Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 68

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 68

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graduated, one year later. He first located at Hartmonsville, West Virginia, remaining there six months and from there coming to St. Clair, Michigan, where he remained about six months. He then moved to Perrinton, Gra- tiot county, where he stayed four years, and August 19, 1897, he located at Laings- burg, where he has built up an extensive prac- tice.

In 1895 Dr. Wade was married to Nettie Musser. She died in 1899. In July, 1901, he was again married to Josephine Ward, a daughter of Dr. E. B. and Elizabeth (Allen) Ward. The father of Mrs. Wade came to Laingsburg in 1862 and commenced the practice of medicine. He graduated from the University of Michigan in the second class in medicine turned out from that institution. Mrs. Wade was born April 19, 1866. Dr. Ward was for many years well and favorably known in this county, serving this district as a member of the legislature. He was presi- dent of the village and a member of the coun- cil. He was a man of high respectability and noted for his many fine qualities of heart and mind. Mrs. Wade was the second in a family of two children. Her brother, Dr. Walter E. Ward, is practicing medicine at Owosso. He is married. To Dr. and Mrs. Wade have been born five children, one of whom is de- ceased. The living are Bernard, Bessie, Flor- ence and Evaline. Mrs. Wade's father died in 1899 ; her mother is still living.

Dr. and Mrs. Wade are members of the Congregational church. Politically the Doctor is a Republican and fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons. Being yet on the sunny side of life, Dr. Wade should have many years of usefulness in reserve. Socially he and his family are esteemed as among Laingsburg's most highly appreciated citizens.

FRANK L. WAIT

This gentleman was born in Fairfield town- ship, Shiawassee county, on the farm where

he now resides, April 23, 1857. He is a son of Charles G. Wait, who was born in Cuya- hoga county, Ohio, in 1830 and who died in Middlebury township January 4, 1895. He was a Democrat in politics and was once su- pervisor of Fairfield township. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife, Eliza (Tillotson) Wait, was born in Brunswick, Medina county, Ohio, in 1829, and passed to the silent shore on March 13, 1885. They were married in the Buckeye state May 29, 1850, and four years afterward they re- moved to Fairfield township, where Charles Wait purchased seventy-one acres of govern- ment land, on fractional section 32 and section 33, the original deed to which our subject still holds. It is signed by the president of the United States. There was then only one In- dian trail leading to the place and wild game of all kinds was abundant. Being a carpenter, the elder Wait built a frame house, the first part of which is still used by a tenant on the property. He subsequently bought another seventy-one acres of timbered land, making one hundred and forty-two acres in all. This he also cleared. At the time of his death he owned forty-one acres on section 32 and sec- tion 53 in the same township and also property in Mabbett's addition to Ovid, Clinton county, but in Middlebury township, Shiawassee coun- ty. These pioneers endured many hardships in their early days. They journeyed from Cleveland to Detroit by boat and from Detroit to Pontiac staged it, as they had no team. The elder Wait helped build almost all the roads near him, chopping and logging the same. When he reached Fairfield township he had just one dollar and fifty cents left. Our subject has the rifle with which his father killed a bear near his house. He used to hitch his oxen to a sled in the winter and go for miles through the deep snow to visit neigh- bors.

Our subject started for himself at the age of twenty-six years, when he married Cor- nelia Woodworth, February 24, 1883. She

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was born September 16, 1863. He rented his father's farm for three years. His father then gave him thirty-five and one-half acres and his wife bought as much more from her father-in-law. In the spring of 1884 our subject bought eighty acres on section 33, Fairfield, mostly wild land and the same spring sold twenty acres. He improved the remain- ing sixty acres, most of which was native for- est. Later he and his brother-in-law, William T. Reed, bought forty acres of wild land on section 33, Fairfield. This they divided equal- ly. At the time of his father's death Frank L. Wait purchased the interests of the other heirs in the forty-one acres left by the father, thus coming into possession of the old homestead. Excepting the large barn which the elder Wait built, our subject has erected nearly all the other buildings on the place. In 1900 he added to the present large, handsome residence and now owns one hundred and ninety-two acres of highly cultivated soil,-one of the best and most valuable farms in the entire re- gion about. Mrs. Wait, wife of Frank L. Wait, is a daughter of William Woodworth, who was born October 10, 1809, and who died at Ovid, Michigan, May 25, 1905. Deceased came of Scotch parentage, and his wife, Syl- via A. (Andrus) Woodworth, was born June 15, 1823, and died March 8, 1889. At the time of his death Mr. Woodworth was ninety- six years of age. His mother, Catherine (Mc Pherson) Woodworth, died when he was eight years old, his father two years later, leaving a family of five children to be thrown upon the charity of friends and neighbors, the youngest being only six months old at the death of his mother. William was taken by farmers, with whom he lived for four years, attending school winters while living with his first patron; the second one beat him and threatened to hang him, and he was removed by the county authorities and bound out to a farmer in Albany county until he should be twenty-one years old. By the terms of the contract he was to receive a good common

schooling, and at the age of twenty-one years two suits of clothes and a Bible. He lived there four years, illy clothed and fed, and one cold March day was set chopping wood without mittens or boots. When he applied at the house for admission to warm he was told to work and keep warm. After the third refusal he put down his ax and started away never to return. Thus, at the age of sixteen, he entered the world as his own master. Nine years driver on the Erie canal and a similar period as driver on the old stage coach from Buffalo to Batavia add a touch of rough pic- turesqueness to his varied career. While en- gaged as stage driver he met Miss Sylvia An- drus of Silver Creek, New York. The ac- quaintance ripened into friendship and he left the stage route to begin farming at Silver Creek, where he married Miss Andrus Novem- ber 17, 1847.

In 1885 he migrated to the wilds of Michi- gan, where he settled on a part of the old Dewey and Stewart farm near Owosso. Here, amid the hardships and privations of pioneer life, he reared his family of eight children, giving them the educational advantages which to his dying day he so bitterly deplored hav- ing been deprived of in his own youth. In 1874 he moved from Bennington township to the homestead, three miles north of Ovid, now oc- cupied by his daughter, Mrs. Bigford.

In 1880, being free from debt, with a small sum of ready money on hand, he was ready to begin a mission which for years he had been looking forward to, namely, the finding of the brothers and sisters who had been sep- arated upon the death of their father, in 1819. After a long, eventful search which reads like a veritable fairy tale, he found his sister Kath- erine near Albany, his brother John at Rich- mond, Virginia, and his sister Margaret at New Haven, Connecticut. He visited each of these new found relatives at their homes and the reunions attracted much newspaper com- ment at the time. One paper containing this account fell into the hands of Absalom, living

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in St. Louis, Missouri. Correspondence en- sued which established the identity of this, the baby brother whom William had never seen since a baby in his mother's arms, and in 1882 the three brothers and two sisters met at the old farm home north of Ovid for a great reunion, the first meeting of the re- united family since the death of their mother in 1817, sixty-five years previously. A his- tory of this event is given in these pages un- der the heading W. Henry Woodworth.

Three subsequent marriages helped to make remarkable the life of the man now eighty years old. Mrs. Julia Himes, of Howell; Mrs. Martha Mason, of Owosso, and Mrs. Eliza Cozadd proved their womanly virtues by their loving care of this lonely old man. Subse- quently to 1902 he lived with his children, principally Mrs. Wait, at whose home he died, May 25, 1905, after a brief and painless ill- ness.

The keen intelligence, ready wit, broad char- ities and sympathetic insight into human na- ture which characterized Mr. Woodworth as a man, remained with him to the last, and after nearly a century of earthly life, he entered into the palace of eternity to scenes of para- dise and everlasting delight.

Frank L. Wait is the second of three chil- dren : Susan, born in Ohio, August 15, 1852, lives in Fairfield township; she married Will- iam T. Reed and they have one son,-Harry C., who married Gertrude Simmons. They live at Ovid. Mary L., born June 4, 1863, is the wife of A. C. Smith, of Ovid, and they have a son,-Harold.

Mrs. Wait is the tenth of eleven children: Wilbur, born September 24, 1848, died Febru- ary 28, 1858. Emma, born November 1, 1849, married J. C. Flesher ; they live in Ovid township, Clinton county, and have three daughters,-Clara M., Dora. E. and Irene. Sara M. and Clara S. (twins) were born May 29, 1851; the former died in infancy. Clara S. married first David Thorpe, now dead; had five children,-

Eva G., Lena B. (dead), Edna M. (dead) and Frank; and her second marriage was to Levi Markham, who died May 30, 1905. She now lives in Middlebury town- ship. W. H., born April 19, 1853, married Melavina Parks and lives in Owosso township ; they had four children,-Lulu M. (dead), Lewis, Elmor and Clifford. Tyler, born June 20, 1854, lives in Owosso township; he mar- ried Cora Abbey and they have three chil- dren,-Myrtle, Harry and Earl. Melissa, born May 11, 1856, married George Bigford and they live in DuPlain.township, Clinton county, having had three children,-Wilbur, Margaret (dead) and Frank. John D., born June 14, 1859, married Linnie Tyler, and they live in Ovid township, Clinton county, having one son,-Leon. Olin H., born March 26, 1861. lives in Ovid township, Clinton county ; he married Viola Morgan, and they have one son,-Robert. Our subject's wife was next in order of birth. The eleventh child died in in- fancy.

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wait are as follows : Edith M., born April 30, 1887, married Ivan L. Burnett, fireman on the Ann Arbor Railroad, july 4, 1902 ; he was injured at a wreck at Mesick, Wexford coun- ty, Michigan, March 18, 1905, and died at his home in Owosso March 26, 1905 ; they had two children,-Howard Wait, born April 23, 1903, and Merlywn L., born October 12, 1904. Lloyd, the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Wait, was born September 28, 1890.

Mr. Wait does not belong to any political party but votes for the best men. He is a member of the Masonic order, the Odd Fel- lows, Modern Woodmen of America, the Gleaners and Modern Brotherhood, all at Ovid.

H. C. WALKER

Some men seem to be imbued with a natural gift for business, possessing the personality which attracts and holds the patronage of the

H. C. WALKER

FOUR GENERATIONS

MRS. WILLIAM H. CHAFFEE, BORN JANUARY 17, 1819 SEWARD CHAFFEE, BORN JANUARY 8, 1852 MRS. H. C. WALKER, BORN NOVEMBER 8, 1881 HARRY CARL WALKER, BORN JULY 19, 1904

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people. Of course in order to continue suc- cessful there must be present in all transac- tions a natural integrity that inspires con- fidence, and a friendship that warms the heart of one's fellowmen. The subject of this sketch possesses the qualities which are rapidly raising him to an enviable position in the business world. He possesses the energy required in the competition of present-day business methods.

His father, Fred Walker, was a native of Germany, coming to this country with his par- ents in the year 1854. The father with the family located in Washtenaw county, state of Michigan, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of partly improved land, which he converted into a very fine farm. Our subject's father was the oldest of a fam- ily of six children. The others were Mary, wife of John Hutzel, a farmer; Ricka, wife of George J. Mann; George, a farmer ; Will- iam, a farmer, and Emma, who died in 1881. All the surviving children are residents of Washtenaw county, Michigan.

Our subject's mother, Katherine (Rentch- ler) Walker, belonged to a respected pioneer family of Washtenaw county, where she was born and where she met and married Fred Walker. She departed this life on the 30th of April, 1889, loved and honored by all who knew her. She had twelve brothers and sis- ters,-Fred, Matthew, Mary, George, Chris- tian, Emanuel, Agatha, Charles, Louise, Lena, William and Edward.

H. C. Walker is one of a family of five chil- dren. The oldest, Fred, is a farmer, residing in Washtenaw county. The second, Matilda, is the wife of John Theurer, a merchant at Ann Arbor, Michigan. The third is the subject of this sketch. He was born in Lodi township, near Saline, Michigan, on the 23d day of No- vember, 1878. The fourth and fifth were twins,-Aaron is clerking for our subject and Julius is a farmer residing in Washtenaw county.

Mr. Walker's early education was acquired

in the district schools of Washtenaw county. He attended school in the winter and worked upon his father's farm in the summer.

When he arrived at the age of fourteen years he started in to do business for him- self, finding employment by the month, on a farm. When he was sixteen he secured a po- sition in a general store in Bridgewater, where he remained five years, preparing for his fu- ture career and anxiously awaiting an oppor- tunity of becoming his own business manager. The opportunity came soon after he was twen- ty-one, when he was made a partner in the grocery with Mr. Nissly at Byron, Michigan, under the firm name of Nissly & Company. This partnership lasted about one year and a half, when, upon the decease of Mr. Nissly, our subject purchased his partner's interest and became the sole proprietor.

The motto of Mr. Walker has been never to fail to grasp an opportunity to enlarge his business and better his financial condition. In 1904 he procured the store building next his grocery, cut archways between and made for himself a large double store, adding a fine line of clothing, men's furnishing goods, boots and shoes. Here he now employs five clerks.

On the 16th of September, 1903, he was united in marriage to Edna Chaffee, who was born November 8, 1881. Her father is a na- tive of the state of New York. He came to Burns township and settled on a farm in an early day. Mr. Chaffee has held the office of supervisor of Burns township, where he and his family are uniformly respected.

Mr. Walker and his estimable young wife have been blessed by the birth of a son, Harry C., born July 19, 1904. Politically our subject adheres to the Republican party, as did his father before him. Socially he is a member of the Loyal Guards and Maccabees.

FLORANCE F. WALWORTH

This gentleman, now in the prime of life, spent seven years as a sailor on the Great

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Lakes, most of this time being engaged in towing lumber from Saginaw to Ohio ports. During this period he sailed from one end of the lakes to the other and while thus engaged his thoughts turned to the foundation of all business, that of farming. He therefore bought forty acres of wild land in Hazelton township, Shiawassee county, with the pur- pose of devoting the balance of his days to tilling the soil for a livelihood. Not long after this we find him constructing a log cabin and barn on his new possessions. For the space of two years he occupied this cabin as a "bach- elor hall," meanwhile plying his ax and saw in felling the mighty forest, which towered - heavenward in front of him, behind him and all about him.

Florance F. Walworth is a native of Pu- laski, Oswego county, New York, where he was born August 22, 1851. His father was Azle Walworth. He, too, was a native of the same state as is the son. He died, however, in St. Clair county, Michigan, in 1862, at the age of forty-five years. The latter's wife, mother of the subject of this sketch, was Dor- lisca Rathbun. She, too, was born in Oswego county, and she died in Shiawassee county, Michigan.

The parents of Florance were married in New York state. They came to Michigan when he was four years old. They located on. St. Clair river, St. Clair county, where the father engaged in farming. He never bought any land, however, but rented. He lived in that county until his death. He was a Demo- crat, was a good speaker, always took an active part in politics, but never held office. After the death of her husband Mrs. Wal- worth came to live in Shiawassee county. About two years after the death of her hus- band she married Hiram Fuller and she con- tinued to live in Shiawassee county until her death. Five children were born of her first marriage. Myron died about twenty-one years ago, aged thirty-four years. Florance F. was the second. John lives in the village of North

Lathrop. Tillie is now Mrs. Francis Brown, living in Hazelton township. Azle is living in Hazelton. Mr. Walworth has a half-sister, daughter of Hiram Fuller, and she is now Mrs. W. Warner, of Hazelton ..

Florance F. Walworth was educated in the district schools of St. Clair county, and lived with his parents until he was eleven years of age, when occurred the death of his father. He then lived for two years with a family named Clark. On October 12, 1878, he was married to Lucinda Tuttle, who was born in Genesee county, New York, September 21, 1856. She is a daughter of Spencer Tuttie, who was born June 15, 1835, and who died in 1899, and of Jane (Clothew) Tuttle, who was born in New York state, September 3, 1838, and who died at the age of fifty-two years. Spencer Tuttle was a cooper by trade. He was married in New York state and came to Michigan when his daughter, Mrs. Walworth, was only twelve years of age. He first lo- cated in Genesee county, near Flint, and lived there two years. He then removed to New Haven township, Shiawassee county, and bought forty acres of wild land. He afterward sold this and bought another forty acres. He cleared both farms and made New Haven his home until his death. Mrs. Walworth was the eldest of six children: William died at the age of four years. Willie now lives in the state of Washington on a homestead claim ; he married Frankie Whitsall, of New Haven township; they have four children. Myron, like his brother, lives on a homestead claim in the state of Washington ; he married Ettie Turner, of Venice township, and they have two children. Jennie died at the age of two years. Harlo lives in Brant township, Sag- inaw county ; he married Hattie Murray and they have no children.

Mr. and Mrs. Walworth have three children as follows: Azle S., born September 26, 1879, married Pearl Mulliman, of New Lothrop, and now lives on the old farm of Mr. Wal- worth, in Hazelton. Floyd F. was born July

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16, 1882. He attended the district schools of Hazelton, later continuing his studies in Big Rapids. He is now teaching in the Under- wood district, New Haven township, having taught his first school three years and having been in his present school two years. He is well liked, is a success, enjoys his work, draws a salary of thirty-five dollars a month spring and fall terms and in winter receives forty dollars per month. He is not married. Mary, born November 26, 1883, is single and is likewise a teacher. She received her educa- tion in district schools, and under the tutor- ship of one teacher, Leslie Kinnie, of Owosso, was enabled to leave the district school and begin teaching, having taught her first school during the year ending in June, 1905.

When Mr. Walworth was married he took his bride to his farm on section 19, Hazelton township, and in the log cabin he had erected and occupied as his "bachelor hall" for two years previously they lived for eleven years, in the meanwhile clearing the farm and caring for their children. Finally they had accumu- lated sufficient to warrant them in building a better and more pretentious home; conse- quently they have erected a beautiful frame structure, as fine as any in the neighborhood. They have also added a large new barn and other buildings. They continued to live there until the spring of 1905 when they removed to another forty-acre farm, on section 18, giv- ing their son Azle S. the old farm. The prop- erty on which they -now live is better known as the Cantley farm. It is all improved and has excellent buildings.

Mr. Walworth is a Republican, but has never held office. He was once a delegate from his town to a Republican county conven- tion. He is not a church member, but belongs to the Grange, and is in every respect a model and useful citizen.

JOHN B. WATERMAN

John B. Waterman, whose farm has been in possession of either his father or of himself

for a period of nearly half a century, has for some years been prominent in temperance work, as well as in connection with the educa- tional progress of the county. The son of Benjamin W. and Pamilla (Hilliard) Water- man, he was born in Caledonia township on the 19th of August, 1848. His father was a native of the Green Mountain state, having been born in Shrewsbury county, Vermont, April 23, 1816, and having died on his farm, in section 4, Caledonia township, Shiawassee county, Michigan, November 27, 1893. Our subject's mother was born in New Hampshire, September 17, 1813, and preceded her husband to the eternal life by only a decade.

The parents of our subject were married in Hartland county, New York, on the 11th of April, 1837. Two years thereafter they came to Michigan, the father buying eighty acres of wild land. The story is told that he hired a man to clear the heavy timber from one-half an acre by giving him a gun. Money was so scarce in those days and in this coun- try that nearly all transactions were done on the basis of barter.

Mr. Waterman returned to New York, but the following year located on the land, which he had commenced to improve, and sowed a portion of it to wheat. One of his little trips about this time was a walk to Detroit. In the spring of 1841 he located in Caledonia township, when he built a log house and be- gan clearing another tract of land. There he lived until 1859, when he bought one hundred and eight acres adjoining, on which farm he settled and on which, as it proved, he passed the remainder of his life. This was developed into the homestead in section 4, to which refer- ence is made at the beginning of this sketch. The deceased was a Republican and at one time held the office of justice of the peace. In religion he was a Universalist. Our sub- ject was one of six children, as follows: (1) Henry L., a resident of Gladwin county, was born April 11, 1838; his wife was formerly Nancy Eldridge. (2) Elizabeth P., born De-

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cember 9, 1840, is the wife of Peter Stemm, of Petoskey. (3) Caroline, born April 6, 1845, died June 11, 1898, having been the wife of Charles Jackson. (4) our subject. (5) Harriet, born May 3, 1852, died at the age of eleven years. (6) Christopher, born June 9, 1854, is in the baking department of the Battle Creek, Michigan, Sanitarium.

John B. Waterman received only such in- complete educational advantages as could be obtained in the district schools, but he im- proved his opportunities to the utmost, and added to them by home study and general reading. Both his natural ability and his ac- quired intelligence were recognized by his fellow citizens by calling upon him to ad- minister various school affairs of the town- ship, for a period of sixteen years. He also served as township clerk for some time. For- merly a Republican, his moral sense finally so revolted against the terrible effects of the liquor traffic and liquor enslavement that he joined the ranks of the Prohibitionists and now votes with their organization. His reli- gious affiliations are with the Methodist Epis- copal church.

On December 24, 1879, Mr. Waterman was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie Campbell, a native of Wayne county, Michigan, where she was born April 14, 1847. Her father was born on the Isle of Wight, England, of Scotch ancestry. He was a farmer and from Wayne county removed to Shiawassee county, Michi- gan ; her mother, whose maiden name was Gould, was a Scotch lady.

To Mr. and Mrs. John B. Waterman five children have been born. Webster, born Janu- ary 30, 1882, is unmarried and lives at home ; Mary was born June 17, 1883; Hudson was born August 6, 1884 ; the fourth child died in infancy ; the fifth, George, was born April 8, 1888.

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Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches, Part 68

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