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Born 24 August 1824, Germany · in the county from 1842
The tie, exactly: settler — born in Germany on 24 August 1824, a son of Frederick and Elizabeth Smith, whose family crossed in 1826 and wandered the era's immigrant road — New York, Buffalo, Canada, Stark County, Ohio — before Michael came to this county in 1842 and built a 380-acre stock farm on Section 17.
The course: he married Mary E. Anderson in July 1853; she was born 20 November 1827 in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, and her father, Samuel Anderson, had come to this county in 1836 and died in 1852 — a second settler line entering this section, at in-law strength, through her sketch line. Smith was a Presbyterian. His post-office line in Chapman reads "P.O. Granger" — among the earliest in this roll whose mail was addressed to the village itself rather than to Edwardsburg or South Bend, a small dated marker of the depot village's rise inside the township.
Sources:
- Chapman (1880), Harris Township biographical sketches, pp. 715–717 — the Smith sketch.
- Illustrated Historical Atlas (1875), Harris patrons' directory, p. 103 — Smith, Section 17, settled 1842.