Josiah La Follette

Alexander Buchanan is father of

Carolyn Anderson -- February 9, 2009. I am looking for information on the family of Charles Sumner Eastman. He was born in 1864 in Wisconsin and married Agnes Colgan. Their children were Leroy, Thomas, Ruth, Dean, Arthur, Helen. Charles' parents were Dean H. Eastman and Ellen Buchanan. Ellen Buchanan parents were Alexander Buchanan and Mary Ferguson Buchanan( LaFollette, Saxton). http://sdgenweb.com/fallriver/inquiries.htm

Birth: July 14 1817 - Hardin Co, Kentucky Death: 1856 - Primrose, Dane, Wisconsin, United States Parents: Jesse LaFollette, Mary Polly Lafollette (born Lee) Siblings: Rebecca Nicely (born Lafollette), William LaFollette, Phebe A Beck (born LaFollette), Abigail Ferguson (born LaFollette), Warren C Lafollette, Nancy Ann Fergeson (born LaFollette), Jane LaFollette, Elhanan LaFollette, Robert W LaFollette, Harvey Marion LaFollette Wife: Mary LaFollette (born Ferguson) Children: Josephine Lafollette, Robert Marion La Follette

Alexander was from Scotish ancestery. He died within the first year of marriage to Mary Ferguson.

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nz/images/buchannan2s.pdf

Bob's father (Josiah La Follette) had been very enthusiastic about coming to WS. He said he expected to live aong these hills to an age equal to his grandfather's. But eight months after Bob's birth he died of an illness then diagnosed as a complication of pneumonia and diabetes.

Josiah La Follette knew he must die. He said he had no fear of death but dreaded to be forgotten. This thought, often repeated by his mother, made a deep impression on Bob. He thought of his father by day and dreamed of him at night. His father held somewhat liberal religious views and had never joined any church. When Bob came to realize that the strict orthodox doctrine which pervaded the family atmosphere during part of his earlier years would condemn his father to eternal punishment, his spirit revolted at the thought. The desire was strong for a Hereafter where he might know his father. He resented any religious teaching that closed the gates of Heaven to so just and upright a man as he knew his father to be. All that took place at the time of his father's death and illness was, I believe, more vivid to Bob's imagination than if he had been old enough to remember what happened.

The funeral services for Josiah La Follette were very simple, just a prayer by his neighbor and good friend Deacon David Thomas, and some hymns. They were too far away to get a minister. When the little brother Marion died, he had been buried on a hillside of the farm in sight of the house. The mother wanted the child buried with his father. The boy's coffin was taken from the grave, which had been carefully boarded up, and brought to the house and opened. The child's face was perfect as if asleep. While they were looking, it fell to ashes. Father and son were taken to the Postville cemetery on Green's prairie and placed together in one grave.

I have heard Bob say he often pictured the sad home journey his mother made on that cold, dreary winter day. She often recounted her suffering to her children; for, though a woman of courage and fortitude, she expressed her emotion freely and vividly in words. A boyhood friend, who was their nearest neighbor, remembers his mother saying that little Bob wold often ask: "Mrs Osmundsen, won't you come to see my mother? She is so very lonesome."

In 1894, after his mother's death, it was decided to move the father's remains to Madison for burial beside her. Bob consulted his friend, Dr. Cornelius Harper, as to the necessary preparations and with his brother, William drove to Postville on this mission. When the gravedigger got down to where the coffin had been, they found it had disappeared; but the outlines could be traced in the surrounding clay. Bob himself carefully removed the relics of his father's skeleton. Dr. Harper, who assisted at the reburial in Madison, says that before the coffin was finally closed Bob studied the relics carefully. He commented on the prominent forehead, the small hands and feet. They talked for more than an hour. Bob asked many questions and seemed intent on reproducing in imagination the form of his father as he looked in life.

Josiah La Follette had come to Primrose with $100.00 in money, two or three horses, and a cow. Among a few of the treasured books he brought were the Lives of the Presidents of the United States by Robert W. Lincoln and A Practical System of Modern Geography; or A View of the Present State of the World, Simplified and Adapted to the Capacity of Youth. The geography he had used when he had taught night school in Kentucky. In the course of the probate and settlement of his estate, his land was valued at $4,000.00 and personal property at over $600.00. He had a span of horses, a yoke of oxen, four cows, four heifers, and other young livestock. There were five hundred bushels of grain, but no so-called farm machinery. At that time the grain was cut with a cradle, grass cut with a scythe, and crops were generally cultivated and garnered by hand. The inventory states that the family had a barrel of pork and 128 pounds of ham, showing how pioneers provided themselves with meat for the winter. There were twenty-two milk crocks, a churn, and butter firkin, indicating that butter was made not only for immediate family use, but packed to supply extra needs.

Although essentially a farmer, Josiah La Follette was also a good practical carpenter. He had a complete chest of tools. This interested me because Bob had an inherent love of tools and was very handy in their use. I recall on one of his visits to my home, my mother said something about wishing she had another window in the kitchen. He told her he could do that job and, much to my amazement, went about it with all the dexterity of a professional carpenter. I had never even heard it mentioned that he had this kind of skill.

At the time of his death, Josiah had the lumber and other materials ready for a new frame house, which he himself expected to build. His brother, William, undertook the building of the new home, but as an economy measure he insisted on modifying Josiah's design and eliminating one room. It was the first frame house in Primrose. When completed, it was a story-and-a-half upright with a wing. There were three rooms downstairs: kitchen, living room with large fireplace, and bedroom; upstairs were two rooms, the large one partitioned off with curtains to meet the needs of the family. Near the house an orchard was planted. No apples ever tasted to Bob like the "bellflowrs" of his orchard.

Less than two years after he had settled in Primrose, Josiah La Follette was elected town clerk. The records show that he received all of the thirty-six votes cast at the election. At a number of elections, years after, his son Bob received the unanimous vote of the town of Primrose. Josiah was reelected clerk in 1853; a year later he was elected assessor, and in 1855 he was made town chairman but died before he served a year. It is told that while attending the session of the county board, in the old state capitol, Josiah La Follette was impressed with the advantages of more lights; so when he came home one night and found his wife with only one candle he said, "Mary, this won't do." With what was considered unheard-of extravagance at the time, he lit three more home-dipped tallow candles.

As soon as Bob was old enough to understand, his mother impressed upon him that he must never do anything to dishonor his fathers name and must be like him in character and devotion to what was right. This conception of his father's integrity was planted deep in Bob's nature by his mother and the friends and neighbors from whom he was always seeking to learn more of his father.

Being ardent abolitionists, the La Follette brothers who came to WS were among the first to join the Republican Party. William La Follette, after reading in the weekly paper that on May 22 Preston Brooks of SC had assaulted Senator Charles Sumner, mounted his horse and rode to his brother Harvey La Follette's home to ask if they had decided on a name for their son who had been born March 14, 1856. When told the child had not yet been named, Uncle William said, "Then I think you should name him Charles Sumner." So Bob's favorite cousin was named Charles Sumner La Follette.