Horace J. Lord Biography - Grant County Wisconsin

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Submitted by David W. Taft, dtaft@cowtown.net

Commemorative Biographical Record of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa, and
Lafayette Counties, Wisconsin
J. H. Beers, 1901
Pages 813-4

HORACE J. LORD.  Among the remaining pioneers of Grant county, Wis., who has 
been one of the leading citizens of Bloomington for more than fifty years is 
Horace J. Lord, who came to this locality on May i6, 1846. Mr. Lord was born 
near Burlington, Chittenden Co., Vt., Dec. 15, 1822. His father, Austin Lord, 
and his mother, Mary Ann (Chapin) Lord, were natives of Connecticut, the mater-
nal grandmother having been born in Hartford and the original ancestry in 
Colonial times came from Great Britain. As an interesting bit of family history, 
the following incident may be related: At the battle of Lake Champlain, the 
mother of Mr. Lord, with another young lady, became frightened watchers of the 
great struggle and sought safety in the belfry of the church, where they saw the 
final victory.

Austin Lord and wife were married in Vermont and there their three children were 
born.  When Horace was nine years old the family removed to Chautauqua county, 
N. Y., and there the father purchased 150 acres of land on what was known as the 
Holland purchase, which he cleared up and made there a very pleasant home, which 
would probably have been a permanent one if he had not felt that his boys would 
need a larger patrimony. The great Northwest offered farms for all, and thither 
the family, consisting then of the parents, three sons and an adopted daughter, 
turned their faces.  The eldest son, Homer Lord, came first to Wisconsin, in 
1845, and in the fall of the same year, the youngest, Henry came also, in order 
that some preparation might be made for a family settlement.

In the spring of 1846 Horace J. Lord and his wife (whom he had but recently 
married), his parents, and his adopted sister started with teams, with the 
intention of driving all the way through to Wisconsin, but by the time they had 
reached Cleveland, Ohio, they had changed their minds, and shipped aboard the 
new steamer "Niagara," for Chicago.  This great city was then but a hamlet, and 
seemed to he located in a quagmire, the travelers regarding it as a very 
uninteresting place indeed.  The season was a very rainy one, and the country 
for miles back from Lake Michigan was under water, the roads being impassable, 
with any load. The family accordingly left their household goods and started out 
with their two teams containing nothing but the travelers and their wearing 
apparel, and safely reached the sans and brothers, who welcomed them warmly, and 
the first season was spent in Beetown.

In the summer of 1846, the father and his sons, Homer and Horace, located land 
in what is now the township of Bloomington, and, that becoming their permanent 
home, the family has been identified with this township for fifty-five years.  
The parents lived where they first settled until their death, the father passing 
away first, Oct. I5, 1849, and the devoted wife and mother on May 13, 1858.  
Austin Lord was a well known and highly esteemed citizen, and was a typical 
pioneer, honest and industrious.  In his early days he was a Whig and later a 
Republican.  In his religious views, he was very liberal and inclined to the 
Universalist belief, although he was a man who needed no creed to bind him, his 
upright life and Christian spirit being a constant example to the world of the 
exemplary life of a good man.  Homer Lord, the eldest son of the family, is now 
a resident of the State of Missouri, and the youngest son, Henry, owns and 
occupies the old homestead of his parents.

Horace J. Lord, our subject, was married on April 15, 1846, to Betsey D. Tyler, 
a daughter of Ebenezer Tyler, who was born in eastern New York May 26, 1786, and 
migrated to Chautauqua county, N. Y., in 1812, passing through Buffalo just 
after that city had been burned by the British.  Mr. Tyler located on the 
Holland purchase, where be died in 1827, leaving five children, three sons and 
two daughters, the eldest of the latter, Sarah B., marrying William Cilley (she 
came to Grant county, and died Aug. 17, 1866), and the youngest being Mrs. Lord.  
Mrs. Polly (Edmund) Tyler was born in eastern New Hampshire, June 29, 1797, 
married Ebenezer Tyler Oct. 30. 1812, and passed away on May 23. 1872, in 
Chautauqua county.  Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lord: Mary Ann, 
wife of John E. Connell, of the town of Bloomington; and Nora, wife of C. W. 
Stone, also of Bloomington.  The second child, a son, Milton, died at the age of 
two years.

Mr. Lord's first farm consisted of forty acres, and he gradually increased it as 
he became able, and eventually succeeded in the ownership of a fine home and 
farm of 120 acres.  In the summer of 1847 he cut and hauled the logs for his 
first house, in which he and his estimable wife lived for twenty-one busy, happy 
years, at the end of which period he built a more modern one.  With his wife, he 
remained on the farm until October, 1900, when, on account of advancing years, 
they removed to the beautiful home in the village of Bloomington where they 
reside in comfort, surrounded by friends.  As has been stated, but few of the 
pioneers now remain who came so early as did Mr. and Mrs. Lord.  They can 
remember nearly all of Grant countys pioneers, and recall the times when it was 
almost an entire wilderness, and most entertaining are their recollections of 
the various stages of growth and development, so wonderful and extending over so 
great a space of time.  In his early political life, Mr. Lord voted with tile 
Whigs, casting his first presidential ballot for Henry Clay in 1844.  Since the 
formation of the Republican party, he has been an ardent supporter of it, and 
has had considerable influence.  In their religions belief both Mr. and Mrs. 
Lord are Universalists.  Mrs. Lord is the only survivor of her father's family.  
She is highly esteemed in Bloomington, and there she has taken a prominent part 
in temperance work, and is now the president of the Bloomington branch of the W. 
C. T. U.