USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume II > Part 15
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Spanish, French English and German. The spirit of international friendship and good fellowship ran high. Wine flowed freely and the menu was designed to meet the appetites of all nationalities. The technical magazines in Europe were loud in their praises of Milwaukee hospitality. Nowhere on the American continent had the guests enjoyed greater and warmer hospitality or a more pleasurable reception. The extension of Milwaukee's hospitality on this occasion was but characteristic of Mr. Vilter and his public spirit. He served as a member of the Milwaukee sewerage ccm- mission during the period when the more complicated engineering problems had to be determined. The system is regarded as the most scientific in the matter of sewage disposal ever undertaken by any city, either in the United States or Europe. Mr. Vilter's knowledge in the mechanical field enabled him to render most valuable aid in this connection. He studied every phase of the problems presented and his labors and his opinions were of the greatest worth. Again he contributed to the world's progress when he was called upon to cooperate at the time the industrial commission of Wisconsin proceeded to outline a set of rules on boiler regulation. His technical knowledge proved of immense service to the state in formulating standards and rules which are now permanent in connection with boiler safety.
When America entered the World war Mr. Vilter demonstrated his loyalty to the country in a most practical and effective manner. Of German birth, be revered his mother country, but he felt that his allegiance belonged to his adopted land. He, therefore, gave liberally of his time and means in promoting war aid projects, render- ing effective assistance in Red Cross campaigns and Liberty Bond sales. In fact, his zeal was so intense that it impaired his health and by his close friends is believed to have shortened his life. His patriotism was one of his most marked characteristics and in every relation of life he measured fully up to the highest standards of manhood. His relations with his employes were always cordial and genial and they knew that justice could always be secured at his hands. Many there are who bear testimony to his sterling worth and kindly spirit, and the Association of Commerce, with which he was connected. spoke of his work for the organization as most energetic and un- . selfish. There was, therefore, a decided tug at the heartstrings of his many friends when Theodore O. Vilter died on the morning of September 19, 1919, after an illness of several months' duration, leaving a memory that is cherished by all who knew him.
The following tribute was paid at the funeral service of the late Theodore O. Vilter by William George Bruce on the 22d of September, 1919. "In the light of the character and disposition of the deceased it follows that no lengthy sermon nor flow of eloquence, but the truth, told in the simplest language, must serve us. The truth here calls for a tribute born out of the completion of a life's work, the contact of man with man, of associate with associate. of friend with friend. Truth here readily lends itself to the beauty of romance. It is with the close of a career that we secure a perspective of its value, its service, and its blessings. The career of the deceased was intimately associated with the material progress and prestige of the community. He was essentially a worker, a builder, a constructor.
"The industrial life of the city had its inception in the skilled mechanics whose hands fashioned useful things. They were reinforced by those who possessed organiz- ing ability. Their vision and constructive ability carried them on to success. They became the founders of great industries. Theodore O. Vilter belonged to that rare type of man. He began his career in a pair of overalls. He became a producer. More than that, he breathed his character into every article he produced. The product and his industry, carried him to success. His beginnings were humble and small. But the man became one. They stood for integrity and service. His enterprise, his energy, there was a power within him that reared an edifice of splendid proportions. His
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products went to the four ends of the world. His name was the guaranty that the product was perfect. He was always in sympathetic touch with his men. Having served for many years as a worker, he could understand his men, sympathize with them, fraternize with them. He was their coworker and friend. He was a true friend of labor.
"As a citizen he had no peer. In peace and in war he worked loyally for his adopted country. In all the important war drives he was an important factor, giving liberally of his time and substance. When public sentiment at times became super- heated and here and there threatened to break into extremes, he held calmly to that Americanism which recognizes justice and tolerance. He did not believe that oppo- sition to autocratic power should degenerate into race hatred. He held that trne culture wherever it may have its origin, must not be desecrated. Though German born, he was in the highest sense of that term a trne American citizen.
"But we cannot contemplate the man and his works withont contemplating him also as an associate, a comrade, a friend. Who does not recall his hearty, whole- sonled, infections langhter, his vigorous slap on the shoulder, his strong sense of humor? He delighted in the spirit of good fellowship and always stood ready to help in counsel and in deed. He was not only a large man-large in body and in mind- but he was also a large man in soul and sympathy. In his departure we all lose a genial companion, a wise counselor, and a true friend.
"The consolation that comes to the family and to the friends is found in the fact that he made a valuable contribution to the world's work and thereby added a full man's share to the sum of human happiness. It forms the richest legacy that man can confer upon man."
WILLIAM ROBBINS McGOVERN.
William Robbins McGovern, president and general manager of the Wisconsin Telephone Company, belongs to that large class of substantial business men who are natives 'of this city who have enjoyed its educational opportunities and who have so directed their labors that they have not only won success but have aided in promoting general prosperity as well. Mr. McGovern was educated in Marquette University and was a member of the arts and science class of 1900, while in 1915 the E. E. degree was conferred upon him. In 1900 he entered the employ of the Wisconsin Telephone Company as a draftsman, receiving a salary of twenty-five dollars per month. He worked his way upward through the different branches of the plant, serving in the construction, traffic, commercial and engineering depart- ments, until he became chief engineer of the company. In 1911 he went to Chicago as engineer of the Chicago Telephone Company and in 1916 was made chief en- gineer of the central group of the Bell Telephone Companies, with headquarters in Chicago, this including the Chicago Telephone Company, the Michigan State Telephone Company, the Cleveland Telephone Company, the Central Union Tele- phone Company and the Wisconsin Telephone Company. In 1919 he came to Mil- waukee as general manager of the Wisconsin Telephone Company. In 1920 he was elected director and vice president and in January, 1922, was elected president. Before entering upon active connection with the telephone business he had during school vacations and after school hours spent considerable time in contracting and construction work and this constituted an initial step to his advancement after en- tering upon his present line of business. He has steadily climbed to the position which he has reached as the result of earnest effort, close application and inde- fatigable industry. He is a self-made man in the highest and best sense of the term and his life record should serve to inspire and enconrage others, showing what can be accomplished through individual effort when one has the will to dare and to do.
On the 15th of May, 1906, Mr. McGovern was married to Miss Marie Alice Phelan of Milwaukee, and they have become parents of four children: Mary Alice, William R., Jr., David P. and Ruth Marie.
Mr. McGovern is not only a native son of Wisconsin but also a representative of one of the pioneer families of this state. In fact, both of his parents were born near Milwaukee, the father in Waukesha county and the mother in Walworth connty, and their respective parents established homes in this state at a very early day. They were farmers on both sides of the family and the original ancestors came from Ireland. The maternal grandfather of William R. McGovern bore the name of Patrick Robbins. Since that early day representatives of the McGovern and Robbins families have taken active and helpful part in the material develop- ment and substantial progress of this section and William Robbins McGovern has followed in the conrse that his forbears marked out in relation to public and civic interests. During the war with Germany he was a member of the legal advisory
WILLIAM R. McGOVERN
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board. He organized two telegraph battalions of the Signal Corps that went over- seas. He participated most heartily in all the Liberty Loan drives and Thrift Sav- ings Stamps campaigns and received medals for his services. He has done much valuable service along other lines and is now a member of the Milwaukee county park commission. He likewise belongs to the Milwaukee Ciuh, the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the University Club, the Press Club, the Rotary Club, the Wisconsin Club and the Blue Mound Country Club. He is a valued member of the Milwaukee Association of Commerce, also of the Milwaukee Art institute, the Engineers So- ciety of Milwaukee and the Electrical Association of Milwaukee. Mr. McGovern is a member of the Telephone Pioneers of America and is a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He has keen interest in everything that tends to promote general progress and improvement and at the same time his activity centers in his chosen field of labor and he is much interested in those societies which have to do with advancement and improvement along electrical lines. His position as president and general manager of the Wisconsin Telephone Company is now one of large responsibility and his has been a purposeful career, his well defined plans crowned with success.
THEODORE E. LUSK.
Opportunity is continually calling and the successful man is the one who makes ready response thereto. Among the energetic and enterprising young business men of Milwaukee county is Theodore E. Lusk, who has never allowed opportunity to call twice. He has used every chance for business advancement and is today cashier of the West Allis State Bank at Fifty-third and National avenue. He was born De- cember 20, 1891, in Milwaukee, his parents being Theodore A. and Nora E. (Floten) Lusk, the former a native of Michigan, while the latter was born in Norway. The father located in Milwaukee in 1865 and was engaged in the brokerage business for a number of years but is now living retired and makes his home in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, enjoying the sunny clime of the Pacific coast.
Theodore E. Lusk was educated in the public schools of Milwaukee and after he had completed his studies started out in the business world as a messenger boy in the First National Bank, working his way upward to a clerical position. He afterward entered the Merchants & Manufacturers Bank of Milwaukee in the capacity of bookkeeper and later served as teller, remaining in that institution for several years. In 1916 he became assistant cashier of the West Allis State Bank and was elected cashier on the 1st of January, 1921. He is now acting in this capacity, to the satisfaction of the officers and stockholders of the company and is regarded as one of the enterprising young business men of the city, having by individual merit and capability worked his way upward to his present enviable position in banking circles.
On the 17th of June, 1916, Mr. Lusk was married to Miss Bessie L. Brown of Milwaukee, and they have become parents of a daughter, Dorothy Florence, born April 10, 1919. Mr. Lusk is a member of Lafayette Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and is a loyal and worthy exemplar of the teachings of the craft. He took an active part as assistant chairman in the various drives of West Allis during the World war and devoted much of his time to this work, while now he is giving almost his undivided attention to his banking interests. The bank of which he is cashier was organized in 1911 with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars, while the capital and surplus now amounts to sixty thousand dollars. The business of the bank has been growing until they now have on deposit one million, one hundred thousand dollars, and the steady development of the business is indicated in the fact that when Mr. Lusk be- came connected with the bank the deposits were only three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. He has been a very efficient cashier and has largely improved the business of the bank since becoming associated therewith. The bank draws its patronage largely from a foreign element that has been very thrifty in savings and the bank has done a large exchange business in sending abroad money for the patrons in Milwaukee.
ERWIN G. WURSTER.
Ability always comes to the front. Energy and determination are just as much determining factors in the attainment of success at the bar as in any of the industrial and commercial occupations and these qualities have brought Erwin Grover Wurster to a place of prominence as an attorney of Milwaukee, his native city. He was born on the 3d of February, 1884, his parents being Emanuel A. and Hattie S. (Schulz) Vol. 11-10
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Wurster, well known residents of this city. In his youthful days the son made ex- cellent use of the advantages afforded him in the public schools of Milwaukee and completed a course in the East Side high school by graduation as a member of the class of 1902. Already he had determined upon the practice of law as a life work and he soon entered the University of Michigan as a law student, there completing his course as a member of the class of 1906, at which time the Bachelor of Law degree was conferred upon him. The same year he was admitted to practice at the bar of Michigan and the bar of Wisconsin and entered upon the active work of the pro- fession in his native city. He recognized the fact that advancement in the law is proverbially slow and that energy, thoroughness and close application must feature as factors in the attainment of advancement and success in the work of the courts. He, therefore, exercised these qualities and the thoroughness with which he prepared his cases and the clearness of his reasoning soon won him recognition and led to the steady growth of his practice. He has ever been a faithful minister in the temple of justice and while his devotion to his clients' interests is proverbial he has never forgotten that he owes a still higher allegiance to the majesty of the law and in his practice has ever observed the most advanced ethics of the profession. After prac- ticing alone until November, 1907, he formed a partnership with Judge Albert Runkle, under the firm style of Runkle & Wurster, an association that was maintained until November 7, 1908, when the junior partner was appointed third assistant district attorney, under Hon. Francis E. McGovern, who was then district attorney of Mil- waukee county and later governor of the state. Mr. Wurster succeeded William A. Haynes in the position and entered upon the duties of the office with characteristic earnestness and circumspection. The ability which he displayed was manifest in his reappointment on the 1st of January, 1909, and his advancement to the position of second assistant district attorney, under the administration of August C. Bachus, later a judge on the municipal court bench of Milwaukee. From Charles A. A. McGee came appointment to the position of first assistant district attorney, the duties of which he discharged with characteristic zeal and efficiency until the socialists won their victory at the polls in November, 1910, leading to the retirement from office of Mr. Wurster and his associates in the office of district attorney in January, 1911. He now enjoys an extensive private practice and his ability is widely recognized by his fellow members of the profession as well as by the general public. He is the owner of a large and well selected law library, with the contents of which he is largely familiar and his position at the Milwaukee bar is today a most enviable one.
Mr. Wurster has always given his political allegiance to the republican party and is one of the earnest workers in its ranks because of a most firm belief in its prin- ciples as factors. in good government. He has membership in the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Deutscher Club, and the Knights of Pythias and his religious faith is mani- fest in his membership in the Lake Park Lutheran church. His professional ability, his progressive citizenship, and his many sterling personal qualities are all combined to make him one of the valued and representative citizens whom Milwaukee delights to honor as one of her native sons. Along professional lines he is connected with the Milwaukee Bar Association and is also identified with the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Wurster is married and has two sons and one daughter.
FRED T. GOLL.
Fred T. Goll, son of Julius and Margaret Goll, was born in Milwaukee in 1854. After receiving his elementary education in a private school he entered, in 1869, the employ of Goll & Frank, wholesale dry goods merchants. In order that he might acquire a thorough knowledge of the business he was placed in a minor position at first and promoted from time to time as he deserved promotion. He began as stock clerk, which enabled him to become familiar with the various commodities dealt in by the firm. He later became a salesman, and eventually a buyer for the textile depart- ment.
On the death of his father, Mr. Julius Goll, he was chosen president of the Goll & Frank Company which was incorporated in 1885. At the same time John H. Frank, eldest son of August Frank, was elected vice president, and Oscar Loeffler was made secretary-treasurer. In 1906 John H. Frank retired from the vice presidency and his youngest brother, Julius O. Frank, was chosen his successor.
In 1896 Mr. Goll was chosen a director and vice president of the First National Bank, which position he held until this bank was consolidated with the Wisconsin National Bank under the name of the First Wisconsin National Bank. He is now a director of this bank.
In this connection it should be stated that Mr. Goll has for many years been a close student of currency and banking. Few business men identified with a bank in
FRED T. GOLL
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an advisory capacity are better informed on the theory of finance as well as on the practical operations of a banking institution.
During the year 1899 Mr. Goll served as the president of the Milwaukee Associa- tion of Commerce, then known as the Merchants and Manufacturers Association. lle is a member of various civic and social clubs, among them the Milwaukee Club, the Wisconsin Club, and the Milwaukee Athletic Club.
The Goll & Frank Company has been in continuous existence, first as a firm and then a corporation, since 1852, being founded by Julius Goll and August Frank, two pioneer merchants. The concern has won through its honorable business methods a large business constituency covering a wide territory throughout the west and north- west, and has been constantly growing since its foundation. The high standards in- augurated by the founders have been consistently maintained by Mr. Fred T. Goll and his business associates.
ANGELO CERMINARA.
Angelo Cerminara, attorney at law and Italian consular agent at Milwaukee, was born in Platania, Italy, June 4, 1886. He was educated in the schools of his native land and came to America in 1903 when a youth of seventeen years. Making his way across the country he took up his abode at Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he was em- ployed in a lamp factory for about two years, and then, anxious to improve his position, he attended a business college known as the College of Commerce, at Kenosha, from which in due course of time he was graduated.
Mr. Cerminara came to Milwaukee in 1907, and for about six months was employed on the Italian newspaper of this city, but in July, 1908, the publication was suspended. He afterward became secretary for the Italian consular agent and in 1909, with the purpose of promoting his efficiency as a factor in the work of life, he attended the Marquette Law School, and in 1910 matriculated as a law student in the University of Wisconsin at Madison. There he was graduated with the LL. B. degree in 1912. after which he returned to Milwaukee, where he entered upon law practice in which he has continued through the intervening period of nine years. In August, 1917, he was appointed Italian consular agent at Milwaukee for Wisconsin and Iowa, and the duties of this office now make heavy demands upon his time. His record is certainly an enviable and commendable one. He could not speak a word of English when he came to the new world, and today he uses the language most fluently. Moreover, he has become a man of broad and liberal education, well qualified for the important duties that devolve upon him as a member of the bar and also as the Italian consular agent.
On the 28th of June. 1913, Mr. Cerminara was married to Miss Alma Heuel of Mil- waukce, and they have become the parents of a daughter, Louise Josephine. Mr. Cer- minara belongs to the Press Club, to Milwaukee Lodge, No. 46. Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and to the Milwaukee Bar Association. During the World war he was very active in support of all measures that tended to advance the interest of the forces that were fighing for world democracy. He gave most of his time to activities of that character, working among the Italian people in support of the Red Cross and the Liberty Loans, He also served on the draft board, explaining to the boys what to do and how to do it, and from his district there were more than twelve hundred soldiers who went into service. He never falters in the performance of any task that devolves upon him and he has made his life one of great activity and usefulness, By reason of what he has accomplished he is reckoned with the leading citizens of the state.
HENRY BULDER.
Henry Bulder, who was elected county treasurer of Milwaukee county by a sub- stantial majority on the 2d of November, 1920, and is, therefore, the incumbent in the position, was born in Hanover, Germany, March 30, 1867, and is a son of Henry and Anna (Stillwatch) Bulder, both of whom were natives of Holland. The father was a carpenter and contractor of Hanover and both he and his wife died in Germany.
Henry Bulder was educated in the public schools of Hanover and there learned the tailor's trade, at which he worked until 1891, when he came to America with two sisters, Anna and Talea, landing in New York city. They then journeyed across the country to Milwaukee, where they took up their abode, and all are still residing here.
Henry Bulder went to work at his trade in Milwaukee and in 1900 he engaged in merchant tailoring on his own account, opening an establishment at 83 Oneida street. whence he removed to his present place of business at 315 State street in 1910. Here he has built up a very substantial trade. He carries a large line of cloth and tailoring
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supplies and is always well equipped with the best tailored goods. He receives a very substantial patronage from many of the best people of the city, the business being today one of gratifying proportions. In addition to his activities along commercial lines Mr. Bulder has hecome well known through his public service. He was elected alderman at large in 1908 and tied with Edward Wittig, alderman at large, by a vote of twenty-two thousand nine hundred and forty-nine for the long term. By drawing lots he became the incumbent of the office for the two-year term. In 1914 he was reelected for the full term, and again in 1918 for a four years' term. He became the candidate of the republican party for the office of county treasurer in the fall of 1920, and at the regular election on the 2d of November was chosen for that position, defeat- ing the incumbent, who was a socialist, by a good majority.
Aside from his connection with political offices Mr. Bulder has been very prominent in the public life of the community. He served as a trustee of the public museum from 1908 until 1910 and was appointed a trustee of the public library in 1918 for a term of two years, followed by his reappointment in 1920. In 1907 he was untiring in his efforts to create the Zoological Garden in Washington Park, which now has about one thousand animals, worth aproximately fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Bulder is also the originator of the weights and measures ordinance, which saved to the city over one million dollars a year. This is one of the best measures that has ever been introduced by the city council, and in this and many other ways Mr. Bulder has shown his active, helpful and resultant interest in the welfare and progress of the city. Fraternally he is connected with the Elks Club, the Eagles, the Knights of Pythias, the Fraternal Line and other organizations, and his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church. His life has been one of signal usefulness and worth and he is constantly reaching out a helping hand in many directions.
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