USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Rock County, Wisconsin; a new history of its cities, villages, towns, citizens and varied interests, from the earliest times, up to date, Vol. II > Part 45
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Henry A. Moehlenpah, an enterprising business man and sub- stantial citizen of Clinton, Roek county, Wis., is a native of Joliet, Ill. He was born on March 9, 1867, and is a son of Fred- eriek and Elizabeth Moehlenpah. He acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of his native place and there grew to manhood, holding a position in a bank after leaving school. Later he entered the Northwestern University at Evanston, Ill., as a member of the class of 1895. After leaving college Mr.
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Moehlenpah settled at Clinton, Wis., and became cashier of the Citizens' Bank, which office he now holds.
As a business man Mr. Moehlenpah is prompt, energetic, pro- gressive in his ideas and methods, and withal loyal to all that tends to the material and moral betterment of the city and com- munity in which he lives. He is a man of noble Christian char- aeter, ready to give a helping hand to any worthy cause. In re- ligious faith he is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church. He is actively interested in the work of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association and is a member of the Knights of Pythias. In politics Mr. Moehlenpah is a Democrat, and has several times served as a delegate to the state convention. He was once nom- inated for the state legislature, but deelined to run for business reasons. He is much interested in educational matters and is a member of the local sehool board.
Mr. Moehlenpah has a pleasing personality, is social and do- mestie in his tastes and delights in his home and family life.
On October 16, 1896, he married Miss Alice Hartshorn, of Clinton, a woman of fine accomplishments and superior endow- ments of mind and heart. They have two interesting children, Marion and Alice, aged respectively seven and five years.
Patrick H. Lannon, who has lived nearly fifty years in Rock county, Wisconsin, is a native of Ireland. He was born Febru- ary 26, 1842, and is one of a family of ten children, six of whom are living, born to John and Bridget (McNeal) Lannon. When he was three years old his parents emigrated from Ireland, their native land, to the United States, making the two months' voy- age in a sailing vessel, landing in New York. The family went thenee to Providenee, R. I., where the father, an engineer, fol- lowed his vocation some fourteen years. In 1859 he brought his family to Rock county, Wisconsin, and settled on an eighty-aere tract of land in section 26, Clinton township, which he improved and where he made a home and reared his family and lived until his decease in 1876. He was a successful and prosperous farmer and worthy citizen. Independent in thought and action, he allied himself to no party, but in political affairs supported the candi- date whom he thought best fitted for the position sought. în religious faith he was a Roman Catholic. His widow, a devoted wife and mother and a woman beloved for her goodness of heart, survived until March, 1906, dying at the age of eighty-one years.
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Her body was laid beside that of her husband in the Catholic cemetery at Clinton.
Patrick H. received his education in the public schools of Providence and in Clinton township, and passed his boyhood and early manhood on his father's farm. When twenty-eight years old he purchased a partially improved farm of eighty acres, where he has since made his home, adding another eighty acres to his original purchase, engaged in farming, making a specialty of breeding higli-grade stock and dairying.
Mr. Lannon is a prosperous and thrifty farmer and a man of influence in his community, and has been called to fill numerous local offices. He is a Republican in politics.
On February 22, 1870, Mr. Lannon married Miss Sarah, daugh- ter of Matthew and Ann (Mehan ) Mulhall, who was born in New York state and came with her parents, now deceased, to Rock county.
Of eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Lannon, the eldest, Ellen, born in Boone county, Illinois, is married to Mr. W. W. Church, of Yorkville, Ill .; Ann, the second, also born in Boone county, Illinois, lives with her parents; the third, Mary, is mar- ried to Mr. Charles Biggerstaff, a machinist of Harvey, Ill. ; John, the fourth, lives at home ; Jennie is married to Mr. George Graves, a machinist of Milwaukee; and William, Mildreth and Frederick, the youngest, live at home with their parents. All the children excepting the first two were born in Rock county.
Mr. Lannon, coming to Rock county nearly half a century ago, has witnessed its wonderful transformation from a state of comparative wildness to a land of rich, fertile farms and beauti- ful homes, and has had no small share in its progress and growth.
Fred R. Helmer, editor and proprietor of the "Rock County Banner," of Clinton, was born May 11, 1859, in the town of Ful- ton, Wis., son of John R. Helmer and Helen M. (Osborne) Helmer. His father was a native of Herkimer, New York state, and his mother of Richfield Springs, N. Y. They came to Wisconsin in 1857 and settled in Edgerton.
Mr. Fred Helmer, of this sketch, comes of Revolutionary stock. his great-great-grandfather Helmer being a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Helmer received an excellent educa- tion, being a graduate of the Clinton high school, and also at- tended the State University at Madison, Wis. After completing
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his studies the condition of his health compelled him to adopt an out-of-door occupation, and as he was raised on a farm and un- derstood the business, he naturally turned to this, the healthful, independent life of a Wisconsin farmer. He was engaged in this business successfully until 1903, when he retired from the farm and moved to the village of Clinton and purchased the "Rock County Banner," of which he has since been the sole editor and proprietor. The "Banner" is a newsy, up-to-date paper, and the columns of local matter and the character of the advertise- ments reflect credit on the community as well as the editor. The plant includes a well-stocked job department and is at all times prepared to take care of all classes of presswork. Taking it al- together it is an enterprise of which Mr. Helmer may justly be proud.
Mr. Helmer has held local offices at various times during his residence on the farm, and since his residence in Clinton was appointed postmaster of that place by President Roosevelt on January 31, 1907. In politics he has always affiliated with the Republican party. He is a member of the Congregational church of Clinton, a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge and the Modern Woodmen of America.
On October 27, 1885, Mr. Helmer and Miss Charlotte E. Cronk- rite were united in marriage, and there have been born to them three children, viz .: Helen G., born in 1887, teacher in the high school at Medford, Wis .; Grace C., born in 1888, attends the Be- loit College; and John H., born in 1895, still at home.
Louis N. Fossum, who resides in section 3, Newark township, was born June 12, 1868, in Rock county, Wisconsin, the son of Nels L. Fossum and grandson of Lars Fossum, who were both natives of Torpin, Norway. In 1842 Mr. Lars Fossum decided to try to better his condition, and consequently with his family came to America and settled in Plymouth township, Rock county, Wis- consin, where he passed the balance of his life. The father, Nels Fossum, moved to Newark township in 1874 and purchased the farm on which our subject is now living. Here he improved the land and made his home the remainder of his life. He died in 1890 at the age of sixty-two years. He was the father of eight children, three of whom are now living.
Mr. L. Fossum, our subject, was the fourth child and received his education in the district schools of Newark township, and
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since the death of his father has continued to live on the home- stead of 218 acres, occasionally adding to the improvements start- ed by his father, until today he has one of the model farms in his township. With his general farming Mr. Fossum takes great pride in the breeding and raising of blooded stock, making a spe- cialty of Shorthorn cattle and coach horses. He has also recently planted a beautiful orchard for small fruit, and with his two- story residence of pressed brick and large barns with stone foun- dations he has one of the model homes of Rock county. He also owns some fine timber land in Plymouth township.
In February. 1897, Mr. Fossum was married to Miss Caroline Natalia Stivland, a native of Fillmore county, Minnesota, but who was a resident of Beloit, Wis., at the time of their marriage. They have no children.
Ira Cleophas is one of the successful and prosperous farmers and substantial citizens of Newark township, Rock county, Wis- consin, where he was born February 4, 1853. He is the youngest son of a family of six children, of whom five are now (1907) liv- ing, born to Cleophas Holverson and Kari Holverson, who came to this country from Norway in 1843. The parents, with their first child, settled first in Dane county, Wisconsin, but in 1844 they moved to Rock county and settled on a tract of forty acres, now owned by our subject. Later he added to his original pur- chase other land in section 12, Newark township, now owned by his brother, Halver, and there made his home and reared his family and passed the remainder of his life, reaching the age of eighty-eight years.
Ira passed his boyhood on his father's farm, attending the district schools and having the ordinary experiences of the west- ern farmer boy of the early days. After reaching manhood Mr. Cleophas continued on the farm and devoted himself to practical farming until 1891, when he retired from farm life for a time and took up his residence in Beloit. Seven years later he re- turned to his farm and has continued to live there since. Mr. Cleophas' home farm comprises 220 acres, improved with a fine dwelling house, large and substantial barns and other buildings, and equipped with all the necessary appliances of the modern model farm. Besides general farming and tobacco raising Mr. Cleophas gives special attention to breeding high-grade Dur- ham cattle and has a splendid herd of some thirty high-grade
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milch cows. He also breeds fine horses to a limited extent. Be- sides the homestead Mr. Cleophas owns 400 or more acres of land in Langland county, Wisconsin.
In February, 1876, Mr. Cleophas married Miss Annie Stor- dock, of Newark, whose parents settled in Wisconsin in 1839, and later moved to Illinois, and moved back to Newark in 1870. Of four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Cleophas, George and Ed- mund live on the home farm; Charlotte is married to Mr. P. E. Johnson and lives in North Dakota; and Herbert also lives in North Dakota. Mr. Cleophas has never had any ambition to hold public office, in fact has avoided it, although his brother has ably represented his county in the state legislature.
Mr. Cleophas is a man of domestic tastes who finds in the en- vironments of his simple home life, the society of his wide circle of friends and in the varied routine of his daily life enough to occupy his time and gratify the full measure of his ambitions.
Lewis G. Stordock, who was born at Leona, Winnebago coun- ty, Ill., in 1854, is a son of Gunnuld and Mary (Larson) Stor- dock, natives of Numendahl, Norway. In 1839 the parents emi- grated to this country and settled in Newark township, Rock county, Wisconsin. In 1840 they moved across the state line into Winnebago county, Illinois, where they lived some thirty years. About 1870 they returned to Rock county, Wisconsin, and the father bought 200 acres of land in Newark township, which he improved and on which he passed the remainder of his life. He was a man greatly respected in the community for his many good qualities and uprightness of character. His death occurred in 1898 at the age of eighty-nine years.
Our subject is the fourth of a family of seven children, four of whom are now living. He passed his boyhood on the home farm in Winnebago county, Illinois, and received a common school education in the district schools there, and after reaching manhood continued to live on the homestead, which later came into his possession and which he now owns. All the improve- ments on the place, comprising a fine dwelling house, substantial barns and other buildings, and all the necessary equipments of an up-to-date farm, were made by Mr. Stordock or his father. The place is favorably located and for the purposes of general farming and stock raising, in which its owner is engaged, is un- surpassed.
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In 1880 Mr. Stordock married Miss Nellie Skavlem, daughter of Mr. Paul Skavlem, of Newark township, and a cousin of Mr. H. L. Skavlem, who writes the chapter on Scandinavian Colonics in this work. Of four children born to them, the eldest, Minnie, is married to Professor George H. Gilberton and lives at Ottawa, Ill., where Dr. Perry, the second child, also resides. The youngest child, Edna, lives at home. Gilman, the third child, who attended the St. Olaf College at Northfield, Minn., and is now at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago studying medicine, with fifty other students, all members of the college band, in 1906 visited Norway on the invitation of and as the guests of the Norwegian student singers of Christiania. They were the re- cipients of much attention and many honors, being received by the king and by the prime minister, Michaelson. A complete itinerary of the trip, including their celebration of the Fourth of July in Christiania, published by the college in 1907, is replete with interest.
Almeron Eager, who was president of the Baker Manufactur- ing Company and for many years a leading spirit in the business interests of the city of Evansville, was a man of mueh intelli- genee, force of character and uncompromising honesty.
Mr. Eager was born in Sangerfield, Oneida county, N. Y., on March 14, 1838, a son of William and Caroline (Northrup) Eager. His father was born in Oneida county and his mother in Delaware county, New York, and they were reared and married in their native state. Nine children were born to them, six of whom are now living: Amy, wife of Peter Case, of Fredericksburg, Iowa; Adelia, wife of William Case, of Fredericksburg; Alvin, of Grand Island, Neb .; Amos, of Lincoln, Neb .; Orinda, wife of John Elli- son, of Fredericksburg; and De Witt, of Beaver Crossing, Neb. The father, who was a farmer, came West in the spring of 1855, locating in the town of Union, Roek county, Wis., where he died in 1861 at the age of sixty-one. His wife died in Oneida county, New York, in 1850, at the early age of thirty-eight. She was a member of the Methodist church. Oliver Eager, the paternal grandfather of Almeron Eager, was a native of Massachusetts and an early settler in Oneida county, New York He died at the age of sixty-five. He was a farmer by occupation and the father of five children. Almeron Eager's maternal grandfather was also a native of New York and died when his daughter Caroline, men-
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tioned above, was about three years of age, leaving a son and one daughter. He was a hard-working, honorable man.
Almeron Eager was reared on the Oneida county farm and ob- tained his education in the district school. He came to Rock county, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1854 and bought eighty acres in the town of Union, which he improved and afterwards sold. He then purchased a tract of 200 acres lying two and a half miles east of Evansville, and in partnership with W. S. Smith opened a general store. Smith & Eager continued the store fourteen years and then bought leaf tobacco for some three years or more. In the meantime, in 1883, a company was formed to build a tack factory in Evansville, and four years later Mr. Eager became associated with it as secretary. He held that position until the company went out of business. In 1873 Mr. Eager, in company with A. S. Baker, L. M. Shaw, L. Mygatt, C. Snashall and W. S. Smith, organized the Baker Manufacturing Company to engage in the manufacture of windmills. tanks and pumps. Mr. Snash- all was president of the corporation and W. S. Smith secretary.
Mr. Eager and Miss Olive Boyee, daughter of Henry and Mary (Almy) Boyee, were married November 26, 1863, and they had four children-Clarence, Gertrude, and two who died in infancy. Clarenee died when one year and nine days old. Gertrude mar- ried Lile Humphrey and is the mother of one child, Leonard. Mrs. Eager is a member of the Methodist church. Our subject was an honored member of Union Lodge No. 32, A. F. and A. M., Evansville Chapter No. 35, R. A. M., and Janesville Commandery No. 2, K. T. He was a Republican and took pride in the fact that he east his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. He was town treasurer for many years, a member of the village board of Ev- ansville for many years, and president of the board three years, and was a member of the county board of supervisors for nine years. On November 6, 1900, he was elected assemblyman of the Second distriet of Roek county, receiving 2,670 votes, his oppo- nent 915 votes.
Mr. Eager was one of Roek county's publie-spirited citizens and established the Eager Free Publie Library and was a trustee of the Lawrence University at Appleton, Wis., and one of its benefactors.
Mr. Eager was the owner of a number of store buildings and residence properties in Evansville. He built a commodious home
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at 321 West Main street in 1873. While he was on the farm he spent a year and a half in the book delivery business.
Our subject traveled in every state and territory in the Union and visited all points of interest in the United States. In 1899 he took a trip to Alaska; in 1900 he traveled through Europe, at- tended the World's Fair at Paris, went through Germany, saw the Passion Play, visited the mountains of Switzerland, went through the St. Gothard tunnel (the longest in the world), and journeyed over Holland, Belgium, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Mr. Eager died October 15, 1902.
Levi Leonard was born December 30, 1815, in Broome county, near Binghamton, N. Y., and is the second and only surviving child of a family of four children born to Amasa and Laurana B. (Benett) Leonard, both natives of Broome county, New York, where the father passed his life as a farmer. Our subject's grandfather, Captain G. F. Leonard, participated in the Indian war at the time of the Wyoming massacre, and about that time with two eanoes lashed together took his family up the Susque- hanna river and settled in Broome county, New York, where his son, Amasa, our subject's father, was born, being the first white child born in that county.
Levi passed his boyhood on the family homestead at Bing- hamton, getting his earlier education in a private school, and later, after the opening of public schools, attending them. At the age of twenty-four he left the old home and engaged in raft- ing on the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers. While thus em- ployed, with a companion named William Brown, he resolved to go West. Starting from Port Deposit, Pa., and traveling a round- about way by canalboat, railway and stagecoach, they finally reached Cleveland, Ohio, where they embarked on the steamer "Illinois" and made the trip around the lakes. High winds pre- vented their landing at Milwaukee, as was their purpose, and they went on to Chicago, where they hired a man with a four- horse team to take them to Rockford. Thence they walked to Pope's ferry, four miles above Janesville. This was in April, 1840. After a few days young Leonard made a reconnoitering trip to the site of the present town of Evansville and hired out by the month to Hiram Griffith, a hardy pioneer, for whom he worked some three years, teaching in the winter of 1840 in Green
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county. At the time of his arrival here with $50 which he had he took up forty acres of land and did some work on this while em- ployed by Mr. Griffith. There were then in the neighborhood Hiram, John and John A. Griffith, Stephen and Ira Jones and Erastus Quincy. After leaving the employ of Mr. Griffith he farmed on his own account, and a little later squatted on 400 acres of land near the present site of Brooklyn, where during the next year and a half he kept bachelor's hall, hunted and worked his land, breaking 100 acres. Suffering from chills and fever, Mr. Leonard sold his interest for $300, receiving in pay- ment $140 in cash, a note for $40 and a buggy for the balance, and, going to Janesville, traded the buggy for three town lots on the west side of the river. In 1844 he visited his home in the East and spent the winter there, and on his return in the spring of 1845 in partnership with a cousin bought eighty acres just east of the present site of Evansville and planted a nursery. He soon traded his town lots for his cousin's half interest and car- ried on the nursery on his own account, teaching during the win- ters. The small house which he built at this time still stands on the Henry Campbell farm one and a half miles east of Evans- ville. Mr. Leonard lived on his farm until 1890, when he bought and moved to his present home in Evansville.
Mr. Leonard has always taken a commendable interest in educational affairs and served as superintendent of schools for many years. He is a great reader and possesses a valuable li- brary containing many choice and rare books. He is a man of large physique, fine personality, intelligent and wise in his coun- cils, and though past four score and ten years of age, is in full possession of all his faculties and in the enjoyment of good health.
In whatever position he has been placed he has always shown himself competent and trustworthy, and no one stands higher in public esteem than he.
In 1852 Mr. Leonard married Miss Charlotte Taggart, a teach- er, who died in 1854. They had one child which died in infancy. On October 6, 1858, he married Mrs. Sarah Jones, who had two children by her first husband, whom Mr. Leonard reared as his own. Of them the elder, Mr. Burr W. Jones, is now an influential citizen and prominent lawyer at Madison, Wis., and Marian C., the younger, was married to Mr. Sydney Humphrey and moved to Greeley, Colo., where Mr. Humphrey died and was buried at
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Greeley. Marian returned to her former home in Evansville, Wis., and afterwards married J. A. Pettigrew and moved to Ver- million, S. D., where she died and was brought to Evansville and buried beside her father, William Jones, April 23, 1879.
Charles Elmer Langworthy, who was born on November 6, 1840, in Madison county, New York, is one of a family of four children, two of whom are now living, born to Charles B. and Betsey W. (Bardeen) Langworthy, both natives of Madison coun- ty, New York. The father was a stock buyer nearly all his life. He died at Syracuse, N. Y., at the age of seventy-two years. The mother died in 1857 at the age of thirty-five. They were both earnest Christians and devoted members of the Baptist denomina- tion.
Charles E. attended the district schools in his native place and also pursued a course of study at the academy at Brook- field, N. Y. On coming to Wisconsin in 1855 he was engaged in the livery business and farming at Edgerton until 1862 and then spent two years in the oil region in Pennsylvania. Returning to Rock county, he settled in Fulton township, where he bought eighty acres of land, which formed the nucleus of his present farm of 280 acres. All the improvements, consisting of a two- story frame dwelling, large barns and other buildings, together with a thorough equipment of modern appliances, have been made by Mr. Langworthy, and he can justly lay claim to possess- ing one of the model farms of Rock county. Besides carrying on general farming he has been an extensive stock raiser, making a specialty of buying and selling horses. In addition to the home place Mr. Langworthy has good buildings on his other farm, situ- ated on section 21, a short distance from his home farm.
Mr. Langworthy has always taken an active interest in af- fairs and is a man of influence in the community. He has been for ten years president of the board of managers of the Rock County Asylum and is also one of its trustees. For eighteen years he was chairman of the Fulton town board, is a director of the Harmony Town Insurance Company, and has filled various local offices. In politics he is a Republican.
On February 28, 1861, Mr. Langworthy married Miss Fanny Brace (a sister of Mr. Henry H. Brace, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work), who is now deceased. They had four children. The eldest, Ellen, died in infancy. The second, Fred-
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erick, who died at the age of twenty-four years, was a farmer and resided on the home farm. He married Miss Carrie Cutting, of Janesville, who now lives at St. Joseph, Mo. They had one child, Frederick, now seventeen years old. The third child, Emma, who died at the age of twenty-five, was married to Mr. J. J. Cunning- ham, an attorney at Janesville. The youngest child, Harry L., who lives on the home farm and is an extensive stock breeder and dealer, married Miss Maggie Horton, by whom he has three children, viz .: Emma, Vera and Jenette.
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