USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 42
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EDGAR I. BERRY.
Edgar L. Berry, a well-known retired farmer now living in a pleasant home at the corner of Pearl and Isabelle streets in Belding, this county, an honored veteran of the Civil War and a useful citizen of this community, is a native of the great Keystone state, having been born on a farm in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, November 28. 1843, son of Luther M. and Electa (Curtis ) Berry, both natives of New York state, who were married in the latter state and later moved to Bradford county, Pennsylvania, where they lived until 1846, in which year they came to Michigan, settling in Ionia county, where they made their home until their retirement from the farm during their declining years, after which they moved to Reed City. Michigan, where their last days were spent. They were the parents of ten children, of whom three are still living, the subject of this sketch having two brothers living, Leander Berry, a veteran of the Civil War, who served for three years in the Union army as a member of Company B, Twenty- fifth Regiment. Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and who is now living at Orleans, this county, and Arthur Berry, of Hartford, this state.
Edgar 1. Berry was about three years old when his parents moved to Michigan and he was reared on the home farm in this county, receiving his education in the district school in the neighborhood of his home. On August 5. 1862. he enlisted for service in the Union army, in Company B. Twenty-fifth Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, attached to the Twenty-third Army Corps, under General Sherman, and served until the close of the war. Mr. Berry participated in the battle of Nashville, was through the whole of Sherman's great campaign to Atlanta and when mus- tered out with his regiment at the close of the war enjoyed the unique dis- tinction of having been the only man in his company who had never missed a roll-call, always having been present and ready for duty.
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At the conclusion of his military experience, Mr. Berry returned to Michigan and for six or seven years thereafter was engaged working in the lumber woods in the vicinity of Coral. in the neighboring county of Montcalm. He then returned to the old home farm near Reed City and for eighteen years directed operations there. He and his sister, Dora, cared for their parents during the declining years of the latter and inherited the homestead farm. In the meantime, Mr. Berry had bought a farm in Mus- kegon county and after selling the same. in the spring of 1908. moved to Belding, where he ever since has lived retired, though continuing to take an active interest in the general affairs of the community.
Mr. Berry is an earnest member of the Church of Christ, one of the trustees of the same. and is the teacher of the Bible class in the Sunday school of that church. He is a member of Dan S. Root Post No. 126. Grand Army of the Republic, at Belding, and is quartermaster of the same. Mr. Berry formerly was an ardent Republican, but in later years has thrown the weight of his influence in behalf of the Prohibition party, being an earnest advocate of the principles enunciated by that party and an active worker in the cause of state-wide prohibition of the liquor traffic.
FRANK W. PRYER.
An advocate of modern methods of agriculture is Frank W. Pryer. proprietor of "Sunny View Farm" in Danby township, lonia county, and he is therefore succeeding at his chosen life work and is also setting a good example before his neighbors and the community. He was born in the above named township and county, August 1, 1862, and is a son of Thomas and Cornelia ( Phillips) Pryer, who were married on November 16. 1843. The father was born in New York City at the corner of Cheery and Pearl streets, September 25. 1820, and in that city also occurred the birth of the mother, in 1824. There they grew to maturity, attended school and were married and lived there until 1845 when they came to Michigan, locating on a farm, but two years later returned to New York City and spent two years. then returned to Michigan. They purchased a farm when they first came West, but did not find life on the frontier entirely to their liking. Mr. Pryer was a cabinet-maker by trade at which he worked in connection with farming. He and his wife experienced the usual hardships and privations of early settlers. lle was a man of excellent character, honorable and
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helpful. He died in Portland. His family consisted of seven children, five of whom survive, namely: Emily married George Van Buren, who lives in Detroit; William H. is farming in Danby township, Ionia county; Charles 11. is also farming in Danby township; Sylvester is farming in Danby town- ship: Frank W. is the subject of this sketch.
Frank W. Pryer was reared on the home farm and received his edu- cation in the common schools. After his parents moved to the town of Portland he remained on the home farm which he operated for four years. On November 20, 1897, he married Stella Baldwin, who was born in Sebewa township, and educated in the Portland high school. To their union two daughters have been born, namely : Marian, born on March 17, 1900. is a student in the Portland high school: Margaret, born on November 2. 1903, is attending graded school in Portland. The wife and mother passed away in 1909.
Politically, Mr. Pryer is a Republican. Fraternally, he belongs to Portland Lodge No. 31, Free and Accepted Masons, and the Portland Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. He has been very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser and has a good farm of two hundred and thirty acres, a mile and one-half southeast of Portland. He has made all he has by his own efforts and in the face of obstacles, but he has been a hard worker and persistent in his efforts, which have always been along legitimate lines.
SAMUEL WOOLDRIDGE.
That period of the nineteenth century embracing the decades between 1830 and the Civil War was characterized by the immigration of the pioneer element which made the great state of Michigan what it is today. The immigrants were sturdy. heroic and, in the main, upright people, such as constitute the strength of the commonwealth. It is scarcely probable that in the future of the world another such period can occur, or, indeed any period when such a solid phalanx of strong-minded men and noble, self- sacrificing women will take possession of a new country. Among the pioneers of lonia county were Samuel Wooldridge and wife, the first of the numerous family of this name now living here.
Mr. Wookfridge, long since deceased, was born in Falkingham, Lincoln- shire, England, in 1821, and there he grew to manhood, and on June 15, 1846. married Mary Lightfoot, also a native of Lincolnshire, her birth
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having occurred on February 15, 1824. She was a daughter of William and Mary Lightfoot. Her death occurred on February 9, 1908, when lack- ing but a few days of her eighty-fourth birthday. For a time Samuel Wooldridge served on the police force of Hull, England. In 1853 he brought his wife and three children to America, making the trip in a sailing ' vessel and was seven weeks on the ocean. He located in Ohio, where a brother had preceded him. He had only seventy-five cents left when he reached his brother's place, but he was a man of courage and a hard worker and he soon had a start in the new world, and later moved to near Grass Lake and finally to lonia county, Michigan, renting land for a time in Keene township, and in April, 1850, moved to Orleans township where he bought eighty acres in section 31, on which his son, Ernest S., now lives. Only five acres of this place had been cleared. On this he built a small log shanty, on the site of the present residence, and proceeded to clear the rest of the land and put out a crop of wheat, later building a substantial log house, which became his permanent home. Hle then bought forty acres of swamp land adjoining his original purchase, the forty being state land. This he drained, cleaned up and put under cultivation.
In 1862 Samuel Wooldridge proved his loyalty to his adopted country by enlisting in Company I, Twenty-first Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and in September of that year was sent with the regiment into Kentucky, later into Tennessee, where he participated in the great battle of Stone's River, where he was captured after being wounded, but his captors being compelled to retreat hastily on the last day of the battle he was left behind and was recovered by the Union troops. He spent some time at Lousiville and later was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps and sent to Washington, D. C. He proved to be a gallant and efficient soldier and was promoted to second lientenant, his commission being signed by Presi- dent Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, and this document is now in possession of his son. Ernest. On the night of Lincoln's assassination, April 14, 1865. Mr. Wooldridge was called out and put on extra guard duty in the city of Washington. After the war he returned to Michigan and resumed farm- ing. He prospered with advancing years, and became the owner of one hundred and forty-four acres in his home place and two hundred and sixty aeres near Whitehall, also owned a valuable house and lot in the town of Whitehall.
Mr. Wooklridge took considerable interest in local public affairs. He was a member of the Congregational church until late in life, but living far from any church of that denomination he and his wife joined the Free
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Methodist church. Ile was a well informed man on current events, pur- chased large numbers of books and magazines, being a great reader all his life. and he gave his children proper educational advantages. His family consisted of nine children, most of whom are mentioned elsewhere in this work. Charles W .. who died in 1908, was a well educated man, a college graduate, holding the degree of Bachelor of Science. He also studied medicine, and engaged successfully in the practice of his profession near Helena. Montana. He was a writer of ability on social, philosophical and spiritual subjects. Anna is the wife of S. D. Chickering, of Orleans town- ship. Ionia county. George lives in Orleans township. Eva is the wife of George W. Pitton. Amelia is the wife of R. S. Noddins. Ernest S. lives in Orleans township. Edward M. lives in Easton township. Alfred died when twenty-one years old. AAdelbert died at the age of four years. The death of Samuel Woodridge occurred in the year 1891.
MARCUS R. HARTMAN.
As a general farmer and stock raiser, Marcus R. Hartman, of Ronald township, ranks with any of his contemporaries in Ionia county, not on so extensive a scale as some. but in the spirit in which he carries on his opera- tions. He was born in Lyons township. this county, August 19. 1868. He is a son of Benjamin and Emily P. (Fisk) Hartman. The father was born in Monroe county, New York, in 1824, and there grew to manhood, coming to lonia county during the Civil War, and locating in Lyons town- ship, buying a farm three miles southeast of the village of Lyons, his place of eighty acres being heavily timbered, which he cleared, developing his place from the wilderness into a good farm. His father, David Hartman, came from near Lyons, New York, and located ten miles from Rochester, that state, having to cut a road through the woods to his land, to which the city of Rochester now extends. There Benjamin Hartman grew to man- hood, amid pioneer conditions, his parents making most of the articles of apparel for their family.
Benjamin Hartman later came to Ionia county, Michigan, and spent the rest of his life on his farm here, adding fifty-five acres to his original eighty. Here he married Emily P. Fisk, who was born at Sommerset Corners, New York. In her girlhood she went to Illinois with her parents, Marcus and Mary ( Perrine) Fisk, who were natives of New York. The
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family moved from linois to lowa, and during the Civil War removed to tonia county, Michigan, locating a mile from the old Hartman farm, later moving to the village of Lyons where Mr. Fisk spent his last years, dying at an advanced age. The death of Benjamin Hartman occurred on July 18, 1911. His widow now lives in Tulare county, California, with her son, David.
Marcus R. Hartman lived with his parents until his marriage, then rented a farm north of Muir, where he spent five years, then moved to Ronald township, and about 1902 bought his present farm of two hundred and fifteen acres, which is well improved and well cultivated and on which he carried on general farming and stock raising.
In 1897 Marcus R. Hartman was married to Anna Kimball, who was born in Lyons township, lonia county, and is the daughter of Stephen 11. and Mary ( Wright ) Kimball. The father was born in St. Lawrence county. New York, in 1828, and when a boy came to Marshall. Michigan, with his parents, Stephen Kimball. Sr., and wife. There the death of the mother occurred, and Mr. Kimball, and his sons, Stephen, Jr., and Oliver, came to lonia county prior to the year 1840) and settled on a farm in Lyons town- ship. Stephen Kimball, Sr., was born in New Hampshire in 1785 and his death occurred in 1872. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. He moved with his family to Calhoun county, Michigan, in 1831. Mary Styles was born in Massachusetts in 1784. and her death occurred when Stephen Kim- ball, Jr., was thirteen years old. A year later he began working by the month. In the fall of 1852 he went to California with the gold hunters. remaining there two years, working in the mines, and was fairly successful, getting a good start in life thereby. Before going to the Pacific coast he had purchased one hundred and sixty aeres of unimproved land in Lyons township, fonia county, and upon his return bought one hundred acres more. When he was about thirty years old he married Mary Jane Wright. of Lyons, a daughter of Samuel and Rebecca Wright, who lived in Marshall. the family being among the carly settlers there. Mr. and Mrs. Kimball were parents of eight children, namely : Henry L., deceased; the next child died in infancy, unnamed; Flora D., Minnie C., Emma Ann, Annie, Frankie is deceased, and Hector M. Mr. Kimball's death occurred in 1903, his wife having preceded him to the grave in 1888. They were excellent people, honest and kind.
Five children have been born to Marcus R. Hartman and wife, namely : Stephen, Benjamin, Oliver, Orville and Weston. The following children
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were born to Benjamin and Emily P. ( Fisk) Hartman : Marcus R., David F .. who lives in California, and Benjamin, who lives on a farm near the village of Lyons, Ionia county. Mr. and Mrs. M. R. Hartman both belong to the Grange.
GEORGE CONKEY.
Life has been pleasant to George Conkey, a farmer of Ronald town- ship. Ionia county, because he has not permitted little things to worry him and has been able to see beauty in Nature. He was born on August 9. 1872. on the farm where he still resides, south of Woodard lake. He is a son of Eli and Amanda ( Phillips ) Conkey. The father was born on July 28, 1836. in the state of New York, and was a son of Chauncey and Sarah ( Charles ) Conkey. When he was four years old the family came to lonia county. Michigan, and settled three miles west of where Hubbardstown is now located, moving on land that Chauncey's brother, Amos. had entered from the goverment. Only two or three acres of this place had been cleared when Chauncey Conkey bought it, and for a residence there was only a erude log cabin. In 1852 they moved to Ronaldl township. settling just southeast of Woodard lake, in section 18, and here these parents spent the rest of their lives. There Eli T. Conkey grew to manhood. He and Amanda Phillips were married on December 3. 1868. She was born in Williams county, Ohio, May 11. 1848, and is a daughter of Andrew L. and Sabina ( Mathmer ) Phillips, both natives of southern Ohio. They moved to Montealm county, when that section of the state was still a wiklerness. in 1852. Many miles separated them from their nearest neighbors. They took up land from the government. The trip from Ohio to Michigan was made in covered wagons drawn by oxen. The family cleared the land and lived there many years, and there the mother died on March 2. 1897, at the age of sixty-nine years. The father died at Mayflower, twenty miles north of Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1880, at the age of sixty-two years. He had purchased eighty acres of land there and was building a residence on it. intending to remove his family there, but was suddenly stricken with heart failure.
After his marriage Eli T. Conkey made his home on the farm where his widow and son still live, the place being part of that which his father first settled. Here he farmed all his life. When he was a young man. he and his brother. Ira, and their father worked together until Eli's marriage.
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After buying the one hundred and ten acres southeast of the lake, they pur- chased one hundred and sixty acres in section 17. and later bought eighty acres in section 19, owning altogether about four hundred acres. About the time of Eli's marriage they divided up their hoklings, and to Eli fell one hundred and sixty acres in section 17. Later. Eli bought the place where George Conkey now lives. About 1878 he bought the Brown place, consisting of one hundred and sixteen acres, then owning in his own right about four hundred acres. He was a member of the Masonic order. His death occurred on August 22, 1908. His family consisted of three children. Albert and Lucy, twins, were born on July 6, 1870. The former lives near Rumney, New Hampshire, where he is engaged in farming. He married Olive Heth, and they have three daughters, Florida May, Emeline Amanda and Elma. Lucy Conkey died in January, 1905. George, the youngest of the children and the immediate subject of this sketch. has lived on the home- stead all his life, and has kept the place well improved and under a fine state of cultivation. Ile received his education in the district schools, and when twenty-one years old bought the Brown farm of one hundred and sixteen acres from his father and has farmed on his own account ever since. About ten years later he bought out his brother's expectancy in the home place. reserving a life lease to his parents, and he has farmed on the home place ever since. In 1912 he purchased sixty acres in section 19. and he is now owner of two hundred and ninety-seven acres. His mother still lives with him on the homestead. He has never married.
DAVID E. WILSON.
David E. Wilson, a pioneer of this county, who probably knows his home town, Belding, better than any other man living there, having made that place his home since 1871, the year in which the town was founded, and having started the second industrial enterprise in that now important manu- facturing center, in addition to which he rechristened the then struggling hamlet, giving to it the name that now is known from one end of the country to the other: and who for twelve years served the people of that town as their postmaster, is a native of the great Empire state, having been born in Ontario county, New York, September 20, 1836, son of Samuel and Jane F. ( Mcclellan) Wilson, both natives of Massachusetts, the former of whom was born in the year 1800 and the latter in 1804.
Samuel Wilson and Jane F. Mcclellan were born and reared in the
DAVID E. WILSON.
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same neighborhood in Massachusetts and there they were married in 1827. Later they sold their farm in Massachusetts and moved to Ontario county, New York, where Samuel Wilson died in 1851, leaving a widow and four children, the subject of this sketch being the youngest. David E. Wilson was fifteen years old when his father died and he then became the practical support of his mother and family. He was a good student and early began teaching school, being thus engaged for six years, teaching during the winters and farming during the summers. His mother died when he was twenty-one years old and he and his sister thereafter made their homes together. At the age of twenty-two he was elected township clerk and at the age of twenty-four was elected county school commissioner, being returned in that office for two terms. At the age of thirty-two he was elected to represent his district in the lower house of the New York Legis- lature and was re-elected, thus serving two terms in the House. At the age of twenty-eight he was elected a justice of the peace at East Bloomfield, New York.
In March, 1865. David E. Wilson married Caroline Gooding and in 1871 left New York and came to Michigan, settling at the new hamlet in the northern part of this county, which at that time was but a cluster of hardly more than a dozen houses-fourteen, to be exact .- and did not have even a definite name. Mr. Wilson started a saw-mill there, the second industry established in the hamlet, and gave to the place the name of Beld- ing, which it ever since has retained. Mr. Wilson at once took a prominent part in the work of promoting the interests of Bekling and was ever among the leaders in all movements having to do with the advancement of the town in a civic, social and material way, from the very beginning of the town having been regarded as one of its most progressive and enterprising citizens. For twelve years he served as postmaster of Belding and in other ways served the public. In 1802 he established a coal and wood business here. He is a Republican and ever has taken a warm interest in the political affairs of the county.
In May, 1874. Mrs. Caroline Gooding Wilson died, leaving one child, a daughter, Florence E., a graduate of Ann Arbor, who, in 1892, married Brinton F. Hall. president of the great Belding-Hall Company, and in 1876 Mr. Wilson married, secondly, Amelia Severance, of Shelburn Falls, Massa- chusetts, and to this union three children were born, Wilbur S., for twenty years deputy postmaster of Belding: Gertrude E., a graduate of the Mich- igan State University, who is now a teacher in the Belding schools, and Sum- ner H !.. a clerk in the postoffice at Belding.
(28a)
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WILLIAM C. STEERE.
William C. Steere, official reporter of the circuit court at lonia, this county, is a native of lowa, having been born in Cedar Falls, that state, June 15, 1857, son of Daniel M. and Sophia F. ( Frear ) Steere. the former a native of Rhode Island and the latter of Pennsylvania, who later became residents of Stanton, in the neighboring county of Montcalm, where they lived many years.
Daniel M. Steere was one of the considerable family of children born to his parents. He grew up in Rhode Island, there learning the carpenter trade, and later moved to Pennsylvania, where he married Sophia F. Frear and shortly afterward moved to lowa, locating at Cedar Falls, where he followed his trade. He was living in Pennsylvania when the Civil War broke out and he enlisted in Company E. Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, with which he served for three years, being mustered out as a corporal. Mr. Steere's ancestors fought in the Revolution and the War of 1812. At the close of the war he came to Michigan and settled in Stanton, where he engaged in building and was for years a prominent contractor there. His wife died in lonia in 1904, at the age of seventy-eight, after which he made his home in the household of his son, the subject of this sketch. in lonia. where his death occurred in 1908, he then being seventy-eight years of age. But two children were born to Daniel M. Steere and wife, sons both, George S., now deceased, and William C.
William C. Steere was eleven years old when he came to Stanton, Mich- igan, where he grew to manhood. For several years during his youth he clerked in a store at Stanton and then he began to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1883. He practiced law in Stanton until 1884 in which year he went West, where he remained for a year, at the end of which time he located in Chicago. In the meantime he had become a pro- ficient stenographer and in 1895 he was appointed official reporter of the circuit court for the eighth judicial district and since then has made his home in lonia.
On July 20, 1885. William C. Steere was united in marriage to Nina Streeter, who was born at White Haven, in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. daughter of William F. and Elma Streeter, both natives of that same state. the former of whom died in 1915. at the age of seventy-nine, and the latter of whom is still living.
To William C. and Nina ( Streeter ) Steere two children have been
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born, daughters both, Margaret E .. a graduate of the Ionia high school and of Denison University at Granville, Ohio, who is now a teacher in the Fonia high school, and Merrie S .. also a graduate of the lonia high school, who took a special course in Denison University, being an accomplished musician and a skilled violinist. Mr. and Mrs. Steere and their daughters take an earnest part in the general social life of the community and are held in high esteem by all. They are members of the Baptist congregation. Mr. Steere is a Republican and a member of the Masonic order, including the chapter. the council and the commandery and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that ancient order.
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