Henry Heber Cossitt, the well known carpenter and jobber at No. 32 East Bridge street, Grand Rapids, was born in Wyoming county, N. Y., February 12, 1838, and is a son of Jesse and Amanda (Blakesley) Cossitt, both natives of Connecticut. The father was carpenter and builder and also a prosperous farmer. He cleared up a fine farm in Wyoming county, N. Y., in the township of Perry, and what situated as he could live comfortably, died at the age of forty-eight. The mother lived to the age of ninety-one years. She was thrice married, her second husband being John Bushnell; she again married at the age of seventy-four years a Mr. Janes; all are deceased. The immediate family of subject was as follows: Laurens, who died in young manhood; Velona died a young lady; German N. is seventy-eight years old and lives in Brockville, Ont.; Levi, seventy-two old, lives in Rochester, N. Y., retired; Lucy died young; Newton is aged about sixty-eight years and resides at Brockville, Ont.; Martha died at the age of nineteen; Sarah, now Mrs. Gardner, resides at Mill Grove, Allegan county, Mich., aged sixty-five, and subject was the youngest of a family of nine. His early years were spent in New York, whence he came to Ganges, Allegan county, Mich., and remained there two years, when he went to Minneapolis, Minn., where he remained three years. He began carpenter’s work at the age of about fifteen years, working at Smith’s Falls, Ontario, for two seasons, employed in the shop of his brother, who was then a manufacture of fanning mills. In the fall of 1859, Mr. Cossitt left Minneapolis and went to Guelph, Ont., where he lived until the fall of 1864, then returned to Allegan, Mich., and engaged in keeping a hotel for one winter. In the spring of 1861 he went to Logansport, Ind., remaining three years, when he returned to Guelph, Ont., and was married in that town in 1861. He remained in Guelph four years on this occasion, when he moved to Port Perry, Ont., and engaged in the sash and door business. He left there in 1874 and went to Winnipeg, Manitoba, thence to Moorehead, Minn., thence to Minneapolis, remaining there four years this time. He then removed to Fargo, N. Dak., where he remained ten years in contracting and building, and built two-thirds of the place. He left there in 1888, going to Duluth, Minn., and spent six years there in contracting and building. He came to Grand Rapids in the fall of 1894. Few men have been more transitory. Mr. Cossitt married Miss Rebecca Dee Roberts, a native of Portage. N. Y., and she has accompanied her husband on all of his various wanderings. In political views Mr. Cossitt is a republican. He is not connected (Page 115) with any church organization, being a freethinker. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cossitt: The eldest was Clarence Ashed, born August 23, 1866, at Logansport, Ind., and died at Port Perry, Ont.; Effie Mae, born at Guelph, Ont.,. in March, 1868, died at Duluth, Minn., December 29, 1892. Of quick consumption; she was the wife of Charles N. Strickland, of Duluth, was married in 1889, and left a son named Palmer Clarence, now in California; Edith Lyle, born in Minneapolis, Minn., March 6, 1876, died in Albuquerque, N. Mex., where she had been taken with hope of benefiting her health, she having contracted consumption from her sister in caring her, and her death occurred April 7, 1897. Serious sickness and death in the family was the source not only of great grief to the loving parents, but also led to heavy financial losses in vain efforts to save the dearly beloved ones.