Winnebago County, Wisconsin Biographies

Winnebago County, Wisconsin
Biographies

Gabriel Bouck
Bouck, Gabriel, a Representative from Wisconsin; born in Fulton, Schoharie county, N. Y., December 16, 1828; was graduated from Union college in 1847; studied law; settled in Wisconsin in 1848; attorney general of the state in 1858 and 1859; member of the state assembly in 1860 and 1874, served the last year as speaker; delegate to the Democratic national conventions of 1868 and 1872; entered the Union Army as captain in 1861, and was promoted to colonel in 1862; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses (March 4,1877-March 3, 1881); resumed law practice in Oshkosh, Wis.; died in Oshkosh, Wis., February 21, 1904.
[Source: "A Biographical congressional directory From the 1st ( 1774) to the 62nd (1911) Congress"; By United States Congress; Publ. 1918; Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack]

Lucius A. Clinton
CLINTON, Lucius A., manager The Diamond Match Co.; born, Menasha, Wis., Aug. 25, 1850; son of Orson P. and Caroline C. (Finch) Clinton; educated in district school at Menasha. Began active career in logging camps of Wisconsin; then became lumber manufacturer and engaged in lumbering; entered manufacture of matches at Chicago, 1895, and later associated in business with Diamond Match Co., of which he has been manager since Jan., 1898. Member Detroit Board of Commerce. Republican as to politics. Congregationalist in church affiliation. Recreations: Trout fishing, grouse and duck shooting. Office: Cor. 8th and Jefferson Av., W. Residence: Charlevoix Apts. [Source: "The Book of Detroiters". Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis, 1908 - Submitted by Christine Walters]

Edward James Conroy
Source: Progressive men of Minnesota. Published by The Minneapolis Journal (1897) submitted by Diana Heser Morse

The chairman of the board of county commissioners of Hennepin County, Minnesota, is Edward James Conroy, who is a resident of Minneapolis. Mr. Conroy was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, November 15, 1864, the son of Thomas and Margaret Conroy, both of whom were born in Dublin, Ireland. They emigrated to this country in 1854, settling at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Thomas Conroy was a carpenter by trade, and he followed this occupation in Oshkosh, becoming fairly prosperous. Edward received but a common school education in the public schools of Oshkosh, which was supplemented by a three months' course in a commercial college. From the time he was able to work young Conroy tried to be of assistance to his family. He earned his first dollar as a lather, at which he became an expert, and which line of work he followed during his school vacations. When only seventeen years of age he left home and removed to Minnesota, locating in Minneapolis. Here he learned the plasterer's trade, at which trade he worked for the next two years, acquiring a general knowledge of the business of a master mason and contractor. In 1883 he commenced in business on his own account as a contractor of mason work, which he has followed ever since. From the first he was successful in obtaining remunerative contracts, and many down town blocks and homes in Minneapolis attest to his skill and enterprise. Mr. Conroy has always affiliated with the Democratic party, and has been an active participator in the affairs of his city for the past ten years. In 1888 the Democrats of the Second ward nominated him for the office of alderman, but he was defeated. In 1891 he was chosen as assistant sergeant-at-arms in the upper house of the state legislature. The following year he was a nominee on the Democratic ticket for county commissioner in the First District of Hennepin County, and elected for a term of four years. In his short period of service as a county commissioner, Mr. Conroy has earned for himself an enviable reputation as a man of sterling honesty, integrity and uprightness in handling public business. He was so well liked by his associates on the board that, notwithstanding a Republican majority, he was elected to the chairmanship, which he maintained during the four years of his term with dignity and impartiality. He was re-elected to the same office in 1896 by a large majority. In the campaign of 1894 he was chairman of the Democratic county committee, also of the Democratic campaign committee. Mr. Conroy has also served on the board of tax levy for four years, being one of the most efficient members of that board. Aside from the duties of his public office, Mr. Conroy has been identified to a considerable extent with the real estate and building interests of Minneapolis, and his success thus far in life gives promise of still better results in the future.

Edward M. Crane.
Genial personality and efficient official service have given to the present postmaster of the city of Oshkosh, the judicial center of Winnebago county, a secure place in the confidence and esteem of the community, and he is one of the representative citizens of this section of the state,—a man of sterling character and of utmost civic loyalty.

Edward M. Crane, who has served continuously as postmaster of Oshkosh, since 1902, claims the old Pine Tree state as the place of his nativity but he has been a resident of Oslikosh since his childhood days and is a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of this city. He was born at Lincoln, Penobscot county, Maine, on the 5th of March, 1861, and is a son of Allen B. and Ann (Miller) Crane, both of whom were likewise born in the old Pine Tree state, where the respective families were founded in an early day, both being of English lineage and of colonial stock in America. Allen B. Crane continued to be identified with business activities in his native state until the year 1866, when he came with his family to Wisconsin and established his home in Oshkosh, which was then a mere village. In his native state he had followed lumbering operations and upon coming to Wisconsin he identified himself with the same line of industry. He has been a prominent factor in connection with this line of enterprise and his operations were of broad extent.

The present postmaster of Oshkosh was about five years of age at the time of the family removal to the city which is now his home, and here he gained his educational discipline in the public schools. For a number of years he was associated with the firm of Parsons, Neville & Company, extensive carriage manufacturers, this concern having removed its plant from Chicago to Oshkosh in 1879. He resigned his position with this firm to assume that of general manager of the Thompson Carriage Company, representing another of the important industrial enterprises of Oshkosh, and of this responsible position he continued in tenure until 1902, when he was appointed postmaster of Oshkosh, under the administration of President Roosevelt. He was re-appointed in 1907, for a second term of four years, and his present term will expire in 1915. He has given a most satisfactory administration, vigorous and systematic. and has effected many improvements in the local and postal service. At a meeting of Wisconsin postmasters held in the city of Milwaukee in September, 1907, Mr. Crane was unanimously elected president of the Wisconsin Association of Postmasters. His administration was fruitful in the unifying of postal interests in the state.

Mr. Crane has ever been found ready to lend his influence and tangible co-operation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of his home city, and he is known as one of the most loyal and progressive citizens of Oshkosh. Here he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Royal League, the Oshkosh Yacht Club. Mr. and Mrs. Crane are Episcopalians.

On the 28th of June, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Crane to Miss Lilian Felker, daughter of Charles W. Felker, of Oshkosh, who is popular in the leading social activities of her home city. Mr. and Mrs. Crane have one son, Charles Allen, who was born on the 3rd of July, 1896.
[Source: "WISCONSIN, ITS STORY AND BIOGRAPHY 1848-1913", pub. 1914, by Ellis Baker Usher - Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer]

Edgar & Emma Eldridge (Divorce)
Wisconsin Weekly Advocate (4 June 1903) Submitted by Diana Heser Morse

SECOND DIVORCE GRANTED
Miss Emma Briggs of Neenah Secures Her Freedom Once More from Edgar G. Eldridge

Neenah, Wis., June 8 --- Mrs. Edgar G. Eldridge was granted a divorce in the circuit court at Oshkosh and allowed to resume her maiden name. Edgar G. Eldridge was the defendant and did not contest the divorce, which was readily granted after the introduction of testimony by the attorneys for the plaintiff.

On March 12 Miss Emma Briggs and Mr. Eldridge were remarried after being granted a divorce in 1898. Shortly after their marriage an action for breach of promise to marry was begun against Mrs. Eldridge by Charles J. Schumann, a well-known Neenah young man, but it was discontinued. Mr. Schumann courted Miss Briggs between her marriages. Two weeks after Miss Briggs' second marriage to Eldridge she began an action against Mr. Schumann for the recovery of several horses which she alleged were purchased with her money. This case was also dropped at the time the breach of promise case was discontinued.

Miss Briggs, as she is now to be known, testified that she was married on March 12, 1903, to Edgar Eldridge, but that since that time he had done no work. She was left $6000 by her father and Mr. Eldridge, she said, relied upon her to support him. when she refused he would use low, profane, obscene and abusive language toward her, and upon one occasion when she did not give him money he struck her, she said.

About a year ago Mrs. Eldridge, then Emma Briggs by reason of a divorce, reported to the police that she had been robbed on a North-Western train while en route from Neenah to Oshkosh of $3000 in securities. After the officers had been kept busy for a day or two her purse was found in the Neenah station and returned to her.

Joseph L. Fieweger.
The Bank of Menasha, Winnebago comity, is one of the staunch and ably controlled financial institutions of this section of the state and its president is a native son of Menasha, where he commands unqualified popular esteem both as a reliable and influential business man and as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. This progressive executive of the Bank of Menasha is he whose name introduces this paragraph, and it is pleasing to accord to him due recognition in this publication.

Mr. Fieweger was born in Menasha on the 18th of May, 1857, and is a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of Winnebago county, the name having been closely and worthily identified with the history of Menasha for more than half a century, within which has been compassed the upbuilding of this fine industrial and residence city. Mr. Fieweger is a son of Julius and Caroline (Mahn) Fieweger, both of whom were born in Prussia and the marriage of whom was solemnized in Wisconsin. Julius Fieweger was reared and educated in his native land and there learned the trade of wagon maker and also that of millwright. In 1853 he immigrated to America and established his home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was employed at his trades until 1855, when he removed to Menasha, which was then a small village, and engaged in the manufacturing of wagons in an independent way. He built up eventually a large and prosperous business along this industrial line and continued in the same during the residue of his active career. He was a man of strong character and impregnable integrity, was loyal to all civic duties, was an able and steadfast business man and -was a citizen to whom was ever accorded the fullest measure of popular confidence and respect. He passed from the stage of life's mortal endeavors in 1905, at a venerable age, his cherished and devoted wife having been summoned to eternal rest in 1895. Both were zealous members of the Catholic church and in polities the father gave his allegiance to the Republican party. Of the seven children four sons and one daughter are now living. Julius Fieweger was not only one of the representative business men of Menasha for many years but was also most loyal in the supporting of those measures and agencies tending to advance the material and social prosperity of his home city. He served as a member of the board of aldermen of Menasha and was here identified with several fraternal organizations, in which he manifested a lively interest.

Joseph L. Fieweger attended the Menasha public schools until he had attained to the age of thirteen years and a year later he entered upon a practical apprenticeship to the trade of wagon making, in the establishment of his father. After devoting eighteen months to this line of work he obtained, in 1873, the position of messenger boy in the National Bank of Menasha, his compensation being set at one hundred and twenty-five dollars for the first year. Through close attention and faithful service he won advancement and gained a most thorough knowledge of the executive details of the banking business. He has held in the bank every office from that of messenger to president, and this advancement has been won through his own ability and inviolable integrity. The National Bank of Menasha was organized by Henry Hewitt, Sr., Henry Hewitt, Jr., and Robert Shiells, and it was conducted as a national bank until 1879, when it was incorporated as a private bank. As such it was thereafter operated until 1891, when Henry Hewitt, Sr., and others purchased of Henry Hewitt, Jr., the controlling stock of the institution, which was in that year re-organized and incorporated as a state bank, the title being changed from the Hewitt & Sons Company to the Bank of Menasha. Under the reorganization Henry Hewitt, Sr., became president ; William P. Hewitt, vice-president ; and Joseph L. Fieweger, cashier. The history of the bank has been one of consecutive growth and marked by impregnable solidity as well as careful and conservative management. Operations are based on a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, surplus thirty-five thousand dollars and undivided profits fifty thousand dollars, and Mr. Fieweger has been president of the institution since 1907, prior to which he had served as cashier. His splendid energies have also been directed along other lines of productive enterprise, and he is at the present time president of the Hewitt Land & Mining Company, and treasurer and secretary of the Lakeside Park Company, two important corporations that are aiding in the development of the greater and larger Menasha. Mr. Fieweger has been a most enthusiastic advocate of progressive policies and high civic ideals in his home city and has given liberal support to enterprises and measures projected for the general good of the community. He has served as a valued member of the city board of aldermen and as chairman of the Menasha board of education. He is a staunch Republican in his political proclivities and both he and his wife are communicants and liberal supporters of the Catholic church. He is the owner of valuable real estate in Menasha, including his attractive and modern home, which is a center of gracious hospitality.

On the 9th of November, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fieweger to Miss Theresa Stolz, who was born at Milwaukee and whose parents were early settlers in Wisconsin. Of the three children of this union two are living, Adele, married to T. E. McGillan and living at Chicago, and Gertrude, at the parental home.

Charles W. Folds.
One of the native sons of Wisconsin who has become distinctly a man of affairs and a broad-gauged, liberal and public-spirited citizen of Chicago, the great western metropolis, is Mr. Folds, who is there resident partner of the stanch and representative firm of Hathaway, Smith, Folds & Company, bankers and brokers of commercial paper. The firm is one of the important concerns in the field of enterprise and its Chicago offices are located at 137 South La-Salle street. In according in this volume merited recognition to 'Mr. Folds, as a representative of Wisconsin, it is not necessary to enter into details concerning his large business activities in Chicago, but a brief record of his career will prove of enduring interest to the people of the state in which he was born and reared and in which he laid the substantial foundation for his large and definite success as a business man.

Charles Weston Folds was born in the city of Oshkosh, judicial center of Winnebago county, Wisconsin, and the date of his nativity was August 23, 1870. He is a son of William B. and Mary D. (Jenkins) Folds, the former of whom was born in Dublin, Ireland, on the 6th of September, 1832, and the latter of whom was born at Bangor, Maine, in 1844, their marriage having been solemnized at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Of the four children. Charlotte Elizabeth is the eldest and is living; George R. and Charles W. were twins, the former living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; William Lawrence, the youngest, died July 31, 1900.

William B. Folds was afforded excellent educational advantages in his native city, where he learned the printer's trade in the office of his father, who was a representative publisher in the city of Dublin and who had the distinction of introducing the first printing press of the modern type in Ireland. William B. Folds was about sixteen years of age when he severed the ties that bound him to home and native land and set forth to seek his fortunes in America. He emigrated from Ireland in 1847, made the voyage on a sailing vessel, and landed in the port of New York city. He made his way westward via Erie Canal and the lakes to Racine, Wisconsin, and settled finally on the shores of beautiful Lake Geneva, in Walworth county, Wisconsin. After there devoting his attention to agricultural pursuits for a brief internal he again identified himself with urban business activities. He assumed the position of reporter and compositor in the office of the Milwaukee Sentinel, and he proved an effective and popular representative of American journalism. Later he entered the employ of McKey Brothers, of Janesville, this state, where the firm had its headquarters, besides which it conducted also dry-goods stores in Madison and Oshkosh. Mr. Folds proved an alert and capable factor in connection with this mercantile enterprise and became a member of the firm. Finally he purchased the business in Oshkosh and retired from partnership. He continued as one of the honored and representative merchants of Oshkosh until 1874, and in 1876 he removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he conducted a successful enterprise as a retail dealer in carpets for a number of years, within which he became the owner of a large and well equipped store. In 1892 he retired from active business, and since that time he has indulged himself in extensive travel, both abroad and in the Ignited States. He is a man of strong and noble character, has achieved independence and definite prosperity through his own ability and efforts, and commands a secure place in the confidence and esteem of all who know him. He is a stanch Republican and both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church. They now maintain their home in the city of Evanston, one of the most beautiful suburbs of Chicago.

Captain James Jenkins, maternal grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, was born at Falmouth, Barnstable county, Massachusetts, and was a scion of one of the sterling colonial families of the old Bay state, representative of the name having been valiant soldiers of the Continental line in the war of the Revolution. In his youth he followed a seafaring life and rose to the position of captain in command of a vessel. Later he was engaged in the lumber business at Bangor, Maine, and in the early '50s he came to Wisconsin and established his residence in Oshkosh. He engaged with the Bradley interests of Milwaukee and became one of the prominent and influential representatives of the lumber industry in this state. He was one of the first mayors of Oshkosh and was a prominent and honored resident of that city at the time of his death, in 1886.

Charles W. Folds was about six years of age at the time of the family removal from Oshkosh to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in the latter city he continued to attend the public schools until he had completed the curriculum of the high school. Thereafter he entered the University of Minnesota, and in 1889, at the age of nineteen years, he obtained a clerical position in the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis. Through energy and effective service he won promotion through the various departments and finally became cashier of the institution. His entire active career has been one of close and successful identification with financial affairs of broad scope, and his executive and administrative powers have been matured through his practical experience. In 1899 Mr. Folds removed to the city of Chicago, where he associated himself with the firm of Charles Hathaway & Company, and here he found excellent opportunities for advancement and success in his chosen field of endeavor. In 1905 he became a member of the firm, under the title of Hathaway, Smith, Folds & Company, and he has gained secure prestige as one of the discriminating, reliable and representative financiers of Chicago.

Mr. Folds is essentially progressive and liberal as a citizen, is a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church in which he is a member of the vestry of St. James parish, Chicago. He is chairman of the finance committee of the board of trustees of the endowment fund of the Episcopal diocese of Chicago, and is otherwise influential in religious, educational and charitable work. He is a member of the Church Club of Chicago, of which he is a director, and of which he was chosen president in 1911 ; is chairman of Finance Committee United Charities of Chicago; is a member of the board of trustees of the Chicago Home for Boys ; is a member of the commission on young men and boys of foreign parentage, an adjunct of the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association, in which he is a member of the advisory board of managers, besides being trustee of the Immigrants ' Protective League of Chicago, and vice-chairman of the executive committee of the Chicago chapter of the Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Folds is a director of the First National Bank of Lake Forest, Illinois; a director and member of finance committee of the Emerson-Brantingham Company, of Rockford, Illinois ; a director and member of the executive committee of the Calumet Insurance Company, of Chicago ; a member of the finance committee of the Chicago Association of Commerce ; is secretary of the North Central Improvement Association of Chicago ; and a member of the executive board of the Religious Education Association in his home city. Mr. Folds is treasurer of the Wisconsin Society of Chicago, where he is likewise identified with the Minnesota Society, the Bankers' Club, the Chicago Club, the Mid-Day Club, the University Club, and the Union League Club. He holds membership also in the Union League Club of New York City and in the Chamber of Commerce of the national metropolis. He is a member of the Glenview Golf Club, at Golf, Illinois ; the Onwentsia Golf Club, of Lake Forest, that state; the Wausaukee Club, of Athelstane, Wisconsin ; the Saganois Club (shooting) of Browning, Illinois ; the Minneapolis Club, at Minneapolis, Minnesota ; and is vice president of the Chicago chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. The foregoing statements indicate the multiplicity of the public, civic, business and social demands placed upon Mr. Folds and also denote his prominence and popularity in connection with diversified interests.

On the 24th of May, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Folds to Miss Florence Symonds, daughter of the late Henry R. Symonds, who was long a prominent and honored factor in connection with banking operations in Chicago, where he was vice-president of the First National Bank at the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Folds have four children Weston Symonds, Elizabeth, Florence and George.
[Source: "WISCONSIN, ITS STORY AND BIOGRAPHY 1848-1913", pub. 1914, by Ellis Baker Usher - Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer]
Herbert Garvin
Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota (Publ. 1907) Transcribed by Nancy Overlander

Garvin Herbert C, Winona. Miller. Born April 23, 1862 in Fond du Lac Wis, son of Benjamin and A A (Kimball) Garvin. Married in 1895 to Louise Dana. Educated in public schools Fond du Lac and Oshkosh Wis. First engaged as messenger for C & N W R R 1878; gen agt for same until 1898; sec and tres Bay State Milling Co 1898 to date. Dir First Nat Bank Winona; First Nat Bank Little Falls. Member Union League Club Chicago; Minneapolis Club and Arlington Club Winona.

Ezra Gates
Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota (Publ. 1907) Transcribed by Nancy Overlander

Gates Ezra W, Garden City. Miller. Born Jan 9, 1851 in Waukau Wis, son of John and Elizabeth (Talbot) Gates. Married May 17, 1877 to Lulu Stimpson. Educated in common schools at Garden City and Bailey’s Commercial College at Dubuque Ia. Engaged in milling business under firm name of Friend & Gates Garden City 1882 to date. Member Minn House of Representatives 1905 and 1907; served in Home Guard during Indian outbreak 1862-65.

Herbert Gilkey
Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota (Publ. 1907) Transcribed by Nancy Overlander

Gilkey Herbert S, Minneapolis. Res 1916 Kenwood pkway, office 628 Security Bk bldg. Lumberman. Born July 4, 1868 in Oconto Wis, son of H W and Mary (Overton) Gilkey. Married Oct 15, 1891 to Leonora Runkel. Educated in the common schools and Oshkosh Normal School. Taught school 1882-85; engaged in cedar and lumber business and formed partnership as Pendleton & Gilkey 1892 at Janesville Wis; moved to Minneapolis 1903 and has continued to date. Member B P O E and K P.

Matthew Henry Gregory
Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota (Publ. 1907) Transcribed by Richard Ramos

GREGORY Matthew Henry, St. Paul. Res 1071 E Minnehaha st, office Mendota and Whitall sts. Manufacturer. Born Oct. 10, 1862 in Nottingham England, son of Matthew and Ann (Neale) Gregory. Married Nov 10, 1887 to Lillian Erdman. Educated in the public schools of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Northport, Wis 1867-76. Moved to St Paul 1883; was employed in the box mnfg business until 1898 when the Minn Box Co was established by the firm of Gregory, Ward & Letford; Ward withdrawing 1899 the business was continued by Gregory & Letford until 1903. From that date until 1905 the business was conducted alone; then being reorganized under the same name with Mr. Gregory as mngr and treas. Member of Dayton’s Bluff Commercial Club.

Michael C. Harlow
Little Sketches of Big Folks in Minnesota (Publ. 1907) Transcribed by Richard Ramos

HARLOW Michael C, Thief River Falls. Real estate and loans. Born Sept 17, 1853 in Sheboygan county Wis, son of James and Mary (Fox) Harlow. Married in Aug 1893 to Rose Meisenberg. Graduated from normal school Oshkosh Wis. Engaged in teaching and farming in Spink county S D 1880-93; in hotel business Armstrong Ia until 1900; moved to Thief River Falls and engaged in real estate business to date. Member and pres of city council 2 years.

Charles E. Kremer.
A native son of Wisconsin and a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of this commonwealth, Mr. Kremer is well entitled to recognition in this publication, though he is not a resident of the state but is found numbered among the representative members of the bar of Chicago, the great metropolis of the west.

Charles Eduard Kremer was born in the city of Oshkosh, Winnebago county, Wisconsin, on the 23nd of December, 1850, at which time the attractive metropolis and judicial center of the county, his native city, was a mere village and the center of prosperous lumbering operations. He is a son of Michael J. and Agatha (Leins) Kremer. the former of whom was born on the Hof Fensterseifen, near the city of Maien, West Prussia, in 1823, and the latter of whom was born in the village of Eutingen, in the famous Black Forest district of the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1827. The father, who is still living, celebrated his ninetieth birthday anniversary in the present year, 1913, his cherished and devoted wife having passed to the life eternal in 1900. Their marriage was solemnized in Milwaukee and of their three children the older of the two living is he whose name initiates this review; Julia E. is the wife of Charles W. Karst and they reside at Lakeland, Florida.

Michael J Kremer was reared to adult age in his native land, where he received the advantages of the common schools and where also he learned the trade of millwright. In 1848, when about twenty-four years of age, he severed the ties that bound him to home and fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunes in America. Wisconsin was at that time receiving a large and worthy influx of pioneers from Germany, and Mr. Kremer has ever considered himself fortunate that he made this state his destination and the stage of his energetic and productive activities. He first located in Milwaukee, where he continued to be employed at his trade until his marriage, soon after which he removed to Oshkosh, in 1849, to number himself among the early settlers of that now opulent and attractive city. After there working at his trade for a short time he engaged in the manufacturing business. Later he became superintendent of a foundry and machine shop, and he continued to be actively and effectively identified with business and industrial interests at Oshkosh and Milwaukee until 1874, since which time he has lived elsewhere. In the climacteric period culminating in the Civil war he was a staunch abolitionist and for years he was a zealous supporter of the cause of the Republican party. Ever since the founding of the Socialist party he has been one of its staunchest adherents and has many times been a candidate for office under it.

To the public schools of Oshkosh Charles E. Kremer is indebted for his early educational discipline, and that he made good use of his opportunities is shown by the fact that at the age of eighteen years he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors. After teaching successfully in the district schools for a year he turned his attention to mercantile pursuits and then to the study of law, under the effective preceptorship of Henry H. and George C. Markham, who were then leading members of the Milwaukee bar. He applied himself with characteristic energy and appreciation and thus made substantial progress in his absorption and assimilation of the science of jurisprudence. He was admitted to the bar in Milwaukee in October, 1874, and in the following April he was also admitted to practice before the supreme court of Wisconsin. In 1875 he was admitted to the bar of Illinois. Since 1883 he has been admitted to practice in the supreme court of the United States.

For nearly forty years Mr. Kremer has been engaged in the active practice of his profession in the city of Chicago, where he established his residence in May, 1875, and where he has confined his attention largely to maritime law, in which he has become a recognized authority. He has long controlled a large and important practice and retains a clientage of representative order. He has high standing at the bar of the great western metropolis and is one of the loyal and progressive citizens of his adopted city. He is also a ship owner and lectures on maritime law in the law department of the University of Chicago, as does he also in the Chicago Kent College of Law and the John Marshall Law School. In 1908 he received from the Chicago Kent College of Law the honorary degree of LL. B. In his home city he is a valued and honored factor in the educational work of his profession and he commands strong vantage-ground in the confidence and esteem of his confreres at the bar, as well as of all others with whom he has come in contact in the varied relations of a significantly active and useful career. He is actively identified with the Illinois Bar Association and the Cook County Bar Association, as well as the Chicago Law Club. He was the founder of the Chicago Yacht Club and has ever taken a lively interest in maritime sports and shipping. He is a stalwart and effective advocate of law reforms. He is a member of no church or religious society. In his home city he is a member of the Union League Club, and his continued interest in and loyalty to his native state are shown by his close affiliation with the Wisconsin Society of Chicago, in which he is chairman of the committee on membership.

On the 2nd of May, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kremer to Miss Margaret A. Collins, who was born at Oswego, New York, and the one child of this union is a daughter, Jean, who is now married to Scott W. Prime, a native of Wisconsin, who has returned to his native state and is now living in Milwaukee.
[Source: "WISCONSIN, ITS STORY AND BIOGRAPHY 1848-1913", pub. 1914, by Ellis Baker Usher - Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer]

John Mulva.
While claiming no gifts of prophetic order, the present able and popular mayor of the city of Oshkosh, Winnebago county, gives denial, through the high esteem in which he is held in his native place, to all possibility of any figurative application of the scriptural statement that ''a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." He has given a most progressive and effective administration as chief executive of the municipal government of Oshkosh, where his service in this capacity has not been limited to that of his present term. He has been one of the most influential factors in connection with city affairs during more than a decade and no citizen holds more secure place in popular confidence and esteem.

John Mulva was born in Oshkosh on the 22nd of February, 1860, and is a son of Patrick and Ann (Martin) Mulva, both of whom were born in Ireland. They were numbered among the sterling pioneers of Wisconsin, as is evident when it is stated that they came to this state in 1850. They first located in Milwaukee, where they remained until 1854, when they removed to Oshkosh, where they passed the residue of their lives, the father having here been actively engaged as a laboring man for many years and having been a citizen whose sterling character and genial and kindly personality won to him unqualified popular esteem. He died in the year 1905, and his cherished wife was summoned to the life eternal on the 20th of April, 1912, both having been devout communicants of the Catholic church. Of the seven children two sons and four daughters are living, the present mayor of Oshkosh having been the second in order of birth.

Public schools of Oshkosh afforded Mayor Mulva his early educational advantages and he was graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1878. In the following year he was graduated in the Oshkosh Business College, after which he was for two years in the employ of the Joseph P. Gould Manufacturing Company, one of the leading industrial concerns of his native city at that time. For ten years thereafter he was a valued attaché of the Conley Lumber Company, with which he was promoted to the responsible office of superintendent, in 1884. Upon resigning this office he went to Davenport, Iowa, where he remained one year, in the employ of the George Otte Company, manufacturers of sash, doors and blinds. He then returned to Oshkosh, where he entered the employ of S. Radford & Brothers, in the same line of enterprise. He became superintendent for this concern and continued the able and valued incumbent of this office until the spring of 1912, since which time his entire time and attention have been virtually engrossed by his executive duties in the mayoralty and his private business interests.

As a young man Mr. Mulva began to take a deep interest in public affairs of a local order and his loyalty to his native city has ever been of the most insistent type. He has been an influential factor in the ranks of the Democratic party and has given effective service in behalf of its cause, the while he has served as delegate to its conventions in his home county for a score of years, as well as to its state conventions in Wisconsin. He served continuously as president of the city council from 1895 to 1900, in which latter year the council elected him mayor, to fill out the unexpired term of James H. Merrill, who died while in office. In the regular city election of 1901 Mr. Mulva rolled up a most gratifying majority at the polls and became mayor of the city through popular support. In 1903 he was re-elected and his service continued until 1908. Public appreciation of his prior administrations led to his being again called to the mayoralty in the election of 1912, and his record in this office has been one most creditable to himself and of great value to the city, which now has the commission form of government. Mr. Mulva served continuously as representative of the third, ninth, sixth and thirteenth wards in the city council from 1888 to 1900, and initiated his work as a member of this municipal body when he was twenty-eight years of age. Both in an official capacity and through private influence and enterprise, Mr. Mulva has put forth the most zealous and effective efforts in promoting the civic and material progress and prosperity of his home city and his public spirit has been on a parity with his loyalty and high civic ideals. He is a stockholder and director of the South Side Exchange Bank, of which he served as vice-president from 1898 to 1900, and he has been specially active and successful in the handling of and improving of local real estate. He was one of the principal figures in effecting the organization of the Oshkosh Loan & Investment Company, of which he was secretary, and this concern, during its eighteen years of active operations, exercised most important and benignant functions in enabling those in moderate financial circumstances to obtain homes of their own. Mr. Mulva has in an individual way improved much local realty and has made a specialty of extending financial loans in connection with home building, his operations in this line having been effective in furthering the material and social welfare of Oshkosh and in assisting those whose resources were such that otherwise they would not have been able to become home-owners, -—a condition greatly to be desired in every community. He is also a stockholder in the Oshkosh Trust Company.

The mayor of Oshkosh clings to the religious faith in which he was reared and is a communicant of the Catholic church, the great mother organization of all Christendom. He is affiliated with the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Catholic Knights of America, the Knights of Columbus, the Independent Order of Foresters and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

The attractive home of Mayor Mulva is known for its generous hospitality and ideal relations, and has a gracious chatelaine in the person of Mrs. Mulva. On the 22nd of November, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mulva to Miss Mary Fitzsimmons, daughter of M. J. Fitzsimmons, a representative citizen of Fond du Lac, this state.
[Source: "WISCONSIN, ITS STORY AND BIOGRAPHY 1848-1913", pub. 1914, by Ellis Baker Usher - Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer]

John C. Thompson.
As one of the representative members of the bar of his native state and as one of the prominent and influential citizens of Oshkosh, Winnebago county, Mr. Thompson is well entitled to specific recognition in this publication. He was born at Princeton, Green Lake county, Wisconsin, on the 28th of April, 1872, and is a son of John C. and Catherine ]\I. (Cameron) Thompson, who came to Wisconsin in 1849. He whose name initiates this review is indebted to the public schools of Wisconsin for his earlier educational discipline, which was supplemented by four years at Ripon College, at Ripon, this state, and he later attended the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. In preparation for the work of his chosen profession, Mr. Thompson was matriculated in the Wisconsin college of Law, at Madison, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bar of his native state and in July of the same year he opened an office in Oshkosh, where he has since been engaged in the active practice of his profession and where he has gained high standing as a versatile advocate and well fortified counselor, with the result that he has long retained a representative clientage and has been identified with much of the important litigation before the courts of this section of the state.

Mr. Thompson is a man of distinctive intellectual attainments and high literary appreciation, and his study and research have been carried into a wide sphere. He is a life member of the Wisconsin State Historical Association, one of the most vital and admirable organizations of the kind in the Union, and he is also identified with the American Bar Association, and the National Geographical Society. He has been one of the most ardent and effective of workers in behalf of the cause of the Republican party, and served for six years as chairman of the Republican county committee of Winnebago county, an office in which he showed much skill and discrimination in maneuvering the political forces at his command. He served four years as chairman of the county board of supervisors, and during this time was an insistent advocate of progressive policies, with due conservatism in the administration of county affairs. He was also for a time a member of the Oshkosh board of education. Mr. Thompson is a stockholder in a number of banking institutions in his home state, besides which he is a member of the well known firm of Thompson, Pinkerton & Jackson, attorneys at law of Oshkosh. In the year 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Ir. Thompson to Miss Mabel A. Gile, a former resident of Neenah, Wisconsin, and they have three children, namely: John C, Jr., Robert R. and Barbar S. Thompson.
[Source: "WISCONSIN, ITS STORY AND BIOGRAPHY 1848-1913", pub. 1914, by Ellis Baker Usher - Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer]

Harvey Griswold Turner.
Conspicuous among those sterling citizens who have left a clearly defined and benignant impress upon the history of Wisconsin was Judge Harvey Griswold Turner, who was long numbered among the representative members of the bar of the state and whose influence was potent in the furtherance of civic and material progress. He was a member of one of the honored pioneer families of Wisconsin and a scion of lines long and prominently identified with the annals of American history. He attained to the span of three score years and ten, allotted by the psalmist, and passed the closing days of his long and useful life in apartments in the Plankinton House, Milwaukee, where his death occurred on the 22nd of November, 1893. In a publication of the province assigned to the one at hand there is all of consistency in according a tribute to the memory of this honored citizen, together with a brief review of his personal career and family history.

Harvey Griswold Turner was born at East Oswego, Oswego county, New York, on the 7th of June, 1822, and was a son of Joseph and Mary (Griswold) Turner. Representatives of the Turner family were numbered among the earliest settlers of Connecticut, and to members of the family is attributed effective aid in bringing about the enactment of the famous and historic "Blue laws" which still remain on the statute books of that New England commonwealth. Representatives of the name went from Connecticut into Vermont, and from the latter state went forth the founders of the New York branch of the family.

Joseph Turner, father to him to whom this memoir is dedicated, was born in Vermont, and became one of the pioneers of the Empire state. He served as a valiant soldier in the war of 1812, and in 1839 he came west and numbered himself among the pioneers of the Territory of Wisconsin. He established his home at Prairieville, the nucleus of the present city of Waukesha, and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of the pioneer community. Wisconsin was admitted to statehood in 1848 and he had the distinction of serving as a member of the first state senate, besides which he was a member of the first board of supervisors of Waukesha county and its first chairman, in the organization of which he took a prominent part. He was closely concerned with the early development and progress of that county, but finally removed to Winnebago county, where he became one of the founders of the present attractive little city of Menasha, where he the remainder of his life. His name and also that of his noble wife merit enduring place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Wisconsin.

Harvey G. Turner gained his early educational advantages in the schools of his native city, and he was about seventeen years of age at the time of the family removal to Wisconsin, where he met with his full quota of experiences in connection with conditions and associations of the pioneer epoch. He remained at Prairieville (now Waukesha) until 1842, when he removed to Milwaukee and entered the law- office of the firm of Finches & Lynde, under whose able preceptorship he continued his study of the law until he proved himself eligible for admission to the bar, a desideratum to which he attained in 1844. In initiating the active practice of his profession he established his home in Grafton. Washington county, a town that is now in Ozaukee county, and soon afterward he was elected to the office of district attorney of the county. When but twenty-four years of age he was a delegate to the convention that framed the constitution under which Wisconsin was admitted to statehood, and in 1851-2 he was a prominent and valued member of the state senate. In 1853 there came further evidence of popular confidence and esteem in his election to the office of Judge of the County Court of Ozaukee county, an incumbency which he retained for four years.

In 1861 Judge Turner abandoned the practice of his profession and removed with his family to New York city, where he was engaged in business pursuits for about two years. With the exception of this interim he gave his attention continuously to the practice of law for nearly half a century, and he held a position of prominence at the bars, in tune, of Washington, Ozaukee, Manitowoc and Milwaukee counties.

Judge Turner was emphatically and insistently a Democrat in politics and he was long numbered among the leaders in the councils of his party in Wisconsin. In 1854 he was a candidate for congress, as representative of the Third Congressional district, his opponent was Hon. John B. Macy, of Fond du Lac. He met with defeat, owing to normal political exigencies. It may incidentally be noted that at that time the Third congressional district comprised that portion of Wisconsin lying between the Milwaukee county line and Lake Superior. For nine years prior to his death. Judge Turner resided with his only son in Milwaukee. He was a man of distinctive professional and intellectual ability, strong in his convictions and yet ever kindly and tolerant in his judgment of others. He did well his part in the upbuilding of a great commonwealth and his memory will long be cherished in that state which was the scene of his activities for many long years. Judge Turner was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity in this state and was one of the valued and honored members of the Old Settlers' Club of Milwaukee.

As a young man Judge Turner was united in marriage to Miss Emeline Griswold Teall, who was born in Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York, on the 4th of May, 1826, and who was called to the "land of the leal" in 1887. William J. Turner, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work, is the only child of Judge Turner and his wife. An adopted daughter, Mrs. H. C. Richards, resides at ]Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Mrs. Turner was a daughter of Colonel William and Rhoda (Conant) Teall, and both Judge and Mrs. Turner were in line of descent from Governor Griswold, one of the early governors of Connecticut. Colonel William Teall was a son of Joseph Teall, who was a member of the body guard of General Washington in the War of the Revolution, and who received in recognition of his military services, a large grant of land in Herkimer county, New York. Much of this land is still in the possession of his descendants and upon the same is situated the attractive village of Fairfield, where Mrs. Turner was born.

Colonel William Teall came with his family to the west about the year 1827 and at Michigan City, Indiana, he established the largest mercantile business west of Buffalo, New York. He also owned and operated the first line of stages between Buffalo and Michigan City, which latter place was one of considerable importance at the time, Chicago being little more than a straggling village. In these early pioneer days Colonel Teall acquired large tracts of land in Wisconsin, but a few years later he met with reverses which compelled him to sacrifice a large part of his holdings. He early established his home at Port Washington, this state, and there he continued to reside until his death, which took place in 1875. He was a man of fine ability and sterling character, and he did much to further the civic and industrial development of Wisconsin.
[Source: "WISCONSIN, ITS STORY AND BIOGRAPHY 1848-1913", pub. 1914, by Ellis Baker Usher - Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer]