John Dalton, the oldest son of Peter and Nancy Naulty Dalton, was born at Ardbraccan, Meath, Ireland in about 1787-87. In about 1810 he found that the government of the United States gave opportunity to young men who had pioneering abilities, and he and his brother Thomas came to America. John traveled and worked at several different jobs for three to five years. He was a sugar factory hand in Maryland; worked as a farmer; cut trees to break up farmland in the east, and also worked along the seacoast, always looking for a place to call ‘home’. In St. Lawrence County, New York, he found an area that appealed to him, then returned to Ireland for his childhood sweetheart, Mary McGovern. They were married in Ardbraccan, Meath, in 1818 and lived there about three years. In about 1819 they had a son whom they named Peter.
When Mary was expecting a second son, they sailed for America and Thomas was born 18 April, 1821 aboard ship. After arriving in New York, they traveled about three hundred miles to Waddington, St. Lawrence, New York, where a small colony of Irish-Catholics were building a settlement.
The community was about one and a half miles from the St. Lawrence River near the community of Madrid, which was the county seat at that time. They lived there from 1821 to 1835 and four more children were born to them: James – 1823, George – October 27, 1826, Mathew William – November 1, 1828/29, (there was a calendar change during this year, so either date is correct) Mary – August 14/15, 1831. They made their living clearing the land and farming it. Mathew William describes his father as being about five feet, eight inches tall, of stocky build, and weighing about 180 pounds. His mother was tall and portly, kind and indulgent to her children almost to a fault. When she died in 1834 of an intestinal ailment, he was only six years old.
Sometime during that same year, John married an Irish widow-lady, Nancy Carrol. She was a tall, kindly, noble woman and was a beautiful mother to Mary’s six children. Soon after this second marriage, he [John] moved his family to Louisville, near Massena, St. Lawrence County, New York and purchased a 180 acre farm.
Nancy bore John five more children. Two died in infancy. Those living were: Michael B. – March 22, 1835, Philip – 1839, and Jane – January 8, 1842.
Mathew William wrote of his home: “My early youth was extremely happy. Always around our hearthstone, good cheer, love and affection would radiate, for my father was a man of love and kindness, always engaged in good works and ever thinking and planning for the welfare of his family. Thus in an atmosphere of affection, I grew up and flourished. My father taught all of his boys and girls the dignity of labor and the value of industry and set us an example in that respect. My mother and my step-mother after her, taught us domestic virtues and economy through their example. They endeavored to instill in us children respect and obedience to the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church.
In about 1844, John Dalton moved his family west by boat and purchased a large farm on the west borders of Lake Michigan at Racine, Wisconsin. They lived there for about three years and then moved to Wyocena, Colombia, Wisconsin. One of the first three families there. Once again it was pioneer work breaking the farm out of the wilderness. But now he had five sons living at home and they soon had a good farm fenced and in crops.
John moved his family no more. He was 57 years old and spent the rest of his life in Wyocena, farming his land until he was an old man. On February 3, 1874 at 76 years of age, Nancy Carrol Dalton died and three years later on March 22, 1877 at the age of 91, John Dalton died. Both were buried in the Rocky Run Cemetery in Wyocena, Colombia, Wisconsin.
Compiled of information from Bertha Dalton Smith
(head photograph of John Dalton about 1872)