USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume II > Part 12
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Lakes Michigan and Superior. This steamship is the largest wooden boat ever built at Green Bay, being two hundred and eighty-two feet long and forty-two feet wide and of twenty-two hundred tons displacement. It was built in the East river of Green Bay and, as the river was so narrow, was launched sideways. It was such an event in the history of the town that it became a gala day, schools being dismissed and whistles blown every- where. For many years Captain Thrall commanded his own boats but does not sail at the present time, giving his supervision now to his boatbuilding interests at Green Bay, having charge of the entire business of the Thrall Steamship Company, of which he is managing owner. This company builds gasoline launches as well as other vessels. Captain Thrall is one of the best known figures in connection with lake shipping and boat building, for he has long operated here and has formed a wide acquaintance while sailing on the lakes.
Captain Thrall has been married twice. In Milwaukee, in 1869, he mar- ried Anna Barnes, who died in 1890. On the 17th of April, 1907, he was married. in De Pere, to Miss Emma Bickford, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Bickford, old residents of De Pere. His home is at No. 1108 South Monroe street, which residence he erected.
He votes with the republican party and is a loyal member of the Ma- sonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree, holding firmly to the principles of the craft, and recognizing the fact that close adherence thereto promotes honorable manhood, good citizenship and kindly consideration of others.
STANLEY MILZARCK.
Stanley Milzarck, living on section 23 in Suamico township, is the pro- prietor of a hotel at Big Suamico and is meeting with successs in its con- duct. His birth occurred in German Poland on the 29th of December, 1879, his parents being Albert and Rosie Milzarck, natives of Germany. The father, who was born in 1849 and worked as a laborer in his native land, emigrated to the United States in 1880, making his way to Chicago. Illinois, where he remained for three years. In 1883 he came to Brown county, Wisconsin, purchasing and locating on a tract of land in Suamico township. At the present time he owns three hundred and twenty acres, one hundred of which are under cultivation, the remainder being covered with brush and second growth timber. Both he and his wife still reside in Suamico township and are well known and highly esteemed throughout the community in which they have made their home for about three decades. Mrs. Rosie Milzarck is now sixty years of age, her birth having occurred in 1852. She is the mother of twelve children, as follows: John. Stella, Stanley, George, Leo, Joseph, Eva, Mary, Adam, Carrie, Walter and Frank.
Stanley Milzarck attended school in Suamico township until a youth of fourteen and subsequently worked for his father until twenty-two years of age. During the following five years he was in the service of the rail-
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road company and afterward spent three years in concrete work. In 1908. he purchased a farm of eighty acres in Suamico township and turned his attention to general agricultural pursuits. In 1912 he opened a hotel at Big Suamico and is now conducting the same with gratifying success, neglect- ing nothing that can add to the comfort of his guests and keeping his hostelry both attractive and up-to-date.
On the 16th of June, 1908, at Flintville, this county, Mr. Milzarck was united in marriage to Miss Annie Muraski, a daughter of Anton and Mary (Carpinski ) Muraski. Her father is a farmer of Suamico township. Our subject and his wife have two children, Mary and Francis. In politics Mr. Milzarck is a republican and in religious faith a Catholic. Coming to Brown county when a little lad of four years, he has here remained to the present time and now enjoys a reputation as a young man of enterprise and ability.
JOHN SHEPECK.
Working as a farm hand at the very early age of nine years and thus mak- ing a start in the business world, John Shepeck is now numbered among the- prosperous citizens of Green Bay, where he is conducting a real-estate, loan and insurance agency. He started in this line on the 3d of March, 1893, and his enterprising methods have brought to him a large clientage, his business being directed from well appointed offices at 207 Sheridan building.
Mr. Shepeck came to Green Bay, March 4. 1869, then a youth of fifteen years, his birth having occurred in Bohemia, Austria, May 7. 1854. His parents were John and Anna Shepeck, who came with their family to the new world in 1862, landing in Baltimore, after having been on a sailing vessel for twelve weeks and two days. From the Atlantic coast they made their way into the interior of the country, settling first in the midst of the forest in Manitowoc county. The father remained in the woods until 1868. Hav- ing a good knowledge of the cooperage business he obtained employment at the Scheibe brewery in Centerville, where he remained until 1872, when he came to Green Bay and entered the employ of the Rahr Brewing Company, with which he continued until his death in 1908 when he was seventy-seven years of age. He had long survived his wife, who passed away in 1890. and both were laid to rest in Menominee, Michigan.
John Shepeck never had opportunity to attend school and is therefore a. self-educated as well as a self-made man. In the school of experience, how- ever, he has learned many valuable lessons and has become a practical busi- ness man whose laudable ambition and determined purpose have brought him to success. In 1862, when about nine years of age, he hired out to a Ger- man farmer and while living with him learned to read and write the German language. He spent three years in that way and at the end of that time went to Centerville and secured employment in a tannery, remaining there until February. 1869. He then came to Green Bay-a boy of fifteen years-yet he had already had six years' experience in the business world. He arrived.
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with only thirty-eight cents in his pocket, and his financial condition rend- ered immediate employment a necessity. He started to saw wood and do chores at the United States hotel for his board and lodging, being thus em- ployed for about six weeks. In the meantime he was watching for an oppor- tunity that would enable him to earn a salary and entered the employ of Bur- cell Brothers, who put him to work at sawing shingles. He had been in that situation for only a few days, however, when the boiler at the plant burst and several men were killed. He then returned to the hotel for a week, after which he secured employment from Mr. Lemont in a sawmill in Oconto county, where he continued until 1871. He next was employed by Cook & Foster in a shingle mill and was there employed until September, 1872, when he went to Pensaukee, Wisconsin, where he worked in a shingle mill until 1873. He then returned to Green Bay and for four months was in the employ of the D. W. Britton Cooperage Company. The succeeding season was spent as a sailor on the steamer Northwest, after which he secured a position in the Henry Rahr's brewery, remaining there until the spring of 1874, when he began work for the Green Bay Hyde Leather Company. He withdrew from that connection in October, 1875, and then went to Sheboygan. work- ing in the tannery of Sechke & Son, who were also manufacturers of harness leather. Mr. Shepeck finished the first side of harness leather that was turned out of the establishment, remaining there until 1877. He was then offered a position as superintendent for the Green Bay Hyde Leather Com- pany and acted in that capacity until 1883.
In that year he was appointed city police officer under Hon. Mayor Abrams and remained on the force until 1886. He then resigned and pur- chased the Bohemian House, conducting that hotel until 1893. In that year he was appointed revenue stamp collector and filled the office until 1898 but in the interim embarked in the fire insurance business. He today repre- sents fifteen fire insurance companies and is one of the most prominent in this line of activity in Brown county. He is today one of the directors of the United American Fire Insurance Company of Milwaukee, which has issued its thirteenth annual statement showing the company to be in splendid con- dition. He was the organizer of this company and was its first president. He also handles loans and real estate, has negotiated many important realty transfers and has succeeded in placing many large loans. He now has an extensive clientage, and what he has accomplished has placed him with the successful business men of Green Bay. Into other fields he has also ex- tended his efforts and is now vice president of the Green Bay Canning Com- pany. He is a director and was one of the incorporators of the MeGreery Steel Company of Iron River, Michigan, which was incorporated October 2, 1912. for five hundred thousand dollars. It controls a large area of rich iron ore and its business is the mining and shipping of said ore.
On the 19th of November, 1875, Mr. Shepeck was married to Miss Emma First, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry First, pioneer settlers of Green Bay. Both her father and mother, however, are now deceased, their graves having been made in Woodlawn cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Shepeck have four children: Edward, who is connected with the Joannes Grocery Company ; Annie, the wife of Charles Kuska, connected with the Joannes Grocery Com-
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pany ; Minnie, the widow of Henry Hoberg ; and Hattie, residing at home. The family resides at 1510 Elm street, in the home which Mr. Shepeck erected in 1876.
In politics Mr. Shepeck has always been a stalwart democrat and he filled the office of alderman for eleven years, during which time he exercised his official prerogatives, in support of many progressive public movements which have been directly beneficial to the city. He belongs to the Equitable, the Green Bay Brewers Benevolent Society and for twenty-five years has been a member of the Green Bay Turn Verein. He has justly won the proud American title of a self-made man in this country where labor is king. In his vocabulary there is no such word as fail. He recognized at the outset that the way to success was a hard and difficult one and a steady climb upward but his resolute spirit has enabled him to persevere and he stands today among those who have prospered by reason of their determination and unfaltering energy.
HIRAM O. FAIRCHILD.
The city of Green Bay has been remarkable for a number of years for the professional eminence of the members of its bar. The lawyers of this city have attained a reputation in past generations for legal ability and attainments of high order and this preeminence they have handed down in honorable tradition to the lawyers of the present time.
Hiram O. Fairchild, who is doing a general law practice as a member of the firm of Greene, Fairchild, North, Parker & McGillan, with offices at No. 301 North Washington street, has done his share to keep the legal standards of Green Bay up to their high point of excellence and has added luster to the profession. He was born in Newtown, Indiana, August 14, 1845, a son of Rev. John and Laura P. (Bigelow) Fairchild. The family is of Scotch origin. Rev. John Fairchild came to Wisconsin in 1862 and died in this state in 1885, his wife surviving him until 1896. They are both buried at Marinette, Wisconsin. An ancestor of the subject of this sketch, on the maternal side, named De Bigulo, came to this country in the seven- teenth century. The name underwent transformation in the succeeding years until it reached its present form.
Hiram O. Fairchild received his early education in the primary and high schools of Wabash, Indiana. He later attended Wabash College, at Craw- fordsville, in that state, graduating from the classical course of that institu- tion in 1866. He spent one year in the west at Fort Kearney, Nebraska. going to Oconto, Wisconsin, in 1867, where he studied law with his brother John B. Fairchild and was admitted to the bar in 1870. He located first in Marinette, Wisconsin, where he engaged in the general practice of the law until 1895, when he came to this city and was made a partner in the firm of Greene, Vroman & Fairchild, which later became Greene, Fairchild, North, Parker & McGillan, with which he is at present connected. Poli- tically he is a republican and takes an active and intelligent interest in public affairs. He served for fourteen years as district attorney for Marinette
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county, Wisconsin, and was speaker of the state assembly in 1885. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias.
On November 21, 1871, Mr. Fairchild was united in marriage at Craw- fordsville, Indiana, to Miss Emma Hough, a daughter of George and Caro- line Hough, of that city, and they are the parents of four children: Caro- line H., who married Herbert L. Kimbel, a prominent attorney of Spokane. Washington : Bertha W., the wife of Douglas S. Basile, of Vancouver, Brit- ish Columbia; Arthur W., who is a member of the law firm of Miller, Mack & Fairchild, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin ; and Herbert B., who is con- nected with Frank A. Munsey Publishing Company, of Chicago. Illi- nois. The family residence is at No. 845 South Quincy street, this city. Mr. Fairchild is one of the most industrious students of the law. He never feels that he has attained perfect proficiency in the varied learning of his profession and spends much time in keeping his knowledge up-to-date. He respects the legal profession and the position he has acquired in it as a sacred trust not to be lightly recorded or unworthily used.
CHRIST ANDERSON.
Christ Anderson is carrying on general farming on an excellent tract of land of eighty acres in New Denmark and has one of the finest and most intelligently developed farms in the section. He was born in Denmark in 1857 and is a son of Anders and Sophia Nelson. He was married in his native country and afterward came to America, settling in Brown county upon his present farm. His first purchase consisted of forty acres to which several years later he added a tract of similar size. It was covered with a heavy growth of timber which Mr. Anderson cleared, felling the trees and grubbing the stumps. He erected barns and other out- buildings upon his property and now has one of the fine farms in the section, doing the entire labor incident to its operation.
In Denmark Mr. Anderson was united in marriage to Miss Bodel Jen- sen Doth, and they became the parents of six children, Peter, Anna, Botto, Louis, Johanna and Emma. The family are members of the Danish Luthe- ran church.
Mr. Anderson is recognized as one of the enterprising, progressive and substantial farmers of New Denmark. In transforming a tract of untouched timber land into an excellent modern farm he has accomplished a definite work and has gained prosperity, founded on hard work and efficiency.
FRANK B. SEYMOUR.
The career of Frank B. Seymour is a conspicuous example of the power of dominating ambition in the making of a successful business life. This quality of Mr. Seymour's character showed itself in early youth when, as a boy of fifteen, he obtained employment as water carrier for a railroad Vol. II-7
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construction gang ; it remained with him as he rose in importance in the railroad world and is his most valuable asset in his present position as general manager of the Green Bay & Western Railroad Company, in which capacity he has served since January 1, 19II.
Mr. Seymour was born in Watertown, Jefferson county, New York, October 5, 1856, and is a son of Gilbert and Mary Seymour. His father, who was a carpenter, plied his trade in Watertown until he came west in 1864. In that year he enlisted in Company A, Forty-second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and fought during the remainder of the Civil war under Captain Duncan McGregor. He received his honorable discharge in 1865. He died in 1893 at the age of sixty-five years and was survived by his wife until 1903. Her death occurred in the seventy-sixth year of her age, and she is buried beside her husband in New London, Wisconsin.
Frank Seymour received his primary education in the public schools of New London, whither his family had removed during the Civil war. and he was graduated from the High school of that city in 1870. In the spring of the following year, when not yet fifteen, he obtained a position as water carrier for a railroad construction gang on the grade work of the Old Green Bay & Lake Pepin Railroad, now Green Bay & Western. He did not remain long in this minor position as his ability and industry were soon recognized and he rose through various positions until in 1887 when he was appointed assistant superintendent of the Green Bay & Western Rail- road Company, and one year later was promoted to the position of gen- eral superintendent with offices at Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1908 Mr. Jordan, the general manager of the road, became ill and the real duties of that position fell upon Mr. Seymour, while Mr. Jordan still filled the posi- tion. However, our subject's conspicuous service and his thorough grasp of every detail of the business were rewarded by his appointment as suc- cessor to Mr. Jordan, becoming general manager of the road on the Ist of January, 1911. For forty-two years he has now been identified with the railroad business and during all that time has been connected with what is now the Green Bay & Western Railroad. He has been with the railroad through all of its struggles and troubles and has served in almost every position from the lowest to that of general manager, which he now fills. When less than eighteen years of age he was made a conductor, being the youngest in the history of Wisconsin, and he was a conductor in charge of a regular passenger train before he was twenty. Always temperate in his habits and never becoming excited during any emergency or danger, he early evinced those qualities of leadership which were recognized by his superior officers and led to his steady advancement. When asked to what particular thing he attributed his success more than to any other, he re- plied : "Hard work and always trying to do a little more than was expected of me. A man cannot fail when he does that." Besides his position with the Green Bay & Western Railroad Company he is also general manager of the Ahnapee & Western and the Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western Rail- road Company.
On August 21. 1882, Mr. Seymour was united in marriage at La Crosse, to Miss Cordell Vincent, a daughter of James and Eliza Vincent, the
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former a prominent lumber merchant of that city and one of its early set- tlers. Mr. Seymour and his wife have one daughter, Ida, who is now the wife of Joseph MI. Zahorik, manager and bookkeeper for the Gazette Candy Company of Green Bay. Mr. and Mrs. Seymour reside in a pleasant and comfortable home at 333 South Jefferson street, this city.
Politically Mr. Seymour gives his allegiance to the republican party but has never taken an active part in public affairs. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and belongs to the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a Knight Templar and was a charter member of La Crosse lodge, and he also belongs to the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Seymour is at present only fifty-six years of age and has gained in a comparatively short time a de- gree of prominence which is usually the result of a much longer period. He understands the railroad business in all its various departments and has gained his knowledge through personal experience and has developed it along material and progressive lines until today he is one of the most promi- nent railroad men in the city of Green Bay.
WILLIAM VANDENBERG.
Among the men who have contributed to the business enterprise and consequent growth and prosperity of De Pere, William Vandenberg is numbered. He was for many years an active factor in industrial and con- mercial circles here and his success as a grocer enabled him eventually to retire from active life, his acquired possessions being sufficient to supply him throughout his remaining days with all of the necessities and comforts of life. He was born March 6, 1844, in Holland. His father, Lawrence Vandenberg, was a native of the same country, born in 1796. He mar- ried Johanna De Wert, whose birth occurred in the land of the dikes in 1801. The paternal grandfather was William Vandenberg, a farmer by occupation, and thus it was that Lawrence Vandenberg early became familiar with agricultural pursuits. In the year 1853 he came with his wife and fam- ily to the United States, landing in New York city, whence he made his way to Ohio and afterward came to Wisconsin, settling in Green Bay, in 1854. His family subsequently lived at Freedom, Wisconsin, where he died Novem- ber 12, 1867. His wife survived him for a long period, passing away March 25, 1885.
William Vandenberg is the only survivor of a family of twelve children. His educational opportunities were limited, for at the age of twelve years he began providing for his own support by active work on the farm, devot- ing eleven years to agricultural pursuits. On the expiration of that period he came to De Pere and worked in the blast furnace of the Fox River Iron Company. He previously spent a year at Marinette, Michigan, but Brown county proved more attractive to him as a place of residence and he returned to this state. On leaving the Fox River Iron Company he secured a posi- tion in a woodenware factory at De Pere, with which he was connected for three years. During that period he carefully saved his earnings until his industry and economy had brought him sufficient capital to enable him to
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engage in business on his own account. He then opened a grocery store in West De Pere and for nineteen years conducted the business, thus becom- ing one of the oldest merchants of the city. He carried a well selected line of goods and liis earnest desire to please his customers and his reasonable prices brought him a gratifying measure of success. He retired in April, 1906, with a comfortable competence, which was the merited reward of his close application and unfaltering industry.
Mr. Vandenberg was united in marriage to Miss Odelia Van der Linden, who was born in Holland, a daughter of John and Mary Van der Linden. who crossed the Atlantic with the Vandenberg family. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Vandenberg was celebrated in Freedom, Wisconsin, and unto them were born ten children, of whom four yet survive: Lawrence W., a foundry- man of De Pere, who married Delia Ternuzen and has five children ; Mar- tin, a molder of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, who married Catherine Taylor and has two children : Johanna, who is the wife of John Gevers, of De Pere and the mother of two children ; and Dora, at home.
To the Catholic faith the family have always adhered and Mr. Vanden- berg gives his political allegiance to the democratic party. He has held the office of alderman of the fourth ward of De Pere for a term and was county supervisor for three years. He ever discharged his official duties with promptness and fidelity, his public record being creditable to himself and highly satisfactory to his constituents. Throughout the period of his resi- dence here he has been actuated by the progressive American spirit and his business affairs were so conducted as to win for him not only a substantial financial return but also an honored name.
IVER E. P. MILLER.
America is a country of self-made men-men who have started their career at the bottom of the ladder, but by the faithful performance of the tasks which they found to do, by perseverance, industry and intelligently directed efforts, have risen to positions of importance among their fellow- men. Iver Miller, now the sole owner of the Green Bay Foundry & Ma- chine Works, is a man of this class. He is a native of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where his birth occurred on September 11, 1868. His parents were Peter and Maria Miller, both natives of Germany. His father never left his native country where he died when Iver Miller was but six months old. The mother came to America with her son, in 1882, and lived with him for some time in Green Bay where her death occurred in 1910. She is buried in Fox Hill cemetery.
Iver E. P. Miller received his early education in the public schools of Germany. His opportunities were limited, however, and he was obliged to put aside his books at the early age of fourteen years. He then secured employment on a farm near the city where he spent one year doing the vari- ous tasks incident to agricultural life. He spent the next three years as bell boy in the Cook Hotel at Green Bay, and at the end of that period started to learn the mechanical details of his present business. His first position was
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