USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III > Part 97
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DR. LEWIS A. KLIESE
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a period of six months, gaining that broad and valuable knowledge and experience which can never be acquired as quickly in any other way as in hospital practice. He did postgraduate work in the Detroit Medical College in 1915. He has served as secretary of the United States pension board for the past seven years and he has enjoyed a large private practice of an important character, indicative of the skill which he has developed in coping with the intricate problems of health. lle be- longs to the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical So- ciety and the American Medical Association and through the proceedings of these bodies he has kept in touch with the trend of modern professional thought.
On the 19th of June, 1901, Dr. Kliese was married to Miss Louise Schuppert, who was born in the town of Polk, Washington county, Wisconsin. They are now
parents of three children: Mildred, Donald and Robert.
Fraternally Dr. Kliese is connected with the Knights of Pythias but has com- paratively little time for fraternal interests. As a citizen he stands loyally for whatever he believes to be for the best interests of the community and his coopera- tion can at all times be counted upon to further plans and measures for the general good. However, his attention is chiefly given to his professional duties and at no time is he ever neglectful of the tasks that devolve upon him in this way. Those who know him esteem him as a man of personal worth and during the twenty years of his residence in Milwaukee he has made many friends.
VERNON A. CHAPMAN, M. D., F. A. C. S.
Dr. Vernon A. Chapman, specialist in treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, has offices in the Wells building at No. 120 Wisconsin street. His father, Wilson Hinkle Chapman, was born in Ohio, of Maryland stock. In 1852, in early man- hood, he crossed the western wilds with an overland wagon train, returning by way of the Isthmus of Panama after a couple of years in the gold fields of California. Soon after his return to Ohio from California he married Sarah Jane Fink, who was born in Ohio, of Pennsylvania stock. Both died well past eighty years of age, after lives devoted to agriculture, and are buried in the family plat at Morenci, Michigan.
Born on a farm in Lenawee county, Michigan, on the 25th of November, 1873, Dr. Chapman was the youngest of their seven children, four of whom are yet living. He was reared in the village of Morenci, Lenawee county, Michigan, his youth being there passed to the age of fifteen years. At that time it became necessary that he should find means to entirely support himself and provide for any further education than that which he had received at the public schools of Morenci. Such an opportunity offered and was accepted, the boy walking twenty miles of highway to West Unity, Ohio, where he was received into the office and home of Dr. F. O. Hart, a homeopathic physician of unusual ability who paid especial attention to the study and treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He lived here for nearly two years, doing the Doctor's office work and assisting at operations and preparation of medicines for his board and clothing and the privilege of attending the public high school, from which he graduated in 1891. During all this time he read medicine under the direction of Dr. Hart, thus taking up the study of medicine at an early age in the old fashioned custom as entered apprentice under a practicing preceptor. After completing his high school course he engaged in clerking in a drug store at West Unity, Ohio, owned and operated by Dr. W. M. Denman, and at the same time continued his medical reading under the super- vision of Dr. Denman, who was engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery. Dr. Denman and his good wife manifested a parental interest in the young man and he lived in the Doctor's family for five years. When his savings amounted to a sufficient sum to enable him to do so, he entered medical college, returning to the drug store work during the vacation periods; and, with financial aid extended by Dr. and Mrs. Denman, completed the medical college course at Baltimore, receiving the degree of M. D. from the University of Maryland (B. M. C.) in May, 1898. Immediately follow- ing this he was appointed surgeon of the Holland-America Steamship Line, plying be- tween New York city and Rotterdam, Holland, and spents several months in that con- nection, gaining considerable experience in New York and foreign hospitals, as well as on shipboard, where he was the medical officer, and enjoying some travel in Germany, France, the Netherlands and England. During this time he wrote his first original articles on medical subjects: "A Safe and Simple Method of Vaccinating" and "Obser- vations of a Ship's Surgeon," which appeared in the New York Medical Record in 1898. Early in 1899 he returned to West Unity, Ohio, and became the associate in practice of his former preceptor and friend, Dr. Denman, with whom he continued until the fall of that year. He was then in active general practice at Montague and Whitehall, Michi- gan, maintaining two offices and doing a large village and country practice from 1899 until 1903. In the fall of the latter year he gave up general practice and pursued a special course in the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat College. He was then ap-
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pointed resident surgeon of the Illinois State Eye and Ear Infirmary in Chicago and completed an interneship with that institution in 1904. He then located for practice in the work of his specialty at Muskegon, Michigan, where he continued in active practice until December, 1916. During the period of his life at Muskegon he was closely associated with the medical and surgical activities of his locality and state. He served as secretary of the Muskegon-Oceana County Medical Society for eight consecutive years and represented this society, as its delegate, at the Michigan State Medical Society meetings several years. He was a vice president of the Michigan State Medical Society, secretary of the Michigan County Medical Society Secretaries Association and associate editor of The Journal of The Michigan State Medical Society, in which several medical and economic editorials and original articles from his pen appeared. He was oculist and aurist to Hackley Hospital and to the Muskegon Home for the Aged, also instructor in eye, ear, nose and throat nursing to Hackley Hospital Training School for Nurses. He was secretary and eye and ear specialist of the medical advisory board of the public schools of the city of Muskegon, one of the earliest public school systems in the United States to adopt systematic physical examination and permanent records of all school children. During this time he pursued at different periods postgraduate work at Har- vard University Graduate School of Medicine, at The Illinois School of Electro Therapeutics and at eye and ear clinics in Chicago, Illinois, Rochester, Minnesota, Philadelphia and New York city.
In December, 1916, realizing the proximity of the involvment of the United States in the great World war, he sold out his practice at Muskegon and applied for service as medical officer in the United States navy. Illness prevented his appearance for examination at the first held for this purpose at the Great Lakes station, and when he was examined there the following month it was found that he had developed a heart murmur which physically disqualified him for government service. He came to Mil- waukee in 1917 to take up the work of an oculist who left for military service. In January, 1918, these two formed a partnership for carrying on the practice of eye, ear, nose and throat work at Milwaukee. This partnership terminated in May, 1920.
Disappointed in his efforts to see active service in the great war, Dr. Chapman joined the Volunteer Medical Service Corps, consisting of medical men who were not in the active service of army or navy but who held themselves ready for any emergency medical service which the government might need at home. Such an emergency need did arise, and when the surgeon general of the United States public health service sent ont a call for volunteer medical help in controlling the terrible outbreak of influenza in the fall of 1918 and caring for its victims, Dr. Chapman responded. He was com- missioned acting assistant surgeon in the United States public health service and saw active duty as such at Chester, Pennsylvania. He also was an active member of the medical advisory selective service board at Milwaukee in 1918.
Dr. Chapman is a member of the American Medical Association, the Wisconsin State Medical Society and the Milwaukee Medical Society. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology, member of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society and the Mil- waukee Oto-Ophthalmic Society. He holds a certificate of The American Board for Ophthalmic Examinations and medical registrations in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and 'Wis- consin. He is a member of the faculty of Marquette University Medical School and of the Milwaukee County Hospital staff as head of the eye, ear, nose and throat department and is consultant in ophthalmology to the Milwaukee County Dispensary. He devotes his entire time to his specialty and is recognized as a capable ocultist, aurist and rhino-laryngologist.
In 1907 Dr. Chapman was married to Miss Marjory Smith of Muskegon, Michigan, and they are parents of three children: Dorothy, fourteen years of age; Muriel, aged eleven; and Denman, a lad of eight years.
ALEXANDER MITCHELL.
Among those men who deserve classification with the great American captains of industry and finance is Alexander Mitchell. A third of a century has come and gone since he departed this life, but the influence of his labor and his notable accomplish- ments still remains as a factor in the world's work. A great bank, a mighty railway system, many industrial and commercial enterprises stand as monuments to his ahility.
Mr. Mitchell was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, October 18, 1817. His educational opportunities in his native land were good and in the spring of 1839 he came to the new world-a young man of but twenty-oue years. He was influenced to take this step by a fellow countryman, George Smith, who about six years before had become a hanker of Chicago and who had obtained from the territorial legislature of Wisconsin the in- corporation of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company, which he organized
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early in 1839. At that day, because of the unsubstantial character of many moneyed institutions, banks were in great disfavor in the middle west. The new corporation was ostensibly intended to carry on the business of fire and marine insurance, and one clause of the charter denied it banking powers, but other clauses specifically authorized it to receive deposits, to issue certificates of deposit and to loan money. It was this branch of the business that Mr. Smith determined to develop, having little interest in an insurance business as such. He remained in Chicago, caring for his banking business there, while Mr. Mitchell was sent to Milwaukee and as secretary of the company took over the management of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company. At that time Milwaukee's population was but twelve hundred and the busi- ness of the bank in the early days must have been exceedingly small. At first the public feared the certificates issued by the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company but after a little time came to know that every certificate presented at the office of the company would be paid in cash. It was always the policy of Mr. Mitchell to keep enough gold on hand in the bank or somewhere at his demand to meet any possible run. Such was the feeling against banking institutions at that day that the issue of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company's certificates was denounced by many as a violation of the charter of the company and the territorial legislature was provoked to pass an act in 1844 repealing the act of incorporation. Notwithstanding this the general public had learned to have confidence in the solvency of the corpora- tion and in the ability and good faith of its managers. The amount of its circulation rapidly increased, reaching half a million, then a million and finally nearly a million and a half dollars. At that day the interest on loans ranged from ten to twelve per cent and even higher. John P. McGregor, in his biography of Alexander Mitchell prepared for the Milwaukee County Pioneer Association, commented on the usual large rate of interest in that day, as follows: "These profits went into the pockets of George Smith, as, within a short time after the company commenced operations, he had hought out nearly or quite all of the other stockholders, who were doubtless rendered timid by the continued threats of the legislative or other authorities of the territory to attempt the legal suppression and winding up of the company. Wisconsin was admitted as a state in 1848, and in 1852 Leonard J. Farwell became governor, and, as is supposed, by his influence or direction the attorney general commenced proceedings by quo warranto to test the legality of the operations of the company and to wind it up; but a truce was soon arranged and the proceedings stayed. The legislature had passed a free banking act, which, under the provisions of the state constitution, was to be submitted to a vote of the people at the November election in 1852, and, if approved by them, would go into effect January 1st, 1853. On the part of Mr. Smith it was agreed that if this law should so go into effect, the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company should be wound up, its circulation withdrawn, and the institution should be reorganized under the general banking law of the state. On this understanding the legal proceedings came to a halt. The law was approved, and under its provisions, in January, 1853, the Wiscon- sin Marine and Fire Insurance Company Bank was organized, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, with Alexander Mitchell as president and David Ferguson as cashier, though George Smith owned substantially all the stock.
"Under the Wisconsin banking law, a bank could not issue circulating notes to a larger amount than its capital stock; and it soon became evident that Mr. Smith. accustomed to the great profits arising from the large circulation of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company notes, was not going to be content with the one hundred thousand dollars permitted the new bank. He procured a charter from the legislature of Georgia and organized a bank of issue at Atlanta, then a rather inac- cessible point in that state. He undertook to replace the retired circulation of the old Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company, by paying out through his offices in Chicago and in Milwaukee, and through his correspondents, the issues of his Atlanta Bank. The people of Wisconsin did not take kindly to this operation, regarding it as an infringement upon the rights of the new banks of the state, and as an attempt to occupy the field which belonged to them. After a sharp struggle for several months to force his Georgia money into circulation, he was compelled to give up the fight in the spring of 1854, and came to the determination to withdraw from Wisconsin. It is said that in his chagrin, he sent word to Mr. Mitchell to close up the Milwaukee bank and bring its effects to Chicago. However this may be, it is certain that at this time Mr. Mitchell entered into negotiations with Mr. Smith, which ended in the transfer of the stock of the bank to Mr. Mitchell, and gave him the opportunity to enter upon his subse- quent independent and most successful career.
"Mr. Mitchell was now nearly thirty-seven years old. He had married in 1841, and had built and occupied in 1848 the plain hrick house on Ninth street, which, with many alterations and additions, and with a very great enlargement of the grounds, continued to be his homestead as long as he lived.
"The new Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company Bank received no check from the withdrawal of Mr. Smith; but though a number of strong banks and banking houses were now in full operation in Milwaukee, it steadily maintained the leading
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position, and advanced rapidly in strength and amount of business transacted. The great panic of 1857 came and passed away, but continued prosperity attended Mr. Mitchell's operations.
"The opening of the war of the rebellion in IS61 threatened a nearly general over- throw of the banks in operation under the general banking law of Wisconsin. * * * It was only by the most vigorous efforts on the part of the bankers and merchants of Milwaukee that utter disaster was averted, and the outstanding circulation of the Wis- consiu banks was put on a specie-paying basis. The measures adopted not only saved the banking system, but materially assisted to help the state, by providing a home market for the state bonds, issued to defray the expense of putting the Wisconsin volnn- teers in the field, on much better terms than the state officers had been able to make in the money markets of the east. This was done by replacing with Wisconsin bonds, in which our own people had full confidence, the depreciated securities held for the pro- tection of our hank circulation. In all these operations Mr. Mitchell took an active and leading part."
Throughout his life the growth of the bank and its success was perhaps the keenest interest and the greatest joy in the life of Mr. Mitchell. Yet in another field he gained international prominence, becoming recognized as one of the ontstanding figures in railway circles in the country. In 1863 the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company was organized, D. M. Hughes becoming the first president, with Russell Sage as his successor. But the new corporation did not succeed any better than the old ones who had managed the short and disconnected lines in the state. It failed to pay running expenses and the interest on the mortgage debt. Its condition was one of marked financial embarrassment in the spring of 1865 and the eastern directors proposed to allow the first mortgage to be foreclosed and all the nnsecured creditors to be cut off. Mr. Mitchell, who was one of the directors, however, strongly opposed this plan, saying that with proper management he believed the road conld be placed upon a paying basis. He was, therefore, challenged to accept the presidency and do what he could to rescue the company from complete bankruptcy. Finally he agreed upon the provision that he should be allowed to call S. S. Merrill as the active manager of the road. This con- cession was granted and Mr. Mitchell at once undertook the task of obtaining extension of time on some of the most pressing debts. He bent every energy toward a mastery of the situation, its difficulties and its possibilities, and within a few months the com- pany began to pay off the floating debt and at the end of a year the road was in good financial condition. Its prosperity continually increased and Mr. Mitchell as president entered upon a program of road expansion that was continued during the twenty-two years in which he was the chief executive of the company. Its two hundred and seventy miles, connecting a few towns in southern Wisconsin, were extended until the St. Paul system covered Wisconsin, northern Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Dakota and even ex- tended to Kansas City in Missouri with its five thousand miles of track. The success of the railroad under the notably wise and progressive management of Mr. Mitchell naturally brought to him a most substantial financial return and it gave him the opportunity for large investments in various parts of the country as he came to know of the resources of the districts into which the railroad was built. Mr. Mitchell became financially or actively identified with many of the important business interests of his city, and with the organization of the Northwestern National Insurance Company in 1869, he became the largest stockholder and was elected to the presidency, developing this, as he had his other business interests, into a strong and profitable institution. His keen interest centered perhaps in the bank and in this connection Mr. McGregor said: "While, by the provisions of his will, the bulk of his great wealth went to his only son, John L. Mitchell, the bank was left in equal shares to his son, to his nephew, John Johnston, who had heen in it for many years, and to David Ferguson, who had been its cashier from the start and had been in the old Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company from 1840. He thus left the bank strong in resources and in financial support, and strong in the ability and experience of its managers, insuring, as far as human foresight could, its continued prosperity and usefulness."
It was in 1841 that Mr. Mitchell was married to Miss Martha Reed, daughter of Seth Reed, a pioneer resident of Milwaukee, and they became parents of one child, John Lendrum Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell found his keenest joy at his own fireside in the com- panionship of his little family and of his close friends. It was characteristic of him that when one of his old-time associates needed financial assistance Mr. Mitchell created a position for him with light duties but with a most substantial salary and then made it a point to have him ride with him almost every afternoon because he so greatly en- joyed his companionship.
Mr. Mitchell served for two terms in congress, elected in 1870 and again in 1872. A speech which he delivered in 1874 upon the financial situation of the country drew to him nation-wide attention. Twice he revisited his native land and on his first return voyage in 1848 his father passed away while he was still at sea. In 1855 he made a second trip to Scotland and. previous to his departure was entertained by the business men of Milwaukee at a farewell banquet given in his honor. He passed away on the
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19th of April, 1887. He had been spending the winter in Florida but had gone to New York to attend to business matters and there death called him. His passing won comment from the press not only throughout this country but in foreign lands as well. The papers of Scotland took credit to the nation that he was a native son of that land and a leading Dakota paper characterized him as the very Rock of Gibraltar in financial integrity. He was an active friend of art and of all finer culture and possessed a disciplined and discriminating mind which enabled him to appreciate and enjoy the genuine and reject the counterfeit of all true culture. One journal wrote of him: "His humanity, culture, public spirit, were all natural, well developed traits. That they seemed to find comparatively infrequent exhibitions of which the world was enabled to take note, was due wholly to the fact that his strength was absorbed and his powers were being exerted elsewhere. Necessarily the kinder traits and those tending to foster his personal popularity were kept down, not because he had them not, but because he gave his energies in another direction. To have a large purpose reaching through a long life and followed sturdily and unwaveringly to a successful end-whether that purpose is for humanity's sake or for self's sake-is to exhibit largeness and breadth. Alexander Mitchell's career could not in the nature of things have been the career of a small man." He gave continually where he knew that aid was needed and where it would prove beneficial; and in his later years, when he had more leisure from business, he made it his purpose to investigate the calls upon him for philanthropy, taking a keen personal interest in this kind of work. On the whole he builded rather for the big things of life and what he did for Wisconsin and the country in general can scarcely be overestimated.
The funeral services held over Mr. Mitchell were in accord with his life, without ostentation or display. Resolutions of respect were prepared by various organizations to which he belonged. There gathered at his bier men eminent in connection with national affairs, men who directed the financial policy of the country, men who shaped the history of the state, but there were no more sincere mourners than those among the old settlers and the Milwaukee County Pioneer Association. For these men Mr. Mitchell had always had the deepest affection and the closest association. They had been the friends of his early youth in Milwaukee and the friendships had been continued through- out the years.
HON. JOHN LENDRUM MITCHELL.
Hon. John Lendrum Mitchell was one of the most distinguished men that Wiscon- sin has produced. He won success and prominence as a banker, became a recognized leader upon many questions relative to the agricultural development of the state, found happiness and gained culture in broad study and wide travel and constantly gave to the public out of his rich stores of wisdom and experience, rendering valuable service to community, state and nation in many ways.
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