Ionia-Eaton County MI Archives Biographies.....WEBBER, Andrew W. & Sophia (Wilkins) ************************************************ 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: LaVonne Bennett lib@dogsbark.com March 27, 2008, 5:34 pm Author: Grayden D. Slowins THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR (Ionia County, MI), Volume 16. February 1981, Number 4; submitted with written permission of current editor Grayden D. Slowins. THE WEBBERS OF IONIA COUNTY By Grayden Slowins: This article for the Recollector is in response to several questions that came up during the recent Portland Old House Tour, concerning the Webber family of Portland and their relationship to the Webbers of Ionia and Lyons. There are references to all these families in the various histories of Ionia County by Dillenbeck, Schenck, Chapman and Branch but no one article ties them all together. ANDREW W. WEBBER was born in Franconia Notch, N. H. Following the family tradition, he was a successful farmer and merchant near Newbury, Orange County, Vermont and then near Elmira, in Steuben County, New York. He married Sophia Wilkins and they had twelve children, seven sons and five daughters, of which, six sons and three daughters grew up. They were as follows in order from eldest: Lorenzo, Arzo, Samuel W., George W., Oscar, Andrew J., Sophia, Lucinda and Jennie. At least four of these sons emigrated to Ionia County, Michigan. Each became a prosperous farmer and merchant and each started a local bank. George W. and Samuel W. were founders of Webber Bank of Muir, which became First National Bank with Sam as principal owner. He was succeeded by his son, George B., who died at age 24 and was succeeded by the second son, William A. Webber. Lorenzo founded L. Webber & Son Bank in Portland. He died in 1884 and it became John A. Webber Bank and later John A. Webber & Son until John’s death in 1905. Then Lorenzo Jr. ran it as Webber State Savings Bank. After the bank failures of the 1930s, Lorenzo Jr. used his personal fortune to pay off the depositors. It is said that he was one of the few who paid every cent. He is remembered as a nice old man in the insurance business with Allen Hughes in the 1940s at the back of the bank building. John A. Webber owned the farms at Shotwell bridge on David Highway in Portland Township where Guy Fisher, Lewis Jones and William Sherman Keefer later owned. His last farm was the Norman Lay farm and his cashier, Frank Badgley, lived where Joe Simons did later. Ray Thuma (late of Sebewa) used to be Badgley’s hired man and lived in the little tenant house in the orchard where Milo McNeil (late of Sebewa) later lived. Frank Badgley’s main claim to fame was as inventor of woven wire fence. This fence would be called 10-47-42-9 by today’s standardization. It had barbed wire for the top strand with the rest smooth and it was actually woven on the job with a unique patented fastening clip. June Schnabel Piercefield of West Sebewa says her mother, Ethel York Schnabel (Late of Sebewa) boarded with Lorenzo Jr. and Dora while attending school. Later June took piano lessons from Mrs. Webber and started them in that big house in 1934. Ann Slowins of Sebewa Center started piano lessons with Mrs. Webber after Webbers had sold off everything to pay the depositors and were living in the small white house on Danby Street in Portland. Richard L. Hudson was a brother-in-law to the older Webbers and he founded, with his son, Joseph Lowthian Hudson, what eventually became J. L. Hudson Co. in a building rented from the Webbers in Ionia. Several of the Webber cousins worked with J. L. in the Detroit store and ran it during the years between his death and the coming of age of J. L. Hudson Jr. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/bios/webber1109gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb