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			ALBERT S. AND AMANDA M. (BRYANT) FRENCH

	This gentleman was born Feb. 1, 1828, in Ellicottville, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., and was 
the younger of two children (both sons) born to Abel and Angeline (Rust) French.  His father was 
born at Brattleboro', Vt., in 1804, and his mother in Northampton, Mass.  The two were married 
about 1825, in Ellicottville, N. Y.  Mrs. French died when Albert was but three months of age, 
and, in 1830, Mr. French a second time entered the marriage relation.  His business was that of 
Merchant, and was continued until about 1867, when he exchanged his business in Chicago for a 
farm in Colon township, St. Joseph Co., Mich., where he died in 1868.  Albert S. French at the 
age of fourteen sought and found employment in Grand Rapids, where he remained three years, part 
of the time working in a brickyard and part in a store.  From Grand Rapids he shipped on the 
lakes, and sailed for three years, when he returned to the home of his boyhood in New York.  Dec.
31, 1848, he married Miss Amanda M. Bryant, daughter of Samuel and Anna Bryant.  She was born in 
Ellicottville, N. Y., April 18, 1827, and was the tenth in a family of eleven children.  Her 
parents were natives of Northampton, Mass., and died on the farm in Ellicottville, on which the 
daughter was born,--the father's death occurring in 1849 and the mother's about 1867.  Mr. 
French, after his return to New York from the lake service, engaged in manufacturing lumber, and
after his removal to Michigan with his family he located at Greenville, Montcalm Co., in 1854, 
built a house, and worked at the trade of a carpenter, which he had learned when a boy.  After a
residence of three years in Greenville, he purchased a portion of his present farm in the 
township of Cato, moved his family upon it in the spring (March) of 1857, and began improvements
on his land, which he had bought from the government.  In 1865 he platted and laid out the 
village of Lake View, and has continued his residence here, engaging in farming, lumbering, and 
dealing in pine-lands.  Of the latter hew now owns about two hundred acres, besides his farm of 
one thousand acres.  Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. French, as follows:  Franklin 
H., Nov. 14, 1849; Charles F., Sept. 15, 1851; Albert D., Aug. 7, 1853; Truman R., June 27, 1857;
John W., April 27, 1859, died Feb. 24, 1863; Ida A., Sept. 7, 1861; Stanley S., Sept. 24, 1866; 
Anna M., Nov. 26, 1871.  All are married, except the youngest two, and settled near home.  One 
son is in the real-estate business at Stanton.  Mrs. French is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church.  Mr. French's views on religion are liberal.  He has met with severe losses, 
but has a fine property remaining; is a Republican in politics, and has been treasurer of the 
county eight years, during which time he lived with his family in Stanton; was supervisor six 
years, and postmaster four years, and is a gentleman of liberality and enterprise.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Page 440.  Cato Township.