USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V > Part 34
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In October, 1861, in response to President Lincoln's first eall for volunteers, William J. Kershaw, Sr., enlisted as a private in the Eight- eenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was soon made sergeant major in his company and on the 14th of March, 1862, he was elected and commissioned captain of Company K. The regiment was mustered into the United States service and on the 30th of March, 1862, set forth for Pittsburg Landing, at which point it arrived on the 5th of the following month. On the morning after the arrival at the front the Eighteenth Wisconsin, with absolutely no instruetion in the manual of arms and with the most meager experience in ordinary military taeties, was ordered to go forth and cheek the enemy's advance at Shiloh. Concerning this gallant command Governor Harvey of Wis- consin gave the following estimate: "Many regiments may well covet the impressions which the Eighteenth Wisconsin left of personal brav- ery, heroic daring and determined enduranee." The regiment took part in the siege of Corinth, which closely followed the battle of Shiloh, and thereafter was eneamped for some time at Corinth and Bolivar. Captain Kershaw was an active and valiant participant in all of the engagements in which his regiment was involved up to this time, but on the 3d of September, 1862, he resigned his commission and received his honorable discharge. He returned to his home, where family interests and important duties demanded his attention, but in the spring of 1864 he again went to the front, as major of the Thirty- seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, to which office he was eom- missioned on the 10th of March. The first six companies of the regi- ment were mustered into service in the latter part of that month, and, with Major Kershaw in command, left the state on the 28th of April, to join the Army of the Potomac, in Virginia. The regiment distinguished itself for intrepid gallantry in the engagements at Petersburg, on the 16th, 17th and 18th of June, 1864, and in the fight of the 17th Major Kershaw was seriously wounded,-a musket ball having passed through both of his legs. This injury practically incapacitated him for further serviee in the field and virtually ended his military career. Though
promoted to the office of lieutenant colonel, on the 27th of September, 1864, he was never mustered in with this rank, and on the 18th of October, 1864, he resigned his commission as major and was granted his honorable discharge. His military career is one that refleets endur- ing honor and distinction upon his name and memory. He united with the Grand Army of the Republic at the time of its organization in Wis- consin and through his affiliation with this patriotic body he mani- fested his continued interest in his old comrades in arms.
After the close of his military career Colonel Kershaw returned to Big Spring and resumed the practice of his profession, in which he
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had already gained high reputation. In 1866 he was elected repre- sentative of Adams county in the assembly body of the state legis- lature, in which he served two consecutive terms. Immediately after his retirement he was accorded further and distinguished evidence of popular appreciation and confidence, in that, in 1868, he was elected to the state senate, in which he most ably and zealously represented his district in the legislative sessions of 1869 and 1870.
While still a member of the state senate Colonel Kershaw removed with his family to Milwaukee, where he became associated with C. J. Kershaw, in the salt, eement, plaster and lumber business, his part- ner, though of the same name, not having been a kinsman. The Colonel was not yet to be permitted to retire from public service, for he was elected again to the assembly of the legislature, in which he repre- sented Milwaukee county in the session of 1875, with characteristic fidelity, diserimination and broad eoneeption of public needs and governmental policies. Thereafter he continued to give his attention to his private business interests until his death, which occurred in 1883. He was a man of sterling character and much ability, and he left a distinet and benignant impress upon the history of his adopted state, the while he ever commanded the unequivocal confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He was a Republican in his political allegiance and his religious faith was that of the Catholic church. His devoted wife passed to the life eternal in 1865, shortly after the birth of her son William John, Jr., whose name initiates this review. The oldest sister, Kate Theresa Kershaw, single, is secretary to Judge Timlin. The younger, Sybil Alban Kershaw, single, in New York, was named after Col. Alban, who was killed at the battle of Shiloh. The mother's Indian family name was Waupanin (Corn) and her own name was She-qua-na-quo-tok (Floating Cloud).
William J. Kershaw, Jr., gained his rudimentary education in the publie schools of his native county, and this training was effeet- ively supplemented by courses of study in St. Lawrence College, in Fond du Lac county, and St. Francis Seminary, another excellent Catholic institution, in Wiseonsin county. After leaving the latter school Mr. Kershaw passed two years in the west, within which he found great pleasure and profit in his diverse wanderings and investi- gations. He traversed the beautiful and untrammeled country so vividly described by Mrs. Helen Fitzgerald Sanders in her work enti- tled "Trails Through Western Woods," and he also visited the Glacier National Park, in Montana, long before this was made a national re- serve. He was in the great northwest earlier than was Colonel Roose- velt, and he gained his full quota of experience in connection with the free and open life of the plains and mountains, as he found employ- ment in herding cattle, "roughed it" in true western style and found zest and gratification in every experience. Mr. Kershaw and his wife
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visited the Glacier National Park in the summer of 1912, and he found much satisfaction in recalling to Mrs. Kershaw the incidents and expe- riences of his early sojourn in the west, the while he was again cov- ering much of the same territory.
After his youthful exploits in the great northwest Mr. Kershaw re- turned to Wisconsin, and for one year he was employed in the lumber camps of the northern part of the state, where he added another inter- esting chapter to the record of his varied career. His next decisive action was to enter upon an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade, in Milwaukee, but after becoming a skilled artisan in the line he deter- mined to fit himself for a broader sphere of activity and usefulness and to prepare himself for the profession which had been honored by the services of his father. He accordingly took up the study of law in the office and under the preceptorship of the firm composed of William C. Williams and August G. Weissert, of Milwaukee. He was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1886 and his initial work in his profession was as an employe of his former preceptor, Mr. Weissert, with whom he continued to be associated until 1892, when he became a member of the law firm of Eschweiler, Van Valkenburg & Kershaw. This alliance continued until 1897, since which year Mr. Kershaw has conducted an individual practice of important order, with a representative clientage and with a reputation fortified by many decisive victories in important legal contests. He has the high regard of his professional confreres and is essentially worthy of classification as one of the representative members of the bar of his home city and state. He has been the architect of his own fortunes and has proved himself a master of expedients,-resourceful, broad- minded, energetic and aggressive. Mr. Kershaw is well known in his native state and here has a host of loyal and valued friends. He is a staunch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, both he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church, he is a member of the Milwaukee County Bar Association, the Wisconsin Archaeological Society, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and, as a son of a dis- tinguished officer of the Union in the Civil war he is eligible for and is affiliated with the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, an honor of which he is deeply appreciative. Mr. Kershaw main- tains his office headquarters in suite 29-32 Cawker building, and his residence is on the west side of Milwaukee near Wau.
On the 31st of March, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kershaw to Miss Henrietta Schiller, daughter of Joseph and Emma (Meyer) Schiller, of Milwaukee, in which city Mrs. Kershaw was born and reared and in which she is a popular factor in social ac- tivities, as well as those of religious, charitable and educational order.
In conclusion of this review is given reproduction of interesting
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statements which appeared in the Milwaukee Journal of August 22, 1912 :
"William J. Kershaw, Milwaukee attorney, is to become a mem- ber of the Menominee tribe of Indians, who have their reservation at Keshena, Wisconsin. A tribal council will convene at Keshena September 4-6, when Mr. Kershaw will be officially adopted. His mother was a full-blood Menominee and his father was an Irishman. It had been the wish for some time of the head members of the tribe to have Mr. Kershaw join. All actions of the council at the big meet- ing will be taken in the primitive Indian fashion and all matters dis- cussed in the Indian language. Besides the business to be transacted there will be many entertainments offered for the three-day session, including a game of lacrosse.
"The Menominee tribe is second only to the Osage in point of wealth. There is at present the sum of three million five hundred thousand dollars at Washington to be distributed to the members, making about eight thousand dollars for each. They also have one million five hundred thousand acres of standing timber."
It may be further said that the above mentioned ceremony of formal adoption into the tribe of which his mother was a representa- tive was the most gratifying experience of Mr. Kershaw, and inci- dentally has fortified his admiration of the sterling qualities of the Indians and his appreciation of their many exalted ideals. The occa- sion was marked alike by solemnity and by many interesting social observances, and Mr. Kershaw, the recipient of distinguished honors under the old tribal customs and ceremonies, was deeply impressed and has not lacked in definite appreciation of the distinction thus granted to him by those to whom he is allied in bonds of kinship,- a relationship of which he may well be proud.
JOHN O. MOEN. President of the First National Bank of Rhine- lander, vice president of the Wisconsin Veneer Company of Rhine- lander, and a director in the Rhinelander Refrigerator Company. John O. Moen is one of the men of fine capabilities as organizers and busi- ness builders, who have been chiefly responsible for the making of an industrial center at Rhinelander. Though the immediate city of Rhine- lander has been his home since 1906, Mr. Moen has been prominently identified with this section of the state since the fall of 1887. a period of a quarter of a century. At that time he came into Oneida county. and constructed a mill on what is now known as Moen Lake, five miles east of Rhinelander. He was engaged in the operation of that lumber mill for thirteen years finally closing it out, and then for several years was inter- ested in timber lands and lumber operations in the south and west. About 1900 he spent several months in Alabama, and during the suc- ceeding years he made several trips to Oregon looking over the timber Vol. V-19
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lands. On his return to Wisconsin he bought an interest in the Wiscon- sin Veneer Company of Rhinelander, and his services have since become factors in the other important local concerns above mentioned.
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John O. Moen, who was born in Norway, September 9, 1847, a son of O. T. and Gure Moen, both of whom died in their native country, was reared and educated in his Norwegian home, and at the age of nineteen set out for America, locating first in Portage county, Wis- consin. His residence and citizenship in this state has continued for a period of more than forty years. Mr. Moen is a typical example of the young foreign born men who come to America, relying entirely upon the resources of brain and brawn and eventually achieving a place of prominence in community and state. His first work in Wisconsin was as a farm hand. He soon went into the woods and worked in the differ- ent operations of the logging camps, ran logs down the river for several years, and finally reached Nelsonville in Portage county, where he found employment under the late Jerome Nelson in a saw and grist mill. Mr. Moen paid a high tribute to his former employer Mr. Nelson, who was indeed one of the ablest lumber men of his time, and to his helpful influence and friendship for the young Norwegian, must be credited in all fairness a large share of the latter's advancement. He continued an employe of Mr. Nelson, and practically a business associate with him for eighteen years. It was with Mr. Nelson as a partner that he came to Oneida county in 1887, and set up the mill on Moon Lake. In 1897, Mr. Nelson died and in his will appointed Mr. Moen administra- tor and trustee of his estate, which was closed up under the able man- agement of Mr. Moen. Jerome Nelson who was born in New York State spent nearly a life time in the logging and lumber manufacturing indus- try of Wisconsin. He was a Civil war veteran, having served four years in the Union army.
Mr. Moen married Mattie Iverson, who was born in Wisconsin. Their three children are Hannah, wife of Henry Stoltenberg of Nelson- ville; Gunda, wife of Albert Lutz of Portage county, a farmer; and Oscar.
HON. GEORGE GRIMM. Judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit of Wis- consin since 1906, Judge Grimm has been a member of the Wisconsin Bar for thirty years, made a successful record as a lawyer, and previous to his elevation to the circuit bench was county judge of Jefferson county. Judge Grimm resides in the city of Jefferson.
He represents one of the old families of Jefferson county, and was born near the county seat of that name on September 11, 1859. His father was Adam Grimm, a pioneer whose life was one of more than ordinary character and attainment. He was born March 25, 1824, at Hohlen- brunn, Bavaria, and emigrated to America in the early spring of 1849, settling on a farm near Jefferson. His general activities were farming.
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horticulture and bee-keeping. As an apiarist, Adam Grimm achieved the reputation of being America's foremost bee-keeper. Jefferson county has always been noted for its product, and Adam Grimm gave it a new distinction in this line. In later years, Adam Grimm in partnership with Yale Henry founded the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Jefferson, and served as its cashier until his death on April 10, 1876.
Adam Grimm was survived by his widow, and four daughters and one son. His widow was Ann M. (Thoma) Grimm, who was born at Grafenreuth, Bavaria, October 29, 1829, and died at Jefferson Novem- ber 6, 1893. The four daughters are as follows : Mrs. Charles Bullwinkel, of Jefferson; Mrs. Carl Kuesterman, now deceased, whose home was at Green Bay; Mrs. Herman Gieseler of Jamestown, North Dakota; and Mrs. George J. Kispert of Jefferson.
George Grimm grew up in Jefferson county on a farm and was well educated in the public and preparatory schools. Three years after he had graduated from the law department of the University of Mich- igan in 1879 he adopted law as his regular profession. Since then his home has been in the city of Jefferson. He represented his county in the Wisconsin legislative assembly in 1887. In 1896 he was appointed county judge of Jefferson county and continued to serve as county judge with- out opposition until elected to the circuit bench in 1906. By reelection his second term as circuit judge began in January, 1913. Judge Grimm has made a notable record on the bench, and is today recognized as one of the best equipped both by training and temperament among the jurists of the state. Mr. Grimm has been a Republican all his adult life, and in religion is a Christian Scientist. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a thirty-second degree Mason, and belongs to Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
Judge Grimm married Mariette Bullock, of Johnson's Creek, only daughter of John D. Bullock and Mary (Currier) Bullock. John D. Bullock, who was born at Ephratah, New York, August 5, 1836, came to Wisconsin in 1861, served four terms as a member of the legislative assembly, has been sheriff of Jefferson county and is now and has been for many years special United States Revenue agent. Mary (Currier) Bullock is a daughter of Rodney J. Currier who, in company with one Andrew Lansing, made the first permanent settlement at what is now the city of Jefferson, in the year 1836. Mrs. Bullock's great-grand- father was Major Richard Esselstyn of Claverack, New York, a commis- sioned officer in the Continental army, and who was a grandson of Mar- ten Cornelise von Y'esselstein who came to this country from the city of Yesselstein, Holland, in 1659. Judge Grimm and wife have four daugh- ters, and one son as follows : Meta M., born May 19, 1887, married M. J. Lacey, a traveling sales agent for the Phoenix Horseshoe Company. and their home is at Jefferson ; Laura C., born March 22, 1889; Hilda M.,
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born June 2, 1890, is the wife of E. J. Schafer, an insurance broker of Chicago; Lorraine E., born June 1, 1893; and Roscoe, born January 4, 1906.
HON. NEAL BROWN. Lawyer, legislator, author, orator and man of affairs, Neal Brown is a native of Wisconsin, has been a member of the Marathon bar since 1880, has been an influential factor in the develop- ment of his home city of Wausau, and has served with distinction in both branches of the legislature. Outside the boundaries of his home state the name of Neal Brown is associated with fine intellectual and professional attainments.
Mr. Brown was born in Jefferson county, Wisconsin. He is a son of Thurlow Weed and Helen (Alward) Brown. Thurlow Weed Brown was born in the city of Lockport, New York, received excellent educational advantages in his native state, and in 1855 came to Wisconsin. He numbered himself among the pioneers of Jefferson county, bought raw land, and reclaimed it, and the old homestead land continued the abiding place of the family. He not only was one of the substantial farmers of his day, but also wielded much influence in the shaping and directing of public opinion and action in the pioneer period of Wisconsin history, as he was a talented and successful newspaper man and identified with practical journalism in Wisconsin until the time of his death.
Hon. Neal Brown spent his first nineteen years at the old home farm in Jefferson county. Besides the advantages of the public schools, he had those of a home of distinctive culture and refinement. At nine- teen he began the study of law under Hon. L. B. Caswell of Fort Atkin- son, Jefferson county, who had previously served as congressman from that district. Mr. Brown finally entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin, where he was graduated LL. B. in the class of 1880. Since his admission to the bar his residence has been at Wausau, Marathon county. In office counsel and in civil and in criminal prac- tice, during more than thirty years of experience, Neal Brown has enjoyed many of the best distinctions and rewards of the profession, and stands second to none among local attorneys.
While never subordinating in the least the demands of his profession, Mr. Brown has found time and opportunity to render services in offices of public trust, and to aid materially in the advancement of civic and industrial progress. He has been an extensive and successful dealer in real estate and in investments, both on his own account, and as repre- sentative of other capitalists. He has become interested in many of the important business enterprises of Wausau, and has made a reputation for able handling in the promotion and organization of substantial con- cerns. He is at the present time a director of the Marathon Paper Mills Company ; president of the Great Northern Life Insurance Company ; vice president of each the Itasca Cedar Company, and the Winton Invest-
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ment Company; president of the Wausau Street Railroad Company ; and a director of the Wausau Sulphate Fiber Company. In the prac- tice of his profession, he is associated with L. A. Pradt, and F. W. Genrich, under the firm name of Brown, Pradt & Genrich. He has also been in partnership in the real estate business with C. S. Gilbert for many years. Mr. Brown helped organize the Employers Mutual Lia- bility Company of Wisconsin, being a director and general counsel for that company. He has served as president of the Wisconsin State Bar Association.
In politics Mr. Brown has been found an able advocate of the Demo- cratic party. He represented Marathon county in the lower house of the state legislature for one term. In 1892, he was elected a member of the State Senate where his record was that of a broad-minded and dis- interested worker for the public welfare. He has twice been his party's nominee for the United States Senate. A man of unusual literary talent, Neal Brown has gained more than local reputation as a writer and lecturer. He is the author of an interesting volume entitled, "Critical Confessions," a work showing not only a broad comprehension of his- tory and special appreciation of the records of American jurisprudence, but also attractive literary flavor. Before the Fifty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Teachers' Association, Mr. Brown delivered a timely address upon the subject "The People and the University." February 4, 1901, he addressed the Milwaukee Bar Association, on "John Marshall and His Time." February 17, 1904, in Milwaukee, he delivered before the State Bar Association, an address entitled "The Foundation of Free Government." Before the Wisconsin Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Mr. Brown gave, at its meeting held in Milwaukee, February 7, 1912, a patriotic address on "Abraham Lincoln." Before the legislature he presented, in behalf of the water-power owners of the state, and argument against the proposed legislation by the provisions of which the com- monwealth would claim ownership of the water-powers of the state. Before the Congressional Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Brown pre- sented a splendid brief analyzing the relations of the paper industry and the tariff. Paper manufacturing, it need not be mentioned, has long been one of great importance in Wisconsin. His witty address on "The Comedy of History" met a most favorable reception, as delivered before a meeting of the Illinois Bar Association, at the Chicago Beach Hotel in Chicago in 1902. The formal products of his scholarship and his excursions into more popular fields of thought have always met with favor, and his name is one frequently mentioned in the newspaper world.
ROY K. DORR. District manager for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company at Kenosha, Mr. Dorr has a place among the lead- ers in insurance circles in the state of Wisconsin.
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Born in New London, Wisconsin, February 20, 1878, Roy K. Dorr is a son of B. F. and H. C. (Chandler) Dorr. His mother was a native of the state of New Hampshire, while the father was born in 1833 at Lockport, New York, coming west with his mother and family in 1848, the same year in which Wisconsin was admitted to the Union. Grand- father Gridley Dorr, who died in New York several years previously, was born during the Revolutionary war. There were six children of B. F. and H. C. Dorr, and the only two now living are Roy K. and Mrs. Ruth D. Ralph of Green Bay.
When a boy, Roy K. Dorr attended the public schools in Antigo, . Wisconsin, being graduated from the Antigo High School in 1896. Subsequently he took an academic course in Beloit, and for two and a half years was a student at Beloit College. After considerable busi- ness experience, Mr. Dorr in 1912 was appointed district manager for Kenosha County by The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, and is now holding up his end at Kenosha with a large record of annual business.
Mr. Dorr is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and at Beloit College was a member of the Wisconsin Gamma Chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi. On June 11, 1910, he married Miss Helen Thiers, a daughter of Edward and Mary Thiers. They are the parents of one daughter, Mary Nicoll Dorr, born May 10, 1911.
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