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Read
a Diary Written in 1856
 
Hello and
welcome to "Waltons Mountain". This web site is dedicated to my Walton
family tree amd Taft genealogy. The links here are all in Blue print. Read
The Diary above, written in 1856 by my
great grandfather William B Walton while he was on the steamship
"Canada" traveling from Birmingham England to Boston Ma. It
is worth the time to read, a good account of the time period and
travel on an early steamship.
I was born in Grant county Wisconsin, growing up on a
farm in the hills of Crawford county. I attend primary school at
Wheatville, then High School at Boscobel Wi and graduated
in
1958. I received a bachelor science degree in laboratory medicine
from Platteville State University in 1965. Since that time I worked at Marshfield Clinic Marshfield Wi as a clinical
laboratory scientist
primarily in the field of hematology the study of Blood Cells. I
retired in 2005
My great
grandfather William Blakesley
Walton was born in Birmingham England March,1826 married Sarah
Jane
Butler in June, 1851 and came to America in May,1856. They had two
children (Elinor and Caroline) at the time of the crossing and Sarah
was pregnant with the third a son William Frederick. As
previously stated the diary of this crossing is an excellent account of
life at that time on a steamship. There were hazards of the day in
steamship travel so it is interesting that they left their homeland and
family behind to seek a new life in America.
William and family landed in Boston
harbor visited her
parents the Butlers, and then travelled by train to Wisconsin
specifically Madison where William worked as a surveyor for the city of
Madison. In 1859 he moved and settled in Crawford county, Scott
township, Wisconsin. He was instrumental in helping to shape early
Crawford county. William was a notary public at Wheatville, a
postmaster at Wheatville, did survey work for Crawford county, held
township offices, was instrument at Wheatville school, and the Mount
Zion Methodist church. His wife Sarah Jane played the piano for
church there. William wrote several hard cover diaries in his lifetime
and they are still in remarkable condition even today. His penmanship
was astonishing! His mother and father were William and Emma
Walton and lived on Suffolk street Birmingham England
William and his sons Joseph Ezra Walton (my grandfather),
Francis, and William III farmed the land for many years, then Joseph’s
sons Paul (my dad) and Millard Walton (uncle) farmed there too as the
years passed. Seventy five acres of the farm is still owned by a family
member and the original log cabin (which was inside a home) was
recently torn down and rebuilt.. the logs (red oak) were in remarkable
condition considering they came fro trees growing as long as 200 years
ago.
Other
Interests
I am a Green
Bay Packer fan,
and in general enjoy sports. I enjoy New York Yankee baseball and
especially like the history
behind that
team . Yes, I like the Milwaukee Brewers too!! I consider myself
very patriotic and generally display the flag everywhere as can be seen
here. Every
July, I attend the Iola Car
Show
in Iola Wi. with two of my friends and usually a family member or
two.
We camp there and just have fun bonding. We have been doing
this for about 20 plus years. We are "experts"on the Iola Car
Show. Here
are some links
to things that might interest you. There are photo pages, tributes to
people, poems written by family members, pictures of cars,
another diary, etc.
The History of Crawford county link is interesting. It
opens to the title page of an online history book published in
1884. Just to the right of the title page are all the pages of
this book. Point to the right and you are able to pick the page you
wish to read. William Blakesley Waltons information is in page
704. This book is quite an intersting history of early times.
Copies of this book can be downloaded to a Kindle.
Times
since April 1998
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