Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Briscoe, Patrick 1835 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 9, 2007, 12:42 am

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

PATRICK BRISCOE has for many years been closely connected with the farming and 
stock raising interests of Will and Grundy Counties. He came to Illinois 
nearly forty years ago, and has not only been a witness of the marvelous 
development of this part of the country since that time, but he has had a hand 
in promoting it. He has by hard labor, directed by wise judgment and practical 
skill, improved a farm that is in all particulars, the choicest in the 
neighborhood. Nicholas Briscoe, the father of our subject came to America from 
the land of his birth in 1850, and settled in Grundy County, Ill., and in 1855 
he moved with his family to Minnesota, and took up a claim sixty miles above 
Minneapolis, which was at that time a small village, and in 1857 returned with 
his family to Grundy County. His death occurred in that county, August 3, 
1882, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. His wife died at the age of 
seventy-four, the year following, and both are now sleeping their last sleep 
in Grundy County. There were twelve children born to them, of whom three 
daughters and two sons are now living. One brother died in Atchison, Kan., 
where his family of five children live. The youngest sister of our subject was 
married soon after the family moved to Minnesota, to William Harrison, and now 
lives in Little Falls. Ellen married Thomas Daly, and lives in Missouri; 
Mariah married James Meade, of Grundy County; Peter is a farmer of Au Sable 
Township, where he has two hundred acres of land, and is at present 
Supervisor. Patrick Briscoe was born in 1835, and after attaining manhood he 
bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Grundy County, which he sold 
afterwards and bought another in the same locality. In 1879 he came to 
Channahon Township, and here he purchased a fine farm, just outside the 
village, beautifully located on the DuPage River near its mouth. It is well 
fitted up with good buildings, the land is under excellent tillage and it has 
a fine orchard of apple and other fruit trees, and the place is also adorned 
with beautiful shade trees, and there are some fine springs on the place. One 
hundred and fifty-five acres of it lie in a body and he has one hundred and 
sixty acres in Grundy County, and he operates it all with the assistance of 
his boys. He has always paid especial attention to stock raising and does a 
profitable business in that line. Mr. Briscoe and Miss Julia Dempsey were 
united in marriage in 1868, and in the pleasant home that they have built up, 
nine children have been born to them, of whom, six boys and two girls are now 
living, namely, Nicholas P., aged, twenty-one, John nineteen, Mary A., 
seventeen, Michael J., fifteen, Ellen, eleven, William J., seven, Richard A., 
four, and Edward T., the baby. Julia died at the age of three years. Mr. 
Briscoe is a sincere believer in the advantages of a solid education and is 
giving his children good opportunites for schooling. Mrs. Briscoe was born in 
Boston, Mass., in 1850, a daughter of Michael Dempsey, and came with her 
parents to Kendall County, this State when she was eight years of age. Mr. 
Briscoe is possessed of far-seeing sagacity and energy so combined to those 
useful qualities of prudence, thrift and steadiness, that he could not fail to 
do what he has done to make life a success. He takes an active interest in the 
affairs of his adopted county and in 1888 was elected Justice of the Peace of 
the town of Channahon, and is still serving, discharging the duties of his 
office with ability and credit. In politics he sides with the Democratic 
party, though he often exercises the privilege of voting as he chooses without 
regard to party affiliations. Religiously, he and his family are devoted 
members of the Catholic Church of Minooka.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/briscoe1535nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/

File size: 4.6 Kb