USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 50
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To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Mason were born the following children : Charles R. and Clara Florence. Mr. Mason is a member of the Congrega- tionalist church and Mrs. Mason affiliates with the Episcopalian church. Mr. Mason is a progressive Republican in politics.
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OSMOND SELWYN TOWER.
Osmond Selwyn Tower, deceased. was born in fonia, Michigan, in 1839. He was the son of Osmond and Martha (Galligher) Tower. Osmond Tower was a native of Massachusetts, and his wife was a native of Ireland. They had the following children: George: Warden, deceased: Osmond, de- ceased, who is the subject of this sketch; Angelo E .. of Ionia, and James F .. of lonia. Osmond Tower was a school teacher in Massachusetts. He married in the East and came West to Detroit with his bride and lived there a little over a year. He was a pioneer in fonia county and built the first frame house in fonia City. He engaged largely in the himbering business in Montcalm and lonia counties. He was United States marshal at one time, and was a member of the school board for twenty years. He was a
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very prominent man in his day. He and Fred Hall and Dudley Townsend were the three ruling spirits in the business interests of the town for many years. He and his wife lived to old age and died in Ionia.
Osmond Selwyn Tower, the subject of this sketch, was raised in lonia and attended the public schools here. He later took a law course in Ann Arbor, and then began for himself by engaging in the hardware business which he followed for some years. He was register of deeds for a number of years. He served one year in the Civil War and was captain of a company in the Sixth Michigan Cavalry. lonia was always his home, except- ing ten years which were spent in Edmore, Montcalm county, in the hard- ware business. On September 18. 1862. he was married to Sarah Jane Bartholomew, who was the daughter of Albert Martin and Mary Miller ( Boyd ) Bartholomew. Sarah Jane ( Bartholomew ) Tower was born on June 24. 1843, in Detroit, Michigan. Her parents were natives of Massa- chusetts and came west to Michigan in an early day and settled in Detroit where her father was in the hardware business, the firm name being Duc- harme & Bartholomew, for many years. Mr. Bartholomew retired from this firm before his death which occurred at the home of Mrs. Ducharme, in Detroit at the age of seventy-six years His wife died at the age of thirty- two years. They had the following children: Elsie Elizabeth, who married Charles Ducharme: William Elkana, who lives in Detroit: Sarah Jane, who is the widow of the subject of this sketch ; Mary Augusta, who is the widow of Thomas D. Hawley. of Los Angeles, California, and two children, who died in infancy.
Osmond Selwyn and Sarah Jane ( Bartholomew ) Tower were the parents of the following children : Fred Albert, who has been with the Pittsburgh Steel Company for over sixteen years. He married hmnoge King. They have one son. Frederick King Tower; Marion Amelia, who married William B. Carpenter : they live in Chicago and have one son. Harold Bagley Car- penter : Elsie Mary, who married Capt. George H. Jamerson, and they live in Honolulu, where he is stationed in the United States infantry service ; they have one son, Osmond Tower Jamerson, and Albert B., who died when five months old.
Osmond Selwyn Tower died in into at the age of seventy-one years. He belonged at one time to the Knights of Pythias Lodge and also to the Elks Lodge. He was a staunch Republican. Mrs. Tower is a member of the Episcopal church. She is a lady of culture and refinement and takes an unusual interest in club and literary affairs.
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ELLIOT BOUCK.
The old Empire state has sent many of its best citizens into Michigan and they have done much in developing the newer sections of the West. Among this class in Ionia county is Elliot Bouck, a hard-working farmer of Danby township, and a regularly ordained minister of the Methodist Episco- pal church. He was born in Schohaire county. New York. April 21, 1862. and is a son of Daniel H. and Caroline ( Borst ) Bouek, both natives of the above named county and state also, where they grew up, attended school, were married and established their home on the farm. His grandparents on both sides were descendants from the early Dutch in that state. Daniel H. Bouck was young when his father died and he made his home with his grandparents until their deaths. Daniel H. Bouck died in April, 1902, and his wife preceded him to the grave by one year, dying in April. 1901. They were the parents of seven children, namely, Elliot. the immediate subject of this review : Martha, wife of Emery Sitterlee; William, a resident of New York state; Anna, the wife of Edward P. Mattice, of New York; Warner. who was killed in a runaway accident; Elma, who died at the age of one year, and Harley, who lives in Middleburgh, New York.
Elliot Bouck received his education in the district schools, and he remained on the home farm until he was twenty-one years old, then hired out at farm work for one year, then returned home for one year, continuing to work on the farm during the summer months, attending high school in the winter time, preparing for college, but finding himself without funds and twenty-eight years of age, gave up the idea of a college course. In the spring of 1800 he started for Vermont, and took the place of a regularly ordained minister in the Troy conference of the Methodist Episcopal church at East Middlebury, Vermont, where he remained two years. At the annual confer- ence of 1881 Mr. Bouck joined the conference on probation and began the conference course, passing his studies with a good margin from year to year until 1895, when he received his final ordination by Bishop Walden at Sara- toga Springs, New York. With natural gifts for speaking and being a good student, he soon became an acceptable and capable minister of the Gospel. On March 2d of 1892 he married Esther Wilcox, a daughter of H. 11. and Mary (Silvermail ) Wilcox, which family is mentioned on another page of this work.
After his marriage Mr. Bouck went to Benson, Vermont, where he preached four years, then went to Hinesburg, that state, and a year later
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took charge of the church at Williston, that state, remaming there for two years. In 1899 he was transferred to the Michigan conference. Lansing district, and preached at Shepardsville for two years, going from there to the town of Sheppard, near Mt. Pleasant. remaining there two years. Although he was doing good work as a minister, he gave up regular pastor- ate work on account of the protracted and serious illness of Mrs. Bouck, and came to the Wilcox farm, in lonia county, and about eight months later moved to the farm he now occupies: this was in the spring of 1903. He engaged in farming until 1907. when he again took up ministerial work, and was assigned to the Methodist church at Eagle, renting out his farm for five years. He remained at Eagle three years and preached at Breckinridge two years, returning to the farm in 1912, and has been engaged in general farm- ing here ever since. His place consists of one hundred and four acres and is under a high state of cultivation. Although he has continued to preach occasionally since moving to his farm, he has not taken any regular work. He makes a specialty of breeding a high grade of Holstein cattle ; registered "Crown Korndyke de Mercedes" heads his fine herd. These pure-bred cattle are the best ever known in this section of the state. He also handles an excel- lent grade of Poland China hogs.
Mr. Bouck is a Prohibitionist and has long been active in temperance work. He is a member of the Grange.
One child, a daughter, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bonck, Mary C., who is a pupil in the tenth grade of the public schools of Portland.
GEORGE C. THURLBY.
A man who has found both pleasure and profit in agricultural pursuits and has, therefore, not cared for other fields of activity, is George C. Thurlby. of Boston township, lonia county. He was born in Montcalm county, Michigan, March 30, 1856, and is a son of Richard and Margaret ( Parrott ) Thurlby. The father was born in Lincolnshire. England, and there he grew to manhood and was educated, and when a boy was in what is known in that country as "gentleman's service." until he was about twenty-one years of age, when he came to America, locating in Kent county, Michigan, where he hired out as a farm hand. Saving his carnings he later purchased forty acres in that county, then went to Montcalm county and bought a farm where he lived a few years, then returned to Kent county, purchasing
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another farm, which he finally sold and moved to the home of his son, George C., and there spent the rest of his life, dying in 1907, his wife having preceded him to the grave in 1900. They were parents of three children, George C. being the only survivor.
George C. Thurlby grew to manhood on the farm where he worked when a boy, and received his education in the district schools in his home communities and in the town of Lowell. When fourteen years old he hired out as a farm hand. working three years for Sears Story, then hired to John Meyers and John Bell, learning the trade of carpenter and joiner. which he followed for a number of years, becoming a very highly skilled workman. In 1880 he moved to the farm and has since been engaged in agricultural pursuits. He is the owner of an excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres in section 19. Boston township, where he carries on general farming and stock raising, also runs a dairy, but not on an extensive scale.
George C. Thurlby was married on January 3. 1879. to Emma Story, a daughter of George J. and Sarah Jane Story. She grew up on the farm and was educated in the public schools. Politically, Mr. Thurlby is a Repub- lican. His wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. He served on the first jury impaneled in the new lonia county court house, and his name was the first one called. he taking the first seat in the grand jury box. The first case was that of a man charged with stealing a horse blanket. Mr. Thurlby has a photograph of this jury.
FRANK H. HUDSON.
One of the busy men of the northern part of lonia county is Frank HI. Hudson, who is engaged in the grocery and bakery business in Bekling, Otisco township. He was born at Hudsonville, Ottawa county, Michigan, March 5, 1865, and is a son of Homer E. and Clarinda ( Burt ) Hudson. The father was born in the state of Connecticut and when a boy he came with his parents to Cleveland, Ohio, the father taking up land from the government, which he developed into a farm and on which a part of the city of Cleveland now stands. His place was finally platted. He spent the rest of his life there and there also occurred the death of his wife. Homer E. Hudson, mentioned above, remained with his parents until he was nine- teen years old when he came to Michigan, locating in Grand Rapids, then a small town, and here he worked on the Kellogg farm which is now well within the city limits and is valuable residence property.
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Mr. Hudson's duties partly were to drive oxen for his employer, and he helped break up the virgin soil along what is now Monroe street. After working for Mr. Kellogg two or three years he returned to Ohio where he married Clarinda Burt and then came to Holland, Michigan, where he started a nursery business, later taking in a partner to whom he subse- quently sold out, then located at what is now the town of Hudsonville. which place was named for him. There he took up eighty acres from the government, spending about forty years there, becoming one of the leading men of that locality and was a successful_ farmer. His first wife, mother of Frank H., died and he married later, after which he removed to Grand Rapids where he spent a number of years, then moved to Belding, Jonia county, where he died. He was the father of six children by his first wife, five of whon grew to maturity and three are now living, namely : Horace A. is deceased ; Della C., deceased, was the wife of Adelbert Barnaby of Grand Rapids: Frank H. of this sketch; E. E. lives in Belding: Belle M. lives in Vancouver, british Columbia, and is the wife of A. A. Pompe.
Frank H. Hudson grew up on his father's farm where he worked when a boy, and he received his education in the public schools. He remained at home until he was twenty years of age, then came to Belding, Ionia county, and worked in a factory for five years, then with E. R. Spencer in a drug and grocery store for a year and a half. after which he and R. R. Robinson bought the grocery store and this partnership lasted for fourteen years, and since 1905 he has managed the business alone. He has been on the same stand all the while. He has been engagd in the grocery business twenty-four years and the bakery business over ten years. He has built up a large and lucrative trade in each with the town and surrounding country and has a large and well stocked store and modernly equipped bakery.
Mr. Hudson was married on April 15. 1885. to Millie E. Annable. To Mr. and Mrs. Hudson three children have been born, namely; Willie, who died in infancy: Dorothea, who was graduated from the Belding high school, attended the Normal at Kalamazoo a year and a half and is now a student in Albion College, intending to engage in teaching: Irene is the wife of Gay West, and they live in Lansing. Michigan.
Politically. Mr. Hudson is a Prohibitionist. Fraternally, he is a mem- ber of the Modern Woodmen and the Maccabees of Belling. He has been a member of the local school board for the past fifteen years and has done much to encourage better schools in his city. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church in which he is a trustee.
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