USA > Wisconsin > A political history of Wisconsin > Part 38
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reduced their expenses. He is the first Governor, also, to have taken hold of the subject of tax reform in the State, and upon his recommendation the present efficient Tax Commission was ap- pointed, which is now at work upon the great tax problems. One of the first things Governor Scofield did after assuming the duties of his office was to ascertain for himself the condition of the State's finances. Owing to the peculiar methods of bookkeeping which had been in vogue, this was a very difficult task: but finally some order was brought out of chaos, and as a result it was recom- mended by the last Legislature that an expert commission be appointed to unify and revise the whole system of State bookkeep- ing in order to simplify the matter, and make it plain to every citizen who desired to know the condition of the State's finances. and what it actually costs to carry on the State government. His administration, therefore, may be characterized as essentially a business administration. These reforms have been carried on in a very quiet way, without exploitation, and their good effectswil be more plainly felt in years to come than they are at the present time.
RICHARD WEAVER.
Richard Weaver is a native of England who came to this country in infancy, and has been a resident of Wisconsin for more than sixty years. He was born in Sussex, England, August 25, 1827, and his father's family, who immigrated to America in 1830, settling first in Oneida county, New York, were among the English colonists who founded the village of Sussex, in the town of Lisbon, Waukesha county, in this State, where he has lived since 1837. He received his education in the common schools, and acquired a competence by industry and thrift as a farmer and hop merchant. He is Vice-President of the Wauke- sha National Bank, and has for years been a leading spirit in the directorate of the Waukesha Malleable Iron Company. A Demo- crat by conviction, Mr. Weaver has long taken an active part in politics. He has held different town offices and has been Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. In 1878 he was a meni- ber of the State Assembly. In Isso and ISSI he was a member
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of the State Senate. Mr. Weaver was among the influential Wisconsin Democrats who refused to endorse the Chicago plat- form of 1896 or to support the Presidential candidacy of William Jennings Bryan. He represents the Fifth Congressional District as a member of the National Democratie State Central Committee of Wisconsin.
E. W. KEYES.
Among the energetic, influential individual factors in the politics of Wisconsin there is not another of equal distinction in any party whose activity has covered so long a period as that of Elisha W. Keyes. Originally a Whig, Judge Keyes has been a Republican since the birth of the organization, and for fifty years few campaigns have taken place in which he has not borne a laboring oar. Brought up on a farm, he began to read law soon after coming of age. In the spring of 1852, under Fill- more's administration, he was appointed a special agent of the Postoffice Department by Postmaster-General N. K. Hall, a . position which he filled for several months. In the fall of 1858 he was elected District Attorney of Dane county and vigorously discharged the duties of that office in 1859 and 1860. In April, 1861, he was appointed by President Lincoln Postmaster at Madison, being reappointed by Presidents Johnson, Grant and Hayes, and serving continuously in that office for twenty-one years. In 1865 he was elected the first Republican Mayor of Madison, and reelected, without opposition, in 1866. In 1877 he was appointed a Regent of the University of Wisconsin, holding the position by reappointment for twelve years. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1882, and reelected Mayor of Madison in ISS6. In February, 1889, he was appointed by Gov. Hoard Municipal Judge of Dane county, to fill a vacancy, and was elected to that position by the people of the county in April of that year, serving out the unexpired term of Judge A. B. Braley, which terminated January 1. 1893. He now hokis the office of Postmaster at Madison by appointment of President McKinley. During the Civil War he rendered exceptionally efficient political support to the administration, and had for sev-
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cral years been a member of the Republican State Central Com- mittee, when, in 1868, that body, recognizing his extraordinary executive ability, appointed him its chairman. This position. he held for ten years, and the campaigns of the party were never more vigorously conducted, before nor since, than during those ten years. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conven- tions which met at Philadelphia in 1872, at Cincinnati in 1876, and at Chicago in 1884, and in each case was Chairman of the Wisconsin delegation. At the two conventions last named he was a strong supporter of the Presidential candidacy of James G. Blaine. Judge Keyes was twice powerfully supported in the Republican Legislative caucus as a candidate for the United States Senate. In the former of these contests, which occurred in 1879, he was in the lead during more than one hundred ballots, receiving as high as thirty-three votes, finally withdrawing in favor of his friend Matt. H. Carpenter, who received the nomi- nation and was elected. The second occasion was in 18St, when he received thirty-three legislative votes, but. was defeated by Philetus Sawyer. Judge Keyes was born in Northfield, Was !- ington county, Vermont, January 23. IS28, being the third son of Capt. Joseph Keyes, who was one of the earliest pioneer set- tlers of the Territory of Wisconsin, coming here in 1836, and being followed by his family in 1837. From June to September in the latter year the home of Capt. Keyes was in Milwaukee, and Elisha, then in his tenth year, attended the historic school in the old Courthouse, kept by Eli Bates. The family then settled on a land claim in the Township of Lake Mills, Jefferson county, which Capt. Keyes had selected the previous year. The history of the sturdy strokes by which he helped to plant civili- zation in the wilderness has been vividly narrated by his son . in one of the most interesting pamphlets which have been pub- lished on the subject of pioneer times in Wisconsin. It was in assisting his father in this rugged labor that the youth developed the constitution which has enabled him to withstand the fatigues of hotly-fought political campaigns for half a century and still retain elasticity of mind and body beyond the limit at which . the Psalmist fixed the duration of the life of man. His literary
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education was acquired mostly in the common schools, supple- mented by a few terms at Beloit. Seminary. He studied law in the office of A. I .. Collins and George B. Smith, and was admitted to the bar in Dane county in October, 1851. From 1853 to January 1, 1855, he was a law partner of his former preceptors, the firm being Collins, Smith & Keyes. The senior member retired on his election to the bench of the Circuit Court, and thenceforward, until 1862, the firm was Smith & Keyes, doing a larger law business than any other firm in the interior of the State. Subsequently for a number of years Judge Keyes was a member of the law firm of Orton, Keyes & Chynoweth, the partnership finally being dissolved upon the election of Judge Orton to the bench of the State Supreme Court. In 1871 Mr. Keyes was appointed by the Secretary of War attorney to represent the United States in the arbitration between the govern- ment and the Green Bay & Mississippi Canal Company. The attorneys for the company claimed that the waterway and improvements which had been made were worth in the neighbor- hood of two million dollars, while Mr. Keyes asserted that the improvements were worth nothing. He succeeded in convincing the arbitrators. Congress appropriated $145,000, for which sum the government acquired all the company's rights, thanks to the efficient manner in which the government's side of the case had been managed by Mr. Keyes. Mr. Keyes was first married in the city of New York, in May, 1854, to Miss Caroline Stevens. who died in 1865, leaving him three children, two sons, Joseph S. and Elisha W., and a daughter, Catharine. In 1867 he was married to Mrs. Louise Sholes, by whom he had one son. Louis R. This union was dissolved by the courts, and in 1888 he married Mrs. Eliza M. Reeves, with whom he now lives. A man of keen intelligence, piercing insight into human nature, and indomitable will. Judge Keyes would have risen to emi- nence in any community, and in any age, and in any calling he had chosen to adopt. His vencer of brusquerie covers but does not conceal a kind heart. He is enthusiastically loyal. His reputation for arbitrariness proceeds from his insistence as a . matter of principle upon the rigorous enforcement of party dis-
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cipline. Had his ambition run in the direction of riches, he could have been an enormously wealthy man. He has been true to his ideal of public duty, and what mistakes he has made have proceeded from zeal, not on his own behalf, but on behalf of the organization whose snecess he has always believed to be essential to the public good. it was .characteristic of the man that when he himself was a candidate for the Senatorship. in 1879, he consented to withdraw; but when Matt. H. Carpenter was his candidate in 1875 he doggedly repulsed all efforts to effect a compromise, and with the solid phalanx of "regulars" around him, "fiercely fighting fell."
HENRY PARTRIDGE STRONG.
From 1853 to 1883 one of the most influential and potent per- sonalities of Beloit was Dr. Henry Partridge Strong. Born in Brownington, Vermont, February 8, 1832, he came to Beloit in July, 1853, his parents, Elijah G. and Sarah P. Strong. and the other members of their family having preceded him in 1851. He was the oldest of three sons, all of whom attained high rank in their chosen professions -- Henry P., President of the State Medi- cal Association; James W., President of Northfield (Minnesota) College; and William B., President of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway system. Dr. Strong graduated from the Castle- ton, Vermont, Medical College with honors. Beginning the practice of medicine in Beloit in 1853. his high attainments and positive, outspoken convictions soon placed him in the front rank with those who create and moved public opinion and give direction and energy to public progress. As the years passed. he was recognized as the head of the medical profession in his city, and as a leader in municipal, educational and political affairs. An ardent Republican in politics, and with his veins running full of the patriotic blood of his sires of the Green Mountain State. he entered the military service of the country in 1861 as the surgeon of the Eleventh Wisconsin Infantry, in which he continued until. broken in health, he was forced to retire in 1863, at which time he was Surgeon-in-Chief of the Fourteenth Division. of the Thir.
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teenth Army Corps. As soon as his health permitted, he resumed the practice of his profession, and from that time until his death his interest in public affairs knew no abatement. He was called upon to fill many local offices. He was five times elected Mayor of Beloit; he was a member of the School Board for many years; he filled honorable appointive State positions, and in 1870 was appointed Postmaster, which office he held con- tinuously until his death, June 20, 1883, at the age of 51 years. Dr. Strong was a man who made friends and kept them. Gen- ial, generous, sympathetic, high-spirited and frank to brusque- ness, his friendship was prized by all who secured it. Hating hyprocrisy, shams and deceitfulness with an intense hatred, he was at no pains to conceal it, and while making some robust enemies he found his compensation in the unfaltering loyalty of his wide circle of friends. In IS57 Dr. Strong married Sarah, daughter of Rev. Dexter Clary, of Beloit. Seven sons and two daughters were born to him, of whom but one, a son, survived him.
ROMANZO BUNN.
Judge Romanzo Bunn's public career in Wisconsin began in the fall of 1856, when he was residing at Galesville. Trempealean county, and was elected to the office of District Attorney, the salary of which at that time was about one hundred dollars a year. He held the office four or five years, during which time its emoluments increased threefold. In the fall of 1859 the Republicans elected him to the State Assembly. In the spring of 186S, having meanwhile removed to Sparta, he was elected Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin, comprising the counties of La Crosse, Vernon, Monroe, Trempealeau, Buffalo, Jackson and Clark. At the end of his first term of six years he was reelected without opposition, upon a call signed by every lawyer in his Circuit. In 1877, J. C. Hopkins, United States District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin, died in office, and the United States Senators, together with the entire bar of the District, recommended Judge Bunn to the President as one eminently fitted to fill the vacancy. President Hayes
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made the appointment. Judge Bunn's commission as District Judge bearing date of October 30. 1877, and he has held the high ' office ever since. In 1872 Judge Bunn was a Presidential elec- tor, casting his vote for Gen. Grant. For seven years he was a lecturer in the Law school of the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, and for two years a lecturer in the law school of the Northwestern University, at Chicago. Judge Bunn was born at Hartwick, Otsego county, New York, September 24, 182. His father, Peter Bunn, was a farmer, of Dutchi descent. His mother was of English and Scotch blood. Her ancestors came over in the Mayflower. In 1832 the family removed to Cattar- augus county, New York, settling upon a heavily timbered tract of a hundred acres in the town of Mansfield, where the boy resided until he was 16 years of age. Then he went to school at Springville Academy, working his way by chopping wood, harvesting, clearing land, and performing other hard manual labor, as his parents were very poor. By persistent manual toil, : and by teaching, when he could procure employment at that, he earned enough not only to carry him through the Academy, but . also to support himself while he was studying law. In the spring of 1849 he went to Oberlin College, where he stayed part of one term, returning to New York State to teach school during the winter. In the fall of 1853 he was admitted to the bar at Angelica, Alleghany county. He went into partnership with William H. Wood at Ellicottville, remaining for one year. In August, 1854, he married Miss Sarah Purdy, a school teacher, and in September removed to Sparta, Wisconsin, settling in Trempealeau in February, 1855, for the purpose of entering a claim upon some land. That winter was spent by the bride in teaching school, and by the groom in chopping and banking wood upon the Mississippi river. In May of that year was born his eldest son, Charles W. Bunn, who now resides in St. Paul, and is general counsel for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Dur- ing the following fall and winter he resided on Beaver Creek, in a house which, with one man's assistance. he built in a day. In the spring of 1856 he sold his claim for $400 and removed to Galesville, operating a small farm and attending to such minor
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legal matters as came up in an unsettled country. There, soon after, began his public career, set forth above. Besides the son already referred to. Judge Bunn has four other children, two sons and two daughters. The sons are George L. Bunn, born at Sparta in 1865. who is a lawyer, residing at St. Paul, and who since December, 1896, has been one of the District Judges in that city, and John M. Bunn, who lives at Spokane, Washington, and is one of the attorneys for the Northern Pacific railroad at that piace.
JOSEPH V. QUARLES.
Joseph V. Quarles was born at Southport, now Kenosha, Wisconsin, December 16, 1843. ' He passed through the public schools and was graduated from the High school of his native city at the age of seventeen, after which he spent two years in teaching and other work, to procure the money necessary for his expenses at college. In 1862 he entered the University of Michi- gan as a freshman, but soon left his books; and took part in the : war for the preservation of the Union, being mustered into serv- ice as first lieutenant of Company C, Thirty-uinth Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. When he returned from the war he went back to the University, and was graduated with the class of 1866, receiving the degree of A. B. For a year thereafter he studied in the Law department of that institution, and then his funds becoming exhausted, returned to Kenosha, where he entered the office of O. S. Head, with whom, on being admitted to the bar in 1868. he formed a. partnership. the firm name being Head & Quarles. 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. In 1876 he was elected Mayor of Kenosha. In 1877 and 1878 he was President of the Kenosha School Board; in 1879 a member of the Legislative Assembly of the State, and in ISSo and ISSI the . representative of Kenosha and Walworth counties in the State Senate, taking a leading part in legislation and making upon his fellow-members so favorable an impression that in the contest over the succession to the United States Senatorship, he received
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several votes for that high office. Removing to Racine, he entered into a law partnership with John B. Winslow, which continued until that gentleman was elected Judge of the First Judicial Cir- cuit. Afterward Mr. Quarles had for partners. successively, T. W. Spence and Joseph R. Dyer. Subsequently the firm became Quarles, Spence & Quarles, the junior member being a younger brother, and in 18SS it removed to Milwaukee, where it soon took a leading place and commanded a large and diversified busi- ness. Despite the pressure of his professional duties, Mr. Quarles has always liberally responded during important cam- paigns to requests for services on the stump in behalf of the principles and candidates of the Republican party. As an orator he has few equals in the country at the present time. His bril- liant talents, his high character, his engaging address and his distinguished services to the party, made him the choice of a large number of Republicans in all parts of the State for the seat in the United States Senate which was to become vacant at the expiration of the term of John L. Mitchell. . The Republicans had an overwhelming majority in the Legislature, a condition of things which developed strong competition for the honor. But from the start the voters for Mr. Quarles in the Republican Legis- lative caucus were in a large plurality, and they refused to be stampeded. When after protracted balloting it became evident that the Quarles column could not be broken, and that it was time for the supporters of the other candidates to vote for their second choice, the fact developed that he was second choice of all who had not been with him from the beginning. His election was received with great popular approval.
A. J. SCHMITZ.
Adolph J. Schnitz was born in Manitowoc county, Wisconsin. June 4, 1852, and received his common school education at a country district school in his native county. Entering the Uni- versity of Wisconsin in 1871, he continued there as a student until 1875, when he was graduated from the Law department. In the latter year he entered upon the practice of law at Mani-
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towoc, continuing there, in the practice of his profession, until 1896, the last fifteen years of the time as the partner of the Hon. Michael Kirwan, now the Circuit Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin. In 1896 Mr. Schmitz became a resident of Milwaukee and a partner in the law firm of O'Connor, Hammel & Schmitz, of which he is now a member. Mr. Schmitz has always been a Democrat, and ever since reaching his majority has taken an active part in politics. He is a graceful, logical and effective orator, and has delivered speeches in every campaign since the fall of 18;6. In 1876 he was elected District Attorney of Manitowoc county, an office which he held for ten years, though not consecutively. He has been a member of almost every Democratic State Convention since 1878, and in 1892 rep- resented his Congressional District in the Democratic National Convention, held at Chicago. The Democratic State Conven- tion of 1894 nominated him as the candidate of the party for the office of Lieutenant Governor, against his wishes expressed on the floor of the Convention hall. In 1896 Mr. Schmitz heartily supported the platform of his party adopted at Chicago, and the Presidential candidate nominated on that platform-William Jen- nings Bryan. As in previous campaigns, he delivered many speeches for his party, in various parts of the State. Mr. Schmitz is now the President of the Milwaukee County Bryan Club. He has been chairman of the Manitowoc County Campaign Commit- ree during several campaigns, and has also been a member of the Democratic State Central Committee.
EDGAR G. MILLS.
Edgar G. Mills, who represents the Eleventh District in the State Senate, is a self-made man. His father, John Mills, was of Welsh and English descent and came to this country alone when but eight years of age, and was by trade a chairmaker. He located at Horicon and Auroraville, in this State, the latter place being the birthplace of his son Edgar. John Millls was killed in the Indian massacre of New U'Im. Minnesota, when the subject of this sketch was scarcely three years old. Mr. Mills' mother
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was of Scotch and German ancestry. the Scotch largely predomi- nating. She was a hard-working Christian woman. Three years after the death of her first husband she married John J. Wood of Berlin. Wis, with whom she lived until her death in 1895. Mr. Wood was an intelligent and high-minded man, a millwright by trade, and had much to do with the development of his stepson. The education of Mr. Mills was obtained under difficulties, such as portray the individuality early in life. He left the Berlin High School to engage in bookkeeping and as clerk in one of the large retail grocery stores of his home city. It was always his ambition to become a lawyer, and the same difficulties that were surmounted in securing his common school education were overcome again in acquiring his legal education: The great diversity of occupa- tion followed by Mr. Mills, when young, is accounted for by the fact that whenever a sufficient sum of money had been accumu- lated for subsistence during a short period of study, he would return to his law books. During his study of the law, he at. intervals worked on the farm and in the grocery store, taught . school, clerked on a steamboat plying between Berlin and Osh- kosh, and read law between ports, traveled as salesman for a large milling concern of Berlin, and assisted in editing and reporting on the Berlin Daily and Weekly Journal, and on the side con- structed telephone lines running into Berlin, after which he com- pleted his study of the law and removed to St. Cloud. Minnesota, where in 1886 he was admitted to the bar. and immediately entered into practice and enjoyed a very successful career of five years, when he removed to his native State and located at the enterprising city of West Superior, where he now resides and practices law. Mr. Mills was married in 1889 to Miss Sarah W. Chadbourne, daughter of ex-Assemblyinan C. H. Chadbourne. of Pimceton, Minnesota. They have two sons. Mrs. Mills is a talented and pleasant woman, and a hard worker in church and charitable matters. Mr. Mills' political career began long before he was of age. He with other young men placed a ticket in the field at Berlin when none of them could vote, and later on carried a part of it through. His first real active personal work in politics was in 1886 at St. Cloud. Minnesota, when he ran for District
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Attorney on the Republican ticket. The county had a normal Democratic majority of 3.ico out of a total vote of 7.000. yet so active and energetic was the campaign put up by Mr. Mills that he lacked only 350 votes of being elected. He was delegate to the Minnesota State Convention in 1890 for Knute Nelson for Governor. He soon took front rank in politics after locating at Superior, and was elected delegate to Republican State and Con- gressional Conventions in 1892, 1804 and 1896, and seconded the nomination .of Nils P'. Haugen for Congress in 1892 and R. M. La Follette for Governor in 1896. In 1892, after a resi- dence in the county of only about a year and a half, he was elected by a handsome majority to the Assembly from Douglas county, running against the fusion nominee of the Democratic and People's party. He took an active part in legislation in 1893 and served on the Judiciary and Railroad Committees. He was largely instrumental in forcing the Democrats to pass the present .Rail- road Co-Employe Law. His position has always been against the monopolies and trusts and large corporations which maintain strong lobbies at Madison. In 1894 the delegation from Douglas county to the Congressional Convention was instructed for E. G. Mills for Congress, and then followed one of the hottest cam- paigns ever witnessed in the Tenth Congressional District. In 1896 Mr. Mills campaigned throughout the Tenth Congressional District during the MeKinley campaign for the Republican ticket. In 1808 he was nominated by the Republicans for the State Senate for the district composed of Burnett. Douglas and Polk counties. and was elected. receiving 5,332 votes, against 639 for his Demo- cratic opponent. He was chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations, and a member of the Committees on Town and County Organization and Judiciary in the Senate in 1899. He voted for and aided in the passage of such bills as those compelling the recognition of labor unions, regulating the payment of wages by time-checks, largely increasing taxes of life insurance companies, establishing the Interstate Park in Polk county, providing for the. State survey of the Northern Wisconsin copper country, and various other measures directly in the interest of the common .
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