- FRANKLIN H. DERRICK, of Brodhead, Green county, is a retired
farmer, and is passing his
- last days in this beautiful little inland city. He has lived
a useful life, worked hard, and is now enjoying a competence
for which he has rendered an honest equivalent in brain and brawn.
- Mr. DERRICK was born in Erie county, N.Y., Jan. 26, 1824,
and is a son of Rodolphus D. and
- Lorinda (SHELDON) DERRICK, natives of Vermont and New York,
respectively. Eight children were born to them, of whom two are
now living: Franklin H.; and Elvira, the widow of Levi DERRICK,
of Henderson, Neb. The father was a farmer, and during his active
years cleared several heavily timbered farms in his native State.
He came to the West in 1838 to make his home, though he had already
been out two years before and bought land in Green county, Wis.
In 1840 he broke land on this farm, and the following year moved
his family to it, and made it his home as long as he lived. He
died in 1860, at the age of sixty-seven, and his widow died fourteen
years later, at the age of seventy-seven, lacking one month.
He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and in his mature years,
a leading man in his community. He was one of the three county
commissioners in Green county at an early day, held several town
offices, and was on the county board at different times. His
father, Ephraim DERRICK, was a native of Vermont, of English
lineage. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and drew a pension.
He died in New York at the age of seventy-seven. His grandfather,
John DERRICK(1), born in England in 1833, came to America in
1674, and died at the age of one hundred and eight years. The
maternal grandfather of the subject of this article was William
SHELDON. He was a farmer in New York, reared a family of eleven
children, and reached the age of seventy-five.
- Franklin H. DERRICK was fourteen years of age when he came
with his parents to Wisconsin,
- and he has lived continuously in Green county since that
time, with the exception of two years which he spent in California
engaged in mining. He crossed the Plains in 1850, taking five
months to make the journey. In 1852 he returned home by way of
the Isthmus, and on a sailing-vessel to New Orleans, where he
took a steamer for Cincinnati. He farmed until 1883, when he
retired. Mr. DERRICK attended the district school one winter
after coming to the West. He lived at home until his father's
death, when he bought the entire homestead of four hundred acres,
but has since sold it.
- Mr. DERRICK and Miss Harriet A. BOSLOW were married Nov.
18, 1846. She was the
- daughter of John and Mary (CONDON) BOSLOW, and became the
mother of seven children, Theodore James, Franklin R., Levi F.,
Mary L., Harriet L., Flora L., and Paul E. Theodore James lives
at Jolly, Texas; he married Mrs. Ellen PURDY. Franklin R. lives
at Brodhead and is the husband of Miss Belle MOORE. Levi F. married
Miss Mary SIMMONS, and lives at McCracken, Kans.; they have two
children, Edna and Maud. Paul E. married Miss Adeline BOWEN,
and lives in the city of New York. Mary L. married John BALIS,
and both are dead; they were the parents of six children, Franklin
T., Robert Ernest, Mary L., Hattie and Mabel. Harriet L. married
Junius T. LAMSON, and lives at Orleans, Neb.; they have four
children. Flora L. died at the age of two years. Mrs. Harriet
A. DERRICK died Oct. 22, 1871, at the age of forty-nine. She
was a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. DERRICK married Mrs.
Mary A. NORTHUP, Sept. 17, 1872. She was the widow of Sylvester
Northup, and the daughter of Sanford WILLIAMS. Mr. and Mrs. DERRICK
are members of the Methodist Church, where he serves on the board
of trustees. He was formerly a Republican, but is now a Prohibitionist.
He was sheriff from 1873 to 1875, and was chairman of the town
board a number of terms. He has a good home in Brodhead, and
is reckoned among the leading citizens in the town and county.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing; pp. 355-356.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
|