Fred P. Sweetser

SWEETSER, THOMPSON, PRATT, BRAIZER, CHAMPLAIN

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/18/2011 at 14:21:08

FRED P. SWEETSER, a prominent young agriculturist and enterprising citizen, is prosperously conducting the old homestead of which he is the owner, and which comprises three hundred and twenty acres on section 34, Grant Township, Grundy County. Mr. Sweetser was born in Wisconsin in 1858, and is the son of Thomas P. and Direxa (Thompson) Sweetser. His paternal grandparents were Prince and Lucy (Pratt) Sweetser, who were natives of Maine. The grandfather in early life was a sailor, but later engaged in farming. He died in the Pine Tree State. He had a family of fourteen children, of whom two died when young. The father of our subject was the youngest of the family, his brothers and sisters being Lucy, Polly, Nancy, Myra, Elizabeth, Hannah, David, William, Salathia, Jessie and Anna. Grandfather Sweetser was an active member of the Congregational Church, and in politics was old line Whig.

Thomas P. Sweetser, the father of our subject, was born in Cumberland, Me., in 1811. He was reared to manhood on his father’s farm, and received a good education in the common schools. Upon reaching mature years he learned the trade of a ship builder, at which he worked for about twenty years. While plying his trade he visited different ports, and at one time worked in the ship yards of New Orleans, La. After abandoning the trade, Thomas Sweetser embarked in the merchandise business in Portland, Me., and was thus prosperously employed until the date of his coming to Wisconsin, when he purchased a farm in Columbia County and thereafter turned his attention to farming.

In 1867 the father of our subject sold his property in Wisconsin and came to Grundy County, settling with his family on an unimproved tract of land which comprised a quarter-section. To this he later added eighty acres, and it was not long before its finely cultivated fields and thrifty appearance attested to his excellent management. The parents of our subject were married in Portland, Me. The mother, who was born in that state in 1819, was the daughter of Asa and Sallie (Braizer) Thompson. Her parents were natives respectively of Rhode Island and Maine, and the Braizer family traces its ancestry back to the “Mayflower,” when representatives of that name first settled in the United States. The parents of Mr. Sweetser were members of the Congregational Church, and in politics his father was a Whig. The latter died December 11, 1888, and the mother, who still survives, makes her home with our subject.

The parental family included the following named children: Charles, Mary L., George, Allen, Francis, Mary L. (second), Fred P., Alice and William H. Our subject has always resided upon the old homestead, to which he fell heir when reaching his majority. He has added to the same until it now comprises three hundred and twenty acres of the best land in Grundy County. He has ever exercised the right of franchise in the interests of the Republican party, but has never been particularly active in political affairs and is in no sense of the word an office seeker.

Asa Thompson, the maternal grandfather of our subject, was born in Rhode Island, and was the son of Thomas and Betsey (Champlain) Thompson. He was the father of a family of fourteen children. During the War of 1812, he was Captain of a vessel used in that conflict. Captain Thompson followed the sea nearly all his active life, and during that time visited nearly every port of importance in the world. The family later located in New York, where they were prominent. A brother of Mr. Thompson, who bore the name of John, was a Judge in the state of Vermont.

Source:
Portrait and Biographical Record
of Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, Iowa
1894