Men of Progress. Wisconsin. (pages 451-486) 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 451 continued

MARTIN, Patrick Henry, a resident of Green Bay, and one of the younger
members of the bar of that city, was born in the town of Rockland,
Brown county, Wis., April 21st, 1862. His parents, Edward and Bridget
Farrell Martin, are of Irish descent. He received his education in the
district school of his native town and in the high school of Depere.
Upon leaving the latter he began teaching school, and continued in that
occupation from 1880 to 1885, when he entered the office of Hudd &
Wigman as a student of law. Continuing his studies through the two
years following, he was admitted to the bar in July,

Page 452

[image: PATRICK HENRY MARTIN.]

1887, and entered at once upon the practice of his profession, in which
he has continued uninterruptedly since. In 1889 he formed a law
partnership with J. H. M. Wigman, for the past four years United States
district attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin, the firm name
being Wigman & Martin. His practice has been a general one, extending
into the highest courts, both state and federal.

Politically, Mr. Martin has always acted with the Democratic party, and
has rendered it efficient service in its campaigns. He was elected
district attorney of Brown county in 1888, and was re-elected in 1890
and 1892, serving three terms of two years each, and discharging the
duties of the office with fidelity and ability and to the very general
acceptance of the public.

He is not a member of any secret society, but belongs to the American
Bar association. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church.

Mr. Martin was married June 17th, 1886, to Miss Mary E Wigman, and five
children have been born to them, namely: Marie M., Agnes B., John E.,
Jerome P. and Joseph I. Martin.

ESTABROOK, Charles Edward, lawyer and legislator, for some years past a
resident of Milwaukee, was born in the town of Platteville, Grant
county, Wis., October 31st, 1847. His father, Edward Estabrook, was a
native of Illinois, and was, by occupation, a farmer. He was one of the
pioneer settlers of southwestern Wisconsin, having come into Grant
county in 1836. He was elected to the assembly as a Whig in 1854, but
moved into Iowa in 1868. C. E. Estabrook's mother, whose maiden name
was Margaret Mitchell, was born in Clinton county, N. Y., and died in
Platteville, Wis., May 26th, 1863.

Young Estabrook received his early education in the common schools of
his native town, was an apt scholar and a close student of whatever
subject he took up, as indicated by the fact that when but fourteen
years of age he won the prize for spelling in a competitive contest
participated in by representatives from every district in his native
town of Platteville. He afterward attended the Platteville Academy, but
in 1864, when under seventeen years of age, he enlisted in Company B,
Forty-third Wisconsin volunteer infantry, and served until the close of
the war, being mustered out of service in July, 1865. Returning home,
he completed his education by a course of study in the Platteville
normal school. He then taught school in Platteville, Belmont and
Manitowoc, in the last named place having charge of the First ward
public school for the the year 1871-2. In the meantime he had been
giving some attention to the study of law, and, after the close of the
school in Manitowoc, completed his law studies, was admitted to the bar
and began practice there in January, 1874. He was city attorney of
Manitowoc from April, 1874, until December, 1880, when he resigned that
office upon being elected member of the assembly. He was also elected
to the assembly in 1882 and in 1885. In 1886 he was elected attorney-
general of the state, and re-elected in 1888, holding the office from
January 3rd, 1887, to January 5th, 1891. During

Page 453

a portion of the time that he held the office of attorney-general he
was a member of the faculty of the college of law in the state
university, being professor of municipal corporations, juries and
justice court procedure and sales. In June, 1893, he took up his
residence in Milwaukee, and resumed the practice of his profession. As
a legislator, Mr. Estabrook was alert, industrious and very efficient.
He did not strive to see how great a number of bills he could prepare,
introduce and have passed, but what bills the public welfare demanded,
and how comprehensive and effective they could be made when enacted. He
has a faculty for legislation, and some of the most useful laws on the
statute book owe their origin to him. He is the author of the law
providing for a state board of examiners for admission to the bar,
which has resulted in greatly elevating the standard of admission, and
shutting the doors to those who, knowing little or no law, were wont to
rely upon personal favoritism or to a farcical examination to open the
way for them to an honorable profession. This law has been copied into
the statutes of Minnesota. Michigan and New York, an evidence of Mr.
Estabrook's good judgment respecting what is needful in legislation and
his ability in providing it. He also secured the enactment of a law
authorizing the board of regents of the state university "to hold
institutes for the instruction of citizens of this state in the various
branches of agriculture;" and few measures have been more prolific of
benefits to the farming communities throughout the state than this.
These institutes have been held, from time to time, in most of the
counties, and have resulted in a wide dissemination of the latest and
most practical information concerning an industry which is second to
none in which man can engage.

It was largely through Mr. Estabrook's efforts that suit was begun in
the supreme court to test the validity of the act of 1893
reapportioning the state into senate and assembly districts. He, in
connection with A. J. Turner, compiled the facts on which the suit was

[image: CHARLES EDWARD ESTABROOK.]

based, and by their persistence the case was carried through the court,
the act overthrown, and the right of the court to inquire into the
validity of such legislation fully established.

Mr. Estabrook has always been a staunch Republican, has been a delegate
in many conventions of the party--was a delegate to the Republican
national convention in Chicago in 1884, and has always been active in
the councils and campaigns of the party, rendering it valuable and
substantial aid in the promotion of its aims and the promulgation of
its principles.

PERKINS, Albert Joseph, a prominent business man of Medford, was born
in Windsor county, Vt., December 27th, 1830. His parents, Joseph and
Sarah Jackman Perkins, were of the substantial agricultural class and
in good financial circumstances.

A. J. Perkins received his education in the common district schools of
his native town, and, in 1853, came to Wisconsin, settling in Jefferson
county. He began teaching school, when seventeen years of age, and
continued teaching through thirteen winters. His summers

Page 454

[image: ALBERT JOSEPH PERKINS.]

in the meantime were spent in learning and working at the trade of
carpenter. In 1859 he was elected superintendent of schools of the
township of Jefferson and held the office one year with great
satisfaction to the people. He was elected on the Republican ticket,
though the township was strongly Democratic. Removing to Waupaca
county, he was engaged from 1865 to 1874 in running a large saw mill on
the Little Wolf river for the Wisconsin Lumber company. He was elected
chairman of the town of Mukwa in 1870 and re-elected in 1871. Active,
intelligent, faithful and efficient in whatever he undertook, his
services were in requisition in many directions, and in 1874 he was
elected county clerk of Waupaca county, and re-elected for a second
term of two years. In 1878 he move to Medford, Taylor county, and
engaged in the real estate and abstract business, which he continued
until 1884, when he was elected county clerk of Taylor county, and re-
elected two years later. At about the expiration of his second term of
office, he and his son engaged in the flour and feed business, erecting
the first and the only flouring mill in the city, and this business, 
which has grown to large proportions, they are still conducting. He was 
the first major of Medford, having been elected in April, 1889, and re-
elected in 1890.

Mr. Perkins is the owner of a considerable amount of land in and around
the city of Medford, some of which has been platted ad sold for city
lots. He has been land agent for the Wisconsin Central Railroad company
for the past sixteen years.

Mr. Perkins was not in the military service during the war, owing to
physical disability, but he heartily supported the government both
financially and morally in its struggle with the rebellion. He has
always been a Republican in politics, and, in 1892, was elected a
member of the assembly from the district composed of Oneida, Price,
Taylor and Vilas counties, by a majority of eighty-two in a Democratic
district. The same year Cleveland, for president, carried the district
by four hundred. He refused a second legislative term. In religion he
is a Universalist.

Mr. Perkins was married December 26th, 1850, to Charlotte M.
Winterling, daughter of Nicholas Winterling of Jefferson, Wis., and
they have one son, Frank M. Perkins.

McCORD, James, major of La Crosse, and a prominent business man of that
city, was born in New Bedford, Lawrence county, Pa., May 3rd, 1841. His
father, Allen McCord, was born, and for many years resided, in
Greenville. Mercer county, Pa. He was a blacksmith by trade, a merchant
and a farmer. He owned a farm in Mahoning county, Ohio, and was in good
financial circumstances. He was a member of the Presbyterian church,
and of Scotch descent. James McCord's mother's maiden name was Nancy
Hezlep, a native of Wilmington, Pa., but of Irish descent.

James McCord received his education in the common schools and the
academy at Poland, Ohio. After that he took a course in the Iron City
Commercial College, Pittsburg, and

Page 455

graduated therefrom when about sixteen years of age. He came to
Wisconsin in 1858, locating at Sparta, where he remained one summer,
teaching school during the day and keeping books in a bank mornings ad
evenings. In the fall he secured a position as book-keeper in a bank in
Milwaukee, which he held for several years. After that he was employed
as book-keeper for a wholesale drug house. In December, 1864, he
removed to La Crosse, and, in company with J. H. McCulloch and John
Rice of Milwaukee, he purchased the wholesale drug stock belonging to
the estate of Uriah Parry, Jr. A few years thereafter, Mr. Rice
withdrew from the firm, and , in 1882, Mr. McCulloch also retired, and
since then Mr. McCord has carried on the business alone.

Mr. McCord has uniformly been identified with the Republican party, but
is not a partisan extremist. As a representative of that party, he held
the office of alderman of the city of La Crosse for six years. In the
spring of 1897 he received the Republican nomination for major of the
city, and was elected by a large majority over the Democratic and
Populist candidates.

As a citizen he has always manifested progressive and public-spirited
tendencies, and a high degree of civic pride in his adopted city, From
1874 to 1876 he was elected and successively re-elected president of
the La Crosse board of trade, and he now holds the office of president
of the Manufacturers' and the Jobbers' Union organizations, which have
contributed largely to the growth and prosperity of the city.

He has always been identified with the Congregational church, though he
is not a member of it. He is now, and for many years has been, a member
of the board of trustees of the First Congregational society.

Mr. McCord was married, in 1866, to Adaline Olivia Cogswell of New York
City. She died in 1876, leaving two children--Allan Cogswell McCord,
born September 29th, 1872, and Horace Maynard McCord, born

[image: JAMES M CORD.]

October 6th, 1874. Both are residents of La Crosse, and associated with
their father in business. In 1879 Mr. McCord married Agnes Roosevelt,
daughter of W. A. Roosevelt of La Crosse, who bore him three children,
two of whom died in infancy. The other, Agnes Armitage McCord, is now
(1897) fourteen years of age.

This is the record of a self-reliant, enterprising, progressive man of
business and of a worthy citizen who deserves to be known for what he
has accomplished.

BIRD, George Washington, among the most prominent and successful
members of the Madison bar, was born in Milwaukee on the 28th of July,
1837, the son of Augustus Allen and Charity Le Claire Bird. A. A. Bird
built the first dwelling house, the first hotel, the first capital, the
first railroad depot, the first university building, the first school
house, the first jail and the first hospital for the insane at Madison.
The family moved to the capital city in 1837, and there George W. grew
to manhood, and there he was educated,

Page 456

[image: GEORGE WASHINGTON BIRD.]

graduating from the state university in 1860, in the ancient classical
course. Immediately after graduation, he began the study of law in the
office of Smith, Keyes & Gay, and two years thereafter, was admitted to
the bar of the circuit court of Dane county, then presided over by
Judge Harlow S. Orton. Subsequently he was admitted to practice in the
state supreme court, and the United States district, circuit and
supreme courts. Among the noted cases with which he has been connected
as leading counsel and attorney, are the following: The litigation
concerning the Watertown city bonds, involving some $3,000,000 and
prosecuted through the state, circuit and supreme courts, and the
district, circuit supreme courts of the United States. Col. Bird
conducted the defense for the city and was successful at every step,
thus relieving the municipality of a crushing debt. Some of the ablest
lawyers in the country were engaged in the prosecution of the suit,
among them Senators Carpenter and Vilas of Wisconsin, and Edmunds of
Vermont. Similar suits against the cities of Waterloo and Jefferson
were successfully defended by Col. Bird. He also assisted the district 
attorney in the prosecution of Henry and John Curran of Stevens Point 
for the murder of W. W. Haseltine, one of the noted criminal trials of 
the interior of the state. He was associated with Senator Spooner and C. 
E. Estabrook in the Wisconsin gerrymander cases, in which it was settled 
that courts have jurisdiction to pass upon the constitutionally of 
apportionment laws. The decision is considered of the greatest 
importance, as upon its recognition depends the existence of free 
popular government. The colonel made extended examination of the 
principles and law involved, and his argument was pronounced very able 
and conclusive of the question involved. He was attorney for N.S. and 
Walter S. Green in the suits brought against them for the maintenance of 
the Milford water power, and the defense was successful in every case, 
the right to maintain and use the dam being fully established by the 
court. Col. Bird was also attorney for the defendants in the Watertown, 
Jefferson and other important mill-dam litigations.

In 1863 Col. Bird removed to Jefferson, and continued in the practice
of his profession there until December, 1886, when he returned to
Madison, where he still resides. His law firm is now Geo W. & H.S.
Bird, the latter being the colonel's youngest son.

On the 2nd of October, 1864, Colonel Bird was married at Aztalan, Wis.,
to Miss Maria S. Swain, whose mother taught the first school in
Madison. Four children, all born in Jefferson, are the fruit of this
marriage--Clair Brayton, Guy Swain, Hobart Stanley and Maria Louise.

In May, 1864, Col. Bird enlisted in Company D, Fortieth regiment of
Wisconsin volunteer infantry, and was second lieutenant of the company.
He was superintendent of schools of Jefferson county for four years
from 1866; was private secretary to Gov. Taylor from 1874 to 1876; was
chairman of the town of Jefferson and member of the county board for
two years, and has been a

Page 457

delegate to four Democratic national conventions.

When a student of the university, Col. Bird was active with Wm. F.
Vilas and other leading students of the time in college and society
matters, and he has many mementos of those early college days, among
them the original draft of a poem written by the first graduate--
Charles T. Wakely, and famous in college circles at the time; the
original address of regrets to Chancellor Lathrop on his retiring from
the institution, and copies of mock and other commencement schemes of
the university's early days. When he was Gov. Taylor's private
secretary, he kept a diary of what passed under his observation and
within his hearing respecting public affairs. Conversations heard or
participated in by him with public men in the executive office or in
the other departments are entered at length, and various political and
other schemes are quite fully recorded. Material for an interesting
chapter of political and personal history might be found in this diary.

EIMON, Christian, in the wholesale commission business in Superior, was
born in Dane county, Wis., May 28th, 1864. He is the son of Ole and
Sarah Thomley Eimon, both of whom are natives of Norway, came to
America in 1860 and were among the earliest settlers of Dane county,
Wis. Mr. Eimon began his life in this country as a farmer; and, like
many of his countrymen here was successful in his undertakings. In 1868
he removed to Pigeon Falls, Trempealeau county, which is his present
residence.

Having received a common school education, young Eimon became a clerk
in a general store at Osseo, Wis.; and after two year's service there,
went to Helena, Griggs county, North Dakota, where he was engaged in
farming until 1889, when he removed to Superior, Wis., and, with his
brother Peter, engaged in the wholesale commission business, under the
firm name of Eimon Brothers. In 1895 another

[image: CHRISTIAN EIMON.]

brother, Benjamin, was admitted as a partner, and they united in the
organization of the Eimon Mercantile company, which is doing a large
and prosperous business at 413 Banks avenue, West Superior.

In February, 1895, Chris. Eimon bought the "Superior Kitchen," and is
also successfully conducting the restaurant business, serving something
like a thousand meals every twenty-four hours.

In the spring of 1895, Mr. Eimon was elected a member for two years of
the city council; and in the fall of 1896 he was elected on the
Republican ticket county clerk of Douglas county for a term of two
years. These elections are an emphatic endorsement of the ability,
character and force of young man who at the date of these elections was
not yet thirty-two years of age.

Mr. Eimon is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the
Modern Woodmen and the Knights of Malta. He is also a member of the
Lutheran church.

He was married to Lina Larson in 1892, and they have three children,
namely: Sigwald, Obert and Melvin.

Page 458

[image: JOHN QUINCY EMERY.]

EMERY, John Quincy, state superintendent of public instruction and a
resident of Albion, is a practical educator and one of the most
successful who has ever been at the head of the department of public
instruction. He is the son of John P. Emery, carpenter and farmer, and
a descendant, in the ninth generation, of Anthony Emery, who, with his
brother, came from England and landed in Boston, June 3rd, 1635. Mr.
Emery's mother was Huldah Darling.

Prof. Emery was born in the town of Liberty, Licking county, Ohio,
September 15th, 1843. He came with his parents to Wisconsin in 1846,
the family settling on a farm in the town of Dunkirk, Dane county,
removing thence to Rutland in the same county in 1852. His elementary
education was acquired in the common schools of Wisconsin, after which
he pursued a course of study in the Albion Academy and Normal
Institute, graduating therefrom in 1866. He began his career as a
Wisconsin educator, in 1863, by teaching a term of common school, and
this was followed up for several terms, after which he became a teacher
in Albion Academy. It was largely in consequence of the popularity 
gained as a teacher in this institution that, in 1867, he was, without 
organized opposition, elected county superintendent of schools for the 
East district of Dane county. This position he resigned in 1869 to 
accept the principalship of the Union graded school at Grand Rapids, 
Wis. In the fall of 1869, he was elected county superintendent of Wood 
county and re-elected in 1871. He held this position with the school 
principalship until July, 1873, when he resigned both to accept the 
principalship of the Fort Atkinson high school--a position which he held 
for sixteen years. Of his work in this school the Columbian History of 
Education in Wisconsin contains this just and deserved estimate:

"Here for sixteen years Professor Emery labored with an earnestness and
devotion to the work which attracted the attention of educators
throughout the state, and won for him the love and admiration of
hundreds of pupils who were fortunate enough to come under his able and
inspiring instruction. Few men, in the history of Wisconsin, have been
so universally approved and commended by parents and citizens as was
Professor Emery in Forth Atkinson. While engaged as principal of this
school he became widely known throughout the state, by the interest he
manifested in the State Teachers' association, the efficient work which
he performed in the capacity of conductor of institutes, and in the
diligent sympathy he has shown in aiding and encouraging the younger
members of the teaching profession."

In 1889 he accepted the presidency of the state normal school at River
Falls, a position to which he had, without solicitation, been
unanimously elected by the board of regents of normally schools. His
administration of this school continued four years, during which time
it experienced growth in attendance; the teaching force was enlarged;
systematic physical training was introduced; appliances adapted to more
thorough work in the sciences were obtained; a department

Page 459

in drawing was organized; and improved library facilities were
instituted.

In 1882 Beloit College conferred on him the honorary degree of A. M.,
"in recognition of the faithful, persistent, substantial qualities of
his work in the great field of education.

He has been president of the Wisconsin Teachers' association; has, for
many years, taken an active part in the proceedings of that
organization, and has served on many of its important committees. He
was for three years a member of the board of examiners for teachers'
state certificates; and, under appointment of the board of regents of
normal schools, has had large experience as conductor of teachers'
institutes.

He owns a farm in Dane county, over which he has always maintained
general management, and where he finds relief from his arduous work.

He was elected state superintendent in 1894; was renominated by
acclamation and re-elected in 1896, receiving 265,940 votes, the
largest number of votes ever given to any candidate for a state office
in Wisconsin. As state superintendent, he is ex-officio a member of the
board of regents of normal schools and of the state university, of the
state library commission and of the geological survey.

In August, 1862, he enlisted with Captain Miller in the Twentieth
regiment of Wisconsin volunteers. Being under age, and having then his
only brother in the Seventh regiment, Wisconsin volunteers, his father
refused to sign his enlistment papers.

He has always been a Republican, and cast his first vote for the re-
election of Abraham Lincoln. In religion, he is a Congregationalist.

Prof. Emery was married, in 1869, to Marie T. Lawton, and they have had
two children, a daughter, Daisy Mabel Emery, who died at twenty months
of age; and a son, Sydney Lawton Emery.

Prof. Emery is a natural instructor, and nearly all of his active life
has been conscientiously devoted to school work. He is one of those men 
who grow with their work, because they are thoroughly interested in it, 
and are never afraid of any effort which will advance the cause of 
general education. A man of liberal culture, who thoroughly believes in 
the public school system, his administration of the office of 
superintendent of public instruction is among the best in the history of 
the department. And this is true because Prof. Emery is a man of 
earnestness and integrity, who holds his official duties to be above 
party advancement and personal honors.

THORSEN, John, well and favorably known in business circles in
Milwaukee for many years, is a native of Stavanger, Norway, where he
was born on the 20th of March, 1820. At the age of fourteen he shipped,
as a cabin boy, on a sailing vessel bound from Bergen to Venice. From
Venice he sailed to Cette, France, and from that port to Antwerp, where
he shipped on board a Holland galleon for a round trip to Kronstadt,
Russia. Returning to Antwerp, he shipped as a common sailor on the
American vessel Plato, bound for Philadelphia, where he arrived in
1838. From Philadelphia he went as a ordinary seaman, on the
merchantman George Washington, on a Voyage to Calcutta. On the return
trip the vessel had a full cargo of Indian goods, and when two weeks
from port, in the bay of Bengal, the vessel sprung a leak. All hands
were put to work at the pumps and two feet of water was daily
discharged for ninety consecutive days, the officers as well as the
crew taking their turn in the desperate attempt to keep the vessel
afloat. At length, when all were well nigh exhausted and incapable of
further effort, the ship reached St. Thomas, in the West Indies, where
she was repaired and whence she proceeded on her way to Philadelphia,
where the owners of the vessel presented each sailor with one hundred
and fifty dollars in recognition of their heroism in saving the ship
and its cargo. While in St. Thomas young Thorsen had the misfortune

Page 460

[image: JOHN THORSEN.]

to break his leg, but with true heroism stuck to the ship.

After this voyage he was employed for four years in sail-making and the
ship-chandlery trade in Philadelphia. In 1842 Mr. Thorsen shipped as
gunner aboard the United States revenue cutter, Nautilus, Captain
Walter Green, commander. The Nautilus cruised along the Atlantic and
gulf coasts, thence up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and through the
Beaver canal to Cleveland, and from there by lake to Buffalo, where the
young and adventurous sailor embarked for Chicago, arriving there in
the autumn of 1843. The following year he came to Milwaukee, and
entered into partnership with G. D. Norris in the business of ship-
chandlery, which was successfully followed for some years.

In 1868 Mr. Thorsen entered into partnership with Charles Paggeot, a
Canadian, in the manufacture of lumber at Manistee, Michigan. The
business grew, under his management, until the annual product was
fifteen million feet of lumber, and a handsome fortune was the result.
He subsequently engaged in the manufacture of salt. Both of these
enterprises are conducted under the name of the Stronach Lumber and Salt 
company, of which Mr. Thorsen was president until a recent date, when he 
retired from active business.

Mr. Thorsen is a Mason, a member of the Milwaukee club, trustee of the
Layton art gallery, and visitor to the Passavant hospital, now called
the Milwaukee general hospital. In politics he is a Republican on
national questions, but independent on local issues. He has had no
ambition for official honors, and has taken little part in the
machinery of politics.

He was married, in 1850, to Miss Sarah Kildahl, a native of
Christiansend, Norway, daughter of a noted architect and prominent
citizen of his native town. They have two sons and three daughters. In
religious matters he is a liberal.

Several years ago, in company with his daughter, Mrs. John Johnston, he
visited in old home, the first return to it since, as a cabin boy, he
left it sixty years before. His wide and varied experiences make him a
very intelligent and agreeable companion, and his genial, kindly was
have won him the confidence and esteem of all who have the pleasure of
his acquaintance.

SMITH, Angus, who located in Milwaukee in 1854, and for forty years has
been one of the leading figures in business circles, was born in
Algonac, Michigan, on the 15th of December, 1822, the son of John K.
Smith, a native of Vermont, and of Catherine McDonald, who came from
Scotland. From the age of eight years to that of twelve, Angus Smith
attended the public school three months each winter, and that was all
the education he received. Considering his active and very successful
career, one cannot help asking what he might not have accomplished had
he enjoyed a larger measure of educational advantages in his youth.
Certain it is that his success demonstrates the fact that all obstacles
yield to him who wills to conquer. At the

Page 461 

age of fourteen years young Smith went into a country store for a term
of three years, at seventy-five dollars per year. So anxious was he for
an education that, at the end of his three years' engagement, he agreed
to continue his work for three years longer, provided his employer
would send him to an academy for two years. This part of the
stipulation, though agreed to by his employer, was never fulfilled.
While in this occupation young Smith had his first experience in the
lumber business, in which he has always been more or less interested,
his employer sending him to Sandusky, Ohio, with a load of lumber to
sell, and he proved equal to the discharge of his commission. Energetic
and ready for anything, provided it was honest, he worked on a farm,
did "chores," and carried the mail through a country district on
horseback. That he was not ashamed of small things is shown by the fact
that his first earnings were received for plowing corn at ten cents a
day.

His father was a lawyer and practiced law in Pottsdam, N. Y., until the
war of 1812, and that he was a worthy man is shown by the fact that he
held the offices of justice of the peace, judge of the probate court,
postmaster, and collector of customs at St. Clair, Michigan. He gave
his son, on his leaving home, some excellent advice, if he could not
give him much else. Among other things, he told him that there is no
such word as "can't," and that has been Mr. Smith's motto ever since,
and probably one of the secrets of his success.

Mr. Smith's first venture in business for himself was in the lumber
trade, with headquarters subsequently at Sandusky. This business soon
grew into large proportions, and later he combined with it that of
grain and commission. But with his native energy and enterprise, he
began to look for larger things, and a wider field for the development
of schemes which were already forming in his mind; and his attention
was attracted to Milwaukee as the most promising for what he already
had in view. Removing to the city in 1854, he engaged in the handling
of grain,

[image: ANGUS SMITH.]

looking for a favorable opportunity for realizing his great schemes,
which seemed to have arrived in 1858; when, forming a partnership with
Jesse Hoyt of New York, he built the first grain elevator erected in
Milwaukee, which had a capacity of 500,000 bushels of wheat. People
thought him wild, but he was not disturbed by their lack of faith in
the city's future. The amount of grain then handled in the city
annually was 2,500,000 bushels, and he clearly foresaw that this amount
would rapidly increase with the growth of the agricultural interests of
the country, and improved facilities for handling it. He saw that what
was needed was the systematizing of the business and ample provision
for handling all that might be brought in. He was not satisfied with
one elevator of half a million capacity--he proposed to erect other
elevators with an additional capacity of 2,500,000 bushels. People were
sure then that he was losing his wits. He was not swerved from his
purpose, however, by their taunts, and ere long he had erected two more
elevators, one of 900,000 bushels capacity, and the other of 1,000,000
bushels. It was not many years before his

Page 462

sagacity was vindicated and his enterprise fully rewarded by the
unparalleled growth of the business; the annual receipts of grain had
reached the enormous amount of 33,000,000 bushels, and Milwaukee had
risen to the position of the greatest primary wheat market in the
world. Although he was the founder of this system of handling grain
through great elevators at prominent ports or markets, there came a
time when he saw that a new system was desirable, and he introduced
that of putting grains of same quality together in bins and issuing
receipts for same, so it could be shipped in large quantities. This
system was in force before the large elevators were built.

Mr. Smith next engaged with all his energy in the projecting and
building of railroads, and to his influence and personal efforts is due
the construction of several lines of road, now important parts of the
great systems known as the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and the
Chicago & Northwestern railways. Among these roads are the Milwaukee &
Northern and the Winona & St. Peter, the last named traversing the
great wheat belt of Minnesota.

For years past Mr. Smith has been interested in iron mining in
Wisconsin and northern Michigan, and in the mining of the precious
metals in the far western states, and these enterprises have been
pushed with his well known energy, and into their management has gone
much of his practical wisdom and the results of his long and varied
experience in the directing of great and complicated schemes. It is
safe to say that all these ventures have added something to the fortune
which is the just and natural reward of the labors of his long and busy
life.

Mr. Smith is and always has been a Republican, although his father was
a Democrat. He has steadfastly refused to accept nominations for office
though frequently urged by friends to permit the use of his name in
that connection. The enterprises in which he has for so many years been
engaged, absorbing all his time and attention, have rendered it
impracticable
for him to give thought to the details of official position; yet had he
accepted office, there is little doubt that he would have made as great
a success of it as he has of business affairs. He is not a member of
any church, and claims to be an agnostic, or freethinker.

Mr. Smith was married, in 1846, to Maria C. Perk, who died in 1858. He
was married a second time, in 1861, to Catherine E. Peck, and they have
one son, Jesse Hoyt Smith.

YOUMANS, Clarion, Augustine, a lawyer, farmer and public man of
Neillsville, is a native of Wisconsin, having been born in Kenosha,
October 14th, 1847. He is the son of Jonas Hamilton Youmans, a cousin
of the late Prof. E. L. Youmans, who established the Popular Science
Monthly, and of Win. Jay Youmans, its present editor. The family
prepared a history of the Youmans family, but it is not at hand, and
its facts are not, therefore, available for this sketch. C. A. Youmans'
father was born in Coeymans, Albany county, N. Y., June 17th, 1817, and
is by occupation a carpenter and farmer. Mr. Youmans' mother, whose
maiden name was Adeline Sill, was born in Bethany, Genesee county, N.
Y. August 10th, 1821, and died in 1888. There is a genealogical history
of the Sill family in the library of the State Historical society, at
Madison. Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Youmans removed from Buffalo, N. Y., to
Kenosha, in 1847, thence, in 1852, to Arlington Columbia county, where
they experienced the privations and hardships of pioneer settlers, but
where they did their share in the development of the new country.

C. A. Youmans' early education was such as the ordinary farmer's boy
gets at the district school--which he attends in winters only after he
has reached an age when his work is of value on the farm. After
attendance at the district school he had the opportunity of
supplementing his acquirements there by attendance at the village
school of Poynette. Leaving

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school he went to work in a general store in Poynette, and afterward
was engaged in farming in Iowa for a year. At the end of that time he
returned to Poynette and re-entered the store where he had formerly
been employed, remaining there until 1872, when he went to Neillsville
to accept a position in a store there, which he held until he entered
the law school in 1875. Returning to Neillsville in 1876, he began the
practice of law in partnership with M. C. Ring, which partnership
continued until January, 1891. The practice of the firm of Ring &
Youmans was a general law practice but during its continuance the firm
became largely interested in other matters, mainly pine land and
lumbering.

Mr. Youmans is a Republican, and has never voted any other ticket. He
held the office of county judge in 1877, by appointment of the governor
to fill a vacancy. He was elected district attorney of Clark county in
1881, and held that office for one term. In 1894 he was elected to the
state senate from the Twenty-fifth district, composed of the counties
of Clark and Eau Claire. In the session of 1895 he was a member of the
judiciary and railroad committees and was chairman of the committee on
roads and bridges, and in the session of 1897 he was on the following
committees: Judiciary, manufacturers, roads and bridges, and chairman
of the committee on town and county organizations. Mr. Youmans has
owned and operated one of the largest farms in Clark county for the
past ten years; and, as it is only two and a half miles from
Neillsville, he lived thereon for seven years, and drove to his office
daily. In 1892 he again made his home in Neillsville for the better
education of his children. His interest in farming made him a very 
capable president of the Clark County Agricultural society, and that
office he held from 1890 to 1893.

He is a member of the Masonic lodge-- is a Knight Templar, has held
several offices in the Blue Lodge and was master of Neillsville Lodge
in 1884. He is not a member of any

[image: CLARION AUGUSTINE YOUMANS.]

church, but attends the Unitarian, and is in hearty sympathy with
Unitarian thought.

Mr. Youmans was married January 10th, 1877, to Miss Nettie French,
eldest daughter of B. F. French, who at that time was one of the oldest
residents of Clark county. Mr. and Mrs. Youmans have three children:
Guy Clarion, Viola French and Adda Beth.

TAYLOR, George William, a resident of Marinette and member of the last
two legislatures, was born in Wenham, Massachusetts, March 31st, 1855,
the son of Rev. Jeremiah Taylor and Elizabeth, nee Pride. Rev. Jeremiah
Taylor is the eastern secretary of the American Tract society, whose
office is in Boston.

Elizabeth Pride was born on the Choctaw reservation in the state of
Mississippi, where her father was stationed as the missionary sent to
the Indians by the American and Foreign Christian union. Rev. Jeremiah
Taylor is the son of Capt. Jeremiah Taylor and Betsey Shaw Alden, the
latter being a lineal descendent of John Alden, of Mayflower fame.
Elizabeth

Page 464

[image: GEORGE WILLIAM TAYLOR.]

Pride is the daughter of William Pride and the granddaughter of Reuben
Pride of Norwich, Connecticut, who marched to the relief of Boston at
the time of the Lexington alarm, in 1775. He served as an officer in
the Continental army until retired by act of congress in 1782.

G. W. Taylor was educated in the common schools and the high schools of
Middletown and Hartford, Conn. He was fitted to enter Yale College,
but, preferring a business career, abandoned the idea of taking a
college course, and engaged in the lumber business in Providence, R.
I., in 1872. Four years thereafter he removed to Chicago, where he was
in the same business for twelve years. In 1888 he came to Wisconsin,
settling first in Oconto, and two years later taking up his residence
in Marinette, where he now resides, and where he is engaged in dealing
in lumber, logs, pine and mineral lands.

Mr. Taylor is a Republican in politics, and as such was elected to the
assembly in 1895 and re-elected to that of 1897. During his first
session he served on the committees on railroads and lumber and mining.
In the second session he was chairman of the committee on military 
affairs and was again a member of the committee on railroads. He was an 
active and efficient legislator, and that he was an intelligent and 
useful one is attested by the records of the house.

He is Knight of Pythias, a Mason, a member of the Wisconsin Society of
the Sons of the American Revolution, and is member of the First
Presbyterian church of Chicago.

Mr. Taylor was married in March, 1882, to Ella Frances Case of Chicago,
and they have had two children: George Irving, who died at the ag of
eight months, and John Case, eleven years old.

KIEWERT, Charles L., member of the board of trustees of the Milwaukee
Public Museum, and one of Milwaukee's enterprising and substantial
business men, is a native of Berent, province of West Prussia, where he
was born on November 24th, 1846. His father, William Kiewert, was a man
of character and standing in his German home, having been mayor of
Berent. His mother was Emilia Dombrowska before marriage. Both parents
died while their son was a mere child, and he was reared by relatives,
who had the good sense to give him a practical education, sending him
to college at an early age. That he was a bright, self-reliant youth is
shown by the fact that he soon put use what he had learned in school,
by entering upon the business of tutor, when 12 years of age, to one
who was only a few years younger than himself. For this first essay in
the educational line he received twenty cents a week for two hours'
instruction each day. When sixteen years of age young Kiewert was sent
to relatives in Milwaukee, where he arrived in due time, and where he
has ever since resided. Soon after his arrival in the city, he entered
upon a course of study in a commercial college, and, when that was
completed, began the study of law in the office of Ryan & McGregor, the
former afterward chief justice of the supreme court of Wisconsin. In
1864 he was drafted

Page 465

into the Union army, for service against the rebellion, but being under
age at the time, he was rejected. After having continued his legal
studies until 1867, he was admitted to the bar; but he had hardly begun
practice when he discovered that his tastes were really for a
commercial career, and, very wisely, he at once abandoned the law,
declining a law partnership with Mann & Cotzhausen, and became a
traveling salesman. He was measurably successful in this, he had an
ambition for something larger than this--the ambition to become the
employer of salesmen, rather than being a salesman himself. In 1870,
with a partner and a capital of $1,200, he engaged in the business of
manufacturing chemist. After four years, he purchased the interest of
his partner and changed the establishment into one for the handling and
sale of hops, and brewers' and bottlers' supplies, in which he has been
remarkably successful, having one of the largest establishments of the
kind in the country.

He is a man of culture, with a special leaning to music, of which he is
a great lover. He has traveled extensively in Europe, has visited
Morocco. Egypt. Palestine. China, Japan, has been around the world, and
his observations during his travels have peculiarly fitted him for the
position which he now holds of trustee of the Public Museum. He has
devoted no little study to ethnology, and has collected in his travels
many photographs of scenes and places not familiar to the ordinary
traveler, and of great value to those who depend for a comprehensive
knowledge of the world upon pictures and descriptions.

His legal studies, though not made useful in a professional way, have
been of value in his business, and have contributed to his great
success therein.

Mr. Kiewert always affiliated with the Democratic party until 1896,
when he could not accept its platform, and so voted for the Republican
candidate for president. He has never held any political office or
position. Besides being a trustee of the Public Museum, as

[image: CHARLES L. KIEWERT.]

already stated, he is a member of the Musical society, of which he has
been secretary and acting president, and, in May, 1897, was elected
president. He is also a member of the Deutscher and Country clubs,
Merchant's association, Chamber of Commerce, and of the F. & A. M.
Lodge. He is not a member of any church.

In 1869 he was married to Miss Amelia L. Geuder, and they have four
children.

BAEZ, Rafael., who resides at 275 Hamilton street, Milwaukee, is the
son of Jose de La Luz Baez, who came of a Mexican family of rare
musical attainments. His mother was Josefina Zambrano, and he was born
in May, 1863, in the city of Pueblo, Mexico. Owing to the death of his
mother, he was placed in school when only five years old. At the age of
nine years he took up the study of music, and from the first he
exhibited remarkable genius, and rapidly developed an ability not only
to read at sight, but to comprehend the most difficult composition. So
marked was this that at the end of five years he was able to 

Page 466

[image: RAFAEL BAEZ.]

transpose with great facility. About fourteen he entered the College of
Arts and Industries, making creditable progress and winning first
prizes in arithmetic and composition, the last three years
successively. In the meantime he studied the violin, and soon after,
moving to the City of Mexico, he was given a place in the orchestra of
the Grand National theater of that city.

In the spring of 1884 Mr. Baez accepted the position of chorus of the
C. D. Hess Opera company, then making a tour of the principal cities of
Mexico. At the close of the season he accompanied Mr. Hess to the
United States. Settling in Milwaukee, he accepted the place of organist
and musical director of one of the large city churches, continuing in
this dual position for six years, with such success that his
resignation was a cause of regret to both choir and congregation.

For the past two years Mr. Baez has devoted his attention to the study
of the piano with remarkable results.

Mr. Baez has written a number of compositions, some of which are yet
unpublished. As an instructor he has achieved success, and
by his courtesy as a gentleman as well as by his artistic taste and
skill, he has built for himself an enviable place among the musical
fraternity of his adopted home.

His first dollar was earned is scoring a march for a military band in
his native city. He is a member of the Musicians' society of Milwaukee,
but is not given to society or club life. He was married on the 23rd of
May, 188, to Miss Maria Schön, and they have had three children--Rafael
Peter Ignatius, Francis Henry and William John Baez, the latter
recently deceased.

BACH, George, a prominent musician of Milwaukee, and publisher of "The
Souvenir," a journal devoted to music and musical literature, is the
son of George Bach of Niederhone, province of Hesse Cassel, Germany,
and of Catherine Bach, nee Wollenhaupt, also of Hesse Cassel, and was
born in that city on the 29th of May, 1843. He attended the local
parochial school until his twelfth year, when with his mother, brothers
and sisters, he came to Wisconsin, locating in Fredonia, Ozaukee
county. In 1857 he moved into Milwaukee and took up the study of music
with his brother, Christoph, who had preceded him to the city. Pursuing
his studies with zeal and energy he became an expert performer on a
number of instruments, among them the violin, viola and French born. He
also attended the German-English Academy, the Seventh ward school and
the Spencerian Business College. After leaving school he became a
member of his brother's orchestra and later assistant director. In 1864
he went with his brother to Chicago, where the latter took the position
of director of the orchestra in McVicker's theater, and in which George
was one of the musicians. There the brothers remained one year and then
returned to Milwaukee, were Chris. Bach started the popular West Side
Turn Hall concerts, in which George was one of the leading performers.
He had charge of his brother's business during

Page 467

the latter's absence in Germany in 1874, both as director and manager.
He also played in the German theater, the orchestras at the Exposition
in Milwaukee, Kansas City and St. Joseph, Mo., and at the National
United States Saengerbund in New Orleans. For a few years he was
director of the orchestras of the Grand Opera House, Academy of Music
and the North Side Turn Hall. He was teacher in music of several
persons of prominence in the city; had charge of his brother's
orchestra as conductor upon the occasion of the laying of the corner-
stone of the state capitol of Michigan. At this time he was engaged by
the Knights Templar of Ionia, Michigan, to give a concert in that
place, which proved a great success. As manager he made contracts for
various concerts and Saengerfests and other important engagements, and
these gave him no little prominence among the lovers of music as a
conductor.

Mr. Bach has also been prominent in other ways. He was grand commander
of the American Legion of Honor of Wisconsin; president of the
Milwaukee Musicians' society for about ten years; one of the founders
of the National League of Musicians of the United States, and is a
member of a large number of societies and clubs. He also had charge of
and directed the music under contract from the state board on Wisconsin
day at the Columbia World's Fair, 1893.

He has also been, for twenty-five years, manager and publisher of the
weekly official programme of Bach's orchestra, and, also, the manager
and publisher of "The Souvenir," a monthly musical journal devoted to
musical literature and the drama--an interesting and creditable
publication. He is interested in the Hilgen Manufacturing company sash,
doors and blinds), and it the Cedarburg Woolen mill, and is a member in
both boards of directors, thus combining in his active, busy life, the
useful and the ornamental.

Mr. Bach was married on the 14th of June, 1870, to Miss Helen Hilgen, a
daughter of the late Hon. Frederick Hilgen, from Cedarburg,

[image: GEORGE BACH.]

Wis., and they have two sons. Oscar and George, and three daughters,
Clara, now Mrs. Ed. Wordell, Louise and Frieda Bach.

Mr. Bach is still active and carries on his professional business both
alone and in connection with his brother, Chris., and takes a great
interest in all things promotive of the interest of the city.

DICK, James Jefferson, judge of the Thirteenth judicial circuit, and
resident of Beaver Dam, was born in Westfield, Chautauqua county, N.
Y., September 8th, 1836. The founder of the family was James J. Dick. a
native of Scotland, who came to this country, at the age of eighteen
years, settling in Vermont, where he was married and where James Dick,
the father of the subject of this sketch, was born. Having learned a
trade, he settled in western New York, where he married Miss Mahala
Rogers, a native of Pennsylvania, of Dutch descent.

James J. Dick received his primary education in the common schools of
Westfield, N. Y., and this was followed by a full course in

Page 468

[image: JAMES JEFFERSON DICK.]

the Westfield Academy. In 1856 he came with his parents to Westfield,
Marquette county, Wis., and was successfully engaged in teaching for
four years from 1856, spending his leisure time in reading law, gaining
such a knowledge thereof that he was able to complete the course in the
law school of Albany within one year, graduating in June, 1861. In
August following he came to Beaver Dam, where he has ever since
resided, actively engaged in the practice of his profession. As a
lawyer he was faithful to his clients, skillful in the management of
cases, and his practice extended to almost every branch of the
profession. For three years from January, 1861, he was the law partner
of H. W. Lander; and after that practiced alone. In 1896 he was elected
judge of the Thirteenth judicial circuit, the duties of which honorable
and responsible office he has so far ably and faithfully discharged.

Politically, Judge Dick is a Democrat, but he has not aspired to or
held any political office. The office of judge is the only official
position which he has ever held, except that the has been twenty-two
years superintendent of schools of the city of Beaver Dam. Judge Dick is 
a member of the Masonic order, and of that of the Odd Fellows, and an 
attendant of the Episcopal church.

August 5th, 1862, he was married to Helen M. Drown of Beaver Dam, but
they have no children.

Judge Dick's repeated re-election to the office of superintendent of
public schools of his home city, regardless of politics, is abundant
evidence of his ability and fidelity in the discharge of official
duties, and of his popularity among his fellow citizens.

EHLMAN, William Augustus, superindent of music in the public schools of
Milwaukee, was born in the city of New York in 1841. His father, Jacob
Ehlman, was born in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1800, and his mother, Anna
Margaretha Ehlman, nee Kugelmann, was a native of Baden, German, where
she was born in 1805. They immigrated to this country many years ago,
stopping for some time in the city of New York, but, in 1847, removing
to Milwaukee, which continued to be their home during the remainder of
their lives.

Mr. Ehlman received his education in the public and private schools of
Milwaukee, and early showed a taste for music, which he cultivated
assiduously, and in which he soon gained very unusual proficiency both
as a performer on instruments and as a master in voice culture. When
but seventeen years of age, he was appointed first assistant teacher in
the Sixth district school, and, in addition, was given charge of the
daily singing exercises, which he conducted to the general satisfaction
of principal and pupils. Some years after, he became principal of St.
Mary's parochial school, and at the same time was appointed organist of
St. Mary's church. In 1862 he was a director of one of the largest
singing societies which up to that time had been formed in Milwaukee.
In 1870 he accepted the position of organist in St. Gall's church; and,
a year later, he organized the Milwaukee

Page 469

College of Music on Grand avenue, which he conducted successfully for
some years. In 1880 he received the appointment of superintendent of
music in the Milwaukee public schools, and he has held the position
ever since. His long continuance in this office may properly be
regarded as an evidence of his ability as a leader and instructor not
only, but also as a testimony to the faithfulness with which he has
discharged the varied duties of his position.

Since the opening of the new Gesu church, on Grand avenue, in 1894, Mr.
Ehlman has held the position of organist there, and his handling of
that grand instrument has come to be a leading feature of the fine and
impressive music which characterizes the services of that church. As a
director of orchestra or chorus, he has ever maintained an enviable
reputation, conducting with a repose and confidence of manner that
never fails to put musicians and singers at their ease, and draw from
them their best efforts. At the Northwestern Saengerfest, held in 1879.
Mr. Ehlman was chosen by Capellmeister Christopher Bach to lead the
grand male chorus of fifteen hundred voices. He performed his task in
such manner as to win great praise from that veteran conductor.

Perhaps Mr. Ehlman's greatest success has been obtained with children,
over whom he exercises a rare control. As an instance, the Saengerfest
of the North American Saengerbund, held in Milwaukee in 1885, may be
cited. On that occasion, the children's chorus of two thousand voices
contributed greatly to the success of the festival. As a teacher, Mr.
Ehlman is patient and thorough. A number of his pupils have become
prominent as singers, musicians or teachers of vocal or instrumental
music.

Courteous in his bearing toward all with whom he comes in contact,
genial in all social relations, he has won friends among the teachers
and pupils, and contributed much toward fixing in the public estimation
the value and importance of music as an element in our educational

[image: WILLIAM AUGUSTUS EHLMAN.]

system. His compositions and arrangements of vocal, instrumental and
orchestral music are numerous and highly valued by those who are most
familiar with their scope and character.

On the 21st of August, 1866, Mr. Ehlman was united in marriage to Miss
Fannie A. Graham, and they have six children--Nettie, Ernest, Frank,
Albert, Viola and Walter.

OSTRANDER, Frank, a resident of Superior, engaged in the real estate,
loan and insurance business, is the son of Dempster Ostrander of
Chicago, an insurance lawyer, who occupies the position of general
adjuster for the Phoenix Insurance company, and who is the author of
two law books, one entitled "Ostrander on Insurance," which is the
standard work on the law of fire insurance in this country. Dempster
Ostrander came to Wisconsin with his parents when he was two years old,
and was educated in the state university. His father was a farmer near
Waterloo, Wis., and his paternal grandfather was a native of Holland
and a typical Dutch gentleman.

Page 470

[image: FRANK OSTRANDER.]

Fran Ostrander's mother, Sarah Etta, nee Manville, was born in Aztalan,
Wis., and her parents came from England, but died when he was a child.
Frank was born at Jefferson, Wis., December 20th, 1861, where he
received his primary education in the common school. When he was eleven
years old the family moved to Milwaukee, and Frank went through the
graded schools and also the city high school. Having completed his
school course, he secured the position of messenger in the First
National bank of Milwaukee. At the end of a year he took a course in a
business college, and after that studied law in the office of Judge
Noyes. In 1882 he went to Montana, where he was engaged in driving
cattle for a year. Returning to Wisconsin, he spent one winter in a
logging camp in the northern part of the state. Again making his home
in Milwaukee, he settled down to steady work in the office of Benjamin
M. Weil, in the fire insurance business. After a year's experience in
this work, he received the appointment of special agent for the
Insurance Company of North America, having in charge the state of
Wisconsin, under J. H. Warner. Receiving a more favorable offer, in 
1886, from the Phoenix Insurance company, he became special agent for 
it. In the regular course of his business, he visited Superior, and was 
so pleased with its business prospects that he concluded to settle 
there; and, resigning his special agency, he became local agent for the 
Phoenix. West Superior then had only about five hundred inhabitants. In 
1887, in company with C. H. Sunderland, he established a real estate, 
loan and insurance business, under the firm name of Sunderland & 
Ostrander, which they have steadily conducted since. He has also been 
interested in many local enterprises, and has been thoroughly identified 
with its wonderful growth and progress. He has been a director in the 
Northern Trust company, capital $500,000, since its organization; is a 
heavy stockholder in the First National bank; a director in the 
Northwestern National bank since its organization in 1889, when it was a 
state bank, and is now its active president.

He says that the only war he was ever in was the one between Superior
and La Crosse over the location of the new normal school, and in this
he was one of the generals of the former city, which won in the
struggle. Gov. Upham, recognizing his gallant conduct on the field,
appointed him a great regent of normal schools, and this office he
still holds.

Mr. Ostrander is and always has been a Republican, but has never held a
salaried office, and is not in pursuit of one. He is a member of three
Superior clubs: The Rod & Gun club, the Boat club and the Commercial
club, but is not a member of any secret society. He has contributed to
the establishment of nearly every church in Superior, but does not
belong to any of them. His creed is brief, and is: "I believe in God
and the Golden Rule."

In 1885 Mr. Ostrander was married to Miss Eliza Wilder White of Fort
Atkinson, and they have had two children--a son, Sidney F. Ostrander,
and a daughter--Sarah--who died when a year old.

Page 471

RYAN, Timothy E., postmaster of Waukesha, and a prominent member of the
bar of that city, is the son of Jeremiah and Johanna Cronin Ryan, who
were born in the county of Tipperary, Ireland, and came to this country
in 1849, settling first in Troy, N. Y., and afterward removing to the
town of Greenwich, Washington county, in the same state, where Mr.
Ryan, Sr., was engaged as foreman for R. W. Loeber in an extensive lime
business for nearly a quarter of a century. In the year 1872, he came
to Waukesha county, and located on what was known as the Dorothy farm
in the town of Pewaukee, where he died in December, 1887. His widow is
still living on the homestead.

T. E. Ryan was born in the town of Greenwich, Washington county, N. Y.,
in 1859. He attended the public schools in Washington county, N. Y.,
the Greenwich Academy, in the same state, and, coming to Wisconsin,
with his parents, in 1872, he also attended the Pewaukee high school.
After that he taught country schools for six winters, and attended a
business college in Milwaukee for one year. He then began the study of
law in the office of Van Dyke & Van Dyke in Milwaukee, and continued
there for a year, when he entered the law department of the University
of Wisconsin, where, after two years and a half, he graduated in the
class of 1885. After graduation, he formed a partnership with Judge P.
H. Carney of Waukesha, which continued until 1889, when it was
dissolved, and he entered into another with E. Merton of Burlington,
under the firm name of Ryan & Merton, with office in Waukesha, and this
partnership still continues. Mr. Ryan has been engaged in many
important cases since the formation of this last named partnership, the
most important, perhaps, being the Waukesha pipe line suits.

Mr. Ryan was appointed postmaster of Waukesha by President Cleveland,
January 10th, 1895, and this position he now holds.

In politics Mr. Ryan has always affiliated with the Democratic party,
and he was the

[image: TIMOTHY E. RYAN.]

nominee of that party in 1888 for attorney-general for the state. He
has in many ways been prominent and useful in councils and campaign of
his party.

He is member of the Catholic church, the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin
and the Catholic Order of Foresters.

Mr. Ryan was married on the 5th of October, 1887, to Mary E. Bannon of
Waukesha, and they have three children living--Margaret, Frances and
Agnes Josephine.

NEVILLE, Arthur Camtraye, junior member of the legal firm of John C. &
A. C. Neville of Green Bay, and son of the senior member, John Charles
Neville, was born in Pottsville, Pa., October 15th, 1850. His father,
who retired from the active practice of his profession about two years
ago, was district attorney of Brown county for ten years, and member of
the legislature in 1860 and 1861, and mayor of the city of Green Bay
for one term. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, July 27th, 1815, and
emigrated to America when nineteen years of age. His

Page 472

[image: ARTHUR CAMTRAYE NEVILLE.]

wife, the mother of A. C. Neville, was born in Ogdensburg, N. Y., of
English ancestry.

A. C. Neville came to Wisconsin with his parents in 1856, when six
years of age, settling at Green Bay, where he attended the common
schools until he was fourteen years old. Leaving school at that time,
he began work as errand boy, and afterward was assistant shipper for
Dousman & Elmore, in whose employ he remained for some four years. Then
going to Chicago, he was assistant book-keeper for Carter & Jones,
lumber dealers, for a year, and for the same time was with Sprague,
Warner & Co. in the same capacity. Returning to Green Bay in 1871, he
entered the law office of Neville & Tracy, where he studied law for
three years, when he was admitted to the bar. In 1874 he became a
member of the firm, the firm name being Neville, Tracy & Neville. A
year later Mr. Tracy retired and the business was continued by the
other members, the firm name being changed to John C. & A. C. Neville,
and has so remained to the present time. Mr. Neville has been engaged
in most of the important litigation in Brown county--was attorney for
the defendants in the long litigation relating to the vacant strip, and, 
also, for the De Pere company in its contest relating to the use of the 
water power at De Pere and the duty of the De Pere company to keep the 
dam in repair, in all of which he was successful. He has been attorney 
of the water works company ever since its organization, and was 
principal counsel for it in the Britton case, which established the 
doctrine in this state that water companies are not liable to private 
persons for failure to supply fire hydrants with water during a fire.

Mr. Neville has always been a Democrat, and taken an active part in
politics, but has never sought or held any office except that of mayor
of the city of Green Bay for two terms. It was during his
administration that the policy of the city government was changed from
that of rather passave resistance, to an active participation in all
schemes for the development of the city's industries.

Mr. Neville is an Episcopalian, a Knight of Pythias, a member of the
Masonic lodge, vice-commodore of the Green Bay Yacht club and second
vice-president of the Lake Michigan Yachting association, and takes a
very active interest in all of them. He was secretary of the Business
Men's association for a number of years, and also its attorney, and
this latter office he still holds. He has taken an active part in all
its schemes for the improvement and embellishment of the city. It was
through his efforts, assisted by E. L. Kendall, that water works were
secured for the city, and he has been a member of almost all committees
which have secured the location of manufactories in the city.

In April, 1874, Mr. Neville was married to Miss Hattie Reynolds,
daughter of Warden Reynolds, for many years principal of the high
school of Green Bay. She lived but a short time thereafter, dying
December 4th, 1874. Mr. Neville married for a second wife, Mrs. Ella
Haes Peak, May 9th, 1881, at Richfield Spa, N. Y. He has no children of
his own, but has a step-daughter, Marion Peak.

Page 473

OLESON, Ole.--The opportunities offered under free institutions for the
development of character and abilities have had their fullest
illustration in the United States, and one cannot call the roll of
those who have risen from obscurity to places of responsibility in any
community without finding that they constitute the large majority of
those in such positions. Another instance of this kind, among the many
that this volume contains, is found in the biographical sketch of
Captain Ole Oleson of Oshkosh. His parents were natives of Norway, from
which country have come many of the most worthy, useful and substantial
citizens of the commonwealth, and there Ole Oleson was born on the 30th
of December, 1839. The family immigrated to this country in 1843,
settling on a farm in Racine county, Wisconsin, where they remained for
ten years. The boy received a common school education, and early
learned all kinds of farm work. In 1853 the family moved to Winnebago
county, and there he led the same kind of life until 1859, when he went
to Oshkosh, where the inclination of a Norseman for navigation led him
to engage in steamboating, in which he continued until 1861, when, upon
the call of the government for troops for the suppression of the
rebellion, he enlisted in the Second regiment of Wisconsin infantry. He
remained with this regiment until February, 1862, when he was
transferred to a river gunboat at Cairo, Illinois. In this branch of
the service he was conspicuous for his faithful performance of duty,
and for his bravery in action. He took part in all the battles on the
Mississippi until all fortifications were destroyed and the river
opened to its mouth.

At the close of service for the government he returned to Oshkosh and
resumed his former occupation of steamboating, in which he was very
successful. The esteem in which he was held by the prominent men in the
city was shown by the fact that President Harrison, through their
recommendation, appointed him postmaster of Oshkosh, which position he
held

[image: OLE OLESON.]

to the great satisfaction of those having business with the office, and
to the approval of the department.

Mr. Oleson has always been an active Republican, and one who thoroughly
believes in the principles and policy of the party.

He was married February 22nd, 1871, to Miss Mary Petford of Butte des
Morts, and they have one daughter, Miss Erna A. Oleson. His domestic
life is a happy one--all the more so for the memory of the hardships
through which he has passed for the honor and glory of this, his
adopted country.

PERRIN, Solon Louis, a resident of Superior, and a member of the
Douglas county bar, was born in Kinnickinnic, St. Croix county. Wis.,
March 17, 1859. His father, William L. Perrin, a farmer in moderate
financial circumstances, is of French descent, his ancestors being
traceable to the early French settlements in lower Canada, thence to
Vermont and later to northern New York. S. L. Perrin's mother was Julia
Frances Loring, whose ancestors were early settlers in Maine. Mr.

Page 474

[image: SOLON LOUIS PERRIN.]

Perrin's father came to Wisconsin in 1851, and his mother in 1854, and
they were married in 1858.

Solon attended the district school near his home, was, after that, a
student, for three months, in a private school at River Falls, Wis.,
and then for a year at the high school in Hudson, Wis. March 5th, 1877,
he entered the office of Baker & Spooner in Hudson as a student of law,
and was there until September, 1880, excepting the winters of 1878-9
and 1879-80, which were spent in the Wisconsin assembly as assistant
chief clerk. In September, 1880, he entered the law department of the
University of Wisconsin, and graduated therefrom in the following June.
August 1st, 1881, Mr. Perrin entered the office of John C. Spooner,
general solicitor of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Ry. 
Co., at St. Paul, and was attorney for that company until September
1st, 1895, when he resigned the position and removed to Superior, where
he formed a law partnership with Carl C. Pope, under the style of Pope
& Perrin, which still continues. While attorney for the Omaha company,
a period of fourteen years, he had personal charge of the office; and 
during the last eleven years he had the conducting of all litigated 
business. Probably the most important of which he had the management 
grew out of the inter- state commerce legislation and cases arising 
thereunder before the interstate commerce commission.

Mr. Perrin is a Republican in principle and affiliation, and cast his
first vote for James A. Garfield for president. He has never held a
political office, but has been a member of various county, city and
campaign committees, and has been an earnest and effective worker for
the promotion of the principles and measures of his party.

He is a member of the Masonic fraternity (Knight Templar).

In 1888 Mr. Perrin was married to Elizabeth G. Stephens, and they have
two children, Florence Elizabeth and James Louis.

Mr. Perrin had an admirable professional training under the tutorship
of that able lawyer, Senator Spooner, and in the years which he spent
as a practitioner in his office; and the benefits of this training and
experience are visible in the success which has marked his professional
career thus far.

WAHL, George Henry, junior member of the law firm of Miller, Noyes,
Miller & Wahl of Milwaukee, was born in Milwaukee on the 6th of
November, 1861. His father, Jacob Wahl, was a native of Germany, and
was a theological student in the University of Giesen when the
revolution of 1848 broke out. Sympathizing with that movement in favor
of free institutions, he entered into in with all the zeal of a
student, and upon its disastrous termination, fled form his native land
and came to America, arriving in New York City, July 4th, 1849. Coming
to Milwaukee, in 1858, he engaged in teaching, and in 1863 assumed
charge of the Sixth district school, of which he remained principal
until his death in 1849. He was an earnest advocate of the free public
school system and was one of its faithful and

Page 475

efficient workers. Barbara J. Wahl, nee Roeckel, George Henry's mother,
was the daughter of the head of the von Roeckel family of Bavaria, who
came to America in 1842 because the political and industries conditions
of Bavaria were obnoxious to him. The Wahl family was Protestant and
contained many clergymen, professors and public officials of Hessia,
Germany. The Roeckel family was prominent in support of the Catholic
church in Bavaria, some members of the family being high dignitaries of 
that organization.

George H. Wahl was educated in the public schools, the high school and
the Milwaukee normal school, from all of which he graduated. After
leaving school he taught in the Milwaukee public schools from 1800 to
1883, when he resigned as teacher, and entered the law department of
the state university, from which he graduated in 1885, with the degree
of LL. B., and was then admitted to the bar. Previous to his graduation
from the law department he entered the law office of John M. Olin of
Madison, remaining there until December, 1885. From January, 1886,
until December, 1889, he was junior member of the law firm of Wallber &
Wahl. He was then in practice alone for a year. During the years 1891
and 1892 he was assistant district attorney for Milwaukee county and
members of the firm of Walker, Brown & Wahl. During the year 1893 he
again practiced alone and then became of one of the firm of Miller,
Noyes, Miller, & Wahl, of which he is still member.

Politically, Mr. Wahl is a Democrat, but he qualifies the declaration
by putting the word "gold" before the party name. The only office he
has ever held is that of assistant district attorney. He is a member of
the Milwaukee club, and was also formerly president of the Calumet
club, of which he was one of the organizers. He has been vice-president
and secretary of the Milwaukee Musical society, and is still a member
of that organization.

Mr. Wahl was married June 1st, 1891, to

[image: GEORGE HENRY WAHL.]

Natalie Rice, and three children have been born to them, namely:
Frederick, John Jacob, Jr., and Lydia Margareth.

ESCH, Samuel Henry, a physician of Neillsville, distinguished for his
professional accomplishments and for his personal bearing, is a son of
Henry Esch, a farmer and grower of small fruits, who was born in
Germany, but came to this country when fourteen years of age, and lived
for a time on a farm near Milwaukee. After securing a good education he
took up the study of theology, and became a minister in the German
Evangelical association. Having followed the clerical profession for
some years, he retired from it on account of ill-health and made his
home in Sparta, where he carried on a general store for more than
twenty years. Disposing of this business, he engaged in farming,
devoting his attention of late years more especially to berry-growing.
Dr. Esch's mother, Matilda Elizabeth Menn, was born in St. Louis, where
her girlhood was spent. She then came to Wisconsin, with her parents,
who settled on a

Page 476

[image: SAMUEL HENRY ESCH.]

farm near Norwalk, Monroe county, where they have since lived. There
she met and married Henry Esch. She also is of German descent, and a
woman of fine character.

Dr. Esch was born near Norwalk, Wis., January 27th, 1859. He received
his early education in the public schools of Milwaukee, and afterward
attended the schools of Sparta, including the high school. He then took
a course in Rush Medical College, Chicago, from which he graduated in
the class of 1885, and in the fall of the same year located at
Neillsville, Wis., where he has been in practice ever since. He has for
partner Dr. T. F. Conroy, the firm name being Esch & Conroy. Dr. Esch
is the local surgeon of the C., St. P., M. & O. Ry., and he is also
United States pension examiner and surgeon.

In political affairs he is a Republican, holding to the leading
principles of that party because he believes that they furnish the best
basis of free institutions and not because he is looking after
political preferment. He was elected mayor of Neillsville in 1895,
against sharp opposition, and in the spring of 1897 was re-elected
without any opposition whatever, a very emphatic testimonial to the 
efficiency and excellence of his administration.

Dr. Esch is a member of the County and State Medical societies, the
Masonic fraternity, the Foresters and the Maccabees. As to religion, he
is a member of the Congregational church.

He was married July 20th, 1886, to Louise Baldwin of Sparta, and they
have two children: Margareta, born March 12th, 1889, and Doris, born
November 21st, 1892.

Dr. Esch is a diligent student of his profession, keeps thoroughly
informed in its current literature and the discoveries and improvements
therein, and has the entire confidence of the community where his
labors are performed.

NEHRLING, Henry, custodian of the Milwaukee public museum, is the son
of Carl Nehrling, who is a native of Germany, having been born near
Erfurt, on the 19th of January, 1832. Mrs. Nehrling, the mother of our
subject, was Elizabeth Ruge, who was born near Weimar, Germany, on the
24th of October, 1829, and died near Waldo, Wisconsin, on the 28th of
October, 1895. They came to this country with the grandparents of Henry
Nehrling on his father's side, in 1852. They were members of the
Lutheran congregation of Pastor J. A. A. Grabau in Erfurt. When the
union between the Lutheran and Reformed churches was declared and
enforced by King William III. of Prussia, almost the whole congregation
immigrated to this country in 1839; and Henry Nehrling's grandparents
and parents followed later. They first came to Buffalo via Quebec, and
their old pastor met them and directed them to Wisconsin. They settled
in the primeval forest in the town of Herman, near Howard's Grove in
Sheboygan county, where the grandfather died July 7, 1864. In this
wild, but beautiful region, Henry Nehrling was born, May 9th, 1853. He
was taught to read and write by his mother and grandfather, and was
then

Page 477

sent to the Lutheran parochial school near Howard's Grove. He had to
walk over three miles to this school through the forest, which was very
beautiful and scarcely touched by the settler's axe. This long walk the
young boy found rather a severe experience in winter, but in the
spring, summer and autumn it was very delightful. He soon found where
the finest berries, plums and mandrakes grew, where the patches of
wintergreen and moss were to be seen, where the passenger pigeons were
roosting and nesting, where was the favorite drumming ground of the
ruffed grouse, and where the many beautiful song birds could best be
heard. Such an experience could not fail to make a deep impression upon
a boy alive to the beauties of nature, and Henry Nehrling came to
manhood with a passionate love for the beauties of the forest and
field. There was a small lake on his father's farm, which was almost
entirely surrounded by densely wooded hills, where were many of the
most beautiful trees of our northern forest, such as hard maple, oak,
elm, birch, white pine, lindens, and among them a dense undergrowth of
many kinds of shrubs. Springs from picturesque nooks burst from these
wooded hills, and their pure and refreshing waters in sparkling streams
made their way to this forest-embowered lake. Bird life was exceedingly
abundant in those early days, and the boy spent many hours in these
beautiful haunts, and here he acquired, and here was fostered that love
of birds which, in later life, has made him such an entertaining writer
on the beautiful denizens of the forest. The water-fowls were numerous
in and about the lake, and these he studied with a zest which has borne
rich fruit in the years since. It would be well if there were more such
boys as Henry Nehrling, who always protected the birds and their nests,
instead of warring upon them as do most of the boys of the present day.
He says that he love and admired the birds--their beauty and their
ingenuity in the building of their nests were themes of while he never
tired. He longer for their

[image: HENRY NEHRLING.]

return in the spring, and saw them depart with sorrow in the autumn.
Their art and their songs, he says, inspired him with higher emotions,
and thus these creatures of the forest enforced the lessons of mother
and teacher, and opened to him a source of enjoyment and culture to
which it were well if a much larger number of youths were introduced.

In 1866 the farm in the town of Herman, where this boy had seen so much
of nature's beauty, was sold, and another in the town of Plymouth,
Sheboygan county, was purchased. The boy attended the Lutheran
parochial school in the village of Plymouth for three years, when, in
1869, he entered the teachers' seminary in Addison, Du Page county,
Illinois, which he attended for four years, and then became a teacher
in a Lutheran school in Harlem, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. In this
position he remained until the fall of 1876, when he obtained a similar
position in Chicago. All the leisure time he could get from the
exhaustive work of teaching, he spent in the study of natural history,
especially ornithology. He did not only study books on the subject, but
made frequent

Page 478

observations in prairie and forest. These studies resulted in a series
of articles on native birds, which were sent to the late George
Koeppen, editor of the Germania of Milwaukee, who not only accepted
them for his paper, but wrote to the author an appreciative letter,
advising him to continue his studies and the articles. In addition to
this, Mr. Brumder, proprietor of the Germania, ordered for Mr. Nehrling
a number of expensive books on American birds, and books of travel in
the southern states where the birds were described with more or less of
detail. These he read with great delight; and, as a result, he
determined to study the southern forests and prairies and their
denizens from his own observations. Accordingly, on the 28th of
February, 1879, he left Chicago for Texas. Leaving mid-winter weather
he found on his arrival in the southwest the mild air of spring, vocal
with the songs of birds, and the landscape flecked with their brilliant
colors. Enchanted with so much of the beauty of the natural world he
determined to remain in Texas until he had become thoroughly familiar
with its natural history, especially that feature of it which he had
made a specialty. He took a position in a private school, as a means of
livelihood, and devoted what leisure he could command to the study of
his favorite subjects. He read his books, and then wandered through
forest and over prairie for many miles, studying from nature its bird
and plant life, writing articles for a number of papers and for
scientific periodicals, giving the entertaining results of his
researches.

Just before leaving Texas in 1882, Mr. Nehrling decided to write a
popular book on "Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty," especially
adapted to the wants of the general reader, and this work he
subsequently wrote to fill a gap in the literature on this subject,
devoting to the preparation of its pages the rich fund of information
on the subject which he had gained from his own observation and books.
The work has been most favorably received by ornithologists, and is
pronounced in matter and form incomparably the best of its kind yet 
published. Later Mr. Nehrling returned to the south of continue his 
study of birds, and in 1882 when to the Ozark region in Missouri, 
continuing his studies there for almost five years, during which time he 
visited all of the gulf states, where he found many beautiful forms of 
the life he was studying.

Returning to Milwaukee in 1887, he was appointed deputy collector of
the port by Col. Krez, and continued in the position by Col. Watrous.
This position Mr. Nehrling resigned in 1890, to accept that of
custodian and secretary of the public museum of Milwaukee, for which he
had been recommended by some of the most eminent naturalists,
ornithologists and scientific men of the country, such as Dr. Elliott
Coues. Prof. Ridgway of the Smithsonian institution, Dr. C. H. Merriam
of the United States Agricultural department, and Dr. D. S. Jordan,
president of the Stanford University of California. Mr. Nehrling is now
serving his first full term of five years as custodian, to which he was
elected in May, 1893, his first election being for the unexpired tern
of Wm. M. Wheeler, who resigned.

Mr. Nehrling's book was first issued in parts, the first of which
appeared in may, 1889, and was printed in both German and English, and
the whole work was completed at Christmas, 1896. It cost him eighteen
years of study and observation, and is a monument of what a man may
accomplish whose heart is in his work.

Mr. Nehrling has been made a member of several American and European
scientific societies, that relate of his specialties, and he has a
standing among scientific men that very few attain.

He was married on the 20th of July, 1874, to Miss Sophia Schoff of Oak
Park, Illinois. A devoted student of nature, he is the right man in the
right place, and the public museum in the new and elegant building now
in process of construction will, under Mr. Nehrling, be one of the most
attractive places to visit in Milwaukee.

Page 479

GLENNON, Edward D., editor and publisher of The Stevens Point Gazette,
is a native of Stevens Point, Wis., and was born on the 3rd of
September, 1857. His father, James Glennon, now retired from business
and living in Stevens Point in comfortable circumstances, was for many
years a lumberman and "riverman." He is a native of County Roscommon,
Ireland, but came to this country when a boy. Mr. Glennon's mother,
whose maiden name was Julia Fleming, was also a native of Ireland,
County Tipperary. She also came to this country in childhood, with her
mother. Both James and Julia Fleming Glennon spent their youth in
Beloit, and there they were married, removing thence to Stevens Point
in 1856, where the latter died in 1885.

E. D. Glennon received his education in the public schools of Stevens
Point, and in his fourteenth year became an apprentice to the trade of
printer in the office of The Stevens Point Point, now the Journal,
where he remained as apprentice and printer for six years. In July,
1878, he struck out for himself by starting The Portage County Gazette.
At first Mr. Glennon had for partners W. C. Krembs and H. W. Lee, the
former retiring at the end of a year. After a year and a half Mr. Lee
also retired, and Glennon & Cooper were proprietors from 1880 to 1883.
Since that time Mr. Glennon has been sole owner, editor and publisher.
The paper, now the Gazette, is firmly established, having a large
circulation and wielding a potent influence among its many readers. The
paper and the proprietor are Democratic, and, in the last presidential
campaign, supported Bryan and the principles advocated by him.

Mr. Glennon has been a member of the Stevens Point board of education
for eleven years and a director of the fair for two years. He is a
member of C. K. of W., C. O. F. and A. O. H., also of the Eintrachts
Verein for nearly fifteen years. He is a member of St. Stephen's
Catholic church.

Mr. Glennon was married March 31st, 1880,

[image: EDWARD D. GLENNON.]

to Anna M. Krembs, a daughter of the late Charles Krembs. Of this
marriage there are six children living, the oldest being sixteen years
of age. Their names are, Margaret J., Edward C. J., Carl J., George L.,
Katherine Josephine Normal and Grace Gertrude. Margaret will graduate
from the high school in the class of 1898. Katherine was given the
additional name of Normal in honor of the state normal school being
located in Stevens Point on the day of her birth.

CHITTENDEN, Charles Curtis, D. D. S., a resident of Madison, is the son
of Nelson Chittenden, who was born in Chittenden county, Vermont, and
who was a direct descendent of William Chittenden, who came from
England and settled in Guilford, Connecticut, in 1639. About 1830
Nelson Chittenden moved to western New York, studied dentistry in
Rochester, and settled in Nunda, Livingston county, to practice his
profession. There he married in 1834, Sophie Barton Fuller, daughter of
Joshua Fuller, and there Charles was born May 10th, 1842, the only son
among

Page 480

[image: CHARLES CURTIS CHITTENDEN.]

seven children. In June, 1858, the family removed to Madison,
Wisconsin, where Dr. Nelson Chittenden established a dental practice,
in which he continued until his death in 1873.

Charles attended the public schools and the state university until the
breaking out of the rebellion in 1861, when he joined one of the first
recruiting parties in Wisconsin, following President Lincoln's call for
75,000 volunteers. This party was headed by Lucius Fairchild, afterward
general and governor, and was composed of five members of a military
company in Madison, called the Governor's Guard, which had offered its
services to Governor Randall on the day of Lincoln's call. The party
started on the next morning's train for Mazomanie, twenty-five miles
west of Madison, and the same evening returned with enough men to fill
the company's roll to the limit of one hundred men. Young Chittenden
did not go with this company, but enlisted the following September as
principal musician of the Eleventh regiment, Wisconsin volunteer
infantry, under command of Col. C. L. Harris, and served in the
southwest until discharged, much broken in health, November, 1862. He 
participated in many engagements in the campaign of 1862, in Missouri 
and Arkansas, under General Steele. After spending a year in New York 
and the east, in preparatory study, he returned to Madison and regularly 
entered the practice of dentistry in partnership with his father. After 
a preliminary course in medicine at the Miami Medical College, in 
Cincinnati, he received the degree of D. D. S. from the Ohio College of 
Dental Surgery in 1866.

In 1867 he was married to Virginia C. Winter of Brooklyn, N. Y., who
died within one year without issue. He has never remarried.

He was one of the prime movers in the organizing of dentists in
Wisconsin into a state society, in 1870, and was elected the first
secretary of that organization, which position he held until he was
promoted to the presidency. In 1895 he was again honored by being
reelected president in celebration of the silver anniversary of the
society's existence. In 1871 he was sent as delegate to the American
Dental association, in which organization he has retained active
membership ever since, being connected with the education section of
that body. He is one of less than two score of the early members of
this national association still in active membership.

In 1885 the legislature of Wisconsin, at the urgent demand of the State
Dental society, enacted a law to regulate the practice of dentistry in
the state, and establishing a State Board of Dental Examiners. Dr.
Chittenden was appointed to membership of that board by Gov. Rusk for
five years, and has twice been reappointed for a like period, by
Governors Hoard and Upham. His present term of such office will expire
in May, 1900. At the first meeting of this board for organization in
1885, Dr. Chittenden was elected president, and has regularly been
elected annually to that position up to the present time.

In whatever position he has been placed he has had the esteem and
confidence of his professional brethren and companions.

He has, for many years, belonged to the G.

Page 481

A. R., and is a member of the Lucius Fairchild Post, No. II, Madison.
In politics he has always been a Democrat, but, with 50,000 other
Wisconsin Democrats, voted for McKinley and sound money. He served two
years as alderman of his ward in the city council and was prominent in
expelling a gang of boodlers from the council and the city's
employment.

As a pastime and recreation from professional duties and studies, he
has devoted much of his energy to music and its higher development. For
over thirty years he was organist of Grace church, Madison, all of
which service was rendered without compensation. He is a member and
vestryman of the Episcopal church. he has always enjoyed a lucrative
practice, striving always for the highest and best achievements in his
chosen profession, and at fifty-five is at the height of his activity
and usefulness, and commanding and enjoying the fullest confidence and
respect of the whole community in which he has lived for over forty
years. He has been a Knight Templar for over thirty-three years.

FRANCKENBERG, Ernst, a resident of West Bend, and proprietor of the
Bank of West Bend, was born in Bovenden, Hanover, Germany, November
1st, 1827. His father, Friedrich Wilhelm von Franckenberg Ludwigsdorff,
was educated at the military academy in Berlin, Prussia, and as an
officer in the Prussian army, took part in the defense of Danzig in
1807. In 1810 he became an officer in the Austrian army, and
subsequently in the Prussian and Hanovarian army. In 1814 he married
Lucia Petersen, daughter of a wealthy merchant in Husum, Schleswig.
After that he was a student for seven years at the University of
Goettingen; and, after leaving the university he was a notary and
lawyer at Bovenden, where his wife died. He was married a second time,
and by each marriage had five children. In 1867, he, and all his
children who had not previously come, emigrated to

[image: ERNST FRANCKENBERG.]

America, and became citizens of the United States. He died at West
Bend, Wis., in 1875.

Ernst Franckenberg received his early education in the common schools 
of the place of his birth, and then pursued a course of study in the
high school of Goettingen, Hanover. After completing his education, he
served an apprenticeship of five years at the mercantile business in
the city of Nordheim, province of Hanover, and then six years as clerk
in St. Andresberg and Cellerfeld in the Hartz and Noerten province of
Hanover. In the fall of 1853 he came to America with a brother and
sister, making his home in Milwaukee, where he was employed for two
years in the hardware store of Arnold & Suelflohn. During this time,
he, in company with his brother Emil, established a general country
store at Thiensville, Ozaukee county, which was continued about a year
and a half when it was moved to Horn's Corner, in the same county. Mr.
Franckenberg was instrumental in procuring the establishment of the
Horn's Corner postoffice, of which he was appointed postmaster, which
position he held so long as he

Page 482

was a resident of the place. After a year and a half, the business was
moved to Newburg, Washington county, and continued by Ernst, after
buying his brother's interest. Mr Franckenberg was appointed Postmaster
there, in place of Lucius Frisby, deceased, and he was then, in turn,
succeeded by Miss Anna E. Salisbury, who held the office until her
marriage to Dr. Hunt, when Mr. Fanckenberg was reappointed, and held
the office during the remainder of his stay in the place. While at
Newburg he was also interest in a store at Waubeka and another at
Fillmore. At the same time he was half owner of the Newburg mill
property an of the store opposite; and, in company with Charles Keller,
built a large brick store in 1862. He was a member of the legislature
in 1865, was justice of the peace for one term, and held the office of
notary public all the time of his residence in Newburg. In 1866 his
brother Emil, who was in the mercantile business in West Bend, died,
and Ernst Franchenberg purchased the stock of goods and continued the
business. He retained the business in Newburg for a year after moving
to West Bend, and then closed it out. He continued business in West
Bend until the fall of 1873, when he sold it to Franckenberg & Karsten,
and moved to St. Paul, where he invested $15,000 in the dry goods
business, under the firm name of Cathcart & Co. This business proving
unsatisfactory, he sold out after one year's experience; and, returning
to West Bend, in 1875, bought out M. Hirsch, who conducted the Bank of
West Bend, which was established in 1867 by a stock company, with a
capital of $25,000. He also bought from Mr. Hirsch the office of The
West Bend Democrat, a half interest of which he sold to William, M.
Walters a year later, and the other half interest to John Murtha in
November, 1879.

Mr. Franckenberg owns a fine residence in West Bend, and other real
estate there. He is also interested in the Enger-Kress Pocketbook
company and the Washington County Publishing company. He has been a 
member of the West Bend board of education for seventeen years, an still 
holds that position.

Mr. Franckenberg was married July 15th, 1857, to Miss Mary Dangers of
Horn's Corner, daughter of Louis and Christine Dangers. Five children
were born to them, of whom only one is now living--Arthur F., who is a
stockholder and manager of the Washington County Publishing company.
Mrs. Franckenburg died July 27th, 1868; an on January 6th 1869, Mr.
Franckenberg was married to Emma Reisse, daughter of John Reisse of
West Bend.

Mr. Franckenberg's full name was Ernst Theodore von Franckenberg
Ludwigsdorff. Since coming to America, he has shortened it, for
business convenience , to E. Franckenberg.

SCHOETZ, Max M., prominent as an attorney and business man of Menasha,
was born in Milwaukee, September 12th, 1856, the son of Michael and
Theresa Schoetz, natives of Bavaria, Germany, who came to Milwaukee
about th year 1848. The family lived for a time in the city and finally
took up their residence in Boltonville, Washington county, where the
father followed the trade of wagon maker. He was a man of extensive
reading and always well informed on the leading questions of the day.

The early life of young Schoetz was mostly spent in Boltonville, where
he received his education, in including both primary and academic.
During a considerable portion of his youth, when not in school, he was
employed as clerk in a store. After leaving school he taught two terms;
but in the meantime began the study of law with th late L. F. Frisby of
West Bend, who was at one time attorney general of the state, and whom
many will remembers as an able lawyer an genial gentleman. Mr. Schoetz
was afterward a student in office of Collins & Pierce of Appleton. He
was admitted to the bar November 12th, 1877; in March, 1883, was
admitted to practice

Page 483

in the state supreme court, and five years later, in the United States
district and circuit courts.

He began the practice of his profession in Menasha with the late Hon.
John Petter. After his death in 1879, Mr Schoetz practiced alone for
three years. He then formed a partnership with Elbridge Smith, which
continued until his death in May, 1894. In July following Mr. Schoetz
entered into partnership with the Hon. Silas Bullard, and, after
eighteen months Charles Gaffney came into the firm, which is now styled
Bullard, Schoetz & Gaffney. Mr. Schoetz is now city attorney of
Menasha, and in 1894 was the Democratic nominee for member of the
assembly, and his Republican opponent was Hon. Silas Bullard, his own
law partner; but that was not a year favorable to Democratic
candidates, although he had the satisfaction of running ahead of his
ticket. He has ben continuously elected supervisor for the city of
Menasha, until he has become, in point of service, th oldest member of
the Winnebago county board of supervisors. Among the measures
especially promoted by him in this board is the workhouse for tramps,
which is said to be very effective in accomplishing the object
intended. He has also been a justice of the peace, and has served three
terms as superintendent of the Menasha public schools. in 1887 he
organized the Menasha Building and Loan association, by means of which
about one hundred and ninety-five dwellings in Menasha and Neenah have
been erected, on the installment plan, thus resulting not only in great
improvement in the cities named, but in providing comfortable homes for
a large number of worthy people. He was on of the organizers and is a
stockholder in the First National bank of Menasha, and in the Winnebago
Anzeiger Publishing company; of the latter he is manager an secretary.
He possesses in the large degree the elements of success, both as a
lawyer and man of affairs

Mr. Schoetz was married June 2nd, 1880, to Barbara Landgraf, a native
of Louisville,

[image: MAX M. SCHOETZ.]

Ky., but of German parentage. They have had four children, all of whom,
except one, are living. M. an Mrs. Schoetz are both members of the
Catholic church. The former is also a member of the Catholic Knights,
the Catholic Order of Foresters, St. Joseph's society and the Germania
Unterstützungs-Verein.

RYAN, Hugh, is th son of that eminent lawyer and jurist, Edward G.
Ryan, who was, for some years prior to his death, chief justice of the
supreme court of Wisconsin. Hugh Ryan was born in Racine, Wis., June
14th, 1847. Soon after his birth his father removed to Milwaukee, where
the boy grew up and where he receive his early education at public and
private schools. He then went to an eastern institution, where his
education was completed so far as the schools were concerned. Returning
to the wes, he entered the office of Attorney-General Edsall of
Illinois, where he pursued the study of law for some two years, when he
went to Kansas and was admitted to the bar of th state in 1873. He
practiced law there about a year, and during

Page 484

[image: HUGH RYAN.]

that time served as prosecuting attorney of Rooks county. Returning to
Illinois in 1874, he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of
that state, and for a time was engaged in practice there. In 1876 he
came to Milwaukee and entered the law office of Hon. Luther S. Dixon--
who had but recently retired from the chief justiceship of Wisconsin--
and there began his connection with the Milwaukee bar. In 1878 he
received the appointment of court commissioner, which he has ever since
held, the duties of which he has discharged with marked ability, and at
the same time has been engaged in the general practice of his 
profession. Handicapped, to some extent, by the inheritance of a great 
name, his abilities have not been so generally recognized as otherwise 
they might have been, but he has achieved a standing at the bar which 
not many of its members have surpassed. Possessed of a thorough 
knowledge of the law and the principles that underlie it, having the 
analytical faculty in large measure, he is fitted both for the 
successful practice of his profession and for the duties of a judicial 
position. Of commanding presence and stately manner, he is one who would 
inspire confidence in his ability by his personality. His general 
practice has been quite extensive and varied, and has embraced cases of 
more than the usual importance, and demanding more than ordinary study.

In the political world he is, as was his distinguished father, a
Democrat, but is not an unreasoning partisan. During the noted Bennett
compulsory school law campaign in this state, he strongly opposed the
position of his party on that question, both in the public press and on
the stump. In the presidential campaign of 1896 he was what was known
as a "gold Democrat"--strongly opposed to the free coinage of silver at
the ratio with respect to gold of sixteen to one. He has a taste for
and facility in journalistic work, and in this respect is like his
father, who at one time was editor of a Chicago paper, and a
controversialist of great ability.

WISWELL, George Nelson, a resident of Milwaukee, and prominent by
reason of the public positions which he has filled, is of Welsh
descent, and was born in the town of La Fayette, Walworth county, Wis.,
on the 19th day of July, 1852. His father, Christopher Wiswell, was
born in New Hampshire in 1811, one of seven children who were left
fatherless at an early age. The family moved to North Norwich, Chenango
county, N.Y., and there Christopher Wiswell was apprenticed to the
tanner's trade. In 1836 he was married to Almira West, and, a year
thereafter came to Walworth county, Wis., where he engaged in farming.
Some time thereafter, he helped organized the First National Bank of
Elkhorn, and was chosen its president, a position which he filled with
ability and fidelity up to the time of his death in March, 1883--a
period of twenty years. He was a successful farmer and business man,
and at the time of his death was in good financial circumstances. He
held local positions of honor and responsibility, was an abolitionist
before the war, and, after

Page 485

the formation of the Republican party, was always an earnest and active
member of that organization. His wife, Almira West Wiswell, the mother
of George N., was a woman of many admirable traits of character, and
from her her son derived his musical ability. She died in March, 1883--
only three days prior to the death of her husband.

The education of George N. was begun in the district school of his
native town, but when he was eleven years of age the family moved to
Elkhorn, where he completed the graded school course. After that he
learned the trade of tinsmith and plumber, and engaged in the hardware
business, which he followed for ten years.

In 1886 he was elected sheriff of Walworth county, and, during his
term, he founded the sheriffs' organization of Wisconsin, the first
meeting of which was held in Oshkosh. He was elected secretary of the
organization, which position he held for four years.

He was first assistant sergeant-at-arms of the national Republican
convention in Chicago in 1888, held the same position in the national
convention in Minneapolis in 1892, and also in the national convention
in St. Louis in 1896. In March, 1889, he was appointed, by President
Harrison, United States marshal for the Eastern district of Wisconsin,
and held the office until May 1st, 1893. During his incumbency of the
office, he personally broke up the band of outlaws known as the "brush
hunters" in the Hurley country; and, in December, 1892, he arrested, in
Milwaukee, after a six months search, the notorious counterfeiter and
murderer, Fred Marsh. He also arrested a noted Prussian counterfeiter
and forger, took him to New York City and put him abroad the steamer
for return to his active land, the scene of his crimes.

In 1893 he became secretary and general manager of the Fraternal
Alliance Insurance association, a Wisconsin corporation, and holds that
position at the present time.

Mr. Wiswell is a member of the Masonic orders of the state of
Wisconsin, the Knights

[image: GEORGE NELSON WISWELL.]

of Pythias, the Odd Fellows, the Hoo Hoos and the Loyal Legion, by
brevet. He is also a member of the County, the Calumet and the
Deutscher club of Milwaukee.

August 28th, 1873, Mr. Wiswell was married to Clara M. Perry, only
daughter of John A. Perry of Elkhorn. They have three daughters:
Harriet L., Jean Mae and Marguerite Georgiana.

BUCKLEY, James Orton, a resident of Milwaukee and by profession a
lawyer, but now engaged in the mining business, was born near Black
Hawk, Sauk county, Wisconsin, March 27th, 1859. His father, James
Buckley, was born near Clonmel, Ireland, in 1825, but was brought by
his parents to Quebec that same year. His early years were spent on the
frontier of Canada, and at Quebec, and about 1850 he came to Sauk
county, Wisconsin, settling on land, which, under his cultivation, has
developed into a fine farm, which he still owns and cultivates and
where he still lives in comfortable financial circumstances. He is a
man of remarkable physical stature, strength

Page 486

[image: JAMES ORTON BUCKLEY.]

and energy, and of unswerving integrity; in all of which characteristics 
he is the reproduction of his ancestors. J. O. Buckley's mother is a 
native of St. Catherines, province of Quebec, and was born in 1832. Both 
Mr. and Mrs. Buckley are descended from good families and are highly 
respected for their many virtues.

J. O. Buckley attended the common school of his home district until he
was sixteen years of age--a school noted throughout the country for its
able teachers and bright scholars, and for the influence which it
exerted in favor of the cause of public education. After completing the
course in the country school, in which he gained a reputation for good
scholarship, he became a student of the Baraboo high school, attending
there for a year. He next entered the University of Wisconsin, taking
the modern classical course, with extra work in history, literature and
the sciences--especially chemistry and geology. He was a member of the
Athena society, and took an active part in its exercises. He graduated
in the class of 1884, and then entered the university law school, and
graduated therefrom in 1887. Thoroughly equipped for the practice of
his profession, he opened an office in Chicago, in 1888, but removed to 
Milwaukee the same year, practicing there with fair success until 1890, 
when he formed a partnership with Charles Buehner and W. S. Buckley, 
under the firm name of Buckley, Buehner & Buckley, for the practice of 
law in connection with real estate business. The firm continued to do a 
good business until 1896, when it was dissolved and the firm of J. O. & 
W. S. Buckley was formed, which, for the past year, has been extensively 
and solely engaged in gold mining in the San Juan, Colorado. They are 
also the promoters of one of the leading mining companies of Colorado, 
its headquarters being in Milwaukee.

Mr. Buckley has always affiliated with the Democratic party; although
he is not known as an active partisan. In religion he is a Roman
Catholic, being a member of that church.

He was married June 18th, 1891, to Mary M. McGrath. Three children have
been born to them: James Orton, Edgar and William Walter.

Of fine natural abilities, thoroughly cultivated, an attractive
presence and engaging manners, with business qualifications of a high
order, with energy and a worthy ambition to win success, he has a most
promising future before him, in which fortune and honors are likely to
wait upon his steps.

End Part 15