USA > Michigan > Gratiot County > Biographical memoirs of Gratiot County, Michigan : compendium of biography of celebrated Americans > Part 13
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visions, and after making their proofs and perfecting their titles had little remaining upon which to subsist. To add to the suf- fering of the newcomers the summer of 1856 was hot and dry, ruining the small crops of corn and potatoes, and in the fall forest fires raged throughout the county. Many cattle died, as well as the fish in the rivers. When the intense sufferings of the people in the forest districts became known in the large cities, Detroit was made the cen- ter of the Michigan relief work and provis- ions for the region tributary to St. Louis were sent to Saginaw City. Mr. Hastings was appointed the agent for the north half of Gratiot county and all of Isabella county, and, at great personal sacrifice, laid aside his compass and chain, with corresponding hope of personal income, and devoted all his time and energies to the work of relief. Provis- ions were brought by boat, one hundred miles from Saginaw, Indians and white men working together. On the days when the supplies were expected the people for miles around flocked to St. Louis, and Mr. Hast- ings usually weighed out to each man twenty to fifty pounds of flour, ten of pork and a quantity of cornmeal and beans, proportioning the amount to the size of the family and ability to carry. In many in- stances the people who came for relief were so pinched with hunger that they could never have returned with their provisions had it not been for the Christian work of Mr. Hastings in providing food for them and of his worthy wife in preparing it. Those times will never be forgotten by the early pioneers of Gratiot county, and their gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Hastings has often in these days been passed down to their children and children's children.
Sidney S. Hastings was married in Guil- ford, Medina county, Ohio, March 2, 1854, to Julia, daughter of David and Harriet Dix. The death of Mr. Hastings occurred November 21, 1894, and he was buried at St. Louis, of which he was one of the founders and where he lived for nearly forty years. To Mr. and Mrs. Sidney S. Hast- ings were born the following children: Frank W., surveyor, civil engineer and farmer, married Lillian L. Livingstone and has two children; Forest B., foreman in the construction of cement walks of St. Louis (Michigan) married Emma Smith and has two children; Russell M., a farmer of Midland county, Michigan, married Ida Baird, and has eight children; Fannie H. married George L. Wells, a civil engineer of Salem, Ohio, and is the mother of four children; 'Charles S., baggageman of the Pere Marquette Railroad, at St. Louis, Michigan, married Clara Jemarr and has five children; Hattie H., living at Mount Pleasant, Michigan, married William R. Kennedy, of that place, and is the mother of two children; Mary died when an infant.
The following tribute to the life and character of Sidney S. Hastings, written at the time of his death by a fellow townsman, seems so true a character sketch as to be a fitting close to this biography.
"The death, or rather the life, of the late Sidney S. Hastings is deserving of much more than passing perfunctory notice from the press and pulpit.
"The biography of forty years of Mr. Hastings' life is a history of Gratiot county. He was one of our earliest pioneers and mingled more with all the people of Gratiot county than perhaps any other man. He was with us through the clamorous and con-
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tentious and pretentious period of our his- tory. We have noticed too often the vocif- erous and boastful air of the plaudits of our fellow citizens, but now that the wilder- ness is conquered, and we sit beside our hearthstones recounting the incidents of the conquest, we all feel that the quiet, digni- fied, conscientious life of Mr. Hastings wielded as great, perhaps greater, influence in the development and progress of Gratiot county than any other man.
"Mr. Hastings was a lover of nature and science and he made them the subject of careful observation and study. He was a remarkably well informed man.
"He was one of the gentlest spirits I have ever known. His gentleness of man- ner, genuine modesty, and utter lack of pre- tension were his greatest charms. His daily life was such that all men, without an ex- ception so far as I know, were convinced of his deep and abiding piety.
"STILES KENNEDY."
G EORGE L. JESSUP, proprietor of the elevators at Pompeii and at North Star, has for some years been re- garded as one of the able business men of the section. He has been identified with the operation of the elevators since 1892, and their present prosperity may be considered due to his energy, skill and sound business judgment. Mr. Jessup was born September 17, 1867, in Newark township, Gratiot county, and received his education in the public schools there and in the Ithaca high school, remaining home, afterward, until he was twenty-five years old.
John H. Jessup, father of George L., was born December 24, 1837, in Rensselaer county, New York, son of Isaac M. and
Eleanor (Schermerhorn) Jessup, natives of New York State. John H. Jessup was two years old when his father located in Michigan, and he obtained his education in . the common schools of this State. On reaching manhood he started out in life on his own account, and in December, 1860, located in Gratiot county, becoming the owner of sixty-three acres of unimproved land in Newark township. To his original farm he added eighty-five acres, and here he continued farming for many years. In October, 1864, he entered the army and was assigned to serve in the Twenty-third Regi- ment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, being in the army nine months, during which time he participated in the actions at Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee, and at Port Anderson, North Carolina. He was honorably dis- charged in June, 1865, at Washington, D. C.
John H. Jessup was married December 29, 1859, at Lyons, Ionia county, to Mar- garet R. Dean, born August 28, 1840, in Yates county, New York, daughter of Amos and Betsey (Grant) Dean, and to this union were born eight children : Charles H. ; Nettie, the wife of William C. Naldrett; Arthur H. ; . George L., our subject; Frank A .; William T., who died at the age of sixteen years ; Glen O .; and Bertha M., the wife of A. Naldrett.
In 1892 George L. Jessup purchased a half interest in the elevator at Pompeii, hav- ing as a partner James Anstey. After they had been a year together Mr. Jessup pur- chased the latter's interest and since that time has conducted the business alone, ex- cept for two years, when he was in partner- ship with his brother, Charles H. Jessup. Early in 1900 he also purchased the elevator at North Star and has since then operated
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both. He controls the trade in the two towns in coal, lime, salt, timber and shingles, be- sides handling all the hay and grain at both! points. Mr. Jessup possesses all the quali- ties of the successful business man of to-day, is energetic, progressive, wide-awake, and: has unusually good judgment. He has been successful in his undertakings, while his affable and courteous manners have won him, a host of friends.
On June 2, 1895, Mr. Jessup married Miss Dora Vedder, daughter of Clark and Sarah (Deline) Vedder, of North Star township. Mrs. Jessup was born March 19, 1874. She has borne her husband three children, namely: Ivor, Lynn and Forrest. Mr. Jessup is one of the public-spirited men of the township, always ready to promote any measure for the good of the community, although he is not a politician in the usual sense of the word. Fraternally he is con- nected with the I. O. O. F. and the M. W. A.
W TILBER F. MARKHAM, supervisor and formerly township clerk of Hamilton township, who is also well known in business circles, being an enterprising merchant of Sickels, Michigan, was born in Duplain township, Clinton county, this State, April 27, 1864, son of Charles and Jane (Humphrey) Markham, natives of Ohio. In 1871 his parents migrated from Clinton county to Gratiot county, Michigan, and settled in Elba township, on the site of the present town of Ashley. Mrs. Mark- ham died while on a visit to Ovid, in July, 1887, aged forty-two years. The father, still engaged in farming, resides with Wil- ber F., and is a hale old gentleman in his sixty-sixth year, having been born June 4, 1840. The children born to Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Markham were: Wesley, a resident of Middleton, Michigan ; Wilber F .; Burtis, living at Forest Hill, Michigan; and Dora, doing missionary work with the Salvation Army in Alabama.
Wilber F. Markham was the second child in the family of four, and was seven years old when his parents located in Elba township. There he grew to manhood, as- sisting his father in the clearing of his farm and other agricultural labors. Mr. Mark- ham was married in St. Louis, Michigan, November 6, 1884, to Miss Fannie Farr, a native of New York, and a daughter of Morgan and Minerva (De\Vitt) Farr. After their marriage he and his wife settled in Sumner township, where they lived two years, and then returned to Elba township, locating on a tract of forty acres, which he partially cleared and afterward disposed of. There he continued to live until the fall of 1889, when he located in Clinton county and engaged in farming about four miles south of Maple Rapids. Two years later he re- moved to Shepherd, where he engaged in the livery business for about six months, after which, for one year, he located on a farm southwest of Clare, in Isabella county. Mr. Markham then returned to Gratiot county and settled on a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land in Section 20, Hamilton township. He continued to reside at that location until 1900, clearing and improving his farm, and in that year he became a mer- chant in Sickels, purchasing his stock of William Sower. Mr. Markham carries a full line of goods, which are carefully selected with a view toward retaining and increasing the generous patronage he al- ready receives. The business is carried on with honest endeavors to please, and the re-
WF markham
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sults have been most encouraging to the pro- prietor and creditable to the discernment of his fellow townsmen.
To Mr. and Mrs. Wilber F. Markham have been born these children: Lulu P., Maud E., Charles L., Clyde A., and Ethel M., who died at the age of five months.
Mr. Markham is a Democrat; was elected township clerk in the spring of 1904, and in the following spring was elected sup- ervisor, notwithstanding the township is Re- publican. He is a member of the Ancient Order of Gleaners, of which he has been secretary and treasurer, and the Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows. In fact, he is popular fraternally, socially and politically, and as he is a good business man, as well as a kind husband and father, in the early prime of life, his future promises to be fruit- ful in personal happiness, material prosper- ity and public preferment.
JAMES R. GREENLEE, treasurer of
North Star township, and a prominent and representative citizen of Gratiot county, was born February 14, 1858, in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, son of James and Maria J. (Connor) Greenlee, natives of County Armagh, Ireland, who came to Gra- tiot county in 1859, settling in North Star township, where they both died, the father on December 1, 1899, at the age of sixty- seven years, the mother dying December 6, 1884, when fifty-three years old. They were both cotton weavers in Pennsylvania, the man coming to America in 1842, and the girl who was to be his wife in 1843. They were married in Pennsylvania, their first re- moval West being to Hancock county, Ohio, where they were engaged in farming for one year, locating afterward in Gratiot county.
James R. was fourth in a family of six chil- dren, the other members of which were: Margaret, Mrs. Leroy Laughead, of Wash- ington township, Gratiot county; John, of Cadillac, Michigan; Isabel, deceased, who married Delmont Crowell; Addison, also of Cadillac; and Flora, wife of Levi Green- wood.
James R. Greenlee received a common school education, and was reared on his father's farm, now owning 100 acres of good land of his own. He has a beautiful home, the residence being large and attractive and the farm well-kept and cultivated. He has long been considered one of the best farmers of the township.
Mr. Greenlee was married, April 6, 1890, to Miss Maggie Mills, born in Wood county, Ohio, March 2, 1872, daughter of William and Margaret (Gillen) Mills, respectively natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, who set- tled in Isabella county, Michigan. Mr. Greenlee and his estimable wife are the par- ents of these children : Hazel E., born January 12, 1890, attends high school at Ithaca ; and Delmont E., born September 12, 1892, and Vivian B., born April 25, 1894, attend the district school. Mr. Greenlee is a stanch Democrat, and on his party's ticket was elected in the spring of 1902 to the of- fice of highway commissioner of North Star township and served three years in that capacity. He has been school moderator, and in the spring of 1906 was elected treas- urer of North Star township. Mr. Green- lee affiliates with Lodge No. 222, I. O. O. F., and Liberty Grange No. 391, of North Star.
L YMAN W. FIDLER, the efficient highway commissioner of Emerson township, Gratiot county, engaged in culti-
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vating his ninety acres in that township, was born October 27, 1857, on a farm in Fulton county, Ohio, son of James L. and Mary S. (Hissong) Fidler. His parents were na- tives of Knox and Richland counties, Ohio, respectively, and had a family of eleven children : John, a contractor and builder of Columbus, Ohio; Daniel L., following the same lines in Florida ; George C., a farmer of Lucas county, Ohio; Mary, married to Ben. Borton, a Lafayette township farmer ; Melva, deceased ; Ella, wife of Samuel Roth, a farmer, residing on the old homestead in Fulton County, Ohio; James, a farmer and stone mason living in Lafayette township; and Minnie, Ada and Harry, all of whom died young.
Lyman WV. Fidler reached manhood in Fulton county, Ohio, and lived there until he was twenty-seven years old. At that time he commenced farming, which has been his life's occupation. He was married in his na- tive county, on October 16, 1881, to Miss Amanda Bish, daughter of Jacob and Bar- bara Bish. Mrs. Fidler was born in Han- cock county, Ohio, October 16, 1857. In the spring of 1884 Mr. Fidler located in Gratiot county, Michigan, and settled on the farm upon which he now resides. He owns ninety acres on Section 24, about sixty- four of which are under cultivation. He has erected a nice set of buildings, and his land, which was all heavily timbered at the time of his arrival in Gratiot county, has all been cleared by Mr. Fidler himself, comparing favorably with other farms in the country.
To Mr. and Mrs. Fidler have been born : Mahlon, a farmer of Lafayette township, who married Alma Stahl; Flossie, wife of William Eichorn, a farmer of Emerson
township; and Flora (twin of Flossie), Gaylon, Glenn and Mabel, all at home.
Mr. Fidler has held the office of highway commissioner for several terms. He has also been school director, and has taken an active interest in township and county affairs, upholding the principles of the Democratic party. Fraternally he is connected with Ithaca Lodge, No. 178, of the Masonic fra- ternity; Emerson Lodge, No. 375, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and Ithaca Camp, No. 4713, Modern Woodmen of America. He has a standing in his com- munity as a man of honor and integrity, and is one of the leading agriculturists of the township.
C HARLES S. WATSON, M. D., a successful practitioner of medicine and surgery and a most valued citizen of Breckenridge, Wheeler township, was born in Fowlerville, Livingston county, Michigan, February 14, 1853. He is a son of John T. and Harriet L. (Wilcox) Watson, the for- mer of whom died on his farm in Oakland county, Michigan, July 13, 1864. On Janu- ary 16, 1834, John T. Watson (a New York merchant, born in Genesee county, July 31, 1808) was united in marriage to Harriet L. Wilcox (born in Batavia, New York, January 17, 1817), and they shortly after- ward migrated to Michigan and located at Howell, Livingston county, that State. They were among the pioneers of that local- ity, and Mr. Watson at once opened a store for the sale of general merchandise. After being thus engaged for a few years he dis- posed of his business and removed to a farm. He was a man far above the average in edu- cation and general intelligence, taught school
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for many years, and was the first superinten- dent of schools of Livingston county. Af- ter completing his active work as an educator he purchased a hotel in Fowlerville, that county, which he conducted for two years, when he traded it for the farm in Oakland county, Michigan, upon which, as stated, he died in 1864. Both in Oakland and Liv- ingston counties he was accounted a man of marked ability, held many township offi- ces, and was always identified with the school board in whatever locality he re- sided. Mr. and Mrs. John T. Watson were the parents of twelve children, of whom Charles S. was the tenth. The mother died in Breckenridge, Gratiot county, April 21, 1894.
When Charles S. Watson was three years old he was brought by his parents to Milford, Oakland county, living in the vicin- ity of that place until he had reached the age of sixteen years. His father had died five years before, and he accompanied his mother to Gratiot county. He received his early education in the common schools which he attended until 1871. From the age of eighteen he studied medicine with Dr. Scott for four years, and entered the medical department of the University of Michigan, which he attended for one year. In the spring of 1876 he began practice in Breck- enridge, and he has continued there en- gaged in successful professional work. In 1894 Dr. Watson attended the Kentucky School of Medicine, from which he was graduated in June of that year.
Dr. Watson was married, October 12, 1876, to Miss Eugenia L. Comstock, of Ithaca, and to this union three children have been born : Ella M., wife of E. J. McCall, of Ithaca, Michigan, one of the proprietors
of the Gratiot County Herald; Willie, who died in infancy ; and Roy S., a graduate of Rush Medical College, class of 1904, now a physician practicing with his father. The family is identified with the Baptist Church.
Dr. Watson is a member of Brecken- ridge Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and of the I. O. O. F. His professional membership is with the American Medical Association, the Mich- igan State Medical Society and the Gratiot County Medical Society. Dr. Watson's standing is recognized in that for a number of years he has served on the board of ex- amining surgeons for pensions for Gratiot county. He is generally considered an emi- ment member of his profession, and he has won the complete confidence and respect of the people of Gratiot county. The Doctor owns 120 acres of land adjoining the town of Breckenridge, most of this tract being un- der cultivation.
W TILLIAM LONG, a 'leading citizen in the affairs of Washington town- ship, was born in Cumberland county, Penn- sylvania, July 14, 1827, son of Samuel Long. His paternal grandparents were Samuel and Catherine Long, of Pennsylvania, the grand- father, a farmer, dying in western Ohio. William Long was the third in the family of ten children, the other members being as follows: Samuel, a resident of Ellsworth, Kansas ; Sarah J., deceased, wife of Jeremiah Myers; Benjamin, living in Kansas City, Missouri; Joseph, Simon and John, all de- ceased; Catherine, Mrs. Peter Ostander, of Lorain county, Ohio; David, living in Ells- worth, Kansas, and Elizabeth, deceased, who was the wife of Henry Starks.
Samuel Long was a blacksmith by trade, and both he and his wife, whose maiden name
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was Catherine Goodman, died in Lorain county, Ohio. They came West when Wil- liam was quite young, settling in Lorain county, Ohio, where he grew to manhood on his father's farm. He lived in Knox county, Ohio, for four years, and one year in the southern part of Illinois, and in 1857 came to Ionia county, Michigan, with his wife and son, living there until the spring of 1860. In that year he came to Gratiot county, and set- tling on Section 18, Washington township, engaged in farming, an occupation he has fol- lowed ever since. He has erected good buildings on his eighty-three-acre farm, which he improved greatly, and has made a success of his life work.
William Long was married in Seneca county, New York, March 7, 1855, to Miss Mary Ellen Crawford, who was born in that county March 4, 1831, daughter of James and Mary (Garner) Crawford, of York State. To this union were born: William C .; Mary C., the wife of Oscar Campbell; Arthur; George; and Florence, the wife of Ezra Eggleston. Mr. Long has held the office of supervisor of Washington town- ship for seven years, and for thirty-two suc- cessive years was a justice of the peace. He and his estimable wife are active church workers, and are well known and highly esteemed in Washington township.
W TILLIAM T. PITT, now serving his twentieth year as supervisor of Seville township, still resides in the log house on Section 22, which he himself erected in May, 1880, when he located there with his wife and eight-year-old daughter. At that time there was but one other dwell- ing house on the section; now it is quite thickly settled.
Mr. Pitt was born May 13, 1841, in a log house on the farm of his grandfather, Alexander Duncan, situated half a mile south of the little village of South Lyon, Oakland county, Michigan. His father, George Pitt, was a native of Salford, War- wickshire, England, born on Christmas Day, 1815, both he and the grandfather claiming relationship with William Pitt, of Chatham. In 1836, in his twenty-first year, George Pitt sailed from Liverpool for America, the voyage to New York City occupying seven weeks. Locating at Northville, Michigan. he assumed the burdens of agricultural life in an unsettled portion of a strange country, and bravely set about the founding of a homestead. In 1839, after three years of industry and hard work, he was in a posi- tion to be married, his choice being Eliza- beth Duncan, daughter of Alexander and Eliza Duncan, and to whom he was united in the year named.
Alexander Duncan was a weaver. He was a nephew of Alexander Wilson, a school teacher of unusual scientific attainments, who commenced and partially completed the great work "Ornithology of Birds of Amer- ica," which was finished and published by Audubon. Messrs. Wilson and Duncan worked together in different sections of the country, collecting and classifying their specimens, but the former died in the midst of his labors, when only forty years old, and the task was completed by the great scientist whose name is identified with it. Both Alexander Duncan and Alexander Wilson were natives of Paisley, Scotland.
Four children were born to George and Elizabeth (Duncan) Pitt: William T., Delphene, George and Anna. The three last named were born in Northville, whither the
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family removed when William T. was two years of age. There they resided until the mother died in 1851. Two years later the father married Elizabeth Manchester, the family then settling in Plymouth, Wayne county. By his second marriage George Pitt became the father of two children, Charles and John, who are now residents of Forest Hill, Gratiot county.
After the death of his mother William T. Pitt's life was rather irregular, working, as he did, for the neighboring farmers in summer and attending school in the winter. By making himself generally useful to the farmers and villagers, and applying an economy to his affairs which was really be- yond his years, the boy managed to pay his own board, buy his books and pay for tui- tion at a country school for the three months of its winter term. Thus passed about eight busy years of his life, when he became ambi- tious for an experience of great possibili- ties on the Pacific coast. In April, 1859, with four other young men, he started from Plymouth for California. His route was by way of New York and the Isthmus of Pan- ama, his passage being taken on the steamer "Star of the West," which, through after events, proved an historic craft, since while carrying supplies to Fort Sumter it was the first vessel fired upon in the war of the Rebellion. The "Star of the West" stopped at Havana, Cuba, on its way to the eastern coast of the Isthmus, after crossing which the party embarked on the steamer "Golden Gate" for their journey to San Francisco. Two days before it reached its destination William T. Pitt was eighteen years old. His first work in California was on Missis- sippi bar, on the American river (now called
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