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Each week a small segment of Vernon County history is published in the county papers.
For the week of 10/4/2020
by Carol Krogan, assistant curator
Local history sometimes focuses too much on the famous, the wealthy, the well-connected, but increasingly historians are also looking at people who lived more ordinary lives. Less information is usually available about “average citizens”, but census records can help us to paint a picture.
The servants and farmhands who worked for the Cyrus and Margaret Butt family of Viroqua in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are an important part of the story of the Butt household. As we continue to celebrate the 150th birthday of the historic Sherry-Butt House at 795 N. Main St. in Viroqua, we’ll look at some of the hired hands who worked there. Census records reveal at least four people who lived on the Butt farm while working for the family, and there were no doubt several more over the years that aren’t covered by the census.
Today we’ll look at two people who worked for the Butts in 1880. Jerome Mc Lin is shown on the 1880 census as a servant in the Cyrus and Margaret Butt home, aged 23. Jerome was born in Ohio to Ellison and Olivet (Small) Mc Lin on 22 June 1858. He had two sisters, Samantha and Abigail. In 1860, the family was living in Wisconsin, in the town of Stark, Vernon County. Jerome’s mother died in 1861, and his father later married Elizabeth Small, the sister of his first wife.
By 1895, Jerome was no longer working for the Butts but was back living in the town of Stark with his wife Sarah Jane and their daughter Mary Olivet, also known as Ollie. In 1900, the family was living in La Farge, where Jerome was a blacksmith.
Jerome’s wife died 19 May 1906. She is buried in Star Cemetery, town of Stark. At some point, Jerome moved out west. He died 19 May 1938 of stomach cancer in Columbia Falls, Flathead County, MT. His death registration states that he was a carpenter and blacksmith.
Sarah Mc Dermott is also shown on the 1880 census living as a servant in the Butt family home in Viroqua. She was born in Perry County, Ohio on February 15, 1850 to Charles and Martha (Wallace) Mc Dermott. The family came to Vernon County in 1856. Their farm was located four miles east of Viroqua.
Sarah was educated in Vernon County schools and took up the profession of nursing which she practiced until her marriage to Henry Schaller on October 1, 1884. When she worked for the Butts, she may have provided some nursing care.
By 1900, Sarah and her husband were living in Sparta. She died in March, 1917 and is buried in the Viroqua Cemetery. Her obituary describes her as an exemplary wife, a good neighbor and a citizen of Christian character and fortitude.
Fire destroyed most of the 1890 U.S. census records, so we don’t know who worked for the Butts that year. Next week we’ll look at the servants and farmhands from 1900.
Sherry-Butt House
For the week of 10/11/2020
by Carol Krogan, assistant curator
This year we are celebrating the 150th birthday of the historic house at 795 N. Main St. in Viroqua, now called the “Sherry-Butt House” for the names of the two families that lived there. But the family members weren’t the only people who lived there – hired hands did as well, as census records show us. Last week we looked at two of the servants who lived and worked at the house in the year 1880. Today we’ll look at a farm hand, Proctor, and a maid, Alpharetta, who worked there in the year 1900.
Proctor Harris was born on August 19, 1875 in Viroqua to Benjamin Franklin Harris and Nancy (Palmer) Harris. His mother died in 1876. Proctor is next found on the 1900 census, age 25, as a farm laborer in the home of Cyrus and Margaret Butt. His father was living in Knox County, Nebraska at that time. Proctor soon joined him there and married Ella Mae Wettstadt in Bloomfield, Knox County, Nebraska, on April 28, 1904.
Ella had been born in Plymouth County, IA, and the 1910, 1930 and 1940 censuses show Proctor and Ella living in Plymouth, IA. Proctor was working as a farmer there. He died in Iowa on July 17, 1954, and is buried with his wife in Hillside Cemetery, Merrill, Plymouth County, IA.
Alpharetta R. Jennings was born in 1882 to Isaac N. and Margaret (Wallace) (Moore) Jennings. Isaac, Margaret and their four daughters lived in the town of Liberty. Margaret passed away in 1898 at the age of 38 and is buried in the Manning Cemetery located in the town of Kickapoo.
Alpharetta’s name is on two censuses for 1900. She was counted on the census on June 20, 1900, at age18, living with the Butt family, and she was also counted two days later, on the June 22, 1900 census, living with her father and three sisters in the town of Liberty. Her father’s brother John William and his three children lived near the Butt family in Viroqua in 1900. We can speculate that Alpharetta came to know about a servant position at the Butt home through her uncle.
On November 27, 1900 she married a Canadian, Frank Fitchett, in Vernon County. Frank, who came to the U.S. in 1898, was living as a boarder in the home of John H. Bennett and his wife Olga. John was a district attorney at the time and no doubt had dealings with Cyrus Butt, also an attorney. This is most likely how Frank and Alpharetta met. She must have left the Butt household when she married. The young couple had a daughter, Celia, who was born in Monroe County, WI in 1901.
Alpharetta’s father Isaac Jennings might have come to live with them, and he passed away in Sparta, Monroe County, in 1906. At some point, the Fitchetts moved to Canada. Four more children were born in Canada but sadly two of them passed away as infants. Frank Fitchett died September 17, 1917 in Calgary, Canada at age 47. Alpharetta Jennings Fitchett passed away in Calgary on February 16, 1923 at the age of 41. She is buried in Calgary, Canada along with her children Franklin and Margaret.