- THOMAS JEFFERSON BRAGG. The Green county pioneers of sixty
years ago are rapidly
- being numbered among the countless thousands who have lived
and suffered, played well their part in the life’s battle,
and been called from the field of action to the rest of the quiet
churchyard. Their memory is cherished and revered, and the lives
of self-denial will be long remembered; and it is no cause for
wonder that the few who yet remain are held in affectionate reverence.
Of such is the distinguished citizen of Monroe whose career forms
the subject of this biographical sketch.
- Thomas J. BRAGG comes of Virginia stock. His parents were
Doshur and Hannah (MOFFATT)
- BRAGG, and at the time of his birth his father was serving
as a soldier in the war of 1812. His parents were poor, and the
father found it necessary to take the first employment that offered
in order to secure a support for his rapidly increasing family.
He was born and reared in a section where slavery was regarded
as a divinely appointed institution, and for fifteen years he
was a slave overseer. The position was a repugnant alike to his
convictions, and his inclinations, and both he and his wife resolved,
as soon as circumstances and their slender means would permit,
to seek a new home in a latitude where the legal equality of
all men was recognized. In 1822, they removed with their eight
children to Kentucky, and in that State a ninth was born. Their
earnest wish, as has been said, was to remove to a free State;
and to aid her husband in the accomplishment of this project.
Mrs. BRAGG weaved and did other work suited to her sex and strength.
In 1829, they found that by patient industry and strict economy
they had accumulated sufficient means to enable them to cross
the Ohio from Kentucky to Illinois. The husband and father settled
upon public lands first in Clark and then in Edgar county, in
that State, and subdued the unbroken prairie soil to subjection.
The following year death called from his side the helpmeet of
his life, and in 1841, he followed her to the grave, dying on
the farm which he had earned and cultivated through so much industry
and manly self-denial. Of the nine children born to Doshur and
Hannah BRAGG only two sons and a daughter survive, although the
family may be said to have been noteworthy for its longevity.
Those who have died were; Louisa, who married Absalom PITCHER,
survived her husband for many years and died, comparatively recently
at the age of ninety; William; Mary, who became the wife of Rev.
Stephen R. GOLL; Lucy, who was married to Rev. PETTIGREW; Elizabeth
(Mrs. Samuel MILBURN) and Catherine, the wife of Frederick SHUEY.
Of the surviving members of the family -- Storther, Thomas Jefferson
and Hannah -- the first named is the eldest. He was the second
child and first son, and was born in 1807 and is yet living in
Edgar county, Ill., at the age of ninety-three. Thomas J. was
fifth in the order of birth. Hannah, the youngest daughter is
the widow of George BROWN, and also lives in Edgar county, in
the Prairie State.
- Thomas Jefferson BRAGG was born Jan. 15, 1813, in Fauquier
county, Virginia. He left the home
- farm when a young man of twenty-three years, going from Illinois
to Wisconsin in May 1836 making his migration in the capacity
of a teamster for one Jonathan COREY, for whom he drove six yoke
of oxen, attached to a wagon bearing the family and all other
household goods of his employer. The destination of the party
was southern Wisconsin, and the journey, while long and tedious,
was by no means uneventful. There were no roads, and the cumbersome
vehicle, with its.clumsy, heavy method of draught, had to make
its way across unbroken prairies, through trackless swamps and
across streams which were at times so swollen as to be scarcely
fordable. A ride on horseback was employed as a sort of advance
scout, whose movements were closely watched, and whose tracks
were as closely followed. The laborious (and often painful) toil
attendant upon such an expedition can scarcely be appreciated
by the luxuriously accommodated traveler of today, but to the
pioneers of sixty years ago it counted for little in comparison
with their abiding courage and deep-seated hope. Mr. COREY intended
to locate just south of the Illinois State line, and nearly three
weeks were spent in reaching that point from Grand View, Illinois.
- Mr. BRAGG remained with his fellow travelers long enough
to aid in the erection of a cabin for
- the shelter of the family; and then set out -- with others
of the party which had accompanied them -- for the locality which
is the present site of Monroe. Among these more adventurous explorers
was Daniel S. SUTHERLAND, with whom young BRAGG made his home
for many months. For some two years he worked as an assistant
to the early farmers, with their primitive methods of cultivation,
and in 1838 bought four yoke of steers, a wagon and a breaking
plow for himself. These he used with industry and good judgment
during the summer months, although the winter found him at work
in the lead mines. He carried on this mode of life for about
five years and in 1841 he felt that he might take to himself
a wife. In October of that year he married Emily Jane NOBLES,
whose father, Peter NOBLES, had shortly before settled in what
is now Green county. At the time of his wedding the hardy young
pioneer was making his home with his prospective father-in-law,
but immediately after his marriage he entered a claim to government
land, in the present township of More. His industry was unflagging,
his energy inexhaustible. His success exceeded his anticipation
and as time went by he found himself the owner of 700 acres of
well-improved land. On this farm he resided for more than forty
years, and there were born his five children, one of whom, Alice,
has died. Those who yet live are: William I., an influential
citizen of Monroe; Emma, wife of R. D. GORHAM, of that city;
and Thomas J. and Charles, whose homes are in Nebraska. Some
two decades ago, his hard work, good judgment and unwavering
probity having brought their merited reward, in the shape of
a comfortable competence, he abandoned active toil and he and
his wife took up their home in Monroe. In that pleasant city
they are passing their declining years, surrounded by every comfort,
happy in the mutual love which has weathered many a storm, and
serenely awaiting life’s termination in the hope of a glorious
immortality. Despite his eighty-seven years Mr. BRAGG is vigorous
in both mind and body. His memory recalls the new country as
he first beheld it; and as he views the great advance made by
modern civilization, with its handmaids -- steam and electricity
-- he sometimes wonders whether the glories of nature are not
more enduring than those of art, and the handiwork of God grander
than that of man.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing; pp. 509-510.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
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