USA > Michigan > Lenawee County > History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan, Volume II > Part 13
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
whom he has had eight children, as follows: Hercelia, born Octo- ber 28, 1838, now the wife of Myron Every, of Rome; Harriet S., born April 15, 1840, now at home; William H., born April 5, 1844, a farmer of Adrian ; Emily, born September 10, 1847, now the wife of Philip Bates, of Adrian township; Florence A., born November 20, 1849, now the wife of C. R. Knowles, of Adrian township; Thaddeus, born October 13, 1853, died December 19, 1853; Jessie E., born January 23, 1857, now the wife of Albert Knowles, of Rome; one child died in infancy. Mrs. Emeline Smith, was born in Seneca, Ontario county, N. Y., June 11, 1814. She came to Michigan with her parents in 1835. Her father was a native of New York, and died in Rome, at his old home, on sec- tion 13, May 7, 1852. His wife, who was Miss Olive Payne, was a native of Rhode Island. She died in Rome, January 4, 1853.
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APTAIN LYMAN W. BAKER was born in Manchester, Ontario county, N. Y., January 15, 1806. At the age of eighteen Mr. Baker was enrolled in the thirty-ninth regi- ment, twenty-fourth brigade and thirty-second division of the mil- itia of the State of New York, and on the 29th day of June, 1826, received a commission of second lieutenant. The year after, he re- ceived a commission of first lieutenant, the following year receiving a captain's commission, in which capacity he served until the year 1833, when he resigned his commission as captain, and moved to Michigan. The commissions were signed by Enos T. Throop, Governor of the State of New York, and John A. Dix, Adjutant- General. After arriving in Michigan and settling in the township of Rome, in the spring of 1833, there were a great many priva- tions and hardships to encounter, which were stoutly borne by the few that started in Rome township, and at this time there are but three living in the town who settled there in the spring of 1833- David Jerrells, Norman C. Baker and Lyman W. Baker. Lyman W. Baker has filled most all the offices that are necessary to run a town. At the first organization of Rome the law required three assessors, he filling one of them for eight years, until the office was abolished. He held the office of Justice of the Peace for twelve years, and in that time married fifty-two couples. He is a member
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of Adrian Lodge No. 8, I. O. O. F., and has been its presiding officer, and is a member of Lenawee Encampment No. 4, I. O. O. F., and for over thirty years has been a member of Adrian Lodge No. 19, F. & A. M., and of Chapter No. 10, F. & A. M. In politics he has always been an active and earnest Democrat, adher- ing strictly to Jeffersonian and Jacksonian principles. The first vote he ever cast was in 1828, for Andrew Jackson for President. He was one of the few that first organized the Democratic party in Lenawee county. He remembers Dr. P. J. Spalding, John Hutch- ins, C. N. Ormsby, A. W. Budlong, Asahel Finch, among those present at the organization of the party. Mr. Baker was a dele- gate to the senatorial convention, held in Dundee, that nominated Olmsted Hough, the first Senator that was elected after the forma- tion of the district. He was a delegate to a State convention, held in Detroit, when John Moore was nominated for Governor. He was a delegate to the State convention, held at Marshall, in 1840, when Charles E. Stewart was nominated for an elector. He has been a delegate to a State convention held at Jackson, and was sent from this State to the National convention, held at Louisville, Ky., when Charles O'Connor was nominated for President, as he never could swallow Greeley. Since 1828 he has never missed casting his vote at a general or township election, and never marked a name from his ticket. He still lives on the banks of Wolf creek, in the town of Rome, on the same land that he pur- chased from the United States forty-seven years ago, with Andrew Jackson's name to the deed. His religious belief is this: One church is just as good as another; let every person be his own judge, and conduct himself accordingly.
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OHN WILSON was born in Hemstead, Rockland county, N. Y., August 18, 1795. His father, Andrew Wilson, was a native of New York city, and his parents came from Scot- land and settled in New York, and afterwards carried on a large mercantile business. Andrew Wilson married Miss Lettie Smith, by whom he had thirteen children, John being the fourth child and oldest son. Andrew Wilson and his wife came to Michigan, and they died in Madison, and were buried in the cemetery near Ran-
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
dolph's Corners. John Wilson was brought up a farmer, and when he was a child his father went to Sodus, Wayne county, N. Y , where he purchased land in the woods, and cleared up a farm. John lived at home until he was twenty-six years old, when he was married. He followed farming there until the spring of 1829, when he came to Michigan and purchased 160 acres of land on section 29, in Madison, and immediately returned to New York, intending to bring his family on the next spring. But when he got home he changed his mind, owing to financial difficulties, and a fear that he could not make a living for his family in Michigan at that early day, and rented a farm in Sodus, and carried it on six years, during which time he saved about $300, and in the fall of 1836 he came to Michigan with his family, and settled on his land in Madison. He brought but few things with him except neces- sary wearing apparel. He paid $75 for bringing his family and a few goods from Detroit to Adrian. That fall he put up a log house and moved into it before it had a door, window, floor or chimney, or before it was "chinked" up. He then got in provisions for a year, and had $30 in money left. With this money he hired a man for three months to assist in clearing land, and get out black walnut and whitewood saw logs. Some of the settlers found fault about this, and thought he had better save his money and do the work himself, for such reckless hiring of help would throw him and his family "upon the town" for support. The next spring he "got a good burn," and planted a good patch of corn and potatoes, and that fall he got a large crop. He sold corn for seventy-five cents per bushel of ears, and potatoes for fifty cents per bushel. In the spring of 1837 a man came along from New York, and wanted a job of clearing ten acres. Mr. Wilson let him have the job, but this so alarmed the settlers that they told him he was a fool, and would go to the poor-house. That fall a man wanted to build him a frame barn, and offered to do the work for $75 and board. The proposition was at once accepted, and the man com- menced work. This thoroughly alarmed the settlers, and all were positively certain that the whole family would become a county charge, but, on the contrary, he got along very well. He drew his black walnut and whitewood logs to "Dick" Lewis' saw mill, and sold his lumber for cash, and instead of becoming a county charge, he sold the lumber to the county to erect the first poor-house. In the spring of 1838 he was in very comfortable circumstances, hav- ing a good barn and about twenty acres cleared, with a good young orchard started. It was the largest improvement in the neighbor- hood, and some of the settlers had been in six or eight years. When he first settled there he was desperately homesick, and
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wanted to go back to New York, and would have gone had it not been for his wife, who insisted on staying and making a home. During his fits of homesickness he would get up nights and burn brush, and chop down trees by the light. He lived there until 1856, when he left the farm and purchased a home on Beecher street, just south of Adrian, where he now resides. January 22, 1821, John Wilson married Miss Sophia Cowls, daughter of Samuel and Chloe Cowls, of Williamsburgh, Hampshire county, Mass., by whom he has had eight children, as follows: Nelson D., born in Sodus, Wayne county, N. Y., October 14, 1822; Samuel C., born in the same place, May 14, 1824; Charles A., born in same place, February 15, 1826; Elias, died in infancy ; Hiram T., born in the same place, March 29, 1831; Wealthy Jane, born in the same place, September 9, 1832, and died August 18, 1842; Curran, born in Madison, this county, February 26, 1836 ; Harriet, died in infancy. Mrs. Sophia Wilson was born in Williamsburgh, Hampshire county, Mass., December 13, 1796. Her parents were natives of Hampshire county, Mass., where her mother died. Her name was Chloe Shumway, and she was born in Belcher, September 2, 1768. Her father moved to Ohio and lived with his son Horace, near Cleveland, where he died. He was born August 31, 1766, in Hatfield, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. John Wilson have lived together for sixty years, and are still able to do their own work, and enjoy remarkably good health, (October 15, 1880).
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OHN R. HAWKINS was born iu Hardwick, Oxfordshire, England, January 6, 1809. His father, John Hawkins, son of Richard and Elizabeth (Heron) Hawkins, was born in the same place, March 16, 1786, and lived in Hardwick and London until 1824, when he came to America and settled in Pittsford, Monroe county, N. Y., where he purchased a farm and resided a few years, and then moved to the city of Rochester, where he was engaged in the mercantile business until his death, which occurred in 1838. Previous to his coming to America he resided in Lon- don, where he was a corn dealer. August 27, 1808, John Hawkins married Sophia Minchin, danghter of William and Sarah (Bryan) Minchin, of Northmore, Oxfordshire, by whom he had
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
five children, John R. being the oldest. Mrs. Sophia Hawkins was born in Northmore, and was one of a family of sixteen girls. One of her sisters became the mother of twenty-two children, eighteen of whom lived to become men and women. Mrs. Sophia Hawkins died in Hardwick, in 1814. John R. Hawkins was only five years old when his mother died, when he went to Oxford to live with a particular friend of the family, where he was educated. When he was sixteen years old he went into a hardware store in Oxford, where he remained four years. May 13, 1828, he left London on the ship Electra, Captain Baker, for America, and after a boisterous voyage of about seven weeks he landed in New York, July 6. He went directly to Canandaigua, N. Y., and commenced to work by the month on a farm, which he followed for about six months, when he rented a farm and carried it on until 1834. February 3, 1834, he started from Canandaigua with a horse team and Jumber wagon with his family, consisting of his wife and one child, and came to Michigan, arriving in Adrian March 3. The winter of 1833-4 was an open one, and owing to the mud he de- layed his starting from Canandaigua some time after he was ready. But about the first of February it froze up and he started. After being three days on the road the weather moderated, and the roads broke up, making them mnost horrible. During the entire distance it froze a little at night, and would thaw during the day. He was three days getting through the Black Swamp in Ohio, four days from Perrysburgh to Adrian, and three days from Adrian to his land, sixteen miles west on section 20, in the present town of Rollin, where he has resided ever since. In going from Adrian to Rollin the roads were so bad that he was obliged to leave a large box of goods in the road, as the team could not pull the load. The box laid where he dropped it for six months before he was able to get it home. During the summer of 1833 his father-in-law, Henry Hayward, came to Michigan, and Mr. Hawkins sent money by him to secure the land which he now lives on. He lived with his brother-in-law in Seneca during the first summer, and in Septen- ber he put up on his land a log house 18x24, and it took every man in Rollin three days to do the job. He lived in the house nearly one year without door or windows, and one day Isaiah Miller, who lived two miles and a half northwest, came over and made a trade with Mrs. Hawkins, giving her a board to make a door, for a loaf of bread. Miller carried home his bread, and Mr. Hawkins brought home the heavy board on his back through the woods, and thought it was a good trade. His first seed pota- toes, very small ones, he bought of Mr. Skein, who owned land at Devil's lake, for which he paid one dollar per bushel. He got a (15)
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bushel and a half and backed them home, a distance of four miles. He first located 160 acres of land from the government, but he now owns 250 acres on sections 20 and 29, in Rollin. He has about 200 acres cleared, has built a large stone house, with large barns, etc. He has never held any public office except Highway Commissioner, but he has always attended to his own business, and endeavored to be a good citizen and neighbor. February 17, 1831, John R. Hawkins married Hannah T. Hayward, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Hayward, of Farmington, Ontario county, N. Y., by whom he has had six children, as follows: George H., born in Canandaigua, N. Y., October 13, 1832, died May 14, 1835; Mary Ann E., born in Fairfield, this county, July 14, 1834, now the wife of George Underwood, of Hudson; Rose Ann S., born in Rollin, October 3, 1836, now the wife of Samuel E. Cooper, of Hudson; John H., born same place, February 6, 1843, a farmer of Rollin; Hannah H., born same place, May 14, 1845, now the wife of Ogden Cole, a farmer of Rollin; James W., born same place, March 24, 1847, a farmer of Rollin. Mrs. Hannah T. Hawkins was born in Farmington, Ontario county, N. Y., Sep- tember 29, 1809, and came to Michigan with her husband in 1834. [For her family relation see Micajah Hayward's record in this volume.]
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AMES W. HELME was born in Rush, Monroe county, N. Y., April 8, 1817. His father, Samuel H Helme, was born in Lebanon, Conn., in 1782, where he lived with his father, Christopher Helme, until he was twenty-one years old, when he moved to Otsego county, N. Y. He afterwards went to Rush, Monroe county, where he was the first settler, and engaged in the mercantile business. Christopher Helme was a tanner and currier in Lebanon, Conn., and carried on the business there. He was a sol- dier in the revolutionary war. His two brothers, Samuel R. and James W., were commissioned officers in the same war. James W. was a colonel and commanded an expedition which marched from Connecticut as far west as Vincennes, Ind., where he besieged the place and captured it, and started for Detroit, but was ambuscaded by the British and Indians, near where Fort Wayne now stands,
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
and was tortured and burned to death. Gen. Cass speaks of this fact in his memoirs. Samuel H. Helme married Miss Ruth Holines, of Richfield, Otsego county, N. Y., by whom he had thirteen children, James W. being the eighth child. Mrs. Ruth Helme was born in Salem, Mass., in 1786, and died in Orleans county, N. Y., in 1842. Samuel H. Helme died at the same place, in 1841. James W. Helme lived in Monroe county N. Y. until he was about nineteen years old, and learned the baker's trade in Rochester. He came to Michigan in 1836, and arrived in Adrian July 21 that year. He worked at his trade in Adrian until Jan- uary, 1838, when he enlisted in the Patriot war, and went to Can- ada. He was in the battle of Bois Blanc, Fighting Island and Pointe Pelee Point, where the Patriots were defeated, and the cam- paign was abandoned until the following December, when a company of forty men was raised in Adrian, and Mr. Helme was a member of this company. The officers of the company were: D. D. Bedford, captain ; James W. Helme, first lieutenant; Paul Coburn, second lieutenant. The battle of Windsor was fought De- cember 6, 1838, which ended the war. The Adrian company was in this battle. Captain Bedford was captured and hung, Lieuten- ant Helme made his escape across the river in a canoe, Lieutenant Coburn went no further than Detroit, and hence escaped. The officers of the regiment were all captured and hung. A reward of $1,000 was offered by the British government for Lieutenant Helme, dead or alive. In the spring of 1838 Mr. Helme and his brother, Victor H. (who was afterwards under sheriff of Lenawee county, and a soldier in the Mexican war), carried on a bakery in Adrian. Business being dull Mr. Helme became uneasy, and finally proposed to Daniel S. Wilkinson that they go west on a prospecting tour. Mr. Wilkinson had a team, which they took, and, after traveling fourteen days, they halted on the Mississippi river in Iowa, where the city of Lyons now stands. There were three log houses there at that time. After a residence there of about four months, they harnessed their team and returned to Adrian. One of the horses was stolen after they got home, and Mr. Helme finally captured the thief, and he was sent to prison. This was the first horse thief punished in Lenawee county. In 1840 James W. bought his brother out. December 29, 1841, the "big fire" burnt up the bakery, leaving James penniless, but he managed to get a start again, and in the spring of 1842 he rebuilt and carried on the business until October, 1864, when he sold out to Bowerfind and Weisinger. Since that he has carried on no active business, but has lived a retired life at his home, in the northern part of the city. Mr. Helme was prominent in the
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organization of the old Adrian Guards, and circulated the first paper for signatures in the spring of 1842. He held all the positions in the company from private to lieutenant. Mr. Helme was a charter member of the first fire company organized in Adrian, Alert No. 1. He was afterwards a member of the hook and ladder company for seven years. He served the Third ward as supervisor for six years. February 6, 1847, James W. Helme married Miss Lydia A. Sherman, daughter of Heman Sherman, of Bethel, Branch county, Mich., who died the same year, April 6, of consumption. November 28, 1847, he married Miss Phebe Turner, daughter of William and Sally Turner, of Dexter, Wash- tenaw county, Mich., by whom he has had three children, as fol- lows: William J., born November 17, 1848, and died February 23, 1859; Lydia May, born August 20, 1850, now the wife of D. C. Dean, of Adrian; James W., born March 3, 1860, a resident of Adrian. Mrs. Phebe Helme was born in Brookfield, New Fairfield county, Conn., February 10, 1827, and came to Michigan with her parents and settled in Unadilla, Livingston county, in 1833. Her father was born in Brookfield, March 26, 1799, and is still living in Dexter, Washtenaw county. Her mother was born in Huntington (now Monroe), Monroe county, Conn., and is still living in Dexter.
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ON. ELIHU L. CLARK. In the first volume of the his- tory and biographical record of Lenawee county, pages 360, 361 and 362, will be found a short and condensed history of this early pioneer, who, at the age of sixty-nine years, still lives and retains his mental faculties in a most remarkable degree. By his great wealth and generous disposition, now in his declining years, he is doing a large amount of good. To him more than any other man are we indebted for securing the location of the State Reform school for girls in Adrian, he paying $5,000, being much the largest amount paid by any man. The Adrian Daily Times of April 12th contained the following resolutions, which explain themselves :
To Hon. E. L. Clark :
DEAR SIR-At a meeting of a railroad committee, held this evening at the rooms of the Michigan State Insurance company,
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
the following were present: W. S. Wilcox, C. Rynd, T. J. Tobey, Ira A. Metcalf, W. H. Waldby, W. T. Lawrence, S. E. Hart, A. Backus, T. S. Applegate, A. J. Dean, J. R. Clark, H. A. Colvin, F. R. Stebbins, R. J. Jewell and H. A. Angell. A sub-commit- tee of three was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the community in relation to the location here of the Reform school for girls. The following were unanimously adopted :
Resolved, That we congratulate the people of Adrian on the de- cision of the commission locating in this city the Reform school for girls.
Resolved, That the people of this community are under great and lasting obligations to Hon. E. L. Clark, for it is mainly through his liberality and public spirit that the city will be able to secure the great benefits to accrue from the establishment of this benefice in our midst.
Resolved, That we comraend the large-hearted, liberality of Hon. E. L. Clark to the lasting gratitude of the people of this city. The institution will be a monument of his bounty to the place of his residence, and we commend his example to all other men whom God has blessed with a sufficiency of this world's goods.
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be presented to Mr. Clark, and published in the papers of this city.
ADRIAN, April 10, 1880.
A few days later, when the effort was being made to secure the location of the Detroit & Butler railroad through Adrian, at a cost of $40,000, Mr. Clark was again called upon by a committee ap- pointed for that purpose, to head the subscription, which he did with $10,000, being one fourth of the whole amount of subscrip- tion required, and a greater amount than any one subscription for the road given, even in Detroit. The Adrian Times of April 13 says: " All honor to him for it. He has, in our opinion, secured the success of the road." The railroad committee called at the office of the Michigan State Insurance company again, passed ap- propriate resolutions, and gave three hearty cheers for Mr. Clark. The county papers eulogized his liberality, and we also give what the Detroit papers said in regard to it.
. We salute Mr. E. L. Clark, of Adrian. When a subscription paper for an important public enterprise gets' before him he puts down a unit and is agreeably reckless as to the number of ciphers that he adds after it. In the writing down of the record of the Butler boom his name leads all the rest. His generosity would have been noteworthy under any circumstances, and is made espe- cially so now by contrast .- Detroit Post.
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The auspicious opening of the Adrian subscription to the Butler road ought to give a new impetus to the work of completing Detroit's quota of the bonus to be raised in that behalf. There are twenty men at least in this city who have as yet given nothing, who could give $20,000 apiece as easily as the liberal Adrian sub- scriber, who headed the list in that city; and either one of them is as much interested pecuniarily in the success of the Butler project as he. We have no idea that any of them will be shamed into giving even $5,000 by the liberal example of a man who takes twenty-five per cent. of the sum allotted to his town; but they all ought to be. Mr. Clark's contribution of $10,000 to the Butler enterprise shows what it costs a man to live somewhere else than in Detroit. It is an axiom that Detroit is one of the cheapest cities in the United States to do business in .- Detroit Free Press.
Adrian's Butler bonus committee started out day before yester- day to raise $40,000 for that purpose. The first man they went to was Hon. E. L. Clark, of that city, and that gentleman at once headed the subscription with a contribution of $10,000. Hush! What do we hear? What Detroit millionaire whispered in a still small voice that he would see this and go several better by making up the remainder of our whole $200,000? We pause for a reply ! -Evening News.
At the meeting of the Detroit Board of Trade, April 15, three rousing cheers were given for " Hon. E. L. Clark, of Adrian, and his magnificent subscription in aid of the Butler road."
Mr. and Mrs. Clark in a quiet way have always given freely to worthy objects of charity, but in these two donations, necessarily made public, they have more than ever endeared themselves to Adrian and her citizens. The writer, meeting Mr. Clark a short time after these subscriptions were so generously made, raised his hat as .a token of respect for an old friend, acquaintance, and neighbor, for what he had recently done for our city, when Mr. Clark replied, " Whitney, keep on your hat, I am no aristocrat."
The above was written April 28, the writer not knowing that Mr. Clark was sick, as he had been about the city the day before. He was soon after taken sick, but not supposed to be dangerous even up to the time of his death, which took place on Thursday, April 29, at 1:30 p. M. The funeral took place the Sunday following. The Daily Times of May 3 thus speaks of the funeral services :
"The funeral services of Hon. E. L. Clark occurred yesterday afternoon, and the unusually large attendance, both at the house and at the cemetery, testified in some degree the respect which Mr. Clark had won by his generosity and honesty during his forty-five years' residence in this city.
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