USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 41
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Mr. George Gross grew up in the Township of Merrimack and at- tended the local schools. His knowledge of farming came by practical experience under the direction of his father, and he spent most of his time at home until his marriage in 1880, at the age of twenty-nine.
The maiden name of his wife was Frances Roick, daughter of Charles Roick and a sister of Henry Roick of Baraboo. Mr. and Mrs. Gross after their marriage located on the Gaunt farm, where he bought 120 acres. That was his home until 1889, when he bought the Sheppard farm a mile west of the Village of Merrimack. This furnished him scope and opportunity for his successful efforts as an agriculturist and he remained there until 1913, in which year he moved into the Village of Merrimack.
Mr. Gross was supervisor of the town board about twenty years, served as assessor two years and town clerk two years. He was on the school board of district No. 5 for nine years. He and his family attend the Methodist Church, and in politics he is a democrat.
He and his good wife are the parents of four children, Herbert, Waldo, Salina and Ervin. Herbert alone is married. He was well educated in Merrimack Township and also attended high school at Prairie du Sac. For six years he was a successful teacher after grad- uating, spending two years in Sauk County and four years in Green Bay. In June, 1911, Mr. George Gross bought the Merrimack Lumber Company and installed his son Herbert as active manager. Herbert has proved a very progressive young business man, and for the past three years has had the active assistance and co-operation of his father in managing this enterprise. .
The son Waldo finished the course of the township schools and took
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two courses in the agricultural department of the University of Wis- consin at Madison. He is now assistant cashier of the First State Bank of Burlington, North Dakota. The daughter, Salina, graduated from the Baraboo High School and in 1914 finished a four years' course in the University of Madison. She is now teaching at Spring Green. Ervin, the youngest child, attended school in Sumpter Township, finish- ing at the Lodi High School, and is now completing an agricultural course in the state university. The son Herbert married Agnes Schleuter, whose parents came from Westphalia, Germany.
JOHN MEYER. One of the best known citizens of Sauk County was the late John Meyer, whose last years were spent at Sauk City. Mr. Meyer was of German birth, had the characteristics of the Bavarian and by unlimited industry and perseverance he developed a home for him- self in the wilds of Wisconsin and lived to prosper and to enjoy the respect and esteem of his fellow men to the full.
His birth occurred in Bavaria February 24, 1823, and though his years were filled with labor and useful toil he lived to be nearly ninety- four years old. He died at Sauk City January 12, 1917. He was the oldest of the family of six brothers and one sister. One brother is still living.
In his native land he was given a good secular and Christian train- ing, and made a thorough study of agriculture. Agriculture was his line of endeavor while he lived in Germany and he left the old country in 1850, at the age of twenty-seven. With a party of friends he came to America, first locating at Pittsburg, where he found some relatives. In that city he remained until 1853. That year was marked by a visit back to his old home in Germany, but in the fall he returned to Pitts- burg and there he met and on May 16, 1854, married Margaret Reiser.
A short time after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. John Meyer made the journey to Central Wisconsin. They traveled by train as far as Madi- son, but from there it was necessary to take a wagon and team and journey through the woods into the wilderness of Sauk City. A yoke of oxen drew the wagon, and at Sauk City they found themselves almost on the frontier of civilization. Two years later John Meyer bought a tract of land in Troy Township in the neighborhood of Fairy Bluff on the Wisconsin River. For over thirty years he remained there, patiently working out his destiny as a home maker and farmer. In the early days before railroads were built in Sauk County he hauled his grain a dis- tance of thirty-four miles to the City of Madison, and he used oxen for a number of years. In 1889 Mr. Meyer retired from active labors and responsibilities as a farmer and moved to Sauk City, where he had his home for nearly thirty years. He was able to take life at leisure but he was never an idle man and busied himself with gardening and' with other occupations which made his old age pleasant and not without some contribution to the work of the world.
Mrs. John Meyer died in 1904. Eight children were born to their union, one of whom died in infancy, while a son, Thomas, died April 14, 1916. The other children are all living: John P. is a retired farmer living at Sauk City, and by his marriage to Emma Genz has three chil-
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dren, Mamie, Meta and Gilbert. Anna married George Strober, a re- tired farmer living at Sauk City. Jacob C. is unmarried and has found his work chiefly on the old homestead, where he still lives. He is now retired from the heavier part of farming and also does a business as a grain dealer. Conrad J. is a successful merchant at Kiel, Wisconsin, where he is in partnership with his brother George. He married Lil- lian Shumacher and has one child. George P. is in business at Kiel with his brother and by his marriage to Florence Bickford has two children. Minnie, the youngest of the children, is unmarried and lives at the old home with her brother Jacob.
John Meyer was a man whose interests caused him to do what he could to support community enterprises. He served as school clerk and also as road overseer. He always voted the republican ticket and kept himself well informed on public matters. He and his wife were active members of the German Reformed Church.
GEORGE B. McGILVRA. Some of the leading representatives of farm- ing in Sauk County have been contributed by the Empire State, and those who have come from that commonwealth have founded families whose members have taken positions of importance in various localities. In this classification is found George B. McGilvra, a substantial citizen and skilled and progressive agriculturist of Greenfield Township. Mr. McGilvra, while a native of New York, has spent practically his entire life in Sauk County, as he was an infant when brought here by his parents, and, therefore by education and training is a real Sauk County man. He has been a representative of the best element to be found in this rich agricultural district, and has had a hand in the shaping of its civic affairs, being at the present time chairman of the township board of supervisors.
George B. McGilvra was born June 26, 1853, in Herkimer County, New York, and is a son of Seth and Seviah (Farington) McGilvra, both of whom were born in the same county. His father had followed farming in the East until 1853, with but moderate success, and in that year came to Sauk County, buying a tract of land in Greenfield Town- ship. He returned to New York and in April, 1854, he brought his family to Sauk County. During the remainder of his life he made his home here, continuing to add to his holdings until he had accumulated some 400 acres of land. He was an industrious farmer, who made the most of his opportunities and as a citizen held an honored place in the community. His death occurred at his home, which was located near the Fair Grounds, in Baraboo Township February 22, 1905. His first wife died in 1859, leaving two children: George B. and Albert D., and for his second wife he wedded Mary Ann Huntington, who bore him two children: Seviah and Emma. His third wife was, before their marriage, Mary Cranson, and they also had two children: Avis and Sarah.
The home farm, upon a part of which George B. McGilvra now resides, was the scene of his boyhood activities, and he was brought up in a family which was taught to have a love for truth, industry and honorable dealing. He was given his educational training in the public
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schools of the country and the graded schools of Baraboo, and when still a youth was launched upon his career as a tiller of the soil. He has had no desire to change his occupation, as his efforts have been re- warded with success, and at the present time he is the owner of seventy acres of productive land, which shows in its improvements the marks of his good management and constant industry. His son Edward has a similar tract, and the land of both father and son forms a part of the original homestead secured by Seth McGilvra in 1853. Sixty-five years of connection with the agricultural industry have given the men bearing this family name a sure and certain prestige for skilled farming and substantial citizenship, and the confidence placed in them by their fellow citizens has never been betrayed. George B. McGilvra is a gent eral farmer, and has met with prosperity in his stockraising operations. He has ever held independent opinions in regard to political matters, in that he has refused to allow any party to dictate to him whom to support at election time, his right of franchise being exercised in behalf of the interests of the men whom he personally believes best fitted to hold office. As before noted, he has been a factor in public affairs for some time, having served as township clerk and assessor, and for five years has been a member of the board of supervisors of Greenfield Township, of which body he is now chairman. His record as a public official will stand the most rigid scrutiny and be found to be unblemished by any dishonorable act. His religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. McGilvra was married March 18, 1874, to Miss Edith Turney, who was born at Baraboo, Wisconsin, August 5, 1855, daughter of Hiram S. and Jeannette Turney, who located at Baraboo in the year of Mrs. McGilvra's birth. Mr. and Mrs. Turney were natives of Connecti- cut, and were married at Watertown in that state October 6, 1840. Fifty years later they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, and in 1900 their sixtieth anniversary. Hiram Turney was born at Reading, Connecticut, February 4, 1818, and as a young man mastered the carpenter's trade, at which he was employed for many years. While still a resident of New England he was connected at Thomaston, Con- necticut, with the famous factory of the Seth Thomas Clock Company, and after coming to Wisconsin was for a long time identified with the Ryan Chair Factory. Both he and Mrs. Turney were faithful mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he was class leader and leader of the choir. He died at Baraboo, July 30, 1905, while Mrs. Turney passed away February 4, 1912, on her ninety-first birthday. Their children were: Amelia, Amanda, Henry, Charles, Egbert and Edith. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McGilvra, as follows: Clarence, of Portland, Oregon, who married Jennie Dickin- son and has four children, Hugh, Frances, Robert and Ralph; Arthur, of Sioux City, Iowa, who married Hattie Hulsebos and has five children, Annetta, Edith, Raymond, Harold and Arthur; Edward, the owner of seventy acres of the old homestead, who married Mabel Congdon, and has three children, Ruth, George and Donald; Bessie, who is the wife of William Griffith, of Draper, South Dakota, and has one child, Ethel ; Ethel, who is the wife of Prof. Adolph Meyer, of Saint Paul, Minne-
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sota, a civil engineer by profession and an instructor in the University of Minnesota, and has three children, Beth, Martha and Caryl; Alice, who was given a thorough course as a trained nurse at Saint Paul, Minnesota, and is now engaged in the practice of her vocation at South Britain, Connecticut; Miss Jeannette, who resides with her parents; and Ralph, who was educated at the Saint Paul High School and the University of Wisconsin, at which latter institution he took a four-year agricultural course, and after training at the officers' camp at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, was commissioned lieutenant, and is now ready to fight for his country in the world war.
FRED L. SCHUBRING. Of the younger generation of farmers whose efforts promise to lend vigor and prestige to the future of Baraboo Town- ship mention is due to Fred L. Schubring, who has passed his entire life in this community. Starting his career with no advantages, either as represented by capital or other aiding influences, he has worked his way to a position among the successful farmers of the township and the owner- ship of a valuable and well-improved property. He was born in Baraboo Township, Sauk County, Wisconsin, June 28, 1886, and is a son of August and Louisa (Schmidt) Schubring.
August Schubring was born in Germany and as a young man came to the United States, locating, about 1880, in Sauk County, where he was married to Miss Schmidt, who had also been born in the fatherland, and who came to this country as a girl. They became the parents of two children : Freda and Fred L., and had a happy and comfortable home and seemed on the verge of the achievement of prosperity when the father died in 1887. Three years later Mrs. Schubring was married to Henry Bittrich, who was born in Germany, November 1, 1849, a son of Charles and Mary (Boeke) Bittrich, natives of Germany, where Charles Bittrich died at the age of seventy-two years. Subsequently Mrs. Bittrich came to the United States and took up her residence in the State of Minnesota, where her death occurred in 1910, when she had reached the remarkable age of ninety-six years. She and her husband had a family of nine children, as follows: Fred, who is deceased ; Ferdinand ; Tina; Herman, deceased; August; Henry; Robert; Julius, deceased ; and Albert, a resident of Baraboo.
Henry Bittrich was educated in the public schools of Germany, and as a young man entered the Prussian army, with which he fought as a soldier during the war of 1870-1. In 1881 he immigrated to the United States, first stopping in Ohio, where at Sandusky he remained from March to July. In the latter month he came to Sauk County, Wisconsin, where he secured employment at railroading while living at North Freedom. In 1893 he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, when he pur- chased sixty-eight acres of land in Baraboo Township, and through judicious investments has since increased this amount to 188 acres and has made many improvements, including the erection of a set of substan- tial buildings. While he is now retired, his sons being the operators of the land, he continues to reside on the farm and to supervise its work. Politically he is a republican, and he and his family belong to the Lutheran Church. Mr. Bittrich was married in Germany to Miss Amelia
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Klein, who was born in that country and died in North Freedom Town- ship, January 1, 1890. They were the parents of four children, namely : Charles, who is deceased; Augusta, who is the wife of James Heffel, of Baraboo; Alma, the wife of Albert Heffel; of that city ; and Mary, who is unmarried. In 1890 Mr. Bittrich married Mrs. Louisa (Schmidt) Schubring, and they became the parents of three children: Ernest and Henry, who operate the home farm; and Martha, who is the wife of Lee Cahoon, son of Wilbur Cahoon, of Baraboo.
Fred L. Schubring was only one year old when his father died, and many of the advantages granted to other boys passed him by in his youth. His educational training was confined to the opportunities to be gained in the country schools, and when he was still a lad he faced the world as a monthly and daily wage-earner and has since made his own way. Possessing traits of industry, determination and ambition, he care- fully saved his earnings, subsequently establishing himself as a renter, and finally, in 1914, was able to become the owner of a farm of his own, in that year buying the Watkins farm in Baraboo Township, a tract of sixty-two acres, on which he has put a great deal of improvements. Three years of occupancy have already individualized the place and have con- verted it into an indicator of the personal traits and characteristics of the owner. To a large extent general farming is carried on, and high grades of livestock are bred. The home is a roomy and comfortable one and the barns and outbuildings are substantial and in good repair. Mr. Schubring is a stockholder in the Excelsior Creamery Company of Baraboo. He has energy, resource and keen intelligence, which qualities will insure him business success. Politically he is a republican, but not an office seeker, and his religious connection is with the German Lutheran Church.
On January 11, 1911, Mr. Schubring was united in marriage with Miss Hattie Hyer, who was born at Springfield Corners, Dane County, Wis- consin, September 28, 1891, daughter of Walter and Louisa (Beitz) Hyer. To this union there have been born two children : Walter, born November 15, 1911; and Harold, born March 4, 1913.
Walter S. Hyer was born at Madison, Wisconsin, December 28, 1857, a son of David R. and Eliza (Hyer) Hyer, who came from Vermont and settled in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, at an early day. The senior Hyer was a hotel keeper at Deerfield for some years, subsequently had a popular hostelry at Madison, and in the fall of 1891 came to Sauk County and settled in Sumpter Township, where he spent the rest of his life, dying in 1897, at the age of eighty-four years. His widow died at Baraboo in 1912, when ninety-two years of age. Walter S. Hyer, the only child of his parents, was educated in the schools of Dane County, at Hyers Corners, and was reared as a farmer. With his mother he owned eighty acres of land, which he sold in 1891 and came to Sauk County, taking up his residence in Sumpter Township, where he continued to be engaged in successful agricultural pursuits until his death, February 9, 1904. In politics he was a democrat, and his fraternal connection was with the Modern Woodmen of America. On January 26, 1882, Mr. Hyer married Miss Louisa M. Beitz, who was born in Germany, November 4, 1866, daughter of Carl and Lena (Stubbie) Beitz, the former born in
-
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1835 and the latter in 1825; both in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Beitz came to the United States in 1868 and settled in Dane County, near Middleton, but later had a farm near 'Springfield Corners, where Mr. Beitz died, August 8, 1909. Mrs. Beitz died in Sumpter Township August 17, 1894. They were the parents of five children : Minnie, Christina, Louis, Augusta and Louisa, of whom Christina and Louis are deceased. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hyer, namely: David C., who died in infancy; Albert W., operating the homestead in Sumpter Township, married Ella Franst and has two children, Duane Albert and Eunice Eliza; Hattie L., now Mrs. Schubring; Edna, who is the wife of Elvin Young, a farmer of Sumpter Township; Roy, who is unmarried and resides in Sumpter Township; and Esther, who is a student in the first year at the Baraboo High School.
CYRUS S. BLANCHET is a veteran survivor of the Union army, is past commander of the Baraboo Post of the Grand Army and now adjutant, and is also a veteran employe of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, being now on the retired list. His home has been in Baraboo for over forty years, and he is one of the oldest and most highly esteemed citizens.
Mr. Blanchet has lived in many sections of the Union. He was born in Aroostock County, Maine, April 14, 1843. His paternal ancestry goes back through the history of France to the thirteenth century. Members of the family lived for many generations in that stormy and in- teresting province of France known as Avignon, and some of them were participants in the revolutionary troubles and the religious wars. Mr. Blanchet's parents were Alexis and Leocadia (Ouillet) Blanchet, both of whom were born near Quebec, Canada, the former in 1804 and the latter in 1808. From Canada they moved to Maine, where they married, and in 1852 they came West and settled at St. Anne in Kankakee County, Illinois. There the father owned a farm and was quietly engaged in its cultivation until his death in 1876. His wife had died in 1866. They were active members of the Episcopal Church. Their children were Alexis, Andrew, John R., Mary C., Bruno, Cyrus S., Clement, Anna, Philonise, Robert, John B. and William F.
Cyrus S. Blanchet was nine years old when his parents went to Illinois, and he grew to manhood in Kankakee County, attending the public schools there. In 1861 he endeavored to enlist in the Union army, but his father took him out of the ranks. Already four brothers had gone to the war, and Cyrus did not get his opportunity until 1862, when he enlisted in Company D of the One Hundred and Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. With that regiment he saw a great deal of arduous campaigning, and was with it fourteen months. He was finally discharged on account of disability. He was the youngest of five brothers who were soldiers in that war, and all of them except Alexis and Andrew were in the same regiment. These other brothers fought with Kansas regiments and Andrew was killed by Indians while sta- tioned at Fort Union in New Mexico in August, 1864. Bruno died as a result of disease contracted in the army in August, 1863. His death occurred at home. John R. died at his home at Morrill, Kansas, in
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1914. Of this quintet of soldier brothers Alexis and Cyrus are the only ones still living.
Mr. Blanchet followed some of his brothers out to Kansas in 1867, and located in Dickinson County, where he was a pioneer and he recalls much of the stormy and turbulent happenings in and around Abilene when that was the great center of the cattle industry and also a center of outlawry and many wild west adventures. While in that county on November 23, 1868, Mr. Blanchet married Elizabeth Van Arsdal. She was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, April 24, 1843, a daughter of Henry and Catherine (Buck) Van Arsdal. From Indiana the Van Arsdal family moved to Kansas, and her parents both died in Dickinson County.
In 1875 Mr. and Mrs. Blanchet came to Baraboo, Wisconsin. Here for thirty-two years he was a machinist in the employ of the North Western Railway Company, and was finally retired on a pension. In politics he is a republican, is a member of the Episcopal Church, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has been actively identified with the Grand Army of the Republic since 1880.
Mr. and Mrs. Blanchet became the parents of five children. Clara, the oldest, was educated in the Baraboo High School, married Charles G. Hoyt, of Kaukauna, Wisconsin, and has one daughter, Madge. Allie is the wife of Lincoln J. Barrett, of Baraboo, and has two daughters, Estle and Elzaida. Catharine Mabel, after completing the course of the Baraboo High School, learned printing in the New Printing Office at Baraboo, and is now a linotype operator with the State Journal at Madison. Henry, the fourth child, died in infancy. Clement James, who attended the Baraboo High School, is now a machinist in the employ of the North Western Railway Company and lives at Kaukauna, Wisconsin. His first wife was Sophia Maiser, who died leaving one son, Kenneth Clement. Clement J. married for his present wife Mina Butler.
Mr. Blanchet has always taken an active part in politics and always as a stanch republican. He has served as an alderman from the Third Ward of Baraboo and has been a delegate to republican state conven- tions.
GEORGE E. PREMO is one of the best known citizens of Merrimack Township, has retired from the heavier activities of agriculture which he carried so many years, and is now chiefly employing his time as a rural mail carrier.
He represents an old and honored family of Sauk County. He was born in 1857, in Merrimack Township, a mile and a half north of the village of that name. He is a son of Lewis and Jane (Sutton) Premo, the former a native of Buffalo, New York, and the latter of Pennsyl- vania. The mother died February 14, 1870. The grandparents Premo were natives of France and were early settlers in Sauk County. Lewis Premo was about eighteen years of age when he was brought to this county, and his people settled a mile and a half west of Merrimack Vil- lage. The Sutton family came about the same time and located two miles west of Merrimack. Lewis Premo and wife were married in this Vol. II-21
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county. Of their seven children four are living: George E .; Harvey, who lives in Brooks, Minnesota, and has two children; Samuel, also a resident of Brooks, Minnesota, and married and the father of one child; and Daniel, who lives west of the Village of Merrimack and has two children.
Lewis Premo started his farm enterprise in Sauk County with forty acres of land, which he bought before he married. He cleared all this, and in the process of cultivating and bringing his land into condition he acquired other tracts until he owned 160 acres, all well improved and valuable. He lived on his farm until twenty-two years of age, when he bought property in the Village of Merrimack. Six years ago he sold his old home in that village to his son George. He died in Merrimack May 25, 1917.
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