Nathaniel Britton (1817 - 1894)

Born 15 Sep 1817 in Monmouth, New Jersey, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Rebecca Chadwick (Housler) Britton — married about 1844 in Pennsylvania, United States

Descendants

Died 28 Feb 1894 at age 76 in Spring Lake, Pierce, Wisconsin, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Debbie Barrett [send private message]

Biography

Nathaniel Britton was a homesteader in Pierce County, Wisconsin. Join the Homesteaders Project.

My grandmother, Lottie Alice Britton , lived until 1998 and was able to pass some knowledge of the family along to me prior to her passing. She was 12 years old when Rebecca Chadwick Housler, her grandmother, passed away in 1907.

Nathaniel moved with his parents Joseph Britton from New Jersey in 1829 to what was then considered part of the western wilderness of Pennsylvania. He and Rebecca Housler married in Pennsylvania sometime either in 1844 or 45. I've been told there was no church in the tiny town at this point in time, only a circuit rider every couple of weeks or so. Someone told me they may have gone to Harrisburg, PA to be married, but doubt this can be proved.

Nathaniel was a farmer. From 1840 until the family left Pennsylvania for Iowa in 1865, he was being sued over a boundary dispute by Merrick Housler, who later became his brother-in-law. It has also been said he left McKean County owing money, which is very possible.

The family left their home on April 11, 1865 and travelling by train arrived in Davenport, Iowa on April 14, 1865, the day of Lincoln's assassination by Booth. The family remained in Iowa for 2 years, at which time, not caring for the flat plain country, they left for northwestern Wisconsin. Rebecca Britton's health was apparently not what it should have been at the end of this trip for her daughter Polly (information taken from an interview with Polly Britton Webb) had to carry her across Cady Creek into Elmwood.

Nathaniel homesteaded in Pine Coulee (Old Elmwood) on or near what is now the Lynn Britton farm. The original farmhouse burned and was replaced by the one now occupied by the aforementioned Lynn Britton. He (Lynn) has since sold the property to his nephew so that the homestead originally settled by Nathaniel would stay in Britton hands.

Nathaniel was an original member of the Cady Free Will Baptist Church when it opened in 1869. He homesteaded property and was granted a deed under the terms and conditions of the Homestead Act of 1862 to that property on December 20, 1873.^[1]

Nathaniel and Rebecca are listed in the 1850^[2] and 1860^[3] census in Shippen Township, McKean Co., PA and Emporium, Cameron Co., PA respectively and in the 1870^[4]1875 Wisconsin State Census^[5] and 1880^[6] census in Spring Lake, Pierce Co., WI. In the 1880 census a child, Orina, is listed as being 11 years old, but no one today knows of her or what may have happened to her and no records regarding her other than the census have surfaced. She is not buried with other family members in the Spring Lake Cemetery.

Nathaniel finished out his days on his homestead in Pierce County. I've visited the family home many times over the years. The house sits in a quiet little valley, surrounded by trees and Cady Creek. He died on 28 Feb 1894 and is buried in the Spring Lake Public Cemetery.^[7] The monument lists both he and wife Rebecca. I remember it being so very tall as a young child. My grandmother, until she was unable, went every Memorial day to place flowers on the graves of her family and I accompanied her more than once. After that, my Aunt Fern took up the responsibility, until she too was unable to do so.

Acknowledgements

Biography provided by Debbie Barrett ^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ United States, Bureau of Land Management. Wisconsin, U.S., Homestead and Cash Entry Patents, Pre-1908 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997; Original data: United States, Bureau of Land Management. Wisconsin Pre-1908 Homestead and Cash Entry Patent and Cadastral Survey Plat Index. General Land Office Automated Records Project.[1]
2. ↑ United States Census, 1850, database with images, FamilySearch; Shippen Township, McKean, Pennsylvania, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration [2]
3. ↑ United States Census, 1860, database with images, FamilySearch [3]
4. ↑ United States Census, 1870, database with images, FamilySearch [4]
5. ↑ Wisconsin State Census, 1875, database with images, FamilySearch; N Brittan, Spring Lake, Pierce, Wisconsin; State Historical Society, Madison; FHL microfilm 1,032,693 [5]
6. ↑ United States Census, 1880, database with images, FamilySearch; Nathanl Britton, Spring Lake, Pierce, Wisconsin, United States; citing enumeration district ED 110, sheet 95B, NARA microfilm publication T9 Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; FHL microfilm 1,255,441. [6]
7. ↑ Find A Grave Index, database, FamilySearch; Nathaniel Britton, ; Burial, Spring Valley, Pierce, Wisconsin, United States of America, Spring Lake Public Cemetery; citing record ID 76097606, Find a Grave [7]
8. ↑ McKean and Cameron County Research