Biographies of Portage County, WIsconsin

Portage County, Wisconsin
Biographies

William Alban
Source: Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota. (Publ. 1907) Transcribed by Marilyn Clore

ALBAN William Linley, St Paul. Res 37 Thompson av, office 508 Chamber of Commerce. Architect. Born April 29, 1873 in Plover, Portage county Wis, son of Milton and Chloe Sarah (Blodgett) Alban. Married June 1903 to Gertrude Van Houten. Attended the public schools at Stevens Point Wis; Chicago School of Architecture graduating in 1897. Practiced his profession at Stevens Point Wis 1897-99; chief draftsman for Omeyer & Thori architects St Paul 1899-1905; member firm of Thori, Alban & Fisher architects 1905 to date.

L. N. Anson.
While Mr. Anson has for thirty years been a resident of Merrill, and among this city's most enterprising and substantial citizens, his business interests have been so extensive and widespread as to entitle him to claim identity with the great Northwest. During this time he has been connected with the lumber interests of several States, and has been one of the most extensive manufacturers and largest dealers in paper among the many enterprising men whose vigor and energy have made that one of the leading industries of Wisconsin. Mr. Anson was born in Portage county, Wisconsin, July 3, 1848, and is a son of Jesse and Maria (Sands) Anson.
Jesse Anson was born in New York, a descendant of a old New England family, and at an early age was left an orphan. When still a youth he came West to Illinois, where he met and married Maria Sands, also a native of the Empire State, and, like her husband, a descendant of one of the old Colonial families of New England. In 1843 they came to Wisconsin and located at Plover, where the remainder of their lives were spent, the father dying in 1894, well advanced in years. During the Civil War he fought valiantly in a Wisconsin volunteer regiment in the Union army, and ever showed himself a patriotic and public-spirited citizen.
L. N. Anson was given a good practical education in the common schools of Portage county, Wisconsin, but in March, 1865, laid aside his studies to take up arms in the Union cause, as a private in the Fifty-Second Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, in Missouri. He then returned to his Portage county home, and soon after went to Chicago, where he took a course in Bryant & Stratton's Business College. It was not long thereafter that he received his introduction to the lumber business, and in 1883 he came to Merrill, Wisconsin, and formed a co-partnership with George F. Gilkey and John Landers, under the firm style of Gilkey-Anson Company. The firm purchased a mill which became one of the largest and best in the Northwest, but for the past few years has not been in operation. The Grandfather Falls Paper Mills, of which he is president, were located in Merrill in 1905, but while the plant is situated here, the power is secured from Grandfather Falls. This is known as one of the largest enterprises of its kind in the Wisconsin Valley, and has attained its prestige through the keen foresight, business ability and intelligent management of its directing head. The business qualities that are essential for the manager of so vast an enterprise are obvious. To push and energy, quickness to perceive opportunities and courage to grasp them and breadth and comprehensiveness of mind, there must be added a capacity for organization, as well as attention to detail, and in all of these qualities Mr. Anson excels. He has interested himself in various other enterprises, one of which is the Anson, Gilkey & Hurd Company, of Merrill, one of the largest manufacturing plants of the Wisconsin Valley, which employs 500 men in the manufacture of sash, doors and windows. George M. Anson, Mr. Anson's son, is president of this enterprise. Amidst his active business life, Mr. Anson has found time and manifested an inclination to perform all the duties of good citizenship. As mayor of his adopted city, he gave his fellow-citizens an excellent and businesslike administration, and this was duplicated by his son, George M. Anson, when he occupied the mayoralty chair.
On December 29, 1872, Mr. Anson was married to Miss Hannah A. Meehan, who was born in Canada, and to this union there have been born two children : George M. and Mary T. ["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Hon. Webster E. Brown.
Among the significant names in the lumber industry of northern Wisconsin, especially along the Wisconsin River Valley, none has been more prominent during the last forty years than that of Brown. The late Edward Dexter Brown was the man whose energies and remarkable business ability first gave the name its wide-spread importance in the state, and during his lifetime and since his death his son has taken up and extended the various activities which are familiarly associated, in the minds of all old-timers, with this name.
One of the sons of the late Dexter E.. Brown is Hon. Webster E. Brown of the firm of Brown Brothers Lumber Company at Rhinelander, a member of other industrial and financial concerns, and a former congressman, serving as a member of the Fifty-seventh. Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses, from 1901 to 1907. He was first sent to Washington as representative of the Tenth Wisconsin Congressional District, and while he was in the office the district was reorganized, and his became the Eleventh District.
Webster E. Brown was born in Peterboro, Madison county, New York, July 16, 1851, a son of Edward Dexter and Helen M. (Anderson) Brown. When Webster E. Brown was five years old the family moved to Portage county, Wisconsin, locating on a farm near Stevens Point. His father at once became identified with lumbering operations in that section of the state, and from that time forward the name has always been potent in lumber circles in Wisconsin. On the home farm in Portage Webster E. Brown was reared until he was sixteen years of age, and in the meantime attended the country schools. His education was advanced by attendance for a year and a half at Lawrence University, at Appleton, after which he entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and was graduated in the class of 1874.
Mr. Brown has been actively connected with lumbering in all its departments since 1875. In that year with his elder brother, A. W. Brown he went into the business at Stevens Point, and in 1882 these two brothers moved to Rhinelander, where their father had entered land direct from the government, including the site of the present city of Rhinelander. Their industrial plant established at Rhinelander was one of the first and the most important of local enterprises. Their younger brother E. O. Brown joined them in 1881, and since that time the three brothers have been very extensively interested in lumbering, banking, manufacturing, and other development work in northern Wisconsin.
During the early eighties, the Brown Brothers, then under the firm name of E. D. Brown & Sons, established at Rhinelander, a private bank, which in 1890 was incorporated under the name of the Merchants State Bank, of which Mr. E. O. Brown is now president, and of which Webster E. Brown has been a director since its organization. Mr. Brown is vice president and treasurer of the firm of Brown Brothers Lumber Company, concerning whose operations more is said in the sketch of Mr. A. W. Brown elsewhere in this work. Mr. Brown is a director in the Rhinelander' Refrigerator Company, a director in the Rhinelander Paper Company, is president of the Rhinelander Power Company, president of the Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company, the headquarters of which concern are in Wausau. Wisconsin.
On December 26, 1877, at Lancaster, Wisconsin, Webster E. Brown married Juliet D. Meyer, a daughter of Richard Meyer. They are the parents of five children : Ralph D., Edna M., Dorothy, Richard M., and Allan C. Mr. Brown is a member of the Masonic Order, and throughout his career since casting his first vote has been a stanch supporter of the Republican party and its basic principles. ["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]
Francis Vivian Comfort
Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota (Publ. 1907) Transcribed by Liz Dellinger

COMFORT Francis Vivian. Stillwater. Res 1204 3d av S. office 226 E Myrtle st. Lawyer. Born Aug 7, 1853 in Mineral Point Wis, son of Amzi W and Eliza (Vanorman) Comfort. Married Sept 20, 1883 to Elise T Hebenstreit. Educated in the common and high schools Portage Wis. Moved to Stillwater 1872 and studied law in the office of Hon R R Murdock. Admitted to bar 1878. Began practice with O H Comfort under the firm name of O H & F V Comfort which firm continued until 1880; Comfort, Gregory & Comfort 1880-82; Gregory & Comfort until 1885 ; practiced alone 1885-86; Comfort & Comfort 1886-87; alone until 1894; Comfort & Wilson 1894-97 and has been engaged alone since that time. Former city atty Stillwater. Member Washington Light Guards of Stillwater 1879-81; member American Minnesota State and Washington county Bar assns and Sons of the American Revolution.

Walter Dickson Corrigan has been engaged in the practice of law since 1897. He has attained high rank in his profession through his learning, industry, ability and character, while he is no less valued in the community as a liberal-minded and enterprising citizen. Belonging to that class of professional men who value their education the more because it has been self-gained, his career since early boyhood has been one of tireless industry and well-directed effort, finally resulting in the attainment of well-deserved success. He is now a member of the leading law firm of Glicksman, Gold & Corrigan.
Mr. Corrigan is a native son of Wisconsin, having been born December 28, 1875, in the town of Almond, Portage County. Be is of Irish and Scotch-English descent. He was reared to manhood on a Portage County farm, by his grandfather, Walter Dickson, who had come as a pioneer to Wisconsin in 1844, and his early education was secured in the district schools of that vicinity. A youth of ambitious ideas. he early decided upon the law as his life work, and with that end in view, devoted himself assiduously to his tasks on the farm and as a school teacher, to secure the necessary means with which to secure an education. After attending the high schools of Grand Rapids and Almond, Wisconsin, Mr. Corrigan entered the Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa, and on graduation therefrom continued to pursue his studies in Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, where he received his law degree in 1896. At twenty-one years of age, he was admitted to the bar and establish himself in practice in Waushara county. Central Wisconsin was his field of endeavor until September 1, 1905, when his advent in Milwaukee occurred. In October, 1906, he became general attorney for the Wisconsin Central Railway Company, and November 1, 1908, was made general solicitor for that road, but resigned his position May 1, 1909, to enter general practice as a member of the firm of Glicksman, Gold & Corrigan, with which firm he has ever since been connected. Mr. Corrigan 's inclinations have led him to engage chiefly in what is known as trial work, and he has become distinguished in this line throughout the Northwest. He was district attorney of Waushara county from January. 1899. to January. 1901. and assistant attorney general of Wisconsin from January. 1903, to September 1, 1905, when he resigned to commence practice in Milwaukee. He has had no ambition for mere office holding. Within the last few years he has declined to be considered for several important offices, including judgeships, and these declinations have come when there was more than fair promise of success. He has. however, been more or less active for years in giving such time as he could spare to the movement in Wisconsin generally known as the Progressive Republican movement. He has been a member of the Republican State Central Committee, and is a highly regarded and very effective campaign speaker. He has, however, made all activities subservient to his professional duties. He has been a member of the Odd Fellows since 1897; the Masons since 1898. and the Elks since 1903. In the matter of religion, to note Mr. Corrigan 's own words: "Like unto each and every man, I have my own religion."
He has a beautiful home on Whitefish Bay, suburban to Milwaukee. His business offices are at 625-630 Caswell Block.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Roy K. Dorr.
District manager for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company at Kenosha. Mr. Dorr has a place among the leaders in insurance circles in the state of Wisconsin.
Born in New London, Wisconsin, February 20, 1878, Roy K. Dorr is a son of B. F. and H. C. (Chandler) Dorr. His mother was a native of the state of New Hampshire, while the father was born in 1833 at Lockport, New York, coming west with his mother and family in 1848, the same year in which Wisconsin was admitted to the Union. Grandfather Gridley Dorr, who died in New York several years previously, was born during the Revolutionary war. There were six children of B. F. and H. C. Dorr, and the only two now living are Roy K. and Mrs. Ruth D. Ralph of Green Bay.
When a boy, Roy K. Dorr attended the public schools in Antigo, Wisconsin, being graduated from the Antigo High School in 1896. Subsequently he took an academic course in Beloit, and for two and a half years was a student at Beloit College. After considerable business experience, Mr. Dorr in 1912 was appointed district manager for Kenosha County by The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, and is now holding up his end at Kenosha with a large record of annual business.
Mr. Dorr is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and at Beloit College was a member of the Wisconsin Gamma Chapter of the Phi Kappa Psi. On June 11, 1910, he married Miss Helen Thiers, a daughter of Edward and Mary Thiers. They are the parents of one daughter, Mary Nicoll Dorr, born May 10, 1911. ["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Daniel Eugene Frost spent his boyhood on the home farm of his father. He was early educated in the district schools, finishing with a three year course at the Oshkosh Normal, after which he taught school for a year. He then entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and in 1886 he was duly graduated from the law department. He made his first location at Stevens Point, in the county where he had been born and reared, and here he has since continued to make his home.

Mr. Frost for three years practiced law in association with Mr. T. H. Synon, now of Norfolk, Virginia, and with whom he still has business dealings, being himself a large owner of Norfolk and other Virginia property. Later Mr. Frost entered into a partnership with Mr. W. F. Owen, still later associating himself with the late James O. Raymond, and for several years being connected with John H. Brennan, now of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

In late years, however, Mr. Frost has gradually withdrawn from legal activities, in order that he might devote his time more exclusively to his private interests which began to assume larger proportions, and among which might be mentioned his Oklahoma Oil interests, real estate interests in Norfolk, Virginia, Tampa, Florida, and Chicago, Illinois, with some of the most valuable business property in Stevens Point, as well as a large quantity of North Dakota properties.

Mr. Frost is president of the Coyl Furniture Company, one of the largest industrial plants of Stevens Point, and he is a director of the Citizens National Bank.

A Republican, Mr. Frost has been active in the party ranks, and he was chairman of the Republican County Central Committee for six years. While yet active in his profession he served as district attorney for Portage county in 1897 and in 1907 he was appointed to the office of postmaster, succeeding Henry Curran, now deceased. He has proved himself a most capable incumbent of the office, and his administration has not been exceeded in general efficiency by any postmaster the city has ever known.

Mr. Frost was made the first president of the Business Men "s Association when that association was organized in 1906, and he served three years in the office. He is a director and one of the Building Commissioners of the City Hospital, and has been intensely interested in the success of this worthy institution, rendering a valuable service in his official connection therewith.

Fraternally, Mr. Frost has membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 641, Stevens Point, and his church membership is with the Episcopal church, in which he is a vestryman. In his citizenship too much could not be said of Mr. Frost, for it is there that his splendid integrity and high-mindedness has been manifested in an unusual degree. In his labors for the advancement and growth of Stevens Point he has exceeded the most diligent, and he has never yet passed by an opportunity for the betterment and upbuilding of the best phases of life in the city. No enterprise has ever been launched here that has not claimed his immediate and timely support and co-operation, and by his influence, his money and his actual work has he taken a hand in the business of making the city and county entitled to a leading place in this section of the state. Said to be the richest man but one in Stevens Point, his influence has been highly commendable and is due to the facts of his splendid integrity and general wholesomeness of character.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Daniel Eugene Frost, postmaster of Stevens Point since 1907, for years a practicing lawyer in this city, and identified prominently with many of the leading industrial and financial enterprises of the city and county, as well as having manifold outside interests of wide scope and importance, has been a resident of Portage county all his life. Few men of the county have been more active in the development of the resources of the district, or have identified themselves more entirely with the commercial and industrial enterprises that have meant so much to the community, or have been more active in affairs concerning the civic welfare of the place. His life has been a busy and effective one thus far, with the promise of greater things in the years to come.

Daniel Eugene Frost was born in Almond, Portage county, Wisconsin, on September 18, 1860, and he is a son of Josiah Locke and Maria Jane (Frost) Frost, both of them natives of the state of Massachusetts, where many of the name are yet to be found. The Frosts came from Ipswich, England, to America in the days prior to the Revolutionary troubles, and it is of record that one Rev. Edward Frost, lineal ancestor, located in Boston as early as 1637. As already stated, the family is still a prominent one in the state, and in Boston a brother of the subject, J. Fred Frost by name, resides in the old ancestral home of the family, built there early in the seventeenth century by Captain Stephen Frost.

In giving a brief history of the Frost ancestry, it is altogether in keeping with the spirit and purpose of this work to make mention of the family in connection with the early, history of Massachusetts, and its part in the Revolutionary war. History names Captain Stephen Frost as having made the first capture of that long struggle. He was at the head of a company of Minute Men, the same being stationed behind a wall at Arlington, about a mile from where Captain Frost had built his residence, already referred to as the home of the brother of the subject. When the baggage train of the British came along the road on its way to the Battle of Lexington, young Captain Frost .sprang up and demanded the surrender of the train. "Shoot down that dog," commanded the British officer, whereupon the Minute Men sprang into action, and soon was effected the capture of the entire outfit, soldiery and all. This is recorded in the pages of history as the first capture of the war. Captain Stephen Frost died in 1810, in the house where J. Fred Frost now lives.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

HON. GEORGE GATE.
Biographical sketches of those who have attained merited distinction in American law have a charm and force in them that commend them to every sound thinker. We naturally feel an interest in tracing the footsteps of those who have reached elevated positions in public confidence, and have wielded their influence for public good; who, loving truth, and integrity for their own sake, have undeviatingly followed their dictates, no matter what the personal consequences might be. Records of this kind are calculated to raise the ministrations of law in public estimation, and are
guides for the junior members of the profession in their pursuit of reputation, distinction and position.

Born September 17, 1823, in Montpelier, Vt., Judge Gate is a son of Isaac and Glarissa (McKnight) Gate, the former a native of New Hampshire, the latter of Massachusetts, and they were well-to-do farming people, their home being some six miles from Montpelier.

At the public schools of that city our subject received a liberal education, and at the age of seventeen years, in 1840, commenced the study of law in the office of Joseph A. Wing, Plainfield, Washington Co., Vt., where he remained two years, and then for a similar length of time studied under Lecius B. Peck, of Montpelier, Vt., after which, in 1844, he was admitted to the bar at the latter place, before Judge Isaac F. Redfield, of the Supreme Gourt of the State of Vermont.

Coming to Wisconsin in 1845, Mr. Gate worked in a sawmill on the Eau Claire river, among the pineries, and was also engaged in all the branches of lumbering, including rafting logs down the Eau Claire to St. Louis, Mo. In 1848 he located in Plover (at that time the county seat of Portage county. Wis.), and commenced the practice of his chosen profession, the only other disciple of Blackstone in that locality being James S. Alban, who was afterward killed at the battle of Shiloh. From the day of his first opening office in Plover our subject has given his entire time to his profession (except while absent in Congress, engaged on business pertaining to the State and Nation), and he has the reputation of being one of the busiest, as well as one of the most successful lawyers in northern Wisconsin. He has given considerable attention to the practice of common law, and among the prominent cases in which he has met with signal success may be mentioned the famous Lamere murder case, and the Hazeltine-Gurran-Morse case, and the Mead murder (two trials), in all of which he was counsel for the defense, and where all the defendants were acquitted. He was one of the managers for the State in the impeachment trial of Judge Hubbell. From 1848 to 1854 he held various offices in the gift of the people, such as prosecuting attorney, register of deeds, clerk to the board of supervisors, supervisor, deputy postmaster of Plover, member of the Legislature, and at the time it was the only post office in the pinery of Portage county. In 1854 he was elected circuit judge, and served four terms of six years each, with the exception of the last term, when he resigned after the fourth year on account of his running for Congress. This was in the fall of 1874 (the year of his moving to Stevens Point), and though the Judge is a pronounced Democrat, and the Judicial Circuit and District was strongly Republican, yet he received a handsome majority. While he was in Congress the vote on the electoral commission, which resulted in seating President Hayes, was taken, and Judge Gate was one of the seventeen Democrats who voted against it. On the completion of one term in Congress he returned to his Wisconsin home, and resumed practice.

In 1851 Judge Gate was united in marriage with Miss Lavara S. Brown, daughter of Daniel Brown, a lumberman, formerly of Indianapolis, Ind., who came to Stevens Point from Iowa. Six children have been born to this marriage, to wit: Albert G.,
now of Amherst, Portage Co., Wis.; Lynn Boyd, of Stevens Point; Henry, a pharmacist, of Menominee, Mich. ; Carrie, now the wife of Dr. Cronyn, of Milwaukee; and Ruth and Georgia, both at home. The entire family are members of the Episcopal Church, the Judge since 1860, and for the past six years he has been senior warden of the Church of the Intercession, Stevens Point. Socially, he has been a member of the F. & A. M. since 1855. In addition to seven or eight city lots, he owns a 200-acre farm in Portage county, and takes a great interest in the breeding of blooded cattle; altogether he has imported several head of this class of cattle to Portage county, and at the present time he has a herd of some thirty fine-bred Jerseys (about thirty years ago he imported fine Devon cattle, and, later, several Alderneys). The family residence is No. 321 Ellis street, Stevens Point.

Large and generous of nature, kindly and charitable of disposition, with a deep sense of right. Judge Gate is greatly respected by all, and his counsels are frequently sought by his many friends. [Source: Commemorative Biographical Record of the Upper Wisconsin Counties of Waupaca, Portage, Wood, Marathon, Lincoln, Oneida, Vilas, Langlade and Shawano (1895), submitted by Marla Zwakman]

Jason Russell, a maternal ancestor of the subject, together with eleven other American patriots, was killed in the Russell homestead at Arlington, by the retreating British after the battle of Lexington, on April 19, 1775. The old house is still in a good state of preservation and the state has erected a tablet before it, presenting a narrative of the occurrence, the old place standing as a monument to those early days of heroism and sacrifice.

While the editors rejoice in l)ringing to light these facts in relation to the ancestry of the subject, it should not be supposed that he is a man who relies upon the name and accomplishments of his forbears to carry him through life in these later days. Rather is he a typical American of the middle west, who does not inquire into the ancestry of a man to decide whether or not he shall approve of that person. He does not demand that a man shall be able to boast a stated number of grandfathers before his individual approval shall be accorded to him. With him, the great thing is what a man has done,—not what his ancestors have accomplished.

Only two of the Frost men left Massachusetts, and they were Josiah L. and a brother, Daniel B. Frost. The latter came west in 1853, Josiah Locke Frost, coming two years later. He became a large laud owner and a successful farmer of Portage county, and died on his farm in 1905 at the age of eighty-four years, secure in the esteem and confidence of all who knew him, and remembered in the county today as a man who played well his part in all the relations of life. His wife, Maria Jane Frost, died in 1876, when she was thirty-nine years of age. He later married Ella Wilcox, and she still survives, and makes her home with her daughter. Of the second union there were two children. Ernest lives in Canada; and Nellie is now the wife of Hon. Conrad Olson, of Portland, Oregon. Six children were born of his first marriage, however, and of these the subject was the fourth born. The others are: Charles H., now deceased; Etta F., the wife of John S. Cowan; Josiah F., of Boston, Massachusetts; George E. of Portland, Oregon; and Dr. Carrie A. Frost of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Hon. Norman S. Gilson.
Born at Middlefiekl, Ohio, March 23, 1839, Judge Norman S. Gilson, one of Fond du Lac 's most distinguished citizens, is a representative of one of New England's oldest families, tracing his ancestry back to Joseph Gilson, who about the year 1650 arrived in the New World from England. Among his descendants are those who participated in the French and Indian AVar, the Revolutionary struggle and the War of 1812. Judge Gilson is an example of hereditary strength of character. In his family history no weak or vicious link has been discovered, and he seems the embodiment of the many virtues transferred from generation to generation.

Daniel Gilson, the grandfather of the Judge, was a soldier of the Revolution, and after the attainment of American independence established his home in. Ohio, in 1817, both he and his wife passing away in Middlefield, that state. William H. Gilson, the father of Judge Gilson, was one of a family of seven children. He was born in Vermont, and was a lad of six years at the time of the family's removal to the Buckeye state. Reared to manhood at the Middlefield home, he early became a farmer and devoted many years of his life to tilling the soil. About 1865 he removed to Garrettsville, Portage county, Ohio, and there his remaining years were passed, his death occurring in 1889, when he was seventy-eight years old.

Norman S. Gilson, while spending his youthful days in Middlefield, mastered the elementary branches of learning, and subsequently taught in the schools there, later attending Farmington University. In 1860 he came to Wisconsin and settled at West Bend, and while teaching school there for two years devoted his leisure hours to the study of law in the offices and under the preceptorship of his uncle, Leander F. Frisby. When the Civil War broke across the country in all its fury, young Gilson answered the call of his country for troops, enlisting on the 17th of September, 1861, as a private of Company D, Twelfth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for two years. The regiment, which was commanded by Col. George E. Bryant, left Wisconsin January 11, 1862, in the Department of Kansas, with which it operated until transferred to the Army of the Tennessee, and assigned to duty in the District of Mississippi, under Gen. Isaac F. Quimby. Mr. Gilson was on detached service with the staff General Robert B. Mitchell from June, 1862, until after the battle of Perryville, when he returned to his regiment. In May, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant major of his regiment, following which he participated in the siege of Vicksburg and the siege of Jackson, Mississippi, his gallant and faithful services winning him promotion in August, 1863, to the rank of first lieutenant of Company H, Fifty-eighth United States Colored Infantry. He was soon promoted to adjutant and eventually became lieutenant-colonel of his regiment. As a member of the staff of General Davidson he was assigned to duty as judge advocate of the Natchez district, and in 1865 and 1866 was judge advocate for the Department of the Mississippi, serving on the staffs of Major-General Osterhaus and Major-General Thomas J. Wood. Although his regiment was mustered out in 1865 he was retained as judge advocate for more than a year by the direction of the Secretary of War on account of the trial by court-martial of Captain Frederick Speed, who was charged with criminal carelessness in overloading the steamer Sultana with paroled prisoners of war, whereby 1,100 of them lost their lives when the vessel sunk near Memphis, April 27, 1865. Colonel Gilson represented the Government on that trial. On the 12th of June, 1866, he was mustered out of the service and honorably discharged at Vicksburg, and President Johnson brevetted him colonel of United States Volunteers "for efficient and meritorious service."

In 1866 and 1867 Judge Gilson was a student in the law school at Albany, New York, and graduated in that year at the latter institution, being immediately admitted to the bar. In 1868 he came to Fond du Lac, where he opened a law- office, and here practiced his profession until 1880. In 1874 he was elected city attorney of Fond du Lac, and in 1877 and 1878 filled the office of district attorney. In March, 1880, the Democratic party named him as its nominee for the office of judge of the Fourth Judicial District, and in the election which followed he received a majority of more than 8,000 votes over his opponent. In 1886 he was again elected to the same office, this time without opposition, and again Avas sent to the same high position in 1892. In 1898 he declined to become a candidate for another term and retired from the bench after eighteen continuous years of devoted service as a circuit judge. In 1899 Judge Gilson was appointed a member of the Wisconsin Tax Commission, and so served from the latter part of that year until handing in his resignation the first day of May, 1911. He was chairman of the commission from December, 1899, to the time of his resignation.

On October 17, 1905, Judge Gilson was united in marriage with Miss Laura B. Conklin. a daughter of Lanty and Marietta (Bristol) Conklin. Mrs. Gilson was born in Canada, near Niagara Falls, and her parents were natives of New York state. She is a consistent member of the Congregational church, and is widely known in social and charitable circles of Fond du Lac. Judge Gilson is a member of Fidelity Lodge, No. 110, Knights of Pythias. He has ever been delighted to foregather with his old comrades of army days, and holds membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, the Loyal Legion and the Society of the Army of the Tennessee.

Judge Gilson 's mind is of the judicial order, and he would probably have been asked to serve on the bench in any community in which he made his home. The high esteem in which he was held as a jurist by the entire legal profession was a result of a rare combination of fine legal ability and culture, and incorruptible integrity, with the dignified presence, absolute courage, and graceful urbanity which, characterized all of his official acts. No man has rendered his community and his country more conscientious service; no man is more worthy of his community's respect and gratitude. ["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Nicholas Gross, secretary and manager of the Stevens Point Brewing Company, and one of the successful and prosperous men, has been a resident of this part of Wisconsin since 1866, when he came with his parents from the home in France. The early history of the family, dating from the time of its arrival in America, is an interesting one, and space may well be given here to some brief data concerning the life and activities of the various members.

It should be stated that Nicholas Gross is the son of Nicholas and Christina (Demmerle) Gross, and that he was born in Lorraine, then under French rule, on April 4, 1854. The father was a farmer in his native land, and the fall of 1865 he moved his family to the United States, making the long and tedious .journey in the good ship "Bremen." and being forty-two days on the way. They arrived in New York in January, 1866, and the day following their landing they went to Buffalo, there remaining until about the middle of Sarah, when they set out for the west. They made the trip by rail to Berlin, Wisconsin, then the terminus of the railroad in this section of the country, and from there a part of the family went by stage, the remainder driving their own team. The stage, however, did not penetrate the country farther than Stevens Point, then a flourishing little mill town, and the family proceeded to move on to Pollard Corners, some eight miles north east of Stevens Point, making the journey as best they might in the cold and stormy weather. At that point the father bought two acres of land and there erected a building which he used in conducting a tavern. It was a fine structure for its day, and the business he conducted was a flourishing one, the place being well patronized from the start. A huge barn or stable sheltered the teams stopping overnight on their way through the wilderness country to Wausau and other points, and the place was a popular one indeed, in those days. Nicholas Gross prospered there, and he continued to run the tavern until he died in August, 1876. He was then fifty-seven years of age. His widow continued with the business, but was burned out the following year, after which she came to Stevens Point, where she died in March, 1892, aged sixty-seven years. They possessed many excellent and praiseworthy qualities, and unlike many of the early settlers of that day, they gave to their children each a good common school education, and had it been possible, higher educations would have been afforded them. They had a family of thirteen children, two of whom died in Germany prior to the family removal to America. They include: Richard; Catherine, the wife of N. Jacobs; Victor; Nicholas, of this review; Henry; Christina, the widow of John Kheil; Aloysius; Felix, deceased; Mary, who was a nun, and died in a convent in Milwaukee ; and Rose, married John Martin.

Nicholas Gross, the fifth born child of his parents, attended school in Lorraine as a boy, and when he came to America with his parents he thereafter attended a Catholic school in Buffalo for a time. Like all the little foreign lads of his day, he wore a wool toque with a tassel, and the little Yankee boys with whom he was thrown, willy-nilly, took much pleasure in teasing him about his foreign clothing and manners. When the family removed to Wisconsin, young Gross attended school at Polland Corners, and in 1868, after coming to Stevens Point, he attended the old "White School House," which stood until in very recent years as a landmark of former times. This school for many years has been having a reunion each year, its former attendants coming from all parts of the United States, and many of them are today widely known and prominent in the various walks of life. Mr. Gross has made a practice of attending these reunion sessions regularly, and has found a distinct pleasure in them.

When he left school for the sterner realities of life, Mr. Gross was employed by his brother-in-law, Mr. Jacobs, at the Jacobs Hotel in Stevens Point, continuing there until 1881. Then he was active in business for himself for three years. In the fall of 1883 he took the agency for the Pabst Brewing Company, and he was the first agent for this firm in Stevens Point. He continued with the Pabst people until 1901, and he gained a host of friends in his years of activity in that capacity. It was in the year last named that Mr. Gross became one of the incorporators of the Stevens Point Brewing Company, of which he has been secretary and manager from then up to the present time, and it is undeniable that much of the success and progress of the firm has been due directly to his practical knowledge of the business. It should be said that the firm is one of the old established concerns of Stevens Point, the plant having been run as far back as in the fifties by Messrs. Wahle & Rueder, who were succeeded by Lutz Brothers. They replaced the old wooden buildings with a stone one in 1872, which is still a part of the present plant, although many changes have been wrought in recent years. Andrew and Jacob Lutz sold out to Gustav Kuensel and the present concern took over the business from him in 1901, as has already been stated. The plant has a capacity of 35,000 barrels, and they maintain their own bottling works. All modern machinery features the new plant, and under the regime of the present company the establishment has risen to a high place in brewing circles in the state. Their buildings, all of steel and concrete, are known to house one of the finest brewing plants in the state, and their products, known as "Pink's Pale," "Pink's Crystal" and "The Eagle," are popular with the public. They maintain a storehouse at Waupaca and their shipments are made far and wide. The president of the firm is B. Polebski, with W. E. Kingsburg, vice-president, and Nicholas Gross, secretary and manager, A. C. Schenck, treasurer, and a directorate comprising T. H. Hanna, W. L. Plagman and John Martin, in addition to the officials already mentioned. The corporation is based on a capital stock of $100,000, and is one of the soundest and most prosperous establishments of its kind in the state.

In 1875, on November 21, Nicholas Gross was married to Miss Johanna Splawn, a native of Wisconsin and a daughter of Patrick and Johanna (Walsh) Splawn, and to them have been born children as follows : Nicholas, who died aged two years and two months ; Alice, the wife of C. F. Morris, an attorney at Iron River, Wisconsin, and the mother of three children, namely, Robert, William and Katherine ; and Mabel, who died at the age of two years and five months.

Nicholas Gross is widely known in these parts and is one of the most popular men to be found in the county. He has long had membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Stevens Point, and in the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin, as well as the Catholic Order of Foresters. He is a member and communicant of the St. Stephen's Catholic Church, and has been a life long Democrat. Although he has on a number of occasions run for office, he has always met with defeat, and his friends do not hesitate to say that it is due entirely to the fact that he is too upright and honorable in his political ventures to resort to the usual method to secure votes. For several years he served on the Stevens Point City Council, and one year was president of the council. In 1896 he ran for the office of sheriff of Portage county, and while he did not win the election, he was accorded a heavier vote than any other Democratic candidate for the office was ever accorded, or has since received. He has also been the choice of his party for mayor and city treasurer, and at all times made an excellent run, though his party was in the minority. At one time he was mentioned very favorably for the office of postmaster under President Cleveland, but was unwilling to compete for the office. Mr. Gross was never a man to make any campaign promises, but he ran solely on his merits. He has now retired from any active participation in local politics, although he still manifests a good citizen's interest in matters that concern the community in a political way, and acts accordingly. He has a fine residence at 1060 Main street, near the Normal school, where his family extend a true German hospitality to their many friends, for there are few families, if indeed any, in the city, who are more widely or favorably known than the Grosses. Mr. Gross is a man who makes friends and holds them fast through all circumstances, and is prominent and popular in the city that has so long represented the family home.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Luther Hanchett
Biographical Sketch of the late Hon. Luther Hanchett
We find in the Stanton Times, published at Plover, Portage county, a long obituary of the late Hon. Luther Hanchett, whose residence was at that place. We cannot copy it entire, but will give such portions as contain the main events of Mr. Hanchett’s career:
“Mr. Hanchett was born in Tallmadge county, Ohio, and, at the time of his death, was thirty-seven years of age. His father was a physician of high standing. His mother was a superior woman, much beloved, and died at an advanced age, giving very satisfactory evidence of piety. The family resided, during his father’s life, at two other places in Ohio besides Tallmadge: Kendall, Stark county, and Middlebury, Portage county. Mr. H’s father died when he was seventeen years of age. From that time he depended upon his own exertions. His advantages in regard to school education do not appear to have been of a high order. He studied law, first with his brother at Fremont, formerly called Lower Sandusky, Sandusky county, Ohio, and afterwards at Jonesville, Mich. After studying law, he was a surveyor for a short time in Michigan. About thirteen years ago he came to the West. He first went to Galena, Ill, but soon came to Hazel Green in Grant county, in this State, where a cousin of his, Mr. Augustus Tyler, resided. Mr. Tyler, having a lumbering business in the Wisconsin Pinery, Mr. Hanchett accompanied him to Wausau. His clothing, which was good when he left Michigan, having become worn, his purse being light, and it being uncertain whether he should immediately obtain employment as a lawyer, he began to work at making shingles in a shanty at Wausau with Mr. Tyler.
While he was thus employed, John Eckels, Esq., of Plover, having a suit in court, and all the lawyers in the vicinity being engaged by the opposite party, went to Wausau to obtain the services of Mr. Hanchett, of whom he had heard from Mr. Tyler. He found him at work in a hickory shirt, making shingles in the above mentioned shanty. Mr. Hanchett agreed to manage the suit. Little was expected of a lawyer found in such a situation and employment. But the suit was conducted successfully; and from that time it was unnecessary for the young lawyer to make shingles. He took up his residence at Plover, and soon had all the business he wished to attend to.
In 1853 he was married to the eldest daughter of the Hon. James S. Alban, who fell at Pittsburg Landing as Colonel of the Eighteenth Wisconsin Regiment of Volunteers, with whom he was, for some time, a partner in the practice of law. This lady, with two children, a daughter and a son, he has left to mourn his untimely death.
Mr. Hanchett’s last illness was short. He was confined to the house but four days.
The esteem in which he was held was testified by the effect produced by the news of his dangerous illness and sudden death, by the large concourse that attended his funeral, and by the grief which was depicted in the countenances and manifested by the tears of the people.
Mr. Hanchett was buried with Masonic honors, being at his death a member of that fraternity and Master of the Lodge of Plover. The funeral was attended at the Presbyterian Church in this village. He was a member of that congregation, his family being members of the Presbyterian Church. The text of the funeral discourse was strikingly illustrated by the suddenness of his death: ‘Boast not thyself of the morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.’
[From the "Milwaukee Sentinel", dated December 5, 1862; - Sub. by Denise Hansen]

Fred Oscar Hodson.
One of the thoroughly representative young business men of Stevens Point and of those who is fast making his waxto the front in the enterprises with which he is identified, is Fred Oscar Hodson, manufacturer of ice-cream and the proprietor of the Stockton Creamery at this place. Mr. Hodson comes of an old and honored pioneer family, the name of Hodson having been known in this part of the state for many years. Fred O. Hodson is of Eastern birth, born in Penobscot county, Maine, on May 14, 1865, and is a son of John N. and Laura (Johnson) Hodson, of an old established family in that state. John N. Hodson followed the lumber business in the east, rafting on the rivers and in other activities with that industry. His first wife died while they were residents of Maine and for his second wife he married her sister. Belle Johnson, then a resident of Minneapolis. From then until the close of his life John N. Hodson was more or less associated with business life in Portage county, Wisconsin.
Mr. Hodson first came to Stevens Point, having followed a half brother, William Allen, to that place. William Allen was a pioneer sawmill man and millwright, and he is still remembered by many of the old settlers of these parts as a thrifty and competent workman. He built mills all along the Plover river, and among the buildings that still stand as a mark of his workmanship might be mentioned the Brown Brothers' Mill at Rhinelander. In 1855 he built, the house in which Fred Oscar Hodson now lives, the same having seen a number of changes and improvements, however, since that time. William Allen died in 1908 aged eighty-three years, and his daughter, Mrs. Rose Raymond, the wife of Charles Raymond, is the only child of his who still lives here. The others have settled in Michigan and there maintain their homes and business activities. He came to the west in the early fifties, bringing his family in 1853.
John N. Hodson, the father of Fred O. of this review, worked for many years under the supervision of his half-brother. Mr. Allen, and he too is known for the mills he built all through this country, he is now retired and lives at Roxbury, Massachusetts. He became the father of two children. Fred Oscar Hodson is the child of his first marriage, and Genevieve, of the second union, is a teacher in a school for boys at Cornwall, Connecticut.
Fred O. Hodson was about ten years of age when he came west with his father, "Wisconsin being regarded as decidedly west by natives of Maine, and though he had gone to school a little in Penobscot county, his education was not added to very materially in Wisconsin. He gained his education, such as it is, chiefly by observation and his association with the lumber business! added not a little to his mental equipment. After the death of his mother he was practically an orphan, as his father's extended absence in the wilds of the state left him much alone and without parental guidance of any sort. Reared for the most part in the homes of relatives, young Hodson was still very young when he set out for himself in life. For a while he worked on the farm for his uncle and others, much as the average country youth of limited advantages has done and will continue to do, and in 1890 he took employment with a railroad, but before long returned to Portage county. Previous to that, however, he had worked in the dairy business near Stevens Point, on the dairy farm of M. E. Means, and there he had an insight into that enterprise that clung to him through the years. In 1892, after his try at railroad work, the young man engaged in business for himself as a milk dealer, buying a herd of cattle from a local cattleman after a short time. Two years later he sold his cattle, though he still Continued in the milk business as a dealer. In the early days he sold on an average of three hundred and fifty quarts of milk daily. Today, he runs two wagons and delivers some four hundred quarts per day. In 1901 he engaged in the ice cream business, and since that time he has devoted the major part of his attention to that phase, of his business, in which he has been successful from the beginning. Straightforward business methods and close attention to his own affairs have been the main elements that have entered into his success, and he is now at the head of a very promising business.
In 1912 Mr. Hodson bought the creamery at Stockton, Wisconsin, from B. L. Ward, and this department of his enterprise buys milk from the farmers thereabouts to the extent of about $1,000 monthly.
In 1905 Mr. Hodson bought his Water street residence, purchasing the place from his father, who in his turn had bought it from William Allen, his half brother, previously mentioned. This place Mr. Hodson has remodeled and improved in many respects so that it is one of the commodious and comfortable residences in the city.
Mr. Hodson has been twice married. He was first married in 1893 to Miss Fannie Zellmar of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. She died on March 28, 1899, leaving one child, Verna Hodson. On December 1, 1905, he married Mabel Scott, a daughter of Ellison G. Scott. Mr. Hodson is a member of the Odd Fellows and of the Modern Woodmen of America. He is not one who has ever taken an active interest in politics, but he has served as an alderman from the Second ward, and he voles the Republican ticket. As a business man, he is one of the up-to-date and progressive order, and one who has made his own way, unaided and untaught, saw as he learned from that most reliable teacher, experience. ["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Herman T. Lange.
As a representative business man Mr. Lange has taken an active part in various enterprises in Eau Claire. As president and treasurer of the H. T. Lange Company, wholesale grocery and fruits, Mr. Lange has a practical achievement, which is both the flower and fruit of a long career as a business man, and in a number of other ways Mr. Lange 's name is identified with the business history of this state where he has been a resident for more than thirty years.

Herman T. Lange was born at Portage, Wisconsin, April 9, 1858, a son of Lewis T. and Louisa B. Lange, both parents, born in Germany, are now living, the father having been born in 1826 and the mother in 1836. The father in Germany had learned the cabinet-makers' trade under the direction of his father, who was a skilled workman in that line, and when a young man sought a new field for his energies in America. He embarked upon a sailing vessel, and spent seven weeks upon the ocean, finally landing in New York City. In the course of the voyage the food supplies had run short and the passengers subsisted upon a scant allowance for a number of days. From the Atlantic coast he came on west and located at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he had a brother, and some time later moved to Chicago, from there to Watertown, Wisconsin. all the time working at his trade as a journey man, and finally settled in Portage where he was employed by a firm which manufactured fanning mills and thrashing machines. Besides his training in a trade he had a natural mechanical talent, and this faculty proved very useful in his successful career. While connected with the Portage firm he invented a machine for separating the grain from the chaff, this being one of the earliest workable inventions for the threshing of grain. Subsequently he was connected with a furniture manufacturing concern until its' plant was burned to the ground. In that fire he lost all his tools and that was a serious setback. The company moved their plant to LaCrosse, but Mr. Lange remained in Portage. This was a period of Wisconsin history when the Indians were still hostile and causing considerable trouble to the early settlers in that section of the state. Subsequently he made his home at Kilboum City, where he was engaged independently in the manufacture of furniture. He then moved to Dunn county where he operated a farm for seven years and then moved to Eau Claire, where he is still living, aged eighty-four years and where he is a respected resident. During his early life he was a Whig in politics, and now for many campaigns has voted for Republican candidates. He was married during his residence in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and he and his wife became the parents of seven children, six sons and one daughter. The daughter is now deceased and the sons are all living and named as follows : George A., Herman T., Charles G., Lewis T., Gustav J. and Fred A.

Mr. H. T. Lange attained most of his education in the schools of Kilbourn City, Wisconsin. He left school and books at the age of sixteen in order to turn his attention to practical work of life, and began learning the bakery trade at Portage. After two years of training and experience he went to Minneapolis where he began work at his trade. His work as manager of a bakery on Fourth avenue north, continued for eight j'ears, and at the end of that time, with George Johnson, he engaged in business for himself under the firm name of Johnson & Lange. This was in the fall of 1882 and the location of the partners was in Eau Claire, the city with which Mr. Lange has ever since been identified. In a little while a confectionery stock was added to the business, and by their enterprise and push they increased their business until they had three stores in the city. In 1892 Mr. G. J. Lange, a brother of Herman T., bought out Mr. Johnson, and the business was then conducted under the firm name of H. T. Lange & Brother, up to 1895, at which time the latter bought out his brother's interest in the business.

Mr. Lange in 1895 built a fine brick building at the corner of Gibson and River streets and disposing of his retail store he engaged in the wholesale grocery and fruit business by himself. In 1903 the business was incorporated under the name of H. T. Lange Company, Wholesale Grocers and Fruits, Mr. Lange being president and treasurer of the company. He is also director of the Lange Canning Company, a local enterprise which was incorporated in 1901 ; is a director in the Union National Bank, director of the Union Savings Bank, and is president of the Y. M. C. A. in Eau Claire. He has represented the Sixth Ward as alderman for three terms, and is one of the citizens whose support can be depended upon for the promotion and betterment of all local welfare. Mr. Lange is a member of the Methodist church, and is affiliated with the Eau Claire Lodge No. 112, A. F. & A. M. and the Eau Claire Chapter No. 36, K. A. M. In politics he is a Republican.

On November 23, 1886, he married Minnie L. Weidenbaeher. Mrs. Lange was born in Kilbourn City, and is the mother of three children, namely: Laura, Gladys and Vernon.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

George A. Packard.
Business man, banker and postmaster of Bayfield, George A. Packard has been identified with the community of Bayfield for the past twenty years, and has lived in the state all his life. His long experience in public affairs and business has won him the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens and all his personal advancement has been the result of honest and solid worth.
George A. Packard was born at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, March 8, 1855, the oldest of seven children, whose parents were William H. and Elizabeth Packard, the former native of the state of Massachusetts, and the latter of Vermont. William G. Packard is one of the pioneers of Wisconsin. His youth was spent in Massachusetts, and when he started out for himself the west afforded him the field of opportunity. On arriving in Wisconsin, he located in Stevens Point, in Portage county, and there started to work at his trade of millwright, a vocation which he had learned in Massachusetts. He helped to build some of the mills in that vicinity and was naturally drawn from mechanical work into the one leading industry of Wisconsin, that of lumbering. As an expert in the driving of logs, and river man, William H. Packard for a number of years had few superiors, if any, along the Wisconsin River. That was one of the most dangerous occupations connected with lumbering, as all who are familiar with the industry know, and one of the frequent accidents which befell the river men caused him the loss of a leg in 1858. This misfortune instead of making him lose his ambition, put new courage into his endeavors, though it changed the course of his career. In the same year he was elected county treasurer of Port age county, and gave an excellent administration of that office. In the meantime his attention was turned to the study of law, and from the time of his admission to the bar his achievements were of a progressive order. In 1864 he was elected district attorney of Portage county, holding that office several terms. His home was in Stevens Point, and the later years of his life -were spent in Bayfield county. In 1892 he located in Washburn, where he practiced law and was one of the leading citizens until his death at the age of sixty-one years. His widow is still living, and six of their children are also alive.
George A. Packard was educated in his native town of Stevens Point, but his schooling continued only until he was fourteen years of age. His first regular position, obtained about that time, was in the office of the county register of deeds at Stevens Point. His early business experience also comprised real estate and insurance in the same city, but at the end of two years he entered the employ of R. A. Cook & Company, which owned and operated the pioneer iron works at Stevens Point, was one of the most successful industrial concerns in that section, and in a short time Mr. Packard bought a half interest in the business. Selling out in 1887 he took a position as bookkeeper in the Sawyer & Company Bank at Hayward. His interest in public affairs brought him the confidence of the people, and at the end of one year as bookkeeper with the bank, the citizens of Sawyer county elected him county treasurer. His term of office began in 1888, and was varied by attention to other occupations, including two years of service as deputy sheriff and as proprietor of a livery business. For five years Mr. Packard conducted one of the first-class livery establishments in Sawyer county, and part of that time also had a store there. In 1892, Mr. Packard opened a hardware store at Bayfield, and combined it later with a drug store, all his mercantile enterprises proving very profitable. In 1897, his business interests were sold, and in July of the following year President McKinley signed his first commission as postmaster of Bayfield. His incumbency of that office has continued to the present time, and in fifteen years he has administered a constantly growing office, both the rural free delivery and the parcel post having been inaugurated during his term. In 1904 Mr. Packard assisted in the organization of the First National Bank of Bayfield, becoming its vice president, an office which he still holds.
In politics Mr. Packard is an active Republican, and fraternally his association are with Bayfield Lodge No. 215, A. F. & A. M. On April 4, 1881, he married J. Fitch. ["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Alois A. Roth.
Superior has become one of the most thriving and enterprising industrial and commercial centers of the State of Wisconsin, and its prestige in the business world is due to such men as Alois A. Roth, vice-president and treasurer of the firm of Roth Brothers Company. His efforts towards advancing the material interests of the city are so widely recognized that they can be considered as no secondary part of his career of signal usefulness. He belongs to that class of representative Americans who, while gaining individual success, also promote the public prosperity, and he stands pre-eminent among those who have conferred honor and dignity upon the city of his home no less by his well conducted business interests than by his upright life and commendable career. Mr. Roth was born at Rio, Columbia county, Wisconsin, August 31, 1860, and is a son of Alois and Frances (Schliessman) Roth.

Alois Roth was born in Kanden, Austria, in 1830, and emigrated to the United States in young manhood, first locating in Portage, Wisconsin, where he established himself in a small merchandise business. Later he made removal to Winona, Minnesota, where he continued to follow the same line, but in later years returned to Wisconsin, settled at New Lisbon, and there passed the remainder of his life, dying in 1872, when but forty-two years of age. His widow, who is a native of Hessen Darmstadt, still survives him, as do two of their five children: Alois A. ; and Theo. J., who is his brother's business partner. The father was a Democrat in his political views, but never aspired to public office, his time being too occupied in the establishment of a business and a home. He was a worthy citizen, whose character combined those traits for which his countrymen are famous,—industry, honesty, thrift and fidelity to trust, and he was highly esteemed by all with whom he came into contact.

Alois A. Roth received his education in the schools of New Lisbon, Wisconsin, and early began a business training in mercantile lines, which he adopted in youth as his life work. In 1885, with his brother, he engaged in the general merchandise business at Wessington Springs, South Dakota, and this venture proving profitable, they later established another store at Alpena, South Dakota. In 1890, desiring a wider field for their greatly increased business, they disposed of the South Dakota stores and came to Superior, where they have since continued. The firm of Roth Brothers Company is the largest business of its kind in Superior, and its department store excels any one store to be found in Superior, commanding a trade that extends all over the Northwest. Progressive methods, unique ideas, strict attention to every detail of the business, and, above all, strict fidelity to every obligation, have been the means by which this great industry has been built up. Four great floors, 130 x 125 feet in dimension, house a line of goods that can be excelled nowhere in the state, and the needs of the trade are carefully looked after by the members of the firm, whose long experience has enabled them to develop from small beginnings an enterprise that is a credit to their sagacity and ability and to the city in which it is located. The greater part of Mr. Roth's time and attention have been given to this business, but he has also found leisure to devote to other enterprises, and at this time he is president of the Superior Motor and Machine Works. He is independent in politics, and takes but little interest in public matters except in the way that they affect his community and its people. Progressive in all things, he is ever ready to support measures tending to the advancement and welfare of Superior, and in this way he has become known as one of his section's public-spirited men. His fraternal connection is with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

In 1886, Mr. Roth was married first to Miss Anna Butter who died in 1892, having been the mother of two children : Alois T. and Anna. In October, 1895, he married Miss Clara Hettinger, who was born in Portage, Wisconsin, and two children have also been born to this union : John H. and Harold Carl.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

John Van Hecke.
One of the prominent attorneys of Merrill, Wisconsin, is the Hon. John Van Hecke, who has been practicing law in Merrill for thirty years. Judge Van Hecke has not only made a reputation as a tine lawyer but he is also a successful business man, being interested in several prominent business enterprises in jMerrill. He is of that type of lawyer who attains success by constant study, close attention to his cases, and a thorough knowledge of the law, not depending on crooked methods or political pull to win his cases for him, in consequence of which he has the esteem and respect of all the citizens of this city and county and is considered a strong trial lawyer.

John Van Hecke was born on a farm near Stevens Point, Portage county, Wisconsin, on the 28th of April, 1857, a son of Charles L. and Barbara (Veulstecke) Van Hecke. Both of his parents were born in Belgium, near Antwerp. Here they grew up and were married. It was in 1856 that they came to America and to Portage county, Wisconsin. Here Mr. Van Hecke bought a farm which he improved and made profitable and here they lived until 1886. At this time Mr. Van Hecke retired and moved to Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1909. His widow still makes her home in Stevens Point, and she celebrated her eighty-sixth birthday on the 25th of June, 1913.

John Van Hecke was reared on his father's farm and lived the healthy, normal life of the farmer's son, attending the country school and helping his father with the work of the farm. After completing the courses offered in the country schools the boy taught country schools and saved the money with which to enter the State Normal School at Mankato, Minnesota, from which he was graduated in time. He then began to teach school in Marathon county. After several years of teaching Mr. Van Hecke entered the law offices of Raymond and Hazeltine at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and read law with them until he was admitted to the bar in 1883. He remained in the offices of the above firm for a year after his admission to the bar and then he came to Merrill, and has been in active practice here ever since, his offices now being in the Lincoln County Bank Building. Judge Van Hecke enjoys a large practice, and between his professional and his business interests he has little spare time. He is the attorney for the A. H. Stange Company, the H. W. Wright Lumber Company, the Lincoln County Bank, the C. M. & St. P. Railway Company and "Soo" Railway Company. Judge Van Hecke 's business interests include the vice-presidency of the H. W. Wright Lumber Company and he is also a member of the board of directors of the Lincoln County Bank. Judge Van Hecke has served on the School Board and Board of Aldermen in Merrill and has also served several terms as city attorney. He has served as county judge of Lincoln county and for two terms was district attorney.

Judge Van Hecke is a communicant of the Roman Catholic church. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, being district deputy of that body. He is also a member of the Catholic Order of Foresters and of the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin.

In 1884 Judge Van Hecke was married to Miss Mary McGuire, a daughter of John McGuire, of Merrill. Three children have been born to Judge Van Hecke and wife, namely : Max, who is reading law in his father's office; Stanley, who is attending medical college in St. Louis, Missouri; and Kathleen.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

Nelson Albert Week
In a community where the main activities and the industry that has helped to make it the great industrial center that it is has been the lumber business in which Nelson Albert Week takes a leading place and part. The John Week Lumber Company of which Mr. Week is president, was organized in 1885, by the father of the subject, John Week, concerning whom extended mention is made in a later paragraph. The business then established has grown apace with the passing years and is today the leading manufacturing enterprise of its kind in Portage county. In addition to his connection with this highly important concern, Mr. Week is identified with numerous other enterprises, of both industrial and financial nature, and he is held in universal esteem in the community, where he has the confidence and good will of the entire populace.
Nelson Albert Week is the son of John and Gunild Lucas) Week. He grew up on the home farm in Marathon county, where the family moved soon after his birth, and there he attended the district schools. He spent one year at Ripon College, and a year at Lawrence University at Appleton, Wisconsin. He was still quite young when he began working in the lumber woods first as a cruiser, his duties being to look over a given timber tract and bring back an estimate of the various kinds of standing timber thereon. When he was eighteen, years old he became "tailsman" on the raft plying on the river, and made three trips,—twice to Quincy, and once to St. Louis, Missouri, the well known "Big" Oliver Halvorsen being pilot on the raft. Those were days of real education for Mr. Week, and in those early years he gained an insight into the practical phases of lumbering that have made it possible for him to stand at the head of this great enterprise. Every branch of the business his wise father saw that he familiarized himself with, for the elder man saw coming the day when he might no longer be able to steer the craft of the business, and when he would want a strong and able helper to lean upon. When he was twenty years old, Mr. Week ran the engine at the mill on Big Eau Pleine river. About 1880 he went to Iowa and there ran a lumber yard, and coming back in 1881 was married on March 29th of that year, to Miss Ida Youmans, a daughter of Jotham and Helen (Hill) Youmans. Mr. and Mrs. Youmans it should be stated were pioneers of Portage county. Following the marriage of Mr. Week and Ida Youmans, the young couple returned to Iowa where he was engaged in operating the lumber yard, but after a short time he sold out and joined the family, who had then moved to Stevens Point, there becoming identified in business with his father in the mill at that place. In 1884 the present company was formed, as has already been stated, Nelson A. Week being made president of the company, John A. Week, vice president, and A. R. Week secretary and treasurer. In recent years, a son of Nelson A. Week, having completed his university training, succeeded his uncle, John A. Week, as vice president, that gentleman having retired from the firm to identify himself with outside interests.
Besides being president of the John Week Lumber Company, a task sufficiently big to occupy the whole time of the average man. Mr. Week is a director in the Citizens' National Bank of Stevens Point. He is a stock holder in the Coye Furniture Company, one of the leading manufacturing enterprises of its kind in the state. And besides controlling valuable real estate interests, he is interested in a large ranch in Texas, of which his son is manager.
To Mr. and Mrs. Week were born the following children : John Elmer, born in 1882 in Iowa, attended the public schools up to the age of thirteen years, when he entered the Chicago Manual Training School, and was graduated therefrom. He then entered Armour Institute, from which he was graduated in 1902, with the degree of Bachelor of Science and Electrical Engineering. He was bent upon a military career, and being promised an appointment by Hon. John C. Spooner, he took his examination for entrance to West Point, his standing being an excellent one, with a mark of 95%, in his physical tests. In the fall of 1902, while waiting for his appointment to West Point, young Week in company with four class mates, went to Mexico on a trip, and while there he was offered a nattering position as engineer on an important engineering job being put through. He accepted and was placed in charge of a large body of men in the building of an electric line to the silver mines of Guanajuata. In the same year while in pursuit of his duties, the young soldier of fortune was stabbed by two greasers, whom he had previously discharged from the works, and his death resulted soon after. The body of the unfortunate young man was brought to his home, and he was buried at Stevens Point. Thus was ended in most untimely manner what gave promise of being an exceptionally brilliant career.
Harold J. Weeks, the second child, married Josephine Allen in October, 1910, and they have one child,—Jeanne. They reside on the ranch in Texas, already mentioned, having gone west in the hope of recruiting his health. As a boy he attended the public and normal schools, following the latter course with a year of manual training, and he later entered St. John's Military School near Milwaukee. In the autumn of 1903 he entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison. At the close of his college life in 1907, he became identified with the John Week Lumber Company, and was elected vice president of that concern. In his college days he was prominent as a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, as was also his older brother, John Elmer.
Nelson A. Week is what might be called a home man, for he is decidedly domestic in his instincts, but he has done a great deal of traveling in his time, usually, however, accompanied by his wife. Together they traveled in Cuba prior to the Spanish-American war. They have toured Europe, and in 1910 paid a visit to Honolulu and the Sandwich Islands, spending a most delightful season in that unique and attractive country.
Mr. Week is a Mason, of the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Stevens Point, but has no other fraternal affiliations.
["Wisconsin Its Story And Biography 1848-1913" By Ellis Baker Usher, Volume 5 & 6, 1914 - Transcribed and Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Friends for Free Genealogy]

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