Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Fales, Loren C. 1891
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Greenville Independent, 22 Dec 1891

Loren C. Fales died at his home in Belding, December 11.  For more than a year 
past he had been in failing health and realized that he would soon be called to 
face the end.  He came to Otisco in 1858, and it was more than fifty years ago 
that he married Eliza Russell, in the old Amos Russell home where W.W. Mitchell 
now lives, near Cook’s Corners.  He taught district school in those early days 
and also worked at the carpenter trade.  In 1876 he purchased the old Morton 
farm in Orleans and lumbered in the woods in the township of Pine for about 
eight years before he settled down to farming.  He was elected supervisor of 
the township for eight years, and had also served as town clerk in Otisco, Pine 
and Orleans.  Later he was elected register of deeds of the county and held the 
office four years, making his residence at the county seat during that time.  
Mr. Fales had been identified with the Masonic fraternity for more than forty 
years, was a member of Belding lodge No. 355, also a member of the Royal Arch 
degree of Greenville and Mystic Shrine of Grand Rapids, and held the position 
of Eminent Commander of the Knights Templar Commandery of Ionia for eight 
years.  Mr. Fales left data, which he had penned recently, giving interesting 
reminiscences of his early life, from which we note he was born in Mexico 
township, Oswego county, N. Y., May 27, 1837, being the youngest of five 
children, his father having died before he was born.  His mother then moved to 
Ohio to be near her people.  When he was three years old she married Asa Olds, 
who died six years later.  At Cleveland he attended school when a small lad and 
worked in “The Plain Dealer” office folding papers, later driving horses on the 
canal and working in a hotel at four and six dollars a month.  At the age of 17 
he learned the trade of a carpenter and went with his employer to West Superior 
in 1856 and assisted in building the first frame house in Duluth, also the 
Masonic hall in West Superior, and had the experience of going through the 
“wildcat panic” days of ’57-’58.  He came to Michigan the following summer, 
after working his passage across the lake, and footed the way from Grand Rapids 
to Cook’s Corners, where he arrived with thirty-eight cents in his pocket.  Mr. 
Fales, with the assistance of his excellent wife, made good in pioneer days, as 
well in later life.  Besides his wife Eliza, he leaves Elmer E. Fales, Mrs. W. 
L. Atwood of Grand Rapids, Bingley R. Fales, Detroit; Mrs. Maude Unger, 
Belding; Mrs. Merton Smith, Greenville; Mrs. F. L. Kelner, Kalamazoo, and Bruce 
Fales on the old farm on Orleans, also a brother W. R. Olds, and sister, 
Cynthia Russell, Belding.  The children were all present at this death, 
excepting Bingly R. Fales. – Belding Banner.


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