George W. & Ella A. (Alds) Bishop

Greenwood, Clark County, Wisconsin

George W. Bishop was born on Feb. 22, 1861.  For nearly forty five years was an undertaker in Greenwood, Wisconsin.  He was widely known having conducted a furniture and undertaking business in town from 1892.  He, his wife, and daughter Mabel, moved from Marshfield to Greenwood and purchased the corner lot at the junction of Schofield Ave. and Main Street. This was the first lot to be sold off that forty of the Schofield Farm. The original stump fence had to be torn away and burned before building operations could begin. Mr. Bishop was prominent in the business and social life of the community throughout the years of his residence.

Ella A. (Alds) Bishop

Until its discontinuance, he was an attendant and supporter of the Presbyterian church, later years, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a member of the I.O.O.F, the Modern Woodman, was an active member of the Masonic Fraternity, having served as Master several years and having once served as Grand Senior Deacon of the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin. He had been a member of the Order of the Eastern Star for a long term of years and served the local chapter faithfully and well, as their Worthy Patron since 1930 (excepting one year). At the time of his death he was the second oldest Worthy Patron in this state. Less than two weeks before his death, he conferred the initiatory degree as impressively as he ever gave it.

He was mayor of the city in the year 1899-1900 and served twenty six years on the school board. He had been looking forward with interest to the coming celebration in Marshfield marking the fiftieth year since the Marshfield fire, for he was one of the carpenters and millwrights who came there following the fire to assist in the reconstruction work. He built the original Marshfield Furniture Factory and its water tower, and worked in the factory until he moved to Greenwood.

Mr. Bishop was always a busy hard working man, and his early life was far from bright and care free, for his father and mother died only a few months apart with typhoid fever, when he was not quite six years old. He tried to live with his namesake uncle, George Fawcett at Farmington, Ill, but lonesome for his brothers (he was the youngest of eight children, all but two of which were brothers) he was brought back to his sister's farm near his father's farm a few miles from Barrington, Ill. When only nine years old he dragged all the grain on 160 acres of land and took care of a team, even harnessed and unharnessed them. He worked out for men who were friends of his father for the next several years sometimes for his board only, other times receiving twelve dollars per month besides his board. During the winter of 73-74, when he was only twelve years old, he milked twenty cows night and morning, getting up at 4 o'clock week day mornings and three o'clock on Sunday mornings. The year 77-78 he spent with his brother Cyrus and wife on their farm near green Mountain, Iowa and spent the winter of 78-79 with his brothers Ed and Frank near Red Oak, Iowa, and in the spring of 70 went to a cranberry marsh near Necedah with his brothers Tracy and Fletch.

It was while working on a farm near Camp Douglas that he met and married Ella A. Alds. After their marriage they lived in Necedah for five years, where he conducted a photograph business and did cabinet and carpenter work, until they moved to Marshfield following the fire in '87.

Mrs. Bishop died January 27, 1928. Mr. Bishop passed away February 7, 1937.  Had he lived until February 22nd, he would have been 76 years old.

His funeral was held at the M.E. Church and was one of the largest ever seen in Greenwood.  He and Ella are both buried in the Greenwood City Cemetery.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Census Records

Sources

Greenwood Gleaner, Census Records and the Greenwood Public Library Albums.

Contributors

Janet Schwarze.

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