Harry Conant's biography, Monroe, Monroe County, Michigan

Copyright © 2000 by Bryan Taylor. This copy contributed for use in 
the MIGenWeb Archives.  

 

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American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men with Portrait 
Illustrations on Steel, Volumes I-II



Name: Dr. Harry Conant
of Monroe, was born at Mansfield, Connecticut, April 19, 1790. Eleazor 
Conant, his father, was a graduate of Yale College, and studied for the 
ministry, but went ultimately into the army as Paymaster, and never entered 
upon his proiession. He was the direct lineal descendant of Roger Conant, 
the first Colonial Governor of Massacnusetts, who came from Budleigh, 
England, in April, 1591. The subject of this sketch was the seventh child 
of Eleazor and Eunice (Storrs) Conant. His mother dying when he was an 
infant, his childhood was passed in the home of his uncle and aunt, John 
and Patty (Storrs) Conant, of blessed memory. They were childless, and he 
was to them as a beloved and only son. In 1801 both Eleazor and John Conant 
moved with their families to Middlebury, Vermont. Dr. Harry Conant 
graduated at Middlebury in 1813. He studied medicine first with Doctor 
Tudor, of Middlebury; then at Pittsfield, Massachusetts; and, in 1816, 
after passing a successful examination before the State Medical Censors, 
was admitted as a member of the Medical Society of the State of Vermont. 
Armed with letters of introduction and recommendation from President Davis, 
of Middlebury College, and numerous other influential friends, he went to 
Montreal, intending there to locate and practice his profession; but was 
influenced by the glowing letters of his brothers--Shubael in Detroit, and 
Horatio in Maumee, Ohio,--to go West. He left Montreal, stopping in Western 
Pennsylvania, where he invested in the manufacture of lumber for the 
Pittsburg market; not realizing his expectations, however, he sold out, 
joined his brother in Ohio for a short time, and came to Michigan Territory 
in 1820, settling at Monroe. Here he entered at once upon the practice of 
his profession, in partnership with Dr. Luther Parker, an old resident 
physician of the place. On the 4th of June, 1821, he was united in marriage 
to Miss Maria Stewart, a young lady from the Green Mountain State. February 
3, 1824, he was appointed, by General Cass, Commissioner to locate a 
turnpike from Detroit to Pontiac and Paint Creek, in Oakland County. 
December 15, 1824, he was appointed Sheriff of Monroe County by General 
Cass. In 1826 Doctor Conant was attending physician to General Cass, on the 
occasion of a treaty with Indians, signed on the Wabash, in the State of 
Indiana. On the 10th of July, 1826, Governor Woodbridge appointed him 
Surgeon of the 2d Regiment of the Territorial militia. Doctor Conant was 
greatly interested in all educational movements. On the founding of a 
branch of the University of Michigan at Monroe, at his own expense he 
erected buildings for its accommodation and that of the principal, Rev. Mr. 
Center, who came from Albany to fill the position. Doctor Conant, the late 
Colonel O. Johnson, and Charles Noble, were the founders of the Young 
Ladies' Seminary, known as Miss McQueen's school. In 1850 he was one of the 
regents and a stockholder of the Young Ladies' Seminary, E. J. Boyd being 
Principal. In that year he was elected Judge of Probate. With the late T. 
G. Cole, he established the first Whig paper in Monroe, placing Mr. Hosmer, 
a young lawyer, in the editorial chair. He invested both money and energy 
in the Gibraltar and Flat Rock enterprise, and was treasurer of the 
company. Other offices of public trust were proffered him, but were 
declined as interfering with his profession, which he loved, and in the 
practice of which he was most successful. September 18, 1832, he united 
with the Presbyterian Church, and the same year was elected elder, which 
office he honored until his death, September 2, 1851. Dr. Harry Conant was 
a man of strong character, possessing both firmness and gentleness to a 
marked degree. A man of few words, his sterling integrity, rare good sense, 
and intellectual culture won for him the respect and confidence of all who 
knew him. Endowed with sound judgment and remarkable discriminating 
faculties, he was seldom mistaken in his estimate of men and things. Doctor 
Conant was a sound scholar and a Christian gentleman. His religious life 
was always consistent and cheerful; his faith, firm and unwavering. Resting 
alone on the merits of a merciful Redeemer--calm and confident--he had no 
forbodings for the future. Though to him life had always been a joy, and, 
as he expressed it, "This had always been to him a beautiful world," his 
last words were, "Almost Home."