History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

WM. J. BETTIS.

OTIS BETTIS.

WILLIAM J. AND OTIS BETTIS.

There is on earth no spectacle more beautiful than
that of two old men who have passed with honor
through storm and contest, and retain to the last
the freshness of feeling which adorned their youth.
Such is a true, green old age, and such are a pleasure to know. There is a southern winter in
declining years where the sunlight warms, although
the heat is gone.
There are still living in Litchfield two of the
town's first settlers, Otis and William J. Bettis, the
former having settled in 1834 and the latter in the
spring of 1835. For forty-four years they have observed the momentous changes which have culminated
in the present stage of advancement. When they
left their homes in the State of New York and came
to Hillsdale County, they found a wilderness, with
here and there a clearing, and neither Hillsdale nor
Jonesville had reached the distinction of a village.
Beneath their observation, in a grand life panorama,
Hillsdale County has been organized and developed
into one of the foremost agricultural regions in
Southern Michigan.
It is in keeping with the self-abnegation of such
men that they have retired to the background, and
quietly look on as the great and varied interests, of
which they laid the foundation, are seen to rise and
extend in prominence and utility.
Their father was William Bettis, a soldier in the
Revolutionray war. He was at the battle of Bunker
Hill, and participated in nearly all of the decisive
battles of the war. At its close he again returned

to the farm, and ended his days in Westmoreland,
Oneida Co., N. Y., in the year 1824.
William J. was born in Wilton, N. H., Sept.
16, 1786, and at an early age was apprenticed to the
printer's trade, at which he worked many years.
Otis was born in East Rutland, Vt., May 1, 1798.
His early days were passed in poverty; his father,
who was wealthy at the close of the Revolution, became bankrupt by the depreciation of the Continental
money. Otis was apprenticed to a manufacturer of
woolen goods, which occupation he followed until he
came to Michigan.
Both William and Otis are well qualified from experience to speak of the trials, privations, and hardships of pioneer life; and, did our space permit, we could
pen from their lips many a story which, to the present
generation, would sound more like fiction than fact.
Otis purchased one hundred and sixty acres of
land where he now resides, and through a period of
forty-five years their interests have been in common.
It is questioned what resource is left to the aged
when no longer able to pursue an accustomed round
of labor. Otis and William Bettis are qualified to
reply. They have not mingled in party strife, nor
have they been known in official circles. They have
marked out and pursued a line of action whose goal
has proved a satisfaction. They have enjoyed the
quiet of home and the retirement of the farm, and
their long life affords a marked contrast to the brief
existence of the votaries of pleasure and prematurely
exhausted members of the stock exchange.