From the Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, 
Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette Wisconsin, J. H. Beers & Co., 1901, Chicago, IL.

Pages 910 - 911 ~ Grant County
 
LEWIS MORGAN OKEY (deceased).  Among the representative business men of Grant 
county none were more deserving of representation in this volume than Lewis M. 
OKEY, the well-known president of the Cassville Bank.  For many years he was 
connected with the agricultural interests of the community, and through his 
well-directed efforts gained a handsome competence that numbered him among the 
most prosperous and wealthy citizens of Cassville.  Keen discrimination, 
unflagging industry and resolute purpose were his salient characteristics, and 
thus he won that prosperity which is the merited reward of honest effort.
 
Mr. OKEY was born in Woodsfield, Monroe Co., Ohio, Jan. 3, 1823, and died at 
Cassville, Wis., July 7, 1900.  He was a son of Henry and Minerva (BALDWIN) 
OKEY, natives of Vermont and Massachusetts, respectively, and pioneers of the 
Buckeye State.  The father opened up and improved a farm in Monroe county, 
Ohio, where his wife died in 1844, and he subsequently came to Cassville, Wis., 
where his death occurred in 1856.  To them were born six children, four sons 
and two daughters of whom our subject was the eldest; Wilson came to Grant 
county, Wis., in 1854, but died in Hull, Iowa, in January, 1901; Cornelius came 
to Cassville in 1854, enlisted in 1861 in the 7th Wis. V.I., served through the 
Civil war, and was in the government employ at Washington, D.C., until his 
death, Feb. 2, 1901; Mrs. Jane WEIMER is a resident of Pike county, Mo.; Mrs. 
Belinda YOCKEY makes her home in Hull, Iowa; and one son died young.
 
Lewis Morgan OKEY was reared and educated in the county of his nativity, and in 
1850 came to Cassville, Wis.  The trip was made by water, down the Ohio river 
to Cairo, Ill., and up the Mississippi to Cassville, where he landed April 7, 
1850, from the first boat that came up the river that year.  The town at that 
time was a mere hamlet.  For two years Mr. OKEY made his home in Waterloo 
township, Grant county, and then purchased 480 acres of prairie and 160 acres 
of timber land in Cassville township, making a full section, which he improved 
and placed under a high state of cultivation.  For many years he was 
extensively engaged in general farming and stock raising, making a specialty of 
blooded stock, and became one of the most substantial agriculturists of Grant 
county.  At his death he still owned three large farms near Cassville, 
aggregating 1,180 acres.  In 1892 Mr. OKEY purchased a full interest in what is 
now the Cassville Bank.  It was organized as the First Commercial Bank of 
Cassville, in August, 1889, by M. A. GREGLOW and Lewis M. OKEY, and the bank 
building was erected the same year.  When Mr. OKEY became a sole proprietor he 
changed the name to the Cassville Bank, and from its inception served as 
president.  As a financier he ranked among the ablest, and his executive 
ability and excellent management brought the concern with which he was 
connected a high degree of success.  He was always distinguished for 
punctuality and methodical habits, a characteristic which was emphasized during 
his last sickness, when he took pains to arrange all the details of his 
business in anticipation of his death.
 
Before leaving Monroe county, Ohio, Mr. OKEY was married, in 1842, to Miss 
Caroline TITUS, a native of Norfolk county, Mass., and a daughter of Samuel 
TITUS, who died in Missouri.  To this union were born five children, namely: 
Samuel, who is married, and lives on the old homestead in Cassville township; 
William, who is postmaster at Cassville, having had charge of the office for 
his father, who was postmaster from 1898 to June 27, 1900, when he resigned in 
favor of his son, the latter's bond being approved on July 9, just two days 
after his father's death; Lewis H., who is married, and follows farming in 
Cassville township; Minerva, wife of George H. GROOM, of Storm Lake, Iowa; and 
Dora, who died in 1854, aged eleven months.
 
Socially Mr. OKEY was a member of Cassville Lodge, No. 255, F. & A.M., R. A. 
Chapter, of Lancaster, Commandery, K.T., of Boscobel, and Wisconsin Consistory, 
of Milwaukee.  He cast his first presidential vote for Henry Clay, the Whig 
candidate, but from the organization of the Republican party had been one of 
its stanch supporters; and had served as chairman of the board five years and 
as a member of the city council at Cassville.  Mr. OKEY was practically a self-
made man, whose success in life was due entirely to his own well-directed and 
energetic efforts.  On first coming to Wisconsin he worked in the lumber woods, 
at day labor, or anything which he could find to do.  Since 1889 he had made 
his home in Cassville, where he was regarded as one of its most prominent and 
honored citizens. 
 
Submitted by:  Carol
(carolannh@ticon.net)