Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-11-04
LAFAYETTE DEWEY
HAS GONE THROUGH
MANY EXPERIENCES
AT AGE OF 81 is STILL LIVING
AND ENJOYING EXCELLENT
HEALTH

\
cellent health. "Lafe" Dewey as he
hood near the Ashley church. and as
he himself prefers to be called is the
only living pioneer resident of Oak
field township, Kent county
LATE Dewey was born in the state
of Vermont. His twin sister. is In
. fact, his senior by just twenty-f four
hours. She is now Mrs Angenette
Swazie and lives at Coggon, Iowa.
Two years previous to the birth of the
twins 1925. Marquis de Lafayette
made visit 20 the United States.
The fame OF the man spread To the
state OF Vermont and when name
was needed for the Dewey lad il took
only a short time to decide upon the
name Of the French general as the
proper one for the boy.
on April 80, 1S4S LATE Dewey was
married TO .Neoma Fellows. After
fifty-five and one half years of mar
ried life she died in September, eleven
years ago, Previous to his marrying
Miss Fellows LATE Dewey had travel
ed down the Erie Canal with his par
-ents from the state OF Vermont and
had located on a farm in Oakland
county, Michigan. Soon after his
marriage, or in 1851, he and his
young wife associated themselves with
John O'Bfyon. and started by OK team
and wagon for Kent county. Mr.
Dewey had a yoke OF oxen one COW
and three heifers. O'Bryon had "a
half dozen hogs. All Of the stock was
driven through making the entire dis
lance on hoof. Lafe says that when
ne arrived at the site OF their future
home he had just ten dollars and ten
cents in money and the best woman
in the world for a. partner
Mr.. Dewey was induced to come to-
Kent county in this way. One of his
cousins had gone to the Mexican war
and upon his return had been paid
off with forty acres OF government
land. Upon this land. which was
located mile and half north of the
present Ashley church, had been,
planted some wheat. AS a result of
a transaction in Oakland county Mr..
Dewey's cousin was in debt to him
thirty-five dollars The cousin want
ed 10 go back TO the army and offer
ed to give Lafe the crops on this forty
TO cancel the debt if he would take
the '1and warrant" off Of his hands
at one dollar per acre. The trade
was agreed upon and the young man
came to the farm and took up his
abode in the vicinity of the present
Ashley church.
From that small start LATE Dewey
has since collected and paid for
complete section of land with the eX-
ception Of the eighty known as the
Ashley farm. To accomplish this he
has done more hard work than most
any other man could stand. lie paid
interest often as high as ten and
twelve per cent on thousands of dol
lars at time The land cost him all
the way from one dollar to fifty
dollars an acre. In addition he was
the father of five children. four of
whom were raised to maturity and
are still living. The oldest of the chill
dren is Mrs. Marian Carpenter, wife of
Raleigh c. Carpenter of Ithaca, New
York. Mr.. Carpenter is a professor
of civil engineering in Cornell Univer-
sity. The second child is Charles
Dewey of Westgate, California, and
who owns a ranch there. Frank
Dewey the third child lives near the
Ashley church. Hattie the fourth
child died when eleven years old, Of
typhoid fever. Grant Dewey the
youngest son lives just across the
road from the present home of his
father.
At the time of his coming into the
settlement LATE Dewey had for neigh
bors on the south Sheldon Ashley,
who came into the county in 1914,
and Blyn Hall, who came in As. Blyn
Hall was the father Of w. ID. and w.
L. Hall Of this city. To the west Of
Ashleyon what is now the John
Keena farm, lived Edward Norton
John O'Bryon also lived near the Ash
ley farm.
The third year after coming to the
new home LATE Dewey had made the
payment on his first forty and thus
became the real owner OF his first
land. That same year he also cleared
and broke twenty acres on another
piece of land that he started to buy.
Lots of the good timber was cut into
lengths for fence rails. With the cur
rent price for splitting at $6.25 per
to do the work. Seymour Smith was
at that time one of the best rail-
spltters in the settlement. He could
split and pile six hundred and twenty
five rails in a day. Sheldon Ashley
had the honor of going him one bet
ter, however, for IL was known that
he could split six hundred n day and
go hunting twice. Workmen at that
time always took their guns to the
field with them.
AS new buildings were built on the
farm Lafe Dewey kept adding to his
herds of live stock The average
number of sheep on the farm in those
early days was six hundred head
These. were taken TO the nearby
stream in the spring of the year and
washed. Then they were sheared by
hand. Elmer Il. Cook, now janitor
at the city hail. was at that time one
of the best sheep shearers Of the
onnntrr TIa haIpad talxa tho 0appae