The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1904-09-30
Our County Clerk.

occ Couhty thdl hO WouieA Ah"nS 'AA~AA ~
good county clerk. The people who
knew him even to the slightest extent
Immediately affirmed the same of him as
his more intimate friends had done.
The people took their recommendations
in earnest. Many of them had the
pleasure of meeting him more or less
briefly before the campaign was over
and thus Judged for themselves wheth-
err or not the statements of his friends
were overdrawn. The result was emil
nently satisfactory to both the candiI
date and to the county. Mr.. John Y.
Martin was elected clerk of Shiawassee
county by large majority.
Then new experience began for the
gentleman in question. His life as a
public official called him into contact
with people from every part OF the
county, he began to go on record as to
his obliging qualities, his knowledge OF
his duties, and general attention to
them. The result of this course of ex-
animation as it may be called, extend
ing over the next two years, was emf
nently satisfactory. Mr.. Martin GER
tainly succeeded in pleasing the people
who were called to the office OF the
county clerk on business or who dropped
in to see how the affairs of the clerks
Office were conducted. He was renomi-
mated for second term by reclamation.
Another period followed during the
latter part of which the office was I'M
der the disadvantage of being installed
in inconvenient quarters-that is more
inconvenient if possible than they
had been in the old county building
and still nothing but words of the
highest praise were ever heard for the
way in which John Y. Martin conduct
ed the affairs of the Office or for the way
in which he took pains to looks after
the slightest wishes of any person in
Shiawassee county who ever came to
the clerks office with a request which
he could in the legal conduct of his
office grant to them. Again his friends
believed him to be the man for the Office.
and no candidate opposed his nomina-
ton. The result is that for the third
time Mr.. Martin is before the people
for further indorsment of his work.
THE TIMES has been pleased before
to call the attention of Shiawassee
voters to the record made by this candi-
date during the years preceding his first
nomination to the Office of county clerk,
and to hold him up to the young men of
the county as an example Of what Shia-
wassee farms produce in the line of boys
who are always on the lookout to make
the most of their opportunities for i'm
provement. Today THE TIMES is glad
of the opportunity to again remind the
voters of the county and in particular
the boys of the county who come from
the farms who will cast their first vote
next month of the reasons for the sue
cess of our present county clerk. The
record seems to show at least two char
acteristics which enter into his success.
In the first place they seem to show
that he always took advantage of every
opportunity to. learn something which
might some day be of use to him in
performing some task for which others
less enterprising than himself were
not fitted, and next he seems to have
at an early period in his life acquired
the habit of looking for an opportunity
to do good turn to some one else
when it could be done without undue
sacrifice on his part. Both character
istics seem to have become habits with
him.
Mr. Martin was born in Caledonia
township on the farm which he now
owns and manages, a farm which has
been in the family for more than a
quarter of century. He had the same
round of farm duties that other coun-
try boys pass through and like them
attended the country school near his
home. After getting what he could
from the district school however his
ambition for an education was not sat-
istied and he attended the Vernon
school for year, then went to the Co.
runna high school where he carried on
his studies until within a few weeks of
his graduation when he was taken sick
and could not finish. The next year
he taught in the Lyle school in Venice
township and made good record in
that work. But it was not school
teaching that he had set his heart on
and he wished a little experience in
other lines before deciding just what
his work should be. An opportunity
offered itself to enter general store in
Mt. Pleasant and he worked there for a
year and then decided that he liked
farming better than anything else after
all. He returned to work the old farm
for three years, bought another for him
self and worked that for five years, and
then sold it only to purchase thes home
farm where he has been since that time,
farmer like other Shaiwassee farmers.
And vet even there was diffefetcebe-
tween himFahd many of his fellow farm
ers throug bout the county.