North Star Township Biography
NELSON G. FOX
Source: BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF GRATIOT COUNTY, MICHIGAN published by J. B. BEERS & CO., Chicago, 1906
NELSON G. FOX, one of the well known citizens and extensive farmers of North Star township, Gratiot county, Michigan, where he owns a fine farm of 240 acres, was born May 14, 1844, at Bristol, Ontario county, New York, son of John W. and Martha P. (Hatch) Fox.
John W. Fox was born in Connecticut and died in Kent county, Michigan, aged sixty-six years. His wife was born in New York and died in Essex township, Clinton county, Michigan, in 1885, aged seventy-seven years. Both John W. Fox and his brother Henry served in the war of 1812.
Nelson G. Fox was the fifth in a family of eight children, the others being as follows: Christopher C. is a carpenter residing in Steuben county, New York; Freelove A. married Frank Lee and lives in Bristol, New York; Esther Ann, deceased, married William Miller; Abbie is the wife of Isaac F. Donaldson, a farmer of Essex, Michigan; George W. is a prominent farmer living at Maple Rapids, Michigan; Marilla P., deceased, married L. H. Pees, who served with her brother Nelson G. in the army; and Allie J. is Mrs. Isaac Warren, her husband being a farmer and resident of Maple Rapids, Michigan.
Nelson G. Fox passed his boyhood in Ontario county, New York, and was sixteen years old when he accompanied his parents to Grattan, Kent.county, Michigan, in the fall of 1860. The change was not beneficial to his father, the latter dying March 6, 1861. After the death of the father the mother decided to return to her friends in Ontario county, and Nelson G., then a youth of seventeen, accompanied her; but he immediately returned to Kent county, and in the fall of 1861 enlisted in Company C, Thirteenth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and served from October until April, 1862, when he was discharged for disability. By the following fall he had regained his normal health, and, re-enlisting in Company M, Sixth Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, he served until July 9, 1865, when he was honorably discharged at Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Fox returned to Kent county, Michigan, where he and his mother, who had returned to that State, lived on a farm for two years, his health being delicate during all that period. . On complete recovery he was employed at farm work for a time, and then as a clerk at Greenville. In the fall of 1872 he removed to Clinton county, Michigan, where he purchased a farm of eighty acres in Essex township, remaining there until March, 1893, when he sold the property and came to Gratiot county. He purchased 240 acres in North Star township and has resided on this farm ever since, devoting his time to its development and improvement.
Mr. Fox was married February 22, 1874, in Clinton county, to Miss Hattie A. Eldridge, born May 27, 1855, in Essex township, a daughter of Rodney and Henrietta (Nearing) Eldridge. Rodney Eldridge was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war, a member of Company A, Twenty-third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and was killed at Stone Mountain, Tennessee, in September, 1864, while engaged on a foraging expedition. Mrs. Fox was the eldest of his four children.
Mr. and Mrs. Fox have had four children, namely: Martha L. is the wife of Edward E. Unger; they live on part of the present homestead, and are the parents of two children, Ethel M. and Hattie L. Cora A. is the wife of John R. Allen, residing on an adjoining farm, and they have two daughters, Elsa M. and Jennie B. Dora A. married Henry Hull, who has a harness shop at Ashley, Michigan. Leon A. died in infancy.
Mr. Fox has always affiliated with the Republican party. He is a member of Charles E. Grison Post, G.A.R., of St. John's, Michigan. Since taking up his residence in the county he has served as school inspector and has been identified with all movements looking to the welfare of his section. He has been connected, as collector and solicitor, with the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Gratiot and Clinton counties, and has been a notary public since January, 1905.
Created on ... October 09, 2001