Cicero Lathrop Bristol, born at Harmony, Chautaqua Co., New York, Nov. 22d, 1837. In the spring of 1839 the family removed to Kenosha Co., Wis., and it was in the town of Bristol where the home was made and where he began going to school. During the few years that the family remained there he attended school summers and winters, and being of a studious mind for a child made fairly good progress in his studies. In the intervening years between the first removal an d1850 he continued in the schools of the various places where the family lived. In the year named they moved to Appleton, Wis., where he, withy the two eldest sisters, entered the Lawrence University. He remarried there less than two years. During that time he made fine progress. He excelled in reading, spelling, grammar, history, geography and philosophy. In mathematics he was only average.
In 1853 the family home was in Dakota, Wisconsin. This was a small village composed of an unusually high moral and intellectual class of people. The school was excellent. For several years the winter terms were taught by Elder George C. Babcock, a teacher of exceptional qualifications of great popularity. The summer terms were taught by Miss Laura Seely, finely educated lady, experiment and successful as a teacher. The school was know far and near for its excellence. The subject of this sketch attended the winter terms, making excellent progress. The remainder of each year he worked on the farm doing a man's work tho so slight that his weight did not much exceed one hundred pounds.
In the early fall of 1855 he went to Ohio intending to take a full course in Berea College. But conditions did not suit him there and he returned as far as Toledo where his uncle, George Warne lived. The latter was a building contractor and had just finished a fine brick structure known as "The City Institution." Here he entered this fine city school, remaining for three or four months, and then returning to his Wisconsin home. It was home sickness that caused his to return. He at once secured a school in Sander's district a few miles south of Dakota and taught one term. This was during the winter of 1855 -6.
During the next summer he made up his mind to go west and join the free state party in Kansas which was fighting desperately to defeat the Missouri Border Ruffians