USA > Michigan > Allegan County > A twentieth century history of Allegan County, Michigan > Part 46
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born two sons, who are yet living, and they also lost their eldest child in infancy. Arthur T., now a mail- carrier in Kalamazoo and first tenor in the Simpson Methodist Episcopal church, wedded Mary Washburn, and they have a daughter and two sons, Belle, Jesse, also a singer, and Elbert. The daughter is the wife of Irving Conrad. She is also a musician and singer, and they have one child, Lucile, so that our subject is a great-grandfather. The younger son, Herman D., living upon the home farm, is a tenor singer of more than ordinary note. He married Miss Maud Bates, and they have three sons, Muriel, Darrel and Leonard.
Mr. Smith is a Republican, having supported the party since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, and his last ballot having been cast for Theodore Roosevelt. He has been township treasurer for two years and has also been commissioner, but he has preferred to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs, which have been carefully directed and have brought him a goodly measure of success. A long residence in the county has made him widely known, and the salient traits of his character have been such as to gain for him the favorable regard of all with whom business or social relations have brought him in contact.
HEMAN F. WHITE .- To know Heman F. White was to respect and honor him, for, while he never desired nor sought fame nor notoriety, he exemplified in his life those sterling traits of character which in every land and clime command esteem and confidence. He was one of the early settlers of Allegan county and took an active part in the work which led to its ma- terial development and progress. The year 1854 witnessed their arrival, and they were accompanied by Josiah and James Parmalee, who were from the same neighborhood in Summit county. Ohio. They purchased four eighty- acre tracts of land in one body, thinking they would thus be company for each other in what was then a wild region. Mr. White was the last survivor of the four. After purchasing their land the other three returned to Ohio, but following their marriage again came to this county. Heman F. White was married, however, in this county, winning as his bride Miss Jane Bus- kirk, whom he wedded on the 15th of January, 1855. She was a daughter of Abram and Nancy (Garrison) Buskirk. and at the time of her marriage was a young lady of sixteen years. Mr. White had made some improvements
328
HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
thereon, having a home of his own, having chopped the timber from a few acres of land and erected on the clearing a log shanty with shake roof. The place contained but one room and was lighted by two windows. In truc pioneer style the young couple began their domestic life. Their nearest railroad station was Kalamazoo, and not even a wagon road ran past their farm. In collecting their outfit they bought a washtub, piled into it their scanty supply of furniture for the table, then, cach taking a handle, walked homeward a number of miles to their humble abode. They possessed, how- ever, stout hearts and willing hands and bravely met and overcame the diffi- culties and hardships of pioneer life. Venison was not an unfrequent dish upon the family board, for deer still abounded in the district at that carly day. Mr. White led a life of activity, and, as years passed, two sons and two daughters were added to the household: Frank, who is now living with his mother on the old farm; Addie, the wife of Irwin Wait, who is living on the Bradley farm; Martha, who became the wife of A. Baker and died at the age of nineteen years ; and Darwin, a photographer at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Mr. White took a most active and helpful interest in all that pertained to general progress and improvement. He was a member of the First Con- gregational church at Hopkinsburg and was always most faithful to its teachings, contributing generously of his means to its support. His life exemplified the truth of the saying that "So long as a man loves he serves." His life was a life of service for others, for his family, his friends and his fellow citizens. He always lived on the best terms with everybody and he preached and practiced the gospel of love. He lived to aid others and he opened roads and otherwise improved the county. Ile cut the first tree upon the road which passed his own farm and he did much toward saving farms to the owners in the case of tax sales. He would often purchase tax titles for his neighbors and he kept informed concerning all such cases and thus saved many a farm for the owner. He likewise did much toward proving the value of this district as an agricultural region and was noted for his grafting, principally in the budding of peach trees. While working in this way he only charged for a day's service, and not for the skill and knowledge which enabled him to perform the task. For nine successive years he was elected township treasurer and for three consecutive years filled the office of supervisor, receiving at one election every vote cast. His early political
allegiance was given to the Republican party, but in later life he voted the Prohibition ticket and was a great temperance man, advocating the cause both by precept and example. It is said that he had not an enemy in the world. He lived a life of usefulness, activity and honor, and left to his fam- ily a name which in the community where he was known was a synonym for integrity and genuine personal worth.
WILLIAM S. KENFIELD, whose well improved farm property is the visi- ble evidence of his life of thrift and industry, was born in Belchertown, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, March 28, 1831, and when but three years of age was taken to Medina county, Ohio, by his parents, Erastus and Cla- rissa (Piper) Kenfield. The father was born in New England in 1801, and was a son of Erastus Kenfield, Sr., a soldier of the Revolutionary war. The mother's birth occurred in Connecticut, and she was a daughter of Samuel Piper, also one of the heroes of the Revolution, who was shot in the fore-
329
HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
head, but the skull was afterward trepanned. Reared in Ohio after the usual manner of farm lads of that locality and period, William S. Kenfield re- tained his residence there until 1854, when, at the age of twenty-three years, he sought a home in Allegan county, Michigan. He had, however, pre- viously spent one year in Massachusetts, but he heard of the big wages that were paid for labor in the lumber camps and came to Michigan, after which he spent a year near Lamont, on the Grand river. He had a friend, William Dunham, a former schoolmate, who was working in Allegan county at Way- land, and, coming to see him, William S. Kenfield secured work in this local- ity, being for three years employed by Nelson Chambers, at seventeen dollars per month. Mr. Chambers was the proprietor of a hotel and Mr. Kenfield was assigned to the duty of attending the bar and stables, and also in other work around the hotel or in hauling goods. While thus employed he formned the acquaintance of Miss Sarah Round, who did dining room work in the same hotel for a year, and on the 3d of July, 1858, the friendship which they formed was consummated in marriage, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. James Selkrig, an Episcopal minister, of Wayland.
The same fall the young couple located on the present home farm, Mr. Kenfield securing eighty acres, for which he paid a dollar and a quarter per acre. It was covered with heavy maple, and he burned up the finest of the timber. The settlers at that date little realized what the value of the forests would be in a few years, and cut down the trees in order to clear and culti- vate the fields. Mr. Kenfield built a good house for that time, having to cut away the timber in order to clear a place sufficient for its erection. He also cut a road through, one mile in length, to his farm. Two other farmers arrived in the nighborhood in the same fall-Marion Mason, now of Hills- dale county, and Wilbur S. Marsh, and the one road served as a highway for all. Since locating upon this place Mr. Kenfield has continuously made it his home. He engaged in cutting timber in early days in order to secure money necessary for the support of his family and for carrying on the farm work, and in the winter season he was employed in the lumber camp. Many evi- dences of frontier life were to be seen at that time. It was not an unusual thing to see a deer in the farmyard and there were many wolves and deer and bears in the woods. With the rapid settlement of the county, however, great changes were brought about, and Mr. Kenfield, keeping in touch with mod- ern progress and development, placed his land under cultivation and is today the owner of a valuable and well improved farm. He also has a dairy with ten or eleven cows. He built his present residence in 1880, but his barn is one of the old landmarks of the county, having stood for forty years. Mr. Kenfield has indeed found a worthy helpmate and companion in his wife. She was the fifth in order of birth in a family of nine children, and her parents were in limited circumstances, so that she cared for herself from the age of eleven years. She, however, attended school in the winter months until sixteen years of age, and for one year she was employed in the hotel at Wayland, where, as stated, she formed the acquaintance of Mr. Kenfield. They have but one child, Carrie A., now the wife of Martin G. Gaylor, wlio operates the home farm. Mr. Kenfield is a supporter of Republican prin- ciples, while Mrs. Kenfield is equally stanch in her faith in Democratic prin- ciples. For fifteen years he has been a member of the Odd Fellows' society. He greatly enjoys fishing, spending many pleasant hours in that way. For
330
HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
more than a half century he has lived in Allegan county, and is therefore classed with its pioneer residents, while his activity and energy in business and his devotion to the public good have won for him a place among the representative men of the county-men who have done much for the work of upbuilding that has led to placing Allegan county in the front rank among the leading counties of this great commonwealth.
Other members of the Kenfield family also came to Michigan. Seven years after the arrival of W. S. Kenfield his brother. Lucius Kenfield, in 1865 came to Allegan county. He was born at Hinckley, Medina county, Ohio, April 25, 1845. and was therefore a young man of about twenty years when he removed to this state. He had just left the army, in which he had served as a loyal defender of the Union, who located on eighty acres of land near the home of his brother William, there spending his remaining days. He was married April 29. 1874. in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Miss Melissa Gregg, of that place, who was born July 17. 1849, near Comstock, Kalama- zoo county, her parents being Olive and Mary ( Darling) Gregg, both of whom were natives of New York. Mr. Kenfield visited in Kalamazoo county, and it was at that time that he met the lady whom he afterward made his wife. He had served in the Second Ohio Cavalry from February. 1865. and was discharged at Benton Barracks, Missouri. Immediately afterward he came direct to the home of his brother William and secured eighty acres. which became his homestead. Later, however, he sold ten acres and he had secured a similar tract previous to his marriage. For one season after their marriage both Mr. and Mrs. Kenfield worked for one man in Kalamazoo county, but that winter he got out logs to saw for a small frame house, and when it was built he and his wife took up their abode there, making it their home until about nine years ago, when a pleasant country residence was erected. Lucius Kenfield placed about forty acres of his land under cultiva- tion and for several years engaged in sheep-raising, which was his principal source of income at that time. He then made his living off the farm through the cultivation of crops. In 1871 a big fire burned much of his timber, and also did considerable detriment to the soil. Since his death, however, the family have sold considerable timber. He passed away November 1. 1903. at the age of sixty-two years, leaving a widow and two daughters, Clara and Maggie. The latter has charge of the home farm, while the former is now the wife of George Allen, of Hopkins township. and has four children, Charles. Luella, Rose and Nellie. Another brother. Josiah Kenfield, who came two years after his brother Lucius, was married here to Miss Sarah Robbins, and afterward returned to Medina county, Ohio, where he cared for his parents until their death. About thirteen years ago he returned to Allegan county and is now living in Hopkins township. He has one daugh- ter, Lottie, now the wife of Leonard Truax. The name of Kenfield has long been synonymous with good citizenship and with progressive agriculture in this county and the family well deserves mention in this volume.
CHARLES KNOBLOCH is the owner of an excellent farm of one hundred and eighty-three acres on section 31. Hopkins township, and pleasantly and conveniently located only about a mile and a half south of the village of Hop- kins. It is devoted to the raising of grain and fruit and to dairy farming. and the owner is a man of excellent business ability and executive force. He
331
HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
was born in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, August 16th, 1851, and remained at home until twenty-five years of age, acquiring in the meantime a good Eng- lish education and receiving from his parents training that resulted in form- ing habits of industry and integrity. He spent one year in Newcastle, Penn- sylvania, in a meat market when about twenty-one years of age, and then returned to the old homestead farm. At the age of twenty-five years he mar- ried Louisa M. Tiefenthal, a daughter of William F. Tiefenthal, of Allegan township. Her father is still living among his children at the age of seventy- eight years. Mrs. Knobloch was born in Ohio, and in her girlhood days came to Allegan county. Following his marriage Mr. Knobloch operated the Eisenbarth place in Hopkins, which he purchased after a year or two. There he lived for four years, clearing much of the land and doing away with the swamp holes. He then bought the Chamberlain farm in Monterey township, comprising one hundred and sixty acres of good land, which he devoted to the raising of grain. On selling that property to his father he made investment in his present farm, comprising one hundred and eighty- three acres on section 31, Hopkins township. This is a splendidly improved property, and he is meeting with success in raising grain and fruit and also in his dairy business. He keeps from eighteen to twenty cows, selling milk to the creamery. He has seven acres in fruit-apples, peaches, pears, plums and cherries, and his fields are devoted to the cultivation of hay and corn. He came to this farm in 1886, since which time he has placed half of it under cultivation. It is rolling land and low ground, much of the low ground being black sand and drained by the large Anderson drain which follows the fence lines. In addition to this property he owns sixty acres elsewhere, so that his landed possessions now aggregate two hundred and forty-three acres. His home place was formerly known as the old Lewis Herlon homestead. having been settled and improved by Mr. Herlon about 1840. He and his brother, Philip Herlon, were among the early settlers and own an entire sec- tion of land. In later years Lewis Herlon went to Kansas, where he passed away, but his remains were laid to rest in Hopkins cemetery. Upon the farm are now found all modern improvements, including a barn ninety-six feet long and forty feet wide. The residence stands on a high eminence. commanding a splendid view of the surrounding country, and the farm is most attractive in its appearance, being well kept in every particular.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Knobloch has been blessed with eight chil- dren : Laura, wife of George Morris, of Allegan ; Carl, who married Minnie Brown, of Allegan, and owns a farm of sixty acres adjoining his father's property ; Daniel, who is residing on a farm in Hopkins township : Susan, the wife of Magnus Palberg, in Hopkins : Leon, Otto, Martin and George, all at home. They also lost five children.
Mr. Knobloch is a Democrat, but without aspiration for office. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, to the Knights of the Maccabees and the National Protective Legion. He possesses superior musical talent and skill and for nearly thirty years has been a band leader in Hopkins and Monterey. His grandfather and uncles were also musicians and he inherited the love of the art. As a young man he took up the cornet and became a member of the band at Monterey and was instrumental in keeping up the organization for several years. At length the band lapsed for five years, and was then reor- ganized and is still in existence. For five years at the band tournaments
332
HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
held in Holland, Michigan, they carried off the first prize. Mr. Knobloch has also taken the band to several different points in the state, where it won first honors, and to at least two places in Indiana, gaining the first prize at Rome City, Indiana. The Hopkins band has never missed a prize where it has entered the contest. Mr. Knobloch also organized and instructed the Salem band, and in 1906 acted as its leader in the contest at Holland, where they carried off the second honors. He has been the choir leader in the Ger- man Lutheran church at Hopkins for fifteen years. His children are all musicians, his son Carl being a fine performer on the slide trombone, and it would be possible for him to organize an orchestra among the members of his own household. Mr. Knobloch's love for music and his thorough under- standing of the art has made him a most valued factor in musical circles in this part of the state and has led him to contribute in large measure to gen- eral pleasure on many public occasions.
JOHN W. LINSLEY .- Hopkins township, Allegan county, Michigan, includes among its representative farmers and respected citizens John W. Linsley. He was born in Parkman, Ohio, on the 26th of August, 1843, and for many generations the family were well known and highly respected citi- zens in that section of the Buckeye state. The paternal grandfather of our subject, James Linsley, was a native of Branford, Connecticut. He married Lucy Parkman, and in 1836 they removed to Parkman township, Geauga county, Ohio, that township having been named in honor of a brother of Lucy Parkman, and one of the representatives of that family was the illustri- ous Daniel Webster. James Linsley died in 1845.
John P. Linsley, his son and the father of John W. Linsley, was born in Oneida county, New York, on the 10th of February, 1819. On the 18th of December, 1840, he was united in marriage to Ann Eliza Button, whose parents, Joel and Lydia Button, took up their abode in Ohio in 1819. estab- lishing the family home at Hiram. In 1853 John P. Linsley came with his family to Michigan, and here he lived during the remainder of his life, his time and energies having been devoted to agricultural pursuits, in which he attained success. In 1889, while crossing a railroad track in company with his niece, they were struck by a train, the team being killed, but they escaped serious injury, and Mr. Linsley survived until the 2d of June, 1902, when his life's labors were ended in death.
John W. Linsley, one of the five children born to John P. and Ann Eliza (Button) Linsley, was born in Parkman, Ohio, on the 26th of August. 1843. He, too, has followed agricultural pursuits as a life occupation, but when the Civil war was inaugurated he put aside all personal considerations and offered his services to the Union cause, enlisting in July, 1862, as a member of Company L. Fourth Michigan Cavalry, in which he served for three years. He took part in a number of the important battles and skirmishes of the war. and on one occasion he was wounded in the leg, and for three months there- after was confined in the hospital at Kingston, Georgia. . His regiment assisted in the capture of Jefferson Davis. His army record is one of which he may be justly proud, for it is the record of a brave soldier, faithful to the least as well as the greatest of his duties, prompt, reliable and self-sacrificing. When peace had been restored he quietly took up the ordinary duties of life. and he is now the owner of one hundred and twenty acres of excellent land
333
HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
in Hopkins township, Allegan county, which he has transformed from a densely wooded tract to its present high state of cultivation. The Springdale Cheese Factory is located on a part of this land, and the homestead is num bered among the valuable farms of the township. He usually keeps about twelve cows upon the place, and the buildings are all neat and substantial. Mr. Linsley gives his political support to the Republican party, and has served as highway commissioner. He is a member of the Grange, and also of the G. A. R. Post No. 80, in which he maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades.
On the 6th of September, 1867. Mr. Linsley was united in marriage to Lydia Chamberlain, who was born in New York January 18, 1849. a daughter of Peleg Chamberlain, who took up his abode in Hopkins township. Allegan county, Michigan, in 1855, but he is now deceased. Seven children have been born of this union, namely : Herman W., who now owns the old Linsley homestead ; Emma E. : Lucy P., the wife of Jake Rinehart. of Walk- erton, Indiana : James H., who is now preparing for the dental profession : Burdette E., foreman of the saw mills at Virginia, Minnesota : Alfred, who carries on the work of the farm, and he married Ida Sutton : and Bertha I., the wife of William Reynolds, a farmer in Hopkins township. On the 4th of July, 1876. Mr. Linsley sustained a terrible accident by the unexpected ex- ploding of a cannon which he was loading at Ohio Corners, one mile from his home, resulting in the loss of both arms, one having been taken off at the elbow and the other at the shoulder. also losing the sight of one eye and the hearing of one ear. He has borne this great affliction with great fortitude and bravery, and uncomplainingly and to the best of his ability is discharging the many duties which devolve upon him in his business life.
WILLIAM JACKSON, after long years of active and successful connection with agricultural interests in Allegan county, is now living retired in Hop- kins. He improved a valuable farm and for many years was connected with threshing. while as a breeder and raiser of fine stock he became widely known. Born in Hovingham, Yorkshire. England. on the 15th of June, 1830, he is a son of William and Elizabeth (Hugel) Jackson, and the sec- ond in a family of three children. His elder brother. John Jackson, is now living in Laporte, Indiana, but for a long period was a farmer of Allegan county. He was the first of the family to come to America and settled in New York state, where he lived for a year. In 1858 he became a resident of Michigan, locating west of Allegan, where he was residing when the other members of the family came to this county in the spring of 1859. He had taken up a half section of land west of Allegan and for many years he was identified with agricultural pursuits in this part of the county. Eventually he took up his abode in the village of Allegan, where he lived until about ten or twelve years ago, his home being now in Laporte. Indiana.
William Jackson lost his mother when he was eight years of age. In the spring of 1851, with his father and his sister. he came to the United States, spending seven years in New York. In the spring of 1859 the fam- ily came to Allegan county, whither they had been preceded by John Tack- son, the brother of our subject. William Jackson here purchased forty acres of land from George Lay on section 26, Monterey township. The
334
HISTORY OF ALLEGAN COUNTY
father lived with his three children and died in Leighton township at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Duke Suffield, when seventy-three years of age.
William Jackson was married in Ithaca, New York, on the 15th of De- cember, 1855, to Miss Martha H. Holdsworth, also a native of Yorkshire, and a sister of his brother John's wife. As stated, they came to Michigan in the spring of 1859, and he began life in Allegan county with forty acres of wild land. A little clearing had been made upon the place, but he prac- tically performed all the work of developing and improving this farm. He first built a little board shanty, but later the comforts and conveniences of a modern home were secured and as time passed he also added to his farm until he had eighty acres. Eventually he improved his property with a large residence, good barns and other substantial outbuildings and trans- ferred the once wild land into a rich and productive tract. When his resi- dence was destroyed by fire he at once rebuilt a new one upon the old site and also built a home for his son, who is operating the farm. The father and son owned altogether two hundred and five acres of rich and pro- ductive land. Year after year William Jackson carried on the work of tilling the soil and raising crops, residing upon his farm until 1898, when he rented his land to his son, Charles S., and retired to the village of Hop- kins, where he now makes his home. For many years he operated a thresh- ing machine. In 1876 he purchased the first steam thresher owned in Alle- gan county and he operated the thresher until he had threshed for twenty seasons, covering several townships. In this connection he became widely known. In the winters he here used his teams in the lumber woods and thus he lived a life of unremitting activity and enterprise, each season of the year bringing his duties and labors, which were promptly executed and faithfully performed by him. For twenty years he was a breeder of Short- horn cattle and exhibited at fairs. He won forty dollars in premiums one year at Allegan and he kept registered stock, being the first man in Mon- terey to breed high grade stock. He also bred Shropshire sheep, breeding over thirty head of registered sheep. His business interests were thus varied and important. As a stock-raiser he contributed to general pros- perity through advancing the grade of stock raised, whereby prices are always promoted.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.