CHANCY D. HOLLENBECK

One of the sterling pioneers and representative farmers and stock growers of Antrim county is he whose name initiates this paragraph. He is the owner of one of the finest farm properties in the county. the same being located in Milton township, and the owner's prestige as a citizen and prominent and influential farmer is the more gratifying to contemplate in view of the fact that he came here in the early days, without financial reinforcement, and located in the midst of the virgin forest, in which deer, bears and other wild animals were still in prolific evidence, while the Indians were more numerous than the white settlers, and here he has literally hewn out a farm and gained a position of unmistakable independence and definite prosperity. Mr. Hollenbeck is a native of the province of Ontario, Canada, where he was born on the 16th of September, 1846, being there reared to the invigorating discipline of the home farm and duly availing himself of the privileges afforded in the public schools of the locality.

He is a son of Andrew P. and Harriet E. (Hubbell) Hollenbeck, the former of whom was born in the state of Vermont, on the 11th of May, I808, while the latter was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, on the 20th of April, 1817. The father of the subject was a representative farmer of Huron county, Ontario, and was also identified with the lumbering industry in that section, continuing to reside on his old homestead until his death, which occurred in February, I865, while his devoted wife passed away in 1892. Of their nine children five are living.

The subject continued to be identified with farming and lumbering in Canada until 1878, in which year he came to Michigan and numbered himself among the early settlers of Antrim county. He secured a tract of wild and heavily timbered land, in Milton township, and there established his home in the forest, having made a sufficient clearing to accommodate his little cabin, and he then instituted the work of reclaiming his land to cultivation, this involving a strenuous labor of which the pioneers of the prairie states can have no adequate comprehension. This land which he purchased so many years ago is an integral portion of the present fine estate of the subject. He has one hundred and ninety acres of most fertile land, and one hundred and fifty acres are available for cultivation, while the original timber still stands on ten acres, the remainder of the farm being given over to orchard and pasture. On the place Mr. Hollenbeck has erected a good residence and other substantial and well equipped buildings, while all other improvements are of the best. In 1903 he completed the erection of what is undoubtedly the best barn in the county, the same being forty by one hundred feet in dimensions in the main, with a wing thirty four by seventy feet. The barn is supplied with water in all parts, the floors throughout are of cement and the other equipments and accessories are of the most improved modern type, so that the best of accommodations are afforded for stock, produce, etc. Besides conducting a most successful enterprise in the line of diversified agriculture, Mr. Hollenbeck has devoted special attention to raising and dealing in live stock, his being one of the best stock farms in this section. He handles and breeds French coach horses and black Percheron horses, in which line he breeds from fine imported animals which he owns, and he also raises the best type of shorthorn cattle and Berkshire swine, while he also deals in live stock aside from this, making extensive shipments each year. On his farm is to be found a good orchard of thirty acres, principally devoted to apples. 

In politics Mr. Hollenbeck gives an unwavering allegiance to the Republican party, and he has ever shown a lively interest in local affairs of a public nature, while he has been accorded unmistakable evidences of popular confidence and esteem, in that he has been called upon to serve as constable, township clerk and supervisor, in of which capacities he made a reputation for fidelity and earnest devotion to the general welfare. He and his wife are valued members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Milton Center, where they also belong to the Grange, in whose affairs they have taken a deep interest. In 1869 Mr. Hollenbeck was united in marriage to Miss Mary Drake, who was born and reared in the province of Ontario, Canada, being a daughter of Joseph and Betsy (Hamlin) Drake. Her father was a cooper by trade and both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in the province of Ontario, having become the parents of nine children, of whom six are yet living. Mr. and Mrs. Hollenbeck have one son, Ezra J., who married Miss Etta Hockin and who is associated with his father in the work and management of the home farm.