Recollections of a long life, 1829-1915

the long version

Isaac Stephenson began lumbering in New Brunswick, Canada logging camps at age 11 and at 14 moved with his family to Maine, where he learned to drive oxen through the forests to the river. At 16 one of the company owners offered him 160 acres, a house and farm equipment if he would accompany him to Wisconsin as a lumberman. Isaac would make a fortune in Wisconsin during the Civil War. He later owned vast tracts of real estate in Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as other places in the Great Lakes. He was also elected a U.S. Senator.