My Genealogy Hound

Joseph Layton, retired farmer and stock raiser, was born in Cambridgeshire, England, in 1820, the son of James and Susan (Moore) Layton, natives of England, born in 1767 and 1770, and deceased in 1863 and 1855, respectively. Our subject, the youngest of eleven children, and the only living one, worked on a farm in boyhood, and in 1847 came to America, and became a teamster in Milwaukee, Wis. In 1851, under the influence of the “gold fever,” he, with a friend, went to California by way of Central America. He spent eighteen months at mining, and returned by the way of New York; then went to Racine County, Wis., where he bought a farm of 160 acres. In 1856 he returned to his native place, and the following year married Emma, the daughter of William and Dinah Chapman, and born in 1833 in Cambridge, England. Of their eight children are living Louisa, the wife of R. Johnson; Eliza, the wife of J. Thompson; William; John and Annie. He at once returned to his Wisconsin farm, but in 1869 sold out, and went to Knox County, and bought an estate of 640 acres. Since 1883 he has lived at his present home, the possessor of 960 acres of fine land, a large share of which he has given to his children, retaining for himself 397 acres and two houses and three lots in La Belle, His brick residence is the only one in the city. He is independent in politics, and he and his wife and four children are members of the Baptist Church.