USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume VII > Part 32
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN
the mercy of a rival company, so he was forced to, construct a line of his own by an inferior route from Milwaukee to that metropolis. Had his advice been taken on another occasion, his road would many years ago have penetrated through the lumber belt of Wisconsin to Lake Superior and would have been enriched by a land grant in that direc- tion.
From the Chicago base, by purchase and construction, he extended his line west to Omaha, southwest to Kansas City, as well as to Mis- souri river points northward. Buying the river road up from LaCrosse, he completed the best avenue and that with many branches to the great cities of the north. Pushing westward from Milwaukee into Dakota, he laid a thousand miles of track into that territory largely in advance of settlement-but still more largely promotive of it. He foresaw the infinite capabilities of that region so clearly that he could not help acting on his own convictions.
In the proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers for July, 1887, was published a memoir of Alexander Mitchell as a fellow member of that society, and from that article may be drawn a supple- mentary account of Mr. Mitchell's early constructive efforts as a rail- road executive. Referring to the condition of Wisconsin railways dur- ing the fifties, the author of the memoir states: "The various railroads in Wisconsin at that time were small and owned by separate and weak companies. They had been built with the aid of town and county bonds and were heavily mortgaged. They were operated independently, and as a consequence their running expenses in every instance were in excess of their incomes. Early in the sixties the condition of the rail- ways had become such that foreclosure proceedings were begun in the courts, whereupon the title to much of the railroad property in the state became so involved that the outlook was exceedingly gloomy, and for some time it seemed as if the roads would be compelled to cease opera- tion.
"The principal companies in this condition were the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien, the LaCrosse and Milwaukee, the Milwaukee & Water- town, the Milwaukee and Horicon and the Western Union, running from Racine to Freeport, Illinois.
"While the crisis was threatening in railroad and commercial affairs, an arrangement was effected with Mr. Mitchell by which the bondholders of the several roads joined themselves with him for the purpose of protecting and improving their property. A plan was accordingly arranged to consolidate and operate the roads as a single system. The first road secured was the LaCrosse & Milwaukee together with the Horicon lines, and when the Milwaukee and Water- town roads, running to Columbus, was purchased shortly afterward. the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company was formed, May 18,
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1863. Alexander Mitchell was elected president, an office which he held until his death, April 19, 1887.
"Shortly afterward the Prairie du Chien line was secured and the Iowa and Minnesota roads were added to the St. Paul system, the connections through the state were built, and the Chicago divi- sion was constructed (1871-72), the Western Union and the Chicago and Council Bluffs were consolidated with the main line and an exten- sion was built into Dakota. In 1874 the name of the corporation was changed to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, and at the present time (1887) it owns more miles of road than any other company in the world. When the scheme of consolidating was in its incipiency the stock was almost worthless, while it has recently been quoted at almost its face value.
"That the success of the St. Paul road is in no small degree due to the energy, sagacity and daring of its first president, few who are familiar with the course of events in the northwest will deny, for while the demands of trade, the rapidly increasing population and the vast resources of the territory about the headwaters of the Mis- sissippi and the Great Lakes at the present time render the success- ful accomplishment of commercial enterprises much less doubtful, the condition of affairs in 1850 were far otherwise, and the assump- tion of responsibility such as the management of a bankrupt rail- road entailed implied a determination and courage which has not been exercised in vain."
In politics Alexander Mitchell was first a Whig, then became a Republican, and supported the policy of the government through the war of the rebellion. After the death of President Lincoln he advocated the reconstructive doctrines of Andrew Johnson, and in the organization of parties which followed became a Democrat. In 1868 he supported Horatio Seymour, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, and was himself the congressional candidate of the same party in the first Wisconsin district. He was defeated that year, but in 1870 again accepted the nomination and was elected by a large majority. During the two terms of his service in congress his influence as a financier was powerful and most salutary in thwart- ing a quasi-repudiation of the national debt, and measures tending to impair the national credit. Mr. Mitchell was chosen one of the Wis- consin delegates to the National Democratic Convention in 1876, and supported Samuel J. Tilden for the presidency. The Democratic state convention tendered him the nomination for governor in 1874, but Mr. Mitchell declined to become a candidate. In politics he was conservative and independent, advocating those measures which he believed to be for the good of the country rather than blindly fol- lowing party leaders.
In conclusion it may be said further in the words of Dr. Butler :
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"Mr. Mitchell's training was in Scotland. But as manhood drew near he resembled an eaglet getting wings and feeling the nest too narrow and low for his soaring spirit. No new bank has been chartered in his native land since he was a clerk there. No opening befitting his yearnings there existed. If his financial faculties were not to rust in him unused, he must betake him to a foreign arena. Coming to our northwest, Alexander the Caledonian secured a vantage ground analogous to that gained by Alexander the Macedonian, when, impa- tient at being pent up in Greece, he passed into Asia and acted his part on an inter-continental theater. Both Alexanders, in virtue of a grander environment, made more of themselves than they would if forever kept in circumspection and confine. They also achieved more for others. The ancient Alexander diffused some tincture of Grecian culture throughout the barbarian orient. The modern Alex- ander laid the corner-stone of intelligent, honest and stable banking in as grand an occident, and then shot through its recesses lines of travel and traffic which made the wilderness to rejoice, roads radi- ating more than electric light and darting from far cities to far cities, a sort of shuttle that weaves them into closer and closer union. When he told the aunt by whom, after his mother's death, he was brought up, that he meant to be a laird, his childest ideal was thought high, but it was a low level compared to his accomplishment.
"The great Wisconsin event of 1839 was the chartering of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal. The enactment of it, as published in Milwaukee, was headed, 'Hang out the banner on the outer wall,' and the Fourth of July was celebrated there by breaking ground for that canal. On that occasion the third volunteer toast was: 'Internal Improvements-bonds of union. May they soon join east and west Wisconsin !' This toast was by Alexander Mitchell. When I had raked this incident out of the dusty oblivion of an old newspaper I rejoiced over it as an unconscious foreshadowing of his mamoth rail- way marvels, spreading civilization a thousand miles west of Milwau- kee. The sentiment was all his, but in fact it was offered by another Alexander Mitchell-an engineer on the proposed canal. Its author, however, in extolling internal improvements builded wiser than he knew. His words describing the sluggish and slender waterways he had in mind have little meaning. But their significance becomes sub- lime when viewed as prophetic of the St. Paul street of steel longer than from here to Scotland, and showing such a mode of shaving the earth as the eagle with wings wide-waving can scarcely accomplish in the air. These streets of steel, and the bank which was their basis, that leaves no corner of Wisconsin untouched-yes, that are longer and broader than any states are the monument of Alexander Mitchell. He needs no other monument."
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EDWIN HENRY CASSELS. A young lawyer with Wisconsin as his native state and the scene of his early career, Mr. Cassels has taken a valuable part in helping solve some of the municipal problems of Chi- cago, where he has been in practice of law for the past ten years. He was for several years connected with the legal department of the Chi- cago administration, and is a member of the law firm of Brundage, Wilkerson & Cassels.
Edwin Henry Cassels was born at Tumah, Monroe county, Wiscon- sin, October 6, 1874, a son of William Beveredge and Mary (Wilson) Cassels. The father was born at Markinch, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1841, and the mother was a native of New York state. There were six chil- dren in the family, Edwin H. being the first. The father was one of the early settlers of Wisconsin, having come to the territory in 1856. A few years ago he retired from active business, and is now living in the city of Tomah. He has held various public offices, and at the present time is mayor of Tomah. His polities is Republican.
Mr. Cassels spent his boyhood in Wisconsin, and from the Tomah high school entered the University at Madison, where he was gradu- ated A. B. in 1895. He afterward attended Harvard University where he received the degree of A. M. He studied law in the office of George H. Gordon at La Crosse and at the Howard Law School. Mr. Cassels began practice at La Crosse, Wisconsin, but three years later in 1903 came to Chicago, where he has since gained distinction and success.
Mr. Cassels in 1907-09 was assistant corporation counsel for Chicago, and in 1909-10 was special counsel to the Chicago City council com- mittee on harbors, wharves and bridges. Mr. Cassels is a member of the Chicago, the Illinois and the American Bar Associations, and be- longs to the Law Club and the Legal Club of Chicago. In politics he is a Republican, his church is the Presbyterian, and his college frater- nity was the Delta Upsilon. His diversions and amusements and social relations are indicated by his membership in the University, the City, the Harvard, the Hamilton, the Chicago Literary, and the Skokie Coun- try clubs. Mr. Cassels' office is in the Rookery Building, and his resi- dence is at 11 E. Goethe street.
On November 25, 1903, Mr. Cassels married May van Steenwyk, who was born at La Crosse. Their two children are Mariette and Edwin Henry, Jr.
WALTER FITCH. One of Wisconsin's sons who have used their busi- ness abilities in the larger commercial arena of Chicago and won prom- inence there is the head of Walter Fitch & Company, stock, bonds, grain and provision, with offices in the Insurance Exchange building. Mr. Fitch is a former president of the Chicago Board of Trade and a well known figure on the exchanges of Chicago and New York.
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He was born at Fox Lake, Dodge county, Wisconsin, December 16, 1861, and his father was a pioneer newspaper man of Wisconsin. Wal- ter Fitch had his education in the public schools of Detroit, Michigan, and his first practical relation with the business world was as a clerk in the offices of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad in Missouri, from 1880 to 1883. He then went to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and was in the office of the Northwestern Lumber Company up to 1890 at which date he moved to Ashland. At Ashland he became identified with the grain commission business and remained there until 1895, at which time he transferred his operations to Milwaukee, where he was with the grain trade up to 1898. Mr. Fitch has been a resident of Chicago since 1898, and during the first six years was in the grain and provi- sion commission business. Since 1904 he has been in business under the firmn name of Walter Fitch & Company, dealing in stocks, bonds, grain and provisions. Mr. Fitch has membership in the New York Stock Ex- change, the Chicago Board of Trade, and the Chicago Stock Exchange, and other principal exchanges.
In 1906 Mr. Fitch was honored with the office of president of the Chicago Board of Trade. In 1904 he was president of the Chicago Ath- letic Club, and in 1912 was president of the South Shore Country Club. He is a member of the Wisconsin Society of Chicago, and of many other social and business organizations. In politics he is a Republican.
Mr. Walter Fitch is a son of James B. and Mary (Spencer) Fitch. His father was born at Rochester, New York in 1832, and died in 1894. The mother was born in Canajoharie, Montgomery county, New York in 1836, and her death occurred in 1891. They were married at Ripon, Wisconsin, and two of their three children are living, Walter and his sister Sadie. After his education in the schools of Rochester, the late James B. Fitch came west at the age of sixteen, in 1848, and located at Berlin, in Renssalaer county, Wisconsin, where he soon became connected with newspaper work. He later moved to Fox Lake in Dodge county, and spent all his active life there as a newspaper man, and through his journal exerted a powerful influence on opinion and practical affairs. In early life, he was a Whig in politics and later a supporter of the Republican party.
Mr. Walter Fitch was married at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, August 4, 1888, to Miss Maud Harper, a native of Chatham, New Brunswick, Canada.
NICHOLAS SENN, M. D. It is a distinctive privilege to be able to pre- sent in this work, and thus to identify consistently with Wisconsin, a memoir dedicated to one of the most distinguished figures in American medical circles. Dr. Senn, who attained international reputation in his chosen profession, was a scion of a sterling pioneer family of Wiscon- sin, and in this state his boyhood and youth were passed; here he initi- Vol. VII-18
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ated his labors as a physician and surgeon; and through his character and services he dignified and honored this state and the nation. His fame as a surgeon had no definite confines and he was, in a more generic sense, a man of high ideals and prodigious intellectual attainments. As physician, surgeon, author, educator and citizen he accounted well to himself and the world; he did much to lighten the burden of human suffering; his sympathy transcended mere sentiment to become an actuating motive for helpfulness; and he left the world better for his having lived. He long maintained his home and professional head- quarters in the city of Chicago, but continued signally loyal to the state in which he was reared, so that there is all of consistency in rendering in this compilation a brief review of his distinguished career. Iu mak- ing such a tribute there can be no impropriety in reproducing a most earnest and appreciative article previously prepared and dedicated to his memory, certain paraphrase being indulged to permit the incorpora- tion of additional data and the article being thus given without formal designation of quotation.
In the death of Nicholas Senn, ou the 2d of January, 1908, the mod- ern world lost not only one of its greatest surgeons but also a strong and tender character of ceaseless activity, whose like, take him for all and all, as doctor, citizen and man, we shall not soon look upon again. His passing away was the cause of profound grief to men and women of all classes and conditions, and drew forth expressions of affection for him as a man, together with such tributes of recognition of him as a sci- entist and surgeon such as Europe, Asia and America have seldom, if ever, before proffered to a citizen of the New World.
As a surgical operator Dr. Senn was undoubtedly one of the greatest of all times, but his fame far outstripped these limitations. He made the clinics in his profession the basis of a far reaching original inves- tigation and brought the study of bacteriology into the field of surgery in such a manner as to decrease wonderfully the fatalities incident either to operations or injuries received on the field of battle. The deduc- tions drawn by an unusually vigorous and scientific mind from a pro- fessional experience as varied as it was broad, added rich stores to the literature of pathology and operative surgery. Personally he not only made invaluable contributions to the standard literature of his profes- sion but was also the means of giving to the west one of the rarest and most valuable of libraries, covering the entire range of medical science. Although a man of compact and powerful physique, the labors which he performed were so prodigious and unceasing as to wear out the human machine before its time, and it was laid away to rest after hav- ing performed a remarkable part in the work of the world during his life of sixty-three years and two months.
Dr. Senn was a native of the picturesque canton of St. Gall, in northeastern Switzerland, where he was born of humble parents on the
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31st of October, 1844. When he was eight years of age the family came to the United States and settled in Washington county, Wisconsin, where he gained a rudimentary education, which was supplemented by more advanced study in the public schools of the little city of Fond du Lac. He thereafter taught school for several years, but his peda- gogie labors were but a means to an end, and in 1864, before he had attained to his legal majority, he began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. E. Munk, of Fond du Lac. In 1866 he entered the Chicago Medical College, and in this institution he was graduated, cum laude, in the spring of 1868, which of course marked his reception of the coveted degree of Doctor of Medicine. After his graduation he passed eighteen months in effective service as an interne in Cook County Hospital.
In 1869, shortly after his marriage, Dr. Senn returned to Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, and located in the village of Ashford, where he engaged in the private practice of his profession. He had his full quota of the experiences that fall to the lot of the country practitioner and the discipline proved of value to him in both a technical and generic sense. In 1874 he removed to the city of Milwaukee, and soon after- ward he was appointed attending physician to the Milwaukee Hospital. Later, as his reputation extended, he served as attending or consulting surgeon to nearly all of the important charities of the city and county, besides which he had the distinction of being appointed surgeon gen- eral of the state of Wisconsin.
Wishing to broaden still further his theoretical and clinical knowl- edge, in 1878 Dr. Senn went abroad and pursued special courses in the University of Munich, Germany, in which he was graduated in the fol- lowing year. From 1884 to 1887 he served as professor of surgery in the College of Physicians & Surgeons, which is now the medical school of the University of Illinois, and for the succeeding three years he held the chair of the principles of surgery. In 1890 Dr. Senn was elected professor of practical and clinical surgery in Rush Medical College, resulting in establishing his home in Chicago, and of this important chair he continued the distinguished and honored incumbent until his death. He served also as professor of surgery at the University of Chicago; attending surgeon at the Presbyterian Hospital; and surgeon in chief of St. Joseph's Hospital, with which institution he was iden- tified for eighteen years and in which he performed a large part of his private work as a surgeon. Rush Medical College and St. Joseph's Hos- pital especially felt the loss of Dr. Senn's strong and faithful support. in a personal way, as well as his invaluable professional services. Dr. Senn was a member of all the leading medical and surgical societies of the nation, besides which he was identified with representative organiza- tions of general scientific order. He served as president of the American Surgical Association; was a life member of the German Congress of
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Surgeons; a corresponding member of the Harveian Society of Lon- don; and an honorary member of the Edinburgh Medical Society. In 1890 he was chosen an American delegate to the International Medical Congress, and in 1901 he again went abroad, as one of the most dis- tinguished delegates from the United States to the International Red Cross conference, which met at St. Petersburg.
In 1894, through the generosity and public spirit of Dr. Senn there was installed in the Newberry Library of Chicago the great historical and scientific collection of books relating to medicine which had been brought together as the result of half a century's labors on the part of Dr. William Baum, late professor of surgery in the University of Got- tingen, and one of the founders of the German Congress of Surgeons. This splendid library, comprising more than seven thousand volumes, was donated to the Newberry Library in addition to other large and valuable collections which Dr. Senn had previously given to the institu- tion, and which included the collection of Dr. DuBois Raymond, another of the celebrated physicians and surgeons of Germany. By the terms of his noble gift to the Newberry Library this great and valuable assemblage of medical and surgical works are to be permanently known as the Senu Collection, and provision was also made for keeping the volumes together and retaining them as a library in their entirety, with separate and adequate catalogue. Dr. Senn's wife has the credit of making the original suggestion that the collection be transferred to the massive walls of the Newberry Library for safe keeping and for general reference purposes.
In the domain of military surgery Dr. Senn attained to worldwide eminence. His service in this field was instituted early in his professional career, when he served as surgeon general of Wisconsin, a fact pre- viously noted in this context. He gave characteristically zealous and effective service as surgeon general of the Illinois National Guard, of which office he was the inenmbent at the time of his death, and in 1891 he founded the Association of Military Surgeons of the National Guard of the United States, of which he was elected president. This association was founded by about fifty surgeons of the National Guard, who repre- sented fifteen states and who met in Chicago in 1891 and perfected an organization. Before the close of its first year the association had gained a membership of more than two hundred, and from the date of its incep- tion Dr. Senn was foremost in directing attention to the true province of the military surgeon in modern warfare. The keynote of his position . is given in the following extracts from an eloquent address which he delivered before the association in April, 1892: "More ingenuity has been displayed of late years in perfecting firearms and in the invention of machines for wholesale destruction of life than in devising ways and means for saving the lives of those seriously wounded. It is our duty as military surgeons to counteract as far as we can the horrors of war,
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by devising life-saving operations and by protecting the injured against the dangers incident to traumatic infection. Antiseptic and aseptic sur- gery must be made more simple than as in civil practice." Dr. Senn's published investigations, especially his work on "Surgical Bacteriol- . ogy," have gone far toward bringing about this humanitarian purpose, the importance of which has been doubly emphasized by the fatalities of the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese wars. In both of these conflicts he bore a leading part as a surgeon and as an original investi- gator of international authority. In May, 1898, he was appointed chief surgeon of the Sixth Army Corps, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the United States Volunteers, and became chief of the operating staff of surgeons with the American army in the field during the Spanish- American war.
Dr. Senn so enriched the medical and surgical literature of his day that even a mere mention of the hundreds of papers which he contrib- uted to it is impossible in a review of this province. His more preten- tious and best known works pertaining to medical and surgical science included those bearing the following titles: "Experimental Surgery," "Intestinal Surgery," "Surgical Bacteriology," "Principles of Sur- gery," "Pathology and Surgical Treatment of Tumors," "Tuberculosis of Bones and Joints," "Tuberculosis of the Genito-Urinary Organs." "Syllabus of the Practice of Surgery," "Surgical Notes of the Spanish- American War," "Practical Surgery," "Nurse's Guide for the Oper- ating Room," "Abdominal Surgery on the Battlefield," "The Etiology, Pathology and Treatment of Intestinal Fistula and Artificial Anus," "Laparo-hysteriotomy : Its Indications and Technique."
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