Ninth Generation

151. Tunis VROOMAN was born on 29 April 1802 in Middleburgh Township, Schoharie County, NY.²⁵ He died on 25 February 1893 at the age of 90 in Jackson, Jackson County, MI.²⁵

From the History and Biography of Jackson County, Michigan, Volume II, Inter-State Publishing Co. 1881. pages 1112-3: "Tunis VROOMAN was born April 29, 1802, in Middleburg, Schoharie Co., N.Y. He was the son of Barnet and Marie (ROOT) VROOMAN,
both natives of Schoharie County. Tunis came to Michigan in the fall of 1835, and located at Jacksonburgh, near Summit, on sec. 19.

He married Hannah KNIESKERN in 1823, in Carlisle, N.Y. She died six years after the marriage, of consumption, in Orleans county.

Two years after he married Eliza CRAIG of Shelby, Orleans Co., 6 children were the result of this union--Hannah E., born Dec. 10, 1831, married John STEWART, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Spottsylvania, and died in Washington; she is now the widow of Calvin WALWORTH and lives in Moscow, Hillsdale Co., MI. Olive was born Nov. 10, 1833; she married Daniel BRICKLEY, of Isabella County, MI.; David, born May 22, 1836, is a farmer in Isabella County. Cornelia A., born September, 1838, married William GOLDSMITH of Isabella County; Melinda, born April, 1841, married Edward CREECH, and lives in Gratiot County., MI. Her husband was a soldier in the 1st Michigan Infantry, from 1861 to 1865. At the battle of Gaines' Mills in '62 a bullet entered his face below the right eye and passed entirely through his head, coming out back of his right ear. After lying on the field three days, he was taken to Richmond, and shared the horrors of Libby prison and Belle Isle. Maggots got into his wound, and buying two plugs of tobacco from a rebel, he gave them to a comrade, who chewed it and expectorated the juice into the wound, thus establishing a healing and cleansing process. Six months after he was taken prisoner he was exchanged and sent to York hospital in Pennsylvania. He rejoined his regiment just prior to the battle of Gettysburg and participated in that fearful conflict. In 1864 he re-enlisted and fought in the battles of the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, in the siege of Petersburg, the battle at Five Forks, and was present at the surrender of the Army of North Virginia. At this time he held the rank of Sergeant. He is a farmer in Gratiot County, MI. and receives a pension. Tunis, Jr., was born in November, 1846, and lives with his father on the old homestead. Mr. VROOMAN's second wife died Jan. 2, 1853.

Two years thereafter he married her sister Mary, then the Widow CHILDS. Her first husband died in the fall of 1848. She died Aug. 8, 1868.

Jan. 26, 1871, he married his fourth and present wife, Mrs. Eliza FREEMAN, of Jackson. Mr. V. is her third husband. Her maiden name was Eliza HUGGINS; she was born in Salem, Washington Co., N.Y., April 25, 1811. She was married to Nathan BAKER, May 30, 1833, at Batavia N.Y. ; he died Jan. 30, 1862, in Burlington, Calhoun Co., MI. There is 1 child resulting from this union; Warren D., born Sept. 10, 1834, in Alabama, N.Y. She was married to her second husband, Daniel M. FREEMAN, of Summit, Dec. 25, 1867. He died the following April.

Mr. VROOMAN's farm consists of 160 acres of land in flurishing condition, and is worth $8,000. He is a Democrat and both himself and wife are members of the Christian Church.
Mr. VROOMAN had 2 children by his first marriage--Hiram, born in N.Y. September, 182-, died in Jackson county, Jan. 5, 1851; and Maria, born in New York, in 1825. She married Lewis ELLSWORTH, and died in Isabella County, MI. in 1861.

Tunis VROOMAN and Eliza HIGGINS were married.²⁵ Eliza HIGGINS was born on 25 April 1811 in Salem, Washington County, NY.²⁵