Orrin Henry Ingram

Ingram was born on May 13, 1830, in Westfield, Massachusetts. His paternal grandfather, David Ingram, had immigrated from Leeds, England, in 1780. He grew up in Saratoga, New York, and he was orphaned at eleven, as his father died in 1841. He worked on a farm from the age of eleven to seventeen. After his mother remarried, they lived on Lake George. Orrin's brother, Julius Ingram, would become a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. ==Career==

Ingram started his career at Harris & Bronson Lumber Company in New York City in 1847. Their systematic deforestation led to the establishment of new towns across the valley. Meanwhile, the lumber yard in Wabasha became the Wabasha Lumber Company and the one in Dubuque became known as the Standard Lumber Company. Additionally, he was an early investor in Friedrich Weyerhäuser's timber investments, later known as the Weyerhaeuser corporation. Ingram published his autobiography. ==Philanthropy==

Ingram was an active philanthropist in Eau Claire, where he was a member of YMCA locally and paid for the construction of its headquarters. Its foundation stone was laid by President William Howard Taft, when he was joined by Senator Robert M. La Follette and Congressman John J. Esch. After he was widowed, Ingram established the Cornelia Pierce Ingram Memorial Community House in honor of his wife. ==Personal life==

He married Cornelia Pierce Ingram on December 11, 1851. They had two sons, Charles H. Ingram, who predeceased him, and Erskine B. Ingram, as well as two daughters, Fanny, who predeceased him, and Miriam, who married Edward S. Hayes. They resided on Third Avenue and Hudson Street in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His wife predeceased him, dying in 1911. ==Death==

He died on October 16, 1918, at the age of 88, He was buried at the Lake View Cemetery in Eau Claire. ==Secondary source==

• Charles Twining. Downriver: Orrin H. Ingram and the Empire Lumber Company. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Historical Society. 1975. ==References==