USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 32
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
sold it, and, in 1852, went to California, where Le remained four years. On his return he bought 120 acres of the L. R. Gay farm, which was his home until his death on January 14, 1870. His widow survived him thirty-one years, dying in 1901, aged ninety-one years. Their family con- sisted of seven children, of whom Franklin was the fourth in the order of birth.
Franklin Schmitt has been a Hillsdale county farmer ever since he was able to do the work of that exacting vocation. He started in life for himself in Fayette township in 1870, and now has a fine farm, comprising 216 acres of well im- proved and highly cultivated land, being one of the choice tracts of this part of the county. To its operations and to his stockgrowing industry he gives his undivided attention, and is rewarded for his diligence and application by the best re- turns available under the circumstances. On Jan- uary 3, 1870, he was married to Miss Julia Cas- teel, a native of Morrow county, Ohio, whose pa- rents, Amos and Azubah (Cutler) Casteel, came to Hillsdale county about 1854, and, after a resi- dence of some years, moved to Kansas where the father died. The mother survived him several useful years and died in Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Schmitt have three children, Lilly, now Mrs. Wil- liam Osius; Kittie, now Mrs. Lewis Green, of Chicago, and Leroy R., living at home. Mr. Schmitt has not sought public office or promin- ence of any kind. He has found full satisfaction in the daily discharge of his duties on his farm and toward his fellow men, and, in that way, he has been of signal service to the community in which his life has so far been passed, stimulating others by an example of fidelity and modest worth, winning the good will and esteem of all who know him by his uprightness of life and steadiness of purpose in every line of productive work.
ISAAC W. SHERIFF.
The state of Maryland, whose firm and far- sighted policy in the Continental Congress when the Article of Confederation were under con- sideration, secured for our common country the great domain afterwards known as the North-
west Territory, has also contributed freely of her brain and brawn, her enterprise and public spirit, her men of endurance. courage and resourceful- ness, and her love of liberty, to plant and people this Northwest region, aiding in making it glad with all the beneficent products of civilization and cultivated life. Among those of her own progressive children, whom she gave to south- ern Michigan, were Samuel T. and Isaac W. Sheriff of Allen township, the parents being Isaac and Mary (Lazenbee) Sheriff, the former a na- tive of Prince George's county, and the latter of Montgomery county in the "good old state." They were prosperous farmers in southern Maryland, and, in 1806, moved to Ontario coun- ty, New York, when that section of the country was a wilderness, still resounding with the war- whoop of the savage and the long howl of wild beasts, and there made another home for them- selves, clearing up a tract of untamed land and there maintaining their home until the death of the father in 1848, at the age of sixty-eight years. He was a man of great public spirit and enterprise, taking an active part in pushing for- ward the car of progress in every section where he lived. In politics he was a zealous and loyal Democrat, casting his first vote for Thomas Jef- ferson, adhering with steadfast fidelity to the principles he then espoused to the end of his life. His widow survived him nearly thirty years, dying in 1877, at the age of ninety. They had a family of eight children, of whom four sons and three daughters reached maturity. All are now dead except the subject of this review. The other brother, Samuel T. Sheriff, was also a resident of Allen township until his recent death.
Isaac W. Sheriff was born on November 9, 1817, at Phelps, Ontario county, New York and lived at home, working on the farm as occasion required, attending school as he had opportunity, until he was twenty-one. In 1838, inheriting his parents' liking for the frontier, he came to Hills- dale county, Michigan, and settled on eighty acres of wild land, which he had previously pur- chased, it being the east half of the northwest quarter of section 33, in Allen township, of this county, which he still owns and on which there
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has never been a mortgage. He walked from Toledo, Ohio, to the land, when he made the purchase, and, in 1838, when he came to live on it, he traveled by rail to Adrian, from thence by team, in company with A. C. Fisk, to Allen. During the fall and winter of 1838 he built a small log shanty for a home for himself and wife, and began clearing his land, continuing his ex- acting, but progressive, labors until the farm was cleared and in a fair state of cultivation, then bought another eighty acres, on which he performed the same service. He now has a well improved and highly productive farm of 160 acres, well provided with comfortable and taste- fully arranged buildings, which has become one of the attractive country homes of the town- ship. In 1838, in the month of February, be- fore leaving New York, he was united in mar- riage with Miss Charlotte O. Baggerly, of the same nativity as himself. She died in Hillsdale county in 1871, leaving one child, their son Isaac, who has since died. Mr. Sheriff married his second wife in 1873. She was Miss Antoin- ette E. Baggerly, a cousin of the first wife, and a daughter of Robert J. and Julia J. (Pardee ) Baggerly, also born and reared in Ontario coun- ty, New York. They have one child, their daugh- ter, Lottie J., wife of Roy Watson, a prominent farmer of Litchfield township, who is herself the mother of one child, her son, John S. Watson. In political faith Mr. Sheriff has been a lifelong Democrat, and has filled several local offices, such as justice of the peace, school trustee and road commissioner. He takes great interest in the cause of agriculture, being an active member of the local grange of the Patrons of Husbandry. He came to this county when it was an almost unbroken forest and wilderness, without any of the products of civilization. or the conveniences of cultivated life of any kind. and he has helped to bring it forward to its present advanced state of development, building bridges, constructing roads, erecting schoolhouses, churches and other public buildings, contributing also wise counsel and proper trend to public opinion in reference to all matters affecting the welfare of the sec- tion. Having been one of the makers and build-
ers of the county, doing his work well and wisely, he has diligently earned, and is justly entitled to, the high esteem he has among all classes of the people in his township and throughout this part of the state.
Samuel T. Sheriff, the brother of Isaac W. W., who recently departed this life at his home in Allen township, was the last surviving mem- ber of the family except his brother. He was a man of great force of character, undoubted courage and resourcefulness, being energetic and diligent in every proper way, and lived a life of great usefulness to the community. He was born in Ontario, New York, on February 13, 1815, and was reared and educated in his na- tive county. In 1836 he entered eighty acres of government land in section 28 in Allen town- ship and forty acres in section 17. On the latter he settled and lived for two years, then moved to the southern part of Allen township and there maintained his home until his death in the vil- lage of Allen. He was at different times a resi- dent of Illinois, Missouri and New York. In 1854 he was elected sheriff of Hillsdale county and at the end of his term was reelected. There was then considerable horse-stealing and other lawlessness in the county, necessitating him to be vigilant and active to an unusual degree in the discharge of his official duties. He met the re- quirements of the case in a masterly manner, and when the end of his tenure of office arrived, he had suppressed the lawless elements of the popu- lation and established good order and safety for life and property. Since retiring from this office he has been a farmer, and has led a quiet, useful, and unostentatious life, performing faithfully his daily duties to his fellow men and the county and state, illustrating in an admirable manner the best citizenship of the country. He was married in New York state, in 1836, to Miss Maria Bag- gerly, a sister of Mrs. Isaac W. Sheriff, and a daughter of Everett and Sarah (Larnard) Bag- gerly, the former a native of Montgomery county, Maryland, and the latter of Killingly. Connecti- cut. For many years Mr. Sheriff was a Demo- crat in political faith, but was elected sheriff of the county on the Free Soil ticket. Besides this
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
office he filled, at one time or another, almost ev- ery other in the gift of the township, rendering appreciated service in each. In 1855 he was made a Mason, and, through all the rest of his life, .he was a faithful and earnest craftsman, showing great interest in the welfare of the order and making his own large contributions of time and energy to secure it. His death occurred on Octo- ber 13, 1902, at his Allen township home, where his widow is now living.
JAMES P. TURNER.
James P. Turner, one of the prominent farm- ers of Jefferson township, is a native of the coun- ty, born in Adams township on August 2, 1845. His parents were Alonzo and Orissa (Rush) Turner, both natives of Palmyra, New York, where the father was born on May 16, 1799, and the mother on July 17, 1806. The father was d carpenter and joiner, who worked at his trade in connection with farming, which he also fol- lowed industriously. They moved to Michigan in 1836, making the trip by boat to Toledo, Ohio, from there going by stage to Adrian in Lenawee county. From Adrian they utilized ox teams to Adams township, where the father had previ- ously entered 100 acres of government land, which was all heavily timbered. He felled the first tree caused to fall on this land by the wood- man's ax, and in time cleared all of the tract but about twenty acres, making the place his home until his death in 1849 and spending his energies in its improvement and development. Indians were plentiful all around him when he settled there, and they were not always friendly, although the more prominent ones, Baw Beese and others, were frequent visitors at his house. He assisted very materially in organizing the township and in fixing its forms of government, but steadily and always declined to hold office. His widow was married, some years after his death, to Elisha Knight : she died on July 11, 1887. Her family by her first husband consisted of three sons and five daughters, four of whom are living, James, Mrs. Horace Bow, Mrs. Mary McNutt, of near Hudson, and Mrs. Martha Wolcott, of Hudson.
The paternal grandfather, Noah Turner, was also a native of Palmyra, New York, and died in that state on January 28, 1847, aged eighty-one years. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and made a good record in the service.
James P. Turner lived at home and attended school until he was eight years of age, his father having died when he was four years old. Later he worked by the month on farms of the county and attended school during the winter. On June 5, 1862, he enlisted in the Union army as a mem- ber of Co. D, Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, with which he served nine months and twelve days, being wounded at the battle of Falling Waters, soon aft- er receiving his discharge on this account. He al- so took part in the battle of Antietam and was present at the surrender of Harper's Ferry. In January, 1864, he enlisted a second time. becom- ing a member of Co. B, Sixth Michigan Cavalry, being assigned to duty under Generals Sheridan and Kilpatrick. He took part in forty-four en- gagements and was captured at Cedar Creek, but within an hour was recaptured by his own forces. After the war his regiment was transferred to the Salt Lake district for service and was mustered out in March, 1866, as the First Michigan Veteran Cavalry. He then passed two years in Nevada as foreman in a quartz mill, in 1868 returning to Michigan. Soon after his return he purchased a sawmill, which he operated for two years in Wright township, this county, then went to But- ler county, Kansas, where he operated a similar enterprise for four years and also. cleared up a farm. In 1875 he came back to Michigan and located at Pittsford, where for ten years he was employed as salesman for a pump company, while during the next eight years he was a traveling salesman of McCormick's farm machinery. Dur- ing this time he was conducting a farm of his own and this he continued to do until he quit traveling in 1900. In 1868 he was married to Miss Mary L. Williams, a daughter of Alexander F. and Au- gusta Williams, early settlers in this county. where she was born. Mr. Turner is a Republi- can in politics, loyal and zealous in the service of his party, but he has steadfastly declined to accept office for himself. He is a devoted meni-
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ber of the Grand Army of the Republic. In the quiet pursuits of agriculture, in the turmoil and dangers of war, in the close competition and ex- acting conditions of commercial life, in every line of activity in which he has been engaged, Mr. Turner has been manly and upright, resource- ful and capable, productive and useful, illustrat- ing the most desirable attributes of American cit- izenship, winning the good will of his fellow men wherever he has met and mingled with them.
TRUMAN N. WADSWORTH.
For more than forty years Truman N. Wads- worth has been a resident and one of the leading farmers of Pittsford township, and, during seven years of the time, he has given the people of the township intelligent, conscientious and valuable service as supervisor. He is well known in all parts of the county, and is highly respected by all.classes of the people. It was in Allegany coun- ty, New York, on April 26, 1826, that his life be- gan and there he was reared and educated. There also he learned farming on his paternal home- stead, and after arriving at man's estate, he worked in this domain of elevating and fruitful industry in his native state until 1862, being in the employment of one man for a continuous pe- riod of eleven years. In the year last named he came to Michigan, and, locating in Hillsdale county, purchased the farm on which he now lives in Pittsford township, which since that time he has made his residence. The county was far behind its present state of development when his citizenship among its people began, and he has not only witnessed the many changes in the direc- tion of progress and improvement which have taken place, but has been a very forceful factor in bringing them about and giving proper direction to their course. In 1852, in Ontario county, New York, he married with Miss Mary Warner, a na- tive of that county and a daughter of Charles and Phila Warner, whose lives were wholly passed there. One child was born to them, William G. Wadsworth, who died in Hillsdale county in 1898. Two days previously, on October 18, 1898, Mrs. Wadsworth was called to her rest. Mr. Wads-
worth has been a Republican in his political faith all his mature life. He was supervisor of Pittsford township seven years, and many good works were accomplished during his incumbency of that of- fice through his energy and public spirit. Deeply interested in the welfare of his chosen pursuit, he has given a cordial welcome to all movements among the people that promised to advance its welfare or promote its progress and the im- provement of its conditions. To this end he has been for many years an active and helpful men- ber of the order of Patrons of Husbandry, holding affiliation with the grange at Pittsford.
Mr. Wadsworth's parents were Samuel and Rebecca (Foster) Wadsworth, the former a na- tive of Vermont and the latter of New York. The father was a farmer and moved to Yates county. New York, in 1808, and, after a residence of some years there, he moved to Allegany county. in the same state. Some years later he took up his residence in Ohio, and from there he moved! to Wisconsin. The last years of his life were passed at the home of his son, Truman, in this county. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. The mother died in New York in 1835. They were the parents of four children, three sons and one daughter. Three of the number are living, Truman N., Sylvester F., who lives with Truman, and the sister, who resides in Wisconsin. The grandfather, Hezekiah Wadsworth, a native of Vermont, lived a number of years in New York and died in Ohio, whither he moved late in life. He was a soldier in the War of the Revolution, serving seven years, nine months and one day in that contest in a Vermont regiment, partici- pating in all the important battles of the war and enduring some of its extreme horrors as a prison- er on one of the odious prison-ships at New York city during one winter.
PHILO A. SILVERNAIL.
In the eager and hopeful tide of emigration, which flowed steadily into southern Michigan be- tween 1835 and 1850 from New York and Ohio, came Conrad and Mary ( Miller) Silvernail from the latter state, whither they had removed from
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Rensselaer county, New York, the place of their nativity, in 1832. They came to Michigan in 1838 and purchased forty acres of virgin land in Pittsford township, this county, on which they settled, and from which they hewed out a home for themselves and their family, living there until death, that .of the father occurring in 1862, and that of the mother in 1869. On this homestead they reared a family of eleven children, five sons and six daughters, all of whom are now deceased, but their son, Philo, and two of his sisters. He was born on the farm they previously occupied near Burton in Geauga county, Ohio, on October 10, 1838, and was therefore but an infant when the family moved into this state. Conrad Silver- nail had been a public man of local prominence in Ohio, filling a number of important offices, but, after his arrival in Michigan, he took no active part in political affairs. His wife was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church and brought her children up in accordance with its teachings and spirit of religious devotion. In the atmosphere of such a home, where duty was the law and labor the inevitable, continuous and un- changing condition, their son, Philo, learned the lessons and formed the habits of integrity, up- rightness and industry which have distinguished him through his long life among the people of his township and county whose confidence and re- spect he now so richly enjoys and whom he has so faithfully served in every public and private capacity to which he has been called.
He received a limited education in the public schools of his day, which were necessarily primi- tive in character and narrow in scope, which he had but few chances to attend regularly, but he was able to supplement their teachings by a pe- riod of attendance at a good private school. When he reached the age of sixteen years he went to work for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, on the division running through Indi- ana and Ohio, and, in course of time, he became a baggagemaster running between Toledo and Elk- hart. Five years were passed in the employ of this corporation, but, in 1859, failing health obliged him to give up the work. He then re- turned to this county and taught school for a
year here and one in Ohio, receiving in the latter a compensation of $26 a month, boarding him- self. In 1864 he bought his present home, which was partially improved, and here he has since lived, cultivating the land and improving the property, increasing its productiveness and value by careful and judicious tillage and enterprising attention to its buildings and general condition. He was married in 1863 to Miss Facelia Cunning- ham, a native of Ohio, the daughter of Layton and Mary (Youngs) Cunningham, who moved to Hillsdale county while she was a child and where both have since died. Mr. and Mrs. Silver- nail have five children, all daughters. They are Bertha, wife of W. A. Ballard, of this county ; Myrta, widow of J. B. Philbrick ; Ella, wife of Fred Carpenter, of this county; Etta, wife of Frank L. Hackett, of Pittsford; Alta, living at home. In politics, Mr. Silvernail is a Republican. He has served as school superintendent of the township, as township treasurer and as justice oif the peace. He belongs to the Masonic order and is an active member of Pittsford Grange, Pa- trons of Husbandry. One of the oldest, he is also one of the most respected citizens of the town- ship.
DAVID J. WATKINS.
David J. Watkins, of Cambria township, in this county, one of the sturdy and substantial farmers of that portion of the state, is the scion of an old Welsh family, who long lived and la- bored in their native land, and gave to its inter- ests their best services in war and peace. They fought valiantly under its early chieftains and princes to maintain its independence and dignity, and, in its fields, mines and other industrial lines of productive effort. they worked faithfully to promote its mercantile, financial and educational welfare. Its American progenitors brought to the land of their adoption the same spirit of martial and industrial fidelity, espousing with enthusiasm and a lofty patriotism the cause of the common weal in every way on the soil of the new world, which their forefathers had so faithfully support- ed on that of the old. The one who planted the family tree in this country was David's grand-
13
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
father. Hezekiah Watkins, who emigrated from Wales to the United States while he was yet a young man, and who became soon after a soldier in the Colonial army, for seven years thereafter following the varying fortunes of the young con- federacy in the Revolutionary struggle, against the fearful odds with which it had to contend, aid- ing materially in securing and rejoicing greatly in celebrating its final triumph. When peace came he settled in New York state and there worked at his trade as a weaver until his death. His son. Johnson Watkins, was born and reared in that state, there married with Miss Eunice Randall, a native of Vermont, and they became the parents of eight children, of whom their sons, David J. and another, and two daughters are living, all being residents of Michigan. The fa- ther was a farmer in his native place until 1849, when he brought his young family to this state and settled in Cambria township, this county, on twenty acres of the farm on which David now lives. This was then all heavily timbered, and lie cleared it and reduced it to fertility, living on it until his death, in 1873, at the age of seventy- seven. His wife survived him four years, dying in 1877, also aged seventy-seven.
David J. Watkins was fourteen years old at the time of his parents' removal to Michigan, hav- ing been born in Glenville township, Schenectady county, New York, on March 6, 1835. He be- gan his education in the schools of New York and finished it in those of Michigan. But his oppor- tunities were limited at the best, for he was obliged carly in life to make a field hand in the work of the farm, and in making a living for the family. He began life for himself as a farmer. purchasing twenty acres of land adjoining that of his father, and working it until the opening of the Civil War and for some time during its progress. In August, 1862, he enlisted in the Union army in Co. B, Eighteenth Michigan In- fantry. under Capt. C. B. Van Valer, and he re- mained in service until the close of the contest, being attached to the Army of the Cumberland, participating with it in many of its important bat- tles, among them those at Spring Hill and at Athens and Decatur in Alabama. He was mus-
tered out at Nashville in 1865, with the rank of corporal, to which he had been promoted through merit, being finally discharged at Jackson, in this state. He returned at once to his Hillsdale coun- ty farm,on which he has lived ever since, in- creasing its size to eighty acres and bringing it to a high state of cultivation and improvement. On March 8, 1857, he married Miss Minerva Vin- cent, a daughter of John and Mary A. (Rey- nolds) Vincent, early settlers in Branch county. Her father was a railroad contractor and assisted in the construction of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. He died in this state on Jan- uary 27, 1842. Mr. and Mrs. Watkins have four children : Edmund J., a leading manufacturer at Hillsdale; Chauncey E. ; George E., a farmer and blacksmith; Edith E., wife of F. W. Dailey, of Hillsdale county. Mr. Watkins is an earnest Re- publican in politics and has served as township treasurer and also as highway commissioner, ren- dering acceptable and appreciated service in both positions. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, with devotion to the organiza- tion and efficiency and zeal in its service. His life in this county has been both useful and pro- ductive, ever showing him upright in character, diligent in industry and full of consideration and help for his fellows. He is regarded as one of the sterling and representative men of the town- ship and has the respect of the community.
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