HONORABLE G. W. BARTLETT.

G.W. Bartlett is distinguished as being a retired member of the Pioneer hardware firm and Clyde's first mayor. He came to Clyde in the spring time of 1870, and assumed charge of the hardware business of Whitford & Perry, of Manhattan. In 1871 he formed a partnership with W.S. Crump, under the firm name of Bartlett & Crump, successors of Whitford & Perry. Their capital was two thousand dollars, which made but a small showing. Hardware was high and freight one dollar and fifty cents from Atchison, hauled by teams and sometimes cattle.

Mr. Bartlett has been engaged in various enterprises. In the grocery business two years, in the drug store one year but has been practically retired, for the past sixteen years. Bartlett & Crump erected a building on the corner of Washington and Green streets in 1873, which was burned to the ground January 23, 1886. They erected the block which bears their name in 1883. Mr. Bartlett owns some good residence property. The Bartlett home was the first to be built on Lincoln street. There were no near neighbors and they went "cross lots" to go down town. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett have seen Clyde grow to its present proportions. There was not a tree on the town site when they arrived, and the beautiful avenue of large soft maples that surround their residence was set out by their own hands. Mr. Bartlett was offered six thousand dollars for a corner lot on Main street without a building on it.

Mr. Bartlett is a son of Milton and Ruth (Bull) Bartlett, both of Massachusetts. His paternal ancestry were of English origin; his maternal ancestors were from France. Mr. Bartlett is a native of Connecticut, born near Hartford in 1840. When fourteen years old he ran away from home and sought refuge with an uncle in Ohio, where he worked for one year at twelve dollars per month. He subsequently operated an agency for the Weed Sewing Machine Company. For several years he was in the employ of the Charles P. Colt hoop-skirt and corset manufactures and when they failed established a factory for himself at Vernon, Connecticut. He did a flourishing business until the hoop-skirt began to wane, when he suspended this enterprise and took a position as traveling salesman for the Fickle & Lyon Sewing Machine Company. While in the state of Connecticut Mr. Bartlett says he did almost everything but manufacture bass wood hams and wooden nutmegs; he even sold clocks.

Mr. Bartlett was married in 1860 to Eliza J. Perry, a daughter of Israel K. and Jane (Walker) Perry. They emigrated from Connecticut to Illinois, where Mrs. Bartlett was born and three months later returned to their eastern home. In 1857 Mr. Perry came with his family to Topeka and in 1866 to Manhattan, where he became associated with A.J. Whitford until he retired from business in 1876. Mr. Perry was for years a member of the Congregational church. He was a man of high moral character, guided by the principles of justice and right. He died in Florida April 6, 1902, at the age of eighty-seven years. He was born in Manchester, Connecticut, in 1815.

To Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett have been born two sons, Ralph W. and Charles P., both of whom are well-to-do and successful business men. Ralph W. is a resident of New Oxley, California, where he is engaged in the cattle business. Charles P. is a capitalist and real estate dealer.