William Bassett Stark (USA)

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/77124906/william-bassett-stark

William is the son of Silas and Almira (Reed) Stark, born in Rushville, Yates County N.Y., In 1837 his parents moved to Canada, where he remained until about twenty years of age, learning and working at the trade of wool carding and cloth dressing. He then shipped as a cabin boy and cook on a sailing vessel and sailed lake Erie and Ontario during the summer of 1852. The 8th of October 1853, He married Jane E. Tryon of Onondaga, New York.

During 1854 and 1855 he was mostly engaged in boating on the Erie Canal and it's tributaries. In 1856 he moved to Sheffield, Berkshire County, Mass. and followed farming until 1862. In July of that year he enlisted in Company K, Thirty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers. The regiment was assigned to the eighth Army Corps. and served under Sigel, Hunter, Sheridan and others in the Shenandoah Valley. Was with Hunter in his famous starvation raid through the Alleghenies, and fought at Winchester, Fishers Hill, Cedar Creek and most of the engagements of the valley and was slightly wounded at Piedmont, Virginia, June 5th, 1864 but continued with his regiment, which was transferred in December 1864, to the Twenty-Fourth Army Corps, before Richmond. They were in five days' almost continuous fighting at Hatcher's Run, Petersburg and Richmond, and witnessed the surrender of Lee's Army. He was mustered out at Richmond, V.A. and discharged July 6, 1865, at Boston, Mass.

In October 1865, He moved to Denmark, Tuscola County, Mich. and settled in the dense forest. but two families where any where near them and they were living in tents. Wolves, bears, wild-cats and deer were plenty, and occasionally the cry of a panther startled them. Six brothers and a sister of his came into the neighborhood within a year or so. in 1870, in company with two other families, they went to Kansas, traveling in covered wagons, taking nine weeks for the journey. He remained in Kansas until July, 1875, when he returned to Denmark and took up residence in the village of Reese. Wm and Jane had 8 kids. Later they moved to Midland County, Mich. to live with his daughter Minnie and her husband Abraham Holiday Jr.

• Residence: Reese, Tuscola, Michigan, United States - 1880
  • Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Oct 18 2019, 9:22:55 UTC