| FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH |
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The Reverend Samuel Wire was born in Goshen, Connecticut December 13, 1786; the son of an Irish soldier who served in the British Army under General Braddock. He grew to manhood in Connecticut where he married Abigail Sherman, after which the couple settled in western New York state. In May, 1819, Wire was baptized and soon after ordained a minister of the Free Will Baptist Church. Following his ordination he actively commenced work as a missionary preacher, holding revivals and organizing churches in western New York and Pennsylvania. He moved to Lake County, Ohio, in 1835, but stayed only briefly, returning to New York in 1841. Here his first wife died in 1843, after which Rev. Wire married second, Lucy (Dennis) Colby, widow of William Colby. Around 1853 the couple came to Sibley's Corners (now Wixom), Commerce Township, Michigan, where they occupied a small frame dwelling originally built by Lucy, widow of Abijah Wixom, on North Wixom Road. Now known as the Wixom-Wire House, the home is a Michigan Historic Site and serves as the museum of the Wixom Historical Society. Here Rev. Wire served as pastor of the Free Will Baptist Association of Commerce until his death on June 6, 1870. He is buried in Wixom Cemetery, directly across West Maple Road from the Wixom-Wire house where he resided.
