Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 3 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 15

Rupert A. Nourse is a prominent figure in industrial circles of Milwaukee as the vice president and general manager of The Stowell Company, having been identified with that concern and its predecessor for the past seventeen years. His birth occurred in Hallock, Peoria county, Illinois, on the 10th of December, 1873, his parents being Morris Alonzo and Sara (Prentiss) Nourse. The father served in the Civil war as a member of the Forty-sixth Illinois Infantry. In the paternal line the ancestry is traced back to Francis and Rebecca Nourse, who emigrated from Yarmouth, England, to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1638. Rebecca Nourse suffered martyrdom during the witchcraft delusion in Salem in 1692. She was one of the prominent martyrs of that time and a monument was erected to her memory in Salem with an Epitaph written by John Greenleaf Whittier. The family has an honorable military record, representatives of the name having participated in the Revolutionary war, the War of 1812 and the Civil war. On the maternal side Rupert A. Nourse is a descendant of "Mad Anthony" Wayne, the distinguished American general. The maternal ancestors settled in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1642.

R. A. Nourse supplemented his early educational training by a course of study in Drake University of Des Moines, Iowa, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts as a member of the class of 1895. During the two succeeding years he pursued postgraduate work at the University of Chicago. His attention was first devoted to the profession of teaching and from 1896 until 1899 he served as superintendent of public schools at Keswick, Iowa, where he organized the public school system, added a high school and also erected new buildings, his efforts proving a potent factor in the development of the educational interests of the town. The years 1900 and 1901 were given to instruction as assistant professor of Latin in Drake University. It was in 1901 that he first became identified with industrial interests, embarking in business as a manufacturer of door hangers at Racine, Wisconsin. Three years later he disposed of this business to the Stowell Manufacturing & Foundry Company of South Milwaukee, with which concern and its successors, The Stowell Company, he has been associated in various capacities to the present time. He served as secretary prior to being made vice president and general manager, his present official position.

The business now conducted under the name of The Stowell Company, founders and manufacturers, was organized in 1886. In Milwaukee, by S. H. and E. Y. Moore as the Moore Manufacturing & Foundry Company and the factory was located in the Menominee valley. In the early '90s the plant was removed to South Milwaukee, where the manufacture of hardware specialties, such as barn door hangers and rail, elevator door fixtures, tackle blocks, hot air registers, etc., was continued. In 1896 the Hon. John M. Stowell, one of the founders of Filer & Stowell and one-time mayor of Milwaukee, purchased the business and changed the name to the Stowell Manufacturing & Foundry Company. The corporation continued the manufacture of the same lines, and also did contract work in grey iron castings. In 1899 a malleable iron foundry was added and some new hardware specialties introduced, such as malleable clevises, malleable shoe lasts and stands, wagon and carriage malleable hardware. In 1901 the concern Increased its holdings with a second malleable foundry and the specialty lines continued with the addition of link belt chain, hay tools and some other agricultural specialties. In 1904 the Midland Iron Works of Racine, Wisconsin, was purchased and its line of automatic fire door equipment, barn door, warehouse and railroad hangers became a part of The Stowell Company's output. The molders' strike came in 1906 and the company was crippled for some time, being required to build up an entirely new foundry organization. This, however, was accomplished and the financial panic of 1907 was successfully weathered. In 1908 the Hon. John M. Stowell died and his son-in-law, the late Charles E. Sammond, who had for many years been manager, was made president. During the depression of 1913 and 1914 a reorganization was planned and a new corporation known as The Stowell Company took over the properties in 1916. The new company discontinued many of the specialty lines that had previously been manufactured and confined its operations largely to malleable hardware, malleable clevises, shoe lasts and stands and link belt chain. During the war the plant was listed as a one hundred per cent plant, manufacturing only those lines which the war industries board listed as essential to the successful prosecution of the war. In November, 1919, the land and buildings of the Pelton Steel Company, located on Chicago road and Elliott place in Milwaukee, were purchased, and in 1921 the Pelton Steel Company was absorbed. The buildings were remodeled, new ones added and the plant made into a factory for the production of malleable iron castings. This was called The Stowell Company Plant, No. 2.

Under normal conditions The Stowell Company employs from six hundred to seven hundred men. It is a member of the American Malleable Castings Association and is listed by this association as a manufacturer of certified malleable castings. Only those plants are so listed which continuously in their daily process produce material which is in accord with the requirements of the American Society for Testing Materials. The principal products of The Stowell Company are malleable iron castings, grey iron castings, electric steel castings, brass castings, link belt chain, malleable clevises and malleable hardware. The following are the officers and directors: Fred W. Rogers, president; Rupert A. Nourse, vice president and general manager; Thomas E. Ward, secretary and manager of purchases and sales; Henry J. Van Beek, treasurer; and Fred Vogel, Jr., William H. Schuchardt, Fred L. Sivyer and T. H. Spence, additional directors.

Besides his identification with The Stowell Company, Mr. Nourse is the president of the Midland Company of South Milwaukee, manufacturers of saddlery hardware, automobile accessories and wrought chain. He is likewise a member of the board of directors of the Line Material Company of South Milwaukee, manufacturers of outdoor lighting material. The important and extensive business interests of Mr. Nourse are capably conducted. Tireless energy, keen perception, honesty of purpose, a genius for devising the right thing at the right time. Joined to everyday common sense, guided by resistless will power, are the chief characteristics of the man.

On the 27th of August, 1896, in Des Moines, Iowa, Mr. Nourse was united in marriage to Miss Arma Jones, a daughter of Isaac Jones, who was a member of the Third Iowa Cavalry during the Civil war. She is a graduate of Drake University of Des Moines, Iowa, which conferred upon her the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1895, and in 1896 she acted as principal of the high school at Brooklyn, Iowa. By her marriage she has become the mother of a daughter and two sons, namely: Clair Prentiss, Evelyn and Robert. The first named, who was graduated from Cornell University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1919, served in the United States navy during the World war and is now secretary and treasurer of the Midland Company of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On the 9th of July, 1920, he wedded Miss Florence Silvernail of Corydon, Iowa.

Mr. Nourse takes an active and helpful interest in the city's moral advancement as chairman of the board of trustees of the Park and Prospect Christian church and as a member of the board of directors of the Wisconsin Christian Missionary Association and of the Young Men's Christian Association. He is a popular member of the Milwaukee Athletic Club, and is well known in both business and social circles of this city, where his position is that of a leading manufacturer and foremost citizen.