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 49
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George Brumder ; Germania und Abendpost, Germania-Herold Asso- ciation, publishers of the Sonntags Post, the Herold and the Haus and Bauernfreund; Globe Trotter; International Good Templar, B. F. Parker ; Journal, Journal Publishing Co .; Journal of Education, S. Y. Gillan & Co .; Kinderfreunde, N. W. Publishing House ; Kinderpost, Herold Publishing Co .; Kirchen Glocke; Krankentrost; Lord's Day Papers; Marquette College Journal, Students of Marquette College; Masonic Tidings; Medical Journal; Medical Magazine, F. A. Fors- beck; Midland Review, William F. Hontkamp; Mind and Body, Freidenker Publishing Co .; The National Advance; The National Re- former; The News, News Publishing Co .; Norden Herold; North Milwaukee News, Towell Bros .; Northwestern Chronicle, Chronicle Publishing Co .; Northwestern Sportsman, N. W. Publishing House ; Northwestern Times, Towell Bros .; Odd Fellows Friend, Richard Hoe; Organ Bratrstva, Anton Novak; Our Young People; Outers' Book, Sportsman Publishing Co .; Packages, Packages Publishing Co .; Patriot, Excelsior Publishing Co .; Pedagogischie Monats Hefte ; People's Companion ; Pharmaceutical Archieve, and Pharmaceutical Review, Pharmaceutical Review Publishing Co .; Progress; Pythian Age, C. H. Wheeler; Realty Record; Reformer; Daily Reporter, Reporter Publishing Co .; Review (published in raised letters for the blind) ; Revnost ; Rundschau; Searchlight, Searchlight Publishing Co .; Seebote, P. V. Deuster & Co .; Sentinel, Sentinel Publishing Co., who publish an edition called the Farmer's Sentinel; Social Democrat Herald, Victor L. Berger, who publishes also the Wahrheit and Vor- waerts ; The Souvenir, George Bach; Teachers' Guide and Students' Pride : Times, Times Publishing Co .; Union Signal, Signal Publishing Co .; Union Forrester, Forrester Publishing Co .; Western Builder; Western Teacher, S. Y. Gillan & Co .; Whist, Whist Publishing Co .; Wisconsin Children's Home Finder; Wisconsin Advocate (colored), R. B. Montgomery; Wisconsin Christian Advocate, A. J. Benjamin; Wisconsin Eagledom, Eagledom Publishing Co .; Wisconsin Home- stead, J. L. Rohr; Wisconsin Issue, Anti-Saloon League; Wisconsin Jobber and Retailer; Wisconsin Medical Journal, Wisconsin Medical Publishing Co.
Several papers are published in the county outside of the city of Milwaukee. At St. Francis, a little village on the Chicago & North- western Railroad south of the city, the Caecillia, a German and English monthly devoted to musical culture, was established in 1874. It is now (1908) edited by John Singenberger. The North Milwaukee News, a weekly paper published every Friday and edited by George Towell, was established in 1898. The West Allis Enterprise, a weekly
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ยท published every Saturday, was established in 1903 and is edited by Henry Towell. The Cudahy Times, issued every Friday, was estab- lished in 1906. These three papers are printed by Towell Bros. at 349-351 Grove street, Milwaukee. The South Milwaukee Journal, a weekly Republican paper, was established in 1892 and is now edited by Fred T. Hook. The Times-News, an independent weekly in the same suburb, was established in 1896. It was formerly one of the papers published by Towell Bros., but is now edited and published by Whalen Bros. In 1899 the Wauwatosa News, a weekly Republican paper, was established. It is now published by the J. R. Benoy Printing Company. At Wauwatosa is also published the Wisconsin Woodman, a monthly issued in the interests of the Modern Woodmen of America. It was established in 1904 and is published by the Fra- ternal Publishing Company. .
On Jan. 13, 1853, a convention of newspaper men met in the rooms of the state agricultural society at Madison to take the preliminary steps toward the organization of the Wisconsin Editorial Association. At that convention Milwaukee was represented by Sherman M. Booth, of the Free Democrat; W. H. Watson, of the Sentinel; J. H. Wells, of the Wisconsin; and R. Wendt, of the Banner. After the formation of the state association, and in fact until the present time, Milwaukee journalists have been active in promoting its interests and have wielded a powerful influence in shaping its policies.
THE PRESS CLUB.
In writing a historical sketch of the Milwaukee press there is one institution that must not be overlooked. That is the Milwaukee Press Club. This club had its origin in the "wee sma' hours" of Nov. 1, 1885, when four newspaper men gathered at a chop house on East Water street to refresh the inner man after their night of toil. These four men were Archie Foster, H. P. Myrick, Henry E. Legler and James Bannen, all of the Sentinel force. An attempt had been made a year or two before to organize a press club, but it had failed, owing to the intense rivalry that existed among the newspapers of the city, even the reporters on one paper regarding those on another "as the incarnation of all that was unprofessional." Notwithstanding this condition of affairs, the dauntless four proceeded with their scheme, and on Nov. 8, 1885, a meeting was held in a room in the Herold building to take the preliminary steps for the formation of a permanent organization. Only fourteen of the press gang were present, but every English daily was represented, which was regarded
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as a good omen. A temporary organization was effected with Curt M. Treat as chairman and Robert Strong as secretary. Each person present was appointed a committee of one to secure members and the hustling began. A week later, Nov. 15, 1885, the club was perma- nently organized and the following officers were elected : President, James Langland; First Vice-President, George C. Young; Second Vice-President, Herman Braun; Secretary, Jerre C. Murphy ; Treas- urer, Alexander W. Dingwall; Executive Committee, H. P. Myrick, L. W. Nieman, Herman Bleyer, Frank Bissinger and Curt M. Treat. The offices were distributed with impartiality among the representa- tives of the different papers, and the club started off with every prospect of success. At the next meeting Mr. Murphy declined the secretaryship and Henry C. Campbell was elected in his place.
On Dec. 9, 1885, the club gave an entertainment in the old Academy. On the program were such attractions as Thomas W. Keene, Abbie Carrington and other celebrities of the theatrical profes- sion. Nearly every number was encored and the performance did not end until after midnight. Tickets of admission sold for fifty cents each, and as the theater was crowded to its capacity the club realized nearly $900 with which to establish itself in a permanent home. A suite of rooms on the second floor of the Herold building was secured, and in a little while a better feeling began to manifest itself among the newspaper men of the city. W. W. Coleman, the proprietor of the Herold, expressed his sympathy with the club movement by offer- ing to pay an annual membership fee of $100. As the spirit of good- fellowship grew the constitution of the club was changed to provide for the admission of associate members, "to consist of editors of news- papers in the State of Wisconsin, persons formerly connected with newspapers and occasional correspondents."
From the Herold building the club removed to rooms in the Evening Wisconsin building, but in order to curtail expenses a second removal became necessary and the fourth story of the Bradford build- ing on Broadway was leased. As this building had no elevator the club did not prosper there, and rooms were secured in the Commercial Club building on Grand avenue, near Second street. From this place it removed to the top floor of the old three-story building at the northwest corner of Broadway and Mason street, where the quarters were delight- fully Bohemian, and consequently more interest was shown in the club's welfare. The rooms were reached only by means of an outside stair- way, "enclosed in a cigar-box sort of a covering." It is related that on one occasion a member of the club piloted Eugene Field up the dark and dingy stairs and upon reaching the top apologized by saying :
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"Our stairway is pretty tough, Mr. Field, but we are going to paint it in a few days." "Paint it?" exclaimed Field, "Why, what you want is cobwebs, not paint. Never touch it; its lovely as it is now."
At the foot of the stairs hung the club sign, made of iron, with brass letters, which were surrounded by a border of copper one-cent pieces. It was presented to the club by Frank A. Hall, who, after it had hung for two years or so in all sorts of weather, conceived the idea of taking it down and having it cleaned up. Consternation reigned among the members until it was learned what had become of the sign. Charles K. Lush, writing of the incident afterward, says : "The sign came back, all polished up, with the pennies new and bright again, and Mr. Hall received a letter thanking him for his kindness- but every now and then, in the dark of the moon, a member sneaks down and douses that sign with a cup of water and, thanks to the laws of decay, the rust is coming back again." The sign was lost when the club removed to its present quarters at the corner of East Water and Mason streets in 1904, being consigned to the scrap heap by mis- take or through carelessness.
The club, however, still retains its veneration for its old mascot- the cat-a representation of which is now used on the club button. In 1906 this mascot was enshrined with great pomp in an elaborate shrine designed by Mark Forrest and carved by John B. McCleod. The cere- mony of installation is being made an annual affair, with appropriate ritualistic observances, held as nearly as possible to the anniversary of the organization of the club. For several years in its early history the club held its annual picnic at Louis Auer's farm at Lake Pewaukee. Then the annual outing was spent in various places until 1908, when "Villa Auer" again became the scene of the mid-summer festivities.
The membership at the beginning of the year 1908 was 173, and the club is more prosperous than ever before. It prides itself on being one of the "simon-pure" press clubs in the United States, and makes a feature of entertaining distinguished visitors. In June, 1893, when the Milwaukee city council was asked to consider the advis- ability of appropriating $100,000 for the purpose of advertising Mil- waukee at Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition, the Press club came forward with the proposition to bring the officials of the exposition and the small army of newspaper correspondents there to Milwaukee for a reception and banquet, and then let the cor- respondents do the advertising in the communications sent to their respective journals. The preliminaries being arranged, a special train was chartered and the distinguished guests were brought to Milwaukee, where they passed a good part of the afternoon of June
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22 in sight-seeing under the guidance of the members of the club, and closed the day with the banquet at the Hotel Pfister. The World's Fair party numbered nearly 200 people, including several of the expo- sition commissioners and journalists from every civilized country on the globe. Julius Bleyer, writing afterward of the event, said: "Of all the cities that tried to advertise themselves to advantage among the visitors to the World's Fair, Milwaukee alone succeeded in spread- ing her name and fame to the uttermost parts of the civilized world ; and through the kind offices of the Milwaukee Press club she obtained this diffusive advertising for a comparatively small amount of money. Had the common council appropriated $100,000 for the work it could have secured no such results as were achieved by the Press club for only a small fraction of that amount."
James Langland, the first president, served until in January, 1888. Since then the presidents have been as follows: Jerome A. Watrous, 1888; H. P. Myrick, 1889-90; George H. Yenowine, 1891 ; James Ban- nen, 1892; Herman Bleyer, 1893; William A. Rublee, 1894; Julius Bleyer, 1895; C. W. Emerson, 1896; John G. Gregory, 1897; Arthur Weld, 1898; John Hannan, 1899 ; George Kerr, 1900; William A. Bow- dish, 1901-02; Daniel B. Starkey, 1903; Galbraith Miller, Jr., 1904; Malcolm C. Douglas, 1905-06: John W. Gannaway, 1907; Oliver A. Remey, 1908.
The club has an exceedingly interesting collection of chalk auto- graphs of the eminent persons in all walks of life who have enjoyed the club's hospitality. The first of these autographs obtained after becoming settled in the present quarters is that of Gen. Nelson A. Miles, and the second is that of John L. Sullivan-both fighters of renown, but along different lines.
GERMAN PRESS CLUB.
The Deutsche Journalisten and Schriftsteller, or the Society of German-American Journalists and Writers, was formed in the fall of 1882, and out of this society has grown the German Press club of Milwaukee. The purpose of the society is to assist those of its active members, who, through unavoidable circumstances have been overtaken by trouble-sickness, death, or loss of position being allowed as reasons for application for assistance. The club possesses at the present time (1908) an unencumbered, well invested capital of $6,000. Of the 150 members, 40 are active. The society was founded by Her- man Sigel, editor of the Freie Presse; George Koeppen. editor of the Germania ; Dr. Emil Knotzer, of the Seebote; P. V. Deuster, Rudolph
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Koss, J. Pieper, Julius Goldschmidt, Julius Gugler, Arthur Koenig, Hermann Ellermann, William Pohl and other well known writers. Herman Sigel, George Koeppen, P. V. Deuster, Otto Luedicke, Hans von Kessel, Victor Ganglin and Arthur Koenig acted as officers in the above mentioned order. The present board consists of Arthur Koenig, president ; Gustav Haas, vice-president; William Grotelueschen, sec- retary ; Hans Koenig, treasurer ; and in conjunction with these officers the following constitute the board of directors: Max Fischer, Peter Toepfer and Theodore Zillmer.
NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENTS.
Early in the Civil war a number of Milwaukee newspaper men enlisted in the Union army, and as war news was very much in demand arrangements were made with them to forward communications to their respective papers, subject to the regulations of the war depart- ent and the orders of the commanding officers. These reports were sent by mail, telegraph tolls at that time being too heavy to think of rapid transmission by wire. Foremost among these "special corre- spondents" was Warren M. Graham, who came to Milwaukee from Ozaukee county, learned the printer's trade, and later became com- mercial editor of the Evening Wisconsin. At the age of nineteen years he enlisted in Company B, First Wisconsin infantry, the first regiment to leave the state. He wrote several interesting letters to the Evening Wisconsin descriptive of army life and the country in which his com- mand was operating. While the regiment was quartered at Hagers- town, Md., Mr. Graham took possession of a newspaper office there, changed the sentiment of the paper from rank secession to radical sup- port of the Union, and isued it as long as his regiment was located there. In the battle of Falling Waters, July 3, 1861, he was mortally wounded and died on August 26, following.
Jonas M. Bundy was reared in Rock county, Wis., where he became an intimate friend of Senator Carpenter. For some time he was associated with William E. Cramer on the Evening Wisconsin and subsequently became editor-in-chief of the Milwaukee Sentinel. He enlisted early in the war and after a short time was attached to the staff of Gen. John Pope. This gave him excellent opportunities for acquiring news, and his letters were among the most interesting and instructive of those from the front. After the war he went to New York, where he engaged in newspaper work, finally becoming editor- in-chief of the Mail and Express. In the campaign of 1880 he won favorable comment by his biographical sketch of James A. Garfield,
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the Republican candidate for the presidency. He also wrote a sketch of Benjamin Disraeli, the English author and statesman, which that gentleman acknowledged in terms of approbation. When Elliot F. Shepard purchased the Mail and Express in 1888 he sent Mr. Bundy to Paris, where he passed the remainder of his life.
Everett Chamberlain was a native of Vermont, but came to Wis- consin with his parents about 1857, being then eighteen years of age. He taught school for some time, and in 1863 became an editorial writer on the Milwaukee Sentinel. The following year he raised a company for the Thirty-ninth Wisconsin infantry, with which he served until it was mustered out at Milwaukee on Sept. 22, 1864. While in the service he wrote letters to the Sentinel, but as his regi- ment was engaged chiefly in guard duty, he missed the stirring events that fell to the lot of other correspondents. After the war he con- tinued with the Sentinel for a few years, then went to Chicago and finally became commercial editor of the Chicago Tribune. He was one of the most versatile and brilliant writers in the West and was the author of three books, viz .: A History of the Political Campaign of 1872; The Chicago Fire; and Chicago and Its Suburbs. He died at Jacksonville, Fla., Feb. 19, 1875, of pulmonary consumption.
L. L. Crounse was reared in Walworth county, and began his newspaper career with Sherman M. Booth on the Free Democrat sometime in the 50's. He did not enlist as a soldier, but as a corre- spondent he was with the Army of the Potomac in most of its cam- paigns. He sent to the New York Times an elaborate report of the battle of Gettysburg, which was a clean scoop over all other corre- spondents, as his account of the battle was in type long before the other communications were received by the New York papers ..
After making quite a record as a war correspondent, Sylvanus Cadwallader became associated with George H. Paul in the publication of the Milwaukee News. During the war a warm friendship existed between him and Gen. John A. Rawlins and he had excellent facilities for gathering news, but most of his correspondence was sent to the New York papers. He was a graphic and versatile writer and his letters were widely read. He served for four years as assistant secre- tary of state of Wisconsin, after which he went to the Pacific coast.
George M. Bleyer, one of several brothers who have been identi- fied with the Milwaukee press for fully half a century, began as a carrier, then learned the printer's trade, and at the commencement of the war was the city editor of the Evening Wisconsin. Upon the first call for volunteers he laid aside his "blue pencil" and enlisted in Company A. First Wisconsin infantry for three months. At the expi-
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ration of that time he re-enlisted for three years, and subsequently became second lieutenant of Company B, Twenty-fourth infantry. His letters from the front were fine examples of war news, being a com- bination of humor, patriotism and pathos. His last letter was a descrip- tion of the battle of Stone's river, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862, on which date he was mortally wounded and lay in the hospital until his death on Jan. 25, 1863. He was also the author of several poems which were published in various magazines.
After the war "special correspondence" languished until the estab- lishment of the Republican and News in 1881, and the Daily Journal in 1882, started a lively competition between the new and old papers for exclusive news from the nation's capital. Prior to that time the Milwaukee papers had been content with the Associated Press reports from Washington, supplemented by an occasional letter from a congress- man or some other Federal official. In 1881 Frank Markle was sent to Washington as a correspondent of the Sentinel, which paper secured the use of a special wire during the night hours. This was the begin- ning of a special news service by telegraph, which system has since been adopted by all the Milwaukee dailies, especially during the ses- sions of Congress.
LITERATURE.
William E. Cramer, writing in 1895, said: "Milwaukee's purely literary activity has not been so great as her activity in the production of newspapers. But the pursuit of polite literature in Milwaukee, while desultory as a rule, has been by no means neglected." Probably the first book written by a Milwaukee author was published in that city in 1846 and was a work on Wisconsin, its geography, topog- raphy, history, geology and mineralogy by Increase A. Lapham. Mr. Lapham was a native of Ontario county, N. Y., who came to Milwau- kee in 1836, being at that time about twenty-five years of age. He was interested in all branches of natural history and besides the book already mentioned he wrote over fifty articles on geology, fauna and flora, meteorology, archaeology, etc. Some of these were published in the American Journal of Science, some in pamphlet form, and in 1855 his description of the mound-builders' works in Wisconsin was pub- lished in the Smithsonian Collections. In 1847 a little book entitled Sketches of the West made its appearance, but the author concealed his identity. It gave a brief history of Wisconsin and contained a number of letters and personal sketches of pioneer settlers. Since then Milwaukee has produced her due proportion of historical writers. In 1851 a history of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches in
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Wisconsin was written and published by Stephen D. Peet. John Gregory published in 1855 a work on the Industrial Resources of Wisconsin, a revised and enlarged edition of which was brought out in 1870. Rudolph A. Koss wrote a history of the city in the German language, which was published in 1871. Three years later Henry and Albert Bleyer brought out a little book entitled In and About Milwaukee. C. B. Harger in 1877 published a work on Milwaukee and its Prominent Points of Interest. In 1879 J. Langworthy brought out A History of Odd Fellowship in Wisconsin, and the following year Silas Chapman published a book called In and Around Milwaukee- almost the same title as that used by the Bleyers six years before. Frank A. Flower, a Milwaukee journalist, published a history of Milwaukee county in 1881. Mr. Flower was also the author of a history of Waukesha county, a history of the Republican party, a biography of Hon. Matthew H. Carpenter, and a history of Old Abe, the famous war eagle of the Eighth Wisconsin infantry. Parker McCobb Reed in 1882 published a history of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, and a year later Julius and Herman Bleyer got out a his- torical account of the burning of the Newhall House. James S. Buck's Pioneer History of Milwaukee, in four volumes, was published during the 80's. Cramer says this history "contains a vast amount of matter relating to the settlement and development of the city. But he included much that might better have been omitted, and his work resembles a quarry rather than a gallery of sculpture." Mr. Buck was also the author of Chronicles of the Land of Columbia, which was written in a style both humorous and fantastic. Morillo A. Boardman in 1886 published a history of the Milwaukee University-High School, with biographical notes of a number of the old students. In 1895 was published a history of Milwaukee county, edited by H. L. Conard and written by specialists. The Milwaukee writers who contributed chap- ters to this work were Winfield Smith, Joshua Stark, William E. Cramer, Jerome A. Watrous, H. M. Mendell. C. C. Rogers, Nicholas Smith, W. W. Wight, John Johnston, John G. Gregory, Willard Merrill, Christian Wahl, John P. McGregor, A. C. Morrison, Emil Wallber, A. J. Rogers, Charles E. Monroc, Edward W. Frost, T. B. Snow, Mrs. Lydia Ely, Mrs. James S. Peck, Mrs. William P. Lynde, Mrs. Ferdinand Meinecke, Miss Emily P. Dunlap, Drs. Solon Marks, Walter Kempster and Lewis Sherman, Revs. Sigmond Hecht, Augus- tine F. Schinner, Henry Coleman, D. W. Hulburt, Henry T. Secrist, C. G. McNeil, William K. Frick and E. O. Loe.
The Civil war furnished the theme for several historical produc- tions, Rev. W. DeLoss Love wrote a comprehensive work on Wiscon-
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sin in the War of the Rebellion. G. S. Bradley, who was for awhile the chaplain of the Twenty-second Wisconsin infantry, wrote and pub- lished The Star Corps, the material for which was gathered on Sher- man's march to the sea. Dr. Alfred S. Castleman was the author of The Army of the Potomac Behind the Scenes. Gen. H. C. Hobart's Capture, Imprisonment and Escape was widely read. H. M. David- son wrote Fourteen Months in Southern Prisons. Herman A. Braun wrote a little volume descriptive of Andersonville and its horrors, and another work of a similar nature was Joseph Arnold's Belle Island. Solon W. Pierce, in a volume entitled Battle Fields and Camp Fires of the Thirty-Eighth Wisconsin Volunteers, gave a history of his regiment during its service. Two historical works touching the war were published in German. They were Bernard Domschke's Zwanzig Monate in Kriegsgefangenschaft, and Albert Wallber's Die Flucht aus dem Libby Gefaengniss.
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