- ROBERT ROSSITER, a practical and progressive farmer who is
living on section 21, Spring
- Valley Township, is of English birth. He was born in Lincolnshire,
near Boston, England, on the 27th of April, 1824, and is a son
of William and Martha (LUND) ROSSITER, the former a native of
Lincolnshire and the latter born in the city of Lincoln. Our
subject passed the days of his boyhood and youth in his native
land, receiving his education in the public schools, and when
nineteen years of age, in 1843, sailed for America. Arriving
safely at the harbor of New York he took up his residence in
Monroe County, in the Empire State, where he passed the succeeding
five years employed as a farm hand. At the end of that time
he continued his journey westward until arriving in Rock County,
where he has since continued to reside. In connection with his
brothers Sherwood and Edmund ROSSITER, he engaged in farming
on the shares for about one year, when he purchased eighty acres
of land in Spring Valley Township about a mile and a half east
of his present home. At the expiration of a year he began the
development of the farm on which he now resides, and to his indefatigable
efforts are due the many fine improvements and the high cultivation
under which the land has been placed. The farm was then in its
primitive condition, the land being partly timber and partly
prairie land.
- Mr. ROSSITER cut rails for fences, hewed the trees which
furnished the logs for the house, and
- the following year, 1851, erected the little cabin which
remained his home until 1863. He continued to live alone, keeping
bachelor's hall and devoting his time exclusively to agricultural
pursuits until April 7, 1857, when he was united in marriage
in Janesville, with Miss Jemima Elizabeth HELM. Mrs. ROSSITER
was born in Schuyler, Herkimer Co., N.Y., April 1, 1832, and
is a daughter of John and Mary (WISTEN) HELM, the former a native
of Lincolnshire, England, born on the banks of the river Umber,
while the latter was born in Deerfield, Oneida Co., N.Y.
- Mrs. ROSSITER was duly installed as mistress of the pioneer
home, and seven children were
- born to the happy couple; John, the eldest, whose birth occurred
June 1, 1858, married Florence PATTEN, a native of Wisconsin,
Oct. 9, 1887, and they now reside in Spring Valley Township,
where one child, Wesley Watson, was born to them; Robert B.,
born Aug. 7, 1859, is engaged in farming on the old homestead;
David H., born Aug. 24, 1863, wedded Katie ROBERTS, of Magnolia
Township, by whom he has one child, Clyde, and now resides in
Decatur, Green Co., Wis., where he carries on farming and well-drilling;
Warren Heber, born Oct. 31, 1865, is still with his parents.
- Mr. ROSSITER is one of the leading farmers of the township
in which he resides, and is a worthy
- and valued citizen. He has extended the boundaries of his
farm by subsequent purchase until it now comprises 160 acres
of fine arable land under a high state of cultivation, the first
sixty of which he cleared without assistance. He has been an
indefatigable laborer, and while preparing a home for his family
he seemed so restless and untiring in his efforts that his neighbors
called him the wild man. His home and entire surroundings indicate
thrift and refinement, and all the improvements necessary to
the model farm of the 19th century have been made. For a long
period of forty-five years he has resided in this county. He
has not only witnessed the rapid changes which have been made
but has been an active participant in the work of development
of progress which has placed Rock on a par with any county in
this great commonwealth. His pioneer experience will never be
forgotten. He recalls well the time when he broke his first
land, and the time spent in marketing his grain. From his first
crop a barrel of his red winter wheat flour found its way to
Queen Victoria.
- To those early pioneers who shared in the hardships of frontier
life and developed the wild land
- into farms of rich fertility, the county owes a debt of gratitude
which can never be repaid, but their memory will be cherished
by coming generations who are benefited by the arduous labors
of the early settlers. Mr. ROSSITER and his estimable wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in political sentiment
he is a faithful adherent of the Republican party. This worthy
couple are numbered among the highly respected citizens of the
community where they reside, and are greatly esteemed by their
many friends.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 265-266.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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