Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-Nelson Paronto
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
NELSON PARONTO a native of the District of Montreal, Canada, and of French descent, is recognized as one of the leading farmers of Bloom Township, where he homesteaded land in 1874, and has his residence on Section 2. His landed possessions embrace 320 acres, all of which have been brought to a good state of cultivation. The land is well adapted to stockraising, which forms a leading feature in the operations of the proprietor. Mr. Paronto came to Kansas in the spring of 1874. Upon leaving his native city, he emigrated to Clayton County, New York, where he lived twelve years. Thence he went to Iroquois County, Ill., where he sojourned fifteen years and from there, in 1874, crossed the Mississippi into Kansas. His operations have indicated in a marked degree the prudence and forethought which are the leading characteristics of the man and which have brought him success.
Mr. Paronto was born Jan. 15, 1828, and is the son of Noah and Julia (Levelley) Paronto, the former of whom, like his father before him, was a farmer by occupation and after his marriage emigrated from the Dominion to New York state in 1842, and lived there twelve years. In 1854 he removed to Kankakee County, Illinois, and settled on a farm, where he died in 1853, at the age of fifty two years. His wife survived him a number of years, dying at the age of sixty. Both were Catholics in religion. Of the sixteen children born to them, only three are living�two sons and a daughter.
The subject of this sketch remained under the parental roof until reaching man�s estate and was married in Kankakee County, Ill., to Miss Ada Marsant. This lady was likewise a native of the District of Montreal, born in 1836, and is the daughter of J. M. Marsant, who is represented elsewhere in this volume. The latter removed with his family from Canada to Illinois, and thence to Kansas in 1871, settling in Bloom Township, where he is still living and numbered among its leading citizens.
Mrs. Paronto was carefully reared by her excellent parents, living with them until her marriage. She is now the mother of nine children, the eldest of whom, a son, Noel, married Miss Salina Belaird and is living on a farm in Bloom Township. Elizabeth married Charles Lewis, a businessman of Topeka. Ada is the wife of Charles Winegrove (Wingrove), a real estate man of Clay Center. John took to wife Miss Martha Martin and is operating a farm in Jackson County, this state. Henry is unmarried and operating a farm in Bloom Township. Cordelia is the wife of August Petermeyer, a farmer of Bloom Township. Nelson and Frederick are at home with their parents. Mr. Paronto, politically, is a sound Republican and with his good wife is a prominent member of the Baptist church in which he officiates as deacon.