William Osband The subject of this sketch was born in Palmyra, N.Y., June 1, 1796. His father, Weaver Osband, served seven years in the army of the Revolution from Rhode Island, whence he emigrated to Palmyra, with the Durfee colony, in 1791. His mother was Hannah, daughter of Gideon Durfee. His school education consisted of a knowledge of reading and writing and ten days in arithmetic. His physical education was more thorough. He helped to clear and till his father’s farm till his majority. He then served an apprenticeship with a carpenter and joiner, till he became master of that trade. In 1820 he married Miss Martha Reeves, a native of Westhampton, in Long Island. Soon after he went to work at his trade for Jessup & Palmer of Palmyra, and continued in their employ till he packed his tools in their shop to remove them to Michigan in 1825. Elsewhere in this article I have related the time and manner of his emigration. The land on which he settled is described as the west ½ of southeast 1/4, and east 1/3 of southwest 1/4 of section 3, town 2 south, range 9 east. At the time of his settlement there was but one other family settled within the town; a Mr. Marinus Harrison had settled near the town line in section 24. When Mr. Osband had fairly got settled in his house, he had only enough left to pay Luman Fowler, his hired man, for a year’s work, to buy a yoke of oxen and a cow and a small amount of provisions for current use. His first yoke of oxen died of bloody murrain and before the recollection he had another yoke. The house was built in a little hole cut in the woods just large enough to contain it. The work of cutting down the timber commenced immediately. In after years I heard my mother describe the terror she endured as the great trees came crashing down close to the house on all sides of it. It is unnecessary to describe the process of converting heavily timbered land into a farm. It is an oft told tale, and the experiences of one family constitutes the history of every family so engaged. Detroit was our post office, and the only base of supplies for every necessary except wood and water. Of these we had a superabundance at our door. The country was mostly level and on the lower portions water stood a large portion of the year till it became stagnant and putrid. From its surface it sent forth malaria till it permeated the atmosphere to such an extent that few escaped its deleterious effects. Chill fever, and fever and ague were a common heritage. Some were almost constant victims for years. Mr. Osband had what was known as third day ague, two and a half years in succession. His was the most persistent I remember. Mr. Osband’s trade served him well in the new country. After neighbors began to settle around him he earned by it many dollars that as a common joiner. He made and repaired various kinds of machinery, made coffins, or yokes, sleds, rakes, harrows, ax helves, scythe snaths, grain cradles, etc. Beside he did his own coopering, gunsmithing and upon necessity made and repaired his family shoes, beside carrying on his farm work. In working for his neighbors, it was his custom to take a load of tools on his back and start off, to return home at night end sometimes work late in the evening at home. His wages were uniformly one dollar per day. For many years he made all the coffins for a large section of country. The summer of 1833 he rented his farm and worked on the U. S. arsenal at Dearborn, for which services he got $1.50 and $1.75 per day. In the spring of 1835 he built a framed barn for himself, and later in the summer he built one for Marcus Swift, and the following spring he built one for Tho. Dickerson. In July, 1839, his house burned to the ground with much of its contents. The family moved into the barn till the house could be rebuilt. Not till the frosts of October did they occupy the new house. In October, 1848, a son, William G., died of dysentery, aged 21 years, and almost immediately his wife, my mother, was stricken down with the same disease. She lingered a few days and died. She had shared the toils and privations of pioneer life 23 years, had experienced all of its hardships with but little of its rewards. She had been a hard working woman from her childhood. She had borne and raised six sons on whom she had bestowed a mother’s affection and mother’s care. The award of her children is, "She did it well". Mr. Osband’s third son, Luther, with his wife, were members of the family when his mother died, and they kindly remained with him the rest of his life. In 1851, and again in 1956, he visited his native town. He died Nov. 21, 1861, aged 65 ½ years. He was a man of undoubted and unimpeachable integrity; always alive to questions of public importance, though he never accepted public positions but with reluctance. He was a member of the M. E. church before my recollection, and with the rest of his class he seceded from it in 1841, on account of its connection with slavery. He promptly united with the new organization, and remained with it the reminder of his days. Politically he was a whig till 1848, then a freesoiler till 1854, when he joined the ranks of the republican party. He was radically anti-slavery and gloried in the name of abolitionist. As a temperance man, he took pride in the fact that he organized the first temperance movement that he ever heard of. While in the employ of Jessup & Palmer, against his will he was elected "boss" of the shop. When he assumed the responsibility, he told his men, as they had made him boss they must obey him, and one of his rules was that no more liquor would be allowed in eh shop. Some demurred, but the rule was enforced. In his last years he lived at his ease, and in the enjoyment of a competence, as the result of his industry and provident economy.
Children of William Osband Of these there are five brothers, only three of whom are properly pioneers. They all grew to manhood on the farm, and after their majority all became carpenters and joiners and all, except the second, have made farming and carpentering the principal business of their lives. Like all pioneer boys, their school education was limited by the necessities of pioneer life. They have all lived in the quiet of private life, and of them there is little to write. They has maintained a reputation for honesty, industry, intelligence and respectability, and have always received the respect and confidence of their neighbors. While none of them have become wealthy, all have accumulated enough of this world’s goods to relieve them from fear of want, at least for the near future. In their youth they each united with the christian church and they have since received christian recognition from their associates in life. They have all led lives of sobriety, and in them the saloon and its work have ever found uncompromising enemies. All yet live, and their ages at their next birthdays will range from 54 to 69 years.
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