HISTORY OF TUSCOLA COUNTY
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TOWN OF AKRON
Township 14 north, of range 8 east was organized by the board of supervisors at a meeting held December 31, 1855, and designated by the name of Akron. The first township meeting was held on the first Monday in April, 1856, at the house of Alvin Waldo; and Charles H. Beach, Lucius H. Waldo and Edward Van Demark were inspectors of election.
The signers to the petition for the organization of Akron were: John G. Beck, Ransom Briggs, Josiah H. Trusdell, Alvin Waldo, Lucius H. Waldo, Edward Van Demark, Daniel Sumner, James Demarest, Andrew J. Tobias, John Nicholson, Thomas Nicholson, Richard Stark. As now organized the town of Akron comprises most of the former town of Geneva.
The town of Geneva was organized by the board of supervisors at a meeting held January 11, 1860, and comprised the territory of fractional township 15 north, of range 8 east. In 1879 the legislature of Michigan passed an act to disorganize the township of Geneva and to change the boundaries of the township of Akron. This act provided that section 36, of the township of Geneva, and section 1, of the township of Akron, be detached from their respective towns and attached to the township of Columbia; and all of the township of Geneva, except section 36, be attached to the township of Akron.
ENTRIES OF LAND
The following entries of land were made prior to the year 1860.
TOWNSHIP 14 NORTH, RANGE 8 EAST
SECTION 2.
Charles H. Cortright, May 3,1854
Leonard
W. Kile, October 23, 1854
Abraham Van Demark, November 14, 1854
Abraham Van Demark, March 8, 1855
Lodawick Hover, October 30, 1855
SECTION 3. John Royer, October 22, 1855
Albert Luther, December 11, 1858
SECTION 4 Abraham Van Demark, March 8, 1855
Abraham Van Demark, December 15, 1855
Johnson Betts, May 9, 1856
Erastus Randall, May 9, 1856
Erastus Randall, March 19, 1859
D. Sumner, March 19, 1859
SECTION 7 William C. Counrod, October 28, 1854
SECTION 9 Abraham Van Demark, December 15, 1855
SECTION 10 John Royer, October 22, 1855
Gamaliel E. Trusdell, October 30, 1855
Comstock Brown, October 4, 1856
William R. Woodman. November 5, 1856
SECTION 11 Charles H. Cortright, May 3, 1854
James H. Preston, November 14, 1854
Leonard Kile, July 7, 1854
SECTION 12 Anna Maria Layer, December 6, 1853
Levi Rumpel, March 20, 1854
John Nicholson, March 23, 1854
John Nicholson, April 1, 1854
David Clark, April 24, 1854
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Edward Van Demark, May 3, 1854
Lyman Sperry, July 5, 1854
Edward Van Demark, December 6, 1854
SECTION 13 Henry Kring, May 8, 1854
Francis T. Nichols, November 4, 1854
Orson Nichols, November 4, 1854
William A. Hayes, October 10, 1855
SECTION 14 William Donovan, October 11, 1854
Josiah Truesdell, November 8, 1854
Emery D. Cook, September 3,1855
Rowland Norton, September 29, 1855
SECTION 15. Joseph A. Daniels, November 8, 1854
Rowland Norton, September 29, 1855
Harvey P. Hobart, October 18, 1855
James Coltson, October 10, 1855
Alfred Ives, December 8, 1855
SECTION 18 Archibald Black, November 22, 1854
SECTION 21 William B. Albro, October 17, 1855
Philo and Cyrus Gilbert, October 10, 1856
SECTION 22. George Friend, May 15, 1854
James P. Demarest, November 8, 1854
Joseph Thomson, October 10, 1855
James Coltson, October 10, 1855
John P. Maxwell, September 20, 1856
SECTION 23. Frederick Freeman, October 12, 1852
David Sumner, October 24, 1852
Andrew Tobias, October 24, 1852
Lucius H. Waldo, October 25, 1852
Samuel Bell, March 6, 1855
Samuel Bell, July 7, 1855
SECTION 24. Aaron Pennell, June 28, 1852
Ira Rider, April 10, 1854
Henry Kring, May 8, 1854
Lyman Corbin, August 5, 1854
Lewis K. Van Gieson, August 24, 1854
John G. Van Gieson, October 12, 1854
Abraham Van Gieson, January 2, 1855
Stephen Woodman, December 17, 1855
SECTION 25 Lyman Corbin, August 5, 1854
Cyrus Hess, June 18, 1855
Daniel Marvin, July 16, 1855
Andrew Damond, October 17, 1855
Samuel W. Gibson, December 15, 1855
SECTION 26 Charles H. Beach, March 14, 1854
Alvin Waldo, October 25, 1854
Jacob Woodman, November 27, 1855
Samuel McMillen, November 27, 1855
Albert Damond, August 13, 1856
SECITON 27 Charles H. Beach, March 14, 1854
Jospeh Linton, October 24, 1854
Robert Smith, October 24, 1854
Cornelius P. Abbott, July 27, 1854
Charles D. Cook, September 3, 1855
John Orser, October 16, 1855
Edmund H. Hazelton, March 26, 1856
SECTION 28 Cornelius D. Abbott, October 27, 1854
Henry Mead, October 19, 1855
William Partlo, October 16, 1855
John Orser, October 16, 1855
William H. Stewart, January 19, 1856
Samuel S. Weaver, September 25,1856
SECTION 29. George Pitt, April 26, 1856
Benjamin Oakley, May 6, 1857
SECTION 30. Walter Lambert, August 7, 1854.
SECTION 32 Jacob Bell, October 24, 1854
William H. Morey, October 17, 1855
Benjamin Oakley, September 25, 1856
SECTION 33. Ransom Briggs, April 19, 1854
Richard Ladow, June 14, 1854
Albert Van Voorhies, September 4, 1854
Cornelius P. Abbott, October 25, 1854
Albert Van Voorhies, November 27, 1854
George W. Black, October 23, 1854
Henry Mead, October 19, 1855
SECTION 34 Archibald Black, December 7, 1853
John McFarland, August 18, 1854
Albert Van Vorhies, September 4, 1854
Cornelius P. Abbott, October 25, 1854
Charles H.Beach, October 28, 1854
Charles McDuffee, November 9, 1854
Samuel Woodman, November 9, 1854
Charles Shannon, November 3, 1855
Samuel Woodman, November 17, 1855
SECTION 35 Charles McDuffee, November 9, 1854
Francis Pearson, July 6, 1855
John Kerr, September 11, 1855
John W. Chamberlin, October 30, 1855
Isaac Santee, September 1, 1856
SECTION 36 David Marvin, August 26, 1854
James M. Adams, November 21, 1854
Benjamin Moreland, November 21, 1854
William King, June 5, 1855
James Pamment, November 3, 1855
TOWNSHIP 15 NORTH, RANGE 8 EAST.
SECTION 9. Abraham Van Demark, August 10, 1858
SECTION 10. Abraham Van Demark, August 10, 1858
SECTION 16. P. McMurray, December 1, 1855
SECTION 17 Alanson E. Pierce, July 30, 1858
SECTION 20. Jacob H. Little, December 29, 1858
Alanson E. Pierce, July 30, 1858
SECTION 24 L. S. Stone, February 3, 1859
SECTION 25 Wa-sa-an-a-quet, October 14, 1839
Gottlie Layer, September 30, 1852
Daniel Marvin, June 5, 1855
Abraham Van Demark, August 10, 1858
S. A. Baur, March 19, 1859
SECTION 26. Wa-sa-an-a-guet, October 14, 1839
Daniel Marvin, November 5, 1855
Daniel S. Marvin, January 15, 1856
Jacob Layer, January 15, 1856
W. B. Fuller, February 13, 1859
SECTION 29. Harvey Williams, June 20, 1853
SECTION 30 Harvey Williams, June 20, 1853
SECTION 31 Harvey Williams, June 20, 1853
King Allen, October 7, 1856
SECTION 32 Nathan Luce, August 14, 1858
SECTION 34 Daniel S. Marvin, January 15, 1856
Daniel S. Marvin, July 11, 1856
Albert Luther, December 15, 1856
SECTION 35 Horace C. Rounds, June 5, 1855
James T. Kile, July 7, 1855
Daniel S. Marvin, January 15, 1856
It is supposed that the first settler in the township that was formerly Geneva, was Peter Graverott, a Frenchman, who had a squaw for a wife. He had formerly been an Indian trader in the Saginaw
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Valley. They had a large family of children, some of whom are still living where they first settled, on the shore of Saginaw Bay. In 1853 Gottlieb Layer, his mother, brothers and sisters, settled there. Then come Daniel Marvin and Hugh Willson.
The assessed valuation of property in 1860, was $13,500; in 1870, $21,084; in 1875, $21,617.
In April, 1865, five votes were polled, and in 1875 the number was seventy-five.
The first town meeting in Geneva was held April 2, 1860, at the house of Gottlieb Layer, Sixty dollars was voted to be raised for township expenses.
The following officers were elected: Supervisor, Lucius Marvin, clerk, Lemuel S. Stone; treasurer, Warren B. Fuller; justices of the peace, Hugh Willson, Benjamin Gardner, Daniel Marvin, Ephraim Briggs; highway commissioners, Daniel S. Marvin, Gottlieb Layer, Charles Anthony; constables, Warren B. Fuller, Charles Anthony, Samuel D. Everett, Jacob Layer; school inspectors, Lucius S. Marvin, Lemuel S. Stone; overseers of the poor, Daniel Marvin, Benjamin Gardner; overseers of highway, Hugh Willson, Daniel S. Marvin.
Of the original town of Akron about two thirds was wooded land, one-third in the west part of the town being prairie. Of Geneva about two and one-half sections, in the southeast corner, was wooded, the rest of the township which is fractional being prairie. The surface is uniformly level, the prairie being low and much of it too wet for cultivation. It is, however, being gradually reclaimed, the State ditch affording a basis for drainage which is rapidly rendering the lands arable. The clearing out of Squaw Creek, which crosses the town from southeast to northwest, would undoubtedly redeem a large extent of low, worthless prairie. The natural growth of the wooded portion of the town is hickory, elm, beech, maple, basswood and different varieties of oak.
Speaking of the early days of the town Hugh Willson, who came into Geneva in October 1854, says, that where there are now waving fields of grain he has waded through the water up to his knees. Nothing can show the rapid redemption of the low lands more than this.
EARLY EVENTS
The first settler in the original town of Akron was undoubtedly Martin W. Cramer, an Indian half-breed. His entry, which was in the northeast quarter of section 1, was made November 10, 1852. He, however, sold his place to Samuel B. Covey, shortly after the latter came to the town. Following him came Edward Van Demark, in July, 1854. The Coveys, L. Hover, Richard Clark, the Waldos, C. P. Abbott, Charles Beach.
The first services of the Christian religion were in 1856. A funeral service was held by Elder Santee, at the house of Frances Hover, and Elder Klump held services at the house of Robert Kile. At the latter the three families who composed the congregation, filled the house. This latter service was in December, 1856. In the following winter a protracted meeting was held and a class of the Methodist Episcopal Church formed.
At the first town meeting in Akron which was held at the time and place designated, Edward Van Demark was chosen moderator and Lucius H. Waldo, clerk; C. H. Beach and James P. Demarest, inspectors. Alvin Waldo was chosen overseer of highways. Fifty dollars was voted for contingent expenses. The whole number of votes cast was twenty. The following were elected, viz.: Supervisor, Edward Van Demark, receiving twenty votes; treasurer, C. P. Abbott, receiving twenty votes; clerk, L. H. Waldo, receiving twenty votes; school inspector for one year, J. Covey, receiving seventeen votes, three being for S. Merrill; inspector for two years, James P. Demarest, receiving twenty votes; overseers of the poor, S. Merrill, receiving seventeen votes, and T. F. Nicholson, receiving nineteen; commissioners of highways. John Nicholson, C. Brown and Charles H. Beach, each receiving twenty votes. Ransom Briggs and T. F. Nicholson were elected constables, the former receiving eighteen and the latter twenty votes. Archibald Black, James P. Demarest, Cornelius P. Abbott and Richard Clark were elected justices of the peace.
The number of farms in Akron in 1881 was 202; acres of improved land, 4,475. There were raised in 1880, 19,422 bushels of wheat, 31,575 bushels of corn, 861 tons of hay.
VILLAGE OF AKRON
This village, lying in th southern part of the town on its southern line, is but little more than a year old, dating from its first business enterprise. It is a result of the new railroad, the Saginaw, Tuscola & Huron. In the spring of 1882 G. W. Crane selected this as a desirable point for trade and built a store on the Fair Grove side of the line. Since then have been added Simmons & Young’s store, J. A. Liken & Co’s lumber and stave bolt mill, Charles Dowker’s saw-mill, the cheese box factory of Mallory & Timber is being framed for a blacksmith and wagon shop. The village was platted in 1882 by Samuel Lynn.
Akron postoffice was first established at the house of Samuel B. Covey in section 1, with Mr. Covey as postmaster. The first year of the war it was moved to the house of Lucius Waldo, about seven miles southwest of Unionville, who was appointed postmaster. In the fall of 1882 it was moved to Akron village, or Beach’s Corners, with George Simmons as postmaster.
SCHOOL MATTERS.
According to the report of the school inspector for the year ending September 4, 1882, there were six whole and four fractional school districts in Akron. Names of directors for the ensuing year: George W. Smith, Samuel Bell, Delos Mead, Myron H. Vaughn, John McLaren, H. King, Arnold McCoy, D. W. Leonard, Alfred Petit, Josiah Bell. Number of school children in the town, 578; number that attended school during the year, 455. There are in the town ten frame and one log school-houses.
TOWN OFFICERS.
YEAR SUREVISOR CLERK TREASURER COMMISSIONER
HIGHWAYS
1883
Samuel Bell
John L. Evans C.
Knickerbocker
John L. Smith
1882
Samuel Bell
John L. Evans F.
Achenbach
Curtis Luther
1881
Samuel Bell
George J. Dart F.
Achenbach
J. Westphal
1880
S. W. Hubbell John L. Evans
C. Knickerbocker
R. Waldo
1879
S. W. Hubbell R. W.
Durkee
C. Knickerbocker
John L. Smith
1878
S. W. Hubbell R. W.
Durkee
John Nicholson
L. Phelps
1877
William Dolph R. W. Durkee
John Nicholson
John
L. Smith
1876
John Staley, Jr. R. W. Durkee
John Nicholson
Geo.
S. Clark
1875
John Staley, Jr. R. W. Durkee
John Nicholson
Geo. S. Clark
1874
John Staley, Jr. George J. Dart
John Nicholson
John Smith
1873
John Staley, Jr. Wm. B. Waldo
John Nicholson
C.
Marvin
1872
John Staley, Jr. Wm. B. Waldo
John Nicholson
Geo.
S. Clark
1871
Wm. E. Dolph W.
H. Covey
John Nicholson
L.
Phelps
1870
Wm. E. Dolph Eli
Woodman
John Nicholson
E. A. May
1869
W. H. Covey
Eli Woodman John
Nicholson
Jos. Holland
1868
Wm. E. Dolph D.
W. Leonard
Wm. B. Waldo
Francis Hover
1867
Wm. E. Dolph D.
W. Leonard
John Nicholson
E. A. May
1866
James P. Demarest L. H. Waldo
John Nicholson
Jos. Holland
1865
James P. Demarest L. H. Hudson
John Nicholson
Francis
Hover
Enos
Oakley
1864
James P. Demarest L. H. Hudson
John Nicholson
E.
A. Cook
1863
James P. Demarest L. H., Hudson
John Nicholson
Milo
Randall
John
G. Bick
1862
James P. Demarest J. G. Vangieser John
Nicholson Enos
Oakley
J.
G. Vangiesen
1861
James P. Demarest James P. Demarest
S.B. Covey
Francis Hover
G.
Merry
1860
Wm. B. Waldo
James P. Demarest
S. B. Covey
Albert Luther
1859
Edward Van Demark James
P. Demarest C. P. Abbott
W. Woodman
1858
Edward Van Demark L.
H. Waldo C. P. Abbott
J. Woodman
1857
Edward Van Demark Wm.
B. Waldo C. P. Abbott
J. Nicholson
1856
Edward Van Demark L.
H. Waldo C. P. Abbott
J. Nicholson
C.
Brown
C.
H. Beach
BIOGRAPHICAL
Charles H. Beach, farmer, was born in Genesee County, N. Y., July 3,
1827. He came with his parents to
Washtenaw County, Mich., in his childhood.
From there they removed to Branch
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130
County,
where his father, Samuel Beach, was a pioneer settler.
In this county he spent his youth and early manhood engaged chiefly in
agriculture. On June 3, 1853, he
was married to Miss Martha Bryant, also of Branch County.
She was born in Russell, Ohio, December 5, 1833.
They have nine children, Elva E., Adella A., Elmor H., Alice I.,
Elizabeth E., Orena E., Nelson C., Charles Milan and Carrie P.
They came to Akron, Tuscola County, in March, 1854, and were the first
family to settle in that township, which of course was then an unbroken
wilderness, and had as yet no municipal organization.
From Tuscola village onward toward their place the road was a mere trail
among the trees. They erected a log
dwelling 16x20 feet outside, roofed it with shakes and floored it with
puncheons, and made window casings form the pieces of a dry goods box.
He bought a door of another shanty from a settler, but for some time they
needed this for a table and used a blanket for a door.
One neighbor, in order to knock at the blanket door, brought a chip in
his hand on which to rap. They
cleared eight acres the first season and sowed five with wheat.
Soon, however, they sold this their first forest home and bought
in section 34, where they now reside.
They now have forty-five under cultivation, with an excellent
fruit-bearing orchard and good buildings, constituting for them an inviting
home. The first barrel of flour he
bought and brought into Akron cost him $11 and nearly four days’ work with the
team bringing it home, and through a part of one swamp he had to hoist it end
over end by hand for a long distance, the oxen being done out with fatigue.
Mr. Beach served as clerk in the organizing of the township.
When he first served as clerk in the organizing of the township, but
evaded office almost as soon as others could be found to serve. The church of their choice is the Methodist Episcopal Church.
THE PLAGUE OF MICE.—The first season that Mr. And Mrs. Beach lived in
Akron they were almost overrun with mice. They
devoured their garden beans, and ate their tallow candles, and gnawed hole after
hole in the solid hardwood head of the flour barrel; and when they suspended
their candles from the peak of the roof in the house by a small cord some of
these invaders followed by this to the candles.
They once poured twenty-one dead mice from a gallon jug of molasses, out
of which the cork had been eaten by them, and one live one ran dripping away.
Mrs. Beach caught fourteen live ones in a bowl of meal with a pair of
fire tongs. One man caught seventy
mice in one evening in a dead fall. Numbers
of them were found drowned in crocks of preserves, others nesting in satchels
and muffs, and others swimming in pans of milk and others creeping into every
available place of refuge and sustenance.
WESTLEY HOVER, farmer, was born in Candor, N.Y., February 8, 1844.
He came with his parents to Akron, Mich., in September 1856. They settled in section 11, where Mr. Hover now resides and
he spent his youth mostly in improving their pioneer home and its surroundings.
Later, however, he worked as a carpenter and joiner in Bay City and
elsewhere. He and Miss Melissa Streeter, of Akron, were married May 17,
1863. She was born in Oakland
County, Mich., April 14, 1845. They
have had six children: Hattie,
Gertrude, Loren, Bertha (deceased), Ernest and Chloe.
Mr. Hover has in his farm home eighty acres of land with sixty under
cultivation. He has apples, pears,
plums, cherries and other small fruits, a commodious dwelling and other
buildings, and is about to make still further additions, thus increasing the
conveniences of their already pleasant home.
EMERY D. COOK, farmer and dealer in real estate, farming implements and
machinery, was born in Cattaraugus County, N.Y., January 21, 1835.
He was bereaved of his father at the age of fourteen years, and three
years later he came to Oakland County, Mich., and spent some two years in
farming enterprise. He went thence
to Saginaw County and entered the employ of John A. Westerfelt, Esq., at $14 per
month. He remained there until
nearly of age, and accumulated in all some $700.
In 1855 he bought 240 acres of land in Akron, in section 14 and 21, and
soon after returned to his native place, spent over three years, chiefly in
lumbering, and accumulated about $1,000, which was nearly all lost in the panic
of 1856. After this he returned and
paid his land tax in Akron, but had only $3 left.
He next engaged in stock raising and continued the enterprise for several
years with good success. On January
14, 1860, he was married by B. W. Huston, Esquire, of Vassar, to Miss Jennie E.
Waldo, of Akron. She was born in
Genessee County, N. Y., February 26, 1838.
She came with her parents from Bainbridge, Ohio, to Akron in 1856. The first township meeting held in Akron was held at the
residence of her father, Mr. Alvin Waldo, and she selected the name for the
township. Shortly after Miss Waldo
taught one of the first three schools in the township.
Mr. And Mrs. Cook have had six children.
Emery and Freddie are deceased. Emery
was the first person buried in the Akron cemetery.
The living children are Wilbert, Lucius, Ada and Carrie. Later Mr. Cook sold his Akron estate and made a tour in the
west but soon returned, and bought eighty acres of land in section 31, Columbia,
at $1,600, and resided there until the winter of 1883, when he sold that
property for $3,200, and bought 440 acres in Akron.
On one occasion Mr. Cook started to take four bushels of corn to mill and
one ox gave out when yet six miles form the mill. Mr. Cook left him with a settler, and he and the other ox
drew the grist to the mill, which he found broken.
He waited one week for his grist and earned five bushels of oats, which,
with the grist and some seed corn, he and the ox drew back the six miles to
where the other ox had been left. Mr.
Cook has been six years highway commissioner, and justice of the peace
twenty-one years, and has never had an official judgment reversed by the higher
courts.
CHARLES D. COOK, farmer, was born in Orleans County, N. Y., February 22,
1830. He was reared and educated in
his native State, and came to Eaton County, Mich., in the spring of 1852.
He had been married to Miss Lucinda J. Ferren, also of Orleans, on May
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6,
1850. On September 19, 1853, Mr.
Cook was bereaved of his beloved wife, and eleven days later he lost an infant
son. Shortly after this he returned
to his native place, and on November 12, 1854, he and Miss Philena Hammond, also
of Orleans, were united in marriage. She
was born in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., May 6, 1833.
He has now two children, Philena J. (now Mrs. George W. Davis) and
Charles R., also two adopted children, Lettie (now Mrs. A. Loucks), and Frankie
M. In November, 1854, Mr. And Mrs. Cook came to Oakland County, Mich., and about
one year later they settled in section 27, in Akron, where he had bought eighty
acres of land on which they still reside. His
land was 50 cents per acre. There
was then no township organization, and they had to underbrush a trail some
distance among the trees to reach their chosen spot. Mrs. Cook remained five
miles from their place while he made a small opening in the woods and prepared a
dwelling, then she came and joined her husband in the pioneer experience of
those early days. Their nearest
postoffice was Vassar; but the waving forest has disappeared, and they have in
their farm home 120 acres of land, with eighty acres improved, and with ample
supplies of large and small fruits and inviting home comforts.
Mr. Cook also owns eighty acres of other lands, and property in Caro and
at Akron Station. In August, 1862,
he enlisted in the Twenty-third Michigan Infantry, Company D, and in a few
months received a personal injury and was honorably discharged and returned
home. Some time after he recovered,
and again enlisted in the twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry, Company A, and served
until liberty and the Union triumphed over slavery and rebellion. Religiously Mr. Cook belongs to the Seventh Day Adventist
Church. Politically he is a
straight Republican.
HENRY H. GILBERT, farmer was born in Genesee County, Mich., August 12,
1842. He was bereaved of his father
at the age of ten years. In 1855 he
went west to Illinois, and remained there until the outbreak of the late
rebellion. On September 12,1861, he enlisted in the Sixty-sixth Illinois
Infantry, Company C, and served his country until discharged January 24, 1864,
by reason of general disability. His first engagement was in the midst of
darkness. When marching to meet a
band of guerrillas the advance scouts suddenly turned and came dashing back.
As the scouts passed the lines, a general fire was ordered, and was
followed by a most fearful braying from a herd of peaceable farm mules without
any riders, over 100 of which in the morning were found dead or disabled in the
road where they had met with the and followed the horses of the advance scouts.
Mr. Gilbert fought at Fort Henry, Fort Donalson, Shiloh, Corinth, Iuka,
Holly Springs, second battle of Corinth and Vicksburg, and other minor
engagements. He received three sabre thrusts and five gunshot wounds; the
severest of which was received while on picket duty.
Thirty-three buckshots and a mass of fine shot were afterward taken from
his person, and one buckshot still remains, having been for twenty years firmly
lodged in the rear part of the head a little below the skin.
On being discharged he returned to Livingston County, Mich., and on March
14, 1865, he was married to Miss Lois Carr, of the same county.
They had three sons, one of whom is dead. Those living are Birtzell H.
and Alfred C. They settled in
Wisner in November, 1867, and prepared them a pioneer home on the prairie.
The country was wet and without roads or conveniences for transportation,
except by boats or canoes. On April
1, 1873, Mrs. Gilbert died of bronchial affection.
Mr. Gilbert’s second marriage was to Miss Emma Leonard, of Geneva,
December 25, 1874. They have one
son, Levi Leonard. In 1882 Mr.
Gilbert sold his Wisner estate, of eighty acres, for $3,000, and has now a farm
of twenty acres in Akron, formerly Geneva, which will be their future home. Mr. Gilbert has been postmaster in Wisner seven years and
supervisor six years. He belongs to
the Northern Star Lodge of F. & A. M., and he and Mrs. Gilbert are members
of the regular Baptist Church.
ALBERT L. HEMSTREET, farmer, son of Daniel and Rosina Hemstreet, was born
in Will County, Ill., May 22, 1845. He
with his parents removed to Pennsylvania when seven years of age, and ten years
later they came to Tuscola County, Mich., and settled in section 4 in Akron.
They at once engaged in preparing them a pioneer home.
There were then six children in the family, Albert, Harriet (now
deceased), Delia, Calvin, Sarah and Lura. Grant,
the youngest son, was born in Akron. They
came by way of Saginaw, and arrived at their place on February 10, 1863.
They then had 120 acres of land, mostly prairie, to which they have added
forty more. Most of the surface
when they came was a sheet of ice. They
attempted to bring in one cow, but she fell on the ice and could not possibly
recover her standing position; had to be drawn by hand to a land surface, gotten
on her feet and left two weks,m until the ice left the surface of the prairie,
In those pioneer days Mr. Henstreet’s sister fell sick of typhoid
fever. No good physician could be
obtained. She died, and no minister
could be secured to preach a funeral sermon, and her remains were laid in the
earth without funeral obsequies. Now,
however, they have sixty acres under improvement, a good dwelling and other farm
buildings, and an inviting home. Mrs.
Hemstreet, the mother, is a member of the church of the United Bretheren in
Christ. Mr. Hemstreet has been five
years a school accessor in his district. The
father, Mr. Daniel Hemstreet, was a Methodist Episcopal exhorter, and was the
first to hold stated religious meetings in the neighborhood. He was the first to move in the organization of the school
district, and he was a leading person in the other improvements in the place, in
Sabbath-school and for social good. He
died of paralysis October 8, 1874, beloved and regretted by all around him.