Douglas, James Hunter

Other Events:

• Biography: 1911; History of Outagamie County, Wisconsin Page 0889

Notes:

Biography:
JAMES H. DOUGLAS, one of the prominent and well-to-do business men of Hortonville, Wisconsin, was born April 23, 1842, on Ministers Island, New Brunswick, and comes of a family that traces its ancestry back to the Red Douglas Clan, owners of Douglas Castle, Scotland, the progenitor of the family being Mr. Douglas' grandfather, who came from Scotland and founded a Scottish colony in 1784. Mr. Douglas' mother, Isabella (Hunter) Douglas, was born in Dumfries, Scotland. James H. Douglas received a common school education and as a young man started to go to California, leaving New Brunswick for New York City. At the latter place, however, he heard that the steamer "North Star" had sunk in midocean, and he decided to take the overland route. By the time he had reached Chicago he found out that the Indians, under the direction of Mormons, were attacking the immigrant trains and massacring the immigrants, so he decided to come to Wisconsin, and subsequently located in Greenville township, in 1860, and purchased ninety-eight and three-quarters acres of land in section 6. In 1864 Mr. Douglas enlisted for service in Company D, Twenty-second Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, but owing to his physical development he was detailed to the secret service, under Captain Burns, to take troops to the front and break up the brokerage in men. He traveled 47,864 miles in less than nine months in the discharge of his duties, and was mustered out of the service, June 26, 1865, at Madison, Wisconsin, and returned to his wife, whom he had married only two hours before going to war. She bore the maiden name of Mary McMurdo, and died October 13, 1898, being buried in a marble vault in Hortonville Cemetery. The children born to this union were: Annabelle, born August 24, 1866, deceased; Agnes E., born August 18, 1867; William H., born June 1, to Mrs. Georgiana Boyd, daughter of David McFarland. Mr. 1869; Loretta M., born September 23, 1871; Maggie V., born April 24, 1879; John F., born September 19, 1881; and Robert E., deceased. On November 24, 1901, Mr. Douglas was married (second) to Mrs. Georgiana Boyd, daughter of David McFarland. Mr. Douglas is a member of the Baptist Church, of which he has served as trustee and Sunday School superintendent for the past twenty years. He is a stockholder in the Hortonville Gas Plant and for a long period was engaged in the lumber business under the firm name of Douglas & McMurdo. In political matters he is a Republican.

James married McMurdo, Mary 9 Oct 1864, Hortonville, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. Mary (daughter of McMurdo, John and Hunter, Elizabeth) was born 31 Oct 1842, Pennfield, , New Brunswick, Canada; died 9 Jan 1899, Hortonia, Outagamie, Wisconsin, USA. [Group Sheet]