WADSWORTH, T. H.

WADSWORTH, WHITLEY, BLACKIE, MEREDITH, METHERINGHAM

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/9/2003 at 19:12:58

Biography reproduced from page 110 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Prominently identified with the material, social and religious interests of Algona is T. H. Wadsworth, senior member of the real-estate firm of Wadsworth & Keith, and a director and stockholder in the Kossuth County State Bank of Algona. He was born in Kenosha county, Wisconsin, October 23, 1855, a son of John and Rebecca (Whitley) Wadsworth, both natives of England. The father was born in Yorkshire, England, and at the age of twenty-six years emigrated to the United States and settled in Kenosha county, Wisconsin, twenty-three miles west of Southport, on a farm which he purchased and improved. He later moved to another farm, sixteen miles from Kenosha and resided there until 1978, when he removed to Union Grove, Racine county, where he died and was buried. The mother came from England with her parents in 1845. Her first marriage was to John Blackie, a Scotchman, the couple residing in the state of New York. After the death of Mr. Blackie she married John Wadsworth and to them were born three children: J.W., of the Kossuth County State Bank; T. H.; and Mary, the wife of Charles E. Meredith, of Union Grove, Wisconsin.

T. H. Wadsworth’s first steps in learning were taken at the district school near his father’s farm, after which he attended the public schools of Brighton, Wisconsin, later rounding out his education at a seminary at Rochester, in Racine county, upon the completion of which course, at the age of twenty-two years, he rented his father’s farm for a period of ten years. At the expiration of that time he removed to Algona and in September, 1888, in partnership with his brother engaged in breeding and dealing in draft and trotting stallions. They raised their trotting horses on their farm, two miles west of town. After several successful years in this line Mr. Wadsworth retired from the same and took up his present work as a real-estate dealer, a business which he has since followed. For a number of years he was secretary of the Kossuth County Agricultural Society and has at all times taken a lively interest in all matters tending toward the improvement of the community in which he has resided. He is owner of about six hundred acres of good farm land, some of it lying in Kossuth county, some in Emmet county, Iowa, and the remainder in Lyon county, Minnesota. In addition to his landed interests, his business and his stock in the Kossuth County State Bank, he has built and owns several houses in Algona, one a fine modern residence occupied by himself and family.

Mr. Wadsworth was married in 1877 to Miss Elizabeth A. Metheringham and to them were born two children, Florence May and Nettie Edna, both of whom have passed away since the family settled in Algona. Politically Mr. Wadsworth is a republican and held the office of justice of the peace in Wisconsin before his removal to Algona, and has been an alderman in the city of his adoption for four years. He and his wife are regular attendants at the Congregational church of Algona, contributing by their support and influence to the well-being of that organization. Coming as he does of sturdy English ancestry and being trained along lines which make for strong, ennobling manhood and having developed qualities of the highest order along civic, social and business lines, Mr. Wadsworth is an important factor in Algona and has contributed much to the welfare of those with whom he has been associated since boyhood.