but it does not name her and I have been unable to determine if Nancy was a first or second wife to Joseph.  If a second, she is undoubtedly not Nathaniel's mother.  I do know that she died sometime between 1840 and 1850 and Joseph died in April 1870.

He married Rebecca C. Housler sometime around 1844 in PA.  They had several children including:  Theodore Aleman b. 22 Jan 1845; Mary Lewis b. ca. 1850 (died by 1853); Polly J. b. 11 Jun 1851; Augustine St. Claire b. 17 Nov 1853; Sylvenus Freeman (my gr.grandfather) b. 29 Jun 1856 and Lucy Brandon b. Feb 1860.

Nathaniel owned property starting in 1840 in McKean Co., PA that much is clear from the documents I have been able to uncover.  It is also quite clear that there was a boundary dispute between Nathaniel and his future brother-in-law, Merrick Housler, that continued for 25 years.  It is probably due to this fact that Nathaniel finally gave up everything he owned in PA and moved his family west at an age when most men are fairly well settled where they will spend the rest of their lives.  Another family history states he left PA owing money, and I can believe this, given the extent of court orders procured against him during the course of this 25 year span.

But, for whatever reason, in 1865 Nathaniel packed his family up and moved to Iowa where they remained for two years.  His wife Rebecca's obituary states that the family did not like the "flat plains country" being used to the hills of the Allegheny mountains and in 1867 they moved to Pierce County, WI, an area more hilly and tree covered that would have been far more familiar to them.

Here Nathaniel once again began clearing land, buying 80 acres from the government and developing it with orchards and fields and, in the beginning, a log home.  The large farmhouse he eventually built in the 1880s still stands today on a hill above Elmwood, WI and is still resided in by one of his descendants.  The land has also been passed to another Britton generation and after 130 years is still in the families possession.

Nathaniel passed away in 1894 and is buried in the Spring Lake Cemetery along with his wife, several of his children and a number  of grandchildren.  His obituary is sadly not very informative amounting to no more than 2 lines in the local newspaper.  But his monument in the cemetery is very large.  I can still remember it looming over me as a child when we would go on Memorial Day to the cemetery with my grandmother to leave flowers on the graves.  Now that my grandmother is gone and most everyone else has moved away my Aunt Fern still carries on that tradition.  I am hoping that when she is no longer able that someone else will be capable of carrying on in her place.