John Dinsdale

  Notes:

Info from John Byrom.

From "History of Grant County, Wisconsin", 1881, p. 984.
TOWN OF FENNIMORE
JOHN DINSDALE, farmer, Sec. 25; P. O. Fennimore; born in Yorkshire, England, in November, 1825,where he was married to Tirzah Chapman. They emigrated to Wisconsin via New Orleans, and up the
Mississippi River to Galena, and thence to Grant Co.; left Liverpool Feb. 22, 1849, and reached Grant Co. on the 7th of May. In May, 1850, he entered 80 acres in Sec. 36, town of Fennimore, which is a
part of his present farm of 400 acres; he built a log house on his first 80 acres, where he lived eighteen years, when he built his present residence; he is engaged in general farming and stock-raising. His present wife was Miss Grace M. Eddy. He had twelve children by first wife, eleven of whom are living - Elizabeth, James, Isabella M., Zipporah, B. C., Dorothy, Alice, Hattie, Abbie, Matthew E. (deceased), Mary A. and Tirzah C. By present wife - Eddy (deceased), Ella T. and Grace A. His son James met with rather a singular incident about 1860, when he was 12 years of age. A bald eagle of immense size came down upon his father's farm and attacked a flock of geese. After a severe contest with a plucky gander, the eagle was finally dispatched by James with a club. James graduated at Rush Medical College, Chicago; is now practicing medicine at Soldiers' Grove, Crawford Co.


From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and
Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 111-112
JOHN DINSDALE, of the town of Fennimore, Grant county, is one of the earliest settlers of that section. He has lived there since 1849, and he has been a permanent settler in the town of Fennimore
since June, 1850. Mr. DINSDALE was born in the town of Askrigg, Yorkshire, England, Nov. 12, 1825, son of James and Elizabeth (THOMPSON) DINSDALE. The DINSDALE family has been resident in Askrigg for many generations. James DINSDALE, the grandfather of John, died at the age of eighty-four. Edward THOMPSON, the father of Elizabeth, married Dorothy NEWTON. Our subject's father had ten children, only two now living: John; and Mrs. Dorothy ALDERSON, of Denver, Colo. The father died in England in 1843, at the age of fifty-five years. His eldest son, Matthew, was the first to come to America, arriving here in 1846, and he followed mining for a time at Mineral Point, Wis. He became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1849 he went to California and spent two years in the land of gold. Returning them to England, he married Miss Mary Ann MANN, and when he came back to the United States he brought with him his mother, his brother Edward, and sister Lizzie. He put up a store at Linden, Iowa Co, Wis., and was engaged in its management for several years, later in life renting it and removing to Madison, that his children might have the benefit of the State University. He lived at Madison ten years, and preached at various places in the vicinity. After his daughter's graduation and marriage to Magnus SWANSON, of Chicago, he returned to Linden, where he died in 1897. A sister of John DINSDALE married a Mr. MUNDEN, of Geneva Lake, and another sister, Jane, married a Mr. CHAPMAN, in England, and came to this country in 1848. The mother lived with her children after coming to this country, and died at the age of sixty-nine years.
John DINSDALE was reared as a farmer and dairyman. He was married, May 24, 1847, to Miss Tirzah CHAPMAN, who was born at Worton, Yorkshire, but a few miles from the birthplace of her
husband, in 1826. The young couple came to this country in 1849, as noted above, bringing with them their two children: Elizabeth and James. They left home Feb. 13, sailing from Liverpool on the ship
"Saxony," and landed at New Orleans on the last day of the following April, making their way up the river to Galena, Ill., and from there to the town of Linden, Iowa county; in May of the following year our subject entered eighty acres of land in the town of Fennimore, Grant county. He erected a log house, which was his home for eighteen years, and at the expiration of that time built his present residence. By judicious investments he has increased his original eighty acres to a magnificent rural estate of 400 acres, and has long been numbered among the prominent and successful farmers and stock raisers of his town.
Mr. DINSDALE was bereft of the wife of his youth in 1869. She was the mother of twelve children. Miss Grace EDDY became his second wife. She died in 1891, the mother of three children, two of
whom are living. Ten children of the first marriage are still living, namely: Elizabeth, James, Zipporah, B. C., Dorothy, Alice, Hattie, Abbie, Mary A. and Tirzah C. The deceased children were Isabella M.
and Matthew E. Of the children born to the second marriage Ella P. and Grace A. are living; Eddy is deceased.
Mr. DINSDALE has been closely identified with the growth and development of Grant county for many years, and has been very active in everything relating to the best interests of the community. He has been associated with the Methodist Church since 1850, and has been class-leader for forty-eight years, and steward for fifty years. He has been a trustee of the Ebenezar Church, in the town of
Wingville, since its erection, in 1861. Politically he is a Republican of the Lincoln type, and has lately been identified with the Prohibition party. No man is better known or more highly esteemed in the
town of Fennimore than Mr. DINSDALE, and he is well worthy of a place in any record.
1870 US Federal Census (completed 27th July). 44 years old, a widow and farmer, living in fennimore, Grant, Wisconsin with his children James 21, working on the farm, Bella 20, Cora 18,
Chapman 16, working on the farm, Dorothy 14, Hattie 11, Abbie 8 and Mary 3.
1880 US Federal Census (completed 30th June). 54 years old, a farmer, living in District 105, Fennimore, Grant, Wisconsin with his second wife Grace 40 and children Abigail 17, Mary 13, Ella 5
and Gracy 1.
1900 US Federal Census (completed 1st June). 74 years old, a widow and a farmer, living in Fennimore, Grant with his daughter from his second marriage Ella P 24 and Grace A 21.
US Civil War Draft Registration document of 1st July 1863 lists John as 37 years old, a farmer and resident in Fennimore.

John married Tirzah Chapman, daughter of Thomas# Chapman and Isabella# Moor, in 1846 in Askrigg, N Yorks. (Tirzah Chapman was born in 1827 in Worton, Askrigg, N Yorks and died on 12 Feb 1869 in U.S.A..)