USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume VII > Part 27
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data. The son, unlike many others similarly placed, has not stood in the shadow of paternal greatness but has marked for himself a dis- tinetive place as one of the representative members of the Wisconsin bar and as a citizen of utmost loyalty and public spirit. He is en- gaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Milwaukee, with offices in the Wells building, and he controls a large and important law business, besides which he has served with ability and distinction on the bench of the county court of Milwaukee county.
In a prefatory way it may be noted that Judge Carpenter is a descendant of William Carpenter, who emigrated from England to America in 1638, the voyage having been made on the ship "Bevis." Mrs. Caroline (Dillingham) Carpenter, mother of the Judge, was a daughter of Hon. Paul Dillingham, who served as governor of Vermont and who likewise represented that commonwealth in the United States congress. His ancestor, John Dillingham, came from England to Amer- ica with the Winthrop colony, in 1630, and Judge Carpenter's great- great-grandfather Dillingham met his death while in the command of General Wolfe, on the historic Plains of Abraham. The maternal grandmother of Judge Carpenter was Mrs. Julia (Carpenter) Dilling- ham, whose father, Daniel Carpenter, served for many years as judge of the probate court in Vermont. Mrs. Matthew H. Carpenter is a sis- ter of Hon. William P. Dillingham, who represents Vermont in the United States senate.
Judge Paul Dillingham Carpenter was born in Milwaukee, Wis- consin, on the 26th of January, 1867, and in his native state he has admirably upheld the high prestige of the honored name which he bears. He gained his earlier educational discipline in private schools in the city of Washington, D. C., and that of Milwaukee, in which latter he also availed himself of the advantages of the high school and of instruc- tion under the direction of private tutors. He studied law at the Columbia Law School, in New York city and in his youth traveled ex- tensively in Europe, Asia and Africa. In fortifying himself for the profession that was signally dignified and honored by the character and services of his father, he carried forward for some time his teeli- nical studies in the office and under the preceptorship of the well-known Milwaukee law firm of Quarles, Spence & Quarles, the senior member of which was Hon. Joseph V. Quarles, who later served as United States senator and as Federal judge.
Judge Carpenter was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1891, and during the major part of the intervening period he has given close and effective attention to the active practice of law in Milwaukee. For some time he was associated in practice with Franz C. Eschweiler, who now presides on the bench of the circuit court in Milwaukee county, and later he maintained a professional alliance with Edward M. Hyzer, who is now general counsel for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad
fm. meniny
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Company. In the spring of 1901 Judge Carpenter was elected county judge of Milwaukee county, and he assumed his position on the bench on the 6th of January, 1902. His administration in this important judicial office was marked by careful discrimination in the furtherance of justice and equity, and the estimate placed upon his work was best shown in the fact that at the expiration of his first term he was re- elected, for a second term of four years. He declined to become a candidate for a third term and retired from office on the 3d of Janu- ary, 1910. Soon after resuming the practice of his profession he formed a partnership with Benjamin Poss, with whom he continued to be thus associated until February 1, 1913, when the partnership was dis- solved. Since that time Judge Carpenter has conducted an individual or independent practice, in connection with which he retains a large and representative clientage.
In politics Judge Carpenter has been found arrayed as a stalwart supporter of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, of whose cause he has been an able exponent. He is a convert to and a communicant of the Catholic church and he is prominently affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, in which he has held the position of Grand Knight of Milwaukee council. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Wisconsin Bar Association, and is identified with the Milwaukee and other local clubs as well as with the Catholic Club of New York city. He and his wife are prominent and popular figures in the representative social activities of their native city, where their circle of friends is limited only by that of their acquaintances.
On the 25th of November, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Carpenter to Miss Emma Falk, only surviving daughter of the late Franz and Louisa (Wahl) Falk, who were numbered among the ster- ling pioneers of Milwaukee and concerning whom specific mention is made on other pages of this volume. Judge and Mrs. Carpenter have three children, -- Agnes Mary, Matthew Aloysius, and Paul Vincent.
Judge Carpenter had been a close and appreciative student and his reading has covered a wide range of the best in general literature. He was fourteen years of age at the time of the death of his honored father, with whom he had passed much of his time in most close comrade- ship and had come in contact with the leading men of that day,-a period in his life to which he ever reverts with satisfaction and deepest appre- ciation.
FRANK M. MCENIRY, the commercial superintendent of the Wiscon- sin Telephone Company, has had a business career that has most emphatically demonstrated his efficiency in his chosen field of enter- prise. Fourteen years ago he was a country school teacher, out in Iowa, his native state. Thirteen years ago he consigned his pedagogic
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work to others less ambitious, and went to work in the telephone field as a lineman's helper. No high position that, but to him one that held out magnificent possibilities for future advancement, and his status today wholly justifies his judgment at that time,-for at the age of thirty-three years, he is virtually the second man in command of a property worth millions, covering a state that is territorially as large as the six New England states combined, and that is as intimately important, if not indeed, more so, to the affairs of its 2,500,000 of inhabitants than is their postal service.
Frank M. McEniry was born in Lenox, Iowa, on November 27, 1880, and is the son of Michael and Katharine (Fitzharris) McEniry. Michael McEniry was born in Moline, Illinois, the son of Irish par- ents who came from the vicinity of Cork, Ireland, and settled in Moline, Illinois, William McEniry, the paternal grandfather of the subject having been a pioneer settler of that well known city. The mother was born in Racine, Wisconsin, where her parents settled when they emigrated from their birthplace, Ireland, and they died in Lenox, Iowa.
Michael McEniry was a farmer in early life, but later devoted him- self for some years to the lumber business, and now is a coal dealer in Lenox, Iowa. The mother died on May 10, 1887, the mother of three boys, all of whom are living and of which the subject of this review was the second born. William J., the eldest, is a successful contractor in St. Louis, Missouri, and James G. is the manager of the DePere exchange of the Wisconsin State Telephone Company. Mr. MeEniry contracted a second marriage, his second choice being Margaret Slattery, of Lenox. Iowa, and to them two sons and two daughters were born Of these John J. is now a teacher in the city school of Lenox, as is also Mary E .; Eugene F. has just finished his college course and Josephine, the youngest, is still attending school in Lenox.
Frank M. McEniry was educated in Lenox, Iowa, graduating with the high school class of 1896, after which he entered St. Benedict's College at Atchinson, Kansas, where he was duly graduated in 1898. The next two years he spent in school teaching in Lenox, for the most part, and it was while there that he began to manifest an interest in the practically new telephone industry. Already well established in educational work, with the prospect of a successful career before him, he was yet prepared to lay down his work for the chance that seemed to be open to him in the newer field of enterprise, and he ac- cordingly went to work for the Central Union Telephone Company at Rockford, Illinois, in the year 1900 as a lineman's helper. Though he began at the bottom of the ladder, he had no intention of there
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continuing, nor did he; for he was advanced step by step, from in- staller of telephones to repair man and to switchboard man, and later on was sent to Warren, Illinois, as manager of the local exchange. He was soon transferred to Galena, and in 1903, only three years from the date of his first connection with the business, was sent to Moline, Illinois, in charge of the branch, going thence to Racine, Wisconsin, the two latter places being the respective birthspots of his father and mother. At Racine he was district manager of the Wisconsin Tele- phone Company, and he continued there until March 15, 1910, when he was transferred to Green Bay, Wisconsin, as district manager. On April 1, 1911, Mr. MeEniry was transferred to Milwaukee where he assumed the office of Commercial Superintendent of the State for the Wisconsin Telephone Company, a position which he still holds, and which gives him distinction as the second in command in the adminis- tration of the affairs of the company in Wisconsin.
Mr. McEniry is prominent in fraternal and social organizations in Milwaukee, some of his connections being as follows: member of the Knights of Columbus, Milwaukee-Pere Marquette Council, No. 524; Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Green Bay Lodge, No. 259; the Press Club of Milwaukee; the Milwaukee Athletic Club; the Blue Mound Country Club; the City Club; the Milwaukee Traffic Club; and he is a member of the Jesu church of Milwaukee.
COLONEL GEORGE MILTON PAINE. In the early stages of the civic and material development and progress in Wisconsin the lumber in- dustry took precedence over all other phases of enterprise, and through its agency the march of advancement was quickened and made secure. Through lumbering large fortunes were gained by those who became suc- cessful in the operations during the early decades of the business, and the state was fortunate in enlisting men of sterling character and dis- tinctive business ability as factors in the lumber trade. For fifty-seven years the name Paine has been prominently and worthily identified with the lumber industry in Wisconsin, and the high prestige of the name has been well maintained by George M. Paine of Oshkosh, where he has resided since his young manhood and where he is one of the few remaining representatives of the pioneers in the lumbering opera- tions in the state.
Mr. Paine is a citizen whose civic ideals have been of the highest and whose position has been one of confidence and esteem in the com- munity. He has long been numbered among the representative busi- ness men and liberal and influential citizens of Oshkosh, and at the pres- ent time is president of the Paine Lumber Company, Ltd.
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George Milton Paine was born at Orwell, Bradford county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1834, a son of Edward Lathrop and Eleanor (Ross) Paine. The former was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, of staunch colonial stock in New England, and the latter was born in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, where she was married. Edward Lathrop Paine and his sons learned the lumber business at Canisteo, Steuben county, New York. In 1855 he brought his family out to Wisconsin, and became a resident in Osh- kosh. Oshkosh at that time was a little more than a lumbering village in the pioneer wilds. In Wisconsin Edward L. Paine identified himself closely with the lumbering industry, in which two of his sons became associated with him. These Charles N. and George M. had early gained experience in lumbering, and became active assistants to their father in building up extensive lumbering manufacturing business in Wisconsin. Soon after his arrival in Oshkosh, Edward Lathrop Paine and his sons, Charles Nelson and George Milton, erected a mill on Fox River, equipped with circular saws. This pioneer mill stood upon the site still ocenpied by the mills of the Paine Lumber Company. The mill was twice destroyed by fire, and upon rebuilding the facilities were improved on each occasion. For many years the business was conducted under the firm name of C. N. Paine & Company. Charles N. Paine was a man of fine business ability and distinctive character in his originality and progressiveness. His loyalty as a citizen was equal to his business enterprise, and in the Civil war he promptly tendered his services in defense of the Union. He enlisted in the twenty-first Wisconsin Volun- teer Infantry and went to the front as Captain of Company B. Charles N. Paine was a bachelor, very popular and highly honored as a citizen of Oshkosh; his life was filled with worthy and distinctive accomplish- ments.
Nathan Paine, the youngest of the four sons of Edward L. Paine entered the Union service as a captain in the First Wisconsin Cavalry. was later commissioned major for meritorious service and was in com- mand of the regiment when he was shot and killed at Campbelltown, Ga.
Dr. Edward R. Paine, the oldest of the four brothers was a graduate of Ann Arbor Medical School and was a successful physician, and later in life engaged in business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he died. Elizabeth, the only daughter of Edward Lathrop and Eleanor (Ross) Paine, married R. P. Elmore, long a prominent, business man in the city of Milwaukee.
Edward Lathrop Paine, the honored pioncer head of the family, attained to the venerable age of ninety-three years and was summoned to the life beyond in 1893. His devoted wife preceded him in death by two years, secure in the affectionate regard of all who had come within the circle of her gentle and gracious influence. Both were devout
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members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and their lives were char- acterized by kindly thoughts and kindly deeds.
George Milton Paine, who is now the only representative of the orig- inal family, gained his early education in the common schools of New York, where he also attended the Elmira Academy, and the Alfred Sem- inary. Like his brothers, he at an early date got a practical experience in the sawmill operated by his father on Canisteo River in New York, and was about twenty-one years of age, when the family moved to Osh- kosh. Since then his residence has been continuous for more than half a century in Oshkosh and both time and opportunity have been afforded him in which to acquire a place as a substantial man of affairs, and a liberal and public-spirited citizen. In his present operations as a manu- facturer of lumber, his two sons are associated with him. Concerning the upbuilding of the splendid industry conducted under the name of the Paine Lumber Company, the following description and historical sketch previously published, may properly be introduced.
In 1882 the firm of C. N. Paine & Company was succeeded by the Paine Lumber Company, Ltd., which was incorporated with a capital stock of one million dollars, and of which Charles N. Paine became the president. Upon his death, George M. Paine was elected president, and he has since continued the incumbent of this office. Charles Nevitt, a son-in-law of George M. Paine, is treasurer, while Edward W. and Nathan Paine, sons of the president are on the board of directors.
The plant of the Paine Lumber Company, Ltd., covers about fifty acres of ground, and its equipment includes two gang mills, and two band mills, the sawmill being seventy-five by two hundred and twenty-five feet in dimensions; a box factory, sixty feet square ; a plan- ing mill, one hundred by three hundred feet ; and a central power house, sixty by eighty feet with engines furnishing three thousand horsepower. The plant is further amplified by the sash, door and blind factory. a four-story building, one hundred and sixty by three hundred feet in dimensions, with an annex ninety by two hundred feet, and with an individual power plant of fifteen hundred horsepower capacity, and a large veneer mill. Several large warehouses are utilized for the stor- age of lumber and sash and doors. The company also operates its own electric light plant and steam heating plant, and these plants also sup- ply heat and light to the residences of the interested principals, of the company. A complete telephone system connects all the departments of the extensive plant, which is equipped throughout with the latest improvements in machinery and safety appliances, many of the most useful adjuncts having been invented by the managers of the company and their employes, to the latter of whom a policy of marked considera- tion and encouragement have at all times been maintained. The works are fitted throughout with automatic fire-extinguishers, and through the same the danger of loss by fire is reduced to a minimum. The log stock
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for the mills is obtained from lands accumulated by the company in the Wolf River valley of Wisconsin, and in northern Michigan, the cut of the sawmill comprising about one-half of the stock required for the use of the factory, the annual output of which is about five hundred thousand doors, one hundred and twenty pairs of blinds, five hundred and fifty thousand window sash, and about one million five hundred thousand packing boxes, besides a large manufacture of stairs, man- tels and other interior finishing in choice native and foreign wood. The company import their mahogany logs from Liverpool, England. The company maintains large distributing warehouses at Minneapolis, and St. Paul, Minnesota, and Cleveland, Ohio, besides agencies in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other principal cities, a large part of the output of the factories finding a market in the East. The company gives employment to a large force at their various distribu- ing points, and in the woods to supply the twenty million feet of logs necessary to operate their sawmill, and three thousand hands in Osh- kosh some of whom have been in their employ thirty or more years. The employees in general own their own homes and about thirty families occupy dwellings owned by the company. Formally and for many years, the company operated its own logging camp, but recently this department of the business has been operated through contract arrangement from their own land.
Having been closely identified with lumbering from his boyhood days, George M. Paine is thoroughly familiar with every detail of the business from the stump to the finished product, and the present excel- lenee of the plant, unexcelled, if equalled by any in the Union, is in no small degree due to his foresight and admirable business qualifications. Avoiding the rock upou which many business concerns have been wrecked, he has persistently concentrated his energies upon his business, and has succeeded in building up the largest and perhaps the most complete institution of the kind to be found in the world-a laudable work in which he has had the effective co-operation of those associ- ated with him in the great enterprise. He is one of the veritable cap- tains of industry in Wisconsin, and through his well ordered endeavors along business and industrial lines, has done much to further the civic and material development and upbuilding of his home city.
Mr. Paine was prominent in the organization of the Chamber of Commerce of Oshkosh, and served as its first president for several years. He is also president of the Wisconsin National Life Insurance Company, and one of it organizers. As to politics he has always been one of the staunch advocates of the principles and policies of Republicanism, and though never showing any desire for the honors or rewards of political office, has taken a lively interest in the party cause and was a dele- gate to the Republican National Convention in 1872 at Philadelphia, when General Grant was for a second time nominated as the party stand-
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ard bearer. Mr. Paine is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, having membership in the Oshkosh Commandery No. 11, Knights Templar. In 1863 George M. Paine was united in marriage with Miss Martha Wheeler, who was born at New Haven, Vermont, December 26, 1835, and who died November 7, 1912. Mr. and Mrs. Paine have two sons and four daughters; the sons Edward W. and Nathan, are associated with their father in business as has already been noted. Elizabeth E. is the wife" of Francis L. Palmer; Georgiana died the wife of Charles Nevitt; Jessie L. is the wife of Edward L. Wickwire of Chicago; and Martha, died at the age of seven years.
THOMAS H. GILL. A member of the bar of his native state for thirty- five years, Mr. Gill has long held prestige as one of its able and success- ful representatives and has been for many years specially prominent in connection with the legal affairs of railroad corporation, his official duties demanding the major part of his time and attention. He was general attorney for the receivers of the Wisconsin. Central Railroad Company, the lines of which are now leased to the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad Company. As a general practitioner Mr. Gill gained definite precedence and high reputation, and as a cor- poration lawyer he has been specially resourceful and successful in the handling of affairs of broad scope and importance. He has maintained his residence in Milwaukee since 1887, and his home is at 490 Lafayette Place, his office headquarters being 712-715 in the Germania Building. In the general practice of law he is associated with Arthur R. Barry, concerning whom specific mention is made on other pages of this publi- cation.
Thomas Henry Gill was born at Madison, the beautiful capital city of Wisconsin, and the date of his nativity was April 7, 1858. He is a son of William J. and Hannah (Lantry) Gill, the former of whom was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, and the latter at Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, New York, in which state their marriage was solemnized. William J. Gill was numbered among the pioneers of Wis- consin and the major part of his active career was devoted to railroad building. Mr. Gill died in Texas in 1870. Mrs. Gill still lives at the old home in Madison. Of their children three sons and two daughters are living. The public schools of Madison afforded Thomas H. Gill his early educational advantages, and after completing the curriculum of the same he entered the University of Wisconsin, in the same city. In this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1877, when bnt nineteen years of age, and he received therefrom the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He had in the meanwhile taken up the study of law and had made substantial progress in his technical reading. Immediately after his graduation he entered the law department of his alma mater, and in the same he was graduated in 1878, shortly after his twentieth birth-
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day anniversary. During the entire time of pursuing his academie and professional courses in the university Mr. Gill was employed in the office of the clerk of the United States courts at Madison, the incumbent having been his close personal friend. He was admitted to the bar at the time of his graduation in the law department of the university. In 1874 he had received appointment to the position of deputy clerk in the ยท federal courts and also to the office of master of chancery, and he con- tinued in tenure of these positions for several years after his admission to the bar.
In 1879 Mr. Gill initiated the active practice of his profession in the Wisconsin capital, and in the following year he formed a partnership with Henry J. Taylor, with whom he was associated in practice until the latter's removal to Sioux City, Iowa, about two years later. In 1883 Mr. Gill became associated in practice with the late Judge Elisha W. Keyes, who was long one of the distinguished members of the Wiscon- sin bar, as well as an able jurist, and who was postmaster at Madison at the time of his death, only a few years ago. This alliance continued only a short period, under the firm name of Keyes & Gill, but the junior member of the firm reverts with great satisfaction and pleasing memo- ries to his association with Judge Keyes, who was not only a man of high attainments but also one without fear and without reproach."
Within a short time after entering into partnership with Judge Keyes certain imperative exigencies compelled Mr. Gill to abandon temporarily the active work of his profession, in order to give his entire time and attention to the management of an extensive wholesale tobacco business. The affairs of this business received his careful and effective supervision for four years, and in April. 1887, he entered the service of the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company in the capacity of claim agent. During the long intervening years until November, 1908, he was continu- ously identified with the legal department of the Wisconsin Central sys- tem. In 1890 he was chosen assistant general solicitor, and when the lines of the company were leased by the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- pany, in the following year, Mr. Gill was retained in the same office by the leasing corporation, with headquarters in the city of Chicago. When the lease was surrendered, in 1893, and receivers were appointed for the Wisconsin Central lines, Mr. Gill was retained by the receivers in the capacity of general attorney, of which position he has since con- tinned the incumbent and in which he has done excellent service in conserving the interests involved. His official headquarters were main- tained in Milwaukee, until December, 1907, when they were removed to Chicago and he still continued a citizen and resident of Milwaukee, to which city he removed upon first assuming connection with the Wiscon- sin Central. In 1906 he was appointed general director retaining said office until his resignation in November, 1908, at which time he resumed general practice. The firm of Gill & Barry has a substantial and repre-
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