Corp. (USA), Sampson Symons Start, Sr.

Rock County Herald, October 16, 1896 Death of Sampson S. Start

Sampson S. Start, Sr. died at his home in Vienna township last Friday night after an illness of several months. To a friend of the family the "Herald" is indebted for the following: "Sampson Sumons Start was born in Devonshire, England, Sept. 22, 1828, and at the age of five he came with his parents to Oneida Co., N.Y., and settled near Utica. He married Catherine White, of Yorkville, Oneida Co., N. Y., in 1854 and remained in Oneida county until March 17, 1859, when he moved to Dane Co., Wisconsin, near Edgerton. He remained there one year when he went to Madison, Wis., for one year, and then moved to Green Co., Wis. There, within two miles of Monroe, he bought a farm and made his home for fifteen years. In 1876 he moved to Cherokee Co., Ia., and remained there seven years when he came to Rock Co., Minn., and has made his home here ever sinceon his farm four miles northeast of Luverne. He had six children. The eldest son, Robert William, died in infancy at Monroe, Wis. He leaves his wife, three sons, Sampson S., Fred W., and Louis H., and two daughters, Jennie L. Townsend and May A. Johnson, to mourn their great loss. He received a common school education, and has been a farmer all his life. He has always been enterprising, honest and upright. He was the kindest and most loving of husbands and fathers, and was always ready and anxious to accomodate and to do all the good he could. He enlisted as a private in Co. H, 38th Reg. Vol. Inf., of Wisconsin, in September 1864, and served until the end of the war in the army of the Potomac and was honorably discharged with the rank of corporal. He was in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, and was under constant firing most of the time. He so dearly loved his home and family that he did not care to leave it for society, but was a loyal member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was not a member of any church. He believed in God, but not in eternal punishment. His religion was in doing good." Funeral services under the auspices of John A. Dix post, Chaplain Bronson officiating, were held at the residence at 2 p.m., Sunday, and the remains were laid at rest in Maplewood.