Biographies from The History of Columbia County,
Wisconsin, 1880 


Contributed by Carol carolann612@charter.net
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm


From The History of Columbia County, Wisconsin, 1880,
publ. by Western Historical Company, Chicago, Page
922-923

SYLVENUS RACE, son of William N. and Vienna RACE, was
born on the 28th of February 1814, in Berkshire Co.,
Mass.  He lived with his parents several years after
they removed to Lorain Co., Ohio; he came West in the
fall of 1836, and settled in Mineral Point, Wis.  He
was married May 6, 1841, to Miss Sarah VAN ORNUM, who
was born Nov. 12, 1823, in Chautauqua Co., N.Y.  He is
a carpenter and joiner, and has worked many years at
his trade.  While living in Mineral Point in 1840, he
went to New Orleans with five boat loads of copper
ore, as a speculative experiment.  After marriage he
took charge of a hotel for three years, and afterward
farmed for three years; he tried mercantile life three
years at Dodgeville.  In 1850, he settled in Portage,
and has been a continuous resident to date.  They have
had six children; two died in childhood; the living
are named George S., Earl, Frank A., and Abner H.; and
Harriet S. GREEN, who from early childhood has been as
a daughter, and is thoroughly identified with the
family.  The five are married and four have settled in
Portage, and one, Earl, is in Idaho Ter.  For nearly
twenty-five years, Mr. RACE worked at his trade in
Portage; his wife excels as a landlady; for several
years they have owned and kept a large boarding house
on the corner of Mack and Emmett Streets; they have an
average patronage of forty; sometimes sixty to seventy
per day take meals with them, and they have rooms to
accommodate fifty boarders.  While at Mineral Point he
was jailer and Under Sheriff; he is a Free-thinker; is
a kind, social man and good citizen.  Mrs. RACE's
father was a prominent Spiritualist, and she, from
childhood, has professed the same faith; she is a lady
of good executive ability, and the "Race House" is
well patronized.

Page 923

MRS. MARTHA S. REED (nee BROOKS)  was born Aug. 30,
1830, in township of Hancock, Vt.; she was married in
November 1855, to D. F. CHANDLER, of Vermont, and soon
afterward came West and located in Milwaukee.  He was
a passenger engineer on the C. M. & St. P. R.R.; he
was killed April 28, 1857, by his engine running off
the track at Beaver Dam; his injuries were internal,
and he died that day at the residence of the Hon.
Scott SLOAN, where he had been immediately taken.  He
was born Dec. 24, 1829, in West Randolph, Vt.; he left
one son, Wallace B., born November 1855; he is now
ticket agent and telegraph operator at Portage, for
the C. M. & ST. P. R.R.  Mrs. CHANDLER was married in
January 1863, to Theodore REED, who had been for
several years ticket agent and telegraph operator at
Portage, for the C. M. & ST. P. R.R., which position
he held until his death in 1873; his only surviving,
son, by a former marriage, Oliver T. REED, succeeded
him in that position, and held the same until his
death, in March, 1879; and he, in turn, is succeeded
by Mrs. REED's son, Wallace, the present incumbent of
the office.  Mr. REED left three children, all of whom
are living - Martha H., born in 1865; Angie E., in
1868; and Julia Maud, in 1872; the oldest is at
school, in Massachusetts; Mr. REED and his son, Oliver
T., were Masons; Mrs. REED's pleasant home is located
on the corner of Dunn and Emmett streets.

JOHN REID, son of Andrew and Janet REID, was born in
Paisley, Scotland, Feb. 24, 1835; came to Buffalo,
Marquette Co., Wis., with his parents, in 1850, where
his father died, in 1854, and where his mother still
resides.  Mr. REID came to Portage in 1865, and
engaged in the stock and produce business, which he
has since followed.  He was married in Buffalo,
Marquette Co., in December 1860,  to Margaret H. MUIR,
born in Dunbar, Scotland; they have five children -
Anna G., Jessie S., Henry D., Maggie May, and John J.;
a son died in infancy.  The firm of REID & FOSTER are
the heaviest dealers in wool in Wisconsin.

DR. RICHARD C. ROCKWOOD was born in Utica, N.Y., Nov.
23, 1814; came to Milwaukee in May 1836, but returned
to Utica in the fall.  In May 1837, he again landed at
Milwaukee, and soon after visited Madison, Mineral
Point, Blue Mounds and Dekorra, returning to the East
via Chicago, in September.  On the journey home, he
rode, for the first time, after a locomotive, from
Adrian, Mich., to Toledo, Ohio.  In April 1845, Dr.
ROCKWOOD returned to Spring Prairie, Walworth Co.,
where he entered land, in August 1837; one year later
he moved to Wyocena, Columbia Co., where he lived
until coming to Portage, in 1872; assisted in rolling
up the first log house at Oconomowoc.  He has been in
practice thirty-six years, being at first the only
physician between Wyocena and St. Paul, and also
engaged in farming.  Dr. ROCKWOOD was Justice of the
Peace, at Wyocnea, twelve years and has been Alderman,
Street Commissioner and Supervisor, at Portage.  He
married Mahala PACKARD, in Otsego Co., N.Y., who died
in 1860, leaving two children - Helen A. and Charles
S.  The Doctor married his present wife, Rosa CONLON,
a native of County Louth, Ireland, at Madison, in
September 1860; they have four children - Ernest S.,
Louis, Mellie A., and Edward.  The Doctor is Treasurer
of the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons; at Wyocena, he
kept the "Cottage Inn," from 1847 to 1859; was
President of the Columbia County Agricultural
Association in 1876.

J. H. ROGERS, District Attorney, was born in Oshawa,
Ontario, July 27, 1841; educated in Canada; graduated
from Victoria University in the spring of 1866;
entered Osgood Hall, August 1866; was articled to
attorneys as Oshawa, and afterward graduated from the
Law Department of Michigan University, at Ann Arbor,
in the spring of 1868, and came to Wisconsin
immediately afterward, locating at Poynette, residing
there one year and a half, practicing his profession;
he then went to the state of New York, where he spent
one year, returning to Wisconsin and locating in
Portage, in the spring of 1871, when he engaged in the
practice of law, which he has continued ever since;
has been District Attorney since 1874, having been
elected three times to this office.  Married at
Portage June 12, 1872, to Miss Viola J. PADLEY,
daughter of Abraham PADLEY, who located at Lodi, about
twenty years ago; she was born at York Mills, Oneida
Co., N.Y.; they have two children - Edith Ethelyn,
born Sept. 19, 1875; Selden Wallace, Sept. 1, 1877.
Mr. ROGERS was one of the charter members of the
A.O.U.W. of this city.

Submitted by Carol

[Transcriber's Note:  I wonder if Dr. Rockwood's
daughter's name is Nellie A., and not Mellie A.]