James Alfred Greenleaf

My great-grandfather, James Alfred Greenleaf, saved the lives of his family during the Great Thumb Fire of 1881.  The fire, which got its name from the shape of the geographical region of Michigan in which it happened, burned over a million acres in less than a day, and killed 282 people across several counties.  

James Alfred Greenleaf, who was known as Jim, was born in Depauville, NY on November 20, 1848, and settled with his parents and siblings in October, 1863, on a homestead in Greenleaf Township. The township was organized in the spring of 1864 and was named after Jim’s father, Alfred Fairbanks Greenleaf. In 1866, Jim married Mary Jane Belmer, whose family also originated in New York and came to Michigan in 1853. Jim and Mary Jane raised a family of seven children, two girls and five boys.

Besides farming, Jim Greenleaf worked as a farm laborer "driving team" for J. C. Laing, a pioneer merchant of Cass City, hauling wheat to Saginaw and returning to Cass City with loads of merchandise. This employment started in 1870, consuming on average 3.5 days for the round trip when the wagon was loaded both ways.

In early September, 1881, the Michigan Thumb Fire threatened Jim and his family. He saw the fire coming three days ahead, so for his family’s protection, he dug a trench in the yard about one foot deep. He had his wife and six children lie down side by side, face down. Then, Jim covered over his family with a blanket and kept sprinkling water on the blanket to keep it from catching fire. Jim had just purchased a new farm wagon and it burned along with his house and barn, killing some of their livestock. The fire cut like a giant buzz saw, about three feet above the ground. This fire-and-wind team was very fickle, some homes were skipped, others were destroyed, and cattle were lost. The fire sent ash and soot into the atmosphere and partially obscured sunlight as far as the East Coast of the United States.

The America Red Cross, which had beed founded that same year by  60-year-old Clara Barton, mounted its first official disaster relief operation in response to the fire. The fire killed 282 people, destroyed most of Huron, Lapeer, Sanilac, and Tuscola Counties, some 2,000 barns, homes, and schools, and caused more than 14,000 people to be dependent on public aid.

Jim’s brother, Lloyd Byron Greenleaf, of Cleveland, Ohio, the owner of a household furniture moving business, sent a big box of relief clothing, blankets, cooking utensils, and one pair of boots. Those boots stayed very busy, as there were two adults and six children to use them.

Jim gave up farming in 1913 and moved to Cass City. Not one to be idle, his ambition was to continue to actively work until age 80. At age 81, he was employed by John Profit, township highway commissioner, shoveling gravel into trucks in a gravel pit. A fall, injuring his shoulder, finally slowed him down, and he passed away in 1938, a few weeks before his 90th birthday.

I am extremely proud to know I had an ancestor who was as hard working and resourceful as Jim Greenleaf. This is why I think it is important for us to save these stories and share them with our own family and friends.