Ulysses Grant Elmer Figley, usually known as U. G. Figley in the area newspapers, was born in Tiffin Township, Defiance County, on November 18, 1864. He was a teacher, Justice of the Peace, Notary Public, and Ney Mayor in Washington Township where he lived for much of his life.
But, he was probably best known as a newspaper correspondent, keeping the readers up on the rural Ney gossip and contributing historical pieces to the Defiance Democrat. Many probably did not know he was the author of a book called, Life in the Stone Age, published in 1890 when he was 26, the same year he married Winifred H. Ryder.
U.G. and Winifred had two children: Thomas Warren Figley (1892-1983) and Margaret M. Figley (Whiton) (1894-1956). Near the end of his life, Ulysses, a widower, moved to Hillsdale County, Michigan to live with his daughter and died there of a stroke on June 5, 1945. He was buried in Fulton County, Ohio at the Lyons Cemetery.
As you browse the old newspapers, keep an eye out for U.G. as he wrote many very informative historical articles that add to our knowledge of days gone by here in Defiance County.
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