USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 21
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
was a dairyman, and passed his life in his native land, dying there in 1882. The mother lives in Hillsdale, this county. They had three sons and four daughters, all now living but one, and all are residents of this county, except one daughter, who lives in England.
Charles Bowditch passed the first sixteen years of his life in England, where he was edu- cated in the schools of that country. In 1865 he came to the United States and joined his uncle, William Trivett, in Hillsdale county. . Some years were passed at the home of his uncle and in his employ, and then, in 1873, Mr. Bowditch mar- ried Miss Sylvia Blunt, a daughter of Avery and Phobe Blunt, who were among the earliest settlers in the county. Her mother now resides at Osseo, in Jefferson township. After his mar- miage, Mr. Bowditch rented his uncle's farm and subsequently became its owner. It com- prises 240 acres of excellent land, well improved with good buildings, which has been brought by skillful cultivation to a high state of productive- ness. Mr. and Mrs. Bowditch have two children, their sons, Fred A. and Trivett. The father is a Republican in politics, a firm believer in the principles of the party and cordially interested in its welfare, but he is not an active partisan and has never consented to accept an office. He is an interested member of both the Masonic fra- ternity and of the Patrons of Husbandry. His wife is also a member of the Congregational church. They are among the most highly es- teemed citizens of the township.
WILLIAM A. CARPENTER.
the name and reputation won by an ancestry run- ning back in this country to old Colonial times.
distinguished then and ever since in every com- mendable walk of life. His grandfather was in the War of 1812. His great-grandfather was Elijah Carpenter, a soldier of great bravery and serviceable to the American army as a musician in the war of 1812. His great-grandfather was Jesse Carpenter, a Revolutionary hero in a Massachusetts regiment, who fought gallantly against both the British and their Indian allies in many a hard-fought and sanguinary battle. On the fieldl of Bennington his wife, a woman of great courage and resolution, having safely bestowed her children in a wagon in the woods, carried water to the soldiers, and in many other ways ministered to their comfort and to that of the wounded and dying. In 1800 they moved to Madison county, New York, there reared their family, and, in the fullness of time, passed away, Jesse dying at the home of his grandson, Wil- liam Carpenter, at the age of ninety-six. Wil- liam Carpenter, father of William A., of this re- view, was born in Rensselaer county, New York, on February 5, 1801, and attained manhood in Madison county and was married to Nancy Bur- den, a native of Lanesboro, Massachusetts, of good Scotch ancestry. There their two children were born, reared and educated, one being their son. William A. Carpenter, whose life began on January 30, 1832, and the other a daughter, who is now deceased: and there also they died and were laid to rest. The father was a man of fine physique and possessed a giant's strength. He had a rich fund of worldly wisdom and common sense, and his geniality of disposition and mus- ical talents made him very popular. He died much lamented, on August 7, 1869, and his wife, who shared the esteem in which he was held, died in 1872. They were valued members of the Baptist church, active in all its works of be- nevolence.
William A. Carpenter, of Bankers Station, in Cambria township, is one of the leading business men of this portion of the state, as its pioneer merchant, building and conducting the first gen- eral store in this section, which he opened in William A. Carpenter passed his early life on his father's farm, assisting in its labors and re- ceiving a good elementary education at the public schools. He learned the trade of a carpenter and 1874 and still manages, and erecting the first residence of consequence in the village. He has had an eventful career, covering many lines of active usefulness, therein sustaining with credit . joiner, and, later, that of a machinist. After working at these for a number of years. he thoroughly mastered the intricacies and difficul-
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ties of mechanical engineering. In 1855 he moved to Elgin, Ill., and found employment in an establishment where agricultural implements and machinery were manufactured, soon thereaft- er engaging in the same business on his own ac- count. He remained there four years and then for a time traveled in the oil regions of Penn- sylvania, in 1862 settled at Port Huron, in this state, and for two years conducted a sawmill at that place. In 1864 he removed to Detroit and was engaged for some years in the Detroit Locomotive Works, and, after leaving that employment, was traveling engineer of the Michigan Central Rail- road until he left the service of the company to aid in building the Eel River road. In 1871 he was sent to Bankers as the master mechanic of the D. H. & S. W. Railroad, and was contintied in this position until the consolidation of the road with the Fort Wayne, when he became the master mechanic and division superintendent of the consolidated roads, remaining with the or- ganization until he started his mercantile indus- try in 1874. He then gave his whole time and attention to merchandising, and has steadily been occupied in this line since that time, winning the confidence of the people by his upright methods, enterprise and progressiveness, and building up a large and profitable trade.
Mr. Carpenter was united in marriage with Miss Ellen Richardson in 1855. She is a native of the same county in New York as himself, and there the marriage occurred. They have one child, their daughter, Nellie, wife of Charles Kidman, of Bankers. Mr. Carpenter was a Whig until the formation of the Republican party, when he joined the new organization, casting his vote in 1856 for its first presidential candidate, Gen. John C. Fremont. He his ever since stood faith- fully by the principles and candidates of this party, giving his vote in unbroken succession to each of its standard-bearers down to and includ- ing the martyred Mckinley. For sixteen years he served as justice of the peace, in 1880 and 1881 being the township supervisor. He has been a devoted attendant before the altars of Freema- sonry for many years, holding membership in the lodge at Hillsdale. He was also postmaster
at Bankers for a period of seven years. Early in life he showed a decided aptitude for freehand drawing, and by much practice became an expert draughtsman. His talent in this line was em- ployed for twenty years, or longer, by the rail- roads around him and by other lines of mechan- ical utility. . He made the drawings for much of the best machinery constructed in Chicago and other large cities, and drew the plans and super- intended the construction of the first sawmill at Ludington, in this state, which had a daily ca- pacity of 300,000 feet of lumber.
JOHN Q. CHANDLER.
The late John Q. Chandler, of Hillsdale, one of the successful and highly esteemed business men of the state, was a native of Mt. Clemens, Michigan, born on April 17, 1834. His parents were Col. Daniel and Caroline (Peck) Chandler, natives of New York. The father was by trade a blacksmith and, in 1830, he settled at Mt. Clem- ens and founded the foundry and blacksmithing firm of D. Chandler & Sons, later organizing that of Chandler, Warren & Co., of East Sagi- naw, now East Bay, for the purpose of carrying on the lumber and foundry industry. After his death, on January 7, 1854, at the age of fifty, his sons, Daniel H. and Gilbert A., carried on the business at the same place. Mr. Chandler was for some years a colonel in the militia, and was always a highly respected man, leading the thought of and being potent in the commercial activities of his community. John Q. Chandler received his education at Saginaw, and, after leaving school, he worked in his father's foun- dry until the breaking out of the Civil War. On August 17, 1861, he enlisted in the Twelfth New York Infantry and was soon after transferred to Co. G, Second Battalion, Twelfth U. S. In- fantry, and assigned to the Army of Virginia un- der General Pope. In 1862 he had another trans- fer, this time to Co. D, with which he joined the Army of the Potomac. His service lasted until August 17, 1864, and his regiment was in the very thick of the fight in the terrible campaigns in which that army participated. He accom-
I30
HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
panied it through the battles of Chancellorsville, Cedar Mountain, Gettysburg, Mountain Run, Wilderness, Petersburg and many others, but he escaped unhurt. After the war he was in the employ of the F. & P. M. Railroad until 1868, and soon after was made the master mechanic of the Detroit & Lake Superior Copper Co. at Houghton, and, when this company's interests at that point were sold to the Lake Superior & Tamarack Smelters, he became the assistant su- perintendent, a position in which he served until 1893. when failing health compelled him to re- sign. He then settled at Hillsdale, and, on May 25. 1896, occurred his death. He was a man of excellent business capacity, being connected with many important commercial enterprises, es- pecially those engaged in the mining and smelt- ing of copper, holding stock in a number of com- panies formed for this purpose in this state and in Montana. On December 25, 1871, he was married to Miss Harriet M. Belmy, a native of Hillsdale and a daughter of Joel and Hannah (Moore) Belmy. They had an adopted daugh- ter. Marion Inez. In politics Mr. Chandler was a Republican, possessed no political aspirations, but was always loyal to his party and earnest in its service. In fraternal relations he belonged to the Masonic order and was a devoted member of his lodge. Practically a self-made man, he had a broad and accurate fund of general knowl- edge, and was widely esteemed for his sound judgment, high character and public spirit.
LEANDER H. CHILDS.
This leading and successful farmer of Pitts- ford township, in this county, was born in On- tario county, New York, but, before he was a year old, he removed to Hillsdale county with his parents, who settled in Wheatland township. His life began on May 14, 1848, the son of Ed- mund and Eunice (Richardson) Childs, the for- mer a New Yorker by nativity and the latter born in Vermont. The father was a farmer and, after his marriage in 1841, he came to this county with his bride and took up his residence on a farm
of eighty acres of uncultivated land, which he purchased in Wheatland township and at once began to develop and improve, by building a log house and barn and the rude fences of the time. After four years of active and energetic effort in subduing his land, he returned to New York, where he remained until 1848, when he brought his family back to Michigan and, settling at his former home, again engaged in developing the wealth and resources of the farm. The remain- der of his days have been passed in this and Len- awee counties. His wife died on September 17, 1890. Their family consisted of five sons an:1 three daughters, all of whom are living, except one son. The father was prominent in local af- fairs and served several terms as township treas- urer. The grandfather, Oliver Childs, was a native of New York state, where he died after a long career as a successful farmer.
L. H. Childs has been identified with the work and development of Hillsdale county from his infancy. Coming hither, as has been stated, in 1848, when he was less'than a year old, he has lived all of the subsequent time in Wheatland and Pittsford townships, except a perior of nine years, during which he had his home at Hudson. To the productive forces of the county, he has added his best energies, to its welfare he has given the conscientious and intelligent activities of good citizenship, aiding in the promotion of every commendable enterprise and seeking to guide public sentiment into the most desired and beneficial channels of activity. In December. 1871, he was married, in this county, to Miss Janet Carr, native in New York and a daughter of Charles E. and Jane (Heachan) Carr, the former born in New York and the latter in Scot- land. Mrs. Carr came to this county with her parents when she was but three years old, and lived here all the rest of her life, dying at the home of her son-in-law, Mr. Childs, in 187.4. Her husband died in New York. Mr. Childs takes no interest in political contentions and has never held or desired office. He votes the Re- publican ticket regularly, but gives no attention to politics in any other way. He and his wife
MORRIS P. SEVERANCE AND WIFE.
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
MORRIS P. SEVERANCE.
An old soldier, a successful farmer, a useful public official, a citizen faithful to every duty, in all the lines of activity he has followed exhibiting breadth of view, commendable industry and ele- vation of character, Morris P. Severance, of Pitts- ford township, Hillsdale county, Michigan, has many titles to the public regard in which he is held in this community, the honors of which he wears with becoming modesty. He was born on March 26, 1840, in Steuben county, Indiana, the son of Edwin C. and Rachel (Maynard) Sever- ance, the former a native of New York and the latter of Maryland, both belonging to old and highly respected families in their respective local- ities. They were of English and Dutch ancestry, respectively, and their American progenitors came to this country in early Colonial days. The father was by trade a shoemaker, but, during the greater part of his life, he was engaged in farm- ing. In 1837 or 1838 he moved to Steuben coun- ty, Indiana, and for two or three years he drove stage on the line between Fort Wayne and Tole- do. In 1840 he returned to New York where he remained until 1853 when he moved his family to Ingham county, Michigan, where he was engaged in farming until 1860, when he came to Hillsdale county and bought ninety-four acres of land in Pittsford township, which was partially cleared. Later he purchased the farm on which his son, Morris, lives, where he maintained his home until his death in 1873. The mother survived him thir- teen years, dying in 1886. Their family consisted of two sons and one daughter. The grandfather, Elihu Severance, was a native of Massachusetts, a farmer by occupation and an early settler in In- diana where his later years were passed.
Morris P. Severance passed his childhood in New York, his youth and early manhood in this state, coming here when he was thirteen years of age. In the schools of this state he was educated, in the cultivation of its soil on his father's farms he acquired habits of industry and thrift. In May, 1861, at the first call for volunteers to de- fend the Union, he enlisted in Co. F, Fourth Michigan Infantry, and was soon thereafter at the
front in the region of the historic and often en- sanguined Potomac battling with a gallant foe with equally as gallant courage in the battles of Chickahominy, Hanover C. H., Mechanicsville, and many others of minor importance. He was shot through the left lung at Mechanicsville and was reported as dead, but, by great good fortune and by reason of his strong constitution, rather than because of favoring circumstances, he recov- ered, and, after his discharge from the service, on account of the disability thus incurred, which came in August, 1862, he returned to his Michi- gan home and here he has since resided and de- voted his energies to farming.
Mr. Severance was married on January 18, 1866, in this county, to Miss Anna A. Cunning- liam, a daughter of Layton Cunningham, one of the pioneers of the county. They have had six children, one of whom is deceased. The living are their sons, Layton and Burton, farmers, and their daughters, Ethel M., Verna L. and Ada, all residents of this county. Ethel is the wife of Charles Crook, a telegrapher in the employ of the Wabash Railroad; Verna, the wife of Byron Bailey; Ada, the wife of Clio Phillips. From his early manhood Mr. Severance has been a Republi- can in political faith. He has served twelve or fourteen years as constable of the township and two years as treasurer of the township, is a mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic, and an active worker in the order of Patrons of Hus- bandry, holding his membership in the grange at Pittsford. He and his wife are regular attend- ants of the Methodist Episcopal church. When one contemplates the peculiar conditions of Amer- ican life, where a man, like Mr. Severance, can in the military service of his country perform such feats of heroic gallantry as would, in the old Ro- man and Grecian days, make him a king of the arena, and then see him quietly and unostenta- tiously, as if unconscious of any peculiar merit on his part, like Cincinnatus of old, return to the peaceful and law-abiding pursuits of agriculture, we can fully realize that this republic is based upon the most solid of foundations, a loyal, mili- tant yeomanry.
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
JOHN M. WATKINS.
The late John M. Watkins was a son of Sam- uel Watkins, a memoir of whom appears in other pages of this volume. A native of Allen township of Hillsdale county, he was born on March I, 1843, and passed all of his life on the paternal homestead, being numbered during all of his act- ive life among the influential and representative citizens of the county. He received a substantial education in the district schools of his native township, and, as he grew to manhood, received valuable lessons in agriculture on his father's farm. This farm he owned for years previous to his untimely death and it is one of the best man- aged and most highly improved estates in the township. Both the residence and barn are brick, excellent specimens of rural architecture, and the condition of his land proclaims him to have been one of the most skillful and progressive farmers in this part of the state. For a number of years he continued the manufacture of brick which his father had inaugurated, and, in 1891, erected 011 his place a large fruit-evaporating kiln in which he annually dried over 2,000 bushels of apples. Another busy and prosperous plant of this kind was conducted by himself and his brother-in-law, under the name of Brockway & Watkins.
What a contrast has been presented since the days when John M. Watkins, as a young lad was subjected to all the trials and privations of the wild life of the newest of new lands, Indians, wild beasts and the stern conditions of pioneer existence exhibiting all of the impoverished real- ity of the land, hardly giving even the slightest suggestion of the vast wealth and luxury he was permitted to see so magnificently scattered over the broad country, which witnessed his early struggles and vitalising experiences, after he had himself borne part for many years in the devel- oping process, and had lived to see the opening years of the greatest of all of the many centuries, the glorious Twentieth Century, in which the forces of human intellect seemingly were vying to see what they could bring of good and beauti- ful things to the people of this favored land.
Mr. Watkins was twice married. The first marriage occurred on November 19, 1868, with
Miss Anna E. Whitney, a daughter of Jonathan and Ann J. (Garrett) Whitney, the former being a native of Seneca, New York, and the latter of the Isle of Man. The fruit of this union was two children, J. Whitney and Mary E. Watkins, the latter being now the wife of Burton Bowditch, oi Pittsford, this county. Mrs. Watkins died on January 2, 1878, and Mr. Watkins's second mar- riage was solemnized at Quincy, on October 15, 1879, his mate on this occasion being Miss Julia Strong, a daughter of William and Martha B. ( Badgley) Strong, natives of Morris county, New Jersey. Her mother died at Butler, in Branch county, on August 21, 1881, and her fa- ther at her own home in August, 1890. The sec- ond Mrs. Watkins was the mother of one child. Martha Alice, who died on February 26, 1883. She is an active worker in the Presbyterian church, of which she has long been a zealous member.
Mr. John M. Watkins was a loyal Lincoln Re- publican in politics, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for President and holding true to the party during his life. He gave good service to the township as supervisor for two terms and also as a very efficient justice of the peace for two terms. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity, and with his wife took valued interest in Allen Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, in whose coun- cils he will long be missed. A man of practical wisdom and sagacity, having a large fund of gen- eral information, with clear views and strong con- victions on all public questions, his counsel was ever much sought as valuable in all matters affect- ing the welfare of the county, and, throughout its extent, he was highly esteemed, and, when the angel of death came for him, on July 16, 1903, at his attractive home in Allen village, the whole community was shadowed by the gloom arising from his passing from the midst of the people, and reverently and most tenderly all that was mortal of their late neighbor and friend was conveyed in silence to the little grave wherein now reposes his body in its last, long sleep, never more to waken until the morning of the resurrection. His many friends will experience a subdued pleasure on viewing the lifelike engraving of their departed friend which acompanies this memoir.
John In Waterno
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
are members of the Congregational church. Both are well esteemed throughout a large social circle and an extensive acquaintance in this and ad- joining townships.
CORNELIUS CLEMENT.
Cornelius Clement, of Pittsford township, in this county, the interesting subject of this brief review, belongs to a family that has seen many hardships and trials in many generations, and has met them all with a resolute spirit of endur- ance and conquest, displaying, in every adverse condition and under all forms of disaster and trouble, a commendable manliness of demeanor, elevation of character and determined persist- ency of effort, which have seemingly defied fate itself and shown the superiority of mind over matter and will over circumstances, qualities that have made American citizenship at its best, the highest form of human development, in both the individual and in the aggregate. He was born on August 26, 1823, at Root, Montgomery coun- ty, New York, the last of the twelve children of his parents, Aaron and Elizabeth (Ottman) Clement, all now deceased but himself, nearly all of whom reached old age in usefulness and cred- it, although one of the number died at the age of nineteen and another at forty-five. His father, Aaron Clement, was born at Westina, New York. on April 10, 1774, and received a good common- school education for the time in which he lived. At the age of twenty-three he married with Miss Elizabeth Ottman, then but sixteen or seventeen years old. Her mother died while she was yet an infant, and she was reared in the Lycker fam- ily, living there until her marriage.
The Clements were French Huguenots, and after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1865, the branch of the family to which Cornelius belongs fled to America for safety from religious persecution, his great-great-grandfather, John Clement, settling on Long Island. He had two daughters, one of whom located in New Jersey and the other in Maryland; and also two sons,
Joseph and Peter, the latter being the great- grandfather of our subject, who settled at West- ina, four miles west of Schenectady. There he married Anna or Nancy Vedder, and reared five children, three sons and two. daughters. The daughters died at Westina, and the sons, Peter, Samuel and Aaron, with their parents moved to Canajoharie, later called Root and now again Canajoharie, in Montgomery county of the same state, where they bought and settled on a tract of land which was almost unimproved. In the vari- ous parts of the county in which the descendants of the American progenitor of this numerous and most useful family settled they bore with fortitude and lofty courage the trials and crosses of life, both for themselves and for their coun- try, aiding materially in the wars waged for the founding and the stability of our government, ever giving their toil and their best intelligence to push forward the conquests of peace, which have, on our soil, so signally blessed and elevated mankind. Mr. Clement's grandfather and his uncle Peter were gallant soldiers in the Revo- lutionary struggle, and his father was a captain in that of 1812, while many members of the family stood resolutely by the cause of the Un- ion in the great War of the Sections of 186[- 65. And, wherever they have lived, they have been potent factors in the onward march of civ- ilization and progress. Many have been pio- neers, in one state or another, and bravely faced the dangers and toils, the privations and the hardships incident to frontier life, contending with the rage of man and with that of the ele- ments, with wild beasts and Nature's obstinacy to obtain a foothold and a place whereon to build their family altars and to found their homes.
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