USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume II > Part 43
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Mr. Atkinson has heen married twice. In England he wedded Miss Maud Atkinson and they became parents of a daughter, Vera. The wife and mother passed away in 1909. In 1911 Mr. Atkinson was again married, his second union being with Florence Stacy of Milwaukee, and they have one son, Cyril John.
Mr. Atkinson is well known in Masonic circles, betonging to Lafayette Lodge, F. & A. M .; Ivanhoe Commandery, K. T .; Wisconsin Consistory; and Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine, loyally following the teachings and purposes of the craft in atl of his relations with his fellowmen. He likewise helongs to the Milwaukee Association of Commerce and his activity is forthcoming at any call for the city's betterment and improvement or for the benefit of any project of general public concern and welfare.
WILLIAM F. BEUTLER, M. D.
Dr. William F. Beutler, superintendent and medical director of the Mitwaukee County Asylum for Mentally Diseased, was born in Buffalo, New York, December 24, 1865, and is a son of John and Margaret ( Zeller) Beutler, who were natives of Germany but in youth came to America.
Spending his youthful days under the parental roof in his native city, Dr. Beutler there pursued his early education and afterward continued his studies in the Niagara University, from which he was graduated on the 14th of April, 1891, on the completion of the full course in medicine, winning the M. D. degree. He then entered the United States Marine Corps at Buffalo as clinical assistant and remained there for a short time, after which he became house physician for the Erie County Penitentiary and served in that capacity for eighteen months. This work was accomplished while he was a student of medicine. Following his graduation he came directly to Milwaukee, in 1891, and entered the Mitwaukee Hospital for the Insane as second assistant. After serving in that capacity for about a year he was appointed first assistant and on the 15th of November, 1896, was elected superintendent of the institution and took charge in his official capacity on the 9th of December. He has been continuonsly connected with the institution for more than thirty years and is the oldest physician in point of service
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in any of these institutions. He has spent almost his entire professional life in hos- pital work. While there were only one hundred and twenty inmates at the hospital when he took charge there are now eight hundred and seventy-four. These are chronic cases, proncunced incurable, yet in spite of this Dr. Bentler is ahle to send fonr or five home each year cured. He follows the most progressive methods in the treatment of the patients and has abolished the old-time custom of placing them in restraint. Although many of them are violently insane, each patient is allowed outside in nice weather and the only supervision necessary is one attendant for every twenty-five or thirty patients. On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his connection with the institution he was presented with a handsome lamp hy employes of the hospital. There is one house physician, one medical student, who also acts as druggist under the supervision of Dr. Beutler, and the required number of attendants. Dr. Beutler is a member of the County and State Medical Societies and also the American Medical Association and the American Medico-Psychological Association. He has heen a con- stant student of all that has to do with professional advancement, especially in con- nection with mental diseases and that his ahility is widely recognized is manifest through his long connection with the Milwaukee County Asylum.
On the 31st of January, 1894, Dr. Bentler was married to Miss Grace M. O'Connor of Buffalo, New York, and they have one son, Floyd W., who is an attorney at law, practicing with the firm of Fawcett & Dutcher. He was in the aviation service during the World war, holding a commission as lieutenant and was stationed at various train- ing camps. Dr. Beutler is identified with the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Ivanhoe Commandery, K. T., to Wisconsin Consistory, A. A. S. R., and to Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine, also to Milwaukee Lodge, No. 46, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His professional activities have made him widely known and his opinions always elicit interest among fellow members of the profession who know the good work that he has accomplished for the patients of the Milwaukee County Asylum.
JAMES ALEXANDER HARVEY.
There stands as monument to the business enterprise, the indefatigable energy and the progressive spirit of James Alexander Harvey, many of the mammoth grain elevators of Milwaukee. He was long connected with building interests in this city, and the extent and importance of his activities placed him in a point of leadership in industrial circles. His life story cannot fail to prove of interest, showing what may he accomplished through individual effort when intelligently directed and when patterned after the highest standards of integrity and fair dealing.
Mr. Harvey was born in Fenwick, Scotland, September 7, 1832, and was one of ten children born to James and Jannette (Stewart) Harvey, who in the year 1851 left their home in honny Scotland and came to the new world. On reaching American shores they at once made their way into the interior of the country and established their home in Illinois, spending their remaining days in the vicinity of Plainfield, where the father passed away at the ripe old age of seventy-eight years, while his wife was seventy-three years of age at the time of her demise. Their second son, Alexander, had come to the new world a year previous to the arrival of the family in Illinois and it was probably the glowing reports which he sent back to Scotland that caused his parents to brave the dangers and privations in search of a better land-the land of opportunity. They met hardships and privations but they had the assistance of a courageous family of sons and daughters, including John, Alexander, Mrs. Agnes Ferguson, Mrs. Jannette McMechan, James A., Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart, Joan, Robert, Mary and William.
James A. Harvey was a youth of about eleven years when the family came to the new world and with the others took up his abode in Oswego, Kendall county, Illinois. He had acquired a public school education ere he entered upon work as a carpenter's apprentice, and later he hecame associated with his brother-in-law, Alexander Miller, who was engaged in building grain elevators. He acquainted himself with every phase of the work, received most thorough training and hecame so efficient in the establishment of elevators that he was sent to Milwaukee in 1858 and eventually had charge of the erection of all of the elevators in this city, which were built upon plans that he had designed. His lahors were of untold value and henefit to the city and at all times he held to the highest standards of service in carrying on his work. During the memorable elevator strike, in which certain lawless elements from Chicago threatened to burn the elevators, Mr. Harvey aroused all of his employes and let it be known that he intended to defend the property. His energetic action in a short time brought defeat to the strikers. He was always ready for any emergency and any opportunity, and the force of his character was manifest in whatever he under- took as his plans were always carefully formulated and carried forward to successful accomplishment.
JAMES A. HARVEY
Vol. 11-27
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On the ISth of May, 1858, Mr. Harvey was united in marriage to Miss Helen P. Miller, who was one of the seven children of James A. and Isabelle ( McKenzie) Miller, of St. Charles, Illinois, where her father was a well known carriage manufacturer. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey had one daughter, Ida Alice, who died at the age of fourteen years.
Mr. Harvey was prominently known through various membership connections. He helonged to the Milwaukee Club, was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce and likewise of the Congregational church, and in these associations were indicated much of the nature of his interests and the rules that governed his conduct. He was always appreciative of the social amenities of life and prized his friendships highly. Through his connection with the Chamber of Commerce he manifested his deep interest in the city's welfare and in the advancement of its civic standards. His religious faith was constantly expressed in his relations with his fellowmen. He was greatly interested in charity but gave without publicity, following strictly the injunction not to let the left hand know what the right hand doeth. His interest also centered in his home, and he lived for his family, finding his greatest happiness at his own fireside. It was his custom to discuss with his wife not only all of the secondary activities which craved his attention but also his husiness affairs, and he often acknowledged his indebted- ness to her sound judgment and keen insight into business situations. She has always possessed great ability for business and her opinions were often a vital force in the conduct of her husband's transactions. Mrs. Harvey is a remarkable woman in her continuous activity notwithstanding her advanced years. She has always manifested a helpful spirit toward anything of vital public interest, has been very prominent in club life and was among the organizers of the Home for the Aged and the kinder- gartens of the city. In a word she is constantly extending a helping hand where aid is needed, and her kindliness has prompted her to reach out in generous assistance to the needy, in helpfulness to many public projects and in an inspirational way to those activities which have made for intellectual and moral advancement in the com- munity.
MAX WELLINGTON BABB.
Max Wellington Babb, vice president and general attorney of the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, his identification with the corporation dating from 1904, was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, July 28, 1874, his parents being Washington Irving and Alice (Bird) Babb. The father was born in Des Moines county, Iowa, October 2, 1844, a son of Miles and Mary ( Moyer ) Babb. Enjoying liberal educational opportunities, W. I. Babb won the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the Iowa Wesleyan University in 1866 and three years later received the degree of Master of Arts from the same institu- tion, which in 1898 conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. From the State University of Iowa he likewise received the degree of LL. D. in 1907. He joined the Union army during the period of the Civil war and served with the Eighth Jowa Volunteer Cavalry from 1863 until 1865. It was in 1868 that he was admitted to the bar and took up the practice of law at Mount Pleasant, lowa, where he successfully followed his profession for a period of thirty-eight years. Since 1906 he has been vice president of the Austin Manufacturing Company of Chicago and is the president of the Western Wheeled Scraper Company of Aurora, Illinois, where he makes his home. Long a prominent and leading resident of the Hawkeye state, he was an active factor in public affairs there, serving as a member of the Iowa house of representatives in 1884, while from 1891 until 1895 he discharged the duties devolving upon him as judge of the second judicial district. In 1895 he was the democratic candidate for governor and the follow- ing year received the democratic vote of the Iowa legislature for United States senator. He acted as chairman of the sound money democratic convention held in Iowa in 1896 and was regent of the State University of Iowa from 1898 until 1906. Of the Iowa Wesleyan University he has been a trustee since 1873, or for a period of forty-eight years.
A schoolboy in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, until he had mastered the branches of learn- ing that constitute the public school curriculum, Max W. Babb afterward entered the Iowa Wesleyan College, from which he won the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1895. He next entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor for the study of law and gained his LL. B. degree upon graduation with the class of 1897. Immediately afterward he entered upon the active practice of his profession in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in partner- ship with his father, and devoted seven years to the work in the courts. In 1904 he became associated with the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, with which he has continued and since 1913 has been vice president and general attorney, holding the dual position for a period of eight years. His knowledge of legal principles, especially relating to corporations, has been of the greatest value to the company, while his sound
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judgment and executive ability displayed in the position of vice president have also constituted a substantial asset in the attainment of success.
On the 23d of October, 1900, Mr. Babh was married to Miss Vida Kemble, a daugh- ter of I. O. Kemble of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and they have become the parents of three children: Mary Winifred, Irving Thornton and Max Wellington, aged, respectively, sixteen, fourteen and three years.
During the World war Mr. Babb was a member of District Board, No. 1, of Wis- consin under the Selective Service Act. He is a director of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, a position that indicates his high standing among business men of the country. He is also a trustee of Milwaukee-Downer College in Milwaukee. His political endorsement is given to the republican party, and while never an office seeker, few men are more able intelligently to discuss the vital questions of the day. Fra- ternally he is connected with the Masonic order and with the Beta Theta Pi, a college fraternity. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and in social clubs he holds membership in the Milwaukee, Milwaukee Country and Town Clubs. His social, genial nature and unfeigned cordiality make for popularity wherever he is known.
WILLIAM WETTIG.
William Wettig, who passed away August 17, 1921, was long a familiar figure in manufacturing circles in Milwaukee, where he was vice president and secretary of the Dyer Wholesale Saddlery Company. Moreover, he was a native son of the city, his birth having here occurred November 1, 1852, and his parents being William and Anna (Schroeder) Wettig, who came from Germany to the United States and were married in New York, whence they removed to Milwaukee about 1850. In 1852 the father died, a victim of the cholera epidemic, leaving a widow and infant son, William, who was then hut a few weeks old.
William Wettig was reared in this city, acquiring a public school education and afterward attending the Spencerian Business College, whereby he was carefully trained for the duties of commercial life. He then became an employe of the Dyer Wholesale Saddlery Company in the position of entering clerk and in 1870 was advanced to book- keeper, continuing to act in that capacity until the death of the founder of the business -George Dyer. Before Mr. Dyer's death, however, the business had been incorporated and Mr. Wettig was elected vice president and secretary. He continued to act in this dual official position to the time of his demise and was a potent force in the success- ful conduct of the enterprise, with which he was familiar in every phase and detail. He displayed a most enterprising and progressive spirit in the management of his business affairs and step by step advanced to the goal of success.
On the 26th of November, 1874, Mr. Wettig was married to Miss Amanda McCray, a daughter of Alexander and Caroline (Carr) McCray, who were natives of Pennsyl- vania, in which state Mr. and Mrs. Wettig were married. They became the parents of four children: Caroline, Anna, Paul and Marian. The last named is now the wife of Ralph C. Bushnell, a resident of Chicago. The son, Paul, now residing in Kansas City, Missouri, served in the Fifth Illinois Infantry in the Spanish-American war and was assistant steward in the field hospital in Porto Rico. He was also in the quarter- master department as inspector of harness. Later he located in St. Louis and now makes his home in Kansas City, Missouri.
In his political views Mr. Wettig was a lifelong republican but never an aspirant for office. His political activity resulted from a firm belief in the principles which he espoused and his earnest desire to bring about the country's welfare. He attended St. James Episcopal church, of which Mrs. Wettig has been a member for more than a half century. They were most highly esteemed people, occupying an enviable posi- tion in those social circles where true worth and intelligence are received as a pass- port to good society.
BUNDE & UPMEYER.
The history of the firm of Bunde & Upmeyer constitutes an integral chapter in the commercial annals of Milwaukee. Their store, which many testify is the most beauti- ful in the midwest, was established in 1880 under a partnership relation between Louis William Bunde and William Henry Upmeyer, then young men of twenty-one and twenty-two years of age, respectively. Each had had some previous experience in connection with the jewelry trade and on the 1st of April, 1880, the partnership was formed under the style of Bunde & Upmeyer for the purpose of manufacturing jewelry. Like all new firms, they faced the necessity of making a name and place for themselves
WILLIAM WETTIG
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in the business world. They at once began manufacturing jewelry, starting in a little upstairs room on Wisconsin street. There they specialized in mechanical dentistry, their business in this connection evolving eventually into what is now known as the Bunde & Upmeyer Dental Manufacturing Company, which today occupies about one- half of the sixth floor of the Goldsmith building and employs thirty men. They specialize in crowns, plates, bridges and regulating appliances.
In the meantime, however, the firm of Bunde & Upmeyer was continuously develop- ing its trade as manufacturing jewelers, turning out work highly satisfactory to those who gave them their patronage. Steadily they worked upward and in 1887 they opened a retail store at Nos. 121 and 123 Wisconsin street in addition to their manufacturing establishment. This was the largest jewelry store in the state and they conducted it with growing success at the original location until 1897, when they removed to the Pabst building, where they remained for five years. A new location was then secured across the street in the Mack block in 1902 and during the following period of fifteen years their patronage continued to grow and develop until on the 1st of May, 1917, they removed to their present location. They have space on both the first and second floors of the Plankinton Arcade covering eleven thousand square feet, and something of the volume of their business is further indicated in the fact that they employ one hundred and ten people. In 1903 they incorporated under the name of the Bunde & Upmeyer Company, with a capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which has since been increased to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Their store expresses the last word in equipment and arrangement in the jewelry trade and rivals in its beauty and in the line of goods carried the finest jewelry stores of the larger cities of the country. The company also maintains an office in New York, at 65 Nassau street, where they deal in pearls. This company was the first to bring to public attention the fresh-water pearls found in the Sugar and Pecatonica rivers of Wisconsin, the finds being made in the vicinity of Albany and Brodhead. They induced the farmers to fish for the pearls, which they then purchased. At first they handled the pearls in Milwaukee but afterward opened a New York office in order to introduce the pearls to the eastern trade. The business of the firm in both the eastern and western branches has become one of most substantial proportions and there is no citizen of Milwaukee who is not proud of the splendid jewelry and stationery house of Bunde & Upmeyer.
LOUIS WILLIAM BUNDE.
Louis William Bunde, who is the president of the Bunde & Upmeyer Company, was born February 2, 1859, in the city which is still his home. His father, Charles Bunde, a native of Germany, came to the United States in 1855 and established his home in Milwaukee, where he conducted business as a cabinetmaker. He married Henrietta Boldt, also a native of Germany, ere they emigrated to the new world, and both have now passed away.
Louis William Bunde was educated in the public schools of his native city and initiated his business experience by securing a position with the T. A. Chapman Com- pany, with which he remained for a year and a half. On the expiration of that period he became identified with the jewelry trade as a representative of the firm of Tilden & Schoen, manufacturing jewelers, with whom he continued for five years. During this period he gained comprehensive knowledge of the business and the opportunities offered in this field of commercial enterprise and resolved to engage in business on his own account. He therefore utilized every opportunity that brought him nearer the goal of his hopes and on the 1st of April, 1880, he entered into partnership with William Henry Upmeyer for the purpose of jewelry manufacturing under the firm style of Bunde & Upmeyer. This association has heen maintained for forty-two years with mutual pleasure and profit, the labors of the one ably rounding out and supplementing the efforts of the other, and throughout the entire period the firm name has not only stood as a synonym of excellence in the line of goods manufactured and carried but also as a synonym of the highest standards of commercial integrity and enterprise. Mr. Bunde was but twenty-one years of age and Mr. Upmeyer but twenty-two when the partnership relation was assumed. They have now passed the meridian of life and each year has chronicled the development of their commercial power and resourceful- ness until long since they have become recognized as among the most prominent repre- sentatives of the retail trade of the entire Mississippi valley.
On the 25th of April, 1889, Mr. Bunde was united in marriage to Miss Ida Schweitzer of Milwaukee, a daughter of Joseph Schweitzer, one of the pioneer residents of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Bunde have one son, Louis R., who is in the employ of the company, and who was married on the 24th of April, 1920, to Charlotte Finkler. The family residence is at No. 379 Terrace avenue and they have a summer home at Pine Lake. Mr. Bunde is well known in club circles, having membership in the Milwaukee
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Jewelers Club, the Wisconsin Club, the Milwaukee Athletic CInh and the Calumet Club. His social qualities make for popularity wherever he is known and the sterling worth of his character is recognized by all.
WILLIAM HENRY UPMEYER.
William Henry Upmeyer, who for almost forty-two years has been engaged in the jewelry trade in Milwaukee as a member of the Bunde & Upmeyer Company, was born May 13, 1857, in this city. His father, Henry Upmeyer, who was one of the first mann- facturing jewelers of Milwaukee, was born in Germany and in young manhood came to the new world, here taking up his abode. He married Henrietta Georgii, who was like- wise born in Germany and who came alone to America, taking up her ahode in Milwaukee, where she met and married Mr. Upmeyer. She first lived with her uncle, Christian Schmidt, who was proprietor of a jewelry store on Third street, and it was there that she met her future husband. Both Mr. and Mrs. Upmeyer have now passed away.
After completing a course in the public schools of his native city William H. Upmeyer continued his education in the Spencerian Business College and was thus well qualified for life's practical and responsible duties. He started out in the business world with the firm of Bloedel & Mueller, with whom he learned the jeweler's trade, the senior partner having previously learned the trade with Mr. Upmeyer's father, in whose employ he remained for seven years. For an additional year William H. Upmeyer remained with Mr. Bloedel, acquainting himself thoroughly with every phase of the business and thus becoming splendidly equipped to successfully conduct an enter- prise of his own. He was a young man of twenty-two years when he left the employ of Mr. Bloedel and entered into partnership relations with Louis William Bunde under the firm style of Bunde & Upmeyer. The utmost harmony has characterized the business relations of the partners throughout the intervening period of more than four decades. They have planned and worked together for the expansion of their business, have wisely directed their trade in profitable channels and as the years have passed, various removals made hy the firm have indicated a continuons growth in their business until they are now situated in most attractive quarters, having one of the most beautiful jewelry houses of the country.
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