Todd, Samuel J.

Born: 1821-01-19 Preble, New York

Died: 1902-01-09 Beloit, Wisconsin

Flourished: Beloit, Wisconsin

Samuel J. Todd was a farmer, lawyer, and city government official. Todd moved from his hometown of Preble, New York, to Peterborough, New Hampshire, where he attended school and worked on his grandfather’s farm. In February 1839, he moved to Batavia, New York to read law. Upon completion on his law studies, Todd moved west, arriving in Wisconsin in February 1850. He settled in Beloit, where he opened a law practice. In December 1853, he married Mary E. Hazzard, with whom he had four children. Todd won election as justice of the peace in 1854 and remained in that position for two years. In 1859, Beloit’s voters elected him mayor. In 1860, Todd was practicing law in Beloit and owned $4,800 in real property and had a personal estate of $3,200. He was a Republican and member of the Congregational Church in Beloit.

The History of Rock County, Wisconsin (Chicago: Western Historical, 1879), 768; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Beloit, Rock County, WI, 86; Wisconsin, U.S., Death Records, 1959-2004, 9 January 1902 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2022); Benjamin E. Hale to Abraham Lincoln; Gravestone, Oakwood Cemetery, Beloit, WI.