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honored and brightened by the four children who survive him. Mercy (Ford) White, his wife, died Nov. 19, 1865, after a long and distressing illness, which made her an invalid during many years, and called for the exercise of patience and endurance, such as characterized the wives and mothers of the pioneer class to which she worthily belonged.

Mr. White passed the early years of his life as a laborer on his father's farm and obtaining his edu cation. He accompanied his parents to Ashland Township in 1865, and on his father's death succeeded to the proprietorship of 80 acres of the homestead, where he is engaged in prosperous and practical farming. He was married Feb. 23, 1874, in Newaygo to Eva A., daughter of William and Polly (Bigsby) Whittington, natives of New York. Mrs. White was born in Eaton Co., Mich., May 17, 1854. Her parents removed to Casnovia, Muskegon County, when she was four years old. She was an eager student and made the best use of her educational opportunities, entering the profession of teaching at 15 years of age and continuing to follow it until her marriage. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. White were born as follows: Elsie A., May 15, 1875, and Bertha L., March 10, 1877. Mr. White is an active Republican and has officiated in the local offices of his township. He is Secretary of Lodge No. 362, I. O. O. F., at Ashland Center.

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alvin A. Sutliff, farmer, section 12, Bridgeton Township, was born in Monroe Co., N. Y., Jan. 29, 1828, and is a son of Ransley and Catherine (Barnhart) Sutliff. His parents were of New Engiand origin and of mingled Scotch and Dutch lineage. His father was a soldier of the war of 1812, and is now drawing a pension for services rendered his country at that period. When he was three years old they removed to Erie Co., Pa., and soon afterwards, in the spring of 1833, came to Michigan, and after a stay of one year in Lenawee County went to Hillsdale County and settled on a farm in Reading Township. Mr. Sutliff was reared and educated in that place, attending the schools there until 1843, when his parents made another remove, this time going to Clinton

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County. They are now living in Isabella County, and enjoying good health, aged 87 and 80 respectively.

Mr. Sutliff remained with his parents until he was 22 years of age, when he decided on his course of life, and in the fall of 1849 initiated his struggle with the world by setting out for Newaygo, then in the depths of an almost unbroken forest. He spent two years in various employments in the vicinity, and in 1857 established his residence on the farm which has since been his homestead. He entered a claim of 320 acres of timbered land and immediately brought every energy to bear upon its improvement. The apparent results show what a persevering determination strong hands and zeal may achieve. His homestead now includes 270 acres, 100 acres of which are under the best possible improvements, with fine farm buildings and attractive surroundings. He also owns 240 acres of land on sections 2 and 11 in Bridgeton Township, which are yet in a comparatively unimproved state.

Mr. Sutliff has been a man of exceptionally vig. orous physical ability, which has been his best capital in the new country to which he removed before its municipal prerogatives had been regulated. He assisted at the township organization, was elected Township Treasurer and has served 13 terms in that capacity. He has ever been keenly alive to every enterprise that seemed to justify reasonable attention, and has made an impression on his day and generation that will outlive him. He is an inflexible Republican, and a member of the Blue Lodge, No. 131, of Newaygo.

Mr. Sutliff was married May 27, 1855, to Emily H., daughter of S. M. and Lucina (Caswell) Woodward, both of whom were natives of New York. The daughter was born April 13, 1839, in Allegany County, and five years after her birth the parents settled in Kane Co., Ill., where she attended school until the fall of 1852, when the family came to Michigan and settled in Bridgeton Township. Both parents have recently deceased, the mother at the age of 67, the father at 70 years of age. They were members of the Methodist Church, of which Mrs. Sutliff is at present a member. Her father and mother were also members of the Methodist Church.

Thirteen children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sutliff, ten of whom survive: Mattie E. was born May 6, 1859; Albert E., March 18, 1861; Flora E.,

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Dec. 24, 1862; Solon D., Oct. 16, 1864; Frank A., Aug. 29, 1868; Lotta G., June 21, 1870; Nellie M., Sept. 5, 1871; Jessie E., Aug. 29, 1873; Milan R., June 19, 1876; Charles A., Dec. 14, 1880; Ellen E., May 28, 1856 (died Nov. 20, 1857); Nettie, Aug. 4, 1866, died Sept. 23, 1880); Libbie E., Feb. 1, 1874 (died Nov. 8, 1874).

Mr. Sutliff has been quite extensively engaged as a lumberman ever since he became a resident of Newaygo County. As a type of his operations it may be stated that in the winter of 1864 and for the next seven years following he put in on an average one million feet of logs annually.

With eminent satisfaction, the publishers present the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Sutliff as types of the agricultural community of Newaygo County. They belong to one of the classes referred to in the paragraphs which introduce the biographical department of this work, the pioneers, whose stability of character, inflexible integrity, and fixedness of purpose placed their generation in the foremost ranks of the element which has given this section of the Peninsular State a basis destined at no distant day to yield substantial evidence of its real prosperity.

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alter S. Platt, editor of The Indicator, Fremont, was born in Mansfield, Ohio, July 24, 1846. His parents, Thomas and Ann Platt, were natives of New Jersey. He left home at 14 years of age, proceeded to Angola, Ind., and remained a little over a year, learning the printer's trade. He then enlisted in the 9th Ohio Cavalry and served about 18 months. After his return he went to Kendallville, Ind., where he remained about five years in a printing office. In 1870 he came to Pentwater, Mich., where he resided two and a half years, and was afterward editor of the Pentwater Times about nine months. He then came to Fremont, this county, and in the spring of 1874 established The Indicator, which he still edits.

He was married at Kendallville, Ind., April 25, 1868, to Laura A. Bates, a native of Indiana, and they have two children, Jennie and Pauline. Mr. Platt was appointed Postmaster of Fremont in 1875,

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ohn Hirdning, farmer, section 27, Garfield Township, was born in the city of Philadelphia, April 4, 1836, and is son of George and Catherine Hirdning. His mother died. when he was two years old. His father married again and in 1839 removed his family to Sandusky, Ohio, which was then in its incipiency. The senior Hirdning remained there until 1854, when he went to Australia.

Mr. Hirdning was married May 20, 1858, to Harriet Reitz, a native of Pennsylvania, who was born. Sept. 7, 1839. Of 11 children born of this marriage nine are living: Charles E., George, Rosa E. (wife of Henry Shady), Emma B., Chester N., Wallace O., Hattie M. and Mary G. John F. and an unnamed infant are deceased. Soon after marriage Mr. Hirdning came to St. Joseph Co., Mich., where he rented a farm for a time, afterwards becoming owner of one, upon which he resided 11 years. In 1872 he came to Newaygo, where he was variously occupied and also bought some land, on section 22, which two years later he took possession of and remained a resident until the fall of 1878, when he bought his present estate, consisting of 120 acres, all in heavy timber. He has now 34 acres under cultivation.

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NEWAYGO COUNTY.

Monroe Co., N. Y., where Mr. Carrington grew to man's estate.

Our subject was possessed of an active, ambitious temperament and a desire to take advantage of the privileges and possibilities accorded to every man under the institutions of the American Government. He could not but contrast the improvement in the conditions of his family in a land of social and political equality with their state in the land they had left; and his ambition was fired to make an honest attempt to place himself on the grade accorded to successful effort, incited by a laudable desire to attain heights reached by men of no greater worth or capacity. On reaching his majority he went to California and engaged in gold-mining, at which he was occupied three years with satisfactory results. He then sold his claims and returned to his parents' home in the State of New York. He fixed upon Michigan as a favorable point for a location and in the spring of 1858 settled in Ashland Township. He bought 160 acres of land, to which he has since added by purchase 26 acres. Of this tract he has put 70 acres in first-class condition for farming, with all necessary buildings and a suitable residence.

In 1870, Mr. Carrington desired to extend his business connections, and in November he suspended agricultural pursuits and founded a mercantile business at Trent. His initial stock represented a cash value of $700. The correctness of his judgment in the selection of a business and locality is substantiated by the fact that he is at present carrying a stock worth about $6,000, and doing an annual business of $15,000, with every prospect of a further proportionate increase of trade. But he has never lost his love for agricultural pursuits, and when his commercial affairs reach a status assuring their safe management by delegated parties, he contemplates a return to his first love, for the purpose of placing his home in attractive and satisfactory condition to pass his sunset of life and to experiment in scientific farming.

Mr. Carrington was married Dec. 16, 1857, in Greece, N. Y., to Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Davis) Mitchell. She was born in the vicinity of Hastings, England, Jan. 12, 1837, and her parents were also natives of that country. They came to the United States in her infancy and settled in Monroe County. To Mr. and Mrs. Carrington three children have been born, as follows: Libby, Sept. 28, 1858;

Jennie, May 31, 1869; and Anna, born Nov. 4, 1869, died in infancy. The mother is a lady of gentle, affable character, alive to the necessities of those about her, kind, sympathetic and charitable, forming opinions in the law of love and exercising toward all the spirit of lovely benignity she acquired in its fullness during a trial of almost unexampled acuteness, having been during 17 years an invalid and suffering the distress attendant upon active disease. She has to a certain degree recovered her health and devotes her renewed strength to the benefit of those with whom she is associated.

Mr. Carrington is a thorough type of his nationality and an essential American, adopting the characteristics of the people of whom he is one by assimilation and retaining his British traits of gayety and good fellowship. He is bluff and hearty, considerate and energetic, and public-spirited to the last degree. He is a true gentleman in the best acceptance of the term, and holds an elevated position in the estimation of those with whom he is brought in contact in business or society. He is an adherent to the principles of the Republican party and belongs to the Order of Masonry. One of his connections in the latter is with the Blue Lodge, No. 131, at Newaygo, and the other with the Royal Arch Chapter of Sparta, Kent County. He is also actively connected with the Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 302, at Trent.

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Obert W. Rutherford, of the firm of Rutherford & Misner, Fremont, is a son of Walker and Jeanette (Wrathie) Rutherford, natives of Scotland, and was born in that country Jan. 14, 1850. When only four years of age he came to America with his parents, remained with them until he was 20 years of age, and then entered the employ of J. H. Darling as clerk, where he remained six years. He afterward engaged in the lumber. trade one season, and was then employed as clerk by the "Patrons' Co-operative Co.," and remained with them about three years. Jan. 1, 1880, he formed a partnership with R. E. Misner, for the purpose of carrying on the grocery and provision, and boot and shoe trade, under the firm name of Rutherford & Misner, and still continues in that business.

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