USA > Michigan > Oakland County > Portrait and biographical album of Oakland County, Michigan, containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 34
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In 1879 Mr. Baker removed to Michigan, and bought the farm where he now resides and settled upon it. llere he has resided from that day to this. It is a fine little farm of one hundred and thirty- nine acres and he has another small farm of forty acres at another place. He started in life empty handed but was possessed with those precious en- dowments of nature, pluck, push and perseverance. He is unfortunately of a too confiding and unsus-
picious a nature and does not readily discern ras- cality in those with whom he deals. He has con- sequently been unfortunate with his dealings with others and has been swindled out of more money than he now possesses.
This gentleman has given all his attention to farming since he came to this State. Although a Democrat in his political views, he pays little atten- tion to politics, and is only careful to cast his vote upon the day of election. He is identified with the order of the Free and Accepted Masons.
On November 19, 1851, an event of great import- ance in the life of our subject took place in New Haven, Conn. It was his marriage with Jane Ob- dike. This lady was born in Stillwater, N. J., Jan- uary 4, 1836, and is a daughter of Anthony and Ann (Lininbery ) Obdike. Six children have been granted to our subject and his wife. They are George and Robert E., who have died; Eli H., a farmer living with his father; Sarah, deceased: Willis A., a farmer who married Sarah M. Hutch- eson of Birmingham, and has one child; and Ida, who is deceased.
OHN E. BENEDICT, was born in Saratoga Springs, N. Y., November 3, 1836. He is a son of Eri and Delia E. (Darrow) Bene- dict. Eri Benedict was born in Greenfield, Saratoga County, N. Y., March 20, 1799. Here he grew to manhood and married. He was the son of John, who was one of the first settlers of Saratoga County. Eri Benedict came to Michigan in 1844, and settled in Detroit. In 1856 he removed onto a farm in Bloomfield Township, this county, which is now owned by Mr. A. C. Tibbils. Here he lived for many years but finally ended his days in Bir- mingham, March 21, 1889. His wife who was born and died in the same place as her husband, was a daughter of Isaac Darrow, of Saratoga County. Her natal day was July 25, 1803. She died in the fall of 1886. Seven children were granted to this worthy couple.
Our subject was reared in his native town and was about eight years of age when the family re-
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moved to Detroit. Ile learned the machinist's trade in the Michigan Iron Works under his uncle J. B. Wayne. Since coming to this county he has given all his attention to farming and fruit raising, and has a farm of sixty five aeres, about thirteen of which are in an apple orchard and three or four acres are in grapes. lle gave his father the benefits of his labors until he came to this county. He and his brothers then bought the place known as the Fish place, going in debt for the whole amount. Ile is now one of the leading farmers in the town and is in easy financial circumstances but all which he possesses is the result of hard work and good management.
Mr. Benedict is a Republican although he is not active in politics and he is a quiet but substantial member of the Grange. He believes in churches but is not personally connected with any religious denomination. He was married June 19, 1871, to Ellen C., daughter of Lewis W., and Julia (Tyler) Adams. This lady was born in Southfield, this county, May 1, 1840. She is the mother of three children-Edwin L., Hattie B. and Carrie E. Her father is now deceased, but her mother lives with a son Lewis in Detroit. She is a daughter of Tim- othy Tyler, a native of Connecticut who settled in Shiawassee County, in the early days.
E EDWARD N. GROW. a retired farmer of Clyde, Highland Township, is a son of Elisha and Lois (Palmer) Grow, who are elsewhere mentioned in this book. Our subject and his brother Edwin were twins, and were born, March 8. 1822, in Ilomer Township, Cortland County, N. Y. When fifteen years of age he came to Michigan and settled in Waterford, in May, 1837, and has since resided in Oakland County. When nineteen years old he learned the trade of a shoemaker, and worked at it for seven years. December 27, 1848, he was married in Clarkston, to Susan Landon, who was born December 25, 1827, in Canada. She is a daughter of Ebenezer Landon, a native of New York. At an early day he went to Canada, and in 1836 came to Port
Hluron, Mich. He owned a farm in Chester Township, Eaton County, comprising one hundred and sixty acres which he worked, and also followed the trade of a carpenter. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. and received a land warrant of forty acres for his services. Hle and his wife were Free . Will Baptists.
The children of Mr. Edward Grow and wife are: Miriam A., now Mrs. Van Valkenburg, who resides in Brady, Saginaw County; Frank II., a farmer at Fenton; Albert R. at South Saginaw; Lois A., who is now Mrs. Wallace, and resides at East Saginaw, and John who is deceased. Mr. Grow lived for five years on his sixty- acre farm at Waterford. He then moved to Springfield on a farm of eighty acres. After living there nine years he went to Clarkston, and after a year removed to Highland Township. Here he lived from 1865 until 1879, when he came to the village of Clyde, where he still lives, having sold his farm in 1886. Ile has a good location and a fine residence, but most of his property is in money. Both he and his wife are Baptists, and his political affiliations are and always have been with the Republican party.
RUMAN II. RICE who operates the foundry and planing-mill at Oxford, was born in Warren County, N. Y., March 9, 1832. IIe belongs to an old Vermont family who came originally from England. His grandfather, Asa Rice, Sr., came from England when but a child. Soon after his arrival in this country he was cap- tured by the Indians and kept by them for nine years. His experiences added great intensity to his abhorrence of them. When he grew to manhood he located in Massachusetts and became a farmer. He entered the Revolutionary Army and served throughout the period of conflict.
Our subject is the son of Asa and Relief Rice, natives of Western New York. The father lived and died in Warren County, N. Y., passing from life, in March, 1877. His wife had been called away from earth in August, 1838. Their family con- sisted of seven children, namely: Hiram, who is
Aug. C. Baldum
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deceased; Minerva, wife of Elisha Wickham, of Ballston Spa, N. Y .; Smith, who lives on the old homestead; Clark, at Edinburg, N. Y .; George. deceased ; D. P., and Truman H.
Young Rice became a clerk in a general store when only sixteen years of age. After two years service there he engaged in a sawmill and lumber business. He came to Michigan in 1871, and went into the lumber business in Lapeer County. where he remained three and one-half years. After this he came to Oxford and in 1874 engaged in the lumber and milling business here. In connection with B. L. Waite he bought the old gristmill, which they operated for about two years. He then bought the foundry and planing-mill which he still owns and operates.
The marriage of Mr. Rice in February, 1864 with Mary J. Ayres, was an event of great im- portance and has resulted in a domestie life of unusual happiness. Two children have blessed their home-Myrtle and Inez. Their eldest daughter, Myrtle, has become the wife of Eber Lewis now living in Saginaw. Mr. Rice is a member of the Masonic order and is also a Knight of the Macca- bees. His political affiliations are with the Demo- cratie party, and he has been placed by the citizens of Oxford in various offices of trust and responsi- bility. Ile was for some time Supervisor and has been Alderman for a number of years.
M AJ. CHARLES FORD KIMBALL, of Pontiac, was born in Piermont, Grafton County, N. H. July 24, 1834. Ilis father, Lewis Kimball, was of the old Plainfield stock of Kimballs, and a lineal descendant of the family of refugees who came from Scotland and found an asylum in Connecticut about the year 1640. Ilis mother, whose maiden name was Lucy Ford. was of Englishi descent, her ancestors having settled in Hebron, Conn., some time in the seven- teenth century. She was a woman of great execu- tive ability, determination and force of character. She died suddenly March 2, 1858, at the age of forty-nine years.
Our subject attended the district schools in his
native place until about ten years of age, and after- ward for brief intervals the academies of Haver- hill, N. II., and Bradford. Vt. It was his ambition to study law and he was thus preparing to enter college; but owing to financial embarrassments the family removed, in 1849,from Bradford to Holyoke, Mass., and he determined to earn his own living and finish his education as circumstances might favor him. At the age of fifteen he entered the printing office of the Holyoke Freeman as an ap- prentice, and there remained about one year. When in 1850 the family removed to Nashua, N. H., he entered the office of the Nashua Telegraph, at that time published by the Hon. Albin Beard.
In the spring of 1854 Mr. Kimball had finished his apprenticeship, and meanwhile by close applica- tion had prepared himself for entering the Univer- sity, and in December he left New England, intend- ing to matriculate at Madison University in Hamil- ton, N. Y. His previous years of hard, confining work and close application had impaired his health, and he soon found that it would be impossible to continue his studies. He left the University and started West on a prospecting tour, and after visit- ing Cincinnati and St. Louis, went to Kansas. where he remained about a month. From Kansas City he sent home his books and extra baggage and started alone and on foot on a journey through sparsely- settled Northern Missouri, intending eventually to reach Chicago.
Before many days the strength of Mr. Kimball failed, and when he reached the little town of Tren- ton, Grundy County, he laid up for repairs. When convalescent he was induced to purchase the dis- mantled wreck of a printing office wherein the Frontier Western Pioneer was wont to be published, and in May, 1885, issued the first number of the North Missouri Herald, at Trenton. Here he continued, against the odds of ill health and a "pioneer country printer's purse," until the follow- ing November, when he loaded the entire plant into a couple of "prairie schooners" and moved it to Brunswick, Mo., where he entered into partnership with Judge Richard H. Musser and commenced the publication of the State Gazette.
There Mr. Kimball was successful, and would have continued, but his health again failed and he
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was compelled to sell his interest in June, 1856. Ile returned to his native State, and on August 19 following consummated a matrimonial engagement of several years' standing with Kate L., daughter of the Ilon. Joseph Sawyer, of Piermont. In May, 1857, by the advice of his physician, Mr. Kimball went abroad, visiting the Bermudas, Azores, Ma- deiras, Cape Verde Islands, and the west coast of Africa; recrossing the Atlantic to the West In- dies, thence home, arriving in August, 1858, with health completely restored. Hle says, "I went out a desponding, emaciated stripling. and came back a nut brown, hardy sailor." During his absence Mrs. Kimball, who is an accomplished scholar and torcher-a graduate at the head of her class of 1855 from Kimball I nion Academy at Meriden, N II .- had accepted the position of principal of the Mt. Pleasant High School at Nashua.
In September, 1858, Mr. Kimball, with his wife, again started West to begin basiness life anew, and at Aurora. Ind., formed a partnership with Col. Nelson and commenced the publication of the Aurora Commercial. Col. Nelson was a native of Kentucky and the partners soon differed on the question of sectional politics. Mr. Kimball with- drew and went to Richmond where he engaged as a journeyman printer in the Palladium office. the paper at that time being edited by the llon. D. P. Holloway, afterward Commissioner of Patents un - der President Lincoln. There he remained until March, 1861, when he was elected Secretary of the Board of Control and Clerk of the Northern Indiana State Prison, then in course of construction at Michigan City. On his way to fill his appointment and while awaiting instructions at Indianapolis, Ft. Sumter surrendered to the rebels-an event which "fired the Northern heart."
Having resided in the slave States, associated with and known intimately many of the Southern leaders, especially the Prices and Johnsons of Mis- souri, who were of the best stock of the F. F. V.'s, Mr. Kimball was fully convinced that the country was at the commencement of a long and bloody war. Ile expressed himself strongly to Gov. Mor- ton, ridiculing the dispatches from Washington that the rebellion would be ended in a few months, and urged the Governor to accept his resignation
and allow him to go back to Richmond and assist in reorganizing the Richmond Zouaves, of which he was Sergeant, and join the Eleventh Indiana, which Gen. Lew Wallace was authorized to raise. The great war Governor was inclined to think the struggle would be brief, and declined to allow the young man to adopt this course, saying to him as he boarded the train for Washington on the night of the 14th of April, 1861, "You have a very responsible position and I want you to retain it for the present."
Mr. Kimball had occupied the position at Mich- igan City over two years when he was appointed by Gov. Morton as Military Agent for the State of Indiana, with the rank of Major, and ordered to Department of Kentucky, and soon afterward trans- ferred to the Departments of Tennessee and the Gulf, with headquarters at Vicksburg and subse- quently at New Orleans. This position he held until the fall of 1864, when, the seat of war being transferred to the East and few Indiana soldiers remaining in those departments, he resigned and re- turned North. He carried on the book and station- ery business for a short time at Cambridge City, Ind., and thence went to Minneapolis. Minn., and temporarily engaged in the for trade. Afterward, in 1866, he became interested in the general mer- cantile and lumber business at Boscobel, Wis. In 1869-70 his firm sustained serious losses in the Mississippi River Inmber trade, and in February, 1871, be came to Michigan and became managing editor and joint proprietor of the l'ontiac Gazette, removing to Pontiac, where he has sinee lived.
The circulation of the Gazette at that time was small and the plant limited. It soon, however, in- creased largely, and for the last thirteen years has averaged above two thousand subscribers, and is recognized as one of the best county papers as well as one of the leading Republican organs of the State. Mr. Kimball was appointed Postmaster of Pontiac in April, 1875, and filled that position un- til February, 1880, when he declined a reappoint- ment and recommended his assistant, who was ap- pointed to succeed him. He was elected Secretary of the Northern Michigan Agricultural and Me- chanical Society in September, 1872, and upon its consolidation with the Michigan State Agricultural
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Society in January, 1873, was elceted Secretary, which position he held until 1877, when he declined a re-election. In November, 1889, Mr. Kimball was appointed by President Harrison United States Appraiser for the district and port of Detroit, and he assumed the duties of that office December 2 following.
Mr. Kimball has been an enthusiastic member of the Republican party from its organization, and has taken a prominent and active part in every cam- paign. Ile was for many years a member of the Republican State Central Committee, of Michigan, and also of the Republican County Committee of Oakland County, and for years Chairman of the Republican City Committee of Pontiac. ' He was always ceaseless in the work of organization of the Republican party. In the troublesome times at- tending the seating of Rutherford B. Hayes in the Presidential Chair to which he was elected, Mr. Kimball was in attendance at Washington with thousands of the tried and true, in answer to the summons of the Union League.
Early recognizing the value of the social element in political organization, in 1874 a few kindred spirits met at the Gazette editorial rooms and or- ganized the Lincoln Historical Society, of which Mr. Kimball was President. The organization had a fitful career, as public opinion was not then ripe. The custom of doing all political work and organ- ization with a great flourish of trumpets during a two months campaign and then allowing its results to dissipate and the party to go into desuetude, was too strongly entrenched to be at once successfully overcome. The Lincoln Club, however, was kept alive in one form and another, and with the organ- ization of the Michigan Club at Detroit, with which Mr. Kimball has been identified since its birth, it took a new lease of life. It was re-organized under the statutes of Michigan under the name Union Lincoln Republican Club, with Mr. Kimball as its President, and has become an institution of the country. Its annual banquets on the 12th of February, anniversary of the great martyr's birth, are political events of State signifieance.
Mr. Kimball has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1860, and organized and was Mas- ter for several years of Grant Lodge, No. 163, at
Boscobe', Wis. Ile is a Knight Templar. For many ycars he was a Trustee of the Congregational Church of Pontiac and an attendant upon its min- istrations. As a citizen he has taken an active interest in all matters pertaining to the public wel- fare. Liberal, sincere, persistent, self-reliant and energetic in character, an untiring worker both mentally and physically, he has been prominently recognized as one of Pontiac's representative citi- zens. As a writer he has shown a strong and vig- orons mind, and expresses himself tersely, clearly and to the point, and has placed his newspaper among the leading Republican journals of the State. Ou another page of this volume the reader will notice a lithographie portrait of Maj. Kim- ball.
SAAC CRAWFORD, JR., and his father arc old settlers of Milford Township, and have spent forty-one years together on a farm on seetion 17. There is another peculiar fact con- nected with their lives, which is that they were born upon the same tract of land in old England as the elder Isaac in 1798, and the younger, October 23, 1825. The father was first married to Mary Blan- chard, who was also a native of Lincolnshire and born in 1798. She died in 1850, while they were on their way from England to this State. She had borne seven children, three of whom grew to ma- turity and two still alive-Robert and Isaac. Rob- ert is a commission merchant in Detroit. After the decease of their mother the father made two other matrimonial alliances, but had no other chil- dren. He is now ninety-three years old, in good physical health and retaining his mental strength in a remarkable degree. He belongs to the Method- ist Episcopal Church, with which his first wife was identified.
The subject of this notice grew to manhood in Lincolnshire and from his boyhood engaged in farming with his father. In 1849, when he was twenty-four years old, he started for America in company with his parents. They landed in New York and went on to Buffalo where the wife and mother died. Father and son remained there ten
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weeks. until lake navigation began, then came on to Detroit by boat and to Pontiac by rail. They settled upon an eighty-acre tract, fifty of which were roughly improved, and here they have re- mained. Mr. Crawford now has one hundred and forty acres, all but twenty of which is cultivated land. He has always been a hard worker, but at the same time makes life as comfortable as he can by the way in which he looks upon it and the jovial nature which makes sunshine around him. He has put up barns and other out buildings, and in 1868 built his present residence, which cost $1.500. Ile still has active charge of the farm and takes part in Christian and civil work in this vicinity.
In April, 1861, Mr. Crawford was married to Miss Louisa C'osart, daughter of the pioneer Method- ist preacher of this locality. The Rev. John Cosart was born in New York, and brought his family to this State in October, 1835. He settled in Hartland Township, Livingston County, on a two hundred-acre farm which he entered from the Government. The only roads were Indian trails and the red men were numerous and wild animals abounded. The tract was in its primitive condition and it required hard work to prepare it for cultiva- tion. Mr. Cosart traveled on a circuit for over twenty years, here and in the State of New York, and the district was so large and the roads so poor, that it took him four weeks to go through. Some years before he died he removed to the village of Mil- ford and thence to Shiawassee County, where he breathed his last in 1872. His first wife was Louisa Stowell, a native of New York, who died in 1839. leaving four children, two of whom now survive. By a second marriage the Rev. Mr. Cosart had eight children. His widow is living in the village of Milford and is seventy-six years old. The work of love in which Mr. Cosart was engaged brought him in contact with many phases of character and life, and entailed upon him as arduous toil as one can well imagine. Ile shrunk from no difficulty or duty, but, having put his hand to the plow, kept his eye on the goal and pressed steadily forward.
Mrs. Crawford was born in Castile, N. Y., April 30, 1833, her father being at that time an active member of the New York Conference. She was but
an infant when she began her residence in this State and she was educated at Milford. She turned her attention to teaching, and for ten years labored successfully in that profession. She retains her interest in educational work, mental and moral, and has sympathized with the work done by her children, each of whom received as good privileges as the public schools afford. She is the mother of five children, four of whom are now living. These are Isaac Herbert, born November 10, 1862; Arthur John, June 18, 1864; Harry Blanchard, December 3, 1868, and Mary Louisa, December 7, 1870. Isaac lives in Saginaw County, and is happily married to Emma J. Crawford, Arthur married Emma Farnsworth, and lives in the same county as his older brother.
All of the children belong to the Methodist Church, while the parents are identified with the Wesleyan Methodists. Mrs. Crawford has been a member since her childhood and she and her hus- band take an active interest in Sunday-school work. She has been Superintendent of the local Sunday-school for many years. She has musical talent and plays upon the organ, and three of her family do the same. Mr. Crawford has taken an interest in educational matters in his neighborhood has been School Director many years, and is now Moderator of the Board. He votes with the Re- publican party and keeps well informed regarding political issues, in which he believes it the duty of every citizen to be posted and ready to cast an intelligent vote. The home of the Crawfords is a substantial brick house, the appearance of which is typical of the sterling lives of its occupants. The father of our subject died, April 25, 1891.
C ARNOT L. NORTHRUP. No man living in Milford and few in this county can claim a longer residence in the State than Mr. Northrup. He accompanied his parents to the West in 1830 and from his boyhood his inter- ests have been in Michigan. Ile has for some years past been engaged in the sale of hardware and agricultural implements in Milford, and car-
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ries the largest stoek and does the heaviest busi- ness of the kind in the place. lIe built the brick block in which his double store is located, and it is an ornament to the town. In both shelf and heavy hardware, customers have a good chance for selection, as Mr. Northrup has a varied assortment. He has been successful in his business affairs, not only in the line of trade he follows in town, but in buying and selling farm lands.
Benjamin Northrup, grandfather of Carnot L., was born in Connecticut, but made an early settle- ment in New York, and in that State, Josepli, father of our subject, was born and reared. Ile learned the trade of a blacksmith and carried on a shopat Auburn from 1819 to 1830, and then came West, having traded for a farm in Macomb County. The township-Mt. Clemens-in which his land lay, was an old settled district, as a French brigade had disbanded and many of its members located there during the French and Indian war. He carried on farming and stoek-raising and also did some work at his trade in that locality until 1835, then removed to Sterling Township. Three years later he removed to Utica, kept an hotel there a year, then worked at his trade in Detroit until he saw fit to retire from business. He then made his home in Chicago, Ill., where he died in 1883, at the age of eighty-six years. Ilis wife was Zeruah Ilanford, daughter of Alexander HIanford, a Revolutionary soldier who died in New York. Mrs. Northrup was born in Rome, N. Y .; she died in 1887 when eighty-six years old. She was the mother of eleven children, and Carnot L. was the third in order of birth.
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