Portage County Historical Society

Antoine Precourt

From the “Commemorative Biographical Record of the Upper Wisconsin”, Chicago; J. H. Beers & Co. 1895

ANTOINE PRECOURT was born in Lower Canada, July 2, 1820, and is a son of Joseph and Theresa (Bouvoir) Precourt, also natives of Canada. The father was a British soldier during the war of 1812, and died in Canada in 1822. In the family were four children: Joseph, of Canada; Francis, who is living on the old homestead; Antoine; and Matilda, widow of Pierre Margette, who was a sailor for many years, and died leaving a considerable fortune.

Antoine Precourt attended French schools until fifteen years of age. Upon his father’s death he went to live with his grandfather, Baptiste Precourt, with whom he remained until he was fifteen years of age, when he began working for his uncle at Three Rivers, Canada, learning the baker’s trade. After two years he returned to his native place, and shortly came under contract with eighteen others to Green Bay, Wis., where he was to work for $80 a year. Concluding he could do better elsewhere, for he could get no pay for his services, he sought other employment in Green Bay, and later started on foot with two companions for Portage City, where he at length arrived. He then began working in the lumber woods at $26 per month, and was here employed for many years, running the river, cutting the logs and making shingles. He also owned a sawmill on Mill creek, in company with his brother-in-law, A. Hayden. He labored earnestly and persistently, and in course of time his efforts were crowned with success.

Mr. Precourt was married in Beloit, Wis., by John Hacket, justice of the peace, to Miss Lois Young, who was born in Somerset county, Maine, December 16, 1825, a daughter of Simon and Lois (Knowles) Young, the former a native of New Hampshire, the latter of Kennebec, Maine. Mr. Young removed with his parents to Maine during his boyhood. The parents of Mrs. Young were natives of England; the father died from a wound in the hip received during the Revolutionary war. His children were John, Benjamin, Caleb and Daniel. Grandfather Young had three children: Simon, James and Zoie. The father of Mrs. Precourt, accompanied by his family, came to the West in October, 1838, and located on a farm in Winnebago County, Ill., where he resided until his death, which occurred in February, 1876. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and while stationed at Lake Champlain was wounded. His wife died on the old homestead in Illinois in 1845, and the following year he married Mary Cuttler, who is yet living, aged one hundred years. A record of their children is as follows: Lewis died at the age of twenty-two; Harrison, a blacksmith, of California, wedded Mary Ann Batchelder, and they had seven children - Melissa, wife of Salvini Myers, of Buena Vista, Wis.: James, who married Emma Lombard, and is boom master; John, who resides in California; Ida, wife of Eli Mitchell, a farmer of California; and Wesley, Vandalia Finley, and Thomas, who are all also living in California. Louisa became the wife of Zeblin L. Sargent, a farmer of Minnesota, and had twelve children. Henry married Jane Ingersoll, and both are now deceased; they resided in Lyons, Iowa, and had three children - Martha Jane, wife of Benjamin Clark, of Lyons, Iowa; James Henry, of Lyons; and Rose, wife of David Brandt, of Lyons, Iowa. Daniel died at the age of eighteen. Amanda O. is the wife of Amezyer Hayden, a dairy farmer of California, and they had three children - Mina (who died in infancy), Leonard and Alice. Lois is the wife of Mr. Precourt. Mary is the wife of John Boursier, a farmer of Stockton, Wis., and their four children are Arvesta, Arvilla, Zoa and John. Simon married Margaret Harkness, by whom he had two children - Stanley and Lillian - and after the death of his first wife he wedded Sarah Adams, by whom he had two children - Emma Louise and Myra Belle. Sarah Jane, wife of John Maynard (now deceased), a farmer of Ellsworth County, Wis., and they had five children - Hattie, John, Daniel, Zilfina and Benjamin. James died at the age of five years.

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Precourt lived for four years in a log house which he had built on Mill creek. He then moved to Buena Vista, Portage County, in June 1850, and located a claim, although the land had not yet come into market. He paid the government for this tract in 1852, and built thereon a small frame house in which they lived from June until September, when he erected a part of their present home. He first secured 160 acres on Section 5, to which he afterward added another 160 acres, but later sold eighty acres of the last purchase, and gave forty acres to his daughter.

Mr. and Mrs. Precourt have five children as follows: (1) Alvina is the widow of Alfred Puariea, deceased, by whom she had six children - Clement, Lois Annie, Ida May, Moses Antoine, Myrtle and Joseph Lyman. (2) Rosina F. married Joseph Precourt, a farmer of Buena Vista township, Portage County, and their children were Matilda Amelia, David Lyman, Lewis Antoine, and Lowell Edward, deceased. (3) Luman died at the age of ten years. (4) Amelia P. is the wife of William Clark, a farmer of Buena Vista Township, and they have five children - William Vernon, Pearl Ann, Lowell Antoine, Lillian Amber and Lois Coral. (5) LYMAN ANTOINE received an excellent education in Portage county, and is one of the most prosperous and highly-esteemed young men in the county. He served as township treasurer three years, as assessor for two years, and also member of the town board, and is an act-ive worker in the ranks of the Democratic party. He was married, in Stevens Point, Wis., November 4, 1879, by Rev. Nicholas July, pastor of Stevens Point Catholic Church, to Miss Lucy Shortell, who was born in Stockton, Wis., September 11, 1857, a daughter of Michael and Johanna (Dawson) Shortell, natives of Ireland. At the age of twenty-one her father emigrated to America, locating in New Brunswick, Maine, where he was married, his wife having crossed the Atlantic with her parents when a child of nine years. The latter had previously sought a home here, leaving their daughter with her grandmother until nine years of age. Mr. Shortell brought his family to Stockton, Wis., in 1850, and purchased 120 acres of wild land, upon which he made his home until his death in 1866. His wife died in June, 1886. Their eleven children were: Michael, who was killed in the Rebellion; John, who died in infancy; Mary, wife of O. Beaujolie, of Buena Vista, by whom she has ten children - William, Michael, Frances, Charles, George, John, Ernest, Joseph, Rosina and Rosella; John, who died at the age of three years; Sarah, who died in girlhood; William, deceased at the age of twenty-two; Annie, who died at the age of ten; Ellen, wife of Elmer Kimball, a farmer of Buena Vista township, Portage county (they have one son, Wallace); Lucy, wife of Lyman Precourt, and her twin sister, Elizabeth, who died in infancy; and Charles, married to Ellen Ryan, and residing on a farm in Buena Vista township.

To Lyman A. Precourt and his estimable wife have been born five children, all born in the same house, same room and on the same farm as was their father - Theresa, born August 13, 1880; William Claude, born September 3, 1886; Lois Annie, born July 12, 1888; Lucy Rosalie, born October 28, 1892; Bonnie Ellen, born January 4, 1895. The family resides on the old homestead with Antoine Precourt, and they are people of sterling worth, held in the highest regard throughout the community. The father and sons are able representatives of the agricultural interests of Portage County, and well deserve representation in the history of this county.