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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARTICLE ON ADMIRAL BURCH

The neat farm of 130 acres which occupies a part of section 15 in Batavia Township, is noticeable for the manner in which the soil has been cultivated, the substantial buildings.....  In this township our subject has lived since the time of his birth, which occured Feb. 13, 1844.  His father, Addison Burch, having been one of the early settlers of this region.

Addison Burch was born in N.Y. State, where he was reared and married Miss Mary Brown, a native of the same locality, and of English ancestry.  After marriage they set out for Michigan, locating first in Madison County among its earliest pioneers.  The father was very active and energetic man, kept tavern and operated a sawmill .... Late in the thirties the family changed their residence from Lenawee to Branch County.  The mother spent her last days at the home of her son Admiral, where her death took place in 1860, at the age of 47.  The father died two years later, while on a visit to his daughter, Mrs. Lucinda Hall, in Hastings, in 1862, when he was 58 years old.

Our subject was the youngest member of his father's family.  He remained with his parents until the outbreak of the late was, and in 1861 enlisted in the 1st Michigan Artillery, which was subsequently known as the Loomis Battery.  .... participated in Bowling Green, Ky., and Chickamauga ... Mission Ridge.  At Chicakamauga young Burch was one of the ten members of the Loomis Battery who became the spoil of the enemy and were sent to the Belle Isle Prison, where they were kept for 13 weeks.  He later made his escape ..

Upon his return home after the was he resumed farming, and on the 5th of March, 1865, he was united in marriage with Miss Clemantine Millard, the wedding taking place at the home of the bride in Matteson.  Mrs. Burch was born in Coldwater, June 13, 1845, and is the daughter of Lewis and Rachel (Gardiner) Millard, who were both natives of N.Y. State, whence they came with their parents to Michigan, and were married in 1841.  In 1878 they removed to Oceana County, this State, where the mother died in 1880, at the age of 59 years.  The father later returned to Coldwater and married his second wife, Mrs. Minerva Wilcox, and they are now living in a comfortable home in Coldwater Township.

The wife of our subject was reared and educated in Coldwater.  Their two children, Guleika P. and Lewis W., are living with their parents.