Alvin B Qunatrell's biography, Oneida Township, Eaton County, Michigan

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SUBJECT: Alvin B. QUANTRELL
SUBMITTER: Jan Lubitz Sedore
EMAIL: am0773@a1access.net
DATE: Apr 24, 1999
SURNAMES: QUANTRELL, SARLES, LANDERS, WILSON, NORTON, ADAMS, LAWRENCE,
MITCHELL, HULTZ, WEAVER, HANCOCK
PAST AND PRESENT OF EATON COUNTY
Page 501-503
ALVIN B. QUANTRELL

Alvin b. Quantrell is a native of Eaton county and is one of the progressive
farmers of Oneida Township, where he has accumulated a valuable property
through his own well directed efforts. He was born in the city of Charlotte,
august 27, 1856, and is a son of William and Mary A. (Sarles) Quantrell,
the former of whom was born in Norfolk, England, January 14, 1816, his
death taking place in Oneida Township, Eaton County, Michigan, November
23, 1903, while his wife, who was born in Erie county, New York, January
13 1828, died in Eaton Township, April 21, 1890, having been a member of
one of the oldest and best known families of this section of Eaton county;
a memoir to her father, Johathan Sarles, appears elsewhere in this volume.
William Quantrell was but thirteen years of age at the time of the family
removal to the United States. The family located in Cleveland, Ohio, and
shortly afterward he was put out to work on a farm, while he also learned
the brickmaking business there. In 1840 he married Miss Esther Landers,
who died in 1853, leaving two children, Charles H., who now resides in
Chester Township, Eaton County; and Sarah J., who is the wife of Daniel
Wilson, of Detroit. In 1841 the father came to Eaton County and purchased
eighty acres of timberland in Benton Township, his first wife having died
on this pioneer farm. He had driven through from Ohio with team and wagon,
and he traded his team as part payment for his land, while he often said
in later years that he started his career here with "his wife and
baby, a dog, a gun, and a debt of forty dollars." While improving
his farm he found on the same an excellent bed of clay and forthwith arranged
to manufacture brick. He filled a tub with the clay, did all the incidental
work and turned out three thousand brick in a day. He would tie his son
Charles on the sweep used for power and the little youngster would drive
the horse. He and Peter Horn were the first manufactures of brick in Eaton
County, and he sold his products to persons from Lansing, Vermontville,
Eaton Rapids, Portland, and even more distant points, having done as very
profitable business in this line for a number of years. He furnished brick
for county buildings and for many stores and houses in Charlotte and other
places. The first money he earned after coming to Michigan was from the
sale of a number of baskets which he had personally manufactured, and for
several years he continued to make baskets and take them to Marshall and
Battle Creek, where he would sell them or exchange for provisions. He eventually
added forty acres to his original purchase, and this became the property
of his two children by the first marriage. In 1854 was solemnized the marriage
of William Quantrell to Miss Mary A. Sarles, who was one of the early and
popular school teachers of the county, having been engaged as teacher in
the Dow school at the time of her marriage. Of the five children of this
union the following brief record is entered: Delca died at the age of six
months; Alvin B., subject of this sketch, was the next in order of birth;
Will R., who is a resident of Charlotte, married Miss Hattie Norton, and
they have three children, Bessie, Gertrude and Harold; Etta M. is the wife
of George Adams, of Decatur, Van Buren County, and of their two children
the younger, Rex, is living, the older son, Ralph, having lost his life
by drowning, while attempting to save a companion; George married Miss
Libbie Lawrence and is a successful farmer of Eaton township. While in
the woods with his two eldest children on one occasion William Quantrell
heard his dog barking, and taking his ax, went to the spot, finding a bear
was the cause of the barking. He finally, after much maneuvering, succeeded
in killing the animal, knocking it in the head with the ax and thus keeping
the skin intact. He sold the skin and oil for fourteen dollars. He did
considerable hunting in the pioneer era, not for pleasure but to secure
provender for the family table. He erected a brick house on the farm in
1855, the same having been one of the first in the county. He continued
to be identified with the manufacturing of brick until 1885, and in the
enterprise his sons were associated with him for some time. In the year
mentioned he traded his property for a farm in Eaton Township, near charlotte,
and a part of this he sold later. He was living in the home of the subject
of this sketch at the time of his death, and was well known in the county,
an honored pioneer and a citizen of unbending integrity. Alvin B. Quantrell,
the immediate subject of this review, was reared on the home farm and was
educated in the schools of Benton Township, and Charlotte. He was associated
in the brick manufacturing enterprise to which reference has been made.
October 5, 1881, he was united in marriage to Miss Laura L. Mitchell, who
died on his present homestead in March 1898, at the age of thirty-nine
years. They had one daughter, Emily, who was born October 14, 1889, and
who is now attending school in Grand Ledge. Laura L. (Mitchell) Quantrell
was a daughter of Willard Z Mitchell, who is a retired farmer, residing
in Charlotte. His wife, whose maiden name was Emily A. Ellis, was born
in the state of New York, as was also he himself and there their marriage
was solemnized in 1854. They came to Eaton County in 1855 and located in
Chester Township, while both were for many years' successful teachers in
this county, he teaching in winter and she in summer. In 1855, Mr. Mitchell
purchased a farm in Chester Township, later exchanging this for another
farm, in Benton Township where they continued to reside until 1903, since
which time they have made their home in the city of Charlotte. Mr. Mitchell
is the owner of two hundred and forty acres of improved land, is a stockholder
in the First National Bank of Charlotte, and a director of the Farmers'
Mutual Insurance Company of Eaton and Barry counties. He was supervisor
of Benton Township in 1878-9, being a Republican in politics. His wife
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their three children
Mrs Quantrell was the eldest; Lyda is the wife of Peter A, Hultz, of Charlotte,
and Hattie is the wife of Dr. LeRoy F. Weaver of the same city. After his
first marriage Mr. Quantrell's father-in-law presented to him and his wife
eighty acres of land in Chester Township. Mr. Quantrell made some improvements
on the place, selling the property at the expiration of two years and then,
in 1884, purchasing one hundred and twenty acres where he now lives, in
section 32, Oneida township. The tract had been improved throughout, and
by energy and good management he soon succeeded in clearing the indebtedness
which he had incidentally assumed, while he later purchased an adjoining
tract of one hundred acres, for which he has fully paid. He erected a large
basement barn on his farm and has made other improvements of the best order,
having entirely rebuilt and remodeled his house. He is a stanch adherent
of the Republican Party, but has never been a seeker of public office.
October 25, 1900, Mr. Quantrell consummated a second marriage, being then
united to Miss Jessie May Hancock, who was born and reared in Eaton County.
She was graduated from the Conservatory of Music of Olivet College, this
county, where she was later engaged as a teacher of music, while still
later she held a similar position in a college in the state of Nebraska.
She is the only child of John Hancock, who reclaimed a valuable farm in
Oneida Township, and who is now living retired in Grand Ledge. Mr. and
Mrs Quantrell have one son, Carlysle, who was born July 30, 1903. Mrs Quantrell
is a member of the Presbyterian Church.