USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume II > Part 82
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HERMAN REEL
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still active in this field of endeavor, having his place of business in Chicago, which was made the distributing center during the World war by the government. In 1912 Mr. Reel began the publication of a paper which he called "The Progressive," a trade journal issued in the interests of the fur trapper and wool grower. He made the little magazine what its name implied-a progressive organ of the trades represented, giving to the public most interesting matter concerning the wool and fur market. In 1914, with the assistance of his sister, Mr. Reel opened a retail house on Grand avenue, where he is now situated. He has the largest specialty store of the kind in the country and his place is altogether unique in that his customers are served only in individual booths or rooms.
The spirit that has always actuated Mr. Reel was strongly manifest in the fact that when a young man, in association with a number of other young men, he decided that he wished to study law. Accordingly they met certain evenings at a given place and under the tutorship of Mr. Churchill several of these gentlemen continued their law reading until admitted to the bar and some have become prominent as lawyers and jurists. This class was really the beginning of what is today Marquette University. In recognition of this fact the university sent Mr. Reel a diploma of Bachelor of Law, although he never attended that institution. He was admitted to the bar on the 26th of June, 1897, and although he has never engaged in law practice, his knowledge of the science of jurisprudence has been of great value to him in the conduct of business affairs. He has figured prominently on various public occasions, on one of which he had the honor of presenting Robert M. LaFollette at one of the largest gatherings ever assembled in Wisconsin, held at the old exposition building November 2, 1902.
In April, 1904, Mr. Reel was married to Miss Blanche Ullman, a daughter of Joseph Ullman of Appleton, Wisconsin, and they have become parents of three sons: Robert, Adolph and Frederick.
In politics Mr. Reel has always maintained an independent course, voting for men and measures rather than party. His life has been a busy and useful one and has been characterized by the quotation which he used in connection with the paper that he published: "The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." Mr. Reel has always recognized this fact and his course has been one of continuous progress toward the attainment of his purposes, his hopes and his high ideals.
ARTHUR H. COHN, M. D.
Dr. Arthur H. Cohn, physician and surgeon, who engages in general practice but specializes to some extent in internal medicine, was born in Milwaukee, October 24, 1864. He is a son of the late Hugo Cohn, who spent fifty-four years in the service of the T. A. Chapman Company, proprietors of a department store in this city. He passed away February 23, 1921, at the age of eighty years, having in the meantime been pensioned by the company which he so long and ably represented, being retired in 1912. The company had but one clerk when he became one of its sales force and with the passing years he contributed in large measure to the continued growth and de- velopment of the business. He was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1855, making his way at once to Milwaukee, where he continued to reside until called to his final rest. He married Magdalene Reinel, who was born in Germany and came to this city with her parents in 1846, being then but two years of age. Her remaining days were here passed and her death occurred in 1888. In the family were four chil- aren, two sons and two daughters, all of whom are yet living. The brother of Dr. Arthur H. Cohn is Dr. Alfred J. Cohn, a practicing dentist of Milwaukee, and his two sisters reside in Florida.
Dr. Arthur H. Cohn pursued his early education in the public schools of this city, passing through consecutive grades to the high school. After completing his high school course he served for three years as a clerk in a drug store, between 1881 and 1884. He afterward pursued a two years' course of study in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and was graduated in 1886. He then established a drug business of his own, having a store at the corner of Ninth and Walnut streets in Milwaukee, which he con- ducted successfully for a decade. In the meantime he became interested in the science of medicine and began preparation for medical practice as a student in the Milwaukee Medical College, there continuing from 1894 until his graduation in 1896 with the M. D. degree. Since then he has devoted his attention to active practice in Milwaukee and for twenty years he was on the teaching staff of the Milwaukee Medical College and its successor, the medical department of Marquette University. He was professor of materia medica and therapeutics and proved an able educator, imparting clearly and readily to others the knowledge that he had acquired.
On the 23d of September, 1908, Dr. Cohn was married to Miss Hattie Saxe of Mil- Vol. II-50
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waukee, who was born in this city, and they have become parents of two daughters, Janet and Betty, aged twelve and four years, respectively.
Dr. Cohn is a Mason who has taken the Royal Areh and Council degrees. He is greatly interested in raising Single Comb White Leghorns and has been an exhibitor and prize winner in the large poultry shows of the country for the past twenty-five years. He is also a breeder of fancy beagle dogs and has won many blue ribbons in the national bench shows in the beagle class. These interests, however, are made sub- servient to his professional duties and he ranks today as one of the leading physicians of Milwaukee. He belongs to the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society and the American Medical Association and at all times holds to the highest professional standards and ethies. He enjoys not only the warm regard and confidence of the general public but of his professional colleagues and contemporaries as well.
FRED E. YAHR.
Fred E. Yahr is the president of the Yahr & Lange Drug Company, a business that was established in the year in which Fred E. Yahr was born. His birth occurred at Princeton, Wisconsin, on the 4th of June, 1872, his parents being Ferdinand T. and Emilie (Schaal) Yahr. The paternal grandfather, Ernst Yahr, was a native of Ger- many who came with his family to Wisconsin and located on a farm in Dodge county. Ferdinand Theodore Yahr was born in Prussia on the 17th of December, 1834, and re- ceived his education in the schools of his birthplace. In 1849 he determined to come to the United States and as a result located in Wisconsin, residing in Watertown until 1853. In that year he removed to Berlin, where he resided until 1861, when he located in Princeton and engaged in business as a hardware merchant. He was likewise a hanker of prominence and was chairman of the township and president of the village board. He was a member of the county board from 1878 to 1883 and was a presidential elector in 1892 to the democratic national convention. In 1890 he became a stockholder in the Charles Baumbach Company, dealers in wholesale drugs of Milwaukee, and in 1893 was made president of the concern. He was aetive in that association until 1898, when the name of the business was changed to the Yahr & Lange Company and he be- came chief executive. He was president of that concern at the time of his death on the 1st of May, 1910. Mr. Yahr. was a stanch supporter of the democratic party and was elected to the state senate in 1891, defeating James O. Raymond, republican, by a majority of fifteen hundred and ninety-four votes. He became identified with the Masons in 1868 and crossed the sands of the desert to Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Mrs. Yahr was born in Mayville, Dodge county, and passed away on the 23d of April, 1912. The Schaals were likewise of German deseent.
Fred E. Yahr acquired his early education in the Princeton Lutheran school, an institution for which his father had given the ground on which the school building stands. He also attended public school and later became a student in Northwestern University at Watertown, where he remained for two and a half years. When his text- books were put aside he became associated with his father in a hardware business, working for the first year at one dollar per week and two dollars per week for the second year, while the third year his father sold him a third interest in the business, which was conducted under the style of Yahr Brothers for a period of nine years, at the end of which time Fred E. Yahr sold his interest to W. R. Yahr, his brother, who continued to carry on the store to the time of his death.
It was in 1900 that Fred E. Yahr came to Milwaukee and purchased an interest in the business of the Charles Baumbach Company, the predecessor of the firm of Yahr & Lange. Mr. Yahr made the collections and also sold paint, oil and glass for the firm for two years and as a side line he engaged in the sale of cigars. He was first called to office in connection with the present business when chosen secretary of the firm of Yahr & Lange and in February, 1919, he was elected to the presidency. The business completed an existence of forty-nine years on the 1st of July, 1921. It had been originally established on the 1st of July, 1872, by Banmbach, Gerhardy & Com- pany as a wholesale drug house, on the site of the present Blatz Hotel, and the store was one of the prominent points along the river. With the development of the trade larger quarters had to be secured and the business was reorganized under the style of Baumbach & Rosenthal and was removed across the street, where the Pabst theatre now stands. Max Rosenthal, then a junior member of the firm, is now vice president of the firm of Yahr & Lange. A third reorganization led to the adoption of the style of the Charles Baumbach Company and larger quarters were seeured on Market Square, adjoining the St. Charles Hotel. In 1886 a disastrous fire caused a removal to temporary quarters on Broadway, opposite the Chamber of Commerce. Soon there- after another expansion became necessary and the business was established on Market street, opposite the present site of the city hall, and it was at this time that the name
FRED E. YAHR
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of the Vahr & Lange Drug Company was assumed. The business operated at this location for twenty years and in 1914, finding it necessary to obtain still larger quarters, the company bought its present building at Nos. 207 to 215 East Water street. The officers at the time of this writing are: Fred E. Yahr, president; Max Rosenthal, vice president; F. H. Galbraith, secretary; and John A. Dummer, treasurer.
On the 4th of June, 1903, Mr. Yahr was married to Miss Mae R. Blatzek, of Mil- waukee. and they have one son, Earl, who was born May 13, 1907, and is attending the Milwaukee Country Day School, and one daughter, Marion, who is a pupil in the public schools of this city. The family residence is at No. 3028 Mckinley boule- vard.
Mr. Yahr is prominently known in Masonic circles, belonging to Lafayette Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Wisconsin Chapter, R. A. M .; Ivanhoe Commandery, K. T .; Wisconsin Consistory, A. A. S. R .; Tripoli Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S .; and to the Eastern Star. He also has membership in the Old Settlers Club and is a life member of the Mil- waukee Athletic Club. Men have learned to respect Fred E. Yahr, to know that what he says he will do and that his word is as good as his bond. His pronounced character- istics in business as well as in social circles have established him high in the confidence and good will of his fellowmen.
LIBORIUS SEMMANN.
Liborius Semmann, dean of the music department of Marquette University, is one who has contributed much to the cultivation of musical taste and talents in Wiscon- sin. It is a recognized fact that there is no art and no force of nature which draws people into such an accord of thought and purpose and no art which as deeply touches the feelings and emotions of the multitude as does music, and Mr. Semmann has done much for the world in this regard not only as an instructor but also as a composer. Wisconsin is therefore proud to number him among her native sons. His birth oc- curred at Grafton, October 30, 1873, his parents being H. G. and Johanna ( Vocke) Semmann. The grandfather in the paternal line was John L. Semmann, who was born in Germany and emigrated to the United States with his family about 1851. He be- came engaged in the insurance business and organized the John L. Semmann Insurance Company of Milwaukee, which is still in existence, with his son, Gustav Semmann, as president. John L. Semmann served as a member of the Wisconsin legislature at one time and passed away at the venerable age of eiglity-four years. His son, H. G. Semmann, who was born in Germany, was five years of age when brought by his parents to the United States. The family finally settled in Wisconsin and H. G. Semmann became a harness manufacturer, conducting a factory first in Milwaukee, later at Des Moines, Iowa, and afterward at Denison, Iowa. He married Johanna Vocke, who was born in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, on the farm of her father and was of German descent. She is still living in Milwaukee but Mr. Semmann has passed away.
Liborius Semmann obtained his early education in the Lutheran parochial school of Milwaukee, which he attended until he reached the age of fourteen years. Because his health failed he afterward received private instruction, pursuing his high school and university studies under private tutorship. He was about seven years of age when he took up the study of instrumental music and has devoted much attention thereto throughout the passing years. He studied under William Boeppler of the Boeppler School of Music, under Hugo Kaun and others of equal note. He also taught music as a private teacher for two years and became connected with the Boeppler School of Music and also with the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the successor of the previously mentioned institution. He remained with the Wisconsin Conservatory until 1910, when he became connected with the Marquette University Conservatory of Music. At first he was one of the professors of the department but after six months he was made dean of the musical school and has so continued to the present time. He is the composer of a number of selections which have won favorable comment from leading musicians here and abroad. These include compositions for both piano and voice and also for choruses. Dean Semmann has served for three terms as president of the Wisconsin Music Teachers' Association and he inaugurated the standardization of musical instruction in the state. It was also be who started the examination sys- tem for music teachers and was twice chairman of the board of examiners for the state organization of music teachers, while at the present time he is chairman of the general knowledge committee. Recognizing the fact that standards throughout the United States were low and varied, he organized in 1915 an association known as "Presidents of State and National Music Teachers' Associations," which serves as a clearing house for all state music teachers associations, and only presidents and past presidents of such associations are eligible to membership therein. Dean Semmann has also been president of this society for three years. This association of presidents
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has at present seventy-five members, all leaders in their respective states. At its last convention in Detroit, Michigan, it elected Dean Semmann, in recognition of his work, to the honorary presidency. He was called by the State Music Teachers Association of Arkansas to meet with them and help standardize their association. At the wish of that organization he induced the association of presidents to establish a board of ex. aminers whose work would be principally to examine the examiners of the different state associations and he is now chairman of this board of examiners. He is likewise a member of the advisory council of the Musical Alliance, of which John C. Freund of New York is president, and he was one of the organizers of the Milwaukee Civic Music Association, serving at the present time as one of its directors.
Notwithstanding the fact that Dean Semmann has attained notable prominence in musical circles and that his activities have claim upon his time and attention, in connection with this art he has also been for three terms president of the Milwaukee Aquarium Society, is a member of the City Club and is serving on its committee on education. In politics he has always maintained an independent course and has never been active in political circles. He belongs to the Lutheran Bethany church of Mil- waukee and his life has been actuated by high ideals. As dean of the music department of the Marquette University he is widely known. He gives advanced instruction in piano, harmony, counterpoint and composition. He has charge of the normal classes on piano in the Marquette School of Music, which has an average attendance of eleven hundred pupils from throughout the conntry.
On the 7th of August, 1900, Dean Semmann was married to Miss Luise Damm, a daughter of Frederick Damm, a native of Germany, in which country the daughter was also born. There she formed the acquaintance of Professor Semmann, while he was traveling abroad, and they were married in Germany. They became the parents of two children: Armin and Waldemar. The former married Olive Prell of Milwaukee and is now connected with the Freitag Hardware Company; Armin was educated in Concordia College. It is difficult to find anyone who has contributed more largely to- ward the advancement and maintenance of high standards and ideals in musical circles than has Dean Semmann, or one who has done more effective work to standardize the art and prevent inadequate teaching through the musical associations of the country. His work in this direction has been particularly far-reaching and beneficial and his name is known in this connection from coast to coast.
W. H. GRAEBNER.
W. H. Graebner is well known in business circles of Milwaukee as a representative of insurance and loans and is also identified with public interests as a member of the board of administration of Milwaukee county. He was born near Detroit, Michigan, April 2, 1854, and is a son of J. H. Ph. and Jacobine (Denninger) Graebner, who were natives of Germany. The father came to the United States in 1847, at the age of twenty- eight years, with a number of Franconian emigrants, being their pastor and leader. He established the colony of Frankentrost in the primeval forests of Michigan, near Saginaw. The mother crossed the Atlantic in 1831 with her parents, when less than a year old. The family home was established in Monroe, Michigan. The Rev. Mr. Graebner was one of the first members of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri and he occupied only three charges during the entire period of his active ministry, covering fifty years, these being at Frankentrost, Detroit and St. Charles, Missouri. He died in Saginaw, Michigan, at the age of seventy-nine years, while his wife passed away in Columbia City, Indiana, at the age of eighty-four years.
W. H. Graehner was educated in the public schools of St. Charles, Missouri, and in the Lutheran Normal School near Chicago. At the age of eighteen years he took up the profession of teaching, which he followed for nineteen years, spending six years in Bay City, Michigan, and thirteen years as principal of St. Peter's School of Mil- waukee. In 1891 he was appointed on the state board of control by Governor Peck and filled that position until 1895, when he engaged in the insurance and loan business, in which he has continued.
At the same time Mr. Graebner has been active in public office. In fact through- out his life he has served his fellow townsmen in many positions and has been most loyal to the trust reposed in him. In 1898 he was elected alderman from the eighth ward of Milwaukee and filled the position until 1902. He was also city treasurer from 1902 until 1908, or for a period of three terms. He was reappointed on the state board of control in 1909, by Governor Davidson and occupied the office for ten years, or until July, 1919. He received appointment as a member of the Milwaukee county board of administration in 1920 and is the incumbent in that position. In every office in which he has served he has made it his purpose to study thoroughly the duties and re- sponsibilities thereof and the possibilities for improvement, and his efficiency has been attested by all who have known aught of his career. At the same time he has carefully
W. H. GRAEBNER
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and wisely directed his activities in the field of business and is today a well known figure in insurance circles, having been secretary of the Badger Mutual Fire Insurance Company since its organization in 1887.
On the 23d of May, 1875, Mr. Graebner was married to Miss Thekla Sulzer, a native of Milwaukee, and they have become the parents of seven children: Clara, at home; Lydia Benson: Agnes, at home; George, an attorney at law of Milwaukee; IIerbert, a practicing physician of New York city; Adele, the wife of Harry Cochrane, also of New York; and Jennie, the wife of B. E. Brown of Milwaukee.
Mr. Graebner has always been deeply interested in music and has been one of the board of directors of the A Capella chorus of Milwaukee, which has already celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. Along many benevolent and charitable lines Mr. Graebner has heen particularly active and is an earnest and untiring worker for the church. He is the president of the Concordia Mutual Aid Society, the president of the Milwaukee Mutual Aid Society and has filled many offices in the church, acting as secretary of the board of trustees of the Wisconsin synod, and is general treasurer of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Joint synod of Wisconsin and other states. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Northwestern College of Watertown, Wisconsin, with which he has been thus identified for twenty-six years, and has been a member of the board of directors of the Northwestern Publishing House. He is likewise serving on the board of directors of the Lutheran Children's Home Society and he is a member of the board of directors of the Lutheran Home for the Aged. The Wisconsin hrauch of the American Lutheran League has elected him to its presidency and he is one of the directorate of the American Lutheran Association and many other organizations which have to do with the growth and progress of the denomination and its practical Christian activity. He is likewise a member of the Old Settlers Club and the South Side Old Settlers Club and is an earnest and untiring worker in all those things which make for good in the life of the individual and in the community at large. Abraham Lincoln said: "There is something better than making a living-making a life," and this principle has ever been a dominant factor in the career of W. H. Graebner.
REGINALD I. KENNEY.
Milwaukee has ever had reason to be proud of her bench and bar and among the representatives of the legal profession here have been many capable of crossing swords in forensic combat with the strongest attorneys to be found anywhere in the country. Actuated by a laudable ambition and inspired by the example of eminent lawyers, Mr. Kenney has steadily progressed in his chosen calling, and he is now practicing as a member of the law firm of Kaumheimer & Kenney. He was born in Cedarburg, Ozaukee county, Wisconsin, June 8, 1893, and is a son of Cornelius Francis and Rose A. (Bannon) Kenney. The father was a native of the town of Mequon, Ozaukee county, while the mother's birthplace was Fall River, Massachusetts. The grandfather, Cornelius Francis Kenney, came from Ireland about 1845 and making his way across the country settled in Ozaukee county, casting in his lot among its pioneers. He ohtained a grant of land from the government and at once began the development of the hitherto wild and unimproved tract. He continued to follow farming for many years and aided in laying the foundation for the agricultural development of that region. His son, Cornelius F. Kenney, was also a farmer in early life, but afterward became secretary of the Cedarburg Fire Insurance Company and is now president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Cedarburg, having thus figured prominently in the business and financial circles of the city for a number of years. He likewise served as a member of the school board for an extended period and the cause of education found. in him a stalwart friend.
Reginald I. Kenney was educated in the common and high schools of Cedarburg and afterward matriculated in the College of Law of Marquette University of Mil- waukee, from which he was graduated in 1914. In the same year he was admitted to the bar of the state and has since engaged in practice. He entered the law office of W. J. Kershaw, an attorney, with whom he remained for about two and a half years and then formed a partnership in February, 1917, with J. O. Carbys, which association was maintained only until the 11th of May of that year, when Mr. Kenney entered the service for duty in the World war. He went to the first Officers' Training Camp at Fort Sheridan, there remaining until the 15th of August, 1917, when he was com- missioned a second lieutenant of infantry and was stationed at Camp Custer. Battle Creek, Michigan, where he remained from August 29 until September 21, 1917. At the latter date he was sent to Camp Greene, North Carolina, where he continued until October 28, 1917, and thence to Camp Mills, New York, where he remained until November 21, 1917. At that date he was transferred to Camp Upton, New York, and there remained until receiving his discharge. On the 28th of September, 1918, at Camp Upton, he was made a first lieutenant. He was assigned to the depot brigade, where
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