Bay County MI Archives Obituaries.....Birney, Judge James May 8, 1888 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Marta Norton mnortonco@gmail.com August 29, 2011, 2:03 am Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Including Reports of Officers and Papers Read At the Annual Meeting of 1888 VOL. XIII Second Edition Lansing, Michigan Winkoop Hallenbeck Crawrod C., State Printers 1908 Memorial Report: Page 119-120 BAY COUNTY Judge James Birney died at his residence in Bay City, May 8, 1888, aged 71 years. Judge Birney was early identified with the Saginaw valley, being one of the pioneers, his father, the Hon. James G. Birney, the great philanthropist, having settled here some years before he came. Judge Birney came to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, in 1856, having purchased his father's interest. He was the means of getting a bill passed changing the name of lower Saginaw to Bay City. He was elected a State senator in 1858, receiving all the votes cast but five, although it was a democratic district. In 1860 Judge Birney was nominated for lieutenant governor and elected by 20,000 majority. Some time after he was appointed circuit judge of what is now the 18th judicial circuit. From 1871 to 1873 he was owner and editor of the Bay Chronicle. In 1872 he was appointed by the president as Centennial Commissioner for Michigan to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, in 1876. In 1875 he was appointed United States minister to the Netherlands, where he served four years, when he reigned and returned home to attend to his real estate, in which he was largely interested in this city and county. Judge Birney held many offices in the gift of the people which we have not space to mention. He was president of the board of education of Bay City at the time of his death. Judge Birney had five children of whom only one, a daughter, survives him, his wife having also died some few years since. As a man Judge Birney was a perfect gentleman, honest and straight-forward in all his dealings with his fellow men and was universally respected by all who knew him. In his death the city and community sustain a great loss. --END-- File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/bay/obits/b/birney16830nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 2.6 Kb