USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 17
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In 1872 at Green Bay, Mr. Schedler married Amelia Liese, also a native of Germany. Their four children are mentioned as follows : Herman Frank, a resident of the state of Idaho; Hermina, wife of D. H. Mooney ; Paul Arthur, of Spokane, Washington ; engaged in the real estate business; and Martha, wife of Charles Lingelbach of Oconto.
HON. VICTOR J. O'KELLIHER, mayor of Oconto and one of the best known and most successful attorneys, was born in Oconto on March 4, 1879, and has passed his life practically within the confines of this county. Since 1902, when he was admitted to the bar, he has been en- gaged in practice here, and since 1911 has been a member of the well known firm of Classon & O'Kelliher, representing perhaps the best legal talent in the city.
Mr. O'Kelliher is the son of Jeremiah and Ellen O'Kelliher. The father was a lumberman who came to Oconto in the fifties, and he died in 1895, the mother surviving the death of her husband for five years. Their son was schooled in Oconto, and when he had finished the high school course in 1897, he devoted himself for two years to work in the employ of a farm implement concern as a salesman. It was thus he earned the money that made possible his college education. He entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin in 1899 and in 1902 was graduated, being straightway admitted to the bar. He engaged in practice in Oconto in 1903, and in June, 1911, he became the junior member of the firm of Classon & O'Kelliher.
In the fall of 1912 Mr. O'Kelliher was elected mayor of Oconto, suc- ceeding A. J. Caldwell in the office, and it should be noted that prior to his election to the office of chief executive of the city, he served as
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president of the city council for four years, so that he has long been conversant with the administration of affairs of the city.
Mr. O'Kelliher is unmarried and his only fraternal affiliations are maintained as a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
DAVID G. CLASSON. When David G. Classon became county judge of Oconto county in 1894, he was but twenty-three years of age, and he served in that position until January, 1898, being the youngest county judge in the state during his service. ITis career has been a notable one in many respects, and as a member of the firm of Classon & O'Kelliher, the leading law firm of Oconto, his position in profes- sional circles in these parts is undeniably secure. Judge Classon has served two terms as mayor of Oconto, and has also served as city attor- ney of Oconto, so that he has given freely of his ability and his time in the service of his city and county since he entered the lists in the legal profession. He is a native son of the county, born here in 1870, on the 27th day of September, and he is a son of W. J. and Adeline (Leger) Classon.
W. J. Classon was born in the state of Vermont, but was reared in Canada, which was the native country of the mother, Adeline Leger. They were married in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, from where they removed to Oconto in 1868. The father was a soldier in the Civil war, a member of the Twenty-seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and he spent his days in private life as a farmer and merchant.
David G. Classon gained his preliminary education in the public schools of Oconto, and in 1887 was graduated from the high school of this city. In the fall of 1889 he entered the University of Wisconsin, and was graduated from the law department with the class of '91. Immediately thereafter the young man entered upon the practice of law in Oconto, becoming associated with Judge Bailey, then county judge, continuing with the judge until 1893, when he became a partner in the firm of Webster & Classon. In 1894 he was elevated to the county bench, at the age of twenty-three, and he held that office for four years, retiring in January, 1898. In 1911 he became associated in practice with Hon. Victor J. O'Kelliher, mayor of Oconto at the present time, and one of the prominent attorneys of the county. Judge Classon himself served as mayor of the city from 1898 to 1900, his service com- prising two terms of one year each, and from 1900 to 1906 he was city attorney of Oconto, so that his public service has covered a considerable period of years. He has practiced in all the courts of the state and of Michigan as well, and his reputation in both states is that of a man of superior ability,-a wise counselor and an able advocate before the bar. He takes a prominent part in the Republican politics of the county and is a recognized leader in the party ranks. Socially he has membership
Geour Browng
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in Pine Lodge 188, A. F. & A. M., and Oconto Lodge No. 94, Knights of Pythias. He was Grand Chancellor of the K. of P.'s in 1898-99. He is president of the Oconto Board of Education, and is deeply interested in educational matters affecting his city and county.
In 1899 Judge Classon was married to Miss Myrtle Orr of Oconto, and they have four children : Abigail, Edna, Mary, and an infant son, Richard Orr Classon.
The parents of Judge Classon continued on their Oconto county farm until 1893, when they took up their residence in the city of Oconto, and here the father was occupied in the grocery business for some years. He died August 22, 1913.
GEORGE WALSH BROWNE. During the latter half of the nineties, when the bicycle craze was at its height all over the country, George W. Browne got his first business experience with one of the well known companies handling bicycles in Chicago. He is one of the men who followed the development of the business through its automo- bile stage, and is now one of the foremost men in the automobile trade of Wisconsin. Mr. Browne is president of the George W. Browne Automobile Company of Milwaukee, the title of the retail department of his business, and is also president of the Overland-Wisconsin Com- pany, the corporation name under which he does his extensive whole- sale business. As one of the best known and most enterprising busi- ness men of Milwaukee, Mr. Browne is among the men who came up from the ranks, and his success can properly be credited to his own initiative and splendid energy.
George Walsh Browne was born at Stanberry, Missouri, July 15, 1880, a son of the late Mark F. Browne, and his wife Sarah Eleanor (Randolph) Browne. Sarah Eleanor Randolph who was born at Louisville, Kentucky, July 4, 1856, was married to Mark F. Browne in April, 1872. Mark F. Browne was born at Geneva, Illinois, April 13, 1843, his people being Kentuckians, who had made the trip to northern Illinois in a wagon during the early day and located among the early settlers at Geneva. Mark F. Browne, who died at the home of his son George in Milwaukee on January 6, 1913, was reared in Geneva, Illinois, was in the lumber business for a number of years, and for a long time was the landlord of the Merchants House at Mo- berly, Missouri. He was a railroad man, and had a long period of service as conductor on the Missouri Pacific. During the latter years "of his active career he was in the mining, machinery and supply busi- ness at Joplin, Missouri, handling his goods under the name of the Joplin Supply Company. He came to Milwaukee about two years before his death, and he is buried at Geneva, Illinois, his birthplace. He was one of a family of eleven children, only one of whom survived him. Fraternally he was an active Mason and was past Grand Master
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of the Lodge of Moberly. Sarah Eleanor Randolph, the mother, al- though born in Kentucky, was of the old family of Randolphs of Vir- ginia, and one of her brothers, Lieutenant Randolph, was killed in the Civil war. She was left an orphan and was reared by an aunt and uncle named Rhodes, whose name she bore previous to her mar- riage. She was a woman of exceptional mental powers, and fine char- acter, and was one of the first woman graduates of Rush Medical Col- lege. Her death occurred February 15, 1912. The children of Mark F. Browne and wife were: Lillian Gay, born April 11, 1873; James Clarke born August 29, 1875; George Walsh, born July 15, 1880; Frank Joy and Perry Lee, twins, born February 8, 1883; Gladys Marie, born October 19, 1890. James Clarke died March 1, 1878, Frank Joy died July 19, 1883, and Perry Lee died August 2, 1883, all being buried in Brunswick, Missouri. George W. Browne is the only son now living and he has two sisters, Mrs. W. W. Callahan, of Chicago, and Mrs. Robert Keane, of New York City.
George W. Browne received his education in the public schools of Chicago, after which he attended Racine College at Racine in 1895 for one year. He was then fifteen years of age, and from that time to the present has been pulling his own weight, and latterly much more besides. His first work was for the Lake Shore & Rock Island Track Elevation Company of Chicago, with which concern he remained two years. He then entered the employ of the Mead Cycle Company of Chicago in the bicycle trade, and continued with that firm until 1903. In the meantime the automobile business had begun to develop to im- portant proportions, and he left to take employment with the Cadillac Automobile Company in Chicago, continuing with them as salesman during 1903-1904. In 1905 he began handling the Ford Auto- mobiles in Chicago, and in 1906 sold the Stoddard-Dayton in that city. Up to June of 1907 he was representing the Thomas Flyer in Chicago. In June, 1907, Mr. Browne transferred his field to Mil- waukee, and has since that time been engaged in business for himself. During 1907-09, he handled the Mitchell automobile, and in 1910 took the Overland, a machine which he still represents. He is now state representative of the Willys-Overland Company of Toledo, and super- vises the sales of sixty-five agents throughout the state of Wiscon- sin. He has incorporated the retail department of his business under the name of the George W. Browne Automobile Company, and be- sides the Overland carries the Stutz car as a side line. To care for the wholesale end of his business he incorporated the Overland-Wis- consin Company, the incorporation of both firms having been made on August 7, 1912. Mr. Browne is owner of all the stock except two shares in each company, and is president of each. During the first quarter of the year 1913, his books showed sales of twelve hundred and fifty Overland cars, as compared with seven hundred and fifty
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during the same period in 1912. The business of his companies now aggregate more than a million dollars each year. The place of business is at 510-16 Broadway and is the largest automobile salesroom in Wisconsin. A new feature has been added therein, that of suspend- ing automobiles from the ceiling. The capacity of the place is 400 machines.
Mr. Browne is popular in both business and social circles in Mil- waukee. He is affiliated with Milwaukee Lodge, No. 46, B. P. O. E. with the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Milwaukee Automobile Club, the Milwaukee Sharpshooters Gun Club, the Blue Mound Country Club and has membership in the Merchants & Manufacturers Asso- ciation. A lover of music, Mr. Browne was formerly a member of the trio in the Church of the Ascension at Chicago, a high Episcopal church. He is very fond of outdoor life, as would be natural in an automobile man, and besides motoring he is fond of golf and all other outdoor sports, including a particular penchant for duck hunting.
On December 15, 1906, in Chicago, Mr. Browne married Miss Jane Olga Johnson, a daughter of the late A. J. Johnson, who was the founder of the furniture manufacturing business in Chicago now car- ried on by his son. Mrs. Browne was born and educated in Chicago, where her mother still lives. Mr. and Mrs. Browne have two children : George W. Jr., and Jane Olga, both of whom were born in Milwaukee.
ALBERT RUSCH. The present sheriff of Oconto county. Albert Rusch, has lived in this section of Wisconsin nearly all his life, a period of more than forty years, and his family were among the pioneers of Oconto county. He has long enjoyed the high esteem of his fellow citi- zens, and his election to his present office was but an evidence of his personal popularity and the judgment of the people of Oconto county, that he was the best equipped man for the place. He was elected on the Republican ticket in the fall of 1912, and began his official duties on the first Monday in January of the following year. In 1910 Mr. Rusch was a candidate for this office, also on the Republican ticket, but was defeated by Former Sheriff Burns. It was a close race, and a margin of only twenty-five votes prevented him from entering the office two years before he did. In 1912, though in a Democratic year, Mr. Rusch was elected by a plurality of twelve hundred and fifty-eight.
Mr. Rusch's residence in Oconto county dates from September, 1871. He was born in Germany, August 14, 1864, a son of Godfried and Louisa Rusch. The mother died in 1907 at the advanced age of eighty-one, while the father is still living and has his home with Sheriff Rusch. Albert Rusch was eight years old when the family left Germany and crossed the ocean to America, going direct to Oconto county, in Wis- consin. The father settled at Stiles in this county, and in that day when the lumber industry was the chief concern of this section of the state Vol. VI-10
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the father found employment as a mill worker, and also in the lumber camps in the woods, following that line of vocation until he retired. In 1897 the family moved to the city of Oconto, where Albert finished a schooling begun in the district schools.
He was only a boy when he began earning his own way, and has always relied on hard work and industry to put him ahead in the world. He worked around the saw mills for a time, and afterwards learned the shoemaker's trade, at which he was employed most of the time until he entered the office of sheriff. Mr. Rusch entered upon his official duties with a thorough familiarity with the sheriff's office. He has been connected off and on with the sheriff's office since 1894, having served as deputy and as under sheriff, and in 1897 Governor Edward Scofield appointed him to fill out an unexpired term of sheriff, caused by the death of Charles Quirt, who died while still in office. Thus Mr. Rusch filled the office thirteen months during 1897-98.
On February 5, 1891, Mr. Rusch married Miss Mary Eichman, of the town of Pensaukee in Oconto county. The six children born to their marriage are: Louise, Carl, Florence, Marie, Henrietta, and Harold. The fraternal affiliations of Mr. Rusch are with the Equitable Fraternal Union and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
ARTHUR E. CLEVELAND. There is perhaps no better known citizen in Oconto county than Arthur E. Cleveland, whose residence here extends over a period of thirty-seven years. He is now ably serving as treasurer of Oconto county, to which office he was elected in 1912 on the Republican ticket, assuming the duties of the office on January 6, 1913, and succeeding J. E. Keefe therein. Mr. Cleveland was born in Kewaunee county, Wisconsin, near Kewaunee, on March 29, 1874, and is a son of Levi and Nancy (Major) Cleveland, who have been residents of the state for more than forty years.
Levi Cleveland came from New York state, while the mother is Cana- dian born, and they were married in Michigan. In 1877 they moved from Kewaunee county, where they had settled after their marriage, and located in the town of Pensaukee, in Oconto county, and they are still residents thereabout, maintaining their home in Oconto Falls, and living retired.
Arthur E. Cleveland was reared on the Pensaukee farm, the place now being called Morgan. He attended the schools of the community and later entered the Valparaiso Indiana Normal School, after he had finished the Oconto high school. He taught school in Oconto county for three years, and since that time he has been chiefly active as a farmer. He owned a farm of eighty acres in the town of Morgan, Oconto county, which he operated until 1905, when he sold it and went to Green Bay, there engaging in the grocery business. He remained thus occupied for about a year, when he moved to Deer Lodge, Montana,
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and there for some few months he ran a moving picture show, after which he returned to Oconto and resumed his farming activities until he entered upon the duties of his office as county treasurer some months ago.
While a resident of Morgan Mr. Cleveland served his town as town clerk for five years, that being his first public service.
In 1898 Mr. Cleveland was married to Miss Stella Barnum, of Chi- cago, Illinois, and they have one child, Esther Cleveland. Mr. Cleve- land is a member of the Fraternal Reserve Association, of the Yeomen, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
A citizen of the highest order, Mr. Cleveland has taken his full share in the civic and other responsibilities of the communal life, and takes his place among the most highly esteemed men of the county, where he has lived for so many years.
HUNTER C. ORR. All his life Hunter C. Orr has been a resident of Oconto county and though he is yet in his early manhood, he has al- ready come to occupy a prominent place in the city of Oconto and in the county, giving promise of a greater prominence in the years to come, and a greater public service on his part. He is now serving as County Clerk of Oconto county, an office to which he was elected in the fall of 1912, and the duties of which he assumed on January 6, 1913. He succeeded Charles Norton in the office, that gentleman now holding the office of Deputy Register of Deeds.
Born on a farm in Oconto county, on August 22, 1882, Hunter C. Orr is the son of J. R. and Lanie (Helmerick) Orr, both of whom are still living, and now residents of Flint, Michigan. They came to Oconto in the seventies, and in this county long maintained their residence. The mother was born in old Fort Howard, now known as Green Bay, Wisconsin, and her father was a native of Germany, coming to Wiscon- sin as a boy. His name was Fred Helmerick, long deceased, but for many years a resident of Green Bay. J. R. Orr, the father of Hunter C. Orr, was born in Pennsylvania, and he came to Wisconsin as a boy of twelve years. His father, Hunter Orr, owned a saw mill in Oconto in the seventies and was fairly successful. Up to 1910 the parents of Hunter C. Orr of this reveiw made their home in the town of Abrams, and in that year they sold their farm, bought a place in the vicinity of Flint, Michigan, and there they now make their home, as has been pre- viously stated.
Hunter C. Orr was reared on his father's farm and he attended the country schools as he was privileged to, and spent a good deal of his time on the home farm. When he reached young manhood he went into the lumberwoods and worked there for a time, then turned his atten- tion to railroading and up to January, 1910, he was employed as a switchman. At that time his usefulness as a switchman was destroyed
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by the loss of his right leg, which was severed two and a half inches below the knee, and on October 20, 1912, he underwent an operation through which he lost his left leg just above the knee. His election to the office of county clerk has made it possible for him to maintain him- self and his family in a suitable manner, despite his unfortunate state, and it is believed that he will be continued in the office indefinitely,- certainly as long as the quality and character of his service is main- tained up to its present standard.
Mr. Orr was married on December 21, 1909, to Miss Lenora Wright, of Oconto, Wisconsin, a daughter of George and Addie (Sumberg) Wright. The father, a well known scaler of these parts, died in 1910, while the mother still lives.
Mr. Orr is a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen.
OAKLAND A. ELLIS. Forty-eight years of continuous residence in Oconto gives to Oakland A. Ellis a place of prominence in business and other circles of the community that is well nigh incontestible. As president of the Citizens' National Bank, his position would be assured, but he is also known as secretary, treasurer and manager of the Oconto Company, and for twenty years he has been chairman of the Oconto County Board of Supervisors.
Oakland A. Ellis came to Wisconsin from the state of Maine, where he was born in Oldtown, on October 20, 1840, the son of William and Miranda Ellis. When he was sixteen years old Mr. Ellis took into his own hands the responsibility for his future success or failure, but with a well defined idea of his own part as to which it should be, and at that age went to work for the firm of Clark, How & Demerrett, of Boston, his work taking him to Brompton Falls, Quebec, Canada, in the mills of that then well known lumber company. Mr. Ellis continued in mill work until he had acquainted himself with practically every branch of the business, traveling all over the country and stopping wherever lumber mills were found. In 1862 he enlisted in Company I of the Twenty-Eighth Volunteer Infantry, and for two years he participated with his regiment in the activities of the Civil war, seeing much of service and becoming acquainted with the hardships of war in all its nnattractiveness and misery. When he left the service upon the ex- . piration of his two year enlistment period, he went to Massachusetts and engaged in the cotton mill business, continuing thus until he came to Wisconsin. He located first at Peshtigo, then in its prime as a lum- ber center, and was employed by the Peshtigo Company of that place until he came to Oconto a year later.
Arriving in Oconto in about 1866, his first work was in the store of Holt & Balcom, the firm now being known as the Holt Lumber Com- pany, and he was in their store and office for three years. On March 17, 1869, he became manager of the Oconto Company, which position
Leander Choute
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he has retained continuously since that time, advancing in the favor of the concern until he became a partner, and later becoming secretary and treasurer of the business, as well as its general manager.
For years Mr. Ellis was a director in the Citizens' National Bank, and in 1910 he became president, it being one of the most solid financial institutions in the county. A Republican of stanch order, Mr. Ellis has been a delegate to certain national conventions, among them the one that nominated William Mckinley. He is one of the most public- spirited citizens of the community, up and doing in the best interests of the city at all times, and he is now serving as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Farnsworth Public Library of Oconto, the same having been donated by George Farnsworth, who was the father-in-law of Mr. Ellis.
In 1869 Mr. Ellis married Miss Carline E. Farnsworth, of Oconto, and to them have been born three children. Gertrude, George W., a resident of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Fred C. Ellis, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
LEANDER CHOATE. In the death of Leander Choate on October 18, 1909, the City of Oshkosh and the State of Wisconsin lost a remarkable citizen and benefactor. Leander Choate was a New Englander, pos- sessed of all the rugged native virtues and wholesome training of that stock; was one of the pioneers in Wisconsin, in the development of the great lumber industry, and a man of such progress and enter- prise that his business activities were never confined to any one channel. As a laborer, a farmer, a merchant a banker, a manufacturer, a financier, and a philanthropist, he became acquainted with almost all avenues of business life. His philanthropy was not of the ordi- nary kind, and did not consist so much in the giving of generous sums of money to institutions and organizations, although his con- tributions in this respect were hardly less important than those of any Wisconsin citizen, but the benevolence by which he won himself a permanent place in the affections of men was his spirit and practice of helpfulness to younger men. It is said that on the day of his burial, the flags on a number of factories in Oshkosh were placed at half- mast, out of respect to the memory of the man whose encouragement and helpfulness had been the chief factors in the success of the heads and managers of those industries.
From a biography and character sketch, written after the death of Leander Choate, and containing an analysis and appreciative esti- mate of the life and services of the late Oshkosh citizen, the greater part of the following review of that life is taken.
Leander Choate was born on his father's somewhat barren, but picturesque, farm near the little hamlet of South Bridgton, Maine, on November 17, 1834. He was of the seventh generation in descent
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from Jolin Choate, who had come to Ipswich, of Massachusetts Bay Province, previous to 1643. Of the early generations of the family little is known. The old homestead about Ipswich is even to the present time eloquent of their familiarity with honest toil, and with the homes of brave, true-hearted Puritan families. From that early settlement on the shore of Cape Ann, Ebenezer Choate, grandfather of Leander, removed in 1800 to Bridgton, Maine. He brought with him his wife, who was Elizabeth Choate and four small children. Ebenezer Choate had served in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war, going in as a private at the age of fifteen in 1779, and was discharged May 10, 1782. His early life thereafter was spent on the high seas, as a sailor, and he rose to the command of a vessel. While a man of inferior education, owing to lack of early opportu- nities, he did for fifty years uphold a useful part in promoting the social and moral welfare of the community in which he lived.
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