2023.10.109

THEY WERE MARRIED SEVENTY YEARS AGO Mr. and Mrs. Henry Bird. (Special to The Evening Press.) Saugatuck, March 11. - With a gathering of four generations of their descendants Mr. and Mrs. Henry Bird, who for more than forty years have been residents of this village, have celebrated the seventieth anniversary of their wedding. Mr. Bird was born at Lancaster, N.Y., in 1817 and came to Michigan in 1835. Mrs. Bird was born near the same place in 1824 and also came to Michigan at an early age. Both located near Clinton, Mich., where they became acquainted and were married March 7, 1839. In 1845 they removed to Wheaton, Ill., and six years later to Croton, Mich., then an important lumbering point, where Mr. Bird became prominently identified with the pioneer lumbering business of Michigan. In 1853 they returned to Wheaton, III., and a few years later Mr. Bird became a charter member of the Masonic lodge at that place and became worshipful master of the same lodge in the third year of its existence. He is now believed to be the oldest living Masonic past master in the United States. The couple came to Saugatuck in 1868, where for several years Mr. Bird was engaged in the manufacture of shingles. He also became a charter member of the Masonic lodge of this place. This venerable couple number their descendants to the fifth generation. They have living three children, twenty-one grandchildren, seventeen great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. page 3 top left

Commercial businessesFamily History1835 Logging and Lumbering

Winthers, Sally

10/05/2023

10/05/2023