USA > Wisconsin > Dane County > History of Dane County, Biographical and Genealogical > Part 52
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John F. King, of Waunakee, born in Westport, Dane county, De- cember 2, 1872, is of Irish ancestry on both sides of the family. both his paternal grandparents, John and Margaret (Shachency) King and his maternal, Michael and Margaret (Durkin) Kennedy having lived and died in Ireland. His father was also born and educated in Ireland; he came to New York, 1859, and very soon came on to Cin- cinnati, Ohio, where he worked on the Cincinnati & Marietta R'y. He came to Dane county the same year and worked on the state hosp.tal for two years ; then in company with his brother Barney he bought one hundred and forty acres of land and upon this homestead, John F .. the only son of John and Catherine (Kennedy) King, was born, and there the father lives at the present time. Mrs. King was born in County Mayo, Ireland, December 8, 1845, and died in 1872. He was born in the same place in 1826. The subject of this sketch was edit- cated in the common school and in Miss Richmond's private school in Madison ; he is a farmer and has charge of the homestead ; he is also a breeder of short-horn cattle and Poland China hogs. He belongs to the Republican party and has been treasurer of the township and clerk of the school board for three years. He and his family are members of the Catholic church. On November 13, 1895 he was mar- ried to Miss Susan M. Fish, born in Dane, June 16, 1877 and they have had four children, Alice K. : Ruth : Roy G .; and Gladys, who died aged four months. Mrs. King's paternal ancestry is as follows : I. Ashel and Mary (Lane) Fish. 2. Ashel Fish, born 1816, married in Pennsylvania, 1840, to Miss Susan Salisbury. He was a minister of the Christian church and came to Columbia county in 1853 ; he set- tled at Dekorah, and later came to Springfield (1859), and then to
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Waunakee valley, where he preached for some years without salary; his whole term of service as pastor covered twelve years, and he was invariably found in his pulpit. Mrs. King's maternal grandparents were Lathrop and Emily (Allen) Stewart. Mr. Stewart was an early settler of Dane; he moved to North Dakota where he died in 1900 : his wife died at Wahpeton, N. D. in 1881. Mrs. King's par- ents are Geo. C. Fish, born in Pennsylvania, August, 1842, and Sophia (Stewart) Fish, born also in Pennsylvania in 1845. Mr. Fish came west with his parents in 1853. He settled on a farm of two hundred and twenty acres, in Westport in 1866, where the village of Wauna- kee now stands ; and in company with Mr. Lewis Baker platted it in 1871. He sold his farm to T. P. O'Malley and moved to Iowa where he now resides. While a resident of Dane he served as supervisor in Westport and on the village board of Waunakee.
John T. King, president of the King & Walker Manufacturing Company, whose foundry and machine shops are at 613 to 617 East Main street, was born in Cape Vincent, Jefferson county, N. Y., December 14, 1850. He is a son of Lorenzo D. and Julia Ann (Schryver) King, the former a native of Vermont, the latter of Pennsylvania. The father came to Wisconsin in 1851 and located on a farm near Fox Lake in Dodge county. He followed the voca- tion of farmer after coming to Wisconsin, although he had origin- ally been a carpenter and stair builder. Practically all his life in Wisconsin he was clerk of the town in which he resided. His reli- gious affiliations were with the Methodist Episcopal church, and he frequently was an occupant of the pulpits of that society. He held most pronounced views on the matter of temperance, being exceeding well read on this topic as well as on all others. His death occurred in 1864 at the age of forty-seven. His widow died some four years later. She was a most devout believer in the Seventh-day Adventist faith and was a deeply pious and saintly woman. Of the nine children in the family six are still living. One daughter, Mary E., now the wife of Asahe! Halstead, shipping clerk for King & Walker. makes Madison her home. John T. King received his preparatory education in the "little red school" of na- tional fame, attending school in the winter and working on his father's farm in summer. When he was seventeen years of age he went west to a brother, Gilbert L., at Pine Bluff, a station of the Union Pacific railroad in Wyoming. The railroad shops offered him employment until he obtained a position as engineer on the Union Pacific in 1870. This last position he held for two years and then returned to Fox Lake, where he opened a machine shop and did all kinds of od1 ma-
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chinery jobs until 1878. In the latter year he was appointed assistant engineer in the state capitol at Madison, and remained about a year and a half. The following year and a half he was chief engineer at the Park Hotel and then he went to work for W. G. Walker & Con- Fany as superintendent of construction of what was then known as the Prouty printing press. He remained with the firm in the capacity of superintendent until 1889, when the firm of King & Walker was or- ganized and Mr. King was made president. Since that time he has served as president and has patented machinery devices which have helped revolutionize the technical world. So far as is known the first exhaust steam heating apparatus ever patented was his; as was a ro- tary starching machine for laundries. Altogether he has taken out nine patents, the last on a printing press in December, 1905, and has never sold any of them. The chief output of the firm is printing presses. On August 17, 1872, Mr. King was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Craig, daughter of Samuel and Eliza Craig, and of Scotch-Irish extraction. The parents have been dead many years. Mr. and Mrs. Kling have had but one child, Gilbert William, who was born June 10, 1874, and died November 21, 1890. He was a pupil in the high school at the time of his demise and was a youth of excep- tional promise. Mrs. King is a communicant of the First Congrega- tional church. Her husband is a Royal Arch Mason, and for four years was master of Hiram Lodge, No. 50. He was historian of the lodge at its fiftieth anniversary celebration and is past grand junior warden of the grand lodge of the state of Wisconsin. He is also a member of Robt. McCoy commandery, Knights Templar and of Hope Lodge, No. 17, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a charter member of the Knights of Pythias organization in Madison. Politi- cally his affiliations are with the Republican party. In 1894 he was made secretary of the Republican county central committee and held the position eight consecutive years. He took no side in the recent split in the party, but labored earnestly for the good of all concerned. He has himself never aspired to office, although he has often been urged to become a candidate. He is a director of the northwestern building and loan association, and is now serving his third year as president of the Dane county agricultural society.
Thor T. Kingland lives on the farm in the town of Christiania which was the first home owned by his father, Thor Kingland, when he came to Wisconsin. Father and son were natives of Telemarken, Norway and the boy Thor came with his parents to the west when he was three years old. The long slow voyage on a sailing craft was made in the summer of 1847 and the country where the farm of eighty
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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.
acres was purchased was wild and inhabited by Indians. With the in- domitable spirit of the pioneer, Mr. Kingland built a cabin from the trees on his own farm and set bravely to work to clear and improve the property. After some years he bought another farm of two hundred and forty acres at Albion, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. Eleven cihldren were born to them ; Talbin, Alf, Ole, Julia, Andrew, Thor, Ingebright, Alice, Axel and two who died in infancy. Thor was born in Norway July 14, 1844. He found little time or opportunity to go to school in the new home and worked hard with his father on the farm. In October. 1361, he enlisted at Madison, Wis., as a private in Company H. of the Fifteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and saw much hard service. His regiment was active at Island No. 10 and Union City, marched through, Tennessee and Kentucky and engaged at Perrysville, Murfreesboro and Stone River during Mr. Kingland's term of service. Mr. Kingland was three times wounded, once in the left leg, once in the heel and finally near the hip joint. The last wound was the most serious as the bullet passed lengthwise through the leg and imbedded itself. Mr. King- land's comrades thought him dead and he lay for two days and two nights upon the battle field. Not until eight days after the battle did the wound received surgical attention and six months of severe illness followed and many more of weakness and pain. For a long time Mr. Kingland was obliged to use crutches and he has never since been strong enough for a very active life. June 28, 1865. he was married to Miss Susan Sylfertdotter of Voss, Norway. After her death he married Miss Gucnel Fernersdotter, also of Norwegian birth. To the first marriage were born four children ; Susan (deceased) ; Thomas : Christian ; Andrew and Annie (deceased). Of the six children of the second marriage but four are living ; Matilda, Andrew, Tena and An- nic. The family is identified with the Lutheran church of Pleasant Springs. Mr. Kingland is a member of the G. A. R. Post of Stoughton and a staunch Republican. He is an able farmer in spite of the fact that he has been incapacitated for hard work by his wounds.
John B. Kiser, together with his brother. Geo. W .. is one of the most extensive farmers and stock-breeders of Dane county; and the sons are but sustaining the reputation in that line of their honored father. The parents of our subject were Joseph C. and Elizabeth ( Bonsack) Kiser, both of whom were natives of the state of Vir- ginia, the father being born at Mt. Crawford, Rockingham county, July 26, 1818, and the mother in Roanoke county of the same state. J. C. Kiser removed with his parents to Ohio, when he was but four-
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
teen years old, and for eight years the family had its residence near the city of Dayton, the farm on which the family lived being the same of which is now located the Soldiers' Home. This farm was bought for twenty dollars an acre, and sold for fifty dollars an acre, in 1839. His father having died, Joseph C. Kiser, who was the efdest of seven children, became the virtual head of the household, and after the sale of the farm mentioned the family removed to West Liberty, Logan county, Ohio. In 1841 Joseph C. married Katharine Seele, of West Liberty, and the following year started for Peru, Ind., with his young wife, in company with other movers, his equipment consisting of two horses and a cow and $7.50 in money, five dollars of the latter being secured from the sale of fifty bushels of oats at ten cents a bushel. Thus equipped he made the trip overland to Peru, Ind., a distance of one 1 undred and1 sixty miles, and after making that place his home for three years he returned to Ohio, and in company with his mother and brother was for five years in the mercantile business at Millerstown, that state. Ilis wife having died at about this time and the California gold fever being at its height, in 1850 Mr. Kiser started for the Golden state. He went to St. Joseph, Mo. and there, on May 9, he paid Rome, Hannah & Smith $200 to take him to San Francisco, arriving at the latter place on September 8. Hc conducted a hotel on the road from Stockton to Sonora, known as the "Twenty-six Mile house," for fifteen months. Fortune favored him and he was able to accumulate about $5,000 in the business; then, in 1852, he returned to his old home in Ohio, married the mother of the subject of this sketch, and again engaged in the mercantile business in West Liberty. He was thus engaged until 1854, when he came to Wisconsin and purchased a farm of three hundred acres in the town of Oregon, Dane county, on which the family still resides. He bought this land of Dr. W. H. Fox, and at that time only eighty acres of it was under cultivation, but Mr. Kiser made his entire share of improvements, building a large and tasteful farm house in 1869, and a forty by sixty basement stock- barn a few years later. He also put up other needed buildings and soon had a well-fenced farm, upon which he resided until his death, November 19, 1895. In 1870 he began the breeding of registered short-horned cattle, usually keeping from twenty-five to forty head in his herd, and he was awarded a number of first prizes at the Wiscon- sin and Minnesota state fairs, and also many at the Dane, Rock, and Green county fairs in his home state. He also bred Poland-China hogs. He was a Democrat in his political affiliations, and was also a member of the Masonic order. To his first marriage one child was born-Mary, who is now the wife of W. F. Bartholemew, of Brook-
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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.
lyn, N. Y .- and to the second union there were born seven, as fol- lows: Susan Virginia, John B., Kittie, Addie, Carrie, George W. and Daniel Elliott. The last married Miss Addie Fox, of Oregon, and resides at Durand, Wis., and Kittie K. married Joe O. Fox, Jr. and is now deceased. John B. Kiser, whose name introduces this. memoir, received his education in the high school of the village of Oregon, and his brothers and sisters also received their schooling in Dane county. In 1890 John B. and his brother were taken in as partners by their father in the extensive business of farming and fancy stock breeding, and this partnership between the brothers still continues under the firm name of Kiser Bros. Their herd now num- bers one hundred head. In the disastrous cyclone that visited that. porton of the county, in 1878, the farm was almost completely devas- tated, but, nothing daunted, the father and his sons overcame the dreadful effects and launched out more extensively than ever. In 1870, when the father started in the business of stock-breeding, he purchased a cow, calf, and a three-year-old heifer, for which he paid $1,400, and a short time later he bought four head of cattle in Ohio, for which he paid $4,000. One of these was descended from a $35,000 dam and a $12,000 sire. John B. and his brother have done all the fitting of their stock for the exhibitions in which they have been contestants, and they had stock in in all the large stock shows for fourteen years. In 1883 they carried the grand sweep-stakes over all other competitors at the state fair, as is shown by the records. Short- horns cattle from this herd have gone to more agricultural college. farms than from any other herd of short-horns in the United States. They have sold stock that has gone to the Washington agricultural col- lege, to New Mexico, Idaho, Dakota, Wisconsin, the Mormon church at Salt Lake city, Virginia, and Canada, have sold thirteen head to Prof. John A. Craig, of Iowa agricultural college and have also sold extensively to breeders on the Missouri river, having shipped twenty- four head in one lot, to breeders in South Dakota, and a car-load to. Lee & Prentice, Vermillion S. D. John B. Kiser gives an unswerv- ing allegiance to the principles of the Democratic party, but has never allowed the desire for office to draw his attention away from the bus- iness in which he has achieved such signal success.
Levi Kittilsen, a prominent retired farmer and tobacco dealer re- siding in the city of Stoughton, is the owner of one of the fine farms of Christiana township. He is one of the many sturdy citizens of Scandinavian birth who have assisted materially in the develop- ment of the agricultural industry of Dane county and his course has been such as to retain to him the unequivocal esteem of his
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fellow men. Mr. Kittilsen was born in Norway, July 21, 1845, and is a son of Kittil and Anna (Lee) Kittilsen, who immigrated to America in 1853, arriving in Wisconsin on August 20, of that year. In 1854 they located in York township, Green county, where the father died the same year, during the epidemic of cholera. to whch he succumbed. His widow and the subject of this sketch, who was but eight years of age at the time of the immigration to the United States, continued to reside in Green county until 1862, when they removed to Christiana township, Dane county, where they pur- chased one hundred and forty acres of land, the greater portion be- ing prairie land. On this homestead the devoted mother passed the remainder of her life. The property is still owned by Mr. Kittil- sen, who has added to the original tract until he now has a fine landed estate of two hundred and four acres, under excellent cul- tivation and improved with good buildings and other accessories. He received his rudimentary education in his native land and sup- plemented this by attending the schools of Dane and Iowa counties, Wisconsin. He gave his earnest and undivided attention to the improvement and cultivation of his farm until 1890, having made a specialty of raising tobacco, and in the year mentioned he located in Stoughton, where he engaged in the purchasing and sale of to- bacco of native growth, continuing actively in this line of enter- prise until 1904, since which time he has lived essentially retired from business, having an attractive home in Stoughton and enjoy- ing the rewards of former years of endeavor and application. He is a stalwart supporter of the principles and policies of the Repub- lican party, and is at the present time representing Stoughton on the county board of supervisors, having previously been supervisor of Christiana township for many years. He is a man of marked business acumen and has proven a valuable official of township. city and county in the capacity noted. He and his family are zealous members of the Norwegian Lutheran church. July 3, 1865, Mr. Kittilsen was united in marriage to Miss Anna Olson Holton, daughter of Ole (Galbrandson) Holton and Ambjor (Kampestad) Holton. Mrs. Kittelson was born in Christiana township, Dane county, Wisconsin, August 1. 1845, and is said to have been the first white female child born in that township, where her parents located in 1843, having immigrated hither from Norway. Her father died in 1851, of cholera, his wife surviving him by a number of years. Mr. and Mrs. Kittilsen have reared to maturity their family of eight children, namely: Carl O., Andrea. Albert N., Bernhardt G., Kristian O., Sophia L., Alma M. and Klara B. An-
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drea is now the wife of Rev. A. E. Lien a clergyman of the Lutheran church ; Albert N. is a successful physician and surgeon ; and Bernhardt G., is deceased.
John Kivlin, a well-known and successful farmer of the town of Rutland, is a native of County Sligo, Ireland. His father, Michael Kivlin, was a farmer and fisherman in Ireland and married there Miss Ann Kellerlain, bringing his young family with him to America in 1854. They made the voyage in a sailing craft and were more than six weeks en route. The first few years were spent in Vermont where Mr. Kivlin worked in the slate and marble quarries near Hyde- ville and Rutland and in 1861, he moved west to Dane county, Wis. and obtained an eighty acre farm in F.tchburg township, which was liis home the remainder of his life. The family numbered five chil- dren; John, the oldest; Bridget, the widow of Matt Smith of Madı- son, Wis .; Michael, who makes his home in Fitchburg, Mary Ann the wife of Martin Price of York, Neb. and Catharinc, who is Mrs. McDermott of Madison. John was born in County Sligo, March 25. 1847, went to school when possible in Vermont and Wis- consin, but was early obliged to earn his own way. He commenced by working out on farms near home, at one time on the farm of Dr. W. Fox at Fitchburg. After about ten years of saving and industry, he succeeded in saving enough money to buy the farm of one hundred and eighty acres in section 25, town of Rutland, which is now his home. To this he added from time to time until i fine farm of four hundred and sixty acres is his present property. Mr. Kivlin carries on a general farming business but is particularly interested in his fine registered Shropshire sheep, with which he had been very successful. In 1890 he bought his first imported sheep from A F. Fox. He then imported two car-loads from Canada, and in 1905 he imported eight Shropshires from England. In the summer of 1906 he imported fif- teen Shropshires, nine, Dorsets and nine Cheviots directly from Eng- land. He took the second premium on a Shropshire ran at the St. Louis Exposit'on, and has the finest flock of sheep in America. Short- horn cattle, Poland China and Chester White hogs and Belgian horses are also bred on his farm. Mr. Kivlin is a Republican nominally but not a strong party man. He believes in securing the best possible ad- min stration of local affairs, by whichever party it is offered. Mrs. Kivlin's parents were also residents of Fitchburg and natives of Ire- land. She is the daughter of John and Mary McDermott and was mar- ried to Mr. Kivlin January 23, 1870. John and Ann (McDermott) Kiv- lin have nine children. The family have all been educated in the home schools and are devout members of St. Mary's Catholic church of
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Oregon. Francis, the oldest son, is a railroad conductor of Lincoln, Neb .; Bernard is a prosperous farmer of Rutland; Mary Ann, Wil- liam, Charles, Sadie, George, Robert, Leo and Grace, are all at home. The four youngest are students in the Brooklyn high school. Mr. Kivlin keeps well posted on everything concerning up-to-date farming and in 1903 visited the Buffalo Exposition, where he obtained much valuable information.
Michael Kivlin is entitled to recognition as one of the prominent farmers of the town of Fitchburg, where his life since childhood has been spent, and which has been the scene of his remarkably success- ful career. He was born in Rutland, Vermont, on December 8, 1853, and is one of five children born to Michael and Anna (Killerlain) Kiv- lin, both of whom were natives of Ireland and are now deceased. The father was a farmer and fisherman in the north of Ireland, and in the early fifties migrated, with his wife and two children, to the shores of America. They made the journey in a sailing craft and were more than six weeks on the ocean. Upon their arrival in America they located at Rutland, Vermont, where the father worked in the slate and marble quarries near Hydeville and Rutland for a few years, and in 1860 he came with his family to Wisconsin. Locating in Dane county the father worked as a common laborer for about two years and then purchased forty acres of land in the town of Fitchburg, and began general farming. He added to his farm from time to time until it comprised sixty acres at the time of his death, which occurred in 1898, the mother having died in 1897. Of the five children, John is given a more extended mention on another page of this volume; Brid- get married Matthew Smith, who is also given particular mention herein; Michael is the subject of this review; Mary Ann is the wife of Martin Price, of York, Nebraska; and Catherine married John Mc- Dermott, who is given personal mention on another page. Michael Kivlin attended the common schools in Vermont for a short time and after the removal of the family to Wisconsin added to his scholas- tic training in the schools at Lake View. He resided at home until he was twenty-five years old, then worked by the month as a farm hand until 1880, when he purchased eighty acres of land in the town of Fitchburg and began his independent career as a general farmer. He has added to this tract from time to time until he now owns two hundred and twenty acres, upon which he made all necessary improve- ments. In politics he maintains an independent attitude, voting for the men and measures that nieet his unbiased approval, and his per- sonal worth has been recognized by election to the responsible posi-
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HISTORY OF DANE COUNTY.
tion of town treasurer; and at present he is road commissioner. He and his wife are consistent members of the Catholic church. Mr. Kivlin was married in September, 1878, to Miss Kate Glennon, a native of Philadelphia, the date of her birth being January 3, 1856. Her parents are Edward and Ellen (Madden) Glennon, now prominent residents of the town of Fitchburg, and she received her education at Swan Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Kivlin are the parents of ten children : James H., George S., Catherine A., Anna F., Millie I., Mary L., Eddie L., Margaret E., Vincent, and Howard M. James H. married Anna O'Brien and resides in the town of Dunn.
Edward J. Kjolseth is the leading funeral director of the city of Stoughton, where he also conducts a well equipped furniture es- tablishment, in which he has a large and representative trade. He is a native of Norway, where he was born March 6, 1866, being a son of John P. and Karine (Ovren) Kjolseth, who immigrated to America in 1876, making Dane county their objective point and locat- ing at Cambridge, in which village they still maintain their home. The father owns five acres of property in the village and eleven in Jefferson county, and since coming to America he has given his attention principally to agricultural pursuits. He is a member of the Norwegian Methodist; Episcopal church. Of their children six attained to years of maturity, namely: Bertha (deceased wife of N. M. Sundt), Edward J., Peter, Josephine, Martin and Sarah (wife of Paul Wormlie). Edward J. Kjolseth was ten years of age at the time of the family removal to the United States, his fundamental education having thus been secured in Norway, and the same having been extended by attendance in the public schools of Dane county, where he was reared to manhood. He remained at the parental home until he had attained the age of twenty-two years. after which he availed himself of whatever order of honor- able employment that was presented. In 1895, in company with others, he purchased a threshing machine, and this he operated throughout this section for the ensuing six years. In December, 1901, he removed from Cambridge to Stoughton, where he was em- ployed three months as salesman in a grocery, and in the spring of 1902 he entered the employ of R. B. Page, in the furniture and undertaking business. In 1904 he became associated with M. S. Halverson in purchasing the business from Mr. Page, and this alliance continued until November 14. 1905, when he disposed of his interest in the enterprise to Mr. Halverson and at once started an undertaking and furniture business 'in an independent way. His establishment is thoroughly modern in its equipment and ac-
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