USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 28
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GEORGE RECORD PECK. Though a native of New York State, George Record Peck was brought to Wisconsin when a lad of six years, and grew up and prepared for his profession in this state. For forty years his brilliant career as a great railroad lawyer passed principally in the states of Kansas and Illinois, but since the first of 1911 for most of the time he has lived retired in his beautiful home at Oconomo-
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woc, and thus his later years, as his earlier ones, have identified him with the great state of which he considers himself one of the most loyal citizens.
Until his retirement on January 1, 1911, from the office of gen- eral counsel for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway System there was no greater or more brilliant lawyer in the west, than George Record Peck. Recently Mr. Peck celebrated his seventieth birthday, and few men have received more hearty congratulation from eminent people throughout the country than did Mr. Peck. The breadth of his accomplishments and attainments may be inferred from some of the statements made concerning him at the time. He was described as "lawyer, orator, litterateur, student of literature, and botanist." A Chicago paper said: "At three score years and ten he is still the apostle of 'the kingdom of light,' and mental and spiritual decay is as far from him today as in the seventies, when he was the friend of every man in Kansas."
Though retired from his position as general counsel, Mr. Peck still retains the honorary title of consultng counsel of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railroad. His successor in the office of general counsel is the Hon. Burton Hanson, likewise one of the greatest prod- ucts of the Wisconsin bar. Mr. Peck became general counsel of the Milwaukee System, September 15, 1895. For fourteen years previously he had served as general solicitor of the. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company. No lawyer in the country has taken more im- portant part in railway litigation of the west than Mr. Peck. For many years he stood at the head of the state bar in Kansas. He once refused the offer of a United States senatorship, and was for years one of the leading publie men in Kansas. Besides the noteworthy powers of a professional and public nature, Mr. Peck is a deep scholar, has been honored with various degrees from universities and colleges, and as a polished and eloquent orator on national and general sub- jects has had few equals during the last generation.
George Record Peck was born near Cameron, Steuben county, New York, May 15, 1843. His parents Joel M. and Amanda (Purdy) Peck, moved out to a farm in Wisconsin when the son was six years old. In a clearing in the wilderness, which the boy himself had assisted in making, the family began life in what was then the new state of Wisconsin and grew up amid surroundings of a pioneer character. With only a common school education at the age of sixteen he be- came a school teacher, and with his earnings helped to lift a mort- gage from the old homestead. At the age of nineteen he enlisted for service in the Union army, joining the First Heavy Artillery of Wis- consin. Later he was transferred to the Thirty-First Wisconsin Infantry, and with that command went with Sherman in the historic march to the sea and in the operations through the Carolinas. He
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was one of the many fine Wisconsin young men who conferred dis- tinction upon the state's military record during the war and he advanced from the ranks of private to the grade of captain, and when he was mustered out of service he was Captain Peck. When he returned to Wisconsin after the war his efforts were immediately directed toward preparation for the law. Six years were spent in Janesville as a law student, circuit court clerk, and practicing attorney. From Wisconsin he went to Kansas, and from 1871 to 1874 had his office at Independence. There he quickly attained recognition as a young lawyer of unusual ability and in 1874 he received his first important promotion when President Grant appointed him United States District Attorney of Kansas. The duties of this office caused his removal to Topeka, the State Capital. It was while a resident of Topeka, for nineteen years, that the name of George Record Peck became a power in his profession and in public affairs. In 1887, the University of Kansas conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. Within a short time of his appointment as United States attorney, he was directed to bring suit involving a title to nine hundred and sixty-nine thousand acres of land. The promptness and ability with which lie brought this suit and other cases to a successful issue soon marked him as one of the leaders of the western bar, and brought such induce- ments for private practice that in 1879 he resigned his office. After two years of independent practice the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company elected him general solicitor, and from that time until 1895 the large and growing system of railroad was devel- oped under his legal counsel and direction.
In 1891 when the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad secured control of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, one of the stock- holders of the latter sought to enjoin the sale on the ground that the two roads were parallel and competing. The case was bitterly con- tested in the circuit and supreme courts of the United States and Mr. Peck's successful management not only resulted in giving an important extension to the Santa Fe System, but also gave him a place among the first railroad lawyers of the country. In December, 1903, when the Atchison System went into the hands of a receiver and the prob- lem of its reorganization was pressing upon the holders of its almost worthless securities, the direction of the legal proceedings devolved upon Mr. Peck. Within two years the mortgages had been foreclosed, the property sold, a working plan of reorganization effected and the great railroad system preserved unbroken. Probably not before or since has there been accomplished so rapid an organization of a great railroad property, and that the Santa Fe System at the present time is one of the greatest in its mileage and facilities in America is to a large degree due to the remarkable ability of Mr. Peck.
When his onerous duties in connection with the reorganization of
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the Santa Fe had been successfully fulfilled, Mr. Peck resigned his office as general solicitor in September, 1895. However, the judge of the United States Circuit Court of Topeka requested that he still con- tinue to give the Atchison reorganization committee the benefit of his counsel until all the details should be cleared up. On moving to Chicago, Mr. Peck became general counsel of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company, and directed the legal department of the system through its greatest era of extension and improvement, until he turned over its heavy responsibilities to Mr. Burton Hanson in 1911. During his active career in Chicago, Mr. Peck was head of the law firm of Peck, Miller & Starr, his associate being John S. Miller and Merritt Starr.
The influence of Mr. Peck in Kansas politics was a notable feature of the political history of that state, and during the last ten years of his residence in Topeka, his leadership in the Republican party was unquestioned. Upon the death of Senator Plumb in 1892, Governor Humphrey offered the vacant seat in the United States Senate to Mr. Peck, who declined. Both in Kansas and in Illinois he might have attained eminence in politics, but has always declined public honors . which were not in line with his profession. It is as a great railroad lawyer that the name of Mr. Peck has been most prominently known. In the early months of 1893, during the days of Populism in Kansas, and during the legislative deadlock in Governor Llewellyn's adminis- tration, Mr. Peck was a strong conservative force, and, according to the verdict of both parties, it was the force of his wisdom and will and fine character which averted the threatened anarchy and bloodshed.
Mr. Peck was honored with the office of president of the American Bar Association in 1905-06. One of his friends and associates in Kan- sas recently said: "Mr. Peck has a rare, magnetic personality and charm. He was larger in Kansas affairs than any other man in the state. Every man on the Santa Fe System from a section hand to the president, called him friend. Blacklisted firemen went to him to intercede with the powers, and he always did it if their records were clean of dishonesty. He staked friends in adversity with recklessness, and he would be a far richer man today if he had not."
Mr. Peck long since achieved a national reputation as a polished, scholarly and eloquent orator, and his orations have been regarded as master-pieces. His influence as a man of letters has been kindly and stimulating, his written philosophy and experience of life has the greater weight because it comes from one who has borne such heavy responsibility and whose knowledge of what he writes has been so broad and thorough. As an author his best known work is probably "The Kingdom of Light." The characteristic sentence from that work is the following: "The person who allows his mental and spiritual nature to stagnate and decay does so, not for want of time, but for
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want of inclination." And further he says: "There is no vocation, absolutely none, that cuts off entirely the opportunities for intellectual development. The Kingdom of Light is an especially delightful home for him whose purse is not of sufficient weight to provide a home else- where and a humble cottage in the Kingdom can be made to shine with a brightness above palace walls."
These later years of Mr. Peck are devoted to a practical test of his beautiful philosophy. At his home at Oconomowoc he devotes his time to literature and to his favorite recreation of gardening and botanizing, and his gardens contain some of the rarest and most beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees to be found on any private estate in Wisconsin.
Among the many notable addresses which have brought him high standing as an orator, may be mentioned the following: That on General George H. Thomas delivered before the Loyal Legion of the United States at Indianapolis; Response on Abraham Lincoln at the banquet of the Marquette Club, Chicago; address on the Puritans before the Ethical Society of Milwaukee; oration on the Worth of a Sentiment, before the Washington & Jefferson Societies of the Uni- versity of Virginia : the Ethical Basis of American Patriotism, before the graduating class of Union College, New York; oration on the Unveiling of the Logan Statue on the Lake Front, Chicago: and that on Washington before the students of the University of Chicago. A mere mention of such titles as above indicates the scope of Mr. Peck's mentality. Since the honor given him by the University of Kansas in 1887, Mr. Peck was awarded the degree of LL. D. by Union College of New York in 1896, a similar degree from Bethany College of Kansas, in 1902, Milton College, who gave him the degree of A. M., from Northwestern University he received the degree of LL. D., and he has been similiarly awarded by many other institutions.
Mr. Peck's married life covered a harmonious and happy period of thirty years. His wife, whom he married in 1866, was Miss Arabella Burdick. They were married while Mr. Peck was still struggling for recognition as a lawyer at Janesville, Wisconsin. Mrs. Peck died March 5, 1896, and as his three married daughters live in other cities, and his son is usually away from Chicago, Mr. Peck spends much of his time alone, except for the intimate relations which he has estab- lished with friends and with the great life of the outdoors and with literature. His children are: Mary E., wife of A. R. Thompson, of Washington; Isabel, wife of G. N. Wilson, of Philadelphia; Charles B., now of New York City, and Ethel, wife of George P. Earling, of Milwaukee, who is a son of Albert J. Earling, president of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.
Mr. Peck served as government delegate to the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists at St. Louis in 1904. His clubs are the Chicago.
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the University, the Hamilton, the Marquette, the Cliff-Dwellers, the Caxton, the Wayfarers and many others.
Many pages might be filled with charming anecdotes told of Mr. Peck in his professional and social relations. His old-time friend and successor as general counsel of the Milwaukee System, Burton Hanson recently described how George Hill once got the better of Mr. Peck. "George Hill," explained Mr. Hanson, "is a negro boy, now a con- fidential secretary, but then an office boy who had studied stenography in spare moments. One afternoon Mr. Peck wanted to dictate some letters and the office force had gone. I suggested Hill, knowing of his shorthand studies. 'How fast can you take dictations?' asked Mr. Peck skeptically. 'I can take sixty words a minute,' returned Hill stolidly. 'That's as fast as any one can talk-and talk sense.' Mr. Peck began dictating at once," concluded Mr. Hanson.
Another associate recalled a meeting between Mr. Peck and Henry Waterson at Washington, when the conversation was directed about Nebraska's brilliant senator, John M. Thurston. "George," said Col. Waterson, "I think you and Thurston and myself are the greatest orators in the country." "Why drag in Thurston?" queried Mr. Peck, "He isn't here."
In conclusion it may be said that seldom does a career reach the span of three score and ten, including higher honors in the profession of law, more vitally important accomplishments in that field, with greater dignity and esteem, and with a more satisfying fulness of honors and work well performed than has been true in the case of George Record Peck.
LEO GENSMANN. As a pioneer in the milling industry in the north- ern section of the state of Wisconsin, Leo Gensmann of Merrill, Wis- consin, has won an enviable reputation as a business man. He is a young man with the energy and enthusiasm that makes youth so power- ful factor in the world of today, but he has had several years of val- uable experience, and has also the advantage of having been trained for his position in the business world by his father one of the most success- ful business men in the Wisconsin Valley.
Leo Gensmann was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, on the 7th day of February, 1879, the son of Jacob and Amelia (Wilde) Gensmann. The former is one of the prominent men in lumber circles in the state of Wisconsin, having been engaged in lumbering in the Wisconsin valley for many years. Leo Gensmann was reared in Wausau and attended both the grammar and high schools of that city. He later entered the Wausau Business College where he took a commercial course.
When Mr. Gensmann came to Merrill he became connected with the Lincoln Milling and Elevator Company, as secretary and treasurer. The other officers of this company are, Paul Gilbert, president, and
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Jacob Gensmann, vice-president. The Lincoln Milling and Elevator Company is an incorporated company, the capital stock being $35,000. The mill which was erected in 1908 was, and still is, the only flour mill in Lincoln county. They also own a large grain elevator which has a capacity of 25,000 bushels. The company manufactures flour, and by- products of flour and also ground corn and oat food stuffs. The famous Court House Brand of flour is a product of this mill and buckwheat and rye flour is also manufactured here. Ten or twelve men are em- ployed and the company is a thriving and prosperous concern.
Mr. Gensmann was married in 1907, the 28th of November, to Miss Emma Perske, a daughter of Carl and Bertha Perske, of Wausau, Wis- consin. They have one son, Ferdinand.
THE THOMAS DESMOND FAMILY. The residence of the Desmond family in Wilwaukee covers a period of seventy years, beginning during the territorial era of the state. The first generation was char- acterized by the labors and accomplishments of a pioneer settler. The head of the next generation, the late Thomas Desmond, was for nearly half a century well known in business and educational circles in Mil- waukee, while the sons of Thomas Desmond have, as worthy repre- sentatives of an honored father and grandfather, borne distinctive parts in life in the law, education, in authorship, in various lines of business enterprise, and in civic and social work. The Desmond family is of Norman-Irish ancestry. A large province in southern Ireland was once known as "Desmond," and the "Earls of Desmond" played an important part in Anglo-Irish history.
The late Thomas Desmond was born in 1833 near Little Falls, New York, where his father had settled about one hundred years ago. In August, 1842, when the history of Wisconsin as a territory had yet six years to run, Humphrey Desmond, father of Thomas Desmond, came west and settled upon several hundred acres of land about twenty miles north of Milwaukee near the present city of Cedarburg. With him were three sons and three daughters.
Thomas Desmond, the youngest son, was then nine years old. He attended district schools, and at the age of seventeen began to vary the duties of farm life by teaching during the winter in near-by schools. Years of self-education and a natural leaning towards educational work led later to his identification with the Milwaukee public schools in ad- ministrative capacities. From 1866 to 1880 he was secretary of the school board. All his nine children completed high school courses in Milwaukee, finishing in normal schools or the State University. During the last twenty years of his life Mr. Desmond was state manager for one of the large eastern life insurance companies. At the time of his death in May, 1901, many tributes to his life and character were paid by prominent men of the city and state. This passage from a letter Vol. VI-16
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published in one of the Milwaukee dailies fairly summarizes the esteem in which he was held: "I have known Thomas Desmond since my boyhood, and a more consistent, conscientious, honorable man I liave yet to meet. He was courteous, kind and affable. The dominant trait in his character was justice."
Thomas Desmond was survived by his widow, whose maiden name was Bowe, and who had been a resident of Milwaukee since 1854, and was in all respects the ideal of a true wife and helpmate. Their oldest daughter, Dora A. Desmond, who was for many years identified with educational and charitable work in Milwaukee, died in 1909. Mary Desmond, the second daughter, was also a teacher in the Mil- waukee schools for a number of years, but is now engaged in literary work and is active in several woman's organizations of the city. She, with her sisters Julia and Theresa Desmond, reside with their mother at the family home, 810 Van Buren Street, Milwaukee.
Humphrey J. Desmond, the oldest son of Thomas Desmond and who is regarded by his associates as possessing one of the finest minds in the Wisconsin bar, entered the legal profession after his graduation from the University of Wisconsin. He was a member of the Milwaukee school board from 1883 to 1890, and of the Wisconsin legislature during 1891-92. As a member of the school board he is credited with initiating the industrial training movement in the schools of Milwaukee, and as a member of the legislature he was the author of several laws that are now on the statute books. Some twenty years ago he became owner of the Catholic Citizen, a widely circulated weekly paper, and this led to his acquiring similar publications at Washington, D. C., Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Humphrey J. Desmond is author of a number of successful books, including several volumes of essays published by A. C. McClurg & Company of Chicago. His "The Church and The Law," a legal text book, called forth special praise from Chief Justice Cassoday of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He is also the anthor of a number of historic monographs, which have had a large sale. He was a frequent contributor to the North American Review, the Forum, The Century, and other magazines, and a special contrib- utor to the "Library of the World's Best Literature" and the Catholic Encyclopedia. His home at 612 Newberry Boulevard, adjoining Lake Park, contains one of the best selected private libraries in Milwaukee.
William J. Desmond, second in age of the sons of Thomas Desmond, was for many years engaged in educational work as principal of public schools in Milwaukee, as a writer for educational and other periodicals, and as a conductor of Teachers' Institutes in Wisconsin. He later became interested in real estate and business enterprises, platting and building up a number of subdivisions in Milwaukee, and dealing ex- tensively in farming and timber lands in Wisconsin and other states. He has taken an active interest in civic matters, having been a member
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of the Charter Convention of Milwaukee, and an incorporator of the City Club. He was especially identified with the inception and promo- tion of the Non-Partisan and the Home Rule laws for cities, in which movement Milwaukee has led the way.
Frank B. Desmond, the third son, is officially connected with the First National Bank of Milwaukee. He is widely acquainted in business circles, and is a director in several corporations. Thomas A. Desmond, fourth among the sons, has built up a very substantial educational publishing business of national scope. He is also vice president of the Citizen Company, which publishes a number of news- papers in various parts of the United States.
Joseph G. Desmond, the youngest of the sons of the late Thomas Desmond, has specialized in advertising, and has charge of the adver- tising department of the several publications controlled by the Citizen Company. He is also secretary of the latter corporation.
BERT A. JOLIVETTE. Among the public officials whose signal services in the discharge of their duties are making La Crosse one of the best governed of Wisconsin counties, more than passing mention should be made of Bert A. Jolivette, county clerk. By birth, inclination and training a son of Wisconsin, he has spent his life within the limits of the state, where, although he is still a young man, his connection with multiform interests has made his name well known. Mr. Jolivette was born February 5, 1882, in La Crosse county, Wisconsin, and is a son of Peter and Sarah A. (Kelly) Jolivette, the former a native of Wisconsin and the latter of Illinois.
Mr. Jolivette's paternal ancestors came from Normandy, France, while those on the maternal side are traced back to Ireland. His grand- father, Moses Jolivette, came from near Montreal, Canada, and settled in La Crosse county, Wisconsin, near the town of Campbell, some time during the early forties. One of the earliest settlers of that section, he homesteaded and purchased a large tract of land, which extended in one direction to the Mississippi river. Settlers were scarce, but few houses were to be found, the nearest market was at Dubuque, which was reached by boating down the river and the Winnebago and Chippewa Indians were numerous and frequently very troublesome. Moses Joli- vette and his wife were the parents of nine children, of whom five are still alive. Of this family, Peter was the fifth in order of birth. He was born May 29, 1854, in La Crosse county, Wisconsin, and until he was fourteen years of age he attended the primitive district schools. He then began to give his father all of his time and so continued until he was nineteen years of age, at which time he embarked upon a career of his own. At first he was engaged in logging and working in the lum- ber camps, but in the meanwhile interested himself also in farming, and before he was twenty-five years of age was a land owner. In 1909, at
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the time of his death, he possessed 220 acres, in addition to which he had also been the owner of one-half section of Texas land, which, how- ever, he had disposed of some time before. Reared to the hard work of the farm, he was an industrious, energetic man all of his life, fre- quently working from 3:30 A. M., until 9 P. M. He was known among his associates and those with whom he held any transactions as a man in whom implicit confidence could be placed. A Democrat in politics, he served as president of the school board of the township in which he resided for sixteen years, and was not only a friend of the cause of edu- cation all his life, but also was a progressive man in every walk of life. Mr. Jolivette married Sarah A. Kelly, who was born April 21, 1857, and is still living, and they had a family of eight children, of whom seven are still living : Bert A., Hally D. M., Nita S., Eva L., Edna E., Guy A. and Lloyd P.
Bert A. Jolivette attended the district schools until he was fourteen years of age, at which time he began working on his father's farm, and continued to be associated with him for ten years. In 1907, wishing to further advance his education, he entered the University of Wisconsin, but the death of his father, three and one-half years later, called him home to take charge of the estate, of which he has continued executor ever since. A Democrat in politics, he has ever been active in the ranks of his party, and on November 5, 1912, was elected clerk of La Crosse county, for a term of two years, an office in which he has shown eminent qualifications. He has handled the business of the county in a manner that is bound to win the approbation of the tax-payers and during his administration a number of much needed reforms have been made. Fraternally, Mr. Jolivette is connected with Black River Camp No. 507, Modern Woodmen of America, in which he is now serving as honorable adviser and also of the Red Men, Winneshiek Tribe.
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