SIMON FLEWELLING.

The respect which should always be accorded the brave sons of the North who left homes and the peaceful pursuits of civil life to give their services, and their lives if need be, to preserve the integrity of the American union is certainly due the gentleman to a brief review of whose life the following lines are devoted.

Mr. Flewelling was born June 21, 1842, near Cassopolis, Cass county, Michigan, and is the son of John and Ellen (Brady) Flewelling. John Flewelling is a native of New York state and by trade a carpenter and joiner. He came to Michigan in an early day and settled in Cass county, where he obtained influential position. He was a Democrat in politics and served a number of years as justice of the peace and also held local school offices, being also engaged for a number of years as a teacher in the common schools. He was the father of nine children, of whom six are living. The subject is indebted to the common schools of Michigan for his education, but is a man of keen observation and an extensive reader, and has therefore liberally supplemented his school education and is today a well-informed man on general topics. In 1872 he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land and himself cleared it for cultivation. He is now the owner of one hundred and sixty acres, of which fifty are under the plow, and his painstaking care and discriminating judgment is evidenced by the up-to-date condition of his property. His time is almost all given to his farming interests. He is both practical and progressive in his methods and to his energy and perseverance is manifest the gratifying success which has attended his efforts. Fidelity is one of his own general characteristics—such fidelity as is manifested to his family and friends and to his final discharge of the duties of public and private life. In politics Mr. Flewelling is a Democrat and at present is a justice of the peace of his township, in which office he has been retained for eight years, also being a school officer of his township.

To revert to an earlier period in Mr. Flewelling's life, it may be stated that in 1861 he enlisted in the defense of his country, joining Company E, Thirteenth Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry. His regiment was assigned to the Armies of the Cumberland and of the Tennessee and took part in all of the events in which those armies participated, including Sherman's celebrated march to the sea and the final grand review at Washington. Among the more prominent battles may be mentioned Stone River, Chickamauga and Mission Ridge.

Mr. Flewelling was united in marriage in 1867 to Miss Mary Jane Stanley and they have become the parents of nine children: Louise B., who went to Cass county, Michigan, at the age of sixteen years and has since been employed as a school teacher; Flora M., deceased; Frank, deceased; Anna L., of Cass county, this state; Rosa, living at Bellaire; John, deceased; Eugene, deceased; Ellen, deceased; Fannie, at home. Mr. Flewelling is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at Bellaire.

Source: "Biographical History of Northern Michigan, Containing Biographies of Prominent Citizens" ⁴⁸⁸⁶