USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 38
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in the male line -the female representatives of whom have intermarried with male members of the
HENRY SOUTHARD HOWELL,
WATERTOWN.
H ENRY S. HOWELL was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, November 6, 1819, his parents being Walter and Sarah C. (Lewis) Howell. During his boyhood and youth he enjoyed good ed- ucational facilities, and passed the greater part of his time in school, and during his fifteenth and six- teenth years gave special attention to the study of surveying and civil engineering. At the age of sev- enteen he joined a surveying party, and, going to Mississippi, spent a winter in the cane brakes on a branch of the Yazoo river. In May, 1837, going up the Mississippi river, he stopped at Davenport, Iowa, and was there for a time engaged in government surveys. Two years later, returning to New Jersey, he studied law with an elder brother, George Howell, and was afterward admitted to the bar, although he never engaged in actual practice, but instead went immediately to Carthage, Tennessee, and there taught in an academy for about three years. He next went again to Davenport, Iowa, and after spending two years there, in 1848 removed to Wisconsin and set- tled at Milford, Jefferson county. Here he engaged once more in his early and favorite pursuit, and sur- veyed the famous Dalles of the Wisconsin river, a most delightful task, which employed his attention for about six months.
Subsequently we find Mr. Howell a third time in Davenport, where he was engaged two or three years in the banking house of Cook and Sargent. In 1855 he returned to Milford, and engaged in mercantile
business, and soon afterward spent a winter at St. Anthony, Minnesota. Settling in Watertown in 1858, he resumed the mercantile business, to which he has given his constant attention for nearly twenty years. He has built up an extensive and prosperous trade, which is now (1877) conducted under the firm name of H. S. Howell and Co., and recognized as one of the leading and most successful mercantile enter- prises of the city.
In 1868 Mr. Howell was a member of the legisla- ture, representing the first assembly district in Jeffer- son county. He has always been a democrat, but never has allowed political matters to interfere with his legitimate business.
He is a royal-arch mason, and belongs to Water- town Chapter, No. 11, and in his religious commun- ion is identified with the Episcopal church.
In March, 1861, Mr. Howell was married to Miss Ann Jennette Nute, of Milford, Wisconsin, and by her has one child, Helen Nute, now thirteen years of age.
Like most of the early settlers of Watertown, Mr. Howell has shown a public-spiritedness and an en- terprise to which the prosperity of the city is largely due. He is, however, unostentatious and unassuming in his manner, and while engaging heartily in what- ever pertains to the welfare of his city and com- munity, takes no honor to himself, feeling that in thus doing he has done simply his duty as a true citizen.
AMASA WILSON,
NEW LISBON.
A BLESSING on the bold frontiersman, who, with ax on his shoulders, plunges into the for- est, among savage beasts and red men, and prepares the way for the hand of husbandry and the arts of civilized life. Amasa Wilson made the first improve- ment on the present site of New Lisbon, Juneau 28
county, Wisconsin. Reared on a farm among the mountains of Vermont, in a section of country where the hardest labor was required to make the land fruitful, and being early taught the strictest habits of industry and economy, the influence of his train- ing has had its effect upon all his subsequent life.
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He was born in Windsor, April 16, 1817. His father, Hiram Wilson, moved to the West with his family, in 1837, and settled near Galena, Illinois. There Amasa worked on a farm for a time, and in 1839 removed northward into Wisconsin, to the spot where the city of Portage now stands. A year later he pushed a little farther into the wilderness and spent the winter at the Dalles, engaged in the pine . ries. In 1842 we find him in Juneau county, ten miles northwest of the site of New Lisbon, on the Lemonweir river, where he was engaged in the lum- ber business for one year ; at the expiration of which time he built a saw-mill where New Lisbon now stands, platted the town, and broke the first ground in the county. This section of country at that time presented no marks of civilization - not even a log hut. Deer, wolves and bears were abundant. The Winnebagoes had sold their lands but had not va- cated them. They were, however, very peaceable, rarely even pilfering from Mr. Wilson. Once an ax disappeared; he informed the chief, who said it should be returned, and the next morning he found it standing near his log cabin.
After operating his saw-mill for three years he rented it, and in 1846 returned to Portage, where he remained until 1851. During this year he fixed upon New Lisbon as his permanent home, and upon returning hither erected a new saw-mill on the site
of the old one, and operated it for about twelve years. About 1850 he built a mill on Yellow river.
During the last few years he has divided his at- tention between the lumber trade and real-estate operations, and met with a fair degree of success, and lives now in the enjoyment of a liberal com- petence.
About the year 1871 Mr. Wilson became very much afflicted in his eyes, and lost the entire sight of one of them, and it is with great difficulty that he can see to read with the other.
In his political opinions Mr. Wilson was formerly a whig, but since the organization of the republican party, in 1856, has been identified with that body. Although tendered official honors, he has steadily declined them, and taken no active interest in polit- ical affairs more than to perform his duties as a faithful citizen.
On the 6th of October, 1871, he was married to Miss Harriet Colvin, then of New Lisbon, but formerly of Brookfield, Madison county, New York.
Mr. Wilson is a stout-built man, weighing two hundred pounds. He has a robust, healthy appear- ance, and, considering the inevitable hardships of a frontier life, we must say that time has, on the whole, dealt gently with him. As the oldest land- mark of civilization in New Lisbon, he is held in the highest esteem by its citizens.
ADOLPH MEINECKE,
MILWAUKEE.
A DOLPH MEINECKE, the eldest son of Dr. Ferdinand Meinecke and his wife Sophia, was born August 15, 1830, in Burhave, a small country town on the border of the German Sea, in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. He lost his mother at the time of his birth, and his little twin brother followed the mother in the first year of his life. His father was married again to Miss Meta Bollenhagen when Adolph was in his fourth year.
Up to his thirteenth year he had as good an education as a small country place could afford, besides the lessons of his learned father. In his boys' days he already had his eyes toward the New World, and his heartiest wish was to be once a citizen in the great Republic. His father was also fond of America, and he spoke of emigrating every year, but could only accomplish his heart's wish in !
later years. In his thirteenth year his father sent him to the high school in Oldenburg, and in the following year he was confirmed in the Protestant church. After he had studied the higher classes, he went to the commercial college at Osnabruck.
In the spring of 1848, when the whole of France and Germany were in revolutionary war, Adolph sailed in the good Irish ship Belinda, Captain Kelly, to America, and landed in New York on the roth of June. What a sight for a young boy ! what enchanted scenes! - the beautiful Narrows at Staten Island at the finest season of the year, and in front of the gigantic metropolis, surrounded by a forest of shipmasts !- then the landing and entrance into the gotham of New York! This all made the boy's heart beat, who, with twenty-six old- fashioned Mexican dollars in his pocket, stood alone ;
what MrkevY
AMeinecke
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but what cares the young, strong and hopeful? The twenty-six dollars were a burden, and twenty-five of them were lent to a friend in the first week, and gone forever. Next thing was to get a situation and earn money. After many disappointments he succeeded in getting a place as an errand boy at the worsted and fancy store of J. M. Peyser and Co., on Broadway. It was a hot summer, and not used to the climate his health gave out, and Adolph had to stay at home; being restored to health he had the lucky chance to get a situation at the store of Mr. Edward Hen, 18 Liberty street, at that early day one of the largest importers of German and French fancy goods, although his whole store consisted of two ordinary rooms in the third story. Adolph was clerk, boy and porter, all in one person. He had a chance to learn, because being next to the chief he was intrusted with a good deal of business which in a large house would have been transacted by older clerks. Adolph had ambition enough not to stand back of any work, and he did all he could for the interest of his employer. After a couple of years the rooms and locality were too small, and Mr. Hen rented a regular store, the whole building, at No. 23 Liberty street, and of course wanted more help. Adolph kept his place next to the chief. In 1850 Mr. Hen went to Europe for seven months, and business and power of attorney were intrusted to Adolph, although he was a minor for the first three months of his absence. Mr. Hen returned ; business doubled since that time. Adolph received higher wages. He slept in the store, and by great economy saved as much from his salary as he could, depositing his money at the Merchants' Clerks' Saving Institution. When he deposited the first five dollars he thought himself equal to Jacob Astor.
In 1850 he got acquainted with a newly emi- grated family from Heilbronn, in Wurtemberg. The head of the family, George Krafft, Esq., was one of the leading revolutionists of southern Germany in 1848, and when the whole movement proved to be a failure, nothing was left further than to go into exile, like so many others, first to Paris, then to New York. He was lucky to escape the sentence of his trial, which was twenty years' imprisonment. The youngest daughter of this gentleman, Maria Lonisa, enchanted Adolph's innocent heart so much that they had their first love and the only one, for they kept the engagement for about four years, and on February 25, 1854, they were married. Their resi-
dence was a nice little house on DeGraw street, Brooklyn. Adolph, of course, having now his own home, wanted his own business, and in the Far West he thought to find it. In traveling for Mr. Hen's business he took a great fancy for the growing, thriving place Milwaukee, which at that time numbered twenty-five thousand inhabitants. Mr. Hen, who had real paternal love for Adolph, promised his help.
In the spring of 1855 the household was broken up, and the young married couple separated, Maria following an invitation of Adolph's father to Ger- many, and the steamer Herman took the dear love east across the big ocean; while Adolph traveled west to find his Eureka, and he found it. With about one thousand dollars, which he had saved, and the personal credit and good will of Mr. Hen, he started his business on the 12th day of July, 1855. He opened with a small stock of toys and fancy goods, a store twenty by sixty feet, on East Water street, Market square. Late in the fall his wife returned home from Germany, and found the little nest built. The first year the whole business did not amount to twelve thousand dollars, but great economy and constant attention to business, and his frank and upright dealing with everybody, made hint friends. September 11, 1856, his eldest son Ferdinand was born; and on the 9th of June, 1858, the second son, named after his father.
In 1856 his parents emigrated and made their home in Milwaukee. The old gentleman followed his profession for twelve years; he died October 28, 1868, mourned by many friends. His brother Edward was clerk in his store for a number of years, until he started in the produce and commission business for himself. Things went on well until 1857, when the panic came, His business was too small at that time to be much affected by direct losses, but it threw him back, and only in 1859 he began to feel better times. His store became too small; he rented the old post-office in Prentiss block; his business grew larger, and in 1860 he imported the first German goods direct. As busi- ness kept on growing he was obliged to rent all the upper rooms in Prentiss block, and the frame build- ing opposite. In the yard of this store he com- menced his factory, in 1864, of willow and wooden ware in a small shanty, fourteen by forty, which he built himself.
In 1866 he went with his wife to Europe, the first time leaving their two boys, Ferdinand and
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Adolph, on their farm five miles from the city, in care of Professor Walther, an old gentleman, as their teacher. On his trip to Europe he made profitable engagements, and his localities became too small for the business; so he rented in 1867 the large warehouse, No. 93 Huron street, and from that time his business was strictly wholesale.
In 1867 he took in his house and family Charles Penshorn, an orphan from his native village. Charley went to school with his boys and proved to be of very good character; was kept as a son in the family. He is at present his first hand in business.
The factory was removed into the old Horning mill on Front street, which was bought with forty feet front in 1866. In 1869 the adjoining sixty feet were purchased and the present large factory was erected in 1870, being eighty by one hundred and forty feet in size. In 1871 business being in two
different places, became too large for one head to control. Mr. Meinecke took a partner in his whole- sale fancy goods business, his cousin, Mr. Theodore Luebben, who had served for him as clerk a number of years.
In 1871 he sent his two boys to a high school in Germany. They returned in 1874. Ferdinand, the eldest, having studied the higher classes in the Polytechnical College in Hanover, took his place in the factory; being acquainted with all parts of machinery, and to make drawings for new patterns, etc. Adolph is serving his apprenticeship in a wholesale fancy goods house, Ramin, Bro. and Co.
Mr. Meinecke never meddled with politics ; before the war he was a strong democrat, but became a republican. He was not a soldier, but did all he could for the army; sent ten men from his shops. He was appointed by Gov. Taylor one of the Centen- nial commissioners for the State of Wisconsin.
ELI P. MAY,
FORT ATKINSON.
E LI P. MAY was born May 26, 1825, at Oneida, Oneida county, New York, his parents being Chester May and Hannah Damuth May. His ma- ternal grandmother was captured by the Indians during the war for independence, and taken to Can- ada, and subsequently rescued. His father was a soldier in the war of 1812. He cleared a farm in Oneida, and subsequently had contracts on the Erie canal and the Croton water-works. In 1839 he removed to Wisconsin, reaching Milwaukee on the 3d of July, and the next day broke the ground for the Rock River canal, of which he had the contract, but which was never completed. . Prior to coming west Eli had received a common-school education, and soon after reaching Wisconsin attended an acad- emy at Beloit for a short time. In his sixteenth year he began teaching school, which vocation he followed during the winter months for about four years, work- ing the rest of the time on a farm one and a half miles south of Fort Atkinson, which his father had purchased and settled upon in 1839. In 1847 Ches- ter May built a mill in Dodge county, seven miles from any house, on the west branch of Rock river. Here, one mile from Mayville- which place was named in honor of him- he discovered iron ore; some of which Eli, at his request, took to a blast
furnace in Indiana, tested and had a stove cast from it. It was the first stove ever made of Wisconsin iron, and is still in the possession of the subject of this sketch.
At the age of twenty-three he began the study of law with Emmons and Van Dyke, of Milwaukee; but upon the death of his father, which occurred February 18, 1849, his elder brother being away from home, he was compelled to abandon his studies and take charge of the farm. About three years later he moved into Fort Atkinson, and with his brothers, George W. and Chester, built a saw-mill on Rock river. He soon afterward opened a store, and continued in trade about ten years, his brother Chester being in partnership with him part of the time.
After discontinuing the mercantile business Mr. May spent some time dealing in stock and wool and in real-estate operations, usually with good success, and during the last three or four years has been engaged in the manufacture of flour, as a member of the firm of May, Waterbury and Co. Besides, he is interested in various other enterprises in Fort Atkinson. He is a stockholder in the Northwestern Furniture Company, also in the Foundry and Ma- chine Company, and likewise a director and stock- holder of the First National Bank.
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Just prior to the close of the civil war Mr. May received a commissary's commission from President Lincoln, with the title of captain. Going to St. Louis he arrived just before the President's death, and immediately resigned and returned home. Dur- ing the whole period of the war he was active in the cause of the Union, and very generous to the families of those who had enlisted and gone to the field.
In politics he has been a republican since the party was organized. In 1870 he was a candidate for State representative, and although his district was democratic lacked but five votes of being elected.
Mr. May is a Universalist in religious sentiment, and one of the pillars of the Fort Atkinson society. Generous and charitable, he gives liberally to the support of all worthy objects.
He has been twice married : on September 1, 1853,
to Miss Harriet E. Vosburg, of Fort Atkinson, who died May 24, 1855 ; on December 23, 1856, he mar- ried Miss Ann Curtis, daughter of Cyrus Curtis, an early settler in Jefferson county, and an enterprising man. Mr. May had one child by his first wife, and has four children by the second. He lives in one of the finest brick houses in the village, its location being on the site of the old fort.
Mr. May is one of the foremost men in all local enterprises, and important responsibilities in this respect have been put upon him. When the Chicago and Northwestern railroad -Green Bay and Lake Superior line - was built through Fort Atkinson he was chairman of the board of supervisors, and signed the bonds given by the town to that company, and did his full share in encouraging this great enterprise ; and to a few such men as he the town is largely indebted for its manufacturing interests, its growth and its prosperity.
MILO JONES,
FORT ATKINSON.
A MONG the early settlers in Jefferson county, Wisconsin, was Milo Jones, a man of great courage, coolness, and decision of character. He came of good fighting stock, more than one of his kinsmen having aided in gaining the independ- ence of the colonies. His parents, Edward Jones and Lucy née Farnsworth, were industrious farmers, living at the time of his birth, February 16, 1809, at Richmond, Chittenden county, Vermont. Milo re- mained at home until 1828, receiving such education as a farmer's son could gain at the common school. At that time, entering the surveyor-general's office at Burlington, he spent about four years in study, paying particular attention to surveying and civil engineering. 'At the expiration of this time he started for the growing West, where much govern- ment surveying had to be done, and many towns platted, and reached Michigan in June, 1832, when the Black Hawk war was at its height; there he spent the winter shaking with ague, and in the fol- lowing year returned to Vermont, and again worked his way to Michigan, passing through Ohio early in 1834. Spending that summer and autumn in sur- veying, he, just before winter set in, fitted out a party and started for the then territory of Wisconsin, where, in company with another gentleman, he had
a contract for government surveys extending over several counties. He was employed in this work about two years, and in 1837 took a government contract in what is now the State of Iowa.
In 1838 Mr. Jones, having selected the beautiful spot where Fort Atkinson, a village of twenty-five hundred inhabitants, now stands as his future home, there built him a log cabin, and on that identical spot we find him to-day. There were then only two families on the present site of the village, though Charles Rockwell, a pioneer, was only a short dis- tance away. Without any legal rights here, Indians had entire possession of the country, and called the place Koshkonong, because of the lake of that name in this township, a name which some of the early settlers were disposed to adopt. The post-office, however, had always been named Fort Atkinson, in honor of General Atkinson. Here Mr. Jones opened a farm, and from time to time, as occasion required, engaged in surveying.
In 1839 he started a dairy on what would now be regarded a small scale, and considers himself as the pioneer cheese manufacturer of the State. Among the experiences of those early times might be men- tioned the following :
Early in the spring of 1840 or 1841, some of the
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families near Mr. Jones had a terrible fright caused by the Indians. A fur trader had given them some diluted whisky, and in a half intoxicated state they entered two or three cabins of the whites in the night, hooted and danced, and pillaged and fled. Some of the old women in great fear found shelter at Mr. Jones', where they said they should be safe. Mr. Jones, who subsequently received a colonel's commission from General Dodge, wrote to the Gen- eral the particulars in regard to the Indians, and received orders to remove them from the locality alive or dead. He summoned thirty or forty men from the surrounding country, who all came with guns and ammunition. Having interviewed the chief, on the shore of the lake, Mr. Jones gave him fifteen minutes in which to fold up his tents and depart, and before that time had expired evéry red man was making rapid strides in a westward direc- tion. On the same day, and at the same hour, an Indian trader came along in a canoe to negotiate for pelts, having whisky in his trunks. This Mr. Jones destroyed, talked seriously of an extemporaneous gallows, upon which the fur dealer paddled his canoe away as though racing with death himself.
On another occasion Mr. Jones met a large body of Indians returning from Milwaukee, where they had been to receive their government supplies. Seeing that they were partially intoxicated, he gath-
ered from their looks, their movements, and their language, that they meant mischief, and when he started to leave them made quick steps for twenty or thirty feet, then turning suddenly, he saw half a dozen guns about to be pointed at him, and in a moment more was among the Indians cuffing their ears, and showing them that he understood them. He started off a second time, keeping an eye on them until he had passed over a knoll, and then disappeared at a rapid pace.
On July 4, 1849, Mr. Jones opened the Green Mountain House, and continued its proprietor for several years, and during the administration of President Pierce, was postmaster, having his office in the hotel.
In 1848 he was a member of the constitutional convention, and had the satisfaction of seeing carried through that body nearly every measure which he advocated. In politics he was a democrat until 1861, since which time he has voted with the repub- lican party.
In April, 1832, Mr. Jones was married to Miss Sarah Crane, of Richmond, Vermont, who died in 1872. Of the eight children born to them, five are now living, of whom four are married. Milo C. Jones, one of the sons, manages the home farm, consisting of five or six hundred acres, and has one of the largest private dairies in this part of the State.
GOV. JOHN E. HOLMES,
JEFFERSON.
JOHN EDWIN HOLMES, the first lieutenant- governor of the State of Wisconsin, was born December 28, 1809, near Hartford, Connecticut, his parents being Solomon and Ann (McKee) Holmes. The family moved to the State of New York when he was in his fourth year, and both parents dying before he was nine he went to live with his grand- father in the same State. He early exhibited a strong love for books, in which, however, his grand- father did not encourage him. At twelve years of age he left home, and going to Hamilton, Madison county, there partially learned a trade. During his leisure hours he applied himself to study, and thus gained an education sufficient to enable him to teach a common school. Later he attended an academy in the place where he resided, and event- ually prepared himself for the Universalist ministry.
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