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 59
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rience satisfied him that the life of a merchant would be distasteful to him, and returning to Milwaukee he was persuaded by his uncle, Asahel Finch, to take employment on the Evening Wisconsin. Here he learned the printer's trade and became recognized as an expert com- positor. After leaving the Evening Wisconsin he made a brief visit to St. Louis, Mo., and returning about 1850, entered the law office of Smith & Palmer, the members of this firm being Judge Abram D. Smith, one of the first justices of the supreme court of Wisconsin, and Hon. Henry L. Palmer, late president of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. As a law student he had numerous diffi- culties to encounter and overcome, but he evinced the same tenacity of purpose which was afterward so conspicuous a feature of his profes- sional career, and with the kindly encouragement and under the pre- ceptorship of Judge Palmer he completed the required course of study and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1853. Immediately there- after he went to Janesville, Wis., where he formed a partnership with another young lawyer and began practice. At the solicitation of his uncle, he soon returned to Milwaukee and entered the office of Finch & Lynde, retaining his connection with the firm as an employe, until admitted to the partnership in 1857, when the firm became Finches, Lynde & Miller. In 1865 and in 1879, and again in 1882 he made trips to Europe, but the short vacations which he allowed himself did not bring permanent relief from the strain of overwork, and his career came to an end while he was still in the prime of life. He died on March 27. 1884, after more than twenty-five years of a practice which was notably successful. Never in any sense a politician, he affiliated with the Democratic party in early life, later became a "Free Soil" Democrat, and with that element of the old Democratic party, drifted into the Republican party when that organization was formed.
David G. Hooker was a native of the state of Vermont. He re- ceived his education at Middlebury College, graduated in 1853, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1856, commencing the practice of his profession in Milwaukee. In 1864 he associated himself with H. L. Palmer, the firm being Palmer & Hooker. This firm and others with which Mr. Hooker became connected, acted as attorneys for the North- western Mutual Life Insurance Company until 1878, when he was ap- pointed counsel, which position he held for a number of years. He was city attorney in 1867-68, 1868-69, 1869-70, and mayor in 1872-73. Mr. Hookers birthplace was Poultney, Vt., and the date of his birth Sept. 14, 1830.
James Hickcox was a native of Erie county, New York ; born in the city of Buffalo, April 9, 1833 ; came west to Wisconsin in 1850, and
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entered the university at Madison, where he pursued his studies for three and one-half years, then entered the law office of Emmons & Van Dyke, where he completed reading law, and was admitted to the bar in 1857. After his admission he engaged in the practice and was associated with Robert Chandler, son of Daniel H. Chandler. Mr. Hick- cox was later connected with James G. Jenkins until 1865, when he was elected clerk of the Circuit court, and was re-elected and held that office until 1873. He also served as a member of the board of school commissioners about eight years, and was actively identified with the introduction of German into the public schools of this city.
Nathan Pereles was born on April 2, 1824, in the village of Sobo- tist, Neutra. Hungary, his parents, Herman and Judith Pereles, being both the children of rabbis, and themselves teachers in the village school. As they were very poor, the son was compelled to make his own way in the world, and when only fifteen years old became a clerk in a wholesale indigo and seed store in the city of Prague. He al- ways had a desire for an education, which desire had been fostered by his parents-and gratified so far as it lay in their power to teach him while yet at home-and after his entrance into business he attended an evening college and learned all that his opportunities and time would permit. In 1845 he came to America, bringing excellent letters of rec- ommendation to those who might have advanced his fortune, August Belmont being one of the parties addressed, but, after presenting them in New York, he decided to look out for himself. Afraid of no work that was honest, he engaged as a laborer upon a farm in New Jersey, with the privilege of attending school a portion of the time to learn the English language. In 1847 he came to Milwaukee, which was thenceforward his home. The small capital he had managed to accu- mulate by industry and economy, was waiting a safe and promising place for investment, and at the end of a year, in company with A. Neustdale and H. Scheftels, friends of his youth, he opened a retail grocery store. This arrangement continued until 1849, when he sep- arated from his partners and continued the business himself. Such success crowned his efforts that in 1854 he felt able to abandon a trade never congenial to his tastes, to prepare himself for the profession in which he later achieved great success. Entering the office of George W. Chapman, one of the best known lawyers of Milwaukee at that time, he remained there a year and was admitted to practice on Sept. II, 1857. Soon afterward he formed a partnership with R. N. Austin, later judge of the Superior court, under the firm name of Austin & Pereles, their office being located on the corner of East Water and Wisconsin streets. The firm thus constituted continued in existence
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nine years, when D. H. Johnson, later judge of the Circuit court, was added, the name of the firm being changed to Austin, Pereles & John- son. This relation was dissolved in 1869, because of Mr. Pereles' failing sight, and it was feared for a time that he would entirely lose his vision. At the expiration of six months he had sufficiently re- covered to resume once more active practice, and in order to re-estab- lish a business for his sons he opened the office in which he continued during the remainder of his life. While outspoken upon all public questions and a strong Republican, Mr. Pereles refused to enter public life, and would accept no office, either elective or appointive, though often importuned so to do, and it was out of a life of busy usefulness that he was called on Jan. 28, 1879.
Theodore B. Elliott was a native of Wayne county, New York. He came to Milwaukee in 1852 and studied law ; was admitted to the bar in 1860. In 1867 he associated himself with James G. Jenkins, and in 1874 the firm of Jenkins, Elliott & Winkler was organized.
Col. George B. Goodwin was a native of Livingston county, New York. On receiving a preparatory education he matriculated at Genes- see College, now Syracuse University, where he remained three years- then entering the senior year at Williams College, in which college he afterward graduated. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1856. After his admission he came west to Wisconsin, located at Men- asha and engaged in the practice of law. After the breaking out of the Civil war he raised a regiment. the Forty-first Wisconsin infantry, and was commissioned colonel. He went out in command of the regiment and served until the active fighting was closed. After his return from the service he came to Milwaukee and engaged in the practice of law, in which he came to be highly esteemed. In 1860 he was elected a member of the state legislature, and in 1870 he was appointed assessor of internal revenue of Milwaukee, holding that office three years.
Emmons E. Chapin was reared on the old homestead farm of his parents, Deacon Orange and Fanny (Greene) Chapin, in the town of Aurelius, about four miles west from the city of Auburn, N. Y., on the old Genessee turnpike. He attended the public and private schools and finally the academy until he reached the age of sixteen years, when he began teaching school in his native town of Aurelius. Subsequently he taught the public schools at Montezuma, and when of age was chosen superintendent of schools of Aurelius, which position he held for a few months before starting for the great West. While teaching and serving as superintendent of schools he pursued the study of law, obtaining his Blackstone, Kent and other elementary works from ex- Secretary of State Christopher Morgan, who then was the law part-
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ner of Hon. William H. Seward and a friend of the Chapin family. Mr. Chapin landed at Kellogg & Strong's dock in Milwaukee on Oct. I, 1854, and soon afterward visited different parts of the state looking for a place to locate, also writing a series of letters for the Eastern pa- pers. He finally located at Oconomowoc, where he remained until the spring of 1856, at which time he removed to Columbus, where he lived and practiced law until he came to Milwaukee in 1880. He thereafter resided in this city and continued the active practice of law until his death, May 17, 1905. In politics he was a Democrat and for a long time served as a member of the Democratic state central committee. He drafted the city charter of Columbus, and assisted in securing its passage by the legislature in 1874, and contributed greatly to the or- ganization of the city and its free high school.
Daniel G. Rogers was a native of West Point, Orange county, New York, born Nov. 20, 1824. He attended school and graduated at Montgomery Academy, after which he became assistant principal of that institution, and he also served as principal of the school for five years. He studied law and entered the Ballston Spa Law School, where he graduated in 1847. He engaged in the practice of law in Mont- gomery, N. Y., for some years, coming to Milwaukee first in 1853, and after 1856 practiced his profession here until his death in 1903.
Samuel Howard came West with his parents as a child and spent almost his entire life in Wisconsin. He took up his residence in Mil- waukee in 1846 and began the practice of his profession here in 1866. He was graduated at the University of Michigan in the class of 1862, at the end of a full classical course. He soon thereafter entered the military service in the Civil war and served six months as an aide on the staff of Gen. John C. Starkweather. He read law with Jedd P. C. Cottrill and Hon. A. R. R. Butler, distinguished representatives of the early bar of Milwaukee, and was admitted to practice in 1866. For a dozen years or more he was engaged in general practice, and then turned his attention mainly to that branch of the law which relates to probate, trust, real estate and commercial business. He was assistant district attorney under Mr. Cottrill, and for some years was engaged to a considerable extent in criminal practice, but withdrew from it as soon as he found himself able to do so. He had a short experience also in journalism, having been at one time city editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel. Mr. Howard died in 1900.
To go further in the cnumeration of the members of the bar would be to trench upon the domain of the present, and discuss the characters of men still upon the stage of public life, which hardly comes within the province of this chapter. The bar has grown rapidly in numbers,
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and it is not too much to say that Milwaukee has always been noted for the ability of its lawyers. It is said of an old Pennsylvania law- yer that he was once examining a candidate for admission to the bar, and asked him the stock question, "What is a court?" "A court," said the applicant, pompously, "is a place where justice is judiciously administered." "Not always," said the examining lawyer, shaking his head, "not always." The answer given in Blackstone is "a place where justice is judicially administered." The difference between judicially and judiciously is a marked one; and yet it may safely be said of the Milwaukee county courts that, from the first, they have been places where justice is both judicially and judiciously administered.
Prior to 1858 there was no organized association of the bar in Milwaukee. There had been occasional gatherings at bar suppers, where the attorneys had met at different times for social intercourse, and also from time to time they met to pay their tribute of respect to deceased associates. But early in the year mentioned above a plan of definite and permanent organization was proposed, and during that year several meetings were held to perfect it. The original purpose of the organization was to establish and maintain a higher standard of professional acquirements and deportment, and to promote a proper degree of harmony among the members of the bar, this declaration being found in the preamble of the constitution adopted. The association also contemplated organizing a law library and a law school, and with that project in view, in May, 1858, secured the passage of an act which authorized the formation of corporations for such purposes. Steps were taken to organize under this act, and Messrs. Edward G. Ryan, Nelson Cross, Henry L. Palmer, John B. D. Cogswell, James S. Brown, Otis H. Waldo, Ammi R. R. Butler, Jonathan E. Arnold and Norman J. Emmons were appointed by the Bar Association to sign and record the written testimonial required by the act, as the incorporators of the "Milwaukee Law Institute." They performed this duty in October. 1858, and books of subscription to the capital stock of the institute were opened, but the necessary amount was not subscribed and the project fell through. The association was maintained, however, as a social or- ganization and became known as the Milwaukee Bar Association. Its first permanent officers were chosen on June II, 1858, and were Jona- than E. Arnold, president ; Hon. Levi Hubbell, vice-president ; Otis H. Waldo, treasurer ; John B. D. Cogswell, secretary, and William P. Lynde and Henry L. Palmer, executive committee. The date of the organization was celebrated by a dinner at the Newhall House, then but recently opened, and much enthusiasm was manifested, the greater number of the members of the bar being present. Mr. Arnold served
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as president until his death, in June, 1869, and Mr. Cogswell continued in the capacity of secretary until he left the city in 1868. William P. Lynde succeeded Mr. Arnold as president for a brief period ; and then A. R. R. Butler was elected to the office and filled the position until June. 1883. Then, being about to leave the city for a somewhat indefi- nite period, owing to ill-health, he declined a re-election and Joshua Stark was chosen his successor, thereafter filling the position for a number of years. The present officers of the Bar Association are as follows: John J. Maher, president : John O. Carbys, vice-president ; Carl F. Geilfuss, secretary.
A Law Library Association which was formed by the members of the bar has been in existence a number of years, and it has gathered a large and well selected library, containing most of the English and American Reports, both federal and state, and many other valuable legal works.
CHAPTER XVIII.
FINANCE AND INDUSTRIES.
BANKING HISTORY-WISCONSIN MARINE AND FIRE INSURANCE COM- PANY-STATE BANKS-BANK RIOTS-NATIONAL BANKS-PANICS AND FAILURES-MANUFACTURING-CHAMBER OF COMMERCE- MERCHANTS' AND MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION-CITIZENS BUSI- NESS LEAGUE-OTIIER SOCIETIES-LAKE COMMERCE-RAILROADS- STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM.
Although the bank is an effect rather than the cause of indus- trial or commercial activity in any city or community, it is gen- erally a good index to the state of industrial or commercial pros- perity. In a review of the trade, manufacturing and transportation interests of Milwaukee it is therefore eminently proper that its banking history should be first considered.
During the era of settlement, and even after the territory was organized, the people of Wisconsin were not friendly to banks. This was chiefly due to the unstable character of the currency then in circulation. Most of the paper money of that day was issued by private banking concerns, remote from Milwaukee, and went current only so long as some man of known integrity and business standing -said it was good. Nor was this prejudice-if prejudice it can be called-indigenous to the Western frontier. Many of the pioneers had been forced to leave their homes in the older states and begin life anew on the margin of civilization through the failure of some "wild-cat" bank. Hence the antipathy to banks whose solvency was liable at any moment to be called into question. Notwithstanding this hostility, the first territorial legislature in 1836 chartered three banks-the Miners' Bank of Dubuque, the Bank of Mineral Point, and the Bank of Milwaukee, their authorized capital being $200,000 each, with power to issue circulating notes equal to three times their capital stock. The
HON. WILLIAM GEORGE BRUCE
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Bank of Wisconsin at Green Bay had been chartered by the legis- lature in 1835, and Conard's History of Milwaukee says: "The ca- reer of the four banks just mentioned was neither long nor hon- orable. What bills they issued they failed to redeem; what loans they made were largely to land speculators, who were crushed in the crash of 1837."
The act creating the Bank of Milwaukee named Rufus Parks, Horace Chase, James Sanderson, Giles S. Brisbin, Sylvester W. Dunbar, Solomon Juneau, George Bowman, Jesse Rhodes, and Cyrus Hawley as the first board of directors, with authority to re- ceive subscriptions to the capital stock, and designated the first Monday in June, 1837, as the date for opening the stock books. The board organized in January, 1837, by the election of S. W. Dundar as president, but it was not until December following that the bank provided itself with stationery, books, safe, etc. At that time the bank's cash capital consisted of $160-the first payment on sixteen shares of stock that had been subscribed by the directors when the books were first opened. On Dec. 18, 1837, Francis K. O'Farrell subscribed for the remainder of the stock and was ap- pointed "fiscal agent and cashier." Payments amounting to about forty per cent. of the subscriptions were made and the bank opened in the office of Rufus Parks.
Some business was transacted, but on Feb. 19, 1838, the di- rectors became suspicious of the actions of the fiscal agent, who was on that date directed to file a bond and bring all property of the bank before the board. At the same meeting a call of forty per cent. was made on the stock, "to be paid on or before the 24tl1 of April next, at the banking-house in Milwaukee." O'Farrell re- fused to produce the property of the bank as directed, and the di- rectors took steps to protect themselves against any negotiable pa- per he might hold or against any stock he might sell. As he did not respond to the call of February 19 for the payment of forty per cent. of his subscription, his stock (1,984 shares), under the pro- visions of the charter, reverted to those who paid the assessment.
In the meantime a special committee of the legislature, ap- pointed to investigate the affairs of the bank, reported that it had not "gone into operation according to the provisions of its charter," and on March II, 1839, the act of incorporation was repealed, the repealing act providing that "the charter granted by said act be and the same is hereby annulled, vacated and made void." Such is the history, briefly told, of the first bank established by law in the city of Milwaukee.
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Following the failures of the banks incorporated in 1836 the territorial legislature grew more conservative, and for a session or two appended to every bill granting a charter the clause that "nothing in this bill shall be construed as authorizing the corpora- tion to transact the business of banking." The legislature of 1839, however, passed an act incorporating the State Bank of Wisconsin, but the charter was repealed by the act of April 10, 1843. Another institution incorporated by the legislature of 1839 was the Wiscon- sin Marine and Fire Insurance Company, with headquarters in Milwaukee. Flower's History of Milwaukee (page 1071) says : "The charter was granted to two young Scotchmen, recently from Aberdeen, named George Smith and Alexander Mitchell, who had come West in the interest of the Scottish Illinois Land Investment Company, and having in the prosecution of their business become thoroughly acquainted with the wants of the growing West, de- termined to supply what was absolutely wanting at that time-a reliable banking-house-and so far as the means and skill at their command would warrant, a redeemable and safe currency."
By the provisions of the charter, which was to extend to the first Monday in January, 1868, the company was given power "to make contracts of insurance upon life and against losses or dam- ages by fire or otherwise of any houses or boats, ships, vessels or buildings, and of any goods, chattels or personal estate; and to re- ceive money on deposit, and loan the same on bottomry, respond- entia, or any other satisfactory security at such rates of interest as could be done by individuals." The charter further provided for five directors ; for holding an annual meeting on the first Monday in June; the methods in which the company might employ its cap- ital-"provided nothing herein contained shall give the said com- pany banking privileges." The company organized on May 7, 1839, by electing as directors Hans Crocker, William D. Scott, Patrick Strachan, William Brown and George Smith, the last named being chosen president. This board of directors served until the first Monday in June (the date fixed by law for the annual meeting), when Patrick Strachan, Thomas Webster, William Smith, Alex- ander Mitchell, and George Smith were elected for the full term, and soon afterward the company opened for business in a little frame building on the west side of Broadway, about half-way be- tween Mason and Wisconsin streets.
As the company was authorized to receive money on deposit, it was necessary that the depositor should be given some evidence of the transaction. The company adopted a certificate of deposit,
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engraved like a bank note, signed by George Smith, president, and Alexander Mitchell, secretary, and made "payable on demand to bearer." Thus the institution, despite the restrictions of the char- ter that it should not engage in the banking business, furnished a currency that was good not only in Milwaukee and the immediate vicinity, but also throughout the Mississippi valley and the region about the Great Lakes. Says Moses M. Strong, in his History of the Territory of Wisconsin: "This is a striking illustration of the futility of legislative restrictions upon the exercise of corporate powers, especially when sustained, as that company undoubtedly was, by popular sentiment."
The company unquestionably deserved the popular support it received, as it promptly redeemed its certificates on demand, and in other ways tried to merit the confidence of the people. Conse- quently, the certificates circulated freely as currency, being re- ceived so willingly that in time they supplanted in a great meas- ure the bills issued by several old-style banks in other cities. These rival banks, jealous of the success of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company, made several attempts to destroy its credit by organizing runs upon its resources. Certificates aggre- gating large amounts would be suddenly presented for redemption, without previous notice, hoping to catch the institution short of funds, but Mr. Mitchell was always prepared for the emergency and met every demand. The company further strengthened its credit by the establishment of branch offices in the principal cities of the country for the redemption of its certificates, and the runs finally ceased.
In April, 1843, the legislature appointed a joint committee to investigate the affairs of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insur- ance Company. At the next session the committee reported that the company was solvent, but that the issue of cerificates "intended to circulate and circulating as money" was the exercise of a bank- ing function, which was expressly prohibited by the charter, and recommended that the charter be repealed. No action was taken at that time, but on Jan. 29, 1846, the governor approved a bill an- nulling the charter. The officers of the company sought the ad- vice of their attorneys, who instructed them to go ahead with their business ; that the charter could not be revoked, and that a court of law was the proper place to determine whether or not the char- ter had been violated. Acting upon this counsel, Messrs. Smith and Mitchell on Jan. 30, 1846, issued the following circular :
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