|
|
BATTLE CREEK BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
Dr. Beach had read many books, was an interesting conversationalist, and I, although he came as a physician, always hailed with delight his visits to our. house. The lack of society here in the woods made life lonely, and when he came he would talk about the schools, education, books, and other subjects in which my parents and myself were interested. It was necessary some times for him to prolong the visit to his patient; he then, turning the chair down on the floor and placing a pillow on its back, would lie down, and interest us for hours with conversation and varied narrations from his rich store of knowledge. And the writer remembers the good advice in regard to securing a thorough education, that he, then a boy, received from his kind-hearted physician and genial friend Dr. John Beach. Dr. Bea_ch, while abroad in the east for the benefit of his health, died in 1841 or 1842.
Mrs. Beach and her sons, Morgan and Darwin, yet reside on the old farm. Mrs. Simmons, the only daughter living, I believe, resides in the west.
DEACONS CROSS, BETTERLY, AND GRODEVANT.
Among the sterling men who came to Michigan, in these early times, were men who brought their Bibles and religion with them into the wilderness— men of prayer and true Christian devotion, who wielded the ax and held the plow and did their part where arduous labor was to be performed and hard blows given. And they were the men who first established religious meetings and aided in establishing churches in this new country.
Deacon Fayette Cross came to Battle Creek in July, 1836. He was an active, zealous, working Christian, a prominent member and a deacon of the Presbyterian church. He was a carpenter and millwright by trade. He died some few years ago at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Chadwick, of Battle Creek.
Michigan
Page 51
|
|
|
|
|
|