Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 1 - Jerome A. Watrous - Страница 13

LIST OF CONGRESSMEN — PERSONAL MENTION — LIST OF STATE SENATORS — PERSONAL MENTION.

Members of Congress. — From June 5, 1848, to 1849, William Pitt Lynde; 1853 to 1857, Daniel Wells, Jr.; 1863 to 1865, James S. Brown; 1865 to 1871, Halbert E. Paine; 1871 to 1875, Alexander Mitchell; 1875 to 1879, William Pitt Lynde; 1879 to 1885, Peter V. Deuster; 1885 to 1887, Isaac W. Van Schaick; 1887 to 1889, Henry Smith; 1889 to 1891, Isaac W. Van Schaick; 1891 to Feb. 10, 1893, John L. Mitchell; from April 4, 1893, to 1895, Peter J. Somers; 1895 to 1907, Theobald Otjen; 1903 to 1911, William H. Stafford; 1907 to 1911, William J. Cary.

William Pitt Lynde was born at Sherburn, N. Y., Dec. 16, 1817, and came of English antecedents, the lineage being traced back to 1675, when a common ancestor landed on the shores of Massachusetts, in which commonwealth a large number of his descendants still reside. After availing himself of the advantages of a common school education, William Pitt Lynde when quite young attended for some time Hamilton academy, at Hamilton, N. Y. He then entered Courtland academy, at Homer, where he fitted for college, after which he attended Hamilton College. He then entered Yale, where he prosecuted his studies with untiring assiduity, graduating with the highest honors in 1838. He had the rare distinction among the thousands of men who have graduated at Yale since it was founded in 1700 of being chosen to deliver the valedictory from his class on commencement day. Soon after leaving college he entered the law department of the University of New York, which was then presided over by Benjamin Franklin Butler, an eminent statesman and ex-law partner of President Van Buren. About one year was spent in this institution, when he went to Cambridge and entered the law department of old Harvard, in which he graduated in 1841, and at the May term of the same year was admitted to practice at the bar of New York. He was a Democrat, not only politically speaking, but in the true and underived meaning of the term, and he was the efficient champion of the poor and oppressed. In 1841 Mr. Lynde set out for Milwaukee with the purpose of making it his home and the theatre of his activities and his hopes. Early in the following year he formed a law partnership with Asahel Finch, which was only dissolved by the death of Mr. Finch in 1883, after a felicitous and lucrative association of forty-one years. This seems more remarkable as the partners were of different political faith, and the singular coincidence is recorded in the local annals of party history that they were once pitted against each other, each being the choice of his respective party for a seat in the state legislature. Mr. Lynde's strong judicial qualities, his prudent judgment, his thorough theoretical knowledge of law, brought from the schools, and his studious habits, which speedily made him familiar with the practical workings and intricacies of law, all conspired to place him at an early period in his practice in the front rank of his profession. His worth and standing among his fellow members of the Milwaukee bar were duly recognized, and he was for years president of the Bar Association. He had been practicing law in Milwaukee only three years when, at the age of twenty-seven he was appointed by President Polk attorney-general of the territory of Wisconsin. He resigned this office the following year to accept the still more desirable position of United States District Attorney for the district of Wisconsin. He favored the acceptance of the rejected constitution presented to the people of the territory in 1847, which was essentially duplicated and adopted in the second constitution the following year, and he called to order the large mass meeting held in the old court house, Feb. 18, 1847, to urge the ratification by the people of the original constitution. Upon the admission of Wisconsin territory to the dignity of a state Mr. Lynde was elected to represent the First district of the new commonwealth in the Thirtieth Congress, his term of office running from June 5, 1848, to March 3, 1849. Several years later, when anti-slavery sentiment had become strongly developed, he made the run for Congress against the Hon. Charles Durkee, afterward governor of Utah under President Johnson's administration, and was defeated on a Free Soil issue. The two candidates were the best of friends and stumped their district together in like manner as Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas did when competing for a seat in the United States Senate. In 1860 he was elected mayor of Milwaukee. Mr. Lynde belonged to the progressive wing of the Democratic party. He acquiesced in the results of the war and heartily approved of the enfranchisement of the blacks, whose bondage he had ever held in abhorrence. His fealty to party was, however, strong, and if summoned, as was several times the case, to lead a forlorn hope, he would obey the call. One instance in point was when he was defeated by Byron Paine in a contest for a seat on the bench of the supreme court of the state. After serving in both branches of the legislature the services of Mr. Lynde as a legislator were again required in a larger sphere, and in 1874 he was elected from the Fourth district to the Forty-fourth Congress, the party rival whom he defeated being Harrison Ludington, later governor of Wisconsin. He became a leading member of the judiciary committee and maintained the position through his congressional career. He also had the distinction of being selected as one of the seven members of the House to take charge of the Belknap impeachment trial before the Senate. The prominent part taken by him in the Forty-fourth Congress insured his return to the Forty-fifth, and accordingly, in 1876, he was elected over the late William E. Smith, receiving the handsome majority of 5,600. In 1867 he felt the necessity of relaxation from labor so urgently that he took a six months' tour abroad, resting while at the same time enriching his mind in contact with distinguished scenes and art products of the old world. But at length, after many years of varied usefulness had rounded a well-spent life, he died on Dec. 18, 1885.

Halbert E. Paine was admitted to the bar of Milwaukee on Aug. 3, 1857, having practiced in Ohio from 1848. For a year or two he was associated with Carl Schurz. He was commissioned by the governor of Wisconsin, in 1861, colonel of the Third Wisconsin infantry, served brilliantly in the Army of the Potomac, became brigadier-general in January, 1863, and before the close of the war was honored with the rank of major-general by brevet in recognition of distinguished service. From December, 1865, to March, 1871, he represented the Milwaukee district in Congress, and after his retirement resided in Washington in the practice of his profession, serving for several years as commissioner of patents. He died on April 15, 1905.

Alexander Mitchell was born Oct. 18, 1817. in the parish of Ellon in the central portion of Aberdeenshire. Scotland. He grew up on his father's farm under the care of his eldest sister, and received the usual education of the parish schools. He was afterward, for two years, an inmate of a law office in Aberdeen, where he enlarged his range of study and reading, and acquired some knowledge of the higher branches. He was, still later, a clerk in a banking house at Peterhead, and the business occupation and habits of his life there established controlled his later career. George Smith, the founder of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company, was also a native of Aberdeenshire, where he had known Mr. Mitchell and his relatives, and he induced him to come to Milwaukee as the secretary of this company. This was in May, 1839, when Mr. Mitchell was a little more than twenty-one years old. He entered upon the full management and control of the institution soon after it was successfully established, and Mr. Smith's connection with it ceased to be more than nominal. All who know anything of Milwaukee know that Mr. Mitchell soon became recognized as one of the leading bankers and financiers of the West, and retained that prominence as long as he lived. In the midst of small beginnings he laid slowly and with care and circumspection the foundations of his great wealth. The plan formulated in 1861, after an act had been passed by the legislature for the readjustment of the city debt of Milwaukee, and for the redemption of the city from impending bankruptcy, was largely the suggestion of Mr. Mitchell, and he was appointed the first commissioner under the law, with Charles Quentin and Joshua Hathaway as his associates. Under successive city administrations the membership of the Board of Debt Commissioners was changed from time to time except as to Mr. Mitchell, who was reappointed, and served term after term until his decease, and he continued to act as the guardian of the credit of the city which he aided so greatly in rescuing from destruction, and which exists unimpaired as a mark of his public spirit and of his financial skill and sagacity. He contributed, individually, more of the money which was actually invested in building the early Wisconsin railroads than anybody else, and he aided in negotiating the great variety of securities which were used in procuring the means that originally constituted the resources of the railroad companies. And while the crisis in railroad and commercial affairs was pending, but as it was drawing toward its close, an arrangement was formed by Mr. Mitchell and those acting with him by which the bond-holders of the various imperiled lines of railroads associated themselves together in a corporate capacity for the purpose of protecting and improving their property and enhancing its productive value. Mr. Mitchell was elected president of the new corporation, with S. S. Merrill as general manager. In 1869 the former was elected president of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, but wise considerations of public policy appeared to render it inadvisable that two great parallel and competing lines of railway should be under the same management, and he held the office but a single year. As a practical banker Mr. Mitchell became a Whig, which was the bank party, as the Democrats constituted an anti-bank party previous to the division of parties on sectional lines and on the question of slavery. He was afterward a Republican, and entered with considerable ardor into the Wide-Awake movement, and with many of his distinguished personal friends and associates carried a kerosene torch in the political processions in 1860. He was a firm supporter of the war policies of the government during Mr. Lincoln's administration and until after the war closed. He then supported the measures adopted by the administration of Andrew Johnson for the reconstruction of the states which had been at war against the Federal Union, and in the reorganization of parties which followed he became a Democrat. He supported Horatio Seymour, the Democratic candidate for President, in 1868, and was himself the Democratic candidate for Congress in that year in the First Wisconsin district, composed of the counties of Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth and Waukesha. The adverse fortunes of the Democratic party in that election involved him in defeat, but in 1870 he was again the Democratic candidate for Congress in the same district, and was elected by a very large majority, W. P. Lyon, of Racine, one of the associate justices of the supreme court, being his Republican opponent. In 1872 he was re-elected, but political life was not agreeable to his tastes and he declined to be a candidate for an additional term in 1874. In 1876 he was chosen by the Democratic state convention one of the delegates-at-large from Wisconsin to the Democratic national convention, in which he supported the nomination of Samuel J. Tilden as the Democratic candidate for President. He assumed an active part in the ensuing campaign and. at its close, retired permanently from active party politics. In 1879 he was nominated by the Democratic state convention for the office of governor, but he peremptorily declined to be a candidate. During the time that he was a member of Congress Mr. Mitchell was prominent and zealous in his support of such financial measures as were adapted for the protection of the public credit, and for the restoration of specie payments. He made a remarkably clear and able speech upon this subject on March 27, 1874, presenting in a cogent and entertaining style the solid arguments which financial science suggested against an inflated currency, and the evils which he claimed were inseparable from a deranged monetary system and from any basis except that of specie for the circulation of the country. At an earlier day, April 6, 1872, he made a speech on the subject of American shipping, showing that it could be revived as a successful industry only by removing the burden of tariff taxation which rested upon it. He died on April 19, 1887.

Peter Victor Deuster was a native of Prussia, and was born near Cologne in that kingdom on Feb. 13, 1831, the only son of Mathias and Anna C. (Koenen) Deuster. The groundwork of the lad's education was laid at the common school, where he pursued his studies until he attained the age of thirteen. He was then removed to an academy, and continued there until his parents immigrated to America, three years later. Mathias Deuster bought a farm in Milwaukee county, and his son turned his hand to farming until winter set in, when he entered the printing office of Moritz Schoeffler, editor of the Wisconsin Banner, as an apprentice. He remained in this employment until his indenture expired and then worked for over a year longer as Mr. Schoeffler's accountant and collector. At the end of that time he commenced the publication of a literary weekly paper called the Hausfreund, which he edited, printed and carried for about six months, at the end of which time he was engaged as foreman in the See-Bote office and held that position until November, 1854. About this time he was offered the charge of a newspaper published by Judge A. Heidkamp, at Port Washington, Wis., and accepted the proffered position. He entered at once upon his duties, but did not confine himself to the task of superintending the paper. He ran the post-office, was deputy clerk of the circuit court, notary public, land agent, did a banking business, and at night taught a school for young men. In 1856, after having made all arrangements for starting a paper at Green Bay, he was offered a third interest in the See-Bote, and in September of that year returned to Milwaukee and entered into partnership with Messrs. Greulich and Rickert as publishers of that newspaper. A year afterward he purchased Mr. Rickert's interest, and in 1860 he bought out his remaining partner, Hon. August Greulich, and continued at the head of that important publishing enterprise. He was sole proprietor of the paper until 1879, when other parties were admitted and the firm became P. V. Deuster & Company. Interesting himself actively in politics, he became and continued to be influential in the councils of the Democratic party. In 1862 he was chosen by the citizens of the South side of Milwaukee to represent them in the legislative assembly, and in 1869 he was elected to the state senate from the Sixth senatorial district, which was composed of a part of the city of Milwaukee. He was elected a member of the Forty-sixth Congress and returned to the Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth congresses, and was one of the most influential members of that body who has represented Milwaukee in the national legislature. Mr. Deuster died on Dec. 31, 1904.

Isaac W. Van Schaick was born in Coxsackie, Greene county, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1817; was brought up on a farm, received his education in the common schools of his native county, and worked on a farm till he was twenty-eight years of age, after which he was extensively engaged in the manufacture of glue until coming West. He removed to Milwaukee in the fall of 1861, and there engaged in the milling business, as a partner in the firm of E. Sanderson & Company, of the Phoenix Mills. He had never taken any active part in politics until he was elected to the general assembly of the state in 1872, although he had previously served two years in the city council as alderman of the First ward. He was re-elected to the assembly in 1874, and in 1876 was returned to the state legislature as senator from the First district. He was twice re-elected as his own successor, his last term in that position expiring in January, 1883, when he was elected to the Forty-ninth and Fifty-first congresses as a Republican member from Wisconsin. His death occurred on Aug. 22, 1901.

State Senators. — Session of 1848, Riley N. Messenger; from 1848 to 1850, Asa Kinney; 1849 to 1851, John B. Smith; 1850 to 1854, Duncan C. Reed; 1851 to 1853. Francis Huebschmann; 1852 to 1854, John R. Sharpstein; 1853 to 1855, Ed M. Hunter; 1854 to 1856, Edward McGarry; 1855 to 1857, Jackson Hadley; 1856 to 1858, Edward O'Neill; 1857 to 1859, Augustus Greulich; 1858 to 1860, Patrick Walsh; 1859 to 1861. Cicero Comstock; 1860 to 1862, Michael J. Eagan; 1861 to May 9, 1862, Charles Quentin; session of 1862, Francis Huebschmann; from 1862 to 1864, Edward Keogh; 1863 to 1867, WilHam K. Wilson; 1864 to 1866, H. P. Reynolds; 1866 to 1870, Charles FI. Larkin; session of 1867, Jackson Hadley; from 1867 to 1869. Henry L. Palmer; 1869 to 1871, William Pitt Lynde; 1870 to 1872, Peter V. Deuster; 1871 to 1873, Francis Huebschmann: 1872 to 1874. John L. Mitchell; 1873 to 1875. A. Frederick W. Cotzhausen; 1874 to 1876, John Black; 1875 to 1877, William H. Jacobs; 1876 to 1878, John L. Mitchell; 1877 to 1879, George A. Abert; 1877 to 1883, Isaac W. Van Schaick; 1878 to 1882, George H. Paul; 1879 to 1881, Edwin Hyde; 1881 to 1883, Edward B. Simpson; 1882 to 1885, Enoch Chase; 1883 to 1887, J. P. C. Cottrill and WilHam S. Stanley, Jr., 1885 to 1889, Julius Wechselberg; 1887 to 1891, Theodore Fritz; 1887 to 1891, Christian Widule; 1889 to 1893, John J. Kempf; 1889 to 1893, Herman Kroeger; 1891 to 1895, Paul Bechtner; 1891 to 1895, Christian A. Koenitzer; session of 1893, James W. Murphy; 1893 to 1897, Oscar Altpeter; 1893 to 1897, Michael Kruzka; session of 1895, James C. Officer; 1895 to 1899, William H. Austin; 1895 to 1899, Charles T. Fisher; 1897 to 1903, William H. Devos; 1897 to 1905, J. Herbert Green; 1897 to 1909, Julius E. Roehr; 1899 to 1903, Frank A. Anson; 1899 to 1907, Barney A. Eaton; session of 1903, Rip Reukema; 1903 to 1907, Cassius Rogers; 1905 to 1909, Theo. Froemming; 1905 to 1909, Jacob Rummel; 1907 to 1911, E. T. Fairchild; 1907 to 1911, George E. Page; 1909 to 1913, H. H. Bodenstab; 1909 to 1913, Winfield R. Gaylord; 1909 to 1913, J. C Kleczka.

John B. Smith, who came to Milwaukee in 1845, was no ordinary man. He had a large amount of push and a fair amount of executive ability. He had a strong will and would not play "second fiddle," as the phrase goes, to anyone if he could avoid it, and was always climbing for an inside seat. He was the president of the Horicon railroad and one of the unfortunates financially in that disastrous enterprise, from which he never fully recovered. He was one of the aldermen in 1847 and served a considerable portion of his term as acting mayor. He was a staunch Son of Temperance, in which cause he took a deep interest, but his determination to do as he pleased regardless of consequences finally brought social ruin as well as financial, and he who ought to have been one of Milwaukee's most respected and honored citizens died in comparative obscurity. His was a case of good material badly put together, and after a stormy life he passed away. He came to this state from Maine.

Ed M. Hunter was born in Bloomingsburg, Sullivan county, N. Y., Feb. 19, 1826. When twenty-one years of age he was admitted to the bar in New York city. Two years later he settled in Milwaukee, and was admitted to partnership with S. Park Coon, afterward attorney-general, and Charles James, afterward collector of the port of San Francisco. Mr. Hunter was elected to the state senate in 1852 and was private secretary to Mr. Barstow until that gentleman was ousted by Coles Bashford. After his short political life he returned to the practice of his profession in Milwaukee, holding the position of United States Court Commissioner for many years, being in office at the time of his death, Sept. 13, 1878.

Jackson Hadley was born in Livonia, Livingston county, N. Y., on May 22, 1815. The early portion of his life after he became of age was devoted to teaching school. Though mainly self-educated, he acquired a proficiency in the text books of the day that insured for him an honorary degree from Union College and a high reputation in his profession. As a teacher he was engaged at Clarence, Erie county, N. Y., two or three years, whence he removed to Buffalo, N. Y., where he organized a high school and became its principal. Afterward he was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Albion, Orleans county, N. Y. He first came to Milwaukee on a tour of inspection in 1839, but did not permanently settle here until 1849, when he engaged in the produce business with Hon. Charles H. Larkin, afterward his colleague from this county in the senate. From that time until the day of his death he almost constantly occupied a conspicuous position before the public. First, he was assistant treasurer of the county under Senator Larkin. From 1852 until 1858 he was a member of the common council, being elected to that body for six years successively. Much of this time he was president of the board and acting mayor of the city. For many years also he was an active and influential member of the school board. For one or two years he was a member of the board of supervisors and chairman of the board. For a considerable time he was secretary of the La Crosse Railway Company, in the construction of which road he took an active part. In 1853 he was chosen to the assembly. In 1854 he was elected to the state senate and served in that body for two years. In November, 1864, he was again chosen to the assembly, and again in November, 1865. In November, 1866, he was again elected to the senate. In 1856 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress against John F. Potter, and receiving a majority of over 4,000 votes in this county, was beaten by less than 300 in the district. Among his business engagements was the construction of the military road from Green Bay to Houghton on Lake Superior. He died in March, 1867.

Edward O'Neill and his wife were among those who settled in Milwaukee in 1850, coming in October of that year from Manchester, Vermont, where they had resided for many years. Mr. O'Neill was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1820, and immigrated to Vermont, where he engaged in business until his removal to Wisconsin. In 1860, with John Dahlman and Timothy Dore, he established a large wholesale grocery house, which continued very prosperous for ten years. In 1870, in company with other capitalists he organized the Bank of Commerce, of which he became president, which position he held until 1879, when the Bank of Commerce and the German Exchange Bank were united to form the Merchants' Exchange Bank. This became a very strong and popular bank, and Mr. O'Neill was its president until his death in 1890. In 1852 Mr. O'Neill helped to organize the Milwaukee Union Guard, of which he was elected captain, and continued in the office until elected lieutenant-colonel of the First Regiment of Wisconsin State Militia. In 1853 he was elected a member of the state assembly, in which he served two terms, and also one term in the state senate. He introduced a number of important measures and laws, but the one in which he took the greatest pride was that which made provision for the establishment of the State Reform School for Boys at Waukesha, which, through his persistent efforts, became a law. He was president of the board of managers of this institution for ten years, being repeatedly reappointed by Republican governors on account of his interest in the school. He was nine years a member of the school board of Milwaukee and served four years as president. In 1863 he was elected mayor of Milwaukee, re-elected in 1867, again in 1868 and for the fourth time in 1869. The first and last elections were without an opponent. He was urged to become the candidate of his party for governor of the state but declined. After the measure was adopted providing for a system of water-works, calling for the expenditure of a million dollars, he was appointed president of the Board of Water Commissioners, and served in that capacity until the great works were completed. During the twenty years spent in banking Mr. O'Neill saw the resources of the bank of which he was president grow from the modest sum he and his friends subscribed in 1870 to over $2,000,000 in 1890, and every patron had his money when demanded. Charitable during their lives, both in word and deed, in their wills he and his estimable wife, besides making bequests to schools, churches, hospitals and asylums, left $20,000 to St. Rose's Orphan Society, the interest alone to be used for the support of orphan -girls.

Charles Ouentin was born in Prussia in 1811 and came to Milwaukee about 1851. He was several years a member of the Board of School Commissioners, and, at the time of his death, was state senator from his district. He was the founder and owner of Ouentin's Park, and had done more than any other private citizen toward beautifying the city. He died on May 9, 1862.

Edward Keogh was born in the county of Cavan, Ireland. May 5, 1835, and came to America with his parents. Thomas and Ann (Boylan) Keogh, in 1841. Arrived in this country, they went directly to Utica, N. Y., where they sojourned for about a year, and in 1842 removed to Milwaukee. Young Keogh obtained his early education in the public schools of this city. His parents being in limited circumstances, he was forced by necessity to earn his own living, and made his start in life by playing "devil" in a printing office. He then served a printer's apprenticeship on the Sentinel and Gazette. After thoroughly mastering his trade in the leading printing offices of Milwaukee, he saw his opportunity in 1867 and embarked in business for himself by starting a very small job printing office. In 1889, when the leading railway offices removed to Chicago, Mr. Keogh, by force of circumstances, with five thousand dollars' worth of special materials, established a branch office on Dearborn street, which enterprise proved quite a success. Mr. Keogh served fifteen years in the state legislature, either as senator or member of the assembly. In 1861 he was the youngest member of the senate ever elected in the state, he being then only twenty-six years of age. In 1893 he was honored by being elected speaker of the house. He was first elected to the assembly in 1859, and was re-elected in 1860. The year 1862 found him in the senate, and his subsequent terms in the assembly were in 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1887, 1889, 1891 and 1893. He was an honored member of the Old Settlers' Club, of the Wisconsin Mutual Aid Alliance, of the Knights of Pythias and of many social and political clubs. He was a communicant of St. John's cathedral, and throughout his political life affiliated with the Democratic party, liberal views governing him in local political action. Mr. Keogh died in 1898.

Charles Henry Larkin was born in the famous old town of Stonington, Conn., May 2, 1810, and came of good New England stock, being a typical representative of the element which has done so much for the advancement of American civilization in all portions of the United States. In his youth there were no free schools accessible to him, but he had the benefit of the district pay school, an academy at Alden. N. Y., to which place his parents removed in 1825, and he finished at a private school. At the age of sixteen years he set out to make his own way in the world and took employment as a clerk in a general store at Alden, where he remained for three years. He was subsequently employed in Buffalo and at other points in a similar capacity. In 1836 he arrived in Milwaukee, having previously visited Michigan and other western territory, and decided to settle here. He at once made claim to a quarter-section of land in what is now Greenfield township, on which he dwelt for two years to perfect his title. While residing on his claim, which is now a fine farm, 100 acres of which he owned up to the time of his death, he bought and sold horses and engaged in various enterprises, which employed his youthful energies and kept the wolf from the door. In 1848 he opened a warehouse at the foot of East Water street and dealt extensively in all kinds of produce, livestock and everything produced by the farmer. He also invested in real estate, and after a few years retired from the warehouse business and gave his attention chiefly to his real-estate interests. He built a block of stores on Reed street, and as late as 1893 was engaged in the construction of a handsome block at the corner of Lake and Reed streets. Always public spirited and ready to serve the interests of the city of which he was in a sense one of the founders, and of which he never ceased to be proud, he was associated with Guido Pfister, Alexander Mitchell and others on the public debt committee, to which was entrusted the difficult task of refunding the city debt, which was successfully and creditably accomplished. During his residence in Greenfield he served as a member of the Board of Supervisors, and in 1866-67-68-69 represented his district in the state senate. In 1872, 1874 and 1875 he was a member of the state house of representatives from Milwaukee, and a few of the legislators who have represented this city in the general assembly of the state have wielded as much influence as Mr. Larkin. He was a member of the second constitutional convention, which framed the present organic law of the state, served as school commissioner four years, was county treasurer for a time, pension agent by appointment of President Buchanan, and sheriff of Milwaukee county one term. In 1862 he was commissioned by the governor to raise a regiment of troops, but feeling that he was too old to engage in warfare, he assisted his son, Courtland P. Larkin, to enlist a company, of which the son was commissioned second lieutenant, rising to the rank of major of the Thirty-eighth Wisconsin infantry. He was an ardent, admirer of Henry Clay and a Whig in his political affiliations in, early life, but allied himself after the death of that eminent statesman with the Democratic party. His religious affiliations were with the Episcopal church, and the Milwaukee County Pioneer Society was one of the social institutions in which he was always deeply interested. Surrounded by true and faithful friends, gazing on the setting sun with unflinching eye, he passed away at his home in Milwaukee, Aug. 16, 1894.

John Black was born in Bidache, France, Aug. 16, 1830, the son of Peter and Magdalena Black, his father being a farmer by occupation. The son was well educated in the schools of his native city and had also some collegiate training. In 1844 in company with his parents, three brothers and a sister, he bade adieu to the city of his birth and the vine-clad hills of France and came to America, the family taking up a residence in Lockport, N. Y., in the fall of that year. In 1845 his father settled on a farm near Lockport, on which John passed the remainder of his boyhood. Here he started in to attend a public school for the purpose of mastering the English language, but he soon discovered that his education was already superior to that of his teacher, and he left school and turned his attention to other matters. In 1845 he tied a couple of shirts in a handkerchief, took a little money — which came from his good mother with her parting blessing — and set out for Lockport. He entered the employ of J. and N. S. Ringueberg, who were engaged in the wholesale grocery, wine and liquor trade, for a term of three years at a salary of thirty dollars for the first, fifty for the second and eighty dollars for the third year, board and washing included. After completing this term of service he entered the employ of Dole & Dunlap as a dry-goods clerk at a salary of ten dollars per month — board and washing included — which was soon doubled on account of his command of foreign languages. In 1855. at the solicitation of his original employers, he became a member of the firm of J. and N. S. Ringueberg & Company, but in 1857, finding that the greater portion of the labor of conducting the business fell to his lot, Mr. Black made his partners a proposition to buy or sell. The result was that they purchased his interest and Mr. Black started, accompanied by his wife, for the West, arriving in Milwaukee in July, 1857. Here he engaged in the wholesale liquor trade, but suffered considerable loss in the start owing to the disastrous financial panic of '57. In 1870 a number of the leading capitalists of the city organized the Bank of Commerce and Mr. Black becoming one of the principal stockholders of this bank and a leader in the work of organization, was elected vice-president, a position which he held for many years. He was a large stockholder also in the Merchants' Exchange Bank, and was one of the prime movers in bringing about its consolidation with the First National Bank in January, 1894. He was a director and member of the executive committee of the Northwestern National Fire Insurance Company, a director of the Merchants' Association and a director of the Exposition Association. A Democrat in politics, he held various official positions. For several years he was one of the railroad commissioners of Milwaukee, was elected a member of the board of aldermen in 1870, and served as mayor of the city in 1878 and 1879. He was a candidate for state treasurer on the Democratic ticket in 1869, but was defeated, as were all the other candidates on the ticket. As a member of the city council he was one of the prime movers in creating the present waterworks system, laboring long and earnestly to inaugurate and carry to completion this great work. In November, 1871. Mr. Black was elected a member of the Wisconsin state assembly. In the presidential election of 1872 he was one of the electors-at-large on the Democratic ticket for the state of Wisconsin. In November, 1873, he was elected a member of the state senate, and during his term as senator he introduced two very important measures — one for the punishment of persons found guilty of bribery at elections, and the other to secure liberty of conscience to inmates, of state institutions. In 1886 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress from the Fourth district, but was defeated. In 1884 and again in 1888 he was a delegate to the Democratic national conventions. Mr. Black died in 1899.

William H. Jacobs was born in the village of Holzen, province of Brunswick, Germany, Nov. 25, 1832, the son of Heinrich Jacobs, a man of character and prominence, who held, during his lifetime, various important official positions, and whose family history can be traced, through records which have been carefully preserved, back to the beginning of the thirteenth century. The son was carefully educated, under the preceptorship of a private tutor, special attention being given to study of the modern languages and natural sciences. When he was eighteen years of age he left home, coming at once to this country and to Milwaukee. Soon after his arrival here he entered the banking house of Marshall & Illsley, where he familiarized himself with American banking methods and fitted himself for engaging in the business on his own account. Leaving the Marshall & Illsley bank in 1855, he established the Second Ward Savings Bank, of which he was for several years sole owner. During the Civil war his business interests were subordinated to what he looked upon as his duty as an American citizen and patriot, and in 1862 he entered the Federal army as colonel of the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin infantry. Leaving the state on Oct. 6, Col. Jacobs proceeded with his regiment to Washington, and from there to Fairfax Court House, where he joined. the Eleventh army corps then under command of Gen. Franz Siegel. In the battle of Chancellorsville Col. Jacobs was wounded, but returned to the field after a short leave of absence and participated in the battle of Gettysburg, in which his regiment suffered severely. Soon after the battle of Gettysburg he resigned the colonelcy of the regiment and returned to Milwaukee to look after business interests, which greatly needed his attention. After the war he extended his banking operations by establishing branches of the Second Ward Savings Bank in the Sixth and Ninth wards and establishing also the South Side Savings Bank. A Democrat in his political affiliations, Col. Jacobs served as clerk of the courts of Milwaukee county, and in 1874 was elected to the state senate, in which body he served with credit to himself and his constituency. He died in Milwaukee, Sept. 11, 1882.

Enoch Chase was born in Derby, Vt., Jan. 16, 1809, and he may be said to have been a pioneer from childhood to mature manhood. Brought up on a farm, he attended the district school two summers before he was seven years of age, and after that during the winter months only until he was fourteen years of age. At the age of eight years he began to work in the fields as steadily as a man, but when sixteen years of age he received an accidental injury-forever disqualifying him for heavy physical labor, and the following year commenced the study of Latin and mathematics preparatory to a professional life. Two years later he commenced the study of medicine, attending lectures at Bowdoin College, in Maine, and Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, graduating in the last named institution in June, 1831, with high honors. Each winter while reading medicine he taught school in Canada. Immediately after his graduation, receiving a letter giving flattering accounts of Chicago, from one of the soldiers composing the garrison at Fort Dearborn, he determined to migrate to the far-off Western town. When he arrived, in Coldwater, Mich., he found his purse empty, and therefore from sheer necessity was compelled to locate there for the time being, and commence the practice of his profession. While at Coldwater he was commissioned adjutant of militia, Aug. 16, 1831, soon after his arrival, and the next year was ordered out to help suppress the Sauk war, but was only called upon to do guard duty. In 1834 he decided to leave Coldwater, and journeyed to Chicago to meet his brother, Horace. The result of their interview was that they concluded to locate in Milwaukee instead of Chicago. Horace came here and made land claims for both in the fall of 1834, and on April 9 following Dr. Chase became a resident of the town with which he continued to be identified to the end of his life. He at once selected what became known as "Chase's Point," at the mouth of the river, and erected a log cabin thereon, sleeping in the shanty of Horace Chase nearby while building his domicile. After a time he sold his original "land claim" and purchased, at five dollars per acre, the quarter section on the south side of Lincoln avenue, on which he resided until his death, having owned his homestead fifty-nine years. He was a member of the "judiciary committee" of the famous "Claimants' Union," was elected to the assembly in 1848, re-elected in 1849, 1850 and 1852, and again in 1869. In 1880 he established the Chase Valley Glass Works, of which he was the sole owner, the establishment being the only one at that time in Wisconsin. Among other industries which he brought into existence was the extensive Chase Valley Brickyards, in 1876, the largest in the city. Dr. Chase also made the extensive improvement on the Kinnickinnic river known as "Chase's slip," and the long line of docks which he constructed contributed materially to the navigation and commercial interests of the city. In 1881 he was called from his retirement, and again served the people of Milwaukee in an official capacity, being at that time elected to the state senate, of which body he was an honored and influential member. In politics he was a Democrat of the Jacksonian school, and in personal characteristics, he was not unlike the "patron saint of Democracy." Dr. Chase died on Aug. 23, 1892.