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BATTLE CREEK BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
He gave generously to help build a new house for his old friend. One day while some one was asking a wealthy citizen of Battle Creek to aid in this charitable work, he was met with a refusal. Steve Graham stood by, and his eyes moistened as he turned to the man and said, —"Can't you help that honest, hard-working man build a new house in the place of the one just burned down?" The citizen shook his head. Graham made one more appeal, which proved ineffectual.. He then
said—"Are you hard-hearted enough to refuse to give in so deserving a cause? If you are, I will leave you to your own reflections. " And as he walked away his heart swelled with indignation at so clear a case of cold indifference to other's wants.
Stephen Graham died in his house in 1868. Mrs. Graham lives with her son Daniel on the old farm in Newton.
REV. JOHN HARRIS—DBA. SOLOMON CASE-DR. JOHN BEACH.
Rev. John Harris came from Saratoga county, New York, in the fall of 1835, and purchased a new home in South Battle Creek, then called Milton. In May, 1836, he came with his family, and settled on the land he had before purchased. Three weeks were consumed in the journey, and eleven days of these were taken up with a tedious march through the mud from Detroit.
Mr. Harris was born in Nassau, Rensselaer county, New York, on the 16th of September, 1790. When a young man of twenty-two we find him serving his country in the army of the frontier of Northern New York, during the summer and fall of 1812.
Michigan
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