WI BIO - Dane Co - VEERHUSEN, Behrend
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol II, pp 478-479

Behrend VEERHUSEN, one of the leading farmers of Westport Township [Dane 
County, Wisconsin], was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1821. His father, Harm, 
was also a native of Hanover, where he pursued farming. His wife, mother of 
our subject, was Gretke WILLIAMSON, and they lived and died on their farm in 
Germany, where they reared seven children, two of whom died young, but the 
remainder grew to mature years. Three of these five came to America, namely: 
(1) Folkert, who resides on his farm in Champaign County, Illinois, and is 
a wealthy, retired farmer, seventy-five years of age and has five children; 
(2) our subject is the next; and (3) William, the youngest, died in March 
1890, in the city of Madison [Dane County], Wisconsin, when about sixty-eight 
years of age. He left three children, who are well provided for by his 
estate.

Our subject [Behrend VEERHUSEN] came to Wisconsin in the summer of 1847, when 
it was yet a Territory. He embarked at Bremen on a sailing craft of Denmark, 
which was a large three-mast vessel, carrying about 850 emigrants. The 
voyage continued about six weeks, but the trip was a safe one, and they 
landed at Quebec. As he brought some money with him he was able to purchase 
land immediately upon arrival in [the Territory of] Wisconsin, and his first 
farm consisted of eighty acres, which he bought for $2.50 per acre. It is 
now the site of the Asylum barn. On this land he built a large, hewn log 
house, as no lumber could be obtained.

Within three years of arrival in Wisconsin [WI became a state 29 May 1848] 
he married Barbara SCHANTZ, a native of Switzerland, daughter of John and 
Barbara (MILLER) SCHANTZ, who came to the Territory [of Wisconsin] in 1846, 
having sailed from Havre, France, to New York, and although the trip was a 
long one, it was enjoyable from its novelty. They settled in Blooming Grove 
[in Dane County, in the Territory of Wisconsin until 29 May 1848, then a 
state], where they accumulated about 200 acres of land and died there, aged 
seventy and eighty years, respectively. They had two daughters and one son, 
and these children have increased the 200 acres to 350.

Our subject [Behrend VEERHUSEN] bought his eighty acres in 1851. The country 
was a wilderness, although not swampy. There were no roads here at that 
time. Later he sold his eighty acres for $400 and then bought his present 
land for $3.50 per acre. On this land he soon built a good log house, one 
story high, with a sleeping loft above, and soon opened a tavern, where he 
did a flourishing business, having oftentimes as many as twenty to thirty for 
meals and lodging, but his prices were very low. In time he discovered a 
good stone quarry on his land, which he operated extensively before the 
asylum was started. The Governor of the State, Mr. FAREWELL [means Gov. 
Leonard James FARWELL, governor of Wisconsin from 05 Jan 1852 to 02 Jan 1854] 
came with a committee and selected the stone.

Our subject is a good mechanic, although he never served an apprenticeship, 
and laid a portion of the wall of his present home, in 1854, and his stone 
barn in 1855. He added fifty acres to his original eighty acres and [p 479] 
now owns 120 acres. He did an extensive business in tavern keeping until 
1861, when he retired from that business. Eighty acres of his land are under 
cultivation, but he has done more in wood and land speculation, buying timber 
land, marketing the wood and selling the land. Over 800 acres have passed 
through his hands. He was Justice of the Peace from 1860 to 1876 and served 
as Supervisor one term and as School Trustee for over twenty. During the war 
our subject voted the Republican ticket, but of late is a Democrat. On his 
farm he carries on general farming, and is very successful in it, as in all 
his other enterprises.

Our subject [Behrend VEERHUSEN and his wife are members of the Lutheran 
Church. Of their nine children, only one is dead, Henry, who passed away in 
1885, when about twenty-seven years of age, leaving a widow and two sons and 
one daughter, who reside on their farm in Burke, Dane County [WI]. His wife 
was Mary VAHLEN. The eight living children of our subject [Behrend 
VEERHUSEN] are as follows: (1) Mary, wife of Herman SCHMELTZKOPF, of 
Madison [Dane County, Wisconsin], three sons and one daughter; (2) Sarah, 
wife of Ernest DARLING, a railroad employee of North Freedom [Sauk County], 
Wisconsin; (3) Nellie A., wife of Edwin EALES, County Clerk of Potter 
County, South Dakota, and speculates in lands; (4) Ben Hardus, resident of a 
Chicago [Cook County, Illinois] suburb, where he engages in merchandising; 
(5) Lilly, at home; (6) William, at home, a young man; (7) Lulu, at home; 
and (8) John, at home. [See also the Dane County, WI, biography of H. 
GROVE, whose daughter, Mathilda, was married to John W. VEERHUSEN, possibly 
the John mentioned here.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly