUNTY 475 SHIA WASSEE Co UNTY 475 speak of the men who by fate have been destined to be leaders, but they neglect those who furnish the power by which achievement is wrought. It is the purpose of this work to preserve the record of lives that have been spent in building up the great state of Michigan and this the greatest of all nations. James Shaft was born in Woodhull township on the 31st of July, 1866. He is a son of John M. Shaft, a mrerchant and farmer of Woodhull township, and a man who took part in the affairs of the township when it was in its infancy. Our subject received his early education in the district schools of Woodhull township, this being before the village of Shaftsburg was incorporated. At the age of nineteen he discontinued his school work and took up the business of telegraphy, serving his apprenticeship in the office of the Grand Trunk Railroad in the village of Shaftsburg and working for three years as relief operator. At the end of that time he started on his business career, as a clerk in a store at Shaftsburg. He remained there for a period of two years and then accepted a position at Perry, where he remained the same length of time. He then worked in a store at Ovid, Michigan, for one year and at Williamston about six months. Having acquired a thorough knowledge of the mercantile business he purchased a general store at the village of Shaftsburg and' commenced business for himself. He conducted this store about two years and then disposed of it and went to the state of Washington, where he clerked in a wholesale grocery house about ten months. Having acquired a knowledge of the western country, he preferred his native state and returned to the village of Shaftsburg. Immediately after his return to Michigan he took charge of the hotel at Shaftsburg, conducting the same for a period of two years. In 1897 Mr. Shaft began the purchasing of grain, wool and general farm produce; he has been running the elevator at Shaftsburg since that time, and is at present doing a thriving business. Politically he is a Democrat, and he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a public-spirited man, taking much interest in all things that look to the betterment of the village in which he lives. In March, 1891, Mr. Shaft was united in marriage to Ada Stears. She was born August 2, 1871, and received her early education in the village of Laingsburg. She is a daughter of Samuel and Eliza Stears, and is one of a family of six children. The father was a soldier in the civil war, and for the last few years before his death was engaged in the agricultural implement business at Laingsburg, where the mother still lives. Mr. Shaft is a representative of one of the old and honored families of Shiawassee county and has well upheld the high prestige of the name he bears. JOHN M. SHAFT There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough hew them as we will. Some believe these words to be literally true in the lives of men, while others totally repudiate the sentiment. But it seems to be a fact that cannot be successfully contradicted, that good fortune pursues some men and showers her smiles upon them, whether they will have them or not. James Lick entered San Francisco with a few thousand dollars in his pocket, bought property and engaged in business in an ordinary way. The vicious village became a great city and the "squatter" became a "sovereign," dying worth millions. Whether it was fate or luck or pluck or foresight that induced John P. Shaft, father of our subject, to purchase the land, in Woodhull township, on which the village of Shaftsburg is now located, will always remain a mystery. His son, John M. Shaft, the gentleman with whom we are

476 paST AND PRESENT~ OF 476 PAST AND PRESENT OF immediately concerned at this time, and whose name heads this sketch, was born in Orange county, New York, June 18, 1837. He received his early education in the log school houses of Perry and Woodhull townships. At the age of twenty-two years he purchased eighty acres of wild land, seven of which were partly improved, in Woodhull township. He erected a house and barn and set out an orchard. He continues to reside there. In 1875, while the Grand Trunk Railroad was being constructed, he erected a building for general store purposes on land previously owned by his father, where Shaftsburg is now situated, the village being named in honor of that sterling pioneer, the father of our subject. He then embarked in the general mercantile business. Until the completion of the railroad he was obliged to haul his goods from Lansing and Williamston by team. He is still in the same branch of trade, with the addition of a hardware department, which was established in 1884, and in which he keeps a very complete stock, as he does of all lines handled. Indeed, his is a model establishment and enjoys a large and lucrative trade. Mr. Shaft has not only been most prominent and successful as a business man, but has been also repeatedly honored locally as a loyal Democrat. He served as constable for a number of terms and has filled the office of town treasurer for four terms. He is identified with Lodge No. 230, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. January 1, 1859, Mr. Shaft was united in marriage to Elizabeth Pinckney, of Woodhull township. She was born in Genoa, Livingston county, Michigan, February 1, 1840, being the fifth in a family of seven children: Charlotte, born February 4, 1829, married Marvel Hawkins and both are deceased; they had one child, Arola Lockwood, who is a resident of Fowlerville. Matilda, born July 29, 1831, married Horace Chalker, a blacksmith, now deceased, and has one child, Thomas. She still lives in Fowlerville, Livingston county. John born March 14, 1833, is a farmer of Locke township,. Ingham county; he married Rebecca Fisher, who died in 1872, leaving three children-Robert, George and Elizabeth. Mary, born January 16, 1836, married Hartwell Lewis, a Livingston county farmer, and they have one son, Herbert. Elizabeth is the wife of our subject. Eveline, born in 1843, married John Green, a Williamston township farmer, and both are now deceased. They had two children,-Herbert and Annie. Louisa born July 12, 1846, married Sidney Green, proprietor of a hotel and a brother of John Green, residing in Durand; she died in 1897, having become the mother of three childrenArthur, Alice and Thomas. Mr. and Mrs. John M. Shaft are the parents of eight children: Cass M., born December 9, 1861, is a farmer of Woodhull township; he is a Democrat and has served four years as postmaster at Shaftsburg. He married Trettie Van De Walker, and is the father of three children-Roy, Benjamin and Catharine. Lillian, born January 13, 1863, is the wife of Orney Goodridge, a Shaftsburg farmer, and has two children-Zorah and Josephine. James, born July 31, 1866, married Ada Stears, and they live in Shaftsburg. Elizabeth, born January 8, 1868, is the wife of Frank Lockwood, a farmer of Williamston township and a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and they have four children-Raymond, Mabel, Sherley and Pauline. Ellen, born September 16, 1871, married Perry Wilsey, a musician, and they reside at Lansing, Michigan. John P., born September 30, 1873, married Jane Warner. He is a resident of Shaftsburg, is a Democrat and has served six years as township. clerk. He is a notary public and a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Raymond, born February 16, 1878, was graduated in the Lansing Business College, and is a clerk in his father's store. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Roe, born June 1, 1881, died August 30, 1902. Thomas Pinckney, Mrs. Shaft's father, lo

JOHN M. SHAFT MRS. JOHN M. SHAFT

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 479 SHIA WASSEE Co UNTY 479 cated in Genoa township, Livingston county, on eighty acres of government land, which he cleared and improved, erecting a substantial house and barns. His death occurred December 9, 1849. The maiden name of Mrs. Shaft's mother was Rebecca West. She had one brother, two half-brothers, and one half-sister, who, like herself, were born in New York state. Some of them removed to Livingston county, where they still reside. Mrs. Pinckney died January 22, 1859. When the family removed from Genoa to Locke township the father took up eighty acres of wild land, clearing and cultivating it and erecting upon it the homestead buildings. Across the way from this tract was afterward built the first frame school house in Locke township. For many years it bore the name of the "Pinckney school house," in honor of the pioneer who settled in the locality when the region for miles around was but a wilderness. When Mr. Pinckney first came to the country, wolves, bears and deer were plentiful, and he became quite a hunter. For some time he had in his possession four tame deer which he had captured when small and had domesticated. When he located in Locke township, Williamston was the nearest market place and milling point. As Mr. Pinckney located in Michigan long before the Republican party was in existence, he was originally a Whig, afterward joining the ranks of its successor. He was an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and died a firm believer in its faith, November 16, 1890. John P. Shaft, the father of our subject, was a native of Rensselaer county, New York, where he was born September 16, 1804. He was of German and French descent. His maternal grandfather served as an officer under the great Napoleon, and the grandfather on the paternal side emigrated from Germany to America before the beginning of the Revolutionary war, in which he was engaged on the side of the patriots, serving until the close of the struggle, when he "turned his sword into a pruning hook," in Rensselaer county, New York, and engaged in farming. This was the native county of Peter, father of John P. Shaft, and after the birth of the latter, a portion of the family removed to Saratoga county, in the same state. Seven children were born to Peter and Elizabeth Shaft and when one of these, John P., was still an infant the family residence was changed to Madison county, New York, where the homestead remained until 1838. John P. Shaft remained with his father until he reached his majority and had been thoroughly educated in the common-school branches. Thus equipped, he further fitted himself for intelligent, practical and successful work, by mastering the shoemaker's trade, which he followed until he came to Michigan, in 1839. He had not only a good trade at his fingers' ends but also brought with him a fair stock of boots, shoes and leather, and, backed by hope, confidence, and general ability as well, he settled in the town of Perry. It must be remembered that shoemaking in those days was an important industry in every town, city and hamlet in the land, boots and shoes having to be made to order. This was before the days of much ready-made work. He had the foresight to buy two hundred and eighty acres of wild land, on sections 19, 20 and 29. In 1846 he removed to Woodhull township and purchased a tract of one hundred and sixty acres, which he improved and cultivated, erecting thereon a residence and other farm buildings and setting out a fine orchard. To these purchases he added from time to time until he was the proprietor of two thousand three hundred and thirty acres of land. When he died he was the owner of one thousand and eighty acres, mostly in Woodhull township. When Mr. Shaft settled in Perry his nearest neighbors were three miles north and seven miles west, but he lived to see the country all about him thickly populated and highly cultivated. He was a leader in the construction of the Grand Trunk Railroad, a staunch promoter and a liberal supporter of educational

480 PAST AND PRESENT OF 480. P A PRESE OF and religious enterprises, and such an indispensable friend to the best life of the community that the town itself was named after him, as already stated. John P. Shaft was married four times, first to Christiana Olsaver, in 1829. She was a fine type of the pioneer woman, a model wife and mother and most highly esteemed as a friend and neighbor. The result of this union, besides our subject, was the following named children: Orville, born in Madison county, New York, for many years was a western miner, and he died in California about 1900. Elizabeth, also born in Madison county, New York, became the wife of Johnson Treadway, a farmer of Perry township, by whom she had seven children, her death occurring in Morrice, December 22 1904; her children were all born in Perry township. Julia is the wife of Melville Grant, a horse breeder, of Morrice. Adna married George Graham, clerk in a Morrice store. John and Johnson were twins; the former is dead and the latter is a Grand Rapids railroad man. Orville, a Perry township farmer, died about twelve years ago. Alice, wife of Mr. Clark, a farmer of Perry township, had three children, and she died in 1882. Mary married Frank Ormsby, a farmer of Locke township. John P. Shaft's second wife was Christina Sherry, and eight children were born to them; and the third was Julia Parks, a native of New York state. They had no children. Our subject was a child of his father's first marriage. His mother, Christiana (Olsaver) Shaft, was born in Madison county, New York, her parents being pioneer farmers of Washtenaw county, Michigan, where they had purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres. She was one of a family of eight children, her father, Martin Olsaver, and her mother, Hannah (Williams) Olsaver, both being natives of New York state. Lawrence, her elder brother, was the first child of the family; she was the second; Cornelius, the third; Eliza, the fourth; Susan, the fifth; William, the sixth; Nancy, the seventh, and Henry, the eighth.t The children all reside in either Washtenaw or Livingston counties. It will thus be seen that John M. Shaft comes from good stock, and like his father before him, will leave a lasting impress on the community as one: who has accomplished something in life. Indeed, he has already done this, and may justly be proud of his achievements as a safe, reliable business man. But it may be claimed that Mr. Shaft has been, lucky. Some eminent men, however, have persistently claimed that there is no such thing in the world as luck, that men are at all times the arbiters of their own fortunes, and that if an unkind fate overtakes them it is because of their imprudence and carelessness. A critical observer has written: "If a man will put his mind into his business and drive it with energy, bad luck will never overtake him." Mr. Shaft has pushed his business, has attended to it closely, has succeeded admirably, and, although on the down-grade of life's journey, he is still active and in good health. Verily, such men should have a secret fountain from which to drink and renew their youth and vigor and thus perpetuate their stay in the world. JOHN SHAY Sixty-nine years ago but little could be said of the state of Michigan. The constitution of the state was not then adopted, and the greater part of the commonwealth was an uninhabited wilderness. Yet, in that early day, a man came to Lenawee with a son, who, at the age of twelve, working on a farm for six dollars the month, could provide for his own support and the support of his younger brother. John Shay lived in Lenawee county until afYork, February 9, 1832. He is a son of Ansel Shay, a shoemaker by trade, who was born in the state of New York, and who died about fifty years ago. The mother died when our

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 481 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 481 subject was but a child and of her he has no recollection. There were five children in the family. The oldest, Martha, is deceased; the second, Millie Ann, lives in Ohio; the third is the subject of this sketch; the fourth, Henry, died when a small boy; the fifth, Frank, is the youngest child and is now sixty-eight years of age, having been about six years cold when the father died, leaving him dependent upon his brother John, then but twelve years of age. John Shay lived in Lenawee county until after his marriage to Maria Dutcher, his first wife, when he came to Rush township about the year 1855. At that time this section was all wild, being covered with heavy timber. He bought eighty acres of this wild land and started in to make the home which he now occupies, in section 16. John and Maria (Dutcher) Shay became the parents of three children. The first, Martha Jane,' was born in Lenawee county, and she died unmarried; Frank is now forty-four years of age; Mary is the wife of Anson Shuster and they reside in Ontonagon county, Michigan. In 1892 our subject was married to the widow of Andrew Hurst. She has five sons and two daughters by the first marriage. The sons are all holding responsible railroad positions, and one of the daughters is teaching in Ypsilanti and the other in Danville, Illinois. Mr. Shay erected a board shanty upon the land which he purchased when he came to Rush township. He afterward enlarged this and at present it constitutes a part of the house now standing upon the land. In his early life he had but few school advantages, and acquired but a limited education; but while his schooling was neglected he was not neglecting the responsibility which the unfortunate death of his father had placed upon him, and was caring for his brother, who'was too young to care for himself. Politically, he has always been a Democrat in national affairs, but is independent and uses his judgment of men and measures in local matters. He has served as a school officer and as highway commissioner. He now owns eighty acres of well-improved farming land,' on section 16. The land is well fertilized and has good, substantial buildings. He still attends to the management of his farm, which is devoted to general farming. He has lived long in Rush township and has seen the forest fall before the stroke of the pioneer's ax. He has earned and has the respect of all who know him, and deserves the comforts of life which he now enjoys. ALEXANDER SHIPPEY This gentleman comes of good stock, some of his ancestors having figured in the war of 1812. Alexander Shippey was born in Oxford township, Oakland county, Michigan, March 17, 1847. His father, John Shippey, was a native of Seneca county, New York, where he first saw the light of day in 1809, and his mother, Mary (Graham) Shippey, was born in Ontario, Canada, in'1813, and died August 26, 1897. Mr. and Mrs. John Shippey were married at Rochester, Michigan, October 30y 1830. Previously to this date John Shippey came to Michigan, and took up forty acres of government land in Oxford township, Oakland county. On this he built a log Louse and barn, eventually clearing the land and subsequently adding one hundred acres, which also he cleared. He afterward erected a frame house and barns. He lived on the place at the time of his death. Detroit was his market for trading in the early days, and he went from Pontiac to Big Rapids to make a millstone at a time when there was nothing but an Indian trail be-" tween the two points. Alexander Graham, maternal grandfather of our subject, was in the war of 1812, and his daughter, mother of Mr. Shippey, was'kept, in the fort at Detroit, the only companions be-' ing "papooses." She was in the fort when it' was attacked by the English and Indians and for a time it was thought that the stronghold would be captured and the inmates taken pris 29

482 PAST AND PRESENT OF oners. At the close of the war Mr. Graham re. moved with his family to Rochester, Michigan, near which place he settled on a large tract of government land, where he and Mr. Shippey's mother drove the ox team which turned the first furrow ever plowed in Oakland countya distinguished honor which falls to the lot of few women. John Graham, brother to Mr. Shippey's mother, was the first male child born in Oakland county. Alexander Shippey was the seventh of nine children. Maria, now living in Lapeer county, first married Frank Wilder and had four children. After his death she married Hiram Travis; they have no children. Clarica; who lives at Hadley, Lapeer county, married Ernest Mann, and had three daughters. John, who lives near Bad Axe, Michigan, married Emma Hallenbeck and they have one child. Ann is the wife of Martin Jersey, of Romeo, Michigan, and has three children. Jane, who is living at Metamora, Lapeer county, married Hiram Lee, and had three children. Olive, who is deceased, lived at Metamora, Lapeer county, having been the wife of Enos Pitcher, and having had three children. Alexander is the subject of this sketch. Benjamin died in Oakland county, at the age of ten years. Ada, now living in Lapeer county, married Mr. Marston, and had two children. Her second husband is Mr. Barber, by whom she has had four children. Mr. Shippey started the battle of life for himself at the age of sixteen years, beginning to work on a farm by the month. He continued this for six years. At the end of that time he rented a big farm in Lapeer county, for one year, but owing to ill health he found it necessary to sell out in 1871, and he subsequently spent six weeks prospecting in Kansas. Prior to going to that state, however, he visited Hazelton township, at which time he made the declaration he would not take it as a gift. In the fall of 1871, however, he experienced a "change of heart" and after returning from Kansas bought eighty acres of wild land, on section 2, Hazelton township, for which he paid four hundred dollars. During the first year he lived in a board shanty twelve by sixteen feet in dimensions. This he afterward tore down, and started to build a frame house sixteen by twenty-four feet in dimensions, but before it was completed it was blown down. Finally, however, the damage was repaired and the structure completed. He continued to occupy it till eighteen years ago, when he built a larger and finer residence with suitable and more commodious barns. All the land has been entirely changed, by clearing off the timber, thus making it a beautiful and attractive spot. Three years ago Mr. Shippey retired from the old homestead, on account of poor health, and located in New Lothrop, this county, where he purchased a house and four lots and where he now lives in ease and comfort. In 1869 Mr. Shippey was married to Amanda Campbell, who died in 1878, leaving three children: Arthur, who was born September 7, 1872, lives on his father's farm; he married Myrta Smith and they have two children, Mildred and Vivian. The second was Ernest, born March 6, 1875, and the third was an infant which died at the age of three weeks, the same time as did its mother. In 1880 Mr. Shippey took a second wife, Ella Enders, who was born March 28, 1856. To them one child, Iva, was born, June 10, 1885. She married Oscar Bower and has two children: Roy, born May 5, 1903, and Kenneth, born January 14, 1905. The father of Mrs. Shippey was Samuel Enders. He settled in Oakland county, where he bought eighty acres of partly improved land. At the time of his death, in 1898, he lived in Ortonville, Michigan. His wife is still living at that place. Mrs. Shippey was the fourth of eight children: Charlotte, who lives at Ortonville, Michigan, married Damon Irish, and they have no children. Almeda, who resides at Port Jarvis, New York, is the wife of Richard Whitmore and they have five children. Warren, who lives in Colorado, is

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 483 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 483 married and has six children. Ella is the wife of Mr. Shippey, subject of this review; Charles, who resides at Ortonville, Michigan, is married but has no children. Norman, who is living in Bay county, married Etta Wilkins and they have one child. Jennie, who lives at Vassar, Michigan, married George McGinnis, and they have two sons. Lucius died in Montana, having been married. The father of Mrs. Shippey was a native of Pennsylvania, while her mother, Nancy (Rhodes) Enders, was born in New York state. Endersville, Pennsylvania, was named in honor of Mrs. Shippey's family. Alexander Shippey is a Democrat and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. SAMUEL SHUSTER For many years one of the best-known and most honored pioneers of Rush township was Samuel Shuster. On account of temporary illness he was prevented for the first time within a half century from attending and voting at the spring election in the township in 1905. He was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on the 11th of July, 1821. He was a son of John Shuster, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and who died in the state of Ohio, at the age of eighty-one years. Our subject's mother, Elizabeth (Wingate) Shuster, was born in Delaware, near Philadelphia. She was bound out, when a child, to a family in Ohio, where she was reared. At the age of twenty-one years our subject's father located at New Baltimore, Ohio, where he lived several years. He then removed with his family to Hardin county, Ohio, where both he and his wife died. Ohio at that time was a sparsely settled state. The subject of this sketch remembered when there was but one lumber wagon in the county in which they lived. He used to go to mill, a distance of sixteen miles on horseback, and return with the grist and other food supplies. As the father was one of the pioneers of Ohio, so was the son a pioneer of Michigan. Mr. Shuster's grandfather was a very wealthy man. He gave each of his children one hundred and sixty acres of land, a cow, and a saddle and bridle. To the eleventh child, a (laughter, he gave five hundred dollars in money and a house and lot in Philadelphia. The subject of this memoir came to Michigan in 1854, and located his land, situated in Rush township, Shiawassee county, with a pocket compass and a piece of birch bark two rods long. His one hundred and sixty acres of wild land cost him twelve and one-half cents per acre. The trip from Qhio was made with two yoke of oxen, a cow and a heifer. His family consisted of himself, his wife and their infant child. Mr. Shuster was married in Ohio, at the age of twenty-nine years, to Elizabeth Main. She was born in Ohio, and lived only eight years after their marriage. To them were born three children. The oldest, Sanford, lives in Rush township; the second, Anson E., lives in Ontonagon county, and the third, John, lives in Rush township. After Mr. Shuster had erected a log house upon the land which he had purchased, he commenced cutting logs on the river to obtain the means to support his family. He was a good worker and a better financier. Twentyfour years ago on the first day of January he moved into the brick house in which he lived at the time of his death, November 15, 1905, at the age of eighty-four years. He hired the laborers who worked upon the house, superintend personally its construction and did not permit a piece of imperfect material to be placed in the building. When completed it had cost him the sum of two thousand and two hundred dollars, every cent of which he paid in cash. When we consider the difficulty of obtaining money in those days, when most men struggled for an existence, we must admit that this is a record of which to be proud. Mr. Shuster's second wife was Lucy, widow

484 PAST AND PRESENT OF 484 PAST AND PRESENT OF of Jacob Rush. Her maiden name was Freeman. To them were born five children. Elizabeth Ann is the wife of Horace Hayt, of Owosso; Jane is the wife of John Dellamater, of Rush township; Athelia is the wife of June Johnson, of Chesaning, Michigan; Leslie resides in Rush township, and Edna is the wife of George Brock, formerly of Saginaw, Michigan. Since the death of Mr. Shuster Mr. Brock has had the management of the farm. In early days Mr. Shuster often carried upon his shoulders a bag of meal from Owosso to his home, a distance of nine miles, through the woods. Although the feat mentioned is but one of the many hardships which he encountered. Politically he was affiliated with the Democrats, but was independent in local affairs. He held the office of highway commissioner for a period of fourteen years, but never sought political office. He was a man highly respected by all who knew him. JOHN SIMPSON The surroundings of a home and the influence of a father and mother go far to mould the character of the boy or girl and to start them on the right road to good manhood and womanhood. The boy who is left in infancy without either, and who is compelled to meet the hardships and evils of the world alone is as gold tried in the fire if he arrives at manhood without dishonor. John Simpson was born in Scotland in the year 1826, being a son of William Simpson. His parents both died in Scotland when he was but a child. The only recollection he has of either of his parents is that of being lifted in some one's arms to look upon the face of his dead mother. Subject lived with his paternal grandparents until he had attained to the age of twelve years. At that early age he had to shift for himself, and he began earning his daily bread by working on a farm by the month. He labored thus for nine years, and though he had to bear the hardships of an orphan and the sorrows of childhood alone, he came to his majority with his character unblemished, and so he has preserved it throughout his long and useful life. At the age of twenty-one years he married Jane Gordon. She was born in 1828, and died in 1903. The companion of his youth and his first true friend lies buried in the cemetery at Henderson. To them were born two children. The older, John, died at the age of three years. The second, Jane, was born in 1853, and she is the wife of John Telfer, who conducts a general store in the village of Henderson, where he is also postmaster, Mr. and Mrs. Telfer have four children, Harry, Daisy, Grace and Lyman. Our subject was the third in a family of four children, who are now widely separated. The oldest, William, is a shoemaker by trade and resides in Scotland; the second, Jane, lives in Scotland; and the fourth lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson sailed from Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 8th day of April, 1854, and two months were consumed in making the voyage. They landed at Quebec and went from there to Hamilton, Ontario, where they resided about two years, then removing to Detroit, where he was employed for four years at construction work and repairing on the Michigan Central Railroad. IHe then came to Rush township in the year 1868, and purchased eighty acres of wild land. Not a stick of timber had been cut on the land and the timber was the heaviest in this section. He built a log house upon the land and for the next few years labored as a section hand upon the Michigan Central Railroad, to obtain a living for himself and family. In connection with this labor he succeeded in clearing a few acres of the land.and in planting crops. He has continued his labors until now he has a very fine farm, located in section 22. Politi

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 485 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 485 cally he has always been a Republican. In early days he was a member of the Presbyterian church, but at present belongs to the Disciples' church. For the last few years he has rented his land, and though he is now seventy-nine years of age he is still in good health. His daughter and her husband live with him. Although advanced in years he is not a man that can bear to be idle. He manages the farm, repairs fences and sees that everything is kept in first-class condition. HARRISON SMITH Harrison Smith, the subject of this paper, now a resident of Owosso, has for nearly forty years been a highly honored citizen of Venice township, and, as one of the most substantial farmers of the county, is enjoying the rewards of an industrious life, directed by sound judgment and morality. He was born in Orleans county, New York, on November 24, 1821, and his parents were also natives, of the Empire state. 'His father, George Washington Smith, was born in 1796, and died, at the age of eighty-eight, in 1884; his mother, Almira (Lee) Smith, died in New York state in 1830. The'father of our subject was married four times, Harrison being the eldest child by the first marriage. His brother Orson, next to him in age and now deceased, married Harriet Patterson and was the father of five children. Lee, the third, living in Missouri, married Harriet Smith, and they are the parents of four children. The fourth, Nelson, who is a resident of New York state, has been twice marriage of George W. Smith was to Mrs. Polly whom he had two children, and, second, to Mrs. Ann Eliza Buckland. The second marriage of George W. Smith was to Mrs. Polly (Whaley) Jenning, by whom he had four children. 'Harvey is married and lives in California. Henry died when a small boy. Mary J., deceased, married Solon Parish and had two boys. Sabrina Mariah is now Mrs. Cline, lives at Adrian, Michigan, and has two chil dren. The third wife, formerly Lois Wheat,, became the mother of one child, who died in infancy. The fourth wife was a widow named Patterson. Harrison Smith obtained his early education in the district schools of Orleans county, New York, and until he was nearly twenty-two years of age he assisted his father in his saw mill. He then started out to carve for himself an independent career, having, as a foundation for the future, one hundred acres of improved land, presented to him by his father. It was about this time that the young man was introduced to the Wolverine state and its fair prospects, through a visit which he made to Tuscola county, whither he was invited to attend the wedding of his cousin. That entire region was then virtually a wilderness, there being only nine families in the county named, and the wedding of his cousin was the first ceremony of the kind between white people ever performed within its limits. Mr. Smith returned to Orleans county, where he successfully cultivated his farm for several years, but his visit to the west had set at rest all doubts as to his final residence. At first he traded his New York farm for eighty acres of wild land in Ottawa county, Michigan, which, in turn, was exchanged for the one hundred and ten acre in section 10, Venice township, where he resided until October, 1905. This tract was also unimproved, but he built a log house and a frame barn, and cleared and broke the land; later, he erected a comfortable frame residence, transforming the wild, crude piece of land into an attractive, up-to-date homestead. Following the example of his father, he has also given to each of his sons forty acres of land. Mr. Smith has been thrice married. He first wedded Mrs. Louisa (Holt) Hopkins, who died in New York state, childless. He later married Sarah Wager, who died March 3, 1885, at the age of forty-four years, leaving three children: Lewis Eugene, born in May, 1861, married Nellie Warren, from whom he

486 PO d ST AND PRESENT OF 486 PAST AND PRESENT OF was divorced, their children being Everett and Fern; his second marriage was to Naomi Brees; they have no children and live with our subject. Mary was born in 1865, and died in May, 1883. Willis Henry, born in December, 1867, married Minnie Bernear and lives on a forty-acre farm which his father gave him. He has five children-Frankie, Ada, George, Gertrude and Rodger. Mr. Smith's third marriage was to Mrs. Emily Jane Paine, widow of Damon E. Paine. She was born in 1828 and had one child by her first marriage, Viola Celestia, who was born in 1858 and who married William Ackland, becoming the mother of three children, Wallie, Flora (deceased). and Irene. Mr. and Mrs. Ackland reside in Morencie. Our subject is not a member of any political party, being too busy a man to devote any time to politics. To illustrate how he has kept himself aloof from politics, it may be stated that he has voted for but one president in the course of his entire life. Both Mr. and Mrs. Smith are Seventh Day Adventists and are iprominent in practical works of charity. x Mr. Smith is one of that stalwart band of pioneers, now diminished to such small proportions, who have been privileged to see the wild country over which they once hunted deer and other game,-blossom into scientifically cultivated farms and beautiful villages and cities. J. L. SMITH, M. D. Of the followers of Esculapius practicing in Durand, Shiawassee county, none is more progressive in his professional ideas and tendencies than our subject. The tendency of the time in professional circles is a dissatisfaction with one's acquirements and a feverish anxiety to rend the veil of future discoveries and inventions, taking to one's self all the advantages that may be utilized. On the whole, this is a wholesome condition of affairs. Dr. Smith is no exception to the rule, being ambitious to stand in the front ranks of his profession. He is a skilled physician and surgeon and his practice is large and of a representative character. Since the year 1875, with the exception of four years passed at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he has been known as one of the most successful physicians of Shiawassee county. Ohio is the native place of Dr. Smith, who was born in Coshocton county, where he spent his boyhood days and where he acquired his early education in the district schools. Dr. Smith is a son of Jacob and Mary (Thompson) Smith. His father was born in Virginia, in 1813, and his mother was a native of Scotland, her birth having occurred in 1814. For a time our subject attended the Hopedale Academy, at Hopedale, Ohio, later was a student in the Iron City Commercial College, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and he finally entered the Western Reserve University, at Cleveland, Ohio, being graduated in the medical department of this institution as a member of the class of 1873. He later took a post-graduate course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago. The young physician started out for himself by locating at Strasburg, Ohio, where he practiced successfully. In the year 1875, being dissatisfied with the field of his activities, he removed to Vernon, -Michigan, where he remained, with the exception of a few years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, until he came to Durand, in the year 1896. Since locating in Durand he has met with marked success and his strict attention to business and the welfare of his patrons has won for him many friends. He is ever found ready to lend a helping hand to one who is needy. Dr. Smith has been twice married, first to Jennie Patterson, daughter of John Patterson, of Strasburg, Ohio. Mrs. Smith died in Vernon, Michigan, in 1880. In the year 1893 Dr. Smith was married to Miss Florence Willhide, of Hagerstown, Maryland. Two children came to bless the home of Dr. Smith-a son

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 487 SHIA WASSEE Co UNTY 487 and a daughter. Lillie is following the calling of an actress and her stage name is Lillie Morrell, and the son is a conductor on the Toledo & Ann Arbor Railroad. Dr. Smith is a Democrat, and though not an office-seeker, he was for one term president of Vernon village and also, for the same length of time, president of Durand. He interests himself in everything that can be of advantage to him in the acquiring of knowledge pertaining to his profession. He is a member of the Michigan State Medical Society and also of the Shiawassee County Medical Association. In social life, Dr. Smith affiliates with the Masonic order, Knights of Pythias, Knights of the Maccabees, Foresters and the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan, at Saginaw, in all of which he takes an active interest. He is a warm admirer and personal friend of W. J. Bryan. NELSON SMITH It is a pleasure to preserve the history and the recollections of the men who have taken part in the development of a community. No more valuable hour can be spent than to hear them impart the knowledge which they have acquired in many years of life and experience. The step may be slow, but they have not much farther to travel. The eye may be dim, but they need not look far to see the goal. Nelson A. Smith was born in Genesee county, state of New York, on the 2d day of February, 1826. His father, Sanford Smith, was born in Jefferson county, New York, and his mother, Laura (Tanner) Smith, was born in the state of Vermont. His father came to the state of Michigan, in the fall of 1842, and settled in Burns township, a short distance from where our subject now lives.. Sanford Smith traded land in New York state for three hundred and four acres of land in Shiawassee county, Michigan, and made his first trip to the state for the purpose of seeing the land, not having seen it before he traded. He erected a small log cabin on the land and returned to the state of New York, and rented the land he bad formerly owned there. After two years he returned to Michigan and started to clear and improve the land. He died three years later, in 1848. Our subject is one of seven children, all of whom are dead but himself and one brother. He received his early education in the state of New'York, in the town of Perry. He first worked on the land which his father owned, and his father afterward gave him a deed of forty-eight and one-half acres of wild land. He later purchased eighty acres. There was but tourteen acres cleared on the eighty, the remainder, of over one hundred and twenty acres, he has cleared and improved himself. This is a great work for one man to accomplish. His farm is located in sections 2 and 3, Burns township. Nelson Smith has continuously lived upon the farm which he first owned. He has erected good buildings, made general improvements and has one of the finest farms in Burns township. In the year 1852 he visited the gold fields of California, going by way of New York and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Upon this trip he was gone nineteen months, which is the longest period he has been absent from his farm since he located upon it. In early days he drove the Fentonville stage. In 1851 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Jane E. Barnum. Her father was an old and highly esteemed settler bf Michigan, locating near Byron in the year 1837. To our subject and wife has been born one child, John S. Smith, who now resides on the farm with his father. Mr. Smith gave his son a liberal education, sending him to the high school at Byron, and college at Kalamazoo. He is still a very studious and scholarly man. John S. Smith married Samantha Burlingame, whose parents were old settlers, and very much respected people of Burns township. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born four children. The oldest, Jeanette, is a graduate

488 PAST AND PRESENT OF 488 PAST AND PRESENT OF of Mount Pleasant Normal and is a kindergarten teacher. The Second, Lulu, is a normalschool graduate, and is now engaged as a drawing teacher. The third, H. Brayton, is attending the Michigan Agricultural College. The fourth, Ruth, is attending school in By-. ron, and expects to specialize in music. Our subject and his. son are both Republicans, and the son has held the offices of justice of the peace and school inspector. OTTO L. SPRAGUE Among the prominent young business men of Owosso is Otto L. Sprague, the druggist. Mr. Sprague is a native Wolverine, having been born at Farmington, Oakland county, Michigan, January 19, 1865. His parents, John and Helen (Lee) Sprague, were for many years residents of Oakland county, where the father was engaged in farming. When our subject was seven years of age his father moved to Caro, and later, in 1886, to Owosso, where he now resides, being engaged as mail carrier. In the year 1882 Otto L. Sprague was graduated in the Caro high school, and soon afterward he accepted a position in a drug store at that place, being subsequently employed at Fair Grove, Bad Axe and Traverse City. The firm of Sprague & Company was formed in -1890, since which time Mr. Sprague has been identified with the business interests of the city of Owosso. July 27, 1886, Mr. Sprague was united in marriage to Mabel A., daughter of Henry P. and Emily (Wilson) Atwood, of Caro. To Mr. and Mrs. Sprague three children were born-Lee Atwood, Jonathan Henry and Robert Wilson. Jonathan Henry is the only surviving child and is a pupil in the Owosso public schools. It is scarcely' necessary to say that Mr. Sprague affiliates with the Republican party. He believes in its principles and is enthusiastic over its triumphs and victories. He has served the city as clerk one term and was for two terms city treasurer. In 1900 Mr. Sprague was supervisor of census for the eighth congressional district of Michigan. He is now serving his third term as deputy oil inspector for the twelfth district of Michigan. Mr. Sprague has developed the social and fraternal side of his nature by his association with the Odd Fellows, the Maccabees and the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Sprague readily comprehends the fact that nothing succeeds like success, and acts accordingly. He never waits for an opportunity, but makes for himself opportunities and improves the advantages afforded. His friends say of him, "Otto usually has his hat the right side up when the plums fall." He is greatly appreciated for his public spirit in his home town, where he is best known. GEORGE W. STANLAKE George WV. Stanlake was born in Waterford, Oakland county, Michigan, December 28, 1849. He is a son of Charles Stanlake., who was born in Devonshire, England, February 7, 1824, who died in Owosso township, May 12, 1899. His wife, Caroline (Derby) Stanlake, was born in the Empire state, and she passed to the life eternal in 1884, in Owosso township. The father of Charles Stanlake was William Stanlake, who came to America when the former, Charles, was only twelve years old. In 1836 he located in Waterford, Oakland county, Michigan, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government. This he cleared and improved, and there he lived until the date of his death. Our subject's father was one in a family of ten children, two of whom died in England. Five sons and three daughters accompanied their parents to America, and all have since passed away. They were named respectively Charles, John, Thomas, Robert, William, Mary, Jane and Charlotte.

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 489 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 489 Our subject's father attended the district school in Oakland county, living at home with his parents. When his father died he stayed on the farm and took care of his mother, realizing that There is none In all this cold and hollow world, no fount Of deep, strong, deathless love, save that within A mother's heart. Charles Stanlake was married in Oakland county anAd lived on the old homestead until 1856, when he sold his interest in the farm and moved to Shiawassee county, buying eighty acres in Owosso township. Of this there were about seven acres cleared, with no buildings. As soon as possible he erected a house, in which he lived for thirty years afterward. He cleared and improved the land and in later years built a commodious residence. In politics he was a Republican, but he never held office. He was a member of the Protestant Methodist church at Burton and was active in all that pertains to the betterment of society. He had a family of ten children-such a family as would now delight the heart of President Roosevelt. The first-born of the household was the subject of this sketch, George W. Stanlake. The others are: Henry, who lives in DuPlain township, Clinton county, Michigan; James, who lives in Owosso, being employed in the Estey factory; Harvey, who lives in Detroit, and who is a contractor and builder; Williafn, who resides at Kingston, Canada; Fred, who lives in Owosso; Martha, who is the wife of Orrin Williams, of New Haven township; Elizabeth married Joseph Bradley and they live in Owosso; two children were born to them and both died in infancy. Mr. Stanlake was afforded the advantages of the district schools of Owosso and Middlebury townships and subsequently attended a select school in Ovid. He started for himself at the age of fourteen years, working on a farm summers and attending school winters. This he continued until twenty-five years old, when he purchased forty acres of improved land, but he soon afterward sold this and bought one hundred and twenty acres, partly improved, on section 27, Middlebury township. The place had a log house and barn. He subsequently built a frame house, added to the barn and built another. He lived there until one year ago, when he leased the Marshall farm and removed there. He still owns his farm, of one hundred acres, which he cleared, improved and fenced. Mr. Stanlake was married to Amah Haight, November 8, 1870. She was born in Steuben county, New York, October 12, 1852. A sketch of her family is given in connection with that of her brother, Clarence Haight, elsewhere in this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Stanlake were born three children, two of whom died in infancy. One son, Claude, aged twenty-six years, is single and lives with his parents. Mr. Stanlake has always been engaged in general farming. He buys and feeds stock, but not extensively. He is a Republican and was supervisor of his township for twelve years 'in succession and is now serving his second term as township treasurer. He was also highway commissioner one year. Though not connected with any church the family are regular attendants of religious services and help to support the good work. It is said by his neighbors that Mr. Stanlake hasn't an enemy in Middlebury.. Certain it is that he is extremely popular and that he possesses the confidence of his neighbors in an unqualified degree. WILLIAM W. STEELE The subject of this sketch is a farmer and the son of a farmer-a representative of that band of sturdy men who did so much in the early days of Michigan to make it what it is to-day, one of the most beautiful and prosper

4W0 PAST AND PRESENT OF 490 PAST AND PRESENT OF ous commonwealths in the entire sisterhood of states. It may never have occurred to the casual reader that it requires fully as much courage and fortitude to enter a virgin forest in a new country and chop down and carve out a home and farm as it does to shoulder a musket and fight the battles of one's country. The order of courage in either case is varied but a trifle. William W. Steele is a native of the Empire state, a fact of which he is justly proud. He was born in Fulton county, New York, May 15, 1837. His father, Newcomb W. Steele, was likewise a native of New York state. He died, however, at the age of forty-five years, just in the prime of manhood. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Forbes, was born in New York state, and survived her husband nearly a quarter of a century, having died at the age of sixty-eight years. Mr. Steele's parents were married in their native state, but removed to Michigan when he was only one year old. They settled at Oxford Corners, Oakland county, on a forty-acre farm of unimproved land, which an uncle of the subject of this sketch had bought from the government and had given to his brother, Newcomb W. A log shanty was built and the work of clearing the farm commenced. They continued to live there for about twelve years, when the father died. His widow then removed to Metamora, Michigan, where she bought forty acres of land, all improved. She lived there about five years and then married a second husband, in the person of Stephen Chase, who owned one hundred and sixty acres near Fortuneville. There they lived for about ten years, then removing to Independence, Oakland county, where they remained until they closed their earthly careers. Newcomb W. Steele was a Democrat in politics, and, although greatly interested in public affairs, he never held office, nor did he have any desire to. He did not belong to any church but was a man of integrity and honor and was highly respected, leaving the heritage of a good name, which is far better than great riches. William W. Steele was the fourth of a family of ten children, who are enumerated below. Eunice married Robert Bailey, of Oakland county, and is now deceased; Harriet married Alfred Thompson, and they are now living in Coldwater, Michigan; Catherine, now deceased, married Nathaniel Farren, a farmer of Oakland county; our subject was next in order of birth; David is supposed to be living, but nothing is known of his whereabouts; Alonzo, now deceased, married Ellen Symes, of Actonville, Michigan; Egbert died at the age of twenty-five years, a bachelor; Julia married Charles Tulley and lives at Ludington, Michigan; John F., who died at the age of thirty-five years, married Susan Storem, of Lapeer county, Michigan; George Chase, a child of the second marriage, lives at Ludington, Michigan. William W. Steele received such educational advantages as the district schools of the day afforded, attending the school at Oxford Corners. He continued to live with his parents until he was fourteen years of age, when his father died, thus throwing him upon his own resources. He began working by the month at farming, at which he continued until he was married February 21, 1865, to Charity Lanning, who was born in Oakland county, November 17, 1840. Her father was Phillip Lanning, who was born in New Jersey, March 4, 1813, and who died at the ripe old age of eigthy-seven years. Her mother, Delila (Phillips) Lanning, also was a native of New Jersey, where she was born in 1812, and she died at the age of eighty-seven years, being about the same age as her husband and dying about the same age. They were among the early pioneers of Oakland county, having located there soon after their marriage. They secured forty acres of government land on which they lived and died, their little log house having been built when they took up their residence on the farm. There were eight

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 491 S COUNTY. 49 children in this family, only two of whom are living. Caleb, who died in 1900, at the age of sixty-four years, was never married. Eliza married a man named Graham, with whom she lived on the old farm till four years ago, and she makes her home now with her sister, Mrs. Steele, having sold the old homestead in Independence, in the spring of 1905. Johanna married Charles Lewis and resides in Detroit, having no children. Katie, wife of Alva Wiser, lives in South Dakota and has one child. Vesta, who married a Miss McCrae, and who lives in Sanilac county, Michigan, had two children, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Steele lived in Oakland county about ten years after their marriage, removing to Shiawassee county in 1878. They bought forty acres of wild land, on which there was a small log house. This was made habitable and they occupied it for twelve years. A new frame house was then built and this is now their home. Although never adding to the size of his farm, Mr. Steele has been quite successful on a small one, demonstrating the fact that a small farm well tilled is much more profitable than greater possessions poorly cultivated. In 1900 he built a large and handsome frame barn, as good as any in the township, considering its size. No children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Steele; but they took a boy from the State Industrial School, at Lansing, keeping him but two years. They adopted a little daughter at the age of eight years, and to her was given the name of Ida Steele. She finally became the wife of Charles Helmore and is now a resident of Corunna. Mr. Steele has always acted with the Democratic party in political matters, but never aspired to any office. He has often served as pathmaster, however, but has always declined to go higher, preferring to follow in the ranks. He is not connected with any church or sect. He enjoys telling a good story about the early days in the state and is greatly interested in pioneer history. He takes great pleasure in telling how he carried grist on his back to Rat ville. Many and great were the hardships of those days, but they form a green spot in memories of all who took part in them. He is one of the well known and highly esteemed citizens of Hazelton township. CARSO K. STEVENS Carso K. Stevens, one of the leading farmers and live-stock raisers of the township of Woodhull, was born within its limits, on the 12th of April, 1859. He is a son of Henry and Mandana (Proctor) Stevens. His father was born in Steuben county, New York, April 9, 1818, and his mother, a native of the Green Mountain state, was born April 27, 1819. The parents died in Woodhull township, the father passing away on the 5th of September, 1894, and the mother on the 9th of June, 1897. The fruits of their marriage, which was celebrated on the 2d of July, 1840, were four children, as follows: Alonzo, born July 14. 1841, served in the civil war as a private in the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, and was killed at Campbell Station, Tenn~essee, December 11, 1863; Almond, born November 14, 1843, is a retired farmer, residing at Perry, Michigan; Horace B., born July 24, 1849, is living on a farm in section 10, Woodhull township, and the fourth child is the subject of this paper. Mr. Stevens' father came to Michigan in 1854, after the birth of three of his children, and first bought eighty acres of wild land in Woodhull township. On this farm, the birthplace of our subject, he remained twelve years, within which period he not only supported his family from the proceeds of the farm, but also so improved the place as to be able to exchange it for one hundred and sixty acres of unimproved land. In the clearing and improving of this latter tract the father had the assistance of both Carso and his elder brother, Horace, and there the parents resided until the time of their death.

492 PAST, AND PRESENT OF 49 PAS AN PRESENT.OF Our subject obtained the major, part of his education in the Graham district school. When twenty-three years of age, or at the time of his marriage, he set up housekeeping with his parents, assuming the responsibility of caring for them and the farm. This condition of things continued for a period of twelve years, when, upon the death of his parents, he became proprietor of the old homestead, of about eighty acres. Mrs. Stevens has proved herself a helpmeet, indeed, to her husband during all the years of their wedded life. The farm in section 10 continued to be their home until a short time ago, when he exchanged the property for one hundred acres in section 1b about eighty acres of which were already improved. This is now the family homestead, and one of which any American farmer might justly be proud. It offers sufficient evidence of Mr. Stevens' wisely directed industry, his skill as a husbandman and his judgment and good taste as a man of practical ability. It also explains why, although a firm Republican and a popular man, he has never spent the time in laying and working out political plans. As he has been an unassuming and faithful Republican, so for many years he has modestly but firmly upheld the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal church, being connected with Woodhull.township, district No. 2. Woodhull township was the scene of our subject's marriage to Flora B. Powell, on the 21st day of March, 1882. They are the parents of three children. Anna, born April 4, 18S1, was married to Burt McConkey, July 30, 1902. The second child, Floyd H., was born July 10, 1890, and the birthday of Roland L., the third, was June 21, 1894. Mrs. Stevens is the sixth in a family of eight children, and is a native of Seneca coun-. ty, Ohio, where she was born June 18, 1866. Marion Powell, the oldest, was born March 10, 1851, and is a farmer of Woodhull township. The second, John M., born July 1, 1853, also follows the same occupation in that township. Jacob, born September 16, 1855, is a business man in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Mary D. is Mrs. Melville Harvey, and has herself a married daughter, Flora Murphy. Mr. Harvey is proprietor of a farm near Shaftsburg. Joseph, the fifth child, did not reach mature years. He was born August 11, 1863,' and died August 12, 1872. As stated, the sixth was the wife of our subject. Kate, born July 2, 1869, married L. M. Sufphin on the 31st of October, 1894. Charles W. Powell, the eighth and youngest of the family, was born January 16, 1871, and is a telegraph operator, residing in Ypsilanti. Mrs. Stevens' parents located in Michigan in 1870, originally purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of partly improved land in Woodhull township. After residing thereon about eight years they rented the farm for a time and then removed to Ashley, Gratiot county, Michigan. Their residence at that place was destroyed by fire, and they then returned to Shiawassee county, where they lived at the time of their death. It is due to the true worth and substantial standing of this couple that a few details should be given tracing their lives from east to west. The father, Jacob Powell, was born in Bedford, Pennsylvania, on the last day of December, 1819. In 1832 he migrated with his parents to Ohio, launching himself into the world as an independent farmer at the age of twenty-six. As above mentioned, he became a Wolverine in 1870, and the date of his death was March 7, 1904. On the 20th of January, 1848, Mr. Powell married Miss Sophia Pope. She was born July 27,. 1828, was a native of Pennsylvania, and when a girl of five years removed with her parents to Ohio. She died in Woodhull, Michigan, April 23, 1899. MILO STEWART It is gratifying to the historian to recount the experiences of the early pioneers in the Wolverine state, and especially to tell the story of those who are still remaining in our midst

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 493 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 493 and whose life work has extended over most of the last century. These "plain and simple annals" do not sound the trumpet to announce great and world-famous deeds, but they recount the story of quiet, unostentatious lives which have been made emphatic by truth and justice, industry and uprightness. It is a pleasure to see a hard-working, industrious and enterprising man reach the point where he can lay aside the anxieties of life and the arduous details of a farmer's career and spend his later days in quiet and comfort. Among the number who belong to this class of retired farmers we find Milo Stewart, who was born in Genesee county, New York, August 29, 1830. He is a son of Eli and Polly (Burt) Stewart, who were natives of the Empire state, the father having died at the age of sixty-six and the mother at eighty-eight. Farming was the occupation of the father of our subject and it was in the year 1834 that he brought his family to Michigan, first settling near Ypsilanti. Here he bought and cleared eighty acres of government land and here dwelt for thirteen years. He then traded for eighty acres of land in Caledonia township, Shiawassee county. This property was partially cleared and here he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. Our subject was the youngest of a family of nine children. Rose Ann died at the age of eighty-three; she was the wife of Dexter Carlton and lived on a farm near Lansing. Harlow died at the parental home, at the age of thirty-six years. Louisa, the wife of S. W. Cooper, of Corunna, died at the age of sixtyfive. Auburn, a resident of Corunna, died when sixty-five years old. Priscilla, the wife of Gary Tuttle, lived to the age of seventyeight. Maria, the wife of William Lemon, of Missouri, died at the age of seventy-one. Brooklyn died at home, when thirty-six years old. Mary Ann is Mrs. Wooster, of Leslie, Michigan. Milo Stewart was educated in the district schools near Ypsilanti and lived on the farm with his parents until their death, when he came into possession of the farm and made it his home until two years ago, when he retired from the activities of life, renting the farm to his son, and taking up his residence in Corunna. July 24, 1852, Mr. Stewart was married to Alvira Shipman, who was born in Monroe county, Michigan, and whose death occurred fourteen years ago, when she had reached the age of sixty years. They became the parents of eight children. Edgar M., born May 22, 1853, died May 22, 1868; Alice, born July 20, 1854, died April 21, 1863; Eva L., born September 7, 1856, died April 6, 1872; Ida A., born October 21, 1858, died January 25, 1878; Adella, born February 2, 1867, is the wife of George Bartell, of Caledonia; Landon M. is living on the home farm; Eva M., born January 20, 1874, the wife of Hugh Morris, died four years ago; Valeria, born March 27, 1878, is the wife of Clarence Kinne, of Corunna; and two children, Roswell and Viola, died in infancy. Twelve years ago our subject was married to Hanna E. Ketcham, who was born in New York state. Until a few years ago Mr. Stewart was found among the voters for the Democratic ticket but he now affiliates with the Prohibition party. He served his township as highway commissioner for one term and was school director for several terms. The Methodist Episcopal church receives the.support of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart and they are counted among its most zealous members. WILLIAM C. STIFF William C. Stiff is a native of New Jersey, having been born in Warren county, November 20, 1843. He came to Michigan with his parents in 1854, the family locating in Oakland county, where they remained five years, then removing to Shiawassee county. Our

494 PAST AND PRESENT OF 494 PAST AND PRESENT OF subject was educated in his native state and in Oakland county. The advantages he has had in this respect were confined to district schools, the greatest colleges of the masses. He continued to live at home with his parents until he had reached the age of eighteen years. In 1862 the sound of war was heard throughout the land. And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed, The mustering squadron and the clattering car Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, And swiftly forming in the ranks of war, And the deep thunder peal on peal afar; And near, the beat of the alarming drum Roused up the soldier, ere the morning star; While throng'd the citizens with terror drunk, As whispering, with white lips, "The foe! they come! they come!" Our subject enlisted in Owosso, in Company E, Fourth Michigan Cavalry, under Captain J. B. Talton, August 9, 1862. When the regiment left the state, September 26th following it had on its rolls one thousand two hundred and thirty-three names of officers and men and its destination was Louisville, Kentucky. He was in all the engagements in which the gallant regiment took part, some of which were: Gallatin, Spring Hill, Wilson's Creek, Jefferson Bridge, Stone River, Sparta, Reed's Bridge, Chickamauga, Tunnel Hill, Farmer's Bridge, Thurston, Lost Mountain, Big Shanty, Wilson's Cross Roads, Noonday Creek, Selmer Mills, Kenesaw Mountain, Roswell, Stone Mountain, Covington, Flat Rock, siege of Atlanta, Fair Oaks, Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station, Selma and Double Ridge. He was present at the capture of Jefferson Davis and family at Irwinville, Georgia, May 10, 1865, over forty years ago. The regiment charged into the camps of the Confederate president at early dawn, completely surprising them and making the arrest. On the march to Macon with the prisoners Davis talked but little, says the record. On the morning of the capture a fine horse, saddled and bridled and equipped with holsters and valise, was seen by a soldier of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry in front of one of the tents. He secured the animal, which was evidently intended for the use of Davis in effecting his escape, as the horse was owned by the chief executive of the "lost cause." This soldier was permitted to ride the horse to Macon and while on the way approached Davis and said: "Mr. Davis, you won't need this horse any more, hadn't you better give him to me?" Colonel Johnston, of Davis' staff, being near, rode up in great haste, and impatiently said, "How dare you insult the president in that manner?" "President," said the soldier most contemptuously, "H-ll! what's he president of?" Mr. Stiff was honorably discharged July 1, 1865, at Nashville, Tennessee. Enlisting as a private, he was afterward made a corporal. He was in the hospital for three months from chronic diarrhea. Wounded in the right eye by a spent ball, he still feels -the effects, but he has earned an army record of which he is justly proud, for Milton says: 'To overcome in battle and subdue Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite Manslaughter, shall be held the highest pitch Of human glory. The father of this soldier was Amos Stiff who was born in New Jersey, March 24, 1814, and who died August 17, 1899, having been thrice married-first, in New Jersey, June 20, 1840, to Elizabeth Leyda, who was born in that state October 2, 1821, and who died July 21, 1853. Three children were born of this union: Sarah, born July 4, 1841, died June 24, 1843; our subject was the second child; Priscilla, born November 10, 1849, died February 2, 1854. The second marriage of Amos Stiff was to Rebecca Ann Von Sickle, who was born February 19, 1836, and who died May 8, 1869. They had two children. Lewis Jay, who was 4

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 495 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 495 born April 20, 1856, lives in Texas, and when last heard from was foreman in a factory in the state prison; he is married. The second child is Luther Winfield, who was born July 11, 1861, and who lives in Owosso, being employed in the Robbins table factory. The third wife of Amos Stiff was Mrs. Morehouse, no children having been born of this union. As already stated, Amos Stiff came to Michigan in 1854, and he located in Avon township, Oakland county, where he bought an eightyacre farm, all improved, with buildings. He lived there five years and then sold the property, removing to Middlebury township, Shiawassee county, where he bought eighty acres of new land. On this he built a log house and barn, and remained there three years, during which he cleared part of the land. He then disposed of the property, and removed to Burton, Michigan, where he engaged in the mercantile business in company with his son, our subject, carrying a stock of dry goods and groceries. With this enterprise he was identified until his death. He was postmaster of Burton for ten years, was a Republican in politics but never held office except that of postmaster. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and took an active part in religious work. His death was the result of general debility and advanced years. Our subject, like his father, was thrice married-first, to Phcebe Mason, daughter of A. B. Mason, one of the early settlers of Shiawassee county. To them three children were born: Albert A. died at the age of three months; William died at the age of five years; Ulysses G. lives in Burton, Michigan, is the owner of a farm and is a rural mail carrier. Mr. Stiff's second marriage was to Florence I. Cline and their union occurred December 31, 1874. She was born in Millersburg, Ohio, January 24, 1855, and was a daughter of Charles S. and Elizabeth (Risnor) Cline, both of whom are now deceased. The result of this union was three children: Charles C., born February 13, 1877, is unmarried and is chief train dispatcher of the Marinette & Tomahawk Railroad in Wisconsin; Ira A., who was born October 27, 1879, and who is unmarried, is ticket agent for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Homer C., born August 25, 1886, is single, and is at the paternal home. The third marriage of Mr. Stiff was solemnized June 15, 1898, when he wedded Mrs. Addie Simpson, widow of Edward Simpson. She was born at Howell, Michigan, August 14, 1848. By her former marriage she had six children, five of whom are still living. After the war our subject engaged in the mercantile business with his father at Burton, as already noted, and he continued in this for more than eight years. Since 1874 he has owned and operated a saw mill, cider mill and custom feed mill. He also owns considerable village property. He is a Republican in politics and was postmaster at Burton from 1866 to 1893. He served as highway commissioner for many years and has been justice of the peace twelve years. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and formerly affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. He receives a pension of twelve dollars per month. F. D. STOWELL There are always a few men in every municipality upon whose shoulders is placed the responsibility of all movements for the benefit of the public welfare. They are broad minded, patriotic and respected citizens of their community, and deserve to have their memories perpetuated. Such a man is the subject of this sketch, who is the efficient postmaster in the village of Byron. F. D. Stowell was born in the state of New York, in the year 1863, being a son of Edward and Eliza (Stewart) Stowell, both natives of the state of New York. Edward Stowell immigrated to the state of Michigan in the year 1866, settling in the township of Burns, Shia

496 PAST AND PRESENT OF wassee county, where he purchased land, which he cleared and improved. He constructed from time to time more comfortable buildings, and resided there until he removed to the village of Byron, a few years before his death, which occurred in November, 1898. His widow now resides in the home of the subject of this sketch. Of the five children in the family four are living, namely: Charles, who resides in the village of Shaftsburg; Mrs. C. J. Smith, Mrs. E. J. Stewart, and F. D., the subject of this sketch. Nettie died in 1899. Our subject attended the district schools of Burns township, and later went to Flint, Michigan, where he learned the jewelry business. After thoroughly equipping himself, he located in the village of Byron, where he opened a jewelry store, in the year 1891. He started with a small stock, but by good business management and a natural integrity and an ability to make friends, his patronage rapidly increased and at the present time he carries a complete stock of jewelry, silverware, china and glassware, clocks, watches, etc. Mr. Stowell is a stanch Republican, and to politics, like all other matters of a public nature, he devotes a share of his time and talents. He is a member of the Masonic order and of the Modern Woodmen of America. He has served as president of the village of Byron, and has held the office of village clerk and most of the other town offices. In 1901 Mr. Stowell was appointed postmaster of the village of Byron, which position he now holds. He has taken a great interest in all matters that tend to advance the social or civic standard of the village in which he lives, and the citizens in turn have conferred upon him the honor of holding almost every office in their gift. In the year 1900 he was united in marriage to Miss Cora Sorage, daughter of Frank Sorage, of Byron. To them have been born two children, Gordon and Dorothy. Gordon was born October 15, 1901, and Dorothy, who was born January 1, 1903, died July 21, 1905. AUGUST STRAUCH Happy is the man who has lived a life that has been characterized by uprightness of purpose, integrity of principle and whose high mental and moral standing is gratefully recognized by his fellow men. It has often been noted that our GermanAmerican citizens have more than ordinary qualities of industry and enterprise and exceptional ability for succeeding in life, and this is, no doubt, due to the fact that traits inherited through generations of quiet, persistent energy have been broadened and awakened by the fullness and stir of American life. Whatever the theory, the fact remains that we find in this class some of our most worthy and desirable citizens. Shiawassee county is full of farmers whose ability, energy and enterprise have made them prominent and prosperous, and there is probably no one of them whose record is more worthy of our pen than he whose name ihtroduces this review. August Strauch was born near Hamburg, Germany, January 7, 1833. He is a son of John and Mary Strauch. The father was born in 1802 and died at the age of eighty years, and the mother, who was born in 1808, died in 1851. John Strauch was a farmer and also ran a distillery. There were six children in the Strauch family and our subject is the only member of the family who came to America. Our subject learned the blacksmith's trade in the fatherland, serving an apprenticeship of three years and working from one place to another, as was the custom in those days. After learning'the trade our subject stayed in Germany one year. Hearing of the brilliant opportunities offered in the new world, he started from Hamburg, in August, on a sailing vessel, and landed in New York after nine weeks on the water. The sailing vessel was an old freighter fixed up for a passenger boat. The voyage was at times greatly delayed, from the fact that sometimes the ship

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 497 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 497 would lay for a week waiting for a breeze, and other times a gale would be so strong that it seemed every one would be blown overboard. From New York Mr. Strauch came by rail to Detroit, where he was an entire stranger. Here he stayed for a week and then went to work at his trade at Sault St. Marie canal. After a short time he was taken sick and went back to Detroit. Upon recovering from this illness, he went to work at his trade in the lumber regions of Huron county. In August of the year 1858 August Strauch was married to Anstine Pochert, who was born August 26, 1840. She was the daughter of Crist and Adeline Pochert. Mrs. Strauch's parents came to Michigan in 1851 and settled in Huron county, where they engaged in farming. Mrs. Strauch was one of five children, and one of her brothers is living. Soon after marriage our subject came to Shiawassee county and bought sixty acres of land, in Shiawassee township. This was partly cleared, and soon after this our subject rented this land and bought another piece, where he has since resided. He has been an extensive land owner and has divided his three hundred acres among his children. When he came into possession of his home property a log house was upon it, and this he replaced with a modern and commodious frame dwelling. All the improvements upon the place are due to the characteristic energy and thrift of this German-American farmer. To August Strauch and wife seven children were born, of whom five are living: Albert, who is a farmer of Shiawassee township, married Martha Whitaker, and has two children; Adeline is the wife of Mark Omstead, of Shiawassee township, and they have two children: Emma died in infancy; Frank, who resides in Shiawassee township, married Emma Morse and they are the parents of two children; William, who resides in Shiawassee township, married Grace Randolph and they have three children; Rosalie is the wife of Edwar4d Kent and they have one child; Rosa, a twin sister of Rosalie, died at the age of twenty-one years. In politics our subject is rather independent, though generally casting his vote and influence for the Democratic party. He takes a citizen's interest in political affairs but is in no sense an office-seeker. He has always preferred giving his attention to his farming duties and his adopted trade, feeling that in the end they would bring him a better reward, and he now enjoys the fruits of the early days of toil. He is a member of the Congregational church, though formerly a German Lutheran. Mrs. Strauch died January 28, 1903, and a daughter is looking after the interests of thf home for her father. ARTHUR P. STRONG To have been well born is a priceless legacy, and one in which any man may feel a pardonable sense of pride, though personally he in no manner contributed to his own good fortune. Arthur P. Strong was well born. He is a son of a Methodist Episcopal clergyman, a member of the Detroit conference. To have had "line upon line" and "precept upon precept" from one's earliest recollection, to have been reared among the refining and elevating influences of a Christian home, is indeed a blessing that should rest like a benediction upon the life of one so favored. Arthur P. Strong is the son of Rev. Frederick and Sarah B. (Douse) Strong, who were united in the holy bonds of matrimony June 12, 1855, at Charlottetown. Mr. Strong was born February 20, 1832, at St. Johns, New Brunswick, and Mrs. Strong January 14, 1835, on Prince Edward Island. They were the parents of eleven children, and data concerning them are given as follows: William D., born April 25, 1856, is now engaged in the hotel and livery business at Alma, Gratiot county. Lelia was born December 14, 1857, and died 30

498 PAST AND PRESENT OF in May, 1862. Albert, born March 28, 1859, is employed as shipping clerk for Taylor McLeese & Company, of Detroit. Julia Annie, born April 25, 1860, is the wife of Charles Byerly, of Owosso. John B., born March 12, 1862, resides at Calumet. Arthur P. was born on Prince Edward Island, April 15, 1864. Edith Jane, born February 2, 1866, is now the wife of John Mitchell, of Negaunee, Michigan. Louisa A., born January 2, 1868, is the wife of Professor John G. Monroe, of Dayton, Ohio. Ester Florence, born November 6, 1871, is.now Mrs. Charles Mitchell, of Bennington township. Lelia Ada, born October 29, 1869, is the wife of Homer Saxton, of Milford, Michigan. Dell May, born October 22, 1872, is the wife of John B. Watson, who is a surveyor in the mines at Calumet, Michigan. Our subject acquired his education in the various towns where his father, as an itinerant Methodist preacher, was located as pastor, which would naturally characterize him as an all-round educated man. Just prior to the year of his majority, he entered a general store as clerk and followed this occupation for the term of eleven years, being located during this. time at Perry, Bennington and St. Charles. The important event in the life of Arthur P. Strong was his marriage, September 17, 1891, to Miss Leora E., daughter ofBurr L. and Susan (McFarren) Curtis, of Bennington township. Mrs. Strong was the eldest of three children born to her parents, the date of her birth being September 21, 1866. Cora E., born March 23, 1868, is now the wife of Harry Byerly, of Owosso. Edwin J., born July 4, 1879, is engaged as a clerk in a store in the village of Bennington. Mrs. Strong's parents were natives of Michigan, her father having been born at Howell, Livingston county, June 12, 1838, and having died in March, 1894. Her mother was born in Lodi, Washtenaw county, January 2, 1840, and died in the month of September, 1886. They were married in Woodhull township, September 16, 1863. Burr L. Curtis was the son of John and Samantha A. Curtis, who were early settlers in Livingston county, locating in Howell, where Mr. Curtis carried on a grocery business. He died in 1841 at the age of twentyseven years. Mrs. Burr L. Curtis, nee Sarah McFarren, was the daughter of John and Caro line McFarren, who were pioneer settlers at Lodi, Washtenaw county. Mr. Strong owns the farm formerly the homestead of his wife's father, having purchased the place of the heirs after the death of Mr. Curtis. The premises consist of eighty acres of choice land, well improved, with comfortable farm buildings, presenting to the beholder an air of thrift and prosperity. Here general farming is carried on under the intelligent management of its owner. Mr. Strong affiliates with the Republican party, and has frequently been honored with a place on its ticket. He has held the offices of township clerk and treasurer, two of the most responsible positions of the township. Mr. Strong was instrumental in the organization of A. P. Strong Tent, No. 711, Knights of the Maccabees, being a charter member of the same. Mr. and Mrs. Strong are esteemed members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Bennington, to which they give loyal support. Being yet on the sunny side of life, their many friends wish for them long years of usefulness. They are among the most respected citizens of the county, and by their uprightness of life and devotion to the best interests of society generally they have won a large place in the hearts of those who know them best. The following interesting data referring to the father, uncle and grandfather of Arthur P. Strong will be read with satisfaction. For upwards of thirty years Rev. Frederick Strong was a well-known minister of the gospel of the Methodist Episcopal church and became a member of the Detroit conference in September, 1872. His first charge was at Reese, Tuscola county, and he was the first

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 499 SHIA WASSEE Co UNTY 499 pastor to occupy that ground. He later had seven different charges in the lower and three in the upper peninsula. He and his devoted wife are now living at Owosso, retired from active service. The St. Johns, New Brunswick, Sun of recent date has this to say of members of the Strong family: "Rev. J. B. Strong was pastor of the Portland Methodist church. This minister had a large share in the establishment and main'tenance of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces during the first half of the last century. He came from England the year before the battle of Waterloo, at a time when England was at war on both sides of the Atlantic. His ship was one of a large fleet of merchant vessels convoyed by the famous Bellerophon, which managed to escort the whole squadron safely to Quebec. The young minister was the first English pastor of the St. James' Methodist church, Montreal. He had not been in Canada long when he was married to a lady of Three Rivers. She was of English parentage, but grew up under the care of her stepmother, a French Canadian, and spoke French as her mother tongue. "The alien landlords of Prince Edward Island were at this time proclaiming the merits of that colony and as many settlers were arriving Mr. Strong arranged to take Charlottetown and surroundings as his next parish. Landing at the first point on the island, which was seen by the ship on which they took passage, Mr. and Mrs. Strong found themselves at Tignish, the extreme north end, about one hundred miles from their destination. There was no road, and so the young couple made their journey by open boat to Rustico, whence they proceeded overland to the capital. At Tignish and along the shore Mrs. Strong found her knowledge of French exceedingly convenient. "After a period of service on the island Mr. Strong came to New Brunswick, and was stationed at Portland, Milltown, Fredericton and Sackville. In 1836 he embarked for England with all the family except one boy, who was already with old country relatives. The late collector of Summerside was a lad in a Wesleyan school in England when Queen Victoria was crowned. They would have returned to British America sooner, but the ship on which Strong sailed got into trouble in mid Atlantic in stormy weather, and put back to Queenstown. They did cross after two years' residence in England, and Mr. Strong had pastorates at Windsor, Amherst and other circuits. His ministry closed on Prince Edward Island, where he resided after his retirement. One of his sons entered the ministry, and labored for many years in Michigan, where he now lives. "C. W. Strong, who is one of the younger sons of Rev. J. B. Strong, became collector at Summerside soon after the island became a province of the Dominion. He held the office thirty-one years. DANIEL E. SUTTON In the career of this gentleman, who has been for many years a successful farmer in Shiawassee county and who is now located on section 11, Caledonia township, may be found an illustration of the worth of good principles and of habits of industry and prudence. He had not inherited such wealth as falls to some men but has fought his way through life, provided only with the advantages that beneficent nature lias granted him. He was born in Steuben county, New York, March 14, 1855, and is a son of Isaac and Lois M. (Perry) Sutton, the father a native of Pennsylvania, where his birth occurred October 22, 1822, and the mother of Vermont, her birth occurring September 9, 1827. The father died May 20, 1902, and the mother July 3, 1898. Isaac Sutton was a carpenter by trade but owned and lived on a farm, and in connection with operating the same he wdrked at his trade. He came from New York to Michi

500 PAST AND PRESENT OF I gan in 1865 and lived on a rented farm in Hazelton township for one year, at the expiration of which he bought eighty acres of land on section 14, Caledonia township. This was partly improved. Here he lived until his wife died, after which he made his home with our subject. The old farm is now owned by Dr. Hume. The buildings on the farm were erected by our subject's father. He was formerly a Democrat but-for the last fifteen years of his life was a Republican. He was township clerk in Hazelton, the first year he lived in Michigan. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They became the parents of eight children: Jonathan P., born February 8, 1847, lives in Owosso and works for a lumber company. Electa, born March 6, 1848, died December 4, 1870; she was the wife of Ed. Hern, of Vernon township. Cynthia, born October 14, 1849, married William Durham, of Corunna. Jacob A., born February 2, 1853, lives at Owosso. Our subject was next in order of birth. William A., born November 19, 1857, a street-car conductor, lives in Chicago, is married to Maud Wilkinson and they have two children, Effie M. and Myrtle. Helen N., born August 28, 1864, is now Mrs. John McElravey and lives in Shiawassee township. Frank H., born April 28, 1866, married Fannie Ward and lives in Chicago, a railroad conductor. Our subject was educated in the district schools and lived with his parents until twenty-one years of age. He bought forty acres of land upon which were a log house and frame barn. Since purchasing this farm he has added eighty acres and has erected a beautiful home, barns and other buildings. The house was built fifteen years ago and the barn three years ago. He is the possessor of as finely cultivated a farm as can be found in the locality. October 22, 1881, Mr. Sutton was united in marriage to Adelia Mead, who was born November 21, 1862, being a daughter of Caleb and Eliza (Phyillier) Mead. Her father was born January 19, 1836, and died November 30, 1896, and her mother, who was born May 11, 1827, died May 13, 1863. Mrs. Sutton's father was a farmer and lived in Caledonia township. She was one of three children: Otis S. lives in Rush township. Amelia and our subject's wife were twins; Amelia is the wife of Truman Hamp, of Gratiot county. Our subject and. wife have five children: Alva C., born July 2, 1883, married Winnie Pearsall and they reside in Caledonia. Grant E., born June 4, 1885; Oral F., born April 10, 1887; Lester, born February 7, 1891, and Carlisle, born January 23, 1898; all remain at the parental home. Mr. Sutton is affiliated with the Democracy, though never an office-seeker. He is a member of the Gleaners and is one of the popular citizens of his township. JOHN O. TATTERSALL It is a pleasure to read the story of the life of a man who has been buffetted about from his childhood and who has finally triumphed. To be able to say of him that he overcame difficulties and misfortunes, securing by his own efforts the wealth that insures comfort for his declining years, is strong and merited praise. John O. Tattersall was born in Lancashire, England, on the 27th day of September, 1850, being a son of Thomas and Mary (Rothwell) Tattersall. The father died before the subject of this sketch was born. The mother, left alone in the world, finally came to America, when our subject was four years of age, and took up her residence in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. From the age of seven to fifteen years, when he should have been strengthened by God's pure air and sunlight, our subject was compelled to labor in the damp, dark coal mines of Pennsylvania. At the age of fifteen he was bound out to work on a farm, where he remained for the period of two years, and he then took up the vocation of sailor on the Great Lakes.

SHIA WASSEE COUN~TY 5 01 SHJAWASSEE COUNTY 501 He continued the last named occupation about ten years. In the meantime, his mother, having resided in several places, came to Rush township, and our subject made his home with her when not engaged on the lakes. Mr. Tattersall was united in marriage with Lola Runyan, who was born in the state of Ohio, December 19, 1860. She is a daughter of Samuel and Sophia (Frank) Runyan, of whom individual mention is made in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Tattersall's union has been blessed by the birth of five children, all of whom are living. The oldest, Florence, was born March 18, 1883. She is a trained nurse, being a graduate of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The second, Ellis, was born February 17, 1885. He is preparing himself for the same profession as his older sister follows. The third, Jane, was born October 31, 1887. She resides at home. The fourth, Leo, was born October 31, 1890 and he is at home, as is also the fifth, Oliver, who was born December 27, 1895. Our subject's farm of forty acres, in section 16, Rush township, was nearly all wild land when he settled upon it. It contained only a log shanty, in which he resided for several years. He at one time purchased eighty acres additional land, which he partly improved. This he sold, for the reason that his health was failing him. His forty acres of land is in a high state of cultivation, and while he is engaged in general farming, for the last few years he has been raising the. sugar beet, which has afforded him splendid results. The log cabin has been replaced by a beautiful frame house and he has erected a large barn and good outbuildings. His health is shattered by the years of toil and b~y the exposure which he encountered in getting his start in life, and he suffers greatly from asthmatic trouble. Politically he is a Republican but he has never held office. He has worked himself single-handed from the lowest rung of the ladder to a position of comfort and plenty. CLAYTON J. THOMAS Clayton J. Thomas, whose farm is located in section 23, Bennington township, was born February 15, 1866. He was made the adopted son of C. H. Thomas, at the age of seven years, having lost his own mother when but four years of age. C, H. Thomas was a farmer of Bennington township. He was born at Nelson, Madison county, New York, June 23, 1829. He was married to Almira Trall, a native of Allegany county, New York, September 7, 1854, and came to Shiawassee county, Michigan, in 1866. To them were born two children,-Rosa, now Mrs. Austin Smith, of Bad Axe, Michigan, and Nina, now Mrs. Robert Trall, of Antrim county, Michigan. C. H. Thomas served during the entire civil. war, a member of Company F, One Hundred and Fourth New York Volunteers. He served from December, 1861, to July, 1865. On his arrival in Michigan, in 1866, he purchased a farm and he improved the property, residing on the homestead until his death, at the age of sixty-four years; he had one of the finest farms in the county. His widow is still living. Our subject lived with his foster parents, and acquired his early education in the district school. At the age of eighteen he commenced working on a farm by the month, and he continued this occupation until his marriage, on February 19, 1886. He married Lillie, daughter of Jabez T. and Lydia (Gorton) Hpuse. She was born on the farm where she and her husband now live, on February 18, 1865. Jabez T. House was born in the state of New York, January 21, 1817, and died June 14, 1897. He was the oldest of a family of seven children, was a successful business man and one possessed of a strong, upright character. His former political affiliation was with the Republican party, but in later years his sentiments were strongly with the Prohibition party. He believed the traffic in rum was the greatest blight upon our American civili

502 PAST ANVD PRESENT OF 602 PAST AND PRESENT OF zation, in the nineteenth century. He abstained from the use of tobacco and alcohol, and during the last few years of his life would not use either tea or coffee. He was a member of the Methodist church. His farm, on which our subject now lives, he improved until he made it one of the best in the county. The family consisted of nine children. The oldest, Henry, was born December 12, 1842, and died January 22, 1843. The second, William, born November 30, 1843, died March 8, 1864. The third, Samantha'Y wife of Philander Punches, was born August 13, 1845. The fourth, Caroline, born February 13, 1847, died January 10, 1851. The fifth, George Edsel, born April 3, 1853, died April 12, 1865. The sixth, Frank, born November 2, 1855, died March 8, 1871. The seventh, Ella, wife of C. W. Jennings, was born October 26, 1858. The eighth, Major, born December 3, 1860, resides in Perry, and the ninth is the wife of the subject of this sketch. After his marriage Mr. Thomas commenced working his father-in-law's farm, and after the death of Mr. House he purchased the interests of the surviving heirs in the estate. Mr. Thomas is a man with good business ability, and combined with it is the desire to have his surroundings the best that he can afford. Since his purchase of the home-place he has expended about fifteen hundred dollars in improvements upon his farm buildings, his being one of the handsomest farm residences in the county. Politically our subject is a Republican, and he now holds the office of township treasurer, the most responsible office in the township. To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have been born two children, both of whom are at home, under the refining influence of their worthy parents. C. Lynn was born on the 12th day of June, 1892. Russell J. was born on the 27th day of May, 1894. Mr. Thomas, in addition to carrying on general farming, makes a specialty of handling cream. Besides the milk from his own herd of ten cows he purchases milk from his neighbors and extracts the cream. He disposes of his entire product to Owosso parties. His business in this line aggregates upwards of eight thousand dollars annually. This enterprise he has now been conducting about eight years. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are still on the bright side of life and their numerous friends wish for them yet many years of happiness and comfort. FRANK A. THOMPSON Mr. Thompson is the fortunate owner of Elmwood farm, in Caledonia township. The old idea of the "horny handed sons of the soil" is to a great extent now unheard of, agricultural methods at this time being carried on with comparatively little manual labor. The improved implements whose motive power is steam or electricity accomplish in one-tenth of the time the work that was formerly performed by hand. It is quite possible for even the great majority in this country, as well as in England, to be "gentleman farmers." The subject of this sketch is one of the favored representatives of agriculture in this district, owning a fine farm of one hundred and forty acres, all of which is improved with the exception of ten acres of timber land. The homestead is situated in Caledonia township, on section 14. Mr. Thompson devotes himself to general farming, also makes a specialty of Jersey cattle and Berkshire hogs, and makes a business of wholesaling cream. Frank A. Thompson is a native son of Caledonia township, having been born upon the farm on which he now resides, June 11, 1864. He is a'son of James A. and Madeline M. (Lampeer) Thompson, both natives of New York. The father was born in Argyle township, Washington county, New York, July 17, 1817, and died June 14, 1886, and the mother was born at Carthage, Jefferson county, New York, September 5, 1831, and died April 12, 1888.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 503 SHA/.SE CONT 503............ -.. James A. Thompson was always a farmer by occupation. He owned a farm in New York before coming to Michigan. The marriage of James A. and Madeline Thompson took place in Carthage, Jefferson county, New York. In July, 1856, they came to Michigan and rode to Corunna on the first passenger train that ran over the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad. The father of our subject bought one hundred and twenty acres of wild land, before there were any roads to Corunna. He built first a log house, the usual dwelling of the early settlers, and had it built five logs high before asking for any help. Neighbors in those days were far away and help was scarce. The industry, frugality and rugged perseverance of James A. Thompson helped him to achieve such a degree of success and prosperity that he became one of the most influential and prosperous citizens of his township. The improvements upon the farm now owned by our subject were mostly made by the father. The place was all cleared and at the time of his death he owned one hundred and eighty acres of well improved and highly cultivated land. The Republican party received the support of James A. Thompson and he was incumbent of the office of supervisor for two terms. He was also justice of the peace for several years. His religious beliefs were of the Baptist tenets and fraternally he was allied with the Masons, including the Knights Templar. Frank A. Thompson was one of seven children born to his parents and only two are living: Fred died at the age of seven years; Fannie M. died when twenty-five years of age; Susie died at the age of fifteen; Jennie was one and one-half years old at her death; our subject was the next child; James died at the age of seven, and Lena M. is now Mrs. Charles Lyman, of Owosso. Our subject attended the district school and later the Corunna high school. He lived with -his parents until their death, when he came into possession of the farm. October 15, 1888, Frank A. Thompson was united in marriage to Miss Ella, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Smith) Magaw. Mrs. Thompson was born in Caledonia, September 1, 1868. Thomas Magaw and wife settled in Caledonia township in 1865 and he engaged in farming. To them twelve children were born, of whom five are now living. To our subject and wife three children have been born: R. Stanley, March 30, 1891; Donald M., February 21, 1898, and Madeline, February 16, 1901. Following the example set by his father, our subject casts his vote for the men and measures of the Republican party. He has filled the offices of township treasurer, justice of the peace and school director. Fraternally he is associated with the Gleaners and Masons. Mr. Thompson is one of the well-to-do, prosperous and highly respected young farmers of Caledonia township. GEORGE THOMPSON This gentleman is a native of Pennsylvania, where he was born March 17, 1853, but in 1854 he came with his parents to Michigan. His father was born in Indiana in 1820, and died in Oakland county, Michigan, in 1856. The latter located in the Saginaw valley in 1854, and being a carpenter and millwright, had the honor of building the first mill in the valley. Shortly afterward he bought a fortyacre farm in Groveland township, Oakland county. It was mostly in a state of nature, but contained a house. He cleared part of the land and lived there until his death. This was at a time when George, the subject of this sketch, was only three years old. At the age of sixteen years he started to struggle with destiny for himself, and worked for wages as low as twenty-five cents a day, boarding himself,-a condition which is in strange contrast with conditions to-day, when common laborers are demanding as much per hour, and

504 PAST AND PRESENT OF 504 PAST AND PRESENT OF still are not satisfied! He continued to work by the month until 1877, when he removed to Hazelton township and bought forty acres of virgin land on section 3, having resolved to own a home and be his own master; for Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound; Content to breathe his native air In his own ground. At the time stated, 1877, there was only a narrow path cut through the woods to the land he had purchased, and the hamlet of New Lathrop contained but three houses. He built a small frame house, now a part of the pleas-. ant cottage he has since erected. Besides improving all the land, he has built a good frame barn, and, in short, he has literally caused the wilderness about him to "bloom and blossom like the rose." In the early days he used to get his mail from Ratville, distant three and one-half miles, and generally his wife went after it, making a walk of seven miles. The mail was then brought to Ratville three times a week only. Mr. Thompson was married August 21, 1877, to Helen Snyder, who was born July 27, 1857. She is a daughter of Joel Snyder, who was born at Rochester, Michigan, in 1834, and who died May 21, 1894. Her mother, Jane Ann (Buzzard) Snyder, was born in Cattaraugus county, New York, in 1836, and died in Hazelton township, in 1893. Mrs. Thompson was the second of a family of five children: Charles, born January 1, 1856, lives in Hazelton township; he married Olive Perrigo and they have one son,-Elmer. Thomas, born October 11, 1859, lives in Hazelton township; he married Ella Wilson and they have no children. Hattie, born November 3, 1861, lives in Hazelton township; she married Wallace Vanzant and they have no children. Floyd, born October 30, 1876, is single and lives in Tacoma, Washington. Mrs. Thompson's grandfather was Thomas Snyder. Her father was a farmer. At first he lived on his farm near Groveland, Michigan. In 1875 he came to Hazelton township and bought eighty acres of wild land, on section 3, where his son Thomas now lives. He built a small frame house and improved all the land. George Thompson's mother was Kathrina (Morrison) Thompson, a native of Pennsylvania, where she was born in 1822, and she died at Holly, Michigan, February 18, 1904. Mr. Thompson was the fourth of the family of four children: David, born in 1847, is an engineer in silk works at Belding, Michigan; he married for his first wife Elizabeth Sanbrooks, now deceased, and they had three children,-William L., Minnie and Lena. By his second marriage he had one child,-Bert. Charles, born in 1849, is a carpenter at Saginaw; he married Nellie Tagget and they had four sons,-James, Charles, Abram and Lee. Mary, born in 1851, lives at Holly, Michigan; she married Frederick Lahring and has one son,-Herbert. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have no children. His father was a Republican, while he himself is now a Democrat, although originally a Republican. His wife's father also is a Democrat. Mrs. Thompson's parents are members of the Methodist Protestant church. Mr. Thompson is an Odd Fellow and his wife is a member of the Ladies of the Maccabees and also of the Daughters of Rebekah. DAVID THORP David Thorp was born in Avon township, Oakland county, Michigan, April 7, 1833, and was called to the life eternal on November 25, 1899. Verily The air is full of farewells to the dying, And mourning for the dead. The deceased was a son of Peter and Samantha (Bellows) Thorp, early pioneers of Oakland county. He was educated in the district schools of Oakland county and lived on

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 505 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 505 the farm with his parents until he reached the age of twenty-two years. This was in 1857, 'when he went to California, where he remained about nine years, returning in 1866 to Oakland county. The following year he removed to Middlebury township, Shiawassee county, and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 23. This was mostly cleared and contained a few old buildings. He at once set to work clearing the remainder of the land, and constructed a large house, barns and other buildings, making the farm one of the best and most productive in the entire township. Indeed, Middlebury has never possessed within its borders a more thorough farmer than was David Thorp. On March 4, 1869, Mr. Thorp was married to Clara Woodworth, who was born May 29, 1852. She was a daughter of William Woodworth, who died May 25, 1-905, aged ninety-six years, a sketch of whom is given elsewhere in this volume, in connection with that of his son, H. W. Woodworth. David Thorp was a quiet, unassuming gentleman and never aspired to place or office. In politics he was a Republican. For fourteen years he was an agent of a fire-insurance company. Four children were born! to Mr. and Mrs. Thorp, as follows: Eva is the wife of T. E. Stebbins, living on a farm in Owosso township, and they have two children,-Frank and Vera. Lena Belle died at the age of three years. Edna May died when fourteen years old. Frank H., who owns the old homestead, married Edna Cross and they have one child-Naoma, born December 10, 1902. On April 7, 1903, Mrs. Thorp was united in marriage to Levi Markham, who was born in Monroe county, New York, May 26, 1842. He was a son of Willard and Eliza (Bronson) Markham, both natives of the Empire state. His mother died when he-was but seven years old. He was one of the ten children born to his parents, all having been born in New York state, where his father was a farmer, there passing his entire life. Levi Markham en listed in Company A, the One Hundred and Eighth New York Infantry, July 19, 1862. At the battle of Antietam he received a gunshot wound in the 'back and right shoulder, for which disability he was discharged and sent home. In 1863 he came to Michigan, first stopping at Marshall, where he worked part of one year. He then went to Wayne county and for a few years afterward was engaged in blacksmithing, farming and undertaking at different times,-a wide and varied range of occupations. In 1870 he came to Shiawassee county and bought forty acres of improved land, on which he' lived until his death. In April, 1867, he was married to Charlotte Barrows, a native of Michigan, where she was born March 15, 1843; she died March 14, 1901. They never had any children. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was formerly a Republican but in late years was affiliated with the Prohibitionists. For the last few years of his life Mr. Markham was a great sufferer from the effects of a stroke of paralysis. Mr. Markham passed out of this life May 30, 1905. David Thorp, the chief subject of this sketch, was an honest, upright man. He had been a Mason from the age of twenty-five years and in closing the final chapter of a life well spent he left an honored name. JOHN C. TOWLE John C. Towle is a native of New Brunswick, Canada, where he was born March 28, 1828. His father, however, Sergeant Towle, was born in Belgrade, Maine, in 1769, and died in New Brunswick, in 1863. He wasa shingle-maker and farmer. He went from Vermont to Canada when a young man and bought one hundred acres of land. He lived there until his death. His wife, Desire McCurdy Towle, was a widow when he married her and her maiden name was Trim. At the age of thirteen years John C. Towle started in

506 PAST AND PRESENT OF life for himself, attending a carding machine and working at carpentering. He was next employed in a saw mill for six years. In 1854 he came to Flushing, Michigan, and afterward was engaged in the lumber woods and on the river for five years. At this time he was seized with a desire to have a home and farm. He first bought sixty-five acres in Montrose township, Genesee county, the tract being half reclaimed. He did not keep this land, however. He sold it and shortly afterward bought eighty acres of wild land on section 26, Hazelton township, resolving to have a home, where At night returning, every labor sped, Hie could sit down the monarch of a shed; And smile by his cheerful fire and round survey His children's looks that brighten at the blaze; While his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard, Could display her cleanly platter on the board. Here he built a board shanty and cleared seventy acres. In 1844 he traded this for the eighty acres where he now lives, the west onehalf of the northeast quarter of section 36. Sixty acres were improved when he bought the property. He has since cleared ten acres more and in 1890 he added forty acres, twenty of which were improved. Since then he has cleared an additional ten acres.- He built a frame house and barn on his first purchase in Hazelton township and recently completed a fine new house on his present farm, besides a barn thirty-six by seventy-six feet, a carriage house and a woodshed. October 24, 1858, Mr. Towle married Sara Cockburn, who was born April 13, 1830, being a daughter of James Cockburn, who was born July 10, 1804, in New Brunswick, while her mother was Margaret Atchenson, who was born April 13, 1809. Her father was a farmer and owned three hundred acres in New Brunswick. He died in 1891, and his wife in 1874. John C. Towle was the fourth in a family of four children: Horatio, who died in New Brunswick, married Martha Leaver and had one daughter, Agnes.- William, who died in New Brunswick, married Mary Ann Simpson and had one child,-Howard. Robert married Ann Whittier and they had six children,Alma, William, Robert, Jennie, John and Maggie. Mrs. Towle was first in a family of twelve children: William, born November 10, 1831, was in Texas when the civil war broke out and has never been heard from since. John, born December 11, 1833, was with his brother in Texas at the breaking out of the war, and has not been heard from since. Robert, born December 28, 1835, lived in California; he married Ruth McClasky and had a daughter, Minnie, who married Stephen Ross. Mary Ann died in Albert county, New Brunswick; she married John Day and had one daughter, Mary, now dead. Margaret died in New Brunswick; she married Edwin Perkins and had two children,-Edwin and Emma. Grizilda died in Rhode Island; she married James Reed and had one child,-Varian. Rachel died in New Brunswick, single. Wilson, who lives in New Brunswick, married Belle Fish; they have no children. Rebecca, who died in New Brunswick, married William McCrumb and had one child,-Fred. Hiram, who lives in New Brunswick, married Lizzie Blakeley and had a son. Alice died in New Brunswick, single. Mr. and Mrs. Towle had six children, five of whom are living: Franklin, born July 10, 1852, married Dora Smith and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, being a candy manufacturer; he has two children,-Margaret, born in December, 1890, and Howard, born July 2, 1892. Ruby, born April 12, 1860, died April 28, 1884; she married William Hovey and had one daughter, Grace, who was born May 17, 1883, and who married Clyde Kent, of Durand. Izetta, born May 17, 1863, married Joseph Hughes and they had five children,Frances, born March 14, 1883, married Spencer Austin and they had two children, Olive, born June 25, 1901, and Joseph, born May, 1903;

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 507 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 507 John and Lora, twins, were born June '27, 1894, and Lawrence was born May 30, 1896. James, born September 11, 1866, lives at Globe, Arizona; he married Maggie McKevitt and had four children,-Owen, five years old; James, four years old; Sarah, born in June, 1903, and Thomas, born September 6, 1904. Mary, born April 13, 1868, married Alphonso Reed and had two sons,-Eric, born May 14, 1894, and Lynn, born July 6, 1896; Mary lives in Hazelton township. John, born May 5, 1870, is single and lives at home. Mr. Towle is a Republican. He has been a director and treasurer in his school district for many years. He now holds the latter office. He was a Granger until it "played out," as he puts it. It is a remarkable fact that there is but one other person living in his neighborhood who was there when he located on his present farm, and it may also be said that Hazelton township has no citizen more deservedly popular than John C. Towle. GEORGE TURNER The father of this gentleman was C. B. Turner, a native of the Nutmeg state. He was a man of great push and energy, as the result of his life illustrates. In 1836 he anticipated the advice of Horace Greeley, and went west to grow up with the country, realizing, doubtless, with Bishop Berkeley, that "Westward the course of empire takes its way." At that time, certainly, "westward" was the tendency of gravitation so far as population is concerned, and "gravitation" is still getting in its work! In the year stated, therefore, Mr. Turner embarked on an exploring and land-looking tour throughout the northwest. He bought one thousand acres of government land in the Sangamon valley, Illinois. He did not locate upon it, however, but subsequently traded the tract for land in New York state. This he sold in 1846 and, traveling overland to central Wisconsin, bought two hundred and forty acres of timbered land in that section of the Badger state. In 1847 he broke and sowed to wheat one hundred and twenty acres. Afterward he added four hundred acres to his original purchase, built a saw mill, and with the assistance of our subject and his other son, Nelson, conducted the business for a period of eighteen years. In 1871 he sold his property there and removed to Fayette'county, Iowa, where he purchased between three hundred and four hundred acres. Most of this land he placed under cultivation, passing the remainder of his days there. George Turner was born in Avon township, Livingston county, New York. His father, as we have stated, was born in Connecticut and his mother in New York, the latter dying in her native state in 1839. Our subject is the senior of two children. The other brother, Nelson, was born March 12, 1831. He is a Minnesota farmer; he married Mary Rumsey, and is the father of five children. With this brother and his father he was interested in a saw mill in Wisconsin for eleven years. At the same time he owned eighty acres of land near the saw mill. He looked after the property but did not personally cultivate. In 1864 Mr. Turner sold his interests in Wisconsin and with his brother bought one hundred and twenty acres of improved land in Shiawassee township, where he located his residence. There he remained five years, when he disposed of his share and removed to his present homestead, on section 2, Venice township, in which locality he had previously bought eighty acres of wild land. As showing the primitive condition of the country when he located there, it may be stated that he was obliged to cut a road through the forest for a mile and a half in order to get goods and provisions to his claim. All of the land has since been improved and it is now one of the choicest homesteads of that section of country. On December 22, 1853, Mr. Turner married Lucretia S. Vining, who was born in

508 PAST AND PRESENT OF July, 1834. Mrs. Turner's parents were Joseph and Aurelia (Williams) Vining, her father being a- native of the Empire state. He became a resident of Shiawa ssee township in 1862, purchasing a farm of forty acres improved land, and residing thereon until his death, in October, 1870. The mother died before Mr. Vining became a resident of Michigan. Mrs. Turner was the eldest of a family of four children. Her brother, Edwin, enlisted in the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry and died in the military service. Of her two sisters, Amanda E. is living, and' Amelia is dead. Mrs. Turner passed away October 14, 19Q4. Norman W., the elder son of our subject, was born in 1855, his wife's family name being Baker. His three children are Edith, Gale and Myrtle, the family homestead being an eighty-acre tract adjoining the father's farm on the south. Arthur E., the second son, was born in 1858 and married a Miss Bowles. They also have three children,-Earl, Francis and Marion. The home farm is forty acres in area and adjoins Norman's homestead on the south. Since the death of his wife, Mr. Turner has lived on the old homestead alone, preferring this life of independence. He is a substantial, straightforward and honored member of the community, and a leading citizen of the county. As a good citizen he has cheerfully borne not a few public responsibilities, his patriotism being shown on more than one occasion. He enlisted twice in the civil war, but failed upon each occasion to pass the physical examination. In politics he is a Democrat, having been at one time a member of the Greenback party. Religiously he is identified with the Methodist Episcopal church. JOSIAH TURNER The following autobiography was prepared by Judge Turner and a copy given by him to each of his children: To MY CHILDREN: The following is a' summary of the most important events of my life, written by me in 1894, desiring that each of you should have a copy. I was born in New Haven, Addison county, Vermont, on the 1st day of September, 1811. My grandfather on my father's side was Samuel Turner. He resided in Connecticut and, I think, was born in that state. He died at the age of ninety-three. I know nothing of my grandmother except that her maiden name was Howe. I regret to say that I am unable to trace my genealogy further back than my grandfather. My father, whose name also was Josiah, was born in New London, Connecticut, in the year 1776 and died in New Haven, Vermont, in 1851, aged seventy-five years. He was a true Christian gentleman in every sense of the word. I regret exceedingly that I can tell you but little about my mother. Her name was Mary Dorothy, and I believe she was usually called Polly in the family. She and my father were married at Laingsburg, New York, but I am unable to tell what year, as there was no family record left by my parents. They moved to New Haven, Vermont, I think about the commencement of this century. M\y mother died in the month of May, before I was two years of age, aged thirty-six years, I believe. I never saw any of her relatives but remember hearing my father say that when they were married she had a widowed mother and two sisters. I am not sure where she was born but presume in Laingsburg. I have always understood that she was half Dutch and a very excellent woman. Of course I was not old enough to remember her. My parents had six children. Their names were: Samuel, Katie, Horace, Betsy, Elizabeth, Nathaniel and Josiah. Katie and Samuel died before either of the others were born. After my mother's death my father married Mrs. Mercy Perry, a widow with five children, but I remember of but two of her children liv

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 509 SHI WASE C.N. 509. ing at my father's house; those were the two youngest girls. This second marriage of my father's took place when I was too young to remember it. By this marriage two children were born,-my brother, Oliver P., and my sister, Emily. My stepmother died in March, 1822, when I was ten years of age. school. During that summer I worked on the farm with the men, at such work as I could do. I well remember that I worked at something every day and was never idle. The next spring, 1823, my father married Miss Susan Ellsworth, an excellent maiden lady, who survived him for a few years. No JOSIAH TURNER Young as I was at that time I prevailed upon my father to find me a place where I could work and at least earn part of my clothing. He found me a place in an excellent family of farmers by the name of Gifford, about two and a half miles from our house, and within a few weeks after my stepmother's death I went there to live and stayed till late in the next fall, when I went home and to children were born of this marriage. She was a good stepmother and brought up my brother Oliver and sister Emily in a very tender manner. She was a sister of your grandfather Ellsworth. In the spring of 1823 I again went to work for another farmer, and continued to do so each summer till 1827, my compensation being my board and what clothing my employer saw fit to give me. During this time I

boo 510 PAST AND PRESENT OF went to school winters, usually boarding at home. In 1827 I worked for Mr. Henry S. Walker (my father's nearest neighbor) in his tan yard, for eight dollars per month and board. From that time I worked for different persons, summers, going to school winters till February, 1831, when I went to St. Albans, Vermont, for the purpose of reading law with my uncle, the late Hon. Bates Turner, who was then an ex-judge of the supreme court of that state. I remained with my uncle until September, 1833, when I was admitted to the bar. During the time that I was reading law as a student I taught a district school two winters. Within a few days after my admission to the bar I located and opened an office at West Berkshire, Vermont, and entered upon the practice of my profession. A few weeks before this I had visited Berkshire to look over the ground and on that trip I first met your blessed and sainted mother, Eveline Ellsworth. We were married at your grandfather Ellsworth's residence, in Berkshire, on the first day of January, 1835, by Rev. Peter Chase, a Baptist minister of the gospel. I was then just twenty-three years and four months of age and your mother six years and six days younger. About six weeks after oir- marriage I formed a copartnership with Joshua Willard Sheldon, attorney-at-law, residing in the town of Sheldon, about ten miles from Berkshire. We at once moved there and commenced our first housekeeping and it was here that Jerome was born on the 25th of January, 1836. After remaining at Sheldon a year, or perhaps a little more, not being satisfied with our prospects, we moved back to Berkshire. About that time there was a great rush for the west, and it did not take me long to make up my mind that if I was ever going to amount to anything I must get out of that staid old town and "go west." Accordingly, in February, 1838, having made provision for the board of your mother and Jerome I started out. My brother Nathaniel was then a traveling agent in the province of Ontario, with headquarters on Young street, in the city of Toronto. I went by way of Montreal and from there to Toronto, and found my brother. After' some days' delay my brother and I started, headed for Michigan. When we arrived at Brantford, Ontario, we called and stayed over night at a hotel kept by an old and intimate friend of my brother. The landlord invited us to remain a few days free of expense. However that may have been, we did stay, and during the time my brother purchased the furniture of the hotel and the lease of the hotel itself and took possession there. He desired me to remain with him as a sort of clerk or part manager of the concern and being anxious to earn a few dollars I did so, and in the summer of that year I sent for your mother and Jerome. I met them at Ogdensburg and took them to Brantford. Late in the fall or early in the winter of 1839 my brother disposed of his interest in the hotel and your mother and I moved temporarily into a furnished house till we could get ready to leave the place. We expected to go by stage to Detroit. We were ready to go on the first day of March, 1840, and on that day a man came along with a span of horses and an empty lumber wagon and told me that he lived in the southern part of Michigan and that he was going directly home. As it was a time of the year when the roads were almost impassable I thought that was about as comfortable a way as we could travel, so I made arrangements with him for our passage to Detroit. My brother had gone on before us. It will be remembered that there were no railroads in those days. I do not remember how long it took us to reach Chatham, but I remember one day we made only twenty miles. I had then never seen such horrible roads. It was deep mud almost the entire distance. When we reached Chatham I met a Mr. Taylor, a Vermonter, with whom I was acquainted. He owned or controlled the stage line from there to Detroit.

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 511 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 511 The roads were so bad just at that time that he did not run the stage and, I think, sent the mail through on horseback. He told me that if I would wait till some time the next week he thought the ice would be out and that a steamboat would run to Detroit. There seemed to be no other way unless we continued in the lumber wagon, so we remained at the hotel about a week. At the end of that time Lake St. Clair as far as could be seen from Chatham was clear of ice. A steamboat was fired up and with our three trunks we went on board and set sail for Detroit, rejoicing in the fact that we had escaped the terrible roads for the balance of the way. But in this we were soon disappointed. We had sailed only about twenty miles from Chatham when the boat ran into solid ice and could not move either way. According to my best recollection there were about twenty persons on board, my friend Taylor among the rest. The place where we got fast in the ice was about one and a half miles from the shore and we all descended from the boat to the ice on a ladder. A man helped me carry one of our trunks and other gentlemen were kind enough to take the other two. A gentleman by the name of Williams, from Detroit, took Jerome on his shoulder and we all walked ashore. Mr. Taylor had a relay of horses on his stage line about one and a half miles from where we landed and suggested that we go on to that place and he would send us to Detroit the next day. So I hired a Frenchman, with his horse and cart, to carry us to the station where the horses were. He put the three trunks in the cart and your mother and Jerome sat on top of them and I walked. When we arrived at the station we found a log tavern, kept by another Frenchman, where we were to remain over night. When we came to go to bed we found calico pillow cases to lay our heads on. Of course, your mother could not stand that, and she went to one of our trunks and got some towels and spread over them. The next morning the stage was brought around. It was a lumber wagon and one span of horses, but it was the only kind of vehicle safe to drive over such roads. After a tedious ride, over a road that would now be thought impassable, we arrived in Detroit a little before dark on that day. A gentleman in Brantford gave me a letter of introduction to a Mr. Graham, then a drygoods merchant in Detroit. When I presented this letter I asked Mr. Graham's advice as to a place to locate and he seemed to think Marshall would be a desirable place. After remaining in Detroit three or four days I concluded that Ann Arbor might do, so we took the Michigan Central cars and traveled to the end of that road, whose terminus was Ann Arbor at that time. The night that we arrived there your mother was taken quite sick and remained so for some two weeks. During this time I formed the acquaintance of several of the lawyers and found that the little town was full of them, and I think at that time it was the most able bar in the state. Some of them suggested that they had been to Howell to attend court, that it was a new and small place but that the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal had been surveyed through there and was going to be built and that the prospects were good for a large town. Howell was then usually called Livingston Centre. So much was said about the place that I finally went to a livery stable and procured a horse and buggy to go and see it myself, and, in order to find the way, was told to inquire for Wetmore lake and after I had passed the lake to inquire next for Ore Creek, which is now Brighton. I had no difficulty in finding the lake but after I had passed it some two or three miles I met a man of whom I inquired if I was on the right road to Howell and he informed me that he knew of no such place. I then drove on some distance further when I met another man of whom I made inquiry and he gave me the same answer. I then told him that I understood Howell to be

512 12PAST AND PRESENT OF the county seat of Livingston county. He then remarked that there was a "place up there called Livingston Centre" and I concluded that must be the place I was in search of and my conclusion proved to be correct. It was then better known as Livingston Centre than Howell. When I got as far as Brighton I obtained further information as to the route and arrived at Howell about dark. I had learned before I left Ann Arbor that there was then one lawyer at Howell. His name was Wellington A. Glover. On my arrival there I first paid my respects to him, informing him that I was an attorney-at-law and was visiting the place with a view to settling and going into practice. I found Mr. Glover in his office, which was a wooden building just twelve feet square built in the centre of a street. Of course, there was but one room in the building and through the centre of that room ran a narrow counter behind which stood Mr. E. B. Taylor selling beer, cakes, nuts, etc. In the front of this counter stood Mr. Glover's office table. This table was not only occupied by Mr. Glover on which to do his office work but it was also occupied by Joseph Roe, a tailor, who sat upon it to do his sewing. When I informed Mr. Glover of the object of my visit he remarked that he would be glad to have me come but that the business would not afford me a living-that he could not live there himself had he not some other business than that of the practice of laws. He also informed me that his other business was an interest in the trade carried on behind that counter. I made up my mind that night that Mr. Glover was right and that I had better look for a different location. The next morning before leaving I concluded that I would call on the county officers and did so and that act determined the whole course of my after life. It will be remembered that this was in 1840 and during one of the hardest fought political campaigns that I have ever seen, 1860 and 1864 not excepted. Martin Van Buren was the Democratic candidate for president of the United States, and General William Hi. Harrison was the Whig candidate. Party spirit ran high. I was at that time identified with the Democratic party. Livingston county was at that time, as it has generally been since, Democratic, and of course I found that the county officers were all Democrats and when I told them the object of my visit and answered their questions as to my politics they said "I was just the man they wanted;" that Glover was a Whig and that if I would come they would throw all the business possible into my hands. Upon that I made up my mind that I would report the facts to your mother and that if she thought best we would try the experiment. I returned to Ann Arbor that day and described the place to her in no very flattering light but as a little settlement of fourteen families with woods on either side. But after talking the matter over we both concluded that we had gone far enough and the next day we started for Howell. We arrived there on the 6th day of April, 1840. We had left all the household goods we had in Vermont but if we had had them with us they would have done tis no good at that time for there was not a vacant place 'in the place to put them in. There was but one tavern in the place and that was kept by Allen Weston, whose wife was then so sick that it was with difficulty that they could entertain travelers. Shubel B. Sliter kept a tavern in a log house three-fourths of a mile east of the village and we went there to board at five dollars a week for the three of us. Mrs. Sliter was an excellent woman and a fine housekeeper. Mr. Sliter built a frame addition, one room, 'for our accommodation It was in this house that your sister Julia was born on the 7th day of May, a month after our arrival there. I secured a room in Weston's tavern for an office. At that time there were only three buildings on what is now Grand River street. They were the tavern, Ely

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 513 SA W Barnard's dwelling house and the county office, a small, one-story building. There was then no protection against mosquitoes and the person who did not live in a new country at that day can form no idea of the quantity. The census was taken that year and I believe the population of the county was between seven and eight thousand. We had not been there long before business began to come in some and fever and ague in great abundance. Your mother commenced having it in July, myself in September and Jerome about the same time. Neither of us had ever seen a case of the kind before and for two or three years after that it was no uncommon thing to go into a house in July and August and find every member of the family shaking with ague chills. We had boarded with Mr. Sliter three or four months when there was a log house in the village which became vacant and as Mr. Weston was going out of the "tavern business" your mother desired me to rent the log house and rent a few articles of furniture of the Westons so that we could go to housekeeping. I went and examined the house and found that it contained one room, a stick chimney and a ladder but no chamber floor. I went back to your mother and reported adverse to her proposition, informing her that she could not live in such a place, but my report was not accepted. She desired to make a personal inspection of the mansion, so I went with her and after a personal inspection of the same she said that if I could get some boards and lay them down for a chamber floor the house would do and she preferred to move into it and go to keeping house rather than board any longer. Lumber was then very scarce in Howell and no pine was to be had nearer than Flint. Finally I saw Mr. John Curtis, then the only merchant in town, and told him my wants. He informed me that he had some clap boards that he would not want to use until the next spring and that he would lend them to me until that time. There were no drays and' but little money in Howell at that time, so I carried the boards on my shoulder and laid them down for a chamber floor. I then loaned a few articles of Mr. Weston and moved them to the house in the same manner that I did the boards and we moved in and went to housekeeping quite happy. The owner of the house told me that I could have the use of it for a year by paying the taxes and when I came to pay them the amount was one dollar and fifty cents. When the election came on that fall Almon Whipple (who then lived in the town of Handy) was elected county treasurer and Jesse Mapes, of Osceola, county clerk. They were to enter upon the duties of their respective offices on the first day of the week in January, but before that day arrived Mr. Mapes came to me and said it would not pay him to move to Howell for that office and that if I would allow him to appoint me deputy clerk and would manage the office he would give me half of the proceeds. Within a few days Mr. Whipple came to me and said that he could not afford to move to Howell at that time and that if I would take the office of deputy county treasurer he would give me half of his salary and I accepted both offers and on the first day of January, 1841, I took charge of the offices of county clerk and county treasurer. The next April (1841) I was elected township clerk. In the spring of 1841 the Rev. E. E. Gregory with his family went east to be gone, I think, for a year and I rented his house for an indefinite period and moved into it from the old log house. In the meantime we had purchased quite a number of articles of household goods and returned those we had rented. We lived in Mr. Gregory's house until the next February or March, 1842, when I purchased a small house and lot and paid for it at the time from money that I earned and saved. At that time the seat of the state government was at Detroit and it was just at the time of the year when the list of land delin 81

514 PAST AND PRESENT OF 514 PAST AND PRESENT OF quent for taxes had to be returned to the auditor general, and as I was still deputy county treasurer it was necessary for me to go to Detroit for that purpose. So I told your mother that as soon as I returned we would move into our new house. From what I learned afterwards I do not suppose that I had gone ten miles on my way to Detroit before she had a man with a yoke of oxen and a wagon and a girl and commenced moving, and on my return was nicely settled. When I asked her how she came to move before my return so I could not assist her she said, in substance, that "she did not propose to live in a rented house when she had one of her own." It was in this house that your sister Julia died on the 13th of May, 1842. In April of 1842 I was elected justice of the peace. During these two years quite a number of houses had been built and several families had been added to the population of the village. The first state convention that I ever attended was a Democratic one held at Marshall in 1841, at which time John S. Barry received the nomination for governor and was elected. George W. Peck, William McCauley, Charles P. Bush and myself were the delegates from Livingston county. Mr. Bush. and I went in a buggy and got lost in the woods for an hour or two before we got as far as Jackson. The Michigan Central railroad had been built as far as Jackson at that time. On the 3d of March, 1841, I was appointed master in chancery by J. Wright Gordon, then acting governor of the state, and subsequently I was twice appointed to that office by Governor John S. Barry. After Mr. Mapes had held the office of county clerk about one year he resigned the office and I was appointed by the court for the remainder of his term, and being elected justice of the peace the next spring I was county clerk, deputy county treasurer, master in chancery and justice of the peace. At the election in 1842 I was elected county clerk and re-elected in 1844, so that I did the business of the office for six years. During the term I did what law business came in my way. Although Mr. Glover at first was not disposed to be friendly I treated him always very kindly, so that it was not long before we became friends. He died in 1843 and I was appointed administrator of his estate at the request of his widow. During the first few years of our residence in Howell there were few horses in the county, the farmers using oxen altogether in clearing up their farms. On several occasions I walked twenty miles to attend a law suit before a justice of the peace. I frequently walked to Brighton, ten miles. There was in Howell, when we came, a Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist church. Neither the Methodists nor the Baptists had a church edifice of any sort, but used the little schoolhouse on alternate Sundays. The Presbyterians had commenced building a church and had it enclosed with siding and two windows put in-the other places for windows were boarded up for want of funds. There was no pulpit and no seats except a few boards placed on blocks at the sides of the room. The gentlemen sat on one side and the ladies on the other. The people came from the country to church with their ox-teams. Within a year or two, however, we had the church very comfortably seated. We had two sermons on Sunday, one in the forenoon and one in the afternoon and a prayer-meeting in the evening at "early candle light." In the fall of 1842 our Presbyterian minister, Rev. Henry Root, had a call to another church. He had built and owned really the best house in the village and of course he desired to sell it. My friend Glover was somewhat anxious to purchase it, but Mr. Root seemed quite anxious to sell it to me and I finally bought it, mostly on credit; but my business was such that I had no difficulty in meeting the payments as they became due. It was in that house that Emily, Lucia and Nellie were born.

SHIAWA4SSEE CO UNTY 515 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 515 We had the first door bell and I built the first picket fence in town. In the fall of 1849 F. C. Whipple and myself went to Detroit to the first state fair ever held in the state; and each of us purchased a sofa, which were the first ever taken to Howell. In 1846 the legislature passed a law creating a court in each organized county in the state and provided that a county judge should be elected in each county on the first Tuesday of November of that year, who should hold the office for four years. I was elected to the office. Hon. James W. Stansbury was the candidate against me. I was re-elected to the same office in 1850. The county court was a court of record with a clerk and seal. The court went out of existence in 1852 when the present state constitution went into effect. I have before stated that I was formerly identified with the Democratic party. In 1854 a paper was drawn up and circulated in different parts of the state for signatures, of which the following is a copy: To THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN, without distinction or party:-In view of the recent action of congress in regard to the organization of Nebraska and Kansas territories and the evident design of the slave power to attempt still further aggressions upon freedom, we invite all our fellow citizens without reference to former political associations who think that the time has arrived for the union of the north to protect liberty from being overthrown and downtrodden, to assemble in mass convention on the 6th day of July next at one o'clock P. M. at Jackson, there to take such measures as shall be thought best to concentrate the popular sentiment of the state against the encroachments of the slave power. Dated June, 1854. This paper was signed by two hundred and forty-two persons and the mass convention was held at Jackson as requested and a Republican party formed and a state ticket nominated and elected at the next general election. My excellent friend, Kingsley S. Bingham, was elected governor. I identified myself with the party from the date of its organization, and in the fall of that year was tendered the unanimous nomination for prosecuting attorney, which I declined. As I remember it, this meeting at Jackson was the first commencement of the organization of the party in the United States. The first Republican state convention, after the organization of the party was held at Marshall in 1856 and I had the honor of being elected president of that convention. The same year (1856) I was nominated and elected judge of probate. F. C. Whipple was the candidate on the Democratic ticket. On the 6th day of the next April (just seventeen years from the day that I settled in Howell) I was elected circuit judge. The late Hon. William N. Fenton, ex-lieutenant governor, was the Democratic candidate who ran against me. My majority was two hundred and seven. It was in this year (1857) that Jerome was married to Martha Frances Gregory, daughter of Rev. Edward E. Gregory, of Howell. My circuit then comprised the counties of Livingston, Shiawassee, Genesee, Lapeer, Saginaw, Tuscola and Midland. It was the largest circuit in the state. Under this election my term of service would not commence until the first day of January then next (1858). But soon after the election my predecessor resigned and I was appointed by the governor on the 9th day of May for the balance of his term, which would expire on the 31st day of December thereafter. Previous to the 1st of January, 1858, the circuit judges were judges of the supreme court, so that while I acted under the appointment by the governor, I was not only circuit judge but judge of the supreme court also, and it may not be improper to state that I am the only man living who has held every judicial office in the state known to the constitution and only one other man in the state

516 PAST AND PRESENT OF.I - ever had that honor and that was the late Judge Witherall, of Detroit. The term of service of the circuit judges is six years and when my first term expired I was re-elected, Hon. H. H. Harmon, of Howell, then a member of the legislature, was the Democratic candidate. My majority was twelve hundred and eight. - Twice after that I was nominated and elected by both parties, so it will be seen that my service as circuit judge was twenty-four years and nearly eight months. I was exceedingly fond of my duties on the bench and my relations with the members of the bar were of the most friendly character. During my term of service I held the courts in forty different counties in the state. On the 9th day of July, 1860, we moved from Howell to Owosso. The one great object in moving was to get nearer the center of my circuit and thereby save much travel. I purchased and we moved into the same house in which we now live, and it was in this house that Lucia was married on the 14th day of October, 1863, to Henry M. Newcomb, and in which her son, Josiah Turner Newcomb, was born on the 19th day of June, 1868, and in which your blessed mother died on the 4th day of June, 1885. In April, 1864, I was elected mayor of the city of Owosso and re-elected to the same office in April, 1865. I was the first Republican mayor that the city then had ever had. On hearing of the assassination of President Lincoln, I issued the following proclamation: "Whereas, The news has been received announcing the death by assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, who died twenty-two minutes past nine o'clock this morning, now, therefore, I do recommend and request "That all places of business in the city bie closed. "That the church bells be tolled at twelve o'clock m, and I I "That the flags of the city be draped in mourning and displayed at half-mast in recognition of the awful calamity which has fallen upon the nation. "Dated Owosso, April 15, 1865. (Signed) "JOSIAH TURNER, Mayor." This proclamation was no sooner out than it was complied with in every particular. On the 18th day of the same month I issued the following proclamation: PROCLAMATION. MAYOR'S OFFICE, Owosso City, April 18, 1865. To the Citizens of the City of Owosso: In view of the great affliction which has fallen upon our nation by the death of Abraham Lincoln, late president of the United States, and of the announcement of the acting secretary of state, that the funeral services of the lamented chief magistrate will take place at the executive mansion in the city of Washington at twelve o'clock noon, Wednesday, April 19th inst., and requesting the various religious denominations throughout the country to meet at their respective places of worship for the purpose of solemnizing the occasion with appropriate ceremonies; and the several churches of this city having appointed the hour of two o'clock P. M. for such observance, now, therefore, I do hereby recommend and request that all public and private places of business be closed on that day from the hour of eleven o'clock A. M. till four o'clock P. M. and that our people attend the public ceremonies at the several churches in humble acknowledgment of our great loss and the dealings of Almighty God with us in the crisis through which we are now passing. (Signed) JOSIAH TURNER, Mayor. In 1867 I was elected a member of the state constitutional convention. That convention was composed of one hundred members elect

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 517 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 51r ed by the different counties and was in session in the house of representatives at Lansing one hundred days. On the 22d day of March, 1882, I was appointed by President Arthur United States consul at Amherstburg, Canada, and held that office until September 13, 1891. It has so happened that whenever I have been a candidate for office I have always been elected. So, of course, I do not know how a man feels when he runs for office and is defeated. When I started in business I made up my mind that if I could not get a living by working six days in the week, I could not by working seven. In the sixty-one years that I have been a member of the bar, I have never once been in my office on Sunday to do any work, neither have I at home or elsewhere in all that time done one hour professional or official work on that day. I have been a member of the church since I was twenty years of age and you know that it has always been my habit to attend church regularly with your dear mother and yourselves, when you were at home. I do not believe that any man is better off on account of any work that he may have performed on Sunday. I never knew a man to gain anything in the end by violating any law, human or divine. This, my children, is a brief history of my long and somewhat eventful life, and if you or my grandchildren see anything in it worthy of imitation, I shall feel amply repaid for writing it. I have seen this state grow from a population of two hundred and twelve thousand two hundred and sixty-seven in 1840 to two million, four hundred and twenty thousand, nine hundred and eighty-two in 1900, and from almost a wilderness to a great and one of the most prosperous in the United States. When we came to Howell the state had less than a hundred miles of railway and now it has between six and seven thousand miles. I am often surprised that I could have lived to see such changes and improvements both in wealth and in education. JOSIAH TURNER. GEORGE W. URCH Although not a native of this country, the gentleman whose name is at the head of this sketch was not slow in springing to arms at the call of his adopted country, for on September 2, 1862, at the age of sixteen years, he enlisted in Company L, Tenth Michigan Cavalry, at Clarkston, and subsequently, at Grand Rapids, was mustered into the regiment at its organization. He participated in every engagement of his regiment. After the close of the war he worked by the month for four years and nine months. Then he rented a farm for five years. He next bought a house and lot at Springfield, Michigan, in which he lived for one and one-half years; he then hired out by the month for one year. He worked seven years by the day for one man. He was born in Somersetshire, England, February 3, 1847. His father, George Urch, was likewise born in the same country, in 1827, and he died in Oakland county, Michigan, in 1883. Our subject's mother, Emma (Green) Urch, was a native of the same place as her husband, having been born in 1828. She also died in Oakland county. They were married in Somersetshire, England, whence they came to Oakland county, Michigan, in 1850. The father bought forty acres of wild land in Independence township, on which he built a log house and barn, afterward clearing all the land. After the death of his first wife, George Urch married a Mrs. Lumber. The subject of this sketch was the sixth of eight children, all of whom were born in England, except the last one. Sara married Nelson Vliet and died in Oakland county, having had no children. John is living in Chicago, where he was married, having no children. Hannah, who lives in Clarkston, is the widow of Joseph Kerton and has six chil

518 PAST AND PRESENT OF 5D dren,-Charles, Carrie, Lizzie, Edward, Norman and Emma. Morris, who lives in Mecosta county, married a Miss Close, now dead, and they had two sons,-Chester and A. V.; by a second marriage he had one daughter. Edward, who lives at Clarkston, was married first to Helen Green, and after her death he wedded Sara Clark; no children. William lives on the old farm; he married Sara Dumont and has two children,-Clara and Rose. Mr. Urch started in life for himself at the age of fourteen years, working on a farm, shoveling in a gravel pit and braking on a gravel train. In 1885 he came to Hazelton township and bought forty acres of wild land, on section 17. He built a house eighteen by twenty-four feet in dimensions and a small stable, cleared all the land and subsequently added twenty acres. In 1895 he sold the property and bought eighty acres, mostly improved, on section 26, where he now lives. He has remodeled the house and barn on the property, thus adding greatly to their appearance. September 2,1870, Mr. Urch married Emma Phillips, who was born in New Jersey, July 20, 1848. Her father was Adam Phillips, also a native of New Jersey, where he was born in 1818; he now resides in Springfield, Michigan. Her mother, Elizabeth (Wheeler) Phillips, was born in New Jersey, in 1819, and died in 1902. Mrs. Urch was the third of a family of four children: Austin, who lives on a farm in Springfield township, Oakland county, married Maria Dates and they have no children. Marietta, who lives in Hazelton township, married Axford Gulick and they have no living children. Charity, who lives in Springfield, Oakland county, married Henry Muzzey and has three children,-Guy, Leslie and Ethel. In 1849 Mrs. Urch's father came to Oakland county and bought eighty acres of wild land, part of which he cleared. He then removed to Clarkston township and rented land. Later he bought a house and lot in Springfield village, where he resided, with his son Austin, until his.death, October 11, 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Urch had one son, Willie. He was born September 2, 1870, in Oakland county, but died February 4, 1895. He married Cora Austin, February 10, 1884. She was born in Hazelton township, May 15, 1872. Mrs. Urch is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Urch was a Republican in politics and has been highway commissioner for eight years. Both his brothers were also in the army, Morris served three years in the Eighth Michigan Cavalry, and John served four years in an Ohio regiment. LYMAN W. VAN ALSTINE That persistent industry and good business judgment almost invariably win success is a fact whose truth has never been disputed, and the possessor of these traits usually has fortune smile upon him. Through long continued effort the subject of this sketch has attained a position where he can reflect upon the past with satisfaction and look forward to the future with assurances of enjoyment and comfortable competency. Lyman W. Van Alstine was born in Schoharie county, state of New York, on the 2d of December,' 1839. He is a son of John L. and Catherine (Collins) Van Alstine, both natives of the same county in which he himself was born. They were pious, well-to-do farmers, belonging to the Lutheran church. The father was born January 31, 1816, and died October 12, 1900. The mother was born January 24, 1823, and died August 15, 1882. Their union was blessed by the birth of six children. The first born was Alexander (deceased). The subject of this sketch was the second born of the family. Then came Ephraim, Helena, Maria and Esther. Our subject received his early education in the district schools, remaining at home until his marriage, November 1, 1865, when he and his happy bride commenced life for themselves. His wife, Sophia Elizabeth, is a daughter of

MR. AND MRS. LYMAN W. VAN ALSTINE

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 521 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 521 Mr. and Mrs. Gideon Empie, of the state of New York, both of whom were members of the Lutheran church and highly respected in the community in which they lived. Of their five children Mrs. Van Alstine is the oldest. Then followed Myron, Luther, Martha and John J. Mr. Van Alstine was fortunate in his first undertaking, for he secured a good helpmate. After his marriage he worked a rented farm for a time and then purchased a farm of his own, in the state of New York. Upon this place they resided for a period of about seventeen years. This farm was located in Montgomery county. Mr. Van Alstine came to the state of Michigan on the 10th day of March, 1883. He purchased a fine farm of one hundred acres, on sections 5 and 6, Vernon township. The land was improved but our subject has done much to enhance its beauty and value since it came into his possession, having remodeled and improved the buildings. General farming has been the order with Mr. Van Alstine and he has kept abreast with the progressive spirit of agriculture in the state, and each year has added to the comforts and enjoyments of life. Though still in good physical health, he has practically retired from the more active operations of farm work, leaving its management to his son Charles, who has a farm joining that of his father. Like his father, Mr. Van Alstine is a Democrat. He has been honored by his fellow townsmen with several local offices. For the past four years he has been president of Vernon village, which position he occupies at this date. To Mr. and Mrs. Van Alstine three children have been born: The oldest, John L., born May 14, 1869, is a stockholder and assistant cashier in the First National Bank of Durand. Previously to coming to Durand he was for ten years in the upper peninsula of Michigan, in the railroad service. August 21, 1895, he was united in marriage to Florence Ballard, of Oakland county. They have two children,-Vivian, born March 9, 1897, and Ly man Warner, born December 29, 1904. The second, Charles, was born December 22, 1870. He married Mertie Martin, of Vernon township. Martha, born July 26, 1873, is a graduate of the Vernon high school, as is also John L. Mr. and Mrs. Van Alstine have been for many years consistent and highly respected members of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which they give loyal support. JAMES R. VAN DYNE The gentleman whose name heads this sketch is a native of Michigan and was born in Novi township, Oakland county, April 12, 1836. He may truly be classed among the pi' oneers of the state of his nativity. His parents were married in Oakland county. His father, Abram Van Dyne, was born in New York, and came to Michigan with his parents while yet a young man. His mother, Harriet (Eddy) Van Dyne, was born in New York November 20, 1813. Our subject's father bought one hundred and twenty acres of government land in Novi township and cleared the tract. He built a house and lived in the same until his death, in 1845. Our subject received his education in a district school in Oakland county district. This country school turned out many teachers, nearly all of them remarkably good ones, too! Few young men in the rural districts of Michigan have had more bitter experience than did Mr. Van Dyne in starting his independent career. When he had reached his majority he bought two hundred and forty acres of timbered land in this state for six hundred dollars, three hundred dollars of which was cash down. He had never seen the property, relying upon the representations of others as to its worth. He afterward ascertained, however, to his great sorrow, that the land was almost worthless, so he never paid any more on it, thus losing his three hundred invested.

PAST AND PRESENT OF 522 He then bought the eighty acres on which he now lives. It was then all heavily timbered. He at once let the contracts to cut the timber and clear the land, after which he returned to Oakland county; where he lived for nine years, renting land and working it on shares. He then removed to his Middlebury farm and built a frame house. At this time about sixty acres were cleared. He has since lived there. Meanwhile, however, he speculated a good deal in lands,- buying and selling and paying as high as fifty dollars per acre for some of it. He has never done any clearing or chopping himself, preferring to have this work done by others, under contract or otherwise. While this was being done, however, he found other employment which proved more remunerative for his efforts. He also had all his buildings erected in a similar manYner. Many pioneers boast of the number of rails they have split, but Mr. Van Dyne takes great pride in telling that he never split a rail on these premises. Indeed, one can not help but admit that our subject has been a "wise guy" in this regard, if we may be allowed to use a phrase more expressive than elegant. Some twenty-three years ago he built the fine house in which he now lives, at a cost of three thousand dollars. It is composed of the best quality of white pine, with all its appointments first class. He says it could not now be replaced for less than five thousand dollars. He also has a larger number of farm buildings on his farm than any other farm in the township, and pays more taxes on land than any other resident of Middlebury. He has assisted each of his children to buy farms, or given them money instead, cheerfully and bountifully doing all that was peedful by his household. This is indeed a good record! What a monument to leave behind to keep his memory green in the minds of his children after his body has been consigned to mother earth! Mr. Van Dyne was married September 20, 1867, to Mary Herrick, a native of Middle bury, where she was born November 20, 1856. She is a daughter of Nathan and Sylvia (Doane) Herrick, honored pioneers of Middlebury; both her parents have passed to the other shore. In this township Nathan Herrick cleared a farm of two hundred acres, upon which he lived and died. He was a splendid farmer and a sterling citizen. Mr. and Mrs. Van Dyne had seven children, six of whom are living: 1. Albert E., who married Georgie Doe, lives on a farm adjoining that of his father; they have three children,Lucy, James and Alice. 2. Agnes, who died at the age of thirty-two years, married Henry Gillett and they lived on a farm of our subject. 3. Lucy married A. H. Moulton and they live on a farm near that of her father; they have three children,-Ida, Hattie and James. 4. Ellen married Justin Babcock and they live on a farm in Middlebury; they have four children. 5. Hattie married George Warren, of Middlebury, and three children have been born to them. 6. Edward owns a farm of two hundred acres in Sciota township, Shiawassee county. 7. Anna married Spencer Seaman and they live with Mr. Van Dyne. Mr. Van Dyne was one of a family of six children, five of whom lived to maturity. 1. Louis, who died at the age of sixty-six years, lived on a farm in Middlebury. 2. Lucy married Emery Glass, who died at the age of seventy-one years; they lived on a farm fourteen miles from Detroit. 3. Our subject. 4. Charles B. lives in Colorado. 5. George enlisted in Company D, Fifth Michigan Cavalry, in Oakland county, Michigan, and served in the civil war; he was kicked in the knee by a horse and was discharged for disability. He draws a pension and now has a position in the patent office at Washington, D. C. Mr. Van Dyne conducts general farming. He has good grades of stock and makes a specialty of raising sheep. He has been highly successful, but never overworks his men or teams. Verily, in the language of another, he can exclaim, "I am a man, and I have an in

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 523 SHIAWSSEECOUNY 52 terest in everything that concerns humanity." In politics he is a Republican and he has been town treasurer for two years, highway commissioner several years and has. held other positions. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Ovid, and Mr. Van Dyne has been an ardent supporter of the church for years. Indeed, for twenty-eight years he has led the singing in his church. He is in good health with the exception that cataracts upon his eyes greatly affect his sight. Mrs. Van Dyne has been in delicate health for several years. With a consciousness of having made his impress upon the world, he is living in the enjoyment of the fruits of his years of toil. VOLNEY C. VAN LIEW, M. D. Imbued with the same spirit that caused Lincoln to utter in thunder tones at Gettysburg, "This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth," Cornelius Van Liew, with four of his brothers, shouldered his musket and did battle in the great civil war. It is a remarkable record that one family should furnish five sons for the desperate struggle, but such was the case'with the Van Liews. Descendants of good old Holland stock, they did not stop for consequences but heroically hastened to the front at their country's call, preceded by Cornelius, who enlisted in Company F, Sixth Michigan Cavalry, in 1862, and was with the regiment until taken prisoner at Brandy Station. He was sent to prison at Andersonville, where he died of sickness, after having been incarcerated for eleven months. He was a private soldier. His four brothers were Daniel, Martin, James and William, and strange to say, not one of these was ever wounded in battle or taken prisoner. Two of them are still living,-William in Kalamazoo and James in Montcalm county. Volney C. Van Liew, the subject of this article, is a native of Kent county, Michigan, where he was born March 31, 1858. Both his parents were born in New York state. The Van Liews originally came from Holland, the Doctor's grandfather having been born in that country. Our subject's father came to Michigan about fifty years ago and located on a farm near Rockford. He was one of a family of five sons and three daughters. His wife lived to be forty-eight years old and died in 1884. After the death of her first husband she married a man named Nicholson. Their home was in Kent county. Cornelius Van Liew was married prior to becoming the husband of Volney's mother. Two children were the issue of that union,Winfield was married and lived in Montcalm county, but is now dead; Franklin, the second son, studied for the ministry, at Albion college, and died soon after completing his studies. The Doctor was the third in a family of five children: 1. Estella, Mrs. Sperry, is now living on a farm in Muskegon county, and has three children,-Minnie, Cornelius and Mabel. 2. Jesse, who is living on a farm in Kent county, was formerly a mill man. 4. Lafayette is employed in a shingle mill in the state of Washington. 5. Cornelius lives in Cedar Springs, Michigan, and is a blacksmith. Dr. Van Liew acquired his early education in the district schools in Kent county and in the high school of Rockford, spending two years in the latter institution. He also attended the Advent College at Battle Creek for two years and was one year at the Central Normal College in Indiana. He was graduated in the Michigan College of Medicine, now the Detroit College, in 1884. He practiced for three years at Croton, Michigan, before completing their course at college and was there for one year-after securing his diploma. From Croton he moved to Vestaburg, Michigan, where he remained seven years. In 1892 he located at Lennon, Michigan, and has been there ever since. At the time he began prac

524 PAST AND PRESENT OF ticing medicine he also embarked in the drug business, and he is still engaged in it. He was appointed postmaster of Lennon in 1896 and still holds the position. This, with his practice and drug store, makes him a very busy man. Dr. Van Liew was married February 16, 1885, to Nettie Routson, who was born in Ohio, January 7, 1862. Her father, William Routson, now dead, was a cooper by trade and always worked at this until the last fifteen years of his life, during which he was engaged in farming. Her mother is still living. Mrs. Van Liew was one of six children, all of whom are living. The Doctor has no children. He has always been a Republican but never held office except his present one. He is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and was at one time an Odd Fellow. A physician of the old school, he enjoys a large and lucrative practice and is highly esteemed by the entire community. JOSEPH VARCO Michigan contains very many Canadianborn farmers whose ancestors were of English stock. These are quite generally among our most prosperous and enterprising citizens. One characteristic which they possess is very commendable, and that is their desire to have a home and to stay there. There is little of the roving disposition in their make-up. It was Shakespeare who said: I'll still stay, to have thee still forget, Forgetting any other home but this. The gentleman whose name is given at the head of this article was born near Hamilton, Canada, January 21, 1843. His father was Richard Varco, a native of England. He died in Canada at the age of seventy years. Our subject's mother, Hannah (Wier) Varco, was born in Canada and died at the home of her son Joseph, subject of this sketch, with whom she lived after the death of her hus band. She was seventy years of age at the time of her death. Richard Varco came to America from England when yet a young man. He was married in Canada and located in North Cumberland, near Hamilton, where he continued to live until his death. Joseph Varco's early education was very limited, as he attended school but a short time. But he is well informed, however, having acquired a good fund of knowledge in after years, by reading and observation. All rests with those who read. A work or thought Is what each makes it to himself, and may Be full of great, dark meanings, like the sea, With shoals of life rushing. When but six years old our subject went to live with a brother, but commenced working on a farm by the month when a mere lad. At the age of twenty-one years he found his way to Michigan and for two years afterward worked by the month on a farm in Owosso township. He then decided that he had toiled for others long enough, that the hour had arrived when he should "paddle his own canoe," so to speak. He therefore bought eighty acres of native forest land, on section 12, Middlebury township, and began the Herculean task of converting it into a farm. In this he was successful, despite the fact that it took a "long pull and a strong pull" to accomplish this result. But he did his work well, clearing fifty-five acres, and the result is shown in his present cultivated fields and fine buildings. He has since lived here. He first built a log house and log stable and occupied the former until fourteen years ago, when he erected a good frame residence and replaced the old log stable with a large frame barn and other needed structures. Some of his land is somewhat low and swampy, but will eventually be of the best, after proper drainage. The year after he located on his present farm Mr. Varco was married to Harriet De Long, now fifty years old. She is a native of

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 525 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 525 Canada, and is a daughter of Osra De Long, who was a farmer in Canada. Mrs. Varco comes from a family of twelve children, none of whom are in this country except herself. To Mr. and Mrs. Varco have been born ten children, nine of whom are living, one having died in infancy: 1. Osra, a farmer in Owosso township, married L. Denison, and they have no children. 2. John, who lives in Owosso and is a brakeman on the Ann Arbor Railroad, is married. 3. Bertha is the wife of James Wiggins, of Owosso, and they have three children. 4. Charles is a farmer in Fairfield township. 5. William works in Bentley's factory in Owosso, is married and has two children. 6. Joseph, single, works by the day. 7. Elmer is single and at home. 8. Elva attends school and is at home, 9. Blanche is at home. Mr. Varco was one of five children, of whom these are living: James resides in Canada. Mary Ann, who lives in Pennsylvania, married Walter Butler. Our subject has always been a Republican in politics, in which he takes great interest, but has never held office, excepting that of Pathmaster. He is also greatly interested in all matters pertaining to pioneer days, but is not a member of the county pioneer society as yet. He intends to join it soon, however. His health has not been the best for two years past, but he still manages his farm. G. BURTON WADE, M. D. Among the younger practitioners of medicine in the village of Laingsburg, Shiawassee county, we find none more progressive than our subject. He is ambitious to stand at the head of his profession and is alive to the interests of the community, always ready to push with a good will any enterprise for the upbuilding of the town. To the young men we must look for such aggressive action, and to this class does our subject belong. Dr. Wade was born at Montgomery, Frank lin county, Vermont, April 16, 1863, a son of George R. and Ruth (Smith) Wade, natives of Vermont, where they were born in 1823 and 1828 respectively. Our subject is a descendant of English stock. The father was a millwright and farmer and died February 19, 1899, and the mother passed away June 13, 1876. Our subject was the youngest of the three children of George R. and Ruth Wade: Leonora, born May 16, 1849, married first E. W. Hopkins, by whom she had five children,-Frank E., Henry W., Nellie, Stephen (dead) and Charles. She later married F. P. Sawyer, who lives at Essex, Vermont. Homer, born April 23, 1856, is married and lives at Montreal, Canada. He is the father of three children,-Ella, George and Felice. Our subject is the third member of the family. The mother of our subject was a member of the Baptist church. Politically the father affiliated with the Republican party. Dr. Wade started for himself at the age of eighteen years, working in a butter-tub factory for one year, on a farm one year, and then in a general store, after which he went to Leominster, Massachusetts, and worked in a cabinet factory two years. Thence he went to Lynn, Massachusetts, where he worked at making pasteboard boxes for a shoe factory. Through an accident to one of his fingers he was sent to a hospital and while there he was engaged as a nurse, remaining thus engaged for four years, from November, 1885, to November, 1889. He then went to Burlington, Vermont, and entered school, taking up two courses, and completing two years' work in a single year. At the end of the school year he accepted a position as nurse in the insane asylum at Middleton, Connecticut, where he remained six months. He also performed a like service for the same length of time at a hospital in Albany, New York. In September, 1891, our subject commenced a course of study in the medical department of the Baltimore University, where he remained until he

526 PAST AND PRESENT OF graduated, one year later. He first located at Hartmonsville, West Virginia, remaining there six months and from there coming to St. Clair, Michigan, where he remained about six months. He then moved to Perrinton, Gratiot county, where he stayed four years, and August 19, 1897, he located at Laingsburg, where he has built up an extensive practice. In 1895 Dr. Wade was married to Nettie Musser. She died in 1899. In July, 1901, he was again married to Josephine Ward, a daughter of Dr. E. B. and Elizabeth (Allen) Ward. The father of Mrs. Wade came to Laingsburg in 1862 and commenced the practice of medicine. He graduated from the University of Michigan in the second class in medicine turned out from that institution. Mrs. Wade was born April 19, 1866. Dr. Ward was for many years well and -favorably known in this county, serving this district as a member of the legislature. He was president of the village and a member of the council. He was a man of high respectability and noted for his many fine qualities of heart and mind. Mrs. Wade was the second in a family of two children. Her brother, Dr. Walter E. Ward, is practicing medicine at Owosso. He is married. To Dr. and Mrs. Wade have been born five children, one of whom is deceased. The living are Bernard, Bessie, Florence and Evaline. Mrs. Wade's father died in 1899; her mother is still living. Dr. and Mrs. Wade are members of the Congregational church. Politically the Doctor is a Republican and fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons. Being yet on the sunny side of life, Dr. Wade should have many years of usefulness in reserve. Socially he and his family are esteemed as among Laingsburg's most highly appreciated citizens. FRANK L. WAIT This gentleman was born in Fairfield township, Shiawassee county, on the farm where he now resides, April 23, 1857. He is a son of Charles G. Wait, who was born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, in 1830 and who died in Middlebury township January 4, 1895. He was a Democrat in politics and was once supervisor of Fairfield township. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife, Eliza (Tillotson) Wait, was born in Brunswick, Medina county, Ohio, in 1829, and passed to the silent shore on March 13, 1885. They were married in the Buckeye state May 29, 1850, and four years afterward they removed to Fairfield township, where Charles Wait purchased seventy-one acres of government land, on fractional section 32 and section 33, the original deed to which our subject still holds. It is signed by the president of the United States. There was then only one Indian trail leading to the place and wild game of all kinds was abundant. Being a carpenter, the elder Wait built a frame house, the first part of which is still used by a tenant on the property. He subsequently bought another seventy-one acres of timbered land, making one hundred and forty-two acres in all. This he also cleared. At the time of his death he owned forty-one acres on section 32 and section 53 in the same township and also property in Mabbett's addition to Ovid, Clinton county, but in Middlebury township, Shiawassee county. These pioneers endured many hardships in their early days. They journeyed from Cleveland to Detroit by boat and from Detroit to Pontiac staged it, as they had no team. The elder Wait helped build almost all the roads near him, chopping and logging the same. When he reached Fairfield township he had just one dollar and fifty cents left. Our subject has the rifle with which his father killed a bear near his house. He used to hitch his oxen to a sled in the winter and go for miles through the deep snow to visit neighbors. Our subject started for himself at the age of twenty-six years, when he married Cornelia Woodworth, February 24, 1883. She

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 527 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 527 was born September 16, 1863. He rented his father's farm for three years. His father then gave him thirty-five and one-half acres and his wife bought as much more from her father-in-law. In the spring of 1884 our subject bought eighty acres on section 33, Fairfield, mostly wild land and the same spring sold twenty acres. He improved the remaining sixty acres, most of which was native forest. Later he and his brother-in-law, William T. Reed, bought forty acres of wild land on section 33, Fairfield. This they divided equally. At the time of his father's death Frank L. Wait purchased the interests of the other heirs in the forty-one acres left by the father, thus coming into possession of the old homestead. Excepting the large barn which the elder Wait built, our subject has erected nearly all the other buildings on the place. In 1900 he added to the present large, handsome residence and now owns one hundred and ninety-two acres of highly cultivated soil,-one of the best and most valuable faims in the entire region about. Mrs. Wait, wife of Frank L. Wait, is a daughter of William Woodworth, who was born October 10, 1809, and who died at Ovid, Michigan, May 25, 1905. Deceased came of Scotch parentage, and his wife, Sylvia A. (Andrus) Woodworth, was born June 15, 1823, and died March 8, 1889. At the time of his death Mr. Woodworth was ninetysix years of age. His mother, Catherine (Mc Pherson) Woodworth, died when he was eight years old, his father two years later, leaving a family of five children to be thrown upon the charity of friends and neighbors, the youngest being only six months old at the death of his mother. William was taken by farmers, with whom he lived for four years, attending school winters while living with his first patron; the second one beat him and threatened to hang him, and he was removed by the county authorities and bound out to a farmer in Albany county until he should be twenty-one years old. By the terms of the contract he was to receive a good common schooling, and at the age of twenty-one years two suits of clothes and a Bible. He lived there four years, illy clothed and fed, and one cold March day was set chopping wood without mittens or boots. When he applied at the house for admission to warm he was told to work and keep warm. After the third refusal he put down his ax and started away never to return. Thus, at the age of sixteen, he entered the world as his own master. Nine years driver on the Erie canal and a similar period as driver on the old stage coach from Buffalo to Batavia add a touch of rough picturesqueness to his varied career. While engaged as stage driver he met Miss Sylvia Andrus of Silver Creek, New York. The acquaintance ripened into friendship and he left the stage route to begin farming at Silver Creek, where he married Miss Andrus November 17, 1847. In 1885 he migrated to thewilds of Michigan, where he settled on a part of the old Dewey and Stewart farm near Owosso. Here, amid the hardships and privations of pioneer life, he reared his family of eight children, giving them the educational advantages which to his dying day he so bitterly deplored having been deprived of in his own youth. In 1874 he moved from Bennington township to the homestead, three miles north of Ovid, now occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Bigford. In 1880, being free from debt, with a small sum of ready money on hand, he was ready to begin a mission which for years he had been looking forward to, namely, the finding of the brothers and sisters who had been separated upon the death of their father, in 1819. After a long, eventful search which reads like a veritable fairy tale, he found his sister Katherine near Albany, his brother John at Richmond, Virginia, and his sister Margaret at New Haven, Connecticut. He visited each of these new found relatives at their homes and the reunions attracted much newspaper comment at the time. One paper containing this account fell into the hands of Absalom, living

528 PAST AND PRESENT OF in St. Louis, Missouri. Correspondence ensued which established the identity of this, the baby brother whom William had never seen since a baby in his mother's arms, and in 1882 the three brothers and two sisters met at the old farm home north of Ovid for a great reunion, the first meeting of the reunited family since the death of their mother in 1817, sixty-five years previously. A history of this event is given in these pages under the heading W. Henry Woodworth. Three subsequent marriages helped to make remarkable the life of the man now eighty years old. Mrs. Julia Himes, of Howell; Mrs. Martha Mason, of Owosso, and Mrs. Eliza Cozadd proved their womanly virtues by their loving care of this lonely old man. Subsequently to 1902 he lived with his children, principally Mrs. Wait, at whose home he died, May 25, 1905, after a brief and painless illness. The keen intelligence, ready wit, broad charities and sympathetic insight into human nature which characterized Mr. Woodworth as a man, remained with him to the last, and after nearly a century of earthly life, he entered into the palace of eternity to scenes of paradise and everlasting delight. Frank L. Wait is the second of three children: Susan, born in Ohio, August 15, 1852, lives in Fairfield township; she married William T. Reed and they have one son,-Harry C., who married Gertrude Simmons. They live at Ovid. Mary L., born June 4, 1863, is the wife of A. C. Smith, of Ovid, and they have a soft,-Harold. Mrs. Wait is the tenth of eleven children: Wilbur, born September 24, 1848, died February 28, 1858. Emma, born November 1, 1849, married J. C. Flesher; they live in Ovid township, Clinton county, and have three daughters,-Clara M., Dora, E. and Irene. Sara M. and Clara S. (twins) were born May 29, 1851; the former died in infancy. Clara S. married first David Thorpe, now dead; had five children, Eva G., Lena B. (dead), Edna M. (dead) and Frank; and her second marriage was to Levi Markham, who died May 30, 1905. She now lives in Middlebury township. W. H., born April 19, 1853, married Melavina Parks and lives in Owosso township; they had four children,-Lulu M. (dead), Lewis, Elmor and Clifford. Tyler, born June 20, 1854, lives in Owosso township; he married Cora Abbey and they have three children,-Myrtle, Harry and Earl. Melissa, born May 11, 1856, married George Bigford and they live in DuPlain township, Clinton county, having had three children,-Wilbur, Margaret (dead) and Frank. John D., born June 14, 1859, married Linnie Tyler, and they live in Ovid township, Clinton county, having one son,-Leon. Olin H., born March 26, 1861, lives in Ovid township, Clinton county; he married Viola Morgan, and they have one son,-Robert. Our subject's wife was next in order of birth. The eleventh child died in infancy. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wait are as follows: Edith M., born April 30, 1887, married Ivan L. Burnett, fireman on the Ann Arbor Railroad, July 4, 1902; he was injured at a wreck at Mesick, Wexford county, Michigan, March 18, 1905, and died at his home in Owosso March 26, 1905; they had two children,-Howard Wait, born April 23, 1903, and Merlywn L., born October 12, 1904. Lloyd, the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Wait, was born September 28, 1890. Mr. Wait does not belong to any political party but votes for the best men. He is a member of the Masonic order, the Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen of America, the Gleaners and Modern Brotherhood, all at Ovid. H. C. WALKER Some men seem to be imbued with a natural gift for business, possessing the personality which attracts and holds the patronage of the

H. C. WALKER

FOUR GENERATIONS MRS. WILLIAM H. CHAFFEE, BORN JANUARY 17, I819 SEWARID CHAFFEE, BORN JANUARY 8, 1852 MRS. H. C. WALKER, BORN NOVEMBER 8, I88I HARRY CARL WALKER, BORN JULY I9, I904

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 533 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 533 people. Of course in order to continue successful there must be present in all transactions a natural integrity that inspires confidence, and a friendship that warms the heart of one's felloyvmen. The subject of this sketch possesses the qualities which are rapidly raising him to an enviable position in the business world. He possesses the energy required in the competition of present-day business methods. His father, Fred Walker, was a native of Germany, coming to this country with his parents in the year 1854. The father with the family located in Washtenaw county, state of Michigan, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of partly improved land, which he converted into a very fine farm. Our subject's father was the oldest of a family of six children. The others were Mary, wife of John Hutzel, a farmer; Ricka, wife of George J. Mann; George, a farmer; William, a farmer, and Emma, who died in 1881. All the surviving children are residents of Washtenaw county, Michigan. Our subject's mother, Katherine (Rentchler) Walker, belonged to a respected pioneer family of Washtenaw county, where she was born and where she met and married Fred Walker. She departed this life on the 30th of April, 1889, loved and honored by all who knew her. She had twelve brothers and sisters,-Fred, Matthew, Mary, George, Christian, Emanuel, Agatha, Charles, Louise, Lena, William and Edward. H. C. Walker is one of a family of five children. The oldest, Fred, is a farmer, residing in Washtenaw county. The second, Matilda, is the wife of John Theurer, a merchant at Ann Arbor, Michigan. The third is the subject of this sketch. He was born in Lodi township, near Saline, Michigan, on the 23d day of November, 1878. The fourth and fifth were twins,-Aaron is clerking for our subject and Julius is a farmer residing in Washtenaw county. Mr. Walker's early education was acquired in the district schools of Washtenaw county. He attended school in the winter and worked upon his father's farm in the summer. When he arrived at the age of fourteen years he started in to do business for himself, finding employment by the month, on a farm. When he was sixteen he secured a position in a general store in Bridgewater, where he remained five years, preparing for his future career and anxiously awaiting an opportunity of becoming his own business manager. The opportunity came soon after he was twenty-one, when he was made a partner in the grocery with Mr. Nissly at Byron, Michigan, under the firm name of Nissly & Company. This partnership lasted about one year and a half, when, upon the decease of Mr. Nissly, our subject purchased his partner's interest and became the sole proprietor. The motto of Mr. Walker has been never to fail to grasp an opportunity to enlarge his business and better his financial condition. In 1904 he procured the store building next his grocery, cut archways between and made for himself a large double store, adding a fine line of clothing, men's furnishing goods, boots and shoes. Here he now employs five clerks. On the 16th of September, 1903, he was united in marriage to Edna Chaffee, who was born November 8, 1881. Her father is a native of the state of New York. He came to Burns township and settled on a farm in an early day. Mr. Chaffee has held the office of supervisor of Burns township, where he and his family are uniformly respected. Mr. Walker and his estimable young wife have been blessed by the birth of a son, Harry C., born July 19, 1904. Politically our subject adheres to the Republican party, as did his father before him. Socially he is a member of the Loyal Guards and Maccabees. FLORANCE F. WALWORTH This gentleman, now in the prime of life, spent seven years as a sailor on the Great

534 PAST AND PRESENT OF... {.. I. Lakes, most of this time being engaged in towing lumber from Saginaw to Ohio ports. During this period he sailed from one end of the lakes to the other and while thus engaged his thoughts turned to the foundation of all business, that of farming. He therefore bought forty acres of wild land in Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, with the purpose of devoting the balance of his days to tilling the soil for a livelihood. Not long after this we find him constructing a log cabin and barn on his new possessions. For the space of two years he occupied this cabin as a "bachelor hall," meanwhile plying his ax and saw in felling the mighty forest, which towered heavenward in front of him, behind him and all about him. Florance F. Walworth is a native of Pulaski, Oswego county, New York, where he was born August 22, 1851. His father was Azle Walworth. He, too, was a native of the same state as is the son. He died, however, in St. Clair county, Michigan, in 1862, at the age of forty-five years. The latter's wife, mother of the subject of this sketch, was Dorlisca Rathbun. She, too, was born in Oswego county, and she died in Shiawassee county, Michigan. The parents of Florance were married in New York state. They came to Michigan when he was four years old. They located on, St. Clair river, St. Clair county, where the father engaged in farming. He never bought any land, however, but rented. He lived in that county until his death. He was a Democrat, was a good speaker, always took an active part in politics, but never held office. After the death of her husband Mrs. Walworth came to live in Shiawassee county. About two years after the death of her husband she married Hiram Fuller and she continued to live in Shiawassee county until her death. Five children were born of her first marriage. Myron died about twenty-one years ago, aged thirty-four years. Florance F. was the second. John lives in the village of North Lathrop. Tillie is now Mrs. Francis Brown, living in Hazelton township. Azle is living in Hazelton. Mr. Walworth has a half-sister, daughter of Hiram Fuller, and she is now Mrs. W. Warner, of Hazelton., Florance F. Walworth was educated in the district schools of St. Clair county, and lived with his parents until he was eleven years of age, when occurred the death of his father. He then lived for two years with a family named Clark. On October 12, 1878, he was married to Lucinda Tuttle, who was born in Genesee county, New York, September 21, 1856. She is a daughter of Spencer Tuttle, who was born June 15, 1835, and who died in 1899, and of Jane (Clothew) Tuttle, who was born in New York state, September 3, 1838, and who died at the age of fifty-two years. Spencer Tuttle was a cooper by trade. He was married in New York state and came to Michigan when his daughter, Mrs. Walworth, was only twelve years of age. He first located in Genesee county, near Flint, and lived there two years. He then removed to New Haven township, Shiawassee county, and bought forty acres of wild land. He afterward sold this and bought another forty acres. He cleared both farms and made New Haven his home until his death. Mrs. Walworth was the eldest of six children: William died at the age of four years. Willie now lives in the state of Washington on a homestead claim; he married Frankie Whitsall, of New Haven township; they have four children. Myron, like his brother, lives on a homestead claim in the state of Washington; he married Ettie Turner, of Venice township, and they have two children. Jennie died at the age of two years. Harlo lives in Brant township, Saginaw county; he married Hattie Murray and they have no children. Mr. and Mrs. Walworth have three children as follows: Azle S., born September 26, 1879, married Pearl Mulliffian, of New Lothrop, and now lives on the old farm of Mr. Walworth, in Hazelton. Floyd F. was born July

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 535 SHIAWASSEE- CONY3 16, 1882. He attended the district schools of Hazelton, later continuing his studies in Big Rapids. He is now teaching in the Underwood district, New Haven township, having taught his first school three years and having been in his present school two years. He is well liked, is a success, enjoys his work, draws a salary of thirty-five dollars a month spring and fall terms and in winter receives forty dollars per month. He is not married. Mary, born November 26, 1883, is single and is likewise a teacher. She received her edtucation in district schools, and under the tutorship of one teacher, Leslie Kinnie, of Owosso, was enabled to leave the district school and begin teaching, having taught her first school during the year ending in June, 1905. When Mr. Walworth was married he took his bride to his farm on section 19, Hazelton township, and in the log cabin he had erected and occupied as his "bachelor hall" for two years previously they lived for eleven years, in the meanwhile clearing the farm and caring for their children. Finally they had accumulated sufficient to warrant them in building a better and more pretentious home; consequently they have erected a beautiful frame structure, as fine as any in the neighborhood. They have also added a large new barn and other buildings. They continued to live there until the spring of 1905 when they removed to another forty-acre farm, on section 18, giving their son Azle S. the old farm. The property on which they -now live is better known as the Cantley farm. It is all improved and has excellent buildings. Mr. Walworth is a Republican, but has never held office. He was once a delegate from his town to a Republican county convention. He is not a church member, but belongs to the Grange, and is in every respect a model and useful citizen. JOHN B. WATERMAN John B. Waterman, whose farm has been in possession of either his father or of himself for a period of nearly half a century, has for some years been prominent in temperance work, as well as in connection with the educational progress of the county. The son of Benjamin W. and Pamilla (Hilliard) Waterman, he was born in Caledonia township on the 19th of August, 1848. His father was a native of the Green Mountain state, having been born in Shrewsbury county, Vermont, April 23, 1816, and having died on his farm, in section 4, Caledonia township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, November 27, 1893. Our subject's mother was born in New Hampshire, September 17, 1813, and preceded her husband to the eternal life by only a decade. The parents of our subject were married in Hartland county, New York, on the 11th of April, 1837. Two years thereafter they came to Michigan, the father buying eighty acres of wild land. The story is told that he hired a man to clear the heavy timber from one-half an acre by giving him a gun. Money was so scarce in those days and in this country that nearly all transactions were done on the basis of barter. Mr. Waterman returned to New York, but the following year located on the land, which he had commenced to improve, and sowed a portion of it to wheat. One of his little trips about this time was a walk to Detroit. In the spring of 1841 he located in Caledonia township, when he built a log house and began clearing another tract of land. There he lived until 1859, when he bought one hundred and eight acres adjoining, on which farm he settled and on which, as it proved, he passed the remainder of his life. This was developed into the homestead in section 4, to which reference is made at the beginning of this sketch. The deceased was a Republican and at one time held the office of justice of the peace. In religion he was a Universalist. Our subject was one of six children, as follows: (1) Henry L., a resident of Gladwin county, was born April 11, 1838; his wife was formerly Nancy Eldridge. (2) Elizabeth P., born De 32

o-3 6 PAST AND PRESENT OF 536 PAST AND PRESENT OF cember 9, 1840, is the wife of Peter Stemm, of Petoskey. (3) Caroline, born April 6, 1845, died June 11, 1898, having been the wife of Charles Jackson. (4) our subject. (5) Harriet, born May 3, 1852, died at the age of eleven years. (6) Christopher, born June 9, 1854, is in the baking department of the Battle Creek, Michigan, Sanitarium. John B. Waterman received only such incomplete educational advantages as could be obtained in the district schools, but he improved his opportunities to the utmost, and added to them by home study and general reading. Both his natural ability and his acquired intelligence were recognized. by his fellow citizens by calling upon him to administer various school affairs of the township, for a period of sixteen years. He also served as township clerk for some time. Formerly a Republican, his moral sense finally so revolted against the terrible effects of the liquor traffic and liquor enslavement that he joined the ranks of the Prohibitionists and now votes with their organization. His religious affiliations are with the Methodist Episcopal church. On December 24, 1879, Mr. Waterman was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie Campbell, a native of Wayne county, Michigan, where she was born April 14, 1847. Her father was born on the Isle of Wight, England, of Scotch ancestry. He was a farmer and from Wayne county removed to Shiawassee county, Michigan; her mother, whose maiden name was Gould, was a Scotch lady. To Mr. and Mrs. John B. Waterman five children have been born. Webster, born January 30, 1882, is unmarried and lives at home; Mary was born June 17, 1883; Hudson was born August 6, 1884; the fourth child died in infancy; the fifth, George, was born April 8, 1888. HIRAM B. WEEKS Hiram B. Weeks is a native of the Buckeye state, having been born in Sandusky, Ohio, October 24, 1837. His father, Solomon Weeks, was born in Albany county, New York, June 17, 1896, and passed to the great beyond, at the home of his son Hiram, in Rush township, Shiawassee county, at the ripe old age of eighty-nine years. He removed to Ohio in 1816, being then a young man. He was married there and for many years resided in that state,-first in Sandusky county and then in Paulding county, where he lost two sons. Then the family returned to Sandusky county, where the death of the wife and daughter occurred. The family continued to live in different parts of Ohio until 186,2, when they removed to Allen county, Indiana, where they remained for seven years. Hiram then removed to Owosso, bringing his father with him. After locating there the father had the misfortune to break his thigh, after which he was unable to work, subsequently dying at his son's home, as stated above. The old gentleman was a Democrat in politics but never aspired to any office; neither was he a church member. Hiram's mother was Emily (Gillett) Weeks, who was born in Pennsylvania January 26, 1809, and who died January 7, 1844. Mr. Weeks was the fourth in a family of six children and is the only one now living. 1. Mary E., born in Lorain county, Ohio, November 30, 1831, died March 2, 1863. Her first husband was named Krantz and the second Mellen; they lived in Loraine county, Ohio, and had two children, one of whom is living, Solon B. Mellen, who resides in Lorain county, Ohio. 2. Saloma, born February 9, 1834, died February 11, 1844. 3. Harriet, born October 13, 1835, married Sears E. Galusha, who enlisted in a regiment of Michigan cavalry and was killed at the battle of Falling Waters in Maryland; his widow later married Hiram Galusha, brother of her first husband, and they lived in Owosso, where she died She had two children by her first marriage,Mrs. Jennie Hinkley, of Fentonv'ille, Michigan, and Mrs. E. M. Hopkins, of Detroit; and two daughters were the result of the second

SHIA1 WASSSEE CO UNTY 537 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 537 marriage,-Gertrude and Bessie, both single and both now living in Owosso. 5. Martin R., born August 18, 1839, died May 14, 1842. 6. Charles G., born December 6, 1840, died October 14, 1842. Mr. Weeks was married October 17, 1867, to Lovina Biggs, who was born in Crawford county, Ohio, September 22, 1846. She is still living and in excellent health. She is the daughter of Joseph and Margaret Biggs They were both natives of Ohio and lived on a farm in that state until a few years before their death, when they removed to Indiana, where he died at the age of forty-nine and she at the age of fifty years. Mrs. Weeks was one of ten children. She has three sisters living: Sarah, Mrs. Micks; Rebecca, single, and Mrs. Henry Borrow; all are residents of Allen county, Indiana. Hiram B. Weeks came to Michigan in 1869 and located in Owosso, where he lived one year. He then rented a farm between Owosso and Corunna and lived there four years. He next leased a farm in Rush township, where he remained four years. He then bought eighty acres of virgin timbered land, on section 3 in that township. He at once built a board shanty and began the work of clearing the land. This is now accomplished, save about six acres of secondgrowth oak and ash, which he is saving for timber for future use. He has since bought forty-three and three-quarters acres of timbered land, but this is not yet cleared. He was educated in the common schools of Ohio and lived with his parents until the death of his mother. Although not one of the earliest settlers of Shiawassee county, he has seen some pretty hard times, and has always been an indefatigable worker, despite the fact that he has suffered greatly from an injury received while a young man. He is a Democrat but has never held office. He belongs to no church. His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was drafted for the civil war, but failed to pass a satisfactory physical examination. His father was drafted for the war of 1812, but was never called upon to go to the front, not being needed. Mr. and Mrs. Weeks have one son, William F., born November 18, 1869. He married Rena Rathbun, who was born in Bennington township twenty-five years ago. Her father was Joseph Rathbun, now living in Brant, Michigan. William F. and Rena Weeks have four children,-Alva J., Grace, Vera, May and a baby unnamed at the time this article was prepared. AUGUST C. WESENER 'Tis not often that one finds a gifted musician,-a gentleman who loves music and understands and who has devoted years to it,who finally drifts into a business career and makes a success of it. Why this is so, we cannot tell, because, as the poet says: "Music is the universal language of mankind." Why, then, should not a good musician also make a good business man? The only answer we can give is that "music is well said to be the speech of angels," and as a rule few angels are found in business channels. J. G. Holland says that "music was a thing of the soul, a rose-lipped shell that murmured by the eternal sea, a strange bird singing the songs of another shore." The gentleman whose name heads this sketch was born August 14, 1860, in Saginaw, Michigan. He was a son of Hugo and Bertha (Wiengut) Wesenert, natives of Germany, the father having been born on the Rhine: O sweet is thy current by town and by tower, The green sunny vale and the dark linden bower; Thy waves as they dimple smile back on the plain, And Rhine, ancient river, thou'rt German again! His mother hailed from Berlin. Verily, Germany has done much for the United States, and has sent us thousands upon thousands of

538 PAST AND PRESENT OF 538~~~ PAS AN PRSNTO our best citizens. They are found in all the walks of-life. The subject of this memoir received his early education in the schools of Saginaw, and in 1875 came to Owosso, where he entered the high school. Not content to stop there, he afterward took a special course in Olivet College, and from there went to Detroit, where he took musical instruction. From Detroit he journeyed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and entered the Conservatory of Music, taking instruction on the violin and piano. He remained there one year. Thus it will be seen that young Wesener was musically inclined and resolved to leave.no stone unturned to fully develop the characteristic of his nature; for Of all the arts, great music is the art To raise the soul above all earthly storms. Our subject remained one year at Cincinnati and then returned to Owosso, where he worked in the dry goods store of his father until the latter disposed of his business. He next traveled all over the south and west, with Charles Pike's opera company. He continued on the road for one year with this combination, ending in Kansas City, where he spent one season playing in different opera houses. He then returned to Owosso, but remained only a short time, having been engaged to lead the University Orchestra at Ann Arbor for one year. We again find him in Owosso at work in the dry-goods store of J. J. Davis, with whom he remained for a time. Then he shifted to Osborn & Sons' dry-goods establishment, in which he continued ten years. Getting restless in the employ of others, he resolved to embark in the boot and shoe business, in company with Fred Crowe, under the firm name of the Crowe-Wesener Company. Thereafter he remained until his death identified with that business and also in the same location where he started. When he first engaged in the business it had been greatly run down and was heavily encumbered. This indebtedness was soon paid off. At his death he owned a one third interest in the Wesener block. Seven years ago he bought the interest of his partner in the stock, and was sole owner until the close of his life, a short time ago. He employed three clerks and enjoyed a large and profitable business. This shows what pluck and energy will accomplish. It also illustrates another thing, viz.: that a good musician and a good business man are developed in one and the same individual. Mr. Wesener was married July 20, 1898, to Grace M. Mead. They had no children. He was a member of Elks Lodge, No. 753, of Owosso, and also of the Lutheran church. He was a Republican in politics, but was not active in that line, neither was he an officeholder or an office seeker. He was a highly respected business man and a splendid citizen-just such a one as any community might be proud of. His father located in Owosso in 1875. WILLIAM I. WHITAKER, M. D. It is not merely by a knowledge of drugs and medicines that a physician gains success. In order to attain true eminence he must possess the spirit of patient research into the intricacies of the "human form divine" and have those kindly sympathies which will give to those who have called him in counsel, confidence in his humanity as well as his skill. The career of Dr. Whitaker, of Durand, one of the leading practitioners of Shiawassee county, has been creditable in the extreme, both professionally and personally. A man of fine intellectual and professional attainments, with broad and liberal views, he has fortified his mind with a store of useful knowledge, both special and general, through his habits of thought and observation. He commands an extensive practice, stands high in social circles and is highly esteemed by all who know him. The native place of Dr. Whitaker was Chelsea, this state, and the date of his birth was

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 539 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 539 July 28, 1863. He is a son of Charles and Laura (Beach) Whitaker, both natives of the Empire state. The parents were married in the township of Lima, Washtenaw county, Michigan, in 1846. The father followed the calling of a farmer and came to Michigan in 1834, settling in Washtenaw county. Charles Whitaker died at the age of sixty-one in the year 1879, and the mother still lives at the age of eighty-three, her birthday having been March 12,, 1823. Our subject is the youngest of a family of six children. A sister is a practicing physician at Bay City. Dr. Whitaker attended the district schools and the high school at Chelsea and also at Eaton Rapids. He then attended the University of Michigan for three years and later the Michigan College of Medicine & Surgery, at Detroit, in which institution he was graduated in the class of 1898. Immediately after receiving his diploma the young physician came to Durand, and has here practiced his profession since, with a good degree of success. Dr. Whitaker does a general practice in medicine and surgery and specializes in the treatment of the eye. He is a young man of push and energy and has a large circle of friends and patients in the village and surrounding country. He is local medical examiner for the Mis-souri State Life, the Maccabees, Modern Woodmen of America, Royal Neighbors and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York, and is a member of both the State and County Medical Societies. The Doctor is a well-known Mason, being a member of the blue lodge and chapter and is also an Odd Fellow. Dr. and Mrs. Whitaker are active in the affairs of the Congregational church and deeply interested in all that tends to the betterment of conditions in his adopted city. He is a firm believer in the future of Durand. On the 19th day of December, 1888, Dr. Whitaker was united in marriage to Miss Alma L. Perry, of Washtenaw county. Mrs. Whitaker's parents were old settlers of Michigan, taking up their residence here in an early day. Mrs. Whitaker's father resides at Chelsea and is now sixty-six years of age, and her mother passed away on Christmas, 1901. The union of Dr. and Mrs. Whitaker has been blessed by the birth of three children, one of whom died in infancy. Two bright little boys, Perry V., born December 25, 1895, and Charles R., born August 8, 1903, are the pride and joy of the home. While yet a young man in his old home town Dr. Whitaker served as supervisor, treasurer and justice of the peace, to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. For two years he was traveling salesman for the McCormick Machine Company. Dr. Whitaker and wife are active members of the Eastern Star Lodge. The Doctor, though a young man in years, has established a good practice and is counted as one of the skilled and useful physicians of his locality. He is personally one of the most agreeable of men, genial and companionable and a man who never fails to make friends wherever he goes. ADRIAN H. WHITTAKER Adrian H. Whittaker was born in Halton, near Hamilton, Canada, April 8, 1852. He is a son of John and Charlotte (Disney) Whittaker, a sketch of whom m.ay be found in connection with that of Francis Glover elsewhere in this volume. Until he had reached the age of fourteen years, Adrian Whittaker lived with his parents and attended school in Woodstock, Canada. Although young in years he started to work for himself at the age stated. For the first six months he was in the employ of John Richards, in a drug and grocery store, Mr. Richards having been founder of the village of Richards Landing. During the subsequent three years he clerked for Peter Nicholson. After this he worked in the

540 PAST AND PRESENT OF 54 PAS AN PRESENT.OF Bruce mines, but this position did not suit him, so he took a clerkship for one year in the grocery of George Henderson, of Toronto. Next we find him foreman for Hendry & Company, of the same city. But this was not to his liking. He then concluded to engage in farming. He may have thought of the words of Pope about Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labor when the end was rest, Indulg'd the day that hous'd their annual grain, With feasts and off'rings, and a thankful strain. He, therefore, bought one hundred acres of new land in Lamton county, Canada, on which he built a house and barn. He lived there ten years and then, in 1883, he came to Middlebury township and bought eighty acres of land, which had been chopped over. He built a house and barn and cleared the land, making it a splendid property. In 1886 he added forty acres more to his possessions. This had been improved. He continued to live there in comfort and prosperity for twenty years. He then sold the property for a good figure and bought the George F. Arnold farm, consisting of eighty acres, all finely improved, with fair buildings, but the latter have been remodeled and some new fences added. Mr. Whittaker now resides there and is justly proud of the farm and its appointments. Our subject conducts general farming, the kind that seems to pay best in Michigan but he devotes considerable time to stock, always having a good grade. Durham and shorthorn cattle are his favorite breeds. Mr. Whittaker was married May 10, 1876, to Alice Ackroyd, born in England January 8, 1853. She is a daughter of John and Mary (Moore) Ackroyd, a sketch of whom is given in connection with that of her brother, John Ackroyd, elsewhere in this work. Our subject and wife have one child, now Mrs. C. H. Seib, born October 3, 1877. Mr. and Mrs. Seib reside on a farm in Middlebury township and have two children,-Harvey N., aged four years, January 27, 1906, and Charles Edward, aged two years in December, 1905. 'Though coming into Shiawassee county only twenty-three years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker take a deep interest in everything pertaining to the pioneers of Michigan. Mr. Whittaker is a Prohibitionist in politics. He has held the office of justice of the peace for two terms and is now treasurer of his school district. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. ELLISON T. WILBUR This well-known citizen of Owosso township is a native of Ontario township, Wayne county, New York, where he was born April 13, 1852. He received a common school education in the locality in which he was reared. At the age of sixteen years he was placed by his father in the general store of A. G. Gazley at Mendon Center, New York, with a view to learning the mercantile business. The year following he was employed by A. W. Casey in a general store at Ontario, New York, after which he was for two years with his father in a store at Grant City, Missouri. During the years 1874 and 1875 he was in the employ of Kergan & VanTuyl, druggists, and D. N. Preston, a dealer in hardware, at Corunna, Michigan. His father, Richard E. Wilbur, was born in Milan township, Dutchess county, New York, August 12, 1825, and died in Owosso township August 28, 1902. His mother, Ann Elizabeth (Gazley) Wilbur, was born at Pleasant Valley township, Dutchess county, New York, July 19, 1828, dying at subject's residence January 29, 1895. The parents were married at Avon, New York, in October, 1849. Richard E. Wilbur was a farmer, and shortly after his marriage he purchased an improved farm of one hundred and ten acres in Ontario township, Wayne county, New York, as stated

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 541 S above, the subject of this sketch was born. Here the father lived for twelve years, when he sold the farm and returned to Avon, his former home, remaining there about two years. He next moved to Grant City, Missouri, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. He did not remain there long, however, for in the spring of 1871, he came to Corunna, Michigan, where he bought forty acres of land, inside the city limits. He lived there seven years and then sold the farm and removed to Coldwater, Michigan, where he remained two years. In 1883 he located at Grand Rapids, Michigan, buying forty-five acres of improved land just outside the city limits, in the township of Walker and on what is known as the "river road." He continued there until 1896, when he sold the farm and came to live with his son Ellison at Owosso, where he remained until his death, which has been mentioned. Ephriam Wilbur, our subject's grandfather, was born in 1790, and was a son of Jeptha Wilbur, of Dutchess county, New York. Eliza (Ellison) Wilbur, our subject's grandmother, born in 1794, was a daughter of Thomas Ellison, also of Dutchess county, New York. In 1831 Ephriam Wilbur and Eliza (Ellison) Wilbur, settled in Avon, Livingston county, New York, where they purchased a farm of two hundred and eighty-five acres and where they lived until his death, which occurred in 1873. They were the parents of five children, four of whom,-Cyrus, Mrs. Mary J. Harris and Mrs. Eliza W. Stall, of Avon, New York, and Charles E., of Adrian, Michigan, are living. Mrs. Wilbur survived her husband about two years and spent the last years of her life with her daughters. Stephen Gazley, our subject's mother's father, born in 1794, and his wife, Ann (Harris) Gazley, born in 1798, were residents of Pleasant Valley township, Dutchess county, New York. They were married in 1818. After his death, which occurred in 1837, his widow with her four children, William, Mary, Joseph and Ann Elizabeth, came to western New York and established a home at Pultneyville, in Wayne county. The forefathers of Ellison T. Wilbur came from England and his grandparents were Quakers. At the age of twenty-six years he started in life for himself. One year was spent in Kansas and, Missouri and considerable time in Genesee county, Michigan. In January, 1881, he bought the farm he now occupies, on section 21, township of Owosso, Shiawassee county, Michigan. On this were a log house and a stable for one team only. This farm he has improved until it is now all under cultivation. In 1885 he built a barn and later a comfortable and convenient house. January 1, 1885, he celebrated the new year by marrying Miss Metta Cramer, who was born August 1, 1860. Could the reaching of a new mile stone in life's journey be more appropriately honored? Metta Cramer is a daughter of D. S. Cramer, who was born in Wayne county, New York, in 1833. He came to Michigan and settled in Atlas township, Genesee county, in 1852. Later he came to Shiawassee county and purchased a farm, in Owosso township. Mrs. Wilbur's mother, Mary Ellen (Gage) Cramer, w~as born in Cattaraugus county, New York, in 1835. She came to Michigan with her parents in pioneer days, was married in 1856, and much of her useful life has been passed at their home near Owosso. The parents of Mrs. Wilbur now live at Burton. Mrs. Wilbur is the second in a family of eight children: Eugenia M., born July 25, 1858; Metta M., born August 1, 1860; Alva, born in 1862, died at the age of one year and four months; George L., born September 25, 1864; Susie R., born February 18, 1867; Ellen M., born April 9, 1869; Inez A., born November 1, 1871, and Evangeline C., born September 17, 1874. Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur have two children, Richard Glen, who was born October 14, 1885, and who lives with his parents, and Mary Elizabeth, who was born April 10, 1887, and who also lives at home. Like his father, Mr. Wilbur is a Republican and has taken an active

542 PAST AND' PRESENT OF 542 PAST AND PRESENT OF part in the affairs of his township. He has been highway commissioner one year, treasurer two years, and township clerk twelve years. He now occupies the last-mentioned office. Mrs. Wilbur is a member of the Congregational church, while her children are members of the Methodist church. Who does the best his circumstances allow Does well, acts nobly, angels can do no more. GEORGE C. WILKINSON George C. Wilkinson, of Venice township, was the first white male child born in that township, and the event occurred June 13, 1840. He is a son of Charles and Eliza (Clark) Wilkinson, both of whom were natives of the Empire state, his father having been born in Jefferson county, April 2, 1813, and his mother in Seneca county, May 14; 1814. His father was one of a family of ten children,-having had six brothers and three sisters. The sisters died when young; his brothers, William, John and Silas, remained in New York state, while the three others became prosperous farmers of the Wolverine state, settling on farms and continuing in the ownership of the same until the time of their death. James had three hundred and twenty acres in Oakland county; Abram one hundred and sixty acres, in Shiawassee county; and Jacob one hundred and sixty acres, near Mount Vernon. Mr. Wilkinson's parents were married November 2, 1836, and became residents of Michigan the same year. Their first location was in Oakland county, but in 1837 they removed to Vernon township, the father taking up one hundred and twenty acres of government land. In 1840 he traded this tract for eighty acres of wild land, most of which was cleared, in Venice township, where our subject was born, as already stated, and where he still lives. His father, when he first located upon the old homestead, erected a log house and barn. At that time, and for some years afterward, wild game and Indians were almost equally plentiful in that locality. As Charles Wilkinson was in poor health for many years, most of the work of the farm was thrown upon the son, who continued virtually to operate it until he was twenty-six years old. The father died January 10, 1883; the mother April 20, 1902. The four children born to Charles and Eliza Wilkinson are all living,-George C. is our subject; Sara, born in September, 1842, is now the wife of Joseph Priest and is the mother of three children,-Nellie, Benjamin and J. D.; Mary, born in August, 1847, is unmarried; Alvira, born in 1848, is now Mrs. Alfred Durham, of Durand, and became the mother of Elmer, George (deceased); Floyd, Albert and Blanche. Having operated his father's farm for many years, and having sold a piece of land which he had purchased from his savings, in 1866, George C. Wilkinson erected the house and barns on the family homestead, which formed a portion of the estate, the balance of which he inherited. He has since added eighty acres, sixty of which he has cleared. In 1866 Mr. Wilkinson was married to Angeline Lewis, daughter of Henry and Anna (Miles) Lewis. Her father was born in New York state, and died at the age of eighty-six years, and her mother, who was born in Ireland, died at the age of sixty-six. Mr. Lewis settled at Judd's Corners, Michigan, in 1860, and bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild land. Of this tract he sold eighty acres to his son-in-law, our subject, clearing the balance for his own use. Mrs. Wilkinson is the third of five children, four of whom are living: 1. Rebecca (Mrs. Sammer) died at Flushing, Genesee county, being the mother of eight children (seven living), viz.: Mary, Charlotte and Fannie (twins), Julia, Ella, Sarah, Jennie and James. 2. Elizabeth, now Mrs. Lyon, a resident of Owosso, has had eight children,-Sara (deceased),

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 543 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 543 I Henry, Fred, Minnie, George, Angeline, Fannie and Peter. 4. Mary (Mrs. Brown) lives in Hazelton and is the mother of Albert, Annie, Dewey and Ethel. 5. Mrs. Crow, whose maiden name was Fannie, is the mother of three children,-Charles, Bertha and Arthur. Our subject and his wife have two children, Ada, born October 5, 1867, is now the wife of William Dee. They reside on part of the family homestead and have two children,Helen, born April 7, 1904, and one child not married. Charles, who was born June 2, 1875, is unmarried and living at home. Mr. Wilkinson has always been an earnest Republican, and his deep interest in educational matters is attested by his election to a position on the school board. He has won substantial position in his community, by ability, industry and faithfulness to every trust placed in his keeping. His father, a pioneer of the region, has also injected his personality into its history, although at one time he was so poor that he and his two partners were obliged to share one pair of boots between them, the one getting the boots being the one to go to Pontiac to sell grain. He served as the first supervisor of his township, and has held public office of some kind during much of the time he has resided in Michigan, and has always acquitted himself with great honor. FRI3D WILLIAMS The subject of this sketch is a resident of Fairfield township, and was born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, Ferbuary 12, 1863. His father, Thomas Williams, came from Devonshire, England, where he was born February 3, 1821, and he died in Fairfield township, May 4, 1898. Our subject's mother, Elizabeth (Putt) Williams, hailed from the same place as her husband, and was born February 3,' 1827. She also died in Fairfield township, December 30, 1903. Thomas Williams came to the United States in 1854 and settled in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, where he afterward bought some land. In 1865 he removed to Fairfield township and purchased forty acres of wild land, which was sold in 1904 for sixty dollars per acre. He moved into a log house, added eighty acres more to the farm and with his sons helped to clear the one hundred and twenty acres. At the time of his death he still owned the farm in its entirety. Mr. Williams' grandfather was born and died in Devonshire, England. Fred Williams started in life for himself at twenty-two years of age. He worked on a farm for two years, then bought forty acres of wild land, on section 14, where he now lives. He boarded at home and cleared the land. He built a fine frame house and barn in 1898. He rents land of his neighbor. On July 12, 1898, he married Florence Eames, of Fairfield township. She was born December 24, 1868. They had one child,-Mildred, who was born November 28, 1902, and who died December 30, 1902. Mr. Williams is the third of seven children: 1. Sara, born December 30, 1859, lives at Bannister, Michigan, and is unmarried. 2. Richard, born June 8, 1861, lives at Ovid, Michigan; he married Bertha Squires and has one daughter, Ada. 4. Samuel, born April 16, 1865, fell from a barn and was killed, July 18, 1882. 5. Thomas, born February 3, 1867, lives at Owosso; he married Stella Cooley and has two children,-Reynold and Jaunita. 6. Julia, born August 4, 1868, lives at Bannister, Michigan; she married Miles, Simpson and has four children,-Russell, Serial, Paul and Dorothy. 7. Edward, born May 22, 1870, lives in Fairfield township; he married Myra Leavitt and they have no children. Mr. Williams' father, Thomas Williams, was the fifth of eight children: Mary Ann married William Locke, and died in Ohio. Samuel was born in England, where he died, as did also John. Sara died in Ohio. Richard married and lives in England. Julia mar

544 44PAST AND PRESENT OF ried Thomas Boon, and died in Ohio. Andrew lives in Fairfield township; he married first, Mary Ann Webber (dead), and, second, Nancy Gibson. Mrs. Williams' father, William Eames, was born in Niagara county, New York, March 24, 1838, and died October 14, 1902, in Fairfield township. He first bought eighty acres in Hazelton township, partly improved, and he cleared the remainder and sold the place. He then removed to Corunna, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres wild land. This he improved, building a good house and barn, and he owned this farm at the time of his death. He was thrice married. First to Amanda Moore, now dead, by whom he had two children,-Ella, born December 25, 1861, lives in Kalkaska county; she married Myron J. Davis, July 29, 1883, and they have one son, Lloyd. The second is Abbie, who was born November 5, 1863, and who lives in Caledonia township; she married George Brands, December 13, 1888, and they have one child, Ivan, born September 28, 1887. William Eames' second marriage was to the mother of Mrs. Williams, July 14, 1876; they had two children,-Mrs. Williams and Amanda. The latter was born July 30, 1871, and died when an infant. The third matrimonial venture of William Eames was on October 25, 1877, when he wedded Salucia Craig, who is also deceased; they had three children, as follows: William, born February 7, 1879, married Edna Haun and they live in Owosso, having one child, Thelma. Wing, born February 24, 1880, lives in Kalkaska county; he married Myrtle Fowler, now dead, leaving no children. Hattie, born July 5, 1884, died November 27, 1884. Mrs. Williams' father, William Eames, came to Michigan with his father and located in Grand Blanc township, Genesee county, on eighty acres of wild land, which he improved and sold. His father lived with him until death. William Eames was a money loaner. Mrs. Williams' grandmother, Betsy (Call) Eames, lives at the home of Mr. Williams. Mrs. Williams' mother, Harriet (Craig) Eames, was born near Montreal, Canada, March 11, 1835. Mr. Williams' father drove through from Ohio when he came to Michigan. At that time some of the roads were not cut through. Six years ago a wild deer was seen on the farm of Mr. Williams. Our subject is Republican in politics, a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, and is known as one of the best and most reliable citizens of Shiawassee county. He has made a success of life. NATHANIEL WILLIAMS Like hundreds of the early settlers of Michigan, the subject of this sketch started for himself in life at an early age, not only hewing his way into the forest, so to speak, but also literally carving for himself a home and a farm from the vast wilderness. Few of even the second generation from these sturdy pioneers have any correct conception of what their ancestors endured in reclaiming Michigan from a state of nature and making it what it is today, a veritable paradise of happy homes and broad acres of the choicest farms to be found from the rising to the setting of the sun. Nathan Williams, of section 21, Owosso township, is a native of Ontario, Canada, where he was born July 21, 1831. He started to hustle for himself at the age of eighteen years, working by the month and chopping wood. He was an expert at the latter. He spent part of the time in New York state after the death of his father, which occurred in Canada, in 1849. In 1863 he found his way to Owosso township, where he worked for others and for two years managed a farm on shares. In 1868 he bought eighty acres of wild land, where he now lives. The timber was largely oak. He later sold forty acres and cleared the forty he now owns, also building the house in which he now lives. He has since added to

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 545 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 545 it and built a substantial farm barn. Wild game was then very plentiful. He relates with amusement that he tried to "run down" the first wild turkeys he ever saw; he learned better later. In February, 1856, Mr. Williams married Catherine Lynch, daughter of Daniel Lynch. Her parents were born in Ireland, and were also married there. They removed to Canada, where they bought a farm, part of which Mr. Lynch cleared. Mr. and Mrs. Lynch died in Canada. Mrs. Williams was the fifth of six children,-John lives in Canada, James, Edward and Daniel are deceased, and one died in Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have had five children, four of whom are living: 1. Nathaniel, born in 1858, lives with his parents and is a painter and paper-hanger. 2. Edward, born in 1860, lives in Colorado, being a miner by vocation. 3. John, born in 1865, lives at Spokane, Washington, being a farmer; he is married and has two children,-Helen and a baby. 4. William, born in 1868, works for a bridge construction company in the east. 5. Mary Ann, who died at the age of thirty years, married Elmer Brooks, who also is deceased. Mr. Williams' mother was Sara (Hallenbeck) Williams, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1806. She died at the age of thirty-four years. Her father was a farmer and owned two hundred and twenty-five acres of land in Canada at the, time of his death. Mr. Williams was the first of four children: 2. John, born in 1833, lives in Owosso; he married Rebecca Elmer, now deceased, and had five children,-Margaret, Wellington, Frank, Mary and Henry. 3. Robert, born in 1835, died in Owosso township; he married Elizabeth De Lang, and they had four children,-James, Mary, Sara and Rose. 4. Sara Ann, who died in Canada, married George Saxton, and had three children. Mr. Williams is a Protestant Methodist, and practices the principles of his religious profession. He does not belong to any political party but votes for the best men. Altogether he is one of the best citizens in the township and has a large circle of warm friends. He has never sought for greatness but for many years has been a living example of the helpful influence of the Christian faith. DAVID L. WINKLER The subject of this sketch was born in Summit county, Ohio, February 11, 1837. His father was James Winkler, a native of Wayne county, Ohio, where he was born in 1801, and where he died in 1847. He was a farmer and was in poor health for some time prior to his death. He owned one hundred acres at the time of his demise. His wife, Lucinda (Boydston) Winkler, was born in Ohio, in 1816. She died in Illinois, in October, 1897. David L. Winkler started for himself at the tender age of fourteen years,-the springtime of life, so to speak, when "youth holds no society with grief." In 1858 he bought sixty acres of improved land in Summit county, Ohio, where he lived until 1880. He then sold and removed to Owosso township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, buying eighty acres, mostly improved, on section 28. He cleared eight acres and in 1883 bought eighty acres across the road, on section 27, making his farm one hundred and sixty acres. In 1893 he built a brick house. Mr. Winkler was the third of six children: the first and second were Enoch and Jacob, each of whom died in infancy. Maria, who lives at Ohio Station, Illinois, married William Connor and has four children,-Lucy, Clarence, Bert and Orman. Lucy died in 1865. James died in 1865 in the army; he enlisted in the One Hundred and Seventy-eighth Ohio Infantry, but died before the regiment left the state. Mr. Winkler's maternal grandfather was David Boydston, who came from North Carolina, and his paternal grandfather was David Winkler, who was a native of

546 PAST AND PRESENT OF 546 PST AN PRESNT O Germany. Mr. Winkler makes a journey to Wayne county, Ohio, every fall to attend the family reunion. On March 22, 1860, he was married to Rosabella Hackett, who was born March 7, 1840, and who died August 23, 1861. She had one child, Rosalinda, who died at the age of seven years. On November 16, 1865, Mr. Winkler was married a second time, his wife being Mary Huston, who was born February 20, 1841, and who died July 29, 1901. By his second marriage Mr. Winkler had eight children, seven of whom are living: 1. Herbert was born September 9, 1866. At the breaking out of the Spanish-American war he enlisted in the First Colorado Infantry, and with the regiment went to Manila, Philippine Islands, where he participated in several engagements. He was discharged at Manila and is now overseer of several hundred men who are unloading transports for the government. 2. Cora May, born August 11, 1867, died February 10, 1868. 3. Lucy Olive, born December 10, 1868, lives at Owosso, being the wife of Albert Daley. 4. George F., born May 26, 1870, lives in Nevada and is engaged in gold mining. 5. Ella Maria, born July 18, 1872, was married first to William Weidman, who is deceased; they had two children,-Hazel and William. Mrs. Weidmati later married George Rush; they live in Owosso township. 6. James Arthur, born December 11, 1874, lives with Mr. Winkler. He married Mary Benchley and they have had three children,-Florence, born October 5, 1897; Helen, born June 30, 1900; and Louis, who was born June 21, 1904, and who died at the age of five months. 7. David Olin, born April 11, 1877, lives on the farm of Mr. Winkler; he married Dora Davis and they have two children,-Carl, born October 15, 1903, and Gladys, born January 2, 1905. 8. Mary E., born March 8, 1880, is a stenographer in Arizona. Mr. Winkler is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a Prohibitionist politically and he votes as he prays,-for the overthrow of the saloon. He was highway commissioner of Owosso township for one term and has served as school director. He was educated in a log school-house in Ohio. On July 8, 1862, he enlisted in Company D, Twenty-ninth Ohio Infantry, and participated in several of the hardest fought battles of the war, among them being Antietam, Chancellorsville, Lookout Mountain, Gettysburg and Burtonville. He was sent to New York city during the war and was not in Sherman's march to the sea, but was with the army from Savannah to Washington, D. C., where he participated ini the final grand review of that noble command. He was discharged at Washington, D. C., and mustered out at Columbus, Ohio, June 25, 1865. He was for some months in the hospital at Nashville, Tennessee, with a broken leg. He is an appreciative Grand Army man and is a representative citizen, giving loyal support to every measure calculated to elevate his fellow men. His home is one of the many attractive farm residences of Middlebury township. RUSSELL P. WIXOM, M. D. The subject of this sketch, now a wellknown and popular physician and surgeon of Bancroft, was for many years connected with the circus established by his father and known as "Wixom's Great Show." The elder Wixom is a practicing lawyer and a prominent man of affairs. Dr. Wixom is a native of Argentine, Genesee county, Michigan, where he was born January 7. 1869. He is a son of Martin Van Buren and Celia (Bradley) Wixom, his father having been born January 14, 1843, and his mother July 29, 1845. J. Wixom, grandfather of the Doctor, earned much prominence in several walks of life. He was a native of Scotland, and graduated from a medical college in Glasgow prior to coming to Michigan in 1837. He first located in Farmington, Oakland county, establishing himself

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 547 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 547 not only in a professional sense, but also becoming such a leader in the public affairs of the community that he subsequently represented his district in the legislature of the state. Nothing could ever shake his faith in the principles of the Democracy, and he became so prominent in the councils of the party that he was put forward as a gubernatorial candidate by that organization in 1854. He was defeated by Kinsley S. Bingham, and was also an unsuccessful candidate for congress. Subsequently he removed to Fentonville, where he joined the Union army as surgeon of the Sixteenth lMlichigan Infantry, and on account of his fine record as an army surgeon he came within one vote of being made medical director of the Army of the Potomac. At the close of his honorable service in the civil war he returned to Fentonville, and lived there, engaged in the successful practice of his profession, until his death, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. He was also a pioneer and a leader in Masonic circles, being one of the first in Michigan to reach the Scottish Rite degrees. Although he was a man of the strictest integrity and of high character, and uniformly honored for his goodness and admired for his unusual ability, he was never affiliated with any church. His wife, an Irish lady, was about his age, her maiden name being Riley. She preceded her husband into the eternal life by several years, dying at the age of seventyeight years. Martin Van Buren Wixom, father of the subject of this review, was the youngest of seven children. Wallace, the eldest, migrated to California in 1847 and pre-empted one hundred and forty acres of land, the tract being now in the very heart of San Francisco. He is dead, but his family, who reside in the city,of the "Golden Gate," are very wealthy as a result of that fortunate investment. Sarah, the second child, is now Mrs. Dr. Curtis, of Saginaw, Michigan. Percival, the third, was accidentally killed in a quartz crusher in California. Mary, the fourth, now seventy-eight years of age, is living with her brother, father of Dr. Wixom. Helen was the wife of James Topping, an attorney of Owosso, both she and her husband being deceased. The sixth of the children is a resident of-California, and the seventh, as stated, was Martin Van Buren Wixom, father of our subject. The last named received his higher education in the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, Michigan, graduating in the class of 1863. But his temperament was too active to rest under the restraints of a teacher's life and he soon drifted into business pursuits. For seven years he was in the employ of the Globe tobacco works of Detroit and for two years was treasurer of Van Amburg's circus. He then founded his own establishment, "Mat Wixom's Great Show," but in 1872, leaving it in charge of his sons, commenced to read law in the office of A.' N. Wood, of Fentonville. He also pursued his legal studies under Judge Long, and in 1877-8 attended a course at a regular law school. In May, 1878, he was admitted to the bar by Judge Turner, and at once opened an office in Bancroft, where he is still engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1878 he was elected circuit-court commissioner and served in that capacity for two terms. He was an unsuccessful candidate for prosecuting attorney in 1892 and for probate judge in 1900. Martin Van Buren Wixom was married on September 23, 1863, to Celia Bradley, a native of Buffalo, New York, where she was born July 24, 1844. She is a daughter of Franklin and Emily (Pierce) Bradley, her parents for many years keeping a hotel in Genesee county. She is one of five children. The following six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wixom: Frank, a resident of Bancroft; Russell, our subject; two children who died in infancy; Ernest, who was born March 27, -1872, and who, with his brother, Martin Van Buren, Jr., is engaged in the show business. Dr. Russell P. Wixom received the founda..

ai,4 8 - 4PAST AND PRESENT OF tion of a thorough education in the village schools of Bancroft, and completed his high school course in 1886. The latter was supplemented by a year's course in the Fenton Normal School, and on March 25, 1896, he was graduated in the Michigan College of Medical Surgery. This literary and professional training was diversified by a thorough business experience in connection with his father's circus, so that when he opened his office, on the day after his graduation, it was a foregone conclusion that he would succeed financially as well as professionally. He is a Republican in politics, is a member of the Congregational church, and is identified with the Maccabees, Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America. On February 12, 1895, Dr. Wixom was united in marriage to Louise E. (Mills) McGarvey, a native of London, England, where she was born March 28, 1870. Her parents, Mr. antl Mrs. Charles Mills, are also natives of the world's metropolis, but are now residents of Canada. Dr. and Mrs. Wixom have one child, Helen. It will thus be seen that Dr. Wixom has not been a drone in the hive of life. He has worked and accomplished results. It is a law of nature that every man can excel in his vocation, and a steadfast principle in business that every man ean succeed in his calling. Voltaire once said, "Nothing is more estimable than a physician, who, having studied nature from his youth, knows the properties of the human body, the diseases which assail it, the remedies which will benefit it, exercises his art with caution and pays equal attention to the rich and the poor."l ELIAKIM WOOD Eliakim Wood is a native of Ontario, Canada, having been born January 5, 1846, in London township, near London. He was a son of Daniel Wood, who was born in 1802, at the same place, and who died October 29, 1847. The latter's wife, mother of Eliakim, was a Vermonter by birth, having been born in 1806. She passed to the great beyond in February, 1899, at the home of her son, Eliakim. Daniel Wood was a cooper and farmer. He lived in London township nearly all his life. He owned a farm of one hundred acres, which was given him by the government for valuable services in the army. He alternated his time 'twixt his farm and cooper shop, as fancy seized him. Eliakim Wood pushed his own bark on the sea of life at the age of twenty-four years, and bravely did he seize the oars. Prior to this time he, had worked on the farm left by his father. In 1870 he removed from Canada to Hazelton township, making the trip by team, and he purchased eighty acres of wild land, paying nine hundred and fifty dollars for the same. There was a small log house on the premises and this, for the time being, afforded shelter for himself and wife. At that time the forests abounded in an abundance of game, such as deer, turkeys, etc. He there narrowly escaped a struggle with a bear while hunting for his cows after dark. Eight months after locating on his new, possessions he built a log house,. which is now a part of his present frame structure, being so hidden in the transformation that its identity is unknown to those not familiar with the arrangement. In 1893 he purchased twenty acres from William Burgess, across the road from his present place. Latei he sold it and afterward rebought it. He now owns one hundred acres of improved land, and a splendid farm it is. It is a somewhat singular fact that Mr. Wood is the thirteenth child in a family of thirteen. Ordinarily thirteen is considered an unlucky number, but why no one can tell. This belief, however, has not proved true so far as Mr. Wood is concerned. Indeed, he naturally likes the number "thirteen," as he is forcibly reminded of it once every month in the year at least. The respective members of this large household are thus enumerated: 1. Benjamin, born Febru

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 549 SHIAASSE CONY 4 ary-25, 1825, died in January, 1902; he married Catherine Burgess; they had eight children, and they always lived at London. 2. Mary, born March 15, 1827, died in 1899, having lived at London; she married Nelson Kimball and had seven children. 3. John, born October 29, 1829, is now living in Sanilac county, Michigan; Catherine Cook became his wife and they had eight children. 4. Daniel, born January 14, 1831, is now living in Genesee county, Michigan; he married Margaret A. /Iorden and they had six children. 5. Warren, born in November, 1833, and now residing in Genesee county, married Hulda Sanborn and they had seven children. 6. Charles, born in 1835, died at the age of three years. 7. George, born December 3, 1837, is now living in London, Canada; he first married Lizzie Watts, who died, leaving no children; for his second wife he married Alvira Cheney, by whom he had six children. 8. Laura, born January 15, 1839, died at Presque Isle county, Michigan, in 1898; she married William Burgess and had eleven children, nine of whom are living. 9. Nancy, born in 1840, died at the age of fifteen years. 10. Phoebe, born July 12, 1840, is living in Presque Isle county, Michigan; she has been twice married, first to Archie Carmichael, now dead, and then to William Burgess, who was husband of Laura, the eighth daughter. 11. Sara, born June 12, 1842, is now a resident of Saginaw county; she married John McKenzie and had two daughters. 12. Lyman, born in 1844, died at the age of ten months. Eliakim Wood, the subject of this sketch and number thirteen of the children, was married to Elizabeth Porterfield,. April 7, 1870. She was born at Blanchard, Perth county, Canada, December 25, 1853, and is a daughter of James Porterfield, who was born at Ramsey, Canada, in 1826, and who died in Perth county, in 1864. The maiden name of Mrs. Wood'si mother was Nancy Peasly. She was born in 1834 and now lives at the home of her son. The father of Mrs. Wood was originally a shoemaker but later in life bought a fifty-acre farm at Blanchard, Perth county, Canada, where he lived at the time of his death. Indeed, he always lived in Canada. The grandfather of Mrs. Wood on her father's side was James Porterfield, and her grandmother's maiden name was Elizabeth Wallace. Both were natives of Scotland. Mrs. Wood was the first born of the family of six. The others are here named in the order of their birth: 2. Mary, born August 1854, died in May, 1864. 3. George, born November 18, 1855, is now living in Saginaw county, Michigan. He married Sara Woodworth and has four sons. 4. Sara, born December 22, 1858, and now living in Saginaw county, married Arthur Brewer and they have five children. 5. James, born October 9, 1861, lives in Gratiot county, Michigan; he married Theresa Boyce, who is now dead, and had one child. He married Laura Powers for his second wife and she to him bore two children. 6. Andrew, born January 8, 1864, is living in Vernon township, Shiawassee county, Michigan; he married Emma Cantley, but she is now dead, having had seven children. Mr. Wood and wife have had six children, all of whom are living, as follows: 1. Charles, born July 25, 1871, is a cigarmaker and lives in Saginaw; he married Valeria Hartson, November 9, 1892, and they have two children,Ruby, born September 26, 1893, and Emerald, born April 7, 1901. 2. James, born October 19, 1881, still lives with his parents and is unmarried. 3. George A., born April 27, 1884, married Nellie V. Sanburn, December 23, 1903, and they have one child, Dorothy L., born November 9, 1904. 4. Eliakim H., born May 18, 1887, still lives under the parental roof. 5. Cora L. was born June 4, 1890. 6. Archie R. was born December 8, 1892. Mr. Wood was educated in the public schools of London township, Canada. Both he and his wife are members of the Wesleyan Methodist church. In politics Mr. Wood is independent, voting for the best men as he

550 PAST AND PRESENT OF 550~~ ~ ~ PAS AN RSETO judges them. He is also a member of the Grange and is altogether a most excellent citizen. SCOTT WOODHULL The Woodhull and Laing families are intimately related to the history of Shiawassee county, and as the families themselves are related by marriage, this fact is all the more significant. They both originated in the Empire state, the Laings coming to Michigan in 1833. The family first settled in Washtenaw county, but later removed to Shiawassee county, locating on the present site of Laingsburg, to which village Peter Laing, the father, gave his name. In 1836 John Woodhull, the grandfather of our subject, started from his native county of Ontario, New York, with his family, consisting of a wife and three children, and with all his worldly possessions. Born in 1791, he had been the owner of a sixty acre farm in that county, but, being ambitious to improve his condition and to expand with the growing west, he set forth for the frontier territory of Michigan. Journeying through the forests of Canada with his ox team and horse team, he finally reached his destination, in what is now section 9, Woodhull township. He was also accompanied by his father, whor was also an Ontario county farmer, the youngest brother, Josephus, making the journey by water, with his mother and sister. The log house which the two brothers at once erected was the first white man's residence in the township; and from these pioneers from New York the township itself was subsequently named. In 1845 Josephus Woodhull, the great uncle of our subject, married Phoebe, the daughter of Peter Laing, the founder of Laingsburg. Thus the connection of the two families with the pioneer history of Shiawassee county is traced in detail. Joseph and Catry (Robison) Woodhull, the father and mother of John and Josephus Woodhull, as well as of seven other children, were devout Baptists; they came to Michigan, as related, and both died in the Wolverine state, the father in 1841 and the mother in 1859. The farm upon which John Woodhull established his family consisted of one hundred and sixty acres. At that time it took fully a week to reach any market, the nearest being Pontiac or Ann Arbor. He was friendly with the Indians, and it was to his decided interest to be so, since they returned the kindness by keeping the family supplied with venison. A portion of the farm was cleared and in time it assumed a homelike and comfortable appearance. John Woodhull was a deeply religious man, having been an earnest and active member of the Baptist church. In early life he was a Jacksonian Democrat, but later became identified with the Free Soil party. His wife nee Clarissa Swift, a native of Ontario county, New Y6rk, was born in 1804. They were the parents of four children, the father dying in 1852 and the mother in 1882. Of the children, Nancy (Mrs. Stone) was born in Ontario county, New York, June 26, 1825, and died at Hanson, Nebraska, November 30, 1904. Zetus S. was the second born, and was the father of our %subject. Elizabeth, afterward Mrs. Smith, died August 2, 1904, and Frances (Mrs. Kimball) is a resident of Hastings, Nebraska. Zetus S. Woodhull, son of John and father of our subject, was born in Ontario county, New York, February 22, 1827. He was therefore in his ninth year when his parents made their journey to Michigan, the one overland and the other by water. His only playmates for a number of years were two Indian boys, and he quickly learned their language. Three years after coming to Michigan he attended his first school, and he was obliged to walk about two miles to reach it. It was a typical country school, carried on under the rate bill system. As he did not commence his education until late in boyhood he continued as a student until he had passed his majority, spending three winters at Corunna in the pur

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 551 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 551 suit of his studies. He continued to reside on the old homestead and soon after his father's death, in 1852, became an independent farmer. On March 16, 1859, Zetus S. Woodhull was united in marriage to Miss Alice Colby, who was born in Canada, December 19, 1827, and whose father settled in Ypsilanti in 1834. In her religious views she was a Baptist. She died September 22, 1881, her husband surviving her until February 12, 1894. At the time of his death he was in comfortable circumstances, being the proprietor of two hundred and forty acres of land, mostly improved, on which he had carried on mixed farming, raising stock and garden produce. He occupied a comfortable residence which he had erected in 1871; he had served his community as township clerk and commissioner, and was an honored as well as a substantial citizen. To this couple were born five children, of whom our subject was the second. The first, L. J., was born November 28, 1860, in Woodhull township, and died October 16, 1865. Scott Woodhull was born on the old homestead October 4, 1862, and he now occupies eighty acres of the original tract. Genoa was born August 30, 1864, and died in infancy, October 27, 1865. The fourth child, Lelah A., was born August 7, 1870, and married Charles W. Holder, August 19, 1891. The family reside on part of the original one hundred and sixty acres on which John Woodhull, the grandfather of our subject, located when he came to Michigan in 1836. Mr. and Mrs. Holder are the parents of the following six children, all born in Woodhull township: Lena B., born June 4, 1894; Lelah C., born May 2, 1896; Leverne, born March 14, 1898; Bernice L., born April 17, 1900; Garnet A., born January 24, 1902, and William Glenn, born March 9, 1904. The fifth child of Zetus S. and Alice (Colby) Woodhull was Lee, born December 12, 1871. He is now proprietor of the original homestead. He married Cora Kate Crawford. Scott Woodhull received his early education 88 at the district school of Woodhull township, and from the time of his majority to the date of his marriage worked the farm on shares. He then purchased a portion of the old homestead, the north half of the northeast quarter of section 9. His marriage to Miss Edith Jessie Lindsay occurred March 6, 1889. They have one son, Reahn, born August 21, 1902. Mr. Woodhull is recognized as one of the most progressive farmers in his locality, taking not only a close interest in his own fine farm and stock, but in everything which tends to the general improvement of agriculture. He is a sound Republican and is identified with the Masonic fraternity. Mrs. Woodhull was born in Bath, Clinton county, Michigan, on the 12th of October, 1868. She is a daughter of Jacob and Lucy (Hayes) Lindsay. Her father was born August 28, 1832, came to Michigan with his parents in 1835, located in Bath in 1867, became a prosperous farmer, and resided in that place at the time of his death, October 23, 1886. Her mother is a native of Blackman township, Jackson county, Michigan, where she was born October 1, 1843, her marriage to Mr. Lindsay occurring July 3, 1866. They were the parents of three children. Arthur, who was born June 13, 1867, died on the 23d of the following August; the wife of our subject was next in order of birth; and Lola M., born at Bath, Michigan, August 17, 1879, married Charles Hoffer, December 28, 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffer are the parents of five children,Scott L., born at Grand Ledge, Michigan; April 7, 1900; Lucy L., born December 26, 1901, at Manchester, Michigan; James J., born at the same place, February 20, 1903; Harold W., born at Bath, Michigan, August 24, 1904; and Carlton, born November 19, 1905. Scott Woodhull's mother was Alice, daughter of William and Ann (Upper) Colby. She was born in Canada and came with her parents to Michigan. They settled at Ypsilanti. She had two brothers, John and William, who later

52 PAST AND PRESENT OF became residents of Woodhull township. Another brother, Scott, lived on the old homestead at Ypsilanti. She had three sisters, named respectively Eleanor, Maria and Ann, all deceased. Mr. Woodhull has in his possession two relics greatly prized by him,-the rifle used by his father in the early days of Shiawassee county for supplying the family with fresh meat, and a little shoe, well preserved, and once worn by his great-great-grandfather, known to be now about one hundred and fifty years old. W. HENRY WOODWORTH The gentleman whose name heads this sketch lives on section 33, Owosso township. He was born at Silver Creek, New York, April 19, 1853. His father, William Woodworth, was born in the Empire state, October 10, 1808, and died in his ninety-sixth year, May 25, 1905. His wife was Sylvia A. (Andrus) Woodworth, who also was born at Silver Creek, New York, died March 8, 1889, aged about sixty years. They were married in New York state. The parents of William Woodworth died when he was quite young, leaving five children. As was the custom in those days, these children, the boys at least, were "bound out" by the proper authorities until they should respectively reach a certain age. Their future history presents a chapter that Is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,Stranger than fiction. In November, 1884, the following article appeared in one of the Owosso papers, under this heading: "Stranger than fiction. After more than sixty years separation a family of five children are brought together." From the Clinton (St. Johns) Independent: "Life is -made up of stirring incidents, 'though very few reach the public print. Families are separated for years, a careless feeling growing, imperceptible at first, until all affection for each other is seemingly lost. The case recited below would come under that head. Three members of the family were in communication with each other. Two, for some reason, did not seek out the rest until sixty years after the separation. But one of the brothers 'came to himself' and determined to find out what had become of his brothers and sisters. We have prevailed upon John Woodworth, of Ovid, to give our readers a sketch, which we publish below in his own language: OVID, MICH., November 24, 1884. "EDITOR INDEPENDENT: It is to keep my promise to you and not to merit any personal notoriety to myself or family, that I attempt to give you a brief outline of our history. More than sixty years ago there lived near Albany, New York, Robert and Elizabeth Woodworth, with five small children named and aged as follows: Catherine, about thirteen; William, now of Ovid, about eleven; Margaret, who died lately in California, about nine; John, now of Ovid, about seven, and Absalom, aged about four. About this time th- parents died, leaving the children in the hands of strangers. The boys were bound out by the authorities. The two girls were cared for by friends, and at proper ages were apprenticed to dressmaking. Margaret soon got to the head of an establishment on Broadway, New York, where she carried on the business successfully for many years. In 1845 she married James William. son, a young Scotchman, who was dealing in Scotch pig-iron and other metals. Both were successful. Mr. Williamson established the firm of James Williamson & Company, at No. 63 Wall street, New York, where it still remains, although he has been dead since 1872. Previous to his death they had traveled extensively, having visited Europe twice. At the time of his death Mrs. Williamson came into possession of his fortune, which, added to her own, made her wealthy. During all of these years nothing was known of the boys, Will

SHIA WASSEE COUNTY 553 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 553 iam and Absalom, having left their places or moved away. They were, of course, supposed to be dead. In the meantime the two girls and John, who had moved to near Richmond, Virginia, kept up a correspondence and visited each other, often making efforts to find the missing ones, but finally settling down to the conviction that they were really dead, when in August, 1881, a stranger appeared in Richmond inquiring for John Woodworth. After some time he was found and accosted by the stranger like this: 'Your name is John Woodworth?' 'Yes.' 'Well, I am going home with you.' 'You are?' 'Yes, I know you, but you don't know me; I am your brother William.' After a few minutes' talk both parties were satisfied. He stayed with me two or three days and then left for home. He knew nothing of the other missing brother. Soon after, a reporter of the Richmond Dispatch said to me: 'The Dispatch folks are looking for you. They want that item about your brother's visit.' I gave him a short account of our history and he remarked: 'If the ether brother is alive this thing will find him.' The article was copied in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, as well as other papers all over the land. I soon received a letter from a man in St. Louis, saying his name was Absalom Woodworth; was born in or near Albany, New York, that he was about sixty years old, and he believed he was the other lost brother. He was so very young at the separation he could remember no circumstances by which I could recognize him, but one, which afterward convinced me he was indeed the man. "As soon as sister Margaret, then living in California, could bring things about she arranged for the three brothers to meet in Ovid, which meeting took place August 19, 1881. During the year, I sold my farm in Virginia and removed to Ovid. The same year the oldest sister, Catherine, came to Michigan to spend the remainder of her days with her brother. Absalom also came to Michigan the same year and bought a farm. In the latter part of June, 1882, sister Margaret came on from California and we all met on the 4th of July at a reunion dinner, so that after a separation of over sixty years, we were all permitted to see each other in the flesh. "Our combined ages amounted to three hundred and fifty years. On the 4th of February following sister Catherine died. Sister Margaret left Michigan, August 1, to visit friends in the east before returning to California. On arriving at Troy, New York, she discovered a weakness in one of her feet, which increased in spite of doctors and medicine and soon proved to be a kind of paralysis, from which she never recovered. She hastened back to California, arriving there December 1, 1882. She lingered until the 25th day of September, 1883, when she died, in all the triumphs of a Christian faith. Thus in less than two years two sisters had died. The remains of sister Margaret were forwarded to New York and rest by the side of her dear husband, in Greenwood cemetery. She left a will by which she gave each of her brothers seven thousand dollars- and each of their children two thousand dollars, besides giving large sums to various charities and religious institutions, with liberal gifts to all of Mr. Williamson's friends in Scotland, and finally the residue of about twenty thousand dollars to the Williamson Hospital in Shanghai, China, an institution she founded without the knowledge of her relatives. The executors of her will were Messrs. Samuel A. S. Wilkes and Robert Robertson, remaining partners of the old firm 6f James Williamson & Company. Mr. Wilkes came to Ovid on the 20th of the present month and paid off the adults, the minors not to receive theirs until twenty-one years of age." William Woodworth, father of Henry Woodworth, the subject of this sketch, came to Owosso township in 1855 and bought eighty acres of wooded land on section 29, coming ahead of his family. He then returned for them. There was just land enough cleared to

554 PAST AND PRESENT OF 5 P A PRESENT O accommodate a log house and barn. Bears came along one night and killed his only hog, which was in the pen. Deer were also very numerous, but as wild as the region round about. He improved most of the eighty acres and later his mother's father bought forty acres adjoining. This he gave to Mr. Woodworth's mother. Mr. Woodworth improved the property. The latter sold his first purchase and bought fifty-three acres for one thousand dollars, on section 23. He lived on this for one and one-half years and sold it for one thousand eight hundred dollars. He cleared about one-half of this purchase; after disposing of this place he bought eighty acres in Bennington township, one-half of which was improved. He cleared the balance, built a barn and about thirty-five years ago sold and removed to DuPlain township, Clinton county, and bought eighty acres, mostly improved. He lived there for about ten years and then he went to Ovid, Michigan, where he remained until his wife died. Since then he has lived with his children. Mr. Woodworth is the third of eight children, as follows: 1. Emma J., who was born November 1, 1849, lives in Clinton county. She married J. C. Flisher and they have three children,-Clara, Dora and Irene. 2. Clara, born May 29, 1851, lives in Middleburg township; she married David Thorpe and had four children,-Eva, Frank, Lena (dead), Edna (dead). 4. Lewis T., born June 20, 1856, lives in Owosso township; he married Arabella Abbey and they have three children,-Myrtle B., Harry and Earl. 5. Melissa, born May 11, 1857, lives in DuPlain township, Clinton county; she married George Bigford and had three children,Wilbur, Frank and Margaret (dead). 6. John D., born June 14, 1859, lives in Ovid township, Clinton county; he married Linnie Tyler and they have one child, Leont. 7. Olin H., born March 26, 1861, lives in Ovid, Michigan; he married Viola Morgan and they have one son, Robert. 8. Cornelia, born September 16, 1863, lives in Fairfield township; she mar nried Frank Wait and they have two children,Edith and Lloyd. Mr. Henry Woodworth commenced working out on a farm at the age of sixteen years, and later worked land on shares. In 1885 he bought eighty acres, half improved, on section 33. He cleared up the remainder and afterward he added forty acres, adjoining the first, making one hundred and twenty acres which he now owns. He has built most of the house he occupies and planted the orchard. March 17, 1879, Mr. Woodworth married Lavina Parks, who was born in Peru, Indiana, February 8, 1856. She is a daughter of Joseph Parks, who was born in New York state and who died at Peru. Her mother was Martha Ann (Kismon) Parks, who was a native of Pennsylvania and she died at Peru, Indiana. Mrs. Woodworth's grandfather was Mr. Jacob Kismon, who was the first white settler in Peru, Indiana, and her grandmother Kismon made the journey from Pennsylvania to Indiana on horseback and carried Mrs. Woodworth's mother with her. The grandfather of Mrs. Woodworth, Jacob Kismon, gave the mother of that lady eighty-eight acres of wild land and Joseph Parks, her husband, cleared it. They occupied the place until their death. Mrs. Woodworth is the first of three children: 2. Celesta Jane, born in 1858, lives in Indiana; she married Noah Sullivan and had three children. 3. Robert, born in 1860, lives in Chicago; he has been twice married, his first wife being dead. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Woodworth: Lulu, born April 30, 1887, died January 22, 1904; Lewis Grant was born May 5, 1889; Elmer J. was born October 28,. 1900, and Clifford Parks was born April 18, 1902. The father of the subject of this sketch was a Republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and an Odd Fellow; while W. Henry Woodworth is also a Republican and is a Maccabee, besides being a school officer.

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 555 SHAASE CONT 555 -------- SILAS A. YERKES The late Silas A. Yerkes, of Bennington township, was well known throughout the state as a successful farmer, and was recognized as one of its leading breeders of fine horses. He was universally esteemed for his substantial and honorable qualities of head and heart and for his worth as a man and as a citizen. He lived in the Wolverine state from the time of his birth, which occurred in Novi, Oakland county, November 8, 1827. His parents were natives of the east, his father, Hon. William Yerkes, having been born at Moreland, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1794, and having died January 5, 1884; and his mother, Hester (Dennis) Yerkes, was born in New Jersey, March 21, 1799, and died at Novi, Michigan, September 11, 1881. Mr. Yerkes' parents were married in New York, on November 5, 1817, his father being quite active in the military affairs of the state and in 1819 being commissioned ensign in the militia of the commonwealth. In 1825 the sturdy young couple migrated to Michigan, then in the far west, on the borderland of civilization, and, settling in Oakland county, the husband soon came into prominence as a man of energetic, honorable and broad character. He was a member of the territorial legislature, and made so substantial a record that in 1838, the second year after Michigan became a state, he was returned to that body, serving his constituents again in 1857-8. Our subject was sixth in a family of ten children. Joseph, born October 8, 1818, died in May, 1899. William Purdy was born October 23, 1820, and died at Northville, November 21, 1902. George died in early boyhood, July 18, 1829, being born July 13, 1822. Mary, who became Mrs. J. C. Emery, was born on July 26, 1823, and died on the 6th of March, 1851. John died when nearly twenty-six years of age, July 28, 1851, the date of his birth being September 12, 1825. Silas A. was the sixth child, and the seventh, Robert, was born September 26, 1829. Charles was born April 19, 1833, Stephen, May 20, 1835, and Harrison, the tenth, April 4, 1841, the last-named dying on the 31st of July, 1899,-only a few months after Joseph, the first-born. The subject of this memoir lived at home until he had reached his majority, when, in the fall of 1848, supplied with a team and a little ready money, he located on section 5, Bennington township, his tract consisting of one hundred and sixty acres of wild land which his father had purchased from the government. To this he afterward added two forties, the combined two hundred and forty acres constituting the family homestead, with the exception of a small portion which was platted into lots for Bennington village. He had the satisfaction of clearing more than two hundred acres himself, and at his death left one of the finest farms in Shiawassee county. On August 18, 1849, at Owosso, the subject of this memoir was united in marriage to Eleanor Ann McCarty, whose family had settled at that place two years previously, having migrated from the Buckeye state. Mrs. Yerkes herself was born in Medina county, Ohio, April 8, 1829, being the daughter of Abraham and Eliza (Andrews) McCarty. She traces her American ancestry to John and Mary Andrews, who, in 1640, settled at Farmington, Connecticut,-the line of succession to Mrs. Yerkes being through Joseph, Joseph, Jr., William, Miles, Jason and Eliza. Her European genealogy embraces both English and French progenitors. The American branch of the Yerkes tree sprung from two brothers, who emigrated from Holland and settled in Philadelphia in the early period of the nation's history, our subject being a near relative of the late Charles T. Yerkes, the great street-car magnate, of world-wide fame. To Mr. and Mrs. Yerkes were born two children. The elder, William F., died in early boyhood, February 22, 1858, having been born

556 PAST AND PRESENT OF on the 20th of April, 1851. Hettie Eliza, born March 22, 1854, was married to T. J. Perkins, the well-known dry-goods merchant, of Northville, Michigan; her husband, a New York man, was born in Virgil, that state, January 29, 1847. Mrs. Perkins has been an enthusiastic horsewoman and has made quite a reputation as a breeder of fine stock. She is, moreover, a most intelligent lady, of very striking presence. Mrs. Perkins and her mother, the widow of the deceased, were the nearest relatives of our subject when he was called away from the scene of his long, faithful, and successful labors, March 12, 1905. Mrs. Yerkes still lives on the old farm, which she operates with hired help. During most of his active life Mr. Yerkes carried on general farming, giving more or less attention to stock-raising, especially in the line of blooded horses, of the Hambletonian strain. Although Mr. Yerkes had voted the Republican ticket since the organization of the party, had the complete confidence of a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and might have been honored with public preferment, he was quite content with his record of a substantial husbandman, a devoted husband and father and a private citizen, profoundly respected by all who had come in contact with him. For most of his lifetime he was an active supporter of the Methodist Episcopal church, and when the rheumatic affliction, under which he suffered for a period of thirty years, became so acute as to render him almost helpless, he nevertheless still gave that organization his sympathy and financial assistance. Although not entirely unexpected, his death was a sad blow to the community, and, like the passing away of all strong characters, was. an irreparable loss. Mrs. Yerkes had two brothers who did valiant service for their country during the dark days of the Rebellion. Lyman L. McCarty was one of the first to heed his country's call for defenders, enlisting in the Third Michigan Infantry, from which he was discharged for disability. He later enlisted in the Fifth Infantry. It is told of him that lacking in stature to measure up to the government requirements, he visited the shoemaker, had the heels of his shoes raised, and was afterward accepted. His record is an honorable one. Henry Clay McCarty first enlisted as a private soldier in Company D, Fifth Michigan Cavalry, from which he was honorably mustered out November 24, 1861. Later he joined the Tenth Cavalry and served till the close of the war, returning to the state with his regiment and receiving his final papers at Jackson. It is recorded of him that upon an important raid he was for twenty-two days in the saddle. Mrs. Yerkes is justly proud of the records made by her soldier brothers during the great civil war. ALBERT YOUNG Michigan is known among the sisterhood of states as having among her sons many citizens of noble character and high repute, whose public-spirited services and aggressive and far-seeing enterprise have raised her to her proud position as one of the most highly cultured and prosperous commonwealths in the northwest. To such sons the state owes a debt of gratitude, and all who love her, delight in reading the record of their lives. The man of whom we write in this sketch is a noble son of Michigan and has helped largely in the development of this part of the state. All the nearest and dearest associations of a lifetime are for him connected with the township of Caledonia, in which he lives, as it was here that he was born, February 13, 1843. He is a son of Thomas R. and Nancy (Hart) Young, who were early settlers of Caledonia. The father was born in Connecticut, September 26, 1815, and died November 3, 1899, and the mother, who was born in New York, August 17, 1823, died November 15, 1889.

SHIA WASSEE CO UNTY 557 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 557 The parents were married February 21, 1841, and were always identified with agricultural pursuits. At the time of his death Thomas R. Young owned several hundred acres of land and was proud of the fact that his was one of the first families to locate in the township. Settling here in 1839, he bought three hundred and twenty acres of government land, and, here he passed the remainder of his life. Our subject was one of seven children. William was born December 20, 1841, and died April 21, 1843; our subject was the second child; Lucinda, born December 12, 1845, died sixteen years ago, having been the wife of Ed. Vail, of Lapeer county; Melinda, born August 18, 1847, is the wife of Ira C. Angus, a Caledonia farmer; Sarah M., born August 20, 1849, died October 15, 1872; Mary I., born July 18, 1851, is the wife of James Parling, of North Star, Michigan; and Delia, born September 13, 1853, died March 19, 1866. Albert Young attended the district schools of Caledonia and lived with his parents until he was twenty-three years of age, when he bought forty acres of land, where he now lives, afterward adding to the farm forty more acres, and now owning eighty acres of well improved farming land. July 28, 1867, our subject was united in marriage with Phcebe Eldridge, who was born November 28, 1855. Mrs. Young is a daughter of William and Pennelope (Robinson) Eldredge, natives of New York. Her father died twenty-two years ago and her mother three years ago, at the age of eighty-five years. Mrs. Young was one of four children, of whom three are now living. Her two brothers, Andrew and Henry, are residents of Corunna. To Albert Young and wife have been born four children-: Delia, born June 22, 1869, is the wife of Ed Currier, a farmer in the township of Caledonia; William, born February 28, 1871, married Mina Currier and lives on a part of his grandfather's old homestead farm; Bert, born December 20, 1879, married Edna Geney and lives on his father's farm, and Alonzo, born May 6, 1877, died at the age of twenty months. Our subject has adopted the political views of the Democratic party and is active in promoting its success, but is in no sense a politician. In his religious relations he. is allied with the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Young has been the architect of his own fortunes, having had nothing save what he has made by his own efforts. He is engaged in mixed farming, in company with his son, and his excellent property has been gained through the industry and self-denial of himself and his good wife. They have spent their lives in usefulness and friendly kindness to all who have come in their way. Their farm bears the indisputable marks of the hand of a thrifty farmer. Mr. Young's mother's people were the first settlers in New Haven and his grandfather Hart helped to build the first road from there to Owosso.

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