Biography of Robert Colton (1904)

Last Updated 9/1/00

From Past and Present of Winnebago County, Illinois (1904):

    Robert Colton, the oldest pioneer in Durand township, having passed the eighty-fifth milestone on life's journey, while for a half century he has lived in this country, was born in Nottinghamshire, England, October 15, 1819. He was left an orphan when only five years of age, and was educated in the parish schools of his native land, but his privileges and opportunities in youth were very limited, and his advancement in life has come through the development of his latent energies and powers, through his close application and unremitting diligence to his business. He worked as a farm hand in England until coming to the United States on the sailing vessel, Mississippi, landing at New York city in May, 1843. He then went on the steamer Swallow to Albany, New York, and thence to Steuben county, that state, where he was employed at general work until September, 1845, when he came to Winnebago county. Here he took up three forty-acre tracts of land fromt he government, located on the prairie in Durand township, and he has since made his home in this township, devoting his time and energies to agricultural pursuits with good success, so that he is now one of the prosperous agriculturists of the community, with a competence sufficient to supply him with all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life.
    On the 17th of Junuary, 1845, Mr. Colton married Miss Martha Jane Heine, of Durand township, who died in April, 1857, leaving five children, of whom one son died in infancy. Grace Amelia became the wife of Warren Pettingill and died July 1, 1904, leaving two sons and a daughter; Letitia is the wife of George Krone, of Whiting, Iowa, and has three sons and a daughter. Libbie is the wife of George Cole, of Durand township, and has a son and daughter. Annie is the wife of CHarles Hammond, of Durand township, and has two sons.
    In October, 1857, Mr. Colton wedded Mrs. Jane Raney, of Durand township, who died in January, 1887, leaving a son, William W. Colton, who was a graduate of Rush Medical College, of Chicago, and died June 8, 1897. On the 10th of October, 1887, Mr. Colton married Mrs. Carrie Moore, nee Bradley, who is of English and Dutch descent and was born June 5, 1848, in Highland; Franklin county, Vermont. There she married Richard Moore and there were three sons and three daughters by that marriage: Fred H., of Beloit, Wisconsin, who has one son who lives with his mother's sister; Dick, who lives on his mother's place; Stephen, of Davis, Illinois, who has two sons and one daughter; Phoebe A., the wife of Dell Hughes, of Beloit, Wisconsin, and the mother of five sons and five daughters; Jennie, the wife of Frank C. Hughes, of Rock Grove, Illinois, by whom she has a son and daughter; and Ora May, the wife of Freemont Randall, of Durand township, by whom she has three sons and one daughter.
    In his political views Mr. Colton has been a republican since the organization of the party. It seems hardly probable, in this present age of advanced civilization that there is living a man within whose memory has occurred the introduction of steam navigation, the building of railroads, and the construction of the ocean cables and the telegraph lines, to say nothing of the more modern inventions of the telephone, etc., but Mr. Colton has seen all this while in Winnebago county. He has witnessed the transformation of wild prairies into well developed farms, dotted here and there with churches and schools, while in their midst have sprung up several thriving villages which were not here at the time of his arrival. For sixty years he has lived in this county, and as one of its most vernerable citizens and honored early settlers he deserves mention in this volume. Coming to America empty-handed, he has made continuous progress in his business career and his excellent farm of three hundred and twenty-five acres today proves his industry in former years.

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