----Source: 1918 History of Clark County, Wisconsin

JOSEPH S. BOGUMILL, one of the leading citizens of the village of Thorp, a man of enterprise and many financial interests, is perhaps best known at present as proprietor of the Farmers' Store. He was born in the province of Pozen, Poland, in February, 1866, son of Kazmier and Margaret Bogumill, and one of a family of whom four members are now living, the survivors being two brothers and a sister, namely: Andrew, a farmer of Withee Township, this county Agnes, now Mrs. Michael Yatzko, residing in Pennsylvania, and Valentine, who resides in the state of Washington. The mother, Mrs. Margaret Bogumill, died when her son Joseph was 15 years of age, and soon after, in 1881, her husband came to the United States, locating in Pennsylvania, where he died in 1888. Joseph S. Bogumill acquired a public school education in his native Poland. Coming to this country in 1883, he located in Pennsylvania, where he took up mining and engaged in that industry until 1892, when he came to Clark County, Wis. Soon after his arrival here he bought forty acres of land in Section 13, Thorp Township, on which some of the timber had been chopped. It was a small shanty on the place, in which Mr. Bogumill took up his residence with his family. He worked hard clearing his land and by 1897 found himself in a position to buy forty acres rnore. About that time he built a frame house and a good set of out-buildings, including a barn, 24 by 58 feet in size, of hewed timber. There he followed general farming for thirteen years. At the end of that time he sold his farm and moved to Lombard in Withee Township, where he bought a general store and also an eighty-acre farm previously owned by Frank Switalski. Then for six years he conducted the store and also operated the farm with profitable results. Selling out his interests there, he bought the Joe Sterling farm of acres, in the village of Thorp, an improved place on which he lived for four years. While on that farm, he bought a store and property in the village of Thorp and engaged in the general mercantile business, he and his wife attending to the store before his sons became partners in the business, which is now carried on under the firm name of Joseph Bogumill Sons. His farm he exchanged for his present comfortable residence.

Mr. Bogumill has the reputation of being one of the most progressive and successful men in his community, his business being varied and numerous. He was one of the organizers of the Thorp Dairy Company, serving as its secretary for four years, and being now one of its stockholders. He is also a stockholder and director of the Farmers State Bank of Thorp, and a stockholder in the River Head Dairy Company of Taylor County, Wis., and in the Gillett Rubber Tire Company of Eau Claire, Wis. As a man deeply interested in the welfare of the community in which he lives, Mr. Bogumill has for a long time taken an active part in public affairs, having been a member of the town board of Thorp and village trustee ever since taking up his residence here, and a member of the school board of Joint District No. 4 of Thorp and Withee. For six years he also served as town clerk of Withee, and at the present time is serving as deputy sheriff. He is a member of the Modern Woodrnen of America and his religious affiliations are with the Polish Catholic Church. Mr. Bogumill was married, June 21, 1887, to Mary Yonkins, who was born in Pennsylvania, March 15, 1871, daughter of Ernest and Eliza (Pitman) Yonkins. Her father, who was a native of Germany, died in 1904, but her mother is still living in Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Yonkins had a family of twelve children, four of whom died young, those who arrived at maturity being John, Mary, Margaret, William, Jennie, Elizabeth, Catherine, Edward and Leon. To Mr. and Mrs. Bogumill eleven children have been born, whose record in brief is as follows: Gertrude, born March 17, 1888, is now Mrs. Charles Herman, of Thorp Township, and has five children, Rose, Mary, John, Louise and Thomas Leon, born Feb. 20, 1893, and who is now secretary and manager of the Thorp Dairy Company, married Helen Dzikowski John, born Jan. 26, 1895, who is in his father's store, married Jeannette Hulls Lucy, born

Dec. 3, 1896, married Stanley Menski, bookkeeper in a bank at Mosinee, Wis., and has two children, Stanley and Marjorie Elizabeth, born Oct. 27, 1898, is bookkeeper in her father's store Thomas, born Oct. 19, 1900 Edward, born June 13, 1902 Sophia, born May 8, 1904 Pauline, born April 13, 1906 Frank, born June 2, 1910, and Catherine, born April 30 1917.