SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Galusha Mansfield, Page 578

GALUSHA MANSFIELD, a merchant of Greenbush Village, is one of the very earliest surviving pioneers of that town.  He as born in the autumn of 1827, in the town of Lyndon, Caledonia County, Vt., and is a son of Thomas and Hannah (Wright) Mansfield.  At the age of thirteen years he removed with his parents to Lawrence County, N. Y.  He received a common-school education, and in 1848, when in the twenty-first year of his age, came to Wisconsin, settling in what is now the village of Greenbush.  The town bearing that name was then a wilderness of woods, with only an occasional settler living in his log cabin.  Prior to coming West, Mr. Mansfield had been engaged in teaching in his native State, and in the winter of 1848-49, taught the first winter school in Greenbush.  He subsequently taught several terms in that town.  At first he made his home with a pioneer settler, Milo Hard, who lived some two miles west of the village.

    In the spring of 1852, Mr. Mansfield was married in Kenosha, Wis., to Miss Mary Johnson, a daughter of Simon P. Johnson.  Mrs. Mansfield was born in the town of Lawrence, Lawrence County, N. Y., and came to Wisconsin with her parents, at the time her husband came.  Of this union two children were born, a son and a daughter.  Wilder Wright married Cassie Crane, and died May 7, 1883, leaving a wife and four children.  The mother survived until September 12, 1893, since which time their children have lived with the paternal grandparents.  Cynthia A. became the wife of Franklin Hall, of Greenbush.

    About the time of his marriage, Mr. Mansfield engaged in farming in Greenbush, where he owned one hundred and twenty acres of land.  he subsequently gave his children twenty acres each, and in the fall of 1893 sold the remainder.  In 1885 he began merchandising as a member of a joint-stock company.  Their store was destroyed by fire some five years later, when Mr. Mansfield purchased the lot and erected a building on the old site, where he has since carried on business alone.  He keeps a stock of general merchandise and does a prosperous business.

    Mr. and Mrs. Mansfield are members of the Free Baptist Church.  In early life he was a Whig in his political views, but joined the Republican party on its organization.