Wadsworth, Daniel

Born: 1799-05-15 Maine

Died: 1888-12-30 Auburn, Illinois (Sangamon County)

Flourished: Auburn, Illinois (Sangamon County)

Daniel Wadsworth was a landowner, notary public, civic official, and postmaster of Auburn, Illinois. Born into a Quaker family, Wadsworth spent his early years in Kennebec County, Maine. In 1823, he married Margaret F. Goodwin, with whom he had four children who lived into adulthood. Daniel and Margaret Wadsworth settled in Hallowell, Maine. Daniel spent the winter of 1839-40 in Alabama working as a carpenter, and in the spring of 1840, he first came to Auburn, where he bought a piece of land and worked it through the summer. In the fall, he returned to Maine, sold his Maine property, and set out in October for Illinois, arriving in Auburn after a three-week journey. Daniel built a house on South Street in the old town, living in that residence for the remainder of his life. From 1842 to 1853, he was postmaster of Auburn. In 1850, he was farming near Auburn and owned real estate valued at $500. By 1860, he owned real estate valued at $900 and had a personal estate of $550. He was an active member of the Masons and the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Gravestone, Auburn Cemetery, Auburn, IL; Maine Birth Records, 1715-1922, Maine State Archives, Augusta, Maine; History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 752, 756, 781; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 146; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Subdivision 17, Sangamon County, IL, 209; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, from the Thirtieth September, 1841, to the Thirtieth September, 1843 (Washington, DC: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1843), *533; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1845 (Washington, DC: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1845), 380*; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1847 (Washington, DC: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1847), 405*; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1849 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1849), *467; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1853 (Washington, DC: Robert Armstrong, 1853), 496*.