USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. I > Part 57
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This blow but aroused Mr. Pereles to redoubled energy and he con- tinued the study of law with a definite and a serious purpose. For about a year he was in the office of George W. Chapman, being ad- mitted to practice on September 11, 1857. Soon afterward the firm of Austin (afterward Judge R. N.) & Pereles was formed, which continued for nine years, when D. H. Johnson (now judge of the circuit court) was received into the partnership. The firm thus formed, Austin, Pereles & Johnson, was not dissolved until December, 1868. Failing eyesight, on the part of Mr. Pereles, caused by intense and unremitting toil, made this step necessary. Personal care and medical treatment, however, averted the threatened calamity of blindness, and in 1874, Mr. Pereles resumed business, taking James M., his son, into partner- ship. Two years thereafter Thomas J. Pereles, another son, who had recently been admitted to the bar, joined the firm, which then became known as Nath. Pereles & Sons.
Mr. Pereles' life experience and educational training, as well as his inclinations, peculiarly fitted him for the practice of probate, real estate and commercial law. He therefore refused all criminal cases, and it is doubtful if there has ever been a practitioner in the state who so thor- oughly understood his specialty as he. Added to his remarkable knowl- edge were his absolute. probity and reliability; so that whether he was managing large estates, or the small money matters of poor citizens, lie possessed the complete confidence of his clients. What more can be said of a man than that those with whom he dealt had pure faith in both his ability and his honesty?
For many years he was prominently identified with such institutions as the Bank of Commerce and the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance company. He was a Master Mason, member of the oldest Milwaukee lodge, and at the time of his death was one of the three surviving charter members of the oldest German Odd Fellows lodge in Wisconsin: Teu- tonia, No. 57, of Milwaukee.
Mr. Pereles' wife was formerly Miss Fannie Teweles, daughter of a Prague merchant, to whom he became engaged before coming to America. Three sons and one daughter survived them. B. F. Pereles, the eldest, is a retired merchant; James M. and Thomas J. are, as
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stated, members of the law firm; their daughter, Julia E., died five years ago. .
Mrs. Pereles was a helpmate to her husband in the truest sense of the word. not only faithful in every trial, but possessing the ability to render the most efficient assistance. She survived her husband thir- teen years, her death occurring on March 31, 1892.
Mr. Pereles was a man of remarkable strength and vitality and for years accomplished an enormous amount of work.
.A friend, in eulogy of Mr. Pereles, said: "Had he been a banker, he would have made a very successful one. He was very benevolent, of which trait the world knew little. His industry was something won- derful. He was never idle a moment, his vigorous constitution, coupled with his strictly temperate life, enabling him to perform an amount of labor that few professional men could endure, but which he performed with apparent ease. He was entitled to be ranked among the best citizens, one who by industry, economy and the practice of correct principles raised himself from poverty to affluence, from obscurity to prominence, and who has left a record for honesty, business integrity and usefulness to which his children may point with pride."
Another friend, in eulogizing him, said: "Nathan Pereles was one of God's noblest masterpieces, and at his birth nature stamped him with the seal of greatness, and upon him showered her very best gifts. She gave him great strength of body, and when she created the palace of his mind and furnished it in regal splendor, upon the throne she placed a brain of matchless power: she gave him love as boundless as the sea. loyalty to friends, good health, a cheerful disposition, tireless energy. rugged honesty, and modesty without timidity; she planted in his heart the love of liberty, the hatred of tyranny, of fraud, of sham; she gave him the art of reading human nature, the power to grapple with great problems and to solve them satisfactorily. All these were his. while yet he lay in the cradle. ere he recognized his mother's face, or knew the sound of her voice. It wanted but Time, with his magic wand. to draw them out. and the force of circumstances to bring them into action. With these qualities of head, heart and body, failure in life was impossible, and. superbly equipped as he was, he mounted the ladder
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of success, and on the topmost heights he planted his flag. Success, however, did not make him vain, haughty and overbearing; he did not forget his humble origin, and never was ashamed of it. He had no room in his mind for foolish, parvenu pride, and it never found a lodg- ment in his heart; it was as out of place in his nature as the polar bear is in the tropics, and he was as easy of access to the day laborer as to the millionaire, being courteous to all and servile to none."
His death occurred, not because of disease but as the result of an accident. He was an eager and accomplished horseman, and while taking his usual morning exercise was thrown to the ground. The in- jury developed a tumor which, about a year after the accident, proved fatal, the date of his death being January 28, 1879.
JAMES MADISON PERELES.
James M. Pereles, present senior member of the law firm of Nath. Pereles & Sons, is a native of Milwaukee, having received his prelimi- nary education in the Fourth Ward school and the German and English academy, of the Cream City. At the age of sixteen years, he took a course in the Spencerian Business college. For more than thirty years his father, Nathan Pereles, was one of the most respected and prominent citizens of Milwaukee, both in business and professional circles. While he lived his name stood in the community for absolute sincerity of purpose and honesty of character. He was an ideal father, and the retention of the firm name. "Nath. Pereles & Sons," after his death is a tribute to his memory, prompted by filial affection. This sentiment is shared by the other members of the firm, though not of his kin, Charles F. Hunter and Guy D. Goff, who believe that it is a synonym of strength, having been the trade mark of the firm since its establish- ment.
James M. Pereles was admitted into his father's law firm July I. 1874, having lately graduated from the law department of the Wisconsin state university, being admitted to the bar on the 18th of the previous month. He has always stood well at the bar: his judgment in all mat- ters connected with probate, commercial, corporation and real estate law being remarkably broad, clear and exact. He is, in fact, a worthy
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successor to his father, both in the professional and the manly sense.
Having passed his life in Milwaukee, and received most of his edu- cation in her institutions, Mr. Pereles has naturally taken a deep and active interest in home education, and, with his brother, T. J. Pereles. is a liberal contributor to aid and keep such children, whose parents are unable of their own means to avail themselves of the benefits of the Milwaukee public schools. He was appointed school commissioner on March 27, 1893, to fill the unexpired term of his predecessor, who re- signed, and on May 2, 1894, was elected president of the Milwaukee board of education. It was during the first year of his service that he inaugurated the campaign to abolish corporal punishment in the public schools. He introduced the resolution looking to that end on July 3. 1893. It was referred to the committee on rules, and recommended for passage, and although Mr. Pereles' object was not completely attained. the subsequent agitation resulted in restricting the punishing power to the principals of the schools. He also served most acceptably as trustee of the public museum and the public library.
Mr. Pereles was elected president of the Milwaukee public library on January 29, 1897, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. George Koeppen, late editor of the "Germania," of Milwaukee, and has been re-elected president and trustee for another term of four years on May 3, 1898.
Mr. Pereles was married on September 6, 1874, to Miss Jennie Weil of Merton. Waukesha county, this state. Their three children died in infancy.
Mr. Pereles is a Mason of high degree, being a member of Indepen- dent Lodge No. 80, Wisconsin Chapter No. 7, Ivanhoe Commandery. K. T., No. 24, Wisconsin Consistory, and is also a member of Tripoli Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.
THOMAS JEFFERSON PERELES.
Thomas J. Pereles, of the firm of Nath. Pereles & Sons, was born in Milwaukee and educated in its district and high schools. Graduating from the law department of the Wisconsin state university in 1876, he was admitted to the bar on June 20th, of that year, and on the first of
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the succeeding month associated himself with his father and brother. James M., to form the partnership of Nath. Pereles & Sons. The found- er and father died in January. 1870. but the old style of the firm is re- tained, and the business which he established is not only held firmly in hand, but has been increased to such an extent that from 1881 to 1896, three additional members were received into the firm, two (Charles F. Hunter and Guy D. Goff) of whom remain. As during the life of Nathan Pereles, the business is virtually confined to the domain of probate, commercial, corporation and real estate law, and in this specialty Thomas J. Pereles is unquestioned authority.
That he has a high reputation for soundness of judgment in com- mercial and financial matters is also evidenced from the fact that though a republican, he has been twice appointed commissioner of the public debt, first on March 14, 1893, by Mayor P. J. Somers, a democrat, and for the second term on April 19. 1896. by Mayor William J. Rauschen- berger, a republican.
Mr. Pereles is companionable, generous and sociable, and has an especial affection for the old Milwaukee high school from which he graduated, many of whose members are living in the Cream City and Chicago. He has been several terms president of the alumni associa- tion, which is among the strongest organizations of the kind in the northwest.
He is a member of the board of directors of the Milwaukee law li- brary.
The Messrs. Pereles are stanch advocates of free education, and liberal contributors in that direction. It was several years before the fact became public who the liberal donors were that supplied children of indigent parents with school books free, which enabled them to at- tend the public schools. Such children would otherwise have been de- prived of the advantage of free education. According to the school board reports, James M. and Thomas J. Pereles have filled the requisi- tion for over two thousand children last year.
Mr. Pereles was married to Miss Nellie Weil, of Merton, Waukesha county, this state, on October 4, 1877. Of their children three are still living-Nath. Pereles, Jr., David Walter and Jeannette.
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Mr. Pereles is a member of Independence lodge No. 80. Calumet Chapter No. 73. Ivanhoe Commandery. K. T., No. 24. Wisconsin Con- sistory and of Tripoli Temple. A. A. O. N. M. S.
LEANDER F. FRISBY.
Leander Franklin Frisby was born June 19, 1825. at Mesopotamia. Trumbull county, Ohio. His parents, Lucius and Lovina Frisby, were both natives of Vermont, but removed to Ohio with their family in 1817 and settled on a farm. During his early years, Leander worked upon his father's farm in the summer and attended the district school in the winter. At the age of eighteen he learned the trade of a wagon-maker. devoting all his leisure hours while learning his trade to reading and study. When he had become sufficiently skilled in his trade to earn wages he commenced a course of study at Farmington academy, a school having considerable local fame at that time. He paid his board and tuition by working at his trade out of school hours. After leaving the academy he taught school one winter in order to obtain money to go west. He took passage from Cleveland on the second of September. 1846. landing at Sheboygan on the fifth and going thence to Fond du Lac. Within two weeks after his arrival he was taken sick with chills and fever which disabled him until far into the winter. When he had sufficiently recovered to be able to work. the schools were all taken and. being in destitute circumstances, rather than apply to friends for aid, he sought any honorable work. He worked in a cooper shop diligently for two months for his board. Learning, in March, 1847. that he could obtain work at his trade in Beaver Dam, he borrowed fifty cents from a friend and started on foot for that place, a distance of thirty-six miles. He paid his borrowed money for supper and lodging, and starting with- out breakfast the next morning, traversed Rolling Prairie through a deep snow which had fallen the night before. the last ten miles over an unbroken road. He worked at his trade in Beaver Dam and Janes- ville during the spring and summer of 1847. With remunerative en- ployment and returning health, the courage and hopefulness with which he was so largely endowed reasserted themselves and the new western country took on a more inviting aspect. The gloom and despondency
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of the weary days of sickness and hardship during the previous fall and winter can only be appreciated by those who have had a similar bitter experience. In after years Mr. Frisby was always ready to lend a help- ing hand to young men starting in life under adverse circumstances.
In the fall of 1847 he resolved to engage in teaching, in order better to pursue his studies. He taught at Prairie Corners, in Walworth county, that winter, and the following year opened an academical school at Burlington. Racine county, which he carried on successfully for two years, in the meantime pursuing the study of law and spending the sum- mer vacations in the law office of Blair & Lord, at Port Washington, where he was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1850.
On the first of October, 1850, he located at West Bend, where he continued to live and practice his profession for thirty-one years. The first three years he taught the village school during the winter, attend- ing to his law business evenings and Saturdays. In the fall of 1853 he was elected the first district attorney of the new county of Washing- ton, of which West Bend was made the county seat, and from that time forth he had a successful and lucrative practice.
In 1854 Mr. Frisby was one of the secretaries of the first republican state convention held in Wisconsin, at Madison. July 13, of that year. In 1856 he was appointed county judge of Washington county to fill an unexpired term. He was a delegate to, and one of the acting secre- taries of the national convention held in Chicago in 1860, which nomi- nated Abraham Lincoln. In the fall of 1860 he was elected to the state legislature in an intensely democratic district; was a member of that body at the breaking out of the civil war and chairman of the judiciary committee at its special session in June, 1861. He was twice nominated for Congress by the republicans of the fourth district. in 1868 and again in 1878, and although defeated both times he polled much the largest vote ever cast for a republican in the district, the last time reducing his opponent's majority to one hundred and thirty-five in a district which usually gave a democratic majority of from five to eleven thousand.
Mr. Frisby was a delegate to the republican national convention which nominated General Grant in 1872; the same year he was chosen president of the Wisconsin state convention of Universalists and was
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re-elected to the same position in 1873. He received the nomination for attorney general on the republican state ticket in 1873, and although he went down with his ticket in the disaster which that year over- whelmed the republican party, he had the satisfaction of receiving over six hundred majority in his home county of Washington, which gave all the democratic candidates except the attorney general about two thousand majority. In 1881 Judge Frisby was again nominated for attorney general on the republican ticket and was elected, running far ahead of his ticket in his own village and county, an evidence which he had received several times before of the esteem in which he was held by those who knew him best. He was re-elected in 1884 and during his first term a constitutional amendment extended the term of all state officers one year, so that he served as attorney-general for five years. In 1881 Judge Frisby opened a law office in Milwaukee and was re- siding in that city at the time of his death, which occurred after a brief illness, April 19, 1889.
Mr. Frisby was tall and commanding in figure, affable and pleasing in address and of an eminently social nature. He was married in 1854 to Frances E. Rooker, of Burlington, Racine county, Wisconsin, who survives him, together with two of their five children, a daughter and a son; three children-two grown daughters and a son eighteen years of age-having died of diphtheria at Madison in 1883.
Mr. Frisby was regarded throughout the state as an able lawyer in all branches of the profession. He was an earnest and successful advo- cate before a jury and had much experience as an equity lawyer. His extraordinary industry in the work of his profession, together with a naturally judicial mind and keen perceptive faculties, placed him in the front rank among the lawyers of his generation in Wisconsin.
ROBERT LUSCOMBE.
Robert Luscombe, one of the best known of the younger members of the Milwaukee bar, was born in Wauwatosa, Milwaukee county. August 7, 1857. He is the youngest of three sons of one of Milwau- kee's pioneer business men, the late Samuel D. Luscombe, who came
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to Milwaukee from Massachusetts in 1843, and was for many years profitably engaged in the lumber trade. The keen practical ability and resolute energy which marked the career of the father are charac- teristic of the son. Educated in the public schools of Milwaukee, young Luscombe read law for two years in the office of Nath. Pereles & Sons; following the death of Nathan Pereles he entered the office of Joshua Stark, where, in a year, he completed his studies and was admitted to the bar in 1880. In 1882 he was elected supervisor from the fourth ward, on the republican ticket, and one year later was the successful candidate of the same party for city attorney. Mr. Lus- combe's professional services to the city of Milwaukee covered a period of six years, two of which was in the capacity of city attorney and four as assistant. In addition to the performance of the duties usually inci- dent to these offices, he was principally charged with the important duty of revising and consolidating the city charter and general ordi- nances. His continuance in the positions named is the best evidence that his duties were well performed. During this period Mr. Lus- combe was necessarily in attendance on the sessions of the legislature and formed a very extensive and favorable acquaintance with public men throughout the state.
On retiring from the service of the city he engaged in the general practice of the law and for two years devoted a large portion of his time in protecting the mining interests of his clients in California. At the conclusion of this service Mr. Luscombe became engaged in look- ing after corporate interests and has given these much of his time ever since. His duties have been onerous and his success large. In the discharge of his duties he has made a very large acquaintance, and among them all there are none who are not his personal friends.
Besides influencing legislation in matters in which he has had a special interest Mr. Luscombe has taken a practical stand in matters looking to the improvement of the public service. He is the author of the law which took the control of the Milwaukee county insane asylum out of the hands of local politicians by authorizing the governor to appoint a majority of the trustees of that institution. As a matter of
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history it may also be stated that he was the author of the bill pro- viding for compulsory education in the English language which be- came known the country over as the "Bennett law." This was pre- pared at the instance of the tenth ward district school association of Milwaukee. In its political effect no act of the legislature of Wisconsin ever wrought a more marked revolution.
In his political views Mr. Luscombe has been in harmony with the republican party and has stoutly and efficiently championed its measures.
JAMES GREELEY FLANDERS.
Mr. Flanders was born in New London, New Hampshire, December 13, 1844. In 1848 he became a resident of Milwaukee and has con- tinued to be such. Until 1858 he attended the schools of that city. The next step in his education was taken at Phillips (Exeter) academy in his native state. from which institution he was graduated in 1861. In that year he was admitted to Yale college, but did not enter there until two years later. In the intervening period he was engaged in teaching school in Milwaukee. The course in Yale was entered upon in 1863 and finished, with honors, four years later. .
Mr. Flanders' inclination to the law is probably inherited. His grandfather. James Flanders (1740-1820) was a member of the New Hampshire bar and a legislator of that state, who performed well every duty intrusted to him and maintained his character as a brave and able man among the heroes of that period. Walter P. Flanders, the father of James G., was also a member of that bar. He did not, however, re- sume practice after becoming a resident of Milwaukee in 1848, but became largely interested in real estate and in enterprises looking to the development of that city and the surrounding county. The time of his arrival in the west saw the opening of the movement which resulted in the building of numerous lines of railways. Entering into the spirit which actuated the promoters of these various enterprises, Mr. Flanders became prominently identified with the Milwaukee & Mississippi Rail- way company, serving as its first treasurer. Mrs. Flanders, the mother of James G., was a native of Newburyport, Massachusetts, her maiden
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name being Susan Everett Greeley. She was of a home-loving dispo- sition. and domestic in her tastes; enjoyed the sincere respect of her large circle of acquaintances, and performed well her part as wife and mother.
James G. Flanders' general education, as we have seen, was obtained at institutions of the highest standing. He was quite as solicitous con- cerning the thoroughness of his professional education as about the former. He entered upon the study of law in the office of Emmons & Van Dyke, of Milwaukee, then lawyers of high standing, and now men whose professional reputations are established beyond question. The learning and experience secured here were supplemented by a full course in the college of law of Columbia university. After being gradu- ated there, Mr. Flanders was admitted to the bar of New York by the supreme court.
In July, 1869, the subject of this biography entered upon the practice of his profession in Milwaukee as a partner of De Witt Davis, the firm name being Davis & Flanders. Later, A. R. R. Butler became a mem- ber of the firm, the style of which was changed to Butler. Davis & Flanders. This strong combination continued until 1877, when the junior member withdrew to organize the firm of Flanders & Bottum (E. H.). In July, 1888. after the appointment of James G. Jenkins to the United States district judgeship, the firm of which he was the senior member united with Messrs. Flanders & Bottum to constitute the part- nership of Winkler, Flanders, Smith, Bottum & Vilas.
We have, then, in Mr. Flanders the antecedent of two generations bred to the law: his thorough general and professional education and association, as student and practitioner, with men of high general and professional attainments. In addition, the result of years of patient industry, the consequent accretion to a receptive, strong, agile and practical mind, and the training in oratory, the skill in the trial of causes and the character which has come out of these, strengthened by tests and established beyond successful assault.
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