John Fizzell's biography, Duplain Township, Clinton County, Michigan

Copyright © 1999 by Jan Sedore. This copy contributed for use in 
the MIGenWeb Archives.  

 

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PAST AND PRESENT OF CLINTON COUNTY, 1906
Page 199
JOHN FIZZELL
        John Fizzell, living on section 17, Duplain Township, is one of the
active, thrifty and prosperous farmers, owning and operating a valuable and
well-improved tract of land of eighty acres. He has been an interested
witness of the progress and development of Clinton County since 1871 and
since 1866 has made his home in Michigan. He is a native of Canada, having
been born in Ontario, on the 3d of March 1854. He is a son of William
Fizzell and a brother of William Fizzell Jr., whose sketch appears
elsewhere in this work. With his parents he came to Michigan in 1866, being
then a youth of eight years, the family home being established in Wayne
County, where he was reared to manhood, acquiring his education in the
public schools of Wayne and Clinton counties. He remained with his father
on the farm until he had attained his majority and as his age and strength
permitted more and more largely assisted in the work of the fields. He
first began earning his own living by working as a farm hand by the month
and in that capacity he was employed for several years and during that
period he saved his earnings. Later he and his brother William bought
eighty acres of land together each having forty acres, and John Fizzell
began to clear, fence and open up his farm. Afterward he bought another
tract of twenty acres and still later twenty acres additional, so that he
now has a good farm of eighty acres, on which he has built a substantial
and neat residence, also good barns and outbuildings. He has likewise
planted an orchard, fenced the place and divided it into fields of
convenient size, which are now cleared of stumps and yield rich harvests
annually.
        On the 11th of November 1879, Mr. Fizzell was united in marriage to Miss
Alice Avery, a daughter of T. C. Avery, formerly of New York. Mrs Fizzell
was reared and educated in Michigan, however, and by her marriage has
become the mother of two children, Charles C. and Ruby. They also have an
adopted child, Emery, who became a member of the household in infancy at
the time of the mother's death, Mrs Fizzell being his aunt.
        Politically Mr. Fizzell is an earnest republican, who keeps well informed
on the questions and issues of the day, but has never sought or cared for
office, preferring to give his time and attention to his business
interests, in which he is meeting with signal success. He and his wife are
consistent members of the Duplain Methodist Episcopal Church, of which Mr.
Fizzell is one of the trustees. He is likewise a Sunday  school worker and
has served as superintendent of the Sunday school for three years, while
his wife has been a teacher in the school. He belongs to the local Grange,
of which he is now master, and he maintains a deep and helpful interest in
every movement and measure that is calculated to benefit the material,
intellectual or moral progress of the community. He has lived a life of
uprightness and honor and in the years of his residence in Clinton County,
covering more than a third of a century, he has enjoyed in full measure the
trust of his fellowmen.