USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 21
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CYRUS E. TRAVIS.
In the year following the organization of Cooper township, this county, that is in 1837, the late Cyrus E. Travis, one of its honored pioneers, became a resident of the township and at once began to take an active part in the stirring indus- trial activities of the region to which it had but recently awakened from its long sleep of centu- ries, and also to look forward to the career of use- fulness and credit which he was destined to have among its people. He was born in the state of New York on October 8, 1820, the son of Jona- than and Prudence (Austin) Travis, whom he accompanied to this state from Ohio, whither they had moved from New York where they had been born and reared. The father was a farmer, and after pursuing his chosen vocation in his na- tive state until 1830, determined to try his hand
on the virgin soil of the west, and accordingly gathered his household goods about him and set ont for what was then considered the garden spot of all the region beyond the Alleghanies, the new state of Ohio. But that favored region was al- ready too old and well settled to satisfy his desire for frontier life of an ultra character, and after living in it something over six years, in 1837 he brought his family to Michigan and settled in Cooper township. this county. The family then comprised seven sons and two daughters, and for a time they were crowded into a little log shanty which was hastily erected on the tract of wild land which the father entered as his future home. But all were cheerful with hope and the prospect of expanding prosperity, and all labored diligently in clearing the lands and getting it ready for cultivation. In a few years the shanty gave place to a comfortable frame dwelling, which was liter- ally raised from the soil as the family had no in- come except what was realized from the crops of the farm. The father lived to see the whole of this farm cleared and brought to advanced culti- vation, and then, on the land which was hallowed by his labors, the end of life came to him and he was laid to rest amid an advancing civilization which he had helped materially to plant in this wilderness. The mother died some years later in Kalamazoo. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and helped to build some of the first structures used by this sect in this part of the country. For many years before his death the father drew a pension from the government for gallant services rendered in the war of 1812. His son Cyrus was seventeen years of age when he became a resident of Michigan, and accepting with alacrity his place in the work- ing force on the farm, and using his opportunities and abilities energetically and wisely, was soon recognized as a young man of force and industry among the people. He lived in this township all the remainder of his life except five years which he passed at Plainwell, Allegan county. He was married in 1851 to Miss Melissa F. Barto, a daughter of Orin and Esther (Averil) Barto, natives of Vermont, who came to Michigan in 1837 and settled on the farm on which Mr. Travis
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died. They cleared it of its wild growths and made a good farm of it which they improved with comfortable buildings and all other needed struc- tures for their work. The end of life and labor came to them after many years of peaceful and productive industry here. The father had con- siderable local prominence and filled many town- ship offices. He died at Morley, this state, and the mother at Yankee Springs. Mr. and Mrs. Travis had three children, all sons, George E., a Cooper township farmer, Henry M., living at home, and Jay E., deceased. The father was never an active politician, but exhibited an earnest and practical interest in the general development and progress of the county. He belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church and was active in supporting it. His widow is still living on the homestead, and enjoys, like a veritable mother in Israel, the respect and regard of the whole comunity and the surrounding country.
DR. DAVID E. DEMING.
"Not honored less is he who founds than he who heirs a line." While it is seldom that the present gives the past a long hearing, there is always a deep and lasting interest, romantic, historial and personal, which invest the founder of a new country-him whose adventurous foot- step first invades a hitherto untrodden section and there plants the seed of civilization and erects a domestic shrine. This interest appertains in a forceful and impressive way to Dr. David E. Deming, the first settler in Cooper township, this county, who there entered a portion of section 2 in 1833, and became a permanent resident of the township in March, 1834. The Doctor was born at Cornish, N. H., on June 14, 1796. He received a common-school and academic educa- tion in his native state and then studied medicine there. He began his practice at Hinesburg, Vt., where he remained several years, and while liv- ing at that place was united in marriage with Miss Electa L. Eldredge, a native of the town born on June 12, 1808. They left Hinesburg on April 27, 1833, for this state, and on June 21st follow- ing arrived at Gull Prairie, making the trip hither
, by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo, then by steamer to Detroit, whence they journeyed to the interior with ox teams. After a residence of nine months on Gull Prairie, during which the Doctor built a board shanty on his land, the family moved to their new home and began the arduous work of making the land productive and the home com- fortable. They took up their residence there on March 20, 1834, and they lived on the new pos- session until it was cleared and changed into a fine farm with all the comfortable and attractive accessories of modern rural life. The Doctor's last few years were passed at Plainwell, Allegan county, where he died on September 2, 1879. His widow then returned to the farm, where she died on April 2, 1884. For some years after his ar- rival in this section of the country the Doctor practiced his profession, but he gradually relin- quished it for the pursuit of agriculture, and being an ardent lover of nature, he gave himself with enthusiasm to his adopted vocation. Being a gentleman of fine scholastic attainments and great force of character, he soon became a leader in all public movements around him. He assisted in organizing the township and was its first super- visor. Some years afterward he represented his district in the state senate, and although not an active politician, he performed his official duties with his accustomed intelligence and energy, and increased and intensified the hold he had already won on the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. He was also a man of strong religious convictions and took a prominent part in the church work of the township especially in con- nection with the Sunday school of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he and his wife were long earnest and active members. He died at the age of eighty-three, full of honors as he was of years, the patriarch of his township and an ex- ample of the best form of sterling American citizenship. His family comprised two sons, born in Vermont, and two sons and two daughters, born in Cooper township. Of these three are living. Charles E., who has never married, lives on the home farm; William P., who married Miss Elizabeth Drew, is a farmer near Burlingame, Osage county, Kan .; and George, who in 1875
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was married to Miss Mary J. Machin, a native of Lincolnshire, England, owns and operates an im- proved farm in Cooper township.
GEORGE DEMING, the youngest son of Dr. David E. Deming, is a native of Cooper town- ship, this county, which is still his home, and was born on November 30, 1845. Mr. Deming was married in 1875 to Miss Mary J. Machin, a na- tive of Lincolnshire, England, a daughter of Stephen and Fannie (Gilbert) Machin, also na- tives of that country, where the father was a farmer. In 1851 the family emigrated to the United States, and after a few years' residence in New York, came to Michigan in 1865, and located in Walton township, Eaton county. Mr. Machin died in December, 1887, at the age of sixty-nine years, and Mrs. Machin is still living at Walton, aged eighty-three years. They reared a family of seven children, all of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs. Deming are the parents of three children, Lucy M., now Mrs. William H. E. Jack- son, of Kalamazoo, Ada Belle and Fannie Electa, all of whom are living. Mrs. Deming is an active and prominent member of the Methodist Episco- pal church, and enjoys in a marked degree the esteem of a large circle of acquaintances. She has been the cheerful helpmate of her husband in all his undertakings, and his present possessions have been gained largely through her assistance. In the spring of 1905 George and Charles Dem- ing purchased a home in Plainwell. Allegan county, where they now reside. This they have remodeled and made of it one of the best homes in the village.
JAY D. CRANE, a grandson of Dr. David E. Deming, is a son of Billings and Jane E. (Dem- ing) Crane, and was born in Cooper township on July 28, 1868. His father, one of the early set- tlers of the county, was a native of Genesee county, N. Y., born on May 30, 1828. When he was but six years old he accompanied his parents to Michigan, coming by way of the lakes to De- troit and from there with ox teams through the wilderness to Kalamazoo, a small village then called Bronson. The family settled on a farm of one hundred and ten acres which the father purchased from the government, living until fall
in a little log shanty which they hastily erected. This was in 1836, and in the fall the shanty was replaced by a more comfortable dwelling, the lum- ber for which was cut in Kalamazoo and floated down the river. Cooper township was organized that year and Mr. Crane soon became very promi- nent in its public affairs. Here the son grew to manhood, assisting in clearing the homestead and obtaining his education in the primitive log school- house of the district. He was married on Febru- ary 17, 1863, to Miss Jane E. Deming, by whom he had two children, Jay D. and Sarah E. The father was a Republican in politics and served in various local offices, among them township treasurer, highway commissioner and supervisor, holding the one last named nine years in succes- sion. He was chairman of the county board one year, during which the county court house was built. He was also elected constable when but twenty-one years of age. During his long resi- dence of sixty years in this township he was fre- quently sent as a delegate to township, county and state conventions of his party. He died on April 15, 1894, and his wife on May 21, 1902. They brought their farm of three hundred and twenty acres to a high degree of cultivation and improved it with first-rate modern buildings fur- nished with every comfort and all the most ap- proved appliances for carrying on its work. Their son, Jay D. Crane, who married Miss Fannie Munn in 1892, has four children, Julian, Alice I., Lewis H. and Charles B. He is actively en- gaged in farming and is one of the leading and representative farmers of the township, holding up well in every way the traditions and examples of his family on both sides of the house and carrying forward with energy and skill the work begun by his ancestors in this part of the country.
HENRY V. SKINNER.
The late Henry V. Skinner, of Cooper town- ship, who at the time of his death, on September 21, 1899, was the oldest settler in the township, was a native of Orleans county, N. Y., where he was born on June 26, 1827. His father, Joseph Skinner, was a native of Saratoga county, N. Y.,
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where his life began on April 28, 1801 ; and the mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Veeder, was a native of the same county, of Holland de- scent, and born in 1805. They were farmers all their lives. In 1833 the family removed to Michi- gan. coming by way of the Erie Canal and Lake Erie to Detroit, and from there with ox teams through the wilderness to Washtenaw county, where they located two miles southwest of Ann Arbor. The father purchased a tract of land there intending to make it his future home, but in April, 1835 .. he changed his mind, and coming to Kalamazoo county, settled in Cooper township. The journey from Washtenaw to this county was made with a wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, and those of the party who walked drove the few head of cattle belonging to the family. The first night this little party spent in Cooper township they slept on the ground, and during the night six inches of snow fell upon them, adding greatly to their discomfort. Mr. Skinner took up two hun- dred and forty acres of government land in 1834, when not a tree had been felled in the township, and wild game, wild beasts and wild Indians were plentiful. A few families of Indians who were friendly lived half a mile north of his farm and the next year two men built shanties some distance south of his. It was a common occur- rence of the period for the Indians to have green corn dances, and on such occasions frequently five hundred families of them passed his house, which was near one of the trails. The patent for his land was signed by President Andrew Jackson, and his first house was rudely con- structed of logs and was eighteen by twenty feet in size. A more commodious and pretentious dwelling was soon after erected. Very soon after he settled on the land he cleared five acres which he planted to corn, potatoes and buckwheat. Thereafter he cleared ten acres each year until the whole tract was cleared and under cultivation. and on the improved homestead he lived until his death, in November, 1885. He was a prominent and useful man in the community and filled the offices of highway commissioner and assessor for the township many years. He was also influential
in the organization of the Methodist Episcopal church in the township, and was well and favor- ably known over a wide extent of territory. After the death of his first wife, which occurred in 1845. he married Sophia Lillie. Henry was the last survivor of the six children born of the first union. Mr. Skinner, of this sketch, left his native county with his parents when he was but six years old, and came to Michigan, walking from Detroit to Washtenaw county. The first school in Cooper township was taught by Mrs. George Hart, who lived long after her labors in the little log schoolhouse were finished. This school Mr. Skinner attended and there he ac- quired all the scholastic training he obtained. After reaching the age of twenty-one he worked three years at the trade of a carpenter, and also chopped wood for a compensation of twenty-five cents a cord. He found great pleasure in hunt- ing deer and turkeys, many of which fell be- neath his unerring rifle. After game became scarce in the region of his home he made annual hunting trips in the fall in the northern part of the state. On December 1, 1852, he was married to Miss Mary M. Delano, who was born in Schoolcraft township, this county, on April 18, 1835. and was but six weeks old when her par- ents moved to Cooper township. In 1853 they began farming on the place on which Mrs. Skinner still lives. She is the daughter of Ephraim B. and Nancy (Gillette) Delano, natives of the state of New York, the father born in Orleans and the mother in Saratoga county. They came to Michigan in 1832 and, after living in Washte- naw county two years, settled in Cooper town- ship in 1835. Here they took up land and re- mained until death, the mother passing away in 1848 and the father in 1872. They had seven children, whom they reared and trained carefully for responsible positions in life. Mr. and Mrs. Skinner were the parents of three children. Jay J., Bert E., who is now in Alaska, and one who died in infancy. Their mother is at this time one of the oldest settlers left in the township. She vividly recalls many of the thrilling scenes and incidents of her early days. She is living on the old farm. Politically Mr. Skinner was a ,
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Democrat and frequently went as a delegate to the conventions of his party. He held a number of township offices, serving as highway commis- sioner for almost twenty years. He was a niemi- ber of the Congregational church, as is his widow, and both have contributed liberally of their time and means to its support, and to every other good cause in the community.
WILLIAM MILHAM.
The pleasing subject of this brief notice, who is passing the evening of his days in a serene and cheerful old age on the farm which he has made so beautiful and productive in Portage township. and who lives in the midst of valued public in- stitutions which he has helped to found, foster and enlarge in benefaction for the people whom they serve, is a native of Columbia county, N. Y., where he was born on September 5, 1824. His father, the late Ilon. John Milham ( see sketch on another page of this work), was also born in that county and there he married Miss Eva Poucher, who died in that county in 1831. In 1845 the father came to this county and settled in Kalamazoo township, where he died forty years later. Of his first marriage four sons were born, of whom William was the first. He accompanied his father to this county and continued to live with him until the autumn of 1849, when he set- tled in Portage township, where he has since made his home. In the year last named he united in marriage with Miss Anna Eliza Ham, a native of Columbia county. New York, who died in Port- age township in May, 1862, leaving one child, Anna E. Mr. Milham's second marriage occurred in August, 1864, and was to Miss Marietta Root. She died in August, 1866, having had one child who died in infancy. On October 27. 1868, he married a third wife, Miss Emma Scudder, a na- tive of Newton. Fairfield county, Conn. They had one daughter, Flora E. Her mother died in Port- age township on March 27, 1876, leaving her husbanda widower for the third time. Mr. Milham owns nearly five hundred acres of excellent land which he has brought to a high state of develop- ment and fertility and enriched with fine build-
ings and other first-class improvements. With toil and patience and continued hope, he has pur- sued the even tenor of his way through life, look- ing neither to the right nor to the left for the favors of fortune except such as he has earned, but depending ever on his own enterprise and thrift for the continuance of his steady advance- ment, and by this means he has held every foot of the progress he has ever made. The contentions of politics, the claims of mercantile life, the gilded prospects of speculation, have sung their siren songs around him in vain. He has turned a deaf car to them all and held his hand firmly to the plow of his choice without a backward look or a forward longing for any other vocation, finding in its duties enough to occupy all his faculties, save what his devotion to the public good has taken for the advancement of the general weal of his community, and in its independence and abundance of returns sufficient to satisfy all his desires. Hc supports the principles of the Demo- cratic party with fidelity, but never asks any of the honors of public office. For many years he has been an attendant at the Presbyterian church and a liberal contributor to its various interests. Nearly sixty years of his useful and inspiring life have been passed in this county, and now when the shadows of age are closing around him there is none of its citizens who does not do him reverence.
NELSON H. DELANO.
The son of one of the best known pioneers of Cooper township in this county, Nelson H. Delano is a native of the township, born in October, 1839. His parents, Ephraim and Nancy (Gillett) De- lano, the former a native of Rhode Island and the latter of Orleans county, N. Y., came to this state in 1833, traveling by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo, from central New York where they were then living. and then across Lake Eric to Detroit, whencc with ox teams they completed their journey to Washtenaw county, often cutting their way through the dense woods or building a road over swamps. Some little time after locating in Washtenaw they sold out there and changed
WILLIAM MILHAM.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
their residence to Kalamazoo county, locating on section 16, Cooper township, in the midst of heavy timber and surrounded by Indians and wild beasts. The father cleared his land and made it over into a good farm, living on it until his death in 1872. He was a man of some prominence in the township and was chosen to a number of its responsible official positions from time to time. He was also elected to the lower house of the state legislature but declined to qualify for the office of representative. Taking a deep interest in church affairs, he was of great assistance in founding the Congregational church in his neigh- borhood, and to the end of his life gave that sect and others cordial and liberal support. He was also an active and earnest Freemason, joining this ancient and honorable order in the state of New York and remaining an interested attendant upon its rites until his death. His first wife died in 1848, leaving seven children, who are all living and all in this county but one son who lives in Texas. For a second wife the father married Mrs. Eliza (Johnson) Montague, a widow, and native of Vermont, who died in this county in about 1878.
Nelson Delano was reared in Cooper township and educated in the public schools. He assisted his father in clearing the homestead, and resided with his parents until he was twenty-seven years old. He then began farming for himself within sight of his father's chimney, and has passed all his years in this township except one which he spent in Iowa. He was married in Cooper in 1868 to Miss Julia Janes, a native of Wisconsin. They have had four children and three of them are living, May E., wife of George W. Perrin, Luna J., wife of C. W. Sipley, both of Kala- mazoo, and H. Dale, living at home. Mr. Delano has taken an active part in all movements for the development and improvement of the town- ship, but has steadfastly declined all offers of official recognition from the people around him, preferring to render his service to the public from the post of private citizenship, although politically he supports the 'Democratic party. He is a charter member of United Lodge, No. 49, Free and Accepted Masons, of Cooper Center.
His wife is an active and valued member of the Congregational church, to the good work of which he is also a liberal contributor.
PETER SWEET.
Time in its rapid flight brings to every man some measure of opportunity for usefulness to his fellows and advancement for himself, but does not halt for one to ponder and make choice. It is well for those who have the vision to see their chance, and the alertness to seize and use it. Such men may hope to leave behind them some lasting memorial of the lives they live and the work they do ; and however unappreciative public senti- ment may seem at most times, the record they make will ever stand to their credit, and on oc- casions at least will receive the attention and commendation of many. But happily the class who are vigilant and active in their chosen sphere seldom look or care for the showy reward for fidelity that comes in the form of men's praises, but find sufficient need for their labor in its ma- terial returns and the satisfaction of performing it well. To this class belonged Peter Sweet, one of the early settlers of this county, who came hither when the work of conquering nature and her wild brood of opposing forces was all yet to be done, and who set to doing it with resolute determination. He has run his race of toil and trade and ambition ; his day's labor is entirely ac- complished, and he has enjoyed the fruits of it with the added satisfaction that it has been well done, and has won the approval of all those who knew him. While he was alive he was held in high esteem by all who came in contact with him, and when he departed this earth his death was sin- cerely mourned by a host of loving friends. Mr. Sweet was born in Wyoming county, N. Y., on October 22, 1835. His parents, Robert and Phebe (Shader) Sweet, were also natives of New York state, where the father worked at the trade of a cooper until 1843, when he came to Michigan with his family. For three years he worked on a rented farm on Genesee Prairie, and in 1846 bought a farm in Cooper township ad- joining the one now owned and occupied by the
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wife of Peter Sweet. The father died on this farm in 1853, and his wife in 1862. Their fam- ily comprised four sons and two daughters, all of whom are now dead, the last one, Peter, dying on June 30, 1905. at the age of sixty-nine years. He lived in Kalamazoo county since 1843. and always bore his part in the work of development going on around him, and contributed his full share to multiplying and vitalizing the morals and educational forces of the community. Learning well in his carly youth to chop and grub, he aided in clearing and cultivating the homestead, and be- fore he reached man's estate, purchased a farm for himself, on which he lived for forty-two years, and where he breathed his last. He was married in this county to Miss Betsy Hugget, a native of England, whose parents were early set -. tlers in this county. He is survived by a wife, niece and nephew.
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