USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 10
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drew J. Frame, president; Frank H. Putney, vice president; Henry M. Frame, vice president; Edward R. Estberg, cashier; and Walter R. Frame and John G. Gredler, assistant cashiers. All of these officers, except the assistant cashiers, are directors, and the other member of the directorate is John Brehm, Jr.
Mr. Estberg is also vice president and a director of the Waukesha Malleable Iron Company, and of the Waukesha Motor Company; a director of the Modern Steel Structural Company; is treasurer and a director of the Dehydrating Company, an important Waukesha con- cern; is a director of the National Water Company, owners of the cele- brated White Rock Mineral Springs of Waukesha, and is vice presi- dent and a director of the Compton Manufacturing Company of Wau- kesha. It was due to the work of Mr. Estberg primarily that the pur- chase of the White Rock Springs property was effected by the present company. For this valuable property, whose product is known all over the nation, the sum of one million five hundred dollars was paid in cash, that being the largest cash transaction ever made in Waukesha county.
A successful business man, Mr. Estberg has always shown great public spirit and interests in the civic welfare of his home city. His name has been associated with many of the local undertakings and movements for the betterment of Waukesha city and county. In poli- ties lie is a Republican, but has never sought any office or political hon- ors of any kind. His fraternal affiliations are with the Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the Masonic Order, and for a quarter of a century, he has had membership in the Protestant Episcopal church, to which his wife also belongs. On November 8, 1893, Mr. Estberg married Miss Sara Brown. They are the parents of five children : Lola, John, Mar- garet, Edward and Charles.
JOHN C. THOMPSON. As one of the representative members of the bar of his native state and as one of the prominent and influential citi- zens of Oshkosh, Winnebago county, Mr. Thompson is well entitled to specific recognition in this publication. He was born at Princeton, Green Lake county, Wisconsin, on the 28th of April, 1872, and is a son of John C. and Catherine M. (Cameron) Thompson, who came to Wis- consin in 1849. He whose name initiates this review is indebted to the public schools of Wisconsin for his earlier educational discipline, which was supplemented by four years at Ripon College, at Ripon, this state, and he later attended the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. In preparation for the work of his chosen profession, Mr. Thompson was matriculated in the Wisconsin college of Law, at Madison, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bar of his native state and in July of the same year he opened an office in Oshkosh, where he has since been engaged in the active practice of his profession and
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where he has gained high standing as a versatile advocate and well for- tified counselor, with the result that he has long retained a representa- tive clientage and has been identified with much of the important liti- gation before the courts of this section of the state.
Mr. Thompson is a man of distinctive intellectual attainments and high literary appreciation, and his study and research have been car- ried into a wide sphere. He is a life member of the Wisconsin State Historical Association, one of the most vital and admirable organiza- tions of the kind in the Union, and he is also identified with the Ameri- can Bar Association, and the National Geographical Society. He has been one of the most ardent and effective of workers in behalf of the cause of the Republican party, and served for six years as chairman of the Republican county committee of Winnebago county, an office in which he showed much skill and discrimination in manoeuvering the political forces at his command. He served four years as chairman of the county board of supervisors, and during this time was an insistent advocate of progressive policies, with due conservatism in the admin- istration of county affairs. He was also for a time a member of the Oshkosh board of education. Mr. Thompson is a stockholder in a num- ber of banking institutions in his home state, besides which he is a mem- ber of the well known firm of Thompson, Pinkerton & Jackson, attor- neys at law of Oshkosh.
In the year 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Thompson to Miss Mabel A. Gile, a former resident of Neenah, Wisconsin, and they have three children, namely : John C., Jr., Robert R. and Barbar S. Thompson.
ROBERT KELLY. Since his advent in Superior, in 1892, Robert Kelly has been identified with some of the largest industries which have added to the prestige of his adopted city, but his activities have not been con- fined to the advancing of his personal interests, for at all times he has manifested a commendable willingness to co-operate with other earnest and hard-working citizens in forwarding movements for the public welfare. A native of the East, he came to Wisconsin in the prime of, manhood, bringing with him a wide experience, a thorough knowledge of men and affairs and that ability and judgment which are only ac- quired by active participation in the marts of trade and commerce. In his new field, he found ample scope for his attainments, and he has steadily risen to his merited place among the men to whom the general public looks for counsel, advice and leadership. Mr. Kelly was born December 26, 1849, in New York City, and is a son of Robert and Arietta A. (Hutton) Kelly. His father, a native of Brooklyn, was for some years engaged in the dry goods business in New York, but early entered Democratic politics, and becoming one of the first members of Tam- many Hall, was elected president of the New York Board of Education, Vol. VI-6
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and subsequently became city comptroller, a position he held at the time of his death, when he was but forty-six years of age. His wife, also a native of the Empire State, survived him for a long period, and passed away when seventy years old, having been the mother of three children, of whom Robert is the second.
Robert Kelly was given excellent educational advantages, attending the public and high schools of his native city, Yale College and the Columbia College of Law, from which last-named institution he was graduated with the class of 1872. He at once entered business in the East, and until coming to Wisconsin devoted his energies to the iron business and other large ventures. His versatile abilities have led him into varied lines of trade, and at present he is general manager of the Land & River Company, Reorganized, resident manager of the United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company and vice president of the First National Bank of Superior, and represents other large real estate interests here. He has not been indifferent to the social amenities, and is at present president of the Country Club, and holds membership in Superior Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Kelly holds independent views in political matters and has not entered the public arena, although he has realized the duties of citizenship and is now serving as a member of the board of park commissioners.
Mr. Kelly was married to Miss Mabel Silliman of New Haven, Con- necticut, daughter of Benjamin Silliman, a noted educator of the East. Five children have been born to this union: Robert; William ; Mabel, who is the wife of P. G. Stratton, of Superior; Faith, the wife of J. M. Kennedy, of Chicago; and Eleanor R.
LOUIS HANITCH. Were a comparison instituted among lawyers in general practice in the state of Wisconsin, to prove which of them all have enjoyed the largest measure of public confidence as a manager of cases calling for deep knowledge of law and practice, readiness of re- source, energy of action and power of logical argument, the name of Louis Hanitch, of Superior, would be found very near the head. Com- ing to this city in 1891, he has rapidly risen in the ranks of his pro- fession, and is today recognized by bar and public as one of the most able legists practicing in the Douglas county courts. Mr. Hanitch is a native of Dayton, Ohio, and was born October 9, 1863, a son of John and Mary (Schilb) Hanitch. Both parents were born in Germany.
Louis Hanitch received his early education in the public schools of Dayton, Ohio, following which he took a preparatory course at the University of Ohio, at Columbus. Subsequently he spent two years in a private school at Dayton, and when nineteen years of age went to Bismarck, North Dakota, there spending two years in agricultural pur- suits. His first regular introduction into legal life was in the office of Flannery & Cooke, where he spent about two years, following which he
yours very truly andrew B. Dettinger
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was admitted to the bar and followed his profession in North Dakota until 1891. While in that state, he served as district attorney of Bur- leigh county, and also as assistant attorney general for the territory of North Dakota. In August, 1891, he established himself in practice in Superior, and here he has continued to follow his profession to the present time. Mr. Hanitch has a large and representative general practice. He has taken a prominent part in a number of cases of an important nature, which have been brought to a successful issue and in which his success has been due to a certain life-long habit of action, which has always led him to examine for himself every vital point in question, and to give up no search as hopeless until he has exhausted its possibilities. He has served as a member of the school board of Superior and in October, 1912, he was appointed by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin a member of the State Board of Bar Examiners. He is a member of the Douglas County and Wisconsin State Bar Associations and is also connected with the Superior Commercial Club, and Supe- rior Lodge, A. F. & A. M .. His political support has been given to the Republican party.
On March 12, 1890, Mr. Hanitch was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Farquhar, who was born in California, and to this union there have been born three children, the Misses Mary, Catherine L. and Elizabeth.
ANDREW B. OETTINGER. Now serving in his third term as registrar of deeds of Forest county, Andrew Oettinger has been a resident of this county for twelve years, and in an official capacity and through his business has furnished a valuable service to the community. For a number of years he has been engaged in the insurance, loan and abstract business in Forest county, and his careful record, his integ- rity in his dealings between investors and purchasers have never been questioned. Mr. Oettinger is a successful man, and deserves great credit for what he has accomplished. When he was about four years of age he was run over by a sleigh, and as a result of the injury one of his legs had to be taken off near the hip, so that he has been a cripple practically all his life, but is wonderfully active, and though he has been in consequence set out from many lines of em- ployment, he has perhaps been all the more valuable as a factor in his chosen vocation.
Mr. Oettinger was first elected registrar of deeds of Forest county in the fall of 1908, taking office the first Monday of January of the following year. He was reelected in 1910, and again in 1912, each time on the Republican ticket. Prior to taking the office of registrar of deeds he was a resident of Laona, and served as the first town clerk of that town. He held the office of town clerk from the organi- zation of the town government in 1902 until elected to his present
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office. Mr. Oettinger has been a resident of Forest county since February 28, 1901, at which time he located at Laona, in the eastern part of the county, and engaged in the insurance business.
Andrew Oettinger was born at Menasha, Wisconsin, January 24, 1865, a son of Adam and Catherine (Sensenbrenner) Oettinger. His parents, who were married in Wisconsin, were natives of Germany, the father born at Baden, and coming to America at the age of nine- teen first settling near Philadelphia, where he was employed for two years, and then to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, where he was mar- ried. The mother was born in Alsace-Lorraine, a border province between France and Germany. From Sheboygan Falls the family moved to Appleton, and soon after to Menasha. When Andrew was eleven years old his parents moved to Wood county, twenty-four miles north of Stevens Point. The father died in 1907 at Stratford in Marathon county. The mother is now living at Laona.
From the age of eleven until he was twenty-six, Mr. Oettinger lived on the home farm in Wood county. In the fall of 1890 he was elected registrar of deeds of Wood county, and held that office for two terms from 1891 to 1895. He early developed a skill in the handling of tools, and after leaving the office of registrar of deeds in Wood county, he moved to Mattoon, Wisconsin, where he was saw-filer in a shingle mill for a year and a half. After that one summer was spent as a filer in a shingle mill thirty miles from Seattle, Washington. On his return from the west he located at Laona in Forest county.
On January 7, 1891, Mr. Oettinger married Miss Amalia Durst, who was born in Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, a daughter of Martin and Ernestine (Stahl) Durst. Her mother is dead, while her father lives in Wood county. Mrs. Oettinger was reared in Wood county, her family having moved there from Manitowoc county when she was a child. The family of Andrew Oettinger and wife contained six children : Andrew F., Helen, Arthur H., Earl, Theodore Joseph, and Henry J.
Mr. Oettinger has taken a prominent part in affairs of the Catholic church, belonging to the St. Joseph's congregation at Crandon and being secretary of the parish. He is also affiliated with Appleton Branch of the Knights of Columbus.
WILLIAM A. DRAVES. A founder and developer of Milwaukee's industrialism was the late William A. Draves, who had resided in Mil- waukee since the late sixties, and for more than thirty years was a prominent and influential factor in business affairs.
William A. Draves, who at the time of his death was vice president of the Northwestern Malleable Iron Works, was born in 1849 at Wiet- stock, Germany, and received his early education in his native land.
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On July 3, 1869, he arrived with the family of his parents at Milwau- kee, being then twenty years of age. He began his career as a worker in several different factories and eventually became foreman in the Wis- consin Malleable Iron Works at Bay View. About 1883 he and Fred- erick W. Sivyer established the Northwestern Malleable Iron Works, and for twenty-three years he was associated with the development and with the success of that industry. Mr. Draves served as vice president of the company and gave his chief attention to the operation of the plant until his death, which occurred March 14, 1906. Mr. Draves was also a stockholder in the Federal Malleable Iron Company and was secretary of the Chain Belt Company. He had property interests in . West Allis.
The late Mr. Draves was well known in Masonry, having attained thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite. The maiden name of his wife was Emelie Schilke, whose death occurred in December, 1907. Their children were three sons and two daughters, namely, William A., now assistant superintendent of the Northwestern Malleable Iron Works; Henry Charles, who is connected with the Free Press of Milwaukee; Albert W., who is a cadet at West Point Military Academy ; Minnie T., who resides at the old home; and Caroline M.
DR. M. A. FLATLEY. Another of the successful and promising young medical men of Antigo who are winning through to prosperity and position in the medical profession is Dr. M. A. Flatley, who has been engaged in practice in Antigo since 1903, in which year he was grad- uated from the medical department of Marquette College, in Mil- waukee, Wisconsin. He finished his senior year of study with an eight months' service as interne at Trinity Hospital in Milwaukee, after which he came direct to Antigo, and here has since continued in comparative success and prosperity.
Dr. Flatley was born at Calumet county, Wisconsin, on August 20, 1877, and is a son of John and Mary (Dockery) Flatley. The father yet lives in Green Bay, retired from active life, and the mother is deceased. John Flatley, now a man in his eighties, came first to Wisconsin in the early forties. He took up land in Calumet county and for many years was devoted to farm life in that county. Dr. Flatley was reared on the farm home up to the age of fifteen, when the family moved to Green Bay, and there he attended the schools of that city, later entering the Oshkosh Normal. His first independent work was at Rhinelander in the capacity of a teacher, and after a year in that work he took up the study of medicine, his college train- ing being already mentioned in detail in a previous paragraph. Dr. Flatley has done well with his talents and his opportunities thus far, and bids fair to make a lasting name for himself in his profession.
In 1906 Dr. Flatley was united in marriage with Miss Eugenia
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Shea, of Ashland, and they have two children-Marie, aged five years, and William, now two years old.
Dr. Flatley is a member of the Langlade County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society, and the American Medical Asso- ciation. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, as is his wife, and he is also identified with the Knights of Columbus, and has fra- ternal affiliations with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his wife participate in the leading social activities of Antigo, and have a host of excellent friends in the city and county.
JOHN OELHAFEN. A grateful remembrance dwells in the minds of all later comers for the "father of a town." With the receding fron- tier and the disappearance of the wilderness, the pioneers and the founders of towns are also passing. One of the fine old characters of northern Wisconsin, who belongs in this class is John Oelhafen, affectionately spoken of by local residents as the "Father of Toma- hawk." It was his distinction to have erected the first house and established the first store on that site in 1887, and through the subse- quent quarter century he has continued to be the first merchant in importance, as he was in time. He has also been prominent in the lumber industry in this locality. Mr. Oelhafen came to Tomahawk from Wausau, where had been his home for fifteen years previously.
A native of Germany, John Oelhafen was born January 22, 1836, a son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Beck) Oelhafen. When John was eight or nine years of age, his parents emigrated to America and his father bought a quarter section of land from the government in Wash- ington county, Wisconsin. Wisconsin was still a territory, and thus the Oelhafen family has been identified with Wisconsin since the pioneer days. The mother died on the farm just mentioned and after- wards the father sold out his possessions and moved to Milwaukee, in which city his death occurred.
On the farm in Washington county, John Oelhafen grew to man- hood, and acquired the industrious habits which so well fitted him for his later career. He received a practical education in the local schools, although his education was limited to the fundamentals. At the age of twenty-seven he married Annie Sophia Miller, also a native of Germany. They are the parents of six children, named as follows : Elizabeth is the wife of August Gastrow of Tomahawk; Andrew; John W ; Mary is the wife of George Pfeifer, of Warsaw; Annie is the wife of Ed. Seim of Wausaw; and William. All the sons are asso- ciated with the father in the mercantile business at Tomahawk.
While John Oelhafen was a young man he moved to Milwaukee, where he had his first experience in business life, establishing a grocery store there, and continuing in business until his removal to Wausaw. At Wausaw he engaged in merchandising, and prospered and ex-
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tended his trade over a large district during the fifteen years of his residence. In the meantime he had become interested in the land and timber business of Northern Wisconsin, and was a practical worker, skilled in all the details of the lumber industry as carried on in the old days. Each season he ran large quantities of logs down the river before the first railroad was put through. Then moving to the new town site of Tomahawk, he put up the first general store, and has kept in advance with the growth of the town and the surrounding country, by improving and extending his business from year to year. He also has large interests in land and timber, owning a fine farm of eight hundred acres, three miles northwest of Tomahawk. This land is improved up to the best standard, having a fine barn, residence, machine shed, fine farm equipment, and with about sixty head of cattle, many hogs and other livestock. In northern Wisconsin he also owns a delightful summer home. His possessions include many thousand acres of timber land, all over the northern part of the state, and also much land in South Dakota. At Tomahawk he is proprietor of the sawmill known as the Oelhafen Number 1 Mill, and operates four or five different logging camps throughout the state. By his fellow-citizens, John Oelhafen is estimated a millionaire. He started in life without any more capital than the average farmer boy possesses, and has made his fortune entirely as a result of straightforward deal- ings, and a persistent application of the energies of his nature to the work in hand. Mr. Oelhafen is a director in the Bradley State Bank of Tomahawk. Religiously he is a member of the German Lutheran church.
M. C. HYMAN. Known all over Lincoln county as Charlie Hyman, this pioneer resident of Tomahawk is one of the most popular men in this section of Wisconsin. A German by birth, he came to America when a boy and on his own resources entered into a career of competi- tion with strangers in a strange world, and fought his battle with success. He has been a resident of Wisconsin for thirty-seven years, and came to Tomahawk in 1887, the year in which the town was platted and laid out. In the same year he built the Hyman building, a two-story brick structure which is still one of the best business blocks in the city. During twenty-six years of residence in Toma- hawk, Mr. Hyman has served eighteen years in some public office, filling every public place with credit and usefulness to his community. For eight years he was mayor, for nine years he was on the county board of supervisors and has also served as alderman. At the present time he is a member of the Park Commission.
M. C. Hyman was born in Germany, November 26, 1860, a son of Isaac and Sarah Hyman. His father is now living in the Fatherland at the advanced age of seventy-eight. The mother has been dead for
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many years. Reared in Germany until he was fifteen years old, Mr. Hyman in 1876 set out for America, and first came to halt in Chicago, where he was employed in a store for one year. With a fair command of the English language, and with confidence in his own ability, he then came to Wisconsin, and began peddling jewelry and watches all over the state, chiefly among the lumber camps of northern Wisconsin. He spent four years in that work and during that time visited every county in the state, and all the lumber camps, and by his genial char- acter and square dealing made friends wherever he went.
In 1882 Mr. Hyman located at Merrill, and has ever since been a loyal and enthusiastic citizen of Lincoln county. At Merrill he estab- lished a wholesale and retail liquor business, and then in 1887 moved to the new town of Tomahawk, where he has conducted a wholesale liquor business. He is also extensively interested in real estate trans- actions, buying and selling both town and farm property.
Mr. Hyman is a stockholder in the Tomahawk Stave and Heading Company. His chief interest is real estate at the present time. Mr. Hyman is well known throughout northern Wisconsin, is a good Demo- crat, and has been a leading public spirited citizen of Lincoln county since the early days. That Tomahawk has an excellent library is largely due to Mr. Hyman who bought a great many valuable books which he donated to the collection, and in this as in everything else is always seeking means of benefiting his community. He has served as mayor of Tomahawk for six years and it is the opinion of local citizens that there is no honor which he could not obtain from their hands if he desired it.
THE RIGHT REVEREND JACKSON KEMPER. In writing the story of the life of Jackson Kemper, the first missionary bishop of the Epis- copal Church in America, the story of the founding of the Church in the great middle west must be given. In a sketch like this which calls for brevity, much that is most interesting in the history of this remarkable man must be omitted, for his life was full to the brim of work for his church and for humanity. No one man in the church since the time of her foundation in America has done as much for her growth and expansion as did Bishop Kemper, and to him must the gratitude of the people of the middle west ever go. Just to realize that he organized six dioceses, consecrated nearly one hundred churches, ordained over two hundred priests and deacons, and con- firmed nearly ten thousand souls, all in a period when the section of the country wherein he labored was still the frontier, gives one some . idea of the great amount of work accomplished by this man.
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