Men of Progress. Wisconsin. (pages 383-417) A selected list of
biographical sketches and portraits of the leaders in business,
professional and official life. Together with short notes on the
history and character of Wisconsin.

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Page 383 continued

HULBURT, Frank David, an accomplished physician of Reedsburg, Sauk
county, was born in Loganville. Wis., December 23rd, 1858. The Hulburts
trace their lineage directly to Thomas Hulburt, who was born in
Scotland about 1610 and came to America in 1635, settling in
Connecticut. He was wounded in the Pequot war, and held a number of
colonial offices. His descendants were a sturdy race, embracing
mechanics, farmers, merchants and professional men, who spread through
New England, New York and the west. James H. Hulburt, grandfather of
Dr. F. D. Hulburt, a farmer, was born in Vermont and died in Portland.
New York, in 1880. David Barnes Hulburt, son of James H., and father of
the doctor, was born in Portland, Chautauqua county, N. Y., December
8th, 1829. He was reared on a farm, attended the common school and the
Fredonia Academy, graduating from the normal department

Page 384

[image: FRANK DAVID HULBURT.]

of the latter in 1847, at the age of eighteen. He engaged in teaching
for some years, and, in 1857, came, with his wife and one child, to
Wisconsin, settling at Loganville, where he still resides. He engaged
in farming and mercantile business, but has held various local offices
from 1858 to the present time, among which was enrolling officer during
the rebellion, town superintendent of schools, postmaster of Loganville
and county surveyor. The latter office he held for twenty years. He was
elected as a Republican to the state assembly for three successive
terms, and state senator for four years from 1886. While in the
legislature he introduced numerous bills, the most notable of which was
the "one mill tax" to increase the common school fund, all of which
bills became laws and still remain on the statute books. He was married
February 10th, 1856, to Josephine M. Van Scoter, daughter of Dr. Thomas
and Abigail Jones Van Scoter. She received an academic and musical
education at Fredonia, N. Y., where her father was engaged in the
practice of medicine and surgery. Her mother, Abigail Van Scoter, was
of English and Dutch descent, and a woman of marked ability, taking an 
active part in educational and church work, and was, for a number of 
years, matron of the female seminary at Rockford, Ill. David B Hulburt 
is an entertaining public speaker, a logical debater, a shrewd and 
successful politician and a discreet political manager. When a member of 
the senate, he was chairman of the committee on party caucuses and has 
several times been chairman of congressional conventions. He is a man of 
temperate habits and widely known for his integrity, ability, 
attainments and high character.

Dr. F. D. Hulburt received his early education at the common and high
schools at Loganville graduating from the latter at the age of sixteen,
receiving at the same time a teacher's certificate from the
superintendent of schools. Reared in a frugal manner, taught to work,
how to earn money and to save it, and the value of good books, this
youth came to manhood with a strong, self-reliant character and most
studious habits. Soon after leaving school, he went to New Boston,
Ill., where he entered the drug store of his uncle, Geo. Lytle; and,
though new to the business, was soon promoted to the position of head
clerk. After remaining there three years and a half, his health failed,
on account of his close application to work and study, and he returned
home. The change soon wrought a restoration of his health, and he then
secured a position as prescription clerk in the drug store of Moses
Young, in Reedsburg. Wis., and in June, 1882, he received a certificate
from the state examining board of pharmacy as a registered pharmacist.
In 1880 he began the study of medicine, and graduated from Rush Medical
College in Chicago, February 19th, 1884. Returning to his home in
Loganville, he began the practice of medicine there, the first year in
partnership with Dr. E. G. Cristman. In April, 1886, he removed to
Reedsburg, where he has since continued the general practice of
medicine and surgery. For five years preceding November, 1891, he was
visiting physician to

Page 385

the Sauk County Asylum for the Insane. He is now medical examiner for a
number of life insurance companies, among which are the Northwestern
Mutual Life and the Mutual Life of New York.

Politically he is a Republican, and exerts a wide influence especially
among the younger class of Republican in his district. Although not
himself an office-seeker, he has served the city of Reedsburg as major
with ability and credit, and is one of her most influential citizens.
Although he does not make public speaking a specialty or profession, he
has an enviable local reputation as a fluent and effective public
speaker and entertaining lecturer.

He is a member of the Wisconsin Central and the Wisconsin State Medical
societies, and of the American Medical association. He is also a member
of Masonic Lodge No. 157, and the Sons of the American Revolution. He
is a member of the Business Men's association of Reedsburg, of which he
was chairman of the executive committee in 1896. He is not a member of
any church, but contributes to the support of the religious work of all
denominations.

He is devoted student ad skillful surgeon, having an extensive and
lucrative practice.

Dr. Hulburt was married February 13th, 1887, to Mina Markee, only
daughter of Asa Engle ad Caroline M. Seeley Markee of Reedsburg, and
they have two children--Arthur, born July 17th, 1894, and an infant
son, born June 2d, 1897.

STIRN, August Theodore Friederich, or Aug. Stirn, as he signs the name,
is the son of Phillip and Eleonora, nee Unverzagt, Stirn, both of whom
were Germans, and have been dead may years. Phillip Stirn was a civil
officer and a captain in the Landwehr. The members of the family living
in the old country are generally of the professional class, as were
those of former generations. A great-uncle of Aug. Stirn was a general
of the army.

[image: AUGUST THEODORE FRIEDERICH STIRN.]

August Stirn was born in Biedenkopf, Hesse Darmstadt, on the 17th of
March, 1826. He received a high school education; and an old uncle, a
retired captain of the Dutch army, desired him to enter the Dutch navy
as midshipman, for which he had made the necessary arrangements; but
his mother wished him to devote himself to mercantile pursuits. Her
wish prevailed, and he entered as apprentice with a firm in Giessen, at
the end of which, at the age of eighteen, he came to the United States,
landing in Baltimore in 1844.

Although he had some knowledge of the English and French languages, and
letters of introduction and recommendation to German firms of high
standing, he was unable to secure a position in his trade. In lieu of
anything better, he accepted an offer of a confectioner to learn his
trade, at a salary of $2.50 per month and board, and in this way he
earned his first money. In Germany he received nothing but his board
while learning his trade. He did not like trade; and, after a short
time, he went into the piano factory of his brother, Louis Stirn, who
came to Baltimore in 1833. August entered the

Page 386

service of his brother as an apprentice, at a salary of $50.00 a year
and board. After working in this capacity for four years, his brother
offered him the position of traveling salesman at a salary of $800.00
per year. This he accepted, and began his work in Virginia and the
Carolinas, where he made many friends. In 1855, he formed a partnership
with his brother, Daniel, a practical piano-maker, and they started a
factory for the making of the instrument in Baltimore. Afterward the
factory was moved to Norfolk, Va., and William Rohlfing, a brother-in-
law, was admitted to partnership. The business flourished until the
civil war broke out, when, as in the case of many other enterprises, it
was practically ruined. His partners left with their families for the
north, but he, being a single man, remained to the settle up the
business. In North Carolina, on a business trip, he happened to
express, in a company of men, a doubt as to the success of the disunion
scheme, when he was fiercely denounced as a traitor, and but for the
interference of influential men, he would have been handled roughly by
the infuriated crowd. He was finally forced into the Confederate army,
and had a varied and severe experience. When the war had ended he came
to Milwaukee. For some time he was engaged in his brother Henry's
store.

On September 28th, 1870, he was married to Miss Dora Koch, daughter of
John and Helen, nee Strahlendorf, Koch, and sister of ex-Mayor John C.
Koch. Before marriage his wife carried on a prosperous millinery
business; and after marriage she proposed to continue it. To this he
assented, and took charge of the purchase of stock, did the traveling
and other outside work, she confining her attention to the
superintendent of the artistic work, selling of goods, etc. The
business has prospered greatly, and the establishment is now the
leading one of the kind in the city.

Mr. Stirn has always affiliated with the Democratic party since coming
to this country, and been a warm advocate of Jeffersonian principles,
but has had no political aspirations
and has never attended political meetings; he was, therefore, greatly
surprised, some years ago, upon taking up the morning papers to learn
that he had been nominated for alderman of his ward, and a little later
to receive a delegation of citizens asking him to accept the
unsolicited position. After consultation with his wife, he accepted the
nomination and was elected. He served in this office for seven years,
and was a faithful and intelligent official. He also served three years
as member of the board of school commissioners, to which position he
was nominated by the Republican aldermen of his ward, a rare tribute to
his integrity and intelligence as a citizen.

Among the measures of importance which he introduced in the city
council, and of which he was instrumental in securing the passage, were
those creating the public museum and providing for the establishment of
the Industrial exposition. He was also the first member of the council
to recommend the establishing of kindergartens in the public schools,
and the purifying of the Milwaukee river. As a school commissioner he
received unanimous consent of the board to the introduction of a
resolution protesting against the passage of the bill in the
legislature of 1888, abolishing the German language in the public
schools, which doubtless had much to do with the defeat of the bill. He
introduced many measures relating to city improvements, etc., some of
which have been adopted. In all his official course he showed a purpose
to benefit the city, and to secure for it a position in the front rank
of municipalities.

Mr. Stirn was an active Mason in Baltimore, but took his dimit several
years ago. He was a member of the Washington National Monument society,
and one of the founders of the Turner society of Baltimore. He was also
a member there of the Turner Liedertafel. In Milwaukee he has been a
member of the Engelmann School society, and of the Public School
society of the Second ward. He was the first aldermanic trustee and the
first honorary

Page 387

curator of the public museum, and is now one of its citizen trustee. He
is one of the original directors of the Milwaukee Industrial Exposition
association, and is still serving in the capacity. He is a member of
the Humane society, and has been a director thereof, and was one of the
originators of the German Aid society and is still a director thereof.
He is a member of the Municipal league and the Merchants &
Manufacturers' association, of the Deutscher club, and of the Milwaukee
Musical society.

In both public and private career he has shown that he is justly
regarded as a man of progress.

KRUSZKA, Michael, a resident of Milwaukee, is the son of John and Annie
Kluczynska Kruszka, and was born on the 28th of September, 1860, in
Slabomierz in the German province of Posen, or Great-Poland, and came
to this country in 1880. His father and grandfather were both born on
the farm in Slabomierz, which was granted to his great-grandfather for
some special service rendered to the country. His father was a
prominent and well-to-do farmer, village chairman for twenty years, and
the possessor of a farm of 170 acres. He was twice married, and had
thirteen children. The offspring of the first wife are a daughter and
seven sons, the subject of this sketch, Michael, being next to the
youngest. The oldest son, Simon, in a Catholic priest in the old
country, and has, in 1873 and 1874, been several times imprisoned for
resistance to what are termed the "May Laws," which he held to be
designed to destroy the Catholic religion and the Polish nationality
within the German empire. He left the country in 1874 to avoid further
imprisonment, and lived for ten years in Galicia, Austria, but upon
returning was imprisoned, and was released only upon his paying heavy
fine. He is now rector of a Polish Catholic church in his native
province. Of the other brothers, one was a physician (died), two are
farmers, one an agent, and Michael and his youngest

[image: MICHAEL KRUSZKA.]

brother, Joseph, are editors of the Kuryer Polski of this city. The
oldest son of the second wife is rector of the Polish Catholic church
in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Michael Kruszka, in common with his brothers, received a good
collegiate education in his native land, and came to this country in
1880, working first in the Singer sewing machine factory, in Elizabeth,
New Jersey, then on a Pennsylvania farm, and again in the factory.
During his employment in the factory he attended an evening business
school. Subsequently he served as agent of the Metropolitan Life
Insurance company of New York, for a year or more, when, in the fall of
1883, he came to Milwaukee as agent of the company. In 1885 he started
a Polish weekly paper, the Krytyka, devoted especially to the interests
of working men, the first of its kind in the country, and it proved a
success. In 1887 he formed a company for the publishing of a daily
paper, the "Dziennik Polski," but, on account of disagreements among
the stock-holders, the enterprise failed after six months, and Mr.
Kruszka lost everything he had. Not disheartened, however, by his ill
success, he, with

Page 388

the aid of a few friends, started the daily "Kuryer Polski," which was
a success from the start, and is the oldest and most influential daily
Polish paper in the United States.

Mr. Kruszka has been a Democrat since he became informed regarding
American politics, except that in the fall of 1886 he joined the
People's party, and gave it the support of his paper; but after that he
returned to the Democratic party, and has been identified with it ever
since. In 1890 he was a candidate for the assembly from the district
embracing the Twelfth and Fourteenth wards, and was elected by over
2,000 majority. Two years later he was aa candidate for state senator
from the Eighth district, and was elected by 540 majority. In 1896 he
was again a candidate, but owing to changes in the district by
reapportionment, he was defeated. Among the bills which he introduced
into the legislature, and which became laws, was one requiring the fees
in the office of register of deeds of Milwaukee county to be turned
into the treasury, and giving the register a fixed salary, by which it
is claimed the county will annually save some $15,000. He was also
conspicuous in his advocacy of the law requiring street railway
companies to provide vestibules for their cars for the protection of
the motormen and conductors. He favored the Australian ballot law, and
the reforming of the caucus system, and measures recognized as
beneficial to the interests of his adopted city. The better education
of his countrymen has been and is his most prominent object, his
ambition and de sire being to bring them up to the standard of
Americans and others. He secured the passage of the act providing for
the publication of the official acts of the city in the Polish
language, his object being to make the Polish citizens better
acquainted with public affairs and institutions; to make them feel that
this government is their government--in short, to Americanize them
while yet they are unable to speak the language of the country. In
consonance with this purpose, and while a member of the Polish
Educational society, he has advocated, together with others, the 
introduction of Polish books into the public library, and the teaching 
of the Polish language in the public schools, hoping by this latter 
means not only to secure better and broader education among his 
countrymen, but to remove from their minds whatever of prejudice may 
exist against the schools. All his efforts as a newspaper man have been 
for the better education of his readers and to make them the best 
American citizens possible; and these efforts, he maintains, have been 
attended with marked success. The Polish colony of Milwaukee is regarded 
as the most intelligent and peaceful of all those in this country, and 
Mr. Kruszka one of the most prominent leaders of that nationality. While 
loving his mother language, he regards this country as his home, and, as 
such, its institutions and interests are as dear to him as were those of 
his fatherland.

He is president of the Polish Dramatic circle, director and financial
secretary of the Kosciuszko Guard Armory, corresponding secretary of
the Polish Educational society, trustee of the Polish Association of
America, and a member of the Democratic state central committee. He was
married, in 1882, to Miss Hedwig Linkiewicz of Znin, Province of Posen,
and they have one child, Felicia Aurelia.

YAHR, Ferdinand Theodore, treasurer of the Charles Baumbach Drug
company of Milwaukee, resides in Princeton, Green Lake county,
Wisconsin. He is descended from an old German family, his parents being
Ernest and Carolina Becker Yahr. F. T. Yahr was born in Heldrungen,
Prussia, February 11th, 1834. He received a common school education in
his native town, and, coming to Wisconsin in 1849, settled in
Watertown, where he resided until 1853. He then removed to Berlin and
remained there until 1861, when he took up his residence in Princeton,
where he has lived until the present time. He has been chairman of the
town board, president of the village, and was a member of the county
board

Page 389

from 1878 to 1883. He was elected to the state senate in 1890,
receiving 6,497 votes to 4,903 for James O. Raymond, his Republican
opponent. In 1892 he was one of the presidential electors, and cast his
vote for Cleveland for president.

He was a hardware merchant from 1868 to 1893, and also president of the
banking firm of Yahr, thompson & Co. until 1880, when the company was
dissolved, and he carried on the business alone as the banking house of
F. T. Yahr, until May, 1893, when he sold out to the Princeton State
bank, which establishment is still in existence.

He began work for wages as clerk in a store, where he remained three
years, receiving, forty, sixty and one hundred dollars in wages for
those years, respectively. After serving his time in the store he
worked two years at the blacksmith trade. He has also been in the
lumber and produce business. June 1st, 1893, he became a member of the
Charles Baumbach company, wholesale druggists on Market street, and was
chosen its treasurer, and this position he still holds.

During the war he was drafted into the military service, but paid three
hundred dollars, the sum necessary to procure a substitute, and
remained at home. Mr. Yahr has always been a Democrat in politics, but
during the last presidential campaign he repudiated the nomination of
the regular convention and voted for Palmer and Buckner, the gold
Democratic nominees.

He has been a Mason since 1862, and a thirty-second degree Mason since
1885. He is a member of the Mystic Shrine and all the lodges in
Milwaukee except the Blue Lodge. He is also a member of the Deutscher
club of Milwaukee.

On the 29th of April, 1861, he was married to Emilie Charlotte Schaal,
and they have seven children, three boys and four girls. Willie B.
married Miss Laura Hagensich, in 1886, at Huron, South Dakota, and is
now carrying on the hardware business at Princeton, Wis., with his
brother, Ferdinand E.

[image: FERDINAND THEODORE YAHR.]

Carrie B. is the wife of Otto Strack; Emilie V. is Mrs. C. G. Forster,
and Eugene F. married Miss Marie Schorse, daughter of Dr. Wm. Schorse.

SHUE, Harry Brenner, a lumberman of Hayward, Sawyer county, is a native
of Safe Harbor, Lancaster county, Penn., where he was born on the 22nd
of January, 1845. His father was John Shue, a hotel-keeper and farmer.
His mother was Melinda Brenner before marriage. Both parents were of
German ancestry. Their boy, Harry, received the usual common school
education, and when eighteen years of age enlisted for service in the
war against the rebellion, in the Fiftieth Pennsylvania volunteer
infantry, which was disbanded after three months service. In 1863 he
re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Eighty-sixth Pennsylvania infantry,
serving to the close of the war. In 1868, when twenty-three years of
age, he came to Wisconsin, settling first at Chippewa Falls, where he
engaged in the lumber business as a "land looker." He remained in
Chippewa Falls for fifteen years, and, in 1883, removed to Sawyer

Page 390

[image: HARRY BRENNER SHUE.]

county, where he engaged in the buying and selling of pine lands, from
which he has gained a competence. There appears to have been a mental
and physical stimulant in the breath of the pine forests or in the
mighty growth of trees which there seemed to defy the power of man;
for, in most cases, the men who persistently waged war upon those grand
forests have come out of the contest invigorated in mind and body and
greatly enlarged in estate. Not only have fortunes been made in those
forests, but men as well; for some of Wisconsin's most useful and
broad-minded citizens have come out of this struggle with those great
products of nature. Mr. Shue is one of those who have been broadened
every way by the struggle through which he has passed.

In politics Mr. Shue is a Republican, who began the discharge of his
duties as a citizen by casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for
re-election to the presidency in 1864. He was elected chairman of the
town and county boards in 1877 and 1888. In 1890 he was elected sheriff
of Sawyer county, and served the full term of two years. In 1894 he was
again elected chairman of the town and county boards and re-elected in
1896, and is now holding those positions. He has also been chairman of
the Republican county committee for the past two years. He is a member
of the Knights Templar, the Mystic Shrine, and the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Shue was married, in 1872, to Edith M. Coleman, and they have had
three children, namely; Melinda, Frances and Maie. The latter died in
1886.

BUTTON, Charles Pearson, is a native of Milwaukee, where he has resided
all his life, and with the business of which, though still a young man,
he has, for many years, been actively identified. He is the son of
Henry Harrison Button and Elizabeth Pearson Button, and was born
January 6th, 1852, in the somewhat historic United States hotel, a
hostelry that was more or less associated with the social, business and
professional life of some of the leading pioneers of the city. Mr.
Button's father was a native of Wallingford, Vermont, where he was born
on the 28th of August, 1818. Like many another man who has made a name
for himself in business or professional life, he was the son of a
farmer, and in his youth alternated between farm duties and the
acquiring of the rudiments of an education in the district school. Like
others, too, he was moved by an ambition for a liberal education, and
entered Brown university, at Providence, Rhode Island, and was
graduated therefrom with honor in the class of 1842. Soon after the
completion of his college course, he began the study of medicine with
Dr. Spears of Brooklyn, New York, and received his diploma from the
eminent Dr. Mott of New York City. He was married December 30th, 1847,
to Miss Elizabeth A. Pearson, daughter of Luther Pearson of Providence,
R. I. After practicing his profession for several years in Brooklyn, N.
Y.,he removed to Milwaukee in the fall of 1848, where he formed a
partnership with Thomas A. Greene in the

Page 391

wholesale drug business, under the firm name of Greene & Button. This
copartnership proved exceptionally successful, and continued until Mr.
Button's death in 1890. He was a staunch Republican, a popular citizen,
president of the Merchant's association, the Steam Supply company, the
National Druggists' association, and for many years president of the
Milwaukee Gas Light company. He was one of the founders, members and
officers of the Unitarian church of Milwaukee, and in all things a
public-spirited and useful man--a man wise and successful, in an
eminent degree, in whatever position he held, and possessing a
character for integrity in all the relations of life.

Charles P. Button received a thorough primary education in the schools
of his native city, being fitted for college in Markham's Academy, from
which he graduated in June, 1869. In the fall of the same year, he
entered Harvard College, in which he pursued the full course of four
years, graduating with the class of 1873. It is illustrative of the
youth and rapid growth of Milwaukee that Mr. Button, though still a
young man, was the first boy fitted in the city for Harvard. Within a
week after his graduation he sailed for Europe, where he spent a
delightful and most instructive year in travel and observation,
supplementing with the knowledge of principles and theories with that
of things, fitting him for the pursuit of whatever calling might open
to him. At the end of his foreign tour, he returned to Milwaukee; and,
deciding upon a business career, he entered the drug house of which his
father was one of the proprietors, and took an active and prominent
part in the conduct of its business. Some years later he abandoned for
the time active participation in the affairs of the drug firm, and
became manager and owner of the Phoenix Knitting works, on the corner
of Detroit and East Water streets. This business he reorganized and
placed upon a solid foundation, enlarging it and infusing new life into
it, until the number of its employes had risen from forty

[image: CHARLES PEARSON BUTTON.]

to over two hundred, and its output had more than quadrupled.
Continuing in the control of the knitting factory, he participated in
the formation of the Juneau, Pflueger & Kuehmsted company, which, upon
the death of his father and of Mr. Greene a few years later, succeeded
the old firm of Greene & Button company, and was active in its
management and did much to render the new firm the worthy successor
which it has proved of the old, honored and successful house. At the
death of Mr. Greene, in the fall of 1894, he was naturally made
president of the corporation. He is also vice-president of the Eagle
Horseshoe company, and president of the Vienna Park Land company, to
both of which organizations he has given much attention, thus
contributing to whatever of success they have attained.

From this rapid sketch of the career of Mr. Button, it will be seen
that he has shown himself a worthy son of a worthy father; that the is
a conspicuous example of the power and influence of the broadly
educated, intelligent and accomplished man of business, and that he,
and others like him, while illustrating the

Page 392

energy and push characteristic of the men at the head of the far-
reaching business enterprises of the present day, will prove a
conservative force in the commercial, political and social world, which
the destructive forces, so common in these times, shall be powerless to
overcome. Possessed of literary and artistic tastes, he finds his chief
pleasure in reading the English classics and in the study of what is
best in art. He has long been an active member of the Arion Musical
society and has contributed much to do its support and to whatever of
success it has achieved as an element of culture in Milwaukee society.

In politics he is a Republican, but has not been especially active in
the party. In religion he inclines to the Unitarian faith. He is
unmarried, and is one of the prominent bachelor members of the
Milwaukee club.

When the above sketch of Mr. Button's life and career was written he
was apparently in the best of health, but he died very suddenly on the
7th of May, 1897.

WAHL, Christian, a familiar in Milwaukee business and social circles
and president of the Milwaukee board of park commissioners, was born in
Pirmasenz, Rhenish Bavaria, February 12th, 1829, the son of Christian
and Elizabeth Fuhrmann Wahl. He received a good education, embracing
the Latin, Greek and French languages, and mechanics, for which he
early showed a decided aptitude, and in which he has achieved much in
the way of useful inventions. He was sent to Paris to complete his
education, and there acquired practical knowledge of the French
language, and such general information as perhaps can be gathered
nowhere else.

His education completed, he came with his parents to this country,
arriving in Milwaukee in May, 1846. The family settled on a farm in the
forests of the town of Lake, Milwaukee county, and there young Wahl had
a widely different education from that which he acquired in Paris. He
worked on the farm for five years, in which time much had been done, 
mostly by his own labor, toward making it habitable and productive. With 
the courage, fortitude and enthusiasm of the true pioneer, he endured 
great hardship and privation, his bedroom being the loft of a log house 
so loosely roofed as to admit the snow and rain, in their season, while 
the table contained only the coarse fare of new countries. In spite of 
all these hardships and privations, the young man did not forego 
altogether social pleasures. He found time for the cultivation of his 
taste for music, and he and his father often walked from their home into 
the little city of Milwaukee, a distance of four or five miles, to 
attend or take part in concerts or musical rehearsals. Out of gatherings 
of these lovers of music grew the Milwaukee Musical society, in the 
winter of 1850 and 1851, which has done so much to foster and cultivate 
the musical taste of the city. Mr. Wahl, having a good tenor voice, was 
one of the first to join the chorus, and he was one of its leading 
spirits. But the spirited young man wanted to improve his financial 
prospects; and, as the California gold excitement was then at its 
height, he started for that El Dorado in the spring of 1851, going by 
way of Aspinwall, and crossing the isthmus of Panama on foot. Arriving 
at his destination he found that the prospects for securing fortune 
there were very poor. He accordingly determined to go to Australia; and, 
as he had no money, he worked his passage thither by acting as steward 
of a British ship. It was a disastrous voyage, for the passengers were 
nearly starved before reaching Sidney, through the ship being 
inadequately provisioned. From Society they shipped for Melbourne, but 
were wrecked on the voyage, and reached their destination in a state 
bordering on nakedness and starvation. Going to the mines, Mr. Wahl 
found only small renumeration for his work and privation, and, after a 
year there he sailed for Callao, Peru, working his passage again as ship 
carpenter. Here, however, no better fortune awaited him; for yellow 
fever was raging, and

Page 393

out of the one hundred and fifty passengers who came on the ship,
forty-one died the first week after their arrival. In order to escape
the fever, he and the ninety others climbed the Andes mountains, but
succeeded in nothing save the escaping of the dread disease. Returning
to Lima he sailed for Panama, again working his passage, this time as a
common sailor. Arriving at the isthmus, he again crossed it on foot and
sailed for New York, thence making a rapid journey to Milwaukee, where
he was warmly greeted by his relatives and old friends of the Musical
society. After a brief rest, he went to Chicago, where, in company with
his brother, he established himself in the business of manufacturing
glue, under the firm name of Wahl Brothers. The business grew to be one
of large proportions, and was generally successful. It was finally sold
to P. D. Armour, who still conducts it. In this business Mr. Wahl spent
many thousands of dollars in perfecting machinery and processes, much
of which was his own invention. Upon retiring from the business his old
love of Milwaukee asserted itself, and he again made it his home.

Mr. Wahl married Miss Antonie Guenther, daughter of Dr. George
Guenther, an accomplished scholar and member of the first German
reichstag after the revolution of 1848, and a brother-in-law of the
German patriot, Robert Blum, who was shot on a charge of treason in
1848. Mr. and Mrs. Wahl have three children, one of whom is the wife of
the musician, Arthur Weld. Mr. Wahl has always been a public-spirited
citizen, giving much of his time and money to charitable objects and to
the public service. While a citizen of Chicago he was repeatedly a
member of the city council, the board of education and county
commissioner. He was also vice-consul of the United States at Berlin
during the Franco-Prussian war. Since his return to Milwaukee, he has
been a member of the board of trustees of the Milwaukee County Hospital
for the Insane, president of the Arion Musical club, president of the
board of judges

[image: CHRISTIAN WAHL.]

in one of the groups in the department of agriculture in the World's
fair at Chicago, was the first president of the Milwaukee Art
association, and is now president of the Milwaukee board of park
commissioners. With a taste for the beautiful, Mr. Wahl takes great
pleasure in the work of this park board; and, with his natural taste
and knowledge of landscape adornment, gained in extensive travel in
this and foreign countries, he has done much for the improvement of
Milwaukee's park system, and may be expected to do much more, although
the position si a non-salaried one and involves much care and work.
Under his supervision, together with that of his colleagues,
Milwaukeeans may reasonably anticipate the ultimate possession of one
of the most beautiful park systems in the country.

With a love for music, and an accomplished singer himself, Mr. Wahl has
made his home a center for musical circles and receptions for
distinguished artists.

In politics Mr. Wahl is a Republican, and in religion a liberal. He is
an intelligent and instructive writer on subjects connected with art,
and in all things a progressive citizens.

Page 394

[image: FREDERICK MILLER.]

MILLER, Frederick, who was one of Milwaukee's prominent brewers, was
born in Reidlingen, Würtemberg, November 24th, 1824. His father,
Thaddeus Miller, was a merchant and a representative of a German family
that for four hundred years had been prominent in the mercantile class
and noted for their wealth and education. He had been a man of large
means, much of which he had inherited form his parents. By speculation
in coffee, tea and woolen goods, based upon Napoleon's success or
defeat, he lost most of his fortune. His estate was valued at from
$75,000 to $100,000 when he died. Louise Miller, Frederick's mother,
was of German nationality and a woman of strong character. Frederick
was educated in Germany until he was fourteen years of age, when he
went to France and studied there seven years, acquiring a speaking
knowledge of the English, French and Latin languages. After completing
his studies he made a tour of France, Algiers, Africa, Italy and
Switzerland. He had intended to take up the family occupation of
merchant, but on his way home he stopped for a vacation with an uncle
who was a brewer, and took such a liking for the business that he 
determined to enter it himself. He, therefore, became a student of the 
business with his uncle; and after thoroughly learning it in all its 
departments, he traveled through parts of Germany for study and 
observation with especial reference to the occupation which he proposed 
to follow. He finally leased the Royal brewery at Siegmaringen, 
Hohenzollern, Germany, and operated it for a time. This did not, 
however, fill his ambition; and, in 1854, he sold out his lease and 
sailed for New York; stopping with friends for a year, and making 
excursions to and through different parts of the country by lake and 
river steamers, an finally decided to settle in Wisconsin, as most 
resembling his native land. Coming to Wisconsin in 1855, he located 
where the brewery now stands, buying the plant that had been established 
there by Best & Brothers for $8,000 cash.

Mr. Miller was married to Elizabeth Gross in 1860, and five children
were born of this marriage, Earnest G., Fred. A., Clara A., wife of
Charles A. Miller of the Milwaukee Lumber company, Emil P. and Elise K.
Miller.

Mr. Miller did June 11th, 1888, at the age of sixty-three years and six
months.

COLMAN, Charles Lane, engaged in business in La Cross, and an honored
resident of that city, is the son of Rev. H. R. Colman, a Methodist
Episcopal clergyman, who was born in northern New York in the year
1800, and preached on various circuits of the Troy, N. Y., conference.
He came to Wisconsin in 1840 to take charge of the Oneida Indian
mission, and was a man thoroughly devoted to his calling and of much
usefulness therein. He closed his long and somewhat eventful life in
Fond du Lac, in 1895, in the ninety-fifth year of his age. As in the
case of most of the pioneer clergymen of the country, his salary was
small, and his savings proportionately so; and he had to practice the
strictest

Page 395

economy to make his hire met the expenses of his family. His wife,
Livia E. Spier, was a native of Northville, New York. They were both
from English ancestry. The first of the paternal name in this country
is found at Weathersfield, Connecticut, in 1636. The ancestors of this
name were usually farmers of the pioneer order, and their names appear
among the founders of Hadley and Hatfield, Mass., Colchester and
Hebron, Conn., an Northampton, N. Y. On the mother's side the first to
appear in this country was a physician at Taunton, Mass., who lived
there in 1745. Others of the name were farmers and merchants.

C. L. Colman was born in Northampton, New York, on the 23rd of
February, 1826. Until coming to wisconsin, he attended the usual
country schools during the winter, and after that he was at school in
Green Bay two winters. He came to Wisconsin with his parents in 1840,
taught a school for Indians at Stockbridge one winter, after that
worked in a tannery in Green Bay for a time, then two years on a farm
near Fond du Lac and afterward was engaged in various occupations in
Fond du Lac until 1854, in which year he formed a partnership with M.
L. Noble of that city, purchased a horse-power shingle-making outfit,
loaded it on wagons and hauled it across the state to La Crosse, set it
up there and began the manufacture of shingles. After one year he
bought his partner's interest and has continued the business alone to
the present time. In 1866 he bought a mill building, put in machinery
and commenced th manufacture of lumber. This at once exceeded in
importance th manufacture of shingles. As the prairies of southern
Minnesota and South Dakota began to bee populated, he established
branch lumber yards at numerous towns in thos states. Though three
times he has suffered severely from fire, he has, each time, rebuilt
with increased capacity of plant, and the business is now larger than
ever.

Mr. Colman was a Whig until the formation of the Republican party,
since which time he

[image: CHARLES LANE COLMAN.]

has been in hearty sympathy with the principles of that organization,
and has used his influence for their promotion; but he has never been a
politician in the lower or offensive sense of the term. He has,
however, been alderman and mayor of La Crosse, chairman of the county
board and was a delegate to the Republican national convention which
met in Minneapolis in 1892.

January 3rd, 1850, he was married to Laura A., daughter of Joseph Place
of Fond du Lac. They have one daughter and three sons, all of whom
reside in La Crosse.

WOLLAEGER, John Henry Gustav, or Gustav Wollaeger, secretary of the
Concordia Fire Insurance company of Milwaukee, was born in Plathe,
Prussia, April 6th, 1836, the son of Johann and Friedericka (nee
Spiering) Wollaeger. He was educated in the public schools of Plathe
and the high schools of Neurenberg and Leipzig, and came to this
country in July, 1858, settling in Milwaukee on th 12th of September
following. The first time years of his residence in Milwaukee

Page 396

[image: JOHN HENRY GUSTAV WOLLAEGER.]

were spent as pastor of the St. Paul's congregation of the Evangelical
Lutheran church. Resigning this position in 1867, he accepted that of
book-keeper in the hardware store of John Pritzlaff. In March, 1870,
Mr. Wollacger assisted in the organization of the Concordia Fire
Insurance company of Milwaukee, and was elected its secretary. This
office he has held continuously since, to the great advantage of the
company and those who hold its policies. Conservative in thought and 
action, conscientious in the discharge of official duty and of sound
judgment, he has made an excellent executive and administrative
official, and the one to which the success of the company is in large
measure due.

In politics Mr. Wollaeger acted with the Republican party until the
Bennett compulsory school law became a party issue, when he voted the
Democratic ticket. He was chosen one of the presidential electors-at-
large, in 1892, and in the electoral college he cast his vote for
Cleveland for president, and was chosen messenger to convey the result
of the vote of the electors to Washington. In the recent presidential
election, he voted the straight Republican ticket, believing that by so 
doing he would, on the currency question at least, best subserve the 
public welfare.

Mr. Wollaeger has been long and closely identified with the Lutheran
church and its interests in this state, and is a member and trustee of
the local Trinity church in that denomination. He is also a member of
the board of directors and treasurer of Concordia College, secretary of
the Union Cemetery association and president of the a Capella choir.

He was married in October, 1859, to Emilie Koehler of Plathe, who died
in November, 1865, after years of wasting sickness, leaving no
children. On the 27th of August, 1867, he married Miss Henrietta Thomas
of Milwaukee, and they have seven children, Lydia, Alma, Paul, Gustav,
Emilie, Thekla, and Hans.

BLATZ, Valentine, founder of what is now known as the Blatz Brewing
company, was born at Miltenberg on the Main, Bavaria, on the 1st of
October, 1826, and was the son of Caspar and Barbara Blatz. Caspar
Blatz was a brewer in a small way in Miltenberg, where he occupied a
prominent position among his fellow citizens, whose confidence he had
acquired by honorable business methods. Having received such education
as the village schools could give him in a limited time, he entered his
father's brewery, at the age of fourteen, and served an apprenticeship
of three years, at the end of which he visited some of the large
breweries of the cities of Augsburg, Munich and Wurtzburg, where he
spent four years in the further study of the business of brewing in its
various departments. Returning home when twenty-one years of age to
enter the standing army for a term of years, as required by law, he was
agreeably surprised to find that his father had procured a substitute
for him; and the young man, a few months thereafter, sailed for
America, arriving in New York in August, 1848. Stopping there for a few
days, he departed for Buffalo, where he obtained temporary employment
at

Page 397

his trade; and, in the fall of the same year, he came to Milwaukee. The
next three years he devoted to the earning and saving of money; and,
having accumulated five hundred dollars, he invested it in a little
brewing plant, and began the brewing of beer on his own account. The
annual output at first was only about one hundred and fifty barrels;
but the business steadily grew, and enlarged buildings, new methods and
new machinery followed until now the brewery covers four blocks of
ground in the city, and is one of the largest and most complete
establishments of the kind in this country, if not in the world. The
business was conducted in the name of its founder until 1889, when a
corporation was formed, with a capital of two millions of dollars,
under the name of the Valentine Blatz Brewing company. Mr. Blatz was
president of the company until his death, which occured May 26th, 1894.
Since that time the management and control of this extensive business
has been in the hands of his sons, Albert C. and Valentine Blatz, Jr.,
and his son-in-law, John Kremer.

Mr. Blatz' business, though phenomenally successful in most respects,
did not escape misfortune, for in 1873 the buildings of the great
plant, excepting the brewery proper, were totally destroyed by fire.
With characteristic energy, however, the proprietor cleared away the
ruins, and by the beginning of the following year a new and completely
equipped building was erected and occupied. About this time his malt
house in Kenosha was burned, and sixty thousand bushels of barley were
precipitated into the ruins.

Mr. Blatz was elected president of the Second Ward Savings bank in
1868, and was continued in that position up to the time of his death.
He was an alderman from his ward in 1882, but he was too much engrossed
with the cares of his vast business to give much thought to the details
of public affairs, or to desire and seek after official honors. He
traveled extensively in this country and Europe, and his observations
made him an intelligent

[image: VALENTINE BLATZ.]

and extremely entertaining companion. He was a public-spirited citizen,
and benevolent where he saw that benevolence was needed; but he had
small patience with the drones of society and those who gave little
thought or effort to making their own way in life.

He was married to Louise Braun, a native of Guedingen, Prussia, on the
14th of December, 1851. Her father was mayor of the city, and a man of
prominence in the region where he lived. Four sons and two daughters
were born to Mr. and Mrs. Blatz, all of whom are living.

WHEELER, Jaynes B., a resident of Elkhorn, and county judge of Walworth
county, is the son of Lyman and Sally Ann Wheeler. Lyman Wheeler was a
farmer and also a dealer in wool and cattle. He died in March, 1870.
His wife, the mother of Jaynes B. Wheeler, died in January, 1879. He
has two brothers, M. E. Wheeler of Rutland, Vt., and D. G. Wheeler of
Pawlet, in the same state, and one sister, Mrs. F. M. Loomis of North
Granby, Connecticut. Both brothers and

Page 398

[image: JAYNES B. WHEELER.]

brother-in-law are engaged in the fertilizer trade. M. E. Wheeler, who
has his principal office in Rutland, and who does business under the
firm name of M. E. Wheeler & Co., handles more fertilizer than any
other company in the United States, and has more than five thousand
agents.

Jaynes B. Wheeler was born in Pawlet, Vt., February 28th, 1853. His
education was received in the common school of his native village, and
in the academy there. Having completed his academic course, he studied
law, was admitted to the bar, and came to Elkhorn in June, 1876, where
he began the practice of his profession, in partnership with H. F.
Smith, on the 19th of January, 1877, and continued therein until he
became county judge in January, 1886. In 1879 he was elected district
attorney of Walworth county; and, in 1885, he was elected county judge,
as a non-partisan candidate, after a hard contest. At the expiration of
his term in 1889, he was re-elected without opposition. At the
expiration of his second term, in 1893, he was again re-elected; and,
although he had opposition, his vote was nearly three to one for
his opponent. In the spring of 1897 he was once more re-elected, and
this time without opposition. This is a record rarely paralleled in the
candidacy for office of any other person and is a most conclusive
evidence of Judge Wheeler's efficiency in office, and of his personal
popularity.

Judge Wheeler is a Republican in politics, but, as shown by his record
as a candidate for county judge, he is not an "offensive partisan." He
is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of United
Workmen, the Knights of Pythias, and is a Knight Templar Mason. In
religious faith he is a Universalist.

Judge Wheeler was married April 24th, 1879, to Ella F. Shaw of
Maquoketa, Iowa, and they have two children--Daisy S., sixteen years of
age, now a student at Kemper Hall, and James Blaine, thirteen years
old.

The judge has a reputation for ability, integrity and courteous
manners, which is at once recognized as substantially based by all who
make his acquaintance.

MEAD, Major C., a resident of Plymouth and one of the leading lawyers
of Sheboygan county, was born in the town of Lyndon, in 1858. His
father, Abel Mead, a farmer by occupation, was a native of Putnam
county, N. Y., where he was born in 1832. He came to Wisconsin with his
father's family in 1849, settling on a farm in the town of Lyndon,
Sheboygan county, where he died October 2nd, 1860. The maiden name of
M. C. Mead's mother was Permelia Peek, who was born in Rensselaer
county, N. Y., December 3rd, 1834. She also came to Wisconsin in 1848
with her parents, who made their home in the same town as the Meads.
She was educated at Berea College in Ohio, and taught school in
Sheboygan county for a number of years. She and Abel Mead were married
December 9th, 1854. The ancestors of both the Meads and the Pecks are
traceable back to England,

Page 399

some of the latter coming to Connecticut as early as 1630. Both
families were represented in the military struggles of the country for
gaining and maintaining its independence, and both had long been
established and had an honorable record.

Young Mead was reared on a farm and received his education in the
common and high schools of his native county, and in the state
university, his connection with the latter being in the law department,
from which he graduated in the class of 1881. Mr. Mead, before entering
upon his law course, taught school for a number of years, and was for a
time principal of one of the ward schools of Sheboygan. After his
graduation from the law school, he opened an office in Wausau, Wis.,
for the practice of law, but remained there only a short time, removing
to Plymouth in October, 1881, where he has continuously resided since,
building up an extensive and profitable law practice, and gaining a
reputation as one of the ablest, most reliable and trustworthy
attorneys in that part of the state. He has a large and valuable law
library, and his legal prominence shows that he is a close student of
its pages.

Mr. Mead has always been a Democrat in politics, and as such was
elected to the state senate in 1888 from the Twentieth senatorial
district, receiving a majority of 2,375 over Asa Carpenter, his
Republican opponent. He was one of the youngest members of the senate,
but at once took a prominent part in legislation. He served as chairman
of the joint committee on charitable and penal institutions in the
session of 1891, and was, also, on the judiciary committee and the
committee on railroads. He was author of the law abolishing the state
board of charities and the state board of supervision, and creating the
state board of control, and the law for the destruction of ballots when
counted. He was chosen a delegate to the Democratic national convention
at Chicago in 1896, but when the platform was adopted he became one of
the "bolters," and was a delegate to the national Democratic

[image: MAJOR C. MEAD.]

convention which nominated Senator Palmer for president. He was city
attorney of Plymouth for eight years, and for the past ten years has
been circuit court commissioner.

Mr. Mead is a member of Acassia Lodge, No. 167, A. F. & A. M. of
Plymouth; of Harmony Chapter, No. 10, R. A. M. of Sheboygan; of
Hiawatha Lodge, No. 520, R. A., and of Plymouth Camp, No. 724, M. W. A.
He is not a member of any church, but attends the Episcopal, to which
his family belong. He has been president of the Business Men's
association of Plymouth for four years.

On the 29th of June, 1881, he was married to Rose Robinson, whose
father was a Union soldier in the civil war and died at Helena,
Arkansas. They have three children--one son and two daughters, namely:
Warren J., Arlisle and Jessie, aged respectively, fourteen, eleven and
nine years.

Personally, Mr. Mead is courteous and genial in manner, readily makes
friends and firmly holds them when made. As a citizen he is public-
spirited and ready to serve the public interests with time and money
whenever they really demand such service.

Page 400

[image: ALBERT WOLLER.]

WOLLER, Albert, is a native of Milwaukee, where he was born on the 17th
of November, 1861. His father, John Woller, was born in Prussia in
1833, and came to America in 1856, settling in Milwaukee, where he
resided continuously until his death in 1882. His wife, the mother of
the subject of this sketch, was Anna Vollbrecht, who was born in
Germany in 1827, and made the journey to this country alone, so far as
relatives were concerned. In Milwaukee she met John Woller, who soon
after became her husband, and here she has continued to reside ever
since.

Albert Woller received his education in the schools of Milwaukee, but
left them at an early age to engage in the active affairs of life. He
began business for himself as a gardener, and some time thereafter
opened an office as notary public, real estate and fire insurance
agent, in which he is at present successfully engaged.

Mr. Woller early began to take an active interest in politics, and for
some years has been prominent in the local Republican organizations of
the Tenth ward, where he has done much to insure the successes of his
party in both local and general elections. He was satisfied with 
contributing in a quiet way to these successes, and has not been what 
may be termed a seeker after office for himself. He was one of the 
organizers of the Tenth Ward Republican club, and has served acceptably 
on committees in the conventions of his party. He was nominated for the 
assembly from the Tenth ward in 1894, and elected by a plurality of 
1,313. As a legislator he was active, industrious and efficient in the 
discharge of his duties, and made a record which would have been 
creditable to a member of much longer experience. He was the author of 
the measures authorizing the county to purchase all of the toll roads 
and to indemnify persons for property destroyed in the effort to stamp 
out the smallpox epidemic. He has always been a consistent, loyal and 
enthusiastic adherent of Republican principles, and as such has many 
friends and a wide influence.

From boyhood he has been an attendant upon the Lutheran church, in
which he was confirmed, and for some years a member of Trinity church,
as is also his wife and many of his relatives.

He was married, in 1885, to Miss Rosa Blum, who, like himself, is a
native of Milwaukee, and who is a daughter of Louis and Augusta Blum,
natives of Mecklenberg, Germany. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Woller
are Lydia, Frida and Freddie, all of whom are now attending the Tenth
ward public school, and who are likely to become as loyal and
enthusiastic Americans as are their parents.

MITCHELL, Andrew Stuart, prominent as an analytical chemist. was born
in Milwaukee on the 2nd of December, 1864, and is the son of T. L., and
the grandson of John S. Mitchell, who kept the old Eastern hotel near
the first steamboat piers at Milwaukee, and who is still living and may
be seen daily in the Chamber of Commerce, an interested spectator, if
not an active participant, in its traffic. Mr. Mitchell's mother, Myra
D., was the daughter of Andrew Mitchell, who came to

Page 401

Milwaukee from New Hampshire, at an early day, and settled on the south
side.

Mr. Mitchell was educated in the public schools of the city, the East
Side high school and the University of Michigan. He began business as a
druggist, but afterward entered the university as a student of
chemistry, for which he had a special taste, and with the purpose of
making its application to industries a leading feature of his business.
While a student, in 1887, he acted as assistant in general chemistry in
the medical department of the university, thus gaining a practical
knowledge of the science which he has since found of great value in the
work which he has made a profession, and in which he is steadily
gaining a well-earned distinction. Returning from the university at the
time when the mining excitement was at its height, he found a great
demand for the services of those who understood both the science and
the art of analytical chemistry; and, as this branch had been the
subject of his special study, he determined to make it his profession,
especially as the circumstances were unusually favorable for it, and he
had received much encouragement from friends to enter upon the work.
Not long after this, Prof. Rogers, who had for years been in charge of
the department of physics and chemistry in the Milwaukee high school,
was promoted to the position of principal of the school, and Mr.
Mitchell was placed in charge of the department thus vacated. He also
did the chemical work for the city health department when Dr. Martin
was health officer. Soon after Gov. Upham entered upon the duties of
his office, Mr. Mitchell was appointed chemist to the diary and food
commission, and that position he still holds. He is now, and has been
since it was opened, professor of chemistry in the Milwaukee Medical
College.

Mr. Mitchell is a member of the American Chemical society, Society of
Official Agricultural Chemists, American Public Health association,
Wisconsin Polytechnic society, and the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and
Sciences.

[image: ANDREW STUART MITCHELL.]

Mrs. Mitchell was Margaret E. Cheyne, daughter of Capt. J. G. Cheyne of
Milwaukee.

Mr. Mitchell is a close student of his profession, and his work has
been such as to give him a very prominent place in the ranks of
practical chemists. He is, moreover, an ardent Republican, and has done
effective campaign work for the party.

NUNNEMACHER, Robert, president and secretary of the Kraus_Merkel
Malting company of Milwaukee, is the son of Jacob Nunnemacher, who was
born near Basel, Switzerland, and who, coming to this country when a
young man and without means, by industry and economy and that business
shrewdness exhibited by many of our foreign born citizens, accumulated
in the business of butcher and distiller a large fortune. The maiden
name of Mr. Nunnemacher's mother was Catherine Baienbruch, a native of
Bremen, Germany.

Robert Nunnemacher was born in Milwaukee, April 7th, 1854. His
education was received at the German-English Academy,

Page 402

[image: ROBERT NUNNEMACHER.]

Notre Dame College in Indiana, and Stuttgart, Germany. He also took a
course in a business college; and, his education completed, he was
prepared for a business career. In 1881 he formed a partnership with F.
Kraus in the grain and shipping business, under the firm name of F.
Kraus & Co. In 1886 he formed a partnership in the milling business
with William Faist and F. Kraus, under the firm name of the Faist-Kraus
company. In 1887 was organized the F. Kraus-Merkel Malting company. Mr.
Nunnemacher became secretary and treasurer, F. C. Kraus president and
L. J. Merkel vice-president. This establishment has grown to immense
proportions, the plant on South Water and Park streets covering
extensive grounds and having an annual capacity of 2,000,000 bushels of
malt. The company also maintains an office in New York City, and the
business is still growing. It is another illustration of the many which
Milwaukee affords of how business begun on a comparatively small scale,
if handled with due care to details and energetically pushed, will grow
silently, but steadily, and almost imperceptibly into proportions which 
come to astound those who have not been interested spectators.

In politics Mr. Nunnemacher has always been a Democrat, but not a blind
partisan nor one hunting for office, as may be judged from the fact
that in the last presidential campaign he turned his back upon his
party candidate and vote for McKinley.

He is a member of the Milwaukee, the Deutscher and the Bon Ami clubs,
and is a Knight of Pythias. In religious matters he adheres to the
Catholic faith, and has been a liberal supporter of that denomination
and its work.

Mr. Nunnemacher was married on the 7th of February, 1884, to Louise
Avers of Milwaukee, and they have three children--Mary, Henry and
Annita.

BENNETT, William H., one of the younger members of the bar of
Milwaukee, is the son of Peter Bennett, who was a native of Canada, but
removed to New York state when a young man, where he followed
railroading for a number of years. He suffered much from sickness, and
finally came to Wisconsin, settling on a farm in the town of Meeme,
Manitowoc county, where he spent the last twenty years of his life,
dying in 1882. He had a good common school education, was fond of
books, and was an intelligent, up-right citizen. W. H. Bennett's mother
was a native of Ireland, whose maiden name was Catherine Elizabeth
Sage. She came to New York when eleven years of age, and remained in
that state until after marriage, when she came with her husband to
Wisconsin. She was a woman of great physical vitality, very intelligent
in business matters, and of great help to her husband in the management
of his farm and all his business enterprises. She died in her forty-
ninth year.

W. H. Bennett was born in Cayuga county, New York, September 27th,
1864. He attended the common school in Manitowoc county until he was
fourteen years of age,

Page 403

when he was obliged to leave his books and go to work on the farm and
in the woods. The schools he attended were not such as to inspire a
love of study or greatly enlarge one's mental scope; in consequence
young Bennett did not make much progress in his studies, and was glad
of any excuse for turning his back upon the school. As he came toward
manhood, however, he received a taste for books, and read much of
history and kindred literature. When a boy, he learned to speak the
German language from his playmates, and later learned to read it. Thus,
when at twenty-one years of age, he returned to school, he was fairly
well informed. He entered the Oshkosh Normal School and was a student
there from three years. He was a student at the state university for a
time, but, owing to a lack of funds, he was, much to his regret,
compelled to abandon his ambition for a university course.

From his nineteenth to his twenty-first year he worked in the mines of
Northern Wisconsin and Michigan, learned the carpenter's trade, worked
in the lumber woods, in winter, as a teamster, chopper and scaler of
logs, was a contractor and builder, and by industry and frugality
accumulated about a thousand dollars, which paid his way at the normal
school. His summer vacations while at the normal were spent in the
northern part of the state working at his trade. In the fall of 1888 he
became principal of the graded school at Boltonville, Washington
county, which he taught for two years. His summer vacations at this
time were spent in Madison at the university summer school. While a
teacher his leisure hours were devoted to reading law. In July, 1890,
he entered the office of Barney & Kuechenmeister, as a law student,
and, after a year of intense study, passed an examination, was admitted
to the bar, and took part, as assistant to Mr. Barney, in the trial of
a couple of cases at that term of court.

In the absence of any opening for beginning practice, he resorted again
to teaching. In the meantime he did some legal work in the local

[image: WILLIAM H. BENNETT.]

courts. In 1892 he formed a partnership with John M. Clarke, which was
dissolved at the end of that year. Then he took for partner W. H.
Churchill, and after two years J. C. Kleist came into the firm. Not
long after this he was appointed assistant district attorney by A. C.
Brazee, and reappointed in January, 1897. He has had case involving the
settlement of large estates, and his official duties have given him no
little experience in criminal practice.

Mr. Bennett is Republican in politics, has taken an active part in
local, state and national campaigns as a speaker and worker; is
president of the Twentieth Ward Republican club, and was a school
commissioner for that ward. He is a member of the Milwaukee bar, a
Mason, and a Knight of Pythias, of which order he is a past chancellor.
He is not a member of any religious denomination, though an attendant
at the Plymouth Congregational church.

Mr. Bennett was married at West Bend, on the 24th of August, 1892, to
Louise D. Glantz, daughter of Henry Glantz, an early settler of that
region. They have one child.

Page 404

[image: ROBERT LAIRD M'CORMICK.]

McCORMICK, Robert Laird, banker and lumberman of Hayward, Sawyer
county, Wis., is of Scotch-Irish descent, and possesses the industry,
thrift and tenacity of purpose so characteristic of that race. His
father, Alexander McCormick, was born at Great Island, Pennsylvania, in
1817, and served three years as a private in the civil war, but most of
the time on detached service, as he was in feeble health. After the
close of the war he dealt in real estate in several of the western
states, and died in moderate circumstances in Sedalia, Mo., in 1877.
Mr. McCormick's mother was Jane Hays Laird, who was born in Union
county, Pa., in 1820, and died in Clinton county, in that state, in
1849. She was of Irish-English descent, and among her ancestors, as
well as among those of her husband, were some who rose to distinction
in the military service of this country.

R. L. McCormick was born October 29th, 1847, at Bald Eagle farm,
Clinton county, Pa. He attended the graded school of Lock Haven, Pa.,
from 1854 to 1861. In April of the last named year he went with Company
B, Eleventh Pennsylvania regiment, to Harrisburg,
but was sent home, as he was much too young for the service, and was
afterwards sent to Saunder's Military Institute, West Philadelphia,
where he remained during the war. After leaving this institution he
studied law with George White of Williamsport. He then entered the
general office of the P. & E. Railway company, where he remained for
several months. His next occupation was that of clerk in a general
store in Tiffin, Ohio, in which he was engaged a year. In March, 1868,
he became cashier for the Laird-Norton company, lumber manufacturers of
Winona, Minn., with whom he has ever since been intimately associated.
Losing his health from confinement in the office, he opened a retail
lumber yard at Waseca, Minn., which, proving profitable, he remained
there until 1882, when he went to the wilds of Sawyer county,
Wisconsin, and, in company with A. T. Hayward of Oshkosh, erected a saw
mill, which was the beginning of the business that is now known as the
North Wisconsin Lumber company, of which Mr. McCormick has always been
and still is secretary, treasurer, manager and part owner. Around the
mill out of which came this lumber company has developed the
flourishing city of Hayward. In January, 1884, in company with F.
Weyerhaeuser, the multi-millionaire of St. Paul, he organized the
Sawyer County bank, which is claimed to have the largest individual
responsibility of any financial institution in Wisconsin. In 1890 he
also organized the Northern Grain and Flouring Mills company at
Ashland, and of this company he is, and has been from the start,
secretary and treasurer. The company has an office in Chicago and an
elevator in Manitowoc, with a capacity of 800,000 bushels. He is also
president of the Mississippi and Rum River Boom company of Minneapolis,
secretary of the Mississippi River Lumber company. Clinton, Iowa, and
interested in other banks, land and lumber companies in the northwest.

Mr. McCormick cast his first vote for Gen. Grant for president, in
1868, and has always

Page 405

voted the Republican ticket, and been in sympathy with the party
policy. He filled the offices of councilman and mayor when a resident
of Waseca, Minn., and was senator in that state in 1880-82. During his
term the railway bonds were adjusted, and the senate sat as a court in
the trial of Judge E. St. Julien Cox on articles of impeachment, and
removed him. On the organization of Sawyer county in 1883, Gov. Rusk
commissioned Mr. McCormick as county treasurer, to which office he was
afterward elected and re-elected, and served six years. He was
afterward chairman of the county board of supervisors for two years,
has been vice-president of the State Historical society of Wisconsin
since 1893, is an eminent member of the Masonic fraternity, having held
some of the highest offices therein, a member of the Sons of Veterans,
Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, the
Minnesota club, and a trustee of the First Congregational church of
Hayward.

Mr. McCormick was married September 11th, 1870, to Anna E. Goodman of
Seneca county, Ohio, and they have three children--Blanche Amelia, born
in 1873; Wm. Laird, born in 1876; and Robert Allen, born in 1885.

McNALLY, William Francis, mayor and prominent lawyer of New Richmond,
is the son of William and Hannah McCormick McNally, who emigrated from
Ireland in 1847 and settled in Emerald, St. Croix county, Wisconsin, in
1858. Thence they removed, in 1865, to Erin Prairie, in the county just
named. Their occupation was farming until 1890, when they removed to
the city of New Richmond, where they now reside.

W. F. McNally was born in Emerald, St. Croix county, Wis., on the 19th
of March, 1860. He was educated in the common schools of St. Croix
county and at Collegeville, Minn., and commenced to teach a district
school at sixteen years of age. He was engaged chiefly in teaching
during the next seven years, and while so engaged commenced

[image: WILLIAM FRANCIS M'NALLY.]

reading law. In March, 1884, he entered the law office of Frank D.
Fuller in New Richmond, Wis., as a clerk, and was admitted to the bar
in the following November. In September, 1885, he entered into
partnership with Mr. Fuller for the practice of law, under the firm
name of Fuller & McNally. The following year this partnership ceased by
the retirement of Mr. Fuller, Mr. McNally continuing the business alone
until 1890, when he formed a partnership with his brother, under the
firm name of W. F. & M. P. McNally, which still continues. The firm
enjoys an extensive and profitable law practice.

Since 1892 Mr. McNally has been a partner in New Richmond Roller Mills
company, which does a large grain and flour business throughout
northern Wisconsin. For some years he has been a director and vice-
president of the Manufacturer's bank of New Richmond.

In the spring of 1896, he was appointed by the county board chairman of
a committee of three to purchase a site and build an asylum for the
chronic insane near New Richmond. The committee built and equipped the
asylum

Page 406

at a total for site and building, $60,000, and the state board of
control, upon inspecting it, pronounced it the first county asylum in
the state.

Mr. McNally is a Democrat, and in 1888 was the Democrat candidate for
district attorney of St. Croix county, but was defeated by only ninety-
four votes, although the rest of his ticket was defeated by from 600 to
900. He represented his county in the Democratic state conventions held
in Milwaukee in 1890, 1892 and 1894. In 1896 he was chosen as one of
the delegates to the Democratic national convention at Chicago, but
refused to participate in the proceedings after the adoption of the
platform. He was afterwards chosen a delegate to the Indianapolis
convention, but was unable to attend. He, however, made speechless for
Palmer and Buckner during the last week of the campaign.

He was for a number of years city attorney of New Richmond, was for the
three years, from 1892 to 1895, president of the board of education,
was elected mayor of New Richmond in the spring of 1896, and re-
elevated without opposition in the spring of 1897.

Mr. McNally was married, in 1888, to Miss Stella Murphy, and they have
two children--William J. and Robert. He is a member of the Catholic
church.

SERCOMB, Charles Albert Scales, or Charles A. Sercomb as his name
appears in business transactions, resides at 174 27th street, and is
the third child of John and Emma Cayme Sercomb, who came from Yeoville,
England, arriving in Milwaukee on the 8th of November, 1837. John
Sercomb, his father, established one of the first iron industries of
the state, known as the Eagle foundry and machine shop, Turton &
Sercomb, proprietors. This establishment became one of the most
extensive, at that time, in the northwest, and much of the heaviest
machinery prior to the war manufactured by it. Mrs. Sercomb, his
mother, was of a good English
family, a woman of marked character and greatly beloved by all. She was
well known in Methodist circles, and took a prominent part in church
and charitable work.

Charles A. Sercomb was born in northern part of the city, and his first
primary education was received in a select school in the home of one of
the pioneer women. After that he attended a select school on the east
side that was afterwards merged into the Milwaukee University, which
for years held a prominent place among the educational institutions of
the west. Many of the leading men of our city and state were pupils of
this university. After its dissolution, he attended the Fourth ward
public school, of which the well-known attorney, DeWitt Davis, was then
principal. Later, he attended the Second ward high school. Mr. Sercomb
is a great admirer of the public school system. Though having a good
home and the best of parents, he, like many another boy, was anxious to
enter the ranks of the wage-earners. To this his parents strongly
objected, but finally yielded, and he left home to learn to be a
miller, but found as boys of similar ambition often have, that this
trade ws distasteful. He found that making one's way was not so
attractive, and, returning home, entered his father's works, where he
acquired the trade of a machinist and a full knowledge of the business
at the same time, alternately attending to the duties in the office and
taking a place at planer, lathe or vise in the shops. Mr. Sercomb's
first essay in business was in the grocery trade in the Third ward.
Selling out his interest in this, he took a one-half interest in a
grocery and commission store on the west side. Disposing of his
interest in this establishment, he went west, working at various places
as machinist, engineer, etc. Tiring of this life, he accepted a
position with one of the leading railroads as engineer, and remained
identified with railroad life for many years, occupying positions of
trust on several different roads, so that he is well known in the west
by railroad, men with whom he is a great

Page 407

favorite. In 1881 he formed a partnership with R. J. Schwamb of
Milwaukee, in the business of iron founders and machinists, under the
firm name of Schwamb & Sercomb. Beginning in a small way, they have, by
dint of hard work and untiring energy, built up a large industry. One
of their many specialties is that of the manufacture of the celebrated
"Gilt Edge" warm air furnace, which ranks as one of the first, if not
the leader, of warm air furnaces. They are also extensive contractors
for steam and hot water heaters. The business has grown in magnitude
and importance, and is now one of the large manufacturing plants of the
state.

Mr. Sercomb served in the volunteer army against the rebellion, first
in the 132nd Illinois infantry, and also in the 37th Wisconsin
infantry, as first sergeant. He is an interested member of the Wolcott
Post of that fraternal and patriotic organization, the Grand Army of
the Republic.

As respects politics, Mr. Sercomb has always been a Republican, and a
believer that all money is determined in its value by the ability of
the government to redeem it in gold, and that free trade is a theory
that will never materialize until all nations pay the same wages for
the same labor.

He is a Thirty-second degree of Mason, and also belongs to the social
order of the Mystic Shrine.

He takes an active interest in everything pertaining to the public good
and is a worker.

He has been for a long time in official capacity in the Builder's and
Trader's exchange, and has been president of that organization. He is
one of the directors of the National Builder's association. Is one of
the officers of the Western Foundrymen's association, of which he was
one of the organizers. He was also first vice-president of the national
body of the Furnace Manufacturer's association.

He was married on the 18th of February, 1875, to Miss Harriet Barker of
Elkhorn, Wis., a native of Milwaukee, daughter of one of the first
furriers and hatters of Milwaukee.

[image: CHARLES ALBERT SCALES SERCOMB.]

He is an active, well-equipped man of business; one of the best known
and best liked men in the state for his kind-hearted and genial way in
his relations to his fellow men.

PITTELKOW, Charles, a man who has in local public affairs in Milwaukee,
is a native of Belgard, province of Pomerania, Germany, where he was
born on the 31st of August, 1852. He attended the common schools in his
native province until 1867, when he came, with his parents, to this
country, and settled in Milwaukee. The father died a year after
reaching the new home, leaving his family poor; and it became necessary
for the boy to begin the work of bread-earning at once, which he did by
going to work on a farm, where he remained for two years. The next two
years he spent in Chicago, working in the Eagle flour mills; and, with
the thrifty habits which are characteristics of his nationality, he had
saved something from his earnings, when the great fire came, sweeping
away his little accumulations and throwing him out

Page 408

[image: CHARLES PITTELKOW.]

of his situation. What seemed a calamity then was probably a fortunate
thing in the end, for it changed somewhat the drift of his affairs,
turning him into new channels of thought and action, which are now seen
to have been in the direction of the greater things which he has
accomplished. He came back to Milwaukee in 1872, and worked as a mason
for six years, when he opened an office for conducting the business of
real estate dealings, and the agency of the insurance and ocean
steamship lines. In ten years the business had increased to such an
extent that it became necessary for him to have assistance in carrying
it on, and John Siegert was taken as a partner, and the business has
since been conducted under the firm name of Pittelkow & Siegert, at 732
Winnebago street. He was one of the promoters of the scheme for a west
side bank, and when it was organized, July 1st, 1894, he was chosen one
of its directors. The bank was prospered and has proved a profitable
investment for its stockholders not only, but a great convenience to
those doing business in that part of the city where it is located. He
is largely interested in city and suburban real estate, and the sagacity 
shown in his investments in this line will undoubtedly make large 
returns in the future.

Mr. Pittelkow was appointed school commissioner from the Tenth ward in
1889, and served until 1894, when he was appointed by Gov. Upham, a
regent of the state normal schools. He has been a member of the
executive committee of that board since he received his appointment. As
school commissioner and regent, he has taken great interest in
educational matters, and his official action in these positions has
been characterized by intelligence and a wise liberality. His
popularity as an official is widespread and pronounced, and there
appears to be no doubt that it is well deserved.

He has been a Republican all his life; and, though not seeking office,
he has rendered the party much service in all local campaigns. That his
intelligent and unselfish activity in this regard is fully appreciated
is shown by the fact that he is a member of the Republican state
central committee, representing the Fifth congressional district, and
is also a member of the executive committee of the Republican county
committee. It may be gathered from what has been said that he is not a
Republican for revenue, but because he believes most thoroughly in the
principles and policy of the party.

In religious matters Mr. Pittelkow is a Lutheran, being a member of the
Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel's congregation, synod of Missouri--one of
the largest organizations of the kind in the city. He is a liberal
contributor to all church and legitimate charitable work, and in this
way does much for the promotion of the public good.

Socially, he is an agreeable companion and has many fast friends in the
circles in which he moves. He is a member of both the Calumet and
Deutscher clubs.

He was married at La Crosse on the 16th of October, 1878, to Miss Mary
Sinz, and they have three children, Arthur G.; Gertrude and Robert.

Page 409

PHILLIPS, Milton Cushing, United States district for the eastern
district of Wisconsin, is of Welsh and Dutch descent. His father,
Bradford Phillips, was a lumber manufacturer, owning a mill and
considerable timber land on the Little Wolf river in Waupaca county, at
the time of his death. He came from Turner county, Maine, to Wisconsin,
in 1849, when a young man and without means beyond a small amount saved
from his own earnings. Upon the outbreak of the civil war, all his
patriotism was aroused; and leaving a prosperous business, he enlisted,
in 1861, in Company, Eighth regiment, Wisconsin volunteer infantry, and
went out with that regiment as orderly sergeant of his company, which
was commonly known as the "Eagle Company." He remained with this
command until the second battle of Corinth, in October, 1862, when he
fell on the field of battle in the line of his self-imposed duty. He
was a man of great native ability both in business and as a public
speaker, and had attained no little prominence in eastern Wisconsin in
both spheres before he entered the army. His wife, Marion Elizabeth
Hulse, daughter of Lucian Hulse, was born in Pennsylvania, of Dutch
ancestors, and came to Appleton, Wis., with her parents in childhood.
She was well educated and a woman of strong character and high personal
attainments.

M. C. Phillips was born in Royalton, Wis., on the 25th of July, 1856.
His primary education was received in common and select schools, and in
1872 he entered Oberlin College, were he was a student four years, when
he left the institution to take a place as station agent on the Green 
Bay, Winona & St. Paul railroad.

After some years spent as station agent and in manufacturing, he began
the study of law in the office of Brown & Bump, in Waupaca, Wis., and
was admitted to the bar in 1879. Immediately after admission, he began
the practice of his profession at Clintonville, Wis., where he remained
five years, succeeding in building up a successful business. During the

[image: MILTON CUSHING PHILLIPS.]

last year there he was in partnership with C. H. Forward. In 1884 he
and his partner moved to Oshkosh, where a partnership was formed with
George Gary, under the firm name of Gary, Phillips & Forward, which was
dissolved in 1886. Mr. Phillips is now associated with E. R. Hicks, the
firm being Phillips & Hicks. He has been connected with much of the
important litigation in Oshkosh and vicinity, where he stands in the
front rank of his profession. His special taste for insurance law has
led him to devote much of his time to this branch of practice, and he
now appears in much of the litigation of that character in the state.
He is retained by a number of domestic as well as foreign companies. In
April, 1897, he was appointed by the president United States district
attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin, and that position he
now holds. The appointment gives general satisfaction in the party and
among members of the bar and business men in the eastern part of the
state, where he is best known.

Mr. Phillips has always been affiliated with the Republican party, and
has taken an active

Page 410

part in politics. In 1894 he was chosen chairman of the Republican
committee of Winnebago county, one of the largest counties in the
state, and was chosen again in 1896. Under his management the
Republican plurality in both those years was the largest which the
county ever gave. Active and alert when engaged in a political
campaign, he is reputed to stand close to the Republican administration
of the state and to occupy a prominent place in the councils of the
party.

He is a Knight of Pythias, an Odd Fellow and a Mason of high standing.
He is also a member of the Presbyterian church of Oshkosh.

Mr. Phillips was married, in 1879, to Marcia H. Eastman, youngest
daughter of Rev. M. L. Eastman of Royalton, Wis., a Congregational
clergyman of note in eastern Wisconsin and northern New York. Mr. and
Mrs. Phillips have five children--Bradford E., Ermine J., Philip, Lewis
and Mirriam H. An ideal family as well as family life.

COMFORT, Aaron Ivins, M. D., was born on March 4th, 1827, in Penn's
Manor, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Ellis Comfort and
Ann Ivins. Both parents were of English ancestry, and their genealogy
is traceable to the early Quaker settlers of Pennsylvania. After having
acquired a common school education, he devoted himself to the study of
mathematics and the elementary classics, teaching school during
vacation, and graduating at Williston Seminary, East Hampton,
Massachusetts. Subsequently, a short scientific course was entered upon
at Amherst College, Massachusetts, after which he accepted a situation
in a private seminary in the city of Philadelphia and taught
mathematics, the classics and some of the natural sciences, delivering
lectures, once a week, upon anatomy, physiology and hygiene in that
institution. He graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
in the class of 1860. Immediately after graduating he accepted
the position of assistant demonstrator of anatomy in his alma mater,
and at the same time he became the attending physician, and
subsequently the consulting physician to the Southern dispensary in the
Moyamensing district of Philadelphia. He likewise held the position of
attending, and, subsequently, consulting accoucheur, in the
Philadelphia Lying-in Charity.

In the early part of February, 1862, he entered the government service
as an acting assistant surgeon of the United States army, and was
assigned to duty with troops in the field, viz: The Anderson troops, a
company of volunteer cavalry acting as Gen. D. C. Buell's escort, and,
subsequently, in the autumn of 1862, he was assigned to duty as the
only medical officer, with the Fourth Regiment, United States cavalry,
in which capacity he served until about the 9th of June, 1863. In the
capacity of medical officer he was present at the battle of Pittsburg
Landing, Tennessee; at the siege of Corinth, Mississippi; at the battle
of Perryville, Kentucky, and at the battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
at which battle he rode in person with that regiment in its now
historic charge. At that battle he received favorable mention in the
report of the medical director of the Army of the Cumberland, and also
in the report of the commanding officer of the Fourth regiment of
United States cavalry. While on the battlefield, during the engagement,
and in search of a wounded officer, he captured a Confederate soldier,
disarmed him and made him a prisoner of war. During the first half of
1863 he was in a charge of the Fourth regiment, United States cavalry,
at Snow Hill, Tennessee, in a charge of that regiment at Franklin,
Tennessee, and also with that regiment in a number of other charges,
skirmishes and similar engagements in the vicinity of Murfreesboro,
Tennessee. During August and several subsequent months he was on duty
at the United States general hospital at Chester, Pennsylvania. In the
spring of 1864 he accepted from President Lincoln a commission as
assistant surgeon,

Page 411

United States volunteers, having previously passed a satisfactory
examination by a board of medical officers of the regular army. As
assistant surgeon of volunteers he was during part of the spring of
1864 on duty with troops in the field. During the summer and autumn of
that year he was in charge of a small-pox hospital; and also a post
hospital at Columbia, Tennessee. At the advance of the Confederate
General Hood, upon Nashville, when it seemed impossible to prevent the
sick and wounded, in the field hospital at Columbia, Tennessee from
falling into the hands of the enemy, he was detailed to remain "in
charge" of the sick and wounded; and, but for the fact that they were
subsequently removed under cover of the night, he, with them, would
have been made a prisoner of war. From the battle of Franklin he was
sent in charge of a hospital train to Nashville. He was present at the
battle of Nashville. He was on duty at the Cavalry Corps hospital, at
Gallatin, Tennessee, during the greater part of January and February,
1865. During the spring and the greater part of the summer of that year
he was "surgeon in charge" of Hospital No. 16 at Nashville, which had a
capacity of four or five hundred beds, and a staff of five or six
medical officers. After the close of the war, when the general
hospitals were closed, he was ordered to sell, at auction, the
unserviceable property of Hospitals No. 8. and No. 16, and of one or
two others, and the sum of several thousand dollars, realized
therefrom, reverted to the treasury of the United States. During the
greater part of the summer and autumn of 1865 he was in charge of Post
Hospital at Clarksville, Tennessee. On the 3rd of November, 1865, he
was mustered out of the service with the brevet rank of captain of
volunteers, but he was assigned to duty as acting assistant surgeon,
United States army, at the headquarters of Major-General George H.
Thomas at Nashville, and at once made post surgeon, or "physician in
attendance upon the officers and their families."

From 1866 to 1892 Dr. Comfort was with

[image: AARON IVINS COMFORT.]

detachments of the army stationed at various forts on the frontier,
having visited nearly every territory in the west, traveled over the
plains with the soldiers in pursuit of hostile Indians, in his capacity
of assistant surgeon of the army, and as such rendered much service.
There is scarcely a fort from the Dakotas to the Indian Territory and
Arizona where he has not been stationed, and scarcely a trail over the
vast territory of the far west that he has not followed. A scholarly
man and a patriot, it is fitting that he should now see the smoother
side of life and its amenities which he is so well fitted to enjoy.

Upon the recommendation of the surgeon general of the United States
army, Dr. Comfort was appointed by the board of managers, on May 1st,
1892, first assistant surgeon of the National Home for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a position which he has
held more than five years. It is fitting that the riper years of one
whose professional life has been directed to the care and treatment of
sick and wounded soldiers enlisted in the armies of the United States
should be still devoted to the physical well-being of

Page 412

the aged, infirm and invalid veterans, who once composed the
magnificent armies of our republic.

Although he has not sought to acquire a literary reputation, preferring
to devote his attention practically to his profession, he has, when
serving in an Indian country, been a careful student of the languages,
manners and customs of the aborigines; also of aboriginal art and
archeology. He has contributed a monograph on Indian mounds to the
Smithsonian institute, which appeared in one of its reports for the
year 1871.

Articles from his pen have appeared from time to time in our medical
journals, and numerous papers on professional subjects have been read
by him before the various medical societies of which he is member.

He is a member of the Wisconsin Commandery, of the Military Order of
the Loyal Legion of the United States, and of the E. B. Wolcott Post,
No. 1, Department of Wisconsin, Grand Army of the Republic. He is an
honorary member of the Minnesota Historical society, a member of the
American Medical association, of the Wisconsin State Medical society, a
member and ex-president of the Brainard Medical society, and a member
of the Milwaukee Medical society.

A valuable collection of Indian crania and skeletons of the race of
mound builders has been contributed by Dr. Comfort to the Army Medical
Museum, in Washington, D. C., and a number of these, with a specimen of
a united fracture, and arrow wound and pathological specimens of the
bones of the mound builders were present in the surgeon general's
collection at the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876.

For more than a quarter of a century he has performed the duties of a
commissioned medical officer of the United States army in many
positions of trust, responsibility and danger. His professional opinion
is not unfrequently sought, in consultation, in cases of diseases and
injuries of a grave character or doubtful diagnosis.

SCHINDLER, John Franklin, a resident of Milwaukee, is the son of Henry
Schindler, a farmer in moderate circumstances, who was a corporal in
Company F, 161st regiment, Ohio National Guard. J. F. Schindler's
mother, Polly Metzger before marriage, a native of eastern
Pennsylvania, at the age of two years, came with her parents to
Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1839, when it was a wilderness. The family
lived in the emigrant wagon until her father built a log hut. Mr.
Schindler's paternal grandfather was born in Germany, in 1800, came to
America in 1812, and settled in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, the same year,
and only four years after its organization. He was a Lutheran in
religion, and for many years was a leading member and trustee of the
local church of that denomination. Politically he was a Whig, and later
a Republican, as was his son, the father of the subject of this sketch.
Mr. Schindler's maternal grandfather was born near Harrisburg, Pa., in
1802, was a Jeffersonian Democrat, and a Movarian in religion.

J. F. Schindler was born near New Philadelphia, Ohio, June 24th, 1857,
in the same log house in which his father was born twenty-three years
before. He attended the district school from four to six months a year
for several years. In 1874 he took a six months' course in the
telegraph college at Oberlin, Ohio, and them worked in a railroad
telegraph office until he was twenty years of age. After that he
attended the normal school at Lebanon, Ohio, for two years; and, at the
age of twenty-two years, he entered the theological department of St.
Lawrence University, at Canton. N. Y., from which he was graduated June
29th, 1882. A month later he located at Oswego, N. Y., as minister of
the Universalist church. In 1884 he took charge of the Universalist
society at Marshalltown, Iowa; and, in 1888, of the Liberal society at
Stillwater, Minn. In 1890 he became minister to the Universalist church
at Whitewater, Wis.; and, in 1893, he was in charge of the church at
Racine for a few months. While there he

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raised a subscription for a church, where he preached on alternate
Sundays. In 1894 he left the regular work of the ministry, and, in
1895, took a position as special agent of the North-western Mutual Life
Insurance company, with headquarters at Milwaukee, and this position he
still holds.

During his ministry he was editor, for four years, of Church and Faith,
one of the first parish papers of the denomination ever published.
Also, for a year he was editor of the Liberal Co-Worker, and, for two
years general agent and associate editor of the Non-Sectarian, a
progressive magazine of religion and philosophy, published at St.
Louis.

His earliest political sympathies were with the Republican party; and,
by inheritance, he was an ardent admirer of James G. Blaine. Gradually,
however, his views changed, and ideas and principles rather than
parties enlisted his interest. He says that he can never be a party
man, but will always be found doing his best to promote the cause of
reform, no matter by what party espoused. Although not previously
actively identified with the People's party, he was in 1869, nominated
by the Populists for the assembly, and the nomination was endorsed by
the Democrats. But the "landslide" that fall "was too much for him,"
and he was defeated.

He was baptized and brought up a Lutheran; but, he says, he never
really accepted the theology of his family. When a young man he read
Paine's "Age of Reason," Arnold's "Literature and Dogma," and Professor
Seeley's "Natural Religion," and to these books, he says, he owes most-
-they gave a new and interesting view of life and destiny, and turned
him toward the ministry as a profession. Ever since his interest in the
philosophy of life has steadily deepened, and the more he studies, the
grander does he see the universe to be and the wider and more
beneficent the infinite purpose. He has no interest in getting money
beyond what is necessary for current expenses, but is intensely
interested to know what men have thought and done,

[image: JOHN FRANKLIN SCHINDLER.]

to trace the historic course of human enterprise. As in politics he is
constitutionally an independent, so in religion and philosophy he is by
native bent of mind a Rationalist.

Mr. Schindler was married February 21st, 1880, to Miss Belle L.
Campbell of New Philadelphia, Ohio. They have six children--Jessie,
Raymond. Walter, Helen, Donald and Dorothy; the latter two are twins.

ROBERTS, Charles Birley, building contractor, is a native of Milwaukee,
the son of John Roberts, who was born in Hawarden, Wales, near Chester,
England, December 29th, 1820. He was a bricklayer and stonemason by
trade, and came to this country when a young man, settling on a farm in
Green county, but remaining there only a short time, coming to
Milwaukee in 1849, and going to work at his trade. In 1851 he formed a
partnership with Sherburn Bryant, but it was dissolved the following
year, and thenceforward he carried on the business of builder by
himself until 1883, when he took as partner his son, C. B. Roberts.
Three years later the

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[image: CHARLES BIRLEY ROBERTS.]

elder Roberts retired from active business, and the firm became C. B.
Roberts & Brother.

Upon receiving a good public school and business education, Mr. Roberts
went to work with his father's employees and learned brick-laying,
stone-cutting, and every department of contracting, and so was fully
prepared to succeed his father in the important work which he so long
carried on. The maiden name of Mr. Robert's mother was Elizabeth
Birley, her surname being perpetuated as her son's middle name.

Among the notable buildings erected by the father and son were the
Layton Art gallery, the Mitchell building, the Chamber of Commerce, the
Milwaukee club, the Colby-Abbot building, and residences of Charles
Ray, Charles Bradley, F. F. Adams and H. H. Button. The elder Roberts
superintended the erection of the Home for the Aged without any charge
whether. Among the buildings erected by the sons while in partnership,
were the addition to the Plankinton House, the Loan and Trust building,
Miss Plankinton's residence and the residence of Captain Pabst on Grand
avenue, and the Hotel Pfister, for which they had the general contract. 
Some three years ago the brothers dissolved partnership, and C. B. 
Roberts obtained the contract for the stone work on the new federal 
building in Milwaukee, for the sum of four hundred and fifty-one 
thousand dollars.

Mr. Roberts married Miss Cora McGarigle some fourteen years ago, and
they have two children, both boys. He has been a consistent Republican,
and represented the First ward in the common council for two successive
terms. He has been twice a candidate for the legislature, in 1882 and
in 1884, but was defeated both times. The only club to which he belongs
is the one dear to every Scotchman--the Curling club, of the sport of
which he is very fond.

Mr. Roberts is a popular man socially, is thoroughly equipped for the
work of builder, as the many elegant and substantial buildings which he
has erected abundantly attest. In August, 1897, he received the
appointment of collector of customs at the port of Milwaukee and at
once entered upon the duties of the office.

ROEHR, Julius Edward, lawyer and member of the state senate, resides at
807 National avenue, Milwaukee. His father, Edward Roehr, is a native
of Germany, and was connected with the revolution of 1848 in that
country. Upon its failure, he fled to the United States in the disguise
of a sailor, landing in New York destitute of money or means of any
kind, and without friends. Determined to make his way in this "land of
the free," he began carrying and selling newspaper, then opened a
bookstore in a small way, and finally founded a newspaper in Brooklyn,
N. Y., which he called "The Brooklyner Freie Presse," and which is now
published by Julius' brother. Henry, and is the only German daily in
that city. Mr. Roehr retired from the business in 1872, in good
financial circumstances.

Edward Roehr, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a
soldier in the German

Page 415

army, and was among the first who were awarded the iron cross.

Julius E. Roehr was born in Brooklyn, New York, March 16th, 1860, where
he attended the public schools for several years. Coming to Milwaukee
in 1872, he resumed his studies in the public schools here, continuing
them for a year or more, when he went to work for the real estate firm
of Becher & Milbrath, at four dollars a week. He remained in this
position until 1879, when he entered the law department of the
University of Wisconsin, from which the was graduated in 1881. He then
began the practice of law with Leander Wyman, at the corner of Reed and
Lake streets, Milwaukee; and this partnership was continued for five
years, until Mr. Wyman's death. Since then Mr. Roehr has conducted the
business alone, and has met with very flattering success. He has been
engaged in some important cases, and has a large practice in commercial
and real estate law. He was appointed court commissioner by Judge D. H.
Johnson, in 1888, and reappointed for another term of six years in 1894

Mr. Roehr always been a Republican since reaching the age of maturity,
and cast his first vote for James A. Garfield for president. He has
never heretofore held a political office, but was a candidate for
member of the assembly in 1890, and in 1892 was nominated for judge of
the superior court, but in both cases failed of an election, owing to
the strong drift toward the Democracy in those years. He has been
delegate to many state and county conventions, was chairman of the
congressional convention in the Fourth district of the state in August,
1896, delegate to the national Republican convention at St. Louis in
1896 from the Fourth congressional district, and zealously supported
McKinley for president, both in the ranks and on the stump. In
November, 1896, he was elected state senator in the Eight district over
Michael Kruszka, by a plurality of 1,018.

Mr. Rehr is president of the Iroquois club, member of the South Side
Gymnastic association.

[image: JULIUS EDWARD ROEHR.]

Knights of Pythias, Deutscher club, National Union, Milwaukee Musical
society. South Side Educational society and of several other minor
association. He was married May 28th, 1882, to Miss Emma Krueger, and
they have three children, Elsie S., Roland Blackstone and Lonesome
Pearl Roehr.

LUDWIG, John C., judge of the superior court of Milwaukee county, was
born in Milwaukee on the 1st of December, 1850. His father, Joseph
Ludwig, a shoemaker by occupation, is in fair financial circumstances. 
His mother was Gertrude Schaefer. Both parents are of German descent,
but little is known of their ancestors. Young Ludwig received a common
school education, which was supplemented by a limited attendance at
private schools. Leaving school, in his fifteenth year, he served an
apprenticeship to the jewelry trade and worked at it until he was
twenty years of age. He then began the study of law with Mann &
Cotzhausen of Milwaukee, and was admitted to th bar March 25th, 1875.
Entering, soon after, upon the practice of his

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[image: JOHN C. LUDWIG.]

profession, he continued therein, until June 13th, 1892, when he was
appointed by Gov. Peck to the position of judge of the superior court
of the county to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge F. L.
Gilson, and was afterwards elected to the same position for the term of
six years beginning with January 1st, 1894.

Judge Ludwig has always been a Democrat, but has not been an active
member of the party since he took his seat upon the bench. He served as
school commissioner for the First ward of Milwaukee from 1877 to 1880,
and was trustee of the Asylum for the Chronic Insane of Milwaukee
county from 1890 to 1892.

He is member of numerous benevolent societies and social clubs, and is
also a member of the Catholic church.

Judge Ludwig was married, on the 26th of July, 1876, to Miss Elizabeth
Berlandi, and they have had twelve children born to them, all of whom
are living.

Judge Ludwig has been a hard student and has risen to his present
important and honorable position largely through his own unaided
efforts. With comparatively limited educational advantages and with
less experience of the great world of thought and action than most of
those who have entered the legal profession, he has shown that he has
the progressive element in his character, and that he has that
indomitable will and that perseverance which conquers all things. As a
judge, his rulings and decisions have been generally accepted by the
profession as well grounded and as in accordance with well-established
principles of law. He has many of the judicial characteristics, and his
record on the bench will undoubtedly continue to be creditable to him
and gratifying to his friends.

NEELEN, Neele Bruno, judge of the police court of the city of
Milwaukee, is the son of Bruno N. Neelen, a native of the town of Edem,
in the province of Hanover, Germany, where his father was miller in
good financial circumstances. But the patrimony, as so often happens,
took to itself wings and flew away. The boy, however, nothing daunted,
hired out as a common sailor, on board an American-bound vessel, and
after nine weeks found himself in the port of Baltimore with little
money, but plenty of courage and determination. A brother followed him,
but the vessel never reached port. As soon as he had earned money
enough he sent for his parents and sisters, and they all settled, in
1852, on a small farm in Ridott township near Freeport, Illinois. Here
the young immigrant thrived, and here he was married, in 1857, to
Bertha Meyer, who became the mother of the subject of this sketch, but
who died in 1865. The elder Neelen was afterward twice married, and
died in 1895 in the seventy-first of his age. His life was devoted to
agricultural pursuits, in which he gained a competence; and, though
interested in public affairs, as all good citizens should be, he never
sought office, but was content to exercise the rights of the citizen
without any hope of reward, save in the benefit which he

Page 417

might receive from good government and free institutions. He was always
a staunch Republican, and gave his vote and influence to that party.

Neele B. Neelen was born in the town of Ridott, Illinois, on the 24th
day of October, 1862. His early education was received in the district
school, from which he entered the Rochester German Academy in 1885,
and, a year later, the Rochester Free Academy. After a year spent in
the latter institution, he matriculated as freshman in the University
of Rochester, where he took a partial course of two years. He then
entered the law department of the University of Buffalo, from which he
graduated, having completed the two years' course, in 1891. During his
law studies he spent some time in the office of Judge Geo. W. Cothran
of Buffalo, thus gaining a practical knowledge of legal business
methods. In the fall of 1892 he took up his residence in Milwaukee,
and, soon after, formed a partnership with F. P. Hopkins, which
continued until the spring of 1894, when Mr. Neelen was elected justice
of the peace in the district composed of the Second and Fifteenth
wards. While in this office he did a large and lucrative business--as
much, or more perhaps, than any other justice in the city, as the
district embraces a large part of the business territory. In the spring
of 1895 he received the Republican nomination for police judge and was
elected by a large vote. Though comparatively new to the position, he
has shown many of the elements of a careful, just and wise
administration of the duties of his office; and there is food reason to
believe that with longer study of the questions upon which he is called
to act, and with wider experience, he will illustrate in his official
acts that rare combination of progress with conservatism.

In politics he has always been a Republican, having been bred in that
political faith, and the studies of his mature years having confirmed
the impressions of youth. He is a member of the Calumet club and the
Royal Arcanum. In religion he is a Baptist. On

[image: NEELE BRUNO NEELEN.]

the 22nd of February, 1896, he was married to Miss Ida T. Mehnert, a
teacher in the public schools of Buffalo, New York.

End part 13