Stephen M. Gage

Stephen M. Gage. On account of the sword being turned into a pruning hook, figuratively speaking, many sections of the United States were rapidly developed directly after the close of the Civil war, and Oakland county, Michigan, felt the impetus given all over the country by the returning soldiers who were tired of war and ready to appreciate the blessings awaiting in the peaceful pursuit of agriculture. From Oakland county had gone out many young men in the flower of youth, some of these, alas, never returning, but those who were so fortunate, in a large number of cases, hastened to acquire land even while ready to invest in other lines of business at the same time. Such an one was Stephen M. Gao-e, who has been postmaster at Walled Lake, Michigan, since 1889 who has continuously engaged in farming, and in an extensive way, since 1865. i'- Gage was born in Lyon township, Oakland county, Michigan, July 7, 1841, and is a son of David and Melinda (Brown) Gage. Both parents were born in New York and were reared, educated and married there, coming to Michigan in 1834 and settling on 160 acres of land which, in 1833, David Gage had pre-empted from the government in Lyon township, Oakland county.

Stephen M. Gage was reared in usual country-boy fashion on the home farm, attending the district schools during the winters and giving assistance at home during the other seasons, and when eighteen years old entered the Michigan State Normal school, where he remained a student for one year. During the winter that he was twenty years old he taught Roahbacher district school in Lyon township. In July, 1862, he enlisted for service in the Civil war, on August 12th of that year being enrolled as a member of Company B, Twentieth Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and soon after enlistment was made corporal. In June, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and on January i, 1864, was made acting orderly sergeant, and continued to serve until he was honorably discharged, July 12, 1865, having participated in all the dangers to which his regiment had been exposed during this long interim. More than forty-seven years of quiet and peaceful life have intervened, but it is not difficult to arouse the old enthusiasm when the stirring events of that troubled four years are recalled, and those days of danger and hardship, of victory and defeat, of rejoicing and lamentation, Mr. Gage frequently talks over with his comrades who also belong to the Heber Lafavor Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Mil ford, Michigan.

When Mr. Gage returned to Oakland county he took charge of the home farm and operated it for one year. In 1867 he purchased a farm in Lyon township, on which he lived for a time and then sold, afterward buying a farm in Commerce township, near Walled Lake, and this property he still owns, although in 1876 he moved to Walled Lake, wdiere he embarked in a general mercantile business, in partnership with Charles Woodman. Three months later Mr. Gage became sole proprietor and remained alone in the business for a time, and afterward his father became his partner and the store was carried on by them until the death of the father in 1885. Mr. Gage admitted no other partner, but continued the business by himself until October, 19TI, when he sold to the firm of Parmalee & Hoyt. As a merchant he had been equally as successful as a farmer, and in business circles his name has continuously stood for honesty, uprightness and true justice. In 1889 Mr. Gage was appointed postmaster at Walled Lake, and has continued to serve in this office, even under Democratic administrations. Through his efforts in IQ02 he secured two rural mail deliveries from this point.

During the closing year of the Civil war, while his regiment was stationed at New York, he secured a furlough home and during this period, on April to, 1865, he was united in marriage with Miss Jennie A. Wilson, who was born at Salem, Michigan, and is a daughter of George M. and Maria (Neives) Wilson, who were born in New York, where the father was a farmer and drove. Two daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Gage, namely: Minnie Alice and Helen F. The former is the wife of John B. Strong, who is in the employ of the Riverside Water Company, of Riverside, Cahfornia, and they have five children: Stephen F., Harold A., Jennie H., Amy H. and Helen G. The second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gage, Helen F., is the wife of Albert J. Church, who is a contracting plumber, in business at Pontiac, Michigan. They have one son, Benjamin C.

Mr. Gage has always been an interested citizen wherever he has resided and has frequently been called upon to accept public responsibilities. For three years he served as township treasurer of Lyon township, for twelve years was township clerk of Commerce township, during one year was supervisor of Commerce township and for twenty-five years was a notary public, his seal appearing on many very important documents. He is numbered with the substantial and representative men of Oakland county.

Abraham Mosher. Every part and period of life this venerable and venerated citizen of Novi, Oakland county, Michigan, is interesting and worthy of record, but the most tragic part of his history is perhaps the most interesting in incident and fruitful in suggestiveness. This was the time he passed in the Union army at the beginning of the Civil war. When the disastrous sectional strife began in this country he was living at Highland, this county, where he had purchased a farm a few years before. His experience in the army is interesting in incident, because, although short, it was crowded with events of the most trying character. And it is fruitful in suggestiveness because it gives such strong proofs of his force of character and faithful devotion to duty.

Enjoying as he was the life of peaceful industry to which he had decided to devote himself, at almost the first sound of war's alarms he left all, home, family and material interests, to hurry to his country's defense, enlisting on June 6, 1861, in Company H, Fourth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Funk, in whose command he was enrolled at Adrian and credited to White Lake township, Oakland county. With his regiment he was early on the field of carnage, taking part in the first battle of Bull Run, one of the earliest engagements of the war. He also participated in the battles of Fairfax Court House and Mine Run, and remained with his regiment until June 5, 1862, bearing a valiant and worthy share in all its marches, battles and skirmishes.

On the date last mentioned he was placed in a field hospital at White House Landing, Virginia, ill with a serious attack of typhoid fever. When he had so far recovered as to make his removal safe he was transferred to a regular hospital in Detroit, in which he remained until July 7, 1862, and was then pronounced by the doctors at that institution unfit for further service, and was discharged. He paid early for his military service, however, short as it was, for the ravages of the fever lingered in his system and enfeebled his health for many years afterward.

On his discharge from the army he returned to his farm at Highland which he had left with such patriotic fervor and high hopes of usefulness, and perhaps some commingling of ambition for military glory, a strong man in the very prime of his maturity, and to which he came back almost a physical wreck. He has passed the rest of his years to this time on farms, as actively engaged in farming as his health would permit, and with as much prosperity and progress as he was able to win in the years of his weakened activity.

Mr. Mosher was born at Hillsdale, Columbia county, New York, on September 3, 1833, son of Asa and Orlantha Jane (Ford) Mosher, who also were farmers in a comfortable state of wordly establishment. But the parents seem to have had a longing for the west and its greater opportunities, and when their son Abraham was three years old they moved to Lockport, New York, then located in almost as much of a wilderness as they found Michigan to be when they moved to this state in 1854. Mr. Mosher began and completed his education at Lockport, and remained with his parents until he reached the age of twenty-one, when he came with the rest of the family to Michigan, and soon afterward located at Highland.

He bought the farm of eighty acres here of which mention has been made, and remained on it until 1875. He then sold that farm and moved to another which he bought near Hazelton in Shiawassee county. His health was still poor from the effects of the fever he had in the army, and finding the work of farming too laborious for his strength he sold his farm in 1880 and bought a home at Montrose, Genesee county, which he occupied until 1886, when he sold this and changed his residence to Gladwin, Gladwin county, where he lived two years. At the end of that period he changed again, locating at Fenton, and a little later came to Novi, where he and one of his brothers purchased a small farm, and where he has lived ever since.

On March 27, 1856, Mr. Mosher was united in marriage with Miss Amanda Cornwell, of Highland, who also was born in Columbia county. New York, and is the daughter of Wilbur and Sylvia (Mosher) Cornwell. They came to Michigan in 1843 and took up their residence at Highland, where they passed the remainder of their days zealously engaged in farming. Mr. and Mrs. Mosher became the parents of four children. Cornelia, the first born, married John Dunham, a farmer at Highland, where both died a number of years ago. Harriet Elsie is the wife of John Eno, a farmer from Milford. They have one child, their son Charles, and now live in Owosso. Susan Amanda is the.wife of Schuyler Rouge, who lived at Durand at the time of his marriage. They now have a large farm in Midland county and a family of six children. The last born of the Mosher children, May Elizabeth, never married, and died at the age of thirty years.

As a further proof of the patriotism of the Mosher family it should be stated that Mr. Mosher had three brothers in the Union army during the Civil war: James, who served four years: Nathaniel, who served in the army six years in all, and William, who served during the last year of the war. j\Mr. Mosher has kept alive the memories of the war, without any of the bitterness that characterized its progress, by active membership in Allen M. Harmon Post, No. 318, Grand Army of the Republic, at Northville. He is also a member of the Union Veteran Legion and the National League of Veterans and Sons. In politics he has always belonged to the Republican party, and in church matters he is independent. His worth as a man, his usefulness and high character as a citizen, his fidelity to every duty and his enterprise and progressiveness in regard to the welfare of his community and all the interests of its residents have endeared him to the people around him, and made him an example to all in sterling and sturdy American manhood of an elevated type.

Mrs. Jane McCrumb Hewitt, whose maiden name was Jane Williams, and one of the lovable devoted women of Novi, Michigan, who for many years has stood high in the affections of a wide circle of friends, was born at Royal Oak, Oakland county, Michigan, in 1837, and is a daughter of John and Mary Ann (McGraw) Williams.

Mrs. Hewitt's father was born in the Dominion of Canada and her mother in New York, and they came to Michigan in 1835, locating in Detroit. John Williams was a carpenter and builder by vocation, and in 1837 erected for the Grand Trunk Railway its first depot at Royal Oak, also putting up the first frame house at that place during the same year. In 1854 Jane Williams was married to Josiah McCrumb, of Novi, and they began keeping house in a log home, Mr. McCrumb starting to clear the land he had purchased. To this union there were born six children, as follows: Delphine, now the wife of William W. Brown, a tinsmith of Detroit, by whom she has two children, Arthur and Lee; Augusta, who died at the age of five years; Helen, who died at the age of two and one-half years; Ida, who passed away at the age of thirteen months, dying, like her sisters, of diphtheria, which swept through this section at that time; Bert L., a wagon maker and blacksmith of Tuscola, and one of Tuscola county's prominent politicians and business men, who married Ella Dean, of Tuscola, and has three children, Gerald J., Iva and Preston; and Myron B., born August 6, 1870, educated at Novi, learned his trade here and has always resided in this place, where he married Lizzie Abby, of Novi, and has had one child, Frederick, born in 1893 and educated at Novi and now making his home with his grandmother. The father of the foregoing children died in 1896, at the age of sixty-seven years, and in 1899 S- McCrumb was married to Theodore Hewitt, an artist and painter, who survived only until 1902.

Ever since beginning housekeeping Mrs. Hewitt has not been obliged to move, and still owns a part of the original farm, her son Myron B. making his home with her and managing the old homestead. He is a valued member of the Gleaners and the Foresters of America, and holds a first-class license as a stationary engineer, in addition to having successfully passed a mechanic's examination. He has taken an active interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of his community, is well posted on matters of general public importance, and has served his county as deputy sheriff. This is one of the old and honored families of this section of the state, Mr. McCrumb's great-uncle, Thomas Mc- Graw, being one of the first merchants of Novi, where he located in 1847. Subsequently he became identified with the wool industry, and at one time, through successful manipulation, cornered the wool market and earned the title of ''Wool King of Michigan."

Too much praise cannot be accorded this pioneer mother, Mrs. Jane Hewitt, who has lived through so much and to whom many owe countless deeds of kindness and loving sympathy. In sickness or other trouble, she has always been in the front rank of those who minister, and as long as she lives she will be honored and loved.

As printed in History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests (1912). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.