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 17
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purchased from the government and which consisted of 160 acres. Mr. Ruan gave his entire time and devoted all his energies to the cultivation of this land, and until his death, May 14, 1892, gave it his personal supervision. During the legislative sessions of 1855 and 1860 Mr. Ruan was a member of the assembly, in which body he served his constituents to their entire satisfaction. He also served one year in the '7os as supervisor of the town of Oak Creek. In religion Mr. Ruan was a Catholic and in his political affiliations was a true and consistent Democrat.
James Reynolds was born on Feb. 17, 1830, three miles from Dublin, Ireland. While he was an infant his parents came to this country, living for three years in New York, and then concluding to establish themselves in the West, they removed first to Michigan and later to Wisconsin, taking up a quarter-section of land in the town of Greenfield, Milwaukee county, in 1836. Young James re- ceived the rudiments of an education at the district school in Green- field, and at an early age proved materially useful in assisting his father on the farm. At a time when many youths are more intent upon skylarking than upon applying themselves to the serious pur- suits of life he was in command of a gang of men and built a por- tion of the Janesville plank road. Upon the discovery of gold in California he sailed from New York, making the voyage by way of Cape Horn, and arriving in San Francisco in the spring of 1850. The next year found him, just turned of age, back in Milwaukee. where he organized an expedition to take a drove of horses and cat- tle across the plains and mountains to the Pacific slope. It was a bold experiment, but he planned it carefully and carried it through in 1852, realizing profits amounting to several thousand dollars. With part of the proceeds of this enterprise he established himself as a farmer in the valley of the Sacramento, and also engaged on a large scale in the cattle business, making purchases at Salt Lake and taking his droves over the mountains to different sections of California. where cattle were scarce. In 1853 he returned to Wis- consin and shipped to.California the threshing machine and reaper with which modern improved farming was inaugurated in the Golden State. In 1854 he took another drove of cattle across the plains, and on this expedition had several skirmishes with the In- dians. In 1855. at the request of his father, whose health had be- come precarious, he left his California interests and resumed his residence in Wisconsin. For a time he lived on a farm near Mil- waukee. Entering politics, he was elected to the legislature as a member of the assembly in 1856, and from 1864 to 1868 served with credit in the responsible office of treasurer of Milwaukee county.
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In 1867 he was again elected a member of the assembly. Soon thereafter Mr. Reynolds removed with his family to Kansas, taking with him some fine blooded stock, and devoting five years to an endeavor to make a profit from stock farming in that state. There, as in Wisconsin, his neighbors honored him by electing him to the legislature. In 1874 he removed to Kansas City, Mo., and engaged in the commission business, losing everything which he possessed except his courage and his ambition. His next field of operations was Chicago, where he re-embarked as a commission merchant. Before long he became interested in mines in Colorado, and also engaged in the sheep business. Continuing to reside in Chicago, he was engaged in an important work of improvement in Wisconsin- the reclamation of swamp lands in the vicinity of Muskego and Wind lakes, a few miles west of Milwaukee. In religion Mr. Rey- nolds was a Catholic, in politics a Democrat.
Moses M. Strong is given by the Blue Book as a representative from Milwaukee, and the city directory for 1857 locates him at Mil- waukee as land commissioner for the La Crosse & Milwaukee rail- road, residence at the Newhall, which accounts for his appearance as a Milwaukee member, although his residence here was only for a special purpose. He was a lifelong resident of Mineral Point after locating in Wisconsin in 1836, and he died at that place on July 20, 1894.
Jonathan Taylor was a prominent politician and contractor in the Fourth ward of Milwaukee for several years. He built a frame dwelling at No. 149 Second street, which was his residence. He went from here to New York city, where, in connection with Charles Trainor, another old-time Milwaukee contractor, he made a large amount of money in putting down the block pavement.
Thomas H. Eviston was born in the north of Ireland and came from Providence, R. I., to Milwaukee in 1842. He was quite prom- inent as a fireman under the old volunteer system, and also as a lumber dealer in connection with the late Sanford B. Grant. He and his wife were both lost on the ill-fated steamer, Lady Elgin, on Sept. 9, 1860.
Robert Haney was born on June 8, 1809, in Batavia, Genesee county, N. Y., grew up in that state, and began his business career there. His boyhood and early manhood were passed in Batavia, where he received a fair English education, being graduated at the Boys' Academy at that place. In 1839 he began as a hardware merchant in Batavia and continued in that business until 1850. In 1848 he brought a stock of goods to Milwaukee, and left it in charge of John
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De Bow, with whom he had entered into partnership, until two years later, when, after a disastrous fire in Batavia, he removed both his family and his business to Milwaukee. Engaging in the wholsesale and retail hardware trade, he first did business in a store on one of the lots on which the Plankinton House has since been built, and two years later removed to East Water street, where he continued in active busi- ness up to the end of his life. His career was a prosperous one and at his demise, which occurred on Jan. 7, 1885, he left a handsome fortune as well as a good name. A Democrat of the old school he adhered firmly to that political faith, but only once allowed himself to accept any kind of political preferment. That was in 1860, when he was chosen a member of the assembly from the First ward of Mil- waukee, and served through the important session of the legislature, which was charged with the responsibility of putting the state on a war footing.
John Rugee was born in Lubeck, Germany, Jan. 3, 1827, the son of Christopher and Christina Rugee, both of whom were also natives of Germany. From 1832 to 1839 he received instruction from private tutors, and as he showed a marked fondness for drawing and design- ing special attention was given to his education along these lines. In 1839 he accompanied his father and sister on a visit to this country, sailing from Hamburg, where they waited several days to take passage on an English vessel, hoping to pick up some knowledge of the English language on the way over. They landed in New York in July, and after spending a few months in the United States, the elder Rugee and his son returned to Germany, leaving the daughter in New York. The following year he returned to this country accompanied by his family-consisting of his wife and two sons, John and Herman-join- ing in New York city his daughter, Ann, who had remained there to await their coming. For two years they resided in New York, and then removed to Ulster county, where they settled temporarily on a farm. John Rugee tired of farming at the end of a year and went to Pough- keepsie, where he served an apprenticeship of three years to the car- penter's and joiner's trade. This constituted his start in life, and for several years afterward he worked at his trade as a journeyman car- penter, being employed during the years 1848-49-50 as foreman in the construction of breweries, grain elevators and bridges. He came to Wisconsin in 1851, and in the fall of that year entered the employ of Stoddard Martin as superintendent of construction in the work of building bridges and grain elevators. In 1853 he entered into partner- ship with his employer, Mr. Martin, the firm thus established becom- ing known as architects, builders and manufacturers of sashes, doors,
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and blinds, and entering upon the construction of public works and buildings upon an extensive scale. In the spring of 1855 Mr. Rugee completed the construction of a bridge, resting and swinging upon a center pier, across Black river at Port Huron, Mich., an achievement which attracted at the time much attention. In 1854 he built at Spring street the first bridge in this city to swing on a center pier, and was also the builder of the bridge at Walker's Point. He and his partner were the builders of the ill-fated Newall House in 1856-57, but from that date to the time of his retirement from the business in 1880 he devoted himself almost entirely to the manufacture of building mate- rials, to architectural work, and the erection of private buildings. In 1872, Mr. Martin having died, he entered into a partnership with Emil Durr, under the firm name of Durr & Rugee, becoming a wholesale and retail dealer in lumber, lath and shingles, and in 1887 be became interested with T. Stewart White and Thomas Friant, of Grand Haven, Mich., in the manufacture of lumber. In 1880 he disposed of his interest in the sash, door and lumber business, and engaged for the next three years with his son, John C. Rugee, in the manufacture of refrigerators. From 1872 to 1880 he was supervising architect for the Best, Schlitz and Falk brewing companies, and many of the buildings connected with these great breweries were erected under his supervision. The first official position which Mr. Rugee held in Mil- waukee was that of alderman, to which he was elected in 1855. He was re-elected in 1857, and in 1860 was elected member of the legisla- ture. In 1880 he accepted the Republican nomination for sheriff of Milwaukec county, was elected over one of the most popular men in the Democratic party, and served two years in that office, a thoroughly competent, honorable and worthy official. He was appointed to super- intend the construction of the present court house, was for many years a trustee of the Milwaukee County Insane Asylum, was a member of the Old Settlers' Club, and affiliated with the order of Odd Fellows. He built up a large fortune and continued in active business until August, 1893, at which time he was stricken with a fatal illness. Accompanied by his wife and son he went to California in December of that year, hoping to regain his health through change of climate, but the effort proved unavailing and he died in Redlands, March 7, 1894.
George Abert was born on May 10, 1817, in the province of Al- sace, then in France, now a part of the German Empire. The father died at the age of thirty-one, and the son was left at the tender age of ten years without paternal care or guardianship. He manifested a determined purpose to seek his fortune in America and accompanied
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his uncle, who arrived in New York in 1829, settling at Lyons, in Wayne county, of that state. Here he worked during the summer months and attended the schools, such as they had at that time, during the winter, until he was fourteen years of age. At that time he de- cided to throw off the fetters of boyhood and manage his own ship, and bidding adieu to his uncle and family at Lyons, he came west to Colum- bus, Ohio, where he at once succeeding in finding employment, al- though the compensation for labor at that time was a mere pittance as compared with that of the present time. At the end of three years he returned to Lyons, and after a short visit again bade his relatives adieu and started for Buffalo, N. Y., where he secured passage on one of the first boats leaving Buffalo for Milwaukee, reaching here in July, 1836. He readily found employment with Byron Kilbourn, assisting him to make land surveys in various sections of the territory, and also in laying out roadways leading from Milwaukee into the interior. In 1837 he accompanied Mr. Kilbourn, who had important legislative business to attend to, to Burlington, now in Iowa, at which place the territorial legislature was in session. In the winter of 1838 Mr. Abert was selected to make a trip to Washington, D. C., and he traveled alone from Milwaukee to the capital in a sleigh. In 1839 he pur- chased a corner lot at the intersection of Third and Poplar streets, on which he erected a building in which the first bakery on the West Side was established. In 1843 he established a pottery in this city, having secured a practical potter to superintend it. In 1846 when Mil- waukee was by charter made a city, he was elected an alderman, rep- resenting his word in the first council of the city government. He was a representative in the state legislature in 1861, '62 and '63. He was again elected to the same office for the sessions of 1868, '69, '70 and '72. In politics he was a Democrat of conservative tendencies, supporting all war measures by his vote in the legislature, and dili- gently working to secure all necessary legislation for the city of his adoption, and for the general welfare of the State. In 1865 he estab- lished the first iron foundry in the Northwest devoted exclusively to the manufacture of stoves and hollow-ware-at that time the only one west of New York state-which was for many years carried on successfully. Mr. Abert died on Oct. 14, 1890, at the family residence erected by him in 1849.
Jacob Van Vechten Platto was born in Schenectady, N. Y., Jan. 17, 1822. His father removed from Schenectady to Albany, N. Y., when the son was six years old, and as a builder was engaged there in the construction of some of the public buildings of the capital city. J. V. V. Platto grew up in Albany and obtained his education in the
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public schools of that city. When he was sixteen years old he entered the office of Judge Rufus Peckham, famous among the lawyers of New York state at that time, as a lawyer's clerk and student, and devoted the next four years of his life to a study of the law in connection with the various duties which he was called upon to perform. In connection with his law studies Mr. Platto gave special attention to book-keep- ing while employed in this law office, and becoming very proficient in what was then a comparatively lucrative calling, immediately after his admission to the bar, in 1843, he went to New York and for two years held the position of book-keeper in a large wholesale drygoods house in that city. He was engaged in commercial business in the East until 1848, when he came to Milwaukee and became interested in the wholesale liquor trade, to which he gave a large share of his attention for several years thereafter. It was about the year 1856 that he first became recognized as an active member of the bar, and only a few years later he attained special prominence by his able conduct of a case which was one of the causes celebre of that period-the George P. Shelton murder case. In 1849 he purchased a block of ground on Eighth street, near what was then Spring street-now Grand avenue -and built a little home there, into which he moved with the young wife to whom he had been married in New York state in 1843. Affili- atating with the Democratic party, Mr. Platto was a conservative in politics, and, while taking an active interest in public affairs, cared little about figuring as a public official. The only elective office which he held was that of representative in the general assembly of Wisconsin in 1862. Mr. Platto died in 1898.
John Bentley, a native of Wales and the son of Thomas and Jane (Jones) Bentley, was born at Newtown, Montgomeryshire, North Wales, March 23, 1822. At an early age he was engaged as a clerk in a seed store in Wales, and soon developed traits of character which made him greatly admired by his employers. At the age of seventeen years he joined his father in America, and upon his arrival in New York apprenticed himself to a plumber and brass-fitter in Brooklyn. After remaining in this employ a year and a half he went to Saratoga county in northern New York, where he found employment with a farmer who was engaged to some extent in the lumber business. The following spring he went down the Hudson river on a raft to New York city. The metropolis had no attraction for the young Welshman, and while visiting his father in Orange county he apprenticed himself to a master builder and mason, and in this business learned his trade thor- oughly. He came to Milwaukee in 1848, and followed this business here up to the time of his death. Politically he was prominently identified with
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the Democratic party. He cast his first vote for James K. Polk, and ever after interested himself in advancing the interests of the Demo- cratic party to such an extent as he found himself able to give attention to politics without interfering with his business interests. The first office to which he was elected was that of chairman of the board of supervisors of the town of Lake, in which town he resided when he first came to Wisconsin. He was next a member of the legislative as- sembly in 1863. He was a war Democrat, and was active in filling the quota of soldiers required from the state of Wisconsin, and in various ways helped the cause of Union and national supremacy. After his removal to Milwaukee he was elected to the board of aldermen, and subsequently re-elected ; at the same time he served as county super- visor and helped to complete the court house. He was known as a liberal Democrat, and was again elected to the legislature, serving in that body in 1878, 1879 and 1880. He served on the Committee on Claims for two years, and was also chairman of the Milwaukee dele- gation ; and it was undoubtedly his untiring effort and energetic action, coupled with those of the late George H. Payne, which secured to Milwaukee the State Normal School. Mr. Bentley was the author of this bill and the measure was one which brought the leading cities of the state into hot competition, each striving to become the seat of the proposed institution of learning. He was also the author of the joint resolution which was sent to Washington requesting the Senate and House to make Milwaukee a harbor of refuge. In the fall of 1880 his party nominated him for sheriff of Milwaukee county, but he was defeated by John Rugee, that being the only time he was ever defeated for an office when before the people. He was later elected to the office of sheriff and served two years, and it is the expression of the business men of the community that the affairs of the office were never better managed. For a few years after he retired from the sheriff's office he devoted himself to his private business, but after 1889 lived a retired life. He was too closely identified with the city, however, to be entirely idle, and was appointed by Mayor Brown to the office of park commissioner in 1889, which office he held up to the time of his death, which occurred March 5, 1894.
Levi Hubbell was born in Balston, Saratoga county, N. Y., in 1808, and graduated at Union College in 1827. During his college course and while a beardless boy of sixteen, he did good service on the stump for Andrew Jackson. Four years after he finished his educa- tion, he commenced to practice law, and soon came to the favorable notice of Governor Marcy, who appointed him private secretary. He was a member of the New York legislature in 1833, and previous to
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his departure for Wisconsin served a term as adjutant-general. Com- ing to this city in 1841, he became one of the law firm, Hubbell, Finch & Lynde, and soon acquired a large practice and an extensive acquain- tance by his urbane and polished manners. The first judicial election under the state organization of 1848 resulted in the election of Mr. Hubbell as judge of the Second circuit, consisting of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Jefferson and Dane counties. The term expired in 1851, but in the same year he was re-elected and he retained the office until 1856. He then returned to the practice of his profession, and, al- though a Jacksonian Democrat by education, joined the Republican ranks at the breaking out of the war. He was a member of the state legislature in 1864, and United States district attorney in 1871, being succeeded by George W. Hazelton in 1875. Mr. Hubbell died on Dec. 8, 1876.
John C. U. Niedermann was born on Jan. 8, 1810, in Baireuth, in the German province of Bavaria. He received his early education in his native city, where he attended the parish school until he reached his fifteenth year, and was confirmed in the Lutheran faith, after which it was decided that he should learn a trade. As his father was a baker by occupation, it was quite natural that he should adopt that calling, and he was apprenticed to the baker's trade. Upon completing his term of apprenticeship, young Niedermann made the customary jour- ney as a journeyman baker, visiting Austria, Bohemia and Silesia, re- turning then to Baireuth, where he remained until he was twenty-six years old. He then emigrated to America, landing in New York in 1836. He remained there five years, working at his trade, and then decided to come to Milwaukee, where he arrived early in 1842. He purchased a lot on East Water street, on which he built a shop and established a bakery, the property thus acquired remaining in his pos- session until his death. In 1845 he removed to the South Side and en- gaged in the manufacture of brick, but after five years gave up this in- dustry and never after that engaged in active business pursuits. Though in no sense a politician, he represented the Eighth ward several terms as an alderman, and served one term-during the session of 1864-in the state legislature as member of the assembly. He was an ardent Republican after that party came into existence, and before its birth had affiliated with the Whigs. During the last fifty years of his life he resided at the corner of Fifth avenue and Scott street, where he died on Oct. 8, 1892, sincerely mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
Harrison Carroll Hobart was born on Jan. 31, 1815, in Ashburn- ham, Worcester, Mass., his father being a typical New England
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farmer. At sixteen he went to New Hampshire and spent three years learning the printer's trade. As a journeyman printer he earned the means to prepare for college at the Concord Literary Institute and at New Hampton Academy, and in 1838 entered Dartmouth College, sup- porting himself there by teaching winters at the Rochester Academy, graduating with honors in 1842. It was young Hobart, while in col- lege, who first suggested organizing the Phi Kappa College Society. He studied law in the office of the late Robert Rantoul, Jr., and many years later, when he became a citizen of Calumet county, he caused one of the towns of that county to be named Rantoul, in honor of his former friend and instructor. He was admitted to the bar in Suffolk county in 1845, and the next year settled in the village of Sheboygan, and at once became prominent as a lawyer and successful in his prac- tice, a practice which continued until the breaking out of the war of 1861. He very soon took an active part in politics as a Democrat. In 1847 he was a member of the territorial legislature from the counties of Sheboygan and Washington, and an able, industrious and influential member. It was while a member of that body that Mr. Hobart intro- duced a bill, which was passed, to construct a railroad from Milwau- kee to Waukesha. He also introduced a bill to abolish capital punish- ment. He was a senator from the First district in the first state legis- lature, and served as chairman of the Judiciary committee that year, having the most difficult work of any committee during the session. He introduced and secured the passage of the homestead exemption law, and was active in securing the passage of the liberal franchise law, granting civil rights to women, the school laws, which have re- mained about the same ever since, and the law creating the State Uni- versity and the State Historical Society. In the next legislature he appeared as a member of the assembly and was promptly chosen speaker. It was in that session that he procured the passage of a bill for incorporating the Sheboygan & Fond du Lac Railroad Company. On its organization he was attorney for the board of directors. In 1850 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress in what was known as the Third district, but was defeated. In 1854 he removed to Calumet county and assisted in founding the city of Chilton, which he made his home. In 1856 he was again nominated for Congress, his Republican opponent being the late Charles Billinghurst, and he was defeated by a small majority. In 1859 he returned to the assembly from the Calumet county district, and, among other bills introduced by him, was one incorporating a company to build a railroad from Mil- waukee to Green Bay. In 1858 he was also chosen a regent of the State University. Without any effort on his part, Mr. Hobart was
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