- FRANK P. STARR. Although not more than forty-five years
old, Mr. STARR has already won
- an enviable reputation, both as an educator and a public
officer. Endowed by nature with talents of high order, he has
not failed to cultivate and improve his hereditary gifts. His
father, James STARR, was of English birth, as was also his mother,
whose maiden name was Amelia BUTTERS. His parents' home was
near Bristol, England, where his father carried on the trade
of a butcher and shipper. Both their two children - Frank P.
and Egbert J. - were born after their emigration to America.
Egbert, the younger, is a resident of the township of Newark,
Rock County, where both were born; it is with the life and career
of Frank P. that his brief sketch has chiefly to do.
- James STARR crossed the ocean in 1850, and for four years
made his home in Beloit. Thence
- he removed to Newark township, where he bought a farm of
115 acres. His mind was receptive, and his ideas progressive,.
He was successful and prosperous, gradually adding to his holdings
until he was the owner of 200 acres. He died in 1889, at the
age of sixty-eight while his widow yet lives upon the old homestead.
Both he and his wife were members of the Established Church
of England.
- Frank P. STARR was born Dec. 27, 1856. His boyhood was passed
upon his father's farm, and
- the district schools of Newark township and a select school
at Beloit were the seats of learning at which he acquired his
early education. The Beloit school aimed to give its pupils
a sound, practical training as teachers, and Mr. STARR has proved
himself one of its best equipped and most competent graduates.
For some twenty years he followed the high vocation of an instructor,
filling the principal's chair at the Afton (Wis.) Academy for
eight years with distinguished success. The native ability and
true worth of such men as he cannot long lie "under a bushel."
During 1896-97 he was president of the Rock County Teachers
Association, and in 1898 was elected county clerk, being re-elected
in 1900. The latter office he still holds, discharging its duties
to the satisfaction of the electors and exhibiting in the discharge
of his duties capability of a high order. Politically he is
an ardent Republican, and his rare oratorical gifts constantly
force him to the front as a campaign and public speaker. He
also has literary ability which has won him merited recognition.
Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America,
of the Royal Neighbors, and of the I.O.O.F. He is a venerable
consul of Florence Camp, No. 366, M.W. A., of Janesville, and
a delegate to the Head Camp.
- Mr. STARR was married, April 8, 1881, to Mary, a daughter
of James and Mary (MATTHEWS)
- MARLEY, and they had one daughter, May, born April 9, 1882.
Mrs. STARR died Aug. 30, 1897, aged thirty-five years. On Oct.
27, 1899, Mr. STARR married Naomi BARRIAGE, who was born May
22, 1866, in Belleville, Ontario, daughter of George and Sarah
BARRIAGE. MR. STARR is a Congregationalist in religious connection.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, p. 340.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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