|
|
Michigan Towns Select Towns
At the time of his decease he owned in this county, and I think all in the the town of Marengo, about eight hundred acres of land, two-thirds of which is under good cultivation. He also died possessed of wild lands in adjoining counties, and a large amount of personal property. All this accumulation was the product of labor, industry, economy and sobriety, for he came here poor. He raised a large family of sons and daughters, who all survive him save one. His estimable widow, though surrounded by loving children, and occupying her beautiful home, expressed herself to me as being " all alone." Mr. Chisholm was in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He had creditably filled important town offices, and was widely and favorably known.
OBITUARY OF JEREMIAH O. BALCH. By Rev. F. M. Woods, December, 1875.
In the momentary conversations I have been able to have with friends, I have only gathered up the following items of memorial concerning the deceased:
Jeremiah O. Balch, whose remains lie before us, was descended from a pious ancestry, both his father and grand-father being ministers of the gospel. He was born in 1781 in Barrington, New Hampshire, where he was also reared and received his early education. This was thorough, and fitted him life-long for masterly acquirements, his gifts being more than ordinary, and his training giving him a readiness to accomplish almost anything he undertook. His early life was spent in his native state. When he entered political life, espousing the Democracy of the old Jackson type, he was elected to office, spending some time in the state legislature. Subsequently he removed to New York, where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits, or in writing for and editing newspapers in Leroy, Rockport and Rochester. He removed to this state in 1836, remaining from that time till 1870 mainly in this county, and for the most part in Marshall, where he was known intimately by the older persons who remain for 34 years. He was a practical printer by trade, but spent much of his time in writing articles for the press, which were usualty discriminating and forcible. Indeed, he seems to have used the pen of a ready writer, and all who mingled with him in political strife well remember the scorching ordeals to which the subjects of his criticisms were exposed. His views changed while in connection with the Statesman of this city, veering from the Jacksonian principles of Democracy to espousing first the principles of the Whig party, and subsequently those of the Republican party.
Michigan
Page 71
|
|
|
|
|
|