USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 28
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nized throughout the state, and, in 1902, he was tendered the appointment of the U. S. district judgeship of Alaska, but found it necessary to decline the honor.
Mr. Lyon is a highly esteemed member of the State Bar Association and of the Masonic order, in the symbolic, capitular, cryptic and templar branches, belonging to Hillsdale Lodge, Hills- dale Chapter and Eureka Commandery. In ad- dition to his legal business he is interested in various enterprises. He is a stockholder in the Omega Portland Cement Co. at Jonesville, the Bowden & Blanchard Shoe Co., the Worthington &. Alger Fur Coat and Robe Co., the Hillsdale Screen Co., the Hillsdale Creamery Co., the Ala- mo Gas Engine Co., all of Hillsdale ; the Abelina Mineral Water Co., of Abilene, Kansas, and the Buena Vista Sugar and Rubber Co., of Buena Vista, Mexico, serving also as attorney for the above companies. He has been married twice, first to Miss Mary L. Demorest, of Girard, who died on December 6, 1881, after three years of happy wedded life; second to Miss Emma Fink, of Ionia, Michigan, with whom he was united 011 August 5, 1885. They have one child, their daughter, Vivian E. Lyon, who adds life and sunshine to their pleasant home and aids in dis- pensing the gracious and refined hospitality of which it is a noted center.
ERWIN S. MARSH.
Erwin S. Marsh came to this county in 1858 with his parents, and has since that time been act- ively identified with its progress and develop- ment, giving his energies in support of every good enterprise for the advancement of this sec- tion of the state and for the benefit of its people. He is a native of Berkshire county, Mass., born on May 14, 1851, the son of Charles S. and Emeline (Wilbur) Marsh, the former born and . reared in Massachusetts and the latter in New York. The father was a carpenter and worked at his trade throughout his life, which ended in Hillsdale county in 1895, in the village of Cam- bria, the only interruption to his industry as a mechanic, being his loyal service for nearly three
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years in the Union army during the Civil War. When, in 1858, he reached Hillsdale county wit !: his family, he located in Woodbridge township and there he lived. for a number of years, remov- ing at length to Cambria, where he passed the rest of his days. He was one of the leading cit- izens of the locality of his residence and served the township as its treasurer and the county as a deputy sheriff. In 1863 he enlisted in the Union army as a member of Co. K, Twenty- seventh Michigan Infantry, and from that date to the end of the war was in active service in the field, participating in the battles of the Wilder- ness, Cold Harbor, and many other important as well as numerous minor engagements. His widow survived him four years, dying in De- cember: 1899. Her father, Joseph Wilbur, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and his daughter, Mrs. Ann E. Prentice, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is the youngest living daughter of a Revolutionary soldier in that state and per- haps in the United States. The grandfather was Amasa Marsh, a native son of Connecticut, who moved to Massachusetts in early life, and there resided until his death in 1880. Erwin S. Marsh is one of the two children of his parents, the other being Mrs. Elizabeth Thatcher, wife of W. Thatcher, who died in February, 1901, leaving four children, having been married twice.
Erwin S. Marsh was reared in this county from his boyhood and was educated in the pub- lic schools and by private study. When he reached a suitable age he taught school, continu- ing at this occupation for a number of years, at the same time learning the carpenter trade be- tween the sessions of school. In 1881 he moved to Cambria and purchased the furniture and un- dertaking business, which he is still conducting at that place, and now having a branch establish- ment at Frontier. In 1901 he went to Lansing, in this state, and took a course of special training in embalming and undertaking work, and, thus from the beginning of his connection with the business, he has omitted no effort necessary to the complete mastery of its details in every par- ticular. In addition to this business he personal- ly conducts the operation of his fertile and well-
improved farm, carrying it on with the same careful attention that he gives to his mercantile interests. In politics he is an active Republican and has rendered good service to his party in its various campaigns, also to the people in three successive terms as township supervisor, begin- ning in 1895, giving, besides, six years of faith- ful work in the office of township clerk. He was married in December, 1876, at Galva, Illinois, to Miss Kate Sanderson, a native of Massachusetts and a daughter of Edwin and Hannah Sander- son, who are now living in Vermont. They have eight children: Lillian, wife of R. Bradshaw, of this township; Charles E., at Stevenson, Mich., in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad; Fay, married Lottie Foote, on Jan- uary 22, 1903, and resides on a farm near Cam- bria ; Lottie S., the wife of W. K. Smith, living on a farm west of the village of Cambria; M. Burr, Beulah, Lulu and. Wilbur, all at home. Mr. Marsh belongs to the Masonic order, hold- ing membership in the lodge at Cambria. He is one of the leading business men and citizens of the township and is highly respected.
DUNCAN MCKELLAR, M. D.
Duncan Mckellar, M. D., who has been act- ively engaged in the practice of his profession for nearly thirty years in this county, is one of the most widely known of its professional men and a Canadian by nativity, having received his birth at London, in the province of Ontario, on July 2, 1852. His parents, Dougal and Mary (Mc- Cormick) Mckellar, were natives of Scotland. The father came with his parents to Canada when he was a child and was educated in that country. He engaged in merchandising at Lon- don and died there, when his son, Duncan, was very young. The mother, who was reared at Ypsilanti and Detroit, in this state, also died in Canada. They were the parents of four children, one son and three daughters.
Doctor Mckellar was educated in the schools of his native land, where he remained until 1868, when he came to the United States and was em- ployed for some years in building bridges in
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Iowa and Minnesota. He began the study of medicine, in 1872, in Canada, and, in 1873, en- tered the medical department of the State Uni- versity at Ann Arbor, this state, where he was graduated on March 26, 1876. He came at once to Osseo, in this county, and at that place start- ed a medical and surgical practice, which he has continued and which has grown great and risen to high character in the body of its patrons and the measure of success which has attended it. He is one of the oldest physicians in the county, by continuous service to the public, and is easily in the front rank of his profession in this part of the state. In 1901 he was married to Miss Emma Miner McBrant, a daughter of Nathan- iel Brant, one of the early settlers of Pittsford township. In politics the Doctor has been a lifelong Republican and has been devoted to the interests of his party, giving its principles and its candidates loyal and active support, but not seeking its honors or emoluments for himself. His life has been unobtrusive and serviceable to a high degree, and has blessed the people of this township with innumerable benefactions, many of them unnoted, because so freely and so cheer- fully bestowed. At the same time he has stead- ily grown in the regard and esteem. of the peo- ple, being now so essentially a part of the public life and activity of the township that it would be difficult to think of any phase of its progress and development without "the Doctor" as a part of the impelling force. By faithful performance of every daily duty he has made himself useful, both in the matter of his own work and in the stimulus he has given to others by the force of his example; and he has aided by encourage- ment, by wise counsel and by substantial as- sistance, every good enterprise for the benefit of the community or the advancement or comfort of its people.
HON. JASON B. NORRIS.
Hon. Jason B. Norris, one of the few re- maining pioneers of Woodbridge township, was born in Ontario county, New York, on Novem- ber 3, 1823. His parents were John B. and Bet-
sey (Gage) Norris, and the record of their use- ful lives is written in the sketch of Joel B. Nor- ris on another page of this volume. Their son, Jason, grew to manhood in his native state and was well educated for the times in its public schools. In 1845 he came to Hillsdale county, settled on the northwest quarter of section eleven, in Woodbridge township, and began to clear the land for a home for himself and his family. The land was heavily wooded and the preparation of it for cultivation was a work of great difficulty and required hard and persistent labor. He erected a log shanty and this was his home for many years. It is still standing, showing by its contrast with the fine farmhouse, in which he now resides, the difference in the conditions of life which surrounded the pioneers, and those of the present day, of high development and great productive enterprise of every kind. He has made his farm one of the best in the township and his residence is surpassed by few in the county in convenience of arrangement, complete- ness of equipment and tasteful adornment.
He married on December 3, 1856, Miss Eliza- beth M. Kinney, a native of the same county as himself, a daughter of Elias and Margaret (An- derson) Kinney, who settled in Lenawee county, .this state, in July, 1835, and there cleared a farm and made it productive. They died in the town of Seneca in that county, where they had retired to spend in tranquillity the evening of their days. Mr. and Mrs. Norris have one child, their daughter, Mary E., wife of Andrew J. McDermid, of Chicago. In political allegiance Mr. Norris is a Republican and gives the prin- ciples and candidates of his party loyal support at all times. He has served three terms as town- ship supervisor, six terms as tax collector, and, in 1871, was elected as a member of the lower house of the State Legislature. He has also ac- ceptably filled other township offices. In every part of his official life he rendered good service and left his office without reproach, crowned with the approval and commendations of his fellow citi- zens. He and his wife are members of the Pres- byterian church at Hillsdale and take a leading part in all of its good works. Mr. Norris is one
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of the substantial and well-esteemed citizens of the county, whose life among this people has been full of benefit to the community, and he has given an example of thrift, industry, uprightness and zeal in behalf of the common welfare that is worthy of emulation, having been a stimulus to generous endeavor wherever its influence has been felt and appreciated.
WALTER HULME SAWYER, M. D.
"A man so various that he seems to be, not one but all mankind's epitome," Dr. Walter Hulme Sawyer is one of the forceful and prog- ressive men to whom Hillsdale is indebted for usefulness in as many capacities as any other man residing in the city or county. In profes- sional life, in business enterprise, in political ac- tivities, in social circles, in every line of service- able and productive citizenship, his influence has been potential for good, fruitful for healthful and substantial progress in this community and his example has been a great stimulus in quicken- ing the energies of others to usefulness in many channels. He is a native of Lyme, Huron coun- . the state board of medical registration. His pro-
ty, Ohio, born on August 10, 1861, the son of George and Julia A. (Wood) Sawyer, of the same nativity as himself. His grandparents came from England and were early settlers in Ohio, locating in that state as pioneers when it was vet a portion of the untamed wilderness of the Northwest Territory and helping in the great work of reducing it to subjection and bringing its virgin soil to fertility and systematic produc- tiveness for the service of civilized man. The parents of the Doctor were prosperous farmers in their native state until about 1874, when they removed to Grass Lake, in Jackson county of this state, where they resided as farmers until the death of the father in 1897 at that place, where the mother is still living.
At the time of the removal of the family to Michigan the Doctor was twelve years old. He was reared to manhood on the home farm in the new location and educated at the public schools, being graduated from the Grass Lake high school in 1881. He then took a course of general in-
struction at the Ann Arbor University, and, at its close, entered the medical department of that institution from which he was duly graduated in 1884. For a year thereafter lie was the house- surgeon at the university hospital, and on July II, 1885, he located at Hillsdale, where he has since been actively engaged in a general practice of growing magnitude and importance, for years being acknowledged as one of the most success- ful, popular and esteemed physicians and sur- geons of the county. He is a close student of the literature of the profession, a discriminating observer of the manifestations of disease and dis- ablement in his practice ; and, to the councils of the profession he has brought ability, learning and zeal for the general weal of his professional brethren and himself, and, also, through these channels, for the common good of mankind, the results and suggestions of his reading and his observation, being an active and valued member of the State Medical Society, the Tri-State Medi- cal Society and the American Medical Associa- tion, being also a corresponding member of the Detroit Academy of Medicine and a member of fessional duties have his careful, assiduous and conscientious attention, but his mind is broad in its sweep and his energy tireless in diligence, so that he is able to give the business interests in the community the benefit of his quickness of perception, clearness of vision, enterprise in ac- tion and other excellent business capabilities.
He was one of the organizers of the Alamo Manufacturing Co. for the construction of en- gines to be run by gas and gasoline, is a direc- tor and the vice-president of the Hillsdale Screen Manufacturing Co., a director of the American Screen Door Co., at Adrian, of the McGregor- Banwell Wire Fence Co., at Walkerville, Canada, of the Omega Portland Cement Co., at Mosher- ville, in this county, and of the American Lum- ber Co., at East Orange, New Jersey, of which he is also a member of the executive committee. He is a trustee of Hillsdale College and of the Oak Grove Hospital at Flint, in this state, and, for a number of years, he has been one of the most active members of the school board in Hills-
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dale county. In politics he is a zealous and loyal Republican and occupies a leading place in the councils of the party. During the last six years he has been one of the most diligent and serv- iceable members of the state central committee in the party organization, and to the principles and candidates of the party he has given ardent, intelligent and most helpful support. Every line of activity that has enlisted his interest has had his energetic and earnest attention, every enter- prise for the advancement of the community or the promotion of its interests in any proper way has felt the impulse of his quickening and ener- gizing spirit. Fraternal societies as follows claim him as a highly valued member. In Free- masonry he holds membership in lodge, chapter and commandery at Hillsdale, and, in the Scot- tish Rite he has attained to the Thirty-second degree. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias at Hillsdale and in the select circle of the De- troit Club he is hailed as a "friend and compan- ion." He married, on June 14, 1888, with Miss Harriet B. Mitchell, a native of Hillsdale, a daughter of Hon. Charles T. and Harriet S. (Wing) Mitchell, extended mention of whom will be found elsewhere in this work. The domestic shrine he thus reared has been blessed by the birth of one child, Thomas Mitchell Sawyer, now fourteen years old (1903) and a student at the Hillsdale high school.
ROBERT L. NICHOLS.
Robert L. Nichols is one of the prominent, progressive and successful farmers and stock- growers of Jefferson township, who, for more than a generation of human life, on his fine and well-improved farm in the township, has exem- plified all graces of the social country gentle- man, with all of the thrift, industry and enter- prise of the wide-awake and down-to-date farm- er. He was born on the homestead in Jefferson township on December 16, 1846, the son of Rob- ert J. and Mary J. (Zimmerman) Nichols, the former a native of New York and the latter of Kentucky. His father was born at the close of the War of 1812, on July 11, 1815, and lived at
the age of fourteen on his father's farm in Orange county, New York. He was then "bound out" to learn the trade of carriage-trimming, making such progress in the art, that about three months before he attained his majority, his em- ployer released him and he made his way to Georgetown, Kentucky, where he lived for eight years and worked at his trade, during this time meeting with and marrying Miss Mary J. Zim- merman, the wedding taking place on November 8, 1836. In 1842 he left Kentucky and traveled on horseback to southern Michigan and there purchased a portion of the land, in what is now Jefferson township, on which his son, Robert L. Nichols, now lives. He returned to Kentucky, the next year bringing his wife and two chil- dren, one of them only a month old, to his new home, being accompanied in the removal by his wife's parents and their youngest child. After forty years of happy wedded life, his wife died on the farm on March 29, 1876, and, nine years later, on December 18, 1885, he, too, departed this life, passing away at his home in Ransom township, whither he had moved some years previous, after having been engaged in mercan- tile business for a few years at his former home and at Adrian, in Lenawee county. He was prominent in the local affairs of the county, serv- ing as a justice of the peace for twelve years, as a township treasurer for two years and as a road commissioner for.a number of terms. After the death of his first wife he was twice married, and all of the wives preceded him to the grave.
His son, Robert L. Nichols, received a prac- tical education, pursuing his first studies in a shop on his father's farm at which nine .pupils attended, they being all the children of school age in the district. He was obliged to take his place in the working force on the farm at an early age, having an opportunity to go to school only in the winter months after he was twelve years old. At nineteen he purchased the rest of his time of his father for the sum of $200 and rented land of him, which enabled the enterpris- ing young farmer to pay off his debt and ·clear $250. At the age of twenty-four he bought seventy acres of land of zhis father, and, on De-
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cember 29 of the same year, 1870, he married with Miss Lois A. Cheney, who was born in Monroe county, New York, on September 9, 1850, the daughter of Paschal and Clarena (Hib- ner) Cheney, of that state. They became, the parents of six children, Maie C., wife of Leon Crandall; Allen R .; Gertie, wife of Fred Dens- more; Ruie Lea, died June 10, 1896; Leo La- verne ; Floy A. To his original tract of seventy acres of land, which he purchased of his father, and to which he added forty acres by a subse- quent purchase, he has added within the last few years eighty acres more. The whole tract has been brought to a high state of development and cultivation, and forms one of the most desirable homes in the township. In politics Mr. Nichols is a straight Republican and has shown his in- terest in the enduring welfare and progress of his township by serving it for eight years as a justice of the peace. He is a thorough business man, taking proper pride in his home and his family, and, in all respects, he is recognized as one of the leading and most representative citi- zens of the county.
Paschal Cheney, father of Mrs. Nichols, came from his native state of New York to this county in 1859, with his young wife and three small children, and, in common with his neigh- bors, patiently. endured the hardships, privations and dangers of frontier life. He was, however, inured to endurance and toil, having begun the battle of life for himself at the age of eighteen, and depended on his own exertions throughout the long struggle. His industry and persever- ance were amply rewarded by the early posses- sion of a good home and the unquestioning con- fidence and unstinted regard of his fellow men in all parts of the county.
ALFRED L. NORTON.
Born on July 13, 1861, in the opening year of our great Civil War, and only about a week before the first and disastrous battle of Bull Run, which opened the eyes of the Federal gov- ernment to the magnitude of the struggle which was at hand, Alfred L. Norton, of Allen town-
ship, in this county, had his childhood darkened by the awful shadow of the contest which exact- ed of his father's family two promising sons, W. C. and George W. Norton, as its tribute to the cause of the Union, both dying from disabil- ities incurred in the service as members of the Fourth Michigan Infantry. He is a native of the township in which he lives and has passed al- most the whole of his life within its borders. His parents were Erastus P. and Hannah (Crow) Norton, natives of Columbia county, New York. The father was a farmer who varied his rural activities by successful teaching, and came to Michigan in 1854, settling in Allen township, where he bought 190 acres of partially improved land, which he developed and cultivated until his death in 1891. His wife died in 1862, when Al- fred was but one year old, but the lad was care- fully reared by his father and stepmother and received a liberal education, beginning in the district schools near his home and ending at Hillsdale College with a graduation from the commercial department of this institution, and he thereafter spent several years as a clerk and salesman in a store at Allen, after which he was engaged for a time in teaching in the county. He began farming in 1888 and since that time he has devoted his whole time to the vocation of the patriarchs, bringing to bear on its operations all the information he could gather from careful and reflective reading and close and discriminat- ing observation. In the management of his farm- ing industry he has been eminently successful, having shown in the results of his industry and energy in this line of activity the benefits of his large acquaintance with men and affairs, which he secured in his previous work as a teacher and in mercantile life and his two years' service as agent for the most improved agricultural machin- ery. His farm is one of the choice rural homes of the township, a model of foresight, thrift and skillful cultivation, and an enduring testimonial to his taste and good judgment in the character and arrangements of its buildings and other im- provements.
Mr. Norton married in April, 1887. Miss Mary Hildebrandt, a native of Germany, who
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came from that country with her parents to this county when she was six years old. Her parents were Carl and Wilhelmina Hildebrandt, long prosperous and enterprising farmers of Hills- dale county, where they put in practice the habits of industry, persistency, frugality and fidelity to duty they had learned in their native land and to which they were impelled by the examples of long lines of worthy German ancestors. Mr. and Mrs. Norton have two daughters, Mabel M. and Beatrice J. The head of the family has been a Republican all of his mature life and has given to the principles and candidates of his party a zealous and loyal support. He has served the township as school inspector for several terms, has been township treasurer two terms and su- pervisor for six years, being first elected to this office in 1892. He is a charter member of the local tent of the Knights of the Maccabees, and is everywhere esteemed among the people who have knowledge of him.
ERASTUS P. NORTON, the father of Alfred L. Norton, now of Allen township, was born in Washington county, New York, on May 2, 1821, and was there reared and educated. He was twice married, his first wife, as indicated in the review of his son, Alfred, being Miss Han- nah Crow before her marriage, and a New York- . er by nativity. She died in 1862 and several years afterward he married Mrs. Jane R. Rem- ington, of Cayuga county, in the same state, as his second wife. In 1854 he became a resident of Michigan and remained within its borders dur- ing the rest of his life, dying in 1891. He was a farmer by occupation and settled on a tract of 190 acres of land, which he purchased in Allen township, and, which by his industry, was devel- oped into an excellent and highly productive farm. His family consisted of six sons and three daughters, two of the sons, W. C. and George W., were soldiers in the Union army, members of the Fourth Michigan Infantry, dying in the serv- ice; and, while feeling keenly his deep bereave- ment in this double loss, he had ever throughout his subsequent life a solemn pride in the recol- lection of having laid so costly a sacrifice on the altar of his country. The other children were
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