Fox, Moore, Cornwell, Darling, Pages 190

INTRODUCTORY

The time has arrived when it becomes the duty of the people of this county too perpetuate the names of their pioneers, too furnish a record of their early settlement, and relate the story of their progress. The civilizations of our day, the enlightenment of the age and the duty that men of the present time owe too their ancestors, too themselves and too their posterity, demand that a record of their lives and deeds should be made. In biographical history is found a power too instruct man by precedent, too enliven the mental faculties, and too waft down the river of time a safe vessel in which the names and the actions of the people who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state may be preserved. Surely and rapidly the great and aged men, who in their prime entered the wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing too their graves. The number remaining who can relate the incidents of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preservation of events without delay, before all the early settlers are cut down by the scythe of Time.

To be forgotten has been the great dread of mankind from remotest ages. All will be forgotten soon enough, in spite of their best works and the most earnest efforts of their friends too preserve the memory of their lives. The means employed too prevent oblivion and to perpetuate their memory has been in proportion too the amount of intelligence they possessed. The pyramids of Egypt were built too perpetuate the names and deeds of their great rulers. The exhumations made by the archeologists of Egypt from buried Memphis indicate a desire of those people too perpetuate the memory of their achievements. The erection of the great obelisks were for the same purpose. Coming down too a later period, we find the Greeks and Romans erecting mausoleums and monuments, and carving out statutes too chronicle their great achievements and carry them down the ages. It is also evident that the Mound-builders, in piling up their ground mounds of earth, had but this idea – too leave something too show that they had lived. All these works, though many of them costly in the extreme, give but a faint idea of the lives and characters of those whose memory they were intended too perpetuate, and scarcely anything of the masses of the people that then lived. The great pyramids and some of the obelisks remain objects only of curiosity; the mausoleums, monuments and statutes are crumbling into dust.

It was left too modern ages too establish an intelligent, undecaying, immutable method of perpetuating a full history – immutable in that it is almost unlimited in extent and perpetual in its actions; and this is through the art of printing.

To the present generation, however, we are indebted for the introduction of the admirable system of local biography. By this system every man, though he has not achieved what the world calls greatness, has the means too perpetuate his life, his history, through the coming ages.

The scythe of Time cuts down all; nothing of the physical man is left. The monument which his children or friends may erect too his memory in the cemetery will crumble into dust and pass away; but his life, his achievements, the work he has accomplished, which otherwise would be forgotten, is perpetuated by a record of this kind.

To preserve the lineaments of our companions we engrave their portraits, for the same reason we collect the attainable facts of their history. Nor do we think it necessary, as we speak only truth of them, too wait until they are dead, or until those who know them are gone; too do this we are ashamed only too publish too the world the history of those whose lives are unworthy of public record.

PAGE 191-248

BIOGRAPHICAL

HON. EDWIN G. FOX, has passed quietly all his life in Tuscola County, where he is numbered among the leading citizens of that county. He is a lineal descendant of John Fox, (author of Fox’s Book of Martyrs) whose grandson, Thomas Fox, came to the United States in 1635. His religious belief was such that he could not endure the pressure of the English crown. Thomas Fox settled when he came too this country in Boston. Mass. From him the genealogical line is John, Thomas, Jabez, John, Jabez, Jonathan, Jonathan, Benjamin, Calvin, and Edwin., our subject. In this line their were two ministers, graduates of Harvard College, one a colonel in the Revolutionary War, and one a counselor for Massachusetts, while Benjamin Fox, the grandfather of our subject served in the War of 1812, from Connecticut.

Calvin Fox, the father of our subject, was born in Connecticut and at an early age removed too Genesee County, N.Y., where he grew too manhood. Thence he emigrated too Canada and was their united in marriage with Catherine Grier, a native of Ireland, and daughter of John Grier, a British solider in the War of 1812. Calvin Fox followed his trade as a tanner until 1855 when he emigrated too Michigan, and after a short stop in Lapeer County, removed too Flint and from their came too Tuscola County, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres from the Government. In due time a portion of this farm, which was located near Mayville, became a part of that village. Calvin Fox was a very successful farmer and a highly respected citizen, and although he resided for a time in the Queen’s Dominion he was always a loyal American citizen and took an active interest in political affairs. IN 1856, he walked eighteen miles too the poling place in order to cast his vote for Gen. John C. Fremont and was always a consistent Republican; he served as Supervisor of the township six years. His death occurred August 4, 1891, at the age of seventy-one years old. Three of their six children grew too maturity namely; Hiram who died in 1889, our subject and Franklin J.

The subject of this sketch was born March 14, 1848, in Oxford County, Canada, and as a boy assisted the family in clearing up the new farm after they came too Michigan. After leaving school he kept up a regular course of study for many years, although he commenced mercantile life as a clerk and book-keeper at the age of eighteen.. His employer, W. H. Fife, or Mayville, soon sent him too Cherokee, Iowa, too take charge of a branch store and he would have become a partner in the concern had not ill health obliged him too return home. In 1876, Mr. Fox embarked in business as a merchant in Mayville, with a capital of $600 and now has a large general store, also a clothing house; he deals quite extensively in real-estate, besides carrying on a farm and managing his business as an owner of much valuable property, it being the product of his own energy.

At the age of twenty-two our subject was elected Township Clerk on the Republican ticket, serving for seven years and he has also been Register of Deeds for Tuscola County for four years. It 1886 he was elected State Senator in a Democratic district and as such represented the seventeenth district comprising Tuscola and Huron Counties and re-elected in 1888. He was a conscientious worker, a very active member, a consistent Republican and a good legislator and ranked as one of the leaders of the Senate. During his first term he was Chairman of the Committee on State Prisons and Fisheries, and a member of the Committee on Canals and Harbors and Horticulture, and during the second term those on State Prisons, Industrial Home for Girls and Public Lands. As acting chairman of the Committee on City and Villages, a part of the session, he was influential in passing the act incorporating Mayville as a village. He is the author of the Election Law of 1889, the Indeterminate Sentence Bill, and numerous other laws.

Mr. Fox is an indefatigable worker and has trained himself so thoroughly that he always does will whatever he undertakes. In the field of oratory he as by determinations made himself an interesting debater and a good public speaker. He is systemic in all his work and a thorough gentleman in life and habits. At present he is the President of the School Board in Mayville Public schools. In 1874, he was married to Annie Caulton, daughter of Dr. W. C. Caulton and they have one son, Edwin C. Mr. Fox is a Royal Arch Mason and he and his wife are attendants at the Free Will Baptist Church.

HON. JOSEPH R. MOORE, Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, makes his home in Lapeer, and is esteemed as one of its most highly honored citizens. His native home was Commerce Township, Oakland County, where he was born November 3, 1845, being the son of Jacob J. and Hepsibeth (Gillett) Moore. The father is a native of Warren County, N. J., and the mother of Alleghany County, N.Y. The grandparents on both sides were among the early settlers of Macomb County, this State, where the parents of Judge Moore met and married. The father was among the first manufacturers of furniture and spinning wheels in Lapeer County and at that time lived in Dryden, but now he and his wife make their home on a farm in Oakland County. They reared a family of eight children, of whom our subject is fifth in order of age.

Jacob J. Moore removed from Dryden to Commerce Township, Oakland County, and engage in the manufacture of furniture on what was then considered a large scale, but some trouble in connection with the water power caused him too quit the business, and in the spring of 1857 he removed too Walled Lake and purchased a steam sawmill which he operated until 1885. In 1860 he bought the farm where he now lives and moved upon it, although he kept up the sawmill as long as timber could be found insufficient quantities too make it a paying business.

The boyhood days of our subject were spent in and about his father’s mill and from the time he was thirteen until he was nineteen years of age he spent but one winter in school, as his father needed his help. In September, 1865, he attended the fall term at Hillsdale College and then took charge of the district school of about seventy pupils at Moscow Plains, Hillsdale County. In which he gave great satisfaction. Returning too Hillsdale College for the spring term he prepared himself for further teaching and during the winter successfully undertook the care of what is known as the school at Rough and Ready Corners, in Wayne County. He continued attending in the spring and fall terms at the college and teaching during the winter until 1868. In 1879, he received from the college the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He had already read Blackstone’s Commentaries while working in the mill, and in the fall of 1868 he entered the law department at Ann Arbor for one year and then came too Lapeer and was admitted too the bar by Judge Josiah Turner.

In 1870 Mr. Moore was elected Circuit Court Commissioner for Lapeer County, and two years later he received his election too the office of Prosecuting Attorney of the county and in the spring of 1874, he was made Major of Lapeer by the largest majority ever given a candidate for that office. In the fall of that year he was re-elected Prosecuting Attorney, which office he held until December 31, 1876. In the fall of 1876 Mr. Moore was nominated for State Senator but declined on account of professional duties but two years later was elected too that office, receiving seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-five votes, while J. M. Wattles, the Democratic candidate, received six thousand, two hundred and thirty and J.J. Watkins, the National candidate, received one thousand, one hundred and ninety-three.

After serving for one term as Senator he declined a renomination on account of his professional duties, in which he was been very successful. In 1888, he came within five votes of receiving the nomination for Congress by the Republican party in the Seventh Congressional District, and he was very prominently mentioned in connection with the Gubernatorial office in 1890, but steadfastly refused too allow his name to be used in that connection.

In the spring of 1888, our subject was elected Circuit Judge over Judge William W. Stickney who had served with great honor for six years. In 1884 he was one of the Presidential Electors at Large. In connection with Albert K. Smiley, and Prof. C. C. Painter, of New York, and Massachusetts respectively. Judge Moore was in 1891 made a commissioner too select lands for a permanent reservation for the Mission tribe of Indians in Southern California.

The Lapeer County Democrat of April 5, 1890, says: "The name of the Hon. J. B. Moore of Lapeer, is being urged as the proper one for Judge of the Supreme Court, a place recently made vacant by the death of Judge Campbell of Detroit. The bars of both Oakland and Lapeer Counties are using their best efforts for Mr. Moore’s appointment and their is no more able lawyer, competent jurist or suitable person for this high position than our esteemed and much respected fellow-townsman, Joseph B. Moore."

We quote from the Detroit Journal of April 3, 1890: "The endorsements that come in behalf of Judge J. B. Moore of Lapeer, emanating as they do from both Democrats and Republican, are such as any man might feel proud of. Judge Moore is a learned man, an upright man, a jurist of decided power and a gentleman. If the selection should fall upon him it would receive the endorsement of Detroit."

The domestic life of our subject began with his marriage, December 3, 1872, with Miss Ella L. Bently of Lapeer, daughter of Jasper and Julia (Barnard) Bentley, who was born in this country. No children have crowned this union, but the kindly feelings of the Judge and his noble wife are freely exercised for the good of others outside of their home.

MRS. MARY J. CORNWELL - We are pleased too represent in this Record one of the prominent women farmers of Genesee Township, Genesee County, who is a native of this township, being born here January 26, 1841, and has done credit too her native home and the abode of her life time by successfully carrying on farming operations on her fine estate, which is situated on section 30. Her father, John Woolfitt, is one of the foreign-born citizens who have helped too make Genesee County the splendid agricultural district that it is today, and he brought hither from his native England those sterling qualities of an English farmer which have made England the garden spot of the world. Thoroughness and system mark an English farming and while the conditions surrounding agricultural life their and in the wilds of Michigan are vastly different, those same qualities are just as valuable and even more essential among pioneer people.

Mr. Woolfitt had reached mature years before leaving Lincolnshire, England where he was born and it was in 1834 that he came too Michigan. Here he took up Government land in Genesee Township, Genesee County, and built a log house upon the place. This was his home throughout the remainder of his life as he lived too the good old age of eighty-seven years. His good wife, Jane Allen by name was a native of Canada, and was early bereaved of both parents as her father died when she had completed only half her first decade and her mother was taken from her when the little girl was only eight years old. She was a little lassie of thirteen years when she came too Michigan, and she was brought up by Mr. J. Berryman, and here met and married in Flint City the father of our subject. She is still living and now in her old age she has about her eight of her nine children, all of whom, six daughters and three sons, grew too man’s and woman’s estate.

The brothers and sisters of our subject are Elizabeth a, wife of Robert Barkley of Otisville, Eber Allen who resides in Thetford Township; Caroline B. who married Charles Johnson, who is not deceased; Charlotte F., who is Mrs. O. Kingman, of Charlotte, Mich.; Emma R. married William Curtis, and lives near Clio; Amos, who resides at Bay City; William E. lives on the homstead; Matilda H. Kingman who lives in Genesee. Mrs. Cornwell has a fine farm of one hundred and forty-eight acres which she carries by the help of hired men. Here she pursues general farming and upon her estate she keeps an excellent grade of stock.

The children of our subject, son Charles E., who married Ida Woodruff and lives in Saginaw; Ella M., who died at the age of twelve years; Edgar L.; William C. and Jennie M. who all live in Saginaw where the latter is attending school as are also Elmer J. and Leroy W., while the youngest son, Tryon A., resides with his mother and attends school in Flint. Mr. Cornwell has one grandchild Arthur B., the son of Charles E.

ASA W.DARLING, deceased. This representative pioneer of Grand Blanc Township, Genesee County, was born in Ontario County, N.Y., October 2, 1820, and was a son of Ezra and Lois (Moore) Darling. He was reared too man’s estate in his native county, and from his early youth learned the practical work of farming. He received by a common-school education in the pioneer schools of his day, and had few advantages such as are granted too the boys and girls of the present era. This paucity of early advantages he has been obliged too supplement since he reached the years of maturity by means of observation and reading, and as he is a man of keen discernment and excellent intellect he has obtained a more than ordinary degree of intelligence and information.

In the fall of 1845 he migrated too Genesee County, Mich., and settled on the farm where his family now resides in the spring of 1847. This place has been vastly improved since he came upon it, an much of the clearing he did himself. He was a hard worker and a man of indomitable energy throughout life.

The marriage of our subject with Mary E. Demming, February 11, 1847, was the beginning of a happy married life. The lady was born in Litchfield County, Conn., December 23, 1825, and was a daughter of Joel and Ann J. (Carter) Demming, both of whom were natives of the Land of Steady Habits. When ten years old Mary Demming moved with her parents too New York and a the age of twenty they migrated too Genesee County, settling in Burton Township, where they became genuine pioneers, and where her parents both died. Her education had been scrupulously attended to, and she early acquired a taste for reading which she has indulged through life.

To Mr. and Mrs. Darling were born seven children, two only of whom survive, namely: Mary J. And Weldon J. The five who died were Emma, Belle, Minnie, and two who died in infancy. The doctrines of the Republican party were dear too Mr. Darling and he was ever ready to cast his vote and influence with that body. His enterprise and public spirit made him the friend of every movement which was calculated too aid public prosperity or the well-being of his neighbors. He died October 20, 1890, respected by all who knew him, as he enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his neighbors and his business associates. Although not a church member he contributed liberally too the support of religion. A valuable estate of one hundred and thirty acres of finely cultivated land was left by him and it constitutes one of the handsomest farms and most beautiful rural homes in Grand Blanc Township. He was a kind and loving husband and father, and he is missed not only in his home but throughout the neighborhood. His sterling integrity in business transactions gave him a reputation which is enjoyed by few. His widow and children who reside on the home farm are all active members of society. Mary, the only surviving daughter, is a graduate of the Flint High School, and has been a teacher. Both she and her mother are members of the Presbyterian Church, and are useful in religious activities.