USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 78
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His union with Miss Barber has been blessed with two very promising children : the elder, a daughter, Mary Lloyd; the younger, a son, Richard Lloyd.
STEPHEN FREEMAN,
RACINE.
S TEPHEN FREEMAN was born in the parish of Llanarchmedd, Island of Anglaise, North Wales, December 26, 1834, and is the son of John and Elizabeth (Owens) Freeman, natives of the same island. They both died within a few days of each other, in July, 1835, leaving Stephen and two elder brothers orphans, without any provision for their support. One of the brothers died soon after the parents; the other, Charles Freeman, is carrying on a mercantile and shipping business at Bangor, North Wales.
The only school which Stephen ever attended was a Sunday-school, nor did he receive any book education except what he picked up almost by in- tuition and observation, and yet he is one of the most intelligent and generally informed men of the day. His early experiences were fraught with ex- treme hardship. At the age of ten years he left the family with whom he had lived since the death of his parents and moved to Hollyhead, where he apprenticed himself to learn the boiler-making trade at the yards of the Chester and Hollyhead Railroad Works. After remaining there three years he re- moved to Crew, and entered the locomotive, shops at that place, so as to gain better advantages in finishing his trade. Having completed his appren- ticeship he went to Liverpool, and was employed for some time in the ship-yards of Laird and Sons, at Birkenhead. At an early stage in the Crimean war he shipped on board the steam transport Emelia as a mechanic, to serve in case of emergency, and remained in this service nine months, when he again resumed his position in the works of Laird and Sons, where he continued till 1856. Having heard much of the advantages which the great country across the Atlantic afforded to aspiring young men, especially mechanics, he resolved that
as soon as he had accumulated sufficient means he would emigrate to America. Accordingly on the 10th of May, 1856, he left in a sailing vessel for New York city, and arrived there on the 5th of July following ; remained several months on the Atlantic coast, principally at Rome, New York, and on the 5th of January, 1857, arrived at Chicago, Illinois. Times were dull generally during that year, and Chicago was no exception. Thence he removed to St. Louis, Missouri, which was not more promising; and after making a tour through several of the southern States, finding no encouragement to settle at any of the points visited, he retraced his steps as far as Centralia, Illinois, where he found employment at his trade in the machine shops of the Illinois Central Railroad Works, where he remained a short time. Having been induced to try his hand at farming in that neighborhood, he took the man- agement of a farm, which he conducted "on shares " for three years with reasonable success. But soon after the opening of the rebellion he entered the service of the United States navy as a boiler-maker in the Mississippi squadron, and remained in the service till the spring of 1864, when failing health compelled him to retire. He next started a "repair shop" at Cairo, Illinois, which, after running four months, he was obliged to abandon on account of his health, which again broke down; and by the advice of physicians he removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the autumn of 1864, where he ob- tained employment in the shops of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company. He remained in this situation until the month of February, 1867, moving with the company's shops to Watertown, Wisconsin, in January, 1866. Having accumulated a handsome sum of money, he now resolved to go into business on his own account, and formed a
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copartnership with a gentleman named John Kirt- land, to carry on the boiler-making and repairing business, and settled at Racine. In May of the same year (1867) he purchased the interest of his partner, and conducted the business alone until August, 1868, when he formed a partnership with William E. Davis, which continued until 1869. In the last named year he added to his former busi- ness an iron foundry and machine shop, which con- tinued under his own management for five years with very decided success. In October, 1874, he still further extended his operations by adding a department for the manufacture of florists' orna- mental work,-aquaria, ferneries, brackets, etc. The products of this department have received the highest awards wherever they have been exhibited. They carried off the first premium at the Wiscon- sin State Fair in 1875; a gold medal at New Orleans, February, 1876; an award by the New York Horticultural Society in the same year; and two awards at the great Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia,- one on aquaria, flower stands, etc., and one on brackets, window boxes, etc. In. 1876 he yet further enlarged his establishment by add- ing a department for the manufacture of the cele- brated "Centennial Fanning Mill," a winnowing ma- chine coming into very general use among farmers. This branch of the business is under the manage-
ment of Mr. Greville E. Clarke, who has become a partner in this department.
Mr. Freeman is perhaps as distinguished an illus- tration of a self-made man as the State affords. Left an orphan in infancy, without means, influ- ence, education or aid, he has, by his own innate powers, indomitable perseverance, industry, wisdom and high moral principles, raised himself to a position of independence and influence. He com- menced business in 1867 with a capital of fifteen hundred dollars, and in less than ten years his stock-in-trade has increased to over fifty-five thou- sand dollars, with a well-established business and annual sales amounting to one hundred thousand dollars. This history has but few parallels.
Mr. Freeman was elected a member of the board of supervisors of Racine county in 1873. He has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd- Fellows since 1871. He is an adherent of the Epis- copal church ; and although not a politician, is in sympathy with the democratic party.
On the 4th of July, 1857, he married Miss Elizabeth Willich, of Pennsylvania, daughter of John and Catherine Willich, natives of Germany. They have had nine children, two of whom died in infancy. The survivors are : Charles, Michael, Margaret, Mary, John, Stephen and Hattie. All strong, healthy and promising.
ALLEN P. LOVEJOY,
JANESVILLE.
ALLEN P. LOVEJOY was born at Wayne, Maine, March 21, 1825, and is the son of Nathan Love- joy, a pioneer of that State, and Temperance Wing, daughter of Allen Wing, Esq., who is chiefly remem- bered in connection with the building of the first church in the town of Wayne, in which enterprise he was the chief instrument. Like the race from which he sprung, his father was a man of sterling integrity, strong religious convictions and largely developed reasoning faculties - a distinguished and influential man in his day and generation. He was the son of Captain John Lovejoy, a conspicuous and valiant soldier of the revolutionary war. The family is of English Puritan origin, and has produced some of the most noted men in American history. The distinguished Elijah and Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois, were of the same lineage, and educated in the same
academy with our subject. The whole race is noted for courage, perseverance and unswerving fidelity to those principles of liberty and truth, for the main- tenance of which the Pilgrim Fathers were forced from their native land to seek a home in the wilds of New England, because Old England had not as yet learned the lesson of tolerant indulgence to re- ligious opinions that now distinguishes the English mind, and which in a great measure has traveled back from the descendants of these same fathers, now settled on this western continent.
Our subject received his education in the Wes- Jeyan Seminary of Readfield, Maine, where he be- came a fair English scholar, and a preëminent mathematician, having few equals in the exact sci- ences. He was raised on a farm and early imbued with habits of industry and self-reliance which have
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been among the leading characteristics of his life. At the age of eighteen he taught a public school in his native State, and in the year following was ap- prenticed to learn the carpenter and builders' trade, at which he subsequently worked in his native State for some years with reasonable success; but the larger possibilities of the undeveloped country west of the great lakes induced him, in 1850, to break away from his eastern home and cast in his lot with the young but promising State of Wisconsin. In 1850, being then twenty-five years of age, he landed in Janesville with a very small stock of this world's goods as his capital in trade, having made the jour- ney from Milwaukee to Janesville on foot. For nine years after his arrival he was engaged in building, and being a superior mechanic, as well as a man of stern integrity and high business qualifications, his success was in proportion to his merits. In 1859 he added to his business a lumber yard, which proved so successful that he resolved to discontinue build- ing, and devote himself exclusively to the sale of lumber. In 1863 he enlarged his business and took into partnership with him Mr. D. S. Treat. This alliance lasted for two years, and in 1865 Mr. J. A. Blount became his partner, and the business has since been conducted under the firm name of Love- joy and Blount. In 1870 he again enlarged his business by establishing a branch house at Oregon, Wisconsin, under the name of Lovejoy and Richards. In 1874 the business was still farther enlarged by adding another branch house at Brooklyn, Wis- consin, which is known by the firm name of Love- joy and Richards, Mr. Lovejoy being the principal owner of the three establishments. In 1868 he pur- chased some twenty-five thousand acres of pine land in northern Wisconsin, which has proved to be a most valuable speculation and a source of untold wealth.
He is also connected with various other industries and enterprises in Janesville. He is a large stock- holder in the Harris Manufacturing Company, of which he was elected a director in 1870, and presi- dent in 1875, which position he now holds. This is one of the most extensive and successful establish- ments in the West for the manufacture of agricultural machinery, and makes a specialty of the celebrated "Leader" and "Little Chieftain" reapers and mowers and "Prairie City" broadcast seeder, which are favor- ite implements with the farmers of the Northwest. The institution was organized in 1859 by the former president of the company, James Harris, Esq., and
several other gentlemen ; after which Mr. Harris con- ducted it alone until 1869, when it had become too large a concern to be conveniently managed by one man. It was then chartered under the general in- corporation law of the State, and has since borne the name of the Harris Manufacturing Company. The capital stock of this extensive concern is over one hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars, with a sur- plus of one hundred and five thousand dollars. The buildings of the company, most of which are sub- stantial brick structures, occupy nearly two blocks, and employ about two hundred hands, besides a large number of agents engaged in the sale of their products. The annual business transacted by the company foots up nearly half a million dollars. In addition to the articles specified above, the company does a general foundry and machine-shop business, manufacturing and repairing, mill work of all kinds, and agricultural implements generally. The officers and directors of the company are as follows: A. P. Lovejoy, president ; A. H. Sheldon, secretary ; L. L. Robinson, treasurer; S. C. Cobb, superintendent ; A. P. Lovejoy, J. B. Crosby, E. G. Fifield, A. H. Sheldon, L. L. Robinson, S. C. Cobb and M. H. Curtis, directors.
Mr. Lovejoy is also a stockholder in the Janes- ville Cotton Mill Company, the owner of a large amount of real property in Janesville and in other parts of Wisconsin, and one of the largest taxpayers in the State.
He would be recognized in any community as a man of great strength and power. He is tall, well- proportioned, muscular, and capable of much endur- ance. The mould of his countenance and shape of his head clearly indicate self-reliance, an unyielding will and a fixedness of purpose not easily disturbed. His movements are slow but with precision and fore- thought. He is logical in all his methods, and has no convictions which have not been reached by a process of reasoning. His mind is comprehensive, and he rarely troubles himself about details. With proper discipline he would do well at the head of an army, but would make a poor corporal or even a captain. He is thoroughly methodical, and has great confidence in the signs plus and minus, with a margin to cover accidents. He has great respect for the honest convictions of others, but has no faith in things unseen or incapable of demonstration. He values men according to their present worth, and not their own estimate of what they expect to be. He is decidedly practical, always insisting upon
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facts and figures, but has a natural contempt for all theories which have not been proved by an actual test. He is thoroughly analytical, and when a con- clusion is reached he has no doubt of its correct- ness, and it at once becomes incorporated into his character and controls his actions. He has a keen sense of the ludicrous, and is naturally social and full of fun, but his peculiar habits of thought have induced him to become generally reticent and almost wholly absorbed with the men and things which have a place in his active brain. The workings of his mind and heart are mainly discernible by the re- sults of his conduct, as he seldom reveals himself even to his most intimate friends. He is kind and humane, but prefers to dispense with middle-men in the distribution of his bounties. With a different experience his heart would have been very much
softened, his sympathies deepened, and his natural social qualities greatly developed. Like a good mariner, he bears in his mind an objective point, which he never forsakes or turns from; but just where or what it is those who know him best are yet unable to tell.
Mr. Lovejoy is unmarried.
In early life his mind was much exercised on the subject of religion, considering a religious life the chief blessing and duty of man. But not satisfied with any of the current theories or standards of au- thority on this subject, he strove hard and long for a rule or creed on which to lean and follow, and finally adopted one peculiar to himself, more after the Unitarian model than any other. He attends the Congregational Church, however. In politics he is a republican, but not a strong partisan.
MILO J. ALTHOUSE,
WAUPUN.
T HE subject of this sketch, the inventor of the celebrated Althouse wind-mill, is an eminently self-made man. Like many other inventors, he had a hard struggle, especially in early life. He was, however, persevering, and pressed on steadily until success crowned his efforts. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and the son of Nicholas and Sarah (Hill) Althouse, and was born August 10, 1828. In the family were three sons, and a daughter who died quite young. His father had no trade and was very poor, and at nine years of age, when they were liv- ing in New York State, Milo, ragged but resolute, went away from home to work. The first three years he worked for a farmer for his food and cloth- ing, and three months' schooling annually. At the age of twelve his school days ended and the labor of his hands increased. Sometimes he was on a farm, sometimes in a saw-mill, and never idle. At times he worked all day in the field, and operated the mill half the night, and, in a few instances, all night. At one time he worked out-of-doors during the daytime, and spent his evenings in making bas- kets. In boyhood he knew but little of its sports; in later youth, none of its recreations save what came from the earning of a few extra shillings by extra work.
In 1849 he had, by his untiring industry, accumu- lated one hundred dollars, and although he was of
age he did not forsake his parents. At his sugges- tion, with the hundred dollars, the whole family removed to Wisconsin, and settled three miles from Waupun. When he reached this place he had just fifty cents left, and he resolved that that fifty cents should never leave his pocket until the last payment on land which he intended to purchase should be made. It never did. During the first winter in Wisconsin, he and the two younger brothers chopped wood, at thirty-one cents a cord, three miles from home; and, short as the days were, it was not an uncommon thing, when there was a moon, to work thirteen or fourteen hours. Their mother would prepare their breakfast, as far as she could, the night before; they would rise, finish preparing and eat their breakfast, take their lunch, be in the woods often before they could see to chop; eating their cold lunch at noon, they would chop till evening, and cord the wood by moonlight, and at eight o'clock start for home. Thus they continued through the winter, often reaching their log shanty nearer nine than eight o'clock.
On first reaching Wisconsin, Milo worked on a farm several months at fifty cents a day; then worked land on shares, and spent the evenings in making baskets, and thus getting a little ahead, so that he made a payment on land. The second autumn after coming to this State, he cut marsh hay
fr atthouse
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at one dollar per ton, and continued that employ- ment until the early part of November, sometimes working all day in the water, which was crusted over with thin ice. In this way he finally made his last payment on land; the lone fifty-cent piece, with which he had squatted down in the Badger State two years before, disappeared, and the real estate, unincumbered, was his.
In 1851 Mr. Althouse commenced digging wells, working not only all the day but frequently half the night. A year later he began to build the "Wau- pun pump," which has since become so popular, and of which fifty thousand are now in use. It is known all over the country as the "Waupun Premium Pump." His first load of pumps Mr. Althouse peddled himself with an ox team.
About 1873 he invented the famous Althouse wind-mill, of which a thousand a year are manu- factured. Like the pump which he makes, they are a premium mill, bearing off the highest prize at every State fair at which they have been exhibited for the last three or four years. The mills are built in two styles, the vane and the vaneless, both as near perfection, probably, as any mill of the kind built in the country. These mills are used for sup- plying water for houses and cattle-yards, for railroad stations, and geared ones for running machinery requiring a rotary motion.
Until about 1874 Mr. Althouse was alone. Now, however, other parties are with him, the firm being Althouse, Wheeler and Co., the persons with him being George F. Wheeler, D. Hinckley and P. M. Pryor. These wind-mills go to the Pacific Slope, and to nearly every State in the West and South.
Mr. Althouse has been president of the village,
and held one or two other small offices, but as much as possible has avoided responsibilities in that direc- tion. In politics he is a thorough republican, and is well posted on public matters.
He has long been a member of the Methodist church, and has been superintendent of its Sunday- school many years, and has also held the office of steward. When eleven years old, while in the habit of swearing, one day, while working alone in the field, he asked himself why he should use profane language ; at the same time resolved to break off the vicious habit, and did it there and then. Two or three years ago, after an absence of thirty-five years, he visited the field in the State of New York where he made that resolution, picked up a little cobble-stone, put it in his pocket and carries it still as a reminder of the timely resolution. Mr. Alt- house early left off all bad habits, and has lived not only a remarkably industrious, but an unblemished Christian life. It has its rich moral, which a dullard can understand. Even now, although he has secured an ample competency for himself and family, Mr. Althouse leads his workmen in labor. He is very pleasant and sociable with them, and they stick to him like a brother. His language is "come " rather than "go." Work with him is no punishment; he loves it for the reward it brings. In fact he realizes the truth of the poet's saying, "Labor is worship."
Mr. Althouse has a wife and four children, and has lost two. Mrs. Althouse was Miss Mary Jane Wood, of Waupun; they were married May 20, 1853, he having a good frame house for her, finished the day before their marriage. He is happy in his family, happy in his success, and happy in his " hope," that "anchor to the soul."
N. M. DODSON, M.D.,
BERLIN.
D R. N. MONROE DODSON, who has long been a medical practitioner in Wisconsin, is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in the town of Huntington, Luzerne county, July 26, 1826. His parents were John and Sephrona (Monroe) Dodson, well-to-do-farmers. He worked at farming until about eighteen years old, and then attended the Berwick Academy a few terms, teaching during the winter months. In 1846 he commenced studying medicine in his native county, and after moving to
Madison, Wisconsin, in 1849, there continued the same. He attended lectures in the medical depart- ment of the Iowa University, from which he grad- uated in June, 1850. He practiced one year in Madison, Wisconsin, and in 1851 settled perma- nently in Berlin. Here, for more than a quarter of a century, Dr. Dodson has been in the general prac- tice, and has gradually built up a most enviable reputation for professional care, skill and success. Desirous of keeping pace with the progress of med-
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ical and surgical science, he has absented himself from home for a short period of time on two occa- sions, attending lectures in the Cincinnati Medical College and the Bellevue Hospital College. No one is more conscious than he of the importance and benefits of such episodes in medical and surgi- cal practice. During the last fifteen years Dr. Dod- son has sold drugs in connection with his profession, and has one of the largest stores in Berlin.
He is both a Mason and Odd-Fellow, but not active in either order. The same is true of him in politics. He votes the republican ticket, but never allows political matters to interrupt his professional duties. He did, however, at one time accept of the office of city superintendent of schools when it was urged upon him, and discharged its duties faithfully
for a few years, the only civil office of any impor- tance that he would ever consent to hold. Medical practice he has long aimed to make his sole pursuit ; hence his success and high standing.
The wife of Dr. Dodson was Elizabeth Abbott, of Cayuga county, New York. They were married September 1, 1857, and have two children.
Dr. Dodson has fine literary tastes and an inves- tigating mind. He does all he can to encourage mental culture and scientific research on the part of his neighbors, and is the leading man in Berlin in securing literary lecturers from season to season. His heart is in all educational enterprises, and his public-spiritedness and generous support of all mat- ters pertaining to the public welfare have won for him universal respect and esteem.
HON. GEORGE D. WARING,
BERLIN.
G EORGE DWIGHT WARING is an eminently self-made man. By the loss of his mother, when he was five years old, he was early thrown upon his own resources. At the age of ten he arranged with a gentleman to keep him until he attained his majority, so that his career from the first has been one of self-dependence. Though thrown upon his own resources while his hands were quite small, he was enabled to "paddle his own canoe," shunned all cataracts, and has had, on the whole, a smooth as well as successful voyage.
He is the son of Ephraim Waring, a shoemaker, and Sally née Brown; they resided at Masonville, Delaware county, New York, where he was born October 14, 1819. His paternal grandfather parti- cipated in the revolutionary war, but it is not known in what capacity or how long. Ephraim Waring moved to Bainbridge, Chenango county, when George was an infant, and there his mother died. The period from five to ten years of age he spent in the families of friends. The man with whom he made arrangements to reside until of age was Avery Farnham, a Masonville farmer and lumber dealer, who moved to Steuben county, Indiana, in 1836. Up to about eighteen or nineteen, young Waring had had only common-school privileges, and those somewhat limited; but being fond of study he made some progress out of school. He taught a winter school at the age of twenty, hav-
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