USA > Michigan > Lenawee County > History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan, Volume II > Part 19
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ORTER BEAL was born in Perinton, Monroe county, N. Y., April 6, 1819. His father, Joseph Beal, son of Seth Beal, was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, April 15, 1778, where he resided until he was seventeen. In the year 1795 he went to Macedon, Wayne county, N. Y., where his brother, Bernard then lived and owned a farm. He lived with his brother until he was 21, and assisted him in clearing up a new farm. About the year 1800 he purchased a new farm in Perinton, which he cleared up and resided upon until he came to Michigan in the spring of 1830. He came to this county because his oldest son,
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
William, had settled in Adrian township. In 1833 Joseph Beal located 40 acres on section 15, in Rollin, and ever after resided in the township. At that time there were but two families living within the present limits of Rollin. These families were Levi Thompson, who lived on section 4, and Erastus Aldrich, who lived on section 9. At that time, at certain seasons of the year, numbers of Indians camped around Devil's and Round Lakes, who would often make friendly calls upon Mr. Beal, and ask for something to eat. They invariably asked for bread, which they seemed to relish more than any other kind of food. About the year 1800 Joseph Beal married Elizabeth Claghorn, of Macedon, Wayne county, N. Y., by whom he had nine children, Porter being the seventh child and third and youngest son. Mrs. Elizabeth Beal was born in Williamsburg, Mass., and died in Adrian in the winter of 1830-31. Joseph Beal died in Rollin, January 22, 1877. Porter came to Mich- igan with his parents in 1830, and arrived in Adrian June 1st. His occupation has always been farming. In 1833 he located land on section 10, in Rollin, and made a home there. He now resides on section 15, in the same town, and has erected a very large brick house upon the land his father first located. He is the oldest resi- dent living in the town, having resided there continuously for for- ty-seven years. He served the township during the years 1861-2 as Supervisor. During the past thirty-eight years he has been a member of the Rollin M. E. church, and was very active and en- ergetic in the erection of the fine brick church at Rollin Center. He gave liberally towards its construction, and has been a trustee ever since its completion. During the past twenty years he has devoted considerable time and attention to fruit culture, and is now one of the most successful growers in the county. During the season of 1880 he marketed over 1,000 bushels of peaches. He also has quite an extensive and choice apple and plum orchard. In politics he has always been liberal, having first voted for James G. Birney, but on the organization of the Republican party he adopted its principles, but during the past several years he has been an ardent prohibitionist, and was in 1880 a candidate for Commis- sioner of the State Land Office, on the prohibition ticket. Janu- ary 1st, 1840, Porter Beal married Susan A. Brownell, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Brownell, by whom he has had eight chil- dren, as follows: Melvina A., born December 5th, 1840, now the wife of A. W. Martin, of Rollin ; Elmira, born July 11th, 1842, now the wife of Amos R. Cole, of Rollin; Martha, born Septem- ber 10th, 1845, died at the age of two years; Judson, born May 19th, 1847, a farmer of Rollin; Thomas, born July 22, 1850, a farmer of Woodstock; Eli A., born October 5, 1851, a farmer of
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Rollin : Joseph L., born May 28, 1856, a farmer of Rollin; Mar- tha L., born October 24, 1857, at home. Mrs. Susan A. Beal was born in North Adams, Berkshire county, Mass., March 2, 1823, and came to Michigan with her parents in 1825, and settled near the present city of Ann Arbor. Her parents were natives of Mass- achusetts. Her father died in Clyde, Cloud county, Kansas, in 1874, in his 70th year. Her mother died in Adrian, in 1833, aged 33 years.
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E LI CHATFIELD was born in Windham, Greene county, N. Y., May 10, 1809. He was the son of Josiah Chatfield, one of the first settlers of Greene county, N. Y., where he owned a farm on the Catskill mountains. He resided there until 1833, when he came to Michigan and located 160 acres of land on section 35, in Raisin, which he cleared up and made into a desirable farm. He erected a frame house, good barns, etc., and raised a good orchard. He died there in 1849, being born in Waterbury, Conn., December 10, 1775. He married Olive Tuttle, of Litch- field, Conn., by whom he had six children, Eli being the third son and fourth child. Mrs. Olive Chatfield was born in Woodbridge, Conn., February 24, 1773, and died in Raisin, August 20, 1854. Eli Chatfield came to Michigan in the spring of 1833, and arrived in Tecumseh about the 10th of June. Soon after that date he located eighty acres of land on section 25, in Raisin. During that summer and fall a clearing was made and a house put up, and in the spring of 1834 corn and potatoes were planted, and quite a start made. He and his father owned two cows with calves, and during the summer of 1834 they were greatly annoyed by the wolves, in their persistent attempts to carry off the calves. A small lot was enclosed with a high fence, and one night in particu- lar the famished marauders came in such force that it became nec- essary to call out all hands with the dogs to drive them away. The calves bleating and wolves howling must have aroused every living thing in the dense forest. It was no uncommon thing in those days for people to get lost in the woods, and the women, be- coming alarmed for their safety, would blow their horns to give the directions. During the first few years of the settlement the
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
wolves were a great annoyance, and several wolf hunts were in- dulged in, and Mr. Chatfield never failed to take a hand, as he was a great hunter. These hunting parties, accompanied by their dogs, never failed to "find game," especially in the low lands, where the pests abounded. It was no uncommon thing when a man became lost in the woods and would hallo, to be answered by at least fifty wolves, and whenever the "women folks" heard these howlings they were at once satisfied that somebody was lost, and would blow their horns. Mr. Chatfield built a small frame house on his first purchase, but afterwards sold the building and purchased twenty acres of higher ground adjoining, for a building spot, where he erected a good house, barns, sheds, etc. He was always a promi- nent man in his township, and was active in making all the first improvements, such as roads, bridges, schools, etc. He was a car- penter and joiner by trade, and erected many of the first frame houses and barns in East Raisin. He was a man fitted for a pio- neer-energetic, courageous, kind, generous and honorable, and was honored and respected by all who knew him. He resided on his farm until his death, which occurred June 3, 1866. February 2, 1831, Eli Chatfield married Phebe Doty, daughter of Alvan and Melinda Doty, then of Durham, Greene county, N. Y., by whom he had four children, as follows: Willis, born in Windham, N. Y., September 25, 1832, and died in Raisin, this county, March 24, 1846; Willis 2d, born in Raisin, this county, March 4, 1848, a farmer, and runs the homestead; George E., born same place, Feb- ruary 13, 1851, died August 18, 1854; Mary J., born same place, .May 16, 1856, at home. Mrs. Phebe Chatfield was born in Dur- ham, Greene county, N. Y., August 8, 1811, and came to Michi- gan with her husband in 1833. [For her family relation see Will- iam E. Doty's record on another page of this volume.]
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HOMAS S. WETER was born in Floyd, Oneida county, N. Y., March 3, 1821. His father, Josephus Weter, was born in the State of New York, in 1787, was brought up a farmer, and owned a farm in Floyd, Oneida county. After 1820 he went on the Erie canal, and for many years he was captain of a boat on that great thoroughfare. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and
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was wounded at the battle of Plattsburgh. He came to Michigan in 1849, and lived in Palmyra, this county, until his death, which occurred in January, 1878. About the year 1815 Josephus Weter married Anna Buckley, daughter of John Buckley, who came from England in 1777, and settled in the eastern portion of New York. Josephus and Anna Weter had seven children, five sons and two daughters, Thomas S. being the second son and third child. Only two of the family are now living, Thomas S. and John M., who now resides near Chillicothe, Ohio. Mrs. Anna Weter was born in New York, and died in Palmyra, this county, in August, 1851. Thomas S. Weter lived with his parents until he was eleven years old when he went out to work, and has looked after his affairs since that time. In 1841 he went to Ross county, Ohio, and leased a farm for four years. In 1845 he came to Mich- igan, and purchased forty acres of wild land on section 3, in Pal- myra. He resided there and cleared up his land, and in January, 1852, he went to California, remaining there until the following November, when he returned, well satisfied with what he accom- plished. He soon added more to his farm, and resided there until 1860, when he traded with Orrin Hoxie for his present valuable farm of 160 acres on the same section. He has erected a good, large frame house, a large barn, corn house and granary, and now has a desirable and comfortable home. In 1873 he was attacked with sciatic rheumatism, and in the fall of 1875 he went to Cali- fornia and remained until the following spring. Since that time he has visited nearly all the celebrated springs in the country, in- cluding the Arkansas Hot Springs, and the different Michigan magnetic springs. November 5, 1843, Thomas S. Weter married Mary Pooley, daughter of Edward Pooley, of Marion, Wayne county, N. Y., by whom he had two children, as follows: Ann Maria, born in Jackson county, Ohio, January 5, 1845, now the wife of Wayne Roberts, of Palmyra; Edward, born in Palmyra, this county, August 29, 1849, died in August, 1851. Mrs. Mary Weter was born in Marion, Wayne county, N. Y., July 17, 1824, and died in Palmyra, this county, in August, 1851. March 27, 1853, Thomas S. Weter married Mrs. Mary Ann Wood, daughter of David and Mary Upton, of Rollin, this county, by whom he has had six children, as follows: Shepherd, born in Palmyra, January 4, 1854; Arabell, born same place, July 16, 1855, now the wife of Harrop Freeman, of Ridgeway, Macomb county, Mich .; James E., born same place, April 9, 1858; Nelson C., born same place, April 1, 1861, a graduate of Adrian College, and now a law student in Adrian; David E., born same place, November 16, 1863; Cora M., born same place, March 4, 1865. Mrs. Mary
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Ann Weter was born in Ontario, Wayne county, N. Y., March 27, 1825, and came to Michigan with her parents in 1846, and set- tled in Wheatland, Hillsdale county. She was married to Nelson Wood, in September, 1847, by whom she had one child, which died in infancy. Mr. Wood died September 16, 1849. David Upton was born in Charlemont, Mass., and died in Rollin, this county, in 1859. He married Mary Marsh, by whom he had ten children, three sons and seven daughters, Mrs. Weter being the ninth child and sixth daughter. David Upton came from Puritan stock, and represented the sixth generation.
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NSEL WITHERELL was born in Chatham, Connecticut, April 22, 1814. His father, Ansel. Witherell, was, when a young man, engaged in shad fishing on the Connecticut river, but he finally went to Deerfield, Mass., and purchased a farm, where he died about the year 1817. He married Lovina Chapman, by whom he had five children, Ansel being the third child and second son. She died in Deerfield, about the year 1838. Ansel Witherell, the subject of this sketch, was left an orphan when he was about three years old. He lived with different persons in his native town until he was seventeen years old, when his sister, Mrs. Job Graves, who had come to Michigan in the spring of that year (1831), wrote to him that if he would come she would pro- vide him with a home. He had been placed in charge of a farmer by the selectmen, to remain until he was twenty-one, but the farmer saw that his sister had made him a good offer, and that'it was the best thing for him to go to Michigan, where he could soon purchase some of the cheap land that was then for sale, and eventually have a good home, and that fall (1831) gave him two suits of clothes and $36 in money, and started him off for Michigan. He was . then in his eighteenth year, and he made it his home with his sister in Franklin until 1834. It was pretty snug times to live, even for those who had money to buy provisions, during the first few years of Ansel's residence here. Meat was very scarce and high, and most of the salt pork, that cost 25 cents per pound, was so poor and lean that butter was used to cook it with. Ansel being then a boy, rugged, and ambitious to make money, and having a
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taste for hunting and trapping, soon found that he could make bet- ter wages during the fall, winter and spring, with his gun and traps. in the woods, than at any other employment. During the first five years he followed hunting and trapping during the season, exclu- sively, and made considerable money. Jacob Jackson, of Adrian, who at that time had a trail of traps from Adrian to Napoleon, in Jackson county, came along one day and instructed him in the sci- ence of trapping. The principal game was deer, wolves, otter, fisher, coon, mink and muskrat, with an occasional panther. He never saw a bear either in Lenawee or Washtenaw counties. He ยท kept a regular account of deer and wolves he killed in the five years, which was as follows: Deer, 263 ; wolves, for which he got bounty, 13. Otter were very plenty in all the streams and lakes, and he caught large numbers of them, their skins being then worth from four to seven dollars. The number of mink and muskrat, were beyond count. He was very familiar with the Indians, who were quite numerous, mingling with them a great deal, learning their language and many of their habits and traditions. He was very well acquainted with old Baw Beese, Chief of the Pottawat- tomies. His hunting ground included all the territory between Bean Creek and Lake Erie, and his burying ground and planting ground was on Iron creek, in the present town of Manchester, in Washtenaw county. Mr. Witherell was also well acquainted with under chief, Meteau, whose hunting ground laid between Bean Creek and Lake Michigan. There was a division in the tribe, Baw Beese being the big chief, Meteau the little chief. The tribe was divided, and was known as two families. Baw Beese had less than twenty families with him, while the number with Meteau was still smaller. Two brothers, Ira and Jacob Ward, came in and settled in the present town of Manchester, in Washtenaw county. They located land and put up a sawmill on Iron creek. The second year after their settlement they went to the Indian burying ground and dug up the graves and robbed them of the Indian treasures that had been buried with the bodies. The Indians soon made the dis- covery, when Baw Beese and Meteau came to Mr. Witherell to learn who had committed the outrage. All of the settlers knew what the result would be, and some alarm was felt for fear the In- dians would suspect innocent parties. One evening while Jacob Ward was driving his cows home, he was shot at, and was never seen in the country again, both brothers going back to New York. Mr. Witherell learned the blacksmiths' trade with his brother-in- law, Job Graves, which he followed for several years. In 1844 he purchased a farm on section 3, in Franklin, where he now resides. The land was known as openings, and was comparatively easy to
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
clear and subdue. He now owns a farm of 242 acres, with good buildings and conveniences. During the past thirty-five years he has paid his attention exclusively to farming. When he was a young man he learned to raise broom corn and manufacture brooms, which has been a great help to him since he has owned a farm. July 9th. 1844, Ansel Witherell married Mary S. Clark, daughter of Noah and Mary (Harkness) Clark, by whom he has had six children, as follows. Adelia S., born August 6, 1845, died in infancy; Mary Lovina, born December 10, 1846, now the wife of Harlow Welch, of Manchester, Washtenaw county .; Jehiel A., born April 25, 1851, died in infancy; Edgar A., born Novem- ber 23, 1853; Jane E., born January 23, 1859, died at the age of four years; Clara E., born October 20, 1866, died August 18, 1880. Mrs. Mary S. Witherell was born in Carlton, Orleans Co., N. Y., February 22, 1824, and came to Michigan in 1838, and settled in Manchester, Washtenaw county. Her parents were na- tives of New York, and were farmers. Her father died in Frank- lin, this county, September 9, 1870, aged 87 years. Her mother died in Manchester, in July, 1862.
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TEPHEN H. PALMER was born in Riga, Monroe county, N. Y., January 29, 1824. His father, Henry Palmer, was born in Nine Partners, Dutchess county, N. Y., August 16, 1789, where he resided until he was about two years old, when his parents, John and Catharine Palmer, moved to Danby, Rutland county, Vt., where they purchased a small farm, and his father fol- lowed his trade of shoemaker. Henry lived there until after he was married, and learned the trade of shoemaker, tanner and cur- rier. In 1819 he moved to Riga, Monroe county, where he car- ried on a tannery and shoemaker's shop until 1832, when he sold out and came to Michigan. In the spring of 1831 he came west to look for land, and finally located 240 acres on section 17, in Raisin township, this county, and moved his family the following spring. His family consisted of his wife and seven children, all under age, and, after purchasing a yoke of oxen and wagon in Detroit, together with other necessary articles, his money was about exhausted. When he had found his way through the woods
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from Detroit to his land in Raisin, he was destitute of nearly everything except his family, his oxen, and his determination to overcome all difficulties and make a home. He soon made a start in the openings, and that fall he put in some wheat. His team was of great assistance to him, and by changing work with the set- tlers, he got up a comfortable log house, and with two cows he soon became a "flourishing farmer." During the first two or three years the family enjoyed good health, and with his four sons, he made a large improvement, put up good barns, set out an orchard, and resided there until 1848, when he sold out to Nathan Place, and purchased another farm on section 30, in Ridgeway, this county, where he now resides. He was a near neighbor and warm friend of Darius Comstock, and was ever ready and active in assisting and advising with that good old man, whom every early settler in Lenawee county who ever knew him, will bear the kind- est remembrance. Mr. Palmer assisted in nearly all the first im- provements in Raisin, such as making roads, bridges, school- houses, etc., and assisted in building the Friends' meeting-house at the Valley, which Mr. Comstock was also so largely interested in. When Mr. Palmer was a young man he united with the Society of Friends, and has clung to that faith ever since. March 3, 1814, Henry Palmer married Lydia Randall, daughter of Snow and Hannah (Sherman) Randall, of Mt. Holly, Rutland county, Vt., by whom he had eight children, four sons and four daughters, seven of whom are still living, Stephen H. being the third son and fourth child. Mrs. Lydia Palmer was born in Danby, Vt., Sep- tember 9, 1794, and died in Ridgeway, this county, March 27, 1864. She was a birthright member of the Friends' Society, and was a kind, patient mother, a thoughtful, thrifty and good wife, and a meek and earnest Christian. Mr. Palmer still survives her, in his ninety-second year, enjoying good health, and all his faculties to a remarkable degree, notwithstanding the fact that he has used tobacco for a period of seventy-eight years. Stephen H. Palmer came to Michigan with his parents in 1832, and was brought up a farmer. He lived at home until he was twenty-one, when he went to Adrian, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he followed until 1858, when he again went to farming. He now owns the old homestead in Ridgeway, where he resides. January 12, 1858, Stephen H. Palmer married Letitia W. Saville, daughter of Philip and Beulah Saville, of Peru, Ind., by whom he has had six chil- dren, as follows: Mary, born in Ridgeway, October 21, 1858; Emeline, born same place, February 9, 1860; William Edgar, born same place, August 13, 1861, died May 10, 1866; Frank S., born December 2, 1864, died at the age of one year; Frederick,
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
born March 4, 1868, died at the age of one year; Edward S., born May 31, 1866. Mrs. Letitia W. Palmer was born in Centreville, Wayne county, Ind., September 13, 1828. Her father was a native of Delaware, and was born June 2, 1797; he was a pioneer of Wayne county, Ind., having settled there in the year 1822, just after his marriage. He was a brickmason by trade, and assisted in building many of the first buildings in the village of Centreville. Her mother was a native of New Jersey, and was born near Camden, October 16, 1802. She was the mother of ten children, four sons and six daughters. She died at Peru, Ind., May 18, 1864. Philip Saville died in the same place, June 1, 1847.
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AMES LORD was born in Covington (now Pavillion) Gene- see county, N. Y., December 3, 1816. His father, Daniel Lord, was born in March, 1785, in Maine, where he lived until he was about twenty-eight years old, when he went to Mid- dletown, Rutland county, Vt., where he was married, and imme- diately went to Genesee county, N. Y., and purchased a new farm of the Holland Land company. He resided on his farm until his death, which occurred January 18, 1873. In 1813 Daniel Lord married Miss Lydia Perry, daughter of Ezekiel and Survina (Starkweather) Perry, by whom he had eleven children, ten sons and one daughter, James being the third son, and his only sister was the youngest child. Mrs. Lydia Lord was born in Middle- town, Vt., in 1795, and is still living on the old homestead in Genesee county, N. Y. Daniel Lord was a prominent man in his town- ship, and was a thrifty farmer, and an honorable, much respected, christian man, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all ac- quaintances. James Lord lived with his parents until he was about twenty-six years old, and was brought up a farmer, with no other education than could be obtained in the country district schools of those days. In the fall of 1842 he came to Michigan and settled in Seneca, this county, where he purchased a new farm on section 3. During that winter he made a beginning by chop- ping off thirteen acres of heavy timber, burning it off and fencing it, and the following fall sowed it to wheat. He says when he saw that wheat growing that fall, thrifty and green, covering the
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ground like a carpet, it was the proudest moment of his life, for it was his, and he had been the sole cause of its being there .. . He cleared up his first purchase of 62 acres, and has added to it until he now owns 160 acres, and has erected good buildings, with a good orchard, and other conveniences to be found on a good farm. When Mr. Lord first moved on his land in the spring of 1843, his neighbors consisted of Gilbert Mann, one half mile south; Mr. Corey, one half mile south; Charles Negus, one mile south ; his brother, Hiram Lord, one half mile north; Robert and Oliver Furman, one mile north and east. The country was then very new, and the only traveled road in that vicinity was the Adrian and Canandaigua road. Mr. Lord did his share in all the public improvements, assisting in cutting out roads, building bridges, school-houses and churches, and lent his influence towards all social and society advancement. He lived on his farm until 1868, when he moved to Fairfield village, where he purchased a residence, and where he now resides. January 13, 1842, James Lord married Orpha E. Freeman, daughter of David and Betsey Freeman, of Stafford, Genesee county, N. Y., by whom he has had three chil- dren, as follows: Ellen, born in Stafford, N. Y., November 19, 1842, now the wife of Charles Perry, a farmer of Ingham county, Mich .; Emily, born in Seneca, this county, November 29, 1844, now the wife of James Culver, a farmer of Seneca; James F., born in Seneca, December 29, 1848, at home. Mrs. Orpha E. Lord was born in Niagara county, N. Y., January 12, 1825. Her father was a native of the same county, and was born in 1801. He came to Michigan in 1844, and settled in Meridian, Ingham county, where he died September 15, 1873. July 4, 1823, David Freeman married Miss Betsey Thomas, daughter of Daniel and Hannah Thomas, of Stafford, Genesee county, N. Y., by whom he had five children, Mrs. Orpha Lord being the oldest. Mrs. Betsey Free- man died in Meridian, Ingham county, June 10, 1875.
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