Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 2 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 10

During a residence of thirty-one years in Milwaukee, Oliver Clyde Fuller has come to occupy a central place on the stage of financial activity in the city. Honored and respected by all, his prominence is due not alone to the success he has achieved but also to the straightforward business policy which he has ever followed. In the line of an orderly progression he has reached the presidency of the First Wisconsin group of financial institutions, which includes the First Wisconsin National Bank, the First Wisconsin Trust Company and the First Wisconsin Company.

His birth occurred at Clarkesville, Georgia, on the 13th of September, 1860, his parents being Henry A. and Martha Caroline (Wyly) Fuller. He numbers among his ancestors some of the oldest and most honorable names in the south. On the maternal side he is descended from General John Sevier of Revolutionary war fame, who was the first governor of Tennessee. Mr. Fuller's father was a well-known merchant of Atlanta, Georgia, being the head of one of the largest wholesale grocery firms in that city.

Mr. Fuller attended public and private schools in Atlanta and afterward completed his education in the University of Georgia as a member of the class of 1880. He then accepted a clerkship in the wholesale grocery house of Fuller & Oglesby, of which his father was the senior partner, and was admitted to the firm in 1883. when the style was changed to H. A. Fuller & Son. A few years later the father retired from business and the son, Oliver C. Fuller, concentrated his attention upon the investment banking business, becoming a member of the firm of Jones & Fuller, investment bankers, with which he was identified from 1886 until 1889. Seeking a larger field, he then removed temporarily to the city of New York, where he resided until 1891, when he came to Milwaukee. Two years later he organized the firm of Oliver C. Fuller & Company, investment bankers and dealers in high-class bonds. It was not long before the new firm had gained a large clientele. In 1903 Mr. Fuller organized the Wisconsin Trust Company, taking over the business of Oliver C. Fuller & Company. He became the president of the Trust Company and on the 1st of July, 1919, was elected to the presidency of the First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee, an organization resulting from the consolidation of the First National Bank and the Wisconsin National Bank. In August, 1919, he was elected president of the First Wisconsin Trust Company, a consolidation of the First Trust Company and the Wisconsin Trust Company, and on the 1st of January, 1920, he organized and was elected president of the First Wisconsin Company, dealers in investment securities, the latter corporation being closely affiliated with the former. The nature and importance of his interests establishes him in a position of leadership among the financiers of his adopted city, where for almost a third of a century his name and place have been an honored one. In 1906 he was elected a member of the executive committee of the trust company section of the American Bankers Association and in 1908 was made chairman of that committee and a member of the council. In 1909 he was elected vice president and in 1910 was elected to the presidency of the trust company section of the American Bankers Association.

The scope and the importance of Mr. Fuller's business interests outside of the field of banking is indicated in the fact that he is a director of the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, the Milwaukee Mechanics Insurance Company, the Wisconsin Telephone Company, the Baltimore Dry Docks & Shipbuilding Company, the Wisconsin Securities Company and the Milwaukee Auditorium and is a trustee of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.

On the 25th of May, 1881, Mr. Fuller was married to Miss Kate Fitzhugh Caswell of Atlanta, Georgia, and they have become parents of two sons and four daughters. Mr. Fuller belongs to various social organizations, including the Milwaukee Club, the Milwaukee Country Club, the Milwaukee Athletic Club and the Town Club. He is also a member of the Wisconsin Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, of which he was formerly president, and of the Society of Colonial Wars. He and his family occupy an attractive country residence, "Riverdale," at North Milwaukee, while their city home is at No. 585 Marshall street. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in St. Paul's Episcopal church. His political endorsement is given to the republican party, but political activity has had little place in his life, his efforts and attention being concentrated upon the careful management and development of his business and financial interests.