Genesee County MI Archives Biographies.....Gillett, Isaac D. 1843 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 13, 2007, 10:50 pm

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

ISAAC D. GILLETT. Prominent in agricultural and church circles is the gentleman
whose name we have just written. He carries on general farming on his tract of
one hundred and eighty acres in Vienna Township and is a prominent member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church of Vienna, where he is serving as Trustee and
Steward. He was born July 9, 1843, in the township of Southport, Chemung County,
N. Y. His father, Nelson P. Gillett, was born in Cortland County, N. Y., in
1814, and died in 1855.

  The father was a carpenter and joiner as well as farmer and was educated in
the public schools of New York. In his twenty-fourth year he married Miss Sarah
M., daughter of Henry and Lucty (Simons) Misner. This marriage resulted in the
birth of four children. The eldest, Melissa J., was born in 1839, and became a
successful teacher before her marriage with John White, now Register of Deeds of
Otsego County, this State. She died in 1865, leaving one daughter, Melissa G.,
who married Martin Field. The second son, William H., was born in 1841, and is
farming in Vienna Township, and besides our subject there was another son,
Nelson B., who was born in 1855, and has been a successful teacher besides
farming in Vienna Township.

  The father, Nelson P. Gillett, settled upon a farm in Vienna Township in 1848.
There was no road leading to the farm and he had to cut a road from the town
line to the spot where he wished to build. He erected a board house, 16x24 feet
and having cleared a small spot planted corn, potatoes, etc. and made a garden
the first year. On the 14th of May, 1855, only eighteen months after his coming
into the township, he was killed by a falling tree which he was chopping. His
eldest son was but fourteen years old at the time and the subject of this sketch
was only twelve, but the family went on with the work, hiring what they could
not possibly do, and together they cleared the land and made their home in
common until 1867, at which time a division of property was made and Isaac took
eighty acres of the old farm and added to it one hundred acres a few years
later. Upon this property he has placed numerous improvements and for a number
of years was engaged in the lumber business in which he was quite successful.

  The marriage of our subject, in 1886, united him with Miss Annetta, daughter
of Ralph Field. He was a native of Canada and there Mrs. Gillett was born near
Smithville, September 14, 1863. She came to Michigan with her father in 1880,
and completed her education in the Flint High School. Previous to coming here
she had studied in the St. Catherine School in Canada and after completing her
studies she became a successful teacher. Two children have been born to this
couple—Ralph N., born July 11, 1887, and Leslie D., June 10, 1889. Mrs. Gillett
like her husband, is prominently identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The doctrines of the Republican party have for many years been endorsed by Mr.
Gillett, but he is now in affiliation with the Prohibitionists and is a member
of the Alliance of Vienna Township. He was Township Treasurer in 1890 and has
been a successful farmer throughout life. Sarah M. Gillett, the grandmother of
our subject, is now seventy-three years old and is yet active and useful. She is
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as was also her husband during his
lifetime, and this family and all its members deserve and receive the highest
esteem of all with whom they are associated. During all of his business career
he has never sued a man nor has he ever been sued.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892

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