USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 87
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a branch of his business having been established many years since in London where Mr. Horton put himself in close touch with the financiers and stock operators of the English metropolis through his honorable dealings and diplomatic methods.
Not long after he established himself in busi- ness in the East, he fixed upon New Brighton as a place of residence and became largely interested in the development of Staten Island. He was one of the pioneers among those who set on foot movements to facilitate and expedite its improve- ment and the development of its various resources. He was especially active in promoting the enter- prise designed to secure an adequate and satisfac- tory water supply for the Island and also in inaug- urating and aiding the rapid transit enterprises which have contributed so vastly to the increase of its population and its general upbuilding and prosperity. Every progressive movement in Richmond county has had his enthusiastic en- couragement and support, and he is justly regarded as one of the benefactors of a community which has profited largely through his sagacity, gene- rosity and enterprise.
A courteous, affable, and genial gentleman, a charming entertainer and most companionable man, he is at the same time a plain spoken, straightforward business man, whose firmness, decision and executive abitity are distinguishing characteristics and who, in New York, as in Mil- waukee years ago, is regarded as a typical man of affairs. He now resides at 144 West Fifty- seventh street, New York, where he is always pleased to see his old friends.
PETER ENGELMANN .-- Among the high- minded and gifted men whose indentification with the German Revolutionary movement near the middle of the century forced them to seek safety in voluntary exile, not one is remembered by Milwaukeeans with profounder respect and warmer love than Peter Engelmann. Milwaukee owes to his honored memory a debt which nothing but gratitude can repay. Other men in many ways contributed to the material development of the city. He ministered grandly to its intellec- tnal development. Others built industries, and railroads, and laid the broad foundations of wealth and commercial prosperity. He was a builder of character, and wore away the best years of an active life in the financially unremunerative
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occupation of a teacher. Milwaukee has had many noble men and women in the ranks of her instructors of youth, but no one who studies with- out prejudice the history of education in this city will fail to recognize that the most conspicuous place among them all belongs to Peter Engel- mann.
He was born in 1823, at Pfallzer, in Prussia. His parents sent him to the University of Heidel- berg, where he had a brilliantly successful student career, achieving especial distinction in the field of natural science. For several years he was a teacher. Then for a time he was the editor of an influential Revolutionary newspaper. When, after the crushing of the effort to found a Ger- man republic, he made his way to this country, his first place of residence was in Michigan, where he married an American lady, whose sympathetic companionship was an inspiration and a comfort to a life that was in many respects ideal. In 1851 he came to Milwaukee, accepting the post of principal of the German and English Academy, incorporated in May of that year, and in this position he labored earnestly and unselfishly till his death, on May 18, 1874. From small begin- nings, the institution grew under his direction to be one of the most thorough and efficient instru- ments of education in the Northwest. To set forth in detail the history of his school during the twenty-three years of his unremitting and devoted labor in its behalf, would be to digress beyond the scope of a sketch whose object is merely bio- graphical. It is enough to declare that thoroughly was the individuality of the master impressed upon his school, and strong was the bond which he established between himself and his pupils and that it is hardly a flight of rhetoric to say he revi- ved in Milwaukee the traditions of ancient Greece, when teaching was a profession chosen by the "highest-mounted minds" of that age. He in- stilled by precept and example the love of nature, and cultivated in his pupils the habit of indepen- dent investigation. Cabinets of valuable speci- mens illustrating the geology, the flora and the fauna of Wisconsin, which were collected in the course of years by the children under his charge, formed the nucleus of what is now the Public Museum of Milwaukee. He was one of the mov- ing spirits in the organization of the Wisconsin Nat- ural History Society. In religion he was a cour- ageous freethinker. Throughout his Milwaukee
career he was a contributor to the scientific and liberal press. Shortly before his death he enjoyed a trip to Germany, and entertained a half-formed purpose of resuming his residence in that coun- try; but he returned to Milwaukee, and died in the service of his beloved academy.
Many are the men of force in the community who are proud to trace to instruction received from Peter Engelmann the birth of their intel- lectual life. His name will be venerated till the last of the generation which knew him has passed away, and the good influences that he set in motion will continue far into the future among the important factors tending to make Milwaukee a seat of culture.
JAMES DOUGLAS breathed his last on the 31st of August, 1894, and Milwaukee then lost a citizen who had, in an unostentatious way, done much for her development from a small town to a great and prosperous city. He had a vigorous Scotch mind and frame, and a combination of ideality and practicality which rarely co-exist, but which united in one individual constitute genius. Self-educated, he possessed a breadth of culture seldom obtained at colleges and universi- ties. He succeeded in everything he undertook.
James Douglas was born in the town of Wick, County of Caithness, Scotland, July 23, 1823. He was the son of James Alexander and Annabella Mckenzie Douglas. The former was a Low- lander, reared in the school of agriculture, who became manager of the estate of Lord Dufferin. The latter was of Highland birth and related to the Duchess of Sutherland. She passed her maiden days at Dunrobin Castle.
Young Douglas received his education from the public schools, supplemented by a free use of books. He was a natural lover of reading, and at the age of twenty had pored over the works of the leading British authors of poetry and prose, and could repeat from memory long passages from their productions without the slightest hesitation. Like his father, he was brought up to Adam's profession. In 1840 his parents immigrated to Gananoquie, near Kingston, Canada, and located upon a farm on the bank of the St. Lawrence river, opposite the Thousand Islands. His first employment in America was assisting to unload a ship laden with wheat, for which he received a severe reprimand from his aristocratic father, who pronounced the task beneath his station. While
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on the Canadian farm, he rented Goblin Cave, which he fitted up as a bachelor's retreat, and here he was absorbed in his books when free from his duties as assistant to his father.
ization of his guild chose him to its chief office, and he was elected to the presidency of the.West- ern branch of the American Institute of Archi- tects. In his later years, while continuing the practice of architecture, he entered largely into the development of real estate enterprises, at first as the trusted agent of the Milwaukee Savings and Investment Association, and afterward on his individual account. Of the organization named he was one of the founders, and he was its treas- urer at the time of his death. To his shrewd and honorable management was chiefly due its extra- ordinary success. Dealing in land, as he prac- ticed it, was not a speculation, but a science. He had a quick perception of all the elements of land valuation, seeing at a glance the possibilities of improvement, and knowing by unerring instinct exactly when to buy and when to sell.
Mr. Douglas came to Milwaukee in 1843. He at once set up in business as a carpenter, and in that capacity took part in the construction of the first bridge across the Milwaukee river at the foot of East Water street. Later he built the bridge across the river at Kinnickinnic avenue. When scarcely out of his teens he had become a master builder. As such he directed the forces which constructed the woodwork of the old city hall, the first St. Gall's Church, Holy Trinity, St. John's Cathedral, and other notable buildings of Milwaukee's early days. In 1847, with his younger brother, Alexander, he founded the firm of J. & A. Douglas, architects and builders, which for a period of sixteen years did a large and lucra- Not a society man in the ordiary acceptation of the term, his nature was genial and social. He was a member of St. Andrew's Society and of other social and semi-social organizations; but the center of his social activity was his home. Mr. Douglas was twice married. His first wife, Miss Chloe Hutchinson, whom he married in 1843, presented him with seven children, all of whom died young, except one son, named for his father, who, when the war broke out, became a member of the First Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and gave his life to the cause of the Union. On December 22, 1857, Mr. Douglas married Miss Mary J. Douglas, of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. She was a native of Victory, Cayuga county, New York, where she was born October 18, 1838, her parents being John J. and Sally (Pelton) Douglas, highly respected residents of the Empire state. She was a woman of education and refinement, gentle but firm in character and lovable in disposition. She died April 25, 1891. The fruit of this union was six children, all but the eldest of whom survive their parents. The daughters are Mrs. Frank H. Thompson, of Mil- waukee, and Mrs. George R. Collins, of Asheville, North Carolina. Earl J. Douglas continues his Douglas looks after the real estate interests. Irving R., the youngest son, is still at his studies. tive business. In the nine years following, that is, from 1863 to 1872, he held a position with the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, which at the beginning of his connection with it was a small concern with the title of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of the State of Wiscon- sin. His keen judgment of property values was of great service to the corporation in the placing of loans on real estate and the investment of sur- plus funds, and was a factor in the development of that enterprise into one of the vastest and most flourishing organizations in its line in the United States. But his love for architecture led him to sever his connection with the company and re- establish himself as an architect in 1872, and to continue in the practice of his favorite profession until the time of his death. With such accept- ance did he develop original ideas of building, that he became recognized as the founder of a dis- tinct architectural style. A residence district in Milwaukee in which many houses were built after his designs became popularly known as "Douglasville." His plans gained a vogue that extended as far south as Florida and as far west as California. Throwing aside traditions unfitted to the construction with American materials, of . father's architectural business, while R. Bruce buildings suited to American needs, he devised new combinations, and constructed houses which, while pleasing to the eye were also models of utility. Politically Mr. Douglas early allied himself with the anti-slavery party. He was an ardent friend of the bondman, and freely contributed of his means to aid the cause of emancipation. Later Members of his profession united with the public in appreciation of his contributions to the devel- opment of the first of the arts. The local organ-
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he became a member of the Republican party. In religion he was a devout believer in the efficacy of deeds rather than of professions of faith. His worship was to do good. His heart was as tender as a child's. No one who knew him will ever forget him, or ever recall him without feeling that such lives as his are proof that there is a sense in which man was not born to die.
ROBERT CLOSSON SPENCER was born in the village of East Ashtabula, Ashtabula county Ohio, January 22, 1829, eldest of the eleven children of Persis Warren Duty and Platt R. Spencer author of Spencerian Penmanship, de- scendant of John Spenser, of Rhode Island Col- ony through Theodosia, daughter of Theophilus Whaley and Captain Robert Spenser, Abigail and Michael Spenser, Jerusha Covill, and Caleb Spen- ser soldier of the Revolution.
His first American ancestor, Jolin Spenser, set- tled at Newport, Rhode Island, about 1661. He was the first named of the founders of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, who received a grant of five thousand acres of land, 1678. Supposed to be identical with young John Spenser of New- bury, Massachusetts, 1637, to 1652, who sold his fine estate there and returned to England, 1652 ; went with expedition to capture Hayti and Jamai- ca, 1655. It is conjectured that his reported death in Jamaica was erroneous and that he went from there to Nova Scotia, and thence to New- port, Rhode Island, where he settled near his old friend and former guardian, Nicholas Easton, and his sons. He had nine children, one daugh- ter and eight sons, and his blood flows in the veins of a large part of the population of Kent county, Rhode Island, and is widely diffused among those having Spenser blood, who trace their lineage to Rhode Island.
Caleb, the grandfather of Robert, removed from Rhode Island to Connecticut, thence to the mountains in East Fishkill, Dutchess county, New York, thence to Windom in the Catskill Mount- ains, Green county, New York, where he, died in 1806. The widow removed with her family to Jefferson, Ashtabula county, Ohio. preceded by . her elder sons.
Robert, the subject of this sketch, removed with his parents in early childhood from Ashtabula to Geneva, in the same county, to a log hut in the wilderness where his father, with his devoted wife, took refuge to escape temptation to drink and
where in 1852 he became a total abstainer, advo- cated total abstinence, and believed that he was the first in this country to take that ground in a public address, as the only safe principle.
Robert grew to manhood on the farm, which he helped to clear of dense forests, and to culti- vate. He received a common school and academic education, and graduated from Gundry's Mercan- tile College, Cincinnati, in 1851. After teaching a short time in Gundry's College, he was associ- ated in 1851 and a part of the year 1852 with Victor M. Rice at Buffalo, New York, in a com- mercial school; was at Pittsburg, 1852, in Spen- cerian Commercial College with his father; was superintendent of penmanship in the public schools of Buffalo, New York, 1852-53. Under the firm name of Bryant, Spencer, Lusk & Stratton, from 1852 to 1854, he was interested in establishing the chain of commercial colleges, the first of which was founded at Cleveland, and the second at Buf- falo. In 1856 he went to Chicago to take charge of the college there. In 1859 he took charge of the college in St. Louis, which suffered severely from Southern prejudices. In May, 1861, he en- listed in the Third Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry, United States Reserve Corps, Col. John McNeal, Company K, Captain Rowley ; was on detached service as chief clerk at headquarters under Gen. Thomas W. Sweeney and as acting quartermaster. At the end of his term of enlist- ment for three months, he returnedto St. Louis and took charge of the college. Most of the students were Southern sympathizers, and displayed the Confederate flag above their desks. These Mr. Spencer gathered up and burned, announcing that the school would be conducted under the stars and stripes ; whercupon Prof. Charles Stuart of the faculty, with most of the students, withdrew from the institution. The Merchants' Union Exchange, a loyal body, heard of this action by Mr. Spencer, and took active interest in behalf of the college which soon began to prosper.
On account of impaired health, occasioned by the climate, Mr. Spencer returned to Chicago, where he taught in the commercial college estab- lished in that city. In May, 1863, he came to Milwaukee, and September 1st of that year, under the name of Bryant, Stratton & Spencer, he opened the institution which since 1865 has been known as the Spencerian Business College. Since the opening of this college in 1863, Mr. Spencer
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has devoted to it his best energies. The enroll- ment of students during the thirty years has been about eleven thousand, who now constitute a large and influential body of business men and women.
In 1865 he led a reform movement against his partners, Bryant and Stratton, to correct abuses in opening and conducting business colleges in fields already occupied, and in the employment of incompetent and unfit men to conduct such schools in the chain of commercial colleges, which then extended to some forty cities of the United States and Canada, linked together by partner- ships with Bryant and Stratton. The death of Mr. Stratton, which occurred in 1867, and this reform movement led to a dissolution of the part- nership connections in the chain of colleges, when they became local in their management.
Upon the separation of Mr. Spencer and others from Bryant and Stratton, a voluntary associa- tion, known as the National Union of Business Colleges, was formed through Mr. Spencer's efforts, which, after the dissolution of the Bryant- Stratton partnership chain, was merged with the Bryant-Stratton colleges into the International Business College Association. The business col- lege reform movement, led by Mr. Spencer, was prosecuted with the vigor and ability which have characterized all his efforts, and had a potent effect in elevating the character of commercial colleges.
Mr. Spencer was several years secretary of the International Business College Association, and later its president, presiding at the meeting held in Cincinnati, 1873. A committee, to whom his address as president was referred, consisting of S. S. Packard, New York; George Soule, of New Orleans, and E. G. Folsom, reported at length, the introductory part of the report being as fol- lows: "The broad and generous scope given there- in to our specialty of instruction, is in keeping with the best aspirations of the best men in our profession, and with the demands of the times, and we highly commend its whole spirit and tenor as an indication of progress in thought and action, and of a comprehensive view of the possi- bilities which are before us." Following the Cincinnati meeting in 1873, at which Mr. Spencer presided, there was a period of business depression which so affected business colleges that the annual meetings of the association were omitted. On the revival of business a new organization was formed,
which became the nucleus of the Business Edu- cators' Association of America, and absorbed the International Association of Business Colleges. At the meeting of the association, held at the Palmer House, Chicago, July, 1880, Mr. Spencer was unanimously elected president of the associ- ation, and presided at the next meeting, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, at which the venerable R. N. Bartlett, who founded the first business college, was present.
In the organization of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1892-3 in the educational depart- ment Mr. Spencer was appointed by President C. C. Bonney to succeed Mr. H. B. Bryant, deceased, as chairman of the Committee on a Congress of Business and Commercial Colleges. Hon. Wm. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Educa- tion, appointed Mr. Spencer on the Executive Board of the International Educational Congress to represent Business Education. The Business and Commercial College Congress was held as a part of the International Educational Congress in the Art Palace on the lake front, Chicago, July 18-22 inclusive. Arrangements for this most im- portant gathering of business educators were suc- cessfully carried out under Mr. Spencer's direc- tion. This occasion was the first in the history of business colleges in which their work has received the high recognition to which it is entitled as an essential part of human education and training. Notable addresses were delivered by disting- uished persons not members of the profession, among whom were Dr. C. C. Bonney, president of the World's Congress; Hon. A. G. Lane, president of the National Educational Association; Dr. James MacAlister, president Drexel Institute, Philadel- phia, and Lyman J. Gage, president of the First National Bank of Chicago. Mr. Gage said: "I would not be here at all, except out of a sense of gratitude to the institutions which this Congress represents. My old friend and instructor, Mr. Spencer, tried to impress upon my mind-he did impress upon my mind-a sense of obligation, that I have always carried with more or less distinct- ness toward the form of education which you participate in and endeavor to promote. I am under these obligations because at an early age, thirty-seven years ago, I came to Chicago, a young man with only the results of an ordinary educa- tion in the common school, and undertook to en-
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gage in affairs of commerce, but soon discovered my deficiency. I looked about and in the Com- mercial College of Bryant & Stratton, I think it then was, I found the opportunity where out of busi- ness hours I could go and get the kind of techni- cal knowledge in which I was deficient. It was, however. inadequate, because my time was alto- gether too short ; but I learned enough there and then to be the foundation for all the education in all the technicalities of business life which I have been called upon to learn since."
Under date of August 22, 1866, Mr. Spencer ad- dressed to Hon. Edward Salomon, president of the Board of Regents of the University of Wis- consin, a letter suggesting a commercial depart- ment of that institution to be located at Milwau- kee, the commercial metropolis of the state, under the patronage of the Chamber of Commerce, Mer- chants' and Bankers' Association. The plan was favored by Hon. John G. McMynn, State Super- intendent of Public Instruction, and by prominent educators and business men. It was, however, so far in advance of the times that no action was taken upon it.
Mr. Spencer's work in the field of business education began in Cincinnati in 1851, and has continued uninterruptedly for a period of forty- three years, and his active usefulness at the head of the Spencerian Business College and as a leading and representative business educator, promises to continue many years. He is one of the few in his profession who have taken high and strong ground in favor of a thorough, general education as a foundation for business education, holding that business men who have enjoyed the benefits of liberal educational advantages are not only more able and efficient as merchants, bankers, finan- ciers, manufacturers and in business pursuits, but they thereby secure to themselves and to the community the benefits of a higher and broader intellectual life, and become more valuable mem- bers of the community because more appreciative of, and hence more strongly in sympathy with whatever relates to human improvement and social progress. He has, therefore, not only con- ducted his own school in accordance with this view, steadily aiming to raise the standard of educa- tional qualifications for admission, but has brought his influence to bear upon the profession at large in this direction. Holding to these views it is but natural that he should deeply interest himself
in all other departments of education, and that he should be more especially a warm friend and strong advocate of the claims of the public school system. He has been a member of the Milwaukee School Board several terms, covering a period of six years, representing the First ward in that body, during which time he was active and influential in organizing and promoting measures for the im- provement of the public schools. He has long been the intimate personal friend of Dr. James MacAlister, who, after several years' service as superintendent of the Milwaukee public schools, resigned the position to accept the superinten- dency of Philadelphia schools. On the retire- ment of Dr. MacAlister from the public schools of Milwaukee to enter upon his duties as superin- tendent of the public schools of Philadelphia, Mr. Spencer delivered an address before the School Board reviewing Dr. MacAlister's distinguished services to the educational interests of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and predicting for him eminent successes in his new and enlarged field, which pre- diction has been fully realized. On the retirement of Dr. Mac Alister from the superintendency of the public schools of Philadelphia to accept the presi- dency of Drexel Institute, a banquet was tendered to him by leading citizens at the Art Club, which was largely attended by the representative men and women of the Quaker City and from other portions of the country. On this occasion Mr. Spencer responded for Milwaukee, repeating his address on the retirement of Superintendent Mac- Alister from the superintendency of the Milwau- kee schools, with the prediction which it con- tained as to his future achievements in advancing the educational interests of Philadelphia and the country at large. As president of the First Ward Public School Association, which he was instru- mental in organizing on a broad basis, among other measures of a progressive character, Mr. Spencer presented plans for public school parks to constitute an essential part of the means of in- struction and training by object lessons in natural science, manual training and industrial arts.
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