USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume II > Part 39
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In politics Mr. Grow is a stalwart Republican and he has been incumbent of a number of local offices of important trust and responsi- bility. He has been a director of the school board for the past twenty- seven years; was township supervisor for three years; and for twenty years was justice of the peace of Royal Oak township; and has also served as school inspector and town clerk. In their religious faith the family are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Royal Oak.
On December 24. 1869, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Grow to Miss Lorinda M. Campbell, who was born in Oxford, Oakland county in 1849 and came to Royal Oak township in about 1860. She is the daughter of Welcome Campbell; of Scotch descent. In regard to the five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Grow, the following data are here inserted .- Ida is deceased; Ella is the wife of Fred Perkins, of Highland Park : Mary Furgeson resides at the parental home ; Clara is deceased ; and Edwin lives at home and manages the farm.
ADRIAN A. GIBBS is a farmer living in section 27, Troy township, Oakland county, and is well known as a man greatly esteemed for his
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fair and honest dealings with his fellow men, standing for the thought of the famous poet, Alexander Pope, when he said, "An honest man is the noblest work of God." He was born in Southfield township, Oak- land county, on July 12, 1847, the only son of Almeron and Rebecca (Brown) Gibbs.
Almeron Gibbs, the father of Mr. Gibbs, was born in New York state, as was also his father, Samuel Gibbs, although the Gibbs family name is of decidedly English origin. He was very well known in this part of the country, being prominent as one of the first settlers in Oak- land county. He came with his parents to Michigan when he was only nine years of age. They came as pioneers and settled in Troy town- ship, Oakland county, in 1826, and it was here that Samuel and his faithful wife spent the rest of their days until their death. They were the parents of five children. Mr. Almeron Gibbs lived at his father's home until his marriage, at the age of thirty years, when he bought and settled on the forty acre farm where Mr. Adrian A. Gibbs now lives. He lived here about thirty-nine years, until he passed into the other life. He was a Republican in politics, and the father of two children, both of whom are living at present. They are: Adrian A. and Asenath, the latter the wife of Mr. Archie B. McCillop, of Lapeer county.
Mr. Adrian A. Gibbs received his education in the district schools and also in the Birmingham high school. On the tenth of December, 1876, he married Miss Elizabeth Mary Revell, the daughter of Samuel and Mary (Cooper) Revell. Miss Revell's parents immigrated from London, England, in about 1860, settling first in the Dominion of Can- ada, and later coming to risk their fortunes in the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs have no children of their own, but they have adopted one daughter, whom they call Geneva Hazel Gibbs. The family are devoted members of the Methodist church at Big Beaver, where he has held all the offices of the church, and has been prominent in Sunday- school work for about seventeen years.
Mr. Gibbs is a member of the Order of Maccabees, No. 547, Big Beaver Lodge, and is also a member of the finance committee of the lodge. He is a stanch Republican, like his father before him, and he has held the office of supervisor of this township for nine years. He has also held many school offices and is treasurer of the school district at the present time. A very good indication of his public spirit and of his popularity in the township is the fact that he has held the office of town- ship clerk for the past ten years. He has always been known as a man of sterling qualities, and he has discharged the duties of his various offices with honesty and ability.
Mr. Gibbs is the fortunate possessor of sixty acres of land in the township, in sections 27 and 22.
DAVID MITCHELL. A venerable and highly respected citizen of Holly township, David Mitchell has been identified with the agricultural inter- ests of Oakland county all of his active life, in the independent occupa- tion of a farmer having derived both pleasure and profit. A native of Michigan, he was born December 12, 1836, in Independence town- ship, Oakland county, of pioneer ancestry.
His parents, George and Ellinor Susanna Mitchell, came from Orange county, New York, to Michigan in 1833. For three years George Mitchell worked in different parts of the state, finally settling, in
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1836, in Holly township, Oakland county, buying first forty acres of land lying four miles north of Holly. Succeeding well in his undertakings, he wisely invested in other tracts of wild land, becoming owner of three hundred acres, which he managed ably until his death, in 1852. His wife survived him ten years, passing away in 1862. Of the twelve children born of their union, seven grew to years of maturity, as follows: Mar- garet, who at the time of her death, in 1906, was living in Indianapolis, Indiana ; William, engaged in farming in Gladwin county, married Adelia Belote, of Holly township; Hannah, wife of Charles Best, of Holly township, died in 1883; John, who married Ellen Forsythe, of Oakland county, died on the home farm in 1873; Sarah, who married John McMurray, now resides with her brother David; Daniel, a farmer in Holly township married Anna Reasoner; and David, the subject of this brief sketch.
Well trained in the various branches of agriculture as a boy and youth, David Mitchell became a landholder when twenty-one years of age, and was also engaged in buying and shipping cattle, sheep and hogs, for five years. From time to time he has bought other pieces of property adjoining his first purchase, and now has a valuable farm of three hun- dred and forty acres, which includes the parental homestead, which he bought from the remaining heirs. He served as highway commissioner of Holly township about thirty years ago, and at one time was a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Holly. He is a Dem- ocrat ; but has never cared for office.
Mr. Mitchell married, in 1865, Adeline Marsh, a daughter of Elisha and Barbara Marsh, and of their union four children have been born, namely ; Lewis, Margaret, James and David, Jr. Lewis Mitchell, the eldest son, now engaged in farming in Holly township, married Mrs. Minnie Quick, and they have two children. Margaret, the only daugh- ter, is the wife of John Haas, a prominent agriculturist living five and one-half miles northeast of Holly, James Mitchell, the third child, en- gaged in farming with his father in Holly township, and with his brother David is also interested in land in Holly township, and in a tract of forty-five hundred acres of land in Prescott, Michigan, where they have a stock farm. He was graduated from the Michigan Agricultural College with the class of 1905, and carries on farming after the most modern scientific methods. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Holly, and both he and his brother David are asso- ciated with the Holly Lighting Company, one being secretary of the or- ganization and the other treasurer, and both are likewise members of the Holly Produce and Milling Company, whose plant was burned in the fall of 1911. James Mitchell married Lucille Gautz of Riga, Michigan.
David Mitchell, Jr., a progressive and successful agriculturist of Holly township, carries on business with his father, and, as above stated, is extensively engaged in farming and stock growing with his brother James, and with him is connected with extensive interests in Holly. He married Harriet Belford, who died September 6, 1911, leaving two chil- dren, Bernice and Albert, who make their home with the subject of this review.
THOMAS H. FAGAN. Noteworthy among the useful and valued resi- dents of Holly township is Thomas H. Fagan, who for many years has been intimately associated with the development and growth of the agri-
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cultural prosperity of this section of Oakland county, and who is now serving ably and acceptably as supervisor of his township. A son of Peter Fagan, he was born January 1, 1844, in Holly township, on a farm lying about one mile east of his present home.
Born in 1808, in Drogheda, a municipal borough and seaport of Ire- land, Peter Fagan came with his parents, Terrence and Bridget Fagan, to America in 1823, and the ensuing nine years lived in the eastern part of New York, not far from Albany. In 1832, with his brother John, he came to Michigan with a gang, and helped build the old Detroit, flint and Saginaw pike, working until cold weather. Returning home, he remained in New York until the spring of 1833, when he came back to Michigan, accompanied by his parents and his brother Thomas, set- tling in Holly township, through the center of which the pike passed. The brothers and their father bought land in sections two, three, ten and eleven, paying the government $1.25 an acre, their family being the third to locate in this part of Oakland county, which was heavily tim- bered with oak and hickory. The first family to come here was that of William Gage, and the second was that of a Mr. Herrick, who improved a good farm. Peter Fagan built in section two, and John, in section three. John and Thomas never married, and for many years lived and labored together, at their deaths not being separated, for, one morning several years ago, their neighbors seeing no signs of life around their little home made investigations and found them both dead, Thomas being then seventy-eight years of age, and John four years older. Peter Fagan lived to a good old age, and was buried on the eighty-fifth anni- versary of his birth, while his wife, whose maiden name was Eliza Dains, passed away at the age of eighty-six years. She was a daughter of Stephen Dains, who came from Yates county, New York, to Oakland county, Michigan, settling in Holly township, which was largely peopled by men and women from the Empire state, and was but seventeen years old when she married in 1836 or 1837.
Shortly after his marriage Peter Fagan secured a half section of land lying near the parental homestead, and installed his bride in a small shanty, twelve by fourteen feet. He subsequently erected the log house in which his son, Thomas H., was born, and about 1853 erected a good frame house, in which he spent his remaining years, dying in 1893, the very same year in which his brothers died. His wife survived him, passing away in May, 1909, at the venerable age of eighty-six years, having spent seventy-two years of her life on the Fagan homestead. Peter Fagan had at one time owned three-fourths of a section of land, but he helped each of his children to obtain homes of their own, divid- ing a part of his property before his death. To him and his wife twelve children were born and reared, as follows: Mary E., of Rose township, widow of Frederick Forsythe: Thomas H., the special subject of this sketch ; Edwin A., owning a part of the old homstead; Eliza J., who married Charles H. Spalding, died in Lapeer county, Michigan; Nancy A .. who died in Lapeer county was the wife of the late Thomas Ryan; Francelia L., wife of Marion Dains, of Isabella county ; Peter died in boyhood ; John S., living on a part of the old homestead; Imogene, sec- ond wife of Charles Spalding, who married for his first wife her sister Eliza, owns a part of the old home farm; Rhoama, who married Fred Wortman, died in Fenton, Michigan; William H., who inherited a part. of the parental acres; and Sabra, who died in early womanhood.
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Brought up on the home farm and educated in the rural schools of his native district, Thomas H. Fagan chose farming as his life occupa- tion, and began his active career on a part of the parental homestead. Subsequently selling out to his brother, he bought his present farm, the old Andrews homestead, in 1880, and has since carried on general farm- ing with much success, his estate being finely located about two and one-half miles north of Holly, and containing two hundred and forty acres of rich and highly productive land.
Affiliated in politics with the Democratic party, Mr. Fagan has filled many offices of responsibility, having served as justice of the peace seven years; as highway commissioner three years; and for eleven terms, though not in succession, as supervisor. Fraternally he is a member of the Free and accepted Order of Masons.
Mr. Fagan married, at the age of twenty-seven years, Emma J. An- drews, a daughter of James M. Andrews, a farmer and dairyman who came from New York to Oakland county, Michigan, in 1850, locating near Holly, in Holly township, on the farm now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Fagan, who have but one child, namely : Emma J., wife of Harvey Hawley, who now has charge of the home farm. Mr. and Mrs. Hawley have two children, Joyce Josephine Hawley, born in 1904; and James T. Hawley, born in 1910.
CALEB EVERTS. Probably no man has ever been more deeply mourned by his fellow citizens than has the late Caleb Everts, who lived in Oak- land county, on the farm where he died, for over thirty-nine years. He was a man possessed of keen business sense and scarcely knew what failure meant, but his success was not the result of happy circumstances or a chance stroke of good luck, but of hard work and a brain kept clear and active by temperate habits and constant use. His farm and home- stead were among the finest in the county, and it was his pride that this was all the work of his hands. His influence was scarcely realized until after his death, and then people discovered how they had depended on the keen vision of his eyes, long accustomed to judging his fellows, and how great a gap was left by his death. Such a man as this, who is not widely known outside of his own section, perhaps, has, nevertheless, a tremendous opportunity for good, and when such a man dies the power of influence is brought home to us with an overwhelming force.
Pawlett, Rutland county, Vermont, was the birthplace of Caleb Everts, the date of his birth being the 15th of July, 1812. He was the son of Gilbert and Polly Everts, and when he was two or three years old his parents moved to Washington county, New York. There he grew from babyhood into boyhood, and in 1819, they again moved, this time to Monroe county in the same state. There the boy became a man, and there occurred the death of both of his parents, his father dying in 1827 and his mother in 1833. Caleb was the eldest of the seven children of his parents and in his youth there was consequently little time for either study or play. Being only fifteen when his father died, it yet devolved upon him to help in the support of the family, and he consequently went to work by the month. In this way he earned enough to feed and clothe his brothers and sisters until they were able to sup- port themselves. It was 1836 before he was free to consider his own future, and in that year he came to Michigan. It was the fall of the year when he arrived and in the winter he returned to New York state for an
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important event, which was no less than his marriage to Harriet Mid- dleton, who was a native of Monroe county, New York, her birth having occurred at Greece, in that county, on the 21st of April, 1817. The mar- riage took place on December 11, 1836.
In the spring of the following year Caleb Everts and his bride came back to Michigan, but remained only a short time, returning to the old home in New York, where they remained for the next three years. In the fall of 1841, Mr. Everts made his final migration and settled in Oakland county, where he bought the place on which he lived until his death. In the fall of the following year, after he had become convinced that he wished to settle in this section, he brought his family, which at this time consisted of his wife and two children. Bending all his efforts towards making his farm a model one, he rapidly advanced in prosper- ity, and in 1856 was enabled to build the handsome home in which his son Caleb resides at present. This was at the time considered one of the finest in the county, and is still able to hold its own with many newer and and more expensive dwellings. As his wealth grew he was able to invest in more land and owned nearly twelve hundred acres before he died. Before his death he gave each of his seven children ten thousand dollars and still left a fine estate, which proves that he was a business man of unusual ability.
Mr. and Mrs. Everts became the parents of seven children, three of whom are now living. William T .; Gilbert, who died in childhood ; Gilbert T., who became a highly respected farmer in Oakland county, and died at the age of sixty-four ; Angenette married Charles House and and died in Highland township at the age of fifty-seven; Caleb owns the old homestead, two miles west of Rose center ; Eugene died when he was only thirty, in Shiawassee county; and Harriet M. is the wife of Ross Pickett, of Rose Corners. The mother of this family died on the 8th of October, 1878, as the result of an accident.
Caleb Everts was a staunch Democrat all of his life, and was almost a life-long reader of the "Free Press." The place which he occupied in the hearts of his fellowmen was shown at the time of his funeral, when one hundred and sixty carriages followed his body to its last resting place in the "Bebie Burying Ground." The funeral services were con- ducted by an old friend and schoolmate of his own children, Elder E. E. Caster, who had been closely connected with the sorrows of the Everts family, for he had been requested by Mrs. Everts some fifteen years before her death to take charge of her funeral and he had also delivered the address at the funeral of Mrs. William T. Everts. The death of Caleb Everts occurred on February 15, 1880, but his personality remains as vivid in the minds of his old friends as though it were but yesterday.
WILLIAM T. EVERTS. Highly respected among the citizens of Oak- land ·county is W. T. Everts, where he has lived for many years, and where as a farmer he has won considerable material prosperity. Genial by nature, of a kindly and generous disposition, he has won the friend- ship of all with whom he has come in contact, and through his years spent as proprietor of various hotels this list is a very large one. He has been engaged in various lines of business, and in each of these has proved himself to be possessed of business acumen and, what is more to be admired, of the strictest integrity. Though the years have piled up
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behind him to quite a height, he is still active and interested in the affairs of the busy world about him.
New York state may claim W. T. Everts as one of her sons, for he was born on the 24th of September, 1837, in Monroe county in that state. He was the eldest son of Caleb Everts, who held an important position in the affairs of Oakland county until his death.
When W. T. Everts started out for himself in life, he tried his hand at various things, among these being lumbering, at which he made quite a bit of money as a jobber. However, an unsuccessful venture in the same line of business caused this small fortune to vanish. In 1860 came the event of his marriage to Ellen Powers, the day of the ceremony being the 25th of March. His wife was the daughter of James and Mary Powers, both of whom were born in Ireland. In 1834 they came to the United States, and in 184I removed to Michigan, coming to Rose town- ship in Oakland county in 1843. Here on the farm where W. T. Everts now lives Ellen Powers grew to womanhood.
In 1884 Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Everts came to live at the Powers home in order to care for her mother, who was well along in years. It was during this year that Mr. Everts built the house in which he lives at present. Mrs. Powers died in 1888, and, relieved of the responsibility of her care, Mr. Everts went to Shiawassee county, where he engaged in farming for a time. Then returning once more to the Powers home- stead, he farmed here until he became the proprietor of the Everts House in Fenton. This was a new field of endeavor for him, but deter- mining to make a success he threw himself into the work of getting the hotel into smooth running order, and soon it was earning money for him. He remained here for three years, and then became proprietor of the hotel in Flint, Michigan, which he operated for about a year, going thence to a hotel in Grand Rapids, where he remained for upwards of three years. "The Old Souther," which was at one time a well known hotel in Pontiac, Michigan, next came in for a share of his attention, and he remained in charge of this house for about two years and a half.
After this long experience in the hotel business he was ready for the quiet of farm life again, and it was with something of a sigh of relief that he found himself once more back on the old farm. This change in his life took place in 1903, and since this time he has lived quietly on the farm, which is located two miles south of his father's old home- stead in Rose township. While not large in extent, it is fertile and is well cared for, so that the best results are obtained. Mrs. Everts was overjoyed to return to her childhood home, and here she died on the 16th of February, 1911, having almost reached the age of seventy-four years.
Mr. and Mrs. Everts, having no children of their own, adopted a son, who was everything that a son could have been, and who has come to live at the old farm since the death of Mrs. Everts. This son, Charles Everts, married Libbie Gordan and they became the parents of one daughter, Marie. The latter married Leo Tinsman, who is employed in Barrett's factory, at Holly, Michigan. They have an infant son, Charles Seeley Tinsman.
Striking proof of the popularity of Mr. Everts and his wife was had on the twenty-fifth anniversary of their marriage, when they were surprised by over two hundred of their friends who took possession of the house for the evening and gave the honored couple an entertainment
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worth remembering. Supreme court Justice Waite, of Fenton, Michi- gan, remarried them, and the expressions of friendship and affection were so sincere and unaffected that Mr. Everts looks back on the occa- sion as one of the most memorable in his whole life. Taking his life as a whole, "Grover Cleveland," as he is called by his friends, on account of the striking resemblance between Mr. Everts and our late ex-presi- dent, considers that he has had much more happiness than sorrow, and this happy optimistic view of life draws closer than ever his circle of friends.
SAMUEL J. SERRELL. The late Samuel J. Serrell was a man who was long and favorably known in Oakland county, in which he located in the late sixties, and where he passed the remainder of his life, engaged in farming. operations and in surveying, which was his rightful trade or profession. He was a man of excellent traits and occupied a high place in the esteem of his fellow townsfolk throughout his life time. He won to himself a goodly estate as the result of his well directed efforts along those lines of industry which he felt himself most fitted to pursue, and when he died on September 8, 1908, left not only the heritage of a good name, which is in itself above price, but considerable material wealth as well.
Samuel J. Serrell was born in New York state on December 8, 1845, and was the son of John J. and Mary E. Serrell. He was reared in his native state and there educated and when he was twenty years of age came to Michigan in the year 1865. In 1867 he located in Saginaw, and soon thereafter he made his way to Oakland county, where he turned his attention to farming. He secured a tract of one hundred and forty- four acres of land in Avon township, lying in section thirty-three, get- ing his deed to the land from the government, which bears the signa- ture of President Andrew Johnson. The original deed is now in the possession of his son, Harry J., of whom more extended mention is made on other pages of this historical and biographical work. His life thereafter was divided between his farming operations and his surveying interests.
In 1866 Mr. Serrell married Miss Adie E. Murline, a native daugh- ter of Michigan, and they became the parents of two children; Harry J. Mrs. Serrell died when her son was eight years of age, and in later years the father married Miss Dorothea Palmer, who yet survives her husband and makes her home in Pontiac. Two children were born of this second union, both of whom died in infancy.
FRANK S. KELLER. Public-spirited and enterprising, Frank S. Keller is known as one who has ever been useful in his community and an able assistant in developing its highest interests. He has filled various offices of trust, at the present writing, in 1912, being postmaster at Highland and one of the leading merchants of the village. A native of Buffalo, New York, he was born July 19, 1869, a son of Jacob and Catherine Keller.
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