USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee county, Michigan. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 78
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Mr. Baldwin in early life was a Whig, and is now an ardent Republican. He was one of the first justices of the peace in the town, and held the office several years. Was town clerk, and has held other minor offices. In the war of' 1812 he enlisted, but saw no active service. Has been for twenty years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Baldwin married, for his third wife, Eunice Dart, daughter of Joshua and Susannah (Stebbins) Dart. She was born Jan. 16, 1816; married Dec. 13, 1838. Children,-Mathew S., born Sept. 17, 1839; Eney, born April 12, 1842; Thomas, born Dec. 27, 1844, died Oct. 26, 1847 ; Morgan G., born Aug. 26, 1847 ; Susan, born June 7, 1851 ; and Vine, born Oct. 12, 1854, died Dee. 5, 1857.
PETER HEMPSTED
was born in Rice township, Monroe Co., N. Y. His father, John Hempsted, was born in Dutchess Co., N. Y., in 1776, where he grew to manhood ; he was a weaver by trade, and worked at it when he was not farming. Soon after his mar- riage to Miss Amy Barker he moved to Monroe Co., N. Y., where he bought a small farm. Here Peter lived until he was twenty-three years old, working on the farm, or at whatever he could get to do. In 1836 he was attacked by the Western fever, and determined to go West and make himself a home where land was cheap. He came to Grand Blanc, in Genesee County. The first year he worked for Ro- land Perry ; in 1837 he bought of his father the west half of the southwest quarter of section 14, in Mundy township, a lot which his father had purchased of the government. On this farm, now one of the best in the county, Mr. Hempsted still resides. In 1843 he built a small house on his farm, and made a permanent settlement. At that time there was no road to his land, and the family came and went by blazed trees. From Flint and Grand Blanc he carried his supplies to the new home in the woods with the help of an old fashioned neck-yoke. Their nearest neigh- bors were Indians, with whom they lived on the most friendly terms. The wolves were then a great source of annoyance, killing their sheep and making it unsafe for the family to be out in the evening.
Mr. Hempsted is one of the most successful agrienlturists in the county, and his farm is a model after which the young men of to-day would do well to pattern. One secret of his success is his versatile skill in labor, making most of his farming tools, and assisting to erect his buildings. In politics Mr. Hempsted is a Republican, but not a seeker of office. He has been a member of the Baptist Church for nearly half a century, as has also his wife. He is spoken of by his neighbors as an honorable and successful business mau, one whom to know is to respect.
On the 8th day of June, 1841, he married Mrs. Mind- well Beebe, daughter of Guernsey and Asenath ( Brainard) Goff. She was born Jan. 9, 1814. There have been born to them eight children: Arthur, born April 6, 1842; Adelia, born Feb. 22, 1844; Eliza, born Feb. 11, 1846, died March 24, 1848; Cyrus, born April 30, 1848 ; Eme- line, born Dec. 17, 1849, died Aug. 6, 1850; Sylvester, born July 23, 1851; Peter J., born Oct. 12, 1853; and Frank, born Dec. 9, 1857. To Mrs. Hempsted, by her first husband, were born two children,-Zala Beebe, born Oct. 25, 1837, and Edmund Beebe, born Nov. 25, 1839. Three of their children served in the Union army during the war of the Rebellion, -Arthur Hempsted, in Co. E, 5th Michigan Battery, enlisted Dec. 9, 1862, and served until the war closed ; Zala Beebe, served in the same com- pany and battery about a year; Edmund Beebe, enlisted Dec. 9, 1862, and served during the war in the same com- pany as his brother.
EBENEZER BISHOP.
Among the early settlers of Mundy, there is no one who has done more for the advancement of the township and the county at large than Ebenezer Bishop. He was born in
297
MUNDY TOWNSHIP.
Montville, New London Co., Conn., April 9, 1807. In 1818 his father moved to Livingston Co., N. Y., and bought a farm, on which Ebenezer grew to manhood, working with his father, and spending a few of the winter months at the district school. At the age of twenty-one he left the pa- ternal home, and started out in life for himself. For two years he worked out by the month, then leased his father's farm for three years. With the money thus earned he started for Michigan, arriving at Springfield, Oakland Co., in 1833. The next spring he came to Grand Blanc, Genesee Co. The following year he was sick, and instead
EBENEZER BISHOP.
of gaining ground he ran behind over one hundred dollars, In 1835, Mr. Bishop bought a farm near Flint, but soon sold it. During the next year he bought and sold farms, and helped new comers in locating land. In the fall of 1836 he returned to New York and there spent the winter, but returned to Genesce County the ensuing spring, and brought his newly-married wife with him. Previous to this he had purchased from the government eighty acres of the farm he now owns, on section 24. At that time Mundy was a new and wild country; there were no roads, and but few white people. Mr. Bishop procured his supplies from Grand Blanc, going by an Indian trail and bringing the goods home on his back. On this lot of wild land he built a log house, and at once commenced to improve and elear the land. Their neighbors were Indians, of whose kindness Mrs. Bishop speaks in the highest terms. Some of the Indians' descendants still visit them, and are always kindly received. When the plank road was built from Flint to Fentonville, Mr. Bishop took an active part in its construction, and at one time owned a controlling inter- est in the same. He was throughout one of its directors, most of the time its treasurer, and for a while its president. The road did not prove a financial success, and Mr. Bishop lost many thousand dollars in this enterprise. Still, what
was his loss was the community's gain, as they still have the benefit of five miles of gravel road built by Mr. Bishop. At an early day Mr. Bishop was a Whig, and later a Re- publiean, of which latter party he is a firm adherent. He has been supervisor of his township several times, and one of its justices for more than thirty years. Mr. Bishop is now, at the age of seventy-two, a hale and hearty man, -one of whom his neighbors and fellow-citizens speak in the highest terms. To the farm of eighty aeres first bought of the government, he has added until he now owns a fine farm of over three hundred acres under good im- provement. April 10, 1837, he married Miss Mary P. Morgan, who was born in Lima, Livingston Co., N. Y., July 17, 1817. She was a daughter of John and Mary (Pieree) Morgan. Their union has been blessed with three children, viz .: Thomas S., born Oct. 24, 1838 ; Eliza W., born Jan. 16, 1844; and Mary Frances, born May 10, 1858.
JOHN L. JENNINGS
was born in Ennis township, Shiawassee Co., Mich., April 1, 1842. His father, Abram M. Jounings, was born in New Jersey, Ang. 26, 1802 ; he married Miss Emily Lay- ton, and afterwards lived for a time in Lyons, Wayne Co., N. Y. In 1837 he emigrated to Shiawassee Co., Mich., and purchased an eighty-acre lot of the government. On this lot he built a log house and barn, and commenced to improve. At the time of his death, which occurred Jan. 13, 1848, he had improved his land and made a comfort- able home. John L. continued to live at home after his father's death and until he was sixteen years of age, when he started out in life for himself. Ilis chances for an edu- cation were very limited, yet he acquired enough book knowledge to do any ordinary business. Ilis start in life was obtained by working on the farms of his neighbors at twelve dollars per month. In 1863 he purchased the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 9 in Mundy township, and ran in debt for the same and for his team. The only assistance he received was two hundred dollars from his father's estate. Since then Mr. Jennings has owned more land than he now possesses, but, believing that more money can be made on a small farm properly managed, he has reduced his farm to sixty aeres, and his success proves the truth of his belief'. Ile is accounted as one of the most successful and energetic business men of his town. In politics he is and ever has been a Republican. Ile has always taken an active interest in political matters, and has held the positions of town treasurer and commis- sioner of highways. On the 16th day of April, 1868, he was married to Miss Harriet E. Dibble, who was born Dec. 11, 1842, in Mundy. She is the daughter of Samuel and Juliza (IFill) Dibble. Their union has been blessed with four children, as follows: Julia D., born Feb. 23, 1863, married to Charles Countryman, April 30, 1879; Henry M., born Ang. 20, 1865; Emma J., born Nov. 11, 1872 ; and John D., born Jan. 3, 1874. A view of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jennings will be found elsewhere in this work.
38
298
HISTORY OF GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIG.A.N.
JOIN SLAGIT.
JOIIN SLAGHT.
This venerable gentleman is the fourth in a family of eight children, his birth occurring in the State of New Jersey, June 2, 1790. The name, as its orthography indi- cates, was originally Holland Dutch, although a portion of French blood flows in the veins of those in this family. Mr. Slaght and one sister, residing in Ingham Co., Mich., are the only survivors of the family of their father, Matthias Slaght. Time dealt gently with all its members, and their years were prolonged much beyond the ordinary span of human existence. Mr. Slaght's father served a few months in the patriot army during the Revo- lutionary war, being at the time but sixteen years of age. When the son was twelve years old his father removed to Seneca Co., N. Y. Upon the breaking out of the war of 1812 the young man was not found lacking in a love of country, but went to the front with the riffe company to which he belonged, commanded by Capt. Swick. Mr. Slaght grew to manhood upon his father's farm of two hun- dred aeres, receiving a common-school education and ex- perieneing the varied phases of pioneer life in the then wild region of Central New York. On the 13th of December, 1814, he married Miss Phebe Howell, and began work for himself on his father's place, erecting thereon a small tan- very and a saw-mill. both of which he operated for many years. Mrs. Slaght, who was born Aug. 6, 1792, was one of a family of seven children,-five sons and two daughters. Her grandfather and his brother emigrated to this country, before the Revolution, from Scotland, and settled in New Jersey. Her father, too young to serve as a soklier in the Revolutionary army, yet aspiring to fame, carried dispatches for the American commanders, placing them between the soles of his shoes. After the war was ended he settled also in Seneca Co., N. Y., and engaged in farming and the man- ufacture of bricks.
Mr. and Mrs. Slaght were the parents of eight children, as follows: Mary, born Nov. 5, 1815; Joseph, born Dec. 6, 1817; Matthias, born Jan. 12, 1821; Catherine, born May 9, 1823; Susan, born Oet. 8, 1825 ; Julia, born Oct. 10, 1828; John, born Dee. 6, 1830; Andrew, born Dee. 1, 1832. Mrs. Slaght died July 8, 1871.
MRS. JOIN SLAGIIT.
In 1847, Mr. Slaght sold his property in Seneca County and removed with his family to Michigan, locating in Mundy township, upon the farm he still owns. He pur- chased two eighty-aere lots from Peter Chriss, and, aided by his sons, has cleared up the farm, upon which no timber had been felled when he came, and built his present resi- dence. Mr. Slaght's hospitality has been almost phenom- enal, he never having turned a person away from his door. Politically, he was a Democrat until the organization of the Republican party, since when he has been found in the ranks of the latter. He voted for the lamented Lincoln, thus aiding in the overthrow of slavery in the Republic. For many years not a drop of liquor has been tasted by him, and for more than sixty years he has been a member of the Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian Churches, first of the former in New York, and, since coming to Mundy, of the Presbyterian Church at the centre. At the age of eighty-nine he possesses much vigor, yet the weight of years is reminding him at length of a home with those who have " gone before."
WILLIAM I. WILLIAMS.
Among the self-made men of Genesee County there are none who better deserve the title, or who by their aets have made their influence muore felt, than William I. Williams, of whom this brief sketch is written. Mr. Williams was born in Darlington, Canada, May 31, 1828. His father, Adna Williams, was born in Connecticut, but moved to Canada, where he married Miss Ellen Cutcher, who was born Oct. 23, 1809. Soon after William's birth his father moved back to the States, and settled in Livingston Co., N. Y., where he worked at his trade, that of a machinist. After the death of his father his mother again married, and the family at once eame to Michigan, settling in Sagi- naw, then a place of about two hundred inhabitants. This was in 1836. In 1840 they moved to Grand Blanc, where his step-father worked a rented farm. Ile afterwards pur- chased the farmi now owned by John L. Jennings, but, his death occurring a few weeks later, the farm was given up. William I. was then but fourteen years old, and the eldest
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MUNDY TOWNSHIP.
of the children; he thus early became the head of the family. With the help of an uncle a log house was built, and the first three acres cleared and got into wheat, but the farın had to be given up as above stated. He then bought five years of a ten-year lease of fourteen acres of land on the farm of Mr. Baldwin, and paid the rent for the same by clearing land. He lived on this land five years, and endured many privations, there being days in their lives when, with nothing in the house to eat, hunger and grim want stared them in the face. Yet William showed him- self equal to the occasion, and the family were reared and educated, he himself having had but limited opportunities in that direction, being wholly embraced by a few months' attendance at a winter school and studying nights by the light of a fireplace. So well did he avail himself of his advantages that when seventeen years of age we find him teaching school, which he followed successfully for several terms.
In 1850, Mr. Williams bought the south half of the west half of the southwest quarter of section 28, which was then all new, he cutting thereon the first tree. On this tract he built a log house, and moved his mother's family into it. Six years after, he bought the remainder of the eighty acres which he now owns, and which are under a good state of improvement, with a fine new house, good barns, orchard, ete., and where the aged mother still finds a home.
Mr. Williams owes his success in life to the fact that he has always been able to turn his hand to ahuost any kind of work. lle has worked at the cooper's trade, has helped build his own buildings, iu his younger day was a success- ful sheep-shearer, and has never refused to work on account of low wages. He is now working his fartu and is also engaged in the mercantile business, keeping a small stock of general merchandise in connection with the post-office at Mundy, of which he is and has been for several years postmaster. lle has for several years passed his leisure hours in writing poetry and articles on temperance and pioneer life, many of which he has contributed to the county press. In politics he is a Democrat. Ile has been for five years supervisor of his town, filling the office to the satisfaction of his constituents; has also served as town clerk for several years, and many times as highway com- missioner and school inspector. Iu 1870 he was the Demo- cratic nominee for State senator, and in 1872 for sheriff, but, his party being largely in the minority, he was not elected.
On the Ist day of January, 1859, Mr. Williams married Miss Julia Merrill, daughter of Horace Merrill. This union was blessed with one child, lda J., born Sept. 19, 1859. Miss Williams is now teaching in Oregon. Mrs. Williams died April 3, 1862. For his second wife Mr. Williams married Miss Selina L. P'eck, daughter of Wil- liam A. and Eliza ( Lindsley) Peck, born May 15, 1839, married March 29, 1869. There have been born to them four children,-Charles B., born Dec. 8, 1868; William E., born March 8, 1870; Julius I., born April 15, 1873; and Clarence M., born Dec. 25, 1875.
VOLNEY STILES
was born in Aurelius, Cayuga Co., N. Y., April 16, 1811. Ilis father moved to Livingston Co., N. Y., when Mr. Stiles was a small lad, and engaged in farming. Volney, like the farmers' boys of that day, worked on his father's farm as soon as he was old enough, and went to school a few weeks during the winter months. Arrived at his ma- jority, he started out in life for himself, with only his indus- trious habits and health and strength as his capital. Ilis first money was made from raising wheat on shares. But
VOLNEY STILES.
this was too slow a method, and he determined to go to a new country where land was cheap, and there obtain a farm of his own. The fall of 1833 found him in Mundy town- ship, Genesee Co., Mich., then an almost unbroken wilder- ness. Two or three settlers only had preceded him. Mr. Stiles, who was then a single man, bought of the govern- ment the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of see- tion 11, and erected a shanty thereon. He passed the winter of 1833-34 on his lot, and made a clearing. In the fall of 1834 he sowed a few acres of wheat. Two years later he sold this land and bought the west half of the northwest quarter of section 13, in Mundy, a few acres only of which was improved. On this he built a log house, and cleared and improved thirty acres. "The wolves were then numerous, and their howling at first kept Mr. Stiles awake, but he soon became accustomed to it, and slept as soundly as though in the midst of civilization. The subsequent death of his wife was a sad bereavement, and caused him to sell his place and, for a time, work for others. In 1840 he again married, and then bought another (new) farm, in Grand Blanc, which he cleared up and improved. Since then Mr. Stiles has owned several farms, and has done his share towards improving and making Genesee County what it is to-day. And now, at a ripe old age, respected and esteemed by his fellow-townsmen, he resides in the town-
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HISTORY OF GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ship which he has seen develop from a wilderness into one of the finest in the county. In politics Mr. Stiles is a Democrat. He has held the offices of town clerk and jus- tice of the peace, filling the latter position for eight years. He is liberal in his religious views, and is not a member of any church.
In 1834, Mr. Stiles married Miss Mary Page, who was born in Lowell, Mass. Their union was blessed with one child, Caroline E., born Dec. 25, 1835.
Ile married, Jan. 28, 1840, Rhoda Dayton, who was born, Dec. 2, 1805, in Bennington Co., Vt. There have been born to them the following children : Thomas P., born Oct. 13, 1842; and Mary L., born Nov. 16, 1844. Thomas P. married, March 8, 1869, Miss Wealthy Whit- more, who was born Dec. 18, 1844; they have had two children, viz. : Horace, born Feb. 25, 1871, died Aug. 15, same year ; Edith May, born May 6, 1876.
HENRY H. HOWLAND.
Since the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, the pioneers of America have been men of iron nerve, of energy and perseverance, -men who, when they had once turned their faces westward, turned not back for trifles, but kept resolutely on, until to-day a great and beautiful country shows the work of their strong arms and willing hearts. Such a man is Henry H. Howland, one of the first settlers in the town of' Mundy. He was born in the town of Ira, Rutland Co., Vt., April 30, 1807. His father, Banister lowland, was born in the town of Scituate, R. I. After his marriage to Miss Mary Forbes, the elder Mr. Howland moved to Monroe Co., N. Y., where he bought, in 1808, a farm of unimproved land. Here he remained four years, when he moved to the town of IIartland, Niagara Co., N. Y., of which section he was one of the first settlers. The country was then an almost unbroken wilderness. Ile had just got a start in the new home when the war of 1812 broke out; he was drafted, and served through the war, as his father, Samuel Howland, had previously in the Revo- tionary war. At the close of the war Banister went back to his farm, and lived there until 1836, when he again emi- grated to a new country, settling in Oakland Co., Mich., where he died, June 11, 1856.
Heury H. lived at home with his father until he was twenty-two, helping to clear up and improve the new farms, and having but a limited chance to acquire an education. Hle then started out for himself, with no capital save a strong constitution and an abundance of energy and industry. He commenced by taking jobs of chopping and clearing land, and in this way earned the money to buy eighty acres of new land in Troy, Oakland Co. This farm he sold in 1836, when, in company with his uncle, he came to Mundy, Gen- esee Co., looking for land. It was then a wilderness, with but few inhabitants save its original owners, the Indians. They followed the section lines by the aid of the trees marked by the surveyors. When they came to the land now owned by Mr. Howland, he told his uncle he should locate there unless he found something better. They went west till they struek the big swamp. Mr. Howland climbed a tree, and saw before him only swamp, with the water up to a man's
arms. They then struek south, and the unele selected his land in Gaines township, while Mr. Howland bought of the government four eighty-aere lots, two hundred and forty aeres of which he now owns. There was then no one within one mile of his land, and but twelve families in the town. The next spring, at the first town-meeting, there were but eighteen voters in what is now Gaines and Mundy.
In the spring of 1837, Mr. Howland moved his family, consisting of his wife and two children, to the new home. He had built a log shanty, eighteen by twenty feet, covered with shakes, and without doors or windows. He had to cut his roads in, and ford the streams. Swartz Creek was partly frozen over, and Mr. Howland waded it seven times in one day, with the water up to his arm-pits, breaking the iee with a pole, and then driving his own and his father- in-law's team through, the last trip leading a pig through by the ear. In the log shanty they lived five years, while Mr. Howland was clearing and improving his farm. His sup- plies were bought in Bloomfield, and five days were consumed in making the trip with an ox-team.
He sold his first wheat for " three-and-sixpence" a bushel, oats ten, and potatoes eight eents per bushel,-not for cash, but in trade out of the store. He was then a man of great strength and powers of endurance, there being few men who could do more of any kind of work than he; by his energy and industry the forest disappeared as if by magie, and soon a well-improved farm was to be seen where so short a time be- fore was only a wilderness. The howl of the wolf was no more to be heard, but in its stead the bleating of sheep and the lowing of cattle.
In 1854 the old home was replaced with the present commodious home, which was at the time of its erection the finest house in Mundy. At the first term of court held in Genesee County, Mr. Howland was one of the jurors, few of whom now survive.
Mr. Howland is now in the seventy-third year of his age, the owner of one of the finest farms in Genesee County, the reward of a lifetime of labor; and here, under his own " vine and fig-tree," he intends to spend the remainder of his days. He is spoken of by those who know him well as a citizen esteemed and respected by all. There are but few men of his age who, like Mr. Howland, ean say they never drank a glass of liquor, or any beverage save water. In politics Mr. Howland is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, having in early days been a Whig. His sons likewise are all Republicans.
Mr. Howland married, for his first wife, Polly M. Sprague. She was born June 12, 1814. They were married July 15, 1832. Their children were : Barnibas S., born Sept. 8, 1833, died July 23, 1859; Harley H., boru Sept. 10, 1836, died July 12, 1854; Banister F., born Aug. 7, 1839, enlisted in Co. G, Sth Michigan Infantry, in July, 1861 ; killed June 16, 1862, at James Island, S. C., while storm- ing the fort at that place. Mrs. Howland died Dec. 4, 1839. For his second wife he married Esther P. Van Tifflin (born in Rochester, N. Y., Oct. 25, 1822), daughter of Peter and Hannah (Allen) Van Tifflin. There have been born to them five children : Mary P., born Sept. 28, 1840 ; Aretus S., born Dec. 14, 1841 ; John C., born Sept. 27, 1843 ; George W., born April 30, 1845 ; Millard F., born
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HENRY H. HOWLAND.
TENANT
Ebst
RESIDENCE OF H . H. HOY
MRS, HENRY H.HOWLAND.
SE.
AND, MUNDY, MICHIGAN
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