SAMUEL B. SPENCER, P. O. Romeo, was born June 2, 1807, in Springfield, Otsego Co., N. Y.; he is the son of Arnold and Lavina Spencer, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of New York; they came to Michigan in 1834 and settled in Washington. Macomb County, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Mr. Spencer's paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Revolution, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Mr. Spencer came to Michigan in 1833 and settled in Washington, where he bought 120 acres of Government land with John Hosner, and about a year after the purchase, the latter sold his half, and Mr. Spencer added eighty acres to his possessions; nearly fifteen years later, he sold out and purchased 280 acres of land on Sections 16 and 17, in Bruce; the deed is dated in 1848; this land is under the best of cultivation and has a good dwelling, commodious barns and other accessory buildings. Mr. S. was married, August 6, 1835, to Lucena Graves, of Batavia. N. Y.; she was born November 25, 1814; they have had five children, two of whom are living; their record is as follows: William R., born November 26, 1836, now resides in Jackson, Grundy Co., Mo., engaged in farming; he enlisted in the First Michigan Cavalry and served for four years; he lost his right arm at Petersburg and was discharged in July following; Lucena was born November 21, 1838, and died in infancy; Lucian H., born December 15, 1839, enlisted August 18, 1862, in the Fifth Michigan Cavalry and served until June 11, 1864, when he was taken prisoner at Trevilian's Station, Va., transported to Libby Prison, Richmond, Va., thence to Andersonville and Millen, Ga., and finally to Florence, S. C.; he was taken very ill with fever and was prostrated when the order came for the transfer of every man who could walk to the cars to be sent to Goldsboro, N. C. Oscar Wood (see sketch) refused to leave his helpless comrade and townsman, but was driven by a guard of armed rebels to the waiting train; no further intelligence was ever received from the brave Lucian H. Spencer, whose memory is held most sacred by the friends of his youth and the companions of his sufferings for the integrity of his country's flag; Lucinda S., born March 8, 1842, died December 13, 1855; Adelia E., November 9, 1846, now Mrs. John A. Robinson, of Jackson, Grundy Co., Mo. Mrs. Spencer died September 3, 1854. Mr. S. was married again, September 13, 1855, to Mary J. Meeker, of Bruce, who died in the summer of 1866. Mr. S. was again married, March 12, 1867, to Julia E. Miller, of Dryden, Lapeer Co., Mich. : she is the daughter of James and Elizabeth Miller, and was born July 31, 1836, in Greene County, N. Y. Mr. S. is a Republican in politics; both himself and wife are members of the M. E. Church.

Los

A. D. TAYLOR, son of John Taylor and Phebe Leech, was born at Mendon, N. Y., in 1831; his father, John Taylor, was born in Deerfield, Mass., June 30, 1792; his grandfather, Rev. John Taylor, was born at Westfield, Mass., in 1762, graduated at Yale College in 1784, was pastor of the Congregational Church of Deerfield nineteen years. ing his voice in 1802, when as missionary to the Indians in Northern New York, he removed to Enfield, and from thence to Mendon, N. Y., where he was for several years active in the ministry; in 1832, at the age of seventy, be removed with his son John to Michigan; his father, Mr. E. Taylor, served the State many years and died on his way to the Legislature of Massachusetts; his grandfather, Rev. Edward Taylor, left England for America in 1638, on account of the sufferings of the dissenting clergy, after the restoration of Charles II; he was the first pastor of the Congregational Church at Westfield, Mass., ministering for nearly sixty years and helping also to carry the young colony through the perilous wars of King Philip. Mr. Sibley's second volume of Harvard's Graduates" contains a full account of him. After having purchased a tract of land five. miles from Romeo, where Mr. N. T. Taylor was already located, John Taylor began to develop the resources of the wilderness, where he made their new home. The Rev. John Taylor soon gathered the people of the neighborhood to that home for divine service.

and there helped to form the Bruce and Armada Congregational Church, of which he was pastor until the time of his death, December 20, 1840; his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Terry, died September 16, 1848, at eighty-two years of age; his son, John Taylor, was married in Lima, N. Y., to Phebe Leech, May 30, 1827; their children were: M E. Taylor, born March 5, 1828, and who lives at home; A. D. Taylor, was born July 1, 1831, he was married to Lucy M. Ayer, of Romeo, Mich., in 1864, and they also live upon the home farm; Martha M. Taylor, born September 20, 1838, died July 11, 1853 Mr. John Taylor was actively engaged in all the interests of his neighborhood, and was Deacon of the church of Bruce, continuing so until the time of his death, May 21, 1865. Mrs. T. died January 14, 1877. The children of A. D. Taylor are Martha Lyon Taylor, born June 19, 1867, and Mary Elizabeth Taylor, born June 12, 1875.

JAMES THOMPSON (deceased), familiarly known as "Scotch Thompson," resided on the county line; was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, about 1803; emigrated to America in 1834. and bought land on the county line, which was his home until 1876, when he removed to Almont Village, where he died in March, 1881. He was a printer of calico in the city of Kilmarnock, and worked at that business in the city of Philadelphia a short time; he was never married; he was something of an artist and a poet, rather inclining to the terrible in imagination and description; he was a great lover of fine horses, and made the breeding of them a specialty; his peculiarities of disposition and erratic temperament often made trouble with his neighbors. At the time of his death, Harper Hospital, of the city of Detroit, received a benefit of more than $10,000.

JOHN C. THOMPSON, P. O. Romeo, farmer of Bruce Township, was born in Cayuga County, N. Y., June 29, 1845; his father, Jarvis Thompson, born in Cayuga County, N. Y., in 1820, removed to Macomb in 1857, and died in Bruce Township in 1865, April 9; his mother, Alma Eldridge, of the same county, resides in Romeo at the age of fiftythree years. John C. remained at home, and, on the death of his father, bought the farm known as the Prentice place, in Bruce, and remained on it six years; he then went to the homestead, on Section 25, Bruce, where he has since resided. He was married, September 27, 1865, to Phebe, daughter of Russell Day; she was born May 22, 1848; the children of this marriage are Myrtie May, born November 27, 1870; Hattie, December 29, 1873. Mr. T. is a successful farmer and breeder of Merino sheep; a history of his flock is found in the agricultural chapter of this work; he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Macomb County Agricultural Society, a member of the Vermont Merino Sheep Breeders' Association; also of that of the State of Michigan, and the Sheep Breeders' and Wool Growers' Society of Macomb County; also a member of the A. O. U. W.; in form of worship, he is a Baptist.

JAMES WEED THORINGTON was born October 15, 1839, in Washington, Macomb Co., Mich.; is the son of Elijah and Lydia Thorington; his father was born in Canada in 1809; his mother was born in Monroe County, N. Y., in 1818, and died in Washington, Mich, in March, 1868. Mr. Thorington is engaged in agriculture and owns 140 acres of choice land on Sections 33 and 34, and good dwellings and commodious barns and outbuildings; he is extensively engaged in raising Spanish sheep, bred from the famous Taylor flock, of Macomb County, and from that of L. P. Lusk, of New York; by careful attention to breeding and giving sheep the best of care summer and winter, Mr. T. exhibits a flock second to few, if any, in the State. He was married, February 6, 1861, to Miss Martha, daughter of James and Roxanna Leslie Starkweather; she was born March 23, 1841, and died February 10, 1863; was again married, March 10, 1864, to Maria S.. sister of his former wife, born March 5, 1843; they have an adopted son-Lean H., born April 2, 1874. Both Mr. and Mrs. T. belong to the M. E. Church, of Romeo. Mr. T. is

a temperance man in principles and action, voting only for candidates for office of declared temperance proclivities.

JOHN TOWNSEND, of Bruce Township, was born July 26, 1794, in Dutchess County, N. Y.; in his early life, he was a tanner by trade, which business he conducted with success for many years In 1832, he visited Macomb County and located 1,400 acres of land on Sections 4, 5 and 8; also a small tract in Addison Township, Oakland County, and returned home, closed out his business and removed his family to his purchase, and made that his home to the time of his death; he was a man of great energy and perseverance and stern integrity and at the front of all the improvements of that locality in which he lived. Both Mr. and Mrs. Townsend were active members of the M. E. Church for many years. which connection was maintained to the time of his decease; his family consisted of five sons and three daughters, all of whom are living, save one son and one daughter. Mr. T. died January 5, 1874. Mrs. T. (Ann Miller) still survives at the age of eighty. George Townsend, son of John and Ann (Miller) Townsend, was born in Bruce Township, September 11, 1836; he was educated in the schools of his neighborhood, and for some years conducted the home farm, and, in 1860, bought the Hopkins farm, in Bruce, which, after four years, he sold and bought a portion of the homestead located on Section 8, which is his present home. He was married, February 12, 1862, to Charlotte, daughter of James Ballard, of Lapeer County; she was born January 23, 1842; they have one child-Gracie B., born April 22, 1872. Mr. Townsend's farm consists of 300 acres of land in good fertility and is a pleasant home. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and is a Republican in politics. Mr. John Townsend was a soldier of the war of 1812, and drew a pension a few of the latter years of his life.

EZRA WOOD (deceased) was born September 7, 1809, in Booneville, Oneida County, N. Y.; he was the son of Andrew and Azubah (Adams) Wood; the father was born August 24, 1783, in Middlebury, Mass, and, at the age of ten years, moved to Pittstown. Rensselaer Co., N. Y., and, several years later, went to Booneville, where he was married in 1806 or 1807. Mrs. Wood was born in Fairfield Town and County, Conn. Lemuel Wood, father of Andrew, was left an orphan at an early age, and, at fourteen, was serving at Fort Stanwix, now Rome, N. Y., as captain's waiter, and was afterward in the Revolutionary war. He married Rebecca Warner, of Middlebury, Mass.; they have had eight children, of whom Andrew was the youngest son. Lemuel Wood died at the age of seventy-six; his wife in 1822, at the age of eighty. Azubah Adams was the daughter of Ephraim and Rebecca (Sherwood) Adams, who had three sons and six daughters. Ephraim was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and died when about eightythree years old; his wife died when fifty-three years of age. Ezra Wood went, in 1831,to Wilson, Niagara Co., N. Y., and, five years later, came to Bruce, Macomb Co., Mich.; he had two brothers and four sisters-Maretta, Andrew, Marcus, Clarissa, Perlina and Eliza. He was married, March 1, 1840, in Bruce, to Phebe C., daughter of William and Elizabeth Hasbrouck Cusick; the former was born December 25, 1779, the latter December 11, 1792; they were married, December 18, 1813; their children were born as follows: Hiram, March 11, 1815; Sarah Maria, June 24, 1717; Phebe C. was born April 1, 1820, in Woodstock, Ulster Co., N. Y., and moved into Bruce, Macomb County., in 1837; two years later, he went to Attica, Lapeer County, where he died in 1852. Ezra Wood and wife had ten children--Oscar C. (see sketch); Ezra A., born October 27, 1842, enlisted August 18, 1862, in Company A, Fifth Michigan Cavalry, served as a private and corporal; died of typhoid-pneumonia, in Douglas Hospital. Washington, D. C., February 7, 1864; Hiram C., born January 28, 1845, married, in 1869, and went to Grundy County, Mo.; died July 29, 1879; Eliza, born June 17, 1847, died September 20, 1854; Ida, born January 16, 1852, died September 16, 1854; Arthur A., August 29, 1854; Andrew H., Decem

ber 22, 1856. These brothers together own the homestead in Bruce, and a considerable tract of land in Missouri. Clara, born November 11, 1859, married Duane Wales, of Almont, Lapeer County, December 2, 1879; Hattie, born March 26, 1863, died February 13, 1865; McClellan, born September 15, 1865; Ezra Wood, died June 3, 1873, of malig. nant erysipelas; Oscar C. Wood was born December 31, 1840, in Bruce; he enlisted August 18, 1862, in Company A, Fifth Michigan Cavalry; served as a private and Corporal until June 11, 1864, when he was taken prisoner at the battle of Trevilian Station, Va. and spent upward of nine months in Libby Prison, Richmond, and in the stockade pens of Andersonville and Millen, Ga., and Florence, S. C. Mr. Wood is a member of the Andersonville Survivors' Association and says: "I have read many accounts of the hor rors of the stockade prison at Andersonville, but never saw one that was exaggerated." He was paroled at Goldsboro, N. C., February 25, 1865; went to Annapolis, thence to Columbus, and received a thirty days' furlough and came home. An order was issued for the discharge of paroled prisoners, and he was discharged May 30, 1865, at Detroit: he was married, December 31, 1866, at Wayne, Mich., to Belle, daughter of Ira and Mary Ann Sever Munson; they had four children, born as follows: Perry E., August 14, 1865: Louis I., September 23, 1870; Hattie, September 25, 1872; Casius H., April 25, 1878: all were born in Bruce. Hiram C. Wood married Lydia Schanck, of Bruce, November 10, 1868; their children were born as follows: Minnie, June, 1872; Cora, in 1876, died in January, 1878; Dora, July 4, 1878, in Grundy County, Mo. Mrs. Belle Wood was born January 11, 1842, in Bloomfield, Ontario Co., N. Y.; she has one brother and two sisters-Louis R. Munson, born August 18, 1836, in Lima, Livingston Co., N. Y.; married Henrietta Stewart, of Wayne, Mich., March 4, 1866; their children are Stewart, born February 8, 1867; William, born August 10, 1868; Helen Munson, June 21, 1840; married Jacob Chamberlain, of Addison, Oakland County, September 14, 1865; Clara Munson. born October 25, 1853; married William Seeley, of Wayne, Mich., April 24, 1872; they have one son-Jacob, born January 25, 1873; Ira Munson was born in Hebron, Washing ton Co., N. Y., July 17, 1810; went to Western New York and married M. A. Seaver, January 20, 1834; in the fall of 1842, settled in Clifton, Macomb Co., Mich.; they moved to Oxford, Oakland Co., Mich., in 1861; lived there five years, then moved to Wayne, where he still resides.

ORRIN WOODBECK was born August 26, 1837, in Armada, Macomb Co., Mich. : is the son of Peter and Mary (Finch) Woodbeck, natives of the Empire State, the former born in 1808 in Copake, N. Y., and died September 19, 1863, in Armada, Macomb County: the latter was born in 1816, near Honeoye Lake, N. Y., and is still living in Armada. Mr. Woodbeck was married, September 12, 1859, to Matilda Killam, of Armada; she was born in New York July 6, 1840, and died August 15, 1863, in Armada, leaving a sonFranklin P., born March 18, 1860. Mr. Woodbeck was married a second time, January 1, 1866, to Polly, daughter of Chester and Jane Cooley (see sketch of Chester Cooley, of Romeo); she was born February 14, 1842, in Bruce, in the same house where she now lives; they have three children-Peter, born December 4, 1866; Chester D., November 28, 1868; Ellnora, April 10, 1872. Mr. Woodbeck is a farmer and resides on the homestead of his father-in-law, which consists of 200 acres of land, on Sections 21, 17, 18 and 5, in Bruce; he owns ninety-five acres of first-class land on Section 28, in Armada; he is a Republican in politics.

JOHN B. YOUNGS, P. O. Romeo, son of Robert and Hannah (Hunniwell) Youngs, was born at Livonia, N. Y., September 1, 1823; his father was a native of England, and his mother of New England. The family moved to Oakland County and lived a short time; then went to Cleveland, Ohio. The subject of this sketch came to Macomb County in September, 1851, and, in company with his brother, bought 160 acres on Section 9,

which he cleared partly and sold out. He was married, January 2, 1854, to Martha, youngest daughter of James Parker, of Macomb County, and has no children; he has spent about nine years in Oakland County in farming, and has been largely engaged as a salesman and collecting agent of agricultural implements. He at present resides on the Parker farm, in Armada Township. Mr. and Mrs. Youngs have been for many years members of the Christian Church in Romeo; he is a Republican in politics.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

MACOMB TOWNSHIP.

This town was settled in 1831. Among its first settlers were Calvin Davis, Daniel Miller (now of Romeo), Daniel Kniffen and Lester Giddings, the latter being the only representative left here now. It was, prior to the forming of the Republican party, the banner Democratic town in the county, there being only ten Whig voters in the township. Within the past fifteen years it has increased rapidly with the German element and now numbers over 400 voters. The German element is mostly Democrat. There are five stores and five churches in the town. One of the oldest men in the county, William Todd, who is ninety-seven years of age, does all the work on a farm of thirty acres of land and bids fair for a number of years yet. There is also a centennial tree of the buttonwood order, which measures twenty-seven feet in circumference. Among the old settlers of Macomb County who have done much toward the prosperity of the township are Zephaniah Campbell, Manson Farrar, Lester Giddings, Calvin Davis, Daniel Kniffin, Daniel Miller, Samuel Whitney, Charles Crittenden, Horace H. Cady and many others. The first Sunday school established in this township was that by Chauncey Church, of Vermont. Church brought with him his own library and placed it at the disposal of the pupils. The school was held in a building which stood on the site now occupied by the Macomb Church.

FIRST SCHOOLS.

The first school was that in the Davis settlement, Sections 17 and 18, Macomb Township. The second was in the Crawford settlement, referred to in the sketch of Ray Township. Among the pupils attending the first schools were the Giddings, Davises, Kniffins and Millers. The children of No. 3 District who attended the school in Peatman's dwelling-house, about the year 1837, were James M. Rensallaer, Gordon H. Wade, J. H. C. Garvin, Mehelah Stroup, Susan and Jane Perkins, Frank, William and Abigail Warner. This school was taught by Miss Minerva Olds.

FIRST SETTLERS.

In the Stroup settlement were George Stroup, H. H. Wade, John Garvin, Sam Whitney, Reuben Warner, Elias M. Beach, James Perkins. The first blacksmith was Stephen Hewey. In the Davis settlement were Dan Kniffin, Lester Giddings, Calvin Davis, Daniel Miller, Chauncey Church. In the Cady settlement were the Cooks, Atwoods, Halls, Haskins. The Cadys, of Mt. Clemens, were represented here shortly after.

ORGANIZATION.

The township of Macomb, comprising Town 3 north, Ranges 13 and 14 west, was erected under authority of the Legislative Council, approved March 7, 1834, and the first meeting ordered to be held at the house of Daniel Shattuck. Chesterfield was established