USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 94
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Martin received his education at Rochester, New York, and afterward engaged in teaching, thereby accumulating means wherewith to defray his ex- penses while studying for his profession. In 1840 he settled in La Porte, Indiana, and there began the study of medicine, and four years later graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio. Returning to La Porte he continued there in the practice of his profession one year, and in 1846 removed to Racine, Wisconsin. Engaging in his profession he continued it with varying success for two years, and in 1848 removed to Watertown, and there established himself in that medical prac- tice which has since extended with the rapid in- crease of population, and for many years Dr. Barber has been extensively known as a skillful and suc- cessful practitioner.
Socially he is a man of most excellent qualities, - and has made many warm friends.
In political sentiment he has been identified with the republican party since its organization in 1856.
He is a member of the Illinois Eclectic Medical Institute, and also a member of the Wisconsin Ec- lectic Medical Institute.
He is a consistent member of the Baptist church.
Dr. Barber is a man of much practical knowledge, and in his travels over most of the eastern and west- ern States has, by careful observation, acquired much valuable information concerning men and things.
He was married in November, 1847, to Miss Jane I .. Hartwell, and by her has one son and one daugh- ter. Mrs. Barber died in 1859, and in 1867 he mar- ried Eliza S. Young, and by her also has one son and one daughter.
Such is a brief outline of one who, by honest ef- fort, has made his way from comparative obscurity to a position of respectability and social worth, and his life history is worthy a place among the self- made men of Wisconsin.
HIRAM P. CAREY, M.D.,
BELOIT.
T THE subject of this biography, a native of Kingston, New York, was born on the roth of March, 1849, and is the son of James and Eliza- beth Carey. His father was a farmer by occupa- tion, and a man of frugal, industrious habits. Hiram passed his early life upon his father's farm, receiv- ing his primary education at Kingston, and later
taking a regular academic course of study. He early developed a great fondness for books and an ardent desire to become a physician. In this de- sire, however, he met with little sympathy from his father, whose wish was that he should remain upon the farm, and in order that he might induce him to remain at home he gave to him a deed of the farm.
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Hiram remained about two years, but with the feel- ing, however, that it was not such work as was suited to his tastes, and finally the impulse to realize the hope which from early life he had cherished became so strong that he resolved to abandon the farm. Leaving the plow in the field he made known to his father his intention, and going to town with a load of wood bought two books, "Gray's Anatomy " and " Dalton's Practice," and at once began studying them.
In the fall of 1862 he went to Buffalo. Later he entered the office of D. W. Hazeltine in Jamestown, New York. He attended medical lectures at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and at Buffalo, and graduated from the latter place in 1867. Returning to Kings- ton, his native place, he there established himself in the practice of his profession. Wishing for a wider field, he, one year later, removed to the West
and resumed his profession at Freeport, Illinois, in partnership with a Dr. Hines.
In February, 1873, Dr. Carey removed to his present home in Beloit, Wisconsin, and began that practice which has grown from a small beginning until he has become extensively known as a skillful and successful practitioner.
Dr. Carey's religious training was under Presby- terian influences, and from his youth he has been identified with that denomination.
In politics he is a republican.
He was married on the 30th of September, 1868, to Miss Matilda Rosenstiel, by whom he has one child.
Though still a young man, Dr. Carey has met with a degree of success that indicates the wisdom of his choice of a profession. He is a man of great energy and industry, and professionally gives prom- 1 ise of a bright future.
JOHN H. KNAPP,
ΜΕΝΟΜΟΝΕΕ.
JOHN HOLLY KNAPP was born in Elmira, New I York, March 29, 1825. His ancestors immi- grated from England in 1646, twenty-six years later than the Plymouth Colony, and settled in Connecti- cut. Both of his grandfathers participated in the revolutionary war. His mother, Harriet née Seely, is still living, being in her eighty-sixth year; she makes her home with the subject of this sketch. His father, John Holly Knapp, a merchant in early life, was a very active, enterprising man, with large mental resources. It was through his individual exertions that the charter for the Blossburg and Corning railroad was secured, during Governor Throop's administration. That gentleman after- ward sent Mr. Knapp a brigadier-general's com- mission, assigning to him the command of a certain portion of the State militia. He removed to Bloss- burg, Pennsylvania, when our subject was five years old, and engaged in developing the coal interests of that place for a short time; and, in 1835, with his family, removed to west of the Mississippi, settling on the " Black Hawk Purchase," at that time a part of Michigan Territory, now in the State of Iowa, the location being at Fort Madison, in the present county of Lee. Young Knapp often saw the famous Sac warrior Black Hawk, and, by communicating with members of his tribe, learned to speak the
| Sac language. His father was present at the treaty made at Rock Island with that chief in 1832. Three years later, he looked over the Iowa lands, and pre- pared to move his family thither. His business in Iowa was farming, merchandising and real estate, the son assisting on the farm and attending school, when there was any, until twenty years of age, and then passed one season in a collegiate institute at New Haven, Connecticut, and at twenty-one was again in Iowa, preparing for what has proved to be a life venture among the pineries of Wisconsin. William Wilson, then a lumberman of considerable experience, had visited the country in and near what is now Menomonee, in Dunn county, and learning that there was a mill for sale, returned to Fort Madi- son and reported; and thereupon, in June, 1846, he and Mr. Knapp (our subject) - the latter with one thousand dollars in his pocket, and two or three thousand more as a "reserve fund," which he soon used - started for their future home. They pur- chased, of David Black, a half interest in a saw-mill and fixtures, and he dying a few weeks afterward, they bought the other half; and in July of that year the firm of J. H. Knapp and Co. began operations. About six years later, Andrew Tainter and Henry L. Stout, and a few years later still, J. H. Douglas, had joined the company, and for twenty-five years
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the firm of Knapp, Stout and Co. has been a house- hold word among the lumbermen of the Northwest. No parties in this line of business have a wider or better reputation. The capital of one thousand dollars, with which the enterprise started, has in- creased to many hundred thousand dollars. In 1876 the company cut sixty-seven million feet of lumber, thirty-one million and ninety-five thousand of shingles, eight million and ninety thousand of lath, and two hundred and ninety-three thousand of pickets. It owns at least one hundred and fifty thousand acres of pine lands, a dozen farms, large and small, and a vast amount of other property. The sons of some of the members of the firm are enterprising young men, and bid fair to perpetuate and maintain the good name of the firm when the original members shall have passed away.
The company has always had a mercantile store in connection with its lumbering business, and for twenty years Mr. Knapp did the purchasing for this branch of the business, the selling of the lumber and attended to the finances of the firm. Of late, by reason of impaired health, he has assumed compara- tively light responsibilities.
Mr. Knapp is a Royal Arch Mason. In politics he has been a republican since the whig party dis- solved; and in religion is identified with the Con- gregationalists. He is a liberal supporter of the gospel and of most of, the benevolent enterprises of the day.
He has been twice married : first, in 1849, to Miss Caroline M. Field, of Ware, Massachusetts. They had one child, Henry E. Knapp, who is still living. Mrs. Knapp died in January, 1854. On the 31st of October, 1855, he was married to Miss Valeria Adams, of Reading, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Judge Williams Adams, who was a member of con- gress about the time of President Jackson's admin- istration. Of seven children, six are now living.
The lumbermen of Wisconsin are among its heavi- est capitalists, and its leading men in great enter- prises, the strength of their muscular arms being put forth in developing its forest resources. They are the grand creators of wealth, both for themselves and the State,- the creators of towns and railroads, and of immense stores for human comfort, and fur- nishing employment to a hundred thousand willing hands, they send gladness to as many hearts.
HON. EDWARD L. BROWNE,
IFAUPACA.
T' HE subject of this sketch was born on the 27th of June, 1830, at Granville, Washington coun- ty, New York, the son of Jonathan Browne, a farmer, and Abby née Everts. His father was a captain in the second war with England, and commanded a company at the battle of Plattsburg. Edward worked on his father's farm and attended a district school until fifteen years old, when his father moved to Milwaukee county, Wisconsin, and there opened a farm. After the first year of his residence there, Edward spent much of his time for three years at a select school in Milwaukee, conducted by Professor Amasa Buck. At nineteen he commenced reading law, and was admitted to the bar at Fond du Lac in November, 1851. He first began his practice in Dubuque, Iowa; afterward spent about one year in Milwaukee, and in November, 1852, settled at Wau- paca, the county seat of Waupaca county, and has risen step by step until he has attained a high posi- tion at the bar.
Mr. Browne has been State senator two terms:
the first term in 1861 and 1862, the second in 1867 and 1868. Although a new member in 1861, he took a very active part in all matters in which the State was interested pertaining to the war, no man in that body showing more patriotic enthusiasm in this regard. During the four sessions he was on the judiciary committee, and its chairman in 1868. He was also on the committees on claims, printing, and one or two others, and did valuable service for the State. He was nominated in 1876, during his ab- sence, for a third term in the senate, but could not accept.
Mr. Browne was a democrat until 1855, but has been a republican since the party was organized. He was nominated for congress in 1862, but was defeated, from the fact that some three thousand republicans from his district were in the army, other- wise he would have received a handsome majority. In 1868 he was a delegate to the republican national convention.
Mr. Browne is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been
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master of Waupaca Lodge, No. 123. He is a member of the Episcopal church, and a warden of the same.
His wife is a daughter of Judge Parish, of Ran- dolph, Vermont. They were married March 4, 1856, and have four children. Mrs. Browne was educated at the Mount Holyoke Seminary, and is a woman of refined manners and cultured mind.
A brother attorney in an adjoining county thus speaks of Mr. Browne as a professional man :
He is a close, logical reasoncr; has a sound, discriminat- ing judgment on legal points, and, as an advocate, is always strong with a jury. His style of address is very earnest, his appeals are often eloquent ; while his clear, candid state- ments of facts, and his deductions from them, are always convincing, as his ahinost invariable success in jury trials will attest.
AARON SCHOENFELD,
MILWAUKEE.
T "HE subject of this sketch is preeminently a self-made man. A native of Syracuse, New York, he was born July 31, 1846, the eldest son of Adolphus and Clara Schoenfeld. His father, a butcher by occupation, was a man of excellent char- acter, esteemed by all who knew him. Aaron en- joyed very limited educational advantages, being simply those offered by the common schools, which he attended prior to his twelfth year. At that age he closed his studies in school and accepted a situ- ation as errand-boy in a millinery store, where he remained two years. During the two years next following he worked in a butcher-shop, and in the month of April, 1863, removed to the West and settled at Mayfield, Wisconsin. He remained there, however, but a short time. In the following July he returned to Syracuse, but soon afterward made a second trip to the West and settled in Chicago. There he remained three years, engaged in shipping cattle to the East, and at the expiration of that time again went to Syracuse, and remained there one year, engaged in the business of selling meats. Re- turning to Wisconsin, he was for six months engaged as a clerk in a dry-goods store at Port Washington,
and after leaving his position there settled in Mil- waukee, where he has since made his home. Dur- ing the following three years he traded in horses and cattle, and next began work for Messrs. L. Worth and Co., rectifiers of spirits. After being engaged as an employe for one year he purchased a one-third interest in the business, and continued a partner for two years. The investment proved a very successful one, and at the end of the two years he purchased the remainder of the business, and has since that time conducted it in his own name. As a business man he possesses a shrewdness and tact which enable him to seize opportunities and turn them to good account ; and it is to this and his un- tiring energy and continuity that he owes his suc- cess.
Throughout his career his dealings have been marked by uprightness, and he holds the esteem of all with whom he has to do. He was left an orphan at the age of ten, and being thus early thrown upon his own resources, he has developed a remarkable independence and strength of character.
Mr. Schoenfeld is still single, and has one brother and five sisters living. His father died in 1856.
HEZEKIAH W. WORTH,
DELAVAN.
H EZEKIAH WILBUR WORTH was born on the 31st of July, 1836, at Redfield, Oswego county, New York, and is the son of Reuben and Mary Ann Worth, both of whom are prominent members of the Baptist church. The ancestors of the family were among the early settlers of Rhode Island. Hezekiah passed his early life on his father's farm, receiving a common-school education,
and at the age of twenty left his native State and settled at Delavan, Wisconsin. One year later, in 1857, he removed to Palatine, in Cook county, Illinois, and there spent three years in farming.
In 1862 he enlisted in the 113th Regiment Illinois Volunteers, for three years or during the war, but by reason of impaired health he was unable to con- tinue in the army, and after one year was discharged
Das I. Hagen
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from the service, and returned to his home in Dela- van. During the next three years he employed his time in various ways, doing whatever opportunity offered whereby he might earn an honest living for his family, and at the expiration of that time began traveling as a commercial agent, an occupation which has since continued to occupy his attention. In 1873 Mr. Worth purchased six acres of land ad- joining the village of Delavan, and soon afterward discovered that it contained several fine springs, one of which possessed superior medical qualities. This is known as the "Ghion Spring." The others he used for trout-raising purposes, and has now about fifty thousand brook trout growing, and al- most large enough for market. The business is one which has deeply engaged his attention, and there is every indication that it must prove a success. In June, 1875, Mr. Worth opened a hotel on his estate, which is known as the Ghion Spring House. This has become a popular resort, his trout pond and beautiful spring water drawing immense throngs of people.
In religious sentiment Mr. Worth is not identified
with any church organization; he was reared in the Christian denomination, and contributes liberally to the support of religious and benevolent enterprises. In politics he is wholly unpartisan, supporting for office men whom he esteems most worthy and fitting, regardless of party prejudices.
He was married on the 31st of March, 1856, to Miss Parnal M. Mosher, in whom he has found a true and faithful life companion. They have had two children, both of whom died in infancy.
Personally and socially he is a man of sterling qualities. His travels have given him a wide range of knowledge, and being of a generous and genial nature, he is a most agreeable social companion. In stature he is five feet ten inches, and weighs two hundred and sixty pounds.
Although his life history has many phases in com- mon with that of others, it is yet marked by an under-current of enterprise and determination that cannot but call forth admiration, while the success which has attended him must prove an incentive to ambitious youth to make the most of their powers and opportunities.
PARKER McCOBB REED,
MILWAUKEE.
T HE branch of the universal Reed family, to which the subject of this sketch belongs, is of Scotch and English descent, coming down from a line of ancient border nobility. In this country his lineage extends back to his paternal grandfather, Captain Paul Reed, who, coming from England at an early day, landed at Weymouth, Massachusetts, and lived and died at Boothbay Harbor, Maine, where he was a shipmaster and prominent citizen, dying, as did his wife, of extreme old age.
His maternal descent was from the notable family of Denny, who lived in Derry, Ireland, at the time of the historic siege of that ancient city. His great-grandfather, Major Samuel Denny, was the ruling magistrate and commander of the military at Georgetown, Maine, which, at that early day, com- prised a large extent of territory on both sides of the Kennebec river. His grandfather, General Thomas McCobb, of English origin, lived at George- town, and commanded a company that joined Gen- eral Arnold's expedition as it passed up the Ken- nebec river, during the war of the revolution, on its
route through the wilderness to Quebec. His grand- mother, Rachel McCobb, was notable for her piety and her literary attainments.
His father was Colonel Andrew Reed, and his mother Beatrice McCobb. They married at George- town and lived in Phippsburgh, Maine, where both died, the latter in 1835, when sixty-three years of age, and the former in 1848, aged eighty-three. They were alike eminent in Christian character. The father was long in the military service, and commanded a regiment stationed near the mouth of the Kennebec river for a time during the war of 1812; subsequently held an office in the United States customs service thirty-two years; and was senior deacon of a Congregational church twenty- three years, till his death. He had eleven children, of which our subject was the youngest of eight sons, and was born April 6, 1813, at Phippsburgh, Maine. His early education was largely from the public and private teaching of his eldest brother John, after- ward attending academy at Bath, Maine, to which he added assiduous self-culture, his tastes being
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literary, and his ambition to perfect himself in the use of the English language.
His brother Thomas kept a large store at the "Center " village, and he went into this at a very early age, remaining, when not at school, until he was eighteen. The "nabob " of the town was his uncle, Parker McCobb, for whom he was named, and through whose advice he obtained and accepted the - offer of a situation in the wholesale and retail book- store of Pendelton and Hill, 94 Broadway, New York city. To retain him in his store his brother Thomas proposed to increase his salary and take him into partnership the next year, which was a magnificent offer, the brother since becoming a millionaire. But to go to New York to live before the days of steamboats and railroads in that eastern country, made a young man a hero, and the impulse to go was irresistible. Accordingly on June 1, 1831, he left his father's house and embarked on the great world and a clipper sloop for the great city, taking a week's voyage to reach his destination, which, to him, was like unto a world of its own.
The store he entered was the habitual resort of the literati of that city. He remained in this employ to the close of his year's engagement, when the firm dissolved. He then spent a year in the grocery store of Ayers and Halliday, the firm closing out their business at the end of his year's employment. The junior partner is now the Rev. S. B. Halliday, assistant pastor to Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. At the earnest solicitation of his employers he remained at his post when half the city had fled, during the terrific cholera sea- son of 1832. Becoming acquainted with Captain John Martin, of the ship Attica, he accepted an invitation to a voyage with him to Havanna and return. On arriving there he was tendered employ- ment by the largest commercial house in that city. But this fine offer he declined, not liking the people nor their slavery of the blacks. On arriving back to New York he returned to Maine, reaching his father's house in the fall of 1833. He taught a pub- lic school during the succeeding winter in his native town, and private schools and classes in penmanship subsequent years. In 1834 he adopted the vegeta- rian and hygienic system of living, which he strictly continued ten years, laying thereby the solid basis of sound health lasting to this day. Designing in the spring of 1839 to mount his horse and proceed to the "Far West " in search of fortune, his father persuaded him to remain on the old homestead dur-
Į ing his old age, as the last child left with him; and, as in duty bound, he relinquished ardently cherished pioneer inclinations, and settled down to conduct his father's business, and has never regretted acqui- escence in this filial duty. Engaging at times in other business besides overseeing the farm, which was a hay and stock farm, he remained at the home- stead until 1846. In April of this year he married Miss Harriet Susan Elliott, of the same town. Soon after, with the acquiescence of his father, he sold to his brother Thomas his personal property and a tract of land of considerable value, and removed to Mas- sachusetts, pursuing temporary business and medical study in Boston and vicinity. Finally, in the fall of 1848, he came around to the fruition of his early ambition of "going west," and with his wife, a hun- dred dollars, and ardent hopes, he proceeded to fol- low in the direction of the "star of empire." Leav- ing railroad conveyance at its then terminus at Niles, Michigan, he went in a little steamer down the St. Joseph river, crossing Lake Michigan in the steamer E. B. Ward, and landing at Chicago in No- vember. Proceeding by canal and then by steam- boat on the Illinois river, prospecting the country, he passed the winter at Groveland and Pekin, teach- ing penmanship to pass off the time, delivering in the meantime some lectures on temperance, with success. Early the next season he purchased a horse and carriage, and, with his wife, took a long trip to "see the country "; passing through northern Illinois, Chicago, southern Wisconsin, crossing the Mississippi for the first time at Dubuque, thence through northern Iowa, recrossing into Wisconsin at McGregor, passing through Madison, and ending the journey at Sheboygan. He spent the winter in Buffalo, New York. He traveled through the West the next season, going as far south as St. Louis, when, having been attacked with inflammation of the eyes, and fever and ague, he returned to his na- tive climate in Maine for recovery, which was speedily effected. In the fall of 1850 he settled down temporarily in Westbrook, a suburb of the city of Portland, Maine, to practice medicine, intending to return again to the West. At this place his only daughter, Emma Beatrice, was born November 13, 1850. The next year he removed to East Boston, taking a house and office, and entering into the practice of his profession, remaining there until 1857, his family residing a portion of the time in the country, at Georgetown, Essex county. In the fall of that year he again came West, and after con-
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siderable travel, during which he was corresponding with Eastern newspapers, practiced his profession in northern Illinois. A fire in January, 1861, con- sumed nearly his entire effects, saving little besides his medical books and his horses and carriage. The next April, the day Fort Sumter was fired on, he moved to Delavan, Wisconsin, and practiced his profession, to which he had added that of den- tistry. At this pleasant village his only son, Albert, was born July 7, 1863. In December, 1863, he re- moved to Madison; the next spring to Columbus ; in May, 1867, to Racine, and September, 1870, to Milwaukee, residing to this day on Prospect avenue, on the lake shore.
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