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Joseph Lavassor

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Joseph Lavassor

Birth Name

Joseph Lavassor

Other Names

Lavasson

Lived

Jul 1822 – Mar 1884

Birth Country

Canada

Resident of Muster-In

Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI

Company at Enlistment

F

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

1 Mar 1862

Death Location

Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI

Burial Location

Bayside Cemetery, Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI

Spouse

Mary Hutcheson

Spouse Lived

May 1833- Jan 1884

Joseph Lavassor was born in eastern Canada in July 1822. He married Mary L. Hutcheson before 1855. She was born on May 1833 in western Canada. By 1860, they were living in Sturgeon, Door County, WI. Before the war, they had at least three children: Charles (1855), Paul W. (1857), and William (1858). He worked as a farmer.

Lavassor joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company F. The men of the company called themselves “KK’s Protectors” in honor of the 15th’s first Lieutenant Colonel, Kiler K. Jones. “F” was also known as the Valdres Company because a large number of its members hailed from the Valdres region of Norway. The army listed him as living in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI, age 42, and married. He enlisted for three years on February 26, 1862 in Door County, and mustered at Madison, WI on March 1, 1862 as a Private (Menig). Lavassor was with the Pioneer Corps in November 1862. He was discharged from the service for disability, Madison, WI on May 15, 1864.

After the war, he returned to Sturgeon Bay. He was granted a pension of $12 a month because of chronic bronchitis. Lavassor and his wife had at least four more children, including Mary A. (1860), Joseph (1864), and twins Rosa and Jenny (1867).  He worked as a teamster. He died on March 1884 and is buried in Bayside Cemetery, Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI. Mary died a few years later on January 1884 and is buried in the same cemetery.

 

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-8; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.88; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.510; 1860 Census, Roll: M653_1402, Page: 999, Image: 273, Family History Library Film: 805402; 1870 Census, Roll: M593_1712, Page: 58B, Image: 120, Family History Library Film: 553211; Civil War Pension Index, Roll #T288_275; findagrave.com; Wisconsin Marriage Index, Batch #M00342-2, GS Film #1275987, Ref. ID 00183.