- THOMAS J. LLOYD, a wealthy retired farmer, who occupies a
cozy home on Pleasant street, two
- doors west of Oak Hill avenue, in the city of Janesville,
has been intimately associated with the agricultural interests
of southern Wisconsin for many years. He has had a varied and
eventful career, has worked assiduously, been provident and saving,
and has made a history that might well be read by every young
man as he faces his life work, it has such lessons of thrift
and industry, honesty and integrity.
- Mr. LLOYD was born in Radnor, Wales, Nov. 4, 1837, and is
a son of Thomas and Ann
- (WORTHING) LLOYD, both natives of England, who were the parents
of six children, four now living: Thomas J.; William, of South
Dakota; John W., of Janesville; and Edward, of Plainfield, Iowa.
The father was a hotel-keeper and contractor early in life. He
emigrated to America in 1839, settled in Waterville, Oneida Co.,
N.Y., and engaged in farming. He came to Wisconsin about 1847,
located in Walworth county, and followed farming until within
a few years of his death, at Big Foot Prairie, near Delavan.
His wife died in about 1884, at the age of sixty-seven years,
and shortly after that he broke up house-keeping and went to
live with his daughter, in Plainfield, Iowa, where he died in
1896, when eighty-nine years and ten months old. He and his wife
were Baptists, and he had held various town offices. His father
died in England when Thomas was only two years old. History is
silent as to the facts of his career, but it is known that he
was a British soldier in the war of 1812, and that he died early
in life. The father of Ann WORTHING was of English birth, and
died in middle life, in his native country.
- Thomas J. LLOYD was about two years old when his parents
brought him to this country, and he
- lived in Walworth County from 1847 to 1887, when he moved
to Janesville, in which city he has made his home to the present
time. This is but a brief statement of a very interesting career.
Mr. LLOYD when a boy attended school in Waterville, N.Y., until
he was ten years old, and then at Douglas Corners, in Walworth
County, Wis., where he completed the high-school course, acquiring
a very sound and practical education. His first business venture
was the purchase of forty acres at which was known as Big Foot
Prairie. He improved this thoroughly, and brought it into fine
condition, and then added to it the adjoining forty acres, and
still later an adjacent forty acres, thus making a very nice
farm. When he was quite sure of himself, and dared to undertake
it, he bought a second farm, of 178 acres, and had now become
one of the important land owners of Walworth County. Later in
life he sold these two farms at a handsome profit, and became
quite a real-estate dealer in choice farm property, buying and
selling both farm and city property. He continued farming until
he came to Janesville, when he engaged in the boot and shoe business
for several years. At the present time he devotes himself to
the care of his extensive investments in that city and Rockford,
Illinois.
- Mr. LLOYD and Miss Martha C. BOORMAN, a daughter of John
and Mary (READER)
- BOORMAN, were married May 20, 1864. Mr. and Mrs. LLOYD have
had four children, Chester C., Laura L., Mary Leona, and one
child that died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. LLOYD are members of
the Baptist Church. He is a Republican. Our subject was a soldier
in the Civil war, enlisting in 1861 in Company K, 2d Wisconsin
Volunteer Cavalry, and serving one year, when he was discharged
on account of serious sickness. The three living children of
Mr. and Mrs. LLOYD are all very nicely settled in life. Chester
C. married Miss Hattie BENNETT, and lives in Rockford Ill., where
he is a boot and shoe dealer. During the summer he runs a steamboat.
He has two sons, Clair and Forest. Laura L. married Mark DUNLAP,
and she and her husband live with her parents; they have one
son, Lester Lloyd. Mary Leona married William MORRIS, and lives
at No. 108 South High street, Janesville.
- Mrs. LLOYD's parents were natives of England, came to this
country in 1832, located in
- Chautauqua County, N.Y., where they lived some years, and
were among the first settlers of Walworth County, coming into
Wisconsin about 1838. They were the parents of three sons and
four daughters, and three of their children are now living; Esther,
wife of Luther ADAMS, of Walworth, Wis.; Martha C., wife of Thomas
J. LLOYD; and Melissa, wife of John LLOYD, of Janesville. Mrs.
LLOYD's grandfather, John BOORMAN, was born in England, and died
there when over eighty years old. He was a farmer, and had a
large family. Mrs. LLOYD's maternal grandfather, Thomas READER,
was born and reared in England, and came to this country in about
1854. He stopped in New York for a time, but finally came to
Wisconsin, and died when over seventy. He had fourteen children.
He was a soldier in the Revolution, on the British side.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 249-250.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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