USA > Michigan > Lenawee County > History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan, Volume I > Part 8
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
believing the injunction that "it is not good that man should be alone," chose a helpmeet in the person of Miss Margaret Frary, (step-daughter of Gideon West,) and was married November 23d, 1826. This was the first wedding, but not the only one; on the same day Mr. George Stout was married to Miss Delight Bliss. There was no one authorized to perform the marriage ceremony nearer than Monroe, and therefore they had to send a messenger to that place (thirty miles) on foot, (no horses in the town) expressly to call Loren Marsh, a Justice of the Peace in and for that county, it being taken for granted that he could officiate in the unorganized counties of the Territory.
On May 14th, 1826, William Kedzie, with his family, was landed on the pier in La Plaisance Bay, from the steamer Niagara,-no communication with the shore, not even a canoe, and no shelter to protect them. The floor was so covered with boxes of merchandize that only a small spot near the edge could be found where his wife and children could lie down, and there he had to watch all night for fear they would fall into the deep water. The next day in the afternoon a small sail vessel came down the river, on which they were conveyed to the landing near the village of Monroe. The next October, after building a log house, and before the doors and windows were in, they moved into the woods five miles from any inhabitant, and were greeted on the first night by a jubilee from wolves.
Early in the spring of 1827 quite an immigration came into the town, namely : Benjamin and Daniel H. Clark, Jonas Ray, Anthony McKey, and Benjamin Tibbitts in the north part, and Isaac and Samuel Randall, Morris Burch, Ebenezer Gilbert, Edward Calkins, Jacob and John Lane, John Preston, Ezra W. Goff and his sons, Whiting, Timothy B., and Willard, who were all voters, in the south part.
May 28th, 1827, the first town meeting was held at the house of Hervey Bliss, for the election of township officers, at which time William Kedzie was chosen Supervisor; Ezra W. Goff, Town Clerk ; A. McKey, Jacob Lane, Moses Valentine, Assessors; Almond Harrison, John Lane, A. McKey, Commissioners of Highways; Samuel Randall, Constable and Collector; Gideon West and George Giles, Overseers of the Poor; William Kedzie, Isaac Randall and Sam. Randall, Fence Viewers; Hervey Bliss and George Giles, Pound Masters ; William Kedzie, Hervey Bliss, George Giles and Benjamin Clark, Path Masters.
There were twenty offices to fill and only thirteen candidates. The result was, all were elected, some to two, and in one instance a man filled three offices. The little band of pioneers, who then laid the foundation of the town, have all passed away except Almond Harrison, who still remains, the connecting link between the first and second generation.
The first minister that visited the town was Rev. J. A. Baughman, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the fall of 1827.
The first birth occurred on October 3d, 1827, and was that of
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Lucinda, daughter of the first married couple. The first boy born was George Giles, Jr., on October 23d, 1827.
The first school house, built of logs, in the summer of 1827, stood on what is now the north-east corner of Adrian and Monroe streets, in the village. The first school master was Chester Stuart, of Monroe, at a salary of $13 per month and " board found." The names of Thomas F. Dodge and George W. Ketchum are also among those of the early teachers of the young Wolverines. The first school house at Kedzie's Grove, in the north part of town, was built in the fall of 1829, and the first and only teacher was Miss Caroline Amelia Bixby, of the town of Logan (now Adrian).
As early as February 22d, 1829, the First Presbyterian Church was organized by Reverend Alanson Darwin, of Tecumseh.
The first State or Territorial election was held on July 11th, 1831, when twenty-nine votes were given for "Delegate to Congress." Austin E. Wing received fourteen votes, Samuel W. Dexter nine, and John R. Williams six.
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HUDSON.
THAT is now called Hudson was first called Bean Creek, then Lanesville, until finally, by common consent, it took on the name given to the township by Mr. Hiram Kidder, from the fact that Doctor Hudson, of Geneva, New York, was one of the first land owners in the town. The first settler in the township, then with Madison, Dover and Palmyra, forming one long township called Lenawee, was Hiram Kidder, from Yates county, New York, and his wife and family. Mr. Kidder reached Bean Creek (so called from the quantity of bean timber that grew on its banks,) October 29th, 1833. He took up about 500 acres of land.
In 1836 the settlement was formally recognized as Lanesville, and a commission issued by Amos Kendall, Postmaster General of the United States, to B. H. Lane as postmaster. In 1840 the Indians were sent away. In 1841 a school house was built on the west side, twenty-four by forty feet. It was also used by the Congregational, Methodist and other religious societies as a church. In the fall of '41
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
the ribbons (or two by four pieces of hard maple timber) were laid and cars drawn by horses came to Lanesville. In 1842-3 the first locomotive crossed Bean Creek. It was called the Comet. Hudson was organized as a village in 1853.
The first newspaper published in Hudson was the Sentinel by T. D. Montgomery.
Hudson is the second town of importance and population in the county. It contains seven churches and has a fine system of public schools. It has a population of about three thousand and does a large amount of business. It supports two weekly papers, the Post and the Gazette, fine stores and liberal business men.
BIOGRAPHICAL RECORDS.
The following Biographical and Family Records have been obtained by personal interviews with the persons, or their children, and all the dates and figures are taken from family records. The greatest care has been taken in writing and compiling, every sketch being approved and pronounced correct by the parties of whom it has been obtained. They will be found as reliable as it is possible to make them.
ENERAL JOSEPH W. BROWN was born in Falls township, Bucks county, Pennslyvania, November 26th, 1793. His father, Samuel Brown, was born in Falls township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, of Quaker parents, in 1750. He was a farmer of that county, where he lived until 1799, when he moved to Brownville, Jefferson county, New York, where he and his son, Jacob Brown, (afterwards a prominent general of the war of 1812, having command of the army on the Niagara frontier, and in 1827 died at Washington as commander- in-chief of the army of the United States,) acted as agents for an extensive land owner in Jefferson county, who was a Frenchman named James LeRay, whose father loaned the United States Government during the Revolutionary war, eighty thousand dollars, and James becoming the heir, came to this country to collect
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
his claim, but finally compromised by taking an immense tract of land in Jefferson county, which, it was said, cost him only about one shilling per acre. Mr. Brown and his son Jacob purchased about two thousand acres of this land of Mr. LeRay. Samuel Brown lived there until his death, in the fall of 1813. We publish the following marriage certificate, showing when and whom he married, and for the further purpose of preserving the old Quaker form of marriage:
"WHEREAS, Samuel Brown, son of John Brown, of the township of Bristol, in the county of Bucks and Province of Pennsylvania, and Abi White, daughter of Joseph White, of the same place, having intentions of taking each other in marriage, declared the same before several monthly meetings of the people called Quakers, in the Falls township, in the county aforesaid, according to the good order used amongst them, whose proceedings therein, having consent of parents and relations concerned, were allowed of by the said meetings.
Now these are to certify all whom it may concern, that for the full accomplish- ment of their said intentions, this tenth day of the third month, in the year of our Lord one thousand, seven hundred and seventy-three, they the said Samuel Brown and Abi White, appeared in a public and solemn assembly of the said people, met together at their usual Meeting House in the Falls township, aforesaid, and the said Samuel Brown, taking the said Abi White by the hand did in a solemn manner, openly declare that he took her to be his wife, promis- ing, through Divine assistance, to be unto her a loving and faithful husband until death should separate them ; and then and there, the said Abi White did, in like manner, declare that she took the said Samuel Brown to be her husband promising, through Divine assistance, to be unto him a loving and faithful wife until death should separate them. And Moreover, they, the said Samuel Brown and Abi White (she according to the custom of marriage, assuming the name of her husband as a further confirmation thereof,) did then and there to these presents, set their hands. And we, whose names are under subscribed, being, amongst others, present at the solemnization of their said marriage and subscription in manner aforesaid, as witnesses thereunto, have also to these presents set our hands. The day and year above written."
This document is written on heavy parchment and is witnessed by fifty-eight signatures. They had eleven children, Joseph W. Brown, the youngest of the family, being the only survivor. Joseph W. Brown lived in Jefferson county, as a farmer, until the spring of 1824, when he sold his farm of three hundred acres, and emigrated to Michigan and arrived in Tecumseh in May, 1824, with his wife and five children, and in company with Austin E. Wing and Musgrove Evans, purchased the land and founded the village of Tecumseh, which place has been his home ever since. January 28th, 1816, he married Miss Cornelia Tryon, daughter of John Tryon, of New Lebanon, Columbia county, New York, the most prominent merchant and business man of that county. By this marriage they had eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, only three of whom are alive. Their names were: Egbert B., (a Brigadier General of the Union army in the late Rebellion, who now lives in Hastings, Illinois); John T .; Maria;
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Cornelia E., (now living in Chicago, widow of Samuel Lester); Josephine; Jacob; William A .; Patterson; Mason K .; Lewis Cass; Ione, now living in Toledo, the widow of Henry Waite, son of Chief Justice Waite. Mrs. Brown died March 6th, 1857. The general relates the following incident which explains his immigrating to this place: Austin' E. Wing was at one time secretary for Governor Cass, but in 1823, while a resident of Monroe, conceived the idea of becoming a Territorial delegate in Congress. Musgrove Evans, who was a relative of both Wing and Brown by marriage, came to Monroe in 1823 to visit Wing and look after a govern- ment surveying contract. Wing and Evans looked at the land where Tecumseh now stands, and at once made up their minds that if they could get a miller and a farmer, to unite with them in the enterprise, both of their objects might be accomplished. "For," said Wing, "if we go into farming and establish a mill and the settlers know that I am interested, they will vote to send me to Congress, and if I am elected, why, with the aid of General Jacob Brown" (then in Washington at the head of the army) "you can be appointed government surveyor." "Then," says Evans, "let's go back to Jefferson county and interest Joseph W. Brown in the matter, for he is both miller and farmer." This plan was at once decided upon, and Evans returned to. New York, bearing a letter from Wing, to J. W. Brown. Mr. Brown finally decided to accept the proposition, and a co-partnership, afterwards known as Wing, Evans & Brown, was formed, and the land was entered and the village founded as above described. In the spring of 1825 an election took place, the candidates for delegates to Congress being Wing of Monroe, and Bidwell and Richards of Detroit. Lenawee county cast thirteen votes at Tecumseh, all of which were for "A. E." Wing, which elected him, but Bidwell contested it on the ground that "A. E." Wing was not a legal ballot, and claimed his election. Wing then sent an agent to
every voter in Lenawee county, and each, on his oath, testified that he voted for Austin E. Wing of Monroe. This finally settled the dispute and Wing was admitted to Congress. Evans was subsequently made a government surveyor, and J. W. Brown was miller and farmer at Tecumseh. He built the first grist and saw- mill in the county, and established the first stage mail-route between Detroit and Chicago, running the coaches through the
woods before the roads were laid out; he did the first farming and ground the first wheat; he carried the first mail into the county from Monroe; and built the first frame house in the village. In the spring of 1824 he ploughed the first furrow in Lenawee county, and Ezra Blood, now of Tecumseh, held the
.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
plow. As a matter of history and to show the prominence and esteem in which he has always been regarded, we append the following
LIST OF COMMISSIONS, MILITARY AND CIVIL, AWARDED TO JOSEPH W. BROWN.
OFFICE.
DATE.
BY WHOM GIVEN.
Adjutant in Regular Cavalry ..... Captain Rifle Company 108th, Regiment N. Y. Infantry .... . Lieutenant-Colonel 108th Regi- ment N. Y. Infantry ..
April 24, 1818.
March 27, 1819.
¥
66
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Chief Justice Lenawee county, Mich.
Nov. 23, 1826. Lewis Cass, Governor Michigan.
Colonel Eighth Regiment Mich- igan Militia ..
Nov. 10, 1829.
To locate the County Seat of Hillsdale county.
Oct. 25, 1830.
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Brigadier General Third Brig- ade
April 21, 1831. Andrew Jackson, Pres't U. S.
Jan'y 18, 1832. Stevens T. Mason, Gov. Mich.
Register of Land Office, Ionia, Mich
July 5, 1836. Andrew Jackson, Pres't U. S.
Major-General Mich. Militia ..... Brigadier-General Mich. State Guards
March 13, 1839.
April 16, 1839. Stevens T. Mason, Gov. Mich. July 12, 1839.
Regent Michigan University .. .. Examiner of Cadets at West Point
May 12, 1840. I. R. Pomset.
Associate Judge, Lucas county, Ohio
1848. Governor Shannon, Ohio.
Attorney at Law, Ohio.
May 4, 1858.
By the Court.
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E ZRA F. BLOOD was born in Dearing, Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, October 28th, 1798. His father, Lemuel Blood, was a farmer of New Hampshire, and lived the most of his life in Cheshire county. He was a soldier in the Revolution, and served all through the war. After the war he
1817.
Dewit Clinton, Governor N. Y.
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To locate the County Seat of Berrien county.
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
married Miss Lucy Hale, by whom he had thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters, twelve of whom lived until they were men and women. Ezra F. Blood lived with his father on the farm until he was about twenty-one years old, when he went to Brown- ville, Jefferson county, New York, where he engaged with Asa Whitney, in a nail factory, and remained there for five years. In the spring of 1824, a party of fourteen men was organized by Musgrove Evans, at Brownville, Jefferson county, New York, to emigrate to Lenawee County, Michigan. This party consisted of Musgrove Evans, wife and six children, Gen. Joseph W. Brown, wife and family, Ezra F. Blood, Peter Benson and wife, Simon Sloat, Nathan Rathburn, Peter Lowry, James Young, George Spofford, Curtis Page, Mr. Baxter, John Boland, Captain Peter Ingals, John Fulsom. As soon as navigation opened, Mr. Evans chartered a sailing vessel at Buffalo-the Red Jacket-for the transportation of the party to Detroit. In due time they arrived at their destination, and were joined, in Detroit, by Turner Stetson and wife, of Boston. At Detroit the women and children, together with their goods, were left, and the fifteen men started on foot for Lenawee county, and arrived upon the land where Tecumseh now stands, May 21st. Here the party selected their land the same day, and the next morning, after eating everything they had, started for Monroe to make their entries. Ezra F. Blood took up 160 acres of land, upon which he now lives, situated about one-half mile south-east of the village. He has lived upon this farm fifty-four years, being the oldest resident farmer in Lenawee county. January 12th, 1830, he married Miss Alzina Blackmar, daughter of Charles Blackmar, of Cambridge, this county. By this marriage they have had six children, as follows : May Jane, died in infancy ; Mary A., wife of Jacob Talman, a farmer of Mt. Morris, Livingston county, New York ; Charles H. resides at the old homestead ; William A., died while a prisoner at Andersonville, during the Rebellion; Leroy C., of Lansing, Michigan ; Orville O., at home. Mrs. Blood was born in Wales, Erie county, New York, May 25th, 1810. She came to Lenawee county with her father in the spring of 1829. She was the first lady who ever taught a public school in Lenawee county, having opened her school June 2d, 1829. Mr. Blood was a soldier in the war of 1812, and now draws a pension of eight dollars per month. Mr. and Mrs. Blood still live upon the old farm, and still are in very good health, enjoying the fruits of their labors. Both talk of the early days here, when people were obliged to build a " smudge" under the table to drive away the mosquitoes, and walk to meeting barefoot, and stop when in sight of the church
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
and put on their shoes and stockings, before going in ; burying the dead and going to funerals with ox teams; going to Monroe to mill, etc., with the greatest zest, and say they would "try it again " if they were young. Mr. Blood has assisted in building every public building and every highway bridge in the township.
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ILLIAM W. TILTON was born in Jeffrey, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, July 31st, 1803. His father, Joseph Tilton, was a farmer of Cheshire County, but was born in the town of Sudberry, Massachusetts, April 23d, 1779. He married Miss Abigail Brooks, of Jeffrey, by whom he had nine children, William M. being the oldest. About the year 1833 Joseph Tilton, with his family, came to Tecumseh, and after about one year, he went to Branch county, and purchased a farm near Coldwater, where he died, November 26th, 1838. His wife Abigail, died there July 10th, 1864. William W. Tilton lived with his father on the farm until he was twenty-one years old. He worked a short time after leaving his father, to earn money to come to Michigan, and on the 8th of June, 1825, he arrived in Tecumseh with all his worldly possessions-the clothes on his back and fourteen dollars in money. Mr. Tilton came to Tecumseh because he knew both Mr. Evans and General Brown, and all those who came here with them the year before, and he expected to find employment with them, but they were all poor and unable to hire men and pay them money. He worked, however, for his board and what he could get, until the next year, when he went to work with an old friend of his, a carpenter, Curtis Page, with whom he stayed five years, until he got money enough to purchase a farm from the government, in 1831. This farm is situated on the Adrian road, about two miles south of Tecumseh, and is still owned by Mr. Tilton. September 12th, 1829, he married Miss Matilda Sisson, daughter of Thomas Sisson, of Tecumseh, by whom he had six children, as follows: Albert, deceased ; Harriet wife of James Colvin, a farmer of Raisin, this county ; Abbie, wife of Alonzo Bean, of Jonesville, Michigan ; George, who lives on the old homestead; the other two children died in infancy. Mrs. Matilda Tilton came to Tecumseh, with her parents, from Ithaca, Tompkins county, New York, in 1827. She was born in Rhode Island, November 27th, 1810, and died January 18th,
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
1867. June 11th, 1868, Mr. Tilton married Mrs. C. M. Bissell, of Tecumseh, widow of Theodore Bissell, an old resident of Tecumseh, who died in Texas. Mrs. Tilton came to Tecumseh with her parents in July, 1824. She is a sister of Sumner Spofford so well known in this county. Mrs. Tilton was the first bride in Lenawee county, having married Mr. Bissell in May, 1827. She went to Texas in 1835, with her husband, and her pioneer experience there so completely outdoes in hardships, privations and suffering, all the Michigan pioneer experience, that it hardly seems possible that she could endure it. In June, 1868, Mr. Tilton left his farm and has since resided in Tecumseh, where he enjoys the comforts of life and the respect and confidence of the entire community.
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ALTER WHIPPLE was born February 28th, 1792, in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. His father, Thomas Whipple, was born in Connecticut, March 16th, 1752, (o. s.) and when a boy, worked on a farm. He was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war. He married Lydia Gates in November, 1778, by whom he had eight children. Soon after their marriage they removed to Bethlehem, Coos county, where his mother died. After the death of his mother his father removed to Hanover, Grafton county, where he married Mrs. Woodard, a widow lady. He was a member of the Baptist church, and for a number of years preached at Hanover and surrounding villages. Here he brought up his family of children until they became of age, and were married. His second wife died at Hanover, date not known, and he afterwards married Miss Rhoda Merrell, a spinster, who lived with him until he died, in Raisin, this county. Walter Whipple, the subject of this sketch, at an early age went to learn the shoe- makers' and tanners' trade, where he served about four years. He followed his trade at intervals for a number of years. In 1813 he embarked in business at Warren, New Hampshire, but he sold out in 1814, and went to Boston and was present at the grand celebra- tion over the declaration of peace, in the spring of 1815. He then engaged as steward on board of a trading vessel and visited the West Indies. He afterwards went to Otsego county, New York, and then went to Hartwick Academy and fitted himself for a school teacher, and taught his first school in Sharon, in 1816.
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HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
He then studied medicine in Palmyra, with Doctor McIntyre. About this time Jethro Wood had patented an iron plow, and a company was formed for its manufacture, and Walter Whipple was one of the company and the " traveling man." This was the first iron plow manufactured west of Cayuga Lake, and proved a great success. Mr. Whipple remained one of the company four years, when he sold out, came to the Territory of Michigan in the fall of 1824, and took up two lots of land now situated in Raisin town- ship. He then returned to the state of New York, but came back again the next summer, when he purchased land situated near the present city limits, known as the "Tabor farm," then supposing the village would be started there. In the fall of 1825 he again returned east, and when in Detroit waiting for a steamer, he met Darius Comstock and his son, Addison J., with whom he was well acquainted, as Addison had been one of his school scholars in Ontario county, New York. He told them to come to Tecumseh before they purchased, and see Evans and Brown, and also told them of his purchase on the west branch of the river Raisin. They took his advice and came directly here, and, as is well known, purchased land and founded the present city of Adrian. May 9th, 1830, he married Susan A. Donaldson, daughter of Doctor Donaldson, of Rochester, New York, by whom he had four children. She died in January, 1840, in Raisin township. March' 24th, 1844, he married Miss Ruth Baker, daughter of Ethelbert Baker, of Livingston county, New York, by whom he had one daughter. He lived upon his land in Raisin until 1848, when he sold out and went to Adrian, where he has since resided. In 1854 he bought the city circulation of both the papers, the Expositor, and Watchtower, and made daily deliveries for eleven years, with scarcely a "mistake" the whole time.
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AMUEL BAYLES was born in the town of Rye, West- chester county, New York, November 22d, 1796. His father, Jonathan Bayles, was a farmer of Westchester county, of English extraction, and enlisted in the Revolutionary War, and during the latter part of that memorable struggle he acted as captain, although he was never commissioned. Jonathan Bayles married Miss Rhoda June, whose ancestors were French Huguenots and fled from France at the time of the persecution of the
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Protestants. By this marriage they had eight children, four sons and four daughters, two of whom, Samuel Bayles and Miss Eliza Bayles, the third son and youngest daughter, are still living. Samuel Bayles, when he was about nine years old, moved, with his parents, from Westchester county to the city of New York, where he lived about ten years, when his father returned to Westchester county, where he lived until his death, in December, 1823. Mrs. Bayles died in the summer of 1825. Samuel Bayles went to New York City in the spring of 1824 and engaged in the grocery business, where he remained until the spring of 1832, when he emigrated to Michigan, and " took up" 320 acres of land from the government, which now lies in the towns of Dover and Madison. At this time the town of Madison comprised all of the townships of Dover and Hudson. On the day on which Mr. Bayles arrived in Adrian, the soldiers, then enlisted for the Black Hawk war in this locality, were standing in line upon the street, waiting for orders to march "to the front." The land that Mr. Bayles entered had never been improved at all; he cleared and fenced it, built the buildings, and lived upon it over thirty years. December 28th, 1825, he married Miss Mary Hubbard, daughter of Andrew Hubbard, of New Rochelle, Westchester county, New York. Mr. Hubbard was a well-to-do farmer. This marriage resulted in seven children, five sons and two daughters, as follows : Andrew H. (deceased) ; Jonathan, of Girard, Kansas; Jennie A., widow of the late Dr. Briggs, of Toledo; James A., of Lee Summit, Missouri ; Samuel M., of South St. Louis, Missouri ; Ophelia A., widow of the late Rev. Solomon Littlefield, of Detroit ; Edwin L. (died in infancy); Benjamin H., of Denver, Colorado. Mrs. Bayles died December 22d, 1874, in the sixty-eighth year of her age. Mr. Bayles sold his farm in 1865 and since that time has resided in Adrian, and is now in good health, in both body and mind.
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