Biography:

John Joseph Dollar was born in Mörsdorf, Rheinland, Preußen (now in Germany) in 1841 to Johannes Doller (original surname spelling in Germany) and Anna Catharina Gertrudis Castor (also Kastor). He was nearly 3 years old in July 1844 when the family, of then 7 members, traveled by Sailing Ship Argo, bringing personal belongings and all their own food, as was customary at the time, from Europe to Port of New York. His youngest sibling was 6 months old. They then traveled by canal boat on the Erie canal across New York to the St Lawrence River where they took a harrowing trip aboard a leaking ship to Bay Settlement, Wisconsin. The men formed a bucket brigade to remove the water day and night through the Upper Great Lakes. They did not speak English and the ship captain refused to go to a port. The women with older children returned the empty buckets below deck for the men to refill. The women with young children did the best they could to protect everyone. The ship sank in that harbor at Bay Settlement shortly after the people came ashore and before the belongings were retrieved.

The family then hiked through the virgin forest to homestead in De Pere in late Fall, 1844, while snow fell. They carried what they had and had 5 more children.

John Joseph Dollar was severely wounded during the Battle of Corinth in Mississippi, while serving in the American Civil War Armies of the North. He never fully recovered during the 20 years he lived after the war. A bullet pierced his lower right side, nicking his right pelvis, kidney, damaging his spine and spinal nerves and passing through his left pelvic bone before exiting from his left lower back. He was given up for dead several times from injuries and severe infection, was transferred to the military hospital in St. Louis, Missouri and struggled 7 months recovering before returning home to Wisconsin. He also had lingering effects of partial paralysis, constant pain, chronic dysentery and fatigue for the remainder of his life (Military, Medical and Pension Records - Library of Congress Archives).

Despite his disabilities, Joe worked in Brown County, Wisconsin, marring Angeline Londre (also spelled Londry) in 1864 and they had at least 3 children, Lillie, Olive, John Albert. John Joseph Dollar died in 1886 at the age of 45 years.

ENLISTED 10/13/1861 - 2/23/1863 WOUNDED AT BATTLE OF CORINTH (MISSISSIPPI); DISCHARGED FEBRUARY 23, 1863, SEVERE WOUNDS - DEPERE , WISCONSIN: 14TH WIS. INFANTRY, CO. F