USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Rock County, Wisconsin; a new history of its cities, villages, towns, citizens and varied interests, from the earliest times, up to date, Vol. II > Part 25
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Mr. Matheson is recognized as one of the able lawyers of Janesville, both as a counselor and advocate and by his straight- forward, upright, manly demeanor commands the respect and confidence of the courts and his professional brethren, as well as a large and constantly growing clientage. While he is not a politician in any sense, he takes a commendable interest in local civic affairs, and from April, 1903, till April, 1905, served as a member of the Janesville city council. In political sentiment he
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is a Republican. Mr. Matheson has a pleasing personality and readily makes friends. He is progressive in his ideas, in hearty sympathy with all that pertains to the well being of his fellows, and withal a high-minded Christian gentleman. In his religious affiliations he is connected with the Congregational church, of Janesville, and is one of the board of trustees of that body.
On September 26, 1894, Mr. Matheson married Miss Georgia L. Hubbard, of Elkhorn, Wis. Of their two children, Marion Barbara was born August 23, 1896, and John Hubbard on May 2, 1908.
Charles L. Fifield, a leading member of the Wisconsin bar and one of the progressive and influential citizens of Janesville, was born in that city on October 10, 1865. Both his father and mother, Thomas B. and Eliza (Waterman) Fifield, were natives of Ver- mont, their remote ancestors coming from England and Wales and settling in New England prior to the year 1630.
Charles L. received his preliminary education in the public schools of Janesville and later pursued a course of studies in the law department of the University of Wisconsin, where he was graduated with the degree of LL.B. in 1888. He was also a law student in the offices of Judge Sale and Messrs. Smith and Pierce. of Janesville. As junior member of the firm of Fethers, Jeffris & Fifield he practiced his profession at Janesville from 1888 till 1898, when he was appointed by the governor on recommendation of the entire Bar Association to fill the vacancy on the municipal bench for Rock county, caused by the death of Judge Phelps. At the expiration of his term in 1899 Judge Fifield was without oppo- sition elected to the same office for a term of six years and re-elected in 1905. Judge Fifield is widely known as a man of judicial temperament, a lawyer of ability and a man of spotless character. Besides being a member of the Rock County and State Bar associations, he is actively identified with the State Historical Society, and as a member of the Janesville Public Library Board was largely instrumental in securing the $30,000 donated by Mr. Andrew Carnegie for the new library building, and served as a member of the building committee that had in charge its construc- tion. Judge Fifield is deeply interested in all that pertains to the uplifting of his city and community, and is not only a lover of books, but also well versed in current and classic literature. He has given special attention to first editions of American authors
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and has in his large private library a well assorted collection of choice works.
A man of genial nature and pleasing personality, he is withal public spirited and unselfish, and popular with all elasses of his fellow citizens. He was one of the organizers of the Siennissippi Golf Club, the Janesville Country Club and the Twilight Club. In polities Judge Fifield is a Republican. On August 28, 1889, he married Miss Anna S. Doty, a daughter of the late E. Philo Doty, of Janesville.
Judge and Mrs. Fifield have an interesting family of four children, namely, Eloise, born in 1890; Alta, born in 1895; Frances, born in 1897, and Esther, born in 1903.
Mrs. Fifield is a woman of domestic tastes, universally beloved. Judge and Mrs. Fifield have a beautiful home at the corner of Jackson and South Second street, Janesville, over which she pre- sides with eharming grace, and whose hospitalities are enjoyed by their large circle of friends.
John DeWitt Rexford was born in Sherburne, N. Y., July 5, 1820. He was the son of Benjamin Rexford and a descendant in the fifth generation of Arthur Rexford, who was married in New Haven, Conn., in 1702, and died there in 1728.
After an academical course and two years of collegiate study in Hamilton College (terminated by his poor health), he read law in the office of his brother, B. F. Rexford, in Norwich, N. Y.
He was admitted to practice in the Supreme court of the state of New York at Utica, July 18, 1845, and to the Court of Chancery at Saratoga the following day. He was member of a law firm made up of his brother, himself and Warren Newton in Norwich until 1852, when he retired therefrom.
In May, 1853, he moved to Janesville and practiced his pro- fession here for several years.
September 1, 1856, he accepted the office of cashier of the Central Bank of Wisconsin, which he had helped to establish in 1855. After six years' service he resigned this office on aeeount of protracted illness.
In January, 1865, he was elected president of the First Na- tional Bank of Janesville (the successor of the Central Bank of Wisconsin), which office he held until January. 1891, when he declined a re-election.
Erinnertt. D. Mc Gowan
معجب
...
لسدسانى
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COURTS AND LEGAL PROFESSION
Ile was also president of the Janesville Machine Company from its organization in 1881 until Deeember, 1894.
Mr. Rexford was a member of the Republican party, but never sought any political office.
He was one of the founders of the First Presbyterian church of Janesville and served as an elder in that ehureh from its organization in 1855 until 1879, when he declined a proffered re-election.
John DeWitt Rexford was married to Cynthia Maria Bab- cock, of Sherburne, N. Y., May 20, 1846. The children born of this union were John Grandin, Benjamin Babcock, Seneea Butts and Mary. The two first named are still living and reside in Janesville. Mr. Rexford died at his home in Janesville, March 13, 1895.
Emmett D. McGowan, lawyer. Mr. MeGowan's grandfather, John; grandmother, Mary MeDonald, and his father, James S., who was born at Newton Butler, County Fermanagh, Ireland, emigrated to America in 1841 and settled in Rochester, N. Y., where Mr. John MeGowan engaged in farming. After several years James S., having completed his education and learned the carpenter's trade, moved to Allen's Grove, near the west line of Walworth county, Wisconsin, then came to Beloit in 1850, working on the paper mills being built there, and in the year 1859 removed to Janesville, Wis.
Mr. McGowan's mother, Louisa M. Bennett, was born in Jef- ferson county, New York. Her parents, Daniel and Deborah Leeds (Spieer) Bennett, lived at Stonington, Conn., where both of them were reared and educated. Her grandfather was one of the guards placed over Major Andre and present at his exeeu- tion, while her father, Daniel Bennett, was a volunteer in the War of 1812. Her brother was the well known and distinguished judge of the Twelfth judicial circuit of Wiseonsin, John R. Ben -. nett. She was married to James S. McGowan at Janesville, Jan- uary 18, 1854. She died at Janesville, February 20, 1905, and was buried in that city.
Emmett D. McGowan was born in Janesville, Wis., July 15, 1859, and has one sister, Mary L. (Mrs. Charles F. Niles), now of Menomonie, Wis.
Beginning with only the opportunities which are common to all, Emmett supplemented the ordinary publie school studies and
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
some terms in the select school of Mrs. Clara A. Hunt with a course of home reading that was substantially the equivalent of one of the classical courses at the State University. From his fifteenth year he was a member of the household of his uncle, John R. Bennett, until 1887. He also obtained his legal educa- tion mainly by his own efforts, reading law, beginning in 1879 in the office of John R. Bennett and J. W. Sale, and being admitted to the bar December 26, 1882.
In June, 1883, Mr. McGowan formed a law partnership with Edwin F. Carpenter under the firm name of Carpenter & McGowan. In 1886, being on the Republican ticket, he was in November clected clerk of the Circuit court of Rock county, which dissolved that partnership at the beginning of his term of public service January 1, 1887. His fidelity in office was re- warded with successive elections for four terms, extending to the year 1895. In January of that year he resumed the practice of law, in which occupation his ability and industry have gained for him a very large clientage.
Mr. McGowan has taken much interest in politics and is a staunch Republican. He is a member of the First Congregational church and also a member of Oriental Lodge, No. 22, Knights of Pythias, of which society he is a past chancellor.
Mr. McGowan was made a Mason in Western Star Lodge, No. 14, at Janesville in 1888. He was initiated an entered apprentice February 21, passed to the degree of fellow craft March 20, and raised to the degree of master Mason June 5. He received the capitular degrees in Janesville Chapter, No. 5, in 1890, that of mark master May 1, and the degrees of past master, most excel: lent master and Royal Arch Mason October 2. The order of Knighthood was conferred upon him in Janesville Commandery, No. 2, in 1894; that of Red Cross May 8, and Temple and Malta May 10.
Mr. McGowan was married June 30, 1887, to Miss Abbie L. Hill (daughter of Joseph H. and Mary Hill, of Beloit), and they were blessed with two children, Louise H. and Joseph B., who are both living. Mrs. McGowan, who was a member of Christ Episcopal church, Janesville, died after five years of invalidism.
January 11, 1899, Mr. McGowan married Katherine Shopbell, eldest daughter of Ellis and Martha A. (Parker) Shopbell. She is a member of the First Congregational church of Janesville,
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COURTS AND LEGAL PROFESSION
and their beautiful home at 708 Milton avenue is a place of social welcome and cheerfulness.
Note 1-Mr. MeGowan's maternal grandfather and grand- mother, who both died here in Janesville, were Seventh Day Bap- tists and are both buried at Milton, Wis.
The grandmother, whose maiden name was Deborah Leeds Spicer, was deseended from an ancient ancestry, which has been traced back to three brothers (Spicer) of an honorable family in Normandy, who came over to England with William the Con- queror as gentlemen volunteers. An account of the family was written in the year 1594, and the manuscript is still preserved. That family record, continued to 1714, showed that during the preceding 441 years there had been twelve mayors of the city of Exeter of that name. (Spieer.)
Note 2-At the time of the Milwaukee riots in 1886 Emmett D. MeGowan was a member of the National Guard and a staff officer, having been appointed by Governor Rusk, November 12, 1885, as inspector of rifle practice of the First Regiment, with rank of captain. He was at the front in that disturbance.
Lewis E. Gettle, of Edgerton, Wis., the son of Lewis and Mary Gettle, was born at Briekerville, Lancaster county, Pa., January 28, 1863. His father's ancestors were Prussian and Ger- man, the name being originally spelled Goettel. The mother was of mixed Irish, German and French ancestry. Mr. Gettle lived in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, until nine years of age, then at Lena, Ill., for one year; Green county, Wisconsin, five years ; Carthage, Ill., for four years; Evansville, Wis., one year; Juda, Wis., two years; Edgerton, Wis., three years; Evansville, Wis., five years; Madison, Wis., four years, and Edgerton since 1898. He pursued his law studies in the law school of the Wisconsin State University and was admitted to practice in the Circuit court of Dane county, Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Supreme court and the United States Circuit and District courts December 22. 1896. He has practiced since 1898 at Edgerton, and was special counsel for the Dairy and Food Commission of Wisconsin during the years 1903-06, prosecuting many cases. He was eity attorney of Edgerton in 1899, supervisor of second ward of Edgerton from 1899 to 1906; library clerk, state superintendent's office, from 1894 to 1898; president of library board of Edgerton for three
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
years, and member of the school board of Edgerton since 1903. He belongs to the order of Masons, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. He has always been a Republican and has made politi- cal speeches for every presidential campaign since ex-President Cleveland's first election. He is an attendant of the Congrega- tional church. He was married October 19, 1898, to Gertrude M. Brown, and they have three children-Rollin B., Theodore Lewis and Burton Wallace Gettle.
Edward Ryan, A. B., LL.B., a member of the Rock county bar, was born in Janesville, Wis., April 3, 1852, and is of Irish descent. His father was a native of Tipperary, Ireland, and although his mother, Eliza O'Donnell, was born in Burlington, Vt., her parents also came from Tipperary, where his paternal grandfather, Edward, was a farmer.
Edward (the father of Edward H.) came to America, worked industriously for seventeen years in the city of New York. then took his savings to Wisconsin and secured eighty acres of land in the town of Plymouth, Rock county. By careful management he steadily inereased his holdings until at his death in 1883, when seventy-four years old. he was the owner of 800 acres.
Edward H. Ryan was the eldest of seven children, the others being Ellen (Mrs. Daniel Ryan, of Janesville). James, John, Joseph and Thomas, the latter occupying the old homestead in Plymouth. John lives in Montana, and William A., after serving through the Spanish war with the Nineteenth United States Infantry in Porto Rico, was mustered out at Camp Meade, Penn- sylvania.
After a course of study at Milton College and four years (1870 to 1874) in the University of Wisconsin, and one summer of study with Hon. John Winans, of Janesville, young Ryan attended the law department of his alma mater and graduated as LL.B. in 1876. June 18 of that year he was admitted to the bar and remained in Madison as an assistant to Judge J. H. Carpenter until March, 1877. Going then to Shreeveport, La., he was ad- mitted to practice in that state, but after six months returned to Roek county. During the next fourteen years he was engaged in railroad construction and later as a farmer. Returning in 1899 to Janesville, he formed a law partnership with J. L. Mahoney.
Mr. Ryan is a Catholic, a member of the M. W. A., a lifelong Demoerat and a man of happy temperament. In 1886 he married
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COURTS AND LEGAL PROFESSION
Susie C. Ingersoll, of Vernon county, Wisconsin, and they have two children-Edward A. and Genevieve I. Ryan.
John C. Rood, attorney at law, Beloit, Wis., was born in Beloit, Wis., in the year 1860 and brought up in that city. He read law in the office of Horace V. Dearborn and was admitted to practice in 1882. He has practiced in Beloit ever since excepting the years 1889 and 1890, when he was in government service in New Mexico, and has the habit of winning the cases he undertakes. He was the acceptable city attorney for Beloit during fifteen con- secutive years, ending in 1907, when he declined re-election.
Joel B. Dow was born at South Walden, Caledonia county, Vt., and as an infant with a twin sister, Josephine, was brought by his parents to their new home in Sharon, Walworth county, Wis., in 1844.
He came to Beloit and entered the freshman class of Beloit College in 1865 and graduated with the class in 1869. In 1870, in association with Thomas O. Thompson, a classmate in college, he edited and published the Beloit "Journal" and afterward for two years was editor of the Pine Bluff, Ark., "Republican."
Returning to Beloit, he entered the law office of the late Hon. S. J. Todd, reading law under his supervision, and was admitted to the bar January 17, 1874. Later he was admitted to the Supreme court of Wisconsin and the United States District court.
He was married to Mary F. Sherwood, only child of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Sherwood, at Beloit, Wis., October 1, 1872, and has constantly resided in Beloit and practiced his profession since 1874.
During his upwards of thirty years' residence in Beloit he has been a leading spirit in all public enterprises looking towards the growth and betterment of the city, and it is conceded that in many ways much of the Beloit of today is due to his untiring work.
Mr. Dow's latest effort was the bringing in to the city of the Beloit Traction Company, a much needed public utility, of which company he is now the president.
The following is a complete list of the resident practicing attorneys of Rock county :
Carpenter, E. F.
Dunwiddie, B. F.
Carpenter, H. F.
Wheeler, William G.
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
Dunwiddie, Stanley G.
Jeffris, M. G.
McGowan, E. D. Newhouse, W. O.
Mouat, M. O.
Peterson, E. H.
Smith, William
Pierce, C. E.
Avery, L. A.
Richardson, M. P.
Fisher, John L.
Ryan, E. H.
Oestreich, O. A.
Sutherland, George G.
Hemmingway, C. H.
Tallman, S. D.
Lange, C. H.
Tallman, George K.
Jackson, A. A.
Adams, H. W.
Jackson, W. A.
Reeder, C. W.
McElroy, Horace
Woolsey, T. D.
Hendrics, C. J.
Arnold, W. H.
Nolan, Thomas S.
Buckley, Cornelius
-
Adams, H. W.
Clark, John B.
Reeder, C. W.
Dow, J. B.
Ruger, William
Ingersoll, George B.
Ruger, William, Jr.
Rosa, C. D.
Whitehead, John M.
Rood, John C.
Matheson, A. E.
Wickhem, J. G.
Blanchard, H. H.
Gettle, L. E.
Burpee, F. C.
Ladd, E. M.
Cunningham, J. J.
Towne, J. P.
Cunningham, John
Towne, L. H.
Dougherty, William H.
Sloan, H. S.
Earle, Jesse
Richmond, T. C.
Fisher, A. M.
Richmond, R. M.
Fifield, Charles L.
Janes, Fred L.
Grant, Francis C.
Cleveland, A. A.
King, Angie J.
Helmbolt, George
Lane, Wilson
Clarke, Ray W.
Maxfield, H. L.
XXXIII.
SOME INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS OF ROCK COUNTY.
The Appleby Twine Binder. In 1849 two young men, Charles H. Parker and Gustavus Stone, started at Beloit a small manu- factory of agricultural tools, hoes, etc. They were made by hand at the anvil with Parker on one side of it and Stone assisting on the other. This work grew up to the manufacture of mowers and reapers of light draft. Wire had been used in machines for bind- ing grain, but had proved unsatisfactory because broken bits of it, getting into the straw and grain, killed stoek and damaged the flouring mills. This aroused the inventive genius of a Beloit workman, John F. Appleby, who in 1871 produced a working twine binder for harvesting machines. This was made and intro- duced by Parker and Stone at Beloit in 1878, and in 1879 the Deering Company, of Chicago, placed it on their Marsh Har- vester. It is now used on harvesters all over the world, and about 200,000 of the Appleby binders are sold every year. With the above Beloit invention and manufactory began the wider reputation of Beloit as a manufacturing eity.
Merrill's Building Paper. In 1851, with T. L. Wright, Mr. S. T. Merrill started the first paper mill of this Roek river valley at Roekton, Ill. Later he built a paper mill in Beloit, on the West Side, and in 1858 started the East Side paper mill. In 1867 they began manufacturing straw board. Thiek separate sheets of this stiff paper had previously been used for outside sheathing on the walls of houses. Mr. Merrill, then president of the Beloit Paper Company, formed the idea of making that building paper in a continuous roll, water proof and just the width of two joist spaces, thirty-two inches, so that it could be applied in one piece from top to bottom, be nailed securely on the joists and so make a tight covering under the outer siding. This practical invention he patented and the first roll of such paper now so universally used was made at Beloit.
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
Paper bags had been invented and made in the East, but Mr. Merrill, obtaining a couple of the machines, set them up in Beloit with some slight improvements, introduced the first paper bags made and used in the West, and started here in Beloit that busi- ness which a Beloit boy, Lucius G. Fisher, of Chicago, has since developed into the $27,000,000 paper bag and box combine, of which he is president.
The Houston Wheel. In an early day George A. Houston invented and patented a turbine wheel, which was made by the Merrill & Houston Iron Works, and proved to be of permanent value.
O. B. Olmstead when a young man, on a farm just south of Beloit, invented an evaporator for making molasses from sorghum cane. During the Civil war when sugar was searce he and his father made mueh sorghum molasses for the farmers in this neighborhood. After coming to live in Beloit he invented and manufactured a practical stove-pipe shelf. Later Mr. Olmstead made and patented the much more valuable invention of a drive well point, and two machines which were used in making it, one for punehing holes in pipe and another for perforating brass.
The Felt & Tarrant Adding Machine. Dorr Felt, son of a onee prominent farmer of this vicinity, E. K. Felt, left the farm and came to work in the Eelipse wind engine shops when the plant was located in the lower part of the city. He was naturally ingenious and some years later invented an adding machine, which is now found in all progressive counting houses. The Felt patent covers all adding machines that are equipped with a movable paper carriage for listing several columns of figures side by side, and a decision of Judge Kohlsaat, of the United States court of Chicago, in 1905 sustained that patent against infringe- ment by the Universal adding machine.
Cyrus Fox, a farmer just south of Beloit for many years and later a resident of the city, obtained November 1, 1892, a patent for a new improvement in the riding attachments of plows, har- rows, ete. He also invented a eorn sheller for unhusked corn that would strip off the husks, shell the corn and crush the cobs suitably for feed ; a can for submerging milk in cold water, while at the same time allowing the natural heat to pass off; the plant- ing of corn through a pointed tube, thrust into the ground; a
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INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
planting and seed covering attachment to a plow, and a special friction gear.
The Cotton Picker. John F. Appleby, inventor of the twine binder, studied the problem of cotton harvesting from 1899 to 1905, and September 5, 1905, received a patent on his "Dixie cotton pieker." This is a wheeled machine, drawn by two horses, which carries 340 revolving picking fingers, from which the cotton is stripped and packed in a large basket carried on the machine. It is a practical pieker for all cotton plants not over four feet high and requires only one man, who rides the machine and drives the team.
Auto-meter. The Warner Brothers at their model factory in South Beloit make the Warner Auto-meter, an attachment for measuring the speed of automobiles and electric and even steam cars. This is their own invention; has been tested and found superior to every other measuring device of the kind; has been duly patented and bids fair to gain world-wide use.
T. Gesley, factory 616 to 620 Third street, Beloit, has invented and manufactures a sulky plow, an improved three-wheel cul- tivator and the Gesley lever harrow.
Carl Lipman's inventions, Beloit, are an automobile oiler, a new rotary pump and an electric speed indicator.
The Holcomb engine. C. A. Holcomb, an old resident of Beloit, in 1907 invented a new automatic engine and dynamo for lighting a railroad train and locomotive headlight. Equipments previously used for that purpose weighed about two and three- quarter tons each, while this weighs but one.
The Dann gate. F. H. Dann, of Footville, Rock county, in- vented and patented a farm gate under the above name. In 1906 Mr. F. W. Morgan, proprietor of the famous Morgan stock farm, endorsed it as having solved the problem of a good gate.
The self-regulating power windmill, invented by Rev. L. H. Wheeler and developed at Beloit by his sons and others, resulting in the great Eclipse wind engine works, is described in the chap- ter on manufactures.
The Woodruff buckle. For the tongueless buckle on harnesses, overshoes, ete., we are indebted to Mr. H. Sherman Woodruff, of Janesville.
The Miller car coupler and buffer. Soon after railroad con- nection had been made between Janesville and Green Bay there
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
was an excursion to the latter city, which resulted in a bad rail- road collision and the serious injury of several of the excursion- ists. As a result of his own experience on that occasion a Janes- ville man, a Mr. Miller, was led to invent and patent the Miller automatic car coupler and buffer. It was a device to prevent the telescoping of cars and reduce the force of concussion between them and to lessen the danger of brakemen, and its use has already extended throughout almost the whole railroad world.
The Parker pen. This celebrated fountain pen with the "lucky curve" feed was invented by Mr. George S. Parker, of Janesville. The Parker Pen Company, organized in 1891 and making less than 500 pens the first year, has now reached a yearly output of several hundred thousand, which are sent throughout the United States and all civilized countries. It is a profit shar- ing company and pays a semiannual dividend to all its employees (of clear record) who have been in continuous service for two years or more.
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