My Genealogy Hound

Joseph W. North, florist at Kimmswick, is a native of Uddersfield, Yorkshire, England, born in 1840, and the same year was brought by his parents, John and Bessie North, to Bridgeport, Conn., where the mother died about 1879, at the age of sixty-five. The father still lives, and is eighty-eight years of age. From the age of nine to twenty-one he served as an apprentice to a florist, and from that time until the age of twenty-four served as a landscape gardener. Previous to leaving England he was foreman gardener for Sir Lord Allen, at Udderfield, and after coming to Bridgeport established himself in the nursery and floral business, which he continued until after the war, when the business was continued by Joseph. Since then he has lived a retired life, although he is yet very active, and delights in fishing, which is his favorite pastime. He is a stanch Republican, and furnished three sons and one son-in-law for the Union Army. Both he and wife are members of the Episcopal Church. The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of Bridgeport, and also spent two years at Bennington, (Vt.) Seminary, under George W. Yates. At the breaking out of the late war he enlisted in the Fifth Connecticut Regimental Band, but all regimental bands were discharged in 1863 by act of Congress. He then re-enlisted in Company H, Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteer Infantry at St. Augustine, Fla., and was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He was discharged October, 1865, at Hilton Head, S. C., after over four years of active service. He then returned home and took charge of his father’s floral work, which he continued until 1871, at which date he came to Kimmswick and established himself in the business at that place, where he has continued, with his usual success. He has a retail floral store at 914 Olive Street, St. Louis, which is operated by his wife and daughter. His works comprise ten large houses with about 20,000 feet of glass, making one of the most extensive establishments of the kind in the State, and second to but one in the State. He was married June 1, 1861, to Miss Emily C., daughter of Henry W. Stillman, of Bridgeport, Conn., and to them were born four children: Grace, wife of W. J. Eddy, who is engineer on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad; Hattie, Alice and James M. Politically a Republican in his political views, Mr. North cast his first vote for Lincoln, in 1864. He is a member of the Knight Templars, Mystic Shrine, of the Masonic fraternity, Ransom Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and also a member of the Victoria Council, Legion of Honor.