Oscar Eugene Counsell, 1869

 OSCAR EUGENE COUNSELL, a well-to-do citizen and prominent agriculturist of Grant Township, was born in a log cabin on his parents' farm in this township, Mar. 17, 1869. The parents were Henry and Susan M. (Pope) Counsell, a memoir of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. Oscar E. was their fourth child and when a boy attended the Wilding schoolhouse and later the Reed schoolhouse and the Neillsville high school. He also assisted his father in clearing the home farm. For five years he worked for C. A. Youmans, who owned a farm in the vicinity. Finally, securing 120 acres of the home place, he engaged in general farming, which has been his occupation up to the present time. He raises pure-bred Holstein cattle, Percheron horses, Berkshire hogs and Oxford and Shropshire sheep, all the branches of his business being conducted on a profitable basis. In addition to this, he helped to organize the Pleasant Ridge Creamery, of which he has been treasurer for twenty-five years, and is a stockholder in the Farmers' Co-operative Elevator and Lumber Company of Neillsville and in the First National Bank of Neillsville. For many years he has served as a member of the school board, and is now treasurer of Grant Township. In politics he is a Republican.

Mr. Counsell was married, Oct. 5, 1892, to Minnie Heaslett, who was born in Neillsville, Aug. 4, 1868, daughter of William and Margaret (Johnson) Heasiett. Her father was born in County Antrim, Ireland, Mar. 17, 1836, son of William Heaslett. His wife was born in Dorchester County, Canada East, Sept. 12, 1837, daughter of David and Anna Johnson. She was a member of the Episcopal Church. In the fall of 1868 they came to Clark County, and Mr. Heaslett, who was a carpenter by trade, found employment with Hewett & Woods Lumber Company and helped to build the First Methodist Church of Neillsville and other early buildings. In 1875 he went to work for Sam Green in the gun shop, and later he bought the shop and operated it himself, continuing in the business to the end of his life. He became quite an expert workman and built up a good trade. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Masonic and Odd Fellows' Lodges and was an official of the Presbyterian Church.

His wife, Margaret, died Feb. 21, 1904, leaving a son, Victor Hugh, and two daughters, Minnie and Laura, and he subsequently contracted a second marriage, with Mrs. W. T. Hutchinson, whose maiden name was Eliza Austin. She was born in Ferrington, England, Jan. 24, 1841, and had three children by her first husband-Edward, William and Charles. Mr. Counsell married for his second wife, Jan. 14, 1914, Anna Laura Heaslett, a sister of his first wife, Margaret, and who was born in Neillsville, Wis.,Aug.21,1863. There are no children by this marriage. Mrs. Counsell belongs to the Royal Neighbors of Neillsville and to the Ladies' Aid Society of Pleasant Ridge.