Henry Champlin @ Parma

Henry Champlin is the father of Belle Champlin (Henry Charles Champlin, Birdie Belle Champlin).

Henry Charles Champlin was born 6 Aug 1846, in Parma, Jackson, Michigan. He died 26 Oct 1883, in Jackson, Michigan. He married on 10 Apr 1872, in Columbia, Jackson County, Michigan to Ida Belle Myers, daughter of Alexander Myers and Hester Ann Bailey. They had 2 children.

By 1850, Henry's parents had moved from Parma to Leoni . By 1860, they had moved to Spring Arbor, as Henry's father settled in different areas of Jackson County to start mills.

In 1872, Henry and Belle's marriage at Columbia, Jackson, Michigan, was conducted by Reverend L.P. Tompkins and witnessed by Laura C. and Oscar A. Tompkins. The marriage record indicates that Henry Champlin was 26 and that Belle was 19 years of age. It would appear that for the sake of appearance, Henry's age was reduced by three years while Belle's age was increased by three years (she was barely 16 years old).

In 1880, Henry resided at Moscow, Hillsdale, Michigan with wife Belle and children Belle and Roy. Henry was employed as a miller at that time.

The October 30, 1883 edition of the Jackson Citizen carried this account of Henry's death:

HENRY C. CHAMPLIN FOUND DEAD, ENTANGLED AND CHOKED IN A BARBED WIRE FENCE "Between midnight and 1 o'clock on Saturday, two ladies returning from a wedding party and passing along Elm Avenue south of the Air Line crossing in streeters addition, discovered the dead body of a man entangled in a barbed wire fence which skirts the road, and immediately gave an alarm to the nearest neighbor Mr. George C. Fisher who went to the round house and telephoned to the city for officers and the coroner.

Coroner Casey, Officers Schultz, Lawson and Murphy were soon on the spot, and a jury of inquest soon impanelled, consisting of W.H. Lawson, S.E. Rogers, Albert Frank, P.J. Delehanty, John Dalton, and Eugene Murphy. They found the body in a most peculiar position. The two lower wires of the fence were twisted around his neck, both hands grasped the upper wire, his body rested on the ground and his feet were outstretched. He presented the appearance of a gentlemanly, clean and intelligent young man, but nothing was found on his person to indicate who he was or where he came from. The remains were disentangled from the wires and taken to Carey & Delehanty's undertaking rooms for identification but no one present could give any clue to his identity.

This morning it was discovered that the dead man is Henry C. Champlin, youngest son of Erastus Champlin of Jefferson, Columbia Township, this city. He is a miller and was working in Elliot's Mill on Mill Street since its erection until about two weeks since he bought an interest with one Powers in a restaurant under Loeb's clothing store paying there for $250. It seems they were selling liquor surreptitiously at that place and Champlin was threatened with prosecution. Whether this had a tendency to drive him to suicide we known not, but he left his house on Cooper Street yesterday morning with only a little change in his pocket, less than half a dollar, ostensibly to buy meat for breakfast, and was not seen again until brought to the morgue as related. Mr. Champlin was 26 years of age, and leaves besides his aged father and several brothers and sisters, a wife and two children".

(note: this article describes Henry as being 26 years old which differs considerably from the 40 years on his death certificate and the fact that he was 7 years old in the 1850 Census).

It is unknown how Henry met his fate, suffice it to say he left the family trade and invested unwisely shortly before his death, perhaps on the advice of unsavory characters.