Wm. Henry Osband Was born in Palmyra, N. Y., Dec. 12, 1820, and was under five years of age when he first heard the song of the wolf in the forest, and nearly nine before he ever sat inside of a classroom. Being the oldest of the boys his services were more effective in earning bread, and his school days were more limited. Beyond the "three R’s", his schools never furnished him a passport. In 1846 he became a partner in the firm of Straight, Osband & Co., manufacturers of lumber and wool carding at Inkster, He continued profitable in this business til 1854, when he sold his interest and retired from the firm. He subsequently owned and worked and sold the west ½ of southeast 1/4 of section 14, and in 1862, bought a part of his father’s homestead, which he still owns. In 1848 he married Miss Sarah M. Glass of Livonia. He now resides in the city of Flint. He has been a hard working man all his life, but is now much broken in health, as is also his wife. Their two living children, a son and daughter, are in business in Otisville, under the firm name of Stringer & Osband.
Melvin D. Osband was born in Palmyra, N.Y., April 22, 1824, and came to Michigan in his mother’s arms, at the age of one and one half years. His infancy was passed in very feeble, and in his subsequent life he never developed a large amount of virility. In early youth he acquired a great love of books and study. This passion, backed by a strong determination to indulge it, secured for him better opportunities for education than the majority ofhis fellows enjoyed. By his study at school and by the light of the wood fire in the chimney corner at home during the long winter evenings, he got the reputation of being a close student. To the schools of the rural district were added one winter at he Yspilanti Academy, in 1843-4, and his school education was substantially finished. In December, 1839, while assisting to gather ice from the river, he fell and dislocated his hip. From want of skill in the family physician, the bones were never adjusted. This caused a disability which has attended him in subsequent life; and in his latter years it has so crippled him as to unfit him for physical labor. During the years from 1844 to 1853, he taught five terms of school, in as many districts, with varying success. In 1855 he took a course in bookkeeping in Cochran’s Commercial Institute, in Detroit. He worked at bookkeeping, pattern making and carpentering till December, 1857, when he removed to Lansing. He served as clerk to Hon. Ira Mayhew, superintendent of public instruction, from May, 1858, to January, 1859; worked at his trade till May, 1852, when he commenced as clerk for Hon. Whitney Jones, U.S. assessor, and staid with him until October, 1866. He was then appointed assessor of the city of Lansing, in which capacity he served till May, 1870, when he resigned. He subsequently was accountant one year in a hardware store in Pennsylvania, also chief clerk to secretary of State, Hon. Daniel Striker, two years; a clerk in the office of auditor general for a few years, and the first clerk of the Lansing Iron Works. In February, 1882, he bought a stock of goods in Frederic, Crawford county, which business he carried on till August, 1888, when , becoming too badly crippled to perform the necessary work in the store, he sold the goods and returned to Lansing where he is enjoying as best he can the forced retirement from business. In 1859 he married Miss Helen M. Hoskins, daughter of Dr. Thos. Hoskins of Scio, Washington county. They have a son Chas. H., now cashier of the People’s Savings Bank of Lansing, and a daughter, Nellie E., wife of Hon. F.A. Baldwin of Gaylord, Michigan.
|
|||
|
Html by Deb |
