Arabella Manning Locke
Source: Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women,
by Florence Chambers Dexheimer,
W. D. Hoard & Sons Co., Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin; Pages 88-89
Mrs. Arabelle Locke is one hundred and five years old and came to this state in 1851. She was born in Westfield, Connecticut one of fourteen children. Her parents were Oliver E. and Marcia Manning, the latter being one of eighteen children. Mr. and Mrs. Manning both lived to be over ninety.
When Mrs. Locke was two years of age, her parents started with horses to move to New York intending to take up government land. The weather being very stormy they stopped at Chester, Massachusetts for one year, then moved to Berlin, Van Ranselier County, New York, (Rensselaer?) where her father secured a small piece of land. He soon gave it up, however, and worked at shoemaking, going from house to house making shoes for the families. Mrs. Locke's parents remained in New York till 1853 when they went to Milwaukee by water, then with horses to Oak Center and finally to Omro, Winnebago County.
Mrs. Locke at the age of fourteen returned to Massachusetts and worked in a cotton factory. When she was seventeen she married Mr. Arnold Locke at New Lebanon, New York, just over the boundary of Massachusetts. She continued, however, to work for several years weaving cotton cloth. In 1844 she and her husband came to Illinois through the Great Lakes and in 1851 came by team to Wisconsin. They settled near Omro and in 1869 bought the farm on which Mrs. Locke still resides. Mr. Locke died in 1891. In 1885 they had celebrated their golden wedding with a family reunion.
Mrs. Locke joined the Baptist Church eighty-five years ago when she was twenty years old. Although she has cataracts on both eyes, she reads her Bible, the Christian Herald and the daily newspaper. She keeps well posted on current events and took an active interest in the World War, expressing great joy at the outcome of the war, the downfall of liquor and equal suffrage for all. She took great delight in voting for President Harding. She has lived during the lives of every president but Washington. Mrs. Locke is one of the last survivors of the pioneer women who helped their husbands make farms of a wilderness. She worked hard during her life making a home and raising a family. She lived not only long but well.
Submitted by Georgia West.
