The birth of Mr. Edwards occured in Mexico township, Oswego Co., N. Y., Aug. 8, 1822. He was the son of Calvin Edwards, an early pioneer of that township. The family were orginally residents of Newark, N. J., from whence they removed to New York State in 1800. Calvin Edwards married Miss Phebe Tuttle, and was the father of six children, the third in order of birth having been Ogden. The father plied the mason's craft at an early day, and in 1837 removed to Michigan with a wife and six children, locating in the township of Leslie, where he purchased one hundred acres of land on section 6. He was an energetic man, of great public spirit, and did much, until his death, in 1860, to advance the interests of the township of his adoption. Mrs. Edwards, whose birth occured in Newark, N. J., in 1795, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and survived her husband but a brief time. On the arrival of the family in Leslie, Ogden Edwards was a lad of seventeen, and devoted his time until twenty-one years of age to labor on the farm, varied by such opportunities of study as the district school afforded.

In 1843 he pruchased a farm of forty acres on section 18, and in October of the following year married Miss Jane Austin, who was born in Orleans Co., N. Y., in 1821, and became an emigrant to Michigan with her parents in 1837. After a residence of six years upon their original purchase, Mr. Edwards sold and located upon another farm of eighty acres. In 1866 he removed to his present estate in Leslie. Mr. Edwards had the misfortune, in 1878, to lose his wife, -- a most estimable lady, possessing all the qualities that constitute an exemplary mother and Christian woman. To her wise counsel and excellent judgment much of his success is attributed. They had four children, all of whom are now dead.

Mr. Edwards, by industry, had gained a competency, though dependent at the beginning of his career entirely upon the labor of his hands, guided by sound discretion and sterling common sense.

Taken from:
"History of Ingham and Eaton Counties Michigan, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers", by Samuel W. Durant.
Published by D. W. Ensign & Co., 1880.
Page 269

Biographies Michigan Biographies Project

Sondra Higbee

Old Fashioned ClipArt