Term: Edgerton, Elisha W. 1815 - 1904

Definition: farmer, businessman, politician, b. South Coventry, Conn., brother of Benjamin H. Edgerton (q.v.). He moved to Milwaukee in 1835 and worked as a clerk in Solomon Juneau's (q.v.) store. In 1837 he settled on a farm in Summit, Waukesha County, where he built a model farm. Returning to Milwaukee in 1864, he conducted a grain-commission and later a livestock-commission business until his retirement. A Democrat, he was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1846 and state assemblyman in 1863. He was a leading member and early president of the State Agricultural Society. H. A. Tenney and D. Atwood, Memorial Record of the Fathers of Wis. (Madison, 1880); Proc. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 1904 (1905); M. M. Quaife, ed., Convention of 1846 (Madison, 1919); Milwaukee Journal, Apr. 16, 1904; WPA field notes.