TOWNSHIP HISTORY.


smithy at Neenah and Winneconne and with whom his parents
lived from 1834 to the time of their death. He was married, and
his wife died last fall in Green Bay. He was killed in the writing-
paper mill fire, described under the history of the city of Menasha.
They had no children. Mr. Louis T. Jourdain, now residing with
his family on Nicolet avenue, Neenah, engaged in insurance and
real estate, is an adopted son, having lived nearly his whole boy-
hood days in the family and given their name.
Mr. Wells E. Blair located on the place so long occupied by him
in 1850. At first he moved with his family into one of the better
Government block houses near the Blair Springs. This was one
of the better and larger houses built for the teachers. It was, as
Mrs. Blair says, "excellent and substantial, well framed and fin-
ished, made of hewn or square logs. Near this was one of the log
houses built for the Indians, which we used for a barn. Later in
1861 we built a stone house (still standing) and moved into it."
Mrs. Blair is living in Madison with her daughter, Miss E. Helen
Blair.
Mr. Michael Kerwin was one of the earliest pioneers in the town
and county. He carved his splendid domain out of the primeval
forest of hardwoods and made his wide acres into a thrifty, fruit-
ful farm. The Kerwin family has been celebrated in Ireland and
America, many of its members being highly educated and display-
ing great intelligence as priests and lawyers. Many of them came
to America and attained considerable prominence in religious and
civic life as well as military affairs. Gen. Michael Kerwin, of New
York, was one of them. This biography is mostly of some of the
descendents of James Kerwin. James Kerwin, of County Tip-
perary, Ireland, where he was born and died, married Mary Quin-
lan, of the same place, who was born there in 1790 and died in
Wisconsin in 1877 at the age of 86 years. Their son, Michael
Kerwin, was born in Tipperary county, Ireland, in 1815. He mar-
ried Mary Buckley in Ireland, daughter of Walter Buckley, of
Ireland, where he was born in 1790 and died in 1830. His wife
was Mary Clary, who died when her daughter, Mary Buckley, was
an infant. Mary was born in 1821 in Ireland in County Tip-
perary. Michael Kerwin went to Canada from Ireland in 1844
and remained there until 1848, when he returned to Ireland and
married Mary Buckley. They came to America, settling on a
large farm in the town of Menasha, Winnebago county, Wiscon-
sin, in 1848, and lived there until his death in 1902, his wife, Mary
Kerwin, having died in 1873. He was one of the first settlers in

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