USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III > Part 74
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John M. McCoy of this family was but eight years of age when the family left the old Bay state to become residents of Wisconsin. He attended St. Gall's parochial school, which then stood on the site of the Public Service huilding of Milwaukee, and when his school days were over he worked with his father for some time. He was afterward employed by the firm of Godfrey & Crandall, printers and publishers, which firm published the old-time commercial letters as a source of daily record of the Milwaukee Board of Trade. In 1876 Mr. McCoy started out upon an independent business venture by opening a cafe and restaurant at No. 210 West Water street. This he conducted for several years and it was one of the popular establishments of the kind in the city. He carried on the business from 1876 until 1906 and won suc- cess by earnest and well directed effort. As he prospered in his undertakings he made investments in Milwaukee real estate and became the owner of much valuable property. On one occasion he sold an eighty-foot frontage on West Water street at the highest price ever paid for property in Milwaukee up to that time. In September, 1912, he purchased the Hotel Charlotte property in the very heart of Milwaukee's business district-a modern structure of reinforced concrete, being at that time the only absolutely fireproof hotel in Milwaukee. Whatever he undertook he carried forward to successful completion and as the years passed his untiring activity, his wisdom and sound judgment brought to him a very substantial measure of prosperity. In addition to his hotel property and other real estate holdings Mr. McCoy became well known through the erection of several dwelling houses and apartment buildings and through other operations in the real estate field. He was the builder of what is now called the City building, which he erected in 1905, and he maintained a garage there until 1907, when he sold the property to the city. He also became one of the chief stockholders of the Prospect Hill Land Company. Mr. McCoy likewise became presi- dent of the McCoy-Notan Heater & Supply Company, engaged in handling general supplies for both the wholesale and retail trade. He was likewise vice president of the Thomas E. Hoye Heating Company.
Mr. McCoy early manifested keen interest in politics and public affairs and his devotion to the general good led to his election on the democratic ticket as alderman from the fourth ward in April, 1885. He filled the position for three years and then in 1888 became the nominee on the fusion ticket and was reelected alderman for a period of two years. He exercised his official prerogatives in support of all that he believed would prove beneficial to Milwaukee and contributed much to the wise admin- istration of municipal affairs. He had previously filled the office of deputy sheriff of Milwaukee county under John R. Bentley and following his retirement from the position of member of the city council he was appointed by Governor George W. Peck to the office of state oil inspector for the district comprising Milwaukee, Ozaukee and Washington counties, continuing to serve while Governor Peck occupied the posi- tion of chief executive of the state. Having removed to the eighteenth ward, Mr. McCoy was there elected in April, 1902, to the office of alderman and in 1908 he was made the democratic candidate for sheriff but went down with the rest of the party at the election in that year. No one ever questioned the integrity of his views or his position in regard to public affairs. He sought earnestly to advance general progress and improvement and he was long an influential factor in democratic circles. He frequently served as a delegate to the various conventions of his party, including the national democratic convention which nominated Judge Alton B. Parker for the presidency and also the state convention which gave the nomination for governor to George W. Peck.
On the 15th of May, 1886, Mr. McCoy was married to Miss Julia Teagan, who was born and reared in Milwaukee, a daughter of Thomas Teagan, one of the pioneer settlers of the city. Mr. and Mrs. McCoy became parents of four sons: John R.,
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who was graduated from St. John's Military Academy at Delafield, Wisconsin, and is mentioned elsewhere in this work; Ross A., who is a member of the firm of McCoy & Thompson, garage men and automobile salesmen of Seymour, Indiana; George N., who studied in the Marquette University of Milwaukee and became a law student in Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana; and James A., who is attending St. John's Military Academy.
Mr. McCoy was always keenly interested in practical philanthropy. He sought constantly to extend a helping hand to his fellowmen and he made his efforts effective through wisely devised plans. It was he who instituted the "penny lunch" for the school children of his home city-ever since recognized as one of the most helpful benevolent projects of Milwaukee. It was while serving as a member of the board of aldermen thit Mr. McCoy undertook the task. He had learned from his wife that their washerwoman had on a certain occasion asked leave of absence at the noon hour, stating that she had forgotten to leave a nickel at home to supply her children with a loaf of bread for dinner, saying also that the children had gone to school without breakfast. Mrs. McCoy at once provided a good dinner for the little ones, sending the mother with it to her home, and afterward in relating the incident to her husband, they immediately began devising ways to ameliorate such deplorable condi- tions. Mr. McCoy also learned that in a local department store a little cash girl had fainted from hunger and he publicly declared his conviction that hundreds of children went to the public schools with insufficient breakfasts. He urged the need of investi- gation and contributed to a fund which started what is now known as the "penny lunch," a system that has spread throughout all parts of the United States and even to Europe, Mr. McCoy promised contributions to the fund if women's clubs or some other responsible organization would assume the administration of the money. A sufficient sum was pledged before definite plans for its use were formulated. Then the Woman's School Alliance of Milwaukee became interested in the project and this organization, numbering in its membership many of the influential women of the city, took up the work, which has been followed by many other reforms in public schools. The Milwaukee schools were the pioneers in serving such lunches to children, providing excellent though simple food at the nominal sum of a penny. In so doing the women in charge recognized the fact that to give the lunches free would be to encourage vagrancy and shiftlessness on the part of those whom they wished to aid. The plan worked out splendidly. The service was first inaugurated in the city school for the deaf and then those in charge undertook the problem of caring for the children who were unable to provide even a penny for their lunch. Under an absolute rule of secrecy these children are provided with tickets, and it was soon found that many children supposedly dull were but hungry, having insufficient nourishment to maintain physical and mental force. Moreover, the plan worked for good in another direction, being the means of giving employment to women in the neighborhood of the various schools. Mr. and Mrs. McCoy certainly deserved the greatest credit for what was accomplished through the development and institution of this plan.
In many other tangible ways Mr. McCoy contributed to Milwaukee's progress. He was active as a member of the council committee that recommended the substitu- tion of electric service for horse power in connection with the street railways and was made a member of the committee that investigated electric plants and railways in various cities, acting as chairman of the railway committee of the city council. It was thus that he became a leading factor in bringing about improvement in the urban transportation system. Both Mr. and Mrs. McCoy were members of the Catholic church, identified with the parish of SS. Peter and Paul. They were in hearty accord in all of the philanthropic and benevolent work in which they engaged. Mr. McCoy belonged to Wisconsin Lodge, No. 1, K. P., and to Milwaukee Conclave, No. 243, of the Order of Heptasophs. He was also the first man initiated into the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Wisconsin. His life was filled with "the little unremembered acts of kindness and of love." He was apt to discount his own good qualities, but the public learned to know and honor him because of his spirit of helpfulness and benevolence. He gave freely and unostentatiously and he never withheld his aid from any project that promised for the public good, for the benefit of the individual or for the advancement of the welfare of the community. The world is better for his having lived and his memory remains enshrined in the hearts of all who knew him.
HARRY G. OAKLAND, M. D.
Dr. Harry G. Oakland, a physician and surgeon, who for eighteen years has main- tained his office at No. 557 Twelfth street, is a native son of Milwaukee, born February 21, 1878, and is the only child of the late Gustaf B. Oakland, formerly a well known watchmaker and jeweler of this city, who was one of the pioneers in his line here.
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The father was of Swedish birth and was born December 10, 1832. He learned the trade in his native land. He was given warrants for watchmaking by the king of Sweden and these warrants are now a cherished heirloom in the possession of Dr. Oakland. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Ehrler, was of Swiss lineage and was born in the land of the Alps. She survives and makes her home with her son. Dr. Oakland. The father died May 29, 1893, at the age of fifty-nine years, and his widow has now reached the age of seventy-four years, her birth having occurred in Switzerland, October 24, 1847. She came to the United States when a young woman of eighteen years and was married to Mr. Oakland in St. Anthony, Minnesota, near Minneapolis, on the 1st of June, 1868.
Dr. Oakland acquired his early education in Milwaukee and attended the Engel- mann Academy, white later he was graduated from the South Side high school. His professional training was received in the Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons, in which he completed his course in 1904. He served as interne in St. Joseph's Hospital for twenty months. Since his graduation he has practiced continuously in Milwaukee, making a specialty of industrial surgery, and he is on the staff of the Emergency Hospital and the Mount Sinai Hospital.
On the 2d of August, 1905. Dr. Oakland was married to Miss Mabel A. Niedermann, who was born in Milwaukee and is of German descent. They have become parents of four children: Conrad, Elizabeth, Dorothy and Mary. Dr. Oakland is a Mason, and also belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias, to the Milwaukee Athletic Club and to the Milwaukee Yacht Club, his recreation being found in outdoor sports. Along professional lines his connection is with the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
JOHN R. MCCOY.
John R. McCoy, president of the McCoy-Nolan Supply Company, one of the fore- most productive industries of Milwaukee, was born in this city, March 27, 1887, and is a son of John Martin and Julia ( Teagan) MeCoy. The mother, who was born February 12, 1860, passed away November 16, 1913. The death of the father, who was long one of the most prominent business men and benevolent citizens of Milwaukee, occurred in 1918. He is mentioned at length on another page of this work.
Spending his youthful days under the parental roof. John R. McCoy acquired his early education in the eighteenth ward schools and afterward was graduated from St. John's Military Academy at Delafield, Wisconsin, with the class of 1905, ranking as lieutenant of the Corps of Cadets. Later he became a student in Notre Dame University of Indiana and was there graduated in 1907 on the completion of the short engineering course. He next became a student in the New York Trade School and is numbered among its alumni of 190S. When his education was completed he took up steamfitting and contracting business in connection with the Thomas E. Hoye Heating Company, of which he remained as secretary until 1910. In that vear he became associated with the McCoy-Notan Supply Company as vice president. Three months after entering into active connection with the business John R. McCoy was elected to the presidency and has remained the chief executive since that time. The company deals in rubber goods, engineers' supplies, soaps, sweeping compounds and general factory supplies and send their products throughout the entire northwest. The business is now one of sub- stantial proportions and the continued success of the undertaking is attributable in large measure to the progressive spirit and practical business methods of the president. in addition to his other business interests Mr. McCoy is a director of the Lake Shore Stone Company, in which he is associated with Louis Quarles, George A. West and Charles F. Pfister. He is likewise a director of the West Lumber Company and of the Homemaker Land Company and is interested in the Prospect Hill Land Company, also in the Seymour Public Service Company of Seymour, Indiana. He owns the Hotel Charlotte of Milwaukee and he has other property interests from which he derives a good income. His business interests and activities are extensive and his enterprise and diligence have enabled him to overcome all difficulties and obstacles and carry forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes.
Mr. McCoy was reared in the Catholic faith and belongs to SS. Peter and Paul parish. Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin. He also belongs to Milwaukee Lodge, No. 46, B. P. O. E., and to the Travelers Protective Association. He has membership in the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Milwaukee Yacht Club. the Calumet Club, the Tecetel Club, of which he has been secretary, and he is also national president of St. John's Alumni Association, a position which he has occupied for four years. He likewise belongs to the Milwaukee branch of the Notre Dame Alumni Association. He is a lover of our national game of baseball and his "house team" won the city haseball championship in 1919 and 1920 and
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the football championship in the latter year. It was also in 1920 that he put a nine in the Chicago League which defeated the American Giants and Cuban Stars and also won victory over the Pyotts and other strong nines. Mr. McCoy is interested in other sports as well. He played in the St. John's nine as captain and he also played on the baseball and football teams when a student at Notre Dame. His brother Ross A. McCoy, is now engaged in the automobile business in Milwaukee, while another brother, George Nolan McCoy, is with Bryant Washburn in the movies and the third brother, James A.' McCoy, is a student in St. John's Military Academy.
John R. McCoy has been president of the Young Men's Democratic Club of the eighteenth ward and has always been keenly interested in politics. He served as assistant sergeant at arms in the national democratic convention at St. Louis in 1904 and again at the Denver convention in 1908. He is ever alert to the conditions and interests of the times and is actuated by a spirit of progress in all that he attempts, whether in relation to business, to politics or to sports. It is a recognized fact that what John R. McCoy attempts he will do and his cooperation is therefore eagerly sought in connection with many public interests.
CHARLES RUTHERFORD DECKER.
Charles Rutherford Decker, president and treasurer of the Milwaukee Bag Company, was born in Bushnell, Illinois, July 18, 1876. His father, Alexander Crawford Decker, was born in Licking county, Ohio, September 27, 1845, upon the farm of his father, Stephen Overton Decker, who was a native of Pennsylvania. The Decker family is of Holland origin, and the name was originally Van Decker. Representatives of the family came to the new world in the seventeenth century and located near the site of Trinity church in New York city and were among the early settlers of the eastern metropolis. Alexander Crawford Decker was united in marriage to Olive Josephine Cowdery, who was born March 22, 1850, at Stewart, Athens county, Ohio, a daughter of Arius Cowdery, who was born in Meigs county, Ohio, in 1826, and was a son of Jacob Cowdery, who served in the American army during the Revolutionary war. The Cow- derys came to the United States from England, the ancestry being traced back to William Cowdery, who left Weymouth, England, and came to the new world in 1630, settling in Massachusetts. Olive Josephine Cowdery taught school in Ohio prior to her marriage. She possessed splendid business ability, was a writer of note and was a great helpmate to her husband. Mr. Decker was engaged in the hardware manufactur- ing business at Keokuk, Iowa, under the name of the Decker Manufacturing Company, being sole proprietor of same. He invented the first power driven barbed wire machine and for a time maintained his manufacturing plant at Bushnell, Illinois. He passed away on the 1st of February, 1916, when he was seventy-two years of age, while his wife had departed this life on the 28th of March, 1902, when fifty-two years of age.
It was while his parents were living in Bushnell, Illinois, that Charles R. Decker was born but the greater part of his youth was passed in Keokuk, Iowa, where he attended the public schools, the family removing to that city in 1884, when he was a lad of eight years. He passed through consecutive grades to the high school, and after his school days were over he and his brother, De Los L. Decker, established the Decker Collodion Paper Company at Keokuk, Charles R. Decker remaining in active connection with the business for two years. He afterward went upon the road as a traveling salesman, spending a year in that connection, and subsequently he hecame a commercial traveler for the Keokuk Bag Company in 1896. In 1898 this company was absorbed by the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill Company, and the plant was removed to St. Louis. Mr. Decker continued with the latter concern until the fall of 1902, when he became associated with the Milwaukee Bag Company as a traveling salesman. In 1905 he opened a sales office for the company in Kansas City, having charge at that point with jurisdiction over the southwestern territory until 1915. In July, of that year, he returned to Milwaukee to make his home and was made vice president, treasurer and general manager of the company, in which he has been a stockholder from the he- ginning of his connection with the house. In December, 1921, he was elected to the presidency and is now at the head of this enterprise, which is one of the important productive and commercial interests of the city. They make all kinds of cotton and burlap bags and find a market throughout the entire United States, also doing some export business. They have four branch offices, situated at Toledo, Chicago, Kansas City and Minneapolis, and still another at Calcutta, India. This is one of the largest individual hag plants in the United States. The company was organized in 1878 and has enjoyed a continuous and healthy growth throughout the intervening years. Mr. Decker succeeded in the presidency Franklin P. Mann, who passed away on the 2d of June, 1921. Aside from his connection with the Milwaukee Bag Company, Mr. Decker is the vice president and secretary of the Blake Milling Company of Edwardsville, Illinois, of which he was one of the founders in 1915. He is also a director. of the
CHARLES R. DECKER
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Topeka Flour Mills Company of Topeka, Kansas, and aided in organizing that com- pany in 1916. He is president of the Rockfield Products Company of Milwaukee and thus his business connections cover a wide scope and constitute important forces in the material development of the various communities in which they are located. His long experience in the bag trade well qualifies him for the important duties and responsibili- ties which devolve upon him as chief executive. He is most wisely directing the activities and formulating the policy of the house, which has ever sustained an un- assailable reputation for the integrity of its methods, while at all times through its existence a progressive spirit has resulted in the introduction of new and improved machinery and advanced business methods.
On the 28th of January, 1903, Mr. Decker was married to Miss Lena Maude Yeast, a daughter of James W. Yeast of Macomb, Illinois, who was proprietor of a chain of clothing stores in Illinois and Iowa. He was a native of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Decker have become parents of two children: Charles R., Jr., who was born August 25, 1905, in Keokuk, Iowa, and is now a pupil in the Riverside high school of Mil- waukee, is president of Junior Chapter of Milwaukee Association of Commerce. James A., who was born January 20, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri, is now attending the Mil- waukee Normal School.
Mr. Decker has never been active in politics but gives his support to the republican party, believing firmly in its principles. He attends the Plymouth Congregational church and fraternally is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He also has membership in the Wisconsin Club, the Mil- waukee Athletic Club, the Rotary Club and the Association of Commerce, in which he is chairman of the jobbers and manufacturers committee, is also a member of the National Association of Manufacturers of the United States and the United States Chamber of Commerce. He is fond of music and the arts and greatly enjoys golf and manly outdoor sports, indulging in hunting, fishing and motoring trips when leisure permits. He was one of the early motorists of the country and has always been a devotee of this form of recreation. His pastimes furnish a needed balance to his intense business activity, whereby he has reached a commanding position as one of the outstanding figures in manufacturing and commercial circles in the middle west.
WADE HAMPTON RANDOLPH.
Since 1907 Wade Hampton Randolph has been actively connected with the hotel business and is now president of the Randolph Brothers Hotel Company, which was incorporated in 1909 hy him and his four brothers, Charles C., Manton D., Burr H. and George W., the last named being vice president, and Burr H., secretary-treasurer. He was born August 2, 1876, near Troy Center, Wisconsin, on his father's farm, a son of Harvey Lake and Ella (Thayer) Randolph, the Randolphs being direct descendants of John Randolph of Roanoke. The great-grandfather, Samuel Randolph, was a success- ful carpenter and builder, and the grandfather, Charles Randolph who was born in Virginia in 1799, was a farmer and also was a sailor for some years, making the trip from New York to Albany on the first steamer to go up the Hudson river. Harvey Lake Randolph is now retired, having gained a substantial success in life, and he has made his home in Milwaukee since 1910. His wife was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1847, a daughter of Hollister B. Thayer, who was a, cattle buyer and hotel keeper. Her father was likewise born in Greenfield and was a son of Ebenezer Thayer, a farmer of wealth and prominence. Her mother was Rebecca Potter Wallingford of Connecticut, a daughter of a well known Congregational minister. She was descended from a long line of professional ancestors and has a brother who has won considerable prominence in the medical profession in Connecticut. To Mr. and Mrs. Harvey L. Randolph nine children were born: Wade Hampton, whose name initiates this review; Gail, now the wife of Dr. Walton A. Perkins of Milwaukee and the mother of three children; Gladys; Ora, now Mrs. Donald Bissett of Milwaukee: Ula; Charles C., who is married to Julia Blow of Racine and has an adopted son: Martin D., who married Grace Wheeler of Oshkosh; Burr H., who married Mayme Roby of Whitewater, Wisconsin, and is the father of two children; and George W., who married Myrtle Marshall of East Troy, Wisconsin, and is the father of one son.
Wade Hampton Randolph received his education in the country schools near Troy Center and attended the East Troy high school until he was sixteen years of age, when he put his textbooks aside and commenced working on his father's farm. He remained under the parental roof until reaching man's estate, when he obtained employment in a general store in East Troy owned by Henry Austin. For six years he was active in that connection and then resigned in 1904 to join his brother in Milwaukee. Charles Clayton Randolph was associated with the Schlitz Hotel in this city and our subject was cashier of the Schlitz Palm Garden for a year, later accepting the position of night clerk in the hotel. A man of natural business ability he took advantage of every oppor-
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