A father died in New York state, about 1825.

The evidence

• “In 1819 our subject's parents moved to New York state, where his father died about 1825. At the age of thirteen, William, with his mother, returned to Meriden, Conn., where he found employment in the shop which was the nucleus of the present Meriden Britania Company.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/34b-biographical-2.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 411 / book p. 903

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources