USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 52
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ZACHARIAS SCHAAD.
Every clime and language of the civilized world has contributed brain and brawn to the development of the United States; this univer- sality of function and power it is that gives our citizenship such commanding supremacy in the battle of life over every difficulty, enabling it to meet all the requirements in any condition that confronts it. From the land of William Tell and Arnold Winkelried, from free and progressive Switzerland, came Zacharias Schaad, now of North Adams, a prominent farmer and progres- sive and skillful carpenter and wagonmaker. He was born on May 14, 1837, the son of Melchior and Anna (Auer) Schaad, also Swiss by nativity. The father, a farmer and merchant, served as postmaster of his home town for a number of years and he was the father of nine children, two of whom are living. Faithful to every duty and
devout members of the German Reformed church, the parents were universally respected in life, and their deaths, that of the mother in 1872, of the father in 1876, were generally mourned.
Mr. Schaad attended the public or state schools and when he was sixteen years of age went into the service of his father. In 1854 he came to the United States and located at Toledo, Ohio. In the autumn of the same year he re- moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., passing one year there as an apprentice to a harnessmaker, the wages paid him being $30 a year and his board. From there he went to Ionia county, this state, and remained six months employed at the same trade. From the 'spring of 1856 he worked at carpentry for four years in that locality, in 1860 changing his base of operations to Ann Arbor, where he continued in the same line until the spring of 1863. He then came to Adams town- ship, Hillsdale county, and for ten years carried on a flourishing business as a carpenter and wag- onmaker in partnership with M. Wintersdorf. Since the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Schaad has conducted the business alone, and has man- aged a profitable farming industry in addition. In politics he is a Republican, while fraternally, he belongs to the Masonic order. He was mar- ried on March 12, 1874, to Miss Sarah M. Judd, a native of Hillsdale county, this state, and the daughter of Ethel and Eunice (Gilson) Judd, na- tives of New York state. Mr. and Mrs. Schaad have one child, Judd M. Schaad, who was born on September 1, 1880.
Mrs. Schaad's father came direct from his Eastern home to Michigan in the early days, and located about a mile and a half east of the present town of North Adams. This whole section of country was then but a tangled forest of wild woods and he practically started the town by clearing the land of its timber and building many of its earlier houses. This was prior to the ad- mission of Michigan territory to the Union as a state, which occurred in 1836. During the Civil War he served as captain of Co. K, Tenth Michi- gan Infantry for a short time, but remained in the service . as a recruiting officer until nearly the close of the sanguinary conflict, when he was
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honorably discharged. He was an ardent Repub- lican in politics, holding a number of local offices, among them that of supervisor of Adams. He also represented the county in the Legislature of 1857. He was an active member of the Congre- gational church and built the first house of wor- ship for this denomination in North Adams, which is still in use.
WALTER A. SCOTT.
From the western and the eastern ends of the great state of New York came the ancestry of Walter A. Scott, of Litchfield township, and the thrift, enterprise and business capacity which have been so long displayed in these sections of that state, and which were characteristics of his forebears, have also been well exemplified in his own career. He is a native of the township in which he lives, born on the farm which is now his home on August 5, 1847. His father, Archi- bald Scott, was born and reared in Cattaraugus county, New York, and his mother on Long Island. The father was a carpenter by trade, and worked at this calling at Buffalo until 1835 or 1836, when he came to this country and settled at what was called Todd Town. There he pur- chased a portion of the estate known to the older settlers as the Frisbie farm, which he cleared of the heavy timber covering it, which had been keeping the soil and the sunshine apart for ages, reduced it to cultivation and made it attractive with a residence, good barns and the other appur- tenances of a comfortable home. He then traded this estate for the farm now owned and occupied by his son, Walter, comprising eighty acres, on which he lived until his death on October 4, 1859, aged fifty-eight years. His name was Archibald Scott, and he was twice married, the first time, on October 18, 1822, to Miss Cynthia Todd, by whom he had four children, one son and three daughters, of whom two of the daughters sur- vive, one living in this county and one in Iowa. This Mrs. Scott died in this county and, in 1839, he married with Miss Esther Jones, who died on June 23, 1888. She was the mother of his son, Walter, and of a daughter who died in infancy.
In politics the father was first a Whig, later an Abolitionist, and both he and his wife were active members of the Baptist church and active aids in all its good works. They assisted in building all the carly church edifices in their neighborhood and many in other parts of the township.
Walter A. Scott, their son, was reared on the farm and attended the district schools in the vi- cinity, finishing with a course at Jonesville and one winter at a business college at Syracuse, N. Y. He then for a shirt time engaged in farm- ing, and from the farm went to clerking for H. N. Turnell, of Litchfield, in whose employ he re- mained three years. At the end of that time he again turned his attention to farming and has been engaged in that vocation ever since. He was married on July 12, 1868, to Miss Luella Miller, a native of Erie county, New York, and a daughter of Sandusky and Martha (Ames) Miller. Her parents came to the county in 1853 and settled in Allen township where her mother died. Her father is now living in the northern part of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Scott have one child, their daughter, Carrie, now the wife of Wil- liam Moore, of Allen township. Mr. Scott, a Re- publican in party allegiance, has served the or- ganization well as a private in the ranks and also in official stations of importance. He was a high- way commissioner and a justice of the peace for a number of years, and has also been a candidate for supervisor. Fraternally he belongs to the Ma- sons and the Knights of the Maccabees, holding membership in lodges of these orders at Allen and Litchfield. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Sand Creek. They are both widely known and highly respected in all portions of this and adjoining townships and throughout a much larger extent of country.
WALTER D. SHARP.
'The generations of the Sharp family to which the efficient and popular postmaster of Litchfield belongs have assisted in the development and growth of various portions of this broad land and their record for fidelity and industry in their work stands highly to their credit. Walter D.
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Sharp was born on his father's farm north and east of the village of Litchfield on December I, 1856, and has lived among its people ever since. His father, Warren Sharp, was a native of New York who was reared as a farmer and came to Hillsdale county with his family in 1836. He took up land, cleared it for cultivation and made it his home until 1862, when he enlisted in the Union army as a member of Co. C, First Michi- gan Sharpshooters, with this regiment joining the Army of the Potomac. The fortunes of war took him at once to the front and kept him in active service until near the close of the mighty con- flict, and he was ever at the post of duty, par- ticipating heroically in many engagements and seeing the unparalleled rigors of war, especially. in the sanguinary campaigns of 1864, when he took part in the battles of the Wilderness, Spott- sylvania, Cold Harbor, and the others of that year so glorious to the banner under which he fought and so awfully disastrous to the men who followed its fortunes. He was wounded in the last struggle before Petersburg and died of his wounds a few days afterward. Before leaving his native state he was united in marriage with Miss Roxana Fisher, a native of Pennsylvania, who is now living at Concord, in Jackson county, this state. They were the parents of two chil- dren, their son, Walter D., and a daughter.
Walter D. Sharp was called upon early to feel the burden of war, and to take a leading part in carrying on the business of the farm and the sup- port of the family. His school days were cut short and his entrance into life's arduous work hastened by his father's death, and, after that event, as soon as he was old enough, he learned the trade of cabinet making in connection with his farm labors, and, when he had finished his apprenticeship, pursued the trade in the town of Litchfield. He gave his energies and the re- sources of his naturally fertile mind and skillful hands to his craft with diligence and close atten- tion until he was appointed postmaster of the town on January 17, 1898, since which time he has been wholly occupied with his official duties. Prior to this he managed an extensive business in his line for Mr. Gardner for a number of years,
and later for Mr. Mills, both of Litchfield, during the same period serving six years as township clerk, being an ardent Republican in political af- filiation. He was married in 1877 to Miss Alice . Hizmalholch, a native of the county and a daugh- ter of Thomas Hizmalholch, a prominent business man. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp have three children, Clare E., Earl L. and Mildred, all living at the father's home. Throughout the township and a large extent of the surrounding country the fam- ily is cordially esteemed, their home being a cen- ter of social life, elevated in tone and genuine in its warmth and sincerity. Mr. Sharp is a val- ued member of the Knights of Pythias.
EDGAR A. SHATTUCK.
The American progenitor of the branch of the Shattuck family to which Edgar A. Shattuck, of Litchfield, in this county, belongs, and also his ancestor in a direct line was William Shattuck, a native of England, born in 1622, who came to- this country when he was about twenty-one years old and settled in Massachusetts, where he mar- ried and where his descendants lived for a number of generations. Luther Shattuck, the paternal grandfather of Edgar, was the proprietor of the Shattuck Mills, of Leyden, Mass., and died at that town at the age of forty-six years. His son, Charles A. Shattuck, was there born and reared and, when he reached years of maturity, he mar- ried with Miss Emeline E. Gaines, also a native of Leyden. After their marriage they settled in Liv- ingston county, New York, where they were en- gaged in farming for two or three years and where his wife died in 1849, leaving three sons and one daughter, all now living. The father was a man of capacity and nerve, who gratified his desire for a life in the West, on the edge of civilization, by bringing his family, first, to the neighborhood of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1845, and, three years later, to Hillsdale county, Michigan, where his parents were residing, being thereby enabled to be near his invalid mother.
He was genial and companionable, making friends wherever he went, he was also a good business man, through his sagacious thrift ac-
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cumulating property of magnitude and value. Being an active member of the Free Baptist church, fervent in his religious feelings, during the last fifteen years of his life he officiated as a minister, to which work he was ordained in 1872. He died at the home of his' son, Edgar A. Shattuck, on April 9, 1887, aged seventy-two years, leaving the memory of a well-spent life.
Edgar A. Shattuck was born at Diana, Lewis county, New York, on August 28, 1841. Among his first recollections are those of the removal of the family to Wisconsin in 1845, and he also well recollects the subsequent removal to Hills- dale county in 1848. In this county he began his education in the public schools, but his course therein was interrupted in 1849 for a time by the death of his mother. After this sad event he became a member of the family of Mr. Shulters, of Scipio township, with whom he was to remain until he reached his majority. Mr. and Mrs. Shulters cared for him as if he were their own child, gave him not only a good home but the advantage of a good schooling in the public schools of the neighborhood and at an excellent private school. After a few years they removed to Litchfield township, and he there remained under their care until the be- ginning of the Civil War. He was then twenty years of age, and yielding to the patriotic feel- ings which pervaded the whole community, he enlisted in Co. A, First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics for a term of three years. He went with his regiment to Louisville, Ky., and passed several months marching over that state and Alabama, thus beginning a military career which ended practically, with his participation in Sher- man's march to the sea. He saw much active service and was frequently called upon to resist the attacks of the enemy while guarding prison- ers, especially was this the case at Laverne, Tenn., during the battle of Stone River.
Mr. Shattuck remained with his regiment until the close of the war and was mustered out of the service at Jackson, Michigan, in October, 1865, after participating in the grand review at Washington. He was the first man to receive an officer's rank in his company, being promoted to
commissary sergeant which he held until service in that capacity was no longer needed. At the expiration of his first term of enlistment he veteranized on December 31, 1863, and through- out his subsequent service made a creditable record. After the close of the war he returned to Michigan, purchased a farm of sixty acres in Litchfield township, and out of its proceeds, after paying for it, he bought another farm of 100 acres, which forms a part of his present homestead. On December 30, 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah E. Tripp, a native of Albany county, New York, and the daughter of Gardiner C. and Emeline (Brim- mer) Tripp, also natives of that state. She was an infant twenty months old when her parents removed to this state, and was but a child of four years when her mother died in June, 1856, at the age of forty-three. She was reared as a member of the Shulters family, being taken there at her dying mother's request, receiving from the good people to whose care she was com- mitted every attention they could have given their own offspring.
Mr. and Mrs. Shattuck have had five chil- dren, four of whom are living. Philip Eugene is the representative of Marshall, Field & Co., in their drygoods department in the state of Texas, having risen to this position from that of an office boy in their employ ; Charles Gardi- ner died at the age of seven years ; Jessie Belle is the wife of D. H. Mills, assistant county clerk and lives at Hillsdale; Roy J., is a hardware and furniture merchant and an undertaker at Litchfield, married with Miss Brownie Lovejoy (sce sketch elsewhere in this work) ; Edna Merle is living at the parental home. Mr. Shulters was also a member of the household, pleasantly spending the evening of life amid its comforts and pleasures until his death, in May, 1903. In 1899 the family removed to the town of Litch- field and has since lived there.
Mr. Shattuck is a Republican but has never sought office. He is, however, the popular president of the village of Litchfield, accepting the position for the good of the community. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the
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Republic, and has been the commander of the local post to which he belongs. He is also a member of Franklin Lodge No. 41, F. & A. M., and he and his wife are members of Pomona Grange, Patrons of Husbandry. He is a stock- holder in the creamery company and owns two brick business blocks in the town, besides a con- siderable body of real-estate in the township, notably one tract of 280 acres on the Jonesville road, which is well-improved and in an ad- vanced state of cultivation. Mrs. Shattuck's father passed the closing years of his life at her home and died there in 1895. All the members of this excellent family are well esteemed where they are known and fully deserve the high esti- mate the general public has placed upon them.
PARKER B. SHEPARD.
The native home of this representative and progressive farmer and respected pioneer of Hillsdale county was the little town of Nunda, in Livingston county, New York, where he was born on September 13, 1828. His parents were Aaron and Hattie (Parker) Shepard, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of New York, both descending from English ancestry. Their progenitors were early arrivals in Amer- ica, in Colonial times, who imbibed promptly the spirit of freedom and independence already vigorous and determined in the land of their adoption. When the Revolutionary struggle be- gan various representatives of the family entered the army, and, throughout all the long and try- ing contest, fought valiantly, whatever the odds, giving to their descendants an example of pa- triotism and heroic endurance well worthy of their highest regard and their faithful imitation. When the second War with Great Britain came, members of the families were again in arms in defense of American rights and the principles of independence, who turned again to the pur- suits of peace as promptly when the war closed, as they had gone to the front when it opened. Mr. Shepard's father, a farmer, passed the greater part of his life in New York state, dying there, as did his wife, leaving a good record of
fidelity to every duty and secure in the respect of all classes in the community. Seven sons and two daughters blessed their union, of whom five sons and one daughter are living, their sons Parker and James being residents of Hillsdale county.
In his native county Mr. Shepard grew to man's estate; and, the family being prosperous, he was educated in the best schools available in his neighborhood. He adopted the family vocation of farming as his business for life and followed it in New York until 1856. He then determined to seek better opportunities in the West and brought his young family to Michi- gan. They settled on the land in Moscow town- ship, which is now his home, which he pur- chased at the time, and on which he has ever since resided. This was partially cleared and improved when he became its owner, and to the work of its farther development and improve- ment he has devoted his energies and intelli- gence with the most gratifying results. In 1853, in New York, he married with Miss Elmyra Rynex, a native of his own state and county. They have five daughters and one son living : Elizabeth, wife of James Winfield, of this county ; Francella, widow of John Knapp; Douglass, now in charge of the home farm; Minnie, wife of Arthur Mumford, of Moscow township; Nellie, the wife of Eugene Strait, of Stony Point, this state; and Leona, the wife of William Strait, of Moscow township. Mrs. Shepard died in 1898 after sharing the trials and triumphs of her husband and the struggles and progress of the community for a period of over forty years.
In political faith Mr. Shepard has been from his youth an unwavering Democrat; such has been his standing in the township and in the esteem of his fellow citizens, that, although con- fronted by a large majority of voters adverse to his party, he was three times elected super- visor and has been chosen to other local offices under the same conditions. He selected this part of the country after a tour of inspection through Iowa, and the benefits of his citizen- ship among this people have not been over- looked or unappreciated. He is one of the lead-
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ing farmers of the county, also one of its most representative men both in public and private life, in business and in social circles. He is enjoying now in full measure the esteem and good will of his entire community.
HARMON FOWLE.
Full sixty years have passed into the garner- house of time since, on May 15, 1843, Harmon Fowle, the subject of this review, was born in what is now Moscow township in Hillsdale county, the place which has been his continuous residence from that date. They have been years of stirring interest in individual life, mighty with events of magnitude to the human race. The scope of this work and of this article precludes extended recital of these events, even forbidding even a brief allusion to them in detail. We have here to do with the course and consequence of individual effort in this particular section of the great theater of human endeavor, and to deal with a few of the silent units, rather than with the loud sum of human destiny. But, among the men of heroic mold and sterling worth. of strong character and strenuous industry, engaged in re- decming this waste from the wilderness, making it over into its present condition of fruitfulness and influence, of commercial wealth and moral power, few, if any, should have more honorable mention or credit for more useful activity, than the venerable and universally esteemed pioneer and farmer, civic force and creative agency to whom these paragraphs are dedicated.
Harmon Fowle is the son of Benjamin and Caroline (Kellogg) Fowle, natives respectively of Monroe county, New York, and East Haddam, Middlesex county, Connecticut. They were the tillers of the soil, as their forefathers had been for generations, and settled in Michigan in June. 1833, making the trip into this far western coun- try, as it was at that time, by boat from Buffalo to Detroit, coming from there by team to the place where the village of Moscow has since been built. They purchased a hotel then partly erected at that point on the Chicago road, to- gether with eighty acres of wild land lying
around it. For a year they conducted this rude hotel and did much toward improving the land. Mr. Fowle then entered nearly 1,000 acres of the land around the village, and, in the course of time cleared the greater part of section No. 14, on which he resided until death called him from his labors on July 20. 1875, having then accom- plished seventy-one years of useful and creative activity. On this land he built one of the first sawmills in the county, locating it on the south- cast quarter of section No. 14, and this he oper- ated in person for a period of thirty years. Its products became a part of the dwellings and barns of the neighborhood, the mill being of enormous benefit to the young civilization that was growing tip around. it. A few years after its work in pre- paring lumber was inaugurated, Mr. Fowle added a grain-grinding outfit to its mechanism, which also did an immense work for the convenience and benefit of the community. He and his wife were the parents of ten children, five sons and five daughters, and of these, two sons and two daughters are now living in this county. Their mother died in the spring of 1882, aged seventy- two years. In the early life of the county Mr. Fowle was a prominent and influential man, active in all its public life and he was called upon frequently to administer various local offices.
In February, 1835, he was appointed a justice of the peace by Hon. Stevens T. Mason, secre- tary and acting governor of the territory of Michigan, and, in August of the same year, he received the appointment of paymaster in the militia of the territory. He performed the duties of these positions with characteristic fidelity and satisfaction to all concerned for several years.
He was for many years a justice of the peace and supervisor, being also, in 1861, the candidate of the Democratic party, to which through life he gave a loyal allegiance, for the office of state senator. To every undertaking for the advance- ment and development of the county he ever gave the most active and helpful assistance, two notable instances of his public spirit and energy in this respect being his great service and large con- tributions of money in the construction of the Fort Wayne Railroad, and his zeal and industry
Caroline Fowler
Benjamin Foule
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in organizing the county agricultural society of which he was the first president and in whose welfare he was through life deeply and intelli- gently interested. He was also liberal in public and private charities, but unostentatious as well as sincere in both.
The paternal grandfather of Harmon Fowle, Benjamin Fowlė, born in England in 1771, when he was nineteen came to the United States, set- tling in Western New York, where he became a prosperous farmer. In 1831 he entered section No. I of the government land in Moscow town- ship, but he remained in the county only a few months. Late in his life he moved to Wiscon- sin, where he died in 1880. The maternal grand- father, Charles Kellogg, was born and reared in Connecticut. He was a carpenter by trade. In his young manhood he moved to Western New York, where he died at the end of a long life of industry and thrift, well-esteemed and generally respected.
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