The Stewart, Van Akin, and Seymour families were among the earliest settlers to Shiawassee County Michigan in the 1830s. James Van Akin (1794-1848) and his wife Elizabeth Jennings Van Akin moved to there from New York state in 1834. He and Elizabeth were farmers. They had eleven children, among them Henry Jennings Van Akin (1823-1896) who married Anne Stewart (1842-1884), also of Shiawassee County, Michigan.
Anne was the daughter of Addison Stewart (1811-1848) and his wife Lucy Tilden Stewart (1811-1898) who came to Michigan in 1833 from Avon, New York. Their other children included sons Charles (1839-1864) and Damon (1834-1867), who both served in the American Civil War, and daughters Harriett (Hattie) (b. 1836) and Laura (b. 1838). Damon served in the 23rd Michigan, company F and William served in Michigan's 23rd regiment, company C. Laura married Henry Seymour (d. 1899).
The Seymour family came to Michigan in the late 1830s when James Seymour relocated from Rochester, NY to Shiawassee County. Laura Stewart married his son Henry Seymour in the second half of the nineteenth century and they had five children. Their son James (b. 1864) married Elizabeth Graves Gilmore (1871-1947) and had a daughter Elizabeth Harriet Graves (1904-1970). Mary Seymour (1876-1964) was James's daughter from a previous marriage. Their daughter Hattie lived in Harpoot, Turkey in the late nineteenth century where she served as a missionary to the Armenians.
Melvin Van Akin Burd is the descendant of the Stewart and Van Akin/Jennings families through his great grandmother Anne Stewart and Henry Jennings Van Akin. He served in World War II and became an English professor at the State University of New York, Cortland. The Seymours are his cousins.
From the guide to the Stewart, Van Akin and Seymour Family papers, 1829-2003, 1860-1964, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
