USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume II > Part 8
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Not alone in this one constructive line of enterprise did Mr. Lock- wood make his influence potent for good, for he was also alert and liberal in the promotion of all enterprises and measures which tended to conserve the social and material progress and prosperity of his home county. Upon his own estate he made the best of permanent improve- ments and he developed its agricultural resources to the highest degree, besides which he was for several years prior to his death the most extensive breeder of high-grade cattle in the county, having maintained on his farm a herd of two hundred head, including a dairy of eighty cows. He also was a successful breeder of horses and swine, and he did much to improve the grades of live stock in this section of the state. His vital energy and his progressiveness knew no bounds, and his enthusi- asm was contagious in many benignant ways. In all things he maintained high ideals, and thus it may well be understood that his life counted for much in the county that represented his home for nearly sixty years. From an appreciative estimate published in the Monroe Record- Commercial, at the time of his death, are taken the following extracts, in which slight paraphrase is made :
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"In addition to the work which his hands have done, Ezra L. Lock- wood has always been active in all efforts for general improvement and in the promotion of social, educational and religious interests. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity for more than half a century and was a member and liberal supporter of the Methodist Episcopal church. For many years he gave his best efforts to the furtherance of the work and interests of various organizations of the farmers of the county and state. While he had little opportunity to attend school in his youth, he was, during his whole life, a very constant and intelligent reader of the best literature, and his mind was well stored with information. He was a very entertaining conversationalist and a fluent and pleasing public speaker. Until the last year of his life he was a very active and vigorous man. Obstacles only spurred him to greater efforts for the accomplish- ment of his purpose. For a little more than a year his health and strength gradually failed, and finally, from general physical exhaustion, he fell asleep, at three o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, February 24, 1909, at the age of seventy-eight years and eight months. For several months he had frequently spoken of the inevitable change which he fully appreciated and knew was coming, and expressed a willingness and later a desire to go. His mind was clear to the last; he raised his hands to his devoted wife and murmured 'Going' and then passed away peacefully and gently. His was a long life, filled with work, hope, happiness and success. ITis children were all liberally educated and their lives have been and will continue to be a fitting monument to an indulgent and loving father."
Though he never manifested the slightest predilection for the honors or emoluments of public office, Mr. Lockwood accorded a stanch alle- giance to the Republican party during the first twenty-five years of that party's existence and during later years was an independent voter. He was admirably reinforced in his opinions concerning economic and governmental policies. During the later years of his life both he and his wife were specially active in the affairs of the various farmers' clubs, institutes and conventions of their home county and state, and both gave most helpful and entertaining addresses before the assemblages of the farmers of the county and state. Concerning the Masonic affiiliation of Mr. Lockwood it may be further stated that for fifty years he was a valued and honored member of the lodge of Free & Accepted Masons in the village of Petersburg, and for even a longer period he was a zealous and liberal member of the Methodist Episcopal church of that place, his widow also having long been one of the most active members and devoted workers in that church.
Concerning the ideal domestic relations of the honored subject of this memoir there can be no desire to present more than the exoteric features, for further indulgence would be an invasion of the sacred associations in which his noble and gentle nature found its apotheosis. On the 29th of December, 1859, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Jennie Hall, who was born at Bristol, Addison county, Vermont, on the 23d of September, 1838, and who is a daughter of Wheelock H. and Eliza (Simonds) Hall, her ancestors for eight generations having lived in Vermont and Connecticut. Mrs. Lockwood was fourteen years of
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age at the time of her parents' removal to Monroe county, Michigan, and the family home was established at Dundee, Michigan, the parents continuing to reside in this county until their death. Mrs. Lockwood was afforded excellent educational advantages and after a course in the Michigan State Normal School at Ypsilanti, she was a successful and popular teacher in the public schools until the time of her marriage. She has been specially active in the work of the Methodist Episcopal church and also in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with which she has been identified from the time of its organization. She has served as president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Petersburg and also as president of the organizations of her home county and district, the while she has attended the greater number of the national conventions of this noble body. She has also been prominent in the work of the farmers' organizations, as has already been noted in this review.
Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood became the parents of five children, all of whom attained to years of maturity and all of whom are living except the youngest, Lamont Hall, who died on the 27th of December, 1903, and Willard Ezra, who died in March, 1910. Harry Albert, who is now engaged in the practice of law in the City of Detroit, is individually mentioned on other pages of this work; Mary Frances was for several years a valued teacher in the Michigan State Normal School at Ypsi- lanti. In 1891 she married Frank E. Millis, Ph. D. (Cornell), who died at Washington, D. C., August 2, 1903. Mrs. Millis with her four children resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Gertrude J., after graduation from the Michigan Normal School in 1882, was a teacher in high schools at Dundee, Sault Ste. Marie, and Jackson. She married Edwin D. Johnson, a lumberman, in 1889. They now reside in Chicago, Illinois, and have one daughter, Helen, a student in Wellesley College. Willard Ezra was a farmer of Summerfield township to the time of his death. Mrs. Lockwood still resides in Petersburg, and despite her years, is active and efficient, retaining a lively interest in all movements for the betterment of life in general and especially the life of the community of which she has been so long a member.
BERT S. BAKER. Located on a fine farm of sufficient size and variety in productions to give scope and occupation for all his energy and engage his utmost intelligence and care; yet looking ever to the welfare of his township and county, and striving to promote that with as much zeal and foresight as he applies to his own affairs; young as yet in years, but with an excellent record for enterprise, progress and success in his undertakings to his credit, and still on the move for broader achieve- ments and more pronounced success, Bert Baker, of Ash township, this county, dignifies and adorns the citizenship of his locality and is already regarded as one of its leading and most representative men.
Mr. Baker was born and reared in the township of his present resi- dence, where his life began on April 13, 1881. He is a son of Edward R. and Iva E. (Craft) Baker, the father also a native of Monroe county, where he was born on January 8, 1842, and the mother of Wayne county, where she was born on June 27, 1856. The father is a son of Gilbert
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Baker, one of the early pioneers of this township, coming here among the first settlers in the region. He came to Michigan and Monroe county from the state of New York and took up his residence in a dense forest, which for ages had kept apart the sunlight and the soil, and had never yet, or but very little at the most, echoed to the resounding ax of the woodman or bowed its sturdy growth at the behest of the pioneer. He made an opening in it, however, and built himself a log cabin as a basis for further operations, and in time cleared and transformed a portion of it into a fine farm and comfortable country home, at which he died after many years of useful labor in 1846.
On this farm his son Edward R. Baker, the father of Bert, was born and reared, and in the primitive country school in the neighborhood he obtained all the scholastic training he had opportunity to get. Even if he had found a way to more advanced instruction the Civil war would have kept him from receiving it. For he was ardent in his love for the Union, and almost at the first call for volunteers he enlisted in its defense, being enrolled in the Eleventh Michigan Volunteer Infantry. in which he served three years and three months, and during his service saw considerable field duty.
It was not long after the war began before the hostilities became gen- eral and very active. Mr. Baker's regiment was in the midst of them at an early period, and continued to take part in their utmost activity to the end of his term of enlistment, or, indeed, to the end of the war. He marched and fought his way to Atlanta, Georgia, and went from there with Sherman on his historical and spectacular march to the sea. Dur- ing the progress of that march there were many bloody engagements, and he took part in them all.
After the war he returned to his Monroe county home, and resumed his work on the family homestead. On February 20, 1870, he was mar- ried to Miss Zilma Asselstyne of Newport, this county, and by this mar- riage became the father of two children: Howard Alfred, who is a resident of Detroit, Michigan, and Josiah, who died on July 19, 1897. at the age of twenty-two years. Their mother died on December 19, 1875, and on July 4, 1880, the father contracted a second marriage, in which he united himself with Miss Iva E. Craft, a resident of Flat Rock, Wayne county, this state, and the daughter of Samuel E. Craft, who died in December, 1906.
Mr. Craft was an English settler and pioneer of Wayne county, a Quaker in religious belief, and a thoroughly patriotic American citizen after he became domesticated in this country. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah C. Riggs, and who is also deceased, was a devout member of the Episcopal church. Her parents were born in England and be- longed to families long resident in that country and connected with that church for many generations, and she was reared in its teachings and re- mained loyal to it through life.
By his second marriage with Miss Iva E. Craft, there were four chil- dren ; three sons and one daughter born, viz. : the eldest being Gilbert S .. the immediate subject of this sketch; S. Elva, wife of Claude Sherwood, a resident of Atlanta, Michigan, and he is a carpenter and joiner by trade. Mrs. Sherwood was a successful teacher in Monroe
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county previous to her marriage. Edwin Harrison, resident of Wayne county, Michigan, who deals in milk and is engaged in the dairy business. He wedded Miss Lena Sawslayer. He is a Republican in politics, and fraternally belongs to the Masonic fraternity. Mrs. Baker is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Hiram Wellie, resident of Carleton, Michigan, educated in the common schools, and is a dealer in poultry.
The father, Edward R. Baker, lives at Carleton and Gilbert S. on a farm of eighty acres one mile east of that town. His farm is well im- proved with a good dwelling house, commodious barns and sheds, and all other necessary structures, and by his skill and ability as a farmer has been brought to a high state of development and fruitfulness.
Mr. Baker, who is familiarly known throughout the township and in many other portions of the state as "Bert," was born on April 13, 1881. He was reared on the farm and obtained his education in the public schools, beginning it in the country school near his home and completing it at one of more advanced grade in Monroe. He taught school two years with great credit to himself and benefit to his pupils, winning great popularity and showing a high order of capability as a teacher.
He was married on December 24, 1902, to Miss Olive L. Sweet, an intellectual and cultivated young lady, born at Fowlerville, Michigan, and reared and educated in Detroit. She is the daughter of Lemuel and Maggie (McCarthy) Sweet, and the eldest of their eight children in the order of birth. She and her husband are the parents of four children, two sons and two daughters, the eldest is V. Veral, Earl Foster and their daughter Iva Amelia, and Edwin L., deceased at the age of four months.
In political matters Mr. Baker is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican party, and he is always loyal to it in the campaigns, although not an active partisan and never an office seeker. His re- ligious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal church, and he takes an active part in its work, especially in the subsidiary organizations which it fosters for the general well being of the community. He has served as president and secretary of the Epworth League in the congre- gation to which he belongs, and in many other ways has shown himself to be an energetic and effective worker in behalf of the good of the people through his church membership. Although yet a young man, he has attained to a high place in the confidence and regard of the people around him, as has been noted, and his frank, sincere and genial man- ner, obliging disposition and enterprise in the support of all worthy undertakings for the progress and improvement of his township and county, are steadily broadening and strengthening his popularity and hold on the esteem of the public and augmenting his usefulness as a man and citizen.
ELI LORANGER. Many of the leading men of Monroe county, Michi- gan, started out in life as poor boys, but through their own efforts have become wealthy and prominent. The most successful men of this coun- try are not always those who are born to wealth and influence. There appears to be something in the necessity for exertion that develops a
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man's best qualities and demonstrates what he is capable of accomplish- ing, and in this connection it will not be inappropriate to briefly sketch the career of Eli Loranger, of Berlin township, who takes a pardonable degree of pride in the fact that all he now possesses has been gained through the medium of his own efforts. Left fatherless at the age of two years Mr. Loranger's early life was anything but a care-free one, and the greater part of his education was secured in the school of hard work, but with a persistency born of a determination to succeed, he has stead- fastly surmounted all obstacles in his path, and after more than half a century of residence in Monroe county, is recognized as one of its leading and most successful men. Mr. Loranger was born at St. Alban, Port- neuf, Province of Quebec, Canada, December 24, 1846, and is a son of Francis and Adeline (Gudin) Loranger, members of prominent old French families of the Dominion. Francis Loranger died in 1848, while his widow survived him many years and was ninety-four at the time of her death. They had a family of eleven children, as follows: Clara, Frank, Mary, Edward, Augustus, Lucille, Clarice, Elizabeth, Fer- man, Mary Ann and Eli.
Eli Loranger received his education in the public schools of Canada, and when he was thirteen years of age accompanied his brother Frank to Monroe county, Michigan. Francis Loranger met his death in June, 1912, in his eighty-second year. As a youth, Eli Loranger worked in the lumber woods, various sawmills and potash works, accepting whatever honorable employment presented itself and from which a fair living could be made. He was married at the age of twenty-seven years to Sarah Gagnon, daughter of Benjamin Gagnon, a member of an old and honored French family of Quebec, who worked in the copper works for upwards of forty years. After his marriage, Mr. Loranger settled on eighty acres of partly improved land, on which he erected a log house, this being subsequently replaced by a fine frame house eighteen by twenty-six. As he prospered Mr. Loranger purchased forty acres more property, and now has one of the best farms in Berlin township. He resides in a mod- ern residence of ten rooms, which is comfortably and tastefully furn- ished and equipped with modern improvements. A large barn thirty- six by seventy-six feet, for stock, graces the property, in addition to which there are buildings for the housing of implements, and a large granary, hog shed and chicken house. The land is well graded and drained, and the whole appearance of the property suggests prosperity and reflects much eredit on the management and industry of its owner. The land is well situated, being half way between Toledo and Detroit, and is convenient to the Lake Shore and Central Railroads and to the electric line
Mr. and Mrs. Loranger have had a family of eleven children : Joseph, of Detroit ; John, also a resident of that city; Adelaide, who also makes her home in Detroit ; Mrs. Mary Ferrell, residing at Buffalo, New York; Benjamin, living in Detroit; Adelia, who resides with her parents; Mrs. Ellen Ferrell, who died at the age of thirty-one years, leaving two children, Helen and Margaret; Anna, who died at the age of thirteen years; and three children who died in childhood. Mr. Loranger, as one of the leading men of his community, has been called upon to fill
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a number of positions of trust and responsibility, serving as delegate to numerous conventions, acting as trustee of Berlin township for six years, and being a member of the school board for more than a quarter of a cen- tury. With his wife and children, he attends St. Charles Catholic church, at Newport. The homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Loranger is known as "Ingleside.'
GEORGE W. FRANCISCO. One of the representative citizens of Monroe county, who has been at the front in shaping the destinies of his section along the lines of prosperity and usefulness, is George W. Francisco, of Newport, prominent business man, justice of the peace and public- spirited citizen. He has been engaged in a number of successful business enterprises, where his ability, perseverance and intelligent labors have given him prestige, and in the discharge of his official duties he has brought the same conscientious attention to detail and enthusiasm to bear that have made his private affairs so successful. Mr. Francisco was born in the village of Newport, Monroe county, Michigan, March 9, 1870, a member of an old and prominent pioneer family. His father, Joseph Francisco, was a native of Pennsylvania, and as a young man came to Monroe county and settled at the Newport settlement, erecting a log house for his residence. He married Mary Colburn, daughter of Josiah and Abigail Colburn, of an old Vermont family, and they had two sons, William Eugene and George W. For a number of years Mr. Fran- cisco conducted a stave mill, in which enterprise he met with decided success, subsequently built and operated a sawmill, and for a quarter of a century was engaged in a general mercantile business. He did much to bring business men, industries and capital to Monroe county, and was widely known for his activities in the industrial world. His death occurred in 1904, when he was seventy-two years of age. In political matters a Democrat, Mr. Francisco was ever an active worker in the ranks of his party. His fraternal connection was with the Masons, he being a charter member of the Huron Lodge, in which he was extremely popular, and his religious belief was that of the Methodist church, which he attended regularly and supported liberally. In every walk of life he was known as an exemplary citizen and a champion of education, progress, morality and good citizenship.
George W. Francisco was reared in Newport and educated in the public schools of this place. With his father he learned the mercantile business, and for some time acted as clerk in his father's store, there learning that the true secret of success is honesty, integrity and fair dealing in all things. Subsequently he became connected with news- paper work in Toledo, Ohio, for five years, and then entered the insur- ance business, in which he is engaged at the present time to some extent. He has been called upon to fill a number of offices of public trust and responsibility, being for five years a member of the board of super- visors of his township and in 1909 acting as chairman of that body, in addition to which he has acted as delegate to numerous township, county and state conventions. In 1912 his signal services to the Democratic party were given recognition by his election to the office of justice of the peace, in which capacity he has shown ability of no small order. He
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is one of the most popular officials Berlin township has known, but his decisions have always been rendered with strict impartiality, and he has never allowed his personal opinions to in any way interfere with his judgment.
On July 25, 1893, Judge Francisco was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Kelly, daughter of W. C. and Frances (Downs) Kelly, who for many years resided in Monroe county, where Mr. Kelly died in 1886, at the age of fifty years, and his wife in 1880, when forty-one years of age. They had four children: William, who resides in Erie, Pennsyl- vania ; Mary F., who is engaged in teaching school in Monroe county ; Mrs. Francisco, and Barbara, who died at the age of thirty-two years. Captain W. C. Kelly was a native of Glasgow, Scotland. He gave all of his children good educational advantages, and for five years before her marriage Mrs. Francisco was engaged in teaching school in Monroe county. Mr. and Mrs. Francisco have had two children: Lee A., born March 21, 1895; and Walter W., born June 8, 1899. At the present time Mr. Francisco is a popular candidate in the Democratic party for county clerk, of Monroe county.
BARNARD PARISH. Born and reared on a farm and looking forward to tilling the generous and responsive soil of Monroe county, Michigan, as his life work; yet turning almost at the first serious sound of arms in the Civil war from the pursuits of peaceful industry and productive- ness to bloody battlefields, where unrolling columns dealt death and destruction to their fellows, and making an excellent record as a valiant soldier in defense of the Union; receiving serious wounds in battle and still bearing the marks of them, and after the war returning to his former occupation of farming, in which he has ever since been profitably engaged, Barnard Parish, of Ash township, this county, has served his country well in peace and deadly strife, and has won for himself uni- versal commendation for his fidelity in both.
Mr. Parish is a native of this township, and was born on June 25, 1838, a son of Elias and Elizabeth (Van der Voort) Parish, natives of the state of New York, the father born in New York, on February 1st, 1799, the year George Washington died, and the mother at Mount Morris, Livingston county, on August 1, 1813. The parents grew to maturity in their native state and were married in Ontario county, New York. They came to Monroe county, Michigan, in 1836, and took up their residence in an unbroken forest in the township in which their son Barnard now lives. The father built a log cabin as a shelter and home for his family, and proceeded to clear and cultivate his wild land, which, in time, he transformed into a valuable and highly developed farm, enriched with modern buildings and brought to an advanced state of general and varied productiveness.
This whole region was wild and unsettled when they came hither, as they were among the first of the pioneers to locate here, and they still had to fear and face the savage foes of civilization, man and beast, and endure all the privations, hardships and arduous toil of frontier life. Yet, in no way or degree daunted, they went to work with a will and stuck to the job until great and gratifying success crowned their
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efforts. On the farm which they carved out of the wilderness they reared their family of eight children, four sons and four daughters: Mary Ann, Barnard, Nancy, John, Henry, Frank, Harriet and Mary. Only the four sons are now living. Like Barnard, John was a soldier for the Union in the Civil war, serving in the Twenty-fourth Michigan Volunteer Infantry.
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