WI BIO - Dane Co - PARISH, Charles E.
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol II, pp 455-456

Charles E. PARISH, editor and publisher of the Stoughton [Dane County, WI] 
Courier, was born in Albe [Albia?], a suburban village of Troy [Rensselaer 
County?], New York, 24 October 1850. His parents, William and Esther PARISH, 
were natives of Oxfordshire, England; emigrated to America in the spring of 
1850, and for a brief period made their home in Albe [Albia?], New York. In 
the autumn of 1851 they resumed their march westward, and after several weeks 
of privation and hardship, traveling by steamship, railroad and ox cart, 
arrived in the village of Stoughton, Dane County, Wisconsin. It was then a 
mere hamlet in the wilderness, being composed of twelve houses and a 
schoolhouse. The railroad was not then completed west of Milwaukee 
[Milwaukee County, WI], and the family, together with other pioneers, 
suffered many hardships and privations. At the completion of the railroad 
business began to improve, buildings were erected and Stoughton began slowly 
to assume the appearance of a prosperous village. The father of our subject 
[William PARISH] commenced taking contracts for excavating cellars and other 
work, in which he gave employment to a number of men, and thus, by frugality 
and economy, secured enough of the wildcat currency of the period to enable 
him to purchase a home. In 1855 William PARISH exchanged his village 
property for a farm in the town of Rutland [Dane County, WI], to which he 
then removed, and where the subject of this sketch spent the years of his 
boyhood.

In 1869 Charles E. PARISH entered Albion Academy, where the spent several 
terms as student and tutor. He spent the winter of 1870 in company with T. 
J. CUNNINGHAM, who was elected secretary of State in 1890, and again, in 
1892, in the office of the "Stoughton Reporter," then edited by the brilliant 
Frank ALLEN. The following spring he re-entered Albion Academy as a teacher 
of penmanship and elocution. During the summer and fall of 1872 Mr. [Charles 
E.] PARISH traveled as agent and reporter for the Black Earth [Dane County, 
WI] Advertiser and Dane County Republican. The following spring he turned 
his attention to farming, which he continued successfully, until the frosts 
of August 1875 ruined his crops and left him almost penniless. A few days 
after the frosts our subject obtained employment as book and time keeper for 
David STEPHENS, contractor of Science Hall, Madison [Dane County], Wisconsin, 
and removed to [p 456] that city; during the succeeding winter traveled for 
the [Wisconsin] State Journal; the following summer obtained employment in 
the office of the Madison Democrat; during the fall of 1876 acted as book and 
time keeper for the contractor who erected the Blind Institute at Janesville 
[Rock County, WI]; during the winter resumed work as correspondent for 
several newspapers and periodicals, writing at that time descriptive 
articles, poetry, etc.; in May 1877, purchased a half interest with George W. 
CURRIER in the Stoughton Courier, and a year later became sole owner and 
publisher, in which business he has ever since continued.

In the winter of 1881 Mr. [Charles E.] PARISH was appointed proofreader for 
the Assembly, and the following spring, upon the incorporation of Stoughton 
[Dane County, WI] as a city, he was elected Supervisor for the 2nd Ward. 
This position he held until his removal to the 1st Ward in the fall of 1885. 
The next spring he was elected Supervisor of the 1st Ward, and has since been 
re-elected several times. Mr. PARISH is a stanch Republican in politics. For several years he was associated with 
Hon. J. M. CLANCEY, Assistant 
Attorney General, in the real estate business, and during the boom of 
1884-1885, they sold a large amount of property. At present, besides 
publishing the Courier, he conducts a real estate and insurance business. 
Mr. [Charles E.] PARISH was married on 13 November 1872 to Maud A., youngest 
daughter of Dr. M. Lewis and Judith (MARSHALL) BELDEN, of Stoughton [Dane 
County, WI].

Submitted by Cathy Kubly