USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume II > Part 5
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Daniel Pealer was an extensive farmer and stock raiser, and owned and operated 1,400 acres of land. He was a man of good business judgment and executive ability and at his death left a large estate. George Pealer's mother was a member of a German family and his father's ancestors were from the "Schwartz Wald," or Black Forest of Germany. Rebecca Hampton was a daughter of William and Rosanna (Hopkins) Hampton, and her grandfather, Caleb Hopkins, was a man of superior gifts and education. He was the founder and first rector of the Episcopal church of Blooms- burg, Pennsylvania, where he served in that capacity many years, and when a young man served for a time as an officer in the Revolu- tionary war; he afterwards became rector of the Episcopal church at Angelica, New York. His brother, Usual, was a contractor, and at one time senator in Pennsylvania.
George Pealer was born August 22, 1818, in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, and was a farmer and lumberman by occupation. He was a Methodist in church relations. He was an ardent Whig and late a very strong Republican, and served in local offices among them as director of the school board. Rebecca Hampton was born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1819, and was reared in Angelica, New York, where she received a superior education and became a teacher. Later she taught in Pennsylvania, and at one time boarded in the family of Daniel Pealer, where she became ac- quainted with her future husband.
The boyhood of Russel R. Pealer was spent on his father's farm, and he has always taken an interest in agricultural matters. He studied at home and in the public schools until seventeen years of age, and then entered New Columbia Normal School in Luzerne county, and afterwards the Orangeville Normal in Columbia
Such Peuler
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R. R. Teater
RESIDENCE OF JUDGE R. R. PEALER THREE RIVERS, MICHIGAN
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county. He often walked five miles to and from school and boarded himself and paid his own expenses most of the time. Mr. Pealer was warmly encouraged by his mother in his efforts to secure a good education, and had a natural fondness for learning, so he read and studied as opportunity afforded, working on the farm during the summer vacations, teaching through the winter, and attending the Normal in the spring and fall terms. He was attending school at the time of the Second Battle of Bull Run, and went to Washington and volunteered to help take care of the wounded. On September 9, 1862, he enlisted for three years as private in Company E, Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and served until August 11, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. He was promoted from time to time through the grades of non- commissioned officers, to sergeant-major of the regiment, for "meritorious conduct." Later he was commissioned second and then first lieutenant of Company E, and acted as adjutant of the regiment and served on the staff of the commander of the regi- ment and brigade and at times commanded a company as well as sometimes a squadron, and was assigned temporarily to command the Second Pennsylvania Cavalry at the Battle of Reams Station, Virginia. He was wounded while leading companies E and I in the Battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia, being carried from the field on a stretcher, and removed a distance of 600 miles to his home on this stretcher. The ball was extracted in Baltimore, and he then proceeded to his father's house in central Pennsylvania, where he was cared for by his mother, until able to return on crutches to his regiment (then near Farmville, Virginia). He participated in thirty-five battles and engagements, taking part in the Chancellors- ville and Gettysburg campaigns and was at Shepardstown, Cul- peper, Mine Run, Sulphur Springs, through all the Wilderness campaign, at Todd's Tavern, North Anna, Haws Shop, Cold Harbor, in several engagements on the right and left banks of the James river, at Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Boynton, Plank Road and Hatcher's Run. His service gave him many exciting experiences and he is justly proud of his soldier record.
While confined to his bed by his wound he improved the time by studying civil engineering, and after the war he spent some time in surveying, in order to help defray the expenses of his legal education, which he immediately set about acquiring.
At the time of enlisting Mr. Pealer had decided to enter Albany Law School in New York, but the call of his country proved too strong for him to resist, with the result as we have seen. He
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began reading law at Lynchburg, Virginia, and entered the law office of Robert F. Clark, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, September 3, 1865, and was admitted to the bar in that city September 3, 1866, and soon removed to Three Rivers, Michigan, where he entered upon the active practice of his profession November 12, 1867. He had to win his success by patient and earnest endeavor, as for the first four months of his professional career he received $4 and for the first year only $190, while his office rent was $100; however, the second year his cash receipts were $1,551.75 and from that time on he continued to prosper acquiring a large and lucrative practice. He was elected circuit court commissioner and later prosecuting attorney for the county of St. Joseph. It was during his term a grand jury was last called out, thirty-three indictments were returned and three trials followed, and the others all pleaded guilty, and about $1,800 in fines and costs were collected in one term and he was considered an industrious officer throughout. Mr. Pealer served six years, from January 1, 1882, until January 1, 1888, as Circuit Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and the records at Centerville and Coldwater show him to have been prompt and most fair in his decisions, and to have possessed a thorough knowledge and understanding of his profession. Further honor was shown him by the resolution spread upon the court records in February 1888.
"Whereas, The Hon. Russel R. Pealer, Judge of this Judicial Circuit, is about to retire from the Bench and resume the practice of his profession : Now therefore,
"Resolved, By the Branch County Bar Association, that in all his associations during the past six years with the members of this Bar, whether on or off the Bench, he has been uniformly courteous in his demeanor toward us and a true gentleman in all his rela- tions and that we will cherish his memory with pleasure and grati- tude. Presiding with dignity, he was never caustic nor overbear- ing, always giving a respectful hearing and consideration to the arguments of counsel, his decisions have merited and received our respect, even when against us. Zealous to guard public interests, he has pushed the business of the Court with untiring energy, but at the same time has carefully protected the rights and interests of litigants. An able and conscientious Judge, who has studiously kept himself in line of knowledge and before deciding has carefully investigated all questions coming before him. He has done credit to himself and honor to the Bench from which he is about to retire."
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He was afterwards chosen representative to the state legis- lature, as a Republican, in an adverse district. He served on judi- ciary and other committees in the session 1889 and took a leading part in the enactment of the Local Option law and in every other important measure of that term. Later he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for judge of the supreme court, and re- ceived the vote of every delegate from his county, judicial district and congressional district, as well as a large number of votes from other parts of the state. There were seven candidates and Mr. Pealer had second place, Judge Grant receiving the nomination. Mr. Pealer was generously supported for this nomination on two subsequent occasions. The delegation from his own county was in- structed for him for the Republican nomination for Congress in 1892.
Mr. Pealer was appointed by Governor Rich, one of the commis- sioners of the state on compilation of laws, and served in 1897. Governor Bliss appointed him a member of the State Pardon Board, on which he served three years, the last year being presi- dent of the board. It is a matter of pride with him that his father and grandfather were ardent Whigs and that at the inception of the Republican party, in the campaign of 1856 his father favored Fremont and in 1860 voted for Lincoln. He was a subscriber of the New York Tribune, edited by Horace Greeley, and it was from the pages of this paper that Russel Pealer gained his first ideas of political affairs. He cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864, in the open fields of Virginia while serving as a soldier. The votes were collected and returned to the states from which the soldiers were recruited. He has ever since been a stanch sup- porter of the principles and platform of the Republican party and has attended many district and State conventions and rendered valuable service in each campaign, and was chairman of the Re- publican County Committee in the Garfield campaign and made it a live one. Every local speaker was set at work and the last week of the campaign there were twenty-three meetings in the county on one evening.
Mr. Pealer has been a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public since 1868, and has held all the post and department offices. He has served as post commander, commander of the Department of Michigan, served several times as judge advocate of the depart- ment, and at present is Judge Advocate General of the G. A. R. of the United States. He was the first to move for a soldiers' and sailors' monument in Three Rivers and was chairman of the
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monument association, and did most to raise the money to build with, and presided at its dedication when the governor and ex- governors and many leading citizens were present, and Washing- ton Gardner delivered the address. He has been commander of the St. Joseph county soldiers' organizations at times. He is also a member of the Loyal Legion, which is composed of commissioned officers who served in the Civil war, and has had the honor of serving as commander of the Michigan commandery. He has at- tended most of the state and national encampments of the G. A. R. and upon his visit to Europe was given right of way to many places where he might not otherwise have been admitted, on account of his wearing his badge of the Loyal Legion. Among the interesting places he visited was the English House of Commons, and Peace Conference at The Hague. Mr. Pealer is also a member of the Masonic order and a Knight Templar. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since 1859, and has served as class leader, superintendent of the Sunday school, trustee and steward of the church, delegate to the annual conference and lay delegate from Michigan to the general conference held in New York in 1888.
Mr. Pealer was first married, December 25, 1868, to Sallie A. Stevens, the marriage taking place at New Columbus, Pennsyl- vania. She was a daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Fellows) Stevens, and her ancestors were farmers, of Connecticut stock. She died in September, 1874, leaving two daughters, Anna G. and Mary A. both born at Three Rivers, Michigan. Anna G. married George F. Knappen and they reside at Brookings, South Dakota. They have three bright boys, and Mr. Knappen is a banker. Mary A. married J. W. Breyfogle, a farmer of St. Joseph county, and they have two daughters and three sons. Both daughters were educated in the high school at Three Rivers and at Albion College, and were given every advantage. The grandchildren of Mr. Pealer have a large place in his affections and time, and are a con- stant source of joy to him.
Mr. Pealer married (second) Amanda Stevens, sister of his first wife, who died about a year and a half later. Afterwards he married (third) Sue F. Santee, a highly cultured and well educated lady, who has been a kind mother to his daughters and a good companion and home maker. She is a daughter of William Santee, who was a Methodist minister and strong supporter of David Wilmot, of the "Wilmot Proviso" fame, in whose congressional district Mr. Santee and his family resided. Mrs. Pealer is promi-
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nent in local women's clubs and is highly esteemed and admired for her many virtues of mind and heart.
Mr. Pealer owns a couple of well improved farms, on which he has erected fine buildings, and keeps good stock and raises pepper- mint among other crops. He also has a fine summer home at Bay View, near Petoskey, Michigan, where the family generally spend a few weeks during July and August of each year. He has been at times a trustee of the Bay View Association and has long been a liberal contributor in every good cause and has served as chair- man of the Home Coming and on many other public committees. He has made good investments in western lands, etc., and has often proven his business acumen. He was president of the First National Bank of Three Rivers, for six years and it was during his term that the First National took over the business of the Three Rivers National and was receiver of the First National Bank of White Pigeon and has many financial interests in the county. He has served very creditably in local, school and other affairs. He has always been engaged in the general practice of his profession, except during the time he spent in holding public office.
Mr. B. E. Andrews read law with Mr. Pealer and later be- came his partner, under the name of Pealer and Andrews. This place was later filled by Mr. Pealer's brother, W. O. Pealer, and the firm was known as Pealer Brothers about seven years. W. O. Pealer then engaged in practice in Duluth, Minnesota, and George E. Miller became associated with R. R. Pealer, under the name of R. R. Pealer and George E. Miller, Att'ys; these two gentlemen have been associated in business together for the last twenty years, and their relations have been mutually pleasant and profitable. They have had a good business in practicing in the U. S. Court, the supreme court and the circuit courts of the state.
Mr. Pealer greatly enjoys travel, and has visited Wales, Ger- many, Holland, Switzerland and France. He is highly esteemed by most who know him, and his legal ability has been widely recognized. He has a host of friends and is very well known throughout many parts of the state.
DANIEL M. EVELAND .- One of the venerable and highly es- teemed citizens of St. Joseph county is Daniel M. Eveland, who is now living virtually retired in the village of Mendon and who has been a resident of the county for more than a quarter of a century. For many years he was engaged in the paper business and since
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1885 he has been actively identified with business interests of Mendon.
Daniel M. Eveland was born in West Brunswick, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, on the 22nd of August, 1836, and is a son of Daniel and Susanna (Freyer) Eveland, both of whom were like- wise natives of the Old Keystone state, where the family was founded in the pioneer days. Daniel Eveland, who was a descend- ant, in a collateral line, of General Burgoyne, became one of the prominent and influential farmers of Schuylkill county, Penn- sylvania, where he continued to reside until his death, as did also his wife; both were members of the German Reformed church. He was a stanch Republican in his political allegiance and was called upon to serve in various positions of public trust in his home county. Of the children the eldest was Edward R., who was a member of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteer In- fantry, in the Civil war, and who sacrificed his life in a battle in the state of Virginia; Daniel M., the immediate subject of this sketch ; James S. was a member of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry and he is now a resident of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania; Lewis B. likewise gave valiant service as a soldier in the war of the Rebellion and was in Kansas City at the time of his death; Henry J., who also was a soldier in the Civil war, is a railroad en- gineer and resident in Allegan, Michigan; Sarah Ann, twin sister of Daniel H., died in infancy, as did also Elizabeth Hannah; Mary died at the age of five years and Maria C. is the widow of John C. Gallagher and resides in Pennsylvania; and Emma is the widow of Charles Penglase and she also resides in Pennsylvania.
Reared to maturity in his native county, Daniel M. Eveland received the advantages of the common schools, and continued as a resident of his native place until 1880, when he came to Michigan and established his home in Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo county, where he was engaged in the printing business about one year. He came to Mendon about twenty years ago and has been a resident here since.
Mr. Eveland was one of the gallant sons of the Republic who went forth in defense of the Union in the time of the Civil war. In 1864 he enlisted as a private in Company H, One Hundred Ninety-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, with which he served in the Fifth Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac, un- der General Warren. He participated in the various engagements in which his command was involved, including that of Pegran Farm, Virginia. He has ever retained a deep interest in his old
NW. Hutton
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
comrades of the Civil war and is now chaplain of the O. J. Fast Post, No. 193, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he served as commander for several years. He also held the office of colonel of the St. Joseph County Battalion and he has been prominently identified with various demonstrations of the Grand Army of the Republic in his county. He is affiliated with the Masonic frater- nity and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party.
On the 10th of March, 1859, Mr. Eveland was united in mar- riage to Miss Amanda R. Zuber, of Drehersville, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, where she was born and reared, being a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Zuber, who continued to reside in Drehers- ville until their death. Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Eveland the following brief record is entered: Elizabeth is the wife of John J. Firestone, who is engaged in the newspaper busi- ness in the city of Allegan, Michigan; Caroline died in childhood; Edward Everett died in Ohio at the age of eleven years; Florence Estelle is the wife of Lewis G. Clapp; and Theodore, who was the editor and publisher of the Mendon Leader, resides in Mendon.
HIRAM W. HUTTON was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, December 7, 1827, a son of Benjamin and a grandson of Levi Hut- ton, who came to this country from England. Benjamin Hutton married Beulah Harris, born and reared in Pennsylvania, a daugh- ter of Benjamin Harris, a soldier in General Washington's army. In 1847 Benjamin Hutton came with his family to St. Joseph county, Michigan, and here the parents spent the remainder of their lives and died. In their family were six sons and two daughters, including David F., Wesley and Hiram W. Hutton.
Hiram W. Hutton was a young man of nineteen years when he came with his parents to St. Joseph county. He had attended school in his native state of Pennsylvania, and he also taught there during one winter. After coming to St. Joseph county he worked by the month as a farm hand, remaining in one man's employ for three years for twelve dollars a month during the summers and ten dollars in the winter. He saved his money and was finally able to buy land of his own, owning now an estate of one hundred and twenty-nine acres in section 30, Constantine township, where he has lived since May of 1855. All of the improvements on his land have been placed there by him. Mr. Hutton married first on March 11, 1852, Emeline Voorheis, born in the state of New York but afterward a resident of Canada. Of their six children two died in infancy, and the four living are Homer F., Charles W., Catherine Vol. II-4
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E. and Hattie E. The younger daughter is a graduate of the Con- stantine High School, and also attended the state normal at Ypsi- lanti, and she is now teaching in the high school at Bozeman, Mon- tana. The mother of these children died in the fall of 1870, and Mr. Hutton married Sarah Bostock on the 4th of June, 1871. She was born in Yorkshire, England, August 19, 1845, and came with her parents to the United States in 1848. The family first located in Cass county, Michigan, but subsequently came to Mottville in St. Joseph county, where the daughter was reared. Three sons have been born of this union, Edgar C., Hiram M. and Royal C.
Mr. Hutton is a Republican voter, and he has attained a high rank in the local councils of the Masonic fraternity, a member of Siloam Lodge, No. 35, F. & A. M., of Constantine Chapter, No. 28, R. A. M., and of Three Rivers Commandery No. 62, K. T. Both he and his wife have attended the Mottville Methodist Episcopal church for many years, Mr. Hutton having been one of its most constant attendants and active workers since 1847. He has served this church as a class leader since 1854, has been twice a delegate to the annual conference, has been one of its efficient local minis- ters, and during the past fifty-three years has served as its Sunday- school superintendent. He has grown old in the service of his church, and is one of its best loved and most honored members. Mrs. Hutton has been a member of its Ladies' Aid Society for many years. They are revered and esteemed residents of Constan- tine township, where they have lived for many years, and they are honored for the upright, honest lives which they have lived.
ERWIN L. GODFREY, M. D., has been a resident of St. Joseph county from his childhood days to the present time and for nearly thirty-five years he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession in the village of Colon, where his personal popularity is on a parity with his recognized ability as one of the essentially representative physicians and surgeons of the county. He is an exemplar of the beneficent Homeopathic school of practice and the record of his professional career has been one marked by the most unequivocal success, as well as by unwavering devotion and abiding human sympathy. From the long period of his kindly and effective ministrations to the people of his section of the county it is needless to say that he holds a secure place in the affectionate regard of the community, the while he has ever ex- emplified the most loyal and progressive citizenship, taking part
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in all that has tended to advance the civic and material welfare of his home city and county.
Erwin L. Godfrey was born in Wyoming county, New York, on the 28th of September, 1852, and is the eldest child, only son and only survivor of the four children born to Dr. Luman Godfrey and Lydia (Warren) Godfrey, both of whom were born in Wyoming county, New York. Dr. Luman Godfrey was born about the year 1831 and now maintains his home in the village of Kentland, New- ton county, Indiana, where he is living virtually retired, after many years of earnest and successful labor as a physician and surgeon of fine ability. He came to the west in 1857 and for two or three years thereafter he was engaged in the practice of his profession in the state of Wisconsin. At the expiration of this period, in 1860, he came to St. Joseph county, Michigan, and established his home in the village of Colon, where he continued in the active work of his profession until 1876, when he removed to Kentland, Indiana, which place has since continued to be his home. He is well re- membered in St. Joseph county and during his residence here he held prestige as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of this section of the state. He has ever been an uncompromising advo- cate of the cause of temperance and has been a most zealous worker in behalf of the principles and policies of the Prohibition party. He is a zealous member of the Baptist church, as was also his cherished and devoted wife, and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Lydia (Warren) Godfrey was sum- moned to the life eternal in the year 1905 and her memory is re- vered by all who came within the sphere of her gentle and gracious influence. She was a woman of culture and most attractive per- sonality, and prior to her marriage had been a successful and popular teacher in the public schools.
Dr. Erwin L. Godfrey was a child of three years at the time of the family immigration from the old Empire state to the west, and was about eight years of age at the time the family home was established in the village of Colon, where he has resided during the long intervening years, which have been marked by large and worthy accomplishment on his part. He was afforded the ad- vantages of the public schools of Colon, as well as those of a busi- ness college in the city of Jackson. He has never lacked in de- cision, self-reliance and resourcefulness, and he early determined to fit himself for the work of the profession in which his honored father had gained such definite success. With this end in view, after having held a clerkship in a drug store in Colon for an in-
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