Dexter Josiah Todd7, (Eli6, Solomon5, James4, James3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born Sept. 22, 1828, in Charlemont, Mass., died March 24, 1886, of Pneumonia at his home in Fairwater, Minn., married in 1858, Elizabeth Jane, daughter of Zenas and Julia (Smith) Elmer, who was born July 17, 1835, in Ashfield, Mass., died April 5, 1909, in the old home in Fairwater, Minn.
He left the old home in Charlemont, Mass., when he was about twenty-two years of age. For the next four years he worked in the woods, most of the time getting out “shook.” In the spring of 1854, he with his brother Addison removed to Minnesota and was employed in constructing a dam and mill on Rum River. The following winter was spent in the “pinery” on the same stream and in the spring he removed to Elba, Minn., and there he took up 160 acres of land in section eight, which he at once began to improve. In the summer of 1856, he built the first frame house in Whitewater Valley, Minn.
In 1858, he went back to Massachusetts and at that time married Miss Elmer, soon after which event, they returned to Minnesota and settled down on his farm in Elba, which he continued to improve and enlarge until he eventually owned 253 acres of land located in sections five, eight and nine, in what is now Fairwater, Minn.
The house was enlarged and remodeled in the summer of 1883.
In polities, Mr. Todd was a staunch democrat; but he never took an active part in public affairs.
Children:
*1609. Jennie Alberta, b. May 23, 1860.
1610. Edward Elmer, b. March 29, 1862, d. Dec. 11, 1904, in Bo, West Africa, m. Nov. 28, 1893, in Greenfield, Mass., Delia N. Bass, who was born in that town. At the time of his fathers last sickness, he was called home from California, to manage the farm, which he continued to do for three or four years after his father’s death. In the Autumn of 1890, he again left the old home in Fairwater, to enter Western College in Toledo, Iowa, to prepare for the ministry. Thence, he went to the Moody Institute in Chicago, Ill. From this school, he was appointed pastor of the United Brethren Church at Gray Eagle, Minn., in 1894. He married just before entering this field, where he remained until 1899, when he went to West Africa as a missionary. In 1903, he returned to America for a needed rest, but after a few months recreation, he with his wife once more went back to his work in Africa, where he contracted African fever from which disease he never recovered. A very full account of his life and work may be found in Woman’s Evangelist, Feb. 1905, published n Dayton, Ohio. No children.
1611. Cora Francelia, b. Sept. 24, 1865, unmarried.
*1612. Hattie May, b. Feb. 14, 1867.
*1613. Roy Merton, b. Sept. 7, 1869.
1614. Ida Belle, b. June 4, 1874, d. May 1, 1915, m. Sept. 16, 1908, Claude Vernon Ellis, who was b. Dec. 13, 1874, in Fairwater, Minn. He was a farmer and removed to a ranch in Mabton, Wash. No children.