SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Hiram Bishop, Page 348

HIRAM BISHOP, one of the oldest living settlers of Plymouth Township, was born in Oswego County, N. Y., January 26, 1823.  His parents, Morris and Olive (Goit) Bishop, were native, respectively, of the counties of Dutchess and Rensselaer of the same State.  His maternal grandfather was born in Paris, France, and when a single man came to the United States with La Fayette.  He served in the Revolution, and when the War of 1812 broke out, being too old to serve in the ranks, he went as a teamster.  His father, Morris Bishop, was a soldier in the War of 1812.  In his political views, the father was a Democrat.  Both he and wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  Their deaths occurred in Oswego County, N. Y.  In their family were twelve children, six sons and six daughters, of whom eight are living, six sons and two daughters.

    Hiram Bishop is the third child in order of birth in the family.  the father being a fisherman and cooper, the boyhood days of our subject were spent in fishing on Lake Ontario.  His educational advantages were very poor, as his home was three or four miles from the school.  When about eighteen years of age he shipped before the mast, and for some four or five years followed the Lakes, being mate most of the time, and running between Chicago and Eastern cities.  In November, 1845, he came to where Plymouth now is, though at that time there was not a house to mark the site of that city.  H. I. Davidson had put up the body of a log house where the cheese factory in Plymouth stands.  For him Mr. Bishop worked for a time, making the first clearing where the city of Plymouth lies.  This was in 1845.  The same year he purchased eighty acres of timber where he now lives, which adjoins Plymouth on the east.  For this land he paid $1.25 per acre; now it would sell for over $100 per acre.  He has cleared about sixty-five acres, and there he has made his home for nearly half a century, being closely identified with the growth and advancement of the county.  In addition to the homestead, Mr. Bishop also owns some eighteen acres within the city limits.  He has been a hard-working man all his life.

    Having spent the winter of 1845 at Plymouth, the following spring, 1846, he went as mate again.  On July 19, 1846, Mr. Bishop was married in Belleville, Jefferson County, N. Y., to Miss Amanda Baldwin.  Mrs. Bishop was born March 7, 1823, being a native of the same place as her husband, and a daughter of Julius and Abigail (Willard) Baldwin.  Her father was a native of Orange County, Vt., and her mother of Lancaster, Mass.  They were pioneer settlers of Oswego County, N. Y.  There the mother died in 1844; the father died near Chicago, of cholera.  In their family were eight children.

    Upon marriage Mr. Bishop brought his young wife to his new cabin, where they spent their happiest days, notwithstanding the cabin had only boards laid down for a floor.  To them four children were born.  Ira J., a teacher for some years, is a farmer of Waupaca County; Mary S. died May 2, 1877, in her twenty-sixth year; Lester T. is Clerk of the Court of Sheboygan County; H. Fayette is supposed to be in California.

    Our subject, when eighteen years of age, his parents being poor, bought his time, and when twenty had a piece of land in his own home, which he let his parents have for a home as long as they lived.  When Mr. Bishop came to this county, he brought $250 with him.  Everything he has is the reward of his own industry and careful management.  Mr. Bishop is one of the old landmarks in Sheboygan County, and well remembers the time when he knew nearly every inhabitant within its borders, very many of whom have passed away.  He still abides, enjoying a reasonable degree of health, and the vigor of his mental faculties is far beyond what might be expected in one of his advanced age.

    Mr. Bishop has been a life-long Democrat, but has never sought official distinction.  he has been a member of the Order of Odd Fellows for many years.