Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Karen D. Foster for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================== U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================== Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ========================================================================== SOURCE: History of Genesee County, Michigan pub. Everts and Abbott - 1879 Page 298 JOHN SLAGHT This venerable gentleman is the fourth in a family of eight children, his birth occurring in the State of New Jersey, June 2, 1790. The name, as its orthography indicates, was originally Holland Dutch, although a portion of French blood flows in the veins of those in this family. Mr. Slaght and one sister, residing in Ingham Co., Mich., are the only survivors of the family of their father, Matthias Slaght. Time dealt gently with all its members, and their years were prolonged much beyond the ordinary span of human existence. Mr. Slaght's father served a few months in the patriot army during the Revolutionary war, being at the time but sixteen years of age. When the son was twelve years old his father removed to Seneca Co., N.Y. Upon the breaking out of the war of 1812 the young man was not found lacking in a love of country, but went to the front with the rifle company to which he belonged, commanded by Capt. Swick. Mr. Slaght grew to manhood upon his father's farm of two hundred acres, receiving a common-school education and experiencing the varied phases of pioneer life in the then wild region of Central New York. On the 13th of December, 1814, he married Miss Phebe Howell, and began work for himself on his father's place, erecting thereon a small tannery and a saw-mill, both of which he operated for many years. Mrs. Slaght, who was born Aug. 6, 1792, was one of a family of seven children, — five sons and two daughters. Her grandfather and his brother emigrated to this country, before the Revolution, from Scotland, and settled in New Jersey. Her father, too young to serve as a soldier in the Revolutionary army, yet aspiring to fame, carried dispatches for the American commanders, placing them between the soles of his shoes. After the war was ended he settled also in Seneca Co., N.Y., and engaged in farming and the man- ufacture of bricks. Mr. and Mrs. Slaght were the parents of eight children, as follows: Mary, born Nov. 5, 1815; Joseph, born Dec. 6, 1817; Matthias, born Jan. 12, 1821; Catherine, born May 9, 1823; Susan, born Oct. 8, 1825; Julia, born Oct. 10, 1828; John, born Dec. 6, 1830; Andrew, born Dec. 1, 1832. Mrs. Slaght died July 8, 1871. In 1847, Mr. Slaght sold his property in Seneca County and removed with his family to Michigan, locating in Mundy township, upon the farm he still owns. He purchased two eighty-acre lots from Peter Chriss, and, aided by his sons, has cleared up the farm, upon which no timber had been felled when he came, and built his present residence. Mr. Slaght's hospitality has been almost phenomenal, he never having turned a person away from his door. Politically, he was a Democrat until the organization of the Republican party, since when he has been found in the ranks of the latter. He voted for the lamented Lincoln, thus aiding in the overthrow of slavery in the Republic. For many years not a drop of liquor has been tasted by him, and for more than sixty years he has been a member of the Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian Churches, first of the former in New York, and, since coming to Mundy, of the Presbyterian Church at the centre. At the age of eighty-nine he possesses much vigor, yet the weight of years is reminding him at length of a home with those who have "gone before." ==========================================================================