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Dexheimer, Florence Chambers, 1866-1925 / Sketches of Wisconsin pioneer women
([1924?] )
Daly, Grace Balderston
Sarah Janet Wood Balderston, pp. 7-10
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Page 7
@1|@| . .. . ...a............................................................................t........ - SARAH JANET WOOD BALDERSTON Author-Grace Balderston Daly Wisconsin Rapids .. . In a little brown house, on top of the hill, at the corner of Third and Vine Sts. lived "Grandma". It seems quite fitting that she occupy a place among the pioneer women of Wisconsin-having lived for more than seventy years in this same little house. Sarah Janet Wood was born in Seneca Falls, New York, June 24, 1834. Her mother was Hester Jane Kirt- land, descended from Robert Chapman, born 1616 in Hull, England, who came to Boston in 1635. Her father was Joseph Wood, who's ancestor, Daniel Wood lived in Boxford, Massachusetts in 1630, and was also of English descent. When a wee little girl, Sarah Janet came with her people to Fort Hill, Illinois, Chicago then being a mere trading post. Her family lived some years on the Illinois farm, where in 1843 the mother died. Joseph Wood, the father, was a born pioneer, and in 1846 he came ajourneying into the wilds of Wisconsin, and finding the pine lands good, he built a home, and for him Wood County was named. Three times he made the long journey with teams, from Illinois to Grand Rapids with the little daughter, before she would stay in the Indian country. A new mother, Matilda Compton, and small brothers coming during these years, helped to make life less lonely for the little girl Janet. My mother often told us that on one of these jour- neys her father brought one wagon filled with pinks, lilac and honeysuckle bushes, "York State" roses, and "pineys", Lombardy poplars and Balm of Gilead, packed by the capable hands of her step-mother, thus starting these shrubs and trees in this section of the country. 7
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