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Joseph K. McMichael |
| The McMichaels are a numerous and highly respectable family.
James
McMichael, a native of Ayrshire, first came to Canada in 1797, and after a short stay went
to Pennsylvania, from whence he soon after returned and bought four hundred acres of land
in the Township of Townsend, and again left for Pennsylvania, where he married and
settled, having with his brother bought a farm in that State. He remained there about
twenty years, but a dispute having arisen in regard to the title of the farm, he preferred
leaving it, to a long and expensive lawsuit. He therefore came and settled on the land
which he still owned in Townsend. He built a small log house near where the handsome
residence of his grandson Mr. Joseph McMichael now stands. He died in the following year,
leaving ten children; of these, the eldest son was the late George McMichael, Esq., the
father of Mr. Joseph McMichael. He married Jane Kitchen, a daughter of the late Joseph
Kitchen, one of the early settlers of the County, and died in 1856, leaving three
children. Joseph K. McMichael, Esq., was the eldest son and was born in 1835; he was
educated at Oberlin College, in Ohio, and married in 1862 Sarah, daughter of Col. McKerlie
of Townsend. He has had three children, two of whom are living.
Mr. Michael has spent his life in the cultivation of his farm, and being possessed of ample means, has, by a judicious expenditure of money, not only largly [sic] increased the productiveness of his own farm but has by his example promoted to a considerable degree the introduction into his neighborhood of a superior class of stock, and implements, and improved systems of agriculture.
Some years ago he erected a substantial and elegant mansion --the finest
farm-house in the County. From a full page view of his residence which will be found in
this work, our readers can form some opinion of the architectural taste displayed by Mr.
McMichael in its construction, but only by a personal visit can one form a correct
estimate of the faultless taste displayed in the interior arrangement and elegant
furniture. Placed as he is in easy circumstances, with everything about him to please the
eye and gratify a luxurious taste, and surrounded by a refined home circle, Mr. Michael
may well be reckoned a lucky man. |
 Enlargement |
| From pages 64 and 97 of the Mika re-print of 1877 Illustrated Historical Atlas of Norfolk County Copyright 1998-2012 John Cardiff |