C. C. Bicknell, one of the pioneer buisness men of McGregor, was born in New York City, on the 31st day of July, 1826, son of T. W. T. Bicknell and Ann, nee Baker, his father, a native of Taunton, Mass., and mother, of Baltimore, Md. They were married in 1816, and were the parents of ten children, eight of whom lived to be adults, T.W.T. Bicknell died in Paterson, N.J., in 1845. His wife is living in Liverpool, England, at the advance age of eighty- five. The subject of this memoir was at an early age employed in his father's factory, where he remained until seventeen years of age, when he went to Evansville, Ind., and obtained employment as a clerk in a general store, remaining five years, then went to Cincinnati, O. He fitted up a flat boat with a general stock of goods, starting down the Ohio River, trading at different points, and selling out his stock. He then engaged in business in Caseyville, Ky., for one year; thence to New York, where he was employed as a salesman for four years; thence to Cleveland, O., where he was engaged in the same buisness until 1856, when he came to Dubuque, Ia., where he kept books for a wholesale grocery house. From there he removed to McGregor, Ia. In 1852 he married Martha Miller, who was born in Newark, N.J., in 1827. Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell were among the early members and workers of the Methodist Episcopal church of McGregor. In politics he is a Republican, and has held several local offices of trust. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa, 1882, p. 968-969 |