USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 21
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The education of Herman Grotophorst until his thirteenth year was derived from attendance at the country schools in the neighborhood of the homestead. He gained a thorough familiarity with farm labor as a youth, studied as opportunity presented, and all the while was ambitious to extend the horizon of his activities beyond the limits of a farm. Fin- ally, in 1882, he entered the University of Wisconsin, where he was grad- uated with the class of 1885, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. His studies were then continued in the law department of the State Univer- sity, where he completed his work in 1885. After standing the law exam- inations, he moved to Baraboo in 1886, and in this city his first experi- ence as a lawyer began. In 1888 Mr. Grotophorst moved to the city of Minneapolis, where he remained two years and during that time was asso- ciated with James A. Peterson under the firm name of Grotophorst & Peterson. With two years' experience in metropolitan practice, he returned to Baraboo, became associated with Mr. Remmington and Buch- ley under the firm name of Grotophorst, Remmington and Buchley. That firm lasted three years. The following twelve years Mr. Groto- phorst practiced alone, and then established the present firm of Groto- phorst, Evans & Thomas, the other members being Mr. E. A. Evans, and Mr. H. A. Thomas. Theirs is one of the leading legal firms of Sauk county, and their practice is of a general nature.
From 1886 to 1888 Mr. Grotophorst served as superintendent of the city schools of Baraboo, and his record as an educator is well re- membered by many of the older citizens of this locality. For nine years he served as a member of the state board of control, and was district attorney during the Peck administration. A few years ago he con- sented to become Democratic candidate in his district for Congress against Mr. Babcock, and his defeat was by a very small majority. Throughout his career his politics have been staunchly Democratic, and he is now regarded as a Democrat with strongly progressive tendencies. For fifteen years he has served as secretary of the Democratic county committee, has been a delegate to county, state and national convention, and during the active career of that eminent Democratic statesman was a very warm supporter of Grover Cleveland.
For the past four years Mr. Grotophorst has been president of the Bank of Baraboo, a substantial and old financial institution, with re- sources aggregating nearly two million dollars, concerning which more
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will be found elsewhere in this work. Mr. Grotophorst has fraternal affiliations with the Masonic Order.
In the City of Minneapolis on July 22, 1891, Herman Grotophorst married Miss Mary E. Griffith, a daughter of James and Ella Griffith, who were residents of North Wales, England.
SANFORD H. WOOD. A very efficient administration of the office of county clerk of Sauk county has been given by Mr. Wood during the past six years, and his character as a citizen and as a public official is held in high esteem throughout that community. Mr. Wood is a veteran of the railroad service, having spent many years as an engineer with the Chicago & Northwestern Railway.
Sanford H. Wood was born December 25, 1849, in McHenry county, Illinois. His parents, Jacob and Sarah (Thompson) Wood, were both born in the Province of Ontario, Canada, and Jacob Wood moved to the United States in 1832, locating in Boone county, Illinois. After a residence there of eight years, his home was established in McHenry county, where he followed the trade of blacksmith until 1860, when he engaged in farming until he retired. His death occurred in Nebraska in 1898. His widow survived until 1910, passing away at Aurora, Illinois. Thomas Thompson, the maternal grandfather, whose home was in Canada lived to be one hundred and three years of age. The great-grandfather on the paternal side was a Pennsylvania Dutchman. Sanford H. Wood attained all his early education in the common schools, of MeHenry county, Illinois. His active career began at the age of sixteen, and for more than twenty years he was a railroader. His first work was as a brakeman on the Chicago & Northwestern line, followed by six months as a baggageman, after which he became fireman for three years, and in 1881 was promoted to locomotive engineer. From 1884 to 1897 he was one of the capable and skillful drivers of one of the engines in the passenger service on the Northwestern Railroad. In 1897, on leaving the railroad service, Mr. Wood established his home at Baraboo. Since that time his interest has been taken up with differ- ent lines of business, and in the fall of 1906 he was elected county clerk of Sauk county. His official administration began in 1907, and by reelection his services have been retained to the present time. His office is conducted in a way that gives the greatest satisfaction to the people, and his personal acquaintance with the inhabitants of Sauk county is probably as extensive as that of any other local county official. His polities is of the Progressive-Republican brand.
Mr. Wood is affiliated with the Baraboo Lodge of Masons, with the Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 47, and with the Modern Woodmen of America. His long railroad service gives him an active membership in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. In McHenry county, Illi- nois, on November 2, 1875, he married Elsie M. Stevens, a daughter of Vol. VI-12
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Jonas and Mary Stevens. One daughter has been born to their union, Nella, born July 18, 1881.
THOMAS S. NOLAN. In twenty-seven years of membership with the Janesville Bar, Mr. Nolan has been both a successful and a distinguished lawyer; one whose talents and hard-working ability have enabled him to serve the interests of many and important clients and who both as a citizen and business man has been prominent in the city and in south- er Wisconsin.
Thomas S. Nolan is a native of Janesville, born in the city, October 11, 1856, a son of Simon and Margaret (Coss) Nolan. Both parents were born in Ireland, and the father came to America in 1854, locating in Janesville. His business was that of Railroad Contractor, and it took him into various parts of the country, and it is worth mentioning that he was one of the contractors who helped to build the Northwestern Railroad from Janesville to Chicago. There were two children, Thomas S. and Catherine M., the latter being the wife of Walter E. Fernald, well known as an educator, and who since 1886 has been Superintendent of the School for Feeble Minded at Boston, Massachusetts. Both the parents are now deceased.
Thomas S. Nolan attended the public schools and then was a stu- dent at Ridgetown, Ontario, in the Ridgetown Academy. He began studying law in the office of Attorney Edward Bates, of York, Nebraska. For some time previously he had been employed as assistant clerk, and then as clerk in the office of the Nebraska Penitentiary. Finally he returned to Janesville, and continued his study of law with Cassoday & Carpenter, and later with Eldredge & Fethers. He was admitted to practice in the Wisconsin Bar in 1879.
Mr. Nolan in 1881 was one of the incorporators of the Recorder Printing Company, and for the first two years was editor of the Re- corder, a Republican paper. On leaving the editorial chair he became associated in practice with John Cunningham, under the firm name of Nolan & Cunningham. This partnership continued for three years, at the end of which time George G. Sutherland became his partner, under the name of Sutherland & Nolan. Their firm did a large business in Janesville and Rock county, and their relationship was continued for nine years. After that Mr. Nolan practiced alone until 1908, and then became associated with H. W. Adams and Charles W. Reeder, under the firm name of Nolan, Adams & Reeder. This partnership was dis- solved in 1911, and Mr. Nolan now has offices by himself in the Jackman Building.
Mr. Nolan has been closely identified with several of the larger business enterprises of Janesville. He was one of the promoters, the attorney and an organizer of the Rockford & Interurban Railway Com-
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pany. He was also one of the organizers of the Janesville Traction Company. He was also an organizer of the Bower City Bank.
Fraternally, Mr. Nolan is a thirty-second degree Mason, and also affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In poli- ties he is a Republican, and for several years was chairman of the County Republican Committee. He was one of the original members of the Fire and Police Commission of Janesville, and for four years was president of the commission.
February 22, 1883, he married Miss Jessie M. Murdock, daughter of Edwin D. and Adelia (Hoyt) Murdock. They are the parents of one daughter, Vera E., who graduated from the Janesville High School with the class of 1909, and from Milwaukee-Downer College in 1912.
ARMINIO CONTE. As a commonwealth which on many counts is properly adjudged foremost in progressiveness among American States, Wisconsin has assimilated a more cosmopolitan population than almost any other state, and the achievements and position which are the chief ground for state pride no doubt proceed largely from this very cosmopolitanism.
From the priority in settlement and preponderance in numerical and commercial power the German people have of course been credited with the most distinctive part in shaping the destiny of the state, but many other nationalities have contributed in only less degree. As economic factors the Italian people today exert a powerful influence in the state, and the values they will contribute in the progress of Wisconsin during the following decades will be increasingly shown in all departments of activity.
As the home government's representative in the state, as a banker and business man of Milwaukee, the foremost Italian-American citizen of Wisconsin is Arminio Conte, a young man whose brilliant ability and accomplishment in the finer things of life, as well as his success in business render him an especially appropriate representative of a nation which for so long has been regarded as the world's center of culture and religion.
Arminio Conte was born near Naples, Villanova del Battista, in the Province of Avellino, Italy, November 18, 1878. He is the second son of the late Ralph Conte and Lucy (Torizzo) Conte, his mother be- ing still a resident in Italy. There were four sons and one daughter in the family. The father was for many years a soldier under the Bour- bons, but later deserted them and for about eight years served under the new regime inaugurated when Rome was proclaimed capital of Italy on September 20, 1870. The father died in Italy in September, 1908. He had served his country as a soldier from the time he was sixteen until the time he was thirty-five years of age. During the lat- ter part of his life he was in business as an exporter of wines and he
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also manufactured wines from the grapes of his own vineyard, as well as from those of other vineyards in Italy.
Arminio Conte received his education at Naples, and in Rome, where he spent his youth. He was educated in the technical school called in Italian "Scuole Techniche and Ystituto Secnico." At the age of seventeen he received the degree which in Italian is "Segretario Comunate." At the taking of the Italian census in 1891 he was awarded the diploma of honor from the minister of commerce and labor. He has passed successfully many civil examinations in Italy. On October 27, 1902, he was appointed clerk of the Italian Consul at New York City. He came to America to take up his duties, and spent four years in New York. After this in July, 1906, he was appointed Italian Consular Agent (Agente Consolare D'Italia). This appoint- ment brought him to Milwaukee, where he arrived on February 3, 1907, and has held this position and been a resident of the city ever since. Ilis jurisdiction as consular agent covers Wisconsin and Iowa, and among the Italian Americans of these two states he performs a service whose value in all its varied details of practical assistance, advice, and benevolence, can hardly be overestimated. He looks after injury cases among his people, guides the Italian immigrants who come to these states, secures work for them and settles their disputes and troubles. Previous to his arrival the labor bureaus had been syste- matically robbing the Italian immigrants on every hand, but under his consular jurisdiction the labor bureaus have gone out of existence so far as their preying upon the Italian people is concerned. The Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, The Falk Foundry, International Harvester Company, and the Allis & Chalmers Company now hire all their Italian laborers through the Consular Agency. Through Mr. Conte the Italian govern- ment has placed more than twenty thousand volumes of Italian gram- mars and other Italian school books in the Third Ward School, in Milwaukee, this ward being composed of ninety per cent Italian pupils. In that school they teach both English and Italian, and the school has become an excellent training ground for the making of good American citizens. Mr. Conte is popular among social and business circles in the city, is a member of the Deutscher Club of Milwaukee, the Knights of Columbus, the M. & M. Association and Italian Chambers of Commerce of New York and Chicago. He is a member of the Catholic church, belonging to Blessed Virgin of Pompeii parish of Milwaukee, and takes an active part in that congregation. Mr. Conte is of the opinion that his people in America need just two things, the school and the church, and it has been his aim to have the children of his countrymen to attend school and the entire family at- tend church, and in this way the best influences are exercised for good and useful citizens.
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Mr. Conte on January 1, 1909, opened in Milwaukee the Italian Mutual Savings Bank, located at 149 Detroit street. This bank accepts deposits all the way from one cent to one thousand dollars, but not in excess of one thousand dollars at one time. This is the only Italian bank in the state of Wisconsin, and its business is chiefly local to Milwaukee. Mr. Conte also represents the Bank of Naples, has the agency for all the steamship lines to Europe and South America. As Consular Agent he has in the two states about forty-five thousand Italians under his supervision, and his office handles a correspondence of more than fifty letters a day among these people. Mr. Conte in June, 1910, established the Milwaukee Macaroni Company, whose plant is at 173 Huron street, Mr. Conte being treasurer of this concern and the officers being well known Italians in the city. The company has prospered and built up a very flourishing business since its beginning, and now ships one thousand boxes of macaroni, each box containing fifteen pounds net, and more business will be handled as soon as the plant can be enlarged.
Arminio Conte is a bachelor, is a thorough student, a fine conver- sationalist, and has devoted his splendid abilities and powers to the service of his country, and is one of the finest representatives of Italian-American citizenship in Wisconsin or in any state.
HON. FRANCIS A. DELEGLISE. On March 25, 1894, there passed away at Antigo, Wisconsin, the man widely and familiarly known to the public as the "Father of Antigo." He was Hon. Francis Augustine Deleglise, and he was born on February 10, 1835, in Commune of Baynes, Canton of Valais, Switzerland, the son of Maurice Athanase and Cather- ine (Lang) Del'Eglise. In the preparation of this all too brief memo- riam which is designed for publication in this history of Wisconsin, nothing could be more in the nature of a eulogy than a simply straight- forward recounting of the more salient features of his long and singu- larly sweet life, and it is not the purpose or intent of this article to do auglit but tell of him as he was.
The father of Mr. Deleglise was one of four brothers of an old, and highly respected Catholic family of Valais, who were vineyardists. Of the four brothers, who all lived to reach ripe old ages two were priests, one of the Order of Jesuits, was a teacher of Mathe- matics at the University of Freiburg; the other of the Order of St. Bernard was the Superior of the Monks at the Great St. Bernard's Hospital. Maurice, the father of our subject, was a teacher and sur- veyor while the other brother conducted his vineyard, following the occupation of his ancestors. In 1848, much against the wishes of their family, these latter two brothers, with their little families, emigrated to America-the one brother locating in Missouri near Leavenworth, Kansas, where he followed the occupation of his native Canton, and
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conducted a vineyard up to the time of his death; while Maurice came to Wisconsin, where he endeavored to provide for his family by agriculture. The pioneer's life was a hard struggle for the Swiss teacher and harder on the wife who survived their arrival to the new country but five years when she succumbed in childbirth to the hardships and privations of pioneer life at their home in the town of Theresa, now in Dodge county, Wisconsin, where she was buried.
The family made their home in Gibson, Manitowoc county, for a short time and then removed to near what is now Belle Plain in Shawano county, Wisconsin. Here the father farmed up to the time of his death in 1878, and was brought for burial to the home of his son, Francis A., in the then little village of Antigo, just being platted by this son, its founder.
Francis Augustine was the eldest of the three children brought to America-the eldest child, a daughter, Catherine, having yielded to the persuasions of relatives and remained with them in the native land. Francis had up to this time been a regular attendant at the very excellent schools of his old home, but the new country taxed the family's savings to the utmost and its welfare in a great meas- ure depended upon the earning capacity of this big, bright, healthy boy of barely fourteen years, who proved himself resourceful and willing to turn to any work that offered to help the family-from clearing, farm- ing, sailing on the Lakes in summer and working in the logging woods in winter, to helping his father in surveying for the neighbors, Francis did everything and anything in a cheerful, willing and capable manner, his earnings always going into the family purse.
At the age of twenty-one Francis Deleglise married, and soon there- after he and his young wife went to Appleton where they continued to reside until 1877, with the exception of two years' residence, '71-'73, in Shawano county where Mr. Deleglise started and platted the village of Leopolis. During those years he was more or less occupied in civil and municipal engineering, locating settlers on homestead lands, etc., carrying on the work he had learned under his father.
It should be stated here, however, that he enlisted on June 28, 1861, in Appleton, Wisconsin, in Company E of the Sixth Wisconsin Volun- teer Infantry, under Captain Marsten of Appleton. He was promoted soon to the rank of corporal, and in July, 1862, the regiment became attached to the Army of the Potomac, participating thereafter in the many struggles of the famed Iron Brigade. At Antietam, on September 17, 1862, he was severely wounded and as a result was in hospital for several months thereafter. He was at the battle of Gettysburg and was severely wounded and taken prisoner during the first day's fight. He did not long remain in the hands of the enemy, however, as when they retreated, they were forced to leave their wounded behind them, and he was rescued by the Federal forces. On July 16, 1864, Mr.
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Deleglise was honorably discharged, with the record of a valiant soldier to his credit. When he enlisted he was a stout, husky young man, weighing one hundred and eighty pounds, and when he returned from the war he had become so emaciated from illness, wounds and army fare that he tipped the scales at barely ninety pounds. He suffered for long after the war as the result of his experience, and during his con- valescence he studied engineering and mathematics and as soon as he was able in point of bodily strength, he resumed his work of surveying, and in time he became an expert in that branch of civil engineering.
In 1867 he commenced the looking up and locating of lands in North Central Wisconsin, and it was then that he, in reality, selected the site of the future city of Antigo, and in 1877, to further exemplify the faith he felt in the future of the place he brought his family here and located, and platted the village of Antigo. Mr. Deleglise named it so from "Nequi Antigo Suebeh," the Chippewa Indian name of Spring River, signifying Balsam Evergreen River from the balsam and ever- green that border the waters of this stream which flow through the plat. He was the first town chairman and when the county was organ- ized he was elected chairman of the first county board, and served among the first county treasures and was most active in its early organization and management. Mr. Deleglise dealt largely in real estate, and he became the possessor of immense tracts of land in and about the county. He was one of the most public spirited men the city ever knew, always working for the development and improvement of the community, and having an eye single to its best development along material and moral lines. He was a man liberal in all things especially in matters of church and of education, donating sites for these pur- poses and also for public buildings. In politics he was a Democrat first, but after the war he became a Republican and he continued a staunch adherent of that political faith up to the time of his death. In 1892 he was elected to represent this district in the state legislature, where he made a brilliant record as a legislator, manifesting his intelli- gent interest in the best welfare of his constituents and accomplishing worthy work in that office. He was a staunch Roman Catholic all his life, and died in the fervent, loyal profession of that faith, on Easter Sunday. March 25, 1894.
On November 29, 1856, Mr. Deleglise was married at Two Rivers, Wisconsin, to Mary Bor, born on January 1, 1835, in Taus, Bohemia. She was the daughter of Simon and Dora (Kerzman) Bor, the family coming to America from Bohemia in 1855 and settling in the town of Gibson, in Manitowoc county, where the Deleglise family resided. The father, who was a merchant in his native land, engaged in farming here, and thus passed his remaining days. He died in Antigo in 1881. He had served eight years as a soldier in his home country.
Mrs. Deleglise was a devoted mother and brave woman who faced
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courageously the hardships and trials, first of the wife of a soldier during the Civil war, with three small children to care for, and then as the mother of eight children she journeyed with them to these wilds to undertake the responsibilities of the pioneer woman. She was of a deeply religious and sympathetic nature, a natural born nurse and the pioneer women all looked to her for help and encour- agement in sickness and trials and relied upon her to nurse them and she was always ready to go when called upon. Mr. Deleglise entered the lands in the vicinity of Antigo in her name and the site of the city also was in her name she signing the Plat of the village of Antigo as its owner. Mrs. Deleglise survived her hus- band fourteen years, dying December 20, 1907.
To Mr. and Mrs. Deleglise were born the following children: Mary T., who married John Deresch, of Antigo, Wisconsin; Sophia E., the widow of Samuel E. Leslie of Antigo; Francis Joseph, who is deceased ; John E., also deceased; Anna E., the wife of Thomas Morrissey of Antigo; Adelbert A .; Alexius L .; Henry and Edmond, the last two deceased.
Mrs. Mary Teresa Deresch, eldest child of her parents, and her hus- band, were the first white settlers to enter a government homestead in this then wilderness, and she was for a long time the only white woman within a radius of twenty miles. They have two surviving children, Christian and Charles. Their child born to them in 1877 was the first white child born here but it survived but a few days.
Mrs. Sophia Leslie, now widowed, has two surviving children, Loyola I. and Cyril Deleglise; Mrs. Leslie, it should be noted, was one of the first school teachers in Langlade county, and her father's assistant when platting the village.
Anna E., and her husband, Thomas Morrissey, have four children : Margaret Virginia, John Francis, Gerald Deleglise and May. Mrs. Morrissey as a girl of ten years accompanied her father to Langlade county when he brought with him the first band of thirty prospective colonists and she spent the first winter with her sister, Mrs. John Der- esch, her mother and the remainder of the family coming in the fol- lowing spring. She was the first white child to come to what later became Langlade county, and she has an acquaintance with this part of the county that dates back to the most primitive days, in the matter of settlement.
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