BIOGRAPHIES: George A. LaBREE, Stanfold Township, 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 7 November 2000 ==================================================================== George A. Labree, an energetic farmer of Section 33, Stanfold Township, was born at Red Lake Falls, Red Lake County, in northwestern Minnesota, Feb. 7, 1880, the son of Adolph and Emma (Severson) Labree, natives respectively, of Canada and Norway. The Labree family were the first to settle in the region north of Rice Lake, and have been prominent people here for over a half a century. The father went to Missouri as a young man, from there he went to northwestern Minnesota, and from there to Wisconsin, finding his way to Barron County by way of Menomonie, in Dunn County. For many years he farmed north of Rice Lake. Later he was a well-known business man of Rice Lake, dealing in farm implements and real estate. The subject of this sketch came to Barron County with the family in 1889. He attended district school for a while, and was not yet in his 'teens when he started out for himself, working in the woods, in lumber yards and in sawmills. In 1897, at the age of seventeen, he entered the government service, as a lumber cruiser, or, packer, attached to a surveying crew. In this capacity he had many interesting experiences in the States, in Alaska and in the Philippines. Among those in Alaska, on one occasion while making a boat journey, the boat was frozen in and he and his companions had to walk over the ice for miles to Alaska Junction. From that point he carried a box of crackers weighing 21 pounds 208 miles to the Klondyke, eating jerked meat on the way, as the crackers were for others. A loaf of bread was then worth $1.60. In the States, as a lumber cruiser, he packed on broncos, dogs, and on his back, provisions for the various lumber camps in the western mountain section. He worked in the woods until he was married and since than has rented farms for the past eighteen years. He is now renting a good farm in Section 33, Stanfold Township, where he is successfully carrying on general farming and dairying. He has a good herd of cattle, headed by a pure-blooded Holstein sire. A man of wide reading, he believes in progressive and scientific methods, and has faith in the future of Barron County. He has got a good start and is already well along the road to success. In religion he is a Catholic. Mr. Labree was married in Stanfold Township, June 16, 1903, to Alice Demars, born in Cedar Lake Township, July 11, 1881, the daughter of Peter and Celner (Robarge) Demars, natives of Canada, who were pioneers in that township. She is descended on both sides of her house from people, who, like the Labrees, were among the first settlers north of Rice Lake, and who have been leaders in the affairs of this vicinity for some half a century. Mr. and Mrs. Labree are the parents of five children: Selima R. was born June 7, 1905; Zella M. was born Aug. 27, 1907; Nola L. was born March 22, 1910; Adolph C. was born April 3, 1901; and Violet A. was born July 9, 1917. --Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co., 1922, pg. 175.