Vernon County Pioneers

William Haverley

Born August 26, 1839 (birthplace believed to be Schenectady, New York). Believed to be of German ancestory; (According to Lorraine Haverley Amann paternal ancestry Pennsylvania Dutch.) William learned the trade of broom making while living in New York. He left New York about 1856 around the age of 17 and went to Illinois.
Married Emily Jannette Bromley, born December 25, 1844 in Arlington Heights, Cook County, Illinois (called “Young Chicago”). They were married March 1, 1859 in West Wheeling, Cook County, Illinois. They operated a grocery store and William was Postmaster of Red Mound, Vernon County, Wisconsin. Six children: Gilbert born and died July 22, 1860, William R., Ann F., Frances E., John M. and Edward L.

William R. Haverley is a thrifty farmer of the town of Wheatland. He was born July 22, 1861 in Chicago, IL., a son of William and Emily (Bromley) Haverley, the former a native of Schenectady, NY and the latter of Cook County, IL. The father was a broom maker who came to Chicago when but seventeen years of age. It was there that his marriage was solemnized. In 1862 he brought his family to this county, obtaining 150 acres of land in Section 32 of the town of Wheatland.

The property was all timber land, but Mr. Haverley cleared a space and built a log cabin and after he had gotten a good start in clearing he returned to making brooms. This trade he followed for the rest of his life. His death occurred on May 27, 1901 (note: he died May 25/26, 1899), and that of his wife on December 24 (25, 1898). Their four children were William R., the subject of this memoir; Annie, now Mrs. Clarence Bean of Wood County, WI.; Frances is married to George Angell of Victory, WI.; and John was drowned on March 31, 1894. William R. Haverley received only a limited scholastic training in the common schools of the town of Wheatland. He lived at home until he reached his majority and then took an extended trip through the south and west.

After a two years’ residence in Charles City, IA, he returned in 1888 to this county and purchased 122 acres of land in Section 31 of the town of Wheatland, part of which was improved. He remodeled and rebuilt the dwelling which is now his home (1907) and from time to time, as he has added to the size of the farm, he has also added to the improvements. There are in all 364 acres in the place, 215 of which are under plow. Most of the cultivated land is given over to the culture of tobacco and grains, beside which numbers of fine horses and cattle are reaised. In November, 1888, Mr. Haverley married Miss Eliza M. Foster, a daughter of John and Agnes Ann (Watson) Foster, the latter a native of County Cumberland, England. Mr. and Mrs. Foster came to America in 1859 and located in Belleville, NJ, and
remained there until 1868. In that year they came to Genoa, in this county, and for twenty years had their residence there.

They now live in the town of Wheatland. The children in the Foster family are Eliza Matilda, John Henry, Thomas Edwin, Clara and Cora May. To Mr. and Mrs. Haverley have been born five children--Harry Leslie, Audrey E., Vera Agnes, Lasca Lorine (Lorraine) and Morris (Maurice) (and Margaret). Mr.
Haverley is well and favorably known throughout the county, and has been active in its politics. For twenty years he has been a member of the school board and for the past six years has been a member of the town board, having been elected as the Republican candidate. He has worked hard and conscientiously and has won the good will and respect of his neighbors.”

William R. died July 29, 1949 in Retreat, Town of Sterling, Wisconsin; Eliza died June 17, 1946. They are buried at Walnut Mound Cemetery; Wheatland Township, Town of Sterling, Wisconsin. There is a large tombstone with “Emily J. wife of Wm. Haverley. Born Dec 25, 1844 Died Dec 29, 1898” on one side. The second side reads: “William Haverley Born Aug 26, 1839 Died May 25, 1899”. The third side reads: “John M. Haverley Born Sept 13, 1874 Died Mar 31, 1895. Directly next to this tombstone is a small headstone: “In Loving Memory Edward L. Haverley 1879-1938”. Next is: “In Loving Memory Father William R. Haverley 1861-1949”. Next is: “In Loving Memory Mother Eliza M. Haverley 1868-1946. Next is Eliza and William’s son, Maurice: “Maurice E. Haverley Apr 12, 1899 Sept 17, 1899”.

The town of Hillsborough was named for the four Hill brothers from Colchester, Chittenden Co., Vermont. They were Vilentia B., William W., Alonzo, and Ichabod B. Hill. They came to Bad Axe by way of Indiana and Baraboo, Sauk Co., WI.

Vilentia B. was married to Mary J. Johnson. He was the first to make a claim in1850 in Section 14. He milled and later farmed. He died 26 Feb 1857 at the age of 47, probably in Hillsborough, leaving six children: Cornelia, Caroline M., Ichabod B., William A., Mary M., and Evaline.

William W. Hill, ancestor of Kenneth Mogren, married Mary Mead and had three children: Harriet, David W., and Mary Euretta. He later married Eliza Rhines and had 4 more children: William Warren, George W., Emma, and Jane/Charlotte. William W. also made claims in Bad Axe on Section 24. He lived there until about the 1870s. He died 24 Oct 1886 in Bloomer, Chippewa Co. at the age of 77.

Alonzo Hill went to Kansas and had 2 or 3 marriages. He married Caroline Rhines. Two children born in Bad Axe. Caroline died and he married Elizabeth Northern. They had 6 children. He died 18 March 1884 in Kansas.

Ichabod B. Hill never married and went into the Civil War . He died 15 Jan 1880 in Kansas.

The first marriage in Hillsborough was Vilentia's daughter Caroline who married Froland Willey in 1856 performed by Daniel Kimball who married William W.'s daughter, Harriet Hill. Another daughter of Vilentia, Caroline Hill Mack, gave birth to the first child born in Hillsborough, Andrew Mack, in 1852. Eveline Hill, another daughter of Vilentia married James Hamilton in Hillsborough.

Serving in the War of the Rebellion in the 6th Regiment from Hillsborough from the Hill family were: Ichabod B.Hill, Levi Pearson who married Mary E. Hill, daughter of William W. Hill, and Froland Willey who married Caroline, daughter of Vilentia Hill. Also George W. Thurber who married Chrlotte/Jane Hill, daughter of William W. Hill. Levi Pearson was killed in the war. Ichabod Hill was wounded.

Ben Hanson

Benjamin Hanson, son of Hans Skaalbones, was born June 12, 1848 and came to Wisconsin in 1873 from Bodo on the Saltenfjord in North Norway. He left the hard and dangerous work of ocean fishing with its uncertain income and came to America to seek his fortune on the ridges of Vernon County as a farmer, woodsman and stump grubber, a calling that was certainly hard, dangerous and uncertain of income. He had made contact with his stepmother's brother, Hans Lauganess in the Town of Harmony, who made him welcome and no doubt suggested available work as farm labor and grubbing stumps.

More importantly, it turned out that when Ben later went to visit his Uncle Hans Lauganess, he met his future wife, Oline Hage. This happened when Uncle Hans was laid up with a broken leg in the home of her parents, Erland and Marit Hage, Norewgian immigrants who lived near Purdy. Ben, being captured by her beauty, came to visit again and again.

Unfortunately, Ben had little money and was just getting the hang of farm work so he was not well situated to be a son-in-law, but he didn't give up. He went to see Oline as often as he could, even when she got a job across the river in Iowa. One winter night, he was driving his team back across the Mississippi River, when the ice began to sink beneath the weight of the horses and the wagon. He pulled out the evener pin, left the wagon, and standing on the eveners, raced the horses across the sinking ice, reaching the safety of the Wisconsin shore. That "crazy Norlening Norwegian" was just the man for Oline, the girl from Gudbrandsdal. They were married on June 8, 1876 at Purdy. He was 28 and she was 18. They started to farm. Their first child, Anna Dorthea, died at the age of one. He bought 80 acres of land on the ridge, where his grandson, Richard and great grandson, Benjamin Hansen now farm, and built a two room frame house for his bride there. A bed in one corner, a stove stood by the door and it had a dirt floor, but it was their home. His first barn for his one cow was built with a straw roof in the side of a ravine, quite a distance from the house. He later built a better structure for his growing herd and improved the house. Five children were born who survived their infancy: Hilbert, 1881, Alfred, 1883, Christian, 1885, Mathilda, 1888, and Delia, 1896. Ben worked in the northwoods in the winter, and one summer in the harvest fields of Minnesota. When he was gone, Oline had to haul water from the valley spring for the house and livestock. She worked in the house, in the barn and in the fields. She clothed and fed the children, milked the cows, kept the garden, and helped with the field work by binding sheaves of cut grain by hand, deftly wrapping a twist of straw around each bundle to hold it together, and raking hay with a hand rake.

Ben kept cows, a few hogs and a team of horses. He raised hay and grain and raised his first tobacco in 1890-1891 before giving it up because the price paid for tobacco then was only two cents a pound. It involved a lot of work because everything was done by hand. They even made a bed of straw for the tobaco to rest on after it was cut. After spearing it, they carried it into the stock barn for curing. The fence around the farm was made of wooden rails, 6 or 7 rails high, or by driving poles into the ground at an angle. The children carried butter and eggs to the La Crosse stage route about a mile from their home where their jars and baskets were picked up in the morning and returned at night.

The two eldest sons had four years of elementry education but the younger three finished the eighth grade and Mathilda went to a Young Ladies Academy in Red Wing Minnesota for one year of high school. All went to the Norwegian summer school for religious education. Ben was a leader in the neighborhood Lutheran Church which met to worship in the homes or the schooolhouse and was served by an occasional circuit riding preacher. This church was of the Hauge Synod in which the ministers avoided the pastoral robes and collars used in the more traditional United Norwegian Synod. Ben served as 'klokker" at the meetings. He gave an opening prayer and led in the singing. Everything, of course, was in Norwegian. In 1903, Ben erected a large white house for his wife and children, but unfortunately, his wife Oline (born March 28, 1858) died April 26, 1905. Ben survived her by 30 years. All of his children became farmers or married farmers and all spent most of their lives in Vernon County, except Mathilda and her husband who went ot farm in Nebraska. Alfed farmed in Montana for 18 years before returning to Wisconsin in 1930. Ben was very active until about 1926. He established a substantial farm with machinery and cattle on top of a ridge in Vernon County, thus fulfilling his American dream. His son Christian, farmed the home place and today his grandson, Richard and great grandson Benjamin Hansen operate the farm.

For the last eight years of his life, Ben suffered from a hernia and rhematism and walked with great difficulty with the aid of two canes. He passed away quietly at his home on January 9, 1934 at the age of 85 years and is buried in the Zion Church Cemetery. Blessed be their memory.