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NELSON MABIE

	More than sixty-three years have passed since Nelson Mabie, one
of the  old and honored residents of the Cedar Springs
Community, first came to Kent County.  He was then in the flush
of early manhood, a hardy and ambitious youth, competent and
willing to cope with the question of developing a farm from the
timberland which he saw all around him.    The history of the
progress of this section is largely his own history, for he has
shared with others the task of bringing fertile and productive
country into existence and has done much to aid its institutions
and promote the welfare of its people.  Mr. Mabie was born on a
farm in Gainesville township, Genesee county, New York, Dec. 6,
1832, son of Amos C. Mabie.  His grandfather, Elias Mabie of New
York, is supposed to have been a farmer, for there has always
been a predilection for this kind of work in the family and many
of its members have engaged therein.  Born in Dutchess county,
New York, Amos C. Mabie followed farming in that county and
later in Genessee County until 1855, when he emigrated to the
newly opened West and settled in Solon township.  Despite his
fifty-five years, he entered actively into the work of clearing
his eighty-acre farm, which he had purchased from the Government
at seventy-five cents an acres, lived in his little log cabin
which he had erected in the clearing, and enjoyed such comforts
as his industry could obtain for him.  He did not live to see
his entire farm cleared, but during his life acquired a modest
competence, so that his declining years were passed in the quiet
contentment of retirement.  Mr. Mabie married Ainor Fisher,
daughter of Joseph and Sarah Fisher, also of New York.    As far
is known, Mr. Fisher, who was a shoemaker by trade, never came
to Michigan.  There were ten children in the Mabie family:
Phoebe, Nancy, Allen, John, Sarah, Jonas, Nelson, Elias, Susan,
and Edward.  Nelson mabie was educated in the district schools
of New York and as a young man worked by the month among
neighbors, as well as on the farm of his father; thus obtaining
his first experience.  He was something more than twenty-two
years of age when he first came to Kent county, in November,
1854, and for a short time worked by the month; but eventually
decided to become a landowner himself, and accordingly bought
160 acres of land from the Government, paying therefor
seventy-five cents an acre.  He had faith in the future of the
community in which he had settled and worked hard to clear up
his land, and has seen the forest replaced by prosperous
homesteads and broad fields of fertility and productiveness. 
After clearing practically all of his land, Mr. Mabie sold off
eighty acres, but since then has bought another forty, so that
his farm now consists of 120 acres.    He has conducted his
operations in a scientific manner, with modern machinery, and
his marked business ability has assisted in making his success a
worth while one.  Mr. Mabie has reached advanced years, but
still continues actively engaged in the work of his farm.  He
married Catherine Young, daughter of Edward and Sarah (Cassner)
Young, some of whose family came from Canada to Grattan, Mich,
where Mr. Young was a farmer an blacksmith.  His wife died in
Canada in 1830, and he died in Solon in 1882.  Mr. and Mrs.
Mabie have no children.  Mr. Mabie was drafted for service in
the Civil war but was never called into the ranks.  His younger
brother, Edwin, however, served thoughout the war and returned
uninjured to the family.  He was one of the party detailed to
capture Jefferson Davis, for which capture each member of the
party received $200.  Nelson Mabie has been variously identified
with public affairs in his township, having been a member of the
board of school directors, commissioner of highways and served
in other offices.  He has exerted much influence in the building
and improvement of highway and roads in his locality and has to
his own credit a road which is accounted one of the best in this
part of the county.  Mr. Mabie is a strong supporter of
temperance an in politics is a Prohibitionist.  As a
fraternalist, he was a member of Cedar Springs Lodge No 213,
A.F. & A. M., and he belongs to the Wesleyan W. E. Church.

Taken from GRAND RAPIDS and Kent County, Michigan, by Ernest B.
Fisher, Chicago: Robert O.Law, Company 1918, p239-240.