Obituary for Franklin B Adams, Porter Township, Van Buren County, Michigan


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PIONEER, WHO PLAYED WITH REDS DIES AT AGE OF 82

Franklin B. Adams, Oldest Resident of Porter, Van Buren County, Last One of
the Early Settlers

Lawton, Mich.,, June 6.- Franklin B. Adams, aged 85 years, the oldest pioneer
of Porter, Van Buren county, died at his home in Porter at five o'clock in the
morning, June 4. Mr. Adams is the last of the early settlers of this part of
the country.

He came here with his parents in the early winter of 1837 before the state was
admitted.

When he was a boy of nine years of age the old Ohio farm home was sold. The
payment being made in the heavy coins of the time, and of low value, the money
was weighed insted of counted and was put in two grain sacks and loaded in a
covered wagon and the family started for Michigan. About seven miles west of
the present village of Schoolcraft in the heart of the forest the family found
an old abandoned log hut in which they wintered, in the spring they bought
land, built a cabin and began clearing.

The early playmates of the deceased were Indian boys of an Indian village
about one mile south of his home. The old Potawatomie chief (ShoveHead) was
well known by Mr. Adams as well as other Indians of this tribe, who were well-
known in the early history of this state.

Three sisters, Mrs. Lora Fletcher of Marcellus, Mich., Mrs. I. L. Bates of
Groton, S. D., and Mrs. D. F. Smith of Washington, D. C., a devoted wife, one
daughter, Clara Thornton, and two sons, Frank K. and Horace H. Adams all of
Lawton, survive.

The burial will take place from the home Tuesday afternoon at 1 o'clock.
***
An article from Lawton in the Kalamazoo Telegraph stated that our lamented
friend F. B. Adams was the oldest person in Porter, but here is H. J. Kellogg
many months older than he was, and Peter Rock, nearly 92, and both still
living.


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