"Wadleigh, T. J., the furniture man of Plainview, Wabasha county, was born in Unity, New Hampshire, March 4, 1821, of Henry T. and Hannah S., of old English stock. His father served in the war of 1812, through which his constitution was irreparably undermined. One of nine children, T. J., at the age of sixteen, was bound apprentice to learn the cabinet and joiner trade for three years, at Croydon, New Hampshire. His opportunities for early education were meager, and at nineteen years he commenced as a jobber for others, in which line he continued until the fall of 1840. At this time, December 13, he was married to Fatima S. Powers, of Orange, Vermont, and for one year successfully ran a gristmill, returning to his trade until, in 1846, he built the hotel at Northfield, and for three years next succeeding worked as car builder for the Vermont Central railroad. In 1850, with his family, consisting of wife and three daughters, he emigrated to Hamilton, Canada West, and continued in the same line for the Great Western Railroad Company for four years. In 1855 he settled in Greenville, took a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, and changed, selling to T. A. Thompson, in 1856, and buying that now owned by David Messer. Selling this he bought and worked one of eighty acres, which he exchanged for another adjoining, Thos. Todd's, on the east. In the spring of 1865 he went to Rochester, Minnesota, where he remained until 1874; then to Eyota, where he commenced the furniture business and continued till 1877, when he removed to Plainview, and occupied what is now known as the old Wilcox store, and in 1878 built and removed to present site. Arthur, the only son, and now partner in the firm of T. J. Wadleigh & Son, was born April 4, 1857. To the subject of this sketch, known universally as a good man, six children were born, all but one of whom are now living and married." [Dr. L. H. Bunnell, compiler, History of Wabasha County, (H. H. Hill, Chicago, Illinois, 1884), p. 1191]