- FRED N. TORREY, cashier of the Bank of Hortonville, and one of the leading citizens of the village, is engaged in the real estate business, deals in cigars as a wholesaler, and is connected with various other business enterprises. He is a son of Samuel C. Torrey, who was born in Massachusetts, September 19, 1839, of Pilgrim descent. In young manhood Samuel C. Torrey learned the trade of carder and for a time worked in the woolen mills of the Eastern States, but becoming discouraged with the outlook for a successful career, he emigrated to the West in 1854, locating in New London, Wisconsin, where he took up 160 acres of Government land, heavily timbered, where he developed a fine farm. In June, 1881, (sic - 1861) he enlisted in Company E, Sixth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Moster, "the Iron Brigade" and they joined the Army of the Potomac, participating in many bloody battles, including the engagements at Antietam and Gettysburg. In September, 1864, he re-enlisted in Company A, First Wisconsin Cavalry, and with that organization served until the close of hostilities, when he returned to his farm. Fred N. Torrey was born in Bovina township, June 4, 1863, and his boyhood was spent on his father's farm. He attended the local country school until 11 years of age and the following two winters went to work for neighbors after finishing his home work and for two weeks plowing received four dollars. The next summer he worked out for fifteen dollars per month for six months and gave his father eighty-five dollars, the greater part of the remaining five dollars being spent for a pair of boots. That winter he went into the woods where he drove a team and engaged in hauling logs, and most of this money he gave to his father, saving out twenty dollars with which he bought a colt. This he put out to pasture on his father's farm, and the latter sold the animal six months later for fifty dollars. During the next winter Mr. Torrey went to Florence and began to work in a drug store, but eventually he left for the woods and during the next summer again worked on a farm. Later on when he had given about $300 to his father, the latter gave him his time and in the fall he again went into the woods to work. He continued to work on farms in the summers and in the woods in winter until 1882, when he opened a drug store which was destroyed by fire in 1887, taking nearly everything Mr. Torrey had saved. Nothing daunted, he accepted a position as traveling salesman for Charles Wright & Company, dealers in pharmaceutical goods, and after traveling two or three years on commission he was given a contract on salary to cover the Pacific Coast trade which he worked at for eight years, making several trips each year to the Pacific Coast. In 1891 he gave up this position. and entered the wholesale cigar business at Hortonville, and he now has two traveling salesmen. At the time of the reorganization of the Bank of Hortonville, Mr. Torrey bought stock, and soon thereafter was elected a director, and in 1902 he in company with G. A. Zuehlke started a bank at Shiocton under the name of Torrey & Zuehlke. In 1903 he was appointed cashier of the Hortonville Bank, a position which he still holds and he also deals in real estate and has numerous other interests. Although his business affairs have kept Mr. Torrey exceptionally busy, he has still found time to serve his community in positions of an official nature, it being his contention that every man owes something to his village and his county, and he has served as a member of the village school board, as village clerk, postmaster and Chairman of the County Republican Committee. He is connected fraternally with the Modern Woodmen of America and is a charter member of the Equitable Fraternal Union. In 1884 Mr. Torrey was married to Esther Van Alstine, daughter of James and Emily Van Alstine, early settlers of this locality, and to this union there were born the following children: Freda E., Bessie B., Ruth, Donald F., Esther M. and Theodore S. Mrs. Torrey died June 2, 1909, in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she was a devout member.
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1863 - 1951 (87 years)
Biography
