- CHALMERS INGERSOLL, the able and popular editor and publisher
of the Daily and Weekly
- Free Press, of Beloit, Rock County, was born in Westfield,
N.Y., Oct. 29, 1838, and is a son of Thomas and Sarah (WALKER)
INGERSOLL, natives of Massachusetts and New York, respectively.
They were the parents of three sons and three daughters, all
yet living, viz.: Lucy, wife of C. K. JUDSON, Washington, D.C.;
Julia A., wife of G. W. TANDY, of Freeport, Ill.; Orton, of Rock
Island, Ill.; Chalmers; Clementine C., wife of W. W. BIGELOW,
of Chicago; and Joseph W., of Bowie, Md. The father was a teacher
in early life in the academy at Westfield, and left the school
room to enter the employment of D. APPLETON & Co., remaining
with them some years. He died in New York in 1847, at the age
of forty-four. His wife remarried, becoming Mrs. DEAN. Mr. DEAN
died, and she was again married, to J. W. DEAN, who is now deceased;
he reached the age of eighty-six. Mrs. DEAN died in September,
1897, at the age of eighty-three. From early life she had been
associated with the Presbyterian Church.
- The paternal grandfather of Chalmers INGERSOLL was a native
of New York, and of English
- descent. He was a ship captain, and of English descent. He
was a ship captain, and was drowned at sea while still in middle
life. He was the father of two sons and one daughter. Chalmers
INGERSOLL's maternal grandfather was a native of New York, also
of English descent, and was killed in an accident when twenty-eight
years of age. He married Dorcas FINN, who came of Dutch ancestry,
and had four children.
- Chalmers INGERSOLL lived at Westfield until nine years of
age, when he went to live near
- Brockport, N.Y. The young lad spent four years in that community
and then went to Greenfield, Mass. to live with an uncle, Charles
J. J., a newspaper publisher. Chalmers attended school, and when
quite young went into his uncle's printing office to learn the
trade of a printer, working in vacations and out of school hours.
After he had become a capable printer he worked a year at the
case in Springfield, Mass., and in 1856 went to Freeport, Ill.,
to work for his brother-in-law, C. K. JUDSON, a prominent newspaper
man of that early day. Mr. INGERSOLL spent two years with him
and became widely known in the printing fraternity as a very
capable workman - a reputation that brought him an invitation
to enter the office of the Chicago Tribune. He was in Chicago
at the breaking out of the Civil war, and early yielded to the
patriotic fever that was in the blood of the North, enlisting
in Company G, 8th Ill. V.C., and serving three years with his
Union colors. When his term of enlistment had expired he re-enlisted
as a veteran. He was discharged before the close of the war on
account of serious and chronic illness. Mr. INGERSOLL was in
every respect a capable and gallant soldier, and participated
in some of the bloodiest scenes in the history of the Army of
the Potomac. He was at Gaines Mills, and all through the Potomac
campaigns, in the battles of Fredericksburg, Antietam, and Gettysburg,
and in hundreds of engagements that then were called skirmishes,
but which in any smaller war would have been termed battles.
- After his return from the field of battle Mr. INGERSOLL came
to Beloit, and started the Free
- Press in February, 1866. He made a good paper, won a considerable
support, and in 1872 sold his printing plant to Col. Frank, and
became interested in manufacturing. He was the first to put out
the paper plates used by grocers, and for a number of years had
almost a monopoly in paper goods. Mr. INGERSOLL became a leading
character in State politics, and his work was recognized by his
appointment as sergeant-at-arms in the State Senate during 1879
and 1880. In 1882 he formed a partnership with H. F. HOBART,
and resumed the publication of the Free Press. Mr. HOBART retired
from business the latter part of that year, and Mr. INGERSOLL
has been alone since that time, and has published a strong Republican
journal. He was postmaster of Beloit when Mr. Cleveland became
President of the United States, and had held that office about
twenty months, and as soon as the new administration could reach
him he was promptly thrown out. Upon the accession of President
Harrison Mr. INGERSOLL was again put in charge of the postoffice,
and when Mr. Cleveland was President a second time he as quickly
retired. President McKinley appointed him a third time to that
position, and in it he is still serving the Beloit public very
capably.
- On September 12, 1865, was celebrated the marriage of Chalmers
INGERSOLL and Charlotte
- B. RINEWALT, a daughter of Adam and Mary (LEHN) RINEWALT.
They live at No. 627 Church street, where he built a home in
1887. Mr. and Mrs. INGERSOLL are the parents of three children,
George B., Charlotte, and Charles J. J. The last named died of
cerebro spinal meningitis when sixteen months old. George B.
was married to Miss Theresa JENKINS, and they have two children
- Sara and an infant; he is assistant postmaster, and is a practicing
lawyer. Mr. INGERSOLL is a member of Morning Star Lodge, No.
10, A.F. & A. M.; Beloit Chapter, No. 9, R.A.M.; Beloit Commandery,
No. 6; and Wisconsin Consistory, and in these various branches
of Masonry has displayed a deep and intelligent interest. He
is also a member of the Knights of Pythias.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 91-92.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|