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From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 743-744
JAMES M. HARCLEROAD, one of the enterprising and successful business men of Platteville, Grant county, owns and operates one of the largest livery stables in that city, and is a man universally respected. Our subject was born in Grant county in November, 1856, son of Solomon and Mary M. (CASTLEY) HARCLEROAD.
Solomon HARCLEROAD was born in Bradford county, Penn., where he grew to manhood. His wife was born in Missouri, her father being Piece CASTLEY, a farmer, who died while yet a young man, and the mother migrated to Grant county, where Solomon HARCLEROAD met her daughter, and they were married. After marriage the parents of our subject located in Grant county, and the father followed mining until the Civil war broke out, when he enlisted in Company F, 10th Wis. V.I., and served three years, participating in a number of hard-fought battles. Returning home after the war, he settled on a farm near Platteville, where he died in 1876. The mother still survives, and makes her home with our subject, in Platteville. There were seven children in this family, all are now living except one daughter, Effie, who married A. E. WELLER, of Des Moines, Iowa, and left one son, William, who still resides in Iowa.
Our subject was the eldest of the family, and was reared and educated in Grant county. When a young man he was a foreman of construction on the Chicago & Northwestern and other railroads, but in 1887 he settled at Lancaster, where he embarked in the livery business, and drove a stage between that city and Potosi for five years. About 1889 he removed to Platteville, where he established his present stables, and conducts business upon the latest methods. His horses are fine animals, the drivers careful, while his carriages, buggies, carts, and other equipages are of the latest design and best workmanship. The service is very efficient, and patrons are certain of receiving honorable treatment.
In 1887 Mr. HARCLEROAD married Miss Alma BURRESS, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah BURRESS, old pioneers and well-to-do farming people of Belmont, Lafayette county. Mrs. HARCLEROAD was born in Grant county in 1862. Three children have been born to our subject and wife, James, Edward and Ruth, the first named being a student at the State Normal, and a very bright boy.
Politically Mr. HARCLEROAD has been identified with the Republican party, and fraternally he is a member of Platteville Lodge, K. of P.; and Lodge No. 7, of the Modern Woodmen. Mr. HARCLEROAD is special treasury agent of his city, and in the spring of 1900 was elected a member of the city board from the First ward. Although deeply engrossed in the business of his establishment, Mr. HARCLEROAD always finds time to give his support to anything tending toward the advancement of the material interests of the city, and he enjoys the respect of his acquaintances as an honorable man and a public-spirited citizen. Mrs. HARCLEROAD is a consistent members of the M. E. Church, and takes an active interest in the work of that denomination.
This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck