Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 31

Author:
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub.
Number of Pages: 580

USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches > Part 31

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Mr. Bunting was married September 2., 1864, to Henrietta Mills, who was born in Lenawee county, August 25, 1839. She is a daughter of E. G. Mills, a native of New York, where he was born February 9, 1807. He died at the age of seventy-nine years. His wife was born in England, November 2, 1811, and died in January, 1905, aged ninety-three years. The parents of Mrs. Bunting were early settlers of Lenawee county, where they always lived on a farm. She was the fourth of eight children, the others being as follows: Amasa, who is now dead; Philo, who was a member of Company G, Eighteen Michigan Infantry during the civil war and who died of consumption ; Eliza was Mrs. T. M. Camburn and died in Lenawee county; Edward died in Lenawee county, a bachelor ; Ransom married the young- est sister of Mr. Bunting; Sarah Jane is the second wife of T. M. Camburn and they live in Tecumseh ; Emma lives in Lenawee county.

After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bunting lived three or four years in Lenawee county, whence they came to Shiawassee county about 1868. He first bought forty acres of wild land, on section 14, in Rush township. He carried goods and supplies on his back to the land, the woods being so thick that it was impossible to lead a horse through. He built a log house and returned to Lenawee county. About this time there was a mail robbery in some neighboring town and officers were scouring the country to find the robbers. Mrs. Bunting was afraid to stay alone in the house so he returned. They lived in this log house about sixteen years. They own about three hundred and twenty acres, all well im- proved. Mr. Bunting has himself cleared over two hundred acres, and spent a great deal of money draining and tiling the land. Recently he bought thirty-nine acres in the edge of Henderson village. Upon this he has erected a neat and comfortable residence, which he now occupies, having rented his farm. Mr. and Mrs. Bunting have had four children : Louis, who was born July 19.

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1865, and who died at the age of twenty-eight years, married Minnie Ball, who is still liv- ing, as are also their two children,-Leota and Hattie; Mary, who was born July 23, 1867, married Willits Willoughby, and they live in Rush township, being the parents of three children,-Rena, Ernest and Leland. Edwin T., who was born April 8, 1871, and who is engaged in grocery business at Owosso, married Emma Metuskey, and they have two children,-Harold and June. Ella, who was born July 10, 1873, married Ed. Cheney, who is a paper-hanger in Hender- son, and they have one child,-Leston,-aged six years.

Mr. Bunting is an old-line Republican, one of the Abraham Lincoln school; and while active in politics, has always been reluctant to accept office ; but has served as township treasurer and highway commissioner. He attends the Methodist Episcopal church but is not a member. He is blessed with excel- lent health and takes a deep interest in every- thing that pertains to the good of the com- munity. Mrs. Bunting has been crippled from rheumatism for several years.

MATTHEW BUSH

The subject of this sketch is a native of the Empire state, having been born at Stone Ridge, New York, December 6, 1853. Al- though his parents were natives of the same commonwealth, he is of Dutch descent. At the age of fifteen years young Bush had fin- ished his primary schooling -a few terms at the village school of Port Ewen and in the Kingston Academy,- and he became a qual- ified teacher, which occupation he followed for one and one-half years. Later he was employed in newspaper work, during which time he also learned telegraphy. This he left to accept a position in an office of the Wall- kill Valley Railroad. Meeting with a mis- fortune, through sickness, he was obliged to resort to the use of crutches. It was doubt- less this affliction that caused him to decide

to enter the legal profession as a life bus- iness. By close application and study, he gained admission to the bar in September, 1876, at Saratoga, New York, at the age of twenty-three years. He first located at Kingston, where he remained for two years, when he decided to come west. He settled at Stanton, Michigan, and later removed to the village of Vernon, Shiawassee county. His ability as an attorney was soon recog- nized and he early took rank among the lead- ers of his profession in Shiawassee county. While a resident of Vernon he was for two terms president of the village and for sev- eral years village attorney. In the year 1889 he was elected judge of probate for Shia- wassee county, which office he has held con- tinuously until the present time. He is now serving his fifth term, and when completed will have to his credit twenty years of hon- orable service in that office. That a public office is a public trust has been practically verified in the manner of the management of the affairs of his office by Judge Bush. His reputation as a probate judge extends to the borders of the commonwealth, as evidenced by his having served for some years as presi- dent of the state association of probate judges. His is a natural legal mind, by which he is enabled to weigh the evidence and reach just conclusions.

It is said of him that his construction of the statutes is seldom at fault and that no decision of his has ever been reversed by the supreme court. The widows and orphans of Shiawassee county have in Judge Bush a true friend, and they go to him in confidence for the adjustment of their claims, and are never disappointed.

Judge Bush has met with more than average success. He has carved out for him- self as a legal adviser a reputation of which any man might feel justly proud. He began at the bottom, but by pluck and perseverance, and actuated always by correct motives, he to-day occupies an exalted position as a citi- zen and an attorney.

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Judge Bush's first wife was Miss Flora McKercher, of Vernon, who lived but three years after their marriage, leaving a son Walter M., who is now in partnership with his father under the firm name of Bush & Bush.

The present Mrs. Bush was Anna E. Ver- ney, to whom he was united in marriage in 1887. To them have been born seven chil- dren as follows: James V., September 22, 1888; Russell Alger, January 15, 1890; Lowell M., November 13, 1892; Helen E., June 19, 1894; Oliver N., December 1, 1895; Wendell H., August 9, 1897; Homer M., January 22, 1900. This is a family that would delight the heart of President Roose- velt.

Mrs. Bush's parents, Rev. James E. and Elizabeth (Buckthought) Verney, were of English origin, coming to Michigan from Canada in 1867. Mr. Verney had several pastorates in this state, and was a well known Congregational minister. He died in 1886 and his widow passed away in 1895.

Fraternally Judge Bush is a Mason, be- ing a past commander of his commandery Knights Templar, and is also a Maccabee and a member of the Michigan Club, of De- troit. The family are members and warm supporters of the Presbyterian church of Corunna, in which Judge Bush holds the of- fice of elder. The family are among Corun- na's highly esteemed residents, than whom it has no better.

JOHN BUTCHER

John Butcher is an Englishman by birth, having been born in Kent, December 9, 1829. At the age of twenty-one years he im- migrated to the United States, crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel. He was six weeks on the way and first worked on a farm six- teen miles west of Schenectady, New York, at ten dollars per month. He remained there three years and after this he had a decidedly

interesting and somewhat varied career in many respects, showing him to be a gentle- man of convictions of his own and decision of character sufficiently strong to assert those convictions,-a characteristic conspicuously absent in the case of the average man. There is an old maxim that reads: "Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do."

Before leaving his English home for Amer- ica John Butcher promised his widowed mother to return and make her a visit as soon as he could conveniently do so. After an absence of three years he kept his promise to his mother and made her heart glad by greeting her again in the flesh, as he told her he would. He remained in England fifteen months, and while there Cupid used his heart strings as a harp. The object of his attention was Charlotte Tolburst. As the poet puts it :

She knew she was beloved by him,-she knew,

For quickly comes such knowledge, that his heart

Was darkened with her shadow.

On April 11, 1854, he was married to that lady, who was born in England, July 31. 1828, and died December 1, 1899. Immediately after being married Mr. Butcher and wife started for America, coming directly to Oak- land county, Michigan, where he worked on a farm by the month until 1861, when he re- moved to Shiawassee county where he bought eighty acres of wild land, on which he is now living. At that time there were few settlers. In less than one week Mr. Butcher had chop- ped and hewn sufficient logs to erect a log shanty, and with the help of neighbors soon had a place in which to live. His two old- est children, born in Oakland county, were quite small and his wife encountered the usual hardships incident to pioneer life. But his courage was undaunted, and, aided by his wife and children, he caused the woods rapidly to disappear and give place to culti-

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vated and smiling fields. In course of time a good house and suitable barns were erected on the home place, as well as on other farms bought since, and now occupied by children. He has added in all to the original purchase two hundred acres. He formerly raised wheat extensively, often having forty bushels per acre. At the time Abraham Lincoln was elected to the presidency for the first time Mr. Butcher cast his first vote and supported the Democrats, and continued to act with that party for several years. Later, some twenty- two years ago, he became a Prohibitionist. About that time Mr. Butcher experienced a change of heart and was converted, joining the Wesleyan Methodist church. Until that time he had neither read nor written English, but began the study of the Bible. He now reads well and is able to read anywhere in the Bible. The first passage he learned to read was the twentieth verse of the eighty- ninth Psalm: "I have found David my serv- ant ; with my holy oil I have annointed him." He says he received aid from the spirit of God, which enabled him to learn to read, as he had neglected to get an education in youth, having started to work for himself at an early day. He has never been an aspirant for any political office and has filled only one place-that of pathmaster. His parents were members of the Church of England, which is the same as the Episcopal church in the Uni- ted States.

Mr. and Mrs. Butcher have had four chil- dren, as follows: John T. was born in Oak- land county, July 31, 1856, and lives in New Haven township, near his father's home; Ellen was born in Oakland county, January 10, 1858, became the wife of J. A. Hopson, and died some years ago; George was born June 20, 1862, and lives on a farm on sec- tion four one-half mile east of his father's homestead; Charles H. was born July 6, 1864, and lives at home; he was married July 3, 1896, to Eliza Bradford, who was born in Bay City, twenty-nine years ago, a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Dickson) Bradford,

the latter of whom is deceased, and the father being now a resident of Fremont, Saginaw county.

John Butcher was the sixth of a family of twelve children, as follows: James lived and died in England, having married and had a family residing in the city of London; Wil- liam lived in New Haven township and died recently ; Thomas died in England; Charles lives in England; Elizabeth, Mrs. Bradford, died in England; Mary lives in England ; George, Sarah, and Jane live in England ; Edwin lives in New Zealand, and Emily lives in England.

E. O. BYAM

Truth comes to us from the past, as gold is washed down from the mountains of Sierras in minute but precious particles and intermixed with infinite alloy,-the debris of centuries. It is a matter of no little interest, therefore, to know that the gentleman whose name heads this page now lives upon what is really historic ground, the same being part of a former Indian reservation. It seems that the grandfather of E. O. Byam (Shields by name) purchased the first land sold from the reservation in question. This purchase consisted of two hundred acres, forty acres of which is now the farm of our subject, who was born January 6, 1841, in Guilford, Medina county, Ohio. He is a son of Al- fonso and Amanda (West) Byam. His parents were natives of New York state, his mother having been born in Granville, Wash- ington county. At the age of seventeen years, when most boys now-a-days are won- dering what they will do for a livelihood, young Byam was struggling with destiny as a farm hand. Within ten years he was pro- prietor of eighty acres, and he had come into the possession of the same not by inheritance but by dint of hard work and good manage- ment. Shortly afterward he bought another forty acres, which he subsequently sold. In a

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little while after this he bought two "forties" and a farm of one hundred acres. Situated on the latter place was a substantial brick house, which originally cost four thousand five hundred dollars, besides a number of good barns, and other improvements which mate- rially added to his standing as a successful and prosperous citizen. Altogether he now owns two hundred and seventy acres of land.

Mr. Byam is the second of three children, -his brothers being John and Samuel. Since his marriage, October 14, 1868, he has resided upon his present homestead. His wife was formerly Mary J. Prior. Their wedding trip was taken to Detroit, and they were ac- companied by two other bridal parties : Messrs. Ellison and G. A. Parker and their brides. The former is a citizen of Owosso, while the latter is now a neighbor of Mr. Byam. The parents of Mrs. Byam were George and Ann (Woodthorp) Prior, the father coming from England in 1856 and settling in Shiawassee county. They are both now dead.

Mr. and Mrs. Byam have four children : Harry, the eldest, is already a prominent man of affairs: Eva is the wife of Rev. Arthur Ellsworth, of Parkville; Elsie married a brother of the latter, a farmer; and Ward is now living at home. He married Lydia Crome, November 2, 1904. Mr. Byam ob- tained his early education in the district schools of Ohio and Michigan. Indeed, he never had any other scholastic advantages, but he has been a close observer and an in- telligent reader, avenues of instruction which have enabled him to become well posted on all questions of the day. "'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined."

For fifteen years Mr. Byam has served as treasurer of the school board of his district and he has also filled other local offices. In politics he is a Republican. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a Knight Templar and a Granger

and is enrolled on the roster of the South Vernon Farmer's Club.

Mr. Byam's oldest son, Harry, was born in 1869. He has worked his father's farm and has purchased forty acres of his own, so that he is in pretty comfortable circum- stances. In December, 1892, he married El- berteen Greenman, and he is the father of three children,-Wayne, who is attending school, and Grace and Eva. Like his father, he is deeply interested in educational mat- ters, and is now serving as moderator of the school board. Verily, these are and should be happy homes. Their owners can exclaim with the poet :

No eye to watch and no tongue to wound us, All earth forgot, and all heaven around us.

MARCUS M. BYINGTON

Marcus M. Byington was born in Orleans county, New York, March 21, 1839. He is a son of Riley Byington, who was a native of Vermont, where he was born in 1814, and who died July 10, 1872; his wife, Louisa (Pratt) Byington, was born in New York state, in 1816, and died in June, 1886. They were married in the latter state. Marcus M. Byington started in life for himself at the age of fourteen years and has cared and supported himself since that period. He worked on a farm from the age of fourteen years until he was married. During the win- ters he labored in the lumber woods, while summers were spent on a farm. He served in the civil war for a short time, during its closing days, having enlisted March 14, 1865. in Company A. Twenty-Fourth Michigan Infantry, but was mustered out on June 30th of the same year, peace being declared .- that glorious peace that thrilled a nation with joy and brought gladness to hundreds of thousands of homes. In 1860 he bought eighty acres of wild land in Saginaw county. but he did not keep it long. Four years af- terward he purchased the eighty acres upon

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which he now lives, on section 29, Venice township, Shiawassee county. He has cleared the same, causing it to "bloom and blossom like the rose." In addition to building the fine house in which he now lives, a splendid array of barns and other buildings has been constructed. The dimensions of the big barn is forty by sixty, with a twenty by sixty foot wing, and twenty feet high above basement, while the latter is nine feet high. Then there is a sheep shed forty by fifty, twelve feet high; a hog pen eighteen by thirty-six; a milk house eighteen by twenty-two; a gran- ary twenty by twenty-four; and a tool shed twenty-two by fifty. In 1869 he bought forty acres more, one-half of which was im- proved. He has cleared the remainder. Oc- tober 2, 1866, Mr. Byington married Louisa Revenaugh, a native of Noble county, Ohio, where she was born February 5, 1846. She is a daughter of Dr. John Revenaugh, also born in Ohio, April 19, 1817, and of Clarinda (Blake) Revenaugh, who was born in Noble county, Ohio, May 10, 1820 ; the parents were married in the Buckeye state, in 1838. · Mrs. Byington's father, John Revenaugh, died on his birthday, April 19, 1881 ; while her mother passed to the great beyond February 20, 1894. Dr. Revenaugh was a physician, having been a graduate of Columbus, Ohio, Medical College. In 1853 he removed to Locke town- ship, Ingham county, Michigan, and settled on eighty acres of wild land given him by his father, Samuel Revenaugh, who had traded a farm in Ohio for half a section in Locke. He built a log house and stable and brought his family there from Ohio, making the journey overland by teams. He remained there for three years, when he sold and re- moved to Shiawassee village, where he prac- ticed medicine until his death.

Mrs. Byington was the fourth of eight children.

Aurelius O., born April 4, 1840, lives in Louisville, Kentucky, is married and has four children,-Claude L., Ione, Ritta and Harry. Zenas, born February 28, 1842, died at the

age of two years. Mary, born June 20, 1844, married Eugene Kingsley; they have no chil- dren. Samuel, born November 9, 1847, died in December. 1893; he married Eva Chase and had four children,-Mattie, Edward, Eva and Ruth. Samuel enlisted in Company I, Fifteenth Michigan Infantry, was wounded in battle of Pittsburg Landing and was dis- charged . shortly afterward; later he enlisted in the Tenth Michigan Cavalry and served until close of the war. Saphronia, born April 11, 1852; married Michael Bowerman, now dead; she lives in Lansing, having had four children,-Permelia, born February 15, 1854, lives at Northville; she married Beach Northrop, and they have no children. Benja- min ; born February 13, 1856, lives at Owosso; married Maggie Curtis; no children. There were three Revenaughs whose given names were Samuel. They all were soldiers. The grandfather of Mrs. Byington was in the war of 1812; while she had an uncle and brother in the civil war.

Mr. and Mrs. Byington have two children. - a daughter and son. The former, Minnie, who was born July 15, 1867, married Fred Miller and they live in Venice township, hav- ing two children,-Grace, born June 13, 1889, and Carl, born December 9, 1894. The second child, E. Ray, who was born Novem- ber 22, 1882, married Myrtie Stewart, and they live with Mr. Byington, having no chil- dren.

Riley Byington, father of the subject of this sketch, was a shoemaker and worked in Detroit before his marriage. After his mar- riage he lived in New York state and in 1844 removed to Michigan, having previously pur- chased one hundred and sixty acres of wild land in this state, without seeing it; he after- ward found it to be mostly a swamp. He soon traded it for eighty acres of wild land on section 32, Venice township. On this he built a log house and stable. Later he erected a frame house and barn and added forty acres of wild land, making one hundred and twenty acres in all. This he owned at the

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time of his death. Marcus M. Byington's grandfather was Nathaniel Byington. Mar- cus is the second of five children, the first being Allison P., who was born in 1837 and died in 1904; she married Franklin P. Mann, and had three children, two of whom are liv- ing-Albert R., born in 1842, lives in Tustin, Michigan. He married Fannie Irwin, who is dead; no children. Levi E., born in 1844, lives at Cadillac. He married Thursa Vin- cent, now dead, and they had four children, -John R., Mattie, Fred and Maude. Mary L., born in 1857, married Perry McIntosh and is now deceased leaving no children.

Mrs. Byington is a Baptist and Mr. Bying- ton is a Republican and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He has been highway commissioner one term, township treasurer five terms and supervisor three terms.

MARY CARRUTHERS

Mary Carruthers, the assistant editor of the historical portion of this work, is the daugh- ter of George and Mary E. Carruthers, who are among the oldest and most respected pioneers of Shiawassee county. The Car- ruthers family located at North Newberg, near the famous old Shiawassee Exchange, in 1854 and have occupied a prominent place in the life and history of the county. Miss Mary was educated in the district schools, completing a course in the high school of Corunna. She is possessed of unusual liter- ary ability, as her work in connection with this publication indicates. She has contrib- uted not a little to newspapers, and has com- posed verses that possess more than ordi- nary merit. Aside from having lived for a few years in Colorado her life thus far has been spent at the home of her parents, in Shiawassee township, but her acquaintance extends throughout the county and she en- joys the respect and admiration of all who know her.

PETER CAMERON CARRUTHERS

The late Peter C. Carruthers was one of the largest land owners and most respected citizens in Shiawassee county. In his chosen calling he was especially prominent for the success which attended his experiments and operations as a wheat-grower, and he was not only prominent as an agriculturist of modern ideas and practices but was also a leader in the practical affairs of the community, in- spiring, as he did, the unshaken confidence of all those with whom he had dealings of any kind. He was a firm Republican, served his fellows as justice of the peace for a period of sixteen years, and was an honored men- ber of the Masonic fraternity.

Our subject was a native of New York state, born in Bath, Steuben county, June 1, 1822, and he died in June, 1895. He was the son of John Carruthers, who was born in Scotland, in the year 1792, and who died at the age of sixty-nine years; his wife, Helen (Cameron) Carruthers, was born in 1790 and died at the age of eighty-five years. Peter C. Carruthers was the third of four children. Jane and Mary, the elder ones, who were born in Scotland, are deceased ; the fourth, his younger brother. is still liv- ing. His parents emigrated from the mother country two years before his birth, locating first in Steuben county, New York, There they resided until 1855, when they removed to Shiawassee township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, and settled on land which is still in possession of the family. The original tract, which consisted of one hundred and twenty acres, John Carruthers purchased of Ambrose Baker. After his death his son. Peter C., continued to reside on the farm, eventually coming into possession of it, and making additions thereto, by purchase and exchange, until he was proprietor of about 600 acres of valuable land, improved not only by careful cultivation but by the erection of up-to-date farm buildings,-the substantial evidence of our subject's industry and forethought.

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On the 21st of August, 1856, Peter C. Carruthers was united in marriage to Frances Adelia Sheldon, a native of the Buck Eye state. She was born in Portage county, Ohio, October 26, 1836, and is now living with her third child and only son on the old farm, which has been her home for nearly fifty years.

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Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 31

Author: Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub. Number of Pages: 580

Author:
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Lansing, Mich. : Hist. Pub.
Number of Pages: 580