L. E. CLINTSMAN, of Tyrone township, Kent county, Mich., is a native of Jefferson county, N. Y., and was born on the 23d of March, I854. He is the eldest of a family of one son and three daughters born to Dewitt C. and Evaline G. (Allen) Clintsman. The children are all living, viz: Mr. Clintsman, of this sketch; Fannie, wife of J. L. Hill, a dealer in. musical instruments at Lisbon, Mich.; Flora, who received a common-school education, is now located in Colorado, where she is a nurse of high standing, having received some excellent letters from the most prominent physicians; and Carrie is the wife of James Streeter, an agriculturist of Lisbon. The father is a native of New York state and was born February 12, I830. By occupation he has always been a farmer. In i865, when he immigrated to Ottawa county, Mich., he was very poor, but along with his poverty he was temperate and industrious and strictly honest in all his dealings. In his politics he was a republican, but was somewhat inclined toward the prohibition party. The mother was a native of New York state, was born in 1832 and died in I894. She was a lady of fair education considering the early day and the disadvantageous schools. Both father and mother were esteemed members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and were favorable to all worthy benevolences; Mr. Clintsman, subject of this biography, is a self-educated man, his training being restricted to that which he was able to acquire from the advantages of the common schools, and at thirteen years of age he came with his arents to Michigan. He has been a stockman and horseman for years and is prominently known all through east Ottawa and Kent counties as a shrewd man in his business. He has been battling in the arena of life since a lad of fourteen, when his first wages were $2 per month. Toil and industry are not foreign to him. On the 2ISt of September, 1875, Mr. Clintsman was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Streeter, a native of Ottawa county, Mich. To this marriage there have been born five sons and one daughter, of whom five are living, viz: Glenn, who was in the tenth grade in the common public schools, is now acting as salesman in a drug and dry-goods store with an ambition tending to commercial life; Herschel, who has completed the ninth grade at school and is now a salesman with Sunderland Bros., at Casnovia, Mich.; Tenor, who has special talent for music, graduated with the class of I899 of Casnovia public schools, and since this has taken a course at Ferris Industrial college, stood 86 per cent, is now teaching, and stands high in his literary work; Myrtle Bell, in the ninth grade at school, where she takes up literature work with interest and success and has been receiving musical instruction, and Basil E., the youngest, is in the seventh grade at school, where his main interest tends to mathematics. Mrs. Clintsman was born December I, 1855, and is the eldest of three children born to Guy and Eunice (Wilkinson) Streeter. All are now living, viz: Mrs. Clintsman, the eldest; Ethan A., an agriculturist and a resident of Wexford county, Mich., and James, also an agriculturist, residing in Kent county; Mich. Mrs. Clintsman was reared, the greater part, in the common-schools of Michigan, and has maintained her station nobly, both as wife and parent. Her father was born July, 1837, and is now an agriculturist and prosperous man, residing in Wexford county. He was honorably discharged after a period of service in the Civil war. At the union of Mr. and Mrs. Clintsman they had an extremely small capital. Their first purchase was a farm of forty acres, which they afterward sold and moved near the place where he had first settled. Here they bought thirty-five acres of improved land lying close to the schools, an essential cause prompting the purchase. In 1892 he took up seventy three acres of partly improved land in Tyrone township, which has since been improved, mainly by himself. He has been continually adding to his possession, and at the present is the owner of 148 acres, the best stump-fenced farm in Tyrone township. Politically, Mr. Clintsman is a republican, having cast his first presidential vote for Rutherford B. Hayes. The public schools find firm friends and strong supporters in Mr. and Mrs. Clintsman, who are of the idea that the best instructors are not too good for their schools. Socially, Mr. Clintsman is an esteemed member of K. O. T. M., No. 544, and also of the M. W. of A., at Bailey, Mich. His wife is a member of the Lady Maccabees hive, No. 330. Both are taking a great interest in the moral and religious training of the place, and their names are engraved high on the roll of honored citizens, and in history deserve prominent mention. Their lives have been well spent, and they command the regard of all by reason of their sterling qualities of mind and heart.