USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume II > Part 18
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WALLACE MALCOLM BELL.
Thirty-three years have been added to the cycle of the centuries since Wallace Malcolm Bell became identified with the business interests of Milwaukee. Through- out the entire period he has been associated with the grain trade and is now conduct- ing his interests under the name of the W. M. Bell Company, Incorporated, of which he is the president. His experience has covered many years and his success has been assured owing to his thorough understanding of the trade, his close application and keen business sagacity. He was born in Brooklyn, Illinois, August 22, 1858. His father, Benjamin F. Bell, who was a stock dealer, died in 1891, having for twenty years sur- vived his wife, who passed away in 1871. She bore the maiden name of Margaret Lewis and was a daughter of William Lewis, a merchant of Brooklyn, Illinois, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Lewis family came from Wales in 1683 and settled at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. There William Lewis, the great-great-grand- father of W. M. Bell, was one of the most noted and distinguished lawyers of his time, having been admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1777.
After acquiring his early education in the public schools of Rushville, Illinois, where he passed through consecutive grades to his graduation from the Rushville high school, W. M. Bell entered Princeton College as a member of the class of 1883. When his college course was completed he spent six years in Chicago and then came to Milwaukee, where he has since been engaged in his present line of business, that of dealer in grain. He was at first in the employ of L. Bartlett & Son, with whom he remained for a period of eight years. He was ambitious, however, to engage in business on his own account and eventually he found a way to do so, having secured sufficient capital through his industry and economy. In 1897 he founded his present business, in which he was at first associated with James Sawyer and Frank Rice. They incorporated their interests under the name of the Bell Commission Company and after about two years Mr. Sawyer and Mr. Rice retired. At the present time Mr. Bell is associated with William A. Hottensen and his son, Robert G. Bell, and the
WALLACE M. BELL
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business is carried on under the name of the W. M. Bell Company, which style was assumed in 1898. He is thoroughly conversant with the grain trade in every particular and has huilt up a business of substantial proportions.
On Thanksgiving day of 1892 Mr. Bell was united in marriage to Miss Margaret J. Larramie, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, who passed away in 1919, leaving one son, Robert G. Bell, who was born June 20, 1894, and was educated in the Milwaukee public schools, the East Side high school and the Culver Military Academy. He served during the World war and for eleven months was in France with the Medical Corps, receiving his discharge April 23, 1919. He is now secretary of the W. M. Bell Com- pany.
Mr. Bell has never been active in politics but votes with the democratic party. In religious faith he is a Christian Scientist and attends the First church. Fra- ternally he is a Mason. belonging to Lafayette Lodge No. 265, F. & A. M .; Calumet Chapter, R. A. M .; Ivanhoe Commandery, K. T .; and Wisconsin Consistory, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is also a Mystic Shriner of Tripoli Temple and he belongs to the Milwaukee Lodge of Elks. He like- wise has membership in the Milwaukee Athletic Club, of which he served as president from 1899 until 1901, belongs to the City Club and is a prominent and valued member of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was president in 1909 and 1910. He has always been interested in athletics and he keeps in touch with what is being done in the athletic field, especially in outdoor athletics. He is a fisherman and makes frequent trips to the northern waters to indulge his love of fishing. His life has been pur- poseful and his enterprise and determination have carried him to a most creditable point of success. He commands the respect of all and wins the friendship of many and deserves classification with the representative residents of Milwaukee.
LOUIS MARSHALL WARFIELD, M. D.
Dr. Louis Marshall Warfield, engaged in the practice of medicine since 1903, and president of the Milwaukee Medical Society, 1920-21, has resided in this city since 1909. He was born in Savannah, Georgia, May 15, 1876. His father, Louis Marshall Warfield, deceased, was a cotton merchant, who was born in Maryland and passed away in Savannah, Georgia, in 1896. The Warfield family has long been represented on this side of the Atlantic and is of Welsh lineage. The doctor's mother, now a widow, was in her maidenhood Miss Tryphena D. Wayne. She was born in Savannah, Georgia, where she still makes her home and is a representative of the Wayne family long prominent in America, the family to which belongs "Mad Anthony" Wayne, the famous general of the Revolutionary war, whose courage and daring won for him the name of "Mad Anthony" Wayne. She is also related to the Smythe family of Virginia that was likewise represented in the Revolutionary war.
Dr. Warfield was reared in his native city and acquired his classical education in the Johns Hopkins University, from which he was gradnated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1897. He then continued in the institution as a medical student and gained his professional degree in 1901. For a year he served as an interne in the Johns Hopkins Hospital and then went abroad to study in Berlin in 1902-3, and took a post- graduate course in the University of Pennsylvania in 1903. He specializes in internal medicine and diagnosis and is regarded as one of the skillful physicians of Milwaukee. He practiced for a year in Savannah, Georgia, following his postgraduate work in the University of Pennsylvania, and then in 1905 went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he remained until 1908. He was again in Savannah in 1909, and in the latter part of that year came to Milwaukee, where he has remained. Through the intervening period of thirteen years he has made steady professional progress and his success has long been assured. He served a term as the president of the Milwaukee Medical Society and belongs to the Tri-State Medical Society and to the American Medical Association. He is also a member of the Association of American Physicians, the only representative of that organization in Milwaukee. He belongs to the Milwaukee County Medical Society and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. His connections of a professional nature are thus broad and indicate his deep interest in professional advancement and progress.
On the 25th of April, 1914, Dr. Warfield was married in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to Miss Lorna Hooper, representative of a prominent family of that city, and they have become parents of two children: Jack Wayne, seven years of age; and Lois Hooper, aged two. Dr. Warfield is fond of golf, hunting and fishing and belongs to the Mil- waukee Country Club. He also has membership in the Milwaukee City Club and in the Milwaukee University Club, and the nature of his interests is further indicated in the fact that he is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. While his activities and interests cover a wide scope, his time is chiefly occupied by his professional duties, nor is he unknown in the field of medical author-
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ship. In fact, he has written much for medical journals and is the author of a medical treatise entitled Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension, which is now in its third edition. He is also the author of an article entitled, Diseases of the Arteries and Clinical Blood Pressure, published in volume six of a work entitled, Practice of Medicine, of which he is one of the authors. His writings have brought him prominently before the public and he enjoys in high measure the respect and confidence of his professional colleagues and contemporaries.
JULIUS WECHSELBERG.
Julius Wechselberg, realtor, who is today the oldest representative of real estate in Milwaukee, has at various periods been prominently identified with manufacturing and. industrial interests as well as with the handling of real estate. His name, too, is asso- ciated with the public records of city and state, he having filled important political positions, including that of state senator, so that he has left the impress of his in- dividuality and ability upon the legislative annals of the state. He still remains an active factor in the world's work although he has passed the eighty-fourth milestone on life's journey-a notable record and one that should serve to inspire and encourage others.
Mr. Wechselberg was born on the 9th of March 1838, in Barmen, Germany, a son of John P. and Johanna (Klein) Wechselberg. In 1848, when he was ten years of age, his father decided to migrate to America in order to keep his family of boys from serving in the Prussian army. In the spring of that year the family sailed in the Shakespeare, one of the old-time sailing vessels, for New York, and they were forty-eight days com- pleting the voyage. From New York they took passage on the Rip Van Winkle, a side- wheeler, up the Hudson river to Albany; from there to Buffalo by way of the Erie canal and thence by steamer through the Great Lakes to Milwaukee, landing at the foot of Huron street on the 25th of September 1848. The father had been a manufacturer in Germany and after coming to the new world purchased a tract of land in the town of Lake, Milwaukee county, and devoted several years to improving this farm, later re- turning to the city of Milwaukee, where he spent the remaining years of his life.
Julius Wechselberg, of this review, acquired his early education in the district schools, pursuing his studies in one of the old-time small log schoolhouses, while later he spent several terms as a pupil in a commercial college in Milwaukee. At the age of sixteen years he left the farm. Making his way to the city, he entered the shop of Isaac Kingsley, a carriage and wagon manufacturer, by whom he was employed for three years; receiving thirty dollars per year and board for the first year; forty dollars and board for the second year; and fifty dollars and board for the third year.
After thus completing his apprenticeship, Mr. Wechselberg was employed in dif- ferent shops until the spring of 1861, when he established business on his own account, opening a carriage shop at the corner of Michigan and Milwaukee streets, where stood a building that had formerly been occupied as an organ factory but had been vacated on account of the owner losing his life on the Lady Elgin. Mr. Wechselberg purchased this building for one hundred and forty dollars, after obtaining a lease of the lot from Elisha Eldred. There Mr. Wechselberg engaged in manufacturing hand-made carriages and cutters, the new enterprise flourishing from the start. He remained at his original location for about five years, when the business outgrew its quarters and he purchased a lot on the east side of Second street between Wells and Spring streets (now Grand avenue), erecting thereon a three story brick building, in which he conducted the Novelty Carriage Works. Later he admitted his brother and Thomas H. Brown to a partnership, under the firm style of Wechselberg, Brown & Company, carriage manu- facturers. In 1871 they were burned out and owing to the insurance company's heavy losses that year in the big Chicago fire they were able to collect only a part of the insurance. That same year they purchased a lot on Third street, north of the Wiscon- sin Hotel, fifty by one hundred and fifty feet, the purchase price being seventy dollars per front foot or three thousand five hundred dollars. Today this lot is valued at five thousand dollars per front foot or two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Upon this lot was erected a large building, which still stands today, but is about to be razed to make way for another unit of the Wisconsin Hotel. Here the firm continued to manufacture carriages for several years, and the business steadily grew and de- veloped.
In the fall of 1876 Mr. Wechselberg sold his interest in the business to his brother and Mr. Brown, who were his partners in the undertaking. Three years before this time, or in 1873, he had been elected alderman of the fourth ward and served in the office for four years. In the fall of 1876 he was elected clerk of the circuit court, and it was by reason of this election, the office demanding his entire time, that he sold his interest in the business. He proved most capable in the discharge of his duties and was twice reelected. While serving as clerk of the circuit court he studied law and was
JULIUS WECHSELBERG
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admitted to the har. In 1881 he began dealing in real estate. On the expiration of his third term, January 1, 1883, he turned his entire attention to the real estate business, in which he has since engaged and is today the oldest real estate dealer in Milwaukee.
Mr. Wechselberg has from time to time been called upon to serve in positions of public honor and trust, In the fall of 1886 he was elected a member of the state senate and served in the upper house of the general assembly for four years. In 1890 he was tendered, by Congressman Isaac W. Van Schoick, the position of census enumerator for the eastern district of Wisconsin, but on account of his growing real estate activities he declined the position. In 1892 he was the republican candidate for congressman in the fifth district but failed of an electiton owing to a democratic land slide that year, the year Grover Cleveland was elected president for the second time.
Mr. Wechselberg has been president of the Milwaukee Real Estate Board and of the Old Settler's Club, is an attendant of the Grand Avenue Congregational church and has been identified with the Masonic fraternity for fifty-nine years. Today he is the oldest member of and also the dean of past masters of Kilbourn Lodge, No. 3, F. & A. M., and has been a member of the Supreme Council thirty-third degree Masons, for twenty-six years. His life has been guided by the beneficent spirit and principles which underlie the craft.
In 1862 Mr. Wechselberg was united in marriage to Miss Cecilia Louise Whitney, a daughter of Walter and Phoebe (Sweeny) Whitney. They became the parents of two children: William, who is now deceased; and Nellie F., the widow of Arthur Henne- kemper. The wife and mother passed away in 1893. The children of a second wife are Edward F. and Edith R.
Mr. Wechselberg is recognized as a man of influence in every field into which he has directed his labors, and his sterling worth is recognized and attested by all, For nearly three-fourths of a century he has lived in Wisconsin and through much of this period in Milwaukee, so that he is familiar with the history of the city and of the state. He has taken an active interest in all that has pertained to public progress and im- provement; has contributed much to the industrial and commercial development of the community and to the political activity. He was a member of the original volunteer fire department and served as secretary of supply nose company, No. 1, just prior to the establishment of the paid fire department. In building up different sections of Milwaukee his efforts proved an important and resultant factor, as he was the originator of numerous subdivisions in various parts of the city which are now thickly populated. The sterling worth of his character is attested by all, and he has a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintance.
EDWARD H. SCHWARTZBURG.
Through the steps of an orderly progression Edward H. Schwartzburg of Mil- waukee, has worked his way steadily upward until his advancement brought him to the responsible position of manager of the Milwaukee plant of the National Enameling & Stamping Company. He has spent his life in this city and has an enviable record for steadfastness of purpose, for thorough reliability and for undaunted enterprise in business affairs. His birth here occurred November 25, 1871, and he is a representative of one of the oldest and best known families of the city, identified with progress and improvement here through three generations. His paternal grandfather, Christian Schwartzburg, was one of the first settlers of Milwaukee and the station on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, now known as North Milwaukee, was first named Schwartzburg in his honor. His son, Henry A. Schwartzburg, was born in Milwaukee, and after the outbreak of the Civil war joined the Union forces as a member of the navy, participating in all the important battles which were waged on the Mississippi river. He married Sophia Eggensperger, a native of Steubenville, Ohio.
At the usual age Edward H. Schwartzhurg became a pupil in the public schools of Milwaukee and completed the work of various grades until he had finished his high school course. He next spent a year as a student in the College of Law of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin. He started out in the business world as a lad of sixteen years by entering the employ of the Kieckhefer Brothers Company, and throughout the intervening period to the present has been connected with the business. He worked his way upward through various positions with that company until the time of its consolidation with the National Enameling & Stamping Company and he is now a director as well as manager of the Milwaukee plant of the latter concern. He readily recognizes and utilizes opportunities that others have passed heedlessly by and has never been afraid to take a forward step when the way was open,
On the 21st of September, 1897, Mr. Schwartzburg was married to Miss Clara T. Kieckhefer, a daughter of Ferdinard A. W. and Wilemine ( Kuetemeyer ) Kieckhefer. They have become parents of five children: Mildred S., Edward H., Frederick W., Grace E. and Thomas C. The parents are members of the St. James Episcopal church
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and have contributed generously to its support and take an active part in its work. Mr. Schwartzburg is also connected with the Milwaukee Athletic and the Milwaukee Gun Clubs and is popular in these social organizations. His political support has ever been given to the republican party since he attained his majority, yet he has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking, preferring at all times to con- centrate his efforts and activities upon the increasingly important business affairs which have claimed his attention and which now rank him with the leading representatives of industrial and commercial activity in Milwaukee.
REV. FRANCIS J. PETTIT.
Rev. Francis J. Pettit, pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic church of Milwaukee, was born in Springvale township, Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, January 15, 1868. He is a son of Joseph and Mary (O'Reilly) Pettit, the former a native of Ireland, while the latter was born in Rhode Island. The father came to Wisconsin with his parents in 1844, when a youth of but nine years, and was among the early pioneers of this state. Joseph Pettit spent his entire life as a farmer and passed away in the year 1916, while the mother is still living and now makes her home on the farm on which she has spent her life.
Rev. Father Pettit acquired his early education in the country schools near his father's home and in 1886 he entered St. Francis Seminary for ten years in preparation for the priesthood, being ordained on the 16th of June, 1895. He was then assigned to duty at Shullsburg, Wisconsin, where he became assistant pastor of St. Matthew's church, there continuing his labors for eight years. He was next sent to St. Mat- thew's church at Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where he took charge of the parish. He also had charge of St. John's, a mission in South Milwaukee. Here he built a parish house in 1908. He was transferred from the Oak Creek church to St. John's church in South Milwaukee in that year and there continued his labors uninterruptedly until October, 1920, when he was assigned to the pastorate of St. Patrick's parish in Milwaukee to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the Rt. Rev. John Morrissey. Here he has a parish of about four hundred families and in the intervening period he has done excellent work in systematizing and promoting the work of the church in all of its departments.
CHARLES MANEGOLD, JR.
Charles Manegold, Jr., president of the Milwaukee-Waukesha Brewing Company,- with plant at No. 155 South Water street in Milwaukee, was born September 15, 1851, in the city which is still his home. His father, Charles Manegold, was a native of Braunschweig, Germany, and came to the United States in 1848. For a time he re- sided in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then removed to Milwaukee. He was a blacksmith by trade but in later life turned his attention to the ice business in this city and in 1868 built a flour mill on South Water street, which he continued to own and operate until his death in May, 1879, his son Charles, Jr., being associated with him in this under- taking. He was a most active and progressive business man and he enjoyed the respect and confidence of all. His father was Henry Manegold, who was likewise a black- smith by trade. The mother of Charles Manegold, Jr., bore the maiden name of Wil- helmina Notbohm, and she too was born in Braunschweig, Germany, while her death cecured in Milwaukee in 1909. Our subject has two brothers, Henry and William, who are yet residents of Milwaukee, the former now living retired. Two other brothers, Fred and Albert Manegold, are deceased.
Charles Manegold, Jr., obtained a public school education in his native city, after which he learned the miller's trade in his father's mill, serving an apprenticeship to Eugene Hotchkiss, who had rented the mill. He thoroughly mastered the business in principle and detail and in 1871 was admitted to a partnership under the firm style of Hotchkiss & Manegold. Later in the same year, however, the firm went out of business. Mr. Manegold afterward operated the mill for his father and an uncle, Angust Mane- gold, for a period of three years. At the end of that time Angust Manegold passed away and Charles Manegold, Jr., became an equal partner with his father in the busi- ness. He remained an active factor in the conduct of the enterprise until 1910. In 1876 he had hecome a partner of C. J. Kershaw in the ownership of the Northwestern Marine elevator and in 1878 he and his father purchased the reliance flour mill at West Water street. He took an active part in the successful management and control of all three of these business enterprises and was actively associated with the milling business until 1910. In the meantime he had become interested in the Milwaukee Malt- ing Company in 1886 and was identified therewith until 1898, when the company sold
CHARLES MANEGOLD, JR.
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out to the American Malting Company. In 1899 Mr. Manegold became the owner of the business carried on under the name of the Milwaukee-Waukesha Brewing Company, of which he is now the president. They have breweries at Waukesha and at Fox Head Springs. The business has been developed to substantial proportions and in its con- duct Mr. Manegold has displayed the same spirit of enterprise, determination and progressiveness which characterize him in his other industrial and commercial con- nections.
On the 16th of October, 1875, Mr. Manegold was married to Miss Anna Kretschmar, a daughter of Robert Kretschmar, a native of Saxony, Germany, who conducted busi- ness as a butcher and meat packer. Mr. and Mrs. Manegold have become parents of three daughters: Emily, now the widow of A. S. Lindeman, of Milwaukee; Ella, the wife of Frank Boesel, a lawyer of this city; and Irma, now the wife of Dr. Edwin Henes, of New York, but now residing in Milwaukee. Emily has two daughters, Alice and Charlotte, while Mrs. Boesel has three children, Charles, Frank and Marianna, and Mrs. Henes has two children, Viriginia and Edwin.
Mr. Manegold has taken a deep and helpful interest in public affairs. He was one of the first park commissioners of the city, filling the office in 1889 when the park system was inaugurated. He gave much time to the project for a period of ten years and as a member of the first park board he made the original purchase of what is now Lake park, Washington park, Kosciuszko park and other parks of the city. His cooperation can at all times be counted upon to further any plans or measure for the general good. Politically ne maintains an independent course nor has he ever held or desired elective office. He is identified with many social organizations and societies which have to do directly with the benefit and upbuilding of Milwaukee. He has mem- bership in the Association of Commerce, the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Wisconsin Club, the Calumet Club, the Blue Mound Country Club and also in the Milwaukee Art Institute. He greatly enjoys bowling and fishing and turns to these for recreation when leisure permits. He has also benefited greatly by travel abroad and has visited Spitzbergen, Egypt, the Holy Land, South America and other points of wide interest. He went to Alaska in 1898, the year gold was discovered there, but he did not learn of the discovery until he had returned to Seattle. He has also visited the West Indies. saw the Panama Canal in the making and has traveled throughout Mexico. He has always been accompanied hy his wife or other members of the family and he has found his greatest happiness in promoting the welfare and happiness of the members of his own household. As a member of the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce he served for twenty years as one of the committee on arbitration. He has closely studied the questions which are vital to the welfare and progress of the city and state in which he makes his home, and his support of any measure is an indication of his firm belief in its value as related to good government.
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