Abraham
Lincoln Farnsworth was born on 28 May 1866 in the Caledonia Township of
Columbia County, Wisconsin. He was the
eldest of John Robert Farnsworth and Christina Scherf’s ten children. Abraham
is my first cousin five times removed – meaning his father, John Robert, and my
four times great grandfather, William W. Farnsworth were brothers. Now you may be wondering why I am researching
such a distant relative? Well my
grandmother was given a newspaper article about a Dr. Farnsworth (no first name
mentioned) at a recent family reunion.
It was one of those “100 years ago today” write ups – Dr. Farnsworth had
reported seeing a black bear while on his way home. My grandmother gave it to me and asked me to
figure out who this Dr. Farnsworth was (and I was property bribed with homemade
tapioca pudding!!!)
So here is what I found and reported back to
Grandma. Through the 1880 United States
Census, Abraham is living at home with his parents. He is attending school and working on the
farm. According to his biography in the
Sauk County history book, he graduated from the Milwaukee Medical college (now
Marquette University) in 1900. The 1900
census shows him living in Baraboo, Sauk, Wisconsin, alone, where he is a
doctor. He sees the previously mentioned
bear in 1908. In the 1910 US Census for
Baraboo, Sauk, Wisconsin, he is 43, married and still working as a doctor. Here’s where we hit a little road bump. It states he has been married for four years
and it is his second wife.
I
knew that Abraham had married Elsie Poppe – a family member who also did
genealogy shared that information with me, but we had the year as 1907. That information was stated in a Sauk County
history book. No other place had that
Abraham had been married before so I checked the Wisconsin Historical Society
and they had two marriage licenses for Abraham with two different ladies. I ordered both (along with his obituary) and
continued my search.
The
1910 Baraboo City Directory had three listings for Abraham. He was listed as the county’s health officer
for the Board of Health. He had a
personal listing which also mentioned Elsie (though they had it as Essie), and
their two daughters, Ida and Ruth. The
third was the listing for his practice.
Continuing
with census research I found the family listed in the 1920 US Census still in
Baraboo. Not much has changed except
they have added two sons to the family:
Beech and John. The 1930 census
still finds them in Baraboo except the daughters, Ida and Ruth, have moved
out. Beech and John remain at home. The 1940 census threw me for a loop. I had the information that Abraham had died
in April, but there he was listed in the 1940 census which was taken on 2
May! I figured my death date information
must be wrong – and then I noticed there was a lot of writing on the census
form by the column that normally just says list name here. Upon closer inspection, the column states to
list everyone in the household as of 1 April 1940.
According
to the obituary I received from the Wisconsin Historical Society, Abraham died
on 20 April 1940 and was buried at Tucker Cemetery in Sauk County,
Wisconsin. He was a member of the state
medical society, the county medical society, the American Medical Association,
Odd Fellows and the Mystic Workers of the World. The obituary states that he had a part in
bringing into the world 2,310 babies and performed or assisted in 1,500
operations. The obituary also lists his
survivors – his wife and five children.
Five children?
This
takes me back to the two marriage licenses I requested. The first was from 20 January 1904 between
Abraham L. Farnsworth and Emma Farnsworth.
The details about Abraham match what I have – parents, occupation, birth
place, but who is Emma (and why does it say her name previous to marriage is
Farnsworth??)? The second marriage is to
Elsie Poppe and takes place on 19 October 1905.
I
did a quick search in the 1910 census to see if maybe Emma and Abraham had
divorced and I could find Emma living on her own or with her parents. And I found her with her parents, listed as
Emma Neuman. She was back in her
hometown – but listed at the bottom of the household was a Florence Farnsworth
– granddaughter. Emma is listed as
single with one child. So I went back to
the obituary – all the daughters are listed as Mrs. Husband’s Name so I plugged
those names into Ancestry.com and the 1940 census. And there was Florence. So while Florence is not mentioned in the
biography written about Abraham Lincoln Farnsworth in the history of Sauk
County, she is mentioned in the obituary.
I
did search familysearch.org and they had a 3 March 1897 marriage listed for
Emma Newmann and Abraham Lincoln Farnsworth.
Florence was born in August of 1897.
So this leaves me with more questions!
Were Abraham and Emma married in 1897?
Why didn’t the Wisconsin Historical Society have that record in the
pre-1907 database? Why did Abraham state
in the 1900 census he was single? Did
they split up and then reconcile in 1904 only to split up again? Were Abraham and his daughter Florence
close? Do any of Florence’s descendents
alive today know any of these answers??
I can’t wait to see what I find……..
