Untitled From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 16-17

HON. GEORGE CLEMENTSON, Judge of the Fifth Judicial circuit of Wisconsin, with his residence at Lancaster, has been a resident of Grant county since early childhood. He was born in Yorkshire, England, in March 1842, a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (PEACOCK) CLEMENTSON, the former of whom was born in Neasham, County of Durham, July 6, 1816, and by trade was a wheelwright. He removed from Darlington, where he had served his apprenticeship to Richmond, Yorkshire, and there followed his calling until 1849, when he came to America with his wife and son and daughter, a third child having died in infancy; George is the elder of the two survivors. He made settlement at Hazel Green, Grant Co., Wis. He was one of the suffers from the cyclone which partially destroyed the village in 1876. Mrs. Elizabeth (PEACOCK) CLEMENTSON was called away early in 1879, and the death of Joseph CLEMENTSON took place at Hazel Green April 16, 1880.

Judge CLEMENTSON began his business life by assisting his father in carpenter work, and later in wagon-making, principally at Hazel Green. For a short time the family lived in Hudson, St. Croix county, and then returned to Hazel Green, where young CLEMENTSON acquired his elementary education in the common school and local academy. But his course of reading and general study were far in advance of the curriculum, as he was innately a student and an apt one, and self-education raised him above the average of other young men. He early resolved to become a lawyer, and having well prepared himself, through self-discipline, he began the study of law unaided, and qualified himself for entering the law department of the University of Michigan, which he attended one year. Later he read law in the office of Hon. J. Allen BARBER, and in March, 1868, was admitted to the Bar - having worked at his trade, meanwhile, to earn the wherewithal to pay his expenses at college and thereafter until admitted to practice.

In the fall of 1868 Mr. CLEMENTSON was elected to the office of district attorney, and in the fall of 1896 he formed a partnership with Joel Allen BARBER, which was continued until the death of the latter, in 1881. While this firm still had its existence, and was enjoying quite an extensive and consequently lucrative practice. Mr. BARBER was elected a member of Congress, in 1870, and re-elected in 1872, and during the four years of his incumbency the legal work of the firm was practically conducted by Mr. CLEMENTSON; that it was successfully carried on its self-evident.

In the spring of 1882 Mr. CLEMENTSON was elected on the Republican ticket Judge of the Fifth Judicial circuit, and has been thrice re-elected, as a non-partisan candidate, without opposition, this fact showing the confidence reposed in him by his party and the public. His fourth term will expire at the close of 1906. During the period of his judgeship his ability and erudition have been fully recognized, and his integrity has never for a moment been questioned. Among many of the important criminal cases that were brought before him while on the Bench, his acumen was truly and effectively manifested in the trials of Rose Zoldoski for the murder of Ella Malley, of the Koetting case, in Milwaukee, and of the lynchers of Siebolt, who was hanged by the culprits to a tree opposite the court house at Darlington.

On May 11, 1869, Judge CLEMENTSON married Miss Mary Asenath BURR, a native of Vermont, a daughter of Addison BURR, and a distant relative of Vice-President Aaron BURR. Three children have been born to the Judge and his wife: George Burr, who was graduated from Cornell (N.Y.) University in 1892, and is now a member of the law firm of LOWRY & CLEMENTSON of Lancaster; Joseph Addison, who graduated from the high school of Lancaster, took a three-years course in Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, Ill., later took a course in the Polyclinic College, Philadelphia, Penn., and is now a practicing physician at Mineral Point, Wis.; and Bessie Barber, still under the parental roof.

Mrs. George CLEMENTSON is a devout member of the Congregational Church, of which the Judge is a trustee, although not a member. There is perhaps no individual in Grant county more honored and respected than Judge George CLEMENTSON, and not one that more justly deserves the respect that is paid him, as it is through his own personal merits and inflexible integrity that he has risen from a comparatively obscure condition to the elevated position be a present holds.



This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck