USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume II > Part 8
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GEORGE BRUMDER.
To one who reflects upon the life of George Brumder the conviction grows that it typifies the life of an American pioneer to an unusual extent. We see him while he is earning his first dollar in the woods of southern Wisconsin in the year 1857 and thence walking some eighty miles and entering the city of Milwaukee, where he was destined to spend the years of his life in the development of ever growing interests, attended by an ever widening sphere of influence. He combined in his personal qualities of in- dustry, perseverence, integrity and faith in and with himself to an unusual extent.
There is, perhaps, no better key to the character of George Brumder than the inci- dent of his early life when his fellow employes on a new structure chided him for his intense application to his work in the absence of the foreman, and he gave as an answer, "I have hired out my services and must do my best." As in this instance, so throughout his life, he devoted himself conscientiously to everything he undertook whether it be with prospects of remuneration or merely to obey the dictates of his conscience.
Free from any ambition to accumulate a fortune, this, nevertheless, resulted from the pioneer's instinct of "faith in and with himself." As the years advanced and a. business organization grew into being, this spirit, to a large extent, became a part of each individual thereof, and out of it grew the mutual goodwill, confidence and trust, indispensably necessary to the growth of every business organization. He died, re-
GEORGE BRUMDER
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spected and honored by the community and beloved by his employes, A greater tribute than this comes to no man.
In the past century we, as a nation, were not so far advanced in our life but that the story of the typical American still found him leaving his home surroundings and going to new fields for the activities of his future life. Sometimes this was done with that purpose clearly in mind, sometimes a chance condition brought about the same result. So we find George Brumder at the age of eighteen bidding "goodbye" to his beloved mother and revered father, a respected schoolmaster in an Alsatian village near Strasbourg (Strassburg), to accompany an elder sister to America to attend her at her wedding to a minister of the gospel at Helenville, Wisconsin. It was here that he wielded the axe as a woodsman until the day that he started on foot for Wisconsin's metropolis.
Between the years of 1858 and 1863 he was engaged in various lines of work, and frequently, in his later years, derived a good deal of pleasure in referring to his work done on different houses of this city and in speaking of the time when he was engaged as foreman in the laying of the first street car tracks in the city of Milwaukee. His solution of a problem arising at the time of the laying of these tracks came very near changing his career, when, for days, he debated whether he should accept the result- ing offer of the engineer in charge to become a member of his organization.
Having been reared in the Protestant faith, George Brumder joined the Grace Lutheran church after his arrival in Milwaukee and there met his future wife, Hen- rietta Brandhorst. Immediately upon their marriage in 1863, they joined their little fortunes and opened a hook store. As this prospered he engaged with his brother-in- law in the publication of a small weekly paper of the magazine character. It was the success of these two ventures that caused him to be selected to redeem a publication from apparently inevitable failure, and thereby to launch him upon that publishing business which, thereafter, became the venture of his life.
To understand this offer and its subsequent effects it is necessary to go back some years to recall the influx of the European immigration, particularly that from Germany after the year of 1848. To serve this inflowing European population newspapers, in the several languages of these immigrants, sprang up freely. So, too, we see the growth of newspapers in the German language serving their destiny of acquainting the immi- grant with American institutions and ideals while giving them, in the only language with which they were conversant, news items of their former home and of the world at large.
But it is well known that those of that splendid type of Teuton who, for political reasons and personal safety, owing to their devotion to republican ideals, were forced to leave their home and sought refuge in America, chanced also to be to a large extent of the class who had broken faith with their religious traditions, so that the newspapers conducted by them unfortunately breathed antagonism to things religious.
To provide a newspaper in their language and to protect the sensibilities of those immigrants who maintained their adherence to the church, we find a number of influential Protestants in the city of Milwaukee gathered together in the year 1870, organizing the Protestant Publishing Company, publishing a newspaper and selecting therefor the name "Germania." But the undertaking did not prosper; the money originally provided had disappeared in deficits, and obligations that could not he met had accumulated. It was at this period that Mr. Brumder was songht out. It so happened that in 1872 he took the management and presidency of a newly organized company, called the Germania Publishing Company, and ventured his gradually accumulated resources in the attempt to continue the publication. Growth of the circulation soon followed; nevertheless, it proved a difficult undertaking, and for some years the question of success or failure hung in the balance. It was only after five years of incessant effort of which George Brumder was capable, as few men are, that optimism supplanted uncertainty. Then, with the increasing influx of immigrants, the field widened, and the natural acumen and industry of Mr. Brumder permitted him to acquire a larger share of this developing field than was the fortune of his competitors.
It so came about that, at the time of his death in 1910, George Brumder owned the most extensive line of newspapers published in the German language in America. This growth was outwardly typified in the successive buildings that housed the pub- lications, and, when the present Brumder building was built in 1896, it figured as the largest office building in the city of Milwaukee.
Mr. Brumder's success was not due solely to his own efforts but to the cooperation cf all the forces employed in the organization, inspired by his characteristics, and it is in the spirit of George Brumder that a fitting tribute be extended to all of these individuals and in particular to the very able assistance given hy the editor, George Koeppen.
A secular newspaper, though independent in politics, must nevertheless have and express its opinion on matters political. And so it happened that, as George Brumder was of the political conviction largely represented by the republican party,
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the paper in national elections almost always found itself allied, more or less strenu- ously, with the policies urged by the republican party. It is opportune to refer to the fact that in the campaign of 1900, while supporting the republican presidential candidate, the paper opposed the acquisition of the Philippine Islands as being a first step toward a contravention of the American traditional policy; and some of those who read these words will believe that the resulting chain of events is proof of his clear- sighted American forethought.
When, in acquiring citizenship, Mr. Brumder foreswore allegiance to the govern- ment and the crown of France, he did so wholeheartedly and with a full appreciation of the import of his action; and frequently he would tell his children with great pride of his good fortune in being placed in a position to render America inestimable services by acquainting the immigrant so readily and completely with the American spirit and its institutions. This service, coupled with the recognition of the influence of the publications throughout the central west, inevitably brought about political recognition; and many were the offers of political preferment made to Mr. Brumder or to such men as he would, in his judgment, consider fit. But it was characteristic of him that he preferred not to enter political life nor to impair the independence and influence of his publications by a close personal association with political organiza- tions.
Besides being at the head of his publications, Mr. Brumder, at the time of his death, was president of the nationally operating Concordia Fire Insurance Company and president of the prosperous National Bank of Commerce, then known as the Germania National Bank.
Mr. Brumder's death occurred suddenly on the 9th day of May, 1910, when he was nearly seventy-one years of age. Fitting tributes to his achievements and the feeling of loss to the community were given expression in the messages of sincere sympathy received from the governor of the state of Wisconsin, its senators and the president of the United States.
HORACE A. J. UPHAM.
An absolute fidelity of purpose and clear judgment, coupled with an unusual sense of proportion and relative values, brought Horace Upham to the front rank of com- mercial and corporation lawyers of Milwaukee. Ability and integrity characterized him as a manager of trust funds. He was born in Milwaukee, August 14, 1853. His father, Don A. J. Upham, born in Weathersfield, Vermont, was a descendant in the eighth generation from John Upham of England, who settled in Weymouth, Massa- chusetts, in 1635. Don A. J. Upham graduated from Union College, New York, in 1831, was admitted to the bar at Baltimore in 1835 and became city attorney of Wilmington, Delaware, the same year. There he married Elizabeth Jacques, daughter of Dr. Gideon Jacques, a Quaker of Wilmington, of Huguenot ancestry. In 1836 he sought his fortune in the west, settling in Milwaukee, whither in 1837 he brought his wife and infant son John.
Horace Upham was the youngest of ten children. His early education was gained in the public and preparatory schools of Milwaukee, and he was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1875. Returning to Milwaukee, he took up the study of law, first in the office of Wilson Graham, his father's former law partner, and later in the offices of Jenkins, Elliot & Winkler. He was admitted to the bar in 1877, and in 1879 became identified with the old law firm of Wells & Brigham, which thereafter was known as Wells, Brigham & Upham. This association was maintained until the death of his partners. Charles K. Wells died in 1892, and Jerome R. Brigham a few years later. In 1897 the law firm of Fish, Cary, Upham & Black was formed through the coalition of the law firms of Fish & Cary and Upham & Black, Mr. Black having been associated with the firm of Wells, Brigham & Upham. Mr. Fish died in 1900 and thereupon the firm became Cary, Upham & Black. Following the demise of Mr. Cary in 1914, the surviving partners were joined by Charles C. Russell and Emmet L. Richardson, who had for several years been associated with the firm, the firm becoming Upham, Black, Russell & Richardson. This association was maintained to the time of Mr. Upham's death.
Mr. Upham always held the highest ideals of his profession and scorned to prosti- tute his ability by resorting to legal tricks or casuistical proceedings. His mind was singularly open to the main point at issue, and all matters in his charge were regarded as a sacred trust.
Horace Upham became the legal representative and manager of the business. interests of Daniel Wells, Jr., brother of his first law partner, Charles K. Wells. His conscientious care and devotion to Mr. Wells' interests showed his appreciation of the trust imposed in him and proved how fully this confidence was justified. As Daniel Wells' representative he became identified with prominent lumber and related business
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concerns of northern Wisconsin and Michigan, notably the I. Stephenson Lumber Company, the N. Ludington Company, the Peshtigo Lumber Company, the Ludington, Wells & Van Schaick Company, and the H. Witbeck Company. Daniel Wells and Isaac ' Stephenson held large lumber interests in Louisiana, with which Mr. Upham was also identified. As the forests along the streams were gradually cleared, the hard wood timber of the interior was penetrated by the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad, the building and plan for financing of which he largely aided.
Mr. Upham contributed in many ways to large building enterprises, as witnessed in the erection of the Wells building, the Stephenson building and the building occupied by the Milwaukee Athletic Club. He negotiated ninety-nine year leases of some of the most valuable properties in the city and was considered an authority on these long-term leases.
By the will of Daniel Wells, Jr., Mr. Upham was made an executor and trustee of his estate, the active care of which devolved upon him. He was also made executor and trustee of the will of Isaac Stephenson. He was a trustee under the will of John Plankinton, and by the death of Frederick Layton, just a week before his own demise, he was named executor of that estate. At the time of his death he was president of the I. Stephenson Company trustees, president of the Escanaba & Lake Superior Rail- road, president of the Marinette & Menominee Paper Company, director of the N. Ludington Company, the Ludington, Wells & Van Schaick Company, the H. Witbeck Company, the Northwestern National Insurance Company, the Milwaukee Mechanics Insurance Company, the Milwaukee Drug Company, and the Wells Building Company. He was trustee and member of the executive and finance committees of the North- western Mutual Life Insurance Company.
On June 5, 1889, Horace Upham was married to Mary L. Greene, daughter of Thomas A. and Elizabeth Cadle Greene, of this city. Mr. Greene was a representative of an old Quaker family of Providence, Rhode Island. He was a wholesale druggist, a member of the firm of Greene & Button Company, of which the present Milwaukee Drug Company is an outgrowth. Outside his business interests Mr. Greene maintained an interest in science, especially in geology and hotany, and was well known in scientific circles.
To Horace and Mary Upham were born three daughters, the eldest of whom, Elizabeth Greene, married Dr. Carl Henry Davis. They are living in Milwaukee and have two sons, Horace Upham and Henry Clinton. The second daughter, Mary Greene, died in 1903. Caroline, the youngest, lives in Milwaukee. She was graduated from Radcliffe College in 1920.
Horace Upham was a deeply reverent man. He believed sincerely in the simple teachings of Jesus but was unable to subscribe to the theological dogmas of the Episcopal church, in which he was reared, He found great religious satisfaction in the Unitarian church and served as chairman of the board of trustees of that society for more than twenty-five years.
As far as health and time would permit, he lent his aid and influence to all up- lifting forces in the life of the community. He was a director of the Layton Art Gallery, a director of the Milwaukee Hospital Auxiliary, a director of the Bureau of Municipal Research, and a warm friend to the cause of the higher education of women. Before suffrage was granted to women he was its ardent advocate and was president of the "Men's Society for Equal Suffrage."
He had hroad scientific knowledge and was especially interested in the practical application of science. In his later years his leisure hours were largely given to the study of wireless telegraphy, and he established wireless instruments at both his city and country homes. At his country home near Kilhourn, Wisconsin, most of the hours he felt he could give from active business were spent. He loved the simple life among the Wisconsin hills and was always eager to share its hospitality with his friends.
While not taking an active part in politics, few men were better informed than he on the large political and economical questions of the day. He brought to bear on these questions as in those of business and social welfare his broad experience, keen judgment and the conscientious effort to see clearly and to act wisely. In his sudden death on August 22, 1919, Milwaukee lost a noble citizen.
FRANKLIN PIERCE BLUMENFELD.
The history of commercial activity and advancement in Milwaukee would be incomplete and unsatisfactory were there failure to make prominent reference to Franklin P. Blumenfeld, the president of the Blumenfeld, Locher Company, manu- facturers and wholesalers of millinery. He is also identified with other corporate interests, and is recognized as a man of sound business judgment, discriminating readily between the essential and the non-essential in all business affairs.
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Mr. Blumenfeld is a native son of Milwaukee, born June 16, 1853, his parents being David and Nannie Blumenfeld, who were married in New York in 1852. The father was a pioneer German newspaper publisher in the middle west. He left his home in southern Germany when a young boy and after connections with several leading newspaper establishments of Germany sought the liberty and freedom of the new world during the Revolution of 1850. He made his way first to Philadelphia and thence removed to Milwaukee, establishing his home in Watertown, that state, in 1853. There he continued to reside for many years, passing away at that place in 1906, at the advanced age of seventy-eight. His wife, who was a very talented writer, died in Watertown in 1916, at the advanced age of eighty-four years.
Franklin P. Blumenfeld, although born in Milwaukee, spent his youthful days in Watertown, where he acquired a public school education, after which he became a student in the Spencerian Business College at Milwaukee, being graduated there- from in 1869. He learned the printing business in the office of his father, who was the publisher of the Weltburger, a newspaper of Watertown, and after receiving training in all departments of the newspaper and job printing business he made his way to Chicago in 1870, and there worked on the Volksblatt, then a prominent newspaper printed in the German language. After the great Chicago fire of October, 1871, he accepted a position with a new recently organized wholesale millinery con- cern and in 1874 he came to Milwaukee in the same line. For forty-seven years, therefore, he has been identified with the wholesale millinery trade of the city and is now at the head of the Blumenfeld, Locher Company, manufacturers and whole- salers of millinery. Their business has become one of substantial and gratifying proportions and back of their success is the unfaltering enterprise, keen sagacity and thoroughly reliable methods of the president and his associate. Mr. Blumenfeld is also the president of the Standard Crucible Steel Casting Company and is one of the directors of the National Bank of Commerce.
In Ripon, Wisconsin, on the 26th of July, 1876, Mr. Blumenfeld was married to Miss Bertha Faustman, a daughter of Charles and Mary Faustman. Her father was a pioneer fish merchant on Washington Island in Lake Michigan, buying his supplies from the fisher folks from 1858 until 1863, and then packing and shipping from the island to eastern markets. In the latter year he removed to Ripon, Wisconsin, and in 1870 became a resident of California. Later he returned to Ripon, where he passed away in 1895, his widow surviving him for a decade, her death there occuring in 1905.
To Mr. and Mrs. Blumenfeld were born two daughters: Clara, the wife of Paul M. Pamperin of La Crosse, Wisconsin, who is a prominent manufacturer of tobacco and cigars in that city; and Nannie, who is the wife of Dr. William H. Zwickey of Superior, Wisconsin, the county physician of Douglas county. Mr. and Mrs. Pamperin have two children, Irene and Franklin John, aged, respectively, eighteen and seven- teen years.
Mr. Blumenfeld gave his political allegiance for many years to the democratic party and since 1916 has voted independently or with the republican party. He is a member of Kilbourn Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and belongs to the Milwaukee Athletic Club, of which he has served as a director and was a member of the building com- mittee at the time of the erection of its club house. He also belongs to the Wisconsin Club and the Elks Lodge. He is interested in organized efforts for the benefit of . the trade development of the city, being president of the Merchants' and Manu- facturers' Association in 1913 and a director of the Association of Commerce since that time. He stands for all those forces which make for advancement in behalf of the general public and his attitude on all vital questions of civic improvement is one of progress.
ALFRED CHARLES CLAS.
Alfred Charles Clas, an architect of eminent ability, has not only achieved distinc- tion in the path of his profession but has been one of the most important factors in the development and improvement of Milwaukee upon the lines of a well formulated system and plan. Too great credit cannot be given him for his labors in this direction. Mr. Clas is a native of Sauk City, Wisconsin, born December 26, 1859, his parents being Adam and Magdalene Clas, both of whom were natives of Germany, whence they came to America in 1848, the year that brought such a great influx of German people to this country that they might rid themselves of monarchical rule and enjoy the freedom and liberty of the new world, constituting a valuable contribution to American citizenship. Mr. and Mrs. Clas settled first in Milwaukee, where the father built his home at the northeast corner of Eleventh and Chestnut streets, on the site now occupied by the building of the Pabst Brewing Company. Later the family removed
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to Sauk City, Wisconsin, where the father built the first bridge across the Wisconsin river.
Alfred C. Clas was educated in the schools of Sauk City, being graduated with the class of 1875. When his school days were over he became a messenger boy in the Wisconsin State Senate and after completing that task he was apprenticed to an architect of Milwaukee and also benefited by two years of practical instruction on building construction. In 1879 he went to California, where he worked in an archi- tect's office for two years, after which he returned to Milwaukee and became asso- ciated with James Douglas, a well know architect of this city. At a later period he withdrew from business connections with Mr. Douglas and practiced his profession in- dependently, while afterward he became associated with George B. Ferry under the firm name of Ferry & Clas, the firm practicing architecture in the city of Milwaukee for twenty-five years. During the course of this partnership they were awarded a gold medal on the Milwaukee Library and Museum at the World's Columbian Ex- position at Chicago, at the St. Louis Exposition and the Paris Exposition. They also received a silver medal on the State Historical Library at Madison, at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 and likewise received a commemorative diploma on the Wisconsin State building at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904.
It was in 1884 in Milwaukee that Mr. Clas was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Wick, a daughter of John and Philapina Wick. Two children born of this marriage are living: Angelo Robert, who married Norma Huette of Sheboygan, Wisconsin; and Rubens Frederick, who married Florence Jensen of Madison. Fraternally Mr. Clas is a Mason, loyal to the teachings and purposes of the craft. He belongs to the City Club of Milwaukee, is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of the Wisconsin chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He has done much important public work, in which he has used his professional knowledge to promote further the improvement and civic development of the city. He was a mem- ber of the board of park commissioners of Milwaukee for three terms, being first appointed by the former mayor, David Rose, and afterward by Mayor Sherburn Becker, while lastly his appointment came from Mayor Bading. He was also a mem- ber of the first county park board of Milwaukee county and he served as a member of the capitol commission during the construction of the Wisconsin state capitol, which appointment was made by Gov. E. L. Philipp. Through legislative enactment Governor Davidson appointed a special commission to make a survey and report on state parks. This commission was composed of Mr. Clas, Mr. Hutchins and Mr. Griffith and many of the state parks today are the result of the report and recommendations of this special committee. Mr. Clas was also a member and the president of the city planning commission. He is the father, so to speak, of Milwaukee's Civic Center, a project into which he put his heart and soul for many years and which is finally a reality. Mr. Clas conceived, designed and worked out the Civic Center as it will ultimately be and despite the city getting in experts for their opinions, this Civic Center is going ahead in accordance with Mr. Clas' original plans. In addition to his efforts in that con- ยท nection Mr. Clas designed, laid out and is executing Milwaukee's Lake Shore Drive, which includes the entire water front from Edgewood avenue on the north to Oklahoma avenue on the south, a distance of ten miles. The above two projects are stupendous and mean much to the progress and beautification of the city. Another project with which Mr. Clas has been closely associated is the Milwaukee river improvement, upon which he has been working for years and while this improvement is not under execu- tion at the present in its entirety, it no doubt will be started in portion in connection with the Civic Center project which involves the widening of Cedar and Biddle streets with an ornamental bridge spanning the river and ornamental balustrades above, con- crete retaining walls on both sides of the river to the north and south of this bridge. What more tangible evidence of Mr. Clas' public spirit and devotion to Milwaukee's welfare could be given?
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