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JOHN R. MIDDLESWORTH
Another pioneer name that was the ancestor of many future recognizable
family names in and around the Byron community was that of John R.
Middlesworth, patriarch of the family and who came to the Argentine area
from New Jersey in 1837. He was the father of 12 children, many of them
full grown and who came west with him. A son Isaac, bought the southeast
quarter of Section 20 in Genesee County (Rolston Road) from Samuel
Dexter, the founder of Byron, for $500.00 signed and sealed June 20,
1836 and found in Liber I, page 152. Isaac built a Greek Revival style
house on the property which was almost destroyed by fire in 1977. Isaac
was married twice and fathered 19 children. In later years Isaac and his
wife lived in Byron in the big white house on Saginaw Street that is
just south of the present ambulance service. A son of Isaac, John J.
married Elvira Jennings and a daughter Savilla, married Elvira’s brother
William. William and Elvira were the children of Stephen Jennings who
came to the Argentine area in 1843 and were neighbor to the
Middlesworth’s. The Jennings property is now subdivided. Another son of
John R. was Robert and he died of wounds in the Civil War at the age of
16 years. John R’s daughter Matilda married Omar Barnes, the eldest son
of Ezra D. pioneer into Burns Township in 1836. From those
relationships, the names of LaDue, Hoover, Bennett, Church, Schad, Post,
and Hathaway, just to name a few, evolved. The majority of these
families lived in and around Byron and most of them are buried in Byron
Cemetery.
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