William Bramwell Powell. 

 1836-1904. 



William Bramwell Powell was born at Castile, N. Y., 

 on December 22, 1836. He was of English ancestry, being the 

 fifth child of Joseph and Mary Dean Powell who emigrated 

 from England to New York in 1830. 



From his parents, who were persons of far more than ordinary 

 force of character and intelligence, he inherited many of the 

 qualities that distinguished him in life. Joseph Powell, his 

 father, had a strong will, deep earnestness, and indomitable 

 courage, while his mother, Mary Dean, with similar traits pos- 

 sessed also remarkable tact and practicality. Both were English 

 born, the mother well educated, and they were always leaders 

 in the social and educational life of every community where 

 they dwelt. Especially were they prominent in religious circles, 

 the father being a licensed exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church. Both were intensely American in their love and ad- 

 miration of the civil institutions of the United States and both 

 were strenuously opposed to slavery, which was flourishing in 

 America when they arrived in 1830. For a time they remained 

 in New York City and then removed to western New York, 

 finally locating in the village of Castile, where, as before stated, 

 William Bramwell was born. Because of the slavery question 

 Joseph Powell left the Methodist Episcopal Church on the 

 organization of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and became a 

 regularly ordained preacher in the latter. It was in this atmo- 

 sphere of social, educational, political and religious fervor that 

 the future school superintendent grew up. When he was three 

 years old the family moved to Jackson, Ohio, and then, in 1846, 

 went on westward to South Grove, Walworth County, Wiscon- 

 sin, where a farm was purchased. They were in prosperous 

 circumstances, and the boy was active in the management of 

 affairs, early exhibiting his trait for doing things well. 



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