Marathon County, Wisconsin - Chapter 18, 1913

A City Charter

The territory is four square miles in extent, exactly one mile in each direction from the northwest corner of Main and Washington streets, yet the settled portion covered only a part. The marsh still existed, one corderoy road at Jackson street crossed it, but during the summer Henrietta street was opened and a road cut out, from the end of which a corderoy road was built to connect with Mcintosh street, which was also made passable.

No new buildings had been added on the west side to those already mentioned, but good residence buildings were put up on Fourth and Fifth streets as far north as Franklin, and south on Grand avenue as far as the breweries.

With its organization as a city, the great work of improvements began, which has been continued ever since, more prominent in some years than in others, but never at a standstill.

Street grading was undertaken ; a new bridge across the slough was built much higher above the water than the old one, and the street to the bridge from Main street west was filled in from three to five feet in some places to reduce its steepness. About three thousand dollars was spent in that year on street improvements alone, which was a large sum at that time, but it was a paying investment.

The inauguration of Mr. Kickbusch was quite a solemn affair, and evidenced the fact that the officers as well as the people were conscious that a change had taken place in their political status, which deserved special observance.

The outgoing village board was in session, presided over by Carl Hoeflinger, its president, when the mayor and new city council appeared in the meeting room of the engine house, which served as a village and city hall for many years. Mr. Hoeflinger then made a short address, referring to the changed condition, congratulated the people upon the advancement and the mayor and aldermen upon their election, and then the old village board vacated their chairs, and the city council took their places.

The council was called to order, the mayor delivered his inaugural, brimful of good common sense, and the new government was installed and proceeded to business. The administration of August Kickbusch was a great credit to the city, which took a decided step towards municipal progress, and gracefully and successfully passed through the metamorphose from village to city.

Two years afterwards he was again elected as mayor, and in 1889 was appointed by President Harrison as receiver of the United States land office at Wausau. The duties of this office were not congenial to him and he voluntarily retired in 1891, for the following reasons, which reflected credit upon his character:

On the 20th day of December, 1890, there were made subject to homestead entry about 200,000 acres of land, situated in Lincoln, Vilas and Oneida counties, which had theretofore been withdrawn for entry and settlement, and much of it was valuable pine land. These facts, and that the lands became subject to homestead entry on that day, had been very widely advertised and described as worth thousands of dollars each 80-acre tract, and consequently thousands of people came to \\'ausau from all parts of the United States to take up these lands under the homestead act. On the afternoon of the 1 8th day of December some ten to twelve men were seen running to the window in the courthouse, where according to advertisement publicly made by the register and receiver of the United States land office, the applications for homestead entry would be received on December 20, 1890, from 9 o'clock A. M. ; and in less than an hour hundreds of applicants were standing in a line from that window to the street east, and across the sidewalk, with many hundreds of others on the courthouse square, coming too late. It took three and part of the fourth day to dispose of these applicants one after another, who were waiting out there in the cold all during these days, standing up or squatting on the snow and freezing, while hundreds of others hastened to the lands to take possession of them by settlement, as the legal phrase is, immediately after midnight of December 19, 1890, and thousands of others left the city, disgusted by being fooled to come hundreds and some over one thousand miles for a homestead, at great expense and with no certainty of being able to get one.

The lyen who went to the land after midnight of December 19, 1890, claimed a preference right over the men who filed their application and paid for their entry at the land office, and contested the rights of the filers (the men who filed for their land at the land office) to the lands. Mr. Kickbusch was not a lawyer and not familiar with land office practice, but he had a strongly developed sense of what was right and what was wrong. There was a difference of opinion even among lawyers as to who should have the preference right, the men who filed or the men who settled after midnight.

These conflicting claims had to be settled first of the local land office by suits, called contests. When hundreds of contests were brought by the settlers who had no papers from the land office, against the filers, who had the papers, and August Kickbusch was given to understand by the register of the land office, who had been in office for sixteen years and who was familiar with the United States land laws, that all things being equal, the settler had the best right to the land and the filer would lose it, Mr. Kickbusch said : "No, that is not right. I have taken from these filers their money and they have stood there in line for days and frozen, and now I should decide against them ? That I will not do, even if it is the law; rather than do that I will resign," and he did resign before the first contest was brought on for a hearing. He followed the dictates of his conscience, preferring to resign the high office than do that which he deemed a wrong.

His name has often been mentioned as one of the pioneer businessmen in former chapters ; many years his general store was the largest commercial house in Wausau, and he also dealt in lumber. He was a keen judge of human nature, but warm-hearted and accommodating. Always ready to help his countrymen, not only with his counsel, but with giving credit when others refused, he was deservedly popular with all classes of people. For years he was one of the most powerful political factors in Marathon county, first as a Democrat, then as a member of the Greenback party; later still, as a Republican until his death, in May, IQ04, which caused widespread mourning. He was the founder of the Aug. Kickbusch Wholesale Grocery Company, and one of the directors of the First National Bank of Wausau from its organization until his death, and also a director in the Ruder Brewery Company.

In 1873 J^cob Paff was elected mayor, under whose administration another important problem concerning the future development of the city came up for solution. The annual agricultural products of Marathon county were then far from supplying the home demand, and as the farming industry at that time practically ended on the north line of township 30 the deficiency had to be hauled up from the nearest railroad station, which was still Stevens

And Represextative Citizens 283

The first railroad was secured in this year, though not finished until 1874, and the mayor of Wausau, Jacob Paff, was an important personage in inducing the Wisconsin Valley Railroad to enter Wausau.

In this year was also made the contract for the first large schoolhouse, the first brick building in Wausau, heated by hot air, the Humbolt Schoolhouse, slightly enlarged since that time. The contract price was $18,000, and L. S. Hayne, a stranger, was the contractor, but when it was completed it came to $24,000. To pay for this building, Wausau bonded itself for the first time, issuing $10,000 in bonds and paying 10 per cent interest thereon.

The high rate of interest paid on these bonds issued by a city who had no other indebtedness at all at that time, shows another instance of the prevailing scarcity of money at that time.

Jacob Paff was one of the earliest German settlers in Wausau ; he came about 1 85 1, and for seven years worked as a carpenter and cabinetmaker, having a shop on Jackson street, later built a store on Jackson and Third streets, where he carried on a general merchandise business and also engaged in lumbering. He demonstrated his belief in the pennanency of Wausau by erected its first solid brick building, where his first store building stood, and following it up with the building of more brick stores on Third street, which made it the principal business street in the city. He was one of the founders of the First National Bank and its vice-president from the time of its organization until his death, on the 6th day of May, 1895, often acting as president.

Much of the prosperity of this bank was due to the confidence which the people of all classes of society had in his business capacity and personal integrity, for he at all times enjoyed the respect and esteem of the business world and the people generally.

In 1874 August Kickbusch was again called upon to preside over the destinies of Wausau. The Wisconsin Valley Railroad was expected to reach Wausau, and he having taken a prominent part in the conferences which culminated in the contract for the building of that road, it was thought proper that he should be the official head to welcome the iron horse. The day of the arrival of the first train was duly celebrated, as has already been related.

Scholfield, William Gallon and many others. The Marathon County Bank erected its first solid brick building, (since torn down and replaced with its present structure) and James McCrossen built his big store on corner of Scott and Third streets.

The election of 1875 brought Mr. Carl Hoeflinger to the head of city officers. Wausau's growth had been comparatively rapid during the two previous years; streets had been laid out and graded, the new school house completed and was used, but it was soon discovered that instead of answering the needs of many years yet to come, it was just comfortably answering present needs and no more.

The railroad had brought many people, among whom were those that always follow railroad building and extensions; people whose acquisitions is of doubtful value to any place, and sometimes even a positive damage. The booms had been extended, lumber output largely increased, and ^Vausau became the center of the lumber industry on the Wisconsin river, which it has maintained to this day.

Merrill was then, and remained without a railroad until 1881. It had no large boom to hold logs ; the Scott & Andrews mill the only mill there, boomed most of their logs in Prairie river. Only a few boarding houses were in Merrill, and the many hundreds of men who worked in the large number of camps in Lincoln county and all camps above Wausau, all came down here to be paid off, many remained here to go on the log drives after the river opened and returned again after the driving, or with the drive to Wausau. Wausau was their headquarters, as they called it, filling every hotel and boarding house to overflowing during the spring and early summer months, and had their earnings to spend. There were places willing to lighten them of their burden, even watching out for them, having runners to show them the sights, runners to show them to places where Dame Fortune might smile upon them, and incidentally relieve them of their hard-earned winter wages.

The police force consisted of a marshal and one night watchman, reenforced for a couple of months in the spring by a special policeman. The fire department consisted of the unpaid voluntary fire company, with the hand engine, assisted by the hook and ladder company, also volunteers. There was enough for the mayor to do in those days, especially if one was inclined to be more than mayor in name only, or limit his official authority to the presidency over the city council. Mr. Hoeflinger was conscious that, although there was no salary attached to the office, still some duties were to be performed, not of a pleasing nature, or in connection with the merely administrative affairs of the city, but duties onerous and unpleasant, but he did not shrink from perfomiing them.

W'ausau being then on the end of a railroad line, and the last place of importance on the Wisconsin river, had a very large floating population, sometimes as many as a thousand, who spent a large part of their earnings here. It had assumed somewhat the airs and complexion of a frontier town, which in fact it was, and shady characters plied their trade almost everywhere. Livery rigs, whose occupants delighted in gaudy colored and highly scented dresses, paraded the streets, inviting the unsophisticated pinery boy to make accjuaintance with the world, rather demi-monde. Mayor Hoeflinger undertook the heroic task of cleaning out the city. He made no pompous declaration of what he was going to do, did not begin this work by a bugle blast. He went at it in a most primitive way. One night he called to his aid his faithful adlatus, the city marshal, George Stelz, and - Harun al Raschid-like - they made a tour of the suspected parlors of Dame Fortune. No arrests were made on the spot, but next day it was said on the street that the mayor had delivered himself of some forceful speeches in some places. Some arrests followed and a number of business men in the wet goods line gave bond for their appearance in circuit court. After some terms of court these cases were forgotten, but the mayor's bold appearance as a social reformer had a good efifect for more than his own term of office. Some of the professionals left the town, the bunco steerer disappeared, and the olfactory nen^es of the pinery boys were no longer termpted on the streets by the odors of musk or patchoulie with which the air seemingly had theretofore been impregnated. Wausau assumed its nonnal condition ; legitimate enterprises prospered ; the building of fine residences, especially in the northeastern part, continued, mainly the work of a new architect and builder, John fiercer, who had come to Wausau in 1872. The N. T. Kelly residence was his first work here, which to this day is one of the finest residence buildings in the city, and many others are of his conception and plans.

At this time the city began to spread out across the river, but ne\ertheless the hard times beginning with the fall of the bankingjiouse of Jay Cook begun to be felt in Wausau. Its effect had been retarded somewhat by the building of the railroad to Wausau in 1874, but lumber had fallen in price, collections were slow, and the municipality began to feel the downward trend of affairs about this time.

Mr. Hoeflinger did his best to keep city expenses down to a proper limit, but he could not prevent a large return of unpaid taxes, which in those days, at least so far as personal property tax was concerned, was nearly a clear loss. He was glad to relinquish the cares of ofhce and devote himself to his private business as a real estate and insurance man.

Carl Hoeflinger came to Wausau in i860, and was county treasurer from 1865 to 1873; he occupied the chair as editor of the JVaitsau IVochcnblatt when it was founded, and at different times thereafter, being a fluent and racy writer in both the German and English languages. Alone and unaided by any society or organization, he organized and led the first procession on Memorial Day in honor of the departed soldiers of the Civil war, furnishing with a lavish hand, from his own garden, all the flowers for the occasion. The ceremony fell in disuse after this first procession, to be revived after many years by Cutler Post, G. A. R., at Wausau. C. Hoeflinger was a man of attractive qualities of mind and heart, always popular, generous almost to a fault. He died a victim to that dread disease, consumption, on the 21st day of September, 1880, only forty-eight years of age.

The office of mayor was purely an honorary one until lately, but there never was a dearth of candidates, many citizens not only being willing, but glad to serve their fellow citizens in that capacity, though they had to go through the ordeal of an election and take the chances of defeat at the polls. They considered it an honor to be the candidate of a portion of the people, the candidate of their party, and next to the honor of being elected, stood the honor of being defeated ; at least that was the view taken by people in earlier days, and they brought forward good men in each instance, the community being the gainer by it.

The choice for mayor in 1876 was B. Ringle, who was then and had been for years, the county judge of this county. The election was very animated, not only as to mayor, but for every office from mayor down. The political parties were drawing the lines and marshaling their forces preparatory for the presidential contest of 1876, and each party put forward their best and most popular man.

Such men as D. L. Plumer and R. E. Parcher were contestants for the office of supervisor of the Third ward, which included all the territory north of Washington and east of Main street. Both of these men were excellent citizens, their reputation for competency, integrity and local patriotism as well established as now, but curiously enough their nomination, instead of bringing forth unanimous rejoicing, brought forth only bitter denunciations from their respective partisans. It was Archbishop Whatley who said that in a heated political contest it could easily be proven that Abel had killed Cain, and the truth of this remark was proven by the heated disputes of the partisans of these candidates.

The Republicans were bound to elect their candidate ; the Democrats felt they could not afford to have their candidate defeated, and other wards took more interest in the election of the Third ward than in their own. When on the night of the election, D. L. Plumer emerged with a majority of three votes out of the contest there was a sigh of relief among Democrats, and the Republicans were satisfied, feeling that they had done their whole duty by their candidate.

The election in this year, including the presidential election of 1876, was the last one in which these two gentlemen were found in opposite camps. The exigency of politics brought them together in less than two years, and from that' time on until the death of R. E. Parcher, they trained together in business and pretty much in the same political camp.

The administration of Mayor B. Ringle continued the established policy of street improvements, and in general kept a watchful eye on the interests of the city. But business was getting duller and duller, prices were still falling, and as taxes were bearing hard on the people the expenses of the city were curtailed as much as possible. Still one work worth mentioning was undertaken. The city had been spreading out and homes were erected all along and close up to the edges of the marsh. The miasma arising from this stagnant pool caused much sickness, especially among children, with an appalling death rate.

The drainage of this marsh was undertaken by digging a ditch at the southwest end of the marsh leading to a plank culvert, which ran underground through the property of Adam Young and P. B. McKellar, and underground across Grand avenue into the ravine which comes up to Grand avenue at Columbia park, leading to the river. That ditch and culvert served its purpose for a time, lowering the height of the pond and narrowing its limits, but in the nature of things could only be of a temporary character. -

The pool on William's flat in the first ward, was also partially trained and the sanitary condition was greatly improved, though the cause was not wholly removed.

Few men, if any, filled the office of mayor who devoted more time to its interests and had more executive ability, a more thorough understanding and knowledge of municipal affairs. B. Ringle had been county clerk of Marathon county for six years, had served it five times as representative in the legislature and was county judge from 1864 until his death, on the 27th day of

When he took the office of county clerk, and found the county owing the state $20,000 for taxes, a very large sum in those days, when money brought one and one-half or two per cent interest per month, and lands were considered a burden, he was the originator and, with the aid of his intimate friend, Senator E. L. Brawn of Waupaca, succeeding in enacting a law by which the state accepted forty thousand acres of tax title land in cancellation of this debt.

These lands were sold by the state for 75 cents an acre soon afterwards, and thereby again returned to the assessment rolls, increasing to that extent the taxable property of the county. For this act Mr. B. Ringle received high praise from all parties at that time.

In his private life, as well as in his official capacity, he was a man of unimpeachable integrity, plain-spoken in language, going always directly to the point, never deceiving friend or foe with phrases of doubtful imiwrt or double meaning. He was a powerful factor in shaping the destinies of Marathon county and the city of \^^ausau, and politically exerted more influence soon -after his coming to Wausau than any other man. He was a native of the Germany, \\here he was educated and worked in some minor official capacity. He emigrated to this county in 1846, and came directly to W^isconsin. settling first in Germantown, Washington county, but two years later took up farm life in the town of Herman, Dodge county, Wisconsm. where he remained until the spring of 1859, when he came to Wausau. He was postmaster, chainnan and justice of the peace in Dodge county, and familiar with town, village and county government when he came to Wausau. The numerous German settlers who came to Marathon county about that time and settled in the new towns, consulted him more than any one of the lawyers then here on town organization and the like, because he could speak their language, explain the meaning of the law and instruct them in their duties. They found him a reliable and willing advisor, and that in connection with his sturdy and honest character accounted for the strong political influence which he exerted until his death.

The census of 1875 and the presidential vote of 1876 showed a large gain over the previous years. Nevertheless business was suft'ering more and more, there was a disposition to find fault with the government of nation, state and municipality, and whenever a mayor had served his one-year tenn. he asked for no other, but was glad to retire and leave the thankless job to some other person.

with him was conspicuous in more than one sense, than any of its predecessors. Not only was the mayor one of the largest businessmen of the city, but so were most of the supervisors, who under the old charter were also members of the city council. There were B. G. Plumer, from the first ward; Jacob Faff, from the second; Carl Hoeflinger, from the fourth, and Alex Stewart, from the newly created fifth ward. They found an empty treasury, empty because a large amount of taxes was returned as unpaid, and in those days the county treasurer did not pay the delinquent taxes on the return to him of the tax rolls. It took an order of the county board requiring him to do so after the tax sale, at which the county was usually the only bidder, and then county orders were issued to the city or towns for unpaid taxes. In 1877 the city had no less than $4,000 in county orders for unpaid taxes, but these county orders were not par. but stood at a discount of from 20 to 25 per cent. Of course the city kept these orders in the treasury expecting to pay the county taxes for the ensuing year, and tried to get along with the license money which was not to exceed $50 a year where it is now $200 until the next tax paying time.

There was not much change for improvements, and the best that could be done was to keep streets and bridges in some kind of repair. There was then no money for such luxuries as street lights or street crossings.

Still the administration managed to run the city without going into debt, and they had to exercise much wisdom in accompli.shing it. The hard times had struck \\^ausau with full force; many men were out of employment, and wages were at low ebb. Yet one ray of hope penetrated the dark outlook. The Wisconsin Valley Railroad opened a real estate office at Wausau in Music Hall building, and put J. M. Smith in charge of the business. He as principal contractor of the building of the road had taken a large interest in that land in part payment and was directly interested in the sale ; it was said at the time that he had a half interest. Certain it is that after a few years he purchased the interest of the railroad in the land, and owned it himself with his co-partner Thompson. In the spring of 1875 he made his first trip through the settled portion with a view of examining the land as to fertility of the soil and its adaption for farming. The season was unusually late that year, and he found the growing crops decidedly backwards and felt rather blue over the prospect of realizing much out of the land. About two months later he made the same trip again, and was then surprised to see the waving fields of grain and thick fields of timothy which greeted his astonished gaze. He knew then that his interest in the lands would turn out much better than expected, and he lost no time in endeavoring to get actual settlers. He adver- tised liberally, but judiciously, spending thousands of dollars in making known the agricultural richness of Marathon county, establishing a number of branch ofifices, and had hundreds of little frames made, boxes, in which the grains produced in Marathon county were exhibited, which were distributed at railroad stations and on all points liable to attract the attention of prospective purchasers. His energetic work began to tell in 1877; there was a large influx of strangers who settled on these lands, and they had to purchase their home and farm supplies at Wausau, as their nearest market. Their trade not only enlivened the extremely dull season somewhat, but held out great hopes for the future.

He was very successful in bringing settlers to this county, selling lands at reasonably low rates, even for that time and by giving such liberal terms as to payments that even the poorest was enabled to obtain a home; provided he would be industrious and honest. Nearly every one of these settlers became a well to do farmer, and to J. M. Smith's push and energy, and his honorable and fair dealing w-ith the parties to whom he sold, was due much of the growth of agriculture in this county, and a corresponding growth of Wausau as an industrial and manufacturing center. This immigration helped Wausau over the worst of the hard times in 1877, and the careful management of city afifairs saved it from rvmning into debt.

The end of Mayor Clarke's administration was remarkable by the beginning of suits against city and county with a view of the cancellation of taxes which were sought to be declared illegal. This controversy was hurtful to the city more than to the county, but both passed out of it with no more damage than a black eye, for the time being, figuratively speaking, but the after effect was rather beneficial in that assessors were brought about to a better understanding and realization of their duties.

J. C. Clarke had often been mentioned as pioneer lumberman who came as a boy to Wausau in 1845. He was harder pressed than any other of the mill owners at Wausau during the time from 1874 to 1879, but he held up his head and succeeded in saving his property when other lumbermen went down. Fortune began smiling on him after 1879, and he was on the road to prosperity, when he sold out his mill property and standing pine to the McDonald Brother Company, a corporation in 1882, retaining only a respectable minority of the shares. But being used to the full and unrestricted control of his large business for so many years, which he was no longer allowed to exercise after the new corporation had taken possession, he sold his remaining interest in the following year and looked around for a new field of labor. In an evil hour he invested in a tobacco plantation in Virginia, and what it was that could induce him, a Wisconsin pioneer lumbemian, to go down into old Virginia among the Southern planters with whom he could not have anything in common, remained a mystery to his friends until the end of his life. The venture turned out a complete failure and so was his next venture of fanning in the state of New Jersey. He returned to Wausau after a few years, then took up a homestead near Bradley on the Sault St. IMary Railroad, cleared the title to some of his propertly at and near Tomahawk City, which was then being founded by a Mr. Bradley, and succeeded in getting means enough to build himself a decent and respectable home, the only property which descended to his children. He was an energetic and hard worker all his life ; came as a boy of fourteen years into the pinery without any acquaintances or friends; he understood the lumber business thoroughly, and in his younger days was sought as a pilot, particularly to run Big Bull. He was honest and warm hearted, but he could not always read the signs of the times; his first error was in selling out at a time when remaining a few more years in sole control of his property would have brought him a little fortune; but his greatest error was his venture in going into the plantation country" of Virginia which came nigh ruining him financially. When he returned, however, he was the same John C. Clarke, undaunted by reverses, beginning life anew, and to the end of his days had the respect and good will of all his many old friends and acquaintances.

He was sheriff of Marathon county in 1859 and i860, and many years a very influential member of the county board. He was elected to the assembly in 1 881, and was a very creditable representative. While in the legislature, it happened that the railroad construction company which was building the railroad from the city of Eau Claire to Superior City went into bankruptcy and the state was forced by sheer humanity to send provisions up the line of the road to save the working people of that road from starvation.

John C. Clarke with a few other honorable and far seeing members desired the state to take the land grant given for the building of the road and build and operate the railroad itself. That land grant was worth more than it cost to build and equip the railroad, but for the state to take the grant, as it had a perfect right to do, and get the railroad substantially for nothing and still have valuable land was, in the opinion of the great majority of the legislature at that time, looking too much towards socialism, and the grant was given to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, which built the new line and organized it as the Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad.

There was a sequel to that land grant. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad also sought to get that grant, and the competition of these railroads endangered the success of either and worked indirectly in favor of the scheme of John C. Clarke and a few of his friends, who wanted the state to take over the grant and build the railroad itself.

Under the circumstances the two railroads made common cause; the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company withdrew, leaving the field clear to Chicago & Northwestern Railroad under a secret agreement, letting the last mentioned railroad take the grant, and build the road, about 62 miles in length, in consideration of which the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad should have a one-fourth interest in the lands granted, and be allowed to run their trains over the newly built road on very favorable temis and other very important and valuable concessions.

When the Chicago, Milwaukee, ^Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad had obtained that grant, had built the road and operated it. it refused to stand by the bargain made with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, claiming that the contract was void as against public policy. In the litigation which followed the breach of the contract, the Omaha road made that their defense, and the supreme court could not but adopt the same view. In the language of later days, this agreement was "a gentleman's agreement" ("rogue" would be a better temi), which is binding on gentlemen without any aid of courts, just as gambling debts are called "debts of honor" because no court in the world will enforce them, and in this instance the Omaha road did not play the part of the gentleman with the gentleman on the other side. In strict course of justice, the successful railroad should have been also deprived of the grant or the benefits derived from it, because obtained under a corrupt bargain.

Such and similar agreements of and between railroads and faxored corporations and large shippers, and actions of this sort, have brought about the hostile feeling against railroads which manifested itself in unfriendly legislation in late years, under which railroading is suffering to some extent at this time, but for which they themselves are largely responsible.

Since his return to Wausau. John C. Clarke was elected justice of the peace, re-elected from term to term, and he died at the age of seventy-six years, after a comparatively short illness. The last years of his life were spent fairly comfortably at his home on Franklin street, a modest, unpretentious but neat little house. He was a native of north Wales and came as boy with some emigrant friends to Dane county in June, 1845, from where he \\andered up in the Wisconsin pinery in the same year, a poor, friendless boy, and stayed here all his life, with the exception of the few years spent in Virginia and New Jersey after he sold out in 1883 before his return back home.