Dalton, Berkshire County, MA, was the birthplace of J. I. Follett in 1818.  During his boyhood his parents moved to the Western Reserve, Ohio.  Later, in 1842 he went to Indiana where he was occupied in farming and for a mercantile and mill business for an Ohio Company.  Settled in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1852 where he was employed in the carpenter and join's trade.  Including other various trades such as, milling, brickmaking and other skills.

December 4, 1861 came and he enlisted in the Twelfth Michigan Infantry.  Served through all grades from private to captain. Then wounded at the battle of Shiloh.  Mustered out 6 March 1866, he was then an invalid from the effects of disease contracted in the service and received a small pension.  J. L.'s son, James had enlisted at the same time with his father and in the same regiment and company and was mustered out at the same time.  He constantly refused promotion and served through the war as a private.  Wounded at Shiloh in the left arm and shoulder he carried the ball in his back until death.  James was captured, April 1864, and was a prisoner about ten months at Tyler, Texas.  Christmas day, 1867, James married Julia Vayon and had two sons and two daughters.

Mr. Follett came to the Grand Traverse region in 1871 and bought a mill and several hundred acres of land at the south end of a lake.  He married in 1842 to Calista Saxton, a native of Malone, Franklin County, New York.  Of the three children that were born, two died.  The surviving son, James S., was born in Steuben County, Indiana the 5th Oct 1848.  He has always made a home with his parents, and has generally associated with his father in business, and when his father was incapacitated by sickness, he carried on the mill and farm.

When first arriving at this section they were for six years engaged in brick making at Elk Rapids, Antrim county, and at the same time rebuilt the mill they had bought.

Source: The Traverse Region, published 1884.

@Created by Brenda K. Wolfgram Moore 29June2003