USA > Michigan > Lenawee County > History and biographical record of Lenawee County, Michigan, Volume II > Part 9
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a dense forest, but not without inhabitants. The musquitos levied and collected their blood tax in spite of all opposition. The owl was almost the only songster overhead. His solemn tones in the lonely shades at midday, produced cool sensations, but the sharp tinkle of the serpent's music-box under foot would soon change the symptoms. During the summer and fall he built a log dwelling house, chopped six acres, cleared two, and sowed it with wheat. In the month of November he returned to Masonville and found the same school district, which had employed him four preceding terms, ready to employ him again. He taught their school during the winter. The following summer he returned to Michigan with his family and settled on his land. In company with John B. Schureman he built a saw mill that, like many other mills, accom- modated the neighborhood but yielded no profit. to the proprietors. Michigan was then a territory, and the surveyed township of num- ber six, south of range two east, was a part of the corporate town- ships of Logan and Tecumseh. The inhabitants of the said sur- veyed townships desired to become a body corporate. A public meeting of citizens was held at the house of Sturges L. Bradley, who officiated as chairman, sometime in the fall of '34 or winter of 1834-5, to petition the Legislative Council to organize the township with such name as should be determined by the meeting, and to nominate a person to be appointed justice of the peace. James Allen was nominated. The meeting then proceeded to select a name for the new township. Mr. Parker moved and it was car- ried that a committee of three be appointed to select a name from those proposed by the members of the meeting, each one to suggest the name of his choice to the secretary, which was done. The com- mittee having been appointed, composed of J. H. Parker, Mr. Richardson and Charles Cornell, the list of proposed names was given to them and they retired for consultation. They found a plurality in favor of the name "Rome." Mr. Cornell preferred the name Rome. Mr. Richardson preferred the name Milan. Mr. Parker also preferred the name Milan, but under the circumstances he did not feel at liberty to make a personal choice, and reported Rome, and the meeting adopted it. When the committee reported, the chairman of the meeting dryly remarked : "Old John Bates has named the town, as he first suggested the name Rome." The township was organized March 17, 1835. The first town meeting was held at John B. Schureman's house. The board was composed of territorial justices and secretary pro tem. The ballot-box was an open hat. The subject of this sketch in good faith tendered his ballot which was indignantly refused and discourteously brushed from the table to the floor by the presiding officer. Mr. Parker
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sold his part of the mill to a neighbor and gave his attention to his farm. Unfortunately in August, while logging, one of his oxen got a leg broken. A resort to other employment became necessary, as idleness and prosperity are at antipodes, especially in a new country where the settlers are without fields, public or private buildings, mills roads and bridges. He immediately found em- ploy ment and ready pay at Palmyra, on Mr. Pomeroy's flouring mill, then in progress of building, where he moved with his family, and labored six months. The flouring mill being finished he worked several months on Tiffany's and Crane's saw mill at that place. That also being finished, Mr. Parker and another man took all the bridges to build (except one called Foster's bridge) on the Palmyra and Jacksonburg railroad, as it was then called, be- tween Palmyra and Clinton, a majority of the work only having been finished when he was attacked with ague. Sickness, railroad promises, and checks unredeemed, wild-cat money and a tax deed on his farm, fraudulently obtained, wiped out all his savings of three years' labor, and he returned to his farm with no capital but his axe, plane and lever, out of health, and as poor as when he left it; but he was not discouraged but hopeful, notwithstanding his bad fortune. During the following 11 years he added by exchange of unimproved lands for 25 acres of improved adjoining lands to his 4 section, and improved 50 acres of that, making in all 185 acres in the farm and 100 acres of improvement, built a good frame house and barn, purchased and paid for a good horse team and three cows, and raised some young cattle and about 100 sheep. At the end of the term he was out of debt, with $100 laid up to bear the expenses of his family and himself, on a visit to their native land after an absence of 17 years. He lived on his farm in Rome about 30 years, and sold out in 1863; since that time he has lived in the city of Adrian, four years, where he built a house; in Raisin six years, and Adrian township, his present residence, seven years. October 5, 1825, he married Miss Betsey Palmer, daughter of Thomas B. and Ruth Palmer, of Masonville, Delaware county, N. Y., by whom he has had two children, as follows : Mary Jane, born in Masonville, Delaware county, N. Y., August 4, 1826, and died in Raisin, March 29, 1872. Helen A., born in Rome, August 22, 1843, and died February 19, 1846. Mrs. Betsey Parker was born in Masonville, Delaware county, N. Y., May 30, 1807. Her father was born in Connecticut, but went to New York and settled on the Mohawk river with his parents when he was a boy. He lived there until after he was 21, when he went to Delaware county where he bought a farm, and lived there until his death in 1850. Her mother was born in Connecticut and went to Delaware county,
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N. Y., with her parents, where she always lived, and died there in 1830. Mrs. Parker's great grand parents, on her mother's side, were Italians, her great grandfather being an Italian nobleman. When Mrs. Parker left Masonville for Michigan, she had five brothers and three sisters, all of whom became residents of the great west soon after her departure, the youngest sister coming with her. Of the five brothers but one is- living, he resides in Indiana. One died in Kansas, one in Illinois, and two in Michi- gan. During Mr. Parker's residence in Rome he served six years as supervisor of the township and six years as justice of the peace. He has been nine years a school director. He also served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Michigan Legisla- ture in 1855, it being the first Republican legislature in Michigan. He introduced some important legislation. In the journal of the House of Representatives may be found the following : "On
motion of Mr. Parker: Resolved, That the judiciary committee be instructed to report a bill permitting married women to devise or bequeath and alienate their property as if they were unmarried." Such a bill was reported by the judiciary committee, passed by both houses, and approved by the Governor, February 13, 1855. He also offered the following resolutions which were adopted : "Resolved, That the exclusion of the 'female sex' of our State from the benefits of a liberal education in the State Univer- sity, which is created and endowed by the common treasury, is un- just, and furnishes a just occasion of complaint on their part, and abundantly authorizes the numerous petitions now before the house calling for large expenditures to erect a separate college for their education." "Resolved, That the committee on education be in- structed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for the education of youth without distinction of sex in the State Univer- sity." January 29, 1855, Mr. Parker, pursuant to previous notice, introduced a bill, which was passed, to "prohibit the use of the common jails and other public buildings in the several counties in this State for the detention of persons claimed as fugitive slaves." While a bill for the establishment of an "Agricultural School" was under discussion, he moved that a department of "Domestic Econ- omy" be included, and that provision be made for the instruction of persons without distinction of sex. A bill to establish a "Female College" being considered, he moved that the president, professors and teachers should be women, and that there should be a depart- ment of "Medicine and Obstetrics." He introduced a bill giving mothers the exclusive custody of their infant children, unless cause be shown. It was late in the session when a single objection was a defeat. Mr. James J. Strong, the Grand Island Mormon, being
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a member of the house, arose and objected. Mr. Parker lately purchased the middle part of what is called the Harnard farm, about 60 acres, for which he paid $5,000, and is making changes and improvements, such as new roofing the buildings, converting surplus and useless shade and worthless fruit trees into fences or fuel, gathering the rubbish from fence corners and elsewhere under- foot to a pile in the wood yard. He was a prominent, earnest and consistent abolitionist. He, with his wife, during the slavery days, helped through several fugitives who came along on the under- ground railroad. He has never professed any orthodox religion, but has long been radical in his beliefs, and calls himself a free thinker. Mrs. Parker is a conservative free thinker and an advo- cate of woman's rights. While the country was new they were born and grew up within a mile of each other. Both were infant mem- bers of the Presbyterian church, of which her father was for many years a deacon, his father being only a member of the society. They attended the same school, and during one term stood to each other in the relation of teacher and scholar. During childhood and youth they were subjected to a perpetual religious controversy between the Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists on the doc- trines of Calvin and the mode of baptism. A sparse settlement of New Englanders organized a school district, embracing an exten- sive territory of unsettled lands, and built a large school house, where the list of scholars exceeded 100, a part of whom resided four miles away, making from eight to ten miles travel for each day's attendance. The school house was a kind of free pub- lic hall open for all religious as well as other meetings. This brought together nearly the same audience for each speaker sharp, controversial discourses were common, and their legitimate effect upon the young and the thoughtful was to induce an investigation of the claims of all. Presbyterianism did not per- mit a woman to speak in the church, but to be in silence there and obedient at home, a position unnatural, unjust and exceedingly dis- tasteful to free-thinking women.
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TOOLSTON COMFORT was born in Falls township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 27th, 1834. His father, Aaron Comfort, was born in the same place November 8th, 1791, and died in Raisin, this county, November
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
27th, 1862. October 17th, 1816, Aaron Comfort married Miss Ann Woolston, daughter of Joshua and Mary (Richardson) Wool- ston, of Middletown, Bucks county, Pa., by whom he had ten child- ren, Woolston being the ninth child. Mrs. Ann Comfort was born near Middletown, Pa., February 22d, 1795, and is still living in Raisin, this county. [For his history see his record in this volume.] Woolston Comfort lived with his parents in Bucks county until he was six years old. In the spring of 1840 his parents came to Michigan and settled on section four in Raisin, purchasing 160 acres of Thomas Sisson. Woolston was educated at a private and district school of Raisin and the Raisin Valley Seminary. In 1855 he went to Cincinnati and attended Bacon's commercial college, completing the course in the spring of 1856. During the summer of 1848, Aaron Comfort and Samuel Satter- thwaite having previously formed a partnership, erected a grist mill on the privilege formerly owned by Mr. Satterthwaite, in Raisin, it being the same now known as Comfort's mill. Four run of stone was put in that year, and it has always borne as good a reputation as any mill in the county. The mill was operated by Messrs. Satter- thwaite & Comfort until the spring of 1861, and in the spring of 1864 the property was purchased by Woolston Comfort. In 1852 Woolston went into the mill and learned the business, and has been in the mill ever since as employee and proprietor. Since Mr. Comfort purchased the mill he has greatly improved it, adding the most valuable modern and scientific aparatus now known to millers. During the past several years he has made the business of milling a constant study, with the determination of excelling, and has so far succeeded that his flour is sought after by all parties, not only in Lenawee county, but by many surrounding towns and cities, as well as Albany and New York. His custom work has grown into a large business, and averages over 30,000 bushels per year. His annual product of merchantable flour is about 10,000 barrels. He also carries on a saw mill and cooper shop, manufacturing his flour barrels, besides some fruit barrels. He also owns a farm in connection with the mill, and takes a lively interest in horticul- ture, having now a large young orchard of choice fruits, and at this writing, July 10th, has ripe plums and peaches. Mr. Comfort has been elected clerk of Raisin township for thirteen years; cast his first vote for John C. Fremont for President in 1856, and has voted with the Republican party ever since. His parents were members of the Society of Friends, and Woolston being a birth- right member, still adheres to that faith. April 16th, 1863, Woolston Comfort married Miss Martha V. Ramsdell, daughter of Nathan and Mary A. Ramsdell, of Dover, this county, by whom (10)
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he has had two children, as follows: Nathan Lindley, born in Raisin, November 26th, 1866; Charles Le Verne, born in the same place, January 4th, 1868. Mrs. Martha V. Comfort was born in Macedon, Wayne county, N. Y., December 14th, 1840, and came to Michigan with her parents in 1849, and settled on section 11 in Dover. Her father was born in Macedon, Wayne county, N. Y., December 6th, 1811, and died in Dover, this coun- ty, November 3d, 1868. February 12th, 1832, Nathan Ramsdell married Miss Mary A. Hoag, daughter of Benjamin L. and Anna Hoag, of Macedon, Wayne county, N. Y., by whom he had eight children, Mrs. Martha V. Comfort being the fifth child. Mrs. Mary A. Ramsdell, was born in Macedon, February 12th, 1813, and is now living in Hudson, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Rams- dell were members of the Society of Friends, and were people of more than ordinary intelligence and influence in the communities in which they lived.
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RA INGALLS was born in Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York, August 22d, 1798. His father, Stephen Ingalls, was born in Massachusetts in 1755, and in an early day moved to Cooperstown, N. Y., where he resided until his death, September 1st, 1826. He was at one time sheriff of Otsego county, and was a prominent and thrifty resident of the village. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. About the year 1775 he married Miss Sally Miller, by whom he had 11 children, Ira being the youngest. Mrs. Ingalls was born in Massachusetts, October 31st, 1755, and died in Cooperstown, N. Y., April 15th, 1854. Samuel Ingalls, father of Stephen Ingalls, was born in Rehobeth, Bristol county, Mass. It is supposed the first Ingalls in this country came from Wales. Ira Ingalls, the subject of this biography, lived in or near Cooperstown, and followed farming mostly, until the spring of 1836, when he came to Michigan and settled in Adrian. In 1835 he en- tered a tract of land near Allen's, in Hillsdale county, and sent a man on from Cooperstown to make improvements and build a house, but when Mr. Ingalls came on the following year he could neither find the man nor the improvements. Being disappointed in his calculations he gave up the idea of farming, purchased some
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
property in the village of Adrian and erected a house, on South Main street, where he resided until his death. In 1839 he acted as treasurer during the construction of the State road from Adrian to the Chicago turnpike, a distance of twenty miles. In 1841 he commenced purchasing grain in the streets of Adrian, and con- tinued until 1861. In 1846 he was elected marshal of the village of Adrian, and was afterwards elected president and street com- missioner. In 1853 he was supervisor of the First ward of the city of Adrian. He was an active, honorable man, with sterling qualities and liberal ideas, ever ready and willing to assist his neighbor or help a friend. His good deeds and aspirations so far exceeded all his faults that what few he had are all forgotten, even by those most intimate with him. He died at his residence on South Main street, in Adrian, March 30th, 1875. October 18th, 1818, Ira Ingalls married Miss Betsey Reynolds, of Middlefield, Otsego county, N. Y. She died in Adrian, January 22d, 1859. March 12th, 1860, he married Miss Christiana Ormsby, daughter of Thomas and Susan Ormsby, of Bradford, Vt., who still survives him. Mr. Ingalls had no children. Miss Christiana Ormsby was born in Bradford, Vt., February 2d, 1810, and came to Michigan in September, 1845. Her father, Thomas Ormsby, was born in Connecticut, January 13th, 1784, and died in Bradford, Vt., May 21st, 1824. December 4th, 1806, he married Miss Susan Leslie, daughter of Alexander and Lucy Leslie, of Bradford, Vt., by whom he had four children, as follows: Charity S., Christiana, Joseph W., and Maria S.
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E ZRA ABBOTT was born in Warren, Herkimer county, New York, November 3d, 1799, and was the son of Aaron and Martha Abbott, who moved, when Ezra was young, to Vienna, Oneida county, N. Y., and purchased a new farm. Ezra was brought up on a farm, and lived with his parents until he was 21. After he became of age he learned the carpenter's trade, and followed it in Canada and the States, more or less, all his life. About the time of his marriage he purchased a farm in Vienna, and in the spring of 1835 he sold out and went west, going through Ohio and Michigan on a prospecting tour, intending to purchase
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land where he could suit himself, both in price and location? After looking about considerably in Ohio, and not suiting himself, he finally came into Michigan and located a farm on section 26, in Dover. It was heavy timbered land, and during that summer he chopped over three acres and put up a log house 18x20. Early in the fall he returned to the State of New York for his family, consisting of his wife and five children, and arrived in Dover with all his earthly possessions, October 20th. He moved into the log house without floor, door, window, stove, fire-place or chimney. During the first day Mr. Abbott cut a hole in the roof to let the smoke out, built a fire on the ground, and commenced "living." He emptied a large box that he had brought some goods in and made a bed in it for three children, and hewed out pieces and laid on the floor to put a bed on, hung up blankets at the open- ings for windows and doors, and that is the way he passed the first night in the woods, with the wolves howling, and half a mile from any other family. Neither he nor his wife got discouraged, how- ever, and after a few years he had cleared and improved land enough to make him comfortable. He built a large frame barn in 1836, and in 1841 he erected a large frame house. He added to his first purchase until he owned 400 acres of land in one body. He soon became a prominent and very useful man in the town- ship, and assisted the settlers, to the extent of his ability, in locating and making themselves contented and comfortable. He served as justice of the peace for nine years, besides filling other minor offices. He died January 6th, 1860. November 23d, 1823, Ezra Abbott married Emily Tuttle, daughter of Oramon and Abi Tuttle, of Vienna, N. Y .. , by whom he had nine children, as follows : Nancy, born in Vienna, N. Y., September 1st, 1824, now the wife of Har- ley Foster, of Clayton, this county ; Aaron, born same place, March 15th, 1827, also a resident of Clayton ; George L., born same place, February 8th, 1829, died in Dover, February 22d, 1870 ; Oramon, born same place, July 24th, 1832, a resident of Lansing, Mich .; Oscar, born same place, February 2d, 1835, now a farmer of Dover, and resides on the old homestead; Ezra, jr., born in Dover, this county, February 12th, 1837, a farmer of Dover ; Olive, born in Dover, May 31st, 1840, was the wife of A: J. Fisk, of Dover, and died September 21st, 1859; Elon F., born in Dover, November 26th, 1843, now a farmer of Dover ; Jerome, born in Dover, June 11th, 1847, a resident of Lansing, Mich. Mrs. Emily Abbott was born in Camden, Oneida county, N. Y., February 20th, 1805. Her parents were natives of Connecticut, and were pioneers of Oneida county, N. Y., where they died. Mrs. Abbott still sur- vives her husband, and is in her 76th year. She has the appear-
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OF LENAWEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ance of a lady 55 or 60, enjoys good health, and has never worn spectacles, and still sees easily to sew and to read. She has been a resident of Dover for 45 years, and enjoys recounting her pioneer life and early struggles with her husband and children in the woods.
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EWIS GOODWIN was born in Turner, Oxford county, Maine, August 15th, 1808. He lived in Maine until 1835, when he went to Chautauqua county, N. Y., and resided un- til the spring of 1837. He then came to Michigan, and arrived in Tecumseh in May. He worked at clearing land for several years, and in 1850 he purchased a new farm on section 10, in Ogden. A log house and a few acres cleared was all the improvement there was on the farm, and Mr. Goodwin cleared off about 30 acres and improved it, and finally sold it in 1859, and purchased a farm on sections 35 in Palmyra, and two in Ogden, where he now resides. His house is in Palmyra. This land was also all covered with heavy timber, without any improvement whatever. He has cleared off about 50 acres of this farm, built a good frame house, good barn, sheds, &c. He has cleared about 150 acres of heavy tim- bered land since he came to Michigan, and is still able to carry on his farm profitably and well. He settled in Ogden before the ditch system was inaugurated, and it was only during the most favora- ble seasons that a crop could be raised. In July, 1851, almost the entire township of Ogden was covered with water, and nearly all crops were destroyed. It was just in harvest time, and in many places the water was up to the bands of the wheat bundles. Peo- ple who go through the township now for the first time can have no idea what it was when the first settlers went in there, and be- fore the ditching and tiling was commenced. It is only within the last 10 or 15 years that the farmers have commenced to thrive, and Ogden is now destined to be one of the best farming town- ships in Lenawee county. Lewis Goodwin's father, John Good- win, was a native of Virginia, and enlisted as a soldier in the Rev- olutionary war when he was 15 years old, and served three years. After the war he followed the sea until he was about 30 years old, when he got married and settled in Maine, where he died at the age of 84. He married Miss Mary Yetten, daughter of Stephen Yetten, of Minot, Cumberland county, Maine, by whom he had
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seven children, five sons and two daughters, Lewis being the sixth child. Mrs. Mary Goodwin died in April, 1813. Her parents came from England. Lewis Goodwin married Miss Rachel Allen, daughter of Joseph and Rachel Allen, of Macon, this county, by whom he has had seven children, as follows: George W., born in Ogden, May 4th, 1851; Orra, born; in Ogden, November 26th, 1854; Mary M., born in Ogden, August 26th, 1857; Wallace, born in Ogden, June 23d, 1860, died May 22d, 1877; Elsie E., born in Palmyra, June 17th, 1863; Ida B., born in Palmyra, April 20th, 1865; died May 31st, 1877; John L., born in Pal- myra, June 20th, 1868, died May 27th, 1877. Mrs. Rachel Goodwin was born in Vernon, Trumbull county, Ohio, April 8th, 1831, and came to Michigan and settled in Macon in 1841. Her father came from England, and died in 1843, and her mother is still living in her 80th year. She is a native of Vermont.
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ILLIAM BURNS was born in Sweeden, Monroe county, New York, December 18th, 1813. His father, Blakely Burns, was born on the banks of the Mohawk river, in a place then called Dutch Hoosac. He lived in that region of coun- try until he was about 28 years old, when he went to Sweeden, Monroe county, where he purchased a farm. In 1822 he sold out and moved to Barre, Orleans county, where he took up 100 acres of government land, and resided until the spring of 1838, when he came to Michigan and settled on a farm in Almena, Van Buren county, where he died in 1856. About the year 1808 Blakely Burns married Lucy Moon, daughter of Micajah Moon, of Sweed- en, Monroe county, N. Y., by whom he had nine children, William being the second child. William Burns lived with his parents un- til he was 21, and was brought up a farmer. In February, 1834, he took all his earthly possessions in a pack, which he put upon his back, and started for Michigan on foot and alone. He came through Canada, and after a forced march of 12 days he arrived in Detroit. His brother-in-law, John Wheelan, lived at Franklin Centre, and upon inquiring in Detroit how far it was to Clinton, Lenawee county, he was informed it was 52 miles west on the Chi- cago turnpike. He then had but 25 cents in money left, and it became necessary that he should find friends very soon, and re-
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