Conflicting records put James Cahoon's birthplace as Canada or Rhode Island, but recent records uncovered on a visit to Green Lake County reveal that on his sons' vital records his birth place was consistently listed as New York. About 1822 James married Nancy Dutton, daughter of Joel Dutton and Margaret Nichols of New Hampshire. She bore him six surviving sons and a daughter, most of whom are known to have been born in Freedom Township, Cattaraugus County, New York. In 1846, the family relocated to a small farm located just south of Green Lake in Green Lake (then Marquette) County, Wisconsin. While the Spring Lake Cemetery is in bad disrepair, the photograph shown is of a tombstone matching that of Nancy Dutton Cahoon's and sits between hers and that of Benjamin Franklin Cahoon, their youngest son who died at the age of just 17. The tombstone is half buried and what is exposed is illegible. Although some records indicate James died in Faribault County, Minnesota, where most of his sons settled (three of them being buried at Riverside Cemetery outside of Elmore), it makes sense that his body would have been returned to Spring Lake Cemetery for burial next to his wife and son. His ancestry is not yet known, except that he was descended from Scotch Irish ancestors. He is thus believed to be the source of the red hair that occurs frequently in his descendants.
Conflicting records put James Cahoon's birthplace as Canada or Rhode Island, but recent records uncovered on a visit to Green Lake County reveal that on his sons' vital records his birth place was consistently listed as New York. About 1822 James married Nancy Dutton, daughter of Joel Dutton and Margaret Nichols of New Hampshire. She bore him six surviving sons and a daughter, most of whom are known to have been born in Freedom Township, Cattaraugus County, New York. In 1846, the family relocated to a small farm located just south of Green Lake in Green Lake (then Marquette) County, Wisconsin. While the Spring Lake Cemetery is in bad disrepair, the photograph shown is of a tombstone matching that of Nancy Dutton Cahoon's and sits between hers and that of Benjamin Franklin Cahoon, their youngest son who died at the age of just 17. The tombstone is half buried and what is exposed is illegible. Although some records indicate James died in Faribault County, Minnesota, where most of his sons settled (three of them being buried at Riverside Cemetery outside of Elmore), it makes sense that his body would have been returned to Spring Lake Cemetery for burial next to his wife and son. His ancestry is not yet known, except that he was descended from Scotch Irish ancestors. He is thus believed to be the source of the red hair that occurs frequently in his descendants.
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