History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 140

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1044

USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County, Wisconsin > Part 140

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WILLIAM LONG, farmer; P. O. Platteville ; a very early settler of Platteville ; was born Jan. 30, 1815, in Grayson Co., Va. His father was a Virginian, and his mother a native of Tennessee. To the latter State they removed soon after his birth. Grown to manhood here, he mounted his horse in 1834, and rode across the country to Platteville; engaged in mining until 1853, when he settled where he now is. Has 40 acres, originally timbered. His wife was Susan Gregory, born in Tennessee, and reared in Marion Co., Mo. They have eleven living children.

J. B. McCOY, dealer in live stock ; P. O. Platteville; was born in Peoria, Ill., in 1839; came to Platteville in 1860, and attended the Platteville Academy till 1862 .. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Co. E, 25th W. V. I., and served as a private abont sixteen months, when he received a First Lieutenant's commission, and served in that capacity till the close of the war. In 1874, he was elected Sheriff of Grant Co. on the Republican ticket, and served one term. In May, 1866, he married Miss Flora S., daughter of Milton Graham, of Platteville, and has had four children. His two oldest-Charles Graham, agel 12, and James Lester, aged 8, died of diphtheria in the fall of 1878; has two living-George F. and Milton Clay.

JAMES N. MeGRANAHAN was born in Salem, Mercer Co., Penn., Dec. 15, 1841. Ten years later, his parents, A. J. and R. J. McGranahan, came to Iowa Co., Wis .; lived three years on a farm near Mineral Point, and a year in the Wyoming Valley. Owing to ill health, the father returned with his family to Pennsylvania, and stayed there three years. The family then returned, and lived for a time near Gratiot and Red Rock ; then went to Fennimore, and, four years later, settled on the farm in Lancaster, where the old couple now reside. In January, 1865, J. N. McGranahan enlisted in Co. K, 47th W. V. I .; served nine months, and was honorably discharged with his regiment. He then spent two years with his parents, and, in 1867, married Mary Orton. She was born on the Strand, in London, and was the daughter of a business man of that metropolis, who made a voyage to Australia, and around the globe, taking his family with him. After a somewhat brief experience on rented farms, Mr. McGrana- han came to Platteville, and, after a winter at mining, he entered the employ of the Laffin & Rand Powder Co. Mr. McGranahan seems to bear a charmed life as a brief recital of his many close and almost miracu- lons escapes will show. In his younger life, while in La Fayette ('o., Wis., he was nearly crushed to death by a runaway steer, the brute so managing his stampede as to drag the boy after him, and finally fell upon him. His second accident overtook him while he was crossing some slippery timbers in con- structing a dam. He was a powerful young fellow, and was carrying a very heavy beam, the end of which struck him full in the face as he went down, and, of course, drove him to the bottom of the deep stream. During his six years' service with the powder company, he was thrice in imminent danger. At the first explosion, Feb. 16, 1877, he sprang from one of the buildings just as the roof was blown from the " corn- ing " works, yet escaped the hail of falling missiles. In September of the next year, the packing works exploded. He, at the time, was washing himself in a building prepared for the use of the employers. He was entirely nude, and when found was under a mass of debris with his shoulders and lower limbs literally stuck full of bits of glass. He now bears the scars of innumerable wounds and cuts. The roof of the wash-house and the broken windows did the business for him. When the press works exploded, in No- vember, 1877, he jumped into the creek, and thus extinguished his blazing and most inflammable garments, which had caught from the explosion. Few men would have had the presence of mind he displayed in closing eyes and mouth, and making the plunge as he did. The surface of the water was strewn with broken timbers, etc., yet he was not hit, and, in spite of his many adventures and " close calls," he is to-day a sound man. In the spring of 1880, he was elected Town Treasurer, and, in the fall following, was appointed Janitor of the Normal School building. Mr. and Mrs. McGranahan have a son Ralph, born in Platteville. Mr. McGranahan has a house and lot in the city, though living in the school building, in order that his duties may be fulfilled.

DUNCAN MCGREGOR, President of the State Normal School at Platteville, is a native of Perthshire, Scotland ; born in 1836 ; was educated at Perth Academy, University and King's College, Aberdeen, Scotland, and Lawrence University, at Appleton, Wis., graduating from the latter place in 1862. He came to America in 1857, taught school in Waupaca Co., Wis., three winters-1858, 1859 and 1860-and was Principal of the High School at Waupaca from 1860 to 1864. In August of that year he raised a company in Waupaca, and was mustered into the service as Captain of Co. A, 42d W. V. I., and served till the close of the war ; was one year Principal of the Waupaca High School after the

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war. In 1867, he was elected to the Professorship of Mathematics, in the State Normal School at Platte- ville, which position he occupied for six years, and was then Professor of Theory and Practice of Teach- ing, and conductor of institutes for six years longer. In January, 1879, he was elected to his present position, which he has occupied since. He was married in 1865 to Miss Annie Bowman, of Waupaca, and has four children-Alice, Grace, Libbie and Jessie.

JAMES McKERNAN, saloon-keeper ; has been a resident of Platteville since May 10, 1841. He went to California in 1851, and returned the same year ; went again in 1862, and returned in 1863. He was born in Canada, and when about a year old his father, Bernard McKernan, removed to Rochester. N. Y., where he resided about six years, then returned to Canada, and lived six years. only about six miles from Detroit, Mich. He went from there to Freeport, Ill., and thence to Platteville in 1841, and died there in 1871. . James was married in 1839, in Joliet, Ill., to Mary Ann McCauley, and has five children-James, Laura Ann (now Mrs. Thomas Leahy), Charles, Lillie and Mary Ann.

JOHN MICK A, farmer ; P. O. Platteville; was born Nov. 12, 1809, in Rhenish Prussia, where he spent his early life as a stone cutter. Here he married Catherine Boscha, who was born Aug. 5, 1814. They were wedded Feb. 24, 1834, and came to America and Grant Co. in 1841. During the first seven years, Mr. Micha was a lead miner, and then began on his 120-acre farm, half a mile north of the city of Platteville. Mr. and Mrs. Micka have had twelve children-Catherine, Mary, John, Margaret (deceased), Henry, Augustus, Sylvester, Joseph, Frank, Herman, George and Abbie. The four eldest were born in Germany, and the others in Platteville. This family are and have been active and influential members of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Platteville, Mr. Micka donating liberally toward the erection of the church. Himself, wife and children are lovers of music and good singers. He and his sons Herman, George and Frank, have been members of the choir, of which Miss Abbie is now leader and organist.

REV. CHARLES C. MILLER, Pastor of the German M. E. Church of Platteville, was born in Quincy. Ill. His father, Michael Miller, was a native of Alsace, Germany, and came to America in 1830 or 1831. He lived in New York City till 1835, then went to Quincy, Ill., and now lives in Lincoln, Neb. Charles C. Miller was educated in Quincy, Ill .; was in the mercantile business in Bush- nell, Ill., six years, and five years in Freeport, and entered the ministry in 1878. He was married in Freeport, Ill., in 1873, to Miss Lizzie Wenzel, and has five children-Arthur Wenzel, Edward Funk, Ida May, Clarence Wesley and Benjamin Philip. His first charge was Lena, Ill, and he came from there to Platteville in October, 1880. In February, 1864, he enlisted in the 151st Ill. V. I, Co. C, as a private, and served till the close of the war.

REV. W. G. MILLER, Rector of St. Mary's Church of Platteville, was born in Racine, Wis., and educated at St. Francis' Seminary, near Milwaukee, and ordained in 1872. He spent a few months in Milwaukee after his ordination ; then was two years in Sun Prairie, and in July, 1874, assumed charge of the Church of St. Mary's of the Lake, io Westport, Dane Co., Wis., and also St. John's Church of Wauoakee. He was transferred to his present charge in September, 1880.

HERMANN MELSTER, editor and proprietor of the Platteville Correspondent, is of Ger- man parentage, and was born in 1857 in Milwaukee, Wis. Here he received a good education in both German and English, and, in 1871, entered the office of the Herold. Beginning newspaper life thus early, he has since followed it, filling various positions on the Seebote, the Freidenker and the Banner und Volksfreund, of Milwaukee. He has also been employed on the German papers of Indianapolis, and was, for a time, foreman in the job office of the St. Paul, Minn., Volkszeitung. Returning to his native city, he remained until the fall of 1879, then came to Platteville. In company with Ferd. Reinshagen, he established the Correspondent, the first issue bearing date Oct. 9, 1879. On the 18th of December, 1880, Mr. Melster bought out the interest of his partner, and has since managed this, the only German newspaper in Southwest Wisconsin, alone. It is a four-page eight-column weekly, independent in poli- tics, and devoted to the best interests of this part of the State; circulation at this time 550, and con- staotly increasing.

WILLIAM MEYER, Sr., Platteville, was born Sept. 22, 1828, in Sulz, Wurtemberg. In early life he learned harness-making, and during the revolution of 1848-50, he served as a soldier in the Fourth Wurtemberg Regiment. In 1852, he came to America; landed at New Orleans, and then came up the Father of Waters to Galena, thence to Platteville, where he entered the employ of Mr. Lam- bert, a harness-maker. During the civil war, he formed a partnership with Miner Burwell in the harness business. At the death of Mr. B., a year later, Mr. Meyer bought out the heirs, and conducted the bus- iness alone, until he in turn sold out to his son and son-in-law, Dec. 15, 1877 .. He owns 9 acres in the

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city and farms in a small way ; is also one of the Board of Alderman, elected in the spring of 1880, and a member of the German Presbyterian Church, of which he has been an Elder for three years past. His first wife was Frederika Kohler, born in his native village. She died in November, 1870, leaving five children-William, Rosa, John, Samuel and Martha.' By the present wife, nee Pauline Geyer, he has a son-George. The eldest son is in partnership with Peter Pitts, Jr., they having bought out the father in the harness business. The second son is in the shop with them, while the three youngest children are with the father, whose name heads this sketch.

SAMUEL MOORE, Platteville. Mr. Moore was born near Mt. Vernon, Ind., Nov. 19, 1814 ; he came from Kentucky stock, his parents having removed from that State to Indiana some time previous to his birth. He remained at Mt. Vernon until he had attained his 20th year, obtaining a good common- school education, and afterward learning the trade of gunsmith, besides attaining a proficiency in iron- working, which stood him in good stead when, later, he came to the then Territory of Michigan ; this move was made in the spring of the year 1834. Young Moore came at once to what is now known as Grant Co., and located at Platteville, and, during the several decades which have blazed forth and burned for their brief space then faded away only to be forgotten, Mr. Moore has remained a resident of this, the first place of his selection. Young Moore at once started in business, opening a blacksmith-shop, which trade he practiced for the seven years following ; ill health caused au abandonment of this trade, and, in 1843, he engaged in the mercantile business ; from this time until 1860, Mr. Moore's store was one of the prom- inent institutions of the kind in the town ; Mr. Moore's attention had been carly attracted toward man- ufacturing, and previous to that date, namely, in 1854, he had started a linseed oil mill with fiber works in connection, near the site of his present hotel ; in order to devote more attention to this business, he closed out his stock of goods and devoted his whole time to his manufacturing interests ; in 1862, after closing out these interests, Mr. Moore was elected County Treasurer, which position he held two terms, giving most general satisfaction, and retiring with honor at the expiration of his second term. Hardly had he shaken off the cares of office before, in connection with Mr. Hamner Robbins, he entered upon the work that resulted in bringing the present "broad gauge " road into Platteville, and giving that vil- lage for the first time, after the failure of many schemes, railroad communication with the outside world. To Mr. Moore and his co-worker belongs the honor of having accomplished a seeming impossibility. The first moneys needed in the early beginnings of this line were furnished by these two gentlemen. For the six years following, Mr. Moore was closely connected with the line, but, at the close of that time, injuries which he had received necessitated his withdrawal from active business. Upon the recovery of Mr. Moore from his injuries, some years later, he devoted his time to the supervision of his own private matters until October, 1880, when he took possession of the Gates House, which hotel is owned by him, and is at pres- ent engaged in the congenial task of landlord.

But few men now living in Grant Co. can show a longer continuous residence in the county, and, ay one of the " old resideuters," Mr. Moore takes a deep pride and interest in everything bearing on the county's welfare. In addition to his service as County Treasurer, he was twice elected President of the village of Platteville, and twice Chairman of the Town Board of supervisors. In 1837, Mr. Moore was united in marriage to Miss Ann Snowden, of England ; three children were the fruit of this union, one son and two daughters, of whom but one daughter (Mr. McCarn). is still living.

JOHN MYERS, was born July 22, 1807, in Westmoreland, England, where he served an ap- prenticeship as a carpenter. He came to America and located in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1832. Here he married Anne Smith. Up to 1837 he worked at his trade, on both the American and Canadian sides of the Niagara River, building vessels for the lake trade. The year 1837 found him in Platteville, and late in that year he helped build the old M. E. Church, the first erected in Grant County. Part of the old edifice is now in use by Maj. J. H. Rountree, as an office. It was built by subscription, and was the sec- ond M. E. Church built in Southwestern Wisconsin, that erected in 1834, at Mineral Point, only preced- ing it. Mr. Myers also worked at the old Platteville Academy. In 1849, he located where he now is, and, in company with George R. Laughton, built a carding mill, which he operated about ten years. His wife died Feb. 3, 1859, and in 1864 he married Hannah Beckett, who was born in Canton, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. She came from the Western Reserve, Ohio, to Wisconsin in 1853. Mr. Myers has followed his trade faithfully, and still takes pride in his work.

ROBERT NEELY, Platteville ; was born July 11, 1815, in Westmoreland Co., Penn .; in 1821, his parents, David and Jane (Fether) Necly, removed and settled in Mercer Co., Penn. ; grown to manhood here, Robert went to Ohio and resided there between three and four years ; he then taught a term of school near his old home and decided to come to the lead regions ; in May, 1839, he reached Bur-

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lington, Iowa; and soon after made a claim forty miles to the west of that town. Owing to the fact that the land came into market almost immediately after, he was compelled to relinquish his claim and come to Wisconsin. His friend, Horace Earle, had accompanied him from the East, and the two came to Platte- ville together. They soon secured a wood-cutting contract on what is now Mr. Neely's farm, it then being a smelting survey reserved by the government. They boarded in a cabin with several other bachelors, said hut then standing a short distance from where Mr. N. has since built his barn. Finally, Mr. Neely made a "claim " here, erected a better habitation and caused the coming of his aged parents, though he then looked upon this as only a temporary stopping-place. Yet as he plowed and sowed, built and planted. his affections centered around the lowly house where his parents were so contentedly dwelling. He mar- ried Miss Helen M., daughter of B. F. and Mary F. (Robinson) Chase ; she is a descendant on her mother's side of one of Vermont's first Governors, and was born in Middleport, N. J. B. F. Chase after- ward removed his family to Ohio, where she engaged in teaching prior to her marriage. Since that event, which occurred in August, 1849. in Salem, Penn., Mr. and Mrs. Neely have resided on this picturesque farm, Mr. N. having purchased it at the U. S. land sale held in 1848 at Mineral Point. His father, who had in his younger days served with Mad Anthony Wayne, died here in his 85th year. The aged mother also passed her last days here. Mr. and Mrs. Neely are members of the Platteville Congrega- tional Church, of which he has been a Deacon for the past twenty years. They have seven children- Henry, Mary F., Kate M., Helen S., Fannie L., Robert S. and Benjamin P. All were born and educated in Platteville.

E. F. NEWTON, superintendent of Laflin & Rand's Powder Works, Platteville; is a son of Edward and Mary Newton, who came in an early day to Dubuque, Iowa, from Maryland. E. F. Newton was born in Dubuque June 11, 1840. Two years later his father died, and the wife followed him when E. F. was about 15 years of age. Thus thrown upon his own resources, he returned to Maryland, and clerked in a Baltimore hardware store until he was 21; in 1862, he entered the employ of the powder manufacturing company, and served both as clerk and traveling salesman for nine years. He was appointed to his present position in 1871. Married Miss Susan Shafer, of Illinois, by whom he has a son-Charles Newton, born in Platteville.

JAMES NICHOLS, was born June 2, 1815, in Reen, Paranzatatoe, Cornwall, Eng .; he learned the trade of wagon-maker in his youth ; in 1842, he counted as one of the "Stephens colony " that emigrated from Merry England and located in Platteville; Mr. Nichols' first work here was building the law office of Eastman & Lakin during 1842; he also worked on the old M. E. parsonage and the Rountree bridge, across the Platte, besides the Campbell Hotel and the M. E. Church; for about four years he had a shop and made wagons here ; in 1844, he married Mary A. Stephens, a first cousin; she died in October, 1853, leaving two children-John A., who died when he was about 23 years years of age, and A. J., who died Dec. 29, 1859; Mr. Nichols left for California in April, 1852, and was four months crossing the plains with an ox team ; he employed himself at gold mining and in working at his trade until May, 1854, when he again arrived in Platteville; his two motherless boys were with their grandparents. Feb. 5, 1855, he married Mary J. Rundell, who was born in Little Pethick, Cornwall, Nov. 14, 1831; she came to America in 1853; after the marriage, Mr. N. spent about ten years on a farm in Platteville, and two years on a farm io Mifflin, Iowa Co .; in 1867, he came to the then village of Platteville and bought a lot of Maj. J. H. Rountree, building and planning his own house, which makes a most pleasant home for his wife and himself. Both are members of the P. M. Church. He still enjoys an occasional day's work with his tools, and is the picture of the healthy and stalwart sons of old Eugland ; his parents, James and Jane (Stephens) Nichols, came to Platteville from England in 1848, and both died here.

W. S. NORTHRUP, banker and member of the firm of Northrup & Co., Platteville; was born in Rutland Co., Vt., in 1850 ; came to Platteville in 1874, and, from that time until 1878, was in the bank of S. Hodges & Co .; he was then in business for himself in Belmont about one and a half years, and formed the present partnership in April, 1880. He was married, Oct. 10, 1878, to Mary G., daughter of Dr. G. W. Eastman, of Platteville. Mr. Northrup is the present City Treasurer.

CHARLES H. NYE, Director of the Model School of the State Normal School, of Platte- ville, was born in 1835, in Somerset Co., Me. ; was educated at the Waterville Classical Institute, and commenced teaching in his native State in 1855; came from there to Grant Co., Wis., in the fall of 1857 ; he first settled in Hazel Green and taught school there about six years; in August, 1864, he enlisted in the 43d W. V. I., and went out as Quartermaster Sergeant, and was in the service till the close of the war. There were nine boys in his father's family and seven of them were in the army at the same time, four

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from Maine and three from Wisconsin; two of them never came back. Newell D. Nye was in a Maine regiment, and was killed at the battle of Port Hudson, and George W. Nye. also in a Maine regiment, was killed at the battle of Chantilly, Va. In the fall of 1865, Mr. Nye came to Platteville, and was Princi- pal of the " Rock Graded School " from that time until 1873, when he accepted the position of Principal of the Grammar Department of the State Normal School, and, in the fall of 1873, was transferred to his present position. He was married, in Platteville, in 1860, to Miss Flora A. Tyler, and has five children, three sons and two daughters.

J. L. NYE, photographic artist, Platteville; is a native of Maine, born in Fairfield, Somerset Co., in 1842 ; he enlisted, Aug. 5, 1861, in the 7th Me. V. I., Co. E, and served as a private two years in that regiment, when he was given a Second Lieutenant's commission in Co. E, 9th U. S. Vols., and served one year in that capacity ; he was in ten engagements while in the 7th Me. Regiment, and was at the siege of Port Hudson with the 9th. After he left the army he returned to Maine, and from there came to Platte- ville, in November, 1865, where he has been engaged in his present business ever since. He married Miss Kate Tyler, of Platteville, in 1867, and has two children-George N. and Mabel.

J. H. PARNELL, Platteville ; is a son of William Parnell, of England, who emigrated in 1842, locating in Galena, Ill., where J. H. Parnell was born in 1844; three years later the family came to Grant Co., where the mother died and the father still resides. His son, our subject, married Miss Mary J., daughter of Thomas Chapman, Esq., of Platteville ; they have three children-Jesse Lee, Lillie May and Carrie Edwards, all born in Platteville. From 1862 until 1874, Mr. Parnell was in the mercantile bus- iness here ; he then began his present business of receiving, feeding and weighing live stock for farmers, drovers, and all who wish such accommodation ; he has convenient buildings, yards, etc., and has estab- lished a good trade; it was first begun by Chapman & Kirkpatrick. Mr. Parnell is a member of the Platteville Hook and Ladder Co., and of the A. O. U. W.

JACOB B. PENN, retired, Platteville, Wis .; born in Patrick Co., Va., in 1818; when only 3 or 4 years of age his father, Abraham Penn, removed to Christian Co., Ky., where young Penn was brought up ; in the spring of 1839 he left Kentucky, and spent the summer in Illinois and Missouri, then came to the mines in Grant Co .. Wis., the next fall, and to Platteville in the fall of 1840; he was engaged in mining in Grant Co. till 1850, then went to California and followed the same business till 1852, when he returned to Grant Co., and bought a farm two and one-half miles east of Platteville ; he followed farming till 1866, then sold out and engaged in the hardware business in Platteville, in company with L. M. Devendorf, firm of Devendorf & Penn, which he continued till April, 1877, since which time he has been out of business ; he was married in Platteville in 1849, to Samantha Collins, of Jamestown, Grant Co .; his first wife was a lady of the same name, married in Missouri in 1846; has no children living.

HENRY J. PERRY, Sec. 3; P. O. Platteville ; was born September, 1834, in Carnarvonshire, Wales, where his father, John Perry, died two years later ; the mother and eight children came to America in 1846, and located in Oneida Co., N. Y .; H. J. Perry spent several years in New York City ; then, going to Princeton, N. J., he married Maggie Blair, and after a residence of ten years there went to Pennsylvania, where he spent a year ; in 1866, he came to Platteville and bought his present farm ; he now owns eighty-five acres in the homestead, and eighty in Lima ; has no children ; member of the Baptist Church; the mother of Mr. Perry is one of the oldest persons now living in Grant Co. ; she is in her 89th year and, though helpless, has a clear mind.

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 140

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1044