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Below is a family biography included in Portrait and Biographical Record of Berrien and Cass Counties, Michigan published by Biographical Publishing Company in 1893.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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JEFFERSON OSBORN, one of Cass County’s leading horticulturists and one of the earliest pioneers of the township of Calvin, was born in Wayne County, Ind., near Richmond, January 2, 1824, a son of Josiah and Mary (Barnard) Osborn. Josiah Osborn was born in Tennessee in March, 1800, and was next to the eldest in a family of sixteen children. His father, Charles Osborn, was twice married, there being seven children by the first and nine by the second marriage. Charles, the grandfather of Jefferson, was born in North Carolina, August 8, 1775, and was the son of Daniel and Margaret Osborn.

The ancestry of the Osborn family came from Wales. The exact date or the name of the original emigrant is not within reach of the writer, but the fact that Charles was born in North Carolina in 1775, and that his father, Daniel, was also born in that State, would seem to indicate that it must have been early in the eighteenth century that the family became identified with the history of the State. Back to the most remote date to which we have been able to trace them, we find that the Osborns were prominent Quakers and very influential in that society. Grandfather Osborn was the most noted of all the family. Early in life he showed his devotion to the faith of his forefathers, and while his parents were people of moderate means, he applied himself to his studies and through his own exertions became a very learned man.

At the age of twenty-three years Charles Osborn was united in marriage with Sarah Newman. In 1808 we find him in Tennessee, one of the most powerful and eloquent Quaker preachers of his day and generation. He was a most pronounced Abolitionist, and in 1814 he took a bold stand for the abolition of human slavery; in fact, he advocated with tongue and pen the immediate and unconditional emancipation of the slaves, and was the first man in the United States to dare to take such a stand and publicly advocate it. This departure on his part created wide-spread consternation throughout the entire country, but more especially in the South. So determined was he on this course that it caused a division in his own (the Friends’) church, and two years later, or in 1816, he was so persecuted for upholding his views that he was compelled to leave Tennessee.

With his family and those of his church who upheld him, Charles Osborn went to Ohio and settled at Mt. Pleasant, where he established a paper called The Philanthropist, which was the first paper ever established to advocate the emancipation of the slaves. He did not meet with a very hearty endorsement of his plan in Ohio, and three years later we find him and his followers wending their way to Indiana and locating in Wayne County. There he not only preached the Gospel, but continued to publicly advocate the emancipation of the slaves, and his sermons, lectures and newspaper articles were published far and near and in many cases most severely criticised, but he was nothing daunted. He kept right on in what he believed to be right and in what he hoped to see accomplished in his day.

In 1832 Charles Osborn made an extended tour of the Old World, ostensibly in the interests of his church, but more likely it was to work up a feeling against human slavery in his own “free” land, and in this way to add strength to his position on this all-important question. He remained abroad for a year and a-half and then returned to Indiana and continued his work in that State until 1842, when he came to Michigan, locating in Vandalia, Cass County, where he remained until 1848. He then returned to Indiana and located at Clear Lake, in Porter County, where he lived until his death, December 29, 1850. The ambition of his life had been to see the slaves free, but he died without witnessing the fruits of his labor, though still confident that the day of emancipation was not far distant. He knew much of the workings of the so-called “underground railroad” and was known to have kept one of the stations inside of which a runaway slave was safe. When he passed away the negro lost a true friend, the church an eloquent preacher, and the country an able and forcible writer; yet his writings were not all applauded and were sometimes bitterly condemned, still they had much to do with the final emancipation of the slave.

As above stated, Charles Osborn was twice married, his first wife being Sarah Newman, who bore him six sons and one daughter. James, the eldest, was prominent as a teacher; Josiah, the father of our subject, was a mechanic; Lydia married Eli Newlan, who was an influential preacher in the Quaker Church; John was well known as one of the leading horticulturists of his day; Isaiah was a preacher in the Society of Friends; Elijah followed the occupation of a farmer; and Elihu also engaged in farming pursuits. The mother of this family died in Tennessee, and Mr. Osborn afterward married Hannah, the daughter of Elihu and Sarah Swain, leading Quakers of Tennessee. She bore him nine children, four daughters and five sons, as follows: Narcissa, Cynthia, Gideon, Charles N., Parker, Jordon, Benjamin, Sarah and Anna, all of whom were engaged in the ordinary pursuits of life. Jordon is living in Cassopolis; Anna married Jesse East and resides in Buchanan, Mich.; Charles and Parker make their home in Clinton County, Ohio.

Josiah Osborn, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a cabinet-maker by trade, a man of but ordinary education but well informed. He was a prominent member of the Quaker Church and like his father was a most pronounced Abolitionist. It was not his privilege either to see the emancipation of the slaves, as he died in 1862, during the progress of the Civil War. He married for his first wife Miss Mary, the daughter of Uriah and Elizabeth (Macy) Barnard. The Barnard and Macy families were natives of the Island of Nantucket, and were of English ancestry. By occupation they were sea-faring men and whalers. The mother of our subject was born in Ohio October 19, 1800. Her father was born at Nantucket on the 27th of August, 1761; her mother, who was the daughter of Joseph and Mary Macy, was born at Nantucket October 14, 1763.

The family of Mr. and Mrs. Macy consisted of ten children, as follows: Jethro, who was born on Christmas Day, 1782; Joseph, whose birth occurred in 1784; Love, December 31, 1786; Hannah, in 1788; Elizabeth, March 26, 1790; Anna, May 28, 1794; George, September 7, 1798; Mary, October 19, 1800; William, June 29, 1803; and John, March 2, 1806. Josiah and Mary (Barnard) Osborn were the parents of seven children. The eldest, Elison, married Martha East, who died leaving two sons and two daughters. They now live in Missouri, where he is engaged in the occupation of farming and is a prominent member of the Quaker Church. Jefferson, the next in order of birth, will be mentioned more fully further on in this sketch. Leander, the third child, married Mary Helen Beal, and they have two children, both boys. He is a graduate of the Chicago Medical College and a successful physician at Vandalia, Cass County, Mich. Obid married Jane Taylor, and after her death he again married, choosing as his wife Miss Priscilla Glass; they have had three children, only one of whom is now living. Their home is in Van Buren County, Mich., where Mr. Osborn is engaged as a farmer, although in early life he followed the profession of a school teacher. Louisa married Alonzo Evans; Angeline became the wife of James Oron; Charles chose for his wife Miss Mary Glass, and now lives at Eureka, Kan., where he is a successful stock-raiser.

The mother of these children died in Cass County in 1851, and the father afterward married Eliza Malory, a native of the State of Vermont. There were no children by this marriage. After the death of Mr. Osborn, in 1862, his widow returned to Poultney, Rutland County, Vt., where she now makes her home. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch came to Michigan from Indiana in 1835, when he was eleven years old, and settled with his parents in Calvin Township, Cass County. What education he received was in the schools of Indiana prior to removing to Michigan, for the advantages in this part of the State were limited in those days. He had to help clear up the farm in the then heavily timbered country, and experienced the hardship incident to life in a new country.

At the age of twenty-three Jefferson Osborn married Frances Tharp, the daughter of Levi and Nancy Tharp, pioneers of Michigan and members of old Virginia families. After his marriage he located on a farm near his father’s home and just south of where he now lives. His wife died in 1851, leaving two children. LeRoy, who was born June 15, 1848, was educated at Niles and Ann Arbor, Mich., and now lives in Cassopolis. He married Miss Lydia E. Chess, and they have three children: Don F., Louis J. and Robert. Clara E. was born January 21, 1850, and was educated at Niles. She died at Jacksonville, Fla., in May, 1888, where her father had taken her, hoping that the change of climate would benefit her health.

In 1853 Mr. Osborn married Mrs. Susanna (East) Osborn, the daughter of Joel and Sarah East. Her father was bom in Grayson County, Va., September 26, 1802, and was the son of William East, likewise a native of the Old Dominion and a member of a well-known Quaker family. Joel East was a leading preacher in the Society of Friends, and went to Tennessee from Virginia and from there to Richmond, Ind., where Mrs. Osborn was born October 10, 1829. Her mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Bulla, was born in Wayne County, Ind., in 1809, her parents, Thomas and Susanna Bulla, being members of an old North Carolina family. The East family was represented in Calvin Township during the very first days of its development. Mrs. Osborn was a widow at the time of her marriage to our subject, having formerly been the wife of his uncle Benjamin, the youngest son of Charles Osborn. Benjamin Osborn died in September, 1849, leaving one child, a daughter, Cynthia Ann, who afterward married an Englishman, George Pullen, and now resides in Calvin Township. Mrs. Osborn came to Michigan with her parents in 1832, when she was but three years of age, and has lived in Cass County ever since.

Two children have been born of the second union of Mr. Osborn. Mary Frances, who was born December 8, 1853, married Irving Mitchell, Superintendent of Schools at Milwaukee, Wis.; they have no children. Frank Russell, whose birth occurred on the 7th of September, 1858, married Miss Mary Lee, and is now a successful orange-grower at De Land, Fla. The three children born of this union all died in infancy and the wife and mother passed away in the spring of 1893.

Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, the subject of this sketch was formerly an Abolitionist. His first vote was cast in that party, and like his forefathers he was known to have been a “director” in the great “underground railroad.” In 1854 he was elected County Treasurer of Cass County and filled the office most creditably for four years. He has also served as County Supervisor, Township Treasurer, and was for more than twenty years a Justice of the Peace. Upon the organization of the Republican party he cast in his lot with that organization and from that day to this has been a most ardent supporter of its principles.

Mr. Osborn’s life occupation has been that of a farmer and horticulturist. In 1867 he went to Niles, where he resided for some years while he was educating his children. Upon his return to Calvin Township, some seventeen years ago, he located on the farm where he has ever since resided and where he and his most estimable wife are spending their declining years, surrounded by all the comforts of life in their pleasant home. They have ever adhered to the religion of their forefathers and are most exemplary members of the Society of Friends. Many years ago Mr. Osborn became a member of the Masonic fraternity, which is a little out of the usual order of the Quaker Church, yet not prohibited in later years.

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This family biography is one of numerous biographies included in the Portrait and Biographical Record of Berrien and Cass Counties, Michigan published in 1893. 

View additional Cass County, Michigan family biographies here: Cass County, Michigan Biographies

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