RUSSEL B. FENNER, Gun Plain Twp., Allegan Co., Michigan

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History of Allegan and Barry Counties, Michigan, with Illustrations and 
Biographical Sketches of their Prominent Men and Pioneers.
Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co.  1880.  Press of J. B. Lippincott & 
Co., Philadelphia.

James L. Fenner was born in Massachusetts, May 21, 1777.  His ancestors 
originally settled on Long Island and were from England, but at what 
time is not known.  After his marriage to Miss Betsey Perry, James 
emigrated to Onondaga Co., N. Y., and settled in the town of Manlius, 
where he worked at his trade, that of a millwright, helping to build 
many of the first mills of that then new country.  In 1818, having sold 
his land in the town of Pompey (same county), where he had been living 
for some time, he moved with his family into the town of Lysander, 
Onondaga Co., where he bought a large tract of new land.  This land he 
cleared and improved, setting out orchards and erecting fine buildings, 
and making it in time one of the fine farms of his township, and on 
which he lived until his death, Jan. 16, 1851.  There were born to them 
nine children, of whom Russel B. Fenner was the sixth.  He was born in 
Pompey, Feb. 9, 1814, and grew to manhood on the farm of his father, 
for whom he worked until he arrived at his majority, when he started 
out on his own account.  He worked one year for his father, then one 
season at the carpenter's trade, after which he worked his father's 
farm on shares four years.  In 1841 Mr. Fenner bought fifty acres of 
land, which he built upon and improved, and which he traded with his 
father for one hundred and forty acres of wild land in the town of 
Martin, Allegan Co., Mich.  In 1844 he came to Martin, and soon after, 
in company with his brother, built the first saw-mill in the town.  It 
was called Fenner's mill, and was built in what was laid out to be the 
village of Smyrna.  The brothers ran the mill about four years, when 
Russel sold his interest in it and then gave his attention to farming 
and the carpenter's trade.  He improved about seventy acres of his 
farm, and built on it a large log house and a fine barn.  In 1855 Mr. 
Fenner sold his Martin farm and bought in the town of Gun Plain the 
southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 5, and the 
southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 4, which was 
partly improved.  On this place he has erected good buildings, planted 
orchards, and made himself and wife a beautiful home, a sketch of which 
appears on another page of this work.  Mr. Fenner is in every sense of 
the word a self-made man. He is one who believes that what one man can 
do another man can, and he has never hesitated to attempt any work that 
place and circumstances has called upon him to perform.  He has devoted 
much time to the study of medicine, and, though he has no diploma as a 
physician and does not hold himself out as one, still he has in his day 
performed many cures.  He is and has always been a Democrat, and has 
been for three years road commissioner, and for eleven years a justice 
of the peace in a Republican township.  On the 28th day of September, 
1837, Mr. Fenner was joined in marriage to Miss Hannah V. Schenck, who 
was born in Lysander, Aug. 13, 1817.  She is a daughter of Rulef and 
Elsie (Baird) Schenck.  There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fenner 
five children, viz: Byron R., born March 4, 1839; Eliza E., April 1, 
1842; William P., Dec. 22, 1844; all in Lysander.  Rulef James, born 
Sept. 17, 1850; and Franklin M., Oct. 11, 1854; both born in Martin.