Charles A. Palmer

The father was born near Erie, Pa., and came to Rock county, Wis. in 1844, first working as a farm hand one year and then buying eighty acres of land in the town of Oregon, Dane county. He was married the following spring to Miss Cornelia Church, a native of the state of New York, but at the time of marriage a resident of Rock county.

Mr. Palmer and wife resided on the farm mentioned about five years, and then sold it and removed to his mother’s farm in the town of Fitchburg, near Oak Hall. There his good wife died in June 1891, and Mr. Palmer was called to his reward, March 11, 1903.

Charles A. Palmer, whose name introduces this memoir, received his preliminary education in the district schools of Fitchburg and supplemented the knowledge thus gained by attending during two terms the high school of the village of Oregon. He made his home with his parents until he had attained to the age of twenty-seven years, working as a farm hand part of the time. He also worked arm land on shared for eight or nine years, and bought the farm where he now resides in 1890. He later bought another farm of eighty acres, one mile north of his residence.

On March 27, 1889, he was married to Miss Loustella Maxwell, who was born at Prairie du Chien, Wis., December 9, 1865, the daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Shapland) Maxwell, and the only survivor of four children born to these parents. The father moved his family to Missouri in 1865, and after residing in St. Louis a short time took up a resident in Pilot Knob.

After living in the latter place about six years the family was stricken with cholera, the father and two sons dying on one day, and on the following day a daughter succumbed to the dreadful disease. The mother was also attacked, but her case developed into typhoid fever, and after partially regaining her health she took her only surviving child, who is now the wife of Mr. Palmer, and with a heavy heart returned to Wisconsin and located in the town of Oregon, where she then had relatives. There the good mother, who it would seem had more than her share of trouble in life, sank into the peaceful sleep of death in 1894.

Mr. and Mrs. Palmer are the parents of five children, all as yet being members of a happy family circle, and their names and dates of birth are as follows: Hazel P., February 4, 1890; Boyd M., April 18, 1891; Arba C., July 6, 1893; Lottie I., December 15, 1894; Lynn, February 18, 1896.

Mr. Palmer gives an unswerving allegiance to the Republican party, and although not a seeker of office in any sense of the word he takes an active interest in local affairs and is now serving his second term as school director.

906 History of Dane County, Wisconsin, p. 687-688.