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Submitted by  Cheryl VanWomer

					B.W. BACKUS.
				MRS. RHODA (HOUSEMAN) BACKUS (1st wife)
				MRS. EMILY (BARTLETT) BACKUS (2nd wife)
				MRS. DOLLY (CAIN?) BACKUS (3rd wife)

	B. W. Backus, the eighth in a family of ten children, was born in Winfield, Herkimer Co.,
N. Y., Oct. 11, 1818.  When but five years of age he lost his father, and the mother was left 
with the large family of children dependent upon her.  The products of their small farm were not 
sufficient to support them all, and the elder children sought employment elsewhere.  B. W. 
Backus scarcely knew what home was after he was seven years old, and until he was sixteen found 
shelter wherever he could.  At the age of sixteen he had by his energy and close application 
fitted himself for teaching, and engaged in that vocation for one year.  He then learned the 
carpenter's trade, and at eighteen found employment thereat in Orleans Co., N. Y.  In the spring 
of 1840 he married Rhoda A. Houseman, of Yates, Orleans Co., N. Y.  In 1848 they removed to 
Michigan <I>via</I> Erie Canal, Buffalo, and Lake Erie.  From Detroit they passed to the interior
of the State by rail, stopping for a time with relatives at Albion.  He purchased eighty acres of 
land on section 17, in the township of Orange, Ionia Co., on which three acres had been cleared 
and a small shanty erected.  His entire available means consisted of one hundred and ten dollars,
with which a payment must be made upon his place and the necessaries of life procured.  Very 
close calculating was the consequence.  The shanty was twelve by twelve feet, and had neither 
floor nor fireplace.  Their first fire was kindled in one corner of the room.  During the 
following year Mr. Backus worked at his trade, thereby bettering his condition.  In the next year
he was incapacitated for labor by the ague, and, being unable to meet the payment due upon his 
place, exchanged the latter for forty acres of unimproved land, and later exchanged for twenty 
acres on section 19 in the same township.  Ten acres on the last-named place were improved.  
About one and a half years afterwards he sold out and removed to a forty-acre lot he had 
purchased on section 12 in Berlin township.  This was also unimproved, and Mr. Backus erected a 
log house and cleared ten acres.  In the fall of 1854 they were summoned to New York on account 
of sickness, and remained in that State four years.  Finally returning to Michigan, and having 
accumulated some money, they traded their forty for eight acres on section 12, of which about 
twenty-five acres were improved.  In 1869 an additional forty acres was purchased, a commodious 
farm-house erected, and other improvements were made.  He had worked upon the farm and at his 
trade, and preached occasionally, and in 1869 was assigned to the charge of a church at Leoni, 
Jackson Co.  In 1879, Mr. Backus removed to his present residence on section 12.  His wife died 
Sept. 15, 1870, and on the 21st of May, 1871, he married Emily J., daughter of Ira Bartlett.  
Her death occurred Oct. 31, 1874, and on the 17th of April, he married Dolly J. Cain, a resident 
of Barry County.  His first wife bore him three children,--viz., Sewell Warren, Odessa Benjamin, 
and Colorado Parker.  Mr. Backus united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838, and has been
an influential member thereof, supplying pulpits and aiding in the formation of societies, among 
them that at East Berlin.  His present wife is a member of the same denomination.  Mr. Backus is
 highly esteemed and respected by those who know him, and is a model citizen.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Page 191.  Berlin.