USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V > Part 13
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waukee, and thence by wagon followed a blazed trail inland. Some years later Russel Pelton and Eliza Thompson were married and located on a farm in Sheboygan county. The father moved from the farm in the fall of 1885, to Waupaca, where he remained until his death at the age of seventy-two in 1894. His widow survived him until 1903 when she was eighty-one years of age. There were two children in the family, the older being Dr. Pelton, and the younger Martha, wife of A. G. Harmon, of the state of Washington.
The first sixteen years of his life Dr. Pelton spent on his father's farm, and it was in the wholesome environment of the country that he gained those impressions and experiences which are so vital in the per- fection of character. He had to be content with the educational op- portunities afforded by the country school, but he finished a high school course at Plymouth. For some time after that he studied medi- cine at Plymouth, under the preceptorship of Dr. W. D. Moorehouse, one of the leading physicians of that time. In the winter of 1871, he entered Rush Medical College at Chicago, and during 1872-73 was a student in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York, from which institution he graduated with the class of 1873 as a doctor of medicine.
Returning to his native state he took up his professional duties at St. Cloud, in Fond du Lac county. From there he moved to Waldo in Sheboygan county, in 1876, and six years later in 1882 established him- self at Sheboygan Falls. In the spring of 1885 he made his permanent location at Waupaca, and has practiced here with continued success for nearly thirty years. As already stated, during the many years of his practice, Dr. Pelton has experienced all the hardships of the pioneer physicians. Especially during his early years he attended a large country practice and that was a number of years before the good roads movement was inaugurated, and before the introduction of tele- phones, automobiles and other facilities which almost eliminate the physical hardship from the routine of a physician's life. In the early days the only method of reaching him was by personal messenger, and he has often ridden post haste at the heels of some such messenger far into the country, both day and night, and in all kinds of weather. Dr. Pelton was one of the first to realize the advantages of the automobile as an aid to the physician, and has longed owned and used a motor car. In recent years much of his practice has been confined to office counsel, and thus the hardships of his early practice are now only a memory. Though he graduated from medical school forty years ago, Dr. Pelton has ever been an eager student of medicine and surgery, and his ex- tensive library is as well stocked with the most recent acquisitions in scientific literature as that of any among the more modern products of medical colleges.
In August, 1873, Dr. Pelton married Kate Ellen Brown. Their
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marriage was celebrated at Plymouth, Wisconsin, and she died at Waldo, Wisconsin, in 1880. On October 12, 1881, Dr. Pelton was united in marriage with Julia A. Gordinier, at Sheboygan Falls. Mrs. Pelton is a daughter of John and Julia Etta (Sibley) Gordinier, a remarkable pioneer couple of Waupaca county, whose lives are briefly sketched in following paragraphs. To Dr. and Mrs. Pelton were born two sons, the elder child, Frank Russell, died aged five and one-half years; John Gordinier Pelton graduated from the dental department of the North- western University in Chicago in the spring of 1912. On his gradua- tion, as a result of his exceptional work as an under-graduate. he was appointed by the faculty as a demonstrator in the operation room at the University. He also opened an office at 536 West Chicago Avenue in Chicago, and has built up a very successful patronage in his line of work. The University Faculty has recently renewed his contract as demonstrator. Dr. John G. Pelton has many friends in Waupaca who are interested in his success, and he was also very popular during college days and prominent in his Greek Letter fraternity.
Dr. L. H. Pelton has been an active worker in connection with the organized activities of his profession. He is a member of the Wisconsin State Medical Association, of which he was president one year and vice president for two years; at the present time he is serving his second year as president of the Ninth Councilor District Medical Society, and was for two years president of the Waupaca Medical Society; is also a member of the American Medical Association. Besides his interest in these societies, he has contributed a number of scientific papers and reports to the various medical journals. Dr. Pelton formerly served as health commissioner and city physician at Waupaca for ten years. He is a member of the different branches of the Masonic Fraternity of Waupaca. The doctor's well appointed offices are on the second floor of the Old National Bank Building on Main Street, while his residence is at 329 Jefferson Street.
JOHN AND JULIA ETTA (SIBLEY ) GORDINIER. The history of Wiscon- sin will best fulfill its purposes which preserves in enduring record the largest number of careers of those noble men and women who as pioneers laid the foundation of the solid prosperity and affluence which this state has in recent years enjoyed as a harvest of their early toils and hardships. Among such names most entitled to distinction in Waupaca county are those of John and Julia Etta (Sibley) Gordinier. The former is now deceased, but his widow, now in her ninety-first year, is one of the most venerable women of the old-times, a survivor from that early period, and with a mind stored with many pleasing reminiscences of early days.
Julia Etta Sibley was born in Erie county, New York, May 1, 1823, and was a daughter of Benjamin and Anna Sibley, both of old eastern
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stock. Benjamin Sibley was for many years a farmer in Erie county, New York. His wife came from Connecticut, in which state they were married, and was a native of Wilmington. Her ancestors were early cotton mill operators, and quite prosperous for their day and genera- tion. In 1847 Benjamin Sibley moved his family west, having sold his farm in New York state, and followed his oldest daughter and second son, Mary Ann and Charles, to Wisconsin. With his wife and two children, Amanda and Clark, Benjamin Sibley made the western trip by way of the great lakes, and eventually located in Sheboygan county. Taking up a farm in the town of Linden, he lived there until his death three years later in 1850, at the age of sixty-three years. His widow survived and was eighty-five years of age at the time of her death which occurred at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mary Prentice, in Sheboygan Falls, in 1875. In the family of Benjamin Sibley were six children, mentioned as follows: Jonathan; Mary, who married W. H. Prentice; Amanda, who became the wife of John Shadbolt; Julia Etta, who married John Gordinier; Charles; and Clark. All these children are now deceased except Mrs. Gordinier.
Mrs. Gordinier in her younger days lived in Erie county, New York, on a farm. She received her education in the old-time county schools, and was given further advantages in the Aurora Academy at Aurora, New York, and select schools. Being fitted for work in educational lines, she taught school seven terms in her home county, and also at Buffalo. Her teaching was at Black Rock, on the Niagara River, then a suburb, but now in the heart of the city of Buffalo. Her career as a teacher came to an end, when on April 8, 1847, she was united in marriage with John Gordinier. John Gordinier was born in Mont- gomery county, New York, at Fultonville, and often referred to himself at a "Mohawk Dutchman." Seven years after their marriage John and Julia Gordinier came west by boat through the lakes, which was then the popular route of western travel, and at Chicago changed boats and finally landed in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Their first winter was spent at Green Lake, and thence by wagon they proceeded to Waupaca county. That was about the year 1855, and as those familiar with the settlement of Waupaca county know, this region was then practically in its wilderness condition. Mr. and Mrs. Gordinier bought forty acres of land in the town of Lind, and subsequently they secured one hundred and sixty acres at the regular government price. On the first purchase stood a log house, and in that humble abode they began their career as Waupaca County citizens.
The late John Gordinier was a man of exceptional enterprise as a farmer and stock raiser. This section of the state is indebted to him for introducing the first St. Lawrence stock horses, and also the first high-grade Durham cattle and the Brahma strain of fowls. Not only did he keep the best of stock on his own farm, but was very public
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spirited in this matter, and did much to induce others to follow his example, and it may be said that Waupaca county largely owing to that influence has been for many years noted for the high quality of its live stock.
John Gordinier continued to improve his land, and twice replaced older buildings with a set of new and modern improvements. The land and homestead continued under his ownership and possession until 1900 when it was sold.
The place of John Gordinier in Waupaca county was not only due to his enterprise as a farmer and stockman, but he is also remembered for his participation in public affairs. For two terms he served as sheriff of the county, and of late years was poormaster. At that time the county's insane were kept on the poor farm. It is said that while Mrs. Gordinier had charge of the poor farm cooking, the table rivaled many of the first-class hotels.
John Gordinier died on the old farm on July 18th, 1903, in his eighty-first year. After his death his widow came to Waupaca, where she now makes her home with her daughter and son-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Pelton. Though at the age of ninety-one, her memory is still keen, her eyesight and hearing good, and she is one of the beloved and venerable women of the state. She is full of that keen wit which would cause one to suspect her of Irish origin. She often refers in a joking way to her former life in the county jail and county poor house.
To the marriage of John Gordinier and Julia Etta Sibley were born six children: Lucas, who was killed by lightning at the age of ten years; Julia, now the wife of Dr. L. H. Pelton; Charles S., who mar- ried Mary Meiklejohn, and is the father of one child, May, who is in turn the wife of H. F. Steele, and has a child, Charles Gordon, who is thus a great-grandson of Mrs. Gordinier; May, wife of E. B. Jeffers; John, who died in 1877; and Hattie, who died in 1894 as Mrs. J. W. Hanford, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Besides these children two died in infancy, Anna and Morgan L.
JOHN V. R. LYMAN, M. D. For more than thirty years Dr. Lyman's prominent and successful career as a surgeon has been identified with the city of Eau Claire. His work has been largely in the field of sur- gery, in which his technical skill, broad experience, and extensive training, both in the new and old world medical centers, have given him a distinctive place, not only in his home city, but in the state. There is perhaps no surgeon in Wisconsin who has kept so closely abreast of the times, and who has so modified his individual methods in accordance with the broader experience of the world's profession as has Dr. Lyman.
John V. R. Lyman is a native of Wisconsin, born at Pepin in Pepin county, June 13, 1857, a son of Timothy M. and -Valeria (Reinhard)
AR Lyman S. A.
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Lyman. His father, who was a native of Massachusetts, born August 28, 1819, was a highly educated man, a graduate of Amherst College in the elass of 1840, and for many years a missionary and a minister of the Congregational church. His missionary work began in 1853, in Iowa, at Lansing, where his influenee and activity made him a power for good among the pioneer population in that vieinity. Two or three years later, still pursuing his regular voeation as a mis- sionary, he moved to Pepin, Wisconsin, which was his home for a number of years, and at the time of his death he was engaged in mis- sionary work at Bar Harbor, in the state of Maine. His death occurred at Bar Harbor in 1883. His wife, who was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, died when a young woman of only thirty years. Two sons were born to Timothy Lyman and wife, namely: William B. whose home is now in Boise, Idaho, and Dr. Lyman.
Dr. Lyman's early education was almost continuous and from the elementary schools his training advanced in regular order until his graduation prepared him for a professional career. At one time he was a student in the Fort Madison Aeademy at Fort Madison, Iowa, and from there entered the Rush Medieal College of Chicago, an institu- tion which has graduated a large number of the ablest physicians and surgeons in the middle west. Among the alumni of Rush Medieal College, Dr. Lyman's name will be found with the class of 1880, and his subsequent career has added to the many distinctions won by the graduates of that college. His home and center of practice have been in Eau Claire sinee his graduation. The only interruption to his regular work has been his numerous trips to the Old World to attend the elinies in such centers as Berlin, Hamburg, Goettigen, Vienna, and London. All his time has been devoted to the study and practice of surgery. Dr. Lyman is surgeon at Eau Claire for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad and also for the Soo Line, a position he has held for many years. He is also surgeon for the Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire. His fraternal affiliations have been with his brother practitioners, and the Masonie order and much of his spare time has been given in connection with the various asso- ciations of which he is a member. Dr. Lyman is at the present writing serving as president of the distriet Medieal Society of Wisconsin, has been president of the Wisconsin State Medieal Society, is a member of the Surgeons Association of the United States, and of the American Medical Association. For a number of years, he was a member of the Eau Claire Board of Health. His polities is Republiean, but his pro- fession has demanded all his time and energy, and his public service has been entirely within the limits of his special voeation.
At Eau Claire in 1881, Dr. Lyman married Maude Kepler. The two children born to their marriage are: John V. R., Jr., now a resi- dent of New York City, and Valeria, who died in infancy. On August 21, 1908, Dr. Lyman married Mary Sylvester of Minneapolis. Their one son is Richard.
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HENRY I. WEED. A resident of Wisconsin since his boyhood days, Mr. Weed has gained distinction and success as one of the representative members of the bar of the state and for thirty years has been engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Oshkosh. He is a liberal and progressive citizen and his character and services have been such as to honor his profession and the state that has been the stage of his well directed endeavors. That he is firmly entrenched in popular con- fidence and esteem has been shown by his having been called to various offices of distinctive public trust, including that of member of the state senate.
Mr. Weed claims the Empire state as the place of his nativity and in the same commonwealth were born his parents, both families having early been founded in that section of the Union. He was born in Liv- ingston county, New York, on the 10th of February, 1861, and is a son of Seth H. and Nancy (Foland) Weed, the former of whom sacri- ficed his life while serving as a patriot soldier in the Civil war and the latter of whom now resides in the home of her son Henry I., of this review, she having attained to the venerable age of seventy-eight years, in 1913. The father was a prosperous farmer in the state of New York at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war, and he forthwith tendered his services in defense of the Union, by enlisting as a member of the First New York Dragoons. With this gallant command he pro- ceeded to the front and with the same he continued in active service until the battle of the Wilderness was fought, and he was killed in this sanguinary conflict.
After the close of the war Henry I. Weed, who was then a lad of four years, came with his mother to Wisconsin, and he was reared to manhood in Winnebago county, within which he has continued to reside during the long intervening years, which have been marked by large and worthy achievement on his part. Here he duly profited by the ad- vantages afforded in the public schools, and at the age of fifteen years he entered Lawrence University, at Appleton, where he continued his studies for three years, after which he was a student in the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, a member of the class of 1882.
After leaving the university Mr. Weed began the study of law, under the preceptorship of Gabriel Bouck, who was at that time one of the leading lawyers of Oshkosh. He made rapid progress in his absorption and assimilation of the involved science of jurisprudence and was ad- mitted to the bar of the state in 1883. He has been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Oshkosh, and his success has been on a parity with his recognized ability as a versatile advocate and well fortified counselor. His clientele has long been one of representative order and he has been retained in connection with a large amount of the important litigation in the courts of this section of the state within the past quarter of a century.
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Mr. Weed served as city attorney of Oshkosh from 1890 to 1895, and represented his district in the state senate from 1898 to 1902. He was a most active and valued working member of the upper house of the state legislature and his influence was there effective in the fostering of wise policies and measures. In 1896 he was the nominee of his party for the office of attorney general of the state, but his defeat was compassed by the normal politieal exigencies which carried victory to the opposing party ticket. He has ever been arrayed as a stalwart ad- vocate of the principles of the Democratic party and has given effective service in behalf of its cause. He served as a member of the military staff of Governor Peek, with the rank of colonel. For eleven years Mr. Weed was attorney for the Oshkosh Street Railway Company and he has been for a number of years general counsel for the Wisconsin Na- tional Life Insurance Company, besides which he is legal representative for other important corporations. Mr. Weed has been most active and influential as a member of the Knights of Pythias, and he served as grand chancellor of the Wisconsin grand lodge of this order in 1890-91. In the Masonic fraternity his maximum affiliation is with the Oshkosh commandery of Knights Templar, and he also holds membership in the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On the 14th of June, 1905, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Weed to Miss Genevieve Budd, daughter of George H. Budd, a representa- tive citizen of Oshkosh, and she is a most popular factor in connection with the leading social activities of her home eity.
EDWARD F. GOES. One of the substantial business men and loyal and progressive citizens of Milwaukee is Mr. Goes, who is vice president of the Vilter Manufacturing Company, an important industrial con- cern of which adequate mention is made on other pages of this work. in the sketch of the career of Theodore O. Vilter, president of the com- pany. Mr. Goes is a native of the city that is now his home and is a representative of one of its sterling pioneer families, though he was but a boy when he accompanied his parents on their return to Germany, the land of their birth, where he was reared and educated. It is a matter of definite satisfaction to him that in his native city he has been able to achieve through his own efforts a large degree of success and inviolable popular esteem. and he is consistently to be designated as one of the representative business men of the Wisconsin metropolis.
Edward F. Goes was born in Milwaukee on the 16th of November. 1858, and is a son of Frederick and Emma (Gerlach) Goes, both of whom were born and reared in the kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, where their marriage was solemnized and where they continued to reside until 1850, when they came to America and numbered themselves as members of the very appreciable German contingent in Milwaukee. Vol. V-8
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Here Frederick Goes soon became one of the interested principals in the Goes & Falk Brewing Company, with which he continued to be actively identified until 1867, when he returned to Germany, in com- pany with his family, both he and his wife there passing the residue of their lives, honored by all who knew them. Frederick Goes was born in the year 1819 and died in the picturesque and historic city of Bam- berg, Bavaria, in March, 1893, his cherished and devoted wife being summoned to the life eternal in 1898. Of their three sons George W. is deceased, and Edward F. and Frederick are both residents of Milwaukee.
He whose name initiates this review acquired his rudimentary edu- cation in Milwaukee and was about nine years of age at the time of the family removal to Germany, where he received excellent educational advantages, including those of the gymnasium, or high school, at Frank- fort. Thereafter he completed an effective engineering course in the city of Munich, and in 1883, when twenty-four years of age, he returned to America and established his home in Milwaukee, the place of his birth. Here he assumed a position as draftsman in the employ of the Vilter Manufacturing Company, and within a short time he purchased stock in the company, of which he has been vice president since 1898. He has exerted much influence in the development and upbuilding of the extensive and important enterprise with which he has been long connected and is known as a business man of exceptional administrative capacity, as well as one of impregnable integrity and marked conserva- tism. He has won a host of friends in his native city and state and is liberal and public-spirited as a citizen. He is a valued and popular member of the Deutscher Club and the Milwaukee Athletic Club.
April 25, 1889, bore record of the marriage of Mr. Goes to Miss Addie Schweitzer, who was born and reared in Milwaukee and who is a daughter of the late Joseph Schweitzer, one of the well known and highly esteemed representatives of the pioneer German element in Wis- consin. Mr. and Mrs. Goes have one son, Frederick T., now in Leland Stanford, Jr., University, at Palo Alto, California. The son was born in Milwaukee and is a scion of the third generation of the Goes family in Wisconsin.
ALEX D. SUTTON. The city of Rhinelander in Oneida county has a history of about thirty years, and the first important industry which did more than anything else to give the town a start was the Brown Brothers Lumber Company. In the sawmill established by the company at Rhinelander, Alexander D. Sutton became an employe on April, 1883, and since that time has been continuously identified with the city, and most of the time in an official capacity. He is now city treasurer of Rhinelander, an office he has held since 1894, in which year the city was incorporated. Mr. Sutton is also president of the Rhinelander School
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Commission, having been a member of that body since 1896 and presi- dent sinee 1909. He is a well known and popular citizen, and has been one of the factors in the improvement and growth of Rhinelander.
Born at Waterford, in Racine county, Wisconsin, August 6, 1861, Alex D. Sutton was one in the family of children born to John and Mary Jane (Foote) Sutton. The mother was born in New York state while the father was a native of England. They were married in Wis- consin, and John Sutton was a flour miller. The family located in Portage county, Wisconsin, in 1871, and lived at Plover and at Stevens Point for a number of years. John Sutton operated a flour mill at Plover.
The first practical experience of Alex D. Sutton after leaving school was in the floor mill conducted by his father at Plover, and he continued in that line for five years. After that he took the more open life of the river, woods and saw mills, and became familiar with every phase of the lumber industry of the north woods. From Stevens Point he went to Rhinelander in 1883, as already stated, and continued as one of the expert workmen in different departments of lumbering until he was elected town treasurer of the town of Peliean. With the incorporation of the city of Rhinelander, his office became that of city treasurer. For five years, Mr. Sutton was in the employ of the Brown Brothers, being in the logging eamp as a scaler, during the winter, and working at the saw mill during the summer, following that employment until his elec- tion as eity treasurer. Sinee 1896-1897, Mr. Sutton has also been superintendent of the Rhinelander Water Works, and he is president of the fire and police board.
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