History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III, Part 37

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 912

USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III > Part 37

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Rev. Father Salick acquired his early education in the parochial schools of Watertown and afterward attended the Sacred Heart College at that place. He next continued his studies in St. Francis Seminary at Milwaukee and completing his preparation for the priesthood was ordained on the 24th of June, 1884. He was then appointed assistant at St. Joseph's Catholic church of this city, where he labored for a year and later he spent three years as a teacher in St. Francis Semi- nary. His next assignment was to the Catholic church at Allentown, Wisconsin, where he fitted the pastorate for two years and for five years he was located at Potosi, Wisconsin, while on the 16th of April, 1895, he returned to Milwaukee, on being transferred as pastor of St. Ann's church. Here he has since been stationed and his labors have been fruitful of splendid results for the organization. He has not only built an excellent church but a school and parsonage and has developed a parish until it now numbers eight hundred families, while there is an attendance of seven hundred and fifty pupils in the school. He labors untiringly for the cause and his efforts have been far-reaching and resultant.

S. J. ZWIERZCHOWSKI.

S. J. Zwierzchowski is numbered among the representative business men of Milwaukee as president of the Kuryer Publishing Company with quarters at 435 Broadway. He is a native of Srem, Poland, born on the 27th of April, 1880, a son of Andrzej and Ludwika ( Trzeciak) Zwierzchowski. Both Mr. and Mrs. Zwierz- chowski are living in Srem, Poland, where the father is prominent. He is a manufacturer and is now president of the city council and active in many local societies and institutions. For many years members of the Zwierzchowski family have made Srem their home.

S. J. Zowski received his education in the public schools of his native city and after graduating from the high school there entered the Polytechnic Institute at Charlottenburg, Germany, and received the degree of Dipl. Ing. (Diplom Ingenienr) from that institution in 1905, upon completion of a mechanical engineering course, specializing in water turbines and other hydraulic machinery. In the year of his graduation he came to the United States and located at Dayton, Ohio, where he became engineer with the Dayton Globe Iron Works Company, with which concern he was active until January, 1906. At that time he came to Milwaukee as engineer in the hydraulic department of the Allis-Chalmers Company and in 1907 was sent to Montreal in the interests of that company, remaining until fall. Desiring to gain more knowledge of and to make further advancement in mechanical engineer- ing, he spent a great deal of his spare time in study and in the fall of 1907 was offered a position as instructor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to de- velop the branch of hydro-mechanical engineering in the school. In 1913 a dis- tinct honor was conferred upon him when he was appointed to the chair of hydro-

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mechanical engineering, this being the only professorship of its kind in any uni- versity, and Mr. Zowski was the first to fill that chair. While active in association with the university Mr. Zowski developed some new types of turbines of very high speed and power, the first of which is manufactured by the Allis-Chalmers Com- pany. Other improved designs are being exploited by other manufacturing con- cerns of America. Mr. Zowski is the author of many scientific articles on water turbines, published by the technical magazines of the country and has won con- siderable prominence in that connection. His ability being widely recognized, Mr. Zowski was appointed a member of the staff of Colonel E. T. House, United States Inquiry Commission for preparing material and data for the Peace Conference after

the war. His work consisted of gathering data concerning Poland in conjunction with Prof. Robert R. H. Lord of Harvard. In 1918 Mr. Zowski became associated with the Kuryer Publishing Company, of which he was made president, and his executive ability has won for the concern patronage of an extensive and important character. The company was founded by his father-in-law, Michael Kruszka in 1888, and it publishes the oldest Polish daily paper in America.

On the 3d of February, 1909, Mr. Zowski was united in marriage to Miss Felicia A. Kruszka, a daughter of Michael and Hedwig (Linkiewicz) Kruszka. Two chil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Zowski: Alice Hedwig and Thaddeus, both of whom are attending the public schools of Milwaukee.

The political allegiance of Mr. Zowski is given to the republican party and the paper which he publishes is one of the strongest instruments of that organization. Mr. Zowski was influential in bringing to Milwaukee a company to manufacture phonograph records and the factory has just been completed. Branch laboratories will also be conducted in New York and the business will operate under the name of the Polonia Phonograph Company and will specialize in Polish music. Although he has taken a prominent part in commercial affairs in Milwaukee, Mr. Zowski has only been on a leave of absence from the University of Michigan, his time having expired in the fall of 1921. Mr. Zowski has been one of the most note- worthy men of Milwaukee, not only because of his natural talents and the position to which he has attained as educator and business man, but even more because he is a foreign-born citizen after whom Europeans seeking a home in America might well pattern. The Zowski family reside at 687 Downer avenue, Milwaukee, and when in Ann Arbor, at 2006 Washtenaw avenue.

OSCAR BRACHMAN.

Milwaukee numbers among her native sons Oscar Brachman, real estate dealer, promoter and builder who has financed and constructed scores of the finest buildings in his native city. He was born on September 3, 1887. a son of Henry and Julia ( Brandeis ) Brachman, both deceased. Henry Brachman was born in upper Germany and came to the United States alone as a young man. He engaged in tailoring and won more than a substantial success in that connection. His death occurred in 1895. His wife survived him until 1918, when her demise occurred. She was a native of Bohemia and came to Milwaukee with her parents when a child.

In the pursuit of an education Oscar Brachman attended the public schools of Milwaukee and after putting his textbooks aside became connected with the Cohen Brothers, wholesale house. For six or seven years he remained in the men's fur- nishings department of that establishment and then resigned his position to go into the insurance business. From selling fire insurance he drifted into the real estate business about 1905 and has since been active in that connection. He has never entered a partnership and has built up an extensive and important patronage. He is responsible for many of the finest buildings in Milwaukee, having developed their plans and financed the construction and among them are the Hotel Astor, Central Market. Arden Hall, Junior Terrace, Lincoln Terrace, Ambassador Apartments, Car- penter Block, Downer Theatre; also the Rialto Theatre and the Baker Block at Racine: and other projects in this state and in Chicago. Altogether Mr. Brachman has erected thirty large apartment houses.

On the 15th of February, 1911, Mr. Brachman was united in marriage to Miss Florence Ettenheim, a daughter of Solomon H. Ettenheim, a pioneer real estate man of Milwaukee. To them one son, Oscar, Jr., has been born, his natal day being the 15th of May, 1914.

Since attaining his majority Mr. Brachman has given his political allegiance to the republican party and although well informed on all the important questions and issnes of the day has never taken an active interest in political affairs. He is a member of B'nai Jeshurun Temple at Tenth and Cedar streets, and is also a member of Harmony Lodge, No. 142, F. & A. M .; the Elks Lodge, No. 46; the Milwaukee Athletic Club and the Woodmont Country Club. Along the line of his business he is a member of the Milwaukee Real Estate Board and Milwaukee Fire Insurance Board.

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OSCAR BRACHMAN

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As a man interested in the development and improvement of the community in which he resides, Mr. Brachman holds membership in the Association of Commerce and serves that organization on the industrial committee. For recreation he turns to the great outdoors and spends much time in motoring and in playing golf. Mr. Brachman is a typical young business man of the present day-wide-awake, ener- getic and resourceful, finding his opportunities in the prevailing conditions, which he wisely utilizes in the upbuilding of his own fortunes and in the improvement of the city of his nativity.

REV. PETER POLOMSKY.

Rev. Peter Polomsky, pastor of St. Stephen's Catholic church of Milwaukee, was born February 22, 1881, in Silesia, his parents being Antoni and Beata Polomsky. He acquired his early education in his home town and then went to Rome, where he pursued his studies, preparing for the priesthood under most able instruction. He was ordained in 1903, after which he was assigned to a parish in his native land. In 1909, however, he crossed the Atlantic to America and made his way to Detroit, being there assigned to duty as pastor of St. Wencelaus' church for two years. On the expiration of that period he went to St. Louis and was at the diocese of Bellville. He was also assistant at St. John's church in St. Louis for five years. At the request of the archbishop of Milwaukee he came to this city and soon after- ward entered upon duties as pastor of a Catholic church in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There he remained from 1916 until 1917, when he was appointed to St. Stephen's parish in Milwaukee and through the intervening period of four years has lahored consistently and effectively here, his efforts producing substantial results in the up- building of the church.

HENRY B. HITZ, M. D.

Dr. Henry B. Hitz, a nose, throat and ear specialist of Milwaukee, practicing successfully after most thorough preparation, having studied extensively both in America and abroad, holds to the highest standards in all of his professional work and has won a well merited reputation. Born in Washington, D. C., on the 16th of May, 1867, he is a son of Dr. Rudolph B. Hitz, who was a surgeon of the Union army in the Civil war. The father was a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and a son of John Hitz, who was a native of Switzerland and who served as the first consul from that country to the United States, occupying the position for many years, or until 1864, when he passed away in Washington, D. C., President Lincoln acting as one of the honorary pallbearers on the occasion of his funeral. The mother of Dr. Hitz of this review bore the maiden name of Mary Barnard and was born in London, England. She passed away in 1919, at the age of seventy-four years.

Dr. Hitz was reared in the national capital and enjoyed liberal educational op- portunities. Determining upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he won his M. D. degree in 1891 upon graduation from the medical department of Columbian University, now the George Washington University. He afterward spent a year and four months as interne in the Philadelphia Hospital, gaining that broad and valu- able experience which can never be as quickly obtained in any other way as in hospital practice. Removing to Milwaukee, he continued in the general practice of medicine for two years and in 1894 went abroad for postgraduate work, spend- ing six months in London, where he came under the instruction of some of the eminent physicians and surgeons of the old world. Since that time he has devoted his attention to diseases of the ear, nose and throat, following his specialty in Milwaukee. He belongs to the Milwaukee Academy of Medicine, the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Milwaukee Surgical Society, the Oto-Ophthalmic Society and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and also a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology. He has served on the staffs of the Milwaukee Hospital, the Columbia Hospital and the Children's Free Hospital and his practice has long been extensive and of an important character. He was a major in the medical service during the World war, on active duty at Base Hos- pital, No. 22.

On the 28th of October, 1896, Dr. Hitz was married to Miss Louise D. Winkler, a daughter of the late General Frederick C. Winkler, a prominent resident of Mil- waukee. They have become parents of two children: Frances W., horn June 20, 1899; and John B., horn July 6, 1902. Dr. Hitz and his wife are Episcopalians in

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religious faith. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar and has long been a faithful follower of the craft. He likewise belongs to the American Legion and his associates in these orders bear testimony of his social qualities, his genial manner and kindly spirit.

CHARLES HAYS JACKSON.

Since boyhood Charles Hays Jackson, president of the Jackson Piano Company of Milwaukee, has been interested in pianos and from an apprentice with small technical training but with an uncontrollable curiosity, he has won his way until he has become one of the best informed piano builders in the industry. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1885, a son of Orville Jackson, who passed away in 1914. The father was a native of West Salem, Wisconsin, and was for many years cashier of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad at Avery. Idaho. His wife was, before her marriage, Miss Mary E. Black, and she is now residing in Los Angeles, California.

Charles Hays Jackson attended the public schools of Pittsburgh and of Mil- waukee, where he removed with his parents when seven years of age. As a school boy he had great curiosity concerning pianos. The day before the school was to present a program before the mothers, fathers and friends of the children, it became noised about that a tuner was going to overhaul the old piano on the third floor. Mr. Jackson, then seven years of age, ran up the stairs and, passing up even an invitation to go sliding on the ice, remained to watch the operation long after every one else had gone home. This was the first glimpse that he ever had of the mysterious region inside of a piano and it made such a profound impression upon his mind that it was not strange that upon leaving school he entered a piano factory, there to learn the business from the ground up. llis first step in that connection was made as an apprentice for the Schaeffer Piano Company at Riverview, Illinois, and for three years he remained in that position. Mr. Jackson says of his appren- ticeship: "Piano making is a highly specialized industry and so each man is put on one particular task. The work is so delicate that each worker must be an expert in his line. While the other lads were simply doing their regular work, I was getting a liberal education. I not only learned my own little job to perfection, but I looked about me and studied the work of the other men." One day a workman in a different department failed to appear. The foreman was in a quandary until Mr. Jackson announced that he conld do the work and did it. After that.he soon became a thorough all-round piano builder and whenever a substitute was needed he filled in. For six months he was in the employ of the Smith & Barnes Piano Company and at the termination of that time was sent to Milwaukee to regulate the first piano made in their Milwaukee plant. He had previously worked for the Steger Company at Chicago, and in 1906 he accepted a position with Max Richtsteig in the piano manufacturing business. He helped make the first twelve Richtsteig pianos, creating a demand for them throughout the United States, and in 1908 severed his relations with that company which grew into the Waltham Piano Company. Both he and Mr. Richtsteig left at the same time and Mr. Jackson became associated with Edmund Gram, who was selling the Gram-Richtsteig piano. At the end of five years he was made vice president of that company and superintendent of its factory, which positions he filled for four years. His rise was rapid and in 1916 he delivered a paper before the Western Piano Technicians Association on "What We Seek in Tone," the leading piano builders of the country being in attendance. It was about that time that W. Otto Miessner, director of the school of music at the Milwaukee Normal was seriously studying how to make musical education more general. He was possessed of the idea of making a piano so cheap as to be within every family's means, yet of the same tonal quality and volume as the expensive instruments. Mr. Miessner knew that in order to reduce the cost of building a piano, the size must be reduced and that reducing the size of the piano would reduce the size of the soundboard and thus diminish the piano's volume. If the ordinary type of construction were used this would result in a small piano and in order to produce a small piano of the same tonal volume and quality as the large, expensive piano some new principle of construction must be found. After spending many years in working out his idea Mr. Miessner was still dissatisfied and in order to test his theory he decided to consult the best piano technician he could find. He was re- ferred to Mr. Jackson, who was then employed in an executive and sales capacity by a local piano company, and, explaining his ideas to him, was shown the reasons why his plan was not practical. Mr. Jackson recognized immediately the immense pos- sibilities of the idea and grasped the soundness of the new principles of construction but his practical knowledge told him that Miessner's plan for a small square or baby grand piano could not be worked out. After three months of feverish work

CHARLES H. JACKSON

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on blue prints and models the Miessner piano, the "Little Piano With the Big Tone," was successfully conceived. In May, 1918, the Jackson Piano Company was incorporated with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, which has since increased to three hundred thousand, and the first year of its organization Mr. Miessner was president. Mr. Jackson was appointed president the following year and has since been active in that capacity. The company has an output of twelve pianos a day which are sold in every state of the Union, South Africa, Korea, Ans- tralia and elsewhere.

Since its first exhibition at the National Music Supervisors convention at Evans- ville, Indiana, in March, 1918, the demand for the Miessner piano has been impera- tive. Possessing all of the tonal qualities and volume of the standard-size instrument. it is a piano small enough to be easily shifted about from room to room in a school or to occupy some corner where its bulk need not prove objectionable and it has proved to be the very thing for which musical educators have been waiting for years. Not only are schools in every part of the United States using the Miessner but they have been placed in many Y. M. C. A.'s and similar institutions. In New York, where the Y. M. C. A. is engaged in a great deal of work, the Miessner piano is widely used, being packed around from neighborhood to neighborhood. At -the time the armistice was signed the Y. M. C. A. was negotiating with the Jackson Piano Company for the purchase of two thousand Miessners for overseas use, the pianos to be carried as far forward as trucks could take them and then carried into the trenches wherever possible.

The Jackson Piano Company have created a small Miessner player piano which is in every way as perfect as the other make of Miessner piano but a little larger. Both styles have enjoyed a wide sale, and the demand in foreign countries is impera- tive. The orders and especially the reorders for the pianos have become so heavy that if the sales force stopped work for a year there would still be enough work to keep every man employed. Each month sees the output over the two hundred mark and soon that will be increased to exceed three hundred pianos.

On the 6th of August, 1909, Mr. Jackson was united in marriage to Miss Agnes C. Wilke, a daughter of Christian P. Wilke, a Lutheran minister. She was born at Madison, Wisconsin, where she received her early education in the grade and high schools. Later she attended a high school in Minnesota and in due time enrolled in the State University of Minnesota. Mrs. Jackson takes a prominent and active part in club and social circles of the city and has many friends.

Although Mr. Jackson has always given his allegiance to the republican party he has never taken a particularly active interest in politics, preferring to devote his time to his family and business. He is a member of St. James Episcopal church and when a lad he was a member of the choir. His wife is connected with the English Lutheran church. Fraternally Mr. Jackson is identified with the Masons, having membership in Lafayette Lodge, No. 265, F. & A. M .; Calumet Chapter, R. A. M .; Ivanhoe Commandery, K. T .; Wisconsin Consistory, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is active in the interests of the Milwaukee Athletic Club, Wisconsin Club, Rotary Club, Association of Commerce and Tripoli Country Club, and during the World war took an untiring interest in all drives and served as a member of the state guard. Mr. Jackson is fond of music and art in all forms and receives his greatest recreation along those lines. Good music has the power to grip the soul, banishing the sorrows and worries of every day, to carry the listener high above the earth. Many homes are indebted to Mr. Jackson for this joy and recreation, and the success that he has achieved in business is but a just reward.

HARRY E. BRADLEY, M. D.

Dr. Harry E. Bradley, a Milwaukee physician and surgeon, with offices in the Bradley block, has practiced continuously in this city for more than thirty years and has maintained his offices at his present location for twenty-seven years. Born in New York city on the 26th of November, 1862, Dr. Bradley is a son of Colonel Frederick C. Bradley, who served in the Union army as colonel of an engineering corps. Colonel Bradley survived his military experience for about twenty years and passed away in Milwaukee in 1884. Dr. Bradley is a younger brother of Frederick C. Bradley of New York city, who is division superintendent of the New York Central Railroad.

From the age of eight years Dr. Bradley has continuously resided in Wiscon- sin and was graduated from Professor Markham's Academy in 1879. He after- ward pursued an engineering course in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy. New York, and later spent four years as a student in the medical department of

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the University of New York, being graduated with the M. D. degree in the class of 1887.

At the time of the Spanish-American war Dr. Bradley offered his services to his country and was on duty as a major in the Medical Corps, spending several months in Porto Rico. He was acting division surgeon of the First Division of the First Army Corps and during the World war he served as major of the Medical Corps in the recruiting service and in a military intelligence bureau, all of which was volunteer work. He is now serving on the staff of the Emergency Hospital in Milwaukee and is police surgeon of the city, a position which he has occupied for more than twenty years. He was acting commissioner of health in Milwaukee during the smallpox epidemic of 1894 and he has rendered most valuable profes- sional service on many occasions.

In the year 1890 Dr. Bradley was married to Miss Nina Harlow and they have become parents of two children, Harlow and Gertrude, both college graduates. His professional connection is with the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Mil- waukee Neuro-Psychiatric Society. While continuing in the general practice of medicine, he specializes to some extent in neuropathic diseases.

REV. HENRY T. STEMPER.

Rev. Henry T. Stemper, pastor of St. Boniface Catholic church of Milwaukee, was born in Port Washington, Wisconsin. December 6, 1861, and is a son of Mathias and Magdalene ( Ries) Stemper, who were natives of Luxemburg, Germany. They came to the new world in 1858, settling in Wisconsin, and their son, Henry T., acquired his early education in the parochial schools of Port Washington. Il℮

afterward attended St. Francis Seminary at Milwaukee, where he prepared for holy orders and was ordained to the priesthood in 1884. He was then assigned to duty as assistant at St. Mary's church, where he remained for seven months. On the expiration of that period he was made pastor of a church at Belgium, Wiscon- sin, where he continued for five years. He next became pastor of the Sacred Heart church at St. Francis, where he served for thirteen years and his next assignment was to St. Boniface church at the corner of Clark and Center streets in Milwau- kee. Here he has since been stationed. While in Belgium he was instrumental in erecting a church edifice and school and at St. Francis built a parish house. He has built a school in connection with St. Boniface church and has greatly pro- moted the work of the church along many lines.

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History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III, Part 37

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844 Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 912

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 912