USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Memoirs of Milwaukee County : from the earliest historical times down to the present, including a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in Milwaukee County, Volume I > Part 14
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Edward Salomon was governor of Wisconsin for the greater portion of the term of 1862-63. He was born in Germany and came to this country when quite young. He studied law and was ad- mitted to the bar in Milwaukee. In 1861 he was elected lieutenant- governor on the Republican ticket headed by Louis P. Harvey.
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When in 1862 (April 17) Governor Harvey met his tragic death at Pittsburg Landing, Salomon became governor. At the end of his term he returned to his law practice in Milwaukee and later re- moved to New York, where he died.
Harrison Ludington was born at Ludingtonville, Putnam county, N. Y., July 30, 1812, one of fifteen children born to Fred- erick and Susan (Griffith) Ludington. He received a good aca- demic education in his native village and in 1838, at the age of twenty-six, settled in Milwaukee and engaged in business as suc- cessor to Solomon Juneau, the first of the founders of the city. Soon thereafter he laid the foundations of a business which he con- tinued forty years, passing through financial depressions, war pan- ics and various commercial revulsions with credit unimpaired, and becoming a leader among the lumbermen of the Northwest. He was also, at one time, largely interested in the Ludington mine at Iron Mountain, named after him ; besides, he owned large real es- tate interests in Milwaukee, including the corner of East Water and Wisconsin streets, afterward leased by Captain Pabst for ninety- nine years, at an annual rental of $10,000. He was a lover of blood- ed stock, devoted much time to his farm at Wauwatosa, and was one of the leading promoters of the "Wisconsin Agricultural So- ciety," serving as its efficient treasurer many years. He served three years as president of the "Pioneer Association," of which he was an honored member, and was present at its reunion held at the Plankinton House, Feb. 22, 1891. He was originally a Whig, but became affiliated with the Republican party on its organization in 1856 and always stood true to its principles, though he was a patriot rather than a partisan. He served as a member of Mil- waukee's Common Council in 1861 and again in 1862. In 1871 he was elected mayor, re-elected in 1873, and held the office till Janu- ary, 1876, when he resigned to assume the duties of the governor- ship of Wisconsin, to which he was elected the preceding Novem- ber, receiving 85,164 votes, as against 84,374 cast for William R. Taylor, the Democratic candidate." He was the only Republican nominated for a state office elected at that time, a fact which was in a measure due to his popularity among the German workingmen of Milwaukee, as well as with the strong Irish element. He was a man of independent action, able to think for himself, and, by reason of his fidelity to his own convictions of duty, he incurred the oppo- sition of some of the old-time leaders of his party, who prevented his nomination for a second term-an honor, however, which he himself did not seek, having the assurance of a good conscience and
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knowing that he had discharged his duty faithfully and well. Ilis political career terminated with the close of his service as governor, and he at once resumed the duties of his private business, which thereafter engaged his attention. As a pioneer citizen of Milwau- kee he brought thither the first seed wheat from the East, and bought the first load of grain brought to that market. His last illness dated from the winter of 1885, when he was injured by a fall on an icy sidewalk. On June 17, 1891, he suffered a stroke of pa- ralysis and passed away.
William E. Smith began life as a merchant, and during his long residence in Wisconsin was actively engaged nearly all the time in mercantile pursuits. A native of Scotland, he was born June 18, 1824, and when eleven years of age came with his father's family to this country. A quarter section of land was secured in Michigan, near Detroit, on which a rude log cabin was soon erected, and in the spring of 1836 the family took possession of it and commenced the labor of making a new farm. Hard work was a matter of course, and the young son who was destined to become the chief executive of a great state performed with willing hands his full share of the toil; nor did this break the fibre of even one of so fine a nature, but his courage met hardships bravely and surmount- ed all difficulties. For several years he thus worked, attending school a portion of the time and taking a deep interest in a village debating club. In 1841 he was offered a clerkship in a small store and entered upon the duties of the position with a fixed determina- tion to do his full share of work. During his term of service in this capacity he availed himself of a town library and read extensively works of history, travel, science, etc., and also kept a close watch of the newspapers. He remained in this clerkship about five years and, being frugal in his habits, saved a large portion of his small salary, which was voluntarily handed over to his father. In 1846 Mr. Smith was tendered a position in the well known dry-goods house of Lord & Taylor, in New York, where he spent one year, and then accepted an important position in the wholesale house of Ira Smith & Company of that city. In the fall of 1849 he started a general store at Fox Lake, Wis., and from that time made this state his home, and the record of his life is a part of its history. In the fall of 1850 he was elected a member of the assembly, and during the session of 1851 took an active part in shaping its legislation. He was a member of the state senate in 1858 and 1859, and again in 1864 and 1865. He took a deep interest in the cause of educa- tion and was chairman of the committee on that subject. In the
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fall of 1865 he was elected state treasurer and was re-elected in 1867, thus serving four years in that important position. In the Republican state convention of 1869 he was a prominent candidate for governor, but was not successful in securing the nomination. At the expiration of his term as treasurer he returned to Fox Lake, and in the fall of 1870 was again elected to the assembly, and on the meeting of that body in January, 1871, was made speaker. He went to Europe in 1871 and on his return his friends urged his nomina- tion for governor, but without success. In 1877 he received that nomination without opposition and was elected by a handsome ma- jority, and re-elected in 1879. In addition to those already named Governor Smith filled many other places of public trust of im- portance to the state. He was twenty-one years a regent of nor- mal schools and four years a director of the state prison. He also served as trustee of the Wisconsin Female College at Fox Lake for twenty-six years ; of the Wayland University at Beaver Dam; of the Milwaukee Female College, and of the Chicago University. For many years he was a trustee and member of the executive com- mittee of the Northwestern Life Insurance Company ; was at one time vice-president of the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce ; was one of the vice-presidents of the National Board of Trade, and was long a member and once president of St. Andrew's Society. After successful business operations at Fox Lake for over twenty years, as merchant and banker, in 1872 he removed to Milwaukee and established himself in this city as a wholesale grocer. On being elected governor of the state he sold out his interest in that busi- ness and devoted himself wholly to state affairs. On retiring from official position he again engaged in mercantile pursuits, formed a copartnership with H. M. Mendell and his son, Ira Smith, in the wholesale grocery trade, and continued in business up to the time - of his death. In politics he was in early life an ardent Whig, and upon the formation of the Republican party became a zealous and influential member of that organization. He died on Feb. 13, 1883, and not only the entire state of Wisconsin but the country at large mourned his loss.
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNORS .- From 1856 to 1858, Arthur McAr- thur ; Jan. 6, 1862, to April 19, 1862, Edward Salomon.
STATE TREASURERS .- From 1874 to 1878. Ferdinand Kuehn; Jan. 5, 1903, to July 30, 1904, and 1905 to 1907, John J. Kempf.
Ferdinand Kuehn was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, on Jan. 22, 1821. He received a liberal education in the public schools and col- leges of that place, and became an apprentice in a banking house
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at the age of fifteen years. He subsequently served four years in a banking house in Switzerland ; then came to America in 1844. He first settled in Washington county, a few miles north of Cedarburg, Wis., where he engaged in farming two years, and then came to Milwaukee in the summer of 1846. He had little means and de- pended on his exertions for his support. He at first served as a clerk for a few months, but subsequently learned the trade of a cigarmaker and followed that vocation four years, earning an inde- pendent, though by no means sumptuous, living. He added what he could to his income by desultory work at bookkeeping, often as- sisting friends in Kenosha and Racine, and making the trips to and from Milwaukee on foot. In 1849 Charles Geisberg, then city treas- urer and a friend of Mr. Kuehn, gave him a permanent position at a moderate salary in his office. He remained in this position, under Mr. Geisberg and his successors, Lucas Seaver and Alex. H. John- son, five years. At the expiration of Mr. Johnson's term of office, in 1854, Mr. Kuehn was elected city treasurer by a large majority, and in 1855 was re-elected without opposition. He declined a re- election in 1856 and entered into business relations with the late Charles Quentin, which continued up to the time of Mr. Quentin's death, which occurred in May, 1862. During the four years suc- ceeding his retirement from the office of city treasurer he was a member of the city council in' 1857-58, and school commissioner of the Sixth ward. In 1860 he was elected city comptroller, and was re-elected as often as his term expired till 1866, at which time he retired from official life, having been seventeen years in the munici- pal service. At this time he entered into a co-partnership with Christian Ott and engaged in the real estate business, in which he continued till 1874, at which time he again entered the public serv- ice, having been elected state treasurer in the fall of 1873. He held this important office of trust four years. On retiring from the office he visited Europe, after an absence of thirty-five years. Upon his return he became interested in banking and engaged in the fiduciary business of managing the property and estates of non-residents. Mr. Kuehn died on Jan. 31, 1901.
ATTORNEYS-GENERAL .- From 1848 to 1850, James S. Brown ; 1850 to 1852, S. Park Coon ; Oct. 7, 1862, to 1866, Winfield Smith.
James S. Brown was born in Hampden, Maine, Feb. 12, 1823. He was a precocious boy, and under careful private tutelage was fitted for college before he had reached the age necessary to matric- ulation. Continuing his studies under the private tutorship of Prof. Worcester, brother of the noted author of Worcester's Dictionary,
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he finished the entire course prescribed in the college curriculum before he was sixteen years old. When he reached that age the death of his father threw him upon his own resources and for a year he engaged in school teaching. At the end of that time he came West as far as Cincinnati, Ohio, and took up the study of law in the office of an elder brother, who was practicing in that city. At the end of a two years' course of study he was admitted to the bar in the state of Kentucky, where the fact that he lacked two years of at- taining his majority did not operate as a bar to his admission to practice, as it did in Ohio. He remained in Cincinnati until 1844, and while there formed the acquaintance of Father Henni-after- ward Archbishop of Wisconsin-who induced him to come to Mil- waukee. He was then but twenty-one years of age, but he at once began the practice of his profession and very soon achieved distinc- tion as a member of the pioneer bar. In 1845, a year after he began practicing in this city, he was elected district attorney for Mil- waukee county and discharged his official duties with a zeal and ability which commended him both to the bar and the general pub- lic. In 1848 he was elected first attorney-general of Wisconsin, be- ing at that time but twenty-five years of age, and one of the young- est men who have been called upon to fill a state office in this state. In 1861 Mr. Brown was elected mayor of Milwaukee on the Demo- cratic ticket, and became the chief executive officer of the city at a critical period in its history. Not only was he called upon to deal with matters to which the exigencies of war gave rise, but he found a readjustment of the financial affairs of the city imperatively nec- essary. So distrustful was everybody of the city's ability to meet its obligations that when the first steam fire engine was purchased for the use of the city Mr. Brown found it necessary to make a per- sonal guarantee , of payment. Co-operating with the commission appointed under an enactment of the state legislature, empowered to refund and readjust the obligations of the city, he averted what seemed like impending bankruptcy and restored the credit of the municipality, which has never since been impaired. The bank riots, famous in the history of the city, occurred during Mr. Brown's ad- ministration, and it became his duty to read the "riot act" from the steps of the old "Mitchell Bank" to the excited and turbulent mob gathered in front of it. He performed this duty unflinchingly while a shower of missiles was falling around him, and afterward charged the mob at the head of the militia which had been called upon to quell the riotous uprising. His political affiliations were always with the Democratic party, but during the Civil war he favored the
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suppression of the Southern uprising and a vigorous war policy. In 1862 he was elected to Congress as a war Democrat, and sat in the national legislature during the closing years, of the great con- flict. While not of the same political faith as President Lincoln, he was an admirer of the great commoner, and on the occasion of his death delivered an eloquent and touching funeral address in old St. Paul's church. After serving one term in Congress he resumed the practice of law in Milwaukee, but failing health compelled him to retire from active professional work after a few years, and he died while still a comparatively young man, April 16, 1878.
S. Park Coon was for many years one of Milwaukee county's most prominent lawyers and politicians, and he was the second man to fill the office of attorney-general of Wisconsin. He was a leading Democrat, but like too many others who have entered the political arena, he fell a victim to dissipation and became a beggar. He was supported by the charity of his brother lawyers for several years before his death, which occurred at the Passavant hospital on Oct. 12, 1883. He was a genial, whole-souled fellow in his palmy days, and but for the fatal cup would no doubt have reached high posi- tions of trust and influence.
Winfield Smith was for many years one of the leading citizens of the city of Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin, and he was born at Fort Howard, Wis., Aug. 16, 1827. He received a careful educa- tional training in early youth, and in his seventeenth year entered an advanced class in the Michigan University, at which institution he graduated in the class of 1846. Immediately after his graduation he took charge of a private school at Monroe, Mich., which had been his home since 1833. A year later he began the study of law while acting as private tutor to a few advanced scholars, and in 1848 he entered the law office of Judge Isaac P. Christiancy to com- plete his preparation for admission to the bar. He remained in Judge Christiancy's office until 1849, when he removed to Mil- waukee and entered the office of Messrs. Emmons & Van Dyke, then among the leaders of the bar of the city. In 1850 he was ad- mitted to practice in the supreme court of Wisconsin, and in 1851 opened an office in Milwaukee, practicing alone until 1855. In that year he formed a partnership with Edward Salomon-afterward governor of Wisconsin-which continued fifteen years, and until Governor Salomon's removal to New York city. In 1862 Mr. Smith was appointed by Governor Salomon attorney-general of the state to fill out the unexpired term of James H. Howe-afterwards a judge of the United States court-who had resigned that office to
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enter the military service. In 1863 Mr. Smith was elected attorney- general for a full term, which expired in 1866. As the law officer of the state he discharged his duties with zeal, care and ability, ren- dering to the public services of special value in the investigation of the claim of the Rock River Canal Company against the state. For over ten years he served as United States Commissioner and Mas- ter in Chancery in Milwaukee, and during this period occurred the fugitive slave riots and the prosecutions growing out of what has been known as the "Glover Rescue." In 1872 he was elected to the assembly of Wisconsin, served as chairman of the judiciary com- mittee during the ensuing session and was recognized as one of the ablest debaters on the floor of the house. In 1876 he was tendered an appointment as United States district attorney to succeed Judge Levi Hubbell, but declined the appointment. After the dissolution of his partnership with Governor Salomon he practiced law in part- nership with Joshua Stark from 1869 to 1875. In the year last named he became associated in practice with Matthew H. Carpen- ter and A. A. L. Smith, and the firm thus constituted was one of the most widely known in the Northwest. With some changes of asso- ciations he continued the practice as one of the recognized leaders of the bar of the state until his retirement a few years before his death to the enjoyment of a comfortable fortune and well earned rest from professional labors. Of Democratic antecedents, Mr. Smith affiliated with that party up to the time the Republican party came into existence, and then transferred his allegiance to the new party. He had, however, apparently no ambition for official posi- tion, and declined a United States judgeship when offered him ; and he also refused to become a candidate for member of the supreme court of Wisconsin and for local judicial positions when solicited to do so by many friends and members of the bar. In later years he resided a portion of the time in New England and traveled abroad extensively.
STATE SUPERINTENDENTS .- From July 6, 1870, to 1874, Samuel Fallows : 1899 to 1903, Lorenzo D. Harvey.
STATE PRISON COMMISSIONER .- From 1856 to 1858, Edward Mc- Garry.
RAILROAD COMMISSIONER .-- From 1874 to 1876, George H. Paul ; 1907. John Henry Roemer, present incumbent.
George HJ. Paul was born at Danville, Vermont, March 14, 1826, and at eleven years of age began in the office of the North Star a connection with the printing business, which he continued during the greater portion of his life. In 1840 he entered Phillips Acad-
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emy, where he spent three years preparing for college. He received the degree of A. M. from the University of Vermont and spent a year in the study of law at Harvard, being admitted to the bar in 1848. During all the time while he was securing his education he supported himself by teaching and working at the printing busi- ness. In 1848 he became editor and proprietor of the Burlington (Vermont) Sentinel, and transformed that paper into a daily-the first daily newspaper regularly published in Vermont. In the same year President Polk appointed him postmaster at Burlington. In 1851 he sold the Sentinel and removed to Kenosha, Wis., where he began the publication of the Kenosha Democrat. In 1853 Presi- dent Pierce appointed him postmaster at Kenosha, and he was re- appointed to the office by President Buchanan, holding the position till the expiration of his commission in 1861. He was mayor of Kenosha and held other local offices of trust and honor, and in the spring of 1861 he went to New York, where he did editorial work for several months. Returning to Wisconsin, he became interested with J. M. Lyon in the proprietorship of the Daily News at Mil- waukee, and was the leading spirit in the management of that paper until May, 1874. In 1867 he was a member of the Milwaukee Char- ter Commission, and in 1870 a member of the board of school com- missioners. He resigned from the board to accept the position of superintendent of the public schools, which he held until May, 1871. In February, 1874, he was appointed a member of the board of re- gents of the University of Wisconsin, a position which he held until his death in 1890, and during most of the time he was president of the board. He was a member of the Wisconsin Board of Railway Commissioners during the administration of Governor Taylor from 1874 to 1876, and served two terms in the state senate from 1877 to 1881, representing what was at that time the Sixth senatorial dis- trict, comprising the portion of Milwaukee city and county lying south of the Menominee river. As a member of the senate Mr. Paul was the author of numerous measures of importance, among them being the bills for creating the Milwaukee Councy Insane Asylum and the State Industrial School for Girls; also the bills creating the office of health commissioner in the city of Milwaukee, and promot- ing the public health by a system of intercepting sewers for the pro- tection of the rivers of the city. He was one of the trustees of the Milwaukee County Insane Asylum for a number of years. In 1885 President Cleveland appointed Mr. Paul postmaster at Milwaukee and he served in that capacity till the appointment of his successor by President Harrison in 1889. He was a delegate to four Demo-
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cratic national conventions, and he was a member for Wisconsin of the Democratic national committee from 1864 to 1868, and from 1872 to 1876. In 1872-3 he was chairman of the Democratic state central committee of Wisconsin, and planned and conducted the campaign which brought the Democrats into power after an exile of fifteen years. Mr. Paul was one of the organizers of the Mil- waukee Cement Company and for many years held the secretary- ship of that corporation.
INSURANCE COMMISSIONERS .- From 1895 to Oct. 15, 1898, Wil- liam A. Fricke ; Oct. 15. 1898, to 1903, Emil Giljohann ; 1903 to 1907, Zeno M. Host.
CHAPTER IX.
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND STATE SENATORS.
LIST OF CONGRESSMEN-PERSONAL MENTION-LIST OF STATE SENATORS -PERSONAL MENTION.
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS .- From June 5, 1848, to 1849, William Pitt Lynde; 1853 to 1857, Daniel Wells, Jr .; 1863 to 1865, James S. Brown; 1865 to 1871, Halbert E. Paine; 1871 to 1875, Alexander Mitchell; 1875 to 1879, William Pitt Lynde; 1879 to 1885, Peter V. Deuster; 1885 to 1887, Isaac W. Van Schaick; 1887 to 1889, Henry Smith ; 1889 to 1891, Isaac W. Van Schaick ; 1891 to Feb. 10, 1893, John L. Mitchell ; from April 4, 1893, to 1895, Peter J. Somers ; 1895 to 1907, Theobald Otjen; 1903 to 1911, William H. Stafford; 1907 to 1911, William J. Cary.
William Pitt Lynde was born at Sherburn, N. Y., Dec. 16, 1817, and came of English antecedents, the lineage being traced back to 1675, when a common ancestor landed on the shores of Massachusetts, in which commonweath a large number of his de- scendants still reside. After availing himself of the advantages of a common school education, William Pitt Lynde when quite young attended for some time Hamilton academy, at Hamilton, N. Y. He then entered Courtland academy, at Homer, where he fitted for col- lege, after which he attended Hamilton College. He then entered Yale, where he prosecuted his studies with untiring assiduity, grad- uating with the highest honors in 1838. He had the rare distinction among the thousands of men who have graduated at Yale since it was founded in 1700 of being chosen to deliver the valedictory from his class on commencement day. Soon after leaving college he en- tered the law department of the University of New York, which was then presided over by Benjamin Franklin Butler, an eminent statesman and ex-law partner of President Van Buren. About one
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year was spent in this institution, when he went to Cambridge and entered the law department of old Harvard, in which he graduated in 1841, and at the May term of the same year was admitted to prac- tice at the bar of New York. He was a Democrat, not only politi- cally speaking, but in the true and underived meaning of the term, and he was the efficient champion of the poor and oppressed. In 1841 Mr. Lynde set out for Milwaukee with the purpose of making it his home and the theatre of his activities and his hopes. Early in the following year he formed a law partnership with Asahel Finch, which was only dissolved by the death of Mr. Finch in 1883, after a felicitous and lucrative association of forty-one years. This seems more remarkable as the partners were of different political faith, and the singular coincidence is recorded in the local annals of party history that they were once pitted against each other, each being the choice of his respective party for a seat in the state legislature. Mr. Lynde's strong judicial qualities, his prudent judgment, his thorough theoretical knowledge of law, brought from the schools, and his studious habits, which speedily made him familiar with the practical workings and intricacies of law, all conspired to place him at an early period in his practice in the front rank of his profession. His worth and standing among his fellow members of the Mil- waukee bar were duly recognized, and he was for years president of the Bar Association. He had been practicing law in Milwaukee only three years when, at the age of twenty-seven he was appointed by President Polk attorney-general of the territory of Wisconsin. He resigned this office the following year to accept the still more desirable position of United States District Attorney for the district of Wisconsin. He favored the acceptance of the rejected constitu- tion presented to the people of the territory in 1847, which was es- sentially duplicated and adopted in the second constitution the fol- lowing year, and he called to order the large mass meeting held in the old court house, Feb. 18, 1847, to urge the ratification by the people of the original constitution. Upon the admission of Wis- consin territory to the dignity of a state Mr. Lynde was elected to represent the First district of the new commonwealth in the Thir- tieth Congress, his term of office running from June 5, 1848, to March 3. 1849. Several years later, when anti-slavery sentiment had become strongly developed, he made the run for Congress against the Hon. Charles Durkee, afterward governor of Utah un- der President Johnson's administration, and was defeated on a Free Soil issue. The two candidates were the best of friends and stumped their district together in like manner as Abraham Lincoln and
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