Henry O. Schermerhorn

HENRY O. SCHERMERHORN, a much respected retired farmer of Grand Rapids, Mich., was born in Port Rowan, Norfolk county, province of Ontario, dominion of Canada, January 20, 1830, and is a son of Daniel and Ann (Wall) Schermerhorn, the former a native of Greene county, N. Y., of pure old Knickerbocker descent, and the latter of Nova Scotia, of Scotch extraction. These parents were married in Ontario, and had born to them a family of thirteen children, six of whom still survive; the father, who was a farmer all his life, died in Kent county, Mich., in 1887, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, and the mother at the same age, died four years later, both being respected and honored by all who knew them. Henry O. Schermerhorn was educated in his native town of Port Rowan, and quit school to accompany his parents to Kent county, Mich., in 1845, and here his father purchased a farm which was then owned and used by the county as its poor farm. On this place Henry O. grew from youth to manhood, continued to attend school during the winter seasons and assisted his father, in the summer seasons, in clearing and cultivating the then wild land. At the age of twenty-three years he went to New York city and took a course in a business college, and in that city was employed in various lines of business for about ten years. In 1862 he returned to Michigan and engaged in farming in Walker township, Kent county, for about fifteen years and during this period served as township clerk, and school inspector ex-officio, as a democrat. In 1877 he came to Grand Rapids and was elected a member of the county board of supervisors from the Seventh ward and filled that office sixteen years, and also served one term as a supervisor at large. Although influential with his party, he is not severely partisan, and has filled office more from a sense of public duty than from any desire for reward or fame. In all his business transactions Mr. Schermerhorn has met with more than ordinary success, from a financial point of view. Strictly honorable and truthful in all his dealings, he has won the confidence of the business community, and this confidence he never violated. He has acquired a fine estate in Grand Rapids, comprising, chiefly, residences and improved property of other kinds, and all has been the result of his industry, good management and sound judgment, as he was an absolutely poor young man when he left his father’s farm, and is, in the business sense of the phrase, a self-made-man. He can now well afford to retire to the ease and comfort of private life and enjoy the fruit of his early industry and husbandry, without even the care of a wife and family. The surviving members of Mr. Schermerhorn’s family, beside himself, are Anna M., widow of J. W. Phillips, and residing at No. 143 Scribner street, city; Mrs. Prisilla McEwan, on a farm in Plainfield township; Mrs. Harriet Fretts, a widow, also in Grand Rapids; Mrs. Sarah E. Whitworth, wife of Dr. Herbert Whitworth, of Dodge City, Kans., John W., a hotelkeeper at Thompsonville, Mich. The deceased members that reached adult age were Cornelius P., who died in 1897 at Lake Charles, Las., George, who was a soldier during the Civil War, and was president of the G.A. R. association of Grand Rapids at the time of his death. The others all died in their infancy. Mr. Schermerhorn is not identified with any social or secret order, nor with any church organization. In early manhood he was a member of the Presbyterian church in New York city, and still holds his "letter," but he has not re-joined the society since he has resided in Grand Rapids. He has, however, led a life of strict morality and is at heart a sincere Christian.