WI BIO - Lafayette Co - REDFEARN, John

History of La Fayette County, Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical, 1881, p 
744

John REDFEARN, farmer, Section 26, Town of New Diggings, Lafayette County, 
Wisconsin, P. O. New Diggings, was born 17 November 1819 in Durham, England.* 
In 1835 he came to Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in 1838 to Galena [Jo 
Daviess County, Illinois], and in 1839 to New Diggings [Lafayette County, 
Territory of Wisconsin] and commenced mining. [Wisconsin became a State 29 
May 1848. Listed among those who came to the Town of New Diggings, the text 
elsewhere mentions (p 565) "John REDFERN." Not different spelling.] John 
REDFEARN is now engaged in farming, owns 237 and a half acres, and by strict 
attention to business has acquired a very fine property. 

In 1849 he [John REDFEARN] married Alice FAWCETT [a maiden name?], who was 
born in 1826 in Yorkshire, England. They [John and Alice REDFEARN] have six 
children: George W., Elizabeth A., Hannah J., Elnora A., Mary Etta, and 
Susanna Isabel. Mr. REDFEARN has been Clerk of the school board about nine 
years.

[For other REDFEARN, see the Lafayette County, Wisconsin, biographies of 
William WALTON and Henry SMITH, who both married a REDFEARN. A "George 
REDFEARN" and "William REDFEARN" are listed in the muster roll which was 
filed with the Lafayette County Clerk and gives the official membership of 
the Lafayette Guard, organized at New Diggings in August 1863. This home 
guard was organized during the draft trouble of 1863 to maintain the 
authority of law, but its existence was short since the ranks were depleted 
by continual enlistments into the Federal army. The Lafayette Guard was 
reorganized and combined with a similar body from Benton, and the muster roll 
of the new company, filed with the County Clerk on 27 August 1864, contains 
no one with the surname REDFEARN.]

[Researchers can also find information about John REDFEARN (REDFERN) and 
Redfearn & Company in Carter's New Diggings on the Fever, 1824-1860, 
published in Benton, Wisconsin, by the author in 1959. It tells of John 
REDFERN, an Englishman, who came to the lead mines in 1839 when times were 
bad, and was able to lease and eventually buy land on New Diggings Ridge, 
that later became very profitable for him. This work discusses the accounts 
John REDFEARN kept for Redfearn & Company mining operations, as well as his 
other businesses, e. g., thrashing and rail and wood sales, and his purchase 
of stock in the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railway. This source notes that 
income from the lead mining operations of Redfearn & Company amounted to from 
$19-38 per 1,000 pounds in the period from 1847 to 1853.]

[* Durham County, England, contains four townships, one of which is 
Middleton, and in the parish there called Middleton-in-Teesdale were several 
REDFEARN families. Some were lead miners who worked in the mines run by 
Quakers in that parish. REDFEARN men who emigrated to America to seek their 
fortunes would have found ready employment in the lead mines of southwestern 
Wisconsin and the Galena area of Illinois during the peak lead mining time, 
in the late 1820's up to the late 1840's, when farming began to replace 
mining as the major source of income.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly