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Submitted by Cheryl VanWormer

					LEWIS WILLEY
			    MRS. NANCY (MURCH) WILLEY (1st wife)
			 MRS. CATHARINE (MASHER*) WILLEY (2nd wife)

	Lewis Willey, son and fourth child (in a family of seven) of Ebenezer and Ruth Willey, 
was born in Watertown, Jefferson Co., N. Y., Sept. 26, 1815.  When but six years of age he left 
home to live with a farmer in the same township, and remained with him eight years.  From this 
time until he was twenty-one he worked on farms at various places, and attended school winters. 
In 1836 he came to Michigan, and, after spending three months at Monroe, proceeded to Portland, 
Ionia Co.  For two years he found employment at stipulated wages in different places, and in 1838
he married Nancy Murch, daughter of Henry Murch, of Portland.  Subsequently he purchased forty 
acres of new and unimproved land in that township, and settled and began work upon it as a 
pioneer.  Eight years after their marriage Mrs. Willey died, and, in 1847, Mr. Willey married
Catharine Masher,* of Lyons, a native of the State of New York.  By his first wife Mr. Willey was
the father of four children,--Orville B., Lewis B., Theresa D., and Nancy C. Willey.  His second 
wife has borne him one child,--Mary R. Willey.  The children are all married, and their father 
has given a farm to each, and they are in prosperous circumstances.  Mr. Willey, from having 
started poor and in debt for the forty acres he first purchased, became in time the owner of nine
hundred acres of land, and is now one of the wealthiest men in the township of Lyons.  With 
politics he has never meddled.  His house was entered by two burglars at three o'clock on the 
morning of Oct. 8, 1876, and in the struggle which took place Mr. Willey, was severely clubbed, 
besides being shot in the leg.  The robbers were finally arrested and imprisoned.



* Or Mosher.

This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Page 261.  Lyons.