USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 42
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KIRK N. SHERWOOD. the only son of Hulbert and Annie (Crawford) Sherwood, was born on the home farm, which he now operates, on De- cember 6, 1859. He was reared and educated in this county and has passed the whole of his life so far on the place of his present residence, and this farm he has worked and managed from his
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young manhood. He was married in 1882 to Miss Nettie McGregor, also a native of Cooper town- ship, who died in 1895, leaving one child, their son Lloyd, born February 28, 1885. The father was again married on December 23. 1897, choos- ing on this occasion as his wife Miss Laura De- lano, daughter of William Delano, now dead. They have two children, their son Hulbert A., born October 30, 1901, and Viola M., born July 31, 1905. Mr. Sherwood has filled several local offices, among them that of justice of the peace, which he has administered a number of years with credit to himself and benefit to the community. He is a model farmer and has a model farm, ap- plying to his work on it the results of his exten- sive reading and close observation on agricultural subjects, studying the nature of his soil and gen- erously meeting its requirements. In the com- munity he stands well on his own merits inde- pendently of the high standing of his father, and is one of the most respected citizens of the township.
ANDREW SNYDER.
Andrew Snyder, one of the best known and most generally esteemed farmers of Cooper township, this county, and whose home is on the farm on which he settled on coming to the county in 1864, and in the best modern brick dwelling in the township, which he built when he moved here, was born in Columbia county, N. Y., on September 29, 1829. His parents, Henry P. and Catherine (Diedrich) Snyder, were also natives of Columbia county, N. Y., and of German an- cestry. They were farmers; and their son An- drew was born and reared on the paternal home- stead. The father was a man of local conse- quence and intimately acquainted with many of the leading New York politicians of his day. He was a close friend of President Martin Van Bu- ren, and enjoyed his confidence in a large meas- ure. In about 1846 the family moved to On- tario county, N. Y. The father died at the age of sixty-eight in Orleans county, N. Y., and the mother at that of sixty-three years. They had a family of four sons and six daughters, Andrew being the only one resident in this county. He was
reared to habits of useful industry on the home farm and received a country boy's usual educa- tion in the district schools. In his native state he farmed until 1859, then became a resident of Michigan, locating for five years in Washtenaw county. At the end of that period he moved to Kalamazoo county and settled on the farm which is now his home in Cooper township, on which he erected new buildings and made other exten- sive and valuable improvements, building the best brick dwelling and making his farm one of the most attractive in the township. He was married in 1855, in New York, to Miss Mary C. Huff, of Orleans county. They have one child, their son Fred E. Snyder, who is working the farm. True to their German ancestry and the busy section of country in which they were bred, the Snyders have shown great thrift and enterprise in their life work here, being satisfied with nothing short of the best results attainable in their situation and making every proper effort to secure them. Their farm is a model of high cultivation and skillful management and its improvements are examples of good taste and progressive ideas well worked out. In their devotion to the inter- ests of the section in which they live they have given a stimulus to every phase of local advance- ment and substantial contributions of time, en- ergy, counsel and material aid to promote it. Throughout the township they are held in high esteem as worthy and representative citizens who have made much of their conditions and aided others to do the same.
CHARLES G. CROOKS.
Among the early settlers of Kalamazoo county, the men of its heroic age, who waged the first battle in its conquest from the wilderness, were George, Chester and Samuel Crooks, of Ontario county, N. Y., who came hither in 1833 and prospected for sites for future homes in Comstock township. The first named was a na- tive of Livingston county, N. Y., and his wife was Martha (Johnson) Crooks, a native of Ver- mont. He came into the county in 1832 and en-
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tered a tract of government land in Portage township near Indian Fields. The next year he brought his family by water to Detroit and with teams of oxen through the dense forest and over the untrodden swamps, often making their road as they advanced, and settled them on the land he had entered. This he cleared and made into a good farm, after which he moved to Comstock township, and there repeated his performance, holding the plow in breaking up more than four hundred acres in all. He and his wife died in Kalamazoo township, he passing away about the year 1884, and his wife some years earlier. They had three sons and three daughters, all now de- ceased but two sons and one daughter. One of the living sons, William Crooks, was born in this county, and is still living here, pleasantly located on a farm in Kalamazoo township, which he pur- chased many years ago. He was reared in the county, and has been connected with its farming industry from his birth, and received all of his scholastic training in its district schools. He re- mained with his father until the death of the lat- ter, then settled on the land which is now his home. His wife was Miss Fannie Burdick be- fore her marriage, and she is a native of Ver- mont. They were married in this county, and have three sons and one daughter, all residents of the county except one son. Two of the fa- ther's brothers fought for the Union in the Civil war, being members of the Twenty-fifth Michi- gan Infantry. His son Charles G. Crooks, the immediate subject of this sketch, was born in Kalamazoo township on October 4, 1864, and re- mained at home until he reached the age of thir- ty-five years, then moved to where he now lives, in Comstock township. This property he has greatly improved and wisely cultivated, and has found in his profitable labors on it both pecuniary reward and the gratification of his taste for ad- vanced agricultural pursuits. He was married in 1890 to Miss Carrie Farley, a daughter of John and Sarah (Richfield) Farley, both natives of this county. Their parents settled here about 1840 and were among the pioneers. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Crooks have four children, Lela, Gale, Walter and Zell. A few years ago Mr.
Crooks was elected a justice of the peace and he is still filling the office with credit to himself and satisfaction to the people. Politically he is a Re- publican, but he has never been an active parti- san. As an independent, upright and highminded citizen, he is well esteemed, and as a public offi- cial he is regarded as capable, careful and straightforward.
JOHN P. CAMPBELL.
While we can not deny that circumstances have much to do with the formation of character in a man and shaping his destiny, it is equally true that heredity is a potent factor in the case, and that one inherits from his ancestors much of what he is and is capable of. When a long line of forceful and distinguished forefathers, reach- ing back almost beyond legitimate history into the twilight of fable, stands to the credit of a man, he is almost sure to exhibit in his make-up and career many of their salient characteristics, and himself achieve, in any environment, the mastership in his day which they won in theirs. The late John P. Campbell, of Comstock town- ship, this county, is a striking illustration of this fact. He could trace his ancestry back in an unbroken line to the renowned Dun Tron family in the clan of the Campbells of Scotland, and was himself born on the soil they made famous in the Scottish wars, coming into the world on Feb- ruary 18, 1811. And, although he had none of the favors of fortune at his command, and was obliged to make his own way in the world from an early age, he showed throughout his enter- prising and useful life the qualities for which they were renowned-prudence, strength of will and purpose, courage for every trial, constancy in every difficulty, methodical business habits, and a positive self-reliance under all circum- stances-making weapons and wings for his progress out of all retarding forces, realizing al- ways the force of his family history, and at the same time the significance of the. individual, the grandeur of duty and the power of character. His parents were Peter and Elizabeth (McAr- thur) Campbell, both natives of Scotland, the
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latter born in Perthshire, where her family lived for many generations. The father was a farmer and also a cabinetmaker. He died in his native place at the age of fifty years. One of his broth- ers, John Campbell, was a captain in the British army during the American Revolution, and bore himself gallantly in the contest with the revolting colonies. Peter Campbell and his wife were the parents of seven children, six of whom grew to maturity and lived to good old ages, Donald, who died at eighty-four ; Grace, at seventy-eight ; Duncan, at seventy-six ; Catherine, at seventy- seven; Christina, at seventy-six; and John P., the fifth in the order of birth, at eighty-nine, passing away on April 29, 1900. His remains were buried in Riverside cemetery, Kalamazoo. At the age of fourteen he went to live with an uncle in his native land, and six years later be- gan business for himself, buying and selling cat- tle, and renting two farms as a further venture. He was occupied in farming and the cattle in- dustry in Scotland until 1850, when he crossed the Atlantic to this continent, and after spending two years at Montreal, Canada, he moved to Caledonia, N. Y., where he lived three years. In 1855 he came to Kalamazoo county and bought a farm in Comstock township on which he passed the rest of his life. His farm comprised four hundred and ninety-three acres of well-improved land, and was fully stocked with horses, cat- tle and sheep of the finest breeds. In addition to this farm he had, at his death, one hundred and sixty acres of choice land in Sheriden township. Newaygo county, and both were managed with the utmost skill and vigor, and improved with good taste and considerable cost. He was mar- ried in Richland township, this county, on De- cember 29, 1862, to Miss Jeannette Redpath, a daughter of Robert and Christina (Purvis) Red- path, and a native of Roxburgshire, Scotland, born on July 27, 1840, the third daughter and sixth child of her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Camp- bell had two children, their daughter Elizabeth R. and their son Peter J. The latter is now in charge of the home farm, and was prepared for life's duties by a district-school education and a course at Parson's Busi-
ness College in Kalamazoo. He has given his attention to farming since leaving school, and is conducting the business with the force and good judgment for which his father was noted. He has taken an interest in the cause of public education. On September 28, 1904, he married Miss Mary Louise Schlobohm, of Kala- mazoo township, this county, and they have one daughter. The mother still has her home on the farm. She has long been a resident of the county, coming to Richland township with her parents in 1858. They died some years ago, but three of their sons and one daughter are living. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell united with the Presby- terian church many years ago. Mr. Campbell was a devoutly religious man, and performed one part of his duties in this regard by reading the Bible through once every year. He was highly respected in life and deeply mourned in death. His son has succeeded to the esteem which he enjoyed in the community, and is one of the rising young men of the township.
HENRY CHENERY.
This well known and highly respected farmer of Comstock township is a product of "merrie England," where he was born in 1825, and where his parents, John and Mary (Mison) Chenery, were also native. They came to the United States about 1844, and located in New Hamp- shire. Ten years later they moved to Kalama- zoo county, where they lived usefully for a num- ber of years, and then laid down their labors with the assurance that they had performed with diligence and fidelity the tasks allotted to them, and left no blemish on their fair names. Their son Henry remained in his native land until 1847, working at his trade as a wool comber, after ob- taining his education at the common schools. In the year last named he followed his parents to this country and joined them in New Hampshire. In 1851 the song of the golden siren of Califor- nia lured him to that state, to which he took the isthmus route, and in which he remained two years engaged in mining. Returning at the end of that period to New Hampshire he lived there
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until 1854, then came to this county, and, in company with his brothers, bought a farm of wild and densely covered timber land. They cleared this and cultivated and improved it into a fine farm, and Mr. Chenery lived on it until 1878 or 1879, when he bought his present farm, which was at the time also in a state of unbroken nature and covered with the growth of ages. He has cleared all his land and made it valuable with good buildings and other improvements, and the high condition of fertility and' produc- tiveness to which he has brought it. Content with his chosen vocation and the returns he has received from it, he has taken no active part in political contentions, but he has never withheld his interest or shirked his duty in reference to local affairs of general public concern. He has reached an advanced age among this people, by all of whom he is well esteemed, and the fifty years of his active life he has passed among them have ministered to their benefit and won their warm approval of his worth and usefulness. Now, on the verge of four-score years, he is ven- erated as one of the patriarchs of the section whose force of character and unvarying interest in every element of growth and improvement have been of very material aid in making it what it is. He saw the region in the early morning of its civilization, and sees it now in the high noon of its progress, an enduring memorial to the wisdom, breadth of view and enterprise of its founders and builders, with the pleasing assur- ance of having done his part toward securing the result. He was married in New Hampshire, in 1849, to Miss Ann Rayner, a native of York- shire, England, who died on February 4, 1904, leaving three children, their daughter Mary E., and their sons Samuel and Albert, all of whom are yet living as worthy followers of the good example given them by their parents.
GEORGE CLARK.
George Clark, one of the oldest citizens of Kalamazoo county, and one whose fellow citizens esteem with a cordial regard for his personal worth and his excellent citizenship and services
to his country in peace and war, is a native of the county, born in Richland township on June 2, 1845. His parents were George and Clarissa C. (Bogardus) Clark, the father a native of Eng- land and the mother of Pennsylvania. The father came to the United States a young man and set- tled in this county late in the '30s, buying eighty acres of wild land in Richland township when there were but few settlers in that region. On this farm he and his wife lived until death ended their labors, he dying in 1847 and she one year later. They had a family of three sons and one daughter, all of whom are living but one of the sons. Their son George reached man's estate in his native township with his home on the paternal estate, and was educated at the district schools, primitive in character, meager in equipment and widely scattered in his day. He began life for himself as a farmer and followed this vocation until October, 1863, when he joined the vol- unteers defending the Union as a member of Company D. Eleventh Michigan Cavalry. His regiment became a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and was at once plunged in the thick of the fight, participating in many notable engagements, and sharing the common fate of war, alternate victory and de- feat. Among the battles in which Mr. Clark took part were those at Pound Gap, Mount Sterling, Lexington and Georgetown, Ky., the various conflicts incident to Morgan's raid, the fights at Saltville, Morristown, Wytheville and Chris- tianburg, Va .; Clinch River, Tenn., and Yadkin River, Salisbury, Morgantown and Asheville, N. C. He was mustered out of the service in September, 1865, with the rank of cor- poral. Returning then to this county, he farmed here two years, then went to Iowa and there engaged in the same pursuit for a similar period. At the end of that time he again re- turned to this county and took charge of the home farm. Some little time afterward he en- tered the employ of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad in the engineering department, where he served two years. After that he became more closely associated with the road and ran summer trains for a while, then aided in building a con-
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siderable part of its branch lines in northern Michigan. When he quit the railroad service he bought the Lardner farm and after working it until 1899 sold it and purchased his present home just east of the city. He was married in this county in 1874 to Miss Annie M. Stacy. They have three children, George W., Roy W. and May A. Their mother died in 1889. Her parents came from Canada and her father was for many years the leader of the Kalamazoo band. In 1892 Mr. Clark married a second wife, Mrs. Amelia M. Huntley, a native of Ohio. Politically he supports the Republican party, but he has never been an active politician. Fraternally he belongs only to the Grand Army of the Republic, and in church affiliation he and his wife are Methodists.
WILLIAM B. VOSBURG.
Ex-sheriff and well known as a leading and progressive citizen of Kalamazoo county, Wil- liam B. Vosburg, in his residence of nearly forty years in this community, well sustained the repu- tation of his ancestors for uprightness and force- ful manhood and that of the region in which he was born and reared for enterprise and success- ful grappling with the problems of life. He is a native of Onondaga county, N. Y., born on Sep- tember 17, 1843, and the son of Henry and Sarah A. (Lyboult) Vosburg, also born in the state of New York. His father was for many years a farmer, and in later life a grocer at Nine Mile Lock, west of Syracuse, and afterward at New- port. in his native state. He died at Newport in 1850 and his wife at Syracuse in 1902. They had a family of four daughters and two sons, William being the only one of the six resident in this county. His grandfather emigrated to this coun- try from Holland and settled in New York state, where he and his wife passed the rest of their lives. His name was Cobas Vosburg, and he is well remembered in the neighborhood of Syra- cuse as a man of high character, fine mental de- velopment and patriotic devotion to the land of his adoption. William B. Vosburg was reared and educated in his native state, and re- mained there until 1865, when he came to
Michigan and located at Kalamazoo. Here he found employment in various lines from time to time, and being handy and ca- pable, and withal willing to work at whatever was upright and renumerative, was never with- out a job of some worthy kind. He was employed for a time by Thomas Sherwood and afterward by many other men, sometimes in farm work and oftener in other occupations. For a number of years he was engaged in farming for himself un- til 1892, when he was elected sheriff of the county, and at the end of his term in 1894 he was re-elected, serving four years in all. Prior to this he had served two years as township treas- urer. He was married in 1865, before leaving New York, to Miss Margaret Brown, of the same na- tivity as himself, a daughter of John Brown, of Onondaga county. They have had three children, two of whom are living. Edwin W., of Kalamazoo township, and Jessie M., wife of C. W. Hudson, also of this township. Recently Mr. Vosburg disposed of his farm here and moved to Los An- geles, Calif., expecting to make that his future home. He has been a life-long Republican, and has given to the success of his party on all occa- sions a close attention and serviceable aid. In the local affairs of the county he was energetic and potential for good; in his fraternal life he took an active part as a Freemason and an Elk; and in social circles he was popular and well esteemed as a genial and companionable gentleman, with a large fund of pleasing and profitable general information and entertaining powers of a high order.
ALLEN C. TRIPP.
One of the retired farmers of Pavilion town- ship, this county, whose name is a household word throughout the county, and in all parts of which he is highly respected, Allen C. Tripp, who now lives on Portage street, in Kalamazoo, has had a long and eventful life in this county, coming here in the early days when the wilderness was still unpeopled, and becoming a pioneer in both Portage. and Pavilion townships, then taking an active part in building up the section and re- ducing it to civilization and fruitfulness. He was
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born in Onondaga county, N. Y., on July 2, 1842, and is the son of Samuel and Lucretia (Robinson) Tripp, natives of Massachusetts. The father was a farmer and moved with his parents in early life to Onondaga county, N. Y., where they cleared a farm in the frontier regions of the state. William Tripp, the grandfather, afterward came to Michigan and bought a large tract of land, but ere long returned to his New York home, where he died, as did his son Samuel, the father of Allen C. There were three sons and three daughters in the family of Samuel, all of whom are living but two, Allen being the only member of the family resident in this state. He was reared and educated in his native state, and there learned his trade as a cooper, working at it and farming there for a number of years. In 1861 he came to Kalamazoo and entered the em- ploy of Merrill & Chase, taking a contract to fur- nish all the flour barrels they used. While work- ing for them he bought land in Pavilion town- ship, which was partially improved at the time of his purchase, and which he still owns and has greatly improved since. He moved to this farm and lived on it until 1901, when he de .- termined to retire from active work, and to this end bought a pleasant home in Kalamazoo, at which he now lives. He put up all the buildings on his farm, which is one of the best and most highly improved in the county. In 1862 he was married, in Kalamazoo, to Miss Sarah Kilgore, a sister of Hiram Kilgore, a sketch of whom will be found on another page. Mr. and Mrs. Tripp have had four children, two of whom are living, their son, Lewis J., a resident of northern Michi- gan, who is married and has two children, and their son Joseph, who is also married and has two children. and resides on the home farm. Mr. Tripp is a Democrat in politics, and has often been nominated for local offices, but as he lived in a Republican stronghold, he has not always been successful at the polls. His life in the county spans the period between the early days of wild frontier life and the present state of advancement, and he has done his share in helping to bring about the gratifying changes he has witnessed. As a good citizen, always ready to aid in every laud-
able undertaking for the substantial good of his township and the county, he enjoys the respect of the people everywhere.
IRA M. PEAKE.
The section of country in which this enter- prising and prosperous farmer was born, on June 3, 1850, was literally a howling wilderness, its virgin forests of many centuries standing having never yet felt the keen edge of the woodman's ax, and their deep shades still resounding with the appalling outcries of beasts of prey alternated at times with the war-whoop of the savage red man. The place of his nativity was Richland township, this county, and although its settlement had begun some twenty years before, but only slight indentations has been made in the wild woods and blooming prairies, and all that civiliza- tion covets and the genius of man accomplishes was practically yet to be brought forth in this now beautiful and prolific region. His parents, Ira and Sarah (Miller) Peake, the former a na- tive of Vermont and the latter of Cennecticut, had come to this wilderness from their New England home a few years previously, and had established themselves in such comfort as circumstances al- lowed on two hundred and ten acres of land on which they found an old log cabin the only monument of a white man's earlier presence. They were prepared, however, for hard conditions and great privations, and journeyed to their new home in a manner which proved that they had the spirit to confront and conquer them, making the long and trying trip most of the way across one-third of the continent with ox teams. The father cleared his land and in time provided it with good and sufficient buildings and other structures for his purpose, meanwhile winning it with patient and persevering industry to produc- tiveness and beauty as a home. Here the mother died in 1860, and of her two sons and five daugh- ters all are yet living but three of the daughters. The father married as his second wife Mrs. Caro- . line Smith. He died at Richland in 1884, and she in September, 1904, at the age of eighty- seven. The father was of Quaker parentage and
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