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Birth:          11 Mar 1868 Tyendinaga Twp., Hastings Co., Ontario, Canada
Death:          14 May 1938 Hemlock, Mich.
Cause of Death: prostate cancer
Burial:         Richland Twp. Cemetery, Saginaw Co., Mich.

Notes
Email from JKinnaman (in file)
1910 in Richland, Saginaw Co., Mich. laborer, emigrated 1887, parents English, born 
in Ireland
1920 in Richland, Saginaw Co., Mich. laborer in grain elevator
1930 in Richland, Saginaw Co., Mich. janitor in public school
justice of the peace

from http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/k/i/n/Connie-J-
Kinnaman/FILE/0005page.html

John Samuel Ault, eldest son, was born March 11, 1868, in Belleville, Hastings 
County, Ontario, Canada. Jack, as his family and friends called him, was about 20 
years old when his parents moved to Michigan from Tyendinaga, Ontario, in 1888. He 
was literate and schooled in the Canadian Educational system. 


On February 8, 1894, John Samuel married Lavina Thomas. John had been working as 
a farm hand for her father, Philo, when John and Lavina met. 


Lavina, or Vina as she was known, was the daughter of Philo Thomas and Arminda 
Morris who were the first homesteaders in Hemlock, Michigan. Vina was born 
September 5, 1868 in Hemlock. She had a heart attack on February 22 and died 
February 26, 1958 in Saginaw, Michigan at the age of 89. 


John Samuel and Lavina had seven children, all born in Hemlock. Estella A. (b. 1894) 

Arminda Rae (Minnie) (b. 1896), John Emil (b. 1898), Edward (b. 1900), Thomas B. (b. 
1901), James Philo (b. 1903), and Ervin (Cy) (b. 1907). 


John Samuel Ault applied for citizenship to the United States of America on Thursday, 

March 31, 1898. A declaration was recorded in Saginaw County Circuit Court and 
signed by 

Honorable Byron Snow, Circuit Court Judge. John's personal representative for 
application was Thomas J. Rowe, of Richland Township. On the same day John 
Samuel acted as personal representative for Charles Wardin, of Germany, for 
application of citizenship. The applications for John's brothers, James and Albert, 
were denied at the time. Albert applied for and became a citizen on November 2, 
1900. James became a citizen also, possibly applied for while living in Grand Rapids 
or Ann Arbor, Michigan. John registered to vote on April 2, 1898 in Richland 

Township, just two days after applying for citizenship. 


According to Donald McLeod, who knew his grandfather as " Grampa Jack", John 
Samuel was very witty and musically inclined. Another of John Samuel's grandson's, 
John Thomas Ault, remembers his grandfather leading the parades, while playing a 
drum, down Main Street in Hemlock. John Samuel was a Justice of the Peace in 
Hemlock and would relate stories about the "speeders" that came before him in court. 
After sentencing the perpetrator, he was known to have joined him for a beverage at 
the local "watering hole". 


Later in life John Samuel worked as a custodian at the local school. Lavina was a 
school teacher there. John Samuel died May 14, 1938, at home, of carcinoma of the 
prostate. He had been ill for one and one-half years. He was buried in The Richland 
Township Cemetery. 


Lavina died on February 26, 1958. Her death record stated Cardio vascular accident, 
she had Arteriosclerotic heart disease for more that two years. She was buried next to 

John Samuel in the Richland Township Cemetery. 


My own personal remembrances of Great Grandma Vina were: That her son James 
Philo lived with her in the old white house her father Philo built, with the incredibly 
steep stairway that led to the attic where Uncle Cy kept his personal things and his 
beautifully tanned deer hides hanging from pegs on the wall. I remember we couldn't 
go into the parlor. It was off limits to the "kids" so we wouldn't break anything. I do 
remember getting in trouble for picking the plastic off the screened door leading to the 
kitchen. And I will always remember Great Uncle Jim boiling potatoes for supper and 
likely as not a ring of bologna to go with the potatoes. Great Grandma had some great 
stories to tell. If only I would have known how valuable they would be today. I do 
know she inherited her mother's tenacity, as she is recorded as registering to vote on 
February 7, 1919, a year and a half before Women's Suffrage was enacted in the 
United States. 


  
 


Parents
AULT John ()
RAE Margaret R. ()

Siblings
AULT John Samuel (11 Mar 1868 - 14 May 1938)

Marriage To THOMAS Lavina (5 Sep 1868 - 26 Feb 1958)
    m. 8 Feb 1894 Saginaw, Mich.

Notes

Parents
THOMAS Philo A. (11 Sep 1831 - 5 Feb 1905)
MORRIS Arminda (4 Jun 1838 - 10 Dec 1912)

Children by THOMAS Lavina 5 Sep 1868 - 26 Feb 1958
AULT Estella Ann (23 Sep 1894 - 9 Nov 1988)
AULT Arminda Rae (23 Feb 1896 - 14 Oct 1958)
AULT John Emil (21 Feb 1898 - 16 Apr 1970)
AULT Edward (14 Apr 1900 - 10 Apr 1965)
AULT Thomas B. (12 Jun 1901 - 2 Jun 1906)
AULT James Philo (22 Nov 1902 - 3 Sep 1980)
AULT Clarence Ervin ("Cy") (11 Aug 1906 - 26 Aug 1978)

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