Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-02-12
Jared Warner-Obituary.

we are paineo 10 announce In the present
issue the sudden death of the Hon. Jared
Warner, which took place at his residence
in Patch Grove on the 4th instant. We have
obtained the following data from one of his
relatives and intimate friends:
Jared Warner was born in Garfield, Ohio,
on December s, 1911. He removed with
bis fathers family to this County in the year
1888, where they made the first settlement in
Millville and built their first shelter on the
banks Of the Wisconsin river. They were
flowed up the Mississippi 10 a keei-boat with
several other families. These came not TO
make fortune by specializing, or mining, or
hunting, or gambling. They were among
the first families that came to this new coun-
try to live here, to stay here, TO die here.
The school of "suckers'' assembled the river
in the spring, but swan south before winter.
zThese families came here to make farms,
build mills, and to test the fertility of our
soil and its capacity to support permanent
population. That duh metal, known as
"lead," has the honor of turning the atten.
ton of the enterprizing classes 10 every part
of the United States to the then Territory of
Wisconsin. The idea of converting our
great natural meadows into corn and wheat
fields and spreading them out into a vast
agricultural region, was hardly regarded as
probable or possible. But cabins began to
make their appearance, and small enclosures
ran out INTO the prairies from thicket and
grove; there were beaten paths to the near
est spring; attempts were made to cultivate
the apple and even the peach. The sod dug
outs and pole shanties were supplanted BY
more pretentious cabins, and the cheerful
word shome" found its way in ordinary con-
versation. Mr.. Warner and his father built
the first pine saw mill in this County, as we
are informed. The small stream that dis
charges into the Wisconsin in the town of
Millville became the centre of a large BUSH
ness. Here Mr.. Warner, then young man,
engaged IN the lumber business without
rival, and few houses were built in that part
of the country at that time that had not some
of its material from his manufacture. He
loved business activity-it was necessity of
his nature, and he had less delight in making
money than in the pleasures of employment
and the perfection of machinery. The cum
ming handiwork of the inventor always at
tracted his study and admiration. MIR.
Warner was too much of student, too fer
vently attached to ideas and opinions ever to
become millionaire. Having secured what
he thought was q competency, he abandoned
his saw mills, settled in Patch Grove, where
he bought fine tract of land, built COM
Portable house, improved a neat but not ey-
tensive farm, and superintendent its cutiya-
ton till the season before his death. Here
he enjoyed years of comparative leisure,
reac books, periodicals and newspapers on
all sorts of subjects and developed those
mental traits and speculative opinions that
will cause his name to be remembered long
after his numbering and farming are forgot
ten. Boldly asserting the most unpopular
opinions and advocating them with original
arguments and illustrations, he compelled
his opponents to read and study like himself,
so that there are few neighborhoods any
where to be found where the arguments for
and against Revealed Religion, involving
every branch of human knowledge are more
generally understood and examined. The
majority of men aud women must ever dis
sent fr ON many of Mr.. Warmers views on
political and religious subjects still he be-
lieved them to be better adapted to further
human happiness than any other, and when
satisfied of the sincerity of the heart we
should pardon the alterations of the head.
Mr.. Warner had been great sufferer for
several months before his death, but seemed
DESTROYS of concealine as far as possible bis
failing condition. He had been much in
public life a member of the legislature,
often in the County Board. He was COL
iector OF taxes in his town al the time of his
death. In this business his intimate friends
discovered his memory began to fail. He
was original in his modes of doing business.
He believed men were more likely to pay
debt when not bound to it by mortgages and
securities. He often lent money without
even note of hand, making a memorandum
OF 1t IN his account book. Recently he has
forgotten some of his loans, but those he has
accommodated readily come forward and tell
what they owe. On the day he died, be was
observed in the morning TO be writing on
sheet of paper. He placed this paper ia an
atlas where il was &C cideHtally found after
wards. He then went TO his barn, about 100
yards distant from the house, to turn out his
horse and COW. Mrs. Warner, knowing his
custom was to walk every day down to the
postoffice and through the village. thought
nothing Of his absence. AT dinner-time il
was found he had not visited Mr.. Paups. Miss
Weed, who was then living in the family,
Immediately ran down TO the barn. Mr..
Warner was lying on some hay as if asleep.
que uttCmptcu u dTuuet Iiiu one stepped
back affrighted. Jared Warner was dead.
Mr.. Warner thought an obligatory will
might cause contention. The paper he had
written in the forenoon was found to contain
his wishes in reference to the division of his
property.
Aud such was the effect of this simple
writing, that his wife anu children all met
together at his house, in obedience to his
injunction, and by solemn writing and deeds
divided their Inheritance precisely az be adj
vised.
Thus has passed away one OF the most re-
markabie men known on thu roll of the old
settlers of Grant county. A large concourse
OF people, the gray-hended fathers and moth
ers, their children and grandchildren, the
representatives of three generations, pressed
around his coffin 10 take the last look at one
they knew so well. He was buried on Sat-
urday in the public cemetery, where many
OF his neigbbors and friends had preceded
him. Peace TO his ashes.
MARRIRp.