Fulton County OhArchives Biographies.....Michael Handy November 7 1812 - March 1886
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Mark Lozer lozer@fulton_net.com April 1, 2004, 10:01 pm

Author: unknown, written 1886

MICHAEL HANDY'S OBITUARY / BIO 
SUBMITTED TO THE FULTON COUNTY PIONEER SOCIETY IN 1886
author unknown

	Hon. Michael Handy is the subject of this sketch, became a citizen of 
Fulton County in the year 1840 (It was Pike Twp in Lucas Co.  then)  and resided 
here continuously until his death, less than a year ago, and was therefore, one 
of  our citizens for upwards of 45 years, a third longer than the average years 
of man, and more than half the duration allotted by Holy Writ to him. He was a 
native of New York and was born about the time of the outbreak of our second war 
with England.  Deprived by death of a mother's assistance, counsel, and love at 
the age of ten years, he may truly be said to have been abandoned to fight 
life's battle alone.
	How he grew to manhood's estate and succeeded in acquiring an education 
which well fitted him to discharge with dignity, honor and success the duties of 
a learned and influential profession may best be left to the consideration of 
those, who like him, similarly situated, have won for themselves in society, 
high and respected names, and dying shall leave, as he did, an honored record 
and the memory of having served well their day and generation.
	Mr. Handy successfully served and benefited society in three ways: as a 
teacher, as a farmer, as a lawyer.  Which of the three is the most exalted and 
useful I do not pretend to decide;  but I do know that to act well one's part in 
any position or in any capacity, is where honor is to be found.
	In 1836 he was married to Mary Ann Bryant, a most excellent woman, and 
the best of help mates, the mother of his children, and the sharer of all his 
joys and grief for 44 years.  Together they came to Fulton County, then unformed 
and the land of self-denial, of privation and of hardship; wild, sparsely 
settled and extending but a savage and unpromising welcome to the hardy pioneers 
who ventured into the wilderness of North-western Ohio.  But along with others, 
not many of whom remain among us he confronted all the ills and inconveniences 
of a life almost primitive in its conditions, and grew and thrived with the 
North-west, winning a name for enterprise, integrity and ability throughout all 
its borders until at the date of his death, none among us was better known or 
more highly esteemed than Squire Handy.
	Mr. Handy probably came first into public notice as a school teacher, 
and we all whose memory runs back to the early history of Fulton County, know he 
was a good one   But alone and coordinate with his duties as a teacher he 
farmed, he labored and cleared a farm, interspersing these agreeable and useful 
duties by occasionally trying a suit at law in some Justice's Court, or 
pettifogging as it is sometimes called.  In 1852 he was admitted to the bar and 
became a full-fledged lawyer, practicing continually from that time until his 
death, and always rated, and deservedly, among the foremost attorneys at law at 
the Fulton County Bar.
         As to official position, that was something to which he never aspired, 
and although endowed with native gifts beyond the common run, and adding 
hereunto the learning and acquirements of many years of laborious research and 
study both in the domain of the law and the fields of general literature, yet he 
was not forward to seek political preferment choosing rather the arduous duties 
of his profession.  Hence he held but few offices, but all of them which he did 
hold, he honored. 
        In disposition he was genial, kind and sunshiny, never crowding or 
imposing on any body, but with that true and manly sense of self worth, which 
would not brook imposition.  What is commonly called a grumbler he was not.  
There is 'bread and work for all' he often said.
        Less than a year ago, as to his bodily presence, he passed away; but his 
memory, that of a hale, hearty and true man, still survives with us.  We miss 
his hearty greeting, his buoyant, sunshiny ways.  In our County Courts,  at our 
Pioneer, and all our citizens meetings, his sturdy, genial voice is stilled 
forevermore; for us all , the light of his eyes gone out; but we can not and 
should not forget his excellent name, his sterling manhood and all the good of 
that life so well and so worthily spent for the forty-six years of arduous 
undertaking and labor among us, the friends, neighbors, and colaborers of his 
pioneer days; all indeed of whom in but a few years more will be spoken of only 
as the Fulton  ……?                                  
                                                                    
--------------   a line is missing here--------------
and the night of death and the rays of the eternal morning with their shadow and 
glory soon must come.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Handy was born November 07, 1812 in Danby, NY, and died March 1886 
in Wauseon, OH.  He married Mary Ann Bryant September 22, 1836.  
	
Children of Michael Handy and Mary Bryant are:
		i.	Charles F Handy, born Abt. 1839.  He married Nancy ???.
		ii.	Mary Handy, born Abt. 1840.
		iii.	Roxea Handy, born 1844; died 1934.
		iv.	William Handy, born Abt. 1847.




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