Biographical sketch of John F. Eesley, proprietor of the Eesley Mills — Michigan county history, c. 1890s

A printed biographical sketch of John F. Eesley — “Businessmen of Plainwell, as of other enterprising towns, are its bone and sinew” — from a Michigan county history of the sort sold by subscription in the 1890s. It is the earliest narrative source this archive holds on the Plainwell miller, and it is contemporary with him: written while he was operating the mill, in the present tense.

What it adds

The journeyman years. He learned the miller’s trade under his father, then worked it across five states before owning anything: Merrill Milling Company at Plainwell from spring 1881 (about eighteen months), Lockport, Illinois (about twelve months), then Eufaula, Alabama, Huntington, Indiana, and Coshocton and Frazeysburg, Ohio — returning to Plainwell in 1887 “determined to make that city his permanent abiding place.” The 1887 mill purchase was a return, not a first arrival.

The Goldie millwrights. Of his mother’s family the sketch says: “For two hundred years or more the male portion of the Goldie family have been millwrights.” Jennie Goldie was born in Ayr, Scotland, and came to America in 1844, settling at Montreal. This locates the deeper origin of the family trade on the maternal side.

The father. Alfred Robert Eesley — the sketch spells the first name Alfred, where the cemetery and tree records give Albert — born at Stafford, Warwickshire, England, came to the New World in 1856, milled for several years, and at the time of writing was still in the trade at Birmingham, Oakland County, Michigan; a Baptist and “one of the prominent and influential men in his County.”

Schooling. Village schools of Plottsville, Ontario; then New York City during a period when the family lived there; then Birmingham, Michigan after the move south.

The mill as of writing. “The only steam mill in Plainwell, and it is equipped with all the modern appliances by which he can turn out flour in a remarkably short time.” Products: flour, feed, buckwheat flour, “and supplies an increasing demand at home and in the neighboring towns.”

The marriage and the man. “Miss Belle Scott became the wife of our subject in 1885” — a native of Gun Plain Township, Allegan County, daughter of Henry R. and Eliza Scott, natives of the Empire State. He “votes the Prohibition ticket,” was a Knight of the Maccabees, and belonged to the Baptist society.

Cautions

Subscription county histories were flattering by commission — subjects typically paid for inclusion, and the closing line here (“we are pleased to be able to present to our readers a sketch of so worthy a gentleman”) is the genre’s house style. The factual spine — dates, places, employers — is generally reliable and checkable; the estimations of character are advertising.

Two details conflict with other records and are worth noting rather than resolving here: the father’s given name (Alfred here, Albert on the Find a Grave and tree records), and the family size — the sketch says “eldest of a family of ten children, all of whom are living,” while the cemetery record lists John plus eight siblings.

Source: printed Michigan county-history sketch, c. 1890s, recovered 2026. Compare Find a Grave — John Franklin Eesley and the J. F. Eesley Milling Co. mill building.