Biography :

He was born in Antwerp, Belgium, April 3, 1845, of French and Dutch ancestry. He came to the United States in  1859 to study the English language. Toward the end of the Civil War he became interested in the cause of the Northern Forces and on January 5, 1864 he enlisted in the Northern Army. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Five Forks, Virginia, and was hospitalized for eight months. He received a gun shot wound through the body below side resulting in the paralysis of right leg, below knee. After his recovery he was obliged to use crutches for the rest of his life.
He was discharged from the army on October 21, 1865 and became a United States Citizen August 7, 1868. He went to Madison, Maine, due to the urging of an army friend named N. A. Weston.  He settled and married in Madison Mahala Eames, born March 20, 1848 and had six children: Jennie Mari, born Nov. 20, 1871; Stanly P. born June 3, 1873; Angie Victoria, born Oct. 3, 1877; Percy Leon born May 20, 1883; Marty Moore born April 22, 1885; Rosalie Berdena born May 16, 1892.
He ran a grocery store and the Madison Post Office for several years and later owned and operated a very successful farm in Madison. He could speak four different languages. Never returned to Europe. His death occured at Madison on May 24, 1906 at the age of 62 y. and 7 m. from traumatic meningitis, his widow surviving him till after 1940.

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