Untitled From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 196

D. L. COLSON, who now owns a fine farm in Watterstown township, Grant county, is one of the leading representatives of the agricultural interests of his section of Wisconsin. He was born in Maine in 1827, a son of Samuel and Clarissa (LITTLEFIELD) COLSON, also natives of Maine.

Jonah COLSON, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was born in Maine, where he lived and died. The maternal grandfather, Daniel LITTLEFIELD, also spent his life and died in the same State, having been born there. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel COLSON migrated, in 1856, to Oconto, Wis., and later to Grant county, where the father died, in Lancaster, aged eighty-six; the mother died at Mount Hope, aged seventy-one. Fourteen children were born to these parents: Alvin, who died in Maine; Adalaide, now Mrs. LOWELL, of Maine; Chryeinda, who lives in Black River Falls, Wis.; Stephen, who died in Maine; D. L., our subject; Melinda, Mrs. John LOWELL, of Maine; Abagail, Mrs. REED, who died in Maine; Elizabeth, Mrs. BOWDEN, who died in Maine; Granville, who came to Wisconsin, and died aged twenty-one; Sarah, who died in Oconto, aged seventeen; Samuel, deceased in infancy; and others that died in infancy unnamed.

Our subject was reared in his native State, and received a fair education in the public schools of Maine. Coming West when a young man, in 1853, to Oconto, Oconto county, he engaged in the lumber business. Later he removed to Black Earth, and then to Lancaster, Grant county, about 1867. His next change was to Mount Hope, where he opened up a fine farm, which he improved. He then located at Hickory Grove. Finally, in 1898, the farm known as the WILSON property, comprising 487 acres, in Watterstown township, came into the market. Mr. COLSON purchased it, and has since made his home in the township, improving the already excellent buildings, adding to the stock and otherwise increasing the value of the property.

In 1868 Mr. COLSON was married, in Mount Hope, to Miss Irene HAZEN, born in Wisconsin, a daughter of Amos and Louisa HAZEN, natives of Chautauqua county, N.Y., who came to Grant county early in the history of the State. Mrs. HAZEN died at Mount Hope in 1897; her husband still survives, residing at Mount Hope. To Mr. and Mrs. COLSON have been born: Lena (now Mrs. William OUSLEY, of South Dakota), Ida, George, Vernie, Warren, Asa and Adolph.

Mr. COLSON is a Republican in politics, being an important factor in local affairs, and is a man of prominence, not only in the community in which he resides, but throughout Grant county. Prosperous, popular, highly esteemed, he certainly deserves highest mention among the well-to-do farmers of southwestern Wisconsin.



This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck