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Submitted by Cheryl VanWormer 



				A. M. AND JULIA (YAGER) WILLETT.

	A. M. Willett was born in Oswego, Co., N. Y., April 18, 1829.  When about six months old 
his parents removed to Onondaga Co., N. Y.  He received a common-school education, and, losing 
his father at the age of fifteen, soon after left home and apprenticed himself to learn the 
carpenter's and joiner's trade, attending school during the winter seasons, and subsequently 
becoming himself a pedagogue and wielding the "birch and rule" for two winters.  He continued 
working at his trade in New York until the spring of 1850, when he changed his abiding-place to 
Minnesota.  In November of the same year he returned to New York.  In 1852 he was married to 
Julia Yager, of Skaneateles, N. Y.  Her birth occurred in Onondaga County in 1831.  In the fall 
of 1853 he came to Michigan, and until 1860 was engaged at his trade at Muir, Ionia Co.  In the 
latter year he purchased eighty acres of land in North Plains, and relinquished his trade for 
the life of a farmer.  He has continued to add to his original purchase until he is at present 
the owner of one hundred and ninety-two acres of fine land.  In the fall of 1861 he raised a 
company of men, which was mustered into Col. Berdan's famous regiment of United States 
Sharpshooters, and remained in active service for thirteen months, at the end of which time he 
resigned on account of disability.  Mr. Willett is a Republican in politics, and at the November 
election in 1880 was elected to a seat in the Legislature of the State.  He has also served two 
years as supervisor of his township.  He and his wife became members of the Disciples' Church in 
1855, and are still connected with it.  His children are three in number, and all daughters, one 
of whom is married, the others remaining at home.  His father died in 1844, and his mother in 
1874.  Mr. Willett makes a specialty of breeding American merino sheep, and is more extensively 
engaged in that business than any other person in the county.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Page 276.  North Plains.