Pioneer Society of Michigan 1890 Tuscola County Memorial Report, Michigan Copyright © 1999 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 Pioneer and Historical Collections Pioneer Society Vol. 17, 1890, Tuscola County by Enos Goodrich Transcribed by Bonnie J. Petee, December 1998. JOHN KINYON John Kinyon was born in Wayne county, N. Y., Oct. 9, 1823, and removed to Plymouth, Wayne County, Michigan, in 1831, with his parents. He was always a farmer, but was engaged in the livery business and hotel keeping for some time. He removed to Caro, Tuscola County, Michigan, in September, 1875, where he lived until his death April 8, 1889. He was one of a family of nine children, of whom three brothers survive him. He leaves a widow and a son and daughter both married. TOWNSEND NORTH Townsend North died June 12, 1889. He was born September 24, 1814 in Ulster County, N. Y., in which vicinity his boyhood days were spent. He came with his father to Wastenaw county, Michigan, in 1835, and followed the business of carpentering for several years, during which time he built the first dormitory building for the university at Ann Arbor. In 1845, he moved to Flint, where he opened up a lumber yard, and also kept a hotel for three years. During this time he took the contract to build the first bridge over Cass River at Bridgeport, and received in payment therefore a grant of 3,000 acres of land, which he located along the Cass River, being attracted by the fine pine timber and excellent soil. The grant covered all of the land the village of Vassar now stands on and much other valuable territory. Mr. North was the founder of Vassar and many of the advantages and industries which we enjoy today, are due to the energetic work which he put forth in early days. In the spring of 1849, he dedicated the site where Vassar now stands, to civilization, and opened up the gateway for the settlement of Tuscola County. Together with his partner, the late Jas. M Edmunds, work was begun on the dam across the river and sawmill the same spring, and soon after a start in business had been made, the company laid out a few streets, and four years later platted the village. Since that time there is scarcely one of the many enterprises which today make us a thriving and populous community, but that he has been interested in and identified with. He opened the first store of general merchandise in Tuscola County, built the first saw mill and the first grist mill. In 1865 he sold his saw and grist mill property together with a quantity of pine lands to B. F. McHose. In 1867 he bought the Bunnell mill, which he operated for about seven years. During this same year he started the Vassar woolen mills, an institution which is now known all over the State, having been re-organized into a stock company in 1882, with a capital of $25,000. Mr. North was a stockholder and president of this company at the time of his death. In 1875 he started the first bank in the county, which was re-organized into the First National Bank of Vassar, capital $50,000, with Mr. North as president, a position which he has held ever since. Aside from his various business interests, he operated two large farms, located in Denmark and Fremont. Although Mr. North was never an office seeker, he has held many official positions of responsibility and trust. He was the first register of deeds of Tuscola County, after its organization in 1850. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln revenue assessor for the sixth district of Michigan, holding the office under President Grant until it was discontinued in 1873. He was State senator from this district in 1874-75, was supervisor of this township for several years, and a member of the board of education for 16 years. He was also president of the board appointed by Gov. Croswell to locate and superintend the State School for the Blind. This position he resigned only a week before his death, on account of failing health. In all of his diversified business interests and associations, or in the discharge of an official duty, during the long period covering nearly a half century, he has always been held in high esteem, and no one will be more missed in business circles than he. Mr. North has been twice married, only two of his seven children by his first wife still living, Mrs. James Johnson and Frank North, cashier at the bank. By his present wife he has three daughters, Alma, Ula and Lena, who are all living. MRS. SALLY HINSON Every one learns with regret of the death of Aunt Sally Hinson one of our oldest and most respected citizens. She is well remembered by all school scholars who have ever attended the Hinson school, situated a short distance from her home. She was always in sympathy with the scholars in their joys or sorrows. Uncle David and Aunt Sally, as they were always called by old and young, came to Michigan when it was yet a territory in the year 1827, and lived a few years in the vicinity of Ypsilanti; they moved to Tuscola County in 1852, when the settlers in this county were but few. Her age at the time of her death was 86 years. She died June 15, 1889. LEVI L. WIXSON Levi L. Wixson, born January 9, 1829, in township of Pickering, Canada, of American parentage. His father, Amos Wixson, a pioneer of Sanilac Co., was born in Steuben Co., N. Y., the family having come from England and settled in Mass. in 1834. He was raised on a farm, was for several terms engaged in teaching school in Sanilac county, graduated in the law department at Ann Arbor in 1862, practicing at Lexington until his election as circuit judge of the 24th judicial circuit in spring of 1879. He resigned on account of ill health, March 1, 1886; died Aug. 2, 1889, of bronchial consumption. CHARLES MONTAGUE Charles Montague, born Dec. 31, 1799, in Somersetshire, Eng., emigrated to America with his parents in 1811, and resided at Boston, Mass., until 1817, when his father removed to London, Ont. He married Aug. 17, 1824, Maria A. Hungerford, who was born March 5, 1806, at Detroit, Mich. They removed to Michigan, after residing continuously at Westminster nearly forty years; resided at Caro since 1863. Mrs. Montague died Aug. 4, 1889, and her husband survived her until Sept. 15, 1889. JOHN MILLER John Miller was born July 8, 1794 in the town of Alsted, county of Cheshire, state of New Hampshire. He came to Mt. Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan, in the year 1822. Was married to Harriet Gould of Decatur, Otsego county, state of New York, on the 29th of Jan. 1824. In 1840 came to Tuscola, being the seventh family in Tuscola county at that time. This county was a dense wilderness and he went to work with a determination to make the forest give way for the plow and the golden harvest. He well understood pioneer life. Home was his only delight and ever anxious that his children should all have a farm in which he made provisions for each of them. Prior to his coming to Tuscola county, for 16 years, blacksmithing was his sole occupation, and for 10 years after moving here he was the only blacksmith in the county. He made all the drills for putting down the first salt well in the Saginaw valley. He was no politician, never sought office, although he served the people of Tuscola township as treasurer for seven years. Was a soldier in the war of 1812. Died at the home of his son John L. in the town of Vassar, Aug. 30, 1889, at he age of 95 years, 1 month and 22 days. MRS. EMILY W. ATWOOD Mrs. Emily W. Atwood died at her home in Caro, on the 22d day of October, 1889, after an illness of eleven months. Her maiden name was Emily Wilson. She was born at Saratoga, N. Y., May 4, 1831. Lucius and Lydia Wilson, the parents of Mrs. Atwood, moved with their family to White Oak, Ingham County, in this State, in the spring of 1836, where she resided until her marriage with H. P. Atwood, March 1852. Previous to her marriage she was engaged in teaching school in the township where she resided. Mr. Atwood and his family, consisting of himself, wife and son Theron W., removed from Ingham county in June, 1854, and took up their residence in what is now Gilford, in Tuscola county, and there encountered the usual privations of pioneer life. In the spring of 1856, the family increased by the oldest daughter, settled on what is now a part of the large farm of the late lamented Townsend North, where they lived until the fall of 1858, when they removed to the village of Vassar, and resided there until May, 1865. >From this time until February, 1867, the family resided in Ingham county; thence returned to this county to reside, the first three years at Watrousville, and the remainder of the time at Caro, except from October 1887, to October 1888, when they lived in Leelanaw county, Michigan, near Lake Michigan. Mrs. Atwood was the mother of nine children, six of whom are still living. Theron W. Atwood, Mrs. Martha E. Orr, Lydia Atwood, Myra Atwood, Mrs. Mabel Sprague and Nettie Atwood. All except T. W., were born in Tuscola county. Hon. Henry P. Atwood, the husband of the deceased, represented the county of Tuscola in the House of Representatives in 1855. He was an efficient legislator, and his action was highly creditable to the county that sent him. He still resides at Caro, or a little north of Caro on his farm. ASA WHITE Asa White fell and broke his neck, April 15, 1890. The deceased was 57 years of age, and was a native of Vermont. He served in the army during the late war, enlisting from Fremont township. For seven years following the war, he farmed it in Fremont township, this county, and twenty years ago moved with his family to Vassar, where he has resided ever since, being engaged principally in lumbering and in looking up pine lands in the northern part of the State. He had a wide acquaintance all along the Cass river and branches, where he had conducted lumbering operations, and but few men probably in this section of the State had a more extended knowledge of the timbered lands of northern Michigan than he, having located thousands of acres for various lumbering firms in the Saginaw valley. He was a man of iron constitution, never idle, and an affectionate and indulgent husband and father in his home, where he will be sadly missed by his wife and daughter, who compose his family. An aged mother who lives with her daughter in Northville, a brother in Carrolton, and one in Tacoma, Washington, comprise his immediate relatives. FLORENTINE H. BURNETT Florentine H. Burnett who died May 21, 1890, was born at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, March 3, 1842. He enlisted in April, 1862, in the 14th Indiana regiment as a private. He came to Michigan in 1867. MRS. ENOS GOODRICH Ann Atkins Goodrich was the daughter of Ralph C. Atkins and his consort Lusabra Bush, and was born in the town of Amherst, County of Erie, State of New York, February 15, 1822. In consequence of the death of her mother in her early infancy she was placed in charge of her aunt, Wealthy Atkins, whose husband kept the Cold Spring hotel just on the eastern borders of Buffalo. Here she received a limited school education, with the best of instruction in household duties. In the autumn of 1836 her father having married a second wife, removed to the then wilds of Michigan while it was yet a territory. Here for a time, she was placed in charge of another aunt, who was the wife of Hon. Thomas Drake, then residing in Flint. Mr. Drake was at that time, an Indian trader, and it was here she witnessed the terrible epidemic of small-pox which swept away 50 percent of the Indian population. Returning to the town of Atlas, where her father had settled, she was on the 26th day of June, 1838, married to Enos Goodrich. About this time Mr. Goodrich formed a copartnership with his brother Reuben and entered upon that series of mill-building and other improvements which culminated in the building up of the village of Goodrich. This was work that required strong hands and stout hearts. The superintendence of a large boarding-house devolved upon her, in the discharge of which duty she exhibited a degree of dexterity and masterly energy seldom if ever witnessed in women of riper years. In this work she continued in concert with her husband and his brother Reuben nearly twenty years, at which time the village was transacting far more business than it ever did before or since. Financial reverses terminated the business career of the firm of E. & R. Goodrich, and she retired with her husband to the wilds of Tuscola County, once more to try her fortunes in the settlement of another new country. Leaving her old home and kindred and the comforts of civilized life, she cheerfully submitted to the toils and privations incident to her new station; but her health finally gave way under the pressure of her arduous duties. Still side by and hand in hand with her husband, she toiled on with superhuman energy, until their labors were rewarded with one of the finest homes in their adopted county. But it was her sad fortune to become the victim of disease, which marred the enjoyment of the fruits of their labors. Still she stood boldly at her post, cheerfully and resolutely battling with her destiny, while suffering from a complication of diseases, until her woodland home under her persevering hand had become to her an earthly paradise. Yearly as the vernal season returned her weary heart was delighted at the blooming of her garden, and the expanding and symmetrical growth of the shrubbery she had planted. But her physical debilities had become greatly aggravated from an attack of the epidemic influenza, which was so prevalent throughout the country. It was with tottering steps that she daily hied her to the garden, and when she returned to the quiet of her room her favorite Bible was her daily and constant companion until by repeated reading from Genesis to Revelations she left her pencil marks upon her favorite passages. It was when the early blossoms had begun to fade that the angel of death, in the form of heart disease, gently and calmly and sweetly wafted her spirit away to the realms of the great unknown. At ten minutes before one o'clock on the balmy and moonlight morning of the 4th of June, 1890, she calmly breathed away her spirit in the embraces of her husband and only son. Coming to Michigan almost 54 years ago, she had seen the State grow up around her, and had shown by her example how efficient may be the labors of woman in the building of States. She leaves a bereaved husband, a son, Enos H. Goodrich, and a daughter, Mrs. Jeremiah Narrin, and a host of more remote kindred and sympathizing friends to mourn their irreparable loss. Her funeral was held at the home of her daughter near Goodrich and on Friday, June 6, 1890, her remains were deposited among the graves of many near and dear friends who had gone before. NAME, DATE OF DEATH, PLACE OF DEATHAGE John Kinyon, April 8, 1889, Caro, 65 Townsend North. June 12, 1889, Vassar,75 Mrs. Sally Hinson, June 15, 1889, 86 Levi L. Wixson, August 2, 1889, Mrs. Charles Montague, August 4, 1889, Caro, 83 Charles Montague, September 15, 1889, Caro,90 John Miller, August 30, 1889, Vassar, 95 Mrs. Emily W. Atwood, October 22, 1889, Caro,58 Asa White, April 15, 1890, Vassar,57 Florentine H. Burnett, May 21, 1890, 48 Mrs. Enos Goodrich, June 4, 1890, 68