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

HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

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resides. Here he not only cut the first tree, but cut a road
a mile and a half to get to it.
Sept. 16,1859, Mrs. Hitchcock departed this life, leaving
nine children,-four sons and five daughters. Mr. Hitchcock was again married, Oct. 16, 1860, to Miss Esther
Cook, daughter of Samuel Cook, who settled in Lenawee
County in 1827. He came to Allen (this county) in 1844.
By this union Mr. Hitchcock has been the father of five
children, three of whom are now living.
NICHOLAS SCHMITT
was born in Beber, Kur-Hesse, Prussia, Jan. 22, 1811.
He lived with his father, who was a farmer and miller.
June 12, 1831, he married Miss Gertrude Grat, who was
born Aug. 13, 1809. In 1834 they came to America
with their two small children; the first winter in this
country was spent at Ann Arbor. In the spring Mr.
Schmitt came to Fayette, Hillsdale Co., and selected eighty
acres of land, which he took from government, and moved
on to it July, 1835, and commenced to make him a home.
Here they remained until 1851, when he sold out, and in
1852 went to California, where he remained four years.
When he returned he purchased of L. R. Gay one hundred
and twenty acres from the Gay farm, where he died Jan.
14, 1870, leaving a wife and five children. The oldest,
Elizabeth M., married L. R. Gay; he died in 1860, leaving
one son. She was again married to William B. Clark;
they have one daughter. John C. lives in California; is
superintendent of the Lady Bryan Mine at Virginia City.
Henry W. died in California. Franklin is a farmer, living
in Reading. Daniel died at ten years of age. Wilhelmina C. died at five years of age. George, the youngest,
lives at home with his mother and works the farm. He
married Miss Anna Warner; they have one son, George, Jr.
WILLIAM WRIGHT
was descended from a Scotch-Irish family, his father, Robert
Wright, having been born in Tyrone County, in the north
of Ireland. He was a man of sterling worth, and established an enviable reputation as a business man, having been
largely engaged in the manufacture and sale of linen, which
was at that time an important element in the productions
of his native country.
Mr. Wright, Sr., was at one time in possession of considerable wealth, but having been induced to become surety
for parties who subsequently proved irresponsible, and thus
brought on business reverses, he lost the greater portion of
his means. He finally emigrated to the State of New York,
and located in Cayuga County, following agricultural pursuits until his death, in 1846.
William, after the death of his father and until his seventeenth year, spent his time upon the farm or attending the

neighboring district school, and in the year 1849 was employed as clerk in a store at Montezuma, that being the year
the enlargement of the Erie Canal was begun.

The following year he received an appointment from the
superintendent of his county to the State Normal School
at Albany, and remained at that institution until failing
health compelled him to relinquish his studies, although
within a few months of graduation.
He spent the summer of 1852 on the farm for the purpose of regaining his health, and taught the neighboring
district school the winter following. In the spring he went
to Wheeling, Va., and remained there engaged in teaching
until the fall, when he departed for Missouri, and followed
the same profession in that State until 1854. During that
year, the Golden State presenting superior attractions for
him, he joined a company who took the overland route to
California, reaching Sacramento Sept. 10 of the same year,
making the trip in four months and ten days. He remained
there but a short time and departed for Oregon Territory,
arriving there early in 1855, and pursuing teaching for two
years as a profession. He then embarked in the mercantile
business until 1859, when he returned to his old home,
crossing the Isthmus of Panama on the way and reaching
New York City early in February.
After a summer spent on the farm in Cayuga County, he
determined to come to Michigan, and chose the township of
Adams as his residence, purchasing there one hundred and
sixty acres of wild land. He has since resided there, dividing his time in clearing up, improving his farm, and shipping
stock to the Eastern market; has made a specialty of
keeeping and feeding a superior quality of beef-cattle, in
which branch of business he has been unusually successful;
is prominent in all enterprises calculated to raise the agricultural status of his county. He is, and has been for
several years, a member of the board of directors of the
Hillsdale County Agricultural Society.
Was married in 1868 to Miss Martha M. Hosmer,
daughter of the Rev. William Hosmer, of Auburn, N. Y.
Has two children, both boys,-Winthrop H. and William
R. Wright,-aged respectively nine and six years.
FURMAN IUFF
was born in Hunterdon Co., N. J., Sept. 23, 1810. Son
of John Huff, who moved to Ontario Co., N. Y., the spring
of 1835, and died in the fall of that year, leaving a widow
and eight children.
Furman lived at home until he was twenty years of age,
when he bought a piece of land and commenced for himself.
Was married Sept. 15, 1831, to Miss Ann Eliza Sargeant.
In the spring of 1835 he left Ontario with a wagon which
contained his wife and two children (having buried one
child in Ontario); they came through Canada to Saline,
Washtenaw Co., where he left the family, and came on foot
to Hillsdale County to look for land; decided upon section
1, Fayette township. Went to Monroe, entered a quarter
of that section, returned to Saline for his family, and arrived
'on the land in June. They lived in the wagon until a
cabin could be erected, their only neighbors for miles

being the wild beasts, of which the wolf and bear played
a conspicuous part. Mr. Huff remained on this land until
the spring of 1837, when he exchanged for the land where