Bio: Teall, George Clinton (1881)

Contact: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Teall, Knox, Washington, Strong, Simons, Mudge, Smith, Ellis, Meggett, Fairchild, Barnes

----Source: History of Northern Wisconsin (Eau Claire County, Wis.) 1881, page 334

GEORGE CLINTON TEALL, Eau Claire. Was born in Seneca Co., N. Y., May 20, 1840, at the old family homestead, near the shores of Seneca Lake, and at the age of twelve, removed with his father's family to Geneva, N. Y., where he was principally educated. He was a student in Geneva Union and Classical School four years, then at Walnut Hill School, and at the age of eighteen, he entered Hobart College, in which he was a member of the class of 1862. Of his father's family, ten children grew up to mature years, all of whom are now living, except his brother Nathan, who lost his life in the late war. His father, G. C. P. Teall, was a son of Nathan Teall, whose father was one of three political fugitives from the oppression of Switzerland, who settled in Connecticut about the year 1730. His grandfather, Nathan Teall, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, under Gen. Knox, and on several critical occasions, served as his messenger to Gen. Washington, and was trusted with other important duties. In 1792, this grandfather settled in Newtown, N. Y., which town was afterward named Elmira, in honor of a member of the family by that name. On the side of his father's mother, the family ancestors were among the Pilgrim Fathers who landed from the "Mayflower," at Plymouth, in 1620, and her father was a colonel in the Revolutionary war. The family is one of well-known influence and importance, branches of it being located at Albany, Syracuse, Geneva, Rochester, Sodus, and other places in Central New York. Judge Teall studied law at Rochester, N. Y., in 1862-3-4, in the offices of Hon. Theron R. Strong, formerly of the Court of Appeals, and of Hon. Alfred G. Mudge, then Surrogate of Monroe County, and also attended a course of law lectures in the "Winter of 1863-4, at Rochester. He was married, June 8, 1864, to Miss Helen Pauline Simons, daughter of Hon. Nathan C. Simons, at Buffalo, N. Y., and soon after came West, engaging in the business of buying and shipping grain from Milwaukee and Chicago, to Buffalo, by the great lakes, during 1864-5. His only son, Frederick Augustus Teall, was born at Milwaukee, March 16, 1865, and is now a youth of promising talents and scholarship. In February, 1866, Judge Teall came to settle in Eau Claire, where he has since resided with his family. In April, 1867, he was elected a Justice of the Peace, and in January, 1868, he was appointed County Judge by Gov. Fairchild, in place of Hon. H. W. Barnes, who resigned to take his seat in the State Legislature. He was afterward, in the Spring of 1869, elected his own successor, and administered that office until January, 1874. He was from 1866, for several years, interested in the mercantile firm of George C. Teall & Co., and from 1868 to 1873, was one of the firm of William A. Teall & Bro., general insurance agents. He was always prominently identified with the public interests of his county and State, and has been a consistent Republican in politics. He was admitted to the practice of law in Wisconsin, at Milwaukee, in January, 1872, and soon afterward in the Supreme Court and United States Courts, at Madison. In 1873 he formed a partnership with Hon. Alexander Meggett, and was a member of the law firm of Meggett & Teall, in the active practice of law until the Spring of 1881, when the firm dissolved, and he thereafter continued in the practice and pursuit of his chosen profession, at Eau Claire. In December, 1880, he was again appointed County Judge, by Gov. Smith, to fill a vacancy, occurring by the resignation of Hon. Arthur C. Ellis. In the Spring of 1881, he was re-elected without opposition, for the term ending January, 1886. Judge Teall's wife was born in Skaneateles, N. Y., and in childhood removed to Union Springs, in Cayuga Co., N. Y., where she was educated, graduating at Friends' Academy, in 1863. With her father's family went to reside in Buffalo, N. Y., where she was married, as above stated, at the age of twenty-one.