Week 7: Landed (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

The Week 7 theme is "Landed." There are many meanings of landed: to have arrived at a destination, to have been delivered, to own real property, to be part of the "landed gentry." So many ways you can go with this week's theme! Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

I have decided to jump from my ancestors to my older half-siblings ancestor(s). Their father passed when my oldest brother was about 8 years old. My niece, my oldest brother’s daughter and I were going through his papers because she is handling the estate of her father. My brother, Tim McAbee lost his battle with cancer on October 24, 2021.

Among the stuff, I found a few genealogical papers. My brother like looking at his genealogy, however never was bitten by the bug. One of the pages looks like something my mother wrote. Another page was written by my deceased older sister, Maureen McAbee Wienke. She lost her battle with breast cancer on April 9, 1998. Another page, a family group sheet, appears to be sent from a Joe McAbee who lived in Gillette, Wyoming. I don’t know if Joe was asking for information from my brother. Finally there was a typed page from the “Commemorative Biographical Record of the Fox River Valley” published in 1895. Thus I have decided to type those two pages, because it explains how my half siblings ancestors landed in Wisconsin, our home state.

My Mother's handwriting

My sister's handwriting,
I cut off the picture since it listed living people's birth dates.

JOHN L McAbee, one of the well-known successful agriculturists of Lawrence Township, is a native of Brown County, born November 1, 1842, in Fort Howard, son of Lambert McAbee, an early president of the county.

Lambert McAbee was born, about 1816, in Detroit, Mich., of French and Scotch extraction, and was a member of one of the early families of this section of Michigan. In an early day he came to Green Bay, Wis., to trade with the Indians, with whose language he was quite familiar, and this business, in which he was very successful, was his principal vocation.  In about 1840, he married, in Green Bay, Miss Sophia La Vigue, who was born in that city in 1820, daughter of John La Vigue, a native of Canada, of French extraction. John La Vigue came to Green Bay in early manhood, and there married Elizabeth Huldrick, who was born in Fort Howard, daughter of Peter Huldrick, a native of Germany, who came to the United States about the beginning of the present century, arriving at Fort Howard with the first English troops that ever landed there.

To Lambert and Sophia McAbee were born five children, namely: John L., whose name introduced this memoir; Catherine, Mrs. Augustus Gerarden of Outagamie County, Wis., Mary, unmarried, of Lawrence Township; Angeline, deceased; and Josephine, unmarried, of Lawrence township. In the spring of 1850, the father of this family died, and was buried in Allousez cemetery, and the widow was thus left with five small children, our subject, the eldest, being not yet eight years of age. The family at that time were living on a small piece of land along the Fox River, which Mr. McAbee had purchased of the Government; but they were defrauded of this, and the only home left to them was an old sugar-house on Section 22, Lawrence Township, where Mr. McAbee had operated a sugar-camp. Never having been intended for a dwelling-house, it was but a rude construction, without even a floor; but with the assistance of willing and kind-hearted neighbors it was improved and made habitable, and here they lived until 1861, when a substantial log house was erected, which is yet standing. They squatted eighty acres of land, which they subsequently purchased from the Fox River Land Company at $1.25 per acre, selling the only horse they had to pay for it. But one path led to or from their location, and that was a “winter road” leading to the Fox River, at a point one mile from Little Kaukauna. The first space cleared on the land was planted in corn and potatoes, and each year, as the land improved and the children grew old enough to help, the farm became more and more productive, till it yielded them a comfortable support.

John L McAbee was about nineteen years old at the breaking out of the Civil War, and like may young men, longed to take part in the suppression of the Rebellion. Accordingly, in December 1861, he enlisted in Company K Seventeenth Wis., V. I., being sent to Madison, Wis., whence, after a short stay at Camp Randall, he was sent to Camp Benton, St. Louis, and thence to Tennessee, arriving at Shiloh shortly after the engagement of that place. He participated in the fight oat Corinth (his first battle) and next in the engagement at Holly Springs, from there going to Memphis, where in January 1863, he was discharged on account of illness, the result of a cold he had contacted at Madison, Wis., Mr. McAbee returned to his home in Brown County, Wis., and after recuperating his health re-enlisted, in January 1864, this time in Company F., Fourteenth Wis., V. I., proceeding with the command to Vicksburg., Miss., and thence to Eastport. He took part in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain and in the march to Atlanta, participating in seventeen engagements around that city, and after its fall he was among those who returned to Nashville with Hood. From Nashville they were conveyed by transports to New Orleans, near where they camped for three weeks, on Dauphin Island. He was in the engagement that followed at Spanish Fort, and in the land forces around Mobile, and at the time of Lee’s surrender was on the march to Montgomery, Ala. Mr. McAbee was mustered out of the service at Mobile and on October 29, 1865 received an honorable discharged at Madison, Wis.; during his long term of service he was never injured.

Immediately after receiving his discharged our subject returned to Brown County, and November 14, 1865 he was united in marriage with Miss Abigail Garity, who was born October 7, 1848 in Milwaukee, Wis. She was the daughter of George and Abigail (Childs) Garity, natives, respectively, of Ireland and new York state, who came in an early day to Milwaukee, and subsequently, to Kaukauna, Outagamie County, where they were residing at the time of Mrs. McAbee’s marriage. Mr. Garity was at one time an extensive landowner in Outagamie County, where he ranked among the leading men of his section. He died in Kaukauna, and his widow now makes her home in Wausau, Wis.

After his marriage, Mr. McAbee built a log home on his present farm, and here he and his family resided until the erection of the pleasant home they now occupy. They have had children as follows: Angeline, deceased  in infancy, Amos and Lambert, at home; Genevea, Mrs. James Sullivan, of Lawrence Township; Martha, deceased when two years old; James, at home; Sophie, a well-educated young lady, who has held a teacher’s certificate since her fifteenth year; Henry, deceased in infancy; Henry, living at home; Mary, deceased in infancy; Gertrude, at home; Ellen, deceased in infancy, and Louis and Maggie, at home. Mr. McAbee has ninety-two acres, of excellent farm land, all of which he himself has taken from its primitive state. He has been successful in his chosen vocation and deserves great credit for what he has accomplished, especially as it is all the result of his own efforts. By reading and observation he has acquired a good practical education, in spite of his lack of early literary training. In politics he is a stanch Republican, and has served his township as supervisor, at present holding the position of health officer, and for fourteen consecutive years he has been school director. He was selected to act as jury man three times, and served each time. In religious connection he and his wife are members of St. Paul’s Catholic Church at Wrightstown.