The Butzbach Family of Berrien County, Michigan

PHILIP H. BUTZBACH, residing in Bainbridge township, is one of the venerable German citizens of Berrien county, his birth having occurred at Nassau, now a part of Prussia, October 22, 1828. On the 21st of June, 1849, when in his twenty-first year, he landed at New York, having sailed from Havre to the new world. He would have been liable to military service had he remained in his native country and so decided to come to America. Even as it was his father had to pay four hundred gilders on account of his evading military duty. Reaching the shores of the new world he made his way direct to Bainbridge, where his aunt, Mrs. Philip Seel, was living, having for five years resided in this county.

Mr. Butzbach at once began clearing land, working by the day and month, receiving seventy-five cents per day, or ten dollars per month and his board as compensation for his services. He was married October 28, 185 1, to Amanda Herman, a daughter of Jacob and Genevieve Herman, of Bainbridge township, who had come from Wittenberg, Germany, when Mrs. Butzbach was but fifteen years of age, and five years later she was married.

Mr. Butzbach had previously purchased fifty-four acres of land at three dollars per acres on five years tim,e. He had begun a clearing and had five acres sowed to wheat. There was no house upon it, but he built a log cabin after living for a time with his parents. He made his living off the land, selling saw logs, wood, etc., and as soon as possible he placed his fields under cultivation. In the early days crops brought very low prices, the times were hard but during the Crimean war wheat sold at a dollar and a half per bushel, although it had to be hauled to Dowagiac, twenty miles distant with ox teams, for that place was the nearest market. Prior to this time Mr. Butzbach had received only five shillings for his wheat and it was the only crop which would sell for cash. His first team was a yoke of steers which he bought for eighteen dollars. Prices of everything raised on the farm were low and it was fifteen years before Mr. Butzbach could afford to purchase and use horses in his farm work. Even threshing was done with oxen. He lived in the little log cabin until 1 861, when he erected his present residence. He purchased fifty-four acres of land for seven hundred dollars and as the years have gone by has carried on general agricultural pursuits, his success increasing until he has long been numbered among the substantial agriculturists of the community.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Butzbach were born thirteen children, one of whom died in early youth, while twelve of the number reached adult age, and with the exception of the eldest all are still living. Augusta married Charles Schaus, and died about ten years ago, when forty-three years of age. Those who still survive are: Jacob, of Bainbridge township; Henry, a blacksmith, of Shasta county, California; Elizabeth, the widow of Jacob Friday, of Watervliet township; Louisa, the wife of Charles Christianson, of Benton Harbor; George, a commission merchant of South Bend, Indiana; Lydia, the wife of Peter Christianson, who was killed by the street car in front of his home; Philip, of Bainbridge township; Anna, the wife of E. L. Miller, of Benton Harbor; Mary, the wife of George Morelock, of Watervliet township; Benjamin, proprietor of the Battlement drug store at Benton Harbor; Albert, a zealous missionary of the Evangelical association; and Elenora, who died at the age of three years. Mr. Butzbach now has thirty-three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

He and his wife are loyal members of the Evangelical association, which they joined four years after their marriage, and with Jacob Enders are the only surviving representatives of the first class of the church. In politics he has been a Republican but not an active worker in the party. His attention has been given to the raising of grain and fruit and at an early day he engaged in the cultivation of peaches until the yellow destroyed his orchard. Although now well advanced in years, having passed the seventy-eighth mile stone on life's journey, he is still a hale and hearty man and gives personal supervision to his business affairs.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

BENJAMIN F. BUTZBACH, of the Battlement Drug Company of Benton Harbor, was born in Bainbridge township, Berrien county in 1871. He is classed with the wide-awake and enterprising young business men of the city and has attained to a position of prestige in commercial circles through his own unaided efforts. As the name indicates, he is of German lineage. His father, Philip H. Butzbach, was born in Germany in 1828 and came to America when twenty years of age. He was a son of Henry Butzbach, who crossed the Atlantic after the emigration of his son Philip, and spent his last days in Bainbridge township, Berrien county, upon the old homestead farm, where he died when more than seventy years of age. Philip H. Butzbach settled in Bainbridge township, where he took up a tract of government land, comprising one hundred and eight acres, which was entirely wild and unimproved. This was during the pioneer epoch in the history of the county and like his neighbors he performed the arduous task of clearing and cultivating new land. He placed most of that property under the plow and he now has a fine fruit orchard of twenty acres, raising all kinds of fruit including apples and peaches, which he ships in large quantities. He planted the orchard himself and it is now in excellent bearing condition. His fields, too, are productive, yielding good crops and he is still accounted one of the successful farmers of this county, in which he has made his home for almost six decades. Great changes have occurred during this period by reason of the building of the railroads, the introduction of the telegraph and telephone and also of improved machinery which facilitates the work in various departments of business life. He married Miss Blondine Harmon, a native of Germany, who came from the fatherland and settled in Bainbridge township, Berrien county, in pioneer times. Mrs. Butzbach is still living and has for many years traveled life's journey wath her husband. They have reared a family of thirteen children, of whom two have passed away. Those who yet survive are Jacob; Elizabeth, the wife of Jacob Friday; Henry; Louise, the wife of Charles Christian; George; Lydia, the wife of Peter Christian, and a brother of her sister's husband; Philip H.; Anna, the wife of E. L. Miller; Mary, the wife of George Morlock; Benjamin F.; and Albert.

Benjamin F. Butzbach is the tenth in order of birth of the surviving members of the father's family. He was reared upon the old homestead and one can picture him as a farmer boy attending the district schools, interested in his lessons and equally interested in the games of the playground. In the summer months as he grew in strength and age his time was demanded for the service of the fields. His early educational privileges were supplemented by study in Benton Harbor College, of which he is a graduate of the class of 1891. His taste was for a commercial rather than an agricultural career and following the completion of his college course he accepted a clerkship in the drug store of George M. Bell & Company. No higher testimonial of his active service and faithfulness to duty could be given than the statement of the fact that he remained in the employ of that firm for eleven years, leaving it to engage in business on his own account, when, in 1902 he purchased an interest in the Battlement Drug Company of Benton Harbor and became manager of the store, which he has since successfully conducted. He has made his place of business an attractive one to the general public by reason of the neat and tasteful appearance of the store, his straightforward business dealings, his earnest desire to please and his uniform courtesy to his patrons.

In 1902, in Benton Harbor, occurred the marriage of Mr. Butzbach and Miss Ada Whitely, of Muskegon, Michigan. They are well known in the social circles of the city and the number of their friends is constantly increasing as the number of their acquaintances grow. In his political views Mr. Butzbach is a Republican but without aspiration for office. Matters of local progress, however, are of deep interest to him and he is never remiss in the faithful performance of the duties of citizenship.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

JACOB BUTZBACH, of Bainbridge township, was born in an old log house on what has long been known as the homestead farm of the family, his natal day being March 27, 1854. His boyhood days were spent upon the farm and in early life he began working for Randall Brothers at Millburg. He was also employed in the woods in Lake township and in Millburg, having charge for two years of the operations in the forest. Later his business attention was given to the purchase and sale of fruit in Benton Harbor for two seasons. The first land wliich he ever owned was a tract of forty acres in Benton township a mile south of the Pearl schoolhouse, and taking up his above thereon he made it his home for nine years, during wliich time he was engaged in the cultivation of small fruit. He prospered in his undertakings and at length sold his place to advantage. He then invested in his present farm, comprising eighty acres, a half mile north of Bainbridge Center, for wliich he paid thirty-tW'O hundred and fifty dollars. It was all under cultivation at that time save sixteen acres which he has since cleared and developed, and as his financial resources have increased he has added to the original place until he now has one hundred and forty acres, constituting a valuable property, which is well improved and which returns an excellent income for the care and labor bestowed upon it. In 1900 Mr. Butzbach erected his present residence, which is one of the fine homes of the township. His farm is devoted to grain and fruit raising and he has thirty-five acres planted to peaches, six acres in grapes and also a variety of other fruits, although plums, peaches and grapes are his principal products. His sales of fruit have netted him in a single season a profit of twenty-five hundred dollars. When this farm came into his possession it was in a run down condition. It had been rented and was used for the raising of grain. Mr. Butzbach planted it to clover, which he plowed under, and through modern farming methods he has brought his place up to a high state of fertility and productiveness. He keeps six cows and is a stockholder in the Mi 11 burg creamery.

At the age of twenty-eight years, in February, 1884, Mr. Butzbach was married to Miss Sophia Sinn, a daughter of Adam Sinn, of Royalton township. She was born in Chicago but in her early girlhood days was brought to Berrien county and was twenty four years of age at the time of her marriage, which has been blessed with a family of five children, Alfred, Roy, Alice, Delia and Luella. Mr. Butzbach is a member of the Maccabee tent, at Bainbridge, and is a stalwart Republican, who frequently attends the conventions of his party and is recognized as one of the unfaltering advocates of its principles.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.