My Genealogy Hound

QUINTON, ROYAL B., farmer, stock-grower and dealer, Sec. 30; P. O. Denmark; grandson of David, a soldier of the war of the American Revolution, who was born at Wethersfield, N. H. He married Margaret Allison, of Walpole, N. H., who was of Scotch and Irish ancestry, and born on the same farm where her father was born; her father, at the request of some of the Revolutionary soldiers, visited Baltimore to secure their pensions, and died of small-pox while on that mission, leaving a wife (who lived to the ripe old age of 87 years) and two children —a son aged 9 years, and a daughter; the son, Samuel (father of Royal B.), was born at Walpole, N. H., in 1784; at the age of 16, he left home and went to Boston, engaged as bartender, carriage boy, stage-driver, etc., for five years, then returned to his native place and assumed the management of a mill which had come into the possession of his mother; he subsequently returned to Boston, and, with a man named Lawton, engaged in the livery business; in 1812, Lawton and Quinton emigrated to Ashtabula Co., Ohio, built a cabin and commenced to keep “bachelors’ hall;” in September of that year, Lawton was drafted into the army, and Quinton returned to Boston, remained three years, dealing in horses, then went to Charleston, N. H., where he soon after married Lucretia, daughter of Robert Henry, of Henry Bros., paper manufacturers of that city; soon after his marriage, he returned to Ashtabula Co., Ohio, with his wife, and found his old partner occupying the old cabin; Quinton built another cabin and commenced improving his land, which he occupied until 1850, when he sold out, removed to Iowa and settled in Denmark, where Mrs. Quinton died in 1860, at the age of 64 years, and Mr. Quinton in 1866, at the age of 84 years and 1 month; they were born in one month and on the same day of the month, although he was fourteen years older than his wife; this aged couple had raised a family of six children — four sons and two daughters. The oldest, the subject of this sketch, Royal B., was born at Geneva, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, in August, 1819; in February, 1845, he started for Iowa; he reached Denmark on the 4th of March, and worked in the Black Hawk Purchase as a common laborer; at the end of the first five months, his former savings and earnings amounting to about $500, which he invested in land in Sec. 36, Pleasant Ridge. On the 27th of August, 1846, he married Sarah B., daughter of John Hornby, whose biography appears elsewhere; she was born in Maine Feb. 7, 1825. Immediately after their marriage, they settled on the Pleasant Ridge land; the following March, they removed to Dover, remained there one year and sold out; after several removals, including one year spent in Ohio, they settled on their present homestead of 1,130 acres near the village of Denmark, which he values at $50 per acre; Mr. Quinton is an extensive stock-raiser and dealer — handles and feeds several hundred head of hogs, cattle and horses annually. They have six children — Herbert T., born in Dover in May, 1847, is married and lives on a farm near his parents; Harlan B., born in Franklin Tp. in May, 1850, is married and a farmer near Denmark; Alfred B., born in January, 1855, is a graduate of the Ann Arbor Law College, and practicing his profession at Topeka, Kan.; Frank C., born in Den mark Aug. 22, 1856, remains at home; Eugene S., born in July, 1858, is fitting himself for the study of law; Nellie E., born Nov. 6, 1863. Mrs. Quinton is a member of the Congregational Church at Denmark; Mr. Q. is a Republican of long standing, and has filled various township offices.