ond time, April 9, 1878, to Rebecca, daughter of Jacob W. and Nancy Metz, both natives of Warren County, N. J. Mrs. Thorington was born October 16, 1848, in Warren County, N. J. Mr. Thorington has followed the vocation of farming all his life, and owns 187 acres of first-class land, on Section 19, which is in a high state of cultivation, with good dwelling and accessory buildings. He is engaged in rearing Short-Horn Durham cattle. Politically, he is a Democrat.

WILLIAM W. VAUGHAN, P. O. Washington, was born in Washington April 12, 1852; is the son of James M. and Calista E. Vaughan; he received his elementary education in the common schools of his native town; spent two years in study at Utica and two years at Hillsdale College, after which he was engaged in business in Chicago and Fort Wayne, Ind., and returned to Washington in June, 1875; he was married, October 1, 1872, at La Porte, Ind., to Ida Bell, daughter of Edward and Henrietta (Prouty) Whitford; her mother is the daughter of Dr. Hugh T. Prouty, who was drowned in 1846 while attempting to pass the rapids of the Sault de Ste. Marie. Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan have two childrenHarry Andrus, born May 9, 1874, in Fort Wayne, and Daisy Belle, born December 10, 1876, in Washington.

JAMES M. VAUGHAN was born July 25, 1819, at Manchester, Bennington Co., Vt.; is the son of David Vaughan and Ann Thompson; the former was born at Manchester, Vt., October 18, 1778, and died February 11, 1855, and was buried in the Washington Society burial-ground, Macomb County; his grandfather, James Vaughan, was the son of one of three brothers, who came from Wales about 1720; his father located in Rhode Island, the others in Nova Scotia, near Halifax, in 1770. This James Vaughan rode on horseback from Manchester to Boston, and went thence by sloop to Halifax, where he received £35 sterling as his share of the estate left by one of the two brothers—a bachelor. The preceding ancestry is not definitely known; the name is reliably traced in Wales from A. D. 1695 to the battle of Agincourt, in 1415. In 1765, James Vaughan removed from Scituate, R. L., to the Hampshire grants in Vermont, where he purchased land, and died July 24, 1819; Ann Thompson Vaughan was born August 13, 1785, at Johnson, Montgomery Co., N. Y.: was the daughter of Nathaniel Thompson, who removed from Connecticut to Johnstown, N. Y., and thence to Manchester, Vt.; he served in the Revolution under the immediate command of Gen. Washington; was in the battles of Monmouth, Trenton, Brandywine and others. James Vaughan was one of the Vermont minutemen. James M. Vaughan came to Romeo, Macomb County, in the fall of 1839, where he, with an older brother, kept a hotel on the site now occupied by the First National Bank, of Romeo; October 18, 1843, he removed to the village of Washington; he was engaged from 1844 to 1847, under the style of Hayden & Vaughan, in a general store, kept in a one-story frame building, then standing on the corner opposite the residence of S. A. Babbitt, in Washington. Mr. Vaughan was in active business from 1847 to 1869, keeping a store in a building erected by himself and now occupied by J. C. Stone, in Washington, manufacturing potashes and having in charge a tailor, harness and shoe shops and the hotel property; the latter he kept as a public house until the spring of 1869, when he built his present residence, about sixty rods east. He was married, May 1, 1845, to Calista Edwards, daughter of Elon and Nancy (Lamb) Andrus, born at Middlebury, Genesee Co., N. Y., December 23, 1819. Elon Andrus came to Michigan in 1821 and located a farm on Section 33, in Washington, Macomb County, where he settled in the spring of 1822. Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan had five children, three sons and two daughters Marcia H., born May 30, 1846; Mark H., September 23, 1850, died December 24, 1850; William W., April 12, 1852; John F., May 30, 1855, died December 27, 1859; Mary W., June 29, 1856.

WALLACE WESTBROOK, P. O. Romeo, was born April 16, 1824, in Sussex County,

N. J.; his parents, Frederick and Elizabeth Westbrook, were natives of New Jersey, of German extraction. Mr. Westbrook settled in Bruce in the fall of 1856, on Section 25, where he lived for about eight years, and then purchased 240 acres on Section 3, in Washington, where he now lives; he has a first-class farm, with the facilities and improvements of the modern farmer; he is making a specialty of blooded horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, in which line of business he designs to rank among the leaders in the county. Mr. W. was married, October 10, 1854, to Jane A. Howell, of Armada; she died December 19, 1855, leaving an infant son- Chilon F., born September 30, 1855. Mr. W. was married again, October 30, 1856, to Betsey E., daughter of Sewell and Lucinda Hovey, of Romeo. Mrs. Westbrook was born in Warsaw, N. Y., May 5, 1825; her father was a native of Lebanon, N. H., her mother of Franklin County, Vt.; her paternal grandsire was born in England July 25, 1756, and died in 1820; his father was a minister of the Church of England; her grandmother was also an Englishwoman. Mr. and Mrs. W. have had two children-Cassius M., born January 7, 1859, and Frederick W., June 18, 1865, died March 25, 1866; both parents are members of the M. E. Church. Mrs. Westbrook was educated in the normal school of Ypsilanti, and was a teacher fourteen years; she joined the church when thirteen years of age, and herself and brother Albert are the only surviving members of the church of that period. Mr. Westbrook is a Republican, and has held the position of Road Commissioner.

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FRED C. WHITE, P. O. Romeo, was born in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co., N. Y., July 10, 1803; is the son of Otis and Hannah (Atwell) White, the former was born near Boston and was a blacksmith; he belonged to the Puritan New England stock, and was a descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in America; he died in Osceola, Mich., aged seventy-two years; his wife died in Swansea, N. H., aged thirty-eight; she became the mother of eleven children, six of whom survived her. Mr. White is the only living representative of his father's family. Circumstances rendered labor necessary to all the family as soon as old enough, and Mr. White, at seventeen, entered upon an apprenticeship with a shoemaker, and received $20 a year; he served a second year with another instructor, and began business for himself at Newark, in Arcadia, Wayne Co., N. Y,; he was married, April 4, 1824, to Abagail Adams, of Manchester, Ontario Co., N. Y., where she was born December 29, 1804; in October, 1830, Mr. White started for Michigan; he met N. T. Taylor, of Romeo, at Buffalo, and came with him to Macomb County; his business proved unfortunate, and, on settling with his creditors, he found himself $300 in debt, with no resources and shattered health. But his friends were lenient, and gave him time, as he says, 'to die or become able to pay them." He found suitable land four miles east of Romeo, in Armada, proceeded to Detroit and secured it and went home; he set out again for Michigan the next spring with his wife and four children. Reaching Buffalo by canal, they found the city full of emigrants and the lake full of ice. Three weeks later, they left for Detroit, which they reached in three days. A man brought them to their place of destination for $10 and an ax, and when he was paid Mr. White had not a cent left. Darius Sessions took the family into his home, and in two days Mr. White had a shanty for his family furnished with two chairs and a little flour, ten pounds of pork and a few dried apples; but the humble home was the house of prayer, and whatever else was wanting faith in God was abundant. Mr. White's trade soon made the family comfortable, and they have never since suffered from privation, although a large amount of sickness and death has overtaken them, and twelve children have been reared to maturity. The first year, he managed to chop three acres of land, and projected a "bee" for the logging, but an objection arose; he was a temperance man, and sacrificed no principle to profit, and men would not work without it. On the day appointed men and teams were on the ground and a good dinner awaited them, but trouble was apparent at the out

set. A neighbor informed Mr. White that they were bound to put down the temperance movement in the bud, and if he would furnish a pint of whisky, the logging would be done in short order. He refused, and part of the men put up about an acre of logs, the rest built a log-pen ten feet high, set a pole thirty feet high, and named the pile White's monument, and drank from a bottle of their own providing. Mr. White is the only one living of the participants of that day, but their places are filled by intelligent. temperate, Christian men. About three years after, sickness and disaster overtook Mr. White, and he accepted an offer of $500 for his place; he paid his debts in his native State, and settled on wild land two miles farther east. He cleared fifty acres and just as prosperity seemed about to dawn, his wife died and left six children. In a few months, Mr. White married the widow of Lyman Boughton; her maiden name was Julina, daughter of Joel and Mary (Gray) Turrell; she was born in Geneva, Cayuga Co., N. Y., November 29, 1815; her parents settled in Macomb County, in 1833, and died at the age of eighty-three respectively. Following is the list of Mr. White's children: Mary, Eliza, William, Charlotte, Eugene, Oscar and Maria Antoinette; these were the children of his first wife, and the two last were born in Armada; Emily Adelaide was born in Almont, Lapeer County; Matilda J., in Armada; Frank M., Almira, Louisa and Fred C. were born in Bruce; all have been married but the last. Mr. White has seventeen grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren; his eldest son, William, was killed at the raising of a barn in St. Clair; Eugene and Oscar were killed within ten minutes of each other in the war of the rebellion; Charlotte died with the scarlet fever and Almira with consumption; five sons-in-law are deceased. Mr. White became a Christian in 1830, and joined the Presbyterian Church in Newark. He transferred his membership to the Congregational Church, in Romeo, the next year; his wife and four daughters belong to the same church.

DR. ALBERT YATES, P. O. Washington, of Washington Village, was born in Lin colnshire, England, September 13, 1842; emigrated to America in 1849, and settled in Wentworth County, Ontario, where the Doctor received his early education in the schools of Canada, and entered the Medical College, of Detroit, having previously studied medicine in Canada under a preceptor; graduated from the college July 10, 1872; he returned to Canada and entered the practice of his profession at the village of Bismarck, which he continued two years; he then, November, 1874, removed to Macomb County and established an office at Washington, where he is still in practice; his father, Richard Yates, lives in Ontario at the age of sixty-six, a carpenter by trade; his mother died in 1854. The Doctor was married, March 9, 1864, to Margaret, daughter of Joel Eastman, of Canada; she was born May 31, 1844, and died May 5, 1878; their children were Henry W., February 24, 1867; Minnie A., January 7, 1869; Albert E., May 10, 1874; May M., April 20, 1878. He was married again, July 23, 1879, to Clara B. Davis, daughter of Milo Davis, of Washington Township; she was born January 5, 1860. Dr. Yates is Secretary and Treasurer of the Northeastern District Medical and Scientific Associations, since February, 1876, and Superintendent of Schools for the township in which he lives and Magistrate of the same. Both the Doctor and his wife are members of the M. E. Church, and he is in politics a Republican; he has a very pleasant home and a remunerative and increasing practice.

JOSEPH YATES (deceased) was born July 11, 1811, in Charlestown, Montgomery Co., N. Y.; was the son of Abraham P. and Cornelia (Van Every) Gates; the former was born in Charlestown, N. Y., July 27, 1787, and died at Utica, N. Y., March 9, 1863; the latter was a native of Canajoharie, Montgomery Co., N. Y., born July 4, 1788; was married, June 8, 1806, and died March 17, 1854; Peter Yates, father of A. P. Yates, was born in 1752, in New York; married Catherine Docstator, of Holland descent, in 1776, and died in 1822. Joseph Yates was one of three brothers who came to America in 1601 dur

ing the rebellion in the last year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They belonged to the nobility, and the family coat of arms is in the possession of the descendants; the estates were confiscated. Mr. Yates was educated at the academy at Johnstown, N. Y., and at sixteen he engaged as a clerk with Mr. Ehle in Canajoharie, N. Y. In 1832, he was married to Jane, daughter of William and Lucinda (Culver) Kyte, of Utica, N. Y.; four children were born to them, viz., Francis J. (still living in Washington); Abraham P., died in 1868; William K., died in 1869; Joseph C., living in Washington; he was named for Joseph Christopher Yates, sixth Governor of New York. In 1841, Mr. Yates went to Rochester, N. Y., and, in 1852, to Detroit, Mich.; he had formed a partnership with his brother, R. V. Yates, of Utica, N. Y., for the manufacture of clothing at Syracuse; they opened business houses at Utica and Detroit. Mr. Yates managed the latter until the death of two of his sons, which occurred ten months apart, when he relinquished his business and purchased 160 acres of land one mile east of the village of Romeo, known as the Kelsey farm, to gratify the inclination of his youngest son, who chose the vocation of farmer. Mr. Yates was in the clothing business over forty years; his last stand in Detroit was on the present site of the Chandler block; he belongs to the Odd Fellows and Masonic orders, and was made a Sir Knight in 1859. He died in Washington, of apoplexy, in his seventieth year, November 14, 1880. The record of Mrs. Yates is as follows: She was born in Ontario, N. Y., December 28, 1814; William Kyte was born in Bath, England, in 1787, came to the United States in 1794 and settled in Whitesburg, N. Y.; was married, in 1811, and died in Niagara, N. Y., June 1, 1861; his father, William Giddings Kyte, was born in England in 1747, came to the United States in 1794, and died in Utica in 1832; Jane (Hollway), his wife, was born in Bristol, England, in 1749, and died in 1791, in Cazenovia, N. Y.; Lucinda (Culver), wife of William Kyte, was born in Ontario County, N. Y., in 1798, and died June 2, 1876, buried in Richmond, Canada. Joseph C. Yates came to Macomb County with his parents in March, 1874; he was born in Detroit May 14, 1857, and married Charlotte E. Secord, June 18, 1879; they have one childJoseph Maltby Yates, born in Macomb County, April 23, 1881. Mrs Yates' parents are Levi P. and Jane (Laycock) Secord, the former born in Niagara, Ontario, died May 31, 1878, in Richmond, Ontario; the latter was born in Princeton, Ontario, in 1835, and died in Richmond, October 25, 1871. Levi P. Secord was the son of Daniel and Electa (Page) Secord, the former was born in Montreal in 1789, and died in Niagara, Ontario, in 1836; the latter was born at Cazenovia, N. Y., in 1800, and was married in 1814; Jane, wife of L. P. Secord, was the daughter of Joseph H. and Eliza (Earnshaw) Laycock; the former was born in Colne, Yorkshire, England, in 1800, came to the United States in 1835, and died March 16, 1872, in Richmond, Ontario; the former was born in Manchester, England, in 1806, came to the United States with her husband and died January 25, 1872, at Richmond, Ontario.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

STERLING TOWNSHIP.

This division of the county is similar in many respects to the township of Shelby and Clinton. The Clinton River enters the town at the head-waters of the hydraulic canal in the village of Utica, flows through a tortuous channel southeast and leaves the township in Section 24. Plum Brook flows parallel with the Clinton. This creek forms a confluence with Red Run Creek, at the northeast corner of Section 25, and the united streams enter the Clinton just east of the town line. Beaver Creek waters the southwestern sections and flows southeast to the waters of Red Run. The soil is very productive, generally level and carefully cultivated.

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

The first settlers include the names of Henry R. Schetterly, Chauncey G. Cady, Eleazer Scott, Peter Moe, Asa Huntley, John B. St. John, Jesse Soper, John Gibson, Oliver Crocker, Henry J. Stead, David Stickney, Washington Adams, Charles Hutchins, Richard Hotham, John B. Chapman, the Skinner family, John Wright and others referred to in the biographical history.

Sterling has always been up to the average standard as a productive and fertile township. The amounts of agricultural products, as given in the respective statistical reports of 1850 and 1873, are as follows: In 1850-wheat, 4,416 bushels; corn, 12,695 bushels; all other kinds of grain, including, principally, oats, barley, rye, etc., 14,076 bushels; potatoes, 3,679 bushels; wool, 4,582 pounds. Dairy produce-butter, 17,885 pounds: cheese, 1,450 pounds. Value of orchard produce, $319. Live stock-horses, 108; milch cows, 289; sheep, 1,521; swine, 370; other neat cattle, 280; working oxen, 70. Number of acres of improved occupied farms, 4,314. In 1873-wheat, 9,241 bushels; corn, 18,315 bushels; all other kinds of grain, 39,645 bushels; potatoes, 12,165; wool, 9,269 pounds. Dairy produce-butter, 23,745 pounds; cheese, 4,020 pounds. Value of orchard produce, $2,205. Live stock-horses, 553; milch cows, 733; other neat cattle (other than oxen and cows), 407; sheep, 2,228; swine, 564; working oxen, 18. Number of acres of improved land in occupied farms, 9,500; whole amount of taxable land, 22,763 acres. During the year 1881, the severe droughts caused very serious damage to crops of all descriptions. It was the first time in the history of the township that such an unfortunate event could be recorded.

ORGANIZATION.

Jefferson Township was organized under authority of an act approved March 17, 1835, and the first town meeting ordered to be held at the house of Jonathan T. Allen. The district known in the United States survey as Township 2 north, Range 12 east, formed the new division of the county. Under the act approved March 6, 1838, the name of the township of Jefferson was changed to that of Sterling.

THE FIRST ELECTION.

The officers elected April 6, 1835, were: William A. Davis, Supervisor; John M. Chipman, Clerk; John St. John, Elias Scott, Orton Gibbs, Assessors; Abraham Freeland, Col