History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III, Part 99

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

USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III > Part 99

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

On the 27th of April, 1907, Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Grace Tweeden, a dangh- ter of Jacob Tweeden of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, at which place Mrs. Taylor was born. By her marriage she has become the mother of four children: Albert Thomas, who is now a senior in the Milwaukee Country Day School; Jerome, also a pupil in that school; Jane, who is attending the Lake School for Girls; and Richard, who is in the Junior Country Day School.

In religious faith Mr. Taylor is a Christian Scientist and has his membership in the Fourthi church. In politics he is a republican but has never sought nor desired office and takes no active part in politics. He manifests a keen and helpful interest in municipal affairs, however, and is now the first vice president of the Milwaukee Cham- ber of Commerce. He is prominently known in club circles, having membership in the Milwaukee Athletic, the Milwaukee and Milwaukee Yacht Clubs, and he belongs also to the Association of Commerce, the Chicago Board of Trade, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce and the New York Produce Exchange. Yachting is his hobby and success has enabled him to gratify his desires in this connec- tion. He is a lover of music, possesses an excellent singing voice and has appeared in varions amateur opera performances in Chicago and in Milwaukee. During the World war he was one of the organizers of the American Protective League of Milwaukee and worked untiringly in that and other connections, receiving an appreciative letter of thanks from the department of justice.

WILLIAM BENJAMIN RUBIN.

William Benjamin Rubin, lawyer, author, economist, sociologist, was horn Septem- ber 1, 1873, at the city of Borispol, Government of Poltava, in southern Russia, and came to this country at the age of nine years. His father was a prosperous merchant in Russia and in connection with his business he practiced law.

Mr. Rubin is a graduate of the First Ward school and of the East Side high school. At that time there was only one high school in Milwaukee. He took a course in civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin for three years, and holds the degree of Bachelor of Letters from the University of Michigan and also the degree of Bachelor of Laws from the law department of the University of Michigan. He was admitted to practice in the Wisconsin courts in the year 1896.

On September 12, 1897, he married Miss Sonia Mesirow, who died April 12, 1915. Mrs. Rubin, during her lifetime, was prominently connected with many social and charitable institutions. Mr. Rubin has one son, Abner Joseph, who is a graduate of Cornell University and is now attending the law school of the University of Wisconsin. During his last semester at Cornell, Abner enlisted in the service and went overseas, and his graduation was thereby postponed for three and one-half years.

Mr. Rubin is recognized as one of the ablest trial lawyers in the state of Wisconsin and is of national prominence as well. He has all the qualifications prescribed by Blackstone for a lawyer,-is endowed with a strong physical frame, is alert, keen, shrewd, resourceful, and a hrilliant cross-examiner; is an eloquent pleader before a jury, and a logical and forceful exponent of the law before the court. He has figured in some of the most prominent cases, civil and criminal, in the state of Wisconsin and other states with unusual success. Once he takes up a cause, he gives his all, physical, mental and moral. He has and always displays a fearlessness and courage bottomed upon a fund of information that makes him at all times a dangerous adversary. Mr. Rubin is a champion of the people and he is with the people and for the people all of the time. He is not only a student of men and affairs but also of books. Force- ful, yet reserved, he never wastes ammunition. Often, as with a pugilist, he takes a lot of punishment, but when he strikes, his blow carries with it full force.

Mr. Rubin has perhaps tried more injunction cases than any other lawyer in the United States. He first gained his reputation in the famous case of Allis-Chalmers Company vs. Iron Molders Union, which grew out of a strike in 1906, and for which he received laudation from the great President Roosevelt. Mr. Rubin has appeared success- fully in some of the biggest labor cases in the country. It was he who led the actors in their successful controversy with the managers in New York in 1919. It was he who, in the great strike of the seamen on the Atlantic coast in 1920, procured for them the eight hour shift on board ship. He was chief counsel in the steel strike, the largest strike in the history of the United States. He has represented various organizations and has been counsel and general advisor to some of the biggest labor leaders in this country.

853

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE

Mr. Rubin is considered the highest authority on lego-economics in this country. His plan for happy co-relations between employer and employe, between labor and capital, as outlined by him, was put into practice in Worcester, Massachusetts. This is one of his dreams towards a practical solution of present-day problems.

During the war, with indomitable courage, Mr. Rubin took the stand for our country, though it cost him many friends, associates and admirers, and devoted himself with his usual zeal to the cause that he so earnestly believed was right, traveling in and out of Wisconsin often at much personal inconvenience.

Perhaps Mr. Rubin's view upon Americanism and the relation of capital and labor may be gathered from three of his latest efforts: a play in book form entitled "The Bolshevists," his address on "The Open Shop" and his article on "Chief Justice Taft and Picketing." One reading those cannot fail to understand that he is a constant and sturdy champion of the people, for he has made sacrifices, social and financial, and to the cause of the common people has given his time, his purse, and his soul. He has no use for extremists and denounces sovietism in labor with the same vehemence that he does sovietism in capital.

. Perhaps the quality of Mr. Rubin's progressiveness may be best illustrated by quoting from some of the products of his own pen, i. e., in "The Bolshevists," Mr. Jusin, a character in the play, in catechising the bolshevists, makes use of the following re- mark: "The errors (of our country) we shall correct, but the government we must not destroy." In an article upon "The Kansas Anti-Strike Law," he writes: "I would rather suffer a lifelong perturbedness of freedom than have one day of peace in slavery. God forbid the oncoming of a dictatorship whether by a state of compulsory abstention or compulsory labor. I would rather face in mortal combat a thousand foes in life's struggle for freedom than have at my side a single aide of the modern bobbed haired, pantalooned peregrinator of 'thou shalt not' for the exercise of my own rational free will."

It may be said that Mr. Rubin devotes sixteen hours a day to work, reading not only works on law but on all subjects. For years he has spoken on various economic and sociologic problems and he is the author of several books and plays, published and unpublished. Mr. Rubin has also written hundreds of essays and pamphlets, many of which have been published in current magazines throughout the country.

From the office of Mr. Rubin have graduated many able lawyers holding prominent positions in the state of Wisconsin. His office is now at No. 328 First Wisconsin National Bank building and associated with him are Messrs. E. G. Wurster and C. F. Rouiller. under the firm name of Rubin, Wurster & Rouiller. This firm enjoys one of the most Incrative general practices in the state of Wisconsin.

If you are ever up early enough to see a sunrise on Lake Michigan in front, you will always be sure to find Mr. Rubin there ahead of you, for he is a lover of outdoor and indoor classics. It is his custom, while he is peregrinating about thus in the early morning, to settle in his mind problems of weight that have his attention, and it is of frequent occurrence for him to go to his office, after his morning communion with nature, and dictate a paragraph or two rich in imagery and beautiful English, which thereafter are destined to become the gem thought around which his articles and essays are woven. Mr. Rubin is a dreamer-not a visionary-the type of man who sees what the world needs to make it a better place for humanity, and then proceeds to build solid foundations beneath his "castles in the air." He has always been identified with the real, the big things of life. An understanding of the character of the man, how- ever, may perhaps best be gained from the words of one of the big leaders in the labor world, who wrote of him: "I look upon him (Mr. Rubin) as one of the most useful men in America, and I am convinced that he is writing himself deeply into the history of our development towards industrial justice. I have met a number of exceedingly able lawyers, but Rubin exceeds them all in the clearness of his reason, soundness of mind, knowledge of things as they are, and resourcefulness in fighting for the right."

OTTO A. FINCK.

Otto A. Finck has become well known in business circles of Milwaukee as the presi- dent, treasurer and general manager of the Imperial Knitting Company, which he organized in 1905. He has made his home in this city for almost four decades but is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was born on the 8th of January, 1862, his parents being Adam and Anna Elizabeth (Kiefer) Finck, both of whom were born in Germany. In 1847 his father accompanied his parents on their emigration to the United States. Both the Finck and Kiefer families took up their abode on farms in the vicinity of Mil- waukee. After reaching man's estate Adam Finck, the father of Mr. Finck of this review, became proprietor of a dry goods and grocery store on Market Square in Mil- waukee, opposite the present site of the city hall. In 1855, he removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, and was there engaged in the wholesale liquor business until 1874. In 1875,

854

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE

although a resident of St. Paul, he became connected with the hat business in Mil- waukee in association with E. R. Pantke, under the firm style of E. R. Pantke & Con- pany, and in 1880 became interested in a commission business in St. Paul. He dis- continued the latter, however, in 1888 and ten years later disposed of his interest in the hat business, spending the remainder of his life in honorable retirement. He passed away in 1914, having for a number of years survived his wife, who was called to her final rest in 1898. They reared a family of four sons and one daughter.

Otto A. Finck, the oldest of the children, attended the public and high schools of his native city until he was graduated and when a youth of seventeen secured the posi- tion of office boy in the wholesale dry goods establishment of Lindeke, Warner & Schurmeier in St. Paul. In that connection he worked his way steadily upward through various promotions, continuing with the firm until 1882, when he made his way to Devils Lake, North Dakota. This was before the railroads had penetrated that part of the country. At the end of two years, however, he left North Dakota and came to Wisconsin, arriving in Milwaukee on the 5th of October, 1884. Here he accepted a posi- tion as bookkeeper with the firm of E. R. Pantke & Company. with which he remained until 1888, when he embarked in the real estate business in association with Willis A. Meyer under the firm style of Meyer & Finek. This partnership was dissolved in 1896 and two years later Mr. Finck became associated with Win J. Morgan in a business re- lationship that was maintained until 1905. In the latter year he organized the Imperial Knitting Company, of which he was made secretary, treasurer and general manager, while subsequently he became the chief executive officer of the concern and has since served in the official capacities of president, treasurer and general manager.

In Milwaukee, in 1887, Mr. Finck was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth MI. Pantke, daughter of E. R. Pantke, a prominent hat dealer of this city, They became parents of one child, Ethel Margaret, who is now the wife of P. J. Clauder of Milwaukee.

Mr. Finck usually supports the republican party where national questions and issues are involved but at local elections casts an independent ballot. Fraternally he is identified with both York and Scottish Rite Masonry, belongs to the Mystic Shrine and is likewise a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. The breadth and scope of his interests is further indicated in his membership with the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Wisconsin Club, the National Knitters Outerwear Association and its western branch, the Association of Commerce and the Credit Men's Association. He served on a number of different committees during the period of the World war and is widely recognized as a most patriotic and public-spirited citizen, whose aid and influence are ever found on the side of progress and improvement and who has withheld his support from no movement or measure calculated to promote the general welfare.

ALBERT C. FISCHER.

Numbered among the progressive, enterprising and successful business men of Mil- waukee is Albert C. Fischer, who organized the Fischer Building Supply Company in 1914 and has since been its president. His birth occurred in Milwaukee county on the 28th of April, 1863, his parents being Carl and Dorothy (Dohmeyer) Fischer, both of whom were natives of Germany. The father, who crossed the Atlantic to the new world when a youth of eighteen years, made his way direct to Wisconsin, settling in Mil- waukee county, where he was afterward married. He was first identified with the shoe business but subsequently became connected with a wholesale grocery firm, with which he continued to the time of his retirement from active business a few years prior to his demise. He passed away in 1892, while his wife was called to her final rest in 1875. Both were well known and highly esteemed throughout the community as people of genuine personal worth and upright lives. They became the parents of two children, a son and a daughter.

Albert C. Fischer, who was his sister's junior, obtained his education in the public schools of Milwaukee and also pursued a course of study in the Spencerian Business College. In 1880, when a youth of seventeen, he began learning the lumber business in the yard. of H. J. Mabbett at the east end of the Chestnut Street bridge, being thus employed for two years. On the expiration of that period, in 1882, he became identified with the firm of Steinman & Schroeder and when this concern was incorporated ten years later under the style of the Steinman Lumber Company, Mr. Fischer was chosen secretary thereof, continuing in that official connection until 1919. Five years before, or in 1914, he had organized the Fischer Building Supply Company for the purpose of deal- ing in cement, lime, clay products and other building materials and has since remained at the head of the business, which he has developed to one of substantial and profitable proportions. The officers of the company are as follows: Albert C. Fischer, president; Walter C. Fischer, vice president; Alfred A. Fischer, secretary; and Edgar T. Fischer, treasurer. They conduct both a retail and carload business, maintaining yards on the Green Bay road and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway tracks.

855

HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE

On the 1st of October, 1886, in Milwaukee, Mr. Fischer was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Schmidt, a daughter of Theodore and Catharine Schmidt, representing an old family of this section. The wife and mother departed this life in 1892, leaving three sons, namely : Walter C., who wedded Miss Elenore Grede; Alfred A., who married Corinna E. Olsen; and Edgar T., who married Ruth Dammann. The first named was not called upon for military duty at the time of the World war because of the fact that he was engaged in an essential business. Alfred A. Fischer, who in September, 1918, became connected with the Medical Corps in the personnel office, was stationed at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, receiving his discharge at Chattanooga, Tennessee, on the 1st of January, 1919. Edgar T. Fischer became a member of the Three Hundred Forty-second Machine Gun Company, Eighty-sixth Division, on the 29th of May, 1918, and was stationed at Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois, until sent overseas in September of that year. He was honorably discharged in February, 1919.

Mr. Fischer gives his political allegiance to the democratic party where national questions and issues are involved but at local elections casts an independent ballot. He belongs to the Association of Commerce and to the Builders & Traders Exchange but has no club or fraternal relations, devoting his time and energies largely to his busi- ness affairs, in the careful management of which he has won a gratifying measure of prosperity. His entire life has been spent in Milwaukee county and that his record has ever been an honorable one is indicated in the fact that his stanchest friends are numbered among those who have known him from his boyhood to the present.

CLINTON HUNTINGTON LEWIS, M. D.

In 1880 Dr. Clinton Huntington Lewis entered upon the practice of medicine and surgery and through the intervening period of forty-two years his labors have been of the greatest value and benefit to his fellowmen. Constant study h s augmented his powers and he has at all times been most conscientious in the performance of his pro- fessional duties.

A native of New York, Dr. Lewis was born at Spring Mills, Allegany county, that state, on the 8th of April, 1851, his parents heing Paul B. and Olive ( Huntington) Lewis, who were natives of New York and of Vermont, respectively. On leaving the Empire state they came to Wisconsin in 1862, taking up their abode in Dane county, where they resided for a number of years. The father devoted his attention to agri- cultural pursuits and when he left Dane county took up his abode in Beloit, Wisconsin, where he passed away in the year 1892. His widow survived him for about twenty-three years and died in Beloit in 1915 at the notable old age of ninety-three years. In their family were but two children: Dr. Lewis and a sister, Bertha, who became the wife of Franklin G. Hobart, of Beloit, Wisconsin, and died in 1914.

In his youthful days Dr. Clinton H. Lewis attended the public schools of Allegany county, New York, and subsequent to the removal of the family to Wisconsin he con- tinued his studies in Dane county. His more advanced training was received in the University of Wisconsin, which in 1875 conferred upon him the Bachelor of Science de- gree. Thus he laid, in his liberal literary education, a broad foundation upon which to build the superstructure of professional knowledge. His medical course was pursued in the Rush Medical College of Chicago, and in 1880 his professional degree was con- ferred upon him. He then opened an office in Dane county but after two years removed to Milwaukee and through the intervening period has continuously practiced in this city. He has long been recognized as a man of pronounced ability in his chosen calling and his service has been of untold benefit in many households here.

In June, 1878, Dr. Lewis was united in marriage to Miss Caroline Hobart, a daugh- ter of Aden P. and Clara ( Beckwith ) Hobart, the former of whom was a native of New York and the latter born in Connecticut. Mr. Hobart, in 1844, settled in Milw . uke? county and devoted his attention to farming and merchandising to the time of his death, which occurred in 1881, while his wife passed away in 1880. To Dr. and Mrs. Lewis were born five children: Paul A., who is a member of the faculty of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania; Charles H., who is a graduate of the Michigan School of Mines

and is now located in Tacoma, Washington; Marshall, who is a graduate of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin and is now superintendent of schools at Ladysmith, this state: Marian, who is a practicing physician of Milwaukee, associated with her father, having won the A. B. and M. S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin and her professional degree from the Rush Medical College, the medical department of the University of Chicago; and Lillian, who is a graduate of Beloit College and is now the wife of M. C. Hobart of Chicago. The mother of this family died May 9, 1922, at the age of sixty-seven, and is buried in Forrest Hill cemetery, Madison, Wisconsin.

Dr. Lewis finds much pleasure and recreation in making an annual trip in the early spring to Rusk county, Wisconsin, where he has a splendid maple grove upon lands which he owns and there he makes maple syrup. In the early days of his resi-

856

IHISTORY OF MILWAUKEE

dence in Milwaukee, when patients were scarce, he served for a term of two years as county superintendent of schools of Milwaukee county. It was not long, however, before bis professional duties made full demand upon his time and energy, aud through four decades he has labored here to bring abont normal health conditions, his patients en- joying the benefit of valuable professional service. He belongs to the Milwaukee County and Wisconsin State Medical Societies and also to the American Medical Associa- tion, and, nothwithstanding the fact that forty-two years have passed since he left school, he has at all times kept in touch with the trend of modern professional thought and progress through his reading and through his membership in the different medical societies, where matters of vital importance to the physician and surgeon are discussed.

JOHN LENDRUM MITCHELL, JE.

John Lendrum Mitchell, Jr., was the son of Jolin Lendrum Mitchell and Harriet D. Mitchell. He was born in Washington, D. C., April 20, 1893. During his father's term as United States senator from Wisconsin-excepting for three years from 1899 to 1902 spent in Europe, when his father was pursuing studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and elsewhere his education was obtained in the United States. At the age of ten he attended the Racine College grammar school until 1910, when he entered Phillips Andover Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts. He also spent one year at Stearns School in Mt. Vernon, New Hampshire. He was graduated from the Cascadilla School in Ithaca, New York, in 1913 and entered the University of Wisconsin the following fall and was graduated therefrom in 1917.

He was very fond of athletics and all sorts of outdoor sports and he captained the Cascadilla School crew and the University of Wisconsin freshman crew of 1917. He was especially interested in economics and particularly in the study of those phases of the subject which deal with the development of a better understanding generally between employers and employes. His brother is General William Mitchell, wbo distinguished himself so extensively during the war as au aviator and as head of the American flying forces in France.

John Lendrum Mitchell, Jr., enlisted in the United States army, aviation section, Signal Reserve Corps iu June, 1917. He was sent to the Aviation Ground School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and after finishing the course of instruction, he was ordered to France. He was stationed in Paris until he received the commission of first lieutenant on September 29, 1917. He constructed two aviation fields during the time he was receiving instruction in flying and was in command of one of them at the time of his death. He was killed by the fall of his airplane on May 27, 1918, at Colom- bey-les-Belles. He is buried at Thiancourt, France.

Lieutenant Mitchell was over-modest in speaking of his achievements, but each day brings to us information of the good things he bas done and the good influence his life had on all who came into contact with him.

An editorial in the Milwaukee Journal paid tribute to him as follows: "Lieutenant Mitchell was a glorious example of the best American type. His was a splendid person- ality. He was an ideal companion-exuberant physically and well balanced mentally. He has the gift of cheer." And a letter from Major General Menoher commended his patriotism and bravery in these words: "Lieutenant Mitchell sought the front line of danger and was one of those whose privilege it was to be selected for it. His sacrifice was made for his country, and his bravery and unflinching devotion to duty have made him one of the nation's heroes."

FRANK J. EDWARDS.

Frank J. Edwards, president of the Edwards Motor Company of Milwaukee, comes of ancestry that is distinctively American in both its lineal and collateral lines for many generations. He is a direct descendant of Jonathan Edwards, eminent New England scholar and divine, and he is a grandson of Perry Edwards, who was one of the main promoters of the Milwaukee-Beloit Railway, which was the cause of his financial ruin, for the road was never operated. It was graded and some of the ties were laid, but all the land reverted back to the original owners and after many years the M. E. & L. Railway obtained the right of way and built to Beloit. Perry Edwards was a well known man in this section of the country and very wealthy as wealth was reckoned in those days. The family name is closely associated with the history of the state, for George P. Edwards was one of the founders of the city of La Crosse, where he is still engaged in business as an extensive lumber dealer. Silas Edwards, father of Frank J. Edwards, was born at La Crosse and became a country merchant. He wedded Belle

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume III, Part 99

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