USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 42
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He was married, 5th of August, 1854, to Miss Sarah Purdy, of Mansfield, Cattaraugus county, New York. They have five children living, and have lost one child.
Judge Bunn is preëminently a self-made man. He earned by his own exertions the money which was expended in obtaining his education, and this early in life he learned to depend upon his own resources, a characteristic that has marked his en- tire career. He is still a close student and a grow- ing man.
IRA B. BRADFORD, AUGUSTA.
T THE subject of this sketch, a native of Fulton, Rock county, Wisconsin, was born June 24, 1851, and is the son of Elbridge Bradford and Lovina A. née Burnham, both of whom are natives of New Hampshire. Four weeks after his birth, his parents, by reason of homesickness, returned to their native
State, and are at present (1877) residing at Washing- ton, in Sullivan county. Both his paternal and ma- ternal ancestors were hearty and patriotic supporters of the revolution, and some among them carried their flint-lock muskets during the seven years' war. His father, a carpenter and joiner by occupation, is a
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man of small means and industrious habits, and early taught his son to work at the bench, and kept him there when not in school until he reached his fif- teenth year. Ira showed an early and peculiar pre- dilection for books, and in his love of study was greatly encouraged by his parents. He began at- tending school at three years of age, and was never happier than when reveling in his a-b-c, abe, abs, and words of one, two and three syllables.
At fifteen years of age Ira began teaching, and taught and attended school during the next three years, the latter part of which time was spent at the seminary at Sanbornton Bridge. When about seventeen years of age, he purposed to take a full collegiate course. To save time in preparing for college he doubled his studies, and as a result, at the age of eighteen, completely broke down in health and became almost blind, and for nearly two years scarcely looked at a book. During this period of nervous debility and mental relaxation he went to Edinboro, Erie county, Pennsylvania, where he en- gaged, more or less, in out-of-door manual labor.
About a year before leaving New England young Bradford had conceived the idea of being a lawyer, and making the necessary registry at Erie, began his legal studies, but made slow progress on account of his eyesight, which was not fully restored.
In the autumn of 187 1 he returned to New Hamp-
shire and taught school at Newport the following winter, and in the succeeding spring resumed his law studies there. Three months afterward he returned to Edinboro and finished his law course. In Feb- ruary, 1873, he removed to Janesville, Wisconsin, and on the third of the next month was admitted to the bar at Monroe, Green county. Settling at once at Augusta he began the practice of his profession ; and although two experienced attorneys had pre- ceded him, before he was twenty-five years old he was at the head of his profession in the place. In addition to his legal duties he has the supervision of a bank, and also operates in real estate.
Mr. Bradford is connected with the Masonic and Odd-Fellows fraternities, but does not give attention enough to them to interfere with his business. In politics he is identified with the republican party. He is a christian man and a Sunday-school superin- tendent.
On August 20, 1872, he was married to Miss Allie M. Burnham, of Edinboro, Pennsylvania, and by her has one child. As a business man and lawyer Mr. Bradford is industrious, conscientious, prompt and reliable, and has the unlimited confidence of the people, and his ability, integrity, dispatch and tho- roughness cause business to pour in upon him with great rapidity. Should his life be prolonged he has before him a bright and prosperous career.
JAMES W. COOK, M.D., NECEDAH.
AMES WELLS COOK, a native of England, J was born at Reach, Cambridgeshire, July 15, 1841, his parents being George and Ann (Wells) Cook. His father was a merchant
James early cultivated a love for books, and was especially fond of medical works; and when a mere lad found pleasure in going among the sick, and trying to relieve and comfort them, and thus in early life resolved that he would some day become a physician. He attended school from seven to fourteen years of age, then went on board a sail vessel, and in the spring of 1856 took passage for America. He did not know a person on the ship, and his first voyage on the salt water was a hard one. The craft caught fire twice, much of the provisions were destroyed, and during the last ten days his rations were one sea biscuit and half a pint
of water per day. Landing at New York city, he found his way to Rochester, in the western part of the State, and there went to live with a physician, Dr. H. Hammond, doing chores for his board and attending school. Thus he continued to do for four years, then taught school for two winters, in the meantime commencing the study of medicine, which, however, he did not complete until after the close of the civil war.
In 1861 young Cook enlisted in Company G of the 108th Regiment of New York Infantry, and went into the field; but on account of ill health was obliged to leave the army in a few months.
He went to Chicago in the autumn of 1863, and connected himself with St. Luke's Hospital, where he remained three years, and at the same time con- tinued his medical studies. He attended lectures
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at Rush College, and graduated in February, 1873, practically at the head of the class. Dr. Cook was immediately appointed house surgeon in St. Luke's Hospital, in which position he continued one year, and at the expiration of that time removed to Nece- dah, where in two years he has built up a medical practice extending from twelve to sixteen miles in all directions. His surgical practice extends much farther. A few times he has attended cases from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty miles dis- tant. Probably no man of his age in the State has a better reputation as a surgeon. He has given to the study his closest attention, and having had excellent opportunities for progress has made the best use of them.
Dr. Cook is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and belongs to Home Lodge, No. 508, Chicago.
He is also a member of Grace Episcopal Church of the same city, there being no organization of that denomination in Necedah.
On January 1, 1865, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Smith, of Chicago, who lived only a few months.
Dr. Cook has since had other deep afflictions. During the latter half of the year 1876 he lost three sisters, all dying of different diseases, and in less than three months. The first two deaths occurred in Rochester, New York; the last one in Necedah. Phœbe, the youngest of the family, the only un- married sister, was physically very frail for many years. She was living in the Doctor's family at the time of her demise, and was an affectionate sister, most tenderly loved, and her loss was deeply mourned by all.
DUDLEY J. SPAULDING, BLACK RIVER FALLS.
D UDLEY J. SPAULDING, son of Jacob Spaul- ding and Nancy Jane née Sticking, is of strictly New England pedigree, both branches of his ancestry having been early Massachusetts families. They were whigs in the days of the revolution, and members of both families were engaged in the rev- olutionary struggle. Jacob Spaulding, a wheelwright and machinist by occupation, was living near Balls- ton, Saratoga county, New York, when Dudley was born, July 13, 1834, and two years afterward immi- grated to Illinois, settling near the city of Quincy. He was a skillful mechanic, and before leaving the East built a number of bridges in New York State and Canada. In 1839 he removed to Jackson county, Wisconsin, and there erected the first saw- mill ever built in the valley of the Black river - the same being the first improvement made on the pres- ent site of Black River Falls, except an apology for a mill built by the French twenty years before.
At that time Indians were abundant, but there were no whites nearer than Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling.
At eleven years of age Dudley attended school for a few months at Prairie du Chien, and again when he was fourteen. A year later he attended a home school during one season, which completed his school privileges. Possessed of an inquiring mind, he embraced every opportunity for acquiring
knowledge, and qualified himself for every branch of the lumber trade and for the many important trusts that have been imposed upon him aside from his life pursuits.
Jacob Spaulding not only took the initiative in starting Black River Falls, but was the prime mover in its earlier improvements, adding a grist-mill and other industries from time to time. Dudley was with him from his fifteenth to his twenty-first year, acting in various capacities- working in the woods, clerking in the store or boating on the river. He was a well-built, robust youth, and at fourteen could do an average man's work with the ax; and the ex- periences of his early days have had their influence upon all his subsequent life.
At the age of twenty-one, having accumulated a small capital, he opened several farms in the Trem- pealeau valley, in Jackson county, which, a few year's later, he traded for lands nearer town. When about twenty-three years of age he was elected to the office of county clerk, and served in that capac- ity and also as clerk of the court for a period of two years. At the expiration of his term of office he, in company with William T. Price, leased a mill property, which at the end of one year he purchased, of Andrew Wood and others. Since that time he has been engaged in a general lumber business, ex- tending his operations and adding to his premises
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from year to year. He now has, at Black River Falls, a store 40× 100 feet, with three floors ; a saw- mill and flouring-mill ; a sash, door and blind fac- tory ; also a wagon and a blacksmith shop. Besides, he owns a saw-mill and fixtures at Unity, Wiscon- sin, and a three-fourths interest in saw-mills and lumber yards in Dubuque and Montrose, Iowa. He owns forty thousand acres of pine and farm lands, and has about three thousand acres under cultiva- tion in different farms.
Mr. Spaulding is a member of the Blue Lodge in the Masonic fraternity.
In his political opinions he is a firm republican, but not an active politician.
He has been connected with the Methodist Epis- copal church more than twenty years.
On the 11th of July, 1857, he was married to Miss Margaret J. Campbell, of Platteville, Grant county, Wisconsin, and by her has had seven children, five of whom are now living.
Mr. Spaulding's father died January 23, 1876, in his sixty-seventh year. He was a man of great energy and much kindness of heart; had a liberal share of public spirit, and took pride in witnessing the growth and prosperity of the town which he helped to lo- cate and with whose history and growth both he and his son have been so intimately connected.
The boy who at the age of seven accompanied his parents into this then wilderness and saw the foundations of this romantic village soon after they were laid, now looking around sees a thriving town of three thousand inhabitants, with half a dozen churches, a school house, which is an architectural adornment to the hill on which it stands, and all the indices of social culture and refinement.
In closing this brief outline of his life, it is but just to state that no man now living, or who ever has lived, in Black River Falls has done more to advance the interests of the place than Dudley J. Spaulding.
ALEXANDER McDONALD,
FOND DU LAC.
T THE subject of this sketch is a gentleman of fine business qualities, active, energetic, and remarkably successful in whatever he undertakes. Mr. McDonald was born in Lancaster, Glengarry county, Canada. He is a son of Donald and Marion McDonald. His father was engaged in farming and also in the lumber business.
Alexander received his early education at the common school of his native town, and after leaving school he went to Montreal; engaged as a clerk in a grocery store, and remained there three years. He then returned home and engaged as clerk to Mr. Archibald McBean, a merchant and lumberman ; young McDonald took charge of the store. After being there a year and a half Mr. McBean estab- lished a branch store, and Mr. McDonald took charge of this and was admitted as partner. After two years and a half he sold out his interest and went to Montreal, and spent the winter there, revolving in his mind what he should next do.
In 1848 he engaged as clerk to a railway con- tractor, continuing one year, and then took charge of a gang of men ; and, after a year, was made super- intendent of a division. He held this position until 1855, when he returned home and spent the winter.
In 1856 he removed to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and engaged in the lumber business in association with his brother, and some others. After five years he purchased the interest of all his associates, except that of his brother, and carried on the business under the firm name of A. and J. S. McDonald until 1869, when he sold his interest to his brother.
Mr. A. McDonald now examined the pine lands which he owned, with a view of turning them to account. He bought a saw-mill in 1871, and en- gaged in the manufacture of lumber, and dealt in pine lands. In 1874 he became interested in the manufacture of threshing machines, and also in the seeder works. The business qualifications of Mr. McDonald became so appreciated, that he is now connected with many successful enterprises.
In 1872 he was elected alderman of the city of Fond du Lac, and in 1873 he was elected mayor. Mr. McDonald is president of the Fountain City Paper Mill; president of the Fond du Lac Thresh- ing Machine Co .; president of the Wheel and Seeder Co .; he is one of the owners of McDonald and Stewart Sash, Door and Blind Manufactory; director of the Log Harbor Co .; a director of the German-American Savings Bank; director of the
Also The Dualde
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Fond du Lac Gravel Road Co .; president of the St. Andrew's Society. His activity is untiring, and he is held in high esteem.
Mr. McDonald is a member of the Presbyterian church ; and has been thrice married. In 1859 he was married to Miss Annie Cameron, by whom he had one daughter; and on the 12th of December, 1863, his wife died. In February, 1868, he married Christina McLennan, who only survived one year
after marriage; and in 1872 he married Sarah E. Vaughan, by whom he has one son.
In politics, Mr. McDonald has been a republican since the organization of the party.
The career of Mr. McDonald has been remarkably successful, and he is never found wanting when any- thing is to be done to benefit the city. He is of temperate habits, a supporter of the temperate cause, and is sociable, agreeable and much respected.
NATHANIEL TREAT AND SONS,
MONROE.
T "HE history of Nathaniel Treat presents one of the best instances of rugged and enduring humanity, untiring energy, indomitable perseverance and invincible courage to be met with in modern history. He has never, since his boyhood, been a day out of employment, and during the greater part of his life has worked not less than sixteen hours daily ; and although he is now bordering on four- score years, he scorns inactivity and refuses to retire, and still supplies the place of book-keeper for the large establishment of his sons, Treat and Co., besides attending to other varied and important interests. He reads and writes without artificial aid to his sight, is quick and accurate at figures, and, in short, still possesses all the vivacity and much of the vigor of youth.
He was born, December 29, 1798, at Frankfort, Waldo county, Maine, and is the son of Joseph Treat, and the grandson of the celebrated Lieuten- ant Joshua Treat, who, in 1759, came down the Penobscot waters with Gov. Pownal, and was em- ployed as a gunsmith at Fort Point, and also as interpreter of the Indian language, which he had acquired in his youth. He ascended the Penobscot river the same month and year in a canoe with Gov. Pownal, and landed on the bank of the Sourdeback stream, in what is now the town of Hampden, and there introduced Gov. Pownal to Madocawanda, chief of the Tarratine Indians. He subsequently settled in Connecticut, and was governor of that State, and his name has become historical in con- nection with a celebrated transaction of which the "Charter Oak " was witness. The sister of Gov .. Treat married Mr. Robert Paine, and was the mother of Robert Treat Paine, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Gov. Treat was
the first actual white settler on the Penobscot waters, and was the son of Joseph Treat, who was the son of the Rev. Samuel Treat, who came from England and settled at Eastham, Cape Cod, in the latter part of the seventeenth century - whose half- brother, Major Robert Treat, settled at Treat's Falls at the same time.
An English family Bible, printed during the rule of Cromwell, for many years the property of Gov. Joshua Treat, and for the last seventy years in the possession of Mrs. Lydia Park, of Searlsport, who married the youngest son of the governor, has just been (December, 1876) presented to the Antiquarian Society of the city of Bangor, Maine, as a relic of very great value.
Nathaniel Treat received a common-school edu- cation in his native town of Frankfort, and com- menced life at the age of seventeen as a school teacher in a log school house, 20 × 24 feet, conspic- uous for its large brick chimneys and huge fire-place. In those early days there were no churches, and the school-houses were used as places of worship. He taught school in the winters, farmed and clerked in the summers until the year 1828, when he built a saw-mill at Orono, on the Penobscot river, which was the first mill ever erected on that stream, and began the manufacture of lumber. This business he carried on successfully for nearly forty years, enlarging his operations as his means increased until he was the owner of some eighteen mills on the Penobscot river, and besides proprietor of large tracts of timber-land and other property. He was, in 1836, one of the wealthiest men of the State. In the last named year he built the famous dam across the Penobscot river, still standing and known as Treat's dam.
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In 1834 he was elected to represent in the State legislature a constituency composed largely of his own tenants and employés, and was among the wisest members and most indefatigable workers in that body. The first interruption to his hitherto successful career occurred during the memorable monetary revulsion of 1837. He was president of the Stillwater Exchange Bank, which in that year failed in the general crash, involving him in heavy losses. In 1846 the high water carried off the largest of his mills at Orono and seriously damaged the others, inflicting enormous losses, from the effects of which he was never afterward able fully to recover. In 1849 he was one of the foremost among the pioneers in the great California movement, which brought that State so prominently into notice, and tended in so remarkable a degree to develop its resources. He organized a company on the Kenebee river, purchased a sailing vessel, which was laden with an assorted cargo of such wares and merchan- dise as was then in demand on the Pacific Coast, and sent his son, Ezra Parker- hereinafter referred to-then in his eighteenth year, as supercargo to take care of his interests in the venture, which, how- ever, owing to mismanagement on the part of some of the other members of the company failed to realize the expectations of the originators of the enterprise. The affair led to the organization of the mining company, which subsequently owned and operated the celebrated Marysville ranch. Mr. Treat was also drawn into other business entangle- ments, and lost heavily by indorsing for friends, though he never failed or repudiated a claim for which he was in any way responsible.
He was a man of strong nervous organism, of extraordinary brain power and magnetism ; medium in size, weighing about one hundred and sixty pounds, compactly built, sinewy and muscular; with an iron constitution he was a stranger to fatigue, and never suffered from pains or aches. He usually worked sixteen hours a day, always led his employés to work in the morning and was the last to close his labor at night. He was not, however, one of those indefatigable drudges who rise early, late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness; not to make pro- vision for any reasonable necessity, but only to amass wealth. On the contrary, he was noted for his noble and whole-souled generosity. He desired to accumulate wealth for the good he could do with it. The widow and the fatherless were his care; he dealt his bread to the hungry and never turned
away from any poor man. If any of his employés lost life or limb in his service, their families were pensioned till fully able to take care of themselves, while every benevolent object within reach of him felt the touch of his generous hand.
He was an earnest student of the Bible, and its holy precepts were a law unto him. Whatsoever he would that men should do to him, even so did he to them. He was brought up in the Universalist faith and adheres to it, believing that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ will all be made alive - spiritually and corporeally, and has through life enjoyed an equanimity of temper and calmness of mind born only of his steadfast trust in the all-wise Parent of Good.
During the later years of his sojourn in Maine his attention was mainly directed to the care and improvement of his landed property, though he still conducted the lumber manufacturing business on a more limited scale. In 1866 he sold his property and business interest in the East and moved to Monroe, Wisconsin, whither his sons had preceded him.
On the 25th of February, 1827, he married Miss Mary Parker, daughter of Oliver Parker, of Frank- fort, Maine, whose father was a soldier during the last years of the revolutionary war. She is still in the enjoyment of good health, and they expect soon to celebrate their golden wedding, which will be graced by such a family gathering as rarely assem- bles to do honor to a virtuous pair, who for half a century have trod together the thorny path of life sharing each other's burdens and lightening each other's cares. The fruit of their union has been eleven children, five of whom died in infancy and six of whom survive, viz .: Hariott, wife of H. W. Whitney, Esq .; Ezra Parker, Joseph Bradford, Nathaniel Byron, Susan Alice, wife of S. C. Chand- ler, Esq., and Mary B., wife of Wm. S. Bloom, Esq .; all wealthy merchants in the city of Monroe.
Ezra P., already referred to, after spending four years in the Marysville ranch, California, with very fair success, returned to Maine and remained with his father till 1864, when he removed to Monroe, Wisconsin, built a magnificent brick block on the west side of the square, and commenced business under the style of Treat and Co. (the youngest brother, Nathaniel B., being his partner). This is now (1877) one of the wealthiest firms in the State.
On the Ist of January, 1858, E. P. Treat was married to Miss Ann Gilman, of Orono, Maine, a
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scion of one of the early colonial settlers of the State.
Joseph B. had preceded his brother to Monroe in 1860, and in company with his brother-in-law, H. W. Whitney, erected a magnificent brick store on the east side of the square, which for a number of years was conducted under the style of Whitney and Treat, but since the retirement of the former to take control of the Monroe Manufacturing Company the business has been conducted by J. B. Treat alone. He is a gentleman of fine culture, and, like his father, of great energy and industry. Since his settlement in Monroe he has taken a lively interest in everything pertaining to the improvement of the city and the well-being of the citizens. He has been a member of the school board and city gov- ernment, and is a promoter of whatever is designed to contribute to the intellectual or social advance- ment of the community.
He has also been a zealous worker, from principle, in the republican party, and in 1874 was elected to the State senate to represent Lafayette and Green counties.
Although still in the prime of life he has accumu- lated a competence. He is enterprising, generous and public-spirited, and one of the most courteous and popular gentlemen of the State. Next to Mr. Whitney he is the largest stockholder in the Monroe
Manufacturing Company. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has been intrusted with the settlement of several large estates of deceased citi- zens of Monroe.
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