Married in Lowell, Kent County, Michigan about 1857

(Biography of Fidius D. Stocking, Lowell Tp., pg. 1226 – 1881 Chapman’s History)

Fidius D. Stocking was born 24 Dec 1824 at Pontiac, Oakland Co. His father, Jared Stocking, was a wheel-wright by trade, and was known as a superior mechanic. He moved to Saranac, Ionia Co. in 1838, located at Grand Rapids in 1848, and died in Chicago in 1862. F. D. Stocking is perhaps better known in his old line of business that any other man of the same craft in the state. He has been a expert with the "fiddle" from boyhood, has been in demand in season and out of season wherever the disposition to "tread the mazy," as Dick Swiveller puts it, reigned dominant, and presumably, the resonant echoes from Stocking’s fiddle occupy more than respectable proportion of illimitable space, where the scientists tell us all dispersed sounds are wandering. His remembrances of the foot-shaking incidentals would make an interesting volume. He has a sample invitation to a dance written at "Flat River" in 1848 by Mr. J. M. Matthewson, now a lawyer at Lowell, which is a curiousity. A pioneer dance possessed its own individuality, for it included everybody, irrespective of size, age, shape or position, and the incongruous assemblages, when the strenuous duties of the times made relaxation imperative, would cause the dainty beaux and belles who grace the "German" and glide in "Galops" to regard the experiences of their ancestors with respectful consideration. Mr. Stocking exhibits his fiddling account, aggregating from first ot last about $12,000. He has worked for $6 a month and swelled his profits on duty nights to $34. He has lived in Lowell 40 years; and married in 1857 to Clarinda Robinson, a native of New York, born in 1831, and came to this state in 1835. She is a member of the "family Robinson"; 44 of whom took passage for Michigan in 1835 on one boat. One of Elder Eaton’s first jobs in Lowell was tying the matrimonial knot between Mr. and Mrs. S. They have two children – Rodney D., born 23 Oct 1863, and Addie May, born 24 Aug 1864. Mr. Stocking has been operating for the last seven years as agent for the Watertown Fire Insurance Company with success.

Pioneer Families of Grand Traverse County, Michigan
Grand Traverse County Probate Court File Index

For further information on the Stocking Family History see the following link:

http://www2.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=northerncherry&view=9&rand=544273173