History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 36

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 553

USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories > Part 36

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

149

SVANINGEN-SNYDER

MRS. SALLY PRICE.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM PRICE.

The subject of the present sketch, Captain William Price, is one of the prom- inent citizens of Avon township. He was a son of Philip and Ann Maria Price, of Frederick county, Maryland, where he was born March 17, 1801, and was a nephew of Hon. Peter Price, of Monroe county, New York. When he was a child, his parents emigrated from Maryland to the town of Rush, Monroe county, New York, where he resided until 1824, when he removed to Michigan, and located in the town of Washington, Macomb county, where he purchased of the government one hundred and sixty acres of wild land, and shortly afterwards his father came with his family and settled near him, and where they remained until his father's death.

On the 6th of May, 1827, Captain Price was united in marriage to Miss Sally Axford, and in 1830 he traded his Macomb farm for the northwest quarter of section 12, township of Avon, and afterwards sold it and purchased the farm on which his widow now resides, and on which he resided until his death, which occurred December 17, 1851. Captain Price was a miller by trade, and ground the first superfine flour ever made in Oakland County, and acquired a thorough business training.

In politics he was a Democrat, and was the third supervisor of the township of Oakland, when that municipality contained within its limits the present town- ships of Oakland, Avon, Addison, Orion, and Oxford. He served also as super- visor several terms. He was a captain of the Michigan militia, and received his commission from Governor Cass.

Mrs. Price was the daughter of Hon. Samuel Axford, who was one of the early settlers of Michigan, settling in Oakland County in 1822. Mr. Axford was conspicuous in the early political history of the State, being a member of the legislature a number of terms, a member of the convention of 1836 at Ann Arbor to take action on the congressional terms of admission of the State into the Union, and also one of the associate justices of the circuit court. Mrs. Price was the oldest of thirteen children. There were five children who were the fruits of her marriage, four of whom are now living, viz., Maria Louisa, Rachel A., Oscar A., and Axford Nelson, all living near the old homestead, ex- cept Maria L., who resides in the town of Rush, Monroe county, New York. Mrs. Price is a lady of rare intelligence and kindly disposition, and is most highly esteemed by all who have the pleasure of her acquaintance.

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

LINUS CONE .*

Linus Cone, the subject of this sketch, was born in the township of Haddam, Connecticut, October 12, 1802. At an early age he emigrated with his father's family to Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York. Young Cone, at the age of seventeen, with a trusty rifle, and pack on his back containing a scanty wardrobe, and an axe, started alone and on foot for Kettle Creek, Canada West, where he arrived, after a long, weary journey, foot-sore and nearly exhausted, but not discouraged, March, 1819.

An incident occurred while he was journeying in Canada worthy of mention, * as showing the courage, energy, and determined purpose of young Cone. Stop- ping at a house where travelers were occasionally entertained, he obtained per- mission to remain overnight. Upon unlashing his pack and placing it upon the floor, it came down with a thud, indicating that it contained something more than wearing apparel. The house, whether true or false, had a very questionable reputation,-it being said that many a wayfarer had been known to stop over there for the night, but few, however, had been known to leave. The men were uncouth and scoundrelly looking enough to excite the distrust of the boy Cone, and did arouse it when they picked up his pack and plainly exhibited pleasure at the weighty contents,-supposing no doubt it contained coin, as that in those days constituted the principal circulating medium of the people. They asked to see his rifle,-reaching for it,-which he had purposely and firmly held in his grasp, when he seized his pack and hurriedly left the house, followed by two men, who made forcible demonstrations to retard his progress.

Deliberately raising the rifle to his face, cocking it and facing them, he bade them stand where they were or he would shoot them down in their tracks, and

LINUS CONE.

began walking backward until he was out of gun-shot, while they remained as commanded.

It was near evening, a dense forest before him, being about twelve miles without a habitation. He determined to go on, which he did, arriving late at night; but in relating it to the writer he said he kept a good lookout the whole of the way, with his trusty rifle cocked, ready for firing if he should be ambushed or attacked.

Upon arriving at his destination he engaged to work for a year for Colonel Bostwick, an ex-officer of the British army, on Talbot street, near the mouth of Kettle creek.

Young Cone did not find in the family of Colonel Bostwick that attention and care for the inner man which characterized those with whom he had engaged in the States; he therefore left his employ, and engaged in making brick at St. Thomas during the following summer, and in the fall of 1821 came to Michigan, being engaged to work for Judge Sprague, of Avon, and others; and in 1824 bought the east half of the southeast quarter of section 29, in town 2 north of range 11 east, in what is now the township of Troy, then known as Bloomfield. In September, 1825, he returned to Bloomfield, New York, returning to Michigan by water from Buffalo, in April, 1826, on the " Henry Clay ;" the same year ex- changed that land with James Hall for the east half of the southwest quarter of section 33, in town 3 north of range 11 east, in what is now the township of Avon, at that date called Oakland, and commenced immediately to erect thereon a log house and frame barn (the latter being among the first erected in all that section of country), where he resided until his death, October 12, 1875:

The subject of this sketch married Mary, daughter of David and Eunice Crooks, and sister to Riley, the early pioneer of section 20, August 12, 1827. This union was blessed with the issue of three sons : Frederick was born January, 1828; Riley, the second son, February, 1829 ; and Lorenzo, the third son, April, 1836; all of whom are still living,-Frederick on the homestead, Riley near Utica, and Lorenzo on lands subsequently bought, near the old homestead.

Mary Crooks was born in Richmond, Ontario county, New York, May 11, 1807, and emigrated to Michigan with her mother and brother, and settled with them on section 20, town 2 north of range 11 east, in 1822. In the spring of 1825 Miss Crooks returned with William Poppleton, her brother-in-law, to Richmond, her former home, and in November of the same year returned with him and his family to Michigan, arriving late in December of that year. Miss Crooks walked nearly the whole distance from Richmond, New York, to her brother's in Michi- gan, accompanying Mr. Poppleton, who moved here through Canada, by team and a covered emigrant-wagon, and heavily loaded, being thirty-two days on the way. What would our dames of the present day, who deem themselves of mar- riageable age and experience, do if the necessities or circumstances of their situa- tions required them to undertake such a journey at so unpropitious a season of the year ?

Such, however, were the young women of those days. By their education and experience they were fitted to endure the hardships and privations incident to the settlement of a new country, and have done their full share towards reclaim- ing the wilderness, which is now dotted over with highly-cultivated. farms and substantial, elegant buildings, with fields as fair to look upon as the rose-bush in full bloom.

Mary, or Aunt Polly, as she is more familiarly called, still survives, and resides upon the old homestead; venerable in years, a worthy helpmate to her worthy husband, resting upon her well-earned reputation of " well done, good and faith- ful housewife" and companion of an early pioneer.

Aunt Polly had more than a neighborhood reputation for the excellent table which she always provided, and particularly the doughnuts, which she excelled in. Here, upon lands which he occupied for fifty years, Mr. Cone commenced, with axe in hand, to carve out of the dense forest a home, a name; to stamp his in- delible impress upon his surroundings, the times, and the people with whom he lived ; upon the farming interests, literature, and sciences of his time; and faith- fully and well did he do it, as the many articles contributed to the agricultural press of the country will attest.

He was president of the Oakland County Agricultural Society at one time, serving on many of the important committees of the county and State, and giving tone and character to these societies in their early infancy.

Mr. Cone was a self-made man, having acquired but a limited education in his early youth. Later in life, he, by after-study, acquired a liberal education, unaided and untaught, by his individual effort and perseverance, which enabled him to write and compose with ease. His was a vigorous pen, not turning to the right nor to the left, but going direct to the subject-matter in hand, sparing nothing which he deemed contrary to the best teachings of nature, of unpracticed things or practices, but com- mending those which had been tried by practical experience. He took pleasure in communicating his experience to his contemporaries in agricultural pursuits. Rarely has a life been more unselfishly devoted to a purpose than his.

In politics Mr. Cone took but little interest, acting upon a sense of propriety, justice, and what he deemed the best interests of his country. He was inde- pendent and liberal in his views, though in the last few years of his life he gave his support to many or most of the candidates of the Democratic nominating conventions.

In religion he was also independent, acting and thinking for himself, though very conscientious and exact, scrupulously honest, " doing to others as he would have others do unto him."

JOHN MARTIN WILCOX

was born September 12, 1819, in the town of Bristol, Ontario county, New York. His father was a native of the town of East Bloomfield, in the same county. In 1832 the latter emigrated to Michigan with his wife and four children,-two sons and two daughters,-and settled upon the place now owned by J. M. Wilcox, sec- tion 14. He was induced to locate here from the fact that a considerable number of people of his native town had settled in the same vicinity. He purchased the land from second hands, but made the first improvements upon it himself. His wife, Keziah (Hopkins) Wilcox, was born September 30, 1795. Her father, Pitt Hopkins, removed from the State of Massachusetts at a very early period, and settled in the town of East Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, where she was born. On the 10th of December, 1818, she was married to John Wilcox, the issue of the marriage being the four children brought to Michigan by them

* Contributed by 0. Poppleton, Birmingham, Michigan.

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

in 1832. Mr. Wilcox died in 1839, and on the 18th day of November, 1841, his widow was married to John Bennett. She died January 14, 1871, after an eventful life of nearly seventy-six years.

J. M. Wilcox was married November 22, 1849, to Maria A. Bennett, a native of Washington township, Macomb county, Michigan, where she was born April 27, 1831. The fruits of this marriage have been a family of thirteen children, of whom ten are now living,-eight sons and two daughters. The children are as follows :

OBED, born May 26, 1851.

NEWELL, born June 15, 1853. SUSAN, born June 12, 1855; died January 21, 1856. HARRY, born January 28, 1857.

FABIUS, born October 1, 1859.

NAOMI, born January 20, 1862. WILLARD, born January 16, 1864.

FRED, born February 18, 1866. ROBERT, born June 1, 1868.

CLARENCE JAMES and CHARLES AUGUSTUS, twins, born June 2, 1871 ; Clarence died November 12, 1871.

BESSIE ANN, born November 15, 1873. An infant, still-born, May 7, 1877.

Mr. Wilcox is the owner of one hundred and seventy acres of land in the town- ship. The farm upon which he resides is finely improved.

In politics he is a firm Republican. He and his wife are both members of the Congregationalist church at Rochester, with which organization Mr. Wilcox united about 1838-39, and his wife some years later. Mr. W. has always worked princi- pally at farming, and it can truly be said that he has been eminently successful in the business, as his present surroundings will show.

EDMUND L. GOFF.

The ancestry of the Goff family in the United States dates back to the days after the deposition of Richard Cromwell from the throne of England, and the res- toration of the Stuarts. William Goff, who was one of the judges that condemned Charles the First to death, was the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His eventful history in New England is familiar to all students of history, and the narration of the experience of the judges in what has since been known as the " Regicides' cave" is a matter almost as well known as the " nursery tales" of childhood.

Guernsey Goff, the father of Edmund L., was born November 13, 1766, in Haddam, Connecticut. In 1804 he removed to the town of Rush, Monroe county, New York, making the journey the entire distance with a team. He was accompanied by his wife and seven children. What is now Rush was then called Hartford, the latter having been formed in 1789 and Rush organized in 1818 .* Guernsey Goff was known throughout western New York as the " blind cooper." He was stricken with blindness while living in Connecticut, about the year 1793, and afterwards learned the cooper's trade. He made all kinds of cooper-work, besides pocket-knives, jewsharps, and other trinkets. Specimens of his work are preserved in Grand Blanc, Genesee county, Michigan, and in Orleans county (near Albion), New York. By strict economy and indomitable perseverance Mr. Goff accumulated considerable property. He was a member of the Baptist church for more than fifty years, and the text chosen by the minister for his funeral sermon was most appropriate : " He was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost."-Acts xi. 24. His death occurred August 6, 1835, and he was buried near the village of East Rush. His wife, Asenath Brainerd Goff, was born September 20, 1772, in Middletown, Connecti- cut. She was also a member of the Baptist church, and a most worthy and ex- emplary Christian woman. She died July 15, 1825, in the town of Rush, Monroe county, New York.

Comfort Goff, father of Guernsey Goff, was born in the State of Rhode Island in 1736. He was a soldier during the French and Indian war of 1753-64, and also served in the Revolution. Three of his sons, Charles, Squire, and Comfort, were also soldiers during the Revolutionary war. All these persons removed to Rush, Monroe county, New York, where Comfort Goff, Sr., died in 1814, at the age of seventy-eight.

Charles Goff, father of Comfort Goff, Sr., was a native of Wales, and came to Rhode Island about 1700. His father, Judge William Goff, was born in Eng- land in 1607, and died at New Haven, Connecticut, about 1678. He was of Puritan stock, and was a judge during the reign of Cromwell. His part in the condemnation of King Charles I. has been mentioned.

Edmund L. Goff, the subject of our sketch, was born in Rush, Monroe county, New York, January 6, 1817. In 1838 he came to Michigan, and located near Flint, Genesee county, where he engaged in the fur business. In June, 1839, he returned to New York, and after selling his land in Rush, removed to Michi- gan for a permanent residence in October following. During the winter of 1839-40 he taught school in the town of Grand Blanc, Genesee county, and in February, 1840, purchased land of Philander Pendleton, in Shelby, Macomb county, to which he removed. He taught school several terms in that locality,

and on the 31st of March, 1844, was married to Miss Lucy Bellows, a native of Avon township, Oakland County, where she was born May 8, 1823, being the second daughter and fourth child of Ezra and Anna Bellows. Hers was among the earlier births in Oakland County. The marriage of Mr. Goff and Miss Bellows was solemnized by Rev. A. H. Curtis.

Mrs. Goff's father, Ezra Bellows, was born at Bellows Falls, Vermont, March 22, 1786, and about 1817 removed to Covington, Genesee county, New York, where he resided until 1822, when he emigrated to Michigan, coming to Buffalo by team, thence to Detroit on a schooner, and landing at the latter place on the first day of June. Pushing on to Oakland County, he stopped a few months in Pontiac township, near Galloway lake, and from there removed to Washington, Macomb county, where he remained until March, 1823, when he made a location on the northeast quarter of section 12, in what is now Avon township, Oakland County. In March, 1830, he again changed his place of abode, and settled on section 1, in the town of Shelby, Macomb county, where he passed the remainder of his days. He died March 18, 1862. His wife, Anna Gibbs Bellows, was born near Three Rivers, Lower Canada, August 1, 1792, and, in 1803, went to live with her brother in the State of Vermont, where she was married. She is now living near Rockford, Kent county, Michigan, and has reached the advanced age of eighty-five years.

After his marriage Mr. Goff sold his farm in Macomb county to Jedediah Millerd, of Stony Creek, Oakland County, and in April, 1852, removed to Avon township, where he now resides. The farm he is living upon he purchased of Seneca Newberry, of Rochester, December 13, 1852, and is the southeast quarter of section 12. Mr. Goff, since coming to this place, has been farming and dealing in money. (See township history for notice of old distillery.)

Mr. and Mrs. Goff are the parents of seven children, as follows :

CELIA ANN, born in Shelby, Macomb county, January 9, 1845.

GUSTAVUS, born in Shelby, Macomb county, November 17, 1846; was a member of Company H, Tenth Michigan Infantry, and died in the army July 5, 1862.

GILBERT, born in Shelby, January 31, 1849.

CHARLOTTE V., born in Shelby, October 16, 1851.

ELLEN E., born in Avon, March 20, 1855.

EVA A., born in Avon, January 7, 1859.

LEWIS B., born in Avon, July 10, 1861.

JOHN M. NORTON.

Prominent among the sturdy yeomanry of Oakland County is found the sub- ject of this sketch, John M. Norton, who was born in the town of Richmond, Ontario county, State of New York, May 5, 1820, and removed with his parents, in 1824, to Michigan. His father, John Norton, was a native of Massachusetts, and a Free-Will Baptist minister by profession and practice. His mother, also a native of Massachusetts, was, in her girlhood, Naomi Short. The parents located in the spring of 1824, in the township of Oakland, on one hundred and sixty acres in section 25, and erected a house on the same, which is now owned by Mrs. Townsend. The father was extensively identified with the early settlement of the township, and died universally respected, in June, 1832. John was thus, at the tender age of twelve years, thrown wholly upon his own resources, his mother having died when he was but five years old. From the date of his father's death till he was twenty-seven years old, as boy and man, he wrought as a farm laborer. At the last date (October 6, 1847), he was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Hazen, whose nativity was the same as his own, though she was ten years his junior, being born January 22, 1830. Shortly after his marriage Mr. Norton removed to the township of De Witt, in Clinton county, where he remained, however, but one summer, when he sold out his purchase of one hundred and sixty acres and returned to Oakland County, and purchased a farm in the township of Novi, whereon he remained for eight years, when he disposed of the same, and removed into the township of Avon. From Avon he removed to the township of Troy, where he purchased an excellent farm of one hundred and seventy-three acres, but which, in 1865, he disposed of, and returning to Avon, purchased one hun- dred and sixty-seven acres, on which he now resides, and to which he subsequently added forty acres. He has improved it, until at the present writing it is one of

# See History of Monroe County, New York.

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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

the best of the many most excellent homesteads in the township. A view of the fine residence, and portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Norton, adorn another page of our work.

Five children-four sons and one daughter-have blessed the home of Mr. and Mrs. Norton : Alvira, born December, 1849; William H., born April 11, 1852 ; John T., September 15, 1855 ; Clarence S., December 20, 1859 ; and Grant, Sep- tember 20, 1869. Mr. Norton has been identified with the Republican party in his political affiliations since its organization. He has filled acceptably to the people the office of under-sheriff of Oakland County six years, town collector three years, and other positions of less note.

He is orthodox in his religious views and sentiments. He is a most systematic farmer, and, per consequence, a highly successful one, and is in his personal char- acteristics benevolent and affable, and is one to whom the needy never apply in vain for relief.

JOHN KINNEY.

Among the pioneers of Avon township, the memory of John Kinney will remain ever fresh and fragrant. A courteous Christian gentleman, in the broadest acceptation of the term,

"None knew him but to love him, None named him but to praise."

He was a native of the town of Oxford, Warren county, New Jersey, being born January 5, 1811, and was the youngest in a family of seven children, all of whom are now deceased. He received a good common-school education in his native town, and in 1833 was united in marriage to Miss Eliza S. McCracken, of his native State, and daughter of the late John McCracken, of Macon county, Michigan. Shortly after their marriage, the young couple bought a farm in their native town, whereon they remained until 1837, when they came to Michigan to hew out for themselves a home amid the charming lakes of Oakland. They made the journey with their own conveyance to Buffalo, thence by lake to Detroit, from which latter point they drove again to Avon township their own team. On his arrival, Mr. Kinney purchased one hundred and eighty-six acres on section 25, upon which farm he resided the remainder of his earthly career. This homestead (a view of which, together with portraits of its master and mis- tress, we present to our readers on another page of our work) well attests the industry of its proprietor, as no better or more highly cultivated one can be found in the county. The worthy pair of whom we write by frugality and industry accumulated a goodly store of worldly wealth, insomuch that later in life they were independent of hard labor and anxiety touching the future " rainy days." This competency was enjoyed not only by those who had gained it, but by all who were so fortunate as to be numbered among their numerous and frequent guests. In politics Mr. Kinney was a Jacksonian Democrat, and was called upon by his fellow-townsmen to fill many positions of trust in their gift. He united in his youth with the Methodist Episcopal church, and his whole life adorned the

profession of his boyhood. He fell asleep in the full expectancy of the realiza- tion of his hopes, January 9, 1877.

Mrs. Kinney was born December 6, 1812, and received what was considered in those days a good education, and, although now in her sixty-sixth year, retains her mental vigor and bodily health in a marked degree of superiority. She is a genial and affable lady, and pleasing conversationalist.

ALBERT TERRY.

Among the estimable citizens of Oakland County none rank higher than does Albert Terry. His father's family were natives of Berkshire county, Massa- chusetts, from whence they emigrated to Livingston county, New York, in the early part of the nineteenth century. The subject of our sketch was the eldest of a family of fourteen children, equally divided between the two sexes. He was born in Lima, Livingston county, New York, September 10, 1817, where he received a good common-school education, and taught school for a time previous to his majority. When he arrived at that important period of a young man's life (Octo- ber, 1838) he came to Michigan, with no means of moment, and spent three months in Macomb county, and then returned to New York, and in April follow- ing (1839) with his father's family came back to Michigan and purchased the northeast quarter of section 33, in the township of Avon, on which he now resides. In October, 1839, he returned to New York and brought from thence to his western home an estimable lady as his wife, Miss Delia Lathrop. To his first purchase Mr. Terry subsequently added one hundred and thirty-two acres, his farm now comprising one hundred and ninety-two acres, and is one of the best farms in the township. From a wild, unbroken tract he has brought it up to a most excellently tilled and cultivated farm.

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History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 36

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co. Number of Pages: 553

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 553