| The son
of John V. Housman and Johanna (Stryker), James
was born at Castleton Corner, Staten Island, New
York on 15 Mar 1868. His father John was born in
February of 1838 and at about age twenty was
united with Johanna who was born on 29 Dec 1839
in Gravesend, Long Island, New York. Besides
James, the couple also had William H. who was a
printer by trade; daughter Marthanna
"Phy" Grover; John V.; and Earnest A.
Housman. As indicated by the 1870
census of Middlesex Co., New Jersey, John V.
Housman was a carpenter residing in Prospect
Plains in Monroe Twp. His family at that time
included his wife, son William H. (age 11); James
S (age 2) and their two month-old daughter
Marthanna born in April. The following year the
family removed to Lenawee Co., Michigan and
located at Morenci where the family was
enumerated in the 1880 census, their youngest
child Earnest, then age four. The father, (who
was Head Sawyer at Stone's Mill), died in a
tragic saw mill accident on the 2nd of October,
1903. His widow, who survived him many years,
died in Petersburg on 09 Dec 1926.
James
was united in marriage with Susan Amelia
Breningstall in Petersburg, Monroe Co., Michigan
on 14 Nov 1892. Susie was the daughter of Horace
J. Breningstall and Henrietta
"Elizabeth" (Main), and was born in
Petersburg on 18 Nov 1873. She and James became
the parents of Hazel, wife of James Clark; Bina
Leola, wife of Harry W. Jackson; James Deal who
married Leda Schmid; and Idella, wife of George
Holmer.
James'
young wife died at the young age of thirty-three
after a serious illness in 1907, and on 20 Jan
1909, James took Margaret "Madge" Mead
as his second wife. She was shortly after widowed
when James was killed in another saw mill
accident on 01 Mar 1910.
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