USA > Wisconsin > Dane County > History of Dane County, Biographical and Genealogical > Part 10
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Hon. Hans Borchsenius, retired, who makes his home at 717 Lang- don street, Madison, was born at Nestved, Island of Seeland, Den- mark, September 19, 1832. His parents, Carl W. and Elizabeth D. (Arneson) Borchsenius, never came to the United States, the father remaining in the mercantile business in Denmark until his death. Hans Borchsenius received his educational training at the academy in Nestved and in 1856 sailed for the New World. After two months in New York, he arrived in July of the same year, at the Badger capi- tal. In his native land he had been in the same business as his father, and after coming here had a hard struggle for a time to maintain himself, the difficulties of a new language and the other trials which a new citizen has to meet being hard to master. He was willing. however, and soon found opportunities to make a livelihood, doing any honorable work that came his way. For several months he drove the mail stage between Madison and Portage. He felt. how- ever, that the best means of accomplishing his object was to learn a trade, so he served an apprenticeship on the Norwegian American, a Democratic publication, and soon afterward was enabled to purchase the controlling interest in it, changing its name to the North Star.
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Through his publication he naturally became interested in politics and in 1858 was the candidate of the Democratic party for county clerk, being defeated by a small majority. Gen. Lucius Fairchild and Justice S. U. Pinney, both of whom later became famous in the annals of this commonwealth, were on the same ticket and were both defcated. In 1861 Mr. Borchsenius entered the army as adju- tant of the Fifteenth Wisconsin Infantry, but owing to severe illness he was compelled to resign before the cessation of hostilities. Be- fore entering the army he changed his allegiance from the Demo- cratic to the Republican party. After he returned from the war Governor Lewis, who was then secretary of state, appointed him to clerkship in his office, from which he was transferred to the state land department where he served for five years. He was then elected county clerk of Dane county and served as such four years. He was then appointed United States gauger and served one year. When Ludington ran for governor Mr. Borchsenius published a campaign paper called "The Wisconsin Banner", which was instru- mental in electing the governor and secretary of state on the Repub- lican ticket. The governor then appointed Mr. Borchsenius tim- ber agent for the state to protect the railroad lands on the Chippewa and Red Cedar rivers. While serving in this capacity he became interested in northern Wisconsin and in 1877 he removed to Bald- win, Wis., to engage in the real estate and loan business. While residing in Baldwin, he was twice elected president of the village. He was also a member of the county board and was elected chair- man of the same. In 1891 President Harrison appointed Mr. Borch- senius chief of the internal revenue division in the treasury depart- ment. Washington, D. C., in which capacity he served until Cleve- land was elected. In 1896 Mr. Borchsenius was elected a member of the legislature from St. Croix county intending that this should be his last political office. At the end of his legislative term Mr. Borchsenius retired from active life and returned to Madison to live, building the home which he now occupies. In religious mat- ters he is identified with the Lutheran church. On November 10, 1859, he married Miss Martha M. Bakke, born in Norway, a daugh- ter of Hans E. Bakke, of Christiana. This union has been blessed with three children-William Carl, of Baldwin; Dora H., widow of Emil Rasmussen, who now makes her home with her father; and George Valdemar, late clerk of the United States court in Alaska. Mrs. Rasmussen has a daughter Edith, who intends to enter the University of Wisconsin in the fall of 1906.
Judge Arthur B. Braley was born at Parry, Wyoming county,
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N. Y., February 11, 1824, the only son of Rufus and Hepzee (Fos- ter) Braley. Rufus Braley was a native of Adams, Mass., and one of the early settlers of western New York; Hepzee Braley was the daughter of Daniel Foster, a soldier in the Revolution, who fought at the battle of Monmouth church; she was a Quaker and lived and died in that faith, her pure life aiding materially in the forma- tion of her son's character. Arthur B. suffered the loss of his father when only fifteen years old, and thrown on his own resources, his opportunities for obtaining an education were very limited. He went to live with a wealthy relative for a short time and while in h's home found an opportunity to indulge his strong fondness for the immortal bard of Avon, a fondness which lasted to the end of his days, and rendered him in after life one of the most scholarly critics of Shakespeare in Madison. In the spring of 1846 he emi- grated to Wisconsin, first settling at Delavan, where he completed his law studies, and in 1848 was admitted to the bar in Madison. He moved to Madison in 1852. In 1856, when Madison was in- corporated as a city, he was elected first police justice, and held that office for three successive terms of two years each. In 1864 he was elected a member of the Madison common council, serving for three years. During the presidential campaign of 1864, he was in editorial charge of the "Wisconsin Daily Patriot," and, on the close of the campaign, returned to the practice of his profession. In the spring of 1868 he was elected city attorney of Madison, and during the presidential campaign of this year again took up edi- torial work as chief political editor of the "Madison Daily Demo- crat." In the spring of 1869 he moved to the village of Waukesha, Wis., where he remained until the fall of 1870. He then returned to Madison, and in the spring of 1872 was re-elected police jus- tice, without opposition. The legislature created the municipal court for the city of Madison and county of Dane in 1873, and Judge Braley was elected, without opposition, its first judge in 1874, for a term of six years. He was re-elected in 1880 and again in 1886. Meanwhile the criminal jurisdiction of the court was much enlarged in 1825 and made concurrent with that of the cir- cuit court in all crimes except that of murder, and it now became a court of record.
Judge Braley was strictly honest in the discharge of his official dut'es, and those who knew him best say that, if he erred. it was from error of judgment as he had the highest regard for the duties of his office. He was a man of fine literary attainments, and his character sketches of the great poet Shakespeare are especially ad-
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mired. Mr. Braley was married February 11, 1855, at Madison, to Miss Philida Stevens; none of their three children survived, and Mrs. Braley died in 1879. In 1880 he was again maried, to Alta E. Jordan, of Allegany county, N. Y., and one son, A. Burton Braley, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, was born to them. Judge Braley died while serving his third term as muni- cipal judge, January 31, 1889.
Prof. Thomas H. Brand, head of the Voice Building and Voice Culture Institute of Madison, was born in New York city, May 16, 1836. He is a son, and only survivor of three children, of Enoch Francis and Catherine (Mahabe) Brand, the former a native of England and the latter of Toulon, France. A' sister, Kittie, (Mrs. J. B. Merrill,) and her four children were burned to death in the Kenosha hotel fire of 1874. Prof. Brand received his preliminary education in New York, and was graduated from the Bacon school in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also attended Lawrence University at Ap- pleton, Wis., and was for a time a student in the University of Wisconsin, having been a classmate of the Hon. W. F. Vilas at the latter institution. Upon the completion of h's studies he went into the office of Dr. Galan Rood of Stevens Point, Wis. For a time he engaged in the practice of medicine, but the work was not pleas- ing and he went into voice building. In 1860 he accepted a posi- tion as instructor in the Northwestern Military college of Fulton, Ill. In this institution he lectured on political economy, general business and taught French for two years and at the same time was associated with the Lyons (Iowa) Female College. For the two years following he was deputy revenue collector for the fifth district of Iowa, having headquarters at Des Moines. In 1867 he came to Madison, his mother and sister having already located here. He immediately opened a conservatory of music, had charge of the music in St. Raphael's, the Congregational and the Baptist churches. He was also at the head of the music department of the city schools and had special classes in the University of Wisconsin. Some time later Prof. Brand was asked to take charge of the gen- eral outside business of the Redpath Lyceum bureau, and for twenty-three years he served in this capacity, severing his con- nection with the company in 1900. This work took him to prac- tically every country of the world and he has visited at different times England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Belgium, France, Austro- Hungary. Russia, Poland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He has managed the lecturing tours of Matthew Arnold, Cannon Farrer, Justin McCarthy, R. A. Proctor, the astronomer, Robert J.
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Burdette, George D. Wendling, and Robert McIntyre ; was for eight years special manager for T. De Witt. Talmadge, and for five years served in the same capacity for John B. Gough. Since 1900 he has been in Madison conducting, with eminent success, a voice build- ing institute. He has had many noted pupils, among them Hon. Robert M. La Follette, Hon. Emil Baensch, Judge Anthony Dono- van and Hon. T. C. Richmond. Prof. Brand was married in 1866 to Martha E., daughter of Asa Goodrich of New York, and to this union have been born three children-Clarence I., the eldest- familiarly known as "Cad" Brand, and famous as the cartoonist of the Milwaukee Sentinel,-married Miss Ada Van Dusen of South Madison, and has one child, Clarence Van Dusen Brand. The sec- ond child, Kittie, is the wife of George E. Sullivan of Stillwater, Minn., and the mother of three children .- Catherine, Daniel and Goodrich. The youngest daughter, Bessie G., is the secretary of the University School of Music. Mrs. Brand is a member of the School of Music faculty, instructing in mandolin, guitar and banjo. For ten years she was at the head of the department of music of the city schools, and for twelve years was a member of the Con- gregational cho'r, of which church both she and her husband are members. Prof. Brand is also a member of the Blue Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. He is a man of broad culture, exceedingly well read, combining with rare good judgment an intellectual force seldom met with. A man of fine physique, his dignified carriage marks him as the embodiment of moral power. He has a keen insight into men and events, and into the motives which govern them. Genial, courteous, kindly, one who knows him does not wonder that he was picked from among hundreds of others for positions of trust and honor.
Selwyn Augustus Brant was born August 19, 1857, in Decatur county, Iowa, and is the son of Charles Alexander and Armina (Ensign) Brant. The parents moved to LaGrange, Ind., in 1863, where the mother died Sept. 4, 1866. Selwyn A. was reared at La Grange and educated in the public schools of that town. Since 1883 he has been engaged in publishing books and in 1887 came to Madison. He was married, May 29, 1889, to Anna Katherine, daughter of William and Katherine Alice (Dreher) Swint, of Boon- ville, Ind. Mrs. Brant was born Dec. 2, 1868 in Louisville, Ky .. and was educated.at the convent of Saint Mary's of the Woods, near Terre Haute, Ind. Mr. and Mrs. Brant have four children : Charles William, born January 31. 1893; Selwyn Augustus, Jr.,
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born March 24, 1895; Paul Swint, born March 19, 1901; Swint En- sign, born June 14, 1903.
George H. Breitenbach, of the firm of George C. Breitenbach & Son, is a familiar figure in Madison business circles. The success- ful firm of merchants has borne its present name since 1890 and does a large retail business. George C. Breitenbach, father of George H. has lived in Madison since 1850. With his father, also George, he came from his native Bavaria in 1846, when he was three years old, and lived for four years near Rochester, N. Y. George C. was a wagon-maker and after his arrival in Madison in 1850. worked at his trade and was for some time employed by the Fuller & Johnson Co. as foreman in the wood department. In 1890 he engaged in the grocery business in the 800 block on Will- iamson street and carried on that business until his death in 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Breitenbach have always been devoted members of the Church of the Holy Redeemer and Mr. Breitenbach was a char- ter member of St. Michael's Society of that church. Thirteen children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Breitenbach. George H. is the oldest son and manager of the grocery store at 851-53 Williamson street. John P. and Julius, managers of the shoe business of Brei- tenbach Bros., South Pinckney St., Anna T. is Mrs. J. E. Dengel and lives on Jenifer St., Madison. Amelia and Bertha live with their mother. Edward W. is a member of a theatrical company. Agnes is stenographer for Murphy & Kroncke, Madison. Otto works in the store. Mabel is a teacher of music. Louisa and Vera and Elizabeth reside with their mother at the old home. George H. was born in Madison, February 23. 1868, attended the Madison public schools and learned the book-binder's art with Grimm Bros. He was also engaged in the same work for a time in Chicago and in the United States printing offices at Washington, D. C., but re- turned to Madison to engage in his present business in 1890. Oc- tober 18, 1898, he married Miss Bertha Mayer, daughter of Casper Mayer and sister of Mrs. Stephen Baas. Mr. Breitenbach takes an active interest in politics, has served on the county board and is a member of the Democratic party. With his wife he attends the Church of the Holy Redeemer and is a prominent member of St. Michael's Society. He is a member and officer of the B. P. O. E. of Mad'son and takes an active interest in the affairs of the order.
John P. Breitenbach, of the firm of Breitenbach Bros., was born in Madison, Aug. 3, 1868. His parents were George C. and Eliza- beth (Kremer) Breitenbach, both natives of Germany, the father having been born in the village of Breitenbach, named after this
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family. The mother was born in Luxembourg. George C. Breit- enbach was born Aug. 2, 1843, and left his native land with his parents when but three years of age. The family lived for short periods in New York and Milwaukee and arrived in Madison, May 2, 1850. George Breitenbach had one brother, Henry, and three sisters. Margaret, Mrs. John Dickert of Madison; Mary, Mrs. Joseph Splonskowski of Marion, S. D .; and Teresa, who lives with her brother. The marriage of George Breitenbach and his wife, Elizabeth, took place in 1865, and to them were born fourteen children : George H.,-one of the firm of Breitenbach & Son, groc- ers, of Madison,-who married Bertha Mayer; John Peter, the subject of this sketch ; Ann T., Mrs. John Dengel, resides in Madi- son, and is the mother of two children, Irene and Philip; Julius Herman, member of the firm of Breitenbach Bros., married Mary Edgar and has three children, Janet Mary. William Edgar and George Charles; Amelia C., Bertha M., and Elizabeth, living in Madison ; Edward M., lives in Chicago, where he is stage manager of one of the theaters; Agnes, a stenographer ; Otto C., a clerk in the store of Breitenbach Bros .; Mabel. teacher of music in Madi- son; Louise and Vera in the public schools. Frank, a twin of Bertha, died in 1881 at the age of four years. John P. received his education in the public and parochial schools of Madison. After completing his school work he was employed in a bank, serving as bookkeeper some fourteen years. In 1897 he entered the boot and shoe business in the firm of Breitenbach Bros. In 1901 and 1902 he served as alderman from the sixth ward of the city, and for the same time was the council's representative on the school board. On June 22, 1893, he married Matilda, daughter of Herman and Marie (Krueger) Schubring, of Sauk City, Wis. Mr. and Mrs. Schubring now make their home in Madison. Mr. and Mrs. Breitenbach have four children,-Arthur August, Lillian Gertrude, Robert Eugene and Florence Louise. Both Mr. Breitenbach and his wife are members of the Holy Redeemer Catholic church, and he is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, of the Woodmen of the World and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which latter organization he is the secretary. Mr. Breitenbach is a man of fine physique, unlimited good humor and an excellent example of the successful business man. He owns and lives in a fine residence in the sixth ward.
Samuel D. Brickson, a substantial farmer of the town of Pleasant Springs, was born in the town of Rutland, Dane county, December 5, 1867. He is a son of Daniel and Annie (Berge) Brickson, natives
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of Sorgen, Norway, where the father was a fisherman and farmer. On coming to America, Daniel Brickson settled first in Cottage Grove. Then he bought a small farm in Rutland and later sold it and located about half a mile east of Stoughton. Then he re- moved again to a farm of sixty-seven acres in Cottage Grove town- ship, where he remained for twenty-two years. Daniel Brickson was always a farmer. He died March 7, 1902, and his wife passed away in 1892. He always voted the Republican ticket and was. active in the work of the Lutheran church, of which he was a mem- ber. Seven children were born to him and his wife. They are Brick, of Stoughton, Wis .; Belle, wife of Hans Wolf of Hartland, Minn. ; Nels, a farmer near Janesville, Wis .; Ole, who is farming the old place near Cottage Grove; John, employed in a packing house in Lincoln, Neb. ; Samuel D .; and Albert, engaged in the in- surance business in Deerfield, Wis. Samuel D. Brickson received his education in the district schools of the vicinity, had the benefit of two terms in Albion Academy and one term in the Stoughton schools. Until he was twenty-four years old he lived at home, and then he started farming "on his own hook." In 1897 he- bought what was known as the Alma place of one hundred and ten acres in Pleasant Springs and later added sixty acres to it. He has. made many improvements on the place, chief among which is the fine residence built in 1901. Politically he is a Republican and as. such has served as school clerk for five years, and as road overseer. He is a regular attendant and member of Christ Lutheran church of Stoughton. On April 12, 1891, he married Cora, daughter of Iver and Adeline (Alderman) Anderson, of Pleasant Springs. This. union has been blessed with seven children, Derby, Iver, Aves, Silas, Arthur, Walter, and Howard. The four eldest children at- tend the district school. By his energy and good judgment Mr. Brickson has risen to a place of influence in the community.
Stanley Jerome Briggs, M. D., one of the able and popular physi- cians and surgeons of the younger generation in Dane county, is: successfully established in the practice of his profession in Sun Prairie. He was born at Dodgeville. Iowa county, Wisconsin, October 11, 1877, and is a son of Melanthon J. and Eliza Jane (Ed- wards) Briggs, the former of whom was born in Kalamazoo, Mich- igan, March 31, 1846, and the latter in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, March 27, 1849. Isaac U. Briggs, grandfather of the doctor, was born and reared in the state of Vermont, and became one of the pioneers of. Michigan, while he passed the closing days of his life in Mazomanie, Dane county, Wisconsin. His wife, whose maiden
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name was Salome Hickox, was a native of Canandaigua, New York, and she died in Rockford, Illinois. The maternal grandfather of Dr. Briggs was William Edwards, a native of Wales, whence he came to America when young ; he was one of the argonauts who went to California in search of gold, and he died in that state, in 1860, while his wife, whose maiden name was Esther Davis and who was a native of Staffordshire, England, was a resident of Dodgeville, Wisconsin, at the time of her death. Melanthon J. Briggs secured his early educational training in the schools of Mazomanie, Wisconsin, after which he studied law under the pre- ceptorship of Asa M. Eastland, of Richland Center, this state, being admitted to the bar in 1871. He was thereafter engaged in the practice of his profession for a number of years in Dodgeville, Wisconsin , becoming one of the representative members of the bar of the state. He and his wife, the latter now deceased, resided in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he is engaged in the work of his profession. He is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party and was prominent in public affairs in Iowa county, Wis- cons'n, for many years. He served as district atttorney, repre- sented the county in the state legislature and was the candidate of his party for the office of attorney general of the state, being de- feated by normal political exigencies. He served about two years as postmaster at Dodgeville. January 23, 1862, he enlisted in Com- pany H, Seventeenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, being made- sergeant of his company, and served two years as color bearer,. while he took part in seventeen important engagements, continu- ing in the ranks of the brave "boys in blue" until the Union arms: were crowned with victory. February 23, 1865, he was promoted to the office of second l'eutenant and transferred to Company A. Forty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war. His father served as a major in the war of 1812. Dr. Stanley J. Briggs completed the curriculum of the Dodgeville high school, after which he was for two years a student in the literary department of the University of Chicago, also taking a course of lectures in the medical department of that institution, while in 1900 he was graduated from Rush Medical Col- lege, Chicago, one of the most celebrated medical schools of the west, duly receving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. After the graduation he passed two years in most profitable work as interne in Cook County Hospital, in the western metropolis, and he then became house physician at the Wisconsin Hospital for the Insane. at Mendota, where he served until December, 1901,when he lo-
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cated in Sun Prairie. There he has built up a very successful gen- eral practice, and he enjoys the esteem of his professional confreres, being a close observer of the unwritten code of ethics, and also enjoys marked popularity in social circles. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Wisconsin Medical Society, and the Dane County Medical Society, and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Equitable Fraternal Union. In politics Dr. Briggs maintains an independent attitude.
The military history of the direct ancestors of Dr. Briggs is re- markable. Beside the service of his father in the Civil War and that of his grandfather in the War of 1812, already noted, his great grandfather served in the Revolution and his great great-grand- father in the French and Indian War.
Charles Ilsley Brigham is a descendant of the family that gave to Dane county its first permanent settler, and the place where he now resides is near the location made historical by his great- uncle, Ebenezer Brigham, as the spot on which the first house was erected to shelter a white man in what is now the important county of Dane. David Brigham, a brother of Ebenezer and the grand- father of the subject of thns review, was also a very early resident of this section of the Badger state. He was born in Worcester county, Mass., August 15, 1786, and came to Wisconsin in 1839. He was a lawyer by profession, having been graduated from Har- vard University in 1810, after which he was a tutor in Bowdoin College, and subsequently read law. In 1818 he became estab- lished in the practice of his profession at Greenfield, Mass., where he married his wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Franklin Ripley. David Brigham and wife removed to the embryo capital of Wisconsin in 1839 and he continued in the practice of his pro- fession there until his death four years later, the exact date of his demise being August 16, 1843, being at that time the senior mem- ber of the Madison bar, as well as an officer and leading member of the Congregational church. His wife survived him many years and died in Madison at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. H. G. Bliss, November 3, 1899, in the eighty-seventh year of her age. Ebenezer Brigham, who had the honor of being the first permanent settler in Dane county, was a younger brother of David and was born on April 28, 1789. He came west in 1814, and in 1828 set- tled at Blue Mounds (this region at that time being a part of the teritory of Michigan), and he resided there until his death, accu- mulating in the meantime a large tract of land. The parents of the subject of this review were Jerome Ripley Brigham and wife, the
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