Asa W. Slayton is widely known throughout central and western Michigan and possesses a striking personality and versatile talents. His name is inseparably connected with the growth and development of one of the state’s great industries, and through the medium of various publications his ideas relative thereto have been given wide publicity.

Mr. Slayton’s family history contains much that is interesting to the to the biographer and is traceable in an unbroken line back to 1690. In that year an orphan boy in his eighth year, among the hills of Scotland, through the machinations of certain realitives who united in a conspiracy to obtain possession of a valuable estate to which he was heir, was sent to America under an assumed name, landed in Massachusetts, and found himself practically an exile in a new country. From this individual, Thomas Slayton, there have been enumerated 1,393 descendants, one of whom is the subject of this review, who was born on the 27^th day of December, 1830, in Middlesex, Yates county, N. Y. His parents were Russell and Berthena (Clark) Slayton, who had a family of six boys and two girls, he received his name in honor of his paternal grandmother’s father, whose birth occurred in one of the New England colonies in 1743, and who figured in the early annals of Vermont, to which state he removed at a period antedating the struggle for independence.

Asa W. Slayton was educated in the high school of Victor, Ontario county, N.Y., and at the age of sixteen years came to Michigan with his parents, locating in Grattan township, Kent county, where subsequently he engaged in farming and teaching. In addition to the above mentioned vocations, he was for some years variously employed as surveyor, mason, tinner, carpenter and painter, devoting the winter seasons to educational work, in the prosecution of which his success was most encouraging, his popularity as an instructor being attested by the fact of his frequent retentions in the same school; and he has a record of forty years in the school-room, during which time he taught seventy-three terms--a longer time of service perhaps than that of any other instructor in the state. He was in the army two years, lieutenant of Company B., Twenty-fifth Michigan; as acting-engineer, he built the fortifications at Mumfordville, Ky., and at Camp Nelson.

Page 461

Since 1857 Mr. Slayton has been actively identified with the arboricultural interests of Michigan, having set out the first large pear and cherry orchards in the western part of the state and demonstrated to the satisfaction of all the peculiar adaptability of the soil and climate for fruit growing. His interest in this important industry has by no means abated, and he is still a leading spirit and ardent supporter of the West Michigan Agricultural society and a frequent contributor to the leading periodicals of agriculture and horticulture.

He was one of the six original members of the State Horticultural society organized in 1869, and has served six years as treasurer of the same; and it was largely owing to his untiring efforts that the first horticultural exhibits were made in Grand Rapids, out of which eventually grew the West Michigan society referred to above.

Mr. Slayton has always been a public-spirited citizen, interested in everything calculated to advance the general good, and few have done as much towards developing the splendid resources of the country as he has. In 1871 he rented his farm in Grattan township and removed to Saranac, Mich., where he taught for five years; thence, in 1876, to Whitehall, Muskegon county, where for a period of eleven years he served as principal of the city schools. He disposed of his farm in 1885 and purchased a five-acre tract in the suburbs of Grand Rapids, which he has greatly improved by building and setting out various kinds of fruit and other trees, thus making a comfortable and delightful home, where he expects to spend his remaining years.

Mr. Slayton takes much pleasure in attending to his grounds and experimenting scientifically in the propagating of various kinds of fruits, the results of which have been not a few valuable additions to this important and enticing branch of industry. For many years he has paid much attention to collecting articles of scientific and historic value, and at this time his museum of natural history, containing also numerous instruments for chemical, philosophical and astronomical experiments and observations, is one of the finest private collections in the state. Many of these instruments are the results of his own inventive genius and mechanical skill, and his entire collection, valued at several thousand dollars, represents vast amount of research and is a creditable monument to scientific devotion. Mr. Slayton is also a skilled taxidermist, and has many fine specimens of stuffed skins of animals, birds and reptiles.

Not the least interesting of the hundreds of articles in his collection is a miniature mansion, constructed after modern architectural ideas, finished and furnished with the latest household appliances, by his daughter Ivy, who enters with enthusiasm into all her father’s work and investigations.

The marriage of Mr. Slayton was solemnized on the 30^th day of October, 1865, in the township of Vergennes, Kent county, with Miss Margery McPherson, who was born in that township, May 5, 1844, and who for a number of years was a teacher in the public schools. The following are the names of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Slayton: Ivy, Myrtle and Zena, all three graduates of the Whitehall high school, and Victor and Flora, graduates of the high school of Grand Rapids. Ivy is a teacher in the city schools, Myrtle for nine years has been a stenographer for the Widdicomb Furniture company, Zena is the wife of P.H. Travis, a lawyer, and the son Victor is a journalist. Mr. Slayton has spared no efforts in fitting his children for honorable position in life, and the high estimation in which they are held in social circles, and the responsible places which some of them already fill, show that this solicitude for their

Page 462

welfare and the advantages for intellectual culture have by no means been misdirected.

A happy wedded life of over thirty years’ duration was sadly severed on the 23^rd of December, 1896, at which time Mrs. Slayton was summoned to the higher life. She, with her husband, united with the Congregational church in Whitehall in 1877, and she ever exemplified the pure faith professed. Mr. Slayton served as deacon and treasurer of the above mentioned congregation until his removal from Whitehall, although he still retains his membership there; the daughters are members of the Park Congregational church of Grand Rapids, and are active in all good work connected therewith.

For fourteen years, Mr. Slayton devoted much time and patient research in tracing his family genealogy, and the result of his work was published in book form in 1898. The volume contains a vast amont of exceedingly interesting and valuable in formation and will always prove a source of great satisfaction to all Slayton posterity, by preserving in permanent shape facts and dates that would otherwise have been lost.

Politically Mr. Slayton has always voted with the republican party, or the prohibition, and while not a partisan in the sense of aspiring to official preferment, he has been an active worker, contributing not a little to the success of the party in many contests. He has filled various township offices, but in so doing sacrificed his inclinations for public good. He is a temperance man and has never been in a saloon.

Mr. Slayton is a dignified and polished gentleman of the old school. He is prepossessing, courteous and sociable, positive in opinion, decided in action, and a man of honesty and independence of spirit. He has more than ordinary powers of mind, developed and enriched by study and professional experience; and these, with a refined taste and high ideals of life, make him a most charming addition to any social circle. He is widely respected and influential, and his name is worthy of conspicuous mention with the representative citizens of Grand Rapids and Kent county. But he says there are hundreds of other better men; and he thinks that the credit for settling up the new country belongs mostly to the fathers and mothers who have gone to the brighter home.