Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 1044 - 1045

JOSHUA BIDWELL, who departed this life at his home in Wichita, Nov. 21, 1886, was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland, Nov. 16, 1829, and was the son of Joshua, Sr., and Grace (Arthur) Bidwell, who were also of Irish birth and ancestry. They emigrated to America in 1834, and settled in Whitehall, N. Y., where the father carried on the manufacture of cloth until 1843. During that year he made his way to Grant County, Wis., and locating upon a tract of land in the vicinity of Patch Grove, followed agriculture the remainder of his life, passing away in March, 1852. The wife and mother survived her husband for a period of over thirty years, her death taking place also at Patch Grove, in 1883.

             The children of Joshua, Sr., and Grace Bidwell included three daughters and two sons, of whom but three are living, namely: Marie, Mrs. Rice; Susan, who lives at the old homestead, and John. The deceased are Eliza, Mrs. Winslow, and Joshua, our subject. The latter continued under the parental roof until reaching manhood, in the meantime becoming familiar with farm pursuits. His first business venture for himself was in the drug business at Potosi, Wis., where, however, he remained but a short time, then returned to Patch Grove, and resumed farming until his enlistment as a Union soldier in 1863. He then joined Company A, 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, as a private, and was promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant. During his army life of twenty months he endured the privations and hardships common to a soldier's life, and was finally seriously wounded, from the effects of which he never recovered, being rendered a cripple for life. At the close of the war he returned to his old haunts in Wisconsin, remaining there until coming to this State. 

            The marriage of Joshua Bidwell and Miss Amanda McNabb was celebrated July 26, 1854, and they became the parents of six children, all living, namely: Joshua, Sally, John, Grace, Frank and Edwin. Mrs. Bidwell was born July 1, 1834, in Sprirgfield, Ill., and is the daughter of Robert and Sarah (Sommers) McNabb, natives respectively of Maryland and Kentucky. Her paternal grandparents, George and Eliza McNabb, were natives of Scotland, and crossed the Atlantic at an early day, locating in Baltimore, Md. Thence they removed to Green County, Ky., where their son Robert was reared to farming pursuits. Later in life he migrated to Wisconsin, and was employed in the lead mines of Grant County. He was married in Kentucky, and there were born six daughters, five now living, namely: Eliza, Mrs. Caskey, of Wisconsin; Elizabeth, Mrs. Paul, of Illinois; Amanda, Mrs. Bidwell, of our sketch; Rilda, Mrs. Rennie, of Nebraska, and Melissa, Mrs. Malitt, of Nebraska. The mother departed this life at Potosi, Wis., in 1858. Robert McNabb, in 1881, came to Wichita, and thereafter made his home with his daughter, at whose residence he died that same year.

             Mr. Bidwell, in 1875, located at Wichita, which remained his home until his decease. He put up a good residence, and the family gathered around them all the comforts of a home, which bears fair comparison with those of the other well-to-do residents of this flourishing and cultured city.

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