USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > A history of Van Buren County, Michigan a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume II > Part 64
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Leaving school at the early age of thirteen years, Albert B. Black- inton began to be self-supporting, working at any offered employ- ment. While yet in his teens, he was for a time employed in a saw mill at Sand Lake, Kent county, afterwards being similarly occu- pied at Sault Sainte Marie, in Chippewa county, for eight years. Then, imbued with the restless spirit characteristic of the Ameri- can people, Mr. Blackinton crossed the country to the territory of Washington, locating in Tacoma, then a city of about twelve thou- sand inhabitants. He there continued work in the saw mills for four years, when he awoke to the fact that working for daily wages
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was a very slow road to wealth. Determining to find something more profitable as an employment, Mr. Blackinton returned East, and became a prospector on the northern shores of Lake Superior. He was exceedingly fortunate in his ventures, discovering valuable deposits of iron, and in due course of time found himself the pos- sessor of a handsome fortune. He still retains an interest in mines on the Mesaba and other ranges. Returning to the scenes of his childhood days in 1911, Mr. Blackinton purchased a farm in Pine Grove township, and is making extensive and valuable improve- ments on his property, intending to make this his permanent home.
In 1880 Mr. Blackinton was united in marriage with Maude Wil- son, who died in early womanhood. Four children were born to them, none of whom are now living. Fraternally Mr. Blackinton is a member of the Knights of Pythias.
HENRY J. DODGE .- Both as a citizen who has always shown an active interest in all that pertains to the general welfare, and as the proprietor and partner in the Hartford City Mills of Hart- ford, Michigan, an enterprise that has done much to promote the general welfare of the whole city, Henry J. Dodge has well de- served the general esteem with which he is regarded by all who know him. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 1844, a son of Philander and Thirza (Eastman) Dodge. His father was a native of Oneida county, New York, and his mother was born in West Poultney, Vermont. After their marriage in New York state, his parents went to Milwaukee in 1835, where his father who had first been a farmer, served on the city police force for twenty-two years. For some time he lived in Casco, Allegan county, Michigan, and engaged in farming. His death occurred in Milwaukee. He and his wife were the parents of four children, Henry J. being the only survivor in 1911. Truman and Henry died in infancy and Leander W., later.
Henry J. Dodge was reared until his fourteenth year in Milwau- kee and attended the public schools of that place until he went to Dane county, Wisconsin, to live with his grandfather Eastman on a farm. There he attended the district schools until his seventeenth year when he enlisted in Company "K," 33rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry on August 4, 1862. His military career lasted for three years, one month and five days. During his service, his regiment many times saw the front, and he was present at the battles of Vicksburg and Nashville, and was in the celebrated Red River Expedition under Banks. After he was mustered out, he returned to Dane county, Wisconsin, and for two years engaged in farm- ing for himself.
On the 26th of January, 1866, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Shumway. Two years later Mr. and Mrs. Dodge came to Michigan and in February, 1869, located in Allegany county where Mr. Dodge proceeded to farm for twenty-two years, gaining in that time many loyal friends and the respect of the whole county. He then sold out and came to Casco where for four years he was variously engaged before buying a farm in South Haven township, Van Buren county, and in the latter place he served
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for fifteen years as highway commissioner. In 1910, Mr. Dodge came to Hartford and purchased the Hartford City Mills, and has taken a prominent place among the business interests of the community.
To Mr. and Mrs. Dodge have been born four children. Truman A. is a farmer in Allegan county, Michigan; Warren S. is a con- tractor and builder in South Haven; Clara E. is now the wife of Isaac McKinzie of South Haven township, while Thirza M. is Mrs. W. A. Keeny of Hartford, her husband being associated with her father in the Hartford City Mills.
Mr. Dodge is a member of the Baptist church and interested in all of its good works. He is also a member and ex-commander of the Jack Chandler Post of the G. A. R. In his political affiliations, he is a stanch Republican, thoroughly convinced that the men and measures of that party are best fitted to manage public affairs.
C. B. MANLEY, whose farm home in sections seven and eight of Lawrence township is one of the attractive places of the vicinity and illustrates the thrift and enterprise of the man who developed it, is a native son of Van Buren county and represents one of the oldest families in the county.
He is a grandson of Manley, who came up from Ohio into Michigan and was one of the pioneers in the community of Keeler township, where he entered his homestead about 1838. He possessed the sturdy traits of the early settlers and set to work and cleared and improved his land until it was a valuable and productive home. It is now known as the Charles Hammond place. He was the father of seven sons and three daughters, and three of the children are still alive :- Richard is in northern Michigan, Judire is in California, and Joseph, who was the seventh son, is a resident of Oregon.
James Manley, the father of C. B., died when the latter was ten years of age. He was reared in Keeler township, and married Miss Jane A. Olds. Their three children were: W. D., who married a farmer in Montana ; C. B .; and Clara J., wife of O. G. Hungford, of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
C. B. Manley was born in Keeler township, October 13, 1854, and was reared in his native township on what is now know as the Lee Drullinger farm. During his boyhood he attended the country schools during the winter and worked on the farm in summers until he was twenty years old. On April 6, 1881, he mar- ried Miss Laura Cook, and began to make a home and independ- ence. Mrs. Manley was born in Newbury township, Cass county, Michigan, November 5, 1859. Her parents were Sullivan and Harriet (Austin) Cook, who were from Medina county, Ohio, where they married, and in 1853 came to Michigan. Their home for a number of years was in Cass county, and later in Van Buren. Her father was in the lumber and saw mill business. Mrs. Manley re- ceived her education in the schools at Hartford, and is an accom- plished woman. She formerly taught music for some time.
Mr. and Mrs. Manley are the parents of three children : Bernice is the wife of Gordon Gould, and they have one son, Bernard ;
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Ralph married Miss Ava Bennett, and they have a daughter, Laura; Mildred is the wife of Claire Sheppard. Mrs. Manley is an active member and has served as president of the literary organization, the Corwin's Woman's Club. Mr. Manley is affiliated with the Maccabees at Hartford. In politics he is a Democrat, and at the present time is serving as treasurer of the township. His farm consists of one hundred and sixty acres of land in Lawrence town- ship, and during a life of industry he has accumulated sufficient of the world's prosperity to be comfortable the rest of his life. In 1904 his right arm was severed by a corn shredder, so that his former capacity for all kinds of work has been much impaired.
FRANK E. GORTON .- For over thirty years the well-known and estimable citizen whose name inaugurates this review has been en- rolled among the successful farmers and stock raisers of Waverly township, Van Buren county. His estate is located in section 24 and is typical of the picturesqueness and splendid agricultural methods of this favored section of Michigan. Mr. Gorton is a native of the state, his birth having occurred in Allegan county, on De- cember 20, 1856. He is the son of I. H. and Betsy (Cabot) Gorton, both of whom were natives of the state of New York. There they were married, and like so many people of that state, they eventually cast their fortunes with the newer state of Michigan and its allur- ing wealth and natural resource. They took up their residence in Van Buren county, in 1866 and here in 1872 the father was sum- moned to the Great Beyond, his devoted wife and life companion surviving him until February, 1877. They became the parents of five children, four of whom survive at the present time. William J. makes his home in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Ida I. is the wife of Clarence Stephens of North Dakota; Hattie L. is the wife of Albert Strubel of Allegan county, Michigan; Marion L. is deceased.
Frank E. Gorton was a lad of ten years of age when his parents took up their residence in Van Buren county. He attended the district school and at the age of sixteen lost his father, a circum- stance which threw him at an early age entirely upon his re- sources. From that time he managed the farm and he continued thus engaged until the death of his mother. He then assisted va- rious agriculturists by the month.
On April 23, 1881, Mr. Gorton laid the foundation of a happy home life by his union with Laura E. Streator, a daughter of Frank- lin M. and Mary (Green) Streator, and the representative of an old and distinguished family. She was born in Waverly township, September 25, 1858. Her father was a native of Randolph, Portage county, Ohio, where his birth occurred October 12, 1835, he being the son of Cyrus H. and Laura (McCrinan) Streator. The date of the birth of Cyrus Streator was March 1, 1811, his parents being Isaac and Clara (Plum) Streator. Laura E. McCrinan was born May 18, 1813, and was married November 26, 1834. They became the parents of four children, two of whom died in infancy. The mother died in Ohio, and Cyrus Streator came from the Buckeye state to Paw Paw in 1856. Franklin M. Streator was married in Ohio, January 1, 1856, and became the father of three children,
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namely : Laura E .; Clara I., wife of Robert Taylor, of Waverly township; and Mattie, who died in infancy. Franklin M. Streator was called to his eternal rest December 17, 1906, but his benignant influence will not soon be lost in the scenes in which he was best known. He was quiet and unassuming by nature, high principled and rightly respected. Prewitt T. Streator died August 13, 1906.
The union of Mr. Gorton and his admirable wife has resulted in the birth of two children, a son and a daughter. Mattie S., a grad- uate nurse, is connected with the Michigan State Hospital at Kala- mazoo, having charge of Monroe Cottage. Lynn E. is single, and makes his home on his father's farm. The Gorton farm consists of one hundred and twenty-six acres in sections 13 and 24 in Wav- erly township. Mr. Gorton is a Republican and is a public-spirited type of citizen.
To revert to Mrs. Gorton's family, the Streators, they were known far and wide as breeders of high grade sheep and cattle. The family is an old one and on American shores has been traced back beyond Isaac Streator, of Massachusetts, whose wife was Clara Plum, of the well-known family of that name. Clara Streator bore her husband ten children. Isaac H. was a son of Isaac II. Sr., who married Hannah Alderman, they being the parents of five chil- dren. Mrs. Gorton's mother, whose maiden name was Mary E. Green, was born in Portage county, Ohio, June 27, 1837, and came with the Streators to Michigan in the spring of 1856, as a bride. She survives, a venerable and well-esteemed lady, and a member of the Christian church in Bloomingdale. Mr. and Mrs. Gorton are people who play a quiet, but none the less useful part in the many-sided life of the community.
ARTHUR TORREY was born in the state of Minnesota, March 22, 1883, and is a son of William and Maggie (Collins) Torrey, the former a native of New York and the latter of Minnesota. Mr. Torrey's mother died December 30, 1891, having been the mother of three children : Nellie and Fred, who are deceased ; and Arthur. Mr. Torrey then took for his second wife Dora Edwards, and they had two children: Lewis and Pearl, both of whom reside in Col- orado. Arthur Torrey attended the district school until he was thirteen years of age, at which time he began working at farming, and followed that occupation until March 20, 1911, when he came to Bangor and went into the shed business. On August 7. 1911, he purchased all of the stock in a livery stable here, and three weeks later sold a one-half interest to Walter A. Wood, and later sold his entire interest in that business. On March 3, 1905, Mr. Torrey was married to Miss Ellen Parrish. He is a stanch Democrat in political matters.
NATHANIEL HI. BANGS .- The fertile fields of Van Buren county have furnished some of its best citizens with the means of work- ing out their life's destiny, and of laying up for themselves a com- fortable provision for later years. Farming is hard, unremitting work, and to carry it on successfully requires good management and an intimate knowledge of all its details, but in these days of
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modern machinery the life of the agriculturist has its advantages and is certainly remunerative. One of the well known farmers of Antwerp township, who is specializing in fruit growing, is Nathan- iel H. Bangs, who was born in Monroe county, New York, May 31, 1833, a son of Nathaniel and Mary ( Woodman) Bangs, natives of Vermont.
Mr. Bangs' father, who had spent his life in agricultural pur- suits, died in 1834, his widow surviving him for many years. They had eleven children, namely : David, Didama, Lorenzo, Maria, Daniel, Riley, Orange, all of whom are deceased; Woodman, Nathan- iel H., and two children who died in infancy. Nathaniel H. Bangs was sixteen years of age when he went to Churchville, where he was apprenticed to the trade of harness maker in the shop of Willard and Bangs for three years, at the end of which time he became pro- prietor of a business at Bergen, Genesee county, New York. One year later he sold out and went back to the old homestead for two years, after which he purchased sixty-five acres of farming land. In the spring of 1862, Mr. Bangs came to Michigan and settled on a farm of ninety acres, situated in Antwerp township, but traded this eleven years later for a property in Paw Paw, which, in turn, was traded six months later for forty acres in Bloomingdale town- ship. Selling this land, Mr. Bangs purchased 1171/2 acres in sec- tions 4 and 9, Antwerp township, where he has since carried on fruit farming. Mr. Bangs has established himself in the respect and esteem of the people of his community, and is a man who has the ability and desire to form warm personal friendships. He is a leading Republican of his community, having served as treasurer of Antwerp township for one year. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons and the Sons of Temperance, and religiously with the Presbyterian church.
Mr. Bangs was married (first) to Miss Mary Jane Warren, who died February 19, 1874, leaving four children : Jerome W., of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Adie Loraine, the wife of E. F. Parks, cashier of the First National Bank of Paw Paw; Byron, who is deceased ; and Charles Vernon, of Kansas City, Missouri. On October 21, 1875, Mr. Bangs married for his second wife Arlette Morrison, daughter of Robert and Mariannia (Harwick) Morrison. Mr. Morrison was a native of Vermont and his wife of New York, and they came to Michigan in 1833, locating in Antwerp township, where Mr. Morrison followed farming until his death, September 18, 1907, his wife having passed away June 19, 1887. They were the par- ents of three children: Arlette, wife of Mr. Bangs; Alice, who died in 1863; and Daniel, residing in Paw Paw. Mr. and Mrs. Bangs have had three children : Alice M., who was born January 21, 1878, the wife of Myron Griswold, of Chicago; Robert M., born July 7, 1880, and now managing his father's farm; and Earl Nathaniel, born July 7, 1882, now in Sheldon, Illinois.
EUGENE PHILLIPS .- The schools of Van Buren county are of a high order, and their work is well appreciated by the people. The banks are vigorous and progressive, and the county has prospered by the aid they have given it in keeping the financial machinery
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well lubricated. The business houses in various parts of the domain are up-to-date, enterprising and studious of the needs of the people. Every other interest and industry among this people is in touch with the times and has its highly creditable representatives, making Van Buren county, as it deserves to be, one of the most forward and progressive in the great state of which it is a part. But the leading occupations of those who reside within its borders are agri- culture and its allied pursuits, fruit culture and live stock breeding, and the representatives of those industries are the real bone and sinew of the county. Among them no man stands higher or is en- titled to greater consideration than Eugene Phillips of Keeler town- ship, the interesting subject of this memoir.
Mr. Phillips was born in Mount Morris, Livingston county, New York, on January 13, 1852, and is the third of the seven children, six sons and one daughter, born to Richard P. and Sarah J. (Mc- Giveney) Phillips, five of whom are living. Mary is the widow of John McAlpine and resides in Hartford township. Eugene is the second in the order of birth of those who are living. William is a resident of Silvercreek, Cass county, and a prosperous farmer. M. F., a retired farmer living at Dowagiac, is now engaged in the insurance business. Charles H., the youngest of the living repre- sentatives of the family, resides in Calgary, province of Alberta, Canada, and there he is a leading citizen and successful in his business.
Richard P. Phillips, the father of these children, was born in Columbia county, New York, on January 6, 1822, and died in Van Buren county, Michigan, on March 26, 1893. He was a farmer in both states, and never had any other occupation. His grand- father, Martin Phillips, came to this country from Germany in Colonial days, and when the Revolutionary war began he joined the Colonial army and was closely connected in the service with General Washington. He was with the great commander at Val- ley Forge, and helped to hold up his arms in various other critical situations during the momentous struggle for American inde- pendence.
Richard Phillips, had but little opportunity to attend school, and while he became a man of extensive and varied information, he was in all essential particulars a self-educated man. He was reared and married in his native county, and moved his family to Michigan about the year 1854. At that time the family located in or near Adrian in Lenawee county, and a short time afterward changed its residence to Allen county, Indiana, where the father rented land and farmed it for four years. At the end of the period named he brought his household back to Michigan and located it for one year near Dowagiac in Cass county, then moved it to Van Buren county, where he rented land for farming purposes for a time. He pros- pered as a tenant and in time bought 200 acres of good land, but seeing something more in accordance with his desire, he sold this tract and bought 244 acres in Silvercreek township, Cass county, and forty acres in Van Buren county at the same time. He built a rude log shanty on his Cass county land, cutting the logs for it himself, and having them scored by his son Eugene. The cabin
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was crude in construction and limited in the range of its possibilities for comfort. But it made a shelter for the family circle, its mem- bers have never had homes which gave them more substantial happiness.
In his political faith and allegiance the elder Mr. Phillips was a Democrat until the crucial issues which brought on the Civil war came to the front. He then became an Abolitionist and a Republi- can, and cast his vote for General John C. Fremont for the presi- dency. After the war he returned to his former political alliance and remained a member of the Democratic party to the end of his life. He was a man of strong convictions, high character and strict integrity, and was widely known and esteemed as such.
His wife was also a native of the state of New York. Her life began in Franklin county of that great state on March 12, 1829, and closed crowned with the high regard and universal good will of the people in this county on December 23, 1907, when she was nearly seventy-nine years of age. She was a typical American matron of the highest type of excellence, ready for any emergency and prepared to take her place and do well her part in any situa- tion. The example she gave and the rules of life she impressed on her children are embalmed in their memory and will live there in perpetual fragrance, fruitfulness and widening benefaction.
Eugene Phillips has passed the greater part of his life in Cass and Van Buren counties, Michigan, and is a true type and worthy representative of the great body of farmers who have given these counties the standing they have in the state and the influence they exert in the industrial and commercial circles of this part of the country. He remained with his parents until he attained his ma- jority, and, although he then had less than $150 in money, he de- termined to get married and erect a domestic altar if his own, trust- ing to his capacity, self-reliance and industry to make it stable and build it into value.
On October 15, 1873, he united in marriage with Miss Adeline Copley, who was born in Cass county, Michigan, on March 6, 1850, and died in Van Buren county on January 24, 1911. She was a daughter of Ebenezer and Dorice (Knapp) Copley, obtained an excellent education in the district schools and the high school in Dowagiac, and was a very successful teacher, holding a first grade certificate as such in both Cass and Van Buren counties. Her in- dividuality was strong, her intellect was superior and well de- veloped, and her disposition was of the most kindly and considerate nature. Her religious connection was with the Methodist Episco- pal church, of which she was for many years a devout and energetic working member in all church enterprises, and especially in the Sunday school. And when she departed this life in the prime of her womanhood and fullness of her usefulness, her untimely death was universally lamented.
Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Phillips three are living. Edward E., their one son, is a farmer in Keeler town- ship, owning eighty acres of land in that township and forty in Hartford township. He obtained the greater part of his education in the common schools, but attended the high school at Hartford
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one year. He was married to Miss Stella Burch, a daughter of Willard and Celestra H. (Case) Burch, of St. Joseph county, Michigan, where their daughter was born, reared and educated. Her father was a soldier in the Civil war. He usually votes the Republican ticket in political campaigns, and takes an active part in the fraternal life of his community as a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of the Maccabees in the or- ganizations of these fraternities located and working at Hartford.
Metta Phillips, the second child of the Phillips household, married William Sibson and is living with him in Cass county on one of her father's farms. They have seven children. Emma Phillips, the youngest of the living children of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, became the wife of Myrle Evans and lives in Hamilton township, this county. She has one child. Before her marriage she was a popular teacher in the public schools of Van Buren county.
When Mr. and Mrs. Phillips began their married life they lived on a farm they rented for three years. At the end of that period they bought sixty-five acres, about thirty acres of which were par- tially improved and under cultivation. They built a little frame house and lived in it the first winter without lath or plastering. When they bought their land the utmost they could raise as a pay- ment on it was $800, and the rest was held at ten per cent interest until they paid it. There was not a fruit tree or shrub of any kind on the place, and when they came to plant what they desired, Mrs. Phillips held each slip and little tree while her husband judiciously placed the ground around it. The well on the farm was so foul that they were obliged to abandon it and dig another; and Mr. Phillips was forced to give up a cow and six dollars to get a new well dug.
When they got their first tract of sixty-five acres paid for they bought another of the same size, going in debt for that also. The land in the new tract was unbroken and all its possibilities were yet to be developed. In addition to these two tracts in Keeler town- ship Mr. Phillips now owns forty acres in Hartford township, this county, and 1361/4 cares in La Grange township, Cass county. All the improvements on his several farms have been made by him, and as he started with nothing in the way of capital and has accumulated a competency, he is a worthy representative of the thrifty farmers of this portion of the state, and his record furnishes a fine illustration ·of what can be accomplished by industry and thrift in a land so blessed with natural richness and possibilities of improvement and development as the region in which his energies have been so prof- itably employed.
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