HISTORY
OF TUSCOLA COUNTY
BIOGRAPHICAL
Patrick McGlone, who is one of the earliest settlers of that part of Tuscola County now known as the township of Juniata, is a resident of the village of Watrousville. He was born May 6, 1810, in Seneca County, N. Y., and was brought up on a farm. His education was acquired in a log school-house, sitting on a bench made from a log. His father removed to Steuben County, taking his family with him. In 1831 the son, Patrick, went to Reed Township, Ohio, where he worked on a farm two and a half years. He then bought eighty acres of land, cleared up a farm, and in March, 1833, was married to Hannah Reed, whose father was the first settler in and after whom the township was named. His health failing after living on his farm seven years, he removed to Rose, Oakland County, Mich., where he bought 160 acres of land and made of it one of the best farms in that county. He remained there some seven years. He then came to Tuscola County, arriving at Vassar, July 3, 1850. He bought 160 acres of land and made of it one of the best farms in that county. He remained there some seven years. He then came to Tuscola County, arriving at Vassar, July 3, 1850. He bought 160 acres of land in what is now Juniata. The only persons then living in the township were two Germans, who were clearing land about three miles from Vassar. A Mr. Levi Rogers and his sons had been in the township but had left. They returned in October, 1850. In February, 1851, he moved with his family on his land, and commenced the work of clearing up a farm. After his house was built he was literally compelled to make a tavern of it as there was no place near it where travelers could stay. In that and another house he built he kept hotel for some fourteen years. Mr. And Mrs. McGlone have raised a family of four daughters and one son, also an adopted son. The daughters are all married. The son, Joseph R. McGlone, is in the lumber trade at Toledo, Ohio. The adopted son is married and lives on the homestead.
Mr. McGlone is full of anecdotes of the early time in this county, and is one of those gentlemen who can tell in an engaging manner reminiscences of pioneer times. During April, 1851, while in Vassar, he was told by parties whom he met there that he had been deceived as to the quality of the land in the section of country where he had settled, and that from his place to the bay it was a worthless swamp. This somewhat discouraged him. He returned home and quit work on the house he was building. He however determined to go and see for himself. Taking with him two companions, one of whom was David Gordon, now of Grand Rapids, they went through the woods to Sebewaing and found the land they passed over to be good for farming purposes. On his return work was resumed on his house. The year following Mr. McGlone was the moving spirit in getting a State road built from the corner of northeast quarter of section 16, range 8, to Sebewaing. When he went to Sebewaing the first time, he met a German missionary, who assured him the land in this part of Tuscola and Huron Counties was good, knowing from a personal inspection that it was so.
Mr. McGlone says that he, as well as many other early settlers of Tuscola County, was under many favors to the late Curtis Emerson, of East Saginaw, who was a large land owner in the county. That eccentric gentleman was always read to lend a helping hand to the pioneers, and his name to-day brings back to many of them the memory of kindnesses extended.
HON. ELEASAR B. HAYES was born in Geneseo, Livingston County, N.Y. His father was a farmer, and the son was brought up on a farm. His father moved to Michigan with his family when the son was about nine years of age. When he was seventeen he bought his time of his father and returned to New York, where he worked on a farm in summer time and attended school at Liberty during the winters. In 1852 he came back to Michigan and for a number of years taught school in the following places: Brighton, Livingston County, Milford, Oakland County, and Vassar, Tuscola County—teaching winters. In 1856 he commenced clearing up a farm in Gilford, Tuscola County. He sold it and in 1865 located in Juniata, his farm being about one and a half miles from the village of Watrousville. In the fall of 1882 he was elected a member of the State legislature for the First Representative District of Tuscola County. He was a supervisor for Gilford Township three years, for Juniata eleven years, resigning the last office when elected representative. He has been an under sheriff for four years, school director over thirteen years and for the past seven years secretary of the Tuscola County Agricultural Society, of the executive committee of which he has been a member for twelve years.
HON. DANIEL G. WILDER was born in Chesterfield, Hampshire County, Mass. His father moved with his family to the State of New York, living for a number of years in Genesee and Wyoming Counties, where he followed the occupation of a farmer. In 1848 the son came to Michigan, and for a number of years taught school, putting in two winter and one summer terms in Genesee County, also one winter term at Vassar. In 1849 he had bught 120 acres of land from the United States government in what was then the township of Rogers, now called Juniata, and his health failing he quit teaching school and went to farming about the year 1851. While in Genesee County he had studied law in the office of Levi Walker, and was admitted to the bar at Howell, in Livingston County. When he went on his land to clear up a farm, he was a single man and lived alone in a shanty, sometimes a month passing without seeing a human being. In the fall of 1856 he was elected county treasurer and on taking possession of his office he removed to Vassar. In 1859 he was re-elected, holding it until January 1, 1861. At the expiration of his last term he returned to his farm. Previous to this, however, he had served four years—1852 to 1856---as judge of probate. In 1860 he was elected State senator from the Twenty-seventy District, which embraced Tuscola, Lapeer, Huron and Sanilac Counties. He also served one term as prosecuting attorney. Among other offices held by him were justice of the peace, treasurer and school inspector in Juniata. About 1873 or 1874 he retired from the practice of law. In 1872, however, he had engaged I mercantile business at Watrousville, being a member of the firm of Carter & Wilder. He bought his partner’s interest in 1875, and continues the business. He also deals in drugs, medicines, etc. In 1853 he was married to Louisa Pratt, of Genesee County. They had one child, a daughter. After the death of his first, he was again married to Margaret Riker, in 1875. They also have had one child, a daughter.
WILLIAM LIVINGSTON is a native of New Hampshire, and was born in 1821. At four years of age he removed with his parents to the town of Cambridge, Washington County, N. Y., where he resided until 1869, when he came to Tuscola County and settled in Juniata Township. He then purchased his present farm and has always been a farmer, although he has sometimes engaged in lumbering. In 1845 he married Miss Miriam Welles , of Washington County N. Y. They have had two sons, both of whom are living.
BENJAMIN A WOOD, postmaster at Watrousville, was born in Salem, Mass. In 1836 his father moved to Lenox, Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he engaged in the boot and shoe business, and the son learned the shoemaker’s trade. Afterward he was in the same business for himself and removed from there to Jefferson, where he went into the grocery trade. In 1856 he removed to Watrousville, Tuscola County. He worked at his trade for a time after coming, and then opened a grocery store. He continued in the last business five years and then resumed shoemaking, at which he still continues. In 1861 he was appointed postmaster at Watrousville and now (1883) occupies that position. He has several time resigned the office, but has always been induced to take it again, more as an accommodation to his neighbors than for any profit to be derived form holding the office. He has held a number of other public offices, having served as a supervisor for Juniata, township treasurer, justice of the peace, superintendent of the poor and notary public. He has also been president of the Tuscola County Agricultural Society. He was married to Sarah Burtis in 1835 The have had a family of three children, two of whom are living at this date (1883).
RUSSELL D. BLACK, M. D., was born February 14, 1815, in Broome County, N. Y. During his boyhood his father come West to Geauga County, N.Y. During his boyhood his father came West to Geauga County, Ohio. About 1848 he completed his medical education at an eclectic college in Cincinnati. For about three years he practiced medicine at Russell, Geauga County, and in 1851 removed to Watrousville, being the second physician to located in the county. The practice of medicine in those early days was no joke, entailing as it did many a weary tramp through the forests on foot. Dr. Black has been a member of the board of health twenty-eight years, justice of the peace twenty-four years and supervisor two. His present and second wife was Mrs. Eliza M. Kent previous to becoming Mrs. Black. They have two children, a son and daughter. The son is now reading medicine and proposes to adopt his father’s profession. The daughter lives at home.
JAMES R. BORLAND was born in the county of Antrim, Ireland in 1834, and came to the United States with his parents in 1843. They settled m western New York, where they lived till about 1853, when they came to Michigan and located where William Borland now resides. The subject of his sketch now owns 165 acres on section 5 , where he resides, a portion of which was taken up by John Borland (his father) from the government. He also owns 273 acres in different tracts throughout the county. He was married in 1864 to Miss Sarah J. Caul, of Ypsilanti, Mich., and has four daughters. Mr. Borland has held the office of township treasurer seventeen years, and now (1883) is representing the township of Juniata as supervisor.
RICHARD MORRIS, M. D., was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1847, and came with his parents to America when less than a year old. They settled near London, Canada, where he lived until about 1870. He received his medical education at the Toronto School of Medicine and the University of Buffalo. He graduated from the latter institution in 1870, and soon thereafter came to Michigan, and located in Watrousville, where he has since practiced his profession. He was married in 1871 to Miss Josephine Jilson, a lady of Scotch descent, but whose birthplace was Elmira, N. Y. They have two sons.
E. A. BORLAND was born in the town of Pittsford, Wayne County, N. Y., in June, 1822, and resided there until 1846, when he with his people came to Michigan and settled in the township of highland, Oakland County, where they resided till 1852, when they all came to Tuscola County and located in the township of Juniata. He and his brother, J. G. Borland, took up from the government 100 acres of land, a portion of which he still owns, and upon which he has resided up to the present time. He was married in 1846 to Miss Matilda Brown, of Monroe County, N.Y. who died about 1867, and was again married, to his present wife, who was Miss Fannie Rogers, of the same place, and has one child.
RICHARD C. BURTIS was born in Pittstown, near Troy, N.Y., in 1824, and when quite young moved with his parents to Hoosick Falls, N.Y., where his father died when he was five years old. His mother with the family soon thereafter moved to Troy, N.Y., where they resided about six years, when they went to Ashtabula county, Ohio, returning to Troy, N. Y., in 1838. He then accepted a situation in a grocery store, where he remained three years, when he went to Ithaca, N.Y., and learned the shoemakers’ trade, remaining there three and one-half years, and afterward worked at his trade in nearly all of the Eastern cities for the following fifteen years. In 1855 he came to Michigan on a hunting expedition, and two years later came to Michigan on a hunting expedition, and two years later came to remain and located in Watrousville, Tuscola County, where he engaged in shoemaking up to 1862, when his brother died and he took an interest with his sister in a general store which continued about seven years, when he took the entire stock and conducted it alone about thirteen years, when he retired, in 1882, and since has resided upon his farm of forty acres, in Watrousville. He built the residence shown elsewhere in this work in 1879-’80. He was married in 1868 to Miss Flora A. Chubb, of Nankin, Wayne County, Mich. Mr. Burtis was postmaster of Watrousville four years.
ELEAZAR MILLER, one of the earliest settlers of Juniata, was a native of Vermont. In the fall of 1851 he moved from Monroe County with his family, consisting of a wife, four boys and two girls, to Tuscola County, and settled on section 11, near the site of Watrousville, in the town of Juniata. They remained at Patrick McGlone’s for four weeks, while building a shanty of lumber brought from Vassar. Mr. Miller died in the spring of 1861. The children living are: Mrs. Charles R. Selden, of Caro; Charles, of Kansas; Nelson of Juniata; Dana, of Kansas; Mrs. Thomas Rutherford, of Juniata. One son, Lemuel, is dead
T. NETTLETON is a native of Monroe County, N.Y., where he lived until the age of nine years, when he moved with his father’s family to Geauga County, Ohio, remaining with themon the farm until twenty-one years of age. He then apprenticed himself for three years to learn the carpenter trade, and at the expiration of the time formed a co-partnership and engaged actively in building. In 1848 he was married to Miss Rhoda Payne, who died in December of the same year. He was again married in 1852 to Miss Lucilla Burnett, who died in 1854, and the same year was married to Miss Helen M. Fawcett, of Wyoming County, N. Y., his present wife. Up to the present his time has been divided between farming and building, with the exception of some years spent in Caro. He came to the township of Juniata in the fall of 1855, where he has lived, with the exception of four years spent in Cleveland, Ohio. The five years he spent in Caro was engaged n the mercantile business, four years of which time he held the office of sheriff. He has five children, three sons and two daughters, and lost one son by drowning in the river at Cleveland in 1865.
GEORGE HALL is a native of Warwickshire, England; was born in 1820, and came with his parents to the United States, locating first at Utica, N.Y., where they resided seven years. They then removed to Geauga County, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch remained seventeen years. He was married in July, 1849, and settled on a farm in that county, where he lived until his removal to the township of Juniata in 1854, where he purchased 100 acres of land upon which he has since resided, and to which he has added 100 acres by subsequent purchase. He hads four children, two sons and two daughters. Charles and Marian are at present living in Fargo, D. T.; the other son is living on a part of the homestead, leaving but one child, a daughter, under the paternal roof.
LEWIS H. BAUER was born in Germany in 1821, he emigrated to the United States in the winter of 1848-49, and after a short stay in the State of New York came to Saginaw, Mich., when after a residence of a year he went to Oakland County and spent another year there. In 1852 he came to the township of Juniata and located upon a farm where he now resides, and which contains 200 acres. He was married in 1852 in Miss Barbara Herter, of German birth, who at the time was living in Saginaw. They have six children, three sons and three daughters.
GEORGER SMITH was born in Schoharie County, N. Y., in 1824, and lived there until fifteen years of age, when he moved with his father to Cattaraugus County. In 1844 he was married to Miss Melinda Giles, of that county, and two years thereafter located on a part of the homestead, where he resided three years when he removed to a farm he purchased in the same vicinity, upon which he resided six years. He then removed to Attica and from there to Chautauqua County, where he lived twelve years prior to his coming to Michigan in 1867. After looking around for a short time he settled upon his present farm where he has since resided. He lost his only son in 1876. and has two daughters living.
G. KILE, SR., was born in Columbus County, Pa., in 1818, remaining there until he became of age. In 1838 he was married to Miss Nancy Schultz, of that county, and soon thereafter bought a piece of land in the locality and commenced farming for himself, which he continued until 1852 when he sold out and came to Michigan. He at first rented a farm near Ann Arbor, upon which resided two years, when he came to the township of Juniata and, after traveling a long distance through the unbroken wilderness, took up the farm upon which he now resides, and subsequently added eighty acres, making him a farm of 160 acres.
R. S. WEAVER, son of A. B. Weaver, was born in Connecticut in 1840, and moved to Ohio with his parents when a mere child. They remained there thirteen years, when they came to the township of Juniata where the balance of his life has been spent, with the exception of three and one-half years spent in Vassar, during which time he was employed as a clerk in a store. In 1862 he engaged in mercantile business in Watrousville which he continued seventeen years, when he purchased 120 acres of land on section 16 and has since devoted his time and attention exclusively to farming. He was married in 1862 to Miss Fidelia Wood, of Juniata, and has five children: four sons and one daughter.
FRANKLIN FAIRMAN is a native of the State of New York, and was born in 1825. He came with his parents to Wayne County, Mich., at three years of age, and resided there until twenty-two years of age, when he went to Grand Rapids and settled on a new place, remaining there two years. He then came to Tuscola County and took up 240 acres of government land in the township of Indian Fields, upon which he lived, clearing and improving it till 1867, when he removed to the farm where he now resides. In 1857 he married Miss Hannah Vangiesen, of Wayne County, Mich., formerly of Wayne County, N.Y., and has seven children: three sons and four daughters.
ANTHONY HARMON, deceased, was born in County Carlow, Ireland, in 1828, and came to the United States in 1851. He first resided in Westchester County, N. Y., four years, and was there married to Miss Mary Halligan, of that State, afterward in Wayne County, Mich., three years, when he came to the township of Juniata, and soon thereafter located 220 acres of land on section 18, where his family now reside. The survivors consist of Mrs. Harmon and seven children: two sons and five daughters.
J. T. BELKNAP, deceased, was a native of Vermont, where he was born in 1814. He, with his father’s family, came to Michigan in 1844, and settled in Oakland County, where they remained six years, when they came to Juniata in 1850 cutting their way through the woods, and settled on the farm where the surviving family still reside. His father, Jesse Belknap, resided near or with him up to the time of his death, which occurred at the advanced age of seventy-four years.
JACOB ALBER was born in Germany in 1812, and emigrated to the United States with his wife and two children in 1848. He stopped in Ypsilanti, Mich., a year, and then came to Tuscola County and engaged with a lumbering firm in Vassar with whom he continued six years, when he purchased eighty acres of land upon which he still resides, and to which he has since added forty acres. He was married in Germany in 1836, to Miss Mary K. Heffet, who died in 1881, and has three daughters living. His only son was in the late war and died in the hospital at Louisville, Ky.
LAFAYETTE WILDER was born in Wyoming County, N. Y., where he remained until about twenty-one years of age. He then came to the township of Juniata and worked on his father’s farm, near Watrousville, for about six years, and about one year thereafter purchased a farm on sections 19 and 30, where he has since resided. He was married in 1860 to Miss Jane E. Haight of Pembroke, N.Y., and has three sons and one daughter. He has been quite extensively engaged in lumbering.
IRA TAPPAN was born in the State of New Jersey in 1818, and at eighteen years of age left home for the West, stopping in Toledo one year, and afterward a small village from which he went to Washtenaw County where he remained about nine years. He was there married to Miss Phoebe Hinson, of Ann Arbor, formerly of the State of New York. Mr. Tappan and wife came to Tuscola County in 1848, and for two years kept a hotel in the village of Tuscola, then came to the township of Juniata and took up 160 acres of government land, on section 6, to which he has since added eighty acres. They have by adoption three children.
JAMES GIBSON was born in New Hampshire in 1811, and when seventeen years of age went to Middlesex, Mass., where he served for five years as a clerk in a store. He then went into business for himself which he continued four years, then came to Ann Arbor, Mich., and engaged in business there, where he remained until 1859. He then came to Tuscola County and took up 160 acres of land which he has improved and upon which he has since resided. He was married in 1836 to Miss Lydia Merrell, of New Hampshire, and has five children: three sons, two of whom remain at home, and the other traveling in the Southern States. The two daughters are both married, one the wife of Townsend North, of Vassar, and the other a resident of Lawrence, Mass.
JOHN A . HATCH is a native of Ashtabula County, Ohio in 1825, and his boyhood days were spent, when not attending school, with the farmers in the immediate vicinity. At the age of sixteen he commenced teaching school during the winter months, and each succeeding summer engaged in farm work. When twenty-five years of age he moved to Coldwater, Branch county, Mich., and for three years was employed as a clerk in a store. At the expiration of that time he returned to Ohio and married Miss Lusetta Phillips, of his native place, and remained there two years, during which time he engaged in carpenter work and building, which he has since followed with the exception of three years spent in a store at Watrousville. In 1855 he came with his wife to the county and settled near the village of Tuscola, where he resided until 1864 when he came to Watrousville, which he has since made his home. Mr. Hatch has held the office of township clerk twelve years, justice of the peace one years, and has been identified with school interests during the greater part of his life. He has by adoption five children.
SANFORD HINES was born in Montgomery County, N. Y., in 1817, living there until seven years of age, when he went with his father to Onondaga County where he engaged in farming and boating till 1865, when he came to Michigan and located on the farm where he now resides, and which he mostly cleared with his own hands. He was married in 1850 to Miss Amanda Pettingill, of Cicero, Onondaga County, N.Y., and has eight children. Of three sons, one is married and resides in the township of Millington, and of the daughters, three are married and live in the immediate vicinity of the homestead.
JOHN M. COLE was born in Columbia County Pa., in 1832, where he resided until coming to Tuscola County. The early part of his life was spent on his father’s farm and working in his grist and saw-mills. He was married in 1857 to Miss Ann Koons, of Luzerne County, Pa., whose parents were among the earliest residents of that section. He came to the township of Juniata viewing in1861, and the following year located with his family on a farm about one mile from his present home. In 1874 he built a handsome residence in Watrousville where he now resides. They have had five children, three of whom are living __William D., Edwin Raymond, and Ella B.
G. KILE was born in Pennsylvania in 1852, and came to Tuscola County with his parents in 1856, and settled upon the farm now owned and occupied by the subject of this sketch. His father, N. Kile, died in July 1858. Mr. Kile was married in October, 1880, to Miss Tilley Fritz, of Pennsylvania, and has one son. His farm contains 160 acres of land on sections 12 and 13.
PERRY Y. JOHNSON is a native of Plymouth, Ashtabula County, Ohio. He resided there until seventeen years of age, when he came to Michigan, and for a time was engaged in the lumber woods near the Cass River, and in a planning-mill at Saginaw. Returning to Ohio he remained there about eighteen months, and in 1858 came to Tuscola County, and settled upon eighty acres of land in the township of Denmark. The following three years his time was divided between the farm and the lumber woods. In 1861 he enlisted in Company E, Seventh Michigan Volunteers, under Captain L. H. Richardson, and served in the Army of the Potomac under McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Pope, Meade and Grant. He served three years, and was twice wounded, first in the left arm while doing picket duty on the Rapidan, and second, in the right arm at Gettysburgh. After receiving his discharge, in 1864, he returned to Ohio for his wife, whom he had married soon after his enlistment, and together they came to the township of Denmark, where they remained three years. He then purchased and settled upon thirty-nine acres of land in the township of Juniata, to which he has added from time to time, until his farm now contains 279 acres, which, with 120 acres he owns in Bay County and eighty acres on the Cass River, aggregates 479 acres. He has six children, two sons and four daughters.
ANDREW J. ROGERS, decreased, was born in the State of New York, in 1828, and came with his father’s family to Michigan, when seven years of age. They settled first in Washtenaw County, where they remained fifteen years, and then came to the township of Juniata, and located on the farm adjoining the one now occupied by his family. He was married in 1848, to Miss Julia Lawrence, who was residing with her parents in Washtenaw County at the time, but who was a native of Vermont. He died December 23, 1882. The surviving members of the family are Mrs. Rogers, one son and two daughters; L. H., Edna L. and Lola J. The eldest daughter, Edna L., is the oldest person now living who was born in the township. When Mr. And Mrs. Rogers first came to the township, the surrounding country was one vast wilderness. Vassar contained but one board shanty and Watrousville was a place unheard of.
JOHN THOMS was born in County Derry, Ireland, where he remained until twenty-five years of age, when he emigrated to the United States. For the first two years after his arrival, he worked in different places in the State of New York, at the cooper’s trade, and then came West. He followed his trade in Washtenaw County, and was there married in 1847, to Miss Lucy A. Fellows, a resident of the county. He continued there at his trade until the breaking out of the war in 1861, when he enlisted in the First Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics, and served eight months, and was then discharged, and then re-enlisted in the well known Twentieth Michigan Infantry, commanded by Colonel Williams, and followed the fortunes of this noted regiment to the close of the war. He was in eighteen battles, including Fredericksburgh, Horse Shoe Bend, Vicksburg, Jackson, Blue Springs, Knoxville, Fort Saunders, Cold Harbor, Petersburgh, The Crater, Weldon, Ream’s Station, The Wilderness and many others. He was mustered out May 30, 1865, and returned to his family safe and sound. After a year’s sojourn in Washtenaw County he came to the township of Juniata, and settled on the farm where he now resides.
DAVID R. LEWIS was born in Tompkins county, N. Y., in 1833, and lived there and in Cortland County until 1868, when he came to Tuscola County, and located in the township of Juniata. Mr. Lewis commenced life on a farm, but has spent a great portion of his life in mercantile business. He owned and carried on a store in McLean, Tomplins county, for nine years, and for the past years has been engaged in mercantile business in Watrousville, When he first came to the township he located on a farm near Watrousville, where he resided twelve years, then his health failing he moved into the village and opened a store. He was married in 1862, to Miss Adelaide Stout, of Tompkins county, and has four children, one son and three daughters.
DAVID B. ROSE was born in Ulster County, N.Y., in 1829, and at the age of nine years came with his parents to Washtenaw County, Mich., where he remained until 1860, when he removed to Tuscola County, and located on the farm where he now resides. He enlisted n 1862 in the Seventh Michigan Cavalry, Colonel Mann commanding, and served three years, and was in many battles. At Gettysburgh he was wounded in the face by a fragment of shell, and was taken prisoner in June, suffering the horrors of Anderson. Ville, Libby, Savannah and other prisons, and at last found himself with many other sick prisoners, in Saint Louis, where he was soon thereafter discharged as unfit for duty. He was married in 1853, to Miss A. B. Wilson, of the State of New York, and has two children.