USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 55
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WASHINGTON R. HUNT.
This well known farmer of Prairie Ronde township, this county, has been a resident of the county and actively engaged in its profitable and inspiring industries since he was thirteen years old, coming here with his parents in 1865. He was born in Whitley county, Ind., on August 4. 1852, the son of Truman and Mary L. (Mitchell) Hunt, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of Maryland. The father was born on Jan- uary 2, 1809, near Roxbury, Conn., a son of Wil- liam Hunt, also a native of Connecticut, and a farmer, who moved to the state of New York.
where he died some years later. His son Tru- man followed various occupations, being a miller, stonemason and farmer. He came to northern Indiana about 1842, and entered a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of government land in the heavy timber of that state. This land he cleared and added to it until he owned over five hundred acres. He also put up a grist mill and saw mill, which he operated a number of years. In 1863 he came to Kalamazoo county and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, on which his son, Washington, now lives, and in 1865 moved his family to this land and began the work of clearing it and bringing it under cul- tivation. He lived in this county until his death in 1900, his wife passing away here in 1895. They had three daughters and two sons, four of whom are living, Washington being the only one resi- dent in this county. The father was a Whig until the death of that party, and then became a Re- publican. Both before and during the Civil war he was a pronounced and active abolitionist. He filled a number of local offices in Indiana and was prominent and influential in this county. The son was reared to manhood in this county, at- tending the district schools and Notre Dame Academy at South Bend. Ind. He has been pros- perously engaged in various business enterprises, including keeping hotel, milling and farming. He was married in St. Joseph county, Mich., in 1876, to Miss Alva Metcalf, a native of Ohio. She died in 1877, and in February, 1891. he married Miss Adela M. Cole, a native of Indiana. They have three children living, Mary, Rebecca and Cecil. Few men in the county are better known than Mr. Hunt, and none is more highly or more gen- erally respected.
LEWIS S. BURDICK.
This pioneer settler of Texas township is a na- tive of Madison county, N. Y., born on February II, 1820, and the son of Sanford and Abigail (Lee) Burdick, the former born in Rhode Island and the latter in Connecticut. The father's life began in 1789. He was a farmer and moved to Madison county, N. Y., when it was a new coun-
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try, and there he lived until 1834. Then, the spirit of enterprise and conquest that had impelled him to his first move to the frontier brought him and his family to the wilds of Michigan, they making the journey by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo, and from there by steamer to Detroit. In the last named place they were met by an ox team with a horse ahead, sent out by Mr. Burdick's uncle, Robert Burdick (see sketch of Victor Burdick on another page), and seven long and trying days were consumed in the trip from Detroit to what is now Charleston township, this county, where the family located. In 1835 the mother died here and in 1838 the father also passed away. They had three sons and three daughters, all now de- ceased but Lewis and one of his sisters, Mrs. Cor- ner, of Battle Creek. When the family came to Michigan Lewis was a youth of fourteen. He had attended school in his native state, and after his arrival went one winter in Michigan. At the age of eighteen he was left alone in the world by the death of his father, and for two years thereafter he worked by the month on farms in Charleston township, clearing land and teaming. He then bought a tract of eighty acres of wild land on which he built a log house and part of which he cleared. Afterward, until 1848, he was engaged in manufacturing lime in the township, and in the year last mentioned he sold his outfit in this business and bought the farm of two hundred and forty-eight acres in Texas township, on which he now lives, but a small part of which had been cleared at the time of his purchase. This he has cleared and improved with good buildings, mak- ing it a farm of the first rank and in keeping with his surroundings in that progressive township. He married in 1842 with Miss Mary Towers, a native of Vermont and daughter of Albert Tow- ers, a pioneer of the township. She died in 1881, and in 1882 Mr. Burdick married a second wife, Mrs. Laura M. Voke, a widow with four children. They have no children of their own, but have reared two whom they adopted. One of Mrs. Burdick's sons by her first marriage, Charles H. Voke, now works the Burdick farm. His mother's maiden name was Tanner. She came to Michigan in 1843, locating in Van Buren county. In poli-
tics Mr. Burdick has been a Greenbacker and a Republican, but he is now a Democrat. He never takes an active part in political contests, however, but has served as supervisor, justice of the peace, treasurer and clerk. He came to Michigan a poor boy, and has had many a hard struggle, but by industry and economy he has accumulated a competence, and his worth has won him the re- spect and regard of all classes of the people in the county. He was the first postmaster in Texas township, getting an office at his home in 1873 and having charge of it three years.
WARREN W. HILL.
Warren W. Hill, of Texas township, Kala- mazoo county, one of the citizens best known and most highly esteemed throughout the county, whose private life and public services in various townships and county offices have been a credit to the county and state, is a native of Kalamazoo county, born on the farm on which he now lives, and educated in the district schools of the neigh- borhood of his home. His life began on August 19, 1848, and the whole of it has been passed amid the people around him and in the active pro- motion of every good enterprise which they have undertaken. He is the son of Amos B. and Sally (Ryan) Hill, natives of Madison county, N. Y. The father was a wagonmaker, and in 1847 came to Michigan and bought a tract of two hundred acres of wild land in Texas township, this county, on which he located and remained until death, passing away in 1903, at the age of ninety-one, his wife dying in August, 1898. They had five sons and two daughters, of whom the daughters and three of the sons are living. The father was a man of influence and prominence and served in a number of township offices. His father, John Hill, was a soldier in the Revolution, serving from Rhode Island as a member of the Coast Guard. He was also a Baptist minister, and died in the state of New York. The maternal grand- father of Mr. Hill, Michael Ryan, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was wounded at the battle of Black Rock. Warren W. Hill reached man's estate on his father's farm, obtained his education
DR. MALCOLM HILL.
WARREN W. HILL.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
in the neighboring district schools, and has fol- lowed farming on this place all his life. He as- sisted in clearing and breaking up a great deal of the surrounding land, and helped to make it fruitful and productive. He was marreid in 1872 to Miss Julia A. Munson, a daughter of William D. Munson, who came to this county in 1855, and died in Texas township after serving as a justice of the peace many years. Mr. and Mrs. Warren Hill have had eight children, Herman J., James B. (deceased), Nellie, wife of N. H. Steel, H. Everal, wife of Frank Parsons, Lulu L., wife of a Mr. Burdick, Bessie J., Louis D. and Edna, all living at home. Politically Mr. Hill is an ardent Democrat, and for years has been one of the lead- ers of his party. He served as township clerk one year, justice of the peace two years and super- visor four years. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees. He is now one of the oldest residents of the township, and throughout the county he is well and favorably known and highly esteemed.
FRANK J. PARSONS.
It is much in the favor of a community when those who have charge of its public utilities and special local features of government have been born and bred amid its people, and are therefore in close touch with every phase of its life. This is the case with Texas township, this county, the supervisor of which, Frank J. Parsons, is not only a representative citizen of the township, but is wholly a product of it and its institutions. He was born in the township he is now serving so faithfully and with such capacity on August 6, 1879, and was educated in the district schools of the township and at the Schoolcraft high school. He is the son of Elmer and Serena V. (Stuyhart) Parsons, natives of New York, who came to Michigan with their parents. The father re- mained in his native state until he became a young man, then accompanied his parents, Ly- man and Lucinda Parsons, to this state, where his grandfather bought the land on which the grandson now lives. The place was partially im- proved with some buildings, and was in part un-
der cultivation. Here the grandfather passed the remainder of his life, and kept up the spirit of improvement the pioneers had started, and at his death had a well-developed and very productive farm. The grandmother also died here. All the sons of the family located in Texas township but one, who migrated to Minnesota. The father of Frank J. Parsons bought the interest of the other heirs in the homestead, and passed the rest of his life on the place also, dying in 1889. His widow still lives in the township. They had two children, their sons, Frank and Nelson, the latter dying in infancy. The surviving son. Frank J., after leaving school, began working on the home farm at the age of seventeen, and has had charge of it continuously since then. He was married in June, 1893. to Miss H. Everil Hill. a daughter of Warren W. Hill, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. In po- litical faith Mr. Parsons has been a life-long Re- publican, and as such has taken an intelligent and helpful interest in the public affairs of the -township. He was elected supervisor in the spring of 1905, and is the youngest member of the board. But in the care of his father's farm he had already demonstrated his fitness for adminis- trative duties ; and his deep abiding interest in the welfare of the township put an edge on his ability that has made it very serviceable to the people. Fraternally he is a Knight of the Macca- bees, and in all the social and business relations of his section he is active and potent in helping to push forward the car of progress in the township and secure for its residents the best possible re- sults of their well-placed and productive energy.
LEVI B. FISHER.
The review of a life like the one under pres- ent consideration, however often and with what- ever variations it may be repeated, must always be full of suggestiveness and stimulus to the young and of comfort to the more mature who are interested in their country's welfare and the high- est and most sterling expression of its citizenship. Levi B. Fisher, well and favorably known throughout Kalamazoo county as a builder, farmer
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and dealer in live stock, is essentially a self-made man. He started out to make his own way in the world when fifteen years of age, and he has done it with unusual success, and without aid from friends or the favors of fortune. He had but few educational advantages, but was endowed by na- ture with indomitable will and pluck, a keen eye for business opportunities and the wisdom which seizes and converts them into tangible and sub- stantial results. His success in his various ven- tures has been continuous, but is not surprising to those who know the man. The germ of this spreading oak was in the tough acorn from which it sprang. Given the original qualities of the boy, all that has followed was plainly deducible there- from, unless prevented by death or some supreme calamity. Mr. Fisher was born at Lexington, Stark county, Ohio, on August 17, 1825. and is the son of Reuben Fisher, a farmer from Pennsyl- vania, and the grandson of Lanta Fisher, an Eng- lishman who settled on the banks of the James river in Virginia, and afterward removed to Crawford county, Pa. Reuben Fisher, after his marriage, went to Stark county, Ohio, where
he was one of the early settlers. He settled in Macomb county. this state, in 1840, and died there in 1851. He mar- ried with Miss Lovina Knox, a daughter of John Knox, and granddaughter of General Henry Knox, the first secretary of war in the United States. She bore her husband eight children, and after his death married Mr. Shakespeare, - the grandfather of General William Shakespeare, of Kalamazoo. She died in 1858. After leaving school Levi Fisher learned the trade of a carpen- ter and worked at it in his native state until he came to Michigan in 1846, and during the five years after coming here erected many of the first buildings of importance in Cooper and the ad- joining townships. In February, 1847, he bought his farm in Cooper township, which was then little more than a wilderness, and this he has en- riched with good buildings and so improved by wise husbandry that he has one of the finest properties in the township. He also owns an eighty-acre tract of land in Van Buren county. In addition to his farming operations he has dealt
extensively in live stock and conducted a butcli- ering business in Kalamazoo, Englewood and Chicago. In 1851 he united in marriage with Miss Louisa Chamberlain, who was born at Lew- iston, Niagara county, N. Y., in 1830. She is a daughter of Luther and Martha ( Bemer) Cham- berlain. the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Canada. They came to Michigan in 1835 and after passing a few months at Niles, lo- cated on a tract of government land which they entered in Cooper township. They passed from this life aged respectively eighty-six and sixty- two years. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have had three children, Waldlo L., deceased, lda .\., wife of Jay Skinner, and Frank B. The father was originally a Whig and later became a Republican. Since 1884, however, he has voted with the Prohibition- ists. He has served as highway commissioner for his township and was elected justice of the peace, but for this office he did not qualify. For forty- three years he has been an active and influential member of the Congregational church, to which his wife also belongs, and was superintendent of the Sunday school for many years, as well as a deacon of the church. In addition he served some time as a member of the county Sunday school executive committee. Always energetic in good works, he has a long record of great use- fulness to his credit, and enjoys in an unusual degree the confidence and esteem of the whole people of the county.
MACE S. BORDEN.
The history of this valued pioneer of Cooper township is not unlike that of many others of the sturdy people who settled southern Michigan and laid the foundations of that prosperity and greatness, that commercial wealth, industrial ac- tivity, moral elevation and educational zeal for which the state is distinguished throughout the length and breadth of the land. His parents, Mace S. and Nancy M. (Fish) Borden, were na- tives of New York, who moved to Ohio in the early 30s and remained there until 1836. then came to Michigan and entered a tract of government land in Cooper township. The tract comprised
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one hundred and seven acres and is in sections 9 and 10. On February 11, 1836, not long before the family left Ohio, the subject of this review was born, so that he came into this state an in- fant, and almost the whole of his life has been passed in this county. The township had been entered by the daring pioneer scarcely more than two years before this family came hither, and the land on which they settled was in the midst of a vast forest and heavily timbered. To it and through it the father was obliged to cut his own roads, and for some years after locating here his axe was kept warm in clearing his land and preparing it for cultivation. His first work was to put up a log cabin with a bark roof, and in that the family lived a number of years. There has been one transfer of the land since he entered it. and that was from him to his son. On this farm the parents lived and labored to the end of their days, the mother dying in 1874, and the father in 1888. They had two sons who grew to man- hood, Mace S. and his brother, John C., who lives at Waverly, Neb. The parents were Congrega- tionalists and helped to erect the first church building belonging to that sect in the township. Mr. Borden's paternal grandfather was a native of Rhode Island and a sailor. After following the sea for many years and meeting with all kinds of adventures and thrilling experiences, he came to Michigan to pass the remainder of his life in- peace and quiet, arriving here soon after the rest of the family. He died at Athens, in Calhoun county. Mace S. Borden, the younger, grew to manhood on the Cooper township farm, on which he now lives, with Indian boys for playmates, the wild exuberance of nature for inspiration and the laborious duties of rural life in a new country as his training school, which was very moderately supplemented by the elementary instruction given in primitive conditions and with rude appliances in the schools of his boyhood. Deer, bear and turkeys in abundance invited the sport of his rifle; and the voracious predatory wolf often made its use necessary. He was married on Jan- uary 20, 1864, to Miss Rhuba A. Barto, a daugh- ter of Orin M. Barto, one of the pioneers of the county, an account of whose life will be found in
the sketch of another son-in-law, Cyrus E. Tra- vis. Mr. and Mrs. Borden have one child. their son, George S., who resides on the home farm with his parents. Mr. Borden is a Republican, but he has never filled or sought office. He is a member of the Masonic lodge at Cooper Center, and he and his wife belong to the Congregational church. As they are among the oldest citizens of the county, so are they among the most widely and highly respected.
WALLACE VICKERY.
This son of one of the early pioneers of this county and representative of a family prominent and very serviceable in the early days, was born on April 2, 1839, on the farm in Schoolcraft township on which he died on January 29, 1887, and on which he passed the whole of his life, ex- cept three years, during which he lived at School- craft. His parents were Stephen and Zila (Stan- ley) Vickery, early arrivals in the county. The father was a surveyor, who located on the west side of Prairie Ronde township in the fall of 1829 or 1830, and in the following winter he taught school at Insley's Corners. He was the first clerk of Kalamazoo county, and while hold- ing that office he lived at Bronson, now Kalama- zoo. Afterward he moved to the farm in School- craft township, on Gourd-neck Prairie, which was the last home of his son Wallace. He did much surveying in the western part of the state ; and was a prominent Whig politician. He repre- sented the county several times in the legislature, and was once a candidate for governor, but was defeated owing to the hopeless minority of the Whig party in the state. He was twice married, his children being the fruit of the second union. In the spring of 1857 he took up his residence in the village of Schoolcraft, which he had sur- veyed in 1831 for the proprietor, Lucius Lyon. His death occurred at Schoolcraft on December 12, 1857. He was possessed of a remarkable memory, and his mind was stored with the treas- ures of many volumes which he had read. Mrs. Vickery, his wife, was a sister to Mervin Stan- ley, an early settler in the Shaver neighborhood
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on Prairie Ronde. She came with her father, Elisha Stanley, to this state when she was twen- ty-two years of age, and lived with him on White Pigeon Prairie. They were natives of New York. She died at Schoolcraft on September 21, 1894, and there is no living member of the carlier generations of the family in the county. Wallace Vickery grew to manhood in this county and was educated in the schools at Schoolcraft. He began in boyhood working on the old home- stead, and on it he lived nearly the whole of his life. On December 29. 1859, he united in mar- riage with Miss Jeannette Coykondall, who was born in Livingston county, N. Y. Her parents, Daniel and Louisa (Strowbridge) Coykondall. also natives of New York, came to Jackson county, Mich .. in 1847, and died there. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Vickery had two children: Hattic L., now Mrs. Robert J. Gilmore, who lives on the home farm and has three children, Vickery J .. Maynard R. and Jeannette E. ; and Addie L., now Mrs. Charles E. Mohney, of Vicksburg. In poli- tics Mr. Vickery was a leading Democrat and served as supervisor and treasurer of his town- ship. He was well known throughout the county and everywhere was highly respected, being a progressive man and a liberal supporter of every enterprise that tended to improve and advance the county and promote the welfare of its people.
WALLACE F. FRAKES.
Born in Schoolcraft township, this county, and passing all of his subsequent life on the farm on which he now lives, which was his birthplace. and which he helped to clear and break up, Wal- lace F. Frakes is well known throughout the township and has been an important factor in its development and improvement. He is the son of Joseph and Osillar (Downs), formerly Osillar Parker, Frakes, the former born in Fairfield county, Ohio, on December 25, 1799, of Welsh ancestry, and the latter in New Jersey on April 6, 1804. In 1827 the father came to Cass county, this state, and remained a year, making some little improvement on a tract of land he selected. There were no settlers in the neighborhood and Indians
were numerous, so that the conditions of life were far from agreeable or promising. In 1828 he re- turned to Ohio and was married. For their wed- ding tour the young couple made the journey to Cass county, the place of the husband's former residence in this state, with an ox team. After a tedious trip of one month they arrived at their destination with less than one dollar in money and little else. By this time a few white settlers had arrived, but the principal inhabitants were Indians. The prospects for the young pioneers were most discouraging. They remained in Cass county a year or more, then, in 1830, came to this county and settled in Schoolcraft township, where they passed the remainder of their lives. By in- dustry and frugality they soon began to thrive and the father purchased the land he had at first borrowed from the Indians. He extended his borders until at one time he owned one thousand acres of prime land. Hle reared a family of eight children, two of whom are living, his son Wal- lace and his daughter, Mrs. Susan M. Manigo, of Vicksburg. Throughout their residence in this part of the county the Indians were always friendly with Mr. Frakes, the elder, as he always treated them with fairness and generosity. He saw service in the war of 1812, although he was but a boy of twelve years when it began. He also enlisted for the Black Hawk war. His death occurred in 1881, and that of his wife in 1887. Their son Wallace was reared to manhood on the old homestead and obtained his education in the primitive schools of his boyhood and youth. He assisted his father in clearing and breaking up the farm, and later became the owner of a part of it. In 1859 he was married to Miss Mary E. Vaughn. They had nine children, and of these two daughters and three sons are living. The mother died in 1888. The father is a Republican in political affiliation, but he has never been an active partisan. Eldridge Parker, of Brady town- ship, is his half-brother, being the son of his mother by her first marriage. For several years Mr. Frakes has lived and labored among this peo- ple, performing faithfully his duties in every re- lation of life, and now there is no one who does not respect him. He witnessed the passing of
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the Indian and the planting of civilization in this region, and he has helped to build it up to its present splendid development; and now, in the evening of life, he rests secure in the enjoyment of the results of his work and the regard and good will of all who know him.
EDSON W. COOK.
The restless energy of the great Empire state which has not only developed that commonwealth to such gigantic proportions of commercial, in- dustrial and intellectual growth, but has also laid now regions under the dominion of its all-con- quering spirit, was one of the most potent fac- tors in redeeming the wilds of southern Michigan and making them fruitful in the products of the farm, rich in the domain of manufactures, pow- erful in fiscal agencies, and sound, substantial and commanding in civic, educational and moral in- stitutions. And among the men from that state who are to be mentioned with credit in any com- pilation, of the motive powers of progress here, Edson W. Cook, the well known farmer and stock breeder of Brady township, has a high rank. He was born in Genesee county, N. Y., on January 20. 1842, the son of Washington and Susan (Calkins) Cook, themselves natives of New York, and prosperous farmers in that state. They became residents of this county about the year 1852, and located on a tract of wild land in Brady township, which some years later they sold, after- ward owning several other farms in the county. In 1863 they moved to Allegan county, where they passed the remainder of their days. Their family comprised three sons and three daughters, five of whom are living, Edson W. being the only one resident in this county. The father was a leading Whig until the death of that party, and afterward a Republican ; but he never sought or accepted a political office of any kind. The son was educated in this county, and has passed all of his life here since he was ten years old. He cleared the greater part of his present farm, and of it, unpromising as it was when he took hold of it, he has made a model place, bringing nearly all under vigorous cultivation and improving it
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