William Asa Mayhew

From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock,

Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 296-297

WILLIAM ASA MAYHEW, postmaster at Clinton, Rock County, and one of the successful busies men of that town, has had a residence in Wisconsin covering a period of nearly a third of a century. It began soon after the close of his honorable career in the army. His education, interrupted by his enlistment as a soldier in the Civil war, was completed the following year, and prepared him for his successful business life. Mr. MAYHEW was born on Point Peninsula, Jefferson Co., N.Y., Sept. 23, 1844, son of St. Valier and Calista M. (WHEELOCK) MAYHEW, natives, respectively, of Vermont and New York, and grandson of William MAYHEW, who was born on the Island of Martha's Vineyard, of French descent. He was a man of high educational attainments, followed farming as a vocation, and also engaged in surveying. He lived past his ninetieth birthday, and died at Terre Haute, Ind., at the residence of his eldest son. His family consisted of eight children, four sons and four daughters. The maternal grandfather of our subject, Asa WHEELOCK, was a native of New York State, of Scottish and Welsh extraction. He was a sea-faring man in early life, and later served in the war of 1812. He settled down to farming, and migrated from New York to Jo Daviess County, Ill., becoming a pioneer, and living there to a good old age. He left a large family. St. Valier MAYHEW, the father of our subject, was a farmer of Jefferson County, N.Y., and during the Civil war was an earnest supporter of the Union cause. One of his most pleasant recollections was the purchase of one of the series of ten government bonds which during the dark days of the Rebellion, when the government credit was low, had been sent to Watertown, N.Y., for sale. In 1868 he moved to a farm of 130 acres which had purchased in Clinton township, Rock Co., Wis., two and a half miles east of the village of Clinton. Two years later he sold his property to his son, our subject, and returned to his old home in Jefferson County, N.Y., where he died in 18812, aged seventy-five years. His wife survived until Feb. 22, 1894, passing away at the advanced age of eighty-five years. Both were devout members of the Methodist Church. Of their six children, four sons and two daughters, two are now living: Albert V., of Watertown, N.Y.; and William A., our subject. The father was an earnest man, of deep religious and political convictions, highly respected by his many friends and neighbors, who occasionally elected him to some local township office. William A. MAYHEW, our subject, was reared on the old homestead in New York, and attended the neighboring schools. In 1862, before he had reached his eighteenth birthday, he enlisted in Company M, 10th N.Y.V Artillery, serving until mustered out, July 7, 1865, a little over three years. Mr. MAYHEW participated in the battles of Cold Harbor, Whitehouse Landing, the first attack upon Petersburg and Bursid's "blow-up." He was with Sheridan at Cedar Creek, and was in the charge on the Howlett House battery before Richmond, just before the battle of Appomattox, besides engaging in numerous skirmishes. After his return form the army he entered Belleville Union Academy, in Jefferson County, N.Y., and was graduated in the class of 1867, one of his classmates being A. D. SHAW, who from 1899-1900 was Commander-in Chief of the G.A.R. In 1868 Mr. MAYHEW came to Wisconsin with his father, and for eight years engaged in farming during the summer, and in teaching school during the winter months. In 1890 Mr. MAYHEW embarked in the drug business in the village of Clinton, in the room now occupied by the post office, and continued to conduct the drug store successfully until his appointment, Feb. 23, 1898, as postmaster at Clinton. He entered upon the duties of the office April 1, 1898. Mr. MAYHEW married, Oct. 19, 1870, Miss Rissa M. MAYHEW, a native of Jefferson County, N.Y., daughter of Thompson and Cornelia (HARDY) MAYHEW, farming people of that county. Two of her brothers, Theodore D. and Edwin V., served in the war of the Rebellion, Edwin V. as first lieutenant of Company G, 94th N.Y.V.I. To William A. and Rissa M. MAYHEW has come one son, William A., Jr., born Jan. 16, 1883. Politically Mr. MAYHEW is a Republican. He has served six years on the county board of supervisors and has frequently represented Clinton in the county and State conventions. In 1885 he was appointed committee room attendant in the State Legislature. Fraternally he is a prominent Mason, a member of the Morning Star Lodge, of Beloit, F. & A. M., Beloit Chapter, No. 6, R.A.M., and Beloit Commandery, No. 9, K.T. He is also a member of the I.O.O.F., Knights of the Globe, Modern Woodmen, Home Forum, Mystic Workers of the World, and Elexis Tallman Post, No. 70, in Belleville, and has practiced in the justice courts of Clinton, is a notary public, and does conveyincing. He is a progressive, active, influential citizen of Clinton and popular among an acquaintanceship which extends throughout Rock County.

Submitted By Carol

Note: THE MAYHEW'S ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD WERE FROM SOUTH ENGLAND.
THAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE MAYHEW NAME, NOT FRANCE.
From a Direct decendant of Thomas Mayhew