USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 38
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ALGERNON FRY. While many vocations seem necessary to carry on the activities and industries that make a nation happy, comfortable and contented, there is after all but one that is absolutely indispensable to life, and that is agriculture. The teeming millions must be fed and their food must come from the soil. Those sections of old Mother Earth in which farming and stockraising have been encouraged and dignified are today the hope of nations, and the American farmer has, through cir- cumstances, become the most important factor in the world's commerce. Wisconsin has never taken a backward step in agricultural develop- ment since her early pioneer homeseekers came and settled in her rich
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wilderness, and Sauk County well represents her agricultural wealth at present, as well as her finest citizenship.
Algernon Fry, one of Sauk County's leading men and one of her honored Civil war veterans, was born in Lycoming County, Pennsyl- vania, January 1, 1846. His parents were Isaiah and Elizabeth (Wil- son) Fry, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania, the latter being a daughter of John and Hannah (Harrington) Wilson, who came to Sauk County in 1850 and lived for one winter in Baraboo and then settled permanently on Webster Prairie. Both lived into old age, Mr. Wilson being ninety-three at the time of death and his wife was aged eighty- seven years.
The parents of Algernon Fry came with the Wilsons to Sauk County in 1850 and after a short stay in Baraboo also moved to Webster Prairie, but subsequently went to South Dakota and took up a land claim in Lake County, near Wentworth, and there they passed the rest of their lives. They were the parents of the following children: Algernon, Ziba, John W., David, Joel, Henry, Charles, Elizabeth, Mary, Frank and Ernest. The parents were quiet, frugal, law-abiding people and governed their lives according to the peaceful precepts of the Society of Friends.
Algernon Fry had such educational advantages as were afforded at the time in the neighborhood of his father's farm, the first school he at- tended being in the Village of Lyons and was taught by Doctor Cran- dall, a well known resident. Mr. Fry gave his time and attention to the business of farming until, in the course of time, he became the owner of a farm on Webster Prairie, on which he continued to reside until 1898, when he traded that farm for one containing 104 acres which lies in Greenfield Township. On this place he has done the greater part of the improving and has a valuable property. He carries on general farming and is one of the county's large raisers of stock. He has had a large fund of agricultural experience to draw on and his industries are carried on with very satisfying results. While Mr. Fry has been busy as boy and man on his farm, he had not yet attained manhood when he proved that following the plow and herding the stock were not the only important facts in a Wisconsin youth's conception of life. When the Civil war came on he soon discovered an unexpected spirit of loyalty and love of a united country and this led to his enlistment, in February, 1864, in Company A, Nineteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, in which he served with commendable valor until his honorable discharge on August 9, 1865. The Nineteenth was the third regiment to enter the captured capital of the Confederacy and its flag was the first to be raised over Richmond's state house. He was never wounded nor was he made a prisoner, although he participated in such hard fought battles as Fair Oaks and Petersburg and numberous sharp skirmishes. He is a valued member of the Grand Army Post at Baraboo, of which he has been com- mander.
In 1868 Mr. Fry was married to Miss Elizabeth Devine, who was born in Ohio and died in Wisconsin in March, 1896. She was a daughter of John and Effie Devine, who were early settlers in Sauk County. Four children were born to the above marriage, namely: Effie, who
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is the wife of Edward W. Donney, a train dispatcher at Chicago and a well known railroad man, and they have one daughter, Ruth; Allie, who is the wife of John Gillny, of Portland, Oregon; John, who is deceased ; and Howard, who is a resident of Belvidere, Illinois, married Viola Kramer and they have two children, Olive and Lester. In 1897 Mr. Fry was married to Miss Maria Lee, who was born in Delton Township, Sauk County, Wisconsin, December 22, 1856. Her parents were Lathrop L. and Hannah G. (Gardiner) Lee, the former of whom was born in New York in 1823 and the latter in 1830. Mr. Lee came to Sauk County in 1848 and after providing a home went back to New York in the fol- lowing year and when he returned was accompanied by his wife. They located first in Greenfield Township but later moved to Delton Town- ship and then to Baraboo Township, where Mr. Lee died in 1904. Mrs. Lee resides with Mr. and Mrs. Fry. To this marriage five children were born, as follows : Frank, who is deceased; Maria; Mary, who is deceased ; and Charles and Harriet.
In politics Mr. Fry has always been a republican. As a man of fine business ability and of sterling honesty, on many occasions his fellow citizens have shown appreciation by electing him to public office, espe- cially in relation to educational affairs. For sixteen years he served on the school board in Delton Township and for a little over nine years has been chairman of the Greenfield Township Board. His acquaintance over the county is wide and his name is held in respect by all.
CHARLES E. PALMER. Prominent among the members of the retired colony at Baraboo is found Charles E. Palmer, who has had a successful career as business man and farmer and is now enjoying the fruits of his years of labor. With the exception of short periods when he was fight- ing as a soldier of the Union during the Civil war, Mr. Palmer has re- sided at Baraboo and in Sauk County continuously since 1856, and during this time has aided in the progress and development which have characterized the community's growth.
. Mr. Palmer was born in Eaton Township, Madison County, New York, February 21, 1847, being a son of J. Gilbert and Eliza (Crandall) Palmer. J. Gilbert Palmer was born at Athens, Windham County, Vermont, December 12, 1818, and as a young man went to Madison, New York, where he was married September 18, 1844, to Miss Eliza Crandall, who was born at Sangerfield, Oneida County, New York, September 19, 1824. The family came to Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 1856, and here J. Gilbert Palmer followed the trade of plasterer for some years, but later turned his attention to agricultural pursuits and be- came the owner of a farm in Delton Township, Sauk County. His death occurred on this property in 1902, Mrs. Palmer having passed away there in January, 1900. There were four children in the family, namely : Charles E .; Clementine Ruth, born January 23, 1850, at Stockbridge, Madison County, New York; Marion C., born January 24, 1854, who died in infancy ; and Effie Lucinda, born at Baraboo in 1858, and now the wife of S. DeKolyer, of Delton Township.
Charles E. Palmer received his early education in the schools of his native state, but after he was nine years of age he was a resident of
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Baraboo and here completed his studies in the public schools and the old Baraboo Institute. When a youth he learned the trade of plasterer under the guidance of his father, and this was his vocation for some years. He was too young to enlist when the Civil war started, but in February, 1865, he became a member of Company D, Forty-sixth Regi- ment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. Returning to Baraboo when his military experience was finished, he resumed his trade and continued to be engaged in working thereat until March, 1874, when he went to Delton Township and bought a farm. If he had been successful at his trade, he was equally so as a farmer, and through industry and good management developed a property that was well cultivated, highly improved and very productive. It was his home until 1895, in which year he returned to Baraboo and retired from active labor, his present home being at No. 320 Seventh Avenue, a street on which he has lived, at one point and another, for nearly sixty years.
Mr. Palmer is a democrat. He is a stanch adherent of the principles and candidates of his party, but his interest therein has never led him to seek personal preferment at his party's hands. His fraternal affiliation is with Baraboo Lodge No. 34 of the Masonic order, in addition to which he belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic and to the Presbyterian Church.
On March 19, 1868, Mr. Palmer was married to Miss Ann McGilvra, who was born November 20, 1846, at Schuyler, Herkimer County, New York, a daughter of Samuel and Alatheah (Holdridge) McGilvra, natives of that state, the father born April 19, 1829, and the mother February 2, 1829. They came to Sauk County, Wisconsin, at an early day in the history of the county, then returned for a time to New York, but in 1866 again came to this county and settled on a farm not far from Baraboo. There they passed the remainder of their lives, Mr. McGilvra dying November 1, 1894, and Mrs. McGilvra in October, 1895. To Mr. and Mrs. Palmer the following children have been born: Clara E., who died in 1895, at the age of twenty-four years; Daisy C., born in 1875, proprietor of an establishment for the manufacture and sale of furs at No. 320 Seventh Avenue, Baraboo, with a large local trade and excel- lent mail order business, is the wife of A. M. Todd and has one daughter, Elva Lucia, born February 4, 1906, at Placerville, California; and Samuel James, born October 3, 1883, is now auditor of the Public Service Company of Chicago, a firm with which he has been connected for four- teen years, and a resident of the fashionable Chicago suburb, Evanston. He married Miss Maude Lewis, of Baraboo, and has had three children, Dorothea Elizabeth ; Evelyn, who died when two years of age; and Lewis James.
DAVIS HACKETT. The record of Davis Hackett, of Baraboo, is that of a man who has by his own unaided efforts worked his way upward to a position of affluence. His life has been one of industry and per- severance, and the systematic and honorable business methods which have been followed by him have gained him support, confidence and friendship. While he has for several years been retired from active
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pursuits he still takes a keen interest in the welfare and development of his community and is considered one of Baraboo's useful and helpful citizens.
Mr. Hackett was born in the State of Maine, October 18, 1839, and is a son of Hartson and Martha T. (Johnson) Hackett, both natives of the Pine Tree State. The father was born August 2, 1806, and the mother in February of the same year, and in 1853 they came to Sauk County, Wisconsin, and purchased a farm in Fairfield Township. After a num- ber of years passed in successful agricultural operations the parents retired from active labor and located at Baraboo, where Hartson Hackett died in June, 1889, Mrs. Hackett surviving until 1892. Mr. Hackett was originally a whig and later a republican in his political affiliation, and he and his wife attended the Congregational Church. Their chil- dren were as follows: Mary Sears, deceased, who was the wife of the late John Luce; Emily Vaughan, deceased, who became the wife of the late Joseph Luce, who fought as a soldier during the Civil war in the same company as Davis Hackett; Mandilla L., of Sauk County, widow of John Atkinson ; Davis; and Oscar, who died in 1865, at the age of six- teen years.
Davis Hackett commenced his education in the public schools of his native state, and was fourteen years old when he came to Sauk County, his schooling being completed in the old Baraboo Collegiate Institute, the teachers of which at that time were Professor Hobart and his wife. After leaving school he began working in the pine woods, but in 1864 he donned the uniform of his country for service in the Civil war, enlisting in Company M, First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery, with which he served until the close of hostilities. He established an excellent record as a soldier, and at the close of his service returned to Sauk County and engaged in farming in Fairfield Township, where he was the owner of the old homestead until 1880. In that year he was employed by C. L. Coleman, of La Crosse, to act as his agent on the Chippewa River and the Black River in buying logs, contracting for timber and generally looking after the business. In 1883 he came to Baraboo and built a home at the corner of Fourth and Barker streets, to which he moved his family, while he returned to the lumber business, making occasional visits to the city. Mr. Hackett continued to be thus engaged until 1901, when he retired from active labor and came to Baraboo to make his permanent home. The family still resides in the house which Mr. Hackett built in 1883. He is a republican in politics, and at one time was elected police justice, but resigned before the expiration of his term, and has never cared for any other public service. He has been a mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic since 1901, and his family belong to the Congregational Church.
In 1868 Mr. Hackett was married to Miss Carrie Brown, who was born in England, in 1846, a daughter of William and Mary Brown, who on coming to the United States located on Bigfoot Prairie, Illinois. When the Civil war came on Mr. Brown enlisted in the Union army and died while in the service. Later his widow came to Baraboo and made her home with her daughter and son-in-law until her death. Mrs. Hackett died January 6, 1916, having been the mother of four children :
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Jacasa Store
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Millicent M., a graduate of the Baraboo High School and for several years a teacher in the public schools, who married Richard B. Maloney, of Baraboo, and has one son, Richard Addison; Edith M., a graduate of the Baraboo High School and a teacher in the public schools until her marriage to Dr. George L. G. Cramer, a physician of Owosso, Michigan ; Ephraim Leonard, now of Baraboo, but formerly of Oregon, where he owned a transfer line and looked after his father's mining interests, married Annie Kelley, of near Baker City, Oregon, and has two chil- dren, Nathaniel Desmond and Louis; and Carrie Fern, a graduate of the Baraboo High School, the Milwaukee Normal School and Wisconsin University, formerly a teacher at La Crosse for seven years, and during the past two years a teacher in the Baraboo schools, where she now teaches a high school class, unmarried and making her home with her father.
JAMES A. STONE. The lawyer has ever been accorded, by an unwritten law, first place in securing the greatest liberty and the greatest justice for the society of mankind. The idea prevailing when the ancient Roman laws were framed, that he was the best informed as to the rights of man and the limits of government-both of them prescribed by law-exists today to an appreciable extent. No man in our form of civilization is given such privilege to guide the affairs of state to cither glory or dis- honor as is vouchsafed by thinking minds to the lawyer. The fact that, financially speaking, there are rarely compensations in law commensurate with the labor given, lends a prophecy of splendid and distinterested achievement to men sufficiently gifted to become successful lawyers and sufficiently honest to maintain the ethics of the profession. One familiar with the jurisprudence of Sauk County will unhesitatingly place within this sphere of largest usefulness the name of James A. Stone, general practitioner of Reedsburg, former assistant secretary of state, ex-city attorney and alderman, and supporter of those enlightening agencies which make for the permanent well being of the community.
James A. Stone was born at Smithfield, Madison County, New York, December 1, 1856, and is a son of James Riley and Pamela C. (Ellinwood) Stone, both natives of Smithfield. James Riley Stone was a stonemason by vocation, and many fine evidences of his skill and good workmanship are still to be found in New York, an especially good specimen being at the Village of Peterboro, where stands a stone arch bridge marked "Erected A. D. 1854, by J. R. S." Mr. Stone followed his occupation successfully until August 15, 1862, when, feeling that he was needed by his country in its hour of peril, he enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, with which regiment he went to the front as captain of his company. He did not return. After several severe engagements and others of a minor char- acter came the awful struggle at Gettysburg, where his company was cut off and captured by the enemy. Captain Stone spent one year at Libby Prison and was then transferred to Macon, Georgia, where, after untold hardships and privations, he died August 12, 1864. His widow, left with five children, struggled bravely on for a time in the East, but finally decided that in a state further west she would be better able to give them
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advantages and opportunities and accordingly in 1869 started for Reeds- burg, where the little party arrived in December. Later she went to Sully County, South Dakota, after her children had been well established, but returned to Reedsburg on a visit, and here died December 12, 1886; she was buried in this city. The children were as follows: Dr. Willis C., who is a successful practicing physician of Chicago; James A., of this notice; Orna P., who was a student at West Point, received an appoint- ment in the United States Census Department at Washington, D. C., and died in 1881 ; Minna L., who was a teacher in the high school at Madison, Wisconsin, for nine years prior to her marriage to John H. Gabriel, who is now an attorney of Denver, Colorado; and Orlando Lincoln, who is engaged in agricultural pursuits at Cresbard, Faulk County, South Dakota.
James A. Stone attended the public schools of his native place, and was not yet eight years of age when his father died. His mother, how- ever, managed to give him a further educational training, and he was duly graduated from Evans Academy, a private institution at Peterboro, New York, where was situated the stone arch bridge mentioned above. He was thirteen years of age when he came to Reedsburg, an enterprising and ambitious lad, and here entered the Reedsburg high school and was a member of the first graduating class from that institution in 1875. He had determined that he would have a college education, and in the fall of 1875 entered the University of Wisconsin, but soon found his funds inadequate to meet his many expenses, be as economical as he might, and he accordingly gave up his ambition for a time and returned to Reedsburg, where he began to teach school during the winter terms, adding to his income by working in the fields as a farm hand during the summer months. Thus he was able to save some small earnings, and in the fall of 1881 again entered the University of Wisconsin, where he spent two years. In addition to this he had previously had one year of training as a student in the law office of G. Stevens at Reedsburg, and with these qualifications went to South Dakota in 1883 to start practice. Like all young lawyers, he had to go through his probationary period, a trying time for most young men who are endeavoring to get a foothold upon the ladder of success, and in order to piece out his meager legal earnings he worked on a homestead when not engaged with the interests of his clients. In 1887 Mr. Stone returned to Reedsburg and entered the office of R. P. Perry, where he remained until he passed the examination of the state bar, and in 1889 was admitted to practice. From that time to the present his success has been assured, and as the years have passed his cases have become more and more important and his clientele more and more prominent.
Mr. Stone cast his first vote for James A. Garfield as a republican in 1880. He was with the reform movement and LaFollette in 1904 and since that time has acted with the progressive wing of his party in this state. He was a delegate to the national republican conventions of 1912 and 1916 and alternate in 1908, and from 1901 to 1903 served as assistant secretary of state of Wisconsin, resigning in the latter year. At Reeds- burg he has been city superintendent of schools for two years, a member of the Board of Education for one term and city attorney several times,
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and at present is acting as alderman. His entire public service has been characterized by faithful and capable performance of duty, and his record is one which does him honor. Fraternally Mr. Stone is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Masons, belonging in the latter to Reedsburg Lodge No. 157, Free and Accepted Masons, and Reedsburg Chapter. While a Unitarian in his religious belief, he attends the Presbyterian Church. He has various business connections, and is a stockholder in the State Bank of Reedsburg and a director of the Baraboo Valley Agricultural Association and of the Harley Davidson Motor Company of Milwaukee.
On April 19, 1884, Mr. Stone was married to Miss Minnie L. Corwith, of Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, who was born in Troy Township, Sauk County, Wisconsin, March 6, 1857, a daughter of Silas W. and Anna L. (Abrecht) Corwith, the former born at Southampton, Long Island, and the latter in Germany. They were pioneers of Prairie du Sac, where Mrs. Stone's father died, while her mother still survives and makes her home at Reedsburg with her son-in-law and daughter. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stone: Anna L., who was married in March, 1914, to James R. Semple, and died November 5, 1914; Riley, a resident of Reedsburg and a farmer of Sauk County, married Vera Milhaupt, who came to this city from New Holstein, Wisconsin ; and Millie C., who resides at her home with her parents. A son was born to Riley Stone and wife July 6, 1916, and named for his ancester James Riley Stone. Riley Stone was drafted into the service of the United States and left Baraboo August 3, 1917, in charge of the thirty-four men, Sauk County's quota on that date. He was assigned to Company A, Three Hundred and Forty-first Infantry, Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois, where he is now stationed.
WILLIAM DOBRATZ. The Township of Merrimack has no more in- dustrious citizen than Mr. William Dobratz. He owns a large amount of farming land, well and efficiently tilled and most of it cleared and improved. This property represents his individual labors and while constituting a valuable estate is at the same time a valuable contribution to the aggregate resources of the county.
Mr. Dobratz has lived in Wisconsin since he was fifteen years of age. He was born in Germany in 1857, a son of John and Minnie Dobratz, also natives of the fatherland. The family came to Wisconsin in 1871, spending the first ten years in Milwaukee. John Dobratz was an agriculturist and on leaving Milwaukee he moved to Sauk County and acquired a farm of sixty acres in Greenfield Township. In that locality he spent the rest of his life, though he retired from the farm about a year before his death. His widow survived him ten years.
William Dobratz grew up in Germany and in Milwaukee and lived at home until he was twenty-six. He then married Miss Barbara Schinder, daughter of Michael Schinder, of Sauk County, and took up his independent career. Mr. and Mrs. Dobratz have four children : Walter, who is married and living in the Village of Merrimack ; John, still single and a farmer in Merrimack Township; Anna and George, still at home.
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On starting his independent career Mr. Dobratz became a farmer two miles east of Baraboo, where he bought eighty acres. After five years there he moved to Merrimack Township and for eighteen months farmed a place 11/2 miles north of his present location. For the past twenty-six years he has lived on his home farm and has 160 acres, 120 acres of which are under the plow. He has cultivated his land with the staple crops of this region and has also raised considerable stock and has operated a dairy. Besides his home farm he has another 160 acres a mile north, and of this 140 acres are cleared.
It has required constant and vigilant work to build up such a prop- erty, but Mr. Dobratz has not for that reason neglected an active par- ticipation in local affairs. For a number of years he served as a member of the town board and for ten years was on the school board. He is a republican and with his family is a member of the Lutheran Church.
MRS. ADELAIDE P. KEYSAR. Among the old and honored residents of Sauk County few there are whose lives in this community have ex- tended over a longer period of time than has that of Mrs. Adelaide P. Keysar, whose home is now at Prairie du Sac. When Mrs. Keysar arrived in this locality with her parents, an infant in arms, in 1846, the country hereabouts was in the stage of its infancy, nearly as it had been left by the disappearing Indians, with trails instead of roads, comparatively few houses, and these at widely-separated distances, and educational and religious facilities of the most meager kind. She has lived to witness the development of a fertile and prosperous com- munity, a center of agricultural and commercial activity, and the home of modern schools and fine churches, a section prolific with good roads, fine transportation facilities and modern improvements of every kind.
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