Outagamie County, WI - Biography of Matthew CULBERTSON of Greenville ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************************************************ Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives SUBJECT: Biography of Matthew CULBERTSON of Greenville SUBMITTER: W. David Samuelsen EMAIL: dsam@wasatch.com DATE SUBMITTED: Apr 16, 1999 SURNAMES: CULBERTSON, CAMPBELL, HARVEY, WHITE, REID, OTIS, PRENTICE, WICKWIRE, PERRY SOURCE: Record of the Pioneers of Outagamie County, Wisconsin; page 23, pub. 1898, The Post Publishing Co. BIOGRAPHY: MATTHEW CULBERTSON About the beginning of the eighteenth century, there lived near Campbeltown, Scotland, one James Culbertson, who took for a wife, Jean Campbell; whose son Robert married Nannie Harvey; whose son James and his wife Jenet White Culbertson had six sons and three daughters, Jean Agnes, Robert, Janet, William, John, James, Samuel and David. For many years the family rented and lived on the Skerbolin farm, five miles north of Campbeltown; but when all the children had reached maturity they emigrated to America between the years 1818 and 1822, locating in southern Indiana, where the first settlers were making their pioneer start. John, who was born in May 1796, was the last to emigrate. Soon after reaching America, but before his journey was completed, he was married September 11, 1822, to Margaret Reid, a member of the same emigrant party and a resident of his native land. They located in Shelby township, Jefferson county, Indiana, where John's people had preceded him. Here he took a quarter section of unimproved very heavily timbered land and subdued it into a modern farm of that date and here their family was born: James, Matthew, John, Janet, Margaret, Alexander and Nancy. At the time the boys had reached manhood and wished to establish homes for themselves, Wisconsin territory was in the boom, and March 22, 1848, John, accompanied by his son Matthew, started on a land seeking expedition. They went by an Ohio river boat to Cincinnati, from there by canal boat to Toledo, then by railroad sixty-five miles to the terminus, then by stage to St. Joseph, Mich., from there by boat to Sheboygan, Wisconsin territory, where they arrived at the earliest possible moment, which was April 4, and from here they proceeded on foot, finally holding up at Green Bay where, April 14, they bought in the Government land office three hundred and eighty acres of land, being that upon which members of the family now reside in the town of Greenville. Matthew at once built a cabin and was the first settler in Greenville. His father, after remaining with him several weeks, returned to his home in Indiana, where Matthew joined the family in November. The next spring, accompanied by his brother James, moved with team and wagon to the pioneer home, where they were joined by John Jr. in 1850 and Alexander in 1855. In 1854 their mother, Margaret, died, and their father, selling his farm, moved to Wisconsin in 1858, accompanied by Margaret and Nancy. March 6, 1851, Matthew took for a partner in life Hannah, daughter of Enos Otis. John was married Dec. 8, 1852, to Miss Esther Prentice; James March 18, 1860, to Abbey Wickwire, and Alexander to Sylvina Perry, April 15, 1869. Their father, John, died Dec. 7, 1877, and was buried in the Greenville town cemetery.