Representative William Claggett Oakman View All Years

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William Claggett Oakman

Delaware County

A native of the town of Wendall, Franklin county, Mass., and was born June 11, 1836. He is a son of Joseph and Mary (Nickerson) Oakman, the former of whom was a native of the town of Chesterfield, N. H. William, our subject, was the youngest child of the family to which he belonged. He was only four years old when his father died. He was reared by his mother to seven years of age in Athol, Mass., and then by M. Briggs to the age of fourteen, and the advantages of the public schools of that locality were his up to that age. Quitting Athol in his fourteenth year, he went to Swanzey, N. H., where he obtained a position in a woodenware manufacturing establishment. There he learned the business of a manufacturer of wooden-ware and continued at it in that place for five years. Marrying in 1857 he came West and settled at Two Rivers, Manitowoc county, Wis., where he went to work in a wooden ware manufacturing establishment. He remained there two years, when, returning to Swanzey, N. H., he resumed his place in the factory where he had learned his trade and continued there engaged at his trade until 1868. That year he came to lowa and settled in Delaware county. He engaged in farming on coming to this county, renting land. In 1875 he bought a tract of land on which he settled. Mr. Oakman has always taken much interest in public matters relating to his township and county, and he has from time to time held almost every office in his township. He was elected to the state legislature of Delaware county in and served in the Twenty-second and Twenty-third General Assemblies, 1888-90. In politics Mr. Oakman is a republican. He has voted the republican ticket ever since the organization of that party. On March 4, 1857, Mr. Oakman married Miss Elvira S. Belding, at Swanzey, N. H., she being a native of that place, born December 7, 1835.

House District 68