Abel Rasdall, son of Robert & Elizabeth, was b. 8-15-1803
Mention in Wills
1845 Jan 6 (Warren Co., KY) — Will of his father, Robert Rasdall:
"4th It is my will and desire that my oldest son Abel shall have 1/8 of my estate including one hundred dollars that he has already received entry at my wife's death."
Marriage and Children
Marriage 1 — Onck Say On Ah, b. abt. 1813, married: 15 Dec 1834 (Indian Custom) in Dane Co., Wisconsin.
Children
Cain Rasdall, b: 15 Jan 1835 in Windsor Twp, Dane Co., Wisconsin.
Marriage 2 — No Waw Chock Wink Ah, b. abt. 1812 in Wisconsin, married: 1 Mar 1837 (by Indian custom) in Dane Co., Wisconsin.
Children
Sarah Ann Rasdall, b: 22 Jan 1838 in Windsor Twp, Dane Co., Wisconsin.
"Abel Rasdall, an old pioneer, had a Winnebago squaw for his wife and she was his second wife from this tribe of aborigines, but the relation which she sustained to her white husband did not permit her to remain, and she with her half-breed papooses was gathered in with the rest of the tribe. The dragoons arrived here early in the day and their coming was only known when they surrounded Rasdall's log cabin and had posted their men on the plat of ground between the lakes, where it was supposed there might be Indians taking in the wigwams upon the lake shore, as a matter of course. The whole thing was done so quietly that little excitement was occasioned. The Rasdall squaw had to leave her white lord and master and she protested vigorously in her native tongue against the great wrong, but there was no help for her, she had to go. The decree was inexplorable and besides it was understood that her companion of the white race was decidedly anxious that she should go and not stand upon the order of her going but to go at once. The poor old squaw, therefore, with her papooses, her pots and kettles, her blankets and her few other possessions, was packed upon two Indian ponies and followed on the line of march with numerous others of her tribe to their new home west of the Mississippi. An eye witness related that as the pool old squaw bade adieu to her half civilized home, her white husband, and to the beautiful city of the City of the Lakes, she gave vent to great weeping and wailing and to unutterable sorrow as expressed in a manner peculiar to her race." (Chicago Daily Tribune, 50)
Marriage 3 — Lydia Ann Pitcher, b: 31 Jan 1824 in Chatauqua City, New York, married 24 May 1845 in Madison, Dane Co., Wisconsin.
Children
Duane Franklin 'Shane' Rasdall, b: 4 Dec 1846 in Burke, Dane Co., Wisconsin.
Melvin B. Rasdall, b: 13 Nov 1848 in Dane Co., Wisconsin.
Hubert Abel Rasdall, b: 28 Oct 1855 in Dane Co., Wisconsin.
Residence
1828 — went to Galena, Jo Daviess Co., Illinois
1830 — Galena, Jo Daviess, Illinois Census
1836 — Iowa, Wisconsin (State census)
1836 — Dane County:
In the summer of 1836 there were, so far as is now known, but five white men residing within the region comprised in the present county of Dane: Ebenezer Brigham, the original settler, at the East Blue Mound; Eben Peck, who lived with Brigham, boarding the latter and his farming and lead-mining hands, and entertaining chance travelers along the military highway between Forts Crawford and Winnebago; Berry Haney, a ranchman squatting on the military road at what is now Cross Plains; a Frenchman named Olivier Armel, who maintained a temporary trading shanty, half brush and half canvas, near what we call Johnson street, on the wooded isthmus between Lakes Monona and Mendota; and Abel Rasdall, an Indian trader, whose lonely cabin was on the eastern shore of Lake Kegonsa, about half a mile north of its outlet. A French half-breed trader, Michel St. Cyr, lived on the bank of Lake Mendota at what are to-day known as Livesey's Springs, three-fourths of a mile north of Pheasant Branch." (Thwaites, Ch. I)
1836 — Mineral Point:
"We had turtle soup suppers, also. The turtles were caught by cutting holes through the ice on what was called 'Mud Lake', and brought to us by Abel Rasdall. Mr. Peck sent some of them to a Mineral Point hotel keeper who informed us that he netted $50 on the sale of the soup. The turtles were frozen solid, and rattled together like stones, and were put in the cellar to thaw out before we could dress them, and, going down in a few days after I found they had thawed out and were crawling around on the bottom of the cellar." (Peck)
Land Records
1857 Oct 30 — Dane Co., Wisconsin for Lydia Ann Rasdall:
40 acres, SESE 6/ 8-N 10-E No 4th PM - 1831 MN/WI WI DANE. (Document #30761)
Abel Rasdall in Censuses
1836 — Wisconsin Territorial Census:
1 Male, over 21
1 male, under 21
No females: It appears that the first Indian wife had died.
1840 — Dane, Wisconsin #134
1 male, under 5
1 male, 5-10
1 male, 30-40
1 male, 40-50
1 female, under 5
1842 — Dane, Wisconsin (State census)
1850 — Madison, Dane, Wisconsin, #333, Living in hotel
RASDALL A, 40, KY
Mrs., 29, NY
Duane, 3, WI, son
Melvin, 1, WI, son
1860 — Wisconsin, Dane Co, town of Burke
Liddy, 35
Duane, 13 (born in Wisconsin)
Melvin, 11 (born in Wisconsin)
Hubert, 5 (born in Wisconsin)
1870 — Minnesota, Blue Earth co, McPherson Township, page 466
Henry Foster, 45
Lydia Foster, 46
Blanche Foster, 2
Mort Rasdall, 21 (born in Wisconsin)
Hubert Rasdall, 15 (born in Wisconsin)
The son, Duane, is living next door.
1880 — Blue Earth Co., MN
This census records that his widow has remarried.
Death and Burial
Abel Rasdall died on 6 Jun 1857 (aged 41) and is buried at Row 4 Stone 6, Token Creek Cemetery, Token Creek, Dane County, Wisconsin, USA. (Find a Grave)
Sources
LDS Ancestral File submitted by Roger Scott Lewis of Toronto, ON
1850 Dane Co., Wisconsin Census.
Bible Record of Robert Rasdall and Elizabeth Wright - see Robert for transcription.
Will of Robert Rasdall.
"History of Madison - The Four Lake Country" by Daniel S Durrie. Page 25,145 and 146.
Family records; Wisconsin wills and probate records.
Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 20 February 2020), memorial page for Abel Rasdall (15 Aug 1815–6 Jun 1857), Find A Grave Memorial no. 38782308, citing Token Creek Cemetery, Token Creek, Dane County, Wisconsin, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave (contributor 8).
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