USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 33
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CARL ZOLLMANN. Junior member of the prominent law firm of Smith & Zollmann at Merrill, in Lincoln county, Carl Zollmann has practiced his profession in this city since 1911. The firm of Smith & Zollmann has as its senior member Hon. Ralph E. Smith, president of the Wisconsin State Board of Control. Mr. Zollmann is a vigorous and enterprising young man who has spent most of his career in Wisconsin, had some experience in colonization work, and finally took up the law, and since his graduation from the State University has made an excellent record in his profession.
Carl Zollmann was born at Wellsville, New York, November 14, 1879, a son of Rev. Carl and Catherine (Melcher) Zollmann. About a year after the birth of Carl, his parents moved to Boston, Massa- chusetts, and after a year and a half, in 1883 went to Southeastern Indiana, locating about ten miles from Lawrenceburg. The father was a minister of the German Lutheran Church and is still living, with his home at Horicon, Wisconsin. The family home was in southern Indiana throughout the years while Carl was growing to young man- hood, and in that time he attended the Lutheran parochial schools. Afterwards he was a student in the Concordia College at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and also Concordia College of Springfield, Illinois. While he was attending college his parents moved from southeastern Indiana to Wisconsin. For four years after his graduation he was a resident of Iowa, spending part of the time at Davenport and part of it at Williamsburg. He then joined the family in Wisconsin, and for one year was employed by the Evangelical Lutheran Colonization Com- pany, both in the office and on the sales force.
His ambition being for the law, he entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, where he was graduated
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LL. B. in 1909. In the same year he was admitted to the bar, and got his first experience in the law offices of Olin & Butler, in Madison. During the next year he was an editorial writer for the Callaghan Company, publishers of law books in Chicago. There is perhaps no better training for legal scholarship than work with such a company, and the year of his work with one of the leading Madison law firms and the year he spent with the publishing house gave him exceptional equipment for his practice. He then came to Merrill, and his ability has been an important factor in the success of the firm of Smith & Zollmann. Mr. Zollmann is unmarried. He is a member of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church of Merrill.
A. H. SMITH. The present district attorney of Lincoln county, Mr. A. H. Smith, is junior member of the law firm of F. J. & A. H. Smith, a combination which in the popular judgment is regarded as the lead- ing law partnership of Lincoln county. Both members have been for many years active in the profession, have been associated with a great volume and important interests and individual cases, and by experi- ence and ability hold a strong position in the bar of the state.
A. H. Smith was first appointed to the office of district attorney at Lincoln county, in March, 1911, succeeding Ralph E. Smith, who had been elected to the office of district attorney, but in the meantime was appointed a member of the board of control, the duties of the latter position not allowing him to prosecute his work as district attorney. In the fall of 1912, Mr. A. H. Smith was regularly elected to the office of district attorney on the Republican ticket, being one of the few Republicans elected at that time.
Mr. Smith, who has been a resident of Merrill since 1909, was born on a farm near Mauston, Wisconsin, June 16, 1870. His father was Samuel W. Smith, a leading farmer in his locality. The son grew up on the home farm near Mauston, had the school advantages afforded by the district schools, and afterwards entered the law department of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1896. In the same year he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Sparta, which was his home until 1905. He then went out to St. Paul, Minnesota, where until 1909 he was connected with the legal department of the Great Northern Railroad, acting as assistant right of way and tax commissioner. Resigning that office he returned to Wisconsin, located in Merrill, and very soon afterwards was appointed district attorney. He has been associated in practice here for four years with his brother, F. J. Smith. Their offices are in the German-American Bank Building, Mr. F. J. Smith being president of that well-known financial institution. Among his other interests in the city, Mr. A. H. Smith is president of the Merrill Publishing Company, the company which publishes the Merrill Daily Herald.
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In 1905, Mr. Smith married Miss Marie Cholvin, of Monroe county, Wisconsin. They are the parents of three children, Philip Walter, Juliana Jane, and Dorothea Victoria. Mr. Smith is affiliated with the Masonic Order, being a Knight Templar and Shriner, also with the Knights of Pythias, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
ROBERT L. HOLT. One of the leading attorneys of Waukesha and the vice-president of the Farmers' State Bank of this city is Robert L. Holt, who since 1897 has been professionally active here. Mr. Holt is a native of Wisconsin, the adopted home of his parents, Orlando Holt and Louisa Jackson Holt, who were originally of Vermont. Orlando Holt had come to Wisconsin in the forties, had become the owner of two hundred acres of land in Racine county and had occupied and tilled his farm until 1849. In that year he joined others who were seeking the mysterious land of wealth which California was believed to be. In a prairie schooner Orlando Holt traveled overland until he reached the great mining state of that period. He spent three years in experimenting among gold mines, real and fictitious, eventually returning to Racine county, quite rich in experience, although like many others he had brought considerably less material gain. Like many of his fellow miners, he had come to the conclusion that the sure and steady wealth of our country-or any other-is in the agricultural resources which never deceive and seldom disappoint the seeker. In Racine county he married Miss Jackson and there they lived and reared their family. Of the latter only Robert Holt now survives. His mother passed from this life in 1886 and his father in 1887. Orlando Holt was a man of marked individuality and of very sturdy opinions. A Republican of emphatic views, he was a strong anti- slavery man of the radical abolitionist type. He was a member of the Baptist church, and his fraternal affiliation was with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
On the rural property of Orlando and Louisa Holt was born on July 4, 1873, the son whom they named Robert L. His general edu- cation, began in the public schools of his native community, was con- tinued in Rochester Academy and Carrol College, and he pursued his literary course in the University of Wisconsin and graduated with the class of 1895. He then entered upon a period of intensive prep- aration for the profession which he had chosen at the Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois.
Young Robert Holt pursued a thorough course in the different branches of the legal curriculum, and received the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
In 1897 Mr. Holt entered upon his practice as a barrister, having chosen Waukesha as the field for his career. He became a partner of two other Waukesha lawyers, the firm name being Pierce, Doubner
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and Holt. This association continued for three years. When it was dissolved in 1900, Mr. Holt formed a similar connection with Albert N. Coombs, as senior partner of the firm of Holt & Coombs. This part- nership still continues and both lawyers have done important work as representatives of the bar in Waukesha. Their handsome suite of offices above the Farmers' Bank Building is sought by many clients in search of competent legal advice or support.
Aside from his law business Mr. Holt has commercial interests of importance, chief among which is his connection with the Farmers' State Bank of Waukesha, of which he is vice president. He is also vice-president of the Hoag Elevator Company and the Rickert Mer- cantile Company. Politically he is a progressive Republican. His social affiliations are numerous, including his membership in the col- legiate secret societies of Phi Gamma Delta (University of Wisconsin) and Delta Chi legal fraternity. He is also a member of the Masonic order; the Knights of Pythias; the United Order of Foresters; the Royal League; the Woodmen of the World; and the Equitable Fra- ternal Union. He also belongs to the Commercial Law League of America; to the Waukesha Bar Association; and to the Waukesha Business Men's Club.
The marriage of Mr. Holt occurred on June 20, 1896. Mrs. Holt, neé Leda Crocker, is a daughter of an Indiana family. Three children have come to complete the Holt household and bear the Christian names of Orlando, Louise and Donna Marie.
So vigorous is Mr. Holt's personality and so high the quality of his executive ability that further and yet more conspicuous successes are predicted for him. His chief aim, however, is to perform thor- oughly and accurately the tasks which he undertakes; wide and exhaustive research, conscientious attention to detail, determined application of all resources at hand leading to the desired end-these are among the notable qualities that have given him his enviable stand- ing as at attorney.
M. P. MCLAUGHLIN. Among the men of Merrill, Wisconsin, who have made their success in the lumber business, is M. P. MeLaughlin. Beginning life as a common laborer he received steady promotion for efficiency and a close attention to his work, which eventually placed him in a position of responsibility. Mr. Mclaughlin is now engaged in buying and selling timber lands and cut over farm lands.
M. P. Mclaughlin was born in Quebec, Canada, on the 15th of February, 1870, the son of John and Mary (Hartary) MeLaughlin. John Mclaughlin was a farmer and spent his entire life on his Cana- dian farm, where both he and his wife died. M. P. MeLaughlin was born and reared on his father's farm. He left home at the age of twenty, in the fall of the year 1870, and came to the Upper Michigan
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Peninsula and for a time worked in the timber forests. He then went to Drummond, near Ashland, Wisconsin, where he worked in the woods one winter. His next move took him to Eau Claire and he spent six months studying in a business college in the latter city. During the following winter he went into the woods again and then came to Merrill, Wisconsin, where he has made his home ever since.
It was in 1893 that Mr. MeLaughlin located in Merrill, accepting a position with the old Golkey-Anson Company, a concern which manu- factured boxes. He was destined to remain with this firm for seventeen years, and his first position was as a common laborer. He spent a year in this position and was then promoted to the work of scaling the logs. His next promotion took him into the office and then he was sent on the road as a buyer of timber and logs, and during these years he was also at one period foreman of the mill. Two years of the time since he came to live in Merrill have been spent away from the city, one when he was in charge of the Grand Rapids Lumber Com- pany's plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the second in which he was in Malvern, Arkansas, where he was in charge of the plant of the Wisconsin-Arkansas Lumber Company. He is now in business for him- self in Merrill, his offices being located on East Main street. He has been engaged in this business for a year and a half, and his long and practical experience in the lumber work has well prepared him for just this kind of business.
Mr. Mclaughlin is a stockholder in the National Bank of Merrill and is also a stockholder in the Minneapolis, Merrill and Marinette Railway Company. In religious matters he is a communicant of the Roman Catholic church. In the fraternal world he belongs to the Knights of Columbus and is a Forester.
In August, 1899, Mr. MeLaughlin was married to Miss Mary Conway, of Quebec, Canada. They have three children, William Carrell, John Elmer and Veronica.
NIELS A. CHRISTENSEN. To this well known citizen and manufac- turer of Milwaukee belongs the distinction of having been the pioneer inventor of the first and only successful air-brake now universally used on practically all electrically propelled cars and trains operating on the third-rail principle. In a large technical world his name is almost as familiar as those of other inventors in the field of applied mechanics, and the following article is designed to present as clearly as non- technical language can his career and his accomplishments.
Niels Anton Christensen was born in Toerring, Jutland, Denmark, August 16, 1865. Toerring is about two miles from Jelling, the birth place of Canute, the great King of England. The Christensen family is one of the oldest in Denmark, and its members have lived on the same estate for more than three hundred years. His father, Christen
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Jensen, was born at Toerring, February 5, 1829, and is still living as a country gentleman on the family estate. He had a public school education, is a Lutheran in religion, a Royalist in politics, and served as an officer in the Danish army during the Slesvig-Holstein war between Germany and Austria in 1849-50, and in 1864-65, partici- pating at the battle of Itzeho, Dyboel, Slesvig, and in others. Christen Jensen married Ane Marie Nielsen, who was born May 15, 1834, at Tudvad, Jutland, Denmark, of ancient lineage. Her father was a country gentleman, and army officer, having served his king during the Napoleonic disturbances in the first years of the nineteenth cen- tury. She died November 15, 1876, at the family estate in Toerring.
Niels A. Christensen is a practical machinist as well as a mechani- cal engineer and naval constructor. As a boy he was always tinker- ing with mechanics in the blacksmith and wheelwright shops on his father's estate in Denmark, and hardly ever played with other boys, in the ordinary pastimes. He made elaborate toys for himself and companions in the shape of windmills, waterwheels, steam engines and electrical apparatus, which were spoken of far and wide at the country side. One of his windmills was on a scale large enough to produce considerable power, and a novel endless rope transmission was used, which he afterwards found to conform exactly in principle to that method of transmission generally used in large cotton mills and places in which steam engines were employed previous to the installation of electrical power.
At the age of fourteen he began an apprenticeship, and at the age of eighteen graduated as a journeyman machinist and pattern maker. In the meantime he attended evening school both in summer and winter, and on finishing his appenticeship possessed an almost complete scientific knowledge in mathematics and applied mechanics. He was afterwards employed in the Royal Danish Navy, and gradu- ated as a constructor and naval machinist at the age of twenty-one. During this time he worked out drawings and details of the machinery for the then up-to-date fast cruiser, the Valkyrien of the Royal Dan- ish Navy. This ship in later history was the first to arrive at Mar- tinique after the terrible catastrophe caused by the eruption of Mt. Pelee. After finishing his examination in the Navy Department, and service, he obtained leave of absence with a money prize granted by the Minister of the Interior to students, who had shown marked efficiency, both in theory and practice, this prize being employed to pay his expenses while traveling abroad in search of further knowl- edge. He went to England and took a position as third assistant engi- neer on a large steamer engaged in the Mediterranean and Black Sea trade. Returning to London on that ship some months later, he attained a position as designer with one of the large English engi- . neering works, engaged in marine engineering and the manufacture
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of cotton machinery, hydraulic machinery, sugar machinery, water works machinery and other diversified lines. In that position he had charge of the machinery and layout for the new water works for the city of Calcutta, India, and subsequently engaged in the work of developing apparatus for commercializing and concentrating nitrate of soda from the large beds in Chile, South America, owned by Col. North. Before leaving that great industry he gained valuable expe- rience in all the departments of machinery manufactured by the firm.
Mr. Christensen came to America and located in 1891 in Chicago, where he joined the firm of Frazer & Chalmers, manufacturers of engines, mining and other machinery, first as designer and later as commercial correspondent and selling engineer. It was in 1892 that Mr. Christensen designed and patented his first air-brake, as a result of having witnessed a fatal accident on one of the electric cars in the suburb of Oak Park, Chicago, that being the first electric railway in that part of the country. The financial panic of 1893 presented no tangible progress in getting the air-brake reduced to practice so that the public might receive the benefit of a safety appliance very sorely needed. In 1893 Mr. Christensen left the firm of Fraser and Chalmers, and after that worked on apparatus to be used for dredging and exca- vating the drainage canal, but the company which had started to build a special line of machinery for that purpose did not have suffi- cient funds to complete the work.
Mr. Christensen came to Milwaukee in the summer of 1894, for the firm of Edward P. Allis Company as assistant to the superin- tendent, who was one of the famous engineers of the old school. In that capacity he had charge of power-house construction and blowing engines. He developed a new type of blowing engine, which is now universally used in all the great steel mills of the United States and many of them abroad. These blowing engines which were a decided departure from anything at that time known and used, obviated many of the drawbacks and uncertainties of blast and Bessemer furnace operations wherein the air compressers or blow- ing engines had up to that time been the weak link.
The Christensen air-brake was first reduced to practice in April, 1893, on two of the cars on the Jefferson Avenue line at Detroit, Michigan. They were pronounced a success. The tests were car- ried out under the auspices of the officials of the Citizens Street Rail- way Company of Detroit, but in spite of this success and unqualified indorsement no money to finance the company for the manufacture of the brake could be raised on account of the financial condition of the country.
Mr. Christensen thus continued working for the Edward P. Allis Company until February, 1896. During the preceeding years, two cars had been equipped with the Christensen air-brake on the Mil-
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waukee Street Railway System. This was a preliminary step in a plan to put the air brakes on the market, allowing the severest opportu- nities for testing the apparatus through a period of many months. The tests were eminently satisfactory, and the first Christensen Engi- neering company was formed in the early part of 1897. In the meantime a large amount of preliminary work was done in the way of test equipment and some actual orders had been secured and filled.
In August, 1897, after four other companies, including one of the largest companies which theretofore had been engaged in manu- facturing air brakes for steam railway cars only, had failed to supply even satisfactory test apparatus for the South Side Elevated Rail- road of Chicago, the contract for the entire air brake system was awarded to the Christensen Engineering Company. This contract was awarded, not on the strength of the actual test of the apparatus put on cars for that line, but on account of the splendid showing the apparatus had made on some test cars on the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad Company, which was the first electric heavy-train service in Chicago. The air-brake apparatus for the Metropolitan Company had previously been supplied by another air-brake company, but it was not satisfactory and was subsequently replaced by the Christen- sen apparatus. The problems in connection with the service on the cars of the South Side Elevated Railroad were exceptionally severe, since they involved pioneer work in the true sense of the term. The system of propelling the cars was new in that each car in the train was in itself a completely equipped motor car, and capable of inde- pendent operation under what was known as the "multiple unit system." When the unit motor cars were coupled together in a train, the whole train of motors operated as a unit, being controlled from one point, namely the driver's cab in front. The electric part of the propelling equipment was worked out by Mr. Frank J. Sprague, one of the pioneers in electric railway traction. The air brake equipment to meet this kind of service was worked out by N. A. Christensen and was the foundation for the permanent suc- cess of the Christensen apparatus. Some of the incidents and experi- ences in that pioneer era of electric railway work would form an entertaining volume. The fame of the apparatus spread far and wide, though of course it was appreciated by those interested 111 technical matters, and the average person riding on such a train had not the faintest idea of the intricacies which it had been necessary to master in order to provide the service.
Subsequently the Christensen air brake came to be recognized as the necessary equipment on all first-class modern electric railway, whether in the city, suburb or interurban. As a result of his experi- . ment and invention, there is practically no limit to the weight of a car or train nor to its speed, since the brake keeps under perfect
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control the heaviest as well as the lightest train. Thus a new era was opened in the development of electric traction, since up to that time speed and weight had been limited because of the difficulty of controlling the cars by hand brakes or by the unreliable electric brake which had been advocated and put on cars by the companies making electric railway apparatus. The Christensen apparatus in time super- seded all other forms of brakes. The last electric brakes on any large scale were replaced by the Christensen appliances for the Pan American service on the Buffalo and International Railroad at Buffalo, New York in 1901. Something like five hundred sets of electric brakes were removed from the cars, and a like amount of Christen- sen apparatus put in their place.
The business from the summer of 1897 grew in leaps and bounds and when the large electric manufacturing companies realized that the air brake as developed by N. A. Christensen was the only practical and safe device used, they discontinued selling electric brake appa- ratus, except in cases where they themselves financed the railway companies.
As has been true in so many cases, history repeated itself. The Christensen Engineering Company had a hard and constant fight to prevent infringement of its patent, and had to contest every inch of its progress against the great companies manufacturing other elec- tric apparatus. But in spite of the influence of great capital and of shrewd, if not treacherous, business and legal methods, the Christen- sen apparatus in time became recognized as the standard in all parts of the civilized country where electric traction is used. The Chris- tensen appliances were adopted as a standard by the government tramways of Sydney, N. S. W. and other Australian cities. It was adopted as a standard on the surface and underground lines of Paris, France, and many other French cities. It was adopted on nearly all the electric railways of Italy, and some in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Canada, Mexico, South American republics, China, Japan, South Africa, and of course, in England, where the entire system of the Metropolitan underground and other underground electric roads were equipped with Christensen apparatus.
This splendid prosperity turned the heads of the stockholders of the Christensen Engineering Company. Mr. Christensen himself was not a stockholder, his patents being licensed on a royalty basis to the company. Manufacturing facilities had been created to accommo- date the large rush of orders, which from a beginning of nothing in 1897 had gradually increased until in 1902 the annual business amounted to $1,300,000.00. Mr. Christensen had no voice in the management of the company, being occupied entirely in keeping the manufacturing facilities and the quality of the product up to the very highest standard. When the new works were finished in 1901
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