USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 7
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
Mr. John Block early interested himself in farming in Sauk County, and in time acquired a farm of 240 acres in Prairie du Sac Township. Most of this is sandy soil and is highly productive. From the fruits of that farm he has provided for his own future and reared his family and lived on the same place for forty-three years. He then sold to his son Robert and moved to Sauk City, where he now spends most of his time. His success as a farmer came from raising the staple crops of rye and corn and he always kept good grades of livestock. He made the improvements out of the work of his own hands and did a great deal of building. Mr. Block is a member of the Evangelical Church and in poli- tics is a democrat in national affairs.
WILLIAM TERRY. The name of Terry has been well known in Sauk County since pioneer days, and it has always belonged to men of enter- prise and industry who have been good citizens and supporters of the schools and churches. Through intermarriages this family is also connected with a large number of other old families, and these relationships have bound them closely together. One of the well-known and highly-regarded bearers of this name is William Terry, who by birth, education and large property interests, particularly belongs to Sauk County. He was born in Baraboo Township, on the old Terry homestead, September 21, 1874. His parents were John and Catherine (Dorsey) Terry, extended mention of whom will be found in this work. His father was an extensive farmer.
William Terry grew to manhood on the present farm and obtained his education in the public schools. He assisted his father for many years and later on bought the old home, a valuable tract of 222 acres and since then has made many substantial improvements, these including the put- ting of a fine basement under the farmhouse. Mr. Terry is of the modern type of farmer, understanding the facts of science and applying new methods in the growing of many of his crops. He raises excellent stock of all kinds but gives the larger part of his attention to raising Shorthorn cattle.
Mr. Terry was married in 1911 to Miss Ava Chase, who was born at Oregon in Dane County, Wisconsin, and is a daughter of Denman and Sarah (Mallen) Chase. Her father came to North Freedom, Sauk County, as an employe of the Northwestern Railroad Company and continues with this company but now lives at Baraboo. Mrs. Terry was educated in the public schools and is a lady who is highly thought of in Delton Township. Mr. and Mrs. Terry have three children, namely : Elizabeth, John and Elaine. The family belongs to the Roman Catholic Vol. II-4
616
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
Church. In politics Mr. Terry is a democrat and takes much interest in local political matters. He is a believer in the public school system when intelligent and conscientious men take an interest and he has served as clerk of the township school board for the past six years. Genial and hearty, he not only is popular within the wide circle of kinship in the county, but with all with whom he has relations in the way of business.
WILLIAM TOOLE, proprietor of the noted pansy farm, mentioned in the general history as one of the institutions of Baraboo worthy of a visit, is an old resident whose good influence has extended into many practical, as well as cultural fields. He has been farmer, florist, botanist, horticul- turist, historian, thoughtful father to two families, useful citizen and kind and generous friend. So that it would be impossible to find anyone in Sauk County who has more or warmer supporters than William Toole. Although he was born in Lancashire seventy-six years ago, his good Irish inheritances have kept him young and elastic. What education he received was obtained in the schools of Providence, Rhode Island, and in its neighborhood and in 1857, when about sixteen years old he went with other members of his family to Massachusetts. For a time he followed his father's old trade as a calico printer, but in 1859 migrated to Excelsior Township, Sauk County. General farming occupied him for many years, but he had gradually become interested in the cultivation of pansies, and in 1887 moved to what have become so widely known as Pansy Heights, overlooking Baraboo. There, with one of his sons, William A., he has built up a business and a farm for the cultivation of seed pansies which he literally loves; and he treats and fondles his flowers as if they were his children, of whom he is proud when they flourish and sick at heart when they languish. William Toole has been a member of the school boards of Excelsior and Baraboo townships for thirty years; was, for a long time president of the County Horticultural Society and served, for two years, as president of the state organization. His papers and investi- gations along agricultural and horticultural lines have brought him com- mendatory testimonials from the experts of the State University. He has also been foremost in the co-operative social work among the various farming communities and clubs and for five years was president of the Sauk County Country Life Association ; in fact, Mr. Toole and George W. Davies, county superintendent of schools and secretary of the association, have been behind the movement from the very first-pushing it, as well as leading it. It seems to be a sort of revival, on a broader base, of the old Farmers' Alliance, of which Mr. Toole was also a recognized leader in the county and the state. In line with the general movement to strengthen and uplift the rural communities of the county is the establishment of accessible circulating libraries. Mr. Toole is now president of the Sauk County Traveling Library Association and as such is throwing his genial weight in favor of that organization.
AUGUST HAMBURG, a resident of Sauk County for over half a century, has well established his name and fortune as a prosperous farmer and stockman in Franklin Township, where he has lived the greater part of his active career.
617
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
Mr. Hamburg was born in Hanover, Germany, July 28, 1852, a son of John and Elizabeth (Bodenstab) Hamburg. When he was seventeen years of age, in July, 1869, his parents arrived in America from Ger- many and established a home in Westfield Township at Loganville. His father bought eighty acres and in the course of time had it improved and in cultivation. It was on this farm that August Hamburg gained his first knowledge and experience of American ways of farming. Mr. Au- gust Hamburg was one of four children : Henry, August, John and Fred, the last two now deceased.
August Hamburg acquired his education chiefly in Germany and his life sinee coming to Sauk County has been a continuous round of industry and accomplishment. He is the owner of a fertile and well-cultivated farm of 1231/2 acres in Franklin Township, and conducts it both as a general farm and stock-raising enterprise. He keeps about thirty-three head of cattle and has a dairy of nineteen cows. Mr. Hamburg is a republican and a member of the Lutheran Church.
He married Johanna Kalba, daughter of Christian and Mary Kalba. Mr. and Mrs. Hamburg's children are Adolph, Johannis, August, Amelia, Arnstena and Bertha.
RALPH PERCY PERRY, a native son of Reedsburg, reared and edu- eated there, Ralph Perey Perry gave up a large and promising practice many years ago to devote himself largely to a career as a business man and banker. He is president of the Reedsburg Bank and has in many ways assisted legitimate industries and enterprises to secure substantial hold in this community, and has also done an important part as a public spirited eitizen and generous benefactor of the town.
Mr. Perry's parents were early settlers in Reedsburg, where he him- self was born June 22, 1859. He is a son of Oliver H. and Mary J. (MeCloud) Perry. Oliver H. Perry was a merchant in Reedsburg from 1848 until 1880. In the latter year he was elected sheriff of Sauk County. He was a very forceful as well as successful man and stood as an example of the strictest integrity of character. The aneestors of Oliver H. Perry were early located in New Hampshire and from there removed to Essex County, New York. Oliver H. Perry's paternal and maternal grand- fathers, respectively Abijah Perry and Capt. Joshua Brown, were both soldiers in the American Revolution, and Captain Brown served with special distinetion as an officer. The MeCloud family were Seotch and were early settlers in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.
Ralph P. Perry was the second in a family of four children. His older brother, Arthur, is the secretary of The St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company of St. Paul, Minnesota. His two sisters, Florence and Aliee, also live in St. Paul.
Ralph P. Perry left his studies in the publie schools at Reedsburg at the age of fifteen and soon afterward entered the law office of J. W. Lusk, one of the well-known attorneys of Reedsburg at that time. He pursued his studies with such determination and energy that at the age of twenty he was qualified and admitted to the local bar. Three years later he became a partner of Mr. Lusk, and that partnership continued until Mr. Lusk resigned and went into practice at St. Paul. In 1884,
618
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
at the age of twenty-five, Mr. Perry was elected district attorney, but resigned while still in office in order to take charge of two large estates.
In 1887 he became manager of the Reedsburg Bank, and has been connected with that institution for thirty years and much of the time as president. Mr. Perry assisted in reorganizing the Reedsburg Woolen Mill Company, and was its treasurer until the plant was sold to the Appleton Woolen Mill Company. In politics his work has been done with the republican party. When he has assumed the role of a public speaker he has done so with credit and has taken part in a number of campaigns. He belongs to the Wisconsin Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons, and is a member of the Wisconsin Society of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion and of the Sons of the Colonial Wars, and his wife is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and of the Society of Colonial Dames. Both are members of the Presbyterian Church, in which he is an elder.
Mr. Perry was married in 1883 to Miss Helen S. Neely, of Platteville, Wisconsin. Mrs. Perry is a graduate of the Plateville State Normal School and first became acquainted with Mr. Perry while she was teaching in Reedsburg. Three children have been born to their union: Edna M., now Mrs. N. T. Yeomans, Mildred I. and Katharine. From the means acquired by a successful business career Mr. Perry has contributed gen- erously to local churches and philanthropic enterprises in Reedsburg, and Mrs. Perry is an active member of the public library board. Mr. Perry was a delegate from Wisconsin to the Republican National Con- vention of Chicago in 1904. Among other interests he is serving as a member of the board of trustees of Carroll College at Waukesha.
ALBERT WALSTER. Among the early names of permanent settlers in Sauk County is recorded that of Walster, and that name is now a promi- nent one because of the sterling character of those who bear it, men who have been born in this county and have never sought any other home. Such a one is Albert Walster, who is an extensive farmer and breeder of Holstein cattle in Troy Township, and through a farther extended area is known because of other business activities. Sauk County owes much to that sturdy class of pioneers who came here and took up raw land that required many years of ceaseless toil to convert into the present fertile, well improved farms. They came from many lands but almost all ac- cepted the hard conditions of early days in Wisconsin in order to build a home, to enjoy the independence that comes with the ownership of land, and to feel that a duty was well performed in thus providing for their possible descendants.
Albert Walster was born in 1859, on the farm in Troy Township, Sauk County, Wisconsin, that is now his own property. His parents were Samuel and Elizabeth (Bonham) Walster. The father was born in 1817, in Lincolnshire, England, and the mother in 1827, in Bucking- hamshire. When they came to the United States in 1849 they located first in Ohio and remained there two years, coming then to Wisconsin and in 1851 secured a homestead in Troy Township, Sauk County, that being in the year following the admission of Wisconsin to the Union. While discoveries, inventions and scientific methods have served to make
619
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
the farmer's life no longer one of unremitting labor, it must be remem- bered that these assistants were not available sixty-eight years ago, when Samuel Walster found himself confronted with the task of clearing acres and acres of prairie and woodland before he could make even a beginning in profitable cultivation. He accomplished it, however, and remained on the farm he had rescued from the wilderness for many years, but finally moved to Iowa and lived there for the five years preceding his death in 1897.
The following children were born to Samuel and Elizabeth Walster : Mary, who is deceased; Horatio, who is married and lives in Iowa ; Hattie, who is the wife of Edward Palmer and lives in North Dakota; Albert; Parker, who has a family and lives in Noth Dakota; Belle, who is the wife of William Bear and resides in Iowa; and Isa, a highly educated woman who has been a school teacher at Charles City, Iowa, for twenty- five years. She is unmarried.
Albert Walster was reared on the home farm and attended the district schools. His farm training was thorough and practical and when he was prepared to begin life for himself he had useful experience to draw upon. He now owns 380 acres of excellent land, well adapted to carrying on general farming and stockraising. He raises many hogs but makes a specialty of breeding Holstein cattle and his herds command high prices when sold. He also has large dairy interests.
Mr. Walster was married in 1882, to Miss Mary Stelzman, who is a daughter of Franz and Mary Ann (Hocking) Stelzman. Her mother was born in England and her father in Germany. They came to Sauk County in the '50s. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Walster, namely: Harlow, who is an educator in the Wisconsin State University at Madison; Edna, the wife of George Habberman, who con- ducts a blacksmith business at Lodi, Wisconsin, and they have two chil- dren; Edith, who married Alfred Reiser, and they have one child and live at Black Hawk, Wisconsin; Cecil, who is the wife of Iras Radle, and they live at Spring Green, Sauk County; and Clarence, who is his father's dependable assistant on the farm.
Mr. Walster has been somewhat prominent in politics and for fifteen years has been chairman of the township board, and for twenty years has been a member of the school board. Aside from his agricultural activities he has been interested in enterprises in which he has shown much business capacity as well as public spirit. He was one of the promoters of the Troy-Honey Creek Telephone Company and was also interested in the establishing of the Twin City Telephone Company of Prairie du Sac. He is a man of clear foresight and early recognized the permanent value of telephone service. Fraternally he is connected with the order of Modern Woodmen of America at Black Hawk, and with his family attends and liberally contributes to the Presbyterian Church at Prairie du Sac.
CASSIUS S. JEFFRIES .. The Jeffries family has been represented in Sauk County for over sixty years. As a family they have been character- ized by honest industry, ability to make homes and perform their proper
620
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
share of duties to themselves and to the community, and have been both useful and honorable' citizens.
One of the prominent representatives of this family is Cassius S .. Jeffries, a prosperous farmer in Baraboo and Delton townships. Mr. Jeffries was born in Greenfield Township of Sauk County June 22, 1858, a son of Benjamin and Martha (Crawford) Jeffries. His father was born in the State of Tennessee, April 16, 1822, and when about sixteen years of age he went out to Missouri and from there came in 1845 to Sauk County, where he preempted eighty acres of land in Greenfield Township. He was a practical and industrious farmer and lived in this county until his death on June 15, 1897. He married in Sauk County and his wife was born in Ohio April 27, 1825, and died January 25, 1902. Her father, James Crawford, was one of the notable pioneers of Sauk County, locating in Baraboo Township at what is now called Crawford's Crossing, in 1847, the crossing being named in his honor. He bought a farm in Baraboo Township near the city of that name and there spent the rest of his life. His wife was Lucy Wallice. The Crawford children were named Daniel, Robert, Jackson, James, Sarah, Lucretia, Emely, Eleanor, Lucinda, Martha and Adelaide. Benjamin and Martha Jeffries had seven children : Wilburn, born January 16, 1849, in Greenfield Town- ship and died October 2, 1916; Jessie, born June 27, 1851; Erminie, born March 14, 1853; Ralph, born November 5, 1855, died June 15, 1915; Cassius S .; Alma born January 18, 1862, and died in 1864; and Florence, born December 24, 1865.
Cassius S. Jeffries grew up on the homestead farm of his father, and he made the best of such advantages as were to be obtained in the local schools. He has made farming his occupation from the first, and in 1883 he went out to South Dakota, or what was then Dakota Territory, and took a homestead of 160 acres. He lived on it and developed it as a farm for two years. On returning to Sauk County he bought twenty acres in Fairfield Township, and that was the scene of his agricultural activi- ties until 1894, when he acquired an eighty acre farm in Delton Township. There he made most of the improvements, clearing up some of the land from the woods, and is now numbered among the substantial residents of that community. Mr. Jeffries is independent in political matters. While living in Dakota he served as a member of the school board.
February 28, 1883, he married Miss Martha E. Post. Mrs. Jeffries was born near Springville in Linn County, Iowa, March 25, 1854. She is a daughter of William T. and Rosetta (Sharpe) Post, both of whom were natives of New York. Her father was born February 28, 1817, and her mother May 1, 1817. Mrs. Jeffries was only five years of age when her mother died on November 26, 1859. The Post family came west before the days of railroads, journeying by canal and lake to Chicago, and from there overland to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. About 1873 her father eame to Sauk County, and took up his home at Reedsburg, but for the last three years of his life lived among his children. His death occurred September 28, 1899.
Mrs. Jeffries was one of a family of six children. The record is: Sarah, born May 31, 1841; George, born August 17, 1843, a Union soldier ; Daniel, born September 8, 1847, who also was in the Civil war; William
621
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
T., born February 20, 1849; Ellen, born January 4, 1851; and Martha, born March 25, 1854. Mrs. Jeffries and her sister Ellen are the only ones of the family now living.
FRANK CARSON. The Carson family has played a notable part in the agricultural life of Sauk County for nearly sixty years and in the second generation of the family here Mr. Frank Carson is widely known as one of the most prosperous citizens of Franklin Township.
Mr. Carson was born in Westfield Township of Sauk County March 25, 1859, a son of Daniel and Winifred (Norton) Carson. His father came to America from County Antrim, Ireland, in 1844 and settled in New Jersey. The mother came out of County Roscommon, Ireland. The parents were married at Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1857 and in the next year they settled in Westfield Township of Sauk County. The father acquired eighty acres of wild land, paying the government a dollar and a quarter per acre. At that time the government land office was at Mineral Point in Iowa County, Wisconsin, and Daniel went all the way to that town to make his first payment and enter his land. He was a vigorous and industrious Irishman, and his hard work cleared the land and made it a valuable farm, He was a man of influence in the community. and served in both church and school offices. He is now living in advanced years, while his wife passed away December 20, 1913.
Mr. Frank Carson, the only child of his parents, has satisfied his ambitions by his work as a farmer and is the owner of a splendid place of 220 acres.' He is a breeder of Shorthorn cattle, and progressiveness is a keynote of his farm in every department. He has excellent buildings, including a silo, and refuses to be satisfied with anything but the best results and the best methods of farm management.
Mr. Carson is a democrat in politics and he and his family are mem- bers of the Catholic Church. On September 9, 1891, he married Mary Carney, daughter of James and Mary Carney, of Franklin Township. Mr. and Mrs. Carson have one son, James, born January 9, 1895. Mrs. Carson's brothers and sisters were: Margaret, deceased wife of Mike Quinn ; Bridget, who is unmarried and lives in Chicago; Catherine, wife of Henry Fargen, son of John and Bridget Fargen; Anne, unmarried ; and Frank, who is unmarried.
FRANK H. METCALF, now postmaster of Reedsburg, has played a spir- ited and successful role in business and public affairs in this county for a number of years, and his experience has also taken him into the North- western states. Mr. Metcalf is a native of Sauk County, and a member of one of its oldest pioneer families.
He was born on a farm in Excelsior Township March 14, 1864, a son of Isaac and Mary (Riding) Metcalf. Both parents were born in Eng- land, where they were married, and in 1849 they came to Sauk County, which was then a virtual wilderness. In Excelsior Township Isaac Met- calf acquired a tract of Government land and proceeded forthwith to its development and improvement. He and his wife lived in a log house for some years, until it was replaced by a substantial frame structure. Later he retired to Reedsburg to enjoy his well earned prosperity, and
622
HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
died in that city March 23, 1908, at the venerable age of eighty-five. While living in Excelsior Township he was not only a progressive farmer but also a man who took much interest in local affairs. He served as a member of the township board for several years. He was also one of the early supporters of the Methodist Episcopal Church in this community. His children were eight in number: Martha, Annie, Nellie, Frank H., Fred, Emma, Charles and Louis. The daughter Emma died in South Dakota in 1917.
Frank H. Metcalf spent his early boyhood on the old homestead in Excelsior Township. While there he attended the common schools, and his first practical experiences were in connection with farming. Subse- quently he went to the Northwest and was in the grain business in the State of Washington and also spent some time in the State of Idaho. In 1906 he returned to Sauk County and located at Reedsburg, becoming financially identified with the large department store firm of Krueger, Huebing & Clement. He was personally active in that store until Novem- ber 14, 1914, when he was appointed postmaster of Reedsburg by Presi- dent Wilson. Mr. Metcalf entered upon his new office with zeal and under- standing and has applied business methods to its management. Mr. Metcalf while living in Excelsior Township was treasurer of the township and clerk and has long played an active part in democratic politics in this county. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Fra- ternal Order of Eagles.
He was married in 1885 to Miss Pet Rose, who was born in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. They have one child, Emma R., who was educated in the Reedsburg High School and in business college and is now the wife of B. L. Hall. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have a daughter, Wanda E.
THOMAS W. ENGLISH, president of the First National Bank of Baraboo for the past ten years, is one of the leading citizens of that place. He is a son of Thomas T. English, a farmer and merchant who moved to Sauk County from Virginia, when Thomas W. was three years of age. The father was also one of the early directors of the First National Bank, a trustee of the Village Board and a town assessor for several terms. There were five children in the family, of whom Thomas W. was the oldest ; the second, J. E. English, is the physician. Mr. English, president of the First National, is a graduate of the Wisconsin University, was engaged in the hardware business for many years, has held most of the township offices, served one term in the Legislature, and has been identified with the First National Bank since 1906.
FRED W. L'UHRSEN. The blacksmith who has wandered so long through song and story, the man of hard muscles, strong physique, genial manner, ready wit and innumerable companionable qualities, seems to have a living counterpart in Fred W. Luhrsen, owner and proprietor of a blacksmithing establishment at Reedsburg. Increasing prosperity and popularity have hovered around this shop ever since the owner sent out the first merry clang of his anvil here in 1892, although he had been in business here eight years before that time. Mr. Luhrsen was born near
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.