USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V > Part 11
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Mr. Kieckhefer was married May 13, 1875, to Miss Minnie Knete- . meyer, daughter of Frederick and Minnie Kuetemeyer of Milwaukee. Politically Mr. Kieckhefer is a Republican, but has never aspired to any political activity. His clubs are the Milwaukee and the Deutscher at Milwaukee.
OTTO P. WALCH. Since January, 1903, Otto P. Walch has held the position of cashier of the Langlade National Bank of Antigo, and he has been connected with the bank in the capacity of assistant cashier since it was organized in 1901, up to the time when he was promoted to his present position. Prior to his identification with the Langlade National Bank he was for thirteen years bookkeeper and teller for
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the Langlade County Bank, the predecessor of the Langlade National, so that his affiliation with banks and banking is one of long standing, and it is not too much to say that he is well versed in financical affairs in their every aspect as a result of his long association with fiscal institutions.
Otto P. Walch has been a resident of Antigo since 1886, when the town was in its comparative infancy and was just beginning to give promise of later development along its present status. He was born on a farm in Holland, Brown county, Wisconsin, on November 8, 1874, and is a son of John and Helen Walch. John Walch was a native son of Germany and he came to America in childhood, settling almost immediately in Wisconsin with his parents. The mother was born in New York state, and after her marriage she and her husband took up farming, in which he has been trained, and they moved to a farm in Outgamie county, Wisconsin, when Otto P. Walch was four years old. In 1886 they came to Antigo, and here the father died in the fall of 1909. The mother still survives him.
Otto P. Walch attended the Antigo High school as a boy, and went direct from the school room into the Langlade County Bank, where he continued as bookkeeper and finally as teller for the period of thir- teen years. He was not yet fifteen years old when he assumed his duties in the bank, and he has literally grown up in the banking busi- ness, in which he has displayed an especial aptitude and understand- ing in the management of fiscal affairs.
Mr. Walch was married in 1907 to Miss Jennie Jepsen, of Mari- nette, Wisconsin, a daughter of Jacob Jepsen, who is a well known hotel proprietor of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Walch have three children : John, William and Catherine.
It should be mentioned here that Mr. Walch has served on the Antigo school board, and that his was a valuablbe and well ordered service in that capacity. For eight years prior to 1912 he was presi- dent of the board, and his interest in the educational affairs of the town has added much to the advancement of the school system.
Mr. Walch is a Mason and is now serving his second year as Mas- ter of the Antigo Lodge No. 231, A. F. & A. M. He is also a member of the Commandery, and has further fraternal affiliations in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
HON. WILLIAM READER, a member of the Wisconsin State Legis- lature for two consecutive terms, and elected from Langlade county on the Republican ticket, has long been a power in Republican poli- tics in this county. He came to Antigo in 1882, in the year when the town was being laid out, and here he has since resided, and in the passing years has taken a particularly worthy part in the various activities of the city. He has met with financial reverses at times,
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but has always come to the top in due season, and today is at the height of his material success.
Born on a farm in Stockbridge, Calumet county, Wisconsin, Wil- liam Reader is the son of John and Bridget (Gormely) Reader, and his birthday was May 16, 1864. The father, a native of England, came to Green Bay, Wisconsin, when he was a child of seven years, and the mother, born in Ireland, came to America at the age of two years in company with her parents, who settled in Ohio. Later they came to Wisconsin. They were married in Green Bay, in 1858, and soon after settled in Calumet county, where they devoted themselves to farming activities for the remainder of their days.
William Reader was reared on the farm of his parents, and he attended the country schools in his boyhood days, alternating his studies with the work of the home farm, in which his father pro- vided him with a most excellent training, instilling into his young mind habits of industry and thoroughness in his work that stood him in excellent stead during his independent business life. In 1881 the young man went to Menominee, Michigan, then the seat of the mammoth lumbering operations of the I. Stephenson Company, and he worked in the lumber districts for about a year. In 1882 he came to Antigo with his parents, and for some years he devoted himself to the life of the woodsman, spending his winters in the camps, his spring seasons in driving logs on the river, and his summers in farm- ing. This continued for a number of years, and then he settled on a farm in the town of Peck, Langlade county. While there Mr. Reader took his first active interest in politics, and was town chairman of Peck for seven years. He resigned from the office to become Register of Deeds of Langlade county, an office he continued to hold for eight years, when he was elected to the state legislative assembly in 1909, his re-election following in 1911, his service in the second term still continuing. IIe has given an excellent account of himself in his legislative capacity, and amply justified the wisdom of his con- stituents in their choice of a representative.
Mr. Reader is a man who has seen something of the downs as well as the ups of life, but he has always come up smiling, ready for a new venture, and he has never failed to recoup his losses. In 1909 he engaged in the retail clothing business in Antigo, and after seven- teen disastrous months was forced to close his doors, taking a loss of about $16,000. But he bravely took a position in the Market Square Hotel, soon afterwards buying out the hostelry, which he is success- fully operating, and the citizens of Langlade county are rejoiced to see "Billy" Reader again making good, for he has the hearty good will and confidence of all who know him.
Mr. Reader was married in 1891 to Miss Mary McCabe, and they have four children : George, John, Irena and Merritt. The second
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son, John, passed through an experience in the autumn of 1912 that few men have ever had, and the wonder of it is that he lives to tell of his miraculous escape from a sudden death. While working on a sur- vey, he with several companions being caught in an electric storm, took refuge in a log cabin. The cabin was struck by lightning, one of the men was killed instantly and John Reader was stripped of his shoes and stockings, they being literally torn from him in shreds, while his trousers were riddled to the knees. Aside from slight burns on his feet, he suffered no injury from his phenomenal experience. Mr. Reader still keeps the shoes and other wearing apparel as mementos of the miracle.
Mr. Reader is a member of the Roman Catholic church, as are others of the family, and he has fraternal affiliations with the Catholic Order of Foresters and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He is a man of kindly social instincts, possessing a high order of integrity and character, and with his family, he enjoys the unalloyed confidence and genuine esteem of the representative citizenship of the city and county, where he has lived for the best part of his life.
JOHN F. ALBERS, president of the Langlade National Bank of Antigo. and proprietor of the J. F. Albers Drug Company, has been a resident of Antigo since 1890, when he came here and bought out a drug store and established himself in business. He has since that time been con- tinuously and successfully engaged in the drug business, and has. played a worthy part in the commercial activities of the city, as well as taking a leading hand in the financial concerns of the city. He helped in the organization of the Langlade National Bank in 1901, which is one of the thriving and well established ones of the county .. In 1908 Mr. Albers erected the building known as the Albers-Molle Building, in which his store is quartered, and he has other property interests in the city as well.
Mr. Albers was born in New Holstein, Calumet county, Wisconsin, on September 7th, 1851, and is a son of John and Anna (Wiggers) Albers. John Albers was for many years engaged in farming, and was long occupied as county surveyor of Calumet county, Wisconsin. He was a pioneer of the state from the days of 1848, coming from Holstein, Germany, where he married. He died in 1893 and the wife and mother survived until 1910, death claiming her in West Bend, Washington county, this state.
John F. Albers was reared on the farm home of his parents, and in early life gave some attention to farming, but followed surveying for many years. He received his education in the University of Wiscon- sin, from which he was graduated in 1877, and his work in surveying began then. He followed that line for about nine years, chiefly being identified with railroad work, and in 1886 he moved to Wausau, Wis-
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consin, from Chicago, where he had beeen located for three years previous. He started a drug store in Wausau in partnership with his brother, W. W. Albers, state senator, and a little later he and his brother bought out the Antigo store, which they operated together for a year, when Mr. Albers bought out his brother, W. W. Albers. Success has attended his activities in this enterprise, and the busi- ness is one of the thriving ones in Antigo today.
Mr. Albers was married in 1886 to Miss Ida Wright, of Appleton, Wisconsin, and they have two children, Laurinda and John W. Albers.
In the line of his public service, it should be mentioned that Mr. Albers served one year as mayor of Antigo, in 1893-94, and he has been a member of the school board for fifteen years, where his inter- ests and energies have ever redounded to the best good of the edu- cational system of the city, and on which he has served as president and as secretary. He also served one year as city superintendent of the schools, and did a most excellent work in his capacity as super- intendent. Public-spirited to a high degree, his life work in Antigo has been one of the utmost value to the community, and his citizen- ship has been a worthy example to the present and future generations.
GEORGE A. PACKARD. Business man, banker and postmaster of Bay- field, George A. Packard has been identified with the community of Bayfield for the past twenty years, and has lived in the state all his life. His long experience in public affairs and business has won him the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens and all his personal advance- ment has been the result of honest and solid worth.
George A. Packard was born at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, March 8, 1855, the oldest of seven children, whose parents were William H. and Elizabeth Packard, the former native of the state of Massachusetts, and the latter of Vermont. William G. Packard is one of the pioneers of Wisconsin. His youth was spent in Massachusetts, and when he started out for himself the west afforded him the field of opportunity. On arriving in Wisconsin, he located in Stevens Point, in Portage county, and there started to work at his trade of millwright, a vocation which he had learned in Masschusetts. He helped to build some of the mills in that vicinity and was naturally drawn from mechanical work into the one leading industry of Wisconsin, that of lumbering. As an expert in the driving of logs, and riverman, William H. Packard for a number of years had few superiors, if any, along the Wisconsin River. That was one of the most dangerous occupations connected with lumbering, as all who are familiar with the industry know, and one of the frequent accidents which befell the rivermen caused him the loss of a leg in 1858. This misfortune instead of making him lose his ambi- tion, put new courage into his endeavors, though it changed the course of his career. In the same year he was elected county treasurer of Port-
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age county, and gave an excellent administration of that office. In the meantime his attention was turned to the study of law, and from the time of his admission to the bar his achievements were of a progressive order. In 1864 he was elected district attorney of Portage county, holding that office several terms. His home was in Stevens Point, and the later years of his life were spent in Bayfield county. In 1892 he located in Washburn, where he practiced law and was one of the leading citizens until his death at the age of sixty-one years. His widow is still living, and six of their children are also alive.
George A. Packard was educated in his native town of Stevens Point, but his schooling continued only until he was fourteen years of age. His first regular position, obtained about that time, was in the office of the county register of deeds at Stevens Point. His early busi- ness experience also comprised real estate and insurance in the same city, but at the end of two years he entered the employ of R. A. Cook & Company, which owned and operated the pioneer iron works at Stevens Point, was one of the most successful industrial concerns in that section, and in a short time Mr. Packard bought a half interest in the business. Selling out in 1887 he took a position as bookkeeper in the Sawyer & Company Bank at Hayward. His interest in public affairs brought him the confidence of the people, and at the end of one year as bookkeeper with the bank, the citizens of Sawyer county elected him county treasurer. His term of office began in 1888, and was varied by attention to other occupations, including two years of service as dep- uty sheriff and as proprietor of a livery business. For five years Mr. Packard conducted one of the first-class livery establishments in Saw- yer county, and part of that time also had a store there. In 1892, Mr. Packard opened a hardware store at Bayfield, and combined it later with a drug store, all his mercantile enterprises proving very profitable. In 1897, his business interests were sold, and in July of the following year President Mckinley signed his first commission as postmaster of Bayfield. His incumbency of that office has continued to the present time, and in fifteen years he has administered a constantly growing office, both the rural free delivery and the parcel post having been inaugurated during his term. In 1904 Mr. Packard assisted in the organization of the First National Bank of Bayfield, becoming its vice president, an office which he still holds.
In politics Mr. Packard is an active Republican, and fraternally his association are with Bayfield Lodge No. 215, A. F. & A. M. On April 4, 1881, he married J. Fitch.
NELSON ALBERT WEEK. In a community where the main activities and the industry that has helped to make it the great industrial center that it is has been the lumber business in which Nelson Albert Week takes a leading place and part. The John Week Lumber Company,
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of which Mr. Week is president, was organized in 1885, by the father of the subject, John Week, concerning whom extended mention is made in a later paragraph. The business then established has grown apace with the passing years and is today the leading manufacturing enterprise of its kind in Portage county. In addition to his connec- tion with this highly important concern, Mr. Week is identified with numerous other enterprises, of both industrial and financial nature, and he is held in universal esteem in the community, where he has the confidence and good will of the entire populace.
Nelson Albert Week is the son of John and Gunild (Luras) Week. He grew up on the home farm in Marathon county, where the family moved soon after his birth, and there he attended the district schools. He spent one year at Ripon College, and a year at Lawrence Univer- sity at Appleton, Wisconsin. He was still quite young when he began working in the lumber woods first as a cruiser, his duties being to look over a given timber tract and bring back an estimate of the vari- ous kinds of standing timber thereon. When he was eighteen, years old he became "tailsman" on the raft plying on the river, and made three trips,-twice to Quincy, and once to St. Louis, Missouri, the well known "Big" Oliver Halvorsen being pilot on the raft. Those were days of real education for Mr. Week, and in those early years he gained an insight into the practical phases of lumbering that have made it possible for him to stand at the head of this great enterprise. Every branch of the business his wise father saw that he familiarized himself with, for the elder man saw coming the day when he might no longer be able to steer the craft of the business, and when he would want a strong and able helper to lean upon. When he was twenty years old, Mr. Week ran the engine at the mill on Big Eau Pleine river. About 1880 he went to Iowa and there ran a lumber yard, and coming back in 1881 was married on March 29th of that year, to Miss Ida Youmans, a daughter of Jotham and Helen (Hill) Youmans. Mr. and Mrs. Youmans it should be stated were pioneers of Portage county. Following the marriage of Mr. Week and Ida Youmans, the young couple returned to Iowa where he was engaged in operating the lumber yard, but after a short time he sold out and joined the family, who had then moved to Stevens Point, there becoming identi- fied in business with his father in the mill at that place. In 1884 the present company was formed, as has already been stated, Nelson A. Week being made president of the company, John A. Week, vice president, and A. R. Week secretary and treasurer. In recent years, a son of Nelson A. Week, having completed his university training, suc- ceeded his uncle, John A. Week, as vice president. that gentleman having retired from the firm to identify himself with outside interests.
Besides being president of the John Week Lumber Company, a task sufficiently big to occupy the whole time of the average man,
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Mr. Week is a director in the Citizens' National Bank of Stevens Point. He is a stock holder in the Coye Furniture Company, one of the leading manufacturing enterprises of its kind in the state. And besides controlling valuable real estate interests, he is interested in a large ranch in Texas, of which his son is manager.
To Mr. and Mrs. Week were born the following children: John Elmer, born in 1882 in Iowa, attended the public schools up to the age of thirteen years, when he entered the Chicago Manual Training School, and was graduated therefrom. He then entered Armour Institute, from which he was graduated in 1902, with the degree of Bachelor of Science and Electrical Engineering. He was bent upon a military career, and being promised an appointment by Hon. John C. Spooner, he took his examination for entrance to West Point, his standing being an excellent one, with a mark of 95%, in his physical tests. In the fall of 1902, while waiting for his appoint- ment to West Point, young Week in company with four class mates, went to Mexico on a trip, and while there he was offered a flattering position as engineer on an important engineering job being put through. He accepted and was placed in charge of a large body of men in the building of an electric line to the silver mines of Guana- juata. In the same year while in pursuit of his duties, the young sol- dier of fortune was stabbed by two greasers, whom he had previously discharged from the works, and his death resulted soon after. The body of the unfortunate young man was brought to his home, and he was buried at Stevens Point. Thus was ended in most untimely man- ner what gave promise of being an exceptionally brilliant career.
Harold J. Weeks, the second child, married Josephine Allen in October, 1910, and they have one child,-Jeanne. They reside on the ranch in Texas, already mentioned, having gone west in the hope of recruiting his health. As a boy he attended the public and normal schools, following the latter course with a year of manual training, and he later entered St. John's Military School near Milwaukee. In the autumn of 1903 he entered the University of Wisconsin at Madi- son. At the close of his college life in 1907, he became identified with the John Week Lumber Company, and was elected vice president of that concern. In his college days he was prominent as a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, as was also his older brother, John Elmer.
Nelson A. Week is what might be called a home man, for he is decidedly domestic in his instincts, but he has done a great deal of traveling in his time, usually, however, accompanied by his wife. Together they traveled in Cuba prior to the Spanish-American war. They have toured Europe, and in 1910 paid a visit to Honolulu and the Sandwich Islands, spending a most delightful season in that unique and attractive country.
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Mr. Week is a Mason, of the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Stevens Point, but has no other fraternal affiliations.
JAMES THOMPSON. As distinguished from business men or politi- cians, a man versed in the laws of the country has ever been a recognized power. He has been depended upon to conserve the best and perma- nent interests of the whole people, and without him and his practical judgment, the efforts of the statesman and the industry of the business man and the mechanic would prove futile. The reason is not far to seek. The professional lawyer is never the creature of circumstances. The profession is open to talent, and no definite prestige or success can be attained save by indomitable energy, perseverance, patience and strong mentality. In none of these essentials is James Thompson, of the LaCrosse bar, lacking. For more than ten years he has been engaged in a constantly increasing practice in this city, where his high attain- ments have won a satisfying recognition from his professional brethren as well as from the public at large.
Mr. Thompson was born October 19, 1875, in Green county, Wiseon- sin, and is a son of Knut and Bergit (Bjornson) Thompson, natives of Norway, who came to the United States in 1860 and located on a farm near Stoughton, Wisconsin. Subsequently the family moved to the town of York, Green county, and there the death of Knut Thompson occurred in 1899. There were nine children in the family, eight of whom are living. A twin brother of James, George Thompson, is also a well known lawyer, and is now engaged in practice in the town of Ells- worth, Wisconsin.
Like all of his parents' children, James Thompson was given the advantages of a good education, first attending the public schools until reaching his sixteenth year and then becoming a student in the Stough- ton Academy. Following this he took an academic course in the State University at Madison, where he was graduated with the degree of Bach- elor of Letters in 1899, and then became a student in the legal depart- ment of the University of Michigan, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1901. Shortly thereafter, following a very creditable examination, Mr. Thompson was admitted to the bar, and in 1902 came to LaCrosse and engaged in the practice of his profession. It was not long before Mr. Thompson won recognition in his chosen calling, and since then he has gained an enviable position among his professional brethren. His success has not been aceidental, but has been well earned and well deserved. Of strong, vigorous intellect, he has brought to legal practice the reinforcement of wide and varied culture. His love of the law and devotion to his profession have led him to a mastery of its learning which busy lawyers rarely acquire. In politics a Republican, he became the candidate of his party for the office of district attorney in 1908, was elected in the same year, and his administration, which Vol. V-7
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lasted until 1913, was marked by excellent services to his community. Mr. Thompson has shown some interest in fraternal work, being a mem- ber of LaCrosse Blue Lodge No. 45, Free and Accepted Masons, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, in all of which he counts numerous friends. His religious affilia- tion is with the Lutheran church. All measures making for the advance- ment of his community's interests have found in him a hearty sup- porter, and he has at all times been a stalwart friend of the cause of education, morality and good government.
WILLIAM ROWE. For upwards of thirty years, William Rowe has been identified with the commercial and civic activities of Eau Claire, contributing to the city's material progress and prosperity to an extent equaled by few of his contemporaries. In the wholesale and retail grocery trade he has long been one of the conspicuous figures, and has been a factor in social and civic developments. Successful in his private ventures, he has been chosen to take charge of various branches of work calculated to be of benefit to the city and state, displaying, as a public official, the same conscientious effort and untiring energy that have brought him into such an eminent position in the business world.
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