This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: SPEED, BONSTELL, GALVIN, PORTER Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ZEC.2ACE/1192 Message Board Post: ** Posted for informational purposes only -- poster is not related to the subject of this biography. Silas Speed, Barron, Sheriff of Barron county, was born in Racine, Wis., April 27, 1850, and is a son of George and Ann (Bonstell) Speed, natives of New York, who settled in Wisconsin in 1849. His early life was spent in Juneau county, where he was educated in the common schools. He was engaged as a railroad man from 1867 to 1878, in which latter year he came to Barron county and located in the city of Barron and operated a saw-mill for about a year. He then received an appointment under the sheriff of Barron county and took charge of the jail, under A. J. Barton, for two years, and held the same office under J. N. Plate for three years. He was elected sheriff in 1884. In 1890 he was re-elected by a majority of 196, there being three candidates in the field. In 1872 Mr. Speed married Miss Ellen, daughter of John and Lucinda (Porter) Galvin, natives of Canada, and two children have been born to them, Perry and Carrie. He is a member of Masonic Lodge No. 220, of Barron,! and politically is a republican. --Transcribed from the "Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley Wisconsin, 1891-2," pages 493-494