Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....North, Ann (Chrysler) 1909
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Ionia Daily Sentinel, 14 Apr 1909

A Real Pioneer

Passes Away By the Death of Mrs. Thos. B. North

Who Came to Ionia County 72 Years Ago, and Lived on Same Farm in Easton Over 60 
Years.

One of the real pioneers passed over to the majority, when Mrs. Thos. B. North 
of Easton died April 8th, on the farm where she went as a bride over 60 years 
ago.  She came to this county in 1837, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. James 
Chrysler, locating at Utica, about one mile west of Ionia City, on the bank of 
the Grand river, just below the Grand Trunk railroad bridge, and not far from 
the State Reformatory.  Here was platted an embryo city, the very name of which 
exists only in pioneer reminiscences, but which the projectors fondly believed 
would be the metropolis of this section.  Here was located the ferry, swung 
across the river by means of a wire rope.  Then railroads were not taken into 
calculation, and river navigation was everything to a town commercially 
ambitions.  But Utica never materialized as a place of commercial importance.  
The interests at the settlements at Ionia County Seat and at Lyons were too 
strong, and the stores and hotels and other business places were located at 
those two towns, which thrived for many years as the points at head of 
navigation on Grand river, touched by a line of steamers daily (when the river 
was not icebound, and the water neither too high nor too low).

Mr. and Mrs. Chrysler later moved to Ionia village, living in a log house on 
what is now East Main street, just east of Mrs. H. B. Barnes home.  This was 
one of the last log houses conspicuous in the hustling village, being 
remembered as late as the Grant presidential campaign after the war. The log 
house marking the site at Utica, in which the Chryslers lived, was standing 
much longer, until quite recent years, and a few of the logs still remain to 
mark the place.  The family soon after moved to a farm on the north side of 
river near Saranac, which was their home at the time of the marriage of the 
daughter Ann to Mr. North.

Ann Chrysler, the subject of this sketch was born on the banks of the Thames, 
in province of Ontario, Canada, in 1827, and was consequently ten years old 
when her parents came to this county.  She was married to Thos. B. North, July 
5, 1848, and they at once went to live on the farm located by Mr. North, on sec 
15, Easton, where all her future life was passed, in a community which learned 
to love and respect her for her womanly virtues of character.  Only one child 
was born to this union, a son, who accidentally shot himself causing death in 
1861, at the age of 13.  This was a life burden of grief to the doting parents, 
whose love, especially the mother’s, went out in generous measure to other 
children.  They adopted two children:  Diantha, now the wife of Oscar C. 
Whorley of this city, and Charles B. North, of Portland, Mich., who found a 
full measure of love and protecting care at the hands of their foster parents.  
Mrs. North’s tales of the early days in Ionia county were always deeply 
interesting in the family circle, and when neighbors were gathered together.  
With her departure is snapped another of the links that binds the living past 
and present, showing such marvelous changes in a single life time.

Mrs. North early united with the Methodist church, and her life was marked by a 
conscientious devotion to Christian teachings. Besides her husband, she leaves 
one brother, John Chrysler of Lincoln, Neb.; four sisters: Cynthia M. Hunter 
and Alice S. Locke of Battle Creek, Mich., Amelia Jane Hazzard of Los Angeles, 
Cal., and Sarah A. Alspaugh of Beulah, Mich., besides the adopted children 
before named.

The funeral services was held at the home in Easton on Sunday, April 11, 
conducted by Rev. J. R. Neirgarth, pastor of the Evangelical church of this 
city.  The singing was by Mrs. Eugene Smith and Mrs. H. E. Spencer of Ionia.  
The attendance was very large, and the floral tributes were numerous and 
beautiful, both testifying to the respect and sorrow of long-time neighbors.  
The bearers were: O. C. Whorley, J. R. Chrysler, James Alspaugh, Ionia and 
Chas. B. North, Portland.  Interment was in family lot, Oak Hill cemetery.


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