This gentleman was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, April 22, 1807, and was the youngest of twenty-one children, of whom three sisters are now the only surviving members. At the age of seventeen he married Lydia H. Barton, of the same place. Becoming dissatisfied with working on the mountains, and feeling convinced that it was no place for a young man with a growing family, he threw his axe into a brush pile and declared that he would not do another day's work in Vermont. They then moved to Castile, New York, where they lived two years. From this place he went to Michigan, in 1826, taking with him his widowed mother, who died at his home.

He settled in Troy, and purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, taken from the government by Daniel Burrows, and having on it a rude log house, covered with basswood slabs. He began the work of improving his ferm with all diligence, and was prospered to an unusual degree, owning at the time of his death, April 10, 1873, four hundred acres of land, which is now owned by his children. Lydia H. Stanley died January 20, 1841.

Mr. Stanley was twice married ; the second time, in February, 1842, to Catharine E. Barringer, of Richmond, New York, who was born August 16, 1808, and who came to Michigan in 1838. By this marriage he had one daughter, Mrs. Frank Ford, who now owns the old homestead. By the former marriage he had five children, and of these a son and a daughter are the only ones now living.