Men of Progress. Wisconsin. (pages 555-586) 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 555 continued

FLANNIGAN, Lawrence W., a resident of Marinette, is the son of William
and Margaret Sheridan Flannigan, farmers in moderate financial 
circumstances. The father of Margaret Sheridan and Gen. Phil.
Sheridan's father were own cousins, and the ancestors of both parents
were Irish.

Lawrence W. Flannigan was born in the town of Mitchell, Wis., in
February, 1856. He received only a common school education and at the
age of sixteen left his farm home, went right into the lumber woods and
started a logging business for himself. With the energy and enthusiasm
peculiar to a bright, ambitious boy, he made rapid progress in the
working out of his own financial salvation. He had the faculty of
seeing what enterprises gave best promise of success and the courage
and promptness to seize them at the most favorable time, and then the
determination and perseverance to carry them forward to a successful
conclusion. So that now, when but forty-one years of age, he has become
the owner of valuable pine lands in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and
Arkansas, and has a large fortune in sight, if not in actual
possession. He is also interested in valuable mines in Michigan and
Colorado, which are expected to yield a handsome return for the
investment. He has a large stock farm in Minnesota, where he raises
some of the finest stock to be found in that state of beautiful and
productive farms.

In politics Mr. Flannigan is a Democrat, but in 1896 affiliated with
the gold wing of the party and voted for Palmer for president. He is
not, however, ambitious of office and has steadily refused to accept
any honors of that kind.

He is a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Catholic Knights, and of
the Catholic church. His wife is a member of the Episcopal church.

Mr. Flannigan was married in September, 1888, to Lucy Good, daughter of
Geo, Good of Oconto, Wis., and they have two children: Marian and Helen
Mildreth.

Page 556

[image: RABBI SIGMUND HECHT.]

HECHT, Sigmund, rabbi of the congregation of Temple Emanu-El, was born
in a small Hungarian village, August 1st, 1849. Moritz Hecht, the
father, was a teacher by occupation, and from him the son gained his
first instruction in the rudimentary branches. At the age of fourteen
years, he left his village home for Vienna, studying at the seminary
and university for five years. In 1868 Moritz Hecht decided to emigrate
to America, and his son came with him, arriving in New York city June
1, 1868. Here in New York he continued his theological studies and
taught students in French, German and Hebrew. In 1872, after conducting
a private school successfully for five years, he was appointed a
teacher in the public schools of New York, at the same time occupying
the position of superintendent of the Temple Emanu-El Sabbath school,
the wealthiest and most influential Jewish congregation in the city at
that time. During all this time he continued his studies in theology,
and in 1877 accepted a call as rabbi to the "Kahl Montgomery" temple at
Montgomery, Alabama. For twelve years Rabbi Hecht
served the "Kahl Montgomery" congregation, and during this time
published a Post-Biblical History of the Jews. Through his efforts at
the University of Alabama he received the degree of doctor of divinity
in 1886. Two years later he received and accepted an urgent call to the
Temple Emanu-El congregation in Milwaukee.

Taking a deep interest in charitable matters Rabbi Hecht at once became
identified with the charitable organizations in Milwaukee, soon
attaining prominence and popularity. He is president of the Jewish
Relief society, director of the Wisconsin Humane society and of the
Associated Charities of Milwaukee. Dr. Hecht also serves as one of the
governors of the Hebrew American College of Cincinnati; director of the
Jewish Home for Aged and Infirm at Cleveland, Ohio; treasurer of the
Central Conference of American Jewish Rabbis and a member of the
executive committee of the Jewish Sabbath School Union.

The religious tendency Rabbi Hecht represents is the progressive
reform, keeping in touch with the liberal movement in religious circles
everywhere. Since residing in Milwaukee Rabbi Hecht has, during the
past few years, published a compendium of the Post-Biblical History,
which has been adopted as a text-book in all of the Jewish Sabbath
schools of the country. Rabbi Hecht is also a popular contributor to
magazines and periodicals.

PRITZLAFF, John, a native of Pommerania, Germany, was born March 6,
1820. His father was a master tailor, who sent his son to school at
Frieglaff, a small town in Pommerania, whither the family removed from
Frutzlatz, young John's birthplace. Here the father died in 1839, and
John Pritzlaff decided to go to America with a company of Lutherans
then about to emigrate under the leadership of Pastor Grabau and Capt.
von Rohr. The young man arrived in New York after a trying sea voyage
of four months' duration. From that city he went to Buffalo, and not

Page 557

finding work there, sought employment on the Genesee canal, where he
was engaged as a day laborer. For nearly two years he did this work,
and then decided to go west. Accordingly, in the latter part of
October, 1841, Mr. Pritzlaff reached Milwaukee, then a new place, which
he thought offered excellent opportunities for a young man. For a time
he found employment as driver of a wagon for Daniel Richards, at a
salary of $9 a month. At other times he served as cook on a lake
schooner, and later chopped wood for a living. In the spring of 1843 he
entered the employ of Shepardson & Farwell, hardware merchants, as
shipping clerk. With this house, which underwent changes of ownership
in the meantime, he remained until 1850. On April 1 of that year a new
hardware firm was organized by John Pritzlaff and August F. Suelflohn,
who embarked in business in a small way in a store at 299 Third street.
Henry Nazro, who supplied them with their stock, was a silent partner.
In 1853 Mr. Suelflohn retired from the firm, and in 1866 Mr. Pritzlaff
bought out Mr. Nazro's interest and secured entire control of a
business that had prospered from the start. From annual sales of
$12,000, the trade of the house grew until it amounted to hundreds of
thousands, and a corporation, the John Pritzlaff Hardware company, was
formed as the founder advanced in years, that some of the burdens might
better be placed on younger shoulders. The house occupies a very large
building on West Water street. It ranks among the very first concerns
engaged in the American hardware trade.

On November 14, 1844, Mr. Pritzlaff was married to Miss Sophia Blum.
Eight children were born to them, of whom three were living when Mr.
and Mrs. Pritzlaff celebrated their golden wedding in 1894. Mrs.
Pritzlaff died in 1896. The surviving children are a son, Frederick
Pritzlaff, and two daughters, Mrs. John C. Koch and Mrs. August Luedke.

John Pritzlaff has always been a faithful communicant of the Lutheran
church, whose progress in America he has done not a little to

[image: JOHN PRITZLAFF.]

aid. When he came to Milwaukee he joined Trinity, now one of the
largest churches of any denomination in the city, and the site on which
the present edifice of Trinity congregation stands, on the corner of
Ninth and Prairie streets, was presented by Mr. Pritzlaff in 1867. In
politics Mr. Pritzlaff has always been a Republican.

SPRATT, George, a resident of Sheboygan Falls, and a wholesale
manufacturer of chairs, was born in Boston, England, Jan. 30, 1844,
fourteen years after the birth of Jean Ingelow in the same historic old
town. His father, Luke Spratt, by occupation a farmer, was the son of
wealthy parents, but, in 1784, at the age of seven years, was left
fatherless and was sent into the country to live with a cousin, who
brought him up, or, rather, permitted him to come up at his home, for
he never sent the boy to school a day, and all the education he
received was what he acquired from his mother after the evening meal
was served. He remained in the employ of his cousin till long after he
had reached his majority. In the course of time, however, he,

Page 558

[image: GEORGE SPRATT.]

having saved some money from his small earnings, purchased three acres
of land, on which he made a home, married Bithiah Randsley, and began
life for himself. But his ambition was for a larger place, and so he
sold his home and bought eleven acres of land, on which he erected fine
buildings. This involved him in debt; and, owing to the change in the
industrial policy of the government, the price of his real estate
declined, and in three years was not worth more than the face of the
mortgage which he had placed upon it. He therefore gave it up, and, at
the age of sixty-seven, bade adieu to friends and kindred and the land
of his birth--the land of illustrious ancestors--and, with his wife and
four children, came to this country, arriving in Shebobygan county,
Wisconsin, in June, 1851, and settling on a farm on Onion river. After
years of toil, he succeeded in acquiring a home and a competence--a
striking illustration of the advantages offered in this country to
industry and enterprise. He continued in the active supervision of his
farm until he reached his eighty-fourth year, when he retired from
business, yet lived until he had passed well into his ninetieth year. In 
politics he was a Republican and voted for every Republican presidential 
candidate from Fremont to Grant.

Bithiah Randsley, George Spratt's mother, was born of wealthy parents,
who at one time were large free-holders, owing some six hundred acres 
of land, but extravagant living brought the family to poverty, and her
parents died in middle life from grief and mortification over their
losses, leaving their children to make their own way in the world.
George Spratt's grandparents on both side were descended from
aristocratic and wealthy family who had lived in luxury for
generations.

Mr. Spratt received his education in the common schools of Sheboygan
county, principally during the winter months of his boyhood. All he is
and all he expects to be, he says, he owes to the public schools. He
had no business training, but what he knows of business he learned in
the severe but effective school of experience. He worked at the
carpenter's trade as a contractor and builder for several years, and,
in 1872, commenced the manufacture of hay rakes and hand farming tools
at Sheboygan Falls. This business he followed until 1884, when he
removed it to Sheboygan, built a factory and continued the same
business till 1892, when he commenced the manufacture of chairs, in
which he is now engaged. He employs eighty-five men, runs the factory
continuously and has never made a cut in wages.

Mr. Spratt showed his loyalty to his adopted country by serving
fourteen months in the Forty-eighth Wisconsin infantry during the civil
war, with the rank of sergeant. He is ccommander of Richardson post, G.
A. R., of Sheboygan Falls, and has served three terms in that position.
He was on the staffs of Generals A. G. Weissert, Russell A. Alger and
John b. Adams, when they were commanders-in-chief of the Grand Army,
and, on the expiration of the service in the last-named position,
declined further honors of this kind.

On the political questions Col. Spratt holds

Page 559

firmly to the Republican faith, and always has. In 1894 he consented to
be a candidate before the Republican convention in the Fifth district
for the nomination for congress, but the prize was won by Hon. S. S.
Barney. He has served as a member of the village board, was twelve
years clerk of the school board, and in 1886 was elected to the lower
house of the legislature, serving as chairman of the committee on
enrolled bills and as a member of the re-appointment committee. He was
one of the only two Republicans elected from that congressional
district. He, however, was not a candidate for re-election.

He is a member of St. John's lodge, F. & A. M., and of the Harmony
chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Sheboygan. He is also an Odd Fellow, a
Knight of Pythias, a member of the Royal Arcanum, A. O. U. W. and the
G. A. R., and an attendant of the Methodist church, but not a member.

Col. Spratt was married in 1888 to Mary J. Nichols, and they have had
five children, only one of whom, Sarah Laura Spratt, is living.

An earnest, honest, upright man, sagacious and persevering, he has
honorably won all the success which has marked his career.

FRAME, Andrew Jay, has achieved the reputation of being one of the most
intelligent, careful and conservative bankers in the state. His rise in
his calling has been due to his character for integrity, his ability
both native and acquired, and to the fact that he has made the subject
of finance the study of his life. Its every aspect has received his
careful and thorough investigation, and his success has been due to the
fact that he early laid down a certain line of policy in the conduct of
his banking business beyond which he would not go under any
considerations.

Andrew Jay Frame was born in Waukesha February 19th, 1844. His parents,
Maxwell and Jane Aitken Frame, were natives of Ayrshire, Scotland,
where the father was by occupation a blacksmith. The parents came to

[image: ANDREW JAY FRAME.]

this country and settled in western New York, where they remained until
1841, when they moved to Waukesha, where Mr. Frame, the father, did not
long survive, dying about the beginning of the year 1845, leaving his
wife and two sons--Henry M. and Andrew J. The boys were given a good
education, as the public schools of the village were thorough and
liberal in their course of study, and when they attained to manhood
they were fitted for any of the ordinary occupations of life. Andrew
was especially given to study, and when he left school he had in many
respects what was superior to the ordinary high school education.

May 2nd, 1862, Andrew entered the Waukasha County bank as office boy.
All the duties of this position he performed with scrupulous fidelity,
gathering meantime, by observation and study, all the information about
banking possible, rising from messenger to bookkeeper, to teller and
assistant cashier, until, in 1865, the bank was re-organized as the
Waukesha National bank, and Mr. Frame, when but twenty-one years of
age, became cashier of the new institution. For fifteen

Page 560

years he held this position, performing its duties so ably and with
such scrupulous care for detail, that upon death of the president, Hon.
Wm. Blair, in 1880, he was chosen to the vacancy, and this position he
has held ever since, with great advantage to the bank, and with credit
to himself as a financier. It has been his policy not to carry on the
books as good, assets of doubtful value, but to charge them to the
profit and loss account, and since this policy was adopted there has
never been any doubt as to the exact standing of the bank, and a
dividend has never been passed. Since Mr. Frame's administration of its
affairs the capital of the bank has been increased from $50,000 to
$150,000, its surplus is now $60,000, and its average deposits for ten
or more years have ranged from $700,000 to $950,000, the largest of any
bank in a place of similar size.

Mr. Frame is a prominent Mason, is a member of the Waukesha club, has
been for twenty-five years a most active and useful member of the
Waukesha school board, is a trustee of Carroll College, and the very
efficient treasurer of that institution. In religious matters he is a
Baptist, and a very active and liberal supporter of that denomination,
though his benevolences are by no means confined to it.

Politically he is a thorough Republican from principle, and, while not
given to mingling in party strife, he has taken part in the discussion
of political questions, especially where they related to financial
subjects; and in the campaign of 1896, he prepared so clear and
comprehensive a statement of the currency question that the Republican
state central committee published and distributed 100,000 copies of it.
Papers on monetary subjects, read by him before the Wisconsin Bankers'
association and the Milwaukee Bankers' club, have been published in
full in metropolitan journals and received extended editorial comment,
generally of an appreciative and commendatory character, and he is
regarded in banking circles as one of the best informed and most
eminent financiers in the state. Indeed, there are few men in the whole 
country who are better informed on financial subjects than he, or whose 
judgment thereon is more trustworthy than his. This eminence is due to 
his tireless study of the numerous and varied questions involved in the 
business of banking, and to his devotion to its every detail. As an 
evidence that his pre-eminence in his calling is fully recognized by his 
associates throughout the state, he has been placed at the head of the 
Wisconsin Bankers' association as its president and in other ways is 
regarded as a leader. He has steadily declined political office, holding 
that on who occupies a position of a fiduciary character cannot safely 
enter into party struggles.

He was married August 25th, 1869, to Miss Emma J. Richardson, daughter
of Hon. Silas Richardson of Waukesha, and they have three sons and a
daughter.

As a citizen Mr. Frame is most public-spirited, takes a lively interest
in all public questions, is enterprising, and while devoted to every
detail of his calling, never forgets that he has duties as a citizen
which he must not neglect.

SPRAGUE, Edward Harvey, a leading lawyer and business man of Elkhorn,
was born in Waterloo, Grant county, Wis., June 8th, 1848, the son of
Edward and Emma (Andrews) Sprague, both of whom were natives of the
state of New York, born respectively in 1809 and 1812. They were
married in Detroit, Mich., and settled in Grant county, Wis., early in
1837, where Mr. Sprague followed farming and his trade of carpenter and
joiner. He was man of good business attainments, strict integrity and a
leader among his pioneer associates. He died in 1854, leaving his wife
with five children, the eldest of whom was but thirteen years of age,
and the youngest an infant of less than six weeks. Mrs. Sprague was,
however, a woman of more than ordinary force of character, possessing
great energy, guided by prudence and foresight, and proved equal to the
great

Page 561

responsibilities devolving upon her through her husband's death. She
kept the family together, saw the children properly educated, and
before her death, which occurred in 1889, all were comfortably settled
in life, an honor to the unselfish labors and the sagacity of their
mother.

This boy, Edward, began his education when four years old in a small
select school taught in a house on the farm, and after that he attended
the district school, which was taught three months in winter and
sometimes two in summer. In 1859 his mother removed from the farm to
Lancaster, where the boy had the advantages of a good public school and
the Lancaster Institute, then a flourishing academy, at the head of
which was Prof. Sherman Page, afterward a judge in Minnesota. In 1865,
when young Sprague was seventeen years of age, her began teaching in
Glen Haven, Grant county, Wis., and the following winter taught in
Minnetrista. Hennepin county, Minn. A year or more thereafter he spent
in teaming, trapping and trading in north-western Minnesota. Dakota,
Montana and British America, and then returning home, he entered the
first state normal school, which had just been established at
Platteville, and, after two years of study, graduated June 24th, 1869,
with the first class graduated from that institution. The following
year he taught a select school in Kansas City, Mo., and during the two
years from 1870 to 1872, he was principal of the public schools of
Augusta, Eau Claire county, Wis. His next employment was a principal of
the school in Stockbridge, Calumet county, Wis. In 1873 he was
appointed principal of the public schools in Elkhorn, and held the
position for four years and until he quit teaching and entered upon the
study of law. During the summer vacations of most of the years which
Mr. Sprague spent in teaching after his graduation from the normal
school, he was engaged in conducting normal institutes in different
parts of the state. In 1877 Mr. Sprague began the study of law in the
office of Prof. J.

[image: EDWARD HARVEY SPRAGUE.]

H. Carpenter, then dean of the faculty of the university law school,
attending the lectures in the university and graduating in the law
class of June, 1878. Immediately returning to his home in Elkhorn, he
opened an office for the practice of law, and since then has been
steadily engaged in that work. The first year and a half he practiced
alone, but, in January, 1880, he formed a partnership with Horatio S.
Winsor, under the firm name of Winsor & Sprague, which continued for
six years, when Mr. Winsor retired, on account of advanced age. Since
that time Mr. Sprague has practiced his profession alone, handling many
important cases, not only in his own county and circuit, but in other
circuits, in the supreme court and in the federal courts. He is also of
interested in other lines of business, among them the Elkhorn Brick and
Tile Works, the most important in the city, is the leading coal dealer
of the place, does a large real estate, loan and insurance business and
owns and carries on a large stock farm just inside the corporate limits
of the city. He is also owner and manager of the Elkhorn Opera House.

Page 562

Mr. Sprague has always been a Republican from principle, but is a
radical believer in a non-partisan judiciary. He has held some official
positions, but has never been an office-seeker. He has been president
of the village board, member of the county board of supervisor,
district attorney of Walworth county, and has been president of the
board of education of Elkhorn for nearly twenty years past. It is to
his interest in the public schools of the beautiful little city, and to
his wise counsel that they owe much of their excellence. He is a member
of the First Congregational church of Elkhorn.

Mr. Sprague was married December 20th, 1871, at South Kirtland, Lake
county, Ohio, to Linda J. Williams, and they have had seven children,
but only four are living; two died in infancy, and the eldest, Charles
Edward, died in 1892 at the age of nineteen years. Those living are
Jessie Linda, Maie Louise, Emma Julia and William Harvey.

ROUNDY, Judson A., was born March 17 1818, in Blue Hill, Maine. His
parents were John and Mary Roundy, natives of Massachusetts, and his
father was able to trace his ancestry back to the Hugenots in the
sixteenth century. He was a clergyman in the Baptist church, and
preached for more than fifty years in Maine.

Mr. Roundy was the youngest of a family of eleven children, and was
educated in the common schools of Charleston, Maine, and in the academy
of that place. He began his business career at the age of eighteen at
Bangor, Maine, as clerk in a jewelry store. Later he was employed as
clerk in the Franklin house, a temperance hostelry a good deal
celebrated in those days. It was here that he met a man who proposed
that he go to Harmony, Maine, and assist there in a lumber and general
store business. After investigating the prospects Mr. Roundy and his
new friend decided to form a partnership. They began at once to develop
and extend their interests with the manufacture of lumber near Bangor, 
and for a time the new firm continued to prosper. Here, and at Kendall 
Mills, on the Kennebec river, they carried on a flourishing business, 
until the occurrence of the French revolution in 1848. At this time 
commercial relations at home and abroad became paralyzed, large 
contracts were nullified, and there were cause serious hardships, from 
which many of the large firms suffered irretrievably. The crisis 
seriously embarrassed Mr. Roundy's firm among the rest, and he, 
realizing about $1,000 out of the wreck, went to Shelbyville Ill., in 
1851. Here he engaged in general store business with his brother-in-law, 
Joshua Dexter, and upon the death of Mr. Dexter, a year later, he 
conducted the business alone. Two years afterward he admitted two 
partners Charles D. Lufkin and Dudley Smith, the firm continuing for 
five years. At the end of that time new associations were formed and in 
1867 Mr. Roundy came to Milwaukee, although he retained his interest in 
the real estate at Shelbyville until 1877.

Milwaukee was at that time only a place of possibilities, but these
were many, and there were afforded abundant opportunities on every hand
for a man of his wise and conservative financial abilities and
judgment. He at once invested in real estate, which is now in the most
populous portion of the city, he having platted two subdivisions soon
after his arrival, both of which bore his name. His own residence on
Marshall street is one of the most sightly and beautiful of Milwaukee
homes.

It was in January, 1872, that Mr. Roundy laid the foundation for his
present large and prosperous grocery business; in this he was
associated with William E. Smith--who later became governor of the
state--and with Sydney Hauxhurst, under the name of Smith, Roundy & Co.
This firm began its commercial history in the northwest. Desiring a
safe, conservative business, and with the determination to conform to
the highest principles of business integrity, it soon acquired a volume

Page 563

of trade. In 1876 William S. Peckham of New York city entered the
partnership at the invitation of Mr. Roundy, and also Charles J.
Dexter, it being that year that Mr. Smith was elected governor of the
state. The firm then became known as Roundy, Peckham & Co., under which
name it has its present commercial prosperity. Mr. Roundy, finding
other interests demanding more and more of his time, gradually withdrew
his active management and supervision, although his credit and capital
remained with the business, which was by that time firmly established
in the city.

Mr. Roundy was able to devote much of his time to travel and the
improvement of his health, which had not been robust, and as a tourist
he visited much of the civilized world. Having both leisure and ample
means, he has found opportunities of study and observation seldom
enjoyed by business men controlling such large interests.

In 1873 Governor Washburn appointed Mr. Roundy commissioner to the
Vienna exposition, the appointment coming unsolicited, and giving Mr.
Roundy many favors and further opportunities of which he made the most.
He has traveled extensively on this continent, and in Alaska and
Mexico, spending several winters in California. His last trip to
Europe, which was undertaken in 1885, lasted nearly three and half
years, when he visited Egypt and Palestine for the second time.

Mr. Roundy was one of the founders and the first treasurer of the
Milwaukee Exposition Building association, and went through the streets
soliciting subscriptions for that institution. He resigned his position
at the time of his foreign trip. Among the prominent corporations of
which he is an extensive stockholder are the Milwaukee Cement company,
the Wisconsin Telephone company, the Hotel Pfister and the Fuller &
Warren Stove works, all home enterprises. A s a citizen Mr. Roundy has
been an earnest worker in all the best movements tending toward the
material welfare and prosperity of Milwaukee, and his encouragement to
these has been not only in

[image: JUDSON A. ROUNDY.]

attitude, but in the substantial recognition of financial endorsement.
His extended travels and observations have made him a valuable adviser,
in which capacity he is called upon constantly to served. In politics
he is a staunch Republican, although he has never accepted any public
office.

ARMIN, Charles Eldredge, a lawyer, residing at "Valley Farm," Waukesha,
is the son of Lott W. Armin, who was born at Watlas, near Beadle,
Yorkshire, England, came to this country with his parents in childhood,
and became a farmer. In the fall of 1862, he enlisted in a New York
regiment, became a corporal, then a sergeant, was twice wounded,
participated in fourteen battles and skirmishes and served tow and a
half years. Returning home at the close of the war, he became a
successful dealer in live stock. A member of the Presbyterian church,
he was an honest man and a worthy citizen. He married Abbie J. Eldredge
of Canton, N. Y., and had three children--Florence, who married Freeman
Hazard Perry, a lineal descendant of Oliver Hazard Perry; Charles E.,

Page 564

[image: CHARLES ELDREDGE ARMIN.]

an attorney of Waukesha, and Wilbur II., a lumberman of Sibley, Iowa.
The senior Mr. Armin resides at Potsdam, N. Y., and is in very
comfortable circumstances. C. E. Armin's mother is descended from a New
England family, has always been an active worker in reform and
philanthropic enterprises. The Armins trace their family back to
Shakespeare's time, when one Robert Armin was a member of the immortal
dramatist's company, and was also an author of some note. The Eldredge
family are of Scotch descent and came to Massachusetts some time prior
to the Revolution. Charles A. Eldredge, formerly member of congress
from this state, is of this family.

C. E. Armin was born in De Kalb, St. Lawrence county, N. Y. He attended
the common school from the age of four years to sixteen, when he went
into a drug store and learned that business. In his twenty-first year
he entered the state normal school at Potsdam, N. Y., where he took a
three years' course. While in this school he was a member of the
Baconian society, and took a leading part as a speaker and debater.
After leaving school he taught for several terms, and then entered the 
law office of Judge H. L. Knowles, where he remained until he came to 
Wisconsin in the fall of 1878, with the intention of entering the office 
of his uncle, Hon. Charles A. Eldredge, at Fond du Lac, but found that 
he had made arrangements to open an office in Washington. Disappointed 
for the time being in taking up the law, he entered a drug store in 
Milwaukee, and afterward in Waukesha; but he did not abandon his 
intention of entering the legal profession. From 1880 to 1882 he taught 
school and studied law evenings and Saturdays, after which he wrote a 
tourist's guide of Waukesha county, which was sold quite extensively. He 
next entered the law office of Judge P. H. Carney, and maintained 
himself by doing work for Milwaukee and Chicago newspapers. After 
examination in open court, February 7th, 1883, he was admitted to 
practice law, and the following May opened an office in Waukesha. 
Without clients and without money the outlook was not inspiring, but 
through the kindness and encouragement of the late Judge A. S. Sloan, 
his advancement was facilitated, and he was admitted to practice in the 
state supreme court in September. Clients came, and, through hard work 
and close application to the business confided to him, he was enabled to 
support himself and family. Business steadily increased and in the 
spring of 1891 he formed a co-partnership with Vernon H. Tichenor, which 
lasted three years. In the fall of 1891 he was elected district 
attorney, held the office one term, and declined a renomination as his 
private practice required his attention. It is admitted that his 
administration of the duties of his office was very efficient and 
advantageous to the county. He has had many supreme court cases, and a 
number in the supreme court involving questions of unusual interest.

Mr. Armin cast his first vote for Garfield for president, but since
then has acted with the Democratic party. He has been a delegate to two
Democratic state conventions, and

Page 565

has been an active supporter of bimetallism, and is chairman of the
Democratic county convention.

He is a Knight of Pythias, in which he has held the offices of prelate,
vice-chancellor, chancellor, commander and district deputy. He is also
a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, Sons of Veterans and has
been in request for memorial addresses from G. A. R. posts. He is not a
member of any church, but attends the Presbyterian.

Mr. Armin was married to Miss Flora Butterfield, February 15th, 1880,
and they have one daughter, Cora Abbie. She early showed talent as an
elocutionist, and in her eleventh year won the gold medal at the state
fair for work in that line. She is now under instruction from a
competent teacher and is making rapid progress.

QUARLES, Joseph V., one of the distinguished members of the Milwaukee
bar, was born in Kenosha, formerly, Southport, Wis., December 16th,
1843. His father's family came originally from New Hampshire, and his
father, Joseph V. Quarles, Sr., was a native of that state, but his
mother was a native of New York. Both his parents were among the
earliest settlers of Southport, and were married there when it was a
mere hamlet. J. V. Quarles, Sr., was the founder of the Bain Wagon
works at Kenosha, which, prior to 1857, was one of the noted
manufacturing establishments of the state. The financial panic of that
year brought disaster to the business and left Mr. Quarles is
straitened circumstances. But with that appreciation of the practical
value of a liberal education for which the people of New England are
noted, Mr. Quarles determined that his children should not fail of
receiving this capital which panics cannot destroy, although it
necessitated no little self-denial on the part of the parents. Young
Quarles pursued his studies in the public schools and the high school
of Kenosha, graduating from the latter when he was seventeen years of
age. The following two years

[image: JOSEPH V. QUARLES.]

were spent in teaching and in earning money in other ways for the
expenses of a college course, which he had set his heart upon pursuing.
In 1862 he entered the University of Michigan as a freshman. He was
conspicuous among his classmates from the start, and, upon the
organization of the class, was chosen its president and class orator
for that year. The struggle of the government with the rebellion
enlisted his sympathies and aroused all his patriotic impulses. He left
his studies and enlisted in the Thirty-ninth regiment of Wisconsin
infantry, and was mustered into service as first lieutenant of Company
C. At the expiration of his service he returned to the university and
was graduated with the class of 1866, with the degree of A. B. He then
entered the law department of that institution, spending a year
therein. Having exhausted his financial resources he returned to
Kenosha and continued his law studies in the office of O. S. Head, a
distinguished lawyer of those days; with whom, upon his admission to
the bar, in 1868, he formed a law partnership, the firm name being Head
& Quarles. As the senior member of this firm was advanced in

Page 566

years, the young lawyer was assigned to the heaviest burden of the
work, and soon became one of the most prominent members of the Kenosha
bar. The firm continued until the death of Mr. Head in 1875, and during
six years of its existence Mr. Quarles was district attorney of Kenosha
county. His ability and activity soon led to his being called to duties
outside of his profession. In 1876 he was elected mayor of Kenosha, and
the two following years he wa president of the Kenosha board of
education. In 1879 he was a member of the legislative assembly, and in
1880 and 1881 he was the representative of Kenosha and Walworth
counties in the state senate. Removing to Racine, he formed a law
partnership with John B. Winslow, which continued until that gentleman
was elected judge of the First judicial circuit. Afterward he had for
partners, successively, T. W. Spence, formerly of Fond du Lac, and
Joseph R. Dyer. Afterwards the firm became Quarles, Spence & Quarles,
the junior member being a younger brother. In 1888 this firm came to
Milwaukee, where it commands a very large and diversified business. Mr.
Quarles, as the head of the firm, takes charge of the more notable
cases, and in this capacity has been connected with some of the most
celebrated cases in the history of the state. He was employed by the
state to assist in the prosecution of the Hurley bank robbers, which
resulted in the conviction of Leonard Perrin; the trial of the alleged
murderer of Mead, the Waupaca banker, in which he also represented the
state; and he defended one of the ex-treasurers in the suits for the
recovery of the interest on state funds deposited in banks, and he has
been connected with other celebrated cases.

As a lawyer, he has been very successful, and has acquired a reputation
as one of the clearest, most forcible and eloquent advocates in the
state. His manner in the conduct of a case in such as to command the
respect and confidence of all parties, on whatever side interested. His
style as a speaker is very pleasing, whether at the bar or in the forum, 
being adorned with such classic and historic allusions as serve to 
illustrate and enforce his subject. He has always been a Republican in 
politics, and by reason of his great abilities as a public speaker, he 
is called upon in every important campaign to sustain the principles of 
the party upon the rostrum, and in this way has rendered his party great 
service. He has frequently been mentioned as a suitable man for the 
United States senate, and his selection as a candidate for that high 
office would no doubt meet the approval of very many voters throughout 
the state.

Mr. Quarles war married, in 1868, to Miss Carrie A. Saunders of
Chicago, and they have three sons, two of whom have graduated from the
University of Michigan, the oldest now being connected with the law
firm.

KIRCHHOFF, Charles, Jr., architect and superintendent, residing in
Milwaukee, is the son of Charles Kirchhoff, Sr., a contractor and
carpenter by occupation, who came to Milwaukee from Germany in 1853,
and is still actively engaged in his calling. The mother of Charles
Kirchhoff, Jr., was Albertine Hitzer, also a native of Germany.

Charles Kirchhoff, Jr., was born in Milwaukee on the 22nd of July,
1856, and received his education in the public and private schools of
Milwaukee and the German-English Academy. After leaving school he
learned the trades of carpenter and mason, and steadily attended night
schools during that time. He then went to Boston and New York city,
where he spent two years in architectural schools. Returning to
Milwaukee, he entered upon the practice of his profession with
enthusiasm, and has followed it successfully now for twenty years. In
company with Henry Messmer, he built the church on the corner of Fourth
and Washington avenues; St. Anthony's church, on Mitchell street, and
St. Michael's on Twenty-fourth street. After the dissolution of the
partnership, he built the Washington Avenue M. E. church, the Central

Page 567

hotel at Sheboygan, the Schlitz hotels at Winona and Omaha, the Globe
hotel, and Palm Garden, the Schlitz hotel and the Uihlein theater in
Milwaukee, and has gained a reputation for substantial and artistic
work. Some of the buildings named above are among the best in the city,
combining taste in design and adaptation to the purpose for which they
were erected.

Politically, Mr. Kirchhoff is an independent, and in the last
presidential campaign was an earnest supporter of the sound money 
principle.

He is a lover of good music and an active member of the Milwaukee
Musical society, the a Capella choir and the Arion Musical society. He
is also a member of the Deutsche Gesellshchaft.

Mr. Kirchhoff was married January 15th, 1885, to Emilie Sarner of
Newport, Ky., a native of France, who came to this country when ten
years of age and resided with an uncle in the city named until a few
weeks before her marriage, when she came to Milwaukee. They have one
child, a son--Roger Charles Kirchhoff.

BARNES, Dwight Bennette, one of the conspicuous men of Delavan,
Walworth county, and self-made lawyer, was born in Martinsburg, Lewis
county, N. Y., on the 15th of May, 1846. His father, Alanson H. Barnes,
a lawyer by profession, came from Lewis county, N. Y., to Delavan in
1856, and practiced law there for many years, taking an active part in
politics, both local and national. During the war he was draft
commissioner, stationed at Milwaukee, and ably and satisfactorily
discharged the duties of that very important position. During President
Grant's second term he was appointed associate justice of the supreme
court of Dakota territory, and was reappointed by President Hayes. He
held court at Yankton and afterward at Fargo and Deadwood, North
Dakota. He held the office eight years, and finally returned to his old
home in Delavan, in 1891, where he died,

[image: DWIGHT BENNETTE BARNES.]

leaving considerable property. He was regarded as a strong, resolute
and able judge, and did much toward laying the foundation for the legal
practice now followed in that state. Judge Barnes was a poor by, with
meager school privileges, and rose to his judicial position through his
own unaided efforts. When North Dakota was admitted, Alfred D. Thomas,
the judge's son-in-law and former law partner, was appointed federal
judge by President Harrison.

D. B. Barnes came with his parents to Delavan when ten years of age. He
was educated in the common and high schools of Delavan, leaving the
latter when sixteen years of age. He had a limited knowledge of the
ordinary branches of an education, and for what information he did
acquire, he says that he is indebted to the vigorous methods of that
able schoolmaster, Major A. J. Cheney, who is known by every public man
in Wisconsin. In 1862 and 1863 he was clerk in a country grocery store
for one year at one hundred and thirty-two dollars, and lost but half a
day in that time. In 1864 he was employed as clerk in a retail dry
goods and grocery store

Page 568

in Delavan, and for six months of the following year was in an office
in a wholesale house in Chicago. Returning to Delavan in 1865, he
became clerk in the National bank of Delavan, which had just been
organized, with O. Bell as president and W. A. Ray as cashier. A year
later Mr. Ray resigned and D. B. Barnes was elected to succeed him as
cashier. This position he held until 1879, when the bank went into
voluntary liquidation. When he entered upon the duties of this position
he was but nineteen years old, yet he had the entire management of the
bank for thirteen years thereafter, and was the youngest cashier of a
national bank in the United States. During his conducting of the bank
the country passed through the panic of 1873, the resumption of specie
payment, and the great shock to the business world by the Chicago fire,
yet the bank promptly met all demands upon it, although the young
cashier was often compelled to resort to many and various schemes to
enable him to maintain the bank's credit in some of the emergencies
which he had to face. He kept his own counsel, however, and the public
was none the wiser. Nevertheless, he says, he did not consider himself
a good banker, for he could not say "no," and often loaned money on
poor security or none at all, yet without loss, for men so accommodated
paid their loans out of gratitude for the favor shown them.

When in the fall of 1879 the State School for the Deaf at Delavan was
burned, Mr. Barnes was thought to be the man best calculated to secure 
from the legislature the needed appropriation for rebuilding the 
institution. He was therefore nominated and elected, was appointed a 
member of the joint committee on claims, and chairman of the assembly 
part of it. Other localities were endeavoring to secure the institution, 
but Mr. Barnes, with the aid of Joseph V. Quarles, senator from Walworth 
and Kenosha counties, succeeded in retaining the institution and 
securing an appropriation sufficient for its rebuilding. The following 
year Mr. Barnes championed in the assembly the bill abolishing the local 
boards of trustees of the charitable and penal institutions, and 
establishing the state board of supervision (now state board of control) 
for the government of those institutions, and it was largely through his 
efforts that it was promptly concurred in by the assembly after it had 
passed the senate. From 1882 to 1885 Mr. Barnes was engaged in 
manufacturing windmills, pumps, etc., and in closing up a partnership in 
which his father had been a member.

In March, 1880, while on a visit to his father in Fargo, Mr. Barnes was
admitted to practice law, "not," as he says, "for the law he knew, but,
perhaps, for the law he did not know." In March, 1885, at Elkhorn, he
was, on motion of John T. Fish, admitted to practice law in the circuit
court of Walworth county by Judge John B. Winslow. Since then he has
given his entire time and attention to law practice. Without a thorough
education, without systematic legal training, without association with
other lawyers except his father for a brief time toward the close of
his life, he labored under great disadvantages in beginning his legal
career, but with the energy and determination characteristic of him he
set to work to remedy the defects in his education, studying law with
an energy and industry that never flagged, and by this intense
application, and by absorption from his legal associates, and by
recalling the lessons of his extensive and varied business experience,
he soon came to be a thorough and successful lawyer. In the second case
which he tried he had for an opponent that distinguished lawyer, J. V.
Quarles, but won his case after an exciting trial lasting several days.
He has had a number of cases of local note, and has met at least the
average success in their management; and his standing at the bar is
endorsed by leading members of that and other circuits. He is credited
with having one of the largest and best law practices in the county,
scarcely any important case occurring that he is not employed on one
side or the other. He is often

Page 569

called into adjoining counties in important cases, and it may be said
that his success in the profession should be an inspiration to others
who are struggling to reach the front rank by their own efforts.

He is a thorough Republican, and generally a prominent delegate to the
county and state conventions.

Mr. Barnes was married, in 1878, to Adella E. Alford.

NORVELL, Stevens T., one of the busiest men in Superior, and one who
has been of especial service to the business interests of that rising
and ambitious city, was born in Virginia in 1865. His father, Freeman
Norvell, is a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but for some
years after his graduation left the navy to engage in the business of
street railroads and shipping, in which he was very successful,
accumulating a large property.

S. T. Norvell received his education in the public schools of his
native place, in a boarding school and in college, but he did not
graduate. His studies were pursued with especial reference to fitting
him for the profession of civil engineering.

He came to Wisconsin in 1888, when but twenty-three years of age,
taking charge of the construction of the Great Northern Railway,
Eastern division, into Superior and Duluth. Upon the completion of his
work Mr. Norvell became interested in Superior and its various
enterprises. He has been president and general manager of the Superior
Rapid Transit Railway company from its inception to the present time;
is president of the Superior Improvement company; president of the
Allouez Bay Land company; president of the Duluth and Superior Bridge
company, and president of the Duluth and Superior Steamship company.

Those who have followed Mr. Norvell's career thus far look with
certainty for his accomplishment of still greater things in the future.
Mr. Norvell is unmarried.

[image: MERRITT CLARKE RING.]

RING, Merritt Clarke, a prominent lawyer and public man of Neillsville,
was born in Milton, Rock county, Wis., October 30th, 1850. His father,
Eleazer F. Ring, was born in Massachusetts in 1820, and reared in the
Western Reserve, Ohio. He was engaged in agricultural and literary
pursuits, and early espoused the anti-slavery cause, was one of its
vigorous advocates and defenders, and a sturdy member of the Republican
party from its information. He came to Wisconsin in 1846, settling in
Rock county, where he resided until 1856, when he removed to Madison,
and a year later to Sparta, where the family was reared. His wife, M.
C. Ring's mother, whose maiden name was Almira Bicknell, was born in
Vermont and came to Wisconsin with her parents in the forties. The
paternal ancestors came from England and settled at Plymouth, Mass., in
1629. They owned considerable land in what was afterward called Ring's
Lane in Plymouth. Joslyn Ring, his grandfather, married Polly Thayer of
Chesterfield, Mass., and they had five sons and two daughter, of whom
E. F. was the third. The maternal ancestors are traceable to early
residents

Page 570

of Massachusetts and Vermont, including the Bicknells, the Dustins and
the Shermans. Rev. S. S. Bicknell was president (or principal of Milton
Academy, at Milton Wis. His wife, who was Lydia Sherman, was related to
the distinguished general and the senator of that name.

M. C. Ring received his education in the public schools of Sparta,
Wis., and was graduated from the law department of the University of
Wisconsin in 1873.

In November, 1874, Mr. Ring settled in Neillsville, then a village of
only about five hundred inhabitants, without railroad communication and
with few of its present attractions and advantages. He had nothing to
start with but his profession, unlimited energy and a determination to
succeed. With this capital he began the practice of his profession, and
has met with more than the average success. He has been identified with
the growth, development and improvement of the city and county, and had
taken active interest in all measures for the promotion of the social
and educational advancement of the community.

He is also practically interested in agriculture, owning and carrying
on an extensive stock farm just outside the city limits, where he has
been successful in raising some fine stock and where he finds the most
satisfactory recreation from the arduous labors of professional life.

He has always been a uncompromising Republican, and besides practicing
law he has taken an active part in politics. He was elected to the
state senate in 1885, and to the assembly in 1889. He served on
important committees--was a member of the judiciary committee, and
chairman of the committee on corporations, and in the assembly he also
took an active influential part in the discussions on the floor. He has
repeatedly represented Clark county in Republican state conventions,
and has been one of the influential members in those bodies. In 1892,
he was appointed special statistical agent for the United States
Department of Agriculture for Europe, with headquarters at London,
England. He also received the honorary appointment of deputy consul-
general at London, serving until after the appointment of Mr. Morton as 
secretary of agriculture, and returning home in 1893. He was elected 
delegate from the Ninth congressional district to the national 
Republican convention at St. Louis in 1896. He was appointed Wisconsin 
attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway company at Madison in 
1895.

He is a member of the following Masonic lodges: Neillsville Lodge, No.
163; Chippewa Commandery, Eau Claire; Wisconsin Consistory, Thirty-
second degree, Milwaukee. He is a Unitarian--a member of the People's
church, Neillsville.

Mr. Ring was married September 13th, 1877, at Neillsville, to Ida M.
Austin, and their children are Blanche, Ethel and Alice.

L. B. Ring of The Neillsville Times is the only brother of M. C. Ring,
and Gertrude Ring Prescott, wife of G. L. Prescott of London, England,
is his only sister. His parents are still living.

BENTLEY, Thomas R., contractor and builder, is a native of Milwaukee
and the son of John and Sarah Roberts Bentley, the father a native of
Wales and the mother of English ancestry. John Bentley, though a plain
and unassuming man, filled a large place in the early days of
Milwaukee. He was a contractor and builder, and erected many of the
best buildings in the city twenty years ago and more, and his work was
well done. He also was a contractor for the erection of the Northern
Hospital for the Insane, near Oshkosh; of the State School for the
Deaf, at Delavan; court houses at different places in the state; the
Hospital for the Insane at Traverse City, Michigan, and many other
notable structures in Milwaukee and elsewhere. But he was more than
that--he was three times a member of the legislature, was a member of
the board of aldermen and sheriff, and in all of these positions he
performed his official duties to

Page 571

the satisfaction of his constituents. He was a man of positive views,
and eminently practical in all his enterprises, whether undertaken for
the public or for private parties. He was also a man of integrity, and
no influence swerved him from what he deemed to be right, whether it
related to public duty or private affairs.

Thomas R. Bentley was born on the 14th of November, 1848, in what is
now the Seventh ward of the city of Milwaukee, then little more than a
thriving village, to which civilization had then lent but few of its
adornments. He obtained the rudiments of an education in the local
common schools and this training was supplemented by a course in a
commercial college. During school vacations he was busy, having secured
a position as chore-boy in a shoe store. Before he had reached manhood
he began assisting his father on his building contracts; and thus, at
an age when most boys have scarcely begun to think of the business of
active life, he had become thoroughly informed upon all of the
practical departments of the trade of builder, and was a most helpful
assistant to his father in all his undertakings. That he might know
something of the theory of construction, he studied architecture with
the late E. T. Mix, the architect of many of the best buildings in the
city. With this preparation he was fitted for the partnership with his
father, which was formed in 1869, and which lasted while the latter
lived. He soon became the active man of the partnership, and the many
fine structures which the firm erected are evidence of his skill and
activity in what may be denominated the noblest of all the useful arts.

The more notable of the buildings which he has constructed, in whole or
in part, are the Masonic temple for the Wisconsin Commandery in
Milwaukee, the State Historical and Museum building on the university
grounds at Madison, also the chapel and library building there, to say
nothing of a dozen or more of the most notable business blocks in
Milwaukee and public buildings in other parts of the state. Some of
these structures have

[image: THOMAS R. BENTLEY.]

cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet the work has been done with
a fidelity and a care for details which is as commendable as it is
unusual. Careful and thoughtful in all his enterprises and conservative
in his business methods, he has generally been financially successful
in all that he has undertaken, and has a competency for the evening of
life when it shall come.

Politically he is a Democrat, but is not bound by the party shibboleth,
as is shown by the fact that in the last presidential campaign he
differed so widely from his party on the financial question that he
voted for the Republican candidate for president.

Mr. Bentley is a member of the Iroquois club. He is a thirty-second
degree Mason, and a Shriner also. He is a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and of the National Association of Builders, and
was first vice-president of the association at its meeting in Buffalo
in September, 1896. The next meeting will be in Detroit, and if the
association follows the usual custom, Mr. Bentley will be the next
president, and the meeting in 1898 will be in Milwaukee.

Page 572

On November 14th, 1871, Mr. Bentley was married to Miss Emily Horton
King, daughter of Walter King, of Milwaukee, a descendant of an
Englishman, who came to America in 1700, and settled in Connecticut.
Mrs. Bentley's father came from Buffalo to Milwaukee in 1860, remaining
until his death in 1891. Four boys have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Bentley, two of whom, Arthur K. and Walter J., are connected with their
father's business. The other two, John and Thomas, are still school
boys. Mr. Bentley's city residence is on National avenue, and he also
has a fine summer residence at Eagle Lake, Wisconsin.

THORN, Gerrit T., for many years one of the leading lawyers of the
interior of the state, was born in La Fayette, Onondaga county, N. Y.,
on the 20th of July, 1832, the youngest son of Jehiel Thorn, who was
also a native of New York, having been born at New Baltimore, Green
county, November 29th, 1793, the youngest of the family. His oldest
sister married Peter Vanslyke, a soldier of the revolution, who was
severely wounded by the Waltmeyer men, a band of Tories infesting the
borders during the revolution, and he was afterwards known as Gen.
Vanslyke. The name was originally Thorne, but Gerrit's father dropped
the final "e," although other members of the family retain it. Gerrit's
father and his two brothers were soldiers in the last war with Great
Britain and were stationed at Brooklyn Heights, N. Y. The former died
near Syracuse, N. Y., May 8th, 1852; his mother, who was Sarah
Houghtaling, was born at Coxsackie, Green county, N. Y., July 22nd,
1799, and was of Holland and English descent, her ancesters being among
the earliest settlers from Holland in Green county on the Hudson. She
died at Salem, Or., September 24th, 1887, at the home of her son James.
The earliest members of the Thorne family came to this country between
1630 and 1640, and settled near New York on Long Island. They were
Quakers, and some of them were quite prominent, and sympathized with the 
struggle of the colonies for independence.

Gerrit T. Thorn, after a thorough education in public and private
schools, having given especial attention to mathematics and civil
engineering, at the age of sixteen, entered the office of Isaac W.
Brewster, a lawyer, who was practicing law in the village of
Jamesville, near where he was born. He was also postmaster, and young
Thorn became his clerk and deputy, which position he held for nearly a
year. It was while he was thus engaged that he made up his mind to
study law, and when he became of age to go to Wisconsin. One of the old
citizens of the village received from Wisconsin The Watertown
Chronicle, which was then published by Jonathan E. Hadley, and while
Gerrit was thus clerking in the post-office, he was allowed to take
this paper and read it. The reading of this paper, and the accounts
that it gave of Wisconsin, was what first awakened his interest in the
west. The constitution of Wisconsin, when it was adopted by the people,
was published in The Watertown Chronicle, and it was the reading of
that instrument, which was the first legal document he had ever read,
that turned his attention to the study of law. In the spring of 1849,
after there had been a change in the administration, and Gen. Taylor
became president, Gerrit lost his position as clerk in the post-office
and returned to his school books again until July, 1850, when he went
to Rome, Bradford county, Pa., and took a position as clerk and book-
keeper in a large country store owned by the Hon. Henry W. Tracy,
afterwards a member of congress, and Judson Holcomb. I the fall of
1851, he took a trip down the Susquehanna river, intending to go to
Meadville to attend Alleghany College, where his brother James was then
attending, but getting stormed in, he went back through the mountains
to Town Hill, Luzerne county, Pa., and there taught a select school,
commencing in November, 1851, and remained there until the spring of
1852, when

Page 573

he returned to his old home in New York. In 1852 and 1853 he attended
the Yates Polytechnic Institute at Chittenango, Madison county, N. Y.,
for the purpose of preparing for college. His health having become
somewhat impaired he abandoned studies for a time, and in the last week
of April, 1854, on a stormy afternoon, he landed on the old wharf, from
a lake steamer, in Milwaukee. The following summer he spent most of his
time on a farm in Dodge county, but made several excursions on foot
through Dodge, Jefferson, Waukesha, Dane, Columbia and Fond du Lac
counties, enjoying the sights of the beautiful prairies and oak
openings. The next winter he taught school at the village of Columbus,
and the Second ward school in Watertown, the following summer. While at
Watertown, in the summer of 1855, he resumed the study of law in the
office of the Hon. Samuel Baird, and after the close of his school, in
September, 1855, he went to the village of Juneau, Dodge county, and
entered the law office of the Hon. Charles Billinghurst, then a member
of congress. While at Juneau, he was deputy register of deeds, under
Paul Juneau, and was also, for more than a year, deputy clerk of the
circuit court of Dodge county. He continued his legal studies in Dodge
and Jefferson counties until 1858, when he was admitted to practice,
and opened his first law office at Juneau in the fall of that year. In
May, 1859, he went to Jefferson, and practiced there for ten years,
with excellent success, gaining a reputation as a skillful lawyer and
an able advocate. While a resident of Jefferson, he founded and named
The Jefferson Banner, a Democratic paper, and was its political editor
for three years, making it one of the leading journals of that party in
the interior of the state. This editorial work, however, was entirely
subordinate to his law practice.

After the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861. Mr. Thorn made one of the
first war speeches in the city of Jefferson, and helped to raise
Company E of the Fourth Wisconsin infantry,

[image: GERRIT T. THORN.]

more than half of the company being raised at that first war meeting.
He then had a strong desire to enlist, and was only restrained from so
doing by reason of the delicate health of his wife, to whom he was
married in May, 1859. He continued to give his aid and help in securing
recruits for the Union army, until the following year, when he enlisted
himself in August, 1862, and was soon after commissioned lieutenant-
colonel of the Twenty-ninth regiment of Wisconsin infantry. The
regiment immediately went into camp at Madison, and the last of
October, 1862, was ordered to the front, proceeded at once down the
Mississippi river, and encamped, on the 7th of November, on the eastern
bank of that river opposite Helena, Arkansas. The regiment remained
there during the winter, and performed picket and out-post duties,
being stationed for a time at Friars Point, below Helena, and
afterwards made an expedition up White river to Duvals Bluff, Ark., the
latter part of January, 1863.

After this expedition the regiment returned to Helena, and was
stationed five miles out on Little Rock road. After the return, Col.

Page 574

Thorn, whose health was very much impaired, received news that his wife
and only child had become seriously ill, and were not expected to live.
He sought a furlough to visit them, but being unable to obtain it,
resigned his position and hastened home, only to find that his wife had
died two weeks before his arrival, in March, 1863.

Col. Thorn has literary tastes and has been greatly interested in
educational matters. While a resident of Jefferson, he was one of the
leaders in founding the Jefferson Liberal Institute, drew up its
charter, and was president of its board of trustees the first two years
of its existence. At the laying of the corner stone of this institution
he delivered a very able address, which was published at the time, in
which he clearly and forcibly set forth what should be the aim and
scope of a public educational institution. The Liberal Institute
buildings and property have since been purchased by the city of
Jefferson, and are now used as its high school.

During the years of 1867-8, Col. Thorn represented Jefferson county in
the state senate, and was member of the committees on federal
relations, railroads and claims. He was also at that time the youngest
member of the senate. During his service in that body he delivered an
eloquent and stinging rebuke to a certain "Copperhead" senator who had
spoken sneeringly of the Union soldiers. For this speech he received
many congratulations from patriotic men of all parties. In January,
1869, he removed to Fond du Lac, and while a resident of that city he
was elected to the legislative assembly, serving on the judiciary
committee and the joint committee on charitable and penal institutions.
As a legislator he was alert, a ready debater, quick and accurate in
judgment and in the details of business.

Politics and party scheming have always been distasteful to him. All
public positions that he has held have come to him without his seeking.
His devotion is to his profession, general literature and history.

In 1873, Col. Thorn's health not being good, he sold out his business
and library to James F. Ware, and went to Maryland, and was most of the
time in Washington during the following year. In October, 1874, his
health having very much improved, his desire to return to Wisconsin
became irresistible, and he returned and opened a law office in the
city of Appleton, where he had large practice and was accounted one of
the ablest lawyers in that circuit. In the winter of 1877-8 he became
very severely afflicted with rheumatism and was unable to attend to any
business. He was advised by his physicians that a change of climate
would be beneficial, so in the fall of that year he sold his business
at Appleton, with the intention of wholly giving up practice. He then
went to Nebraska and spent four years on a farm. In March, 1883, he
went to California, and his family returned east to Valparaiso, Ind.
After reaching California, he spent some months there and in Oregon,
and, in June of that year, went to what was then Washington territory,
and remained in the Puget Sound country and British Columbia, until
September, 1886, when he returned again to Wisconsin, being among the
first passengers who came over the new Canadian Pacific road through to
Winnipeg in Manitoba, and thence home. Having become reinvigorated by
his rest and change, after returning to the state, and spending one
winter in Milwaukee, he settled in New London, where he resumed his law
practice.

He has always been a Democrat in politics, was a Democratic candidate
for presidential elector in 1864, and a delegate to the national
Democratic convention assembled at New York in 1868, that nominated
Horatio Seymour for president.

Col. Thorn has been twice married. His first wife, whose death has
already been mentioned, was Miss Maria Bicknell of Vermont. She was a
teacher in the Fox Lake, Wis., high school, and a lady of much culture.
March 7th, 1864, he married Elizabeth Clark of Prince George county,
Md., a descendant of

Page 575

one of the families that came from England and settled in Maryland in
Lord Baltimore's time. They have a family of three sons and two
daughters. One of his sons, G. T., Jr., is a lawyer, and his youngest
son, Paul C., is taking the law course in that state university at
Madison, Wis. Robert C. is a clerk in his father's office. The
daughters are Blanch E. and Grace Edna; and all have received a
thorough education. Col. Thorn has two brothers living, Dr. Robert
Thorn of Pittsburg, Pa., who has nearly reached his four score years,
and James Thorn, who is a lawyer, who has passed his three score and
ten, and now lives in Oregon; and one sister, his oldest, Hester Jane
Vandenburg, a resident of Milwaukee, who is in her 78th year.

Col. Thorn has delivered several public addresses which have stamped
him as an eloquent, patriotic man, and a man of thought and scholarly
tastes. A Fourth of July oration at Chilton, in 1876, was an eloquent
tribute to our free institutions and to Christianity, which he declares
to be the foundation of all true liberty.

KRAUS, Frederick, who has long been in the grain and commission
business in Milwaukee, was born in Newhaus, Germany, December 23rd,
1843. His parents, Charles and Julia Thiele Kraus, came to Wisconsin
from Germany in 1849, and settled in Jefferson county, where they
remained until 1858, when they removed to Milwaukee, and resided here
until their death in 1870. Frederick attended the district school in
Jefferson county until the family removed to Milwaukee, when, for a
time, he studied in the city high school, of which he speaks in
commendatory terms.

After leaving school, young Kraus, in 1860, entered a commission house
as clerk, and there remained until 1878, when he became a member of the
grain and commission firm of Asmuth & Kraus. Two years after, the firm
became F. Kraus & Co., Mr. Asmuth retiring. In 1882 he organized the 
Kraus-Merkel Malting company, of which he was president until 1894, when 
he resigned.

In 1885 he went to Europe to look over the different malting processes
is use there. The result was that upon his return, he brought over the
first malting drums used in this county--the Galland-Henning drums,
which have proved an entire success. He organized a company for the
manufacture of these machines, and there are now about twenty-five
plants here that are using this system of malting, embracing a total of
three hundred drums. The capital invested in business by the Kraus-
Merkel company is $600,000, and that of the Galland-Henning company,
$250,000.

In 1890 the Faist-Kraus Milling company was organized, with a capital
of $150,000, and a mill erected with a capacity of 2,000 barrels of
flour per day. The firm of F. Kraus & Co. is said to be the largest
grain firm now in Milwaukee--operating two of the largest elevators on
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, besides a large number of
smaller ones on the same lines in the interior. The total amount of
grain handled by the firm yearly reaches 12,000,000 bushels, of which
4,000,000 bushels is barley--the remainder embraces oats, rye, wheat
and corn.

Mr. Kraus is a Democrat, but last year voted for McKinley for president
on the currency question, as did many others of his party. He was an
alderman from 1872 to 1875, and a school commissioner from 1875 to
1877. He belongs to the Calumet and Deutscher clubs, is an Odd Fellow,
a Knight of Pythias, and belongs to the Masonic fraternity, having
attained to the thirty-second degree and the Mystic Shrine.

Mr. Kraus was married on the 25th of December, 1865, to Martha Eising,
and they have two children.

He is eminently a Milwaukee man, having spent his entire business life
in the city, and done much to aid its development as a business center,
and to secure its later prominence in the grain trade.

Page 576

[image: EDWARD SYLVESTER BRAGG.]

BRAGG, Edward Sylvester, ex-congressman from Wisconsin, is the son of
Joel and Margaretta (Kohl) Bragg, and was born at Unadilla, Otsego
County, New York, February 20th, 1827. He passed his earlier years on
his father's farm, and prepared for college at the Delaware Academy at
Delhi. Later he spent three years in Geneva, now Hobart College, but
was obliged to discontinue his studies before graduation on account of
the lack of funds. He returned to his native town and then took up the
study of law in the office of Judge Noble, was admitted to the bar at
Norwich, in 1848, and for the next two years practiced with his old
preceptor, Chas. C. Noble. In 1850 he removed to Wisconsin, locating at
Fond du Lac. This place was then a rapidly growing village, and Mr.
Bragg soon established a good legal practice, the increase of which
kept pace with the growth of the town. In 1854 he became district
attorney for the county of Fond du Lac, and served in that capacity for
two years. As a Douglas Democrat he was delegate to the Charleston
convention in 1860. When the civil war broke out, he entered the army
as captain of Company E, Sixth regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer infantry, 
May 5th, 1861. On the 6th of September, 1861, he was made major, and was 
promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1862. The following year 
he was made colonel, and in 1864 was promoted to the rank of brigadier-
general, with which rank he was mustered out October 8th, 1865. 
Throughout his army service General Bragg displayed much coolness, 
courage and other qualities which entitle one to military leadership, 
and his honorable military record will long perpetuate his memory. He 
took part in all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, except those 
of the Peninsula, Gettysburg and Five Forks. After the close of his 
service he returned to Fond du Lac, and was appointed, in 1866, by 
President Johnson, postmaster. The same year he went as delegate to the 
Philadelphia Loyalists' convention. In 1867 he was elected to the state 
senate, serving but one term. In 1868 he was delegate to the soldiers' 
and sailors' convention which nominated Horatio Seymour for the 
presidency. He was elected successively to the forty-fifth, forty-sixth 
and forty- seventh congresses, and then went as delegate to the national 
Democratic convention of 1884, when, as chairman, he seconded the 
nomination of Grover Cleveland for president. The same year he was 
elected to the forty-ninth congress, and in 1885 he was appointed by 
President Cleveland minister to Mexico, where he remained in the service 
of his country during President Cleveland's administration. In 1895 he 
was a candiate for the Democratic nomination for United States senator, 
to succeed Senator Philetus Sawyer. There were several candidates for 
the honor, but after a long and exciting contest the nomination went to 
Hon. John L. Mitchell, and he was elected. Gen. Bragg was afterward 
urged by his friends for a diplomatic or consular mission under the 
general government, but none was offered that he was willing to accept; 
and he returned to the practice of his profession in Fond du Lac. Though 
an ardent Democrat he repudiated

Page 577

the platform and candidates of the Democratic notional convention in
Chicago in 1896 was subsequently a delegate to the convention of sound
money Democrats in Indianapolis, and was presented to that convention
as worthy of its nomination for president. Had the honor of that
nomination fallen to him he would have been, in the estimation of many,
a stronger and more popular candidate than Senator Palmer.

As a speaker Gen. Bragg is forcible, clear and incisive, and few men
have greater power before a popular assembly than he. During the
presidential campaign of 1896 he made a few speeches in support of
sound money principles, which were very effective and fully maintained
his extended reputation as a public speaker.

In religion the general is an Episcopalian. His wife was Miss Cornelia
Coleman, to whom he was married January 2nd, 1855, and by whom he has
three daughters and one son.

PARK, Byron B., of the law firm of Cate, Sanborn, Lamoreux & Park of
Stevens Point, is the older of the two sons of the late Judge Gilbert
L. Park, who held the office of judge of the Seventh judicial circuit
of Wisconsin from 1874 to 1883. The paternal ancestors of the Parks
were New Englanders for several generations, but about the beginning of
the present century the grandfather of Judge Gilbert L. Park, who was a
soldier in the revolutionary army and took part in the capture of
Burgoyne and his army, became a resident of New York state, and Judge
Park was born in Scipio, Cayuga county, on the 31st of August, 1824.
After a somewhat eventful career as boy and young man, he came to
Wisconsin in November, 1851, having been admitted to the bar in
Michigan the September preceding. In the absence of funds and law
business, and with a purpose to win his way by any honest work, he
spent some months in the lumber woods as a common laborer, but about a
year after he formed a law partnership, and his rise was steady both in 
business and reputation, until he was seated upon the bench of the 
circuit court, where he remained until his health would not permit of 
further official labor. He was district attorney of Portage county for 
four years, commencing with 1854. He was mayor of Stevens Point at the 
opening of the civil war; and, resigning the office entered the army, as 
adjutant of the Eighteenth regiment of Wisconsin infantry, rising to the 
rank of captain and serving with bravery and fidelity until the end of 
the war, when he returned to Stevens Point and resumed the practice of 
his profession.

On February 25th, 1856, he married Mary D. Beach of Kalamazoo, Mich.,
who bore him two sons and a daughter. She died in 1893, leaving the
memory of a model Christian woman.

Byron B. Park was born in Stevens Point, October 6th, 1858. After
passing through the public schools of his native city, he entered the
University of Wisconsin in September, 1876, spending three years
therein. He then began the study of law, and, in September, 1880,
entered the law department of that institution and graduated with the
class of 1881. While in the university he was a member of the Phi Kappa
Psi fraternity.

May 1st, 1886, Mr. Park began the practice of law in partnership with
Frank B. Lamoreux, the firm name being Lamoreux & Park. This
partnership continued six years, when the firm of Raymond, Lamoreux &
Park was formed, and this firm carried on the business until January,
1896, when the present firm of Cate, Sanborn, Lamoreux & Park was
organized, with offices at Stevens Point and Ashland. The Raymond
mentioned as one of the firm preceding the present one, was the late J.
O. Raymond, for many years one of the leading lawyers of that part of
the state.

Mr. Park is a Democrat, and as such was elected to the office of city
attorney of Stevens Point in 1888 and 1889; mayor for the term of 1891-
1892, and district attorney of Portage

Page 578

county in 1892, and re-elected in 1894. He was also appointed member of
the board of regents of normal schools, and held the position from 1891
to 1894.

He is a member of the Masonic fraternity (Blue Lodge and Chapter) and
of the order of Knights of Pythias. He is an attendant of the Episcopal
church, but not a member, although his wife is.

Mr. Park was married, September 29th, 1886, to Bertha N. Wyatt of
Stevens Point. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Park,
namely: Gladys, born November 24th, 1887; Lawrence W., born August
13th, 1889, and Lyman R., born September 7th, 1894.

CONOVER, Allan, D., architect and civil engineer of Madison, is the son
of O. M. Conover, who, many years ago, was a professor in the
University of Wisconsin, and later a lawyer, and for many years the
supreme court reporter. Allan D. Conover was born in Madison in 1854,
and received his early education in a private school and in the public
schools of Madison. In 1869 he entered the University of Wisconsin, and
graduated therefrom, with honors, in 1874. Prior to his graduation,
however, he spent two years in practical work, one of which was as a
member of the engineering and constructional force of the Wisconsin
Central railroad, and the other in the geological survey in southwestern 
Wisconsin under Moses Strong. Mr. Conover's studies in the university 
were largely in the sciences and in civil engineering; and after 
graduation he did general engineering work in and about Madison and a 
season's work on the Wisconsin river improvement. In 1875 he received 
the appointment of tutor in the university under Prof. Nicodemus, and 
both gentlemen, for two years, in addition to their university work, 
acted as topographers to the state geologist, preparing the charts and 
maps for the first two volumes published, containing the records of that 
survey, which have become a part of the scientific literature of the 
state. They also prepared the large map of the state which is seen in 
many libraries and offices. In 1877-8 Mr. Conover was engaged in general 
engineering work in Madison, and the following years was assistant 
professor of mathematics under Professor Sterling; and, upon the death 
of that gentlemen, Professor Nicodemus, in 1879, became his successor. 
He next served as professor of civil engineering for eleven years, and 
during his professorship this department and that of mechanical 
engineering under his charge developed very rapidly, the number of 
students increasing from fifteen to over one hundred. From 1881 to 1883 
Prof. Conover held the position of city surveyor, and prepared the first 
plans for a general sewerage system for the city, which was at first 
rejected, but was subsequently revived, and, after slight modifications 
by Col. Waring, in 1895, was adopted by the council. In 1884 Science 
hall of the university was burned, and, as professor of civil 
engineering, the plans for rebuilding the structure greatly interested 
him, and turned his thoughts toward architecture. He aided in the 
preparation of the plans of Mr. Koch, the architect for the new 
building, and advocated them before the legislature. He was made 
superintendent of construction for Science hall and for the group of 
buildings of which it forms a part, including the chemical laboratory, 
the machine shop and the boiler house, the plans of the latter being 
wholly his. In 1885 Prof. Conover opened an architect's office which L. 
F. Porter, his present partner, and two years later a branch office was 
established in Ashland, and the firm furnished the plans for most of the 
better class of buildings in that city. The design of the elegant Knight 
hotel, the First National bank, Security bank, county jail, Breen block 
and new Vaughn building were their work. Resigning his professorship in 
the university in 1890, he has since devoted all his time to 
architecture, spending the three succeeding summers in Ashland. He, with 
his partner, has furnished plans for about forty school houses, Madison, 
Baraboo, Fond du Lac, Wausau and many

Page 579

other cities having fine specimens of their work. The university armory
and gymnasium are also notable examples of the firm's taste and skill
in design. One of the structures in which the firm has taken especial
pride is the diocesan school for young girls in Fond du Lac, costing
sixty-five thousand dollars, which is of stone in the Gothic style. The
Episcopal churches at Stevens Point, Chipewa Falls and Rhinelander, the
bank buildings at Shell Lake, Rhinelander and Fairmount, Minn, plans
for jails at Ashland, La Cross and Baraboo, asylums and some one
hundred dwellings in Madison, Ashland, Washburn, and scatterd about the
state, many of them very artistic in design, are the work of this firm.
Mr. Conover has, for many years, held the position of bridge expert and
consulting engineer to the state railroad commissioner, and one of the
duties of this position is the preparation of the railroad map
biennially issued from that department. The last one issued, embracing
an edition of seventeen thousand copies, is the handsomest and most
servicable yet produced.

In heavy litigation Mr. Conover's services as an engineering expert are
often in demand, and are highly appreciated by leading lawyers of the
state.

Mr. Conover was married, in 1881, to Miss Ella E. Stone of Chicago, and
their home is one of culture and refinement, where the distractions of
an arduous profession are forgotten amid books and social pleasures.

HEIDEN, Fred, Jr., inspector of the Milwaukee house of correction, is
the soon of Fred Heiden, Sr., and Fredericka Pollow, and was born in
Milwaukee on the 30th of November, 1857, and has always resided in the
city. His early education was received in the Humboldt public school of
the city, and when he had passed through all the grades of that school,
he entered the German-English Academy, from which he was graduated in

[image: FRED HEIDEN, JR.]

1875. In 1884 he was elected a member of the Milwaukee common council,
and served in that body the full term of three years. In 1890 he was
the Republican candidate for city treasurer, but, owing to a number of
causes, principally the Bennett law, his party that year seemed to have
lost popular favor, and he was defeated. In 1892 he was again nominated
for the same office, and, for a like reason, again met defeat. There 
was small prospect for Republican candidates in those years, and the
fact that he was willing to accept a nomination at such an unfavorable
time for success, demonstrated his fealty to his party, of which he has
been an earnest supporter since he attained his majority. But Mr.
Heiden's worth as a man and his loyalty to his party were not
forgotten, and when in the spring of 1896 the board of supervisors was
called upon of select a man for inspector of the house of correction,
his party then having control of the board, he was chosen to the
position. As the prisoners are employed in chair-making, and as Mr.
Heiden is a practical and experienced manufacturer of furniture, there
was good reason to anticipate from

Page 580

his selection a successful administration of the affairs of the
institution, and this result has thus far been experienced.

Mr. Heiden has been for a number of years a member of the Thirteenth
Ward Republican club, and has done much to render the club efficient in
the prosecution of the work for which it was established. He has also
extended his political work beyond the confines of his ward, and has
done much toward securing for his party the victories which it has won.
The unselfish and earnest party man can be relied upon to make the
unselfish and earnest citizen.

Mr. Heiden was married on the 31st of July, 1879, to Corrillia Senner,
and four children have been born to them--Alfred, Esther, Carrie and
George.

BENNETT, John R., judge of the Twelfth judicial circuit, and a resident
of Janesville, wa born in Rodman, Jefferson county, N. Y., November
1st, 1820. He is descended from Puritans who settled in Connecticut in
1668; representatives of whom have been conspicuous in the founding and
building up of the social, religious and civil institutions of the
country. His father, Daniel Bennett, was born in Stonington, Conn.,
February 16th, 1793, and his mother, who was Deborah Leeds Spicer, a
grand-daughter of Gideon Leeds of Leeds, England, was a native of
Groton, Conn., born April 15th, 1792. Judge Bennett's parents removed
at an early day to Jefferson county, New York, settling on land which
was an almost unbroken wilderness, and his boyhood was largely spent in
assisting his father to clear a farm and make a home in this then
unsettled region. He had, however, a well-developed ambition for an
education and made the most of his limited school privileges, and
became proficient in the ordinary branches. In the fall of 1839 he
became a student in the Black River Literary and Religious Institute of 
Watertown, New York, where he fitted himself for teaching, in which he 
was engaged at intervals during several years, the remainder of the time 
being devoted to study. In April, 1844, he began the study of law in the 
office of W. W. Wager of Brownville, and afterward continued it in the 
office of D. N. Burnham of Sacket's Harbor, until May, 1848, when he was 
admitted to practice in the courts of New York. That same year he came 
to Wisconsin, arriving in Janesville on the 13th of October. He 
immediately began the practice of his profession, which he continued 
without interruption until his election to the circuit judgeship in 
April, 1882. He soon acquired such a position at the bar as his 
abilities and attainments entitled him to, and became known outside of 
his locality, not only as a lawyer, but for his sterling character as a 
man. He was elected district attorney of Rock county in 1862, and was 
re-elected at the close of his first term. His discharge of the duties 
of his office was characterized by such promptness and fidelity as to 
win marked approval from all those familiar with the county affairs. So 
high did he stand as a citizen, a lawyer and a Republican, that, without 
any effort on his part, the Republican state convention in 1875 
nominated him for attorney-general, but that year his party went down in 
defeat and he with it. In 1882 he was, almost by unanimous consent, 
named for the position of judge of the Twelfth circuit to succeed the 
able but somewhat eccentric Judge H. S. Conger. He was elected by a 
large majority, was re-elected in April, 1888, and again in April, 1894, 
so that he has now served in that position some fourteen years. In many 
respects he has proved an ideal judge. He knows the law and precedent, 
if there is any, is fearless in the exercise of his judicial functions, 
has little regard for merely technical points, looking beyond them 
rather to what is just and equitable and to the great principles which 
should underlie, if they do not, all legal proceedings. His charges to 
juries are models of clear concise statement of the law and the evidence 
involved in the cases,

Page 581

and his disposition of legal points raised in the progress of trials is
prompt and recognized as just and according to the law. He never
presents an argument for one side or the other of a case before him in
the guise of a judicial charge. The leading characteristic of his
judicial work is conscientious, painstaking effort for securing the
right.

In public address his style is concise and forcible and not without
touches of real humor, occasionally illumined with a gleam of sarcasm.
When in practice at the bar he was regarded as among the ablest lawyers
of the state. He was often before the state supreme court, and there is
scarcely a volume of the reports of that court which does not show him
connected with some important case. He was also distinguished as a
cross-examiner of witnesses.

The following estimate of Judge Bennett as a lawyer, written by John
Winans another distinguished lawyer of Janesville, appeared in a volume
entitled "The Bench and Bar of Wisconsin," which was published in 1882:

"Judge John R. Bennett is something over six feet in height, is well
proportioned, and has great physical strength and endurance. In
personal appearance it is said he strongly resembles Lincoln, and in
the opinion of the writer of this sketch, has many of the mental
characteristics that made the latter so great and beloved. From the
outset Mr. Bennett took front rank at the bar in Rock county, a
position he has ever since easily retained; and when it is remembered
that Whiton, Carpenter, Noggle. Knowlton and Jorden were then among its
members, his abilities will best be understood. As a lawyer and
advocate he has few if any superiors at the bar in this state, and his
professional life has been in consequence a busy one in his office and
in the courts. In addressing court or jury he always commands attention
and respect by reason of his learning, ability and force. His resources
in the trial of cases are wonderful, and however great his disappointed
with the rulings of the court or by the evidence, he is

[image: JOHN R. BENNETT.]

generally able to surmount all embarrassment, and conduct his case to a
successful issue. Litigants soon learned his great worth as a trial
lawyer, and have kept him steadily employed in his profession. Scarcely
has there been a case of importance tried in Rock county or in any of
the adjoining counties but he has been employed either as attorney or
counsel. He is especially able and acute as a cross-examiner, and his
triumphs as such have been many and marked. His commanding presence and
great abilities have given him many clients in the southern part of the
state, and his eloquence, when occasion has demanded it, has always
insured him audiences to be instructed and delighted by his utterances.
It may be truthfully said of Mr. Bennett that he is a giant in his
profession. He is still in the meridian of his abilities and power, and
gives promise of years of future activity and usefulness in his
profession."

Judge Bennett is a Republican, and before he became a judge let his
political faith be known by his works. He was a delegate to the Chicago
convention in 1860, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for president, and

Page 582

took a very active part in the stirring affairs of the war and
reconstruction period. But he persistently refused political office the
duties of which did not in some direct way call for the exercise of his
professional knowledge. He was once urged to become a candidate for
congress, but he declined in favor of his law partner, Hon. I. C.
Sloan, who was elected. Not many men would have thrust aside an honor
like that.

Judge Bennett was married at Hounsfield, N. Y., November 28th, 1844, to
Miss Elsie L. Holloway, daughter of Charles Holloway, Esq., of that
place. She was a woman of sweet and gentle manners, yet of strong
character, and her influence upon her husband and all to whom she was
closely related was ineffaceable. She died May 28th, 1893, deeply
mourned by all who knew her. The respect in which she was held by the
community was shown by the large attendance, at her funeral, of
distinguished citizens. The honorably bearers were Hon. Alex. Graham,
Hon. John Winans, Hon. A. A. Jackson, Hon. M. S. Pritchard, Hon. Pliny
Norcross, Hon, John C. Jenkins, Hon. E. G. Fifield, and Hon. J. J. R.
Pease. Members of the Rock County Bar association attended the funeral
in a body. Among the attorneys from out of town were Hon. L. B.
Caswell, Fort Atkinson; Harlow Pease, Jefferson; John D. Dunwiddie,
Monroe; Hon. R. J. Burdge, J. G. Wickham, Silas Menzies, John C. Rood,
J. B. Dow and O. H. Orton of Beloit.

A friend of hers for forty years paid this tribute to her worth:

"Although of a quiet unassuming nature, Mrs. Bennett had the faculty of
inspiring the confidence, love and respect of all in a wonderful
degree, and many a citizen who knew her only as a friend and neighbor
will sorrow exceedingly over her death. Her life was an absolute
consecration to her family and friends. In her charities she was
liberal and gave ere importunity began.

In her home, where the good and the true are best known and most highly
appreciated, she filled every place and performed every duty
of a wife and mother with a faithfulness and grace that makes her loss
irreparable, and her example and influence in that home leave the
impression that she was the most sacred woman on earth, and the memory
of that home illumined by her presence, is, and ever will be, the
impression held in the deepest reverence. No home in this city was
fuller of sunshine than that of Judge Bennett, but now, that the days
of gloom have come, may the loving sympathy of friends and the
sustaining care of Him that heeds the sparrow's fall be not withheld
from him.

"Transferred from that home, her tomb at Oak Hill will be a shrine to
her family and her grave will be moistened by the tears of those she
made happy. May her final rest be as peaceful as her death, and her
long, last sleep be sweet. To her husband, who was walked by her side
for nearly fifty years, the words of dear old Whittier see, almost
personal:

"And yet, dear hart, remembering thee,
Am I not richer than of old,
Safe in they immortality?
What change can reach the wealth I hold,
What chance can mar the pearl and gold
Thy love hast left in trust with me?
And while in life's late afternoon,
When cool and long the shadows grow,
I walk to meet the night that soon
Shall shape and shadow overflow,
I cannot feel that thou art far,
Since near at hand the angels are.
And when the sunset gates unbar,
Shall I not see thee waiting stand,
And white against the evening star
The welcome of they beckoning hand?"

The following tribute to her memory was passed by the Rock County Bar
association, and appeared in the columns of a local paper:

"There was an air of unusual solemnity at the opening of the circuit
court this morning. Members of the Rock County Bar association were
present in large numbers, and when Judge A. Scott Sloan of Beaver Dam
took his seat as presiding judge there was profound silence. B. B.
Eldredge had been assigned the duty of presenting to the court the
memorial of the Rock county bar on the death of Mrs. John

Page 583

R. Bennett. He stepped forward and with manifest emotion addressed the
court. After brief introductory remarks he presented these resolutions:

"May it Please Your Honor: The Rock County Bar association being
notified of the death of the wife of the judge of this court, Mrs.
Elsie L. Bennett, attended the funeral in a body, and commissioned us,
its committee, to prepare a statement commemorative of the deceased,
and appropriate resolutions, and move this court to make such
resolution and statement subjects of record thereof, an enduring
testimonial to the memory and worth of the departed.

"Elsie L. Bennett deceased at her home in this city, May 28th, 1893.
She was the daughter of Charles and Chloe Holloway, and was born at
Hounsfield, in the county of Jefferson, and state of New York, January
23, A. D. 1822. On the 28th of November, 1844, she was married to John
R. Bennett, now the judge of the Twelfth judicial circuit court of the
state of Wisconsin. In the year 1848 with her husband, she became a
resident of Janesville. Wisconsin, then a comparatively new settlement,
where she has ever since resided, and where her 'sweet and gentle
influence' rendered her coming a blessing, not only in her home and to
the immediate family circle of which she till her death had been the
acknowledged center and guide, but to all who have had the good fortune
to know her. She was the true Christian, imbued by nature with love,
faith, hope and charity, wherewith she conquered, and led the way in
the 'proper and pleasant paths of life.' These qualities not only
afforded us pleasant glimpses of happy domesticity, but shone out
brightly in her contact with the world at large and impressing all with
her supreme worth in the fulfillment of her mission of virtue,
morality, mercy and charity.

"Though abounding always in love faith and good works, Mrs. Bennett was
also endowed by nature, cultivated by study and reflection, with highly 
discriminating qualities of mind, and was quick to detect, and with 
mercy admonish, fraud and imposition, and commend and reward virtue. For 
nearly fifty years of married life she was the safe and judicious 
adviser, counselor and guide in temporal as well as spiritual matters of 
her noble husband, who in God's providence has been left to mourn her 
departure hence, in death as in life, to lead him in the pleasant paths 
leading to that celestial home prepared 'from the foundation of the 
world.'

"Resolved, That in the death of Mrs. Elsie L. Bennett the Rock County
Bar association is called to deplore the loss of the beloved wife of
the honored judge of the Twelfth judicial circuit court of the state of
Wisconsin, and to unite in expressing our individual appreciation of
her many virtues and good works and deep-felt respect for her memory.

"Resolved. That we, as individual members of said association,
cherishing for her memory a profound admiration and affection, proffer
to her bereaved husband and daughters our sincere sympathy and
condolence in this their supreme affliction.

"Resolved. That these proceedings, as a testimonial to her worth be
made matter of record in the circuit court of Rock county, and that
certified copies be, by the clerk of this court, directed to the other
courts of this judicial circuit.

"Resolved, That the chairman of this association and the clerk of this
court be a committee to communicate these proceedings and the
condolence of this bar to the husband and daughters of the deceased.

"Resolved, That these proceedings and resolutions be published in the
several papers of this city.
"B. B. Eldredge,
"John Winans,
"A. A. Jackson,
"Committee."

"Are there any remarks to be made on these resolutions?" asked Judge
Sloan, as Mr. Eldredge finished reading.

William Ruger arose and spoke as follows:

Page 584

"May it Please the Court, Brethren of the Bench and Bar: When a mortal
life, journeying so near our own pathways, ends in sleep and rest of 
death, it is fitting that we should pause to express our tribute of 
respect, and our sympathy with those who remain to mourn. I say remain 
to mourn, but on this occasion it is a most comforting reflection that 
those so referred to do not mourn as for an everlasting separation. They 
are not faithless, hopeless waiters for such end to come to them. We 
know that our honored presiding judge will await and continue his life's 
journey, comforted by the blessed hope, founded on well-assured faith, 
that the painful parting that now afflicts him is but temporal; soon to 
be followed by a reunion that shall be eternal. We cannot in weak, 
impromptu words fittingly express either our tribute of respect for the 
beloved one at rest or our sympathy with our honored judge and those of 
his household in their hour or trial. For this I must rely upon more 
appropriate and deliberate expression made by the memorial which has 
been presented. I heartily second the motion that such memorial be 
entered on record for an enduring testimonial of our tribute of respect 
and of our sympathy." 

William Smith followed Mr. Ruger, speaking as follows:

"May it please the Court: I have been thinking, while listening to the
resolutions and remarks of the members of the bar, that human language
had failed to keep up, in the march of time, with the other
developments of the human race. Surely, what is best in us, what best
marks the progress of our race is, its love, tenderness and sympathy:
and in that respect it occurs to me that human language has failed in
its development, to express the development of our race upon its best
side. Perhaps it is better that it should be so. Some things, the
greatest, the deepest and the grandest are best expressed by silence.
The oak in its grandeur; the ocean when placid and mild; the river as
it flows gently to the sea; perhaps in their silence best express their
greatness and grandeur. And when we come to occasions of this kind,
perhaps it is well that our language fails us. But it is well that we
all can realize that that which is best in us is awakened; that the
sympathy, the kindred and fraternal feeling of those associated
together in the work of perfecting the science of the law, join
together and go out to the honored judge of this circuit in this great
hour of trial, suffering and pain."

"If there are no further remarks to be made on this occasion," said
Judge Sloan, "we will close these proceedings. Before doing so I feel
that I ought to say a word or two at this time. Having myself but
recently passed through the same sorrowful circumstances, I feel, as
has been intimated by Brother Smith, that language fails to express the
thoughts that naturally arise upon an occasion of this kind. Judge
Bennett, after a married experience of half a century, has been called
upon, in order of Providence, to part with the companion of his life;
and he must now take up the burden of life's duties in great sorrow and
affliction. At such a time we older men appreciate more sensibly than
can the younger members of the bar, the circumstances of sorrow and
affliction which surround such an event. Ambition, earthly hopes,
position and wealth, at such times, sink into insignificance; and all
there is left, so far as human agencies are concerned, is the kindness
and sympathy of our friends and acquaintances. And while Judge Bennett
will go on with his duties, discharging them in the future as he has in
the past, with great ability, with fearless honesty and impartiality,
he will rely mainly upon the tender memories surrounding his home life,
and upon the sympathy and kindness of his friends and especially the
members of the bar. It will brighten his labors, diminish his sorrow,
to receive the expression of the sympathy, kindness and affection of
the members of the bar. The resolutions and proceedings will be entered
upon the minutes of the court; and the clerk will transmit a copy to
the members of the family of the deceased."

Page 585

VILAS, William Freeman, lately United States senator and member of the
cabinet during President Cleveland's first term, was born in Chelsea,
Orange county, Vermont, July 9th, 1840. His father, Judge L. B. Vilas,
who had been a prominent man in Vermont, removed with his family to
Wisconsin in 1851. William F. entered the University of Wisconsin,
where he pursued the full classical course, graduating with the highest
honors of his class in 1858, when but eighteen years old. The following
year he entered the Albany law school, from which he graduated in 1860.
Returning to Madison, he began the practice of law in company with
Charles T. Wakeley, and subsequently the firm also embraced Eleazer
Wakeley, formerly a United States territorial judge. In his twentieth
year young Vilas argued his first case before the state supreme court,
making a very favorable impression upon the court and the bar. The
civil war breaking out soon after, he threw up his law business for the
time and entered into the business of raising troops with all the zeal
of his young manhood. At a war meeting held in the state capitol he
made a speech in support of the Union cause which for its eloquence and
patriotic fervor was notable even in those times of great speeches. He
raised a company for the Twenty-third regiment of Wisconsin infantry
and was mustered in as senior captain. Soon after entering active
service he was promoted to major, then to lieutenant-colonel, and
during much of his service he was in command of the regiment. He served
in the Army of the Tennessee under General Grant, and, in the Vicksburg
campaign, led the regiment in several rapid marches, skirmishes and
battles, which contributed not a little to the success of the military
operations in that region. After the end of the Vicksburg campaign Col.
Vilas' regiment was sent to New Orleans, and he, seeing a long period
of inaction before him, resigned his commission, returned home and
resumed his law practice, in which he steadily rose to the front rank
and very soon had all the business

[image: WILLIAM FREEMAN VILAS.]

he could attend to. From the beginning of his professional career he
was a diligent student of the law, of general literature and of his
cases. He never went into court without the most thorough preparation,
and this was the secret of his success.

He was married in 1866 and established himself on a beautiful farm just
outside the city limits of Madison, and here his evenings were spent in
study. In 1875 Col. Vilas, Judge David Taylor and Hon. J. P. C.
Cottrill were appointed a commission to revise the statutes of
Wisconsin, and this work occupied three years, involving an immense
amount of labor, and so well was it done that it was approved by the
legislature, and no general revision has since been made.

Col. Vilas has always been a Democrat; was a delegate to the national
conventions in 1876, 1880, 1884, 1892 and 1896. He repudiated the
platform and the nominees of the convention in the year last named,
more especially because of the position taken on the currency question.
He was in favor of the single gold standard and supported the
candidates of the Indianapolis convention, of which he was a

Page 586

leading member, and chairman of its committee on resolution, which
prepared the platform, much of which was his work. He has also been in
requisition as a speaker for his party, but has generally declined
office for himself. He refused the nomination for governor in 1879 and
1883. He was a trustee of the Soldiers' Orphans's Home while that
institution was in existence, and for a number of years was a regent of
the University of Wisconsin, of which he has always been an ardent
friend. He caused the short course in agriculture to be established,
greatly adding to the usefulness an popularity of the agricultural
department. It was due to his labors that the policy was adopted and
sustained of charging students a small incidental fee, which resulted
in augmenting the receipts of the institution from ten to twenty
thousand dollars a year. He was a member of the lower house of the
legislature in 1885, and was instrumental in securing for the
university the largest appropriation it had ever received up to that
time. Col. Vilas' prominence and ability as a lawyer and public man
secured his appointment, in 1885, as postmaster-general in President
Cleveland's cabinet. His administration of the office was efficient and
able and gave very general satisfaction. In January, 1888, Secretary
Vilas was transferred to the interior department, which he thenceforth
held until the end of President Cleveland's term, displaying his rare
executive ability in the discharge of the multifarious and difficult
duties of that position. In 1890 Col. Vilas was prominent in the state
campaign, speaking against the compulsory educational law and
incidentally against the McKinley tariff. The campaign resulted in the
overwhelming defeat of the Republicans. The Democrats had a large
majority in the legislature, and Col. Vilas was elected United States
senator to succeed Senator Spooner. In the senate he ably supported the
administration of President Cleveland, and was easily one of the
leaders of his party in that body. Upon the expiration of his term he
was succeeded, in turn, by Senator John C. Spooner, the Republicans 
having regained control of the legislature.

Col. Vilas has long been noted as an orator of great power, and one of
his most famous speeches was at the banquet of the Society of the Army
of the Tennessee in Chicago in 1879, upon the occasion of Gen. Grant's
return from the trip around the world, when Col. Vilas responded to the
toast: "Our First Commander, Gen. U. S. Grant." The speech was 
delivered before a most distinguished assemblage of men who had won
distinction in civil and military life, and was received with the
greatest enthusiasm by the auditors and by the press throughout the
whole country.

He was married Jan. 3d, 1866, to Anna M., third daughter of William H.
Fox, M. D., of Fitchburg, Wis. Dr. Fox settled there in 1842, was a
physician of rare skill, a man of strong and excellent character, and
through a wide region warmly beloved. Mrs. Vilas was born in Fitchburg
in 1845. Of their four children, the eldest daughter, Cornelia, a young
woman of great loveliness, died in 1893, and their eldest son, Levi,
died at the age of eight in 1877. Two, Henry, twenty-five, and Mary E.,
twenty-two, remain.

End Part 18