USA > Michigan > Gratiot County > Biographical memoirs of Gratiot County, Michigan : compendium of biography of celebrated Americans > Part 12
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Mr. and Mrs. McCall located first at Alliance, Ohio, but in the same fall moved to Edinburg, Ohio, where Mr. McCall was engaged as principal of the public schools. There they remained until November 9, 1900, when Mr. McCall resigned his posi- tion to enter the newspaper business, for which work he had formed a liking in his brother's office, and also while business man- ager of "The Dynamo," a publication of Mount Union College. He entered into a partnership with W. M. Comstock, of Ithaca, Michigan, and bought the Oconto
County Reporter, the leading paper of Oconto, Wisconsin. There by hard work and able management the firm established an excellent business. In the fall of 1904 Mr. McCall sold his interest in the Reporter and associated himself with his brother, J. N. McCall, buying an interest in the Gratiot County Herald, and on December 1, 1904, assuming the business management of the paper.
JACOB WOLFGANG, a well-known citi-
zen and successful farmer of Wheeler township, Gratiot county, was born in Wells county, Indiana, December 2, 1848, third of the five children of Jacob and Mary (Foust) Wolfgang, the former of whom died in April, 1902, in his eighty-second year, while the mother still survives.
Jacob Wolfgang was reared in Wells county, Indiana, where he spent the early years of his life working on a farm, and at- tending school during the winter months. In 1863, when fifteen years old, Mr. Wolf- gang enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Volunteer In- fantry, with which he served seven months, being honorably discharged with his regi- ment. After the war he returned to Wells county, and continued to engage in farm work. In September, 1872, he was mar- ried to Miss Mary Staver, born in Mont- gomery county, Ohio, June 27, 1851, daugh- ter of Jonathan and Sarah ( Rhodes) Staver.
After marriage Mr. Wolfgang engaged in farming on his own account, and also worked in a hub and spoke factory at Hart- ford City, Indiana, prior to 1876, in No- vember of which year he came to Gratiot county, and, locating in North Shade town- ship, rented a farm upon which he resided
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for nearly a year. Mr. Wolfgang then lo- cated in Wheeler township, where he has since been a resident. He owns 140 acres of land, 100 of which are under the plow, and he has erected a good, modern residence on the premises. Mr. Wolfgang lost a fine barn by fire in November, 1901.
To Mr. Wolfgang and his estimable wife have been born these children: Estella M., the wife of Fred Woodcock; Jonathan H .; Annetta E., the wife of George E. Brown; Bessie B., the wife of Frank Seymour; Murray E .; Dora, and Alger, who died in infancy. For many years Mr. Wolfgang has held the office of school director in his district. He is a member of Billy Cruson Post No. 347, Grand Army of the Republic, and is a valued comrade of that post. His shrewd business methods have placed him among the foremost business men of his township, and he is highly respected by all who know him.
F RANK M. PEET, the owner of a fine farm of eighty acres on Section 32, Lafayette township, Gratiot county, Michi- gan, was born November 22, 1852, in Ro- chester, Lorain county, Ohio, son of Rolla A. and Mary (Odell) Peet, the latter of whom died September 24, 1881, in Lafay- ette township.
The grandparents of our subject, John and Betsey (Clark) Peet, were natives of Connecticut and New York, respectively. The former was a farmer by occupation, but also engaged in working at the trade of shoe- maker.
Rolla A. Peet was born August 18, 1830, in New York State, and until nearly twenty- one years of age worked on his father's farm. In 1834 he went to Ohio with his
parents, and there worked on a farm until he had reached his majority. He married Mary Odell, daughter of Nathan and Bet- sey (Wright) Odell, and resided for a time at Lorain, Ohio. While there he enlisted in Company B, First Ohio Light Artillery, in 1864, being mustered out in 1865 at Camp Dennison, Ohio. Returning . home he en- gaged in the dairy business for one year, when he sold his farm and came to Michi- gan. He first settled on 300 acres in Kent county, and in 1875 became a resident of Gratiot county, settling in Lafayette town- ship. Mr. Peet had six children by his first wife, namely: Frank M .; Odell, mentioned elsewhere ; Gertrude, wife of Elezer Russell, a farmer of Lafayette township; Lois M., who married Wilson Broadbeck, a farmer of Hamilton township; Benjamin J .; and Anna, wife of Jackson Russell, also a farmer. The mother of this family died in 1881, and Mr. Peet married (second) Miss Ida M. Fuller, born in Eaton county, Michigan, September 17, 1865, daughter of James and Polly (Shance) Fuller.
Frank M. Peet came with his parents to Kent county, Michigan, in 1867, and lived in Caledonia township and the vicinity thereabouts until 1880. He engaged in farming there, and while in that county mar- ried, May 2, 1875, Miss Lena Vandenberg, born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 16, 1856, daughter of John and Ida (Van- Housen) Vandenberg, natives of the Nether- lands. In January, 1880, Mr. Peet came to Gratiot county, and settled on Section 32, Lafayette township, upon which he has lived ever since, with the exception of two years he spent in the hotel business at Ithaca, where he operated the old "Commercial House," destroyed by fire many years ago.
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Mr. Peet's farm is one of the finest in his district, being well cultivated, and improved with substantial buildings, and under his careful management has become very pro- ductive.
To Mr. and Mrs. Frank M. Peet the fol- lowing children have been born: Ida D., who became the wife of Burdett Muffley, and at his death married (second) Wilson Schaub; Rolla I .; Mary A .; Gertrude L., and Cordelia E. Mr. Peet has held the office of justice of the peace for seven years; has been a member of the board of review for two years; township treasurer for two years, and has been school director for twenty-two years. He has also been deputy sheriff for six years. He is one of the stanch Demo- crats of this section and takes a great inter- est in township and county affairs. Mr. Peet is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in both of which he is a valued member. Mr. Peet has hosts of friends in every section of the county, who have been attracted to him by his strong, fearless and resolute character, and by the unswerving integrity of his con- duct.
JOHN C. BANEY is the well known township clerk of Bethany township, Gratiot county, Michigan, a position he has held since 1900. He was born at Newfane, Niagara county, New York, November 30, 1864, son of John and Jane (Jennings) Baney, natives of New York. The parents of John C. Baney located in Gratiot county in 1865, residing in St. Louis for two years, and thence removing to Bethany township, where the father still lives, in his seventy- ninth year, having been born March 19,
1828. Mrs. Baney died in Bethany town- ship January 21, 1902, aged sixty-nine years. The following children were born to this union: William J., deceased, aged forty-three years; Frank, who died at the age of two; John C .; Nettie, wife of Henry Bauer, a farmer of Bethany township; and Charles, who died in infancy.
John C. Baney was the third in the fam- ily of five children, and was about one year old when his parents came to Gratiot county. He reached manhood in Bethany township, being educated in the common schools and at the high school in St. Louis, and farming and horticulture have been his life occupa- tions. He resided at home until his mar- riage, November 26, 1885, to Miss Jennie M. Granger, who was born in Hillsdale county, Michigan, August 28, 1865, a daughter of William and Margaret (Mc- Curdy) Granger. To their union five chil- dren have been born: Bert L., Lena M., Gladys E., Howard and Bernice. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Baney located upon his forty-acre farm in Bethany town- ship, where they have since resided.
Mr. Baney has held the office of town- ship clerk since 1900, and upon several oc- casions has been chosen a delegate to the county conventions. He is a Democrat, and a man of political influence in his township. Prominent in fraternal societies, he is asso- ciated with the Ancient Order of Gleaners of Bethany, of which he has been secretary and treasurer for the past ten years, and with Bethany Grange, No. 508, of which for three years he served as master. Both Mr. Baney and his worthy wife are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of St. Louis.
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Q.b. Bonney
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF GRATIOT COUNTY.
JACKSON M. WILLIAMS, ex-super- visor of North Star township, Gratiot county, has for a number of years been prominently identified with the political af- fairs of that township. He was born in Jackson township, Seneca county, Ohio, January 29, 1853, son of Andrew M. and Nancy (Iler) Williams, who located in Gratiot county, in 1878, settling in North Star township, one mile north of the center. There they lived until their deaths, his oc- curring in December, 1891, in his eighty- first year, while his widow survived until August 8, 1900, dying in her seventy-first year. They had these children : Mary, who married Samuel Lambright, died in Hamil- ton township in 1881; Susanna is the wife of A. Signs, of North Star township; Jacob is of North Star township; Jackson M .; Elizabeth is Mrs. John Hoffman, of North Star township; and Lodema is the wife of Nicholas Azelborn, of North Star.
Jackson M. Williams was reared in Seneca county, Ohio, where he resided until his twenty-fifth year engaged in farming. In 1878 he located in Gratiot county, living at home with his parents until several years after his marriage. In 1892 he purchased eighty acres of land where he now lives, and has fifty-two acres of this under cultivation. Mr. Williams was married September 4, 1881, to Miss Sarah Jane Bresee, born in Broome county, New York, August 12, 1865, daughter of the late Henry and Mary (Coss) Bresee, the former of whom died in Broome county, New York. Of a family of six children, Mrs. Williams was the fifth child. She and her husband have these chil- dren : Esther V., the wife of William Ul- rich, a butcher of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin; and Viola A.
Mr. Williams is a public-spirited man and has served his county and township well. For five terms he was supervisor of North Star township, and held the office of high- way commissioner for two terms. He was township treasurer and served as a member of the board of review for one year. He was always active in support of any measure of a nature beneficial to his township, and is rated among the prominent men of his lo- cality. Fraternally he is affiliated with Heath Lodge No. 222, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife is a member of Chulah Lodge No. 38, Daughters of Re- bekah.
C HARLES MARION CHAFFIN. Among the prominent and substan- tial citizens of Gratiot county, Michigan, is the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch, who has been closely identified with the advancement of the material interests of this section for a number of years. Charles Marion Chaffin was born August 29, 1849, in Hancock county, Ohio, son of John Wes- ley and Clara Ann (Evitts) Chaffin, the former born in West Virginia, in 1822, and the latter in 1826, a native of Ohio.
The parents of Charles Marion Chaffin came to Gratiot county in 1854, settling in North Star on Section 30, where John Wes- ley Chaffin followed farming and stock buy- ing until his death, which occurred in No- vember, 1874, at the age of fifty-two years. In the fifties he was largely engaged in buy- ing furs for Detroit dealers. His wife de- parted this life in January, 1905. They had eight children, six of whom are now living, as follows: Charles M., Homer W., Theo- dore A., Clara L., Perry F., and Edith L.
Charles Marion Chaffin was but five
6
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF GRATIOT COUNTY.
years of age when his parents brought him to Gratiot county. He was reared in North Star township, where he has always resided, and received his education in the common schools of that township, and at Ithaca, and the Agricultural College at Lansing, Michi- gan, which latter place he attended but a short time, being called home on the death of his father to take charge of the farm. He taught school for twenty years during the winter seasons, including also several sum- mer seasons, and became well and favorably known throughout the township as an edu- cator. Farming has been his chief occupa- tion, but for the past seven years he has been largely engaged in photography, taking views of farm residences, teams, stock, fam- ily reunions, schools, portraits and interior views. Charles M. Chaffin owns thirty acres of highly improved farm land in North Star township. He has been a justice of the peace for four years, township clerk for two years, school moderator for a time, township super- intendent of schools under the old system, and has been school inspector and truant officer for the last two years. He has always been identified with the Republican party. He and his wife are members of the United Brethren Church, with which he has been connected for nearly a quarter of a century, and at present is superintendent of the Sun- day-school.
Charles Marion Chaffin was united in marriage in North Star township, June 25, 1876, with Miss Sarah Barnes, born in Eng- land, September 30, 1844, daughter of the late John and Susannah (Watson) Barnes, natives of England, and sister of State Sen- ator George Barnes, of Howell, Michigan. To Mr. and Mrs. Chaffin one child was born, Bessie A., in 1883, who married H. Henry
Wright, a resident of North Star, in 1905. Mrs. Charles Marion Chaffin died in Octo- ber, 1898, in North Star township. She had been a school teacher in Gratiot county, and had been educated in the public schools of this county, and at the State Normal School at Ypsilanti. She was a loving wife and mother, and a good Christian woman. Mr. Chaffin is a generous and charitable citizen and is esteemed and respected for his many sterling traits of character. Mr. Chaffin is, we might add, a veritable pioneer, as he attended the first Fourth of July cele- bration held in the county, and also the first county fair, being a life member of the as- sociation. He is a charter member of the Gratiot Teachers' Association, and is secre- tary of the Ohio Picnic Association.
V JINCENT P. CASH, treasurer of Se-
ville township, is a prosperous busi- ness man of Riverdale, that township, and president of the Riverdale Manufacturing Company. Mr. Cash is a native of Mich- igan, born in Norvell, Jackson county, May 30, 1862, son of Peter and Elizabeth (Coney) Cash, both of whom died at Nor- vell. They had a family of eleven children, of which Vincent P. was the seventh member.
Vincent P. Cash was reared on his father's farm, and received his education in the district schools, and at the Manchester (Michigan) high school. At the latter in- stitution he finished all but two months of the four years' course, giving up on account of poor health, for which reason he also gave up a contemplated course at the Uni- versity. Shortly after leaving school Mr. Cash engaged in the grain and produce bus- iness at Manchester, Washtenaw county,
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF GRATIOT COUNTY.
continuing same for about six years, at which time he removed to Portland, Ionia county, where he purchased an elevator and con- tinued in the grain business until 1901. In June of that year he located in River- dale, Seville township, Gratiot county, and engaged in the grain business, in which he has since continued, and he is also serving in the capacity of president of the Riverdale Manufacturing Company. Mr. Cash has been a leading business man in every com- munity in which he has settled, and his en- terprises have been uniformly successful.
Mr. Cash was elected treasurer of Seville township in the spring of 1903 and re-elected in the following spring, on the Democratic ticket. He has taken an active part in all public affairs wherever he has lived, and has made an efficient, popular public official. He was only twenty-one years old when elected to his first position, that of school inspector, and the fact that he was the only successful Democrat on the ticket argues well for his popularity. Then he filled the office of city treasurer at Manchester and immediately after locating in Portland he also became interested in the local govern- ment, being elected president of the village in 1889, although the Republicans were normally in the majority. In 1898 he was again elected to that office, in which he gave excellent satisfaction all around.
Mr. Cash was married at Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, July 20, 1891, to Miss Lucy M. Terry, a native of New York State, and to this union have been born four children,' Agnes C., Paul R., Mildred L. and Justin C. Mr. and Mrs. Cash are mem- bers of the Catholic Church. Fraternally he is connected with the Maccabees and B. P. O. Elks.
H
ON. HUGH CHISHOLM, ex-mem-
ber of the Michigan Legislature, junior member of the well-known firm of Chisholm Brothers, merchants, of Brecken- ridge, and a substantial citizen and repre- sentative farmer of Wheeler township, was born in Ross-shire, Scotland, April 29, 1855.
The late Alexander Chisholm, his father, was a native of Scotland. He married Ann McLennan, who was also from that country, and who died in Canada when about thirty- five years old, Mr. Chisholm surviving until April 1, 1904, when he died in Lafayette township, Gratiot county, Michigan, aged eighty-four years. They had four sons, of which family Hugh was the youngest member.
Hugh Chisholm was brought by his par- ents from Scotland to Canada when he was about two years old, and one year afterward from there to Ingham county, Michigan. Here the family lived four years, at the end of which time they located in Gratiot county, settling in Lafayette township, on a farm, where our subject grew to manhood. He purchased an eighty-acre farm of wild land on Sections I and 12, which he cleared and cultivated, and upon which he resided until about 1884, when he located in Breckenridge and purchased the stock of merchandise of L. Wagner & Company in company with his brother Alexander. Since that time Mr. Chisholm has continued in that line in Breckenridge. In addition to his business interests there he is the owner of a seventy- five-acre farm in Wheeler township, which is finely cultivated and improved with mod- ern, substantial buildings.
Mr. Chisholm was elected to the Michi- gan Legislature in the fall of 1890, on the P. of I. ticket, being endorsed by the Demo-
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF GRATIOT COUNTY.
crats and Prohibitionists, and served one term. He has been very active in temperance work in this section, and is also an active worker in the church, attending the First Congregational Church at Breckenridge.
Mr. Chisholm was married in Montreal, Canada, September 24, 1884, to Mary Mc- Lennan, who was born in Scotland, daughter of John and Jane (Mckenzie) McLennan, both of whom died in Scotland. To Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm the following named children have been born : Ellen A., John A. and William H.
IDNEY S. HASTINGS (deceased), S the third permanent settler on the present site of St. Louis, was the first county surveyor of Gratiot county and incumbent of that position from its organization in 1855 until his death in 1894. He surveyed and platted most of the flourishing villages in Gratiot county, as well as most of the early State roads, and some of the railroads connecting St. Louis with other sections of the State. There is assuredly no character identified with the pioneer era of Gratiot county to whom attach more of the attri- butes of sturdy and continuous usefulness than to Sidney S. Hastings. For sixty years he was not only acknowledged to be among the strongest men of St. Louis and Gratiot county, but also among the most helpful and charitable, his noble wife sharing with him the honor of this latter prominence.
The Hastings family is an old and hon- orable one in American history, one of its early members, Benjamin Hastings, being an officer in the Revolutionary war. Sid- ney S. Hastings was born in Champion, Jefferson county, New York, August 25, 1827, the son of Sidney S. and Clarissa
(Fitch) Hastings. His father was a me- chanic during the early years of his life, but later became a farmer, in 1837 removing with his family to Medina county, Ohio. In Guilford township he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, and there the boy of the same name passed his earlier years. As a dense growth of wood covered the tract, the following decade was given over by the father and his three sons in bringing it under cultivation and erecting the neces- sary buildings for a farm and homestead. Until he was twenty years old the youth Sidney received but a limited education. The year following his graduation from the village academy, just after he had attained his majority, he taught a district school in a small log house, at eleven dollars per month of twenty-four days. He taught school also through the following two win- ters, and during the summers followed the carpenter's trade. In the winter of 1852-53, with a young friend, he visited Cincinnati, thence journeyed down the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers to New Orleans, and after a few days spent in that city proceeded across the Gulf of Mexico to Matagorda Bay, in southern Texas, where they re- mained four months, working as carpenters and receiving good wages. They returned by the river to Galena, Illinois, where they hired a conveyance to Rockford, the railroad terminus west of Chicago. Mr. Hastings taught school in the winter of 1853-54, and in 1855 came West to look for a location. He remained two months at Lansing, where he learned something of Gratiot county, through A. M. Crawford, who was a land- holder there and had platted the village of Pine River, now known as St. Louis. The Legislature of Michigan had passed a meas-
Sidney of Hastings
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF GRATIOT COUNTY.
ure making Pine River the county seat, and Mr. Hastings accompanied Mr. Crawford to Gratiot county and located two hundred acres of land on Section 27, Bethany town- ship, going to Flint to enter his claim. He then went to Lansing, and a few days later returned to the present site of St. Louis, where he arrived July 5, 1855. He found two log houses erected there, and a sawmill not yet completed which he assisted to build. Mr. Hastings received a lot from Mr. Clapp, the owner of the sawmill, situ- ated on the corner of what is now Mill street and Washington avenue. The land was heavily timbered, but Mr. Hastings cleared a small place and erected a log cabin, the third in the village, upon the site of which, at the time, there were but twenty acres part- ially cleared. The house was raised by four white men and a dozen Indians, and when it was finished Mr. Hastings sent for his wife, and went in a canoe to Saginaw to meet her. They came by the same conveyance to the "Forks" (now Midland), and after many drawbacks covering a journey of three days managed to get their household goods to their new home. He at once commenced work as a surveyor and was elected county surveyor at the first county election, held in the fall of the year of his arrival (1855), and pursued that calling until the time of his death. He surveyed and platted the villages of Alma, Ithaca, Riverdale, Estella (now Sumner), Breckenridge and Wheeler, be- sides ten additions to St. Louis. He accom- plished the survey of the State road through the dense forest from St. Louis to Saginaw, also the State roads to Newaygo, Midland and Bridgeville (near St. Johns). He as- sisted in surveying the route of the Saginaw Valley & St. Louis railroad, and was county
surveyor or deputy through all the years from the organization of the county until his death. He was a member of the State Association of Engineers and Surveyors, and held the various village offices in St. Louis. He was a faithful member of the Baptist Church, and was made deacon on the organization of the church in St. Louis, a position he held until his death.
The incalculable service rendered by Mr. Hastings to Gratiot county, and its struggling pioneers, has yet to be mentioned and described in detail. Nearly all the set- tlements in the county were made under a Congressional act of 1854, by, which the price of land was reduced to fifty cents an acre. It. is estimated that fully three-quar- ters of the claims were located by men of small means within eight months of the pas- sage of the act. On account of their limited means the entries made were for small tracts, and few of the would-be settlers were able to take immediate possession, but had returned to their homes to earn sufficient money to buy teams, provisions and other necessities for the maintenance of their fam- ilies, their farms and their homesteads. In February, 1856, the commissioner of the General Land Office issued a circular which threw the settlers into a veritable panic, ordering them upon pain of losing their titles to their land to present testimony in person at the local office (Ionia) within two months from the date of the notice, which only would perfect their titles and protect their claims. The circular, hard as were its terms, caused an immediate migration of courageous men, women and children, in the dead of winter, to the dense and dreary for- ests of Michigan. Many were poor, and in- sufficiently supplied with clothing and pro-
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