The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1906-10-18
Pioneer Business Man and Banker
Of City Died at the Home Of
His Daughter or Sunday
DEATH ENDS BUSY CAREER
Natural Breaking Down Due 30
Old Age.-Sketch of Long
Career of the Deceased


more than half a century as merchant,
manufactures, banker and county Of
icial died at the home of his daugh-
Ter, Mrs. Clara A. Lewis on Park ave-
nue. Sunday afternoon. The end came
peacefully as a result of a general
breaking down due to old age. Mr..
Head was ninety-three years of age,
and for the past two years he had
beer IN feeble health. For the past
few weeks he had been failing very
rapidly and his death was not un-
expected to the watchers at the bed
side.
The death of Mr.. Head marks the
close of a memorable career which
has been closely connected with the
growth and development of Kenosha.
Since the days of old Southport, Mr..
Head had been prominent in the
affairs of the city up to the early
nineties when he retired from active
business life, and since that time he
had made his home with his children,
Frank G.. Head of Utica, New York,
and Mrs. Clara A. Lewis of Kenosha.
His demise will cause sorrow in many
homes in Kenosha. The deceased
was universally known throughout
Kenosha county, and in former years
he was one of the best known men in
this section of Wisconsin.
Mr.. Head was self made man. He
was a native of Paris Township,
Oneida county, New York, where he
was born April Is, 1913. He was a
son of Johnathan and Hepsibeth
(Livermore) Head and was of English
descent. MI. Head received a good
education in the district schools of his
native county and when eighteen
years of age he started out in life for
himself.
He learned the trade of wagon
maker in New York, and worked at
the trade until 1843, when he started
for the great West and came to South
port. He had brought with him a
small stock of clocks, and with these
he started Ia business.
Building a wagon at the old Henry
Mitchell wagon shop, he started out
through the county to sell clocks.
When winter came he went to Antioch,
ILL.,, where he opened small store,
and he remained there for five years.
Ia September, 1848, he returned to
Southport and opened mercantile
establishment under the firm name of
Head, Campbell & Head. A short
time later the firm purchased the old
Kenosha foundry and Mr.. Head was
placed in charge of it. He continued
in the foundry business until 1864.
During this time he superintended the
making of the first cook stove ever
manufactured in Wisconsin. During
the war when the government issued
call to Northern men to take charge
of deserted plantations in the South,
Mr.. Head was one of the men selected
to look after this work, and in the fall
of 1864 he went South. He worked
for time in Virginia and then went
to Mississippi. Mr.. Head employed
the able bodied negroes from the gov
eminent and aided materially in
bringing about the reconstruction of
the South.
When he returned to Kenosha he
disposed of the foundry business and
for a number of years engaged in
farming. In 1875 Mr.. Head organized
the banking house of Dan Head & Co.
and he served as president of the.
company until it went out of business
in the early nineties. Later he &C
quired an interest in the big
wholesale grocery house of G. w.
Head & Co., of Utica, N. Y, but he
was never actively connected with
the business. Since the closing of
the bank Mr.. Head had lived retired
life, spending much of his time with
his daughter in this city, who has de-
voted all of her time to caring for him
for the past few years.
In politics Mr.. Head was Wing so
long as that party was in existence,
bat with the founding of the Repub-
lican party he espoused its principles
and was ali ardent supporter of Re-
publicanism to the time of his death.
He was many times honored by the
people of the city and was member
of the county board for twenty-seven
years. Ten years of this time he
served in the capacity of chairman of
the board.
A. G. Wright, of Milwaukee, pub
Usher of the Kenosha City Directory,
died on the evening of Oct. at the
Windsor Hotel in Edinburg, Scotland.
The remains are now en- route to Ann
erica, and will be buried in Milwau-
kee.