Joseph TEALE is a well known and highly esteemed resident of Dorchester, Saline county, and has made his home in this part of southeastern Nebraska since 1882. He is a man of much capability and worth, has been very successful in his efforts, and as a man and citizen commands the high regard of all with whom he comes in contact.

He was born in Hampshire, England, August 21, 1840, being a son of Frederick and Charlotte (HOLMES) TEALE, both natives of England. His father died in England when the children were small, and in 1843 the widow brought her family to America. From New York state they went and made settlement near Vaukesha, Wisconsin, then to Bedford, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and in 1855 took up their abode near Warren, in Jo Daviess county, Illinois.

There were in all seven children: Fred, who was a soldier in the Fourth Iowa Infantry, and is now a resident of Los Angeles, California; James, a former member of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry, who died at Davis City, Iowa, in 1900; Joseph; Hon. Thomas TEALE, of the Fifteenth Illinois Infantry, now at Leon, Iowa; George, who was a soldier of the Ninety-sixth Illinois, now a resident of Lamoni, Iowa; Eugene, of the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, also at Lamoni; and Albert, of Kellerton, Iowa. Four of these brave and patriotic sons of a single family were wounded during the course of the war, and two of them received two wounds.

The mother of this fine family died in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, at the age of sixty-two. She and the children were communicants of the Episcopal church, or Church of England.

Mr. Joseph TEALE spent most of his youth in Bedford, Ohio, where he received his education in the public schools. He was nearly of age when the Civil war broke out, and on May 4, 1861, only a few days after Sumter was fired upon, he enlisted at Warren in Company E of the Fifteenth Illinois Infantry, under command of Captain RANEY and Colonel TURNER. He was mustered in at Freeport, Illinois, and was in camp at Alton. His first battle was Shiloh, in which his regiment lost one hundred and ninety-two men in killed and wounded. He then participated at Holly Springs, and was at the siege of Vicksburg for forty-seven days, during which he was shot through the body and was in the hospital some time. He received his honorable discharge on June 14, 1864, having served for three years and twenty-one days, and coming to family and home have been a contined inspiration to her husband for now more than thirty-five years.

[Mrs. TEALE's name was omitted in the text.] She is a native of England, a daughter of William and Sarah (PEACH) PRYOR, the former of Lancashire and the latter of Derbyshire, England. They came to America in 1857 and made settlement in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, where her father was a farmer and nurseryman, in politics an adherent of the Republican principles, and where he passed away at the age of sixty-eight. Her mother is still living in Warren, being eighty-four years of age and bearing her years with health and comparative vigor. Mrs. TEALE is the oldest living of ten children, two of whom, Rosa and Ayres, died at the respective ages of nine and two years, and the others are Sarah, Byron, Howard, Ira, Willard, Inez, and John.

Mr. and Mrs. TEALE have one son, Albert H., who is a resident of Kenesaw, Adams county, Nebraska, and who by his wife, formerly Miss Edith JONES, has a little daughter, Doris N. TEALE. The greatest bereavement that has come to Mr. and Mrs. TEALE was the death of their daughter Lettie, in 1892, from scarlet fever. She was born in 1874, had received a good public school education and also in Doane College, was a member of the Christian church, and her sunny disposition, fondness for the good things of life, and her loveable character made her taking off a lamentable event in the community of which she was so bright a part, and the chair thus vacated in the family circle can never be filled.

After his marriage, Mr. TEALE lived two years in Fayette county, Wisconsin, was then engaged in farming in Victoria county, Texas, for three years, after which he returned to Warren, Illinois; he was in Decatur county, Iowa, two years, later moved to Dixon, Illinois, and in 1882 came out to Saline county, Nebraska, and began farming south of Dorchester. He still owns his nice estate of one hundred and sixty acres, on which he has a nice house and all the modern improvements. He has been residing in town for a number of years, and has pleasant surroundings and many friends and companionships in which to pass the remaining,years of a well spent life. . He is a popular member of the W. T. SHERMAN Post, G. A. R., at Dorchester, and he also affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having passed all the chairs in his lodge. He is a strong Republican, and he and his wife are esteemed members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

SOURCE:  A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska Pp. 721-23. Vol. II Lenox. Chicago. 1906.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2009