WILLIAM R. DELANO, 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.

The Delano family are of English origin, and emigrated to America soon 
after the great fire in London in the fifteenth century, they having, 
it is said, lost their all by that disaster.  Israel Delano was born in 
Pembroke, Mass., where his mother resided during haer husband's absence 
at sea, he being captain of a whaling vessel and dying on board ship.  
Israel, when quite young, emigrated to Ontario Co., N. Y., which was 
then an almost unbroken wilderness, and was called Ontario township as 
well as county.  He located in what afterwards was known as Palmyra 
township, subsequently divided, making his residence in Macedon 
township, Wayne Co.  He thus lived in two different counties and three 
townships without ever changing his abiding-place.  He bought three 
hundred and twenty acres of land, receiving an article which said he 
should have a deed when the purchase-price was paid.  He was the 
possesor of only an axe and the indomitable will and the industy for 
which the pioneers of America have always been noted.  He went into 
Ontario with the family of Judge Rogers, whose daughter, Martha, he 
afterwards married.  The judge's mother was noted far and near for her 
great strength, there being but few men in the country around that she 
could not master in a trial of strength.  Accounts of her prowess are 
still given by the descendants of the early settlers of that part of 
New York.  On the land thus obtained Mr. Delano resided until his 
death, in August 1857, at the advanced age of ninety-two years.  He 
cleared up and improved the farm, which ultimately became one of the 
fine farms of Wayne County.  There were born to them eleven children, 
--four sons and four daughters, growing to man's and woman's estate.  
William R. Delano, the ninth of the family, was born in Macedon, Wayne 
Co., N. Y., April 6, 1812.  His chances for an education were very 
limited, as the children of his father's family were put to work as 
soon as they were old enough to be of any assistance.  Arrived at his 
majority, he commenced life on his own account.  He cleared and cropped 
land on his father's farm a couple of years, then, in the fall of 1835 
came to Michigan, and bought of the government one hundred and sixty 
acres of land in Gun Plain township, Allegan County, and then returned 
to Washtenaw County, where he worked at jobbing during the winter.  The 
following spring he joined a surveying-party sent out by the 
government, and spent the spring and summer of 1836 surveying in 
Wisconsin.  The winter of 1836-37 was passed in Washtenaw County, 
working at whatever he could get to do, and the following season in St. 
Joseph, Mich.  The spring of 1838 found him on his land in Gun Plain, 
on which he built a log shanty just large enough to eat and sleep in 
and keep out the wolves.  For several years he then worked on his farm 
when not working for other parties, to earn the money necessary to keep 
his modest establishment, over which he alone presided, in running 
order.  In 1848 he returned to the old home in Wayne County, and worked 
his father's farm, which he continued to do until the death of his 
father, when he bought out some of the heirs and became part owner of 
the old homestead.  In 1865 he returned to Michigan, having previously 
sold his interest in his Wayne County property and bought in Gun Plain 
township four hundred acres of land lying in sections 1, 10, and 15.  
The home-farm is nicely situated on a beautiful little creek which 
meanders through it.  In this fine home Mr. Delano will probably pass 
the remainder of his days. He is a Republican, but not a politician, 
and is not a member of any church.  Of him his neighbors and 
fellow-townsmen say that he is a man whom to know is to respect and 
esteem, and one of whom naught but the highest praise is spoken.