The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1905-06-09

he was removed by the county author
tiles and bound out to farmer in
Albany county until he should be 81
BY the terms of the contract he was tc
receive good common schooling and
at the age of 81. two suits of clothes
and bible.
He lived here four years, lily fed and
clad, and one cold March day, was sci
chopping wood without mittens Oh
boots. When he applied at the house
for admission to warm, he was told tc
work and keep warm. After the third
refusal he put down his axe and started
away never to return. Thus at the age
of 10, he entered the world as his own
| master.
Nine years driver on the Erie canal
and a similar period as driver on the
old stage route from Buffalo to Batavia
| add touch of rough picturesqueness
to his varied career. While engaged as
stage dryer he met Miss Sylvia Andrus
of Silver Creek, N. Y. The acquain-
lance ripened into friendship and he
left the stage route 10 begin farming at
Silver Creek, where he married Miss
Andrus, Nov. II, 1S47.
In 1855, he migrated to the then wilds
of Michigan where he settled upon
part of the old Dewey and Stewart
farm near Owosso. Here amid the
hardships and privations of pioneer life
he raised his family of eight children,
giving to them the advantages of edu-
cation which to his dying day he so
bitterly deplored as being deprived of
in his youth. In 1874 he moved from
Bennington township to the homestead
three miles north of Ovid, now occu-
pied by his daughter, Mrs. Bigford.
In 1880. being free from debt with a
small sum of ready money on hand, he
was ready to begin mission which he
had for years been looking forward to,
namely, the finding of the brothers and
sisters who had been separated upon
the death of their father In 1919. After
a long eventful search which reads like
veritable fairy tale, he found his Sis
ter Katherine near Albany, his brother
John at Richmond, Va, and his sister
Margaret at New Haven, Conn. He
visited each of these new found rela-
tives at their homes, and the reunions
attracted much newspaper comment at
the time. One paper containing this
account fell into the hands of Absolom,
living in st. Louis, Mo. Correspon-
dence ensued which established the
identity of this, the baby brother whom
William had never seen, and in 1882 the
three brothers and two sisters met at
the old farm home north of Ovid for
great reunion, the first meeting of the
united family since the death of their
mother in 1876 years. Within a
short time John, Absolom and Gather
inc came to this vicinity to live.
Three subsequent marriages helped
to make remarkable the life of the man
now so years old. Mrs. Julia Hines, of
Howell, Mrs Martha Mason, of Owosso,
and Mrs. Eliza Cozadd proved their
womanly virtues by loving care of this
lonely old man. Since 1902 he has lived
with his children, principally with Mrs.
Wait at whose home he died, May 25,
1905 after brief and painless illness.
The keen intelligence, ready wit,
broad charities and sympathetic insight
into human nature which characterized
Mr.. Woodwork as man, remained
with him to the last, and after nearly a
century of earthly life he has entered
into the palace of eternity to scenes of
paradise and everlasting delight. I"