USA > Wisconsin > Wisconsin, its story and biography, 1848-1913, Volumr VI > Part 6
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Upon his return he re-entered the ranks of the Northwestern Lum- ber Company, being made secretary of the company. He held this posi- tion until 1904 when he became vice-president and treasurer, a position of which he is the present incumbent. . He became interested in the bank- ing business a number of years ago and became vice-president of the Bank of Eau Claire. In 1906 this bank was re-organized as the Union National Bank, and Mr. Moon is at present one of the directors of this institution.
He is one of the popular members of the Eau Claire Club and of the Eau Claire Country Club. In politics he is a member of the Repub- lican party and he belongs to Eau Claire Lodge, No. 402, of the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks.
. Mr. Moon married Catherine Chamberlin on the 22nd of January, 1903. Mrs. Moon is a native of Eau Claire, and has lived practically all of her life here. They are the parents of two daughters, Lucy Ann and Sallie Gilman.
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CHESTER DELOS MOON. The Moon family is well known throughout the state of Wisconsin, for the father was one of the pioneer lumbermen of this section of the country and his sons have shown the same business ability that made the father so successful. Chester Delos Moon, secre- tary of the Northwestern Lumber Company, is one of the best known and most popular of the younger business men in the city. Chester Moon occupies the difficult position of being of the second generation, that generation that is supposed to waste the fortune that the first gen- eration has piled up. That he is not doing this, but instead is proving a true son of his father is sufficient proof that he is possessed of a strong character and clear head.
Chester Delos Moon is the son of Delos R. and Sallie (Gilman) Moon, concerning whom mention is made in another part of this volume. He was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on the 9th of July, 1874, the sixth child of his parents. He had eight brothers and sisters, of whom six are now living. He was sent as a young boy to the famous Shattuck School, at Faribault, Minnesota, from which he was graduated in the class of 1893. He then entered the employ of the Northwestern Lumber Com- pany for a time and later matriculated at Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, from which he was graduated in 1896. Upon his return to Eau Claire, he entered the employ of the Northwestern Lumber Com- pany again, and in 1904 he became secretary of this company. He has held this office since that time. He is interested in other business enter- prises in Eau Claire, being a stockholder in the Union National Bank and in the Union Savings Bank.
Mr. Moon is very popular in social circles in the city, and is a mem- ber of a number of clubs, among them being the Eau Claire Country Club, the Eau Claire Club, and the Eau Claire Auto Club. He is also a member of the Eau Claire Lodge, No. 402, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics Mr. Moon is a member of the Republican party.
On the 22nd of May, 1902, Mr. Moon was married to Edith Bucklin, of New York City. They have two children, Marjorie and Bucklin R.
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DELOS R. MOON, JR. One of the younger members of the Moon fam- ily, two generations of which have been prominently identified with the lumbering and manufacturing industries of northern Wisconsin since pioneer time, Delos R. Moon, Jr., has inherited much of the ability and talent of his late father, whose name he bears, and is now one of the best known industrial leaders of the city of Eau Claire.
Delos R. Moon. Jr., the youngest child of Delos R. and Sallie (Gil- man) Moon, was born at Dansville in Livingston county, New York, August 29, 1879. The history and career of the senior Delos R. Moon, as one of the foremost men of Eau Claire, are recited on other pages of this work. Delos R. Jr., was educated in the Eau Claire publie schools,
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after which he attended the Hillside Academy, Beloit Academy and the Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. With a good education, and a cultural training better than that afforded most youths, he re- turned to Wisconsin and entered the purchasing department of the Northwestern Lumber Company of Eau Claire, a company of which his father was then president. He continued with the company for a time, and in 1901 became president of the Linderman Box and Veneer Com- pany of Eau Claire, and as president has directed the destinies of this concern to success and importance among the manufacturing enterprises of the city. Mr. Moon is also a stockholder in the Union National Bank of Eau Claire. He is a Republican in politics and is affiliated with Eau Claire Lodge No. 402, B. P. O. E.
On October 16, 1901, Delos R. Moon, Jr., married Miss Bertha E. Dean, who was born at Rice Lake, Wisconsin, the second of six children born to Charles H. and Laura (Allen) Dean. Both her parents were natives of Massachusetts and are still living. The two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Moon are Elizabeth and Laura Dean.
LEVIA H. BANCROFT. For twenty-five years Levia H. Bancroft has been one of the notable political leaders and lawyers of Wisconsin. He has enjoyed many honors culminating in his recent term as attorney general of the state, and he has repeatedly justified his preferment by a high quality of public service.
Born at Bear Creek in Sauk county, Wisconsin, December 26, 1860, Mr. Bancroft started life with two advantages-he came of good family stock, and he spent his youth in the wholesome environ- ment of a farm. Up to the time he was fourteen he attended country schools during the winter and worked on the farm in the open seasons. On the removal of the family to Lone Rock in Richland county, he began attending the town schools and also gained some business experience as a clerk in a general store.
At the age of eighteen he qualified as teacher in a grammar school, and two years later was appointed principal of the Lone Rock high school, remaining in charge for one year. His ambition had already been directed to the law, and entering the law department of the University of Wisconsin he was graduated with the class of 1884. His career as a lawyer began at Richland Center, and that is still his home city and his associations have been chiefly with the bar of that county.
In a practice extending over a period of twenty-eight years he has met and mastered many adversaries, has given his legal ability to causes of a humble nature, and in behalf of needful clients, as well as to litigation involving large property rights, and has appeared as counsel in many noted criminal cases. His work as a lawyer has been performed not only in his home state, but he has tried cases in Illinois,
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Michigan, New York, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa, and has ap- peared in several weighty cases in the United States Supreme court. His record included seven murder cases with five acquittals for his clients.
As a Republican Mr. Bancroft took an interest in politics about as soon as he could vote, and his first important honor in public life came in 1888 with his election as district attorney of Richland county. He also served as city attorney for six years, as city supervisor two years, in 1897 was appointed to the office of county judge, and by election in 1898 continued in office four years longer.
On the first of January, 1903, Mr. Bancroft was appointed first assistant general attorney for the state of Wisconsin, and performed the duties of this position for two years, at the end of which time he resigned and engaged in general practice at Richland Center. Elected in 1906, and reelected in 1908, Mr. Bancroft distinguished himself for capable and efficient service during four years in the general assembly and in 1909 was speaker of the house. Then in November, 1910, the state electorate chose him for the office of attor- ney general, and he retired from office at the beginning of 1913 with a record of exceptional performance.
He has served as a delegate at all of the Republican state conven- tions since 1892, and in the work of the party and on many public occasions his aid has been considered indispensable. He was chair- man of the state convention in 1902. In May, 1907, he was elected to deliver the address and dedication of the Andersonville monument at Andersonville, Georgia. At the Seattle Exposition of 1910 he filled the place of the Governor in delivering the Wisconsin address, and was also a representative of this state at the dedication of the Vicks- burg Memorial in 1911. Fraternally Mr. Bancroft has been affiliated with Palestine Lodge, A. F. & A. M., at Lone Rock since 1881, and is also a member of Richland Center Chapter, R. A. M. Another fact of his career which deserves mention was his five years' identification with the National Guards of the State of Wisconsin. On June 18, 1907, Governor Davison appointed him judge advocate of the Wis- consin National Guards, with the rank of colonel, and he served until January, 1913, when he resigned, retiring to private life with the rank of colonel.
Mr. Bancroft is a son of George R. and Helen (Randolph) Ban- croft. His father was born in Schoharie county, New York, in 1834, and his mother in Winnebago county, Illinois, in 1841. The parents were married in Sauk county, Wisconsin, in 1859, and Levia H. was the first of their seven children, of whom four are now living. George I. Bancroft, the father, who has long been a substantial and influen- tial citizen of Wisconsin, came to Sauk county in 1855, and as one of the early settlers of that vicinity hewed a farm out of the wilder-
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ness. In 1874 he moved to Lone Rock, Richland county, where he was engaged in the general merchandise business up to 1902, at which time he retired. A Republican, he has always performed his share of public duties. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted, but was rejected on account of physical infirmities, and Governor Harvey then appointed him recruiting officer. For thirteen years he served as supervisor of Bear Creek township in Sauk county, was a member of the school board in that county and also in Richland county and for several years was chairman of the Lone Rock high school board. The original Bancroft ancestor was John, who came from England in 1640 and was a resident of Salem, Massachusetts. On the maternal side Mr. Bancroft is Scotch. His grandfather, P. J. Randolph, a blacksmith by trade, was one of the vigorous abolitionists, was a forceful writer against slavery, and had the friendship of both Phillips and Garrison. John Randolph of Virginia was his cousin.
Levia H. Bancroft was married June 11, 1890, to Miss Myrtle DeLap, a native of Viroqua, Vernon county, Wisconsin. They are the parents of two children, Carolyn and Blaine.
JOHN I. EVANS. A business man of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who has been identified with this city for twenty-five years, Mr. Evans began his career here as a subordinate employe in one of the large lumber firms, and after a varied experience as traveling man, local superintendent and in various other grades of service acquired a position of independence, and for a number of years has been one of the leading business men of this city.
John I. Evans was born in Oneida county, New York, November 14, 1861, a son of Richard Evans. His mother died when he was a small boy. The father, who was born in Wales, and whose death occurred in 1898, immigrated to America in 1856, bringing his wife and three chil- dren, locating in Oneida county, New York, where he was engaged in farming. During the last five years of his life he was retired. He was a substantial citizen, and highly respected in his community, and one of the active members of the Methodist church. There were eight chil- dren in the family, John R. being the fifth, and three are still living.
Mr. Evans was reared in New York State, attending the district schools of Oneida county, and subsequently fitting himself for a commer- cial career by a course in the Eastman's Business College at Poughkeep- sie, New York, where he graduated with the class of 1882. With this preparation he came west to Milwaukee in the spring of 1882, and for about one year worked as a clerk on the docks for the Sanger Rockwell Company. He became connected with the lumber business as superin- tendent of the yards for the C. J. Kershaw Lumber Company. From that place he represented the Wisconsin Planing Mill Company in south- western Kansas. For the North and South Lumber Company he was Vol. VI-4
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engaged in locating retail lumber yards and was superintendent of build- ing construction for this company in Kansas for about three years. Then in 1888 he returned to Wisconsin and located in Eau Claire, which city has been his permanent residence now for a quarter of a century. Here he became superintendent for the Westville Lumber Company, remaining in that connection for five years, and subsequently was super- intendent of the Northwestern Lumber Company, until 1904. At that date he engaged in independent enterprise as a retail lumber dealer. In 1905 his enterprise was incorporated under the name of the Evans- Lee Company, dealing in lumber, coal and wood. Mr. Evans is president of the company, and is also connected with other local enterprises, being a stockholder in the C. W. Cheeney Company in the grain elevator and flour mills.
Fraternally Mr. Evans is affiliated with Ean Claire Lodge No. 112 A. F. & A. M., Eau Claire Chapter No. 36, R. A. M., Eau Claire Command- ery No. 8, K. T., Wisconsin Consistory, Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and has thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite. In politics he is a Republican. On February 20, 1887, Mr. Evans married Miss Mary Owens, who was born at New Hartford, in Oneida county, New York.
WILLIAM DEXTER CURTIS. In the business, manufacturing and civic progress of Madison no name has been more eonspieuous than that of Curtis, represented by father and son. The late Dexter Curtis was for years a prominent figure both in this eity and elsewhere, having been a pioneer lumberman, a raiser of fine stoek, and a manufacturer who developed his own patents into a business of nation-wide proportions and with branches in Europe.
The son, William Dexter Curtis, has succeeded to the large interests of his father and by his own ability has identified himself with many affairs in his home city. Mr. Curtis is the proprietor of the Dexter Cur- tis Company, manufacturers, is the managing head of the Commercial National Bank of Madison, has served the city as mayor, and has many influential relations with the business and eivie enterprises of this city.
William Dexter Curtis was born at Chicago, July 4, 1857, a son of Dexter and Hannah (Brown) Curtis. The founder of this branch of the family in America was Sardis Curtis, the great-grandfather of William Dexter, this aneestor having come from England. The late Dexter Cur- tis, whose death occurred in 1900, was born at Schenectady, New York, September 8, 1820. His wife was born near Brattleboro, Vermont, in 1824, and died in 1877, their marriage having occurred in Vermont. The three children are: Estella, the widow of James E. Baker; William Dexter; and Franklin H., who died on April 6, 1913.
The late Dexter Curtis was edneated in the common schools of New York state and New Hampshire, but his years with books were limited, and at fourteen he began earning his way by getting out barrel staves
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from the woods. In 1840, when about twenty years old, he came west and located near Detroit, Michigan, at a place later known as Curtisville. The lumber business was then at its height all over the state of Michi- gan, and he engaged in that line at his first location, afterwards moved to Van Buren county in the same state, and conducted a large enterprise in lumbering and sawmilling. He finally traded his business for thir- teen hundred acres of land in Dane county, Wisconsin, where he trans- ferred his energies to farming and the raising of thoroughbred stock. The production of fine stock was a favorite pursuit with him, and he kept it up practically to the close of his life. For some time after his removal to Wisconsin, he also conducted a large lumber and milling industry at Memphis, Tennessee, and on selling that was engaged in a general merchandise business at Sun Prairie in Dane county until 1870.
In 1870 he invented and patented what for more than forty years has been known as the Curtis zine horse-collar pad. This was an article of more than ordinary utility, and through the enterprise of Dexter Curtis became the basis for a large manufacturing industry. He began its manufacture at Buchanan, Michigan, where for some years his asso- ciate was his old friend J. L. Richards, under the firm name of the Zinc Collar Pad Company. After selling out his store at Sun Prairie, he removed his factory for the manufacture of the collar pads and saddlery specialties to Madison, and here the business has been developed to its maximum proportions. To give the trade its fullest extension he estab- lished a branch house at Birmingham, England, in 1872. Mr. Curtis was also for a time in the drygoods business at Madison, and continued to be actively associated with his manufacturing enterprise up to the time of his death. He was elected a member of the legislature in 1884, when the term was for one year, and also served in the city council. He was affiliated with the Masonic order, and in politics was a Democrat.
William Dexter Curtis had during his youth many of the advantages which his father had lacked. He was given a first class education, attend- ing first the schools at Sun Prairie, then the State Normal at White- water, and for three years was a student in the Highland Military Academy at Worcester, Massachusetts. After finishing at this school he declined an appointment to West Point, offered by President Grant. and turned his attention to business.
In 1881 he became connected with the wholesale house of the John V. Farwell drygoods company of Chicago, and rose to important responsi- bilities during the fifteen years he spent with this noted firm. He was finally given the work of making settlements with unsuccessful or bank- rupt firms to which the Farwell Company were creditors. In this capac- ity he took charge of a drygoods house at Wichita. Kansas, with an indebtedness of $47,500, and in twelve months put the business on a pay- ing basis and gave the ereditors a hundred cents on the dollar. In this way he adjusted many other accounts for his company.
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In 1896, owing to his father's failing health, Mr. Curtis came to Mad- ison and took full charge of the maufacturing business. He continued to manage it for the estate until he acquired the interests of the other heirs, and has since been sole owner but conducts the business under the old name of Dexter Curtis Company. In addition to the factory in England, established by his father, he maintains a sales agency at Troys, France.
Mr. Curtis was one of the organizers of the Commercial National Bank of Madison on January 10, 1908, and served as director to April, 1909.
In April, 1909, he took up the burden of vice-president and manager of the Commercial National Bank, which office he held until July 1st, 1913. During this period of four years the deposits increased from three hundred thousand to one million dollars. He resigned as vice president and manager of the bank on account of poor health. He is also a director in the Savings Loan & Trust Company of Madison; vice president of the L. L. Oldes Seed Company of Madison; vice president of the T. S. Morris Company, and president of the Madison Square Real Estate Company. He owns a large amount of property in the city of Madison and elsewhere.
In April, 1904, the citizens of Madison chose Mr. Curtis as mayor of the city, there being no opposition to his candidacy, and after the first term of two years he was offered re-election, but declined the honor. For five years he was a director of the Madison Park & Pleasure Driving Association. He is affiliated with Hiram Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M., and politically is independent.
Mr. Curtis was married in Chicago, in May, 1888, to Miss Mamie Celesta Clark, daughter of Louis Clark. Mr. Curtis and wife became the parents of four children : William Dexter, Jr., who is manager and superintendent of the Dexter Curtis Company, and who married Wini- fred Willis; Irene May, Tobin S. and Alice Brown Curtis. Mrs. W. D. Curtis died January 10, 1913. She had taken a prominent part in the civic and religious work of the city and was widely esteemed and respected. Her great energies in philanthropic circles had also elicited much admiration, and her demise has occasioned widespread regret.
JUDGE ROBERT G. SIEBECKER, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin, whose brief memoir is given in the following pages, is well known to the bar and bench of the State, as a careful, pains- taking, conscientious and profound lawyer, a thorough scholar, and a jurist who has always maintained the dignity of his exalted position. His career has been a striking example, in the upward strides of per- sonal merit, of the distinction that may be achieved through conscien- tious performance of duty, and of the honors bestowed upon those who are willing to give more to the public service than they have taken from
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it. Judge Siebecker was born in Sauk county, Wisconsin, October 17, 1854, and is a son of William H. and Christina (Grof) Siebecker, natives of Germany.
The parents of Judge Siebecker came to the United States in 1851, landing at New York City, and on October 1st of that year arrived in Sauk county, Wisconsin. William H. Siebecker was a farmer by voca- tion, and a man who reflected all the sturdy traits of his countrymen. He was successful in his agricultural operations, in which he was en- gaged until his retirement in 1888, and was no less prominent in the work of the German Independent Lutheran Church, donating the land for, and assisting in the erection of, the church structure near his home. This same society, which in no small degree owes its existence to his earnest and disinterested personal efforts, is still being maintained. Having come to this country on account of his liberal political views, he held independent opinions throughout his life. He died August 16, 1900, in his eighty-second year, and his wife passed away April 13, 1876, when she was fifty-six years of age. They had ten children, of whom five were born in Germany, Robert G. being the first to be born in this country.
Robert G. Siebecker received his early education in the district schools of Sauk county, while working on his father's farm, and subse- quently attended a Madison private academy, after leaving which he took up and completed a four years' course in arts and science in 1878 with the degree of B. S. in the University of Wisconsin. He there- after completed the law course of the University, receiving his degree in June, 1880. He had been admitted to the bar by the State Board of Examiners in 1879, and on October 4th of that year began the practice of his profession in partnership with Charles H. Dudley. This con- nection continued until September, 1881, when he became associated in practice with his brother-in-law, Robert M. LaFollette, now United States Senator, and the firm of LaFollette & Siebecker continued to carry on a large professional business until January 7, 1890, when Mr. Siebecker became Circuit Judge. In April, 1903, he was elected Justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, and still remains an incumbent of this high office. The life and public services of Judge Siebecker con- stitute the best refutation of the theory that long service by a public servant is necessarily detrimental to public interests. In every capacity in which he has served the public he has increased his value by studying his duties, thus becoming of the greatest service to the people and to the State. In his earlier years he was a Democrat, but in 1893 his views on the subject of Free Trade caused him to transfer his allegiance to the Republican party. From 1886 to 1890 he served as city attorney of Madison. He was one of the organizers of the Madison Benevolent So- ciety, being a member of the board for twenty-three years, when it was reorganized as the Associate Charity and of which he is also a member
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of the board. Fraternally Judge Siebecker is connected with Madison Lodge, No. 5, A. F. & A. M .; Madison Chapter, R. A. M., and Robert McCoy Commandery, K. T. He supports the various movements of the Unitarian Church, and has always co-operated with other earnest and hard-working citizens in advancing the cause of religion, morality and education.
On May 15, 1878, Judge Siebecker was married to Miss Josephine LaFollette, who was born at Primrose, Dane county, Wisconsin, daugh- ter of Josiah and Mary (Ferguson) LaFollette, and sister of United States Senator Robert M. LaFollette. Three children have been born to this union, namely : Carl L., Robert L. and Lee L. Judge Siebecker and his family reside at No. 133 East Gorham street.
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