Person:William Colby (16)

William Colby, son of Nicholas and Sarah "Sally" (Howe) Colby, married Elizabeth Williams, daughter of Peter Williams of Virginia, March 4, 1843, in Yorktown (York Township), Elkhart Co., IN.

According to Mt. Hope Cemetery records. William is buried in the "Old IOOF" section of Mt. Hope Cemetery, Middleville, Barry Co., MI, Lot Number 160 West 1/2, grave #3, next to his daughter, Amanda J.(Colby) Evans. The lot is owned by Patrick H. Evans. There are no stones in this 8 grave lot. (From the field notes of Owen Family researcher, William E. "Bill" Owen, who personally visited the cemetery in the 1990's). There are no other burials listed in the cemetery records for Lot Number 160 West 1/2, but it is reasonable to assume that William's wife, Elizabeth (Williams)Colby (born about 1826 in Virginia) is buried next to William. William and Elizabeth had 4 children: Amanda Jane, Rebecca Ann, Delos W., and Albert Franklin.

For a biography of William Colby, including pictures of him, his wife, and his home in Barry County, MI, See"History of Allegan and Barry Counties, Michigan", 1880, p. 496:

""William Colby was born in Roxbury, N.Y., Dec 18, 1822, and was one of the twelve children vouchsafed as a blessing to the union of his parents. When William was a lad of but seven his father removed to Western New York, in Monroe County, and in the town of Grace, William remained until reaching his sixteenth year, when for fifty he purchased his "time" of his father, and agreed to pa the purchase-money out of the first funds he should earn. Ambitious to grow up with a new country, he set out for Michigan, and in Washtenaw County entered upon a life of earnest action, working upon a farm in the summer at ten dollars and a half a month, and in a cooper's shop in Salem in the winter season. In that locality he remained thus employed until the summer of 1841, having meanwhile canceled his father's claim of fifty dollars out of his first year's earnings, when he passed on to Mason, in Cass County, Mich., and there, taking service with a cooper, continued with him until his marriage, March 4, 1843, to Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Williams. The young couple settled in Mason, and for the next year Mr. Colby divided his time between coopering, farming, and trafficking in real estate. In the autumn of 1844 they moved to Northfield, in Washtenaw County, where Mr. Colby pursued his accustomed avocations until June, 1847, when he changed his residence to Marshall, and, purchasing an eighty-acre farm of John Weller, lived upon it until the following November, when, again moving, they made their home in Bristol, Ind., until the fall of 1852, Mr. Colby having continued to that time to labor at his trade. Then they took possession of a purchase in Thornapple township of eighty acres of wild land, and engaged in earnest in the work of pioneering. Their pioneers' log cabin, a sketch of which is embodied in this work, was a primitive and homely affair, but a source of much comfort after all. They cleared their land with rapid strokes and energetic will, and, living upon it until the spring of 1861, sold it for two thousand dollars, and with the proceeds purchased a fine farm containing sixty-five acres of improved land two miles eastward. To that purchase they made additions until 1865, when the farm comprised no less than three hundred and forty acres. In 1865, Mr. Colby began his preparations for the erection of a new brick residence, and in 1870 completed the beautiful home he now occupies, illustrated, as will be seen, in an accompanying sketch.

Elizabeth (Williams) Colby is the daughter of Peter Williams, a Virginian, a veteran of the war of 1812, and an early resident in Shenandoah County, where he followed the business of gun making, dealt also in cattle and horses, and owned moreover a farm of six hundred acres. Strongly anti-slavery in his principles, he declined to remain in Virginia beyond 1837, when, with his family of eleven children, he migrated to Yorktown, Elkhart Co., Ind., where William Colby met and married Mr. William's daughter Elizabeth.

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Colby number four, as follows: Amanda Jane, born Dec. 6, 1843; Rebecca Ann, born Sept. 15, 1846; D. W. , born Aug. 11, 1850; Albert Franklin, born Aug. 11, 1861."

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Find A Grave.

   No tombstone shown: [1]

2.   History of Allegan and Barry Counties, Michigan
   1880.

   p. 496. Sketch of Property and of Elizabeth and William between pages 494 and 495. Go to: https://ia600201.us.archive.org/15/items/cu31924032193587/cu31924032193587.pdf