Newaygo County MI Archives Biographies.....Tift, Leroy May 9, 1832 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Jan Cortez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00020.html#0004939 March 17, 2009, 7:30 pm

Author: Chapman Brothers

LEROY TIFT, farmer, on sections 8 and 11, Croton Township, and resident at 
Croton village, was born in 

Delaware Co., N.Y., May 9, 1832.  He is the son of Martin and Elizabeth 
(Hunter) Tift, both of whom were 

born in the State of New York and of English ancestry.  The birth of the 
former occurred Dec. 15, 1807, 

and his death April 2, 1881, on Stearn's Prairie, Newaygo County.  The latter 
was born in 1805 and died 

June 11, 1858, in the same place where her husband's demise occurred 23 years 
later.

The parents of Mr. Tift came to Michigan in the fall of 1835, when the State 
was in its territorial days, 

and settled in what is now Kalamazoo County.  In March 1853, they again sought 
pioneer life in Newaygo 

County.  The son was 18 years of age when he became a resident of Croton, and 
he made his first start in 

life on his own responsibility in the capacity of a lumberman on the Muskegon 
River.  He has made a fine 

record in his quiet, persistent, energetic efforts, and his admirable judgment 
is plainly manifest by his 

achievements, for which he makes but modest claims.  He owns 504 1/2 acres of 
land in the township of 

Croton and four lots in the village of Croton.  HIs farm includes 106 acres 
under advanced cultivation.  

He is somewhat prominent as a member of the Masonic Order and belongs to the 
Valley City Lodge, No. 86, at 

Grand Rapids, and in 1865 connected himself with Newaygo Lodge, No. 131.  In 
politics he is a Republican.

Mr. Tift has been married twice.  HIs first wife, Elizabeth (Ferguson) Tift, 
to whom he was married April 

6, 1856, was born in the Province of Ontario, Sept. 18, 1838, the daughter of 
Duncan and Mary (McCall) 

Ferguson, both of whom were born in the State of New York, and of Scotch 
ancestors.  the wife of Mr. Tift 

died Sept. 13, 1862, leaving one daughter, Mary Isabel. Mary Estelle, the 
first born child, died before 

the mother.  Mr. Tift married Bessie Trask, June 29, 1869, in Kalamazoo Co., 
Mich.  She was the daughter 

of Oliver and Margaret Trask, natives of Maine and both deceased.  Mrs. Tift 
died Aug. 30, 1874, at Grand 

Rapids, leaving three children - Libbie, Leroy (Jr.) and Martin O.

In view of his double representative character as a pioneer of the State of 
Michigan, and county of 

Newaygo, the portrait of Mr. Tift, which appears on another page, has a two-
fold value.

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

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/newaygo/bios/tift279nbs.txt

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