Source: "Portrait and Biographical Record - Published 1894 by Excelsior Publishing Co., Chicago" Pages 408 - 409

Ela Cone, of Sheboygan, whose office is at No. 1801 Sixth Street, does an extensive business in moving houses. He was born in Lewis County, N. Y., February 10, 1843, and is a son of John and Mary (Fradenburgh) Cone, both natives of Oneida County, N. Y. The father was a carpenter and millwright, and also worked considerably at the business of house moving. He came to Wisconsin in 1850, locating in Lyons, Walworth County, and after living there a number of years removed to Janesville, where he died in 1890, at the age of seventy-seven years. His wife, whose death occurred in 1893, had attained the good old age of seventy-eight years. They were both members of the Methodist Church, and in politics he was a Republican. They were the parents of eleven children, two of whom died in infancy, and seven sons and two daughters are yet living.

The subject of this record is the fifth in order of birth in his father's family. His education was obtained in the common schools, and from the age of sixteen he worked with his father and acquired a good knowledge of his trade. On the 15th of August, 1862, he enlisted in Company C, Twenty-second Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, under Col. Utley, of Racine. He went to Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky., thence to Nashville and Franklin. In the battle of Spring Hill, Tenn., many of the Second Brigade, Second Division of the Twentieth Army Corps, were captured, but Mr. Cone, in company with some three hundred soldiers, made his escape under cover of the darkness. He was placed at Brentwood to guard Government supplies, and was there captured and sent to Libby Prison, Va. Very fortunately for him he was paroled at the end of eighteen days. The regiment was re-organized at St. Louis, and his next battle was at Resaca, where the gallant Twenty-second lost seventy-three men in about ten minutes. For about forty days he was under fire while on the Atlanta campaign, and on the 18th of June, 1864, while placing pickets near Kenesaw Mountain, he was wounded near the hip joint, a minie-ball passing from the front and glancing around the bone, being extracted at the back. He was sent to the field hospital at Nashville, and some four months later to Madison, Wis., but has never entirely recovered from the injury. He returned to Nashville, and thence to Chattanooga, where in the convalescent camp he was cut off by Hood, who was besieging Nashville. Railroads being torn up, they were obliged to go on short rations until relieved with fresh supplies. Later he joined his regiment with Sherman at Goldsboro, N. C. He remained with the Twenty-second until March 22, 1865, when he was mustered out. He received a commission dated March 16, 1865, as First Lieutenant of Company H, Fourteenth United States Colored Infantry, and was on detailed duty, having charge most of the time of the military prison at Knoxville, Tenn. He was present at the Grand Review in Washington, and on the 26th of March, 1866, when he was discharged, he had served three years and eight months.

Mr. Cone returned to Walworth County, Wis., and engaged in the business of carpentering and house-moving. In the spring of 1867, he removed to Manitowoc, where he engaged in the same business for twenty years. Since 1887, he has been a resident of Sheboygan, and does the leading business in his line in the city. He has moved many wooden structures and three brick buildings since locating here.

While a resident of Walworth County, Mr. Cone was married, August 9, 1866, to Miss Abbie R. Balcom, a native of that county. They have had five children: Clarence B., who is in the office of the Crocker Chair Company; Luella M., Blanche M., Charles H. and Harold Clyde. Mrs. Cone is a devoted member of the Methodist Church.

For two terms our subject has served satisfactorily as Alderman in Manitowoc. Fraternally, he belongs to Gustav Wintermeyer Post No. 187, G. A. R., of which he is now Quartermaster, and he was formerly Commander of Walker Post No. 18, Manitowoc. Wintermeyer Post has given more than any other in the State for the Soldiers' Home in Waukesha, Wis.

Return to the Sheboygan Page

Return to Bios page