USA > Michigan > Lenawee County > History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan, Volume I > Part 13
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
fenced and improved it. Lucius lived with his father until his seventeenth year, when he left home. He went to Cleveland a stranger, where he found employment for about four months. He then went to Akron, Ohio, where he remained until the spring of 1844, when he returned to Cleveland, and engaged as clerk for P. M. Weddell & Company, where he remained until May, 1847. He commenced the youngest clerk in the store, but gradually rose from one position to another, in the large establishment, until 1845, when he became "head clerk," which position he held at the time of Mr. Weddell's death, in 1847. He then assisted in closing up the vast estate of his old employer, and on the follow- ing year purchased a half interest in the Weddell House, then the finest hotel in the west. He remained in the hotel about three years, when he sold out and was soon afterwards appointed as the
Cleveland agent of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana line of steamers. He held that position until the fall of 1853, when he went to Buffalo, into the general ticket office of the same company, and afterwards went to Adrian in the same capacity. September, 1855, he went to Tecumseh and took the position of teller of the old Tecumseh bank. When this institution wound up its affairs in 1860, he organized the Savings Bank of P. Bills & Company, P. Bills being the president and Mr. Lilley the cashier, which he run until 1865, successfully, when he organized the National Bank of Tecumseh, of which he was the cashier until the spring of 1874, when it went into liquidation, it being a very successful institution, and he at once organized the present bank of Bills, Lilley & Company. July 18th, 1848, he married Miss Sarah McEachron, of Cleveland, Ohio. They have had two children, a son and a daughter, as follows: J. Raynor Lilley, born in Adrian, September 3d, 1854, now in New York city, in the great scale house of Fairbanks & Co., and Miss Lulu, born in Tecumseh, September 3rd, 1856. Mrs. Sarah Lilley was born in Nova Scotia, February 5th, 1829, of Scotch parents, and came to Cleveland with her mother, in 1835.
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ILLIAM HAYDEN was born in Springfield, Otsego county, New York, March 25th, 1819. His father, Hezekiah Hayden, was born in Windsor, Hartford county, Connecticut, June 6th, 1777. When a young man he learned the weaver and cloth-dresser's trade, and from 1811 to 1823 he run a
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woolen factory in Springfield, Otsego county, New York. He died there in June, 1823. In October 1802, he married Miss Hannah Hayden, daughter of Isaac and Lucy Hayden, of Windsor, Connecticut. They had twelve children, nine sons and three daughters, William being the tenth child and seventh son. Mrs. Hannah Hayden was born in Windsor, Connecticut, December 10th, 1778, and died in August, 1823. When William Hayden was four years old he was left an orphan. He was then taken to Windsor, Connecticut, where he was bound out to an uncle and lived three years. He was taken to Bennington, Genesee county, New York, where he learned the shoemaker and tanner's trade with his uncle, Albert Hayden, and lived with him until he was twenty-one. In 1840 he commenced business for himself, and purchased his uncle's tannery and shoe shop in Bennington, which he run about two years, when he formed a co-partnership with M. L. Vosburgh and enlarged the business, Mr. Vosburgh running the tannery, and Mr. Hayden opening a currier's shop in Byron, Genesee county, New York, continuing until about 1846, when Mr. Hayden sold his interest to Mr. Vosburgh. He then went into business with a brother-in-law and operated quite largely in the milling and lumber trade in Byron, New York, for about two years, when he and a brother-Levi-went to New York and engaged in repairing and refitting vessels for sea. In the spring of 1849 he went to California-overland-with a Buffalo company of twelve, under Captain Fay. They were one hundred days on the road-the company being attacked with cholera on the Platte river, and four of the party-the captain, Albert Hayden, brother of William, and two others - died. William was attacked with the cholera at the same time, but survived it. When near the south pass in the mountains he, with another of the party, was attacked with mountain fever, and provisions being short, they were left to perish. They survived the fever, however, and in a few days overtook the party. Their remedy for the fever was white oak bark, which Mr. Hayden happened to have about him. Daniel Boone, a grandson of the old trapper, came along, and while he was cooking his supper near by, they borrowed his skillet to steep the bark, which they took in small doses until they completely recovered. The party, consisting of eight persons, finally arrived in Sacramento City the latter part of September. During the last few days before arriving there, they would have perished from starvation had it not been for a government supply train sent out to succor them. He remained there, engaged in mining, building and contracting until the summer of 1851, when he was called home. He left San
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Francisco on the steamer Union, Captain Marks, for Panama. On the morning of the fifth day out, the steamer was wrecked on a reef off San Quintine Bay, Southern California, seven hundred miles below San Francisco. None of the passengers were lost. About four miles back from the coast was a Spanish ranche, from whence a passenger undertook the task of going to San Francisco after another steamer. He procured a horse there, and rode to the next ranche, and so on, each ranche furnishing a relay until he made the whole distance in seven days. There was no steamer to be had, but another party which left at the same time went to Santiago where they found the steamer Northerner, just sailing out of the harbor. By signaling her from the shore she returned and took them aboard, going down the coast, rescuing the entire party of castaways, sixteen days after the wreck. Here Mr. Hayden met with a great misfortune: while going through the rather hazardous undertaking of getting aboard a yawl boat in the ocean surf in a heavy sea, the boat capsized, when he was thrown beneath the waves, and when the surf went to sea, his " carpet bag" containing nearly $4,000.00 in gold, together with his clothes, was taken with it, and all his wealth was gone in a moment. The next dilemma was how to get home. He had no money and could not pay his fare, when to his great relief, the wife of the governor of California, started a subscription on board the vessel, and $240 was raised in a very brief time, which paid his passage home. All went smoothly for a short time. Panama was reached and the Isthmus was crossed in safety, when he boarded the steamer, Brother Jonathan, bound for New York. About the second day out there was more trouble for him, and nearly another wreck. A fearful storm occurred, carrying away one smoke stack and disabling one wheel. She put into Kingston for repairs and coal. While off Cape Hatteras one of the boilers burst and the vessel took fire. This was indeed a "dark day " for the passengers after having passed through so much, to be burned up at last, but the fire was finally subdued, and with one wheel and one engine, the poor old vessel finally reached New York, August 20th, 1851, about midnight. In the fall of 1851 he went to Jackson, Michigan, where he purchased the "Vandercook Mills," three miles south-east of the city, from his brother Henry A. Hayden, of Jackson. He remained there three years, and then sold out, when a co-partnership, consisting of Hayden, Reynolds & Hayden, was formed, and the "Kennedy Mills " were purchased of P. B. Loomis. The company was very successful for three years, when William Hayden sold out his interest and retired from the business. August 16th, 1858, he purchased the "Globe Mills" of Tecumseh,
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of R. P. Buck & Company, of New York, and has resided in Tecumseh ever since. The "Globe Mills" are the most successful of any in Southern Michigan. About two years since he commenced shipping flour to Ireland, and is now filling an order of four hundred tons for Sligo, Ireland, a vessel being chartered expressly for its transportation from New York. In connection with his mill, he has a large stave and heading factory, and will manufacture 2,000,000 staves this year, which he ships to New York for sugar barrels. He also manufactures all his own flour barrels. During the past eighteen years he has lost two stave factories by fire. Uncle Albert Hayden died in Tecumseh, at the home of his nephew, after a residence there of fifteen years, on the 10th of April, 1877. His body was taken to Connecticut and buried in the old grounds at Windsor, where lie the Haydens for six generations. December 18th, 1856, William married Miss Sarah M. Hosmer, daughter of Alonzo and Asenath Hosmer, of Parkman, Geauga county, Ohio. They have had eight children, four sons and four daughters, as follows : Emily M., born November 6th, 1857, died August 2d, 1863; Albert S., born November 6th, 1859, clerk in the "Globe Mills;" Clara B., born August 9th, 1861; Lizzie F., born February 11th, 1863; William H., born March 27th, 1865; S. Mabel, born July 2d, 1866; Levi C., born March 25th, 1869; J. Marvin, born November 12th, 1871; all at home. Mrs. Sarah M. Hayden was born in Parkman, Geauga county, Ohio, May 22d, 1830. Her father, Alonzo Hosmer, was born in Middle Haddam, Connecticut, February 9th, 1798, and died in Parkman, Ohio, December 28th, 1876. Her mother, Asenath Hosmer, was born in Rutland, Vermont, September 5th, 1803, and died at Parkman, Ohio, April 20th, 1863.
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ON. JEROME B. CHAFFEE was born in Cambria, Niagara county, New York, April 17th, 1825. He received an academic education at Lockport, New York. He came to Adrian, Michigan, in the fall of 1844, and taught school in the Allen Chaffee district that fall and winter. In the spring of 1845 he engaged himself as a teacher, with George Brewster, and afterwards with Benjamin Hanse, then teaching in
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Adrian, where he remained about two years. He afterwards taught a district school, in the Selleck district. After teaching there he engaged as clerk in the dry goods store of W. S. Walker, for about a year, when he went to the State of Indiana, and settled at Ligonier, Noble county, where he engaged in the mercantile business, which he continued about three years, and sold out to his
again for himself, buying out Randall Palmer. He continued the partners and returned to Adrian, going into the dry goods trade
same for a short time, and formed a co-partnership with a Mr.
Cushing, of New York city, continuing the trade for several years, and disposing of his interest to his partner, when he engaged with the Erie and Kalamazoo bank, as clerk, where he remained until its failure, afterwards continuing in the employ of the receiver for
he went into the freight office, at Adrian, in the employ of the some months. After that time, having no other business on hand,
Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad Company, with James H. Kennedy, agent, where he stayed a short time. In March, 1857, he went to the Territory of Kansas, seeking his fortune. Going first to Leavenworth city, he engaged in speculation in wild lands and city property, not only in Leavenworth, but at Atchison,
Elwood, and other places. In the fall of 1857 he formed a
co-partnership with Albert L. Lee, at St. Joseph, Missouri, and started a banking business, which continued about two years, when they closed the business, and in 1860 Mr. Chaffee went to what was then called Pike's Peak, where he immediately engaged in mining, which business he has been engaged in ever since. At the organization of the Territory of Colorado, in 1861, he was tendered the nomination as delegate to Congress from the new Territory, which position he declined in favor of Mr. H. P. Bennett, who was nominated and elected by the Republicans. Mr. Chaffee was offered the nomination several times, as representative in the Legislature, and declined, but was afterwards elected, and served in the years 1861-2-3, the latter year acting as speaker of the House. In 1864-5 Congress passed an enabling act, and the Territorial Legislature organized the State government and elected Mr. Chaffee the first United States Senator. Owing to his antagonism to President Johnson's reconstruction policy, the President, at two successive sessions of Congress vetoed the bill admitting Colorado as a State, thus depriving Mr. Chaffee of the Senatorship during that time. In 1870 he was elected a delegate to Congress, and re-elected in 1872. The first bill he introduced was for the admission of Colorado as a State, which was finally carried, in March, 1875, whereupon he was again elected to the United States Senate, and served until March
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4th, 1879, when his term of office expired, and in consequence of poor health, and being extensively engaged in business, he declined a re-election. In 1860 he formed a business partnership with Mr. Eben Smith, a practical California miner, under the name of Smith & Chaffee, for the purpose of mining, which in some degree, has continued ever since. Mr. Chaffee has been engaged more extensively in mining than any other individual in the State, often times employing from fifteen hundred to two thousand men, at a daily expense of from five to six thousand dollars. At the present time he employs over three hundred men in one mine. In one of his mines, " The Bobtail," which is now organized into a company, he has been working for eighteen years, producing several millions of dollars of gold. This mine derived its name from the fact that the dirt was hauled down the mountain by a bob-tailed ox, in the year 1859, when the mine was first discovered. Mr. Chaffee is now engaged in the working of several mines, the largest of which is known as the " Little Pittsburgh Consolidated," located at Leadville, which is producing one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, gross, per month, working three hundred men. Over five million dollars worth of ore has already been discovered in this mine. In the Caribou mine, from seventy-five to one hundred men are employed daily. In the year 1865 he organized the First National bank of Denver, and became its president, and has remained so ever since, now fourteen years. In all the enterprises in the State, Mr. Chaffee has been closely identified, and to-day is more largely engaged in mining and other business than any other man in the State of Colorado. He was the oldest son of Warren Chaffee, who was born in Bellows Falls, Windham county, Vermont, where he resided until about twenty years of age, when he moved to Niagara county, New York, where he lived about thirty years. From there he went to the State of Indiana, and resided a few years, when he removed to Adrian, Michigan, where he died, about the year 1865. Mr. Chaffee has one brother and two sisters living : his brother, Frank W., lives at Carthage, Missouri; his oldest sister, Eliza, is the wife of Darius C. Willits, of the township of Adrian ; his youngest sister, Julia, is the wife of Nathan S. Crane, and lives in the city of Adrian. September 24th, 1848 he married Miss Miriam Comstock, daughter of Warner M. Comstock, of Adrian. By this marriage four children were born, two of whom died in infancy, and one at the age of eight years. Only one survives, Fannie Josephine, born the 16th of January, 1857. Mrs. Chaffee died November 11th, the same year. In 1870 Mr. Chaffee went to Europe for the first time, on business, and since that time has crossed the ocean five times.
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
The first time was for the purpose of selling the Maxwell grant of land, so-called, lying in New Mexico, which sale he accomplished at a net profit of about six hundred thousand dollars.
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ANIEL A. LOOMIS was born September 11th, 1811, at Lanesborough, Berkshire county, Massachusetts. His father, Daniel Loomis, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, January 3d, 1782. He was a carpenter and joiner, and a master builder of Lanesborough, and in fact Berkshire county. He was also a lieutenant and commanded a company in the war of 1812. He lived in Lanesborogh until 1820, when he emigrated to the State of New York, and settled in the town of Gates, Monroe county, four miles south-west of Rochester. He purchased a farm but remained there about two years, and in 1822 he moved to Rochester, and again engaged in building. Among the first contracts he took was the building of the first jail in Monroe county. This jail was built of oak timber 9x14 inches, each bent being framed and bolted together. This was considered the best jail in western New York for many years, no prisoner ever breaking out of it. He also did all the carpenter work on the present jail of that county. He lived in Rochester and on his farm at Gates, until his death, March 1st, 1864, with the exception of two years, when he came to Adrian and lived with his son, Daniel A. December 21st, 1803, Daniel Loomis married Miss Electa Sherman, daughter of Timothy and Polly Sherman, of Lanesborough, Massachusetts. In 1812 her father and mother, with their family, emigrated to Waterford, Washington county, Ohio. The result of this marriage was twelve children, three of whom, Isaac Loomis, of Rochester, New York; Heman Loomis, of Adrian, and Peter B. Loomis, of Jackson, Michigan, are living. Daniel A. Loomis lived with his father and worked at the carpenter's trade, until about 1830, when he met with an accident which disabled him, and he went into a store with his brother, Heman, for about a year. He afterwards spent one year in the south. On the 24th of October, 1833, he married Miss Eunice J. Bradley, of Lanesborough, Massachusetts. They had one son, William A., and one daughter, Caroline, who died an infant. Daniel A. Loomis landed in Monroe, Michigan, with his family, in 1836, where he lived until the spring of 1837, when he
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came to Adrian and purchased a farm in Adrian township, on section thirty-one, now owned by W. F. Peebles. This was a new farm with only a small log house and a little "clearing." Here he experienced all of the trials and privations of pioneer life for four years. In the fall of 1840 wheat was worth fifty cents per bushel, oats ten to twelve cents, corn twenty-five cents, and potatoes five to seven cents per bushel. This sc disgusted Mr. Loomis that he rented his farm to Job Card for two years and returned to New York and worked the old home farm in Gates, where he made a little money. He returned to Adrian in the fall of 1842. He then engaged in building and general carpenter work, which he followed during the most of his life. On the 7th of February, 1843, he joined the Adrian fire department and became a member of the Hook and Ladder company. In 1845 he was elected trustee of the village of Adrian. He was elected mayor of the city of Adrian in April, 1861. He was a member of the board of commissioners of the Michigan State Prison in 1864-5. He was foreman of the Hook and Ladder company for two years, and chief engineer of the Adrian fire department two years. He died February 22d, 1868. Mrs. Loomis died in November, 1871. There are none of the old citizens but remember Daniel A. Loomis, a warm hearted, genial man, with a public spirit, and a commendable pride in the growth and prosperity of Adrian and Lenawee county.
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AMES T. KEDZIE was born in Stamford, Delaware county, New York, November 24th, 1812, oldest son of William Kedzie, native of Scotland, who came to America in the year 1795, and Margaret Telford Kedzie, born in Salem, Washington county, New York, 1792. His father died in Blissfield, (now Deerfield,) in 1828, aged forty-seven, and his mother at the residence of her son George, in Deerfield, 1874, at the age of eighty-two. On the death of his father, Mr. Kedzie was left in charge of a new farm, with only a beginning mnade. There were four brothers, Reverend Adam Stewart, now financial secretary of Chicago Theological Seminary ; William and George, farmers in the town of Deerfield; and Robert Clark, professor of chemistry, in the State Agricul- tural college ; and two sisters, both deceased. He remained on the homestead, except two terms in the winter season, at a common
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
district school, five miles from home, until June, 1836, when he married Miss Elizabeth Wright, second daughter of Eben and Serviah Wright, of Rome, New York, by whom he had one daughter, born October, 1837, died February, 1848. After her death he sold his farm, (which was a part of his father's homestead,) and removed to Lansing, the new capital of our State, where he was employed as head clerk, under Colonel Jones, in the postoffice, four years. In September, 1853, he came to the village of Blissfield, transferring his church relations, and was elected ruling elder in the Presbyterian church. The next May he entered into mercantile business, which he followed successfully over twenty years, retiring in November, 1874, at the age of sixty-two, with natural force unabated, and to this day, with his wife, enjoys a comfortable degree of health for those bordering on three score and ten.
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AMUEL B. ROSE was born in Hinsdale, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, September 19th, 1813. He moved with his parents to Hudson, New York, in the spring of 1834, where he was a clerk in his father's store until September, 1835, when he came to Clinton, this county, with his brother-in-law, James W. King, on a visit, expecting to return the spring follow- ing. He soon went to work as salesman in the store of Mr. King, who was largely engaged in merchandising. The result was, he did not return home for nearly three years, and then only to find that it was home no longer, for he had become strongly attached to the Wolverine State. He soon after returned to Michigan, and went into business with his brother-in-law, at Clinton. In the fall of 1838 they moved their stock of goods to Jonesville, where they did a large business until the spring of 1840, when they sold out to Rockwell Manning, and returned to Clinton. In the fall of 1840 he entered into partnership with William Vaughan, for the sale of general merchandise, which partnership continued until 1847, when he bought Mr. Vaughan's interest and continued the business alone. In the winter of 1854 he took charge of the freight and ticket business of the Michigan Southern railroad, at Clinton, which position he held for nearly five years, when he resigned and again formed a partnership with James G. Webster,
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[one of the engineers who built the Jackson branch railroad,] in general merchandising. In 1873 he was appointed postmaster at Clinton, which position he now occupies. April 11th, 1843, he married Miss Margery McFarland, by whom he has had three children, as follows: Edgar and Edwin, (twins,) born in Clinton, June 7th, 1844, now of Detroit ; Emma A., born in Clinton, January 14th, 1848, now the wife of George W. Light, of Chicago.
ON. HIRAM RAYMOND, was born in the township of Cohocton, Steuben county, New York, January 4th, 1819. His father, Daniel Raymond, was born in Montgomery county, New York, in April, 1792, where he resided until about the age of fifteen years, when he moved, with his father, to Steuben county, New York. Here his younger brother, Roswell, was drafted, at the age of eighteen years, to serve in the war of 1812, and Daniel thinking him too young, volunteered to take his place, and served about three months, and was then discharged from the service near the close of the war. At the age of twenty-four years, he was married to Lucy Ann Woodruff, and continued to live on a farm until the 12th day of May, 1833, when they removed to Michigan and settled on section twenty-four in the town of Raisin, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond were the parents of eight children, five girls and three boys, whose names were as follows: Lydia, born August, 1817; Hiram, born January 4th, 1819; Elijah H., born May 12th, 1821; Amanda, born December, 1823; Hannah, born June, 1825; Harriet, born July, 1827; Caroline, born May, 1829; Daniel Burt, born November 2d, 1833. All are now living except Harriet. Elijah H., Daniel B., Amanda and Hannah are living at Dixon, Illinois, and all the others are still residents of Lenawee county, Michigan. Lydia was married December 2d, 1836, to Jonathan Hall, of Ridgeway. Elijah, Amanda, and Hannah still remain single. Harriet was married March 1st, 1849, to Chester C. Clark, of Ridgeway, and died in July, 1877. Caroline was married to Mr. William E. Doty, of Raisin, where they still reside. Daniel B. was married some twenty years since, to Miss Maria Clark, sister of Reverend James A. Clark, a Baptist minister. Daniel Raymond, the father of Hiram, died in April, 1845, when the
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