USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
755
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
Mr. Herfort bought the old canning factory at Baraboo and under his stimulating direction the business has never failed to return a profit both to its owners and to the community at large. On April 9, 1915, the entire establishment was wiped out by fire, but it was rebuilt and ready for operation by August of the same year. It is now conducted on a larger and better scale than ever. During the canning season from 100 to 150 people are employed and twenty-five teams are also necessary to handle the business. The year around the factory employs on the average about twenty persons. The factory has an output of about 100,000 cases and during the season it is operated to the limit of its capacity. The special products of the Frank Herfort Canning Company are peas and corn. The company owns lands upon which are produced about a third of the crop canned, while individual growers in and around Baraboo raise the rest. About $25,000 are paid out for labor every year.
Mr. Herfort has always been an interested and public spirited citizen of Baraboo. He was one of the charter members of the Baraboo Fire Department and was connected with its operation and maintenance for twenty-eight years. He is a republican and a member of the Knights of Pythias. In 1885 he married Miss Frederica Wilde, who was born in Germany in May, 1860. Mr. and Mrs. Herfort have had three children : Edna died in 1904 at the age of seventeen; Randall H., born July 11, 1895, is a graduate of the Baraboo High School and the Baraboo Business College, and is now a corporal in Company I, Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, having enlisted in July, 1917; and Lawrence Howard, born June 8, 1903, is a student in the public schools.
WILLIAM WICHERN is one of the substantial element of agriculturists and stock husbandmen in Sauk County and has his fine farm in Baraboo Township, in which locality he has practically spent all his life.
He was born in that township August 3, 1869, and is a son of Henry and Charlotte (Frick) Wichern. His father was born in Hanover, Ger- many, in 1827, and his mother was born in West Prussia in 1841. About 1862 they came to Sauk County and located in Baraboo Township. Henry Wichern worked as a renter for several years and during that time cleared up a large amount of land. He finally bought eighty acres near where his son William now lives, and that farm constituted his home and the scene of his active efforts for about thirty years. He died in 1897. He was a republican and a member of the German Methodist Episcopal Church in Baraboo Township. He was one of the regular attendants and supporters of that church when its pastor was John A. Salzer. Henry Wichern was married in Germany when a young man, and by this first marriage had three children : Meta, deceased ; Matthew, in California; and Maggie, living at Osage, Iowa. His second wife was a widow when he married her. She had one child by her first mar- riage, Charles Spaver, now in the drug business at Racine, Wiscon- sin. Henry Wichern and wife by their marriage had two children, William and Albert.
William Wichern grew up on a Sauk County farm and attended the public schools. He learned the lessons of industry and independence at
756
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
an early age and has always applied his efforts chiefly to farming. He is now the owner of 160 acres. The improvements mark it out as one of the notable homesteads in Baraboo Township, and most of the value has been put into the land by his own enterprise. Mr. Wichern has lived there since June, 1897. His place is known as the Cherry Red Ranch. He has had considerable success in the breeding of pure bred Red Polled cattle, high-grade Percheron horses and Rhode Island Red poultry. Besides his interests as a farmer Mr. Wichern is a stockholder in the Excelsior Co-operative Creamery Company of Baraboo. In politics he is a republican and has served as clerk of the school board seven years.
He was married in June, 1897, to Miss Martha Camp, who was born in Sauk County in 1872 and graduated from the Baraboo High School in 1891. She represents a pioneer family here. Her father was the late James Camp, who enlisted from Sauk County and made a most creditable record as a soldier with the Twelfth Wisconsin Infantry. It is estimated that during his campaigning he marched a total distance of 10,000 miles. Mr. and Mrs. Wichern are the parents of four children, Ernest and Bernice, Gerald and Doris. Ernest and Bernice are twins and were born June 14, 1898. Both graduated from the Baraboo High School with the class of 1916 and Bernice is now a student in the Platteville Normal School. Ernest is attending an electrical school in Detroit, Michigan. Gerald was born May 1, 1901, and is in the second year of the high school at Baraboo. Doris, also a school girl, was born May 14, 1906. The family attend the Presbyterian Church.
WILLIAM H. PAYNE has spent practically all the years of an effective and useful lifetime in Sauk County. All other activities have been only incidental to his main vocation as a successful farmer. His home, where he has lived since his marriage, is in Sumpter Township and it constitutes a farm of modern improvements and under a highly efficient system of management.
Mr. Payne was born in 1847 and is a son of Charles and Orpha (Squires) Payne. His father was born in New York State and his mother in Vermont. They were married in New York December 25, 1846, and in the spring of the following year arrived in Wisconsin, first locating in Roxbury, but after a year moving to Sauk County and locating in what was then Kingston, now Sumpter Township. From about 1848 until 1871 he lived on and owned the Ed Payne farm at Stones Pocket. He then moved to a new farm which he had bought at the locality known as Payne's Corners, and in that locality he was busily engaged with his farming and other affairs until 1898. In that year he moved to Prairie du Sac, and lived retired until his death on June 22, 1907. He was born July 16, 1824, in the town of Massena, St. Lawrence County, New York, and was nearly eighty-three years old when he died. His wife died August 28, 1900, and he afterwards married Mrs. Julia Durkee, of Prairie du Sac, who died in July, 1913. While living at Stones Pocket Charles Payne helped build the first log schoolhouse in that section. In the early days he did his farming and clearing with the aid of oxen and had a reputation as a most efficient man in swinging the cradle at harvest
757
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
time. He was able to cut five acres a day .. In using oxen for breaking up the land it was customary to drive as many as ten yoke and the plow was what was known as the "bull plow," and would cut a furrow three feet wide. Charles Payne was a very progressive man and he owned the first horse rake in the township. Before he got his land under culti- vation he employed his services as a teamster and would haul produce to Milwaukee with his oxen and bring back provisions and other supplies for local merchants. Later he spent all his time and energies on his farm. For many years, until the construction of railways through the locality and the establishment of mills, he hauled his grain and produce to Madi- son, Portage, Baraboo and other convenient railway points.
William H. Payne was one of a family of four children. His brother J. C. Payne lives in Baraboo. Another brother is Isaac Payne. His only sister, Elizabeth, is the widow of Oran McGilvra, who died in 1912 in Sumpter Township.
William H. Payne attended the local schools in Sumpter Township, and his early environment was that of the typical Wisconsin farm boy. In June, 1877, he married Persis Dennett, a daughter of John and Martha (Morrill) Dennett. For forty years Mr. and Mrs. Payne lived together, sharing their joys and troubles and their increasing prosperity, and it was a heavy loss and affliction when she was taken away on Febru- ary 3, 1917. She was the mother of two children. George was born in 1880 and died in 1882. The daughter, Martha Orpha, was born in 1883 and is the wife of Mr. John Meisser, a son of John M. Meisser and wife, who were formerly residents of Prairie du Sac, but for the past four years have lived in Montana. Mr. and Mrs. John Meisser live with her father and Mr. Meisser, besides operating his own farm of eighty acres, has the management of the Payne farm of 120 acres. He is a very com- petent agriculturist and is making these farms pay handsomely. Mr. and Mrs. Meisser have one child, Sybil, born in 1907. She is the only grandchild of Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne in politics is a republican. Besides his work as a farmer he has found time to make himself a useful factor in the community and has never neglected the poor and the distressed, the call to neighborly duty and the co-operation with all good things.
MICHAEL HANLEY was one of those sturdy pioneers who helped to clear up and develop the wood lands of Sauk County. He lived a very active and energetic life, was a man of usefulness to himself, his family and his community, and his name is one that deserves to be enrolled per- manently among the pioneers of this section.
He was born in Ireland August 27, 1834. He was early left an orphan and he was reared largely in the home of his bachelor cousin, Michael Hanley. This cousin early came across the waters and located in Provi- dence, Rhode Island, and young Michael joined him there when fourteen years of age. Through the influence of his cousin he was able to attend public schools in Connecticut and he also learned farming in that state. At Providence he learned the machinist trade, serving a three years' apprenticeship. In 1856 his brother, John Hanley, had come west to
758
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
Sauk County. With James Norton as a partner he took up a tract of Government land here. James Norton was subsequently lost during a hard winter in Sauk County and was frozen to death before he could reach a settlement. John. Hanley retained the land which he and his partner had taken up.
In December, 1860, Mr. Hanley came to Sauk County and in the spring of 1861 bought eighty acres of land from C. J. Lamb. He and his cousin Michael cleared up this tract, and subsequently the bachelor cousin bought the 149 acres where Mrs. Michael Hanley now lives. The bachelor cousin subsequently gave Michael the farm. This cousin died in Minnesota.
Michael Hanley cleared up and improved a good farm in Sauk County and he erected a fine barn, which was struck by lightning and destroyed. He also improved a good home, and was a man of substantial prosperity before his death, which occurred October 9, 1903. He was independent in politics, was assessor of his township and lent his influ- ence steadily to the improvement of roads and other facilities.
He first married in Providence, Rhode Island, Mary Kelley, and by that union there was six children. In 1876 he married Bridget Dockery. Mrs. Hanley was born at Providence, Rhode Island, March 24, 1847, a daughter of James and Catherine (Leicey) Dockery. Her parents came from Ireland to New York and later settled in Providence, where her father worked at his trade as a mason. In the course of time he acquired two farms and gave his later years to their improvement. James and Catherine Dockery were married in 1843, and both of them died on the same day, December 3, 1865.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Michael Hanley located on their farm in Freedom Township, and Mrs. Hanley has lived there for over forty years. The family are members of the Catholic Church at Baraboo. /
Mrs. Hanley is the mother of eight children. Frank is a farmer and a bee man in Freedom Township. Mark has spent the last eleven years in Canada. Walter died at the age of eight years and James Augustine died at the age of eighteen months. Mary is a trained nurse now living in Milwaukee. Peter Clarence is a prospector and spends his time in British Columbia. Albert is deceased. Edna is the wife of Robert Stewart, having formerly been a teacher in Sauk County.
John Hanley, a brother of the late Michael Hanley, and previously referred to, came to Sauk County in 1856 and bought a farm of 134 acres in Freedom Township. He cleared up the land and lived there success- fully and honorably until his death in 1905, at the age of seventy-six. He married Rose Bennett, of Providence, Rhode Island, and she is now living in Rusk County, Wisconsin. John Hanley was a republican and was chairman of his township board and for some years served as assessor and justice of the peace. He was an active member of the Catholie Church. He and his wife had ten children, four of whom are still living : James, in North Dakota ; Mrs. O. B. Gray, also in North Dakota; Edward, in Minnesota; and Mrs. Julia Hasson, of Rusk County, Wisconsin.
CHARLES HENRY GOEDECKE. When Mr. Goedecke was born in Troy Township of Sauk County December 12, 1860, his parents were living
759
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
in one of the log houses which were typcial of the time and which indi- cated the fact of their pioneer ventures in this section of Wisconsin. This is an old and honored family name, and much has been done that can be traced directly to the worthy efforts of the Goedeckes. Charles Henry Goedecke has long been an active merchant at Ableman, and while his business affairs have prospered he has also found opportunity to serve his community in public positions.
His parents were John Henry Louis and Julia Henrietta Anna (Mors- bach) Goedecke. His father was born in Brunswick, Germany, in 1834 and his mother was born in Germany in 1836. The latter came to Mil- waukee in 1847 with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Morsbach. John H. L. Goedecke located in Milwaukee in 1852, and he married his wife there. For several years they lived in Waupun and Cross Plains, and then went as pioneers into Troy Township in Sauk County and secured a tract of Government land. For three years the father clerked at Sauk City for Charles Nebel and in 1865 he removed to Spring Green and engaged in business there with his brother-in-law, Jacob Witzel. That firm continued at Spring Green five years. In 1869 Mr. Witzel sold his share in the store to Adam Fey. In 1871 the firm of Fey & Goedecke established a store at Ableman, and built up and conducted for years the leading general merchandise establishment of that community. After the senior partners reached an age where they did not desire to continue active in responsibilities they turned matters over to their sons, and the business is still conducted under the name Fey & Goedecke Company.
John Henry Louis Goedecke was a democrat in politics. For fifteen years he held the office of postmaster at Ableman. He and his good wife lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary on October 26, 1906, and that was an occasion of great rejoicing for them and their children and many friends. The father died December 13, 1915, nearly ten years later, while his wife passed away April 28, 1910. They were the parents of three sons and one daughter: Charles Henry ; Louis, of Knapp, Wisconsin; Hugo, of Kilbourn, Wisconsin ; and Ella, wife of Victor Ralofsky, a resident of Joplin, Missouri, and owner of some zinc and lead mines at Miami, Oklahoma.
Charles Henry Goedecke was reared in several different communities, including Sauk City and Spring Green. He attended public school at the latter place and also at Ableman. His first teacher was James Lott, and he also attended school under Mrs. N. M. Bliss of Baraboo. He gave up his studies and faced the practical world at the age of thirteen and did not attend school again until he was twenty-four, when for a brief four months he was a student at Winona, Wisconsin, and at the same time was employed in the store of Kingsbury & Holland in that town. In the meantime he had worked in a stave mill at Ableman and also had some arduous experience in the lumber woods.
In 1885 Mr. Goedecke returned to Ableman and became a member of the firm with his father. After two and a half years he sought a larger field for his business and going to Chicago gained a metropolitan experi- ence as clerk in different grocery stores. He lived there for a number of years, in 1902 returned to Ableman and then took up an active part Vol. II -- 13
.
760
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
in the business established by his father and assumed most of the responsi- bilities of his father's interests.
Mr. Goedecke is a republican in politics. While his father was post -- master at Ableman he served as assistant for about two years. For four years he was village treasurer, and has shown himself ever ready and. willing to aid in any enterprise for the betterment of the community. He is an active member of the Commercial Club and belongs to the German Singers' Society.
Mr. Goedecke was married in 1893, at Chicago, to Miss Helen Reichow, who was born in Germany in 1873, a daughter of Albert Reichow, now a resident of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Goedecke have had a happy and ideal home life, and in the course of years nine children have blessed their union. All these children are still living, mentioned briefly as follows : Walter, born May 28, 1894, is now a second lieutenant and is at Camp Green, North Carolina, expecting soon a call to France; Raymond, born March 13, 1896; Irving, born August 16, 1899; Harold, born January 8, 1902; Hazel, born February 5, 1904; Roy, born July 18, 1905; Louis, born October 26, 1906; Victor, born March 28, 1909; and Hubert, born January 19, 1910.
BENJAMIN G. PADDOCK (deceased), and Herbert E. Paddock, his son, have long been identified with the business, industrial, financial and pub- lic activities of Lavalle and the county. When the father came to Wis- consin from New York in 1858 he settled at Ironton Village, then quite a manufacturing town. There he engaged in business, served as postmaster of the village, town clerk and justice of the peace and, in 1871, when he- commenced his term as sheriff, moved to Baraboo. At the end of his term he returned to Ironton, in 1873 opened a store a Lavalle, and in 1876 fixed his residence there. At that point he also engaged in the manufacture of barrel staves, served as postmaster, in 1888 was elected to the Legis- lature, and died at Lavalle in March, 1900. Herbert E. succeeded to his father's interests and in 1902 organized the State Bank of Lavalle, of which he has since been president.
EDWARD V. ALEXANDER, long and prominently known in Baraboo, represents an old family name of that city, and his wife's people were also influential in the early days of Sauk County.
Mr. Alexander was born in the City of Baraboo, in a house where the railway depot now stands. His birth occurred December 5, 1852. His parents were Dr. Josephus and Mary (Hazen) Alexander. Dr. Josephus Alexander was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1820. His wife was born in New York State in 1826, but when a girl her parents removed to Waterloo in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. Dr. Josephus Alexander came to Sauk County when a young man, and was married in 1850. He took up his residence in Baraboo and was in active proctice as a physician until 1855. His partner in practice was Doctor Arnold. Dr. Josephus Alexander died in 1857, when his son Edward was only five years of age. His widow survived him many years and passed away in 1908. They had just two children, and the daughter, Mary, died in infancy.
761
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
Edward V. Alexander was educated at Baraboo principally, both at the public and private schools. He was in the private school conducted by Professor Kimball. Mr. Alexander's chief business activity is looking after his farming interests, and he owns twenty acres in the corporation limits, formerly the property of his father. His father had taken up forty acres of Government land adjoining Baraboo, and it is a portion of this estate which Edward V. Alexander still occupies. In politics he is a republican and has been quite active in local affairs. He served as supervisor of Baraboo for several years, an office he still holds, and for the past three years has been chairman of the committee on county build- ings. He is member of the Unitarian Church.
In 1903 Mr. Alexander married Miss Eva J. Slye. She was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, March 15, 1852, a daughter of Dr. L. Calvin and Abigail Annette (Church) Slye. The late Doctor Slye, whose name is so familiar to many of the older generation in Sauk County, was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, July 15, 1815. He studied medicine, and when a young man located for practice at Waukesha, Wisconsin. While there he practiced as an allopath. At Waukesha he met Miss Church, who was born in Newport, New Hampshire, December 5, 1818, and was on a visit to Waukesha at the time. They soon afterwards returned to Jefferson County, New York, and were married at Henderson in that county May 27, 1847. Doctor Slye continued practice at Waukesha, but in 1857 removed to Baraboo, where he became a homeopathic physician. He was very successful and skillful in his work and continued his professional work for many years. His death occurred February 2, 1898, and his wife passed away April 13th of the same year. Doctor Slye was noted as a student, both in his profession and in general literature. He was a follower of the Swedenborgian faith and in politics was a republican. Many years ago he built the home at 226 Sixth Avenue in Baraboo, which is now owned by Mrs. Alexander. Doctor Slye and wife had two daugh- ters': Eva Jane, Mrs. Alexander; and May Bell, who was born April 30, 1859, and died September 3, 1862.
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander are very active members of the Sauk County Historical Society. Mr. Alexander is one of the curators of the society, and his wife is the treasurer. Mrs. Alexander was liberally educated. She attended the public schools of Baraboo and also the fine private school taught by Miss Lucy and Miss Laura Lawrence. The school occupied a building where the Episcopal Church now stands. Mrs. Alexander prior to her marriage taught in Lyons and at Ableman, and while living in Ableman she boarded at the home of Colonel Ableman, the founder of that town.
WILBUR D. JOHNSON. Now living retired at Baraboo, Wilbur D. Johnson has played a very active role in business affairs in Sauk County. His people were in Wisconsin while it was still a territory, and various. members of the family have done their part in redeeming Sauk County from the wilderness.
Mr. Johnson was born at Fayette in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, December 12, 1850. His parents first located in Lafayette County and
762
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
from there came to Sauk County. He is a son of William B. M. and Phebe Ann (Eaton) Johnson. His father was born in Shelby County, Indiana, January 27, 1819, while the mother was born in Ohio in 1827. In 1841 William B. M. Johnson came to Wisconsin and located in Lafayette County, where he lived until after his marriage. Miss Eaton arrived in the same county in 1845 with her parents, who spent the rest of their lives in that section. In October, 1853, William B. M. Johnson and wife removed to Sumpter Township of Sauk County and bought a farm of eighty acres at King's Corners. They lived there and prospered for a number of years but subsequently moved out to Iowa, where the father died in 1893. His widow subsequently went to live with her daughter, Mrs. Flora Riley, in North Dakota, and died there in 1908. They had a very large family of children: Byron, deceased; Charles, deceased ; Louisa, deceased; Wilbur D .; Lyman; Clarina, deceased ; Joshua; Walter, deceased; Crete; Ransom, deceased ; Joseph ; and Flora.
Wilbur D. Johnson was reared on a farm in Sauk county. He at- tended public schools until fifteen years of age and he early learned the lessons of industry and that the most substantial successes of life come to determined energy and a logical purpose. He took up farming for himself and for a short time he lived in Iowa. Returning to Sauk county, he resumed farming in Sumpter township and was one of the substantial agriculturists of that section for two years, and then moved to Excelsior township, where he farmed for sixteen . years. In 1899 Mr. Johnson moved into Reedsburg and for ten years was local repre- sentative of the Standard Oil Company. He then established a farmers' hitch barn in Reedsburg, and in 1915 he sold that business and estab- lished a similar one in Baraboo, which he conducted for a year and a half before selling ont. Mr. Johnson then established the Johnson Stor- age Garage at the corner of Oak and Fifth streets, and he still owns the establishment, though it is leased and under operation by another man. Mr. Johnson was one of the organizers of the Excelsior Cheese Factory and was treasurer and sales manager for a number of years. He also helped organize the canning factory at Reedsburg. Thus his enterprise has been helpful in giving Sauk county some of its substantial business enterprises.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.