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 122

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

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 II > Part 122

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MEMOIRS OF MILWAUKEE COUNTY

natures to a memorial to Congress urging an early completion of the breakwater, and in addition secured the adoption of a resolution by the Chamber of Commerce, endorsing the purpose of the memorial. This entailed considerable labor, but Mr. Walwig persisted, and through the energetic assistance of Congressman Theobald Otjen at Washington, an appropriation of $200,000 was secured to further the work, which was placed under the continuous contract system, thus insuring steady progress. This achievement was a revelation of the energetic methods which have insured results in everything that Mr. Walwig has undertaken.

Moritz Krauskopf, retired, for many years one of the prom- inent tailors of the city, was born in Prussia, Germany, on April 16, 1844. He is the fifth child in order of birth of Harry and Rosalie Krauskopf, both natives of Prussia. The father was a tailor who spent all his life in Germany. The mother came to the United States after his death and passed the rest of her life in New York. Moritz Kraus- kopf, the subject of this review, received his education in the common schools of Germany. In 1858 he came to the United States and located in New York city, where he was engaged at his trade until the breaking out of hostilities in the Civil war. Then he enlisted in Company C of the Thirty-first New York infantry, known as the "Montezuma Regi- ment," and served in the capacity of a private for two years. The regiment left New York for Washington on June 24, 1861, and became a part of the Second brigade, Fifth division, Army of Northeastern Virginia. On proceeding to the seat of war its first encounter with the enemy was at Fairfax Court House. Then it participated in the first battle of Bull Run, and upon its return to Washington it was made a part of the Third brigade of Franklin's division. The winter of 1861-62 was passed at Fort Ward. After some maneuvers in the northern part of Virginia as a part of the Third brigade, First divi- sion, First army corps, Army of the Potomac, the regiment returned to Alexandria in March, 1862. On May 7, the Thirty-first was engaged at West Point and lost in killed, wounded, or missing, eighty-three men. Later in the same month the division became a part of the Sixth corps and was one of the participants in the disastrous Peninsular campaign. It was in camp at Harrison's Landing until August 15 and was then ordered to Newport News, and it guarded the Fairfax railroad at Burke's Station. At Crampton's Gap in the battle of Antietam the Thirty-first saw some hard fighting, as it did also in the battle of Fred- ericksburg in December. The regiment went into winter quarters at White Oak Church, but in January of the following year left them to engage in the "Mud March." Later the winter quarters were again occupied until the beginning of the Chancellorsville movement in the spring. At Mary's Heights the loss of the Thirty-first was 142 killed wounded, or missing. On June 4, 1863, the regiment was mustered out in New York city, its term of enlistment having expired. After Mr. Krauskopf had received his honorable discharge he again became actively engaged in his vocation in New York city. In 1876 he came to Milwaukee and opened a tailoring establishment. This business kept him occupied until 1898, when he retired from active business and is

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now living comfortably in the fine residence at 2949 Chestnut street. which he built in 1897. In politics Mr. Krauskopf is not allied with any of the existing political parties, being guided more by principle than party in the exercise of his right of suffrage. His religious asso- ciations are with Temple B'ne Israel Ansche Ungran. Mr. Kraus- kopf was united in marriage on Jan. 16, 1866, to Miss Hannah Krunt, of New York city. Seven children came to bless this union. Max, the eldest, is employed in the office of the city tax commissioner ; Ned is a druggist ; Jacob is a traveling salesman ; Harry is a bookkeeper ; Sam- 11el is in business in Texas ; Regina is the wife of Dr. D. H. Lando, of Milwaukee ; and Laura is at home.

Joseph A. Warren, late of Wauwatosa, Wis., and one of the carliest and most prominent pioneers of Milwaukee county, was born at Grafton, Mass., on June 17, 1815. He was the descendant of sturdy New England stock, and his paternal grandfather, Jo- seph A., was a soldier in the War of the Revolution. On that memorable 19th of April, 1775, the grandfather marched from Grafton to Lexington as a sergeant in Capt. Luke Drury's company, which performed valiant service against the British "Redcoats" on that historic occasion, and he afterward participated in numer- ous other expeditions for the relief of various towns besieged by the British. The great-grandfather of our subject commanded the re- lief expedition to Fort William Henry, March 25, 1857. Our sub- ject's father was John Warren, born in Grafton, Mass., Nov. 28, 1767, and a prominent shoe manufacturer of that city, where he established the first shoe factory ever started there. The mother was Susanna (Grout) Warren, a native of Westborough, Mass., born in the year 1780. John E., a son of our subject, is one of the honored veterans of the Civil war. He enlisted first in Company B, First Wisconsin volunteers, in May, 1861, and left the state June IO, returning in August after the expiration of a three months' period of enlistment. He served in the Harper's Ferry region, crossing the river into Virginia at Williamsport on July 2. He again enlisted in the Seventh Wisconsin Battery in the fall of 1861. This battery was in camp in Racine until March 15, 1862, when it went south ; serving through the Island No. 10 campaign, and after- ward in West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi until the expi- ration of the war. A considerable part of the members of this bat- tery accepted what was known as the veteran enlistment, early in 1864, agreeing to serve until the expiration of the war; their or- iginal enlistment having been for three years. John E. Warren was one of that number. He was captured after the battle of Brice's Crossroads, June 10, 1864, and was taken to the Andersonville stock- ade, where he remained until November 19, eventually returning to the battery at Memphis, Tenn., in March, 1865. Shortly afterward he was detailed to service with Company F, Second United States Colored light artillery, with which battery he remained for a con- siderable period, but afterward returned to the Seventh Wisconsin battery and was mustered out with it at Milwaukee in August, 1865, having served somewhat more than four years. He participated in

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the battle of Falling Waters, in Virginia, in July, 1861; in the Island No. 10 campaign in the spring of 1862; the battle of Park- er's Crossroads, December, 1863: and Brice's Crossroads, in June, 1864. He has prepared a highly interesting and vivid picture of his experiences in Andersonville prison, in the form of a lecture. Joseph A. Warren, our subject, received an excellent education in a Quaker school at Bolton, Mass. In early life, and while still living in the East, he followed the vocation of architect and car- penter. He came west in the year 1839, to Wauwatosa, Wis., where he bought the fine farm which he subsequently cleared and im- proved, and which now forms a part of the estate left by him on his death, June 24, 1903. He was long known as one of the substantial and prosperous farmers of Milwaukee county. He was a man of strictest integrity in all his dealings with his fellow men, and has bequeathed to his descendants an honored and respected name. Mr. Warren was a prominent member of the Pioneer Associa- tion of Milwaukee county, and devoted much time and energy to promoting the movement which led to the formation of this society of pioneer settlers. From the time the Republican party was first organized, he was a firm believer in the great underlying principles of that political organization, though he never sought public pre- ferment on his own behalf. He was a sincere Christian gentleman, of simple and earnest faith, and a liberal-handed supporter of the Congregational church, with which he was affiliated for so many years. Mr. Warren was twice married. His first wife was Miss Sarah Potter, daughter of Ebenezer and Susanna (Brigham) Pot- ter, of Fitzwilliam, Cheshire county, N. H. This marriage took place on Feb. 10, 1837, and three children were the fruit of the union, two of whom are still living. The oldest child, Maria S., is the wife of the late H. R. Hayden and resides at East Hartford, Conn. ; the second child, John E., already referred to as a veteran of the Civil war, is identified in a business way with the paper mills at Cumberland Mills, Maine ; the third child, Sarah H., died in early maturity, at the age of twenty-one. The father lost his first wife in February, 1842. His second wife, whom he married in Septem- ber, 1844, was Harriet Green, a daughter of Noah and Betsey ( Harwood) Green, of Windsor, Mass., where she was born Dec. 29, 1817. She came to Wisconsin with her parents in June, 1844, and died Jan. 28, 1899. Three children were born of this union: George H., who died in early childhood, at the age of eight years ; Harriet F., wife of Oliver Loomis, deceased, late of Ypsilanti, Mich. ; and Carrie G., who resides at Wauwatosa, Wis. Miss Carrie G. Warren is a charter member of the Milwaukee chapter, Daugh- ters of the American Revolution, and of the Woman's Club, of Wauwatosa, in both of which she takes an active part. She is a life- long member of the Congregational church.

Thomas W. Dunbar was born in Caledonia, Minn., March IO, 1872, being the son of Thomas and Marion (Hicks) Dunbar, the father born in Suffield, Conn., Jan. 6. 1840. and the mother in Nassau, New York, Fcb. 7. 1845. Marion, Luella, and Charles B., are the other

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members of the family. The paternal grandfather and his family came West in the fifties, settling at Caledonia, Minn. The father moved to La Crosse, Wis., where he lived until 1879, when he located in Mil- waukee, where he and his family have resided ever since, excepting the few years his business called him, first to Cleveland, Ohio, to man- age the Gordon Stock Farin, and then to Trenton, N. J., as manager of the famous Fashion Stud Farm. Soon after moving his family to Milwaukee, Mr. Dunbar purchased a piece of land on the Watertown Plank Road, and then lying outside of the city limits but since annexed, and which is now one of the beautiful residence points on the West Side, known as Dunbar Place. Young Dunbar, the subject of our sketch, early developed a keen interest in Natural History, and the years he spent on the stock farms and in the country gave him great opportunity to study nature in its many phases. This insight aroused an ambition in him to attain an education, and he was preparing for Princeton College when his health failed him and he was forced to give up his studies and return West again. He then attended Beloit Col- lege, this state. After leaving college he entered the life insurance business in the home office of the Northwestern Mutual Life, after- ward taking up field work for the company in Chicago. He left the Northwestern to become assistant general agent in Wisconsin for the Penn Mutual Life, of Philadelphia, in which capacity he served for several years. Meanwhile he took up the study of the fine arts as a pastime and became very much interested in the subject. His library on art kept growing constantly and he was unconsciously preparing himself for a different profession which he afterward embraced. To some it may seem quite a leap from the advocating of life insurance, a necessity, to paintings and art objects, which are looked upon as a mere gratification of one's finer impulses. Indeed, Mr. Dunbar thought at first that to cultivate the love for art was only incidental to men and women. Now, he looks upon the subject as entirely different. He feels that it is a real necessity, though it be an aesthetic one, and with this conviction firmly fixed he visits the larger cities of the Middle West, where he exhibits his large and rare collection of paintings, lecturing on modern art and interesting the people in this broad and beautiful sub- ject. This brings him in contact with the most refined and cultured people in each locality, and this fact alone has been very potent in bringing to Mr. Dunbar a knowledge of the affairs of men from that view-point which is so rarely acquired. While Mr. Dunbar was with the Penn Mutual he organized the Carlton Club, of Milwaukee, and served as president for two terms. He had a definite object in view in this work which he accomplished. He desired to establish a club for young men where only healthful and good influences would surround them. At the time of organization, the objects of the club received considerable publicity through the daily press, and the announcement that the cardinal point would be the elimination of all liquors from the club premises, aroused the interests of fathers and mothers who had sons growing into young manhood. Within two months after the thirty-four young men, whom Mr. Dunbar called to meet him at the Pfister Hotel, had organized the club had a membership of 350. The

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problem of entertaining this group of lively boys was not an easy one to solve, but Mr. Dunbar and his assistants devised ways and means. and through the generosity and good offices of that great public-spirited man, the late Hon. John Johnson, a fine club-house was secured at the corner of Grand avenue and Twelfth street. Through the personnel of the club and the varied novel entertainments provided, the club was kept before the public always in a favorable light, although it was obliged to withstand much ridicule because of its stand on the liquor question. It was while Mr. Dunbar was president of the Carlton Club that the Society Derby was run at the State Fair, and the day will never be forgotten by those who attended in the interest of one or another of the six clubs which participated. Fully thirty thousand peo- ple were present that day, and the riders on their spirited running horses, and donned in satin blouses and caps made in the colors of the respective clubs, presented a sight that filled the vast audience with excitement and admiration. Clarence R. Falk, in orange and green, rode for the Country Club ; Wm. T. Taylor, black, red and gold, for the Deutscher ; Dr. F. W. Heineman, purple and white, for the Elks ; Ed. O. Oliver, white and blue, for the Yacht Club; George Schultze, red and orange, for the Calumet ; and Mr. Dunbar, in purple and gold, for the Carltons. The half-mile dash was won by Dunbar for the Carltons amid the most intense excitement of the spectators, and the three-hundred-dollar punch bowl which he won graces his side-board at his modest but artistic little home on Dunbar Place. On June 19, 1907, he married Miss Louise, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Lee Scott, of Jerseyville, Ill. His wife is of Southern blood, coming from the well-known family of Lees of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Dun- bar have a little daughter, Martha Louise, born June 22, 1908. Mr. Dunbar is a charter member of the Blue Mound Country Club, and also of the re-organized Milwaukee Athletic Club.

Leo S. Kosak, a linotype operator employed by the Kuryer Publishing Company, was born in Milwaukee, Jan. 10, 1881. He is the son of John and Catherine (Wyrzykowski) Kosak, both of whom were born in the province of Posen, German Poland. His paternal grandparents, with their two children, John and Mary-the latter now the wife of Anton Baranowski-migrated to the United States in 1871 and located in Milwaukee, where they lived the rest of their lives. John Kosak, the father, is a tanner by trade, and for many years has been employed by the Pfister-Vogel Company. He reared a family of three children : Alois, Leo S., and Anastasia. Leo was given the benefit of the scholastic training afforded by St. Hyacinth's parochial school and St. Joseph's normal school, where he took a thorough business course, which included typewriting, shorthand, bookkeeping, and commercial branches. After finishing his course at the normal school he studied law for two years and was a reporter in a justice court for four years. Mr. Kosak became interested in newspaper work, was offered a posi- tion with the Kuryer Publishing Company, and was placed in charge of the South Side office. After occupying this position for two years Mr. Kosak took up the operation of the linotype machine, and since then has been employed as an expert linotype operator by the Kuryer

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Publishing Company. On March 1, 1905, he was united in marriage to Miss Stanislawa, the daughter of Andrew and Joanna (Okonski) Golla, carly Polish settlers of Milwaukee. The issue of this marriage has been two children, Lucy and Casimir. Mr. Kosak and his family are members of St. Stanislaus Polish Catholic church. He is a mem- ber of the Polish National Alliance and politically is not associated with any party. In July, 1891, he enlisted as a private in Company K, First Wisconsin infantry, Wisconsin National Guard; a year later he was promoted to corporal, and in 1903 to sergeant, and he served in that rank for three years. On May 21, 1906, he successfully took an examination for promotion to second lieutenant, and a year later he received a commission as first lieutenant and still holds that position in the company.

Edmund Gram, sole proprietor of the Edmund Gram Music House, the leading establishment of its kind in the state, and president of the Gram-Richsteig Piano Company, recently organized, was born in Buffalo, N. Y., on Aug. 23, 1863. He is a son of Charles and Louisa (Lohous) Gram, the former of whom was born in Magdeburg, Germany, on May 22, 1834, and the latter in Buffalo, N. Y., on Sept. 25, 1842. On the maternal side Mr. Gram is descended from Henry Adam, who lived all his life in Germany and won renown in that coun- try. Charles Gram, the father, came to the United States with his parents when but three years of age. The family located in Buffalo and there the father was reared. It was there, also, that he was united in marriage, on Aug. 26, 1860, to Miss Louisa Lohous. He was a minister of the gospel of the Lutheran faith, and being tendered a call to St. Paul's Lutheran church of this city he removed here with his family and began his labors on Dec. 19, 1873. He was the father of four children-one son, Edmund, and three daughters : Tillie, now Mrs. George Goetting, of Altamont, Ill .; Alvin, who resides with the fam- ily ; and Clara, now deceased. Edmund Gram, the subject of this review, received his education in the public schools of Milwaukee and Markham's Academy (now Milwaukee Academy), and laid the founda- tion for his business career by a course in the Spencerian Business Col- lege. While still a youth he displayed a genius for business. While a boy he sold old iron, rags, and pigeons, until he had accumulated a sufficient sum to purchase a small hand-press, on which he printed visiting cards, and he appointed youthful agents in the city and near-by towns to take orders and deliver his articles of trade. From this small beginning the business developed into large proportions, and he only disposed of his printing outfit to his associates that he might enter the academy to prepare himself for a more extended career. When he had completed his course at the Spencerian Business College he was engaged in pedagogic work for a year. From his boyhood he had an intense love for music and had never neglected an opportunity to be- come proficient in the various branches of it. After the year he spent in teaching school he was instructor to a large class of students learn- ing to perform upon the violin. He also directed choruses and founded the Lyra Male Quartet, of which he is still the director and which this year celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding. Subse-

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quently he entered the service of Blair & Persons, a wholesale crock- ery firm of Milwaukee, and worked his way from bill clerk to the posi- tion of head bookkeeper and confidential man of that firm. While serving in this capacity he gained business experience which proved of great value to him in after life, especially during the transfer of the business of the old firm to a new stock company, the Blair-Andree Company. Later he accepted a position as head bookkeeper of the Philip Best Brewing Company, and here again his business insight and sagacity were broadened during the transfer of these enormous inter- ests from the Best company to the Pabst Brewing Company. Mr. Gram is a man of fine ideals and business ability, and, as evidenced by his great success in everything which he has undertaken, he may properly be styled a practical idealist. Under the firm name of Gerber & Gram he opened a music store on National avenue about 1883. Like every other venture to which he had directed his attention, the busi- ness prospered and the quarters became too small, so he purchased his partner's interest and personally erected a modern five-story building at 207 and 209 Grand avenue. When he took possession of the building he occupied only the basement and the first floor, leasing the second floor to the Luehning Conservatory of Music, while the Commercial Club occupied the remainder of the building. He is now not only using the whole of his own building, but also leases four floors of the adjoin- ing block in order to house his enormous stock of musical instruments. The fifth floor of his own building, the appointments of which are extremely artistic throughout, serves as a concert hall. Mr. Gram is state agent for the world's best makes of pianos, among them the Stein- way, the Weber, the Everett, and the Steck-the entire Aeolian line- and the world famous "Welte Artistic Player." During the course of the past year (1908) the Gram-Richsteig Piano Manufacturing Com- pany was organized, with Mr. Gram, whose quarter of a century's experience especially fits him, as president, and Max Richsteig as sec- retary and general manager. The firm occupies a six-story building at 416-418-420 Eleventh street. Mr. Richsteig is a man of high ar- tistic ideas, was born in Germany, and learned his art under the pre- ceptorship of the great Edward Werner, a piano manufacturer of Berlin, and Henry Kroeger, the superintendent of the Steinway Piano Company. He has served as manager of some of the largest piano plants in Germany and the United States and is recognized by the profession as one of the ablest piano builders in the country. In his political relations Mr. Gram is not allied with any of the existing po- litical parties, and although he is a staunch believer in the tenets of the Republican party he does not permit his party fealty to influence the judicious exercise of his right of suffrage, nor has he ever been a candidate for public office. He is identified with all of the leading musical societies of Milwaukee, was for a time vice-president of the Calumet Club, and is now a member of the Millioki Club, the Mer- chants' and Manufacturers' Association, the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Greater Milwaukce Association, and the Citizens' Business League. On Jan. 30. 1890, Mr. Gram was united in marriage to Miss Leonora Beyer, of Detroit, Mich., a daughter of Charles and Johanna (Bar-

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thauer ) Beyer. Mrs. Gram is a graduate of Mechan's School of Music, of Detroit, and is a lady of rare musical talent in both the in- strumental and vocal branches. Her brilliant accomplishments have frequently delighted public audiences in this city. Her sister, nee Miss Emma Beyer, now Mrs. J. Farrant Lewis, of Detroit, is one of the most accomplished musicians of the Michigan city. To Mr. and Mrs. Gram have been born five daughters, whose names and dates of birth follow : Viola, April 3, 1891 ; Agnes, Oct. 16, 1893 ; Gertrude, Dec. 25, 1894; Dorothy, Aug. 29, 1902; and Lois, Nov. 10, 1904. During the past year Mr. Gram has purchased a handsome residence at 3311 Highland boulevard, which was ready for occupancy during the summer.

Jacob F. Donges, Jr., a prominent merchant of Milwaukee, was born in this city, Jan. 1, 1860. He is a son of Jacob F. and Eliza- beth Donges, both of whom were born in Germany, the father in 1814 and the mother Jan. 27, 1828. The paternal grandfather was born in 1781, and died in this city in 1862. The father came to Mil- waukee in 1842, was a cabinet builder by trade, and was one of the first justices of the peace in the city. He also had the distinc- tion of being a member of the first brass band-playing a clarinet- organized in the city. In 1860 he became janitor of the city hall and held the position until his death, Sept. 14, 1871. The mother passed away July 3, 1900. The educational advantages of our sub- ject, Jacob F. Donges, Jr., were exceedingly limited, owing to the fact that at his father's death, in 1871, he assumed the position of janitor of the city hall in order to support his widowed mother and the other six children in the family. The work involved in the position was extremely difficult for a mere boy, but he did it thoroughly and well and won the admiration and respect of all who had or did business at the city offices. At that time there was no central heating plant for the whole building, wood stoves being used in all the offices, and each day he and his sisters carried over a cord of wood up several flights of stairs. The first coal stove in- stalled in the city, which for many years was the only one in the building, was called the "Morning Glory," and for several months was the object of much admiration on the part of all the visitors. Mr. Donges can relate many interesting incidents of the old city hall. He had a boy's natural desire for pets, and as his duties kept him from home the greater part of his time he determined to make the best of his opportunities, and using the city hall tower as a dove cote he raised a flock of pigeons. On the occasion of any great celebration it was the custom of the people to stack some three cords of wood in front of the city hall, and after setting fire to it to enjoy themselves around the huge bonfire. He recalls that in 1872 an epidemic was prevalent among the horses and all the animals belonging to the fire department were afflicted. The chief of the department had recourse to oxen to draw the apparatus, and it occasionally happened that the oxen would become panic stricken and run pell-mell into buildings or anything else in their way, and it would require a large number of men with ropes to control the

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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 122

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