Notes:

Portrait and Biographical Album of Racine and Kenosha Counties, Wisconsin ...
tired life in Burlington, Wis., was born in U the town of Rupert, Bennington County, \'t., August 12, 1807. His father with the family removed thence to the town of Sandgate, in the winter of 1809. The following summer they were visited by an uncle of our subject, Demmon Whiting. and Mr. Sheldon relates what was to him, a three-year old boy, a most interesting experience, the killing of a woodehnck. The animal was discovered in a field of clover not far from the house and his uncle securing a handspike or billet of wood which was used in rolling logs together, preparatory to burnmg them, managed to get between the chuck and his hole and droye him in a cleft in a rock near by, from which there was no escape
-ance at school in the winter. except at the entrance where he went in. Mr. Whiting then began to punch the animal, and young Orson thought he had never heard such a screeching before. It was not long before the woodchuck was killed,and triumphantly displayed to the little fellow.
In the month of January, 1812, the Sheldon family consisting of the parents, two sons and a daughter, removed with a span of horses and sleigh to Warsaw, Genesee County, N. Y., carrying with them what household goods they could put into the sleigh. They settled on a heavily timbered farm, their home being a one-roomed log cabin, the floor of which was made of basswood logs split in halves and laid closely together with the bark side down. They had no cellar, but a small hole had been dug for the potatoes and other garden vegetables. A large open space was sawed out of the logs in one end of the room and filled up with stones for a fire-place with no jambs, the chimney being made of sticks of wood, and plastered on the inside with clay. A loft or low room above served as a sleeping apartment. On the fire was placed the customary backlog and backstick, together with another log for a forestick and all three were hauled into the house, by a horse. Three years were pleasantly passed there and then the father purchased one of the two hotels in the village, to which he removed, carrying it on for four years, when it was exchanged for a farm in an adjoining town, upon which our subject resided until /XRSON SHELDON, who is now living a re- =
seventeen years of age, working at farm labor with no intermission except his three months’ attend'l‘hen he did the chores night and morning, and supplied the wood for the household fires.
Mr. Sheldon then felt that he was competent to teach a district school, and after passing what he considered a searching examination ,obtained a certificate from the Board of Inspectors. He succeeded well in this enterprise, and the only acts of disobedienee of much importance, were soon quelled. As was the custom, he boarded round among the scholars, but as he did not like teaching, began serving an apprenticeship to the cabinet-maker’s trade with Howard Bosworth, of Warsaw, N. Y. He boarded with his employer, and during the year he stayed with him was nearly starved, so he decided to leaveand went to another cabinet-maker in the same town, with whom he remained until he had attained his majority. Going to LeRoy, N. Y., he there worked at his trade until the following January, when he went to Buffalo, but as he found no suitable employment there, continued on to Niagara Falls, and crossed the river on the ice below the Falls to Canada, a perilous venture, but fortunately safely accomplished. Until the following spring he worked in a shop at Lundy’s Lane, when he returned to Warsaw and formed a partnership with Horatio N. Farnham, they building a shop in Pike, Allegany County. After a year, Mr. Sheldon bought out his partner, continuing the business alone for two years, when he sold out.
In the meantime he had married Miss Rose Ann Lippit, and they kept house in the rear end of the shop, occupying sleeping rooms in the second story. On selling out, his wife returned to her parents in
Otsego County, N. Y., while he went to Detroit Mich., and worked as a journeyman until the next spring, when he returned to the East and brought his wife and child to Detroit, where he worked at his trade for a few months. He finally decided to locate in Utiea, Macomb County, Mich., where he engaged in cabinet-making for two years, and then followed merchandising in company with Lewis D. Owen, under the firm name of Sheldon & Owen for two years, when the business was disposed of.
Mr. Sheldon remained in Utica ten years, and held the office of Justice of the Peace nearly all of that time. He was elected a member of the House of Representatives the first year after the admission of the State to the Union, and received the nomination for the next year and would doubtless have been elected but declined to run, as he intended removing to Wisconsin. In the following January his sleigh was fitted up with a heavy canvas cover and in it Mr. Sheldon, his wife and three children and James C. McKesson and his wife and child started for this State. They stopped at Mound Prairie, and Mr. McKesson located on a farm that is still his home. Mr. Sheldon left his family with a settler on the prairie while he started out on foot ix) seek a loca, turning through Delavan he there met William C.Allen, an attorney-at-law located there, and formed a pleasant acquaintance with him which lasted during Mr. Allen's life-time. Our subject next went to Elkhorn, to Spring Prairie and thence to Burlington, Rochester and Waterford, after which he returned to Burlington, where he unexpectedly met Benjamin Forbes, an old acquaintance of Warsaw, N. Y., by whom he was urged to locate at that place.
Mr. Sheldon finally decided to do so and soon afterward removed his family to Burlington, renting the upper story of Mr. Forbes’ brick house. He now had only $2 left and a chopping ax and hoe. After cutting up a tree to supply fire wood for his family, he obtained work at chopping wood for fifty cents per day with Mr. Gregg, a brickmaker and subsequently did the same work at the same price for ()regon Perkins through the winter. In the spring he helped Mr. Perkins put in the crops on a fine farm now owned by the gentleman’s son, Frederick S. Perkins.
In the meantime Mr. Sheldon had spoken to the mercantile firm of Perkins & Son, with reference to obtaining a clerkship, as their present clerk did not suit. The old gentleman said “we want a clerk, but we don’t want to be mistaken in our man.” Mr. Sheldon then wrote to Mt. Clemens, Mich., and to Robert P. Eldridge, then Secretary of State, and from him and all the county officers and leading business men of that city received letters of recommendation which he presented to Mr. Perkins, who expressed himself pleased with them, and in consequence employed our subject.
At the expiration of three years, as the firm was largely engaged in farming and the milling business, they desired to close out, and made Mr. Sheldon a proposition to buy their stock and rent their store, which he did, continuing the business alone for a year, when he formed a partnership with James A. Stevens, who was formerly a merchant of Michigan. This connection continued a year and a half, when Mr. Sheldon sold his interest to Andrew Sawyer, and bought a lot upon which he built a brick store and continued business successfully for some years. The financial panic of 1857 then came on, bringing failure to many large business houses throughout the country.
In the course of his business, Mr. Sheldon had invested largely in railroad stocks and in real estate, both regarded as profitable investments and thus the money panic found him encumbered with indebtedness which he could not lneet, and be was compelled to make an assignment, thus losing his entire possessions. a homestead residence in Scottsville, Monroe County, N. Y., which she sold, using the proceeds to redeem the family home which was sold on the foreclosure of mortgage. The store was sold on two mortgages, but was finally redeemed by the
son, Hiram A. Sheldon, who now owns and 0ccupies it as a hardware store.
In 1845 Mr. Sheldon had been elected a member of the Territorial Legislature, and re-elected the following year, serving two terms with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. After
he was forced to dispose of his business he engaged 'in clerking with Messrs. Parsons dz Conover, drygoods merchants of Burlington, with whom he remained two years, after which in connection with his son, H. A. Sheldon, he engaged in the hardware business remaining in charge during the Civil War,while the son fought at the front. Soon afterward ‘he went to Mt. Carroll, lll., where another son, H.E. Sheldon, was engaged in the drug and medicine business, remaining with him a pogtion of the time for three years, during which time he spent two months on a trip to Oregon, and settled up the estate of his deceased brother William, who had long been a resident of Oregon. Some time afterward we find Mr. Sheldon in Madison City, Dak., where for three summers he worked upon a farm that was owned conjointly by his two sons before hundred acres of land.
Mr. Sheldon then returned to Burlington, where, in the midst of his family he is now living a retn-ed life, and here expects to spend the remainder of his days. He is now in his eighty-fifth year, and feels that his life journey is almost over, but with Mrs. Sheldon fortunately had ,first house. mentioned, and 'I‘. M. Martin, containing several ‘
a Christian ’s hope in his heart he will meet death, and crossing the dark river, join the dear kindred and friends gone before and dwell with them in happy unity before the throne of the Heavenly
f Father through a never ending eternity.
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Orson married Lippit, Rose Ann. Rose (daughter of Lippit, Joseph and Wells, Rose) was born in 1810 in of Hartwick, Otsego, New York, United States; died in 1855 in New York, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]