Lee Allen Backus, WWI "Census"

World War I "Census" - At The Archives of Michigan (from what I remember, participation in this endeavor was voluntary and the results were compiled on index cards).

Backus, Lee Allen

Iosco Co., MI

son of Floren & Ida Backus

Pinckney, MI

Livingston Co. File page 14

Washtenaw Co. File

Source

From POW To Tawas Lighthouse Keeper

Lighthouse Stairs [Not Tawas Bay Lighthouse]

From the Patriot War:

Excerpts from the narrative above: "Chauncey Sheldon, a Macomb County farmer, joined the fray and was taken prisoner in Canada.  Saved from execution by flashing a Masonic sign, he was transported to Van Diemen's Land instead.  After his return to Michigan he became a lighthouse keeper at Tawas Bay.  He then lived with his daughter, Mrs. Daniel Duncan in Macomb County, Michigan.  Mr. Sheldon died in Genesee County, Michigan, about 1855."

Source - Tawas Bay

Loud In Oscoda

The Loud name was still well-known when we lived in Oscoda in the 1990's.

Genealogical record of the descendants of Caleb Loud...

The youngest child of the Henry M. Loud family was born in Oscoda in 1869.

"In 1865, owing in part to impaired health, he [Henry M. Loud] took a supernumerary relation and engaged in the lumber business first in Boston and then in Oscoda, Mich., where he still resides, being the president of the HM Loud & Sons Lumber Co., doing a large lumber mercantile and shipping business with his four sons associated with him."

Company K

From a post in Images Of Michigan:

"The Road To Andersonville is the first serious attempt to put on film the recently discovered story of Company K, First Michigan Sharpshooters regiment. This was the ONLY unit in the Union army where every man was a Native American."

Jim's photo taken at Andersonville Prison in Georgia

Check out other posts in the "Images Of Michigan" blog, including  Images of Iosco County [where I once lived].

East Tawas Murder

From the Farmington Enterprise [Michigan] published July 1, 1921:

A murder in East Tawas [MI]
Henry Wilkinson of Bellaire, Belmont, Ohio, murdered his ex-wife and her husband, Mr & Mrs Riley Griffiths, and shot their two year old son, Edward Griffiths.
Deputy Sheriff Arthur Dillon narrowly escaped death when he came to the Griffiths home to investigate the shooting.

Riley Griffith (1879-1921) and Alberta J. Baile Knight (1903-1921) were married in Iosco County, Michigan, on June 8, 1921.  They were shot to death on June 21, 1921.

East Tawas Slayer Is Found Guilty (News Article)

Date: 1921-09-23; Paper: Grand Rapids Press

Mort Dennell And His Stories Of Iwo Jima

Edward Mortimer Dennell, who lived in Oscoda, Michigan, was an American marine lived through the Battle at Iwo Jima. 

The Oscoda Press published a feature story about Mort and his experiences in 2003.

Denell and his comrade snuck across enemy lines, through a ravine, and up the side of a hill to the location known as Kitano Point. There, Denell took a small American flag out of his hat and the two fashioned a flagpole out of twigs and shoelaces.  The following day, American troops moved onto Kitano Point and prepared to ceremonially place a flag at the point, only to find that there was already one there.  "That colonel was raving mad at me," Denell said. "When I was leaving my flag was still up there."


Denell kept a journal of his war experiences while on Iwo Jima. Although that journal remained packed away in his closet for about 50 years afterward, in 1995 Denell began illustrating scenes from the battle at Iwo Jima, capturing his memories, both good and bad, in an illustrated diary now entitled Iwo Jima Diary.

Mort, who was my aunt's neighbor, was part of group protecting those raising the flag at Iwo Jima (according to my aunt).  She and my uncle, who were very impressed with Mort's illustrations, introduced me to Mort who showed me several of his drawings.  It was a privilege to talk to Mort and see his work in person.

[Source]

Mort Dennell on YouTube

The National Film Network, has the Iwo Jima Diary as a component of a curriculum listed.

Mort and Iwo Jima at Awesome Stories here.
 

Mort Dennell died in 2007:

DENELL, Edward "Mort"; 89; Minneapolis MN>Tawas MI; Royal Oak DT; 2007-6-19; rtc

Taylor Family With Iosco Co., MI, Roots

While researching the background of Civil War veteran Charles Eickhoff, whose obituary was found in the Flint Journal while doing other research (see post below), some items of interest (to me) about his daughter, Henrietta (Eickhoff) Taylor and her husband, Sibley Taylor (clergyman & lawyer) were discovered.

Sibley Taylor, his first wife, and his children lived near Oscoda, Iosco Co., Michigan, in the late 1800's. Jim and I lived in Oscoda for a few years in the 1990's. We bought what was thought to be our retirement home shortly after Wurtsmith AFB closed in Oscoda, but sold the little cottage near Lake Huron so we could live full time in our RV motorhome and travel the country unencumbered.

View of Oscoda, Michigan (from postcards). Our old house is in the picture:





Before the move to Iosco Co, Sibley G. Taylor lived in Ann Arbor:
1870 MI Washtenaw, Ann Arbor
Taylor, Sibley G., 29, lawyer, b. NY
", Sophronia L., 27, keeps house, b. MI
", Carrie L., 5, b. MI
", Gilbert L., 4, b. MI

1880 MI Iosco Co., Tawas
Taylor, Sibley G., self, 40, NY, Lawyer, Eng NH
“ , Saphronia, wife, 38, MI NY NY “, Carrie L., daughter, 10, MI NY MI
“, Gilbert R., son, 14, MI NY MI
“, George S., son, 9 “
“, Laroy D., son, 9m, “

Didn't find when Saphronia Taylor died, but the kids are listed in the Probate index of Iosco Co. (transcribed by the Huron Shores Gen. Soc.) here.

As an attorney, Sibley Taylor is also listed in indexes regarding court proceedings in Iosco County here.

The Taylors are listed in extracted items from the Tawas (Iosco Co.) newspapers (Huron Shores G.S.) here.

Found at www.familysearch.org was a listing for the marriage of Henrietta Eickhoff and Sibley G. Taylor in Grayling, Crawford Co., Michigan, on 18 September 1895.

Additional information, including this (Mr. and Mrs. C. EICKHOFF are the grandparents to a young preacher, born to Rev. and Mrs. S. G. TAYLOR, on the 10th inst. (28 Aug 1902)) was gleaned from the online transcriptions of the newspaper, Avalanche, of Grayling, Crawford County, Michigan, found here.

In 1900, the Sibley Taylor family lived in Shiawassee Co., Michigan.
1900 MI Shiawassee, Perry
Taylor, S.G., head, July 1840, married 5 yrs, NY Eng CT, clergyman
", H.E. wife, Nov 1869, m5, Nov 1869, 1child/1living, NY Ger NY
", Ruth F., daughter, Aug 1897, MI NY NY
", Leroy D., son, Aug 1880, MI NY MI, laborer

The death of Sibley Taylor was listed here in the Iosco Co. index (by HSGS).
Taylor, Sibley G 65y11m13d 1906 24

Henrietta Taylor is living in Flint, Genesee Co., Michigan, next to her parents in 1910, as a widow with children Ruth, Emma and Charles.