My Genealogy Hound

Frederick Steinbaugh, who is the owner of a fine home and 107 acres of some of the best land in Springfield township, located in sections 30 and 31, was born in Hesse, Germany, November 18, 1830, and is a son of Michael and Elizabeth (Banhardt) Steinbaugh, grandson of Henry Steinbaugh, and a great-grandson of Frederick Steinbaugh, who took part in the Revolutionary War, as one of the Hessian contingent of the British Army. After thoroughly understanding the cause of the war, he joined the American forces and after the discomfiture of Great Britain returned to Germany where he received a pension from the United States government.

Michael Steinbaugh, our subject’s father, learned the blacksmith’s trade in his native land and came to Michigan about 10 years before his death at Detroit at the age of 79 years. He was the father of seven children, viz: Mary, John, Marie E., Amelia, Frederick, Leonard and Anna; four of these came to America.

Frederick Steinbaugh was 20 years old when he crossed the Atlantic, dependent entirely upon his own resources in the strange land. Being honest and willing, he secured work at Albany and at Troy, New York, in a chair factory and in a paper mill, and five years later decided to seek a tract of farming land in the west. However, it required five years of hard work at Detroit before he had accumulated enough capital to buy such land as he desired, but he finally located on a farm in White Lake township, Oakland County. Three years later, in 1871, he removed to his present fine farm in Springfield township. This he has highly improved and carries on general farming and stock raising, his crops including all the products of the section, — rye, corn, wheat, potatoes, oats, beans and hay. He raises fine specimens of Durham cattle and Poland-China hogs and some fine colts. Mr. Steinbaugh has an orchard of three acres of bearing trees. He is what his neighbors denominate “well fixed.”

In 1858 Mr. Steinbaugh was married to Elizabeth Snyder, who was also born in Hesse, Germany, and eight children have been born to them, namely: Mrs. Emma Garner, of Tuscola County, Michigan, who has four sons; Charles, of Pontiac, who has one son, Carl; Frank, of Clyde, Michigan, who has three sons; Edward, of White Lake township, Oakland County, who has one son; Frederick, of Pontiac; Albert, unmarried, who assists his father in operating the home farm; Mrs. Alice Hicks of Holly, who has one daughter; and Mrs. Amelia Blaylock of Pontiac, who has two sons.

Mr. Steinbaugh is a member of the Democratic party and takes a lively interest in its success. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian. He is one of the first class citizens of Springfield township, honest and upright and always ready to do his part in promoting public improvements and in advancing the influence of the school and church.