Early
Memories of
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company;
CHARLES C.
BILLINGS
Pioneer, soldier and sturdy citizen, apply
to Charles C. Billings who had lived in Newark and later The Flats, then it was
named Saugatuck for eighty-one years and in practically one location in
Saugatuck village for sixty-six years. To have lived all those years arid to
have won the respect of all who knew him, was his record.
From 1837 when John H. Billings with his
wife (Mary Barager) and several children came from
Shortly this family came to Saugatuck and
in 1840 they figured in a tragic river trip when Mr. Billings and his family
were going in an open sail-boat from the Flats to visit the Mann and Meeker
families, the boat hit a snag and capsized and his wife and three children,
James, Mary and Hannah, were drowned — He saved four children. Peter Henry and
the twins, Hozias and Darius, who were cared for by
an Indian woman until 1842 when he married Miranda Clark, a widow with two
children, and to this union were born thirteen children, the eldest being our
C. C. Billings, and in 1856 they came to Saugatuck to reside and in 1861, at
the age of 18, Charles was married to Miss Clara Brown, a childhood playmate,
and the next day he enlisted in the service of his country in Company A, Third
Michigan Cavalry, serving to the end of the war.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Billings were the
parents of eight children, three dying in infancy and one daughter, Alta. wife of
James Tahaney, dying at the age of 21, those living
are Mrs. Edith Clark, Mrs. Ivah Taylor, and two sons,
Clarence B. and John, and the wife, Clara, is at the old home at the age of
eighty-nine, when in her old age she is cared for by her daughter, Edith.