LOUIS LAPEARL.

Among the large land owners and successful farmers of Isabella county the subject of this sketch occupies a deservedly conspicuous place. In connection with Agriculture he carries on quite a large business buying timber and manufacturing it into lumber, buys and sells wood upon quite an extensive scale, besides loaning money and dealing in real estate. Louis LaPearl belongs to the large Canadian contingent which constitutes such an important part of the population of Michigan, having been born in Ontario, on June 18, 1857. He spent his boyhood and received his education in his native county and remained there until eighteen years old, when he came to Michigan and during the ensuing six years worked as a farm hand near Farmington, in

the county of Oakland. In  December, 1886 he came to Isabella county and purchased forty acres of land in section 17, Nottawa township, which he at once proceeded to clear and reduce to cultivation, a task of no little magnitude, the land being heavily wooded and interspersed with a dense undergrowth. With his characteristic industry and energy, however, he was not long in fitting the greater part of the tract for tillage and a little later he added to his original purchase by buying other land, in the vicinity.   

Without following in detail Mr. LaPearl's struggles and successes, suffice it to say that in due time his efforts were abundantly rewarded, as he soon became one of the leading farmers of his township, besides purchasing at intervals additional land there and in other parts of the county. He made splendid improvements in the way of buildings, fences, etc., brought his place to a high state of cultivation and everything to which he turned his hand appeared to prosper. The reputation which he early earned of being one of the most progressive and successful agriculturists of Isabella county he still sustains, and he is also among its most enterprising and well-to-do men of affairs. By well directed industry and judicious management he has accumulated sufficient of material wealth to make him independent, owning at the present time seven hundred and eighty acres of excellent land in the townships of Sherman and Nottawa, three hundred of which are in cultivation and highly improved and, as already indicated, constituting one of the finest and most valuable farms in the county. As stated in a preceding paragraph, his entire time is not given to agriculture, as he devotes considerable attention to the buying and selling of timber, lumber and wood, a line of business which has been very profitable and which is steadily growing in magnitude and importance. In addition to his farming and timber interests, he deals quite extensively in real estate, in which he has acquired a large and lucrative patronage, and also does a very satisfactory business loaning money.

Mr. LaPearl is a man of sound practical sense, discreet tact, and his judgment is such that he is seldom if ever at fault in forecasting the. future outcome of present plans and actions. His financial success has made him one of the solid men of his township and county, at the same time he manifests commendable interest in public affairs and is ever ready to co-operate with his fellow citizens in promoting the general welfare of the community. Mr. LaPearl was happily. married to Anna Wixom, who was born August 31, 1860, in Oakland county, Michigan, where her parents, John R. and Rhoda (Jaceway) Wixom, had, long resided. Her father, whose birth occurred on the 19th of September, 1828, was the second white child born in Farmington township of the above county; be was a farmer by occupation and an excellent and praiseworthy citizen and his death, on the 23d of December 1906, was greatly deplored by all who knew him. Mrs. Rhoda Wixom was born February 3, 1833, in Elmira, New York, and departed this life on July 30, 1903.

Mr. and Mrs. LaPearl have three children whose names are as follows: Fred, born March, married Miss Minnie Tracey and lives on the family homestead which he now manages. Bertha, whose birth occurred on the 17th day of August, 1883, is the wife of Charles Bamber and lives in Detroit; Violet C., the youngest of the family, was born May 10, 1893, and departed this life May 29, 1901 Joseph LaPearl, the subject's father, was born in Canada in the year 1820 and when a young man married Josephine Leger, also a native of that country. He was called to his eternal rest in 1895, being survived by his wife who is still living.