Surnames: WATERBURY PEDRICK LYONS VANCAMP

----Source: LOYAL TRIBUNE (Loyal, Clark County, Wis.) 02/21/1907

Waterbury, Nelson (28 Mar 1824 - 14 Feb 1907)

Nelson Waterbury, an old resident of Clark County, Wis., died at his home in this village on Thursday morning, Feb. 14, 1907, after an illness of about two weeks, of an abscess in the right lung at the age of eighty-three years.

Mr. Waterbury was born in Bridgewater, Conn., on March 28, 1824, and moved to Farmington, Jefferson Co., Wis in Aug. 1845, and was there united in marriage to Miss Sally Pedrick on Nov. 25, 1849. He moved to Jefferson, Wis. in April 1858, where he was employed as engineer by the Wis. Manufacturing Co. for a number of years and in March 1874, moved on a farm near this village and from there moved to this village in 1903, where he resided up to the time of his death.

He was a man of generous impulses and never forgot the hospitable ways of the pioneer. The stranger, even though a beggar, never failed to find food and shelter if he sought it at his hands, and he was at home at the sick and delighted in all kinds and neighbors offices. He had borne adversity bravely and enjoyed prosperity quietly. He had filled the various relations of life, as son, husband, father, friends, and filled them well. Who can do more?

But his is gone. Another name is stricken from the ever-lessening roll of our old settlers, and a solitary woman in the sunset of life, and a lonely home, are left to attest how sadly they will miss him. It must be so; these tender human ties cannot be severed without a pang. Yet in such a death there is really no cause for grief. His life work was done and well done. He had passed his golden wedding day and wearied with life's duties, he lay down to rest.

He was a man who united sound sense with strong convictions, and a candid, outspoken temper, eminently fitted to mould the rude elements of pioneer society into form and consistency, and aid in raising a high standard of citizenship in our young and growing state. How much this community owes him and such as he, it is impossible to estimate, though it would be a graceful task to trace his influence through some of the more direct channels, to hold him up in these degenerate days, in his various characters of husband, father, of neighbor and friend, to speak of the sons and daughters he has reared to perpetuate his name and emulate his virtues. But it comes not in the scope of this brief article to do so. Suffice it to say, he lived nobly and died peacefully at the advanced age of eight-three years. The stern Reaper found him, "as a shock of corn, fully ripe for the harvest."

Not for him be our tears, rather let us crown his grave with garlands; few of us will live as long or as well, and few yet will the Angel of Death greet with such a loving touch.

He is survived by an aged wife, five children, three sons and two daughters, who are William Waterbury of Millett, S.D., aged 56 years; Freeman Waterbury of Encampment, Wyo., age 47 years; Mrs. Utheda Lyons of the town of Loyal, aged 39 years; Mrs. Lina Van Camp of Park Fall, age 37 years. Well May the aged wife and his children cherish his memory as a precious legacy and we would fain say a word of comfort to the stricken ones. They have the deep sympathy of their many friends in their bereavement.

The funeral services were held at the M. E. Church on Sunday afternoon at one o'clock and the remains interred in the cemetery back of the church with Masonic honors. He was a member of that order for forty years. A large number of Masons from Neillsville, Greenwood and Granton were in attendance at the services.