Biographies for Waupaca County, WIsconsin

Lyman E. Barnes
Barnes, Lyman Eddy, a Representative from Wisconsin; born in Weyauwega, Waupaca County, Wis., June 30, 1855; attended the public schools; admitted to the bar in 1876, after four years' study in a law office and in Columbia college law school, New York, and began practice in Appleton, Wis., in 1876; formed a partnership with Judge Goodland that continued until 1882; moved to Rockledge, Fla., where he remained about five years, and practiced law; returned to Appleton, and was elected district attorney of Outagamie county; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third Congress (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895); died in Appleton, Wis., January 16, 1904.
[Source: "A Biographical congressional directory From the 1st ( 1774) to the 62nd (1911) Congress"; By United States Congress; Publ. 1918; Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack]

Merrills Barton
Merrills Barton, farmer, was born in Genesee county, N. Y., in 1823, and at four years of age moved with parents to Chautauqua county. In 1852 he moved to Waupaca county, Wis., where he engaged in farming until 1870, when he moved to Mitchell county, Ia., and the following year came to Shelby county, locating two miles east of Harlan. He owns a farm of 131 acres, where he resides, and another of 600 acres in Douglas township. They are both well improved stock farms. He was elected a member of the Board of Supervisors.
[Source: "History of Western Iowa, Its Settlement and Growth", 1882, submitted by Cathy Danielson]

Benjamin P. Birdsall
Birdsall, Benjamin P., a Representative from Iowa; born in Weyauwega, Waupaca County, Wis., October 26, 1858; attended the common schools of Iowa and the Iowa state university, Iowa City; studied law and admitted to practice in March, 1878; served as district judge of eleventh judicial district of Iowa from January, 1893, until October, 1900; elected to the Fifty-eighth, Fifty-ninth, and Sixtieth Congresses (March.4, 1903-March 3, 1909); resumed the practice of law in Clarion, Iowa.
[Source: "A Biographical congressional directory From the 1st ( 1774) to the 62nd (1911) Congress"; By United States Congress; Publ. 1918; Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack]

William W. Carr has held the office of clerk of Oneida county since his first election to that position in January, 1900, having been several times re-elected on the Republican ticket. A resident of Rhinelander since the spring of 1886, he is one of the best known men in the county, and has acquitted himself most creditably in the matter of his public service, as well as along other lines. Before coming to Rhinelander, he was connected for some time with the office of Register of Deeds at Waupaca, and when he came here it was to enter the employ of F. L. Shepherd, dealer in real estate. He was thus employed until the county was organized in 1887. At that time U. L. Beers was chosen to fill the first berth as county clerk, and Mr. Carr became his deputy during that term. In the spring of 1889 he was elected to the office of town clerk for the town of Pelican, the entire county being then covered by the town of Pelican, and he continued in his service as clerk until 1892, when the city of Rhinelander was organized, and he was elected city clerk. He continued to administer the affairs of the city in his capacity as clerk until his election to his present post as clerk of the county, when he resigned the city position.

Born in Waupaca county, Wisconsin, William W. Carr is the son of William D. and Mary (Pace) Carr. His natal day is December 19, 1859, and the place of his birth was New London. His father was a merchant who came to Wisconsin in 1854, and spent practically the remainder of his life in New London. He came from Corning, New York, where he was reared and where he met and married his wife.

William Carr was reared in New London and there he attended the public schools, learning the jeweler's trade there, and working at the business until he' entered the office of the register of deeds as his , assistant, at Waupaca. His advent into Rhinelander duly followed, as has been noted above, and the facts of his subsequent career have also been outlined with more or less brevity. It will suffice to say here that Mr. Carr has brought a high order of service to bear in his administration of the affairs of the county in his official capacity, and he has demonstrated his possession of all those qualities that make for successful public service.

In 1889 Mr. Carr was married to Mable Ringley, of Rhinelander, and six children have been born to them, as follows: Hazel, wife of Professor Ellis N. Calef, engaged in educational work in Alma Center, Wisconsin; William D.; Lynne; Lucille; Ivey and Virginia.

Mr. Carr is a member of the Sons of Veterans, his father having served in the Third Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry as a member of Company I during the Civil war, and being a member of the G. A. R. for many years. [Source: "Wisconsin: Its Story and Biography, 1848-1913, Volume 8", By Ellis Baker Usher - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends For Free Genealogy]

Philo Darling
Philo Darling, who is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, on section 35 in the town of Rose, Waushara County, is a native of Lower Canada. He was born on the 10th day of June, 1833, and is the eldest in a family of eleven children, ten of whom grew to mature years, while seven of that number are yet living. His parents were John and Marilda (Gaylor) Darling. The father was a native of Vermont, but when a young man went to Canada, where he became acquainted with and married Miss Gaylor. They afterward made their home in the Green Mountain State, and in 1854 became residents of Waupaca County. Wis., where Mr. Darling entered a claim and developed a farm upon which he resided until 1873, when he was called to his final home. His wife still survives him at this writing, in 1890. Their children yet living are- Philo, of this sketch; Hannah, wife of William Gibson, of Lawrence, Mass.; Lorinda, wife of Henry Darling, of Canada; Susie, wife of Henry Edwards, of Dakota; Melissa, wife of James M. Darling, of Waldo, Wis.; George, of Crystal Lake, Wis.; Lucretia, wife of Charles Herbert, of Waupaca; and Luman, of Wautoma.
The early life of our subject was passed in the usual manner of farmer lads, he assisting his father in the cultivation of the land and attending the common schools of Waterhury. Vt. On attaining t his majority he left the parental roof and started out in life for himself. He determined to try his fortune in the West, and bidding good-bye to his old home started for Wisconsin. On reaching Waupaca County he made a claim of ninety-five acres of land hitherto uncultivated, but after a year sold out and engaged in lumbering during the succeeding seven years. About the expiration of that time he was united in marriage with Miss Martha Jeffers, who was born in the town of Rose, Wayne Co., N. Y., in 1843, and with her father, .lames W. Jeffers, one of the honored pioneers of Wisconsin, came to the West. About two years after his marriage, Mr. Darling purchased fifty-seven acres of land in the town of Spring Water, Waushara County, and from the wild land developed a fine farm.
In February, 1861, our subject enlisted for the war as a member of Company B, 35th Wisconsin Infantry, and with his regiment participated in the siege at Spanish Fort, and other important engagements. During the entire service the regiment was engaged in active duty, and marched 8.050 miles. At length they were discharged at Madison, in February, 1866, after two years spent upon the Southern battlefields, when Mr. Darling returned to his home in the town of Spring Water and the young bride whom he had left to battle for his country. The same year he sold his farm in the town of Spring Water, and removed to the town of Wautoma, but in 1869 he purchased his present farm, where he has since made his home. He raises a good grade of stock, and 105 acres of highly cultivated land pay tribute to the care and labor which he bestows upon it. The farm comprises a quarter-section of land, but the remainder has not been improved. In his business transactions he has been quite successful, and has become one of the prosperous farmers of the community. When be first came to Wisconsin he used a breaking-plow, drawn by four or six yoke of oxen, but now has the latest improved machinery and everything necessary to a model farm of the nineteenth century, He entertains progressive as well as practical ideas, and has therefore made his business a prosperous one.
Into Mr. and Mrs. Darling have been born seven children: William, who married Miss Lizzie Davis, is engaged in farming in the town of Spring Water; Henry, Etta, Frank, Cora, Philo and Gordon are still with their parents. The family circle remains unbroken, although the eldest has left the parental roof.
Mr. Darling has filled various offices of honor and trust in his township, and in polities is an ardent supporter of the Republican party. Socially he is a member of Ed. Saxe Post, No. 135, G. A. R., and his wife belongs to the W. R. C., an auxiliary of the post. He has ever taken an active part in all that pertains to the up-building of town and county, and as the result of his industry has gained for himself and family one of the most comfortable homes in the town of Rose.
[Source: "Portrait and biographical album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara counties, Wisconsin", 1890, submitted by Cathy Danielson]

Harry P. Keith is one of the industrial upbuilders of Crandon, a man who, as vice president of one of the leading lumber concerns of the city, has proven himself eminently efficient both as an executive and an organizer. A college man, educated for a professional career, he has preferred to devote his activities to the keen competition of the lumber trade, and although he has been in business but ten years has during this time achieved results that would have satisfied most men after a quarter of a century of industrious and well-applied effort. Mr. Keith was born in the city of New London, Waupaca county, Wisconsin. November 20, 1882, and is a son of M. D. Keith, a sketch of whose career will be found on another page of this work.

Reared in his native city, Harry P. Keith attended the public schools and high school there, following which he became a student in the Hill school, at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a preparatory institution. Upon leaving that academy he enrolled as a pupil in the law department of the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, and after his graduation was admitted to the bar in 1903. Mr. Keith's inclinations, however, did not ran to the law and instead he associated himself with the Page & Landeck Lumber Company, of Crandon, in which he became a stockholder, and for some years spent a good deal of his time with the company 's cruisers in the woods, looking after the thousands of acres of timber lands which this concern owned. Subsequently, he, with his father, organized the Keith & Hiler Lumber Company, of Crandon, of which he has since been actively associated. He is also secretary and a director of the Page Mercantile Company of Crandon, has numerous other interests of a business and financial nature, and is considered one of the most progressive and energetic business men of the younger generation in Forest county.

On October 29, 1907, Mr. Keith was united in marriage in Chicago, Illinois, with Miss Edith C. Brubaker, of that city, and to this union there have been born two sons: Marshall W. and Harold P. Mr. Keith has been interested in fraternal matters for some years, being a member of the college fraternity of Sigma Chi, while in Masonry he is a Knight Templar, member of this consistory and a Shriner. He is at all times ready to lend his support to any movement tending to advance his community, and at this time is serving as a member of the Crandon School Board.
[Source: "Wisconsin: Its Story and Biography, 1848-1913, Volume 8", By Ellis Baker Usher -
Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends For Free Genealogy]

Duncan McGregor
Few men of Wisconsin have given more capable and longer service in their respective fields than Duncan McGregor. His career has left a permanent record in the department of state education, but he has also been distinguished as a soldier and by influential participation in civic and social life.

Duncan McGregor was born in Perthshire, Scotland, August 12, 1836. The family have been identified with Wisconsin for more than half a century. He was the second of eight children, of whom five survive, born to Malcolm and Katherine (Kennedy) McGregor, both of whom were native of Perthshire. The father was born in 1812 and died in 1896; the mother passed away in 1850. Malcolm McGregor was a farmer and drover in Scotland, and after coming to America in 1856 located in Waupaca county, where he bought a farm. Later he moved to Portage county, where he continued farming until his retirement, and he spent the quiet years of his old age in Hancock. Politically he was a Republican.

Mr. McGregor was reared in Scotland, where he was well educated by attendance at the Perth Academy and the University of Aberdeen. He was twenty years old when he arrived in Wisconsin. The winter of 1856-57 was spent in the northern Wisconsin pineries, and during the next summer he was a rafts man on the Wisconsin river. From this experience in the roughest and hardest work of the old lumber days, he turned his attention to teaching, having the Leonard school at Parmington during the winters of 1858-59-60. In the meantime he also attended the Lawrence University at Appleton, receiving the degree of A. M., and later Litt. D. In 1861 he was appointed to the principal ship of the Waupaca high school, an office which he filled five years.

In 1864 he raised Company A for the Forty-second Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry, being elected captain of the company, and was in the service till the close of the war, when he was mustered out at Camp Randall, June 20, 1865. During part of the time he was on detached duty escorting troops and prisoners along the Mississippi and Ohio between Paducah and New Orleans.

The year following his military service Captain McGregor continued as principal of the Waupaca high school, and in 1867 entered upon his long and honorable connection with the Platteville Normal School. He held the chair of mathematics in that institution and was later advanced to the office of president, which he held until the 1st of July, 1904. During this long period he gained a state-wide reputation as an educator, and did much to make the Platteville Normal a power for educational progress in the state. Since resigning the executive management of the school Mr. McGregor has been a member of the board of normal school regents.

In November, 1904, he was elected a member of the state assembly and by re-election served two terms. Mr. McGregor is now serving as private secretary to Governor McGovern, having begun these duties in January, 1911. In fraternal affairs he has long been prominent. He is a past commander of the W. T. Sherman Post No. 66, G. A. R., at Platteville, and a member of the Wisconsin branch of the Loyal Legion. In Masonry he has been honored as high priest of the Wisconsin Grand Chapter two terms, and for six years was foreign correspondent of the Grand Lodge. He is a member of Melody Lodge No. 2, A. F. & A. M., at Platteville; past high priest of Washington Chapter, R. A. M.; and a member of Platteville Commandery, K. T.; has taken the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite; and is affiliated with the Wisconsin Consistory, R. & S. M., and with Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Milwaukee.

December 26, 1865, Mr. McGregor married Miss Annie Bowman, and their married life has been extended for more than forty-seven years. Mrs. McGregor was born in the city of London, a daughter of Richard H. Bowman. Her father was a native of England and her mother of Wales, and of their seven children Mrs. McGregor was the oldest. Her father, who was an expert in cabinet-making, came to America in 1857, locating first in Racine, and later engaged in farming in Waupaca county, where he spent his last years. He always voted the Republican ticket during his American citizenship.

Mr. and Mrs. McGregor became the parents of five children, all of whom were graduates of the Platteville Normal while their father was president. They are named as follows: Alice; Grace, the wife of John Caldwell, of Cass Lake, Minnesota; Elizabeth, who holds the degree of Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin; Jessica, now a teacher in the Platteville Normal; and Richard, who was drowned in 1907 at the age of twenty years. [Source: "Wisconsin: Its Story and Biography, 1848-1913, Volume 8", By Ellis Baker Usher - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends For Free Genealogy]

C. E. Nystrum, M. D.
Both in the character of his practice and the value of his service to the community, Dr. Nystrum is recognized as the leading physician and surgeon of Medford, where his home and professional work have been for over twenty years. Dr. Nystrum is a former president of the Taylor and Price counties medical societies, and his name and influence has been associated with many local affairs outside the immediate domain of his profession. Dr. Nystrum grew up in the lumber regions of Wisconsin, had limited opportunity for learning while a boy, and by hard work at teaching and in the lumber mills earned the money which paid his way through medical college. His has been a self made career in the best sense of that term, and his accomplishments and attainments are in the highest degree creditable.
Conrad E. Nystrum was born at Waupaca, Wisconsin, June 4, 1869. His parents John Peter and Marie (Nyquist) Nystrum natives of Sweden, where they were married, left the Old World and came to the new about 1866, their first permanent location being in the state of Wisconsin. The father had learned the tanning trade in the old country and endeavored to find openings in the same industry in Wisconsin, but the business was at that time only in its infancy in this state, and his initial attempt proved a failure. After a brief residence at Waupaca the family moved to Scandinavia in Waupaca county, where John P. Nystrum established a small tannery, which proved unprofitable. With that avenue closed to him, he became a foreman of a construction gang in the building of the old Wisconsin Central Railway between Milwaukee and Ashland. He was with the crew that drove the silver spike, the last spike which completed the road. It is said by many that the elder Nystrum personally wielded the hammer which drove this spike into the tie. Part of the time the Nystrum family had their home at Mellen, or as it was then called Penokee Gap. About 1979 John P. Nystrum moved his family to Medford. The lumber industry was then supreme in this vicinity and work in that line was plentiful. Some time later Mr. Nystrum again resumed his old trade, and established a tannery on the site now occupied by the Greesers Hardware Store in Medford. This was operated with more success than had been the case of the one at Scandanavia. but it was never developed as a large industry. Later the senior Nystrum bought a farm in Taylor county, where his last days were spent, and where his death occurred in 1906. His widow now eighty-seven years of age, still lives on the old homestead. Their children, seven in number are named as follows: Robert, Fred, John, deceased; Conrad E., Oscar, Emma and Ada.

The early boyhood of Dr. Nystrum was passed in the localities mentioned as the home of the family, and since ten years of age. he has lived in Taylor county. His advantages of learning were such as were offered by the district schools, and in his own words, "High schools in this part of the state were then conspicuous for their absence." His diligence at his studies, however, advanced him more rapidly than many other boys in the same circumstances, and at the age of fifteen he was qualified and given a certificate and taught school ten months. His next employment as an engineer in a lumber mill, enabled him to save a little money, and with his earnings he entered Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago. The following summer vacation and the others in succession were spent in work at the lumber mills, and in this way he paid his own way through college. Dr. Nystrum was graduated from Hahnemann Medical College with the class of 1892, and at once returned to Medford and established his office. At the present time he has a well equipped suite of offices, and has all his time taken up with looking after a large clientage. He has the honor of having been the first local surgeon to perform an operation for appendicitis in Taylor county. His assistant in this operation was Dr. T. M. Miller. Dr. Nystrum was one of the organizers of the Taylor and Price counties medical societies, and one of the first members honored with the office of president. He is also a member of the Wisconsin State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the National Association of United States Pension Examining Surgeons, and Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway Surgical Association, and belongs to several of the local chapters and lodges in various fraternal orders.

In April, 1894, Dr. Nystrum was united in marriage with Maria Connaughty, a native of Fond du Lac county. To their union have been born three children, named as follows: Martha, Raymond, and Lester. To the activity and influence of Dr. Nystrum have been due the undertaking and development of several local projects and movements directly benefiting the civic welfare of the community. It was he who promoted the Lake Esadore Summer Resort, eight miles west of Medford. Since the first movement in that direction a number of cottages have been erected about the lake, and many of Medford's best families spend their entire summer there, the men going back and forth in their automobiles. No history of Medford would be complete without mention of Lake Esadore, its attractive little suburb.

While never a seeker for political honors, Dr. Nystrum has always been a staunch Republican and was county physician for years, city health officer for six years and has served as chairman of the Republican county committee. He has been secretary of the U. S. Board of Pension Surgeons, Medford, Wis., for the last twenty years, and was appointed assistant sergeant-at-arms at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, in 1908, when William Howard Taft was nominated. The doctor has always been a lover of '' life in the open." He is ex-president of the Taylor County Rod and Gun Club, and has many stuffed and mounted specimens in his office as mementoes of pleasant vacation trips, and testifying to his marksmanship. The doctor well remembers the days of no roads, when it was customary and necessary for the physician to walk miles through the woods in order to reach his patients. [Source: "Wisconsin: Its Story and Biography, 1848-1913, Volume 8", By Ellis Baker Usher - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends For Free Genealogy]

Adelbert Monroe Penny
A large central section of Wisconsin has become famous the country over for its potato crop. Wisconsin potatoes now have no superior, and a large district, including Waupaca county, derives its chief agricultural prosperity from the growing of this staple vegetable food. Naturally many men have grown wealthy through their interest in potatoes, and among these producers the acknowledged "potato king" is Albert M. Penny, president of the wholesale potato house of A. M. Penny Company at Waupaca. For the past sixteen years Mr. Penny has also been prominent in the local affairs of Waupaca as postmaster, and is closely identified with the business and public life of his city and county. Mr. Penny has been a resident of Waupaca county since 1855, coming here when he was four years of age.

His parents were Asher and Harriet A. (Dewey) Penny, of old New York state families. His mother belonged to the same family which produced the great Spanish-American war hero, Admiral George Dewey. Asher Penny during his residence in New York state had a farm, but was chiefly engaged as a fisherman. He had miles of "gill nets," and derived a comfortable income from his fishing industry. In 1855, he set out for the west, coming by way of the great lakes, and with their household goods and tools brought a team and wagon as part of their freight on the boat. At Sheboygan, Wisconsin, they disembarked and thence started overland for Waupaca county. No roads at that time were cut through the forest and they had to follow along a blazed trail. However, the trip had many pleasant features, and it was by no means a disagreeable experience to camp out by the roadside under the June skies, while the woods and streams furnished abundance of game and fish for their table. On arriving in Waupaca county, the elder Penny rented a farm in the town of Parmington, and moved into a small cabin, covered with a roof of birch-bark and dirt. A trundle-bed was provided for the boy Adelbert, and his brother Ben. Among his boyhood memories he recalls how on rainy nights when the water leaked through the leaky roof his mother would frequently leave her own bed and come over and "tuck the boys in" securely. Within a year after settling in Waupaca county, Asher Penny bought a farm of eighty acres in the same town. From that time forward he continued to prosper and was long known as one of the successful men of his vicinity. Later he added another eighty acres, and at the time of his death possessed a farm of one hundred and sixty acres of very valuable land. He died on his farm at the age of about seventy-three years. His wife never recovered the shock of his demise, declined steadily and followed him to the grave a few years later. Asher and Harriet (Dewey) Penny were the parents of six children, two of whom died young. Those living are: Adelbert M., Benjamin F., Talfourd H. and Franklin L. All the sons became farmers and have been representative men of Waupaca county. Frank is now the possessor and occupant of the old home place.
Adelbert M. Penny, best known in his community by the title of "Dell," was born in Henderson township of Jefferson county, New' York, February 15, 1851, and was four years of age when the family emigration was accomplished to Wisconsin. His boyhood was spent on a farm much after the manner of other boys in those days, and he attended one of the old-time country schools of Waupaca county. He was liberally educated, completing his schooling at Ripon College, after which he returned home and found a vocation awaiting him on his father's farm. All his time and energies were devoted to farming up to 1880, when he started a development of his present extensive business as a potato shipper. From that time he has held a leading place among the potato dealers in this state and is now the oldest shipper in point of service in the great potato belt of Wisconsin.

In 1882 Mr. Penny moved to the county seat at Waupaca, and has since been actively identified with the welfare of the city in many ways. In 1904 was organized the A. M. Penny Company, wholesale dealers in potatoes, and it was incorporated with a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars. Mr. Penny is president of the company, while John F. Jardine is secretary. His interests extend to other branches of the potato industry, and he is connected with three potato starch factories, —the Union Starch Company of Waupaca, of which he is president; the Hancock Starch & Potato Company of Hancock, of which he is also president, and the Plainfield Starch and Potato Company at Plainfield, of which he is vice-president and John F. Jardine is president. Mr. Penny is the largest stockholder in the Waupaca and Green Bay Railroad Company, a line connecting Waupaca with Scandanavia. Mr. Penny was one of the original stockholders in this railroad, and has been its general manager since the organization.

During the McKinley administration, Mr. Penny was appointed postmaster at Waupaca, succeeding Henry Mumbrue, and has given a capable administration of the office ever since through several different reappointments. He has had charge of the office during the important extension of the rural free delivery service, and also had the distinction of being the postmaster at the time of the inauguration of the parcel post system. Mr. Penny has steadily given his support to Republican principles, but for several years has taken no active interest in politics.

Mr. Penny is a thorough lover of country life and especially of the great industry of farming. He still keeps up his part as a producer of crops, and enjoys the supervision of two adjoining farms, comprising three hundred acres, one mile and a half west of Waupaca in the town of Parmington.

He is what might be called a "home man," and although often urged to connect himself with fraternal clubs and organizations has always preferred the quiet happiness of his home circle.

On September 15, 1874, he was married to Mary Jane Fowlie, a daughter of James Fowlie, now deceased, who was one of the pioneers of Waupaca county. Mr. and Mrs. Penny are the parents of three daughters. The oldest is Miss Rose M. Eva Dell is the wife of Charles G. Sawyer, and the mother of one child, Margaret. Mr. Sawyer is associated with Mr. Penny in the potato business, as a member of the firm of A. M. Penny Company. Etta Belle, the youngest, is the wife of Barry E. Townsend, a prominent young coal operator in West Virginia. The Penny residence is a fine old home, a substantial brick dwelling standing in the midst of well kept grounds in Main street in Waupaca. [Source: "Wisconsin: Its Story and Biography, 1848-1913, Volume 8", By Ellis Baker Usher -
Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends For Free Genealogy]

S. T. Ritchie.
A resident of more than fifty years is one of the distinctions of Mr. Ritchie of New London, who is the present cashier and was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of that city. His career has been one of steady and quiet industry, of prosperity, and as a popular and public spirited citizen, he stands in the front rank in his home community.

Samuel T. Ritchie was born in Summit county, Ohio, May 11, 1848. His parents were John and Margaret (Ritchie) Ritchie, of the same name, but not kin. John Ritchie was a farmer by occupation and, like his wife, came to Ohio when quite young. In 1861 the family removed to Wisconsin, locating on a farm in Waupaca county, in Royalton township. There John Ritchie and wife spent the remainder of their days, his death occurring in 1873 when sixty years of age, while she lived to be eighty-one. The seven children in their family are named as follows: Catherine, who died young; Isabella, deceased; Samuel T.; Catherine; George, deceased; Martha; Margaret, deceased. All were born in Ohio, except the youngest, Margaret.

The first thirteen years of his life Samuel T. Ritchie spent in Ohio, where he attended the district schools. In 1861 he became a resident of Wisconsin, where he has ever since lived. He continued his education both in Waupaca and in New London, and for five winters taught in country schools, spending his summers at work on the homestead. During his younger years much of his interest was given to local politics. In 1878 the people honored him with election on the Republican ticket to the office of county clerk, and he was reelected in 1880, serving altogether two terms. On leaving the office of county clerk Mr. Ritchie entered the employ of Meiklejohn & Hatten, lumber dealers. He became bookkeeper in the offices of the firm at Manawa, and altogether thirteen years were spent with that firm, the last three being in the general offices at New London. In 1895 Mr. Ritchie assisted in the organization of the First National Bank of New London, having been very instrumental in getting together the capital and perfecting the organization. When the institution opened for business, Mr. Ritchie occupied the place of cashier, and has since then done more than any other individual to place the bank on a firm footing.

In December, 1879, Mr. Ritchie married Sarepta Lytle, a native of New York State, and a daughter of Sylvester B. and Melvina (Sheldon) Lytle. The one child born to their union is Herbert, now assistant cashier of the First National Bank of New London. Mr. Ritchie is a Republican in politics, and he and his family are members of the Congregational church. [Source: "Wisconsin: Its Story and Biography, 1848-1913, Volume 8", By Ellis Baker Usher - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends For Free Genealogy]

R. Swan
History of Northern Wisconsin Containing An Account Of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources; An Extensive Sketch of Its Counties, Cities, Towns and Villages Their Improvements, Industries, Manufactories; Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settler; Views of County Seats, Etc. ILLUSTRATED; Chicago: The Western Historical Company A. T. Andreas, Proprietor, (1881) - submitted by Diana Heser Morse

R. SWAN, of the firm of J. Towle & Co., manufacturers of tight barrel staves and shingles, Waupaca County. Mr. Swan was born in Renssellaer Co., N. Y. where he was reared and educated. At the age of twenty-three, he went to Buffalo, and engaged in the business of general cooperage, which he followed from 1851 to 1862. He then went to Cleveland and conducted the same business until the close of the war. In 1872, he engaged with the Standard Oil Company, of Cleveland, for whom he traveled for over eight years, engaged in the purchase and shipment of staves; during which time he engaged in the present business. The firm gives employment to ten men, and has a capacity of 1,000,000 staves annually.

Helen F. Thompson
Helen Thompson was born in Manawa. After a career as a teacher, she ran a hotel and was elected to the Park Falls School Board for more than a dozen years. Her civic involvement included a position as president of the Red Cross during World War I.

In 1924, Thompson was one of the first three women elected to the Wisconsin State Legislature in 1924 and was reelected in 1926. A Republican like most Wisconsinites, she represented Price County, a forested area south of Lake Superior. [source unknown, submitted by Marla Zwakman]

F.L. Zaug
Mr. F. L. Zaug was born in Waupaca county, in the town of Dupont, October 18, 1875, a son of Alouis and Augusta (Abel) Zaug. Both parents are now deceased. Alouis Zaug was born in Alsace, Germany, coming to the United States at the age of four years with his parents. Grandfather John Zaug was a farmer, and his property was located close to Milwaukee, being now within the limits of that city, and exceedingly valuable. On that farm near Milwaukee, Alouis Zaug grew to manhood and at the age of eighteen settled in Waupaca county. In 1863 he enlisted in the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, his service as a soldier continuing until the end of the war. Returning to Wisconsin he established a meat market at New London, later bought a farm, and there he and his wife spent their last days, the mother preceding the father in death. Their children were: Hattie, now Mrs. P. C. Rogers, of Marion, Wisconsin: Dora, wife of Joseph Bentz of Fond du Lac; Fred, of New London; Frank Louis; Wilbert, who lives on a farm near Marion; Theresa, wife of Harvey Myers of Marion; and Augusta, now Mrs. Steven Belille of Fond du Lac.

The birthplace of Frank Lewis Zaug was the old homestead near Marion, and his boyhood days were passed there, while he attended the country district schools and the Marion high school. It was while in high school that he became interested in telegraphy, and thus made choice of a practical and useful vocation while still learning the formal lessons of books. When he was fourteen years of age, he entered the employ of the Milwaukee and Lake Shore Railroad, now a branch of the Northwestern, as night agent and operator at Sheboygan. One month later he was transferred to Wakefield, Michigan, as day operator, and lived in that part of the country until 1891. His next employment was at Ishpeming, for the D. S. S. and A. Railroad. About the time of the World's Fair in Chicago he was made cashier for the Northwestern Railroad at Appleton, but remained only one year, after which for eight years, he was employed as agent, at Two Rivers, Port Washington, and at New London.

In 1901 Mr. Zaug turned his services in another direction. In that year he took a position with the Wisconsin Chair Company at Port Washington, becoming manager of the lumber and veneer department. The company later organized the Wisconsin Lumber & Veneer Company at Port Washington, a business which was incorporated in 1908, and Mr. Zaug became secretary and treasurer. In December, 1911, after the veneer plant and sawmill at Mound City, Illinois, had been destroyed by fire, the plant at Port Washington was moved to New London and merged with the Wolf River Company. This consolidation resulted in the building of large additions, and since the business has been carried on under its present title as the Wisconsin Seating Company. Mr. Zaug, under the reorganization, retained his position as secretary and treasurer.

As already stated, the Wisconsin Seating Company has the largest plant at New London, and the firm is well known all over the United States. Its product goes probably to every state in the Union. Its local facilities in the way of transportation are almost unexcelled, since it has switch tracks leading from its plant to all local railway lines and has ample water facilities. Modern machinery and appliances are found in every department. The process would be interesting if it could be told in detail, but it must suffice to state that the rough log is taken, steamed, run through the veneer machine, thence to the one-hundred foot dryer, and then the veneer is ready to be made into chair seats, desk tops, etc. The veneer is shipped either in a finished state or in the rough to all points. The company have a casting plant in which are manufactured all the steel legs for chairs, desks and other seats. The Wisconsin Seating Company have furnished opera chairs for some of the finest theatres in the United States, besides equipping throughout schools, churches, and other large auditoriums. On the payroll of the company are two hundred and seventy-five men and girls, and this is the largest industrial arm in any one plant in New London.

On December 10, 1901, Mr. Zaug married Mabel Dawson, a daughter of Joseph Dawson. The three children of their marriage are: Dawson, Harold, and Dorothea. The church membership of Mr. and Mrs. Zaug is with the Congregational and his fraternal affiliations are in the Blue Lodge of Masonry at New London, the Chapter, Council and Commandery at Milwaukee, and the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Port Washington. Mr. Zaug's success and advancement have been due to his individual efforts, and since he was fourteen years of age he has depended on no outside help. In late years in the management of the manufacturing concern, his previous railroad training, which taught him so strict a regard for detail, has proved very valuable.
[Source: "Wisconsin: Its Story and Biography, 1848-1913, Volume 8", By Ellis Baker Usher - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends For Free Genealogy]