Ingham County Biographical Sketches



Samuel and Benjamin Hart
(deceased)


During the years 1851-52 there emigrated from England to the New World, two sons of Benjamin and Lucy (West) Hart, bearing the names of Samuel and Benjamin. Ther parents of these children were natives of England and there lived and died. Shortly after the coming of Samuel and Benjamin to America, James, another brother, followed them. Benjamin Hart, whose birth occurred March 9, 1827, was married about a month before he sailed from England, to Francis Cornell, who was of English birth, the date of her nativity being June 19, 1830.

After the arrival of the two brothers in America, they worked on a farm in Michigan for one year and then bought two hundred acres of wild land on section 16 of Williamston township, from the State of Michigan, in the year 1853. This land they began to clear and built a log house, where they lived and worked in partnership for three years. They then divided the property, each taking one hundred acres, and built homes and lived there until there deaths.

Benjamin Hart became a large land owner and was worth several thousands of dollars at the time of his death in 1900, the third day of January. His wife died June 4, 1904. To them seven children were born, five of whom are now living; Josephine, who is Mrs. J. E. Frost of Wheatfield; Lucy J. Torrey, born February 3, 1856, lives at Alba, Michigan; Bertha, March 27, 1858, now Mrs. Millman of Bath, Michigan; George Hart, died March 17, 1890, at the age of twenty-eight years; Frank, lives in Locke township; the sixth died infancy, and Nellie Hart who owns the home farm and lives there part of the time, and also with a minister's family on the Forster place, in Williamston.

Samuel Hart was born February 5, 1824, and March 17, 1864 was married to Miss Esther A. Rinard of South Bend, Indiana, who is still living. To them three children were born: Charles F. Hart, born March 4, 1872, lives in Williamston township on the home farm; Urvin S., February 28, 1875, and Rosa May, born February 27, 1877, now Mrs. Peter Clever of Williamston.

Samuel Hart was a supporter of the Democracy, though not an office holder. He was always in good health until the last year of his life, when he was troubled with heart disease, which caused his death.

Charles F. Hart, the son of Samuel Hart, is a member of the Board of Review and is also secretary of the Grange of Williamston. He votes for the principles of the Republican party and is a prosperous farmer located on one hundred and eighty acres ofl and in section 16 of Williamston township.






Taken from:
"Past and Present of the City of Lansing and Ingham County, Michigan", by Albert E. Cowles.
Published by The Michigan Historical Publishing Association Lansing, MICH., 1905.
Pages 317 - 318




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