Untitled
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 413-414
JOSEPH H. LINCOLN. The arrival of Mr. LINCOLN in Wisconsin antedates the admission of the State into the Union, he having first taken up his residence in Grant county in April, 1844. His birthplace was Chester county, Penn., and the date of his birth was Feb. 10, 1827.
The LINCOLN family is of English origin, although both our subject's grandfather, Thomas and father, Azariah, were natives of the Keystone State. In Pennsylvania, Azariah LINCOLN married Mary MILES, and they removed thence to Wayne county, Ohio, later (about 1840) settling in Illinois. It was in 1844 that Azariah LINCOLN resolved to seek a home in what was then regarded as the far Northwest, a virtually trackless territory. At that time he and his wife had a family of seven children, four of whom were boys. Their first home in Wisconsin was at Livingston, but later a change of domicile to Montfort was made, both Mr. and Mrs. LINCOLN dying in that town, he on Oct. 9, 1862, in his seventieth year, and she on Nov. 30, 1877, after attaining the ripe old age of four-score and two. The dates of their respective births were Sept. 26, 1793, and March 10, 1795. Azariah LINCOLN was a man of great muscular strength and fine physical development, and was by trade a blacksmith. He was a man of resolute will and inflexible moral conviction. Both he and his wife were ardent Methodists, and it was at their home that the itinerant preachers of that denomination in those early days found entertainment and encouragement in their self-sacrificing efforts to propagate Christian faith and disseminate Gospel truth among the early denizens of a new country, where grit ranked above goodness, and brawn was the badge of untitled royalty.
The children of Azariah and Mary LINCOLN were: Thomas, who died June 15, 1890, the father of a family; Dickinson, now a resident of Cottage Grove, Oregon; Joseph H.; Samuel, who died in 1894; Elizabeth; Margaret; and Sarah.
Joseph H. LINCOLN was a lad of seventeen when he accompanied his parents to their new home in Wisconsin, and there will never fade from his mind his first signet of what is now Grant county, with its prosperous villages and well cultivated farms, its heaven-pointing church spires, and its well conducted schools. Since those days he has seen Wisconsin grow to Statehood, its forests cleared, its soil reclaimed, its mineral wealth explored, its harbors improved, its bosom dotted with cities and towns of constantly growing wealth and prosperity, and its people become among the most enlightened and God-fearing in an entire continent. He was married, on Dec. 15, 1861, to Miss Margaret LAIRD, a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (TWINING) LAIRD. She was born Dec. 4, 1841, and died May 16, 1871. Mr. and Mrs. LINCOLN had a family of two daughters and two sons: the Eldest, John, died at the age of four years. The eldest daughter, Mary, is the wife of S. H. TAYLOR, one of the leaders of the Grant County Bar. Eva, the youngest daughter, lives at home with her father. Azariah, the only surviving son, who is named in honor of his paternal grandfather, was born June 25, 1868. He early developed an inborn fondness for scientific study, and his father has afforded him admirable advantages. After graduating from the academic department of the Wisconsin State University he studied for and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, having prepared a most excellent thesis on the "Electrical Conductivity of Non-Aqueous Solutions." So emphatic was his success in this field of scientific investigation, he was offered an assistant professorship in Natural Science at Cornell University, a chair which he fills, bringing to the discharge of his duties ardent enthusiasm, ripe scholarship, and an illimitable thirst and capacity for painstaking investigation.
Mr. LINCOLN has passed life's seventy-fourth milestone, with undimmed intellect and an unshaken religious faith. He and his daughter are among Montfort's most esteemed residents. His life has been an open book, and on its pages there is no stain.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck