USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III > Part 24
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Dr. Norman W. Hollenbeck, a physician and surgeon of Milwaukee, whose wide knowledge and ability are manifest in the extensive practice that is now accorded him, was born in Green Lake, Wisconsin, October 7, 1874, a son of Henry C. and Ellen (Colton) Hollenbeck. The father was a native of Vermont, while the mother was born in Wisconsin and the family comes from Holland ancestry, the first representatives of the name crossing the Atlantic during the early colonization of the new world, at which time settlement was made in the Green Mountain state. The doctor's father followed the occupation of farming and he removed from Wisconsin to Iowa during the hoyhood of his son, Norman, who in the public schools of Sheldon pursued his education. He was reared on a farm to the age of eighteen years and then pursued a college course in Beloit College at Beloit, Wisconsin, where he was graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree. His educational training had awakened in him a desire to enter upon
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DR. NORMAN W. HOLLENBECK
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a professional career and deciding upon the practice of medicine and surgery he matriculated in the Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons, now the medical department of Marquette University. Following his graduation as a member of the class of 1904 he served as an interne in the County Hospital for one year and then began practice at No. 2664 Fond du Lac avenue, where he has remained. He has here erected a beautiful residence, with offices in connection, and as the years have passed his practice has steadily grown in extent and in importance. He makes a specialty of obstetrics and is serving as obstetrician on the staff of the Milwaukee Hospital and of the Deaconess Hospital. He likewise engages in general practice and his professional duties now make heavy demands upon his time and energy. He is also a director in the E. H. Karrer Company, engaged in the manufacture of surgical instruments. He has membership in the Milwaukee County Medical Association and also in the Wisconsin State Medical Association.
On the 21st of June, 1906, was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Hollenbeck and Miss Lillian Bark of Wauwatosa. They have three living children: Stanley, Grace and Ruth. During the World war Dr. Hollenbeck served on the examining board. He has always greatly enjoyed fishing and duck hunting and turns to these for recreation when his professional duties permit. He maintains a summer home at Big Cedar Lake, his family there sojourning during the heated months, while the winter seasons are passed in Milwaukee and the Hollenbecks' home is justly noted for its warm-hearted hos- pitality.
JOHN C. SCHMIDTBAUER.
John C. Schmidtbauer, vice president and general sales manager for the Julius Andrae & Sons Company of Milwaukee, started out upon his business career in a humble capacity and has steadily worked his way upward, his orderly progression bringing him at length to a position of prominence and large responsibility. His youthful days were spent upon a farm. His birth occurred March 13, 1873, on the old home farm in Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, his parents being Joseph and Crescentia Schmidtbauer, both of whom were natives of Bavaria. The father was born June 10, 1842, and was a young man of twenty-six years when in 1868 he came to the United States, settling in Dodge county, Wisconsin. He was a tanner by trade and took up the occupation of farming, which he successfully followed. He died September 28, 1920, when seventy-eight years of age, while his wife survived until November 6, 1921.
John C. Schmidtbauer acquired his early education in the district schools of his native county and his youthful experiences were those of the farm bred boy who early begins work in the fields and is thus busily engaged from the time of spring planting until crops are gathered in the late autumn. In 1892, when a young man of nineteen years, he became identified with the Julius Andrae & Sons Company in the position of office hoy. Since then he has made steady progress. The years brought him promo- tion as the result of his industry and faithfulness and step by step he has advanced until about 1907, or after fifteen years' connection with the company, he was made vice president. He continues to act as the second executive officer of the concern and is also general sales manager. The business has steadily grown and developed as the result of his cooperation, for he has ever employed constructive effort and has seemed fully to utilize every opportunity for the expansion and promotion of the business.
On the 17th of May, 1900, Mr. Schmidtbauer was married to Miss Ida Lee, a daugh- ter of Edward Lee of Baraboo, Wisconsin, who is a railroad man. Mr. and Mrs. Schmidthauer have one child, Betty S., who is attending the Milwaukee public schools. Mr. Schmidtbauer is independent in his political views nor has he ever sought nor desired office. In religious faith he is a Catholic, belonging to St. Mary's parish. He enjoys a game of golf and is also an enthusiastic motorist. He has membership in the Blue Mound Country Club, the Milwaukee Athletic Club and also in the Association of Commerce, his identification with the last named indicating his sincere interest in Milwaukee's welfare and upbuilding.
ISABEL V. SCANLAN.
Known to thousands of foundrymen all over the United States, Canada and foreign parts is the signature of "I. V. Scanlan" attached to letters of technical and practical import issued from Mcbain's System headquarters, and thus unique in many respects is this McLain's System from trade uplift to the efficiency of its business management. Foundrymen attending the annual exhibitions of equipment and supplies held in various cities respectively each year, receive the surprise of their lives in meeting
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I. V. Scanlan, for "1. V." isn't a man at all as they had believed from correspondence, but a keen-eyed, alert woman.
Our subject is a good illustration of pluck as well as ability. Looking back we find a girl of twelve mothering five brothers and sisters, sending them to school, attend- ing to their every need, besides keeping up her own studies. At the age of sixteen she began teaching in the public school, spending her vacations in improving her own education. Later, dissatisfied, she took up commercial work and for three years, prior to her association with MeLain's System, was head of a shorthand department and one of the most successful commercial teachers in the city of Milwaukee. She employs only Pitman-Howard stenographers and insists on accuracy not only in typewriting but in the execution of their shorthand, and delights in training the young women to become efficient in their respective lines.
Notwithstanding she had an assured position with prospects of higher salary, she decided to cast her life with the influence of MeLain's System, which is now world-wide known. She believed that Mr. McLain's idea was a big one but that he lacked the necessary assistance to put it across, so in December, 1909, she resigned her position to enter a field wholly unknown to her-the iron and steel business. She started in hy being stenographer, typist and doing all around work which caused her friends to be- lieve that she had really lost her reason to quit a position as head of a successful short- hand department to plod away at something that was ridiculed by its own tradesmen as they could not believe it possible to market a course of instructions to teach men the science of a business they had spent a lifetime at.
Needless to say hard work and study are the secret of her success, and that Mr. McLain is a true teacher is proved, for, here is a pupil, a woman who had never seen the inside of a foundry, yet to hear her talk on the subjects of metallurgy causes one to think she had spent years in actual foundry practice. Intimacy with progress and developments in foundry practice recorded through letters from clients, visits to various plants, as well as the trade journals, has contributed much to her knowledge of the craft. She has the distinction of being the only woman in the world connected in an executive capacity with a business of this kind, and to her the technique of the subject of foundry practice, the metallurgy of iron and steel, etc., hold no terrors-as a matter of fact, she simply revels in the work, bringing to the many problems a brain that many would be disposed to envy and a precision of expression readily appreciated by those interested in the various solutions. As secretary and treasurer she has assumed almost entire charge of the office management and that she is partner as well is due to Mr. Mclain's business acumen, for he discovered quite early in his correspondence school enterprise that she was too valnable an asset to risk losing by any chance.
It should be an inspiration to many a young business woman to know a little more of the effort this woman put forth to win from a child up. Her history of herself, starting with her birth in Rudolph, Wood connty, Wisconsin, and leaving the old home when thirteen years of age to go away to school, is brimful of human interest and has a tendency to make one feel like getting to know the woman a little better, and compar- ing notes and personalities with a view to finding out just wherein her strength lies, comparatively. One would think that the close association with business would have robbed her of the feminine qualities, but instead this woman has lost none of her charms through association with the foundry industry, and we hope the industrial world will become better acquainted with her. Mrs. Scanlan is a widow and resides at the Avondale apartments, 1718 Wells street.
GEORGE WATTS.
No history of Milwaukee's commercial development would be complete and satis- factory were there failure to make reference to George Watts, who for many years was prominently connected with the crockery and glassware trade. He built up a business of substantial proportions as the result of his close application, indefatigable enter. prise, thoroughiness and persistency of purpose. His name at all times stood as a synonym for pregressiveness and thorough knowledge of the trade and Milwaukee classed him among her prominent, representative and honored merchants. Mr. Watts was horn in England, April 17, 1847, and was a son of William Watts, who was also a native of that country but died in Milwaukee, having come to the new world after his son George had crossed the Atlantic. He then took up his abode in the Cream city and here continued to reside until his demise.
George Watts spent the period of his minority in his native conntry and acquired his education in the public schools. When twenty-one years of age he determined to try his fortune in the new world and came alone to America, making his way across the country to Milwaukee, where he took up his abode in 1870. Here he entered the employ of Thomas Massey, who was engaged in the wholesale and retail crockery and glassware business. He applied himself with thoroughness to the mastery of the
GEORGE WATTS
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trade and as time passed he gradually acquired a larger and larger interest in the business, and upon the death of Mr. Massey in 1890 he purchased the interest of his former partner and became sole proprietor. At that time the business was situated at its present location-No. 424 Milwaukee street. Mr. Watts was most active in the development of the trade. He carried a large and carefully selected line of goods, selling both to the wholesale and retail trade, and his progressive business methods found endorsement in the support of many patrons. His was the only exclusive crockery and glassware house in Milwaukee and for a number of years the company has specialized in English bone china. Their trade extends all over the state and from the beginning the house has enjoyed an unassailable reputation for the integrity and reliability of its business methods. This reputation largely had its root in the unimpeachable honesty and justice of Mr. Watts, who at all times enjoyed the entire confidence and goodwill of those who knew him.
In young manhood Mr. Watts was united in marriage to Miss Louise Heise, who was born in Milwaukee and is a daughter of Fred Heise, a native of Germany, who came to this city in the '40s. Mrs. Watts still survives her husband and yet makes her home in Milwaukee. The death of Mr. Watts occurred on the 7th of August, 1919, and in his passing the community mourned the loss of a valued and representative business man and citizen. He had always been most loyal to the interests of his adopted city through- out the entire period of his residence here, covering almost a half century. Those who knew him-and he had a wide acquaintance esteemed him most highly and his friends were legion. The crockery and glassware business that is now carried on under the firm style of George Watts & Son stands as a monument to his business enterprise, his progressiveness and his determined spirit.
Howard Manley Watts, son of George Watts and his successor as the head of the business, was born in Milwaukee, November 17, 1890. He acquired his early education in the public schools, and the East Division high school, and was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1913. Five years before his father's death he was admitted to a partnership and, when in 1919, George Watts passed away, he assumed the re- sponsibilities as head of the business, which has since been carried on under the firm style of George Watts & Son.
On the 20th of August, 1914, Howard M. Watts was married to Lorraine Grimm, a daughter of Judge George Grimm of Jefferson, Wisconsin, and they have one daughter, Helen Louise. Mr. Watts is a worthy successor of his father in business and is fully sustaining the high reputation ever associated with the name of Watts in connection with the mercantile interests of this city.
LOUIS PIERRON.
Louis Pierron, sanitary rug cleaner of Milwaukee, whose success in business is dne to enterprise, diligence and determination, was born in the town of Milwaukee, September 23, 1870, his parents being William and Martha ( Mantz) Pierron. He comes from a long line of sturdy German-French ancestors. His father was born in the city of Milwaukee, September 17, 1849, and the mother's birth occurred in Ger- many, September 17, 1853. Both have now passed away, the father dying June 1, 1920, while the mother survived only until the 16th of September of the same year. She came to Milwaukee with her parents in 1855 and her father was one of the pioneer brick- makers of the state, living at Fox Point. To Mr. and Mrs. William Pierron were horn eight children: Louis, whose name introduces this review; William, residing in Bellingham, Washington; Otillie, of the city of Milwaukee; Henry, who is also located at Bellingham, Washington; Elsa B., the wife of G. E. Rothweiler of Bellingham; Alma, who became the wife of Otto A. Jacobi, who died in 1910, since which time his widow has become the wife of John Kemmerer, a farmer of Saskatchewan, Canada, where he is extensively engaged in wheat raising; Martha M., who is now the wife of William Kranstover, president of the Badger Dye Works of Milwaukee; and Richard, who is assistant superintendent of schools in Bellingham, Washington.
The father of this family remained in Milwaukee until he was seventeen years of age, residing with Charles Hermann, his stepfather, who conducted a store on East Water street. Later Mr. Pierron worked in and afterward conducted the Silver Springs Mills in the town of Milwaukee from 1866 until 1888, there engaging in the manufac- turing of starch and cereals. In the latter year he established a grocery and saloon at the corner of North avenue and Third street, where he profitably conducted business until 1891, when he sold out. For thirteen years thereafter he was city collector for the Cream City Brewing Company. He was always much interested in politics and was chosen to represent the fifteenth district in the state legislature in 1881, while in 1891 he was again chosen for the position of assemblyman from the sixth district. He served as chairman of the town of Milwaukee in 1877 and again in 1883. In 1904 he retired from active business and spent his remaining days in the enjoyment of well
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earned rest, passing away in 1920. After his retirement he was appointed to fill out an unexpired term as a county supervisor of the sixth ward of Milwaukee.
Louis Pierron was named in honor of his paternal grandfather, who at the time the village of Milwaukee was incorporated in 1846 was conducting a general store on East Water street. He annually made trips by oxen to St. Louis, then the commercial center of the mid-west, where his purchases were made. Our subject's maternal grandfather was a brick manufacturer of Germany and came to Milwaukee in 1855. He soon afterward settled on a farm on the Port Washington road and he also worked in the Lake Shore brick factory in connection with developing and cultivating his land. Louis Pierron was reared on his father's farm in the town of Milwaukee and pursued his education in the public schools near by and afterward in the schools of Milwaukee, attending for a time a private school. He was ever actuated by a laudable ambition and in 1887 he acquired a half interest in a flour and feed store, which he con- ducted in partnership with George Scholler. Two years later, when his father returned to Milwaukee, Louis Pierron disposed of his interest in the feed store to become a partner of his father at the corner of North avenue and Third street. In 1891 he ac- cepted the position of collector and salesman with L. M. Pierron, his uncle, and in 1892 he became identified with the repair department of the board of public works and the board of school directors. He remained in the employ of the city for eight years, rendering capable service in that connection. In 1901 he returned to his father's old place in the town of Milwaukee, concentrating his efforts and attention upon general farming and the breeding of poultry, and he introduced many improvements there. He was elected town clerk of Milwaukee township, filling the position from 1904 until 1910.
Mr. Pierron has ever been an ardent bicyclist and his slogan in this regard is "In the Saddle Since 1879." In that year his grandfather purchased for him his first wheel-one of the wooden velocipedes. In 1889 he became owner of his first safety bicycle and in 1893 he was a participant in the Pullman road race in Chicago. He identified himself with the League of American Wheelmen, of which he is a life mem- ber, and has been very active in the interests of that organization. In 1890 he bought the wheel which he rode to Chicago on the thirtieth anniversary of its purchase and on the 7th of November, 1921, he used one of the original tires of thirty years ago.
Mr. Pierron is a stanch republican in politics and has always been deeply inter- ested in everything pertaining to the welfare and progress of his community. He makes his home at No. 736 Holton street, where the family has lived since 1891. He is now engaged in sanitary rug cleaning and he has the only Seaman rug beating machine iu the county. It beats the rug as done by hand and takes out every particle of dust. Most of his work is done for large concerns in his line which lack his equipment, but he also cleanses rugs for families and for hotels. The business has steadily grown to substantial proportions and has become one of the profitable business enterprises of the city.
EDWARD CALLAWAY.
Edward Callaway, president of the Callaway Fuel Company, was born in Milwaukee, June 19, 1877. His father, William Callaway, was a native of Portishead, England, horn on the 13th of May, 1831. He was first a seafaring man and in 1873 he established the coal business now conducted by his son Edward, continuing active therein until his death in 1917. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Jane Broughton and is now living in Milwaukee, is the daughter of John Broughton, at one time a well known resident of this city. She was born in Somersetshire, England, and the family came to Milwaukee in the late '50s.
Edward Callaway was educated in the public schools of Milwaukee and for five years he was employed by the O'Neil Oil & Paint Company as a stenographer, while later he became a salesman. He had pursued a course in stenography in the Williams Business College and thus qualified for his initial step in the commercial world. On severing his connection with the O'Neil Oil & Paint Company he entered his father's business. He had in the meantime served during the Spanish-American war as a member of the First Wisconsin Regiment and became court reporter for the brigade court martial. Following his return from military activity he joined his father in business and the partnership was continued until their interests were incorporated in 1907, at which time Edward Callaway became president of the company, his father hav- ing retired from active connection with the trade. He has since carefully and sys- tematically directed his interests. The business is that of wholesale and retail fuel and the trade covers Milwaukee and many parts of the state. The business has grown steadily until it is one of the big enterprises of the kind in the city and in addition thereto Mr. Callaway is president of the Winslow Mining Company.
On the 4th of June, 1913, Mr. Callaway was united in marriage to Miss Marie J.
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Meyer, a daughter of Carl Meyer, a native of Milwaukee. They have become parents cf one child, Olive Marie. Mrs. Callaway is a musician of considerable ability, possess- ing a splendid soprano voice which was trained in Berlin, Germany. She has been a member of choirs and has done much solo work in churches and in concert recitals.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Callaway hold membership in the Episcopal church and fraternally he is connected with Walker Lodge, K. P., of Milwaukee. He likewise be- longs to the Milwaukee Athletic Club, to the City Club, to the Association of Com- merce, to the Spanish-American War Veterans and to other organizations. He was chairman of the tenth ward committee in charge of all war activities-Liberty Loans, Red Cross work, etc. In the line of business he is a director in the Retail Coal Men's Association and is a member of the National Wholesale Coal Association. His political endorsement is given to the republican party and he has been an active worker in its ranks at times but has never held office. He has served as a delegate to state and other conventions and his opinions have carried weight in the councils of his party. Sys- tematic attention to all of the details as well as of the main features of his business, thoroughness and earnestness of purpose have been the salient features in the attain- ment of his present-day success. It is true that he entered upon a business already established, but many a man of less resolute spirit would have failed in carrying it forward. He has met the changed business conditions with an adaptability that shows his thorough understanding of conditions. His time and talents have been wisely used and he is today one of the foremost representatives of the coal trade in this city.
JOHN A. WITTIG.
John A. Wittig, of the firm of F. Wittig & Company, coal dealers of Milwaukee, has been a lifelong resident of this city, his birth having here occurred July 20, 1884. His father, Ferdinand Wittig, who passed away in 1912, was then seventy-one years of age, for his birth occurred in Saxony, Germany, in 1841. He came to the United States with his parents, who very soon afterward settled in Milwaukee. His father was John Wittig and the son Ferdinand, spending his youth under the parental roof, was largely reared in Milwaukee, where he learned the plumbing business, which he followed for a time. Later he turned his attention to the coal trade, in which he engaged about 1894 in partnership with Joseph Rademacher. Ferdinand Wittig was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Frantz, who was born on her father's farm in Waukesha county, Wis- consin, and who died in the year 1906.
John A. Wittig pursued his early education in St. Mary's parochial school and afterward attended Marquette College, in which he pursued an academic course, and also attended a business college. Having thus qualified for the duties and responsibili- ties of a commercial career, he became associated with his father in business as a clerk and in 1912, following the death of his father, he became copartner in the business that is now carried on under the style of F. Wittig & Company. They conduct a whole- sale charcoal business and handle coal and fuel as retailers. They have developed a trade of large and gratifying proportions and their enterprise, energy and determina- tion have brought them prominently to the front as successful dealers.
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