My Genealogy Hound

Alpheus R. Angell, one of the leading agriculturists of Oakland County, who owns and occupies a fine farm of eighty acres, located in section 18, Farmington township, was born in 1851 in Livingston County, New York. He is a son of Alpheus and Mary T. (Chasey) Angell and a grandson of Stephen Angell, who was a highly esteemed farmer of Livingston County, New York, where he lived to an advanced age.

In 1856 our subject’s parents came to Michigan, and located on land which had been first taken up by John Spinning, a brother, to Mr. Angell’s grandmother, who was formerly Susan Spinning. This tract consisted of eighty acres in Novi township. Some years later the eighty-acre tract, located in Farmington township, on the opposite side of the highway, was also purchased. There the parents spent the remainder of their lives, rearing a family of five children, namely: Zadah, wife of Hudson Wilcox, of Farmington village, who reared two children — Agnes (who married Clyde Chamberlin, a jeweler of Farmington, and has one child, Ione) and Maud, now deceased; Alpheus R., the subject of this sketch; Frank S., proprietor of a hotel at Walled Lake, who was married to Jennie Hazen, and has two children — Rex and Zadah; a babe that died in infancy; John S., a farmer of Redford township, Wayne County, who was married to Lillie Lamb and has two children — Russell and Emma; and George, who owned the homestead farm, who was married to Fannie O’Brien, and at his death, December 11, 1898, left a widow and two children — George and Laura.

Alpheus R. Angell was reared on his father’s farm and obtained his education in the schools of Farmington township. In 1876 he was married to Mary J. Jones, a daughter of Samuel Jones, now deceased, who was a farmer of Farmington township, Oakland County. Samuel Jones was married to Elizabeth Lapham, and they had a family of six children. Three children have been reared by Mr. and Mrs. Angell, viz: Clyde F., born November 27, 1876, who was married to Grace Welfare, a daughter of George Welfare, a farmer of Novi township — Clyde F. owns a fine farm of eighty acres in Commerce township, where he is erecting a handsome residence; Zadah Estella, who is now a student at the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, Michigan; and J. L., born in West Bloomfield township, June 2, 1888, and died December 27, 1888.

In 1883 our subject purchased his present farm of eighty acres in section 18, Farmington township, and he also owns ninety acres in section 13. In 1898 he built his commodious home on a beautiful part of the farm, in the midst of a grove of box elder and maple trees. It is surrounded by a fine, well-kept lawn. The other necessary farm buildings exhibit taste and thrift and the whole place is one most admirably laid out and cultivated. Mr. Angell engages in a general line of farming and stock raising. His efforts have met with much success and he is placed with the solid, substantial men of his township. In politics he is a stanch Democrat.