Biographical Sketches of Whitehall Residents

-As transcribed from pages 1040 - 1042

ANDERSEN, Mathias CAMP, Daniel L. CRANE, Charles C. DAVIS, William H. EARLE, Theodore H. ERVIN, James HAGESTAD, Daniel K. INGALLS, Moses D. & F. W. MILLER, Samuel S. McCANN, George

OLDS, George H. QUACKENBUSH, George SCOTT, Christopher E. TOLVSTAD, Nels L. WARNER, Edwin H. WATSON, David S. WEBSTER, Eugene D. WHITELEY, Lyman H. WRIGHT, Joseph

MATHIAS ANDERSEN, of the firm of Anderson & Larsons, dealers in wines, liquors, etc.; came to America in 1872, having been born in Norway in 1843. He first worked at shoe making in the town of Trempealeau, and from there went to Lake City, Minn., where he remained for two years. In May, 1881, he came to Whitehall and started in his present business. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., Trempealeau Valley Lodge, No. 249.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1040

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DANIEL L. CAMP, dealer in dry goods, groceries and drugs; was born in Waukesha Co., Wis., Feb. 28, 1841. He first started in the mercantile business in that county in 1860, where he continued until 1867, when he engaged in the employ of Ellmore & Kelly, as traveling agent for their commission house. In 1874 he came to Whitehall and remained in their employ for one year as grain buyer and station agent. In 1875 he started in his present business. He does a business of $20,000 per annum. He was also editor and manager of the Trempealeau County Messenger and Whitehall Times until January 1881, and was local editor of the Fort Howard Monitor during the year 1874; is a charter member of the Trempealeau Valley Lodge, No. 249, I. O. O. F. When he first came to Whitehall there was not a building here outside of the railroad buildings and two warehouses.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1040

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CHARLES C. CRANE, farmer, Post-office Whitehall; was born in New York City, July 29, 1819. Left there in 1854 and came to Wisconsin, first going to Johnstown, Rock Co., where he worked at his trade, which was that of carpentering and building, until May 1856, at which time he removed to Trempealeau, and there remained until 1862. He worked on the first saw-mill which was built in the Village of Trempealeau; also built the first church there, in 1851, for the Congregational Society; he well remembers the big snow in the winter of 1856 and '57, when it was nearly three months that the roads were impassable between Trempealeau and Galesville. In 1862 he moved on to his farm, consisting of 120 acres, which he had entered in 1855, and where he still lives. In 1857 he saw a drove of nineteen elk on his place, this being the most of them that he ever saw together at one time. But other game was very plenty at that time, such as deer and prairie chickens, and fish were to be had in abundance from the river which runs through his farm. This stream used to be headquarters for some Indian tribe, and many relics have been found, such as arrow-heads, smoothing stones, etc. Mr. Crane was married in 1843, by Rev. Robert Street, to Miss Hannah Wade, who was born in Elizabethtown, N. J., in 1823. Their family consists of six children - Julia A., now Mrs. Currier, of Minnesota; Anna M., now Mrs. Breed, of Whitehall; Sarah R., William A. E., Lillian J. and Charles E. W. He has held various offices in his town and county, having been County Coroner three terms; a member of the Town Board of Lincoln, and School Clerk for seventeen years; Justice of the Peace seven terms, and Assessor for three terms, which office he still holds. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and was a charter member of the first lodge in the county.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1040

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WILLIAM H. DAVIS, miller; was born in Ontario, Canada West, Nov. 17, 1854; came to Wisconsin in 1872 and went to Galesville, Trempealeau Co. and commenced clerking for W. Davis & Co., and in October, 1878, left there and came to Whitehall, where he has been engaged ever since as miller. The Whitehall Flouring Mills have a run of five buhrs, and a capacity for making eighty barrels of flour per day. Mr. Davis is a member of the A., F. & A. M., Decorah Lodge, No. 177, at Galesville, also of the I. O. O. F. at the same place.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," pages 1040 - 1041

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THEODORE H. EARLE, dealer in agricultural implements and farmer; was born in Ohio, April 18, 1836; came to Appleton, Wis., in 1856, where he went to school, graduating from Lawrence University in 1861; he then went to New London, where he commenced teaching, at which he continued until 1863, when he was married to Miss M. L. Ketchum, who is a daughter of Henry Ketchum, President of the Green Bay & Minnesota R. R. for nine years. Mr. Earle began farming in the town of New London, at which he continued five years, when he was appointed General Purchasing Agent for the construction of the Green Bay Railroad. In 1873 he came to Whitehall, Trempealeau Co., where he erected the first dwelling house in the village, being engaged for the first three years of his residence there with Henry Ketchum, as superintendent of his lumber business, on the line of railroad from Merrillan to Marshland. In 1876 he engaged with C. N. Paine & Co., and has had charge of their business in Whitehall ever since; said business having averaged since 1873 $20,000 per annum. Mr. Earle also owns an interest in the Whitehall Flouring Mills, and was Chairman of the Town Board of Lincoln for four years, having always taken an active part in all public enterprise of his town and county.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1041

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JAMES ERVIN, retired farmer, was born Jan. 14, 1810, in New Jersey; left his native State in 1852 and came to Wisconsin, where he settled in Walworth Co., town of Richmond; remained there until 1858, at which time he sold his farm and moved to Trempealeau Co., town of Lincoln, then called Preston, where he bought 160 acres of land and commenced farming. At that time the Indians were very plenty in Trempealeau Co., and were very friendly to Mr. and Mrs. Ervin, who used to do a good deal of trading in the way of flour, pork, vegetables, etc. Their grain markets were Sparta, La Crosse and Trempealeau, and they sometimes hauled a load of grain to the pineries and exchanged it for lumber. Mr. Ervin was married to his first wife, Miss Elizabeth Crane, Jan. 21, 1833. She died in 1850, leaving three children - Emma L. (now Mrs. S. J. Beebe), Augusta E. (now Mrs. John Kinnie) and Isabella G. (now Mrs. L. D. Parsons). They also lost three children - Margaret H., died July 20, 1864; Annie E., died June 5, 1865, and Martha, who was Mrs. L. D. McNett when she died. He was married to his second wife, Mary E. Crane, a native of Elizabeth, N. J. She was born Oct. 21, 1816.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1041

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DANIEL K. HAGESTAD, carpenter and contractor; was born in Norway, June 23, 1852; he came to America with his parents in 1854, and first settled in Columbia Co., Wis., where they remained for six years, and then removed to Beaver Creek Valley, Trempealeau Co., where his father pre-empted a claim from the government, on which the subject of this sketch lived until 1879, when he came to Whitehall and was elected to the office of County Sheriff for the years 1879 and '80. He is at present Deputy Sheriff under N. L. Tolvstad. Mr. Hagestad built a saw-mill on Hardie's Creek in Trempealeau Co. during the spring of 1881, which was destroyed by fire about the time it was completed. He was married in May, 1878, to Miss Maggie Hagestad, who is also a native of Norway. She was born March 14, 1860. They have one son - Carrol N. They are members of the Lutheran Church. While Mr. Hagestad was engaged in a saw-mill on Black River, at the mouth of Hardie's Creek, there was a ball found in a log, while sawing it, which was supposed to have been there fifty-four years.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1041

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MOSES D. INGALLS AND F. W. INGALLS, farmers, Sec. 28, P. O. Whitehall. The former was born in Vermont Jan. 4, 1825. They came to Wisconsin in the fall of 1853, first living in Rock Co., and in the summer of 1855 came to Trempealeau Co., where they entered a farm of 220 acres, and in 1856 began to improve it, they being among the first settlers in the town of Lincoln. Before the Green Bay & Minnesota Railroad came through the village of Whitehall they used to market their grain in Trempealeau, La Crosse and Sparta. Moses D. was the first Chairman of the Town Board of Lincoln, and has been Town Clerk and Justice of the Peace.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1041

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GEORGE McCANN, section boss of Sec. 29 of the Green Bay & Minnesota Railroad at Whitehall, was born in England Dec. 5, 1849; left there in 1870, and went to Canada with his brother, where he remained one year working at constructing railroads, and then came to the United States, where the engaged with the Green Bay Railroad Company, and has been with them ever since. Mr. McCann is a member of the I. O. O. F., Trempealeau Valley Lodge, No. 249, and was married in 1875, to Miss Millie Tuttle of Dexterville, Wood Co., Wis., who was born March 17, 1855. They have three children - Mary E., Annie M. and George H. Mr. McCann was in the British Navy for eight years, sailing, in 1862, around the Cape of Good Hope, and from there to the East Indies; then back to Portsmouth, then back around the Cape of Good Hope to Hong Kong, China; then to the East Indies; then to Ceylon, and was engaged in the Abyssinian war.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1041

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SAMUEL S. MILLER, of the firm of Miller & Atwood, lawyers at Whitehall, was born in Utica, Dane Co., Wis., July 17, 1850. He received a common-school education and commenced teaching to get means to attend the Albion Academy, where he graduated in 1870. He then went to Iowa, where he engaged in the drug business, and from there to Grand Rapids, Wis., where he still continued to act as drug clerk; but his health failing at this time, he was obliged to leave his position, and in 1872 he entered the law class of the Madison University, where he graduated in 1873, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court. In October, 1873, he went to Eau Claire, where he entered the law office of Neggett & Trull, remaining there until 1877, when he removed to Whitehall, where he has since practiced his profession. He was elected District Attorney of Trempealeau Co. in the fall of 1880, and still holds that office.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1041

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GEORGE H. OLDS, Postmaster, Whitehall, was born in Chenango Co., N. Y., Jan. 8, 1834; is the son of William Olds, who was born in the town of Hillsdale, N. Y., March 1, 1799, and came with his family to Wisconsin in 1853, and settled on a farm in Trempealeau County, of which he bought the first 40 acres from William Cran, afterward buying some from the Government, and kept on adding to it until he has in all 520 acres. William had another son, James D., who came to Wisconsin two years previous to 1853 and located at Chippewa Falls, but came to Trempealeau County to join his father after his arrival here. In 1857, the subject of this sketch went in company with his brother, James D., to Caledonia, when they commenced in the mercantile business and farming. Here he remained until 1863, with the exception of a part of the year 1861, when he was in the war, and then moved on Pigeon Creek, and in the spring of 1874, came to Whitehall, where he was appointed to the position of Postmaster, holding that office ever since. Mr. Olds bought the first house sold in the village of Whitehall and served the first papers as Deputy Sheriff, issued in the Trempealeau County Court in 1854, by Judge Gale.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1041

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GEORGE QUACKENBUSH, farmer, Sec. 26, P. O. Whitehall, was born in Washington Co., N. Y., May 4, 1830. Came with his parents to Wisconsin in 1842, where they commenced farming in Waukesha County. They remained there until 1855, at which time they moved to Black River Falls. Here he engaged in the lumber business in a mill owned by J. B. Mills. In 1862, he enlisted in Co. C, 19th W. V. I. and served one year, when he was discharged on account of sickness and returned home Jan. 9, 1863. He re enlisted in Co. D, 25th W. V. I. and served two years more, when he returned home and worked at lumbering for three years at Pine Hill. He then came to Trempealeau County, where he bought a farm in the town of Hale. He remained here four years and then came to Whitehall. He now owns 160 acres of good farm land in sight of the village of Whitehall. He is a member of Trempealeau Valley Lodge, No. 249, I. O. O. F.; was married July 4, 1863, to Miss Josephine Boyce, who is a native of Dutchess Co., N. Y. She was born Aug. 17, 1845. They have four children, Emma, Charles, Luther H. and Ester.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," pages 1041 - 1042

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CHRISTOPHER E. SCOTT, general merchandise, was born in Jefferson Co., N Y., July 10, 1831; left his native State in 1851 and came to Dane Co., Wis., where he worked on a farm. Then returned to New York, remaining there two years, after which he came West again, going to Jackson Co., Iowa.; he then went back to New York and enlisted in Co. D, 10th N. Y. Artillery and served until the close of the war, being in all of the principal battles of the Potomac. In 1866, he came to Wisconsin and located at Whitehall, Trempealeau County, which has since been his home, he taking an active part in all public enterprises. Mr. Scott was married in 1854, in Michigan, to Miss Mary C. Miller, who was born in Illinois in 1834. Their family consists of four children, Walter, Fred, George S. and Harry.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1042

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NELS L. TOLVSTAD, County Sheriff of Trempealeau County; P. O. Whitehall; was born in Norway, March 25, 1850; came to America with his parents in 1861, first going to Dodge County, where he lived on a farm with them until 1864, when they moved to the town of Ettrick, Trempealeau County, and bought a farm of 120 acres. The subject of this sketch received a common school education and attended the Galesville University for two terms; held the office of Town Clerk, in the town of Ettrick, during the years 1873-74, and was chairman of Townboard for the year 1879, being elected County Sheriff in 1880; is a member of the Lutheran Church and was married in 1874 to Miss Antoinette Larson, she being born in Norway. They have three children - Ludvic, Martha and an infant daughter.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1042

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EDWIN H. WARNER, dealer in hardware and stoves; was born in Madison, Wis., in 1853, being a son of H. M. Warner, surveyor of Dane Co. and Commissioner of the Poor. Here he lived with his parents until he came to Whitehall; his was the first hardware store in the town, and was established in 1874; he does an annual business of $10,000; he is a member of the I. O. O. F., Trempealeau Valley Lodge, No. 249, and was elected to a membership of the Town Board of Whitehall in 1881; he was married to Sarah J. Rogerson in 1875. She was born in Dane Co. in 1858; they have one daughter - Edith.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1042

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DAVID S. WATSON, farmer, Sec. 24, town of Hale, P. O. Whitehall; was born in Perrysburg, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. Left there at the age of twenty-one years and came West with his parents, settling in Genesee, Waukesha Co., Wis., in 1842. He there worked at carpentering until 1861, with the exception of two years that he was in California mining. He held the office of Assessor in Waukesha Co., and was Town Clerk, Justice of the Peace and School Commissioner under the old Territorial laws. Mr. Watson moved to Trempealeau Co. on his farm, which he had entered previous to his moving there. He has held various offices in the town of Hale, having been Justice of the Peace, Clerk and Chairman of Town Board eight years, and Chairman of County Board two years; he is a member of A., F. & A. M., also of the I O. O. F., Trempealeau Valley Lodge, No. 249.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1042

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EUGENE D. WEBSTER, livery and sale stable; was born in Green Co., Wis., June 12, 1846; he came to Whitehall in 1875 and engaged in his present business; he also has a farm of 177 acres, in connection with his stables; he has been Constable in Whitehall two years and is a member of the I. O. O. F., Trempealeau Valley Lodge, No. 249; he was married July 1, 1877, to Miss Mary A. Rogerson, who is a native of Wisconsin. They have one son - Albertie.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1042

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LYMAN H. WHITELEY, proprietor of the American House, and furniture dealer; was born Dec. 12, 1840, in Des Moines Co., Iowa; came to Wisconsin with his parents in 1850, and settled at Burlington, Racine Co., and was there engaged with his father in teaming to Milwaukee, which he followed for one year, when he went to Emmet Co., Mich., where he engaged at lake fishing. At this he continued four years, and in 1856 moved to Black River Falls, Wis., his father having died the year previous; he here commenced in the lumbering business and in 1873 went to Corral City, and started a general merchandise store. In 1874 he removed to Whitehall and opened a furniture store. He has held the office of Justice of the Peace for six years in Whitehall, and has been Town Clerk ever since he came here, with the exception of one year; he is a member of the Northwestern Benefit Association. He was married Jan. 1, 1861, to Miss Zilpha Wright, daughter of B. G. Wright, of Wrightsville; she was born in Grant Co., Wis., August 4, 1842. Their family consists of four children - Cora E., Phebe E., Fredrick W. and Winnifred.

-Transcribed from the "History of Northern Wisconsin, 1881," page 1042

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JOSEPH WRIGHT, farmer, Sec. 20, town of Pigeon, P. O. Whitehall; was born in the eastern part of Canada, Sept. 18, 1830, and in 1868 came to Wisconsin, locating in Trempealeau Co., town of Pigeon, then Lincoln. He owns 160 acres of land, which was a claim that he purchased from Orisan Lamberson and afterward pre-empted it as a homestead, living there ever since. Was side Supervisor of the town of Pigeon for 1880 and re-elected in 1881; has been School Clerk of Joint District No. 1, in towns Pigeon and Lincoln for thirty-nine years. Mr. Wright was married in 1855 to Miss Anna Douglas, she being also a native of Canada. They have six children - Margaret E., Mary R., Thomas W., Agnes I., Lettia J. and James W.