My Genealogy Hound

ROCK S. EDWARDS, an energetic and successful general agriculturist and for several terms an efficient Highway Commissioner of Sodus Township, Berrien County, Mich., was born July 3, 1829, in Shropshire, England. His father, Edward Edwards, a native of Wales and an energetic and hard-working man, was born in 1794. The mother, also of Welsh nativity and born in 1797, attained to womanhood well fitted to assume the cares of a household of her own. While yet a young and single woman she removed to England. The father, finding that wages were higher in other parts of the Queen’s dominions, also went to England, where he obtained employment, met his future wife and was married. The three children born unto the marriage survived the perils of infancy and are now living. The parents were in very humble circumstances and our subject, having a thirst for knowledge, was obliged to earn the money to pay for the instruction he received. Many days he passed in study, his only lunch at noon a bit of dry bread, which he had brought with him from his home. Ambitiously he persevered and acquired a good common education, his sole capital in life.

When fifteen years old Mr. Edwards began the struggle of life upon his own account and for a period of one year toiled for the munificent sum of $15. At twenty-eight years of age he crossed the broad Atlantic and, landing safely in America, at first located in Huron County, Ohio, where he received employment on a farm and remained two months. Learning that he had relatives in Portage County, he then journeyed thither and worked upon a farm in that locality for one and a-half years. A heavy frost June 7, 1859, destroying the crop of wheat, potatoes, and all growing vegetables, our subject, certain that the climate would not suit him, departed at once for Michigan. In this latter State he engaged in agricultural toil upon various farms, never receiving more than $14 per month, frequently less. He continued in Berrien County until the breaking out of the Civil War, in 1862; then, enlisting in Company B, Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, he was mustered into the service at Detroit under Col. Withington. Upon the 29th of August, leaving Detroit, the regiment was hurried to the field of battle, and on the 14th of September our subject actively participated in the fight at South Mountain.

Upon the 17th of September Mr. Edwards was engaged in the battle of Antietam and a few days after, feeling ill, was attended by the surgeon, who prescribed a dose of quinine, which, having been taken by our subject, rendered him unconscious, and, the troops being ordered to march and unable to care for him, he was left lying upon the ground, insensible to his surroundings and desertion. When he recovered it was in December, and he then learned that he had been tenderly cared for by both men and women of the opposing army and from October, in the early part of the month, had been watched over and nursed slowly back to strength and reason. When fully recuperated, Mr. Edwards joined his regiment, March 4, 1863. During his term of service he was in Kentucky, southern Illinois and Mississippi, and shared the perils of the siege of Vicksburg and Jackson and came north to Camp Nicholsville, Ky. Crossing from the latter point into East Tennessee, our subject engaged in the battle of Camden Station. The regiment was cut off at the siege of Knoxville for twenty-one days and during its entire period of service suffered almost incredible hardship.

Constantly exposed to death and capture, the soldiers of the Seventeenth Michigan also fought courageously upon the fields of Spottsylvania, in the battle of the Wilderness, North and South Anna, Pommuka, Cold Harbor and the siege of Petersburgh. In all these engagements our subject actively participated and was wounded in the fight at Spottsylvania, being obliged to remain in the hospital two weeks, when he rejoined his regiment, ready for active duty. At the battle of Spottsylvania, engaged with two hundred and twenty-five men on the right centre, he was surrounded by the fire of the enemy, and of the two hundred and twenty-five men who went into battle twenty-five were killed outright, twenty-three were wounded, and ninety-eight were missing.

At the close of the war, honorably discharged, Mr. Edwards returned to Sodus Township, Berrien County, where, in 1860, he had purchased the farm upon which he now resides. He has brought the land up to a high state of cultivation, making a specialty of fruit, which he grows with excellent success. Upon August 14, 1865, Rock S. Edwards and Miss Lydia E. Fox were united in marriage. Mrs. Edwards is of German descent, her father, William Fox, having been born in the country of the Rhine. Our subject and his estimable wife have no children. Mr. Edwards is a valued member of the United Brethren Church, and with his wife is an active aid in good work. Fraternally, our subject is a member of George H. Thomas Post No. 14, G. A. R., at Benton Harbor. Politically, he is a Republican and has with true and loyal service given his best efforts in behalf of the advancements of the best interests of his adopted country, where he has won a prosperous home and been a true and faithful citizen.