Genesee County MI Archives Biographies.....Long, William H. 1839 - ************************************************ 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: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 22, 2007, 12:54 am Author: Chapman Bros. (1892) WILLIAM H. LONG is a prominent and influential man in Genesee County who is active in business matters and well known throughout this locality. He is Secretary of the Flint Cabinet Creamery Company, of the Genesee County Co-operative Creamery Company, and also of the Farmers' Home Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He was born in Lancaster, Erie County, N. Y., October 5, 1839, and is a son of David and Ann (Shafer) Long. The former was a farmer who was married in Pennsylvania and located in Lancaster County. In the fall of 1851 he came to Genesee County, this State, with a family which comprised his wife and four children. He came by boat to Detroit, thence by rail to Pontiac and from there by team to Thetford, where he now resides at the age of seventy-seven years. He is the owner of seventy acres of good land there and is active in the Christian Church of which he is a member. Our subject's mother was a native of Germany. When a child she was brought to America by her parents who located in Pennsylvania. Her father was a weaver. He finally settled in Michigan where he died. Mrs. Long, our subject's mother, still survives at the age of seventy-four years; she is the mother of six children, all of whom are living and of these W. H. Long is the eldest. The original of our sketch was reared in Thetford from the time he was twelve years old. The place was very new and wild. He there attended school for two winters, in the first log schoolhouse which was built in that district and when the log house was replaced he attended a few years in the new frame schoolhouse and then one winter in Flint. When twenty-one years of age he began teaching in Thetford and followed it for nineteen winters in Genesee County. He was married in Thetford, June 20, 1867, to Miss Persia A. Wilson, who was born in Thetford and is a daughter of Nahum N. Wilson, of Vermont, who was one of the first settlers in the township of Thetford, having helped to build the first frame house in Flint. He was a surveyor by profession and died in 1887. Our subject bought a farm on section 36, which he improved, adding valuable buildings, an orchard, etc. He now has eighth-eight and a half acres which he rents on shares. In the fall of 1883 Mr. Long came to Flint and became book-keeper for the Creamery Company, when it became a stock company and in 1887 he became a stock-holder, a Director and was its Secretary, meantime keeping his old position as book-keeper. He was one of the organizers of the Genesee County Co-operative Creamery Company and is one of the stockholders, having been its Secretary from almost the first. It is the largest in the State and sends out butter to many portions of the union. Both these establishments are doing a large business. Mr. and Mrs. Long are the parents of three children— Nahum W., who is on a ranch in Montana; Ralph and Carl, who are both at home, Mr. Long was Township Clerk for several years, also School Inspector and Highway Commissioner. Socially he belonges the Free and Accepted Masons, also to the National Union. Himself possessing no formal creed, his wife is a Baptist. He is a whole-souled Republican in politics. 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 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/genesee/bios/long840gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb