USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 101
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105
the wife of Edwin Hurlbut, an attorney at Ocono- mowoc.
Though in his seventy-fifth year, the Doctor stands perfectly erect, enjoys excellent health, and is busy as ever in trying to ease pain and remove disease.
SYLVESTER W. OSBORN,
DARLINGTON.
S YLVESTER WEBSTER OSBORN, a native of Delaware county, New York, and a son of Samuel and Polly (Webster) Osborn, was born July 1, 1812. His maternal ancestors are noted for their longevity, his grandfather living to be nearly one hundred and two years old, and his mother is now in her ninety-fifth year. She is in good health, writes a steady hand, and her mind is perfectly sound. She resides in Conneaut, Ohio. Sylvester lost his father when six or seven years old, and for several years lived with different families in the beech woods of Ashtabula county, in northern Ohio. When he was fourteen his mother married a second husband and he lived with his step-father on a farm at Jefferson, in the county just named, until of age, receiving only a limited common-school education.
In 1835 Mr. Osborn married Miss Julia M. Gard- ner, of Kingsville, Ashtabula county, where he was engaged in the milling business. At the end of five or six years went to Ashtabula village and resumed the same business, and in April, 1851, settled in Darlington, Wisconsin. Here at first he superin- tended the building of a flouring mill for Messrs. Keep and Lynd,- the first mill of the kind erected in the place. He operated the mill for these parties until the autumn of 1862, when he enlisted in the 16th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, and entered the service as captain of company I. He partici- pated in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth, and after about one year resigned on account of ill health.
Returning to Darlington he was engaged in farmning one season, and then resumed the milling business, working four years for Allen Warden. Since that time he had charge of the county poor-house about six years. He spent eight months in Texas in 1876, building iron bridges at Seguin and Helena, and in February, 1877, received, unsolicited, the appoint- ment of postmaster.
Mr. Osborn was a member of the general as- sembly in 1865, and served as chairman of the mil- itary committee.
He has always been a strong opponent of human oppression, and early became a member of the lib- erty party, voting for James G. Birney for presi- dent in 1844. He attended the first republican State convention held in Wisconsin, and has acted with that party ever since that time.
He has long been a member of the Baptist church.
He has four children, all married, and all well set- tled in life. Sarah M., the eldest child, is the wife of Judge P. A. Orton, of Darlington; Julia M. is the wife of Dwight W. Hodge, of Buffalo, New York ; Homer S. is a physician, living at Mineral Point, Wisconsin ; and Charles Francis is a lawyer, living at Darlington.
Mr. Osborn has seen great changes since he settled in Darlington in 1851. Of those who then lived in the place, only one besides himself remains; while the site which was then covered with wheat and oat fields, is now a city of twenty-five hundred inhabitants.
CHARLES H. LAMAR, .
DARLINGTON.
T HE subject of this sketch is of Huguenot de- scent, his ancestors coming to this country at an early day. He is the son of Nathan and Marga- ret (Harper) Lamar, and was born in Queen Ann
county, Maryland, October 3, 1819. He lost both parents in infancy and lived with a farmer until six- teen years old. In 1835 he went to Louisville, Ken- tucky, and was a clerk there for four years. He
668
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
started for Wisconsin late in the autumn of 1839, with a stock of goods, but was frozen in at Warsaw, Illinois, on the Mississippi river, and early the next spring reached White Oak Springs, then in Iowa, now in La Fayette county, and opened the first store in the county. He traded several years there and at Cassville, Grant county, conducting other business at the same time. In 1842 he built the first furnace ever put up at Cassville, used for that place and the Beetown diggings. In 1844 he ran the steamer New Haven from St. Louis northward, making a few trips to the point where St. Paul now stands, there being no town then on the river north of Prai- rie du Chien. The next year he opened a store at Shullsburg, continuing the one at White Oak Springs, and operated in trade at these places until 1853, removing his family the year before to Gratiot's Grove. He had a contract on the Illinois Central railroad with Mr. F. A. Strocky in 1853 and 1854, and in 1856 purchased the steamer Hamburgh, and ran her one season. In 1857 he started in the livery business at St. Paul, and two years later, with two other gentlemen, he had a contract on what was then called the Minneapolis and Cedar Valley rail- road:
In 1860 Mr. Lamar returned to Gratiot's Grove and commenced farming and stock-dealing. He went south the following winter as far as Arkansas, and filled a large contract to build levee on the Mississippi river, and in 1871 purchased and en- larged the Russell House at Darlington ; removed
his family hither, and is still proprietor of the house, making a popular landlord.
Mr. Lamar has been engaged in other enterprises besides those enumerated. He solicited stock for the Galena and Chicago Union railroad ; had stock in the first telegraph company which ran a line through this part of the State, and has aided in other important enterprises. He has witnessed the development of the upper Mississippi valley, and taken pride in the wonderful progress of the great Northwest. He voted for two State constitutions in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota. During Gov- ernor Dewey's administration he was on the gover- nor's staff.
Mr. Lamar was postmaster at Gratiot's Grove about five years, and has held a few municipal of- fices, but has never sought such responsibilities. He was originally a whig, and upon the dissolution of that party joined the democratic. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity.
Mr. Lamar has a third wife. His first was Mary Berry, of Gratiot's Grove; they were married in 1842, and she died of consumption in 1850; of five children born to them only one is now living. The second wife was Elizabeth Scales, sister of Col- onel S. H. Scales, of White Oak Springs; they were married in 1851 and had two children ; she and both children, and two of the former children, died of cholera in 1854. His present wife is a daughter of Colonel Scales, their union taking place in 1855 ; they have had six sons, five of whom are now living.
HAMILTON H. GRAY,
DARLINGTON.
H AMILTON HUNTER GRAY, son of John Gray, a manufacturer and physician, and Clarinda Montrose Thompson, was born at Madison, Madison county, New York, June 29, 1827. His maternal grandfather, Captain Ebenezer Thompson, served in the regular army for eighteen years. His maternal grandmother was a Putnam, a near relative of General Israel Putnam. In 1829 John Gray moved to the site of Factoryville, Oneida county, and started that village by building the first cotton factory in the Mohawk valley. Two years later he removed to Monroe, Michigan, and in 1836 to Boone county, Illinois, where he practiced medicine and built mills. Later he went to California, and with
Governor Bigler laid out the town of Crescent City. Hamilton left home at thirteen years of age and went to New Diggings, Lafayette county, Wisconsin, in 1843, when only sixteen years old. Engaging in mining he took out eight hundred dollars' worth of lead ore, all of which he converted into silver and deposited in a cotton handkerchief, and, to use his own words, "has never felt so rich since." With this amount of money in his possession he started for Belvidere, Illinois, where he spent three months in a school conducted by Margaret Fuller. He then gave the same length of time to study at Beloit, Wisconsin.
In 1846 Mr. Gray received an appointment to
-
669
TIIE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
West Point, but immediately abandoned the idea of having a military education, and commenced read- ing law with John M. Keep, of Beloit, a land dealer and an attorney. At the end of three months Mr. Keep became an invalid, and Mr. Gray took charge of his land operations and conducted them for three years. He then hired out one year to a land com- pany, organized at Beloit and operating in south- western Wisconsin and Iowa. In January, 1850, he purchased the site of Darlington, and in June of
that year, with one-fourth interest in it, platted and laid out the village, having the complete manage- ment of the business, with headquarters at Mineral Point, then the seat of the United States land office. At the same time he was conducting two stores at Beloit, and doing a heavy milling business there, sending four by teams to Racine and Southport (now Kenosha), and thence to England. He con- tinued to deal in lands, horses, cattle and other property, operating with the money of eastern cap- italists, and doing well for all parties. From the time Lafayette county was cut off the southern part of lowa county Mr. Gray was engaged in locating the county seat for about ten years. At first it was at Shullsburg, but was afterward moved to Darling- ton, and here remains. During part of the time
that the county-seat contest was in progress Mr. Gray was editing newspapers. For a short time he conducted two of opposite politics, but both de- voted to the interests of Darlington. He edited a newspaper as late as 1864. He has never aban- doned the land business, and is now dealing in Iowa and Nebraska lands, and is one of the most efficient operators in his part of the country.
Mr. Gray was a county supervisor for several years; district attorney one term; member of the assembly in 1856 and 1858, and of the senate in 1869 and 1870; he was one of the regents of the State University two terms; and was the democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1869.
He has been a life-long democrat, outspoken and unwavering, and in 1872 attended the national con- vention which nominated Horace Greeley for the Presidency.
The wife of Mr. Gray was a daughter of Rev. Stephen Peet, of Beloit; their marriage occurred May 1, 1849; they have had twelve children, eight of whom are now living. The two eldest daughters, Harriet M. and Martha Ann, are married. The former is the wife of William H. Armstrong, of Irv- ing, Kansas, and the latter, of C. S. Montgomery, of Lincoln, Nebraska.
PHILO A. ORTON,
DARLINGTON.
T HE subject of this biography is a son of Philo A Orton, senior, a tanner and currier by occu- pation, and Nancy C. née Collins. He is a native of the Empire State, and was born at Hamilton, Madi- son county, March 24, 1837. The Orton family, of which he is a member, were among the early settlers of New England, Thomas Orton, the pioneer, com- ing from England in 1640, and settling in Connecti- cut. He married Mary Pratt, of Windsor, Con- necticut, and they both died at Farmington in that State.
The father of our subject in 1839 moved with his family to Eaton, only a few miles from Hamilton. In 1850 he removed to the West and settled at Be- loit, Wisconsin, and five years later removed to Dar- lington, where he died July 12, 1872. His widow is still living with her son in that place. Our subject spent a year in the preparatory department of Beloit College, giving especial attention to the study of
mathematics and branches of the physical sciences, supplementing these studies with a year's attendance at Madison University, New York, there fitting him- self for a civil engineer. This was during the years 1856 and 1857, a period ending in great financial depression, when railroad building came to a halt, and many of the older civil engineers were thrown out of employment. On this account, and also by reason of the fact that he had a partiality for the law, he in the spring of 1858 commenced legal stud- ies, and was admitted to the bar at Shullsburg, then the county seat of Lafayette county, in 1859. He has practiced in Darlington since that date, and has been quite successful, both professionally and finan- cially. His business became so extensive and bur- densome, and he was so overworked, that in 1874, in order to lessen his labors, he.established a private bank in connection with George S. Anthony, under the firm name of P. A. Orton and Co., and since
72
670
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
that date he has given comparatively little attention to his profession. His high standing as an attorney may be inferred from the fact that in 1861 he was the candidate, on the democratic ticket, for attorney- general of the State. He was prosecuting attorney for Lafayette county in 1863 and 1864, and county judge from 1870 to 1874. He was a candidate for circuit judge in 1870, and for member of congress in 1876, but the judicial and congressional districts being strongly republican, he was defeated.
Mr. Orton has always been a democrat, and in 1864 attended the national convention which nomi-
1 nated General McClellan for the Presidency. He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order.
A believer in the general doctrines of Christianity, he is a regular attendant of the Baptist church, of which his wife is a member.
As a business man he is known for his uprightness and fair dealing, and everywhere maintains an irre- proachable character.
On January 27, 1862, he was married to Miss Sarah M. Osborn, daughter of Sylvester W. Osborn, now postmaster at Darlington, and by her has two children.
VALENTINE BLATZ,
MILWAUKEE.
V ALENTINE BLATZ was born October 1, 1826, at Mittenberg-on-the-Main, Bavaria, the son of Casper and Barbara Blatz. His father, a brewer by occupation, owned a brewery and was a man of considerable influence in Mittenberg. Val- entine attended the common schools of his native place until fourteen years of age, and at that time entered his father's brewery with a view to learning the business. After working three years in order that he might acquire a more perfect knowledge of the business, he visited the large brewing establish- ments of Würtzburg, Augsburg and Munich, and at these different places spent nearly four years. He also spent a short time in other cities. Upon at- taining his majority, in obedience to the mandate of the national law requiring every able-bodied young man to serve a certain length of time in the army, he returned home to report for military duty. His father, however, relieved him from this duty by pro- curing a substitute.
Young Blatz being thus at liberty to seek his for- tune, a few months later bade good-bye to his native land, and sailing for America, landed in New York in August, 1848. Going thence to Buffalo, New York, he was there employed at his trade one year. Having heard of the growing young city of Milwau- kee, and the inducements which it offered to enter- prising young men, he removed thither in 1849 and soon found employment at his trade.
During the next two years he was, at different times, foreman of several breweries, but being unsat- isfied, resolved that as soon as he had accumulated sufficient capital he would engage in business on his
own account. Accordingly, in 1851, having by pru- dence and economy saved from his earnings five hundred dollars, he made a start.
His brewery at that time was situated on lots one and two of block fifty-nine. It was a small estab- lishment employing only four hands, and during the first year yielded a product of five hundred barrels of beer. Mr. Blatz was the first to manufacture the celebrated Milwaukee beer. From the first his bus- iness prospered, and by his peculiar business tact steadily increased until it has attained to enormous proportions. In 1861 the sales amounted to eight thousand barrels; in 1871 to thirty-four thousand barrels, and in 1875 to sixty-five thousand barrels. He buys yearly about one hundred and seventy-five thousand bushels of barley ; one hundred and fifty thousand pounds of hops, and pays a revenue of from sixty thousand to seventy thousand dollars, and taxes on his property of over seven thousand dollars.
He has added to his establishment as his business has increased, and now his vaults and ice-cellars have a capacity of over twenty thousand barrels. Agencies are established in New York city, Chicago, Danville, Illinois, St. Paul, Muskegon, Michigan, and Racine, Wisconsin ; while the amount of capital employed is six hundred thousand dollars, furnish- ing employment for one hundred and twenty-four men and fifty-two horses. Although Mr. Blatz has met with success in his enterprise, he has by no means been free from misfortune. The brick build- ing which he erected in 1858 he continued to en- large from year to year until 1873, when all his
--
Valentin Blay
673
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
buildings, except the brewery proper, were destroyed by fire. The large stock which he had in his vaults, however, prevented any interruption in the supply- ing of his agencies, and with characteristic energy he set about repairing his losses. Within sixty days he began rebuilding, employing from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men, and pushed the work forward until January, 1874, when the structure was completed. The building fronts on Broadway, oc- cupying block number fifty-nine between Division and Johnson streets. Besides he has two ice-houses on lots seven and eight, block F, and cooper-shops on lot one, block sixty, where he manufactures most of his barrels.
About this time, also, he met with a heavy loss at Kenosha, by the burning of his malt-houses, which he had rented of Lill and Bullen. In April, 1874, he met with another loss, caused by the breaking of the iron pillars on which rested the floors where malt and barley to the amount of about sixty thou- sand bushels were stored, all of which was precipi- tated to the ground in a mixed mass. Notwith- standing all these various calamities, which would have broken down many men, Mr. Blatz has borne up with courage, making the best of his misfortunes, and to-day is as full of energy and enterprise as when he first began business.
As a man, Mr. Blatz is public-spirited and gen- erous, and has attained to a wide popularity, and
been honored with positions of honor and trust. He was elected president of the Second Ward Savings Bank in 1868, and since that time has continued to hold that position. In 1872 he was elected alder- man, and performed his duties with satisfaction to his constituents.
Mr. Blatz has had a wide experience, having trav- eled both in Europe and in this country, and being a man of observation, has gathered a fund of practi- cal knowledge, which renders him a most agreeable social companion.
He was married on the 4th of December, 1851, to Miss Louise Schmidt, a native of Güdengen, Prussia, whose father was mayor of that city. They have four sons and two daughters : the eldest daughter is the wife of John Kremer, of the Milwaukee Oleo- graph Company. The eldest son is first engineer of his father's brewery; the second son is engaged in one of the largest breweries of Cincinnati; the third son is assistant bookkeeper in the Second Ward Savings Bank, Milwaukee; while the fourth son and younger daughter are attending school.
Throughout his entire career Mr. Blatz has main- tained the strictest principles of integrity, and is universally known as a man of fair dealing. If to this fact we add another, namely, that he is a prac- tical brewer and thoroughly acquainted with all the various minutiæ of his business, we have the great secret of his success.
HON. WILLIAM P. LYNDE, M.C., MILWAUKEE.
W ILLIAM PITT LYNDE was born at Sher- burne, New York, December 16, 1817, and is the son of Telly and Elizabeth (Warner) Lynde, both natives of Massachusetts. In the year 1800 his father removed to New York and settled at Sher- burne, where for many years he was a prosperous merchant and a leading member of the community. He was for thirteen years a member of the State legislature, serving seven years in the lower house and six in the senate. A man noted for wisdom and probity, he was held in honor and esteem by all who knew him. In 1842 he retired from business and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where, after a well- spent life, he died in 1857, leaving his family amply provided for, and bequeathed to them an unsullied name and an irreproachable record.
The mother of our subject was a most amiable and exemplary Christian woman, devoted to domes- tic life and habits of industry and virtue, and her influence for good over her children was control- ling. She was for many years a zealous member of Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, in the communion of which she died in 1870 at quite an advanced age. They had a family of four sons, of whom William Pitt was the second. Two of them, namely, Charles James, the eldest, and Watts Sher- man, the third, perished on the ill-fated steamer Erie, off the town of Silver Creek on lake Erie, on the 9th of August, 1841. They were returning to Milwaukee, where a year previously they had estab- lished themselves in the profession of the law, to which they had been bred. Charles James had been
674
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
married for some two years, and his wife was on board with him, but miraculously escaped, being the only female passenger saved out of three hundred. She still lives, being now the widow of the late Mr. Weeks, of Syracuse, New York. Martius, the- fourth son, is a resident of Brooklyn, New York.
The Lynde family is of English origin, the founder of the line in America having, about 1675, settled in Massachusetts, where a large colony of the descend- ants still reside, though many have settled in the middle and western States, where they are found occupying conspicuous stations both in society and in the various learned professions. Judge Benjamin Lynde, for many years judge of the court of queen's bench of Massachusetts, in colonial times, was of the same lineage as Cornelius Lynde, who was judge of the supreme court of Vermont in later times, and both were eminent for learning and probity.
William Pitt Lynde, who was named after the great English statesman, of whom his father was an enthusiastic admirer, received his academic educa- tion partly at Hamilton Academy, Hamilton, New York, and partly at Homer, Cortland county, New York. He entered the freshman class of Hamilton College in the year 1834, and remained some two terms in the institution. He subsequently entered the sophomore class of Yale College, from which, after passing through the full course of study, he graduated with the highest honors in 1838, having been elected by his class to deliver the valedictory. His knowledge of the ancient languages generally was above the average, while he was especially pro- ficient as a Greek scholar. After leaving college he entered the law department of the New York Uni- versity, then presided over by the distinguished Benjamin F. Butler, attorney-general under President Van Buren - Judges David Graham and Kent being of the faculty. Here he remained about one year, when he entered the Harvard Law School, then under the direction of Judges Story and Greenleaf. He graduated in the spring of 1841, and was ad- mitted to the bar of New York at the May term of the same year in company with Judge Field, Chief- justice Nelson presiding.
During the autumn of 1841 he removed to Mil- waukee, Wisconsin, which has since been his home, and early in the following year formed a law part- nership with Mr. Asahel Finch, which continues to this day. In 1857 Mr. B. K. Miller, son of Judge A. G. Miller, of the United States district court, and Mr, H. M. Finch, nephew of the senior partner,
Became members of the firm, which has since been known as Finchs, Lynde and Miller.
Since first settling in Milwaukee, the career of Mr. Lynde has been steadily onward and upward. For many years he has been president of the Bar Association of Milwaukee, and at the present time (1877) occupies a position at the bar and in the confidence and regard of his fellow-citizens second to that of no man in the community.
In 1844 he was appointed attorney-general of Wis- consin, which position he resigned in 1845 to accept the office of United States district attorney for the district of Wisconsin. From the last-named position, on the admission of Wisconsin to the Union, he was elected to represent the first district of the new State in the thirtieth congress, and served from December 6, 1847, to March 3, 1849. In 1860 he was elected chief magistrate of his adopted city, which office he held for two years. In 1866 he was elected to represent his district in the legislative assembly of Wisconsin, serving for one term, and in 1868-9 rep- resented the fourth senatorial district in the State senate. In 1874 he was elected to represent the fourth district of Wisconsin in the Forty-fourth Con- gress of the United States, and was a leading mem- ber of the judiciary committee of the house. He was also elected by the house of representatives as one of the seven managers of the Belknap impeach- ment trial before the senate. He was again elected to congress in 1876, by a majority of five thousand six hundred.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.