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From the Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 655-656
JOB SLACK, one of the leading representatives of the agricultural interests of Grant county, was born in Devonshire, England, on March 1, 1832, a son of Job and Anna Slack, both natives of Yorkshire, England, the father having been born in 1803 and the mother in 1805. They came to Lafayette county in 1848, where the father worked in the lead mines of New Diggings, for one year, then moved back to Grant county, and settled on wild land, one mile south of Big Patch, there dying in March, 1851, leaving a wife and four children: Job, our subject, is the eldest; Elizabeth, born in England, is now wife of John GREEN, and has two children, Frederick and Herbert, both teachers in the high schools of Chicago; Ruth, born in England, is the wife of John HARKER, and has three children, George, James and Lydia; Annie, born in England, is now the wife of Thomas WILKINSON, and has the following children, Albert, Edward, Nellie, Annie, Thomas, Emma, James, Hall, Milford and Yetta. The mother of our subject remained on the old homestead until her death in 1869. Both she and her husband were stanch members of the Church of England and good Christian people.
When about seventeen years old, Mr. SLACK came to America where he worked in the lead mines of southwestern Wisconsin for several years, afterward going to Montana, where he worked in the gold mines for two years. Upon returning from Montana, he purchased more land in Grant county, and engaged in farming. In 1871 Mr. SLACK married Miss Annie F. FOX, who was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1848, and who came with her brothers, George, Charles and Thomas, to Grant county, where she met and married our subject. She was a very worthy lady, kind in her home and charitable to the poor, and her death, in 1876, was the cause of great sorrow, not only to her bereaved husband, but to her many friends.
Mr. and Mrs. SLACK were the parents of three children: Elizabeth, born at the old home, on July 8, 1872, a student of the Platteville Normal, was graduated from the Platteville Normal, class of 1896, and became a successful teacher in Smelser, later entering the State University, where she pursued classical studies; George, born in 1874, married Etta NEWTON, and resides at Big Patch, where he has a family of four children, Luverne, Virgil, Albert and Nellie; and Job, who died in infancy.
Politically Mr. SLACK has always identified himself with the Republican party, and given his services to it and to the community as treasurer of the school board for thirteen years, was a member of the town board, and has been overseer of the many excellent roads for seven years. In religion he is a member of the Primitive Methodist Church, as was his wife, and whenever any good deed is proposed, Mr. SLACK's contribution and influence are confidently expected, and always given.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck