Roswell Britton | |
---|---|
Member of the Michigan House of Representatives from the Kent, Ottawa, Ionia and Clinton Counties district | |
In office November 2, 1835 – January 1, 1837 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1788 or 1789 Vermont, United States |
Died | (aged 60–61) |
Political party | Democratic |
Roswell Britton (1788 or 1789 – June 10, 1850) was an American politician who served in the Michigan House of Representatives in its first session after adoption of the state's constitution.
Roswell Britton[1] was born in Vermont.[2] His birthday is given as either July 21, 1788,[3] or June 16, 1789.[2] He served in the War of 1812 in Churchill's Regiment of the New York Volunteers from 1813 to 1814.[4]
Britton and his wife Sarah H. were living in Batavia, New York[4] and moved to Michigan in 1824.[2] By December 1825, he was living in Ann Arbor and was a delegate to a convention to nominate officers for Washtenaw County.[5] He moved to Grandville, Michigan, in Kent County, in 1834.[6] That year, he built a sawmill[7] in partnership with Nathaniel Brown. The mill, on Buck Creek, milled the first shipment of Michigan white pine lumber that arrived in Chicago on the White Pigeon in April 1835.[8]
Britton, a Democrat,[2] was elected to the first session of the Michigan House of Representatives following adoption of the state constitution in 1835.[9] Britton served as treasurer of Kent County several times, in 1837 and from 1843 through 1846. He also served as a justice of the peace from 1845 to 1846.[10] When the town of Byron was reorganized as Wyoming, Michigan, in 1848, Britton was again elected as a justice.[11]
He died on June 10, 1850, and is buried in Grandville Cemetery.[3][12][13]
Sarah Britton was born about 1800 and died May 9, 1847.[4]