Portrait and biographical album of Ingham and Livingston counties, Michigan, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties ... the governors of the state and of all the presidents of the United States.

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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM.

heart, it is a pleasure also to record that that boyhood was marked by acts of unflinching industry
and brave self denial for the sake of a mother and
sisters, and that his success is not due to having
wronged others or disregarded the claims of a
comnmon humanity.
Our subject was born September 14, 1830, in
Mon roe County, N. Y. His father, Nelson Burnett,
a blacksmith by trade, who made his home in
l)utchess County, N. Y., died in 1844, leaving the
mother, whose maiden name was Jane Foreman, in
destitute circumstances so that the boy of fourteen
naturally became the main stay of the family. She
is now in her eighty-fourth year, and having been
a professing Christian since she was a girl of nineteel, can look back with gratitude over a long experience of the goodness of God who has carried
her triumphantly through her days of trial. H-er
early church connection was with the Free Presbyterians, but she is now a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Eight of her nine children are
still living to cheer her later and declining years.
The ancestry of this family is of Holland stock and
can be traced back for many generations.
Our subject had his birth in the village of East
Rush, N. Y., and at the age of ten years went to
live with an uncle who died about the same time
that the father of the boy passed away, so that the
little fellow was now really thrown upon his own
resources and began to work for neighboring fartlers, receiving $7 per month for his work. I-e
continued thus for four years and then spent two
years on the railroad, where he was foreman and
received good pay. He witnessed some pretty
lively times during this period, as railroading
always brings with it a rush and bustle of excitement which to a farmer boy opens a new vista.
During all this time he faithfully sent home his
earnings for the support of his mother and sisters,
except what he absolutely needed for clothes and
schooling, which he considered equally the necessities of life.
The young man came to Michigan in 1854, and
worlked for five years at a good salary for Gov,
Kingsley S. Bingham, who was a United States
Senator at the time of his death, but was the Governor of Michigan during that period. In 1861 he

purchased his present farm on section 6, Green Oak
Township. This was then all wild land, he had to
cut down trees and grub out roots to make a spot
for his garden, and it was necessary to build a fence
around the entire farm before he could raise a crop,
as the land all around him was vacant and wild
game was too plentiful for crops to be left in safety
to their tender mercies. He split every rail that
was used upon his farm and built a log house, and
his only team for three years was a yoke of oxen,
but at the end of that time he was the proud possessor of a horse. He paid $10 an acre for his
land, for which he has since refused $60.
The happy marriage into which he entered on
the 7th of January, 1861, united him with Miss
Margaret Hawthorne, a native of County Down,
Ireland, who came to America with her father,
IEdward Hawthorne, in 1857. They made their
home in Brighton. The mother having previously
died, in 1840, and the father, who was a linen
weaver by trade lived until the year of 1884.
Our subject was reared a Whig but was one of
the first to join the Republican ranks soon after
the organization of the party, and trained under
the banner of Gov. Bingham. Both he and his
excellent wife are active members of the Plesbyterian Church at Brighton. He raises excellent
stock and makes a specialty of Shropshire lambs.
lIe has ninety-seven acres of land which he has
himself cleared and improved.
T OBERT C. MARSHALL. The owner of
X.' the finely-cultivated tract of land on sections 33 and 34, TUnadilla Township, Liv-; ingston County, is he whose name is at
the head of this sketch. He is a son of Archibald
and Margaret M. (Craig) Marshall, both natives of
Scotland, the former a weaver by trade. They were
married in their native land, and there resided
until 1833, when they came to America and settled
at Tarryville, Conn., remaining there until 1838.
Thence they removed to Michigan and settled on