Family Tree
The Dawson Branch of the Ainsley Family Tree
All information courtesy and by permission of Freda Schneider.
William DAWSON was born to John DAWSON and Mary PAGE, and baptized 11 April 1824 at the Church of St Mary and St Lawrence in Rosedale, Yorkshire,
Ann AINSLEY was born to Stephen AINSLEY and Martha YOUNG, and baptized 20 February 1825 at St John's Church, Bilsdale, Midcable, Yorkshire, England.
William and Ann were married 30 January 1845 at St John's Church, Bilsdale, Midcable, Yorkshire, England. They came to the United States, arriving in Arena, Wisconsin by 1 May 1846 when their first child was born.
The British Temperance and Emigration Society, organized in 1843 in Liverpool, England, brought some 700 settlers to the Arena area over a period of years starting in 1844. Robert Gost and Charles Wilson organized this society, which was designed to help average British citizens get to the United States and set up homes when they arrived. Each member of the Society paid into a common fund. This money was then used by a Mr. Reeves and Mr. Wilson to purchase land. The land was divided into 80-acre parcels and drawn by lot. There was usually a stipulation in these kinds of schemes that a house had to be built and a certain number of acres fenced and plowed within a given time frame. It may be William and Ann were part of one of these groups of immigrants. However, the only land transaction found so far involving William and the Society took place in 1853. This transaction seems to involve an exchange of money for the land.
It is known that William's four brothers made the trip across the Atlantic with William and Ann, but they set out for California before or during the 1849 Gold Rush.
The area of Wisconsin chosen by Mr. Reeves and Mr. Wilson has striking similarities to the area of Yorkshire from which William and Ann came. The terrain of both is rolling; probably Wisconsin is a rougher terrain with the limestone cliffs cut by many rivers. In 1861, William enlisted, at the age of 38, in the 2nd Cavalry, Company F of Wisconsin, which was part of the Union Army, and was appointed chief bugler in July of the following year. He left home December 1861/January 1862 to fight in the Civil War. His son, Stephen, often told this story: when William left, Ann and all of the children climbed the highest hill near their home and watched him walk away until he was out of sight. They never saw him again. He died in Helena, Arkansas in August 1862 of illness. There is a tombstone bearing his name in the Arena Cemetery, but no one knows if he is really buried there or in some unmarked grave in Helena. Arkansas was part of the Confederacy. My parents visited the area many years ago and found the Civil War sites did not include a Union soldier cemetery. According to US Army records, in 1865 or 1866 William was exhumed with many other Union soldiers and now is buried at the Memphis National Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. The Army no longer has any record that he was moved, but many of the names were lost when the move took place. The reference for the exhumation and reburial is in a book called the "Roll of Honor" which is in the Wisconsin State Historical Society government documents section. Volume 21, page 252. It calls the Memphis National Cemetery the "Mississippi River Cemetery:, but they are the same place. The Wisconsin State Historical Society is in Madison, Wisconsin.
Ann remained in the Arena area until her death of consumption (TB) on 22 November 1882. She is buried in the Arena Cemetery, Arena, Wisconsin.
She and William buried one child, Emma, in 1860; Ann then had the terrible experience of burying two more of her children after she was widowed. Thomas died as a teenager and Martha Ellen at age 22. The four remaining children, however, lived to be quite elderly, as did their spouses.
Note: Even though the surname is spelled DAWSON, it was always pronounced as if it were spelled DOWSON.
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The information about the Mary Ann Dawson/Benjamin Hodgson family came from a book "History of the Hodgson Family" by Elizabeth Sawle Jones published June 1963. Information on the British Temperance Emigration Society was based on information from Chapter I of William Kettle's publication "History of the Township and Village of Mazomanie - 1900". Contact Freda Schneider for any further information cpschneider@q.com. |