USA > Wisconsin > Biographical sketches of old settlers and prominent people of Wisconsin > Part 3
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He is regarded by his friends and neighbors as conscientious and pains-taking in his affairs, and summed up, in a word, is a reliable man, and now, in the evening of life with his daughter, Eva Letitia, is living in the Village of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, and enjoying the competency he struggled so faithfully to obtain.
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PROMINENT PEOPLE OF WISCONSIN.
HON. WILLIAM DEMPSTER HOARD.
T is astonishing how much power there is in an intense desire and determination to accomplish a thing, no matter whether it is hard or easy. Beginning life in an humble manner, the subject of this sketch, by industry, and the intelligent manner in which he per- formed every duty, was enabled to gain the confidence of those around him, and was thus enabled to advance himself to posts of greater responsibility. His worth, his ability and his earnestness in everything he undertakes are the reasons for the successes which have crowned all his efforts.
William Dempster Hoard, the eldest son of Rev. William Bradford and Sarah C. (White) Hoard was born October 10, 1836, at Stockbridge, Madison county, New York, and is decidedly a self-made man, and an example of one who made his way in life without advantages, and is an example of American pluck. His early education was derived entirely from the common schools. At the age of twenty-one he started out for himself and locating at Oak Grove, Dodge county, Wisconsin, working on a farm in the summer and teaching singing schools during the win- ters. Being a good violinist, or "fiddler" as people who played the violin in those days were denominated, he used this instrument with much effect in his teaching.
In the fall of 1859 he removed to Lake Mills, Jefferson county, and in May 1861 at the first call of President Lincoln for troops. he enlisted in Company E. 4th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and served until July 1862, when he was discharged for disabilities. Returning to his former home in New York, he regained his health, and October 1, 1864, re-enlisted in Company A. 1st New York Light Artillery, remaining in the service until the close of the war, participating in the following battles: New Orleans, Grand Gulf and Baton Rouge. Upon being mustered out of the army he returned to Wisconsin in 1865 and located at Columbus, where he engaged in the nursery business till 1869, when he located at Lake Mills, Wisconsin, where in March 1870 he embarked in the newspaper business, starting the Jefferson County Union, and the same year was appointed Deputy United States Marshal and took the federal census of the towns of Lake Mills, Waterloo, Aztalan and Milford. In 1871 he was elected Justice of the Peace of Lake Mills.
He was elected Sergeant at Arms to the Wisconsin State Senate in 1872, and during that year was largely instrumental in organizing the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association of which he was secretary the first three years of its existence, and has been president of the Northwestern Dairymen's Association since 1878, without opposition. To no man in the west is more credit due, than to W. D. Hoard for the spread of dairy knowledge.
CLARK-ENG-CO- MIL
Ex. Gov. W. D. HOARD.
MRS. W. D. HOARD.
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the total Republican vote was nearly fifty thousand less than two years before. The activity of the German Cath- olic and Lutheran clergy, who turned their churches into political wigwams, resulted in bringing out the whole Democratic vote. Notwithstanding Governor Hoard's defeat at the polls, he received nearly 8,000 more votes than any other member on the State ticket, attesting the large number of Democrats who supported the Bennett law and endorsed his administration."
On retiring from the gubernatorial office, Governor Hoard retired from active politics and has devoted his time assiduously to the work of editing his dairy paper, Hoard's Dairyman, which has had a steady growth until today it has the largest circulation of any dairy paper in the world.
Governor Hoard has always taken a deep interest in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic and in 1895 was elected Department Commander of Wisconsin.
In 1897 the National Farmers' Congress, the largest association of its kind in the world, at its session in St. Paul, elected Governor Hoard as its President, and he was re-elected at the late session of the Congress in Boston. He has also been President of the National Dairy Union for several years.
Governor Hoard was married February 9, 1860, to Miss Agnes Elizabeth Bragg, who was born in Vergennes, Vermont, February 4, 1840, and was the daughter of William Dela and Almira Ednah (Edgerton) Bragg, who came to Lake Mills, Wisconsin, with her parents in 1842, locating on the lot where the Fargo Library now stands, where the family home was maintained up to the time of her father's death. He was born at Northfield, Vermont, September 25, 1809, and died June 27, 1883, and his wife was born at Northfield, Vermont, and died at Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, January 28, 1895. Governor Hoard's wife was the granddaughter of Benjamin Bragg, who was born September 12, 1772, and Amelia (Porter) Bragg, who was born March 23, 1775. She traces her ancestry back through the Porter line to William de la Grande, a noted warrior of William the Conqueror, whose son Ralph, became Grande Porteur to the Conqueror. The family name was thence changed to Porteur, afterward Porter. Mrs. Hoard's maternal grandparents, were Ariel Egerton, born June 8, 1779; died October 11, 1838, and Abigail Proctor Keys, born August 11, 1796, and traces through the Egerton line, without break, nearly forty generations to William the Conqueror of England, Hugh Capet, King of France, and Charlemange, Emperor of the west.
We regret that space will not permit going into farther details of the eventful life of Governor Hoard. We would like to repeat some of the many stories of the Governor, who is likened to Lincoln in his abilities in this line. But we must forbear.
GEORGE BLEECKER.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
GEORGE BLEECKER.
LIFE well spent, a character uprightly sustained, is no slight. legacy to leave to one's children; and the useful influence which a right-hearted man of energy and industry may exercise cannot be better illustrated than by the career of George Bleecker, of Hubbleton, Wisconsin, who was born at Trenton, Township of Murray, Northumberland County, Canada, November 30, 1820. He was the son of John R. Bleecker, who was born July 17, 1789, in upper Canada, 7th Township, District of Prince Edward, and Elizabeth (Richards) Bleecker, who was born October 14, 1795 on St. Ann's Island, commonly called Isle of Tanta, but neither of his parents ever came to Wisconsin, both having died in Canada, having had fourteen children, viz .: Jane (dead) married Henry Bird Nugent; John R., married to Susan Burn- ham; James Connor (dead); Susan, married to Samuel Bryant; George, the subject of this sketch; William McKenzie (dead) married Mrs. Sager; Elizabeth Ann (dead) married John Hennesy; Henry (dead) married Maria Abbott; Rachel (dead); Jacob (dead); Thomas Howard, married Bell Young; Gilbert (dead) and twin girls who died in infancy.
George Bleecker made his home with an uncle and aunt from the time he was six years old until he was nine, remaining at home after that till February 1837, when he went into Western Canada and located on the St. Clair river, in the Township of Sombra, County of Kent, and being a poor boy he was compelled to work, and here it was that he laid the foundation for the comfortable fortune which he now enjoys. He began by chopping cordwood, and as wages at that time were not very high, he with true business instinct was constantly revolving in his mind how he was going to better his condition, so finally he built a dock and began supplying cordwood to the steamboats. This business having enabled him to lay by quite a snug sum, for a boy, he concluded to come to the United States, so he disposed of what land he had pre- viously purchased, sold out his dock and boarded a steamboat for Milwaukee, and from there he went by team to Watertown, where he purchased a compass and following the line dividing Dodge and Jeffer- son Counties, he reached the Crawfish river July 6, 1846. The way between Watertown and the Crawfish was a dense forest, and there were but three log cabins the entire distance of about eight miles. Arriving at the Crawfish, in order to get across, he gathered sticks and poles and built a raft, then traveled on by foot to Portland, where he remained for a week prospecting for land, but not finding just what suited him he returned to the Crawfish and purchased eighty acres of the place he now lives on. Returning to Milwaukee he took steamer to St. Clair, lived in Michigan a year, when accompanied by his wife and two children, made his way to his new home where he arrived July 6, 1847. Mr. Bleecker
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was married at Cotterville, St. Clair County, Michigan, February 26, 1843 to Eliza Thankful Burnham, who was born near Concord, New Hampshire, April 28, 1825, and died at Hubbleton, Wisconsin, December 18, 1897. They had seven children born to them, William James, born March 20, 1844, died June 13, 1863; Jane, born January 13, 1846, died August 1, 1847; Mary Elizabeth, born February 10, 1849, married January 29, 1873 to Moses S. Kimball and had seven children, two dead; John R., born January 7, 1853, married November 28, 1877 to Elizabeth Wright and have five children; Harrie Otis, born July 6, 1860, married November 8, 1883 to May Wright, and died May 20, 1889, having three children; Frank Gilbert, born August 22, 1863, married February 26, 1895 to Anna Isadora Austin, one child; Arthur Burnham, born July 26, 1866, married June 10, 1896 to Mary Phillips Seeber.
Whilst George Bleecker was more or less of a genius, he soon learned that it is not men of genius who move the world and take the lead in it, so much as men of steadfastness of purpose, and indefatigable industry, and it was with this thought in view that he pushed his farm- ing until his original purchase of eighty acres, grew into over eight hundred acres of as beautiful land as is to be found in Wisconsin, lying on both sides of the Crawfish, above and below the Village of Hubbleton. From this large tract of land, he set aside one hundred and ninety acres as a homestead, and situated on a beautiful knoll is the home from which one can see many miles in almost every direction. Aside from farming Mr. Bleecker engaged in the lumber business for three years, owning the steam saw mill at Hubbleton, at which mill all the logs were sawed from which the Plank road was constructed from Portland to Watertown.
Mr. Bleecker's religion is that of the Church of England, and in politics a staunch Republican. While he has never had time to seek office, he has always taken a deep interest in the success of his party. One fact should have been mentioned, and that is that Mr. Bleecker rarely allowed himself to get in debt, and in this as well as his perse- verance and upright life his example is worthy of emulation.
It may be very fittingly said of Mr. Bleecker, that he is 80 years young, as his eyes retain their brightness and his step betokens but little of the feebleness of age, and his mind, in a marvelous degree seems to hold its youthful vigor.
LIEUT. GOV. JESSE STONE.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR JESSE STONE.
HE path of success in life is usually the path of common sense, but patient labor, application and confidence, wisely and diligently improved is the great secret of success, and there are but few circumstances over which a strong will has no control. There are men who shape conditions and surroundings by mere force of will, who aim to make life something finer and nobler than a mere existence, whose conscience is as steady as the needle to the pole, who know their place, and fill it; such a man is the Hon. Jesse Stone, of Watertown, Wisconsin, who has by honest industry and unswerving fidelity, been able to achieve a prominence which places him in the front rank of self-made men. His personal vigor and powers of success are such as to afford an inspiration to the youth of this state.
Jesse Stone was born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, August 23, 1836, and is the son of William and Mary (Kent) Stone who, with their family, came to America in 1842, settling at Waterford, New York. While in England his father was a minister in the Methodist Church, but after coming to this country did not engage actively in the work of the Ministry, but was well known as a "local" preacher, and many are the lives made better by the influence of his upright life, and his religious instructions. For many years he was road master of Water- ford and for a time engaged in the foundry business, in which he was quite successful. In 1875 he was called from his earthly labors, and his wife only survived him one year.
Five children were born after their arrival in this country, viz .: Mrs. Emma Tate, of Waterford, New York; Eliza; Jabez; Jason and one who died in infancy. Jesse, who was a close student was educated in the Public Schools of Waterford, where was laid the foundation of a strong, practical judgment, which has been his strong characteristic during his business life. After leaving school, he felt that it was very important that a young man ought to learn some of the trades, and having a liking for machinery, he spent several years in the machine shop and became a practical machinist. When 28 years of age, desiring to see more of his adopted country, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he engaged in the bakery business; disposing of his business in Louis- ville, early in 1869 he went to Chicago, where he purchased a bakery, but life in a large city was not pleasant to him so in August of that year he went to Watertown, Wisconsin, where he purchased a one-third interest in the firm of Woodard Brothers, a prominent bakery firm, and in one year secured a half interest, and today the firm of Woodard & Stone, by push, close application, and a determination that their goods should be known as the best, have succeeded in building a business which has stamped them as among the most successful men in Wisconsin.
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Mr. Stone is an ardent Republican and has always deeply interested himself in the political affairs of Jefferson County, as well as of the state and nation, and his abilities have been recognized by his party on several occasions. He was elected to the Assembly in 1879 and re-elected in 1881 when he was made Chairman of the Committee on Claims, also a member of the Railroad Committe. It is said that at no time while a member of the Legislature, was his acts questioned by his constituency. For several years he was a member of the Republican State Central Committee, and was twice elected a delegate to the National Republican Convention, first in 1888 and again in 1892. But still greater honors awaited him, for in 1898 his party nominated him for Lieutenant Governor on the ticket with Governor Edward Scofield, and he was elected by a handsome majority, receiving 180,038 votes against 126,306 for his Democratic opponent, and 6,901 votes more than the head of his ticket, which attests well for his popularity, and the writer of this sketch has no hesitancy in saying that greater honors await him.
In 1885 Mr. Stone was elected Vice President of the Bank of Water- town, which position he has held continuonsly since that date. He is a prominent Mason and 32nd degree Knight Templar, and takes great interest in all Masonic affairs.
Mr. Stone was united in marriage in 1855 to Miss Sarah J. Welch. Only one son, William C., blessed their union, he is now a member of the firm of the Woodard & Stone Company in Watertown, Wisconsin.
Jesse Stone is a man of unquestionable integrity, public spirited, and ever ready to indemnify himself with anything having a tendency to advance the interests of his fellow man, and is universally recognized as level-headed, calm, deliberate and self-controlled. His advance in the world has not been due to any mere chance, but has been attained by his own abilities, energy, diligence and indominitable perseverance. In fact he is a man who, in life's fierce conflict, has conquercd the domain over which he presides, and recognized that the wonderful achieve- ments and triumphant progress of the nineteenth century is largely attributable to the one word-push.
CAPT. ALLEN RALPH BUSHNELL.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
CAPTAIN ALLEN RALPH BUSHNELL.
VERY step in the history of the subject of this sketch, so far as we have been able to trace it, shows that he gained his success, not by sudden and capricious flights of genius, but by hard work and persevering industry. He rose, not by a bound, but step by step, year by year, slowly, steadily, surely.
Allen Ralph Bushnell, son of Dr. George Willis and Sally (Bates) Bushnell; grandson of Daniel and Rebecca (Banning) Bushnell, and great grandson of Captain Alexander and Chloe (Waite) Bushnell, was born as Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, July 18, 1833.
He was reared on a farm, but at odd times, being of a studious nature, he read medicine with his father, who was a practicing physi- cian. Obtaining his elementary education in the common schools, he afterward attended Hartford High School, and later the Oberlin College, where he selected a special course in order to fit himself for the legal profession, finishing his studies at Hiram College when James A. Gar- field was teaching there. Whilst taking his literary and legal course he taught several terms of school in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin. In September 1852 he came to Wisconsin and taught a term at Block House Branch, after which he went back to Ohio, returning permanently to Wiscousin in 1854, where he entered the office of Judge Stephen O. Paine at Platteville, and while reading law under this prominent jurist, he supported himself by teaching school in Platteville and Dodgeville, and was admitted to the bar in 1857, beginning practice at Platteville in December of that year, where he soon became so popular that he was nominated for the office of District Attorney for Grant County in 1860, and such was his popularity, that he was elected, receiving over one hundred votes more than the electoral ticket for Abraham Lincoln.
On the first call for troops in April 1861, he resigned his office and enlisted as a private, and aided in raising the company called the Platteville Guards, which upon organization elected him First Lieuten- ant and Samuel Nasmith, an old soldier of the Mexican war, Captain. His company was mustered and assigned as Company C, of the Seventh Wisconsin. This regiment enlisted for three months, but re-enlisted for three years. Mr. Bushnell's commission as Lieutenant was dated in May 1861 and he was mustered at Madison in August, and proceeded at once to Washington and the front, where his regiment was brigaded with the Second and Sixth Wisconsin and the Nineteenth Indiana, and which organization became the famous "Iron Brigade." In 1862 he was promoted to Captain of his company and served in that position from August 1862.
Captain Bushnell participated in the battles of Orange Court House, Beverly Ford, White Sulphur Springs, Rappahannock, Gainsville and
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the second Bull Run, and was afterward taken sick with typhoid fever, which gave him sick leave for two months, which time he passed at his old home in Ohio. Rejoining his regiment on the east slope of the Blue Ridge, he was first again in action at Fredericksburg, passing the win- ter on the Potomac at Belle Plains, where he distinguished himself, with the rest, in Burnside's "Mud Campaign." His health having become seriously impaired, Captain Bushnell, under the surgeon's certificate of disability, resigned, and after remaining under medical treatment for a time in Ohio, returned to Wisconsin in 1864, settling in Lancaster, where in 1865 he was appointed District Attorney for Grant County, to fill the unexpired term of Hon. T. J. Mills, who had been elected Circuit Judge.
Captain Bushnell was the first mayor of Lancaster, and in 1872 was elected a member of the Legislature, serving on the Judiciary Committee. For four years he was United States District Attorney. and in 1890 was elected a member of the Fifty-second Congress as a Democrat from the Third District of Wisconsin, having received sixteen thousand four hundred and thirty-two votes. against fifteen thousand four hundred and thirty votes for his Republican opponent. Robert M. LaFollette, being the first Democrat elected from that district since the war of 1861, when both parties united.
Early in 1891 he removed to Madison. where he has since resided, practicing his profession, in which he is still active, and retaining his connection with the firm of Bushnell, Watkins & Moses. at Lancaster.
Captain Bushnell was married at Lancaster. September 23. 1867. to Martha Burr of that place, who was born September 24. 1848, at Sheldon, Franklin County, Vermont, and died at Lancaster, Wisconsin, August 1, 1873. They had three children; Mabel B .. born July 9, 1868, who married James B. Kerr, Esq., son of Professor Alexander Kerr of the Wisconsin State University, and now living at St. Paul, Minnesota; Curtis and Fay C., having died in infancy.
Captain Bushnell married his present wife. Mary F., daughter of Cyrus and Fanny B. Sherman, of Lancaster, May 13. 1875. and she was born December 29, 1855. They had but one son, Edward, who died in infancy.
Captain Bushnell's great grandfather, Captain Alexander Bushnell. was an officer in the Revolutionary war, was born in Connecticut, as was also his wife, Chloe Waite, in 1739, and served seven years in the war of the Revolution. He moved to Ohio in 1804, and died at Hartford. Trum- bull County, Ohio, March 18, 1818: his wife died later at the same place, aged 94 years, having had born after her three hundred and twenty-two descendants, some of the fifth generation. He, Captain Alexander, was a descendant of Francis Bushnell, who with his wife Marie and child Martha, came over from London, England, in the ship Planter. embark- ing April 6, 1635. She, Chloe Waite, was a descendant of Thomas Waite, a member of Parliament and one of the Judges who signed the death warrant of King Charles I, who came to America at the restoration in 1660.
Daniel Bushnell and his wife Rebecca Banning, grandparents of Captain Allen Ralph Bushnell, were born in Connecticut. Daniel.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
December 18, 1763, but the date of Rebecca's birth is unknown. They were married in 1786, and she died Julv 9, 1809. Daniel married for his second wife Eunice Brockway. He was the father of seventeen children. George Willis Bushnell, the seventh child of Daniel and Rebecca Bushnell and father of the subject of this sketch, was born at. Hartland, Connecticut, August 11, 1800, and was married September 8, 1824, to Sally, daughter of Deacon Elihu and Concurrance (Wheaton) Bates, who was born in Hartland, Connecticut, January 8, 1802. Deacon Bates and wife moved to Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, about the year 1813, and there both died between 75 and 80 years old. Sally Bates having died at Hartford in 1866, George Willis married a widow, Mrs. Jane Irwin, in 1867, and lived with her at Hartford until 1892, when he died aged 92 years, and his widow has since died.
Sally Bates Bushnell, Captain Bushnell's mother, had eight children, all born at Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, viz .: Curtis W., born October 14, 1825, and died December 8, 1854, having never married; Sarah, born September 8, 1827, married Stephen D. Watkins, March 29, 1859, and after his death married Charles Davies and lives at River Falls, Wisconsin; Edward, born February 22, 1831, died March 29, 1850, never married; Allen Ralph, born July 18, 1833; Amaret, born June 20, 1835, married Addison Rewey, October 2, 1861 and lives at Platteville, Wisconsin; John L., born December 13, 1837, married. Ann Humaston, and lives at Hartford, Ohio: Anna, born December 7, 1841, married Dr. J. G. Irwin, December 25, 1870, and lives at Hartford, Ohio; Milo F., born July 18, 1844, died in the army April 17, 1863, never married.
As will be seen by the foregoing, Captain Bushnell comes from good, old revolutionary stock, and his history shows that he is a worthy descendant.
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PROMINENT PEOPLE OF WISCONSIN.
HON. WILLIAM HENRY MARTIN FROEHLICH. SECRETARY OF STATE.
N the scale of achievement, it is not so much the actual measure of what a man accomplishes as the sum of the difficulties he over- comes. While the subject of this sketch, beginning life as he did, a comparatively poor boy, has achieved success that but few men of his age have attained, his path was not always a "path of roses, " for he had many difficulties to overcome. But he early learned that one of the most important things to do in order to accomplish anything really worth doing, was perseverance, spotless honor and business integrity. His early life was that of many rural youths; a mixture of work and play, of trials and triumphs, but he always kept the lamp of industry trimmed and burning, and whatever he done. be it ever so small. if it engaged his interest, he gave it his best attention, and by shrewd business qualities and adaptability to hard work, he proved himself worthy of the esteem and confidence reposed in him.
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