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An interesting and talented man who was an influential and prominent citizen of Byron during the last fifty years of the 19th century was James Sleeth. He was born in Tullyhatney, Monaghan county, Ireland on August 2, 1823. He was the second son of a family of eleven children and was 15 years old when his parents, Robert and Susan Sleeth emigrated to America. They came to Commerce, Oakland county, Michigan and he remained on their farm until he was 23 years old. He began to study medicine at Milford and later attended the Western Reserve College in Ohio graduating from there and came to Byron about 1850. In 1853, he married Miss Frances Kelsey, a sister of Sullivan R., later Judge Kelsey. It was Sullivan who was one of the parties who bought the mill rights on the river in 1842 in Byron. In 1863, he joined the army and was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Sixth Michigan Cavalry and saw service until 1865. He returned to Byron and was engaged in the drug business for four years. Under President Hayes administration, he was appointed postmaster of Byron, a position he held for eight years. He held many township and village offices and in November, 1885 he began publication of the Byron Herald newspaper. He also was a lawyer, becoming a member of the Bar in 1869 and was still a member at the time of his death. He was a lecturer of renown. Frances Kelsey Sleeth was born in Vermont in 1827, youngest of eleven children. She went to an academy at Wellsboro, PA, taught school and came to Michigan at the age of 18 years. She taught school here until her marriage. The Sleeths helped to organize the Presbyterian society and aided materially in building the church. She was a member of the Soldiers’ Aid Society organized during the war, supplying boxes of provisions to the “boys in blue” at the front, and later was an active member of the Women's Relief Corps, auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic. The Sleeth’s had three children and lived in Byron’s oldest house up on “the hill”. James died in 1905 and Frances followed him in death 6 years later.