Untitled From the Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 657-658

J. A. TODD. Among those people who have devoted long and useful lives to the tillage of the soil, who have been honorable and upright in their every transaction, and have now come to a serene old age, holding the respect and confidence of all who know them, and passing their declining years with a richly deserved competence in southwestern Wisconsin, especially in Grant county, the venerable man whose name introduces this article is conspicuous. He is a retired farmer of Harrison township, and with his years reaching beyond the Psalmist's limit of three score and ten, he is strong and active, and affords in his own person a beautiful illustration of the results of clean and wholesome living on the farm.

Mr. TODD was born in Chautauqua county, N.Y., Oct. 28, 1825, and is a son of Elam and Betsy (GILMORE) TODD, natives of Vermont and New York, respectively. Elam TODD was the son of Jerred TODD, a Revolutionary soldier, and the grandson of Benager TODD, who was born in Maine. He in turn was the son of Jobe TODD, who was born on the river Rhine, in Germany. Jerred TODD came to Michigan at a very early day and settled at Litchfield, where he died at the advanced age of one hundred and three years. He had a large family, all of whom remained in Michigan, except Elam. He married, returned to New York, and was a Methodist Episcopal minister in Chautauqua county for many years. He and his wife both lived to be very old. They had five children: (1) Sidney B., born in New York in 1817, was a stock dealer, and died in that State, leaving a wife and one daughter, who is now a resident of Michigan. (2) Benager W., now deceased, born in Chautauqua county, N.Y., in 1821, married Elizabeth BURCHARD, of the same county, and settled in Buffalo; he had two children, Frank, an artist in Buffalo, and a daughter, the wife of Dr. SPRAGUE, of Jamestown, N.Y. (3) Morris, born in Chautauqua county, N.Y., in 1835, married, came West, and settled in Georgetown, Grant county, Wis., where he followed the trade of a carpenter some years, and then moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where he was a merchant the rest of his life; five of his children are living: Frank (a Des Moines merchant), Lillian (Mrs. Joseph DEAMER, of Des Moines), a daughter residing in Iowa, Nettie (of Des Moines), and Jack (a bookkeeper in a bank at Pittsburgh). (4) Clarissa, born in Chautauqua county, N.Y., is Mrs. Martin DELANEY, of Erie, Penn., and has one child, Harriet, now Mrs. George JACKSON, of Chautauqua county.

J. A. TODD, who completes the family, grew to manhood in his native county, and received a very fair education in the common schools. When he reached the age of eighteen he entered a blacksmith shop to learn the trade, and finished his apprenticeship in Warren, Penn. For some years he led a roving life, working at Pittsburgh, and then at Montreal, Canada, and later at Litchfield, Mich. From Litchfield he returned to his old home in Chautauqua county, and engaged in business. There in 1847 he married Miss Huldah A. FRANCIS, who was born April 12, 1828, daughter of Amos and Isabel (DOWD) FRANCIS, an old and prominent pioneer couple in Genesee county, N.Y. The young couple came to Grant county, Wis., the year of their marriage, and lived some six months at Big Patch, then a mining village. He worked at his trade two years in the town of Elk grove, and three years in Mineral Point. He bought property, and put up the second house and the first blacksmith shop in Georgetown, and was located there nine years, when he bought a farm near Hazel Green, and engaged in farming in connection with blacksmithing. After a time he sold out at Hazel Green and moved to Jamestown, where he followed shop work seven years. In 1872 he gave up his trade, and bought the farm on which he is now living, and which has been his home for nearly thirty years. He has made many extensive improvements, clearing up the land, erecting suitable and commodious buildings, and bringing the land to a high state of cultivation.

Mr. TODD experienced a heavy blow, Sept. 6, 1895 in the death of his worthy wife, the dear and faithful companion of almost a half century of toil and struggle. She was the mother of three children who attained mature years: (1) Mortimer died in childhood. (2) Melvina, born in Georgetown, Wis., in February, 1850, married Henry HARBICAN, now a wealthy and retired farmer of East Dubuque, Ill., and has had ten children, Frank, Walter, Anne, John (deceased), Morton, Jerred, Hiram, Burton, Logan and Henry. (3) Walter, born Dec. 15, 1852, married Lillie A. STEPHENS, of Platteville, daughter of John and Emily STEPHENS, pioneers in Grant county. Mrs. Lillie (STEPHENS) TODD was born in Platteville in 1856, and was educated in the old academy at Platteville, and her death occurred at their home in the town of Ellenboro Oct 28, 1884, leaving three children: Flora M., a very charming young woman, born Nov. 14, 1876, and educated in the Normal, has had charge of her grandfather's home for some five years; Ira, born in October, 1879; and Mabel, born April 8, 1882, are at home. Walter TODD married for his second wife Sophia COOPER of Grant county, and she died Aug. 20, 1894, leaving one son, Gernal G., born in October, 1886. Walter TODD is manager for the Climax Feed Mill Company for Grant, Iowa, Lafayette and other Wisconsin counties, and also has charge of his father's home farm. He is a member of the Masonic order and the Knights of the Maccabees. (4) Helen, born in Grant county in July, 1857, is now the wife of A. H. FULLER, of the town of Platteville, where they now reside; they have three children, Hulda F., Anna F., and Isabel D.

Mr. TODD has been identified with the Republican party since its organization, and has held a number of local offices in the towns in which he has resided. He and his wife were formerly members of the Christian Church, and were active workers in its behalf.



This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck