[Obituary] Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph - 20 January 1888, page 7
The Late Alexis Ransom.
The funeral of Mr. Alexis Ransom, who died on Sunday evening the 16th, took place from the residence of the deceased on John street, Wednesday afternoon. And thus was borne away to "Mountain Home" from among the few remaining, another of those whom we are wont to call the pioneers or first settlers of Kalamazoo. Mr. Ransom was born in Townshend, Vermont, Feb. 22, 1805, and consequently had nearly completed the 83d year of his age. He was the fourth of six sons of Major Ezekiel Ransom, all of whom were among the very early settlers of Kalamazoo county, and all of whom here found their graves where they had lived. His father, Major Ransom, was a somewhat remarkable man and distinguished himself in the war of 1812. His mother, Lucinda Fletcher Ransom, was a no less remarkable woman, well born and bred. She was the daughter of Col. or, as he was always called, General Fletcher, one of the most distinguished men in Vermont in his day and one of the most influential in opposing both the rival claims of New York and New Hampshire for the territory which became the independent state of Vermont, and twice during the contest General Fletcher was imprisoned for what he deemed righteousness sake or a strenuous defense of the rights of the people of the new state. There are some living in Kalamazoo yet who will well remember Mrs. Ransom as a true lady of the old school, and whom in fine courtesy of bearing and manner Mr. Alexis Ransom strongly resembled. “A perfect lady," his mother was wont and justly to be called. She was a woman of the strictest integrity and a fine sense of sight in the smallest matters, traits in which the deceased also resembled his mother. Mrs. Ransom, the mother, had, as will be remembered by all who knew her, a wonderful love and enjoyment of music, traits which all of her 12 children (for there were six daughters, as well as six sons in the family) and especially Alexis Ransom and the youngest son. Wells, inherited. It was a family that could make a musical choir of themselves, at any family gathering, and the writer of this sketch can perfectly recall the rapt face of the dear old mother at many of these gatherings as she listened, involuntarily keeping time with a finger, and sometimes joining in a few notes that she especially loved. The deceased may be said to have first started out in life for himself in Clinton county, N. Y. From there he went to Glen Falls, where he married Miss Lois Stone, a sister of Mrs. E. J. Fish of this town. Four children of that marriage, three daughters and one son, survive their father. In the fall of 1827, Mr. Ransom came to Kalamazoo; the next spring, however, he went to Allegan, where he was for four years associated with the then influential and prosperous firm of the brothers Ely. These were the years of the great financial crisis, known as the days of wild-cat money in Michigan and the firm with which Mr. Ransom was connected was among those that "went under" in those trying times, and Mr. Ransom was strongly tempted to give up the West and return again to New England. But he was the favorite brother of Governor Ransom, who, very anxious to keep him in Kalamazoo, in order to tempt him to remain, conveyed to him for a nominal sum, a deed of four acres of land, on a portion of which he built a house, which, rebuilt, is the one in which he lived for 43 years, or till his death. After his return to Kalamazoo from Allegan, for a time he was engaged in the flour trade with Mr. Fish, his former partner, and for some time with the late Mr. Lucius Clark in mercantile business. In 1845, under President Polk. Mr. Ransom was appointed postmaster for a full term, and he has served some time as justice of the peace in Kalamazoo. Interest in lumber mills not far from Vicksburg has occupied Mr. Ransom and taken him much from home for several years past, but no man ever loved his home better, and he was very seldom away over a Sunday. Mr. Ransom's first wife died in 1855, and in 1856 he married Mrs. Nancy Brown, widow of Mr. Lewis M. Brown, who survives him and to whom his loss is irreparable; for a happier union and a happier family of stepchildren on both sides is very seldom to be found in the history of second marriages. Four children of the first marriage, one son. Mr. James Ransom, and three daughters, with a son and daughter of Mrs. Ransom, survive and mourn for a kind father and a good man. Said Mr. Wyllis Ransom, son of Governor Ransom, to the writer to-day. “A purer man than uncle Alexis, I don’t believe ever lived, when a child I used to see a great deal of him, for he was my father's favorite brother, and I cannot recollect of ever hearing so touch as a slang phrase from his lips." Mr. Ransom was a man of few words, but a great reader and a close thinker, and his mental powers and memory continued with scarce an indication of failure or impair till he was stricken down with his last illness, about a week before his death. The same may also be said of his industrious habits and activities which continued to the last. On all subjects, he was accustomed to think for himself and no man ever more cheerfully and courteously conceded to others the same right to think and act for themselves In politics he was a democrat, and a strong one, but he counted among some of his truest and warmest friends those who did not agree with him in political matters. In matters of religion, too, though very little of a talker, he thought and acted for himself, and the writer has often heard him say: "On matters of such importance I must think for myself and be guided by my own conscience. I hold it the sacred duty of every person living to do this, and I can't, why not if I would, merely endorse another's opinion on subjects like these?" It is but a few days since, however, that he expressed to the writer his strong and, as he said, growing belief in the immortality of all life and he more and more felt (for these things he deemed must be matters of feeling rather than knowledge with everyone), that with man, death was but a continued life under other conditions from those of this life. We laid aside our old clothes and moved into new habitations with, perhaps, a larger range, but we took our real selves with us, and they made our happiness or unhappiness, there as here and everywhere. Such, he said, were his growing feelings about that of which he did not profess to know anything, though he thought more about it than anything else in the world. Mr. Ransom's death was most peaceful. In the first days of his illness he suffered much; but for 24 or 36 hours, life simply waned until it ceased and he slept over into a new morning in the beyond. It was a somewhat noticeable coincidence that Mrs. L. E. Bulkley, an old resident of Kalamazoo, a very intimate friend of the family, and sister-in-law of Mrs. Ransom, one of the last friends in the conscious remembrance of the deceased, of whom he spoke, died in Cleveland at almost the very same hour as he died.