Corbin Family Homes

Pictures sent to me by Bill Gough from his mother's photo album.

Comments by Bill Gough ....This is the Corbin Farm House on Stanton Rd. west of Union City, off of M-60. I know it is still there, a family has modernized the property and built a swimming pool in the back. In the picture, my grandmother Ethel and my great aunt Elizabeth (Betty) Corbin are on the porch, Ethel in the rocker. I would guess the picture was taken sometime in the 1912-1915 range. The farm was purchased by my great grandfather Silas B. Corbin in 1886. Before that the Corbins lived near Burlington on the Earl Smith farm. My grandfather John took over the farm…and lived there until his death in 1944. A few years later, grandma Ethel Corbin sold the farm and moved to the house in Union City.

Comments by Bill Gough ....This house was somewhere on a side street in north Union City - probably west of Broadway. I wish I knew the address. It is one of the homes where my great grandmother Ella Spofford lived after her husband, Silas Corbin, had passed away. She had also lived in a brown cottage on Ann St. behind the Methodist church. She was a teacher in Union City and in Manistee, MI, Traer, IA public schools before she married my great grandfather. The Spoffords were prominent residents of Branch County, her brother Byron was president for 40 years of the Branch County Savings Bank in Coldwater.

Comments by Bill Gough ....This is the house of Janette Corbin , the daughter of Horace Corbin, on Ellen Street, just west of Broadway. Horace was the brother of my great-grandfather Silas. Janette was a teacher in the schools in Union City and Coldwater. Guessing the picture was taken sometime in the late 1940s. Janette was the town historian at the time, and put together a scrapbook of the city's history. She was very active in the Congregational Church, and served on the Board of Education. She died the year I was born in May 1956, at age 92. My father came back to officiate the funeral.