Lapeer-Macomb-Oakland County MI Archives Biographies.....Read, Levi H. 1810 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 11, 2007, 4:53 pm

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

LEVI H. READ was born November 17, 1810, in Warren County, N. J. His father was
Richard Read, also a native of New Jersey as was his mother, Rebecca (Howell)
Read. The elder Read served in the War of 1812. By occupation he was a farmer.
The father and mother are both deceased. They were the parents of twelve children.

  Our subject has always been a farmer, he was reared upon the farm and began
for himself in that business at the age of twenty-one. At the age of thirty
years, and while unmarried, he removed to Michigan, in 1837, and settled in
Macomb County, where he remained for three or four years. Part of the time,
however, he spent in Oakland County, working by the month. He then settled upon
a farm of one hundred acres in partnership with his brother in Orion Township,
Oakland County. There were very meagre improvements upon this place at that
time, ten acres of it only having been broken, upon which there was a log house.
He was married, February 18, 1841, to Miss Elizabeth Perry, daughter of John and
Eleanor (Miller) Perry, both natives of New Jersey, where they married and
resided on a farm until they came to Michigan in 1824. Mrs. Read's father was
born April 4, 1793, and her mother February 9, 1798. Mr. Perry settled in 1834
in Orion Township, on an improved farm of eighty acres. He was a prominent
farmer, true to his New Jersey training and very successful. He died September
29, 1840. His wife followed him soon afterward. They were the parents of ten
children, five of whom are now living. Mrs. Reed [sic] was born September 20,
1821. Immediately after her marriage to Mr. Read they settled on his farm in
Orion Township. He improved the place and afterward removed to Lapeer County in
1860, and in 1861 settled on this farm, which was all wild land, heavy timber,
and with no improvements whatever, but nothing daunted, he set to work with a
will, first building a frame house. The farm then consisted of one hundred and
sixty-seven acres. He now owns a fine property of two hundred and seven acres,
nearly all improved. Mr. and Mrs. Read are the parents of five children, four of
whom are now living: Ira, born in 1842; Jane was born in 1845, and is the wife
of James Reed; they live in Lapeer Township and are not blessed with any
children. Eleanor was born in 1847, and is the wife of Alexander Bain; they live
at Mayville and have three children; Annie, born in 1857, is the wife of John
Jones; they live in Lapeer Township, but have no children. Mrs. Read is a member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Metamora. Her children have all been well
educated. Ira taught school at the age of seventeen. He is now Master of the
Grange and also Secretary of the Knights of the Maccabees. He is also a Road
Overseer.

  Our subject has been a prominent member of the School Board and in politics
was originally a Whig, but later became a Republican. He has now retired from
active farming. The old couple are enjoying good health, with the prospect of a
peaceful old age. As an idea of the rapid progress made in traveling facilities
in these latter days it may be stated that when John Perry came to Michigan they
traveled, all the way from New Jersey by wagon, spending four weeks on the
journey; while our subject came here by canal, and then by steamer to Detroit.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892

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