EZRA H. SMEAD

Ezra H. Smead. The Empire State has furnished to Michigan, and especially to Ottawa County, many representative citizens, and among them might be mentioned Ezra H. Smead, who has resided here for many years. In everything connected with the growth and prosperity of the county, he has ever taken an active interest, and as a tiller of the soil he stands in the foremost of the ranks. His life of industry and usefulness, and his record for integrity and true-hearted faithfulness in all relations of life, has given him a hold on upon the community which he might well desire to share.

Mr. Smead’s parents, Charles and Patty (Rose) Smead, were natives respectably of Canada and Vermont, and the Smead family was among the first in the Blue Mountain State. The Rose family settled in Vermont at a later date and came originally from Ireland. Charles Smead was a farmer by occupation, and moved from New York (whither his parents had removed at an earlier date) and settled on the farm where our subject now resides in 1866. The farm was covered with a heavy growth of timber, and it required a great amount of work to get it in condition for farming. For years he was engaged in tilling on this farm and here died in 1885, at the age of eighty-six years. His wife still survives, and is now in her ninetieth year, having been born in 1804. While residing in New York, both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Church, and he was Class leader in the same. After coming to the Wolverine State, they attached themselves to the Wesleyan Methodist Church, and passed the remainder of their days identified with that church. They were the parents of ten children, eight of whom lived to years of maturity. Mariah is the wife of Ransom Stevens; Avis, deceased, was the wife of Robert Avery; of Rhode Island; Alfie is the widow of Lemuel B. Johnson, and resides in Idaho; Charles, who is deceased, left a family in Grand Rapids; Hannah is the wife of Darwin Merrit, of St. Lawrence County, New York; Harriet, deceased, was the wife of Robert Cantrell; E. H. , is our subject; Elijah R., resides in this township; and Riley and one unnamed died in infancy.

Ezra H. Smead, the subject of this sketch, was principally educated in St. Lawrence County, N.Y., and came to Michigan with his father. Previously to locating in this state, he was engaged in farming, and this has continued to be his chosen occupation. When the family first settled in Michigan, Mr. Smead paid $500 in cash for the farm on which our subject now lives, and had sufficient left to enable him to pass through the first year. The county was wild and unsettled, there were no public roads, Indians abounded, and the woods were full of game. Mr. Smead has done considerable hard work in his day, but now has his farm in a fine state of cultivation. Nearly all the improvements made on it have been done by himself or under his immediate supervision. The first five years after coming to the State were spent on a rented farm, during this time our subject and his family cleared a portion of the farm and erected a frame residence and a good barn. Mr. Smead has a good orchard of three acres, and in a small way is engaged in bee culture.

In 1869 Mr. Smead was elected Township Clerk and re-elected to the same position for six years. He has also served as School Inspector, and was elected a number of times as Justice of the Peace, but would not serve. On the 1st of January, 1867, he was married to Miss Fannie E. Woodbury, a native of New York, and the daughter of Nathan and Lucy ( Maxfield) Woodbury, both of whom died when Mrs. Smead was quite small. Mr. and Mrs. Woodbury were the parents of three children; Fannie E., John Joseph and Susan.

To Mr. and Mrs. Smead were born two children: Elmer E. born November 8, 1867, and one who died in infancy. They have an adopted daughter, Alice S. (Wilks) Smead. Mr. and Mrs. Smead and the children are members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Mr. Smead is a trustee of the building and property and Steward of the church. Mrs. Smead is Treasurer and Steward of the church, and president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union at Allendale, as well as Vice-President of the Ladies Aid Society, of which she was the founder and first President. Both Mr. and Mrs. Smead take a deep interest in Sunday-school work, the latter having been a teacher since the organization of the church. The son, Elmer E., served as Secretary of the Sunday-school, and takes quite an active interest in the school.