USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 62
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he had helped to build and foster, this patriarch in Israel found an exalted pleasure in the retro- spect of his well spent years until the angel of Death came for him, being secure in the knowl- edge that his career was duly appreciated by the people of his county and state in whose esteem and cordial regard he was securely and perman- ently fixed, and in whose memory he now holds an exalted place.
JOHN F. FITZSIMMONS.
In the settlement and subjugation of every new country some family names stand out in bold relief, even among many of distinguished merit, as cmbodying in the history of those to whom they belong all of the early privations, dangers and struggles incident to colonizing the section, all the hopes and aspirations of its people, all the triumphs and substantial gains in the onward march of mankind for which it may be noted. One such name in Hillsdale county is that of Fitzsimmons, which runs like a thread of gold through the county's history from the time when the first adventurous settlers opened a vista in its primeval forests and began the contest for su- premacy over the wild forces of nature, until now, when it is fruitful with the products and crowned with the blessings of the most advanced and beneficent civilization.
The hardy, broad-minded and progressive man who planted this family name on the annals of the county in enduring phrase, was George Fitzsimmons, a native of Elmira, Chemung coun- ty, New York, a prosperous and prominent man in the section of that state in which he had his home, and a member of the same family as Thomas Fitzsimmons, one of the framers of the constitution of the United States. being a dele- gate to the convention from the state of Penn- sylvania. This George Fitzsimmons came to the county in April, 1837, accompanied by his son, John Fitzsimmons, who was then eighteen years of age, having been born on September 5. 1818, at Dundee, Yates county, New York. They set- tled on a quarter-section of wild land which is a part of the present family homestead in what
is now Reading township, and adjoining the site of the present village of Reading. They began to clear the land, then heavily timbered, the son John felling the first tree on the farm, the stump of which stood until a few years ago to show the first mark of the Fitzsimmons ax in the county.
A little log dwelling was completed by April 19, of that year, and soon after, the mother, with the rest of the family and no other attendants, and with all their household effects in wagons, bade farewell to their Wayne county, New York, home and set out with ox teams to join her hus- band and son in their new abode. She followed the Canadian route, engineering the expedition successfully, reaching her destination on June 2, 1837. At an early date the father and Judge Kinne secured the establishment of a postoffice in this neighborhood, for two years carrying the mails free of charge. The office was named Read- ing, and this was the beginning of the present town of that name. Mrs. Fitzsimmons and her husband passed the remainder of their lives in the county, his ending on October 10, 1870, and hers on November 1, 1879, each having reached an age of over eighty years. He was prominent in the early civil life of the county, serving as township trustee, as justice of the peace for six- teen years consecutively, as a member of the state House of Representatives and as a state senator ; and he also contributed liberally of his means, time and energy to the promotion of the leading industrial and commercial projects of value in his section of the state.
By his industry, thrift and business capacity he amassed a fortune, owning at the time of his death 560 acres of excellent land in Reading township, all of which is well improved, eighty acres of it lying within the corporate limits of the village of Reading and being adorned with some of its most important and imposing build- ings. When he laid down his trust at the behest of the Great Disposer, his work was taken up by his son John, who inherited the sterling quali- ties of his parents, and thercafter it was carried forward by him with commendable enterprise and vigor. During the whole of his life in the coun- ty he was prominently identified with its various
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interests, especially those of his own township. very zealous member. His widow survived him He was an earnest Democrat in politics, but as scarcely more than one year, passing away on March 9, 1888, after an illness of only one day. Both were regular attendants at the Baptist church for many years. the county was overwhelmingly Republican, he seldom held office. But one occasion gave a strik- ing evidence of his popularity. Being a candi- date for member of the legislature, at a specia. election held to fill a vacancy, he received every vote but three cast in the township, and was beat- en by only twenty-three in the county, where there was a majority of 2,800 against his party. He aided in the erection of every church and other public building in Reading, and was par- ticularly active in securing the construction of the railroad through the town ; and in his efforts in this behalf, through continued exposure to the weather and frequent loss of rest, he laid the foundation of the fatal illness that terminated his useful life on February 8, 1887, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
He worked arduously for the community at all times and in all lines of useful activity, and was never accused of selfishness or personal am- bition in his labors, but was always the trusted citizen, first to be sought for counsel and most relied on for judgment and direction in relation to any new project. He was several times pres- ident of the County Agricultural Society, and contributed largely to its success, at one time, when it was tottering and liable to fall, actually saving it from ruin with the assistance of Colonel Holloway, and bringing it forward into the sun- light of a renewed and augmented prosperity.
Mr. Fitzsimmons first married a Miss Ra- chel Merryman, of this county, and by the union became the father of one child, who died in early life, and the mother also died young. He then married with his first wife's sister, Miss Char- lotte A. Merryman, who bore him four children, three of whom are living, George R., John F. and Mrs. Georgia A. Burch, who resides on the old homestead. His death was mourned by the entire county, and his remains were laid to rest in the presence of an immense concourse of his fellow citizens with every manifestation of popu- lar esteem and affection, the funeral being con- ducted by Eureka commandery, Knights Tem- plar, of which he had long been an active and
John F. Fitzsimmons, their son, was born in Reading township on June 16, 1851, and was reared on the homestead, receiving his early edu- cation in the public schools of the neighborhood. When he had completed his preparatory course, he matriculated at Hillsdale College, and, after a thorough academic course of study, graduated from that institution in 1870. He then read law in the offices of George A. Knickerbocker and Col. E. J. March, and later entered the law department of Ann Arbor University, from which he was graduated in 1874. He at once entered upon the practice of the legal profession at Hillsdale, in association with his former pre- ceptor, George A. Knickerbocker. After a suc- cessful practice of eight years his health failed and he was obliged to seek an active outdoor life. During a portion of the time since then he has been engaged in farming, but the greater part was spent in travel. Two or three years he was connected with the Safety Bottle and Ink Syn- dicate, of Birmingham, England, and is now the American representative of P. and J. Arnold, the well-known manufacturers of chemical inks. On December 25, 1874, Mr. Fitzsimmons was united in marriage with Miss Ann E. Gilmore, a daugh- ter of Samuel and Mary (Swift) Gilmore, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in these pages. They have one child, their daughter, Clare Gilmore Fitzsimmons, born on September . 25, 1879, who is a resident of Hillsdale.
Mr. Fitzsimmons, like his father and his grandfather, has been serviceable in the affairs of the community, and has cheerfully borne his share of the burden of pushing forward its com- mercial, industrial and educational life. In 1888 he was elected secretary of the county agricul- tural society and has been of inestimable service in placing the institution on a firm basis and mak- ing it successful. Through him it received the name by which it is generally known, "The Most Popular Fair on Earth," and its rank among
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associations of its kind is largely due to his wise and prudent activity in the discharge of his du- ties in connection with it. In politics he is a con- sistent Democrat, with an abiding faith in the principles of his party and an unremitting dili- . gence in promoting its welfare; fraternally, he has been for years an active member of the Ma- sonic order. A gentleman of education and re- finement, prominent in the fraternal life of the community, broadened by travel and communion with men in many places and conditions of life, thoroughly patriotic in his devotion to his coun- try and his state, he is an ornament to American citizenship and his life a benefaction.
SAMUEL S. SMITH.
The scion of old New England families, whose American progenitors sought relief from cramped conditions and religious persecution in their na- tive land in Colonial times by braving the wilds and privations of the New World, whose descend- ants in this country have bravely borne their part in every struggle for its advancement, protection and enlargement, moving in the van of the on- flowing tide of emigration to new fields of con- quest and enterprise as old ones became occu- pied, some of them being ever on the frontier re- deeming its treasures from the waste, Samuel S. Smith, of Pittsford township, Michigan, has, from his childhood, well sustained the traditions of his family, having worked in the same lines of progress and with the same manly spirit that char- acterized their efforts.
Mr. Smith was born on December 3, 1844, in Niagara county, New York, the son of Richard S. and Margaret I. ( Proper) Smith, also natives of that county but of Vermont ancestry. The father was a farmer and brought his family to Michigan in 1847. They settled at Grass Lake, in Jackson county, where they lived until 1852, then removed to Pittsford township, in this county, and located on the land which is now the fine farm of their son, Samuel, but which was then unbroken forest. heavily timbered and densely covered with under- growth. It comprised eighty acres, to clearing
and cultivating of this tract all of the energies of the family were devoted. Ere long it became at- tractive and fruitful, they here found a pleasant home, after a few years of arduous effort, and here continued to reside until 1884, when the par- ents moved to Jefferson township, where they closed their eyes in the long dreamless sleep which comes at last to all, the mother dying in 1893 and the father in 1899. Four sons and two daughters of their numerous offspring attained maturity, and all of these are living. The father was a soldier in the Union army for three years during the Civil War, serving in Co. A, Eigh- teenth Michigan Infantry, but he saw little field service, being on detached and guard duty for the most of the time. The grandfather, David L. Smith, was a native of Vermont, a farmer, a sol- dier in the War of 1812, a pioneer of 1854 in Michigan, settling in Jefferson township, Hills- dale county, where he and his wife, Charlotte (Sperry) Smith, ultimately died in the fullness of time, being well esteemed in their neighborhood.
Samuel S. Smith grew to man's estate on the farm which is now his home, assisting in the la- bor of clearing and cultivating it, attending the schools of the vicinity as he had opportunity. His whole life since his arrival in the state has been passed in Pittsford and Jefferson townships, and he has been closely identified with every movement for the development and advancement of these sections. His farm comprises 178 acres of excellent land, whichi is skillfully tilled, im- proved with good buildings, equipped with every necessary appliance for its thorough cultivation. He was married in 1870 in this county to Miss Emma Phillips, a daughter of Elisha and Mary Phillips, Vermonters by nativity, who came to the county about 1853. Her father served in the Civil War on the Union side, and has since died. Her mother is still living in the eighty-ninth year of her age, being one of the venerated matrons of the community where she makes her home. Mr. Smith takes no active part in politics, but holds firm allegiance to the principles of the Republican party and is, at present, serving as a highway commissioner. His long life of nearly sixty years in this county has been creditably spent, being
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MR. AND MRS. S. S. SMITH.
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. full of usefulness to this portion of the state. It has earned for him the esteem of the community. It is the steady, honorable, industrious lives of such citizens as Mr. Smith that the perpetuity of the American republic must owe its continuance. Their honest lives give a noble support to the highest types of the morality and manhood neces- sary to preserve our land.
SIDNEY O. FULLER.
Comfortably located on an excellent farm on section 34, in Cambria township, which compris- es eighty acres of fertile and well tilled land, and is provided with substantial and convenient build- ings of ample capacity, Sidney O. Fuller, one of the "old-timers," and skillful and progressive farmers of the township, is passing the evening of his life in cheerfulness and peace, secure against the adverse winds of fortune and well es- tablished in the confidence and esteem of his fel- low men. He is a native of Washington county, New York, born on June 18, 1823, and was reared and educated in his native county, receiv- ing there a common school education and also learning on his father's farm lasting lessons of industry and frugality. There also he was unit- ed in marriage with Miss Miranda Fuller, a na- tive of the same county.
His parents were Cornelius and Lydia (French) Fuller, both children of Revolutionary heroes. His maternal grandfather, John French, was captured by the Indians while serving in the Colonial army and was held in captivity by his savage tormentors for three years. He finally escaped by creeping through the forest and wet swamps at night, going three days without food, but he was very soon thereafter taken prisoner again by another tribe, later escaping from his second captors in the same manner as before. When the War of 1812 began he again shoul- dered his musket and fought gallantly in that contest against the enemies of his country.
Cornelius, Fuller grew to manhood in New York state and learned his trade as a carpenter. He was drafted in the War of 1812, and served the required time with credit and courage. His 24 .
family numbered ten children, of whom Sidney was the ninth born. In 1845 he came with his parents and three others of their ten children to Michigan and settled with them on a tract of new and unbroken land near Woodbridge township, in this county. They remained on this land a few years, then sold it and bought another tract in the same neighborhood. A little later they removed to Woodbridge township, and here both parents died, the mother at middle age in 1853, and the father in 1865, when about seventy. He was a Republican in political faith in the clos- ing years of his life and the mother was a de- vout member of the Baptist church.
Mr. Sidney O. Fuller's own life has passed wholly amid the elevating and tranquilising pur- suits of agriculture, and more than fifty of its best years have been given to the development and improvement of this county. He came here when the whole section was a wilderness and has lived to see it rejoicing in the products of peace and cultivated life, full well advanced on a career of prosperity and commercial, agricultural, edu- cational and moral greatness, that may well make him justly proud of his share in working out the beneficent results of the systematic labor which has been expended upon it. . He and his wife were the parents of two children, Danvers and Matilda, who died young. They then adopt- ed as their own, Albert E. Fuller, a son of Sam- uel Fuller, whom they carefully reared and edu- cated. When he reached years of maturity, on May 3, 1877, he married with Miss Mary McNa- mara, a native of Stoughton, Mass., and a daugh- ter of John and Mary McNamara, who came to Michigan while she was yet a child. They have one child, Eugene, who is living at home.
On this family the shadow of the Civil War, which almost rent our country in twain, rested heavily. Mrs. Fuller's father, John Mc- Namara, was a soldier in the Union army and died a wretched prisoner amid the horrors of captivity at Andersonville, and Albert E. Full- er's father, Samuel, and brother, James, who were both members of the Tenth Michigan In- fantry, also died in the service, the former from exposure and the latter from wounds received
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in battle. The father was buried in the National Cemetery at Chattanooga.
Sidney O. Fuller's faithful and devoted wife, after walking life's troubled way with him for more than half a century, died on December 26, 1896, and since that time he has been quietly waiting for his own final summons, serene in the retrospect of a well spent life and peaceful in the hope of a blessed immortality. He has long been a Republican in politics, but has throughout his life resisted all importunities to accept official stations of every kind .* He is a zealous and con- sistent member of the Baptist church, as was his wife during her lifetime, and his good work in church affairs has been extensive, wisely applied and intelligently appreciated. He is venerated as a patriarch among this people. His name is a household word for all that is 'worthy in man- hood, upright in business, inspiring in example.
THE LITCHFIELD GAZETTE.
There is no greater bulwark or defense of public morality and the general weal than a free, untrammeled and independent press. It has a thousand eyes to see and a trumpet tongue wherewith to proclaim all forms of evil, to es- pouse all forms of good, to champion personal rights, advance the public interest and direct and elevate the sentiment and taste of the com- munity. . This place in the public economy of its portion of Hillsdale county, is well filled by the Litchfield Gazette, and the functions suggested are well performed by it in the measure of its opportunities and capacity. It is the successor of a number of experiments, which exhibited more or less vitality according to circumstances, and had itself a precarious and uncertain ex- istence prior to coming under its present con- trol and management.
The first newspaper published at Litchfield was the Litchfield Pioneer, which was edited and issued by Dr. Zenas Brown in 1848, and was de- voted to general news in a small way and to the special advocacy of the eclectic system of medi- cal practice. It had a short and troubled ex- istence and died for want of patronage. In ings, in this state, and then worked at it for two
June, 1872, Silas H. Eggabroad started the sec- ond experiment in local journalism here and called it the Litchfield Investigator. This lived just about four months, being discontinued in the following October. During the next two years the town was without a paper of any kind, but in October, 1874, Edward H. Graves be- gan the publication of the Litchfield Gazette. He soon sold out, however, to G. L. Woodward & Co. After a number of years of varying for- tune under their control, the paper was sold to Gregory & Eggleston, of Jonesville, who pub- lished it at that village until 1899, with L. B. Agard as local editor. In the year last named R. A. Bibbins purchased the subscription list and good will, bought a new outfit of type, presses and other necessaries, and removed the base of operations to its former place, and the Gazette was again published in its home town. Mr. Bib- bins continued in control until February, 1901, when he leased the plant to H. J. Crippen, of Hillsdale. Under his management the publica- tion languished, and would have died, but for its transfer to the present proprietor, L. C. Feighner, in the ensuing August, and since that time it has steadily increased its patronage both in 'subscriptions and advertisers, and has grown into popularity with a ratio commensurate with its expanding excellence and power.
The Gazette is now one of the well established institutions of the township, and has a firm and well-founded hold on the public confidence and regard. As an organ of local interests it is in- fluential and sagacious ; as an expression of pub- lic sentiment and opinion it is clear and forcible ; as an advertising medium it is widely known and highly appreciated ; and as a home newspa- per it finds a welcome place at a large number of the leading firesides of the county. Mr. Feigh- ner, the editor and publisher, brought to the dis- charge of his arduous duties a capacity for the' work, acquired from practical experience in its every detail, and an enthusiasm born of a reso- lute and determined spirit that does not retreat from difficulty or danger. He learned his trade as a printer in the office of the Journal at Hast-
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years in Omaha and Council Bluffs, returning to per. Both she and her husband are highly es- Michigan at the end of that time to take charge teemed in the community and are recognized as being among its most valued educational and pro- gressive forces. of the office of the Nashville News, belonging to his brother, becoming foreman of the press room. In the ensuing fall, 1889, he and his brother started the News at Woodland in Barry county, EDWARD R. GALLOWAY. and at the end of a year of success with that pub- lication he bought his brother's interest and con- tinued the issue on his own account until 1895, when he sold out at a handsome profit and bought what was then known as the Barry Coun- ty Democrat at Hastings.
This proved to be an unfortunate venture, 'and in September, 1896, Mr. Feighner sold out and soon after accepted the foremanship of the Hanover Local, which he bought a year later, but after seven months of proprietorship, sold again at a profit of fifty per cent. For nearly a year thereafter he acted as editor and foreman of the paper for his successors, and then joined a company of mineral prospectors bound for the state of Washington. One summer was passed in prospecting, which resulted in the location of 500 acres of mineral land and townsite property, on the strength of which a company was organ- ized with a capital stock of $2,000,000, and the employment of a working force of practical min- ers who have been kept busy since August, 1901, ceived a bayonet wound.
developing the property, which has proven to be of great value. Mr. Feighner was one of the first directors of the company and still retains his interest in the property.
After passing two summers in Washington he reentered the newspaper field, taking control of the Press at Potterville, owned by his brother. It had been a loser during all of its five years of life, but in five weeks Mr. Feighner placed it on a paying basis, then sold it for his brother at a profitable figure. In August of the same year, 1901, he bought the Gazette to which he has since given his attention. He was married in November, 1890, to Miss Bertha J. Putnam, of Nashville, Mich., and they have one child, a son, who is now eleven years old. Mrs. Feighner is a cultivated lady, possessing both scholarship and business ability, who renders her husband valu- able assistance in the work of conducting the pa-
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Edward R. Galloway, a prominent farmer of Reading township in this county, was born on the farm on which he now lives, on June 19, 1855, being the son of James C. and Mary P. (Reeves) Galloway. His father was born at Palmyra, N. Y., in 1816, and there grew to man- hood. His father was Archer Galloway, a native of Newtown, now Elmira, N. Y., born in 1790, and soon after his birth the family moved to near the present location of Palmyra, where Archer spent his youth on a frontier farm. When he was twenty-two years old he enlisted in the army for the War of 1812, in which he served under Colonel Scott until the end of the contest, dis- tinguishing himself in a number of engagements. He was an officer in the service and had com- mand of the battery that fired the first shot in the war. At the storming of the forts near Queens- town on the Canadian side, on October 13, 1812, he made a record of conspicuous gallantry and re-
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