Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V, Part 36

Author: Usher, Ellis Baker, 1852-1931
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago and New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 454


USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V > Part 36


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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F.6. Los. -


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earnest labors inured greatly to the benefit of his home district and state, the while his attitude was that of a broad-minded, sagacious and loyal legislator.


Mr. Murphy and his wife are zealous communicants of the Catholic church, in the faith of which they were reared, and he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Order of Foresters.


On the 16th of November, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Murphy to Miss Elizabeth Jones, and of their five children four are living.


GENERAL FREDERICK C. WINKLER was born in Bremen, Germany, on March 15, 1838, and is the son of Carl Winkler, who in the year 1842 emigrated to the United States and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Here he opened a drug store and two years later, after having become successfully established in business, he was joined by his wife and children, who had remained in the Fatherland while the husband and father made a home for them across the seas.


Thus Frederick C. Winkler was educated in the public schools of this city and received all the advantages the educational system of the day was prepared to give him at that time. When he was eighteen years old he began to study law in the office of H. L. Palmer, moving to Madison when he was twenty and continuing his studies in the offices of the law firm of Abbott, Gregory & Pinney. On April 19, 1859, he was admitted to the bar at Madison, whereupon he straightway returned to Milwaukee and began his legal practice here. He met with a pleasing degree of success from the first, and has in the passing years gained a wide prominence in his profession, with the reputation of a man learned in the law.


In 1862 Mr. Winkler felt called to offer his serviees to the Union cause. His associates desired that he serve as captain of a company which they proposed to raise, and he became Captain of Company B of the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin Infantry, a German regiment which was organized in Milwaukee and vieinity. This company of young men was mustered into the regiment on September 17, 1862, and left the state on the 6th of the following month, joining the Army of the Potomac and spending the winter in drill, guard and pieket duty. The regiment participated in the battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, and was at Gettysburg from July 1st to 3d, Captain Winkler at that time being attached to the staff of General Sehurz. The regi- ment lost heavily in both engagements. In the latter both the lieu- tenant-colonel and major of the regiment were wounded, and Captain Winkler beeame acting field officer. After the battle of Chickamauga, on September 20th and 21st, the regiment was sent with General Hooker's forces from the Army of the Potomae to the relief of General Rosecrans at Chattanooga. In the following November Colonel


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Jacobs left the organization and from that time until the close of the war Captain Winkler was in command, and was advanced through intervening grades to the rank of Colonel. The regiment under his command took part in the battles of Missionary Ridge, in November, 1863, and the campaign into East Tennessee for the relief of Burnside at Knoxville which followed it. In the spring of 1864, when General Sherman organized his army for the invasion of Georgia, it became a part of the Third Brigade, Third Division of the Twentieth Army Corps, of which the command was given to General Hooker. Colonel Winkler's regiment thenceforth took part in all of General Sherman's campaigns, fought in many skirmishes and participated in every bat- tle. Perhaps the severest struggle of its experience was at Peachtree Creek on July 20, 1864, of which action the official report of Colonel Wood, then commander of the Brigade, contains the following : "Where all behave well, it may be regarded as invidious to call atten- tion to individuals, yet it seems to me that I cannot discharge my whole duty in this report without pointing out for especial commenda- tion the conduct of the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin Volunteers and its brave and able commander. The position of this regiment in the line was such that the brunt of the attack on this brigade fell upon it. The brave, skillful and determined manner in which it met the attack, rolled back the onset and pressed forward in a counter charge and drove back the enemy, could not be excelled by the troops in this or any other army, and is worthy of the highest commendation and praise. It is to be hoped that such conduct will be held up as an example for others and will meet its appropriate reward." (Annual Report of Wisconsin Adjutant General for 1864, Page 80.)


The regiment marched with Sherman to the sea and from Savannah through the Carolinas to Richmond, participating in hot fighting at Averysboro and Bentonville. It took part in the Grand Review at Washington, then proceeded to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it was mustered out on June 28, 1865, Colonel Winkler being brevetted Brigadier-General of Volunteers, "For Meritorious Service." In further mention of the military career of General Winkler, it may be said that General William Cogswell, of Massachusetts, then in com- mand of the brigade, in his final report to the War Department, men- tioned the Twenty-sixth as "one of the finest military organizations in the service."


Before the command of the regiment fell into his hands, Captain Winkler, as he ranked then, gave a large measure of his time to duties as judge advocate of many courts-martial, charged at times with the trial of the most weighty offenses. In a number of cases, some five or six in all, it became his duty to certify to headquarters sentences of death; all but two of these were commuted. In the court of inquiry to investigate certain criticisms of Major-General Carl Schurz and a


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part of his eommand, contained in General Hooker's official report of the night battle at Wauhatehie in Lookout Valley, Colonel Winkler was, at the request of General Sehurz, appointed his counsel, and' as a result of the inquiry, General Schurz and his subordinate, F. Hecker, were "fully exonerated from the strictures contained in General Hooker's report."


After the close of his military duties General Winkler resumed the practice of his profession in Milwaukee, which he pursued with marked industry for a period of fifty years. His praetice has been extensive in the Federal as well as state courts and he holds high rank in the profession as a elear-headed, able lawyer. In the presentation of cases he always aims to be fair, he is lucid in statement and foreible in argument. The first ease argued by him in the Supreme Court of the state is reported in the 12th, and his last in the 146th volume of Wisconsin Reports. The first was in 1860, the last in 1911.


A man of high moral integrity, he applied his principles to his daily work, and none have been more zealous to maintain the highest ethical standards of legal practice. He has worked in this direction not only through his individual example, but also through the Wis- consin State and Milwaukee Bar Associations, of both of which he has been president. He has also been a vice-president of the American Bar Association.


For the past fifteen years General Winkler has given a large portion of his time to the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, being a trustee and a member of the finance and executive committee of that company.


Politically General Winkler has always been a Republican, and more or less active with his party in the eity and the state. He has given his support to every nominee of that party from Lincoln to Taft. He has been a member of many state conventions and was a delegate in the national conventions of 1880 and 1884. In the latter he became acquainted with Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he has been on terms of personal friendship ever since. He was an early friend of Civil Service Reform, was one of several who drafted the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission law of 1885 and one of the first commissioners appointed under the same. He is one of the council of the National Civil Service Reform League and president of the Wisconsin League. He is a member and supporter also of the "National Municipal Re- form League" and other reformatory organizations. He is a man who has won and retained the confidence and respect and esteem of a state- wide eirele of friends and acquaintances, and few Wisconsin men have had a more brilliant career either in the law or in military and eivie affairs. He still retains his office in the Pabst Building. and his resi- denee is at 131 Eleventh Street.


In 1864 General Winkler was married to Miss Frances M. Wight- man, and six daughters and three sons have been born to their union. Vol. V-20


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JOSEPH P. EVANS. One of the well known attorneys of Prairie du Chien is Joseph P. Evans, now city attorney, and former incumbent of a number of important offices in the city and county in line with his pro- fession. He is a native son of Crawford county, this state, born in the town of Clayton on March 4, 1868, and the son of W. H. and Mary (Flannigan) Evans.


Concerning the parentage and ancestry of Mr. Evans, it may be said that the father was born in Virginia, and is the son of an old and well known family of that state, while the mother was born in Ireland. Mr. Evans, who was at one time district attorney of Crawford county, was born on November 3, 1842, and is the son of Joseph and Mary (Hall) Evans. He received good education in his boyhood home, and in 1860 he came to Clayton, in Crawford county, two years later enlisting as a private in Company D of the Thirty-first Wisconsin Infantry. He received a gunshot wound in a skirmish before Atlanta on July 30, 1864, but continued in the service until the expiration of his term of enlist- ment. With his return to Clayton, he began the study of law and was admitted to the bar in the Circuit Court at Prairie du Chien in May, 1873. Success attended his efforts from the initiation of his practice, and in 1877 he was elected district attorney. He thereupon moved to Prairie du Chien, in order that he might be more centrally located for the efficient discharge of his duties, and he was the incumbent of that office for four successive terms. He was elected on the Democratic ticket to represent Crawford county in the General Assembly of 1873-4, that service inaugurating his career in public office. He was married in . May, 1867, at Rising Sun, Wisconsin, to Mary J. Flannigan, and to them were born seven children, of which number Joseph P. Evans of this review is the eldest.


Up to his eleventh year Joseph Evans attended public schools, then entered St. Gabriel's Parochial school where he continued until 1881, in which year he entered Sacred Heart College. He was graduated from that institution in the class of 1888, and his admission to the bar followed in 1891.


Mr. Evans commenced the active practice of his profession in Prairie du Chien, in the same year in which he gained admission to the bar, and he has here continued in practice since that time. He was city clerk for two years, and in 1894 was elected to the office of city attor- ney, to which he was re-elected and is the present incumbent of the office. He was circuit court commissioner for twelve years and in all his years of public service has given a worthy account of his citizenship, as well as of his ability in his profession.


On June 4, 1900, Mr. Evans was married to Miss C. M. Barrett, and to them four children have been born. Two of them are now living,- James A., born March 27, 1900, and Joseph Philip, born March 9, 1902.


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CORNELIUS A. HARPER, M. D. In no branch has medical science made such tremendous strides as in its treatment of tuberculosis. Until within the last several decades this once most dreaded of all diseases was regarded as absolutely incurable and transmittable from one generation to another. Innumerable homes have been desolated because of its ravages; many young hearts have been kept apart because of its terrors. Now, however, the Great White Plague can be prevented by the patient as well as the physician, and the fact that it is not an inherited disease has been clearly demonstrated beyond the possibility of a doubt. So interesting is the study of this disease, which presents itself in innu- merable forms, that many physicians are specializing with regard to it, and among these eminent men of science, who have attained distinction in this line, Dr. Cornelius A. Harper, of Madison, occupies a prominent place. He is a native of Wisconsin, having been born at Hazel Green, Grant county, February 20, 1864, and is a son of M. Allen and Hester (Lewis) Harper.


M. Allen Harper was born in Pennsylvania, in 1812, and in 1847 came to the territory of Wisconsin, by way of the Ohio river, up the Mississippi to the Le Fevre river (known as Galena river), by steam- boat, to Galena, Illinois, and then on the Hazel Green, Grant county, where he engaged in farming. He was also one of the pioneers in the lead mining industry, in which he was engaged for many years. but in 1885 retired from active life and removed to Madison, where his death occurred at the age of seventy-three years. He was one of his con- munity's foremost citizens, and for a long period took an active part in Republican politics. Mr. Harper's wife was born at Clarksburg, Vir- ginia, in 1828, and died in Madison in 1908, aged eighty years. They were the parents of nine children, of whom seven are living. Cornelius A. being the seventh in order of birth.


Cornelius A. Harper spent his boyhood days on his father's farm in Grant county, where he remained until he was twenty years of age, and then turned his attention to school teaching, a vocation which he followed for two years. At that time he entered the University of Wis- consin, where he was graduated in the class of 1889. with the degree of B. S., and for one and one-half years taught high school. He next entered Columbia University, Washington, D. C., now known as George Washington University, and was graduated in the medieal class of 1893. with the degree of M. D. Subsequently, Dr. Harper took post-graduate work in Howard University, Washington, D. C., and in 1894 located in general practice in Madison. Although he is a general practitioner, Dr. Harper has devoted a great deal of attention to the treatment and cure of tuberculosis. and a member of successes in complicated cases have given him a wide-spread reputation in this field of medical science. Among his confreres he is known as an able physician, who respects the unwritten ethics of the profession, and


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he is often called into consultation by his fellow-practitioners. He takes an active and intelligent interest in the work of the various organiza- tions, holding membership in the Dane County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association and the National Tuberculosis Association. He has been a member of the Wisconsin State Board of Health since 1905, and at this time is secretary thereof, and is also a member of the Wisconsin Tuberculosis Commission. A Republican, always active in his party's work, in 1910 he was elected a member of the State Assembly, of which body he is still a member. His fraternal connection is with Hiram Lodge No. 4, A. F. & A. M.


On April 23, 1901, Dr. Harper was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Bowman, who was born in Madison, Wisconsin, daughter of John and Rose (Smith) Bowman, the former a native of New York State and the latter of Massachusetts. There were four children in the Bowman family, of whom three still survive, and of these Mrs. Harper is the youngest.


JUDGE ARTHUR LOOMIS SANBORN. The Honorable Arthur Loomis Sanborn, judge of the western district federal court of Wisconsin, has long been prominent in leading legal and judicial circles. He has been a resident of Wisconsin during all but seven of his sixty odd years, although a New Yorker by birth. A descendant of New England fam- ilies of English origin, he represents in his paternal line of ancestry a family whose three sons were among the sturdy New Hampshire colonists of the seventeenth century, one of the three being Lieutenant John Sanborn of the English army, a direct progenitor of Arthur Loomis Sanborn. Among his maternal ancestors particularly notable is that Admiral Blount, of the vigorous if primitive naval service of the cen- tury following the period of the Norman conquest. The Judge's father, Simpson E. Sanborn (1821-1862) was a native of New Hampshire; and the mother, Harriet Blount Sanborn (1823 -) is a native of Lake George, Vermont. They were married in St. Lawrence county, New York, in 1850, and eight years later removed with their two little sons to Lake Geneva, in Walworth county, Wisconsin. Here Simpson San- born engaged in the jewelry business during the remaining five years of his life. His religious connection with the Methodist Episcopal church and his political associations were those of the Whig and later of the Republican party.


It was on November 17, 1850, seven years before the coming of Simp- son and Harriet Sanborn to Wisconsin that their first son, Arthur Loomis Sanborn, was born, at Brasher Falls, a little village on the St. Regis river in the northern part of St. Lawrence county, New York. The only other child of the family was Eugene Sanborn, who grew to manhood and lived to middle age, his death occurring in 1900. The educational advantages


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of the two brothers were provided for by the common and high schools of Lake Geneva. Having completed his studies and having lost his father when a boy of twelve, Arthur Loomis Sanborn early entered upon the responsibilities of manhood.


His active career began with his appointment, at the age of nineteen, to the position of deputy register of deeds. He took up his residence in Elkhorn, the county seat of Walworth county, on entering upon the duties of this office. While holding it he industriously employed his leisure time in reading law; and, being admitted to the bar of the state, he began his legal practice, still retaining his county position. His execu- tive ability was recognized in his being elected after a time to the office of register of deeds, in which capacity he continued from January of 1875 until January of 1879. In 1880, secking further proficiency in his technical knowledge of the law, he pursued courses in the College of Law of the University of Wisconsin, receiving that same year his degree of Bachelor of Laws from the state institution. Having become a resident of Madison, while in attendance at the University, Mr. Sanborn remained there, becoming a partner of the Honorable S. U. Pinney, one of the pioneer lawyers of Dane county. This partnership continued until 1892, being necessarily dissolved when Mr. Piney was elected to the supreme bench of the state. Mr. Sanborn then formed a partnership with John C. Spooner. When that was discontinued, the legal firm of Sanborn, Luse and Powell was organized. In 1902 Mr. Sanborn severed his asso- ciation with Messrs. Powell and Luse, in order to enter into professional partnership with his son, John B. Sanborn. This firm existed until the appointment of its senior partner to the federal bench in 1905.


In addition to his general practice as an attorney, Judge Sanborn has held various positions of trust and responsibility. His unusual legal insight led to an earnest desire for his services as a lecturer to the law classes of the University, where he was a member of the legal faculty from 1884 to 1888. From 1888 until 1904 he was a member of the board of examiners for admission to the state bar. He was also for several years an active and influential member of the Madison police and fire commission. He is one of the authors of the Annotated Statutes of the State of Wisconsin for 1889, and the Wisconsin Statutes of 1898, and also of the Sanborn Supplement of 1906.


During the years of Judge Sanborn's legal and judicial activity a fine family of children and grandchildren have grown up about him. Almost from the beginning of his career of public service he has been favored with the sympathy and companionship of Mrs. Sanborn, who before her marriage was Miss Alice E. Golder, of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Her father, Isaac Golder, was a pioneer merchant of that place. to which he had come from New York, which was the native state of both him- self and his wife, Sarah. Orleans county, in New York, was the birth- place of their daughter, Alice, the youngest of their family. Her mar-


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riage to Arthur Loomis Sanborn was solemnized in 1874 and they became the parents of four children, three sons and one daughter. John Bell Sanborn, now a leading lawyer of Madison, is the eldest and his promi- nence in Madison is such as to make necessary more extended comment in another paragraph of this review. Katherine Sanborn became the wife of Chauncey E. Blake, who is the law partner of John Bell San- born. Eugene Sanborn, who married Miss Helen Whitney, is a farmer of Dane county, Wisconsin. Philip Sanborn, the youngest son, is now a student of the University of Wisconsin. Judge Sanborn's grandchil- dren, of whom he is very proud, are six in number.


John Bell Sanborn, who inherited his father's interest in, and talent for, the profession of law, is one of the leading barristers of Madison. He was graduated from the literary courses of the University of Wiscon- sin in 1896 and received his degree of Bachelor of Laws from the same institution in 1897. Two years of further advanced study brought him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1899. He then spent one year as a member of the faculty of American history in the University of Ohio, at Columbus. In September of 1901 he became the junior partner of a law firm, consisting of his father and himself. A year later he was made a full partner, the firm name being Sanborn and Sanborn. This association continued until 1905, when his father was made judge of the Federal Court of the Western District. Since that time John B. Sanborn has been a partner of his brother-in-law, Chauncey E. Blake, the name of the firm being Sanborn and Blake. Mr. Sanborn married Miss Gertrude Stillman, of Milwaukee.


Not only domestic, but social interests, as well, claim some of the Judge's time. He is appreciative of organized recreation as well as of organized work. His membership in associations for the latter purpose include his connection with the Wisconsin Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the Criminal Law Association. Among non-pro- fessional associations he belongs to the University Club, the Madison Club, the Maple Bluff Golf Club, the Chicago Golf Club and the Hins- dale Golf Club. The great Scotch outdoor game is an especial favorite with Judge Sanborn, who is also a lover of fine horses and a connoisseur of the same. A warmly genial nature adds charm to his judicial dignity and elicits an affection that is general as well as sincere among the extensive public whom Mr. Sanborn served in his official capacity. That he is the logical incumbent of his important office may be indicated by a brief quotation from an issue of the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1905.


"Through the appointment of Mr. Sanborn, the district bench will receive a valuable and conscientious accession. He is a man of highly recognized legal ability, with a standing before the bench and bar that will make his appointment most satisfactory. Senators Spooner and Quarles, in recommending Mr. Sanborn as Judge Bunn's successor, have


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closely followed the undoubted preferences of the great majority of the members of the Wisconsin bar and to the general public as well."


Judge Sanborn has no superior and possibly no equal on the bench of Wisconsin in his knowledge of law. This qualification, coupled with his keen, analytical mind and fair, impartial judgment, makes him a man well fitted for the position and a worthy successor to the judges who have preceded him on the Federal bench.


JOHN MYERS OLIN. The title of John Myers Olin to a place among the biographies of citizens of Madison rests upon the fact that during the forty years he has been a resident of the city he has been connected with its best interests in educational, professional and public life. His career is unique for the length of its service, its varied character, and for the rare personal disinterestedness which has at times surrendered every personal ambition, every private interest, and labored without ceasing for the welfare of his adopted city and its people. One of the leading lawyers of the state, he is a member of the firm of Olin, Butler & Crukeet, and was for the past two years president of the Wisconsin Bar Association. Mr. Olin was born July 10, 1851, at Lexington, Rich- land county, Ohio, and is a son of Nathaniel G. and Phoebe (Roberts) Olin, natives of Vermont, the former born at Shaftsbury and the latter at - Manchester, and both now deceased. There were five sons and six daughters in the family, of whom four now survive.




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