My Genealogy Hound

CORNELIUS TAPPEN, an early and highly respected resident of Marcellus Township, has for nearly two-score years profitably cultivated the soil of Cass County, Mich. Our subject is a native of Sullivan County, N. Y., and, born in 1812, remained in the Empire State until he had reached mature years. His parents, Tunis and Elizabeth (Rynders) Tappen, were born in Dutchess County, N. Y. Eleven children clustered about the fireside of the father and mother, who reared their sons and daughters up to habits of industrious thrift. Cornelius was the second eldest of the family, and through boyhood and early manhood assisted his parents and self-reliantly began the work of life. In 1836, when about twenty-three years of age, he married Miss Sarah Harp, and during the same year located in Ohio. For eighteen years our subject remained in the Buckeye State, but at the expiration of that time resolved to try his fortune in the farther West, and with his wife and family emigrated to Michigan, and settled on the farm where he now resides.

When Mr. and Mrs. Tappen made their home in Cass County their means were very limited, and they suffered many privations. They settled in the timber and developed a farm. Much hard work was required to bring the land profitably under cultivation, but ere long Mr. Tappen improved sixty acres, and gradually more easy and comfortable times resulted from the bounteous harvest yielded by the fertile soil of Michigan. Our subject and his estimable wife were surrounded with a family of five children. Two sons and two daughters lived to years of maturity. Rhoda A., the eldest-born, became the wife of Erastus Hicks. Henry grew up to manhood, and during the Civil War enlisted in the service of the Government, and faithfully fought for the Union. He met with an accident that caused his death. Harlow died single. Isaac, the youngest, lived to marry and become the father of a family. He died in St. Joseph County, Mich., and left three children to mourn his loss.

Mr. and Mrs. Tappen have been man and wife for fifty-seven years and are yet both hale and hearty. Spending their hours in useful toil, they have cheerfully borne the heat and burden of the day, and in the evening of their lives can with satisfaction review the nearly three-score years in which they have pleasantly walked together side by side. With kindly word and deed they have endeared themselves to a host of friends and acquaintances. Locating in Michigan in 1854, they have since that date been identified with the history and progress of Cass County, and have been intimately associated with the changes and advancement incidental to the long period of their residence in Marcellus Township. In political affiliation Mr. Tappen has ever been a strong Democrat and has invariably cast his vote with the “Party of the People” from his twenty-first birthday. Without desiring political promotion, he kept himself well informed upon affairs of local and national importance and has ever been a public-spirited and upright citizen.