USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 66
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ABNER KIRBY was, in many respects, one of the most interesting pioneers of Milwaukee and was long one of those most widely known through- out the Northwest. He first set foot in Milwau- kee on the 18th day of May of the year 1844, and his ancestors, who long dwelt in the Old Bay state, were Quakers. Abner Kirby, Sr., the father of him of whom we write, was a native of Free- port, Massachusetts, a drummer boy in the revo- lution, and, like all the old patriots, delighted in glorifying Washington, whom he had frequently seen. In 1812, when a man quite well along the journey of life, he again responded to his country's call for soldiers and carried a gun through that, the second "independence struggle" with Eng- land. He was one of the emigrants from Massa- chusetts who settled in Maine while it was still a part of Massachusetts and known as the Province of Maine. There, in Starks, Somerset county, on
April 11, 1818, Abner Kirby was born. ITis father was one of the forehanded farmers of the county, and during his boyhood young Kirby worked on the farm and received such instruction as was afforded by the district school. At an early age he started out for himself. While still a boy of less than fourteen years of age he began to buy cattle for his father, and about the same time went into logging camps, and though too young to chop, he did the cooking. He spent several winters in the camps coming down with the " drive " of logs in the spring. He must have been a hardy boy, for the hard work and the fre- quent wettings in the icy water, incident to this business, are fatal to any but the most healthy. Before he was of age he learned the jewelers' trade in Bangor, Maine, and at the age of twenty- one he opened a watchmaker's and jeweler's shop in Skowhegan, where he carried on the business about seven years, and until he came West. His fellow townsman petitioned for his appointment and he was made postmaster, a position he held for three years. Soon after his arrival in Mil- waukee he bought all the lots on Wisconsin and East Water streets lying within two hundred feet of the northeast corner of those streets, and built on that corner the brick building now standing on it, and occupied the ground floor as a jeweler's shop for the next ten years. In 1855 he engaged in the lumber business in Milwaukee, and the fol- lowing year built a saw-mill at Menominee, Mich- igan, where he manufactured a large amount of lumber. In 1861 the yards of the firm, then under the style of Kirby, Carpenter & Company, and now incorporated as the Kirby-Carpenter Com- pany, were removed to Chicago, where it was one of the heaviest among the manufacturers and dealers of that city. Mr. Kirby's connection with this firm ceased in 1880. Besides his lumber busi- ness, for many years he was one of the largest vessel owners in Milwaukee, and engaged in the carrying trade for many years, continuing in that line until about 1880. He was the first to use steam barges on the lakes, and the Cream City was the first barge thus equipped. The manu- facture of threshing machines and other farm implements was carried on for several years by Kirby, Langworthy & Company, Mr. Kirby being the senior partner. He was also the proprietor of the Milwaukee Starch Works.
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
The first meeting in Milwaukee to consider the practicability of establishing railroad connection with Waukesha was called by him, and he was one of the first subscribers to the stock of the company organized for the purpose of building the railroad. As early as 1856, he, with Daniel Wells, Jr., became owner of the City Hotel, after- ward known as the Walker House. In 1862 he became sole owner, and enlarged and completely remodeled it, since which time it has been known as the Kirby House. Later Mr. Kirby became landlord as well as owner of this hotel, and con_ ducted it in such a manner as to make it one of the most popular and hospitable hotels in the country.
Mr. Kirby was a Democrat of that type which does not allow one to remain long in doubt as to his political standing, but his patriotism was as pronounced as his politics, and during the contin- uance of the rebellion he was what was known as a War Democrat, and earnestly supported meas- ures for the vigorons prosecution of the war. He is said to have spent twelve thousand dollars for the maintenance of the families of forty men who were at the front in defense of the Union, and was equally liberal in other contributions for the prosecntion of the war and the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers. His generosity and genial. ity made him very popular, and in 1865 he was elected mayor of Milwaukee unanimously, there being no candidate opposed to him. When he received the telegram from Washington announc- ing the surrender of Lee, and the end of the war, he testified his joy by issuing an "edict " announc- ing these facts, and notifying the citizens of Mil- waukee that any man found sober that day on the streets of the city would be forthwith locked in the city prison.
He was married three times. His first wife, who was Miss Rebecca F. Chase, of Hartford, Maine, died in Milwaukee in 1849. His second wife, her sister, Mary I. Chase, died in 1852. October 8, 1854, he married Miss Letitia R. Chase, of Amsterdam, New York, who is still living. Mrs. Kirby is a woman of decided ability, exem- plary character and rare accomplishments. To this union were born two sons and three daugh- ters, who grew up and are now living. Ilis eldest son, Henry M. Kirby-the child of his first wife- died in 1889. Ilis surviving children are Wel- come U. Kirby of Milwaukee ; Oak A. Kirby of Chicago; Mrs. Grace R. Houghton, Mrs. Susan F.
Adams, and Mrs. Maud A. Hendee. Mr. Kirby died on the 21st of September, 1893, at his home on Woodland court, which he erected some years previous to his death. The homestead is situated -as he had often told his family-just where, many years before, he had shot his first deer in Wisconsin.
Mr. Kirby was one of the men to whom Mil- waukee is indebted for the rank it has attained among Western cities. His business life was crowded with work, and he did it with a will. He was a man of tireless energy and labored zeal- ously for the interests of the city, though his zeal sometimes cost him heavily as the following inci- dent will show. Early in the history of the town he was, in common with other good citizens, an- noyed by live stock running at large. He used his influence to have a public pound established, and it happened that many whose stock was im- pounded were too poor to pay the fines and costs. In many instances the generons and manly spirit of Abner Kirby was made manifest, and in one year he paid out of his own pocket twelve hun- dred dollars in that way, in cases where he felt he was justified in so doing. He was a man who respected his promises and always kept them.
In some of his speculations on the Board of Trade he lost heavily, one hundred thousand dol- lars it has been said. In his anger and disgust, he said that never so long as he lived, would he again set foot in the Board of Trade rooms, and he kept his promise. While a young man, he was in what was known as the "Madawaska War." For his services there he was entitled to a land war- rant, from the government, for one hundred and sixty acres of land. But, as no blood had been shed, he would never avail himself of his right, or allow any one else to do so. In his frank out- spoken manner, there was nothing of conceal- ment. His feelings were alike known to his friends, and to those he disliked, of which latter class there were few. His honesty and good faith, added to a wonderful fund of good nature and humor, made him one of the most popular men in the West. Through his long residence in this city, and his intimate business relations with so great a number of people, Mr. Kirby's character became fully known ; his life was an open book, and the testimony of those who knew him is that he was a man justly loved, honored and respected in his life, and mourned in deatlı,
P. J. Blair
.
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HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL.
FRANKLIN J. BLAIR belonged to the fam- ily of Blairs of Blandford, Hampden county, Massachusetts, his ancestors having settled in that town in the early part of the eighteenth century Although of Scotch extraction, the immigrant ancestor of the family came from Ireland, where his ancestors had previously set- tled and they are generally spoken of as of Scotch-Irish descent. The title to the farm upon which several generations of the family lived was acquired from the Indians, while the red men held the possession of as well as the title to the soil. Be- ing people of character, well educated, of good standing and as compared with their neighbors well-to-do, the Blairs of Massachusetts were in- fluential people in their community and were often called in as arbiters and peacemakers in neighborhood difficulties. James Blair, the father of Franklin was a true scion of the old stock, and was in comfortable circumstances until he was obliged to pay a note which he had indorsed for a friend, which compelled the sale of his farm and ruined him financially.
Franklin Blair's mother was Mercy Howard, also of a worthy New England family. Her father was Captain John Howard, who, previous to the Revolutionary War had spent some years in Nova Scotia, where he had a handsome prop- erty which he abandoned to serve in the con- tinental army, and which was confiscated by the British government. Captain Howard, served with Washington and went through the Massa- chusetts and Long Island campaigns, but died later on the Hudson.
Franklin J. Blair, born October 17, 1815, was the youngest child and only son of a family of seven children of whom six grew up. His early education was mostly self-acquired, his school privileges having been of that sort afforded by the common schools of his time. After teach- ing in the district schools of his native state for a time, he went to Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of twenty, and made his home with his sister, Mrs. J. C. Fairchild, and taught five years in the high schools of that city among his pupils being his nephew, Lucius Fairchild, since widely known as soldier and statesman.
In the summer of 1843 Mr. Blair invested his sav- ings in a stock of general merchandise, including what in those days was considered a large invoice of crockery and glassware, came to Milwaukee,
and opened a store in Holton and Goodall's old stand on East Water street. Here he began a suc- cessful career, and grew in wealth and prominence until his house became one of the soundest, as well as one of the most popular, establishments of the kind in the Northwest. From a retail busi- ness it expanded into a wholesale trade, and large importations of goods from Europe were made. In 1856 E. R. Persons, who had been a clerk since his arrival in Milwaukee in 1847, became a partner in the business with Mr. Blair, and the firm took the name of Blair & Persons. This house con- tinued in business till 1883 or 1884, Mr. Blair and Messrs. Bradley & Metcalf being the last of the merchants of '43 continuously in business up to that date.
Mr. Blair was for many years a director in the National Exchange Bank, and also in the Northwestern National Fire Insurance Company, watching the interests of those corporations as faithfully as he did his own business. IIe was also treasurer of the State Agricultural Society and a trustee of the State Hospital for the In- sane. While yet in the crockery and glassware business, he visited both insular and continental Europe for the double purpose of looking after business interests connected with the import trade and viewing the beauties of the older and more complete civilization of the lands of our fore- fathers.
Mr. Blair was twice married. In 1846, at Wau- kegan, he married Lucy R. Turner, a native of Penobscot county, Maine, a lady possessed of characteristics of head and heart that made her a most fitting companion for her husband, whose home was to him the most attractive place on earth. Of this marriage but one child grew to adult age, now Mrs. Fannie B. Hayden of Chicago. Mrs. Blair died on the 14th day of May, 1869, sincerely mourned by all who knew her. In December, 1880, Mr. Blair married Mrs. Harriet Dana, nee Turner, a sister of his first wife, who still survives. On the 25th day of Octo- ber, 1891, after an illness of but a weck, Mr. Blair died of pneumonia. He had enjoyed his nsual health up to the time of his last illness, and had attended a meeting of the directors of the insur- ance company but a day or two previous.
In his early life he was a strong and active man, but in his later years was very lame and a great sufferer. In the early sixties both Mr. Blair and his
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wife received very serious injuries in a wreck on the St. Paul Railroad at Stoughton, Wisconsin, which rendered both cripples for the remainder of their lives. Suits were instituted against the railroad company, which offered terms of compromise, which were always rejected by Mr. Blair, who said that many poor people who suffered injuries as he had might be influenced by his course ; that the railroad was both liable and responsible for damages, and that the only way to reach a corpo- ration and teach it a lesson which it might heed in future, was by reaching it through its divi- dends. He therefore prosecuted these cases with that persistency which was so marked a feature of his character, until they were carried to the court of last resort, and there judgment for eleven thousand dollars in his case was affirmed, and Mrs. Blair recovered eight thousand dollars. It was then that he showed his true benevolence and invested the money he had recovered from the railroad so that it should yield a permanent in- come which went to the support of a charitable institution, thus making the cause of the sufferings that he endured in later life a direct means of affording relief and aid to the poor and friendless. At her death, Mrs. Blair bequeathed the amount she bad recovered to the children of her sister, who, with her husband, had been frozen to death in a blizzard in Minnesota.
It has been said that Mr. Blair was mainly self- educated. It is equally true that he continued to educate himself as long as he lived. He was extremely fond of books, and no sooner were the cares of business thrown off, than he gave him- self wholly up to study, and so he acquired a great fund of knowledge, especially of the Bible and ancient history. He was a constant atten- dant at religious services in Plymouth Church. In politics he was a Republican. Ilis domestic life was such that he had no occasion to seek so- ciety at clubs or other places of social entertain- ment, and he lived happily by his own fireside. To matters of business he gave the closest atten- tion. Ile seidom was absent from his store during business hours more than an hour at a time, and always waited on his customers as quickly and as pleasantly as a clerk would be expected to do. lle was never idle. His neighbors said he ran from store to house and from house to store. He was undemonstrative and methodical, but a true and trusted friend. The reliance which those
who knew him placed in his stern and unflinching integrity is evidenced by his having been made the administrator of many estates and executor of many wills some of them disposing of large amounts of property. He died very wealthy.
JOHN C. KOCH was born near Hamburg, Ger- many, October 18, 1841, and until he was thirteen years of age attended the schools of his native village. In 1854 he came to the United States with his parents, who settled in Milwaukee. After a term at the public schools in this city he learned the tinner's trade with his father and was in the latter's employ until 1860.
In 1861 he began working for the hardware firm of John Pritzlaff & Company as a tinner and in 1866 had become chief clerk of that flourishing establishment. His energy, tireless industry and ceaseless devotion to duty pleased his employers, who rapidly promoted him and before the close of the year he was made a partner in the business and began to take an active part in its manage- ment.
Under the joint management of Mr. Pritzlaff and Mr. Koch the business grew to such propor- tions that in 1884 it was incorporated under the name of the John Pritzlaff Hardware Company, with a paid in capital of six hundred thousand dollars, and with John Pritzlaff, president; John C. Koch, vice-president, and F. Wollaeger, secre- tary and treasurer. Mr. Pritzlaff is still president of the company, but the active management of its business devolves upon Mr. Koch. The growth of their trade has been remarkable. In 1866 the firm conducted a retail store with a small trade. At present the firm transacts an immense wholesale hardware business, equaled only by that of two firms in the same line of business in the West. The success of the firm has been largely due to Mr. Koch who, with a natural aptitude for the busi- ness, and executive ability of a high order, has given it the most careful attention and super- vision.
In addition to his interests in the hardware business Mr. Koch is president of the Koch & Loeber Company of Milwaukee which does an ex- tensive business in wooden ware and supplies. Ile is also at this date (1894) president of the Milwau- kee Exposition Company, a director of the Con- cordia Fire Insurance Company, and a member of the Milwaukee Advancement Association. IIe is a member of the Milwaukee and Calumet Clubs,
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of the Deutscher Club, and of the Board of Immi- gration called the Deutscher Gesellschaft. He is a prominent layman of the Lutheran Church, and a trustee of Concordia College.
Mr. Koch is a Republican of pronounced con- victions and remarkable elements of strength as a political leader. In June of 1893, at the solicitation of many personal and political friends he accepted the nomination on the Republican ticket for the mayoralty of Milwaukee to fill the vacancy occasioned by the election of Mayor P. J. Somers to Congress. He was elected, over- coming a Democratic plurality of three thousand two hundred and one votes given for Somers, and rolling up a majority of three thousand two hun- dred and sixty-nine votes for the Republican ticket. Soon after his induction into the office of mayor the financial cyclone of 1893 swept the country with resistless fury, and the Wisconsin Marine & Fire Insurance Company Bank was forced to temporarily suspend payments, the city of Milwaukee being at the time a creditor of the bank to the amount of one million six hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollars.
The financial standing of the bank or the integ- rity of its officers had never been questioned, and the sudden shock produced by closing its doors extended far and wide and caused consternation among its depositors, and serious financial em- barrassment to the city administration.
In this emergency Mr. Koch's executive and financial ability was potent in bringing order out of chaos, and a contract was entered into between the city and the bank whereby the bank agreed to pay the city two hundred thousand dollars cash upon the date of opening the bank, and the bal- ance in five equal installments in six, ten, eighteen, twenty-four and thirty months, with interest at three per cent. In due time the bank was reor- ganized and reopened, and these payments have been promptly met, the city suffering no loss. Pending the payment of these claims means had to be devised to meet the current expenses of the city government and to provide for other indebt- edness. The Common Council adopted a resolu- tion to borrow money on its promissory notes due in February, 1894, from individuals, banks and financial institutions, which obligations were promptly paid at maturity, and the credit of the city was fully maintained in all respects.
It may be said, therefore, that Mr. Koch dis- charged the duties of Mayor of Milwaukee during a period of the greatest financial depression of a half century, and when its financial affairs were seriously entangled, with signal ability, securing thereby the implicit confidence and unstinted commendation of his fellow- citizens.
His administration during the term for which he was first elected was fearless, able and busi- nesslike, and in 1894 he was elected by a largely increased majority for a full term of two years. Prior to his last election to the mayoralty he was unquestionably the leading candidate for the Re- publican gubernatorial nomination of 1894, and had he consented to allow his name to go before the convention he would have been nominated for the chief magistracy of Wisconsin with practical unanimity. His high sense of duty, however, prompted him to withdraw from the gubernato- rial candidacy, and pledge himself to serve his full term as Mayor of Milwaukee.
Mr. Koch married Miss Elizabeth Pritzlaff, a woman of decided ability and exemplary charac- ter, in 1865, and has an interesting family of chil- dren.
ROYALL PERKINS HOUGHTON, who was born in Guilford, Vermont, December 10, 1831, and died in this city August 16, 1892, belonged to the first generation of business men "brought up" in Milwaukee. His father, Richardson Hough- ton, Jr., came here in 1844, and his grandfather, Richard Houghton, Sr., who came the same year, died here in 1846. Of English antecedents, the history of the family in America began with Richard Houghton, who settled in Massachusetts early in the eighteenth century, and whose imme- diate descendants were among the early settlers of Vermont. Richardson Iloughton, Jr., was for more than forty years a citizen of Milwaukee, and is held in kindly remembrance by his contempo- raries of the pioneer period who still survive. For two years after coming here he engaged in merchandising, but at the end of that time he purchased a considerable tract of timber land ad- jacent to the city, and devoted himself thereafter to its improvement and cultivation. The present "Schlitz Park" is a part of the farm originally owned by Mr. Houghton, and "Houghton's addi- tion to the city of Milwaukee" laid the founda- tion of a comfortable fortune for its owners. Ile
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was a man of strong character and marked abil- ity, as honorable as he was sagacious, and was esteemed alike for good qualities of head and heart. His wife-who before her marriage was Miss Eliza Perkins-was a lineal descendant of John Perkins, of Gloucestershire, England, who sailed from Bristol, December 1, 1630, on the good ship "Lion," which carried a store of provisions for the suffering Plymouth colonists, and after a tempestuous voyage of more than two months, landed at Nantasket on the 5th of February, 1631. Among the other passengers aboard the same ves- sel was Roger Williams, who won undying fame in later years as the founder of Rhode Island. This John Perkins was one of the founders of Ipswich Colony under the leadership of John Winthrop, was owner of the large island at the mouth of Ipswich river, and was prominent as a man of affairs in the colony.
Of Puritan ancestry, Mrs. Houghton inherited a strong religious sentiment and the maternal in- Huence was manifest in the Christian character of Royall P. Houghton, and in his devotion to the church in which he had been brought up, during all the years of his mature manhood. Ile was thirteen years of age when the family removed to Milwaukee and had acquired the rudiments of an education. After coming here he continued his studies in the old-time "select schools" of the city and completed his education at Carroll Col- lege in Waukesha.
When not in school he was active, as a boy, in assisting his father to "clear up" and improve lands which have since become a part of the city, but when he attained his majority he engaged with his brother, George, in the dry goods trade in this city. In 1857 the brothers embarked in the lumber trade, under the firm name of Ilough- ton Brothers, at the corner of Third and State streets, and at a later date became the owners of another lumber yard on the South Side. For twenty years thereafter they carried on an exten- sive and successful business in this line, from fifty to one hundred men being in their employ all the time. In 1885 Mr. Houghton, in company with other gentlemen, established the Wilbur Lumber Company of which he was president from the date of its organization until his death.
In 1868 the banking house of Houghton, Mc- Cord & Company was established, and becoming connected with that institution, for nearly twenty-
five years thereafter Mr. Houghton was recog- nized as one of the ablest and most sagacious financiers of the city. Under the careful and con- servative management of Houghton, McCord & Company, and later of Houghton Brothers & Company, one of the soundest financial institu- tions of the city was built up which, as the Cen- tral National Bank-into which it was merged after the death of Mr. Houghton-still continues to reflect credit upon its founders.
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