Person Page - 929

     On 25 May 1958 at 40th wedding anniversary suprise party. On 26 June 1966 at Mr and Mrs Dell Kinsley 50th wedding anniversary.

     On 25 May 1958 at 40th wedding anniversary suprise party. On 26 June 1966 at Mr and Mrs Dell Kinsley 50th wedding anniversary.

     Clarence Wilbur Figert obtained US Social Security Card at South Dakota; last residence Mission, Todd, South Dakota.

     RUFUS HANNUM, of Lancaster, represents one of the oldest pioneer families in Grant county, Wis., having arrived here Feb. 18, 1837.

Warren HANNUM, father of Rufus, was born in Belcher, Mass., in July 1797, and when a young man went to Genesee county, N.Y., where he married Miss Laura HAMILTON, a native of Northampton, Mass., but whose father died in the Bay State, and the mother and daughter subsequently located in Genesee county, N.Y. Soon after his marriage, Warren HANNUM and wife removed to Cattaraugus county, N.Y., but shortly afterward returned to Genesee county, remained there a few years, and then went to Chautauqua county, where he located in the woods and partly cleared up a farm, which he afterward sold and then came to Grant county, Wis., at the date mentioned above. He purchased a 400-acre tract of land in Jamestown township, of which tract 160 acres had been fenced, and 125 had been broken up the previous year, and one crop taken off. The tract cost about $4,500 and Mr. HANNUM was allowed four years in which to pay for it, which he succeeded in doing; it may be stated that the money he had realized from the sale of his property in New York was about exhausted, but he succeeded in paying for the land from the crops. The proximity of the lead-mining district rendered agricultural products a good price, and Mr. HANNUM, being a good manager, prospered rapidly. In 1856 Mr. HANNUM sold his farm to eastern parties, who were not practical farmers, and after receiving $3,000 partial payment on the place, the land came again into his possession.

When Warren HANNUM brought his family to Wisconsin it consisted of himself, his wife, three sons and four daughters. (Another son, Marshall, was born in Grant county, but died in Cassville several years ago.) The family came in two wagons, the distance being about 800 miles, and many weeks' time was consumed in making the journey. In the fall of 1857 Mr. HANNUM was bereft of his wife, and he later went to Le Roy, N.Y., and there married Mrs. Martha COOK. After several years' residence in the East he returned to Grant county, Wis., and died in Lancaster, March 14, 1880; his second wife died May 1, 1884. Warren HANNUM possessed all the traits of the true New England Yankee, was industrious and economical and shrewd in managing his own affairs. He was originally a Whig in politics and afterward a Republican, was liberal in his religious views, and so lived as to win the unfeigned respect of all his neighbors. To Warren HANNUM and his first wife were born nine children, eight of whom attained mature years, and of these, two sons and four daughters are still living. Of the survivors Rufus is the eldest and Warren is the next; Laura is the widow of Robert KILBOURN; Sophia is the widow of James KILBOURN; Mercy and Mary are twins - the former being the widow of Orrin DODD, and the latter the wife of John HOWARD, and both reside in Arkansas. Two, Manley and Marshall, who reached maturity, are deceased.

Rufus HANNUM, whose name opens this biographical review, was born in Cattaraugus county, N.Y., March 2, 1820, and was brought to Wisconsin by his parents. His schooling opportunism here were somewhat circumscribed, and in the fall of 1839 he returned to New York and made his home with an uncle in Genesee county for a year, and in the winter attended school, adding considerably to his fund of school knowledge. In March, 1840, he started on foot, on his return to Wisconsin, and walked 100 miles from Genesee county to the home of an uncle near Mayville, in Chautauqua county, N.Y. Two days later he resumed his journey on foot, and walked to Erie, Penn., where he took a stage for Pittsburgh; and thence, by steamer, via St. Louis, Mo., he reached Galena, Ill., late in March, and thence came home. For several years Rufus HANNUM worked as a carpenter, and in 1847 and 1848 worked in a machine shop in Milwaukee. In 1848 he married Miss Amelia WELLS, and in 1850 went overland to California, and for about three months worked in the mines. He had been preceded to the Golden State by his brother Manley, who crossed the Plains with the first train from the States in 1849. The two brothers started on the homeward trip together, leaving San Francisco in the fall of 1850 and arriving in St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 1, 1851.

In the meantime, Mrs. Rufus HANNUM had passed away, leaving one child, Amelia, who died after reaching maturity. On June 8, 1852, Mr. HANNUM married Miss Louisa M. POWERS, daughter of John and Eunice POWERS, the former of whom was born in Vermont and the latter near Syracuse, N.Y., where Mrs. HANNUM was born April 6, 1826. When a young women the present Mrs. HANNUM came west to visit a brother and sister in Michigan, and while there was offered a position as school teacher, which she accepted. Her father and mother soon afterward came to visit their children in 1852, and on this visit were taken ill and died leaving four daughters and four sons. At the death of her parents, the daughter returned to the New York home. She was there married to Mr. HANNUM, with whom she had been acquainted in early life. To this union have been born seven children, of whom George and Frank are now residents of South Dakota; Mary is still at home; and Flora is the wife of Charles BONHAM; the three deceased children were Charles, Ella and an infant that died unnamed.

Rufus HANNUM purchased the old homestead from his father and occupied many years. He was for a long time the leading farmer of Grant county, and a successful raiser of short-horn cattle. He brought to the county the first imported draft horse ever seen here, and was in fact the prime factor in promoting the raising of blooded stock in Grant county. In the spring of 1882 Mr. HANNUM retired from active farming and made his home in Lancaster, where he was a handsome residence and is surrounded with all the comforts of life, and where he and family enjoy the respect, pure and unalloyed, of all who know them.