WI BIO - Dodge Co - SANFORD, Abel B.

History of Dodge County, Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical, 1880, p 763

Abel B. SANFORD, farmer, Section 15 [Ashippun Township, Dodge County, 
Wisconsin], P. O. Alderly [Ashippun Township], was born in 1822 in Newtown, 
Fairfield County, Connecticut. He came to [the Territory of] Wisconsin in 
1841, locating at Waukesha [then in Milwaukee County], where he worked on his 
father's farm and taught school for five years. [Waukesha County was formed 
from Milwaukee County on 31 January 1846. The State of Wisconsin was created 
29 May 1848.]

In 1846 he moved to Ashippun [Ashippun Township, Dodge County, Territory of 
Wisconsin], where he purchased 120 acres [on Section 15], his present 
homestead. Mr. SANFORD is one of the pioneers of Ashippun Township, and has 
been very successful in raising both stock and grain. [The following three 
land purchases were recorded at the Milwaukee Land Office: (1) on 01 
February 1848 Abel B. SANFORD purchased 40 acres, the NE quarter of the SE 
quarter of Section 32, Town 6 North, Range 19 East, which is Waukesha 
Township, Waukesha County, then Territory of Wisconsin, Document # 13497, 
Accession # WI2730.416; (2) on 01 March 1848, Abel SANFORD (no middle 
initial) and Henry HULL purchased 40 acres, the NE quarter of the SW quarter 
of Section 15, Town 9 North, Range 17 East, which is Ashippun Township, Dodge 
County, then Territory of Wisconsin, Document # 19707, Accession # 
WI2860.095; and (3) on 01 March 1848 Abel SANFORD (no middle initial) 
purchased 40 acres, the SE quarter of the SW quarter of Section 15, Town 9 
North, Range 17 East, which is Ashippun Township, Dodge County, then in the 
Territory of Wisconsin, Document # 16871, Accession # WI2800.276.] 

On 27 February 1849 he [Abel B. SANFORD] married Miss Esther CURTIS, a native 
of New Haven County, Connecticut. They [Abel B. and Esther (CURTIS) SANFORD] 
have had eight children, five living. David A., the oldest son, graduated at 
Philadelphia in June 1878, and was ordained at Milwaukee in June 1879, and 
received charge of the Kemper Mission in Darlington [Lafayette County], 
Wisconsin. Mr. [Abel B.] SANFORD was Town Clerk in 1848, Treasurer in 1849; 
Clerk from 1850 to 1857, Clerk in 1866, and Clerk from 1868 to 1869. He was 
also Justice of the Peace for two years, and is a Democrat.

[A second biography of Abel B. SANFORD, from: Dodge County, Wisconsin, Past 
and Present. Hubbell, H. Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1913, vol 1, p 411, to be 
added at a later date.] 

Submitted by Cathy Kubly