USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 69
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WILLIAM G. WHITNEY.
With a record and public testimonials for conspicuous gallantry as a soldier in the Civil War, a high rank in agricultural circles as a suc- cessful and progressive farmer, an elevated and well established place in the public regard as a citizen, and a strong hold on the social life of the community as a cultivated and companionable gentleman, Capt. William G. Whitney, of Allen, is passing toward the evening of his life with many elements of peace and happiness in his lot, and with the general esteem and good will of the people among whom he lives as one of their most useful and representative men. He is a native of the township in which he has his home, and was born on December 13, 1840, son of the late Jonathan and Ann J. (Garrett) Whitney, the former a native of Ontario county, N. Y., and the latter of the town of Ramsey, on the Isle of Man, England. His mother accompanied her parents to the United States in 1828, when she was about
five years old. They settled in Niagara county, N. Y., where both of her parents died in the sum- mer of 1840.
Mr. Whitney's father, Jonathan Whitney, was an honored pioneer of Hillsdale county and one of its prominent and esteemed citizens. He became a resident of the county in October, 1839, coming here accompanied by his wife, then a bride, whom he married while on the way from his New York home to this state. They settled in what is now Allen township on 280 acres of wild land, and there they passed the remainder of their lives, improving their property, rearing their children, maintaining a home of hospitality and helping to build up and advance the con- munity. They were the parents of four children of whom William was the first born. The moth- er died on July 9, 1879, and on October 5, 1880, the father married a second wife, Miss Ruth Hooper, who was also a native of New York. He was prominent and serviceable in the early life of the county, aiding in the promotion of ev- ery good enterprise for the advantage of its peo- ple, and serving the public interests faithfully in official positions of importance from time to time until his death in advanced life.
His son, William G. Whitney, was reared to a life of industry on the farm, and educated in the public schools and at Hillsdale and Albion colleges. After spending the winter of 1860-61 in Illinois he returned to his Michigan home, and, fired with patriotic spirit in defense of the Union. then threatened by armed resistance, he enlisted on August 24, 1861, as a private soldier in Co. B, Eleventh Michigan Infantry. He entered in- to the contest with all of his ardor and rose rap- idly through merit, first to the rank of sergeant. . and, on January 7, 1863, to that of second lieu- tenant. He commanded his company at the bat- tle of Missionary Ridge, and at is close was com- plimented in the presence of his brigade for his meritorious conduct before the fire of the enemy. On July 3, 1864, in front of Atlanta, he was pro- moted to the rank of first lieutenant, and, after the fall of the city, he was appointed military con- ductor on the Chattanooga & Knoxville Railroad, serving as such until March 1, 1865. He was commissioned captain and made provost marshal
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of Cleveland, Tenn., holding the position until August of the same year. At this time he re- joined his regiment, which was then stationed at Knoxville, where it remained until it was mus- tered out of the service. He participated in all of the engagements in which his regiment took part, including the battle of Chickamauga where he received a slight wound in the right hand. After his discharge he remained a resident of Knoxville for two years, being employed as bag- gage master and conductor on the Knoxville & Chattanooga Railroad. At the end of that period he returned to his native township and engaged in farming until the spring of 1887, having ? farm of 130 acres of superior land. He then transferred the farm to the care of a tenant, and removed to the village of Allen, where he has since lived.
On April 23, 1874, Captain Whitney was united1 in marriage with Mrs. Bessie Kay, a daughter of Charles an:1 Elizabeth Marshall, and widow of Thomas Kay, who died in London, England, on July 7, 1870. the marriage being solemnized in Allen township. By her first mar- riage Mrs. Whitney had one child, her daughter Lottie, who is living in this township. Through her union with Captain Whitney she has become the mother of four children, three of whom are living. Anna L. M., H. Jennie May and Freder- ick W. G. A daughter named Mary died in in- fancy. The Captain and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he be- longs to C. J. Dickerson Post, G. A. R., of Hills- dale. In politics he is an unwavering Republi- can. Their home is a center of refined and ap- preciated hospitality, and in all sections of the community they are held in the highest esteem.
HON. LUCIUS E. RUSS.
Hon. Lucius E. Russ, the genial and accom- modating postmaster of North Adams, was born in Livingston county, N. Y.,on December 14, 1827, the son of Elisha and Laura (Sampson) Russ, natives of Vermont. The father removed from his native state in 1815, going into the wil- derness of Western New York, then as unsettled
as any portion of the Rocky Mountain region is now, cleared land in the woods and brought it under cultivation. In 1829, fourteen years after his initial efforts to redeem and civilize the wes- tern wilds, he removed to Ontario county where he cultivated the soil with moderate success. He was a man of public spirit and connected with all the moralizing and improving enterprises in the community, serving as a deacon in the Christian church, lending his aid to every educational and social element of advantage to the people. His wife was a devout Presbyterian, who ably sec- onded his efforts in all beneficial movements. In political faith he was a Whig and in many local offices he rendered good service to his town and county. Eight children, five sons and three daughters, comprised the household, and of these the postmaster is now the only one living. The eldest child died in infancy. The second and third sons were college graduates and attained distinc- tion in the world of letters. Loren W. was for ten years rector of St. John's church at Lafayette, Ind., and John M. was professor of languages at the Romco branch of the University of Michigan. The fifth son, Wheeler S., died at Fairport, N. Y., in 1872, where he was conducting a thriving mercantile business. The parents died many years ago, the mother at sixty-three years of age and the father at seventy-four.
Lucius E. Russ remained on the home farm until 1852 and was educated at the public schools in the neighborhood. On June 7, 1850, he was married to Miss Catherine Burrows, a native of Lowell, Mass., the daughter of Philip and Mary (Princeley) Burrows, who were born and reared in Ireland and early in their married life came to the United States, settling first at Lowell, Mass., later at Bridgeport, Conn. There the fa- ther became connected with woolen manufactur- ing in a leading way, at which he was successful. He was a Whig in politics, a man of progressive- ness and public spirit, and died in the prime of life in his adopted home, his wife dying at Elmira, N. Y., in the fullness of years. She belonged to a long-lived family, her father having reached the very unusual age of 110 years. Three of their five children survive, Mrs. Russ, Mrs. Mary Lane
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and Philip Burrows. Two years after his mar- riage, in 1852, Mr. Russ, impelled by the gold excitement prevailing at the time, left his wife and his ten-months-old daughter in New York, and started to California by the route leading through the San Juan River in Central America and Lake Nicaragua. He took the ill-fated steamer, the old North America, which had on board about 1,000 passengers. On the fourth day out, when about forty miles below Acapulco on the western coast of Mexico, she was wrecked and the passengers, after having been landed with considerable diffi- culty, were obliged to walk to Acapulco, where, for five weeks they lay stranded, waiting for an- other steamer to take them to their destination. Reaching California at last Mr. Russ conducted a thriving trade for two years in mining supplies and similar commodities, then returned to New York by the same route he took in coming, arriv- ing at his destination without accident or incident worthy of special notice. He then took up his residence in Michigan on a farm of eighty acres in Hillsdale county in the township of Somerset. A few years later he disposed of this farm and aft- er buying and selling a number of others, he, in partnership with John Lane, started a sawmilling business at North Adams, which they conducted until 1870 under the firm name of Lane & Russ. In 1872 he turned his attention to the grocery trade and for a number of years he also gave at- tention to carpentry work and building.
Politically, Mr. Russ has always been an active and zealous Republican, and has given his party good service both as a worker in the ranks and as an influential public official. His first presi- dential vote was for General Scott at Stockton, California. He was a member of the Legislature in 1889, and he was elected justice of the peace eight times in succession during his residence in North Adams. In 1897 he was appointed post- master at North Adams and is still the valued and popular incumbent of the office, performing his official duties with assiduous attention, and with credit to himself and general satisfaction to the people. In 1866 he became a Freemason, and he has held in succession all the leading offices in the lodge, becoming a pastmaster many years ago.
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His family consisted of five children, two de- ceased in infancy, and three living, Lella E., wife of Dr. E. Bagley, of Alma, Mich .; William L., of North Adams ; Kittie, wife of Dr. W. J. Chittock, of Jackson, in this state. At the present writ- ing Mr. Russ is actively engaged in the insurance business, having a large and appreciative body of patrons. For nearly forty years he has lived and labored among this people, and now there is scarcely one that will not do him reverence. When he came to North Adams the streets were un- paved, often almost impassable, the schools were of low grade and indifferently taught, and the general state of progress was of the same charac- ter. Through the energetic and fruitful labors of Mr. Russ and others of his enterprise the present conditions of improvement and development have been wrought and the spirit of enterprise now dominant in the community has been awakened, vitalized and kept in existence.
JOSEPH FRENCH.
Closing his earthly record of usefulness and interest in March, 1901, after having been a resident of Hillsdale county for a period of sixty- seven years, the life of the late Joseph French, of Cambria township, whose home was about five miles south of the city of Hillsdale, covered al- most the whole history of the county from its set- tlement by the white man at the dawn of its civ- ilization, and he witnessed and was a party to its development from an unbroken wilderness to its present splendid estate of wealth, enterprise and advanced political, commercial and intellectual greatness. He came to the county when Hillsdale was but a country tavern, the old Howder House, on the route of travel, where emigrants found comfort for the night on their way to more ad- vanced settlements or farther into the wilderness ; and he was on familiar terms with the Indian chiefs and braves of the early days, who although friendly for the most part at the time, did not wholly. abstain from annoying the settlers and frequently endangered their property and their lives. Baw Beese was an intimate acquaintance of his and they frequently exchanged hospitalities
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in mutual companionship and good will. And he knew every form of savage life in man and beast then prevalent in this country, and was forced at times to contend with them all. A suc- cinct and complete narrative of his adventures in the early days of his residence here would be full of interest in these times, and a graphic pic- ture of a phase of human existence that has passed away forever. Its sterner and more trag- ical features would be relieved by many tinges of romance and tinted with the rosy hues of senti- ment ; and it would not be wanting in comedy, although harsh and unrelenting life then was for the pioneers, and shadowed deeply as it must have been by savage hate and Nature's inhospi- tality.
Mr. French was born in Leicestershire, Eng- land, in November, 1821, and came with his par- ents, Thomas French and wife, to the United States when he was in his youth. The family settled at first in Pennsylvania, and, in 1834, moved to Michigan, locating in Fayette town- ship, of this county. He was then but a boy of thirteen, with a limited education acquired at chance times in the public schools of his Pennsyl- vania home, but he possessed the proper spirit to make his way on the frontier and found a rich and continuing enjoyment in its very conditions . of untamed abundance, wild life, and arduous toil and privations. The family settled on a part of the present fair grounds, and here he worked on the farm in summer and went south with his brother, William, in winter to cut wood for the Mississippi river steamboats. His service as a lumberman were also employed in the building operations of the new section around him, where- in every energy was required to make headway in subduing the wilderness, establishing civiliza- tion and developing the resources of the country. He helped to cut and hew the timber for the old inill, which was built where Stock's mill now stands, and for many other structures which per- formed important service for the pioneers.
After a residence of several years at his first location he moved to a farm in Cambria township. which he increased by subsequent purchases until he owned 200 acres of excellent land, all of which
he brought forward to a state of cultivation and enriched with good buildings and other improve- ments of value. In 1885, having reached the age of sixty-four years and having acquired a com- fortable competence, he moved to Hillsdale, de- termined to pass the remainder of his days in re- tirement from active pursuits and the peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of his labors. He was three times married and became the father of a large family of children, three sons and four daughters of whom are living. The living chil- dren of the last marriage are : Jolin F., of Cam- bria township, living on the old homestead ; Fred. of Reading township ; Frank, of Hillsdale; Mrs. Lucretia Wyllys, widow of the late John A. Wyllys, a sketch of whom follows, of Wood- bridge : Mrs. Mary Mills, also of Woodbridge; Mrs. Sarah Garvey, of Hillsdale; and Mrs. Si- lence Northrup, of Ransom. Mr. French died in March, 1901, aged nearly eighty years. He was one of the revered pioneers of the county and among its most respected citizens.
JOHN A. WYLLYS, late of Cambria township, lived in Hillsdale county and was an active and serviceable force in its progress and development for a period of half a century, coming to this county in 1851, when he was twelve years old, and dying here in August, 1901, at the age of sixty-two. He was a native of Lorain county, Ohio, where he was born on February 26, 1839, and came with his parents to Michigan when he was twelve years of age. The education which he had begun in the country schools of his na- tive county, was meagerly added to in this. The family settled in Woodbridge township, Hills- dale county, where he resided until his death on August 1, 1901, except during four years which were passed in Cambria township. In 1868 he was united in marriage with Miss Lucretia French, a daughter of Joseph French, who is still living on the home farm in the township. Their offspring numbered two, their sons. Wil- liam and George, the former now living at home with his mother, and the latter a prosperous and progressive farmer of Woodbridge township and the husband of Miss Della Knapp. Mr. Wyllys was an unostentatious man, but was ever true
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to the best attributes of American citizenship and constituted an ornament to the community in ev- ery relation of life. He was a gentleman of pub- lic spirit and enterprise, successful in his own business and a serviceable factor in the public life of the community, aiding in every worthy en- terprise and holding the respect of all classes of the people.
MARTIN WIGENT.
"If you seek a beautiful peninsula, look around you," or, "Behold it here," is the motto which Michigan stamps on all of her state pa- pers, and her faith which has made the legend current is well founded, for out of the very wilderness her enterprising people have erected a commonwealth that is beautiful with every at- tribute of mental, moral, industrial and commer- cial greatness, and which has borne an import- ant part in the political history of our country. Among the heroic race of pioneers who laid her foundations broad and deep, and started her on her career of prosperity was the late Martin Wigent, of Reading township, and among the men who have followed in his footsteps and in those of his associates, aiding in developing the state they founded, are his son, Andrew J., and also his grandson, Fred M. Wigent, sketches of whom follow this one.
Martin Wigent was born and reared in On- ondaga county, N. Y., and in his early manhood he married Miss Mary M. Bartholomew, of the same county. His life began on November 30, 1802, and his marriage occurred in 1828. His wife was a daughter of Daniel and Lucy (Holy- day) Bartholomew, and her family tradition states that her ancestors came to this country in the historic Mayflower from England, and were conspicuous in the early history of New Eng- land. Martin was a son of German parents. In April, 1834, he emigrated with his family to Ohio where they lived for four years not far from Toledo. They then came to Michigan and he purchased the eighty acres of wild land from the government on which the village of Reading, in Hillsdale county, has since been built, one of
the imposing structures erected on his land being the station of the Fort Wayne, Jackson & Sagi- naw Railroad. His first residence in this county was a little log cabin which he built mainly by the labor of his own hands, and for a few years his family dwelt there in a very primitive way, as did the other pioneers, owing to the unsettled and undeveloped condition of the country.
As there were no flouring mills in the vicin- ity, Mr. Wigent made one in the form of a huge mortar by burning and digging out the end of a large log. This was then placed on end and by means of a springpole the grain put into it was pounded into meal. This mill, crude as it was, met the requirements of a large section of the surrounding country for a few years until others were built in the regulation way. Mr. Wigent was a man of great enterprise and resourceful- ness. He farmed his land vigorously and also manufactured brick with which he supplied an urgent need in the township. He reared a fam- ily of six children, but, while life was bright and promising to him, and, there seemed to be many years of usefulness before him, on April 1, 1861, at fifty-eight years of age, his career was sudden- ly closed by an untimely death at his home in Reading. His wife survived him but a few years, dying on November 2, 1867. Five of their children are living and all are married and have families.
ANDREW J. WIGENT, the second son of Mar- tin and Mary M. (Bartholomew) Wigent, was born in Onondaga county, N. Y., on August 30, 1833. He was but little more than four years old when the family came to live in this county, and at that time school facilities in the neighbor- hood were very limited. He was, however, a studious boy, and, mainly by his own efforts, aid- ed by the light of the backlogs his own ax had helped to prepare for the fire, he acquired a good knowledge of the ordinary branches of book lore, and at twenty years of age began to teach a country school. He followed this occupation for twelve years in the winter seasons, being em- ployed during the summers in making brick and in working at his trade as a mason, at which he became a skillful and reliable craftsman, helping
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to build many of the principal residences and other structures in the section of the county in , which he lived. On March 25, 1860, he was united in marriage with Miss Belinda Foust, of Cambria, and soon afterward moved to his farm in the northern part of Camden township, where he still lives. He owns eighty acres of excellent land which he has brought to a high state of cul- tivation, making it a model farm, and, with its comfortable and convenient buildings a very de- sirable country home.
Ten children have brightened Mr. Wigent's household circle, of whom seven are living, Fred M., Frank S., Shannon L., Ida M., Rhoda, Bliss and James W. Those deceased are Mary C., Ada J. and Eda. Mr. Wigent belongs to the Masonic order, holding his membership in the lodge at Reading. He is a Democrat in political allegiance, and has for many years been prom- inent and active in the service of his party. A gentleman of high character and unusual intelli- gence, he has frequently been called to the ad- ministration of important local offices, having served as supervisor five years, justice of the peace eight years, highway commissioner two years and a school inspector one. In every po- sition he has sustained his reputation as a wise and careful official, and won strong commenda- tions from all classes of his fellow citizens. Among the men of worth and esteem in his town- ship none stands higher or is more entitled to the public confidence and good will of the people.
THOMAS BURT, SR. AND JR.
Thomas Burt, the elder, for many years a resi- dent of Ransom township, in this county, was a native of England, born on November 28, 1805. He was the son of James and Elizabeth ( Burge) Burt, who were prosperous farmers in the parish of Marnhull, England, living on and operating a farm which had been in possession of the Burt family for more than a century. The education of the son was limited, the most of it being ac- quired at a day school prior to his reaching the age of twelve. When he was nineteen he went to London to seek his fortune, and there learned the
baker's trade at which he wrought four years, after acquiring facility at the craft, on his own account in the English metropolis. On October 29, 1829, he was married to Miss Sarah Bartlett, daughter of John and Sarah ( Martin) Bartlett, of Weymouth, in Dorsetshire, where she was born on April 10, 1803. Her parents were wealthy, and, up to the time when she left home and friends to come to America, she had never done any manual labor.
In 1833 Mr. Burt embarked in a merchant- man for New York, where he arrived on March 25 of the same year, and, in the following May, he purchased a farm of wild land two miles from Toledo, Ohio. On this farm he lived for three years in a shanty, improving his land and getting along as best he could. The first year he cleared three acres and sowed it in wheat. He cut, har- vested and threshed the crop, and took the grain in a small boat to a mill, where he had it ground into flour. This he baked into bread and sold, a feat from beginning to end recorded to the credit of but few men. While living here he and a companion were hunting one day, and when they came to the Maumee river they saw on the other side a party of armed men who proved to be Michigan soldiers, enlisted for the Toledo War. Mr. Burt's companion proposed that they have a record of at least one shot in that struggle, and they emptied their guns at the soldiers, al- though they knew they were out of range.
In May, 1836, Mr. Burt returned to England for his family, and arrived with them at Toledo in the following October, with but seven dollars in his pocket. He at once sold his farm and lived on a rented one until the fall of 1837, when he started with his family to what was then the wilderness of southern Michigan. On a cold winter night they arrived at a tavern kept by a Mr. Finney, where the village of Hudson now stands. He had no money to pay for food and lodging, but Mr. Finney gave them entertain- ment, the next morning accepting Mr. Burt's note for three dollars and fifty cents as evidence of the debt. On Christmas day Mr. Burt moved his household into a small shanty he had hastily erected on his new farm, which was then a wet
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and swampy tract of uncultivated land, but which now comprises 360 acres and has been made into one of the finest farms in the township. - acres, which not only represents his own indus-
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