Levi Shumway was born in Belcher, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, June 11, 1788. He lived with his
parents until he was about sixteen years old, when he went to Wayne County, New York, where he worked
by the month on a farm until he earned enough money to buy a piece of land on the "Gorham tract." He
added to his first purchase until he owned 100 acres, and he was a thrifty and successful farmer there.
He lived there until the spring of 1829, when, after having cleared up his farm and put it under good cultivation,
building a good frame house and a large barn, he sold out and migrated to Michigan, where he again
commenced life as a pioneer. He came to Lenawee County in June, 1829, and located 40o acres of land
on section 35, in Madison. He immediately returned to Wayne County, New York, and brought his family on,
arriving in Adrian the latter part of September, that year. The family lived with some of the other settlers
for a month or so, or until he could build a log house on his land. He used his wagon box to make a door
to his house, to keep out wolves and other wild animals. In 1832 he built a barn, getting his lumber in Adrian,
the same being sawed from trees which stood within the then village limits. If this was not the first barn built
in Madison, it was the first in that part of the Township, and all the settlers in that vicinity brought their wheat
there to thresh upon the floor. Mr. Shumway was fatally injured while assisting in raising a barn for
Thomas Hagaman, in Fairfield Township, July 27, 1834, and he died Aug. 3, following.
SOURCE: http://www.lenaweehistory.com/lenawee-ch14.html
Steve Shumway -shumways@@petershumway.org
SHUMWAY, Levi, b. Belchertown, 1788; set. N. Y., 1804, Michigan, 1829. Branch Hist., 246;
Branch Port., 622; Lenawee Hist. I, 270.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Pioneers to the West Index 1
Description: Massachusetts Bay Colony families who moved west
Steve Shumway -shumways@@petershumway.org
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