We learned about early settler John Sanborn, his wife Mehitable, and daughter Levina & her husband Sam Orvis, but there is much more to learn about the Sanborn family and their descendants. Today we’ll talk about one of Levina’s two brothers, John Winthrop Sanborn.
John Winthrop lived from 1842 to 1920. He was six weeks old when his grandfather, Winthrop, (who came here in 1838 with his son John), died and was buried in the field that eventually became the Sanborn-Orvis Cemetery.
When he was 20 years old, John W. volunteered his services in the Civil War, enlisting in August of 1862. He served three years and was discharged in August 1865. His Civil War diary is still with his descendants, along with his issued bayonet, enlistment photo and stamped discharge papers. He served in battles with General William Tecumseh Sherman.
When his father died in 1866, the property was divided between his mother and the three surviving children, Levina, John W., and Ben. John Winthrop got 270 acres across from the old homestead. In 1869 he married Olive Walker, and they built a house a little farther south and across the road from the old homestead. Later they built a new house just north of the first house and up on the hill. They had six children: Guy, Harry, Clyde, Wade, Mable, and Lillian. Neither house exists, but a cement barn still stands outside the Wilmot Farms Subdivision on Wilmot Road where the second house once stood.
John did general farming and dairying, breeding Holstein cattle. He was the township collector, road commissioner, and school director. His descendants still have metal inscribed J.W.S. milk can label.
In December of 1902, Olive died at home of “Brights disease” at age 57. In 1904, 62-year-old John married 38-year-old Kate Patterson Shotliff, a widow with five children. They had a son (his 5th son) in 1906, and named him John Bryan, keeping the John Sanborn name going. They also had a daughter in March 1907, named Olive May, who only lived for ten days.
John W. worked with the Prohibitionists, and “fought the saloon element”, according to a 1922 profile of him. In 1910 the Wilmot Agitator newspaper printed, “When [saloon] licenses won in the town of Burton last spring, some of the saloon men were inclined to rub it in to John Sanborn, he having been prominent of the losings side. The old veteran pickled his wrath and bided his time. This week he had revenge. On his advice, all of the saloon keepers of Spring Grove were caught doing business last Sunday, taken to Woodstock and fined.” (Ironically, his son, John B., awoke one day and found himself on the train tracks but couldn’t recall how he got there. He vowed never to drink again and pledged total abstinence, which he made good on and lived until 1979.) Prohibition began in 1920, the year John W. died, and no one was more pleased with the new amendment than he was.
Apparently, John Winthrop could be a stubborn man. There was bad blood between him and his sister Levina’s husband, Sam Orvis. The feelings were mutual, and they clashed over things like property lines. John’s feelings were so strong he refused to be buried in the Sanborn-Orvis Cemetery where Sam and Levina were laid to rest. That is why we find him and his wife, Olive, buried in the English Prairie Cemetery.
(I would like to give a special thanks to John Sanborn (the12th) who contacted me and shared stories and these photos and more of the Sanborn clan!)
Story by Laura Frumet
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