USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume V > Part 7
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CHRIST H. ROEPCKE. A business man of Rhinelander who is also prominent in local politics and one of the thoroughly representative men of northern Wisconsin is Christ H. Roepcke, a harness manufacturer, with his place of business at 135 South Stevens Street in Rhinelander. Mr. Roepcke has been in business in Rhinelander since 1899, and has re- sided in that city since 1896. For the past six years he has served as chairman of the County Republican Committee of Oneida county.
Born in Outagamie county, Wisconsin, on a farm, November 22, 1870, Mr. Roepcke is a son of Christ and Sophia (Lipsdorf) Roepcke. Both parents were born near Berlin, Germany, were married there, and on coming to America settled in Outagamie county, soon after the Amer- ican Civil war. There the father bought a farm, and there they spent the remainder of their lives in the quiet and honorable vocation of farm- ing. The father died in the fall of 1893, and the mother in 1907.
Christ H. Roepcke was a farmer boy, and while assisting his father, as his strength permitted in the work of the homestead, he also attended country schools. Early in youth he acquired the harness-making trade at Seymour, Wisconsin, and followed his trade in the city of Milwaukee for four years. On coming to Rhinelander in 1896 he was employed for three or four years in the sawmilling and lumbering industry. At the end of that time he established his present business, and has built it up to prosperous proportions and is not only proprietor of a growing con- cern, but has in the meantime acquired substantial interests in local property. He is the owner of his business block which he erected in the spring of 1910.
Mr. Roepeke takes an active part in local government as alderman from the Sixth Ward and is now in his twelfth year of continuous ser- vice in that office. In the fall of 1891 Mr. Roepcke was married to Miss Matilda Buetow, who was born in Germany, but was reared in Milwau- kee county, Wisconsin. Their three children are Myrtle, Harvey, and Crystal. On Dorr Avenue is located the pleasant residence of Mr. Roepcke and family, and besides his home he is the owner of forty acres of land, all situated within the city limits of Rhinelander.
SOLON D. SUTLIFF. The chief industry of Rhinelander since its founding has been lumbering and the affiliated interests, and nearly every citizen of prominence has been at some time or other actively identified in some capacity with this occupation. Among the citizens who are now carrying the chief responsibility of local manufacturing and business is Solon D. Sutliff, secretary-treasurer and manager of the Rhinelander Lumber and Coal Company, an important concern doing a retail business in lumber, builders' supplies, coal. and other com- modities. The president of the company is A. O. Jenne, the vice presi- dent is F. S. Robbins, while Mr. Sutliff is active manager and the chief executive of the firm. The business was organized in 1908, and Mr.
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Sutliff has been connected with it from the beginning. From the time he was a boy Mr. Sutliff has had practical experience and more or less identified with the lumber business.
His Wisconsin residence dates from 1889, in which year he came to the state with his brother, A. E. Sutliff of Tomahawk. Mr. Sutliff be- came a resident of Rhinelander in 1904, and prior to the organization of the present company was engaged in the jobbing lumber trade. He came to Wisconsin from Newaygo, Michigan, where he was born on a farm, October 16, 1864, a son of Calvin A. and Emily H. (Woodward) Sutliff. His father was a farmer of Michigan.
The home farm in Michigan was the training ground and the center of all his boyhood associations, and memories. He attended school there, and at the age of twenty-four left home to take up his independent career as a lumberman. His first occupation was driving logs down the Mus- kegon River, and he worked in logging camps, in the drives down the river, in the mills, and in practically every department until he came to Wisconsin. At Tomahawk, Wisconsin, he spent the first year in a saw mill, then scaled logs in the woods during the winter, and from there went to Woodboro, where he did office work for the George E. Wood Lumber Company about fourteen years. With this varied and extensive experience he came to Rhinelander, where he has occupied a position of prominence in local business affairs.
In 1899, Mr. Sutliff married Nettie Wheelan, of Grand Rapids, Wis- consin, a daughter of Edward Wheelan. Mrs. Sutliff died in February, 1910. Their two boys are Wheelan and Robert. Fraternally Mr. Sut- liff is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
CHARLES P. CROSBY. Between father and son the Crosby name has been closely identified with the lumber industry of Wisconsin for a period of sixty years. The early operations under the name were from headquarters at LaCrosse, while Mr. Charles P. Crosby, now lives and has his business in Rhinelander, but as an operator in timber lands and lumber manufacturing his interests extend to different parts of the state. Mr. Crosby who has been a resident of Rhinelander since 1902, since which year he has been in the hardwood lumber business at this point, has manifested a great interest in public affairs, especially in those con- cerns and organizations which are of most importance to industrial and civic development. He is president of the Oneida County Agricultural Society, and at the present time is a member of the City Council from the Fifth Ward.
Mr. Crosby was born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, August 3, 1859, a son of William W. and Mary (Pennell) Crosby. His father died at La- Crosse in 1893, and the mother in April, 1897. She was born in New York State, while the father was a native of Massachusetts. Grand- father Crosby was a soldier in the Continental Army during the Revo-
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lutionary war, and some of the brothers of that soldier died in prison during the war. William W. Crosby was major general of the State Militia of Wisconsin in 1860. He was one of the pioneer settlers in the southwestern part of the state, having located at LaCrosse in 1854, from Springfield, Massachusetts. He became identified with lumbering in connection with C. C. Hixon of LaCrosse, and they owned and operated a sawmill together for several years. After that he was in business for himself. He was an extensive logger, as well as a manufacturer.
Reared in LaCrosse, and receiving his education in local schools, C. P. Crosby early became familiar with the lumber industry in all its departments, and since 1883 has been in business for himself. He operated a wholesale and retail lumber yard, and the planing mill, and later built a sawmill at LaCrosse. In 1895 he moved to Wausau, and some years later to Rhinelander. He has owned and operated sawmills in Marathon and Rusk counties, and now operates several mills in Shawano county. He deals in hardwood, hemlock and pine lumber in wholesale quantities, and is one of the largest and best known lumber operators in northern Wisconsin.
Mr. Crosby besides other relations with public affairs is now serving as chairman of the Oneida County Democratic Committee. In 1887 at LaCrosse, he was married to Sarah Armstrong of Galesburg, Illinois. Her death occurred in 1896, leaving three children, Harold, Charles, and Florence. In 1898, Mr. Crosby married Helen Wright, of Mil- waukee. Their two children are Marion and Elizabeth. Mr. Crosby is active in the Congregational church of Rhinelander, being treasurer, a trustee and deacon.
H. J. WESTGATE, M. D. Representing the best skill and training of his profession, Dr. Westgate has made a successful record as physician and surgeon, and since June 3, 1911, has been in practice at Rhine- lander in Oneida county. Previous to his location in Rhinelander. he spent two years in practice at Ingram, in Rusk county. Dr. Westgate well deserves all the success and honors which come to the successful physician, and brought to his profession a well-seasoned experience in other lines of work, an experience which developed him in many ways useful to the practitioner of medicine. Dr. Westgate is a graduate of the Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons, now the medical department of Marquette University of Milwaukee. His graduation was with the class of 1909. Previous to graduating and while he was attend- ing college, he and his wife had charge of the college free dispensary.
Dr. Westgate is a native of Massachusetts, born in Worcester county. on a farm, February 22, 1875. His parents were Fred E. and Eliza A. (Riley) Westgate, who, when their son was six years old, moved out to Wisconsin, locating on a farm in Manitowoc county, where they still reside. It was in Manitowoc, on the home farm that Dr. Westgate re-
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ceived his first impressions of life, and while a boy attended the country school and later the graded school of Mishicot. When he had finished school his first occupation was as a school master, and for nine years he taught in Manitowoc College. Then he got into the railway mail-service and spent another nine years in that work, his run being from Mil- waukee to Ashland. At that time he gave up his position as mail clerk and attended the Wisconsin College of Physicians and Surgeons for one year.
On November 25, 1897, Dr. Westgate married Ida M. Levenhagen, of Mishicot, Manitowoc county, a daughter of Charles and Frederica (Schriever) Levenhagen. The two children of their marriage are Hugh G. and Lucy M.
Dr. Westgate is affiliated with the Modern Brotherhood of America, the Masonic Order, the Royal Neighbors, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Mystic Workers, the Fraternal Reserve Association at Oshkosh, and is examining physician for all the orders, and also for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Professionally his associations are with the Oneida Forest and Vilas Counties Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. The doctor has a general line of medical and surgical practice, and is held in high esteem both as a doctor and as a citizen.
PAUL GORES. The present manager of the Congress Hotel of Chi- cago, one of the largest and best known hostelries of America, spent his boyhood and youth in Wisconsin, and after working his way up to a place of power in an Oshkosh bank, left to begin a career in Chicago which has taken him from bookkeeper in the old Palmer House to active head of the big establishment on Michigan Avenue.
Paul Gores was born in Wallersheim, Germany, March 1, 1861, a son of Bernard and Anna (Dick) Gores, both natives of Germany. The father was born near the city of Berlin in 1815, and died in 1898. The mother's birthplace was near Cologne on the Rhine, where she was born in 1821, and her death occurred in 1900. They were married in Ger- many, and were the parents of four children, two sons and two daughters, three of whom are now living.
The third in the family, Paul Gores, was three years old when the family came to America. His father in his younger days had been a school teacher and then a farmer, and after coming to America located at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he was in the grocery business, until with- in a year and a half of his death, at which time he retired. He had mem- bership in the Roman Catholic Church, and in politics was a Democrat.
Paul Gores received his education in the common and high schools of Oshkosh, and finished at Professor Daggett's business college in Osh- kosh. His first regular work was as messenger boy with the Union Na- tional Bank at Oshkosh, and he remained in the service of that institu-
yours truly
fores
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tion until he had been given the position of bookkeeper and still later was made teller of the bank. In 1879 he resigned his position as teller in the bank, came to Chicago, and found a place as bookkeeper with the Palmer House. After four years with the hotel which at that time was one of the most popular and best equipped in Chicago, he engaged with Drake & Parker, who were then proprietors of the Grand Pacific Hotel. He began with them as cashier and room clerk, and continued in that capacity until they went out of business in 1895. He then became chief clerk in the Auditorium Hotel Annex, as it was then known, and so con- tinued until 1910. In that year he was assistant manager of the opening of the Blackstone Hotel, with which he remained a year and a half and then went to the Congress Hotel as manager.
Mr. Gores is a member of the Hotel Men's Association, the Greeters Club, the Chicago Athletic Club and in politics is an Independent. He was married July 18, 1895, to Miss Elise Sievers, who was born in Chicago.
F. A. HILDEBRAND. As furniture dealer and undertaker, Mr. Hil- debrand in length of service, is the oldest at Rhinelander, where he has been continuously in business since 1889. The town had been in exis- tence but a few years when he loeated here in 1886, and he has been both a witness of and a worker for the advancement and welfare of his city. Mr. Hildebrand established his present store in 1889. During the first three years of his residence in Rhinelander he clerked in several of the stores. F. A. Hildebrand was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, June 7, 1858, grew up on a farm in Winnebago county, and practically all his educa- tion was obtained in the district sehools. His father was Joseph Hilde- brand, a native of Germany, where he married and early in the forties came to America, and located in Wisconsin. He spent all his career as a farmer. After his experience as a farm boy, Mr. Hildebrand moved to Rhinelander in 1886. A little later he erected his store building on South Brown Street, and since then has remodeled and added to the building, until it is one of the best in the business district. He now has a new frontage of twenty feet, and the depth of the building is one hun- dred and thirty feet, on a two hundred foot lot. It is a two-story structure.
In 1886 Mr. Hildebrand married Miss Mary MeCabe, of Oshkosh. Their five children are Hazel, Eva, John Leo; Francis and Joseph. The family are communicants of the Catholic church, and Mr. Hildebrand is at the present time serving as treasurer of the local church.
EDMUND D. MINAHAN. Every profession has its leaders, men who either tacitly or openly are recognized by their associates and the peo- ple in general as the ablest and most effective workers in their respee- tive lines. At Rhinelander in Oneida county, this place of pre-eminence is assigned to Edmund D. Minahan, in the profession of law. Mr.
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Minahan, whose offices are in the Merchants State Bank Building at Rhinelander, has practiced law in that city since April 1, 1903, and was admitted to the bar in the previous year. All his successes as a law- yer have been worthily won, and in many ways he has established him- self firmly in the profession in north Wisconsin.
Edmund D. Minahan is the product of a Wisconsin farm in Calu- met county, where he was born September 19, 1867, had an early coun- try training, and worked hard both with his hands and his brains to perfect himself for the profession of his ambition. His parents were Patrick and Elizabeth (Traynor) Minahan, and his father was one of the early settlers of Wisconsin. Patrick Minahan was a man of superior education, and in the early days taught school both in Calumet and Sheboygan counties. During the period of the Civil war he enlisted in Sheboygan county, and gave the service of a good soldier during the war in the Union army. His death occurred in Calumet county in 1907, in his seventieth year.
It was in Calumet county that Edmund D. Minahan spent his early years, attended public school there, and after some years of farm and other employment he prepared for teaching in the Oshkosh Normal school. For several years he was connected with the public schools of Calumet county, and then took up the study of law in the University of Wisconsin. He was admitted to the bar in 1902, passing highest in the bar examination of that year. Soon after locating in Rhinelander, Mr. Minahan became associated in practice with Hon. John Barnes, now a justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. Mr. Barnes was for many years identified with the Oneida county bar, until his elevation to the bench.
Mr. Minahan is now local attorney for the Soo Railroad Company at Rhinelander and has a large general practice. He is a bachelor, las no fraternal nor religious affiliations, and has not entered actively into politics, having devoted himself strenuously and successfully to his chosen profession.
C. A. WIXSON. An important local industry in the city of Rhine- lander is the Rhinelander Lighting Company, of which C. A. Wixson is secretary and treasurer. He is also secretary of the Rhinelander Power Company, the offices of both concerns being located in the Rhine- lander Lighting Company's building on West Davenport street. Mr. Wixson, who has had a long and successful experience in the operation of public utility plants, has been secretary and treasurer of the Rhine- lander Lighting Company since January 1, 1898. At that date he and Mr. E. A. Forbes, now president of the company, bought the plant from the old Faust Electric Company, and have since operated the electric light and power system of Rhinelander.
Mr. Wixson, who had spent the greater part of his life in the north-
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ern country of Michigan and Wisconsin, was born in Calmar, Iowa, February 27, 1872, a son of Joseph T. and July E. (Van Camp) Wix- son. His father, who was a photographer by profession, is now deceased, while the mother resides with her son, C. A. Wixson. When the latter was a child, his parents moved to Michigan, and he spent his boyhood days in Grand Haven and Escanaba, attending the public schools in both places. Later he advanced his education by attendance at the Lawrence University at Appleton. His early business experience was chieflly in northern Michigan, and he had lived at Gladstone, Michigan, previous to his removal to Rhinelander.
On August 21, 1895, in Escanaba, Michigan, occurred the marriage of Mr. Wixson to Miss Rosa A. Bishop. They are the parents of three children : Marian M., Roselle A., and Maud A. Besides his other business interests Mr. Wixson is a director in the First National Bank of Rhine- lander. Fraternally he has taken thirty-two degrees of Scottish Rite Masonry, and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. His other fraternal orders are the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, and Knights of the Maccabees, and the Equitable Fraternal Union.
HERMAN F. ANSPACH. Representing the staunch German stock that has been prominently and worthily concerned in the development and upbuilding of Wisconsin, Mr. Anspach has made a fine individual suc- cess as a practical business man, and is one of the leading merchants of Neenah, Winnebago county. The large department store conducted there under his name is a solid monument to an enterprise which began when he was a boy, and which has been continued with increasing pros- perity up to the present time.
Herman F. Anspach was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, December 13, 1861, a son of Nicholas and Philopoena Anspach, both of whom were born and reared in Germany. Nicholas Anspach in his native land learned the barber's trade. While still young, in 1850, he emigrated to America, and for some years lived in Milwaukee. When the son Herman was ten years old, the family moved to Weyauwega in Wau- paca county. There Nicholas Anspach had a hotel, saloon and barber shop, and developed an interest in other enterprises. He moved to San Francisco, California, in 1895, where he followed the barber trade. The family consisted of eight sons and one daughter, all of whom were edu- cated in the common schools, and all are still living.
The oldest of the children, Herman F. Anspach, left school in boy- hood, and at an early age took up the practical duties of life. His first employment was in a hotel known as the Quiet House in Milwaukee. this being followed by a clerkship in a music store and a grocery at Racine, and after eighteen months he returned to Neenah. In 1879 Mr. Anspach began an employment in the mercantile establishment of Alex-
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ander Billstein at Neenah. For twenty-two years his services were devoted to this one firm. Starting in as an untried worker, he soon proved his ability, and eventually was entrusted with the chief respon- sibilities of management in the business. In 1901 Mr. Anspach bought from Mr. Billstein the stock and good will, and continued merchan- dising successfully at the old stand until 1910 when the store was destroyed by fire. On September 19th of the same year Mr. Anspach opened a stock of general merchandise in the old Neenah skating rink, inaugurating the business with a fire sale. This great bargain sale con- tinued six months, with seventy-two clerks required to meet the demands of the trade. Mr. Anspach then installed an entirely new stock of goods covering all the various lines handled in the usual department store, with the exception of groceries. The business grew by leaps and bounds, and enjoyed a continuous growth and prosperity ever since. In the fall of 1912, Mr. Anspach removed from the old rink building to a fine concrete building, especially erected for his business. The Anspach Department Store has ground dimensions of forty-six by one hundred and twelve feet, is absolutely fireproof, and three floors are devoted to the stock and display of the business. This store is one of the largest of its kind in Neenah and vicinity and its patronage is the result of many years of continuous dealing with the community, and many people in Neenah and vicinity have bought goods from Mr. Anspach through an entire generation. In 1909 the business was incorporated with a capi- tal stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, Mr. Anspach being president and treasurer, Mrs. H. F. Anspach vice president, and Henry B. Sanda secretary.
Under the headline, "A Model Structure," the Neenah Daily Times in November, 1912, described the opening of the Anspach Department Store, and the following contains some extracts from that article which are deemed worthy of incorporation in this sketch : "On September 19, 1910, two years and two months ago, the old Kimberley Block, then used by the Anspach Department Store, was totally destroyed by fire, and today, in its place, Phoenix like, the mammoth building has arisen from its ashes as though by magic; one of the most up-to-date and largest department store buildings in Wisconsin, the pride of the city and a monument to the energy, business policy and enterprise of the popular owner, Herman F. Anspach. With the construction of a fine new building, and up-to-date merchandising methods, the firm is bound to increase in scope and become a more powerful and altogether more important factor in the commercial life of Neenah. The plans as care- fully carried out, render the building so constructed as to pattern after the latest and most modern department stores of the large cities. Spe- cial care has been taken to make the building fireproof and hence it is entirely constructed of re-inforced concrete and brick. From the base- ment to the roof fireproof construction prevails.
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The display windows, all of heavy plate glass, are immense. On the Commercial Street side the display windows have a combined length of one hundred feet with nine big panes of glass, one for each display of goods from each department. In the front there are forty-four feet of windows, two large places for display, one on each side of a large entrance.
The Anspach building has three floors devoted to merchandising, the main floor and the second floor used for the clothing and carpets and house furnishings, while the basement is taken up with hardware and other goods, the main floor being reserved for the main department.
Concerning the career of Mr. Anspach the same paper said in part : "Herman F. Anspach, head of the Anspach Department Store Com- pany, is regarded as one of the most enterprising business men of the state. He first entered the employ of Alex Billstein, a prominent local merchant. Later Alex Billstein entered partnership with his son Moses, and the firm was known as the Alex Billstein Company. During the time that he was employed by this concern Mr. Anspach acquired a knowledge of the business, which was the foundation of what he has since developed with remarkable suceess. It was in 1901 that he pur- chased the business of the Alex Billstein Company, which at that time occupied the ground floor of the Kimberly Building, which also was the old Anspach store. Under Mr. Anspach's direction the business grew yearly, and it was soon found necessary to occupy the entire second floor. Mr. Anspach has been on one business corner since 1879, elerking for the Billstein Company, later, leasing the property; later buying it, making thirty-three years he has been in that location."
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