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Sawyer County
Biographies
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BIEGLER, William Henry
William Henry Biegler was born in Hayward, Wisconsin, June 5, 1885. After finishing his education in the schools of Hayward, he assisted in his father’s meat market until the death of his father 16 years ago. He then became the owner of the market and conducted its operation until 1914, a period of about two years; when he sold it and accepted a position as salesman with the McClure and Rholf Company, farm implement dealers in the same city. A year and one-half later he changed to a position with the Cornell Wood Products Company of Cornell as a pulp-wood scaler and inspector, which he held five years. Next, he returned to his trade as a meat cutter with the acceptance of a position with the Purity Meat Market in Stevens Point. When the Little Store in that city opened a meat department, he became identified with it as the manager of the new department, and remained in charge of it until he bought his present business from John Kirschner in August 1925.
Mr. Biegler was married to Miss Phoebe Hazen of Eau Claire, in that city by the Reverend Leonard, a Congregational minister, June 21, 1911.
Fraternally, he is identified with the Hayward Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons. Politically, he is Independent. His hobby is fishing. [Source: Marshfield News Herald (Marshfield, Wood County, Wis.) 2 Jan. 1929; transcribed by Marla Zwakman
McCORMICK, Robert Laird, financier, was born on a farm near Lock Haven, Clinton, Pa., Oct. 29, 1847, son of Alexander and Jane Hayes (Laird) McCormick, of Scotch-Irish descent. His great-grandfather, John McCormick, emigrated to Chester county, Pa., in 1750, and served in the revolutionary army. His son John was a soldier in ihe war of 1812, and was married to Agnes, daughter of Col. Hugh White of the revolutionary army. Robert L. McCormick was educated chiefly at Saunders Institute, Philadelphia, and Tuscarora Academy, Mull in, Pa., but left school before graduation. While he was a school boy his father served in the civil war with the 9th Minnesota regiment, the family having removed to the Northwest. At the age of eighteen years he entered the employ of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad as a clerk at Lewisburg, Pa. In 1868 he settled at Winona, Minn., taking charge of the Laird and Norton Lumber Co. office. His health became impaired by the confinement of office work, and in 1874 he removed to Waseca, Minn., and conducted a retail lumber yard until 1881, at the same time serving as auditor for Laird and Norton, whose lumber yards were scattered through Minnesota and Wisconsin, and establishing new lumber yards, in some of which he retained an interest. Mr. William II. Laird of this company was Mr. McCormick's uncle He was also interested in the stone quarries of W. B. Craig & Co. at Mankato, Minn. In 1881 he with others incorporated the North Wisconsin Lumber Co., whose gigantic saw-mill at Hayward, Wis., had a daily capacity of nearly 500,000 feet of lumber, and became his secretary, treasurer and manager. Its president is Frederick Weyerhaeuser, and its vice-president M. G. Norton. Still adding to his responsibilities, Mr. McCormick in connection with Frederick Weyerhaeuser established the Sawyer County Bank, of which he became president. In 1893 he became president of the Northern Boom Co., at Braiuerd, Minn. ; president of the Mississippi & Rum River Boom Co.; vice-president of the St. Paul Boom Co., St. Paul, Minn.; vice-president of the Flambeau Laud Co., Chippewa, Wis.; secretary and treasurer of the Northern Grain Co. of Chicago,Ill., with warehouses in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas; treasurer of the New Richmond Mill Co. (flour), New Richmond, Wis. In 1899 the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. was organized, and Mr. McCormick became its secretary and western manager. This company acquired all the timber lands belonging to the Northern Pacific Railway Co., west of the Cascade mountains, including 1,300,000 acres in Washington, and is buying the balance of the railroad's grants as fast as surveyed. The mill at Everett, Wash., has a capacity of 800,000 feet daily. Meanwhile Mr. McCormick had taken an active part in civic and political affairs. In 1876 he was elected president of the town council of Waseca, and in 1881 as state senator secured the passage of the bill for the incorporation of the city. He was mayor of Waseca, serving until 1880, when he was elected to the state senate and served for two sessions. For five years he was president of the school board of Hayward, the Hayward Library Association, was president of the Ashland (Wis.) Academy, of the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and the Washington State Historical Society. His deep interest in the American Indian led him to agitate for and finally secure through congress the establishment at Hayward of schools for the Chippewa tribe. In 1904 Mr. McCormick removed to Tacoma, Wash., and in 1905 resigned his offices in tlie eastern corporation - already mentioned, to devote himself to the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co.'s interests in Washington and the Lumberman's National Bank of Tacoma, of which he is president. He is a Republican in politics, and was a delegate from Wisconsin to the national convention of Philadelphia in 1900 and to the national convention of Chicago in 1908, and is now national committee-man for the state of Washington. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Mystic Shriner and a Knight Templar, serving as grand commander in Minnesota for one term, 1881-82; a member also of the Sons of Veterans, of the Washington Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and of the Chicago chapter of the Society of the War of 1812. He has published a "History of Journalism in Sawyer County, Wisconsin," and with Prof. James G. Adams a "History of the Schools of Sawyer County," Mr. McCormick writing the chapters devoted to the Indian schools. He is an attendant of the Congregational church. He was married at Tiffin, O., Sept. 10, 1870, to Anna E., daughter of Daniel and Minerva (Mills) Goodman, and has two sons, William Laird and Robert Allen McCormick. [Sources: 1914 - Wisconsin; The National Encyclopaedia of American Biography 1900. Transcribed by Janice Rice.]
George A. Packard
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.
[Sources: 1914 - Wisconsin; The National Encyclopaedia of American Biography 1900. Transcribed by Janice Rice.]
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