My Genealogy Hound

J. H. McCotter, farm superintendent for the great seed firm of D. M. Ferry & Company, of Detroit, Michigan, was born in Vermontville, Eaton County, Michigan, in 1845, and is a resident of Avon township, Oakland County. He is a son of Simeon and Minerva (Leveridge) McCotter, the former of whom was born in Vermont and the latter in Salina, New York.

Simeon McCotter came to Michigan in 1837, a member of the Vermont colony, having visited the country some years earlier. He learned the trade of carpenter, and joiner with his father, Howard McCotter, who spent his life in Vermont. Edward McCotter, father of Howard, and great-grandfather of our subject, was torn in Edinburg, Scotland, and came to America a short time prior to the Revolutionary War, and engaged in shipbuilding in Philadelphia. The only member of our subject’s grandfather’s family still surviving is Samuel McCotter, who resides at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Simeon McCotter died in Vermontville, Michigan, in 1893, aged 87 years; his wife died two years later. Mrs. Simeon McCotter’s father was a prominent citizen of New York, interested in the salt business, and died when she was about five years old. The four children born to Simeon McCotter and wife were: Jenette, who married Oscar Hadley, both deceased; J. H., of this sketch; Lizzie, wife of F. H. Gage, of Olivet, Michigan; and George, of Hartford, Michigan.

J. H. McCotter was reared and educated in Vermontville, and remained at home until he was 21 years old when he took a course in the Agricultural College of Michigan. He then engaged in various occupations which called him to different parts of the country, gave him enlightened ideas and a very thorough training for the work he is called upon to oversee at the present time. In 1880 he settled in his home township and there operated a farm for eight years, at the same time engaging in the work of growing seed crops for D. M. Ferry & Company. In February, 1887, he entered into the employ of the company at Detroit and on the road and in 1890 moved to Pontiac as superintendent of the company’s seed farm located near the city. He remained here 13 years, but in 1903 the company sold the farm and purchased another in section 26, Avon township, where he is now located, as farm superintendent, having charge of some 50 laborers. Mr. McCotter grows, for the most part, vegetable seeds and in 1903 had 270 acres of seed crops. He has made a close study of this business and manages it in a practical and satisfactory manner.

On March 25, 1874, Mr. McCotter was married to Florence E. Baker, of Vermontville, Michigan, and they have three children, namely: Agnes, a graduate of a musical school, who is a teacher of music in the vocal department of Powhatan College, at Charlestown, West Virginia; Lela, a graduate of the University of Michigan, who is teacher of biology in the Bay City (Michigan) High School; and Howard, who is associated with his father on the seed farm.

Mr. McCotter is very highly regarded throughout Avon and Pontiac townships and his knowledge of agricultural matters is acknowledged to be far beyond the average.