USA > Michigan > Lenawee County > History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan, Volume II > Part 12
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
spring of 1826 he came to Michigan, arriving in Adrian early in May. He met Darius Comstock in Lockport, N. Y., and came to Michigan in his employ. He first worked one year for Darius on his farm, and then went to work for Addison J. Comstock. He worked for Addison one year, when he purchased a village lot, and in 1827 built a house on the corner of North Main and Toledo streets, where Dr. Stephenson now resides. June 8, 1827, he located eighty acres of land on section 33, in Adrian, which, after making considerable improvement, he sold to Harry Wood, June 6, 1831. June 8, 1831, he went about one mile west, and located eighty acres on section 32, and made quite an improvement. After residing there until June 16, 1840, he sold out to Moses L. Pruden. It is the same farm now owned by J. F. Baker. After selling out to Mr. Pruden he went to the town of Rome, and purchased a farm on section 31, of James B. Stinson, where he now resides. This was the third new farm that he had settled on, and he was obliged to build his third log house. He has never moved since; having tried it three times, he decided to let well enough alone. There are only five or six persons now living in Lenawee county who settled here as early as Mr. Wiley. He assisted in building the first house in Adrian, which was made of logs. He is the only man except Walter Whipple now living that saw the ground where Adrian now stands, before a tree had been cut by a white man. He came in May with Darius Comstock, while Addison Comstock, the founder of Adrian, did not come until July. When he came Darius Comstock brought with him Patrick Hamilton, Osmyn Salsbury, Abram West, Warner Ellsworth, John Gifford, Daniel Smith, William Brooks, Milo Comstock, and David Wiley. These men were the first settlers of Adrian. Mr. Wiley is now the only survivor of those pioneers. In 1851 Mr. Wiley went to California and remained until 1854. He went overland, and re- turned by the Panama route. May 2, 1827, David Wiley married Catherine DeDonald, by whom he had eight children, as follows: Margaret P., born in Logan (now city of Adrian), May 25, 1828, and died November 16, 1849; Edwin T., born same place, No- vember 28, 1829, was a soldier in the war of the rebellion, was a member of the Michigan sharpshooters, and died in Andersonville prison, August 25, 1864; Joseph A., born in Adrian township, May 4th, 1831, and died January 8, 1836; Sarah M., born same place, March 21, 1833, now at home, and keeps her father's house ; Marvin A., born in Rorue, June 6, 1843, died at Fort Laramie, while in the employ of the Pacific railroad, July 5, 1867; Mary A., born in Rome, January 5, 1846, now the wife of Charles Hill, a farmer near Leslie, Ingham county. Mrs. Catherine M. Wiley
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was born in the State of New York, June 29, 1801, and died in Rome, April 8, 1865. She came to Michigan with Addison J. Comstock, in 1826. She was married in Mr. Comstock's house, Mr. Comstock being the officiating justice. Her parents afterwards came to Michigan and settled near Pontiac, Oakland county, on a farm, where they died.
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OHN PATTERSON was born in Ballyvannon, Parish of Glenavy, Antrim county, Ireland, December 15, 1810. He is the son of Hungerford and Jane Patterson, who were natives of Ballyvannon, where they owned a small farm and kept a public house. They had ten children, John being the fourth son and sixth child. The ancestors of the Patterson family came from England. The first Patterson that went to Ireland was the father of nineteen children, three of whom came to Philadel- phia early in the eighteenth century. Mrs. Jane Patterson's maiden name was Jane Ferris, but her ancestry is not definitely known. John Patterson lived with his parents in Ballyvannon, and went to school until his eighteenth year, when he came to America with his older brother William, and arrived in New York in August, 1828. He immediately went to Lockport, where his brother Joseph H. then lived. He lived in the town of Cambria, about three miles northwest of Lockport, until the spring of 1831, when he came to Michigan and settled in Adrian, and was imme- diately employed by Addison J. Comstock, with whom he re- mained one year. In the spring of 1832 he took up a farm on section 5, in the present town of Palmyra (the same now owned by J. E. Ingersoll). He subsequently took up 160 acres of land in Jefferson, Hillsdale county. Owing to sickness he only lived on his land in Palmyra about one year, when he moved to Hillsdale county, where he resided until about 1851, when he sold out and went back to Ireland in hopes of regaining his lost health, to visit his rel- atives, and attend the world's fair at London; but after his arrival in Ireland he was too ill to go to the fair. He returned after a short stay in Ireland, and purchased a piece of land a short distance from his first purchase in Palmyra, and resided there until 1866, when he sold out. During his residence in Palmyra he cleared up
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
and improved the most of 200 acres of land, built a large brick house, with all the necessary out buildings for a large farm. Since 1866 he has resided mostly in the city of Adrian, where he has erected a fine residence on Toledo street. In the spring of 1871 he purchased a farm on section 29, in Adrian township, which he now owns. January 10, 1841, John Patterson was married to Miss Jane Farrah, daughter of Thomas and Mary Farrah, of Raisin, this county, by whom he has had one child, Mary, Eliza- beth, born in Jefferson, Hillsdale county, March 11, 1843, now the wife of Lindley R. Harkness, of Adrian. Mrs. Jane Patter- son was born at Cliburn, Westmoreland, England, May 10, 1818, and came to this county with her parents in 1833, arriving in New York, September 13. They settled on a farm in Sennett, Cayuga county, N. Y,, where they lived until the spring of 1838, when they came to Michigan and settled in Raisin, this county. Thomas Farrah was born in Cliburn, Westmoreland, England, May 18, 1783, and died in Raisin, January 20, 1852. April 18, 1816, he married Miss Mary Temple, of Crossrigg Hall, Bolton Moore, England, who was born there August 4, 1778, by whom he had ten children, Jane being the second child and oldest daughter. Mrs. Mary Farrah died in Raisin, October 1, 1872.
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OBERT BOYD was born in Dungal, Antrim county, Ire- land, October 20, 1806. His father, James Boyd, was born in Carnlea, Antrim county, in 1768. He was a linen weaver, and carried on a farm in Dungal until 1818, when he came to America with his family, consisting of his wife and five children, Robert being the oldest. He settled in Livingston county, N. Y., and purchased a farm in the town of Groveland, where he died about the year 1820. Previous to his marriage he came to America two or three times. He first came during the rebellion of '98, and upon his return to Ireland he purchased flaxseed in Phila- delphia, which he sold to the Irish farmers for seed. About the year 1804, while on one of his trips to this country after flaxseed, he married Jane Boyd, daughter of Andrew Boyd, of Antrim county, a young lady whom he had known in Ireland, and imme- diately returned. Mrs. Jane Boyd was born in Dungal, in 1786
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and died at Mt. Morris, N. Y., in 1856. Robert Boyd was reared a farmer, and after the death of his father, when he was fourteen years old, he, with his younger brother James, carried on the farm for nearly ten years. In the fall of 1828 Robert went to Ireland and remained until the following summer, when he returned, and in the spring of 1830 he came to Michigan, arriving in Tecumseh about the first of May, in company with Fulton Jack. Robert located 320 acres of land on section 10, in Raisin. The land was what was then known as timbered openings, and when he first saw it in the spring of the year, covered with its gayest spring dress of flowers, shrubs and grass, he thought it was the handsomest country he ever beheld, and, although the folks at the east had told him that the land was poor and the country very sickly, he could not help thinking there must be some good in so much beauty, and de- cided to locate, believing that if he was careful of his health he would one day see a better country than he had left in New York. And how true was that impression. He has not only lived to see a better country, but he has been instrumental in making it what it is, and participated in all movements, enterprises and endeavors, to bring about the present high state of moral and religious civili- zation that we now boast of, as well as to assist largely in proving to the world that Lenawee county is one of the most productive and beautiful counties in the United States. Mr. Boyd cleared off about 150 acres of land, erected a good frame house, with large barns, sheds, etc., and resided there until 1879, when he moved into the village of Tecumseh, where he now resides. He sold his farm previous to his leaving it, owing to age and ill health, although his preference would have been to stay where he had experienced so many happy and hopeful days. February 22, 1832, Robert Boyd married Miss Sarah Richard, daughter of Archibald and Jane Richard, who settled in Raisin, in 1833. Mr. and Mrs. Boyd have had no children, but they brought up one adopted daughter, Sarah McConnel, now the wife of John Conklin, of Raisin. Mrs. Sarah Boyd was born at Fleming Hall, Antrim county, Ireland, in 1813, and came to America with her parents in 1829. [For her family history see William Richard's record in the first volume of this work.]
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
OSEPHUS WHITE was born in Williamston, Ontario (now Wayne) county, N. Y., August 5, 1808. His father, Daniel White, was a native of the State of New York, and was a lawyer of Oxford, N. Y., where he became a judge. He died in Wayne, Erie county, Pa. He married Eunice Root, of Coventry, Chenango county, N. Y., by whom he had seven children, Jose- phus being the sixth child and fourth son. Mrs. Eunice White was born at Coventry, and died in Wayne, Erie county, Pa., in 1838. Josephus White lived with his parents until he was thirteen years old, when he went to Canandaigua, and worked on a farm until he was in his seventeenth year. He then went to Dansville and learned the tailor's trade, which he followed for some years. In 1834 he went to Clarkson, Monroe county, N. Y., and commenced preaching the gospel in the Free Will Baptist church. After preaching there for about three years, in 1837 he went to Boston, Erie county, where he preached about three years, and where he was ordained in 1839. In 1840 he went to Oberlin, Ohio, with the intention of attending the college there, but after consultation with Prof. Finney, and through some opposition from the church, and after preaching about one year in Clarkson and Brighton, Lorain county, Ohio, he gave up the ministry and pur- chased some land in Camden, Lorain county, and went to farming. He lived in Camden until the fall of 1846, when he sold out and came to Michigan and purchased a farm on section 6, in Ogden, where he has resided ever since. The land was covered with a very heavy growth of timber, and there never had been a stick cut or any improvement made. Before he had got his house enclosed and sufficiently "chinked up" to keep the wind and snow out, it was found out that he was a preacher, and he was called upon to preach a funeral sermon. During the first few years of his residence he preached very often, and never failed to attend a funeral when he was notified that his services were wanted. Many times he has waded through water and snow to preach. It was common then when a person started out to take a long pole in his hand-a sort of sounding pole-for the purpose of jumping over brooks, water holes, to assist in walking logs, and also to take the depth of the water as he waded through the vast expanses. De- cember 16, 1834, Josephus White married Sarah Biddle, daughter of Elijah and Betsey Biddle, who resided near Monmouth, N. J., by whom he had two children, as follows: Caroline E., born in Brighton, Monroe county, N. Y., July 7, 1836, now the wife of Lewis T. Rathbun, of Ogden; Demaris C., born in Concord, Erie county, N. Y., March 9, 1840, now the wife of James Hodges, of Ogden. Mrs. Sarah White was born near Monmouth, N. J., Oc-
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tober 24, 1806, and died in Ogden, May 2, 1878. December 13, 1855, Caroline E. White was married to Lewis T. Rathbun, of Fairfield. They have had three children, as follows: Clara D., born in Fairfield, March 22, 1857, now the wife of Artemus Swick, of Fairfield; Melvin, born same place, November 6, 1858, died October 26, 1864; Alta, born same place, August 2, 1869, at home. Lewis T. Rathbun was born in Palmyra, this county, May 1, 1836. His father, Rufus Rathbun, came to Michigan from Ontario county, N. Y., and now resides on section 36, in Fairfield.
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ARON S. BAKER was born in Palmyra, Wayne county, N. Y., April 25, 1807. He was brought up a farmer, and lived with his father until 1828 (when he was twenty-one years old), when he came to Michigan and settled in Logan (now Adrian). He at once located a farm west of the village. He after- wards located several other farms, being quite a trader. He finally settled on a farm in the present town of Fairfield, where he lived until 1847, when he sold out to John Tenbrook, and again went into the woods, in Clinton county, this State, where he pur- chased 280 acres of land near Maple Rapids. This land was entirely wild, and he was obliged to commence just as he had in Lenawee county, by clearing a' small space and building a log house. He lived there for about seven years, clearing up several acres of land and made large improvements, and became a promi- nent man there. In 1855 he sold his land in Clinton county to George Daharsh, and returned to this county and purchased a farm adjoining the one he had sold to Mr. Tenbrook. He soon again became identified with the interests and growth of Lenawee county, and was prominent in all movements that tended to advance the prosperity and welfare of the county. He was a man of unblem- ished character, of sterling integrity, honorable and kind, with a strong sense of duty and force of character that gave him promi- nence in the community, and drew to him fast and true friends from the best classes. For some time after his return to Lenawee county he was engaged in the cattle business with Orin Baker and others, and in 1857, while in Buffalo, on his way to New York with cattle, he was drugged, with some sort of poison. It was
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
supposed the poison was administered for the purpose of robbing him, as his cattle were in the yards, and during the night several of them were driven out and never recovered. He arrived home in a very weak condition, and lingered in a continued fever for some time, and finally died February 28, 1858. He was an Odd Fellow and a prominent member of Adrian Lodge No. 8. His ancestors were English, and he could trace them back to 1630, when Will- iam and Mary Chase, and their son William, came to this country. In 1674 one of the descendants of William and Mary Chase mar- ried Daniel Baker, who lived near Swanzy, Mass. Daniel Baker was the son of Joseph and Isabel Baker, a Puritan family of - Massachusetts. The Chase family, the Sherman family (of which the present secretary of the United States Treasury, John Sher- man, is a descendant), and the Baker family, are all from the same ancestors, having intermarried until the seventh generation from 1630. December 25, 1828, at Victor, N. Y., Aaron S. Baker married Miss Prudence Cross, daughter of Jude and Mary (Ware) Cross, of Roe, Mass., Jeremiah D. Thompson, being then a Justice of the Peace, officiating. By this marriage there were three chil- dren, as follows : Darius C., born in Madison, this county, May 14, 1830, and died in December, 1864; Esther M., born in Adrian, November 4, 1831, now the wife of Charles R. Luce, who for nearly thirty years has been an engineer on the Michigan South- ern and Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroad; Martin H., born in Adrian, October 29, 1833, of St. Louis, Gratiot county, Mich., where he is one of the prominent and trusted men of the community. Mrs. Prudence Baker was born in Roe, Mass., March 31, 1807, and died July 7, 1836. Mrs. Baker was one of the first women who came to Adrian as a pioneer. She was brought up on a farm, and was inured to all the hardships of those days, and was well qualified to fill the position she was called upon to occupy here among wild beasts and Indians of the forest. Although she was still young, having. just been married, and in her nineteenth year, she heroically sacrificed all her comforts and friends in the east, and came to the then wilderness territory of Michigan, conscious of its trials and hardships, but with an abiding trust in her husband, and fearless of all personal discomfort or danger. She came into the woods, lived in a log house without windows or doors, fought the flies and mosquitoes, killed the snakes as they crossed her path or came into her house, conquered the Indians by her will and her kindness, and raised a family of children that to- day bless her memory, and can scarcely realize the truth of the old times. In 1834 she started with her husband (leaving her three small children, one only eighteen months old, the two eldest with (14)
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her husband's sister, Mrs. Morganza Aldrich, and the baby, Mar- tin, with Orra and Cynthia Ferguson) for Massachusetts, with a span of horses and lumber wagon. They went through Ohio and Pennsylvania, and Western and Northern New York, to Roe, Mass. Their road was through woods and over streams that were forded most of the way, but the journey was successfully made, and, after an absence of over three months, they returned to Fair- field. Although she possessed a strong will and undaunted cour- age, Mrs. Baker's health gave way, and for nearly a year she was an invalid, and died July 7, 1836, very suddenly. Mr. Baker afterwards married Miss Rebecca Lowe, daughter of Joseph Lowe, who was a good wife and kind mother to his children. She is now the wife of Davis D. Bennett, of Fairfield. The above record is given by Aaron S. Baker's daughter, Mrs. Esther M. Luce, who has prepared an accurate and interesting record of his family.
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E GBERT J. BLOOMER was born in Ovid, Seneca county, N. Y., December 27, 1823. He resided in Ovid and worked on his father's farm until 1843. He came to Mich- igan and landed in Adrian September 2, 1843. In 1835 his father, Joshua Bloomer, came to Michigan and took up 200 acres of land on sections 30 and 31, in Ogden, this county, but died in a few days after. Egbert came to Michigan for the purpose of see- ing the country and looking at the land that his father had pur- chased, and after spending about one year here, he returned to Seneca county. After his marriage, in the spring of 1846, he again returned to Michigan, and took possession of his father's purchase in Ogden, having bought out his mother's and the heirs' interest. He at once made "a hole in the woods," and put up a log house and commenced clearing the timber off. It was a great job to clear the land at that time, as the ground was covered with water nearly the year round, and it was almost impossible to "get a burn." In 1849 he assisted in digging a large ditch from the Fairfield town line to Big Bear creek, over a mile in length. This ditch let the water off the top of the ground, and made the roads passable at least a part of the year. Since that time a general ditch system has been inaugurated, and the land has been mostly
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
cleared up, and is now fast becoming the most productive part of the county. It required pluck, patience and muscle for a man to start in, previous to 1850 with the idea of making a home, but those who did are to-day prosperous and comfortable. Mr. Bloomer has cleared one hundred acres of land, built good buildings, built a cheese factory, has put up five tenament houses, a blacksmith shop, and owns a saw mill that was built by Hagaman and Youngs; in fact, he is proprietor of the village of Ygapo. Feb- ruary 11, 1846, Egbert J. Bloomer married Mary Van Patten, of Ovid, Seneca county, N. Y., by whom he had two children, as fol- lows: Helen R., born in Ogden, this county, November 7, 1846, now the wife of F. W. Norris, of Ogden; Mary Eiva, born in Fairfield, this county, July 22, 1851, now a resident of Ovid, Seneca, county, N. Y. Mrs. Mary Bloomer was born in Ovid, in 1828, and died in Fairfield. this county, July 31, 1851. After the death of his wife Mr. Bloomer went to California, where he re- mained about eleven years. In 1865 he returned to his home in Ogden. January 20, 1869, he married Mrs. Mary Stilwell, daughter of Samuel and Hannah Vaughan, of Sheffield, York- shire, England, by whom he has had two children, as follows: Emma Jane, born in Ogden, July 30, 1873; Willie Vene, born same place, February 12, 1877. Mrs. Mary Bloomer was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, April 3, 1839, and came to America with her father and two sisters about the year 1845. Her father was a native of Yorkshire, and died in Ridgeville, Ohio, in 1867. Her mother was also a native of Yorkshire, where she died about the year 1842. Mrs. Bloomer was first married in Ridgeville, Ohio, to Henry W. Stilwell, December 23, 1857, by whom she had three sons, as follows: George M., born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, November 26, 1859, now of Dover, Cuyahoga county, Ohio ; Amos P., born in Clarksfield, Ohio, August 23, 1860, now of Berlin Heights, Ohio; Charles H., born in Amboy, Ohio, April 12, 1863, also of Berlin Heights.
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AVID SMITH, SR., was born in Camington, Conn., Feb- ruary 8, 1786. When he was yet a child his father, Ezekiel Smith, moved to Vermont on the river Lamoille, where he followed farming until 1798. About the year 1789 Mrs. Ezekiel Smith (Mary Flint) was drowned in the Lamoille river. Ezekiel
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Smith afterwards married Miss Mary Bullen, and in 1798 moved to Lower Canada, where he lived until the breaking out of the war of 1812, when he, owing to the "exigency of the times," was compelled to leave his property and move into the State of New York, and finally settled in Constable, St. Lawrence county. He afterwards moved to Manchester, Ontario, where he lived until his death. David Smith, Sr .. came to the "States" at the same time and for the same reason that his father did, and finally settled in Manchester, Ontario county, N. Y., where he purchased a farm. He lived in Manchester until the spring of 1833, when he came to Michigan and located nearly 200 acres of land on section 6 in Logan, now Adrian township. In 1835 he built a saw mill on his farm, the motive power being had from Wolf creek. He was one of the very first settlers on Wolf creek, his neighbors being Cary Rogers, who lived on section 7, in Adrian, and John Wood, who lived on section 1, in Logan, now Rome, and William Hawley, who lived one mile south. Mr. Smith was foremost in all the first public improvements. He was appointed a commissioner to lay out public roads, and assisted in chopping out the roads, building bridges, etc., between Adrian and Devil's lake. He was a very enterprising man, and much respected, especially by all the first settlers, to whom he lent all the assistance in his power. He is still living with his son, David Smith, Jr., at Wolf creek, in his ninety-fifth year. November 6, 1807, David Smith, Sr., was mar- ried in Armstown, Lower Canada, to Miss Lydia Roberts, daugh- ter of David and Lydia Roberts, of Armstown, by whom he had eleven children, ten sons and one daughter; David Jr., who was born in Constable, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., October 30, 1812, being the third child. Mrs. Lydia Smith was born in Vermont, May 3, 1789, and died in Rome, this county, May 14, 1875. David Smith, Jr., was brought up a farmer, and received only a common school education. He came to Michigan in 1832, with his brother, Henry Smith. His parents came in the spring of 1833, and David located a farm on section 12, in Rome, adjoining his father's. He has lived upon this land ever since that time, and has subdued it from a wilderness, erecting good buildings and making a valuable farm. He has done his full share in all that is necessary to be done in establishing school districts, societies of dif- ferent kinds, and in enforcing and obeying the common laws. Having come into the country when he was in his twentieth year, of course he was very active during all the period of clearing up the country, establishing society, developing its resources, etc. August 6, 1837, David Smith, Jr., married Miss Emeline Hawley, daughter of Levi and Olive Hawley, of Rome, this county, by
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