USA > Wisconsin > Racine County > Racine > Racine, belle city of the lakes, and Racine County, Wisconsin : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. II > Part 5
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With his return to Racine in 1891, Captain Lewis engaged with the Mitchell-Lewis Wagon Company, but all personal and business considerations were put aside at the time of the outbreak of the war with Spain, when he volunteered for service at the front and was commissioned captain of Com- pany F, of the First Wisconsin Infantry. He saw active service under Major General Fitzhugh Lee in the Seventh Army Corps and was stationed at Jacksonville, Florida.
When he again came to Racine, Captain Lewis entered its business circles as general manager of the Wisconsin Wheel Works, a concern which was engaged in the manufacture of bicycles, the industry being at that time at its height. With the invention of the automobile and its perfection for prac- tical use the Wisconsin Wheel Works was converted into a plant for the con- struction of motor cars and the name was changed to the Mitchell Motor Car Company, with Captain Lewis as the active manager of the business. A magnificent plant was erected and in 1910 the Mitchell Motor Car Company and the Mitchell-Lewis Company were consolidated under the name of the Mitchell-Lewis Motor Company. The increasing popularity of the automobile and the excellent car which they put out at moderate prices led to the rapid
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growth of business, which developed almost by leaps and bounds, making theirs one of the important industrial enterprises of the city.
On the 27th of October, 1892, occurred the marriage of Captain Lewis and Miss Edith F. Rose, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and they have four children : Katharine Rose, William Turnor, Gordon Sinclair and Mary Virginia. Captain Lewis has been a recognized leader in republican circles in the state for a number of years and in 1910 was the candidate of the republican party for governor. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons and the Elks, having in the former gone up through both routes, being now a Knight Templar and Consistory Mason. The interest which he displayed in athletics during his college days has been continued in more recent years and he is a ready sup- porter of clean sport in all of its forms. He has been interested in the extension of playgrounds and in the promotion of outdoor facilities for the use of the younger generation and for this purpose has given to Racine the athletic field and playground known as Lewis Field. He is very prominent in the club circles not only of Racine but of the state. He has been president of the Racine Country Club, belongs to the Milwaukee Press Club and has been received into the Order of Knights of Bohemia, an inner circle of the Mil- waukee Press Club, this being recognized as a distinctive honor. His intel- leetual training, resulting in an alert mental development, makes him ready for any duty or for any emergency.
HORLICK MALTED MILK COMPANY.
The name of no produetive industry of the United States is perhaps more widely known than that of the Horlick Malted Milk Company, the business of which has developed until it reaches into all parts of the civilized world. The company was organized in 1875 and was incorporated in 1878 as the Horlick Food Company by William and James Horlick, brothers, who established their plant in the outskirts of Racine, in Mount Pleasant township. They began to manufacture a product known as Horlick's Food, which was a prepared food for infants, invalids and the aged, to be added to milk to modify and enrich it. Their sales at that time covered only Chicago and vicinity. William Hor- lick, however, realized the great disadvantage of all foods for infants that required the addition of fresh milk, owing to the difficulty of obtaining fresh milk and keeping it so. He therefore began experimenting with the purpose of producing a pure food product containing an adequate proportion of pure, rich milk-a food that would be complete in itself, that would keep indefinitely in any climate and would be free from all the dangers arising from the use of milk that is impure, adulterated, laden with disease germs or in any way rendered unfit for use. Moreover, he desired that this food should be not only absolutely safe but very nourishing and easily digested by the most delicate infant or invalid, while it should contain at the same time all the elements of nutrition. In carrying on the work of experimentation Mr. Horlick met with many disappointments and leading chemists claimed that it was both a chem- ical and mechanical impossibility to perfect such a food. advising him to
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abandon the idea. He never faltered in his purpose, however, notwithstand- ing his heavy losses of time and expense, and at the end of six years, or in 1887, he produced for the first time in the world's history a food product in powder form containing clean, rich milk combined with extract of malted barley and wheat that would keep indefinitely. The value of such a product was at once apparent and the business grew by leaps and bounds, so that it was difficult to make the supply meet the demand. A program of building was instituted. New buildings were added from time to time of reinforced con- crete construction and the plant today covers an area of fifteen acres. In 1902 plant No. 2 was built, being a duplicate of plant No. 1. and in 1905 plant No. 3 came into existence, a triplicate of the others, but subject to enlarge- ment. Since then the old buildings have all been rebuilt in concrete and steel. All rooms are large and well lighted and there is a perfect fire protec- tion. Sanitation and cleanliness are among the basic elements of the business. There is a forced system of ventilation throughout the plant, the air being washed by sprays of water.
To maintain such a plant necessitated the employment of a large force of people and in developing the plant the company has shown marked consider- ation for the welfare of employes. There are three rest rooms for girls and a library for the service of the employes. They maintain an athletic association and there is a whist club and a cricket club for employes and also an employes' beneficial association. On the pay roll are found three hundred and fifty names. The department of agriculture of the State University at Madison says that the standard of dairying in this part of Wisconsin has been raised very largely owing to the rules of the Horlick factory in regard to the produc- tion of good, clean milk and the example furnished therein. Nearly every city in the United States has asked for a copy of the rules of this plant for the production and care of pure milk and these rules have constituted the basis for much municipal legislation in regard to the milk supply of cities. William Horlick owns personally several farms upon which are several hun- dred head of cows and he also buys milk from one hundred and fifty farmers. In 1915 the company erected a new milk house which is one of the finest in the country.
The process employed in the manufacture of the food consists in boiling the milk in a vacuum, which enables them to boil it without heating above one hundred and forty degrees, for milk "cooks" at one hundred and fifty-six degrees. This results, therefore, in removing all water without cooking. The company has a plant at Slough, England, equal to the No. 2 plant of Racine, and supplies from that point Europe, Africa and a part of India. The trade today covers the entire world, shipments leaving for all parts of the world every week. Every Arctic explorer for the past twenty years has carried a supply of Horlick's malted milk in powder and lunch tablet form, for it sup- plies more nutrition to the bulk than any other food and people have lived many years with no other sustenance. It is standard with all the armies of the world and is regarded as an indispensable accessory on all exploration or camping trips.
In 1889 James Horlick went to New York, where he established a branch, and in 1890 opened the English branch and since that time has been in charge
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of the English plant. He is the president of the company. William Horliek has been managing director of the home plant and has always lived in Racine. He is the secretary and treasurer of the company and his two sons are actively associated with him, the elder, A. J., being vice president of the company, with William Horlick, Jr., as secretary. In 1906 the name was changed to Horlick's Malted Milk Company. There is no other enterprise that has made Racine as well known throughout the world as this product, today used in every civilized country on the face of the globe.
WILLIAM DWIGHT THOMPSON.
William Dwight Thompson, senior partner in the firm of Thompson, Meyers & Kearney, engaged in the general practice of law at Racine, was born at Memphis, Tennessee, November 7, 1867, a son of Seymour D. and Lucy Augusta (Jennison) Thompson. The former was born in Northfield township, Cook county, Illinois, and was a son of Seymour Thompson of New York State. who became an Illinois pioneer. The ancestry on both sides dates back to about 1640, when representatives of both families emigrated from England, and members of both families served in the Revolutionary war.
In the early '50s there occurred a disastrous prairie fire in Illinois, in which Seymour Thompson, Sr., and his son Charles lost their lives, and it was after this that the family removed to Iowa, where they took up government land, their home being near Fayette. While a resident of that state, Seymour D. Thompson enlisted as a private in the Third Iowa Infantry in the Union army and participated at Shiloh and other battles, as well as in the siege of Vieks- burg; and at the end of the war was serving with the rank of captain of artillery at Fort Pickering, near Memphis.
About February 1. 1865, Seymour D. Thompson married Lucy Augusta Jennison, at Fayette, Iowa, he being home on a furlough at the time. After the war they established their home at Memphis, Tennessee, where the subject of this sketch was born. The family lived at Memphis until 1871, when it removed to St. Louis, Missouri. Seymour D. Thompson became very prominent as a law writer, many of his books being in current use among the profession today, and was one of the judges of the Missouri Court of Appeals from 1880 to 1892, where he served with distinguished credit, many of his opinions being regarded as masterpieces in the law. Seymour D. Thompson died at East Orange, New Jersey, August 11, 1904.
William D. Thompson worked for his father between the ages of twelve and seventeen years, and during that period also read law under his direction. In November, 1884, he came to Racine, where he entered the office of what is now the Wisconsin Agriculturist, then the Manufacturer and Agriculturist, his employer being Andrew Simonson. He remained there until the fall of 1887, after which he spent two years as a student in the University of Mis- souri. Returning to Racine, he was again with Mr. Simonson in the Manufac- turers Printing Company. While engaged in business during these years, he devoted a considerable portion of his spare time to the general study of the
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law, and in 1892 he entered the old Union College of Law, now the Law De- partment of the Northwestern University of Evanston. Returning to Racine in the summer of 1893, he took the bar examination and was admitted to practice in August of that year. He opened an office and practiced alone until 1895, when he became associated in partnership with Thomas M. Kearney, which partnership continued under the name of Kearney & Thompson, and later, when they were joined by Peter J. Myers, under the name of Kearney, Thompson & Myers; then under the name of Kearney, Thompson, Myers & Kearney, when Thomas M. Kearney, Jr., was admitted to the firm. On May 1, 1914, Thomas M. Kearney, Sr., retired from the firm, and the practice and business of the office has since been conducted under the name of Thompson, Myers & Kearney.
Mr. Thompson has always devoted the greater portion of his spare time to the general study of the law and to keeping up with the changes and progress of the law as developed by the statutes and decisions of the courts of last resort. He has a comprehensive knowledge of the principles of law. is correct in his application thereof to the points in litigation, is strong and logical in argument and has to his credit many notable verdicts which prove his power and resourcefulness in the trial of cases.
On the 11th of September, 1895, Mr. Thompson was married to Miss Marion A. Stoker, of Walworth county, Wisconsin, and to them has been born a daughter, Bernice Louise. Mr. Thompson is a member of the Elks Lodge and of the Knights of Pythias and his wife holds membership in St. Luke's Epis- copal church. In politics he is a democrat, but has never been ambitious to hold office. His military experience covers six years' service with Company F, Racine Light Guards, from which he received his honorable discharge in 1890. His is a most creditable record, for enterprise and laudable ambition have brought him to his present high standing, gaining for him the utmost respect of colleagues and contemporaries.
WILLIAM HENRY MILLER.
William Henry Miller was born in Racine, on the 2d of November, 1847, and is a son of Moses and Frances Augusta (Durand) Miller, natives of New Jersey and Connecticut, respectively. The father arrived in Wisconsin about 1844 and was a wholesale merchant of Racine for a number of years prior to the building of railroads to this city. His goods were distributed by four- horse peddling wagons to stores all over the southern part of the state. Later in life he engaged in the insurance business. His influence was always on the side of right and improvement and the many sterling traits of character which he displayed won for him the love and esteem of all with whom he was asso- ciated. ยท His wife was a sister of Henry S. Durand who came to Racine in the late '30s and was one of the prominent pioneers here, building the Racine- Mississippi railroad and actively supporting many other projects of worth to the community. It was in the early '40s that Frances A. Durand arrived in Racine and here she married Moses Miller, who died in Racine in 1868, at the
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age of fifty-three years. His widow survived him till 1907, when she passed away at the age of seventy-ninc, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
William Henry Miller was the oldest of four children. In 1864, when a youth not yet seventeen and a pupil in the Racine high school, he responded to the country's call for troops and joined Company F, of the Thirty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, which regiment was soon ordered south, being in Memphis at the time of Forrest's raid into that city. He served as a private for four months, being the youngest man to enlist from Racine. Following his military experience and prior to the time that he reached the age of twenty- one years he embarked in the insurance business. At a later date he spent one year in Chicago, but in 1873 returned to Racine and bought out the insurance agency of Eldad Smith. Since that time he has conducted a real estate, loan and insurance agency and has figured prominently in this connection, build- ing up a business of large and gratifying proportions.
On the 13th of January, 1887, Mr. Miller was married to Jenny R. Hoy, only daughter of Dr. Philo Romayne Hoy, one of the pioneer settlers of Racine, prominent in professional and scientific circles. To this marriage have been born two children, Walton Hoy, who is in business with his father, and Romayne Frances, a trained playground and settlement director. Mr. and Mrs. Miller occupy a beautiful residence at 900 Main street, which they erected in 1901. Both Mr. and Mrs. Miller are members of the First Presbyterian church. Mr. Miller belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, his member- ship being in connection with Harvey Post, No. 17. He is a member of the Racine Commercial Club and in politics is a republican. He stands for all those forces which are matters of civic virtue and eivie pride.
JOHN STORM.
John Storm, who is successfully engaged in farming and dairying on section 28, Norway township, is a native of Wisconsin, his birth occurring in Mil- waukee on the 13th of July, 1857. His parents, Frederick and Christina Storm, were both natives of Germany, the former born in 1816 and the latter in 1836. Coming to the new world in early life, they were married in Mil- waukee, where they made their home for a time. When a young man the father cut cordwood during the winter months at twenty-eight cents a cord and during the summer season worked in a brickyard. Subsequently he came to Racine county and purchased land in Norway township, owning at the time of his death a good farm of one hundred and twenty acres. His success in life was due entirely to his own unaided efforts and the prosperity that came to him was well deserved. By his ballot he supported the men and measures of the democratic party and both he and his wife were consistent members of the German Lutheran church. To them were born seven sons and two daughters, of whom six are still living, namely : John, of this review ; Charles, who is employed in a factory in Milwaukee; Henry, who is also working in that city; Christ, who is engaged in farming in Racine county ; Joseph, who owns and operates a farm near Waterford, this county; and
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Mary, a resident of Milwaukee. The father died in 1881 and the mother, who was born in 1836, passed away in 1908.
During his boyhood and youth John Storm attended the district schools near his boyhood home and since laying aside his textbooks has devoted his time and energies to farm work. In 1878 he bought his present farm and now has one hundred and twenty acres in a high state of cultivation. He is engaged in general farming and also raises stock of all kinds. For dairy purposes he keeps Hereford cows and in all his undertakings has met with most excellent success. He has erected good and substantial buildings upon his place and his farm is today a well improved property.
In 1891 Mr. Storm was united in marriage to Miss Annie Neabeauer, a native of Germany, and they have become the parents of four children : Linda, now the wife of Frederick Strauby, who is employed in a factory in Racine ; Elsie, who is now working in Burlington, Wisconsin; and Zelma and John, both at home. The family is one of prominence in the community where they reside and they are communicants of the Lutheran church. Mr. Storm is identified with the democratic party and supports all worthy measures for the benefit of his township and county.
GEORGE GORTON.
Prominent among the enterprising, progressive and prosperous business men of Racine is George Gorton, who in 1892 embarked in his present line of business-the manufacture of fine machine tools and engraving machines. The work done in his establishment is of expert character and the excellence of the product insures a ready sale on the market.
Mr. Gorton, a native of Racine, was born February 5, 1865. a son of George and Elizabeth (Buffham) Gorton, both of whom were natives of Rochdale, England. The father, who was born in 1825, became a resident of Southport, now Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1845. and the following year removed to Racine. where he continued to reside until his demise. He was a druggist and chemist and conducted the first drug store of this city. He was long identified with com- mercial interests here and the enterprise which he displayed in the conduct of his interests made hin, one of Racine's foremost merchants for many years. His wife was a daughter of William Buffham, a Racine pioneer. Both were con- sistent members of the b ntist church and in his political views Mr. Gorton was an earnest republican. He died June 14, 1888, while his wife survived for more than a quarter of a century, passing away in April, 1914.
Reared in the eity in which he still makes his home, George Gorton obtained a public school education and afterward worked for his father, who was con- nected with the Racine Basket Company. having purchased that business. This was one of the oldest industrial enterprises of the city and was closed out in 1892. In that year George Gorton established a machine shop for the mak- ing of fine machine tools and also for the building of engraving machines. Hc now produces the only engraving machine which will place the Lord's prayer complete in a circle of one thirty-second of an inch in diameter, the letters being
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two thousandths of an inch in height. The largest engraving machine made by the company weighs twenty thousand pounds and is used by all rubber compan- les for engraving tires and doing similar work. The same type is also used in rolling mills and other establishments for marking letters on iron, the rolls weighing up to forty tons. Their type also includes the matrix machines used by all typewriting, typecasting. type foundries and adding machine companies for making their matrix, which the working type comes from. This business, which was established in 1893, has now grown to large proportions and the product is today sold all over the world. Another output of the company, and one of the most important, are the high speed heavy-duty cutting-off machines, which are a type of machine that the company has been developing for some years and has resulted from the designing and building of a number of differ- ent machines in the Gorton shops, several of which have been illustrated in various engineering papers during the past decade. However, as these have not presented a point of perfection desired by the company, they have not been placed upon the market, but continued development has brought forth a tool which certainly has reached almost absolute perfection, based on the actual building and testing out of various styles and types. Particular attention has been given to oiling methods throughout and the machine is exceedingly rugged in every detail. The intention has been to produce a cutting-off machine suit- able for constant, hard service and capable of being operated continually month in and month out without the excessive repairs ordinarily placed on such machines. It is especially adapted to the hard work required by rolling mills, car and locomotive works, navy vards, engine builders, electrical con- cerns and machine builders generally.
The principles involved admit of driving the cutting teeth at both feeds and speeds heretofore unattainable, and when operating to its maximum capacity, as for instance, when severing a seven and one-half inch ordinary round steel bar in twenty-nine seconds, there is absolutely no chatter or vibration. It is entirely possible to sever an ordinary seven and one-half inch round bar in twenty-nine seconds, but it is not practicable to regularly maintain such speed with present tool steels. It is probable that considerable improvement will be made in high duty steels in the future, and upon such development this machine is capable of driving such steels to their fullest capacity. The intention has been to produce a machine fully equal to anything that may be required in the future. Given a suitable cutter, the machine itself is capable of severing round steel bars as stated, without the slightest injury. The bed and cutter head are exceedingly massive, probably containing even more metal than is absolutely necessary. Chatter and vibration are two troubles which cause the machine operator by far the most annoyance in this line of machine tool, and when these troubles are occasioned through poor driving mechanism and machines of light weight, they are entirely beyond his control. The method of driving the cutter blade produces a machine which is many times more effi- cient than any other design of machine can possibly be. Compare the main driving gear with cutter blade attached with any other drive obtainable. The large diameter of this main driving gear and the fact that there is but one joint between the source of power and the actual eutter teeth, that joint being the contact of the driving pinion with this main gear, also accounts largely
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for the great efficiency of this machine. There are many other advantages, particularly in the cutter blade; for instance, the blade is securely fastened entirely around its periphery, which is the strongest portion of the blade, in- stead of merely at the weak centre point as in an ordinary cutting-off saw. By reason of this rigid mounting. it is impossible for the blade to snake or de- fleet in any manner from its true position. Inserted cutters being placed on the internal bore instead of on the periphery, it is possible to key the cutters much more firmly, without any danger or possibility of springing the blade, and the cutters may therefore be thoroughly secured without a possibility of their ever becoming loose or flying from their pockets. All of the different kinds of machines which are produced by the Gorton Company have been de- veloped in the Gorton shop. The business is now carried on under the name of the George Gorton Machine Company, a New Jersey corporation, owned by Mr. Gorton. The plant has fifteen thousand square feet of floor space, and a new shop is now being built which will give them an additional space of sixty thousand square feet. They employ ninety people, including some of the most expert machinists in the country. In addition to his Raeine interests Mr. Gor- ton is president of the Gorton Fence Company of Waukegan. Illinois, manu- facturers of ornamental fence and gates of their own patented designs, made by means of automatie machinery of their own design. Some of Mr. Gorton's machinery exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1900, received a bronze medal. that being the Highest Award.
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