USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume VII > Part 16
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important interests, both in Wisconsin and elsewhere, and he is a director in the Eau Claire National Bank and a director in the Eau Claire Sav- ings Bank. In politics he has always been a Republican and has inter- ested himself in local affairs of good government.
On November 8, 1905, occurred his marriage with Miss Katharine Kennedy. Mrs. Keith was born in Eau Claire, a daughter of Donald and Georgena (Atkinson) Kennedy. The three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Keith are named as follows: Alexander J., Jr., Georgena F. and Donald Kennedy Keith.
Mrs. Keith was the eighth in a family of eleven children. Her father, the late Donald Kennedy, was for many years associated with the larger industrial enterests of Eau Claire, and was one of Wisconsin's great lumbermen. He was born in Ottawa, Canada, December 16, 1828, a son of Donald and Jessie (Buckham) Kennedy, both of whom were natives of Scotland, his father being by occupation a contractor and builder. Donald Kennedy attained his education in the public schools of his native city, and from the time he was sixteen until he was twenty-one served an apprenticeship in the trade of millwright, and engineer. After his trade he worked as a journeyman at different points in Can- ada, and finally accumulated a small capital with which he determined to begin business on his own account. The pineries of northern Wiscon- sin at that time offered the best opportunities for practical lumbermen in this country. Mr. Kennedy associated with O. H. Ingram, and A. M. Dole, organized a firm for the manufacture of lumber in Wisconsin. They began operations in a small way with a small portable mill, with which they sawed timber for a saw-mill. They then built a gang mill and brought the first iron planer and first iron lathe into the Chippewa Valley. They began rafting operatings soon after they started in Eau Claire, and after a few years opened up a lumber yard at Wabasha, Minnesota. They also had a large branch establishment at Dubuque, lowa. After a few years, the business at Eau Claire became known under the title of Ingram, Kennedy & Company. In 1881 Mr. Kennedy sold out his interests in the several establishments in which he was asso- ciated, and in 1884 bought an interest in the business of the D. M. Gil- more Furniture Company at Minneapolis, Minnesota. This business was for many years conducted under the name of Donald Kennedy & Son. The late Mr. Kennedy was a Republican in politics and always active in public affairs. He was a member of the first city council of Eau Claire. His church was the Presbyterian. Mr. Kennedy married in 1856 Miss Georgena Atkinson of Ottawa, Canada, and the eleven children of their marriage were named as follows: Jessie, wife of Carlisle Bartlett; Allen G .; Lottie, wife of Eugene Shaw; Donald; Elizabeth; Harry; Robert; Katharine, wife of Alexander J. Keith; Georgiana; Cornelia; and Hel- ene.
1881
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SAMUEL COLLINS BUCHAN, M. D. Thirty-seven years of active prac- tice in medicine in Racine county have placed Dr. Buchan away at the front of his profession, both in his ability and his success as a prac- titioner. His service has been commensurate with the length of years in practice, and among the wide circle of his patients he had been both a friend and a physician. The doctor is a man of gentle manner in all his dealings, and these qualities, together with an expert knowledge and skill in medicine, combined to win him the strong affections of hundreds of families in Racine county.
Dr. Buchan is a native of Wisconsin, and was born in the town of Dover, Racine county, on the twenty-third of May, 1851. His parents were Edward and Jane (Tillie) Buchan, both of whom were natives of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. The mother was born in the year 1812, and died in Racine county during her eighty-sixth year. The father, who was a miller by trade, an occupation which he followed in Scotland, in which country he was superintendent of flouring mills, in early life came to Canada, where after a year he moved to Illinois, to what was known in the history of that state as the Scotch Colony, which located in the vicinity of Ottawa. The enterprise of the Scotch emigrants was to a large extent a success. The excitement about Wisconsin was at its height and Mr. Buchan, the father of the doctor, from Illinois came to Wisconsin with the original band who came from Canada to Ottawa and took up land from the government in Dover, Racine county, in what is known as the Scotch settlement. He at one time had a contract for construction of part of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. In Racine county, after his settlement, he bought a small tract of land, which he farmed up to the time of his death in 1856. He and his wife were the parents of eight children, named as follows: Andrew, who died in his seventy-second year; Oliver, who is a resident of Chicago; Edward, a resident of Union Grove, Racine county ; Alfred, M. D., who was a gradu- ate from Rush Medical College, Chicago, and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, and whose death occurred in 1904; Thomas G., who is a druggist in the town of Burlington, Racine county; Mary, now Mrs. George Bremner of Milwaukee; Carolina, who is Mrs. Henry W. Wright of Merrill, Wisconsin; and Dr. Samuel C.
Samuel Collins Buchan acquired his early education in the public schools, and continued with the higher branches in Illinois College at Monmouth, Illinois. After his literary education, he took up the study of medicine with his brother Alfred, and later took his first course of lectures in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Subsequently he became a student in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, the noted school of New York City, where he was graduated M. D. in 1877. His practice, began at Union Grove, Racine county, continued "there for seventeen years. He pursued post graduate work for some time in the
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Chicago hospitals and in 1895 opened offices in Racine, where for the subsequent twenty years he has enjoyed a large practice.
Dr. Buchan was married in 1880 to Miss Lydia G. Bull, whose father, James Bull, was one of the old residents of Racine. The maiden name of her mother was Mary A. Mather of Racine. Edward James Buchan, the only son of the doctor and wife, is a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Chicago and is now following in his father's footsteps as a successful practitioner of medicine, and located in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Buchan has membership with the Racine County Medical Society, the State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, and is local surgeon for the C. & N. W. R. R. His Masonic affiliation is with Union Grove Lodge No. 288, F. & A. M. His home in Racine is a handsome brick residence at 846 College avenue.
FRED PHELPS. The beautiful little city of Waukesha, judicial center of the county of the same name, has gained worldwide reputation for the great remedial value of the waters of its famous mineral springs, and it has become one of the celebrated and popular health and pleasure resorts of the American continent. Among the most appreciative, loyal and progressive business men of this city is Mr. Phelps, who is president of the Arcadian Waukesha Spring Company, which owns and operates the fine Arcadian mineral spring, the water of which is unexcelled by that of any other of the famous Waukesha springs. He has been the potent force in upbuilding the extensive business of this company and has otherwise been influential in promoting measures and enterprises that have contributed materially to the best interests of Waukesha, where he has gained and retained secure vantage-place in popular confi- dence and regard.
Mr. Phelps was born at Lewiston, Fulton county, Illinois, on the 4th of September, 1866, and is a scion of one of the prominent and hon- ored pioneer families of that county, where his grandfather, Myron Phelps, settled in a very early day : he became one of the leading mer- chants of Lewistown, the county-seat, and was one of its most honored and influential citizens for many years prior to his death, at a venerable age. He whose name initiates this review is a son of Henry and Anna L. (Proctor) Phelps, the former of whom was born and reared in Fulton county, Illinois, and the latter of whom was born in the state of Massa- chusetts. Henry Phelps was for many years one of the representative business men of Lewiston, Illinois, where he was engaged in the mer- cantile business until 1905, when he removed with his wife to Waukesha, Wisconsin, where they have since maintained their home and where, at the venerable age of seventy-six years, he is actively associated in busi- ness with the subject of this sketch. He is a man of strong individual- ity, upright and honorable, broad-minded and liberal in his views, and he has so ordered his course as to merit and receive the unequivocal
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esteem of those with whom he has come in contact during his long and useful life. He is a stalwart Republican in his political proclivities and both he and his wife have long been zealous members of the Presbyterian church. Of the two children, Fred, of this sketch, is the younger, and the elder, Henry Willis, is first vice president of the American Can Company of New York City and resides at Yonkers, New York.
The public schools of his native town afforded Fred Phelps his early educational advantages and at the age of sixteen he left the high school to enter the acadamy at Waukesha, Wisconsin, that has since developed into Carroll College. He here completed a preparatory course and was graduated in 1885. He then entered Wooster University, at Wooster, Ohio, in which he completed a literary course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1889, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Soon after his graduation, when twenty-three years of age, Mr. Phelps re- turned to Waukesha, where he assumed the position of bookkeeper for the Arcadian Mineral Spring Company, for which he became manager two years later. The company was organized in 1883 and its affairs at the time Mr. Phelps became connected with it were upon a somewhat . precarious financial basis. The father of Mr. Phelps invested sufficient capital to place the business in successful operation, but the property became involved in litigation, with the result that, to protect his inter- est in the same, Henry Phelps finally acquired title, by purchase, to the entire property held by the company. A new partnership was then formed, under the title of Henry Phelps & Company, and in 1903 a reorganization took place and the Waukesha Arcadian Company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Wisconsin. Under this title the enterprise was successfully continued until 1910, when the title was changed to the present form, the Arcadian Waukesha Spring Company, the entire control and ownership of the property and busi- ness being vested in Fred Phelps, as president and treasurer, with his father, Henry Phelps, as vice president. The great medicinal value of the Arcadian water has became widely known and in addition to the large demand in connection with its consumption by those who come to Waukesha to avail themselves of the water, the best of facilities have been provided for the bottling of the product at the spring, thus insuring absolute purity and integrity. A large factory has been erected and equipped for this purpose, and in the same special attention also is given to manufacturing the Arcadian Waukesha ginger ale, which has a large and ever increasing sale, the demands for this product and for the original bottled water coming from the most diverse sections of the country, so that the enterprise proves a valuable contribution to the commercial activities of Waukesha. Concerning the Arcadian ginger ale the following pertinent statements have been made in a circular issued by the controlling company: "Its absolute purity, secured through the use of natural spring water, pure Jamaica ginger, cane sugar
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and selected tropical-fruit juices, together with the absence of any form of preservative, makes it the one beverage that can be confidently served under all conditions. Another individual characteristic of Arcadian gin- ger ale, distinguishing it from all other brands, is its absolute freedom from any astringent tendencies,-a distinctive property highly appre- ciated by many enthusiastic patrons who formerly avoided all ginger ales because of their unpleasant after-effect." An unsolicited endorsement- the following editorial abstract from the July, 1913, edition of The Army and Navy Medical Record, Washington, D. C., proves the superiority of Arcadian Waukesha Ginger Ale over all other brands for hospital and sanitarium use: "We are using with gratifying results, at our sanitar- iums, the celebrated Arcadian Waukesha Springs Water and Ginger Ale, and heartily endorse and recommend this product for invalids' use. A careful test of the ingredients contained in the Ginger Ale, and the absolute purity of the Waukesha Water warrants the assertion that these products may be used with perfect safety, in reasonable quantities, as a healthful refreshing summer beverage; and the most delicate constitu- tion (from our experience) appears to be greatly benefited by their use." The Arcadian water itself has received the highest of commendation . from authoritative sources, and is especially valuable in the treatment of disorders of the kidneys and bladder.
Under the progressive management of the president of the Arcadian Waukesha Spring Company the business has been successfully expanded, especially in the department devoted to the manufacture and sale of the Arcadian ginger ale, the capacity of the present plaut being better than a carload a day. Fred Phelps has the vital energy and alert and progressive ideas that mark the successful captain of industry, and he has not been self-centered in his attitude, for he is most liberal and zeal- ous in supporting measures and agencies tending to advance the general welfare of his home city. Before the incorporation of Waukesha as a city he served as a member of the village board of trustees and also as president of the same, and under the city administration he has served continuously as a member of the muncipal water commission since its organization in 1907. He is unwavering in his allegiance to the Repub- lican party, is identified most actively with both the York and Scottish Rites of the Masonic fraternity, in the latter of which he has received the thirty-second degree, and he is affiliated also with the Waukesha lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and the local camp of the Woodmen of the World. Mr. Phelps has been a member of the Presbyterian church since childhood and Mrs. Phelps was confirmed as a member of the Episcopal church in Wooster, Ohio. Since their marriage both attend the Presbyterian church in Waukesha.
On the 18th of November, 1890, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Phelps to Miss Anna M. Lehman, the ceremony having been per- formed at Wooster, Ohio. Mrs. Phelps was born at Wooster, Ohio, and
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her father, A. S. Lehman, was a representative citizen of Wooster, Ohio, until his retirement in 1905. He has since made his home with his daughter in Waukesha. She is a popular and prominent figure in the leading social activities of Waukesha and presides most graciously over the beautiful and hospitable family home. Mr. and Mrs. Phelps have three children,-Frederick L., Kenneth P. and Helen L. The elder son graduated in the class of 1913 from Columbia University, New York City, where he has taken a special course in preparation for journalistic work of higher order.
NAT STONE. We are very prone to think of men who have been unusually successful in any line as greatly favored by fortune; and we try to account for it in all sorts of ways but the right one. The fact is that their success represents their expectation of themselves,-the sum of their creative, positive, habitual thought and action. It is their mental attitude outpictured and made tangible in their environment. They have wrought what they have and what they are out of their con- structive thought and their unquenchable faith in themselves. A man who is self-reliant, positive and optimistic and who undertakes his work with the assurance of success magnetizes conditions. He draws to himself the literal fulfillment of the promise "For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance." One of the vital, loyal and prominent business men of Milwaukee who has met with confidence and courage the opposing forces of life and who has marked the passing years with large and worthy achievement is Nat Stone, whose mighty faith in himself and his destiny has brought to him definite precedence and well earned honors. He is a self-made man in the highest and best sense of the term and is one of the vital figures in connection with business and civic activities in the Wisconsin metropolis, besides which he is a member of the representative firm of Stone Brothers, engaged in the wholesale jewelry trade in the city of Chicago. In Milwaukee he is president of the Herzfeld-Phillipson Company, which owns and conducts the Boston Store, a department mercantile establishment of the best metropolitan type and one that is a source of pride to the city and the entire state with a trade on a parity with the unblemished reputation the concern has at all times maintained. As one of the thoroughly representative and distinctively popular busi- ness men of Milwaukee Mr. Stone merits definite recognition in this history of Wisconsin, and the record of his career, even as briefly out- lined, can not fail to offer both lesson and incentive.
Nat Stone was born in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, on the 22d of September, 1866, and is a son of Isaac and Anna Stone, both of whom were born and reared in Germany. The father was identified with business activities in St. Louis for a period of about thirty years, and there he died at the age of fifty-six years. His widow long survived him
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and passed the closing years of her life in Chicago, where she died on the 1st of January, 1913, at the venerable age of seventy-nine years, -a gracious woman whose children may well rise up and call her blessed. She is survived by four sons and one daughter.
Nat Stone was twenty-one years old at the time of his father's death and he gained his early education in the public schools of his native city. When but twelve years of age he became largely dependent upon . his own resources, and he thus early learned the lessons of personal application and came to an appreciation of the value of consecutive en- deavor. As a boy he sold newspapers on the streets of St. Louis and finally became a news agent on trains running out of that city, a posi- tion in which he gained further experience and fostered his self-reliance and initiative power. In his home city he also found employment in various retail stores and thus from his boyhood days he has known what is implied in hustling and self-reliance. His character has been broadened and matured by his varied experiences and his mentality has been such that he has effectually overcome the educational handi- cap that was his in his youth, as he is today a man of broad and com- prehensive information and well fortified views. For a time he was employed in mercantile establishments in the state of Texas and finally he went to Chicago, where he became associated with his brothers in the wholesale jewelry trade, under the firm name of Stone Brothers. For eighteen years he represented this substantial and steadfast firm as a traveling salesman through the northwest and he had much to do with the development of its large and prosperous business. He still continues a member of the firm but his greater activities have been cen- tered in Milwaukee since October 1, 1906, when he became associated with his brothers, A. L. and Jacob Stone, of Chicago, and with Carl Herzfeld and Richard Phillipson, of Milwaukee, in the purchase of the well established and representative Boston Store in Milwaukee, the same having been bought from Julius Simon, concerning whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work,-an article to which reference may be made for details of the earlier history of the Boston Store. Of the Herzfeld-Phillipson Company, which conducts this ex- tensive and admirably appointed department store, Mr. Stone is presi- dent, and his success is further emphasized by his holding of other and varied capitalistic interests of important order. The Boston Store is located in the heart of the retail business district of Milwaukee, with . frontage on each Grand avenue, Fourth street and Sycamore street. The building utilized is a modern fire-proof structure of five floors and basement and is the largest and most metropolitan establishment of its kind in Wisconsin, the floor space utilized being in excess of seven and two-thirds acres and the store having eighty-two separate and distinct departments, each unexcelled in equipment and appointments. The main aisle of the great store extends an entire block and is 420 feet in
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length, and the entire establishment compares most favorably with the leading department stores in Chicago and other cities of the greatest metropolitan fame.
Mr. Stone is an aggressive, far-sighted and indefatigable business man and the large success which he has achieved is the more gratifying to contemplate by reason of the fact that it has been fully merited. His character is the positive expression of a strong, reliant and loyal na- ture, and at every stage in his career he has merited and received the implicit confidence and esteem of his fellow men, while he is known as a progressive and public-spirited citizen. His political allegiance is given to the Independent party and both he and his wife hold mem- bership in Temple Emanuel, in Milwaukee, of which he is a trustee, as is he also of Mount Sinai hospital. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Stone has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and is affiliated with the various Masonic bodies in Chicago. In Milwaukee he is an appreciative and popular member of the following named and representative organizations: Woodmount Country Club, Milwaukee Athletic Club, Deutscher Club, and the Milwaukee Automo- bile, Yacht, Riding, Real Estate, and City Clubs, besides various chari- table and benevolent organizations.
On the 30th of October, 1895, at Springfield, the capital city of Illinois, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stone to Miss Minnie Sal- zerstine, who was born and reared at Athens, that state, where her par- ents still maintain their home, her father, Charles S. Salzerstine, being the owner of valuable realty in that section of Illinois and being a well known and highly esteemed citizen of Athens. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have twin sons,-Medford W. and Lester C., who were born in the City of Chicago, on the 4th of December, 1900.
In an article appearing in the Milwaukee Free Press on December 1, 1912, was given an interesting article in which Mr. Stone discusses the matter of achieving snecess, and certain of his pithy and admirable statements there appearing are worthy of perpetuation in this connec- tion, the same being as follows :
"Bluff doesn't count one whit; it is a minus quantity in business, repulsive and wholly undesirable. The first thing for a young man to do is to find out, if possible, what vocation he desires; I fear young men today do not take their future seriously enough. Having got your vocation, stick to it through thick and thin. That means to win. Let every day's effort be based on the resolution to make good. The ordi- nary young fellow thinks that his employer is his boss; that is not true. The person whom the young man serves, if he knows it, is the boss. No dishonest man ever reached the top and staid there. Dishonesty doesn't count any more than bluff. Serving well is winning; but to serve prop- erly a man must sell his vocation to himself. If he works, if he is in- telligent, if he believes in himself and his job, the worker is bound to
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succeed. There is no stopping him. But no matter how capable a man is, if he isn't a gentleman and can't see the value of good manners in business, he can't hope to get on. It takes sincerity and true worth to do things, and that is where we catch the bluffer. The trouble with the mercantile business is that there is not enough men to be secured to hold the $10,000 positions."
The above terse utterances stand as axioms of personal experience in connection with affairs of broad scope and importance, and the ca- reer of Mr. Stone himself exemplifies most emphatically the wisdom of his aphorisms.
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