Will County IL Archives Biographies.....CATON, WILLIAM 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Paula Winke-Martisek wranglerjack@comcast.net September 12, 2007, 3:44 pm

Author: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

WILLIAM PENN CATON was for years one of Will County's most honored residents.  

He was born in Orange County, N.Y., March 28, 1815.   His father, Robert Caton, 

was born May 22, 1761, and was three times married, his third wife being Hannah 

Dean, who died April 16, 1836; his death occurred April 6, 1815, when his son 

was only nine days old.  When our subject was eighteen years of age he left New 

York state and went to Ann Arbor, Mich., where he was employed as clerk in a 

store.  The year 1836 found him in Chicago, Ill., where he clerked. He also 

spent a short time in Milwaukee, Wis.  Afterward he took up two thousand acres 

of government land in Cook County, sixteen miles northwest of the present site 

of Chicago.  On this property he made his home until 1848.  Meantime he was 

married, November 28, 1844, to Miss Elizabeth Steele, whose home was on the 

north branch of the Chicago River in Cook County.  Returning to Chicago, Mr. 

Caton secured a position as inspector of canal boats, which he held until 1856, 

He then settled in the vicinity of Plainfield, Will County, and engaged in 

farming until 1871, when he retired from active labors, settling in Joliet.  

After coming to this city he became connected with the First Presbyterian 

Church, in which he was deacon for years.  During the latter part of his life 

he suffered much from ill-health.   He died March 22, 1886.  Mrs. Elizabeth 

(Steele) Caton, was born in Elizabethtown, Essex County, N. Y., May 30, 1819, a 

daughter of Jonathan and Theodosia (Nichols) Steele.  Her father was born in 

Hartford, Conn., in 1777.  He moved from his native place to Elizabethtown, N. 

Y., and in 1812 had charge of the arsenal there, fitting out the

troops for the campaign on Lake Champlain.  His wife was born in Vermont, 

October 16, 1780, and died in Elizabethtown when her daughter, Elizabeth, was 

only three months old.  Subsequently Mr. Steele moved to New York City, and 

thence to Chicago in 1837, sailing from Buffalo on one of the first lake 

steamers that ever plied the waters of Lake Michigan.  Mr. and Mrs. Caton 

became the parents of nine children. One of the daughters is the wife of T. A. 

Mason, represented elsewhere in this work.  The others now living are scattered 

through different parts of this and other states.


Additional comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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