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 II, Part 10

Author: Watrous, Jerome Anthony, 1840- ed
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Madison : Western Historical Association
Number of Pages: 1072

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BIOGRAPHICAL

since 1898 in this city, where he and his wife still reside. The other children of the family besides our subject are James A. and Sylvia W., now the wife of G. J. DeGelleke, of this city. Garrit C. De Ileus was educated in the public schools of Milwaukee, graduating from the West Division High School. After leaving school he worked for eight years for H. H. West & Co. and Nov. 1. 1906, he became manager of the Dennison Manufacturing Company, of this city. His military record consists of his being sergeant of Company F. First infantry Wisconsin National Guards. In religion he is a member of the First Reformed church, while in politics he is a Dem- ocrat. He is also a member and director of the Arion Musical Club, chairman of the educational committee of the Y. M. C. A., member of the Heptasophs, the United Commercial Travelers and the Equit- able Fraternal Union. While he may be now in a receptive mood, Cupid's chains have not yet bound him.

William V. Georg, whose artistic natural abilities as a land- scape painter are securing for him more than local recognition in Milwaukee, was born in that city Nov. 8. 1853, the son of Henry and Susanna (Rheinhard) Georg, both natives of Germany. The father was engaged in newspaper work in 1848 in Germany and owing to the Revolution was obliged to leave and joined the For- eign Legion in Africa. He learned the confectioner's trade, came to the United States, settling in Milwaukee, where he married and reared a family of ten children, nine boys and one girl. He pursued his avocation for several years in this city, being located for some time at Market and East Water streets. Our subject was educated in the public schools of the city, and soon after leaving school he went to Chicago to study painting under a then well known artist named Rastall. This being the cultivation of his natural talents, he made rapid progress. But the necessary means were wanting to afford him the advantages which his talents deserved. hence he was compelled to turn his attention to the more practical phases of his art to secure a livelihood. At sixteen years of age he started in as a house decorator and sign painter, devoting his leisure moments to landscape painting, which he made from nature. He has had many of his paintings on exhibition and they always receive high commendation. He has done a great deal of scenery work for thea- ters and public buildings and is at present engaged in painting scenery at Alhambra Theater. His recent landscape works have at- tracted the attention of local connoisseurs of art and the favorable and generous reception accorded them is affording him the gratifi- cation of the poor artist's dream, which is that he may enjoy the great pleasures of his soul's desire and feel that his art will sustain him and his. Of this there is now not the slightest fear. June 17. 1876, he married Miss Theresa, daughter of Joseph and Theresa (Stockers) Meyer, natives of Switzerland, and they are the parents of eight children, as follows: Ella, now Mrs. Herman F. Thiel : Ar- thur, an artist: Ida, now Mrs. Oscar A. Grosshuesch : Walter C .. engaged in the foreign exchange: William, Alice, Clarence and Raymond. In religion he and his family are members of the Ger-

MEMOIRS OF MILWAUKEE COUNTY

man Reformed church, and he is a member of the Republican party and of the Post Artists' Association. Like most men of refined na- tures and artistic tastes, our subject was for many years forced to wage a war against unkind fate and unfavorable circumstances, but by persistent efforts he has conquered and the clouds have rolled by ; and for many years to come may he and his artistic family live to gratify and cultivate the superior tastes with which they are en- dowed.

Jacob Moerschel is a highly esteemed resident of the city of Milwaukee, where he is noted as a pianist of exceedingly rare ac- complishments, and his success as a teacher of the fine art is evinced by the number of his pupils and the unequivocal success achieved by them under his instruction. Mr. Moerschel was born in the city of St. Louis, Mo., April 15, 1872, and is the son of Jacob and Mary (Hibbard) Moerschel, the former of whom was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the latter was a native of Missouri. The paternal grand- father was a native of Bavaria, and the name of Jacob is found in the Moerschel family in at least four generations immediately pre- ceding the present one. Jacob Moerschel, the father of him whose name introduces this review, served as a soldier in the Civil war, enlisting at St. Louis and being with the army of General Grant at the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh and other sanguinary en- gagements. With other patriotic German citizens he was instru- mental in preserving the city of St. Louis and the state of Missouri to the Union during the early days of the great conflict, and after the close of hostilities he entered the United States postal service ; but rheumatism and other ailments contracted while in the military service caused his death in 1875, and his faithful wife passed away the same year, their deaths being but three months apart. The father was an amateur artist of splendid abilities, well educated, and a musician of more than local renown. The mother was of immedi- ate Yankee ancestry, but of more remote English descent. The Moerschel family was formerly one of the foremost in the city of St. Louis, the paternal grandfather being the only large snuff manu- facturer in Missouri during his time, and different members of the family have been very prominent in pedagogical circles during the past fifty years. Jacob Moerschel was but three years old when he experienced the irreparable loss of his parents, and his rearing and education were thus consigned to others, under whose guidance he was carefully trained and fitted for the career in which he has since won well-merited distinction. He received his preliminary educa- tion in the St. Louis high school and then took several private courses in belles-lettres, after which he went abroad and studied in Vienna for a period of nearly ten years. There he took theory un- der Eugene Thomas, chief professor of composition in the Vienna Conservatory, and came into intimate contact with the Leschetsky School of Thought, also establishing close relationship with such pedagogues as Julius Epstein, Fischoff and Dachs. After his long sojourn in Europe Mr. Moerschel returned to his St. Louis home and a year later, in 1902. he selected Milwaukee as the field for his

BIOGRAPINICAL

future endeavor and soon rose to prominence in musical circles. IIe brings to his work the untiring energy which always accompanies genius, and he is a great enthusiast in regard to chamber music, in which particular line he has achieved unqualified success. Mr. Moerschel was married in the city of Vienna, Austria, Nov. 24, 1897, to Miss Maryca Pentkowski von Ostoja, daughter of Zenon Pentkowski, and to this union there have been born two sons, Jacob and Henry. Mrs. Moerschel is of a very prominent Polish family. From childhood she has been a fine pianist, and very early was en- couraged by one of the world's most renowned tenors to take up voice culture. After completing a course in the Vienna Conserva- tory of Music she studied five years with the world-famous Pauline Lucca. She has been engaged as soprano soloist in several philhar- monic concerts in Europe, and acquitted herself so creditably as to receive an abundance of favorable criticism from recognized author- ities.

August C. Miller, the efficient and capable superintendent of the Monarch Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee, was born in New Orleans, La., on Jan. 10, 1861. He is the second in order of birth of the family of Charles P. and Katherine (Schneidmiller ) Miller, both natives of Germany, the birthday of the father having been March 23, 1831, in the province of Saxony. The mother was born in Hesse Darmstadt on March 1, 1827. Ten children came to bless the union of Charles P. and Katherine Miller, and there has been no break in the family by death. The five sons and the five daughters, all of whom have made a success of life, reflect great credit upon the parents for the training in habits of industry and integrity. Although well advanced in years, both parents retain to a remarkable degree their mental faculties. While a citizen of New Orleans in 1861 Charles P. Miller was drafted to serve in the Con- federate army and for two years he rendered brave service to the Southern cause, and in 1863 received an honorable discharge. Four years after the cessation of hostilities he removed with his family to Chicago, where for more than twenty years he was employed as foreman of the upholstery department of Marshall Field & Com- pany. He then retired from active participation in business life and is spending the remaining years of his life amid most congenial sur- roundings, honored and respected by all who have been fortunate enough to become acquainted with him. August C. Miller, the sub- ject of this sketch, received his educational training in the public schools of New Orleans and Chicago. While still a youth he en- tered the employ of Samuel Liberman, of Chicago, a manufacturer of overalls, coats and the like. His first income, if such it may be called, was the small sum of $1.50 per week, but his industry and capability won him well-merited recognition, and step by step he mastered the trade until he was finally made superintendent. In 1896 he removed to Racine, Wis., to accept a more lucrative posi- tion as superintendent of a manufacturing company in that city and three years later came to Milwaukee to accept a similar position with the Cohen Brothers Company. A portion of this company 6

MEMOIRS OF MILWAUKEE COUNTY

shortly afterward became the Monarch Manufacturing Company, with which he has been associated ever since. When twenty years of age Mr. Miller was first made a foreman and although he has had large numbers of men under his direction, he has never experi- enced any difficulty in the handling of them, his rare good sense and tact averting many a labor trouble. In politics he is affiliated with the Democratic party and for twelve years, while that party was in power in Chicago, he held the office of supervisor of elections. In a religious way he is associated with the Episcopal church. His fraternal relations are with the Independent Order of Foresters and the Royal League., On Sept. 1, 1884, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Carson, a native of Sweden, and a daugh- ter of Charles Carson, a prominent horse dealer of Sweden. To this union have been born three children. The eldest, Katherine Mabel, is the wife of Clyde Biggs, an estimator of buildings for an archi- tectural firm in Chicago. The other two, Gertrude Florence and Harold Raymond, are at home. Mr. Miller is now building a new home for himself and family and will reside therein at 710 Thirty- fourth.

Quincy A. Matthews, prominent in commercial circles of Mil- waukee as a real estate and fire insurance agent, was born in Geauga county, a part of the historical Western Reserve of Ohio, on Nov. 30, 1847, the youngest of the four sons and three daughters of Anson. and Elizabeth (Durand) Matthews. The father was a country merchant in Newbury township, Geauga county, during the greater part of his active life. The esteem in which he was held by his fellow citizens may be judged by the fact that at one time he served as the representative of his district in the state legislature of Ohio, having been elected on the Republican ticket. Late in his life he removed to Illinois and finally to Milwaukee, where most of his family had located. Quincy A. Matthews attended the common schools in the vicinity of his home, and received his later education at Hiram Institute and Oberlin College. As a boy he was an inti- mate friend and personal acquaintance of the lamented James A. Garfield, who was a minister of the religious sect, the Disciples, to which Mr. Matthews' parents belonged. Garfield often called at the home of the Matthews and the subject of this memoir vividly re- calls the day when the man who was to one day attain to the high- est office within the power of the people to give, left his home for the seat of war. When Mr. Matthews was still a youth his parents removed to Illinois to engage in agricultural pursuits, the condi- tion of the father's health necessitating such a move. During his residence in that state he worked on the farm during the summer months and filled his time during the winter as baggage man at the station at the intersection of the Illinois Central and Baltimore & Ohio railroads. About 1868 he came to Milwaukee to enter the em- ploy of his brothers, then engaged in the furniture business. He started at the bottom and by perseverance and thrift worked his way to the top until he became a partner. When the firm was in- corporated as the Matthews Brothers' Manufacturing Company he

BIOGRAPHICAL

was made its treasurer. In 1893 the business was disposed of by sale and Quincy A. Matthews entered the real estate and fire insur- ance business. By the same industry which won him a partnership in the Matthews Brothers' Company he has established and main- tained a most successful business. Beside many residence and other properties he is now the manager for the Matthews building. one of the largest office buildings in Milwaukee. On May 6, 1875, Mr. Matthews was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Baudry, who died in 1900.

Edwin W. Olds, superintendent of rolling stock of the Milwau- kee Electric Railway and Light Company, a native of Vermont, was born at Franklin, Franklin county, on July 22, 1847. He is the third in order of birth in a family of three sons and a daughter of Lo- renzo and Edeline (Felton) Olds, both of whom were also born in Vermont, the former in 1802 and the latter in 1812. The father spent all of his active career as a manufacturer, owning and operat- ing a general foundry and machine shop. Edwin W. Olds, the sub- ject of this sketch, received his education in the common and high schools of Franklin and St. Albans, and when he had completed the courses given in those institutions he mastered the machinist's trade in his father's shops. His health failing, he removed to Iowa in 1870. and when his condition was such as to allow it he started the establishment of a general foundry and machine shop. After seven years of the successful conduct of this he disposed of the business and returned to St. Albans, Vt., to become general foreman of the St. Albans foundry. He served in that capacity for four years, leav- ing the work to go to Montreal, Canada, to become associated with his brother Barnard in the manufacture of harvester and threshing machinery. Three years later, his health becoming impaired, he again went to Iowa, and soon afterward to Nebraska, remaining in these states for a period of three years. The following seven years

Mr. Olds spent in Denver, Col., five years of which as master mechanic of the Denver City Tramway Com-

pany. His residence in Milwaukee dates from 1896. coming to assume the position of division superintend- ent of the street railway company. He held this position but seven months, being promoted at the end of that time to the super- intendency of rolling stock, the position he now holds. As an evidence of the growth of the responsibility upon his shoulders may be compared the number of cars in operation when he assumed the position and the number at the present time. In 1896 there were 196 cars ; at the present time about 600. Mr. Olds is one of the best known men in his line of work, taking an active part in the American Street and Interurban Railway Engineering Association, and honored by the position of president of the organization in 1903. Fraternally he is prominent in Masonic circles, being a mem- ber of the Scottish Rite Consistory and a noble of the Mystic Shrine. On Nov. 30. 1872. Mr. Olds was united in matrimony to Miss Jen- nie Potter, a native of New York, and a daughter of A. Madison Potter, who for many years was one of the best known hotel keep-

MEMOIRS OF MILWAUKEE COUNTY

ers in the Hawkeye State. To Mr. and Mrs. Olds have been born three sons. Fred Lee, the eldest, is a salesman for the Chicago Var- nish Company, with headquarters in Chicago. Albert Roy is a civil engineer for a Havana street railway company in Cuba, and How- ard Arthur, the youngest, is a student at the state university at Madison-Electrical Engineering course.

John Groom, retired, for many years one of the central figures in the commercial life of Milwaukee, was born in Boston, Mass., on April 10, 1848, the youngest of the six children of Thomas and Emily (Parker) Groom, and the fourth son. The mother was born in Boston in 1808 and the father in Birmingham, England, in 1812. The latter, when twenty-one years of age, came to America and by industry and thrift worked his way from a menial position to the head of a large wholesale and retail stationery firm, which position he occupied at the time of his death. John Groom, the subject of this memoir, received his educational advantages in the Chauncey Hall School in Boston. Upon the completion of his training he fol- lowed agricultural pursuits for a period of four or five years and in 1867 came to Wisconsin. The possibilities of lumbering in the northern woods appealed to him and from that year until 1881 he labored in the lumber camps, gaining in that time sufficient compen- sation to enable him to retire from active business life and move to Milwaukee. For twenty-seven years now he has lived in this city, honored and respected by all who know him. On July 22, 1873, Mr. Groom was united in marriage to Miss Anna Pirie, a native of New- burgh, N. Y., and a daughter of Robert Pirie, an engineer, who came to this country from Scotland. Five children have been the issue of this marriage: Emily Parker, Thomas, John, Jr .; Mary Pirie and Samuel B.

Winfield H. Cameron, the president of the Milwaukee Vacuum Machinery Company, was born at Jamestown, N. Y., Aug. 27, 1871. His father, Winfield Scott Cameron, was a native of Jamestown, N. Y., born in 1828, and his mother, Imogen (Payne) Cameron, was born at Shelbourne Falls, Mass., in 1846. When the Civil war broke out in 1861 the elder Cameron responded to the call for volunteers and enlisted as a private in the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth New York Infantry and served for four years. He was wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville and captured by the Confederates, but was soon exchanged and invalided home. After he had sufficiently re- covered he returned to the army and was under General Sherman for the entire time of his service. He served on Sherman's staff during the famous march to the sea and for gallantry in action and strict observance of duty was gradually promoted during the war from one rank to another until he held a commission as lieutenant- colonel when mustered out of the service. After the close of the war Winfield S. Cameron, who was a lawyer by profession, located in Jamestown, N. Y., and began to practice his profession. He very soon became of note locally in his profession and took part in local politics, and served a term in the state legislature. Winfield H. Cameron was his only child. He received a good elementary edu-

BIOGRAPHICAL

cation and attended Harvard College, where he graduated from the collegiate course in 1895. The next year he entered the law depart- ment of the same institution and received the degree of LL. B. in 1898. Immediately after leaving college he located in Milwaukee and began the practice of law with the firm of Miller, Noyes, Mil- ler & Wahl and remained with them about a year and a half, but abandoned his law practice to go into the bond business. He was associated with O. C. Fuller & Co. in the bond business until 1907. In 1908 he became president of the Milwaukee Vacuum Machinery Co. Oct. 15, 1901, he married Miss Julia Greer, of Louisville, Ky .. the daughter of William T. Greer. They have one son, Winfield H., Jr. Mr. Cameron is interested in athletics and is one of the bright. well-developed young business men of Milwaukee. He is popular with his friends and is a great social favorite and belongs to the Milwaukee Country Club and the Town Club.

Alexander G. Riebs, president and manager of the Union Credit Company, was born in Milwaukee on Aug. 6, 1870. Ile comes of good German stock, his mother, Anna E. (Donges) Riebs, having been born in 1844 in Lancaster, Pa., a daughter of one of the famous Pennsylvania Dutch families. The father, John Michael Riebs, was born in Strasburg, Germany, in 1834 and came to America when but fourteen or fifteen years of age. In 1855 he came to Milwaukee and secured employment as chef of the Kirby House and later filled the same position at the Newhall House. When that hostelry was destroyed by fire he became second chef at the Plankinton House, a position he held for a number of years. When he resigned it was to enter the flour and feed business with his sons under the firm name of J. M. Riebs & Sons, an occupation which kept him busy until a few years before his death, which oc- curred in 1905. During the Civil war he served as a private in Com- pany F of the Thirty-fifth Indiana volunteer infantry, and for two years was orderly private on the staff of General Thomas in the Chattanooga and Nashville campaigns. At his death he left four sons and two daughters. Alexander G. Riebs, the subject of this memoir, received his scholastic training in the First District School and the Spencerian Business College of Milwaukee. When he had completed his work in the latter institution he entered the employ of the Seaman Abstract Company and remained with that concern for a period of five years, from 1886 to 1891. He severed his con- nection with the Seaman Company to become associated with the Union Credit Company in a clerical position. By his enterprise and industry he was promoted step by step until in 1900 he was chosen president and manager of the company. Fraternally Mr. Riebs is prominent in Masonic circles, being a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. On June 24, 1903. occurred Mr. Riebs' marriage to Miss Katherine M. Winkler.

D. Milton Jones is a well-known resident of the city of Mil- waukee, where his superior qualifications as a business man have been evinced in a very successful career. He was born in New York city on March 17, 1861, the son of David H. and Elizabeth

MEMOIRS OF MILWAUKEE COUNTY

(Evans) Jones, the former of whom was also born in the city of New York in 1827 and the latter in Wales in 1820. The father was a prominent wholesale and retail dealer in groceries, in which line he made a specialty of teas and coffees, and he owned and con- ducted large establishments, both in Chicago and New York. To him and his good wife there were born two sons, of which the subject of this review is the eldest, and the second son, Samuel Jones, is the superintendent of transportation for the National Bis- cuit Company at Chicago. The parents took up their residence in Chicago while D. Milton Jones was a child, and in the public schools of that city he received his preliminary education. After leaving school he began his independent career as a dealer in lum- ber, and in that line of endeavor he gradually expanded his busi- ness until he became one of the prominent lumber men of the country and met with very flattering financial success. His prac- tice was to buy the forests of standing timber, then clear the land and ship the logs to the mills, where they were manufactured into lumber. He owned large tracts of timber land in Tennessee, Michi- gan and North Carolina, and in the course of his extensive business he shipped the first carload of walnut lumber ever taken out of Tennessee. He owned portable saw-mills in Tennessee and North Carolina and a number of permanent stationery ones in the state of Michigan. He continued in the lumber business until 1889, in which year he disposed of his extensive interests in that line and became the secretary and treasurer of the Anglo-American Pro- vision Company, which concern operated pork-packing plants at Chicago, Sioux City, Omaha, and St. Paul, and had distributing stations in all the large cities of the principal foreign countries. Mr. Jones remained with this company for a period of six years, after which he became the general freight agent for one of the leading railroads and located in Chicago. In 1898 he removed to Milwaukee as the representative of the passenger department of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and one year later he retired from that line of business and assisted in the reorganiza- tion of the Gardner Campbell Company in the iron and brass foundry business. The fine-toned bell which hangs in the city hall at Milwaukee was cast at this foundry. Mr. Jones served in the capacity of secretary, treasurer and general manager of this con- cern and remained with it until its business was finally wound up in the autumn of 1904. On Jan. 1, 1905, he became secretary of the Herman Zohrlant Leather Company, in which position he still of- ficiates, and the exacting duties of the place are performed success- fully and in keeping with up-to-date business methods. Mr. Jones has a natural taste for military affairs, and while residing in Chi- cago he served as the captain of Company I, Illinois National Guard. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, having a local membership in Wisconsin Chapter, Ivanhoe Commandery, and the Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and he is the com- mandant of the Ivanhoe Drill Corps. He is also a member of the Milwaukee Athletic Club. Mr. Jones was married on Oct. 2, 1899,

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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 II, Part 10

Author: Watrous, Jerome Anthony, 1840- ed Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Madison : Western Historical Association Number of Pages: 1072

Author: Watrous, Jerome Anthony, 1840- ed
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Madison : Western Historical Association
Number of Pages: 1072