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- JOHN AUGUSTINE BINGHAM, born in Morristown, Vt., Feb. 27,
1819,
- was the son of John and Lydia (THOMPSON) BINGHAM, the former
a native of Connecticut, the latter of New Hampshire. The parents,
of old Puritan stock, were industrious energetic, and sternly
religious. Five of their eight children grew to maturity, four
daughters and one son, all now deceased. The father, a man of
much character and good standing, was a farmer, and was a man
of unusual size and endurance. His father, Elias BINGHAM, was
even a larger man, and not less noted for his virtues than for
his size. He was a Revolutionary soldier in a Connecticut company.
Lydia (THOMPSON) BINGHAM was a woman of fine character and of
a remarkably hopeful disposition. Her father also bore arms in
the cause of American independence.
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- John A. BINGHAM was reared on a farm in Vermont, and received
a common school education,
- later attending the academy at Johnson and the academy at
Montpelier. He studied law at Stowe, and was admitted to the
Bar at Monroe, Green Co., Wis., in 1842, having come into this
State the previous year. For some months he was engaged as teacher
in Racine county, and in February, 1842, came to Monroe, which
was his home from that time until his death. Taking up the practice
of law, he also did surveying, which was an important accomplishment
in those days.
- On Nov. 25, 1843, Judge BINGHAM was married to Miss Caroline
Elizabeth CHURCHILL, a
- daughter of William B. and Almira (HUMES) CHURCHILL, and
to this union were born six children, Helen M., Horace, Alice
M., Ada, Homer W. and J. Herbert. Helen M. BINGHAM was born Oct.
10, 1845, was graduated from Lombard College, at Galesburg, Ill.,
in the class of 1867, and for a time was a member of the Faculty
of that institution. She graduated from the Boston University
School of Medicine in 1881, and practiced for a number of years
in Milwaukee, but is now retired from active professional work
and lives in Monroe. She is a charter member of the Denver Woman's
Club. Dr. BINGHAM is a lady of much intellectual ability, and
wrote an interesting history of Green county, which was published
in 1877. For a time prior to her medical course, she was a teacher
in the Monroe high school, and has been an active worker all
her life. Horace BINGHAM, born Feb. 5, 1847, died in December,
1849. Alice M. BINGHAM, born May 4, 1851, was married Sept. 7,
1872, to Herbert E. COPELAND, who was born in Avon, Mich., and
was a teacher of sciences in the high school in Indianapolis,
Ind., where he died Dec. 12, 1876. To that union came two sons,
Edwin Bingham and Herbert Bingham. Edwin B. was born Sept. 30,
1873, and married Miss Ethel Tilden FAULKNER; their home is at
Morgantown, W. Va., where he is professor of botany in the University
of West Virginia. Herbert B., born July 24, 1875, lives in Denver,
where he is in the employ of his uncle Homer, a lumber dealer
of that city. Mrs. COPELAND was a graduate of Lombard College,
class of 1872, and has always taken a deep interest in educational
matters. The first year (1887) that women were eligible for the
school board in Wisconsin, she was elected a member of the school
board in Monroe. For many years she has served the public in
that capacity. Ada Bingham, born Feb. 6, 1854, was graduated
from Lombard College in 1873, and from the Boston University
School of Medicine in 1879. She practiced her profession in Monroe
until her health compelled her removal, in 1888, to Denver. Dr.
BINGHAM is a lady of many gifts and accomplishments, and is much
interested in every forward movement of the times. She is a charter
member of the Denver Woman's Club, and is an efficient worker
along educational and philanthropic lines. Homer W. BINGHAM,
born Feb. 1, 1856, lives in Denver, where he is engaged in the
lumber business. He received his college education at Cornell
University, and graduated from the law school of the University
of Wisconsin in 1877. He was married to Miss Addie LUDLOW, Jan.
20, 1897, and has one daughter, Helen. J. Herbert, the youngest,
born Jan. 14, 1859, died Jan. 23, 1881.
- Judge BINGHAM was not a member of any church, nor is his
widow. Their sympathies were with
- the Unitarian faith. The Judge was a strong Abolitionist,
and was one of the first members of the Republican organization
in Wisconsin. He took a deep interest in promoting the Abolitionist
movement into Kansas and when war came only physical disability
kept him from going to the front. He was a member of the National
Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President the second
time. During the years 1846 and 1847 he served as district attorney,
and afterward held for eight years the office of Probate Judge.
For about twenty-five years he was on the board of education,
and for months visited the schools daily, seeking to have the
most improved methods of instruction employed. He was always
interested in young people, and having encountered difficulties
in acquiring his own education, was eager to help ambitious young
men to a chance to help themselves.
- In 1854 he opened a broker's office, and later, in company
with A. LUDLOW and Asa
- RICHARDSON, started the Bank of Monroe, which afterward became
the First National Bank of Monroe. Of this institution he was
president for a number of years. He also owned a large flouring
mill, which he operated during the later years of his life in
Monroe. Judge BINGHAM died July 24, 1865, in the forty-seventh
year of his age, while on a visit to his native State in the
hope of benefiting his health.
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-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing; pp. 408-409.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
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