Obit: Houghton, Charles F. (1851 - 1934)

Contact:  Crystal Wendt
Email: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Houghton, Grush, Walker, Freeman, Weidler

----Sources: Humbird Enterprise (Humbird, Clark County, Wis.) Sat., 22 Dec. 1934

Houghton, Charles F. (27 Aug. 1851 - 14 Dec. 1934)

Charles F. Houghton passed away about 10:15 Friday evening, Dec. 14, 1934, aged 83 years, 3months and 17 days.

Mr. Houghton was born Aug. 27, 1851, in Allegany County, New York. In 1854 he came with his parent to Lake Geneva vicinity, in Illinois. In the year 1856, the Houghton families, four in number, migrated from northern Illinois, and settled on homestead land in Houghtonburg, Sidney Houghton, wife, and son, Charles, taking up the land which is now the E. W. Grush farm, where the subject of this sketch lived for all, excepting ten years of his long life. He lived in Humbird for ten years, and on July 3, 1932, he returned to the old home farm, where he has been cared for by Mr. and Mrs. Grush until the time of his death.

Mr. Houghton was united in marriage, at Sparta, to Miss Alice May Walker, on July 4, 1876. She preceded him in death after twenty years of happy married life, on Jan. 1, 1896. No children were born to this union and Mr. Houghton never remarried, turning his affection the little ones and young people with whom he came in contact.

Farming was his life occupation, which he followed until advancing years made it necessary for him to rent the farm, and it was eventually sold, Mr. Grush being the purchaser about twenty years ago. He attended high school at Black River Falls in his youth, and was a graduate of Gale College of Galesville. In the early ‘70s he was a clerk in the store of E. A. Freeman in this village. He was an active member of the old Odd Fellow lodge, which existed in Humbird many years ago.

The funeral services were held at the Grush home Sunday afternoon at 2:00 o’clock, Dec. 16th, 1934, and burial was in the family lot in Houghtonburg Cemetery. Rev. V. D. Weidler officiated. Pallbearers were old neighbors, and the large number of flowers testified to the esteem this pioneer settler was held in the community. He leaves no near relatives. Clarence Houghton is a cousin, and is the sole survivor of those pioneers who journeyed by ox team into the frontier lands to make farms out of the wilderness.