Bio of William PONSFORD (b.1840), Wright Co., MN
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Clearwater, Silver Creek and Corinna Excerpts from :  
Curtiss-Wedge, Franklin.  History of Wright County Minnesota.  
Volume II.  Chicago: H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co. 1915.   
Call Number:977.6C94h

CHAPTER XXXV
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW.

Pages 1091 - 1092

William Ponsford, veteran of the Civil war and a most substantial 
citizen, now retired was born in England, December 3, 1840, son of 
Joseph and Sarah Ponsford, natives of England, who came to America 
in 1851, and located in Herkimer county, New York, from whence they 
came to Clearwater township, this county in 1860.  William Ponsford 
was eleven years old when he came to this country.  He attended 
school in Herkimer county, New York and in 1861 followed his parents 
to Clearwater township, in this county, where he located on a farm.  
February 25, 1864, he enlisted in Co. E., Eighth Minn. Vo. Inf., and 
went South with his regiment.  At the Battle of Murfreesboro he 
received a bullet to his head which confined him t the hospital.  
After his discharge at Ft. Snelling he again took up farming.  In 
1868 he exchanged his Clearwater property for a farm in sections 17, 
18 and 20 Corinna township, on the north shores of Pleasant lake.  
He cleared up the place and in time had one of the best farms, in 
the township.  There he followed general farming until 1907, when he 
rented the farm, and took up his home with his daughter, the wife of 
Dr. Alfred M. Ridgeway.  During his active life he prominent in township 
affairs.  For many terms he was constable and school clerk, and for 
twenty-nine years he was town clerk.  Mr. Ponsford was married September 
20, 1868, to Mary Townsend, who died December 13, 1906, leaving two 
children: Viola L., now wife of Dr. Alfred M. Ridgeway, of Annandale, 
and Ada M. now wife of Dr.  Martin F. Lowe, of Buffalo.