USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume II > Part 59
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C. M. Easterly, whose name introduces this review, was educated in the public schools of his native city and afterward devoted two years to farm work, but feeling that greater opportunities could he secured in other directions, he took up the study of telegraphy in Corunna, Michigan, the county seat of Shiawassee county and the smallest corporate city in the United States. His brother-in-law, J. L. Shults, had charge of the telegraph office at that time and is still in the position. By the time he had reached the age of sixteen years Mr. Easterly had become an operator and was a relief agent along the line of the Ann Arbor Railroad. Later he was employed in Detroit by the Lake Shore Railroad and in Toledo hy the same company and then went to Chicago, where he hecame chief accountant in the local freight office of the Illinois Central. His next position was with the Pere Marquette Railroad in Chicago as accountant, while subsequently he returned to Detroit and hecame chief clerk of the Wabash Railroad. He was afterward with the Michigan Central as assistant auditor of disbursements and on severing his connection with that company he gave up railroading altogether. In 1899, when hut twenty years of age, he went on the road as a salesman for the J. W. Phales Paper Company, which he represented for two years and then entered the employ of the James C. Woodley Company, engaged in the sheet metal, roofing and huilding paper business, and during his two years' connection with that firm he thoroughly acquainted himself with the sheet steel business, acquiring knowledge that has been of great value to him in later years. In 1903 he became identified with the.Berger Manufacturing Company and was afterward with the Stark Rolling Mill Company, the United Steel Company and the Cornahan Sheet and Tin Plate Company, representing all of these concerns on the road at one time, building up a large trade for the different houses in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. He made rapid and substantial progress in the business and was at the head of the sales list among one hundred and twenty salesmen. In 1910 he went to Madison, Wisconsin, and in 1913 came to Milwaukee as representative of the Inland Steel Company, which at that time had but three customers in the territory. Through the efforts of Mr. Easterly the business has been built up until it amounts to between four and eight million dollars per annum, enjoying a steady patronage during the period of so-called business depression. He has headed the Inland Steel Company sales force for eleven years, his business o'ertopping that of all other salesmen who represent the house in every section of the United States.
In 1912 Mr. Easterly organized the Capital City Culvert Company, with a capital stock of sixty-seven hundred dollars and through the intervening period of nine years this has grown to be a very large and profitable business. Mr. Easterly accomplishes his purposes. He gets what he goes after. He never loses sight of his objective and no obstacle nor difficulty is too great to deter him from reaching it. He had no special advantages of education and his initial business experience was that of a farm boy. Today he is one of the most successful salesmen in the United States and, moreover-
CHARLES M. EASTERLY
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE
is officially and financially connected with some extensive and important business pro- jects.
On the Sth of August, 1908, Mr. Easterly was married to Miss Minnie L. Bulemore of Corunna, Michigan, and they have three children: Elizabeth E., Charles Miel and John Lincoln, aged respectively eleven, nine and seven years. The family resides at No. 777 Shepard avenue in Milwaukee and has an attractive summer home at Beaver Lake. Mr. Easterly was very active in all the war drives and, moreover, inspected all the rejected steel in this territory. He belongs to the American Protective League and is one of its special deputies. He took part in raising funds in connection with the first Red Cross drive and worked untiringly, driving twenty-three hundred miles into the surrounding counties, organizing the drive in various localities. He is a life member of the Milwaukee Athletic Club, is a life member of Madison Lodge, No. 410, B. P. O. E., has membership in the City Club, the Blue Mound Country Club, the Milwaukee Yacht Club, the Milwaukee Gun Club, the Safety Drivers Club, the International Association of Rotary Clubs and the Wisconsin State Automobile Asso- ciation. In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is a member of Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine. There is much that is interesting and inspiring in the life history of Charles M. Easterly, who started out to earn his living at a salary of eight dollars per month. He surely deserves to wear the proud American title of a self-made man. He has climbed steadily to a point of leadership in various fields and is today one of the best known steel men of the country.
FREDERIC HEATH.
Frederic Heath of the Milwaukee Leader comes of ancestry that is distinctively American in both the lineal and collateral lines through many generations. The first of the name in the new world was Bartholomew Heath of Newbury and Haverhill, Massachusetts, who came with the Puritan immigration of 1634. Mr. Heath is also descended from Edward Fuller, one of the Mayflower passengers, and on the maternal side he comes of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He was born in Milwaukee, September 6, 1864, his parents being Ebin Cook and Carrie Eliza (Faries) Heath. The father, who was a jeweler, was born at Slaterville, New York, while the mother was a native of Berrien, Michigan. His grandfather in the maternal line was the late Dr. Robert J. Faries, a pioneer dentist, who settled in Milwaukee in 1843. Dr. Faries was also an engraver and made the first woodcuts printed in early day newspapers of business blocks and public buildings of this city. Mrs. Faries was a member of the Parmelee family.
Frederic Heath acquired his early education in a school on Wisconsin street where the government building now stands. It was a little one-story structure on the alley. He afterward attended the All Saints Cathedral School on Division street, now Juneau avenue, and later the public schools. The house in which he was born stood on Biddle street, east of the corner of Jefferson, near where the north entrance of the courthouse is now located. The building was afterward moved twice and now stands on Jefferson street, north of Knapp. It will thus be seen that Mr. Heath has been closely associated with Milwaukee from pioneer times. He was seventeen years of age when he became interested in amateur journalism and at one time he made an exhibit of amateur papers in the annual Exposition-the building which was the forerunner of the present Auditorium. His paper was called Stars and Stripes and was issued monthly for several years. Latterly he was in conjunction in this undertaking with Henry E. Legler, who was later librarian of Chicago. In 1884 Mr. Heath was made president of the National Amateur Press Association.
After leaving school he was for a time in the Star Union fast freight office in the Mitchell Bank building but later decided to develop his artistic talent and became an apprentice to a local engraving firm, with which he learned to draw on wood. Health considerations caused him to go to Florida in 1887, after working for a time at his trade in Chicago, and he became joint editor and publisher of the Florida Fruit Grower at Highland Park, Volusia county. On returning to Milwaukee he joined Mr. Legler on the reportorial staff of the Milwaukee Sentinel, with which paper he remained for twelve years in general newspaper work and as staff artist. For three terms he was secretary of the Milwaukee Press Club.
In 1895 Mr. Heath became interested in socialism and two years later, in Chicago, jointly with Victor L. Berger and Eugene V. Debs, launched the social-democracy of America, now known as the socialist party. In 1898 he was chosen a member of the national executive committee and in 1900 was made its chairman. In 1901 the national organ of the party, known as The Social-Democratic Herald, was taken over by the Milwaukee membership and Mr. Heath left the Milwaukee Journal in 1903 to become editor of the Herald, a position which he filled until ten years later, when it was superseded by the daily, the Milwaukee Leader. He has always labored untiringly to advance the interests of the socialist party and was the party candidate for mayor of
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Milwaukee in 1900. Four years later he was one of the first nine socialists elected to the city council. In 1909-10 he served as a member of the Milwaukee school board and in 1911 was elected to the board of supervisors, of which he is still a member. In public life he has worked unremittingly for general benefit. He secured the inaugura- tion of the system of mothers' pensions in Milwaukee county, helped establish the county highway system and the county park system and in 1915 conducted an extensive investigation that resulted in notable reforms in the care of poor children by the county. Sholes Park, west of the Grand Avenue viaduct, was named by him after the inventor of the typewriter, C. Latham Sholes. He has also been active in the county board in the civic center agitation and was a member of the city's Diamond Jubilee committee.
In 1893 Mr. Heath was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Dorethy, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and they have two children: Stuart Eldridge, twenty-four years of age, engaged in newspaper work; and Dorothy, aged eighteen. Mr. Heath has now in press a genealogy of the Heath family in the United States. In 1900 he was the author of the Social-Democratic Red Book and Socialism in America. He belongs to the Milwaukee News Writers' Union, of which he is a charter member, and for several years he was secretary of the Federated Trades Council. He is a member of the Mil- waukee Aquarium Society and belongs to the Old Settlers Club. He has published a series of daily illustrated articles on old-time Milwaukee in the Milwaukee Leader and there are few men able to speak with greater authority concerning the early history of the city and its later progress than Frederic Heath.
PETER WILLIAM ERNSTER.
Diligence aud determination have ever constituted the salient elements in that dynamic force which makes for success in business and it is these qualities which have placed Peter William Ernster at the head of the Northwestern Laundry Company of Milwaukee as its president. He was born in Belgium, Wisconsin, February 15, 1878, and is a son of Peter and Katharine (Thomas) Ernster. The father, a native of Luxemburg, Germany, and the mother, a native of Belgium, came with their respective parents to America in 1848, the former being but two years of age when brought to the new world. The families settled at Belgium, Ozaukee county, Wisconsin, where the grandfather followed the occupation of farming and where the father is still living at the age of eighty years. While he has traveled life's journey for a decade beyond the Psalmist's allotted span of threescore years and ten, he is still hale and hearty. He has retired from business but for many years successfully carried on agricultural pursuits and for an extended period he served as constable of Belgium. His wife passed away October 10, 1912. They were the parents of twelve children, eight of whom are living: John, who follows farming at Belgium; Anna, the wife of John Dornbach, a painting contractor of Milwaukee; Joseph, a wholesale tobacconist, of this city; Katie, who is the wife of Joe Brabec of Chicago; Peter William, of this review; Jacob, a farmer living on the old homestead, where his grandfather took up his abode seventy-eight years ago; Michael, who is with the Trapp Brothers Dairy Company of Milwaukee; and Mary, the wife of William Trinberger, owner of a garage on East Water street.
Peter William Ernster was educated in the public schools and in a business college and started out to provide for his own support as a wholesale dealer in milk, buying from the farmers and selling to the retailers. His trade covered the entire northwest section of Milwaukee and he continued successfully in the business for ten years, developing a patronage of extensive proportions. He then sold his interests to Dr. Kletsch, who founded what was then known as the Lucretia Dairy Company. In 1911 Mr. Ernster purchased the business of the Northwestern Laundry Company, which was then located in a little frame building at the corner of Richard and Hadley streets. There he continued for a time but soon outgrew the quarters and decided to take over the present building when it was offered for sale in January, 1916. After installing new equipment throughout, the Northwestern Laundry Company took possession on the 1st of July, 1916, and through the intervening period has enjoyed a steadily in- creasing business that has reached such proportions that Mr. Ernster is again figuring on how to expand in order to meet the growing demands of the trade. The present building is a two-story and basement structure, sixty by sixty-eight feet. Mr. Ernster has made a splendid success of the business and his establishment is today recognized as one of the leading laundries of Milwaukee. He is also a director of the Ideal Home Finance Company, treasurer of the North Avenue Advancement Association and chair- man of the North Avenue Realty Company. His activities have ever been of a character which have contributed to the growth and progress of the city and while holding to high ideals in this respect, his labors have at all times been of a practical character, producing good results.
PETER W. ERNSTER
Vol. 11-37
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On the 10th of May, 1902, Mr. Ernster was married to Miss Margaret Antoine. whose parents were natives of France. They now have one child, Edward, who is a student in Marquette University. Mr. Ernster was quite active in the sale of Liberty bonds in his ward organization when the United States was associated with the allies in the struggle for world democracy. He is a member of St. Elizabeth's Catholic church. He is also a member of the Optimist Club and this is indicative of the rules which have governed his life. He has always looked upon the bright side of things, has recognized and utilized his opportunities and step by step has advanced until all who know him recognize in him a most forceful and resourceful business man.
EDWARD A. NOWAK.
Edward A. Nowak, manager of the Mitchell street branch of the American Ex- change Bank, is regarded as one of the progressive young business men of Milwaukee, for already he has displayed qualities of enterprise, progressiveness and business sagacity that promise well for the future. He was born in this city January 30, 1895, and is a son of Michael W. and Mary (Feierabend ) Nowak, both of whom were natives of Poland. They came to America with their respective parents in childhood days, both families settling in Milwaukee. The father is now manager of the office of the Singer Machine Company in this city, a position which he has occupied for more than thirty years.
Edward A. Nowak was born and reared on the south side of Milwaukee, in the district which is now being served by the bank of which he is the manager. He pur- sued a public school education and afterward attended Marquette Academy for a period of two and haif years. In 1910 he started out in hanking circles by beginning work as a messenger boy in the old German-American Bank on Mitchell street. He has been employed in the various branches of the American Exchange Bank, filling different positions from time to time, each change marking a forward step in his career until he was promoted to the position of manager of the Mitchell street branch in 1920. He has attended the American Institute of Banking for some time and is a member of the Milwaukee chapter of this institution. He has steadily climbed the ladder of success by reason of his hard study, his close application to business and bis unfaltering de- termination and he deserves great credit for what he has accomplished.
On the 26th of November, 1914, Mr. Nowak was married to Miss Helen Piasecki, a native of Milwaukee, and to them have been born two children: Sybil and Audry. Mr. Nowak took an active interest in all war drives on the south side and acted as chair- man or vice chairman of nearly all of the war committees. He is now serving as treasurer of the national Catholic drive and was on the committee to choose the officers for service of this character. He likewise belongs to several fraternal societies. He has always resided in this city, where he has a wide acquaintance and his many friends bespeak a well-spent life and the possession of sterling qualities of manhood.
HON. GEORGE H. WEISSLEDER.
Hon. George H. Weissleder, attorney and counselor at law of Milwaukee and former representative of the sixth district in the Wisconsin senate, was born in Hartford, this state, December 13, 1879, and is a son of Herman and Elizabeth (Schmitt) Weissleder. the former a native of Germany, while the latter was born in Barton, Washington county. Wisconsin. The father came to the United States in 1869 and settled in Chicago, where he resided for a time. He also engaged in railroad work in the south but contracting malarial fever in that section of the country he returned to Chicago, where he remained until 1871 and then became a resident of Milwaukee. After two years, however, he removed to Hartford, Wisconsin, where he organized a coppersmith business, which he conducted for nine years. 1n 1882 he again came to Milwaukee and here conducted a business of similar nature to the time of his demise.
George H. Weissleder obtained a public school education and also received private instruction in high school and normal school work. In 1905 he became secretary of the Herm. Weissleder Co. and has since occupied that position, being thus identified with the commercial interests of the city, as well as a representative of the legal pro- fession. It was in 1904 that he entered the old Milwaukee Law School, now the law department of Marquette University, and there studied for three years. He afterward traveled all over the United States, Canada and Mexico in connection with the sale of coppersmith goods, devoting several years to that work. In 1910 the degree of Bache- lor of Law was conferred upon him by Marquette University and yet it was a still later period before he entered upon the active practice of the profession. In 1912 he was elected to the state senate from the sixth district and served during regular legisla-
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live session of 1913 and 1915 and again at the special session of 1916. After retiring from the senate he resumed his law practice and has since specialized in corporation and commercial law. In connection therewith he remained secretary of the Herm. Weissleder Co., which was incorporated in 1905 and is devoted to the manufacture of copper chemical equipment.
On the 27th of August, 1913, Mr. Weissleder was married to Miss Anna M. Fuhrman of Milwaukee, and they have become parents of a daughter and a son, Margaret and Robert. Long residence in the city and prominence in professional and political circles has made Mr. Weissleder well known and he is popular in the Milwaukee County Bar Association, while his friends in every walk of life are many.
REV. JULIUS H. BURBACH.
Father Julius H. Burbach, pastor of the church of the Holy Assumption of West Allis, was born February 17, 1874, in New Berlin, Wisconsin, a son of Theodore and Anna (Arnold) Burbach, both of whom were natives of Waukesha county, this state, where they were reared, their parents having been pioneers of that county in 1834.
Father Burbach obtained his early education in the public and parochial schools of Waukesha and in Mount Calvary, near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, while later he at- tended St. Francis Seminary of Milwaukee. Here he was ordained on the 21st of June, 1897. He entered upon the active duties of the priesthood as assistant to the Rev. Henry Willmes at St. Mary's church of Milwaukee; where he remained for five years. He was then appointed in 1902 to West Allis, where he organized the parish and has since been in charge of the church of the Holy Assumption. On the organization of the church there were but thirteen families. Following the appointment of Father Burbach as pastor a site was selected for the new school and church and during the winter months plans and specifications were drawn up for the erection of the building. On the 4th of May, 1902, the corner stone was laid by the chancellor, Father August Schinner. While the district was but sparsely settled at the time the church was built there has been a large influx of Catholic families and the church has grown very rapidly. There has been equal growth in the school and from time to time the church property has been enlarged and improved to meet the demands of the church in all of its various activities. There is now an extensive school building adjoining the church with an attractive parish house and also a home for the sisters who are in charge of the school. The work of the church has been thoroughly organized in every depart- ment and there are strong societies maintained among the men, women and the young women of the church. Since the church was founded in 1902 four other parishes have been set up from the original parish, and thus the work of the church has been con- stantly extended and developed. In 1920 Father Burbach established St. Aloysius church, located at Greenfield and Woodlawn.
Aside from his direct work in connection with the church Father Burbach has been prominently identified with the upbuilding of West Allis and is now president of the West Allis park board, a position which he has filled for the past five years since the board was established. The park board has supervision over three parks which have been added during his connection with the position. The public school grounds of the city have been greatly beautified and many other improvements have been added through the efforts of the park board. Father Burbach works continually for the interests of the city along material and intellectual as well as moral lines, and his labors have been far-reaching and resultant.
LEWIS SHERMAN, JR.
Lewis Sherman, Jr., president of the Jewett & Sherman Company, manufacturers of food products and dealers in coffees, teas, spices, etc., was born June 24, 1886 in Mil- wankee, and is a son of Lewis and Mary R. (Tuttle) Sherman. His father, a native of Rupert. Bennington county, Vermont, was born November 25, 1843. The grand- parents, William McCleary and Hannah (Lewis) Sherman, were also natives of Rupert,' the former born in 1822 and the latter in 1823. All were representatives of old colonial families. One of the great-great-great-grandfathers of Lewis Sherman, Jr., was Reuben Noble. who served as a soldier of the Revolutionary war, as did Luke Noble and Enoch Sherman, great-great-grandfathers of Mr. Sherman of this review, who enlisted in the Massachusetts line. Another great-great-grandfather was Job William Cleveland, who joined the Massachusetts troops for service in the war for independence.
In the year 1867 the Sherman family was established in Milwaukee by William McCleary and Hannah (Lewis) Sherman, the former devoting his attention to merchan- dising until his death, which occurred in 1891, while his wife lived until 1907. Both
MILWAUKEE
REV. JULIU'S H. BURBACH
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were members and generous supporters of the Christian church and gave most liberally toward the erection of the house of worship owned by that denomination on the south side.
Dr. Lewis Sherman was the only one of their family of four children to reach the years of maturity. He obtained his early education in the public schools of Vermont and afterward continued his studies in the Academy of Washington county, New York. He next matriculated in Union College ot New York and won the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts. He then entered Union Theological Seminary and later became a medical student in the University of the City of New York, there winning his professional degree. In 1870 he came to Milwaukee, where he entered upon active practice, in which he was continuously engaged, up to the time of his death, July 2, 1915. Dr. Sherman was a member of the Milwaukee Academy of Medicine, the Homeo- pathic Medical Society of Wisconsin, the American Institute of Homeopathy and along scientific lines outside the strict path of his profession he was connected with the Wis- consin Mycological Society, of which he was the president for a time, the Wisconsin Natural History Society, the Wisconsin Archaeological Society, the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters and the Wisconsin Historical Society. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and his political allegiance was given to the republican party. His was a life of great activity and usefulness, for aside from his professional interests he was the proprietor of the Milwaukee Homeopathic Pharmacy for forty-three years and was the president of the Jewett & Sherman Company, importers of teas, coffees and spices and manufacturers of food products for twenty-four years. Dr. Sherman was married in 1876 to Miss Mary R. Tuttle of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and they became parents of four children: Gertrude, Leta, Helen and Lewis, all of whom are graduates of the University of Wisconsin.
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