Picture of James Weeks III and his wife Mary Albright

Mr. James Weeks was born in Georgetown, Vermilion Co., Ill., June 9th, 1836 and came with his parents, James and Hannah Weeks who were both Quakers, to Sheboygan Co., Wis., in the year 1848. His father purchased 160 acres of land one and one-half miles north of the village of Greenbush, in the town of Greenbush, and Mr. Weeks helped his father clear away the forest and make a home where they resided until the year 1854 when his father sold out and returned to Illinois. (webmaster note: James Sr. and Jr. are both listed as still living here on the 1855 Wisconsin state census.)

The subject of this sketch was married to Miss E. Albright, July 3rd, 1854. Mrs. Weeks was born in New Jersey, town of Independence, near Hackettstown, Warren Co., May 4th 1837 and came to Sheboygan Co., with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Marshal P. Albright, in the spring of 1848. Her father purchased land one mile north of the village of Greenbush and cleared the land and made a home where they remained until his death. (webmaster note: DOD 23 Sep 1856)

Mr. and Mrs. Weeks both attended the Greenbush school and church. Mr. Weeks was employed by Oliver Sampson of Greenbush as carpenter and joiner until the fall of 1859. After that he was engineer in the steam grist mill of Keach & Stephen until the fall of 1860 then moved to Glenbeaulah, Sheboygan Co., and worked there continually for the Dillingham Co., until Aug. 1883. While he was in their employ he sawed the timber for the harbor in this city, also shipped timber for Mr. Stoke's ship yard and timber for vessels for A. P. Lyman. They moved to Vermillion Junction (Webmaster Note: This should be Merrillan Junction), Jackson Co., Wis., in 1883 and there he was employed as filer and foreman in A. S. Trow's saw mill until 1888 after which they moved to what is now called Mattoon, and superintended the building of the Mattoon saw mill which was the first building erected in that place and he was employed as filer and foreman in the mill until the 25th of last November when he met with an accident (the breaking of an arm) from which he has not yet recovered. (Webmaster Note: this would probably be before 1911.)

Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Weeks, two sons and one daughter, Hiram J. Weeks, vice president of the Wisconsin Timber and Land Co. of Mattoon, Wis., and Charles Hayden Weeks, secretary and treasurer of the same firm, and Mrs. Iola E. Raymaker, who resides in this city and whose husband is engineer in the Dillingham factory. Mr. Weeks says; "As we look back to the time when Sheboygan Co., seemed almost an unbroken forest, we say among all the hardships we necessarilly had to endure we realized some of the happiest days of our lives, with our relatives, friends and neighbors and we still speak of Sheboygan Co., as 'our home.'"