"The BIOGRAPHICAL History of Clark County, Wisconsin"

Compiled by Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, Chicago and Winona, H. C. Cooper Jr., & Co. in 1918, pg. 383 - 384.

       Mr. & Mrs. Daniel B. Vaughan

DANIEL B. VAUGHAN, in former years an esteemed resident of Unity Township, but now passed away, was a man of New England origin, having been born at Underhill, Vt., May 10, 1837, son of Francis and Charity (Shaw) Vaughan. The father, a shoemaker by trade, was born, reared and married in the state of New York, he and his wife then moving to Vermont, where he engaged in farming. Six children were born to him and his wife in the Green Mountain State--Sophronia, Mary, Loraine, Daniel, Charity and Lucia. After a residence there of about twenty-five years, Francis Vaughan returned to New York and there bought a farm, which he turned over to his son Daniel B. The latter, after residing on it a short time, enlisted, Aug. 29, 1862, in Company B, 118th New York Infantry, being mustered in at Plattsburg. After arriving in the South he was taken sick with typhoid fever and upon his recovery was sent home on a furlough. At that time, July 17, 1863, he was married to Sarah Jane Terry, a native of Janesville, N. Y., who was born Feb. 3, 1844, but whose father, Orville Terry, was then a physician in Redford, that state. After his marriage Mr. Vaughan returned to the army for his discharge, which was received Sept. 9, 1863, and he then returned to the farm in Clinton County, town of Saranac, N. Y., where he and his wife resided four years. There two children were born, Francis and Frederick.

In 1867 Mr. Vaughan joined the strong tide of emigration westward, settling at Sun Prairie, Dane County, Wis., where he bought forty acres of improved land. His residence there lasted thirteen years, during which time the family circle of himself and wife was enlarged by the birth of six more children, Lillian, Charles, John, Ralph, Mary and Nellie. On Oct. 12, 1880, the family, now numbering ten members with the parents, moved to Unity Township, Clark County, Mr. Vaughan here purchasing eighty acres of wild land from the railroad company, for which he paid $2.00 an acre. A frame house, 24 by 16 feet, was erected in which the home was established, and Mr. Vaughan then began the work of clearing the land. On this place the youngest child, George, was born. By the time of his death in 1903, Mr. Vaughan had cleared about forty acres, built a fourteen-room residence and two barns, and was successfully engaged in general farming. His useful activities were not confined to his own immediate for he took part in affairs of a more public nature, acting as justice of the peace and clerk of his school district.

As a member of the Methodist Church, he was also active in religious matters, helping to build the first Methodist Church in Unity village, and also in Colby, New Hope and Beaver, being superintendent of the Sunday school for twenty years in Unity. The record of his family, in brief, is as follows: Francis died at age of 1, year Fred married Alice Near, and now resides at Yankton, S. D. He has four children, Lyle, Verda, Charles and Fred. Mary married Arthur Lawson, and resides at Cullman, Alabama, and has eight children, Ruth, Dorothy, Corda, Dan, Thomas, Orville, Charles and Fred G. Ralph married Margaret Darling, and is now a resident of Ocean Springs, Miss Nellie, who is the wife of Rev. W. J. James, resides at Rewey, Wis., and his children are William, Donald and Ralph. George, now a Methodist minister, was born in Unity Township. He married Beatrice Bly and they live at Patch Grove, Wis., having one child, Ellen. Charles, John and Lillian are residing at home. The mother, Mrs. Sarah Vaughan, is still living on the old homestead in Unity Township, and is a lady highly esteemed and of wide acquaintance.