- MORGAN J. AKIN, a well-to-do retired farmer of Rock county,
Wis., has a home at No. 53
- Ruger avenue, Janesville, which he has fitted up with all
the appliances that conduce to the comfort and peace of modern
life. He has led a long and honorable career, has worked and
saved, played a man's part in the great struggle for success,
and now that the shadows are lengthening down the vale he has
a right to a few restful years.
- Mr. AKIN was born in Cayuga county, N.Y., Nov. 10, 1836,
a son of Edward and Adeline
- (MORGAN) AKIN, both natives of that State. They had three
sons and six daughters, and the following children are now living;
Lucy Ann, wife of O. L. WEST, of Johnstown, Wis.; Morgan J.;
Levanjah, wife of A. E. WILCOX, of Harmony township, Rock county;
William F., of Whitewater, Wis.; and Emily W., widow of John
HICKS, of Janesville. Edward AKIN, who was a farmer, came to
Wisconsin in October, 1843. He spent two years in Janesville,
to give his children the privilege of the schools, and then bought
120 acres of government land, which he converted into a productive
farm, and made his home there until his death, which occurred
in 1877. He was seventy-four years and eleven months old, and
his wife survived him one year, also reaching the age of seventy-four.
They were both Universalists in their religious faith, and were
people of fine character and habits. Ira AKIN, his father, was
born in New York, of Scotch-Irish descent. His father owned slaves,
and he was his father's overseer; the slaves were freed by the
State when New York blotted that shame from her statutes. Ira
AKIN grew to manhood, married in New York, and reared a family
of six children. When his wife died he broke up his home and
journeyed West to Sandusky, Ohio, where he made a new beginning,
married again, and died in middle life. Jacob MORGAN, the maternal
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Connecticut,
and moved to Cayuga county, N.Y., where his younger children
were born, and where he died, at the age of eighty-seven. He
was a farmer, and was eighteen years old when the war of the
Revolution closed. In that war his father was a soldier, and
his maternal grandfather a colonel of militia.
- Morgan J. AKIN was not quite seven years old when his parents
came to Wisconsin and here he
- grew to manhood, and has lived to the present time, always
following the occupation of a farmer. When he became of age,
in company with J. E. GLEASON, he bought eighty acres of land
in LaPrairie township, Rock county, each buying forty acres.
Some years later he sold his land to Mr. GLEASON but the original
forty had grown to 120 acres. Having closed up this deal very
successfully, Mr. AKIN bought a tract of land comprising 240
acres in Harmony township, which under his careful tillage became
a model farm, and continued to be his home until 1896. That year
he sold one-half of it, putting the other half into the charge
of his son Frank (who has proved himself a very capable farmer),
and moved into Janesville to spend his last years quietly and
peacefully. He owns a fine residence property, and is very nicely
"fixed."
- Mr. AKIN and Miss Martha WHITE, a daughter of Aaron and Bracey
WHITE, were married
- May 4, 1859. They had three sons and five daughters: Sybil
Ann, Reno C., Elsie E., Lettie W., Clifford M., Ida H., Lois
M., and George N. Sybil Ann married Walter WILBER, and lives
in Harmony township; two children have been born to then, Ethel
and Eleanor. Reno C. married Christina CORBIN, and lives in Helena,
Mont. Elsie E. is first matron in the Illinois Training School
for Nurses at Chicago. Lettie W. is unmarried, and lives in Dane
county. Clifford married Miss Ida EDDEN, and lives in Rock township.
Ida, Lois and George are still single. Ida is at home, Lois is
a "stenographer" in Chicago. George was a soldier,
serving in the Philippines, and now makes his home in southern
California. Mrs. Martha AKIN, the first wife of our subject,
died Feb. 6, 1872, at the age of thirty-six years. Mr. AKIN married
Miss Eliza GALLUP, a daughter of Gideon and Maria (WAGNER) GALLUP,
March 30, 1876, and they have two children, Frank W. and Lucy
M. Frank married Elizabeth DRISCOL, and is in charge of the home
farm; they have one child, Morgan J. Lucy M. is a teacher, and
lives at home. Mr. AKIN belongs to the A.O.U.W. Politically he
is a Republican, cast his first vote for John C. Fremont, and
has never missed voting since. He was supervisor of the town
of Harmony six years, chairman of the town board two years, town
treasurer one year, clerk of the school district fifteen years,
and has always been an active and public-spirited man.
- The parents of Mrs. Eliza AKIN were natives of New York,
where they were married. They had
- a family of four sons and two daughters, and three of their
children are now living; Andrew, of Sharon, Wis.; Henry, of Janesville;
and Mrs. AKIN. The father was a capable carpenter. He came to
Wisconsin in the early 'fifties, and located at Johnstown, where
he followed his trade for some time, later moving to Mauston,
where the family lived seventeen years. At the expiration of
that period they came back to the southern part of the State,
and settled at Richmond, Walworth county. There Mrs. GALLUP died
in the fall of 1875, at the age of seventy-two. Her husband then
broke up his home, and went to live with his daughter, Mrs. AKIN.
He died under her roof in 1894, at the age of eighty-eight. He
was a man of much intelligence, a great reader, and a fine historian.
His father, Gideon GALLUP, was born in Connecticut, and came
from Scotch-Irish ancestry. His emigrant ancestor, John GALLUP,
came to America in 1630, with two of his brothers, in company
with their cousin Humphrey from Plymouth, England, in the ship
"Mary and John." They left England March 20, and arrived
at Hull, Mass., May 30. Mrs. AKIN's maternal grandfather, Henry
WAGNER, came to this country and settled at Rome, N.Y., where
he died while still a young man, leaving two daughters and one
son.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, p. 74-76.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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