From Memorial and Genealogical Record of Dodge and Jefferson Counties, Wisconsin, publ. 
1894 - Page 59-60
 
COURTNEY STARKWEATHER.  Every owner of a residence or business block, as well as every 
tenant, knows how important it is to have doors, sash, blinds, flooring and other parts of a building 
built of a seasoned lumber and in first-class shape so that they will not be warping, shrinking or 
getting out of shape.  Courtney STARKWEATHER, a prominent business man of Beaver Dam, 
Wis., has proven to contractors and builders, as well as owners of property, that material 
purchased of him is always as represented, and that he can sell cheaper than many of his 
competitors who have endeavored, unsuccessfully, to establish themselves in business in Beaver 
Dam.  He deals in all kinds of building material.  His stock of lumber is valued at about $10,000 
and he does an annual business of from $25,00 to $50,000, gives employment to from two to five 
men constantly, and keeps two teams busy.  He has passed a great deal of time in the forests of 
Northern Wisconsin in the purchase of lumber, selecting the same from the log, and at various 
times has made purchases amounting to thousands of dollars, and has always shown keen 
business foresight and good judgment in making his purchases.  He has practically operated the 
only lumber yard in Beaver Dam during the past twenty years, as six different unsuccessful 
attempts have been made by as many different competitors to engage in business here, but has 
never attempted to take advantage of his patrons on this account, his business life being 
characterized by the most upright conduct.  He owes his nativity to Genesee County, N.Y., where 
he first saw the light on the 18th of April, 1842, a son of Martin and Mary (BATHCELDER) 
STARKWEATHER, who were also born in the Empire State, the former in Wooster County.  He 
was a carpenter and joiner by trade and followed that occupation after his removal to Columbus 
County, Wis., in 1852, being also engaged in contracting quite successfully for a number of 
years.  The last few years of his life he passed in retirement and in the enjoyment of the fruits of 
many years' industry, and on the 12th of March  1891, he was gathered to his fathers, after a 
useful and well-spent life.  Courtney STARKWEATHER was but ten years old when he came to 
Wisconsin with his father, having been left motherless at the age of two years, and as he has 
spent the most of his life in this section it is not to be wondered at that he has every interest of his 
section at heart, is public spirited to a degree and counts his friends by the score.  He first lived 
with relatives for a number of years in Columbus County and received such educational 
advantages as the public schools of his youth afforded, and, being a lad of good intellect, made 
fair progress in his studies.
 
At the age of fifteen years he began learning the carpenter's trade, and for sixteen years 
thereafter his attention was given to this occupation continuously, ten years of which time he was 
associated in his work with his father, who taught him the trade.  At the end of that time he went 
to Fall River, Wis., where he conducted a blacksmith, wagon and carpenter shop, but eighteen 
months later he sold out and came to Beaver Dam, arriving her in April 1873, and soon after 
purchased a lumber yard in connection with Washington CLEVELAND, the business being 
conducted under the firm name of STARKWEATHER & CLEVELAND for one year, at which time 
Mr. STARKWEATHER became the sole proprietor, and has remained such up to the present 
time.  In addition to the business he is doing as a lumber merchant, he is the owner of a fine farm 
of about 133 acres and thirty on the lake, situated three miles from Beaver Dam, and is also a 
stockholder and one of the directors of the Beaver Dam Malleable Iron Company, and owns two 
farms of considerable worth in South Dakota.  His success as a business man is attributable to 
his own good fighting qualities, and to the fact that he has always used prudence in his 
expenditures, although he has ever been the reverse of niggardly.  He is a careful, prudent 
manager, keenly alive to his own interests, but withal is generous and warm-hearted and 
charitably disposed; in fact is a model American citizen.  Politically, he has ever been a stanch 
Republican.  He was married in November, 1876, to Miss Addie A. EGGLESTON, a native of 
Waukesha, Wis., by whom he has two promising children: Charles A. and Bessie M.
 
Submitted by Carol