Person:John Townsend (56)

From "History of Dutchess County, New York", biography of Charles Townsend:

John Townsend was born in 1824, at Townsend Ridge, and inherited a farm of 100 acres, where he lived until 1867, when he moved to Dutchess County, and bought from William Pearce 230 acres of land about half a mile north of the village of Pawling. He made this one of the best farms of the town, displaying marked ability as a manager, and he made his home there until 1883, when he sold the property to John B. Dutcher. In 1888 he moved to Bound Brook, N.J., and purchased an estate, where he is now successfully engaged in general farming. He is a man of much public spirit, a member of the Baptist Church, and a Republican in politics, being one of the chief advisors of the party in his locality. He is not a seeker of official honors, but has been town auditor and assessor for a number of terms. His first wife, our subject's mother, was Anna Maria Ludington (daughter of Frederic Ludington), by whom he had four children: Fred, a resident of Danbury, Conn., Harriet, the wife of DeWitt Burr; Charles, our subject; and Warren, who died in infancy. By his second wife, Sarah E. Dykeman, he has had two children: Fannie, the wife of James E. Baldwin; and George H., who is at Home

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 History of Dutchess County, New York.