USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume II > Part 54
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CALEB E. JJOHNSON
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the high school. As a boy he entered his father's office and he earned his spending money by wrapping soap on Saturdays at a cent and a half a box. When twenty-one years of age he became a regular employe of the company, working as a traveling salesman, being the only representative of the house on the road. After traveling for three years he made his first bargain for a share of the profits of the business, but remained for two years longer on the road. At the end of that time the company employed two other salesmen and Mr. Johnson entered the office. The business was carried on under the firm style of B. J. Johnson & Company until December 31, 1894, when the name was changed to the B. J. Johnson Soap Company, at which time Caleb Johnson was made vice president. The father died in August, 1901, and the son then succeeded to the presidency. In 1918 the name of the corporation was changed to the Palmolive Company. This is one of the important fine soap manufacturing con- cerns of the country. Its product is known throughout the length and breadth of the land. It follows a most progressive system of advertising, its advertisements appear- ing in such magazines as The Saturday Evening Post and other periodicals which demand the highest price for advertising and at no time have the high standards of quality ever been sacrificed. The palm and olive oils which were in use in Egypt three thousand years ago are used in the manufacture of this firm's soap, which has become so popular as to force production in enormous quantities. The factories are in operation day and night and the output not only includes the famous Palmolive soap, but also Palmolive Cold Cream.
On the 23d of April, 1884, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Eleanor I. DeMass of Whitehall, Michigan, and they became parents of two daughters: Mrs. C. E. VanVleck of New York city, who has one daughter, Nancy; and Mrs. B. A. Massee of Chicago, who has a son, Caleb Johnson Massee.
Mr. Johnson has ever been a stalwart supporter of all interests tending to benefit community, commonwealth and country and during the war with Germany there were two hundred men who went into the service from the Palmolive Company's plant. At the same time Mr. Johnson stood loyally in support of every plan and measure that furthered Federal interests and promoted the welfare and efficiency of the boys in camp and overseas. While he ranks as one of the most prosperous business men of the city, he is also well known through his social connections, being a popular member of the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Milwaukee Country Club and the Blue Mound Country Club.
THEODORE KOSS.
Theodore Koss has for a third of a century been engaged in the seed business in Milwaukee as owner of a store and for a period before that as an employe. He is therefore today one of the well known, prominent and successful seedsmen of the city, his business having reached extensive and gratifying proportions. He was born in Milwaukee, February 4, 1870, and is a son of Dr. Rudolph A. and Maria (Schuett) Koss, both of whom were natives of Germany. The father, who died in the year 1893, came to Milwaukee in 1855 and was prominently identified with the development of the state as editor of an agricultural and horticultural weekly paper. He farmed for a time prior to taking up his editorial work and also engaged in business as a florist. He studied thoroughly the condition of the soil, the needs of the crops and everything relating to production of agricultural products and plants in this section of the country He became a recognized authority upon all matters relating thereto and was a promi- nent figure in agricultural and horticultural circles. He also wrote one of the early histories of Milwaukee and was closely associated with the city in everything that pertains to its welfare and advancement, leaving the impress of his individuality and ability in large measure upon the annals of community and commonwealth.
Theodore Koss received his education in the public schools of Milwaukee and in the Spencerian Business College and when his course was completed he at once became identified with the seed business in connection with the firm of Currie Brothers, remaining with that house for three years. He possessed a laudable ambition to engage in business on his own account, however, and afterward saw the realization of his hopes by opening a store in 1889. He was first located on Reed street, where he re- mained for ten years and then removed to Grove street, whence he came to his present location at No. 488 National avenue. Here he has remained for the past twelve years and is now dealing successfully in garden and farm seeds and also specializes in poultry supplies and poultry feeds. In fact he handles the entire equipment for poultry raisers. He issues a large trade catalogue which is sent throughout Wisconsin and the northwest and his business is steadily growing, as the reputation of his house for thorough reliability has become firmly established among his patrons, who act as a medium of advertising for him by the good words which they speak to their friends and neighbors, Mr. Koss certainly deserves much credit for what he has accomplished
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in this connection, as he started out practically empty-handed but by determination, energy and capability has worked his way steadily upward.
In 1903 Mr. Koss was married to Miss Pauline Weissenborn, a daughter of Julius Weissenborn, a resident of Milwaukee. They have become parents of three children: Hugo, Herman and Gertrude. Mr. Koss is a member of the Gymnastic Association of the south side, also of the South Side Old Settlers Club and of the southern division of the civic association. He is liberal in his political views, voting according to the dictates of his judgment, but is interested in all that pertains to the public welfare and his cooperation c. n always be counted upon to further any plan or project for the general good. In many lines of public activity his labors have been a most resultant cooperant factor.
ROBERT B. DOMOGALLA.
Robert B. Domogalla, deceased, was a well known real estate dealer of Milwaukee and an alert and energetic business man. He was born in Namslau, Germany, on the 6th of June, 1865, and his life record covered the intervening years to the 19th of February, 1919, when he passed away. He was a son of Peter and Carolina Domogalla and while spending his youthful days under the parental roof he acquired his education in the public schools of his native land. After reaching adult age he was married there in 1890 to Miss Wilhelmina Hoffschile and they began their domestic life in Germany.
In the fall of 1892, however, Mr. Domogalla and his wife determined to try their fortune in the new world and crossed the Atlantic, making their way to Chicago, where they lived for one year. They then came to Milwaukee and throughout his remaining days Mr. Domogalla continued a resident of this city, while his widow is still living here. Starting out in the business world, he engaged in the grocery trade for a year and on the expiration of that period turned his attention to the real estate business, in which he continued to the time of his death. When he was attending school in his native country he had studied Latin and after his school days were over he made a very extensive tour of Europe, during which time he gained considerable knowledge of various languages, becoming recognized as a linguist of much ability. This knowl- edge aided him very materially in the conduct of his real estate business after he established himself in that line in Milwaukee. He dealt quite extensively in farm lands throughout the states of Wisconsin, Michigan and the Dakotas and also handled city property. He made a specialty of exchanging property and he negotiated many im- portant realty transfers. He also handled mortgages and fire insurance and that de- partment of his business likewise constituted a gratifying source of income.
Mr. and Mrs. Domogalla became the parents of five children: Helen, who is at home; Bernhard, who is specializing in the study of chemistry in the University of Wisconsin at Madison; Roland, of Milwaukee; Walter, who is a partner in the Stutz Automobile Company of this city; and Gertrude, at home.
Mr. Domogalla held membership in the West Side German Society and he also belonged to the Masonic fraternity. His political endorsement was given to the re- publican party from the time that he became a naturalized American citizen and he was always loyal to the interests and welfare of the community in which he made his home.
THE CUTLER-HAMMER MANUFACTURING COMPANY. (From The Story of Electricity-page 610)
Back in the days when thousands marveled at the electric lighting exhibited at the World's Exposition in Chicago, there was established in that same city a little in- dustry which might have been termed an electric machinist shop in which small amounts of work were done on individual orders. Messrs. Cutler and Hammer were the enterprising and hopeful young men of this company.
Soon after there came a need for resistances, resistance boxes, some to be used with the early types of motors and others including regulating resistance to be used with generators. As a result of the need for such apparatus, another small company was started in Milwaukee, known as the American Rheostat Company. In this company were two men, Mr. F. R. Bacon and Mr. F. L. Pierce, who thought the future of the electrical industry particularly good and decided to stake out their lines in this field. The specific object was to manufacture an overload starting box invented by Louis Gibbs and later improved upon by Mr. Bacon.
After both these small companies had progressed to the point where starters, speed regulators and controllers for elevators, cranes and printing presses were made,
ROBERT B. DOMOGALLA
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a consolidation of the companies was effected in 1898 and an enlarged plant established in Milwaukee.
One of the early evidences of the clear realization of the increased use in motor drive and incidentally the need for controller apparatus, was the use and acquiring of complete rights to the No-Voltage Release which although it had been used on Cutler- Hammer apparatus had really been patented by a Mr. Blades of Detroit.
The new plant occupied a two-story building with ahout seventeen thousand square feet of floor space. Within a year, however, the business had increased to such an extent that the plant was doubled and This process has been repeated at frequent intervals. until at the pesent time the plant at Milwaukee occupies not only the entire block bounded by Twelfth street, St. Paul avenue, Thirteenth street and the railroad tracks of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, but goodly portions of four adjoining blocks.
Other companies hecame associated with the Cutler-Hammer Manufacturing Com- pany of Milwaukee from time to time. The Iron Clad Resistance Company was one of these. This company began operating at Westfield, New Jersey, about the same time that the Cutler-Hammer Company started in Chicago. In the fall of 1900 this company sold out to the Cutler-Hammer interests and the year following all work was transferred to Milwaukee, along with a number of the men. Among the latter was Mr. A. W. Berresford, now vice president and general manager of the Cutler-Hammer Manufac- turing Company.
Three years later the Carpenter Enclosed Resistance Company of New York was taken over, and in 1907 the Wirt Electric Company of Philadelphia came in, and in 1910 the Schureman Company of Chicago was moved to Milwaukee and joined the larger interests.
Now after twenty-seven years of designing and manufacturing electrical equipment for the starting, stopping and speed regulation of electric motors, the Cutler-Hammer Company has more available information and authentic data on the subject of the con- trol of motors than probably exists elsewhere in the world. Giving counsel or advice to a customer is not new to the company: for many years the engineering and in- dustrial men have been urged to make use of the advice of Cutler-Hammer experts in, control matters until as one editor of an electrical publication wrote: "The company (Cutler-Hammer) is today regarded as the court of last resort on the subject of electrical control and many consulting and practicing electrical engineers, contrac- tors and others who are called on in the course of their work to solve problems involv- ing the use of electric motors and their control have received assistance of value by simply telling what they wished to accomplish and letting the engineers of the Cutler- Hammer Manufacturing Company give them details in the light of their past experience and training."
The apparatus manufactured by the Cutler-Hammer Manufacturing Company now comprises many lines, the most prominent of which are listed below:
Motor starters, speed regulators, controllers-manually and automatically operated types, for every kind of application of direct and alternating current type motors, theatre dimmers, battery charging equipment for trucks, mine and industrial locomo- tives, battery charging racks for miners' storage battery lamps, lifting magnets, mag- netic clutches, magnetic separator pulleys, magnetic brakes, motor-operated brakes, dean motor-operated valve control, wiring devices and push button specialties: includ- ing sockets, pendent, snap, pull, door, automobile switches, etc .; molded insulation material-thermoplax and pyroplax; Thomas meter for measuring gases and air in gas plants, steel plants, coke oven plants, etc .; industrial heating appliances-linotype and other metal pot heaters, space heaters, soldering irons.
The clutch department has a line of heavier products including lifting magnets up to the standard sixty-two inch circular type, magnetic clutches and clutch-brakes, magnetic separator pulleys, motor-operated and magnet-operated brakes. Cutler- Hammer lifting magnets are known particularly for their large lifting capacities and their ability to withstand extremely severe service as evidenced by a number of re- markahle recoveries of sunken cargoes of pig iron, wire nails, barbed wire and other material.
The push-button specialties department was established eleven years ago, late in 1908. The late Mr. C. J. Klein, who was associated in the early days of the incandescent lamp with Edison and Bergman, brought a little movement to Milwaukee which has heen the basis of the line. A further development of this known as the "Hill and Valley" movement is used at the present time in the well known C-H seventy-fifty switch and other products of this department.
The insulation department has been in existence nine years and besides making the insulating material used in Cutler-Hammer switches and attachment plugs and arc shields for magnetic switches on control apparatus, makes a varied line of pieces generator terminal blocks, bases for electric grills, heater connectors, etc.
such as marine fittings, automobile radiator caps, fuses, housings and boxes, motor and
The heating department was established in the same year and it is significant that Vol. 11-34
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the man who invented and made the first electric iron, Mr. C. E. Carpenter-thirty-one years ago-is now with the Cutler-Hammer Company. The industrial line of heating devices is made in this department which is housed in the New York Works, One Hundred and Forty-fourth street and Southern boulevard.
Of the industrial products in greatest use are the metal melting pots, an example of which is the pot used on the electrically-heated Mergenthaler linotype machine. The standardized two-foot space heater unit has the most varied use.
The Thomas meter department makes electrically operated meters for measuring gases and air. These meters are used in city coal, gas and water gas plants for measuring the gas made and distributed. They are also used for measuring natural gas; surplus and full gas in coke oven plants; gas supplied to coking pits, boiler house and open hearth furnaces. For air measurements they are adapted for metering air to batteries of coke ovens and to blast furnaces, in the latter case with a view to in- creasing uniformity of output and decreasing production cost of steel.
The officers of the company are: Mr. F. R. Bacon, president; Mr. F. L. Pierce, vice president and treasurer; Mr. A. W. Berresford, vice president; Mr. T. E. Barnum, secretary and chief engineer.
FRANK R. BACON.
Mr. Frank R. Bacon, president of the Cutler-Hammer Manufacturing Company, was born in Milwaukee, September 28, 1872. His ancestors were New Englanders of English origin. They were active in both the Revolutionary and Civil wars. Mr. . Bacon attended Princeton University, class of '95, but did not complete his course, entering the grain business with his father in Milwaukee the latter part of 1892. He later became interested in the electrical business owing to a decided taste for manu- facturing pursuits. His early work in this field is referred to in another section of this sketch.
Mr. Bacon has been connected with the electrical industry ever since the forming of the American Rheostat Company and its subsequent amaglamation with the Cutler- Hammer Manufacturing Company. Aside from being president of the company, Mr. Bacon has also found time to act as vice president of the Lackawanna Bridge Company, secretary of the Worden-Allen Company; vice president, E. P. Bacon Company; director of the Bucyrus Company; president and treasurer of the Niagara Smelting Corporation; director of the National Exchange Bank; and chairman of the American Constitutional League of Wisconsin.
In October, 1917, he entered the government service, working in the engineering and production divisions of the Ordnance department and in August, 1918, was ap- pointed assistant ordnance chief for the Chicago district. After the signing of the armistice he was appointed a member of the Chicago district claims board for settle- ment of ordnance contracts.
Mr. Bacon is a member of the following organizations: Milwaukee Club, Mil- waukee Athletic Club, Milwaukee Country Club, Fox Point Country Club, University Club of Milwaukee, Engineers' Club of New York, Milwaukee Town Club, Milwaukee Gun Club, Society of Automotive Engineers, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and the Caw Caw Shooting Club.
ARTHUR W. BERRESFORD.
Mr. A. W. Perresford, vice president of the Cutler-Hammer Company, was born in Brooklyn, New York, July 9, 1872, and graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1892 with the degree of B. S. and from the Cornell University the following year with the degree of M. E.
Shortly after graduation he entered the employ of the Brooklyn City Railroad Company and was later connected as engineer with the Ward-Leonard Company of Bronxville, New York. He then became vice president and manager of the Iron Clad Resistance Company of Westfield, New Jersey, and with others of this company joined the Cutler-Hammer organization in 1900. During that and the following years he was the engineer for the company, then became superintendent and in 1906 was made general manager and elected to the vice presidency.
As evidenced by his early work in the electrical field, he has always had utmost confidence in the electrical industry. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and is past president, vice president and manager of that Insti- tute: member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers; National Electric Light Association; past president of the Associated Manufacturers of Electrical Supplies; past president of the Electrical
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Manufacturers' Club; past chairman of the Electric Safety Conference; member of the Society for Promotion of Engineering Education: Machinery Club of New York; Engineers' Club of New York; Chemists' Club, New York; University Clubs of New York, Chicago and Milwaukee; Town Club, Milwaukee; Country Club, Milwaukee; Fox Pont Country Club, Milwaukee; Milwaukee Club, Milwaukee Athletic Club, New York Athletic Club and the Mohawk Club of Schenectady.
During the war Mr. Berresford was chairman of the general war service committee, Electrical Manufacturing Industry; and chairman of the general war service committee, Associated Manufacturers of Electrical Supplies.
FREDERICK L. PIERCE.
Mr. Frederick L. Pierce, treasurer of the Cutler-Hammer Manufacturing Company, was born in Milwaukee, July 8, 1860, and began his active business career in Mil- waukee in the commission business in 1880, becoming interested financially in the American Rheostat Company with Frank R. Bacon, in about the year 1897. This com- pany referred to in the brief history herewith of the Cutler-Hammer Company, later joined with the original Cutler-Hammer Company of Chicago and the combined organ- ization located in Milwaukee. Mr. Pierce has had charge chiefly of the financial end of the business and was induced to enter the electrical field by the bright future it seemed to present.
Besides being treasurer of the Cutler-Hammer Company, Mr. Pierce is also treasurer and a member of the executive committee of the Wisconsin Gun Company, a trustee of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and a member of the executive and finance committee of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
Mr. Pierce is a member of the Milwaukee Club, Milwaukee Country Club, the Town Club, the Milwaukee Athletic Club and the Chenequa Country Club.
During the war Mr. Pierce was a member of the local Liberty bond and Red Cross campaign committees.
GEORGE D. BARTLETT.
George D. Bartlett, secretary of the Wisconsin Bankers Association and a well known figure in the financial circles of the state, has made his home in Milwaukee since 1909-the year in which he was called to his present position. He is a native son of New England, his birth having occurred at Island Pond, Vermont, October 13, 1863, his parents being John M. and Abbie S. (Valentine) Bartlett, the latter a native of Maine, while the father was also born in the Green Mountain state. The father, devoting his early life to merchandising in New England, came to Wisconsin in 1872 and settled in Baldwin, St. Croix county, where he became engaged in the milling and lumber business, successfully conducting his interests until 1913, when he retired from active life and is now making his home with his son, George D., in Milwaukee.
The latter is indebted to the public school system of Wisconsin for the early edu- cational privileges which he enjoyed and which were supplemented by a course of study in the Shattuck Military School at Faribault, Minnesota, from which he was graduated in 1883. Six years later, or in 1889, he became identified with the hanking business as assistant cashier of the State Bank at Anoka, Minnesota, which bank he organized. While connected with that institution he enlisted for service in the Spanish- American war and became captain of Company B. Fourteenth Minnesota Volunteer In- fantry, with which he served until the close of hostilities. During the war his father, not knowning how long the difficulty with Spain would continue, sold their interest in the bank and in 1899 George D. Bartlett went to Stanley, Wisconsin, where he organized the Citizens State Bank, of which he was the cashier for ten years. On the expiration of that period the Wisconsin Bankers Association decided to organize permanent headquarters and Mr. Bartlett was elected the first secretary of the asso- ciation in 1909 and removed to Milwaukee, where he has since resided, filling the office throughout the intervening period of twelve years. Having been engaged in the banking business during the greater part of his life up to that time, he was well qualified for the position to which he was called. All of the banks of Wisconsin are now members of this association save three, but when Mr. Bartlett became secretary, only sixty per cent of the Wisconsin Banks were members. His efforts and activity have brought about the splendid result whereby all the banking institutions of the com- monwealth are now connected in a tie of mutual helpfulness and mutual benefit. During the twelve years of his secretaryship he has had entire charge of the activities of the Bankers Association and has come into close contact with all of the leading bankers
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of the state. While thus engaged he organized the Wisconsin Mortgage & Securities Company aud also the Bankers Joint Stock Laud Bank, which companies have loaned to the farmers of Wisconsin an amount in excess of eight million dollars for the advancement of the agricultural development in the state. In this work Mr. Bartlett has always been deeply interested, recognizing the great good that can be accomplished through this channel. He was likewise instrumental in organizing the Bankers Mutual Casualty Company, which writes nothing but bank risks, and there is only one other of the kind in the country, this being organized later.
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