My Genealogy Hound

HON. THOMAS MARS has occupied with executive ability many of the important county and State offices within the gift of his fellow-citizens and constituents, and, discharging the duties entrusted to his care with efficiency, is one of the most popular and highly esteemed residents of Berrien County, Mich. Our subject, an extensive and prosperous general agriculturist of Berrien Township, born May 4, 1829, in Giles County, Va., was but an infant when he removed with his parents to Berrien County, with whose growth and progress he has been intimately associated for more than three-score years. His father, Hugh Mars, a native Virginian, remained in his early home until he attained his majority. He was a hardworking and enterprising man and combined the trade of a blacksmith with the occupation of a farmer. The Marses are of Scotch descent, but the paternal great-grandfather made his home in New Jersey, in which State the grandfather of the Hon. Thomas Mars, Archibald Mars, was born, and later, migrating from his native State to Virginia when young, remained in the Old Dominion until his death.

The mother of our subject, Elloner (Riggin) Mars, was the daughter of an old Virginian family and a native of the Old Dominion, where her father pursued the peaceful avocation of a tiller of the soil. Marrying in Virginia, the parents journeyed later to Michigan, locating in Berrien County, April 6, 1830, the very day upon which the first election of the county was held, twenty-six voters having cast their ballot. The father entered land on section 23, Berrien Township, and the deed was signed by President Andrew Jackson. The mother, a devoted Christian woman, was obliged at first to go to Summerville when she wished to attend church. At that period there were no settlers in the immediate neighborhood of the pioneer home. The Indians had huts on the land of the father, and were peaceable, quiet red men, and the first boys that our subject remembers playing with were Indian lads. The land was heavily timbered, and the country round about almost impassable at times. Mr. Mars well recollects the surveying and laying out of Cassopolis and the Berrien Spring Road. The mother, born in February, 1805, died February 27, 1837, preceding her husband to the better land by forty years. The father lived to be married four times, and removed from the old homestead in 1853 to the farm owned by his last companion, pleasantly located in Berrien Springs.

Hugh Mars, after a life of busy usefulness, passed away, mourned as a public loss, in 1877, at the good old age of eighty-one years. He was an enterprising and self-reliant man, of strong and earnest purpose, and, possessing most admirable traits of character, was honored and beloved. He was, politically, in early life a Whig and later an ardent Republican, and was a leader in the councils of the local party. He was for many years a popular Justice of the Peace, and was one of the first appointed in the county. By his first marriage he had six children, all surviving. A. W. resides in Berrien Springs; Thomas was the second-born; Samuel lives in Lake Township; William is a citizen of California; Eliza J. is the wife of P. H. Webster, of section 11, Berrien Township; Melinda is the wife of T. B. Snow, of section 16, Berrien Township. Of the three children born unto the third marriage, the surviving are B. F., residing on section 18; and Elizabeth, wife of Burdette McGill, of Oronoko Township.

Our subject, reared in the pioneer home, had barely attained his majority, when, beginning life for himself, he served an apprenticeship to the trade of a carpenter and joiner. For seven years he did business as a contractor and builder, and in 1857 went to Kansas, settling in Lawrence. In the following December he came home, and spent January, returning in February to Kansas, where he remained through the summer of 1858, and in the fall journeyed to Missouri. He purchased a half-interest in a sawmill near Savannah, and engaged in business in that locality until the breaking out of the Civil War. At this time the mill was burned and our subject was warned to leave in fifteen days.

In the fall of 1860, Thomas Mars and Miss Margaret A. Wood were united in marriage. The estimable wife of our subject is widely known and highly esteemed. She was the daughter of Christopher Wood, of Binghamton, N. Y., in which part of the Empire State she was born, reared and thoroughly educated. Immediately after his marriage, Mr. Mars rented for one year an old water-mill near Berrien Springs, and at the end of the twelve months bought a steam sawmill and thirty-five acres of land where he now resides. The land was then wild (November 10, 1862), but now, with an added acreage, is one of the most valuable homesteads in the township. The one hundred and twenty acres, eighty-five of which are highly cultivated and improved with excellent and commodious buildings, is a most desirable piece of farming property. Until a few years ago our subject operated the mill, as well as cultivated the fertile soil, but now devotes his time to agricultural pursuits. Of the four children who brightened the home, only one lived to adult age, Rosalia Imogene, wife of Dr. O. A. La Crone, a successful medical practitioner of Berrien Centre. Mrs. La Crone had three children: an infant daughter, who died unnamed; Thomas Mars and Frank W. The accomplished daughter passed away March 12, 1891, mourned by sorrowing friends and relatives.

Fraternally, Mr. Mars is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Berrien Centre, and has passed all the chairs. He is now a member of the Standing Committee on By-laws for the State. He is also a member of the Patrons of Husbandry of Berrien Centre, has held all the offices in the same and is the present Master. He has been Master of the State Grange for five years, and has taken in three districts since 1873, giving his thorough and enthusiastic support to the existence and prosperity of the Grange, and is, and has been, a member of the State Executive Committee of the Grange for sixteen years. Our subject is now a member of the State Board of Control of the State Public Schools at Coldwater, Mich.

Politically, Mr. Mars is a Republican, and has always been actively interested in local and national issues. He has several times been Chairman of the County Committee and is now Treasurer of the same. As delegate to various State, county and Congressional conventions, he has given his constituents universal satisfaction by the faithful handling of the public interests intrusted to his care. In 1880, elected to the State Senate, our subject served with fidelity his full term and was present at the extra sessions. As a member of important committees, he promoted the interests of the State, and was a prominent factor in securing the present law on highways. Mr. Mars has been identified with the leading agricultural societies and has been President of the Berrien County Agricultural Society many terms, and was President of the Berrien Springs Agricultural Society last year. For four years he served as Oil Inspector of the district, has also been County Agent of the State Board of Charities, and was likewise Inspector of the Poor of Berrien County for three years. Constantly engaged in public work for the greater part of his life, our subject has proven himself to be a man of intelligent ability, excellent judgment and sterling integrity of character, and, the candidate of his party for most responsible positions, has ever justified the confidence reposed in him by a host of friends.