Strutt Family Tree

Taken from an article in the Dodgeville Chronicle "Oldest Native Born Citizen has Birthday... William Henry Thomas was Eighty Years of Age on January 31st. " In honor of th occasion a family gathering was held at the home Thursday evening which proved an enjoyable affair. Mr. Thomas is eighty, yet young in spirit, enjoys good health and tells interesting stories of early days. He was born in a house on West Spring Street, Dodgeville before the days of electirc lights, telephones, sidewalks and waterworks and the family got their supply of water from a spring in the ravine a short distance above the house. Mr Thomas remembers that his mother informed him that he was Dodgeville's first-born white child. At his christening a party of men accoumpanied the preacher to the house and made merry afterwads with two cans of oysters at one dollar per can, and a gallon of corn liquor at thirty cents. Although whiskey was used very commonly in those days his mother was a strict temperance women. As a boy Mr. Thomas first attended the old rock school and later the grove school, then the family purchased and moved onto the farm now occupied by ST. Joseph's hospital. He recieved his religious training in the old rock church which still stands on Church street. Those were real pioneer days and transportation was slow, yet people did attend church. He recalls seeing farmers drive up in the sumer time with ox teams whch were halted by the open windows and families sat in the wagons and listened because the church seats inside were were all taken. Because many boys would leave school to run up to the court house and listened to the county fathers that they forgot to return to school. His father learned of these incidents and after dusting the wayward youth with a hickory limv, sentenced him to far work, thus ending his educational career. He followed farming for many years, residing the town of Ridgeway for 17 years - then retiring to Dodgeville. For Seven years he represented Ridgeway on the county board and was supervisor from the third ward in Dodgeville for eight years. He also was the Justice of the Peace.