USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 82
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In 1872 his studies were interrupted by his ap- pointment to the position of assistant music teacher at the Institute for the Blind, Columbus, Ohio, where he spent three years ; after which he accepted a like position as principal teacher of music at the Wis- consin Institute, Janesville, which position he now holds (1877).
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He is a devoted member of the Methodist Epis- copal church, in which he holds a local preacher's license.
At the age of eleven he began to play the piano under the direction of a very learned German gen- tleman, Prof. Nothnagle, of Columbus, of a taste severely lofty and somewhat conservative, who im- parted a very distinct mould to his taste and aspira- tions. His first acquaintance with Beethoven was at the age of thirteen; and so deeply did the spirit of this greatest of tone-masters sink into his mind, that an ambition to do the noblest things in art, both as a pianist and composer, was enkindled in his soul. For seven years thereafter he continued to give but a small fraction of his time to the pur- suit of music, while the larger part of his energy was constantly strained to the utmost in gathering the choicest treasures from all the realms of im- aginative literature, especially English. At the age of twenty, while pursuing the study of theology at Boston, he became so fascinated by the multiform beauties of the musical art works which he there heard rendered, that for three years the diligent practice of the piano, and intense study of the theory and history of music, well-nigh absorbed his whole power; but about this time, feeling the need of some final decision as to which of the two arts (music or poetry) should be enthroned in his life, he was perplexed with the almost impossible de- cision which must in either way cut off what seemed as dear and indispensable as the right or left arm to him. But the matter was finally brought to a poise by his resolve to divide strictly and impar- tially his time and energy between the two, hoping by patient continuance, through years and slow ac- cretions, to reach the size and strength of artistic maturity, which in either art seemed indispensable to life itself. As a practical artist upon the piano he has attained to a full, rounded and completely balanced development, so that no one-sidedness of taste or art learning exists to draw him especially to the performance of any master or school. Hence, in his " Repertoire," Mendelssohn and Schuman, Beethoven and Chopin, Bach and Liszt, are equally represented, and many of the lesser works filling the wide spaces between these mountain tops have also a place in his study and veneration. The aggre- gate amount of his present memorized "Repertoire " is more than twelve thousand measures, which would consume above eight hours in performance. He has written a large number of pieces in various
modes and forms, from the simple "nocturn " to the complex and elaborate "sonata ;" but none of them have as yet been given to the public, though many of them have drawn out warm praise from musicians of the finest taste.
He has also, during the past twelve years, since his first perusal of " Paradise Lost " (which he always calls an intellectual creation), ranged over the entire field of English polite literature, from Chaucer to Tennyson ; from Richardson and Fielding to Dick- ens and George Eliot, and from Addison to Lowell. In these studies he has always brought a sun-glass intensity of concentrated attention, which has kindled almost every dry stick into a flame, and his faggots of mental fuel have been collected from every quar- ter ; not alone from Shakspeare or Wordsworth, but from Donne, Quarls, Clair and Clough. He early began to fix in memory all phrases, words, lines, pas- sages or whole poems, which seemed to him worthy of being kept; and the same searching process has been applied to every form of prose reading, and these passages have all been interwoven and inter- laced with each other by numberless associations, so that every minute fragment is ready at an instant's call. The amount of memorized literature which he at present carries is upward of thirty thousand lines, and he is now adding to his stock at the rate of twelve thousand lines per year.
His first attempt in verse was a descriptive poem on "Evening," composed at the age of thirteen, and shortly afterward another entitled the "Song of the Brook," which so pleased his circle of friends that it was put into print for their benefit. Another one, produced at a somewhat later period, entitled " The Pool by the Sea," is embodied in this sketch as a specimen of his mode of thought and versification.
" I stood where ocean Had laid a floor of hard, wet sand; Forever to and fro across the strand, With ceaseless motion, The chafing waves now climb the gentle plain, Now back recoil again.
" Resplendent o'er me The night had hung her azure bell, With sparkling gems encrusted like a sliell. And wide before me I saw the stars all tremble in the brine, In prisons crystalline.
" The act unheeding I pressed my heel upon the strand And made a little hollow in the sand ; The wave receding Left in it crystal water, brimming o'er, Yet prisoned on the shore.
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" Beside the ocean,
Yet parted from the fierce turmoil Of angry waves that ever hiss and boil, Unvexed with motion, It held within its breast, reflected far, One bright eternal star.
" No longer flowing Before the bidding of the wind, The water lay in sandy wall confined, But calmly glowing, Fix'd in its bosom, central and serene, Its star-lit heart was seen.
" Oh, thus entrammeled With feeble senses o'er and o'er Our souls are pent upon this mortal shore, Y'et deep enameled Within our hearts, by light from heaven's far cope, Burns bright eternal hope."
At the age of fourteen he began to devote all his hours of composition to the building up of a larger work, the outlines of which at first were vague, but grew, both in size and distinctiveness till they formed a philosophic poem entitled "The Vale of Poesy," on which work he is at present engaged, and will probably consume at least five years more in its completion. It is cast in the form of a vision some- thing after the manner of Dante's " Divine Comedy," and paints the aspirations of the soul of man, tracing its progress from the root in this world to the flower in the next. It is designed to be in six books, aggregating six thousand lines of blank verse, heroic measure. It follows a disembodied spirit through the various scenes by which it is fitted to enter into the highest life of the future, and this tutelage is conducted by angelic instructors. He does not in- tend to give this poem to the world for ten years yet, in this emulating the patience of Wordsworth, who kept some of his works by him for twenty years.
He has sedulously cultivated the critical as well as the creative faculty, and has delved so deep into the very soul and spirit of all the great schools of thought and writing, that he holds a microcosm of the whole system of imaginative literature, and de- lights much in unfolding the interdependencies and mutual reactions of the great forces which have moulded human development, especially as revealed through letters. Whenever he attacks an author he vivisects his whole mental anatomy, laying bare at once his strength and his weakness, and always aims at the severest and most exact truth of judgment, not sparing the faults of his idols, nor treating with indifference the graces of those for whom his admi- ration is less glowing. Whether Byron or Cowper, Shakspeare or Burns, Goethe or Dante, Homer or
Tennyson, he is equally at home, and at once adapts the scale of his critical judgment to the size of the genius to be measured. He strenuously seeks to realize a catholicity of taste which excludes no plant having the true sap of genius from his all- embracing herbary. He has at his command an analysis of all the standard poets, is familiar with their classification, understands the relation of their thought to that of their times, and its effects upon life and manners, and the relation of each to the progress of civilization. Parallel with these strictly æsthetic studies, he has carried on a general ac- quaintance with politics, art, metaphysics and sci- ence, and though not an adept in experimental research, is conversant with its most striking results, and from this region frequently draws objects of comparison to serve as mirrors for centering the light upon the special topic before him. But with all this discursiveness of range, dealing with vague abstractions and general laws, he fills his memory with particulars, facts, names, dates, thoughts, images and anecdotes, which come showering down on all occasions at the slightest touch, like water-drops from a spreading tree after a copious rain.
His system of working is eminently methodical and accurately distributed over the various subjects embraced in the circle of his thinking, and he makes constant review, brushing off the dust of forgetful- ness, that every mental treasure may lose none of its brightness from the effects of time. His method is to hire persons to read aloud such books as he se- lects, in which he marks out every passage from a word or phrase to hundreds of lines, which seem to him worth a second reading. These again are re- read and re-classified into four ranks, according to their importance, and the best, whether prose or verse, are then carefully and patiently worked into his memory, which, he says, in every man should be a polished and fadeless mosaic in which a thousand fragments, varying in size and color, together make one significant whole. He is always ready to give the year and day of every event, for he considers dates the pegs on which every fact should be hung.
The same earnest labor which he has bestowed upon English, he has also bestowed upon other languages,- especially German, Greek and Latin, besides Italian, French and Hebrew. With the leading authors in these languages he is only less familiar than with the English. All his discussions, whether formal or spontaneous, whether gushing out as casual talks or as set speeches, are characterized
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by a volcanic glow of enthusiasm and constant scin- tillation of metaphor and simile, and many of his images have a brilliancy and fitness that fixes the thought indelibly in the mind of the hearer, and an exquisite enjoyment of the ideas of color tinges every remark, and he sometimes says that the only thing which has saved him from a triple perplexity, from the desire to study painting in addition to the art of poetry and the art of music, is the lack of sight.
Mr. Van Cleve has, from the first, participated largely in the exercises of the two literary societies
of the city, "The Mutual Improvement Club " and the " Round Table," and has always been ready to do any amount of labor that might be needed to round out and fill up the study, or is ready to retire into the background and allow others full scope to exercise their powers and develop their information, and at each meeting has served as general gleaner of the entire field over which the various reapers have gathered their sheaves.
These qualities present at once, without collision, the power of cultured talent and the inspiration of genius.
REV. JOHN J. ELMENDORF, S.T.D., RACINE.
JOHN JAY ELMENDORF, S.T.D., university professor of intellectual philosophy and English literature in Racine College, Wisconsin, represents one of the old Dutch families who immigrated to the " New Netherlands," now the "Empire State," in the beginning of the seventeenth century, although the family name indicates rather a " Platt Teuton " origin. He was born in the city of New York, in 1827, and the first forty years of his life were en- tirely identified with that metropolis. His school- days were spent there, and where Union square now stands he collected geological specimens, and skated on the flats which then lay eastward of the Bowery, in that section of the city. He graduated at Columbia College, New York, at the early age of eighteen, standing second in a class of twenty-four. He devoted two years to the study of the natural sciences, attending two courses of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Immediately after his graduation at Columbia College, by reason of the illness of the professor of mathematics, young Elmendorf was appointed to take his place pro tempore, but this did not interfere with his own work, which he pursued with the ut- most vigor and persistence. Having resolved to prepare himself for the work of the Christian min- istry, he entered the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal church, from which he graduated in 1849, to his work having been added a second time the duties of the mathematical pro- fessor at his Alma Mater. After an additional year of private study he received holy orders in the Epis- copal church in 1850, and having gained some brief
experience in missionary work in the city, he warmly took up the cause of "free churches; " and, aided by friends of the movement, he, in 1852, organized a " free church " in what was then the suburbs of the city - near the intersection of Broadway and Thirty- fourth streets. Of this parish he continued rector some sixteen years, building up a large congrega- tion, and developing a principle which has be- come popular, at least in theory, amongst Christian churches generally.
Education in accordance with the faith of the Episcopal church was an essential element of his plan, and accordingly a large parish school soon sprang up under the shadow of his church, which was eventually modified and became " Hobart Hall," a suitable building having been erected for its use. Out of this institution sprang up the now (1877) flourishing school of the Protestant Sisters of St. Mary, New York.
Dr. Elmendorf has always earnestly advocated the principles then gradually finding acceptance in the Episcopal church, concerning a higher standard of practice and a warmer and more popular mode of worship, and he was the first, we believe, to intro- duce to New York a surpliced choir and regular choral worship. Of course his little chapel became an object of wide-spread attention, for such novelties were signs of a movement about which there was considerable difference of opinion,- a reform, some considered it, which lay deeper than ritual, while others had much to say in the public prints in derision of the " poor Puseyites " in Thirty-seventh street, New York.
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In 1868 Dr. Elmendorf published a small twelve- mo volume, entitled " Rites and Ritual," tracing the history and meaning of the ceremonial of Christian worship. A year or two previously Columbia Col- lege had conferred upon him the degree of S.T.D.
In 1869 it became known that he was prepared to withdraw from the excessive labors of mission work in a parish chiefly composed of the poor; and it was also known that he had devoted considerable attention to the principal languages and literature of modern Europe- French, German, Italian and Spanish ; he was invited to a position in the faculty of Racine College, Wisconsin. After some delay (his mission work having been taken in charge by Trinity Church, New York), he accepted an ap- pointment to a professorship by the trustees, and removed, in the latter part of that year, with his family, to Racine, where he has since labored.
In 1876, the college having been put under an enlarged board of trustees with reference to the founding of a " church university for the Northwest," Dr. Elmendorf was elected university professor of intellectual philosophy and English literature. He published, the next year, his "Outlines of the His- tory of Philosophy," a syllabus of his lectures, with copious reference to original sources, for the benefit of students and the convenience of professors pur- sning the historical course.
Dr. Elmendorf is a somewhat reserved student, avoiding general society, and devoting himself al- most exclusively to the unlimited fields of studies involved in the range of his work as professor of philosophy, although he occasionally reads a course of lectures before a popular audience, some of which
have appeared in our quarterlies and other periodi- cals. He is recognized as a "high churchman," and affiliates with the so-called ritualistic party of the denomination. He preaches in the college chapel occasionally, and his sermons, when not philosophi- cal, are strictly practical, rarely dogmatic. He is a man of rare intellectual powers, clear, logical and quick. He considers the study of intellectual phi- losophy as the best means of training the mind, and succeeds in impressing the students with his ideas, so that they generally excel in that department, and leave the college with a bias in the direction of such studies. He is quite popular with his students, and sometimes gives direction to their amusements and recreations. He is fond of fishing, and of sports peculiar to the "backwoods," and usually spends a few weeks of the summer vacation in camping out in some northern recess. With his intimates in the social circle he is quite companionable; his chief amusement being a "rubber" of chess, a game at which he is quite an expert.
On October 21, 1850, he married Miss. Henri- Anna Green, daughter of Henry Green, Esq., a scion of a well-known New England family, connected with the Jeffries, Amorys and Lawrences of Massa- chusetts, and the English Marryats. Her only brother, Edward Green, is a capitalist well known in Chicago. Mrs. Elmendorf is a very highly cul- tured, amiable and popular lady. They have a fam- ily of nine children living, namely : Mary, Agnese, Grace, Edward Green, Elizabeth, Lawrence, Caro- line Dickerson, Emily Keene and Augustine. Mary is the wife of Henry Babcock, Esq., of New Jersey ; the others are unmarried.
HON. WILLIAM BLAIR,
WAUKESHA.
W WILLIAM BLAIR, a native of Ayrshire, Scot- land, was born in the town of Dundonald, July 31, 1820, his parents being Bryce and Ann (Dunlop) Blair, industrious farming people. At the age of sixteen, with only an ordinary com- mon-school education, William immigrated to Amer- ica, in company with an elder brother, and settled in the village of Mumford, Wheatland township, Monroe county, New York. There he learned the machinist's trade, at which he worked for about ten years. In the autumn of 1845 he closed his
affairs in the East and settled permanently in Wau- kesha, Wisconsin. There he commenced the manu- facture of threshing machines, in company with A. McLachlen, who sold out his interest to Amos Smith at the end of about eleven years. Six years later Mr. Blair bought out Mr. Smith, and since then has conducted the business in his own name. He still manufactures threshers, but on a very limited scale, paying more particular attention to the repairing of agricultural implements and ma- chines, doing an extensive business in this line. He
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is also engaged in the manufacture of woolen fab- rics, being president of the Waukesha County Manufacturing Company, which consumes about one hundred and fifty thousand pounds of wool annually. He has been president of the Waukesha National Bank since 1865, and a director since its organization, more than twenty years ago.
Mr. Blair has a farm of about six hundred acres, one mile from the village of Waukesha, on which he lives, and of which he has had the care until the present year, his second son, George B., now having charge of it. His eldest son, Frank C., takes the principal charge of the manufacturing and repairing shops.
Mr. Blair was president of the village for six or eight years, chairman of the town board nearly as long, and a member of the senate in 1864, 1865, 1872, 1873, 1876 and 1877. He was chairman of the committees on banks and banking and public
lands during most of the sessions, and while in this capacity did his most valuable work on the first- named committee. Few men more practical, or of better judgment have recently been found in that body.
Mr. Blair has acted with the republican party since it had a name, and has long been a leader in political matters in his part of the State.
He has been twice married : First, to Miss Nancy- M. Emmons, of Le Roy, New York, who died in May, 1859; to his present wife, Miss Henriette A. Emmons, a sister of the first wife, he was married in June, 1860. He had three children by the first wife and has two by the second.
Pecuniarily Mr. Blair is perfectly independent, and having sons old enough to manage certain branches of his business, he is gradually shifting responsibilities off his own shoulders and learning to lessen his cares.
VERNON TICHENOR,
WAUKESHA.
T' HE father of the legal fraternity in Waukesha, Wisconsin, is Vernon. Tichenor, who has been for thirty-eight years a practicing attorney there. In the summer of 1839, when he entered the Terri- tory of Wisconsin, Milwaukee had less than two thousand inhabitants, and Waukesha less than two hundred. Nine years later the Territory became a State. Mr. Tichenor, still in prime health and only a little past the prime of life, has seen Milwaukee grow up to a city of nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants, and Waukesha develop into one of the most beautiful villages in the State, and, with its health-giving fountains, become the "Saratoga of the West."
He is the son of Moses and Abby (Paul) Tiche- nor, and was born at Amsterdam, New York, Angust 28, 1815. His maternal grandfather served through the seven years' struggle for American freedom, and was taken prisoner and put on board a prison-ship about six weeks before the close of the war. Moses Tichenor fought in the second war with England. Vernon prepared for college at the Amsterdam Academy, and graduated from Union College in the summer of 1835, just before entering on his twenty-first year. He studied law with David P. Corey, of Amsterdam, and was admitted to the bar
at Albany in October, 1838, and in August of the following year opened a law office in Waukesha, his being the first " shingle " to appear on these old fishing and hunting grounds of the Pottawatomies and other tribes of savages, whose mounds are still seen. These lands were then in possession of the United States government, but traveling red men were as numerous then as traveling white men are now.
The shingle hung out thirty-eight years ago by Mr. Tichenór has never been taken down, though during the first year or two, on account of poor health and a dearth of business, he paid little atten- tion to the law. Gradually demands for his legal' services increased with the increase of settlers, and for more than thirty years he has been a very busy man. He is known as one of the best office lawyers in his part of the State. The people have the ut- most confidence in his accuracy and faithfulness in doing business, and his integrity is unquestioned. He is the local attorney for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company, and has been court commissioner for more than twenty years.
Mr. Tichenor was the first town clerk of Wauke- sha, serving several years. He was magistrate a long time, doing all kinds of business. He was a
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member of the village school board a long time, president of the village three or four times, draft commissioner in 1862, and a member of the assem- bly in 1869. He is a wise counselor, but very mod- est, never pushing himself forward.
In politics, Mr. Tichenor was in early life a lib- erty-party man, and naturally drifted into the repub- lican ranks, where he has been found since 1855.
He is a member of the Congregational church, and finds nothing in the legal to conflict with his Christian profession.
August 19, 1838, just after receiving his college diploma, Mr. Tichenor was married to Miss Char-
lotte Sears, of New Scotland, Albany county, New York. They have a son and daughter. Willis V. is married and lives at Mason City, Iowa. He was a captain in the 28th Wisconsin Infantry, and went to the front in 1862, and was a brave officer, serving three years and three months. The daughter, Mary C., a well-educated lady, unmarried, lives at home.
Mr. Tichenor is a warm friend of education, and has, for many years, done all he could to advance the cause in Waukesha. He is president of the board of trustees of Carroll College, located in his village, and is faithful in this as in every other trust confided to him.
JOHN VAUGHAN,
RACINE.
I
N that beautiful, mountainous region of North
Wales bordering on St. George's channel, in Merionethshire, was born the subject of this sketch on the 24th of March, 1820. His father, a respect- able farmer, was a man of much force of character and sturdy independence -characteristics strongly developed in the son.
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