Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 2 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 30

Matthew Simpson Dudgeon, librarian of the Milwaukee Public Library, has devoted much of his life to public service and his labors have been far-reaching and beneficial in effect. He is a native of the state capital, his birth having occurred in Madison, June 18, 1871, his parents being Richard and Dilla (Ball) Dudgeon, the latter of Quaker ancestry, while the former was of Scotch-Irish parentage. He served as a Methodist minister and missionary in Wisconsin and in Minnesota prior to 1860, becoming one of the pioneer preachers of the middle west.

Matthew S. Dudgeon, receiving liberal education opportunities, won his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1892 from Baker University of Kansas, and four years later his Alma Mater conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree. In the meantime he had taken up the study of law and in 1895 received the LL.B degree from the Law School of the University of Wisconsin. After teaching in the public schools and in college he practiced law for fourteen years in his native city and then became special draftsman for the legislature, having done the drafting work on the present public utility law besides work on the workmen's compensation law, the industrial commission law and others of equal Import. From 1898 until 1902 he filled the office of district attorney of Dane county and then in 1903 served as a member of the Wisconsin legislature. From 1907 until 1909 he was engaged in special revaluation work for the state tax commission and in the latter year became secretary of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission, continuing to act in that capacity until 1920, or for a period of eleven years. On the 16th of August, 1920, he assumed the duties of librarian of the Milwaukee Public Library and is giving excellent satisfaction in this position, discharging his duties with marked capability and to the satisfaction of all concerned. He is likewise a member of the board of directors of the Wisconsin Life Insurance Company, so serving for several years.

On the 11th of July, 1900, Mr. Dudgeon was married to Miss Mabel Cunningham, a daughter of Judge E. W. Cunningham of the supreme court of Kansas, and they have become parents of two children: Lucile, who is seventeen years of age; and Edith May, ten years of age. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and when in politics Mr. Dudgeon was a republican, but of recent years has taken no active part in political work. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, also to the. Phi Delta Phi, a law fraternity, and the Delta Tau Delta. In club circles he is well known through his connections with the Milwaukee City Club and the Kiwanis Club. He has ever been a student of the questions and issues of the day» keeping abreast with the best thinking men of the age and likewise upon the sociological and economic problems before the country, his influence and efforts being at all times on the side of progress, improvement and reform.