- HON. ANDREW BARLASS (deceased) was one of the earliest settlers
of Rock County, and
- long occupied an elegant and commodious home on his farm
in Section 36, Harmony township. The locality was scarcely less
than a wilderness when he arrived in Wisconsin and he addressed
himself with energy and perseverance to the creation of a productive
and supporting farm out of the beautiful wild land. He was eminently
successful in all his undertakings, and became quite prosperous
and well-to-do before his death. He is remembered as a hard-working
and upright farmer, and a worthy citizen.
- Mr. BARLASS was born in Kinross, Scotland, Sept. 30, 1822,
and was a son of David and
- Mary (MARSHALL) BARLASS, both born and bred in Scotland.
They had a family of three sons and one daughter: Thomas, of
Bradford township, Rock County; Mrs. Helen BROWN, of Harmony
township; David, of Harmony; and Andrew, our subject. The father
was a farmer, and died in Scotland when only twenty-eight years
of age. His widow came to Wisconsin, settled in Rock County in
1844, and died Jan. 14, 1875. Our subject's grandfather, Andrew
BARLASS, died in Scotland in old age. He had six children. Mrs.
BARLASS' father, who died in Scotland when an old man, had two
sons and three daughters.
- Andrew BARLASS came to this country in 1842, and locating
in Johnstown township, Rock Co.,
- Wis., worked for his uncle, Robert BARLASS, two years. Then
he bought the farm noted above, added eighty acres to it, and
at the time of his death owned 160 acres. He always followed
farming, though he was a natural mechanic. He had received a
good common-school education in Scotland, one of his teachers
being a nephew of Robert Burns. He first married Miss Margaret
CLINK, who bore him four children, Margaret, Mary, Helen and
David. Margaret married David CLARK, of Harmony township. Mary
married Robert CLARK, of Harmony township. Helen married David
DUNCAN, a physician in Chicago, David married Ella HILL, and
lives at Hastings, Neb. Mrs. Margaret BARLASS died in 1851, and
on June 18, 1861, Mr. BARLASS married Miss Margaret BEVERIDGE,
a daughter of James and Christina (WHITE) BEVERIDGE. Six children
were born to this union: Christina Jane, Agnes May, Andrew James,
Christian, John Albert and William Frank. Christina Jane died
when five years and four months old. Agnes May married William
KEOBELIN, who is now deceased. The other children are all at
home.
- Mr. BARLASS was a man of prominence in his day. With his
wife he belonged to the United
- Presbyterian Church, and had a high standing for integrity
and moral character. He was a stanch Republican, and served as
chairman of the town board, school director, assessor and justice
of the peace for many years, and was a member of the General
Assembly of Wisconsin for three years. He was president of the
township insurance company. He died July 26, 1893, at the age
of seventy-two years and ten months.
- James and Christina (WHITE) BEVERIDGE, parents of Mrs. BARLASS,
were natives of
- Scotland. They had four children: James, a soldier in the
war of the Rebellion, who died at his home in Iowa, leaving a
widow, Margaret (CLINK) BEVERIDGE; Christina, wife of John ADDIE,
of Northville, S. Dak.; Margaret; and John G., of Doland, S.
Dak., who married Margaret ALLEN. The father was a farmer. The
mother died in Scotland in 1846, when about thirty-five years
old, and he came to this country in 1852, bought a farm in Johnstown
township, Rock Co., Wis., and lived there until 1853, when he
sold out and bought a farm of eighty acres in Harmony township.
This he sold later on, moving to Iowa, and later returned to
Wisconsin, where he has lived with his daughter for the last
five years. Mrs. BARLASS came to this country when ten years
old with her aunt, Miss Jane BEVERIDGE, who brought the three
youngest children of Mr. BEVERIDGE to this country, and returned
to Scotland a year later. Mrs. BARLASS' paternal grandfather,
James BEVERIDGE, died in Scotland at an advanced age. Her maternal
grandfather, James WHITE, was born in Scotland, moved to England,
and died in New South Wales.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 128-129.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|