1918 HISTORY OF CLARK, CO., WI

                          M. C. Ring

MERRITT CLARK RING, for many years a commanding figure in the legal, business and political life of Clark County, was born in Milton, Wis., Oct. 30, 1850, the son of Eleazer F. and Almira (Bicknell) Ring, and descended from a long line of substantial ancestry on both sides of his house. As a boy he attended the schools of his neighborhood, and graduated from the Sparta High School. Thus prepared, he taught the country school in Kickapoo Valley, this state, for a while, and then entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin, receiving his degree of LL.B. with the class of 1873. It was the following year that he cast his lot in Clark County, and opened an office. His work at once attracted attention, and in the next forty years he was connected with most of the important litigation that came before the courts of this region. A staunch Republican, he early entered the political arena, and in the old convention days was a prominent factor in local, county, district and state conventions.

In 1885 he was elected to the State Senate and in 1839 to the assembly. In 1892 he was appointed as a European representative of the United States Department of Agriculture, with headquarters in London, and while thus serving he received the honorary appointment of Deputy United States Consul to London. In 1896, after his return to this county, he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention. In business, Mr. Ring was no less active. For many years he was president of the Clark County Bank, an institution not now in existence. Deeply interested in the agricultural development of the county, he took an especial interest in his fine stock farm in Pine Valley, n this way recreation from his strenuous legal work. For a time he was interested with C. A. Youmans in the grist and flour milling business.

His fraternal relations were with the Masonic order, being a Commandery Mason in the York Rites and a Thirty-second Degree Mason in the Scottish Rites. He was of the Unitarian faith and a member of the People's Church at Neillsville. After a long and useful life he died July 21, 1915, and his death was sincerely mourned.

Mr. Ring was married Sept. 13, 1877, to Ida M. Austin, daughter of George A. and Marinda (Kimball) Austin and their children are as follows: Mrs. Blanche Ring Huntzicker, Ethel Bicknell Ring, and Mrs. Alice Van Hise Zerkle.