Tuscola County MI Archives Biographies.....Winchester, John L. 1854 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 29, 2007, 9:27 pm

Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

JOHN L. WINCHESTER, a resident in Elmwood Township, Tuscola County, has here a
well-cultivated and fertile farm. Mr. Winchester was born in Warren County, in
the little city of Warren, Pa., September 6, 1854. He is the son of Elijah and
Sarah (Conant) Winchester. His mother was born and reared in Attica, N. Y., and
his father in Batavia, the same State, on the borders of Chautauqua Lake. The
latter was by trade a baker, and was able to make a very good living in the
village where our subject was reared. He was given a limited education,
attending the graded schools of Warren, and at other schools until he was
eighteen years old. At the age of fourteen years he began life for himself in
New York City, where he was employed as a chore boy, and remained for two years.
  After that he attended the academy in Franklinville, N. Y. 

  The original of our sketch was bereft of his mother when three years old. His
father not long after was again  married, and the new conditions in the home
life were not agreeable to the youth. He was thrown out early in life, his
father having moved to Maryland when the son was fourteen years of age, since
which time they have been separated. At the age of twenty our subject worked in
a mill, and then was fireman on the Pennsylvania & Erie Railroad, filling that
post for about eighteen months.

  This point in our subject's life brings us to the time of the oil excitement,
and he, like many others, was drawn therein. He followed the oil business,
working for wages for about three years, and for the following four years
conducted a business of his own. In 1886 he came to Michigan and began farming.
He purchased a place of eighty acres on section 21, which was in a very wild
state and contained but little improvement, there being neither house nor barn.
Beginning the work, he cleared sixty acres of land, and now has a good two-story
house and capacious and well-built barns upon his place.

  Our subject was married April 2, 1876, to Susie E. Park, of Warren, Pa. They
have five children, whose names are as follows: Alice, Carlton, Helen, Marietta
and Sarah, all of whom are living at home. They also lost three children by
death. Mrs. Susie Winchester died December 10, 1890, and is greatly mourned by
her loving life companion as well as children. Our subject has followed farming
and stock-raising for a number of years, and has been very prosperous. In
politics he favors the Republican party, and is now serving his second term as
Township Clerk. He has held various school offices.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892


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