JAMES M. BUTTOLPH, a young and progressive agriculturist and a resident of Spencer township, Kent county, for some twelve years, is a native of lonia county, Mich., and was born March 28, I86I. He is the fifth in a family of three sons and four daughters, the children of Judson and Lydia (Alger) Buttolph, of whom four are living, viz: Sarah, wife of James Earle, a farmer of Ionia county; Jennie, wife of James Noble, of the same county; James M., and Henry, a dairyman of Ionia. The father is a native of Dutchess county, N. Y., and now lives at.Otisco, Mich., aged seventy-three years, well preserved and with keen perception and memory. He was reared to the life of a farmer and was but a child when he accompanied his parents to Oakland county, Mich., which was at that time a territory. From Oakland county, he came to Ionia, where his present estate is located. In his political predilections he is a republican and first voted for Gen. Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe. Mr. Buttolph, whose name heads this article, was reared for the greater part in Ionia county. where he secured a common-school education. Afterward he took a business course at Poncher's Business college and spent two years as a salesman in a general store at Otisco. He has devoted the remainder of his life to agricultural pursuits. On the I8th of September, 1889, he wedded Miss Emma McClure, who has borne two children, Leroy and Lydia. Mrs. Buttolph was born February 24, I868, a daughter of Oliver Perry and Mary (Thomas) McClure. She was educated in the common schools of Kent county, where she served as a teacher for one year. Her father was born in Cattaraugus county, N. Y., November 17, I813, and died in Spencer, Mich., January 5, I898. He was a miller by trade, and came to Spencer township in i867, where his life was passed as a farmer. For ten years he had a store and post-office on his farm. He was a self-made man and one of great energy and activity. He educated himself largely, and succeeded in working his way from lowly surroundings to a comfortable position in life. The exercise of his energy and industry brought to him a large and valuable farm of 200 acres. He took great interest in education and served for many years on the school board. The mother of Mrs. Buttolph is still living at the age of seventy-three years. She was reared and educated in the Keystone state, where she was born on the 3d of November, 1826. Her grandfather, Ezekiel Thomas, served during the entire Revolutionary war, and in one engagement his clothes were riddled by British bullets, yet his life was spared. He died at the ripe old age of eighty-four and possessed an active mind and body even to his death. Mrs. McClure had two sisters and three brothers, but the only living beside herself is Ezekiel Thomas, a resident of Tioga county, Penn. She still retains her old homestead in Spencer township; where she lives with her children. In 1887, Mr. Buttolph and his wife made their home on a farm of I6o acres in section No. 29, the best quarter of Spencer township.

He has made many improvements on the estate, and now has an excellent and enjoyable home. In his political affiliation he is at present a republican, but has been strongly attached to the temperance party, having cast his first presidential vote for St. John, the celebrated apostle of temperance. Officially he is a member of the school board, and both he and his wife are respected members of the Baptist church. Genial and sympathetic in nature, upright and honorable in all his dealings, small wonder is it that his friends are numerous.