USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume II > Part 14
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CHARLES WINKE.
Charles Winke, certified public accountant of Milwaukee and also prominently known in literary circles and through his authorship, was born in New York city, March 14, 1883. His father, Conrad Winke, was a native of Germany who crossed the Atlantic to New York when in middle life. He was an instructor in tailoring. His wife, who hore the maiden name of Dorette Werner, was also horn in Germany and is now living in Milwaukee.
Charles Winke acquired his early education at Brillion, Wisconsin, where his parents had removed when he was a youth of but six years. He attended the public and high schools to the age of sixteen, after which he pursued a course in a busi- ness college and then started out in the business world. He mastered stenography and entered the employ of a firm of accountants in a stenographic position, after which he gradually worked into the accounting profession. His capability and fidelity are shown in the fact that he remained with the firm for seven or eight years and steadily advanced to the position of senior accountant. In 1906 he passed the Michigan examination for certified public accountant. In 1908 he opened an office in Mil- waukee and since that time has continuously practiced his profession here. His patronage now extends through this state and through Michigan. He was made a certified public accountant of Wisconsin in 1914. He handles the accounts of various kinds of business and also does municipal accounting and his patronage is of an extensive and important character.
On the 28th of September, 1909, Mr. Winke was married to Miss Celia Sommer, daughter of Frank Sommer, of Rogers, Michigan. They have become parents of two children: Clement, ten years of age; and Noel, five years of age.
In his political views Mr. Winke is a republican. In religious faith he is a Catholic, having membership in Sts. Peter and Paul parish of Milwaukee, as does his wife. He is a member of the Wisconsin Players. His name is a familiar one in literary circles and he is now associate editor of The American Poetry Magazine, published at Milwaukee and having a large circulation throughout the country. In 1917 he published a volume, "Wisconsin Sonnets," and has been a frequent con- trihutor to magazines and newspapers. He is an instructor in auditing at Marquette University and his activities are thus broad and varied.
EDWARD JAMES KEARNEY.
Familiar with the complex problems of finance, his powers developed through long experience, his activities guided by laudable ambition and shaped by sound judgment, Edward James Kearney is now the president of the American Exchange Bank, of which he has been a director siuce its organization in 1893, while his election to the presidency occurred on the 1st of January, 1920. He was horu at Little Cedar, Iowa, April 7, 1868, his parents being James H. and Emeline (Smith) Kearney, the former a native of New York, while the mother was born in Pennsylvania. The father followed the occupation of farming and was a veteran of the Civil war, serving as private in Company C, Ninety-Sixth Illinois Volunteers. Both he and his wife are deceased.
Edward James Kearney attended the Iowa State College at Ames, Iowa, being there graduated with the class of 1893. In the same year he came to Milwaukee and for a time was employed in the locomotive shops of the Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, where he remained for six months. He next entered the service of the Kempsmith Machine Tool Company, now the Kempsmith Manufacturing Company, as a draftsman, and occupied that position for four years. In 1898 he organized the Kearney & Trecker Company, a partnership concern, which was incorporated in 1906, and the business is still being profitably conducted. They are manufacturers of milling machines and employ about six hundred people, the enterprise having been developed from a small concern to one of mammoth proportions, its trade now reach- ing to all parts of the civilized world. Mr. Kearney became one of the directors of the American Exchange Bank in 1913 and acted as chairman of the board of directors for the year 1919. On the 1st of January, 1920, he was elected to the presidency. He
EDWARD J. KEARNEY
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has been instrumental in making this bank one of the sound financial institutions of the state, heing one of its patrons and depositors for more than two decades. He was the director for the Liberty Loan during the World war, for Wisconsin, in the Seventh Federal Reserve District, comprising forty-five of the seventy-one counties of the state, and during this tinie raised approximately five hundred million dollars. In addition to his connection with the American Exchange Bank he is the president of the Bay View Commercial & Savings Bank and secretary and treasurer of the Kearney & Trecker Company. His business interests are, therefore. of a most extensive and important character and he is recognized as one of the dynamic forces in the industrial and financial development of the city.
On the 31st of December, 1895, Mr. Kearney was married to Miss Ella Morton, a daughter of P. S. and Mary E. (Robeson) Morton, of Clarion, lowa. Her father was a captain of the One Hundredth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war. Mrs. Kearney was a classmate of her husband at college. They have become the parents of two daughters, Katharine MI. and Alice M.
Mr. Kearney has always been deeply interested in public affairs, giving his active aid and cooperation to all projects for the general good. He is a member of the state board of vocational education, which carries with it the trusteeship of the Stout In- stitute of Menomonie, Wisconsin. He is also a trustee of the Milwaukee-Downer College and has ever been a stalwart champion of the cause of education. He belongs to the Milwaukee Club and to the Athletic Club of the city and he and his wife are con- sistent members of the Congregational church of Wauwatosa, where they reside. There is much that is stimulating and instructive in the life history of Edward James Kear- ney, whose course has ever heen characterized by his ready recognition and utilization of opportunities and who in following this course has reached a point of leadership in the business and financial circles of his adopted city.
FRANK C. STUDLEY, M. D.
Dr. Frank C. Studley, superintendent of The Riverside Sanitarium of Milwaukee, was born in New York city, January 23, 1869. His father, William Harrison Studley, was also a physician and practiced in the eastern metropolis for a quarter of a century specializing as a gynecologist. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1827, and was graduated from Trinity College of that city. He then entered the Episcopal ministry and devoted several years to the work of preaching the gospel as a repre- senative of that denomination before entering upon the practice of medicine and surgery, which he followed successfully for an extended time. He was at one time rector of an Episcopal church at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, this being prior to the birth of his son, Dr. Frank C. Studley. At length, however, he determined to take up the practice of medicine and was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city with the class of 1859. During the Civil war he served as an assistant surgeon in the United States army. He was a son of Jesse Studley, a manufacturer, and came of a family of English lineage. The mother of Dr. Frank C. Studley, was in her maidenhood, Caroline L. Heath. She was born at Warehouse Point, Connecticut, in 1842, and was a representative of one of the old New England families. She died in 1905, having long survived her husband, who died in the year 1883.
Dr. Frank C. Studley was reared in New York city and obtained his early educa- tion in the public schools there, while later he attended a Military College at Claverack. New York. He determined to follow in the professional footsteps of his father and in 1893 was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York city. Prior to this time, however, he completed his more specifically literary course by graduation from the Lawrence University of Appleton, Wisconsin, with the class of 1890. Following his medical course he has been in active practice in Milwaukee for the past twenty-eight years. In 1904 he founded the Riverside Sanitarium, an institution for the diagnosis and treatment of nervous and mental disorders, at the corner of Edgewood avenue and Prospect avenue, and has been superintendent of the institution from its beginning, making it one of the scientific institutions of its kind in the city and state. Dr. Studley has taken postgraduate work in Heidelberg. Germany, having gone to that country in 1893, just prior to locating in Milwaukee. Throughout his professional career he has remained a close student of the science of medicine, keeping in touch with the trend of modern professional thought, re- search and investigation. His high standing in local professional circles is indicated in the fact that he was elected to the presidency of the Milwaukee Academy of Medi- cine and also of the Milwaukee County Medical Society, and he is now president of the Wisconsin Neuro-Psychiatric Society, He likewise has membership in the Amer- ican Medical Association, the Wisconsin State Medical Society and the Tri-State Medical Society.
On the 17th of January, 1894, Dr. Studley was married to Miss Nellie West, who
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was born and reared in Appleton, Wisconsin. They have three living children: Theda, who is the wife of Glen Robertson; Elizabeth; and William Harrison, the last named now nineteen years of age. Dr. Studley served as a volunteer in the Medical Corps during the World war. His hobby is a good book, a good cigar and his family, but medicine is the really serious work in his life. Fraternally he is a Mason, who at- tained the Knights Templar degree in the York Rite and he belongs also to the Milwaukee Athletic Club. He is appreciative of the social amenities of life and he has a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintance. He comes of Revolutionary ancestry through both the paternal and maternal lines and belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution. The spirit of loyalty which prompted his forbears to espouse the cause of liberty has been manifest throughout intervening generations and is a strongly marked characteristic of Dr. Frank C. Studley.
REV. HERBERT CHARLES NOONAN, S. J.
Rev. Herbert Charles Noonan, S. J., president of Marquette University of Mil- waukee and recognized as one of the eminent Catholic educators of the state, was born in Oconto, Wisconsin, September 7, 1875, his parents being John and Mary (Moroney) Noonan. The father was very prominent in the public life of Oconto and for three successive terms served as mayor of the city.
In the acquirement of his education Father Noonan attended the parochial schools until 1890 and then entered the Oconto high school, in which he completed a course by graduation in June, 1892. He next entered Marquette College and in June, 1896, the Bachelor of Arts degree was conferred upon him. He received his Normal School training in the St. Louis University from 1897 until 1899 and studied science and philosophy at the same university through the succeeding three years. His divinity course was pursued in the University of Innsbruck, Austria, from 1906 until 1910 and in the latter year the Doctor of Divinity degree was conferred upon him. He has been identified with educational activities since 1902. He joined the Society of Jesus, (Jesuits) an educational order, in September, 1896, and was professor of Creighton University at Omaha, Nebraska in 1902-3. He then became connected with St. Mary's College, Kansas, and there continued for a period of three years, at the end of which time he entered upon his theological course. He was afterward professor of philosphy in 1911-12 and of ethics and pedagogy from 1912 to 1915 in the St. Louis University, since which time he has been connected with Marquette University as its president. He lectures on natural law in the College of Law and is lecturer on professional ethics in the departments of medicine, engineering, dentistry and in the training school for nurses, all of the same university. Dr. Noonan was instrumental in raising five hun- dred and three thousand dollars for the Marquette University Building and Endow- ment fund in March, 1916, and one million and eight thousand dollars for the Mar- quette Medical School Endowment fund in July, 1918. At present he is engaged with eight other presidents of Wisconsin's higher institutions of learning in raising a five million dollar endowment for the Wisconsin Colleges, Associated, and he has done much to further educational interests through the Catholic institutions of the state.
Dr. Noonan was a pastor of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Innsbruck, Austria, in 1909-10, and of the St. Francis Xavier church in St. Louis from 1911 until 1915 and since that time of Gesu church of Milwaukee. In June, 1920, he joined the Knights of Columbus. Along secular lines he is identified with the Rotary Club, of which he became a member in 1915, and of the Milwaukee Athletic Club, which he joined in 1918. His political allegiance was given to the democratic party until 1920, since which time " he has voted with the republican party. He belonged to the American Legion, to the Wisconsin Patriotic League and the American Protective Association during the World war and also took a prominent part in the various Liberty Loan campaigns, the War Savings Stamps, the Red Cross and other drives. The gold palm of an officer of public instruction was awarded him by France, September 24, 1920, for "great services rendered to France."
RUSSELL R. JOHNSTONE.
Russell R. Johnstone, who is engaged in the advertising business in Milwaukee, his activities being characterized by a spirit of marked progress, was born in Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, December 5, 1878, his parents being Adam Clark and Bertha (Jones) Johnstone, who were natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively. The father was a lawyer who practiced his profession in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for many years. Both he and his wife are deceased.
The public schools of his native city afforded Russell R. Johnstone his educational
REV. HERBERT C. NOONAN, S. J.
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privileges and after leaving school he engaged in the advertising business with the Red Raven Corporation of Pittsburgh, working his way upward through all the various departments of the business and acquainting himself with every phase of this line. In 1906 he came to Milwaukee and two years later he established business on his own account. Through the intervening period he has built up a very extensive pitron- age in high class advertising and in fact is today one of the prominent representatives of the advertising business in the middle west, His plans are carefully formulate.t and promptly executed and he is in close touch with all which has to do with progress and improvement in methods of advertising. In fact, he has instituted many new ideas and plans for the benefit of his patrons and his work is at all times effective and resultant,
There is an interesting military chapter in the life record of Mr. Johnstone, for he is one of the veterans of the Spanish-American war. In 1898 he joined the army for military service against Spain and was on duty in Cuba until discharged. In 1917 he became a member of the Wisconsin state militia and was commissioned a captain by Governor Philipp, He participated in every patriotic war measure or drive and received therefor an honorary certificate. He formed and handled all the patriotic parades and pageants during the war period and was chairman of the first armistice day ceremonies. He devoted all of his time to war duties during that period and gave up his business entirely for this work. He also drilled men continuously for the cantonments,
On the 23d of March, 1902, Mr. Johnstone was married to Miss Lolo Maude Chaney cf Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and they have become parents of three children: Wesley Stanley, Cody Cramer and Lois Ethel. Mr. Johnstone is a member of the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the City Club and the Milwaukee Association of Commerce. He also has connection with the Advertisers' Club. He is a believer in the brotherhood of man and in this belief is found the motive factor in many of his activities and interests. He is constantly extending a helping hand wherever aid is needed and in all things is prompted by a broad humanitarian spirit that seeks to ameliorate the hard con- ditions of life for the unfortunate and to bring cheer and goodwill as working forces into the world.
LOUIS M. KOTECKI.
Louis M. Kotecki, filling the office of city comptroller of Milwaukee, has devoted much of his life to the public service and his record is characterized by the greatest faithfulness in office and by capability in the discharge of all of his duties. His parents, Albert and Barbara Kotecki, came to America in the year 1873. The father was a tailor and worked at his trade until 1903 but is now living retired. In the family were twelve children, six of whom survive: Frank, Louis, Adam, Victoria, Laura and Mae.
In the acquirement of his education Louis M. Kotecki attended the parochial and public schools, also a private high school and a law school. When fourteen years of age he began to earn his living as a newsboy and later was advanced to the position of reporter on one of the city papers, while subsequently he became advertising agent and collector. He was a youth of eighteen years when he enlisted as a bugler for Company K of the First Wisconsin Regiment during the Spanish-American war. When twenty-two years of age he was elected constable of the tenth district and in 1906 was again chosen to office, being elected justice of the peace, which position he con- tinued to fill until 1912 and was then called to the office of city comptroller. In the year 1910 he was a candidate for county clerk on the democratic ticket but was de. feated at the polls. From 1906 until 1912, while serving as justice of the peace, he often presided in the district court in the absence of Judge Neelen. He has served for eight consecutive years as city comptroller, having been elected to the office five times-a fact which stands in indisputable proof of his capability and fidelity in the office, Abraham Lincoln said: "You may fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." Recognizing this fact, it is evident that Mr. Kotecki has made good in office, else public opinion would have seen to it that so many reelections had not come to him.
On the 21st of November, 1917, Mr. Kotecki was married to Miss Harriet Pozorski, a daughter of Stephen and Rosalie Pozorski. They have become parents of two chil- dren : Rose Mary, born October 18, 1918; and Jeannette Loraine, born September 10, 1920.
Mr. Kotecki is a member of Walker Lodge, No. 123. K. P. and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, He is the president of the Camels, of which he is the organizer. belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, to the Polish National Alliance and to the Polish Association of America, The greater part of his life has been passed
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in Milwaukee, where he is now widely and favorably known, for throughout the greater part of the period he has been in public office, discharging his duties with marked thoroughness and capability.
THEODORE O. VILTER.
History proves that Milwaukee has many adopted sons who demonstrated their intense loyalty to American interests during the World war, and their equal fidelity in days of peace, but none more so than Theodore O. Vilter. Actuated by the most intense loyalty to his adopted land, he gave up his time and his service to the point of self-sacrifice. In fact, it is believed by many that his death was hastened by the demands which he made upon his strength and energy in his efforts to uphold Amer- ica's high purposes-purposes with which he was in full sympathy. He had been a resident of this country from the age of fourteen years, although born in the province of Oldenburg, Germany, October 25, 1857, his parents heing Christian and Elise (Meiners) Oltmanns. His father, who was a farmer, died when Theodore was an infant and his mother afterward married Ernst Vilter. In 1871 the family came to America and settled in Milwaukee, where Ernst Vilter became an interested principal in a company engaged in the manufacture of machinery. He continued a resident of this city to the time of his death in 1888, his widow surviving until 1912.
After coming to America, Theodore O. Vilter continued his education, which had begun in the schools of his native country, by study in the German-English Academy in Milwaukee. When his textbooks were put aside he became an apprentice in the machine shop that constituted the basis of what has been developed into the large industrial plant of the Vilter Manufacturing Company. This business had been founded by Peter Weisel in 1867. For three months Mr. Vilter worked without pay as a blacksmith's apprentice. Later he took a road position in erecting machines and in time became foreman. With his earnings he at length purchased an interest in the concern and the business was reorganized and incorporated under the name of the Weisel & Vilter Manufacturing Company. In 1887 Mr. Vilter and his brothers pur- chased the interest of Mr. Weisel and continued the operation of the plant under the style of the Vilter Manufacturing Company. When Theodore O. Vilter became iden. tified with the enterprise there were but four journeymen and three apprentices in . the establishment, and something of the development of the business is indicated in the fact that the Vilter Manufacturing Company, which is the outgrowth of the original business, now has seven hundred and fifty employes, while the trade has grown until the annual sale of products nets several million dollars. The factory was destroyed in the disastrous fire which swept the third ward of the city in 1892, but immediately the plant was rebuilt upon a larger scale and many improvements introduced, the present site on Clinton street, bordering the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, being chosen at that time. Many additions have been made at different periods until the plant now covers an area of nine acres and includes a number of substantial modern buildings, most of which are several stories in height.
As the years passed, Theodore O. Vilter and his brothers, William and Emil, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this work, acquired the controlling interest in this great industry and bent their efforts to administrative direction and executive control. The business had been organized for the manufacture of machinery for brewers and bottlers, but later they expanded the scope of their activities by including the building of the improved Corliss engines, while at the present time the extensive plant is devoted primarily to the manufacture of ice-making and refrigerating ma- chinery. In this connection the company has won an international reputation, the output being sent to all parts of the world. They have erected refrigerating plants in South Africa, Japan, Mexico, South America, France, Germany and England. Mr. Vilter remained as president of the company to the time of his death. The family retains its interests in the business. The company has a membership in the National Metal Trades Association. Theodore O. Vilter was ever a close student of business conditions and the public demand along the line of trade in which he engaged, and so directed his efforts and activities that gratifying results accrued. Mr. Vilter was not only a splendid executive but also a highly skilled mechanic. He could enter any department of his factory, take a tool from the hands of any workman and use it with skill and precision, owing to the fact that he had worked in every department, heing at different times a machinist. salesman and executive. .
On the 16th of February, 1884, Mr. Vilter was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Meiners, who was born and reared in Milwaukee and is a daughter of the late John Meiners, who was at one time a leading business man of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Vilter had four children: Erna; Alma; Ida; and Theodore, Jr., who died at the age of two years.
Mr. Vilter was not only a very successful business man but he was much more. He at
THEODORE O. VILTER
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all times recognized and met his duties and obligations in citizenship and to his fellowmen, and he was the champion and supporter of many projects contributing to the welfare and upbuilding of the community. He served for some time as a trustee of the German-English Academy, in which he completed his education, and that he was a factor in the social life of the community is shown in his membership in the Wisconsin Club, the Milwaukee Turnverein and the Knights of Pythias. He belonged to the Association of Commerce, of which he was one of the directors, to the Amer- ican Society of Refrigerating Engineers, to the American Society of Mechanical En- gineers and also to the sewerage commission of Milwaukee. He attended the Inter- national Convention of Refrigerating Engineers at Vienna, Austria, in 1910, and through his efforts brought the convention to Chicago, Illinois, in the year 1913. One of the unique achievements credited to Mr. Vilter was that of bringing to Milwaukee the International Refrigeration Congress. Mr. Vilter had attended a meeting of the congress at Vienna in 1910, and in a spirited address he invited the congress to visit Milwaukee. Its convention of 1913 being held in Chicago, Mr. Vilter was active in perfecting plans whereby the members of the congress, about one hundred and fifty in number, were placed on a train at Chicago and brought to this city. They were shown the larger industrial plants of the city and were entertained at a noon luncheon and at an evening banquet given at the Palm Garden. The speeches were made in
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