USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 62
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
Charles H. Larkin was the fourth son and fourth of seven children reared by Jonathan Larkin. In his youth there were no free schools accessible to him, but he had the benefit of the district pay school, an academy at Alden, and finished at a private school. At the age of sixteen years he set out to make his own way in the world, and
took employment as a clerk in a general store at Alden, where he remained for three years. He was subsequently employed in Buffalo and at other points in a similar capacity. When no em- ployment offered he sometimes engaged in specu- lation on his own account-always trying to turn his time to some profitable account. His was one of those energetic natures which cannot brook idle- ness, and, being full of energy and in the enjoy- ment of good health, he was especially fitted for the work of a pioneer in the development of the West, and Milwaukee was fortunate in becoming the scene of his early activities.
In 1836 Mr. Larkin arrived in Milwaukee, hav- ing previously visited Michigan and other western territory, and decided to settle here. He at once made claim to a quarter-section of land in what is now Greenfield township, on which he dwelt for two years to perfect his title. The panic of 1837 made especially hard times for the pioneers of Milwaukee, but Mr. Larkin was more fortunate than many, in having brought about ten thousand dollars with him. By means of helping others and by various investments, he soon disposed of this, and struggled along much the same as the rest. While residing on his claim, which is now a fine farm, one hundred acres of which he owned up to the time of his death, he bought and sold horses, and engaged in various enterprises which employed his youthful energies and kept the wolf from the door. At one time he led ten horses through the woods alone, over the trail from Chicago to Milwaukee. He made excursions alone on horseback to what is now the south western part of the state, when there were few houses between here and Madison, and none beyond. Youth and vigor see few dangers in such enter- prises, and the pioneer spirit in Mr. Larkin was rampant. In 1848, he opened a warehouse at the foot of East Water street, and dealt extensively in all kinds of produce, live stock and everything produced by the farmer. He also did a large for- warding business, sending goods by team to Mad- ison and other interior parts of the territory. He also invested in real estate, and after a few years retired from the warehouse business and gave his attention chiefly to his real estate interests. He built a block of stores on Reed street, and as late as 1893 was engaged in the construction of a handsome block at the corner of Lake and Reed streets.
330
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
He was a warm personal friend of the late Alexander Mitchell, who had great respect for his opinions and good judgment by which the latter was often guided in his extensive business operations. This friendship sprang up at the time of the bank riots, which were quelled largely through the influence of Mr. Larkin, who was sheriff at that time. By his influence with the masses and his co-operation with the presidents of the several banks the excitement was allayed, and the people did not suffer the loss of a dollar. Always public-spirited and ready to serve the interests of the city of which he was in a sense one of the founders, and of which he never ceased to be proud, he was associated with Guido Pfister, Alexander Mitchell and others on the public debt commit- tee to which was entrusted the difficult task of refunding the city debt, which was successfully and creditably accomplished. During his resi- dence in Greenfield, he served as a member of the Board of Supervisors, and in 1866-67-68-69 repre- sented his district in the State Senate. In 1872, 1874 and 1875 he was a member of the State House of Representatives from Milwaukee, and few of the legislators who have represented this city in the general assembly of the state have wielded as much influence as Mr. Larkin.
He was a member of the Second Constitutional Convention, which framed the present organic ,law of the state, served as school commissioner four years, was county treasurer for a time, pen- sion agent by appointment of President Buchanan, and sheriff of Milwaukee county one term. In 1862 he was commissioned by the governor to raise a regiment of troops, but feeling that he was too old to engage in warfare, he assisted his son, Courtland P. Larkin, to enlist a company, of which the son was commisioned second-lieutenant, rising to the rank of major of the Thirty-eighth Wisconsin Volunteers.
In all the relations of life he so conducted him- self as to retain the respect of himself and his fellows. IIe was an ardent admirer of Ilenry Clay and a Whig in his political affiliations in early life, but allied himself after the death of that eminent statesman with the Democratic party. His religious affiliations were with the Episcopal Church, and the Milwaukee County Pioneer's Society was one of the social institutions in which he was always deeply interested. Sur- rounded by true and faithful friends, gazing on
the setting sun with unflinching eye, he passed away at his home in Milwaukee, Angust 16, 1894, leaving his sons to carry on the work which he began so long ago.
In 1830, at Alden, New York, Mr. Larkin was married to Miss Louise Durkee, a native of Bennington, Vermont, who proved his faithful helpmate till called to her reward, January 15, 1889. She did not complain of life in a pioneer cabin, though fitted to grace a palace, and was always her husband's coadjutor in every worthy enterprise. She was a woman of con- siderable literary talent, but was not given to show or ostentation, and lived a quiet domestic life, content in ministering to the welfare of hus- band and children. Of the latter, four survive her, viz .: Charles H.,. Jr., of Plymouth, Iowa ; Louise L. (wife of Mason G. Smith, residing in St. Louis, Missouri), Courtland P. and Clarence D., of Milwaukee. Mrs. Larkin was a daughter of Thomas and Betsy (Stone) Durkee, of New Hampshire birth, and descended from old New England families.
GEORGE DYER, a pioneer and long well- known business man of Milwaukee, was a native of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where he was born De- cember 3, 1818. His parents were Jonah Dyer and Elizabeth (Harding) Dyer, both of English descent. The parents died prior to George's ar- riving at the age of twelve years, thus throwing him upon his own responsibility at a tender age.
The death of his parents made the first great change in the life and career of Mr. Dyer, who had prior to that event been devoted to his studies, but who was after that compelled to earn his own living. He learned the saddlery and har- ness trade with his brother-in-law in St. Johns, New Brunswick, where he remained till he had attained his eighteenth year. He then became a journeyman harness-maker, and in that capacity traveled to Boston and New York, remaining about six months in each place. He also worked in New Orleans and St. Louis. At the latter place he worked only long enough to replenish his de- pleted purse sufficiently to carry him back to New York. In 1840 he started for the West, spending a short time in Albany, New York, going from there to Buffalo, where he remained working at his trade until the fall of 1842. Prompted by ambition to find a field of action where his enter- prise might have full, free scope, he sailed on the
331
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL.
propeller Hercules for Milwaukee, where he ar- rived shortly before the close of navigation. Soon after his arrival he engaged with Russell Wheeler, in whose employ he remained at work at his trade until the spring of 1843, when he went to Racine, engaging there in the grocery business with his brother, under the firm name of Dyer & Dyer, which business he continued until September, 1847. At that time he removed to Milwaukee and purchased the harness manufacturing estab- lishment and trade of a Mr. Armstrong, who had succeeded to the business of Russell Wheeler with whom Mr. Dyer first engaged upon his arrival at Milwaukee. The business at first was confined to the manufacture and sale of harness and saddlery. He soon enlarged and added to his business, mak- ing it a great supply depot for the furnishing of everything required in the harness and saddlery business, and it became the most extensive house in the wholesale harness, saddlery and furnishing trade in the West. The store was (in 1847) lo- cated at 211 East Water street. In 1849 the store was burned and the stock removed, but again replaced, and the business continned there until 1856, when Mr. Dyer removed to the Cross Block. At this time Mr. J. T. Smith, of New York, became a partner, and so continued nntil 1867. During this time the business was con- ducted under the firm name of Geo. Dyer & Co. January 1, 1860, the Cross Block was burned, and the business was removed to No. 381 East Water street. In 1872 the store was again burned out, and the establishment moved to Nos. 373 and 375 East Water street. In spite of the disasters by fire and the many seasons of de- pression that occurred during these early years, under the quiet but efficient conduct of Mr. Dyer the business was established on a firm - basis, and to-day, under the management of his son, Charles J., ranks in the extent of its business among the heaviest houses in the West. The trade extends over nearly all of the Western states, and wherever known the firm enjoys the full confidence of its patrons.
The secret of this success is found in the rules which governed Mr. Dyer in all his business trans- actions. They were, honesty and fair dealing, cash purchases, short credits, promptness, truthfulness, fidelity. All of these were strictly enforced and adhered to. A particularly noticeable trait of Mr. Dyer's character was modesty. He was of a retir-
ing disposition and shrank from newspaper notori- ety. Anything like ostentation in charities he studi- ously avoided. Though he contributed to worthy objects, he had pronounced views in the matter of giving, and was careful not to indulge in indis- criminate benevolence that often does more harm than good. Ilis desire was great to avoid any responsibility for thwarting endeavor, or for en- couraging idleness.
He was one of the incorporators of the Farm- er's & Miller's Bank, which was later merged into the First National Bank, and was a director in the First National Bank up to his death. He was a member of the order of Odd Fellows and held some of the high offices of the order. He was a great lover of the American system of edu- cation and always favored giving to the young the best possible educational advantages. He affiliated with the Universalist Church, and was always a man of liberal views. He was a strong Republican and never hesitated to express his views or give his reasons for adhering to that political faith. Ile was a man of positive convic- tions and unyielding in his opinions of right and wrong.
Mr. Dyer married Miss Rebecca A. Simmons, December 12, 1847, at Racine, Wisconsin. Iler ancestors were Quakers. She was born at Easton, state of New York, February 17, 1829, and was educated in her native county. To this union were born eight children, only two of whom are now living, a daughter Elizabeth, and son Charles J., who continues the business of his father. The daughter married Oliver C. Mason. Mrs. Dyer is an accomplished lady of fine motherly instincts and thoroughly domestic in her habits and tastes.
Mr. Dyer departed this life June 6, 1892, at his residence, 520 Cass street, after an illness of about one year, leaving his widow and two chil- dren to mourn their loss. He was buried in their family lot at Forest Home Cemetery.
EDWARD DWIGHT HOLTON, a distin- guished pioneer of Wisconsin, was born at Lan- caster, New Hampshire, April 28, 1815, the son of Joseph and Mary (Fisk) Holton. In his earlier years he worked on the farm on which he was born, and when fourteen years of age was inden- tured to D. Smith, of Bath, New Hampshire, for a term of four years as a merchant's clerk, his compensation to be a salary of thirty-five dollars per year.
332
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
His facilities for obtaining an education were what the common school afforded, but he was fond of books, and diligently applied himself to study during his spare hours, and thus gathered sufficient knowledge to qualify himself for teach- ing. At the close of his indenture he returned to his native village, where he taught school a year, after which he became clerk in a store in the town of Lisbon, New Hampshire. Soon after this his former employer, who had important mercantile interests in Buffalo, New York, desir- ous of securing the services of a trusty agent to look after them, remembered the faithful and in- telligent boy whom he had trained to business, and offered the place to young Holton, who gladly accepted it. Accordingly, in the spring of 1837 Mr. Holton proceeded to Buffalo and assumed the responsible position of book-keeper and cashier in the shipping and forwarding house of M. King- man & Company, and continued to act in that capacity nearly four years. At the end of that period, in the fall of 1840, having determined to become a merchant, and believing himself quali- fied for a more independent place, he resigned his position, purchased goods on his own account and proceeded to Milwaukee, where he opened a store and carried on a prosperous and constantly in- creasing business until 1850.
In 1849, Mr. Holton believing that something should be done to open up the rich prairies of the interior and develop the latent resources of the state, interested himself in the organization of a railroad company that should traverse the state westward from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, and labored earnestly to secure stock subscriptions for the proposed road. He became its active manager and financial agent, and remained con- nected with the great enterprise until it was completed to Prairie du Chien. Before the completion of the road the management fell into difficulty and defaulted in the payment of the interest on the bonds, and the bondholders were clamorous for a foreclosure, and demanded possession of the road. This was resisted by the management on the ground of injustice to the stockholders and other creditors, because as they believed, there was abundant value in the property for a fair return to each and all of the creditors and owners. In this view Mr. Holton earnestly participated, and, as a member of the legislature of the state in 1860 and 1861 carried through a
law called a readjustment law, by which the bond- holders were permitted to take possession of the road, with a new bond or preferred stock as they might elect, they having a first lien, and the subse- quent liens and ownerships to be preserved intact, and deriving dividends in their order as first, second, third and fourth classes, the revenues of the property being employed for the payment of div- idends on these classes ; and in the event of no revenue to either of the classes in any one year, there should be no loss of ownership or position, but it simply waited until revenue enough should accrue, when it should draw its dividend or inter- est. The claims to interests in the road then aggregated nearly eight million dollars, and were held by people widely scattered over this country and Europe. To obtain their consent to this re- adjustment was a novel scheme, and to most per- sons seemed impracticable. Mr. Holton thoroughly believed in its feasibility, and had the satisfaction of witnessing its accomplishment and of bearing an important part in its consummation, and fur- thermore, at an early day after the adoption of the plan, of seeing the property fully adequate to the payment of interest and dividends, so that the common stock at length reached as high a figure as two hundred per cent. in the New York market.
In 1852 Mr. Holton became the president of the Farmers and Millers' Bank of Milwaukee, a small institution of fifty thousand dollars capital, then recently organized and in operation under the new banking law of the state. To this, as to all the enterprises that engaged his attention, he bent his energies, and speedily carried the stock of this bank from fifty thousand dollars to half a million, and continued in its successful manage- ment for ten years.
Early in 1862 President Lincoln conferred upon Mr. Holton the appointment of allotment com- missioner, Congress having authorized the appoint- ment of three for each state, the object being to secure an allotment of soldier's pay, or a part thereof, to their families or friends, and thus save from waste in the camp vast sums that would be val- uable if sent home. Quitting his large and varied business, he gave himself personally to this work, followed the Wisconsin regiments from state to state, and with his associates was instrumental in securing large allotments from the regiments visited. In devoting himself to his duties as com- missioner, together with the change of climate
333
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL.
and exposure, he contracted disease, and was compelled to return North. After many months illness, finding himself weak and prostrate, he returned his commission to the president, unable further to execute it. He also resigned the presidency of his bank-first having taken steps to bring it under the new law as a national bank- and in the summer of 1863, with his family sailed for Europe, bearing influential letters from Secre- tary Seward and others.
While in Europe he imparted much information to the inhabitants concerning American affairs, and removed many prejudices. During this absence he wrote letters which were published in the Evening Wisconsin and were read with interest by the public.
At the expiration of a year Mr. Holton and family safely returned from their European jour- ney, and retired to his farm in the suburbs of Mil- waukeee. Seeking the best Devon cattle, the best Southdown sheep, and the best French Percheron horses, he there made a practical demonstration of what he knew about farming.
After the great Chicago fire he was called from his retirement to take the management of the Northwestern National Insurance Company, with a paid up capital of only one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and he brought it within three years to one of the strongest and soundest com- panies in the country, its capital in this brief period being increased to six hundred thousand dollars. In connection with his services as manager of the Northwestern National Insur- ance Company, he took an important part in organizing and maintaining the International Board of Lake Underwriters, of which he was president from its organization to the date of his death. He was a prominent member of the National Board of Trade, having been its presi- dent, and often appointed upon important .com. mittees. Being a fluent and eloquent speaker, a ready and able debater, he never failed to hold the attention of any assembly he addressed. Having had a large experience, and endowed with rare penetration, he seldom hesitated to discuss any important matter of public interest. In 1869 he made an able and telling speech before the National Board of Trade at Richmond, Virginia, on the subject of our National finances and in favor of returning to a specie basis.
consin, he was elected, without any solicitation on his part, high sheriff of the county of Mil- waukee, embracing at that time what are now the counties of Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Milwaukee. This was in 1843. In the year 1844 the anti-slavery question was agitated in the city of Milwaukee, and out of it grew the organi- zation of the liberty party of the state of Wis- consin. In this Mr. Holton became deeply interested, and from that time acted with unabated zeal and fidelity with the political abolitionists of the country, carrying the discussion into church as well as state. He was frequently the candi- date of this party, and ran for Congress in the infancy of this political organization. In 1853 he became the nominee of the Free Soil party of Wisconsin for governor against William A. Bar- stow, Democrat, and J. C. Baird, Whig, coneen- trating, for the first time in the history of the state, a large Free Soil vote. In 1856 he was nominated as one of the prominent candidates for United States Senator, the other two being J. R. Doolittle and T. O. Howe. He, however, with- drew from the field, leaving Mr. Doolittle who held similar opinions, to be made United States Senator. He was a staunch Republican, but no partisan; and was not a politician in the modern acceptation of that term. In religion Mr. Holton was a Congregationalist. In 1845 he married Lucinda C. Millard, cousin of the late Millard Fillmore, who survives her husband and is still a resident of Milwaukee.
SILAS CHAPMAN comes of English ancestry, the founders of the American branch of the fam- ily having come to this country and settled in New London, Connecticut, in 1670. These early colonists were sea faring people. The father of Mr. Chapman was a New England ironmonger, and the son was born in Southampton, Massa- chusetts, June 18, 1813. He is the youngest son of Asahel and Sarah (Winter) Chapman, and one of eleven children. The family has been remark- able for longevity, Mr. Chapman's brother Julius, having died in 1892 at the age of eighty-nine; Asahel, Jr., in 1891, aged ninety-one; Charles in 1887, aged sixty-six; Daniel W. in 1892, aged eighty-three; William in 1892, aged eighty-one. Of five sisters two have lived to be more than eighty years of age.
Mr. Chapman received his education at a New Soon after his advent to the territory of Wis- England academy and at the University of New
334
HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
York. He is a printer by trade, having served his apprenticeship on the Springfield Republican, working as a compositor for several years there- after in Boston and New York.
Although he is now eighty-two years of age, Mr. Chapman does not use spectacles, and walks from his home to his place of business with the ease of a man of sixty. He also indulges in five or six-mile walks in the suburbs occasionally, vis- iting the places and surroundings that are familiar and noting the changes that have taken place in a half century. It seems almost incredible, and yet it is true, that he was born before the end of the war with England known to history as the war of 1812, during President Madison's adminis- tration. The first Napoleon was in Germany, Moscow had been burned eight months before, and the battle of Waterloo was still to come. Wisconsin was a primeval wilderness. There were only seventeen states in the Union. Geographers "knew no more of Central America than is now known of Central Africa. Only one expedition had then crossed the country to the Pacific, and that was Lewis and Clark's expedition. The ter- ritory which comprises the present states and ter- ritories of Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Utah, were not in the United States, but were owned by Spain. There was not a steam-printing press in the country., Mr. Chapman did not see a railroad till he was twenty years old, nor ride on one till he was twenty-one.
His first presidential vote was cast for Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen in 1844. Ile was a Whig in politics as long as the party had a national existence. Early in the forties he for a time edited and published the Milwaukee Sentinel, and in 1856 he ran a paper (the Journal) for a few months in support of Fillmore for President, but on Buchanan's election it was discontinued.
Previous to coming to this state in 1841, Mr. Chapman was engaged in educational work, teaching at Ames Academy, Montgomery county, New York-in those days one of the fore- most institutions of learning in the Empire State- and he came here as an educator. After coming to Wisconsin, Mr. Chapman resided at Wauke- sha (then Prairieville) for a year, and taught in Prairieville Academy-now Carroll College-the first incorporated educational institution of any kind in the state. IIe removed to Milwaukce in
1842 and taught a select school in a building which stood where the Colby & Abbot Block now stands. Some of his pupils during his career as a teacher, both in the East and here, are now en- gaged in business in Milwaukee, and are among the Cream City's well-known citizens. Among them are Judge Austin, Joshua Stark, B. Kurtz Miller, A. W. Kellogg, Hazen Mooers, and Henry W. Bleyer. The late Governor Alex. W. Randall was also his pupil.
After the organization of the state and when it was proposed to create the position of superin- tendent of instruction, delegates from both politi- cal parties waited on Mr. Chapman and offered him the position of State Superintendent, but he declined it. He served three years as member of the Milwaukee School Board. When the normal school law was passed, Mr. Chapman became a member of the first Board of Normal Regents, and continued in that connection for twelve years. Most of the time he was secretary of the board, and was employed by the board before the organization of the normal schools to visit the high schools and academies with normal de- partments.
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.