USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 59
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His fidelity to every trust imposed in him is evidenced by the fact of his frequent elections to positions all of which exact integrity and accuracy in keeping and accounting of funds. He is treasurer of the Marathon County Agricultural Society, treasurer of the Humane Society, treasurer of the Wausan Children's Infirmary, and a number of other societies. He still holds an interest in the insurance business of Zimmermann & Rowley, and is financially interested in other enterprises. His public service also covers years as member of the board of education of the city of Wansan and as a member of the board of trustees of the public library.
He was elected president of the Wisconsin State Bankers' Association, and vice president of the American Bankers' Association, lately held in Denver, Colo. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and also of the fraternity of Odd Fellows, being a trustee of Wausau Lodge 215, and for two years was the state representative of the latter organization to the Sov- ereign Grand Lodge when the sessions were held in Toronto, Can., and St. Paul, Minn.
Mr. Zimmermann was born in Germany. August 31, 1857, and is a son of Frederick and Beatrice (Schulz) Zimmermann. He came with his parents to the United States in 1869 and for the first year after arrival they lived at Waterloo, Wis., then removed to the city of Eau Claire, where they subsequently died. He was married December 26, 1881, to Miss Minnie Marth, of the town of Hamburg in Marathon county, and three children were born to them to bless their union: Beatrice, who is a teacher in the high school in Wausau; Olga, another daughter, who resides at home; and Alfred, who is in the insurance business with his father. The latter was married to Miss Lora Harris, of Rochester, N. Y., and they have one daughter, Elizabeth. E. C. Zimmermann and his family are members of the St. Paul's Evangelical church congregation of Wausau, rendering much aid to the several societies connected with this church.
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HON. W. H. MYLREA.
Hon. W. H. Mylrea has been mentioned as one of the prominent men- bers of the Marathon county bar. He was a student of Lawrence College and after graduation studied law in the office of Jonathan Bowman in Kil- bourn City. He was admitted to the bar in the year 1879, and coming to Wausau in 1883, formed a partnership with C. V. Bardeen under the firm name of Bardeen & Mylrea. He took great interest in political affairs and from 1884 until 1900 was much in demand as a speaker for the Republican party, several times making a complete canvass of the state in its behalf. In 1886 he was elected district attorney of Marathon county, and in 1894 attorney general on the Republican ticket, and reelected in 1896. After the expiration of his term of office he returned to Wausau and retired from the practice of his profession in 1902, devoting his time and energy to real estate business and lumbering. He is president of the Langlade County Real Estate Company, president of the Wausau Land Company, secretary of the Holway Land Company, and a director of the Wausau Box Com- pany, and secretary of the Wisconsin Advancement Association, which latter concern makes it their business to advertise the farm lands of central and northern Wisconsin, and show the advantages to the man of limited means which Wisconsin offers compared with other states. In later years Mr. Mylrea has made addresses before many large and representative bodies in furtherance of the work of the Wisconsin Advancement Association, which already begins to show good results in bringing good substantial set- tlers to the still uncultivated lands in this part of the state.
WV. H. Mylrea was born at Rochester, N. Y., January 1, 1853, and came to Wisconsin with his parents in 1856. He was married to Miss Minnie Ostrandor on November 12, 1884. and one son, James D., was born to them.
Representative Citizens
A. H. GROUT, cashier of the First National Bank of Wausau, has been a resident of this city since 1875 and for the past thirty-seven years has devoted himself in a business way to banking interests. He was born August 11, 1851, in the province of Quebec, Canada, and is a son of E. P. and Tryphosa (Stone) Grout.
The parents of Mr. Grout were also born in Canada and came to Wis- consin in 1863. The father located at Omro, in Winnebago county and followed agricultural pursuits in that locality until he retired to Wausau, where his death occurred, his wife having passed away in Canada. They had six children to grow to maturity, four daughters and two sons, the family record being as follows: A. M .; Abigail, Matilda, Harriet and Rachel; and Frank, who was connected with the First National Bank at Wausau for some years, is now in the employ of a bank at Seattle, Wash.
A. H. Grout began school attendance in his native place and com- pleted it after his father located at Omro, Wis., being then prepared for work on the home farm and also in a saw mill. Later he was book- keeper for a time at Menasha, Wis., where his ability and fidelity were so recognized that in April, 1875, he was called to a similar position with the firm of Silverthorn & Plumer, at Wausau. When the business was reorganized in 1882 and the institution became the First National Bank, he was elected cashier and has served continuously as such until the present, limiting his interests, to a large degree, to financial matters in this connection.
In 1879 Mr. Grout was married to Miss Eva Shaunessy, of Wausau, a daughter of George Shaunessy, who enlisted from this city for service in the Civil War and died after becoming a veteran. Mrs. Grout died in Wausau, in 1887, and a son survived, Horace Clyde. He is Ass't Gen. Supt. Atlantic Division of the Canadian Pacific Railroad and at present is located at St. John, N. B., his territory covering a part of Quebec, Maine, and New Brunswick. He married Miss Mary Curley and they
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have two children: Mary Eva and Robert Clyde. In October, 1888, Mr. Grout was married (second) to Miss Mary Rounds, a daughter of WV. P. Rounds, of Menasha, Wis. They have one daughter, Edith, who attended school at Wausau, and in California, and then became a student in Lawrence University at Appleton, Wis. Mr. Grout and family are members of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Wausau and he be- longs to its official board. In politics he is identified with the Republican party. He is a Chapter Mason and for a number of years has been treas- urer of both Blue Lodge and Chapter. He is a charter member of the Wausau City Club and also of the Y. M. C. A., and was a member of the first building committee appointed by this organization, and has contin- ued his deep interest until the present.
WILLIAM C. LANDON, a prominent resident of Wausau, Wis., has been identified with the lumber industry all his active business life and is recognized as one of the progressive and thoroughly informed men along this and related lines. He was born at Algonac, Mich., August II, 1872, and is a son of George W. and Sarah Landon.
William C. Landon spent his boyhood on his father's farm and at- tended the public schools during the winter seasons. In 1894 he came to Wausau and entered the employ of the firm of Barker & Stewart, lumbermen, and for two years worked in the yards, his main duty being piling lumber. In the meanwhile he had succeeded in taking a course in a business college at Wausau and thus was able to give satisfaction in the company's office, where, in three years' time he was advanced to the position of office manager. In 1904, when the Barker & Stewart Lumber Company was incorporated, Mr. Landon was elected its vice president, and following the death of Mr. Barker, January I, 1908, he was made president, a responsible office which he ably fills. As the head of his com- pany he continues the conservative timber policy that has been the company's custom since he first became identified with it. The mill owns a seven years' supply of timber and its future operation, in regard to supply, may easily be considered a matter of at least a quarter of a cen- tury. While his main interest is the management of the affairs of the Barker & Stewart Lumber Company, he has other enterprises in hand and is secretary of the Wausau Sulphate Fiber Company an immense paper plant at Mosinee for the manufacture of craft paper, hemlock being the principal wood used in this industry. He is held in high esteem by all lumber bodies in the northwest and served as president of the North-
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ern Hemlock & Hardwood Manufacturers' Association in 1910-1I, of which he is a director.
At Wausau, Wis., Mr. Landon was married to Miss Annie McInnis, of this city, and they have one son, George Crawford. Mr. Landon is one of the directors of the Great Northern Insurance Company and of the Employers' Mutual Insurance Company. Socially he is identified with the Wausau Club, of which he was president in 1911-1912. Fra- ternally he belongs to the Masons and the Knights of Pythias.
FRANCIS McREYNOLDS, who is one of the prominent and sub- stantial citizens of Mosinee, Wis., president of the village and financially and officially connected with many of Marathon county's enterprises, was born at Batavia, N. Y., September 24, 1859, and is a son of James and Maria (Emerson) McReynolds. About 1861 the parents of Mr. Mc- Reynolds removed from New York to Milwaukee, Wis., where the father followed the carpenter trade during his active years and subsequently died there. The mother still is a resident of Milwaukee. They had three children : Francis ; Harriet, who is the wife of J. B. Whitnell; and W. H.
Francis McReynolds attended the public schools and later completed a commercial course in a business college at Milwaukee, following which he had eight years of mercantile training in a dry goods store in that city. He then came to Mosinee as bookkeeper for the Joseph Dessert Lumber Company, this being in 1878, and still continues his interest in the above concern. He is secretary and one of the stockholders of the Mosinee Land, Log and Timber Company ; is secretary and treasurer of the Westfield and Fall River Lumber Company, and of the Wausau Sul- phate Fiber Company and a stockholder in both the Electric Light and the Mosinee Telephone Company.
On April 13, 1887, Mr. McReynolds was married to Miss Marie Mar- tin, a daughter of Victor and Harriet Martin, of Grand Rapids, the other members of their family being: William, George, Joseph, Leon, de- ceased, and Harriet, who is the wife of William P. Westenberg. Mr. and Mrs. McReynolds had one daughter, Helen F., who was called away in 1909, when aged twenty years. Mr. and Mrs. McReynolds attend the Episcopal church. A Republican in politics, Mr. Reynolds has been ten- dered many political offices but has accepted only those local in character and for eighteen years has been a member of the school and library boards.
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JOHN A. ROWLEY, whose large business interests at Wausau are in the insurance line, is the junior member of the well known firm of Zimmerman & Rowley, with convenient offices in the Marathon County Bank building. He was born in England, December 1I, 1869, a son of James Rowley and wife, the former of whom died in 1904, at Philadelphia, Pa., where the latter yet resides.
John A. Rowley attended school in his native land and was eighteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to America. They located in the city of Philadelphia and the youth soon secured employment as a bookkeeper with a carpet house and continued there for seven years, afterward turning his attention to the insurance business and accepting an agency in an insurance office at New Rochelle, N. Y. For twelve years Mr. Rowley was associated with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com- pany and became one of that great organization's valued employes, was rapidly promoted and became a superintendent at Des Moines, Ia., and also at Chicago, Ill., and in 1903 was transferred to Wausau as superin- tendent. He continued with the Metropolitan until 1906, when he went into partnership with E. C. and A. H. Zimmerman under the firm style of Zimmerman & Rowley. This firm is in the general insurance business, their risks covering fire, life, accident, bonds and plate glass, and the vol- ume of business is very large. The partners are all seasoned and reli- able insurance men and command the confidence of the public.
At Chicago, Ill., Mr. Rowley was married to Miss Florence Smithies, and they have two sons: Frank and James A. Politically Mr. Rowley is not active beyond the duties of citizenship. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons and the Knights of Pythias.
JOHN SCHIRPKE, who is county treasurer of Marathon county, Wis., is one of the representative men of this section who, through years of stable and honorable business dealings, gained popularity and secured the full confidence of his fellow citizens. He is a native of Wisconsin, born in Calumet county, November 30, 1875, and is a son of Frank and Rosie Schirpke. For many years after coming from Germany they lived on their farm in Calumet county but in 1903 retired to Marathon City, in Marathon county, where they still reside, highly respected people and devout members of the Catholic church.
John Schirpke remained on the home farm until he was thirteen years of age and then went to his brother's farm in the town of Frankfort, Marathon county. He was of sturdy build and robust constitution and
HON. HENRY MILLER
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soon began to work in the woods and for some years spent the long winter months in the lumber camps and during the summers followed farming with his father. Afterward he learned the carpenter trade and worked at that during the summer months but when rigorous weather again set in he was off for the deep woods of Marathon county, the free and wholesome life of the lumber regions not only bringing him good health but also proving satisfactory in a financial way. From being an ordinary carpenter he became a carpenter contractor in the town of Frankfort, from which he moved, in 1897, to Halder, in the town of Emmet, where he embarked in a general mercantile business and so continued until his first election to the responsible office he yet fills. Prior to the establishing of the free rural delivery there he was post- master of the village. Always a stanch supporter of Democratic doc- trines and candidates, Mr. Schirpke became a leader in local political cir- cles and in November, 1910, was elected county treasurer, the seal of ap- proval being placed on his administration by his reelection in Novem- ber, 1912.
Mr. Schirpke was married in 1911, to Miss Christina Petrie, of Mara- thon county, and they have one son, Walter. They are members of the Catholic church and Mr. Schirpke is identified fraternally with the Catho- lic order of Foresters and with the Eagles. He was one of the organizers and is a stockholder of the Wausau Brewing Company.
HON. HENRY MILLER, who is well known to bench and bar in Mara- thon county and has also been a factor in political life, has been a resident of Wausau for forty years. He was born in Hesse-Darinstadt, Germany, Feb- ruary 19, 1849, a son of John and Christina ( Brueckel) Miller. His mother, who was the first wife, died when he was ten months old, and his father married again, when Henry Miller was six years of age. Four sons were born to the first and five children to the second union.
The youngest born of his father's first marriage, Henry was reared by his stepmother and remained in Germany until 1868, when, in company with his oldest brother, John Miller, he came to the United States. They separated, John coming directly to Wausau, while Henry went to the home of an uncle, Conrad Miller, who lived in Allegany county, N. Y. From 1868 until September, 1872, when he came to Wausau, he worked at differ- ent places in New York, and afterward became a clerk for James McCrossin. Later he began to teach school and taught for six winters in Marathon county, in the meanwhile making many friends, and in 1875 he was elected
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city clerk of Wausau, an office he satisfactorily filled for three years, being employed at the same time as a clerk in the store of Conrad Althen. In the fall of 1878 he was elected county clerk of Marathon county, a position he held for eight years or four terms, and in the fall of 1886 was elected a member of the General Assembly, serving as such two years. In the meantime he had become interested in merchandising and conducted a store on Third street, Wausau. In 1890 he was elected municipal judge of Marathon county and honorably filled that office for twelve years. In 1894 he was appointed county judge in place of John J. Sherman, who had resigned, and served sixteen years in that position, retiring from the bench in 1910. In politics Judge Miller is a Democrat. He is a Knight Templar Mason and belongs also to the O. D. S. H., of which he was grand president.
In August, 1872, Judge Miller was married in Allegany county, N. Y., to Miss Helen A. Mathews, of Friendship, N. Y., and they have had eight children, three of whom died when young. Harry L., the eldest born. is superintendent of the Power Mining and Machinery Company of Milwau- kee; Leon C. is bookkeeper in the pattern department of the above com- pany at Cudahy, Wis. : Nina V., who is gifted musically, is a teacher of music. both vocal and instrumental. Amy E. is private stenographer for D. L. Plumer, president of the First National Bank at Wausau. Edwin C. is a machinist in the employ of the Power Mining and Machinery Company. Judge Miller's family belong to the Methodist Episcopal church.
ARTHUR WILLIAM PREHN, a well known member of the Wau- sau bar and assistant district attorney of Marathon county, junior of the law firm of Gorman & Prehn, was born December 1, 1884, at Marathon City, Wis., and is a son of Frederick and Bertha (Langenhahn) Prehn. Frederick Prehn was born in Manitowoc county, Wis., a son of Theodore Prehn, who was a native of Germany. In 1881 Frederick Prehn came to Marathon City and embarked in the mercantile business in which he continues. He is very prominent in Republican politics and served in the state legislature from 1905-1907, for a number of years has been president of the village board and also of the school board. To his first marriage three children were born: a daughter, who died early; Erwin and Arthur William. His second marriage was to Miss Emma Erdman, a native of Marathon county, and they have three sons and two daughters.
Arthur W. Prehn attended the public schools and in 1904 the Mara- thon County Training School, in 1905-6 Lawrence University at Apple- ton, Wis .; and spent 1907-8-9 in the University of Wisconsin at Madison
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and was graduated from the law department in the class of 1909. Dur- ing the sessions of the General Assembly of 1907 and 1909 he filled a clerical position in that body. When prepared for practice after a year's practice alone at Wausau he formed a partnership with E. P. Gorman at Wausau, and since December 1, 1911, has been assistant district at- torney of the 16th Judicial District of Wisconsin. He is an active poli- tician and served as secretary of the Republican county committee in 1910-12, and in the latter year was appointed a member of the income tax review board by the State Tax Commission; and in 1911 was ap- pointed by Governor McGovern a member of the state board of Agricul- ture to serve until February, 1914, and was superintendent of speed at the Wisconsin State fairs in 1911 and 1912 and 1913. He was a delegate from the 8th Congressional District to the Republican National Convention held at Chicago in June, 1912. Mr. Prehn gives attention also to frater- nal, social and professional organizations, belonging to the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the E. F. U. and the F. R. A. ; Y. M. C. A. to the Milwaukee City Club, the Chicago and Waukesha Driving Club and the Marathon County Bar Association.
Mr. Prehn was married February 15, 1913, to Miss Gertrude E. Magee, of Shawano, Wis., a daughter of Charles Magee, lumberman. Mrs. Prehn was graduated from the Shawano High School in 1909, at- tended Downer College, Milwaukee, in 1910, and Wisconsin University, 19II and 1912. She belongs to the Eastern Star, to the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority and to Madison Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution and was a page at the National Convention of this organiza- tion held at Washington, D. C., in 1912.
LOUIS DESSERT, who is one of the enterprising and far sighted business men of Marathon county, president of the Mosinee Land, Log & Timber Company and vice president of the State Bank at Mosinee, Wis., with many additional interests, was born June 6, 1849, in Canada, and is a son of Antoine and Edvige (Rotonelle) Dessert. Both parents have long since passed away. They left six sons and four daughters.
Louis Dessert had rather meager educational privileges and was yet a boy when he went to work around saw mills and in lumber yards, these early years of training, however, probably setting the trend of his life in which it has continued, for Mr. Dessert, while concerned in many lines of industry, has always been more closely connected with lumber activi- ties. He came to Marathon county in 1869. In addition to the interests
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named he owns stock in the Mosinee Land, Log and Timber Company, in the Westfield and Fall River Company and in the Mosinee Electric Light and Telephone Company. A Republican in politics, he has taken an active part in all movements for the town's good government, served one year on the county board of commissioners and for three years was president of Mosinee Village.
In 1883 Mr. Dessert was married to Miss Abbie Richardson, who was born in New Hampshire, and they have three children: Howard, who is in the lumber business in Chicago, Ill .; and Louise and Blanche. Mr. Dessert and family belong to the Roman Catholic church.
JOHN W. MILLER, register of deeds in the U. S. Land office at Wausau, during a long and useful life has been entrusted with many private and public responsibilities and in the performance of the duties attaching to these he has become widely known and has secured public as well as private esteem. He was born October 9, 1849, in Lang-Goens Girouit of Giessen, Hessen Darmstadt, Germany. His parents were John and Maria (Textor) Miller. On the paternal side his grandpar- ents were Conrad and Catherine Miller, and on the maternal side were Casper and Maria (Will) Textor.
In his native village John W. Miller attended school and was con- firmed on Pentecost Day, 1863, thereby becoming a member of the Lutheran church. On September 15, 1865, he left his old home and with a party of acquaintances set sail two days later for the United States taking passage on the sailing vessel, Karlshafen, at Bremen. The pas- sage proved tempestuous but their ship was staunch and the passengers were safely landed at the port of New York, November 27, 1865. To his beloved parents he had said "auf wierdensehen" when they parted but he never saw them again. For three weeks after reaching New York Mr. Miller remained with an acquaintance, Peter Young, after which he started to join an uncle and aunt then living at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but it required a week's traveling to get there, only to find that they, in the meanwhile, had moved to Wausau. He sought employ- ment then at Milwaukee and worked at first for a locksmith who pro- vided him with board and lodging and paid him fifty cents in cash a week. After a stay of nine months in Milwaukee he came to Wausau, arriving in September, 1866, and found a warm welcome awaiting him from his relatives, Mr. and Mrs. John Althen.
Mr. Miller found plenty of work to do in and around Wausau but he
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found also it required strong and robust men to work in the woods driv- ing logs and running lumber on the river. He considered himself for- tunate in securing employment in the cook shanty of R. P. Manson, Peter St. Austin and Edward Nicols, and his remuneration was his board and twenty-three dollars a month. He still recalls those days with pleasure. By 1869 he had acquired some knowledge of English and later attended an institute and succeeded in passing the examination and was accepted as a teacher in the Jim Kemp District and followed teaching for ten terms. In the meanwhile as years went on, he made many friends and at their solicitation in 1877, he become a candidate for city assessor and was elected, and in the following year was elected city clerk, to which office he was successively returned for seven years. In 1884 he was elected a member of the board of Education and con- tinued to creditably fill this office for six years. In 1881 he had been appointed lumber inspector by Governor Smith and in 1886 was elected county clerk on the Republican ticket, with a large majority. In Feb- ruary, 1891, Mr. Miller enjoyed his first vacation in twenty years when he visited the Pacific coast. On his return to Wausau he was engaged by the Wausau Law & Land Association, and worked for them in their abstract department for ten years and contemporaneously held the office of mayor of the city. In 1900 he was made supervisor of the Federal Census. In March, 1901, he received the appointment of register of deeds in the U. S. Land Office, an honor richly deserved.
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