Henry Bird Jr

Photograph

Saugatuck Douglas Historical Society

bf003.jpg 2.2MB

Digital file on Jack Sheridan Drive 2021.72.02 / Deam-Bird family collection

Name/Title

Henry Bird Jr

Entry/Object ID

2023.10.108

Description

Studio portrait of Henry Bird Jr. as a middle-aged man with dark hair and beard.

Photograph Details

Type of Photograph

Digital scan

Subject Person or Organization

Bird, Henry Sr. 1817-1915

Context

Henry Bird was born in Lancaster, N. Y. in 1817 and he was married to Deziah Van House of the same place in 1840, coming to Michigan on their wedding trip, through from New York in a covered wagon over roads that were so terrible, they were tempted many times to turn around, but they kept on and settled at Croton where Mr. Bird set up a sawmill, later they moved to Wheaton, Ill., where they bought a farm adjoining that of Albert H. Gray, the steel magnate. While at Wheaton Mr. Bird became a charter member of the Masonic Lodge, and in the third year became its worshipful master. They came to Saugatuck in 1866, when the town was in the heyday of its lumbering industries with which Mr. Bird became prominently identified and for several years he was engaged in the manufacture of shingles. He also became a charter member of Saugatuck Masonic Lodge and at the time of his death at the age of ninety-eight, he was said to be the oldest Masonic Past Master in the United States. Mrs. Bird also lived to a good old age of 86 and this venerable couple, when in life, numbered their descendants to the fifth generation. There were four children, Henry, Mary Dean, Laura Pride and Charles E., three of whom are living, also twenty-one grandchildren, seventeen great-grandchildren. They were identified with the M. E. Church and had resided in Saugatuck nearly sixty years before their demise. Source: Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan : 1830-1930 Author: Heath, May Francis Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Mich: 1930 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22634309/henry-bird

Collection

Commercial businesses, Nautical, Family History

Cataloged By

Winthers, Sally

Acquisition

Accession

2023.10

Acquisition Method

Found in Collection

Location

* Untyped Location

Digital data in CatalogIt

General Notes

Note

These image(s) were copied from the SDHC photo blog [or the Jack Sheridan drive if that was a superior version] in preparation for updating the SDHC website in 2023. The location of an original or printed version of these photos was unknown at the time of cataloging.

Create Date

October 5, 2023

Update Date

October 5, 2023