- WILLIAM A. DAWSON, machinist; was born in Lancashire, England,
July 15, 1820, and came
- to Wisconsin about the middle of April, 1857, locating at
Spring Prairie, Walworth Co.; he came to Millbury, Mass, in 1846,
and served as an apprentice in a machine-shop there; from there
he went to Rockford Co., Conn., and was engaged for two years
in dressing woolen cloth; he then moved to Wallingford, Conn.,
and worked in the Britannia manufactory; then moved to Meriden,
Conn., and engaged as a journeyman in a machine-shop; from Meriden
he went to Worcester, Mass., and worked in a machine-shop, and,
in 1854, went to Philadelphia, as agent of the HOWE Sewing Machine
Company; he then returned to Meriden and worked as a machinist
until the fall of 1856; then to New Haven, Conn., and worked
at this trade; then came to Walworth Co., Wis., and opened a
blacksmith shop. In 1860, he moved to Whitewater, Wis., and worked
in a reaper manufactory, and in January, 1861, came to Beloit
as a journeyman in the reaper manufactory of GASTON and DUSTEN;
then with HART & GORDON, in the same shop. In the summer
and fall of 1865, he worked in G.S. TAMBLING & Co.'s machine-
shop, and afterward, for three years, was with O. E. MERRILL
as a journeyman, and then engaged in the light jobbing and model
work until 1876, when he went to PARKER & ALDRICH, and afterward
made a contract with Mr. ALDRICH for the iron work on his wind-mills.
He enlisted, in August, 1862, in Company B, 22d Regt., in Wis.
Vols., and was at the battle of Thompson's Station, Tenn., where
he was taken prisoner and confined in Libby Prison until April
1, 1863. He married, Aug. 1, 1853, Caroline W. BLODGETT, of East
Meriden, Conn.; he has seven children - William B., George W.,
Edwin R., Henry A., Harriet Amelia, Charles F. and James E. Mr.
DAWSON is a member of the Second Congregational Church, at Beloit.
-
- Taken from "History of Rock County Wis." (c)1879,
p. 743-744.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|
