Kraft Family History

Johann George Kraft and Christine (Langer) were innkeepers.

His son was Johann George Kraft was a Carpenter and was born in 1748, his was was Regina Marie (Stutzer).  

His son was Johannes Kraft (John) Wife Magdalena (Bechtel)

John was born 2-14-1777 in Anspach, Koenigreich, Prusia.  Prussia was a part of Germany.  John died in Kitchener (Berlin) on 4-9-1844.

John did not like being a carpenter was apprenticed at an early age to a tailor. He complete his apprenticeship and traveled as a journeyman, part of the required course, to Switzerland and France. Then nothing until he arrived in Philadelphia or possibly Baltimore in 1806.

John Kraft was a native of Auspack, Prussia, Germany, where he was born on February 14th, 1771. He emigrated to America in 1806, landing in Philadelphia he wended his way to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where he formed an acquaintance with parties who were preparing to move to Canada. Not finding things in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to his expectations, he joined one of these parties among whom was George Eby, and came to Canada. This was in 1806 the same year he came to America. Being a tailor by trade he soon formed an acquaintance with all the settlers of Waterloo. In those days, the tailors used to go from house to house making garments for the people, thus having an opportunity to form an acquaintance with all. On February 7th, 1808, he was married to Magdelena, daughter of George (Yarrick) Bechtel. She was born February19th, 1789, and died November 17th, 1866. He died April 9th, 1844. Soon after their marriage, they moved on the farm know as the "Old Abe Moyer Farm" about one and one-half miles south of Berlin. There they resided for some years, then they sold their farm and purchased lot No. 112,German Company's Tract, situated east of Bridgeport. Their old homestead is now in possession of their grandson, Moses Kraft. Here they resided until their deaths. They were blessed with a family of four

children.

Used by permission Schnitz and Plum Pudding by Eunice M. Brake

Patterson Sanitarium

Robert and Rachel Patterson, who came to Washtenaw County in 1828, where Robert died in 1831.  Rachel with five boys to bring up and educate, and fit for the responsibilities of the future, proved equal to the emergency, and continued the management of the homestead six years, when she came with her family to Kent County and bought 40 acres of land on sec. 13, this tp., where she spent her life. The first two years after her removal to this county she herself self-labored for wages. Her energy was wonderful, and her perseverance indomitable, and with the aid of her sons she paid for her land and spread its borders until the tract in possession of the family included 350 acres. Her sons all settled near her, and she was to the end of her life, March 1, 1864, their wise counselor and most judicious friend. At her death, Mr. Minor Patterson, came in possession of the homestead, to which he has added until he owns 320 acres of first-class land. When he first began his struggle with the world he owned two dollars, an ax and a gun, and three months' provisions. They cleared five acres the first winter, and look back to that time as one of promise and not difficulty. Mr. Patterson was married July 4, 1848, to Sally A., daughter of Orleans and Sally Spaulding, of Paris, born in New York in 1826. they have five children, three sons and two daughters, all residing in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson are members of the Congregational Church.

MINER PATTERSON, of Paris Township, was born in Steuben County, New York, in 1819, and removed with his parents to Washtenaw County,'Michigan, in 1828, and to Kent County, Michigan, with his mother and brothers, Jacob and James Patterson, in the Spring of 1837. He was married July 4, 1848, to Miss Sally. A. Spaulding, who had come with her parents from Seneca County, New York, in 1836. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson have three sons and two daughters. Mr. Patterson's mother, Mrs. Rachel Patterson, lived with him for twenty-five years, or until she died, in 1864, aged seventy-seven years, but remarkably vigorous. She was much esteemed as a nurse, and was widely known among the pioneers as a most useful woman. -.

As long ago as the year 1833, Barney Burton, Edward Guild, Joel Guild, Daniel Guild, and James Vanderpool located within its present limits. Benjamin Clark and Abram Laraway, settled in the year 1835; Jacob Patterson, Miner Patterson, James Patterson, Orleans Spaulding and Philanzo Bowen, in the year 1836; Nicholas Carlton in the year

MINER PATTERSON, a retired farmer of Paris township, Kent county, Mich., was born in Wayne, Steuben county, N. Y., June 9, I819, and is a son of Robert and Rachel (DeLong) Patterson, also natives of the state of New York, and who for some time resided in Seneca county, where the subject of this sketch was reared until nine years of age. In I828, the family came to Michigan and located in Washtenaw county, eight miles north of Ypsilanti, where they resided until 1837, when they came to Kent county. The father, however, who had been a soldier in the war of 1812, and was at Buffalo, N. Y., at the time of its burning, died in Washtenaw county, at the comparatively early age of forty-four years. The family comprised ten children, nine of whom came to Kent county with the mother. Four only of these remained with the mother, of whom Miner was the eldest, and James and Jacob, who were married, settled near her in Paris township, but now both are deceased. Mrs. Patterson, who was among the earliest to settle in her part of Paris township, had forty acres of wild land, but both she and Miner, then eighteen years of age, lived out two years, she keeping house for a gentleman in the neighborhood and he working at clearing up land. At the close of the two years, Mrs. Patterson and her son, Miner, built a small log house on the farm, four acres of which Miner had cleared of timber, and this cabin stood very close to the spot on which the present modern house was later erected. Miner then worked out another year, and when he settled down to work on the home place had a good yoke of oxen, which were two-year-old steers the family brought with them When they first came; but one of these died, and Miner had again to work out to earn enough money to buy another. Mrs. Patterson was also very industrious and likewise frequently worked out for others. She did her own spinning, and wove all the cloth used in the family. When Miner Patterson came to Paris township he had $2 in cash, a good ax, a gun and the two steers. He cleared off his land himself, worked for his brothers and two brothers-in law, constantly added to his possessions until he owned at one time 350 acres in one body, and personally cleared off the trees from it all. He was an expert with the ax, chopped a great deal for others, and at the age of twenty years had no equal. Mr. Patterson has lived on his present farm sixty years, built his present house in I856, and here his mother died in 1864, aged seventy-seven years. She was a wonderful woman, and was always sought for by her neighbors in cases of childbirth, in which she acted as doctor, midwife and nurse. Mr. Patterson has grown grain mainly, has kept about 200 sheep, and also a number of cows, his mother having been a famous butter maker, in which art his wife also excells. Mr. Patterson was married July 4, I848, to Miss Sally Ann Spaulding, daughter of Orleans and Sally (VanDyke) Spaulding, who came from Seneca county, N. Y., in 1831, settled in Wayne county, Mich; came to Kent county, Mich., in I836, and settled in Paris township in 1837. Mrs. Patterson was born in Seneca county, N. Y., July 4, 1826; her mother died in Wayne county, Mich., and her father in Paris, Mich., at the age of eighty four years.

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Patterson were named Warren A., a farmer in Cascade township; John J., who lives on a farm adjoining the homestead; Sarah Ellen, wife of 0. Vanderbilt, also on an adjoining farm; Delia May, who was married to George N. June, died at the age of twenty-eight years, and left two children, one of whom died a few weeks later; Miner L., who manages the home I I farm, is married to Sarah E. McKersey and has one child, Ruby, aged three years. He is also a member of the Masonic lodge at Ada. Mr. Patterson has been a deacon in the East Paris Congregational church for thirty years. In politics he is a stanch republican, but cast his first presidential vote with the Whig party, in 1840, for William H. Harrison, and has never missed voting at a national election since that date,but he takes no special interest in local politics. In his walk through life he has always been strictly honorable and upright and has never had. a law suit carried to an issue, and no name in the county of Kent is more respected than that of Miner Patterson.

ROBERT B. PATTERSON. To him who, in the love of nature, as exhibited in the myriad-mind of the youth of a community, sees the need of suitable directing hands, and fitting himself; takes up the work for the love of it, all students of social and economic subjects bow with respect. Such a man is he to whom attention is now briefly directed. With only meager advantages himself for education, but with the same indomitable will that has characterized numerous members of the family, he early determined upon securing the best training obtainable under his restrictions. At seventeen he passed examination and secured a certificate to teach. However, he remained at home, assisting his father upon the farm for two years longer, when he began to teach. He followed this most honorable vocation nearly sixteen years, becoming one of the most popular educators, whose services were in constant demand. He was very successful in this profession, and many of his pupils are now filling responsible positions, for which

Jacob Patterson, Miner Patterson, James Patterson, Orleans Spaulding, and Philanzo Bowen, in the year 1837; Nicholas Carlton in the year 1837, and Hiram H. Allen in the year 1838. Alexander H. Clark was born in Trenton, N. J., May 21, 1804. He came to Michigan, in 1828, and settled in Wayne county, purchasing forty acres of land, but a year later he sold it and went to Plymouth, purchased forty acres, and again sold out, and this time went to Superior, Washtenaw county. Three years later he settled in Paris, and in 1836 purchased 160 acres in Section 14. A year later he sold his claim and purchased 160 acres in Sections 8 and 9. He was one of the earliest if not the first white settler in the present limits of the township. He afterward lived in Gaines about thirty years, but returned to Paris and purchased 106 acres on Section 30. Mr. Clark adhered to Greenback doctrines, politically. He served as justice of the peace fourteen years, township clerk three years, and supervisor three years. The Pattersons came from Steuben county, New York, and in 1828 settled in Washtenaw county, Michigan, where the father died, in 1831. The mother, with five boys to rear, educate, and fit for the responsibilities of the future, proved equal to the emergency and continued the management of the homestead six years, when she came with her family to Paris township and purchased forty acres of land in Section 13, where she spent the remainder of her life. The first two years after her removal to this county she herself labored for wages. Her energy was wonderful and her perseverance indomitable, and with the aid of her sons she paid for her land and spread its borders until the tract in the possession of the family included 350 acres. Her sons all settled near her and she was to the end of her life, March 1, 1864, their wise counsellor and most judicious friend. Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan : historical account of their progress from first settlement to the present time / Ernest B. Fisher, editor.

Lewis Cook, born 1804, left New Jersey in 1833 for Senaca County, New York with his wife Elizabeth, from there they went to Washtenaw County, Michigan.  Along with his brother-in-law Peter and George Teeple then came to Cascade Michigan in 1836. Lewis Cook was the first white settler in Cascade Township.  Along with them was Hiram Laraway and who was married to Mary Teeple.  The above families of Spaulding and Patterson were related. 

48th street was once Cook Road and there was a Cook School as well as Cook Bridge which was a railroad tressel.  There is a Teeple Street in Ada Michigan.  28th street in Cascade was once named Laraway Road.