My Genealogy Hound

BURTON JARVIS. Among the venerable residents of Niles Township there is not one who has warmer friends or is more truly honored by his neighbors than he whose name we have just given. His long life of industry and usefulness, and his record for integrity and true-hearted faithfulness in all the relations of life, have given him a hold upon the community which all might well desire to share.

Mr. Jarvis claims North Carolina as his native State, and was born in Rowan County September 6, 1816. His parents, Zadock and Lucy (Owings) Jarvis, were natives of North Carolina and Maryland respectively. The paternal grandfather, Zadock Jarvis, was of English origin, and it is supposed that he was a native of Maryland, although nothing definite is known. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, as was also our subject’s maternal grandfather, Basil Owings.

The parents of our subject were married in 1812 or 1813, and later moved to Indiana, where they rented a farm in Wayne County. In 1835 they came to Michigan and located in La Grange Township, Cass County, where they passed the remainder of their days, the father dying at the age of sixty-two, and the mother when ninety-two years of age. Of the seven children born to their union, four were sons and the remainder daughters, and all lived to mature years. Sarah, wife of James Moore, is now deceased; Polly, deceased, was the wife of Joseph Sparkes; Edith, deceased, was the wife of Jonathan Roe; Burton is our subject; Norman resides in Dowagiac, Mich.; Benjamin is deceased; and Zadock is now residing in Dowagiac.

The subject of this notice was but eight years of age when he went to Wayne County, Ind., and he remained there for ten years. When eighteen years of age he came to Cass County, Mich., and in 1835 he found his way into Berrien County, where he worked for a Mr. Griffin, clearing land at $10 per acre. After working for two months, he went to boating on the St. Joseph River, from South Bend and Niles to the Lakes, and followed this until about 1840. The same year he married Miss Elizabeth Sparks, a native of Wayne County, Ind., and subsequently settled in Niles Township on section 12. In 1842 he bought an eighty-acre farm, unimproved, and on this erected a small log cabin, the logs of which he cut himself from his land. He then began clearing the farm of the heavy timber with which it was covered and after years of hard work he was rewarded, for he had one of the best farms in the county. To the original tract he added from time to time until he owned three hundred and thirty acres, and he sold two hundred acres of this land at $110 per acre. He has much of the latest improved machinery for expediting work, and although he is getting well along in years he still does much work himself.

Mr. Jarvis’ accumulations have been the result of years of hard work on the part of himself and his most worthy companion, for they commenced with little or nothing. When he first entered Michigan he had the large sum of twenty-five cents, and he first hired out to drive cattle, receiving three shillings per day. Many times he would be out at work by four o’clock in the morning, and after going without dinner would have a late supper. He remained on the farm where he first settled until 1883, and then moved to Buchanan, where he remained for two years. This was while he was building his present fine residence. In 1886 he returned to the farm of one hundred and thirty acres, and on this he has since resided, although he rents the land. Mr. Jarvis and wife have buried five children. Lucy was the wife of Frank H. Berrick, and died when about forty-four years of age; John was in the hardware business in St. Joseph, Mich., and died when about twenty-four years of age; Zed died when about twenty-eight years of age; Matilda died in infancy; and Ezra died at the age of seven years. All were born on section 12, Niles Township. Mr. Jarvis was at one time a Democrat in politics, but after the war he became a Republican, and still later a Greenbacker, being the latter at the present time.