USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 1
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LIBRARY Brigham Young University
YOUNG
UNID
. BRIGHAM
VERSITY .
GENCE
PROVO, UTAH
977.5 C67 V.2
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977.5 C 67 V.2
A STANDARD HISTORY
OF
SAUK COUNTY WISCONSIN
An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Educational, Civic and Social Development
By the Following Board of Editors HARRY ELLSWORTH COLE President of the Sauk County Historical Society General Supervising Editor
Advisory Editors
MRS. CLARA T. RUNGE, Baraboo HON. FRANK AVERY, Baraboo
JOHN B. WEISS, Plain DR. FRANK T. HULBURT, Reedsburg
MAX H. NINMAN, Sauk City JAMES F. MORROW, Spring Green
SAMUEL BABINGTON, Prairie du Sac
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II
222523
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1918
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Brigham Young University
http://www.archive.org/details/standardhistoryo02cole
DAVID MYERS
History of Sauk County
DAVID MYERS. The distinction of being the oldest man, not only in point of residence, but also in point of age, in Sauk County, is enjoyed by the venerable David Myers of Prairie du Sac. It is now more than ninety-five years since David Myers first saw the light of day. James Monroe was president of the United States when he was born. There was not a mile of railway in the United States, the Erie Canal had not been opened to traffic, and he was a grown man before the marvelous invention of telegraphy was put to practical use. Probably no one in the State of Wisconsin can better appreciate the marvels of the present age than Mr. Myers, who has his personal recollections of the crude times and facilities in the early part of the last century to sharpen the contrast. It was more than seventy years ago that David Myers first made the acquaintance of Sauk County, and here, too, he has witnessed a trans- formation almost beyond belief.
He was born in Otsego County, New York, January 10, 1822, a son of Cornelius and Penny ( Clark) Myers, his father a native of New Jersey and his mother of New York. David Myers was reared and educated in the East and came West to Madison, Wisconsin, with his father in 1844. For two years he worked as a blacksmith at Madison, and in 1845 came to Prairie du Sac in Sauk County. Here he resumed blacksmithing, and in those early days one of the things most demanded of him was the mak- ing or repairing of plows. He handled plows when the old-fashioned wooden moldboard was still a prominent feature. He became widely known as an expert horseshoer. He set a record of making a hundred shoes in a single day, and also of taking off and resetting a hundred shoes on horses. In those times he would be paid a dollar a team for shoeing. Blacksmithing was Mr. Myers' regular vocation and work until twelve years ago. He was more than four score years old when he did his last work in that line. He finally sold his shop to Chris Platts, and in later years has found employment for his leisure in looking after his present little town farm of two acres in the northwest section of Prairie du Sac. He has found both pleasure and profit in raising a crop of tobacco on his land.
Mr. Myers has always been extremely fond of horses, skillful in man- aging them, and has owned some of the best examples of horse flesh ever seen in this part of the state. At different times he owned eleven fine stallions. He bought them at high prices, securing a number from New London, Canada, and some in Michigan and in other places. He bought
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a fine horse named Tempest at New London, Canada, which set the county record for speed at Baraboo. He also bought a horse known as Nigert in Michigan, and it was recognized as one of the best horses in America, being of black and tan color. Mr. Myers won a number of first prizes on his horses in races and exhibitions.
In 1848 he married Miss Esther Hatch. Six children were born to them. Cornelius, who lives in California, married Sarah Barl. Elihu married for his first wife, E. C. Bush, and for his second wife, Alice Thornhaus; and Elihu is a carpenter by trade and has three children. John is a mason by trade and is still unmarried. Hattie married Bert Hannaman and lives at Beloit. Mary is the wife of Fred Johnson and makes her home in California. Frank is unmarried and lives in Prairie du Sac.
Mr. Myers lost his first wife in 1892, after they had been partners for forty-four years. He married for his second wife Anna Brugger, who was born in Switzerland. She first came to America in 1888, but subse- quently went back to her native land and remained there until 1891, when she came to America and soon afterward married Mr. Myers. Mrs. Myers is an artist at needle work and has taken many prizes at county fairs on her bed covers, petticoats, stockings and table spreads.
When most of Wisconsin was still a wilderness Mr. Myers found a great delight in spending a large part of the winter hunting. He was as accurate and skillful a Nimrod as he was in his trade. In one day during the year 1860 he shot twenty-one deer. As a hunting exploit that stands out all the more remarkable when it is remembered that he did the execution with a muzzle-loading gun. This trusty hunting piece was made by a man named Clark Herford at Madison, Wisconsin. Mr. Myers also had his share of Indian adventure when Wisconsin's woods were filled with Indians as well as wild game. The Indians would frequently steal part of the game he shot, and that usually caused some trouble until Mr. Myers had shown the red men his determination and ability to stand by his rights.
Mr. Myers has been a democrat and cast his first vote back in the days when James K. Polk was President and about the time the Mexican war started. However, he has usually exercised his franchise for the best man in local affairs. He is himself of a Methodist family, while his first wife was a Baptist and the present Mrs. Myers belongs to the Reformed Church.
WALWORTH DELAVAN PORTER. A life long resident of Wisconsin and one who has witnessed and taken part in the development of the southern part of the state, Walworth Delavan Porter is now living in retirement at Baraboo, where he is one of his community's best known citizens. He is a veteran of the Civil war and for some years was engaged in business at Baraboo, in addition to which he spent a long period in the pursuits of the soil, and now, in his seventy-eighth year, is in the enjoyment of those comforts which are attained through a lifetime of industry and well-directed effort.
Mr. Porter was one of the first white children born in Walworth County, Wisconsin, his natal day being June 11, 1839. His father was
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Samuel Lyman Porter, born at Staten Island, New York, July 4, 1800, and his mother, Permelia (Clark) Porter, born at Monmouth, New Jer- sey, March 7, 1805. They were married in the East, and during the '30s came to Wisconsin, taking up their residenee in Walworth County, at that time praetieally a wilderness. They were shortly followed by two of Mr. Porter's brothers, Henry and Selah Porter, each of whom took up a farm in Walworth County and passed the remainder of their lives there. Samuel L. Porter was a carpenter by trade and had followed that vocation while in New York, but on his arrival in Wisconsin took up the occupation of farming on 160 aeres of land in LaGrange and Wal- worth counties. There he continued to be similarly engaged until 1850, when he came to Sauk County, and in the following year bought six building lots at Baraboo. At this city he resumed his trade, and during the years that followed built many of the leading residenees and frame store buildings erected here. He also made several trips to other states, engaged in earrying on his trade, and was in Mississippi when the Civil war broke out, subsequently experiencing some difficulty in reaching the North. While a stanch supporter of the Union, he was past the military age and was not called upon for duty, but always, by word and aetion, upheld the cause of the North. He and Mrs. Porter were faithful mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in that faith he died in December, 1889, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. L. C. Stanley at Chip- pewa Falls. In politics a republican, while a resident of Walworth County he held several political offices. His fraternal connection was with the Masons. Mrs. Porter died in 1890, the mother of six children : Charles Wesley, Samuel Nelson, Cornelia Ann, Walworth Delavan, Albert Bartlett and Melvin S., all being deceased exeept Walworth D. and Albert B.
Walworth Delavan Porter received good educational advantages in his youth, attending the early schools of Walworth County, the public sehool at Baraboo and the old Baraboo Institute, and when his education was completed he entered upon his career as clerk in a store in this city. He later invested his earnings in a small farm, which he cultivated during the period when hops was a leading Wisconsin crop, but his home from boyhood has always been located at Baraboo. He is the owner of one of the best brick residences of the eity, built by him in 1912 at No. 220 Eighth Street, in addition to which he owns six lots and three buildings which he rents. During his later years he was for a time engaged in real estate transactions, but for the past several years he has been retired from active pursuits, although still active in body and alert in mind.
Politieally Mr. Porter is a republican, but public life has never held out any particular attractions to him. In 1862 he enlisted in Company F, Third Wisconsin Cavalry, a command with which he served for three years during the Civil war, establishing a good record for faithfulness and bravery in action. His brother Charles was a member of the same company and served four years, and his brother Albert belonged to Company H, Seventeenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and served three years.
Mr. Porter was married in 1870 to Mrs .. Ellen (Atkinson) Williams,
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who was born in 1837 in Maine, a daughter of Christopher Atkinson. Mr. Atkinson was born in 1777, at Fredericksburg, Virginia, while his wife was born in 1793 in Massachusetts, and both died at Baraboo, the former in 1872 and the latter in 1878. Mr. Atkinson east his last presi- dential vote for Ulysses S. Grant. Mr. and Mrs. Porter have had two children, Christopher Lyman, who died aged four years, five months; and Cornelia, who is the wife of Rev. Richard Rowley, D. D., of Kanka- kee, Illinois, a minister of the Episcopal Church, who for fifteen years filled various Chicago pulpits. By her former marriage Mrs. Porter had five children: George, deceased, who married Mary Stevens, of Chicago; Addie F., who is the wife of R. B. Griggs, of Baraboo; Albert H., who married Carrie Dickens, of Milwaukee; Elizabeth A., who is the widow of Robert Bloom, formerly of Kansas City, Missouri ; and Carrie, who is the wife of Dr. B. N. Webster, a practicing physician of Rice Lake, Wisconsin.
HENRY A. OCHSNER, member of one of Sauk County's most distin- gnished families, has spent his life steadily on the old homestead farm in Honey Creek Township, where he was born July 27, 1856. Mr. Oehs- ner is an older brother of the celebrated surgeon, Dr. Albert J. Ochsner of Chicago, who as a methodical and successful operator has few peers in the surgical world anywhere.
The parents of Henry A. Ochsner were Henry and Judith (Hottinger) Ochsner. Both of them were born in Switzerland. Henry Ochsner, Sr., came to Sauk County in 1849 and took up a traet of Government land where his son Henry A. now lives. He batched on the homestead for one year and for another year worked for Mr. Waterbury. In 1852 he returned to Switzerland, married, and brought his bride to the wilder- ness of Sauk County, where they endured many hardships in elearing up and developing a farm. The father built a log house, and not a single piece of iron entered into its construction, the timbers being held together with wooden pegs. He used oxen in elearing and cultivating his fields, frequently having a team of five yoked together. In the matter of erops he raised wheat as his chief product until in the '60s, when he became a hog and cattle raiser and dairyman. The father lived on the old homestead until 1883, when he removed to Baraboo and died in that eity in 1889, an honored and esteemed old resident. His wife died there in 1891. There were five children in the family, Henry A. being the oldest.
The second in age is Dr. Albert J., who was born in Sauk County in 1858, graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1884, and in 1886 took his M. D. degree from Rush Medical College of Chicago. He also studied abroad at Vienna and Berlin and has been in practice at Chieago steadily since 1889, and since 1896 has been chief surgeon of the Augustana and St. Mary's hospitals. Besides his work as an indi- vidual surgeon thousands of younger men have received training at his elinies, which are perhaps the chief center of attraction for medieal men pursuing their studies in Chicago. He has for many years been professor of clinical surgery in the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is a distinguished author and is a recognized authority
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on many subjects connected with surgery. He is married and has two children and two grandchildren.
The third child, Louisa, is the wife of Fred T. Gratophorst, living in California. Edward H., the fourth child, has also gained distinction as a Chicago surgeon and physician, is a graduate of the same schools as his brother Albert and has a widely extended practice, though his name is not so eminent as that of his distinguished brother. He is mar- ried and has four children. The fifth child, Emma, is unmarried, has studied medieine and is a skilled hospital worker and is now connected with a hospital at Los Angeles, California.
Henry A. Ochsner has spent most of his life on the old homestead which his father cleared after obtaining it from the Government. He obtained an education in the public schools and also in the Baraboo High School, and for seven winters he taught in country school districts.
He married Anna M. Weirich, daughter of George and Wilhelmina (Kuehn) Weirich. Mr. and Mrs. Ochsner have two children. Arthur C. is married and lives at home, sharing in the responsibilities of the man- agement of the farm with his father. The daughter Ella is the wife of John B. Luther, a farmer living at Spring Green.
At the time he married Henry A. Ochsner began farming for him- self and has kept steadily along this general line with a success that makes him now one of the substantial men of Sauk County. He is a general farmer and stock raiser and also handles considerable dairy stock, being owner of 500 acres of land. Many of the substantial im- provements found on the old homestead are due to his constructive labors since he took charge.
THOMAS W. CLARIDGE. One of the most interesting and valuable citizens Sauk County has ever had is Mr. Thomas W. Claridge of Reeds- burg. Mr. Claridge has now attained venerable years. Recently he passed the four-score mark. He and his beloved wife, who had been com- panions side by side and mutual sharers in the joys and pleasures of this world, came to Sauk County soon after their marriage in England over sixty years ago, and they are among the very few couples, who have cele- brated that most impressive event, a sixtieth anniversary of their wedding day.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Claridge are natives of England. He was born February 2, 1837, a son of Thomas and Mary (Knight) Claridge. His father was born in England Mareh 13, 1818, and his mother in September, 1818. Some time after their son started out to find a home in the New World they joined him at White Mound in the Township of Franklin, Sauk County, in 1858, and Thomas Claridge, Sr., followed farming there for a number of years. He owned forty acres of land which he developed as a farm, and subsequently he and his wife removed to Reedsburg, where both of them died. They had two sons: Thomas W. and Robert, the latter born March 10, 1839, and died February 16, 1840.
Thomas W. Claridge received his educational advantages in England. In the Cathedral at Manchester on the 20th of August, 1856, he and Miss Anna Pollitt were united in the bonds of matrimony and those bonds have never been loosed in the sixty years that have passed since that
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joyful day when he was in his twentieth year and his bride eighteen. She was born in England March 15, 1838.
Immediately after the wedding service in the Cathedral the bride and groom embarked upon a sailing vessel and set out for the United States as a honeymoon voyage, which lasted five weeks and two days. Landing in New York City, they proceeded on their journey to their chosen desti- nation and in the month of November arrived in Franklin Township of Sauk County. Here Mr. Claridge bought 160 acres of raw land. It was a heavy task that confronted him and his young wife. He built a log cabin and they lived to enjoy its simple comforts and gradually the land became adapted to the uses of cultivation and prosperity began to smile upon their efforts. When his parents came on a year or so later he turned over this first quarter section to them and then bought another 160 acres in the same township. As a result of many years of hard labor so common to the pioneer settlers a large farm was developed by their united efforts and the substantial fruits of their earlier toil and management have suffieed to give them comfort and independence in their later years.
In 1882 Mr. and Mrs. Claridge removed to Reedsburg, and for a number of years he was engaged in the real estate business. His influence has also been uplifting and upbuilding in many ways. He represented the second ward as alderman, and was one of the men who laid the founda- tion for Reedsburg's municipal ownership policy. In 1903 Mr. Claridge was appointed postmaster of Reedsburg and held that office for five years. He and his wife now live retired and in comfortable circumstances at their home, 340 Laurel Street.
Mr. Claridge is an honored veteran of the Union army and active in the Grand Army of the Republic. In 1864 he enlisted in Company A of the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin Infantry, and served with that regiment dur- ing the closing campaigns of the war and was present when Lee surren- dered. During the siege of Petersburg he fell unconscious in the trenches and his enemies undertook to end his life. A brother Odd Fellow found some papers in his clothes showing that he, too, was a member of that lodge, and this fraternal brother saved his life though a grave had already been prepared for his body. He saw much active fighting but he was never wounded, although his hat was once shot from his head.
Mr. Claridge arrived in this country during that notable campaign when the republican party had its first standard bearer in the field, Gen- eral Fremont. He identified himself with this new political organization and has never wavered in his allegiance. Official honors, however, have not been an object of aspiration, though he has done much to keep up the party management and to work for his friends. He has steadfastly favored wise public improvement, and has done all he could for the bene- fit of his city, state and nation. For a number of years he was active in the Grange. He is affiliated with Reedsburg Lodge No. 157, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Reedsburg Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, St. Johns' Commandery No. 21, Knights Templar, and while the war was in progress he was made a member of Hope Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Madison, Wisconsin. In religions matters his prefer- ence has always been for the Baptist Church, though he is not a member. His wife was reared an Episcopalian and still adheres to that faith.
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Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Claridge and seven of the children are still living. Sarah Mary, the oldest, married William Clar- idge, son of William Claridge, another pioneer of Sauk County. Their children are Elizabeth, now deceased; Lillie, Alvin, Rubie, Pearl, Clar- ence, Thomas and Albert. John Henry Claridge, the second child, lives at Reedsburg and by his marriage to Eliza Carpenter has five children, named Ralph, May, J. D., Loyal and Ted. Charles, whose home is in Oklahoma, married Emma R. H. Jenson, now deceased, and has one daughter, Eva. The son Thomas is now deceased. Thomas W., a resident of Chicago, married Addie Lane and has one son, Thomas Wesley. George A., assistant postmaster at Reedsburg, married Amelia Essellman and has two children, George and Marion. Joshua, also a resident of Chicago, married Jessie Gayland, of Baraboo, and has two children, Catherine and Gayland. Mary Ellen, now deceased, was the wife of Edward Scheroltz, and left two children, Vera and Milton. The remain- ing child is Mrs. Laura Townsend.
On August 20, 1906, Mr. and Mrs. Claridge celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, and on August 20, 1916, there came the even more notable event of their sixtieth wedding anniversary celebration. At each occasion Mrs. Claridge wrote a poem which was read and gave great pleasure to both her family and many friends. At their sixtieth anni- versary about 300 relatives and friends assembled. It was an event which because of its unusual character attracted wide attention and it was made the subject of a long article in a LaCrosse paper, and a part of that deserves quotation : "An unusual event took place at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Claridge last Saturday when they celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary. The plans for the celebration were all made and carried out by the seven children. The immediate family and near friends were at the home for dinner. The G. A. R. and their wives came 'in the afternoon, staying to enjoy the fireworks which were displayed in the evening. A treat was planned for all the children of the neighborhood, each child receiving a George Washington hat, a jar of candy, ice cream cones and a toy balloon. The music was furnished by the drum corps, Mr. Tibbetts, Mr. Scamans, Mr. Pettis and Mr. Charles Todd.
"Mr. and Mrs. Claridge have seen a great deal of this world's pleasure as well as sorrow. They returned to England to visit their relatives and friends after they had been in this country several years. Mrs. Claridge has crossed the Atlantic seven times. Their friends all over the United States have remembered them on their sixtieth anniversary, sending them their congratulations and best wishes. Even the soldier boys in Texas remembered them."
CASPER E. ACCOLA is a man who has lived in Sauk County for over sixty years, and out of his experiences as a worker and farmer has accumulated one of the most attractive farm estates in Troy Township, his postoffice being Spring Green.
Mr. Accola, like many other worthy and thrifty citizens of Sauk County, was born in Switzerland. His birth year was in 1845, and his parents were Edward and Dora (Bunder) Accola. His parents were
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born and married in Switzerland, and all of their four children were born there, namely: Casper E .; Martha, who married C. Kinchi and lived in Baraboo, where she died; Kate, wife of Kasper Accola, living at Black Hawk; and Margaret, who died on the ocean while the family were coming to America.
The Accola family came to this country in 1855, when the son Casper was ten years of age. They first located in Prairie du Sac Township, where the father bought forty acres and made a very humble beginning with a log home and with very little capital and few instruments to cultivate the farm. At the end of the year he sold out, bought another farm, on which he remained about ten years, and then sold and bought an adjoining place in Sumpter Township, which was his home for about ten years, during which he had greatly improved the land and sold out at greatly increased valne. He next bought eighty acres two miles west of Sauk City, and that was his home until about two years before he died, when he sold out and lived with his son Casper. His death occurred at the age of eighty-six.
Casper E. Accola grew up on the farms of his father in Sauk County and acquired most of his education in Wisconsin. In 1875 he married Sola Rothenberger, daughter of Henry Rothenberger, also a native of Switzerland. Mr. and Mrs. Accola had seven children: Dora, who is married and living in Black Hawk; Lizzie, who died at the age of twenty- nine years; Eddie, married and working his father's farm at Black Hawk; Selina, wife of George Gasser, living at West Point and the mother of two children, named Verna and Irene; Margaret, Mrs. Erwin Litcher, living in Sumpter Township; Arthur, who is unmarried and lives with his father on the farm; and one that died in infancy.
Casper E. Accola made his independent start in life as a farmer in Sauk County, purchasing eighty acres of land. After keeping it for ten years and making a living and increasing its value he sold out and then acquired a farm of 120 acres in Honey Creek Township. This was his home for only two years, when he removed to Black Hawk, and has lived in that community ever since. His home place comprises 110 acres. Mr. Accola has found his profits as a general farmer and stock- raiser and dairyman, and his success is such as to give him a position among the most substantial citizens of Sauk County. The family are all members of the Evangelical Church, and Mr. Accola and his sons vote as republicans.
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