Happy Easter Forest County Residents!
This week digital copies of three photographs from the Bingham family were donated to the Crandon Public Library and Forest County Historical Society.
This photograph features Henry Bingham and his wife Mary Ella Johnson Bingham with children: Allen, Harriet, Nellie, Henry, Maud and baby Ray.This picture was taken at a photography studio in Clintonville in the early 1890s (Bingham, Lowell 2015). Henry Bingham was born in Royalton, New York in 1850 but moved to Michigan as a young child. His family did not settle in one place long, he moved from Michigan to Illinois and finally to Wisconsin. He wed Miss Ella Johnson in 1880 and in 1885 he moved to Norrie, Wisconsin. While residing in Marathon County he held a number of prominent public positions and farmed the land. Around 1908 he moved to Crandon where he lived until his death in March of 1928. Bingham was known in town for the janitorial work he did on a daily basis for the Methodist Church. He was seen always with a smile and a kind word to his fellow Forest County residents (Forest Republican 1928). A large number of the Bingham family are buried at the Lakeside Cemetery.
The photograph above is Howard Henry Bingham in his World War I uniform. Henry was born in Clintonville, Wisconsin to Henry and Ella Bingham. He moved to Crandon, Wisconsin with his family in 1908 where he spent the remainder of his life. Howard worked in the woods for a living. He married Viola Fredrick in 1934 and had two children. Howard died in the Veterans Hospital in Wood, Wisconsin in 1940 and there are records of his burial at Lakeside Cemetery as well as a veterans cemetery in Milwaukee (Forest Republican 1940, Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862-1960).
It is always wonderful to learn a new story and see physical evidence of a past Forest County resident. The Crandon Public Library always welcomes donations of local history photographs so we can continue to provide new information about our unique history.