USA > Wisconsin > Dane County > History of Dane County, Biographical and Genealogical > Part 41
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Knud Henderson (Lönne) of Cambridge is one of the best known of the Norwegian pioneers of Dane county. Like most Norwegians he has always been a music-lover and he early engaged in the pro- fession of teaching music. Many valuable collections of Norwegian music have also been published by him. With his parents, Halgor and Margaret (Glunnie) (Lönne). he came from Voss, Norway, in 1849. Eight children accompanied their parents to America, of whom Knud was the oldest. After the long and ted'ous voyage and tlie journey to Milwaukee were safely accomplished. the father hired a wagen to transport the household goods while the family walked beside it. After two weeks of travel their destination was reached and the family settled upon a farm of two hundred eighty acres in the town of Christiania. The labor of reclaiming the land from the wilderness occupied them all and a small frame house was built which still marks the spot they first called home in America. But three children of Halgor Lönne are now living: Knud; Claus, a farmer in Winnebago county, Iowa, and Susan, wife of G. Robey of Chicago Byngen and Margat Lönne, brother and sister of Hal- gor, came to America in 1844 and lived in Chicago. Knud Hender- son was born in Voss, November 16, 1835, attended school in Dane
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county and in Chicago. He learned carriage painting and decorating and lived in Chicago for a number of years. In 1857 he purchased the old homestead and in 1869 returned to make it his home after a long visit to the scenes of his childhood in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. His first musical publication was a "Karol Bog" or book of carols in 1865 and it was followed by a collection of songs in Norwegian in 1876 called "National Selskabs" and "Music Laeri" in 1870. A set of valuable musical charts was copyrighted by Mr. Henderson in 1881. In 1871 his establishment in Chicago was burned and over 2000 copies of musical publications destroyed by the fire. This was not Mr. Henderson's only severe loss by fire for he lost his home in 1885 and another year his entire crop of ten stacks of grain. July 4, 1869, he marrie:1 Miss Martha Glunnie of Voss, Norway, daughter of Knud and Bretha Glunnie, who lived on a farm in Voss. Six children blessed the marriage. Margaret is the wife of H. L. Wilson, a law- ver in Chicago; Bertina was graduated from the University of Wis- consin in 1896 and is employed as a high school teacher; Amanda at- tended the Milwaukee college and resides with her parents ; Henry, a graduate of the Cambridge high school, is farming the old home- stead in Christiania; Lettie is a graduate of the Chicago Musical col- lege and teaches music in Chicago; Leonora was graduated with the class of 1906 from the University of Wisconsin. The family is prominent in the Liberty Lutheran church of Deerfield and Mr. Henderson is an active worker for the cause of temperance. He is a Republican but not an office-seeker. Mr. Henderson is sec- retary of the Society of Norwegian Pioneers, also of the Prairie Queen Telephone Co. and the Wisconsin Tobacco Grower's As- sociation and treasurer of the National Norwegian Association. He also writes for various papers, the Chicago Scandinavian, the American Cultivator, of Boston, and a Norwegian newspaper. Mr. Henderson is fond of traveling and knows his adopted country well besides having traveled in England and other parts of Europe.
Leander J. Henika, a farmer and thrasher living in the town of Madison, three miles from the city, was born November 16, 1832 in Canandaigua, Ontario county, N. Y. His parents were Frederick Henika, born April 8, 1806, in Ontario county, N. Y .; and Lucy F. Pratt, born September 9, 1810. Frederick Henika was of German descent, and his wife of good English stock. Their marriage occurred December 17, 1829, and to this union were born,-Julia Ann, Decem- ber 22, 1830, lives in Madison; Leander J., the subject of this sketch; George Hayner, January 31, 1835, now retired and living in Wash- ington, D. C .; Charles Burgoin, April 30, 1837, an undertaker in
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Petoskey, Michigan; Franklin, died February 24, 1901; Minnie Pratt, born September 20, 1842, died September 23 of the year following; Elisha P., June 21, 1845, lives in Milwaukee; Holmes Lucas (M. D.), born March 15, 1848, died April 19, 1876; and Morris Edward, born June 23, 1850, a traveling salesman who makes his home in Milwau- kee. Leander J. Henika received a limited education in the public schools of his native state. In the spring of 1855 he came to Dane county with his parents. He started life for himself when he was twenty-four years of age. His first labor was the breaking of land with five yoke of oxen in the town of Oregon, where later he pur- chased eighty acres of land. After a few years he sold out and bought property three miles south of the city of Madison, where he continued his residence for several years and then purchased the home where he now resides. Like his father Mr. Henika is a Republican. His religious affiliations are with the Methodist Episcopal church of Madi-
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On January 5. 1859, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth,
daughter of Michael and Margaret (Mahoney) Collins, natives of Ireland. Mr. Collins settled in Canada after first coming to America; from there he went to Ontario county, N. Y., where he worked at his trade of weaver for a few years and then drifted to Oregon in this county. He and his wife were members of the Catholic church. Mrs. Henika was the youngest of six children,-all of them deceased except herself,-John, Catherine, Sylvester, Emily and Mary. Mrs. Henika was born in Genesee county, N. Y., August 1, 1840. Only one child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Henika, a son, Frederick R., who first saw the light of day on November 16, 1859. He has been twice married, the first time to Jessie Ganoe; his second wife was Alice Page, by whom he has had three children, only one of whom, Robert, is living. Frederick R. Henika is in the teaming business in Madi- son. Leander J. Henika is probably best known as a thresher. For over forty years he has not missed a harvest season.
E. J. Henry, general merchant and postmaster at Basco, Dane county, is a native of France, born January 2, 1876. His parents, Joseph and Josephine (Maley) Henry were both born in France, reared there, and came to this country when their oldest child, the subject of this sketch, was an infant. Mr. Joseph Henry was a soldier in France and served all through the Franco-Prussia war. On coming to Wisconsin the family settled in Montrose township, Dane county, where they still reside or a farm of ninety acres. They have two sons, E. J. and Fred; the latter is engaged in farm- ing with his father. Mr. Henry was brought up in the town of Montrose, and received his education in the public schools; he as-
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sisted in the work of his father's farm until he was sixteen years of age, when he began working for himself as a cooper, in Basco, which business he followed for six years. He then entered the employ of the Elgin Creamery Packing Co., of Elgin, Ill., for a short time, and after that worked at the carpenter trade in various parts of Green and Dane counties for four years. In February, 1903, he opened a general store in Basco, where he has since con- ducted a successful mercantile business, carrying a good line of merchandise, and also buying and shipping farm produce. He was appointed postmaster shortly after coming to Basco. He was married June 2, 1903, to Miss Josephine Faivre, daughter of Charles Faivre, of Montrose township. They have two children, Francis Emile and Vincent Joseph. Mr. Henry is a member of the M. W. A. and the Beavers, of Stoughton. He is at present town treasurer, this being his third term.
William Arnon Henry, dean of the college of agriculture, and director of the agricultural experiment station, in the University of Wisconsin, was born at Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio, June 16, 1850. His early education was obtained at home and at a private academy ; he then attended Wesleyan University, Delaware, for a year and a half; was principal of the high school at New Haven, Ind., 1871-72; and of the high school at Boulder, Col., 1873-76. In 1876 he entered Cornell University and was graduated in 1880 with the degree of Agr. B. While pursuing his university work, he assisted C. V. Riley of the United States entomological commission, Washington, in 1879, and also served as assistant instructor in botany at Cornell in 1880. Quoting from his article, "The Agricultural College," in "Madison, Past and Present," he writes, "On the first day of September, 1880. I reached Madison to take up my work at the University. I had been chosen by President Bascom to relieve Professor Daniells of the care of the university farm, and Doctor Birge of the work of instruction in: botany ; then I was to spend my winter in visiting the farmers and holding farmer's meetings. To give some idea of the scope of my efforts, as indicated by the title I was given, I was made professor of botany and agriculture. That was a pretty broad title for one person to wear .... . The first home of the department of agriculture was the janitor's room, formerly occupied by 'Patrick' in Main Hall. In 1883. after much hesitation, we were granted two rooms on the third floor of the old South Domitory. It had taken three years for the agri- cultural department to find a place where it could put a desk and chair." The college of agriculture is now in possession of over $300,000 worth of buildings devoted exclusively to research and in-
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struction in agriculture, and the number of students in the agricul- tural department, including those in the dairy course, and the long and short agricultural courses, is in excess of the total attendance at the University when Professor Henry first took charge. Much of this extraordinary growth is due to the enthusiasm and zealous efforts of Professor Henry. Quoting again from the above mentioned article of Professor Henry, he says: "When I came to Madison twenty-two years ago, the agricultural department received about one letter per week on the average. Now our correspondence amounts to thousands of letters annually, farmers writing to us on every conceivable topic. The department, grown into a college and experiment station, has be- come a bureau of information. Not only do we get letters from far- mers, but from business men of all classes who are interested in some line of agriculture." Since coming to the University Professor Henry's instructional work has gradually narrowed in scope, until now he teaches only the subjects of feeds and feeding. His time is neces- sarily given, almost exclusively, to the executive work of the college of agriculture and the experiment station. For many years he has given numerous lectures before the farmers' institutes on feeding and care of live stock. He has published, by direction of the legislature, a "Report on Amber Cane and the Ensilage of Fodders" (Madison, 1881-82, 2 vols.) ; "A Hand-book for the Home Seeker" (Madison, 1895) ; "Feeds and Feeding;" and "The Feeding of Cattle." Six- teen annual reports and more than one hundred bulletins have been issued by the Wisconsin state agricultural experiment station since he has been its director. He is a staff correspondent of the "Breeders Gazette," Chicago, and the "Country Gentleman," Albany, N. Y., and a frequent contributor to other agricultural journals. In 1891 he was president of the Wisconsin State Dairymen's Association. He married Clara Roxana Taylor, in August, 1881, and has one child. He is still in the prime of a vigorous manhood, and has many years of useful- ness before him. He is the recognized authority in the country on feeds and feeding.
Elling Hermanson, a successful farmer of the town of Dunkirk, is a native of southern Norway, son of Herman Herhanson (Lunde) and Christiana (Mellheim) Hermanson. His parents spent their entire lives in Norway and Elling. He was born August 3, 1858, was educated in Norway and remained at his father's home until he reached the age of twenty years. In 1878 he embarked for the United States and continued his journey as far west as Stoughton, where he entered the employment of the Mandt Wagon Co. and worked in the mechanical, carpentering and warehouse departments for six
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vears. In 1884 he bought eighty acres of farm land in section 36, town of Dunkirk, improved the property in every way and made it his home until 1904, when he moved to the adjoining farm of one hundred and sixty acres which he had purchased in 1902. His farm property of two hundred and forty acres is in a fine state of cultivation and supplied with modern equipment and comfortable buildings and Mr. Hermanson carries on an extensive business. The first wife of Mr. Hermanson was Miss Annie Severson, daugh- ter of Louis Severson, a veteran of the Civil War. Three children were born to them, of whom but one, Louis H., survives. After the death of Mrs. Hermanson, Mr. Hermanson, married, March 8. 1888, Miss Martha Peterson, daughter of Peter and Ingeborg Peter- son of Richland county, Wis., and six children blessed the mar- riage : Herman, Palma, Emily. Etta, Elmer and Ella. The family is associated with the First Norwegian Lutheran church of Stoughton. Mr. Hermanson is a member of the Farmers' Equitable Association. For two years he has served on the board of super- visors and is affiliated with the Republican party. Mr. Herman- son has been a member of the Emerald Creamery Association since its organization in 1893. It is one of the most successful cream- eries in the county, which has been in operation every day since it started.
Parke C. Herrick, of Oregon. was born in Rutland township, May 25, 1866, and is the son of J. T. Herrick, one of the sturdy lumber- men which Maine sent out in such numbers to subdue the great forests of the northwest, fifty years ago. Mr. Herrick was a native of Bangor, and until he was thirty years of age worked in the pineries of his native state ; he came to Wisconsin about 1850, but abandoned his old occupation and settled down as a farmer in the town of Rutland, Dane county, taking up eighty acres of govern- ment land and turning it from a forest wilderness into a cultivated farm. Parke Herrick's mother, Mary E. (Morgan) Herrick, was a native of Ireland ; she and her husband have both passed away. Parke Herrick received his education principally at the district schools of Rutland. He was reared as a farmer and has always followed that occupation, except one year, when he worked at the carpenter trade; he settled in Oregon, December, 1894, renting eighty acres of the J. D. Burk estate, and has occupied the place ever since, running it for general farming purposes and the raising of cattle, hogs and sheep. He is a member of the Baptist church and a Republican in politics. He was united in marriage. Septem-
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ber 25, 1889, to Miss Clara W. Cook, daughter of John S. and Sarah (Fowler) Cook, of Zion City, Ill .; they have no children.
Charles W. Heyl, cigar and tobacco dealer of Madison, and sec- retary and treasurer of the Union Ice company, was born in Phila- delphia, Pa., May 14, 1857. His parents, Charles W., Sr., and Mar- garet (Beck) Heyl, natives of Germany. Charles W. Heyl, Sr., was a tinsmith and hardware merchant in Philadelphia and continued in the same business after coming to Madison, when the subject of this sketch was but one month old. For two terms he served as city treasurer and at different times served in the common council. He died at the age of sixty-three. Charles W. Heyl was one of five children, of whom two, Louis and John, are dead; the others are Jo- seph, connected with the Hampton Hardware Company of Marys- ville, California; and Matilda living in Fremont, Nebraska. The edu- cation which Mr. Heyl received was in the public schools of Madison. After a few years spent in clerking he learned the tinners' trade, after which he took charge of the Northwestern Hotel. He maintained a high class hostelry there for twenty years and then went into the busi- ness which now furnishes him a livelihood. He is a Democrat in politics, and has served in the lower house of the legislature as the representative from the Madison district. While Hons. R. M. Bash- ford, W. H. Rogers and John Corscot were mayors of Madison Mr. Heyl was a member of the common council, and Hon. Jabe Alford made him chief of the city police, which position he held one year. He has also been a member of the board of education. On June 9, 1881, he married Augusta, daughter of John and Elizabeth Reiner, of Madison. Mr. Reiner is dead but his widow is still resident of Madison. Mr. and Mrs. Heyl have two children living,-Edmund Charles, a clerk in his father's store, and Lewis W., attending the public schools. Mrs. Heyl is a member of the Presbyterian church. Her husband is a member of all the Masonic bodies, has been dele- gate to the grand commandry several years, and for five years was eminent commander of the commandry. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias.
John M. Hibbard, editor and publisher of the Stoughton Courier. and former postmaster of the city, is one of the best known and most popular citizens of Stoughton, where he has maintained his home for more than forty years. Mr. Hibbard is a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of Wisconsin, of which commonwealth he is a native, having been born at Lafayette, Walworth county, January 19, 1849, and being a son of Richard M. Hibbard, who came to the state in 1843, having been in Milwaukee
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when that present beautiful city was represented by but two or three houses. The parents continued residents of Wisconsin until their death. The subject of this review was afforded the advan- tages of the common schools and was graduated from the Stough- ton high school at the age of sixteen years. In September, 1969, he was appointed assistant postmaster, under A. C. Croft, of Stoughton, serving in this capacity five and one-half years. He was then appointed postmaster, by Hon. Marshall Jewell, who was then postmaster general, and he held the office during the adminis- trations of Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland and Harrison, a total of eighteen years. This record of service is exceptional and indicates the confidence and esteem in which the incumbent is held in the community of which he has so long been a resident. In 1893 Mr. Hibbard was elected city treasurer, being re-elected in 1894 and thus serving two terms. He later served four years as deputy sheriff of the county, under Sheriffs Michael- son and Moulton. In 1894 he purchased the plant and business of the Stoughton Courier, of which he has since continued editor and publisher. The Courier is a weekly paper, is an effective ex- ponent of local interests, supports the cause of the Republican party, and is ably edited and cleanly issued. Mr. Hibbard is af- filiated with the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and other social organizations. November 16, 1870, he was united in marriage to Miss Jennie E. Warren, who was born in the state of New York, and they have five children, namely: Fleta B., who is the wife of W .C. Hegelmeyer, secretary of the Stoughton Wagon Company; Waldo W., who is wire chief for the Bell Telephone Company at Greeley, Colorado; Loretta D., who is an expert stenographer; Walter E., who is in the employ of the Wisconsin Telephone Company ; and Leona Hazel, who re- mains at the parental home. Mr. Hibbard is the proud possessor of a photograph of five generations, in which he himself is repre- sented, and he appreciates the distinction implied in the exceptional condition thus indicated.
Jacob R. Hiestand, deceased, was a pioneer of Dane county and one of the leading and highly respected citizens of Blooming Grove township, where he lived in his fine homestead for half a century. Mr. Hiestand was a native of the Buckeye state, having been born on a farm nine miles from Dayton, Ohio, on February 7, 1821. His parents were John and Barbara (Cochran) Hiestand, both natives of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in which state the family had re- sided for many years. Mr. Hiestand was but a boy when his parents
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removed from Pennsylvania to Ohio. He was reared on the farm and secured a good common school education. While a boy he returned to Lancaster county on a visit in company with an uncle, making the journey over the Allegheny mountains on horseback. He remained on this visit to his Pennsylvania relatives for a year or more, and dur- ing that period attended school. Mr. Hiestand after reaching man's es- tate, engaged in the dry goods business in Dayon, O., in partnership with his cousin, William Dixon. While thus engaged his heaith failed, and acting on the advice of his physician, he closed out his mercantile interests and went to live on his father's farm. After one year on the farm he decided to visit the west, and in the spring of 1850, he and his friend David Carrol, left Dayton for Madison, Wis., in a two horse buggy and made the entire journey in that manner, and theirs was one of the first, if not the first, covered buggy ever seen in Madison. Here Mr. Hiestand became acquainted with the then Governor Farwell, and was by him shown many courtesies. So well pleased was Mr. Hies . tand with the country that he decided to make Dane county his per- manent home; but on the advice of Governor Farwell, he did not at that time purchase any land. He returned to Ohio, settled up his af- fairs, and in the fall of 1851, he started on the return trip to Madison with his wife and two children. The return journey was made from Dayton to Maumee, Ohio, by canal, thence to Chicago by rail, and thence by lake boat to Milwaukee, thence to Watertown by rail, and completing the way to Madison by team. Soon after arriving the sec- ond time in Madison, Mr. Hiestand lost no time in purchasing a farm, which was the eighty acres in Blooming Grove township four and a half miles from the capitol building, where he afterwards made his home, and where his widow resides at the present time. This home- stead he improved and brought to a high state of cultivation. The buildings he erected are of the best, the residence being one of the most comfortable farm houses in the county, with beautiful surround- ings. Mr. Hiestand carried on general farming successfully. An historical fact is that he and Mr. Pomeroy grew the first tobacco in Wisconsin that was ever marketed. This, however, was not grown on his homestead but on the Yeager farm. Politically, Mr Hiestand was a Republican, and as such held various town offices for many years. While a resident of Dayton he was a member of the first Pres- byterian church, but never transferred his membership to the Madi- son church because of his inability to attened. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Dayton, Ohio. His death occurred January 23, 1901. On September 2, 1847, he married Mary A., daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Stutsman, living in Dayton. Six
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children were born to them,-Elizabeth, born January 21, 1850, now Mrs. William Gay, of Blooming Grove township; John Edwin, born November 24, 1852, living with his mother on the old homestead; Fannie Jane, born February 6, 1855, now Mrs. J. R. Morton of Chi- cago; Harry Cochran, born August 1, 1857, died Apri! 22, 1900, his widow and three children now live on the son's farm adjoining the homestead; William Dixon, born July 8, 1861, became court reporter in the circuit court in Minneapolis in 1887; in the fall of 1888 be- came private secretary to President Chamberlain of the University of Wisconsin, and the following year was made registrar of the Univer- sity which position he has since retained. He married Frances M., the daughter of William and Eliza (Shaffer) Richards, of Platteville, Wis., and they have one son. Clara Mary, born July 11, 1863, is now Mrs. Milford A. Pelton of Madison, and the mother of three children.
Charles Hildreth is one of the well known and popular citizens of Dane county, being the owner of the fine estate known as Indian Garden, on the western shore of Lake Waubesa. a few miles dis- tant from Madison. He has been significantly successful as a busi- ness man and has been the artificer of his own fortunes, showing that power of mastering expedients which ever conserves personal advancement along legitimate lines of enterprise. Mr. Hildreth is a native of the Empire state of the Union and a scion of a family founded in America in the colonial epoch. He was born in Water- town. Jefferson county, New York, in 1851, and is a son of Lamp- son and Sarah (Tuttle) Hildreth, both of whom were likewise born in that county. The maternal grandfather and two of his brothers were soldiers in the War of 1812. When Mr. Hildreth was a child of about three years his parents removed from New York state to Wisconsin and settled at the point now known as Clinton Junc- tion, in Rock county, where they remained about three years, at the expiration of which they removed to what is now the village of Rutland, in the township of the same name, in Dane county. While residents of Rock county their nearest trading point was Milwaukee, and the trip had to be made with team and wagon. In Rutland township the father engaged in farming. reclaiming much of the land utilized, and here Charles was reared under sturdy discipline, early becoming inured to the arduous labors of the pioneer farm. Incidentally it may be stated that on the home farm he aided in raising what was undoubtedly the first crop of tobacco ever propagated in Wisconsin, a state whose product in this line is now of great commercal importance. In the local schools of Rutland township Mr. Hildreth secured his fundamental educa-
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