Emmor Ware was a son of Asa Ware, Jr. (1801-1866) and Eliza Ann Crew (1805-1833). Emmor was born on his father (and grandfather’s) farm in Goshen, near Salem, in Columbiana County, Ohio. By 1856 he had moved to Butlerville (or Campbell township), Ohio, where his older brother Talbot (1829-1918) lived. Emmor ran a general store in downtown Butlerville, and was the local Postmaster. In 1858 he married his first cousin, Elizabeth W. Ware (1837-1883). The couple had three children in Butlerville: Joseph Bruff Ware (1860-1931), Ezra Jones Ware (1862-1950), and Clara Belle Ware (1867-1947). In 1869 Emmor moved the family north to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he tried farming for about two years. The 1870 U.S. Census lists the family in Kalamazoo, and Emmor’s occupation as “farmer,” with real estate valued at $8,000. Finally, in 1871, he became involved in the lumber industry, meeting with success. He developed three Michigan lumber mills, one in Sand Lake, one in Paris, and one in Grand Rapids. In 1873 Emmor moved the family from Kalamazoo north to Grand Rapids. This put him closer to the Sand Lake and Paris mills, which were both north of Grand Rapids. For a year they rented a house on Barclay Street before buying a lot on North Lafayette, where Emmor built a house and barn. In 1881 Emmor partnered with his Sand Lake lumber inspector and foreman, Frederick H. Olin, forming the company “Ware & Olin.” Emmor’s wife Elizabeth died just before Christmas, 1883 at age 43. In the Fall of 1885 Emmor remarried, to Melissa Cook. The following March Emmor came down with Erysipelas, and died that same month, in 1886, at age 55. He is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Grand Rapids, MI.