Mrs. George Lord, whose maiden name was Calphurnia D. Fay, died in Bay City, June 12, 1886. Mrs. Lord was born in Hamilton, Madison county, N. Y., February 1820; was married to George Lord in 1840; came to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, in 1854, and had resided there 32 years. She lived to see the place increase from a few inhabitants to a population of 40,000. She was always noted for her charity to the poor. She leaves a husband and three children, two boys and one girl. She was a lady who will be greatly missed for her many acts of charity. She was a sister of Hon. William L. Fay, whose memorial is published in vol. 7, page 344.

Mrs. Susan Eddy, wife of Joseph Eddy, died November 27, 1886, at the old home in the township of Hampton, Bay county. Mrs. Eddy was born at Tiverton, Rhode Island, August 13, 1804, and was consequently 82 at the time of her death. She was married to Joseph Eddy at Onlyville, Rhode Island, June 4, 1826. Her maiden name was Susan Salsbury.

Mr. and Mrs. Eddy emigrated to the state of New York in 1836, and in 1855 came to Bay City, Michigan. In 1858 they bought a farm in the township of Hampton, where this good woman died. She had seven children, six sons and one daughter. During the war of the Rebellion she sent three of her boys to save their country; they all distinguished themselves and returned safe to their noble mother to cheer her declining days.

Mrs. Eddy was one of the noblest of women, her charity and noble qualities endeared her to all. She was a strict member of the Baptist church. She will long be remembered by the old pioneers of Bay county.

Mrs. John Drake died at the family residence, 1001 Center Avenue, Bay City, on the morning of December 10, 1886, after an illness of a few weeks, aged 62 years and 11 months.

Mrs. Drake's maiden name was Emma Dixon. She was born at Appleby, Westmoreland, England, January 3, 1824; removing to Canada with her parents in 1832, where she was married in 1844 to John Drake, a successful merchant of the Province of Upper Canada. Here he carried on his business till 1852, when, with his wife, he removed to Lower Saginaw, becoming pioneers 0032 24 of what is now the thriving town of Bay City, where they have since resided, with the exception of two years passed in Detroit. For a number of years Mrs. Drake was an invalid, resulting from a fall, but recovering, she renewed her social connections with her many warm friends and acquaintances whom her kindness of heart, affability and true christian character had won for her.

Mr. and Mrs. Drake had four children; two infants, a boy and a girl, died in Canada; a daughter aged seven years died at Lower Saginaw in November, 1858, and another daughter aged seven years and three months died in August, 1860. After the last of her own offspring had passed away, Mrs. Drake's motherly instincts were exercised in caring for others who required her sympathy and attention; during the latter period of her life she took to her heart and home two orphaned grandnieces, who are now bereft of a second mother.

Mrs. Drake was one of the original members of Trinity Church, and her exertions in its behalf and in promoting the cause of Christ generally, and her true christian graces have tended greatly to promote the growth and interests of that church.

Hon. Nathan Knight, one of the old pioneers of the township of Hampton, Bay county, Michigan, died at the old homestead December 30, 1886. Mr. Knight was born in Otisfield, Maine, July 14, 1817. His father came to Michigan in 1826, and settled in the township of Avon, Oakland county, and was followed by his son, Nathan, in June, 1829. Nathan was educated at Austinburg Institute, Ohio. He afterwards taught school and clerked for ten years.

He came to the township of Hampton, Bay county, in 1856, and commenced farming. He was a representative in the state legislature from Bay county for two terms, 1877 to 1880 inclusive. He held the office of justice of the peace for ten years, and school commissioner. He also held the office of supervisor of the township of Hampton for twelve consecutive years. He was married Oct. 12, 1850, to Miss Harriet Stevens, of Avon, Oakland county, Mich. He had three children, but only one, a son, survives him.

Mr. Knight was a man universally respected by all classes of people, and especially by the old pioneers. He was a member of this society for a number of years.

Dr. George Edward Smith died February 15, 1887, at his home in Bay City. Dr. Smith was born in Troy, Oakland county, Michigan, October 2, 0033 25 1825. He came to Saginaw in 1837, where he learned the trade of a printer, when his health failed. To improve it he accompanied his brother, Capt. David Smith, on a trip or two on the schooner, Coneaut Packet, and was shipwrecked on Lake Huron, above Goderich, on the Canada shore. They were given up for lost, and it was some six weeks before they were heard from, it being late in the fall when they put in an appearance, nearly naked and with scarcely any shoes on their feet. There was great rejoicing among their friends when they arrived.

He then commenced the study of medicine with Dr. George Davis, of Saginaw City, and graduated at the Cleveland Medical College of Ohio, in 1851. He removed to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, the same year. He was married about this time to Miss Abbie Hart, of Lapeer, by whom he had four children. Dr. Smith was the first physician in the lower end of the Saginaw Valley. In 1861 he went into the mercantile business which he followed up to 1878, when he again assumed his profession. Dr. Smith was postmaster of Bay City for many years previous to 1861.

He was an elder in the Presbyterian church from its organization until his death.

William McEuan, one of the pioneers and business men who have helped to make Bay City, died at Ontario, California, where he had gone for his health, on March 10, 1887.

Mr. McEuan was born in Glasgow, Scotland, March 5, 1823. He came to America in 1848, stopping first in New York, and then coming to Detroit and Chicago, at each place working as a machinist. He had learned his trade at Napier's famous works in Glasgow, and brought with him papers of recommendation from them, which, however, he never needed to use, his work recommending itself.

In 1850, he with his brother, Alexander, came to Bay City, then Lower Saginaw, and built the mill at “Woodside,” still known as the “McEuan Bros.' mill.” Alexander died in 1853 and the business was continued by William and his brother John.

February 4, 1858, he married Annie, the eldest daughter of the late James Fraser, the founder of Bay City, by whom he had six children, five of whom survive. The eldest son, James F., died in 1877, at the age of eighteen years.

Mr. McEuan had been much of the time, for the last fourteen years, out of health and of active business, but still attending to many interests, and in all that concerned the growth and progress of Bay City he was always ready to do a full share. 4

He was of a kindly nature, and ready always to lend a helping hand to those in distress. He did not accumulate great wealth, but he left behind him an unstained name.

He was a man of scientific tastes and of wide reading. He was strongly attached to the land of his birth, and, although a resident of this country for almost forty years, was never naturalized. He was obliged to take many journeys in search of health, twice crossing the Atlantic to his old home, and spending several winters in California, where the end came at last. His death is a loss, not only to Bay City, but to the lessening company of “The Pioneers.”

Susan J. Munger died on the 7th of May, 1887, at her home in Bay City. She was born in Monroe county, New York, August 13, 1828. She was married to Algeron S. Munger in St. Joseph county, Michigan, in 1853. Mr. and Mrs. Munger emigrated to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, in 1854. She had only one child, a boy, who died in childhood. Mrs. Munger was a lady much respected by all who knew her.

Hon. George Woodruff, late judge of the 5th judicial district of this state, died at his residence in Marshall, Calhoun county, in the 79th year of his age, May 15, 1887. He was probably the most scholarly man in Calhoun county, and few men surpassed him in this particular. He was a sound lawyer, an incorruptible judge and a courteous, christian gentleman.

Another of the early residents of Battle Creek is numbered with the dead. Mrs. Eliza P. Ford, wife of C. Ford, Esq., died Tuesday morning, Oct. 7, 1875, at her husband's residence, after an illness of many years, aggravated within the past few days by an attack of dysentery, which proved fatal, notwithstanding the most diligent efforts were made for her relief. This comparatively sudden termination of her earthly career was unexpected by all, save by a few friends who knew of her condition, and the announcement of her death generally took the community by surprise.

Eliza P. Ford was the oldest daughter of the late G. F. Smith, one of our most prominent and influential citizens, and was born in Leroy, Genesee county, N. Y., on the 20th of October, 1822, having consequently nearly ended her 53d year at the time of her decease. At the age of sixteen, in the year 1838, she emigrated with her father's family to Battle Creek, having previously received the advantages of a course of study in Miss Ingham's seminary at Leroy. Early in the summer of 1843 she was married to Mr. Ford and has resided nearly the entire time since in this community, thus acquiring a large and extensive acquaintance.

Of our early Battle Creek society Mrs. Ford was in her youth and for many years afterward—until sickness confined her within the circle of home—one of the most conspicuous members, and foremost in social as well as benevolent enterprises. Possessed of a remarkably cheerful disposition, a vivacious and clear intellect, sound practical judgment, she commanded 0038 30 universal esteem, and held a leading position in society. For several years a lingering and unyielding disease gradually withdrew her more and more from an active participation in social duties and activities, but her intimate friends and acquaintances have been permitted to witness no abatement of those noble and generous qualities of head and heart which cause her memory to be highly prized.

Died in Athens, April 23, 1875, of erysipelas, Mr. Peter Putnam, in the 73d year of his age. He had a stubborn attack, which did not yield to the best medical treatment that could be procured. I cannot speak too highly of the unceasing care and attention of the entire community. “Uncle Peter,” as he was familiarly called, was highly esteemed by all who knew the good qualities of his heart. He was a native of Vermont, but came to Rochester, N. Y., in the spring of 1825, where he married and resided until 1842, when he came to Michigan, where, by industry, economy and integrity, he had secured a comfortable home, and where he has ever contributed to the wants of the suffering and oppressed. In earlier years he was skeptical on the subject of religion, but several years since a great change came over his mind on the subject, and he has been prominent in trying to promote the principles of pure and undefiled religion. He has been truly a father to the fatherless and the widow's friend, as it has fallen to his lot to provide a home for several relatives of his wife; also a number of his own. Providence seemed to have qualified him for this responsible duty, which always seemed a pleasure rather than a burden to him. At the time of his death he was the guardian of some minor children, and the attorney of parties in California having an interest here. He leaves a wife, and three children, survive him; one son and two daughters.

Mrs. Fish, whose death occurred at the residence of her son-in-law, A. J. Quick, of Leroy, on Friday, the 13th of May, 1887, had reached the advanced age of 83 years, and retained to a remarkable degree her vigor of mind and body up to a short period before her demise. She, with her husband, was one of the early pioneers of Leroy township, which was named after her son, Leroy, the first male child born in the township. She was a woman of rare originality of thought, earnest conviction, strong practical judgment and fine social qualities, a combination which fitted her for the part she has borne in developing our community from the pioneer condition of half a century ago.

The deceased leaves nine children, six of whom were at the funeral; three sons, William, Leroy and Washington, and three daughters, Mrs. Copeland, wife of the Rev. William Copeland, of the M. E. church, Mrs. A. J. Quick, and Mrs. Cordelia Johnson.

Mrs. Fish possessed a wide acquaintance in this section of the state by whom her memory will be affectionately cherished.

We here present the concluding portion of the funeral discourse by Rev. James Berry:

“We halt to-day for a few moments in the journey of life to say the last farewell over one of our number. The skeleton foot of death, which enters the loftiest as well as the humblest stations of life, has invaded our circle. But a week ago a commanding presence moved in our midst, whom we shall see no more, a cheerful companion who will no more make glad our hearts by her happy life and encouraging words, a kind neighbor who will no more be ready with willing hands to minister to the wants of those about her, a loving mother whose labor of love for her children is ended, a witness to the power of Jesus Christ to save on earth has gone to join that innumerable company of the redeemed on the other shore.

Celia Seamans was born February 2, 1804, in the state of Rhode Island. She moved with her parents to Connecticut, then to Vermont, and then to New York.

In 1822 she was married to Mr. David Fish, with whom she shared the joys and sorrows, successes and privations incident to life in a new country, until four years ago, when he was taken from her side.

In 1832 with her family she came to Michigan. She lived in Washtenaw county for two years, and then moved to Leroy in 1834.

This was then a wilderness, but she has been spared to see the forest give place to the cultivated fields, the log houses to beautiful dwellings, the wilderness to blossom as the rose. For over fifty years she has lived here and was well known to all. Said one of her neighbors, ’I don't think Aunt Celia had an enemy in the world. Everybody was glad to see her cheerful face and no one was more welcome to the social circle, or more sadly missed if she was absent.' Long has she been spared, but that summons to which every ear shall hearken and all mortality obey, reached her at last, and without a murmur or a fear she received it, and, folding her hands, she quietly fell asleep as an infant in its mother's arms.

Eternity beckoned to one whose labors here were ended, and she sank down to rest with resignation to the decrees as they were written.”

Mrs. E. H. Thomson died suddenly at 4:30 o'clock p. m., Sunday, April 10, 1887. She had contracted a cold early in the previous week and had been confined to her room a few days under the care of Dr. Buckham, the family physician. But she was apparently better late in the week and the physician had pronounced her so far recovered as not to need his services further. Sunday, however, some fever had developed and he had been called again. While holding a tester in her mouth to determine the amount of fever, she suddenly uttered a cry of pain, threw up her hands and was dead.

Mrs. Thomson was born in Brighton, N. Y., in July, 1819, and was educated at LeRoy, N. Y. In 1840 she came to Flint, then a little village in the wilderness, and opened a select school which was attended by many young people who have since become prominent in business and social circles. In the year 1842 she married the late Col. E. H. Thomson. Two children were born to them, only one of whom, Edward H. Thomson, grew up, however. She went to Europe twice with her husband and also spent much time with him in Washington and other important places. In this city she was 0043 35 always among the most prominent, influential and beloved of women. For many years she was a member of St. Paul's choir. Intellectually she was more than ordinarily brilliant and her knowledge was both critical and extensive. She was a brilliant conversationalist. All that she had learned by study, reading, reflection, travel and observation was ready at hand to enrich her conversation. She came of an educated family. One brother, the late Rev. Charles P. Bush, was for many years secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Another brother, the Rev. George Bush, a Presbyterian clergyman at Brooklyn in this state, is a man noted for the extent of his learning in philosophy and theology. Another brother is Mr. B. F. Bush, a well known citizen of Grand Blanc.

Mrs. Thomson's death will be the cause of general sorrow in this community, where she has been intimately known for so many years.

Mr. Nahum N. Wilson, one of the pioneers of this county, passed to his final rest at the house of his son, Nahum T. Wilson, in the first ward, at four o'clock Saturday morning, May 7, 1887, at the age of 82 years.

Mr. Wilson was born in 1805 in Newport, N. H., but most of his boyhood was spent in Norwich, Vt. At an early age he evinced a great desire for knowledge, but like most farmers' sons in those early days, he had only meagre facilities for acquiring it. He went to the district school winters only, working on the farm in the summer. But he used all his spare time in study by himself, and at the age of nineteen became a teacher. He mastered the art of surveying and later in life he made this knowledge available in this county, having done most of the surveying in the northern half of the county for many years.

Mr. Wilson married Miss Phalle R. Slafter in Vermont, in 1828. Soon after he removed to Canada, bought a farm and divided his time between its improvement and teaching school. In 1834 he removed to what was then Thread village, now the city of Flint, and worked at bridge building, mill-wright work and lumbering. He built the first bridge across the Flint river, the first store and the first sawmill, known as the Stage & Wright mill, and cut the first lumber in it.

In 1838 he leased a farm in Vienna township and was soon elected supervisor. Soon after this he bought eighty acres of land on section 25, Thetford, which was the nucleus of what afterwards became the magnificent farm of 650 acres, with large and commodious buildings, orchards and other improvements. When the township was set off, Mr. Wilson himself gave it the name 0044 36 of “Thetford” from a town in his beloved Vermont. He was clerk of the town for many years and also held the office of justice of the peace and had much to do with the public affairs of the town—was postmaster at East Thetford many years. During all his life he was accustomed to read a great deal on scientific and economic subjects, and few men had a larger fund of solid, useful information than Mr. Wilson. In later years he suffered several severe strokes of paralysis, but his mind remained clear to the last. He had risen from his bed and was dressed not more than twenty minutes before he died.

The funeral was held at the house and the remains were taken to Thetford for burial, beside those of his first wife who died in 1863. He married his second wife in Vermont in 1867.

Mr. Wilson was the father of eight children, all of whom are living. The first was a daughter, born in 1830, now residing with her husband in Tuscola county. The first son, Charles E., residing at Bay City, is a clergyman, as is also John N., living in Ohio. William H. and Farwell A. are lumbermen at Harrison, Clare county, the former being a member of the present legislature. The second daughter is the wife of William H. Long of this city. Samuel J. and Nahum T. are the active members of the Flint Cabinet Creamery Company. All the children are persons of excellent character and bright intellects, as their father was, and, like him, are all highly esteemed.

A dispatch received by Russell Bishop announced the death of his brother, Giles Bishop, which took place at Griffin, Ga., May 24, 1887. The sad event was not unexpected, for previous announcement of his precarious condition had been made by telegraph, through the columns of the Journal.

More than forty five years of Mr. Bishop's life had been spent in Flint, and he only changed his residence when ill health compelled him to seek the more salubrious climate of the south. With this end in view, about four years ago he left his beautiful home, corner Fourth and Beach streets, and located on a large plantation at Griffin, Ga., where he purchased a plantation for each of his two sons.

Mr. Bishop was for more than a quarter of a century engaged in the grocery and drug business in the city, and had a large circle of friends and acquaintances who will be pained to hear that death has claimed him for a victim. Mr. Bishop was 64 years of age. He leaves four children, Henry and John Bishop, of Griffin, Mrs. W. C. Rosevelt, of Chicago, who was at his bedside during his last illness, and Mrs. W. H. Gibson, of Jacksonville, Fla. The remains were interred at Griffin, Ga.

Mrs. Hovey, wife of George Hovey, one of the oldest and best known citizens of Genesee township, died at her home May 24, 1887. Mrs. Hovey was sick a long time in the early spring and got better, but a relapse came and she did not rally. She was a most estimable lady and will be sadly missed in the community where she had resided so many years, while her loss to her husband and children will be irreparable.

Mrs. Hovey leaves besides her husband two sons and two daughters. The eldest son, C. M. resides in Detroit, and the younger, Fred, lives with his family at the old homestead. One daughter resides at Vassar, Tuscola county, and the other's home is in Indiana.

Died of pneumonia at Hamburg, Prussia, on Tuesday, June 8, 1886, W. W. Murphy, aged 70 years.

Mr. Murphy was born in Ernestown, Canada West, April 3, 1816, removing to Seneca county, N. Y., at an early age. He came to Monroe, Michigan, in 1835, where he entered the United States land office as clerk. While there he began the study of law, and in the fall of 1837 removed to Jonesville, forming a partnership with William T. Howell and opening the first law office in Hillsdale county. He practiced law here until 1861, from 1848 being associated with Hon. W. J. Baxter. He served one term as prosecutor of this county, and in 1844 he was elected representative in the Michigan legislature.

In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln to the position of consul general at Frankfort-on-the-Main, which position he held for nine years, and has since resided there the greater portion of the time, acting as the financial representative of several American railroad companies. The first bonds of the United States placed at Frankfort were sold through his influence.

He was a partner in the Exchange Bank of Grosvenor & Co., and in company of one or two others was the founder of this paper, it first being published by W. W. Murphy & Co., under the name of The Jonesville Telegraph. Since then he has always manifested a warm interest in the Independent, subscribing and paying for five or six copies every year, and in many ways manifesting his interest and good will.

He was one of the members of Grace Episcopal church, this place, at the time of its organization in 1838, was one of the first vestrymen, and has been a vestryman of that church for 39 years, and during 13 years of this time served as warden. He regularly contributed to the support of the church from the time of its organization to the day of his death.

For many years prior to the war Mr. Murphy was an active, prominent anti-slavery man, aiding at all times the slaves in their efforts to escape from 6 0050 42 bondage with counsel and with money, volunteering his services as a lawyer whenever occasion required. He was formerly a democrat but joined the free soil party in 1848, and the republican party at its formation. He was prominent in county and state politics, and never failed to attend a political convention when it was possible for him to do so.

In 1849 he was married to Ellen Beaumont, of Monroe, who survives him.

The news of Mr. Murphy's death is no surprise to his many friends. For many years he had been in failing health, and lately private advices have been very discouraging. He has long been afflicted with a bronchial affection which was undoubtedly the cause of his death.

Mr. Murphy, or as he was better known, “Walt,” was a man of unusual kindness of heart and disposition. He was constantly doing acts of kindness to the poor and those in trouble, which acts were never divulged by himself. Although absent from Jonesville since 1861 and undoubtedly having formed new and strong ties in his German home, he always wanted to be counted in all charitable matters here, and was ever ready to respond to a proper demand. He was widely known throughout the state, everybody liked him, and we believe of him can it be truly said he leaves not a single enemy.—[Jonesville Independent.]

Died at his home in Jonesville, on Saturday, June 5, 1886, Samuel S. Baker, aged 83 years, one month and fourteen days.

The deceased was born at Palmira, Trumble county, Ohio, April 21, 1803. At the age of 10 years he moved with his parents to Groveling, Livingston county, N. Y. Was married at the age of 22 years to Rachel Putney by whom he has had 12 children, but two of whom survive him. He came to Jonesville in 1840, and has since been a respected citizen of the place. He was a man of strong convictions, conscientious and high sentiment for humanity. His aged wife (also 83 years old) and two children, Mrs. T. Harding and George W. Baker survive him.

In Jonesville, at his residence, Wednesday morning, June 9th, 1886, John T. Blois, aged 76 years.

Mr. Blois was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in September, 1809, and resided in that state until 1833, when he made a change of residence in the hope of benefiting his health, which was then poor. He entered the popular military academy at Middletown, Conn., in 1826, and graduated in a course of civil engineering. This was at the time when there was but one railroad 0051 43 in the United States, a tram railway at Quincy, Mass. He was at the academy three years, but his health being unequal to the rough life of a civil engineer, he continued his classical studies with Rev. Luther Hart, of Plymouth, Conn. In 1832 he entered the law office of George N. Briggs, of Lanesborough, Mass;, who was then a representative in congress, and was afterwards governor of Massachusetts. From here he went to Lenox in Berkshire Co., continuing his law studies, and having as a fellow student the Hon. David Davis, of Ill.

He resided for a short time in South Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio, coming to Michigan in 1836.

He first located in Detroit. Here he taught in the Detroit Academy and collected memoranda for a statistical, topographical and political history of the state and territory of Michigan, which he afterwards published under the patronage of the state legislature as a Gazetteer of the state of Michigan. While preparing this work for the press he found the archives barren and it was only owing to memoranda furnished by him to the secretary of state that enabled the governor to negotiate what was then called the $5,000,000 loan, for internal improvement purposes.

He came to Jonesville, which place has since been his home, in 1839, and in connection with Salem T. King opened the second law office in this village, the firm being King & Blois.

In 1840 he was elected register of deeds for this county, serving two years, and was circuit court commissioner for eight years. He was elected one of the justices of the peace for Fayette township in 1840 and served until 1 1844, was again elected in 1865, and has filled that position continuously since—twenty one years. He was for a number of years engaged in the nursery business here, finally relinquishing it on account of ill health.

Mr. Blois was a scientist and a man of high literary attainments. He was married and raised his family of three children here. Edwin T. of Chicago, Miss Ida and W. S. of this place survive him.

Elijah Woodworth died at the home of his grandson, in Wheatfield, Thursday, Dec. 23, 1886, aged 94 years.

To the many who have known this pioneer all their lives this news will not be surprising. He came to Leslie in 1835, and built the first house of the town, and soon afterward put up the first saw mill. For several years he teamed between Ann Arbor and Leslie, fording streams wherever there was one. He practiced a little as a physician, but did not like the profession. Once he preached the Presbyterian faith, after which he published some of his works on the Old and New Testaments. In 1884 he wrote a poem dedicated to the State Pioneer Society, which was published in the Local, since which time he has been confined to the house most of the time. In the winter of '83–4 he ordered his own tombstone, and wrote the inscription which reads as follows: “In memory of Elijah Woodworth, born 1792, who now resides in spirit life, a real personal being in progression eternally, served in the war of 1812. A sectarian minister, an atheist lecturer up to 1852, first resident of Leslie, Ingham county. A surveyor and Thompsonian doctor, the first itinerant lecturer in the field of modern spiritualism, and controlled to write ancient languages in the form of hieroglyphical characters. A modern seer and sage in natural and spiritual civilization, whose sunlight shall never close. Vilely persecuted by bigots, although living in temperance and good morality. Who filled a mortal body with vigorous health and memory nearly one century, traveling in seven states of the union.” He drew a pension of $8 a month for his services in the Mexican war. His last request was that he be buried in Leslie but without any ceremony whatever, and designating his pall bearers. Mr. Woodworth made his home for years with his son, Solomon, and after his death lived with his granddaughter, where he died. He has a daughter living somewhere in Ohio or Indiana. Although he entertained ideas that seemed strange to others, he was a candid, honest gentleman, and his regular chats with his many friends were a ray of light 0054 46 in their lives that will never be forgotten.—[Leslie Local, Dec. 24, 1886.

Smith J. Tooker, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Lansing, died at his home at 410 Wall street, May 11, 1887, of paralysis. He had been gradually declining in health during the last seven years and became entirely helpless nine weeks before his death.

Mr. Tooker, who was born in North Hector, New York, Oct. 14, 1819, came to Lansing with his brother, V. W. Tooker, 40 years ago. The site of the town was then a heavy forest, and Mr. Tooker witnessed all its transitions from a wilderness into the handsomest and one of the most prosperous cities in Michigan. As soon as a rude semblance of a home could be arranged, Mr. Tooker sent for his wife, who was the first white woman to locate in Lansing. His memory was an exceedingly accurate volume of local history from the beginning, and he always felt a keen interest in everything relating to the old pioneer days. He was one of the twelve original members of the State Pioneer Society, and also an active member of the county pioneer organization. On the morning after the recent spring election he said to his brother sadly: “Yesterday was the first time my legs ever refused to take me to the polls to vote a democratic ticket.”

His wife survives him, as do also five brothers and three sisters. These are V. W. and O. G. Tooker of Lansing, John S. Tooker of Montana, Steven Tooker of Portland, Mich., S. A. Tooker of Tennessee, Mrs. Ira Welch of Lansing, Mrs. Stephen Rogers of Acme, Mich., and Mrs. Frank Rush of Denver.—[Lansing Journal, Thursday, May 12, 1887.

Valentine Bretz was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, Sept. 5, 1830, and died in Odessa, Ionia county, Mich., June 11, 1886. He was the son of David and Fannie Bretz, and was one of a family of ten children, of whom four are still living.

His early life was spent on his father's farm in Ohio. In 1855 he was married to Miss Sarah A. Telford, of Ohio, who survives him. There have been seven children born to them, of whom five are still living.

Two years after his marriage he removed to Ionia county, Mich., and settled on the farm where he died.

He enlisted in the 21st Michigan infantry, August 6, 1862, and served with his regiment until the close of the war.

Comrade Bretz was a good, true soldier, always at his post of duty and with 0056 48 no spirit of complaining at the hardships endured. At the battle of Stone River he received a wound in the face, a ball of buckshot entering his nose and remaining lodged in his face until last winter, when sneezing violently the ball was discharged from his nose. This wound was the primary cause of his sickness and death. He has never been in good health since he came home from the army.

There were six of his comrades, members of his company, who accompanied the corpse as bearers, all that remain of a band of nineteen that went out together.

As a citizen and neighbor, Brother Bretz was held in great esteem, and was loved and respected by all who knew him.

He had filled the office of supervisor and clerk of his township with fidelity and honor to his constituents. He was a stirring and ardent republican in principle, yet in action he was very considerate and was of the conservative order of men. He was always a strong advocate of temperance.

As a christian man his influence was felt in his pure and exemplary life. He was a faithful and respected member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

David Dodge, whose sickness was of long standing, died at the residence of his son, Alexander W. Dodge, in Ionia, on Sunday, June 13, 1886, in the 89th year of his age. He was born Dec. 21, 1797, in Herkimer county, N. Y., whence his father had emigrated from Massachusetts that same year. In the following year, 1798, when David was only six weeks old, his father returned to his native state, living on a farm in Worcester county until David was 21 years of age, when the family removed to Oxford, Mass. In 1826 they removed to Rochester, N. Y. The subject of this sketch lived in Rochester till 1843, when he came to Ionia county and bought a farm on “Long plain” in the township of Ronald, and built a house. In 1844 he removed his family to his new home. Several years afterward he exchanged his Ronald farm for one in North Plains, where he resided till 1857, when he came to Ionia and has resided here since. While in Rochester Mr. Dodge was a mason and master builder; he constructed three churches, and the great flouring mill on the Genesee river. He with his partner excavated the great races below the first fall in the Genesee through the solid rock. The work was a failure, the parties projecting it went into bankruptcy and the contractors lost their pay. Mr. Dodge then closed up his business and emigrated to Michigan. He cleared up three new farms in Ionia county. In 1855 his health failed and since 1859 he had lived in the 0057 49 family of his son, Alexander W. Dodge. Deceased was twice married. His first wife, Lucina Fitts, died a year after marriage, leaving one son, who died in Rochester at the age of 29. Subsequently he married Ruth, sister of the late Joseph L. Freeman and of Mrs. P. C. Hutchins. By her he had ten children. She died Oct. 2, 1872. Mr. Dodge lived to see born in his family eleven children, 45 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren, of whom 33 were boys. He was converted to the christian religion in 1831, under the preaching of Charles G. Finney, at Rochester, N. Y., and joined the Presbyterian church, of which he was a member until the hour of death. Three sons and four daughters survive him.

Hon. Alonzo Sessions died at his residence in Berlin on Saturday morning, July 3, 1886, after a lingering illness, in the 76th year of his age. The funeral was held on the following Tuesday, from the residence, and he was buried in a grave on the farm, the spot being selected by himself. For nearly fifty years Mr. Sessions has been one of the most prominent citizens and politicians of Ionia county, and in his death a striking and picturesque figure is removed from local and state affairs.

Alonzo Sessions was born August 4, 1810, in Marcellus, Onondaga county, New York. He was of New England stock, his grandfather having lived on a rough farm in the state of Connecticut. Amasa, the eldest of eleven children, was the father of Alonzo. At the age of nineteen he made his way on foot to the wilds of central New York, where he taught school and cleared land alternately, till he earned enough to pay for a farm on the east side of Skeneateles lake, where he died in 1838. His wife, Phœbe Smith, was a daughter of Job Smith, an officer of the Revolutionary army. Her brother was sheriff of the county and member of the legislature. Alonzo was one of nine children and was trained in habits of frugality and industry and in the strictest of religious tenets, his parents being members of the Baptist church. Being a diligent student he early acquired a good education and taught school. In 1831 he went to Bennington and engaged as clerk in a store for two years, receiving as compensation for his services, board and ten dollars a month. In 1833 he left his native state for Michigan, traveling from Detroit on foot, most of the way, via Mt. Clemens, Romeo and Pontiac to Farmington, where he struck the Grand river trail and followed it through Shiawassee, Clinton and Ionia counties to the present site of the city of Ionia, where he found five families, part of them living in unfinished log cabins, and others in Indian wigwams. He then embarked on a batteau to Grand Rapids, and thence went on foot, by way of Kalamazoo, to White Pigeon, where the U.S. 7 0058 50 land office was, and entered his land. The next winter he spent in Ohio, teaching school in Dayton till 1835, when he bought a team and came through to his land on the south side of Grand river. The journey consumed sixteen days and from Marshall was through an unbroken wilderness. He built the first log cabin in the township of Berlin and the first bridges across the small streams between Ionia and Saranac. In 1837 he married Celia, daughter of Samuel Dexter, the pioneer of Ionia, and sister of the late John C. Dexter and Stephen F. Dexter, now of Evart, Mrs. Don Jones and Mrs. Tibbets. By her he has had 13 children, seven of whom with Mrs. Sessions survive him.

The farm, which at first consisted of 360 acres, increased to 800 and, though hewn out of the wilderness, has come to be one of the most valuable in Ionia county. Mr. Sessions has been greatly honored by his fellow citizens in the matter of official positions. He was the first supervisor of Berlin and chairman of the first board of supervisors for Ionia county, and held the office, at intervals, 18 years in all. He was justice of the peace for several years; was sheriff in 1841–2; member of the legislature in the lower house in 1856-58-60 [62]; during his last term in the legislature he was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the fourth Michigan district and held this position four years. In 1872 he was a presidential elector on the republican ticket and chosen president of the electoral college. In 1876 he was elected lieutenant governor and re-elected in 1878. When the national banking law passed he, with others, started the First National Bank of Ionia, of which he has been a director since its foundation and president since 1866. In politics he was a republican. He never united with any religious denomination. He was of a stern, unyielding disposition, direct and inflexible of purpose himself and intolerant of the opinions of those who differed with him. In his business relations he was the soul of honor and he had no sympathy for the weaknesses, or charity for the failings of others, and had a hearty contempt for dishonesty in any of its forms. His austere and cold bearing toward others repelled many who would have liked to be his friends, but if he encouraged close intimacy it must have been with a limited circle. The rugged virtues of his character commanded the respect of his fellow citizens, while he did not win their affection like men of a more sympathetic mold and with more of the milk of human kindness in their composition. Yet in spite of all this few men have wielded a greater influence in the community, or done more to set an example of sturdy manhood and honest endeavor than Alonzo Sessions. He was certainly an exemplar of personal honesty and unflagging industry, and, viewed from almost any light, his life must be pronounced a success. If he appeared to take too morose and desponding 0059 51 a view of human nature and the motives that govern men, it was perhaps because he, in a long life devoted to the study and observation of public affairs and political questions, had detected so much that was unworthy, selfish and ignoble, that his mental vision was obscured to the good that is in men. He was inclined to be a pessimist in his measure of men's characters and motives. He had a lofty ideal to which few can attain and indeed of which he himself fell short. But if we could all come as near it, taken for all in all, as he did, it would be cause for profound thankfulness. A large number of the citizens of Ionia attended his funeral.

Mrs. Elizabeth Bell, wife of Hon. A. F. Bell, who died at her home in Ionia on Sunday night, July 11, 1886, was born in Philadelphia, August 19, 1823. She was a daughter of Joshua and Rebecca (Coleman) Boyer. From an early age her home was in Reading, Pa., at which place she graduated at the age of fourteen from the Bethlehem seminary. Her parents came to Michigan with Gov. Porter and settled in Detroit. The children were sent back to Reading to live with an aunt to complete their education. Her mother died in Detroit in 1834. In 1838 Mr. Boyer removed to Portland, in Ionia county, where Elizabeth was married a year later, at the age of 16, to Alexander F. Bell, then a rising young lawyer. Mr. and Mrs. Bell lived in Lyons one year, and came to Ionia in 1840, where their home has been most of the time since. In 1856 she had a partial stroke of paralysis which affected one side, and from the effects of which she never entirely recovered. For many years she has suffered at times from its recurrence. For nearly a year she has been confined to the house, a great sufferer, helpless, but receiving the tender care of a devoted family. The last time she was out of the house was in August. At last she passed away peacefully and without pain, as though falling asleep. Mrs. Bell was a kind neighbor and friend, and by many acts of generosity and disinterested benevolence attracted to herself a large circle of friends. She had seven children, of whom five with her husband survive her. She was a member of the Episcopal church.

Hon. Osmond Tower died at his residence in Ionia at 11 o'clock Wednesday night, August 4, 1886. He was out riding during the day and no special premonition of speedy dissolution was felt by him so far as known. He retired at ten o'clock, and an hour later Mrs. Tower was awakened and found him sitting up in bed. This occasioned no surprise, as, for a year or more, he had been troubled with insomnia and difficulty of breathing, 0060 52 superinduced by heart disease, and was in the habit of sitting up for relief. Mrs. Tower arose to give him a spoonful of stimulant, but on returning to the bedside an instant later found him unconscious. She aroused the household, but he died almost instantly, and was beyond succor before anybody else could reach him. His death was quiet and painless. Physicians were summoned but the patient had passed away before their arrival.

By the death of Osmond Tower Ionia loses one more of that hardy race of pioneers who settled this county, and whose sturdy blows did so much to make the wilderness blossom as the rose. He was born at Cummington, Mass., Feb. 16, 1811. He was sixth in direct descent from John Tower, who emigrated in the year 1639, from Hingham, England, to Hingham, New England. He acquired a good education in the schools of his native town, learned the carpenter's trade and worked for ten dollars a month, teaching school in the winter until the age of twenty three, when he had accumulated $170 and decided to try his fortune in the West. Before leaving he married, Sept. 1, 1834, Miss Martha Gallagher, of Albany, N. Y., adopted daughter of Dr. James Wade, brother of Hon. Benjamin F. Wade. Dr. Wade had adopted her on the death of her mother soon after her arrival from Ireland, her native land. They arrived in Detroit in November. Mr. Tower worked at his trade in Detroit until stopped by cold weather, and removed to Farmington for the winter, where he engaged board for himself and wife at $1.50 a week. In the spring he returned to Detroit, and worked till fall, when he rode on horseback to Ionia, which consisted of two log houses. He went to the land office at Kalamazoo and located one hundred and twenty acres of land near Ionia. In the spring with his wife he removed to Ionia, arriving here March 25, 1836, with 75 cents in his pocket. He worked at his trade, securing work on the first school-house built in the valley. He soon built a house for himself which he sold, and built another, the old homestead on the site of the present insurance buildings, in which he lived thirty four years. The present residence, in which he died, was built in 1870. Aside from clearing his land, Mr. Tower worked at his trade until 1844, when he engaged in the manufacture of fanning mills, a business that he followed for twenty years. He was seven years a member of the firm of G. S. Cooper & Co.; six years with Tower & Chubb, foundrymen; for several years of the hardware firm of O. & O. S. Tower, and for many years the financial representative of the firm of Baker & Tower, makers of hot-air furnaces. In 1850 he went overland to California, returning by way of Panama in 1851.

In politics he was a whig until the organization of the republican party and was an active member of both parties. In recent years, however, he has taken comparatively little interest in politics. He attended the first meeting held 0061 53 in Detroit to form the whig party; in 1840 he was elected county clerk, but in 1842 was defeated with the rest of the ticket. He was supervisor several terms and from 1858 to 1862 a member of the upper house in the state legislature. He was stockholder and treasurer of the Ionia & Lansing railroad company; director and president of the Ionia & Stanton railroad company, both of which were merged in the Detroit, Lansing & Northern. In March, 1863, President Lincoln appointed him U. S. marshal for the western district, a position he held until the Johnson regime in 1867, when he resigned. For most of the time since coming to Ionia he was officially connected with the public schools, and had held various other positions. He was at one time a prominent candidate for member of congress from this district, but was defeated for the nomination by the Hon. Thomas White Ferry.

Mr. Tower was a man of extraordinary will, strong prejudices, positive character and unyielding disposition. He was a most devoted husband, an indulgent, kind father, an exemplary citizen. He was pugnacious, however, and always ready to fight for his rights, or for what he believed to be his rights, and he was generally able to defend himself, right or wrong. In religion he was a Universalist, and positive in matters of dogma as he was in his political opinions. He was straightforward, direct, open and aggressive in everything. People always knew where to find him. It was his nature to take sides and avow his position fearlessly. The caustic letter he wrote when he resigned his position as marshal in 1867 was a type of the utterances of the man on all subjects. Its bold and defiant tone was characteristic. But the powerful will and extraordinary physical vigor had to succumb to the inexorable call of disease and death, and there is no doubt, that if he had a moment of consciousness to realize the presence of the grim monster, he met him with the same fortitude and intrepid front that he was able to present to the difficulties that beset him at every step of a long, laborious and useful life.

Benjamin R. Tupper, one of the pioneers of Ionia county, died on Friday at 5 p. m. and was buried on Sunday from his residence in Bonanza. He was born in Monroe county, N. Y., Nov. 30, 1818; died Aug. 27, 1886, aged 68 years, 9 months and 27 days. He had been a resident of Ionia county 46 years.

Died Nov. 25, 1886, at his residence in Boston, Ionia county, Jeremiah Stannard, in the 88th year of his age. Mr. Stannard was a pioneer of Boston, 0062 54 having settled on the place where he died in 1837. Four families and three young men were the only ones who preceded him in the settlement. Mr. Stannard was elected one of the assessors at the first township meeting in 1838, and was elected treasurer in 1842. He has been an invalid for a long time, and has required much care and attention. He died at the house of his son, Hon. A. S. Stannard.

Mrs. Cordelia W. Cook, widow of the late R. R. Cook, died at Otisco, Mich., on Sunday, Dec. 11, 1886.

Mrs. Cook was born in Sullivan, Madison county, N. Y., on the 2d day of Oct. 1811. Her father, Alvin Cowles, died on the 27th day of Sept., 1815, leaving her mother, Mrs. Roxana Cowles, a widow with two children, the subject of this notice and a sister. In the year 1817 her mother married Joseph Davis who, with her and her children, settled in the township of Chili, Monroe county, N. Y., where they lived until the year 1826, when they removed to Michigan and settled in the town of Avon, Oakland county. On the 2d day of Jan., 1834, she was married at the residence of her step-father to Rufus R. Cook, and in the spring of 1838 they removed to the township of Otisco, Ionia county, Mich., and settled upon a farm in a place now known as Cook's Corners, where they both resided until the time of their deaths. In June of the year 1870 Mrs. Cook united with the Baptist church of Otisco of which she remained an exemplary and consistent member up to the time of her death. Sister Cook was a woman of strong personalities and had a peculiar faculty of winning the affections of all with whom she came in contact. She was a devout christian and an efficient helper in every good work. Her charity was remarkable. She could never hear a person censured or their faults spoken of but she was always ready to bring forward every palliating circumstance that the case admitted of to tone down the asperity of the accuser. She died at the ripe age of seventy five years.

Edward Stevenson was born in England nearly 68 years ago, and with his father and several brothers and sisters he settled in Ionia about 44 years ago, where he has chiefly resided. He became active in business life and one of the foremost among its honest, public spirited citizens. He was active and influential in all political movements and one of the first in Ionia to help organize the republican party. As the party became strong, and the democratic party grew weak under the storm of the prevailing anti-slavery agitation, internal conflicts arose within the republican ranks, mainly caused by 0063 55 the distribution of official favors within the gift of the party. In these contests Mr. Stevenson always took a bold and aggressive position, either for or against the men of his choice. He fought a great many political battles, not only against the common enemy, but against those whom he deemed the unworthy pretenders within the republican ranks. These partisans, whom he regarded as the hay and stubble rubbish of party politics, he opposed openly and manfully. He was always a magnanimous political manager, never resorting to acrimonious personal invective to down a political opponent. He was a steadfast friend to those who had his confidence in all social and political stations in life, and was more anxious to grant a favor to a friend than to receive one. But his earthly labors are finished and he has gone to his reward. Whatever of good he has accomplished will long be remembered in his favour, while his mistakes, if any, will be set down as among the inevitable to the common humanity in the struggles and perplexities of human life, where none are perfect. He was an active business man, acquired considerable property, and was generous to a fault, and was honored with many distinguished official positions. He held the office of justice of the peace, postmaster of Ionia, and register of the land office at Ionia and at Reed City, and against his integrity and efficiency in his official or business career there never was a breath of suspicion. We have been intimately acquainted with him during the past 40 years, and have ever been proud to claim him as one of our most valued personal friends. As one of the pioneers of Ionia county, he will long live in the memory of a host of personal friends who enjoyed his familiar acquaintance during his busy and somewhat eventful life. He died at Stanton, Jan. 4, 1887.

Mrs. Jane Dinsmore, widow of the late William Dinsmore, died at Portland on Saturday, Apr. 30, 1887, aged 75 years. Mrs. Dinsmore, with her husband, came to Portland from the state of New York in 1836, and consequently had resided here more than half a century. Their former home was in Caryville, near Batavia, N. Y., where Mrs. Dinsmore made a profession of religion and united with the Methodist Episcopal church. When they came to Portland not a tree had been cut where the village now is, and for years after it was not unusual for deer and other game to pass among the trees standing where our residences now are. All old residents remember the enfeebling sickness that followed clearing the land, and from which no settler was exempt, nor can they ever forget that hunger from scarcity of provisions in the earlier years was not unknown. Mr. Dinsmore bought of the government 76 acres of land on section 34, at the head of the mill pond on the Looking Glass 0064 56 river, but at first made his home in a log house, where is now one of our principal streets. Mr. Dinsmore was the shoemaker of the village; dividing the time between working at his trade and clearing his land. In the privations of those years Mrs. Dinsmore was like a ministering angel to the sick in the neighborhood. When not prostrated by sickness herself, she went among her less fortunate neighbors, tidying up their sick rooms, and in a thousand nameless ways relieving the despondency of those nearly or quite discouraged. She possessed a very cheerful disposition, and always maintained a hopeful exterior, sympathizing with the distressed, bearing the burdens of those weighed down with grief, and pointing to a bright prospect when the clearings in the woods should be made larger, and the air should be purified from the miasma of decaying vegetation. When the Universalist church was organized in June, 1852, she was a constituent member and maintained her membership there while she lived.

Thos. J. Marsh, late of the town of Orange, Ionia county, was born in Tyre, Seneca county, New York, February 7, 1812. He came to Michigan in the fall of 1835 to Calhoun county, leaving that section with his brother James and arriving at their new location March 4, 1837. Their choice was on section five, town 6, range 6, Ionia county. On this a shanty about 12×16 was built which sufficed for a shelter till the summer of 1838, when quite a commodious log house was built large enough to have two rooms. In the spring of '38 a sister came on and kept house for the Marsh brothers. James, being a surveyor, left for the west in 1840.

Thomas was married about this time, 1841, to Miss Nancy Crawford, of Seneca county, New York. Several children were born, only one of whom was a son.

Thomas J. Marsh died Friday, May 6, 1887. His education was obtained at the district school.

Leonard Goodrich was stricken with paralysis while visiting at the residence of F. Sloan on East Main street, Ionia, for a few days before going, as was his intention, to spend the summer with his son in Dakota. He grew gradually worse, and May 16, 1887, passed peacefully away.

Deceased was born in Rutland county, Vermont, December 29, 1805, and when about 21 years of age moved with his father to Ohio. December 23, 1827, he was married to Jane Standish, sister of the late Hon. J. D. Standish, of Detroit. She died September 17, 1852, leaving, besides her husband, 0065 57 two sons and three daughters; one son, N. S. Goodrich, of Dakota, and two daughters, Mrs. Henry Taylor, of Minneapolis, Minn., and Mrs. Wm. Butman, of Illinois, still being alive. Mr. Goodrich afterward married Mrs. Henrietta Andrews, of Plymouth, England, who also survives him.

He had resided in Ionia about thirty five years, twenty five years of that period being engaged in the grocery business, in the pursuit of which he made many friends by his uprightness as a man of business, and his daily walk as a man among men. He was for many years a consistent member of the Baptist church, and a kind and indulgent husband and father.

James A. Schretter, for the past thirty years a resident of Jackson, died at his residence, June 1, 1886, of a spinal complaint, aged 76 years. Mr. Schretter passed his youth in Poland, but subsequently went to France, thence to America. He was a man of rare intellectual abilities, and for many years gave instructions in the French and German languages. Deceased leaves a wife and five children.

Robert Alward died at 7:30 Saturday night, June 5, 1886, at his residence on Backus street, of old age. The remains were taken to Grand Rapids for interment. Deceased was 76 years old.

Mr. Walter Carver and Mr. Irwin, business men of New York, on their way to Chicago, arrived in the city Saturday, bringing some beautiful floral 0068 60 decorations for the grave of the late Bert Gibson, their old time friend and traveling companion. Yesterday afternoon, June 6, 1886, about 1:30 o'clock, Douglas Gibson, father of the young man mentioned above, and Mr. Irwin called upon Mr. C. R. Knickerbocker, and before coming back, Mr. Gibson attempted to show his friend some of the attractive parts of Jackson, and in doing so, overtaxed himself. As they were going home they met Mr. M. Harmon, and stopped to talk with him in front of B. S. Chapin's residence. Mr. Gibson suddenly took a long breath and dropped on his knees. He was caught in this position by the two gentlemen, who attempted to lift him on his feet again, but he gave only one or two gasps and died. They carried him to W. T. Gibson's residence, 501 South Jackson street.

Mr. Gibson was born at Crown Point, N. Y., 1827, and came to Michigan in 1830 with his father, Amase Gibson, and married a daughter of Albert Howe, who survives him. He was one of the unfortunate firm of Gibson & Western, “interest and deposit” bankers, and, since the failure, has been broken down in health. For some time past his health has seemed better, and only yesterday he was heard to remark that he felt better than for a long time before.—Jackson Citizen.

Died at her residence in the village of Concord, of Bright's disease, June 11, 1886, Mrs. Bathsheba Orr, aged 59 years. The deceased was born in England, and, when three years of age came to this country in company with her parents, and first settled in Pennsylvania. At the age of seven years she came to this state, and has since resided in Hillsdale and Jackson counties. At the age of 24 she was married to Lovell Bullock, with whom she lived until his death, which occurred in 1870. In 1875 she was married to Adam Orr, who still survives her. The deceased leaves one child, Mrs. Frances A. Stiles, who deeply mourns her loss.

William Capron, an old resident and respected citizen of Grass Lake, died very suddenly at his residence in that place on Sunday, June 13, 1886, aged 69 years.

Mrs. Charity Coykendall, of Napoleon, aged 86 years, came to her death Thursday night, July 8, 1886, by falling down cellar. She intended to open her bedroom door to retire for the night, but by mistake opened the cellar door and fell, dislocating her neck. She was an old resident of the town and 0069 61 received a pension from the government for services rendered by her husband in the war of 1812. She leaves one son, Marcus W., living in Dakota, and one daughter, wife of M. L. Hess.

Thomas McGuire, who had been an inmate of the county house for several years, died July 10, 1886, from the effects of a cancer in the face. The deceased was an old resident, having moved here 40 years ago, and has many relatives in and about the city. His age was about 75 years.

The death of Milo K. Crafts, of Grass Lake, July 18, 1886, is announced. Mr. Crafts was a pioneer of this county, having lived on his farm near Grass Lake for thirty five years. His age was 63 years.

Matthew W. Hatch, known among his many friends for years past as “Elder” Hatch, died Tuesday, July 27, 1886, aged 72 years. He had been sick many months, in fact he had never recovered from a shock of paralysis which occurred last summer. The “Elder” was a plain spoken man, honest, sober and industrious never hesitating to speak the truth. Beneath his rough exterior there lay a heart of unusual kindness. Everyone respected him and his words were always accorded an honest hearing. He leaves a widow and three children, all grown.

At 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, July 28, 1886, Judge David Johnson died at his residence, No. 321 West Main street, after a long illness. His death had been expected for some time, as he was unconscious and the physicians were powerless to revive him. The immediate origin of his fatal illness was blood poisoning, resulting from a slight wound in one of the fingers of his left hand, hastened by the infirmities of age, as he had nearly completed his 77th year. David Johnson was born in Genesee county, New York, October 20, 1809, and for almost half a century practiced law in this city, coming to Jackson in 1837, when it was an insignificant looking and unpromising village. He served as school inspector in 1839 in connection with his law practice, and in 1843 was elected prosecuting attorney, performing his duties with a degree of ability that attracted attention throughout the state. While serving in this capacity he was elected to the state legislature in 1845 [and 1847], when Detroit was the capital, and Mr. Johnson took an active part in the fight 0070 62 over the removal of the capital to Lansing. He favored Jackson as the more central location, but the lobby was against him and Lansing was selected. In 1851 he was elected circuit judge, and filled the position with recognized ability for six years, acting meanwhile, by virtue of his office, as one of the judges of the supreme court. When his term expired he returned to the practice of law with his former partner, Samuel Higby, until the latter was elected circuit judge, when Judge Johnson formed a partnership with Isaac M. Crane and subsequently with M. V. Montgomery, now commissioner of patents in Washington. He was also a senior member of the firm of Johnson & Hawley and prior to that was a partner of the late Phineas Farrand. Of late years he maintained an office alone except when assisted by his son Walter, who is now in Washington officiating as a legal examiner of patents under Commissioner Montgomery. In 1864 Judge Johnson was the democratic candidate for congress from this district, but was defeated by the late Judge Longyear, of Lansing. In 1848 he built the residence where he lived and died. His first wife died the same year, and a few years afterward he went to Rochester and married Mrs. Adelia A. Chipman, widow of Judge Chipman, who died in this city in the winter of 1884. A few months ago he married again, thus leaving a widow and two sons. One son, Capt. Franklin Johnson, served with distinction in the civil war, and subsequently settled in New Orleans, where he died of yellow fever. His surviving sons are Dr. Henry Johnson, of Caseville, Mich., and Walter Johnson, of Washington. Judge David Johnson was an eloquent and vigorous speaker and ranked high among the strongest advocates in the state. He was a fine scholar, a diligent reader and always thoroughly posted on current events. He had a remarkably fine mind and might easily have taken rank among the foremost men in the state.

Betsey M., widow of the late Morgan Case, died of general debility, at her residence in Napoleon, August 4, 1886, in the 75th year of her age. She was a native of Washington county, N. Y., and came to Napoleon, in the fall of 1832. In the spring of the same year the first settlement was made and of the settlers of that year only two survived. She leaves one son, Warren, residing on the old farm in Columbia.

Mrs. Elizabeth Brown, relict of Andrew Brown, died Aug. 4, 1886, of enlargement of the heart, at her residence, 502 Detroit street, aged 69 years. Mrs. Brown was an old resident of the city, and her husband before his death was proprietor and landlord of the old Grand River house, which stood on the site of the present Stowell house. He also operated flouring mills.

Mrs. George Tibbitts, of Napoleon, died at her home Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 11, 1886, after a protracted illness, aged 79 years, 5 months and 4 days. Mrs. Tibbitts came to Jackson county in 1846 with her husband, who survives her.

Norman Allen, whose funeral was held Aug. 16, 1886, at the Baptist church, was born in Whiting, Vermont, Dec. 4, 1804, and was nearly 82 years of age. He moved to Leoni in May, 1833, where he kept a hostelry. His nearest neighbors were two and one half miles distant, and so desolate was the location that in 1837 he resolved to return to the village of Jackson, and for over forty years he has been an active citizen. He leaves two sons, Charles Allen, of Chicago, and Norman Allen, of Leslie, and a daughter, Mrs. Judge Reeves, of Little Rock, Ark.

Caleb Nichols, of Sandstone, died Saturday, August 28, 1886, at the residence of his son, John Nichols, aged 90 years. Mr. Nichols had been a resident of Jackson county fifty years.

Harrison Larabee died Sunday morning, August 29, 1886, at his residence No. 708 Greenwood avenue. Deceased was one of the early settlers of Jackson county.

In the death of Daniel Fellows, August 30, 1886, Jackson county loses one of her oldest pioneers and Henrietta an esteemed citizen. Mr. Fellows was noted for his great industry, strict integrity and exemplary christian life. He was emphatically an old school gentlemen—a man of few words, and who always said “yes” and “no.” He retained till the last those fine notions of honor formed in his youth, when this county was almost a wilderness, and neighbors were few and far between, who depended largely upon one another for companionship and help, and who appreciated a favor. Mr. Fellows was a lifelong democrat, and never swerved from his first choice. For the last twenty two years he resided on the west bank of Pleasant Lake, where he leaves a good property to his two grown-up children, Andrew and Ann. His wife died several years ago.

On Sunday afternoon, September 19, 1886, our citizens were shocked at the announcement of the death of Edward Sellers, Esq., who died at his home on Cortland street on Saturday night. On Saturday Mr. Sellers was in the enjoyment of good health, and spoke of feeling well. Saturday night he retired to his room, and on Sunday morning he was not called, as it was his custom to rest on that day, and his family did not arouse him. After noon he was called, and not answering, it was discovered that he was dead. Physicians were summoned, and an examination revealed that he had died of paralysis of the heart, and probably passed away on Saturday night, soon after retiring.

Mr. Sellers had many warm friends, and the intelligence of his death was received with sorrow by a large circle of acquaintances. He was a genial, upright man, a warm friend, and a good citizen. His age was 63. He was born in New York City, and removed to Dexter, in this State. He had been engaged in railroad work for thirty five years. He ran the first sleeper on the Michigan Central Railroad, and was the first passenger conductor on the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad and has retained that position ever since. His urbanity, devotion to duty and faithfulness won him many friends. Fourteen years ago he was badly injured in an accident that occurred just below this city, but after being extricated from his perilous position, he did not stop to attend to his own injuries, but at once looked after the welfare of his passengers.

Mr. Sellers leaves a wife and four children: Mrs. H. E. Southworth, of Chicago; Mrs. W. C. Heyser, of this city; Mrs. W. B. Knickerbocker, who is in Colorado, and Miss Minnie Sellers.

Mr. Sellers served as alderman of the First ward for a time very acceptably, but refused a re-election. He also declined other offices of trust. He was a member of Jackson Commandery, Knights Templar.

A good citizen, a kind husband and a loving father is taken away by the death of Edward Sellers.

Jacob Hutchins, a pioneer of Jackson county, and one of the best known men within its borders, died Sept. 23, 1886, at his residence in Summit, aged 82 years. The disease from which he died was dropsy, with which he suffered acutely the past three months, although for years past he has been afflicted with kidney trouble.

Jacob Hutchins came to Jackson county from the east about forty years ago and settled on land in Summit, now owned by Gilbert Wilson, removing some years later to the farm now known as the Hutchins place, midway 0073 65 between the farms of Daniel S. Holcomb and Jacob Crouch, where he lived continuously until his death. His intimate knowledge of the Crouch family and his public expressions of animosity towards the Holcomb family made him a conspicuous witness in the examinations of the Crouch tragedy, and had he lived he would be a witness for the prosecution in the trial of Judd Crouch. In his later years he was regarded as eccentric, and his testimony at the trial of Daniel S. Holcomb created merriment hard to suppress in the court room. His rugged strength fitted him admirably for the hard life of a pioneer, and he prospered with the development of the country, leaving at his death a fine property for his children, valued at upwards of $20,000. His wife died nearly 20 years ago. The family consisted of three sons and six daughters. Of the sons Alonzo and George are living; John L. died some years ago. Of the daughters Diana married Peter Cranmore, of Summit; Anne married George Hatch, of Spring Arbor, and is dead; Cordelia married Leroy Goldsmith and is dead; Laura married Abram S. Drake, of Hanover; Hannah married Orlin Parmeter, of Spring Arbor, and Viola, the youngest daughter, is also married, but our informant did not know her husband's name. All the living children reside in Jackson county.

Thomas E. Lusk, of the machine company of Lusk & Co., died Sept. 29, 1886, at the residence, No. 516 East Main street, of pneumonia, after an illness of but four days. Mr. Lusk leaves a family, consisting of a wife and three children; a daughter, Mrs. N. H. Eckler, and two sons, all of whom reside in the city.

Mr. Lusk was born in Orange county, New York, in 1825, and came to Jackson in 1854, in company with Henry Vandercook, and together they established the machine and foundry firm which Mr. Lusk has continued since, the present firm being T. E. Lusk, George Holton and A. J. Weatherwax. For twenty five years he was a member of the volunteer Jackson fire department, of which he was made chief in 1867, continuing in office fourteen years. He was an active member of Jackson Lodge, No. 17, Free and Accepted Masons.

Chester Warriner, a prominent resident of Jackson, where he has lived for 35 years, died at his residence, No. 402 First street, Thursday evening, Oct. 7, 1886, at 8 o'clock. The immediate cause of his death was lack of nervous force to rally from the shock occasioned by the amputation of his left leg below the knee on the Wednesday previous. The disease was of five years' growth, caused by failure of arterial circulation in the lower extremities, 9 0074 66 resulting in necrosis of the bones of both feet. It originated in a callous on the right foot which penetrated to the bone, requiring the amputation of a portion of that foot three years ago. The amputation was successful and the disease was arrested, but it broke out again some months ago in the left foot and resisted all surgical attempts to check it. Several weeks ago Drs. Main and Williams removed two of the toes from the left foot, and again on September 26 amputated the foot, but without good results. The wasting of the bone continued and on Wednesday morning a third amputation was made by Drs. J. and F. W. Main, assisted by Dr. E. W. Kimball, who informed Mr. Warriner that the chances were against his recovery, but it was the only hope of saving his life. He accepted the chance and directed the surgeons to proceed. He never rallied from the shock but continued to sink until death intervened.

Chester Warriner was born in Genesee county, New York, Feb. 16, 1820, and came to Michigan in 1844, settling in Napoleon township and locating a farm, now occupied by his nephew. Jan. 1, 1845, he was married to Lucy J. Weeks, daughter of James Weeks, who had previously located in the same town. In 1850 Mr. Warriner came to Jackson to take the position of deputy sheriff, his brother-in-law, Amos Pickett, being then sheriff. He served two years in this capacity when he was appointed deputy warden at the prison. He remained at the prison two years, when he went to Chicago as lost baggage agent for the Chicago & Alton railroad, which position he resigned a few years later to accept that of customs examiner under Col. M. Shoemaker, collector of the port of Detroit. He remained in Detroit three years, when he returned to Jackson and for a number of years was city marshal, previous to the organization of the police force. In 1863 he entered the grocery business with Job Hobart, under the firm name of Hobart & Warriner, doing business at the northeast corner of Main and Mechanic streets till 1869, when he retired from the firm and was out of business for a year. In 1870 he embarked in the drug business with E. J. Weeks, the firm name being E. J. Weeks & Co. They opened in the Merriman block and remained there till 1882, when they moved to the present location. R. F. Latimer was admitted to the firm in 1884, since which time the firm name has been Weeks, Latimer & Co.

Mr. Warriner held many official positions in the course of his active business career, and was noted for his sterling integrity and strong practical methods of dealing with public affairs. He was appointed a member of the board of public works in 1873, and occupied that position to the date of his death, having been several times president of the board. He helped organize the Coronet Corset Company, of which he was an active director and stockholder 0075 67 holder as well as vice president of the European Featherbone Company, whose factory is located in Paris, France. He was also a member of the State Board of Pardons, under appointment of Gov. Alger, although he was known to be a very active and outspoken democrat. He never neglected a public duty and was invariably present at every meeting of the boards of which he was a member. Some years ago he served the people as an alderman from the Fourth ward. In March, 1853, he was admitted as a member of Michigan Lodge, No. 50, Free and Accepted Masons; he was also a member of the Druggists' Association, and an honorary member of the Jackson Greys. His wife, two brothers and one sister, besides several nephews and nieces, survive to mourn the loss of an honest and upright man. He had no children. Wherever Mr. Warriner was known he was esteemed and admired for fearless integrity, straightforward honesty, business sagacity, and genial, companionable qualities. He will be missed by a very large circle of friends, chiefly among the older residents of Jackson.

News of the tragedy at Spring Arbor reached this city Monday. Jonathan King lived about five miles from the city in the above township, the homestead being about a mile west of the coal mines. On December 15th, last, he suffered a stroke of paralysis, rendering his right side useless and depriving him of the power of speech. Several days ago his physician informed him that he had done all he could for him, and the news left Mr. King very despondent. Friday afternoon, Oct. 11, 1886, his daughter, Mrs. H. A. Harrison, left him in the house for a few minutes, about five o'clock. When crossing the yard in returning to the house she heard a report which she thought was a screen door slam. On entering the house, her father, whom she had left in the sitting room, was lying prostrate on the kitchen floor. Mrs. Harrison attempted to lift him up, and not until she saw the blood and the gun did she realize what had happened. Her father was dead when she reached him, having been killed instantly.

Mr. King for some time past has been able to walk a little, and had gone to the kitchen, taking down his rifle, a 38 calibre, and, placing the muzzle at the back of his head, fired. The ball passed entirely through the skull, finding egress at the left temple, and was picked up on the floor, battered out of shape, by Mr. Harrison, whom Mrs. Harrison at once called into the house.

Deceased was a pioneer of Jackson county, having come here fifty years ago from New York state. He was 71 years of age, the father of twelve children, nine of whom are still living, as is also his wife. Seven of his children live in this county, as follows: May, now Mrs. O. J. Storms; Frances, now 0076 68 Mrs. W. C. Borner; Harrison; Cynthia, now Mrs. M. G. Borner; Alice, unmarried; Jessie and George. His other two children are Leonard King, living in Emmet county, Michigan, and Melvina, now Mr. O. S. McAllister, who has removed to the west with her husband. The deceased was a very energetic man, and noted as a hunter in this part of the state.

After a long illness, Mark S. Hitchcock died at his residence, No. 506 West Main street, Oct. 18, 1886, in the 66th year of his age. Some weeks ago Mr. Hitchcock was stricken with typhoid fever, but had nearly recovered, when a severe cold developed a chronic urinary trouble which ended his life.

Mark S. Hitchcock was born in Ontario county, New York, in 1821, his parents, Manly and Chloe Hitchcock, being natives of Waterbury, Conn. They moved to Lorain county, Ohio, in 1824, and lived in Cleveland until their death. While a youth Mark Hitchcock worked on a farm summers and attended district school winters until he married Miss Polly Morgan, at the age of twenty years, and then engaged in buying and shipping live stock for several years, after which he embarked in the grocery business, which he followed in connection with farming until 1864, when he was elected sheriff of Lorain county and held the office for four years. He removed to Jackson county in 1868 and purchased the farm three miles north of this city, which he owned until last year, when he sold it to Charles R. Durand, and bought the store, No. 188, in the Durand block. In 1879 he bought the hardware stock of Rice & McConnel in this city and managed it one year in partnership with his son-in-law, George W. Fifield, who then sold out and a new firm was organized January 1, 1880, with M. S. Hitchcock, Reuben E. Clark and Charles S. Hitchcock as partners. Three years later Mr. Hitchcock sold his interest in the business and the firm became Clark, Helmer & Houk, who conducted the business a year and then transferred it back to M. S. Hitchcock & Co., the present firm. In 1880 Mr. Hitchcock purchased an interest in the Eureka Coal Co. and was elected superintendent and treasurer the same year.

Mr. Hitchcock's first wife died in May, 1854, leaving five children, and two years later he married Mary A. Bush, of Lorain, Ohio, who survives him.

During his illness all of Mr. Hitchcock's children were at his bedside, but, with the belief that he was recovering, his son Henry returned to his home in Nebraska some days ago, and his daughter, Mrs. Henry Kennedy, returned to her home at Tougaloo, Mississippi. The other children are Wallace W. Hitchcock, grocer, of 504 North Blackstone street; Mrs. George W. Fifield, 420 Williams street; Mrs. David Town, of Blackman; Charles S. Hitchcock, 0077 69 No. 240 West Main Street, and Miss Clara, who resides with her parents.

Mr. Hitchcock was a prominent and active member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, a man of good business ability and highly esteemed by a very wide circle of friends.

Alfred Draper, an esteemed member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, Jackson, was born in Otsego county, N. Y., in 1810, and died in Jackson, Mich., Oct. 31, 1886.

In 1814 his parents moved to Erie county, N. Y., where Alfred lived in the parental home until young manhood. In 1833 he sought and found the Lord, and to the end of life remained a faithful disciple and a diligent worker. He gave to the church of his choice both time and means, that its interests might be promoted. He was faithful in attendance upon public services, in storm and sunshine, in winter and summer, by day and by night. In an official capacity he served the church as class-leader, steward and trustee. In 1836 he married, and two years later came with his family to Michigan, and settled in the town of Rives, Jackson county. At that time the south central part of the state was very new. Sixty Indians camped within a few rods of Mr. Draper's house; wolves were nightly visitors, and by them he came near losing his life in going to the spring for a pail of water one night after dark. He continued to reside on his farm of nearly 300 acres until eight years ago, when he came to Jackson to reside, that he might have less care and enjoy better church privileges. He was the father of eleven children. Two died in infancy; Mary, a much loved daughter, wife of L. O. Beebe, died January 23, 1880; eight sons survive. Of these four live in California, one in Iowa, one in Illinois, one in Ohio, and one on the homestead in Michigan. I bless God that my life has been passed with such a good man, I am thankful that my children had so worthy a father. They can look with honorable pride on his life and character. He died in perfect peace and full of trust and hope of a blessed immortality. [Eliza O. Draper.]

Died, Nov. 1, 1886, at his residence in Sandstone, of old age, John M. Underwood, aged 81 years. Deceased had been a resident of the county thirty three years and was well known by the older residents. He leaves five daughters and two sons.

John Curtiss died at his home, 610 East Main street, Nov. 18, 1886, after a severe illness, from the effects of a fall.

Mr. Curtiss was born in Onondaga county, N. Y., Aug. 19, 1800, and died at the age of 86 years, 2 months and 29 days. He resided in Onondaga county until the age of 21 years, when he was married to Phebe Gilson. He then moved to Hastings, Oswego county, N. Y., which was then a wilderness, improving a large farm of heavy timber land. In the spring of 1836 he removed with his wife and four children to Napoleon, Jackson county, Mich., where he located a farm. He joined St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and then located at the village of Brooklyn. After remaining there until the spring of 1844, Mr. Curtiss removed to Kalamazoo county, remaining there until the spring of 1846. He then settled in the city (then village) of Jackson, and rented the Eagle hotel, located where the Glass front now stands, which he kept one year, after which time he was engaged in the carpenter and building business. He purchased a lot, 610 East Main street, and erected a house thereon, where he resided until his death. For the last seventeen years he has been unable to labor, and has been living with his daughter, Mrs. O. R. Cole, at his own home. He leaves two sons and two daughters to mourn his loss; P. J. Curtiss and L. J. Curtiss; Mrs. O. R. Cole, of this city, and Mrs. George B. Fuller, of Clyde, Ohio. Mr. Curtis was always a good citizen and took an active part in public affairs. In 1863–4 he was elected overseer of the poor and served in that capacity.

Charles L. Mitchell died at his residence on Clinton street at 3 p. m., Nov. 30, 1886, aged 71 years, of paralysis. Deceased was a well known resident of Jackson.

The death of Hon. Frank L. Smith, of Bright's disease, at the age of 56 years, occurred at the family residence, on Stewart avenue, Dec. 5, 1886. His death is universally lamented by our citizens, by whom Mr. Smith was highly respected as a representative business man.

Mr. Smith was one of the type usually termed “self-made men.” His birth occurred at Stafford Springs, Conn., July 8, 1830, where he resided until 12 years of age. His parents, Calvin and Mary Smith, then removed to Michigan, settling on a farm at Armada, north of Detroit.

When a young man, Mr. Smith left his father's farm and went to Adrian, where his brother David was foreman of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad shops, and entered the shops, with the desire of becoming an engineer. In 1855 he came to Jackson, owing to the death of Cyrus Fenton Smith, his brother, and father of Dr. Cyrus Smith. Cyrus F. Smith was the 0079 71 proprietor of the American hotel, afterwards the Marion house, and F. L. Smith managed the hotel property for his brother's family for a time, ultimately selling out to J. B. Pierce. The name of the hotel was changed to the Marion house just before the war. When D. B. Hibbard purchased the Hibbard house, Mr. Smith was engaged as clerk, which position he retained after Messrs. Gunnison & Spencer bought the property, until 1864. He then received his appointment as quartermaster of the 29th regiment Michigan infantry, and served two months, when the 29th regiment was consolidated with the 28th regiment, and Mr. Smith received his honorable discharge. He then returned to Jackson and kept the Marion house for a year. Then he purchased the old Tremont house property, on the site of the present Hurd house, assuming charge in 1865. On the 6th of October, 1868, the hotel was burned. In 1869 it was rebuilt and named the Hurd house, after John S. Hurd, father of his business partner, L. C. Hurd, and also father of Mr. Smith's wife. Smith & Hurd conducted the Hurd house until September 1, 1886, when by the advice of Mr. Smith's physician, the hotel was leased and the furniture sold. Since that time (but for a short interval, when he held an interest in a grocery store) Mr. Smith has sought rest and recuperation, as his health had already given indications of becoming seriously impaired.

August 14, 1862, Mr. Smith married Miss Addie Hurd. In [1871–72] he was elected to the state legislature, and, there being a special session called, he served at Lansing two years. For a number of years he was supervisor from the old fourth ward, and after the change in the city charter served in like capacity from the seventh ward. In 1872 he was elected alderman of the seventh ward. For twenty years he has been a member of the Knights Templar, and was standard bearer at the time of his death. He was also a member of the Odd Fellows' organization. He leaves a family, consisting of a wife and two living daughters, Misses Irene and Georgianna Smith. His other immediate living relatives are his brother, C. L. Smith, of Armada, and sister, Mrs. Harley Bascom, of this city.

Mrs. Mary Turney died at the family home in Liberty township, Christmas day, 1886, of infirmities resulting from old age. She was upwards of 73 years old, and was a pioneer of Jackson county, coming here about fifty years ago with her husband, Thomas Turney. Mrs. Turney reared a large family of children, of whom Edward and John reside in this city, and Hugh, Harvey and Mrs. Samuel Kerr reside in Liberty.

Mrs. Jane Holcomb, mother of Daniel S. Holcomb and the other members of this well known family, who died at her home in Spring Arbor township, February 10, 1887, was nearly 82 years old and a genuine pioneer of Jackson county. She was born in Yates county, N. Y., April 12, 1805, her parents being Mr. and Mrs. John Slaughter. At the age of 16 years she married Henry S. Holcomb, and in the summer of 1832, nearly 55 years ago, moved to Spring Arbor, where her husband cleared the farm on which she has ever since resided. Henry S. Holcomb died July 14, 1854.

Mrs. Holcomb was the mother of fourteen children; John H., who was killed at the battle of Shiloh in 1862; Christian, Diana, Sally, Nancy, Daniel S., Ed. N., Margaret, Henry S., William T., Jane, Gertrude and Florence A. The three last named daughters and Daniel S. and Ed. N. are still residents of this county. Mrs. Holcomb's father and grandfather were both soldiers in the revolutionary struggle, the latter serving the whole seven years of the war.

Warren Green, of Summit, died Sunday morning, February 27, 1887, at his residence, aged 82 years. The deceased had been a resident of Jackson county for about 40 years, and leaves three daughters and one son.

Charles Harrington, whose death occurred March 4, 1887, was born in Otsego county, N. Y., in 1810, and came to Jackson in 1831, removing shortly after to Summit, where he remained until 1849, when he went to Spring Arbor and settled on a farm, where he has since resided. He leaves a widow and five children, three sons and two daughters: Mrs. Aseneth Thompson, J. M., Porter S. and Frank A. Harrington and Mrs. Flora D. Darrah, all residing in Spring Arbor.

Mrs. Catharine Hunsecker died at her residence in Spring Arbor, of Bright's disease, March 4, 1887, aged 67 years. Deceased was born in Cumberland county, Penn., and moved to this state 36 years ago in June. She was married 47 years, and was the mother of six children, three of whom are now living.

Mrs. Amelia H. Warner died at her home May 18, 1887, after an illness of six weeks, age 73 years. Mrs. Warner was one of the pioneers of Jackson, 0081 73 locating here 50 years ago, and had been a resident of the city ever since. Her husband, William S. Warner, died 22 years since. Mrs. Warner came to Jackson from New York in 1837, and lived to see the small hamlet grow to its present large dimensions. When she came to this place it was an insignificant village, but she and her husband located here and aided in building up the town. She leaves one son, William H. Warner.

The funerals of the late Gilbert Stuart and Dr. N. M. Thomas took place at Schoolcraft on the same day. Both were largely attended. 10

Gilbert Stuart was a man in every sense of the word, and was made so from his early training by a good mother. When a boy he worked nine months on the farm and attended school three months in each year. He was the oldest of seven children, and until he married and left home he managed his mother's farm; he was a dutiful son, and a father to his younger brothers and sisters, but notwithstanding his limited chances of procuring an education, he made such good use of his time at school, that he acquired a good practical education, and has of late years officiated as one of the school board. He showed good judgment in the management of the school, and in the education of his own family. He knew but little about the laws of the country; he was a law unto himself; looked to nature and his own conscience to guide him in the right path, and this he conscientiously followed.

He resided on a beautiful prairie farm about one mile south of the village, and the teams in attendance at his funeral reached from the farm to the village, to the number of 105, and followed his remains to the cemetery.

The funeral of Dr. Thomas who died April 7, 1887, took place in the afternoon and was largely attended, and mostly by old pioneers who had been intimately acquainted with him for 40 to over 50 years, and who entertained for him the highest respect. He was a man of positive convictions, a relative of the late Secretary Stanton, and partook largely of Mr. Stanton's determined will to never yield a position after he was satisfied he was in the right. But few men in Michigan did more to abolish slavery than Dr. Thomas; he talked about it, he wrote about it, he distributed documents pleading the black man's cause, he furnished those escaping from slavery food and shelter, and counseled them how best to proceed on their way to freedom; he was amongst the first to assist in organizing the republican party, which caused its final overthrow, and it has been one of the most gratifying episodes of his later years to not only live to see slavery abolished, but to know that those once in slavery are fast becoming self sustaining, intelligent citizens. He was of Mr. Lincoln's opinion that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other man's consent, and although his position in the early stage of the abolition discussions caused him to almost stand alone in that community, he lived to gain the friendship of all, and died very much respected by both young and old.—[Kalamazoo Telegraph, April 11, 1887.

William Harrison was born in Frederick county, Virginia, Jan 17, 1790, and consequently was 97 years, three months and nine days old at his death. 0083 75 The deceased was the oldest of 17 children. On the 27th day of August, 1820, he was married to Miss Sally Hampton, who died October 7, 1825. He was again married, March 20, 1828, to Miss America Harrison, who died Nov. 8, 1874. The first wife left him three children, Basil, Jeremiah and James, all of whom are dead. The second wife left him 11 children, Beersheba, Martha, Aaron, Sally, Joseph, Spencer, Olive, America, William, John and Hannah; of whom Sally, Joseph, Olive, America, John and Hannah are still living. The deceased moved onto the farm on which he died in Charleston, Kalamazoo county, in 1830, and held the plow to turn the first furrow in the township. He died, leaving 26 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

The name Harrison is suggestive. His lineage is traced away back to the time when General Harrison held a commission under Cromwell; Benjamin Harrison, father of President Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a warm friend of Washington, was his great uncle. His grandfather, who was also named William, was with Washington in Braddock's expedition and often referred to the terrible day at Monongahela and the charmed life Washington seemed to bear. His father was Judge Harrison, so well known in this county, who was its first white settler, and to whom its developments owe so much. The deceased, so familiarly known to everybody as “Uncle Billy,” possessed a genial temper and a kind heart to a marked degree. He was kind to the poor, a good neighbor, scrupulously honest, proud of his integrity and honor, the first to spread his tent in Charleston, and the last to leave it by a road, the pathway of which bears no impression of passing feet. The most conspicuous of all landmarks is torn down. While we pay the last tribute of respect we carry to his last resting place one of few faults and many virtues. [Kalamazoo Telegraph, May 3, 1887.

The development of this county owes much to the above list of pioneers. Each and all performed well their part, and whilst we regret to lose so many familiar faces from among us, it is consoling to know that nearly all lived beyond the allotted age of man and were ready and willing to die.

The widely known, greatly respected and esteemed pioneer and citizen of this county, Mr. Godfrey Knight, died Sunday, Feb. 23, 1887, at 2 o'clock A. M. at his home in Schoolcraft. Up to about Christmas time he had been in his usual vigor and good health, which were remarkable for one so old; he 0084 76 became low spirited, which was also a marked change, for he was a man of unusual spirits. His daughter, Mrs. Wood, arranged a dinner party for him, and quite a number of his old friends were present and a very happy time was had, the good effects of which was apparent on the old veteran. But in a little while he became ill; pneumonia set in. He was sick with this about 40 days and on Saturday last he seemed to be free of it. But he was left in so weak a condition he could not survive and death came as above stated.

Godfrey Knight was born in Roscommon county, Ireland, May 26, 1786. He was raised a farmer, was superintendent of a large farm of 1,800 acres for his cousin, William Knight, for eleven years, during which time, in June, 1822, he married Ann Kenny. In 1832 he came to this country and soon after settled in Schoolcraft. He purchased a school section in that town and afterwards a portion of the James Field farm, giving him 200 acres of as good farming land as there was in this county. He has resided on that farm ever since. Mr. Knight was a man of marked character and genial nature. In the early days of Schoolcraft he was among the first in all sports, was an athlete, and above all, a wit and story teller and the center always of an assembled crowd. His vivacity and ready repartee always made him popular, and, indeed, the last mentioned characteristic remained with him to the day of his illness. He has always enjoyed good health; his was a happy disposition, and it is thought that one reason for his remarkably prolonged life was this peculiarity. He was a temperate man, though not a total abstainer. His presence was that of a hale, vigorous, well made gentleman of the old school, with color, form and feature, step and action of a man of 70, rather than a man who claimed to be nearly one hundred and one years old. He was a noticeable figure at all the pioneer gatherings, which he enjoyed greatly; and others enjoyed to have him with them. By his labors and good business abilities he had amassed a comfortable fortune. His life has been an uneventful one save as above. He has never sought office or held official position. He has been a life long democrat. He leaves four sons and one daughter, William, John, Jerry and Godfrey, and Mrs. Mary Wood.

William E. Bellows, of Climax, died at his residence Monday, Feb. 14, 1877, after a long illness. Mr. Bellows was born at Saxton's River village, Vt., in 1806. He was a great grandson of Col. Benjamin Bellows, an army officer in early colonial times, to whom was granted large tracts of land in the vicinity of Bellows Falls, from whom the falls and the town take their name. At an early age Mr. Bellows removed with his parents to Charlestown, N. H., where he remained until 1837. At about the age of 18 he was 0085 77 apprenticed to learn the cabinet-maker's trade and worked for some time at that business, but the labor proving too great for his constitution he abandoned it. Mr. A. T. Prouty, of Kalamazoo, was a fellow workman with Mr. Bellows in the cabinet shop. Subsequently he learned the butcher's trade, which he followed for about 10 years previous to his moving west. In 1837 he moved with his family to Michigan, where two of his sisters, Mrs. M. Hodgman and Mrs. W. E. Sawyer, had preceded him. He settled on a farm in sections 4 and 5 in the township where he has remained ever since. The farm is not what would be considered a good one for Climax, yet by good management and economy he amassed a good fortune from it, much of which in late years has been distributed among his children. He was married twice and leaves a widow and a son and five daughters, children of his first wife. They are: Prof. C. F. R. Bellows, of the State Normal School, Mrs. Annie E. Whitney, Mrs. Marion H. Adams, Mrs. Jennie M. Decker, and Susie H. Adams, all of Battle Creek, Mich., and Mrs. Agnes L. Ashby, of Lincoln, Neb.

Mrs. Julia S. Joy, who died Nov. 16, 1886, was a very early comer to western Michigan. In 1828 her father, who was a prominent resident of Detroit (an intimate friend of Gen. Lewis Cass, president of the territorial legislative council for the yearly sessions of 1828 and 1830 and a leader in social and political matters in that city), left Detroit with his wife and 10 children to secure a home in western Michigan. They set out with three covered wagons. After leaving Ypsilanti they struck the Chicago (Indian) trail and their first camp was at Dearborn, the second at Sheldon's, and from that point they left the settlements, except a few scattering squatters, and they were few and far between. Scarcely the face of a white man was seen, while often at night they would be disturbed by the noise of drunken Indians near their camp. After 18 days of travel they reached Beardsley's prairie, Cass county, now Edwardsburg, named after Maj. Edwards. There on the margin of a beautiful lake in view of the prairie, finding a log cabin vacant which had been vacated by some adventurer, this family took up their abode, and their first night's rest in that cabin, the major afterwards said, was one of the most agreeable of his life, after that long and tedious journey through that trackless wilderness. The next morning Father Edwards had one of the wagons brought up and took the children out to show them the prairie. It was then one vast flower garden and the children could not suppress their wonder and enthusiasm at such a profuse and lavish wealth of flowers. The land office was established at White Pigeon in June, 1831, and Maj. Edwards 0086 78 was appointed register and Thomas C. Sheldon receiver, and the Edwards family removed to that place. In May, 1834, the land office was removed to Kalamazoo and Maj. Edwards and family and Mr. Sheldon and his family removed to this place. Mrs. Joy was not the youngest sister, as previously stated, her sister, now Mrs. Scott, of Detroit, being entitled to that place.

The Edwards family were very prominent in social and political circles of Kalamazoo for a long time, but after many years death and removal left but Mrs. Joy and Mrs. Walter here as the sole survivors of the family. Mrs. Walter died several years ago. Mrs. AtLee came here from Washington after the death of her husband. Mrs. Joy leaves a husband and two children, Mrs. George Davis and Mrs. Edward Dayton. When the Edwardses came here there were but a few scattered families and the place gave but little promise at that time of its present position among the cities of Michigan. The Edwards mansion, which formerly occupied the corner of Main and Edwards streets, is still standing on Edwards street just north of that corner.

This lady died March, 1887, at the residence of M. N. Joy, Academy street, Kalamazoo, aged 70 years. Mrs. AtLee was a daughter of the late Major Abram [Abraham] Edwards, at one time one of the most prominent officials in Michigan, and one of the leading citizens of the territory as well as of this place. Mrs. AtLee and her sisters have resided here most of the time since 1834, and from the first have been highly esteemed and occupied a high position in society and the regard of a large circle of acquaintances. The death of Mrs. AtLee's husband was a crushing blow to her, their devotion to each other being of the strongest character. She is the last but one of the daughters of Maj. Edwards, Mrs. James Scott, of Detroit, alone surviving. Oliver Edwards, of Chicago, and Alexander Edwards, of Cheboygan, are the only brothers living.

Orra Bush died at his home on north Church street, Kalamazoo, March 9, 1887. His age was 92 years and 11 months.

Deceased was born in Massachusetts, April 17, 1994. At an early age he removed to Skaneateles, N. Y., and afterwards to Oswego. Early in the thirties he removed to Calhoun county where he purchased a farm and worked it until about 1841, when he purchased the place in Charleston which he made famous as the postoffice and stage exchange from 1842 till the Central road was finished to Kalamazoo. Mr. Bush purchased the premises of the state in 1841, but previously it had been occupied as a tavern by H. P. Fletcher and Peter Fulton. Soon after Mr. Bush and his son Henry W. became 0087 79 the owners of the premises they built a frame barn 35 by 45 feet, and in 1851 erected the first brick house in Charleston. This stage exchange, so prominent in all matters connected with the history of Charleston, was a landmark and a noted hostelry throughout the land, for few were the travelers by the stage coach who did not remember with pleasure and sound far and wide the praises of the table and the genial character of the host. It was a very large house and stood by the old territorial road on section 16, near the junction of the road east to the river and Augusta. It was the headquarters of the township, the postoffice, the place of holding township meetings and a general center. In connection with the house was a large farm and Orra Bush and Henry, his son, were as good farmers a they were hotel keepers.

Orra Bush was elected supervisor in 1956 and 1857. For years before, and after that time, he was a regular delegate to the whig an the republican conventions and was a staunch defender of his party.

It is now about twenty years since Mr. Bush removed to Kalamazoo. He has been well and able to be about and attend to business until the past winter. Gradually he has failed of late, and his death was the result of old age. He leaves a wife and one son, Supt. H. W. Bush, of this city. The deceased was a man of much independence of spirit and large capabilities, was a trusted friend and neighbor, outspoken in his opinions and a citizen whose efforts were always for the right. His life has been a long and eventful and useful one, and his record a good one. His birthplace was Cheshire, Mass., and he first settled in Michigan in Eckford, Calhoun county. A few years ago there were but few if any men better known throughout the country than Orra Bush.

The death of Mrs. Coleman, of Oshtemo, widow of the late William Harrison Coleman, took place on Sunday, March 13, 1887, at the house of her son-in-law, Mr. Henry Buckhout, where she had been visiting for a short time. Mrs. Coleman was born in the state of Vermont in the year 1808. She, with her husband, were among the first settlers in the village of Oshtemo in the year 1836, where she has ever since resided. She was converted in early life and ever took a lively interest in the cause of religion and Sabbath schools. She died of old age, the powers of nature gradually failing until “the weary wheels of life stood still.”

Mrs. Mary Daniels, wife of D. H. Daniels, one of the earliest pioneers of Gull Prairie, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. S. Cornings, near Galesburg, 0088 80 Oct. 2, 1886. She came with her husband to Gull Prairie in 1832, where she spent a large part of her life in Michigan. Mr. Daniels was among the first merchants in Battle Creek, where he lived for a number of years.

Peter Johnson, who built his log cabin in Ross, this county, in 1835, and turned his wild lands into an excellent farm, died at his late home in this place, Saturday, June 18, 1887, aged 81. He was an industrious and thrifty farmer and a good citizen.

James Lindsay, an old resident of Climax, died on Thursday, Feb. 17, 1887, at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Clarence Day, in South Climax.

Mr. Lindsay has for years been a widower, and has lived alone much of the time at his residence in this village. He leaves two sons: James, living in Kansas, and Alexander, living in Colorado, and one daughter, Mrs. Day.

Edwin M. Clapp, one of the best known and prominent pioneers of this part of the county, died at his late home in Kalamazoo, on Sunday, the 9th of January, 1887, of heart disease. He came from Cambria, Niagara county, N. Y., to Michigan in 1831 and secured his land, and removed here in 1832. He settled first on the Isaac Clark farm just south of the village, which he improved. He afterwards improved the farm now owned by Thaddeus Clapp, where he lived until 1873, when he removed to Kalamazoo. He was an exemplary member of the Congregational church. He was supervisor of this township several years, which position he filled in a very satisfactory manner. As a citizen he was respected by all who knew him.

Mr. Clapp was one of the most prominent pioneers in the east part of Kalamazoo county, and one of the most successful farmers in the county. His name will ever be connected with the history of this part of Michigan and he will be referred to as a notable example of what a man with an honest purpose, a brave heart, and thrift and perseverance, can accomplish. He accumulated a large property for himself, and aided much in making Kalamazoo county one of the richest and most prosperous counties in the state.

Mr. Lake was born in Providence, R. I., 1809; came to Michigan in 1835, settling at Yorkville, Kalamazoo county. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and lived in the house that he built at Yorkville fifty years. His death 0089 81 occurred on the 29th of June, 1887. He was a willing representative of those old pioneers who are now fast passing away.

Mason Sprague came to Michigan with his father's family in 1835, settling in East Leroy, Calhoun county. He, some thirty years ago, removed to Augusta, Kalamazoo county, and lived there until his death, which occurred in March, 1887.

The sad intelligence of the death of Col. Delos Phillips fell like a shock on this community, though to quite a number of friends it was not wholly unexpected. His death occurred Feb. 23, 1887, at his residence, No. 436 Dutton street, Kalamazoo. The cause of his death was softening of the brain.

The loss to this city and to his friends is a very severe one. Col. Phillips has been a resident of Kalamazoo since June, 1866, an ever active and influential member of the community. He has had an unusual share in the progress and advancement of Kalamazoo. In nearly every movement which tended to advance her interests he has been among the foremost. He was always ready to labor on committees which had for their purpose social, benevolent or material benefits. He possessed energy, push, fertility of expedients and the tact and way of winning success, bringing him into connection with the innumerable movements for the benefit of the city. He was among the first to move and one of the most efficient of the movers for our new court house.

Delos Phillips was born in Hamburg, Erie county, N. Y., Oct. 24, 1839. When six years of age his parents moved to Ypsilanti. He is the second of eight sons, six of whom are now living. He devoted himself to study in his school life, so that at the age of 15 years was prepared for a scientific course in the university. The next four years were passed in preparation for a full classical course under Prof. Estabrook and Hon. S. M. Cutcheon. At the age of 17 he taught school at Augusta and Nankin. In the fall of 1859 he entered the university, in the regular classical course. He made excellent progress in his studies and high honors of the university seemed to be his. He was elected president of the students' lecture course in June, 1861. Notwithstanding the fact that but little time more was needed to complete his course in the university, he enlisted as a private in the 17th Michigan infantry.

He carried a musket through the terrible battles of South Mountain and Antietam. For gallantry on the latter field he was promoted to the position 11 0090 82 of second lieutenant. In July following he was made first lieutenant, and in October of the same year (1863) was made captain of his own company. He was present at every engagement of his command until captured in May, 1864, at Spottsylvania court house. He effected his escape from the cars in North Carolina, and arrived in safety at the union lines in Charleston, Va., after traveling 300 miles in the enemy's country.

He arrived at Detroit in due time and was placed in command of the military district of Lake Superior and assisted in raising the 28th and 29th regiments, being made lieutenant colonel of the 28th, and commanded it from its organization in October, 1864, till December the same year. In January, 1865, he resigned and returned to Marquette to go into business, when President Haven of the university tendered him a diploma on account of his services as a soldier, upon his studying eight weeks, and he was chosen valedictorian of his class.

In June, 1866, Col. Phillips came to Kalamazoo and entered on the business of manufacturing and selling musical merchandise. In 1868 he was elected state senator and made a fine record in the senate, though the youngest member of that body. He was chairman of the committee on military affairs and was a member of the committee on reform schools. In 1876 he was presidential elector and was sent to Washington as messenger. He has since that time held many offices in this town; has been supervisor for many years, and was supervisor of the third ward of this city when he died; has been deputy oil inspector and been prominently connected with various societies. He has been a republican from the first and a valuable worker in the party, and was four years chairman of the county committee.

Col. Phillips has been three times married. His first wife was a resident of the eastern part of this state and died in 1867, leaving one child. His second wife was Miss Lizzie Bruen, sister of Mr. George T. Bruen of this city. They were married at Lansing in 1872. She died in October, 1883, leaving three children. On Christmas day, 1885, Col. Phillips married Mrs. Josie Burch of Allegan, formerly of Lowell, this state. She survives him, as do his four daughters.

Hon. Henry Pennoyer died at his residence in the township of Crockery, Kent county, April 30, 1886, of cerebral apoplexy, after an illness of a few weeks, aged 77 years. He was one of the leading spirits in conducting the affairs of this county at an early day, among the very foremost in the promotion of every enterprise, agricultural, moral, social and educational. He was also a leader in the political movements, and much of the prosperity of Grand Haven, his early residence, and of Crockery township, his later abode, and of other portions of the county generally, is due to his formulating hand and his quick, far sighted perception. Ottawa county has lost one of its oldest and most venerated landmarks.

Hon. Henry Pennoyer was born at Norwalk, Fairfield county, Conn. When the years of age he removed with his parents to Cayuga county, N. Y. In 1834 he took up his abode in Chicago, Ill.; soon after married Miss Harriet Kells, and after a two years' residence in the city, he sought a home in the then territory of Michigan, settling at Muskegon, then a part of Ottawa county, and, on its full organization, was elected its first sheriff. In 1838, and by a commission signed by Amos Kendall dated Jan. 3, 1838, he became postmaster of Muskegon and continued as such until 1843, when he removed to Grand Haven. His first wife died in 1852, leaving four children, and in 1853 he was married to his surviving widow, by whom also he has four children. In politics Mr. Pennoyer was a staunch democrat of the old school, and has been highly honored politically, having held the offices of justice of the peace, supervisor, and several other township offices, county treasurer, deputy collector of customs at Grand Haven, representative to the state legislature for 1849, and state senator in 1859. A man whom the people delighted to honor has fallen.

The death on Sunday, May 16, 1886, of Solomon O. Kingsbury removes another from the ranks of the old residents of Grand Rapids, a man who has been familiarly known and universally esteemed on these streets for upwards of forty years, during most of which time he has resided on Fulton, just south of the head of Monroe street. He was born in Connecticut May 2, 1812, and soon after the family moved west to Painesville, Ohio, where he received the education of the common schools. In early life he followed the calling of clerk, and afterwards the mercantile business. In 1836 he married Melinda 0095 87 Bond, a native of Rutland, Vt., with whom he lived a pleasant domestic life till her death, nearly seven years ago. In 1848 he was elected county treasurer, and again in 1850, serving four years. Then, after a mercantile life, he opened in 1858 a real estate and insurance office and in that business continued until quite recently. In 1866 he was elected to the state legislature, and in 1867 was appointed postmaster, which office he held about two years. He was a man of quiet habits, always busy, an estimable citizen, who will be much missed and especially by all our older residents. He leaves a daughter, Mrs. Tinkham of this city, with whom he has resided since the death of his wife, and a son, Gaius P. Kingsbury, a resident of Muskegon.

Loren M. Page, one of the quiet and yet always active citizens of Grand Rapids, whom everybody knew, died on Sunday, May 16, 1886. He was one of the very early comers, a pioneer. He was born at Concord, Vt., March 29, 1811, and his boyhood was spent on a farm. Then he learned the painter's trade, serving a three years' apprenticeship in Canada, and working there some seven years, when, at the age of 23, he returned to Vermont, alternated between painting and district school teaching, till the fall of 1836, when he came to Grand Rapids. Soon afterward he married Miss Jane Soper. He passed a life of incessant labor—was one of those never happy without work—and experienced almost all phases of alternate success and reverses, hopes and disappointments—always an unpretentious man, yet companionable, social and friendly. Five sons went out to the war, and one of them returned without feet, both having been shot off. Mr. Page stuck to labor till very near his last days, and maintained a good degree of cheerfulness and geniality. Old residents, those who have been familiar with his daily walk for almost fifty years, all remember him kindly, and sigh even while feeling that a good man has gone to his rest.

Milton C. Watkins died at his home in Grattan, on Sunday, May 16, 1886, aged nearly 81 years. Mr. Watkins was another of the pioneers of this valley, and one of the organizers of Grattan township. He was its first supervisor, elected in 1846; also its first justice of the peace, chosen in the same year, and was supervisor again in 1857. In 1867 he was a member of the state constitutional convention from this county. He was a representative in the state legislature at the session of 1859, and a member of the state senate at the session of 1863–'64–'65. A thoroughly upright citizen, 0096 88 and a man of character and influence, his was a long, busy and useful life, and in his decease the town and county lose a valuable and everywhere highly esteemed member of society.

At a meeting of the Old Residents' association, called to attend the funeral of Robert H. Smith, on the 21st day of November, 1886, the following memorial and resolutions were, on motion of Thomas B. Church, adopted:

Robert H. Smith was born at Watertown, Connecticut, in the year 1819. He lived for a time in Rhode Island and came into Michigan, to the Grand River valley, in the year 1844. Early in life he had followed the seas, and long voyages through the Indian ocean had made him an able seaman, and like all old sailor men he delighted in his latter days to follow his courses by the charts he possessed, and often examined amongst the great islands and through the circuitous channels of navigation, in that remote region of the world, and indulged in reminiscences of the scenes and people he had visited. After a brief residence in the town of Ada (where he married a Miss Ward) he came to this city, then village, and was employed as a clerk and manager in the business office of Henry R. Williams, then in the full tide of his various enterprises of plaster manufacture, steamboating on Grand river, and general merchandise. Since that time Mr. Smith has been our fellow citizen, quietly, steadily and unostentatiously doing what he found to do, and be economy, prudence and fair dealing, accumulated sufficient for his plain wants and tastes, and won the respect and honorable estimation of all who dealt with him and met him, in social and other personal relations. Those who knew him well recognized his good judgment, his kind heart and his loyal adherence to his convictions, in political and in all other responsibilities devolved upon him by his position. He leaves a widow and two daughters; a household of affection and happiness, the head of it now removed in his mature years, by the inevitable call of death; therefore

Resolved , That we tender our condolence to his family, with the expression of our 0097 89 high regard for the deceased and of our sorrow for the removal from our thinning ranks of one of this association's most worthy members;

Resolved , That our secretary be directed to place on record this memorial statement, and to transmit a copy thereof to his bereaved family.

Jan. 5, 1887 .

The board of supervisors at its session yesterday morning adopted the following resolutions in respect to the late Hollis Konkle, formerly a member of the board, and a memorial page will be given in the book of records of the board:

Whereas , This board has learned with sorrow of the death of our former esteemed fellow citizen and associate on this board, Hollis Konkle; therefore

Resolved , That we hereby record our appreciation of his uprightness and integrity as a citizen, of his fidelity and efficiency as a public officer, evidenced by his frequent election to positions of the public service and public trust, and to the high esteem in which he was held by all who knew him. That we tender to his afflicted family our sympathy in this their bereavement.

R. B. Loomis

J. W. Walker

H. H. Ives

John Steketee Committee

Died March 19, 1887

Josiah R. Holden was born in Groton, New Hampshire, February 22, 1797; came west and settled in Cook county (now Mill county), Illinois, in 1834, eight miles from Joliet. He was married to Joanna T. Danforth at Groton, N. H., January 24, 1825; lived with his family in Illinois till 1843; from thence went to New Albany, Floyd county, Indiana; came to Michigan and settled in town of Byron, Kent county, in 1845, and has resided in this county ever since. He was the father of six children, three of whom survive him; C. H. Holden, of Reed City, Mrs. Fanny H. Fowler, of Manistee, and E. G. D. Holden, of this city. Being one of the earliest pioneers of this county, he was one of the first to clear away the forests for farming purposes, several fine “eighties” in Byron and Wyoming townships certifying to the telling blows of the hardy pioneer ax, and his unremitting energy in transforming wildernesses into some of the finest farms to be found in Kent county. His life has been mostly that of a farmer, though at various times during his life he has traveled quite extensively and came to be a man of broad and liberal views. He was an earnest reader and had a mind well stored with historical facts. From the time previous to the war of 1812 up to date there was scarcely a historical incident of any moment but that he could 12 0098 90 vividly recall and depict in glowing terms. His memory was remarkable in retaining dates, scarcely ever missing the exact period of any great event that happened during his life. That he was a man of iron constitution is evidenced in the fact that sickness or disease were not known to him, and until his recent taking to his bed on account of old age has never been compelled to submit to a physician's care. He hardly knew what physical pain meant, and up to the moment of his last breath was seemingly free from it, never uttering a word of complaint from the time of his prostration to his final taking off, some eight weeks. He was a thorough temperance man and a radical in politics, always adhering strictly to his party principles. On several occasions he has held offices of trust at the gift of his fellow townsmen.

Of a family of 14 children born to his parents he was the oldest of those living at the time of his demise and three members survive him, aged respectively 75, 83 and 86, his brother living in New Hampshire being the oldest, and two sisters, residents of Boston, all from first New England families. His wife, 87 years old, survives him.

On the 24th of March, 1887, George G. Griggs died at St. Mark's home. Mr. Griggs was born in Princeton, N. J., on December 1, 1815, coming to Michigan in 1838. He married here a Miss Marsac, and went to St. Louis, where he engaged in business and gained considerable wealth. In 1862 he returned to this city and purchased a farm on South Division street, giving his time and means generously to the furthering of public interests and lending a helping hand to the needy. He was at one time grand master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Michigan, a prominent member of the agricultural society of the state and a prime mover in the establishment of the Northwestern Michigan Agriculture and Industrial society. He was also one of the foremost of the men who furthered the organization of the Agricultural College at Lansing.

In later years, after a life of business success and social prominence, through misfortune and financial reverses he became impoverished,and at the same time failed in health and became crippled. As a last resort he bravely went out with his pop-corn basket, and the bent and enfeebled form of the pleasant mannered old gentlemen will be remembered by many who have observed him at the Union depot with his basket by his side and little imagined the life history of the aged pop-corn vender. For the past two years he has lived at St. Mark's home, earning almost enough during the summer months to maintain himself there for the year. Some comforts with which he was not able to supply himself have been furnished by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and under their auspices the funeral was held, assisted by the Masonic fraternity.

Mrs. Mary A., wife of Capt. Baker Borden, a much esteemed resident of the West Side, died at her residence, No. 20 Turner street, March 31, 1887, at the age of 60 years. She was a member of the Old Residents' association, having come to this city in 1854. Her first husband, James A. Belknap, died in 1870, and November 10, 1872, she was again married, to Baker Borden. She was the mother of ten children, seven of whom are now living. Her surviving children are ex-Mayor Belknap, City Clerk Belknap, ex-Senator Belknap, of Granville, Mrs. C. H. Schaffer, of Onota, Mich., Mrs. A. E. Stockwell, Thomas R. and Herbert P. Belknap, of this city.

April 2, 1887, at noon, Peter Weirich, long identified with the brewing and other business interests of the West Side, died at his home on West Bridge street. Mr. Weirich had been sick nearly three months, an attack of pneumonia developing into a quick consumption against which even his powerful frame and great vitality could make but little resistance. He was born in the village of Todtenorth, near Coblentz, in Prussia, Jan. 18, 1831, and was consequently 56 years of age at the time of his death. The year that he attained his majority he came to America to seek his fortune, with the sole capital of his hands and brains, first going to Milwaukee, but within a year applying for and receiving employment at the brewery of Christopher Kusterer in this city. Within two years (in 1855) he purchased the property where the Michigan brewery now stands and went into business for himself. The next year he married Josephine Arnold, of Austria, who died 12 years ago. Mr. Weirich prospered in business and became identified with the business advancement of the West Side to a considerable extent; he owned several business blocks and was a director in the Fifth national bank in the organization of which he was prominent. The eighth ward elected him to the council for several terms and found him an active and influential representative. In 1875 Mr. Weirich married as his second wife Mary Peterman, a native of Austria, as was his first wife. She survives him. Of a family of 10 children, but five are now living, a young son, Henry, and four daughters. Two sisters of Mr. Weirich, Mrs. Brach and Mrs. Lachman, reside here, and there are two in Germany. He was a Mason and a member of the Turn and Arbeiter Vercins. His acquaintance and associations were extensive, and by them all he was highly esteemed as a business man, a citizen and a friend.

The death, April 1, 1887, of that fine old gentleman and pioneer citizen of 0100 92 Grand Rapids, John Kirkland, recalls to scores of people memories of the early days here. Rarely is one blessed with such general, nay, universal friendship. John Kirkland was born at Saybrook, Conn., in 1807. At the age of seven years he moved, with his father's family, to Bridgewater, Oneida county, N. Y. About 1836 he married Emily Jane Green, a sister of Mrs. William I. Blakely, at West Winfield, Herkimer county, N. Y., and in 1837 came to Michigan, settling in Paris township, and a few years later moved into Grand Rapids, where he made his home for life. By his first wife, who died about 1851, he had one daughter, Martha, now Mrs. Stover, who lives in Wyoming township. About 1854 or 1855 he married Sarah Rauch, by whom he had two children, Dr. Reynold J. and Nellie Kirkland, who also survive him. Mr. Kirkland was by trade a cooper, and that he followed during all his active life in this city, taking great pride in his work, in which he had few if any superiors as a craftsman “working by hand.” And whoever entered his shop or his home was sure of a pleasing welcome from as jolly and genial a man as ever breathed; always good humored, always sociable and contented and cheery, and happy, and ready to beat a tattoe as he drove home the hoops on his barrels. For about forty years in religious feeling he leaned to Swedenborgianism, and to the glowing warmth of some portions of the philosophy of modern Spiritualism. In the ripeness of years passes away one who was eminently a pattern of honesty, of thorough uprightness, of neighborly kindness and charity, of whole hearted manliness and unruffled cheerfulness during a long and well spent life.

Leonard D'Ooge, who for over 30 years has been closely identified with the growth and business interests of this city, died at his residence on Lafayette street, April 12, 1887, at the ripe old age of 71 years.

Leonard D'Ooge was born in the province of Zealand, Netherlands, February 14, 1816, and learned the trade of a painter. He was married in 1838 to Johanna Minters, and nine years after came to America, arriving in New York, October 1, 1847. He brought quite a sum of money with him which he invested in business, but being unable to speak English, he was unfortunate and lost his money. He moved westward and located in Ravenna where he lived two years. Being destitute of money he served as mail messenger, traveling on foot from Grand Rapids to Muskegon, making trips semi-weekly at $1.25 per trip. In 1857, at the solicitation of Father De Kunick, a Catholic priest, he came to Grand Rapids with his family and painted the new Catholic church on Monroe street, continuing to work at his trade about two 0101 93 years, when he engaged in mercantile business of a somewhat limited character in a frame building erected by himself on the corner of Monroe and Division streets. He also built a small house and two stores, all of which have been removed and replaced by substantial structures. He leased a large plat of land at $75 dollars per year, and by improving it attracted business to that part of the town at the head of Monroe street. During the crash of '57 he made an assignment for the benefit of his creditors, but on resuming business liquidated his liabilities dollar for dollar. In 1868 he built a business block on Canal street, and in 1869 erected a handsome residence on Lafayette street. In 1870 he retired from active business, bought and built other houses in this city, and has since been occupied in the management of the property he had accumulated. Mr. D'Ooge leaves a wife and five children; Martin L., professor of Greek in the state university at Ann Arbor, who is now at Athens, and Benjamin L., assistant professor of Latin at the same university, Mrs. H. Utterwick, Mrs. J. A. S. Verdier and Jennie C. D'Ooge, who were with him during his last hours.

Mr. D'Ooge was an esteemed member of the First Reformed church of this city.

Another venerable pioneer has passed on to his final reward. Ezra F. Blood departed this life on the old homestead farm southeast of Tecumseh, in the mists of early morning on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 1887. His funeral obsequies were attended on Thursday last at the Presbyterian church, where a large concourse of our older residents gathered around his bier to pay the last office of respect to the honored dead.

The deceased was born in Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, Oct. 28, 1798. He remained upon his father's farm, a diligent and dutiful son, until he arrived at his majority, when he moved to Jefferson county, New York. There he resided until the spring of 1824, when he joined a party of western fortune hunters, whose destination was Tecumseh. He came with the pioneer party to this section, and on the 22d day of May, 1824, he located the farm which afterwards became his home and where he saw the last of earth. Returning to Monroe for the balance of the party, he arrived again in Tecumseh on June 2, 1824, with the family of Musgrove Evans and others. The party passed their first night on the oak openings, north of the river Raisin, in Brownville. On that day Tecumseh became his home, and that relation remained ever after, until the angel of death cut the bond. From June, 1824, until January 12, 1830, he lived unmarried, improving his farm, erecting buildings, and beautifying and making a home for his bride. On 13 0106 98 that date he married Miss Alzina Blackmar, and they at once began housekeeping in the home which together they made beautiful and holy for more than fifty seven years. During the early settlement of the country his generous heart and manly hand were ever ready to welcome and assist the new settler, freely giving his time and labor to smooth their rugged pathway, and by aid and kindness in health and sickness bringing hope and success to many a household.

An honest man, a faithful Christian, a zealous supporter of education, assisted by his noble and devoted wife, they and their worthy compeers made our town and country what it is, pre-eminent in enterprise and its results, and carved out from the forests the beautiful farms and homes which dot our commonwealth and embellish the landscape like “apples of gold in pictures of silver.” The last man of the original party of settlers here, one of the few still left among the pioneers who came prior to 1830, he will be missed everywhere; in his neighborhood and in our village, where his noble form will be no longer seen in social gatherings and religious meetings; in his church, where for so many years his christian virtues and upright life have been a beacon and example to both old and young; in his family, where his care and affection have been the solace and comfort of his wife and children, and where the example he has given, in his declining days and pious resignation, has enshrined his memory in their hearts; in the minds of many an old resident who has been blessed with his charity and kindness in time of need.

Freed from the sufferings of earth, he has gone to his eternal rest, to receive the reward of his noble deeds, and to hear from that Heavenly Father, whom he delighted to worship, this welcome: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Departed this life at her residence in the village of Tecumseh, Feb. 20, 1887, Mrs. Maranda Dewey, aged seventy two years and eight months, widow of the late L. D. Dewey.

Mrs. Dewey's maiden name was Olmsted. She was born in Huron county, Ohio, June 15, 1815. She came with her parents to Detroit in the year 1818. There Mrs. Thomas Sheldon became acquainted with the young and active little girl; with the advice of her husband the child was adopted as one of the family, enjoying all the comforts of friendship of an opulent and cheerful home until eighteen years of age. She remembered very well when five years of age accompanying Hon. Thomas Sheldon and wife on a delightful pleasure trip to Mackinaw, taking passage on the first steamboat that 0107 99 ever came to Detroit; also the first and only passage the Walk-in-the-water ever made over Lake Huron.

In the year 1833 she made the acquaintance of L. D. Dewey, who then was stage agent and general manager of all the mail routes which left Detroit. On the 3d of October she was married to him at the beautiful home residence of Mr. Sheldon on Jefferson avenue, Detroit.

In the year 1834, Mr. Dewey and wife moved to his pleasant farm one mile west of Tecumseh village. Here Mrs. Dewey resided fifty three years, and died at her cottage home. She was the mother of six children, all married, and all attended her funeral. She was a member of the Universalist church, a kind and loving mother, a valued neighbor. Her pure character and sweet womanly disposition endeared her to a large circle of acquaintances. Thus one by one our well remembered, industrious and intelligent pioneers leave us never to return.

The death of this well known and much respected pioneer of Fairfield, occurred at her home on Monday evening, March 28, 1887.

Aunt Melinda, as she was familiarly called, was a mother to all, an honest, conscientious christian woman, and no name will be more missed in the large circle of friends by whom she was known than the one who has gone, and in the event of death it is fitting that something more than a mere passing notice be taken for the memory of her.

She was born in Chenango county, N. Y., Aug. 10, 1810, and was married to Orrin Baker in Oct., 1831; settled in Fairfield in June, 1832, and has made this her home ever since that date. Her husband erected the third house that was built in Fairfield and was appointed to the position of post-master of the first postoffice established south of Adrian in Lenawee county. She has been interested in all the movements for the building up of the town, and with her hands has helped to make the pleasant home where she so many years resided and can truly lay claim to the name of pioneer. She held membership with the Methodist Episcopal church and was active in all of its ordinances until stricken with disease a few months ago, a cancerous trouble which has caused many long months of suffering, but through it all the spirit of patience has been manifested.

Thus ends a good life which was full of good acts, and she rests from her labors and her works do follow her.

Robert Boyd died at his home in Tecumseh, Mich., on Wednesday, May 4, 1887.

Mr. Boyd was born in Forthtown, near Claughwater, County Antrim, Ireland, on the 20th of Oct., 1806. When he was 13 he came with his father to America, settling in Groveland, Livingston Co., New York. In 1832 he came to Michigan and on Feb. 2, 1833, he was married to Miss Sarah Richard, of Raisin. His home was in Raisin until 1879, when he gave up the care of his farm and came to Tecumseh, where his remaining years were spent. Mr. Boyd was a person of gentle and retiring nature and the character of his religion was in accord with his natural temperament. It was placid and equable, yet it was strong and decided. Soon after coming to Raisin he united with the Presbyterian church. His life was consistent with his professions, and he inspired all who knew him with his sincerity and his christian faith. To know him was to feel that the benediction of the Savior, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,” was his. A few uninspired books he read; but after all his one book was the Bible. He was remarkably familiar with its contents and his life was shaped in accordance with its precepts. In trembling hand was recorded at its beginning the date of his last reading of the volume in course, Oct. 20, 1886, and the mark at which he left off was in Ezra. His evening's readings were in the new Testament, and he left off in Acts. He frequently asked in his sickness, to have the 103d Psalm read to him, and would repeat it in low voice along with the reader. He was liberal in his benefactions and charitable in his judgments of others. His place in the sanctuary was always filled when he was able to be present, and his form was seen and his voice was heard with equal regularity in the weekly prayer meeting. Two years ago his wife, a noble hearted Christian, was called suddenly away. Now they both have left us and are entered into rest.

“The memory of the just is blessed.”

Hon. Edward Breitung, of Negaunee, died at his winter residence in Eastman, Ga., about 12 o'clock Thursday night, March 3, 1887, after a lingering and painful illness of some three weeks' duration. The immediate cause of his demise was an attack of pneumonia. Mr. Breitung went to Chicago early in the December previous, intending to return before proceeding to 0109 101 his wintering place in Georgia. Business prevented him from returning from Chicago as he had intended, and he was joined there by his family on the 3d of February with a view to having them at once start with him for Georgia. Before this purpose could be put in execution, Mr. Breitung was prostrated by the attack which finally resulted in his death, and remained for several days at his hotel in a critical condition. Some improvement taking place, on the 11th of the same month he, with his family, left for Eastman in a special car, this step being taken by the advice of his physicians.

For a few days after his arrival he was somewhat better, but afterward steadily continued to grow worse, until death at last brought him rest and peace. His wife and son, his private secretary, Mr. F. E. Pearse, and also Miss Lizzie Merry and Prof. A. J. Tourville, were in Eastman with him when the end came.

When the news reached Negaunee it created a profound impression and threw the entire community into mourning at the loss of one of its most influential, liberal and most highly esteemed citizens. The Breitung house, named after the deceased, was heavily draped in respect to his memory. By order of Acting Mayor Hoch the city flag was also draped and suspended across Iron street.

Edward Breitung was born in the city of Schalkau, in the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, Germany, November 10, 1831, and was, consequently, 56 years of age at the time of his decease. After going through his preparatory course, he entered the college of Mining, in Meiningen, and graduated in 1849. After completing his education, and during the same year, he emigrated to this country, coming to this state and locating in Kalamazoo. Two years later he moved to Detroit, where he remained four years. In May, 1855, he came to Lake Superior, located in Marquette, and engaged in the mercantile business. Soon after this he commenced exploring and buying and selling mineral lands. He remained in Marquette for four years and in 1859 came to Negaunee, where he afterwards resided. Here he engaged in the mercantile business and also associated himself with Israel B. Case, and they ran the Pioneer furnace under contract. In 1864 he sold out his mercantile business and gave his entire attention to mining and mining interests. During the winter of 1864–'65 he began to open up and develop the Washington mine and in 1870 he began to open up the Negaunee hematite range. No one believed he would find merchantable ore there, and all thought the venture a foolish one. But he had confidence in his own judgment, and future developments have fully proved that it was sound. In the fall of 1871 he began to develop the famous Republic mine, the largest and most profitable 0110 102 iron mine in this country, if not in the world. In 1863 he commenced explorations on the Menominee range and continued them for three years. Here again everybody believed that he had embarked in a profitless venture, but, as before, the issue verified the correctness of his opinion. The immense amount of ore taken out of the mines on that range fully justifies the faith he had in that section of the Lake Superior iron field. In 1882 and 1883 he became interested in the Vermillion iron range, in Minnesota, where once again the investment that he made proved highly profitable.

Mr. Breitung was one of the pioneers in the Lake Superior mining industry. His capital consisted only of ability, enterprise and determination when he began life, but by the constant exercise of these qualities, coupled with the good judgment which characterized all his operations, he became a capitalist, and was one of the most prominent and successful operators in mineral lands in the Lake Superior iron region.

The deceased held many positions of trust in the village and city government of Negaunee. He was mayor of the city in 1880, 1882 and 1883, besides holding less important positions. He was elected a member of the house of representatives from Marquette county for the term of 1873–'74, but resigned in 1873. He was elected a state senator from the thirty second district for the term of 1877–'78. He was elected to the forty eighth congress from this district by a large majority, in 1883, and served his term out, declining a renomination at its close. In politics he was an ardent republican, and was for years the acknowledged leader of his party in this section.

Mr. Breitung was united in marriage November 28, 1870, to Miss Mary Pauline, of Port Washington. A son, Edward N., born November 1, 1871, survives him, and another son, William M., was lost in infancy.

In life Mr. Breitung was noted for his liberality, and his generous readiness to aid every worthy object, and in death he will be long and sincerely mourned by the community in which so many years of his life were passed, and for which he did so much by kindly deeds and wholesome example.

Died, at his residence in Greenville, on Sunday evening, October 11, 1885, Morton Shearer, one of the pioneers of Montcalm county.

The deceased was born at Palmer, Massachusetts, Nov. 26, 1811. Leaving his native state, he resided for a time in the state of New York, where he was married to Elizabeth Westfield, on the 5th day of September, 1833. He removed to St. Clair county, in this state, at an early day, and arrived in Greenville on the 7th of May, 1849.

In the early part of 1850 Mr. Shearer built a hotel upon the ground now occupied by the Exchange hotel in Greenville, which was the first public house erected in the county, and was, for several years, the proprietor and landlord of this house, which was known throughout the county as the Shearer house.

The residence now occupied by the Hon. C. F. Morgan, mayor of the city, was built by Mr. Shearer in 1853.

In the earlier days of the county Mr. Shearer took a prominent part in public affairs, being for more than ten years one of the superintendents of the poor, and holding the office of judge of probate from 1855 to 1857.

He was a member of the Masonic fraternity before he came to Greenville, and was one of the charter members of the Blue Lodge of that city, and afterward one of the prominent members of the Greenville chapter.

The latter years of his life he was a farmer and veterinary surgeon; which last occupation he followed at the time of his death.

The funeral services were conducted at his late residence, October 13, 1885, by the Rev. J. L. Patton. The exercises at the grave were conducted by the Masonic fraternity, to which he was greatly attached.

The writer of this obituary knew the deceased for nearly a quarter of a century, and can say that it was the universal testimony of his neighbors, that he was a truly upright man, his word being as good as his bond. His associates in office speak of him as a man of excellent judgment, and true integrity in carrying on public business.

Mrs. L. E. Backus, Mrs. Maria Savage and James M. Shearer, all of this city, are the only surviving members of the family of the deceased.

Died, in the city of Greenville, December 9, 1886, Manning Rutan, one of the pioneers of Montcalm county, and a member of this society.

Mr. Rutan was born at New Providence, Sussex county, N. J., September 25, 1802, and consequently was, at the time of his death, a little more than 84 years of age. His father dying when he was quite young, his support and early training devolved upon his mother, who was an admirable woman. After serving an apprenticeship in a country store, the deceased commenced business for himself in New Jersey, in which he was successful.

Leaving New Jersey in the month of October, 1851, he came to Montcalm county, and purchased a large tract of land south of Flat River, and east of Lafayette street, which he subsequently platted, and sold as village lots. And, although he kept a general store in Greenville, the greater portion of his estate was made in real estate transactions.

About the year 1870 he turned his mercantile business over to his son, and was never, subsequent to that time, what might be termed a business man, although he was engaged in many business ventures, in which he continued until near the time of his death.

Mr. Rutan was an energetic, active and intelligent business man; he never let a matter of business pass through his hands until he understood it in all its bearings, and few persons excelled him in accuracy in business transactions. He was quick to acknowledge a mistake, and ever ready to correct any error that he might have made.

He will be long remembered for his benevolences. While he has been extolled for endowing a professorship at Olivet, yet I think he took greater satisfaction in making donations that were never known to the public. Among these was a donation of something more than fifteen hundred dollars, which he made a few years ago to Henry M. Moore, one of the pioneers of Greenville, and with whom many of those present were acquainted years ago. The writer of this obituary has been more impressed with some of the little kindnesses which he has known Mr. Rutan to perform, than with all those deeds of charity which have been known to the public, and by which the public has estimated his character.

Mr. Rutan was a man of sound sense, had not a shadow of ostentation in his make up, and never boasted of his wealth, either directly or indirectly. In short, he tried to do those things of which God would approve. He did his work well and wisely, and sought his chief happiness in the path of duty.

Samuel G. Hutchins died suddenly Sunday afternoon, May 15, 1887, of rheumatism of the heart, in his 68th year. Only a short time before he had been in the garden. Returning to the house, he lay down on the lounge, took but two or three breaths and passed way. The deceased was prominent in the earlier years of Greenville as a lumberman, and was once an alderman of the city, of which he was a citizen for 19 years. He left a wife, a son, and daughters, highly respected and honored members of society.

John G. Crombie of Pontiac died very suddenly, of heart disease, while sitting in his chair, Jan. 11, 1887.

John G. Crombie was born of distinguished parentage at North Hartland, Windsor county, Vt., Jan. 12, 1820, and had he lived but another day, would have been just 67 years of age.

He had been three times married; first to Sarah Tower, Aug. 24, 1848; second, to Sarah Harding, Feb. 10, 1853; and to Rebecca Runnion, who survives him, Nov. 21, 1860. Of five children, two are dead.

Mr. Crombie spent two years in Dartmouth College, and was a man of much more than ordinary intelligence.

He settled in Pontiac in 1842, since which time he had become permanently identified in business circles. He first entered the employ of Lull & Draper, as clerk, with whom he remained two years. He afterwards entered the cabinet shop of his uncle, Col. Page, and two years later, upon his uncle's death, succeeded to his business. He subsequently entered into a copartnership with Danforth Petty, doing business in the Crofoot Block (so called); afterwards becoming sole proprietor, he removed to the Waverly house, from thence to the present location. He had also in connection with his store and undertaking business a manufactory on Lawrence street west, which at an early day formed no inconsiderable feature of Pontiac's business enterprises.

Probably very few men in his line have enjoyed a more extended local reputation than Mr. Crombie. In an early day nearly all the furniture he sold, as well as the coffins and caskets, were of his own manufacture.

He was a man of strong convictions, positive ideas, and an uncompromising adherent to the principles of the republican party. It can truthfully be said of him he was an honest man. At his death he was a member of the Congregational church.

He was a prominent member of the order of Odd Fellowship, being a charter member of Pontiac Lodge, No. 3.

Thus has passed away another of Pontiac's most distinctive landmarks, whose business integrity as well as his political convictions, have been forced into and have become a part of the city's life.

Died, in Independence, January 21, 1887, of paralysis, Mrs. Mary, relict of Peter Addis, aged 71 years, 2 months and 6 days. She had been a resident of Clarkston for nearly 50 years.

Died, on January 18, in Milford, at the residence of her son, William Johnson, Mrs. Huldah Pickett, at the age of 77 years. Mrs. Pickett was one of the oldest residents of the township. She was the mother of six children, five of whom survive, viz.: Mrs. Charles Bush and George Johnson, of Fenton, Mrs. James Crawford, William Johnson and John Pickett, of Milford. For fifty years she had been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and the funeral was largely attended. An impressive part of the services was the following of the honorary pall bearers in the persons of Mrs. Mary A. Riley, aged 71, Mrs. Hulda C. Hubbell, aged 74, Mrs. Mary Gamble, aged 77, Mrs. Magill, aged 72, Mrs. Jane Pearson, aged 72, Mrs. Jane Watkins, aged 67, Mrs. Z. M. Mowry, aged 68.

Erastus Beebe was born at Lebanon, Columbia county, New York, July 30, 1805, and died at his daughter's in Birmingham, January 18, 1887. He came to Michigan in November, 1834, and settled in Southfield, upon unimproved land, and assisted in developing that township. Subsequently he has lived in Pontiac, Waterford and Avon. For the past few years he has resided in Birmingham. Under the ministration of Rev. Mr. Green of the Methodist Episcopal church at Pontiac, in 1855, he was converted, joined that church, and has ever been a consistent and honored member during the thirty two years of his christian life. The ranks of the early pioneers of the county are being decimated from year to year, and soon there will be none left to answer the roll call; but their works will remain and endure until the end of time.

John K. Dewey died April 12, 1887, at the residence of his son, Charles E. Dewey, at Four Towns. Deceased was born in Royalton, Windsor county, Vermont, Feb. 28, 1795. He moved to New York state with the man to whom he was apprenticed at the carpenter and joiner trade, and on Nov. 23, 1819, was married to Harriet Hunt, whose death occurred Aug. 20, 1863. He moved to Michigan in 1831, and settled in Waterford township, where he has since resided. He was made a Free and Accepted Mason in New York in 1818, and was an honorary member of Birmingham Lodge at the time of his death, and of which lodge he was also a charter member.

James Skidmore, an old and much respected resident of Troy, died at his home Nov. 23, 1886, at the advanced age of about 89 years.

The deceased was born in Ulster county, New York, March 9, 1798. He came to Michigan with two brothers, who afterwards returned, in 1823, locating the farm upon which he died, having been the continuous owner of the same farm for 63 years. After locating his land he returned to Ulster county, where he was married the same year, 1823, to Miss Philanda Beach. They lived together 49 years, when she died in the spring of 1873, aged 72.

We add a brief personal experience of this old pioneer, as published in the Pontiac Gazette Feb. 27, 1874.

“I took up a farm, upon which I now live, of 80 acres, in the township of Troy. Shortly after I went back to New York, where I was married to Miss Philanda Beach, with whom I shared the pleasures and sorrows of life until last March, when she was taken from us, to a better land, I trust, in her 72d year.

It is needless for me to give an account of all the incidents of pioneer life with which I am familiar, it would only be repeating the same old story of toil and hard time. Suffice it to say that no one can realize what pioneer life is until they have experienced it, until they have left their home and friends, and gone into the wild forest, constructed for themselves a dwelling from the sturdy oak, and manufactured for themselves furniture from the saplings of the surrounding forest.

When I first moved upon my farm I had nothing but good health and strong muscles to support myself and family, but by hard work and strict economy, I managed to buy a cow the first summer for eleven dollars. I also raised two acres of corn upon Mr. Satterlee's farm, the same summer, and I often sat down to a meal prepared from the productions of that cornfield and our limited dairy, which, in those days, I thought was good enough for any man. After we had been upon our farm about three years we had the misfortune to lose our house by fire, one cold January night, as we were visiting Mr. Alanson Goodrich's, with James Bailey and their families. But my neighbors, showing the true pioneer spirit, helped me to build a new house, which was completed in a week; they also contributed household goods and provisions enough to enable us to keep house for the remainder of the winter. I have in my house to-day some of the dishes given to me upon this occasion.”

Rev. John Martin died at his residence in Ovid, Clinton county, Michigan, Feb. 4, 1887, aged 89 years.

Rev. John Martin was born in Cayuga county, New York, in 1797. Trained by parents who needed his earlier services, at the age of thirteen he 0125 117 set out from home, having one suit of clothes, his sole earthly possession. Following the year 1817, which marked the beginning of his Christian experience, a devout and energetic spirit bore him up during many seasons of privation and hardship. In the next year he was married to the one who, for more than 50 years, has stood faithfully by his side through all that life hath brought him.

To meet the imperative needs of a rapidly growing family of six children, in 1831 he sold his possessions in New York state, and, on the 2d of August, set out for the territory of Michigan. After a three weeks' journey they settled in the township of Troy, Oakland county, having just $2 left (after paying traveling expenses) for a cow and a few acres of land. At that time, as the deceased has often said, the ground now covered by Detroit was occupied only by French farms and a few post traders' huts.

When Father Martin first settled there were only 27 ministers of all denominations in the territory, himself being the only one in his county. He at once gave all his spare time to the work of the Gospel, and so continued until 1846, when failing health compelled his release from public labor. The largest annual salary that he ever received was $70. During that year he attended 24 covenant meetings, broke bread as many times, baptized, visited, addressed a Sunday school once in two weeks, attended 4 ministerial conferences, 4 councils, 1 association; preached in 22 school houses, 14 dwelling houses, 2 meeting houses and one grist mill. In performing this labor he traveled 1,500 miles on foot and horseback.

As a fitting close of a life of 90 years so full of good works, he goes to his rest in peace, firmly trusting that “He is faithful that promised.”

The subject of the above notice from the Ovid Register and Union was one of the earliest and best known settlers in Clinton county. He was not a cultured preacher, but a practical minister, with words and advice suited to the times and the field he worked in. His temperament and social nature peculiarly fitted him for the pioneer work he followed so devotedly. He was one of old Ben Franklin's kind of men, whistled while he worked, was always happy himself, and his cheerful nature was an inspiration in every log cabin he entered. In every pioneer home Elder John Martin was welcome, and the altar fires in every family with whom he tabernacled for a night were brightened by his coming.

Measuring his reward by the sacrifices made, there are many jewels in the crown of his rejoicing.

The death of John P. Foster, November 5, 1886, was an anticipated event. 0126 118 His sickness being caused by Bright's disease his death was considered certain at a not very remote day, and the family and friends were in a measure prepared for the summons; none more so than himself, who talked of his departure and planned for his funeral as he would transact a matter of business.

In all matters pertaining to the welfare and growth of Pontiac Mr. Foster always put his shoulder to the wheel of progress, doing his full share in the advancement of the material interests of the city. His active and earnest efforts in public affairs led to his political preferment and he served as alderman one term, was township treasurer several years when the duties of the office extended over the city, was several times elected ward treasurer, was also constable for a number of terms, and deputy sheriff under one or more administrations. His pet interest in the city government was the fire department, which he patronized and served during his entire residence in the city, having been its head and chief some 27 years, resigning last season on account of poor health. To this department he devoted special attention, was its head in the change from the volunteer to a paid department, and in the organization of the present force, in the purchase of steam and other apparatus he was the leading spirit and manager, and may be considered the founder of the present efficient department. He always possessed the confidence of the firemen and in emergencies his orders were promptly obeyed and executed. In his death the boys feel they have lost their best friend and ablest adviser and leader. He was a prominent and respected member of all the Masonic bodies in the city, and had been anointed in the order of high priesthood. In the local orders he had filled the offices of master of the lodge, high priest of the royal arch chapter, and eminent commander of Pontiac Commandery. From the tessellated pavement to the temple he was an active and earnest worker, attached to the order and its principles. He was also an Odd Fellow, but in late years had not been in intimate affiliation.

In 1861 he enrolled himself in the 14th Michigan infantry Co. I, with the commission of first lieutenant under Cols. Shoemaker and Robert W. Davis. After an organization and brief camp in Ypsilanti, the regiment joined the department of the Tennessee.

After a few months spent in active service he was taken sick, resigned and came home. From this time to the day of his death he never recovered from the seeds of disease engendered by climate change and exposure.

Mr. Foster was born in the county of Kent, England, January 1, 1826, making his age nearly 61 years. When a child of about two years his parents emigrated to America, stopping at Utica, New York, when they came to Michigan and Oakland county, where the father, Horatio, located 40 acres of land in Independence. From the humble log house home with all its 0127 119 embarrassments and privations he began his limited schooling in the old pinery school house which his father built near the village of Clarkston.

At the age of 16 years he entered the shoe shop of William Blake, as an apprentice, working a couple of years, when he changed his occupation to that of carpenter, working for his elder brothers, Samuel and Frederick. He remained with them two years, when he went to Detroit and entered a joiner's shop for instruction in the fine arts of the trade. He remained in Detroit a year when he came to Pontiac in the fall of 1849, entering the employ of Samuel Brotherton, the leading builder in the village of Pontiac. He was married in Detroit, October 24, 1850, to Delia E. Whitman, who survives him. From 1849, except when absent in the army, he lived continuously in Pontiac until his death. At the time of his decease his death was the first in the family, making the loss one of inexperienced family grief, increasing the weight of sorrow and mourning. The deceased leaves a widow and four adult children, three daughters and one son. He leaves one brother, Frederick Foster, of Springfield, the only surviving member of the elder Foster family. By care and industry he accumulated sufficient of this world's goods for the support of his widow and dependent children.

The Hon. William Axford, one of the earliest settlers of eastern Michigan, and in an early day one of the most prominent business men in northern Oakland, died at his late home in Clarkston, Thursday morning, September 16, 1886, after a lingering illness of Bright's disease, with paralysis as the immediate cause of his death.

The deceased was born in Windon, Ontario, March 28, 1813. He came to Michigan and to Macomb county in 1822 at the age of nine years, settling with his parents about three miles east of the now village of Rochester. In his young manhood he taught school for a short time, afterwards going into mercantile trade in the town of Avon.

In 1842 he located as a merchant in Clarkston, doing a successful business for some 25 years, when he retired from active life, in order to look after his landed estate which was quite large.

During his residence in Independence he was supervisor for several terms, and for several terms chairman of the county board. He represented Oakland county in the legislature of 1850, and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1850, a body which formed our present organic law. He was married in 1844 to Ellen C. Axford, of Oxford, Warren county, New Jersey, with whom he lived until his death.

He had no children, but leaves many more remote relatives, his nearest of living kin being Livingston Axford, Esq., of Holly.

He was a man who impressed himself on a community; possessing the elements of leadership, which at times were strongly manifested, to a degree of dictation. It was not easy for him to love his enemies, but to those he liked he was a true, sacrificing friend; one who would protect and defend with his substance those to whom he was socially and in business attached. He was a clear headed man in the performance of public duties, and in his own affairs his books were always honestly balanced. He was always ready to render to every man his due, and was rigid in a like demand from those indebted to him. Right wrongs no one, and he dies free from the stain of demanding more than his own. He was a man of strong convictions on all social and political questions. Politically he affiliated with and was attached to the old school democratic party, whose traditions and principles he clung to as an inherited political treasure, which he never parted with, or made political traffic of. Socially his fellowship did not cover a wide range; he was devotedly attached to home and locality, in the latter years of his life seldom leaving the home hearth, or aberrating from the beaten local trail of association. He was intimately identified with the growth of Clarkston, and did much in a substantial and advisory way to advance the material interests of the village.

Six nephews, all Axfords, were, at the request of the deceased, selected as his pall bearers.

The end of a great life of mental struggle was reached when our fellow citizen, Charles Henry Palmer, turned upon his side Saturday morning, April 9, 1887, and passed away. When he added three years to the allotted three score and ten, his prospects for many years of vigorous, healthy life, and absolute freedom from the anxieties attending finance and business, were at their very zenith; but alas, when prepared to live, the seeds of disease, long hidden, germinated and hedged him around with difficulties unknown to his before unconquerable will, and he waged the unequal contest with courage and determination. For several hours previous to his death he was painless, and greatly encouraged, and talked cheerfully of future plans for travel and enjoyment, and from these cheerful anticipations he turned in bed and was dead.

Mr. Palmer was born in Lenox, N. Y., in 1814, graduated from Union College, N. Y., in 1837, became principal of the Fredonia (N. Y.) Academy soon after graduating, and was afterwards principal of Geneseo Academy.

In 1839 he was united in marriage with Miss Betsey A. Cowles, a highly educated and accomplished lady and teacher, who survives him. His parents having removed to Michigan in 1835, he naturally followed to the new state, and became principal of Romeo Academy in 1847. In those years the numerous academies were the nurseries of the colleges and universities, and furnished the educated men of the land. At the head of various institutions of this kind Mr. Palmer ranked among the most accomplished educators of his time, and the Romeo Academy was at the head of the academical institutions of the state. The rich, intellectual fruit of his training is found to-day among the brightest intellects of this and other states. In 1851 he was elected one of the regents of the University of Michigan, and was soon recognized as the leader and best equipped member of the board. He was ardently devoted to the upbuilding of that institution, and threw his whole energy into the work of its reorganization and the perfecting of measures looking to the making it the great institution of learning which it has since become. He was made corresponding secretary of the board, and through his untiring efforts and in the face of great difficulties, the celebrated Dr. Tappan, the patron saint of the University, was secured as its president. The wisdom of Mr. Palmer's choice has since been demonstrated in a thousand ways, but in no direction more apparent than in placing the institution upon a substantial educational basis.

Mr. Palmer's temperament called for a more active and remunerative field of operations, and in 1853 he settled his family in Pontiac, as a permanent home, and in 1854 went to Lake Superior and immediately entered a career of mining development and speculation, in which he continued till near the close of his life, experiencing all the ups and down of the mining business, but persevering against odds at times which would overwhelm most men. He first opened and managed as one of the owners the Pewabic copper mine, the first successful venture of the kind in the now famous Portage Lake district. He was one of the incorporators of the Franklin mine in 1857, South Pewabic mine in 1865, the Ossipee, now Oscoda mine, in 1867, and the Kearsage mine the same year. In 1869 he purchased the celebrated Palmer-Loring tract, adjoining the Calumet and Hecla property, and out of the attempt of Loring and a Boston party to defraud Mr. Palmer of his rights in this purchase by the freeze-out process, arose the great suit to maintain his claim, which went to and was last fall decided in his favor by the United States Supreme Court, and which suit for the last dozen years absorbed all the intense mental and physical activity of the man.

By this decision his old age was crowned with affluence, a transfer from darkness to the broad sunlight of prosperity, and he greeted the decision with a satisfaction unspeakable. 16

Also, in 1856 he was one of the chief promoters and corporators of the Portage Lake and River Improvement Company, connecting Portage Lake with Lake Superior by canal. In 1870, in connection with W. N. Walker, George Jerome and S. L. Smith, the Houghton and Ontonagon railroad was incorporated, built 30 miles of road from Champion to L'Anse, bought the Marquette & Ontonagon road, and formed the present M. H. & O. railroad company, and was the chief promoter in several other large enterprises of a similar character.

Since 1875 he has resided almost entirely at his home in Pontiac, engaged in the prosecution of his suit mainly, but always wide awake to surroundings, and aided materially in securing the asylum for this city, of which he was one of the early trustees; he also took a warm interest in the Michigan military academy of which he was trustee; also a vestryman of Zion Episcopal church from 1861 to 1877, except the year 1872.

Charles H. Palmer was a broad gauge man, of fine culture, great capacity for organization and business, splendid physique and perfect address. His perceptions were keen and quick, and his power of analyzation was remarkable.

He leaves besides his widow, two daughters, Mrs. Virginia Louise Pickman, of Dillon, Montana, Miss Philomela C., residing at home, Charles H. Palmer, of Lake Superior, and Clarence A., of Toledo.

John H. Smith died at his residence in Novi, on Wednesday, May 4, 1887, aged 67 years.

The deceased was born in Bristol, Ontario county, N. Y., March 23, 1820. At ten years of age he came with his parents to the territory of Michigan, and settled upon the farm where he died, and upon which he has resided 57 years. He was the youngest of eight children, two of whom are still living.

The deceased had a very wide circle of friends and acquaintances, and the manly form and genial face of “John H.,” as he was called far and near, will be sadly missed by the many who have known and esteemed him as an upright, honorable and influential neighbor, citizen and friend.

This will be especially true with the Masonic fraternity, of which he has been long a prominent and active member. As he always desired to exemplify the character of a true man and citizen, so did he that of a true Mason.

Mr. Smith had been much of the time in poor health for several years, but his death was very sudden and unexpected. In attempting to walk out a little to give directions about some work he wished to have done, he had gone but a few steps from his door when he sank to the earth and immediately 0131 123 expired. Although he spoke not at the time, he had often conversed freely upon the subject of his decease, especially during a severe illness in 1882. The writer well remembers his calm resignation in view of what was then believed to be imminent death, and the unfaltering trust manifested by him in that hour of his extremity. Death seemed to have no terror to him. He died as he had lived, a man who acted in obedience to his own convictions, regardless of results. A wife and three daughters mourn the loss of a kind, devoted husband and loving father. Their bereavement is sore indeed, and they have the heartfelt sympathy of those who know their great affliction.

James Bayley, one of the earliest pioneers of Troy, Oakland county, passed quietly away about 8:30 p. m., on Sunday, May 1, 1887, at his late residence in Birmingham. He was born in Scipio, Cayuga county, New York, July 7, 1802, and was at the time of his death eighty four years, nine months and twenty four days old. His father, Isaac Bayley, and his mother, were from Windsor county, Vermont, and settled in Scipio, where his father died when the subject of this notice was four years old. At the age of twelve he was given his clothes and began life for himself. At first he engaged in the manufacture of harness and saddlery; at fourteen to eighteen at the tanning and currier business, for which labor during these years he received his board, clothes and instructions in those trades. During the next three years he was enabled to lay by from his earnings a sum sufficient to come to Michigan in April, 1824, to buy lands for a homestead. After viewing lands in several townships in Oakland county he located the east half of the southwest quarter and the west half of the southeast quarter of section 21, town 2 north, range 11 east, on May 10, 1824, and returned to New York. On January 20, 1825, he married Miss Dorcas Pearsall, daughter of Michael Pearsall, of his native town, with whom he lived sixty two years, three months and eleven days, and who still survives him.

Of those who were present at their wedding, there are still living Mrs. Betsey Alexander, Mrs. Philbrick, sisters, and Henry and Sherman Pearsall, brothers of Mrs. Bayley, and Benj. Daniels. Of these Mrs. Alexander and Mr. Daniels were present at the funeral.

His early education was obtained at the district schools of those early days; yet with the advantages of a private library to which he had access, and by observation, associations and experiences, few men of his advantages were better informed of public men, measures and affairs of the state and nation than he. In April, 1825, with his wife, he bade farewell to relatives 0132 124 and friends in his native town, and came to Michigan, settling early in May upon those lands he had purchased from the government the year previous.

Mr. and Mrs. Bayley have had six children born to them; one son at the age of twenty one was drowned, two infant twins, a son and daughter, died when nearly two years old. Two sons, Volney and Adams, and one daughter, Clarissa, Mrs. William Dennison, are still living.

In 1830 he was induced by Phineas Davis, of Detroit, to remove there and take charge of a tannery and currier establishment, which he conducted with marked ability about three years, when he returned to his farm and commenced with renewed energy to improve it, until he had the satisfaction of receiving from his brother farmers the unqualified commendation of having one of the best appointed and cultivated farms in the county. Mr. Bayley has been president of the Oakland county and State Agricultural societies, member of many of their committees, an influential and prominent member of those societies, to whom he gave his counsel and material aid in their infancy, continuing the same until he relinquished his active farm life. He became a member of the Baptist society in Troy in 1837. His parents before him were zealous Baptists, and the son walking in the steps of the parents, became a consistent, active and influential member of the society. At the spring election in 1839 he was elected supervisor, in 1849 justice of the peace, in 1864 to the house of representatives; in 1860 he was appointed farm superintendent of the State Agricultural College at Lansing, which office he held for three years with credit to himself and material profit to the institution and state. Finding the perplexities and arduous duties were taxing him excessively, and his health failing, he resigned his position and returned once more to his farm in Troy in February, 1863, where he remained until 1868, when he purchased a residence in Birmingham where he removed and resided until his death. These very early pioneers of the county and state are rapidly passing away. They silently drop out of the line and soon no land marks will remain to remind us of those whose brain and muscle felled the forests, built our schools, churches, public improvements, etc., etc., and made it possible to sustain the present population of this beautiful peninsula state.

Capt. William Albertson, of Pontiac, an early pioneer, a highly respected and honored citizen, died after many years' illness, of consumption, at the home of his son, W. S. Albertson, on Feb. 4, 1887.

The deceased was born near Sing Sing, New York, November 27, 1811. He was married to Rebecca, eldest daughter of Rev. C. F. Frey, at New York 0133 125 city, July 19, 1836. They moved to Michigan in November of 1844, and for six months sojourned at Elizabeth Lake, this county, with the late Almeron Whitehead, when they became residents of Pontiac. Mr. Albertson first entered the store of Peck & Standish, and up to the outbreak of the rebellion had been honored with various offices of public trust, such as village marshal, treasurer, constable and deputy sheriff during the administration of Clark Beardsley, and again in later years under Sheriff Wixon, and also for a time served acceptably as Assistant U. S. Revenue Assessor.

He took an active part in the organization of the 22d Michigan Infantry, and received the commission of 2d lieutenant of Co. A, which he was largely instrumental in raising. He remained with the regiment till the close of the war. He was a good soldier, efficient in the discharge of his duties, having had for several months the entire charge of the regiment, and serving also for a time as quartermaster. He received the commission of captain about six months before the close of the war. In whatever capacity he was called upon to serve he was found competent and faithful.

At the close of the three years' service he gave in defense of his country, he was mustered out with a constitution weakened by overwork and exposure and health seriously impaired.

He never regained his wonted vigor. In 1883 he wintered in California, receiving but temporary benefit, however, from that salubrious climate. On his return he gradually relapsed into that debilitated condition which, despite the constant, ever watchful care of a devoted companion, and the tender ministrations of loving children, his life ebbed out gradually and as perceptibly as the setting sun sinks below the western horizon, leaving a halo of a well spent life to mark his going.

We are sad to chronicle the death of Elijah Grow, a well to do farmer and an old and esteemed citizen. He was thrown from a buggy Thursday, April 21, with but slight injuries on one side of the head, and died Sunday, April 24, 1887, at half past one. He was one of ten Grow brothers, and twin to Elisha Grow, who passed away on the 4th of March, 1887. They were born in Pomfret, Windom Co., Conn., August 24, 1810; his parents, Elisha and Louisa Grow, moved from Pomfret to Homer, Cortland Co., N. Y., in 1812; in 1831 he experienced religion and was of the Baptist faith; was married to Charity Baker, in Homer, Jan. 19, 1833, she passing away May 6, 1885. They moved from Homer to Springfield, Oakland Co., Michigan. There they lived until 1851, when they sold their farm, and bought in Waterford, adjoining the old homestead, where they lived until 1855, then moved to Clarkston, remaining 0134 126 there only till 1856, when they bought a farm in Waterford Center, Michigan. In 1858 they became spiritualists and remained such until they passed into a higher plane of progression. In 1866 they sold in Waterford and bought a farm in the township of Pontiac, one and a half miles southeast of this city, where he resided at the time of his death. He leaves two children, Irving K. Grow, residing on the homestead, and Mrs. H. P. Merrill, of Bay City, besides a large circle of relatives and friends to mourn his loss. He was a good man and respected by all who knew him.

Elisha Grow was born in Pomfret, Windom Co., Conn., Aug. 24, 1810. His parents removed to Homer, Cortland Co., N. Y., in 1812. In 1833 they came to Michigan and settled in Springfield. He was a twin brother of Elijah Grow, whose death is noticed above. He died March 4, 1887. His age was 77 years.

Ephraim Braley died at his home in Saginaw town, Oct. 11, 1886, of heart disease and dropsy. He was among the oldest residents of Saginaw county, having settled here with his brother, Phineas D. Braley, in 1835. He was a native of Berkshire county, Mass., where he was born March 29, 1813. He was the father of nine children.

Death entered another Saginaw home Wednesday, Oct. 20, 1886, and the well known citizen, Abel A. Brockway, passed away. Mr. Brockway had been troubled with a cancer in the head for three years and was confined to his bed for nearly a year.

Abel A. Brockway was born at Jefferson, Schoharie county, N. Y., Aug. 16, 1818, and removed to Port Huron in 1848. He became interested in lumbering operations and removed to Saginaw in 1856. He was very successful in business and at the time of his death was largely interested in pine lands. He was also a director in the First National bank and the Saginaw Manufacturing Company. He leaves a wife and two children, Mrs. A. P. Bliss and Miss Sadie Brockway.

James Lewis, one of our well known and respected citizens, died peacefully at the family residence, 707 South Washington avenue, Jan. 30, 1887. Mr. Lewis had for several years suffered from a complication of diseases culminating in an affection of the spine, and during the winter was confined to the house.

Mr. Lewis was born in Akron, Erie county, N. Y., in 1822, and came to Detroit, Mich., thirty six years ago, removing after seven years' residence in that city to East Saginaw, where he has since made his abode. His occupation was that of a builder, and when he came here he associated himself with W. H. Glasby in a sash and blind factory. After that was burned down he engaged in business of various kinds, being best known in that of moving houses, safes, etc.; also purchasing a good deal of real estate. Mr. Lewis has always been regarded as an honorable business man and a good citizen. Shortly before his death, which he felt was but a question of a few hours, he expressed a wish to his wife that his friends should know he died happily, believing in and receiving all the consolations of religion. He leaves a wife and one daughter, Mrs. Harry Hamilton, to mourn his loss. His only sister, Mrs. S. R. Clark, of Byron, this state, was present during his final sickness.

At ten o'clock on the morning of March 22, 1887, David D. Ross, father of County Treasurer Arthur Ross, and a pioneer of Saginaw county, died at his home in Taymouth, where he had lived since 1844, of old age. The deceased was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1805. He came to this country in 1843, and in 1844 located on a farm in Taymouth, where he has since lived. Several years ago the management of the farm was passed over to his son Arthur, and when Mr. Ross removed to Saginaw City to assume the duties of county treasurer, his son, David D. Ross, Jr., took the farm, and it was at his home that Mr. Ross died. He had been a prominent citizen of his town and county for forty three years. He served on the board of supervisors for sixteen years, commencing in 1848. He was one of the founders and for years an elder in the Presbyterian church of Taymouth. He leaves six children, Arthur, David and James Ross, Mrs. Cuthbertson and Mrs. Difin, of this county, and Mrs. P. M. Angus, of Arenac county.

One by one the pioneers of this section are passing away. April 6, 1887, at her home in East Saginaw, where she has resided for 30 years with her son 0136 128 Michael, Mrs. Mary Jeffers laid down the burden of her life at the advanced age of 86 years.

Mrs. Jeffers was born near Moville, Ireland, April 11, 1801. She came to East Saginaw in 1855 and, since that time, has been identified with the interests of the city in various ways. She was a good mother, a warm friend, and a devoted Christian woman. She was of a kind disposition, generous impulses, and was ever ready to overlook the faults of others. These traits endeared her to a large circle of friends. Six children survive her.

Helen Norris, the beloved wife of Hon. John S. Estabrook, died at her late residence, 1,647 South Washington avenue, East Saginaw, on Sunday evening, April 17, 1887, aged 56 years. The deceased was a noble woman, and during her twenty two years' residence in the city she has been noted for her kindness of heart, her upright Christian character, and her many good offices of love and charity. Her life was gentle yet active, and in its various duties as wife and mother, as a conscientious and earnest Christian, as a doer of good among her friends and neighbors, as a laborer in the cause of humanity, she exemplified the dignity, the nobility and the usefulness of exalted womanhood. Those who knew her loved her, and her reputation among all classes of citizens was such that in death many will mourn a good friend and a kindly sympathizer. She leaves a husband and three children to mourn her loss, and many hearts will go out in sympathy to the bereaved family.

Mrs. Estabrook came to East Saginaw from Ypsilanti in 1865, which was the home of her girlhood. Her health was not good for some months previous to her death, being a sufferer from brain affection, and a few weeks before her death she was suddenly prostrated by what was said to be softening of the brain. From this attack she never recovered, and her spirit passed from the mortal to the immortal.

William H. Cross died at the family residence in Centreville, Wednesday evening, September 29, 1886, in his 80th year, having been born in Sullivan county, New York, March 6, 1807. Judge Cross was an early settler in Michigan territory, having come to the territory in 1826. When but a boy of 19 years, he, with his brother Robert, who was also a mere boy, took up their habitation in the woods in Lenawee county on the bank of the river Raisin; here they kept bachelor's hall for a time, having to pack their provisions from Detroit. After a time they sold their farm in Lenawee and came to where Coldwater is now located, entered lands in 1830 and commenced pioneer life anew. Mr. Cross remained single until March, 1832, when he took a helpmeet in the person of Nancy Landon, who survives him after living a happy life of 54 years with him. Mr. Cross has always been a representative man wherever his lot was cast; he was an early merchant in the country; he was in the gold mines of California for several years; was judge of probate of St. Joseph county for 12 years, which office he filled with ability and to the satisfaction of his constituents. He was a man of strong will power but always willing to listen to the teachings of others, and if their views harmonized with his he adopted them; if they did not he acted on his own conviction of right, and when his rulings as judge have been tried in the crucible of high legal talent, his decisions have stood the test. Politically he was a staunch republican, ever faithful, ever true. He has been connected with the Reformed church since his residence in Centreville, over 15 years. In the death of Judge Cross the community have lost a valuable citizen, his children a kind father, his wife a loving husband. He was buried at Sturgis on Saturday, October 2, 1886.

When the life career of any citizen who has faithfully and efficiently discharged all the duties imposed upon human existence is closed by death, both the social compact and body politic sustain a loss. In the death of Charles A. Chapin the community, and especially those who knew him best, sensibly and keenly realize this fact.

The best eulogy that can be pronounced upon our departed friend is an uncolored relaxation of his every day life of which time and space restricts us to a brief epitome only.

Mr. Chapin was a man of a quiet, mild and reserved disposition and was eminently endowed with those qualities both of the head and the heart which endear a person to his friends and the community in which he lives. He was charitable almost to a fault, as many of the recipients of his charity can testify. He was a communicant in the Episcopal church and a man whose daily life exemplified his belief. He did not profess religion as a fashion or a pastime, but as a living reality, a system containing and embodying the true principles of human life and human actions. In all the relations of life he was upright and strictly honest, doing unto others as he would that others would do unto him. He never betrayed a trust or a friend, and when he left this way station in life's endless journey he left behind many, many who will sadly miss him in their daily routine of life.

The leisure hours which fell to his lot were profitably redeemed in acquiring sound, useful knowledge, which was evinced by his familiarity with scientific literature and historical research. He was a good listener and a 18 0146 138 critical observer of the events transpiring around him. He lived up to his belief that man was created to wear out and not rust out, hence he was most unhappy when forced into idleness.

Charles A. Chapin, the eldest son of Volney and Chloe (Sloan) Chapin, was born at Ogdensburg, New York, August 1, 1830. He was a lineal descendant of Deacon Samuel Chapin, the progenitor of all who bear the name in this country, and who settled in Springfield, Mass., in 1642.

In June, 1833, when Mr. Chapin was three years old, his parents moved from New York to Ann Arbor, so that for fifty three years of his life his home was in that city.

It was the desire of his parents that he should receive a liberal education. To that end he prepared for the university. But not fancying any of the professions he changed his course and applied himself to those studies necessary for a business life. He availed himself of all the facilities which the institutions of the state afforded for the most complete commercial education and in 1852 graduated from a commercial college in Detroit.

Immediately after finishing his studies he entered upon the stern realities and duties of life. His business enterprises were many and varied and to all he applied his abilities with rare assiduity and fidelity.

He was an equal partner in the firm of Lund & Chapin in the manufacture of paper in the fifth ward. The firm was formed in 1852 and was subsequently changed to Lund, Chapin & Co., his father having bought an interest therein. This firm built the first paper mill at Geddes. He continued in this business until 1865. He was a large stockholder in the Ann Arbor Salt and Lumber Company in Saginaw county. For a considerable time he was in the employ of Evarts & Ensign, Philadelphia, who were extensively engaged in publishing local histories in the different states. His adaptability for this kind of work earned for him many encomiums from his employers. From 1882 to within a few months prior to his death he was a clerk in the pension office at Washington. This position he was obliged to leave on account of ill health.

For a number of years he was a vestryman, secretary and treasurer of St. Andrew's church. He was a member of Fraternity Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. He was city recorder 1864–66; alderman for fourth ward 1870–71; recording secretary of the Washtenaw county pioneer society; recording secretary of the Washtenaw county agricultural and horticultural society, 1882. He left every position of trust that he ever occupied with the benediction, well and faithfully done.

In 1855 he married Miss Frances E. Kingsley, only daughter of the late Hon. James Kingsley, who survives him. He also leaves three children, Volney 0147 139 A., of St. Johns, Mich., Miss Lucy E., and Miss Mary F., of this city, and a sister, Mrs. S. S. Walker, of St. Johns, Mich. One of his strongest characteristics was his love for his home and family, and a kinder and more devoted husband and father never journeyed along life's rough and rugged roadway.

He died at his residence on Bowery street, Ann Arbor, Tuesday, December 28, 1886, of hemorrhage of the lungs. The funeral services were held in St. Andrew's church, December 31, Rev. S. Earp, rector, officiating. He was borne to his final resting place by Col. H. S. Dean, Ambrose Kearney, Moses Rogers, L. C. Risdon, Z. P. King, and M. H. Goodrich.