1. Ithamar Conkey Sloan (block 6, hillside vault)
People are curious about the sealed hillside vault near the chapel. Sloan constructed the vault for his entire family - about a dozen people. Originally the vault was faced with marble and featured the family name, but only the core and sod roof remain today.
Despite his odd name, Sloan was a highly respected man, Born in Madison County, New York state, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1848. Six years later he came to Janesville, where in 1858 and 1860 he was elected District Attorney for Rock County. In both 1862 and 1864 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he served on committees dealing with public lands and war expenses. When Lincoln was assassinated, Sloan represented Wisconsin at the President's funeral.
After the Civil War ended he returned to Janesville and practiced law. In 1875 he moved to Madison and became the Assistant Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, under his brother, Andrew Scott Sloan, who was Attorney General for the state. One of his last acts as Wisconsin's Assistant Attorney General was to present the petition of Lavinia Goodell, fellow Janesville lawyer and friend, to appear before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Although Miss Goodell's petition was denied by the supreme court, later Wisconsin law was rewritten to allow any qualified person - including a woman - to practice before that court. Later Sloan was Dean of the law school at the University of Wisconsin.
2. Edward Vernon Whiton (block 35)
Edward Whiton was born and educated in Massachusetts, and studied the law there as well. As a young man in his thirties he came west and settled down in a cabin east of Janesville, and became a lawyer here. In 1847 he married Amoret Dimock, a woman whose brother Edward had ties to the Tallman family. E.V. Whiton was involved in Wisconsin Territorial government, working on statutes for governing the territory, and serving as a member of the territorial legislature. When the state government was organized Edward Whiton was elected judge of the 1st circuit, which included Rock County, and that also made him a justice of the Wisconsin state court.
When the Wisconsin Supreme Court was organized in 1853, Whiton was elected Chief Justice, and served until his early death in 1859. Whiton, who was widely admired, had a part in a number of important cases. One was connected to the Fugitive Slave Act, which held that all cases involving runaway slaves were automatically federal cases, and had a special commission whose duty it was to return such slaves to their southern owners. Joshua Glover was a black man owned by B.S. Garland, a Missouri slave owner. In 1854 Glover was captured and jailed in Milwaukee, but when federal officials attempted to return him to to Mr. Garland, angry Wisconsinites surrounded the jail, attacked it with shovels, pick axes and other implements, and released Mr. Glover, rushing him to Racine. Several people were arrested in this incident, including Sherman Booth, a Milwaukee newspaper editor, who was convicted of violating the Fugitive Slave Law. The case was appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Judge Edward Whiton wrote an opinion that the Fugitive Slave Act was wrong, because it attempted to give federal commissioners judicial powers, and because that denied accused fugitives the right to trial by jury.
3. Harmon Sweatland Conger (block 92)
You are looking for a draped and tasseled marble block not far from the road the runs up the right side of the chapel, up quite near the Tallman plot.
H.S. Conger was born in Cortland County, New York, in 1816. He grew up on the family farm and attended a local academy before studying law in the office of Horatio Ballard. Conger was admitted to the bar of New York, and worked at the Court of Common Pleas and the Supreme Court of New York at Utica. While he was still studying law he purchased a local newspaper, The Cortland County Whig, in which he editorialized in favor of Henry Clay for President in 1841. In 1847 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives.
Conger married Lucy Canfield, who was six years younger than he was, in 1845. They moved to Janesville where she died in 1861. Several years later he married a second time, this time to Mary Adelaide Atkinson.
By 1870 he was elected circuit judge of the newly created 12th Circuit Court. It was during that time that Lavinia Goodell applied for admission to practice law, and seeing no reason why she should not be permitted to do so, he admitted her to local practice.
In the last few years of his life Conger was painfully afflicted with rheumatism, and he found no medicine that gave him relief. He died at home in Janesville in 1882, and his obituary in the Janesville Gazette was very complimentary saying ...(H)e gave the country more than a quarter century of the best efforts of his life. His friends can say that there is no stain of dishonor upon it, or deed which will throw back a shadow.
4. Otis West Norton (block 91)
Otis West Norton, a New York state native son, was father of Mrs. Edgar Tallman and his gray granite family monument is very near that of the Tallman family. His obituary, which ran in the Janesville Gazette in 1889, does a good job of summarizing some of his accomplishments.
DEATH OF HON. OTIS W. NORTON
Rock County's Representative in the Earliest Wisconsin Legislatures
The End Comes at Three O'clock This Morning After Prolonged Illness
The life of one of the earliest pioneers of Rock county ended at three o'clock this morning by the death of Hon. Otis W. Norton, at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. E.D. Tallman, North Jackson street. Besides his wife, Mr. Norton leaves a family of five children; Mrs. H.D. Ewer of Milwaukee; Mrs. E.D. Tallman of this city; Mrs. Spencer Eldredge of Dwight, Illinois; Mrs. Charles D. Cory of St. Johns, New Brunswick; Mr. George O. Norton, agent of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway in Pueblo, Colorado. All the family will be present on Friday afternoon a 1 o'clock, except Mrs. Cory, who is unable to attend on account of her recent severe attack of pneumonia."
Otis W. Norton was an American businessman from Rock County, Wisconsin who served for three years (1848–1850) as a a Whig member of the Wisconsin State Senate from the 15th Senate District; his home town at that time is listed as Milton. He was succeeded in the Senate by Andrew Palmer, a Democrat.
In 1853, he was listed as one of the directors of the Beloit and Madison Railroad and is reported to be living in Janesville. He was President of the Central Bank of Wisconsin in Janesville (later to become the First National Bank of Janesville) when it opened in October 1855, and served as a bondsman for the bank from 1855-1858. He appears in a 1858 Janesville city directory, with his presidency of the Central Bank and Norton & Co. (grain, produce and commercial merchants, and freight forwarding) listed as his businesses; he was on the board of directors of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of the City of Janesville, and of the Janesville Gas Light Company.
5. Abraham Close Bailey (block 76)
The headstone you are looking for is gray granite, and low to the ground, probably a modern replacement stone.
Abraham Close Bailey was also from New York state. He grew to young manhood there,
graduated from Union College in Schenectady, and later studied law with Judge Hayes in that same city. He was admitted to the bar in New York, practiced as an attorney, and was admitted as an attorney of the state Supreme Court.
He might have continued practicing law in New York, except that his two cousins, Eliphalet and William Cramer, decided to travel west and see a bit of the country. Bailey decided to join them, and they took a boat to Buffalo, and traveled over the Great Lakes to Milwaukee. From there they acquired a wagon and traveled over corduroy roads and swampy land to this area. Abraham Bailey purchased land in Rock country, but his cousins sought their fortunes by returning to Milwaukee.
Bailey was admitted to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in 1841. He married and began his family, built one of the first brick houses in Janesville, held the offices of court commissioner, justice of the peace, and judge of probate. He was a lawyer in Edward Whiton's law firm, and at one time shared an office with that man.
In 1860 his health was failing, and he went to Racine for treatment. While he was there he caught a severe cold which culminated in quick consumption, and he passed away in 1861.
6. Moses S. Prichard (block 74)
According to the Portrait and Biographical Album of Rock County, Moses S. Prichard was born in Vermont in 1822. He was educated at the University of Vermont, studied law, and was admitted to practice law there in 1844.
In 1845 he came to Janesville, forming a law partnership with A. Hyatt Smith. After that partnership was dissolved, he joined the office of Judge David Noggle, and over the years formed several different law partnerships. He also held various public offices. In 1846 he was elected Justice of the Peace, serving several years. In 1853 he resigned as Justice of the Peace and became the County Judge of Rock County, serving four years in that position. In 1878 he was elected Police Justice, and served in that position until 1889.
He married Betsey True in 1847 and raised a family of five children. In addition he was a member of the Odd Fellows lodge No. 14, and by all accounts was a hard working and respected member of the community.
7. Zebulon Palmer Burdick (block 69)
The family monument for the Burdicks is quite large, gray granite.
Zebulon Palmer Burdick was born in New York in 1806, and received his early education there. Like others on this walk he studied law and was admitted to the New York bar, practiced law, married and started his family in that state. His first wife died young, and he remarried to Philena Brock, and in 1849 emigrated west with her to Rock County. He purchased a farm, built a log cabin and then later a more substantial home, and over time became prosperous, raising stock and some tobacco.
But Burdick was not only a local farmer. For fifteen years he was Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, and in 1858 was elected a member of the Wisconsin General Assembly. In 1859 he was elected a State Senator, and and was reelected the following year. Ten years later he was again elected to the State Legislature, occupying a seat in the House, and serving there until 1875. In 1854 he was elected the third president of the Agricultural Society and was generally politically active locally, first supporting a radical party called the Barnburners, and later on becoming a staunch Republican.
8. John Winans (block 70)
It shouldn't be too hard to spot the medium sized gray granite monument for the Winans family, and John Winan's low gray headstone is very nearby.
John Winans was a native of New Jersey, born in 1831. He was admitted to law practice before both the circuit and supreme courts of New Jersey before he came to Janesville in 1857. Here in Janesville Winans partnered with Ogden Fethers, and later added Malcolm Mouat and Malcolm Jeffris to the law firm.
Winans was politically active, a lifelong Democrat in a strongly Republican area. He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly four different times. In 1882 he was elected to federal office representing the 1st Congressional District, serving until 1885. In addition he served as Janesville City Attorney from 1865 until 1875. In 1885 he was elected mayor, and served for two years. During his time as mayor he worked hard to improve city infrastructure - including overseeing the implementation of street light rail, a pumping station on South River street, water-powered electric service and the installation of street lights, gates at railway crossings, and the organization of the Wisconsin Telephone Company. He died at home in 1907, seventy-five years of age.
9. David Noggle (block 71)
It should be easy to spot the tall gray granite monument for the Noggles, and you should be able to see David Noggle's small headstone, which is simply marked "Father."
Judge David Noggle was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1809 to parents who were pioneer farmers. Despite his somewhat poverty-stricken youth, he worked hard, moved to Illinois once he was married, and trained to be a lawyer. In 1838 after taking a difficult exam for the Supreme Court of Illinois, he was admitted to the bar in that state. A year later he sold his farm and moved to Beloit, where he opened a law office which served primarily Winnebago, Boone and Rock counties. In 1840 he was appointed Postmaster of Beloit, and five years later he moved to Janesville where he was elected a member of the First Constitutional Convention for the state of Wisconsin, where he was in favor of an elected judiciary and the rights of married women. In 1854 he was elected to the State Legislature from the Janesville district. He was elected judge of the First Judicial Circuit (Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Rock and Green Counties) in 1858. He had a fine reputation as a fair and impartial jurist, and in 1866 he retired from the bench.
For a time he lived in Iowa and worked as an attorney for the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. But then he returned to Beloit, built a lovely home, and returned to law practice there. In 1869 President Grant appointed him to the position of Chief Justice of the Territory of Idaho, a position he held until 1874, when failing health forced him to resign.
Noggle was a Democrat, until the formation of the Republican party, when he switched. In 1844 he was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated President Polk, and he was a delegate again in 1852 for President Pierce, and in 1860 for President Lincoln.
After his death 1878 he was remembered for his intelligence, gentlemanly appearance and demeanor, his public speaking ability, and his lifelong dedication to public service.
10. Ralph Gunn (block 187)
The Gunn family monument is modern and elegant, a gray granite slab with a kneeling and praying angel at the side. It can be found within the circular drive area, sometimes called the park within a park.
Ralph Gunn was a native of Rockford, Illinois, born in 1916. He grew up around Manitowoc, where he attended school. As a young pan he contracted polio, when left his legs useless. This did not prevent him from graduating from the University of Wisconsin law school in 1944, when he was twenty-eight years of age.
As a lawyer he was particularly interested in issues concerning juvenile protection and court procedures. He spent much of his time working with young people , serving as advisor the the Janesville Senior Hi-Y club at the YMCA, and as a member of the board of the National YMCA, and the North Central Area YMCA. For many years he was chairman of the juvenile protection committee of the Wisconsin Congress of Parents and Teachers, and was president of the Wisconsin State Board of Criminal Court Judges. In 1947 he was elected judge of the Rock County Municipal Court - later called Rock County Court Branch 2.
He was president of the Janesville Rotary club in the 1950's, and a member of the board of directors of the Rock County Historical Society. He served as president of the RCHS in 1954. He also was active in all aspects of the Mt. Zion United Brethren church.
Gunn died when he was just 45 years of age in 1962. His obituary called his passing a "tragic loss," and remarked on his dedication to his family and to the larger community.
11. Stephen Bolles (block 210)
Bolles has a small upright headstone in a shady area.
Stephen Bolles was born in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1866. His mother was a teacher and his father a lumberjack and mill superintendent, When he was young the family moved to Waushara County in Wisconsin, and young Bolles attended public schools in Wisconsin, and college at Slippery Rock Normal School in Pennsylvania.
After graduating Bolles went into newspaper work, becoming first a reporter for the Toledo Blade. Later he was managing editor of the newspaper. By 1894 he was the publisher of the Erie Dispatch, and later managing editor of the Buffalo Times and several other regional papers. In 1920 he was hired as the editor of the Janesville Gazette, and stayed with that newspaper until 1938. Locally Bolles was very active, organizing the Good Times Club for rural youth. At one point the club had five thousand members. He also was active in the organization of 4-H clubs in the county, and encouraged the farm women's movement. He was always interested in issues pertaining to farmers and rural young people, and featured articles about them often in the Gazette. He was a promoter of the council-manager for of city government and promoted its adoption on the editorial page of the newspaper. Eventually this form of city governance was adopted, and Henry Traxler became the first city manager in 1922.
Bolles was a tireless writer and public speaker. During his time with the Gazette he spoke to about 800 audiences and appeared on WCLO talk shows about 500 times. Many of his speeches were published in the newspaper, and covered a range of topics including the character of Abraham Lincoln, America's struggle for peace, and issues pertaining to the State School for the Deaf.
He was active in politics throughout his life, serving on various Republican committees, campaigning for candidates and reporting on elections. In 1938 he was elected to congress from Wisconsin's First Congressional District. His nickname became the "Cow Congressman" for his strong support of the Wisconsin dairy industry, He opposed margarine substitutes for butter and a promoted increased in butter and cheese rations in military diets. A political conservative, his campaigned again the United States becoming involved in World War II. He died in Washington D.C. in 1941, at age seventy-five.
