William H. Horning

William H. Horning

WILLIAM H. HORNING, lumberman, located on section 23, MOnroe Township, was born in Bradford Co., Pa., Feb. 28, 1849, and is a son of James and Harriet A. (Barfield) Horning. His parents were both natives of the State of New York, and are deceased. The father died in 1853, and the mother removed with her family to De Kalb Co., Ill., where the son attended district school. When he reached the age of ten years he took upon himself the burden of his own support, working on a farm till he was 17 years of age, when, in Feb. 1865, he enlisted in Co. C, Ninth Ill. Cav. He served until the close of the war, and on his discharge went to Pennsylvania, where he attended Mansfield College one year. He then went to Wisconsin and engaged in lumbering, working a short time in the woods, after which he went to California, Oregon and Washington Territory, spending a year on the trip. He returned east and located at Sand Lake, Kent County, where he engaged in the manufacture of lumber and shingles. After a residence there of eight years he came, in 1871, to Newaygo County, where he engaged in lumbering, in connection with Samuel Hart.

Mr. Horning was married at Sand Lake, Kent County, in 1873, to Harriet, daughter of James and Harriet Kinney. She was born in Michigan in 1852. Three children have been born of this marriage: Angeline, Evaline and Arthur. The last named died in 1881.

The first saw-mill erected by Mr. Horning and his partner cost about $2,000, and was destroyed by fire in 1881. They immediately re-built; and up to the present writing (1883) have manufactured in the aggregate 30,000,000 feet of pine lumber. Their present product is about 30,000 feet of lumber daily. Mr. Horning has officiated as Township Treasurer of Monroe, and is a member of the I.O.O.F. of Sand Lake, Kent County.

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