Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 633
WILLIAM LASEUR

William LASEUR, a farmer residing on section 17, of Allen Township, has been a resident of Harrison County since the spring of 1868. He came to Dunlap without any means and hired out to work on a farm, and continued to this work and rent land for twelve years, when he bought the farm upon which he now lives, which consisted of eighty acres of party improved land, for which he paid $12.50 per acre. He has since added to this land, and now owns one hundred and twenty acres; sixty-five of which are under to the plow. He also owns a ten acre timber lot. Upon this place he erected a house 14x20 feet, with a wing the same size, together with a kitchen the same size. He also built a granary 12x14 feet.

He was born in the state of New York, January 16, 1846, in Oneida County. He is a son of Amasa and Didama (COATS) LASEUR, natives of France, who had six children: Frederick, Eliza, Clara, Frank, deceased, William and Charles.

Our subject's parents died when he was but five years of age, and he was adopted by a man named FOLETT, of Chenango County, New York, with whom he remained until sixteen years old. His foster father gave him a fair education at the common schools, and also two terms of select school. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted as a member of Company I, One Hundred and Fourteenth Infantry, under Captain S. H. WHEELER and was mustered into service at Norwich, N. Y., and was sent from there to Baltimore, where he did guard duty a month, and then joined the Gulf expedition to New Orleans, and remained in this department about one year and a half, participating in the engagements at Sabine Crossroads, Pleasant Hill, the siege of Port Hudson, and other minor engagements, and was then sent to Washington and engaged in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, with General SHERIDAN, and fought at Winchester, Cedar Creek, Fisher's Hill. He was wounded in Cedar Creek by a gunshot in the hip, and laid in the hospital, Philadelphia, four months. After his recover he went back and served until the close of the War, receiving his discharge at Elmira, N. Y., in June, 1865, and worked by the month from that time until he came to Harrison County.

He was married in May, 1876, to Sarah HENDRICKSON, daughter of James and Jane HENDRICKSON, who reared a family of eight children. The parents were natives of Tennessee, and their children were born in the following order: Adolphus, Lizzie, deceased, Sarah, Alfred, Frank, Cornelius, Milton and Benjamin.

Our subject and his wife are the parents of seven children: William, deceased, Pauline, Edna, Fred, Josephine, Frank and Clara.

Our subject is a member of the Grand Army Post at Little Sioux. His army record, together with the fact that he was left an orphan when but a small child, has caused his life to be one of a checkered character, but be it said to his credit, he has always proven himself to be a man of high sense of honor, always ready to do his part and go wherever duty calls.

Return to 1891 Biographical L Surnames Index

Back to 1891 Biographies Index