PERLEY LAWTON Perley Lawton, for eight years one of the most successful teachers of New York and for two years in Ottawa County, Mich., and now a prosperous agriculturist near Coopersville, Wright Township, born in 1818, in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., is the son of one of the early pioneers of the Wolverine State. The father, Josiah T. Lawton, a native of Rhode Island, was born 1n 1785. The Lawton family were of sturdy and self-reliant Welsh ancestry. The father remained in Rhode Island until about twenty-three years of age, and then removed to St. Lawrence County, N. Y., where upon November 26, 1809, he was united in marriage with Miss Betsey Bradley. In 1845 the family journeyed to Michigan and settled in Ottawa County, at Coopersville. The father, in his younger days a millwright and mechanic, later gave his entire attention to agriculture, and when he came to Michigan bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, all wild and wooded land. There were no public roads leading to it, and the county was very new, most of the business in that part of the State being done in Grand Rapids. There were then only six families in the settlement, and the homestead of the father lay out a little distance from Coopersville, the land all about being densely covered with growth of pine and hemlock. The family was composed of one sister and six brothers, and all the sons but one are still surviving. D. B. Lawton, a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, resides in Florida. Henry Lawton lives in Coopersville. The others make their home in Wright Township. The father served bravely in the war of 1812, and after a life of busy industry passed away in 1863. Our subject continued to reside in his birthplace, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., until he was twenty-four years of age, when he went to western New York to teach school. After studying in the district schools of his home neighborhood he had completed his studies in Gouverneur Weslean Seminary and fitted himself for the vocation of teaching. At twenty-six years of age he arrived, May 6, 1846, at the homestead of his father, and after spending a few months upon the farm went out three miles southeast of Coopersville and purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, covered with woods and surrounded by Indians, being in all its primitive condition. For forty-seven changing years Mr. Lawton lived upon this farm, which is now brought under a high state of cultivation and annually yields an abundant harvest. Here in his home he now enjoys the fruits of many years’ labor and recalls the old times which have gone never to return. May 9, 1841, Perley Lawton and Miss Nancy Ferguson were married in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., from which state they emigrated to their home in the wilderness of Michigan. By this faithful companion our subject became the father of five children, one of whom died at the age of three years, and four are now surviving: Erwin married Miss Marion Craig, and lives three miles from the old homestead; Wellington R. is a merchant of Berlin; Nora, now Mrs. Coe, resides in Lamont; and Chester makes his home three miles south of the old farm. The first wife died upon the homestead in 1882, and in 1883 Mr. Lawton was wedded to Mrs. Hannah Green, a native of Ohio, but a resident of Michigan since her sixteenth year, arriving in the Wolverine State 1n 1868. By her first marriage Mrs. Lawton had four children, three of whom are surviving. George A. Green is living upon a farm three miles west of Coopersville; James W. Green, also a farmer, resides near his brother George; Mary P. (Green) Conklin is at home in Wright Township. For fifteen years our subject as Clerk, transacted the business of the township, and for two years was the efficient Superintendent of the County Poor. He was nominated for the Second District as representative for Ottawa County in 1862, and came within six votes of winning, George Luther being elected. Our subject was debarred from serving in the last war because of his defective eyesight. From 1838 to 1848, Mr. Lawton taught continuously and found both pleasure and profit in the profession of instructor. In earlier life a Whig and later a Republican, he has ever been interested in both local and National Government. For nearly half a century an intelligent eye-witness of the rapid development of Michigan, our subject possesses a store of reminiscence almost invaluable and is authority upon the few remaining landmarks of the past.

Portrait & Biographical Record of Muskegon & Ottawa Counties, Michigan 1893, Chicago: Biographical Publishing Company 

Transcriber: Charles Armstrong
Created: 16 May 2003
URL: Return to Bios Index