BIOGRAPHIES:  Thomas BILES, Porcupine, Pepin Co., WI

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Submitted by Nance Sampson, Pepin Co. Archives File Manager on 19 November 2004
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**Posted for informational purposes only - submitter is not related to the
subject of this biography and has no further information.

Thomas Biles, farmer, P. O. Porcupine, Pepin county, was born at
Mechanicstown, Carroll county, Ohio, May 9, 1828.  His father, Ninyon
Biles was a native of Germany, and his mother, Maria (Peckham) Biles,
was of Scotch descent.  Their children were Henry, Ellen (Mrs. P.
Meaks), John, Rebecca (Mrs. T. Townsend), Rhoda (Mrs. V. Page),
Charles, Thomas, William, Sarah J. and Mary.  When our subject was
thirteen years of age his parents moved to Lee county, Iowa.  At
eighteen he left home and came to Wisconsin, where he worked in the
pineries.  In 1848 he began working on a farm on Bogus creek, in Pepin
township, Pepin county, and continued to work there for several years,
during which time he turned up with his plow tools and bars of metal
which had probably been used by a gang of counterfeiters who operated
in that section in an early day; hence the name of this stream.  In
1862 Mr. Biles removed to Pierce county, Wis., and thence, in 1867, to
Fremont county, Iowa.  In 1871 he returned to Wisconsin and settled on
the present homestead on Porcupine creek, Frankfort township, Pepin
county.  When Mr. Biles first visited this valley it was so overgrown
with shrubbery that he was obliged to follow a deer path on his hands
and knees for some distance.  He now owns a well improved farm of 160
acres, which is devoted to grain and stock raising.  He leads a quiet
life, and takes but little interest in religion or politics.  November
11, 1857, he married Miss Olivia Sproul, and they have seven children: 
Sarah J. (Mrs. Kinney) George R., Maggie (Mrs. J. Warren), Walter,
Alfred, Francis and Lottie.

-Transcribed from the "Historical & Biographical Album of the Chippewa
Valley Wisconsin, 1891-2," page 773


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