USA > Michigan > Ionia County > Memorials of the Grand River Valley > Part 55
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After the battle of Bull Run, he entered the service of the country, as Ist Lieutenant in the 2d Michigan Cavalry; spent the winter of 1861-2 in the Camp of Instruction at St. Louis, under Gen. Gordon Granger; was first under fire at New Madrid, Mo .; participated in the siege of Corinth->was under Sheridan.
July 1, 1862, in a fight at Brownsville, being in command of Company F, on picket when the attack was made, by persistent fighting, he gave time for preparations by the General, for which he was promoted to Captain. It is sufficient to say that for three years he was mingled with the fortunes of the army in Tennessee and Kentucky, serving under Sheridan and Rosen- crans; was promoted Major Oct. 26, 1862; accompanied Sherman to At- Janta, in command of his regiment. He was in the fight at Buzzard Roost: and opened the battle at Resaca; driving in the rebel pickets and outposts, and taking the first line of earth-works before the infantry came up. He was in
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the fight at Locust Mountain, and again at Powder Springs. He was com- missioned Colonel, Dec. 20, 1864, His commission as Colonel was given at the elose of his service as a compliment to a gallant officer,
Peace restored, Col. Scranton returned to Grand Rapids, where he has set - fled down to the business of carriage building. Still in his prime, long inay he live.
ALONZO SESSIONS.
For many facts concerning Mr. Sessions, the reader is referred to the history of Berlin.
From the earliest times he has been identified with the interests of Ionia
CROSSCUP&WEST FHILA.
Alonzo Sessions.
county. He had his origin in New York; born at Skaneateles, Ang. 4th. 1810: lived with his his father, with common advantages for personal improve- ment, until he was of age. At the age of 17 he commenced teaching, and for a number of years was a part of the time so employed. For a time he was clerk in a store at Bennington, Genesee county.
In October, 1835, he came to Michigan to reside. Mr. Sessions is a man
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of commanding presence, energetic, with strong convictions-a natural leader-one of those who will have decided friends, and whose go-ahead energy will provoke and secure opposition. His honor and integrity are, by those that dislike him, conceded to be beyond doubt. With a genial and social nature, and rare conversational powers, he is an agreeable companion and warm friend; perhaps not very valuable as an antagonist. His stern sense of honor, and unyielding self-respect have not always led him to steer elear of others' antagonism-but by his friends he is considered a friend worth possessing, and by those, who love him not, he is respected as "a foeman worthy of one's steel."
Soon it was found that Mr. S. was a man the public could make use of He was made Justice of the Peace in 1836, Supervisor of Cass, and chairman of the board in 1838, sheriff of the county in 1840. For seventeen years he was supervisor and eight times chairman of the board. He was in the State Legislature from 1856 to 1862. Internal Revenue Assessor 1862-four years. Director of First National Bank at Ionia; its President sinee 1866; Presi- dent of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company. Was Presidential Elector in 1872. At present (1877) he is Lieutenant-Governor of Michigan.
In 1837, he married Miss Celia Dexter, daughter of the pioneer of Ionia. He has seven living children, and has lost about as many.
AMASA SESSIONS.
Brother of the foregoing, now resident in Ionia, has been, in fortune and adventure, identified with him. As we have been unable to obtain the facts of his life-history, further than they are given in the history of Berlin, the reader is referred to what is there said of him.
CHARLES SHEPARD.
Dr. Shepard is one of the pioneer physicians of the Valley, being the third who established themselves as resident physicians. The first was the now venerable Lincoln of Ionia; the second, Willson, the too early dead. Dr. S. was born at Fairfield, Herkimer county, N. Y., July 18, 1812, in humble circumstances, and had but the common school chance for education. Ambitious, he went Amasa Sessions. to studying medicine with Dr. H. W. Doolittle. He attended lectures and took his degree at the Fairfield Medical College, March, 1835. In the fall of the same year, he came to Grand Rapids, then but a backwoods
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village. There was little to do, and he eked out an existence by surveyng. He and Willson soon after entered into partnership.
From this humble beginning he has grown with the growth of the region; has long been the leading physician, and has taken rank among the most prominent citi- zens. He has been more especially known as the surgeon, having performed most of the operations which are tests of surgical skill. Now he leaves the most of medical practice to those who need the business, and limits himself to his office.
Dr. S., for several years, was one of the City Fathers, and at one time, mayor.
In 1836, he married Miss Lucinda Putnam. He has had the great misfortune to lose his wife and five children-his all. His wife died in April, 1872.
CROSSCUP WEST.PHILA.
Charles Shepard.
Dr. Shepard is still alive. and will read this notice. Therefore, as he has taken a new lease of life, little will be said to characterize him. If the
wishes of the people could avail, he will live forever. But if he ever does die, there will be a rousing funeral.
ROBERT P. SINCLAIR.
This gentleman is of Irish pa- rentage; the family coming to America in 1811, and settling in Seneca county, N. Y., at a place now known as Sinclair's Landing, on Cayuga Lake. Here Mr. Sin- clair became an extensive land owner and dealer in grains, amass- ing a large fortune.
Robert. S. was born at Romulus, Oct. 17th, 1814. In his early life he had every advantage for ob- taining a finished education. He fitted for college at Homer and Robert P. Sinclair. Ovid Academies. In the fall of 1835, he entered Geneva College as a Sophomore. After one year, he went to Edinboro, Scotland, where he graduated in 1839; having, during his
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vacations, traveled in England and France. Shortly after graduating he returned to America, and came to Ann Harbor, Mich., where he read law with Kingsley Morgan, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. For some years he was a business man in Washtenaw county, building and running a flouring mill. In 1846, he sold out and came to Grand Rapids, where he established himself as a lawyer and insurance agent, serving the county four years as Judge of Probate.
Soon after the breaking out of the war, at the solicitation of the Irish citizens, he obtained authority to raise a regiment of infantry. For this purpose he was commissioned Colonel, and raised the Michigan 14th Infan- try, commonly called the "Irish Volunteers." The regiment first went to St. Louis, Mo., and were first ordered to report to Gen. Halleck, at Pittsburg Landing, afterwards to Gen. Pope at Hamburg Landing. They were engaged in the battles at Farmington and Corinth, and were with the army at Big Springs. They made a forced marched from Big Springs to Tuscumbia. Ala. Against orders, and on his own responsibility, Col. S. put his regiment in light marching order, and brought it through in better shape than any other. The regiment was at the siege of Corinth, in the battle at Stone River, and several others of less notoriety.
In the spring of 1863, broken health compelled Col. S. to retire from the service. Resigning his commission, he returned to Grand Rapids.
In 1866, he was appointed Revenue Collector for the Fourth District in Michigan. In this office he did not long remain, as the Senate did not con- firm his and many others of President Johnson's nominations.
A private citizen once more, Mr. S. returned to his old employment, which has resulted in fixing him as one of the solid men of Grand Rapids.
He was married Sept. 17th, 1850, to Miss Julia H. Allen.
Mr. Sinclair is a man of more than ordinary height; quiet and unassum- ing in his deportment-rather in- clined to be diffident; never blows his trumpet, or tries to make a dis- play. As a lawyer, he seldom ap- pears at the bar, confining himself to office business. He is more known as a business man than as a lawyer. It is not best to fully characterize the living. As we trust Col. S. has yet good years to pass before giving in his final account, we will leave the characterization incomplete.
HENRY SPRING.
This gentleman, who has been prominent as a merchant and mem- ber of the city council, was born at Henry Spring. CROSSCUP &WEST.PH Farmersville, Cattaraugus county. N. Y., Feb. 7, 1830. His father was a farmer there, and is now a resident in the town of Cannon. Soon
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after coming to Michigan, in 1846, young Henry commenced clerking in the stores at Grand Rapids. In 1854, he began business as a trader, in partner- ship with Amos Rathbun and David Burnett. In 1860 the well-known firm of Spring & Avery was formed, which was dissolved in 1876. He is now the leading partner in a heavy dry goods store. In 1870, he was elected alderman and served two years in the city council.
In 1854, he married Miss Annis A. Salisbury.
Still in his prime, and as we hope, with the best part of his life-work before him. we say little of him; trusting that the past is only an earnest of the future.
CANTON SMITH.
A pioneer of 1837, Mr. Smith has been, and is, one of the land- marks; having been from the first, until lately, a leading hotel-keep- er, long identified with the Na- tional - which, rebuilt, has been christened the "Morton."
He was born at Scituate, R. I., Oct. 26th, 1822; was bred a farmer.
CARO
SCUP B
Canton Smith.
In 1827, he married Miss Ann Angell, a woman of rare excellence, who died about 1864.
Mr. Smith has always been an unobtrusive citizen, quietly attend- ing to his own business, diversify- ing it a little with roving adven- ture.
Now, in the quiet of indepen- dence, with enough of this word's goods and a fair young wife, he is enjoying his ease. He has "seen the elephant;" has hunted griz- zlys; fed the hungry, and been happy. May his last days be his best.
J. MORTIMER SMITH.
Born in New Milford, Conn .; moved to Dutchess county, New York, in childhood; to Michigan in 1836. Bought land and en- tered largely into the real estate business. Married in Washington City, 1855.
WICE&DIP.AKEST-PH.A
J. Mortimer Smith.
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MARTIN L. SWEET.
Mr. Sweet is one of those men, who, without the advantages which render rising in the world natural and easy, have placed themselves in business and social prominence. He originated in New York, as did most of the early settlers in the Grand River Valley. Born at Paris, Oneida county, February 21st, 1819; brought up to hard work in a grist-mill, with limited chances for education, and obliged to work for all he ever expected to have, he has justly the credit of being ranked as a self-made man. He worked for others at his trade as a miller until 1842, when lie came to Michigan, and built a flouring mill at Delhi. In March, 1846, in company with John L. Clements, he commeneed running the " big mill" at Grand Rapids Martin. L. Sucet. -that mill, whose blackened tim- bers are now (1876) the sole rem- nant of the early structure on the canal. "Requiescat in pace" must now be said of that strneture, which, in its origin, was a part of an unwise enter- prise, only partly carried out.
But thinking of the venerable old mill, which had become hoary with age, we have departed from Mr. Sweet. In 1854, he built a large mill on the east side of Canal street, which, too, has gone up in smoke.
In 1868, he completed the hotel at the foot of Pearl street, and which is known as Sweet's Hotel.
He has long been engaged in banking; succeeded Daniel Ball as a private banker. His bank in time became the First National. Of that bank he was for many years the president.
Mr. Sweet served the city four years as alderman, and one year as mayor.
It is sufficient to say of him that financially, he is a success; that person- ally, everybody likes him for his frank simplicity and business integrity. He puts on no airs, and feels himself no bigger than he did when he was a poor boy, sitting by the hopper at the mill, pieking out what should not be ground with the wheat.
Still hard at work, and not venerable with age, the time has not come to give the results of his life. We know this much-that while he lives he will go ahead, and will help to keep things moving; and we hope his genial pres- enee and business enterprise will not soon be among the things missing at Grand Rapids.
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CONRAD G. SWENSBERG.
One of the institutions of which Grand Rapids is justly proud, is the Com- mercial College-established and sustained by a man still young, whose sense of honor, at the time when quack "commercial col- leges" were springing up in all parts of the country, led him, modestly beginning, to attempt to start a school which should be all it elaimed; whose basis should be thorough instruction and strictly honorable dealing. With this end in view, he came to Grand Rapids with one whom in charity we will leave namelss, and opened a school-he doing the work, his partner managing to pocket the avails; and in six months leaving him to pay the debts that had been incurred, to the amount of $1,200.
Mr. S., happily relieved of Mr. Blank, set himself to work to car- Conrad G. Swensberg. ry out his cherished plan, carrying the load that had been left upon hin. This was in 1866.
As it is expected and hoped that Swensberg's Commercial College will be one of the institutions of the city, and that it will, as long as he has the charge of it, speak for itself, through its graduates, it has been judged sufficient to give its origin, its principles, and the results of its ten years' existence.
Prof. S., scorning all quackery, aims to make the instruction thorough, ex- haustive and practical; and the testimony of leading business men is uni- form, to the superiority of the training received under him. The Professor. having no horn of his own to blow, relies upon the results of his labors, and not on his professions. Those results have established the fame of his school as one that, standing on an honorable basis, needs no puffing.
Professor Swensberg is a German; born at Cassel, Sept. 20th, 1835. When eleven years old, he came with his parents and an only sister to the United States. His father settled at Linn Grove, Erie county, Ohio. Being the only son, he was wanted on the farm (studying at intervals), but allowed to indulge his faney for ship-building. His course of life and home associations, added to a fine physical organization, resulted in that cheerfulness of dispo- sition, business-like habits, and practical character, which have rendered him so succ . sful as a teacher.
In 1857, his parents moved to the city of Muscatine, Iowa, where they soon after died. He then tried pioneer life in Iowa and Minnesota; taking up government land, and laying out townships and villages. For two years
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he was clerk on the steamboat Equator, on the Mississippi. He held, during his residence in Iowa, various positions of trust from State and county. In 1861, in accordance with a long cherished desire, he entered upon a course of study at Oberlin, O., having previously spent some six years in the study of German and music. For four years he centered at Oberlin, but in that time entered the army as a private; was directly promoted to assistant-adju- tant, and afterwards to commissary-sergeant. A letter from his command- ing officer to the author speaks of him as a very meritorious officer, worthy of a higher position. In 1866, as before stated, he came to Grand Rapids. The Professor is not a cypher out of his school. He has a heart to encourage and a hand to aid every good work, and is identified with some of the manufac- turing interests of the city, as well as its Christian and benevolent institutions.
Still a young man, long may his genial presence and active spirit have their natural influence.
CALVIN THOMPSON,
Was born Oct. 1. 1820, at Guil- ford, Chenango county, N. Y. In 1836, he came with his father's family to Jackson county, Mich., and in 1843, at the age of twen- ty-three, he located his present beautiful homestead on section 25, in the town of Courtland, where, by industry, economy and fair dealing with his fellow men, he has become one of the most thrifty and independent farmers of the county.
He is one of the public men of Calvin Thompson. his town, filling various offices- supervisor, etc. He has two sons, John and William, each of whom he has settled on a first-class farm in Courtland.
He died in 1876.
JACOB WINSOR.
He was the son of Darius Winsor; born in Onondaga county, New York, June 11th, 1816; and came with the family, in 1833, to Michigan. He spent his younger days in the employ of others, in the mercantile business, espe- cially with the Indians. Early in life the two brothers-Zenas G. and Jacob-in partnership carried on a very diversified business-Indian trade, general trade, dealing in lumber, building and running saw-mills-in fine, anything that had money in it. They built the stone store at the corner of Monroe and Waterloo streets, one of the first solid structures in Grand Rapids. In the earlier years of Grand Rapids their firm was one of the best known, doing
GRAND RIVER VALLEY.
in general that kind of round-about business which was compulsory at the time, when everyhing was barter and no cash. With their ups and downs, their successes and rever- ses. they were on the whole one of the inost successful and enter- prising business firms in the Val- ley.
Mr. Winsor was in business an adventurer. For some years he was a silver miner in California; and he also. when the plaster fever and salt enthusiasm were on the people, invested heavily, worked energetically. and made a good deal of money-over the left.
Jacob Winsor was not a man easily characterized, and not easy to understand. He was below or- dinary size. quick and nervous, positive and energetic, caring lit- tle for public opinion, putting his Jacob Winsor. roughest side out. He was sym- pathetic and kind-hearted; a genial man in his family, and very social with the world. In business he was all push. He scorned hypocrisy: what- ever faults he had he never attempted to hide, and it excited his ire if peo- ple gave him credit for any movement, however beneficial to the public. if he knew that his own interest was the motive of his action.
When a disease that never relents warned him that death was near, he looked destiny squarely in the face, and with philosophical coolness set about putting things in order for his leaving. He died December 22d, 1874.
His wife was Harriet Peck, of Lowell, who survives him.
MISS MARY W. WHITE.
This lady, the pioneer. and for a generation the only teacher at Grand Haven, was born at Ashfield, Mass .. September 18th, 1813. Her advantages in early life were good. She was educated partly in the Sanderson Academy and partly by that famous lady teacher, Miss Mary Lyon, from whom she feels she gained her inspiration as a teacher. She commenced teaching at the age of sixteen; first a private, and then a district school in Ashfield. Afterwards she, with her sister, taught a boarding school in Amherst, Mass.
June 10th, 1835, she came to Grand Haven, and soon opened a private school in the house of Mr. Ferry, nearly without pay. On the organizing of the district, she took charge of the school: in which she continued constantly. with the exception of a few months, until 1852. She then taught at Steuben- ville, Ohio, one year; and afterwards, ten years as associate teacher in the
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seminary at Rockford, Illinois; making in all thirty-four years of zealous labor as a teacher of the young.
Miss White, now verging towards old age, is in the quiet enjoyment of a competence, and is the honored head of the bachelor-home of her nephew- Senator T. W. Ferry, who was educated by her; and whose pride is, in her age, to cherish the guide of his youth.
WARREN W. WEATHERLEE.
In early times at Grand Rapids, the old settlers will recollect a modest young man who spent much of his time teaching school. We had not then the palatial school houses which are our pride at the present day; but everything was on a modest scale. The young man referred to, was the subject of the present sketch. He has been identified with the city until the present time. Never a public man, except in his younger years. as a teacher, in which business he secured a good reputation. H. was, early in the history of the noted hardware concern, so long identified with the name of the noble Wilder D. Foster. employed as a salesman. In this capacity he has ever since remained- Warren W. Weatherlee. the right-hand man of the eon- cern.
He was born in Madison county, N. Y., in 1820; had the advantages of an academic education; learned the trade of cabinet maker; early assumed the business of a teacher. In 1844, he came to Grand Rapids, which was then a small place-one of the outskirts of civilization. His life has been an uneventful one. With high business capacity, he has chosen to remain in others' employ, rather than assume the hazards of doing business in his own name. The confidence of the firm in him is unlimited; and he don't work on a meager salary. His history has the one lesson: "Fidelity, energy and devotion to the interest of an employer, will be appreciated and rewarded." especially by such men as W. D. Foster. It is not always the best men that make the greatest spread, or whose biography is the most conspicuous.
DR. ELMER WOODRUFF.
The subject of this article was born in the town of Farmington, Connecti- cut, Feb. 22, 1816. In his early childhood his parents removed to Cortland. N. Y., where they settled on a farm. Until seventeen years of age he worked
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on the farm, with the common advantages of country boys at the time. He then was apprenticed to the trade of cabinet and chair maker. In 1836, he came to Michigan, and worked at his trade at Homer, Calhoun county, and at Union City, on the St. Joseph River. At the last place he married Eleanor, the daughter of John Burt, of Homer. He afterwards removed to Albion, where he carried on his business as cabinet maker until 1857. He then abandoned his trade, and turned his attention to medicine.
Fired with the thirst for gold and adventure, in 1851 he set out for California, but an untoward accident compelled his return, having gone no further than the isthmus. There he was accident- ally shot through the lungs, and life was only saved by four Elmer Woodruff. months of the most careful and skillful treatment. His case excited inter- est among the medical savans of New York, and a fac-simile representing it Is now in the Anatomical Museum there.
In the year 1859, he commenced medical practice in the town of Decatur. Van Buren county. From there he came to Grand Rapids, where he has been in successful practice as a botanic physician ever since.
It is understood that the doctor is engaged in writing a philosophical work. It will be time to speak of it when it appears. He is original in his concep- tions, and an innovator on current philosophy. With the enthusiasm of one who believes what he writes, he hopes to enlighten mankind.
The doctor has raised a family of one son and three daughters, all of whom are settled in life. Not an old man, he is still resident at Grand Rapids, as a physician, in quiet office practice; and is identified with the Spiritualists, as one of their leaders.
CORNELIUS VANDER MEULER.
This man was a marked character, having a history in Holland and in Michigan. He was born at Middelhamus, in the king lom of the Nether- lands, in 1800. His early life was not conspicuous, and his education but common. He engaged in secular business until he was about 35 years of age. During this time he was a free-thinker, and man of the world. At this period his mind was turned to religion, and for the rest of his life he was a devout and laborious minister of the gospel.
The religion of the State was too cold for such as Vander Meuler. At
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about this time there was a secession from the State church, in which he heartily joined, being the first in his place to secede. He was made an elder in the church there established, and in 1838, became their pastor. He moved to Utrecht, where he for a time studied under the Rev. H. P. Scholte, and was ordained and went to Rotterdam. He became a kind of apostle in the new movement; preached fearlessly and under civil persecution and social
ยท
K &WEST. SC. PHILA.
Cornelius Vander Meuler.
ostracism. His zeal had abundant results. Fearless and reliant, he preached in the open fields, in barns, and private houses. Mobbed and persecuted, he rose in enthusiasm, defying law and popular violence.
For the sake of religious freedom, in 1841, many Hollanders removed to America. Vander Meuler was the religious leader of the emigrants from the province of Zeeland, who founded the village of Zeeland, in Michigan. With them he labored until 1859, when he went to Chicago. In 1861 he came to Grand Rapids, as pastor of the Second Reformed Church, where he labored until age and infirmity compelled him to resign in 1973. He died August 23d, 1876, and was buried at Zeeland.
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With the Holland people his will always be an honored name. An ex- tended memoir has been published in the Holland language, Personally, Mr. Vander Meuler was an admirable man-genial, social, and somewhat humorous. He was high-principled and manly. To know him was to be his friend. His life was an eventful one, and it came to a dignified close.
FRANCIS VAN DRIELLE.
Among the Hollanders who came to this region about 1848, was the man whose name heads this article. He is a native of Zeeland; born June 6, 1816. When about twelve years old his father died, leaving him the oldest of four children, dependent upon his mother, who had no means of support except her labor. She, earning barely a dollar a week, contrived by the closest calculations to keep her family together. Would you know the close calculations of lionest poverty, get Van Drielle to tell of his noble mother's man- agement. Francis found, after a while, employment with a baker; from the effects of carrying the baker's basket around the town, he has never recovered.
SscUP
THIA
A KEST In 1847, in hopes of bettering his fortune he came to America. He . at first found employment for Francis Van Drielle about a year on the Delaware & Hudson Canal. In July, 1848. he came to Grand Rapids, where he dug in the canal. He soon found employment in the mill of Clemens & Sweet, in whose employ he re- mained fifteen years. In the meantime some favorable investments in real estate had given him confidence to start business for himself, and he went into the flour and feed business, in which he has since remained. In 1868 he built a block of stores on the south side of Monroe street. The result of all is he is now in the enjoyment of an abundant competence.
Mr. Van Drielle is strongly identified with the Refor ned Church, in which for 20 years he has been an elder. In his present condition he does not for- get the state of humility from which he has risen, but thankful to the Divine Providence that has favored his efforts, cheerfully enjoys life, and hopes still to act for the welfare of others.
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WM. C. YOUNG.
This A No. 1 farmer, whose hearty hospitality makes his home a very de- sirable place to become acquaint- ed with, represents his life as an uneventful one; simply directed to the building up of a fortune. and establishing a good name as a plain, honest, open-hearted and social man. As such, we wel- come his hearty countenance to this book, and wish a greater percentage of the world were of the same stamp.
He began life at Little Britain, Orange county, N. Y., in 1821 ; was bred a farmer, and always has been one. At the age of twenty-one. he spent some two years looking over the United States-South and West-seek- ing the place where all things would be to his liking. He found no such El Dorado; but finally. Wm. C. Young. in June, 1844, gravitated to the township of Cannon, where he made a large purchase of government land, and where he has always lived; where he has made farming a success; prospered and grown rich; being one of the heaviest farmers in Kent county.
In 1850, he took to himself a wife-Miss Maria J. Arnott. They have two living sons-David and Willis.
Mr. Young makes no display; but, as a Christian gentleman of the old school, is a free contributor to religious and charitable purposes; and is be- lieved in, by those who know him, as a prompt man, whose word is a bond, and whose honesty is without reproach.
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