Newaygo County MI Archives Biographies.....Smeltzer, Joseph July 17, 1839 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Jan Cortez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00020.html#0004939 March 23, 2009, 6:21 pm

Author: Chapman Brothers

JOSEPH SMELTZER, farmer, section 32, Big Prairie Township, was born July 17, 
1839, in Germany.  His 

father, Michael Smeltzer, was born in 1811, in Werlf, a town of Germany, on 
the River Rhine.  His mother, 

Catherine (Palmers) Smeltzer, was born in the same place in 1818.  Both 
parents are still living, in 

Milwaukee, Wis., whither they emigrated in 1846.

Mr. Smeltzer was 17 years old when his family left the "Fatherland," where he 
had received a good German 

education.  On reaching the city of Milwaukee he had no difficulty in finding 
plenty of remunerative 

labor, and he engaged with the foreman of a railroad construction corps, with 
whom he remained seven 

years.  When he was 24 years old he came to Newaygo County and went to work 
for Jerry Ryan, and was in his 

employment between three and four years.  All the earnings of his first eight 
years of labor he gave to 

his parents, and at the age of 25 years he commenced to lay the foundation of 
his own career as an 

American citizen.  In 18-- he went to Morley, Mecosta County, where he worked 
14 successive winters for 

Nelson Higbee, as a lumberman.  The alternating summers he worked at farming.  
He owns 135 acres of land 

in Big Prairie.  Of this, 100 acres are well improved and cultivated, and the 
farm is supplied with 

substantial buildings.

Mr. Smeltzer was married in Grand Rapids, in 1865, to Susan McKenney.  She was 
born March 14, 1837, in 

Canada East, and is a daughter of Patrick and Hannah (Flinn) McKenney, the one 
a native of County Tyrone, 

Ireland, the other born in County Cork.  Peter, Charles and Mary are the three 
children of Mr. and Mrs. 

Smeltzer.

Additional Comments:
1884 Portrait & Bio Album of Newaygo Co.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/newaygo/bios/smeltzer366nbs.txt

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