USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 51
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of the family, his father having already joined him here. He went to work vigorously to clear his farm and make it productive, and he lived on it until his death, in 1876, constantly improving it and increasing its value and the volume of its products. In about 1840 Mr. Barnard began making lime on his farm on the banks of Lime Kiln Lake, and which was undoubtedly the first made in this part of Michigan. He conducted it for some years successfully. He was married in this county in 1838 to Miss Lazetta Souther- land, a native of New York state. They had a family of eight children, five sons and three daughters. The sons all died in infancy, except one, Charles, who grew to manhood but is now dead, and the daughters are all living. They are: Mrs. Jessie French, of Kalamazoo town- ship; Mrs. Harriet Reed, of Portage township ; and Miss Marion Barnard, who lives on the home farm. Mr. Barnard was never an active politi- cian, although in national affairs he gave his sup- port to the Democratic party, and he never al- lowed the use of his name as a candidate for a political office. Throughout his life he was an industrious and contented farmer ; and by his activity in local improvements and his gen- eral excellence as a citizen and a man, en- deared himself to his whole community. He was highly respected in life, and his death was uni- versally regretted. In addition to considerable property, he left to his children the priceless her- itage of a good name and an inspiring example.
ALBERT R. WHITE.
This well known farmer of Kalamazoo town- ship, this county, is a native of Cayuga county, N. Y., born on February 17, 1840. His parents. James M. and Fannie M. (Pickard) White, who were born in Massachusetts and New York, re- spectfully, became residents of Michigan in 1863. The father, who was a lineal descendant of Peregrine White, the first child of English parents born in New England, was born on May . 22, 1815, and a year later moved with his parents to the state of New York. He was one of twelve children, and had three uncles, who each reared
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the same number. He grew to manhood on his father's farm in Cayuga county, N. Y., and after the death of his father managed the farm for seventeen years. On March 22, 1837, he married with Miss Fannie M. Pickard, a daughter of Abram Pickard, a prominent member and dea- con of the Baptist church. In his childhood he and his mother were captured by the Indians and taken to their camp where they were recognized by Colonel Brandt, the half-breed chief, who res- cued them and sent them to their home. This was during the Revolutionary war. She and her husband became the parents of six children. Mr. and Mrs. White had the following children : George C., Albert R., Henry L., Ida, Effie and Jay M. Of these the subject, Mrs. Devan Ar- nold and Jay M. are now living. On arriving in this state the father bought one hundred and sev- enty-six aeres of land, a large part of which he cleared and transformed into a fine farm. Of this tract he owned one hundred and forty-six aeres at the time of his death. In politics he was a stanch Republican from the foundation of that party, and in fraternal life a Freemason of the Royal Arch degree, and an Odd Fellow. He dicd on January 9, 1894, and his wife in 1896. As an evidence of the antiquity of the family in known chronology, it should be stated that there is in its possession a bamboo canc mounted with an ivory whale's tooth inlaid with silver, made in the East Indies by George Cadman, the father of the great-great-great-grandmother of Albert White, and bearing his name and the date of September 3, 1698, carved on it by himself. Albert R. White reached man's estate in his native county and was educated at Aurora Academy located there, being graduated from that institution in 1860. When he had been three years out of school hc came to Michigan with the family, and since then he has farmed in this county continuously. He is now living on and operating the old home farm. In 1870 he was united in marriage with Miss Lottie Hindes, who was born on Genesee Prairie, this county, and is the daughter of Neil and Euphemia E. (Sargent) Hindes, natives of New Jersey, the former born on Junc 21, 1798. and the latter on December 8, 1806. Mr. Hindes's
father owned a farm two miles from the city of Elizabeth, in his native state, and on this place the son lived until he reached the age of fifteen, when he went to the eity and worked for a num- ber of ycars at the tinner's trade. After his marriage on February 2, 1824, he settled at Tompkinsville, on Staten Island, where for eleven years he was successfully engaged in the hard- warc business. In 1835 he sold out there and came to this county and bought three hundred acres of land on and near Genesec Prairie. Thc next July he moved his family to this farm, which was partly timber ground, with no buildings on it but a little log house and almost wholly unimproved by cultivation. llc devoted himself industriously to the development of his purchase and at his death, on August 22, 1874, he had made of it a finc farm with many valu- able buildings and other improvements on it. Politically he was an old-time Whig and later a Republican, but he was never an active partisan. Hc paid earnest attention to school matters, how- cver, as did most of the carly settlers of the statc. For ncarly forty years he was a resident of this county, and at his death, at the advanced age of seventy-six, there was none who did not do him reverence. His wife dicd in 1882. They had a family of cleven children, five born on Staten Island and six in this county. Of the eleven, two sons and two daughters are living. Mr. and Mrs. White have three children, their daughters Belle, wife of Clement Nicholson, of Kalamazoo, and Louise and Eva. living at home. Mr. White is an active Republican in political affairs and has served as justice of the peaec and highway commissioner. He is one of the best known and most respected citizens of the county.
JOHN C. BAILEY.
Born and reared in Sullivan county, N. H., in the region surrounding Sunapee lake, that wonderful body of water which lics a thousand fcet above the level of the sca and invites the atten- tion of the tourist by this phenomenal fact as well as by its picturesque environment, John C. Bailey, a farmer of Comstock township, in this
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county, and later a resident of Kalamazoo, had the awakening imagination of his youth quick- ened by nature's beauties and wonders, and as he became a resident of this county while much of it was yet in the state of primeval wilderness, his more mature fancy had an abundance of the same enjoyment. His life began November 2, 1883, his parents being Samuel and Abigail (Chase) Bailey, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of New Hampshire. Both belonged to old New England families whose members were prominent in the history of that section from colonial times, their names adorning every useful walk of life. The father was a contractor in the construction of roads and other works of public utility. Both he and his wife passed the years of their maturity in New Hampshire, and at the end of their lives were laid to rest beneath the soil from which they had drawn their stature and their strength. They had four sons and three daughters, all of whom are still living, ex- cept the oldest daughter and John, whose death, after a life of great usefulness, was universally mourned on January 16, 1905. After receiving a common-school education, he began his career in life as a farmer and a contractor for threshing grain on a large scale, following both pursuits in his native state until 1866, when he moved to Michigan and located in Comstock, Kalamazoo county. For a year and a half he worked the Dr. Chase farm, and then bought the L. N. Gates place, which he owned during the remainder of his life. He lived on and cultivated this farm until 1896, and then retired from active work and moved to Kalamazoo, which was his last abid- ing place on earth. He was married on Novem- ber 14, 1856, to Miss Eliza Young, a native of New Hampshire, the daughter of Esek and Har- riet (Woodard) Young, the father born in New Hampshire and the mother in Vermont.
They are now living in Kalamazoo township, this county, and have reached the advanced age of eighty-six years. Through life they have been useful and industrious members of society, and wherever they have lived have won the respect and admiration of hosts of friends. Mr. Bailey never took an active interest in political contests,
but was a man of firm convictions and voted according to his faith. The glamor of public office and political notoriety never attracted him, but all the elements of good citizenship had an active and productive life within himself and his commendation when he saw them in others. When in the evening of his life, with its mild and mellow glory around him, he enjoyed in a marked degree the esteem and confidence of his fellow men, and might well contemplate with well justified satis- faction the retrospect of his life, all of which had been devoted to useful pursuits and duties bene- ficial to others. An excellent likeness of this well known pioneer is presented on the opposite page.
WILLIAM R. B. WHITE.
This well known and respected farmer of Comstock township, this county, was born and reared far from the scenes of his present labors and has seen service in life's activities in a number of places and occupations. He came into the world at Newport, N. H., on November II, 1840, and is the son of Henry and Olive (Stearns) White, also natives of New Hampshire and belonging to fam- ilies which trace their ancestry back in unbroken lines to early colonial times in New England. The grandfather White was born in Massachusetts and lived in that state a long time. He was a minute man in the Revolution and among the determined men whose musketry at Concord on April 19, 1775, started echoes that reverberated around the world. He died in New Hampshire, full of years and crowned with public esteem. His son Henry, the father of William, was a farmer, and he and his wife passed their lives in New Hampshire and Vermont, dying in the latter state at good old ages. Their only offspring was their son William, who was reared and educated at Millsfalls, Vt. After leaving school he went to New York city and during the Civil war was engaged there in grading wool. In 1867 he moved to Johnstown, Pa., where he started a woolen mill, which he op- erated thirteen years. Then impelled by failing health, he came to Kalamazoo county in 1880 and purchased a farm in Comstock township, in which he lived a number of years. Tiring of active work
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on the farm, he moved to Kalamazoo and engaged in the real-estate business, and at the same time represented his ward in the city council. He later returned to his farm in Comstock township and on this he has since resided and in its man- agement has been busily occupied. He was mar- ried at Johnstown, Pa., in 1878, to Miss Emma Heslop, a native of that state. They have one child, their daughter Minnie, now the wife of Fred Daily, of Comstock. In politics the father is a Democrat, but is not regularly bound by party considerations, being independent in his suffrage and general in his devotion to the public interests of his community. In the promotion of these he has borne an earnest and honorable part, both in giving wise counsel to their advocates and fur- nishing material support to their efforts. He is universally regarded as a citizen of fine public spirit, with an intelligent progressiveness which is guided and restrained by a judicious conserva- tism, furnishing at once a stimulus to the laggard and a check to the visionary. As a farmer he has a high rank, owning a good farm and working it according to the most approved methods and se- curing from it the largest returns in quantity and quality of products.
WILLIAM A. GLEASON.
All history, local and general, resolves itself easily into the biography of a few stout and earn- est persons, especially the history of the founding and settlement of new regions of a country, in which courageous and determined men and pa- tient and enduring women lay the foundations of the civilization that is to follow and blaze the way for its approach, and through their days of sim- plicity in life and iron seriousness of purpose leave lessons of lasting value to the hurried ages that come after them. Therefore it is that the life-story of the pioneers of Kalamazoo county have an important and perpetual interest for their descendants, and can scarcely be told too often or too forcibly. Of these pioneers was the late William A. Gleason, of Comstock, one of the well known farmers of that township and one of the early workers for its advancement and develop-
ment. He was born in Lewis county, N. Y., on January 9, 1819, and died at Comstock on August 5, 1878, and although but fifty-nine years old at the time of his departure from the scenes of earthly activity, had crowded as much of incident and adventure, of effort and service to his kind, into his half century of carnest experience as many a man does in his full three score years and ten. He sprang from a race of pioncers, his par- ents, Isaac and Mary (Rice) Gleason, being pio- neers in Lewis county, N. Y., as some of their ancestors were in the section from which they came, although they were themselves born and reared in the state of New York. The father was a farmer and took up a tract of wild land in Lewis county in his young manhood, and by strenuous and continued effort cleared it and made an ex- cellent farm of it. On that farm the mother died on October 11, 1838, and not long after her demise, the father, with his mind still attuned to the untaught and rugged music of the frontier, came to Michigan, where he died in October, 1860. They had four sons and one daughter, all now deceased. Their son William grew to man- hood in his native state and was educated in the district schools in the vicinity of his home. He followed farming and other occupations there until he emigrated to Michigan and located in Jackson county. Here he was soon afterward prostrated by a serious illness which compelled his return to New York. After the restoration of his health he again came to this state and took up his residence in Kalamazoo county in 1849. The next spring, in company with Dr. Sager and two other young men, he went to California, traveling overland with horse teams and reaching his desti- nation in July, 1850. He followed mining two years successfully at Placerville, and then re- turning to this county, bought two hundred acres of good land on which his widow now lives. He lived to clear this tract and improve it with good buildings and other needed structures, bringing it to a high state of cultivation and making an excel- lent farm of it, and then passed away, leaving his work and its results as a lasting memorial to his in- dustry and skill. He was an earnest Democrat in political faith, and also left a memorial of his inter-
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est in and capacity for public usefulness by making a first-rate record in a number of local offices to which he was chosen by the people of his town- ship. On January 9, 1848, he was married to Miss Henrietta E. H. Hodgeman, a native of England who came to this country with her parents when she was but three years old. They were Henry and Elizabeth (Epsley) Hodgeman, and lived on a farm which they owned near Elyria, Ohio, a number of years, then moved to Kalamazoo, where they died several years afterward. Mr. and Mrs. Gleason had five children and four of them are living : Alice, wife of E. T. Hunt, a Comstock township farmer; Frank H., a resident of the village of Comstock; Sarah E., wife of George Allen, of Comstock; and William Gleason, Jr., who is living on the old home farm. The last named was born on that place on April 22, 1861, and has passed all his life so far on it. He re- ceived his education in the neighboring common schools, and beginning in his boyhood by active industry in the labors of the farm, has learned his chosen occupation thoroughly by personal atten- tion to all its details in every branch. He has de- voted his life to the calling and has made a very creditable record in it. On April 27, 1898, he was married to Miss Sadie Peer, a native of Com- stock. They are the parents of two children, their sons Perry and Dale.
HENRY J. LUTTENTON.
A text of heroism, a name and narrative of courage, always kindle the imagination and in- spire the soul of one who is properly attuned to their martial music, and such are furnished in the life-story of Henry J. Luttenton, an honored pioneer of Comtock township, Kalamazoo county, and one of the few bold invaders and van- quishers of the wilderness yet left among us to tell over the tales of the morning of our history, who is also a veteran of the Civil war that be- held and fought on its fields of carnage where American valor was put to its severest test and most gloriously vindicated its right to all the encomiums bestowed upon it in song and story. Contending here in our early days with all the
hostile forces of nature, and then, when the triumph was won, going forth to battle for the salvation of the Union and again confronting a foeman worthy of his steel, he bore himself bravely in either contest, and now modestly wears the laurels won in both. Mr. Luttenton was born in the state, at Plymouth, Wayne county, on May 25, 1831. When he was five years old his parents, Jared and Sarah (Dunn) Luttenton, moved to this county, and here he has ever since had his home. His father was a farmer born in the state of New York, and in his young manhood moved to Ohio, where he became acquainted with and married his wife, a native of that state. In 1830 they journeyed over the intervening wilds to Michigan and located in Wayne county, six years later moving to Kalamazoo county and purchasing a tract of over two hundred acres of wild land in Comstock township. On this they passed the remainder of their days, the father dying in 1857 and the mother in 1881. In the twenty-one years of his life on this farm the father succeeded in clearing his land, providing it with good buildings and other improvements, and bringing it to the high state of cultivation suggested by its natural fertility. He also bought an additional tract of eighty acres, which he also cleared and reduced to productiveness. The family comprises six sons and six daughters, all of whom are now dead but Henry and three of his sisters, the remains of all the deceased being buried in the family burial ground on the farm. On this farm Henry Luttenton grew to manhood, his mind being trained in the primitive schools of the frontier, his muscles developed and sinews toughened by the strenuous labors of fell- ing trees, breaking new ground and tilling the soil, and his spirit enlarged and ennobled by the voices of nature in their untutored wilderness. The playmates of his childhood were Indian boys and girls, and with the former he had many a boyish scrap which gave him skill and courage in self- defense ; and one of the amusements of his youth and early manhood was tracking the wild beasts of the forest to their lair, which taught him self- reliance, the sleight of woodcraft and boldness in the face of danger. In 1864 he enlisted in
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Company B, Tenth Michigan Cavalry, and to the close of the Civil war fought under General Sher- man in Kentucky, Tennessee and other Southern states, doing duty as a scout, quitting the service only after the last Confederate flag was furled in everlasting defeat. He had a brother also in the Union service in the Thirteenth Michigan In- fantry, Home Guard. After the close of the war he returned to the farm, and since then he has devoted himself to its duties. Mr. Luttenton was married in 1856 to Miss Elizabeth Babcock, who was born at Plymouth, Wayne county, Mich .. and they have had six children. Four of these are living: Alice, the wife of Charles Gamet, of Kalamazoo: George S., who is working the home farm; Mary E., the wife of Lewis Blanchard. also of Kalamazoo: and Ida E., the wife of R. Rice, of Galesburg. The father is a Republican in politics, but he has but little to do with bitter partisan contests and has never sought or desired public office of any kind. Fraternally he is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. His grandfather was stolen in childhood by Indians and held in captivity by them a number of years. He was then rescued and adopted by a French Canadian trader by the name of Luttenton, who reared and educated him, and whose name he took, being too young when he was carried into capacity to know his own or where the tragedy occurred, and never afterward finding any trace of his parents or former residence.
LUCAS STRATTON.
The conquest of a man over nature in this country, which is an inspiring theme for thought and writing where space and fitness allow its ex- tended narration, has been like "Freedom's battle, once begun, bequeathed by (struggling) sire to son, though baffled often ever won." It finds a stirring suggestion in the career of the interesting subject of this memoir who, although not strictly a pioneer of Michigan, was an early settler in this state and helped to push forward its progress from an incomplete condition to a splendid devel- opment, and was besides a pioneer in Portage county, Ohio, where he settled with his parents in
1836, when he was but seven years old. He was born in Wyoming county, N. Y., on November 8, 1829, and was a son of Joseph and Ruth (Olin) Stratton, natives of Vermont, where the father was born in 1800 and the mother in 1804. Early in life and in the history of the region they located at or near Perry in Wyoming county, N. Y. They were married in 1824 and became the parents of eleven children, ten of whom are living. In 1836 they took another journey in the wake of the set- ting sun, making their home in Portage county, Ohio, where they were on the veritable frontier of that day, and where they redeemed from the wilderness and improved a good farm. The mother died in that county in 1878, and some time afterward the father chose as his second wife Miss Martha A. Munsel, whom he survived only a few months, dying at his Ohio home in July, 1887. His son Lucas grew to manhood amid the scenes of toil and danger of the Ohio farm, in a region wherein then every force was required to make a living for the family and but slender opportuni- ties were afforded for intellectual training, so far clid physical necessities overbear loftier aspira- tions. Like other boys of his day and condition, he was obliged to be content with brief and irreg- ular terms at the country schools and depend on his native force and the stern discipline of experi- ence for his equipment for the battle of life. He remained at home some years after attaining his maturity, and then bought a farm for himself in the neighborhood. In 1876 he came to Kalamazoo county and soon after his arrival settled on a farm on Gum Prairie, Allegan county, which he bought. After living there a number of years he made a tour of inspection through Nebraska and Kansas, but not finding a location that suited him better, on his return to this state in 1882 he bought land in Comstock township, this county, on which he afterward lived. This he improved and re- duced to cultivation with gratifying results, and had one of the choice farms in the township. On September 1I, 1853, he was married to Miss Clarinda Frazier, a native of Portage county, Ohio. They have had five children, and three of them are living, Ella L., wife of Christopher West, of Galesburg, William B., at home, and
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Ina D., wife of George E. Walker. Mr. Stratton was prominent in all enterprises for the benefit of his section and zealous in every duty of good citi- zenship. His death occurred on August 16, 1905. . He was a Mason, belonging to the blue lodge at Galesburg.
WARREN MEREDITH.
Warren Meredith, who was born in Genesee county, N. Y., on September 14, 1840, and has lived in Kalamazoo county from the time when he was but three years old, enjoys in an unusual degree the confidence and regard of his fellow citizens of the county, and has deserved their good will by his industrious and upright life. His par- ents were David and Mary ( Hawkins) Meredith, the father a native of Pennsylvania and the mother of New York. A more extended account of their lives is given in the sketch of the late Evans Meredith on another page of this work. They became residents of this county in 1843, making the trip from their New York home with teams, and locating on a tract of uncultivated and unbroken land in Pavilion township on their ar- rival here, and living on that farm until they had made extensive and valuable improvements, then moving to another farm they bought in Portage township, the one on which Mr. Meredith now lives. This had at the time when they took pos- session of it a small log house and about forty acres of cleared land. The family lived in the little log house a number of years, then built the comfortable dwelling in which the son at this time makes his home, and the other buildings with which the place is improved. Here the mother died in 1861 and the father in 1880. They had four sons and one daughter, all now dead but Warren and his twin brother Walter, who lives in Allegan county. The father was a Republican, but although earnest in the support of his convic- tions, never sought or held public office. Warren Meredith received his education in the common schools of this county, and here he has passed all of his life since 1843. While yet a mere boy he assisted in clearing the farm and bringing it under cultivation, and it has ever since been his home.
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