Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan : 1830-1930
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Mich: 1930

HENRY SHRIVER

George Henry Shriver was born in Buffalo, N. Y., April 10, 1844, the son of George Henry Shriver of Montreal; his paternal grandfather was a German, leading an army into Montreal, and remaining there for some time, and was married to a French lady, Minna Dumas. The Shrivers way back to the time of Charlemagne were a family of soldiers. Henry Shriver sent his boyhood in Buffalo, where in Oct., 1863, at the age of nineteen, he married Miss Josephine Greenhalgh, aged 16. They went to Titusville, Penn., in the great oil craze of '64 and in 1865 he joined the 74th New York State Militia, Co. A., who were sent to quell the riots then revalent in New York City. He then served 68 days in the Civil War, when the war ended and he received an honorable discharge.

When he first came to Saugatuck, he, with W. G. Edgcomb, owned what is now the "Lortin" farm, living in those days when Indians often came to their door, saying "Injun eat," and they were always sure of a welcome there and food too.

At that time when the country was new, they suffered the terrible "ague siege" which claimed many of the early settlers. Later Henry and his brother, Charles Shriver, and Harry Holt went into the fishing business, and the Shrivers built nice homes at the mouth of the Kalamazoo, where now are the Ox Bow Inn and the Art School; they lived at the mouth thirty years, when they moved to Saugatuck in 1902.

To Mr. and Mrs. Shriver were born twelve children, five dying in infancy and Viola, the eldest, in young wifehood. Living today are, Nellie Haven, William, Gertrude Hazen, Amelia Winter, Julia Coates and Henry.

Mr. and Mrs. Shriver lived to celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary and each attained the age of eighty, and met life's joys and sorrows together. Their home was a happy one and the latchstring was always out to friend or stranger, and they had hosts of friends in whose memory they live.