EDWARD DUGGAN.

The subject of this sketch was born August i6, i863, on the Duggan family homestead in Lincoln township and has been a resident of Isabella county all his life. His father, a native, of Ireland, was born in 1822 and at the age of thirty-eight came to the United States, settling first in New York where he farmed a few years and then sold out and migrated to Isabella county, Michigan, locating on one hundred and sixty acres of land in section 36, Lincoln township, which he purchased from the government for fifty cents per acre, sixty dollars per acre being a conservative estimate of its value at the present time. Mr. Duggan and sons cleared the place of timber and by continuous toil succeeded in reducing the greater part of. the land to cultivation besides making a number of substantial improvements in the way of buildings, fencing, etc., and reclaiming some of this farm by means of artificial drainage. When the father died he willed the place to

Edward Duggan grew up on the homestead and as soon as his services could be utilized to advantage he was put to work in the fields, where he was soon able to do a man's part at almost any kind of manual labor. He obtained a fair education during the years of his childhood and youth and remained at home until two years after his father's death, when he took possession of the farm in Lincoln township which he now owns and on which he has achieved distinctive success as an energetic and progressive agriculturist. Mr. Duggan's farm, which, includes a part of his father's old farm and another tract adjoining, contains one hundred and sixteen acres of valuable land for

which he -has -been offered the sum of fifty dollars per acre, and with the improvements he has added it is now among the most desirable farms in the township. When he moved to he place it was in poor condition, but by energetic and systematic labor he has brought the soil to its present high state of tillage, increasing the productiveness of certain parts by - judicious tile drainage and increasing the value of the whole by several substantial build- ings which he has erected from time to time. As a farmer he ranks among the most successful of his neighbors similarly engaged, being progressive in his methods, using the latest modern implements and machinery and man- aging his affairs with the good judgment and foresight characteristic of the master of his vocation.

Mr. Duggan has never taken upon, himself the duties and responsibilities of matrimony. He is popular with the large circle of friends-with whom he associates and as a citizen is public-spirited to the extent of encouraging all measures -for the advancement -of the community materially and otherwise stands for law and order and uses his influence for the right on matters involving moral issues. Politically he votes with the Republican party and religiously is a Roman Catholic, belonging at this time to St. Patrick's church at Seville and manifesting a commendable interest in all the good work of the same, also, contributing liberally of his means to the support of the parish. Personally he is -a companionable gentleman of plea8ing address and easily approachable, his integrity being unquestioned, and his 'character above, the suspicion of dishonor. He stands four square to every wind-that blows, an honest man, whose veracity is beyond question and whose upright conduct has gained for him a conspicuous place among the representative citizens of the township in which he resides.