USA > Michigan > Barry County > History of Barry county, [Michigan] > Part 12
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The Sheldons are an old New England family, the first repre- sentative of the family in this country being Isaac Sheldon, who was born in Essex County, England, in 1629, and in 1651, at the
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age of 22, came to Windsor, Connecticut. In 1653 he married Mary Woodford of Hartford, and the next year removed to Northampton, Massachusetts, of which he was one of the first settlers, and where he lived until he died. He was the father of thirteen children.
Johnathan Sheldon, the youngest of the thirteen, was born at Northampton, May 29, 1687, and December 30, 1708, married Mary Southwell. In 1723 he moved to Suffield, Connecticut, and built a house which is still standing. He died April 11, 1769, having been the father of ten children.
It was the eldest of these, Johnathan, second, who was a direct ancestor of Philo A. and Henry S. Sheldon. Johnathan, second, was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1711, and came to Connecticut with his father in 1723. On September 17, 1734, he married Sarah Kent and settled on a farm given him by his father. He died February 3, 1761, having been the father of a family of ten.
Rufus, a son of Johnathan, second, was born in Suffield, Connecticut, July 10, 1744, and married Rachel Harmon of the same place. He died in Suffield, August 3, 1787, and was the father of seven children.
With Ira, the son of Rufus, the family began a movement to the westward. He was born in Suffield in 1786, but moved to Brutus, New York. He married Mary Sheldon, daughter of Jacob Sheldon, a descendant of Johnathan Sheldon, first, who was born January 25, 1788, and to them were born six children. Ira Sheldon died October 11, 1827.
Harvey N. Sheldon, son of Ira Sheldon, and father of Philo A. Sheldon, is the first of the family to come within the confines of Barry County. He was born at Brutus, New York, September 14, 1819, and came to Barry County in 1840, locating on a farm of 80 acres in section one of the Township of Castleton, in 1843. In 1854 he was elected County Treasurer and held that office twelve years, residing for the most part at Hastings. At the end of that period he moved to Hagar, Berrien County, and engaged in fruit raising. After his removal to Hagar he was Treasurer of the Township and served several terms as Super- visor. He died March 5, 1892.
September 14, 1842, he married Lydia Miller, who was born
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P. A. SHELDON
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November 22, 1826, and who died September 17, 1846. To them were born three sons, Ira, born March 29, 1844, and Philo A. and Milo, who were twins, their natal day being June 28, 1846. Harvey N. Sheldon married a second wife, Almira Wheeler, on July 4, 1847. She was born January 19, 1827, and was the mother of five children, Mary, Albert, Seward, Jesse and Emma.
Now having traced the ancestry of the Sheldon family from the very earliest days of New England colonization, it is very fitting to sketch the biography of a member of the family who, having been born within the county, has lived within its borders all his days and has been active in its political and business affairs for many years. We refer to Philo A. Sheldon.
Philo A. Sheldon, as was stated above, was born June 28, 1846, his birthplace being the farm of his father in Castleton township. In 1856, two years after the father's election to the office of County Treasurer, the family moved to the Township of Hastings and then in 1857 they came to live in the then Village of Hastings. Young Philo attended school in Castleton, Hastings Township, and also in the village, where school was held in the old schoolhouse on the hill. Here he continued his studies until 1864, when in the month of May he entered the office of the Register of Deeds as assistant to S. H. Cook, the register, and D. R. Cook, his deputy. He continued in this office until 1870, when he engaged in the abstract business with D. R. Cook. In 1889 he bought out Mr. Cook's interest in the business and has since continued as sole owner. From the above it will be seen that for forty-eight years Mr. Sheldon has been connected with the business of making abstracts in Barry County, and he is prob- ably better informed on this subject than any man in the county. He is the oldest abstracter in the state in point of service.
Mr. Sheldon has always been a Republican and has held the offices of Supervisor and Alderman many times. He was Post- master of Hastings under Harrison from 1891 to 1895 and has also made a very efficient secretary of the Barry County Agri- cultural Society, serving in this capacity several times. He is a public spirited, progressive citizen and is always ready to boost his city and county.
January 10, 1867, he married Mrs. Nettie Hodges, who died March 26, 1901. To them were born five children, Emma, Lydia,
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Frank, Harvey S. and Henry S., of whom only Harvey S. and Henry S. are living. In 1892 Mr. Sheldon married Mrs. Johanna Campbell, who died in March, 1909. There were no children from this marriage.
Of Henry S. Sheldon, who is a present resident of this city, and is engaged with his father in the abstract business, we wish to make mention here. He was born January 29, 1876. He attended school in Hastings until he was thirteen, when he went to Grand Rapids, at first attending business college in that city and later being engaged in various employments calculated to give him a good experience for use later on.
In 1892 he returned to Hastings and went into the postoffice under his father. He continued in this connection until 1895, when his father's term as postmaster expired. During his service in the postoffice he had been engaged in equipping himself by hard study, alone, for other duties, so when he finished his work with the government he found himself ready to go into the abstract office with his father. In this occupation he has continued ever since with the exception of the period when he served in the Spanish-American war, enlisting with Company K, Thirty-fifth Michigan Volunteer Infantry in April, 1898. He was mustered out in March of the following year with the rank of corporal.
October 21, 1903, he married Miss Ella Coburn and to them have been born two children, Agnes Harriet, born July 9, 1905, and Philo Henry, who was born April 25, 1909.
Like his father, Henry S. Sheldon is a staunch Republican and is ever willing to do service for his party. For several years he has been Alderman from his ward on the Republican ticket.
Fraternally, he is a Knight of Pythias, a Mason and a Maccabee.
Henry S. Sheldon has made for himself a splendid reputation in Hastings as a careful, efficient business man and a citizen who is always interested in progress. Although still young, he has acquitted himself most creditably and there is still a fine future ahead of him.
CLEMENT M. SMITH
No man now living in Barry County is more widely known to all the people of the county or more universally esteemed than
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Clement McDonald Smith, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit since 1893. He is the son of David W. Smith and Leonora Mc- Donald, pioneers of Barry County, an account of whose lives is given elsewhere in this book. Born December 4, 1844, near Fort Wayne, Indiana, he was brought in infancy by his parents to the farm near Nashville where they had settled. His early years were spent on the farm, where when old enough he bore his share of the labors of the pioneer days, going to the district school in the winters and imbibing such knowledge as those primitive con- ditions could afford. At the age of sixteen he entered the Acad- emy at Vermontville, where he spent one year in adding to his stock of knowledge. Then, like many another ambitious boy of those days, he taught school winters and worked on the farm summers. The scenes of these youthful labors in the school room were Coats Grove, Barryville and the Star district near Hastings. In 1865 he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, where he remained one year. His straightened circum- stances did not permit him to go on with his class, but, with de- termination to realize his professional ambition, he returned home and taught school another year, reading law during spare mo- ments and vacations. In Hastings he read law in the office of Frank Allen and while teaching in the grammar grades in Char- lotte he continued his legal studies in the office of Attorney Ed- ward A. Foote. He was admitted to the bar before Judge Wood- ruff of Charlotte in April, 1868. Forty-five years after his class at Ann Arbor graduated, the honorary degree of Bachelor of Laws was conferred upon Judge Smith, an honor that came to him entirely unsought, in recognition of his distinguished services in the realm of jurisprudence.
After his admission to the bar he opened a law office in Nash- ville, supplementing his practice by teaching in the first union school opened in that village. In 1869 he went to Middleville and formed a law partnership with Harvey Wright which was con- tinued for about six months. In 1870 he returned to Nashville and practiced law there until 1876, when he was elected Judge of Probate and removed to Hastings. For eight years he performed the responsibilities of this office to the satisfaction of the public.
In the fall of 1880 he formed a partnership with Hon. Philip T. Colgrove of Hastings, which continued until Judge Smith was called to the bench.
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In 1889 Circuit Judge Hooker appointed Judge Smith Prose- cuting Attorney to fill the vacancy caused by the death of C. H. Van Arman. On January 3, 1893, Governor John T. Rich, then just entering upon his office, made his first appointment, by plac- ing Judge Smith upon the Circuit bench of the Fifth Judicial Cir- cuit, comprising at that time the Counties of Barry, Eaton and Calhoun, to succeed Judge Hooker, who had been elevated to the Supreme bench of the state. Ever since that time Judge Smith has occupied this responsible position. At the end of his appoin- tive term he was elected by a majority of 1,529, and at each suc- ceeding election his majority has been increased, until in the spring of 1911, his nomination was endorsed by all parties and he was returned to his judicial position without any opposition.
In 1903 President Mckinley tendered Judge Smith the Asso- ciate Justiceship of the Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico. After careful consideration, Judge Smith declined this high honor.
Besides his professional and official duties Judge Smith has found time to form fraternal associations, to attend to other lines of business, to take an active part in his church, the Methodist Episcopal, in whose Sunday school he has been a faithful teacher many years. His services as a speaker are always at the com- mand of his friends, and often are availed of, on all manner of public occasions. Fraternally Judge Smith is a Mason, member of Hastings Blue Lodge and Chapter and of Charlotte Command- ery. He is President of the Masonic Temple Association of Hast- ings, Mich. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias.
He is President of the Hastings National Bank and is inter- ested in other business enterprises. For many years he has been Historian of the County Pioneer Society.
He was married May 17, 1871, to Miss Frances M. Wheeler, daughter of Milo T. Wheeler of Woodland. Mrs. Smith has been active in women's club work and is an ex-President of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. They have three children-Shir- ley W., who holds the responsible position of Secretary of the University of Michigan; Donald D., a civil engineer now con- nected with the Southern Surety Company at St. Louis, Mo., as consulting engineer; and Gertrude J. Smith of Hastings.
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MR. AND MRS. DAVID W. SMITH
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MR. AND MRS. DAVID W. SMITH
This sketch is intended as a memorial to David W. and Leonora Smith, pioneer settlers of Barry County, who labored hard to transform Western Michigan into the fertile and busy territory which it has become.
Born in the State of New York, August 31, 1817, David W. Smith in 1842 came to the then new State of Michigan. He went to Indiana in 1843 and married Leonora McDonald, who also was born in the Empire State, her natal day being May 19, 1825. They were married October 12, 1843, and came at once to Michi- gan, settling on the farm north of Nashville, in Castleton town- ship, on which they continued to live until the time of their death, Mrs. Smith dying in 1901 and he in 1906.
On the farm in Castleton the two pioneers fought and strug- gled against the difficulties of those early days, clearing the land and wresting from the soil the means of sustenance.
To Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born four children, all of whom are living. They are: Clement Smith, of Hastings; E. V. Smith, of Nashville; Mrs. Josephine Coulter, of Chicago; and Mrs. Ida Hartzell, of Battle Creek.
Mr. Smith was a Democrat in politics and from 1860 until 1876 he held the office of supervisor of Castleton township. For many years he was secretary of the Barry and Eaton Insurance Company and helped in a great measure to make the company what it is today.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith were of that company of pioneers whose number is now small, but who in the early days labored and strug- gled to make possible the conditions which we enjoy today.
WILLIAM H. AND FRED W. STEBBINS
William H. Stebbins, an honored resident of Hastings, Barry County, where he is engaged in the undertaking business, is the son of John W. and Eliza (Holland) Stebbins, natives of Chau- tauqua County, New York. Mr. Stebbins' father came West in 1843 and settled at Hastings, where he worked at his trade of car- penter, helping to build the Barry County court house. Our subject was born in Hastings, June 2, 1845. In 1846 his father moved to Rutland township and purchased a farm of wild land, cleared sixty acres of it, and there lived until 1855, when he
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returned to Hastings. The farm is now known as the L. D. Gardner farm.
The return of the family to Hastings gave William H. an opportunity to attend the public school of the village, from which he was duly graduated. At the age of 16, his father being now a partner in the firm of Stebbins & Ellis, engaged in the furniture and undertaking business, he entered their employ as a clerk. A short time later the father became sole owner of the business and continued in it, being assisted by William, until 1869, when he retired from active business. He died in 1871.
In 1873 Wm. H. Stebbins resumed the business in which he had gained a long and profitable experience with his father, asso- ciating himself with Henry Belding under the firm name of Steb- bins & Belding. This partnership was maintained for five years, at the end of which time Mr. Stebbins became exclusively engaged in the undertaking profession, in which he has continued ever since, building up a splendid reputation.
Mr. Stebbins was city treasurer in 1873 and for a period of ten years in succession served as alderman of the Third ward. In the fight for the installation of the city water works Mr. Stebbins was especially active and was chairman of the committee which had the building of the system in charge. For a number of years, also, he was a member of the school board. In politics Mr. Steb- bins is a Democrat. Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Maccabees, Odd Fellows, and Foresters.
April 25, 1872, he married Miss Julia Hoonan and to Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins four children have been born, Maud Eliza (Mrs. E. J. Huffman), Fannie Dora (Mrs. J. H. Templeton), Carrie Melissa, and Fred W. All are living and are residents of Hastings with the exception of Mrs. Templeton, whose home is in Seattle, Washington.
In continuing this sketch with the biography of Fred W. Stebbins we are presenting the record of a family whose name has always stood in the community for progress and rectitude. We are also presenting the record of a family which for three generations has been engaged in the same profession, that of undertaking. This profession has been handed down in the family from father to son until the name of Stebbins is widely known in this connection.
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WILLIAM H. STEBBINS
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FRED W. STEBBINS
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Fred W. Stebbins was born in Hastings, July 14, 1879. He has always lived in Hastings, being educated there and making that city the field of his subsequent business endeavors. He graduated from the Hastings High School in the class of 1898 and in the fall of 1899 entered the employ of the City Bank, remain- ing with that institution for seven years.
After discontinuing his connection with the bank he was engaged in the insurance business for two years. He then formed a partnership with L. R. Glasgow and opened a furniture store. This was sold to Miller & Harris in 1910 and since that time Mr. Stebbins has been associated with his father, W. H. Stebbins, in the undertaking business, the undertaking rooms being located in the modern business block which the father has built just east of the Masonic temple on State street and which bears the name of the Stebbins block.
Fred W. Stebbins was married October 18, 1904, to Miss Myrtle Sullivan, daughter of Thomas Sullivan of Hastings, who is a very estimable and talented young woman, and is at present president of the Hastings Women's Club.
The Stebbins family is one of the old families of Hastings. It has been associated with the city's development from almost the very beginning and its members have always helped in every movement which would make for progress and advancement. It has been the men and women of this type who have made the Hastings of today.
WILLIAM J. STUART
The greatest crop which any community can produce is men of character. Barry County has been the birthplace of many such men, some of whom have gone forth to wider fields of usefulness and honor. Among these must be counted William James Stuart, Judge of the Superior Court, of Grand Rapids. His parents, Alexander and Martha (Noble) Stuart (many members of the family spell the name Stewart), were of Scotch-Irish descent, a mixture that has produced many strong and famous men. They came to Michigan from Ireland about 1843. John Stuart, a brother of Alexander, had preceded him in coming to this country and had located and settled upon a farm on the road leading from Yankee Springs to Orangeville on Section 37 of Yankee Springs, in 1837.
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Alexander joined his brother and lived on his farm in a house near the Orangeville Township line for several years, till he lo- cated his own farm on Section 34, Yankee Springs, in 1849.
Here, on his Uncle John's farm, William J. was born, Novem- ber 1, 1844, about one mile from the famous Yankee Springs tavern. Let no one think that the place was without its diver- sion and excitement. For in those days the tavern was known all over Western Michigan. Stage coaches used to pull up at its hospitable doors, drawn by four horses and loaded to the limit. There was a store, a blacksmith shop, a school house and the straggling roofs of the tavern, surrounded by its many barns and outbuildings and bustling with the ever changing stream of travel.
William met his first sad experience in life in the death of his mother when he was but ten years old, her death occurring September 20, 1854. He remained on the farm until 1859, when he entered the public schools at Hastings, supporting himself by working for the family of William Barlow while at Hastings. Two years later he entered the Preparatory Department of Kala- mazoo College and the next year the High School at Kalamazoo, under Professor Daniel Putnam, graduating from this school in 1863, a member of the first class to graduate from that institution. While at school in Kalamazoo he supported himself by working for the family of H. G. Wells.
One term of teaching country school followed and in March, 1864, he entered the University of Michigan, where he pursued the classical course until the middle of his Junior year, March, 1866. After spending several months in Illinois he was employed in the fall as Superintendent of Schools at Hastings, filling the position for one year. He then returned to the university, gradu- ating in 1868 with the degree of A. B.
He again filled the Superintendency of Hastings schools for two years, after which he commenced reading law with Balch, Smiley & Balch of Kalamazoo. In the fall he entered the law department of the university, completing his course in 1872, with the degree of LL. B. The money that he needed to complete the Classical Course at the university, over and above what he could earn, he borrowed from Hon. H. G. Wells of Kalamazoo, and to complete the law course at the university, he borrowed from the Hon. A. J. Bowne of Hastings, Mich. After teaching in Iowa
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three months he went back to Kalamazoo and for a short time was connected with the law firm of Balch & Son, the style of the firm being Balch, Stuart & Balch. In November, 1872, Mr. Stuart went to Grand Rapids, as affording him a wider field for his profession, and on January 1st, 1873, entered the office of E. A. Burlingame as Assistant Prosecuting Attorney of Kent County, soon afterwards becoming a partner under the name of Burlin- game & Stuart. During this time he taught and had charge of the night school then first established in the Public Schools of Grand Rapids. This firm continued until 1876, when Mr. Stuart formed a partnership with Edwin F. Sweet, under the name of Stuart & Sweet. On April 13, 1874, Mr. Stuart married Miss Calista I. Hadley of Hastings. He was appointed City Attorney in the spring of 1880 and held the position two terms.
In May, 1888, he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of Kent County and later was elected for a full term.
In 1888, after twelve years with Mr. Sweet, the relationship was discontinued and Mr. Stuart formed a partnership with L. E. Knappen and C. H. Van Arman, under the name of Stuart, Knap- pen & Van Arman, with offices for some time in both Grand Rapids and Hastings. The Hastings office was closed soon after the death of Mr. Van Arman in 1890, but the Grand Rapids office of Knappen & Stuart continued until 1893. From the latter date Mr. Staurt was in general practice alone until the spring of 1897, when he formed a partnership with Sylvester W. Barker, the arrangement terminating in 1901. In 1902 he formed a partner- ship with Henry T. Heald under the name of Stuart & Heald. In April, 1905, Mr. Stuart was elected Judge of the Superior Court of Grand Rapids, a position which he has faithfully and ably held ever since. His business connection with Mr. Heald was dissolved when he ascended the bench.
Judge Stuart's interest in educational matters has always been active. For two years he was a member of the Grand Rap- ids Board of Education, and a member ex-officio of said board during his two terms as Mayor. The degree of M. A. was con- ferred upon him by his alma mater in 1876. He was president of the Alumni Association of the University in 1894 and 1895. He was Mayor of the City of Grand Rapids for two terms in 1892 and 1893.
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As a business man Judge Stuart helped organize the Citizens Telephone Company and has been a member of its board of direc- tors, and its attorney and counsel ever since, having seen the busi- ness develop from a $50,000 to a $5,000,000 corporation. At the organization of The State Bank of Michigan, now the Kent State Bank, he was elected a director, holding the position until he went on the bench as judge.
Judge Stuart has been for many years active in the life of his church. He was long a vestryman and treasurer of St. Mark's Episcopal church and serves in the same capacity for the pro- cathedral. He is a trustee of Akeley Institute, a church school for girls at Grand Haven; a member of the standing committee of the Diocese of Western Michigan, secretary of the Board of Trustees of the same diocese, and has had the honor of repre- senting the diocese in the general conventions of the church at Richmond and Cincinnati. He is treasurer of the Missionary Council of the Fifth Department, usually attending its business meetings.
He is a member of the Masonic and Pythian orders, and in politics a Republican. He holds membership in the Kent Country Club and the Grand Rapids Historical Society.
Judge Stuart has two brothers living and one sister-John N. Stuart, on the old homestead at Yankee Springs; Mrs. Elizabeth S. Ritchie, who lives near the old home, and Thomas A. Stuart, whose home is in Gaines Township, Kent County.
Both of his parents are sleeping in the little cemetery at Yankee Springs, the father having died in Kalamazoo, July 31, 1878, 24 years after the death of the mother whose passing has been already chronicled. Mr. Stuart and his wife have no chil- dren, but a niece of his, Edith Stuart (now Mrs. Raymond V. Parsons of Detroit) has lived in the family from her childhood and has always filled the position of a daughter.
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