- JOHN J. PUTNAM, deceased, was one of the prominent and well-remembered
early settlers of
- the town of Decatur, Green county, Wis. He came here in the
fall of 1848, and purchased a tract of five hundred acres, to
which he removed his family in the month of June, the following
year. Almost immediately he became identified with the moral
and material growth of the community, and throughout his entire
life took a leading part in everything that related to the general
progress of the community.
- Mr. PUTNAM was born in Hampshire county, Va., in 1801. In
his early life he had a very limited
- opportunity for education. The death of his father, when
he was seventeen, put upon his shoulders to a very great extent,
the burden of the support of the family, and he nobly met the
serious responsibilities of the situation. He was married before
leaving Virginia to Miss Mary M. FLEEK, a daughter of Adam FLEEK.
The young married couple very soon sought a home in Hocking county,
Ohio, and later removed to Licking county, in the same State,
where he engaged in agricultural pursuits, there continuing to
reside until he came to Wisconsin, in 1849.
- Mr. PUTNAM was a man of great mental gifts and sterling integrity.
Though he died comparatively
- early in the history of Green county, he left a record that
is not forgotten. He was justice of the peace for a number of
years, and also held the office of chairman of the town. He accumulated
a valuable property, leaving an estate of fourteen hundred acres.
His death occurred June 5, 1856, and his widow survived until
February, 1874. Of their children, four are now living: Elizabeth
A., the wife of W. ATHERTON, of Albany; Oliver S., who was a
captain in the war of the Rebellion; Henry C., a banker in Brodhead;
and Virginia, wife of Burton GARDNER, of Brodhead.
- Hon. I. F. MACK, a former resident of Green county, in a
contribution to a historical compilation
- of a decade or more back, has this to say of Mr. PUTNAM:
"I was well acquainted with very many of the early settlers
of Green county, and among the more prominent men of that early
day I am pleased to name the late lamented John J. PUTNAM, who,
with a large family connection of six or eight families, left
Ohio, and settled in the town of Decatur, a little earlier than
1848, forming one of the most frugal and thrifty granger settlements
it has even fallen to my lot to know, none of whom will regard
it invidious if I place Mr. PUTNAM, in his life, in the front
in point of intelligence and noble manhood. Although a farmer,
Mr. PUTNAM was a man of extensive reading, a keen observer of
men and things, an astute reasoner, thoroughly posted on all
questions that then divided political parties, of ripe judgment
and unassailable integrity. Though firm and decided in his convictions,
he was not intolerant, but genial and kind to the last degree.
He was a prominent figure in the old Whig ranks, and a keen admirer
of Henry Clay. Many a Democrat felt the incision of his political
thrusts in the early days; and with true patriotism in his bones
he could but pass into the Republican ranks. Stricken with a
fatal malady while endowed with manly vigor, he passed away,
leaving a handsome competence for a surviving wife and an interesting
family of several sons and daughters."
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing; pp. 371-372.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
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