grain merchant, businessman, b. Long Island, N.Y. In 1856 he moved with his family to Wisconsin, settling in Janesville. In 1865 he went to Minnesota where he spent the next several years developing a successful grain trading business in Austin and Albert Lea. Returning to Wisconsin in 1875, he established his residence at La Crosse where he founded the W. Cargill Co., dealers in grain. His business interests grew steadily and eventually became greatly diversified. He established elevator companies in Minneapolis and Superior, was an owner of the La Crosse and South Eastern R.R., and vice-president and director of the Green Bay, Kewaunee and Western R.R. He also had large lumber holdings in Pine Bluff, Ark., and tracts of timber lands in British Columbia, and Mexico. In La Crosse he was an important stockholder in the city's major utilities and in many of its leading industries and banks. He was widely known for his philanthropy. La Crosse Morning Chronicle, Oct. 19, 1909; La Crosse Tribune, Oct. 18, 1909; B. F. Bryant, ed., Memoirs of La Crosse Co. (Madison, 1907); F. L. Holmes, et al., eds., Wis. (5 vols., Chicago, 1946).Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
