USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III > Part 20
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On the 16th of May, 1915, Mr. Good was married to Miss Dorothy Dupke, a daughter of Charles Dupke, who was proprietor of a general store at Concord, Wisconsin. He was born in Germany and died about 1917. Mr. Good always votes with the republican party but. has never songht nor desired office. He attends the Grand Avenue Methodist Episcopal church and he helongs to Excelsior Lodge No. 175, A. F. & A. M. He is also connected with the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the City Club and the Association of Commerce. He greatly enjoys hunting, fishing, golf and all manly outdoor sports and is fond of music and various forms of art. His has been a most active life, fruitful of results, and his labors have not only heen an element in the advancement of his individual fortunes but also in the development of the city's commercial and manu- facturing progress.
JOHN WILLIAM SCHWEISTHAL.
John William Schweisthal is well known in business circles of Milwaukee as the secretary and treasurer of the Milwaukee Shoe Company at Nos. 816 to 824 Eleventh street, which he assisted in organizing in 1915 and which he has served in the dual official capacity for the past two years. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on the 26th of December, 1878, his parents being Joseph and Angela (Thul) Schweisthal, who were horn, reared and married in Germany. The paternal grandfather also bore the name of Joseph Schweisthal. The father of our subject was twenty-four years of age when he emigrated to the United States with his wife and both are still living in Cleveland, Ohio, Joseph Schweisthal being a retired shoe dealer of that city.
John W. Schweisthal obtained his early education in parochial schools of his native city and subsequently pursned a course of study in the Edmiston Business College of Cleveland. After putting aside his textbooks he became an apprentice with the S. L. Pierce Manufacturing Company, shoe manufacturers of Cleveland, with which concern he continued for eight years, rising to the position of foreman. In 1901 he came to Milwaukee and here filled the position of assistant foreman with the F. Mayer Boot & Shoe Company for one year, while later he entered the service of the Kalt-Zimmers Shoe Manufacturing Company, acting as foreman until 1909. He next became identified with the United Shoe Machinery 'Corporation, which he represented as a salesman and machinery expert until the 1st of March, 1915, when in association with John Gesser and Frank Ripple he organized the Milwaukee Shoe Company, of which he became secretary in 1918. The following year he was made secretary and treasurer of the company, which is his present official position, while Mr. Ripple acts as president. Mr. Gesser retired in 1916. The Milwaukee Shoe Company is engaged in the manufacture of men's and boys' unlined work shoes, and while the business has extended to every part of the United States, the output is largely distributed throughout the east and the northwest. In 1919 the concern exported shoes to Russia. At the beginning the output - of the factory was two hundred and forty pairs of shoes daily and by 1918 this had been increased to sixteen hundred pairs daily, while in the present year (1921 ) the capacity is eighteen hundred pairs of shoes per day. The original location of the plant was on Fourth and Vliet streets, but later the company purchased the Akron factory on Eleventh street, to which they made an addition and which they improved in other ways, having now a strictly modern as well as sanitary factory in every particular. The steady and continued growth of the enterprise is attributable in large measure to the excellent executive ability and sound judgment of Mr. Schweisthal, whose long experience in the shoe business has made him thoroughly familiar with every phase thereof and who is accounted one of the leading representatives of in- dustrial interests in his adopted city.
On the 4th of June, 1901, Mr. Schweisthal was united in marriage to Miss Marie M. Justen, a daughter of Nicholas Justen, who emigrated to the United States from
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Germany, his native land, and participated in the Civil war as a soldier of the Union army. He became one of the pioneer settlers of Milwaukee, where he still makes his home and is employed as a cigar maker hy the Louis Kindling Company.
Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Schweisthal has supported the men and measures of the republican party but otherwise has not taken any part in politics, preferring to concentrate his efforts and attention upon his business affairs. In religious faith he is a Catholic and a leading worker in St. Sebastian's parish, hav- ing served as chairman of its finance committee and for many years as a member of its school board. He takes an active interest in charitable and church work and has ever heen ready to assist a fellow traveler on life's journey. Fraternally he is identified with the Catholic Order of Foresters and the Knights of Columbus and in the latter organization has attained the fourth degree and has served as a member of the library board of that organization and is now on the house committee. He also belongs to the Association of Commerce and to the National Shoe Manufacturers' Association. His recreation is found in outdoor sports, of which he is very fond, finding particular pleasure in hunting and fishing in northern Wisconsin. Motoring also affords him relaxation and delight and he has made several extended tours in his car. He enjoys an enviable position in social as well as business circles of Milwaukee, where he has made his home for the past two decades and where his course has ever been such as to commend him to the confidence and esteem of his fellowmen.
WILLIAM H. OSBORNE.
William H. Osborne is the president of the Wisconsin Malleable Iron Company of Milwaukee and his business connections also extend to other sections of the state. Enterprise and determination have enabled him to overcome various difficulties and obstacles which always bar the path to success, and his steady advancement has brought him to a creditable point in connection with the industrial life of the city.
A native of Michigan, he was born in Tecumseh, October 16, 1853, his parents being William H. and Mary Osborne. He acquired his education in the schools of his native city and in 1870 came to Milwaukee, where he entered business circles as an employe of the Milwaukee Iron Company, with which he remained for six years, or until 1876, when the company failed. It was then that he organized the Wisconsin Malleable Iron Company, which was started on a small scale but has gradually grown and developed until it is today one of the largest industries of the kind in the state, with Mr. Osborne as the president. They manufacture a general line of castings and their business is now reaching out to many sections of the country. Mr. Osborne has likewise established a plant at Racine, conducted under the name of the Lakeside Malleable Castings Company, also devoted to the same line of manufacture. He has displayed splendid powers of organization. combined with executive ability, and his wise and careful direction of his business affairs have led to a constant increase in the trade.
In 1877 Mr. Osborne was married to Miss Ada Goodrich, a daughter of John R. Goodrich, of Milwaukee, one of the early pioneers of the city. They became the parents of four children: John G. and William V., who are in charge of the Racine plant; Marian, the wife of Robert R. Freeman, an attorney of Milwaukee; and Alice, the wife of Edwin K. Smith, of Racine. The wife and mother passed away in 1893, and in 1898 Mr. Osborne was married to Mrs. Isadore Baily Pratt.
In politics he has been a lifelong republican. He belongs to the Milwaukee Club and the Country Club, and his interest centers in those channels through which flows the greatest and most permanent good to the greatest number. He has demonstrated his force and worth in industrial circles and at the same time has given evidence of his devotion to all matters pertaining to the public welfare.
VINCENZ J. SCHOENECKER.
Vincenz J. Schoenecker, Jr., president of the V. Schoenecker Boot & Shoe Company of Milwaukee, is not only classed with the alert and energetic business men of the city but also with those who have been active in controlling public affairs and directing the course of public progress. A native son of the city, he was born in June, 1867, his parents being Vincenz J. and Margaretha (Schloegel) Schoenecker, who are men- tioned elsewhere in this work in connection with the sketch of Albert J. Schoenecker.
In the acquirement of his education Vincenz J. Schoenecker attended the public schools and also St. Joseph's parochial school of Milwaukee and received his more specifically commercial training in the Spencerian Business College. When his text- books were put aside he became identified with the shoe business under the direction
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WILLIAM H. OSBORNE
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of his father and applied himself with earnestness and thoroughness to the mastery of the business. He has constantly acquainted himself with every detail of the busi- ness and his increasing ability has brought him steady promotion. In the course of time he was made treasurer of the company and was its purchasing representative, also having direct charge of the salesmen. Following his father's death he succeeded to the presidency of the company and is now its chief executive officer. He has been identified as a director with banking interests of Milwaukee and the soundness of his judgment is manifest in the success which has attended the various interests with which he is connected.
On the 11th of September, 1899, Mr. Schoenecker was married to Miss Emma Suess, a daughter of Daniel and Crecentia (Moser) Suess, both natives of Germany. They have become parents of four children, Margaret, Harold, Karl and Rudolph.
Politically Mr. Schoenecker has always been a democrat, working earnestly for the success of the party and its candidates. On the 23d of June, 1899, he was appointed a member of the board of public works, was reappointed to the office on the 15th of April, 1902, and again on the 18th of April, 1905, thus serving for three successive terms of three years each, and he was elected city treasurer for two terms. At the time of his first appointment he was the youngest member of any who had served upon the board and for nine years he acted as secretary thereof. He is widely known through his fraternal connections, having membership in the Travelers Protective Association, in which he served as national president for the years 1914-15 and as a director of the national body for nine years. He was also at one time grand chancellor of the grand lodge of the Knights of Pythias, was a trustee of the Order of Eagles and is a life member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He filled the office of presi- dent of the Millioki Club and also of the Jefferson Club and he today enjoys the distinc- tion of being the oldest member of the Milwaukee Press Club. His capability in business, his prominence in political circles and his activity in connection with fraternal and club organizations of the city have brought to him a very wide acquaint- * ance and made him a notable figure in the life of his native city, where the name of Schoenecker has long been a synonym for progressiveness, enterprise and reliability in manufacturing and commercial circles. The good name established by his father has been upheld and maintained by the son and the worth of his work is widely ac- knowledged.
HENRY TOWELL.
Henry Towell, editor and publisher of The Milwaukee Times and president of the company owning the paper, was born in Lincolnshire, England, April 15, 1856, his parents being Henry and Ann (Bryan) Towell, who were also natives of England, where they were reared and married and spent their entire lives. The brothers and sisters of Mrs. Towell, however, emigrated to the United States. One brother, John Bryan, passed through Milwaukee in 1847 and settled in Dane county, Wisconsin, his original farm there being now occupied by one of his grandsons. Henry Towell, Sr., was born in Rutland, England, and the family is of Norman lineage. He was a maltster in early life and later devoted his attention to newspaper publication in con- nection with his son Henry. Both he and his wife passed away in the year 1888. Their son, George Towell, came to Milwaukee with his brother Henry and is yet in the employ of The Times.
The early youth of Henry Towell was devoted to the acquirement of an education in a parochial school, the only kind then conducted in the English town in which he lived. There he won prizes in free hand drawing and geometry and gained third place in a competitive school examination on Bible knowledge. He afterward worked at the printer's trade for two years and at sixteen years of age decided to enter upon an apprenticeship to a printer at Louth, England. The articles of indenture read as follows: "Henry Towell. son of Henry Towell of Louth, in the county of Lincoln, doth put himself apprentice to Frederick William Brogden of Louth aforesaid, printer, to learn his Art, and with him after the Manner of an Apprentice to serve from the fifteenth day of April, instant, unto the Full End of Term of four Years from thence next following, to be fully complete and ended; During which Term the said Appren- tice his Master faithfully shall serve, his secrets keep, his lawful command every- where gladly do: he shall do no damage to his said Master, nor see to be done of others, but to his Power shall tell or forthwith give warning to his said Master of the same; he shall not waste the Goods of his said Master, nor lend them unlawfully to any; be shall not contract Matrimony within the said Term; he shall not play at Cards or Dice Tables or any other unlawful Games whereby his said Master may have any loss with his own goods or others during the said Term without License of his said Master; he shall neither buy nor sell; he shall not haunt Taverns or Playhouses, nor absent himself from his said Master's service day or night unlawfully." He faithfully
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promised all this and, moreover, his father promised to see him provided during the four years of his apprenticeship with "meat, drink, clothes, lodging and other necessar- ies," and in return for his services he was to be instructed in the printer's art and to be paid seventy-five cents per week to begin with, which salary was to be raised uutil during the last year he was to receive a dollar and a half per week.
After completing his apprenticeship Mr. Towell worked at the case and also as a reporter on various papers for about a year and a half, after which he decided to engage in business on his own account and began the publication of The Melton-Mow- bray Times at Melton-Mowbray, a town in Leicestershire. The paper was printed by The Leicester Daily Post for a while, but subsequently he opened a print shop of his own, with presses and a full equipment of type, and it was not long before the paper had obtained a good circulation-so much so as to make it a desirable organ for a political party, which purchased it.
It was then that Mr. Towell determined to come to the new world and crossed the Atlantic, making his way to Milwaukee in 1887. Here he was employed first as a printer on The Sentinel. A few months later he purchased The Wisconsin Legal News plant and he and his brother issued a few copies of The Milwaukee One Cent Daily News from an office on Mason street. One day they crossed to what is now the south side of the city, where in 1888 they began the publication of The Milwankee Times. Their success has been continuous until today The Times has a circulation of over twenty thousand, with a splendidly equipped office, supplied with the latest improved machinery and presses. The results achieved have been brought through close appli- cation, unfaltering energy and determination. The paper has been the champion of every plan or measure for the benefit of the city and has as stanchly opposed any project which its editors have believed to be of detriment to the public. Mr. Towell has never been active in politics and has published The Times as an independent paper.
A year prior to his emigration to the new world Mr. Towell was married, in 1886, to Miss Ann Elizabeth Evans of Melton-Mowbray, who departed this life in January, 1905, leaving two sons and a danghter. Ernest, who is now a farmer of Vilas county, married Amelia Jensen of Milwaukee and they have three children: Dorothy Esther, Grace Elizabeth and Alice Lydia. Sarah Lily, educated in the public schools of Mil- waukee and graduated from the South Side high school with the class of 1911, is now secretary and treasurer of the company that owns and publishes The Milwaukee Times. She married Albert Lambert Slocum of Milwaukee. Harold, advertising manager for The Times, was educated in the public schools, completing a high school course, and is now vice president of the company.
On the 13th of September, 1907, Mr. Towell was again married, his second union being with Esther Le Grand, a daughter of Adrian Le Grand of Milwaukee, who was born and married in Holland and thence came to the United States. He is still living at the advanced age of seventy-seven years.
Mr. Towell is a member of the South Baptist church of Milwaukee, in which he is filling the office of deacon. and he also takes an active part in the work of the Sunday school. He is a member of the Sons of St. George and he is identified with varions trade societies, having connection with the Milwaukee Typothetae, the National Editorial Association, the Wisconsin Press Association and also with the South Side Civic Association. He enjoys travel and outdoor life, but the major part of his time and energies has ever been given to his business, whereby his advancement has been as the city's growth. Each year has chronicled the steady expansion of his business and his advancement to a leading position among the journalists of the state. He is a man whe prizes friendship and his life exemplifies the truth of the Emersonian philosophy that "the way to win a friend is to be one."
ANTHONY SZCZERBINSKI.
Anthony Szczerbinski, president of the Lincoln State Bank and secretary of the Lincoln Avenue Loan & Building Association and also well known through the conduct of a real estate, loan and insurance agency, was born in Milwaukee, January 28, 1878, a son of Anton and Josephine (Cemanski) Szczerbinski, both of whom were natives of Poland. They came to America in 1872, settling in Milwaukee and both are now de- ceased. The father was for thirty years a member of the Milwaukee police department and was widely known in this connection.
Anthony Szczerbinski was educated in the Milwaukee parochial schools, the public schools and the high school and also pursued a two years' course in the Milwaukee Law School in order that he might thus be better qualified for business affairs. He became private secretary to Mayor David S. Rose, serving in that position for nine years and in 1910 he was elected a member of the Milwaukee common council, filling the position for eight consecutive years, or for four terms, during which time he exercised his official prerogatives in support of many measures of great valne to the city.
ANTHONY SZCZERBINSKI
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. He represented the fourteenth ward during the first two years of his connection with the council and the eighth ward during the remaining six years. In 1916 he received the democratic nomination for congress from the fourth congressional district but was defeated by twelve hundred votes, his opponent winning by the smallest majority given in the district in thirty years. The large vote given to Mr. Szczerbinski was a most complimentary one, indicating his capability and the confidence reposed in him by his fellow townsmen. In 1920 he was appointed by the federal government as supervisor of census for Milwaukee county. He has always stood for those interests which are of local value and which promote civic welfare and during the war period he was equally active and loyal in support of the national government, being engaged in making many speeches in support of war measures. He holds the record of having made fifteen speeches on one Sunday afternoon.
For the past fifteen years Mr. Szczerbinski has been engaged in the real estate business, in which he has won substantial success. He was elected president of the Lincoln State Bank upon its organization in 1920 and he has been the secretary of the Lincoln Loan & Building Association since its organization in 1910. His business affairs are wisely and carefully managed and conducted and success has placed him among the men of affluence in the city.
On the 12th of June, 1901, Mr. Szczerbinski was married to Miss Frances Kniola of Chicago. He helongs to the Knights of Pythias and to the Polish National Alliance and is very prominent and influential among the people of Polish birth and descent in Milwaukee. He has been very actively identified with many public enterprises in his district and while serving in the city council was the author of the eight hour bill on city contracts and the uniform bread weight ordinance. Many tangible evi- dences of his loyalty to the public welfare and his devotion to the general good may be cited.
JOSEPH MALNEKOFF.
Joseph Malnekoff, president of Malnekoff & Company, Incorporated, wholesale dealers in diamonds, was born February 17, 1885, in Kiev, Russia, his parents being Nathan and Cassie (Cahken) Malnekoff, who were also natives of Russia, where the ancestry of the family can be traced back through several generations. The father was a teacher in the public schools there and died in 1910, while his wife passed away in 1913.
The early education of Joseph Malnekoff was acquired under his father's direction and in the public schools of Kiev, including the high school. There he engaged . in the business of manufacturing jewelry, learning the trade in one of the big jewelry factories of Kiev. He completed his educational course by becoming a diamond setter . and after working for two years at the trade he was married. Then in 1905 he engaged in business on his own account, opening a jewelry store and manufacturing plant in Kiev, where he'carried on business until 1913, winning substantial success during that period. However, at that time he was practically forced to leave Russia because of the pogroms in Kiev and with his wife, four children and two girl cousins he came to America, settling in Milwaukee. Here he was in the employ of the Alsted-Kasten Company for a short time, after which he was associated with other jewelry houses for about a year and on the expiration of that period bought out Lubescer & Company, founding his present business. In 1917 he removed to his present location adjoining the Boston Store and in 1921 incorporated his business under the present style. He handles diamonds, selling to the wholesale trade, and his business is gradually reach- ing very gratifying proportions. His long experience has made him an expert in the value of the stones, his ability being recognized by all who know of the business.
On the 2d of December, 1905, Mr. Malnekoff was united in marriage to Miss Ida Scapoval, a native of Kiev and a daughter of Jacob Scapoval. They have become parents of five children: Isador Merwin, who is a student in the North Side high school; Frances, who is attending the public schools; Elizabeth and Louis also in school; and Nathan, who was born in Milwaukee and has also reached school age.
The family is identified with the Jewish congregation of Ansche Spard. Fraternally Mr. Malnekoff belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, also to B'nai B'rith, to the Progress Order of the West Oestreicher Society of Milwaukee and to the United Israelite Society. He also has membership in the Baronear and Bosloher Societies. He is a lover of music and he is a man of philanthropic spirit. His hobby is working with his wife as helper in general relief work. He was one of the founders of a company which loans money in small sums to people who are struggling to get a foothold in business and he is now president of the company, which has been of great service to hundreds of aspiring young Jewish merchants who were originally peddlers and out of luck. The office of the company, known as the Kiever Mutual Loan Corpora- tion, is at 827 Walnut street. Mr. Malnekoff was also the founder of the Boslober Vol. III-13
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Corporation, which makes loans at six per cent interest. He has never had occasion to . regret his determination to come to the new world, for here he found the business opportunities which he sought and has gained an enviable position as a diamond merchant and as a representative and progressive business man of his adopted city.
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