The history of Michigan is not an ancient one. It is the record of the steady growth of a community, planted in the wilderness in the last century and reaching its magnitude of today without other aids than those of continued industry. Each county has its share in the story of every county that can lay claim to some incident or transaction which goes to make up the history of a commonwealth. After all, the history of a state is but the record of the doings of its people, among whom the pioneers and their sturdy descendants occupy places of no secondary importance. The story of the plain common people who constitute the moral bone and sinew of the state should ever attract attention and prove of interest to all true lovers of this kind. In the life story of Henry M. Billings, the subject of this sketch, there are no striking chapters or startling incidents. It is merely the record of a life true to its highest ideals and fraught with much that should stimulate the youth just starting in the world as an independent factor.

Henry M. Billings, of Cedar Creek township, Wexford county, is a native of New York. He was born in Lebanon, Columbia county, August 29, 1839. His parents were Jonathan B. and Mary Jane (Elmore) Billings, the former born in Vermont and the latter in New York. They were married in the latter state and some time thereafter moved to Michigan, locating at Detroit, where he engaged in the produce business. It proved a very successful venture and he continued in it until he had accumulated a competence. Detroit was their home during all the remaining years of their lives. His death occurred about the time he had reached the patriarchal age of three score and ten years, while she survived him nearly twenty years, expiring in the eighty-fifth year of her age. They were the parents of four children, of whom Henry M. was the second.

The first eighteen years of the life of Henry M. Billings were spent in his native county of New York, where he secured a good common school education. In 1855 he came to Michigan and assisted his father in the conduct of his produce business in the city of Detroit. He continued in the business until after the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion when, in September, 1862, he enlisted as a private soldier in Company D, Sixth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war, nearly three years. He saw considerable service, took part in a number of important battles, among them that of Gettysburg, after which he was put upon detached duty in the office of the medical department at Washington, where he remained until he was mustered out of the service, in the fall of 1865. While in Washington he was stricken with typhoid fever. For weeks he suffered with the dread disease, his life, like that of the nation at the time, being as it were poised in the balance.
He escaped death, but it was a long time before he was fully restored to health.

On being discharged from the army Mr. Billings came to Byron, Shiawassee county, Michigan, and there engaged in the mercantile business for about two years. There, on December 24, 1861, he married Emma C. H. Allen, of Byron, who died November 24, 1867. They had one son, Wilbur Allen, born November 19, 1863, who now resides in St. Louis, Missouri. On the 25th day of May, 1869, Mr. Billings was united in marriage to Miss Carrie A. Roberts, a native of Shiawassee county, born May I6, 1850. Her parents were Isaac L. and Harriet R. Roberts, natives of New York, who came to Michigan in 1840, located near Byron, where they resided during the remaining years of their life.

Mr. and Mrs. Billings are the parents of two daughters, Stena P. and Edna. The former is the wife of M. P. Phillips, of Bancroft, Michigan, while the latter makes her home with her parents in Manton. In 1872 the subject went to Grand Traverse county, where he entered the employ of Hulbert Brothers as cashier and bookkeeper, remaining in their service two years. On the opening of the station of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad at Fife Lake he was offered and accepted the position of station agent, which he held for two years, when he was given a place, as accountant, in the office of the auditor of the road at Grand Rapids. He faithfully served the company at the latter place and various points along the line of the road. A position being offered him by the Grand Trunk Railroad, at Bancroft, Michigan, he accepted it and served that company as station agent at that point until 1882, when he resigned the position and came to Manton and engaged in the lumber business with Closson & Gilbert for a number of years. During all of these changes from one locality to another his family continued to reside and he made his home at Bancroft. He lived in that place altogether about eighteen years. In 1886, being employed in Manton as bookkeeper, he moved his family to that place and there they have since resided. Being the owner of a nice tract of land, forty acres in extent, adjoining the village of Manton, he platted one-fourth of it as an addition to the village and on the other thirty he runs a poultry farm and dairy. He has made the business quite profitable, despite the fact that he has very little time to devote to it. Since living in Manton he has held the position of township and village treasurer, each three years, and takes an active interest in all that relates to the welfare of the locality. Mr. Billings is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a man who during the course of his long and eventful career has accomplished much good not only for his own household but for many others. He has made the world brighter and better for his presence and when the time comes for him to cease life's labors and join the great majority, he will be sadly missed by those whose burdens he lightened and into whose life he brought so much of kindness and love.