USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 39
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WILLIAM J. TURNER. Presiding on the bench of the circuit court of the Second Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin, Judge Turner is recog- nized as one of the able and representative jurists of his native state. He is a scion of two of the honored pioneer families of Wisconsin. He lias been influential in connection with civic affairs in the city of Mil- waukee. He is essentially loyal, progressive and public spirited as a citizen, the while the unqualified esteem in which he is held shows that he has fully measured up to the insistent demands of popular appro- bation.
Judge Joseph William Turner was born at Waukesha, Wisconsin, on the 13th of September, 1848. Adequate details concerning the family history are given in the memoir dedicated to his father, the late Hon. Harvey Griswold Turner, on other pages of this publication. Judge Turner was afforded the advantages of the public schools of New York City, his parents having removed from their Wisconsin home to the
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national metropolis when he was about thirteen years of age. After the return of the family to Wisconsin he continued his higher academic studies in Carroll College, at Waukesha, and Beloit College in Beloit, in which latter institution he was a student until the close of his sopho- more year. He then entered the University of Albany, in New York, and from its college of law was graduated as a member of the class of 1871, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
After his graduation Judge Turner returned to Wisconsin and initi- ated the practice of his profession at Port Washington, Ozaukee county, but in April, 1872, he removed to Manitowoc, where he became associated in practice with his father, under the firm name of H. G. and W. J. Turner. This alliance continued there until 1882 and within this dec- ade Judge Turner had admirably proved his powers as an advocate and counselor of exceptional ability and mature judgment. In the year last mentioned he removed to Milwaukee, where he formed a professional partnership with Leander F. Frisby, who served as attorney general of Wisconsin from January 2, 1882, until January 3, 1887. This firm controlled a large and important law business. Judge Turner entered into partnership with his father in 1885, and in 1887, William H. Tim- lin became associated with the Messrs. Turner under the firm name of Turner & Timlin. Judge Timlin is now associate judge of the supreme court of Wisconsin. The firm at once assumed prominent place at the bar of Milwaukee county and of the state. In 1893 the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent and in November of that year the honored head of the firm, Harvey G. Turner, passed to the life eternal.
After the death of his father Judge Turner was the head of the firms of Turner, Bloodgood & Kemper, Peace & Turner, and Turner, IFunter & Groff, each with a large and representative clientage, until his eleva- tion to the circuit bench in 1908. In the meanwhile he had become prom- inently concerned with municipal affairs and general civic interests in the metropolis of his native state. He was a member of the Board of Education from 1887 to 1894, and during a number of years, was presi- dent of the board. He did much to further the efficiency of the work of the public schools and was ever the advocate of broad and liberal policies in this connection. He still manifests a deep interest in educa- tional affairs, especially those pertaining to the admirable public schools of his home city.
In the spring of 1908 Judge Turner was given the support of the Milwaukee county bar, which unreservedly advanced his nomination for the office of circuit judge of the Second Judicial District, and on the 7th of the following April he was elected one of the judges of this tri- bunal, by a gratifying majority. He has given a most able and satis- factory administration and few of his decisions have met with reversal. He is well fortified in the principles of jurisprudence, is familiar with precedents, and has a distinctively judicial mind, so that his success on
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the bench has come in natural sequence. He possesses the confidence and respect of the bar and of the people in general. His present term will expire on January 1, 1914.
While engaged in the active practice of his profession, Judge Turner was engaged in much important litigation. Among such was that in which he appeared, in association with Hon. Horace A. J. Upham, in 1885, in the institution of proceedings to recover to the heirs of Cyrus Hawley one hundred acres of land which had been entered by their grandfather, Cyrus Hawley. This valuable tract of land is situated north of Grand Avenue and west of Twenty-fourth street in the city of Milwaukee, and on a portion of the same is located the magnificent Shandein residence. The litigation resulted in recovering to the heirs the land or its equivalent, to the valuation of more than four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This recovery was effected upon the "dis- covery of a secret trust," by which the man named as executor of the will of Cyrus Hawley had conveyed the property to a relative to be held in trust for him, with the undoubted intention of defrauding the legiti- mate heirs. Another important case in which Judge Turner appeared was in the prosecution of the rioters of May, 1886. He was specially appointed, by Judge A. Scott Sloan, to conduct the trials and he was successful in bringing the rioters to justice.
The political proclivities of Judge Turner are indicated by the sup- port which he gives to the cause of the Democratic party.
Both Judge and Mrs. Turner are communicants of St. James church, Protestant Episcopal. He has been a member of its vestry continuously since 1885. He is at the present time its senior warden and as a thorough and earnest churchman he takes deep interest in all departments of parochial and diocesan work. He is a member of the Milwaukee Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He is a charter mem- ber of LaFayette Lodge, Calumet Chapter and Ivanhoe Commandery Knights Templar, and is also a member of Wisconsin Consistory. He holds membership in the Old Settlers' Club of Milwaukee. He is identi- fied with the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, his elegi- bility for which is indicated in the sketch of the career of his father, found elsewhere in this work, and he has been president of that society.
On the 1st day of August, 1871, Judge Turner was married to Miss Alice P. Morgan, daughter of Lyman B. and Delana (Teed) Morgan, of Port Washington, this state. Mrs. Turner was summoned to eternal rest in February, 1898, and is survived by one child, Leland M., who is a successful manufacturer and representative business man of Port Wash- ington. On the 10th day of August, 1899, Judge Turner married Mrs. Seville DeGarmo, widow of H. H. DeGarmo, and a daughter of C. C. Barnes, of Manitowoc, this state. No children have been born to this latter union.
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HON. NORMAN S. GILSON. Born at Middlefield, Ohio, March 23, 1839, Judge Norman S. Gilson, one of Fond du Lac's most distinguished citizens, is a representative of one of New England's oldest families, tracing his ancestry back to Joseph Gilson, who about the year 1650 arrived in the New World from England. Among his descendants are those who participated in the French and Indian War, the Revo- lutionary struggle and the War of 1812. Judge Gilson is an example of hereditary strength of character. In his family history no weak or vicious link has been discovered, and he seems the embodi- ment of the many virtues transferred from generation to generation.
Daniel Gilson, the grandfather of the Judge, was a soldier of the Revolution, and after the attainment of American independence estab- lished his home in Ohio, in 1817, both he and his wife passing away in Middlefield, that state. William H. Gilson, the father of Judge Gilson, was one of a family of seven children. He was born in Ver- mont, and was a lad of six years at the time of the family's removal to the Buckeye state. Reared to manhood at the Middlefield home, he early became a farmer and devoted many years of his life to tilling the soil. About 1865 he removed to Garrettsville, Portage county, Ohio, and there his remaining years were passed, his death occurring in 1889, when he was seventy-eight years old.
Norman S. Gilson, while spending his youthful days in Middle- field, mastered the elementary branches of learning, and subsequently taught in the schools there, later attending Farmington University. In 1860 he came to Wisconsin and settled at West Bend, and while teaching school there for two years devoted his leisure hours to the study of law in the offices and under the preceptorship of his unele, Leander F. Frisby. When the Civil War broke across the country in all its fury, young Gilson answered the call of his country for troops, enlisting on the 17th of September, 1861, as a private of Company D, Twelfth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for two years. The regiment, which was commanded by Col. George E. Bryant, left Wisconsin January 11, 1862, in the Department of Kansas, with which it operated until transferred to the Army of the Tennessee, and assigned to duty in the District of Mississippi, under Gen. Isaac F. Quimby. Mr. Gilson was on detached service with the staff General Robert B. Mitchell from June, 1862, until after the battle of Perryville, when he returned to his regiment. In May, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant major of his regiment, following which he participated in the siege of Vicksburg and the siege of Jackson, Mississippi, his gallant and faithful serv- ices winning him promotion in August, 1863, to the rank of first lieu- tenant of Company H, Fifty-eighth United States Colored Infantry. He was soon promoted to adjutant and eventually became lieutenant- colonel of his regiment. As a member of the staff of General David-
Marwan S. Misono
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son he was assigned to duty as judge advocate of the Natchez dis- trict, and in 1865 and 1866 was judge advocate for the Department of the Mississippi, serving on the staffs of Major-General Osterhaus and Major-General Thomas J. Wood. Although his regiment was mustered out in 1865 he was retained as judge advocate for more than a year by the direction of the Secretary of War on account of the trial by court-martial of Captain Frederick Speed, who was charged with criminal carelessness in overloading the steamer Sultana with parolled prisoners of war, whereby 1,100 of them lost their lives when the vessel sunk near Memphis, April 27, 1865. Colonel Gilson represented the Government on that trial. On the 12th of June, 1866, he was mustered out of the service and honorably discharged at Vieks- burg, and President Johnson brevetted him colonel of United States Volunteers "for efficient and meritorious service."
In 1866 and 1867 Judge Gilson was a student in the law school at Albany, New York, and graduated in that year at the latter insti- tution, being immediately admitted to the bar. In 1868 he came to Fond du Lac, where he opened a law office, and here practiced his pro- fession until 1880. In 1874 he was elected city attorney of Fond du Lac, and in 1877 and 1878 filled the office of district attorney. In March, 1880, the Democratic party named him as its nominee for the office of judge of the Fourth Judicial District, and in the election which followed he received a majority of more than 8,000 votes over his opponent. In 1886 he was again elected to the same office, this time without opposition, and again was sent to the same high position in 1892. In 1898 he declined to become a candidate for another term and retired from the bench after eighteen continuous years of de- voted service as a circuit judge. In 1899 Judge Gilson was appointed a member of the Wisconsin Tax Commission, and so served from the latter part of that year until handing in his resignation the first day of May, 1911. He was chairman of the commission from December, 1899, to the time of his resignation.
On October 17, 1905, Judge Gilson was united in marriage with Miss Laura B. Conklin, a daughter of Lanty and Marietta (Bristol) Conklin. Mrs. Gilson was born in Canada, near Niagara Falls, and her parents were natives of New York state. She is a consistent mem- ber of the Congregational church, and is widely known in social and charitable circles of Fond du Lac. Judge Gilson is a member of Fi- delity Lodge, No. 110, Knights of Pythias. He has ever been delighted to foregather with his old comrades of army days, and holds member- ship in the Grand Army of the Republic, the Loyal Legion and the Society of the Army of the Tennessee.
Judge Gilson's mind is of the judicial order, and he would prob- ably have been asked to serve on the bench in any community in which he made his home. The high esteem in which he was held as
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a jurist by the entire legal profession was a result of a rare combina- tion of fine legal ability and culture, and incorruptible integrity, with the dignified presence, absolute courage, and graceful urbanity which characterized all of his official acts. No man has rendered his com- munity and his country more conscientious service; no man is more worthy of his community's respect and gratitude.
ARMIN A. SCHLESINGER. Among the young business men of Milwau- kee who are manifesting the finest of initiative and executive powers and wielding distinctive influence in the furtherance of important indus- trial enterprises, there are few whose precedence excels that of Mr. Schlesinger. Receiving the highest of academic advantages, he has em- ployed his knowledge along practical lines and has proved himself well deserving of the title of captain of industry. Alert and progressive and taking deep interest in all that touches the wellbeing of his home city, he is distinctively one of the representative business men of the younger generation in the Wisconsin metropolis and is well entitled to specific recognition in this publication.
Mr. Schlesinger is a native son of Milwaukee, where he was born on the 21st of September, 1883. His father, Ferdinand Schlesinger, an hon- ored and influential citizen of Milwaukee, was born in Germany, on the 18th of February, 1850, and the mother, Mrs. Matilda (Stern) Schles- inger, was born in Milwaukee and is a representative of one of the ster- ling pioneer families of this city. Ferdinand Schlesinger was afforded the advantages of excellent schools in his native land and was eighteen years of age when he came to America and established his residence in Kilbourn, Columbia county, Wisconsin, where he was for a number of years a tutor, giving special attention to teaching the German and French lauguages. Though his intellectual attainments are of a high order, he soon decided that better opportunities were offered in the domain of commercial enterprise than in the pedagogic profession, and he accordingly consulted ways and means, with the result that he fi- nally engaged in the manufacturing of harvesting machines, in which connection he established his residence and business headquarters in Milwaukee. He was one of the first to realize the value of the great iron deposits of the upper peninsula of Michigan and became interested in a number of the mines in that section. His constructive and execu- tive abilities came into effective play, and his career has been large suc- cess and worthy achievement. In 1904 he effected the organization of the Milwaukee Coke and Gas Company, of which he is president, and four years later he purchased the plant and business of the Northwest- ern Iron Company, at Mayville, Dodge county, Wisconsin. He has been president of this corporation since its reorganization, and this, like all other enterprises with which he has indentified himself, has prospered under his able and discriminating administration. He has large hold-
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ings in the Newport Mining Company of Ironwood, Michigan, and is president of his company. His capitalistic interests are not confined to Wisconsin and Michigan, as he is a member of the directorate of the Boomer Coal & Coke Company, controlling valuable properties at Boom- er, West Virginia. He is also a director of the Detroit Iron & Steel Com- pany, of Detroit, Michigan, another important corporation. He is one of the prominent business men of Milwaukee and is a citizen whose influ- ence and co-operation are freely given in the supporting of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community. He is a member of the Athletic, University and Deutscher Clubs of Milwaukee, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Unitarian church. The members of the Schlesinger family are most popular factors in the rep- resentative social activities of Milwaukee, and through his well directed endeavors Ferdinand S. Schlesinger has become one of the substantial capitalists and recognized industrial leaders in the Badger state. It may be specially noted, as a matter of historic record, that he pur- chased of the late Captain Bean the first iron mine opened in Wiscon- sin, this initial work having been done by the captain's father and the mine being now one of the holdings of the Northwestern Iron Company, of which Mr. Schlesinger is president, as previously mentioned in this context.
Armin A. Schlesinger received his early educational discipline in the public schools of Milwaukee, where he was graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1901. He then entered historic old Harvard University, in which he was graduated in 1905 and from which he re- ceived the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Like his honored father, he found it expedient to turn his attention to industrial and commercial activities rather than to those of academic order, and like his father also he has shown distinctive executive ability, his initiative having been shown so clearly that he has not stood in the shadow of paternal great- ness. In the year of his graduation at Harvard Mr. Schlesinger organ- ized the Milwaukee Solvay Coke Company of which he has been presi- dent from the beginning, and he has shown great discrimination in the development of the substantial business of this corporation and in directing its administrative policies. He is vice-president and treas- urer also of each of the several corporations with which his father is connected, and is also vice-president and treasurer of the Vera Chem- ical Company of Milwaukee. These statements indicate effectively that he is a busy man, and he seems to have an illimitable capacity for the handling of large affairs,-almost as if "increase of appetite hath grown by what it fed on." Mr. Schlesinger is one of the most alert and pro- gressive young business men of his native city and has wide social pop- ularity and influence, notwithstanding the exactions of his manifold busi- ness interests.
Mr. Schlesinger is a valued and popular member of the University Vol. VI -- 22
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Club, the Town Club, the Milwaukee and the Blue Mound Country Clubs, and the Milwaukee Athletic Club and the Deutscher Club. Both he and his wife are communicants of St. Paul's church, Protestant Epis- copal.
On the 18th of June, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Schlesinger to Miss Kathleen McCulloch, daughter of Allan and Kath- erine (McGregor), McCulloch, of Milwaukee, where she was born and reared, her father being a representative business man of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Schlesinger have two children, Eileen and Armin, and the attractive family home is at 102 Marietta avenue, the parents of Mr. Schlesinger maintaining their residence at 477 Lafayette Place.
Henry Schlesinger, the elder and only brother of him whose name initiates this review, is likewise associated with the various enterprises in which the father is concerned and is one of the representative busi- ness men of Milwaukee, where his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances and where he is identified with the same clubs as is his brother. He was graduated in Harvard University as a mem- ber of the class of 1901, is a bachelor and still remains at the parental home. He is vice-president of the various corporations in which his father and brother are associated and is well upholding the high pres- tige of the family name both as a citizen and as a business man. The father and two sons maintain finely appointed offices in suite 211 of the Colby-Abbot building.
OSCAR H. PIERCE. A citizen whose career has been such as to reflect honor upon the state of Wisconsin as well as to give marked distinc- tion to the man himself, is Oscar H. Pierce, who is now one of the suc- cessful representatives of the real-estate, loan and insurance business in Milwaukee, with offices at 217 Caswell building. He has been for many years actively identified with business and civic interests in the Wisconsin metropolis, has served in offices of public trust, and has gained and maintained inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem. It was his to render distinguished service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and in this connection he went forth with one of the most gallant of the Wisconsin regiments whose patriotic services shall not be forgotten so long as the state has recorded history.
Mr. Pierce was born at Charlemont, Franklin county, Massachusetts, on the 6th of July, 1840, and he is a scion of a family whose name has been most worthily identified with the annals of American history since the early colonial epoch. He is a son of Richard and Sarah (Rudd) Pierce, both of whom were likewise natives of the old Bay state, where the former passed his entire life, having been one of the sterling repre- sentatives of the agricultural industry in Franklin county, where he was born and reared and where his death occurred in 1848. He served as a member of the state militia, was influential in public affairs of a
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local order and in all the relations of life accounted well to the world and to himself. His cherished and devoted wife survived him by many years and was a resident of Arlington, Columbia county, Wisconsin, at the time of her death, when 83 years of age.
Josiah Pierce, grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, likewise was born and reared in Franklin county, Massachusetts, and he was a valiant soldier in a Massachusetts regiment of the Continental line in the war of the Revolution. He was a man of fine physique and great strength, and it is a matter of record that when one of his com- rades, as well as his neighbor, was severely wounded in the Revolution- ary engagement at Bunker Hill in which they were taking part, he lifted his fallen comrade in his arms and carried him off the field. Oscar H. Pierce, of this sketch, has in his possession, as a valued heir- loom, the leather bullet-pouch which his grandfather made and which he carried in the battle of Bunker Hill. Both the Pierce and Rudd fam- ilies are of staunch English lineage and both were founded in America soon after the landing of the Pilgrims from the historic "Mayflower."
Oscar H. Pierce was the fifteenth in order of birth in a family of sixteen children, and only two others of the children are now living, Robert W., who resides in Milwaukee, and who celebrated his ninety-second birth- day anniversary in February, 1913, is known as the pioneer match manufacturer of the northwest and he is one of the most venerable and honored citizens of Milwaukee, where he was for many years engaged in the manufacturing of matches and where he continued to be inter- ested in this line of enterprise until about 1898. He is a valued member of the Milwaukee Pioneer Club, for which only those are eligible who came to Wisconsin prior to the admission of the state to the Union. IIe came to Wisconsin in 1844, and so long as there remains a sufficient contingent to make it possible, the Pioneer Club will continue to have a fine memorial celebration and dinner each year. The other surviving. member of the immediate family is Mrs. Sylvia K. Bartlett, wife of Oscar S. Bartlett, of Columbia county, this state, and the subject of this review is the youngest of the three surviving children.
Oscar H. Pierce was a lad of eight years at the time of his father's death and in the following year he accompanied his widowed mother and six others of the children to Wisconsin, the family arriving in Milwau- kee on Sunday morning, June 10, 1849. Albert L. Pierce, an elder brother, became the main support of the family, and Robert W. also assisted materially in providing for the younger brothers and sisters and his widowed mother in the pioneer days in Wisconsin. Of the chil- dren who attained to years of maturity there were two sons and one daughter.
In the little pioneer city of Milwaukee Oscar H. Pierce attended school in the old Sixth ward and he continued his studies in the city's first high school, on the East side. When the Civil war was precipitated
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