Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 3 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 60

Samuel Owen Buckner, of Milwaukee, inspector of agencies for the New York Life Insurance Company, was born in Wellington, Lafayette county, Missouri, April 30, 1862, the second in order of birth in the family of Walker and Margaret Ann (Tully) Buckner, who are mentioned at length on another page of this work, in which connection the ancestral record is also given. Samuel O. Buckner was a youth of eighteen when his parents removed from Missouri to Milwaukee. In the meantime he had acquired his education in private schools of the former state and when his textbooks were put aside he entered upon active association with the insurance business by serving as office boy in his father's establishment. With the thoroughness and earnestness that has always characterized his career he gained knowledge of the business and was entrusted with duties of increasing importance as the years passed on, so that in April. 1886, when his brother, Thomas A., became a solicitor for the company, Samuel O. Buckner succeeded him in a clerical position in the father's office. Each year chronicled increasing ability on his part and in 1894 he succeeded his father in charge of the Wisconsin business of the New York Life and now has supervision over the Interests of this corporation in a district extending from Lake Michigan into the far Canadian northwest. For more than a third of a century he has been continuously associated with this corporation and not only has charge of the Wisconsin branch of the business but also supervises the work done in the general offices of the company in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota; in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and in Winnipeg, Canada. He is a man of splendid executive power and large administrative qualities. He has thoroughly acquainted himself with every phase of the business from its minor details to the great principles upon which the organization has been built. His management of the interests entrusted to him has constituted a valuable contribution to the success of the company, which indeed owes much of its growth to the labors of the various representatives of the Buckner family.

It was on the 21st of November, 1894, that Samuel Owen Buckner was united in marriage to Miss Zaidee Eddy Withington, whose birth occurred in Grand Rapids, Michigan, July 1, 1876, her parents being James and Kate (Eddy) Withington. Her father, who was born in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1854, engaged in the wholesale lumber business at Big Rapids, Michigan, to the time of his death, which occurred in 1887, and for a considerable period he also had important lumber interests in St. Louis, Missouri. His wife, whom he wedded in 1874, was born and reared in St. Louis, being a daughter of Joseph Eddy, for many years a prominent wholesale merchant there. Mrs. Buckner largely spent her girlhood days in Washington, D. C, where she was a pupil in a private boarding school and for two years after completing her education she resided in Chicago and then accompanied her mother to Milwaukee, since which time she has been a resident of this city, long occupying a prominent position in social circles here. Mr. and Mrs. Buckner have become parents of a daughter, Margaret Tully, who was graduated from the Milwaukee-Downer College in 1914.

Mr. Buckner and his wife are members of the Plymouth Congregational church, in which he is serving as a trustee. He belongs to the Town and City Clubs, and Fox Point Country Club, and his interest in furthering Milwaukee's material development is shown in his connection with the Association of Commerce. His further interest in the moral progress of the city is manifest in his identification with the Young Men's Christian Association and in fact he gives his aid and support to every good work done in the name of charity or religion. Moreover, he has added much .to higher ideals in the city through his efforts as member and president of the Milwaukee Art Institute. There is perhaps no man who has contributed so largely to the upbuilding of this organization as Mr. Buckner, who was called to the presidency in February, 1911, just a year after the society was formed. Under his guidance the membership of the society has increased manifold and he has put forth most effective and earnest labor in furthering the high ideals of the Milwaukee Art Institute, which now claims a membership of one thousand and which is fast developing an institute that rivals many of the art centers of the larger cities. On September 23, 1919, Mr. Buckner presented to the permanent collection of the institute twenty-five of the choicest paintings taken from his private collection, including works by artists from the Spanish, French, Dutch and American schools. He had previously presented five paintings to the permanent collection, making a total of thirty which are designated as The Samuel O. Buckner Collection. Mr. Buckner is a trustee of the Layton Art Gallery and the Layton School of Art. He is likewise a lover of literature and has produced several little poetic gems which show his ability in this direction as well as his optimistic philosophy of life. A number of his verses were used in different drives during the World war and while space prevents an extended use of these the historian may be permitted to quote a little poem which indicates most clearly a guiding motive of his entire career.

Do It Right.

"If you have a thing to do —

Do it Right;

Stick at it till you're through —

Do it Right;

Give good and honest work,

It pays to never shirk —

Do it Right.

Whether working fast or slow —

Do it Right;

Don't do things Just for show —

Do them Right;

If things go wrong don't cry.

Just all the harder try —

Do it Right.

If wealth you would acquire — D

o it Right;

If to fame you would aspire —

Do it Right;

Shun ill-gotten gain,

Strive for an honored name —

Do it Right."