George M. Eddy
The proprietor of the Eddy stock farm which is located near Fenton, is a native of Erie County, Pa,, where he was born November 5, 1834. His father, Nathan Eddy, a Vermonter by birth removed to Erie County when a young man and there became a farmer, but migrated to Michigan in 1841 locating on wild land in Fenton Township, Genesee County. He has ever lived a pious upright life and has been a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. He lost his beloved wife whose maiden name was Mercy Douglas, in 1885. She was also a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was a native of the Green Mountain State. He has now reached the age of eighty-five years and of his three children, two, Benjamin D. and our subject, now survive.
Our subject remembers Michigan as a wilderness, as he was seven years old at the time his parents removed hither, and he received his elementary education on the slab seats of the primitive log schoolhouse. At the age of eighteen his father gave him his freedom and he learned the carpenter's trade and worked at it for some time. In 1855 he purchased his present farm of wild and unimproved land and began the work of transformation which has resulted in making it a productive and well ordered farm with all modern improvements.
The first marriage of Mr. Eddy was with Jane McOmber, a native of Oakland County, whose parents were among the early settlers of the Wolverine State. She died in February, 1890, leaving three children--Hattie C., wife of Leslie Cook, a prominent druggist of Fenton; Charles S., a promising young business man and proprietor of the best livery stable in Fenton, and Marion E. a farmer. The present Mrs. Eddy who became the wife of our subject January 21, 1891, bore the maiden name of Hattie Wells. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was born near Hamilton, Canada, of English ancestry.
Mr. Eddy is a stanch Republican in his political views but in no sense an office-seeker. He is prominently identified with the Knights Templar. Upon his beautiful farm of one hundred and sixty acres he has since 1885 carried on the business of raising trotting horses as he purchased that year the celebrated "Golden King" a fine specimen of the Hambletonian family, who was sired by "Golden Bow" and traces his line back to the famous "Volunteer." "Golden King" is now eight years old and is recognized as a brilliant animal by all good judges of horse flesh. Mr. Eddy has raised and sold a number of very fine animals some of which are now scattered throughout the New England States, and he at present has some twenty head of horses on his farm.
In 1887 our subject purchased a line of steamers which he runs on Long Lake near his farm, but he has since turned them over to his sons, which are regularly kept going during the season by the Eddy Brothers. He has this year completed and equipped the Fenton and Long Lake Street Railroad, extending from the city of Fenton to the head of Long Lake, and this adds greatly to the comfort and accommodation of pleasure seekers. Mr. Eddy began life empty handed and has succeeded in accumulating a handsome property and more than this he is a genial warm-hearted man and one who has a rich fund of information.
1892 Portrait & Biographical Album of Genesee, Lapeer & Tuscola Counties, Chapman Bros.