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Hon. A. A. Van Orthwick is one of the most distinguished and wealthy citizens of Branch County, and is prominently identified with the administration of public affairs.  He is a farmer and has a beautiful home on section 25, Butler Township, where he has long occupied a leading position among the able agriculturalists of this region.  He is a native of New York, born in Covert Township, Seneca County, Dec. 19, 1829, and is a liberal descendant of one of the famous old Dutch families who were early settlers of New York.  His parents, Simon and Parsina (Travis) Van Orthwick, were natives of the State of New York, and his father was born in the same township as himself.  The maternal grandmother of our subject, Mrs. Travis, was one of the brave women who so nobly assisted in the defense of their countrymen when their homes were attacked by the cruel Indians and treacherous British at the famous Wyoming massacre.

After marriage the parents of our subject settled in Covert Township, where the father followed farming very successfully for some years until his death, while still a young man, leaving his family in limited circumstances.  Of the four children of that union all grew to maturity and came to Michigan, and all are living except J. R., who was a prosperous farmer in Hillsdale County.  Four years after the death of the father the mother married Thomas Johnson, and removed to Fayette Township, where Mr. Johnson carried on his occupation as a farmer, and there the mother died, leaving four children by her second marriage.

Mr. Van Orthwick was the third child born to his parent, and although he was but four years of age when his father died he still has a faint recollection of him.  After his mother's second marriage he lived with his stepfather until he was twenty-one, and enjoyed the privileges of a substantial education in the village school.  Then he worked out by the month on a farm for one year, and at the age of twenty-two came to Michigan in the year 1852, actuated by the high ambitions of youth to carve out for himself a name and an honorable position in this then young and rapidly growing State.  He continued working by the month for two years, and then bought a piece of land heavily timbered, close to Coldwater; he began to clear it, and soon had a good farm, yet he still continued to work by the month, and made his home with this brother, who also lived near Coldwater.  At the age of twenty-five, wishing to become still better educated, he went to Reed, Seneca Co., Ohio, and was a pupil in the excellent village school of that place during the winter term.  He returned to Michigan in the following Spring, and in 1857 was united in marriage to Miss Helen Nichols, daughter of Ansil and Susan (Jalmson) Nichols.  Her parents were natives of Vermont, and in 1836 they  left their pleasant New England home, among the Green Mountains, and came to Michigan, thus becoming early identified with the pioneer history of this county.  The father died in 1877, at the age of seventy-three years, but the venerable mother, now eighty-two years of age, still survives, and is a cherished member of the household of our subject.  She is the only surviving charter member of the Baptist Church of Quincy.  She still retains in a marked degree the strong mental and physical traits of character that demote her New England origin.  To her and her husband were born five daughters, of whom Mrs. Van Orthwick was the third in order of birth, and having no son of their own, they adopted one, whom they reared as if theirs by right of kinship.  Mrs. Van Orthwick was born in this county, Nov. 5, 1837, and her education, which was begun in the common schools, was completed at the High School at Quincy, and also by a course at the Jonesville High School.  She is a woman of rare mature, well endowed mentally, self-reliant yet modest, and her fine social qualities have undoubtedly strengthened her husband's position.  Her wedded life has been exceptionally happy, and three children have been born to her and her husband -- Jay D., Charles H. and Cora A.  They all live at home; the sons, who are manly, intelligent and well-educated young men, have charge of the homestead.  The daughter is also finely educated, and her many engaging qualities make her a favorite in society.

A few years after marriage Mr. Van Orthwick sold his farm near Coldwater and moved to his present premises, and for nearly twenty-four years has been a resident of this place.  His affairs continued to prosper under his able management, and by two subsequent purchases of tracts of land, containing forty and 145 acres each respectively, he has increased the original area of his farm from eighty acres to 265 acres of valuable and well-improved land.

We will now turn from Mr. Van Orthwisk's record as a private citizen and a business man to his public career.  He has for many years served his fellow-townsmen in responsible positions; he has been School Superintendent, and has often been called upon to fill the office of Supervisor, having been first elected to this responsible position in 1870, retaining the office then for three consecutive years.  He was called to Supervisorship in 1874 for the fourth time, and in 1880 for the fifth time, and has ever since been an incumbent of the office.  In 1886 the Republicans of Branch County, desiring to put in nomination a candidate of ripe experience, sound judgment and unsullied reputation, to represent them in the halls of the State Legislature, selected our subject as eminently worthy of their suffrage, and he was elected, his constituents embracing more people than were represented by any other Legislator in the capitol.  His wise, patriotic and dignified course throughout his term of office, showing him to be a true statesman rather than a mere politician, fully justified the confidence which placed him in that high position.  He served on several important committees; was Chairman of the Committee on the State Prison at Marquette, was on the State Library Committee, and on the Committee for the Public School at Coldwater.  The following, taken from the Quincy Gazette, of June 24, 1887, well voices the sentiments of his constituency:  "Those who have watched the career of our representative, Hon. A. A. Van Orthwick, at Lansing, must feel proud of his consistent course and general level-headedness.  He has in our opinion voted right on every bill that has come up; he has not wasted much time in speech-making, but has been true to the interests of his constituents and of the people, and against class interests every time."

In 1883 our subject was elected as a member of the State Republican Convention.  Mr. and Mrs. Van Orthwick have for many years belonged to the Baptist Church.