Standish, Michigan
May 30, 1943
Amelia Ann Hayes
Born at Erie, Pennsylvania on May 27, 1863
Daughter of Betsy Wilkins and Amasa Cole
Betsy Wilkins was twenty years old and two days after Amelia Ann was born.
Amasa Cole and Betsy Wilkins born in Pennsylvania. In the teamster business
for self. Betsy had one other child by Amasa, Truman H. Cole born at Erie who was
eighteen months younger than Amelia, and died at Lincoln, Michigan on September 12,
1941.
Amasa Cole, Amelia’s father, died of appendicitis in Erie,
Pennsylvania 2 years after Amelia Ann’s birth. Her brother, Truman was four
months old when his father died.
Widowed, Betsy came to Michigan soon after his death, bringing her two
children (Amelia and Truman) to Michigan where she then made a home. She left her
children with her parents, Oscar and Amelia Wilkins in the town of Azalia, Michigan.
Oscar and Amelia had five children of their own: Asa, Almeron Ambrose, Perry,
Sardius, and Betsy.
Asa, their oldest, was a soldier for the Union Army and died at
Andersonville Prison in Andersonville, Georgia.
The Wilkins family bought a farm in London Twp. in Monroe County, Michigan
when I was four. They cleared the land. I grew up there, going to school one
year in Milan, Michigan walking one and a half miles to school.
My mother (Betsy Wilkins) then married to Charles Canfield, when I was
twelve and I lived with them to go to school. It was six miles to go to school,
Truman and I used to walk back and forth. Hard five school years.
When I was fifteen, December 25, 1878 I was married at Azalia by a
Methodist-Baptist minister to Sanford E. Hayes. The following March, went to Minden,
Nebraska where we homesteaded, built a sod house. The house was 10 X 14. We
lived there four years. Two children were born. First was Asa who died at two
months. Ben was born two years later. Sanford Sr. came one month later and
lived three miles from us - had sold out everything, chartered a car, took stock dogs,
etc. with him. We moved to Gibbon in Buffalo County, Nebraska, 22 miles from the
homestead, when Ben was five months old. (December 1862) Sanford
Sr.’s wife died when Ben was five months and we took their children and entire
family with us. Both Sanford Sr. and Sanford Jr. took theological courses at Gibbon
Baptist Seminary.
We lived in the basement of the Seminary, while we built a home.
Sanford and family lived in our house. He had children: Bert, Mary, Olive, Clara,
Sanford and Rutherford.
I worked in the girls dormitory, cooking and feeding for forty girls
paying his way through school. He did chores, marketing, etc. to help and he studied
hard one year working.
When home was done, we moved in with Sanford Sr. Then Sanford
Sr. and Sanford Jr. graduated and about a year or more in Gibbon then moved to Ann Arbor
when Ben was two years old.
In Ann Arbor we rented on Huron Street. Sanford went to law school
one year. His eyes gave out with granulation so a classmate, Ralph Horth would come
and lead him back and forth to classes. He was nearly blind for three months.
Earl was born Oct. 10 in Ann Arbor. In the 1880’s we came to Arenac County when
Earl was two years old. Landed in Sterling and rode on a wagonload of hardware
to Al’s place east of Maple Ridge in the winter. Very muddy twelve miles.
Stayed there a week until family moved out of Chatterson place. When
we arrived at Uncle Al’s. Both children, Ben and Earl had the croup
(respiratory disease).
Furniture, what there was, had been shipped consisted of wash tub full of
dishes, one bed, a rocking chair and one wood bucket full of diapers.
We bought a home later, Whitings in Maple Ridge. Father taught
school, was the Town Clerk and had post office (was Postmaster). Lived in Putnam
house while they were in a lumber camp for the winter. They came home unexpectedly
early. Could move in but did not insist. My mother with us, we moved into a
log home drifted full of snow. Got stove up, blizzard came on. Theo born that
night. Two children frosted their feet. Glass of water between me and the
stove. Little kitchen stove froze. The doctor came but baby was
born. We had no doctor for the first five. We came to Standish in1893
after father was elected Prosecuting Attorney. He stayed with Pomeroy’s (family
friends).
We now have five children, had nine. One born in
Nebraska, one in Azalia and two here in Standish. We have 13 grandchildren, and
twenty-one grandchildren.
My father was about 23 or 25 when he died. Mother 62 when she
died. Had four husbands by the names of Cole, Canfield, Brundrige, and
Marrion.
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