USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 28
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Erastus T. Yeomans was reared on the pioneer farm of his father in lonia township and received his early education in the little school house in the neighborhood of his home. To the rudiments of an education he there received he has constantly and consistently added by close observation and intelligent reading throughout a long and useful life and is regarded as one of the best-informed men in the county, his knowledge of general affairs being comprehensive and exact. Naturally Mr. Yeomans is a veritable mine of information on matters relating to the early history of this county and this information invariably is found to be correct and precise. When the Civil War broke out Erastus T. Yeomans enlisted in the new Third Regi- ment. Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and went to the front with the rank of sergeant-major. He presently was promoted to second lieutenant and was honorably discharged with that rank after a service of nine months, during which time he had participated in several important engagements, the broken condition of his health at that time necessitating his resignation of his com- mission in the army. Upon returning home at the conclusion of his military experience, Mr. Yeomans formed a partnership with G. 11. MeMullen in the drug business at Ionia, under the firm name of G. H. McMullen & Company. which mutually agreeable partnership continued until the death of the senior member of the firm on January 29, 1901, since which time Mr. Yeomans has continued the business alone. his thus being the oldest drug store con- tinuously in business in the city of lonia, its proprietor being one of the oldest and best-known merchants in the county.
On October 8, 1867. Erastus T. Yeomans was united in marriage to Abbie Northrop, who was born in Lavonia. Livingston county, New York, daughter of Anderson and Abigail ( Blake ) Northrop, natives of New York state, who spent all their lives there. Abigail Blake was the daughter of Judge Blake, of the Livingston county court, for many years one of the most prominent men in that section of the state.
To Erastus T. and Abbie ( Northrop ) Yeomans two children have been born, Mary, who married Dr. W. C. Marsh, of Albion, this state, and has
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two children, Frances and Josephine ; and Phoebe. who married Fred W. Peck, of Troy, New York. now residing at Orange, New Jersey, and has one child, a son, Yeoman AA. Mrs. Yeomans is an earnest member of the Presbyterian church and she and her husband for years have been regarded as among the leaders in local good works, ever being interested in such mnovenients as are designed to advance the common welfare hereabout. Mr. Yeomans is a Republican and served as a member of the city board of educa- tion for about eight years. He is a member of William Borden Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Department of Michigan, in the affairs of which he has for years taken a warm interest. He is also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and his wife is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Yeomans have a magnificent home at 322 West Washington street, on an eminence overlooking the city of lonia and com- manding a wonderfully fine view of the whole city and the country there- about. Much attention has been paid to the work of beautifying the grounds surrounding the Yeoman home and the place is one of the most attractive in this part of the state.
CAPT. JACOB O. PROBASCO.
Capt. Jacob O. Probasco, a well-known retired merchant of Muir. this county, an honored veteran of the Civil War and for many years one of the most prominent and influential residents of that town, is a native of Ohio. buit has lived in this county ever since he was twelve years old, with the exception of the period spent in the service of his country during the Civil War. Ile was born in Sherman township, Huron county, Ohio. August 20, 1844, son of Henry R. and Mary C. ( Raymond) Probasco, she of New York, he of New Jersey. Henry R. Probasco was but a child when his parents moved from New Jersey to Ohio and he grew up in Huron county. in the latter state, where he married Mary C. Raymond, who was born in New York City, daughter of Manson Raymond. an extensive manufacturer of hats, who had stores in several cities over the country. Alanson Ray- mond, in company with the father of Gen. William T. Sherman, went from New York to Ohio and formed a colony in Huron county, that state: Sher- man township, of that county, being named in honor of Mr. Sherman.
flenry R. Probasco became well-to-do in Ohio as a meat packer, but during the panic times of the early fifties lost practically all he had. He then determined to start all over again in a new country and in 1856, with
ARTOR LANDI ALL MAMAN FOUNDATION
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his family, drove through to this section of Michigan, settling for a time in Sebawa township, this county, later moving up into Lyons township, where he engaged in the cooperage business. About 1859 he opened a meat mar- ket at Muir, and in that town spent the rest of his life, his death occurring not long thereafter. During the earlier period of his residence in this county Henry R. Probasco was engaged in hauling between local points and Detroit going to Detroit with his wagon laden with saleratus and returning laden with merchandise, the hauling rate for which was one dollar the hundred pounds. He died in the home now occupied by his son, Captain Probasco, in Muir, on November 12. 1862. At that time his son, the subject of this biographical sketch, was at Grand Rapids, where his regiment was rendez- voused, he having but shortly before enlisted for service during the Civil War. Just as the regiment started for the front he received a telegram notifying him of his father's serious illness and, securing a furlough, as the troop train passed through Muir he stopped off and was with his father at the latter's death, then rejoined his regiment at Washington, D. C. The wid- owed mother survived until in August. 1874.
Captain Probasco served through the entire period of the Civil War and for some months thereafter was engaged in service on the Western frontier. He was next to the eklest son of the family of seven children born to his parents and was but seventeen years old when he responded to President Lincoln's call for troops following the bombardment of Ft. Sum- ter. . At the close of the three-months service, on September 8, 1862, he enlisted as a sergeant in Company E. Sixth Michigan Cavalry, and on November 12, 1863, was promoted to second lieutenant, the youngest com- missioned officer in the regiment. On May 19. 1864. he was advanced to first lieutenant, and on December 10. 1864, was promoted to a captaincy, he then being but twenty years of age. On November 17, 1865, Captain Probasco was transferred to the First Michigan Veteran Cavalry, with the rank of captain, and was mustered out with that rank on March 25, 1866.
During the greater part of his service Captain Probasco was attached to the Army of the Potomac and participated in all the great battles that army took part in from Gettysburg to Lee's surrender. His regiment was in the very thick of some of the most desperate engagements of the war and was second in point of casualties sustained of any cavalry regiment in the Union army. For same time the regiment was under the command of Gen- eral Custer. After Lee's surrender the Sixth Michigan Cavalry was sent out to Wyoming and the Dakotas and was mustered out in October, 1865,
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a new regiment then being formed, composed of the recruits of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Cavalry and the veterans of the First Michigan Cav- alry, under the name of the First Michigan Veteran Cavalry. Captain Pro- basco had served on the staff of General Staggs, in the Army of the Poto- mac, and that general persuaded him to enter his command in the new regiment. The Veteran Cavalry was sent to Utah, where it saw much hard fighting and endured many arduous marches, the campaign against the Indians sometimes entailing forced marches of as much as five hundred miles in bitter winter weather. When he was mustered out in March, 1866. Captain Probasco was more than twelve hundred miles from home and eighteen days and nights by stage, from a railroad.
Upon his return from his frontier service in 1866, Captain Probasco engaged in the hardware business at Muir, establishing the first hardware store opened in that then promising village. He early took a leading part in the commercial life of the growing town and continued in business for forty years, or until his retirement from business in 1906, in which year he sold his store and has since lived quietly retired at his old home in Muir, honored and respected by all thereabout. Captain Probasco has always given his thoughtful attention to local affairs and has done much to advance the general interest of his home town. He is a Republican and has held village and township offices, as well as having served on numerous occasions as a delegate to county, district and state conventions of his party. He is an ardent member of the Loyal Legion and of the Grand Army of the Republic, in the affairs of both of which patriotic organizations he takes a warm interest. He also is a Mason and takes an active interest in Masonic affairs.
On July 21, 1869, Capt. Jacob O. Probasco was united in marriage to Mary O. Spire, who was born in Brewertown, New York, daughter of Daniel and Eveann ( Dominick) Spire, who came to this county in 1867. Daniel Spire bought a farm at the edge of the village of Muir and was engaged in farming for some years, after which he moved into the village. where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1968, at the age of ninety-two years. Ilis widow is still living at Mnir. To Captain and Mrs. Probasco two children have been born, Delia O. and Henry O., the former of whom married Arthur A. Stoddard and lives at Muir, and the latter, a prominent attorney, a graduate of the University of Michigan, has been attorney for the Michigan Trust Company, at Grand Rapids, since 1904. Hle married Claudine Vosberg and makes his home at Grand Rapids. Cap- tain and Mrs. Probasco and their daughter are earnest members of the Disciples church and are active in all neighborhood good works.
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REV. HENRY W. POWELL.
The Rev. Henry W. Powell is a native of Ionia county, having been born on a pioneer farm in Ronald township. July 30, 1852, son of Joseph P. and Ruth (Goodwin) Powell, early settlers in that township. Joseph Priestly Powell, one of the pioneers of Ronald township, was born in Oneida county, New York, February 28, 1821, son of John L. and Margaret ( Hul- burt ) Powell.
John L. Powell was born at Lanesboro. Massachusetts. January 1. 1780. He was given excellent educational advantages and after finishing his schooling at Williams College married, in 1800, Nancy Ann Peck and moved over into New York state, settling in Oneida county, being among the early pioneers of that county. In December, 1804. Mrs. Nancy Ann Powell died. leaving three small children. In 1806 John L. Powell married, secondly, Margaret Hulburt, daughter of Hezekiah Hulburt, one of the four original landlords of the village of Holland Patent, Oneida county, New York, and established his home on a farm about one mile east of that village. where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring sixty-five years later. June 25. 1871. at the age of ninety-one. At this extreme age he had his natural teeth good and sound and a short time before his death was able to work in his garden, saw wood and read without spectacles. lle quit the use of tobacco when sixty years of age. His widow survived him but a few days, her death occurring on July 7 of that same year. John L. Powell served as a soldier during the War of 1812, an office of the regi- ment to which he was attached. His father was one of the "minute men" of 1775 and served in the War of the Revolution.
Joseph P. Powell was given an academic education and at the age of sixteen years began teaching school winters, working summers on the home farm. When he reached his majority he came to Michigan, his sister hay- ing preceded him to this state, settling in Marengo township, Calhoun county, and there he taught school for a year, making his home with his sister. Ile then returned to New York and a year later went to Illinois, where he remained a year, buying cattle and selling beef to the men employed in dig- ging the Illinois canal, after which he returned to Michigan and settled in Ionia county, though at that time he could have bought, for one yoke of oxen, forty acres of land now comprised in the city of Chicago, but which then was but a worthless swamp. Hle purchased a quarter of a section of unimproved land in Ronald township, this county, and there established his
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home, spending the rest of his life there, his death occurring on January 6. 1904. He was a Republican and both he and his wife were members of the Baptist church at Palo, having been baptized in 1858. Mrs. Powell is now living in lonia. She was born, Ruth Goodwin, in Steuben township, Oneida county. . New York. September 14, 1831. daughter of Chauncey and Sarah ( Hubbard ) Goodwin, both natives of Connecticut. The Goodwins moved to Michigan from New York in 1840 and settled in Ronald township, this county, and there, on November 11, 1846, Ruth Goodwin and Joseph P. Powell were united in marriage. Mrs. Powell's mother died on August II. 1847, and her father died on April 3, 1864.
Regarding the pioneer days of his parents and particularly with refer- ence to the manifold household duties of his mother in those days, the Rev. 11. W. Powell says: "Of the hardships of a pioneer life she had her full share. Besides doing the house work most of the time for a large family and the farm hands and wood-choppers, she made our clothes and spun the yarn for our socks and mittens. For an hour in the evening, after the sup- per things were put away, she used to spin by the light of a single tallow candle in the window of the kitchen. Father, in the meantime, was on the other side of the window, sawing wood by the light of the same candle, thus making double use of its radiance, while the swish of the saw without answered to the buzz and whirr of the wheel within, as both busy workers bravely toiled to supply the needs of the home they loved.
"Butter-making was one of the chief industries on the Powell farm. It was not then sold as now, each week, but was packed in wooden tubs and kept till fall and then sold at one time. I remember distinctly the long row of butter firkins on a plank on the cellar bottom. Sometimes by fall there would be a wagon load ready for market. Few of us can realize what it meant to keep house under the conditions that confronted the carly pioneer. Matches were unknown. When they lighted a candle they put a shaving in the fire and then held it to the wick. Every night fire was buried to keep it for the next day. Hf by chance it was lost some one went to a neighbor to borrow some live coals. On Sunday afternoon mother read to us or questioned us on what we had learned from the Bible. When we went to Palo to church we studied our Sabbath-school lesson on the way and on the way back we ate our lunch and talked over what we had heard. Rev. D. B. Munger once said to mother in my hearing, Your sermon is longer than mine. You preach a sermon all the way to Palo, seven miles?' meaning the example of going so far to church. With all this work. mother was not
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too busy nor too tired to help a neighbor in case of sickness or in any time of need.
"As I remember father, he was always busy. To him not working six days in the week was breaking the command as much as working on the seventh. This meant fifty-two weeks in the year. Farm work occupied the summer and in the winter, when not teaching school. he cut logs for lum- ber and on stormy days made ox-yokes and bob-sleds in the shop where tools and timber were always ready. Twelve hours was then considered a day's work. He often worked sixteen or eighteen hours and sometimes twenty. This was the more remarkable, as he had the reputation for being able to do as much in one hour as most men did in two. After his marriage he taught school three winters-one in the log school house near the saw- mill. now Nickel Plate; one on Long Plains and one in what was then the new school house in lonia. This building was afterward used as a city hall and station for the fire department and stood on the site of the present city hall. While teaching the first of the above-mentioned schools, father is said to have cut a load of logs, loaded them, driven to mill, unloaded. sent the oxen home alone for the man to use and got to his school in time for the opening hour. At another time when they were making rails, the hired man worked during the day. Father came home after school and worked in the evening by moonlight, not stopping until he had made as many rails as the man had made during the day. Father's first dollar was made while acting as janitor for the school house in Holland Patent. New York, for which service he received the ashes from the school-house stove. These were used in making 'black salts,' then an article of commerce. Before the Detroit & Milwaukee ( now the Grand Trunk ) railroad was built he walked to Grand llaven on business. With his first pair of horses he drew his first crop of wheat to Detroit to market and brought back a load of goods for the mer- chants in Jonia. When he went back to New York to visit his parents he made the first stage of the journey on foot ; that is, from his home in Ronald township to Detroit, more than one hundred and twenty-five miles, in two days. I do not recall that I ever heard father say. 'I am tired.' Little was said about 'efficiency' in those days, but he practiced it daily. Hle cut, split. delivered and piled in the school yard of district No. 4. Ronald township, ten cords of four-foot wood for five dollars. This was about 1855 and the instance is cited to show how much work then was done for a little money.
"Father had a tenacious and wonderfully exact memory ; was a beau- tiful penman and spelled correctly. He was a man of few words, but when he had spoken none of us ever thought of asking for a change of program.
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He was strongly and compactly built, five feet seven inches in height, and weighed one hundred and fifty pounds. He wore a No. 6 shoe on a shapely foot, with a high instep and a short heel. He walked rapidly, with a light, elastic tread, not throwing his weight, stiff-legged, on the heel, as many do, but lifting his feet like a thorough-bred horse and bringing them down lightly, showing the soles of his shoes behind him, but never to those in front. Walk- ing in snow, he did not make a path, but only foot prints. By reason of this manner of walking, he almost never stumbled in going over rough places in the woods. Such a foot as his never breaks down in the arch and a pair of them are worth ten thousand dollars to the happy possessor. lle was a small eater and did not use intoxicants nor tobacco.
"On account of his tender heart and sympathetic nature, father was often imposed upon by men who borrowed and never intended to pay, but hundreds of men in fonia and Montcalm counties gratefully acknowledge the timely help of 'Uncle Joe' in getting started on a farm or in building a home. He was a director of the Webber bank, now the National Bank of Tonia: a bondsman for the builder of the present court house and one of those who raised the bounty money during the Civil War, every volunteer receiving two hundred dollars from the township, thus sparing Ronald town- ship the odium of a draft. Father began his business career when sixtecy years old and continued until nearly eighty-three. In all this long and varied career he was never known to pick a quarrel, nor to oppress the poor nor to sue anyone for debt. His paper was counted as good as gold and his word as good as his note."
To Joseph P. and Ruth ( Goodwin) Powell seven children were born, all of whom are still living, as follow: Frances, born on August 8, 1849. now Mrs. William Normington, of fonia : the Rev. Henry W., also of lonia : Mary, born on November 29. 1854. who is living with her mother at 356 Lafayette street, Ionia: Ella M., May 16, 1857. now Mrs. W. G. Barnes, of Middleville, this state: Horace II .. March 24. 1859. of Carson City. this state; Herman Joseph. January 30, 1864. of Upland. California, and Herbert E., April 27, 1866, who resides at the old home place in Ronald township.
Henry W. Powell received his elementary education in the district school and in the high school at lonia, from which latter he was graduated in 1876. the valedictorian of his class. The next year he was elected township super- intendent of schools, a position he held for a year, after which he went to Kalamazoo to attend college, from the classical course of which he was graduated four years yater, in 1881. Having consecrated his life to the
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gospel ministry upon leaving college. he entered the Morgan Park Theo- logical Seminary ( Baptist ), from which he was graduated in 1884. His first pastorate was at Wahoo, Nebraska, where he was ordained and where he remained for a year. His first pastorate in Michigan was at Lowell, where he remained five years. From Lowell he went to Traverse City and after a pastorate of two years accepted a call to the church at Mason, where he led the church successfully from in May, 1893. to February. 1898. Then, suffering from nervous prostration. Mr. Powell sought recuperation on the farm. He bought two hundred and forty acres adjoining the old Powell home place near Nickel Plate, built a comfortable house, settled down to improve his farm and was engaged in general farming and stock raising for nine years, at the end of which time he deeded his farm to his son, Nelson, and moved to Lyons and became pastor of the Baptist church. After serv- ing that church two years and six months he moved to lonia, where he now resides at 360 Lafayette street. Mr. Powell has been called to a great variety of service for his denomination in this state. The records show that he has been a member of the board of foreign missions, Kalamazoo College and Christian education, as well as associational director and chairman of the missionary committee of the association. For six years he was the clerk of the Grand River Baptist Association and is now one of the directors of the Michigan Baptist State Convention and a member of the state mission committee. He is one of the trustees of the Baptist church at lonia and is actively interested in all its work. While he was pastor at Traverse City Mr. Powell had extra meetings in neighboring villages. While pastor at Mason he preached two hundred and seventy-one sermons outside his own pulpit. It was this excessive work in school houses and in the country round that caused the break in his health, from which he has only partially recov- ered. Mr. Powell was reared a Republican, but later became an advocate of the cause of the Prohibition party. In 19to he was the nominee of the Prohibitionists of this congressional district for a seat in Congress and made a fine race, leading a forlorn hope. Two years before that, as a candidate for state senator, Mr. Powell received a very flattering vote. For seven years he served as clerk of the lonia county Prohibition committee and in three campaigns, 1906-08-10, edited the Ionia County Prohibitionist, which was sent to the voters of the county.
On June 25, 1885, at Yorkville, Illinois, the Rev. Henry W. Powell was united in marriage to Mary Austin, who was born in that town, daughter of Joshua N. and Sarah Austin. Their son, Nelson Powell, born on Decem-
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ber 17, 1886, married Bernice Gould and has two children. Nelson Powell is a well-known young merchant of lonia, member of the firm of Spaulding & Powell, dealers in hardware, agricultural implements and kindred supplies.
EDWIN SHELLHORN.
Edwin Shellhorn, postmaster at Lake Odessa, this county, and a well- known and progressive merchant of that city, is a native of Ohio, having been born in Bloomville, Seneca county, that state, February 12, 1875. son of Benjamin and Caroline ( Zutavern) Shellhorn, also natives of Ohio, both of German descent, the former of whom was the son of Gottlieb Shellhorn. a soldier in the Napoleonic wars, who came to the United States in 1803. Benjamin Shellhorn and his family came from Ohio to Michigan in 1881. settling in Woodland township, Berry county, where he remained until 1906. in which year he retired from the farm and moved to Lake Odessa. To him and his wife five children were born, of whom the subject of this sketch is the third in order of birth.
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