Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 3 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 33

Isaiah Boorse, a self-made man whose life was crowned with success as the result of his thoroughness, persistency of purpose and undaunted enterprise, was born in Pennsylvania in 1855 and spent much of his life in Milwaukee, where he passed away on the 2nd of January, 1915. For more than two decades he had been a director and the superintendent of the National Straw Works, the largest hat manufacturing enterprise in the city. His parents were Daniel and Rachel (Rasor) Boorse, who came to Milwaukee in the year 1855. The father was a stock dealer, buying and selling horses, cattle, sheep and hogs for many years, developing a business of substantial proportions along that line. The family of Daniel Boorse numbered six children, three sons and three daughters: Mary, now deceased; Emma, the wife of I. V. Bomdt; J. R., who is residing in Colorado; Henry, Isaiah and Clara, all of whom have passed away.

Isaiah Boorse obtained his education in the public schools and in the Spencerian Business College of this city, after which he initiated his business career by entering the employ of the Slocum Hat Company, with which firm he remained until it was dissolved. After the affairs of the Slocum Hat Company were closed, Mr. Boorse together with the majority of the stockholders in the old firm organized the National Straw Works, of which he was given full charge, becoming manager and one of the heavy stockholders in the plant. As the years passed this enterprise developed into the largest hat factory in the city of Milwaukee. For twenty years he remained active in the conduct and management of the business and his labors found tangible expression in the continued growth and success of the enterprise, which became one of the important productive . industries and manufacturing interests of the city.

On the 2nd of November, 1880, Mr. Boorse was married to Miss Clara Willett, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Willett of Pox Lake, Wisconsin. Their marriage was blessed with five children but only one daughter is now living, Jessica, who is the wife of Hampton H. Thomas, assistant manager of the Fidelity Deposit Company of Maryland, and they have one daughter, Jessica Lee. The son, Arthur Lee, who was a member of the naval reserve in the World war, was killed in action in a seaplane accident at Brest, France. He was born in 1892 and was graduated from the East Side high school of Milwaukee, after which he attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison. When war was declared he entered the Curtis School of Aviation at Newport News, Virginia, and after finishing the course he enlisted in the Naval Reserve Corps on the 1st of June, 1917. Immediately upon the receipt of his diploma he entered that branch of the service. He was one of the first to fly from the naval base at Hampton Roads. He sailed on the 7th of March, 1918, for France and was in two training schools in that country, being one of the first naval officers to train with the American officers on the large bombing machines. He was afterward transferred to Brest, France, where he was flying in seaplanes for several months. Ensign Boorse met his death in a seaplane accident at Brest at two o'clock in the afternoon on the 21st of August, 1918. He had been married in 1916 to Miss Evelyn Glass, a daughter of Frank P. Glass, editor of the Birmingham News of Birmingham, Alabama, and president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. Ensign Boorse and his wife had one child, Evelyn.

Fraternally Isaiah Boorse was a Mason of high rank, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He was a member of the Old Settlers Club and greatly enjoyed the meetings of that organization. Isaiah Boorse spent practically his entire life here, for he was but an infant when brought to Wisconsin. In the years that followed he took active interest in all that had to do with the city's growth and development and his enterprise was manifest not only in business affairs but in public relations as well. Thus it was that his death was the occasion of deep regret because of his worth as a man and as a citizen.