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				THOMAS R. LA DUE

	Thomas R. La Due was born in the town of Cato, Cayuga Co., N. Y., Feb. 27, 1846.  His 
family, as the name indicates, are of French origin, his ancestors having fled from France during
the persecution of the French Huguenots by the Roman Catholics, and settled in America.  The 
father of Thomas, Abraham La Due, was a farmer, and on the home-farm his youth was passed, 
receiving only a common-school education.  At the age of eighteen he enlisted in Battery A, Third
New York Light Artillery, and served one year, most of  the time in North Carolina with Gen. 
Schofield's command, which opened communication with Gen. Sherman's army in his march to the sea.
On the sixth day of June, 1865, he was discharged, and at once returned home, where he remained 
until the spring, when he, in company with his brother John, went to Albion, Mich., where their 
uncle, Thomas Scott, resided. and worked at the carpenter's trade one summer.  In August, 1866, 
the three came to Bloomer, and on Fish Creek improved the water power now used in the Carson City
Mills.  There was then no village of Carson, but the want of a grist- and saw-mill had long been 
felt by the people of the surrounding country,--a want they at once proceeded to supply.  A 
saw-mill was first built, followed in 1868 by the erection of the Carson City Grist-Mill, 
putting in two runs of stone, to which has since been added another run.  The mills did a 
prosperous business, and formed the nucleus of the present village of Carson, of which the three 
gentlemen above named may be, and are, called the fathers.  In 1877, John La Due sold his 
interest to Mr. Young and moved to Saginaw.  The mills are now owned by the firm of La Due & 
Cummings.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881.  Page 423.  Bloomer.