USA > Wisconsin > A political history of Wisconsin > Part 39
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people. His bill to increase the taxes of all railroad companies
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in the State was the only one on the subject introduced at that session of the Legislature and had much to do with the establish- ing of the Tax Commission to which that subject was referred.
HENRY FINK.
Henry Fink was born in Rhenish Bavaria, September 7, 1840, and came to Wisconsin with his parents when he was twelve years of age. Reaching manhood when the county was aflame with the Civil War, his ardent sympathy with th : Federal cause induced him to enter the army, and he served with the Twenty-sixth Wis- consin Volunteer Infantry until disabled at the battle of Chan- cellorsville by a wound the marks of which he bears to-day. From 1870 to 1874 he was a member of the Milwaukee Board of Super- visors. He was twice elected to the State Legislature, serving as a member of the Assembly in 1876 and 1877. In March of the latter year President Hayes appointed him United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, in which office he rendered efficient service for eight years, being reappointed by President Garfield. On the Ist of July, 18Sy. under appointment by Presi- dent Harrison. he entered upon the duties of Collector of Internal Revenue, holding the office until the close of Harrison's adminis- tration, and making a record which, on the return of the Repub- lican party to power. induced President MeKinley to reappoint him. His present term as Collector of Internal Revenue began on the Ist of August. 1897. Mr. Fink is a logical, eloquent and effective speaker. A master of two languages, the German and the English. he has been of great service to the Republican party on the stump in many campaigns. He belongs to the class of orators-not a large one, by any means-who can be sent into doubtful districts with implicit reliance upon their good temper. their knowledge and their discretion. In Indiana. in Kansas, in Nebraska, and in other States, as well as in Wisconsin, Mr. Fink has performed missionary labors in hot and close campaigns. He possesses a broad knowledge of the principles of economics and the facts of history. Sound money and the Republican protective tariff have had in him an earnest champion. Not lacking in
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enthusiasm, he is always clear and practical. addressing himself not to men's prejudices, but to their reason. Since Mr. Fink came to tins State. in 1852, he has lived in Milwaukee county uninterruptediy, except during his service in the army.
HENRY C. PAYNE.
The history of Wisconsin politics will be vainly searched for a more dashing, brilliant, magnetic, resourceful leader than Henry C. Payne. He was born, at Ashfield, Franklin county. Massa- chusetts. November 23. 1843. the son of Orrin P. and Eliza (Ames) Payne, both of his parents being members of families of English descent which had flourished in New England since a short time after the landing of the colony of the Mayflower. He attended the common schools, and was graduated from Shelburne Falls Academy in 1859. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in Company H. Tenth Regiment. Masschusetts Infantry, but his youthfulness and somewhat diminutive . stature thwarted his ambition to become a soldier. Coming to Milwaukee in 1863, with fifty dollars in his pocket, he found employment as a clerk in a dry goods store, rising rapidly by reason of his efficiency to a confidential position, and within five years embarking on his own account. Later he conducted an insurance agency. He was in these years an active member of the Young Men's Library Associa- tion, and was elected its President. an hono: which was as Carlyle would say "significant of much," for the Young Men's Association was at that time one of the leading social and intellectual institu- tions of the West. The large and valuable collection of books which it possessed has since become the nucleus of the Milwau- kec Public Library. It was in the campaign of 1872 that Mr. Payne first became conspicuous in politics, as the organizer of the Young Men's Republican Club of Milwaukee, which subsequently developed into the existing Republican County Committee. Mil- waukee was at that time overwhelmingly Democratic, but the. systematic work instituted by Mr. Payne eventually brought it . into the Republican fold and kept it there for many years. He served at different times as Secretary and Chairman of the city
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and county organizations, exhibiting ability and energy which were recognized and admired throughout the State and led to his election to the chairmanship of the Republican State Central Com- mittee and later to his designation by the Republicans of Wiscon- sin as their representative in the National Committee of the party, In that capacity he has been a leading spirit not only in the plan- ning and management of national campaigns, but also in the determination of party policies and the construction of the national platforms. In ISSo he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago and was one of the men to whose initiative was due the nomination of Gen. James A. Garfield. In ISSS he was a delegate-at-large to the National Republican Convention which nominated Gen. Benjamin Harrison. In 1892 he headed the Wisconsin delegation to the National Convention of the party at Minneapolis, and in 1896, at St. Louis, his influence as a member of the National Committee was strongly exerted in behalf of the plank in the platform of that year which squarely committed the party to the maintenance of the gold standard. He is still a mem- ber of the National Committee, and is recognized throughout the country as one of the most influential and active of that group of able men. In 1876 President Grant appointed Mr. Payne Post- master at Milwaukee. He was reappointed successively by Presi- dents Hayes and Arthur, serving for ten years, and making a ree- ord which has rarely been equaled and never surpassed. On his retirement from the postoffice, in 1886. he became interested in large business enterprises in which his talent for organization and management was rewardled by conspicuous success. Since 1885 he has been President of the Wisconsin Telephone Company He was for several years President of the Milwaukee & North- ern Railroad Company. He is one of the directors of the First National Bank of Milwaukee, and has for years held the important position of Vice President of the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company, which owns and operates the street railway system of Milwaukee, with branches extending to several suburban cities. The American Street Railway Association elected him as its President in 1803. In August of that year. . when the affairs of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company neces-
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sitated the placing of its affairs in the hands of receivers, Mr. Payne was appointed by the United States Courts one of the con- servators of this vast interest, amounting in value to hundreds of millions of dollars-one of the most important trusts ever com- mitted in whole or in part to a citizen of Wisconsin. These are not all of the great financial interests in the conduct of which Mr. Payne has borne an important part. He has been concerned in the founding and building up of flourishing towns in the timber belt of Wisconsin:, and in other enterprises which have contributed to the development and the material prosperity of the State. In 1876 Mr. Payne was married to Miss Lydia W. Van Dyke, a descendant of one of the colonial families of New York.
CHARLES M. HAMBRIGHT.
Charles M. Hambright was born in Racine County, July 7, 1845, and received his education in the public schools. When four years of age he moved, with his parents, to Oak Grove, Dodge County, where he spent his time on a farm in summer and at school in winter. On the last call for volunteers by President Lincoln in the winter of 1864-5. he enlisted in the Fifty-third Regi- ment Wisconsin Volunteers, and was mustered out at the close of the war. On his return from military service, he went into the office of the Beaver Dam Woolen Mills and from there, in April, 1867, to the Racine Woolen Mills .- Blake & Co .:- as bookkeeper, and has been with the company ever since, except in the years 1871 and 1872, when failing health compelled him to take a recess from sedentary employment, and he went to Beaver Dam and settled up the estate of Mr. Ingraham Gould, his father-in-law, who died July 16, 1871. When in Beaver Dam he served as Alderman for two years. In one of these years he was also a member of the County Board of Dodge County. He was elected to the State Assembly from the City of Racine in 1894, receiving 2.119 votes against 1,185 for Peter Galloway, Democrat. 1,288 for Andrew Hanson, Populist, and 113 for J. B. Corse, Prohibitionist. Mr. Hambright was a candidate for the nomination for State Treasurer on the Republican ticket in 1898. He was treasurer of the Republican
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County Committee during the Harrison campaign, and chairman of the Republican City Committee in 1896. In 1897 he was Ser- geant-at-Arms of the State Assembly. He is a stockholder, a director and the secretary of the Racine Woolen Mills, and presi- dent of the Hambright-Graebner Company, doing a merchant tailoring business at Racine. He is also a director in the Racine Business Men's Association of which he was one of the founders.
CHARLES H. PARKER.
Among the prominent business men of Wisconsin who have taken a leading part in politics, not because they were eager for the honors or emoluments of office, but because they believed active participation in public affairs to be a duty incumbent upon good citizenship, was Charles H. Parker, of Beloit. Born at Newton Corners, Mass., November 16, 1814, he removed to Dedham, in the same State, when 10 years old, and to Canton when 16. His education was acquired in the common schools. In 1837, he removed to Concord, New Hampshire, and eleven years later. in 1848, being then in the thirty-fifth year of his age. he came West. settling first at Belvidere, Illinois, and in the following year remov- "ing to Beloit, Wisconsin, where he remained till his death, March 14, 1890. He was the senior member of the firm of Parker & Stone, afterward the Parker & Stone Reaper Company, of which he was President. It was in their shop and under their supervision that the Appleby Twine-binder was invented and brought to the front. the firm of Parker & Stone owning a one-third interest in the patents. On the Ist of July. 1882. Mr. Parker established the Sec- ond National Bank of Beloit, and was elected its President, which position he held until his death. Mr. Parker was for nearly twenty- five years a member of the City Council of Beloit, his service in that body beginning in 1857. and was four times Mayor of the city -the first time in 1861. He was repeatedly a member of the County Board of Supervisors. In 1868 and again in 1869 he represented the Republicans of his district in the State Assembly. Naturally a Republican, he was among the members of his party who differed from it on the financial question in the period immediately preced-
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ing. and following the Resumption of Specie Payments. In 1877 he accepted the nomination of the Greenbackers, and was elected to the State Assembly on that ticket. In I879 he was the candidate on the Greenback-Fusion ticket for member of Congress, running against Charles G. Williams, who was elected. One who knew him well has summed up his character in the following words: "Mr. Parker took a deep interest in public affairs, municipal, State and National. He was a forceful speaker, and in a high degree had the courage of his convictions. Republican in politics, he did much to advance the cause of Republicanism in his city and county. Honest in all his dealings. he had the confidence of his fellow citizens. Generous and impulsive, he made few enemies and attracted many friends."
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