USA > Wisconsin > Dane County > History of Dane County, Biographical and Genealogical > Part 30
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dred and twenty acres, and upon which, in 1856, a substantial stone house was built, Dr. Philip Fox spent his boyhood, and that con- tinued to be his home until 1870. His school life, after passing . through the primitive training of the district schools was spent at Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin, and his medical training was obtained at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from which he was graduated in March, 1863. In December of the same year he entered the army as assistant surgeon of the Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and remained in service until July, 1864, when he was mustered out, and returned to Wisconsin and began his private practice in com- pany with his uncle. Dr William H. Fox of Fitchburg. In 1870, he removed to Janesville, where he remained for six years, and then located in Madison where he has remained until the present time. He was married in Madison, in September, 1866, to Miss Anna Reynolds, by whom he has had four children, Philip R., Anna K., Mary J., and George W. The two sons are also physicians; Philip R., usually known as "Dr Rodney". was born in Fitchburg township, June 23, 1867. He was educated in the schools of Madi- son, Prairie du Chien and Watertown, and studied medicine at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and was graduated from that school in 1890. Following graduation he spent a year and a half as interne in the Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago, and has since been associated with his father in the practice of medicine in the city of Madison. The younger son, George W., was born in Janesville, January 30, 1875. He was educated at the University of Wisconsin and Rush Medical College, and was graduated from the latter in 1897. He also entered the Presbyterian Hospital as interne and remained there until October. 1899. The following year he located in Milwaukee, where he is practicing at the present time. Beside his private practice he is the attending surgeon and secretary of staff of St. Mary's Hospital, attending surgeon of the Emergency Hospital and surgeon for the Wisconsin Central Railroad. He is a Republican and a member of the Roman Catho- lic church. He also belongs to the Phi Delta Theta, the Milwau- kee Yacht Club, the Milwaukee Medical Society, the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin Medical Society and the American Medical Association. The members of the medical fraternity in the Fox family have held and still hold a high rank as physicians and surgeons, and the older men, especially. have been of great service to the profession as consulting physi- cians.
DR. W.M. H. FOX.
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Philip R. Fox, M. D., is one of the leading physicians of the city of Madison, and he has attained to this enviable position as a result of a thorough technical education, close and careful atten- tion to his professional duties, and the further practice of keeping up-to-date in all things pertaining to the science of medicine and surgery. He is another of the Dane county boys who have re- flected credit upon her citizenship and institutions, and his suc- cessful career is gratifying to a host of warm personal friends. Dr. Fox was born in the town of Fitchburg, Dane county, June 23, 1867, and is one of four children born to Philip and Anna E. (Rey- nolds) Fox, a more extended mention of whom is given on another page of this volume. Philip R. Fox received his preliminary educa- tion in the district schools of his native town and in the Catholic parochial school at Madison, supplementing the knowledge thus gained by a course in the Jesuit college at Prairie du Chien and at Sacred Heart college in Watertown, Wis. Having thus completed his literary education he entered Rush Medical College at Chicago, and was graduated from that institution with the class of 1890 .. For the eighteen months following the completion of his professional course of studies he was an interne in the Presbyterian Hospital at Chicago, and on March 15, 1893, began the regular practice at Madi- son. He devotes himself to the general practice of medicine and to surgery, and his ability is recognized by employment as the district surgeon for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, to the duties of which he attends in addition to his general practice. Dr. Fox is a Democrat in his political views, but has never al- lowed a craving for office to interfere with the duties of his chosen profession. His religious faith is expressed by membership in the Catholic church, and his fraternal relations are with the patriotic order known as the Loyal Legion. Dr. Fox was married on October 18, 1902, to Miss Katherine Brigham, a native of Milwau- kee, and to this union one child has been born, Anna, born in Madi- son, January 13, 1904.
William H. Fox, M. D., deceased, was one of the pioneers of Dane county, and for many years one of its most popular physi- cians. He was born at Moate-a-Granough in the county of West- meat, Ireland. September, 1814, his parents being, William and Eleanor (Lynn) Fox. The original family name was O'Cathar- naigh. This family originally owned the major part of the county of Westmeath and a part of the barony of Kilcoursey in King's County, Ireland. About 1185 A. D. because of some deed of valor in war by one of the O'Catharnaigh lords he was called "An Sion-
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nach," (The Fox,) thereafter all of his descendants to the present have borne the name "Fox." Galtrim Castle, now the property of Hubert Fox, Esquire, still stands just outside of Dublin, the last remaining monument of this old family name and estate in Ire- land. Upon one of the walls of this old castle still hangs an old oil painting representing Queen Elizabeth in the act of re-granting certain tracts of land to Matthew Fox and his four sons, James, John, Joseph and William, and conferring on the eldest the title of Lord of Kilcoursey. In the painting stands the Queen with parch- ment in hand, the Earl of Leicester near her and the five Foxes standing in front of them. Copies of this picture were made some twenty years ago by Melville E. Stone of Chicago, (now general manager of the associated press) a relative of the Foxes, then trav- eling in Europe. Several of these copies are now in the hands of A. O. Fox, Philip Fox and other survivors of the family. Dr. Fox received his early education at the hands of private tutors in his native country and at the age of nineteen years came to America, (1833), locating at Cleveland, Ohio. There he remained for about six years, during which time he acquired a medical education and then, in 1839, removed to Lima, Ind. There he began the practice of his profession and followed it until the fall of 1841, when he made a visit to Wisconsin. Being favorably impressed with the country south of Madison he went to the Milwaukee land office and entered a farm in the township of Fitchburg, one and a half miles north of the village of Oregon. The following spring he brought his family to the farm, which was then on the frontier, and commenced improving it. Several brothers and sisters of the doc- tor came to Wisconsin about the same time, locating in the vicin- ity. All were blest with many children and the Fox settlement became famous in pioneer days for the generous hospitality of this large family. From a very early day down to the present time this family has been closely identified with the progress of Dane county. In 1842, Doctor Fox built upon his farm and furnished a log house in which his Wisconsin housekeeping then began. Although this log house consisted of but two rooms, no wayfarer ever knocked at the doctor's door without receiving a generous welcome and being told that there was plenty of room for him to pass the night. The old farm above alluded to has been kept in the family and now belongs to his son, Arthur O. Fox. As a physician, Dr. Fox, bore a high reputation and was widely known and respected. The hardships and exposures of his early pioneer life had developed in him a ruggedness peculiar to the frontier, yet
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he possessed a child's gentleness of nature and his heart responded quickly in sympathy to those in distress. He possessed to a great extent that peculiar imagination common to the Celtic race which enabled him to find beauty and simplicity in the very wildness and ruggedness of things about him and caused him to prefer always the environments of a country farm home to those of city life. As he gradually accumulated lands they were always well handled so that, added to his reputation as a physician and surgeon, he also was widely known as one of the representative and successful far- mers of the state. and his large lawn of great rugged burr oaks be- came a land mark for miles around and still stands preserved just as he found it in 1841 when he saw it for the first time in posses- sion of wild deer. His wife was Cornelia Raymond Averill of New York state. They were married in December, 1841, and moved to Wisconsin in the spring of the following year. Mrs. Fox was of New England parentage and a direct descendant of Col. Benjamin Simonds a prominent Revolutionary leader of Williamstown, Mass. She died in April, 1864. To. Dr. and Mrs. Fox were born four daughters and a son. The second daughter, Adeline, died un- married when twenty-one years of age. The others still survive and are as follows, Catherine (Mrs. C. F. Adamson), of Madison ; Anna (Mrs. Wm. F. Vilas), of Madison; Lucia (Mrs. John M. Byrne), of Kansas City, and Arthur O. Fox of Madison. Doctor Fox was a member of the convention in 1847 which adopted the con- stitution of the state of Wisconsin. He was always alert in public affairs and always favored any movement having for its object the advancement of public interests. He died upon his farm near Ore- gon, Wisconsin, in October, 1883, and his body now lies in the Ore- gon cemetery overlooking the old farm which he chose in pioneer days. it being his expressed wish that this should be his last resting place.
Prof. David B. Frankenburger, A. M., LL. B., deceased, for many years at the head of the department of oratory and rhetoric in the University of Wisconsin, was born in Edinburg, Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1845, the son of Lewis and Elizabeth (Kale) Frankenburger. The father was & native of Virginia and the mother of Columbiana county, Ohio. Professor Frankenburger's ancestors were landowners of North Germany, and the paternal grandfather came to America in 1760 while still a youth, and during the American struggle for independence was a soldier of the Conti- nental army. The original Frankenburger home in the United States was near the boundary line of three states, Virginia, Mary-
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land and Pennsylvania and the name for many years was a familiar one in the Old Dominion and the Keystone state. Intermarriage with the best of French, Irish and Scotch stock has mingled with the original German blood of the family until kinship with a bet- ter part of the world may readily be established. Lewis Franken- burger was a merchant in Pennsylvania until 1855 when he removed to Green county, Wis., to engage in farming. Later he removed to Butler county, Ia., where he also followed agricultural pursuits. Prof. Frankenburger, the youngest of the four children in the fam- ily, was but ten years of age when he came to Wisconsin with his parents. For nine years he helped with the farm work in the sum- mer and in winter attended the district schools. The preparation for a collegiate course was received at Milton academy and at the age of twenty-one years Prof. Frankenburger entered the Univer- sity of Wisconsin, which institution in 1869 conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. The following two years were spent in the study of law in the law department of the Uni- versity, and in 1871. after receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws he entered upon a professional career in Milwaukee. He con- tinued to practice law for some seven years, and was then offered by the regents of the University of Wisconsin the chair of oratory and rhetoric, which he accepted and filled with eminent success until his demise. In 1882 Prof. Frankenburger sought, by a course in Boston, to strengthen his qualifications as a teacher of oratory. Although not an active participant in the political field he was a life-long Republican. In religious matters he associated himself with the Unitarian society of Madison and was an energetic and influential partaker in all its activities. On June 24, 1880, Prof. Frankenburger was united in marriage to Miss Mary Storer. eldest daughter of the late George L. and Mary F. (Johnson) Storer, of Madison. Mrs. Frankenburger was a native of Portland, Me., who came to Wisconsin when seventeen years of age. She at- tended the Milwaukee College and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Prof. and Mrs. Frankenburger became the parents of two daughters; Margaret, twenty years of age, is a student the State University, and Dorothy, fifteen years old. is attending the high school. On February 6, 1906, Prof. Frankenburger suc- cumbed to cerebro-spinal meningitis, leaving to mourn his loss a host of friends among the alumni of his alma mater and the citi- zens of his home city. The Wisconsin Society of Sciences, Arts and Letters, the Madison Literary Club, of which organization he was a charter member, the Humane Society and the Six O'Clock
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Club all valued highly his membership and suffered in his death an irreparable loss. Nowhere will he be more missed than in the alumni gatherings of the University of Wisconsin, to which insti- ution he was what Dr. Holmes was to Harvard-the college poet. In earlier years he was a frequent contributor of verse to educa- tional periodicals and became exceedingly popular with literary connoisseurs for the exquisite culture of his poems.
Mrs. Phillis Gallagher Frawley, residing at 620 Langdon street, Madison, was born in Rock Island, Ireland. With her parents, Samuel and Sarah (Burchell) Gallagher, she came to Madison in 1857. by way of Quebec and the Great Lakes to Milwaukee, thence by stage to Madison. The father was engaged in the shoe business in Madison for a number of years. His death occurred when he was fifty-six years of age and his widow passed away in her sev- enty-fourth year. The subject of this sketch, the youngest of a family of seven children, was an infant when the family arrived in the capital city. When the somber cloud of war appeared on the horizon of national unity Samuel Gallagher offered his services in behalf of the preservation of the Union, but because of ill health was prevented from serving. Mrs. Frawley received her prelimi- nary education in the common and private schools of Madison and then for a time attended the University of Wisconsin; then for three years she taught school. Her marriage to Henry P. Frawley occurred March 17, 1877. In religious matters Mrs. Frawley is affiliated with the Protestant Episcopal church. For many years she conducted a boarding house at 620 Langdon street, and at different times has had as many as eighty university students under her charge. She has shown a foresight and judgment in the matter of real estate values which have placed her in the fore- most rank of capitalists. The new Frawley flats on Mendota court. rcently erected by her, were the first modern flats built in Madi- son. with steam heat and all modern improvements. Beside these flats Mrs Frawley is the owner of much valuable realty. Of her father's family there are two others beside herself living in Madi- son,-John Gallagher, a dealer in tents and awnings, and Mrs. E. L. Baker of 424 North Murray street.
Augustus M. Frish, general manager of the Advance Thresher Company, whose Wisconsin headquarters are at 952 Jenifer street, is a native of Monroe county, Wisconsin. He is a son of August and Barbara (Robb) Frish, both natives of Germany. The father was educated in the Fatherland and removed to this country, settling in Dane county, when but twenty years old. Later he went to
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Monroe county, where the subject of this sketch was born Feb- ruary 28, 1863, and subsequently to Juneau county, where he died April 9, 1899. His widow is a resident of Tomah, Wis. She has passed the sixty-eighth milestone but is still vigorous. Only the two younger children of the family of four are still living. Bar- bara, Mrs. Fred Finger, died at the age of thirty-one and Emma passed away while still a child. Joseph, the youngest, is a broker at Tomah. Augustus M. Frish received his education in the dis- trict schools and the Tomah high school. Upon the completion of his scholastic labors he went to work in a machine shop and af- ter a few years became a "full-fledged" machinist. He then en- tered the service of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway in the engine department and at the age of twenty had become a locomotive engineer. In 1891 he gave up railroading to go on the road for the Advance Thresher company and after eight years of service as traveling salesman was promoted to his present position of general manager. His field of operations includes Illinois and Wisconsin, and the Madison office has ten employees under Mr. Frish's direction. On October 1, 1889, Mr. Frish was united in marriage to Mary Liddane, a native of Monroe county, and a daughter of Patrick and Bridget Liddane, both deceased. This union has been blessed with three children,-Gertrude Gen- evieve, Ruth and Evaline. The family are communicants of the Catholic church. Mr. Frish is a member of the Knights of Colum- bus, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America and the United Commercial Travelers.
John Froggatt, of Middleton, is one of Dane county's pioneers, whose own unaided efforts have made him a substantial. member of the community. His parents, William F. and Anna (Robinson) Froggatt, lived in Derbyshire, England, and out of a family of seven brothers and sisters John was the only one who came to America. John was born in 1823 and spent part of his early years at the home of his grandfather, Robert Froggatt. He started to work on a farm while quite young and worked for two years for five dollars a year. After this he found employment in brickyards. Dissatisfied with his poor surroundings the young man took pass- age in a sailing vessel, the Mayflower, in March, 1849, with his young wife. The boat was disabled in the Irish Channel in a col- lision and obliged to return to Liverpool for repairs. After slight delay in same month the persistent youth again set sail and landed in New York in April with but sixty dollars in his pocket. This he used to rent a farm near Buffalo, Erie county, N. Y., which he
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MR. AND MRS. JOHN FROGGATT.
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worked for three years, leaving it to come to Wisconsin. Here his hopes were not disappointed and after renting for a season he was able to buy forty acres of wild land in Springfield township which became his permanent home. The first building on it was a log cabin erected by the hands of the owner but it was soon suc- ceeded by more substantial ones and the farm has been added to and improved until it now includes five hundred and forty acres of fine land. Mr. Froggatt has given considerable attention to the breeding of fine cattle in which he has been successful. He is now retired and built his present home in Middleton in 1904, where two of his children live. Mr. Froggatt was a Republican until 1887, when he allied himself with the temperance cause. He has always been active in church matters, in England, in the Wesleyan church and in America, in the Methodist Episcopal church, where he has been a class leader for fifty years. Mrs. Froggatt was before her marrige Miss Mary Gill, daughter of William and Hannah Archer Gill of Derbyshire. Three children of Mr. and Mrs. Froggatt are now living; Walter G., born January 9. 1854, is a farmer of Middle- ton. He has never married and is a partner of his brother, James Henry ; the latter was born October 28, 1855, at Springfield, Dane county, and was educated in the county schools and also at the Uni- versity in Madison in the winter of 1875-76. He spent the winter of 1877-78 in California, sight-seeing, but returned to the old home and began farming. In 1889 he married Miss Mary Lappley of Dane county, daughter of John and Mary (Smith) Lappley, old settlers, now living in Middleton; they have three children, Lill- ian M .. Edward J. and Fannie J. Wesley E., the youngest, was born August 30, 1870, received his professional training at Rush Medical College, and is now practicing his profession of medicine at Cross Plains. The lack of early educational advantages has been so greatly deplored by Mr. Froggatt that he taught himself the rudimentary branches and has made up to his children what he was denied himself and all have good educations.
Richard Douglas Frost, one of the honored pioneers of Blooming Grove township and one who has been prominent in the industrial and civic upbuilding of the community and in the public affairs of the county, claims the old Empire state of the Union as the place of his nativity. He was born in the town of Schaghticoke, Rens- selaer county, New York, October 9, 1821. His father, Stephen Frost, was born in Washington county, New York, and was a son of Ezra Frost, who was born in one of the New England states, of Scotch ancestry, and who removed from Massachusetts to Wash-
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ington county. New York, settling in the village of Union, where he was engaged in the general merchandise business until the time of his death. Stephen Frost was reared to manhood in Washington county, where he secured good educational advantages. He was employed as a clerk and later as a bookkeeper in the village of Union, whence he removed to the city of Brooklyn, where he was long employed as an expert accountant and where he continued to reside until his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Cooper, was born near Fort Edward, Washington county, New York, being a daughter of Richard and Sarah (Osborne) Cooper, who were of English ancestry. Richard Cooper was born in the state of New York, May 12, 1771, and he passed his entire life in the old Empire state, his parents having been natives of England. His wife likewise was born in New York state, April 2, 1783, her father having immigrated from England to America in the col- onial days and having continued a resident of New York until his death. at an advanced age. After the death of her first husband Elizabeth (Cooper) Frost became the wife of John Dusenberry,, and they reared two children,-Joseph and Mary, the subject of this sketch having been the only child of the first marriage. His mother continued a resident of Schagticoke until the time of her death. Richard D. Frost was about eleven years of age at the time of his father's death, and he was carefully reared by his devoted mother and his stepfather, securing the best available educational advantages of the locality and period. After his marriage he re- moved to Troy, New York, in which city he assisted in establishing a gingham factory, the second of the kind in the United States, and he continued to superintend the operation of this manufactory until 1850, when his health became so impaired that he was compelled to seek less sedentary occupation. In 1848 he had purchased a tract in section 20. Blooming Grove township, Dane county, Wisconsin, and when he sought a change of vocation and climate he decided to locate on his farm in the wilds of the Badger state. He made the trip by railroad to Buffalo. whnce he proceeded by way of steam- boat on Lake Erie to Detroit, Michigan. From that city he made his way by the Michigan Central Railroad to New Buffalo, at the foot of Lake Michigan, where he secured lake transportation to Milwaukee, from which point he came by stage to Madison. The pleasant old days of the stage coaching have long passed, save as enjoyed in a superficial style by the votaries of fashion, but at the time when Mr. Frost came to Wisconsin the stage coach was an established and valued institution in covering long distances, as
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the railways had not yet penetrated so far in the frontier districts. For a number of years past Mr. Frost has rented his fine farm, which was reclaimed and improved by him and which com- prises a large area of most productive and valued land, and has lived essentially retired, enjoying the rewards of his long years of earnest toil and endeavor. February 4, 1841, Mr. Frost was united in marriage to Miss Sarah M. Van Anden, who was born in Schaghticoke, New York, being a daughter of Bernard and Clarissa (Robinson) Van Anden, the former of whom was born in beautiful Mohawk valley of New York, of Holland parentage. and he continued resident of New York until his death .. His wife passed the closing years of her life with her daughter, Mrs. Frost, in Dane county, Wisconsin ; her father. Nathaniel Robinson, was a native of New England and was a patriot soldier in the Continen- tal line during the War of the Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Frost became the parents of three children,-Lewis, Emma E. and Sarah M., the last named having been born in 1849 and having died in 1865. Emma is the wife of M. E. Flesh and they reside in the city of Chicago. Lewis, the only son, was reared and educated in Dane county, and he was one of the brave soldiers who represented this state as a loyal defender of the Union in the Civil War. He enlisted, in 1862, in Company I, Twenty-third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he participated in many important engagements, having been once seriously wounded in battle. He was promoted from private to first lieutenant of his company, with which he remained in active service until the close of the war, when he received his honorable discharge. He is now a prominent business man of Winona. Minnesota. He married Miss Julia Karns and they have three children. The subject of this review has been identified with the Republican party from the time of its organization, and he has been a stalwart advocate of its principles and has been an influential factor in its local councils. He has held various offices of trust, having been township assessor and having represented Blooming Grove township on the county board of supervisors for twelve years. In 1887 he was elected a represent- ative of Dane county in the assembly of the state legislature. where he labored to further such legislation as would redound to the ben- efit of the state. He was for several years a member of the execu- tive committee of the Wisconsin State Grange, and was also a director of the Northwestern Relief Association, and director and treasurer of the Cottage Grove Fire Insurance Company. He has
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