USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V > Part 33
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On a farm near Waupun, Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, Mr. Jolinson was born on the 18th of October, 1851, and this date bears evidence of his being a seion of one of the pioneer families of this section of the state. He is a son of Eli and Angeline E. (Niehol) Johnson, both of whom were born in the state of New York, where they were reared and educated. In 1848 Eli Johnson came to Wis- consin and purchased a traet of one hundred and sixty acres of land near the present thriving little eity of Waupun. There he reelaimed a productive farm and otherwise aided in the development and prog- ress of Fond du Lac county, where he became an honored and influ- ential citizen. He continued to reside on the old homestead until his death, which occurred in 1879, and his wife long survived him. She passed the closing years of her life in Waupun, where she died in December, 1911. It is worthy of note that one of her aunts, a resident of Wisconsin at the time of death, attained to the remarkable age of one hundred and ten years. Eli Johnson was a man of impregnable integrity and his life was one of earnest and consecutive endeavor. He was tolerant and considerate in his association with his fellow men and ever a elose observer of the Golden Rlue, as was also his devoted wife, both having been zealous members of the Freewill Bap-
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tist church and both having been instant in kindly deeds. The names of both merit enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Wisconsin.
George W. Johnson was reared under the sturdy and invigorating discipline of the pioneer farmstead and his preliminary educational advantages were those afforded in the common schools of the locality and period. That he made good use of these opportunities is shown by the fact that when seventeen years of age he proved himself eligi- ble for pedagogic honors. As a means of furthering his own educa- tion he devoted two years to teaching in the district schools, and thereafter he was a student in the Wisconsin State Normal School at Oshkosh for a period of three years. Thereafter he continued as a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of his native state for a period of twelve years, within which he was for some time an instructor in the village schools of Brooksville, Oconto county, and Omro, Winnebago county. He gave special attention to the teaching of bookkeeping, in which he had become an expert, and after aban- doning his work as a teacher he went to Ironwood, Michigan, the judicial center of the county of the same name, where he was employed as bookkeeper in a general merchandise establishment from 1887 to 1892.
In 1893 Mr. Johnson established his home in Oshkosh, Winnebago county, Wisconsin, and here held the position of bookkeeper for the Choate-Hollister Furniture Company, one of the leading manufactur- ing concerns of the city, for four years. During the ensuing year he was entry clerk in the offices of the Paine Lumber Company, of this city, and in 1901 he assumed his present office of secretary of the Oshkosh Mutual Loan & Building Society. When he assumed this office the assets of the corporation were but forty-five thousand dol-' lars, and it is mainly due to his discrimination, earnest application and fine administrative ability that the business lias been advanced to a point where its assets are more than one hundred and sixty thou- sand dollars. The other members of the executive corps are as here noted: J. Howard Jenkins, president; John Geiger, vice-president; and Albert T. Hanzig, treasurer. The Oshkosh Mutual Loan & Build- ing Society is one of the strongest and most flourishing institutions of the kind in the state and it has exercised most important functions in connection with the upbuilding of Oshkosh, where through its agency many persons in moderate circumstances have been enabled to secure comfortable and attractive homes. From an article written by the president of the society are taken the following pertinent extracts :
"About twenty-five years ago Mr. Samuel P. Gary, who was deeply interested in civic problems in Oshkosh, made a study of how to help workingmen to secure their own homes, and he formulated a plan for
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an organization similar to the cooperative associations then in opera- tion in Philadelpha. The central idea was that a large number of small monthly payments could be loaned in a lump to build a home, the contributors being secured by the mortgage held by the company. Thus five hundred members paying two dollars each per month would enable the company to loan every month to some deserving man a thousand dollars for his new home.
"Mr. Gary interested in his plan a number of active business men who were willing to invest some money in this enterprise, especially as it was in the nature of a savings bank and would eventually pay them a larger rate of interest than savings banks can afford. And so, twenty-four years ago, the Oshkosh Mutual Loan & Building Society was started in a small way. Mr. Gary was very insistent that the rules should favor the borrower rather than the lender, and so they remained today, a monument to the philanthropie impulses of the founder.
"Such institutions are naturally of slow growth, but little by lit- tle the society has grown, until today it has mortgage loans on im- proved city property amounting to about one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars. Its real estate loans aggregate during the twenty-four years about six hundred and ten thousand dollars, divided among five hundred and twenty borrowers. Thus nearly half a million dol- lars have been repaid to the society through the maturing of loans. and houses almost by the hundred have been built and are now owned by satisfied clients. It is not the policy of the' society to make large loans to a single individual; it leaves this to the capitalist or trust company. It aims to help the wage-earner and to encourage in him the spirit of thrift, in fulfilling his monthly obligations to the society. After twenty years, and the lending of over six hundred thousands dollars, the society does not possess an inch of land taken under foreclosure, and has no loans which are not worth more than the amount of the loan.
"Being a mutual society, every borrower is practically a stock- holder and has his say in the election of the board of directors. They also participate in the profits of the society, being credited with such rate of annual interest as is earned. As to the safety of the loan, it is apparent that as soon as it is made it begins to be reduced by monthly payments, and by just so much its value to the society increases.
"As a saving institution it has no superior, as back of the loan is a first-class mortgage as security. The interest, instead of being paid in cash, is added to the loan and helps to bring it to maturity sooner. The earnings are very nearly six per cent and are likely to reach that point before very long. Each share has a value of two hundred dol- lars when matured and calls for a payment of one dollar per month.
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In emergencies, such as sickness, death, failure of income, etc., the money can be withdrawn upon due notice, together with accumulated earnings. The society is well officered, well managed and very eco- nomically administered,-no salaries are paid except to the secretary. It is operated under state law and is examined annually by a state bank examiner. It is manifest that its sphere of influence is limited only by its income, and so it solicits savings accounts as a means toward this end."
In addition to his official duties with the loan and building society Mr. Johnson is secretary of the local organizations of the Fraternal Reserve Association, the Independent Order of Foresters, the National Protective League, and the Knights of the Modern Macca- bees. From 1906 to 1910 he had the distinction of being secretary of the Wisconsin State Loan Association League, and he was formerly a counselor of the United States League of Building & Loan Associa- tions, with which organization he is still actively identified. In poli- tics he accords allegiance to the Republican party, of which his father likewise was a staunch adherent, and both he and his wife hold mem- bership in the Methodist church. It may be noted that Emory R. Johnson, youngest brother of the subject of this review and a repre- sentative citizen of Philadelphia, this state, was appointed by Presi- dent Mckinley as a member of the Nicaragua canal commission.
Mr. Johnson has been twice wedded. On the 30th of June, 1880, he married Miss M. L. Hollister, daughter of Martin M. Hollister, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and she was summoned to the life eternal in 1894. She is survived by two daughters: Edna E., who is the wife of J. Ray Johnson, a resident of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Mabel J., who is the wife of Harry R. Field, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. On the 18th of August, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Carrie I. Smalley, of Fond du Lac, and no children have been born of this union. Mrs. Johnson presides most graciously over the attractive home and is a popular figure in the social life of the community.
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ALVIN M. ANDREWS. The present district attorney of Shawano county, Mr. Andrews is one of the able young members of the Shawano bar, and represents a name which has been prominently iden- tified with practically the entire historical development of Shawano. Sixty years have passed since his father as a pioneer first ventured into the wilderness of Shawano county, and as the father was a man of influence and ability in the early days, so the son has left his impress on the community in modern times as a lawyer and official. Mr. Andrews was elected to his present office as district attorney in the fall of 1909, taking office in January, 1910. Then in 1912 he was reelected and began his second term in January, 1913. Mr. Andrews has practiced law at Shawano since he was admitted to the bar in 1908. Born on a
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farm six miles north of Shawano, in Shawano county, April 22, 1880, he is a son of Hon. Orlin and Helen (Harris) Andrews, both now de- ceased. The father died in Shawano, March 19, 1911, and the mother died there July 6, 1912. Both were born in New York State, and the father, Orlin Andrews is one of the very first permanent settlers in Shawano county, the date of his coming being in the year 1854. Two years later he returned to New York State, where he was married and then brought his bride to this little settlement in the midst of the big woods. Orlin Andrews was one of Shawano county's best known citi- zens. At various times he held important offices at Menominee Indian Reservation in the northern part of the county. He also served as post- master at Shawano, and as court commissioner and for many years was a justice of the peace. From the farm on which he first settled he moved into Shawano about 1886. Mr. A. M. Andrews grew up and attended the public schools in Shawano, subsequently taking a literary and busi- ness course at the Valparaiso University in Indiana. He has worked and earned his own promotion in life and for several years was a stenographer in law offices in Shawano. In 1905, he went to Washington, D. C., to aecept an appointment under the third assistant postmaster general and during the three years of his residenee at Washington he attended the law department of the Georgetown University at Georgetown. In 1908 he returned to Wisconsin, passed the state bar examination and imme- diately thereafter opened his office for practice in Shawano.
In 1903, Mr. Andrews married Miss Berd Griswold, of Valparaiso. Indiana. Their two children are Lloyd and Ruth. Mr. Andrews is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. Outside of his official duties as district attorney he looks after a growing general practice in the local courts.
HENRY W. WRIGHT. For more than thirty years the name Wright has been familiarly associated with lumber manufacturing in Merrill. The death of Henry W. Wright, which occurred in his home at Mer- rill, May 23, 1901, removed the founder and president of the industry known as the H. W. Wright Lumber Company, but it has since con- tinned to prosper under the energetic management of his son.
One of the foremost business men of Wisconsin and of a pioneer family which became identified with Wisconsin during territorial period. Henry W. Wright was born at Racine, March 10. 1844. His parents were Thomas W. and Angelina (Knowles) Wright, the former a native of Manchester, England, and the latter of Onondaga Hollow, near Syracuse, New York. They were married in the east and in 1838 moved to the territory of Wisconsin, where they spent all their lives.
The late Henry W. Wright was reared at Racine, received his school- ing there, and was about seventeen years old when the war between the states broke out. In 1862 his maternal unele, Albert Knowles, who was a
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second lieutenant in Company K of the Seventh Missouri Artillery, came to Racine on a visit. While there he used his influence to induce his nephew to join his company, and thus Henry W. Wright went to Mis- souri and enlisted at Macon. Three months later the regiment was sent to Independence, Missouri, thence to Kansas City, to Sedalia, and Springfield, and in that time he saw some very hard service and was with the army for two and a half years. The Seventh Missouri Cavalry was finally consolidated with the First Missouri, and was thereafter known as the First Missouri Cavalry. Mr. Wright was with Company H of that organization, and was promoted to the rank of second lieu- tenant on February 22, 1865. He had been made sergeant major of his regiment at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he spent the winter of 1863-64. His final discharge as second lieutenant of Company H, First Missouri Cavalry, was granted May 30, 1865, a few weeks after Lee's surrender. Among the engagements in which he participated were those at Prairie Grove, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, in which Major General Herron was commander; he was also at Helena, Little Rock, Camden, and other important points in the campaigns west of the Mississippi River. After the war Mr. Wright returned to his home in Wisconsin, and for three years was in the employ of the Western Union Railway Company. He then became an accountant for Chauncey, Lathrop & Company, and continued thus for two years. The following years were spent as a bookkeeper for the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company at Racine. With this varied experience he began business for himself as a manufacturer of sash, doors, and blinds at Racine. On April 5, 1877, President R. B. Hayes appointed him postmaster at Racine. He held that office until October, 1880, at which time he gave up his interests at Racine and moved to Merrill, thus beginning the relationship of the name with this important lumber center in the Wisconsin River Valley. On arriving at Merrill he formed a partnership with M. H. McCord in a saw-mill enterprise. About a year later Mr. McCord died, and the H. W. Wright Lumber Company was then established. Under that name the business has been conducted for more than thirty years, and has held high rank among similar industries of its kind along the Wisconsin River. The company's plant is modern in every way and has a capacity for cutting about one hundred thousand lumber feet each day, and employs about one hundred and twenty-five men. All varieties of lum- ber are manufactured, and the sash, door and blind factory is one of the best in the state.
The late Mr. Wright was always a staunch Republican, and took many degrees in the Masonic Order. On November 1, 1872, he married Miss Carrie Buchan, a native of Dover, Racine county, Wisconsin, and of Scotch ancestry. Many members of her family during the last two centuries have been identified with the medical profession, both in this country and abroad. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Wright were three in
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number, namely : James A .; Alfred II .; and Nettie. The late Henry W. Wright was always a publie spirited citizen, was alive to the best interests of his section, and did effective service, not only as an industrial leader and manufacturer, but also took part in local affairs. He served as a member of the county board of supervisors, as an alderman in Racine, and was secretary of the building committee which supervised the erection of the courthouse at Racine. Mrs. H. W. Wright died on February 7, 1912, having survived her husband nearly eleven years.
The oldest son of the late Henry W. Wright was one of the dis- tinguished publie men of northern Wisconsin. Honorable James A. Wright who died in Merrill December 21, 1911, was a member of the Wisconsin State Senate at the time of his death. He had been elected first on the Republican tieket in 1904 at the age of thirty-one, and was reelected in 1908. He was born in Raeine in 1873, but was reared in Merrill. At the time of his death he was serving as president of the H. W. Wright Lumber Company, and as president of the Wisconsin Lumber Company at Littell, Washington. He was a member of the Loyal Legion. James A. Wright never married.
ALFRED H. WRIGHT, who now as president of the companies directs the large manufacturing industries founded at Merrill by his father, trained himself from boyhood for the large responsibilities that awaited him, and is one of the most competent lumbermen of Wisconsin. While always a busy man he has taken a prominent part in local civic affairs, and has contributed much to the well being of Merrill's citizenship, besides his service in directing one of the largest of home industries.
Alfred H. Wright was born in Racine, December 21, 1876. He came to Merrill with his parents when a child, grew up here, attended the public schools, and finished his education in the Beloit Academy. During the vacation periods of school, and as soon as his education was completed, he worked in the different departments of the H. W. Wright Lumber Company, and in that way became familiar with every technical detail of lumber manufacturing. He worked his way up on the basis of merit, to responsible connection with the management of the company, and eventually became vice president of both the Wright Lumber Com- pany of Merrill, and of the Wisconsin Lumber Company of Littell. Washington, serving in those capacities until the death of his brother James, whom he succeeded as president of both companies. From 1903 to 1912 he was located at Littell, Washington, directing the interests of that company in that state. He returned to Merrill after the death of his brother, and has since managed the business from this city. Mr. Wright served as Mayor of Merrill during 1902-03, and was the young- est mayor the city ever had. He married Miss Edith W. Collins, a native of Nebraska, who was living in Washington at the time of their mar- riage. Mr. Wright is affiliated with the Loyal Legion, with the Masonie Order and with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
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The H. W. Wright Lumber Company owns a fine farm of eight hun- dred and fifty-three acres in Vilas county, located on Trout Lake. This farm has been a hobby of A. H. Wright and also of his late brother .James Wright. It was estabtablished by their father, and the boys became very enthusiastic over its management, and used it for a summer home, though it is by no means solely a pleasure resort, and has become a very profitable enterprise, and illustrates the possibility of progressive agri- culture in this section of the state. Its improvements and general situation make it one of the most beautiful farms in Wisconsin.
EDWARD SOMMERS. A prominent old-established real estate man of Shawano, Edward Sommers has been identified with this city in a. successful and public spirited manner for a long period of years, and is numbered among the citizens who have been instrumental in helping promote the upbuilding and progress of the community. He now gives all his time to his extensive business in abstracts, real estate, loans and insurance. He has also been prominent in the public service, having served from Shawano from 1906 to 1908 as Mayor and from 1878 to 1888 held the important office of registrar of deeds in the county. Mr. Sommers has been in the county since 1871, and he has been in the abstract business since 1879.
Mr. Sommers was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, February 25, 1853, a son of Charles Sommers. Both parents are now deceased. Charles Sommers was an carly settler in Sheboygan county locating there in the late forties, about the time Wisconsin became a state. He followed a long career as a farmer.
On the home farm in Sheboygan county, Edward Sommers spent the years of his youth, and had a country school education. He engaged in the sawmill business as his first regular work, and was connected with his brother William in operating a mill ten miles east of Shawano in this county in the town of Hartland, conducting that enterprise from 1871 to 1874. In the latter year he moved to Shawano, and was pro- prietor of a hotel for some three or four years. His election to the office of registrar of deeds gave him a broad knowledge and experience in real estate titles, and he has been the best authority on abstracts and real estate ever since.
Mr. Sommers was married in 1874 to Miss Annie Lueke, of Shawano county. Five children born to their marriage were Anna; Ida, wife of J. C. Madler, who has one son Edward James Madler; Lima ; Oscar and Arthur, twins.
WILLIAM J. KERSHAW. Altogether worthy of special recognition in this publication by reason of his high standing at the bar of his native state and his distinctive loyalty and public spirit as a citizen, there are other points which render a consideration of the personal and ancestral
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history of Mr. Kershaw particularly interesting. He is a representa- tive in the agnatic line of sterling pioneer stock in Wisconsin and on the maternal side may well be proud of the fact that he is a scion of the fine aboriginal stock represented in the Menominee tribe of Indians, one of the strongest and noblest of the Indian tribes in Wis- consin before the white man disputed dominion in this territory before the white man disputed dominion in this territory and one that still has a large and worthy representation within the borders of the state. Of this historic tribe, second only to the Osage in point of wealth. Mr. Kershaw was made a member in 1912, and concerning this matter specific mention will be made in a later paragraph of this review.
William John Kershaw was born at Big Spring, Adams county, Wisconsin, on the 12th of January, 1865, and is a son of William John and Martha Mary (Corn) Kershaw, the former of whom was born in County Antrim, Ireland, and the latter of whom was born in Wiscon- sin, a member of the Menominee tribe of Indians. Mrs. Kershaw was a woman of much personal beauty and fine mentality and she and other members of the family of which she was a representative exerted large and benignant influence among the Indians of Wisconsin. This was specially true of her aunt, Mrs. Mary Walsworth, who was a pure- blood Menominee and whose husband conducted a pioneer tavern or hotel in Adams county. Many Indians camped at regular intervals in that vicinity, and thus it was a favorable point for the government officials to meet the members of the Indian tribes in council. Mrs. Walsworth frequently acted as interpreter and held the high regard of both the Indians and the white settlers, as well as of the government representatives.
Reared and educated in his native land, William John Kershaw, Sr., immigrated to American when a young man. After remaining for a time in the city of Albany, New York, he came to Wisconsin, and, as an agent for the government, he had occasion to deal with the Indians at Big Spring, Adams county. Through his service in this capacity he formed the acquaintance of the noble young woman who eventually became his wife and to whom he paid the greatest devo- tion during the entire course of their ideal wedded life. Mr. Kershaw was a man of excellent education and had prepared himself well for the legal profession. After his marriage he was actively engaged in the practice of law at Big Spring for a number of years and he became a man of much prominence and influence in that section of the state, where he was called upon to serve in various positions of publie trust. including that of district attorney of Adams county. This great- hearted, buoyant and loyal son of the Emerald Isle entered fully into harmony with American customs and institutions and his loyalty to the land of his adoption found no greater or nobler exemplification than in his tendering his services in defense of the nation when its
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integrity was thrown into jeopardy by the seeession of the southern states.
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