Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2025 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== History of Buffalo & Pepin Counties, Wisconsin - Vol. 1 pub. H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co., Winona, MN - 1919 [page 135-136] JOHN BAURES, in former days a well known citizen of Cross township, Buffalo county, of which he was an early settler, was born in a village on the River Rhine, in Germany, and came to the United States in 1851 with a MR. PLUKE, locating near Milwaukee. The money for his passage across the ocean having been loaned to him, he was obliged to work one year in order to earn enough to pay the debt. After that he worked for himself and saved enough to enable him to send for his parents and sister, the family locating on a small farm near Potosi. After that JOHN started out for himself and in two or three years came to Buffalo county, his arrival here being in the year 1863. In Grant county he had married CHRISTINA REIF, who was born in Germany at a place not more than four hours' ride from his own birthplace, and who had come to this country in 1853 with her parents. She was then the widow of JOSEPH KRAMER, and had a child, MARGARET, who afterwards married MIKE BERGER, of Buffalo county, who is now deceased. At the time MR. BAURES came to Buffalo county he and his wife had four children, MARY, HERMAN, ANNA and ANTON. That fall and winter they resided in Fountain City, and in the follow- ing spring located on a tract of 160 acres of wild land in Cross township. He had at the time but fifty cents in money, and he and his family had to camp out in gipsy fashion until he could build a log shanty. His supplies consisted of fifty pounds of flour, a cook stove and a few home-made chairs, and he had nothing but his hands with which to begin the arduous labor of developing a farm. He was made of good pioneer stuff, however, and, though times were hard at first, the family got along. There were no roads, and the stove that he brought with him to his place was carried through the wilderness for three miles on his back. He had no team and it was a year before he got a yoke of oxen. The principal food of the family for some time was corn bread, the corn being ground largely in a coffee- mill. Later MR. BAURES built a larger log house, increased his supply of furniture, cleared his land and became prosper- ous. Three more children were born on that farm, StEPHEN, JACOB and HENRY. Finally MR. BAURES retired and in 1887 removed to Fountain City, where he spent the rest of his life, dying in 1910 at the venerable age of 92 years. He was then a widower, his wife having passed away in 1900 at the age of 68. MR. BAURES was a Catholic in religion and helped to build the first Catholic church in Fountain City, and also the last new church. He was a good type of the earnest, energetic pioneer, and did his share in helping to develop the agricultural resources of his township. He had acquired 320 acres of land. ===========================================================================