USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 86
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GENERAL HENRY G. BERTRAM,
JUNEAU.
H ENRY G. BERTRAM, a native of Prussia, is the son of Frederic William Bertram and Emily née Nickse, and was born October 5, 1825. He immigrated to America when about fifteen years old, and served in the regular army, United States artillery, five years, and participated in the Mexican war. At its close he returned to New York city, and there kept a hotel; and later went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and spent three years in the same business. He removed to Wisconsin in 1858 and settled at Watertown, and was engaged as a mer- chant there at the opening of the civil war. He was appointed lieutenant of the Watertown Rifles, Wis- consin active militia, May 13, 1861; first lieutenant company A, 3d Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, on the 30th of September following; lientenant-colonel of the 20th Regiment, July 1, 1862; colonel of the same regiment December 6, 1862; and brigadier general, by brevet, on the 13th of March, 1865. These several promotions were made for meritori- ous services. While with the 3d Regiment he assist- ed in capturing the disloyal legislature of Maryland at Frederic city, in July, 1861. On the 24th of the following September he was promoted to the cap- taincy of his company ; and had command of three
companies, October 16, at Boliver Heights, and par- ticipated in both engagements at Winchester, March 23 and May 25, 1862. After joining the 20th Regi- ment he commanded a brigade at the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, December 7, 1862, and was slightly wounded. He assisted, on the 28th of the same month, in the capture of Van Buren, Arkansas, and arrived with the brigade June 13, 1863, before Vicksburg, and entered that city on the 4th of July. On the 11th of the same month he was at the cap- ture of Yazoo City, Mississippi. He was post com- mander at Brownsville, Texas, from November 4, 1863, until its evacuation. He aided in the siege and capture of Fort Morgan, Alabama, and had several engagements with the enemy near Pasca- goula, while in command of the district of South Alabama. He commanded a brigade at the capture of Spanish Fort, Alabama, April 3, 1865, and entered Mobile three days afterward. It was for such gal- lant services as are here epitomized that he was breveted brigadier-general. Few men during the rebellion were more deserving of the honors be- stowed upon them than was he. General Bertram received two commissions from Governor Randall, two from Governor Solomon, and two from President
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Johnson. The last one from the President was for postmaster of Watertown, he being appointed Sep- tember 19, 1866. He has also a commission from Governor Washburn, dated June 3, 1873, appoint- ing him notary public for Dodge county. He was mayor of Watertown in 1870, and was elected sheriff of Dodge county in the autumn of the same year, the ward in which he lived in Watertown being in that county. On January 1, 1871, he moved to Juneau, the county seat. The winter before leaving Watertown he was a member of the assembly. Since the expiration of his term of office as sheriff he has been a merchant, and is now a hotel-keeper (1877).
October 1, 1853, while keeping a hotel in Rio de Janeiro, he was married to Miss Matilda Barthman, a native of Germany. They had five children, of whom three are now living. Mrs. Bertram died at Watertown in 1865. In 1868 General Bertram went to Germany, and on the 4th of July was married to
| Miss Laura Westphal, a native of Prussia. They have had three children, only one of whom is now living.
General Bertram has seen more of the world than most hotel-keepers. When thirteen or fourteen he went to China as cabin-boy on a Prussian vessel, and visited Hong Kong and other Chinese ports. When on the coast of Sumatra, the vessel lying at anchor, he was sent ashore with two natives of Hin- doostan, to obtain chickens, ducks, bananas, etc. On their return toward the vessel a sudden squall upset their craft, and, leaving the other two persons clinging to it, he swam ashore, a mile and a half, through the outward-beating surf. The next morn- ing he learned that the other two persons had been picked up by a fishing-boat.
General Bertram is very talkative, and his remi- niscences of early days in Asia and South America, and during the civil war, are full of interest.
ROBERT BOYD, D.D.,
WAUKESHA.
T' HE subject of this brief biography, the pastor of a church whose house of worship he has not been able to enter for nearly ten years, and who has written and had published nine distinct works while lying on his bed paralyzed in his lower limbs, is a native of Scotland, and was born at Ayrshire, on the 24th of August, 1816. His parents were John Boyd, a woolen manufacturer, and Elizabeth née Mc- Lean. The Boyd family is descended from Earl Boyd, who was beheaded during the rebellion under the Stuart dynasty. Robert spent his early years at school, and lost his father when about half through his educational course; being thus thrown upon his own resources, he resorted to temperance lecturing in order to acquire means for continuing his studies. He was the first person in the west of Scotland to publicly advocate teetotalism. He was then about twenty years of age, and being quite young in ap- pearance, and speaking occasionally from the pulpit on Sundays, was called the " Boy Preacher," curios- ity drawing crowds to hear him. He finished his literary education at the Glasgow College. Later, he studied theology with different clergymen, there being no seminaries for such a purpose in those days, and was ordained as a Baptist minister in the city of Stirling, Scotland, in the autumn of 1840.
There he preached until 1843, when he crossed the ocean and became a pastor at Brockville, Canada, continuing there about seven years, and then remov- ing to London in the western part of the Dominion. There he was pastor of the Baptist Church about seven years, when, being partially out of health, he removed to Waukesha, Wisconsin, where he had a home left to his wife, and where he rested a few months. While in Canada he labored very hard. Aside from the cares and responsibilities of filling the pulpit and supplying the pastorate, he had the oversight of the building of a house of worship in each place where he was settled, and did considera- ble lecturing on temperance and other subjects.
In the summer of 1856 Dr. Boyd was invited to become pastor of the Edina Place Baptist Church, of Chicago (the present name of the street is Third avenue). The church was afterward known as the Wabash Avenue, and is now the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church. When he began his pastorate the church numbered fourteen members, and when he resigned in 1863, it then being on Wabash avenue, it numbered about three hundred. Before leaving Chicago his lower limbs became partially paralyzed, so that he was obliged to sit while preaching. Re- turning to his home in Waukesha, he preached in
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the Baptist Church for four years in a sitting pos- ture, being carried to and from his pulpit. Finally, in 1867, he took his bed, and has had his clothes on but once in more than nine years. His disease is very gradually working upward, having reached with- in two or three inches of his heart and lungs. His head is not in the least affected, and he retains all his original vigor and clearness of thought, and men- tally, few people are more active.
Before taking his bed Dr. Boyd had published one volume called "Glad Tidings," an eminently re- ligious work, which has passed through about thirty editions. During the last nine years he has aver- aged one volume a year ; his works in the order of publication being, " None but Christ," "Young Con- verts," "Food for Lambs," "Grace and Truth," "Wee Willie," "The Good Shepherd," and " My Inquiry Meeting." A tenth work recently prepared, "Comfort for the Afflicted," is now in press. Dur- ing these years of bodily affliction Dr. Boyd has been a frequent contributor to the religious press, and was never more busy in that direction than at this time (the spring of 1877). Most of his writings are eminently instructive, and have a highly devo- tional tendency. They are fragrant with the aroma of a sanctified spirit patiently and cheerfully waiting
the call from on high to come home. A sweeter ex- ample of Christian resignation is rarely seen.
The wife of Dr. Boyd was Miss Christina Forbes, of Stirling. Their union occurred April 6, 1840. They have had nine children, all daughters, and have lost three of them. Mary, the eldest of the living, is the wife of the Rev. Dr. C. L. Thompson, of Chicago; Lizzie is the widow of the late Somer- ville Thompson, of Chicago; Christina is the wife of Professor Bastian, of the University of Chicago ; Jessie is the wife of Floyd C. Babcock, an attorney of Milwaukee; Ida is the wife of Harvey C. Olin, a bookkeeper at the Chicago Stock-yards, and Lilly is unmarried and lives at home, being about to grad- uate from Carroll College, Waukesha. Mrs. Boyd is a model Christian mother, and a helpmeet in the noblest sense to her afflicted husband.
Dr. Boyd received his title of Doctor of Divinity from Shurtleff College, in June, 1859. He is still associate pastor of the Baptist Church in Waukesha, his people refusing to accept his resignation. Their frequent and liberal benefactions are a token of the high esteem in which he is held. All the people of Waukesha are very kind to him, and he has tho- roughly tested the rich benefits of living in a warm- hearted Christian community.
LAWRENCE T. FRIBERT,
JUNEAU.
AWRENCE T. FRIBERT was born on the 10th of February, 1816, and is the son of Christian and Ulricca Fribert. His father at that time held an official appointment in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark, where he then resided.
Lawrence received a thorough and most liberal education from his parents, and profited by the opportunity. He seems to have borne in mind that " Opportunity has hair in front, behind she is bald ; if you seize her by the forelock you may hold her ; but if suffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again." At school, then, we find that he applied himself assiduously to his tasks. On leaving school he resolved to commence the study of the law, which he accordingly did, making rapid prog- ress and quickly becoming proficient, as is shown by the fact that he began practicing his profession at the early age of twenty, and continued to do so for a period of eighteen years, with every success.
. In the year 1855 he immigrated to America and settled at Juneau, Wisconsin, where, without loss of time, he proceeded to study the laws of the United States. He was not overburdened with wealth, and besides, labored under the great difficulty of know- ing nothing of the English language; but by dint of steady application and indomitable perseverance he mastered it, and two years later entered into copart- nership with Messrs. Gill and Barber, of Watertown, with whom he remained until the autumn of 1863, when he resumed his practice at Juneau, at which place he is at present professionally engaged (1877).
Mr. Fribert possesses that quality which is essen- tial to any one who would succeed, namely, "the gift of continuance." His has not been a mere sur- face study, but one long, protracted application to his profession ; and it is this which has enabled him to build up his very lucrative practice.
In religion, he belongs to the Lutheran church.
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In politics, he was a supporter of the republican party until 1872. He is now a reformer.
On the 4th of July, 1866, he espoused a lady of many graces and accomplishments, Miss Mary Brand, by whom he has had two children.
It has been said that "the worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it," and Mr. Fribert's many and sincere friends at- test the sterling value of the man, and his professional success is a warranty of his value as a lawyer.
WALLACE MYGATT,
KENOSHA.
O NE of the public parks in the city of Hart- ford, Connecticut, contains a monument upon which is engraved the names of the first settlers of that place. Among the list is that of Sylvester Mygatt. All that is recorded of him is that he came from England, and that he was one of the deacons of the Presbyterian Church of Hartford.
Wallace Mygatt is a lineal descendant of him whose name adorns the Hartford monument, and was born near Clinton, Oneida county, New York, September 18, 1818. He is the son of Sylvester Mygatt, who was born and raised in Connecticut, but soon after his marriage to Miss Abi Booth, the mother of our subject, moved to the State of New York, where he purchased a farm which he afterward cultivated. He was ambitious to give his children the very best education possible, and to this end withheld neither means nor endeavors of any kind in the tuition of his older sons; but experience soon taught him that educational ac- quirements caused them to desert the homestead and engage in professional or mercantile pursuits as soon as they came of age. Not wishing to exile from home the last of his sons-our sub- ject - he varied his practice somewhat in his case and tried to restrain him from too intimate an ac- quaintance with the schools. There was a large farm to cultivate, and after arriving at a suitable age for work, Wallace usually labored seven months of the year in the fields, and devoted the remain- der of the time to attendance at a country school. When about fifteen years of age he attended what was termed the "High School," situated at Paris Hill, in his native county, during two terms, ag- gregating six months; and thus, with the cultiva- tion of his natural gifts, which were of a very high order, he became one of the most accomplished men of his day, possessing a talent well qualified for the production of fictitious literature.
He was raised under peculiar influences. De- 1
scended from Puritanic ancestors, his parents in- herited many of the peculiar views of that excel- lent but austere people. His father conceived it best to withhold from his children all books except the Bible, commentaries upon the same, and works upon agriculture and husbandry. His mother con- sidered that the story of the farmer pelting the fruit-stealing boy from his apple-tree, first with grass and afterward with stones, should be elimi- nated from the school-books as manifestly un- truthful. Whether she thought the farmer would not be so great a fool as to try the experiment of driving a "rude boy " from his fruit-tree with " tufts of grass," or that the boy was too virtuous to steal his neighbor's apples, is not known; but she regarded the story as improbable, and therefore calculated to mislead, and consequently of a vicious character. There was, however, a tendency on the part of the families of both parents toward "word- painting," which caused an "irrepressible conflict " on his mother's part between duty and inclination, she believing that all intensifications or variations, verbal or written, of the words "yea " and "nay," were sinful, and should be evaded; but in spite of all educational bias to the contrary, the trait of character alluded to took effect in and is largely in- herited by our subject, who, from an early period, indulged the natural bent of his mind in writing stories for his own amusement and that of others; the discipline under which he was held, however, was so exact that he was obliged to restrict this indulgence to times "when the moon lit her watch- tower in the clouds," and some of his best stories were written by the pale light of the aforesaid luminary.
On reaching his majority Wallace followed the example of his older brothers, and quit the pater- nal roof, striking at once for the broad prairies of the West, where his fancies would have ample scope for indulgence, arriving at Kenosha, Wiscon-
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sin, on the 29th of October, 1839. He was fol- lowed by his father and the rest of the family in the month of June succeeding. They " squatted" upon a section of government land some three miles west of Racine, since known as "Mygatt's Corner." Our subject again united with the fam- ily, and assisted his father in making the neces- sary improvements, and in the cultivation of the " new land " upon which he had located, until the year 1842, at which time he commenced the pub- lication and editorial management of a newspaper at Kenosha, Wisconsin. After devoting two years to this enterprise he leased his paper to Lewis P. Harvey, who was afterward governor of the State. Six years later he was again the editor and pub- lisher of the paper, which he finally disposed of in 1849. Since that date he has been engaged in merchandising as a chief employment, devoting a considerable portion of his time, however, to the writing of articles for newspapers in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, and also, at times, giving to fancy freedom in the production of a romance or a verse of poetry. Not a few of the products of his pen, in both prose and verse, have attained to great popularity and wide circulation.
He has held the office of deputy United States marshal since the 20th May, 1850, and is still the incumbent of that office, and likely to be during the remainder of his lifetime. He also acted as foreman of the United States engineer corps in the improvement of the harbor of Kenosha during the years 1870, 1871 and 1872, and is the author of an authentic chart of the harbor, of which the marine editor of the "Inter-Ocean " says : " It is
beautifully gotten up, and what is better, is as accurate as any government chart could be, re- flecting the greatest credit upon Mr. Mygatt. The most important figures as to depth of water were taken from it and printed in the 'Inter-Ocean' a day or two since."
In politics he has always acted with the repub- lican party, exercising considerable influence in his locality. He has likewise for many years been an uncompromising enemy of intoxicating drinks, and a staunch supporter of the cause of total ab- stinence. Most of his pen-productions are designed to point a moral in this direction, and it cannot be denied that in this cause he wields a trench- ant pen.
In reviewing his life, however, he says that the only praiseworthy things he has ever accomplished were the saving of two men from drowning, and doing all in his power to save a third,-also, the saving of a child from a like untimely end, which he did in the years 1835 and 1843.
In February, 1846, he was married to Miss Mary J. Gibson, a native of New Hampshire. The result of this union was four children, all sons, named in the order of their birth, Theodore, Frederick, William, and Beauregard.
Brought up in the Calvinistic faith, he still holds to the belief of his fathers, with some slight modi- fications. He believes the Bible accounts of the creation to be literally true, and that those geol- ogists who imagine the formations on the earth's surface to be antagonistic thereto are mere super- ficial investigators, or, in other words, they are pre- tenders and empirics.
HENRY MITCHELL,
RACINE.
H ENRY MITCHELL was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, March 11, 1810, and is the son of William and Elizabeth (Jackson) Mitchell, whose ancestors had been inhabitants of the "land of brown heath and shaggy wood " back to a period lost in antiquity ; a stern and sturdy race, self-reliant and liberty-loving ; all natural born republicans. His father was a farmer, and, in addition to his agricul- tural pursuits, carried on a limited traffic between the capital and some of the smaller adjacent towns of Scotland, somewhat similar to that now transacted
by the great express companies of America. He was descended of Covenanter stock, a man of ster- ling principles, unswervingly honest and upright, pious and devoted to the principles of his ancestors. In 1845 he followed his son to America and died in Racine in 1857. His mother was a sturdy, energetic woman, a devoted member of the Scotch Presby- terian church, ambitious for the education and ad- vancement of her children. She died in Kenosha in the year 1847.
William and Elizabeth Mitchell had a family of
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eleven children, seven of whom lived to maturity, four sons and three daughters. Of the sons, James and William are farmers in Lake county, Illinois. Agnes, the eldest daughter, is the wife of James Elder, a farmer in Minnesota. Catherine is the wife of George Yule, of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Eliza is the widow of the late Peter McCambridge, a wealthy merchant of Princes street, Edinburgh, while the youngest son, Thomas, is a seed merchant in San Jose, California.
Our subject, Henry Mitchell, received his educa- tion in his native shire, mainly at an evening private school, where he gave special attention to the art of drawing. He was an apt scholar; persistent and painstaking, and generally excelled at whatever he set his mind on. At the age of fifteen he was ap- prenticed to learn the wheelwright business, at which he served faithfully for a period of seven years, be- coming one of the most accomplished mechanics in his line, being specially expert in the manufacture of wheels. After completing his apprenticeship he was employed as foreman of a large shop in Edinboro, where he remained for eighteen months. In the year 1834 he immigrated to America and settled in Chicago, where he remained for five years, working in various shops at his trade. He also had a con- tract for constructing a portion of the Illinois and Michigan canal. In 1839 he removed to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he commenced business on his own account, built up a large trade, and remained until 1855, when he sold out his establishment to Edward Bain, who has since carried on the busi- ness with success. In the last named year Mr. Mitchell settled in Racine, his present home, where he purchased property, erected shops and com- menced the manufacture of farm wagons and plows; at first on a limited scale, but steadily extending his operations as the demands of trade increased until at the present time his establishment is one of the largest and most perfectly equipped in the nation, being rivaled by but two others. The ma- chinery, which is in many instances peculiar to the establishment, is perhaps the most complete and thoroughly adapted to the purposes for which it is designed to be found in the world. A stranger visiting this immense workshop for the first time and witnessing the operation of the vast and compli- cated machinery, the perfect adaptation of the vari- ous appliances to the designed end, the ease with which the several departments are carried on,-all designed to ameliorate, if not to remove, the orig-
inal "curse,"- can hardly resist the conclusion that the long expected millennium is at hand. The cash capital employed in the buildings and machinery is over half a million dollars, number of hands stead- ily employed over two hundred, while from eight to ten thousand farm and spring wagons are annually manufactured and sold; and these are among the most elegantly constructed, light and easy running vehicles of their kind in the world. It is needless to add that Mr. Mitchell has become wealthy and influential, and has surrounded himself with the lux- uries and elegancies which adorn and refine human life.
He has no taste for the responsibilities or distinc- tion of public office, but at the solicitation of his fellow-citizens he has consented to fill the position of alderman of his ward for the past seven years. He is also a member of the Artesian Well Company of Racine, by means of which the city is supplied with water. He is likewise a stockholder in the Manufacturers' National Bank of Racine, and is a promoter of every enterprise for the material or moral benefit of the community. He is a Master Mason, and has traveled extensively both in Europe and America, and is one of the best informed men of his day.
He was raised in the Scotch Presbyterian church, but on more fully considering the ground of his faith in maturer years, he united with the Baptist church in 1839, and has since been a member of that body. He is an officer and one of the largest beneficiaries of the church of Racine, and largely owing to his liberality is due the erection of the present magnificent and commodious edifice of the denomination ; nor is he less liberal in his contribu- tions to Christian and benevolent objects generally.
In politics he has been generally claimed as a democrat, though he votes for men rather than party. He supported Mr. Lincoln for the presidency, and heartily espoused the cause of the North during the late rebellion.
His career has been marked throughout by indus- try, close and unremitting attention to business, promptness, liberality in his dealings, courteous and gentlemanly manners, and by a scrupulous adher- ence to the strictest principles of integrity in all his transactions. His reputation in all the relations of life is unblemished. In social life he is character- ized by a noble-heartedness and cordiality that ren- der him at once both popular and influential.
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