USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 34
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
(69)
1090
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
To Mr. and Mrs. Edgar M. Johnson two children were born: Roxanna Littlefield Johnson, who married John E. Otterson, a naval constructor at the Charleston navy yards, at Boston, Massachusetts; they have two chil- dren, John E., now six years old, and Edgar Johnson, now three years old. Lawrence Graham Johnson, the subject's second child, was educated in Whitewater, Wisconsin, and St. Paul School at Concord, New Hampshire. For some time he was with the First National Bank at Whitewater, and he is now with the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company at South Bend, Indiana, being in the delivery wagon department. In June, 1911, he married Maud Terry, of Brodhead, Wisconsin.
SILAS B. FISH.
Walworth county is characterized by her full share of the honored and faithful element who have done so much for the development and upbuilding of the state and the establishment of the institutions of civilization in this fertile and well favored section. Among this worthy element the Fish family must be included, one of the best known members of the present generation being Silas B. Fish, an enterprising young farmer of Geneva township, Walworth county.
Mr. Fish was born on the farm where he still resides in section 12, this township, on May 5, 1870. He is the son of Jasper N. and Temperance (Hand) Fish, a worthy old family, a record of whom will be found on an- other page of this work.
The subject spent most of his boyhood on the home farm and there began working in the fields when quite young. He received his education in the public schools. In 1893 he went into the meat business at Springfield, where he remained about two years, and was then in Janesville, Wisconsin, for three years. About 1898 he went to Minnesota, where he bought a farm, remain- ing there four years, then sold out and came back to this county. During the past seven years he has farmed on the quarter section where he was born, keeping the place under a high state of improvement and cultivation, and he has become very well established as a general farmer and stock raiser.
Mr. Fish was married on March 5, 1895, to Clara Belle Beecher, daugh- ter of Gustave and Mary Ann (Sumpter) Beecher. She was born in Racine county, Wisconsin, and there spent her girlhood and received her education, remaining in her native county until 1894 when the family moved to Spring-
IO9I
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
field, Walworth county, but they returned to Racine county in 1896 where they now reside. Gustave Beecher, father of Mrs. Fish, came from near Berlin, Germany, emigrating to America with his parents, John and Rebecca Beecher, in 1848, locating in Brighton, Wisconsin. John Beecher was a depot agent at Kansasville, Racine county, many years ago. He was a well educated man and was well thought of. Mrs. Fish's mother was born in England and she emigrated from her home in Lincolnshire with her parents, John and Mary Ann Sumpter, when eleven years old, in the year 1854. Mrs. Fish's father is farming in Racine county, where he located over a half century ago.
Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fish, Florence Ethel, Ray John and Orton. Mr. Fish is a member of the Modern Woodmen and the Mystic Workers.
CHARLES H. WURTH.
Although Geneva township, Walworth county, has many German citi- zens, especially numbered among her farming element, men who deserve a very first rank in the list of modern, twentieth-century tillers of the soil. no one could be found who labored with more zeal and enthusiasm than Charles H. Wurth, who has devoted his attention exclusively to his work for many years, and, being a close observer and a wide reader on whatever pertains to general agriculture, he has found himself further advanced with each passing year.
Mr. Wurth was born July 25, 1863, in Griesheim, Baden, Germany, and there, near the famous city of Strassburg, distant two and one-half hours' walk, he spent his early boyhood. He is the son of Lorenz and Mary Ann (Wiedemer) Wurth, the father born in Alsace and the mother in Appenweir. Germany. The paternal grandfather was born in France. The subject's father was in the German revolution in 1848, and the grandfather was a sol- dier in Napoleon's "grand army" and he was on the famous march to Mos- cow, where he was taken prisoner and kept two years by the Russians and did farm work. Through the winter he saved a little bread every day and when spring came he escaped one night, with his provisions, and, traveling only at night, walked to within two hundred miles of his old home. He did not dare make any inquiries until far from Moscow.
Charles H. Wurth, of this sketch, was reared on the farm, though he spent four years, from the age of sixteen to twenty, as a coachman. He canie to America in 1890, landing at New York. After working a while in Phila-
1092
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
delphia, he came to Chicago, but a few days later went to the country and began working on an Illinois farm. In 1892 he came to Walworth county, Wisconsin, and for some time worked out on Linn township farms. On March 1, 1901, he began renting land and farming for himself, and in 1894 he bought a farm of one hundred and fifty acres half way between Elkhorn and Geneva. On this he placed important improvements, put up seven hun- dred rods of woven wire fencing, built a fine new barn, big hog pens, chicken houses, water tank, wind mill, and many other modern improvements, his excellent place ranking with the best in the township and is known as "Apple Grove Farm." In connection with general farming he raises short-horn cattle.
Mr. Wurth was married in 1890 to Mrs. Mary (McPherson) Frazer, widow of Alexander Frazer, deceased. She was born at Inch, Aberdeen- shire, Scotland, and is the daughter of William and Isabella (Nevin) Mc- Pherson. She came to America in 1893, her parents having died when she was ten years of age. She grew up in her native land and was married in Scotland to Alexander Frazer. They emigrated to Geneva, Walworth county, Wisconsin, and he became foreman for the W. J. Jones estate on the south shore of Lake Geneva, and there he remained until his death, in 1898. He and his wife had two children, Alexander, who died in Scotland, and Mary Jane, who died at Lake Geneva in 1895.
Mr. Wurth belongs to the Masonic order at Elkhorn and the Modern Woodmen at Geneva. He was reared in the Catholic faith, and his wife as a Congregationalist, but they both now attend the Como Union church. He is a fine type of the progressive, agreeable, self-made man.
WILLIS J. TUBBS.
It is with a degree of satisfaction to the biographer when he averts to the life of one who has made the rough path of life smooth by his untiring perseverance, has attained success in any vocation requiring definiteness of purpose and determined action. Such a life, whether it be one of calm, con- secutive endeavor, or of sudden meteoric accomplishments, must abound in both lesson and incentive and prove a guide to the young men whose fortunes are still matters for the future to determine. During his mature years Willis J. Tubbs, well known abstractor of Elkhorn, has devoted his efforts toward the goal of accomplished desire in Walworth county, of which he is a worthy native son, and by patient continuance has won more than a mediocre success and at the same time the esteem of his fellow men.
1093
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Mr. Tubbs was born in Lafayette township, this county, two miles east of Elkhorn, July 25, 1856. He is a son of James Lawrence Tubbs and Annie Rebecca (Henderson) Tubbs. James L. Tubbs was born at Augusta, Oneida county, New York, September 10, 1824, and he moved with his parents to Victor, Ontario county, that state, in 1843. He was a son of Samuel and Polly (Frost ) Tubbs, both from Connecticut, he from Lynn, and she from Waterbury, his birth having occurred on August 21, 1781. He was the son of Peter Tubbs. Samuel Tubbs was a soldier in the war of 1812 under Captain Lawrence.
Annie R. Henderson was the daughter of John Mathias Henderson and Samantha (Hine) Henderson, and born at Willoughby, Ohio, December 13, 1830. Her father, Dr. John M. Henderson, who was born at Norwich, was in the war of 1812, both as a surgeon and an adjutant. He came to Cuyahoga county, Ohio, in June, 1814, and settled in the town of Willoughby, where he lived until 1849, when he emigrated to Walworth county, Wisconsin, where he spent the rest of his life practicing medicine, being one of the best known of our pioneer physicians. Dr. John M. Henderson was a son of Edward and Mary ( Mathias) Henderson, the father a fur trader, who made frequent trips from New York City to Detroit, trading with the Indians, making the trips on foot and in canoe, on small streams, rivers and lakes, making the trip north one summer and returning the next. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, a captain of militia at the battle of Bennington, and he also served in many other battles. His father had been in the French and Indian war and his death occurred after drinking from a spring which had been poisoned by the Indians. Edward's wife was at one time boiling soap when a party of Tory soldiers attempted to take her prisoner, but she threw a dipper of hot soap in one's face and sent him away howling with pain. At another time she and others were besieged in a block house by Indians, and while she sallied forth to get meal from a nearby house she was shot at by the Indians.
Edward Henderson was born at Colerain, Massachusetts, in 1745 and his death occurred at Norway, Herkimer county, New York, in 1811. He grew up in Vermont and was lieutenant, later a captain under General Stark in the patriot army. His name also appears on the rolls of the New York soldiers at Albany.
Doctor Henderson left New York on horseback, May 20, 1814. He was postmaster at Chagrin, now Willoughby, Ohio, in Cuyahoga county, being commissioned in 1816. He was lieutenant of militia in New York, and Mr. Tubbs still has the commission. The Doctor was interested in starting a medical college at Willoughby. His death occurred on November 29. 1857.
1094
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Samuel Tubbs, grandfather of Willis J. Tubbs, came to Walworth county, Wisconsin, from Victor, Ontario county, New York, in 1844 and settled in Lafayette township with his wife and six of their children: Jane T. and her husband, Lot Mayo; Martha and her husband, Nicholas C. Bowers; Fannie T. and her husband, Eli Kimball Frost; Isaac P. and James L. The family all settled in and around Elkhorn. Samuel Tubbs moved into Elkhorn in the early fifties and there spent the balance of his life.
James .L. Tubbs came here as a surveyor and followed surveying all his life. He was county surveyor many years, up to about 1870. His last work in surveying was running the outlines of the Delavan assembly grounds. The Tubbs family moved into their present residence in Elkhorn. December 25, 1857, and that has been the family home ever since.
The five children of James L. Tubbs and wife were as follows: Henry Henderson, who is a civil engineer, with residence in Elkhorn, married Helen M. Andrews and they have a son and a daughter: Frank W., who is with Smith Brothers' commission firm in Chicago, still maintains his residence at Darien, this county, where he has a farm; he married Blanche Smith; Eva married Capt. George E. Wood, and they reside in Elkhorn; a sketch of the Captain appears on another page. Willis J., of this review, was next in order of birth; Edward Hine is in the furniture and undertaking business at Clin- ton. Wisconsin ; he married Julia Seaver, of Darien, she being a representa- tive of an old family there.
The father of these children died September 6, 1898, and their mother passed away in the old home on December 25. 1904, just forty-seven years to the day from the time she moved here with the family. She was a great lover of flowers and was unusually successful with them, and this trait is quite noticeable in her son, Willis J. Tubbs. The latter was six months old when his parents brought him to Elkhorn, and here he grew to manhood and received his education in the public schools, graduating from the Elkhorn high school in March, 1877.
Mr. Tubbs began life as a farmer and surveyor, which he followed successfully, also taught school for some time. In 1898 he went into the abstract business, which he had learned by personal investigation. persistent study and close observation. He made an entirely new set of books and has continued in this business ever since, building up a large and ever-growing patronage, and is one of the best known and most reliable abstract men in this section of the state today.
Mr. Tubbs was married on December 31. 1906, to Nellie Harper, of Sharon, this county. She was born in Iowa and is the daughter of Robert and Emma C. (Carter) Harper. Fraternally, Mr. Tubbs is a member of the Masonic order.
1095
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
JOHN HENRY TAYLOR.
By words and by actions the personality reveals its quality, its force, its direction of purpose. The invisible spirit embodies itself in signs of service and in language. Words also are deeds, and actions are symbols of the inner being which we cannot see, nor touch, nor weigh. Hence the value of a biog- raphy, which writes out a life by telling a story of what one has said and done. But since speech is forgotten and actions fade away in the clouds of a distant past, we also listen to those who have been witnesses of the conduct, compan- ions of the journey, sharers of the benefits and benedictions of those whom we have lost a little while, to find again. With such values of biography in mind, we here set forth briefly the salient facts in the life record of one of the well known and estimable citizens of Walworth county of a past generation, the late John Henry Taylor, than whom it would have been hard to have found a more obliging, high-minded and public-spirited gentleman.
Mr. Taylor was born on February 17, 1857, at Watertown, Wisconsin. He was the son of John and Sybil (Gibbs) Taylor, the father being a native of Scotland, from which country he came to America when about twenty-one years old and located at Janesville, Wisconsin, where he met and married Sybil Gibbs, whose father was a cooper of that town.
When John H. Taylor was four years old his parents moved to Missouri and were there a short time when his father died, his mother subsequently bringing the family back to Wisconsin and lived at Janesville for some time, later moving to Whitewater, and in 1873 she settled in Geneva township.
In 1875 John H. Taylor, of this sketch, was united in marriage with Elizabeth Ross, daughter of George and Clarinda (Gray) Ross. She was born and reared in the northern part of Geneva township. George Ross was born on May 1, 1825, at Pen Yan, Yates county, New York, the son of Morris and Mary (Pangborn) Ross. When George Ross was a young man nearly twenty years old, in 1838, Morris Ross and family came to Geneva township. Walworth county, and entered a large tract of land from the government, in the northeast part of the township getting a title direct from the government. The country roundabout was all new and unimproved and neighbors were far remote, the Dunlap family be'ing really the only ones. They had come from the same part of New York state. Here these families improved their lands into excellent farms, and were among the first farmers of this part of the county.
On June 2, 1847, George Ross and Clarinda Gray were married. She was the daughter of Elihu and Elizabeth ( Armstrong) Gray. The death of
1096
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
the mother occurred in Geneva township on January 22, 1899, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-two years. She was born at Ogdensburg, New York, on February 3, 1828, and in 1846 she came to Wisconsin with her parents, and they settled in Geneva township, this county. The death of Elihu Gray oc- curred on September 26, 1884, at the age of eighty-two years. Mrs. Elizabeth Gray was the daughter of James and Elizabeth (Gregg) Armstrong. Her father was a soldier in the war of 1812.
In early life George Ross became identified with the church at Lake Geneva, and he was an active church worker all his life. His wife was a woman of excellent Christian character. Mr. and Mrs. Ross lived on their farm in Geneva township until 1884, when they moved to Elkhorn, where the death of Mr. Ross occurred on April 22, 1898, his widow surviving until 1910, spending her last days at the home of Mrs. Taylor, having spent the last two years of her life there. Mr. Ross was well-known as a true and obliging friend, ever ready to help the sick and needy, and he was fond of his home and family.
After the marriage of John H. Taylor of this sketch he made his home in Geneva township, in section 10, and became one of the substantial farmers and influential citizens there. His death occurred, after an extended illness, in 1904. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, two of whom died in infancy. The two surviving are George and Howard. Mr. Taylor was a man of fine character, exemplary habits and genial address so that he was popular wherever he was known. The sons. mentioned above, are successfully operating the home place of one hundred and forty-two acres of well-improved and productive land.
JACOB MAAS.
That grit and perseverance win in the battle for material things in this world is seen on every hand, no matter what may be the things attempted. An excellent exemplification in this line as applying to agricultural pursuits is seen in the record of Jacob Maas, one of our thrifty and deserving German citi- zens, who, after an exceptionally strenuous career, is now living in honorable retirement in his pleasant home in the fair city of Lake Geneva.
Mr. Maas was born in Greilsheim, Wurtemburg, Germany, January 28, 1850. He is the son of John Philip and Maria (Mayers) Maas. The father died when the subject was six years old and the mother when he was eight. He then went to live with his aunt, with whom he remained until he was six- teen. In the summers he worked on the farm and in the winter wove cloth.
1097
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
When twenty years old he left home and family and emigrated to the United States, landing in New York City on July 18, 1870, and he worked for gar- deners and dairymen on Long Island. In April, 1871, he came to Chicago, where he remained until the great fire the following October, then came to Lyons, Walworth county, Wisconsin, and worked out on the farms in that vicinity. He saved his earnings and about 1880 bought a farm of eighty acres lin Bloomfield township, adding another eighty to his belongings four years later, and five or six years after that he bought another forty. He prospered as the years went by through his close application and good management, and he is now the owner of two hundred acres of valuable land there, on which he carried on general farming and stock raising until the year 1904 when, having accumulated a competency, he retired from the active duties of life, put one of his sons on the place and he and his wife moved to Lake Geneva, where they have since resided.
'Mr. Maas's start in life was interesting. He saved eight hundred dollars by working out and this he paid on his first eighty acres, going in debt for the rest. Working on through all difficulties, he succeeded.
Mr. Maas was married in 1875 to Maria Gauger, who was born in Ger- many, and who came here with her parents when a young girl, being reared in Lyons township, this county. Two children were born to the subject and wife, William and Loretta. The former married Marie Ursprung, a native of Ger- many, who emigrated to America about 1897; they have three children, Karl, Loretta and Roy. William has a farmi of his own in the northwestern part of Bloomfield township. Loretta Maas married William Vogt and they live on a farm near Bloomfield Center, this county. They have three children, Clifford, Irma and Helen.
Jacob Maas's first wife died in 1879, and in 1880 he was united in mar- riage with Bertha Rakow, daughter of Edward and Louise (Gauger) Rakow. She was born in Berlin, Germany, and when about six months old her parents brought her to America. Her father was a tailor in Berlin, and in 1853 he came to Burlington, Wisconsin, and established himself in an early day, being among the pioneers of that city. only a few families having settled there be- fore his advent, and there he became influential and successful. He was the first tailor in that place. There was but one merchant, one banker and one doctor when he came. Mr. Rakow lived there the rest of his life, continuing active work until an old man. His death occurred about 1891.
To Mr. Maas and his last wife three children have been born: Edward, who is operating his father's farm in North Bloomfield, married Elsie Am- born, of Genoa Junction, and they have a daughter, Ruth; Jacob, who mar-
1098
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
ried Vera Hollenbeck, is now employed on a farm in Honey Creek township. and they have one child, a daughter, Leta; Elvira, the youngest of the sub- ject's children, lives at home in Lake Geneva.
Mr. Maas and family belong to the First Lutheran church in Lake Geneva. They have won many friends since moving to this city and stand high in all circles in which they move.
JAMES TREADWELL MARTIN.
No state in the Union can boast of a more heroic band of pioneers than Wisconsin. In their intelligence, capacity and loyalty to the right they have no superiors. Most of them have come from the old Empire state, and in their daring and heroism they have been equal to the Missouri and California argonauts. Their privations, hardships and earnest labors have resulted in establishing one of the foremost commonwealths in America, and one which still has great possibilities before it. A member of this worthy band is James Treadwell Martin, long one of our thrifty agriculturists, who is now living retired in Lake Geneva. Thus partly because he is a pioneer and partly be- cause he is a veteran of the "grand army" that saved the nation a half century ago, he is worthy of our consideration here.
Mr. Martin was born in Prattsville, Greene county, New York, on Febru- ary 18, 1835. He is the son of Frederick and Elizabeth (Steele) Martin, the father a native of Upper Province, Canada, and the mother of England, he being of German descent, and a man of large mental endowment, being able to speak seven languages, Latin, Greek, English, German, Indian and others. Elizabeth Steele came to this country from England when nineteen years old.
James T. Martin grew to manhood in his native county in New York and received his education in the common schools there. In 1856 he was united in marriage with Lucy Lovina Bartlett, daughter of Lock D. and Miriam (Rice) Bartlett. She was born in Chemung county, New York, near Elmira, and, like Mr. Martin, she came of a long and sturdy ancestry.
Mr. Martin enlisted in Company B, Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Volun- teer Infantry, in 1863 and saw service in Maryland for three months. He was honorably discharged in August, 1864, and he again enlisted in Company D. Fiftieth New York Engineers, and was honorably discharged on June 13, 1865, after a very faithful service.
1099
WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Mr. Martin moved with his family to Walworth county, Wisconsin, in 1867 and bought twenty-nine acres south of the west end of Lake Como. After living there about six years he sold out and bought forty-five acres a mile northeast of Lake Geneva, in the town of Lyons, and there he lived many years. In 1902 he bought a place at Fergus Falls and lived there two years, then returned to his present home in Lake Geneva. He still owns a fine residence and other lots in Fergus Falls.
Mr. Martin's family consists of five children : Emma ; Jane, wife of J. V. Seymour, a sketch of whom appears herein; Hannah Eliza is the wife of James McCrosson, of Elkhorn, and lives in North Dakota; James Franklin is on a farm of his own in the southeastern part of Lyons township. this county ; George B. McClellan Martin is now in the laundry business at Howard; Nelson lives in Lake Geneva, where he has been street commissioner for four years.
James T. Martin has been married fifty-five years. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
ISAAC STOPPLE, JR.
The Stopple family has long borne an excellent reputation in Walworth county and they have taken first rank among the agriculturists of this favored section of the Badger state, one of the best known of the present generation being Isaac Stopple, Jr., of Linn township, a jovial, agreeable and pleasant man to know.
Mr. Stopple was born at Town Eight, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 9, 1859. He is a son of Isaac, Sr., and Susanna ( Roebel) Stopple, a complete sketch of whom appears on another page of this work.
The subject grew to manhood on the home farm and received his educa- tion in the public schools. On March 18, 1908, he was united in marriage with Leona Humiston, daughter of Asahel and Maria (Partridge-Boughton) Humiston. She was born at Waupaca, Wisconsin. Her father was born May 31, 1809, in Vermont, but he lived most of his life before his marriage in Connecticut, and her mother was born December 9, 1825, at Gustavis, Trumbull county, Ohio. Maria S. Partridge first married Myron Boughton on January, I, 1851, and she married Asahel Humiston in September. 1863. She was the daughter of Wakeman and Betsey (Horn) Partridge, and she came with her parents to Winnebago county about three years before her first
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.