Untitled
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 310
CHARLES WARING, one of the representative citizens of the village of Livingston, Grant county, is of foreign birth, but his duties of citizenship have ever been performed with a loyalty equal to that of any native son of America, and when the nation was imperiled by rebellion he went to the defense of the Union and protected the cause of his adopted country on many a Southern battlefield. He enlisted in December, 1864, in Company I, 47th Wis. V.I., and was mustered into the United States service at Camp Randall, Madison, on the 21st of January, following. The history of his regiment is too well known, and its honorable record too familiar to those versed in the history of the war between the States, to require special mention in this sketch. Suffice it to say that Mr. WARING faithfully discharged all the duties that devolved upon him, and during all the time that he was in the service lost but one day, and then from illness, returning to his command the following day, against the advice of the physician in charge. After hostilities ceased he was honorably discharged, Sept. 4, 1865.
Mr. WARING was born in Derbyshire, England, July 24, 1835, a son of John and Alice (ANDREW) WARING, natives of the same country, the former born Aug. 2, 1812, the latter Oct. 13, 1815. They never came to America, but spent their entire lives in England, where the mother passed away Dec. 17, 1857. The father married again, and survived until 1896, dying at the age of eighty-five years. No children were born of the second union. There were five by the first, four sons and one daughter, but only Charles and John are now living, the latter a resident of Manchester, England. It is interesting to note in this connection that the above dates were taken from an old family Bible sent to Mr. WARING by his father a few years before the latter's death. The title page of this ancient book states that it was instituted in London in 1804.
At the age of fourteen years Charles WARING came to the United States, with an uncle by marriage, and it may be stated here that he worked a year to pay his passage, his parents being too poor to send him, and landed in America without a cent in his pocket. Arriving in Grant county, Wis., Nov. 16, 1850, he has since made his home in Clifton township, and has been absent from the township no length of time but twice - the time spent in the army and a sojourn of about six months in the Rocky Mountains. Yielding to a desire to once more see his aged father, and visit the scenes of his early boyhood, Mr. WARING visited the land of his birth in 1895, and about a year later his father passed away. In his earlier days in Grant county he was engaged in mining, later in farming, and for twelve years conducted a hotel which he owned in Livingston.
On Dec. 16, 1857, Mr. WARING was united in marriage with Miss Harriet L. HUDSON, who was born Jan. 2, 1833, in Delaware county, Ohio, and came to Platteville from that State in 1844. They have a family of five children, one son and four daughters, whose names and dates of birth are as follows: Alice A., Jan. 4, 1859; Jennie, Oct. 15, 1863; Harriet E., June 28, 1866; Martha M., March 2, 1871; and Charles W., Feb. 24, 1878. One daughter, Henrietta, born March 3, 1876, died Feb. 7, 1877.
Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. WARING's health was permanently impaired by his army service, he has led an industrious and active life, and has accumulated a competence for his declining years. He has ever been held in high esteem as a man of honesty and integrity. Although born on English soil, he is truly an American citizen, and the flag whose honor he helped to sustain he esteems above all others . In his political views he is a Republican, had the honor of casting his first vote for the first Republican Presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, in 1856, and has supported every Republican nominee down to McKinley. He voted twice, in 1860 and 1864, for the martyr President, Abraham Lincoln, whose memory is sacred to every true American citizen. Mr. WARING served on the board of supervisors in the town of Clifton for seven years.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck