History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume II, Part 40

Author: Beckwith, Albert C. (Albert Clayton), 1836-1915
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Indianapolis, Bowen
Number of Pages: 836

USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 40

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Mr. Fleming was married on December 10. 1901, to Bertha Mulks, daughter of Washington and Elizabeth Mulks, and to this union two children have been born, Ester and Henry.

MORRIS ISAAC.

It is a well authenticated fact that success comes not as the caprice of chance, but as the legitimate result of well applied energy, unflagging deter- mination and perseverance in a course of action once decided upon by the individual. Only those who diligently seek the goddess Fortuna, find her-she never was known to smile upon the idler or dreamer. The subject of this sketch clearly understood this fact early in life, so he did not seek any royal road to success, but sought to direct his feet along the well-beaten paths of those who had won in the battle of life along legitimate lines. He had their careers in mind when casting about for a legitimate line to follow, and in tracing his life history it is plainly seen that the prosperity Mr. Isaac enjoys has been won by commendable qualities, and it is also his personal worth which has gained for him the good standing among his fellow citizens in Walworth county, in which he has long been widely known.

Morris Isaac, of the city of Delavan, was born on September 25, 1831, in Montgomery county, in the north of Wales. He is the son of Thomas and Mary (Edwards) Isaac. They, too, were born in Montgomery county, Wales, and there grew to maturity and were married, and there they spent their lives.

The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Isaac: John, Jane. Thomas, Isaac, Edward and Morris. John had been a marine in the British nary, and after he came out of the navy went to India as a mate on a trading vessel, and was never heard from since. Jane remained in Wales and married a miller named Hugh Jones. Thomas enlisted in the Twenty-second Artillery in the British army and was in the Crimean war and siege of Sebastapol, and came out unscathed, after which he married a Scotch girl and went to Edin- burgh. Isaac remained in Wales.

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The father of these children died in March, 1854, and the mother in 1857. Thomas Isaac was a farmer and Morris Isaac grew up at the same occupation. In 1853 Morris and his brother Edward came to Turin, Lewis county, New York, where Edward died in 1854. In July, 1855, Morris Isaac came to Delavan township, this county, in the interest of Alanson H. Barnes. In the fall of 1856 Mr. Isaac went to Minnesota, but returned to Walworth county in the spring of 1857. In the spring of 1858 he began farming for himself, farming on shares two or three years. In 1862 he bought a farm of W. C. Allen in section 2, in the town of Sharon, consisting of one hundred and twenty acres. He also owned various other tracts at different times, but he made his home on the above mentioned place.

There he developed an excellent farm and continued to reside until 1902, when he removed to the city of Delavan, where he now resides. He pur- chased a good residence and sold his farm after coming here. He has de- voted nearly all his life to agricultural pursuits and has laid by a competency for his old age. In religious matters he belongs to the Congregational church. He received a good education in his native country.

On October 28, 1858, Morris Isaac married Mary Allen, a native of Saratoga, New York, a sister of Judge W. C. Allen and daughter of Jacob and Lucy Allen. She came here with her parents about 1844 and lived in the town of Sharon. Her death occurred in 1886 This union was without issue. On December 5, 1888, he was married to Mrs. Ursula (Willard) Wright, widow of Charles R. Wright. Charles O. Willard, the father of Mrs. Isaac, was born in Vermont in 1828, and Rachel Ash, her mother, in Canada in April, 1830. The latter came to DeKalb county, Illinois, early in life. Charles O. Willard and Rachel Ash were married in Sycamore, Illi- nois. To this union were born the following children: Unaldo, of Darien, Wisconsin; Ursula, wife of Mr. Isaac, of this sketch; Adelbert is deceased ; Helen married a Mr. Nichols and lives at Sycamore, Illinois ; Ernest lives in Sycamore, Illinois ; Frank lives in Richardson, Illinois ; Mae lives in Sycamore, Illinois. The father of the above named children was a mason by trade, which he followed until his death, which occurred on November 29, 1905, in Minne- sota. The mother died in Cass county, Iowa, in September, 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac have one daughter, Ethel Adele Isaac, now wife of Thomas N. James, living on a farm in the town of Sharon.

Mr. Isaac has taken a citizen's due interest in the public affairs of his community. He is a Republican in politics, was on the board of supervisors in the town of Sharon seven or eight years, and was also on the school board for some time. He and Mrs. Isaac are members of the Congregational church.

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CHARLES BENNETT SUMNER.

Moral cleanliness or integrity, activity or industry in the every-day affairs of life will tend toward true happiness in this world and a hopeful confidence in the life to come that is assured to the possessor of these invaluable virtues. Charles Bennett Sumner, for many years a prominent practicing attorney of Delavan, Walworth county, who has now passed into the mystic silent land, was a man whose career was exemplary and whose influence on those with whom he came into contact most potent for good. He was born in New Berlin, Chenango county, New York, August 18, 1847, being the only child of George WV. and Laura (Bennett) Sumner.

Teaching school as a young man, Mr. Sumner afterwards studied law in the office of his uncle, Henry Bennett, being admitted to the bar in 1869, and locating for the practice of his profession at Bainbridge, New York. In December, 1872, Mr. Sumner was married to Alice Johnstone, of New York city. Removing to Delavan in the fall of 1885, he entered into partnership with the late Silas W. Menzie under the firm name of Menzie & Sumner, and for many years that firm enjoyed a large practice and was connected with all important matters of local litigation. Upon the dissolution of the partnership. caused by the removal of Mr. Menzie to Beloit, Mr. Sumner continued the practice of his profession and was actively engaged therein until shortly before his death, July 8, 1906.

During his many years of activity the subject of this sketch formed a wide acquaintance with members of the bar of this and adjoining states and had a large circle of professional friends. He served Walworth county for two terms as district attorney, establishing for himself a most envious record as a just and fearless prosecutor. He ever took a prominent and leading part in all that tended for the civic betterment of his adopted city, and was for many years a vestryman of Christ church, Delavan, at which church he was ever a most regular attendant.

Mr. Sumner was survived by his widow and four children : Charles J .. who succeeded his father in practice at Delavan and is now a member of the firm of Sumner & Bowers; Mary J .. Alice W. Fisher, and Elizabeth L ... daughters.

The following personal tribute from the pen of his warm friend. Wilbur G. Weeks, then editor of the Delavan Republican, and published in that paper July 12. 1906, most beautifully portrays the character and attributes of Charles Bennett Sumner :

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"To me, it is a melancholy pleasure to think and speak of the character and attributes of Charles B. Sumner, as I knew him in the realm of business and society, where I learned to honor his judgment and love him as a friend. He was a genial, kindly gentleman, who treated all who came within the circle of his influence with rare and exquisite courtesy.

"It is said that time is the essential element of just history, and to that tribunal must be referred the final judgment of all the actions of men. Mr. Sumner is still almost one among us, his shadow has barely passed our doors, and we feel that we are almost too near him to estimate the influence of his life, but, as is true of all noble natures, the vitality of it will increase as time goes on.

"As a lawyer he won, deserved, and sustained a reputation for learn- ing and professional skill. His brethren of the bar and the judges before whom he practiced bear concurrent testimony to his singular excellence as an advocate. When success crowned his efforts he was modest and considerate, and when the standard which he had borne went down in defeat, he was patient and serene.

"There is also comfort in the manner of his death. He died as one might wish to die who is prepared. In his own home, in the tender care of those nearest and dearest, without premonition or pain of parting, 'God's finger touched him and he slept.'

"I offer this as an humble but sincere tribute to the memory of my late friend."

JOSEPH PHILBRICK WEBSTER.

Who can measure the results of a life work, especially such a life work as that of the well remembered gentleman whose name forms the caption of this biographical memoir? The practice of his life was not to condemn, but to aid, devoting his best energies to the uplifting of humanity, and the world is better and brighter for his having lived. Although he has been gathered in by the scythe of the "Reaper whose name is Death," the spirit of Mr. Webster's worth and work remains as the deep undercurrent of a mighty stream, noise- less but irresistible, his influence still pervading the world, like the scent of roses after the vase which contained them is shattered. He possessed high musical ability, and his reading covered the wide realms of science, art. his- tory and classical literature. He had a quick eye for the beautiful, the heroic, the true, the purposeful. He found all manifestations of Mother Nature

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interesting, genuine, restful, always the same-found solace for the ills of life in the repose and sympathy of her solitudes. He had the taste and touch of the true artist, a versatile, a thoroughly self-made, self-educated man, having left unexplored no branch of true culture-truly one of Nature's noblemen.

Joseph Philbrick Webster, composer of a vast number of songs, many of them popular in their day, and for many years a worthy citizen of Elkhorn, was born on the shore of Massabesic Pond, near what is now the city of Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1820. He was a son of Amos and Bethia (DeCosta) Webster. His parents were poor, but came of some of the first families of New England. His paternal grandparents were Major John and Phoebe (Hazeltine ) Webster, the former an officer in the Revolutionary war, and the latter was from a prominent old family, several members of which also were soldiers in the patriot army. Major John Webster was born at what was then the north part of Haverhill. Massachusetts, on October 14, 1730. A change in state boundaries put his birthplace in New Hampshire and it was called Atkinson. He was descended from John Webster, of Newbury or

Ipswich, who died in 1642, leaving eight children. John Webster's wife was Mary Shatswell, sister of Theophilus Shatswell, of Ipswich, one of the most prominent of the early settlers who lived at Ipswich in 1633. John's son, Stephen Webster, was born in Ipswich, and he married Hannah Ayre, of Haverhill, and to them ten children were born, one of whom was John, whose birth occurred on March 15, 1668. in Haverhill. He married Triphena Locke, to which union ten children were born, one of whom was Israel, whose birth occurred on March 16. 1704. He married Mary Bond, and their eldest son was Major John Webster, who married Phoebe Hazeltine, as stated above ; she was descended from one of two Hazeltine brothers, who were early settlers of Bradford, Massachusetts, or Rowley as it was then called.

Major John Webster bravely answered the summons to repel the British at Concord. He had been lieutenant of a militia company in his home town and although their captain was a Tory, Lieutenant Webster returned from Boston and called the company into action for the colonists. Enlisting more men, he took them into the battle of Bunker Hill and had a prominent part in that engagement under General Stark, who was a personal friend of his. In 1777. for efficient service and great bravery at the battle of Bennington, he was tendered a commission by Congress, but refused it. In all the campaign against Burgoyne he took a very active part, witnessing Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. After being in many battles and enduring great privations, he re- tired from the service in 1782 and purchased an estate and mill site at the out-

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let of Massabesic pond and there lived an intimate neighbor of General Stark, his mill becoming widely known as Webster's Mill. He was the first representa- tive in the state Legislature from his district. He was a kind, genial, Chris- tian gentleman. He built an altar under the trees near his home and there worshiped three times a day.

Bethia DeCosta, who became the mother of Joseph P. Webster, of this sketch, is described as an unusually beautiful woman, refined and strong- minded. She was the daughter of Ebenezer and Rhoda (Goffe) DeCosta, a descendant from Huguenots who fled from France to America to escape religious persecutions. He was an athlete of remarkable powers, great wit and native cunning. He ran away in his boyhood during the French and Indian war, and at the close of that war was brought home by Col. John Goffe and married the Colonel's daughter, Rhoda. In the Revolutionary war Ebenezer DeCosta again became a soldier, taking to the front with him his two sons, Bishop and Micajah, uncles of Joseph P. Webster. While confined in bed as the result of an accident, Ebenezer DeCosta composed a number of beautiful verses and set them to music.

Col. John Goffe was born in 1701. He was the father of Rhoda DeCosta, and he was a lieutenant-colonel in the French and Indian wars. He was the sons of John Goffe, born in 1686.

The father of Joseph P. Webster, of this sketch, died when the subject was young, leaving the mother with a large family, in straitened circumstances. So the children were thrown very largely upon their own resources, being compelled to develop themselves and to work hard during their earlier years. The subject had an overmastering passion for music, and it is related of him that in childhood he would steal out his elder brother's violin and practice, even at the risk of being severely punished. He also made himself proficient on the flute, fife and drum. When fifteen years old he was working for his board and six pence a day and trying to obtain an education at the district school. From his meager saving he took a course of thirteen nights at a singing school. It is said that from then on he made such rapid progress that in a year he could read any piece of music, either vocal or instrumental, at sight. Before long he began teaching music and from his first singing school it was seen that he had a peculiar and intuitive knowledge of the greatest of all of the fine arts, and could impart it in an admirable manner. With money thus earned he attended Pembroke Academy. Here his love for military drill found ample opportunity and was made use of in later life during the Civil war. When about twenty-one years of age he went to Boston, as a pupil of the best teachers of music at that time. Prior to this he had not seen a piano,

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organ or melodeon. He remained in Boston three years, singing, teaching and taking lessons.

It was a veritable struggle against want, but he was of that stock that could lead a forlorn hope with smiling courage. People begun to recognize his genius and admire his courage. In 1843 he removed to New York and formed a business connection with Bernard Covert and they gave a series of concerts both in the city and throughout the state. His experiences there were followed by six years of varied fortunes in Connecticut. About that time an attack of bronchitis resulted in the loss of his voice to such an extent that public singing had to be given up. This seeming misfortune proved to be a blessing in disguise, for it drove him to composition ; and there it was seen that his peculiar genius lay and there he won his greatest fame.

Up to that time he had published no music. His first publishers were Firth, Pond & Company, of New York ; then Oliver Ditson & Company pub- lished his song, "There's a Change in Things I Love." The public felt the magic of his genius and fortune began to smile on him. However, failing health compelled him to go south. He traveled extensively, finally locating at Madison, Indiana, on the Ohio river. He made friends with the most aristo- cratic society there, finding favor and abundant patronage. While living there the storm concerning slavery was rising toward its high tide and feeling was extremely bitter. Suspicion began to point to him as helping the negroes and he found it advisable to go north. He came to Racine, then to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, where the latter years of his life were spent. In the political can- paign of 1860 he was given a gold-headed cane by the "Elkhorn Wide- Awakes," the cane being beautifully engraved on the top, "The Elkhorn Wide- Awakes to the Captain, J. P. Webster." The sides of the cane were also fittingly engraved.

Mr. Webster proved his loyalty to the Union in those trying times, and he was offered a commission as colonel by the governor, but refused it. He tried several times to enlist in the army, but was refused because he was near- sighted. He was deeply disappointed, and then offered his services as a drill master. In appreciation of his services the war governor of Wisconsin offered him the rank and pay of an officer, to which Mr. Webster replied, "I will not accept the pay if I cannot share the dangers of the service ; if you wish me at any particular place I am at your command." During this period hie pro- duced some of the most stirring war songs, including "Lorena," and strangely enough it became most popular around the campfires of the Confederates. At the close of the war he wrote a patriotic drama and a cantata, but his usual compositions were ballads. He often arranged and rewrote songs composed by others. From 1865 to 1868 he composed many of his most popular songs,

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the "Sweet By and By" appearing in 1868. Following are the titles. of others of his well known songs: "My Margaret," "Come to Me, Memories Olden," "Lost Lomie Lane," "The Golden Stair," "Sounds of the Sea," "Under the Beautiful Stars," "The Vine Wreathed Cottage," "Drifting Into the Harbor," "Dawning of the Better Day," "Angeline," "Sister May," "Roses are Bloom- ing." "Dog and Gun," and "Hurrah for Grant."

Mr. Webster had a fine violin of magnificent tone. He left it with Julius Bauer, a personal friend and a piano manufacturer in Chicago, also left a large number of musical compositions at Lyon & Healy's. in Chicago and they were all destroyed by fire in the great conflagration of 1871. An earlier collection of meritorious manuscript was lost in a fire at Manchester, New Hampshire. Beside all that, fully one thousand songs have been published, of which he wrote the music and the words to many. His loss in the Chicago fire was such a severe blow that he was almost heart broken, and he never fully recovered, his death occurring on January 18, 1875.

Mr. Webster had a striking personality. He was tall, erect, slender, and his auburn hair hung in wavy masses upon his broad square shoulders. His eyes were deep set under heavy eyebrows and a high forehead. His slightly Roman nose and long gray beard made a face and bearing full of character. In manner he was dignified, kind and courteous. He had an unbounded trust in human nature, a large-hearted generosity and good will to his fellow men. He was not rich, but he might have been had that been his aim. His youngest son, who was eleven years old when the subject died, remembers him, as a "slender, grave and quiet man, always very kind, never loud talking nor scolding, whose chief delight seemed to be to help someone."

The domestic life of Joseph P. Webster began when he was united in marriage with Joanna Webster, a step-child of John Goffe Webster, his oldest brother, and Mary Huse. The latter was the daughter of Isaac Huse, a soldier in the American Revolution from Massachusetts. He married Joanna Rowell, daughter of David Rowell, of Manchester, New Hampshire, who was also a soldier in the patriot army. Isaac Huse answered the call to the battle · of Lexington, and he enlisted three times during the war for independence.

Mrs. Webster's ancestry, like that of the subject, may be traced back through the annals of New England to the middle of the seventeenth century, so the family must be said to be thoroughly American.

The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Webster : Joseph H., Mary H., Louie B. and Fred H. Mrs. Webster, now advanced into the mellow Indian summer of her years, is spending her declining days

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in the devoted care of her son, Joseph H., at Elkhorn. Hers is a gracious, kindly, sunny personality, which has won a host of warm personal friends wherever she is known.

JOHN HENRY DERTHICK.

John Henry Derthick, popular ex-sheriff of Walworth county, and for a number of decades one of the leading farmers and stock men of Lafayette township, who is now living in honorable retirement in Elkhorn, was not favored by inherited wealth, or the assistance of influential friends, but in spite of this, by perseverance, industry and the exercise of sound judgment. he has attained a comfortable station in life, making his influence felt for the general good of his community and county where most of his active life has been spent, having come here when a boy in what might he called the latter part of the pioneer epoch in the history of this locality, and here he has been content to spend his life, and while laboring for his individual advancement he has never neglected his duties to the public.

Mr. Derthick was born in 1842 in Portage county, Ohio He is the son of Julius and Esther ( Monroe ) Derthick. The subject spent his early boy- hood in the Buckeye state, and when twelve years old, in 1854, he came with his parents to Walworth county, Wisconsin, and the family home was estab- lished in Lafayette township, the father buying a farm of three hundred and nine acres of Doctor Mills. This place he improved and carried on general farming and stock raising extensively, continuing to reside there until his death, on August 23, 1863.

John H. Derthick grew to manhood on his father's farm and he received his early education in the district schools. In the years 1861 and 1862 he attended the University of Illinois at Champaign, and in 1863 and 1864 he attended college at Milton, Rock county, Wisconsin. Upon completing his education he returned home and resumed farming, and in 1874 moved to Spring Prairie township, this county, but continued to operate the old home- stead, and in 1885 he moved to Elkhorn, having been elected sheriff of Wal- worth county in the fall of 1884, which office he held for two years, then re- turned to Spring Prairie township and took up farming again, being very suc- cessful in his various phases of agriculture and becoming one of the leading farmers of his community. In 1891 he was again elected sheriff of the county and served another term of two years with his usual success, devoting himself to his official duties in a most faithful and commendable manner, eliciting the

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hearty approval of his constituents. After the expiration of his second term of office he again returned to the farm, in 1894, and continued farming until twelve years ago, when, having accumulated a competency, he retired from active life and moved to Elkhorn, where he has since resided. He has always taken much interest in local public affairs, and is a loyal Republican. He served his district as school clerk for a number of years.

John H. Derthick married Lucy Elizabeth Weed at Lafayette, January 8, 1868, and to this union one child, Edna Lourene, was born. Mrs. Derthick is the daughter of Belden and Rachel Maria (Cherevoy) Weed. The father was born March 31, 1805, and the mother's birth occurred on October 18, 1820. They were married on February 27, 1844, Mr. Weed having one son, John Henry, by a previous marriage, who is now living in Vermillion, South Dakota. Belden Weed was the son of Justus Weed, of Westerlo, Albany county, New York, and his mother was known in her maidenhood as Lucy Burdick. The birth of Justus Weed occurred on November 3, 1772, and his wife was born on May 22, 1777.

The following children were born to Belden and Rachel Weed: Lucy Elizabeth, born January 8, 1845; Juliett Beman, born January 6, 1851, mar- ried Fred W. Isham, January 8, 1878.

Belden and Rachel Weed were married in New Lebanon, Columbia county, New York, at which place the latter was born, and they went to housekeeping near that town, continuing to reside there ten years, removing with their two daughters to Freehold. Greene county, New York, in 1855, and lived there a year. They came to Lafayette township, Walworth county, Wisconsin, on April 19, 1856, and located on a farm which Mrs. Weed's brother, Edmund Cherevoy, had taken up from the government in 1841. Later the father of Mrs. Weed and her brother, Charles, came to live with her here. The only buildings on the place were a toll-gate and an old school house, which had been moved there from the Derthick farm the spring before. The house now standing and occupied by a tenant was the toll-gate which Mr. Weed bought when it was abandoned and with some addition and atera- tion was converted into a home. Here they resided until April 1, 1879, when, with Mr. and Mrs. Isham and Charles Cherevoy, they moved to Elkhorn. Mr. Isham was county superintendent of schools at the time. They bought the old school house which had been converted into a residence by Dr. B. O. Rey- nolds. The death of Mrs. Isham occurred on May 26, 1890, and Mrs. Weed died on January 29, 1906.

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History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume II, Part 40

Author: Beckwith, Albert C. (Albert Clayton), 1836-1915 Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Indianapolis, Bowen Number of Pages: 836

Author: Beckwith, Albert C. (Albert Clayton), 1836-1915
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Indianapolis, Bowen
Number of Pages: 836