J. B. CHURCH, farmer and merchant, Sec. 2; P. O. Mount Ida; born in 1826, in Onondaga Co., N. Y.; was a son of Ezra and Rachel Church; when he was 6 years of age, his father moved to Chautauqua Co.; his father died when he was about 14 years of age, and he was obliged to work wherever he could get anything to do to support himself and mother. At the age of 21, he married Mary, daughter of Amos and Livonia Parker; he built a saw-mill in company with his brother, and followed the lumber business for four years; he then came to Grant Co., Wis., in September, 1853; located in Little Grant, where he has 230 acres of land, valued at $6,000; has had ten children, six living - Francis H., Charles W., Wallace W., P. A., Ida R. M., Emma S. In 1880, he built a store in Mount Ida, although he had been merchandising for two years on his farm; the winter of 1872, he visited Florida for his health. He was a member of the Town Board four years; Town Assessor eleven years; Justice of the Peace fourteen years; School Clerk thirteen years. He is a Royal Arch Mason. Politics, Greenbacker; was an enrolling officer at the time of the war.

This biography generously submitted by Roxanne Munns.