USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 12
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none, and one hundred and seventy-two clergymen where he was at first sustained by only two."
And so the old bishop went back to his own diocese of Wiscon- sin, there to live the remainder of his life in the service of his beloved people. The Civil war hurt him deeply and he felt most keenly the separation of the church for the time into two parts. In the year 1866, the election of an assistant to aid him in his diocesan work was carried out, and the choice fell upon William Edmund Armitage, of Detroit, and he was consecrated by Bishop Kemper and the assist- ing Bishops on the 6th of December, 1866. This was the eleventh and last consecration in which the venerable bishop took part. He had thought that the general convention in 1865 would be the last that he could attend, but he was also able to attend the one in 1868, and once again revisit his old friends in New York. In 1869 he pre- sided over his diocesan convention with his assistant bishop at his side and surrounded by sixty-eight clergy, the last time that his venerable figure, his benignant countenance, crowned with his snow white hair, was to appear. He went directly afterward to consecrate the cathedral church of Our Merciful Saviour at Faribault, which was the second cathedral in America. After this journey he returned home and lived quietly making a few journeys in his own diocese, but not going again beyond its borders. He died early in the after- noon of Tuesday, May the 24th, 1870, and was buried from the chapel at Nashotah. Six bishops, seventy clergymen, and over two thou- sand people followed his body to the grave. It is difficult for us to realize the veneration felt for Bishop Kemper by the whole church in those closing days of his life. There has been nothing like it seen since, and in the commonwealth of Wisconsin, men of every class well nigh worshiped him. As Dr. White says "He could travel about the state for weeks without its costing him a cent, for people would not take payment from him for conveyance and entertain- ment. The rough lumbermen of the backwoods would stand with uncovered heads waiting for him to say grace before they would sit down to eat. And this sentiment was deepened by proximity ; those who knew him best revered him most. The community at Nashotalı and every one in the neighborhood, down to domestics and laborers in the fields, felt for him affection mingled with awe; and Renan has well said that the judgment of one's humblest friends in respect to character is almost always that of God."
We quote the following passages from the memorial address given at the meeting of the diocesan convention the following June, by Dr. Hugh Miller Thompson : "There are deaths that come upon us with the sense of a completed harmony, when the work is done, when the story is all told, when the long, full day's travel is finished. They are deaths to thank God for-these deaths that end a long and fruit-
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ful life with a perfect close. They come with the calmness of sum- mer sunsets that end the day, with the dreamy regret of the Indian summer that ends the year. They seem to belong to the diviner har- monies of the other world, to be visitations of God's eternal order here among the uncertainties and confusions of time.
"It is such a death we commemorate here in this memorial serv- ice and I believe there is no one present who does not thank God that it came to our departed father.
"For nearly sixty years, Bishop Kemper served at the altar. For nearly thirty-five of those sixty years he was a bishop. His active life covered a period of the greatest changes in his own country and the world, his whole life nearly the entire history of the American episcopate.
"Our witness, though man's witness is nothing to him now, is that he bore himself right manfully, loyally and faithfully, as a true Bishop and example for the flock, and that the memory of his faith- ful life is a precious legacy to us and to our children, for all time to come."
Wonderful tributes were paid him by his brother bishops, who felt as no one else could feel, the wonder of the work he had done. Bishop Vail said: "His life furnishes a most important link, not only in the history of our American church but in the history of the Church Catholic of this age, as it develops its grand missionary work for the benefit of the world."
To quote again from Dr. White: "And so the great central luminary, having thrown off successive rings of planetary dioceses, had sunk to rest, without a cloud to dim his disk. The Christian Odyssey of the great West was over, and its lakes and streams, and plains knew him no more. The Napoleon of spiritual empire had passed away-and who would not prefer Kemper's crown to Bona- parte's? The missionary bishop of a jurisdiction greater than any since the days of the apostles,-and St. Paul himself had not travelled as widely and as long, for Kemper had gone three hundred thou- sand miles on his Master's service,-has gone to his reward. Well had his life borne out the meaning of his name: 'Kemper, A Champion.' "
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JACKSON B. KEMPER. It has been given Mr. Kemper to achieve marked distinction and precedence as one of the representative mem- bers of the bar of his native state and in the city of Milwaukee he is a member of the well known law firm of Bloodgood, Kemper & Bloodgood, one of the most important in the metropolis of the state, with offices in the Mitchell building. An illustrious ancestral her- itage is that of Mr. Kemper, and his appreciation of the same stands in justification of the consistent statement of Macaulay to the effect
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that "A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remem- bered with pride by remote descendants." The name which he bears has been one distinguished in connection with the annals of Wiscon- sin history and those of the nation, and on the distaff side the ancestral record is equally interesting and worthy. In his character and accom- plishment Mr. Kemper has honored the family name, and he is specially entitled to specific recognition in this publication.
Jackson Bloodgood Kemper was born at Nashotah, Waukesha county, Wisconsin, on the 25th of January, 1865, and is the only child of Rev. Lewis A. Kemper, D. D., and Anna (Bloodgood) Kemper. His father was a son of Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, a distinguished prelate of the Protestant Episcopal church and bishop of the diocese of Wisconsin at the time of his death. On other pages of this work is entered a memoir to Bishop Kemper, so that further data concern- ing him are not demanded in the present connection.
Rev. Lewis A. Kemper, D. D., was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 19th of July, 1829, and he passed the closing years of his life at Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, where he was summoned to eternal rest on the 27th of April, 1886. His cherished and devoted wife was born at Houlton, Aroostook county, Maine, on the 30th of January, 1833, and she died, at Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the 28th of September, 1886. The founder of the American branch of the Kem- per family came from Germany in 1740, and his son Daniel, great- grandfather of him whose name initiates this sketch, served as a colonel of a patriot regiment of the continental forces in the war of the Revolution. He was thereafter a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, to which only those who had been officers in the Revolu- tionary struggle were eligible. Kemper Hall, a girls' boarding school maintained at Kenosha, Wisconsin, under the auspices of the Protes- tant Episcopal church, was named in honor of Rt. Rev. Jackson Kem- per, whose name is one of the most distinguished in connection with the early history of the Episcopal church in Wisconsin. Daniel R. Kemper, a brother of the Bishop, was one of a company of young men who, in 1805, went to South America for the purpose of tendering their aid in securing independence to the citizens of Venezuela. They were captured by the Spanish forces and met their death by shooting, as a result of their ardent espousal of the revolutionary cause. Within a recent period the patriotic citizens of Venezuela have erected a fine bronze monument in memory of these gallant young Americans.
Rev. Lewis A. Kemper, D. D., became one of the leading clergy- men of the Episcopal church in Wisconsin and was specially promi- nent in connection with its educational work. He was professor of Hebrew and Greek in Nashotah Theological Seminary for thirty years and was one of the best loved and most honored members of the
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faculty of this institution. In later years he served also as rector of Zion church at Oconomowoc, in connection with his work in the theo- logical seminary. He was graduated in Columbia University as a member of the class of 1849, and after his ordination to the priest- hood his services were almost entirely centered in Wisconsin during the residue of his long and useful life, which was one of signal con- secration. He was one of the leading representatives of his church in this state and had much to do with its various activities. He was a valued member of the diocesan standing committee and a frequent delegate to the general conventions of the church as represented in its organic body in the United States. In 1874 his name was brought forward in a prominent way in connection with advancement to the bishopric, and had he consented become a candidate he would un- doubtedly have been elected to this high office, one which had been signally dignified by his honored father.
In the maternal. line Jackson B. Kemper, to whom this review is dedicated, is of the eighth generation in descent from Francis Blood- good, who came from Amsterdam, Holland, in 1658, and settled at Flushing, Long Island, the original orthography of his name having been Francois Bloetgoet. Concerning the family history adequate data appear on other pages of this work, in the sketch of the career of Francis Bloodgood, unele of him whose name initiates the article here presented.
After due preliminary discipline Jackson B. Kemper entered Racine College, at Racine, Wisconsin, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1884 and from which he received the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts. In 1886 he began the study of law in the office and under the effective preceptorship of his uncle, Francis Bloodgood, in Milwaukee, and in 1888, upon examina- tion before the state board of law examiners, he was admitted to the bar of his native state. He was forthwith admitted also to partner- ship in the law business of his uncle and cousin, under the title of Bloodgood, Bloodgood & Kemper. In 1893 William J. Turner, who is now presiding on the bench of the circuit court of Milwaukee county and who is individually represented in this publication, became a member of the firm, the title of which was thereupon changed to Turner, Bloodgood & Kemper. In 1896 Judge Turner retired from the alliance and Wheeler P. Bloodgood, son of Francis Bloodgood, became a member of the firm, the business of which has since been conducted under the title of Bloodgood, Kemper & Bloodgood. The firm controls a large and representative practice and Mr. Kemper has long held precedence as a trial lawyer of distinctive versatility and resourcefulness and as a counselor admirably fortified in the minutiae of the science of jurisprudence. He has appeared in connection with many important causes, and it may be specially noted that he repre-
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sented the trustees of the estate of the late Hon. Harrison Ludington, former governor of Wisconsin, in the cases brought for the construc- tion of the will of the governor. He was also representative of the trustees of the estate in the subsequent litigation with the widow of Governor Ludington, and concerning this and other important litiga- tions with which the firm of Bloodgood, Kemper & Bloodgood has been concerned, further mention is made in the sketch of the career of Francis Bloodgood, elsewhere in this volume. Especial reference is there made to the cases connected with the bank failure in Milwaukee incidental to the panic of 1893, and the heavy bankruptcy cases with which the firm has been identified since the passage of the present national bankruptcy laws.
In politics Mr. Kemper has always been a moderate Republican, but he has deemed his profession worthy of his undivided attention, has subordinated all else to its demands and thus has not cared to enter the arena of so called practical politics or to become a candi- date for public office. He is identified with the Wisconsin State Bar Association and the Milwaukee County Bar Association, both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, and he is a member of the Milwaukee Club, the University Club, the Milwaukee Country Club and the Town Club, representative organiza- tions of his home city. His attractive residence is located at 450 Lafayette Place, and the same is a center of gracious hospitality.
On the 3d of March, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kemper to Miss Luella Greer, daughter of William T. Greer, a promi- nent citizen of Louisville, Kentucky, and Mrs. Kemper is a popular figure in connection with the representative social activities of Mil- waukee.
F. R. BENTLEY. One of the ablest combinations of legal talent in the Sauk county bar is that of Bentley, Kelley & Hill, attorneys and counsellors at law at Baraboo. Mr. Bentley, the senior member, has an experience of twenty-one years in practice at Baraboo, and his father before him was one of the most esteemed of all the older lawyers in this section. The Bentley family was established in central Wisconsin about sixty years ago, when all this country was new and almost undeveloped, and its record has been one of important professional service, and good citizenship in every community of its residence.
F. R. Bentley was born August 8, 1869, in Sauk county, a son of Monroe and Susan (Booth) Bentley, the latter a native of England. The father, who was born at Binghamton, New York, April 9, 1836, was a grandson of a soldier of the War of 1812 killed in the battle of Plattsburg. Monroe Bentley and his father. Ephraim and an only brother all served in the Civil war, the father and brother both being killed while in the service. From New York the family moved to
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LaGrange county, Indiana, which remained their home many years, and Monroe Bentley was a boy in that county and graduated from the LaGrange Collegiate Institute in 1853. About that time or a little after the family moved from Indiana to Wisconsin, locating at Poynette, in Columbia county. Monroe Bentley taught school at Poynette and vicinity for ten winters. In 1866 he moved to Baraboo, studied law with C. C. Remington, and was admitted to the bar in 1878. His promi- nence in public affairs had begun some time before and he had served two years as chairman of the board of township supervisors. For ten years he served the village of Baraboo in different official capacities, and at the time of his death was the oldest practicing lawyer in that city. With a substantial knowledge of the law he combined a large experience and thorough judgment which entitled him to the confidence of his fel- lowmen. He won a reputation for quiet wisdom and was a sort of legal · adviser for almost the entire community. He was a strong temperance advocate; in politics a Republican. During the closing years of his life, from 1892 on, his son F. R. Bentley was his partner under the firm name of Bentley & Bentley.
Mr. F. R. Bentley grew up in Baraboo, graduated from the Baraboo high school in 1886 and started out to make his own way as a telegraph operator. His service in that line was largely on the Madison division of the Northwestern Railway. Later going west, he lived in Seattle, Washington, for three years, and while there took a law course for two years. His return to Baraboo in 1891, was followed by a continuation of his studies until admitted to the bar in 1892. He immediately became associated in practice with his father. In 1902 John M. Kelly joined him in practice, and to that firm in 1910 James H. Hill added his mem- bership; the firm of Bentley, Kelly & Hill enjoy a large and extensive practice in the state and federal courts. Mr. Bentley during his years of practice as a lawyer has also been connected with several local business enterprises.
His prominence in Republican politics has made him known through- out the entire state, and he has worked energetically for the good of the party. in a number of recent campaigns. During the Roosevelt cam- paign of 1904, he was secretary of the State National Republican cam- paign, with its headquarters in Milwaukee, where he remained about five months, giving all his time and energy to the conduct of the cam- paign. From 1896 to 1900 he served as district attorney for Sauk county. March 6, 1907, he was appointed by President Roosevelt as Col- lector of Internal Revenue for Second District of Wisconsin, which office he held for nearly five years. Fraternally Mr. Bentley is a Knight Templar Mason, belonging to Baraboo Commandery, No. 28, and has gone through all the chairs of the Order of the Knights of Pythias.
On November 10, 1892, in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Mr. Bentley mar- ried Miss Emma H. Emerson, daughter of Joseph and Susan Emer-
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SO11. They had one daughter, Jessie E., born September 18, 1896, who died June 4, 1903.
SOLON LOUIS PERRIN. A member of the Wisconsin bar since 1881 and since 1895 a resident at Superior, Mr. Perrin has been at different times general or special counsel for some of the larger corporations of his home city and state; has had a large practice in all the state courts and his attainments as a well read, careful and conscientious lawyer have given him a leading position among Wisconsin attorneys.
Solon Louis Perrin is a native of Wisconsin, and belongs to one of the pioneer families. He was born at Kinnikinnick, St. Croix county, March 17, 1859, the oldest in the family of William Louis and Julia Frances (Loring) Perrin. Grandfather John Perrin, a native of Ver- mont, moved to New York when a young man, and was for many years a farmer in that state. William Louis Perrin was born at Malone, Franklin county, New York, in 1825. In 1851, he came with his brother James Perrin, to St. Croix county, Wisconsin, and was one of the early settlers in that vicinity. His interests also identified him with public affairs, and in addition to various township offices, he was from 1875 to 1879 county clerk of St. Croix county. The year 1883 marked his retirement from active affairs, at which time he moved to River Falls, and in 1895 came to Superior to live with his son, until his death in 1907 at the age of eighty-two years. In politics he was a Democrat, and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In this state occurred his marriage to Miss Loring, who was born in Shirley, Maine, in 1839. She died in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1894. Of the five chil- dren one died in infancy. Miss Loring came to Wisconsin in 1856, with her brother, sisters and widowed mother, the family settling in St. Croix county.
Solon L. Perrin was educated in the public schools of Kinnikinnick, was a student for a time in the high school at Hudson, and at the age of eighteen began the study of law in the offices of Baker & Spooner at Hutchinson. The junior member of that firm was John C. Spooner, later United States senator from Wisconsin. While a law student, Mr. Ferrin acted as assistant clerk of the assembly, during the sessions of 1879 and 1880. Beginning with the fall of 1880 his studies were pur- sued in the University of Wisconsin, where he was graduated LL. B. in June, 1881. Until 1895 his work as a lawyer was with the legal department of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad. Since that time he has had charge of the local business of the company in Superior. Mr. Perrin is also attorney for the Inter-state Transfer Railway Company, and has a large private practice and his services have been retained in many of the most important cases tried in the local courts. In 1897 he was appointed one of the receivers of the Su-
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perior Consolidated Land Company. Since the reorganization of the company in the spring of 1902, he has been its president and attorney.
In 1902 Mr. Perrin became a candidate for the office of state senator, and before the convention the vote was tied at five hundred ballots. Mr. Perrin withdrew his name and threw his support to one of his opponents. His politics have always been Republican. Fraternally his relations are with Superior Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and with the Masonic Order in which he has taken thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite, and has membership in the Lodge and Chapter at Hudson, the Palladin Commandery at St. Paul, the Wiscon- sin Consistory, and the Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine in Mil- waukee. As a lawyer Mr. Perrin has won recognition for his fine legal attainments, his fidelity to professional duty, and his able administra- tion of all interests entrusted to his care. His offices at Superior are in the Bank of Commerce Building.
In 1888 Mr. Perrin married Miss Elizabeth G. Staples, of St. Paul, Minnesota. She was born at Hudson, Wisconsin, a daughter of Silas and Nancy (Gilman) Staples, both natives of Maine. Their two chil- dren are: Florence Elizabeth and Jane Louis.
CARL B. RIX was born in Washington county, Wisconsin, on Sep- tember 30, 1878, and is the son of Wareham P. and Marie L. (Stauffer) Rix. The father was born in Stanstead county, Quebec, on May 19, 1844, while the mother is a native of Washington county. Wareham P. Rix is of pure English parentage on his paternal side and of Swiss and German on the maternal side. The first ancestor of the family was John Rix, who came from England to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1836, and the maternal grandparents of the subject came to America in 1850, coming west soon thereafter and settling in Washington county.
Carl B. Rix was educated in the public schools of West Bend and at Georgetown University. He was graduated from the high school of West Bend with the class of 1895, after which event he taught school in the county until 1900, when he received an appointment to a position in the Department of the Interior at Washington, D. C. While there he attended the school of law at the Georgetown University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1903, receiving at that time the degree of LL. B., and after one year of post-graduate work he received the degree of LL. M. In 1905 Mr. Rix commenced his practice in Milwaukee, and here he has since been engaged in a general practice. He is associated in practice with John M. Barney, under the firm name of Rix & Barney.
Mr. Rix is a member of the faculty of the College of Law of Mar- quette University of this city, where he is well and favorably known both to the profession at large and to a wide circle of friends and clients. Politically Mr. Rix is a Republican, but not a politician in
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the accepted sense of the term, and he is a member of the Milwaukee Bar Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order, and he still retains membership in his college fraternity, Delta Chi.
On September 30, 1907, Mr. Rix was married to Miss Sara Barney, the daughter of Judge Samuel S. Barney, of West Bend, Wisconsin. They have one child, Ellen Sybil, born July 5, 1911.
HAWLEY W. WILBUR. The beautiful little city of Waukesha, judicial center of the county of the same name, is favored in having at the head of its municipal government so progressive, loyal and public- spirited a citizen as its present mayor, whose name initiates this re- view and who is one of the representative business men of the younger generation in Waukesha, where his popularity is fully attested by his official preferment.
Mr. Wilbur was born at Burlington, Racine county, Wisconsin, on the 10th of November, 1882, and is a son of George H. and Jennie M. (Hawley) Wilbur, the former of whom was born in the state of New York and the latter in Indiana. George H. Wilbur was a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. On the 27th of August, 1861, he enlisted as a member of Company D, Ninth Indiana Volunteer In- fantry, and he forthwith proceeded with his command to the front. In 1863 he was promoted second lieutenant. He continued in active service, a faithful and gallant young soldier, until the expiration of his term of enlistment and was mustered out in September, 1864, duly receiving his honorable discharge. His record was such as to reflect enduring honor upon him and his continued interest in his old com- rades in arms is shown by his active and appreciative affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. He participated in many spirited engagements marking the progress of the great conflict through which the integrity of the Union was preserved and was ever found at the post of duty. Early in 1862 his regiment was in service in western Virginia, and then it was transferred to the Army of the Ohio, with which, in the command of General Buell, it participated in the memora- ble battle of Shiloh and other engagements. Thereafter Mr. Wilbur was with his regiment in the Mississippi and Atlanta campaigns and took part in many of the important battles incidental to these manoeu- vers of the Federal forces.
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