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			ARTEMUS & AMANDA (BRAINERD) GLEASON

	Among the earliest settlers in the northwest corner of Bushnell township was Artemus 
Gleason, who was born in the township of Durham, Greene County, N. Y., Feb. 7, 1826.  He is of 
Irish extraction, his ancestors having been born in the Emerald Isle, from whence his three 
brothers by the name of Gleason emigrated prior to the Revolutionary war and settled in the New 
England States.  Jeremiah D. Gleason, the father of our subject, was born in the land of wooden 
nutmegs (Connecticut) in 1793.  While he was yet a small boy his parents emigrated to the State 
of New York, where he grew to manhood, finally settling in Greene County.  He married Catherine 
Deidrick.  After his marriage (and before) he worked at the carpenter's trade until 1831, when he
moved to Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, and near the then village of Cleveland bought a piece of wild land 
which he cleared and on which he died in 1868.  There were born to him seven children, of whom 
Artemus was the fourth.  He grew to manhood on the farm in Ohio, where he remained until he 
reached his majority, when he commenced life on  his own account, working at the carpenter's 
trade or at anything by which he could earn an honest dollar.  On the 18th day of September, 
1851, he was joined in marriage to Miss Amanda Brainerd, daughter of Harvey H. and Sarah 
(Millard) Brainerd.  Mrs. Gleason was born in Brooklyn, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, Dec. 12, 1831.  Her 
father was born in Connecticut, Aug. 10, 1800.  From Connecticut he moved to Ohio, and where the 
city of Cleveland now stands bought a piece of wild land.  Not being able to pay for it he was 
obliged to let it go back.  His wife was born in New York, from whence her parents emigrated to 
Cuyahoga Co., Ohio.  They finally came to Kent Co., Mich., and settled in Wyoming township, where
they died, - Mr. Brainerd in 1867, his wife in 1865.  To them there were born ten children, of 
whom Mrs. Gleason is the second. After their marriage Mr. Gleason continued working at his trade 
until the spring of 1852, when he came to Michigan, in the company of Dr. Edwards, in search of a
home which could be bought cheap.  Coming to Montcalm County, they bought together of the 
government the east half of the northwest quarter and the west half of the northeast quarter of 
section 18, and one hundred and sixty acres, parts of sections 18 and 19.  When they came to 
divide each preferred the latter, and to decide who should have first choice they threw up a 
half-dollar and the doctor won, and selected the land on sections 18 and 19, only to find in 
after-years that he had selected the poorest piece.  The following September, with his wife, 
child, and household goods in a covered wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen, Mr. Gleason started for 
the new home in the wilderness.  After a tedious journey of three weeks they arrived on a 
Saturday evening at the home of Mr. Stevens, five miles from their land.  With him they stayed 
over Sunday, and then on Monday morning, after a severe storm of wind and rain, again renewed 
their journey.  There was no road to his land, and all day Monday was consumed in making four and
one-half miles, he being obliged to stop and remove logs from his road.  Late in the afternoon of
that long-to-be-remembered Monday, they arrived at a shanty on the farm of Mr. Cheeney, which had 
been used by maple-sugar makers.  It had been raining, and natures had on its most sombre hue.  
The floor of the shanty was of bark and split logs, and they were resting in water which came 
through the floor at every step.  To them it was a gloomy time, and both were very homesick, 
though they kept the fact from each other until long afterwards.  The next day the sun came out 
and dispelled the mist from their eyes as well as from the atmosphere.  They at once set to work 
to make the shanty homelike.  Bedsteads were made of crotches driven in the ground and poles laid
across them.  A table was made of shakes and poles, and they soon felt that they were provided 
for.  And Mrs. Gleason looks back upon the days in her shanty home as among the happiest of her 
life.  A log house on his own land was erected that fall, into which they moved the next 
December.  The lumber was hauled only eight miles, yet the trip to the mill took an entire day.  
The nails, stove, and other articles were bought in Lyons, and each trip used up a day and two 
nights.  The Indians were then living  in the neighborhood, and during Mr. Gleason's absence 
often made Mrs. Gleason unwelcome visits.  She was very afraid of them, hence their demands for 
food were always complied with.  When the family were moved into the new house but a portion of 
it was finished, and in a room that would be thought very small by them now they lived during the
winter.  At that time game was very plenty, and the rifle of Mr. Gleason kept their table well 
supplied with venison, with now and then a wild turkey by way of change.  Wolves also 
occasionally made them a visit and awoke the echoes with their howling.  The first winter Mr. 
Gleason chopped off and the next spring cleared ten acres, which he put into crops that year.  
But for several years the early frosts cut off their crops and times were very hard, and then he 
would resort to shingle-making and thus keep the wolf from the door.  His market for shingles 
was Ionia, and the trip was made in twenty-four hours, starting in the night and returning in the
night.  Their milling was done in Greenville, and he would be gone until late at night, and at 
times when the nights were dark he would have to stop when he came to the dense pine woods and 
wait for daylight, passing the hours asleep in his wagon box.  But time has made a wondrous 
change in all this.  Cleared fields have taken the place of the forests; the steam-engine sends 
forth its shriek where the only sound then was the stroke of the woodman's axe; while the 
schools, churches, and the homes of the well-to-do citizens of Montcalm County arise on every 
hand, and in all these changes Mr. Gleason has borne his part.  His farm now consists of two 
hundred and forty acres, two hundred under good cultivation, with good buildings, orchards, etc.,
the result of the untiring industry of Mr. Gleason and his wife, who has ever done her share.  
In politics, he and his family are stalwart Republicans.  In religion, liberal.  Their union has
been blessed with ten children, - viz., Augusta, born Aug. 19, 1852; Silas M., March 6, 1855; 
Eleanor, Oct. 8, 1856; Jared, Dec. 29, 1858; Laura J., July 24, 1860, died in infancy; Reuben, 
Jan 11, 1863; Warren, Dec. 6, 1865, died Oct. 10, 1871; Walter Gleason, Jan. 29, 1870; A. Wilder,
Aug. 17, 1873; and Earl L., Aug. 22, 1876.   



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Pages 411-412, Bushnell Twp.