USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V > Part 21
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Julius Goll was born at Biberach, in the kingdom of Wurttemberg. on the 16th of February, 1823. Biberach was at one time one of the Free Cities of Germany, and has since grown to be a manufacturing city of considerable importance, so that in the town of his birth Mr. Goll was able to receive the training that aided in making him success- ful. After receiving a common school education, he became an appren- tiee to Michel Friess, a dry goods merchant of the city and in his estab- lishment he learned the business from the ground up, and when his apprenticeship was completed he was thoroughly equipped with knowl- edge that would make him a valuable employee to any dry goods mer- chant. After the completion of his apprenticeship Mr. Goll spent sev- eral years as a salesman in Paris and Lyons, France and in Muehlhausen. Elsass. It was during this time that the western part of the United States was being settled, and the wonderful stories of this land of opportunity were drawing from Europe of the best that she had to give. The tales he heard inspired Julius Goll with the desire to see this new county, and even though it proved a fiction yet he would have gained a greater knowledge of the world and of conditions than by staying at home. This was typieal of Mr. Goll to investigate things for himself and not depend on others for information he should have obtained at first hand. He therefore took passage on a sailing vessel bound for New York in 1849.
Upon his arrival he found a position as salesman in a dry goods store in the then famous business section. He only remained a short time, however, the call of the west was still urgently ringing in his ears. He first stopped, on his western journey at Holland, Michigan, but he had not been there long before he was taken ill and had to go to a hos- pital in Chicago. When he had recovered a few weeks later, he began to look about him for a new location and was attracted by the then rapidly growing town of Milwaukee. It was at this time, in 1850. a town of about twenty thousand inhabitants, many of whom were Ger- mans, and upon viewing the city, Mr. Goll was struck with its possibil- ities, not only from its advantageous location geographically, but also from the elass of people who were beginning to settle there perma- nently. Mr. Goll determined, consequently to establish a business in
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this city, and to make it a "large, prominent and popular dry-goods establishment." He kept these three qualities in mind, intending that it should be "prominent, on account of the amount and extent of its business, and popular, by reason of its liberal, conscientious and straight- forward system of conducting its business." All through his career he held to these ideals and carried them out.
He came to Milwaukee in 1850 and opened a small dry goods store in partnership with Henry Stern, on East Water street. It was in 1852 that the firm of Goll and Frank had its beginnings, the business being carried on in the same location, 447 East Water street, only the first floor of the building being used for store purposes. The country around Milwaukee began to become more thickly settled and the firm of Goll and Frank found their business increasing. They soon had the reputation of being industrious, capable and fair-dealing, and even at that time they carried an unusually good line of goods. They not only sold these in the store but owned a horse and wagon and sent a man out on trips throughout the neighboring country, thus spreading their reputation widely. Their trade had increased so much by 1855 that they had to move into larger quarters and so rented a store at 463 East Water street where they began to do a wholesale and retail dry goods and notion business. In 1860 they moved into another store at 443 East Water street, and then came the outbreak of the Civil war, so dis- astrous to many business firms. Goll and Frank had the foresight to realize conditions, and so in 1862 they sent one of their men to New York and he bought heavily. Mr. Goll having been called to Europe at this time joined him later and together they made even heavier invest- ments. This was a wise proceeding, for prices soared and they made large profits, as well as establishing their credit with the eastern houses. They were now recognized as one of the soundest business houses in the western wholesale trade, and so rapidly did their wholesale business grow that it was necessary to separate it from the retail, the latter being transferred to the corner of Third and Prairie streets. The wholesale business proved all that the firm could well handle and the retail busi- ness was discontinued after May 1, 1884.
The wholesale business in 1863 was moved to a larger store at 261-3 East Water street, which in 1872 was struck by lightning, and had to be rebuilt, this being done on a larger scale. The building was added to several times between this time and 1896, and in the latter year the erec- tion of the present modern building was begun. Covering an area of one hundred and twenty feet by one hundred and forty feet, and seven stories in height, it is one of the finest buildings in the city.
This new building was erected after the death of Mr. Goll, though he had been in favor of its erection and probably had he lived would have taken an active part in planning the new building. His health began to fail in 1895 and although he gave up his business and went to
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Asheville, North Carolina, yet his health did not improve and he returned home to live only a short time longer, his death occurring on the 1st of January, 1896.
Mr. Goll took an important place in the business world of Mil- waukee outside of his own business. He was at one time vice-president of the Merchants Exchange Bank, and was one of the directors, and at the time of his death he was a director of the First National Bank of Milwaukee and of the Concordia Fire Insurance Company of Mil- waukee. His own company had been incorporated in 1885, the firm name being the Goll and Frank Company.
Mr. Goll was of a retiring nature, avoiding anything like display. He was a true friend and in the treatment that he and his partner gave their employees could be found the truest index of his character, they were friends, not servants, and the employees of Goll and Frank did not know what it was to have their salaries cut down in times of panic, or to be dismissed on account of hard times. When misfortune came the firm preferred to bear it themselves and not thrust it on to the shoulders of those much less able to endure. Mr. Goll took no interest in socities, preferring the society of his family, and the loving, tender care which he gave his invalid wife showed more clearly than anything else the depth of his nature.
Julius Goll married Margaret Humble, who was born at Newcastle- on-the-Tyne, July 10, 1825. She came to this country with her par- ents in 1848, and they settled in Milwaukee. She married Mr. Goll when he was just beginning his career as a merchant, and her death occurred October 11, 1901, when she was in the seventy-sixth year of her age. She was an invalid for the last twenty years of her life. suf- fering greatly from rheumatism.
The present firm of Goll and Frank is managed by the following directors: Fred T. Goll, son of Julius Goll, who was born in Milwaukee in 1854 and has grown up with the business ; Louis F. Frank and Julius O. 'Frank both sons of August Frank and Oscar Loeffler. Thus the younger generation are carrying on the work that their father founded. The business is now incorporated with a capital of five hundred thousand dollars and a large surplus. It is one of the largest wholesale houses in the middle west.
GEORGE H. RIPLEY, M. D. For many years engaged in the practice of his profession at Kenosha, Dr. Ripley is an excellent type of the modern and successful American physician. Through his practice he has contributed a large amount of individual service, at the same time has taken a prominent part in the organized activities of the profession, is a contributor to medical literature, has served in a professional capacity. on several boards and organizations in his locality and state, and at the same time has exercised a shrewd business judgment and acquired a lib- eral material prosperity.
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Mr. Ripley is a native of Wisconsin, born in Fond du Lac county, October 22, 1860. His birthplace was in the town of Oakfield, where the family was established in the early days of the state. His parents were Charles T. and Lucy A. (Holton) Ripley. His father, a native of Ver- mont, was born at the historic old town of Bennington in 1816, was a daguerreotype artist, one of the first to take up that art which preceded modern photography, and coming to Wisconsin in 1852 set up in busi- ness at Fond du Lac. His death occurred in the town of Oakfield, Octo- ber 20, 1861. His wife, who was born in Massachusetts, died in 1887. They were both members of the Congregational faith. Their three sons were Charles S., of Aurora, South Dakota; Frederick W., of Oakfield, Wisconsin; and Dr. Ripley.
George H. Ripley spent his early career on his father's old farm, and lived there until he was grown. Though he was an infant when his father died, he was reared in fairly prosperous circumstances, had a district school education, and later attended the Lawrence University at Appleton. In 1889, after some years of employment in farming and other lines of productive labor, he entered the Hahnemann College in Chicago, and was graduated M. D. in the class of 1891. For a brief while he practiced his profession in Chicago, but soon decided upon Kenosha as offering a better field. For the past twenty-two years he has en- joyed a large clientage in this city. His reputation as a skillful physi- cian and surgeon has been extended far beyond the limits of his home community, and he also stands high in the medical fraternity through his personal relations with the profession, and through his contributions to the leading medical journals of Wisconsin and the United States.
Dr. Ripley is a member of the Wisconsin State Homeopathic Society, the American Institute of Homeopathy, and is president of the State Board of Medical Examiners. He also belongs to the Kenosha Country Club.
Dr. Ripley has for many years been interested in Kenosha real estate and his judgment resulted in much success. He is the owner of the Ripley business block, located in the heart of the city, occupying a ground space of one hundred and twenty-four by seventy feet. His home at 661 Prairie Avenue is one of the most beautiful residences in that section of the city and was erected in 1901. The doctor owns much other valuable property in Kenosha.
On December 8, 1886, he married Miss Florence M. Fellows, a daughter of Henry and Matilda (Stannard) Fellows. Mrs. Ripley is a member of the Methodist church. They have no children.
JOSHUA ERIC DODGE, former justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and now an active member of the Milwaukee bar, was born at West Cambridge, now Arlington, in Middlesex county, Massachusetts, on the twenty-fifth of October, 1854, and is a son of Joshua G. and Mary F.
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(Herriek) Dodge. His parents were both representatives of colonial stock in New England and both resided in Massachusetts until their death. The father had an active career in business. Judge Dodge gained his early educational discipline in the schools of his native state and later attended Westford Academy at Westford in Middlesex county. Going west he entered Iowa College at Grinnell, Iowa, where he was graduated A. B. with the class of 1875. In preparation for the work of his chosen profession he entered the law department of Boston Uni- versity, and from that institution received his degree as Bachelor of Laws, with the class of 1877. Admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in the same year, he established his home in March, 1878, at Racine, Wisconsin, where he continued in the general practice of law for fifteen years and gained distinction as one of the strong and successful members of the Wisconsin Bar, with a reputation mueh beyond the limits of his home city and county.
His professional attainments have led to many important publie services. In September, 1893, he was appointed assistant attorney gen- eral for the United States, and in the discharge of his duties he kept his residence in the city of Washington until July, 1897. His appointment and service were during the administration of President Cleveland. On leaving his Federal post Judge Dodge returned to Wisconsin and estab- lished his home in Milwaukee, where he engaged in general practice until November 22, 1898. Then occurred his appointment as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the State to succeed Judge Pinney, who had resigned. He continued on the supreme bench approximately twelve years.
In 1892 Judge Dodge represented Racine county in the State Assem- bly, and on April 18, 1893, he was appointed a member of the board of commissioners for the promotion of uniformity of legislation in the different states of the Union. In this, as in all other offices which he has held, he made a record for timely service of great value. On the supreme bench his work was marked by distinctive judicial acumen and circumspection, and his record has become a part of the history of that tribunal. On retiring from the bench Judge Dodge again identified himself with private practice, though he limits his work to that of special counsel for the important law firm of Quarles, Spence & Quarles, with offices in the Sentinel Building at Milwaukee. The interested principals in this firm are all able representatives of the second generation of their respective families in the legal profession in Wisconsin, since each of the members is a son of a distinguished Wisconsin lawyer. the fathers of the present members having likewise been associated in their practice. William C. and Joseph V. Quarles, Jr., are sons of the late Judge Joseph V. Quarles, who was one of the leading members of the Wiscon- sin bar and who served with distinction as United States Senator and United States District Judge. Thomas H. Spence. the other member of
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the firm, is a son of the late Thomas W. Spence, whose name is one of marked prominence in connection with the history of Wisconsin juris- prudence. Associate members of the firm of Quarles, Spence & Quarles are Irving A. Fish, and C. S. Thompson.
Judge Dodge holds a place of signal prominence and influence as a member of the legal profession in Wisconsin, and is given particular precedence as a counsellor, by reason of his broad and exact knowledge of the science of jurisprudence and his familiarity with precedence in all branches of the law. He commands high vantage-ground in the con- fidence and esteem of his professional associates at the Milwaukee bar, and is a citizen of unqualified loyality and public spirit, his character and services having gained to him unequivocal popularity in the state that has been his home for nearly two score of years.
Judge Dodge has always been a staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, and has given much practical serv- ice to his party success in Wisconsin. He was one of the presidential electors for Wisconsin in the national election of November, 1912, and it is needless to say that the results of that election proved especially gratifying to him. The judge is identified with the Milwaukee Club, the University Club of Milwaukee, and the University Club of Madison, the Milwaukee Country Club, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D. C., and the Reform Club of New York City. He is a bachelor and resides at the Milwaukee club. He is well known in the state of his adoption, has honored the same through his professional and public services, and personally has a wide circle of friends and admirers.
HON. DON ALONZO JOSHUA UPHAM, who for more than thirty years was one of the most eminent legal practitioners of the Wisconsin bar, and whose connection with public affairs had a direct bearing upon the history of the state, was born in Weathersfield, Windsor county, Vermont, on May 31, 1809. His father, Joshua Upham, occupied the homestead and farm in the valley of the Connecticut river that had been first located by his grandfather, William Upham, at the close of the Revolution, and which has been in the possession of the family for more than a century. The family is one of the oldest in New England. In the genealogy of the Upham family, the ancestors of William Upham are traced back to John Upham, who emigrated from the West of England and settled in Malden, near Boston, Massachusetts, about sixty years after the first landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock.
Don A. J. Upham came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a scholarly and accomplished young man, to begin the practice of his profession in 1837, and his professional and public life covered a period of more than thirty years. When he was sixteen years of age he was re- quested by his father to determine upon a business or profession to
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follow for life. After some deliberation he chose the profession of law, and he was accordingly sent immediately to the preparatory school at Chester, Vermont, and afterwards to Meriden, New Hamp- shire. At the age of nineteen years he entered the sophomore class of Union College, New York, of which the late Eliphalet Nott was then president, and graduated therefrom in 1831 with the highest standing in a elass of about one hundred pupils. In the following September he entered the office of General James Tallmadge, in New York City, as a law student, and after remaining in this office about six months he found that it should be necessary to raise means in some way to complete his education as a legist. On the recommendation of Pres- ident Nott, he was appointed assistant professor of mathematies in Delaware College, at Newark, Delaware, and held this position three years, during which time he wrote editorials for the Delaware Gazette, then the leading Democratie organ in the State. At the same time he had his name entered as a law student in the office of the Hon. James A. Bayard, of Wilmington, Delaware, who later became United States Senator from that state. In 1835, after attending a course of law leetures in Baltimore, Mr. Upham was admitted to the bar and commeneed practice in Wilmington, where he was elected city attor- ney in 1836, and from 1834 to 1837 was editor and proprietor of the Delaware Gazette and American Watchman, published at Wilmington.
In the meantime the attention of Mr. Upham had been called to the growing settlements in the then far West, and after the close of the Black Hawk war he was informed that a place called Chicago would soon be a point of commercial importance. In 1836 the terri- tory of Wisconsin was organized, containing within its limits the territory now comprising the states of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minne- sota, and Mr. Upham determined to explore the western country. Accordingly, in the spring of 1837 he started west, and in June of that year arrived in Chicago, by the route of the upper lakes. The future metropolis was then but a small village, and seemed to be located in an extensive marsh, the only high ground being a few aeres on the lake shore, where the old fort was located. The prospeet was not appealing to him, and with two friends he traveled through Illinois in a farmer's wagon, by way of Dixon's ferry, camping out as occasion required, and arrived at the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Rock river. He visited Burlington and Dubuque and also the mineral regions of western Wisconsin, and endeavored to find some conveyanee through Wisconsin to Milwaukee, but was unable to do so, and was obliged to return by way of Galena to Chicago, and thence by steamer to Milwaukee.
The first settlement of any importance in Milwaukee had been made the year previous, and the situation and prospeets so pleased Mr. Upham that he decided to locate here. The difficulties attending
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the practice of lawyers who first settled here can hardly be appre- ciated at this day. There were no stage coaches or other means of conveyance through the territory; the only practical way was to go on horse-back by Indian trails across the prairies. Mr. Upham was one of the most active and industrious of the pioneer lawyers, as the court records will show, and his services as counsel and advocate were constantly sought. It has been asserted by some who were acquainted with the early territorial litigation that for many years the practice of Mr. Upham exceeded that of any other Milwaukee legist.
With further reference to the difficulties that beset the path of the lawyers of those early days, one of Mr. Upham's earliest experi- ences is here recounted, as an example of conditions and happenings of that time. His first case of any importance was in the supreme court of the territory. At the fall term of the district court a judg- ment for a large amount had been obtained against one of the most extensive dealers in real estate in Milwaukee, and his new dwelling house and a large amount of property were advertised for sale on execution. He applied to Mr. Upham to take the case to the supreme court and enjoin the pending sale. It was necessary that one of the judges should allow the writ of injunction, and Judges Frazer and Irwin being out of the territory, there was no one who could allow the writ excepting Judge Dunn, who resided in Elk Grove, in the western district, about one hundred and sixty miles from Milwaukee. There were no stage coaches or other means of conveyance at that time, as has already been mentioned, and the only practical way was to go on horseback through what is now Rock and Green coun- ties, and the only road for a considerable portion of the way was an Indian trail across the prairies. He accordingly started to make the trip in this way late in November, and with barely time to accom- plish it under favorable circumstances. Mr. Janes had already set- tled in Janesville, and the miners from the west had settled at Sugar river diggings in Green county. These points he reached after a delay of one day because of the ice and high water in Rock river. He reached Mineral Point and Elk Grove without difficulty, had his writ allowed by the judge, and on his return to Sugar river found he had but two nights and one day in which to reach Milwaukee before the sale, a distance of about one hundred miles to be still covered. He started east for the Janes settlement early in the evening, and as he reached the prairie he found that it was afire in places, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he pursued his journey. As the night advanced it became darker, and toward midnight the wind arose and a scene presented itself that baffled description. On reaching high ground the view was extensive and the fire, with the increasing wind, spread in every direction. The low grounds where the vegetation had
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been rank, appeared to be on fire. As far as the eye could reach, and in every direction, the flames seemed to shoot up to the clouds with increasing violence. The night was dark and not a star was to be seen. It seemed as if the last day had arrived and the final conflagra- tion of the world was taking place. The young lawyer found himself surrounded with difficulties of which his knowledge of Blackstone and Coke afforded no solution, and he had at last to draw upon his knowl- edge of science in order to make his escape. He was lost on the prairie. Diligent search discovered no trace of the trail or track he meant to pursue. He was near half a day's ride from any human habitation and he could not be certain as to what direction he was moving in. By keeping to the high portions of the prairie where the vegetation had been light and which was mostly burnt over, he found himself in com- parative safety, but to cross the ravines or low places was impossible or attended with the greatest danger. For several hours he wandered in various directions without knowing where he was going, and at last the clouds seemed to break away at one point and the stars became visible.
The question now was to determine to what constellation they belonged. He was not long in doubt, for two clusters of stars ap- peared, which he recognized as well known southern constellations. He knew these stars must be near the meridian at that time, and at the extreme south. By keeping them at the right he was now able to pursue as far as practicable an easterly course, and he at last reached Rock river, about two miles south of Janesville. He now had one day and a night in which to reach Milwaukee, a distance of about sixty miles. With a worn out and jaded horse, this was accomplished with great difficulty, and he arrived about an hour before the time set for the sale, much to the astonishment of the opposing counsel and the great joy of his client, who had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of his counsel.
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