J.S. Stearns Lumber Company (Bennett, Mich.)

Justus S. Stearns worked as an errand boy for Eber Brock Ward, President of Pere Marquette Railroad Company. Ward gave him a small lumber mill after Stearns demonstrated that he was a good worker. Stearns eventually married Ward's sister-in-law, Catherine Lyon, and served as Bennett's first post master. Bennett, in Lake County, Mich., had a post office and logging mill (Stearn's Siding) on the Pere Marquette Railroad, 1887-1900. Bennet, Mich. no longer exists. (For further information see Going farther : a treatise on Lake Comunty (p. 8) and Michigan Place Names (p. 50).).