Dexter Asa Knowlton - I45734 - Individual Information - Wisconsin and Illinois Genealogy

Dexter Asa Knowlton (I45734)

Given Names: Dexter Asa
Surname: Knowlton

Gender: Male

Birth: 3 March 1812 -- Fairfield, Herkimer County, New York
Death: 10 March 1876 -- Steps of a public building, New Orleans, New Orleans Parish, la

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Personal Facts and Details

Notes

Note

In his autobiography, Dexter says his father was a poor farmer. David on the other hand is noted ‎(census)‎ to be a shoemaker.

"He characterized his father as a man of little taste for and no interest in business, who actively discouraged his son from pursuing any vocation other than agriculture"

If he was a shoe maker, then he too was a business man.

Sophorina names her son Dexter Asa Knowlton Andrus in 1844 and another son William Dexeter. The history of Winnebago County IL lists his father as David.

I am leaving the traditional record stand until such time as I can find an Asa or Dexter Knowlton old enough to be his father or another source such as a copy of his death certificate which states the name of his father.

Asa may be a male version of Achsah and Dexter may originate from the Dexter family of colonial Hingham, Plymouth, Mass. Perhaps the Barnes line goes back to the surman Dexter. Achsah does have a brother named Dexter.

If he and his wife ‎‎‎‎(wives - see further down)‎‎‎‎ are buried in Freeport, they would most likely be buried in the Oakland Cemetery which is where most notables of Freeport are buried including W.T. Raleigh. Spencer Tracy's parents are buried in Calvary, a Catholic cemetery on Stephenson St. and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams ‎‎‎‎(Hull-House)‎‎‎‎ is buried in Cedarville. My ‎‎‎‎(Dori Coplien)‎‎‎‎ grandparents are also buried in Calvary while a number of my other Freeport Donker relatives are buried at Oakland ‎‎‎‎(not that they were all that notable - the 3 brick and masonry house's opposite Calvary were built by my Great Uncle Heiko Donker, a carpenter and his partner who was a mason)‎‎‎‎. There are numerous cemeteries in Freeport. Transcribed lists are available at the Freeport library. My next trip there, I will look for Dexter and his family. If you find the cemetery before then, please let me know. I haven't been able to locate Dexter or his wife in 1870 but chances are, they are buried in NY. There is an E.A. Knowlton in New Orleans in 1870 who is married to an Evaline. If the dates are correct, she is too young. E.A. would be b. about 1813 in NY, she about 1821 in Louisiana. This appears to be the same E.A. who in 1860 is in Terrebonne, Louisiana with a son E.M. b. about 1842.

Fairfield - The town was established from part of the Town of Norway in 1796.
Herkimer / Mongmery County NY
Herkimer was formed from Albany County which included the state of Vermont
In 1802 , parts of Herkimer and two other counties ‎‎‎‎(Clinton and Montgomery Counties )‎‎‎‎ were combined to form the new St. Lawrence County .

1850 - Freeport, Stephenson, Illinois
land grants - his father does not have any land grants.
Patentee Name State County Issue Date Land Office Doc.Nr. Accession/Serial Nr.
KNOWLTON, DEXTER A IL Stephenson 7/10/1844 Dixon 14981 IL4500__.461
above with Adam M Johnson, Tenants in Common
KNOWLTON, DEXTER A IL Stephenson 10/1/1845 Dixon 18397 IL4570__.346
KNOWLTON, DEXTER A IL Stephenson 10/1/1845 Dixon 18398 IL4570__.347
KNOWLTON, DEXTER A IL Stephenson 10/1/1845 Dixon 18399 IL4570__.348
KNOWLTON, DEXTER A IL Stephenson 3/1/1847 Dixon 18549 IL4580__.276
KNOWLTON, DEXTER A IL Stephenson 3/1/1848 Dixon 21135 IL4630__.341
KNOWLTON, DEXTER A IL Stephenson 1/1/1849 Dixon 28045 IL4770__.219

1860 - Westfield, Chautauqua, New York
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Past and present of the city of Rockford and Winnebago County, Illinois - 1905; p 210

Unto Mr. Knowlton ‎‎‎‎[Dexter A.]‎‎‎‎ were born eight children, four sons and four daughters, the first three being natives of the Empire state. The family record is as follows: Arminda, born December 29, 1834, died May 10, 1891. Dexter W., born July 28, 1836, died in 1840. Eveline A., born August 17, 1837, is the wife of Charles Currier and is now living in Berkly California. Homer W., is the next name in the family. Dexter A., the second of the name, born August 26, 1843, married Mary L Myers and lived in Freeport until his death, which occurred October 19, 1903.

…..p.211
Julianna A., born July 2 1845, died July 4, 1882; Charles D., was successor of Knowlton Brothers at the death of Dexter A. Knowlton, banker, of Freeport and Pecatonica, born January 27, 1848, married Ida M. Mann…

… Ophelia A, the youngest member of the family of Dexter A. and Eveline ‎‎‎‎(Arnold)‎‎‎‎ Knowlton, was born January 30, 1852 and died in infancy.

...died March 10, 1876....He and his wife were making a pleasure trip that year...The following morning Mr. Knowlton left his hotel to call upon friends, bidding his wife a most cheerfull adieu ...

‎‎‎‎[His wife died in 1874. I can find no record of a 2nd marriage in IL but Dexter is known to have done a great deal of traveling so he may have, in fact been with a 2nd wife. I am sure the Freeport Journal paper would have his obit but I haven't looked for it yet - March 2007]‎‎‎‎

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History of Stephenson County
members of the Baptist Church, Freeport IL - organized Dec 1845 but per Winn. history he was Presb. He is on the roster of the Baptist chruch and noted as a founder. His father was a deacon of a Baptist Church.

...1847 brought talk of the railroad coming to Stephenson County. On January 7th, at Rockford, the first session of the railroad convention in the "west" was held. Stephenson County was represented by John H. Addams ‎‎‎‎(father of Jane Adams of Hull House)‎‎‎‎, D.A. Knowlton, Adrian Lucas, Jackson Reichart, Luman Montague and Martin P. Sweet. After the line had been completed to Belvidere, there was talk of Freeport being detoured for Savanna. A committee went to Chicago and spoke with the authorities and succeeded in having the original route carried out.

History of Stephenson County, Stephenson Historical Society
- Dexter Knowlton Drugstore ‎‎‎‎(corner of Gelena and Van Buren St)‎‎‎‎
Dexter A. Knowlton, Sr. first visited Freeport in the year 1838, coming here as a pack peddler for the avowed purpose of inspecting opportunities for merchandising on the frontier. Peddlers in those days supplied householders with most of their needs unobtainable locally from other sources. The following year Mr. Knowlton, having been impressed with the opportunities offered in the then Village of Freeport, returned with his family to settle here and remained for most of the rest of his life. Occasionally he returned East for periods of several years and resided at Westfield, New York and in Brooklyn, but always returned to Freeport which he considered his permanent home.

A native of Herkimer County, New York, he was born in 1812. He commenced an autobiography of great historical interest, but unfortunately he never completed it. In in he relates that he was the son of poor but Christian parents engaged in farming. He characterized his father as a man of little taste for and no interest in business, who actively discouraged his son from pursuing any vocation other than agriculture. He, on the other hand, from the start demonstrated ambition and a capacity for business transactions and repeatedly urged his father to permit him to operate a general merchandising store. His father continued to refuse permission, and it was not until he attained his majority that he embarked on a business career. The store depicted in the diorama was established in Freeport in 1840 when he was 28 years old and had been married four years.

The original development in Freeport was near the downtown area on the banks of the Pecatonica River and was originally called Winneshiek. Most of the commerce and the little industry then established was located in this area. The settlement already had two general stores, and Knowlton's venture in the Broadway-Locust area away from the then main part of the town was considered rash by some of his fellow townsmen; but he contrived by what he called "strict attention to business" to prosper. He laid out the street now known as Broadway to carry stagecoach traffic into Freeport by that route, and he himself helped to build and grade that road.

As the store prospered and steadily increased in business, he invested in real estate and developed and sold residential additions to Freeport. This area now comprises an area of south-central Freeport, south of Stephenson Street to near the southerly city limits, comprising several hundreds of acres and including the sites of the present Junior and Senior High Schools as well as Blackhawk Elementary School.

A man of great industry and precise attention to business and accounting, he always meticulously paid his debts when due or before and was successful in getting others to be equally punctual with him.

For a number of years he was the Director of the Chicago and Galena Union Railroad, the first railroad to reach Freeport which ultimately became the North Western line and was recently abandoned in Stephenson County. In addition, he was President of the Savanna Branch Railroad. During his sojourns in the East, he engaged in business enterprises there, one of which included the purchase and operation of the Empire Spring at Saratoga Springs, New York. The Empire Spring Company was eventually capitalized at one million dollars, a prodigious sum for those days. As stated before, he periodically returned to and engaged in business in Freeport, living through prosperous and lean times. In 1869 he founded a bank in Freeport which was later operated by his sons, Dexter, Jr. and Charles David.

This diorama, fabricated entirely by hand, is the work of Merl Blackwood and Gladys Rourke Blackwood, local artists who have prepared other dioramas of local historical import, and is a memorial to Kenneth Homer Knowlton, who was a grandson of Dexter A. Knowlton, Sr. and the father of Judge Dexter A. Knowlton III who is the third member of the family to bear his ancestor's name in this community.
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Knowlton Park, Freeport, IL
Located at the southeast corner of Broadway and Locust, the park is named after Dexter A. Knowlton, pioneer merchant and Freeport landowner who donated the land and development of the park to the community. A bronze tablet was placed in the park in 1939 by Knowlton’s descendants on the 100th anniversary of his arrival to Freeport. Today the neighborhood park features tall Black Maple trees that shade benches and play equipment installed in 1992.
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Dexter Asa Knowlton of Freeport Illinois, and Charles Russell Szelag are 3rd cousins 5 times removed. Their common ancestors are Ephraim Knowlton and Katherine Griffin.

Dexter Asa Knowlton of Freeport Illinois, and James Russell Knowlton, Grandfather of Charles Russell Szelag, are 3rd cousins 3 times removed. Their common ancestors are Ephraim Knowlton and Katherine Griffin.

Charles Russell Szelag is the husband of Kathleen L. Coplien. Her mother was raised in Freeport, he is from NJ, Kathy was born and raised in Janesville WI and spent most of her adult life in NJ. Dexter's uncle Ephraim Hiram Baker Knowlton moved to Janesville WI in the late 1830's....small world.


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	Events of close relatives
Birth	3 March 1812 2826 Fairfield, Herkimer County, New York
Marriage	15 January 1834 (Age 21) Evaline H Arnold - ‎[View Family ‎(F19786)‎‎] Town Line, Chautauqua Co., Ny
Death of mother	19 April 1843 (Age 31) Achsah Barnes (I45729) (Age 57) - [Relationship Chart]
Marriage of father	29 October 1843 (Age 31) David Knowlton (I45728) (Age 60) - [Relationship Chart] Electa Lull (I45730) (Age approx. 48) - [Relationship Chart] ‎[View Family ‎(F19759)‎‎]
Death of father	25 November 1857 (Age 45) David Knowlton (I45728) (Age 74) - [Relationship Chart]
Death	10 March 1876 (Age 64) Steps of a public building, New Orleans, New Orleans Parish, la
Universal Identifier	7697EAEF8F4E2684A54737BAE32EF4CAAF04
Last Change	21 December 2008 - 06:41:58 Last changed by: dcoplien