Chauncey Purple

Purple was born in Weedsport, in Cayuga County, New York, in 1820. He spent some time "in mercantile pursuits" before moving to Wisconsin in 1844. He lived first in Waukesha, then called Prairieville, where he operated a dry goods store for some years.

He was living in Brookfield Center when he was elected to the Assembly for a one-year term in 1854 as a Whig, succeeding Free Soiler Elisha Pearl. He was not a candidate for re-election, and was succeeded by fellow Whig Benjamin F. Goss.

In 1858 he was invited to Madison to take a position as bank clerk in the office of Samuel D. Hastings, then Wisconsin State Treasurer and a fellow temperance advocate. He was soon promoted to Assistant State Treasurer, a job he would hold for about ten years under Hastings and his successor William E. Smith (both Republicans).

After retiring from the Treasurer's office, Purple moved to Watertown and went into the lumber trade, in which he was doing well until the Panic of 1873.

He was first married in Weedsport; that wife's name is unknown, but when she died he was left with a step-daughter. In 1850 he remarried, to Mary C. Patterson, with whom he would have seven more children. He was very active locally and at a wider level in the temperance movement, taking a leadership position in several organizations, including the Sons of Temperance, Good Templars and Band of Hope. He was also an active member of the Congregational Church. He died unexpectedly from "neuralgia of the heart" on December 13, 1879.[2]