Biographical Sketch of

Patrick Croarken

Transcribed by Sandra Boudrou



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 592 - 593 


Patrick Croarken, the present efficient County Clerk of Marquette County, was born in Deerfield, Herkimer Co., 
N. Y., July 7, 1843, of Irish parentage.  He is a son of James and Alice (McCarran) Croarken, both of whom 
were natives of County Monaghan, Ireland, where they were married July 16, 1842.  In the spring of the following 
year they removed to this country, their first location being in Deerfield, Herkimer Co., N. Y., where they 
remained until 1849.  One of the most important events of their life in Deerfield, was the birth of their 
son as above mentioned.  In the spring of the year above stated, they left the East, and came to Wisconsin, 
locating in Wauwatosa, now Milwaukee, where they remained until the following October, when they came to 
Marquette County, taking up their residence in the town of Shields, where Mr. Croarken pre-empted a homestead, 
which he afterward improved until it became quite valuable.  His widow is still living on that farm.  On the 
20th of December, 1861, he responded to the call of his adopted country for troops to put down the Rebellion, 
enlisting in Company C. 3d Wisconsin Cavalry, and was with the 2d Battalion in Kansas, and other Southwestern 
States, through all of its service there, acting as train escort, fighting Quantrell's guerrillas, and 
skirmishing with the Indians.  One of the most notable of the engagements in which he participated was the 
battle of Baxter Springs, Ind. Ter., on the 6th of October, 1863, when Quantrell's band disguised in Federal 
uniforms, assaulted Gen. Blunt, who was commanding the Army of the Frontier, escorted by about 100 cavalrymen 
and colored troops, en route for Ft. Scott.  The General escaped, together with about fifteen men, including 
Mr. Croarken, but the remainder were all captured, robbed and murdered in cold blood.  He became disabled, 
and was discharged May 6, 1864, under a special order issued by the War Department April 26, 1864.  His death 
occurred on the 4th of April 1868.
 
Our subject made his home with his father, doing his share in the work of improvement and progress which the 
pioneers of this part of Wisconsin found awaiting them, and at times attending school until sixteen years of 
age, when, though a mere boy he enlisted in Company E. of the 7th Wisconsin Infantry without the knowledge of 
his parents, but they were made aware of his action before he was mustered into service, and the would-be 
soldier found his hopes suddenly dashed by parental authority.  His father entered the service soon afterward 
as a member of Company C. 3d Wisconsin Cavalry, and during his absence Patrick again enlisted in the same 
company to which his father belonged on the 11th of November, 1863, and joined the regiment at Dry Wood, Mo.  
Both tall in stature, father and son were frequently placed side by side in the center of a company, certainly
an odd occurrence, and one which rarely happened during the entire war, though thousands were engaged in the 
struggle.  The following account of Mr. Croarken's military service has been published in a work devoted to 
a record of the boys in blue from Wisconsin.
 
"In the spring, his company was stationed at Ft. McKean, and did frontier duty.  The nature of the service was 
necessarily of the most revolting character, as it was necessary for self preservation and for the protection 
of Government trains, to execute summary justice on bushwhackers, guerrillas and murderers of every grade, as 
that was the mode of warfare they themselves had followed.  Mr. Croarken was a member of the Army of the Border 
under Gen. Blunt, and with the command was sent to the vicinity of Lexington, to ascertain the whereabouts of 
Price, and was in the action near that city, Independence and on the Little and Big Blue Rivers, and fought at 
Westport, Mo., where Price's army was in force, the rebel having crossed the river with 26,000 men.  In the 
last engagement at Wine Creek, where 1,000 men, including Marmaduke and Gen. Cable were captured, and a large 
amount of ammunition and army stores, also.  Mr. Croarken was mixed up in a hand to hand fight, and was injured.  
At the moment of surrender of Marmaduke, he was within twenty feet of the rebel guerrilla chief.  That campaign 
lasted forty-eight days, and some times the men were in the saddle a week at a time.  After it was over, the 
command pushed on after Price, whom they fought at Newtonia, and were victorious.  After they had driven Price 
across the Arkansas River, the company returned to Ft. Scott, where it remained until March, 1865, when Mr. 
Croarken was detailed with a number of others to proceed to Lexington, and was occupied in the guerrilla warfare 
until June, 1865, when orders were received to report at Leavenworth, for 'muster outs.'  On arrival there they 
were sent to Denver, Col., and Mr. Croarken went as far as Ft. Riley, where he was left on sick leave.  Soon 
after, he was sent back to Ft. Leavenworth, where he remained in the hospital until he was discharged Aug. 24, 
1865, from Company H, to which he had been assigned in March, previous."
 
Upon his return to Wisconsin, Mr. Croarken was engaged in lumbering in the northwestern part of the State for some 
time, and afterward devoted his energies to farming in the town of Shields, where he made his home until 1882.  
During that year he bought the Fountain House at Montello, which he has since owned and managed, making it one 
of the most popular hotels in the county.  It is furnished with all the modern conveniences and improvements, and 
no effort is spared to promote the comforts of its guests.
 
In 1878, Mr. Croarken was united in the holy bonds of matrimony with Miss Sarah, daughter of John and Anna Winn, 
both of whom died in Gant County during the childhood of their daughter.  Two children grace the union of this 
worthy couple:  Anne Eliza, born Nov. 10, 1879; and Francis James, born Oct. 15, 1887.
 
Though never in any sense an active politician, Mr. Croarken has always advocated and voted to support such measures 
as he believed would bring the greatest good to the greatest number.  He was elected Sheriff of Marquette County 
in the year 1884, and served until the expiration of his term of office, with great credit to himself, and 
satisfaction to the citizens of all classes and parties; and had it not been for a law by which a man holds that 
office but one term without intermission, it is safe to say that he would have been re-elected.  He was elected 
County Clerk in the fall of 1888, and is the present incumbent, having entered upon the duties of that office in 
January, 1889.  Socially, he is a member of the W. D. Walker Post, No. 64, G. A. R., of Montello, and is otherwise 
identified with the dearest and most important interests of the town and county.  As a citizen, he has ever been 
liberal and loyal; as a husband and father, he has done all in his power to make those dependent upon him happy 
and prosperous; as an official, he has ever had the public weal uppermost in mind and considered the interests of 
the county paramount to his own; and as a soldier, he made a record of which his descendants may well be proud, 
placing him as it does, high on the list of those young patriots who have been often referred to as "the boy soldiers 
of the Union," for he was a little more than a boy when his military service began, and he grew to manhood amid some 
of the most soul sickening scenes of a long, and sometimes inhuman war.






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