Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom

THE MIDDLETON FAMILY.--James Middleton, Sr., with his wife, three sons, William, Samuel, and James, and five daughters, came to this country from Ireland. William, the oldest, inspired by filial duty, came first, it being his ambition to secure for his parents a home on American soil. He was not of age when, in 1838, he left Ireland, full of hope and enthusiasm for his project. He found his way to St. Louis in 1842, and came thence with Hungerford & Livingston to St. Croix Falls. He remained with them two years and then, removing further south, made a claim on unsurveyed government land in what is now the town of Woodbury. During the succeeding year, 1845, he and his brother Samuel worked for John McKusick, and by diligence and self denial succeeded in earning enough to pay the passage of his father and his family to the United States, and to bring them to their claim on the prairie. It was a joyful day when the parents arrived, and since then the united family have their home at and near the selected homestead, a model family in their unity of purpose and affectionate regard for each other. William visited California. He died at his home in 1855. Samuel enlisted and did gallant service in the Union Army during the late Civil War as a member of Company E, Tenth Minnesota Volunteers, and died in the hospital at Memphis, Feb. 29, 1865. James, a younger brother, was born in 1833. He made a claim near that of his brother, and is prominent in the community, in which he lives. He was sergeant-at-arms in the legislature, a member of the house in 1876, and served five years in Washington county as county commissioner. Mr. Middleton removed to St. Paul in 1880, where he now resides. The father died in 1854, the mother in 1876. NEWINGTON GILBERT was born in Onondaga county, New York, Feb. 17,