My Genealogy Hound

David Ward. The death of this esteemed citizen of Oakland County, on May 29, 1900, at the age of 78 years, removed one of the best known residents of this section of the State. He was a man of great force of character and was noted for the traits of thrift, perseverance and energy that were bequeathed him by his ancestors, who were for many decades residents of New England.

He was born in Keene’s Valley, New York, and was a son of Nathan Ward, who was a native of Vermont and a surveyor by profession. Nathan Ward surveyed several thousand acres of land in the region of Saranac Lake, in New York State, for John Jacob Astor and Peter Smith, father of Garret Smith, who were making a division of their property. In this division, Mr. Smith took the land mentioned in the vicinity of Saranac Lake, and Mr. Astor for his share took what had been their joint property on Manhattan Island. On this survey David Ward, the subject of this sketch, helped his father by carrying a chain, being at the time but nine years old. He was running a compass at the early age of 12 years, and thereafter followed surveying and lumbering together with allied occupations. He accumulated a great deal of property and at his death owned more than 100,000 acres, which were located in Michigan, California and West Virginia. He also had some iron and coal land in West Virginia and Tennessee. He built the Frederic & Charlevoix Railroad, in Michigan, and had in process of construction a railroad in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. He was a manufacturer of large means and was interested in many financial enterprises, being at one time president of the First National Bank of Pontiac.

David Ward was married to Elizabeth Perkins, who was born in Romeo, Michigan, and is now living in West Bloomfield township, Oakland County, at the age of 71 years. She is a daughter of George Perkins. Our subject and wife reared six children, as follows: Henry Clay, one of the largest fruit growers in the country, owning about 300 acres of land in Bloomfield township, Oakland County, on which is a bearing orchard of nearly 20,000 trees, who was married to Mary Scott, born at Guelph, Ontario, in 1854, and has three children, — Franklin B., a trustee of the estate of David Ward, Fred L., who is in the lumber business at Bay City, Michigan, and Dolores E.; Charles, a florist located at Queens, Long Island, New York; Flora, wife of Fred H. Fay, a banker of Auburn, New York; Willis C., who has an extensive peach orchard at Orchard Lake, Oakland County, and is one of the trustees of his father’s extensive estate; Helen, wife of Louis Pelouse, a jeweler of Boston, Massachusetts; and Perle, wife of George K. Root, of Deward, Michigan, who is one of the trustees of the David Ward estate.