The HAMILTON - MATHIESON Family History. Dixie Dunn

      EMMA AUGUSTA VANOCKER b. 1 Jan 1860 in Calhoun, Mi. d. 27 Oct 1937

      Buried at Twin Lakes, Wi.

      George and Emma’s life was stormy from the beginning. He was only sixteen years and she was fourteen. They each returned to their paternal homes at different times. When Emma was sixteen she gave birth to their first son, who was my father. (I will write more about him later.) They had eight children:

      BENJAMIN FRANKLIN b. 20 MAY 1874 married ROSE ALBERTHA MATHIESEN

      INA b. 24 Jan 1878, married WILLIAM SCOTT

       MAUDE b. 1881, d. 1926

      LUCY b. 1883 married GEORGE PRESCOTT

      ERVIN, b.1887, married MARY

       ADA b. 2 Jun 1891, married JESS TELFAIR

       VERNON b. 1895 d. 1937 married MAE b. 1896 d. 1928.

      RUTH b. 1897, died young.

      Sometime in the early 1900s George left the family. Emma, who was a nurse, raised the children alone. In 1926 or 1927, Vernon, their son, found his father, George, in California and brought him back to Wisconsin. George went to live with his daughter, Ina, until his death. He told Lois and Velma (Ina’s children) many stories of things that happened to him in his lifetime. When he was about four years old and his sister was a baby, there was a renegade Indian uprising and the family was warned to go to a near-by fort. His mother, Silvia Woodbridge Hamilton, carried his little sister while she led George by the hand and they ran for the fort.

      His father, Benjamin Hamilton, stayed behind to hold the Indians back. He was found later, dead, scalped and staked to the ground, using the stakes from his own wagon. This may have occurred on the Wisconsin or Minnesota side of the Mississippi. We have not been able to find any records pertaining to it.

      Some of the stories Grandfather also told were: One time his father had hid him in a culvert overnight, to be safe from the Indians, then he went back the next day to get him. He also told of a tree limb that hung out over a road and a panther jumped out of it and attacked him. Another time, the wolves chased him when he was on skis, going across the frozen lake as he headed for his cabin.

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