Outagamie County, WI - Biography of William W. BRIGGS of Hortonville, Appleton 1823-

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SUBJECT: Biography of William W. BRIGGS of Hortonville, Appleton 1823-
SUBMITTER: W. David Samuelsen
EMAIL: dsam@wasatch.com
DATE SUBMITTED: Apr 15, 1999
SURNAMES: BRIGGS, THOMAS, PAGE
SOURCE: Record of the Pioneers of Outagamie County, Wisconsin;  page 7, pub. 1898, The Post Publishing Co.


BIOGRAPHY:
WILLIAM W. BRIGGS

William W. BRIGGS was born at Buckfield, Me., Aug. 12, 1823. His father, Daniel BRIGGS, was a soldier in the
war of 1812, after which he, with is wife, Pheba THOMAS BRIGGS, and seven children settled at Monson, Me. The
subject of this sketch spent his boyhood as a pioneer in northern Maine, his mother dying when he was but fourteen
years of age. He was engaged in lumbering on the rivers St. Johns, Penobscot and Kennebec, which means the hardest
kind of work, for lumbering then had no conveniences as now. In 1851 William W. BRIGGS was married to Mary E.
PAGE, and the year following they came to Wisconsin, first stopping in northern Illinois. They traveled by team from
Beloit, Wis., to Hortonville, the men walking when it was rough and poor roads, which was most of the way. They
had two children, Eben P. and Elizabeth M. BRIGGS.

Mr. BRIGGS was engaged in the milling business there for about eighteen years, when he moved with his family to
Appleton, where he has lived ever since. In 1874 he built the "Briggs House" and
engaged in active hotel life for four years.

Mr. BRIGGS with Ira HERSEY and H. B. SANBORN built the first grist mill at Hortonville, which is now
considered the oldest one in this county.

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Response by:
Name: Judith Bowen
E-Mail: judith.bowen@trincoll.edu
Date: Thu, 06 May 1999
Surnames: BRIGGS, PAGE, THOMAS

This is my great great grandfather. I have done extensive research on the Briggs family, including William and his four
brothers who were all born in Maine and went west in the 1840s and 1850s. I also have very extensive information on
the Page line, represented here by Mary Eliza (Page)Briggs, William's wife, whose ancestry goes back to immigrant
Francis Page who settled in Hampton, NH in the 1640s. I also have information about the Thomas family (William's
mother was Phebe Liddia Thomas) which lead to discovering her direct descent from Mayflower passenger John
Howland.