James M. Lane, eldest son of Orison and Elizabeth Ann (Bean) Lane, was born in Readfield, Kennebec County, Maine on 29 Apr 1830. His father was a stock raiser and imported the first Hereford cattle in the State of Maine. At the age of sixteen his father died and he inherited half of the farm.

At the age of nineteen he went to Wisconsin as a land locator for Shaw Brothers of Industry, Franklin County, Maine. In 1857, he commenced traffic in lumber in the city of Grand Rapids. Located in Byron in 1862, near Corinth. The country was still of real heavy timber region where he purchased 200 acres of land, erected a shanty, brought in four or five men and set vigorously at work clearing his land. He had 320 acres in section 25 and 200 acres in section 30 and 120 acres in Gaines township. In Clare County, he had between 3,00 and 4,000 acres and 10,000 acres in part of Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine and Minnesota. At home 250 acres were under cultivation, and he had extensive lumbering interest at Muskegon and handled annually 12,000,000 feet of lumber from his own land.