USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 24
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Otis Harvey lived to the age of seventeen on his father's farm, his time being divided between labor on the farm and in an old fashioned saw-mill, and attendance at the neighboring district school and academy. He very early showed a decided incli- nation for study, and for studies of the severer kind, the classics and mathematics. This tendency was perhaps intensified by the circumstances of his youth. His mother was for nearly all her life, after the birth of her children, an invalid, his father was a quiet and very sedate man, and his brother eight years his junior. Of course he had little com- panionship or amusement in his home, which he seldom left. To know, to understand, to do, to per- severe, whatever the difficulties, thus became the characteristics of his youth, proving the boy father of the man.
Through their earnest desire to consecrate their son to the most useful life, it is probable, he was designed by his parents for the ministry, and hence every facility their circumstances allowed was afforded for his education, and he was prepared for college at the early age of seventeen. Previous to
this, a circumstance of sufficient importance to have, in some serious manner, affected his character, occurred. Under powerful excitement from the preaching of the revivalist Boyle, at the susceptible age of eleven, he was persuaded that he had met with a change of heart, and was induced to unite with the Presbyterian church. Afterward, having abandoned the hope or belief that he had been the subject of a radical change, he requested to be allowed silently to withdraw from the communion of which he deemed himself an unworthy member. This, from the rules of the church, was denied him, and with no charge against him except that he con- scientionsly absented himself from the communion services of the church, he was publicly excommuni- cated on the first Sabbath of May, 1839. The same week he left home and entered Union College in the middle of the freshman year, for both the clas- sical and the literary course. A class-mate writes of his college life : "He was an untiring student, cor- rect in his deportment and in his morals, and was what we termed in college a max scholar in all respects during the whole of his course. His marks for scholarship, attendance and deportment were the highest then given in college. Mr. Waldo often talked with me in admiring terms of Dr. Nott, then the president of the college, and of Dr. Alonzo Pot- ter, professor of moral philosophy and rhetoric." Later friends know that he continued to admire these instructors of his youth, to whom he was doubtless indebted for some valuable and graceful modifications of his earlier character.
During his last year in college the eyes of the zealous young student failed, and, unable to read himself, he learned his lessons from the reading of
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his room-mate. He graduated in both courses with honor in 1842, and returned to his father's house an invalid, suffering much for two years from weak eyes and feeble health. During this time he did some light work on the farm and interested himself in organizing a literary society, which became quite noted; and he was also very active, for so young a man, in the elections of r844.
With the hope of benefit to his health, and of making a start in the world, in the fall of that year Mr. Waldo a second time left home. A gentleman, whose acquaintance he made on the way, induced him to go to Natchez, where he arrived well nigh destitute of funds. He soon became a member of the family of General John A. Quitman, on whose premises he taught a small school with much suc- cess, at the same time employing his leisure hours in reading law with General Quitman, and in “ dis- cussing with him, in the most thorough manner, not only the elementary principles of law, but also the principles of government."
He was admitted to the bar in Natchez in the spring of 1849, and had many inducements set before him either to remain with General Quitman or open an office in New Orleans. Had it not been for slavery, to which he was conscientiously opposed, and whose evil fruits were the more apparent to him from his near observation of its workings, he would doubtless have heeded the southern call, but as it was, he took a map and studied the western States which he believed offered the best promises to an energetic and aspiring young man. He very soon decided upon Wisconsin, and at once came to Mil- waukee, but before regarding himself settled made a tour of the State. From this he was satisfied, and returned to make Milwaukee his permanent home in the autumn of the same year which had witnessed his admission to the bar. He came a stranger, but his industry and ability soon brought him friends and clients.
In the spring of 1850 he married the daughter of the Hon. J. Van Valkenburgh, of Pontiac, Michigan, and henceforth labored with the clearly defined plan, first, of securing a competency which as a citi- zen and a man with a family he regarded a solemn obligation ; second, in the struggle for this compe- tency, and as a distinct aim, to secure the highest excellence in his profession. Beyond these imme- diate objects, he had high ambitions for place and power, that he might do more and better work for his country and his race. For seven years he went
on prosperously, according to the programme marked out by himself. Then the financial crisis of 1857 threw him into serious embarrassment. With the aim already alluded to, he had bought ground on the principal street of the city, and commenced building a block of stores in the best manner. Real estate was solid and permanent; he had faith in it and in the future of Wisconsin and Milwaukee.
Mr. Waldo borrowed considerable money at a high rate of interest to build the stores. The strug- gle to finish the work and pay his debts, although not the noblest of his life, yet shows very forcibly some of his best characteristics - integrity, courage, perseverance. Nothing of his plan and purpose would he yield; every dollar of his indebtedness would he pay, and that by his own honest exertions. Through the future he still saw financial victory, and though at the cost of retrenchment and un- wearied labor for ten years, he bravely fought the battle, and won. Meantime he was gaining excel- lence, his other aim, and was proving himself one of the most public-spirited and useful citizens in his adopted city and State. Far and wide he was known as the well read, the clear-headed, sound- judging, industrious and persistent lawyer. The most difficult cases were confided to him, and seldom did he lose a case. A brother lawyer writes : "Shortly after Mr. Waldo's coming here a great humbug spread over the land like a cloud, known as the 'land limitation measure'; on that subject he made, I think, his first speech, but it was a speech that electrified us all, and he actually burst the bubble so far as Milwaukee was concerned." Another writes as follows: " He was always interested, and inter- ested in an intelligent way, in public affairs." A citizen writes thus: "There has been scarcely any prominent enterprise for the public good during the past twenty years which Mr. Waldo has not aided. After the break-down of 1858, when the credit of Milwaukee was all shattered and torn, he, in con- nection with James T. Brown, then mayor, acted as attorney for the city in adjusting our then pressing indebtedness. By representing to the creditors the true facts in the case, and what equity demanded on both sides, Mr. Waldo succeeded in adjusting that indebtedness on long bonds at four per cent per annum, and that wise adjustment was the foundation of the present good credit of Milwaukee."
His labors in behalf of the Northern Railroad were marked by the same energy, good sense and practical foresight, and though not a capitalist him-
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self, he succeeded in interesting others largely in that project, and it is no exaggeration to say that the construction of that important road was as much due to Otis H. Waldo as to any other man. But his life was really that of a lawyer, and we consid- ered him, beyond a doubt, one of the greatest law- yers in the northwestern States.
In educational affairs he was always specially in- terested, and labored unweariedly for some of the schools of his own city.
As a politician, Mr. Waldo was first a whig. He was always opposed to slavery, yet never identified himself with the abolitionists, because he regarded them as extremists and men of one idea. Since its formation he has been identified with the republican party, and when the great rebellion came he was found decidedly and heroically on the side of the Union and freedom. His fortune, time, strength and talents were consecrated to his country. He penned some of the ablest papers upon the questions in dispute that exist in the literature of that stirring period. Among these may be mentioned a " Letter addressed to Governor Salomon on the Conduct of the War," also several letters addressed to Senator Doolittle upon " equal suffrage," and a speech, de- livered at Burlington, entitled " The Legal Conse- quences of the Rebellion."
Mr. Waldo was a student, a man of careful and wise discrimination, and thus intellectually and con- scientiously tended to the wise middle course on most subjects. He possessed the excellences, and to some extent the severities, of the Puritans, and for these reasons was not qualified to be a popular man with the crowd, although he was always their staunchest friend.
He was, in the strictest sense, democratic in poli- tics, a believer in universal education and universal suffrage, but his carefully drawn arguments and guarded statements, though lucid, were tedious to the many who jump at conclusions ; his fairness and charity, even, wearied them, and so, though a gen- eral conviction of his intellectual and moral fitness and the obligations the community were under to him forced that community to regard his claim to public honors, yet he was not a successful candidate for office. Weaker and less honorable men were more successful; but a change was coming, for the people have grown weary of selfish greed and reck- less extravagance and unfaithfulness, and doubtless, had Mr. Waldo's life been spared, the honor which six years ago he sought -a seat in the United States senate -would have been his, and he would have been one of the most capable and faithful members of that august body.
In private, Mr. Waldo's life was spotless. He was devoted to his home and family, and interested in the education of his children as though these were his only obligation.
He was Congregational in his idea of church, as he was democratic in his idea of state, but never, after his youthful experience before recorded, united with the church; yet was he through life reverent and earnest in his regard for the Christian religion.
Through manifold labor, manifold thought, mani- fold affections, the subject of this memoir, overtax- ing his life force, passed the years 1873 and 1874 in great feebleness and weakness, yet, till overpowered, would not yield the struggle. Worn out in the prime of his life, he fell asleep October 30, 1874, in the fifty-third year of his age.
JOHN H. WARREN, M.D.,
ALBANY.
JOHN HALDEN WARREN, a native of Hogans- burg, Franklin county, New York, was born on the 23d of August, 1825, and is the son of Lemuel Warren and Betsey née Richardson. His grand- father served in the revolutionary war, and his father, a descendant of the New England Warren of very early date, was a soldier in the war of 1812. John attended the common schools of his native place until thirteen years of age, and after removing to Wisconsin attended the first school taught in
Janesville ; later he was a pupil in a school which was kept in a log cabin in the town of Centre, and there completed his early education. Having decided to enter the medical profession, he began his studies at the age of twenty in the office of Dr. Nichols, of Janesville, and afterward studied with Dr. Dyer, of Chicago, and at the same time attended a course of lectures at Rush Medical College, from which he graduated in 1849. Immediately after graduation he established himself in his profession
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at Lodi, Columbia county, but in 1851, at the urgent request of a brother, relinquished his practice, and removing to Albany engaged in milling and mercan- tile business, continuing in the same with uniform success till 1870. Aside from his regular business he has been honored with many public trusts, and in all his active career has been a leading and influential man. In 1857 he was elected to the State senate, and was afterward chief clerk of the same. He was appointed collector of internal revenue in 1862 by President Lincoln, and held the office during a period of seven years, and was also appointed by Secretary Stanton receiver of commutation during the rebellion. He was also at one time a director of the Sugar Valley Railroad and a stockholder in the same. At the present time he is the largest mail contractor in the United States, having over one hundred mail routes. His business has caused him to travel extensively over the different States and Territories, by reason of which he has become well acquainted with the character of the Indians, and heartily favors every movement that tends to further the interests of the peace policy. In the discharge of all his public
trusts his conduct has been marked by that energy and spirit of enterprise that ever characterized him in his private affairs, and by an honorable and up- right course in all his dealings he has become known as one of the leading and prominent men of his State.
In his political sentiments he was formerly a whig but is now identified with the republican party.
Dr. Warren was reared under Presbyterian influ- ences, and although not connected with any church organization is a firm believer in the principles of Christianity, and still adheres to the doctrines taught him by his mother.
He was married on the 18th of December, 1854, to Miss Louisa M. Nichols, daughter of his old pre- ceptor, the pioneer of Albany, Wisconsin, and by her has two sons and five daughters, Herbert N., Julia, Lissie, Gertrude, Lulu, Benjamin, and Fannie. The eldest son is now a student at Rush Medical College.
Domestic in his habits, Dr. Warren finds his chief enjoyment in his own home, surrounded by his happy family, by whom he is respected and esteemed as a devoted husband and indulgent father.
HERMAN S. MACK,
MILWAUKEE.
H ERMAN S. MACK was born in Altenkund- stadt, Bavaria, June 7, 1835. He was a son of Solomon Mack. His father was a merchant and manufacturer of broadcloth. Herman received his early education in the schools of his native town, until he attained his thirteenth year.
During the revolution of 1848 and 1849 in Ger- many, his parents, seeing no prospects for him, ad- vised him to leave his native place, and go to the United States. In March, 1849, he came to this country, and went to Cincinnati, at which place he commenced his business career as errand boy in a wholesale dry-goods house; at the same time he attended Gundy's Commercial College in the even- ings.
In October, 1850, he came to Milwaukee, where he was clerk until 1854, when he entered into part- nership with his brothers, under the firm name of Mack Brothers, who were widely known throughout the Northwest, and were for many years at the head of the retail dry-goods business of the State
In 1867 he associated himself with his brother Hugo, under the firm name of H. S. Mack and Co., for the purpose of carrying on the wholesale fancy dry-goods, yankee notions and furnishing goods busi- ness, and the firm, through unceasing efforts, energy and enterprise, have succeeded in building up an immense business, now occupying the large and commodious building, Nos. 369 and 371 East Water street, and enjoy a high reputation, equal to any in the State.
In 1872 he imported knitting looms from Europe, and started the Northwestern Knitting Works, for the purpose of manufacturing scarfs, sashes, jackets, mittens and fancy knit woolens. The manufacture of these goods has increased from year to year, and sales and shipments have been made to nearly all the States of the Union.
In the early days of Milwaukee he was an active member of the fire department, and belonged to staunch old "No. I." In 1867 he was appointed by Governor Fairchild to represent the State of Wis-
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consin at the Universal Exposition at Paris, and in 1873 Governor Washburne appointed him commis- sioner to the World's Exposition at Vienna. He has lately traveled quite extensively through the con- tinent of Europe.
He is now, and has been since he was twenty-one years of age, a zealous member of the order of Odd- Fellows, and has been honored by the State grand bodies with the highest offices, having been grand
patriarch of the grand encampment, and he repre- sented the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin in the Grand Lodge of the United States, at New York in 1867, and at Baltimore in 1868.
Mr. Mack was married on the 3d of June, 1868, to Jennie Wolf, daughter of Hon. Daniel Wolf, coun- selor and member of the board of public improve- ments in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of the most prominent and influential men of that city.
WILLIAM MEACHER, M.D.,
PORTAGE.
T HE subject of this sketch, a native of Bungay, Suffolk county, England, was born on the 27th of May, 1833, and is the son of William Meacher, senior, and Sarah Ann Brown, the former born on the 28th of August, 1808, at No. 9 Page's Walk; Grange road, Bermondsey, London, and the latter on the Grampian Hills in Scotland. At the age of ten years William attended a part of a winter school of three months and one summer term of the same length in Monroe county, New York. Later he spent a little less than two years in school in Wis- consin, whither he moved with his father in the summer of 1844, and settled in the town of Lake. At the age of twenty-two years he conceived a desire for literary culture, and giving himself with avidity to the work, at once began the arduous task of edu- cating himself. Beginning with grammar, arith- metic and spelling, he spent the forenoons in study and devoted the afternoon to work on the farm or carpentering during the summers, and in the winter employed his evenings and Sundays with his books. After one year's diligent study he spent two months in a select school in Portage city, and in the follow- ing winter taught the school of his district, receiving a compensation of eighteen dollars per month, and boarding himself. In early life his desire had been to become a physician, but it seemed beyond his reach. During this winter, however, he determined to accomplish his purpose and gratify his desire. Accordingly in the ensuing spring, with the encour- agement of Dr. O. D. Colman, of whom he borrowed books, he began his studies at home, dividing his time between them and his work to support his family. At the expiration of two years thus spent he mortgaged his farm of forty acres for two hun- dred and fifty dollars, and with this money pursued
a course of study at Rush Medical College of Chi- cago, and in the following summer began practice in Washara county, Wisconsin. Meeting with little success he sold his land in the fall for five hundred dollars, paid his former loan, and with the balance attended another term at the medical college and graduated in the spring of 1862, six years from the time when he first began his private study of grammar and spelling. It had been a long and tedious work, but as he compared his condition now, the master of a noble profession, with his former state, when, as a boy, he was obliged to toil as a day laborer, or when a sailor upon the lakes he was thrown into the company of those whose influence tended only to degrade, he did not regret his course, and felt that he had made a noble sacrifice, and that what he had gained repaid him a thousand fold for all that it had cost him. It is worthy of mention that during all his former varied career, though at times associated with reckless and abandoned characters, he had never contracted any of the habits of drinking, gambling or using tobacco. After his graduation, without means, Dr. Meacher began his practice in the village of Pardeeville, and by the aid of his friend and benefactor, Dr. Colman, managed to make a living. He engaged in this work because it was his natural preference, and he considered it the noblest of all professions. Begin- ning at the bottom his career has marked a gradual growth, and each year has added to his practice and reputation. Thoroughness in his professional work has always been his motto, and to this may be attributed his remarkable success. He has been a constant and diligent student, and when not engaged with his patients has found most agreeable employ- ment with his books, finding little time for games or
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ordinary amusements. Of late years he has devoted himself especially to surgery, and in all his surgical operations his constant practice is to make a careful study of his case, both by reading and observation, before beginning it. During the war Dr. Meacher was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 16th Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers, and later served for four months as contract surgeon. He was at the siege of Atlanta, and participated in the famous march to the sea.
Aside from his professional duties he has shown a public-spiritedness and been honored by his fellow- citizens with positions of trust. About his first office was that of school superintendent of Marcel- low in 1860; in 1870 he was elected president of the board of trustees for the village of Randolph, Dodge county, Wisconsin ; and in 1872 declined a nomination as candidate for the State legislature. He was elected supervisor for the second ward of Portage city in 1874, and reëlected in 1875. His ambition, however, has never led him to desire political honors, he finding in his profession ample scope for his best talents.
His political views are democratic, though he is not a partisan.
In his religious sentiments, Dr. Meacher has always been a "free thinker." A disciple of Dar- win, Huxley, Tyndal, and Draper, he looks with the deepest interest upon the impending conflict between science and religion. He believes in the nebulous origin of the earth, and firmly holds to the teachings of geology in reference to its formation and develop- ment. In regard to God, he believes in an intelli- gence pervading the universe "as the great unknown and unknowable." As to the future existence he holds no opinion, further than that it is unknown now, but may in the order of progress be found out.
He is a prominent member of the Masonic fra- ternity, having taken thirty-two degrees, and makes the principles that underlie this brotherhood his religion.
Dr. Meacher was married in the winter of 1854 to Miss Jane E. Clayton, an orphan, of Oak Creek, Milwaukee county, and by her has had two sons and three daughters, of whom the eldest, a son, died in infancy.
DANIEL A. OLIN,
RACINE.
D ANIEL A. OLIN, was born June 3, 1826, at Canton, St. Lawrence county, New York. His grandfather, Caleb Olin, settled in Addison, Ver- mont, at an early day, and was a captain in the revo- lutionary war. His father, Joseph Olin, was married in Vermont, to Huldah Smith. Soon after they removed to Canton, at that time almost an unbroken wilderness. He was a captain in the war of 1812, and took part in the battle of Plattsburg. After the war he divided his time between farming and operating in real estate. Daniel A., the subject of this sketch, was the youngest of ten children. His mother died when he was three years of age. In 1831, his father married Hepsebeth B. Andrews, who bore to him two children, making twelve in the family. She was in the best sense of the term a true woman, intelligent, just and affectionate, and making no distinction between her husband's chil- dren, but treated them all with a mother's solicitude and kindness.
To her influence Daniel ascribes whatever is praiseworthy in his own character. Such was his
appreciation of her character, that she has been heard to say that Daniel never spoke an unkind word to her. Daniel received his education at the public school of his own town, and at Canton Acad- emy, which was at that time a flourishing institution of its kind. He remained with his father on the farm, teaching school during the winter, until 1849, when he was married to Sarah S. Sweet, who died in May, 1852, leaving one daughter. In June, 1854, he was again married to Mariette Teall. One daughter was born of this union. In 1851, he re- moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, entering immedi- ately into the service of the Milwaukee and Missis- sippi Railroad Company, which road was not then completed to Waukesha, in the capacity of foreman of the men employed in the construction of the road. After the completion of the road to Eagle, in 1852, he took the position of conductor of a pas- senger train, and continued in that capacity until the spring of 1860. He was conductor of the first passenger train that ran from Milwaukee to the Mississippi river. In 1860 he was appointed
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