hundred and eighteen acres. On his home place, in 1896, he erected a fine barn, the same being thirty-six by seventy-six feet in dimensions. In addition to diversified agriculture, Mr. Ford devotes special attention to the raising and feeding of high-grade live stock, cattle, sheep, swine and horses, and in all departments of his farm enterprise he has shown marked discrimination and discernment, and is known as a wide-awake and capable business man, while to him is accorded the fullest meed of popular confidence and esteem in his native county. In politics he is a stalwart Democrat, and fraternally he is identified with Onondaga Lodge No. 296, Free and Accepted Masons.

On the 8th of October, 1888, Mr. Ford. was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Wood, who was born and reared in this county, having been a daughter of the late Jotham and Leonora (King) Wood, of Tompkins township. Mrs. Ford was summoned into eternal rest on the 5th of December, 1897, and is survived by three children, Marion, who was born March 29, 1890; Marjorie, December 14, 1896, and William A., Jr., November 27, 1897. Marjorie died at the age of thirteen months.

EMULIUS A. PARKS.

The subject of this biography is the oldest son and third child of a family of seven. When he was barely twenty-one years of age both his parents died, and his orphaned brothers and sisters had from that forward no one but him to look to for maintenance, direction and advice. The manner in which he acquitted himself

come to

of this grave responsibility is the best attestation of the real worth of the man. Emulius A. Parks is a native of Waterloo township, Jackson county, Michigan, born November 23, 1855. His parents were | Daniel and Eliza A. (Sales) Parks. Both were natives of the state of New York, where their forefathers had resided for many generations. The paternal grandfather of the subject was Daniel Parks, a resident of the same section of New York in which the Sales family resided. About 1832 both families decided to Michigan and some weeks thereafter they were comfortably domiciled in Washtenaw county. Daniel Parks purchased forty acres of government land and to its improvements and cultivation the family turned its attention. The home was a typical one of the frontier of the time. It was built of logs, daubed with mud, to keep out the wind, with a large hospitable fireplace in one end, the most cheerful object in sight. Indians were constantly encountered, but they were friendly and caused the early settlers very little trouble. Oxen were the chief beasts of burden and roads were almost unknown. Industry characterized the family, as in the clearing and the field they were busy, while in the house the hum of the spinning wheel and the rattle of the shuttle could be heard away into the night. Both parents were skillful at the loom and made it a source of very material profit. Here the family lived until long after the mother's death, and when the children all went out into the world to work for themselves the father gave up the home and resided with his children until his death, which occurred in Waterloo township, Jackson county. He is a de

vout and consistent member of the United Brethren church.

After having served his father faithfully and well on the family homestead during the years of his minority, when twenty-one years of age Daniel Parks, father of the subject, purchased forty acres of land, a part of section 16, Waterloo township, Jackson county, and about this time he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza A. Sales. After erecting and furnishing a comfortable log house upon their land, in 1852, the young people took up their residence thereon and devoted themselves to clearing and improving the place. As their means and opportunities permitted, they added to the size of their farm until it comprised one hundred and seventy acres, one hundred of which he had himself cleared and put under cultivation. Although the father of five young and helpless children at the time, early in 1863, when the Macedonian cry went out from Washington for more troops to suppress the rebellion, he could no longer resist the appeal. He enlisted as a private in the Twentieth Michigan Volunteer Infantry and served until the close of the war. He participated in many hard-fought battles and numerous skirmishes, receiving no injury whatever in any of them. In the summer of 1865 he was honorably discharged and returned to his home in Jackson county, where he applied himself to the labors of his farm until his death, which occurred in July, 1876. His wife survived him one year, expiring in 1877, the cause of death in both cases being typhoid fever. Both were members of the United Brethren church and each was active in religious and charitable work. In politics he was a Republican.

To the parents of the subject seven children were born, viz: Camille married Wesley Berry, of Stockbridge, and they are the parents of five children; Addie died of typhoid fever at the age of twenty-one years; Emulius is the subject of this biography; Gilbert is a graduate of Detroit Medical College, and is engaged in the practice of his profession in New Castle, California; he married Miss Addie West, but enjoyed marital happiness only a few years when she died; his second wife was Miss Dota Burns and to them two children have been born; Edward L. is a farmer of Waterloo township, and Waterloo township, and married Carrie Barber, the result of this union being three children; Amanda died at the age of two years; Edith married Gardner Snyder, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and they are the parents of eight children, six of whom are living. All received a good common school education and are comfortably situated.

Farming has been the life work of Emulius A. Parks. He is the oldest son and at the death of his parents, in 1876-7, the care and training of his younger brothers and sisters devolved upon him. Nobly did he meet the grave responsibility and well did he perform the arduous duties exacted of him. The worthy, useful and prosperous lives each of these children are now leading sound the praise of him who was to them at once brother and parent. He continued to reside upon and cultivate the old homestead and as each of his brothers and sisters became of age he purchased their interest in the farm, paying them full value for their inheritance. He has since added forty more. acres to the farm, which makes it now two hundred and ten acres in extent. He has remodeled the house.