USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III > Part 81
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During the trying period of the World war Mr. Douglas was appointed by the Real Estate Board on a committee of arbitration to hear and pass on complaints of unreason- able demands for rent. He was chairman of the annexation committee which worked with the common council committee to annex property, so that Milwaukee would appear right in the census of 1910. His committee prepared extensive plans for annexation, and he knew the exact number of houses and their value in every quarter section of land to be annexed. The main proposition was defeated through some technicality in the legislature, but the activity of this committee resulted in adding forty-two city blocks to Milwaukee.
On the 5th of August, 1907. Mr. Douglas was present at Duluth when a national organization of real estate men was suggested and on the 15th of May, 1908, at Chicago, with six other Milwaukee real estate men, he assisted in organizing the National Asso- ciation of Real Estate Boards and was elected a member of its executive committee of twenty and a member of the board of managers, comprising eight out of that twenty to manage the association for the following year. At Detroit on the 25th of June, 1909, he was elected secretary of the National Association of Real Estate Boards and im- mediately bec me active in organizing the work, serving without pay and meeting all of his own traveling expenses. He made many trips organizing real estate board through- out the country and expounding to them the advantages of membership in the National Association. The organization grew from fifteen boards at the Detroit convention to nearly a hundred before he left the office as secretary. He was reelected to that position June 17, 1910, on which occasion the members presented him with a diamond set watch fob. He was elected for a third term as national secretary July 20, 1912, and during his incumbency in that position he organized all of the secretaries of real estate boards into one national organization called the National Association of Real Estate Board Secretaries, of which he was elected the first president. Having spent three years in organizing the National Association without any remuneration, he turned over the further work to the paid secretary and was elected vice president for the following year. While national secretary he also called together the real estate men of Wisconsin at
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Madison and organized the Wisconsin Association of Real Estate Boards. He has served this association for many years, principally on the educational committee. He holds certificates of honorary membership in several out of town real estate boards and is prominently known among realtors from coast to coast.
On the 1st of June, 1898, Mr. Douglas married Miss Mary Van Roo, a daughter of Peter Van Roo, a prominent west side contractor of Milwaukee. They have two chil- dren: James Kenneth, a sophomore in the University of Wisconsin, specializing in studies which will equip him for a financial career along real estate lines. He has also been active in Boy Scout work and has done much work with the wireless. He also has the distintion of making a tiny electric motor, which was displayed by the univer- sity as the smallest motor in the world. The only daughter, Annabelle Mae Douglas, was graduated from the Riverside high school and is now attending Downer College. Mrs. Douglas is an active member of the Tuesday History Club. She is noted for her sympathetic womanly qualities and broad understanding of human nature, combined with good executive ability. She is much interested in church work, being treasurer of the Woman's Association of Immanuel Presbyterian church, in which both Mr. and Mrs. Douglas have membership. For some years Mr. Douglas was a teacher in the Sunday school and for eleven years filled the office of deacon. He was active in forming and promoting the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and was active in advancing plans for a meeting that resulted in the formation of the mission. He served as a member of its board of directors and as treasurer for eleven years, and as a member of the building committee he made a junket trip, studying the construction of mission buildings in different cities. In his earlier years he was also active in the work of the Christian Endeavor and served as president of the Milwaukee City Union of Christian Endeavor and as state treasurer of the State Christian Endeavor Union.
In politics Mr. Douglas has always been an independent republican and has been more or less active in party work. On the 1st of July, 1911, he became jury com- missioner through appointment of the circuit judges of Milwaukee county, serving two years and putting four thousand men on the jury, furnishing jurors for the circuit, civil and municipal courts. He conducted this office with the utmost impartiality. The persons who wanted to get on the jury and those who wanted to get off found that the commissioners recognized no friends and assumed that they had no enemies but con- ducted the office of jury commissioner with entire justice to all.
Mr. Douglas is an enthusiastic member of the Arion Musical Club, of which he served as secretary for a number of years. He belongs to the Association of Commerce and has served on the city planning committee, his knowledge of real estate matters being invaluable in this connection. He was the secretary of the Messiah Concert Asso- ciation, a union of the Arion Musical Club and the A Cappella Chorus, rendering the Messiah in the Auditorium for several years. During the World war he was a Four Minute man, making patriotic speeches several times a week in theaters, factories or wherever an audience was to be found. In addition to serving on all of the patriotic drives, he was a member of the military registration board to register the name and citizenship of every male resident of twenty-one to thirty-one years of age. He is also a member of the City Club and of St. Andrew's Society. He is very systematic in keep- ing records and can often refer back many years for precise information to prove a point where exact information is of value. He has written a number of articles for publications, sometimes in prose, occasionally in humorous verse and at other times backed up by cold statistics. In a five minute speech delivered at New Orleans in com- petition with other real estate men at a national convention the advantages of Mil- waukee were brought out in such a forceful manner as to attract widespread attention. He is today one of the best known realtors of the country, and his labors along many lines have been of the utmost value to the upbuilding of the city.
FRANK E. BROWN, M. D.
Dr. Frank E. Brown, a physician specializing in internal medicine and physical therapeutics, displaying in his practice the most advanced and scientific methods known to the profession, has his offices in the Security building at 209 Grand avenue, Milwaukee. He has been steadily engaged in practice in this city for thirty-one years and his ability has long been widely acknowledged. He was born in Cedar Falls, lowa, March 30, 1860, and is a son of Dr. John E. Brown, who was also a physician and who died in 1906, at the age of seventy-two years .. He was a surgeon in the United States army during the Civil war and his life was one of great activity and usefulness. He was born in Clyde, New York, and was of Revolutionary war descent. His wife bore the maiden name of Harriet Royce and also passed away in 1906. She was born in Orleans county, New York, and was sixty-nine years of age when death called her. In their family were six children, four sons and two daughters, who are yet living. but only
DR. FRANK E. BROWN
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Dr. Brown is a resident of Milwaukee. There were three other children of the family who have passed away.
Dr. Brown was reared in western New York, for his parents returned from Iowa to the Empire state during his boyhood, which was passed in Albion, New York. There he pursued his education until graduated from the Albion high school and later he pursued a course of study in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, where he was graduated in 1882. He studied medicine in Hahnemann College of Chicago from 1888 until 1891 aud on the completion of his course in the latter year received the M. D. degree. Previous to this he had followed business pursuits in order to earn the money necessary to meet his expenses while in medical college. He hegan practice in Milwaukee in 1891 and has here practiced steadily for more than three decades. From the beginning he has made constant progress. He early displayed ability in coping with the intricate and involved problems that continually confront the physician and steadily his practice has grown until it is today one of enormous proportions, necessitating the constant aid of au assistant physician, and yet in spite of this he finds it necessary to turn many patients away, having no time to care for them. He enjoys unusual distinction as a man of marked ability and wide knowledge and is at all times notably accurate in applying the principles of medicine and surgery to the specific needs of his patients. He belongs to the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Homeopathic Society and to the American Medical Association and through their proceedings becomes thoroughly conversant with the latest ideas and developments of medical science. He is a member and now the treasurer of the Homeopathic State Medical Society, of which he was formerly president, and he also belongs to the American Institute of Homeopathy.
On October 4, 1900, Dr. Brown married Mrs. Lucy Haylett of Milwaukee, who died in February. 1915. She was very active in the Young Women's Christian Association and charity work in this city, and her death was a great blow to her many friends. On the 9th of February, 1920, Dr. Brown was united in marriage to Mrs. Alice Bates of Allen- town, Pennsylvania.
When leisure permits the Doctor greatly enjoys fishing and motoring and thus he fiuds the needed recreation and relaxation so necessary as a balance to his arduous professional duties. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity, and the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows and he is also a member of the City Club. His re- ligious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church and he is serving on its official board, also as district steward and for many years was superintendent of the Sunday school. He has labored earnestly and untiringly for the growth of the church and the extension of its influence and his life has at all times been actuated by the highest prin- ciples, so that his aid and influence are ever given where the interests of the public can be conserved and where the uplift of the individual may be promoted.
FRED L. HOOK.
Fred L. Hook, proprietor of The Journal, published at South Milwaukee, was born March 2, 1879, in the city which is still his home, his parents being George H. and Marietta E. (Rawson) Hook. The father was a native of England and the mother was born in what is now South Milwaukee. The former came to the United States with his parents in 1851, when but nine months old. The family settled in Illinois and in 1873 George H. Hook removed to Milwaukee. For a period of sixteen years he acted as station agent for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad at South Milwaukee, while later he turned his attention to farming. He was a member of the first village board and also a member of the district school board and later of the village school board. His wife's people came to South Milwaukee in 1836 from Massachusetts, settling on a farm in this vicinity. They were among the earliest of the pioneers of the community and took up land from the government.
Fred L. Hook pursued his education in the public and high schools of South Mil- waukee and also attended high school in Milwaukee, while later he became a student in the University of Wisconsin and was graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1901. For five years he engaged in teaching school, imparting readily and clearly to others the knowledge that he had acquired, but in 1906 turned his attention to other professional interests by the purchase of what was known as the South Milwaukee Journal from F. M. Lemmers. He at once assumed control of the paper and has since continued its publication as a weekly. This has grown to be one of the leading news- papers of Milwaukee county and is now conducted as an independent journal, with Mr. Hook as editor as well as proprietor and publisher.
On the 31st of August, 1905, Mr. Hook was married to Miss Mary A. Stearns, of Racine, Wisconsin, and they have two children, Frederick and George Orrin. Mr. Hook was president of the South Milwaukee library board from 1915 to 1921 and formerly was secretary of the first South Milwaukee Advancement Association. He is also a member and trustee of the Congregational church and his aid and influence are
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ever given on the side of progress and improvement, of right and reform. His labors and his influence have been a potent force in the upbuilding of the city, especially in connection with civic improvement and with intellectual and moral advancement.
JOSEPH H. ZENS.
Joseph H. Zens occupies a prominent position in business circles of Milwaukee as the president of the Milwaukee Hosiery Company, of which he has been at the head during the past decade, developing an enterprise of extensive and gratifying proportions. The company makes a complete line of hosiery for men, women and children, and its business now covers the entire United States as well as many foreign countries.
Mr. Zens was born at Racine, Wisconsin, on the 28th of March, 1873, his parents being John and Susan (Soens) Zens, who are widely and favorably known in Mil- waukee, where they now make their home. The father, whose birth occurred near Cologne, Germany, was a son of Anton Zens and a representative of a family that for many generations had been prominent in military service in that country. John Zens was a young man of twenty-two years when he determined to try his fortune in the new world and crossed the Atlantic to the United States. Making his way at once into the interior of the country, he engaged in shoemaking in Racine, Wis- consin, and in that connection won substantial success as the years went by, so that he is now enabled to spend the evening of life in well earned rest. It was in 1876, while a resident of Racine, that he was united in marriage to Miss Susan Soens, a native of Racine county and a daughter of Jacob Soens, who was born in Germany and who after emigrating to the United States devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits in Wisconsin with good success.
In the acquirement of an education Joseph H. Zens attended the parochial and public schools of his native city and subsequently became a pupil in an evening school while employed during the day time, for he realized the value of thorough educational training as a preparation for life's practical and responsible duties. For three years he was associated with the Racine Hardware Manufacturing Company as an apprentice in boat building and then resigned to become a knitter in the employ of the Racine Knitting Company, with which he remained for two years. On the expiration of that period he accepted a position with the Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company at Kenosha but twenty months later returned to Racine and again entered the employ of the Racine Knitting Company as knitting machine fixer, thus serving for two and one- half years. At the end of that time he returned to the service of the Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company and during the six years of his employment with that concern he won constant promotion, being steadily advanced from the position of knitting machine fixer until at the time of his resignation he had become assistant master mechanic. His next position was that of foreman of the knitting room of the Sheboygan Knitting Company at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where he spent a year and nine months and then came to Milwaukee in 1905. Here he immediately became active in his chosen line of work, installing the original equipment and taking charge as superintendent of the Holeproof Hosiery Company, with which he remained for sixteen months. He installed the first automatic hosiery machines in Milwaukee. Mr. Zens was one of the organizers of the Everwear Hosiery Company of Milwaukee and for six years served as its vice president. In 1912 he took over the Milwaukee Hosiery Company, of which he has continued as president and manager to the present time. He possesses untiring energy, is quick of perception. forms his plans readily and is determined in their execution, and his close application to business and his excellent manage- ment have brought to him the high degree of prosperity which is today his. The quality of hosiery turned out by the company is of the best and the sales extend all over the world. Twenty-seven traveling salesmen cover the United States, and the company maintains offices at San Francisco, California, and Springfield, Massachusetts. Associated with Mr. Zens in the business are his three brothers: William J., super- intendent; Frank J., master mechanic; and Alphonse, assistant master mechanic. The prominence which Mr. Zens has attained in the line of his business is demonstrated by his membership in the National Association of Hosiery and Underwear Manu- facturers, of which organization he was a director for six years, while on the 26th of Nay, 1922, he was elected president at the annual convention of the association in Philadelphia.
On the 25th of June, 1903, Mr. Zens was united in marriage to Miss Eleanor Schmid, a daughter of Jacob Schmid, who was a native of Zurich, Switzerland, and became well known as a contractor of Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Mrs. Zens was born. Mr. and Mrs. Zens have no children living.
Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Zens has supported the republican party hut has never taken an active part in political affairs. In 1919 he
JOSEPH H. ZENS
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was elected school director of Milwaukee for a term of six years and is now ably serving in that capacity. He is a communicant of St. Elizabeth's Catholic church and for many years was a member of the church choir, being fond of both vocal and instrumental music. Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Columbus and was grand knight of Milwaukee-Pere Marquette Council in 1918-19. During the period of the World war he acted as general chairman of the war fund campaign conducted by the Knights of Columbus, was likewise active in all other drives as group chair- man and gave generously of his time and money to further the interests of the govern- ment. He is a prominent member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, also belongs to the Wisconsin Club, the Milwaukee Athletic Club and the Blue Mound Country Club and is vice chairman of the legislative committee of the Association of Commerce. Varied as are his interests, however, he is preeminently a business man and one whose affairs have been capably and successfully conducted. Starting at the bottom of the ladder, he has gradually advanced, his common sense, guided by resistless will power, winning for him his present position. Fairness has ever been maintained in his relations with his patrons and employes, and many of those who began with him at the commencement of his business are still in his service. Although he has gained wealth, that was not alone the goal for which he was striving, and he belongs to that class of representative American citizens who promote the general prosperity while advancing individual interests.
RUDOLPH GUMZ.
Rudolph Gumz is a retired packer of Milwaukee, residing on the south side at No. 319 Fifteenth avenue. He was for many years closely and prominently associated with the business interests of the city and developed an industry of considerable impor- tance, the business being still carried on by the family, while Mr. Gumz is enjoying a well earued rest. He has passed the eighty-fifth milestone on life's journey, his birth having occurred in Germany on the Sth of December, 1836. While spending his youth in his native country he there pursued his education and afterward learned the brick- maker's trade by working in his tather's brickyard. The reports which reached him concerning the opportunities and business advantages of the new world at length de- cided him to try his fortune on this side the Atlantic, and in 1865 he crossed the salt waters to the United States and made his way into the interior of the country, settling in Milwaukee. Here he sought a favorable business location and soon afterward em- barked in the packing industry. He developed his business and the name of R. Gumz & Company soon became well known in connection with the ownership of a slaughter house and packing plant, which is today one of the old business institutions of the south side. having been founded more than forty years ago. Through the intervening period it has been successfully carried on and is now being managed by his sons. Mr. Gumz's wife, whom he married in Germany, died in 1918. His children are: Rudolph H .. Albert H., Emil, Ida. Robert, William and Richard, all of whom are residents of Milwaukee. The three elder sons, Rudolph H., Albert H. and Emil, all of whom are mentioned elsewhere in this work, are now in charge of the business, to which they were trained by the father, and their close application and diligence are constantly promoting the enterprise which is now under their direction.
Mr. Gumz has reached the age of eighty-five years, and fifty-five years of this period has been spent in Milwaukee, so that he is largely familiar with the history of the city and its growth. His memory goes back to the time when Milwaukee was but a comparatively small town, and through the intervening years he has contributed to its commercial and industrial growth. He now receives the respect and veneration which has ever accompanied old age that crowned a life well spent.
JOHN T. SCOLLARD, M. D.
Dr. John T. Scollard, physician and surgeon, who has heen engaged in the con- tinuous practice of medicine in Milwaukee for thirty-five years or since 1887, was born on a farm in Washington county, this state, February 6, 1856, and is a son of Garrett and Julia ( Sullivan) Scollard, both of whom have passed away. The father, who was a farmer throughout his entire life, was born in the state of New York and came to Wisconsin in 1849, casting in his lot with the pioneer residents of Washington county, where he secured land which he converted into rich and productive fields, residing on his farm to the time of his death in 1882. He was descended from Norman French ancestry, who crossed the channel to England with William of Normandy in 1066. His wife was born on Long Island and was related to General Sullivan, a member of
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General Washington's staff and who was at Boston when evacuated by the British army. She died in the year 1888.
Dr. Scollard was the youngest in their family of five children and is the only one now living. He was reared on the old homestead in Washington county to the age of twelve years and was then sent to Milwaukee to continue his education, having rela- tives in this city. Here he attended the old Markham Academy and also the Milwaukee high school. He took a four years' course in the Oshkosh State Normal School, gradu- ating in 1881, and in early manhood he engaged in teaching school for six years. He was principal of the high schools at Stockbridge and Kewannee, Wisconsin. Thus he earned the money that enabled him to attend medical college and from 1884 until 1887 he was a student in Rush Medical College of Chicago, from which he was graduated with the M. D. degree in the latter year. Since that time he has continuonsly practiced in Milwaukee and has long maintained a foremost position in professional circles. He was one of the three physicians who organized the old Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons and was a representative of its faculty for nine years. Later he was a member of the faculty of the Milwaukee Medical College for two years and proved an able educator, just as well as a most competent practitioner of medicine and surgery. He belongs to the Milwaukee Academy of Medicine, the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
On the 10th of Angust, 1882, Dr. Scollard was married to Miss Panline Walender of Kewaunee, Wisconsin, and they have one daughter, Verna Scollard, who is a graduate of Downer College and is now at home. The family are members of the Congregational church and Dr. Scollard belongs to the Old Settlers Club and City Club of Milwaukee and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His entire life has been passed in this state and during the greater part of the time he has been a resident of this city, where the sterling qualities of his character, as well as his professional skill and ability, are widely recognized.
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