USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V > Part 17
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Everard L. Ainsworth was born at Roxbury, Vermont, May 20, 1854. His parents were Luther and Betsy (Silsby) Ainsworth. There were four children, two sons and two daughters, and all are living, Everard being the second in order of birth. The father, who was born in Ver- mont, was one of the families of the old Green Mountain state, was a farmer there and a prosperous and substantial man up to the time he enlisted in the army, and rose to the rank of captain of Company H in the Sixth Vermont Regiment. He was killed commanding his company in the battle of Chaneellorsville in 1863. His wife was born in Tioga county, New York, and died in 1858.
Mr. Everard L. Ainsworth, who was thus left without the care of parents when less than ten years of age, grew up in his native state. attended the common school, and later the Vermont State Normal Col- lege. By his own efforts he had secured a fair education, and fitted him- self for a career as teacher. In 1874 coming west he located in Buffalo county. Wisconsin, where he was engaged as a teacher up to 1882.
He then became an aceountant with the Mississippi River Logging Company, and his connection with this important corporation has con-
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tinued for a period of more than thirty years. During the last ten years he has been assistant secretary and is one of the active officials in its large business.
He also took part as one of the organizers of the American Immigra- tion Company, and has since been secretary of this corporation.
Mr. Ainsworth is a member of Chippewa Falls Lodge No. 176 A. F. & A. M. of Chippewa Falls Chapter No. 46 R. A. M. and of Tancred Com- mandery No. 27 K. T., being one of the prominent Masons in this sec- tion of the state. In politics he is Republican.
On September 28, 1879, Mr. Ainsworth married Miss Eller Fuller, who is a native of Vermont and a daughter of Stephen G. and Sarah (Woodard) Fuller, both her parents having been born in Vermont. The family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Ainsworth is comprised of the following four children: Bessie, who is a teacher of latin in the high school at Chippewa Falls; Mary, who is the wife of E. R. Frissell; Charles, who is connected with the Potlatch Lumber Company at Potlatch, Idaho, and Edward, who is a student in the high school at Chippewa Falls.
LOUIS K. LUSE. Among the native sons of Wisconsin who have con- ferred honor and dignity on the state of their birth is found Louis K. Luse, senior member of the law firm of Luse, Powell & Luse, of Superior, who has been a leading factor in public and professional life and a citizen who has been loyal to every trust imposed in him. The character of a community is judged by the world by that of its repre- sentative citizens, and yields its tributes of admiration and respect for the genius, learning and labors of those whose works and actions con- stitute the record of the state's prosperity and pride. In the legal profession, in the field of politics and in the circles of society, Mr. Luse is esteemed for his ability and genuine worth, and it is, therefore, con- sistent that he be represented in a work of this nature.
Louis K. Luse was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, May 6, 1854, and is a son of Andrew Jackson and Eleanor (Blachly) Luse, natives of Ohio. Mr. Luse's parents were married in their native state, after which, in 1846, they migrated to the Territory of Wisconsin, becoming pioneer farming people of Dane county. Andrew J. Luse was a preacher in the Disciples' Church, and during the Civil war was active in recruiting men for the Union service, two of his sons wearing the uniform: A. B., who was a member of the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry; and Heaton L., who belonged to an Illinois volunteer in- fantry regiment. Mr. Luse was a Republican in politics. He died at the age of forty-eight years, in 1863, while his widow survived him for a long period, and passed away in 1910, when in the ninety-fifth year of her age. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom three now survive, and Louis K. was the tenth in order of birth.
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Welliem archibald
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Louis K. Luse was given excellent educational advantages, attend- ing the common schools and Albion Academy of Dane county, and the law department of the University of Wisconsin. After his graduation from the latter, in 1876, he first located at Stoughon, Wisconsin, where in 1878 he was elected the first city clerk of that place. In the fol- lowing year he became a member of the Dane county board of super- visors, and in 1880 was sent as a representative to the General Assem- bly, in which he served one term. From 1887 to 1891 he acted in the capacity of assistant attorney general of the state, and in June, 1895. was again appointed to that office, but resigned the office six months later to go to St. Paul, Minnesota, as general attorney for the Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul & Omaha Railroad, a position which he held for four years. Mr. Luse next located in Madison, Wisconsin, where he formed a professional partnership with Judge A. L. Sanborn, now United States district judge at Madison, under the firm style of San- born, Luse & Powell, the firm having offices in Madison and Superior. In 1904, with the retirement from the firm of Judge Sanborn, and the admittance of Mr. Luse's son, the firm became Luse, Powell & Luse, and as such it has continued to remain. This has become known as one of the leading legal firms of Wisconsin, being attorneys for some of Superior's principal enterprises, including the Soo Railroad, the Wisconsin Central Railroad, the First National Bank and the Land & River Company. Since coming to Superior Mr. Luse has served some- thing over one year as city attorney, but resigned on account of the demands of his practice. He is a Republican in his political views. Mr. Luse has a well-balanced and discerning mind, and none have a higher ideal than his of what is due the clients whose cause he under- takes. He has taken rank among the best citizens of the progressive city with which he has become identified, his professional and personal excellencies having made him a leader of sagacity and worth.
Mr. Luse was married first December 31, 1877, to Miss Ella Bartholomew, who was born in Lodi, Wisconsin, and who died July 12, 1900, having been the mother of two children : Claude Z .. in prae- tice as a member of the firm of Luse, Powell & Luse, who married Gertrude Baker, of St. Paul, Minnesota ; and Katherine, at home. Mr. Luse's second marriage occurred October 22, 1904, when he was united with Miss Louise Sund, born in Stockholm, Sweden. October 12. 1879.
CHARLES M. ARCHIBALD. A former sheriff and county treasurer of Ashland county, the late Charles M. Archibald was well known in that section of Wisconsin, had a large acquaintance and friendship in different parts of the state, and his career was one of varied and eventful activity. A special distinction attaches to Mrs. Archibald.
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his widow, in that she has succeeded her husband in the office of county treasurer, and now holds that position by regular election, being the only woman who has ever thus been honored in the state of Wisconsin.
Charles M. Archibald was born in Chicago, Illinois, July 2, 1864. His father, James R. Archibald, was born in County Cavan, Ireland, and the mother was likewise a native of Ireland. In 1868 the family left Chicago and located in Minnesota, at Hokah, where Charles M. Archi- bald was reared and attended the common schools. When he was nine- teen years of age, leaving home, he entered the railroad service as a fire- man on the Wisconsin Central Railroad. With three years of experi- ence as a fireman, he was promoted to engineer, and continued actively as a railroader until 1894. In that year, having been a resi- dent of Ashland for some time, he was elected sheriff of Ashland county and served two years. During the great gold excitement in the Klondike, he went to that region as a gold seeker and remair ed there until the fall of 1898. During the next four or five years he was one of the operators in the oil fields of California. His return to Ashland was in 1903, and in the following year he was elected county treasurer. His term was for four years, and his faithful and efficient administration was interrupted by his death on June 4, 1906. Mrs. Archibald finished out his term until January 1, 1907, and then continued to act as deputy county treasurer until the fall of 1911, when she was regularly elected to the office. No other woman in the state has been honored with choice to so important a position as county treasurer. Of all the various incumbents of the office at Ashland, none ever made a record of greater fidelity or more sys- tematic management of the county finances than Mrs. Archibald.
Mrs. Archibald was born at Hokah, Minnesota, September 28, 1867, her maiden name being Nellie M. Brown. Slie and Mr. Archibald were married at Hokah, January 1, 1891, and four children were born of this marriage, namely: Esther, Ruth, Helen, and Charles. For eight years previous to her marriage she had taught in the public schools and is a very capable business woman and very popular in her home community. For the last twenty-two years she has been an active member of the Presbyterian church.
WALTER KEMPSTER, M. D. The appointment in December, 1872, of Walter Kempster as superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane at Oshkosh brought to the state of Wisconsin one of the most eminent alien- ists and psychologists whose names and achievements have adorned the history of American medicine during the last half century. Dr. Kemp- ster has for forty years been a resident of this state, and for that reason Wisconsin may properly claim his citizenship and the credit of his many distinguished services. But in truth Dr. Kempster's rank as a physician
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is among the world's leaders, and in the profession his name is as familiar in national and international circles as it is in his home state. One of the greatest figures in the medical world have expressed the rank and appre- ciation of the services of Dr. Kempster in such manner as needs no com- ment nor amplification. The Venerable Noah S. Davis said that for twenty-five years he had held a high rank among the more eminent psychologists of our country. Another great authority in American medicine spoke: "As an expert medical witness in court he has no superior. He is an carnest, industrious student of men and affairs, kind- hearted, true to his friends, fearless of his enemies, and dauntless in his aims and undertakings. As a public debator he has few equals; as a writer he is clear and pithy ; and as a citizen he is patriotic and public spirited. He despises shams and charlatanry, and withal is a courteous and affable gentleman."
Still another tribute speaks of him as for nearly thirty years occupy- ing a commanding position in America as an alienist. "and it is in this particular department of medical science that he is best knowu to the general public, as well as in the profession at large. As health commis- sioner of the city of Milwaukee he showed himself equal to the handling of great problems in sanitary science, for during his term of office he handled with consummate skill and success the greatest and most fatal epidemie of smallpox that ever visited this city." As indicating the vast resources and scope of his services, another eminent physician speaks of him as "the first physician in the United States to make systematic microscopic examinations of the brain of the insane, and to make of these micro-photographs." He read a paper before the International Medical Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1876, exhibiting these photo- graphs with a descriptive lecture that was regarded at the time a very great contribution to the Pathology of Insanity. One year before this meeting he had been requested by the officers of the International Medical Congress to prepare the foregoing paper in order that the alienists in attendance from all parts of the world might be made familiar with pathology of insanity. This address was published in the volume of Transactions.
The photo-micrographs demonstrate perfectly the several microscopic changes occuring in the various stages of degeneration: from the first granular speck, denoting departure from the normal tissue, to the com- plete obliteration or destruction of the part involved. The examinations of which these illustrations were the result. extended through a period of seventeen years, during which time more than two hundred brains of insane were thus examined, besides many of the lower animals. Summing up the results of his observations, Dr. Kempster stated in his address that it was necessary to appeal to the microscope for an explanation of these mysterious phenomena which, under the name "insanity." so long have baffled the philosopher, theologian and physician: by means of Vol. V-10
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this instrument, the pathology of this dread disease would be revealed, its character understood, and effective measures of treatment established. The original slides and the photo-micrographs were exhibited to the members of the Chicago Pathological Society in 1875 by Dr. Kempster, and he was then made an honorary member, the first physician who had received this distinction. It has been Dr, Kempster's aim to demonstrate by the study of pathology, that insanity is a symptom of diseased brain tissue, and not a disturbance of the mental faculties independent of dis- ยท ease, and his investigation, based upon his long experience demonstrates this truth. As a result he has been an ardent advocate for the care of the insane in hospitals, instead of confining them in houses of detention or asylums. The results of his observations have been published from time to time in medical journals, transactions of medical societies, etc., from 1869 down to the present date, his articles being the earliest con- tributions upon the subject made in the United States disclosing the results of personal observations. He is entitled to credit as the first American laborer in this important field.
Thus in a brief manner have been outlined the chief parts in the career of this eminent Wisconsin physician. By the quality of his char- acter and service, no citizen of the state during the last quarter century deserves a more distinctive place in this history. The history of his per- sonal career which follows is of high value in itself, as the biography of an eminent man whose work has been on the highest frame of beneficent activity. In particular is the biography a contribution to Wisconsin history in that portion which details his work as health commissioner of the city of Milwaukee, and in behalf of good government that portion of this personal sketch might be well emphasized and repeated in every his- tory of this state or the city of Milwaukee.
Walter Kempster was born in London, England, May 25, 1841, a son of Christopher and Charlotte (Treble) Kempster, and comes of an old family of England, of Norman extraction. Authentic accounts of the earliest ancestors extend back to the year 1180. Christopher Kempster, the father, came to America with his family in 1848 and located in Syra- cuse, New York. By profession he was a botanist and horticulturist, and he became well known in that line, and also made a name in other fields of thought and endeavor. He identified himself promptly with the cause of abolition of slavery, and was a personal associate in that work with such men as Garrison, Phillips and others. He also devoted much time to the advancement of the Young Men's Christian Association, an organi- zation which was then in its infancy. Prison reform was then seldom mentioned or thought of, and he was one of the most vigorous advocates of reform of prison conditions, as well as one of the earliest in this country.
Seven years of age at the time the family came to America, and reared in a home and environment which was vivified by such high principles
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and thought as were constantly present in the speech and action of his father and intimate friends, Walter Kempster had every encourage- ment and incentive to higher undertakings and noble courses of life. He heard the abolition addresses of the most famous of the Anti-slave leaders of the times and when the war came on he was ready for the service both on the grounds of patriotism and the cause of steadfast devotion to the principles involved. He promptly put an end to his preparation for college, and volunteered at the first call for three months troops, becoming a private in Company H, Twelfth New York Volunteer Infantry. The regiment reached Washington, D. C., May 13, 1861, and camped on the White House grounds, Company H being located on the present site of the conservatories. While they were in these grounds President Lincoln frequently talked with the soldiers, and on one occasion approached young Kempster, who was of slender build, and, placing his hand on the youth's head, said, "My boy, my boy, what are you doing here ? You should be at home. We don't want such children as you here ; run in the house and play with my children." The sadness that overspread his grave countenance was but the index of what he knew to be in store for the volunteers. At the time Dr. Kempster considered the remark as almost a reflection upon his quali- fications for the army. It is now remembered as a benediction.
On May 24, 1861, the Twelfth crossed the long bridge and eneamped on the soil of Virginia. Its chief work was in picketing the Potomae river until the beginning of the Bull Run Campaign, when it became part of the brigade under 'Col. I. B. Richardson. At the elose of the sharp skirmish at Blackburn's Ford on July 18, 1861, young Kempster. who had already commeneed to study medicine, was detailed on duty in the hospital, and had the immediate charge of the wounded men. At the battle of Bull Run the Richardson brigade covered the retreat from Centerville, and soon after that first great disaster to Federal lines. Mr. . Kempster's service expired. He was honorably mustered out and then re-enlisted in the Tenth New York Cavalry in November, 1861. for three years, receiving the appointment of hospital steward. He partici- pated in all the movements of the regiments until April, 1862, when he was detailed for duty at Patterson Park General Hospital in Baltimore. As assistant to the surgeon, Major R. W. Pease, he aided in organizing this large hospital, at one time containing more than twelve hundred beds, constantly filled with sick and wounded men. He was continu- ously on duty earing for the wounded and siek. until January. 1863, when he applied to the Adjutant General of the United States Army to be relieved from duty in the hospital that he might rejoin his regiment, which was then in the field near Aquia Creek. Virginia. preparing for the spring campaign. Thereafter he took part in all the engagements of his regiment, near Fredericksburg, the Stoneman raid, and the fieree cavalry battle at Brandy Station, June 9, 1863. Immediately after
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the battle of Brandy Station, Dr. Kempster was promoted to be first lieutenant of Company D of his regiment, the commission bearing date of June 9, 1863. He took part in the cavalry battles of Aldie, Mid- dleburg, Upperville and the almost constant skirmishing necessary to locate the several commands of the Confederate troops and ascertain their destination; and long before they reached the historic field of Gettysburg Pleasonton's cavalrymen knew that the Confederates were aiming for that locality, and so advised General Hooker, then com- manding the army, but at the time the advice was disregarded. Dr. Kempster was present during the terrible fighting at Gettysburg, and in the engagements following, during Lee's retreat to Virginia. During the time occupied in this campaign, the regiment was without its com- plement of surgeons, and Lieut. Kempster was called upon to care for the sick and wounded as well as to perform his duties as first lieutenant. Study and medical reading were kept up during field service, but as books were bulky and could not be carried, successive chapters were cut out and sent from home from time to time. While picketing with his men on Hazel river, preliminary to the battle of Mine Run, he received an injury which incapacitated him from performing full field duty, and in consequence he resigned. During the period of con- valescence he completed his medical education at Albany Medical Col- lege and was graduated from Long Island College Hospital in June, 1864. He immediately re-entered the army as acting assistant surgeon of the United States Army, being assigned to duty at Patterson Park General Hospital in Baltimore. Soon afterwards he was promoted to be executive officer and remained in active service until the close of the war.
After the war Dr. Kempster at once took up the study of nervous and mental diseases, so that almost from the outset of his career his attention has been directed to the field in which his ability has found its greatest achievement. He received appointment as assistant superin- tendent of the New York State Hospital Asylum for Idiots at Syracuse, where he remained during 1866-1867. In the autumn of 1867 he was appointed assistant physician in the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, where he remained until 1873. During that time in 1867, he established the first laboratory in any such institution in the United States for the study of microscopic and macroscopic histology and pathology of the brain. He was also associate editor of the American Journal of Insanity, contributing to the Journal reports of cases, reviews and other matter.
In December, 1872, he received the appointment of superintendent of the Northern Hospital for Insane near Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he remained until 1887. During his twenty years experience among the insane more than eleven thousand persons thus afflicted came under his observation and care. Dr. Kempster was the first physician in the
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United States to use carbolic acid internally for the treatment of dis- eases, the results being published in the American Journal of Medical Sciences and in the United States Dispensatory. He was the first to introduce and use in this country chloral as a sleep procuring agent, and was the first to introduce hyoscyamine in the treatment of certain forms of insanity. His investigations and experiments have been con- stant and profound from the very beginning of his professional career. The history of the profession records the methods and details of many of these experiments, but this sketch must merely record the important results.
Dr. Kempster made a notable record while superintendent of the Hospital in Wisconsin. During the twenty years of his superintendency there was not one instance of suicide, a death by violence, or serious bodily injury to either the insane or officials. The laboratory estab- lished in the institutions was one of the best equipped in the United States, if not in the world, being provided with every instrument neces- sary to the prosecution of such investigation. The reports of the higher health and lower death rate in the institution attracted the attention of the English Lunacy Commission, who sent one of their members to the Northern Hospital for the Insane to investigate the methods pursued there.
Dr. Kempster has made many notable contributions to the literature of medicine. Some of these articles which attained wide circulation were as follows: "Some of the Preventable Causes of Insanity ;" "Gen- eral Paresis of the Insane ;" "The Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity ;" "The Care of the Chronic Insane;" "Mental Hygiene;" "Why Brains Wear Out;" "The Pathology of Insanity," with reports of cases; "The Character of the Diseased Tissues Found in the Brains of the Insane." illustrated by photo-micrographs. The annual report issued by Dr. Kempster while superintendent of the Northern Hospital contained much information concerning the history of insanity and its jurispru- dence. His resignation from the Northern Hospital was occasioned by a complete change made by the legislature of the state in the manage- ment of the public institutions, including the hospitals for the insane. This new law in Kempster's opinion, imposed such conditions as to lower the efficiency of the hospital and prevented the best standards in the care and treatment of the insane.
As an expert in the Jurisprudence of Insanity. Dr. Kempster has received distinguished recognition in America and abroad Among the important trials to which he has been summoned were those of Gen. George W. Cole, charged with the killing of L. Harris Hiscock, in Albany, New York in 1867; the trial of the assassin Guiteau, for the murder of President Garfield, to which he was called as "medical counsel" by the United States Government; and the trial of E. M. Field at New York, as well as many others of importance. He was
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