Mrs. Sarah E. Atherton, of Sparta township, Kent county, Mich., with her post-office at Lisbon, across the line in Ottawa county, has been a resident of Sparta township since 1854, and is well known for her great kindness and amiability of disposition, and has played quite a conspicuous part in the history and development of the county. She is a native of Orange county, N. Y., was born September 2, 1831, and is a daughter of William H. and Elizabeth (Smith) Hoyt, well known resident of the Empire state in their early days, and the parents of four children—one son and three daughters—of whom Mrs. Atherton and her sister Caroline, widow of John Bare, and now residing in Antelope county, Nebr., are the only two survivors. Mrs. Bare, however, has seven children and forty grandchildren, and her post-office address is Neligh, Nebr. William H. Hoyt, father of Mrs. Atherton, was also a native of Orange county, N. Y., was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and died at the early age of twenty-six years, six months and nineteen days, in September, 1835. He was highly intelligent and chiefly self-taught; he had solved all the problems in Daboll’s arithmetic and compiled them in a volume in his own handwriting, and was well read in history. He was a resident of Henry (now Defiance) county, Ohio, at the time of his death, his daughter (Mrs. Atherton) being then four years of age. Mrs. Elizabeth (Smith) Hoyt, also a native of New York, was born in 1813, and died in the state of Ohio in 1893, a devout member of the U. B. Church, and a lady of good education and of many Christian and womanly graces. Her father, Timothy Smith, was a pioneer of the Mohawk valley, N. Y., and was a man of the strictest integrity. The step-grandfather of Mrs. Atherton, Richard VanSkiver, was a hero of the war of 1812, and her grandmother’s father, Hall, a patriot of the Revolution, was taken prisoner at one time, and was nearly murdered by the enemy’s putting powdered glass in bread. Her grandmother’s aunt’s father and mother were killed by the Indians in the early pioneer days of New York; the savages had attacked their cabin, bent on massacre, and the aunt ran outside the door to seek a means of escape, but surely would have been slain, had not an Indian, who had been lurking behind a tree, recognized her as one he was indebted to for past kind acts, and so saved her life. She was made a captive, however, and held for three months in a wigwam, and while this imprisoned gave birth to a daughter. Mrs. Sarah E. Atherton, the subject of this biography, passed her childhood and youthful years in the state of Ohio, was educated in the common schools, and supplemented this instruction by self-application to the study of standard literature, for which she had a natural taste and inherent love, and as Miss Sarah E, Hoyt, became one of the most accomplished young ladies of her neighborhood. At the age of twenty-three years she was led to the marriage alter, September 16, 1854, by George Atherton, who was born in Steuben county, N. Y.,. October 25, 1826, was educated in the common schools and early learned the carpenter’s trade. The same year of their marriage (1854), Mr. Atherton brought his bride to Michigan, purchased 160 acres of timbered land in Sparta township, Kent county, and began the arduous but not altogether unpleasant life of genuine pioneers. The township was new, with only one blazed road, and that led to Grand Rapids, and nowhere else, and many a time did Mrs. Atherton ride behind an ox-team. Their first habitation was a log cabin, the main part of which is still standing and is now a half century old. All the improvements that now adorn this farm, including the beautiful as well as the useful, had been made by Mr. and Mrs. Atherton prior to the death of the former, about ten years ago, and what was once a dense wilderness is now one of the finest farms in the township. In the early days, Mr. Atherton was offered forty acres on Stocking street, Grand Rapids, for a span of horses. George Atherton was an able financier as well as a laudably ambitious citizen and farmer, yet, though an active republican, he never aspired to public office. He was esteemed by all who knew him for his honorable life, his intelligence, his industrious habits and his excellent executive ability. He was a kind husband, a true friend and a useful member of society, and was called to his final rest September 21, 1888. His remains were followed to the grave by a large train of unaffected friends and interred in the Lisbon cemetery, where his widow has erected an elegant gray granite monument, sacred to his memory. The month of September, it may here be incidentally mentioned, had proven a fortuitous one to Mrs. Atherton, inasmuch that she and her sister were born in September, her father died in September, she was married in September, and in September her husband was taken away. Arthur W. Letson, a young man of excellent character, now finds a home on the beautiful estate owned by Mrs. Atherton, who, in the kindness of her heart, shares with the otherwise homeless lad her bounteous hospitality, and has been so doing since the fall of 1891, adopting him, when he was aged about fourteen years. He graduated from Lisbon graded schools in 1897, passed his teacher’s examination and secured his teacher’s certificate, and in every way has shown himself worthy of the kindness of his benefactress. He exhibits marked evidence of talent in art, and the kindly advice and admonitions of Mrs. Atherton have not been bestowed upon him in vain. Young Mr. Letson was born in Coldwater, Branch county, Mich., June 7, 1877, and is a son of Lorenzo and Marion (Donnelly) Letson; he passed seven years of his life in Newaygo county, several years in Muskegon county, and the last eight and happy years have been passed with Mrs. Atherton. For forty-five years Mrs. Atherton has been a resident of Kent county, and her daily walk through life has commanded the respect of all who know her. In religion she is a Universality, but she (as did her deceased husband) has ever contributed most liberally toward all the churches of Sparta, and her contributions have not yet come to an end. It may truthfully be said that no more benevolent lady ever lived in Sparta, nor one more deserving the respect which is so freely bestowed upon her.