“The History of Jefferson County, Wisconsin”, published: Chicago:  
Western Historical Company.   1879.


WILLIAM E. DERVIN, painter and paper-hanger; was born in New 
York State in 1849; moved to Pennsylvania when quite young, where he 
remained eight years; he then moved to and located in the town of 
Clyman, Dodge Co., Wis., and lived there till the year 1860, when he 
moved to Watertown and began clerking in a grocery store for his 
brother; in 1861, he enlisted in Co. F, of the 16th United States Infantry; 
he was wounded in the right limb at the battle of Stone River, near 
Murphysboro; on account of the wound he was discharged at Louisville, 
Ky., May 6, 1863; he returned to Watertown in 1863, and in 1864, he 
went to St. Louis, Mo., where he learned the painter’s trade and 
remained till September, 1868, when he again returned to Watertown, 
and most of the time since, has been employed as painter for the 
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co.  He married Miss Mary Dillon, of St. 
Louis, Feb. 10, 1867, by whom he has four children – Alice, born in 
January, 1868; William T., Oct. 5, 1869; Eugene, March 4, 1871, and 
Arthur, Feb. 1, 1879.  Mr. Dervin and family are members of St. 
Bernard’s Church; he has been Marshal of the Catholic Total Abstinence 
Society during the years 1878 and 1879.


Submitted by:  Linda Pingel  (LPingel@worldnet.att.net)