Montcalm Co. MIGenWeb Family Group Sheet for the
Ellsworth H. STRYKER Family of Michigan.
submitted by Bonnie Stout for Montcalm County.

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Copyright © 2006 Bonnie Stout & MIGenWeb. All rights reserved.
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Ellsworth H. STRYKER b.22 Nov 1828 Trumbull County, Ohio
d.27 Aug 1911 Michigan Soldiers Home, Grand Rapids, Michigan
married:
Loretta BUTLER (m. 9 Oct 1864, Ada Township, Kent County, Michigan) b.about 1844 Michigan d.May 1880 Maple Valley Township, Montcalm County Michigan
parents of Loretta BUTLER are - unknown & unknown
married 2:
Prudence (unknown) SLOCUM (m.6 May 1899, United Bretheren Church, Cowden Lake, Montcalm County, Michigan) b.about 1838 Ohio b.5 Aug 1921 Sheridan, Montcalm County, MIchigan
parents of Prudence (unknown) SLOCUM are - unknown & unknown
Marriage to Loretta M. (Butler) Green performed by Rev. Edmund Smith. Lorin E. Ketchum, and Ann E. Ketchum, witnesses
parents of (Ellsworth H.):
Edward B. STRYKER
Sarah Roberts HUNGERFORD
children:
  1. [F] Sarah (b.8 Sep 1866 Cato Township, Montcalm County, Michigan) d.6 Sep 1941 Maple Valley Township, Montcalm County, Michigan
    married John Henry BUCHANAN 9 Mar 1888, Coral, Montcalm County, Michigan
  2. [F] Mae Belle (b.24 Jul 1869 Montcalm County, Michigan) d.31 Jul 1962 Coral Cemetery, Montcalm County, Michigan
    married Charles SMITH 24 Dec 1891, Coral, Montcalm County, Michigan
  3. [M] Charles F. (b.about 1873 Montcalm County, Michigan) d. unknown unknown
fact sources and writings about this individual:

1Civil War Pension Records
2US Census
3Montcalm County Clerk Records
4Kent County Clerk Records
5Headstone
6"History of Montcalm County Michigan" by John W. Dasef, volume 1, B.F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.

Ellsworth Stryker came to Cato Township, Montcalm County in 1856 from Trumbull County Ohio with his mother Sarah Hungerford Stryker and his two brothers William W. Stryker and Uriah (Uri) E. Stryker. He later lived in Maple Valley Township and in Greenville before entering the Michigan Soldiers Home in Grand Rapids Michigan in Jan 1905. Ellsworth enlisted in company F, Twenty-first Infantry, July 5,1862, at Cato, for 3 years. Mustered Sept. 3, 1862. Discharged for disability at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 30, 1863. Ellsworth was a farmer and was Cato Township supervisor in 1864 and 1871.

From chapter VI, Cato Township in the "History of Montcalm County Michigan" by John W. Dasef, volume 1, B.F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.

Knot Maul
"The next settler here (east half of NE quarter of section 28 at the corners known as Knot Maul) was Ellsworth H. Stryker, who entered the southwest quarter of section 21, also in the fall of 1856. Mr. Stryker was an early and earnest Abolitionist, and for years the favorite and successful candidate for the office of township clerk on the Republican ticket. From an incident in which he was the leading spirit the corners near which he lived received its singular name. During the presidential canvass of 1860, when the several political parties were extolling the virtues of their representatives, and the superiority of the Republican candidate as a rail-splitter ws represented in every conceivable way, Ellsworth H. Stryker, with his brothers, Uriah and William, brought from the woods a most singular growth in the form of the body of a tree. The trunk, which at the base was scarcely more than a foot in diameter, about fifteen feet from the ground suddenly enlarged into a huge knot several feet in diameter, above which it again assumed its normal growth, and several feet above branched into limbs. The trunk was severed just above the knot, and the contrast rendered more striking by taking the bark from the handle of what was intended to represent a huge maul. When completed it was placed in the ground at the corners where the roads cross on section 28 and the peculiar sign was at once understood as it was intended- a declaration of principles. The people of the township, heretofore in need of a name for this place, which in the meantime had grown to be of some business importance, began to refer to it, some as the Knot, others as the Maul, and the union of these words probably being the only natural compromise, it was for years known as Knot Maul. The knot was subsequently chopped down by James Ward and others who represented opposite schools in politics. It was again raised and again hauled down. .....in 1863 Charles Wright...built the public house known as Knot Maul hotel....The first steam-mill in the township of Cato was built at this place by the Stryker Brothers. They also kept the hotel and a general store in connection."

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