History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III, Part 91

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

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On the 30th of March. 1914, Mr. Strauss was united in marriage to Miss Selma Beuchel, a daughter of Herman Beuchel, who is a native of Germany and has devoted his life to farming and cheese manufacturing in Sheboygan county. Mr. and Mrs. Strauss have two children: Margaret and William. In his political views Mr. Strauss is independent, voting for men and measures rather than party. He is a Lutheran in religious faith, belonging to Bethel church, of which he is financial secretary and he is also a member of its school board. The family are greatly interested in music. Mrs.

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Strauss is highly talented along that line. She was educated in the Valparaiso College of Indiana and also took up the study of music, which sbe taught until her marriage, specializing in piano teaching. Mr. Strauss is a member of the A Cappella chorus, with which he has been identified for three years. He has often appeared in public as a singer, as well as an organist and pianist and has been the leader of a large male choir both in Milwaukee and in Kenosha, where he had fifty members in the choir, while in Milwaukee his choir had thirty members. Both Mr. and Mrs. Strauss have thus made valuable contribution to the musical culture and development of Milwaukee and Mr .. Strauss is interested in all those forces which make for progress and improvement along moral lines, by reason of his active work in the church and along intellectual lines through his service on the school board. His life has indeed been one of activity and usefulness and his labors have been far-reaching and resultant,

JOHN JOSEPH BLOMMER. .

John Joseph Blommer, traffic secretary for the Milwaukee Association of Commerce, was born in this city February 23, 1888, and is a son of John and Katharine ( Kessenich ) Blommer, both of whom were natives of Milwaukee. The family were among the early settlers of this city and for a number of years the father was actively engaged in busi- ness here as a wagon manufacturer. He continued his residence in Milwaukee to the time of his demise, which occurred August 2, 1920. His widow still resides here.

John Joseph Blommer was educated in the parochial schools and in McDonald's Business College, thus qualifying for life's practical and responsible duties. When his textbooks were put aside he became connected with the Rock Island and the Frisco Rail- road System in the capacity of stenographer and rate clerk, being thus employed until 1908, after which he acted as private secretary to the general freight agent and traffic manager of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company in the Chicago offices. He was also employed in that connection in St. Louis until 1910, when ill health forced him to retire from active work for some time. In 1911, however, he became chief clerk for the M. O. & G. Railroad Company at Chicago, when in September of that year he was made secretary to the vice president of the American Steel & Wire Company and also general traffic director of the United States Steel Corporation. He thus continued for a period of about nine years, rendering valuable service in that responsible position and on the 19th of April, 1920, he became associated with the Milwaukee Association of Com- merce as traffic secretary, which position he now fills. His long experience in connection with railroad work well qualifies him for the office and he is thoroughly informed con- cerning railroad conditions with which his official duties have to do. In fact, he has had many years experience as a worker in traffic affairs and comes to his present office well equipped with the knowledge of how to handle interests of this nature. He has, therefore, made good in his present position and his course has been highly satisfactory to the association. He belongs to the Traffic Club of Milwaukee.

On the 1st of June, 1915, Mr. Blommer was married to Miss Marjorie Muer of this city, and they have two children: John Joseph and James George. Both Mr. and Mrs. Blommer have gained many friends during their residence here. While born in this city, Mr. Blommer's duties have at various times taken him elsewhere but with his return he has been greeted by a large circle of old friends and in the intervening period to the present he has gained many new ones.

WILBUR WINFIELD WAY.

Wilbur Winfield Way, president and proprietor of the Cream City Business College, is one of those whose labors have contributed much toward establishing Milwaukee as an educational center. Mr. Way was born in Calmar, Iowa, April 28, 1876. His father, Tabor I. Way, was born on the Isle La Motte in Vermont and was a son of Thomas Way, also a native of the Green Mountain state and of French descent, the family having early been established on American soil. Tabor I. Way followed the occupation of farming through the later years of his life. He also held a number of local offices and was chairman of the republican county central committee. At the time of his marriage he removed to the state of New York and was there residing when the Civil war broke out. He joined Company E, of the Tenth New York Heavy Artillery and rendered active aid to the Union on many a southern battle field. Following the close of hostilities he removed to lowa, taking up his abode at Calmar and in 1879 he became a resident of South Dakota, where his remaining days were devoted to agricultural pursuits. He wedded Mary Henderson, who was born in Chateaugay, New York, and was a daughter of Thomas Henderson, a railroad man, who was born in Scotland, but came to the

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United States when twenty years of age and first settled in Canada, whence he removed to the Empire state. His daughter, Mrs. Way, departed this life in the year 1903.

Wilbur W. Way, whose name introduces this review, became a pupil in the country schools of South Dakota, which he attended to the age of sixteen years and then became a student in the Teachers Training School. At the age of eighteen he took up the pro- fession of teaching, which he followed for two years in South Dakota and then attended the Northern Illinois Normal School for a year. He afterward taught in the Grand Island (Neb.) Business and Normal School for a year and in 1897 came to Milwaukee, where he accepted a teaching position in the Spencerian Business College, there remain- ing for two years. In 1899 he founded the Cream City Business College, of which he is still the proprietor and manager. The school has had an enrollment as high as six hundred pupils in one year and more than ten thousand have taken a course of study in this institution. The institution now employs four teachers and the course of instruction is most thorough, while the standards maintained are very high.

Mr. Way was married to Miss Vera H. Mott, a daughter of Jolin R. Mott, who was born in New York and removed to Ohio, where he was identified with commercial schools during the last twenty years of his life, or to within a short time prior to his death, when he hecame associated with the Chicago Business College. The family comes of French and Dutch ancestry, the name having been originally La Motte. Mrs. Way was born in Ohio and by her marriage has become the mother of a daughter, Helen Vera Way, now a pupil in the West Side high school.

In politics Mr. Way maintains an independent course, nor has he ever been an aspirant for public office, yet he is not neglectful of the duties of citizenship, nor does he withhold his support from any plan or measure which he deems a factor in bringing about general progress and improvement. He has membership in the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, belongs to Wisconsin Lodge, No. 1, K. P., of which he is now prelate and he also has membership with the National Commercial Teachers Federation. He is a great hunter and fisher, finding much pleasure as well as recreation in those sports. Mr. Way is a penman of superior ability and writes the diplomas for the high schools of the city. In fact, he has many medals for his penmanship. His has been an active and useful life and his enterprise has brought him prominently before the public in the educational field, for he has made his school one of the strong commercial training institutions of the state, his graduates doing excellent work on going out into the business world.

CHARLES E. TEGGE.

Charles E. Tegge, who for the past seventeen years has been at the head of the Tegge Lumber Company as its president and treasurer, has been identified with lumber trade circles in Milwaukee throughout his entire business career and has won well merited success and prominence in that connection. His birth occurred in Mecklenburg, Ger- many, on the 21st of January, 1862, his parents being Frederick and Sophia Tegge, who are likewise natives of that country, the former born December 6, 1834, and the latter March 3, 1837. It was in 1867 that they crossed the Atlantic to the United States, making their way first to Chicago and a short time later to Milwaukee, where Frederick Tegge engaged in the lumber business to the time of his retirement in 1905. He gained an enviable reputation as one of the representative and prosperous business men of this city, where he and his wife have now made their home for more than a half century and are most widely and favorably known.

Charles E. Tegge. who was hut a young lad when his parents came to Milwaukee, attended parochial schools here until fifteen years of age and was then apprenticed to learn the shoemaker's trade, which he followed for four years. He next pursued a busi- ness course in the Mayer Commercial College, after which he accepted a position with the Hatch-Holbrook Company, of which concern Joseph Holbrook became sole proprietor in 1882. Subsequently the latter sold his interests to the firm of Page & Landeck, with which Mr. Tegge held the official position of secretary for three years. Upon the dissolu- tion of this partnership Mr. Tegge became associated with Otto Schonberg under the firm style of Schonberg & Tegge, which was incorporated in 1895, while four years later Charles E. Tegge and his father took over the business, which has since been con- ducted under the name of the Tegge Lumher Company. Of this Charles E. Tegge served as secretary and treasurer until 1905, when his father retired and he assumed the duties of president and treasurer, remaining at the head of the enterprise to the present time. A man of splendid executive ability, keen discernment and indefatigable energy, he has developed the business to extensive and gratifying proportions and has long occupied a leading position among the lumbermen of Milwaukee.

On the 5th of October, 1886, Mr. Tegge was united in marriage to Miss Mary Zell and they have become the parents of four children: Henry; Lydia. who passed away in 1919; Gertrude; and Paul. The last named joined Troop B. Light Horse Squadron,

CHARLES E. TEGGE

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Wisconsin State Militia, which was made a part of the One Hundred and Twenty-first Field Artillery at the time of the World war. He served overseas for twenty-three months under Colonel Penner and participated in seven of the most important battles. The original Company B, a cavalry troop, was sent to Camp Douglas and later to Waco, Texas, where it was assigned to the field artillery. Paul Tegge wedded Miss Edna Mintzlaff.

In his political views Charles E. Tegge is a republican, while his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church, in the activities of which he takes a most helpful interest. In fact he devotes all of his time outside of business to church and charitable work, being identified with several charitable organizations. For the past seventeen years he has been a member of the Lutheran high school board, of which he is now serving as president, and he is also one of the board members of Bethesda Institute and Concordia College. He is a member of the Milwaukee Musical Society and the A Cappella Choir, being a great lover of music, and he also finds pleasure and recreation in reading. He likewise belongs to the City Club. A resident of Milwaukee from early boyhood, he has gained an extensive acquaintance in both business and social circles here and his course has ever been such as to commend him to the confidence and esteem of all with whom he lias come in contact.

TIMOTHY JOHN HOWARD, M. D.

Dr. Timothy John Howard, a Milwaukee physician, specializing in internal medicine, was born in this city Jannary 15, 1894, and is the only son of John and Mary ( Keane) Howard, the former now deceased, while the latter is still living. Both parents were born in Ireland and following their marriage came to the new world.

Dr. Howard was graduated from the Gesu parochial school in 1907 and from Mar- quette Academy in 1911, while in 1915 he won his Bachelor of Science degree on com- pleting a course in Marquette University. He then became a medical student there and won his professional degree in 1917. He was an interne in the Milwaukee County Hospital for a year and he served with the rank of first lieutenant in the Medical Corps of the United States army from May, 1918, until November, 1919. He went with the American Expeditionary Force to France and Germany, remaining overseas for fourteen months, spending ten months of that time on the Rhine with the army of occupation. He then returned home and resumed the practice of medicine in Milwaukee. He is now serving on the staff of the Milwaukee County Dispensary and he has a large and growing private practice, occupying an enviable professional position for one of his years. He belongs to the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church and he is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

FORREST ERWAY POST.

A representative business man of Milwaukee is Forrest Erway Post, assistant agency manager of the Equitable Life Assurance Company, with headquarters at 425 East Water street. He is a native of Wisconsin, his birth having occurred at Chippewa Falls, on the 17th of August, 1889, a son of Harry Delmont and Clara (Samuels) Post. His great- grandfather came to the United States from Scotland at an early day and located in Connecticut. Upon the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he enlisted in the American army and served under General Putnam throughout that conflict. His son, Albert J., the grandfather of our subject, was born in Connecticut and was an officer in the Wisconsin troops during the Civil war. Harry Delmont Post was born in Chippewa Falls, this state, and passed away in 1903. For many years he was engaged in the wholesale grocery business with his father, later alone, and they likewise owned the Chippewa Valley Mercantile Company. Mrs. Post survives her husband and makes her home in Mil- waukee. She was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, a daughter of David Samuels. Her father was born in Scotland and came to America at an early day. He made his home in Wisconsin and here engaged in the milling business, achieving substantial success. He was a first lieutenant in the Union army during the Civil war and died as the result of wounds received in the battle of Antietam.

Forrest Erway Post received his early education in the public schools of Chippewa Falls and graduated from the high school there in 1904. After putting his textbooks aside he went to Milwaukee and for two and one-half years was associated in the home office of the Northwestern Fire Insurance Company. At the termination of that time he went on the road as state agent for the United American Fire Insurance Company and for the Hanover Fire Insurance Company and traveled for them until 1916. In that year he associated with his present company, the Equitable, as special agent. He won steady

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promotion as the result of untiring energy and innate ability, and in 1919 he was made district manager. He has since been made assistant agency manager, in which capacity he is now active. In 1918 his patriotism prompted him to put aside all personal in- terests and he enlisted in the United States navy, serving with the Naval Intelligence Bureau and being most of the time in transport duty. He is now a member of the Reserve Corps with the rank of chief boatswain. The steps in his orderly progression in business are easily discernible and his even-paced energy has brought him to a prominent place in the business circles of Milwaukee.

Since attaining his majority Mr. Post has given his political allegiance to the republican party, in the interests of which he has never taken an active part, preferring to devote his entire time to his business affairs. His religious faith is that of the Episcopal church and fraternally he is a Mason, having membership in Lafayette Lodge, No. 265, of Milwaukee, and Calumet Chapter, No. 73, R. A. M. He is likewise a member of Ivanhoe Commandery, Knights Templars and Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine. For recreation he turns to the great outdoors and he loves motoring and all outdoor sports, particularly golf, and is identified with the Milwaukee Athletic Club.

JAMES JOSEPH O'DONNELL.

James Joseph O'Donnell, engaged in business as a plumbing contractor, was born in Milwaukee. December 1, 1873. He acquired his education in the parochial schools and in Marquette College while spending his youthful days in the home of his parents, James and Suson (Reidy ) O'Donnell, mentioned elsewhere in this work. He served an ap- prenticeship at the plumber's trade with the firm of Fox & May, with whom he continued for about six years, and later he spent one year in business on his own account. He then went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he worked as a journeyman, and later he was em- ployed along similar lines in Dakota and in Canada, spending about twenty years in that way. Subsequently he returned to Milwaukee, where he opened a shop and began taking contracts for plumbing. Here he has since continued and has worked up an excellent business, having now a liberal patronage.

In 1900 Mr. O'Donnell was married to Miss Sena Thompson of St. Paul, who died in 1913. Two years later, or in 1915, he married Margaret Melntyre, a daughter of George and Elizabeth ( McDonough) Mcintyre of Milwaukee. They have two sons, Joseph and William.

Mr. O'Donnell is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Milwaukee Master Plumbers Association. His religious faith is that of the Catholic church and his political allegiance is given to the democratic party. He is interested in all those forces which make for success in politics and for progress and improvement in the city and he has strong attachment for Milwaukee as the place of his nativity and of his residence. His success in business is attributable entirely to his own labors. He has worked diligently and persistently and his industry and economy have overcome obstacles and difficulties in his path, enabling him at length to reach the point of success which he now occupies in connection with the plumbing business of his native city.

HENRY AUGUST KIRCHNER.

Henry August Kirchner, the founder and proprietor of the Kirchner Equip- ment Company located at 425 East Water street, is one of Milwaukee's estimabis citizens and highly enterprising and successful business men. He was born on the 4th of February, 1882, in this city, a son of Frederick and Emily ( Schmoldt) Kirchner, the former now deceased and the latter a resident of Milwaukee. The grandfather, Phillip Kirchner, was a native of Germany and on coming to this country located in Wisconsin in 1850. Frederick Kirchner was a representative agriculturist of Washington county and was also a veterinary surgeon. Mrs. Kirchner was born in Germany, a daughter of Herman Schmoldt, who came to Wisconsin in 1861 and was engaged in business as a florist.

The early education of Herman August Kirchner was received in the public schools of Milwaukee and the Spencerian Business College. Upon the completion of his studies he made his initial step into the business world as an employe in a florist's shop and remained in that connection for four years. The following three years he spent as steward of the Milwaukee county almshouse and at the termina- tion of that time took charge of the offices of the George J. Meyer Manufacturing Company, where he remained for eleven years. The company were manufacturers of brewers' and bottlers' machinery, and Mr. Kirchner was a dominant factor in promoting its interests. In 1917 he determined to go into business on his own account and founded the Kirchner Equipment Company. He deals in all sorts of

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power plant equipment, and has a shop on Thirty-second street and an office down town. The company's business has grown to extensive proportions, and the products are widely known throughout the United States.

On the 24th of October, 1906, Mr. Kirchner was united in marriage to Miss Louise Gaebler, a daughter of Herman Gaebler, who was a native of Norway and a leather worker. One daughter, Loleta, has been born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Kirchner.

Although Mr. Kirchner gives his allegiance to the republican party for the most part, he reserves the right at any time to support any candidate whom he thinks best fitted for the office. Ilis religious faith is indicated by his attendance at the First Baptist church of Wauwatosa. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, holding membership in Lake Lodge, No. 189, F. & A. M .; Lake Chapter, R. A. M .; Gallilee Commandery, K. T., and Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He has also attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. Mr. Kirchner finds recreation in gardening and spends his vacation at his summer home at Wind lake. He is particularly fond of fishing and of all out-of-door sports. He has made for himself an enviable reputation as a man of business, straightforward and relia- ble under all circumstances, and courteous and affable to his patrons, whom he always endeavors to please. He possesses much business tact as well as executive force and unfaltering enterprise, his own labors having constituted the foundation upon which he has builded his success, making him one of the substantial business men of the community.

CHARLES A. GUTENKUNST.

Charles A. Gutenkunst is the vice president, secretary and manager of the Milwaukee llay Tool Company and the Malleable & Grey Iron Works, a fact which at once establishes his position in business circles, as these two enterprises employ several hundred workmen and are numbered among the chief productive industries of the city. His contribution. therefore, to the development and upbuilding of Milwaukee is a most substantial one and he ranks with the foremost manufacturers and business men, having advanced step by step to his present position of com- mercial leadership.

A native of Milwaukee, Charles A. Gutenkunst was born December 2, 1858, and is a son of Jacob and Catherine ( Haas) Gutenkunst, who were natives of Ger- many and came to America in early life. They were not acquainted until after reaching the new world and were married in New York. In 1849 they removed westward to Wisconsin, arriving the year after the admission of the state into the Union. They were among the early pioneer German families of Milwaukee and through the intervening period to the present time the family name has been closely associated with the development and progress of the city. The father was for a number of years identified with the fire department of Milwaukee, first as a volunteer and later with the paid department, but death ended his labors in 1869. His widow survived him for many years, reaching the advanced age of ninety years. There were five sons in this family, of whom Jacob, the second, became a prominent factor in connection with the fire department, thus following in the footsteps of his father, while the eldest son, William, and the youngest son, Charles A., have long been associated in their business activities with the afore- said company, two of the five sons having died in infancy.

Charles A. Gutenkunst, the youngest of the three brothers, pursued a public school education in the eighth ward and also attended the Lutheran parochial schools. When sixteen years of age he started out in the business world by becom- ing associated with his brother, William, in manufacturing interests. About the year 1885 he was admitted to a partnership by his brother, who had established a small machine shop but whose business was steadily growing. With the forma- tion of a partnership the firm style of William & Charles A. Gutenkunst was assumed and later when the business was incorporated it was called the Milwaukee Hay Tool & Manufacturing Company. At a later period Adam Loeffelholz joined the company and the name was changed to its present form, the Milwaukee Hay Tool Company, William Gutenkunst acting as president of the company from the begin- ning, with Charles A. Gutenkunst as secretary since its incorporation. He is the vice president, as well as secretary, and is the manager of both the Milwaukee Hay Tool Company and the Milwaukee Malleable & Grey Iron Works, an allied industry, which is likewise one of the important manufacturing enterprises of the city. Charles A. Gutenkunst also became secretary of the Joseph Bub Furniture Company and is in other ways a factor in the business life of the city. At all times he has proven himself a forceful and resourceful man, ready for any emergency and for its opportunities. His fairness and persistency of purpose have enabled

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History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III, Part 91

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