Jesse Carley was born this day, 17 May 1883 in Henrietta Township, near Munith, Michigan. Today would have been his 132nd birthday. Jesse was born on the Carley farm on Sayers Road where he lived his entire life.
This wonderful little portrait of Jesse was made by the Novelty Studio Co. in Jackson, Michigan and probably dates to about 1900, just five years before his marriage to Annie Smith (hope you read yesterday's post).
Now how do you suppose the Carley family came to settle in Michigan?
Jesse's grandfather, James Carley immigrated to the United States from Hastings in southern England at the age of 15 aboard the
Obit, and arrived in New York on April 30, 1830 with his parents, James and Elizabeth Carley, his grandmother Mary Hunt Carley, and 5 or 6 of his siblings (only three are listed on the ships manifest, younger children were not always listed).
The Carley's would settle for the next 20 years in the Syracuse, NY where James would learn his fathers profession as an upholsterer. It is probable that other Carley relatives immigrated and settled there prior the family of James and Elizabeth's voyage across the Atlantic. But the family would not remain in NY, rather they all emigrated to Sacramento, California following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. Sacramento at the time was called Fort Sutter. By this time James, the younger, had become a man and married a neighbor, Ms. Julia Ann Hoyt and had started a family of his own. By 1850, all the Carley's, including James, the younger, had left for California. However, Julia Ann remained in Syracuse with her parents and her children for a short time.
Family tradition states that James did well in the gold fields, and wished to return to the east to be with his wife and five children. He then left California, leaving his parents and his siblings in the growing City of Sacramento, where most of them would remain for generations. In 1853, Julia Ann ventured to Michigan with her parents, children and several of her siblings to settle on property that her father, Rev. Keeler Hoyt, had purchased in the early 1840s situated in Section 19 of Waterloo Township. James would travel to rejoin his family now located in Michigan.
Within a short time of his arrival, James purchase a tract of farm land adjacent to his father-in-laws in Waterloo, not far from Portage Lake. Judging from a 1858 plat map, it would appear that this tact would have only been about 20-30 acres of land, therefore, I would guess that was pretty small to raise enough crops to make a living for a family of seven. By the outbreak of the American Civil War, James and his family had purchase a new farm tract only about a mile to the west, located in Section 23 of Henrietta Township. Here, James and Julia would live out the remainder of their lives.
Oren A. Carley, Jesse's dad and James' second son, through the years enlarged the family's real estate holdings. He would purchase an additional 50 acres from William E. Pickett and then about 40 acres across the road from Calvin Silsbee. Ultimately, Oren Carley would own 156 acres in Section 23. The family would move to the house across Sayers Road sometime in the 1870's and this house was to become the permanent domicile for the next two generations of Carley's. It was in this house that Jesse was born. Oren continued to expand his real estate holdings by purchasing 80 acres in Section 14, located across Sayers road from the Kennedy School House (this would eventual be owned by Ed and Ede Carley). He again purchased another 80 acre farm on Kennedy Road in Section 15 from C. M. Shearer (across the road from Pleasant Grove Cemetery). In total, Oren's land holdings in Henrietta Township would include more than 300 acres. Jesse would inherit all 156 acres in Section 23.
In England, the Carley's were considered "non-Conformists" because of they were members of the Wesleyan Methodist congregation. When James, the elder, came to this country, he was known to have continued to preach as a laymen in what had become the Methodist Episcopal denomination in the United States. Many of the Carley's continued to follow Methodism and were members of the Munith Church (today, its the Munith United Methodist Church).
Keeler Hoyt, the father of Julia Ann Carley, however was a reformer within the Methodist Episcopal denomination while still living in Syracuse. An ardent abolitionist, Hoyt became a preacher in what was to become the Wesleyan Methodist denomination, a faith that traveled with him to Michigan. It is know that a small band of Wesleyan's formed a congregation in Waterloo Township as early as 1853, but this religious society does not appear to have survived into the 20th century. It was also during the 1850s that the Wesleyan's created a college for the education of young people at Leoni, Michigan, some 20 miles to the south of Waterloo Township. We know from a newspaper account in 1856 of a Wesleyan Methodist preacher who was traveling through the western parts of the country met up with "old friend" Keeler Hoyt on his visit to the college at Leoni on his way back to Syracuse. Knowing these tid bits of information, I've been on the hunt to discover whether Keeler Hoyt had any formal connection with the creation of the Wesleyan school at Leoni.
So, have we answered the question on how the Carley's came to live in Michigan? Well, perhaps we know a little more about it, but I do wish to know what was the factors that motivated the Hoyt side of the family to relocate. We have a good timeline here, but more digging is needed.
