USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
At the close of his military service, Major Chase returned to Smyrna and resumed his mercantile carcer, remaining there two years, at the end of which time he went to Warsaw, Illinois, where he engaged in the mer- cantile business, and there he was married to Hattie E. Flood. daughter of General Martin A. Flood, who entered the Union army during the Civil War as captain in the Third Wisconsin Infantry and was promoted to brevet brigadier-general. Major Chase remained in Illinois until 1875, in which year he returned to Smyrna, and since then has been active in the general business and commercial life of lonia county, few men in this sec- tion of the state having been identified with a wider range of activities than he. He is the owner of one hundred acres of fine land near Smyrna, and twelve hundred acres in other parts of Michigan. He is president of the
475
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Citizens Light Company, was formerly vice-president of the Belding Sav- ings Bank, and is now vice-president of the People's Savings Bank at Beld- ing. long having been regarded as one of the county's most substantial citi- zens. Upon the creation of the soldiers' relief commission by act of the Legislature of 1880, he was elected chairman of the Ionia county commis- sion and has been retained on that commission continuously. He is a Repub- lican and for many years has taken a prominent part in the county's political affairs.
To Major Chase and wife three children were born: Dora C., a gradu- ate of Olivet College, who married Dwight C. Sheldon; Carroll F., also a graduate of Olivet College, and of the dental department of the Michigan State University, is now in New York city, and Bertha Lou, who died at the age of two years. The mother of these children died in September, 1897, and on June 5, 1910, Major Chase married Mrs. Ettie A. Trask, a widow. Major Chase and wife are members of the Baptist church at Smyrna, and Major Chase is a charter member of Belding Lodge No. 355. Free and Accepted Masons, in the affairs of which he takes much interest, also belonging to the Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons at Grand Rapids, Michigan.
LUTHER M. BERRY.
Luther M. Berry, business man, now living at 903 Pearl street, in the city of Belding, this county, is a native son of lonia county, having been born on a farm in Orleans township. February 10, 1873, son of Leander and Emmaline ( Babcock ) Berry, well-known and influential residents of that community, the former of whom is still living at a ripe old age on the old farm in that township.
Leander Berry, who is an honored veteran of the Civil War, was born in Ulster county, New York, on February 10, 1832. The year after his birth his parents moved to Burlington, Pennsylvania, where they lived until 1846, in which year they came to Michigan, arriving in lonia county on September i of that year. They took a farm in Otisco township and made their home there for three years, after which, in 1849, they moved over into Kent county and bought a farm in Grattan township. Leander Berry was about seventeen years old when his parents moved to Kent county and he began working there, being engaged in the lumber woods during the winters and on the farm during the summers. In 1855 he returned to this
476
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
county and located at Orleans, where on December 23, 1857, he married Emmaline Babcock. In the summer of 1858 he moved to Otisco, where he remained until 1861, in which year he bought the farm on which he ever since has made his home in Orleans township. On August 9. 1862, he enlisted in Company B, Twenty-fifth Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infan- try, and served with that command until the close of the war. participating in the numerous engagements and arduous campaigns in which that regi- ment took part. Leander Berry and wife were active and earnest members of the Methodist church and were influential in all good works in their community, especially in times of sickness and death, many times filling the place of doctor, nurse and undertaker. Mr. Berry for years was the chor- ister of the church. His wife died November 27. 1908. They were the parents of six children, all of whom are still living, namely: Warren, of Idaho: Anna E., wife of T. B. Winter, of Greenville, this state; Olive 1 ... wife of Peter Anderson, of Cadillac, this state: Justice E., of Six Lakes, in the neighboring county of Montcalm; Luther M., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Armida E., wife of Harris Bolster, of Orleans township, this county.
Luther M. Berry was reared on the home farm in Orleans township, this county, receiving his education in the district school in the neighbor- hood of his home, and remained at home until he was twenty years old, after which he went to Greenville, in the neighboring county of Montcalm and was there engaged as a clerk in a store for four years. He then took a nor- mal course in Ferris Institute at Big Rapids and in Belding. Lansing and Detroit, spent five more years clerking in stores, after which he started a store at Fenwick, which he soll about five years later and in 1908 moved to Beld- ing, where he has been an active member of the enterprising company known as E. J. Knapp & Company, manufacturers of paints and cement.
Luther M. Berry married Edith M. Knapp, who was born in Grattan township, in Kent county, this state, December 6, 1882, a graduate of the Belding high school and who had been teaching school for three years at the time of her marriage, and to this union one child has been born, Jeanette E., born on September 30, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Berry are members of the Baptist church, of which Mr. Berry is one of the trustees, and are members of the Order of the Eastern Star, Mrs. Berry having served as treasurer and one of the "points" in the "star" in that order. Mr. Berry is a mem- ber of the Masonic lodge as Belding, acting as secretary one year; is also a member of the board of commerce, and a staunch Republican.
477
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
EUGENE F. COLWELL.
No history of lonia county would be complete without fitting reference to the life and the works of the late Eugene F. Colwell, for years one of the leading merchants of Lake Odessa and one of the leaders in the general community life of the southern part of the county, whose death in 1898 was widely mourned throughout the region in which he had for so long been an active influence for good. Since his death his widow has managed his estate and is still living at Lake Odessa, where she is very pleasantly and comfortably situated.
Eugene F. Colwell was born at Hamilton, in Madison county, New York. May 26, 1828, son of Joseph and Laura ( Smith ) Colwell, the former of whom was born on February 11, 1771, was a native of Rhode Island and the latter born in November. 1785, was a native of New York state. The Colwell family is of English descent and is one of the oldest families in the United States, the late Eugene F. Colwell having been a direct descend- ant of Roger Williams, the illustrious founder of Rhode Island colony, and his great-great-grandfather having been associated with Williams in the foundation of the colony. Mercy Williams, daughter of Roger Williams, married Samuel Windsor, whose son married Mercy Harding, whose dangh- ter. Martha Windsor, married Robert Colwell, whose youngest son, Ben- jamin Cohwell, married Deborah Brown, daughter of the founder of Brown University at Providence, Rhode Island, and their eklest son, Joseph Col- well, was the father of Joseph Colwell, father of the late Engene F. Colwell. The second Joseph Colwell married Laura Smith, who was born in Oneida county, New York, of English descent, and to that union nine children were born, of whom Eugene F. was the youngest, and all of whom are now dead. The mother of these children died in the East and about 1839 the father and his family came to Michigan, locating in Hillsdale county. About five years later Joseph Colwell returned to his old home in Oneida county, New York, where he died in 1851. Joseph and Laura (Smith ) Colwell were the parents of the following children: Daniel S., born in August, 1805; Justin B., September, 1807: Albert G., December, 1810; Laura S., May. 1813: Harriet M., December. 1815: Joseph, 1818; Edwin B., February, 1821: Charles B., June, 1823, and Eugene F.
Eugene F. Colwell was about five years old when his mother died and in his early youth he was cared for by his elder brothers and sisters. When eighteen years of age he became a clerk in a drug store at Oswego. New
178
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
York, and later engaged in business for himself in that same line in Oswego. Four years later he sold his store and went to Madison, Wisconsin, where. m partnership with his brother, Charles, he again became established in the drug business. Later he went to Janesville, Wisconsin, where he remained until 1867, in which year he moved to Detroit, this state. In the latter city he remained until about 1882, in which year he came to lonia county and opened a hardware store at Muir, which he conducted for a short time. Four years later, when the Pere Marquette railroad was built through Lake Odessa in 1888 he located in that town, erected a substantial store building and there engaged in the hardware business, remaining thus engaged until this year, 1894-his death occurred four years later, on February 1, 1898, his store having long been regarded as the most extensive mercantile establish- ment in Lake Odessa and one of the largest in the county. Eugene F. Col- well was enterprising and energetic and was one of the chief promoters of Lake Odessa. So firm was his faith in the growing village that he erected other business blocks there and at the time of his death was the owner of seven fine business houses in the place, the interests he left being now man- aged by his widow.
In 1860 Eugene FF. Colwell was united in marriage to Louisa M. Smith. to which union three children were born, but one of whom is now living, Clayton M. Colwell, born on September 19, 1863, who married Nellie Gates. of Lake Odessa, and has five children, Harold, Marion, Clayton, Dorothy and Robert. Clayton M. Colwell was associated with his father in business at Lake Odessa and now lives at San Jose, California, where he owns a prosperous retail business. Mrs. Lonisa M. Colwell died in 1872 and on October 15, 1873, Mr. Colwell married, secondly, Mrs. Alice ( Rickey ) Cor- nell, widow of Alanson Cornell, son of Thomas Cornell, one of the pioneer settlers of lonia county. AAlanson Cornell having died in August, 1872.
Alice Rickey was born in Carlisle, Ohio, November 5, 1843, daughter of Oren and Marcia ( Webster) Rickey, the former of whom was born near Rutland, Vermont, and the latter at Hanover, New York. Both the Rickey and Webster families are of old colonial stock, the Websters in America dating back to the seventeenth century, being then included among the fifty-seven families that founded the town of Litchfield, Connecticut, one of the most prominent of whom was John Webster, who in 1642 was one of the committee who formed the code of criminal laws for the colony of Connectient and in 1851 was commissioner for the United Colonies, and in 1656 was made governor. In 1758. Lucretia Webster, direct descendant of John Webster, married Elisha Mason. a revolutionary patriot, and from
479
JONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
their union came Lucretia Mason, who in 1810 was married to Guy Web- ster, an officer in the war of 1812, whose daughter Marcia Webster, mar- ried Oren S. Rickey in 1837, and who were the parents of Alice M. Rickey, wife of Eugene F. Colwell, and the mother of the subject of this biography.
The Cornells also are an old American family, being likewise con- nected by lineage with the colonist, Roger Williams, and relatives of the Colwells. By the marriage of Alanson Cornell and Alice Rickey one chikl was born, a daughter, May, born on November 18, 1870, who married William H. McCartney, of Lake Odessa, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume. By her second marriage Mrs. Colwell is the mother of one child. a son, Raymond A. Colwell, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume.
WILLIAM N. STEELE.
William N. Steele is a native of Scotland, having been born at North Berwick, Haddingtonshire, November 8, 1845, and for many years was one of the most active figures in the industrial life of this section of the state, a veritable giant at labor in the okt lumber days hereabout, a timberman whose mighty deeds have become a definite part of the cherished traditions of the old days of the deep woods and whose activities as a general con- tractor contributed very largely to the upbuikling of this section, and who is now, in the approaching "sunset time" of his life devoting his energies to the promotion of the sugar-beet industry of this county, his work in that direction on his fine farm of rich bottom land at Ionia demonstrating the possibilities of this promising form of agriculture.
When William N. Steele was seven years okl the family emigrated from Scotland to Canada, the father determined to try in the new country across the sea to build a home for himself and family. From the days of his childhood. therefore, William Steele was compelled to work. At the age of ten he was cutting wood and clearing land with a four and one-half pound ax ; at eighteen he "worked out" as a farm hand, starting in at a wage of one hundred and twenty dollars a year, regarded at that day as good pay. Ont of that sum he had saved. at the end of the year, one hundred and four- teen dollars and sixty cents. He bought a suit of clothes and had one hundred dollars left. capital on which to begin business for himself. Mr. Steele was then nineteen years old, a young man of tireless energy and extra-
480
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ordinary powers of physical endurance. He then became engaged in con- tracting and clearing and improving lands and toiled in his potash camp at night, catching naps "between times," not going to bed from Monday morn- ing until Saturday night for eight months each year for five years. His hundred dollars was prudently expended in the employment of help on this initial contract, and he "made good." That was the decisive step in the career of William Steele, who from that time engaged in timber contract- ing, road building, railroad construction and kindred labors requiring the work of men's hands. He early learned to "toil terribly": to labor more diligently than the men under his employ. not for the money thus to be made, but out of mere pride in the accomplishment of big tasks, and became very successful. In all his relations with the stalwart men whose herculean labor he directed. Mr. Steele ever remembered that "a man's a man for a that." and was ever ready to lend a helping hand and incline a ready car to those in distress; many of his most precious memories today being of those he has been able to aid both financially and by the good word, straight from the heart, "man to man." Upright in his own manner of living. Mr. Steele always set a good example to the men about him. He never tasted liquor nor tobacco and never went any place where wife, mother or daugh- ter could not with propriety accompany him.
For four years after entering upon his career as a contractor. William Steele worked in his lumber camps by day. He was capable of performing an almost incredible amount of work, he always delighted in getting things done and was always a leader in his work camps. He was a rigid discip- linarian: required his lumbermen to go to bed at nine o'clock, fed them well, kept them busy and got results. In 1869 William Steele came to Michigan and located at Spring Lake, where he engaged in contracting and humbering and where he established a general store. He constructed in 1882 a railroad twenty-two miles in length across the divide from the Sagi- naw waters to the streams flowing to Lake Michigan, on which he installed two locomotives and thirty cars, and during this time kept three lumber camps going. Mr. Steele early developed a system of accounting that revealed to him at the end of each day the actual results of his operations and the cost of the various details of the same, down to a fraction of a cent.
The winter of 1876-77 was mild and open and logs could not be moved. Other contractors in the lumber woods gave up. but Mr. Steele kept his men busy. Up to March 16 there had been no snow. That eventful day dawned clear, but Mr. Steele told his men that before the next morning they would be moving logs. The sky gradually clouded and at night the snow began
481
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
to fall. At midnight there was a good covering on the ground and Mr. Steele routed the men out of their bunks and by one o'clock all hands were busy hauling the precious logs to the streams. For eight days there was no such thing as going to bed in the camps; men and teams working day and night. The result was that William Steele was the only contractor in Michi- gan who got his logs in that winter. Again, the winter of 1878-79 was open. Other contractors gave up and many millions of feet of timber was left. much of it being burned. William Steele constructed five miles of wooden track, on which he ran his cars and thus got in his logs, fifteen million feet of fine timber.
In August, 1882, Mr. Steele moved to lonia, where he has ever since made his home, for years thereafter continuing his lumbering operations, also being extensively engaged in farming. He bought five hundred acres just north of Ionia and also owned a tract of five hundred acres north of that. In 1886 he bought a beautiful country residence at the north edge of lonia and on the home farm began the raising of the finest strains of Short- horn cattle. Mr. Steele was interested largely in the upbuilding of Ionia and was a leader in promoting all movements having to do with the advance- ment of that city's substantial welfare, being active in the work of attract- ing factories to that place. He gave to the city the land for the public highway known as Steele street, from the railroad to Dexter street, and in addition to this contribution, constructed the grade, at a cost of seven thou- sand dollars more than the city paid for it. Ile also gave the right-of-way for the switch that runs to what was then a wagon factory, now the auto- body works, and built the grade for the same, free of charge, in addition to which he gave five acres of the land occupied by that factory; he also donated an acre or more where the light plant and Hales mill stand and the land for the "Sorosis" garment factory. He established the William Steele Packing Company and became heavily interested in the pork-packing indus- try. A firm believer in insurance, Mr. Stecle carried the second highest life insurance of any man in Michigan and had an "AA" rating in all the commercial directories.
Then in 1890 the tide turned and the troubles of Job seemed to descend upon William Steele. During the panic of 1800 he lost heavily in his pork- packing industry: tuberculosis brokke out in his fine herd of cattle, and he had to kill all his valuable stock ; in February, 1896, his beautiful home was destroyed by fire: he had indorsed heavily the papers of others and during the panic times many of these obligations fell upon him to meet. Whatever
(31a)
482
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
he had to sell, had to go at nominal figures. The farm that had cost him fifty thousand dollars was sold for twenty-seven thousand, and other assets were sold in proportion: but through it all Mr. Steele kept his word good and his honor unassailed. He did not give up the fight, and now, though seventy-one years of age, is pushing his way along again. He owns two farms of rich bottom land at lonia and is there successfully growing sugar beets, his operations setting an example to others interested in this grow- ing and valuable industry.
In 1867, William Steele was united in marriage to Nancy Jane Storey. who was born in County Gray, Ontario, Canada, and to this union seven children have been born, Janet L., Margaret L., John L., William N., Mary Agnes, Jessie Douglass and Martha E. Mr. Steele is a thirty-second-degree Mason and when the Masonic home at Grand Rapids was established he was chairman of the committee on the building site of the same, and the only member of the board of twelve trustees whose home was not in Grand Rapids.
ED S. TOWNSEND.
Ed S. Townsend, a prominent farmer and realty speculator of lonia township. this county, and one of the best-known ranchers in Michigan, proprietor of the great Townsend ranch near Marion, in Osceola county, and owner of a fine farm of more than three hundred acres one and one- half miles south of lonia, where he now makes his home, is a native son of Ionia county and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm about three miles south of lonia, in section 32, of lonia township, March 19. 1865. son of Steward and Eliza ( Tuttle) Townsend, the former a native of New York state and the latter of Ohio, both of whom came to Michigan in their youth, settling with their respective parents in lonia county, where they later married and where they spent the remainder of their lives, Steward Town- send dying in 1904, his widow surviving until 1908.
Steward Townsend was born at Palmyra, New York, in 1828, and was about eighteen years old when he came to Michigan with his parents, Charles Townsend and wife, in the late forties, the family settling on a farm south of lonia, where Charles Townsend and his wife spent their last days. In 1852 Steward Townsend bought a small tract of land in section 32 of Ionia township and began to improve the same, gradually enlarging his hoklings as his affairs prospered, until at the time of his death he was the owner of
483
1ONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
a fine farm of two hundred acres of well improved land. His wife was born in Ohio and came to this state with her parents, Nelson and Sophia (Pangburn) Tuttle. about the same time the Townsends came here, the family settling in this county, Nelson Tuttle becoming one of the most substantial and influential pioneers of lonia county; a record of his life in this county being set out in a biographical sketch elsewhere in this vol- ume. To Steward Townsend and wife six children were born, of whom the subject of this sketch is the fifth in order of birth, the others being Andrew, Nelson, Henry, Emery and Ella.
Until April 1. 1916, Ed S. Townsend made his home on the farm where he was born and for years was engaged in the development of that place, bringing it to a high state of cultivation and making it one of the best-improved places in the county. That place of three hundred and forty acres he recently sold for forty-two thousand five hundred dollars and on April 1, 1916, moved to his present fine place of three hundred and two acres, one and one-half miles south of Ionia, where he has created one of the best country establishments in Ionia county, his house being of modern construction, with hot and cold water, sanitary plumbing, heating plant and all the conveniences for comfortable housekeeping, the barns and other farm buildings being in keeping with the same. Though always active in the pursuit of his extensive business affairs, Mr. Townsend possesses the happy faculty of being able to do things "the easy way." and his activities. instead of proving a burden, are a pleasure to him. For the past twenty years he has built at least one house or barn each year and is widely known as a fine farm and ranch manager. In July, 1910, Mr. Townsend bought one thousand and sixty acres of land over in Osceola county, near Marion. and began the development of one of the best ranches in Michigan. When he bought the land only about sixty acres of it had been improved. He quickly "stumped" the remainder, put in about twenty thousand tile, erected a fine large ranch house. excellent barns and cattle pens and now has one of the best ranches of one thousand acres or more in the state. the stock on the Townsend ranch being in great demand, Mr. Townsend having made a specialty of pure-bred stuff. On the Townsend ranch are four good dwellings, four barns, of a capacity for two hundred cattle, besides barns and sheds for a thousand head of sheep and thirty or forty horses. In addi- tion to his general farming and stock-raising activities, Mr. Townsend also has dealt extensively in improved farms and has made an equal success in that line, being recognized as one of the best judges of realty values here- about, while as a dealer in live stock he is known far and wide throughout this section of Michigan.
48.1
TONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
In 1892 Ed S. Townsend was united in marriage to S. Ida Goodrich, who was born at Portland, this county, daughter of Francis and Rose ( Cul- bertson ) Goodrich, both natives of New York state. Francis Goodrich was born at Lima, New York, and when a young man came to Michigan and located at Portland. He married Rose Culbertson, who had come out here from Dansville, New York, on a visit to her sister, and engaged in farming. He died when his daughter, Ida, was a child, and his widow returned to New York, where she presently married Samuel Brown. She died in 1876 and after her death her daughter, Ida. returned to Portland. where she made her home with her mother's sister until her marriage to Mr. Townsend. To this union three children have been born, Francis, who died when three months old; Ray, who is at home, an able assistant to his father, and Guy, who died when four weeks old. The Townsends arc mem- bers of the Methodist church and Mr. Townsend is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.