Arthur Charles Cato was born 1862 in Chautauqua County, New York, the son of English immigrants. He married in 1878  and the family lived in New York in the early 1880's, then Canada until the early 1890's and Pennsylvania in the mid 1890's. By the late 1896 they had come to Oconto County, first settling and setting up a photography studio in the village of Hayes and soon afterward building a home and studio between Hayes and Suring August, 1898 when the railroad went through Suring instead of the original route through Hayes. Besides studio portraits, Mr. Cato was also known for his outdoor photography which included scenery, lumber camps, farms and local celebrations, taking his large cameras, glass plates and other equipment by wagon down rough dirt roads in the early years of his career here. By 1910 A.C. Cato, his wife Mary and son Earl were living in  Houston, Texas, where he was an insurance agent. In 1920 the family had returned to town of How and farming until his death in 1943.

Oconto County Reporter
June 19, 1896
HAYES

Mr. CATO, photographer from Chautauqua County, New York has moved to this locality, thus affording the good people of this town an opportunity 'to secure the shadow ere the substance fades.' 

THE OLD SLOUGH (town of How on the Oconto River near Suring) was filled in and became the location of a mobile home court.  A.C. Cato was photographer in this 1908 view of the slough.

Before the BARN RAISING - Matt Philippi Farm in town of How, 1898

Hayes School  1897 Violet Cato, daughter of A.C. Cato was a student.