The history of the life of Rev. T.R. Easterday has been so closely interwoven with that of the Presbyterian Church of Sault Sainte Marie that a few facts relative to the latter will be proper and germane in introducing our subject.

The record shows the Presbyterian Church to have been organized here on the 28th of February, 1854, by Rev. Wm. McCollough, who had been holding services here for four months prior to the effecting of a formal organization. The society held its meetings in the schoolhouse during the time that their building - the main part of the present edifice - was being erected. The church was dedicated in 1855 and Mr. McCollough remained as its pastor for somewhat less than two years after this. The church then had no regular pastoral incumbent again until nearly ten years later, when our subject assumed the charge, but during all this inervening time Philetus S. Church and a few ladies had maintained a little Sunday School. The eleven members at the organization of the church were P.S. Church, Elizabeth Church, L.L. and Phoebe Nichols, Joseph and Jane Mason, Charles T. Harvey, Julia Hopkins, Olive W. McKnight, Adaline Jones and Maria Spaulding. This is by several months the oldest Presbyterian organization on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The first Board of Elders comprised P.S. Church and L.L. Nichols, and the first named remained senior Elder until his death in 1884, a period of 30 years.

Tradition tells us of a probably church organization prior to this one, but if such was the case the organization was but a temporary one, and no record was deemed necessary. It is believed that when Rev. Jeremiah Porter, Chaplain of Ft. Brady, at the "Soo" was preaching to the post and the public generally, being of the Presbyterian faith, he consummated an organizaton of his people; but if he did this the society lapsed in organization soon after his withdrawal to Ft. Dearborn, where he organized the first Presbyterian church of Chicago. The present church edifice in Sault Sainte Marie is the old one remodeled and enlarged, the final improvements having been completed in 1889.

Rev. T.R. Easterday assumed pastoral charge of the church on Christmas day, 1864. He soon brought about a reorganization of its members, beginning with a list of seven. He labored faithfully in the discharge of the duties of his pastorate for seventeen and one half years and his work was attended by a growth in the spiritual and temporal well-being of the society. A severe paralytic stroke finally compelled him to resign, and he left the church with a membership of 96 and a Sunday school of 225 scholars. The present membership is approximately 275.

Thomas R. Easterday was born in Jefferson County OH Oct. 27, 1837. His paternal grandfather, Christian Easterday, and his maternal grandfather, Thomas Robertson, emigrated from PA and staked out claims on the Ohio river, near Steubenville. Mr. Robertson was of Scotch-Irish extraction and she who became his wife was a Miss McMillan, a cousin of Andrew G. Curtin, war Governor of PA and later U.S. Minister to St. Petersburg. The Robertsons were actively identified with the Patriot forces of the war of the Revolution, but the Easaterdays did not become residents of the U.S. until after this conflict. They, however, furnished representatives in the war of 1812 and the Mexican war. The maternal great-grandfather of our subject, John Robertson, married a daughter of Gen. Brady, of Revolutionary fame, and Ft. Brady, located at Sault Ste. Marie, was named in his honor.

The father of Mr. Easterday was Daniel Easterday, who was born in Jefferson Co. OH and who married Jane Robertson in 1836. With his wife and all his children, except thomas R., he is living in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1851 he removed to Springfield IL and there our subject attended the public schools, one of his schoolmates being Robert T. Lincoln, wose father was well known to Mr. Easterday, even as every citizen of a small town knows its prominent men. Daniel Easterday was a prominent IL farmer for a full quarter of a century, and in 1883 he removed to his present location. He is 82 years of age, and his wife is 79. Their children are; Rev. Thomas R.; Professor Levi; Amos W; Martin L; Oscar M; D. Frank; Annie M. wife of Benajah Munday; Hannah M. wife of A.E. Pike and Laura J.

Our subject was in college for a period of seven years, graduating at the Lutheran Seminary at Springfield, IL in 1864 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, receiving that of A.M. in 1866 and coming to Sault Ste Marie the latter year. He has not only been interested in religious and moral training, but has given an almost equally devoted attention to the purely educational training. He has fought valiantly for the divorcement of church and school and for the securing of the graded high-school system which is now the pride of the "Soo." He introduced the resolution appropriating the first $1,000 for the erection of the present high-school building, and drafted the memorial to Congress by which the U.S. Government gave the grounds now occupied by said building.

Mr. Easterday cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln and has adhered to the Republican party ever since. In 1892 he came within 13 votes of being elected County Treasurer, and laer he was elected by a handsome majority to the office of County Commissioner of Schools. in 1892 he was the Republican candidate for State Senator from his district. He has maintained a lively interest in the growth and development of Sault Ste. Marie, and he owns a large tract of suburban realty, as well as valuable property within the city limits. In his fraternal relations he is identified with the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, having advanced in the former to the 32nd degree, Scottish rite, and retaining a membership in the Consistory at Grand Rapids.

December 24, 1862, at Springfield, IL, was solemnized the marriage of our honored subject to Miss Leona J. Tyson, a daughter of J.R. Tyson a native of Lincolnshire, England. The children are Lillie - deceased; Rosa L. the wife of Dr. Thomas N. Rogers of this city; and Ora Thomas is still at home, being twelve years of age (1895).

Northern Peninsula of Michigan 1895 Pg. 33