USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III > Part 18
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THE CORDES FAMILY.
The Cordes family lias for many years figured prominently in connection with business activities in Milwaukee. Robert Cordes, who departed this life in 1918, was born in Montello, Wisconsin, and was brought to Milwaukee when but two years of age. He became foreman of the heating department with Rundle & Spence and in 1889, associated with Nicholas Treis, bought out the department. They thus entered actively into the heating contracting business, with which Mr. Cordes was identified until his death at the age of sixty-two years. He started out in the business world empty-handed and won marked success as the years passed by as the result of his thoroughness and commendable purpose. Both he and August Kurtz were cash boys at Chapman's in early youth and from that humble beginning Robert Cordes steadily worked his way upward. He learned his trade with the Hoffmann-Billings Company, his mother having been a sister of the mother of Fred Hoffmann. From the outset of his career Robert Cordes recognized the eternal principle that industry wins and he made that quality the beacon light of his life. In early manhood he married Matilda Werner, who was born in Milwaukee, where she still makes her home. Her father, Frederick M. Werner, was a native of Germany and, coming to the new world in early life, served as a soldier of the Union army during the Civil war with the rank of sergeant.
Frederick Robert Cordes, son of Robert and Matilda (Werner) Cordes and the secretary and treasurer of the Cordes Supply Company, has made notable contribution to the success of the business and his determination and enterprise have been salient factors in the continued growth and development of the trade. Born in Milwaukee on the 1st of January, 1885, the public school system of this city accorded him his educational privileges. He mastered the work of successive grades until he became a student in the West Side high school. When his textbooks were put aside he entered his father's business and throughout the intervening years has been continuously connected therewith. He and his brother, Roy Franklin Cordes, received thorough training in every phase of the business and thus ultimately were qualified to assume management and control after the death of their father. F. R. Cordes, beginning work at the plant, carefully saved his earnings and when the opportunity came for the father to purchase the interest of his partner, the son was able to supply him with a goodly amount of the purchase money, which he had saved from his earnings. Thus the business came into the possession of the family and throughout all the intervening years F. R. Cordes has been active first in the work of the factory and later in the management of the business in a position of administrative direction and executive control. His thorough understanding of the methods of manufacture and of the sales end of the business has been a most valuable element in the continued growth and prosperity of this concern. He has been a moving spirit in every advanced step that has been made and his initiative has suggested many of these steps, whereby the business has been brought to its present position as one of the foremost enter- prises of the kind in this part of the state. In 1896 Nicholas Treis retired from the firm and the style of Cordes & Son was then assumed. They were first engaged in the contracting and later in the jobbing line and the business was incorporated under the style of the Cordes Heating Supply Company in 1906, while in 1921 the name was changed to the Cordes Supply Company. At that date they extended the scope
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of their activities to include plumbing supplies in addition to their other lines. They cover the entire state of Wisconsin in their trade and handle a complete line of both heating and plumbing supplies. Frederick R. Cordes belongs to the Elks lodge of Milwaukee and he greatly enjoys hunting and fishing, taking trips into the open when his business permits. He has a wide acquaintance in Milwankee, where the sterling traits of his character are recognized by his many friends and high esteem is everywhere accorded him.
Roy Franklin Cordes, who is the president of the Cordes Supply Company, was born in Milwaukee, May 20, 1889. He obtained his education in the public schools of Milwaukee, becoming a student in the North Side high school. He started out in the business world as an employe of the firm of Cordes & Treis, of which his father was senior partner, and thus learned the business of heating contracting, work- ing at the trade for two and a half years. Later the firm entered the jobbing field and for a year and a half Roy F. Cordes acted as a teamster for the house. He acquainted himself thoroughly with every phase of the business, so that he more and more largely assumed responsibility in connection therewith and at his father's death was elected to the presidency.
On the 5th of April, 1913, Roy F. Cordes was married to Miss Irma Koepp, a daughter of William E. Koepp of Milwaukee, who is the president of the Koepp-Mueller Company and was born in Thiensville, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Cordes now have one child, David Robert, who was born April 30, 1919.
Mr. Cordes votes with the republican party but has never been active in politics aside from exercising his right of franchise. However, he keeps well informed on the vital questions and issues of the day and his support of the party arises from a firm belief in its principles. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to Wisconsin Lodge, No. 13, F. & A. M. He is also identified with the Milwaukee Lodge of Elks and he likewise belongs to the Association of Commerce, heartily cooperating in the purposes and plans of that organization to promote the city's upbuilding, to extend its trade relations and to maintain high standards of municipal progress and improvement. He belongs to the Builders & Traders Exchange, also to the National Pipe & Supply Association and he follows athletic sports, especially boxing, for his recreation. He has a wide acquaintance in this city, in which his entire life has been passed, and his friends are legion. This in brief is the history of the Cordes family, which has long been known in this city, and the name has ever been a synonym of progres- siveness in business and loyalty in relation to public affairs. The two brothers have now for many years figured prominently in connection with commercial activity in this city. Prompted by a laudable ambition, they have displayed thoroughness, energy and adaptability in all that they have undertaken and their record is most creditable.
FRANK J. HARDER.
Frank J. Harder, a real estate broker of Milwaukee who has gained a large clientele through the capable conduct of his business affairs and who has in this way contributed in large measure to the development and improvement of the city, was born in Winona, Minnesota, December 6, 1879, and is a son of John and Wilbelmina (Block) Harder, both of whom were natives of Germany. Coming to America in the '70s they settled in Minnesota, the father being engaged in the hotel business in Winona.
Frank J. Harder came to Milwaukee with his parents when a lad of seven years and was educated in the public schools here and in a business college. His knowledge, however, has heen largely acquired in the school of experience and from each activity with which he has been connected he has learned the lesson to be gained therein. He worked in the office of the register of deeds of Milwaukee county for four years, enter- ing upon the duties of that position when a youth of hut seventeen. He afterward engaged in the trunk and bag business and later hecame connected with the insurance and real estate business, devoting his attention to the latter line in the evenings. By this method he built up a real estate husiness of substantial proportions, becoming well known through the handling of important property interests. He continued his arduous labors in connection with the trunk and bag business through the daytime and the real estate business at night until 1910, when illness caused by overwork forced him to give up the former. He has since devoted his entire attention to the real estate business and the building of homes. He has negotiated many important realty transfers and has erected several hundred private homes throughout the city, thus contributing in large measure to the development and improvement of Milwaukee. His business is now one of notable proportions and is the visible expression of his life of well directed industry, thrift, sound judgment and keen sagacity. He is a member of the board of directors of the Garden Homes Company, a corporation in which the city and county have taken stock in order to build homes for the poor people. Mr. Harder
FRANK J. HARDER
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has been active in many ways in the improvement and progress of Milwaukee and is a member of the Milwauke Motion Picture commission.
In 1907 Mr. Harder was married to Miss Bertha Bentzien of Milwaukee, and they occupy one of the most artistic homes on the south side of the city, erected by Mr. Harder. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the thirty- second degree of the Scottish Rite and he is also a member of Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine. His acquaintance in Milwaukee is a very wide one. He has lived here from the age of seven years and has heen closely associated with interests which bear upon the city's welfare and improvement. Actnated by a laudahle ambition he has most carefully directed his efforts along resultant lines and today ranks with the leading real estate brokers of the city.
CHARLES BENNETT PERRY.
Charles Bennett Perry, of the law firm of Perry & Perry of Milwaukee, was born in Oxford, New Haven county, Connecticut. His father, Charles Perry, born in the same place, died in 1898, and his mother, Mary A. Alling, daughter of Eli Alling, died in 1911. The old homestead was also the hirthplace of the grandfather, Bennett Perry, although the house was not the same, and Joel Perry, the great-grandfather, and James Perry, the great-great-grandfather, lived and died in that town.
Charles B. Perry acquired his early education in the public schools of Oxford, Connecticut, continued his studies in the East high school at Cleveland, Ohio, and later graduated from the State Normal School at New Britain, Connecticut. Having determined upon the law as a profession, he completed a course in the law school of the University of Wisconsin, from which he was graduated in 1886. He was also a student for one year in the law school of Yale University and for a like period at New Orleans, Louisiana, in which last named state he passed the bar examinations and was admitted to practice by the supreme court of that state. In early manhood he sold law books for about six years, traveling all over the United States while this employed.
It was in 1892 that Mr. Perry took up his abode in Milwaukee county, where he engaged in practice with Lyman G. Wheeler, under the firm name of Wheeler & Perry, an association that was continued until 1906. The firm of Perry, Morton & Kroesing was then formed and continued until 1919, since which time Mr. Perry has been associated with his son, Charles S., and his nephew, Raymond J., in a partnership under the firm name of Perry & Perry. The firm is in general practice. enjoying a lucrative clientage, and is regarded as one of the foremost at the Milwaukee har.
Mr. Perry was married in 1887 to Miss Frances E. McNair, a daughter of Miles M. McNair of Green connty, Wisconsin, who was connected with the McCormick Harvester Company for many years. He was horn in Livingston county, New York. and was a member of one of the old and prominent families of Livingston county in the Empire state. Mr. and Mrs. Perry have four children. Charles Stanley, the eldest, is a graduate of the Wauwatosa high school and of the University of Wisconsin and was for one year a student in the law department of the latter institution. Com- pleting his studies at the law school of Marquette University, he passed the state bar examination and was admitted to practice in 1917. In the same year he entered the officers training camp at Fort Sherdian, Illinois, where he was commissioned first lieutenant and assigned to the Eighty-first Field Artillery, his commission bearing date November 27. 1917, from which service on the 14th of February, 1919, he received his honorable discharge. He was first sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, afterward to Camp Fremont, California, and later to the government training school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, after which he went overseas and served in France throughout the re- mainder of the war. He married Theodosia Slothower, a danghter of George E. Slothower of Denver, Colorado. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin of the class of 1915. He is a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa college fraternity and is also the secretary of the Milwaukee County Council of the American Legion. To him and his wife has been born one daughter, Marian Theo. Eugene Miles Perry. the second son, was educated in the Wauwatosa high school and in the University of Wisconsin and is now engaged in the real estate business at Wauwatosa. He joined the army and was sent for training as a private to Camp Custer, Michigan, early in 1917. Later he was made a sergeant and went to France as a member of the Three Hundred and Fortieth Infantry. He was sent to an officers' training school at Langres, France, and was commissioned second lientenant. In 1920 he married Salome W. Wilson, a graduate of Northwestern University of Illinois and a daughter of Charles E. Wilson of Wauwatosa. They have one son, Eugene Miles Perry, Jr. Frances Marian, the third child and the only daughter, was educated in the Wauwatosa high school and in Southern Seminary at Buena Vista, Virginia. Walter Gordon Perry
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was graduated from the Wauwatosa high school in 1921 and entered the University of Wisconsin in the fall of that year.
In politics Mr. Perry has always taken an active interest, loyally supporting the principles in which he believes. He has served as a member of the Wisconsin assembly, was mayor of Wauwatosa from 1906 until 1916, or for a period of ten years, during which time he gave to the city a businesslike and progressive administration. He has also been city attorney of Wauwatosa and in 1921 was appointed by Governor Blaine upon the recommendation of the State Board of Health as a member of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission of Milwaukee county. He has also been attorney for West Allis and other municipalities. His official duties have been performed with care and fidelity and the community and the commonwealth have benefited by his efforts. He belongs to Wauwatosa Lodge, No. 267, F. & A. M., of which he is a past master; is a member of Kilbourn Chapter, No. 1, R. A. M., of Milwaukee, of which he is a past high priest; is a member of Wisconsin Commandery, K. T., of Milwaukee; Wisconsin Consistory of the Scottish Rite; and also of Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He and his sons are members of the Wisconsin Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, while Mrs. Perry is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. He was made a member of the Wisconsin Perry's Victory Committee in 1911 through appointment of Governor Francis E. McGovern and was a member of the National Perry's Victory Centennial Commission. He has always been interested in American history and in the attainment of American ideals. He comes from an old and honored colonial family of Connecticut and has deep attachment for the state in which he was born. The old family homestead in which his birth occurred is still in possession of the family and has been owned by the Perrys from a date prior to 1780. Mr. Perry has even stronger attachment for the city of his adoption and there is no plan or measure for the public good that does not receive his endorse- ment and support. He belongs to the City Club of Milwaukee and he is keenly alive to every chance for advancing the welfare and progress of Milwaukee and the county. in professional connections he has membership with the Milwaukee, Wisconsin and American Bar Associations. His professional position is high and he is honored and respected equally as well for his sterling worth as a citizen.
JOHN R. FREULER.
History presents scarcely any fact that rivals the growth of the motion picture industry which, within an incredibly short space of time, has come to be ranked with one of the five great business enterprises of America. It is in this field that John R. Freuler is operating as president of the Vitalux Cinema Company and his progress therein has been in accord with the rapid development and growth of the entire indus- try. The family of which he is a representative is of Swiss origin, the ancestral line being traced back in the land of the Alps to thirteen hundred. The grandfather, Fredolin Freuler, was a textile printer, as was his father before him. He came to the new world with his son, John Rudolph Freuler, and remained a resident of Milwaukee to the time of his demise. John R. Freuler, Sr., who died in 1890, was born in Switzer- land and come to the United States in 1865 with his wife and three children and his father and mother. He was a shoemaker by trade and first settled in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, whence in 1866 he removed to Wisconsin, establishing his home at New Glarus, where he remained for six months and then opened a shoe shop in Monroe, doing very high class work. He learned his trade in Paris and always kept his books in French. He spoke several languages and was a broad reader and deep thinker. After conducting business for a time at Monroe he selected Milwaukee as the city with the best prospects and offering the best advantages among which to rear his family, which in course of time numbered three sons and five daughters. He married Rosina Miller, who was born in Switzerland, a daughter of Casmus Miller, who was city clerk and recorder of Glarus, Switzerland. She survived her husband for more than two decades, passing away in Milwaukee in 1911.
John Rudolph Freuler, whose name introduces this review, pursued his education in the Milwaukee public schools and in the Spencerian Business College. He after- ward secured employment with a brokerage concern, the Milwaukee Mortgage & Loan Company, in 1890, and remained with that house for seven years. During this time he also engaged in an outside business. In 1893 he organized the Oriental Storage Warehouse on East Water street and conducted it personally from 1897 until 1900, when he sold it. In the latter year he turned his attention to the land business, having purchased some large tracts near Tomahawk Lake, which he sold for colonizing. This occupied his time and attention until 1905, in which year he opened the Theatre Comique at 966 Kinnickinnic avenue. The following year he sold this theatre and established the Western Film Exchange, which he later sold to the Mutual Film Corporation, of which he became president. . In 1910 he organized the North American Film Company,
JOHN R. FREULER
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Incorporated, of Chicago, where the company maintains its laboratories. Its studios are in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California. It also has its own laboratories and salesrooms in London, England. Its pictures are sent throughout the world. The company has starred Warren J. Kerrigan, Wallace Reid, Richard Bennett, Mary Miles Minter, Gail Kane, Helen Holmes, Marguerite Fisher, William Russell, May Allison. Lottie Pickford and many others. It sent out the largest serial ever produced, it being in thirty chapters and sixty-one reels of film called, A Diamond from the Sky. In 1912 Mr. Freuler was active in organizing the Mutual Film Corporation, with head- quarters in New York. This is a national distributing organization and covers the United States and Canada. It has sixty-eight branches and supplies more than seven thousand theatres. Of this company Mr. Freuler was president from 1915 until 1918. In 1916 he contracted with Charlie Chaplin in a world startling contract, paying the movie actor a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash and a salary of ten thousand dollars per week to appear in pictures for one year, the contract being profitably carried out to both parties. This contract was made personally by Mr. Freuler and was taken over by the Lone Star Corporation, which he organized and of which he was president. He has been president or an official of twenty other organizations connected with the moving picture industry. He controls the Butterfly Theatre and is interested in the White House, Atlas, Climax and other theatres in Milwaukee and is also a large investor in the Royal and the Newman Theatres in Kansas City, the two largest of that city. In November, 1920, he organized the Vitalux Cinema Company, which is a Wisconsin corporation, engaged in the manufacture of an entirely new type of moving picture cameras, projectors and film records for the home, school or factory. This is a new invention where safety as to film and low cost of operation have reached the last word in manufacture of this character. Mr. Freuler is president of this company. The unvarnished recital of his activities and his business connections must indicate to all who read between the lines that he is a man of splendid administrative power and executive ability and that he possesses a spirit of initiative in large measure. He had the sagacity and prescience to recognize something of what the future had in store for the moving picture industry and thus he became allied with one of the most important business enterprises of America today. His operations have covered a world-wide field as he has been and is an active factor in corporations that send their output to every section of the globe. He has been instrumental in developing most thoroughly organ- ized companies, their interests conducted upon a stable business basis and today he is an outstanding figure in connection with the motion picture industry in the United States.
On the 2d of March, 1897, Mr. Freuler was married to Miss Augusta J. Golz, a daughter of Edward Golz of Milwaukee, who was a blacksmith of St. Francis and was employed By the Illinois Steel Company for twenty-six years. He was born in Germany and came to the United States with his wife and their daughter, Mrs. Freuler, in 1882; establishing his home in South Milwaukee. Mr. and Mrs. Freuler have become parents of two daughters: Gertrude, who is the wife of Edward O. Orth, a son of Philip Orth of Milwaukee, and they have one child, Marian; Loraine, the second daughter, is the wife of Stuart R. Walker of this city, who is connected with her father in business as a salesman. They, too, have a daughter, Jessie Louise Walker.
John R. Freuler gives his political allegiance to the republican party where national issues and questions are involved, but at local elections casts an independent ballot. He attends the Christian Science church, while his family attends the First German Reform church. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to Lafayette Lodge, No. 265. F. & A. M., and also has membership in the Milwaukee Lodge of Elks. He likewise belongs to the Society of Motion Picture Engineers and is well known in club circles, belonging to the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Wisconsin Club, the Ozaukee Country Club and to the Union League Club of Chicago, He finds keen pleasure in fishing, hunting, golf and motoring and has done extensive touring in various parts of the country. He is also a lover of music and all branches of art and this last characteristic combined with a splendid business ability has contributed in large measure to his success as a representative of the motion picture industry.
WILLIAM E. WEHR.
William E. Wehr is the president of the Wehr Steel Company, representing a business which has displayed marvelous growth in the eleven years of its existence. The company has developed a plant covering twenty acres and something of the volume of its patronage is indicated in the fact that in normal times its employes number three hundred. This mammoth enterprise is the visible evidence of the executive force, the initiative and the sound business views of its founders, William E. and Edward R. Wehr, whom Milwaukee is proud to number among her native sons. William E. Wehr was born on Christmas day of 1883, his parents being Henry and
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Barbara (Hnbman) Wehr, the father a native of Saxony, Germany, while the mother was born in Milwaukee. In the year 1852 Henry Wehr came to the United States, making his way to the Cream city, so that seventy years have been added to the cycle of the centuries during the period of his residence here. For a number of years he was located at No. 1 Grand avenne in the restaurant business but for more than two decades he has lived retired in the enjoyment of well earned rest. He is now in his eightieth year. His wife is living, at the age of seventy years. Her parents were both born in Germany and were pioneer residents of Milwaukee. This worthy couple enjoy the warm regard of many friends. They have lived a quiet and unas- suming life, never seeking to figure prominently in connection with public affairs but sterling worth has gained for them the respect of all who know them. They have become parents of five sons and three daughters, who delight in bestowing upon their aged parents all filial love and devotion.
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