History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of their prominent men and pioneers.

466

HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

preaches twice each month. The church membership is
now thirty. The deacons are Walter Pierson and Benjamin Wadsworth.
UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH.
Previous to 1866, Rev. Mr. Shelley visited Eureka occasionally to hold United Brethren services in the village
school-house, and in that year organized a class with about
twelve members. The school-house was used as a place of
worship until 1870, when the present church edifice was
completed and dedicated the fall of that year, Rev. Benjamin Mowers preaching the dedication sermon. Then the
membership was twenty; now it is twenty-eight. Among
the ministers in charge early in the history of the church
were Revs. Miller, Briedenstein, and Kinney. The present
pastor is Rev. J. J. Sly, in charge of the Ovid Circuit.
The class-leader is Lester Wright, and the Sunday-school
superintendent S. J. Mullet. The school is supported by
the attendance in union of representatives of various religious denominations, and has upon its roll about one hundred
and fifty names.
EUREKA METHODIST EPISCOPAL CLASS.
In April, 1880, Rev. C. A. Jacokes, of Duplain, organized a class at Eureka with about twelve members. Mr.
Jacokes preaches to the class in the United Brethren class
once in two weeks.
GREENBUSH METHODIST EPISCOPAL CLASS.
This, one of the earliest religious organizations in the
township, was formed about 1855, in what was then known
as the Wildcat school-house. In 1860 it contained about
fifteen members, and in 1865 moved over to the Sherwood
school-house, where services were held until 1877, when the
Grange Hall was occupied. There the class still worships
once each fortnight, Rev. Mr. Hamilton being the pastor,
and Peter Fleagle the class-leader. The membership is
about thirty. A union Sunday-school meets in the same
place, and is prosperously patronized.
MANUFACTURES.
The most extensive manufacturing interest in Greenbush
is the fanning-mill factory of W. T. and R. E. Davies on
section 15, founded by them in 1855. The Davies brothers had worked at the fanning-mill business in New York
State, and in 1855, with the savings of a few hundred
dollars, were prospecting in Michigan for a location
where they might set up in that business on their own
account. That location they concluded to fix somewhere
near the route of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad,
about half way between Corunna and Ionia, at each of
which places there was a fanning-mill factory. Visiting St.
Johns, they found it a place " of logs, fire-heaps, and mud,
without a passable road anywhere," and although John
Swegles offered to donate them land as an inducement to
them to locate their factory there, they would not stop, but
pushed on with intent to visit Craven's mills, in Duplain.

En route they stopped overnight at Alvah Richmond's, in
Greenbush, and that night attending school-meeting, met

David Sevy, who carried on near his residence a little shop
where he made chairs and spinning-wheels. Sevy soon
learned the bent of the brothers' inclination, and suggested
that they might do worse than make their location right
there, adding that he would agree to do what " turning"
they might need. They considered the suggestion favorably, and the next day decided to start their factory there,
rented Sevy's shop, and arranged to board with him at two
dollars per week. They began business Oct. 5, 1855, and
that year, unaided, made one hundred fanning-mills entirely
by hand, and sold them as fast as they could make them.
The next year Henry Toms, a former fellow-workman in
New York State, came along, and having a little ready
money, of which the brothers then stood in n6ed, he
bought a third interest in the business. During that year
the firm turned out one hundred fanning-mills and one
hundred milk-safes. In 1857, R. E. Davies went out on a
pedestrian collecting tour, and after an absence of a week
got back with just one hundred dollars. This was the year
of the financial panic, and Michigan banks went down right
and left. Of the one hundred dollars every dollar but a
twenty-dollar Ohio bank-bill was Michigan money, and although it was presumably good when Davies took it, it was
worthless when he got home. Such a condition of things
discouraged Toms, who sold out to the brothers. They
kept right on with rugged faith and persistence, and by
1859 had reached a prosperous era. They then removed
their works to their present location, and have each successive year expanded and strengthened their business to its
present considerable proportions. They employ sixteen
men, and manufacture yearly five hundred fanning-mills
and two hundred milk-safes, all of which they sell directly
through their own agents in various portions of the State.
The G eenbush Foundry.-This manufactory antedates
any of Greenbush's manufacturing enterprises. It has been
in active operation since 1850, when Samuel R6well and
Stephen Pearl undertook upon section 36 to make plows and
andirons. Pearl disposed of his interest to Zelotes Avery,
who was in turn bought out by Samuel Rowell, his partner.
Mr. Rowell carried on the business until 1873, when he
retired from active pursuits and the foundry passed to the
possession of his son Stephen, who is still its proprietor.
He employs five people, and manufactures plows, cultivators, drags, etc., besides doing a large business in the way
of general repairs. The annual product of his foundry
aggregates one hundred and twenty plows, one hundred
and thirty-five cultivators, twenty drags, and upwards of
six thousand plow-points.
Greenbush Pump- Works.-H. L. Post settled in Greenbush in 1857, upon section 4, where a Mr. Tubbs had
cleared about five acres. He used to make pumps for his
neighbors, but devoted to the production of each no more
skill than was necessary to simply bore out a common log
and trim it down. In 1864, however, his son Leonard
conceived the idea of starting a pump-factory of some pretensions, and in that year, accordingly, he put up on section
4 a small affair, which he carried on until 1866. An increase in his business then warranted an extension of facili

ties, and in the year last named he built the works on section 8 which he still controls. He manufactures yearly about