WILLIAM LEROY ACKLEY, the first white settler in Langlade County, was born in the State of New York on or about 1830.  Little is known of his boyhood days except that he was a venturesome lad who was lured to the western states by the stories of adventure among the Indian tribes and the plucky fur traders of the great northern wilderness.  He came west to the hamlet of Wausau where he stopped for a time before definitely settling in Ackley township, Langlade County, in 1853.  Mr. Ackley was associated with P. Hogarty, a proprietor of a stopping place, who had extensive commercial intercourse with Indians and home seekers.  He built a log shack on the banks of the Eau Claire river, section 28, when he firs came into this vast wild country inhabited by Indians and animals.  Young Ackley was twenty-one years old when he first made a claim in the region.  He married Me-Da-Gee-Wa-No-Kwa, “Maiden of the Forests,” a Chippewa Indian maiden, who bore him two children- De Witt and Charles Ackley.  Charles Ackley is a merchant in Wabeno, Forest County; De Witt Ackley is living with the Pottawattomi Indians near Mole Lake, Wisconsin. Ackley, fur trader, lumber cruiser, adventurer, was a leader of the Indians who sought his counsel.  He was a just barterer and those who sought his counsel.  He was a just barterer and those who were acquainted with him acknowledged him to be an upright business man.  He never took advantage of the Chippewa’s in their fur transactions.  Most of his fur products were shipped down the Eau Claire river to Schofield and sold to agents of St. Louis fur buyers.  Mr. Ackley died November 24, 1894.  His wife died March 9, 1899, having live to be over one hundred years of age.

p. 266. History of Langlade County Wisconsin Dessureau: Berner Bros. Publishing Co. Antigo, 1922.