Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 58

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 58

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Our subject started for himself at the age of eighteen years and at the call for men to serve the country in its time of trial he en- listed, August 11, 1861, in the Eighth Michi- gan Volunteer Infantry. He served with the regiment until November, 1862, and was then transferred to Company A, United States Bat- talion of Engineers, with which he served un- til June 29, 1865, when he was mustered out and honorably discharged. He was personally engaged in the following battles : Hilton Head, Crusoe Landing, Siege of Port Pulaski, James Island, White Sulphur Springs, second battle of Bull Run, battle of Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, second battle of Freder- ricksburg, Gettysburg, Mine Run, battle of the Wilderness, Po River, North Anna, Cold Har- bor, siege of Petersburg, Appomattox Court House, being present at the surrender of Gen- eral Lee.

Following his war experience Mr. Pulver commenced the study of law in the office of Gould & Gould, of Owosso, and was admitted to practice in 1869. He commenced his pro- fessional duties at Chesaning, later practicing in Iola, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, but since 1877 he has been located at Laings- burg, where the greater part of his time has been given to his profession.

Henry H. Pulver was first married to Ach-

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sah Hardy. and by this union he has one son, Henry H., who lives at Pine Lake. His sec- ond marriage was celebrated in 1872, when he wedded Rosalia Feezler, and they have two children : Seth Q., born July 20, 1880, and Ethel, born in 1883. Seth married Grace Gal- usha, of Olivet, and they have one child, Hen- ry H. Seth is practising law at Caro, Michi- gan, being senior member of the firm of Pul- ver and Smith. He was graduated in Olivet College, studied law with his father and took an examination before the state board and was duly admitted to the bar.

In 1884 and 1886 the Greenback party hon- ored our subject by his election on its ticket to the office of state senator. He has served the village as president. He is identified with the Odd Fellows and is past commander of Henry Demming Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Laingsburg.

Mr. Pulver is strong in his belief in the policies of the Republican party. He is a gen- tleman whose character and abilities give him the respect of the community, and his enter- prise and progressive ideas place him in the front rank among business men.

ALEXANDER PURVES

Alexander Purves, of Owosso township, is a Canadian, having been born in York county, near Toronto, January 11, 1841. In Decem- ber, 1865, at the age of twenty-four years, he left the old home and came to Owosso town- ship, where he bought eighty acres of tim- bered land, on section 6. He was accompan- ied by his brother Joseph, who bought eighty acres just across the road from him, in Mid- dlebury township. The brothers "batched" it together for four years, when Joseph married and Alexander boarded with him. The sub- ject of this sketch has improved all his land and in 1875 bought twenty acres more, partly improved, making the farm now one of one hundred acres. Under the fostering care of Mr. Purves the place has reached a high state of cultivation.

January 18, 1876, Alexander Purves mar- ried Mary A. Ockerman, who was born in Northumberland county, Canada, March 6, 1856. She is a daughter of Nelson Ockerman, a native of Prince Edward county, Canada, where he was born March 5, 1819, and he died in Owosso township, April 19, 1903. He was a farmer and owned one hundred acres in the county in which his daughter was born. This land he bought from the government when it was in a state of nature, but he improved it and in 1862 sold it. In April, 1865, he came to Ovid, Michigan, where he remained one year, at the expiration of which he bought for- ty acres of timbered land in Middlebury town- ship, Shiawassee county. On this he built a log house, and he eventually cleared the land. In 1864 he sold it and removed to Burton, where his wife died. He then went to Allegan county, where he bought fifteen acres and where he remained about seven years, then re- turning to Owosso township, where he died.

James Purves, father of Alexander, was born in Brunswick, Scotland, January 10, 1813. At the age of fourteen years he went with his father, Joseph Purves, to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he worked with his father at their trade, that of carpentering. In 1834 James Purves emigrated to Burton township, York county, Canada, where he worked at his trade until 1850, when he bought one hundred acres of wild land, in Scarboro township, York county. He had the reputation of being the best tradesman-farmer in the township. He built a frame house of lumber procured from his wife's father, Peter Secor, who went from New York state to Canada when King George gave him six hundred acres of land for his loyalty during the Revolutionary war. Mr. Secor was the first postmaster in Scar- · boro township, but he was removed from that office during the Mckenzie rebellion in Can- ada, because of his sympathy for Mckenzie. James Purves improved his land and in 1860 built a brick house and frame barns. In 1889 he sold the farm. Alexander Purves is the second of 12 children.

Joseph, born December 27, 1838, lives in

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Middlebury township; he came to Shiawassee county with his brother Alexander, as already stated, and he and his sons own four hundred " and forty acres in this county. He first mar- ried Amanda Benedict, now dead, and his sec- ond wife was Rebecca Alderson. He had six children,-James A., Franklin J., Amos L .. Lillie I., Lloyd L. and Jay. Frederick, born in 1843, died in infancy. Peter, born in Feb- ruary, 1845, lives in Fairfield township: he married Libbie Winchel and they have two sons, Frank and Harry. James and George, twins, born June 8, 1847, both live in Clinton county ; James married Matilda Stark, and George wedded Jane Norris ; the latter couple having three children,-Frances, Loretta and William. William, the seventh child, was born in February, 1850, and lives in Canada ; he married Jennie Grant, and they have three children,-Hildah, Anna and Paul. Sidney, born in June, 1852, lives in Bruce county, Can- ada ; he married Rachael Duncan and had three children,-Fred, Frank and Loretta. John, born in January, 1858, lives in Owosso, Michigan. Anna, born in May, 1857, lives in Simcoe county, Canada ; she married Walter Crosby and had four children,-Henry, James, Frances (dead), and Eugene. Sara, born in March, 1860, died in Clinton county, Michi- gan in 1895 ; she married Smith Hammell and had four children,-Thomas, Sidney, Flor- ence and Harry. Henry, born in 1862, died at the old home in Canada, at twenty years of age.

Mrs. Purves is the ninth of ten children. Helen A., born July 7, 1838, lives at Owosso ; she married Harris A. Burke, and has the fol- lowing named children,-Wallace, Adney, Jennie, Harry, Luke and Lulu. Egbert, born in 1841, lives in St. Joseph county ; he married Margaret Lavenev and has five children,- William, Bertha, May, Maggie and Egbert. Thomas A., born March 18, 1844, lives in Owosso township; he married May E. Wig- gins, and they have six children,-Henry, Sara, Ella, Millard and Mildred (twins) and Minetta. William M., born February 14, 1845, lives at Greenville, Michigan ; he mar-

ried Lucy Herne and they have one child,- Frank. Martha, born October 6, 1847, died in Shiawassee county, at the age of twenty- two years. Henry, born April 17, 1849, died in Owosso township in 1900 ; he married Hel- en Tobey, and had two children,-Albertena and Claude. James N., born March 5, 1852, lives in Middlebury township; he married May Banghart and they have five children- Cassius, Victor, Percy, Minnie and Addie. Marshall L., born March 22, 1854, lives in Bennington township; he married twice, first to Harriett Matheson, deceased, who bore two children,-Isabella, now dead, and Morton. His second marriage was to Alice Gleason, and they had five children,-Willard, Ther- essa, Myrtie, Stephen and Alice. Elizabeth, born July 11, 1858, lives at Ypsilanti, Michi- gan ; she married Edward Lewis and had one child,-Maude.

Mr. Purves and wife had two children. Ethel M., born October 12, 1876, lives at home ; and Olive L., born November 18, 1878, married Dewey C. Mckenzie and they live at Durand. James Purves, the father of Alex- ander Purves, the subject of this article, was born in Brunswick, Scotland, January 10, 1813. . He now lives with his children, and al- though ninety-two years of age, is well and hearty. His wife, Loretta (Secor) Purves, was a native of Scarboro township, York county, Canada, where she was born March 6, 1818, and she died in January, 1889, at the home of a brother of one of her sons, in On- tario county, Canada. James Purves and wife were married in Ontario county, Canada, in 1837.

Alexander Purves is a Republican and has been treasurer of his township for two terms. He is highly respected by his neighbors and stands high in the community, as a gentleman of sterling worth.

ELIJAH W. PUTNAM

A sturdy representative of that yeoman class which forms the human basis upon which rests the material wealth of the west, and upon

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which its substantial progress has always de- pended, Elijah W. Putnam has broken the vir- gin soil of two states and is the son of one of the early settlers of Michigan. His father, William R. Putnam, was a native of Ovid, Seneca county, New York, where he was born in 1813. Before he had reached his majority he migrated to Michigan and located land with- in the present limits of Ovid township, Clinton county, but at a time prior to its organization ; in fact, he himself was the author of its name, given in honor of his native place. He re- turned to New York and married Hiss Han- nah Waters, who was born in his native town and was two years his junior, and in 1838 he located permanently in Ovid township, his wife and infant daughter joining him two years later.

The homestead thus selected consisted of eighty acres of wild land. He immediately set to work to cut the logs for a house eighteen by twenty-four feet. The home for the bride was completed, some twenty acres of land cleared and put under cultivation, and other improve- ments made before the New York wife also be- came a resident of the township. At that time there were only four voters within its limits. In 1853 he sold this farm, which he had entirely cleared, and removing to Sciota township, Shiawassee county, located in sec- tion twenty-two, where our subject now re- sides. The deceased was a Democrat and served as highway commissioner for several terms.

This first pioneer homestead in Ovid town- ship was the birthplace of our subject, who was born in March, 1841. He was the second of seven children, the first, Elizabeth, being born in New York state in 1839. She is the wife of John Seeley, who had previously been married. Her first husband was Samuel West, by whom she had three children, Wil- liam, John and Rose. John, the third child of William R. Putnam, married Sarah Bunker- hoff and resides in Nebraska, having seven children. The fourth, William H., Jr., is a well known merchant and ex-postmaster of Durand; he married Josephine M. Delano, and

they have two children, Omer and Ethel. Leighton, the fifth, married Rose McCausie, and is the father of two children,-Lizzie and Gertrude. Janie, now Mrs. George Childs, of Sciota township, is the mother of four chil- dren, Tedie, Essie, Grace and Robert. El- mira, the seventh child, now Mrs. Gardner, is the mother of Etna and Roy, and resides in Laingsburg.

At twenty-two years of age our subject commenced his career as an independent hus- bandman. He was employed as a farm hand about one and a half years and then returned to the parental farm to assist his father, being thus engaged until he reached the age of twen- ty-eight.

Mr. Putnam did not abandon bachelorhood until quite late in life, his marriage to Miss Delia Burgess, of Sciota township, being cele- brated April 25, 1877. After this auspicious event he removed to Iowa, took up a home- stead of one hundred and sixty acres and re- mained a citizen of the Hawkeye state about eight years. He then disposed of his property and resumed life on the old Michigan home- stead, where he has since remained, eventually buying the interests of all the heirs to the es- tate.

Mrs. Putnam is the daughter of Hiram and Betsey (Williams) Burgess. Her parents were natives of Genesee county, New York, her mother being born in the year 1830 and dying in 1860, when only thirty years of age. She was married in Farmington, Oakland county, Michigan, in 1848. Hiram Burgess was born in Livonia, New York, in 1828, com- ing to Farmington with his father when a boy. He was married before he was of age. He took up forty acres of wild land in Ben- nington township and built a log house there- on. Here Mrs. Burgess was born. After clearing and improving the little farm he sold it and migrated to Nebraska, where he bought eighty acres. Later he returned to Michigan and lived with his children until his death.

Mr. Burgess was twice married. By his first union he had seven children; Sarah Jane and John, the first two born, died in infancy.

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Mrs. Putnam was the third. Edwin, the fourth, married Effie Kimmis, resides in Oak- land county and has two children,-Linsey .and Mabel. Liza, the fifth, is Mrs. Cass Wat- ers, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and is childless. Harriet, who lives in Sciota township, mar- ried James Toms, and has had two children, Harry and Edith, the latter being deceased. By his second marriage Mr. Burgess had four children, Blanche and Belle and two who died in infancy. He died at the home of Mrs. James Toms, on the 7th of January, 1905.

Elijah W. Putnam is now the prosperous proprietor of ninety-five acres of land in sec- tion 22, Sciota township, all being under fine "cultivation with the exception of about seven acres. Although his education was limited to the primary training afforded by the district schools, by industry, perseverance, and hon- esty he has earned a firm place in the general respect of the community in which his lot has so long been cast. Although domestic in his tastes, he has never had the blessing of chil dren. He is still active in mind and body, al- beit he has lived to see many changes since, as a farmer boy of sixteen, he "geed and hawed" to nine lusty yokes of oxen.

CASSIUS S. REED

The subject of this sketch is one of the best known farmers of Shiawassee county, having of late years made a successful spe- cialty of sheep raising. He is an active Re- publican, has been prominent in local govern- ment and is also identified with the banking interests of Durand.

Cassius S. Reed was born and has passed most of his life on the farm, in Vernon town- ship, which he now occupies, the date of his birth being December 16, 1857. He is the son of Rasselas and Eliza B. (Harrington) Reed, being the eldest of the three children. His father was a man of great natural and practical ability and would undoubtedly have made a deep impression on the legislature

of the state had his health been equal to the strain of public life. Born in Tompkins coun- ty, New York, October 8, 1826, he came with his parents to Vernon in 1836, arriving July 25th, eight months before the township was organized. The first town meeting was convened in his father's house, on the farm now occupied by George Reed, in section 17. In those days even the district schools were few and far between, and the boy, Rasselas, grew up without literary advantages; but he grasped and improved the privileges within his reach, studied at home, read much of the substantial kind of literature, and as his thirst for knowledge was constant and his industry untiring, ere he reached manhood he was noted for his precise and broad information. In his younger years, he was also very fond of hunting and, as the Shiawassee forests were filled with game of all kinds, he became widely known for his skill with the gun; in fact, there were few who were his equal in the county.

On the 27th of November 1854, Rasselas Reed married Miss Eliza B. Harrington, and immediately moved to the farm upon which our subject now resides. Although an indus- trious and unpretentious farmer, his business ability, his unfaltering honesty and the un- usual breadth of his intelligence early attracted the attention of his fellow townsmen, and he long served his constituents in local posi- tions before being called to the state legisla- ture. He was elected township clerk for three terms and served as supervisor for five terms, his health being the only obstacle to continu- ous public preferment. In 1876 he was pre- vailed upon to allow his name to be used in connection with the candidacy for representa- tive from the first district of Shiawassee county. In the fall of that year he was elected for the first time, being re-elected in 1878. In 1880 he declined the nomination, on account of ill health.

During his legislative career Mr. Reed served on several important committees and distinguished himself by wise counsel and earnest labors. But for twenty years his health

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had been gradually undermined by a compli- cation of bronchial and catarrhal troubles, to- gether with threatened and finally partially de- veloped paralysis. During the last five years of his life he was almost entirely confined to his home. In October, 1883, he left his home for Fort Worth, Texas, hoping to be benefited by a change of climate, but he survived only un- til January, 1885, passing away on the 21st of the month.

Mrs. Reed, the mother of our subject, was a native of Michigan, born in Farming- ton, Oakland county, July 27, 1831. In 1838 she came with her parents to Shia- wassee county, where she continued to reside until her marriage, in 1854. As stated, she then removed to Vernon township, .where she resided until her death, June 10, 1901. She was the mother of three children,-Cassius S., Gordon S. and Nora L. Kear. Gordon S. Reed was only twenty-seven years and nine days old at the time of his death, on April 10, 1890. The cause of his death was quick con- sumption. He was born in the township and lived there all his life.

Mrs. Reed was a woman of deep piety, and during the later years of her life took an active interest in the affairs of the Methodist Epis- ccpal church, with which she united by letter, May 4, 1890. Not long prior to her death she had a severe attack of nervousness, the effects of a broken hip, from which she never rallied. On June 1, 1901, she fell and sus- tained a severe fracture of her hip. This acci- dent, coupled with her generally weak condi- tion, was the cause of her lamented death, which occurred nine days later.

Our subject, the oldest child, was, educated at the district school and the high school at Ver- non, working industriously on the family farm during the summer and fall months. His mar- riage to Fannie M. Clark occurred November 1, 1883. Two children are living, of the three which have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Reed- Ethel M. and Inez E., the latter being a grad- uate of the Durand school, class of 1905.

Blaine Clark Reed, the only son, was born September 3, 1890. He was a bright, manly boy and a general favorite; was a member of the Durand school and the Congregational Sunday school, and, after a week's illness, died of peritonitis, on September 21, 1904, having but just entered his fifteenth year.

The wife of our subject is the daughter of Charles and Celia (Purdy) Clark, her father being born in Freetown, New York, and her mother in Bennington township, Shiawassee county. Her father died in April, 1869, and her mother is still living.

As already stated, Mr. Reed is a Republi- can, and although not an office-seeker, he does not believe in shirking such political duties as come to those who are qualified to administer local public affairs. He has already most acceptably filled the offices of school inspector and township clerk, and has often been urged to accept other positions in the public service, but has been obliged to decline on account of the pressing nature of his own large interests. For many years he has been actively identified with the general farming interests of the county, but of late has specialized in the direc- tion of sheep-feeding. He has erected a stock barn at a cost of two thousand dollars, the same being seventy-six by one hundred and eighteen feet in dimensions, with cement floors and foundations, and showing other conveni- ences which mark the modern stock-raiser and feeder. In this large and up-to-date structure Mr. Reed will feed and fatten his sheep for the market on scientific and sanitary princi- ples; it is a large project, and one in which he takes a deep and growing interest, as do his fellow .stock-raisers in Shiawassee county. He is feeding at this writing about one. thou- sand head of Idaho lambs. His farm com- prises one hundred and seventy acres of choice land.

Mr. Reed is also a director of the First National Bank of Durand. As to his religious affiliations, although not a member of any denomination, he gives his support to the Con-

MRS. RASSELAS REED

CASSIUS S. REED AND FAMILY

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gregational church at Durand. He is a mem- ber of Durand Lodge, No. 449, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Owosso Lodge, No. 753, Benevolent Patriotic Order of Elks, and Vernon Tent, No. 337, Knights of the Macca- bees. Socially Mr. and Mrs. Reed rank among the best of Durand's intelligent citi- zens.

WILLIAM T. REED

Emerson, America's greatest philosopher, says that "the first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land." Then, another wise man calls agriculture "blessed, if one does not have too much of it." Possibly both these opinions are logically sound. At any rate Michigan con- tains thousands upon thousands of men who do not claim "historic nobility" or anything of that nonsensical nature; but they do claim to be men, and to know all about the use of land. They are in truth the bone and sinew of the country. There is no better example of this class of farmers than the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He is a native of Mid- dlebury township, Shiawassee county, where he now resides, and was born May 1, 1853. His father was born in Pennsylvania July 4, 1825, and died in Du Plain township, Clin- ton county, Michigan, September 21, 1891. His wife, Henrietta (Sowles) Reed, was born July 19, 1820, and died January 11, 1878, in Fairfield township. The latter's father, Gar- ner Sowles, was born June 30, 1793, and died October 21, 1877, in Fairfield township. James Reed, our subject's grandfather, died in 1861, and after this event his widow removed to Ohio, the father of our subject having been eight years old at the time-1833. In 1846 William T. Reed's father came to Calhoun county; Michigan, where he remained two years. In 1852 he removed to Middlebury township and took up one hundred and twenty- four acres of school land from the state, on sections 3 and 4. There were no roads to

the place. He first built a log house and sta- ble, and he cleared all but ten acres, also fencing the farm. The nearest neighbor was distant three miles. Our subject's father was an expert hunter and the former can remem- ber seeing the saddles of twenty-one deer hanging together, the result of his father's skill with a rifle. One night he saw his father shoot a deer by the light of the moon. The latter used to build a scaffold in the woods, mount the same, so as to conceal his presence, then shoot deer while they were attempting to pass by or under him. Once while his father was returning after dark from a job of chop- ping, his dog treed a bear. When he shot the animal he could hear its blood trickling down the tree. His brother-in-law appeared on the scene with another gun and was dis- patched for an old-fashioned candle lantern, but before he returned the bear backed down the tree and was at once attacked by the dog -both the bear and the dog passing between Mr. Reed's legs. The brother-in-law soon ar- rived with the lantern, which he held over Mr. Reed's head while the latter again shot, killing the bear.

Our subject's father eventually built a frame house and barn on his new farm. In 1862 he traded one-half of his farm for eighty acres in Middlebury township, and removed to the new place, improving fifty acres of the same. In 1868 he sold this property and bought eighty acres in Fairfield township, twenty acres of which were improved. After the death of his wife he sold this and bought forty acres of improved land in DuPlain township, Clinton county, where he lived at the time of his death. He was the first of five children : Thomas has not been heard from since he was a child; James was in the civil war and died in the service; Polly, who lives in Portland, Indiana, married Benjamin Bradley; Sarah, who lives in Ovid, Michigan, married William Barnes.

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Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 58

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