USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 38
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Few men in these parts have a better social and business standing that has he, and few are more entitled to the confidence and esteem of the public than he has proven himself to be.
PHIL LINGELBACH. A very energetic business man and public spir- ited citizen is Phil Lingelbach, president of The Oconto Brewing Com- pany at Oconto, that being the oldest brewing establishment in the coun- ty. The plant is a large and well equipped concern, producing a high quality of domestic beers, and the output is distributed over a large section of central and northern Wisconsin. The capital stock of the company is one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and practically all is owned in the Lingelbach family.
Charles J. Lingelbach, a son of Phil, is vice-president and treas- urer of the company, C. H. Roenitz is secretary, while Sigmund Lingel- bach, another son, is brew master.
Mr. Lingelbach bought the brewery from Jacob Spies in 1900, and moved his family to Oconto in that year. His previous residence had been at Sheboygan, where from 1885 to 1900 he was superintendent and brewmaster at the Shreiver Brewing Company. Still earlier, he was for two years brew master at the West Side Brewery in Chicago and for a year prior to that had acted as brew master at Ottawa, Illinois. Brewing has been his profession, and few men in America at the present time are more complete masters of the art than Phil Lingelbach. Mr. Lingelbach came from Germany to the United States in 1870, and his first employment was in the Pabst Brewery at Mil- waukee, from which city he went to Ottawa, after which his successive moves have already been stated.
Phil Lingelbach was born in Germany in 1852, was reared and educated in his native land and saw three years of service in the German army. After leaving the army he learned the brewing art under the skilled masters of the Fatherland, and came to America with a thorough equipment in his profession.
At Ottawa, Illinois, Mr. Lingelbach married Miss Minnie Meyer. They are the parents of four sons, namely: Charles J., Sigmund, Frank, and Hugo. The two first named are both graduates of the Wahl-Henius Institute of Fermentology at Chicago, and besides their diplomas showing their technical knowledge of the trade are also practical brewers. Mr. Lingelbach is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
LOUIS MOSSOP PEARSON, M. D. Physician and surgeon at Tomahawk in Lincoln county where he has practiced since February, 1907, Dr. Pearson has made an enviable record as a doctor, and by his thorough
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preparation for his profession and his subsequent industry and skill raised himself to rank as one of the leading members of his profession in the northern part of the state. Dr. Pearson graduated from Rush Medical College of Chicago, in the class of 1904. Seven months fol- lowing his graduation was spent as interne at the Chicago Lying-in Hospital, for three months he was substitute interne at the Presbyterian Hospital, and for two months substitute interne at the German Hospital in Chicago. His first year of regular practice was in Chicago, and from October 1, 1905, until he came to Tomahawk, he served as exam- iner `for the Equitable Life Insurance Company with office in the First National Bank Building of Chicago. In Tomahawk Dr. Pearson is in general practice, but devotes much of his time to obstetrics and surgery. He is a member of the staff of the Sacred Heart Hospital at Tomahawk.
Louis Mossop Pearson was born on a farm four miles west of Madi- son, Wisconsin, July 10, 1878, and at the age of thirty-five has gone far on his career. His parents were Joseph and Gertrude Jenkins Pearson. Joseph Pearson, who was born in Newcastle, England, came to America with his father, Mossop Pearson, at the age of nine years. The family settled on a farm near Madison, where the father grew up and took up the vocation of farming. The mother of Dr. Pearson was a native of Ohio, a daughter of Rev. Louis H. Jenkins, a Presbyterian minister, who was for several years superintendent of the Deaf & Dumb. Asylum at Olathe, Kansas, and also superintendent of the Deaf & Dumb Asylum at Jacksonville, Illinois. His death occurred at Madison, Wisconsin, when his grandson Dr. Pearson was a boy.
Dr. Pearson owes much for his vigorous physical condition to the environment of the home farm on which he spent the first twenty years of his life. During that time he attended country schools, and later entered the schools of Madison, and graduated from the high school of that city in 1897. His ambition was already set on a professional career, but circumstances did not allow him to follow a continuous . course of preparation without considerable work on his own part in earning his way. For one year he was a student in the University of Wisconsin, where he took special work preparatory for the study of medicine. The following year was spent in work on his father's study of medicine. The following year was spent in work on his farm, after which he entered Rush Medical College in Chicago. and continued a student there until his graduation in 1904.
Dr. Pearson on February 22, 1906, married Miss Frankie May Church, of Owatonna, Minnesota. They are the parents of two chil- dren: Gertrude May and Louis Roberts. Since 1908 Dr. Pearson has been health commissioner at Tomahawk. He is a member of the Lincoln county and the Wisconsin State Medical Societies, and of the American Medical Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic Order
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the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Modern Wood- men of America.
CHARLES A. TARBELL. In the facilitating and assuring the transfers of real estate in any county there is imperative necessity for the pre- paring and having available a complete and authentic set of abstracts of title covering the prescribed province in every detail, and in Kenosha county admirable provision in this line is offered by the abstract office conducted by Mr. Tarbell, who succeeded his honored father in this field of enterprise and who is known as one of the progressive and public-spirited citizens and representative business men of his native county. He is a scion of one of the best known pioneer families of the
county and the name which he bears has been identified with the annals of American history from the early colonial era through the various stages of national development and progress. Three brothers of the Tarbell line immigrated from Wales to America in 1660 and numbered themselves among the sturdy members of the historic old Salem colony in Massachusetts, and to one of these brothers is traced the lineage of him whose name introduces this paragraph.
Charles A. Tarbell was born in Kenosha, Kenosha county, Wis- consin, on the 7th of March, 1862, and is a son of Henry H. and Cyn- thia J. (Griggs) Tarbell, both natives of Massachusetts and representa- tives of sterling old New England stock. Henry H. Tarbell was born in Brimfield, Hampden county, Massachusetts, on the 6th of April, 1819, and he was reared to maturity on the old homestead farm of his father, who was one of the substantial and honored citizens of that county. Mr. Tarbell gained his early education in the common schools of the locality and period and thereafter continued his higher studies in the North Wilberham Academy, where he so thoroughly prepared himself as to become eligible for pedagogic honors. For a time he was engaged in teaching school at Stafford, Connecticut, and in the summer of 1837 he came to what was then considered the frontier of western civilization. He made Wisconsin Territory his destination and num- bered himself among the earliest settlers of Bristol township, Kenosha county, this county having at that time been an integral part of Racine county. He procured a tract of government land, the same being heavily timbered and entirely unimproved. In 1840 the sturdy young Wisconsin pioneer returned to his native state, where he again entered the North Wilberham Academy, in which he continued his studies to the completion of a full course, besides which he devoted a considerable part of the intervening time to the pegagogic profession, in which his success was on a parity with his recognized ability.
After his marriage, in 1842, Mr. Tarbell returned to Wisconsin, and with the effective co-operation of his noble and ambitious young wife he conducted for some time what was known as the Fowler hotel
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or tavern, in Bristol township, Kenosha county, this old hostelry hav- ing been one of the popular resorts for those traveling through this section and having long been one of the landmarks of the county. After devoting about three years to the hotel business Mr. Tarbell removed to his farm, and thereafter he gave his time and attention to its reclamation and cultivation until 1859, when he was elected register of deeds of Kenosha county and removed with his family to Kenosha, the county seat. He filled this office with marked discrim- ination and ability and to the entire satisfaction of all citizens of the county. His effective administration continued for three successive terms, and he was also called upon to serve in various other offices of local trust but of somewhat minor importance. He familiarized him- self most thoroughly with the history of Kenosha county and with conditions and opportunities here presented. He prepared a manu- script record concerning the county and the same merits preservation as a most valuable contribution to the history of this favored section of the state. Mr. Tarbell served for a number of years as county school commissioner and he was known and honored not less for his ability and his inflexible integrity of purpose than for his broad pub- lie spirit and his effective service in positions of distinctive trust and responsibility. Me espoused the cause of the Republican party at the time of its organization and ever continued a stalwart supporter of its principles. Both he and his wife were affiliated with the Congre- gational church.
After his retirement from the office of register of deeds Henry H. Tarbell became a member of the firm of Bath & Tarbell and engaged in the manufacturing of wagons, but in 1883 he turned his attention to the abstract and real estate business, in which he was associated with D. B. Benedict until his death, which occurred on the 17th of February, 1890, his partner dying in 1903 and the business then passing into the possession of Charles A. Tarbell, of this review. The devoted wife and mother was summoned to eternal rest in 1902, and the children, two sons and four daughters remain to represent this honored pioneer family of Kenosha county.
Charles A. Tarbell is indebted to the public schools of Kenosha for his early educational discipline, which included the curriculum of the high school. and in the city which is now his home he gained also his initial business experience. He succeeded to the real estate and abstract business with which his father had been long identified and in the conducting of which he has maintained both departments at the highest standard of efficiency, the while he has an inviolable place in the con- fidence and esteem of the people of his native county. He is one of the progressive and substantial business men of Kenosha and is essen- tially loyal and public-spirited. Mr. Tarbell has been found aligned as a staunch advocate of the cause of the Republican party and has
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been called to various offices of public trust and responsibility. He held the position of register of deeds of Kenosha county from 1895 to 1897, and he served two terms as a member and president of the city council. In the absence of Mayor O. M. Pettitt he became acting mayor of the city and held this position for the greater portion of that year. For two terms he was a member of the board of education, and in this capacity likewise he manifested characteristic fidelity and civic loyalty, and he is now serving as one of the school commissioners. Mr. Tarbell is affiliated with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias, the Royal Arcanum and the Royal League.
MATHIAS WERVE. The eminence of Kenosha among the industrial centers of the middle west has been due to the presence there of a group of men possessed of remarkable genius as manufacturers and of fine capabilities as organizers and business builders. Capital has been less conspicuous in the net results than personal ability, and it is with pride that the city regards its list of industrial executives. In the largest tannery of the world, that conducted for so many years under the proprietorship and name of the Allen family, Mathias Werve has been superintendent for a period of about forty years. He is one of the most thoroughly experienced and capable men in the leather indus- try of America today.
Mathias Werve was born December 4, 1844, near Trier, Germany, a son of Servius and Catherine (Bauer) Werve. The parents were born in the same vicinity, and the grandparents lived there all their lives. Servius Werve was born in 1784, and was a soldier in the army of Na- poleon Bonaparte. He was twice married and by his first wife had six children, one of whom is now living, Catherine of Germany. Joseph died recently in Kenosha. His second marriage was to Catherine Bauer. She was one of a small family born to John and Margaretta Bauer, her father dying at the age of sixty, while her mother reached the remarkable age of one hundred and five years. Servius and Catherine Werve had five children as follows: Mathias; Theodore of Summers township in Kenosha county ; Peter of Mansfield, Ohio; John, who died at the age of thirty-two years; and Eva, who died when twenty-two months old. Servius Werve, the father, was a millwright by trade, in Germany, but after coming to America in 1852, and settling in Kenosha, devoted his time to carpenter work. His death occurred in 1857, at the age of seventy-three. His wife lived until 1889, and was seventy- five years of age at the time of her death. Both parents were devout Catholics.
Mathias Werve was eight years of age at the time of the family immigration to America, and grew up in Kenosha, and had only a limited schooling in the local public schools. When still young he was obliged to go to work and earn his own way, and his first regular
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employment was in a tannery, a fact which gave the permanent bent to his subsequent career. There is probably no detail of the tanning business which is unknown to Mr. Werve, and he is not only a practical man at the business, but has studied carefully all the improvements and advances made in the trade, and for many years has been ad- judged one of the experts. Evidence of this fact is presented by his employment in 1872, by the Japanese government for the purpose of instructing the young artisans of that country in the art of tanning. He entered upon a contract to serve the Japanese government two years, and at the end of that time returned to Kenosha, and then entered upon his prominent connection with the firm of N. R. Allen & Son. In 1880 he was made superintendent of the plant, and has held that office to the present time. The tannery is the largest in the world, employs more than twelve hundred hands and its output is sent to every portion of the globe. Mr. Werve not only possesses a practical knowledge of tanning in all its processes, but is also a man of thorough executive ability and shrewd judgment, and it is owing largely to his management that the high standards of this factory have been so steadily maintained through a long period of years.
On September 19, 1867, Mr. Werve married Miss Catherine Bohrn, a daughter of John and Margaret (Strought) Bohrn. They have be- come the parents of five children, as follows: Anna, married Adolph John Reinhardt, a retail jewelry merchant of Lincoln, Illinois, and has one child Lois; Emma married Calvin Stewart, an attorney of Kenosha, and has one son, Donald Werve Stewart; Mary lived only twenty-two months; Charles formerly a law student is now in the furniture business in Kenosha; Grace married Geo. W. Taylor, living in Kenosha, and now probate judge. Mr. Werve and wife are active members of the Catholic church. Fraternally his associations are with the Knights of Pythias, The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Royal Arcanum. Politically a Democrat he has served one term as school commissioner and is always ready to cooperate in any movement for the general good of his community. No native citizen of America is more loyal to his country, and more positive in his expression of American patriotism than Mr. Werve. An interesting incident illustrates his thorough Americanism. While in Japan he lived at a hotel conducted by two Englishmen. These Eng. lishmen had a high flag pole out on a jetty, and kept the English flag flying there on various occasions. It occurred to Mr. Werve that it would be entirely appropriate for him to fly the American emblem there on the nation's birthday. Accordingly, without revealing his designs, he rented the flag pole for the fourth day of July, and pulled the stars and stripes to its head. As soon as the owners of the hotel saw the flag there, they and others undertook to threaten and abuse Mr. Werve, and his flag, and used every means of persuasion they knew to get him to
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haul it down. However, he positively refused to lower the bunting, and declared he would shoot the first person that interfered. He stood guard over the flag all day, having a loaded Spencer rifle in his hands, and was not molested.
When the firm of N. R. Allen & Sons Company sold the tannery business in 1905 to the Central Leather Company, Mr. Werve was re- tained in his old position as superintendent. .
HARVEY GRISWOLD TURNER. Conspicuous among those sterling citi- zens who have left a clearly defined and benignant impress upon the history of Wisconsin was Judge Harvey Griswold Turner, who was long numbered among the representative members of the bar of the state and whose influence was potent in the furtherance of civic and ma- terial progress. He was a member of one of the honored pioneer families of Wisconsin and a scion of lines long and prominently identified with the annals of American history. He attained to the span of three score years and ten, allotted by the psalmist, and passed the closing days of his long and useful life in apartments in the Plankinton House, Mil- waukee, where his death occurred on the 22nd of November, 1893. In a publication of the province assigned to the one at hand there is all of consistency in according a tribute to the memory of this honored citi- zen, together with a brief review of his personal career and family history.
Harvey Griswold Turner was born at East Oswego, Oswego county, New York, on the 7th of June, 1822, and was a son of Joseph and Mary (Griswold) Turner. Representatives of the Turner family were numbered among the earliest settlers of Connecticut, and to members of the family is attributed effective aid in bringing about the enactment of the famous and historic "Blue laws" which still remain on the statute books of that New England commonwealth. Representatives of the name went from Connecticut into Vermont, and from the latter state went forth the founders of the New York branch of the family.
Joseph Turner, father to him to whom this memoir is dedicated, was born in Vermont, and became one of the pioneers of the Empire state. He served as a valiant soldier in the war of 1812, and in 1839 he came west and numbered himself among the pioneers of the Terri- tory of Wisconsin. He established his home at Prairieville, the nucleus of the present city of Waukesha, and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of the pioneer community. Wisconsin was admitted to statehood in 1848 and he had the distinction of serving as a member of the first state senate, besides which he was a member of the first board of supervisors of Waukesha county and its first chairman, in the organization of which he took a prominent part. He was closely concerned with the early development and progress of that county, but finally removed to Winnebago county, where he became one of the
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founders of the present attractive little city of Menasha, where he passed the remainder of his life. His name and also that of his noble wife merit enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Wisconsin.
Harvey G. Turner gained his early educational advantages in the schools of his native city, and he was about seventeen years of age at the time of the family removal to Wisconsin, where he met with his full quota of experiences in connection with conditions and associations of the pioneer epoch. He remained at Prairieville (now Waukesha) until 1842, when he removed to Milwaukee and entered the law office of the firm of Finches & Lynde, under whose able preceptorship he con- tinued his study of the law until he proved himself eligible for admission to the bar, a desideratum to which he attained in 1844. In initiating the active practice of his profession he established his home in Grafton, Washington county, a town that is now in Ozaukee county, and soon afterward he was elected to the office of district attorney of the county. When but twenty-four years of age he was a delegate to the convention that framed the constitution under which Wisconsin was admitted to statehood, and in 1851-2 he was a prominent and valued member of the state senate. In 1853 there came further evidence of popular con- fidence and esteem in his election to the office of Judge of the County Court of Ozankee county, an incumbency which he retained for four years.
In 1861 Judge Turner abandoned the practice of his profession and removed with his family to New York city, where he was engaged in business pursuits for about two years. With the exception of this interim he gave his attention continuously to the practice of law for nearly half a century, and he held a position of prominence at the bars, in turn, of Washington, Ozaukee, Manitowoc and Milwaukee counties.
Judge Turner was emphatically and insistently a Democrat in politics and he was long numbered among the leaders in the councils of his party in Wisconsin: In 1854 he was a candidate for congress, as repre- sentative of the Third Congressional district, his opponent was Hon. John B. Macy, of Fond du Lac. He met with defeat, owing to normal political exigencies. It may incidentally be noted that at that time the Third congressional district comprised that portion of Wisconsin lying between the Milwaukee county line and Lake Superior. For nine years prior to his death, Judge Turner resided with his only son in Milwaukee. He was a man of distinctive professional and intellectual ability, strong in his convictions and yet ever kindly and tolerant in his judgment of others. He did well his part in the upbuilding of a great commonwealth and his memory will long be cherished in that state which was the scene of his activities for many long years. Judge Turner was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity in this state and was one of the valued and honored members of the Old Set- tlers' Club of Milwaukee.
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As a young man Judge Turner was united in marriage to Miss Emeline Griswold Teall, who was born in Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York, on the 4th of May, 1826, and who was called to the "land of the leal" in 1887. William J. Turner, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work, is the only child of Judge Turner and his wife. An adopted daughter, Mrs. H. C. Richards, resides at Mani- towoc, Wisconsin.
Mrs. Turner was a daughter of Colonel William and Rhoda (Conant) Teall, and both Judge and Mrs. Turner were in line of descent from Gov- ernor Griswold, one of the early governors of Connecticut. Colonel William Teall was a son of Joseph Teall, who was a member of the body guard of General Washington in the War of the Revolution, and who received in recognition of his military services, a large grant of land in Herkimer county, New York. Much of this land is still in the possession of his descendants and upon the same is situated the attractive village of Fairfield, where Mrs. Turner was born.
Colonel William Teall came with his family to the west about the year 1827 and at Michigan City, Indiana, he established the largest mercantile business west of Buffalo, New York. He also owned and operated the first line of stages between Buffalo and Michigan City, which latter place was one of considerable importance at the time, Chi- cago being little more than a straggling village. In these early pioneer days Colonel Teall acquired large tracts of land in Wisconsin, but a few years later he met with reverses which compelled him to sacrifice a large part of his holdings. He early established his home at Port Washington, this state, and there he continued to reside until his death, which took place in 1875. He was a man of fine ability and sterling character, and he did much to further the civic and industrial develop- ment of Wisconsin.
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