Albert Olaus Barton was a journalist and politician born in Primrose, Dane County. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1896 and began his career in journalism as a reporter for the Madison Democrat. Barton was managing editor of the Madison Wisconsin State journal from 1905 until 1908, and associate editor of the Wisconsin Fanner and Iowa Homestead from 1920 until 1928.

Barton was closely associated with the Progressive Republicans and was a political writer for Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and served as his secretary in the U.S. Senate from 1910 until 1912. Barton subsequently wrote La Follette's Winning of Wisconsin, 1894-1904, which was published in 1922.

He served as Wisconsin insurance examiner from 1913 to 1918, and the registrar of deeds for Dane County from 1935 until his death. Barton was widely known as a local historian; his special interest was the history of Scandinavian-Americans, and he wrote many articles on the subject.

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