BIOGRAPHIES: Jacob Reed COLLINS, Rice Lake, Barron County, WI ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor, or the legal representative of the contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Vic Gulickson 10 July 2002 ==================================================================== Jacob Reed Collins, farmer and business man, living at Rice Lake, was born in Skowhegan, Maine, March 28, 1853, son of Archibald and Nancy (Budd) Collins, who were natives of that state. There Mrs. Nancy Collins died in 1856, and in the following year Archibald Collins came west to Oshkosh, Wis., where he first worked at his trade as a carpenter, later went into the flour and feed business, and still later engaged in furnishing supplies for lumber camps. He died in 1883. The subject of this sketch started in for himself at the age of sixteen and worked as a cabin boy on the Mississippi River. Later he worked as a teamster in the pine woods, driving four horse teams. In 1876 he entered the employ of the Singer Sewing Machine Co. as agent, and in this employ he continued, in connection with other business, for thirty-eight years, in the meantime farming, acting as auctioneer, and dealing in real estate, stock and farm produce. When he first started farming he had a place in Brookfield Township, Milwaukee County, Wis. Later he had a farm in Fountain Prairie, Columbia County, Wis. In 1889 he came to Barron County, and purchased a farm in Cedar Lake Township. Later he bought another farm in the same township. He sold both farms in 1905. In 1907 he bought 30 acres in the city limits of Rice Lake, and a summer home at Long Lake, Washburn County. For several seasons he spent his summers at the lake and his winters in the city. In 1917 he bought a farm east of Rice Lake. In 1919 he sold the farm, and bought a comfortable home in Rice Lake, where he now lives. Mr. Collins was married Dec. 19, i873, at Pewaukee, Wis., to Mary A. Phillips, daughter of Ervin E. and Isabel L. (Leith) Phillips, natives respectively of New York State and Brookfield, Wis., the former of whom died in 1903 and the latter of whom lives in Milwaukee, Wis. Mr. and Mrs. Collins have six children: Fred E., Charles B., George J., Nancy B., Pearl I. and Lillian M. Fred E. was born June 18, 1875, at Wauwatosa, Wis. Charles B. was born Dec. 19, 1877, at Oshkosh, Wis., and now resides at Los Angeles, Calif. George J. was born at Oshkosh, Wis., July 12, 1880, was married at Rice Lake to Cora Lathrop and resides at Rice Lake. Nancy B. was born at Milwaukee, Wis., Jan. 26, 1882, and died in infancy. Pearl I. was born Nov. 22, 1883, in Wauwatosa, Wis., married George Olson and has five children: Archibald, Victor, Gladys, Orvetta and Alta. They reside in Stanley Township. Lillian M. was born at Wauwatosa, Wis., Sept. 14, 1885, married Peter Korbitz and has five children: Hazel, Arvella, Anneta, LeRoy and Lillian. They reside in Rice Lake. --Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co., 1922, pp. 265-266.