USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun County, Michigan, a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 54
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Adolphus C. Waterman was about ten years of age when the family home was established in Calhoun county, and here he was reared to adult age under the conditions and influences of the pioneer days, his educational opportunities having been those afforded in the common schools of the locality and period. His was a specially receptive mind and through self-application, wide reading and close association with men and affairs in later years he became a man of broad mental ken and mature judgment. He had inherited much of the mechanical skill of his father and in 1848 he went to Lockport, Illinois, where he be- came associated with his brother John, who had taken the contract to build six sets of gates for six locks in the old Illinois and Michigan
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canal. The father had intended to supervise the work, but his death caused the two sons to assume the responsibility. Adolphus C. Water- man was thus associated in the construction of two of the gates on the canal and remained at Lockport until 1850, when he and his brothers John and Benoni yielded to the lure incidental to the recent discovery of gold in California and joined the ranks of argonauts who were mak- ing their way across the plains to the New Eldorado. They crossed the Missouri river on the 2d of May, 1850, and after the long, weary and perilous journey arrived at Georgetown, California, on the 10th of July. Their supply of food became exhausted before they reached their destination and they endured their full quota of hardships and danger while en route. Adolphus C. Waterman went to the placer mines about three miles above Downieville, in Sierra county, and at a camp called Gold Bluff he turned his attention vigorously to the search for the precious metal. Early in the following spring his brother John re- turned to the east and in the autumn of 1851 the two remaining bro- thers came back to Michigan, bringing with them about ten thousand dollars, as the tangible result of their successful efforts in the quest for gold.
Soon after his return to Calhoun county Adolphus C. Waterman purchased of his father-in-law, Jonathan Guernsey, about two hundred acres of land, in Athens township, the property lying on both sides of what is now Main street in the village of Athens. On this land was erected the first house in the embryonic village, by Jonathan Guernsey and well may he be termed one of the founders of Athens. The fine old residence which he erected continued to be his home until his death and the property, together with much other real estate, is still owned by his widow and children. In the spring of 1852 Mr. Waterman mar- ried, and thereafter he devoted himself principally to agricultural pur- suits for a number of years, within which he developed one of the valu- able farms of the county, the village of Athens now occupying an ap- preciable portion of his old homestead place. He was essentially pro- gressive and public spirited and his business acumen was emphatically shown when, in 1863, he dug a race, three-fourths of a mile in length, from Nottawa creek to a site in Athens, where he became associated with James Halbert in the erection of a flour mill for custom grinding. Two years later he purchased his partner's interest in the property and made the plant a merchant mill. As the owner of this old-time mill he developed a prosperous enterprise,-one that had im- portant bearing in furthering the growth and industrial prosperity of Athens. The mill was long operated with buhr stones and later a full roller-process was installed. He continued in the milling busi- ness until the '90s, and the plant is still under successful operation, the old mill being now one of the landmarks of the southern part of Cal- houn county and also a monument to the enterprise of its founder.
In 1901, though then venerable in years, Mr. Waterman began, with characteristic earnestness, the study of the application of cement blocks to architectural purposes, and in May, 1902, he filed application for a patent on a process of manufacturing such blocks, the patent having been granted on the 21st of July of the following year. While thus engaged in investigation and experimentation he perfected a de- vice for the manufacturing of cement railroad ties, and on the same he eventually secured letters patent. As early as the '70s Mr. Waterman began his zealous labors to secure railroad facilities to his home vil- lage, and after having been indefatigable in his efforts and having thrice failed to secure the desired ends, he finally became the most influential factor in obtaining the construction of what is now known as the Bat-
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tle Creek division of the Michigan Central Railroad. He was the first vice-president of the original company and had personal charge of the original survey, as well as the obtaining of much of the right of way. He platted the village of Athens and was ever untiring in his efforts to forward its upbuilding and its social and business prosperity. His name merits a place of enduring honor on the pages of the history of Calhoun county, and specially should his memory be held in high re- gard in the village for which he worked long and unselfishly, sacri- ficing his personal interests on many occasions for the general good.
Concerning John B. Waterman, father of the subject of this memoir, it may further be stated that he served with gallantry as a soldier in the war of 1812, as did his father, Benjamin, of Warwick, Rhode Isl- and, born July 15, 1755, died March 23, 1829, His father was Col. John Waterman, of Old Warwick, Rhode Island, (near Rocky Point) who was born August 25, 1730, and died June 11, 1812. His father was Col. Benoni of Old Warwick, Rhode Island, born May 25, 1701, died November 3, 1780. He was the son of Captain John who was born in 1664 and died August 26, 1728. He descended from Resolved Water- man, born Salem, Massachusetts, July, 1638, died at Providence, Rhode Island, August, 1670. His wife was Mercy, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Roger and Mary Williams. The record starts with his father, Col. Richard Waterman who was born in England about 1590 and came to America in "Higginson's Fleet," landing in Salem, Massa- chusetts, Monday, June 29, 1629. He was one of the original founders of the towns of Providence and Warwick, Rhode Island, after being banished from Massachusetts, because he was adjudged to be "erroneous, heretical and obstinate." He died October 26, 1673, and was buried on his own land in Providence on what is now the southeast corner of Benefit and Waterman streets. When the family came to Michigan the journey from Buffalo to Toledo was made by way of a vessel on Lake Erie, and from Toledo the trip was continued to Adrian over the line of the first railroad constructed in Michigan, the same having been equipped with strap rails of iron, laid on wooden leaders, and the primitive cars having been propelled by horses. John B. Waterman proceeded from Adrian, with team and wagon, to Jackson township. Steuben county, Indiana, and came in the following year to Athens township, Calhoun county, Michigan, where he passed the residue of his life, on his farm in section 13.
Mr. Waterman was reared in the faith of the Democratic party and cast his first presidential vote in support of President Franklin Pierce. He ever kept in close touch with the questions and issues of the hour and finally became a reader of the New York Tribune, of which Horace Greeley was then the editor. He voted for Greeley in 1872 and for a time he attempted to reconcile his views with the principles and policies of the Republican party, but, finding this impossible, he finally held himself aloof from strict partisan ties and gave his support to men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. Adolphus C. Waterman died in the Nichols Memorial Hospital, in the city of Battle Creek, on the 20th of June, 1907, and his name and deeds shall not soon be forgotten in the county which was his home during virtually his en- tire adult life.
On the 10th of March, 1852, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Waterman to Miss Sarah E. Guernsey, who was born at Gorham, Ontario county, New York, and who was a child at the time of the fam- ily removal to Calhoun county, Michigan. She is the only surviving child of the late Jonathan Guernsey, one of the honored pioneers of the county and one to whom special reference is made elsewhere in this pub-
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lication, so that further review of the family history is not demanded in the present connection. Mrs. Waterman was reared and educated in Athens township and her dearest memories center about the old home in which she lived continuously for sixty-five years, in the village of Athens, except two years in LeRoy township. Since the death of her husband she has resided with her two surviving children, in a com- fortable home in Battle Creek, and here she is accorded the tenderest of filial solicitude, to which her gentle and gracious character and lov- ing care in former years well entitle her, the writer of this article hav- ing had in his youth the privilege of knowing her well and having re- tained deep appreciation of her talent and charming personality. Mr. and Mrs. Waterman became the parents of three children, concerning whom the following data are given in conclusion of this memoir: Arthur G., was born in LeRoy township, this county, on the 15th of December, 1854, and after due preliminary discipline he entered Hillsdale Col- lege in which he pursued higher academic studies. He then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, in which he was grad- uated as a member of the class of 1875. For the last fourteen years of his life he was a representative member of the bar of the city of Chi- cago, and there his death occurred on the 15th of March, 1907,-about three months prior to the death of his father, the remains of both being interred in the cemetery at Athens. Arthur Guernsey Waterman was a man of most genial personality, of marked business ability and ex- cellent professional attainments. He had a host of friends, and ever retained deep interest in the old home town in which his childhood and youth were passed. John Benoni Waterman, the second son, is individually mentioned on other pages of this work. Miss Grace E. Waterman, who resides with her mother and brother in the pleasant home, at 93 North avenue, Battle Creek, was born and reared in Athens, where she gained her early education, which was supplemented by a course in the Michigan Business and Normal College, in Battle Creek. She now holds a responsible position in the advertising department of the Central National Bank of this city, and is a popular factor in the social circles of the community.
JOHN B. WATERMAN. It is not often that the writer has the privi- lege of super-imposing his burden of diction upon the devoted head of so tried a friend of his youth as he to whom this sketch is dedicated, and it is difficult to subordinate, as must needs be, somewhat senti- mental and entirely gracious memories to the mere statement of fact. Mr. Waterman is a native son of Calhoun county and a scion of one of its sterling pioneer families. He is a son of the late Adolphus C. Water- man, to whom a tribute is accorded on other pages of this work, as is also a memoir to his maternal grandfather, Jonathan Guernsey, so that further data concerning the family history are not required at the present juncture. He now holds the responsible position of chief clerk in the collection department of the great manufacturing establishment of the Nichols & Shepard Company of Battle Creek, and resides with his mother and sister in an attractive home at 93 North avenue.
John Benoni Waterman was born in the old homestead, at the corner of Main and Burr Oak streets, in the village of Athens, this county, and the date of his nativity was March 2, 1865. He gained his early education in the public schools of his native town, where he at- tended the high school, as did he also that at Union City, Branch county. In 1885 he was graduated in the Parsons Business College, in the city of Kalamazoo, and in the meanwhile he had received excellent musical advantages, through the medium of which he had developed
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his specially high talent along this line. In 1887 he obtained a position in the Aberdeen National Bank, at Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he remained for seven years and where he rose to the position of teller in the institution. For three years thereafter he held a responsible exec- utive position with the private banking house of S. R. Culp & Son, in his native village, and in July, 1899, he assumed a clerical position in the offices of the Nichols & Shepard Company, with which extensive concern he has since continued to be identified and with which he now holds the office of chief clerk in the collection department.
Mr. Waterman is a bachelor but this fact does not in the least militate against his popularity in the business, social and musical circles of his home city. While a resident of Aberdeen, South Dakota, he served as organist of St. Marks church, Protestant Episcopal, of which he became a communicant, and he has since continued active in musical work. He is a specially talented pianist and organist and was musical director of St. Thomas' church, Protestant Episcopal, in Battle Creek for five years, since which time, and for a period of six years, he has held a similar position in the First Baptist church. He is affiliated with the Battle Creek Lodge No. 131 of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and also holds membership in the Athelstan Club, the while his circle of friends in Battle Creek and elsewhere is coincident with that of his acquaintances.
JONATHAN GUERNSEY. A publication of the province assigned to the one at hand exercises a most important function when it takes re- cognition of the life and services of such sterling pioneer citizens as was the late Jonathan Guernsey, who was an honored and influential figure in the civic and industrial development of Athens township nearly sixty-five years ago and who passed the closing years of his life in the village of Athens, where he died on the 18th of March, 1868. He was a direct descendant of Lord Guernsey of England. Of his immediate family the only surviving member is Mrs. Sarah E. Waterman, who is now a resident of Battle Creek and who is the widow of Adolphus C. Waterman, subject of a specific memoir entered on other pages of this volume.
The genealogical record of the Guernsey family is one of most in- teresting order and touches most closely the annals of American develop- ment and progress. He whose name initiates this article was born at Watertown, Litchfield county, Connecticut, on the 31st of August, 1801. His father, Southmayd Guernsey, was likewise a native of Watertown, Connecticut, where he was born on the 10th of April, 1763, and this sterling patriot, a man of noteworthy ability, was a resident of the village of Athens, Michigan, at the time when he was summoned to eternal rest, on the 4th of April, 1850, his remains being interred in the North Sherwood cemetery, in the adjoining county of Branch. It was his to render valiant service as a boy soldier in the war of the Revolution, as he enlisted in a regiment of Connecticut troops when but thirteen years of age. He had his full quota of arduous and hazard- ous service in the great conflict for national independence and proved himself a loyal and patriotic soldier, though a mere youth at the time when he received his honorable discharge. He applied for and received a pension in 1849. His discharge papers constitute a valuable and inter- esting family heirloom. The youthful soldier had frequently seen Gen- eral Washington, General Lafayette and other great men of the Conti- nental line and of national repute. After Major Andre had been cap- tured as a spy and had been incarcerated in an old church, one of his guards, who was a friend of Southmayd Guernsey, permitted the latter
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to peep through a keyhole to see the youthful prisoner. In later years Mr. Guernsey frequently stated that he had never seen a finer looking man than the unfortunate young officer and he always regretted his sad fate, though realizing that the same was justified from the standpoint of. the ethics of warfare.
The grandfather of Southmayd Guernsey was one of two brothers who immigrated from the Isle of Guernsey, in the English channel, and established their residence in Connecticut in the year 1635. The birth- place of Southmayd Guernsey, in Watertown, Connecticut, is still known as Guernsey Hill, and the property has been in the possession of the family continuously since 1735. Southmayd Guernsey wedded Miss Sabra Scott, a daughter of Dr. Barnabas Scott, and finally, in com- pany with his wife and their six children, he removed to Gorham, On- tario county, New York, where he purchased a very considerable tract of land and where he continued to maintain his home until the death of his devoted wife, in 1836. He then came to Michigan to live with his children, and as already stated, he passed the closing period of his life at Athens, Calhoun county,-one of the comparatively few Revolutionary soldiers ever residents of this county. He was a man of much inventive and mechanical genius and personally manufactured the tools with which to complete certain parts of his house, which he erected himself. He well merited the description of a typical Yankee as given by Rev. John Pierpont : " 'Make it,' said I? 'Aye, if he undertake it, he'll make the thing and the machine that makes it.' "
Southmayd Guernsey was the son of Jonathan and Desire (Bron- son) Guernsey, and his descent from, John Guernsey, one of the two brothers who came to America from the Isle of Guernsey, as already noted, is here briefly indicated : Family tradition holds that upon com- ing to the new world John Guernsey settled at Milford, New Haven county, Connecticut. Joseph, supposed to have been the son of John, the founder of the line, married, in the year 1673, Hannah, daughter of Samuel Coley, Sr., and their son Joseph wedded Elizabeth Disbrow, of Horseneck, after whose death he contracted a second marriage, the personal name of his second wife having been Eleanor but her family name being unrecorded in the family records: they lived at Milford. Deacon Jonathan Guernsey, the next in order of descent to the Guern- seys of Calhoun county, Michigan, was wedded, in 1724 or 1725, to Abigail, daughter of Samuel Northrop, of Milford. Thereafter he lived in that section of Waterbury which is now known as Watertown, and the immediate locality is still designated at Guernseytown. His son Jonathan was born at Milford, in 1729, and on the 5th of June, 1755, married Desire, a daughter of Joseph Bronson: their son South- mayd was born in 1763, and the latter's wife, whose maiden name was Sabra Scott, as previously stated in this context, was born on the 14th of January, 1766, she having been a daughter of Dr. Barnabas Scott and Rebecca (Warner) Scott. The latter was a daughter of Dr. Eph- raim Warner, a son of John and Esther (Richards) Warner. Esther Richards Warner was a daughter of Obadiah and Hannah (Barnes) Richards and her father was a son of Thomas Richards, of Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Barnabas Scott was a son of Obadiah and Mary (Andrus) Scott, whose marriage was solemnized May 30, 1733, and the latter of whom was a daughter of John Andrus. Obadiah Scott was a son of David and Sarah (Richards) Scott, the last named having been a daughter of Obadiah and Hannah (Barnes) Richards. David Scott was a son of Edmund Scott. The Guernsey and allied families were prominent in connection with industrial, religious and general civic ac- tivities in the early days in New England, that cradle of much of our
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national history, and it is gratifying to be able to give even the brief genealogical record here entered.
Jonathan Guernsey, who was the father of Mrs. Sarah E. Waterman, of Battle Creek, came to Michigan in September, 1848, and settled where the village of Athens, Calhoun county, is now situated. There he be- came the owner of a landed estate of two hundred acres, and the major part of the same he reclaimed from the wilderness, there having been no buildings and few other improvements on the property at the time when it came into his possession. His only surviving child, Mrs. Water- man, retains of this original homestead an entire village block in Athens, save only one lot.
In 1819, at Gorham, Ontario county, New York, was solemnized the marriage of Jonathan Guernsey to Miss Betsey Blakeslee, who was born at Bethlehem, Massachusetts, and she passed the closing three years of her life in LeRoy township, Calhoun county, where she died in 1854. Adolphus C. Waterman purchased of his father-in-law, Jonathan Guernsey, the old farm in Athens township and the latter then bought a half section of land in LeRoy township. where he continued to be actively identified with agricultural pursuits until after the death of his wife. He finally sold this property and returned to the village of Athens, where he lived retired until the close of his long and useful life, his death having occurred on the 18th of March, 1868, as has been pre- viously noted in this article. He and his noble wife were numbered among the representative pioneers of Calhoun county and their names merit enduring place in its history .. Jonathan Guernsey was a staunch Democrat in his political proclivities but would never consent to be- come the incumbent of public office, though he was eminently fitted for such positions of trust. At one time he was elected justice of the peace in Athens township, but he would not qualify for the office. He was a staunch abolitionist during the climacteric period leading up to the Civil war and was a man whose impregnable integrity and marked ability gained and retained to him the inviolable confidence and esteem of his fellowmen. He was a charter member of Athens Lodge, No. 220, Free & Accepted Masons, and his funeral was held under Masonic auspices.
Jonathan and Betsey (Blakeslee) Guernsey became the parents of three children,-J. Mavor, Scott and Sarah E. The two sons married and reared children, but all are now deceased, so that Sarah E., widow of Adolphus C. Waterman, is the only survivor of the immediate fam- ily. Mrs. Waterman well recalls the scenes and incidents of the pioneer days in Calhoun county and has stated that at the time when her par- ents established their home on the site of the present attractive little village of Athens the spot was marked only by oak grubs, the present beautiful trees in the village having grown within her recollection and those about her own old homestead being specially large and attractive, as the writer of this article has reason to recall from numerous visits to the fine old home. The village and the home are endeared to Mrs. Waterman by many hallowed memories and associations, and though she now resides with her two children in the city of Battle Creek, she reverts often and tenderly to the old home and finds gratification in the fact that the near proximity of Athens enables her to make fre- quent visits there. Concerning her husband individual mention is made on other pages of this volume, in which also appears a brief review of the career of her only surviving son, John B. Waterman.
HENRY ALLEN WHITNEY. Some of the oldest and most distinguished strains of New England blood are united in the Whitney family of Vol. II-24
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Battle Creek, whose ancestors of the more recent generations were also pioneers in Michigan. Henry Allen Whitney, the senior of this con- nection, who resides at 70 Cherry street, Battle Creek, came originally from Rhode Island. He was born in Providence, November 6, 1832. His wife, the late Mrs. Anna E. B. Whitney, came from New Hampshire, and her people were prominent in that state and in Vermont. In many lines of endeavor and in public and private life the representative of these relationships have distinguished themselves and have borne hon- orable names among their fellowmen.
Henry Allen Whitney was a son of Leonard and Charlotte S. (Al- len) Whitney. The paternal grandfather, Nathan Whitney, was a resi- dent of Westminster, Massachusetts, and at one time was an extensive land owner. On account of his services in the state militia he was quite generally known as Captain Whitney. Leonard Whitney, father of Henry Allen Whitney, was born in Worcester county, Mass., about 1808. He was engaged in the manufacture of woodenware in Providence when he met and fell in love with the young lady who became his wife. She was born in Providence 1809 and resided there until her marriage. After their union, Mr. and Mrs. Whitney struck out for the west, locat- ing at Niles, Mich., in 1836, and being numbered among the earliest residents of that community.
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