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 6
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Matthew Keenan .- Among the many brave and enterprising immigrants who sought the friendly shores of the United States in the latter part of the Eighteenth and the early part of the Nine- teenth centuries, seeking here that freedom of worship and oppor- tunity denied them in Ireland, the land of their forefathers, men whose families first settled in New York and afterwards came to Wisconsin, were the Keenans, who reached Milwaukee in 1837. The family consisted of the father, James Keenan, his wife and three children: Catherine, Margaret and Matthew. The last, our subject, was born on Jan. 26, 1825, at Manlius, Onondaga county, N. Y. The parents were natives of New York, where the father was a farmer for many years, after which he resolved to push far- ther west and chose Milwaukee as his destination ; but both he and his wife died soon after reaching the straggling aggregation of huts and crude houses that then constituted the village which was des- tined within the lifetime of our subject to be one of the great cities of the United States, the present city of Milwaukee. Our subject was an only son, and by the death of his parents became a bread winner for his two sisters. At this time in Milwaukee opportuni- ties for receiving an education were very limited, but if they had
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been good this poor orphan boy could not well have availed himself of them. He was twelve years of age when he reached the village, and his meager schooling was gained by a few months' attendance in a room of what was commonly called Juneau court-house ; but, as he was afterwards wont to say with pardonable pride, he was self-educated, and in this as in everything else to which he turned his hands during a long and eventful life, he did his work well, for he was generally considered a man of refinement and scholarly at- tainments. His first employment was in 1839, when he became a clerk in a dry-goods store kept by a William Brown, Jr., which store he and a friend purchased later, prosecuting the business un- der the firm name of Hayden & Keenan until 1852, when he was elected clerk of the Circuit Court, in which his services were so superbly satisfactory that he was elected for four terms of two years each. Previous to this he had studied law and was admitted to practice. In 1863 he was elected city tax commissioner and then he inaugurated a system in that office which was badly needed, which system is in vogue there till this day. He held this office six years. In 1869 he represented the Seventh ward in the city council, and so eminently satisfactory were his services there that notwith- standing the fact of the district being strongly Republican and he a Democrat, he was elected, in 1871, a member of the legislature by that constituency. During that session he became the father of the present water-works laws, and when the water-works commis- sion was chosen he was made secretary and superintendent, serving two years and until the plant was in successful operation, and then he resigned. During his incumbency the present water tower was planned and built by him. Here again he did his duty well, and, though his hands are now at rest, his labors honor him still. In 1871 he was elected trustee of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insur- ance Company. Here also his versatile genius and ability as an or- ganizer became apparent, and, in 1874, he was chosen to fill the highly important position of superintendent of agencies of that great institution. In 1876 he was elected vice-president of that company, and was at the same time given control of the investment of its funds, which then amounted to many millions of dollars. He continued to administer that critical department until 1894, and to his sagacity is attributable the present splendid system for loaning funds that is used by that corporation, which is said to be the safest and best of any company 'in the country. By careful investments he accumulated quite a fortune, but he quietly distributed a goodly summ for charity. While engaged in large matters his services were so coveted by his fellow citizens, who delighted to honor him, that he was compelled to carry concurrently many minor places. He was vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce during 1869 and '70 and represented this city at the meeting of the National Board of Trade, which was held in Richmond, Va., in 1870. From 1876 to 1879 he was chosen a regent of the University of Wisconsin; he served as trustee of the Young Men's Library Association and laid the foundations of the movement that later resulted in the building
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of the Milwaukee Public Library; and he was trustee also of that institution for several years. He was a lover of books and an on- nivorous reader. The establishment of the Soldiers' Home at Mil- waukee is credited to him by those conversant with the facts. It seems that the committee having charge of the selection of a site for the home had been beset with troubles, prices asked for land seemed abnormally high, and it was about to depart and choose another location. At this juncture some one suggested that Mr. Keenan could solve the problem and cut the Gordian knot. At 2 o'clock one morning he was aroused from his slumbers and an ap- peal was made to him to come to the city's rescue. He took hold of the matter with such skill and intelligence that before the next day's sun was set he had brushed aside all difficulties and secured the location of the Soldiers' Home at Milwaukee. On June 28, 1849, he married Miss Antoinette A., daughter of Martin and Aurelia Griswold Hayden, of Otsego county, N. Y., whose father and mothi- er were born in Windsor. Com., coming afterward to Cooperstown, N. Y., and later, in 1847, to Milwaukee, where the father died a few months later, leaving his widow and daughter surviving him. Mr. Keenan and wife had no children. On Ang. 28, 1898, in the seven- ty-fourth year of his age, this upright man and valuable citizen quietly and unfalteringly entered "the valley of the shadow" to sur- render to his Maker the garnered sheaves of a well-spent life, con- fidently expectant of the benediction divine. He was a man who, unlike what is said of the prophet, was most honored and respected where he was best known. In religion he was a devout Roman Catholic, in politics a Democrat, but in every relation of life, from trying poverty to fair affluence, he was broad-minded, public-spir- ited, courteous and kind, a wise counsellor, a true friend, a loving husband and a model citizen.
Hon. Charles H. Doerflinger was born at Ettenlieim, Baden, Germany, Feb. 17, 1843, the son of Karl Doerflinger and Theresia ( Maier) Gisselbrecht, the former a native of Freiburg and the latter of Ettenheim. On the father's side he traces back to the sturdy yeomanry of the Black Forest. His father received a uni- versity training, and was imprisoned in 1848 for participation in the revolutionary movement of that year. He was liberated by his brave wife. who got past the guards, bringing him means of escape hidden in loaves of bread which she had baked. He had been a noted athlete when at the university and he succeeded in scaling the prison walls, and, under cover of night, crossed the Rhine, though the bullets from mounted gensdarmes struck the water near his boat. This heroic adventure is full of romance and deserves to be embalmed in a deathless story. From the father. Charles H. Doerflinger inherited his stature, five feet ten, and his energy. On the mother's side, he traces his lineage to the De La Chapelles of Alsace-Lorraine, and the Guilleberts of Normandie, France. To this fusion of German and French blood is traceable his lofty ideal- ism, his devotion to freedom and progress. In 1851 he was fortun- ate in coming under the influence of that great character and edu-
4
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cator, the pioneer of rational educational methods in Wisconsin, Prof. Peter Engelmann, an alumnus of the University of Berlin and founder of the German-English Academy of Milwaukee; it was from this man that Doerflinger imbibed his scholastic bias, his deep interest in nature, in scientific reading and in the promotion of popular scientific endeavors. When "Father Abraham" had issued his call for 300,000 men in the spring of 1862, our subject enlisted with many schoolmates in the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin infantry. He was made orderly sergeant, then second lieutenant and first lieutenant. His father enlisted as private in the Second Wisconsin cavalry and returned as first lieutenant. The son took part in the famous battle of Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, in Gen. Carl Schurz's division. He was in command of the center of the company of 100 sharpshooters deployed as a skirmish line to cover the brigade. The captain was there shot and instantly killed. The skirmish line had been ordered to fall back upon the regiment, when Doerflinger found that the captain of his own company had also been shot and carried off the field. He immediately took command of the company, and with word and sword inspired his men again and again in a rain of bullets, till his left ankle was shattered by a minie-ball. His leg was poorly amputated above the knee. His colo- nel, William H. Jacobs, an eye witness, ina dispatch to the Mil- waukee Herold, describing the battle scene, said: "The palm of the day belongs to the young hero, Doerflinger." Our subject pro- tests that the whole regiment deserved this high encomium. While crippled for life, Lieutenant Doerflinger has been anything but an idler, though he suffered more or less severe pain for forty-five years. After the first amputation, which was a failure, in 1863, he . had to submit to five unsuccessful supplementary operations on five consecutive days ; and quite recently, on April 8, 1908, the at- tacks of pain having become unbearable, two inches more of the thigh were amputated, great relief resulting from the operation. He was a teacher in the German-English Academy for several years after his return from the war, and a substitute teacher and private teacher during many years before and after that period. Returning froma trip to Europe he engaged in the book selling and publishing business. From 1874 to 1881 he was one of the publishers of the "Erziehungs Blaetter," and of the "New Educa- tion," with which was subsequently merged "The Kindergarten Messenger" of Miss Elizabeth Peabody, who said the "New Edu- cation" among all publications came nearest to representing her own ideals. He also published a juvenile monthly called "Onkel Karl"; and, in connection with the said educational papers, a num- ber of books, pamphlets and tracts devoted to progressive educa- tional ideals. In 1872, as secretary of the Wisconsin Natural His- tory Society, he began to urge the establishment of a public mu- seum. This agitation resulted in the present splendid building containing the Public Museum and the Public Library. Doer- flinger was called in from his farm in Racine county to take charge of the museum as its first custodian in 1883. His health failing
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again in 1886, he resigned. Given a long vacation, he finally had to insist upon being relieved (1887). Again he tried farming for health until 1889, when he went abroad and gradually recovered his health while pursuing amateur studies and explorations in the regions of Switzerland and France that had been inhabited from 4,000 to 90,000 years before by the pile-dwellers and cave-dwellers. He collected more than one thousand prehistoric relics, now in the Public Museum. In 1894 he traveled extensively in Mexico for the purpose of studying the cultivation of coffee, cocoa, rubber and other products, and gave much attention to educational institutions. For a man of Lieutenant Doerflinger's age and affliction to travel on muleback across the Sierras, 10,000 feet above the sea level, was a gigantic undertaking, and no one but a man of indomitable per- sistence could have accomplished the task. He made an excursion. to the ancient royal residence at Mitla and collected some interest- ing specimens, now preserved in the Public Museum. Since 1895 lie has been connected with the Doerflinger Artificial Limb Co. In 1896 he was asked to accept the office of chief examiner and sec- retary of the city Civil Service Commission, which he held for four years and resigned in 1900, on account of a recurrence of his nervous troubles, caused mainly by the imperfect amputation (1863) and constantly painful condition of his maimed leg, and overwork. Lieut. Doerflinger's favorite sphere of activity, and the one by which he prefers that posterity shall judge him, since to it he himself attaches the greatest importance, is in the realm of education. He has always maintained that the educator, by mould- ing the soul as well as mind and body of the child, holds the des- tiny of the nation in his hands. As an experienced teacher, under whose tutelage a great number of children have passed, he pos- sesses a practical knowldge of the defects of the public school sys- tem which he proposes should be remedied by a model school, sup- ported by private endowment to keep it free from political influ- ences, and which shall demonstrate, in a twelve years' course, by the consistent application of the said rational principles and methods, that children can be given, approximately, as much knowl- edge at the age of sixteen as the present high school gives them at the age of sixteen to eighteen, and a higher degree of powers fitting them for good citizenship and real self-government. In 1868 Doer- flinger discovered the Wisconsin meteorite, classified by Prof. Shep- ard among the rare and beautiful species "tainiastic" or "ribband" siderite, and forming the only variety of that species characterized by what Prof. Lawrence Smith named "Laphamite Markings." After the Peshtigo-Oconto calamity, in 1871, he advocated forest protection. the reforesting of denuded and barren lands, and sys- tematic forest culture. For this advocacy he was still ridiculed as late as 1880 by some of the great timber and lumber kings. Fortun- ately for our country, the enlightened policy of our federal gov- ernment has been, for many years past, successfully following lines laid down by him and other members of the Natural History So- ciety nearly forty years ago. While in Europe he also entered the
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realm of economic, political and social problems, by a practical personal investigation of the great successful profit-sharing indus- tries in northern, central and southern France, especially at Guise, Paris and Argouleme. Returned home, he embodied his observa- tions in lectures and articles, and, while advanced thinkers praised his efforts, their conservative policy considered them premature, simply because he was too far in advance of the plodding human procession. In 1870 he was one of the twelve founders of the First Kindergarten Society of Milwaukee, which established and caused the establishment of the first four private model kindergartens as the foundation for primary and elementary school work. From 1874 on he was one of the most energetic agitators for the official introduction of the kindergarten into the public school system, which was resolved upon by the school board in 1880, making Mil- waukee the first city in the United States to incorporate the system in the primary departments of all its district schools. In 1877, as a Regent of State Normal Schools, he first offered resolutions in favor of the introduction of kindergartening and the training of kindergarteners in all the normal schools, and succeeded, after strenuous efforts, continued for three years, against the intrigues of one of the wiliest educational machines. In 1874 he edited the course of physical exercises which was introduced in the city's schools. In 1870, while in Europe, being an honorary member of the Turnverein in Milwaukee, Doerflinger was invited to take an active part in the athletic festival held at Baden-Baden by the Gymnastic Union of the Upper Rhine. Doffing his artificial limb, he took part in all the contests (running only excepted), even jumping, and he carried off the eleventh prize, an oak wreath. In 1897-99 he was one of the most active members of the "Milwaukee Manual Training Association," and prepared nearly all the written and printed papers. The work of this society culminated some years later in the introduction of manual training into the grades of all the Milwaukee district schools. Our subject has belonged to, or does belong to, thirty-five local, state and national welfare insti- tutions and associations, and has been or is active in them. On Oct. 5, 1873, he married Miss Augusta, daughter of August and Marie Huecker Barkhausen, of Thiensville, Wis., and the issue of their union was as follows: Thea, now Mrs. Edward H. Carter; Duty, a governess; and Arno, secretary and manager of the Doerflinger Artificial Limb Co. In religion Mr. Doerflinger is liberal and in politics he is a Republican. Mrs. Augusta Doerflinger, wife of our subject, who has been his helpmate, a model housewife and mother, has been an active member of the Ladies' Society of the German- English Academy for thirty years, and of the Kindergarten Society until its members merged with the Ladies' Society.
William John Kershaw, who is engaged in the general practice of law in the city of Milwaukee, was born at Big Spring. Adams county, Wis., on Jan. 12, 1865, son of William John and Martha Mary (Corn) Kershaw, the former of whom was born in County Antrim, near Belfast, Ireland, and the latter was a native of Wis-
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consin. On the maternal side the subject of this review comes from an old American family, the blood being strongly mixed with that of the native American Indian. The mother, Mary Corn, and the members of her family had much influence for good among the red men, her aunt, Mary Wallsworth, being a remarkable woman in that respect. The husband of the latter conducted a pioneer hotel in Adams county and many Indians camped in that vicinity, so that it was a favorable point for the agents of the government to meet the nation's wards and deal with them, Mrs. Wallsworth fre- quently acting as the interpreter. William John Kershaw, Sr., mi- grated from the Emerald Isle as a young man and first took up his residence in Albany. N. Y., but soon thereafter he continued his journey to Big Spring, Adams county. Wis., where he had some dealings with the Indians as an agent of the United States, and in this way he met the lady who afterward became his wife. He was a lawyer, and after locating at Big Spring continued to practice his profession there for a number of years, and filled several important official positions, among which was district attorney of Adams county. In October, 1861, he enlisted in the Eighteenth Wiscon- sin infantry for service in the Civil war, and after serving for a time as sergeant-major was made captain of Company K on March 14, 1862. The regiment was mustered in and left the state on March 30, being sent to Pittsburg Landing, and reached there on April 5. The next morning, with absolutely no instruction in the manual of arms and but little drill, it was ordered to check the enemy's ad- vance at Shiloh, and fought bravely. "Many regiments may well covet the impressions which the Eighteenth Wisconsin left of per- sonal bravery, heroic daring and determined endurance," said Gov- ernor Harvey. It took part in the siege of Corinth, which followed closely, and then encamped at Corinth and Bolivar. Captain Kershaw participated in all the service of the regiment up to this time, but he resigned his commission on Sept. 3, 1862, and returned home. In the spring of 1864 he again entered the service as major of the Thirty-seventh Wisconsin infantry, to which position he was as- signed on March 10. The first six companies of this regiment were mustered into service the latter part of March, and with Major Kershaw in command, left the state on April 28 for Virginia to join the Army of the Potomac. The regiment distinguished itself at Petersburg on June 16, 17 and 18, and on the 17th Major Kershaw was seriously wounded by a musket ball through both his legs. This wound practically ended his military career, and although promoted to lieutenant-colonel on Sept. 27, he never mustered as such, and on Oct. 18, 1864, he resigned his commission as major. He then returned to his home at Big Spring, Wis., and renewed the practice of law. In 1866 and again in 1867 he was elected to represent Adams county in the Wisconsin assembly, serving two terms in that capacity, immediately succeeding which, in 1868. he was elect- ed to the state senate and served during the sessions of 1869-70. While serving in this position he removed to the city of Milwaukee and in company with C. J. Kershaw became interested in the salt,
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cement, plaster and lumber business. His partner, although of the same name, was not related to him. Colonel Kershaw was again elected to the state assembly from Milwaukee county, serving in the session of 1875, after which he gave his attention to private affairs until his death in 1883, his wife having passed away in 1865. William J. Kershaw, whose name introduces this review, received his primary education in the public schools of Adams county and later attended St. Lawrence College, east of Fond du Lac, and St. Francis Seminary, near Milwaukee. He then made a trip West, in which region he remained two years, and upon his return worked in the northern woods one year. He then served an apprenticeship at the machinist trade, but after mastering its intricacies he decided that it was not to his liking and began the study of law in the of- fice of W. C. Williams and Aug. G. Weissert. In due time he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of his profession, first in the employ of Mr. Weissert, his former instructor, with whom he remained until 1892, when he became the junior member of the firm of Eschweiler, Van Valkenburgh & Kershaw. This partnership ex- isted for some time, but in 1897 Mr. Kershaw began practice alone and has since conducted individually an excellent practice. He was married on March 31, 1893, to Miss Henrietta, daughter of Joseph and Emma (Meyer) Schiller, of Milwaukee. In politics Mr. Ker- shaw adheres to the time-honored principles of the Democratic party, his religious affiliations are with the Roman Catholic church, and fraternally he is a member of the military order of the Loy- al Legion, that distinction being his as an inheritance from his fa- ther. Ho also has membership in the Milwaukee Bar Association and the Archaeological Society.
Charles Lincoln Goss, a patent attorney of Milwaukee, is a na- tive of Vermont, born at Brandon, Rutland county, Sept. 18. 1856. His parents were Alba Warren Goss, who was born at the same place on Oct. 22, 1825, and Jerusha Eva (Lincoln) Goss, born at Pittsford, Vt., Aug. 8, 1827. Charles Goss, the subject of this re- view, is descended from New England ancestors. His great-great- grandfather, Capt. John Carver, served with the Colonial troops in the French and Indian wars from 1755 to 1762, and was one of the first if not the pioneer English explorer of the Northwest. Captain Carver made a canoe trip, starting from Michillimackinac, at that time the most western English trading post in the country, and from there passed on to Green Bay or La Baye. as it was then called, up the Fox and down the Wisconsin rivers to the Missis- sippi and up that river to the present site of St. Paul and Minneapo- lis. He spent the winter of 1766-67 with a tribe of Sioux Indians about two hundred miles from the mouth of the Minnesota river, returning by the way of the Chippewa river and the north and east shores of Lake Superior to Michillimackinac and thence to Boston, which he reached in the fall of 1768. After his return the captain wrote an account of his trip, which was published in London in 1778. and which ran through several editions and was translated into other languages. Charles Goss' maternal grandfather, John
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Harvey Lincoln, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and volunteered for the expedition to Plattsburg, N. Y. Charles received his pre- liminary education in the public schools of his native town and then entered the University of Vermont at Burlington, in which he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1878. After leaving college he studied law at Brandon, Vt., with ex-Governor E. J. Ormsbee, taking one year, 1879-80, of the course at Dane Law School, Har- vard University. He was admitted to the bar of the Rutland Coun- ty Court, Vermont, at the March term, 1881, and in the fall of that year moved from Brandon to Milwaukee. In 1883 Mr. Goss was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of Milwaukee, and in 1898 to the Supreme Court of the state of Wisconsin. Ever since settling in Milwaukee he has practiced as a patent attorney and solicitor of patents with the firms of Flanders & Bottum ; Winkler, Flanders, Smith, Bottum & Vilas, and their successors. Mr. Goss is a Repub- lican in politics and is a member of Sigma Phi college fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa ( University of Vermont Chapter), honorary col- lege fraternity ; the Milwaukee Bar Association, a charter member of the University Club, a member of the Chicago Patent Law Asso- ciation, and is president of the Milwaukee Congregational Club. On Sept. 27, 1882, Mr. Goss married Lizzie Maria, the daughter of Ebenezer Holland and Elizabeth (Dyer) Weeks, of Brandon, Vt., and the mother of his two children, Genevieve Iola, born in Mil- waukee on Dec. 10, 1883, and John Warren, born in Milwaukee on Aug. 16, 1887. On Feb. 5, 1890, Mrs. Goss died. Mr. Goss married, Feb. 15. 1894, Alice Warbasse, the daughter of George Warren and Hannah (Norris) Emery, of Manitowoc, Wis.
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