SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Alonzo Mayhew, Page 595

ALONZO MAYHEW resides on the northeast quarter of section 34, town of Greenbush, where he settled on September, 1858.  He bought his farm of Fay Lewis.  The first settler on this farm was Ebenezer Stearns, who owned about a year, and then sold to Mr. Lewis, who also owned the place about a year, and who raised the first crop on the place, on land that Mr. Stearns had broken.  The farm contained eighty acres, and was largely covered with heavy dead oak timber, it having been burned over, which killed the trees.  But very little improvement had been made when the present owner purchased it.  A few acres had been broken, and a log house had been erected, which about completed the improvements then made.  Mr. Mayhew, with his family, occupied the log house, which was a very comfortable home for a number of years, and later built his present residence and outbuildings.  The farm is largely under a good state of cultivation.  He has, however, reserved a suitable amount of timber land.

    Mr. Mayhew is a native of La Fayette, Onondaga County, N. Y., born September 5, 1820, and is a son of Levi Smith and Polly (Gannett) Mayhew, the latter being a native of Massachusetts.  After marriage they settled on a new farm in Onondaga County, which was heavily timbered, but which Mr. Mayhew cleared, and here they passed their lives.  The father's death occurred April 29, 1846, and the mother's June 21, 1888, she having attained to her eighty-ninth year.  They were the parents of three sons and four daughters, who grew to mature years, and of whom three brothers and two sisters are living, in 1893.  The old homestead in New York is still in possession of the family, being owned and occupied by the youngest brother, Levi Smith Mayhew.

    Alonzo Mayhew was reared on his father's farm, and was married August 23, 1846, to Miss Perly Rowland, daughter of Isaac and Rhoda (King) Rowland.  The former was a native of the State of New York, and the latter of Massachusetts.  They lived all their married life in Onondaga County, where the father died in May, 1879, and the mother in January, 1882.  Both had reached an advanced age.  They were the parents of ten children, two of whom died in infancy.  Only four, two brothers and two sisters, are now living, namely:  Harlow, the eldest, who lives in his native town; Mrs. Mayhew, the next of the four in order of birth; Thomas, who is a resident of Syracuse, N. Y.; and Caroline, also of that city.

    Mr. and Mrs. Mayhew have had four children, three sons and one daughter, of whom but one son and the daughter survive.  Albertus is a resident of Greenbush Township, and Alida became the wife of Henry Thackery.  The deceased are:  Myron, who died May 30, 1863, at the age of thirteen years, and Willie, whose death occurred April 26, of the same year, aged three years.

    Mr. Mayhew and wife are numbered among the early well-known citizens of the town of Greenbush, and are held in esteem by all who know them.