Biography of William Breed Grow Copyright2004 by Lynda & B.J. Ozinga This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this messsage remains on all copies material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ William Breed Grow was in some respects a genius. In early boyhood he made shoes for the family, saving his father $40.00 in one year. Later in life, he learned the carpenter's trade and became very proficient. In 1837 he removed with his father's family from Homer, New York to Oakland Co, Michigan. He entered with ardor into all the hopes and anticipations connected with the settling of a new country. At the age of 15 years he joined the Baptist church and was licensed to preach as a Baptist minister. His first pastorate of fifteen years was very successful, there being 175 baptisms and additions to the church, and over 200 conversions. He is amiable, affectionate and charitable. His wife provided for six motherless girls in their own home. One of these was Mrs. Grow's youngest sister, who was left an orphan as a baby. She became the wife of Eli Hendricks and removed from Plymouth to Carbondale. Mr. & Mrs. Grow accepted an urgent invitation to make their home with the Hendricks and they went to Carbondale to reside permanently in 1863. He continued his ministerial labors as an evangelist with great success. The total period of his ministry was 57 years. Of brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces and other relations he baptized over 25. He was very successful in his work as a pastor of a church and as an evangelist. His winning personality and faith in divinity won the hearts of the people. He was wholly absorbed in his labors and nothing was too difficult in the divine cause for him to attempt, giving His life and his means entirely to the cause he loved. In 1883 his biography was published in a book entitled "Eight-five Years of Life and Labor". Well may the words of St. Paul apply: "I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith"! Found in bookstores 12/1/2002: Grow, William B. Eighty-Five Years Of Life And Labor Carbondale, Pa.: By the Author, 1902. 8vo. Red Cloth. 1st. Signed by Author. . slight edg wr. sm bubble on front brd. very good postpaid. Bookseller Inventory #000055 Price: US$ 65.00 (Convert Currency) Bookseller: Acorn Book Shop, Bedford, PA, U.S.A. 2. GROW, WILLIAM B. EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS OF LIFE AND LABOR Carbondale, Penn.: Published By the Author, Mount Pleasant Press, Harrisburg, Penn. 1902. Hard Cover CLOTH. BOOK CONDITION VERY GOOD/No Jacket. PAGES CLEAN/TIGHT INSIDE/OUT. ***PICTURE AVAILABLE VIA EMAIL UPON REQUEST. 299 pages; burgandy cloth with gold lettering. no writing in this book ;very clean and tight. Bookseller Inventory #001923 Price: US$ 68.50 (Convert Currency) Bookseller: Henry E. Lehrich Antiques Better Forever, Allentown, PA, U.S.A. Census: 1850 Michigan Grow, William B. View Image Online State: Michigan Year: 1850 County: Wayne Roll: M432_366 Township: Plymouth Twp Page: 773 Image: 269 Grow, William B. State: Michigan Year: 1854 County: Wayne Roll: Township: Plymouth Twp Page: 0 Image: 1880 census: Household: Name Relation Marital Status Gender Race Age Birthplace Occupation Father's Birthplace Mother's Birthplace Eli E. HENDRICK Self M Male W 48 MI Oil Refiner PA CAN Caroline P. HENDRICK Wife M Female W 46 NY ENG ENG Mary E. HENDRICK Dau S Female W 19 MI At Home MI NY Lillian B. HENDRICK Dau S Female W 14 PA At School MI NY Wm. B. GROW Other M Male W 63 NY Clergyman CT CT Mary A. GROW Other M Female W 63 ENG ENG ENG Bridget MCHALE Other S Female W 30 PA Domestic Servant IRE NY Annie MAY Other S Female W 23 ENG Domestic Servant ENG ENG Source Information: Census Place Carbondale, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania Family History Library Film 1255137 NA Film Number T9-1137 Page Number 15A Excerpts from "EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS OF LIFE AND LABOR, by William B. Grow, published by the author in Carbondale, PA in 1902. The front inside of the volume contains a photograph of the author & the verse "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." I Timothy 1:12 Dedication "To the honor and glory of my Redeemer, and to the sacred memory of my devoted wife, I reverently and affectionately dedicate THIS STORY OF MY LIFE" Published by Mt. Pleasant Press, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania CHAPTER TWO - BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS: The marriage of Elisha Grow and Lois Palmer took place December 25, 1801, a little more than a century ago. This marriage was the foundation of a family of seventeen children - ten sons and seven daughters. In the order of their birth their names were Lois, Julia, Stillman, Dilla, Elijah, and Elisha (twins), Ann, John, Abel, Sarah, William, Thomas, Edward and Edwin (Twins), Olive, Rhoda, Philip. I am grateful that I am able to reproduce for this volume, pictures of the ten brothers and the seven sisters, except Olive, whose name only appears, as her death occurred when she was but five years of age, and some years before the Daguerreotype process was introduced. All of this large family has crossed the river except Thomas, Edward, and myself, the writer. Our parents, upon their marriage, settled at Pomfret, Connecticut. In February 1812, came the migration westward. With his family of seven children and goods loaded on sleighs, the long journey was made to Homer, New York. In this early time the country about Homer was entirely new, and it formed a part of Cortland, then a town ten miles square. Later the division was made into the north and south half, the northern portion becoming Homer, and the southern portion Cortland. Here I first saw the light of day for the first time, October 11, 1816. The house, which was built when I was but five years old, is still standing on the old farm, and on the occasion of my visit to Homer, three years ago, it was my privilege to visit the old farm and to spend a little time in the place with the family now owning the place. The reader can imagine the rush of memories that came to me in my eighty-third year, as I sat in the house on the old farm into which my parents moved when I was but five years old. The family home continued to be at Homer for twenty-five years, during which time the family of seven children which made the journey from Connecticut had become seventeen. My early life was circumscribed by all the conditions attendant upon pioneer life. School privileges were very limited, consisting only of the summer and winter terms of about three months each. After reaching the age of ten, I no longer enjoyed the privilege of both the summer and winter terms of school. There were too many tings that a boy of that age could do on a farm for the pioneer farmer to spare him for the summer season, so my schooling was cut down to three months of the twelve. My first summer was largely employed in riding a horse for plowing out the corn. Father had planted twenty-five acres, and by the time this had been plowed each way three times, I had had enough horseback riding to more than satisfy any boy of ten summers. Nor was this all. Twenty-five acres seeming to be insufficient to satisfy my father, he went to Little York, a little way below us, to plow out half acres for a widow. At eleven years I began work at Corey's tannery. My work was to grind the bark, drive the horse and feed the mill. In connection with the tannery, Mr. Corey had a shoe-shop. During the noon hour I watched the workmen and learned something about handling their tools. I found the work fascinating, and as I had the good fortune of making friends with the men, after a little one of them cut a pair of shoes for me and loaned me the last on which to make them; so that before I was twelve years old I could boast of wearing on my feet a pair of shoes made with my own hands. To pay the journeyman for the leather in them, I drew a load of wood off the mountain to his house; using for the work a large ox-team. I came to be the family shoemaker, making the only shoes worn by my youngest sister until she was seven years of age, and mending for the rest of the family. In this way I was able to save my father's shoe bill at Corey's which usually amounted to between forty and fifty dollars a year. My mechanical tastes ran along other lines as well, especially to carpentry, in which occupation the larger part of my life was spent. With such means as were at hand I built wagons, carts, and sleds, made ox-yokes, axe-helves, and the like. Before I was twelve years old I erected my first building, which was a hog-house, 12 X 16, with a hen-house overhead. Having thus demonstrated my aptness for carpentry, I was apprenticed to one Samuel Wallace, the arrangements being made by my mother. Apprenticed in my fifteenth year, the terms of the contract were as follows: For the first year I was to receive thirty dollars, three months schooling, and my board and washing. The day was from sunrise to sunset, and in addition to the labors of this painfully long day, as the youngest apprentice, I was obliged to do the chores before sunrise and after sunset. For the second year I was to receive the increased wages of thirty-five dollars, no chores, and no schooling. I was glad of the liberal (?) increase in my wages, and also the release from the chores, but regretted the loss of school privileges. The new apprentice was Wallace's nephew, who came from Boston, and it was upon him that the choring fell. Fortunately for him, he knew so little about milking that the cow was rapidly drying up under his manipulations, and so I was again asked to do the milking, being given the promise of a suitable present. I saw the cow and milked her twice a day, but haven't seen the present yet. Still, I shall always be glad of having done this extra work, since it was while on my way to the pasture, following the path lying between the yards of Giles Capon and Samuel Hacked, that Mrs. Capron called to me, and introduced me to Mary Ann Hackett, a beautiful girl of sweet sixteen, whose beauty and goodness became more fully revealed to me through the five years of a delightful courtship and the nearly sixty years of a blessed married life. For the third year another large (?) increase in my salary of five dollars was made and again no schooling, and no chores. This brought me to my nineteenth year, when my trade was completed. Here my life may have said to have begun in earnest. I bought my outfit of tools, built my own chest, and began work at one dollar a day and board, my work being in and around Homer. Meanwhile removals from among the settlers, to the west, had begun, and the state of Michigan claimed most of them. Among the removals in 1836 were my three brothers, Stillman Elijah, and Elisha, which their families who settled at Springfield, Oakland county, Michigan. In 1837 followed my father's family, accompanied by the families of my two married brothers and my three married sisters. All these went by wagons, passing through Canada, while it fell to my lot to load the goods on an Erie canal-boat and accompany them to Buffalo. There the goods were transferred to a lake-boat, and the journey was continued to Detroit. So limited were my cash resources that, after paying the freight, I was left to make a four hundred-mile trip without one cent of money, but through the kindness of the captain I was given every privilege and comfort. Arriving in Detroit, I attended to the storing of the goods and then found that twenty-six miles lay between me and the home of my brother Stillman. There was no way but to walk, and this I started to do, with a satchel weighing about seventy pounds. About three miles out of Detroit, I overtook two men driving cattle, who asked me to put my satchel in the wagon and drive the team. I felt greatly elated at this seeming smile of fortune, but when I found myself going through a mud hole, where the front of the wagon dipped a box full of mud which then flowed out the back of the wagon, as I came out of the sink hole, I at once surrendered the lines, preferring to help drive the cattle. We made twelve miles the first day, staying at Birmingham over night, where the cattlemen paid all the bills. Before nightfall of the following day I reached my brother's house, a tired but happy youth, the several families having previously arrived. In a little while my father purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Waterford, while the others settled in different parts of the township, and another chapter in our family history begins. But now I must go back with the reader to recount the religious experience, which began in the old church at Homer, under the faithful ministry of my greatly renowned uncle, Rev. Alfred Bennett. CHAPTER THREE - EARLY RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES Among the emigrants to Cortland County, who preceded my parents by a few years, was Alfred Bennett and others of his sterling religious character. While they had left the rugged hills and narrow valleys of Connecticut for the broader fields of the Empire State, unlike many emigrants they cherished the faith of their fathers and believed that they could best secure to them selves temporal blessings by a rightful acknowledgment of the God of the universe. Accordingly, religious services marked their pioneer life, and in 1801 a Baptist church - the First Baptist church of Homer - was organized, with sixteen members. This was the first church of any Christian denomination organized in Cortland County. On the occasion of the meeting of the Baptist State Missionary Convention, in Cortland village, in October of 1880, Dr Edward Bright, the president of the convention departed from his usual custom and made an address, explaining the departure by saying that the associations of the historic surroundings impelled him. He referred to the old church of Homer as follows: "Its first house of worship stood within the old township of Homer, near the turn of the road between what was then Cortlandville and Homer village, and was as plain a structure as could be made of beams and boards. Its first pastor was Alfred Bennett of blessed memory. I am told that the house never had a furnace or stove in it. In those days they put the stove in the pulpit, and it kept the whole house warm, too. That old house of the church of 1801 was the center of great and wonderful revivals, such revivals as we see fewer of nowadays than we could wish to see" It was here in this old meetinghouse that my father and mother worshiped, carrying the children with them, for in those days the family attended church together. Although I was but eleven years old when the old building was taken down, it had at that age become a familiar place to me. The old church was a fruitful mother, for five children were born of her, each of which has had an honored history, and are still active forces in the kingdom of God. Somewhat weakened by the large numbers dismissed to form the new churches, and seeking the center of the population, she betook herself, in 1827, to Homer village, where a new house of worship was erected, in which Alfred Bennett continued his ministry until 1832, when he accepted the agency of the Board of Foreign Missions. In 1830 the pastor called to his assistance Elder Blaine, of the Auburn Baptist church, and a protracted meeting of great power was held for thirteen days. I was then in my fifteenth year. From my birth I was surrounded by religious influences, as the reader well knows from the foregoing chapter and the three years previous to the time of which I now write, I had experienced the deepest convictions of sin, but I did not yield to them. The fault was not wholly mine, for if a suitable opportunity had then presented itself for me to have publicly confessed Christ, I would certainly have done it. There are, doubtless many souls who lacking such opportunities fail of ever honoring God with their lives. In this, my own experience, I have always found an argument for special seasons of effort in the interest of the unsaved in every church. But these early convictions never forsook me, and from time to time asserted their claims upon my heart and conscience. They came into full play during the progress of these meetings and only a few meetings had been held before I felt the weight of sin and the need of a Savior, and as the day was fading into night, I sought as the place of secret devotion, an old blacksmith shop near the church, and there alone with God, I surrendered myself to Him and staked my all for time and eternity upon the merits of Jesus Christ my Savior. I was baptized by my greatly revered, widely known, and dearly loved uncle, Rev. Alfred Bennett, whose life was so useful, and whose labors were so abundant, as to justly merit the distinguished place which is assigned to him in Baptist history. His name is always associated with that of Nathaniel Kendrick, Daniel Hascall, and John M. Peck in the organization of our missionary work. His success as a pioneer pastor was even surpassed in his zeal for both foreign and domestic missions. On the occasion of his visit to Homer in the interest of foreign missions he produced the most profound impression and the people contributed to the full limit of their ability, rolling up an offering of nearly three hundred and fifty dollars. I well recall how his address stirred me. I had but two dollars in the world, and when the bell-crowned hat was passed, I put it in without a moment's hesitation, and had the hat been big enough I would have put myself in with it! It is not strange, in the light of God's promises, that such a man should have been given such a son as Cephas Bennett, whose missionary labors for half a century in Burma make one of the noblest chapters of missionary history. The thought of being linked to such men by the tender ties of blood could not but fill my soul with a holy desire to be worthy of my kinsmen. CHAPTER FOUR - EARLY EXPERIENCES IN MICHIGAN: I was twenty years of age at the time of our arrival in Michigan. My brother, Abel and I, having learned our trade together, soon went to work by the day, earning a daily wage of one dollar and a half. Among our earliest engagements was one with a certain public officer of the county, whose great failing was the inbibing too freely of the spirits that intoxicate. Our contract with him was to put in the sleepers, floor, and doors of a recently erected barn, for which we were to receive fiftneen dollars. We went to work on Christmas day, and before the day had passed we found it necessary to call upon the owner for further supplies. He had been celebrating, and in response to our request he flatly refused to furnish the things needed and finally rewarded our efforts at persuasion by telling us to leave the job just where it was, and he would pay us all that he agreed to. When, a few days later, we received our fifteen dollars, for not quite a full day's work, I was impressed with the foolishness of drinking, since it had practically made a fool of this man, who was in all the affairs of the county, a foremost citizen. As already stated, father had purchsed a farm in Waterford, seven miles from Pontiac, the county seat, a property which remained in our family until three years ago. This brothers-in-law who had journeyed from New York state with us settled as follows: Wanton Godfrey (Julia) located in Jackson county; Albert Robinson (Lois) located near Waterford; and Jacob Bishop in Pontiac. All this portion of Michigan was but sparsely settled at this time, the log houses being few and far between, while a frame house was a rare thing. The towns were uniformly ten miles square, and all roads ran directly north and south, and east and west, except where the physical features made the direct line impossible. The foresight of those who laid out that state was especially commendable in the matter of providing for the public schools. Four lots of eight acres each were reserved for school purposes in the center of each town, and those lots were not offered for sale until the settlement had become sufficient to enhance their value; then all but the land actually needed for the schools was put upon the market, and sold at a price sufficient to create a substantial fund for school purposes. In the early autumn of 1837 I journeyed to Monroe county to visit two brothers and a sister of my mother, who had gone west, two years before, from Exeter in Otsego County, New york, and being the first settlers they were given the privilege of naming the town, which they called Exeter, after their old New York town. Godfrey, to whom reference has already been made, when he purchased his eight-acre farm in Jackson county, had bargained for the erection of a log house to be in readiness for his family, but when he reached the farm he found that not only had there been no house erected, but not even a stick of timber had been made ready. Taking refuge with a hospitable neighbor (and all neighbors are hospitable in a new country), he sent for me to come and build his house. The house was 18 X 28 feet, with three rooms below and one above. Five logs made the first story. The needs of the family were so urgent that I worked with all the energies my early vigor and built the house, put in a stone fireplace, built the chimney, and hung the crane all in four weeks. This was long before the era of the Carpenters' Union, with the eight-hour-day system. Of the loneliness that attends pioneer life, especially for the women, the case of my sister, Mrs. Godfrey, furnishes a good example. During my four weeks' stay with them she saw no one of her own sex, and probably many more weeks rolled by after my departure with the same conditions of loneliness. It was while here that I experienced a sensation that can never be effaced from my memory. The Grand River, which was a rapid, turbulent stream, flowed alongside of Godfrey's farm. The roaring of the waters in the night seasons was of itself a sensation, but when on a dark, stormy, dreary, and dismal night there was mingled with the roaring of the waters the voice of a human being, the experience was thrilling indeed. On this awful night, apparently from the other side of the river, the cry came, and it was simply the one word, "Lost! Lost! Lost!" I never knew anything more about the case in any way, but in the after years of an active ministry covering more than half a century, I never pleaded with the sinners to come to the Saviour that I was not inspired to my greatest earnestness by the memory of that awful cry, uttered so despairingly on the lonely banks of the Grand River, "Lost! Lost! Lost!" After completing the house, I walked back to Oakland County, covering forty-two miles in ten and a half hours. We were in that day independent of the trolley lines. I spent the first might on the homeward journey with a relative and the following day pushed on to Milford, a fifteen-mile walk. This was a new place whence my brother Abel had gone at the time of my departure to build Godfrey's house. Milford was an entirely new settlement with splendid prospects for men of our craft. I found Abel living in a sort of shanty house, boarded up and down with rough boards. Only five miles beyond Milford lay Highland where another brother, John was living with his wife's people, the Shattucks. Here, in Milford, Abel and I began work together again. Only five dwelling-houses had been erected before Abel's coming, and the entire population did not number more than forty souls. The place, however, settled rapidly, and within a year fully thirty families moved in, and we had the work of erecting houses for nearly all of them. We would erect a house 18 X 24 feet, and story and a half high, lay the floors, make the doors and sash, and get the building ready for the plasterer for the sum of eighty dollars. Out of even these slender earnings we bought two lots, side by side, which later we erected a suitable double dwelling house for our own use. Many are the incidents of these pioneer days which would doubtless interest the reader, but the space which I have allowed myself will not permit me to publish them. In the spring of 1838, business matters of considerable importance made it necessary for my father to make a journey back to New York state, and I accompanied him to attend to one of the most important and blessed events in my life. The following chapter will relate it. THE REST OF THE STORY: Chapter Five, "Marriage and Home-Making tells how his business in New York was in the city of Auburn, Tompkins Co, New York. Since he had moved to Michigan he had carried on a "correspondence courtship" with Mary Ann Hackett there, and his business was a marriage ceremony, May 22, 1838. His mother-in-law was in ill health, and her marriage gift to the young couple was her tiny three year old daughter, Caroline, whom she placed into their guardianship then & there, with the stipulation that she not come to live with them until after her death which occurred within the year. Thus Caroline Hackett, his wife's youngest sister, became a daughter to the couple & she came to live with them in Michigan in 1839, at age 4 years old. Caroline married Honorable Eli Hendricks, also from Michigan, who became a large manufacturer in the Coal & Oil industry, necessitating a move back to Carbondale, Pennsylvania, in 1863, after their marriage earlier. In 1865, the writer, William Breed Grow & his wife Mary Ann Hackett moved to Carbondale & lived out their lives with the couple, & their two children, Mary Hendrick who married Alfred Trautwein in 1885 & Lillian Hendrick who married William Thomas Coleville in 1886, both marriages taking place in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. Both girls husbands were in the manufacturing business & they homes built on the grounds of their parents home in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, so the writer speaks of their happy children & how he & his wife enjoyed living among Caroline & Emily Trautwein & Kenneth, Jesse, Dorothy, & William Coleville, in Carbondale, Pennsylvania. In 1842, the writer's brother-in-law, Wanton Godfrey, exchanged the home the writer built for him in Jackson, for one in Dexter, Washtenaw County, Michigan. Writer William B. Grow moved from the double home he & his brother Abel had shared with their wives, in Milford, Michigan, to Dexter, and the home of the Godfrey's, for the period of two years, while he built Godfrey's family another new home. During this period of time he began ministering to the local Baptist church as a Pastor, since they were without one, and following that continued in the Baptist Ministry, as a traveling evangelist, for the rest of his life. The writers' wife, Mary Ann Hackett was English born, the family of Samuel Hackett her father, having migrated to Auburn, Tompkins Co, New York about 1831, with two sons & three daughters, leaving one daughter in England to care for the aged Grandmother Arnold. The writer tells of a visit to England for three months in 1871, to visit his wife's sister whom she had not seen for forty years, & he preached in England at the Congregational church she attended there, each Sunday. The rest of the book goes into great detail about his travels in evangelism, and the many adventures he had in leading souls to Christ. William Breed Grow passed away January 1, 1913, in Carbondale, Lack Co, Pennsylvania, at 96 years old, 10 years after publishing his book of memoirs of his life.