History of Clark County, Wisconsin (1918).

         Mr. & Mrs. Sylvester P. Pease

          Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester Pease

SYLVESTER PEASE, a thriving farmer of York Township, who has won success through hard work and in spite of severe discouragements, was born at Sheboygan Falls, Sheboygan County, Wis., Feb. 5, 1857, son of Sylvester P., and Murey (Tracy) Pease. The father, a carpenter by trade, was a native of Vermont, as was also his wife. They came to Wisconsin in 1848, but it was not until 1872 that they settled in Clark County, locating at York Center, Mr. Pease working at his trade in the vicinity. After awhile he bought forty acres of land in section 21, which he later sold, buying a tract of the same size half a mile south in section 22, which was covered with timber. This latter he improved, building a frame house and log barn and developing a farm on which he and his wife resided until his death at the age of 73 years, his wife dying at the age of 85. Sylvester Pease was educated in Plymouth, Wis. After leaving school he took up farming as a regular occupation.

On Nov. 10, 1873, he arrived in Neillsville, Clark County, after a three-days' journey by rail from Plymouth, the last part of which, however, was made by stage from Hatfield to Neillsville. From the latter place he walked to his father's homestead in York Township. Although early in the last month of autumn, the snow was already a foot or eighteen inches deep. From that time on for a number of years, he assisted his father in clearing the home farm during the summers, working in the woods in winter. The year 1891 saw him make an independent start in life. On March 10, that year, he was married to Ida Baumann, who was born at Watertown, Wis., daughter of Emil and Leria (Moser) Baumann. Her mother died in 1876, and her father now resides in North Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Pease resided on the home place for four or five years and then, in 1896, located in Section 29, York Township, on a tract of forty acres, of which two acres were cleared. There were no buildings on the place, but Mr. Pease soon built a log house of one story and three rooms, 16 by 26 feet in size, and also a log barn. He had one horse and a sow. In time he got the forty acres entirely cleared up and built a frame house of eight rooms and other buildings. In the fall of 1913 he had three barns filled with hay, one 20 by 18 feet, another 18 by 24 feet, and the third 16 by 24 feet. On the last days of October they took fire and were all destroyed with their contents, causing him a great loss. In the same fall, after the disaster, he built a frame barn, 32 by 44 feet in size, not full cement basement, a granary 16 by 20, and a hen house 16 by 12 feet. He raises a good grade of stock.

Mr. Pease was treasurer of the Hawk Cheese Factory for one year. He is a member of the Woodmen and of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

He and his wife have had three children: Pearl, who married Emil Leupke, of Weston Township, and has one child, Maynard Asa, who died at the age of 23 years, and Emil, residing at home.