USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 71
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Such is a brief sketch of what has been accom- plished by a man still in the prime and vigor of manhood, who became a citizen of Milwaukee thirty years since. Personally, few men in active life have a wider circle of friends. His acute per- ceptions, admirable tact, and systematic methods have enabled him to accomplish wonderful results in the field of enterprise, while a magnetic per- sonality has kept him in touch with, and won for him the regard of those who have come in contact with him, either in business, social, or political circles. Amply endowed by nature with the qualities of leadership, he has turned to account, as a man of affairs, qualifications which in this material age make men masters of enterprise, promoters of public welfare, and potent factors in the advancement of civilization.
Married in 1867 to Miss Lydia W. VanDyke, a descendant of one of the colonial families of New York state, Mr. Payne's social and domestic life has been as happy as his political and business life has been eventful.
MATTHEW KEEN AN came to Milwaukee as a boy, and has witnessed its evolution from trading post to the second city in size and importance among the cities of the Northwest. Except in Chicago-the rapid development of which has been without precedent in the history of the world -it is doubtful if living men have witnessed a more remarkable transformation than has taken place in Milwaukee since Mathew Keenan came here in 1837. At that time "Juneau's Place" east of the river was a straggling village, and "Kilbourntown," west of the river, a somewhat smaller one, while a few squatters shanties was all there was of "Walker's Point," south of the river. Within a few years after his arrival he saw the rival settlements consolidated under one village government, was witness of the expansion of the village into a city, and has since seen the city grow into a splendid metropolis. To this de- velopment he has contributed his full share, and his history is part and parcel of the city's his- tory.
Born in Manlius, Onondaga county, New York, January 5, 1825, Mr. Keenan was twelve years of age when he came with his father's family to the embroyonic city of Milwaukee. When Eli Bates-at a later date a wealthy and philan- thropic citizen of Chicago-taught the village school in the old court-house built by Solomon Juneau and his associates, Matthew Keenan was one of his pupils, and the education which fitted him for an exceptionally successful and honorable career was obtained entirely in schools of the pioneer type. His school days ended early, and his business career began when he was sixteen years of age. At that time he found employment in the general merchandise store of William Brown, Jr., as a clerk, and a few years later, in company with a friend, purchased the establish- ment. As junior partner of the firm of Ilayden & Keenan, he retained his connection with this business until 1849, becoming well and favorably known as an energetic and enterprising young business man, not only to the citizens of Mil- waukee, but to a large proportion of the resi- dents of the county and state outside of the city. His popularity among all classes of people led to his election to the office of clerk of the Cirenit Court in the fall of 1852, and he soon afterward entered upon the discharge of his official duties. In this position his genius for the conduct of
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public business was made manifest, and so satis- factory to the courts, the bar and the general public was his administration of the office, that he was three times re-elected and served in all four consecutive terms.
The office of Circuit Court Clerk was in those days a lucrative one, and Mr. Keenan retired from the office with means sufficient to make consider- able investments, at a time when the city was entering upon the period of its most rapid growth and development. No less sagacious as a business man than capable and honest as a public official, these investments were judiciously made, and the result has been his accumulation of a handsome fortune.
His sound judgment, strict integrity, correct and systematic methods of doing business have seemed always to commend him to the people of Milwaukee, and the demands for his services in public and official capacities have been numerous. In 1863 he was made tax commissioner of the city and inaugurated the system of adjusting city taxation, which has since been in vogue. In 1869 he was again called upon to fill this im- portant position, holding the office in all six years. In 1869 he was elected to the city council from the Seventh ward, and notwithstanding the fact that he belonged to the minority party, was sent to the state House of Representatives from the same ward in 1871.
During his term of service in the legislature, the act under which the present water works sys- tem was constructed, was passed, and it was largely through his efforts that this important legislation was secured. When the water com- mission created by legislative enactment was organized, Mr. Keenan was made secretary of the commission and superintendent of water works, and gave to the work of construction the closest attention and supervision until the plant was com- pleted and in successful operation. With the water works system completed, he felt that he had discharged his duty in this connection, and resigned the secretaryship of the commission, to become conspicuously identified with the North- western Mutual Life Insurance Company of which he had been elected a trustee in 1871.
Becoming superintendent of agencies of this Insurance Company in 1874, he continued to serve this eminently successful corporation in that capacity, until placed at the head of its real estate
department. Becoming vice-president of the con- pany in 1876, his connection with it as a leading official and head of one of the most important departments of the business, continned until 1894, when he retired from active participation in the management to enjoy the rest to which his age and comfortable fortune entitles him. His con- nection with the Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company covered in all a period of twenty years, and within that time it has become one of the leading insurance companies of the United States. That its success has been largely due to his sagacity, sound judgment, and splendid executive ability, is the testimony of his associates and those who have been most familiar with the affairs of the corporation.
In addition to the positions of trust and respon- sibility filled by Mr. Keenan, of which mention has already been made, he was vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1869-70, and was sent from Milwaukee as a delegate to the National Board of Trade, which met that year in Rich- mond, Virginia. From 1876 to 1879 he served as Regent of the University of Wisconsin, and for many years he has been a trustee of the Milwau- kee Public Library, and is president of the board. He was also a trustee of the Young Men's Lib- rary Association, an organization which laid the foundation of the public library. Honest, capable, enterprising and public-spirited, Milwaukee has had few more useful citizens than Matthew Keenan. Courteous, kindly and generous, Mil- waukee has had few more popular citizens. A Democrat in politics and a Catholic in his church affiliations, he has been liberal, broad minded, and progressive, and always loyal to the interests of the city and state with the history of which he has been so long and so conspicuously identified.
GUSTAVE HERMAN SHAPE was born in Zeitz in the Province of Saxony, Prussia, April 15, 1835, son of William and Katherine (Wilhelmy) Shape. His grandfather was a physician by pro- fession, and in early life George H. Shape fondly hoped that he would be able to adopt that profes- sion. The limited means of his parents, however, prevented them from giving him an education which would qualify him for professional life, al- though he was graduated from one of the schools of his native town.
Leaving school at fourteen years of age, he be- came a grocer's clerk, and was employed in that
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capacity for one year. He then expressed a de- linguist. He was also a great lover of music, and, although not a master of any instrument, was theoretically a fine musician. He was prominent in fraternal cireles as a member of the order of Free Masons, and also of the order of Odd Fel- lows. Politically he was a Republican. sire to learn the art of engraving on steel, and served a three years' apprenticeship at that busi- ness. At the end of his apprenticeship he was sent by his parents to this country, and reached New York in the spring of 1853. There he found employment with a steel engraver at the nominal He married in 1860 Miss Gertrude Lauben- heimer, who survives her husband with a family of nine children. salary of six dollars per week to begin with, re- maining in this employ three years. Having at that time saved something from his earnings he de- CHRISTIAN PREUSSER is one of the men cided to come West, and made his way to Milwau- , still actively engaged in business who have been
kee, where he remained one year. From Milwaukee he went to West Bend, Wisconsin, and from there to Richfield, where he learned telegraphy. Having become a capable telegraph operator, he songht to obtain a position as such, but was compelled to wait several months before finding one.
In 1858 Mr. Shape became station agent at Iron Ridge, Wisconsin, at a salary of fifty dollars per month, and for ten years thereafter he was con- nected with the telegraph service. He was in the employ of the Northwestern Telegraph Company in Milwaukee until 1862, then went to La Crosse, Wisconsin, and from September of 1864 to Janu- ary of 1865 was in the employ of the govern- ment, as a telegraph operator, at Nashville, Tennessee. In 1868 he changed his occupation and became book-keeper and salesman in a whole- sale grocery house in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He continued in this employ until 1871, when he re- moved to Milwaukee and entered the employ of the Philip Best Brewing Company as book- keeper and correspondent. With this firm he re- mained until January of 1877, when, in company with Mr. Christian Voechting, he opened a beer- bottling establishment under the firm name of Voechting & Shape. The enterprise was a suc- cessful one, and in this and other enterprises of his later life, Mr. Shape accumulated a comfortable fortune.
In 1885, being in need of rest and recreation, he decided to make a trip to Europe, and believing the climate of Switzerland would be the most ben- eficial to him he went to Zurich, at which place he died November 7, 1886.
Naturally a man of studious habits, Mr. Shape read much and was especially interested in the study of languages, becoming thoroughly familiar with the English, German, French, Latin and Spanish, and noted locally as an accomplished
longest identified with the trade and commerce of Milwaukee. An even half century has passed away since he came to the little town on the west- ern shore of Lake Michigan, to which a limited number of his countrymen had preceded him, and which was just beginning to be looked upon as a place likely to develop into a city of some conse- qnence. He was impressed with the beauty of the location, its advantages as a trade center and the resources of its tributary country, and through all the years which have passed away since he be- came part of this community, he has evinced his faith in its future, and missed no opportunity to contribute to its advancement and development.
Mr. Preusser was born in Idstein, Dukedom of Nassau, Germany, in 1826. After graduating from school he learned the trade of watchmaker and jeweler. He came to America in July, 1844, and to Milwaukee in October of the same year, and at once became interested in the jewelry business, opening a store on the site now occupied by the Kirby House. Starting with a small stock and little encouragement in so poor a community as Milwaukee was then, the growth of the house was at first slow, but under the careful management of Mr. Preusser the business in- creased and prospered. In 1855 he erected the brick building at the corner of East Water and Mason streets which he now occupies, taking in his brother Gustav as partner. Since that time the growth of the business has been constant and rapid, until to day the C. Preusser Jewelry Com- pany has the largest wholesale and retail jewelry business in the state of Wisconsin and this es- tablishment is one of the largest of its kind in the West.
In the pioneer period of the city's history Mr. Preusser was a member of the Milwaukee volun- teer fire department, in company with such men as E. P. Allis, William Allen, Gen. Rufus King,
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John Nazro and S. S. Daggett, the last named gentleman being at that time chief of the fire department and the first president of the North- western Life Insurance Company. Mr. Preusser was treasurer of the department, which position he retained until a paid fire department was or- ganized, when he was appointed one of the trus- tees to distribute the funds of the volunteer fire department. He was one of the founders and for over twenty years president of the Natural His- tory Society of Wisconsin, an institution which became widely known and contributed largely to the advancement of science in this por- tion of the Northwest. When its collections were presented to the city of Milwaukee in 1882, he was appointed one of the trustees of the Public Museum and was most active in procuring the col- lection of Prof. H. A. Ward of Rochester, New York, acquired for the Milwaukee museum by purchase. Mr. Preusser was also treasurer of the German-English Academy from the time of its founding until 1886, and of the National German- American Teachers' Seminary until the same year when sickness compelled him to resign these posi. tions.
He became the president of the Milwaukee Mechanics' Insurance Company in 1854, which position he has held for the past forty years. Under his management this institution has devel- oped into a great corporation, with two millions of dollars in assets, a cash surplus of over one mil- lion and a reputation for solidity which is not ex- celled by that of any corporation of its kind in the West. He was also for many years one of the principal stockholders in, and managers of the Cream City Street Railway Company, which developed one of the important hines merged into the present street railway system.
Married in 1851 to Miss Louise Hermann, of Dietz, Dukedom of Nassua, Germany, Mr. Preus- ser has had four children, two of whom are living. His daughter is Mrs. Dr. Schneider, the wife of the eminent oculist, of whom Milwaukee is justly proud. His son is in business with him, being treasurer of the C. Preusser Jewelry Company.
Few, if any, of the earlier settlers of Milwaukee have met with greater success than Mr. Preusser. From a small beginning there has been, in this case, steady and uninterrupted progression in all the enterprises, public and private, with which he has been identified. Each year of energetic effort
has brought its legitimate reward and his labors have earned him the wealth and prosperity to which he is so justly entitled.
He is an industrious, energetic man, of power- ful will, richly endowed with that mental quality -more to be desired than genius-common sense. Attachment and liberality to the cause of educa- tion has marked the whole course of his life. He is possessed of fine culture and refined tastes, which he displays in his home and its surround- ings. As an acquaintance Mr. Preusser is genial and kindly, possessed of a singular grace and modesty of bearing. As a friend, steel is not more true. He has always been active in ad vanc- ing the best interests of humanity and of the com- munity with which he cast his lot so long ago. Without departure from truth, it may be said of him that "the silvery radiance cast athwart his locks by the sunset of life " is not dimmed by a single charge of wrong to his fellowmen.
FRANCIS G. TIBBITS was born in Whites- borough, near Utica, New York, October 28. 1819, to Freedom and Sophronia (Gniteau) Tibbits. His grandfather, Joseph Tıbbits, was a native of Newport, Rhode Island, who settled in Vermont, and thence removed to Whitesborough, near the beginning of the nineteenth century. His father, Freedom Tibbits, participated in the battle of Sackett's Harbor, lived to a good old age and died at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1863. His mother was a daughter of Dr. Francis Guiteau, a Huguenot refugee, who settled at Whitesborongh, New York, and died there.
Francis' mother died in 1821 when he was but three years old, and he was placed in the care of his Grandfather Tibbits who reared him. His rudimentary education was acquired in the common schools, and later he attended the local academy and Oneida Institute, and also a school at New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he gave special attention to the study of civil engineering. When he was fifteen years old, he went to sea and spent two years on board the United States frigate " Delaware," but upon his return resumed his engineering studies at New Brunswick, and completed his course.
In 1837, at the age of nineteen, he was engaged in the survey of the Northern Railroad, running from Ogdensburg to Lake Champlain. He was afterward employed under Capt. Canfield on a United States topographical survey on Lake On-
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tario, and also rendered services at Sackett s Harbor and Oswego. From 1840 to 1842 he was engaged in the survey of the New York & Erie Railroad, and then spent some two years on surveys in the Indian Territory.
Mr. Tibbits settled in Milwaukee in 1844, and for a short time traded in lumber and other com- modities, after which he formed a partnership with Governor L. J. Farwell. engaging in the hardware and stove trade, which they continued five years. In 1849 he invested in some property at Madison, Wisconsin, and one year later re- moved thither, where for many years he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He next went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1868, and engaged in the wholesale trade in farm implements and machinery. After six years of successful opera- tions in this field he spent one year in Europe, settling affairs pertaining to the estate of Ex-Gov- ernor Sprague of Rhode Island, and upon his return in 1875, he sold his machinery business, which extended all over the West, and even to California, and removed to Chicago, where he acquired and still retains property and business interests. He returned to Milwaukee in 1880, and since then has employed his time in caring for his property.
Ile has a commendable pride in all that per- tains to the welfare and development of Milwau- kee, and has contributed not a little to her pros- perity and growth. He was one of the directors of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, and was an active participant in its construction. lle was one of the first members of the Milwaukee Historical Society, and while a resident of Madi- son took an active part in the affairs of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
Ile has never been a candidate for political honors and has never held an office, but is a Demo- crat in political affiliations. In religious faith he is an Episcopalian, and was one of the first com- municants of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church of Milwaukee, deeply interested in all that concerned its welfare, bearing always cheer- fully and gladly hus full share of its burdens, rejoicing in its prosperity and in the success and advancement in every right way of its member- ship.
In 1880 Mr. Tibbits married Mrs. Eliza Martin, the widow of Mr. James B. Martin, who died in 1878. They had known each other since their
youth and their married life was a happy one. Mrs. Tibbits was a woman of decided ability, ex- emplary character, rare accomplishments, and was admired by all who had the pleasure of her ac- quaintance. She departed this life February 6. 1893, and was buried in Forest Home Ceme- tery.
WILLIAM STEINMEYER, who served with distinction as an officer in the War of the Rebel- lion, and in later years was a most successful Milwaukee merchant, was born in Dortmund, Germany, May 13, 1841, and died in Milwaukee, May 10, 1892. He came to America when six years of age, in 1847, with his parents, who set- tled in Milwaukee soon after their arrival in this country. His father was Ernest Steinmeyer, well known to the older residents of the city. He was educated in Engelmann's German-English Acade- my and upon leaving school found employ ment first in the dry goods store of Mack Brothers. After a time he left the store to learn the gunsmith's trade, and had just finished serving his appren- ticeship when the War of the Rebellion began. His devotion to the institutions of his adopted country found prompt expression in his enlistment as a private soldier in the Twenty-sixth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and he continued in the service until the close of the war. As a soldier in the historic struggle which cemented the bonds of union between the states, and inaug- nrated a new era of national development and prosperity, his gallant and meritorious services earned for him the rank of captain. His regiment was mustered into the service in September of 1862. and upon leaving the state, proceeded by way of Washington to Fairfax Court House Vir- ginia, where it was assigned to the Second Brigade of the Third Division of the Eleventh Army Corps, Army of the Potomac. the division being then under command of Gen. Franz Sigel.
While serving in the Army of the Potomac he participated in the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and other important engagements. After the battle of Chicamauga the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin was transferred to the West, and Captain Steinmeyer was a participant in the siege of At- lanta and in Sherman's march to the sea. He was wounded at Gettysburg, and again at the battle of Peach Tree Creek where his regiment suffered severely and achieved distinction for its gallantry
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in one of the most hotly contested engagements of the war.
Mustered out of the service in 1865, Captain Steinmeyer returned at once to Milwaukee to be- come distinguished in the grand army of patriots, who at the close of the war returned to civil par- suits to become the very flower of American chiv- alry and manhood. Forming a partnership with John C. Bauer, under the firm name of Bauer & Steinmeyer, he engaged in the grocery business on Chestnut street in a small frame building, in a room fifteen by twenty-five feet in its dimensions. The business like the room was a small one in the beginning, and justified the employment of but one clerk. The personal popularity of the pro- prietors, however, and their correct business methods soon brought to them a fair share of trade and its growth was fully proportionate to the growth and development of the city. In 1877 a new two-story brick building, twenty-five by one hundred feet in size, took the place of the old frame structure in which the business had pre- viously been carried on, and in 1879 Mr. Stein- meyer purchased his partner's interest and con- tinued the business alone, giving it his personal attention and supervision until within a few years of his death. That he had a rare genius for mer- chandising was evidenced by the measure of his success. A constantly expanding trade and a handsome fortune were the rewards of his efforts, and the splendid business which he established -- now grown to large proportions-has been carried on since his death under the same name, and under direction of surviving members of his family. His successor in its conduct and management is Mr. Emil Ott, his son-in-law, who was associated with him for eighteen years, and for six years prior to his death had entire charge of the busi- ness. The present establishment is one of the most notable of its kind in the Northwest and now occupies a splendid five-story brick building at Nos 316, 318 and 320 Third street, in con- nection with which more than one hundred per- sons are now employed.
In 1866 Capt. Steinmeyer married Miss Mar- garethe Maschauer of Milwaukee, a native of Bohemia, who came to this city with her parents when she was four years of age. He was de- voted to his home, and was as greatly beloved by members of the family circle, as he was re- spected and esteemed in business and social
circles. In everything calculated to promote the growth and upbuilding of Milwaukee, he was actively interested, and his generosity and chari- table deeds made him a host of friends.
His old comrades in arms were warmly at- tached to him, and he never failed to respond to any calls for relief or assistance which came to him from indigent veterans or from the families of those who had been among the loyal defenders of the Union. Twice he served as Commander of Robert Chivas Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and the members of that organization and also of the Loyal Legion, of which he was a member, were among the most sincere mourners, following his remains to their last resting place.
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