Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Dr. Abraham Lincoln Farnsworth

Hello everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your fall.  It has been awhile since my last post and I hope to post more in the future.  As always, please feel free to leave comments (or suggestions as to where to take my research!).

            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……..



            

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