20 biographies for the town of Tuscola, Tuscola County, Michigan Copyright © 1998 by Bonnie Petee. This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives. USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. ___________________________________________________________________ Tuscola Town Biographies Taken from The History of Tuscola County, Biographical Sketches and Illustrations, H. R. Page Co., Chicago, 1883. Thanks to Bonnie Petee. Clark Appleby, was born in Otsego County, N. Y., April 3, 1822, where he resided until 1860. In February of that year he came to Tuscola County and located on section 2, in the township of Tuscola, where he has since resided. He has made many improvements on his place which will now rank with the best farms in the township. Mr. Appleby has been twice married, his first wife having died in New York previous to his coming West. His second and present wife was the widow Bates, formerly Miss Mary Grover, also of Otsego County, N. Y. P. S. Baldwin, is a native of St. Lawrence County, N. Y., and was born in 1832. At ten years of age his father took him to Waterloo County, Ont., to learn the tanner and currier's trade, where he remained until 1846, when he came to Tuscola. His time since has been spent here and in Saginaw County, and has been engaged in lumbering, farming, and fishing. He first commenced lumbering by doing job work on the north branch of White Creek. In 1872 he purchased his present farm on section 29, and in 1881 commenced the manufacture of cheese. His factory is supplied with milk partly from his own cows and by purchase from others. He uses the milk of 200 cows. Orrin Bradley, was born in Lenawee County, Mich., in 1837, and subsequently moved to Livingston County, where he remained until 1870,when he came to Tuscola and located on section 35, where he has since resided. He has given his attention almost exclusively to farming, but has held the office of highway commissioner for the township of Tuscola. J. Q. A. Burrington, was born in Burk, Caledonia County, Vt., in 1829. In 1853 he moved to Ohio, and with the exception of three years spent in Iowa resided there continuously till the fall of 1856, when he came to Tuscola. The following spring he purchased his present farm which is on section 30, and has since resided there. He as the third and last county superintendent of schools in 1873-74, but before his second term had expired the office was abolished. The county then contained about 120 districts. From 1869 to 1873 was supervisor of the township of Tuscola, but in the fall of 1873 resigned, owing to his duties as superintendent of schools. Has been a member of the executive committee of the State Agricultural Society for ten years and was at one time president of the County Agricultural Society. For four years was a member of executive committee of the State Grange, and was again elected at the last election. Is a present chairman of the committee. James H. Davis, son of Ebenezer Davis, was born in Westerlo, Albany County, N. Y., in 1817, and in 1836, with his parents, moved to Niagara County, where they remained until June 1836, when they came to Tuscola. The family consisted of father, mother, and eleven children. Mr. Davis had the first contract for carrying the mail from Bridgeport to his father's house, one and one-fourth mile west of Tuscola, his father being the postmaster, and the first one in the county. Dennis Harrison, at Tuscola village, succeeded him as postmaster, and removed the office there, and when the route was continued to Vassar three months later, Mr. Davis resigned, and Chancey Firman succeeded him as carrier. His present place, on section 30, was purchased of the government in 1836, and he has since resided there. Edwin Ellis, deceased, was born in Vermont, in 1811. From Vermont he went to New York, and in 1835 to Tuscola County, being one of the first comers to this county. He felled the first tree on the north line of section 33, in the town of Tuscola. In the summer of 1837 Mr. Ellis went to Saginaw, and did not again take up his residence in Tuscola County until 1840, when he settled on the farm where his widow now lives. In 1844 he married his second wife, Miss Mary Hunter, a native of Vermont, who moved from that State to Ohio, and came to this county in 1844, from Pine Run, Genesee County, where she had resided eight or nine years. Mr. Ellis at one time was so hard pressed for provisions that three men dined off one pigeon, which was warmed up for a stranger. Mr. Ellis and Ebenezer Davis went down to Saginaw after supplies, and on coming back the canoe was tipped over, and the bag of flour dropped into the river. It was rescued, dried, and the bag scraped. In coming through to Tuscola County from the East, Mr. Ellis drove an ox team across Canada. One of the Oldest Residents Lovira Hart is one of the veritable pioneers of Tuscola County and is well deserving of a notice in this work. He came to Tuscola in 1836 and settled on sections 20 and 29, where he has since resided. What was then a dense trackless wilderness he has transformed by his perseverance and industry into well tilled fields which provide all the creature comforts and well repay him for the years of unceasing labor he spent in developing and improving this now productive soil. For some time after his arrival in the county his nearest post office was Bridgeport and trading points were Saginaw and Flint, and he experienced many of the trials and hardships incident to pioneer life. He has filled many of the township offices and is now the president of the County Pioneer Society. He has in his possession a remarkable curiosity, or it might be termed a reminiscence of his pioneer experience, which is interesting and worthy of notice. Late in the Fall of 1838 his brother, Orlando Hart, of Mt. Morris, Livingston County, N. Y., came to make him a visit, bringing with him a wolf trap of his own make, thinking it would be of use in the then wilderness of Tuscola. During the two following winters Mr. Hart and Eben Morse, a young man living with him, caught several wolves with it; but in the spring of 1841 the trap disappeared from near the stake between sections 20 and 29 and was not again heard from until the winter of 1878-79, when a Mr. Thompson, while cutting wood on Chris Hughes' farm in Genesee County felled a beech tree, in the top of which he found a steel trap. He cut out a section of the timber to which the trap was attached and carried it to Mt. Morris, where Orlando Hart, the maker, saw and recognized it. The trap was afterward taken to Flint, Mich., and sold to a Mr. Crocker, who intended to place it on exhibition in the Crystal Palace, London, but was finally persuaded to sell it to Lovira Hart, who has since retained it. Whatever animal it was that carried it must have ascended the tree thirty-five or thirty-six feet high, passed through a crotch or fork and around the body, and being unable to extricate itself perished. There is a small tuft of fur in the jaws of the trap supposed to be from a lynx or wild-cat. There is now a solid ridge of wood over the chain, which, by cutting a mortise, discloses thirty-six courses of wood. Mr. Hart has been connected with most of the important events of the county, and as one of the most active of the pioneers. He lives yet upon the land he first cleared and has one of the finest farms in the county, a view of which is given in this work. There are few men living in the county who have had a greater variety of pioneer experience than Mr. Hart. The first wheat that he raised was threshed with a flail. The crop amounted to 150 bushels. He took it to Pontiac and sold it for fifty cents a bushel in order to get money which he was obliged to realize. Going to mill was one of the hardships of those days, and sometimes it was necessary to make a journey to Flushing. Arriving there it would sometimes be impossible to get hotel accommodations, and wrapping himself in a blanket he would lie all night under his wagon. Other incidents are mentioned in other connections. Mr. Hart is president of the Pioneer Society and takes a lively interest in its welfare. Andrew Jackson Haines, is a native of Albany County, N. Y., but subsequently moved to Niagara County, and afterward to Oxford, Oakland County, Mich., where he remained until 1843, when he came to Tuscola, where he has since resided, with the exception of three years in the township of Tuscola. His father came six months previous, and it is said that he filled out the first summons issued in the county. He had previously visited the county in 1835 and located land in Tuscola Township, and at that time made the shakes for the first house, probably, erected in what is now Tuscola County. Mr. A. J. Haines enlisted in the Seventh Michigan Infantry during the late war, and served four years, receiving a wound at Antietam which incapacitated him for duty for six months. He married Miss Elizabeth Hughes, a native of Boston, Mass. They have had three children, all of whom are living. Ruben Hinckley, was born in Ohio, in 1830, and in 1851 came to Saginaw, and about two years thereafter, to Tuscola, where he has since resided. His farm is on section 30, and is well improved. He has been twice married, first to Helen Davis, who came to Tuscola from New York with her parents, Ebenezer and Phoebe Davis. The date of her birth was October 22, 1837, and was the first white child born in the county. His second wife was Elizabeth Wilson Davis, widow of M. V. Davis, who was a son of Ebenezer and Phoebe Davis. Samuel H. Hughes, was born in Boston, Mass., in 1796, and at thirteen years of age engaged in the hardware business. In 1831 he moved to Ohio, where he remained twenty-two years. He came to Tuscola in 1852 where he has since resided. He married Priscilla Woods, of Boston, in 1817. They had seven children, of whom all are living except Nelson, who died on his return from the war - no doubt from the exposure he had experienced. Mr. Hughes has been in many kinds of business, among which may be mentioned the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods in the town of Ware, Hampshire County, Mass., farming and hardware business. Charles T. Killin, was born in Indiana County, Pa., in 1835, and resided there until 1870, when he came to Tuscola County and located on section 23, of Tuscola Township, where he has since resided. Mr. Killin cleared up his farm from what was then a dense wilderness and did pioneer work in every sense of the word. He married Miss Jennie A. Bolar, of the same county of his nativity, and has a family of three sons. L. Henry Lee, was born in Albion, Orleans County. N. Y., in 1837, and remained there until 1857, when he came to Tuscola, and in the spring of 1859 purchased his present farm, which is situated in section 31. The following June he commenced chopping and clearing the land, but did not build for some time, as he rented a piece of land and a house in the vicinity. At that time there were no roads to Mr. Lee's farm, and he was obliged to chop his way out. He now has a fine farm, and is giving his attention to the breeding of fancy stock, having at present three thoroughbred Jersey cattle - one male and two females, and several grade cattle. Mr. Lee was married to Miss Frances L. Hunt, who was born in Mt. Morris, Livingston County, N. Y., September 6, 1837, and came to Tuscola with her parents at six months of age. Her parents were Abijah A. and Minerva Hunt, both of whom died in the county. Thomas Lewis, is a native of Bay Quinte, Canada, and was born in 1827. He remained there until eight years of age when he moved to Lewiston, Niagara County, N. Y., where, after one years' residence, he returned to Canada. Subsequently he resided one year in New York, and in 1850 came to Tuscola, and located on the Cass River, and removed in 1854 to his farm on section 17, where he has since resided. Mr. Lewis has been a tradesman, lumberman, and farmer. In 1851 he was married to Sarah G. Davis, daughter of Ebenezer Davis, and has been a resident of the county since 1836. Avery Malin, is a native of Ontario County, N. Y., and was born in 1804. At six years of age, with his parents, he moved to Erie, Erie County, where they lived one year, and then moved to Geauga County, Ohio, and remained there till 1855 when he came to Michigan, and after stopping awhile in Genesee County reached Tuscola County in May, 1855. He purchased land on sections 2 and 12, in Tuscola Township. and after stopping in Vassar about six months, he moved on his land on section 12, where he has since resided. He married Miss Eliza Ann Copley, a native of New York, in 1835, and who died in 1876. They raised a family of four children, of whom all are living, except Sarah, who died in 1870. David and Ann E., are still living at home. Martin L. Miller, was born in Niagara County. N. Y., in 1818, and first visited in Tuscola in 1836, at which time he purchased land and made a trip to Saginaw on skates, for R. Leonard Hurd, bringing in his mail, which, without doubt, constitutes him the first carrier. In 1838 he came to Tuscola and located permanently, and has since resided on the farm he purchased on his first visit. He was married in 1849, to Miss Mercy E. Wilson, a native of Bolton, Stanstead County, Canada, but who moved with her parents to Genesee County, Mich., in 1837. Mr. Miller is a land surveyor, and has surveyed and laid out very many of the roads in the townships of Tuscola and Arbela. In 1880 he engaged in the manufacture of tile and brick, having discovered a find quality of clay for the purpose on his premises, and expects to largely increase his present capacity. A spring, which is highly charged with iron, flows from underneath the band of clay, which no doubt is strongly impregnated with it, thus causing the articles manufactured fro it to be strong and durable. Orson Orms, was born in Vermont, in 1831, and made that State his home until 1857, when he came to Tuscola. In 1862 he enlisted in the Twenty-third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and served three years, being mustered out at Saulsbury. He was first corporal and then sergeant of his company. Mr. Orms built the I. O. O. F. Hall in Tuscola, in 1879, and is the owner of the same. He also has a sorghum and cider mill, and has the reputation of doing a good business. He is a carpenter and joiner by trade. He was married in Genesee, Genesee County, Mich., to Miss Harriet Twogood, a native of New York. They have had six children, of whom Manley D. is now attending Yale College. Ebenezer W. Perry, was born in Smithfield, Chenango County, N. Y., and was a carpenter by trade. The facts of his partnership in the company that made the first opening in Tuscola County, have already been mentioned. He lived in Tuscola until 1867 and then removed to Saginaw, where he remained three years, and then came back to Tuscola and stayed two years. Returning to Saginaw he remained a short time, when he again took up his residence in Tuscola, where he died, April 1, 1875. He was about sixty-eighth years of age at the time of his death. He was twice married and left a wife and seven children, three of whom now live in Tuscola. Henry Sezer, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1827, and in early childhood, with his parents, moved to Steuben County, N. Y., where he continued to reside until 1864, when he came to Tuscola County, living in the village of Vassar one and a half years. He then settled in the township of Fair Grove, where he remained four years, thence to Indian Fields, remaining three years, when he moved on the Harrington farm in Tuscola, where he has since resided. He was married in 1848, to Miss Mary Knight, a native of Steuben County, N. Y. They have had no children of their own, but have reared several adopted ones. Oscar F. Shoff, M. D., is a native of Middlesex County, Ont., and was born in 1847. He there commenced the study of medicine and graduated from the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, March 31, 1869, and in April following came to Tuscola, where he has since resided. He was appointed postmaster, and took possession of the office in June, 1882. Soon after the doctor's arrival here he saw the importance of improving the stock of the county, and in 1871 brought in his first thoroughbred stock. Since that time he has engaged quite extensively in the business, and has handled Berkshire hogs, Cotswold and Lester sheep, and at present has a herd of short horns, consisting of seven females and one male. In 1879 he purchased of John P. Sanborn, the celebrated short horn bull, Victoria Duke 6th, probably the finest bred animal ever brought to the county. The doctor's stock are all thoroughbreds and registered. dz