USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volume VII > Part 9
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The young disciple of Blackstone decided that in the progressive and rapidly developing west would be obtained better opportunities for productive effort along the line of his profession, and in 1850, about two years after the admission of Wisconsin as one of the sover- eign commonwealths of the Union, he came to this state and estab- lished his home in Milwaukee. Here he entered the office of the pio- neer law firm of Coon & Hunter and in 1851 he proved himself eligible for and was admitted to the Wisconsin bar, which he was destined sig- nificantly to dignify and honor by his character and services. During the course of his long and successful career in his profession he con- ducted an independent law business with the exception of about five years. For an interval of about one year, in 1852-3, he was associ- ated in practice with the late Charles James, under the firm name of James & Mariner, and from 1872 to 1876 he was senior member of the law firm of Mariner, Smith & Ordway.
During the earlier years of his active professional work Mr. Mar- iner was engaged in general practice, but with the development of his real estate interests and other constructive business activities he found it expedient to confine his practice largely to real estate and corpora- tion law, in which field he soon gained distinctive priority and high reputation. Mr. Mariner early identified himself with the promotion and development of railway enterprises and the handling of real estate, and in these lines he contributed in large and important measure to the civic and material advancement and prosperity of Mil- waukee and its surrounding tributary territory. At different times he was officially connected with the La Crosse & Southeastern Railroad Company, the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and the Milwaukee & Northern Railroad Company. He seemed to have distinct prescience of the future importance of Milwaukee as a marine, com- mercial and industrial center, and his discernment in anticipating needs and demands in the furtherance of constructive enterprise was especially noteworthy. He gave close attention to his law practice but, unlike the average professional man, he had great business acu- men and marked executive and initiative ability. He was at one time a member of the directorate of the Green Bay & Mississippi Caual Company and was also a director of the First National Bank of Mil- waukee. He was essentially a man of action and circumspection, and he was at all times ready to lend his influence and tangible co-opera- tion in the furtherance of measures and enterprises meeting the approval of his judgment. He was thorough and painstaking in all
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things, guided with strong resourcefulness the various enterprises with which he identified himself, and ordered his life on the highest plane of integrity and honor, so that the natural reflex was the inviolable confidence and esteem accorded to him by his fellow men. His character was positive, individual and indomitable. He was emphatically a productive worker, and he accounted well to himself and the world in all of the relations of life. He coveted success but scorned to gain it save by honest means, and thus it is gratifying to note that he acquired a substantial fortune through his well ordered endeavors. He was the third oldest member of the Milwaukee bar at the time of his death, and the Milwaukee County Bar Association passed memorial resolutions of respect and sorrow when he was sum- moned to the life eternal, in the fulness of years and well earned honors. Mr. Mariner was one of the most progressive and liberal citizens of the Wisconsin metropolis and few have done more to foster the development and upbuilding of the fine city in which he long lived and labored to goodly ends.
Though never a seeker of public office or desirous of entering the turmoil of practical polities, Mr. Mariner was a staunch and effective exponent of the principles of the Republican party, and he was iden- tified with the Milwaukee County Bar Association, the Wisconsin Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Though a man of high intellectual and professional attainments, Mr. Mariner had naught of bigotry or intolerance. He placed true valuations upon men and things, was buoyant and optimistic, and his urbanity and kindli- ness never wavered. His sympathy was shown in kiudly thoughts and worthy deeds, and no man was ever more free from ostentation and selfishness. His name and memory shall long be revered in the city which honored him and which he repaid in loyalty and appreci- able service.
In November, 1850, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mariner to Miss Lucinda Watkins, of Waterloo, New York, in which state she was born and reared. After an ideal married life covering a period of more than half a century the gracious ties were severed by the death of the honored husband and father, and Mrs. Mariner still retains her home in Milwaukee, a city that is endeared to her by the hallowed memories and associations of many years, the while she is sustained and comforted by the filial devoton of her only son and by the love of a wide circle of friends. To Mr. and Mrs. Mariner were born two children, William, who died in 1906, at the age of 44, and John W., who has charge of the large family estate.
VALENTINE P. RATH, clerk of Langlade county, Wisconsin, and now serving his sixth consecutive term and in the twelfth year of his service, has been a resident of this county since 1879, while it was yet a portion
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of Oconto county, Wisconsin, and prior to the time when the city of Antigo had been laid out. At that time he took up his residence on a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres northeast of what is now Antigo and what was then the town of Polar, now Price, and for eight or ten years he continued to live in contentment upon his country place. He was a busy man in those years, and he prospered in a fair measure. He moved to Bryant at the end of his stay in town of Price, in Lang- lade county, it being a lumber town, and he was employed there as a lum- ber cruiser and grader, in which work he continued until he was elected to the office of clerk of Langlade county. His election came in the autumn of 1902, and so apt has been his service that he has been returned with- out question at each succeeding election. The affairs of the county have never been administered more efficiently than they have since Mr. Rath has held the office, and he had demonstrated a high order of citizen- ship in his service, as well as the capacity for thorough and capable performance of duty.
Mr. Rath was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on February 15, 1860, and is a son of Valentine and Mary Anna (Feser) Rath, both of whom were born in Bavaria and came to America in 1858, settling in Sheboy- gan, this state. The father, who was a laboring man, died in Sheboygan in 1911. He was a soldier in the Civil war, going to the front from Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, and serving well through the severest part of the conflict. The mother still lives at the advanced age of eighty- three.
Mr. Rath was reared in the city of Sheboygan and there attended the parochial school of the Roman Catholic church, of which his parents and himself are members. He learned the trade of a cooper and worked at that trade for two years or more, and then took employment with Henry Roth in Sheboygan packing lime. He worked at various occupa- tions for some years, and was but nineteen years old when he came to what is now Langlade county, so that he may safely be said to be one of the actual pioneers of the county.
On May 15, 1890, Mr. Rath was married to Magdalene Mary Fried- erich, of Sheboygan, who was there born and reared, and six children have been born to them. They are George P .; Joseph F .; William M .; John H .; Clara Mary, and Thomas E. Rath. Mr. Rath is a member of the Roman Catholic church and of the Knights of Columbus as well as the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin and the Catholic Order of Fores- ters. He is financial secretary and treasurer of the latter order and is recording secretary of the Catholic Order of Foresters. He also has membership in the Modern Woodmen of America, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Sons of Veterans.
In the years before Mr. Rath became identified with his present office, he served as assessor and town elerk of Price, and he was serving in the latter office at the time of his election to that of county clerk. and
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during his service as clerk of the town of Price, he was mainly instru- mental in getting that town cut off from the town of Polar.
DR. F. C. KESTLY is well known in Antigo and Langlade county as the leading dentist of Antigo, where he has been engaged in the prac- tice of his profession since 1899. He came here immediately following his graduation from the dental department of the Northwestern Univer- sity of Evanston, Illinois, in the spring of 1899, and his accomplishments in his chosen field of professional activity have been of a nature well worthy of note.
Born on a Manitowoc county farm on October 26, 1871, Dr. F. C. Kestly is the son of Jacob and Margaret (Bogenschutz) Kestly, both natives of Germany. The mother came to America with her parents as a girl, and for a time was with them, resident in New York state, before coming to Wisconsin. Jacob Kestly came to Manitowoc county, this state, direct from the German Fatherland, being in his young manhood at the time and he was married in the community in which he first made settlement. He was for years engaged in the carpenter business, later turning his attention to farming, an enterprise that the natural resources and conditions of the country made attractive to one of his thrift and energy. He continued as a farmer until he died in 1903. His wife died in 1873, when her son, Dr. Kestly of this review, was an infant two years old.
As a boy growing up on the home farm of his father, young Kestly attended the country schools, dividing his time between his books and his duties on the farm, as befitting the country youth, and he later attended the Oshkosh Normal School. His normal training completed, the young man engaged in school teaching in Sheboygan county, for three years, and for a year thereafter attended the Spencerian Business College at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was not until after that that he took up the study of dentistry in the Northwestern University.
From the beginning of his career in the dental profession Dr. Kestly has enjoyed success. He is not one to do things by halves, a sturdy Ger- man thoroughness characterizing his work at every turn, and he has gained prominence and reputation in his profession with each succeed- ing year.
On December 31, 1902, Dr. Kestly was married to Miss Mabel, daugh- ter of H. J. Frick, of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Mr. Frick is one of the oldest conductors in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and is still in active service. One son has been born to Dr. and Mrs. Kestly, Charles Frederick Kestly. The doctor is a member of Lodge No. 662, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he has twice served as Exalted Ruler, and has membership in the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Order of Foresters. His churchly rela- tions are maintained as a member of the Roman Catholic church.
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GEORGE W. MOORE, M. D. To no profession do greater opportunities of quiet and effective social service come than to the medical fraternity, and a physician and surgeon who has well utilized and accepted his privileges for faithful performance and skillful work is Dr. George W. Moore, president of the Langlade county Medical Society and health officer of the city of Antigo, where he has his home and office. . From 1908 to the spring of 1912, Dr. Moore served as city physician of Antigo, and is now in his fifth year as health commissioner. His practice at Antigo began in 1905, when he came fresh from his medi- cal studies and soon gained recognition as an able and conscientious doctor. Dr. Moore is a graduate of the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of Chicago, with the class of 1905.
A native son of Wisconsin, and a member of a family which has been identified with the northern half of the state since pioneer times, Dr. Moore was born at Kewaunee, two and a half miles west of the city on a farm, December 8, 1876. His parents were Seth and Johanna (Werner) Moore. Seth Moore, whose father was also named Seth, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1835. His wife was a native of Ger- many. When a boy Seth Moore was brought to Wisconsin, the family locating at Racine. Later in 1855, he moved to Kewaunee, where he still lives. For many years he was engaged in the operation of a lime burning kiln and the stone quarry near Kewaunee. His wife died in 1892.
In Kewaunee county Dr. Moore spent his boyhood on his father's farm. He had the usual experiences of a farmer boy, and at an early age began looking farther than the horizon of farm life, as the sphere of his own accomplishments. After getting a preliminary training in the country schools and at the high school at Kewaunee, where he was graduated in 1899, he set to work to earn the money to pay for his medical education. Employment was given him in the Freight Agent's Department of the St. Paul Railroad at Wausaukee in Marinette county, and he proved an efficient helper there for eighteen months. With the savings of that work he paid for his first year in medical college. . During the successive vacation periods he had charge of the infirmary at Mendota, Wisconsin, being in charge there for two years. In this way he paid his own way through medical school and was graduated in 1905 and immediately took up his professional career in Antigo. Dr. Moore is a brother of Professor Ransom Moore, who is a professor and head of the agronomy department of instruction at the University of Wisconsin. In 1908 Dr. Moore married Cora Win- gert, of Freeport, Illinois. Their two children are Genevieve and Georgia. Besides his connection as president with the Langlade County Medical Society, Dr. Moore is a member of the Wisconsin State Society and . American Medical Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with
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the Knights of Pythias. While his practice is general in scope, he has been especially successful in obstetrical practice.
DR. FRED V. WATSON. Since the year 1900 Dr. Fred V. Watson has been engaged in the practice of medicine, coming here soon after he - obtained his medical degree, and here he has built up a fine practice, in every way worthy of his talents and the efforts and energy he has injected into his work in a professional way. Dr. Watson was grad- uated from the University of Iowa in 1897, with the degree of B. S., two years later winning his M. D. degree at the Marion Sims College of Medicine at St. Louis, Missouri. He served as an interne at the City Hospital of St. Louis for six months, there gaining a maximum experience in a minimum time, and took post graduate work in Chi- cago before coming to Antigo in 1900, where he has since continued.
Dr. Watson was born in Grinnell, Iowa, on November 24, 1876, and is a son of William and Maria (Kline) Watson, born natives of Scot- land. The father worked his way over from his native land on a steamer that consumed forty-five days of time in the passage, being at that time eighteen years of age, and was twenty-five days in small-pox quaran- tine at Ellis Island. The mother was fourteen years old when she came to America, and she met and married her husband in Pennsylvania, later coming with him to Iowa, where they established themselves on a homestead. The father is still living, and the mother died in 1908.
Educated in the country schools in the vicinity of Grinnell, after finishing the curriculum of the high school, Dr. Watson entered Iowa College at Grinnell, where he spent one year, and then became a student in the Iowa State University. His college career, his service in a St. Louis Hospital, his post graduate work in Chicago in the summer of 1900, and his coming to Antigo in 1900 has been touched upon in a previous paragraph, and it suffices to say further at this point that Dr. Watson takes his place among the leading physicians in the city and county today.
In 1903 Dr. Watson was married to Miss Teda Uhlman, who was born in Nova Scotia. She later became a resident of River Falls, Wisconsin, with her parents, and was engaged in teaching school in that place when she was married. They have one child,-Janet Watson.
Dr. Watson, who conducts a general practice in medicine and sur- gery, is a member of the Hospital Staff of the City Hospital. He is a member of the County and State Medical Societies, and the National Medical Association, while his fraternal affiliations are with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen, the Independent Order of Foresters and several local organizations. Some of his business connections are repre- sented by his membership in the directorate of the First National Bank of Antigo, and the vice-presidency of the Antigo Confectionery Com-
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EHSteiger
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pany. As a member of the Antigo Commercial Club he displays an active and wholesome interest in the civic development of the city, and has at all times displayed a citizenship that is most creditable to him and of intrinsic worth to the city.
EMIL H. STEIGER. As the originator and developer of what is prac- tically a new and exceedingly important industry, the name of Emil H. Steiger deserves a high place among Wisconsin business executives and industrial leaders. Mr. Steiger is a type of man whose devotion to one ideal brings about success and prosperity not only where he is individually concerned, but produces a permanent and far-reaching benefit to mankind. Mr. Steiger was one of the founders of the Osh- kosh Grass Matting Company, of which he is president, and which is the largest concern of its kind in the Union. Mr. Steiger is also an interested principal in enterprises of substantial order, and is recog- nized as one of the leading business men of Oshkosh.
Emil H. Steiger was born on a farm near Fremont, Waupaca county, Wisconsin, on the seventeenth of September, 1871, and is one of the four children of Jacob and Amelia (Spindler) Steiger. The father still resides in Waupaca county, the mother being deceased. Jacob Steiger was born in Switzerland, and his wife in Germany, their marriage having been celebrated in Wisconsin. Jacob Steiger was reared and educated in Switzerland, and is a typical representa- tive of the sterling stock of the little Swiss Republic. In 1858 he emigrated to America, and soon after his arrival established his home in Wisconsin. A prosperous farmer of Waupaca who retained his land from its primitive condition, he gained a competency as a result of years of hard labor and good management. His eightieth birthday anniversary was celebrated in 1913, and he is still well preserved in mental and physical powers. Jacob Steiger is living retired in a pleasant home in the little city of Waupaca, where one of his daugh- ters keeps him company, and cares for his declining years.
Emil H. Steiger gained his early experience in connection with the activities of the home farm, and was afforded the advantages of the public school. At the age of seventeen he entered the Oshkosh Business College, took a thorough course in bookkeeping, and was then ready for practical work. From 1890 until 1896 his chief activi- ties were in connection with the operation of a saw mill at Fremont, and at the same time he managed a threshing outfit. The handling of real estate was also one of his enterprises, and for a time he did a large business at Fremont, conducting a warehouse for the storing of potatoes. He left that business in 1898, to embark on his career as a manufacturer.
For several years Mr. Steiger, it seems, had been making a study of the use of wire grass for the manufacture of rugs and mattings.
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His experience and his profits in the various enterprises in which he had been engaged, sawmill, lumber business, threshing outfit, real estate, and other enterprises, were only in the nature of a preparation and a foundation for his more important enterprise as a manufacturer of grass products. For that purpose he formed a partnership with Conrad Kieren and Louis J. Monahan, and supplied the greater part of the capital required for the establishment of the new and unique industry, his investment having been twenty-five thousand dollars. The firm took out patents on both the machinery and products. Mr. Steiger was associated with the original patentees of straight grass twine machines. There were twelve or fifteen machines originally built, which occasioned an outlay of more than twenty-five thousand dollars, and this came from Mr. Steiger as a personal investment. After the machines were perfected, a partnership was formed, and on the terms of the partnership, Mr. Steiger received a one-third interest in the patented machinery, and an equal percentage of returns from the sale of the manufactured products. One of the first men in Oshkosh to be interested, was Mr. Leander Choate, the well-known pioneer, and a man who had in his long and active lifetime helped many individuals to success and developed many important industries in Wisconsin. Mr. Choate and R. C. Brown were admitted to the partnership in 1903, and on the reorganization of the business at that date, it was incorporated under the laws of the state and under the title of the Oshkosh Grass Matting Company. The first board of directors were as follows: Leander Choate, Emil H. Steiger, R. C. Brown, F. E. Waite, and Conrad Kieren. The first officials of the company were: Leander Choate, president; F. E. Waite, vice-presi- dent; and Emil H. Steiger, secretary and treasurer. After the death of Mr. Choate his widow, Mrs. Adaline P. Choate was elected to the presidency as his successor, and she continued the incumbent of this office until December 16, 1912. Mr. Steiger is now president; Jacob J. Steiger, treasurer; and W. H. Genske, secretary. For the splendid success of the business, Mr. Steiger gives due credit to the late Lean- der Choate, whose counsel and practical assistance was accorded at a time when the developing concern most needed them.
An interesting account of this business and Mr. Steiger's career was recently published in a trade journal, and some of the more per- tinent paragraphs from that article are given at that time: "The first wire grass ever harvested in the state of Wisconsin was con- tracted for by Mr. Steiger, and every year since he has been cutting thousands of tons of this fibre on the meadows which he has been acquiring, becoming thoroughly familiar with the wire grass industry, not only from a practical, but from a scientific standpoint.
The Oshkosh Grass Matting Company was organized later with a cap- ital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, and a year later Mr.
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Steiger was elected secretary and treasurer. He is now president of the concern, which does a business of more than one million dollars per year, and has held every position in the company from foreman in the grass fields to the presidency. The days, months and years of perfecting these machines, point by point, as well as the product, became with Mr. Steiger the one absorbing purpose of his life, and he is recognized as the authority on grass products. In fact, he has been the soul and spirit of his business, from its inception and growth of the production from a modest beginning to the tremendous propor- tions of the present time.
"The product of his factory was christened 'Deltox Grass Rugs.' No one knows just why, but 'Deltox' just seems to be the name, and the trade-mark Deltox has become a standard in the rug market in all parts of this country, and in South America, Panama, and Europe. The development of the business, in the matter of providing artistic carpet and rug design, brought grass matting to a close relationship to the oriental rugs in furnishing a home or office, for winter and sum- mer, and has been an interesting trade evolution.
". The rapid advancement of Mr. Steiger, the farmer boy of Wisconsin, to a position of eminence in the carpet and rug trade is the concrete evidence of the ability, common-sense, cool-headed judgment of the young man, who knew when to seize opportunities, and when to work hard and to obtain results. He has been especially prominent in the development and exploitation of grass rug and matting trade, and wherever he goes there is an exploitation of grass rugs that serve as a trade wake for salesmen to follow. He was the first to manufacture grass rugs from straight grass twine, without twisting the grass, so as to make them more serviceable and to make greater variety of patterns and obtain a softness in a grass rug that approximates the quality of the best rugs. As the volume of the trade has developed on such a gigantic scale, Mr. Steiger has given his atten- tion to looking close to the supply of wire grass, which thus far has been discovered in only two states of the Union-Wisconsin and Minnesota,-and in Manitoba. While some of the fields have been cut year after year for twelve years, they are now allowed to fallow for a year or so, so as to improve quality. At the semi-annual carpet sales in New York, Mr. Steiger has been a conspicuous figure for some years, and is one of the two life members of the Carpet Club of New York, with rooms and headquarters adjoining the famous Hoffman House. The increasing popularity of grass rugs and matting has been anticipated in the enlargement of the factory at Oshkosh from year to year, until it now covers an area of four or five acres. The factory is operated all the year round, and is visited by many inter- ested purchasers from all over the world."
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