USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Chronography of notable events in the history of the Northwest territory and Wayne County > Part 19
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From 1844 to 1854 he was president of the Michigan State Bank. The financial men of Detroit and the State can attest to the successful management of the affairs of this institution.
In 1853 he was appointed Secretary-Treasurer and resident director of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railway Company.
In 1863 he was elected the president of that company, and retained the position until 1875, when its affairs, for the purpose of reorganiza- tion, went into the hands of a receiver, to which office he was appointed by the Circuit Court, and continued to hold it until the road was pur- chased by the Great Western of Canada.
In all enterprises tending to improve his adopted city and State, Mr . Trowbridge is found to have been the moving spirit, from building the first saw mill at Detroit in 1832 to the organization of the Allegan Com- pany in 1834, he with Messrs. Samuel Hubbard, Edward Monroe and Pliny Cutter, as his associates, projected the Village of Allegan, pur- chasing large tracts of land; erected saw mills, improved the Kalamazoo river, making it navigable to Allegan, and assisted in the construction of steamboats, to ply upon it. All these operations required the employ- ment of large sums of money. Mr. Trowbridge was entrusted by his partners with its disbursement. On the closing up of the business, he says: " It is a source of gratification to me, that during the long years from 1834 down to the end, which is to a recent date, not one letter or word of dissension ever took place between the early partners or their successors. It was understood at the beginning that I should act for the parties at this point, and I have bushels of letters and documents, and many volumes of clerk-craft, full of the history of those times."
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Mr. Trowbridge was one of the projectors and a director of the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad, which in 1836 was sold to the State.
Mr. Trowbridge was earnest in the promotion and establishment of all religious, benevolent and educational enterprises. We find his own and the name of Mrs. Trowbridge prominently identified with the Episcopal church in 1832, also as officers, uniting in the support and service of the Ladies' Orphan Association of Detroit, instituted May, 1836. He was one of the organizers of the "Algic Society," instituted March, 1832, for the purpose of encouraging missionary efforts in evan- gelizing the Northwestern tribes, and promoting education, agriculture, industry and peace among them. His associates were: William H. R. Schoolcraft, E. P. Hastings, Robert Stewart, Shubal Conant, Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., then of Cincinnati, and other well known phil- anthropists of that day. In 1835 he was chosen a lay delegate to the general convention of the Episcopal church, and has been a delegate to all subsequent conventions since, being the oldest lay delegate in the State.
Mr. Trowbridge never aspired to political preferment. He reluc- tantly accepted the Whig nomination for Governor in 1837, but was defeated by a few votes by Stevens T. Mason, formerly Territorial Governor. He was one of the original members of the Historical Society (now the Historical and Pioneer Society, with which it was merged in 1871.) His address before the Society, December 29th, 1862, just prior to the death of the president, Judge B. F. H. Witherell, will appear verbatim elsewhere in this volume. He was tendered a com- plimentary banquet at the Russell House, in his adopted city, and never in the history of Detroit or of the State, has there been such a gather- ing of representative men, famous as farmers, manufacturers, merchants, educators, lawyers, doctors, soldiers and statesmen, to do honor to this Christian business man. This manifestation of regard, and the utter- ances and expressions of those present, either in person or by letter, is a sufficient answer to the question: Why was Charles C. Trowbridge so loved and respected, and his memory cherished and held in such reverence after death ?
In 1826 Mr. Trowbridge married Miss Catherine Whipple Sibley, eldest daughter of Judge Solomon Sibley, who settled in Michigan at an early day, and was one of the Territorial Judges of Michigan Supreme Court.
Mr. Trowbridge died at his residence, 494 Jefferson avenue, April 3, 1883, in the house built by himself in 1826. The members of his family surviving are Mrs. Sidney D. Miller, Mrs. William D. Wilkins, Mrs. George Hendrie, Miss Mary Trowbridge and Harry Trowbridge.
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REV. MARCUS SWIFT.
Rev. Marcus Swift was a native of the State of New York and was born in the town of Palmyra, in that State, June 23d, 1793. His father, Gen. John Swift, was born in Connecticut on the 17th day of June, 1761. His mother, whose maiden name was Rhoda Sawyer, was born in 1766. Their death occurred as follows: The father, Gen. John Swift, was killed by a man whom he had taken prisoner at the cap- ture of Fort George, July 13th, 1814. His mother died at Palmyra, N. Y., on the 19th day of May, 1806. They had five children, three sons and two daughters.
The Rev. Marcus Swift worked on a farm in early life, using the means for obtaining an education which the times then afforded, to the best advantage, as his subsequent life has demonstrated. He married when at the age of eighteen and, at that of twenty, became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In IS25 he decided to come west, and in the fall of that year located a tract of land in the township of Nankin, in Wayne county, to which he moved his family, carrying his goods in a row boat up the River Rouge, to Dearborn. He, with his family, consisting of his wife and four children, together with his brother-in-law, William Osband, and family, found quarters for a short time at the home of Benjamin Williams. Without money, team or human aid, except his two little boys, twelve and eight years of age, he built a cabin, and before it had a door or window, dedicated it to Almighty God by prayer and singing.
At this period the present townships of Redford, Livonia, Nankin and Dearborn were embraced in one, called "Bucklin township." He was elected nine successive times supervisor, and held the office of justice of the peace (by appointment of President Jackson) until the Territory of Michigan was admitted as a State. In 1833, the Metho- dist Episcopal church having organized a conference, he was given charge of Oakland circuit. This compelled him to make a journey of 125 miles every four weeks, preaching thirty-one times, receiving for the two years the sum of $125 in almost every known article, save money, as a compensation. Mr. Swift was an ardent anti-slavery man, and believing it to be his duty to maintain his views on that question, which the church to which he belonged deemed unwise to agitate, in May, 1841, he, together with others, severed their connection with the M. E. church and organized a Wesleyan Methodist church in Mich- igan. In May, 1843, a large convention of seceders assembled at Utica, New York, in which nine States were well represented. This convention established "The Wesleyan Methodist connection of America," composed of 170 preachers and embracing a membership of eight thousand. Thus, through the agitation of the slavery ques-
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tion in the church, began the first movement towards eradicating that system from both church and State. Mr. Swift took anti-slavery grounds as early as 1834, and was refused ordination as an elder of the M. E. church solely because of his refusing to desist agitating that question. The feeling was so strong against him that for years he endured persecution and repeated assaults at the hands of violent mobs. Nevertheless, he continued his hostility against the institution of slavery, and lived to see it overthrown. He died February 19th, 1865, at the house of his son, Dr. John M. Swift, of Northville.
Mr. Swift possessed a noble physique. Six feet three inches in height, with a wiry muscular development, designed to undergo great bodily hardship. These, combined with strong will power, tempered with a kind heart and strong sense of right, were regulated by an intellec- tual capacity far above the average. Nature seemed to have designed him for the work he accomplished, and he left to his posterity the legacy of a well spent life. Well could he say: "The principles for which I labored and fought for amid reverses and persecutions, are now the ruling sentiments of the nation. I have lived in a glorious age and my eyes have seen the power of darkness give way before the reign of liberty and equality."
Mr. Swift was twice married, his first wife being Miss Anna Osband, who was the daughter of Weaver Osbund, a soldier of the Revolution. They were married April 16th, 1812. She died at Nankin, March 11th, 1842. He married the second time, Miss Huldah C. Peck, of Milford, Oakland county, and survived her but a few months. She died November 10th, 1864.
Perhaps no man of his time in eastern Michigan left a stronger imprint upon all that concerned its early civilization for good, than did Rev. Marcus Swift. His intellectual and moral forces were not only gigantic in strength, but were assiduously employed for the public good, with but little reward, save that which virtuous action always receives. The molding touch of his long life of active effort has not been effaced from the material, civil and religious status of the present time. He was one of the great moral heroes of that day and his time was the formative period of the present era in church and State.
JOHN M. SWIFT.
Dr. John M. Swift, of Northville, Wayne county, is a native of Michigan, and was born in the township of Nankin, Wayne county, February 11th, 1832.
He is the son of the late Rev. Marcus Swift, whose memoir will
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be found in this volume. His mother's maiden name was Anna Osband, a record of whose birth, marriage and death is also made the subject of memoir.
The Doctor's boyhood was spent at his father's home in Nankin, under the teaching of his father's second wife, whose maiden name was Huldah C. Peck. He then attended school at Plymouth, and three terms at the Griffin Academy at Ypsilanti, and one year at college before reaching the age of nineteen. Then severe illness overtook him and he was compelled to give up his college course. In 1854 he graduated, after attending full courses at the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, having, previous to entering, spent two years in study, and also clinical courses in the hospital.' Rush Medical College, Chi- cago, conferred a degree upon him in 1864 on the recommendation of Zina Pitcher, M. D., and Professor Moses Gunn and other noted medical men, in consideration of a very able original treatise on diseases, more particularly diphtheria, and his general professional standing.
After graduation, he engaged with his brother, Orson Swift, in the practice of his profession in Wayne county, settling at Northville, where he still continues to practice, and is recognized as a leading physician.
He is a member of the Wayne County Medical Society. One of the organizer of the Union Medical Society of Wayne, Washtenaw and Oakland, of which he has served as president. He has been a mem- ber of several other literary and medical societies, both in the United States and Europe, and a delegate to the American Medical Associa- tion in 1875.
He has always been an active Republican and was elected a mem- ber of the State Legislature in 1864, from the fourth district, and was strongly urged to accept the nomination for. Congress in 1880, but feeling that his professional duties would not permit, he declined.
He united with the Wesleyan church at the age of ten, and later changed his church relation, joining the Presbyterian church at North- ville, and has always retained and practiced his early religious con- victions, and as a Christian physician, in cases of serious illness, deemed it his duty to impress upon his patients the necessity of being at peace with their Maker.
He received from the late Governor Bagley the appointment, and acted as one of the commissioners in locating the State House of Cor- rection at Ionia.
On February 11th, 1852, the doctor married Miss Emily B. Baker, daughter of Capt. George J. Baker, of Grand Rapids. They had only one child, a daughter, the late Lizzie Swift Milne, who was born October Ist, 1854, married George A. Milne, February 13, 1877, and
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died January 5, 1884. She was a lady of rare gifts and accomplish- ments, widely known and beloved. Her death was an affliction to her parents which threatened for a long time to completely cloud their lives and paralyze their activity. She left two children, little boys, who have a home with the Doctor.
Two children of the Doctor's deceased brother, Dr. Orson R. Swift, who became orphans in childhood, shared with his own daugh- ter a place in the hearts and home of the Doctor and his wife, being cared for and educated as their own children. These are Marcus G. B. Swift, L. L. B., of Fall River, Mass., and Mrs. Camilla A. Dubuar, of Northville, Michigan.
Dr. Swift has always been an active and leading man in all bene- ficent and public matters, occupying many places of trust and con- fidence. He is a great student, well versed in literary, political, scientific and religious affairs. As a speaker he is fluent and forcible, and often appears before the public on special occasions. For sixteen years he was engaged in mercantile business, but not as the managing partner or proprietor, never having abandoned his profes- sional work or studies. To him is due much of the material, educa- tional, religious and social pre-eminence which the flourishing village, where he has resided thirty-six years, enjoys. He is still in the strength of manhood's years, and an apparent prosperous future awaits him.
FUDGE JOHN STURGIS.
Although the subject of this sketch did not reside in Wayne county immediately prior to his decease, yet he came to Wayne county and remained long enough to become closely identified with its pro- gressive history; was commissioned a justice of the peace by the then Governor Cass, did much to improve society and to advance the material interests of the county, and to increase its population. He had confidential relations with General Cass, which continued during life. The following extract from his official docket, as justice of the peace for Wayne county, while a resident of what is now Brownstown, then known as " Moguago," may serve as a reminder to such as are living, and were his contemporaries, also to preserve a record of their marriages :
MARRIED.
" Thursday, the 9th December, John Forbes to Leticia Cortright, by license.
Wednesday, February 28, 1821, Isaac Tyler to Eleanor Knapp.
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Tuesday, April 3rd, 1821, Robert Garrity to Mary Eliza Brownell. Saturday, May 26, 1821, Chas. Rulo to Mariah Starbuck.
Tuesday, January 15, 1822, William Hunter, of Fort Meigs, to Lucy Gardner, of Huron River.
Wednesday, 31st July, 1822, Isaac A. Combes to Rachel Davis.
Wednesday, 6th February, 1822, Levi Collier to Sarah West, by license from the County Court of Monroe.
Wednesday, February 6, 1822, Hiram Hicox to Betsey Hazzard.
March 20th, 1822, Francis Hix to Eliza Long, by license.
Wednesday, November 26, 1822, Jessie Mills to Mary Hitchcock, both of Brownstown.
Tuesday, 4th February, 1824, John G. Richardson to Charlotte Long, by license.
Tuesday, the 16th of November, 1824, John Conrad to Huldah Hazzard, by license.
Wednesday, 24th March, 1824, Richard Long to Sally Lyons, by license.
Monday, May 30, 1825, Seth Dunham to Olive Gamber, license.
Thursday, 7th February, 1828, Samuel Wing to Sophrona Wal- lace. License.
Tuesday, November 20th, 1827, Rev. Elias Pattie to Elizabeth Walker, authority of a license from the Wayne County Court.
Monday, October 16, 1825, Henry B. Smith to Sophia Collins.
Tuesday, 18th April, 1826, John F. Smith to Leticia Hubbard.
Thursday, 25th May, 1826, Adam Hicox, Jr., to Julia Munger.
Wednesday, 21st March, 1827, Ashael L. Bird to Lorain Fenton."
Judge John Sturgis was born in Philadelphia, Chester county, Pa., October 24, 1787. His father, Amos Sturgis, was also a native of the same place. His grandfather, Thomas, emigrated from England, and settled in Philadelphia about 1700.
The father of Judge Sturgis was commissioned as captain by General Washington, and served with him during the Revolutionary War. At its close, or soon after, he removed with his family to Great Bend, on the Susquehanna river, and from thence in 1800, to Canada, where he took up a large tract of land on Grand River, near Mount Pleasant. He was accompanied by the Ellis family, and his father. The two families numbered sixteen, and thus made a society of their own for the then new settlement.
In 1807 Judge Sturgis left his father's home, and made a journey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, thence to Boston and at the end of a year returned home, April 22nd. In 1816
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he married Miss Ardellacy Miller, of Mt. Pleasant, Canada, born in the State of New York, July Sth, 1797. The Judge remained in Canada until the year 1818, when he removed with his family to Michigan and located first in the township of Monguagon. Five child- ren were born to him there. He was commissioned by Governor Cass as justice of the peace, and administered the duties of the office to the satisfaction of the people, and with honor to himself, and the gratifica- tion of General Cass. The Judge carried on farming, and also kept a store.
In 1828 he sold out his interests in Wayne county, and removed with his family to St. Joseph county, and established what is now the village of Sturgis.
In 1829 General Cass appointed him one of the Associate Judges of St. Joseph county, for the term of four years. He ever cherished a sincere regard for General Cass, and the commissions executed by him were guarded by the Judge with jealous care so long as he lived, and are still held by his son, with equal reverence and regard as valu- able mementoes.
At his death Judge Sturgis owned a large amount of village pro- perty, and 1400 acres of the most valuable farming lands in the county of St. Joseph. So far as the laws permitted, he by will provided that none of this land should be sold out of the family. He was a man of great firmness of character and independence of opinion; not that he deemed himself wiser than others, because he always conceded the rights of others, and was open to conviction, but adhered to his own views and maintained them in a firm and independent manner until logical reason assured him of their incorrectness.
In politics he was a Democrat, and in 1836 was elected one of the Associate Judges of his county, and in 1840 was appointed postmaster of Sturgis.
In all his relations as a public officer or as a private citizen, he maintained an integrity of purpose and action which gained for him the confidence and respect of all who knew him.
Judge John Sturgis died at his home in Sturgis on the 16th day of April, 1872. He left a family consisting of his widow, six sons and four daughters, viz .: William, born at Mt. Pleasant, Canada, April 14, 1817; Jane, born at Brownstown, Wayne county, Michigan, December 7, 1819; Catherine, born at Brownstown, July 24, 1821; John, born at Brownstown, August 25, 1823; George, born at Browns- town, December 29, 1825; Amos, born at Brownstown, January 17, 1828; David, born on Sturgis Prairie, St. Joseph Co., Michigan, February 11, 1830; Thomas, born on Sturgis Prairie, July 30, 1832; Hannah, born on Sturgis Prairie, May 12, 1838; Henrietta, born on Sturgis Prairie, September 9, 1840. All living, and with the exception of one, all reside at Sturgis.
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When moving from Brownstown, the Judge and family were twenty-one days reaching Sturgis, with two wagons and two yoke of oxen on each. It took him one week to go to mill, and he was often obliged to swim the St. Joseph in reaching it.
JONATHAN SHEARER.
" If you create something you must be something." Goethe spoke the experience of all self-made men, and men of enterprise, and we are of the opinion that this must have been the directing thought which led our early pioneers to leave the pleasures and comforts of an old settled country for one where hardship and privation must be encountered in order to create what they before enjoyed. Therefore the desire to be something must have been the dominant influence which induced Jonathan Shearer to venture into the "Swamps of Michigan " as the territory was then designated by the older States.
Mr. Shearer was born in Franklin county, Connecticut, August 23, 1796. He comes from Revolutionary ancestors. William Shearer, his father, was born at Palmer, Massachusetts, in 1748. His father, James Shearer, was born in Antrim, Scotland, and the father of James was born in Germany, so that the great-great-grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch was a German. On the maternal side he was of English descent. The father of Betsey Morton (the mother), came from Liverpool, England, about 1750, and settled in Boston, and during the war of the Revolution lived under the same roof with the elder John Adams.
Mr. Shearer's grandfather had eight sons, all of whom were in the Continental army. The father of Mr. Shearer, was the second son, and enlisted at Lexington in 1775, served under Ethan Allen, General Stark and General Gates, respectively. At the close of the war he settled on a farm in Franklin county, Massachusetts.
Mr. Shearer was the seventh son; as such, his father desired him to become a physician, and accordingly, after attending the academy of Professor Hitchcock, at Deerfield, and that of Dr. Chase, in Rensse- laer county, New York, he entered a doctor's office in New Hampshire, and began the study of medicine. At the end of two years, finding the . study distasteful, he returned to the farm.
While engaged in the study of medicine, he taught school during the winter.
He remained on the farm two years and then became the agent of an uncle in looking after his farm, collecting his loans, and while so engaged, business took him to New York and Albany frequently where he heard much said of Western New York, and he was induced
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to purchase a small farm in Ontario county. This was about the time of the opening of the Erie canal, and he had an opportunity of attend- ing the reception given Governor Clinton on the occasion of its celebra- tion. He continued on this farm from 1822 to 1836, when in the spring he made a trip to Michigan, and finding it not a swamp, he purchased a farm in Plymouth, Wayne county, and located thirteen hundred acres of land, six hundred in Ingham and the remainder in Genessee and Lapeer counties, and in June, 1836, removed to his farm in Plymouth with his family, where he lived until his decease. He named his Ing- ham county farm " Bunker Hill," in memory of the battle in which his father took a part. Mr. Shearer was a very successful farmer, taking annual premiums at the county and State fairs. He was one of the organizers of the Michigan Agricultural Society, and for ten years its vice-president. He was also a member and one of the founders of the State Pioneer Society, of which he was president in 1876.
His military experience was one year's service with General Macomb, when only fourteen years of age, and was at the battle of Plattsburg, a lieutenant in the Massachusetts militia seven years, and as colonel, commissioned by Governor Stevens T. Mason after coming to Michigan. As a public man, he was supervisor of the township of Plymouth many terms: while in that capacity was one of the number to select the site and establish the Wayne County Poor Farm, being chairman of the committee. He purchased the farm from Colonel Levi Cook, giving his individual note as part payment. He served three years as Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. In 1841 was elected to the State Senate and served three sessions as sena- tor. In 1851 was elected Member of the House, serving two years. He declined all subsequent office. As a member of the Legislature he was active in all matters and measures providing for the school system, and secured the establishment of the State normal school at Ypsilanti. In 1867 was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention.
Mr. Shearer was a Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican. Was a delegate to almost every State convention, and always took an active interest in political matters, believing it to be his duty as an American citizen. He was not, however, a bitter partisan.
Mr. Shearer in 1822 married Miss Christiana Durvall, at Phelps, Ontario county, N. Y. She was a native of Newport, Rhode Island, and of French descent, her paternal ancestor coming over with Lafayette during the war of the Revolution. She died in 1867, leaving six children. George, of Jackson, and F. J., of Greenville, are still living. He married the second time in 1871, Miss Lydia Gray, of Ash- field, Massachusetts, whose mother, Betsey Lyon, was cousin to Mary Lyon, who established Mt. Holyoke Seminary.
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