Hi Listers.. An index to the biographies in the History of Barron County, 1922, and those previously submitted are available at the following: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/wi/barron/bios.htm Transcribed by Peg Lamkin, brinwood@chibardun.net. Edited and submitted by Victor Gulickson. W. Edward Gleason, highway commissioner for Barron county, in which office he has now served for three years, was born on a farm near Three Rivers, St. Joseph county, Mich., Jan. 27, 1878, son of William C. and Elizabeth (Morton) Gleason. Both his parents were born at Three Rivers, Mich., the father March 29, 1850, and the mother Nov. 3, 1855. They were there married in August, 1875. Their children were: Helen, now the wife of James G. King, who is in the mail service at Bay City, Mich., and Jesse W., an attorney and newspaper publisher of Saginaw, Mich. When W. Edward Gleason was five years old he accompanied his parents to the vicinity of Glendive, Mont., where his father became proprietor of a sheep ranch, and there the family remained from 1883 to 1889, when they returned to Three Rivers, Mich. In the meanwhile, W. Edward had attended school, and he now entered the Three Rivers Normal and Business College, from which he was graduated in 1894. In the fall of that year he returned with his parents to Montana, where his father resumed sheep raising, W. Edward becoming his partner. In 1901 they sold their interests, and the subject of this sketch came to Cumberland, Barron County, Wis., where for two years he was engaged in the real estate business. At the end of that time he took up general farming, buying 400 acres of wild land in Lakeland township, on which he began the work of improvement by building a residence. From 1906 to 1910 he served the township on the board of supervisors, and again from 1913 to September, 1917, during which latter period he was chairman of the board. He was then appointed highway commissioner for the county, to fill an unexpired term of S. S. Berg, who had resigned, and in November, 1917, he was elected to the same office for a term of one year by the county board. In the fall of 1918 he was re-elected for a two-year term. He owns a nice residence on Division street, Barron, which he has occupied since becoming highway commissioner. Mr. Gleason was married Dec. 31, 1903, to Pearl M. Schultz, who was born at Baldwin, Pierce county, Wis., May 24, 1880, daughter of William and Clara (Heasley) Schultz, who later settled in Cumberland, Barron County. Mr. and Mrs. Gleason have three children: Virginia, born Sept. 30, 1911, who died May 5, 1912; Marcella, born Sept. 7, 1913, and William R., born Dec. 20, 1916. Mrs. Gleason is a member of the Episcopal church, and Mr. Gleason of Cumberland Lodge, No. 223, F. & A. M. In politics he has always been a Republican. --Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co., 1922, pp. 93-94.