John H. Brinkerhoff

John H. Brinkerhoff was born in Seneca County, Ohio, on April 14, 1835. His father died when he was a child. He went to work in a printing office in Milan, Ohio, at age 18, and subsequently worked in the printing trade in Watertown, Wisconsin, Jefferson, Wisconsin, and Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. He finally moved to Waupun, Wisconsin, in 1857, and established the Waupun Times, which he published for nine years.[1][2]

Brinkerhoff became a devoted Republican after that party was established in the 1850s. In 1861, he was appointed postmaster at Waupun by President Abraham Lincoln, and served as postmaster there for the next 30 years.[3] He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in the 1864 election, running on the National Union Party ticket. He represented Fond du Lac County's 2nd Assembly district, which then comprised the southwest corner of the county.[4]

In the 1890s he gave up his office as postmaster to his son, James Edwin Brinkerhoff, who was appointed by President Grover Cleveland. The elder Brinkerhoff, however, continued to work as assistant postmaster to his son.[3]

In the Summer of 1915 he suffered a stroke and died a few days later at his home in Waupun.[3]

John Brinkerhoff was a son of Hezekiah Brinkerhoff, who served in the Pennsylvania militia during the War of 1812.[2] The Brinkerhoffs were descended from Dutch colonists who arrived in Pennsylvania when it was part of the New Netherland colony, in the 17th century.[1]

John Brinkerhoff married twice. His first wife was Lucy T. Stoddard, a daughter of Theodore Stoddard of New York state. They had four children before her death in 1863; two of their children died in childhood. Brinkerhoff subsequently married Jennie H. Gillette in 1867. Gillette was a daughter of M. S. Gillette of Fond du Lac. They had at least two more children.[1][2]

• The Waupun Times (Waupun, Wis.) 1857-1903 at the Library of Congress