WILBUR J. BICKNELL, a leading citizen of Spencer township, Kent county, Mich., is a native of Jefferson county, N. Y., was born May 25, 1851, and is the eldest of the five children born to John and Anna (Sawyer) Bicknell, the four others being Frank, who was formerly a teacher in Nebraska, and is now a dealer in musical instruments at St. Paul, Minn.; Charles, who is a farmer in Missouri; George, also farming in Missouri, and Frederick, principal of the high school of Verona, Nebr., and who has been a teacher and editor since sixteen years old. John Bicknell was born in Rensselaer county, N. Y., February 20, 1829, was of English extraction, and his immediate ancestors of Connecticut Puritan stock. He was a farm by vocation, came to Michigan in I866, and located in Ionia county. He had served in the Civil war in company D, Twentieth New York volunteer cavalry, was in the army of the Potomac under Gen. B. F. Butler, and his was the first white regiment to enter Richmond after the evacuation by the Confederates. Mr. Bicknell remained in Ionia county a short time only, and then removed to Pierson township, Montcalm county, where he entered an eighty-acre homestead of timber land, from which not a stick had been cut. There Wilbur J., the subject, then but fifteen years of age encountered all the privations and hardships of a pioneer's life. Their first habitation was a little log cabin, with a one-sided "shake" roof, which leaked like a sieve, and their furniture was of the most primitive character. Mr: Bicknell held his farm in Montcalm county seven years, then sold it for $2,000, went to Clay county, Nebr., where his son Wilbur then was, and purchased I60 acres of prairie land, on which a little plowing had been done, and there remained six years; he then sold out and purchased another farm; sold this and went to the village of Fairfield, in the same county, where he passed the remainder of his life, dying in March, 1897, respected and well-to-do, having through his industry acquired a competence. Wilbur J. Bicknell has still in his possession the pocket wallet carried by his father through his war service, together with a picture of his wife, and other sovenirs, which he prizes highly. In his political affiliations John Bicknell was first a whig, but at the birth of the republican party espoused its principles; in religion he was a Methodist, of which church his widow now living at Verona, Nebr., is still a member. Mrs. Anna (Sawyer) Bicknell was born in Mannsville, Jefferson county, N. Y., April 30, 1830, and descends from a Puritan family of ante-Revolutionary distinction in New England, a brief allusion to which family is given below, as written for the Jefferson County Journal of May 30, I899, on the mournful occasion of the death of Marilla Sawyer, a sister of Mrs. John Bicknell: Death and funeral of Marilla Sawyer.This venerable and highly esteemed maiden lady died at her home here last Friday at the age of nearly eighty-three years. Deceased was the twin daughter of one of our very earliest settlers, Joseph Sawyer and granddaughter of James Sawyer, of Keene, N. H., a Revolutionary hero. Her mother's maiden name was Polly Harper, daughter of John Harper, a lieutenant in the Revolutionary war, who was buried in Watertown, Jefferson county, N. Y. Deceased was brought to Watertown, N. Y., when but a maiden of six years of age, and came to Mannsville with the family a few years later, where she has since lived. For a quarter of a century or more, deceased lived with the late Newton Mann, founder of the village, as companion for his wife, who lived for over ninety years, and was enfeebled and nearly helpless for many years preceding her death. Since leaving that service, the deceased, being a seamstress by occupation, has spent much of her time in the families of the older inhabitants as companion and assistant, being appreciated by the friends and associates of her youth as a woman of excellent ancestry, superior intelligence, and moral and religious traits of high order qualities of birthright which entitled her to admission into the best circles of society, which the vicissitudes of fortune sometimes debar but never with the gentle folk of the olden time. The daughters of Deacon Sawyer kept free pace with the schools and education of their times. Several of them were teachers in the common schools, and all of them women of high ideals in all that constitutes the best type of citizenship. Dr. Sawyer, the scholar, and translator and commentator of the Bible, belongs to this family. Deceased was a member of the Congregational church of the village of Mannsville for more than sixty years, living a consistent christian life. There were ten children in the family of Joseph Sawyer-five sons and five daughters. Two of the sons early settled on the Western Reserve of Ohio, twenty miles from the city of Cleveland, and became quite wealthy, and three of the family are still living. Joseph Sawyer, maternal grandfather of subject, was a hero of the war of I812, and was present at the battle of Sackett's Harbor. Wilbur J. Bicknell has always been a hardworking man, and when his father started for the front during the Civil war, the responsibility of caring for the mother and the younger children was placed on his young shoulders. He is almost entirely self-educated, and had to undergo many hardships in getting a start in life. He remained with his parents until he had reached his majority, filially performing his duty on the wild farm, and carrying what little groceries they used on his back from Cedar Springs. Deer and bear were numerous on the farm, as many as nine deer appearing at one time, and the streams abounded with fish. He was a genuine pioneer, and since his boyhood years has been a resident of Michigan, with the exception of a few months passed in Nebraska. September I, I873, Mr. Bicknell married Miss Jennie Karr, a native of Wolcott township, Wayne county, N. Y., and a daughter of John and Polly (Brooks) Karr, who were the parents of four sons and one daughter, of which children three are still living, viz: Jennie (Mrs. Bicknell); Alfred, a general merchant at Williamston, Ingham county, and Frank, a farmer of Pierson, Montcalm county, Mich. John Karr, father of Mrs. Bicknell, was a native of New York, was a carpenter and joiner by trade and a farmer by calling, and died in Montcalm county, Mich., in I87?, in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church; his widow, also a native of New York, died in 1873, in the same faith, at the age of forty six years. Mr. Bicknell, ever ready to work at anything that would yield him an honest dollar, was employed, all told, about seventeen years at saw-milling in Grand Rapids, Big Rapids, Hersey, Evart, and in Montcalm county. When he and his bride commenced life together he did n6t own a $IO bill, and he kept on working in the saw-mills about eight years after marriage. In i88o he purchased forty acres of unimproved land in section No. 5, Spencer township, going in debt $300. He and wife settled on the place May i, I88I, and their first home was a little frame shanty, which served them as a residence, until the spring of I898, At the start they had one ox, one cow, a stone-boat and very little furniture. Now the farm is in a high state of cultivation. He has a valuable orchard, consisting of apples, many varieties of peaches and plums, together with quinces, grapes, raspberries and strawberries. In the spring of 1897 Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell decided to erect a substantial and comfortable residence, and they now have a beautiful farm cottage, modern in style, finished in red, black and white oak, and containing ten rooms, closets, cupboards, a cellar perfect in its sanitary construction, and everything else designed as it should be, and all the result of Mrs. Bicknell's studious planning, her ideas being carried out in detail by Mr. Bicknell. Although they came here in I88I poor and in debt, they to-day do not owe a dollar, and have as handsome a place as there is in the township. Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell have no children of their own, but in the kindness of their hearts took to their home Mertie Parker., when she was but three years of age, and have reared her to womanhood and educated her and cared for her as if she had been their own. She is now married to Henry Hatch, and is the mother of three children, one of whom, Fernie, Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell have also adopted as their own. Mr. Bicknell cast his first presidential vote for Ulysses S. Grant, but he now affiliates with the democrats, and has been a delegate to the county conventions of this party. Officially he is a justice of the peace, has held this position eleven years, and has been a notary public five years, and that he has performed his duty well as a justice is evidenced by his long tenure of office. He is a member of Harvard tent, No. 890, K. O. T. M., and Mrs. Bicknell is a member of Trufant hive, No. 756, L. O. T. M. They are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Marbles, Montcalm county, and their home is located three-quarters of a mile south of the county line union Sunday-school, of which Mr. Bicknell is the superintendent and his wife a teacher. Mr. Bicknell has been interested ir Sunday-school work for nine years, either as teacher or superintendent, and both he and Mrs. Bicknell have been very liberal in their contributions to both the school and the church. They are classed among the kindest hearted and most progressive residents of Spencer township, and certainly none are more deserving of the high respect in which they are universally held. DELBERT BIRCH, a prosperous farmer of Solon township, Kent county, Mich., is a native of Sterling, Cayuga county, N. Y., was born December 27, 1863, and is the seventh child in the family of David and Margaret (Green) Birch, parents of four sons and six daughters, of whom six are still living, viz: Betsey H., wife of G. R. Smith a farmer of Solon township; William, of Howard City; Alida, married to Alfred Powell, of Morley, Mich.; Adelia, wife of A. H. Moore, of White Cloud, Mich.; Aldelbert, the subject, and Sarah, now Mrs. Harvev Towne, also of White Cloud. David Birch, the father, was born in Oswego county, N. Y., November 29, 1820, and was reared a millwright. He married Miss Green April I, 1849, and in October, 1865, came to Solon township and purchased eighty acres of slightly improved land in section No. I6, and the house he first erected here is still standing. Indians were still numerous in the neighborhood, but were not very vicious, and Mr. Birch was permitted to clear up his land without molestation. He was a hard-working man, was strong in his convictions, and a warm friend of public education. In politics he was a stanch republican, passed an upright life, and when he passed away, July 8, I895, the township lost a useful citizen, and the family a tender and devoted husband and kind and loving father. Mrs. Margaret Birch is a daughter of William and Eliza (Pendle) Green, natives of the state of New York, and parents of twelve children. In i85I, Mr. Green settled in Michigan -first in Hillsdale county, where he lived about six years, and then in Kent county, where he passed the remainder of his life. Politically he was a republican, in religion his wife was a Methodist, and both were among the most respected of Michigan's pioneers. Of their twelve children six are still living, and all reside in Michigan- Mrs. Margaret Birch with her son Adelbert, on the old homestead; she is a devout member of the United Brethren church, is of a very kind disposition and is still in comparatively robust health. Adelbert Birch was an infant when brought to Michigan by his parents, and the major part of his life has consequently been passed in Solon township. He has received a good common school education, and has been reared to farming. For eleven years he was identified with lumbering operations when the pine timber was being cleared from this section of Kent county, running logs down the river in the spring season. October 21, I89I, Mr. Birch married Miss Josephine Maude Perrin, and three children have come to bless this union, viz: Frank R., Margaret V. and Mary E. Mrs. Josephine M. Birch was born in London, England, April 20, 1874, a daughter of Richard Golden and Anna V. (Ray) Perrin, who were the parents of five sons and seven daughters, of whom nine are still living. She was but two years of age when her parents, with their children, sailed from Liverpool for Philadelphia; from the Quaker city they went to Windsor, Canada, and shortly afterward crossed the river to Detroit,. Mich., where they resided until I887, when they settled in Solon township, Kent county. In politics Mr. Birch is a republican and cast his first presidential vote for Benjamin Harrison. Fraternally, he is a member of lodge No. 213, F. & A. M., at Cedar Springs. He is a christian gentleman, a strong advocate of temperance, and a warm friend of free education. Mrs. Birch is a member of the Established church of England, is a lady of refined manners and pleasing address, and no family in Solon township is held in higher regard than that of Adelbert Birch.