Genesee County MI Archives Biographies.....Torrey, Alonzo 1813 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 28, 2007, 1:23 am

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

REV. ALONZO TORREY, one of the oldest settlers in the county and a pioneer
exhorter of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is well-known throughout all this
part of the State. When he came here in 1835 he settled in what is now Flint
Township, Genesee County, which was then Shiawassee County, on the old Fenton
Road. He was born in Bethany, Genesee County, N. Y., March 26, 1813, and at the
age of twenty-three came to Flint Township and bought Government land upon which
he settled and began to improve.

  Jesse Torrey, the father of our subject, was the son of John, a Revolutionary
hero, who brought his family from Vermont to Batavia, N. Y., being one of the
first settlers upon the Holland Purchase. The family is of the best stock of New
England. The father carried on a farm in Bethany and took part as a musician in
the War of 1812, being a performer upon the bagpipe. He came with his family
when they emigrated to this State in 1832, and died upon the old homestead at
the age of eighty-one years. His first wife, the mother of our subject, was
Sally Anis, who died when Alonzo was only five years old. She had three
children, Asenath, deceased; Asa, who resides in this township and our subject.
The second union of Jesse Torrey gave him three children and by the third union
he had five. Before coming West our subject had worked some time in Leroy and
near Middleport in his native State and at the last-named place he had engaged
with his brother in the manufacture of threshing machines, continuing there
until 1835, when he came West prospecting in Michigan and finally located with
his father. Through that season he boarded with that parent and began improving
his farm, putting up a log house which was the first two roofed house in the
township, and in September he returned East for his bride, Miss Lydia LeValley,
to whom he was married in Shelby, Orleans County, N. Y., September 8, 1836.
Their journey from Detroit to Flint was sufficiently difficult to be romantic.
About a mile from the former city the mud became so deep that the lady could not
sit upon the wagon and had to get out and walk, driving the cows before her. For
twelve miles this terrible condition of the roads continued and then they fouud
a better and more sandy-track.

  In those days Indians and deer abounded and all about them was heavy timber.
Our subject and his brother had one ox-team between them with which to cultivate
their land. He has added to his estate until he now owns two hundred and
sixty-five acres, and upon this estate are raised fine cattle and grain. The
wife of his youth with whom he lived in harmony for more than fifty years died
in Flint Township, January 18, 1891, and the lady who is now his wife was
previous to her union with him Mrs. Eliza A. Wilson, to whom he was married in
July 1891, a native of Flint and daughter of John McGlinchey. Mrs. Torrey by her
first husband had two children viz: Herbert L. and Irving D. Wilson.

  Mr. Torrey has a cottage at Bay View, where he spends his summers, and for the
last twenty years he has had his farm in the hands of a tenant. For years he has
been a stockholder in the Genesee County Savings Bank. He was a member of the
first class that was started here, which resulted in the formation of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and for many years he was the Class-leader, He
started the Sunday-school and helped to bear all the early burdens. All over the
county he has preached and there is hardly a schoolhouse where his voice has not
been heard exhorting the people to seek their God. He was formerly a Republcan
in his politics but is now independent, as he prefers to use his own judgment
rather than to follow the dictum of party leaders.


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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