This brief Associated Press item from the Monday, May 22, 1916 issue of the Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Daily Northwestern (p. 13) says several important things about Appleton and Wisconsin in the 19th and early 20th centuries: first, a "negro" was an oddity in Appleton; second, it was necessary to mention a non-white person's race in a death notice; third, the word "loses" is used, indicating a loss to the community; and fourth, Appleton's chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic was integrated.
William S. Cleggett, born about 1832 in Pennsylvania. He is listed on the 1850 Lancaster, Columbia County, Pennsylvania census as a barber. By late 1857 the family was living in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. In 1874 he operated his barber shop "opp. Levake House," a local hotel, and lived on Morrison St. His wife, Rebecca B. Hollensworth Cleggett was a hairdresser.
William served in the 8th Company of the Wisconsin Light Artillery in the Civil War. The family is listed as mulatto on the census scheduled from 1860 (when they lived in Stevens Point) to 1880. However, in both the 1900 federal census and the 1905 Wisconsin census they are black, but back to mulatto in 1910.
The news items below show that he was a well-known and respected barber and businessman.
William Cleggett placed an ad in the local newspaper offering his services
from The Wisconsin Pinery (Stevens Point, Wisconsin), April 23, 1858
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from the Appleton Post Crescent, Thursday, December 14, 1967, p. 52
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The family lived at 450 State (now 510 S. State St.) as early as 1884.
Members of the family are listed as mulatto on the 1860 census when they lived in Stevens Point and also on the 1870 and 1880 census schedules when they lived in Appleton. However, in both the 1900 federal census and the 1905 Wisconsin census they are black. By 1910 they were back to mulatto. Daughter Mary's entry in the Lawrence College Alumni Record, 1857-1905 states the family is of "Scotch-Irish-negro ancestry." By 1892 both William and Rebecca were living with their daughter Ada, a teacher, at 438 State (now 522 S. State St.)
William S. Cleggett is a bit of a mystery. He appears in the 1884 and 1896 Appleton city directories, but not in the directores in the intervening years. There was also a William S. Cleggett in Ironwood Michigan in 1896 who operated a barber shop with Thomas Braxton. In 1895 Braxton left Cleggett & Braxton and opened his own shop. Cleggett moved to a new location in 1896.
Ironwood News Record, Ironwood, Michigan
Saturday, April 25, 1896, p. 16
In July of 1896 Braxton's shop was robbed. Cleggett was implicated, then confessed (from the Ironwood Times, Ironwood, Michigan, Saturday, July 25, 1896, p. 1)
The trial took place that December (from the Ironwood News Record, Ironwood, Michigan, Saturday, December 12, 1896, p. 7
William is buried in Appleton's Riverside Cemetery. The Ironwood (Michigan) News Record printed a brief item on his death. Was this the same William S. Cleggett?
News item from the Ironwood News Record, Ironwood, Michigan, Saturday, May 27, 1916, p. 8
