My Genealogy Hound

LYCURGUS JEFFRIES, an energetic business man and representative farmer, now located upon section 19, Galien Township, Berrien County, Mich., is a native of the West, and was born in Dearborn County, Ind., January 1, 1838. Our subject is the son of Thomas E. and Margaret (Foster) Jeffries. Father Jeffries was born near Wheeling, Va., in 1815. Apprenticed early in youth to the trade of a brick-layer and plasterer, he followed the business all his life. He was also a contractor and builder, and was hard-working and enterprising. Married in Virginia to the daughter of Thomas and Permelia Foster, he soon after located in Indiana, settling in Lawrenceville, Dearborn County, which was his home until his death of cholera, in 1850. He was never a politician, but took an interest in the conduct of public affairs and cast his vote with the Democratic party. The father and mother were the parents of six children: Thaddeus H., deceased; Lycurgus, our subject; Martha J., wife of Isaac Martin; Napoleon B.; Permelia C., married to Reuben Cooley; and Missouri, deceased. The mother after the death of her husband married Thomas Spradling, and unto them was born one son, Albert. In 1877, after surviving her first husband twenty-seven years, she too passed away.

Our subject was but eleven years of age when the death of his father obliged him to begin the battle of life for himself. The orphan boy worked faithfully on a farm seven years, receiving the privilege of three months’ schooling, a suit of clothes and $15. He was then eighteen years old and managed with perseverance and self-denial to fit himself for a teacher, and taught one year. He next engaged in farming on the home place, and when the Civil War broke out entered the Army. It was in 1862 that Mr. Jeffries joined the Army of the Cumberland, having enlisted in Company H, Sixty-eighth Indiana Regiment. He actively participated in many of the principal engagements and took part in the battles of Hoover’s Gap, Mission Ridge and Chickamauga, in the latter fight having his gun shot out of his hand. Our subject was on detached duty with the Chief Commissary of the Military Division of Mississippi. Taken prisoner at Mumfordsville, Ky., he was held in durance three months and then paroled. After the close of the war Mr. Jeffries located in Michigan, and in 1867 was united in marriage to Miss Julia, daughter of William and Samantha (Taylor) Valentine.

The wife of our subject was born in Oswego County, N. Y., and in 1850 emigrated with her parents to La Porte County, Ind., and the same year removed to Michigan, settling in Berrien County. Mr. and Mrs. Jeffries have one son, Ernest, now married to Miss Daisy Mayes. This son received a liberal education in the Buchanan School in Three Oaks, and is now on the home farm. Aside from his agricultural interests, Mr. Jeffries was for several years engaged in the grocery and drug business in Three Oaks. For two summers he sold trees in both Michigan and Indiana. Politically, our subject is a Republican, and for one term ably discharged the duties of Township Trustee of Three Oaks Township. At one time he was a member of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, but is not now actively connected with that fraternal society. He is a member of Deacon Post, G. A. R., Carlisle Hill, Ind. He and his estimable wife are valued members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and generously aid in its support and the extension of the good cause. Mr. Jeffries is well known throughout his section of the State and is respected as a citizen of sterling integrity.