USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume II > Part 26
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Walter Knickerbocker was born in Dutchess county, New York, April 8, 1822, and lived there until he was sixteen years old, when he came to Michigan, arriving in Genesee county with fifteen cents in his pocket. He worked at various jobs until he was old enough to homestead a tract of land and then "took up" a quarter of a section about the center of Thetford township and proceeded to clear and improve the same. Some time later he sold that quarter section and moved over into Genesee township, where he bought land in section 7 and there, having in the meantime married, estab- lished his home and lived many years, buying more land adjoining. He later moved to a farm on section 6 in that same township, where he lived until 1882, when he bought one hundred and sixty acres in section 22, Mt. Morris township, where he erected a fine brick house and there lived the remainder of his life, with the exception of a few years during which he and his wife made their home in Flint, his death occurring at his home in Mt. Morris township on March 1, 1907, he then being eighty-five years of age. Walter Knickerbocker was a Democrat and for many years was one of the leaders of his party in this county. For many years he served as treasurer of Mt. Morris township and in other ways took an active part in local civic affairs. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and ever were accounted among the leaders in good works in their neighborhood. Mrs. Knickerbocker survived her husband about eighteen months, her death occurring on the day before Thanksgiving in 1908, she then being seventy-
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three years of age. She was born, Mary Abram, in Lancaster county, New York, January 7, 1835, and came to Genesee county as a school teacher and was teaching school in Mt. Morris township when she married Mr. Knicker- bocker. He had been married previously, his first wife, Caroline Slosser, having died leaving two children, Levant and Charles, both of whom are still living. To the second marriage ten children were born, eight of whom lived to maturity, namely: George, who is living in Vienna township, this county ; William, who is living at Davison; Jennie, who married George Nichol and died in 1916; Julia, who married Dr. H. R. Niles, of Flint; Mary, who married Charles Cummings, of Flint; Anna, who married B. Jeffries, also of Flint; Walter D., the subject of this biographical sketch, and Her- man, who is living at Mt. Morris.
Walter Driss Knickerbocker received his elementary education in the old Beecher district school, supplementing the same by a course in the high ' school at Flint, after which he spent several years as an able assistant in the work of developing and improving his father's extensive farm lands, later returning to Flint, where he was engaged in scaling lumber for the Randall Lumber Company for eighteen months, at the end of which time he returned home and resumed his place on the farm. There he worked on his own account, with the exception of six months spent in New York state, until his marriage when twenty-five years of age. After his marriage Mr. Knicker- bocker established his home on the farm of eighty acres on which he is now living and there he has lived ever since, long having been regarded as one of the most substantial farmers in that part of the county. In addition to his general farming he has made a specialty of dairy farming and has done very well. His house and farm buildings are modern in construction and equipment and are lighted throughout with electricity. Mr. Knickerbocker is a Democrat and for years has taken an active part in local civic affairs. He is now serving his seventh term as township supervisor and has done excellent work in that capacity. He is a member of the lodge of the Bene- volent and Protective Order of Elks at Flint and of the Order of Gleaners in Burton township and takes a warm interest in the affairs of both of these organizations.
Mr. Knickerbocker has been married twice. On February 27, 1901, he was united in marriage to Florence Russell, who was born in Genesee town- ship, this county, February 3, 1878, daughter and only child of John Russell and wife, and who died on February 2, 1906. On March 27, 1907, Mr. Knickerbocker married Emma Marshall, who was born in Bothwell county, Ontario, December 3, 1877, daughter of James and Martha (Simmington)
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Marshall, natives of Ireland, who came to the United States after their marriage and settled in New York City, going thence to Canada, where James Marshall was engaged as a farmer and oil-well driller until he came to Michigan with his family and settled on a farm in Burton township, this county, where he lived until his retirement from the farm and removal to Flint, where he died at the age of sixty-seven years and where his widow is still living. James Marshall and wire were the parents of thirteen chil- dren, all of whom are living save two, as follow: Martha, who married George Pritchard and is living at Flint; Anna L., who married Will Street, of Flint; Margaret E., widow of Alexander Ball, of Flint; Mary, wife of William Sager, of Flint; William J., of Flint ; Sarah R., wife of Evan Rich- ards, of Burton township; Hannah M., who married Carl Ball and is now living in California; Robert, of Manitowoc county, Wisconsin; Edith B., who married Horace Pettis and is living at Toledo, Ohio: Emma D., who married Mr. Knickerbocker, and Viola E., who married Burdette Smith, of Detroit. To Walter D. and Emma D. (Marshall) Knickerbocker two chil- dren have been born, Pauline Alice, born on October 7, 1910, and Driss, October 20, 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Knickerbocker are members of the Episco- pal church at Flint and take an earnest interest in the general good works of the community.
FRED WILLIAM KNAPP.
Fred William Knapp, one of the best-known and most progressive farmers in Davison township, a member of the board of directors of the State Bank of Davison and proprietor of a fine farm of two hundred and sixty acres on rural route No. 10, out of Flint, is a native son of Genesee county, born a short distance east of his present home in Davison township, August 20, 1866, son of Nelson and Marsena (Hill) Knapp, both natives of the state of New York and both for many years well-known and influen- tial residents of Davison township, where their last days were spent.
Nelson Knapp was born on a farm in Porter township, Niagara county, New York, March 15, 1838, son of Caleb and Christina ( Frohman) Knapp, and lived there until he had attained his young manhood, when he came to Michigan and located on a farm of one hundred acres in the deep woods in sections 20 and 21 in Davison township, this county, where, with the excep- tion of about thirteen years spent in the village of Davison after he had passed middle age, he spent the rest of his life. When Nelson Knapp took
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possession of his farm in Davison township it was a wild wood tract, wholly unimproved. Indians still were living thereabout in those days and wild game was plentiful. He married when he was twenty years of age, not long after coming to this county, and established his home on his woodland tract, which he proceeded to clear and to develop and it was not long until he became recognized as one of the leading pioneers of that section of the county. There he lived for about thirty years, at the end of which time he retired from the farm and moved to the village of Davison, where for thir- teen years he made his home; during which time he built and sold a number of houses, and then moved back to his old home farm, where he died five years later, June 12, 1905. His widow survived him less than two years, her death occurring on January 10, 1907. Mrs. Marsena Knapp had lived nearly all her life in Genesee county. She was born in Oakland township, Genesee county, New York, January 6, 1841, daughter of Joseph E. and Sarah (Smith ) Hill, who came to Michigan when she was four or five years old and settled in this county. In a biographical sketch relating to Philip Hill, of this county, a brother of Mrs. Knapp, presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out in detail a further history of the Hill family in this county. To Nelson Knapp and wife four children were born, namely: Tru- man E., of Davison, this county; Mary S., wife of William O. Myers, of Niagara county, New York : Fred W., the subject of this biographical sketch, and Marsena, wife of Herbert F. Currier, of Davison.
Fred W. Knapp grew up on the old home farm in Davison township and with the exception of two periods of three months each spent in South Dakota, has always lived there. In 1888 he married and began farming for himself on his father's farm, his father having retired and moved to Davison, and has farmed on that land and other land adjoining ever since, being now the owner of two hundred and sixty acres of well-improved land, with four sets of buildings on the same, and has long been regarded as one of the most substantial farmers in that neighborhood. In connection with his gen- eral farming, Mr. Knapp has given considerable attention to the raising of live stock, with particular reference to Aberdeen cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs, and has done very well. He also gives some attention to outside busi- ness enterprises and is a member of the board of directors of the State Bank of Davison. He is a Democrat and for years has given his close attention to local political affairs. In his fraternal relations, he is affiliated with the Masonic and Odd Fellow lodges and with the Grange at Davison, and takes a warm interest in the affairs of these several organizations.
It was in 1888 that Fred W. Knapp was united in marriage to Jennie
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S. Blackmore, who also was born in Davison township, a daughter of Charles and Mary (Gillette) Blackmore, a history of which family is set out elsewhere in this volume in a biographical sketch relating to Mrs. Knapp's brother, Fred E. Blackmore, and to this union one child has been born, a son, Nelson Charles Knapp, born on September 16, 1888, who has been farming with his father ever since completing his studies in the Davison high school. In September, 1910, N. C. Knapp married Bertha Tower, who also was born in Davison township, a daughter of Madison Tower and wife, and makes his home on one of his father's farms. Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Knapp have as a member of their household Mary Lois Hillier, Mrs. Knapp's niece, whom they have cared for since she was eighteen months old. They also reared George Smith from the days of his childhood until he reached the years of manhood.
CHARLES H. BONBRIGHT.
Although there are no positive rules for achieving success, yet in the life of the successful man there are always lessons which might well be fol- lowed. The man who gains prosperity is he who can see and utilize the op- portunities that come in his path. Such a gift seems to have been vouch- safed to Charles H. Bonbright, one of the progressive manufacturers of Flint, Michigan.
Mr. Bonbright is a native of Beaver, Pennsylvania, and he is a son of John S. and Eliza S. (Stone) Bonbright, also natives of Pennsylvania, the father growing to manhood in Westmoreland county, where he attended school and engaged in merchandising, principally. Coming west in 1864, he located in Des Moines, Iowa, where he spent the rest of his life, engaged extensively in the wholesale and retail agricultural implement business. His death occurred in that city in 1900, at the age of eighty-one years, his wife preceding him to the grave in 1881, at the age of fifty-three years. He had been previously married and his first wife had borne him two children, Alex- ander M., who died in 1886, and Daniel. The grandparents of the subject of this sketch, on both sides of the house, were natives of Pennsylvania, where they lived and died. Five children were born to John S. and Eliza S. Bonbright, namely: Stephen S., of Cincinnati, Ohio; Mary J., who re- mained single and died in early life; Charles H., of this sketch; Anna Myr- tle, who married John B. Given, is deceased; Letta E. is the wife of Fred B. Wenger, of Denver, Colorado.
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Charles H. Bonbright was reared in Des Moines, Iowa, where he re- ceived his education in the public schools, the Des Moines University and the Iowa Agricultural College. He then went to Princeton University, from which he was graduated in 1883. Returning to Des Moines, he became an invoice clerk in that city and six months later went to work for his father in his agricultural implement store. He later became sales manager for the Common Sense Engine Company of Muncie, Indiana; afterward was with Warder. Bushnell, Glessner & Company, of Chicago, for a short time, then accepted a position with the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, of Flint, Michigan, with which he remained for a period of sixteen years. He then organized the Imperial Wheel Company, the Walter Weiss Axle Company, and Imperial Drop Forge Company (Indianapolis), all of which have been very successful. The wheel company employs two hundred and seventy-five people in the manufacture of automobile wheels exclusively. The axle com- pany employs about six hundred men and the forge company one hundred and fifty. Mr. Bonbright is president of the Walker-Weiss Axle Company and Imperial Drop Forge Company and vice-president and general manager of the Imperial Wheel Company, whose pronounced success from the first has been due principally to his sound judgment and keen business acumen.
In partnership with George E. Pomeroy, Mr. Bonbright platted what is known as the Pomeroy & Bonbright addition, first, second and third, to the city of Flint, and they erected a number of houses. He is also interested financially in the automobile industries of Flint and is a director in the Union Trust and Savings Bank, in which he is a stockholder. He has been very successful in a business way and is one of the influential and representative men of affairs of Flint, well known and highly esteemed as a citizen.
Mr. Bonbright was married on May 15, 1890, to Della M. Windus, a daughter of Stephen B. and Sarah (Miller) Windus, who was born in West Liberty, Iowa. She was given educational advantages and is a lady of cul- ture. Her father was a native of England, from which country he came to the United States when young, and here met and married Sarah Miller, who is a native of Pennsylvania. These parents now reside in Des Moines, Iowa. They had five daughters, namely: Eva, deceased; Viola, Della, Catherine and Dorothy.
To Mr. and Mrs. Bonbright one son has been born, Carl Windus Bon- bright, who was graduated from the Flint high school, also the Kiskiminitas Spring school, and is now a sophomore in Princeton University.
Politically, Mr. Bonbright is a Republican and has long taken an inter- est in public affairs. He is one of the present police commissioners of Flint.
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Fraternally, he belongs to Flint Lodge No. 23, Free and Accepted Masons ; Washington Chapter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons; Genesee Valley Com- mandery No. 15, Knights Templar, and Za-Ga-Zig Temple, Ancient Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; also the Michigan Sovereign Consistory. being a thirty-second-degree Mason. He is a member of Flint Lodge No. 222, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Presbyterian church, in which he is an elder.
WILLIAM E. WOOLFITT.
William E. Woolfitt, a well-known and progressive farmer and dairy- man, of Mt. Morris township, this county, proprietor of a fine farm of three hundred and eighty-six acres not far from the village of Mt. Morris and also actively engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock out of that village, is a native of Genesee county and has lived here most of his life. He was born on a pioneer farm one mile south of the village of Mt. Morris on October 21. 1857, son of John and Jane (Allen) Woolfitt, the former a native of England and the latter of Canada, who were for many years well-known residents of Genesee township, this county, where their last days were spent.
John Woolfitt was born on a farm in the vicinity of the city of Hull, England, May 24, 1804, and lived there until he was twenty-four years old, when he came to the United States, proceeding directly to Michigan, settling in Genesee county in 1833, among the early settlers of this part of the state. He entered a tract of forty acres of government land in section 18 of Gene- see township and presently traded one-half of that "forty" for a tract of forty acres situated back of his first forty. Not long after coming to this state John Woolfitt married Jane Allen, who was born in Coburg, Ontario, July 8, 1819, and who was left an orphan at an early age. She was reared by kinsfolk, with whom she came to Michigan, the family settling at Pontiac, and she was working in the household of a family at Pine Run when she married Mr. Woolfitt. To that union nine children were born, all of whom grew to maturity, as follow: Mary Jane, who married Louis Cornwell and is now deceased ; Elizabeth, who married Robert Barkley and is also deceased : Eber A., who is living in Mt. Morris township; Caroline, who married Charles Johnson and is now deceased; Charlotte, who married James O. Kingman; Matilda, who married John R. Kingman; Amos, who is living at Bay City; William E., the subject of this biographical sketch, and Emma,
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wife of William Curtis. On their pioneer farm in Genesee township John Woolfitt and his wife spent the rest of their lives. They were charter mem- bers of the Methodist church in that neighborhood and were long influential in good works. John Woolfitt died in 1888, he then being eighty-four years of age at the time of her death.
William E. Woolfitt was reared on the homestead farm in the vicinity of Mt. Morris, receiving his schooling in the old Beecher district school, assisting in the development of the home place and when twenty-two years of age assumed the general management of the farm, working the same on shares, and was for ten years thus engaged. In the meantime, in 1883, he married and five or six years later, when he was thirty-two years of age, he moved to Clio, where he opened a butcher shop and also engaged in the ship- ping of live stock. Business did not prosper for him there, however, and four years later, he found that he had lost pretty much all he had, including his farm. He then went to Traverse City, where he entered the employ of the Cornwell Beef Company as a traveling salesman and was thus engaged for four years and six months, at the end of which time, in 1903, he returned to Genesee county and began to work Mrs. Cornwell's farm on shares. Four years later, in the spring of 1907, he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in that same neighborhood from his brother-in-law, Charles Johnson, and there established his home. As he prospered in his farming operations Mr. Woolfitt has added to his land holdings until now he is the owner of three hundred and eighty-six acres of fine land, all of which save eighty acres is under cultivation. For years Mr. Woolfitt has been extensively engaged in the dairy business and has a fine herd of Herefords. Two of his cows have a record of fifty pounds of milk daily, with good butter test, one of these cows having a record of eighteen pounds of butter in seven days. Mr. Woolfitt also does quite a business in the way of shipping live stock and wool front Mt. Morris and is doing very well, long having been regarded as one of the most substantial citizens of that part of the county. He is a Republican and takes a warm interest in local politics, though not an office seeker. He is a member of the Loyal Guard, a charter member of the local branch of that organization at Clio, was paymaster there and in Traverse City, and is now connected with the lodge of the order at Flint.
Mr. Woolfitt has been twice married. It was on November 28, 1883, that he was united in marriage to Anna A. Soper, who was born in Mt. Morris township, this county, and who died in August, 1898, without issue. On March 29, 1900, Mr. Woolfitt married, secondly, Sarah L. Bosworth, who was born in Lorain county, Ohio, November 16, 1857, and whose father
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died when she was a child, her mother, Mrs. Sarah Bosworth, later coming with her family to Michigan and settling in Traverse City, where Sarah L. Bosworth grew to womanhood and where she was living when she married Mr. Woolfitt. Mr. and Mrs. Woolfitt are rearing in their pleasant home in Mt. Morris township a little girl, Erma Ridley, who was born in Genesee township. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and take an active interest in the affairs of the same, Mr. Woolfitt being one of the stewards of the church and chairman of the board of trustees of the same.
FRANK G. ROGERS.
Frank G. Rogers, postmaster at Genesee, this county, and for years one of the leading merchants of that village, proprietor of a flourishing general store there, is a native son of Michigan and has lived in this state all his life. He was born at Whitesburg, November 3, 1866, son of Isaac O. and Mary S. (Meade) Rogers, the former for many years a well-known miller of Genesee county, whose last days were spent at Genesee, where he was the proprietor of the mill now known as the "Genesee Mills," operated and owned by his son, Warren A. Rogers, an elder brother of the subject of this sketch, in a biographical sketch of whom, presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out in full a history of the Rogers family in this county, to which the reader is respectfully referred in this connection for further de- tails regarding the genealogy of Frank G. Rogers.
Frank G. Rogers was about six years old when his parents moved to Genesee village, where his father conducted the mill until his death, and he grew to manhood there, working in the mill until he was twenty years of age, when he went to Chesaning, in the neighboring county of Saginaw. where for three years he was employed as a clerk in the general stores of John Jackson and G. L. Chapman, after which he went to Saginaw and was there employed in the store of William Berry for two years, at the end of which time he went to Bay City and thence to Trenton. After a year spent in the dry-goods department of John Felter's store in the latter city, Mr. Rogers engaged in the hotel business at Trenton and for two years was proprietor of the Hotel Felder there. He then married and bought the general store of Edward Wooden at Genesee, his home village, taking pos- session of the same on March 20, 1899, and has ever since been in business there. Mr. Rogers owns the building in which his store is located and car-
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ries a general stock of goods, the store being conducted in an up-to-date manner and admirably equipped to meet the demands of the trade in that section of the county. The postoffice at Genesee was located in the Wooden store when Mr. Rogers bought it and when Mr. Wooden resigned as post- master, upon going out of business, Mr. Rogers was appointed to succeed him, his commission as postmaster being dated April 1, 1899, and he ever since has been serving in that capacity. He has a fine house in Genesee, having built the same along modern lines, equipped with an individual elec- tric-lighting system and running water, and he and his wife are very pleas- antly situated.
It was on March 1, 1899, that Frank G. Rogers was united in marriage to Catherine Porter, who was born at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and who was reared at Zanesville, Ohio, where she received her education and from which place she went to Washington, D. C., where for several years she was connected with the patent office, after which she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and thence to Detroit, where she was living when she married Mr. Rogers. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers are members of the Methodist Protestant church at Genesee, and Mr. Rogers is a member of the board of trustees of the same. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar, a member of the "blue" lodge, the chapter and the commandery at Flint, and of Monroe Council Royal and Select Masters, at Detroit, and is also a member of the Order of Gleaners, in the affairs of all of which organizations he takes a warm interest.
FRANK H. HILL.
Frank H. Hill, a well-known and well-to-do farmer and dairyman of Genesee township, this county, owner of a fine farm of two hundred and thirty acres on rural route No. 6, out of Flint, and for years actively inter- ested in the work of developing the best interests of his home community, is a native son of Genesee county, born on the farm on which he is now living, and has lived here all his life, for more than a half century having been an active participant in the development of the region surrounding his home. He was born on October 9, 1856, son of Thomas R. and Mary Alice (Hunt ) Hill, natives of England, who came to Michigan in the early fifties and spent their last days in this county, substantial and influential residents of Genesee township.
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