Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 5 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 29

Throughout his life Hon. Jacque S. Bletcher has been identified with the printing business and along the line of a steady progression that has resulted from thorough training, capability and initiative he has reached his present position as the president and treasurer of the J. S. Bletcher & Company, Incorporated, in which connection he has been very active in the development of the business until it has now reached substantial and gratifying proportions. He was born in Fremont, Ohio, July 24, 1850, and was there educated, attending the parochial and public schools. In 1864, when fifteen years of age, he ran away from home and became a drummer boy in Company K, of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, stationed at Johnson's Island, Ohio, serving for eleven months, after which he was mustered out at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1865.

Starting out in the business world Mr. Bletcher worked in connection with the confectionery trade for a short time but not finding this congenial he began learning the printer's trade in the office of the Journal at Fremont, Ohio. There he remained for about four years, gaining comprehensive knowledge of the business through practical experience. On the expiration of that period he took charge of the Messenger, a Fremont publication, which he controlled for about four years. He afterward worked in various cities and in October, 1881, arrived in Milwaukee. Here he was employed for a time in the Sentinel composing-room and afterward spent five years with the Riverside Printing Company. A similar period was passed in the printing department of the Evening Wisconsin and at the end of that time he went to San Antonio, Texas, where he remained for about a year. Upon his return to Milwaukee he worked for the J. H. Yewdale Sons Company and also for the firm of Burdick, Armitage & Allen before organizing the Twentieth Century Press. After two years he engaged in business on his own account in the fall of 1901 under the name of J. S. Bletcher & Company. Since then he has conducted his interests individually and has developed a large business, his being the only printing office in Milwaukee that does not solicit patronage, for his business has reached such proportions that it is all he can do to take care of it. His varied experience in many printing offices of the country has given him knowledge of every detail of the trade, as well as the principal features upon which the success of such an undertaking depends. He has been watchful of every indication pointing to success, has never deviated from the course which he believed to be right between himself and his fellowmen and his thorough integrity in all business transactions, combined with the high standard of his work, has secured for him the gratifying prosperity which is today his.

On the 10th of January, 1882, Mr. Bletcher was married to Miss Frances Tamer Brown of Detroit, and they have two children: Louise E. and Edgar J., the latter now associated with his father in business. The daughter was a member of the National League of Woman's Service during the World war, acting as assistant secretary to Mrs. George Lyons without remuneration and took part in every drive

Mr. Bletcher belongs to the Elks Club and is a member of the Milwaukee Association of Commerce, in which organization he has been quite active. He was elected to the Wisconsin legislature in 1905 and was the father of the present school board bill and also the present police and firemen's bill and was instrumental in the passage of the bill creating the new normal school. He was likewise a factor in creating the first railroad commission, which was one of the important and forward movement bills introduced in Wisconsin in recent years. He stands at all times for those interests and activities which feature as factors in good government in city, commonwealth or country and a little volume which he has published and which is most beautifully gotten up in colors, known as Our Nation's Flag, is one of the visible evidences of his one hundred per cent Americanism. His life is an illustration of the fact that in this country opportunity is open to every individual. His record illustrates what can be accomplished through determined effort, intelligently directed, for starting out in life in a humble capacity he has worked his way steadily upward and is today one of the foremost representatives of the printing business in the state of Wisconsin.