My Genealogy Hound

ERNEST TABOR, an enterprising agriculturist and well-known citizen of Sodus Township, Berrien County, Mich., was born in the near township of Bainbridge, in February, 1845, and has passed his entire life within the State of his nativity, with the exception of brief intervals occupied in journeys and visits elsewhere. His father, Wallace Tabor, a native of Jefferson County, N. Y., and born April 26, 1814, remained in the home of his birth until he had arrived at the age of seventeen, spending the days of childhood and youth in assisting his father and attending the school of the neighborhood. In 1881, the energetic and ambitious boy left the parental roof determined to try his fortunes in the broader West. He came to Michigan and remained a short time in Berrien County, from there proceeding to Chicago, where he found immediate employment as a laborer in a brickyard. He helped to make the brick used in the erection of the first brick hotel built in Chicago. After working two years steadily in the brickyard, the father returned to Bainbridge Township, Mich., and buying land entered into the pursuit of agriculture with success, clearing the land and cultivating the fertile soil of his homestead for sixteen years without change of occupation.

In 1849, when the reports from California aroused a fever of excitement all over the country, Tabor determined to seek the gold fields of the Pacific Coast. After an absence of two years, he again resumed farming upon the old homestead, from that time his constant abiding-place. In 1839, he was united in marriage with Miss Julia McKies, a daughter of Samuel and Harriet McKies, formerly residents of Connecticut, the McKies being a well-known and highly esteemed family of New England. Unto the worthy parents of our subject were born eight children, one of whom died in infancy. Bert, the youngest of the family, passed away in his twenty-fourth year, beloved by all who knew him. He was a young man of promise, and died in 1887. The surviving sons and daughters are Euphemia, Sarah Elizabeth, Ernest, Horace, Ida, Carlton. All are married and reside in Berrien County, except the two eldest daughters, who make their home in the far State of Kansas. Ernest, the eldest son of the large family, assisted from boyhood in the daily labor of the farm, and also attended the district schools and gained an excellent and practical education. He afterward enjoyed the benefit of six months’ instruction in the State University at Ann Arbor, and grew up to manhood self-reliant and industrious.

At twenty-one years of age, beginning life for himself, Mr. Tabor at first obtained employment in a sawmill, where he received fair wages, but after a time he concluded to return to farming, being thoroughly posted in all the details of agriculture, and already having an extended and practical experience in handling the soil and products of Michigan. For two years our subject worked the farm of his father on shares, and then devoted his capital to the purchase of lands in Van Buren County, from which he removed the timber, afterward selling the property. He next bought the one hundred and two acres where he now resides, and which he has brought up to a high state of cultivation, conducting general farming and also raising some fine stock. The improvements upon the broad acres are unusually valuable, Mr. Tabor having erected a number of well-built cottages, which he rents mostly to prominent Chicago families, who enjoy their summer outing upon the banks of the St. Joseph River. It was in 1891 that the cottages were completed and occupied, and in 1893 they are inadequate in size and number to accommodate the guests who desire to avail themselves of the pleasant retreat. Mr. Tabor has already enlarged one house, and is now contemplating the erection of others. In 1872 our subject entered the bonds of marriage with Miss Lizzie Stump, daughter of John and Magdalena Stump. The marriage has been blessed by the birth of three children. One died in infancy; Myrtie and May survive and are with their parents. Politically, Mr. Tabor is a stanch Republican. He has voted that ticket ever since he attained his majority and is a firm believer in the principles and platform of the “Party of Reform.” An intelligent and observing man, our subject has a store of pleasing reminiscences of the early days of the State, and has himself been a leading factor in the progressive interests of his home township and county.