USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 39
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Mrs. Keysar is a native of the old Granite state. She was born in a house on the banks of Indian Stream at Pittsburg, Coos County, New Hampshire, in 1845, being a daughter of Joshua and Harriet (Hall) Perkins. Her father was born in New Hampshire, where the family was an old and numerous one, among his brothers and sisters being Nathaniel and Hiram Perkins, Mahala (Perkins) Bunnell and Polly, a sister who was also married but the name of whose husband is now forgotten. All save Joshua passed their lives in the East. The Hall family came from New York, where Mrs. Perkins was born, and when members of this family came to Wisconsin they settled in Dodge County, where they became a part of the agricultural community. Mr. and Mrs. Perkins were married in New Hampshire, where they resided for several years, the father being engaged in agricultural pursuits. He found the soil unproductive and his labor unremunerative, and after an endeavor to make his operations pay decided to try his fortune in the West, where land was to be secured cheap and where he felt he could get a start upon the road to independence. Accordingly, in 1846, with his wife and child, he made the long and dangerous trip across the country to Sauk County, stopping for a short period at the little settle- ment of Prairie du Sac, at that time just a cluster of rude houses inhabited by the sturdy pioneers and then pushing on two miles west of the hamlet, where he took up land from the United States Govern-
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ment. This he secured for what today would be considered a ridicu- lously small price. For the next fifteen years he farmed this land faithfully and industriously, thus making some headway with his finances, and then sold out and moved to Rolling Prairie, Dodge County, in the same community in which his wife's family had made their settlement. The new locality did not suit him, he soon became home- sick, and in a short time he returned to Sauk County and took up his residence at Prairie du Sac, where he engaged in the nursery busi- ness, doing tree-grafting in a small way for the rest of his active career. His death occurred in 1895, when he was seventy-seven years of age. Mr. Perkins was extremely fond of his home, and for that reason was not to be found taking any prominent part in activities which would carry him far from his fireside and family. He voted the democratic ticket at election times and did his share in contributing to the advance- ment. of his community, but never cared for public office nor felt him- self called upon to serve in such. A faithful member of the Universalist Church and a deacon therein, he was very strongly set in his religious sentiments, and exemplified his faith in his every-day life. For a number of years he belonged to the Masons, but finally withdrew from that fraternal body.
Adelaide P. Perkins was an infant when brought to Sauk County, and her childhood was passed amid pioneer scenes and surroundings. She secured her first schooling in Yanka Street, about two miles west of Prairie du Sac, where all the Yankas had settled at that time, and later went to the public schools of Prairie du Sac. She remained at home as a dutiful daughter helping her parents until she was married, at the age of twenty-four years, in 1869, to Holmes C. Keysar, who at that time was engaged in the mercantile business at Prairie du Sac. Later Mr. Keysar embarked in the stock and grain business and built up a fine enterprise in spite of the numerous difficulties attending a venture of that kind during those days. As there were no railroads he was compelled to ship everything via the steamboat Ellen Haidy on the Wisconsin River to Portage, to meet the Chicago, Milwaukce & St. Paul Railroad, while his stock he drove to Merrimac, fifteen miles, to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Furthermore, produce brought only a small price, butter being frequently as low as 5 cents per pound and eggs 8 cents per dozen. In spite of all obstacles he developed a paying and successful business, and in 1905 was enabled to retire from commercial cares and worries. Up to that time he had never found time for rest or pleasure, but in that year he built a cottage at Lake Mendota, where he and his family spent the summers thereafter in hunting and fishing, while in the winters they lived at Prairie du Sac. His death occurred here May 4, 1915. Mr. Keysar was a member of the Masonic order, in good standing. His people belonged to the Unitarian Church, and while he never united with that faith, he sup- ported it generously and donated liberally to the building of the church of that denomination at Prairie du Sac.
Mrs. Keysar still makes her home at the thriving little city where she arrived seventy-one years ago. She is widely known to the people
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here, where her friends are legion, and where she is greatly esteemed for the many excellencies of her mind and the kindnesses of her heart.
JAMES H. TURNER. By the accident of birth James H. Turner is a native of England, though his entire life since infancy has been spent in Wisconsin, most of it in Sauk County. Mr. Turner learned a me- chanical trade when a young man, but his most productive efforts have been put in as a farmer, and he now owns one of the well improved places in Baraboo Township.
He was born in England November 4, 1846, a son of James and Sarah Turner. His parents were also natives of England, and in 1846, the year their son James was born, they immigrated to America and first located in Walworth County, Wisconsin, moved from there in 1848 to Milwaukee, and soon afterward came to Merrimack in Sauk County. Here for a time James Turner, Sr., operated the ferry over the Wis- consin River for Walter P. Flanders. From there he removed to Baraboo and became identified with the firm of Pouiton & Brown in the pottery business. By trade he was a mason. His death occurred in Baraboo Township in 1873 and his wife died there in 1871. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and his family followed him in the same religious worship. There were four children: George, who served in the Forty-sixth Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil war and died November 8, 1865; Elizabeth, who lives on Eighth Avenue in Baraboo, is the widow of Romine Van Orman; James H .; and Mary Ann, wife of Henry Brisco, who was also in the Forty-sixth Wisconsin Infantry, their home now being in Baraboo.
James H. Turner was reared at Baraboo, attended the public schools, and on leaving school learned the trade of mason. In 1887 he began farming in Baraboo Township, and acquiring a tract of seventy acres he cleared most of it and put it in condition for cultivation. That is his present home and all its valuable improvements are the results of his energy and good management. One experience of his earlier career should be recalled. In 1871 he and Henry Cowles hauled the first rail- road iron for what was known as the Steam Shovel Cut at the end of Devil's Lake.
Mr. Turner is a democrat in politics but has never sought public office. He was married in 1870 to Miss Esther Jane Brown. Mrs. Turner was the first white child born in Summit Township of Juneau County, Wisconsin. Her birth date was October 31, 1851. Her parents, Thomas and Esther Brown, were among the pioneers of Juneau County. Mr. and Mrs. Turner had three children. Isabel died when eight years old. Cora is living in Baraboo and the widow of William McFarland. She has one child, Vern William McFarland, who is a graduate of the public schools of Fairfield Township and is now in the second year of the Baraboo High School. George William, the youngest child, is still at home and unmarried.
AARON F. TEEL. If any resident of Sauk County has reason to feel at home in this rich and beautiful part of Wisconsin it would seem to be Aaron F. Teel, widely known and universally esteemed, for almost
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three-quarters of a century have rolled away since he, a boy of eight years, was brought by his parents to his present home. For seventy- one years Mr. Teel has lived on this farm in Fairfield Township, in which part of the county he has long been a man of large importance, not only because of his wealth but because he has always taken so deep an interest in its progress and development.
Aaron F. Teel was born in St. Lawrence County, New York, November 27, 1837. His parents were Benjamin and Phoebe (Morrill) Teel. They were born in Massachusetts and lived in St. Lawrence County, New York, when rumors reached that section of the great agricultural possibilities offered in the but sparsely settled territory of Wisconsin. They were courageous and enterprising people and the sus- pected hardships of pioneer life did not prevent their deciding to seek a new home in the rich territory that then was largely given over to foreign settlement. They came by water and the impression made by the little Town of Chicago, lying on her sand flats, was not favorable enough to make them desire to pause there as they passed through. They continued on their journey and crossed the Wisconsin River at Portage on September 15, 1845, on their way to Sauk County, their objective point, and settled at once on the land in Fairfield Township which has been the home of their son Aaron F. to the present time. They both died there, the mother in 1869, at the age of sixty-six years, and the father in 1885, he having reached his eighty-fifth year. They were the parents of seven children, namely: Hannah, who was the wife of P. J. Parshall, survived to be ninety-one years old; Joseph, who was also an example of family longevity, died when aged eighty years ; Lucy, who is deceased, was the wife of Benjamin Clerk; Rebecca, who is deceased, was the wife of James Battles; Aaron F .; Susan, who is the wife of Porter Buck, of Reedsburg, Wisconsin; and Almina, who is the wife of Joseph Hackett, of Baraboo. The mother of the above family was a member of the Congregational Church.
Aaron F. Teel obtained his education in the public schools which became well established soon after the admission of Wisconsin to state- hood in 1848. Farming and stock-raising have engaged his attention since boyhood and in all his undertakings a sense of good judgment has prevailed and made them successful. For a number of years he was numbered with the heavy landowners of the county, having over 700 acres, and he still retains 380 acres, all of which is exceedingly valuable. Although now retired from active participation in the farm industries, his interest is not lost and his judgment on all agricultural matters remains unimpaired.
Mr. Teel was married in 1861 to Miss Mary Watts, who was born in Ohio in 1835, and her parents too, Joseph and Sophia Watts, were early settlers in Sauk County, where they died when full of years. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Teel, two sons and two daughters, namely : Frank D .; Lillie, who is the wife of P. W. Post, residing at Evanston, Illinois; Nelson, who is a farmer in Fairfield Township, married Emma Malloy, a member of one of the old county families; and May S., who is the wife of Robert Schneller, who is a
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farmer in Fairfield Township. They are all people of business and social prominence ..
Mr. Teel was reared, by his father, to believe in the principles of the democratic party, and this organization has always received his hearty support. He has always taken much interest in educational matters in his township, which, largely through his efforts, has ex- cellent schoolhouses and good teachers, and for over thirty years he has served as treasurer of the school board in his district. In him Fairfield Township has had a wise, practical and honest supervisor and also assessor, and he has served in these offices for over a quarter of a century. He has always been a leader in his community in all move- ments looking to the public welfare and his influence counts largely when subjects of county, state or national moment are brought forward for discussion, for his fellow citizens have entire confidence in his good judgment and unselfish opinion.
EDWARD P. TERRY. Farming and stockraising have been industries in which the Terry family of Sauk County have met with success. This well known family was established here in 1853, when Patrick Terry and his young wife came to Baraboo from Milwaukee, where they had been married. Patrick Terry was born in Ireland, in 1837, and was a young man when he came to America. He found work as a laborer in Wisconsin and helped to build the first railroad that entered Madison and also assisted in the construction work of the branch of the North- western Railroad which was extended to Baraboo. In Milwaukee, Wis- consin, he was married to Ellen Tinnel, who was born in Ireland in 1838, and they had four children born to them: Patrick, who died at the age of twelve years; Edward P .; Margaret, who died when aged sixteen years; and John, who is a member of the household of. his brother Edward P. Terry. When Patrick Terry began farming it was on a tract of forty acres situated in Delton Township, and through his industry and good management as years passed by he became the owner of 310 acres. He was a son of Edward Terry and, like all of the name, was a man of sterling character. In politics he was a democrat and all his life was a faithful member of the Roman Catholic Church. His wife died September 28, 1898, but Mr. Terry survived until February 20, 1917.
Edward P. Terry, who owns eighty acres of the old Terry Homc- stead of 310 acres, was educated in the public schools in Delton Town- ship and has always devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. In addi- tion to the farm land he owns in this township, Mr. Terry has 160 acres in South Dakota and lived there for fourteen months. He has made many substantial improvements on his farm and has everything very comfortable. In politics he is a democrat. Being a sound business man and highly respected citizen, he has often been mentioned for public office in his neighborhood, but has never consented to accept any position except membership on the school board.
Mr. Terry was married October 25, 1886, to Miss Ann Mullowney, who was born near Mauston, Juneau County, Wisconsin, February 7, 1864, and is a daughter of Patrick and Mary (Dorsey) Mullowney.
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The father of Mrs. Terry was born in 1828 in Ireland, and the mother was born in 1836 at Syracuse, New York. They were married in Juneau County, Wisconsin, and settled in Seven-Mile Creek Township, where he took up Government land. The mother of Mrs. Terry died there in 1896 and the father in 1908. They had a family of eleven children, as follows: Eliza, Mary, Edward, Ann, Ellen, James, John, William, Kate, Severnia and Frances, all of whom are living except William and Frances.
To Mr. and Mrs. Terry six children have been born, namely : Mary, who is the wife of Robert Cleary; Margaret, who is a popular teacher in the county, attended the Reedsburg training school and was grad- uated in 1911 from the La Crosse State Normal School, and for seven years has devoted herself to educational work; Helen, who, like her sister, is well educated, after graduating from the Reedsburg High School becoming a student in the La Crosse State Normal School, from which she was graduated in 1911, and has been a successful teacher for four years; Patrick, who is a farmer in Delton Township; and Francis and Edward, both of whom died in infancy. Mr. Terry and family belong to the Roman Catholic Church.
SYLVESTER E. KING. Shrewd business ability, special adaptiveness to his calling, appreciation of its many advantages, and belief in his own power to succeed, placed Sylvester E. King among the foremost and most substantial promoters of agriculture in Sauk County. From the prairies his unaided industry brought forth ample means, permit- ting his retirement to Baraboo in 1912 and his consigning to younger hands the tasks that made up the sum of his existence during his active years. He has a modern and well-furnished home at 115 Sixth Avenue, and is regarded as one of the financially strong and morally high retired farmers.
Mr. King was born on Sauk Prairie, Sauk County, Wisconsin, Jan- uary 12, 1845, and is a son of Eli and Clarinda (Eaton) King. He belongs to one of the old families of this region, his grandfather, Hosea King, having settled on Sauk Prairie among the pioneers of 1842. He became one of the extensive and prominent farmers of his day, and when he founded a hotel a small community grew up about it, the name of the hamlet being called King's Corners in his honor. He had come from Ohio, and by his two marriages was the father of ten children, among whom were: Eli, Hosea, Garress Norman, David, Solomon, Lucinda and Alvira, by his first wife, and Reuben and two others by his second wife. Eli King, father of Sylvester E., was born in Ohio and there educated, reared and married, his wife, Clarinda Eaton, being also a native of the Buckeye State. They accompanied Hosea King's party to Sauk County in 1842, and here Eli King bought out a claim of 120 acres, to which he subsequently added forty acres, and still later twenty acres, continuing to be engaged in farming throughout his life. . He was one of the industrious and energetic men of his community, an intelligent farmer who used the most modern methods of his day and a man bearing an excellent reputation in business circles. As he had learned the blacksmith trade in his youth he often had recourse to
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this vocation, not alone in the repairing of his own implements and tools, but in doing work for the farmers of his neighborhood, and his little blacksmith shop stood as a landmark and memento of the old days until recent years. As a citizen Mr. King filled various township offices, and for quite a period was a member of the school board. He and his wife were the parents of six children : Sylvester E .; Euphemia, deceased ; Malinda, deceased; Mary, deceased; Myrtie, who is the wife of Grant Pobjoy and resides on the old Pobjoy family homestead in Sauk County ; and Irving, deceased.
The boyhood and youth of Sylvester E. King were passed on the homestead farm, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of agricul- tural work, while his education was secured first in an old log school- house on Sauk Prairie and later at the old Baraboo Institute, under the instruction of Professor Hobert. He adopted farming when he came of age and succeeded to the old family homestead, which he managed to such good advantage that when he was ready for retirement he had accumulated 230 acres. This was a well-developed, fertile and finely- improved farm, which Mr. King sold to his son-in-law in 1912, on March 3d of which year he took up his residence at Baraboo. He has since lived in quiet retirement, enjoying the comforts that his years of hard labor had earned. Mr. King is a republican and for a long period was one of the prominent and influential men of his party in his locality. He served as township treasurer for five years, as a member of the school board in Sumpter Township for fifteen years, and as justice of the peace for five years, and his public record was one which was clean and commendable, his services always being of a character to attract and retain the confidence of the people of his community. With his family he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has been generous in his support of worthy enterprises, whether civic, religious or charitable, and his influence has been felt in the securing of reforms which has made his section better governed and a more desirable place in which to reside.
Mr. King was married March 24, 1869, to Miss Salome Almeda Burdick, who was born July 31, 1849, in Clinton County, New York, daughter of Stephen and Betsey (Cadwell) Burdick, natives of the Empire State, the former born in 1823 and the latter in 1826. The parents of Mrs. King brought their family to Sauk County, Wisconsin, in 1851, and located first in Baraboo Township, where they bought a farm, but subsequently sold this and went to Sauk Prairie, where they obtained another property. There Mrs. Burdick died in 1863, having been the mother of the following children: Amelia, deceased; Ira, who died March 5, 1917; Salome Almeda, who became Mrs. King; Mary, Julia and William, who are all deceased; Charles H., who is a passenger locomotive engineer on the Northwestern Railway and resides at Bara- boo; and Clementine and Peter, who are deceased. Mr. Burdick was later married to Miss Amanda Roberts, and they became the parents of two children : Edwin and Clara, the former of whom is now deceased. When he was elected to the office of sheriff of Sauk County in 1864 Mr. Burdick came to make his home at Baraboo, having formerly been chair- man of the board of township supervisors in Sumpter Township and a
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member and clerk of the school board. He was likewise a member of Baraboo Lodge No. 34, Free and Accepted Masons. Later he went to North Freedom, where he became foreman of a fence gang in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, and while thus engaged was at the head of thirty men. Still later he went to Waukesha, Wisconsin, where he attended gates at the railroad crossing until his retirement, when he returned to Baraboo, and here died in 1906. His widow, who survives him, resides at North Yakima, Washington. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. King were Lester and Hannah Burdick, who came to Sauk County in 1851 and passed their lives here, the former being for many years a well known veterinary surgeon.
One child was born to Mr. and Mrs. King: Bessie, born in 1871, who became the wife of Marvin Wilson, of Sauk Prairie, and they had one son, Ivan, born in 1898. The mother died in 1900, and her husband and son are now residing on a cattle ranch in North Dakota.
I. J. NORRIS, one of the oldest men living in Merrimack Township, being now in his ninetieth year, has been a resident of Sauk County since the early '70s and has lived a purposeful and worthy life and one that entitles him to the high respect paid his name. Mr. Norris was born at Danbury, New Hampshire, November 27, 1827. His birth occurred while Andrew Jackson was President of the United States, before a single line of important railroad had been constructed in this country or in the world, and only two years after the opening of the Erie Canal to traffic. He was almost grown before the telegraph was invented, and was nearly past military age when the Civil war was fought. Few men have had such a remarkable period of history within their own lives.
Mr. Norris is a son of William C. and Sarah (Elliott) Norris. His father was born in Massachusetts, and early moved to New Hampshire. The mother was a native of England and brought to this country by her parents when she was a small child. She died in New Hampshire in 1877 and the father in 1879.
I. J. Norris grew up and received his schooling in the district schools of New Hampshire. When he was thirty-one years of age in 1858 he married Harriet Augusta Leeds, who was born in 1840. They lived together seven years after celebrating their fiftieth or golden wedding anniversary. Mrs. Norris passed away in 1915. The youngest of their six children is now nearly forty years of age. George William, who was born in New Hampshire in 1860, is postmaster at Beaver Crossing, Nebraska ; Charles B., who was born at Yaphank, Long Island, in 1862, died twelve years ago; Daniel C., born in New Jersey in 1864, is married and lives at Bruster, Nebraska, and has five children. Nellie Erma, born at Portage, Wisconsin, in 1870, is the wife of William Taylor, a mechanic living in Chicago; Ned J., born in 1875 in Merrimack Town- ship of Sauk County, is still living in that community at his father's home and is married and has three children; Bertha B., the youngest child, was born in 1880, and is the wife of William A. Rogers, of Madi- son, Wisconsin.
Mr. I. J. Norris came to Wisconsin in 1870, spending one year at Vol. II-20
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Portage, and the following year at Baraboo. He then moved to Merri- mack Township, where he has lived for the past forty-five years. For fifteen years Mr. Norris was connected with the Chicago & Northwestern Railway as boss of the grading gangs. He then secured his present farm of 853/4 acres in Merrimack Township and has given his later years to its superintendence and management. Mr. Norris knows all the experiences of farming, and has benefited both from the era of high prices as well as low prices. He sold wheat at 50 cents a bushel, butter at 10 cents a pound and eggs at 6 cents a dozen. He did all the clear- ing of his land and used oxen for a number of years. His individual integrity has commended him to the confidence of his fellow citizens, who have frequently requested his service in public positions. For ten years he was a member of the school board, served several years on the town board and was justice of the peace several terms. In politics he is a democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, his wife having also been a devout member of that denomination.
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