Marathon County, Wisconsin - Chapter 35, 1913 (part 1 of 10)

Tempus Fugit

The ancient politics of Maratiion county had their hghts and shadows, their aspects of tragedy and comedy. It is difficult to detennine why the passage of time adds a glamour to past events, or why it softens and mellows remembrance of ancient feuds and animosities. Looking from the sophisticated Present back to the unsophisticated Past makes the central figures of long ago heroic in some lights, and childlike in others.

Ancient f>olitical battles seem to us like the strifes and contentions of children. We cannot understand the heat and the f er\-or, the hatreds and loves of the earlier time. We remember as a part of history, and only as a part of history, how we fought and contended, and can laugh oxer events that once aroused in us the deepest concern.

You remember how forty years ago, when you were in full exuberance and passion of youth, you spent a whole day hunting the streets for Smith, who had accused you of packing a caucus, your heart filled with deadly hatred of Smith, intending, if you met up with Smith, to eliminate him from the face of the earth.

Or, you remember how half a century ago Tompkins was hunting for you with lethal intent, because he heard that you had reflected upon his ancestry, by making a slanderous statement to the effect that his grandfather had been convicted of stealing sheep, and mutual friends were keeping you apart.

You remember the time, fifty years ago, w^hen Jones defeated you for justice of the peace, or county clerk; the emoluments of which oftices did not exceed one dollar a day, and of how the whole world seemed black and hopeless to you, when the votes were counted, and you found that Tompkins was more popular than you were. Such days were cold and bitter for you : now they seem warm and pleasant, and you can laugh and jest with Smith and Jones and Tompkins, and all the other brutal figures who disturbed your peace and happiness.

And as you review events, you come to know that the things you lost had their compensations, and that if you had been allowed to hold office and become a municipal hired man, you would never have efficiently exercised whatever little talent God gave to you. You find also that age has sweetened and broadened your judginent of men and things, and that you and your early antagonists in politics have been brought together, so that in your age you look on them as good fellows, and can laugh with them over all those bitter and sanguinary youthful descensions. Instead of shaking your fist at Tompkins, as you used to do, when you met him, you shake his hand, for time heals all wounds, and has given both you and Tompkins the wisdom of experience.

There is a charm to every one in the days of long ago. You find you have forgotten the hardships and privations, the sorrows and griefs that once seemed like unsupportable afflictions. The once bitter disappointments have left no bitterness. The political revolt, which you helped to arouse against the candidate of your party, because you thought he was unfit, or because you thought unfair methods had secured his nomination, seems to you now puerile and inconsequential. You have learned, perhaps, that he was the better man, and that many of these political contentions were merely new applications of the fable of the slanderous pot. and the equally slan-- derous kettle, and that the one was as black as the other.

Such are the changes which three score, or three score and ten, bring to a man. Your day of Homeric conflict has gone, and you are content to spend your age in peace and contentment.

Is there a man who has taken part in the political upheavals which disturb the tranquility of the country and of society from time to time, who after reaching the age of sixty years or over, will question the truths expressed in the foregoing essay? Having arrived at this age, and taken some part in the political contentions in this county in former years, the writer of these leaves bears testimony to the truths contained in those lines, even in a larger sense, believing that not only were the personal interests of candidates in the result of the elections over-magnified, but that the so-called "principles" about which there seemed to be so much at stake in the opinion of enthusiastic advocates were, after all, no principles at all, but only questions of policy, which might be tried, adopted and if found to work harm rather than give relief for some real or imaginary evil, could be changed again in the next election or session of the legislative body, without society suffering any great hami. But it is too much to expect that youth in its exuberance can look at things with the cahn reflection of age, and it takes the softening influence of time to convince us how little the differences were, which in political contests blur the vision of men and sometimes break friendships ivhich had stood the test of years.

There were many exciting political contests in Marathon county, more so probably than in most counties in the state, and the truth that factional political ruptures are more fierce and relentless and leave severer heartache than contentions with old opponents, was irrefragably proven in ]\Iarathon countv in tlie contest witii the Greenback party from 1877 to 1880, again in the presidential contest of 1896 and in the recent contest for political supremacy between the factions in the Republican party. It is not the purpose of these leaves, though they bear the proud title of a "History" to write of the factional or personal political quarrels which occurred in the past, as they in no way affected Marathon county as a whole, much less the state, nor to revive old forgotten animosities by recounting them. In the candid opinion of the writer all parties and men who took a leading part were animated by an honest desire to advance the interest of the county and country, and if they differed in their opinion it was only in the means to accomplish the same result. It is the purpose of this book to give impartial credit to men who by reason of character and strong intellectuality or mentality have become more conspicuous than others in public sen-ice in the course of years, and some of their lives are collected in this chapter.

Among tlie pioneers of Marathon county who deserve to be held in grateful remembrance, Hon. Walter D. Mclndoe holds easily first rank. Others like George Stevens and James L. Moore had come a few years earlier, but with no intention to stay; they were lured to the county by the sight of the pine, from which in their estimation, they would gather a fortune, after which they would seek a more congenial climate and country. Their work was only temporary and left no impression and was not intended to lea\e an impression on the future growth of the country.

It was different with Walter D. Mclndoe. He looked to the future and came here with the intention to make Wausau his pennanent home. He was married but a short time when he came to Wausau in 1847, and brought ivith him his young wife and established her in a household and home wliirh

W. D. Mclndoe was bom in Scotland on the 30th day of March, 1819; he received a good common school education, came to the United States when only fifteen years old, engaging as a clerk in a mercantile house in the city of New York, later in Charleston, S. C, and lastly in St. Louis, Mo., where he eventually commenced business on his own account. Hon. John C. Clark mentioned a loan made to James L. Moore of $500 in 1845 as the cause of his first visit to Wausau in 1846 and how he accepted lumber in payment, which was his first venture in the lumber business. But there were others too who had advanced money and took lumber in pay without giving a thought to the possibilities of the new countn,', which only needed the means of communication with the outside world to make it grow and become a manufacturing and agricultural region, making homes for thousands of men. The absence of all reasonable comforts at the time, the hardships unavoidable with pioneer life in the pine forests had no terror for the soul of W. D. Mclndoe, but with reliance in his own strength and making the best use of his intellectual endowments, he undertook the great work of laying the foundation for the future growth and prosperity of the city and county. He had hardly started in the manufacture of lumber in the small way in which it was then carried on, when the question of the adoption of the state constitution agitated the peojile. and he at once threw himself as a leader, life and soul on the side in favor of statehood. The constitution iiaving been adopted and Wisconsin admitted as a state, he offered himself as a candidate for member of assembly for Portage county, knowing that there was work for him cut out in the Legislature, without which this territory would continue to languish and its future growth be retarded an indefinite time.

He was a \\'hig and the majority of voters in Portage county adhered to the Democratic partv: but that was not the worst handicap in the contest. The assembly district included Portage City, Grand Rapids, Plover, then the county seat of Portage county, and Stevens Point, all the numerous mills south of the present territory of Marathon county, with all the influence of local pride and jealousy against him. In this unequal contest, his own splendid personality was his strongest support. Physically he was a man who would attract favorable attention anywhere. Nearly six feet tall, broadshouldered and well-proportioned, with a massive head covered with bushy brown hair and wide forehead, clear and sparkling eyes and kindly face, he was the ver\^ picture of strong rugged health and manhood. He would be easily selected out of a hundred or more, as a leader of men. He was elected and although a Whig in the minority party in he assembly, his general sound views, his practical information as to the needs of the new state, his tact and natural courtesy made him a prominent member. He knew that there was no hope for better prospect or improvements for his home people, so long as they were attached politically to Portage county, and he therefore urged the creation of a new county called Marathon, to the end that the interest of the up-river settlements could be united in one county where no conflicting interest hampered their progress. He was successful, and by this act gave the people of Marathon county the opportunity of working out their own salvation. Having named Wausau as the county seat, he, with his partner, Charles Shuter, planned and platted the village of Wausau, and helped to organize the county and town government. He was then already carrying on a large business and altliough a member of the assembly and business man, he did not think it below his dignity to help out the officers wherever he could with advice, and by accepting the ofifice of deputy town and county clerk at a mere nominal compensation.

He was a fine penman and the minutes of the proceedings of the board kept by him are a model of accuracy and penmanship, ^^'hen the town treasurer in 185 1 had absconded with all the money collected by him for ta.xes (it was not much in those days, several hundred dollars) he was chosen town treasurer, and when later John R. Welsh was elected county treasurer and failed to qualify or resigned, the county board elected him county treasurer at a special meeting on January 3, 1852. He was again elected member of the assembly in 1854, the year the Republican party was first organized in this state. There was a United States senator to be elected, and after a long struggle in caucus, Charles Durkee received the nomination as the candidate of the Republican party. Walter D. ^Iclndoe had made his canvass as a Whig as in the fonner contest, with which party he had associated since attaining his majority, and this choice was decidedly distasteful to him as well as to other members of the same party, because the election of Charles Durkee meant the extinction of the Whig party in the state of Wisconsin. After several days of worry and indecision between his own predilection and what seemed to be a duty to the state, Walter D. ]\IcIndoe finally yielded, and with his friends cast his vote for Charles Durkee, securing his election. From that time on he identified himself firmly with the Republican party, and until his death was an active, influential and consistent member of that party. In 1857 he was a candidate for the nomination for governor.

On the death of Hon. Luther Hanchett, member of Congress, he was elected on the 30th day of December, 1862, to fill the unexpired temi, and re-elected again twice, serving two and one-half terms in the House of Representatives at Washington. During his term he was chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, and a member on the Committee on Indian Affairs. In 1856 he was chosen as an elector for his congressional district, and in i860 he was an elector at large for the state of Wisconsin, which gave its electoral vote to Abraham Lincoln,

While in Congress, great grants of land were given away to contemplated railroads to open up the most western and northern parts of the United States, and Walter D. Mclndoe secured a grant of land for a railroad from Doty's Island, Fond du Lac, and Portage City to Ashland. He did not selfishly mention Wausau as a point to be touched on, for it was apparent to him as to every one else, that Wausau, being nearly on an air line between the starting and the culmination point, could not be missed, to say nothing of Wausau being the most central and one of the largest business places in the Wisconsin valley. This grant lay dormant for some years, during which time the population of Wausau and Marathon county and the business had grown immensely. When the railroad was being built, the Wisconsin Central, W'ith an unbelievable blindness to its own interest, built the road west from Stevens Point in a wholly unsettled and wild country, leaving \\^ausau forty miles east of the road, instead of coming directly to Wausau. If the Central railroad had come to Wausau in 1872 as its own interest demanded, it would have secured the immense lumber freight \\hich afterwards came to the Wisconsin Valley Railroad. In running the railroad west from Stevens Point, instead of following the valley of the river, it runs on the high ridge dividing the waters of the Wisconsin and Chipi>ewa and Black rivers. Walter D. Mclndoe also secured a grant of land to Marathon county to build and open a wagon road from Wausau to Lake View Desert on the state boundary line. The grant of land was for each alternate section on each side of the road, which would have given the county about 200 sections of the best pine lands in the world. Furthermore at his urgency, the state donated some $1,500 to survey and locate the road. The county supervisors frittered away the money in survey and locations, and this magnificent grant was lost to the county through the inability of the county board or rather incapability to make proper use of their powers to get the money for open-

Walter D. Mclndoe was a noble, large-hearted man; he loved his adopted country and devoted his best endeavors to its service. It was his greatest pride to cast his electoral vote for Abraham Lincoln, and to have supported his administration during the trying time of the Civil war to the best of his ability. After his return from Congress, he served as provost-marshal until the close of the war, an embarrassing olifice, often demanding energetic action under perplexing difificulties. During his long absence from home, giving his time to national affairs, his business missed his guiding hand, and on his return his o\vn affairs had become deranged. Uncomplainingly and manfully he set to work to recoup his losses, but the times were not yet propitious and the seed so generously sown by him had not yet time to bear the golden fruit, and he was called away from his field of labor before the harvest was ripe. At his death he left his widow no more than a fairly moderate competency, but the memory of his kind and patriotic acts still lives in the heart of all his contemporaries. He was a patriotic union man proving it not only by words, but acts. He had lost his right hand at the hand edger in the mill which incapacitated him for field service, but he rendered the government other efficient service.

When Leander Swope with Prest. Lord came down from Pine river to enlist and were joined at \\'ausau by John Cooper, Charles Tracey, Alfonse Poor, and Burton Millard, all ready to enlist, he furnished all of them the means of transportation to Berlin by stage, were they enlisted in May, 1 86 1, the first men to leave the pinery for southern battle fields.

His esteemed widow, a daughter of fair Virginia, was among the first white women that came to \\'ausau. a fine type of true, noble, dignified American w^omanhood ; she shared the hardships of her husband and gloried in his successes. Time dealt gently with her, and she died on the 12th day of March, 1901, universally beloved and respected. A nephew, Hon. Walter Alexander, after the death of the widow purchased the homestead from the heirs and legatees, donating it to the city of Wausau, as "Mclndoe Park." It is located in the very center of the city, and gives a fine setting to the public librar)', which stands thereon.

Hon. Alexander Stewart was one of the pioneers \\ho made history in the Wisconsin valley. He began his life like all others, ax in hand, and finally worked his wav into the halls of Congress at Washington, being the only citizen of Marathon county except W. D. Mclndoe to reach that distinction. Alexander Stewart saw central and northern Wisconsin in its infancy; he labored for its growth; he grew with it, physically, mentally, and after many years of hard work, shared in the prosperity of the country. His life furnishes a shining example of the possibilities which a new country offers to the thrifty, intelligent, and persevering young man of good health and character. What Wausau and the whole valley was when he arrived here with his brother John in 1849 ^^^ been told in previous chapters; also how he went to work for Feehely, Fleming and Green in the saw mill which had its water power from a conductor from the mill pond of Clarke and Plumer, the mill standing a little south of and between the Clarke and Plumer mill. Like all men working at that time in the pinery, the two brothers Stewart took their wages in lumber, run it to market, and returning, worked under the same conditions, and with their savings bought more lumber from men who were willing to sell, not having enough of their own to make up a raft, and with a few rafts went down again to the market. After several ventures of that kind they had means enough to commence logging on their own account, continuing every year on a little larger scale and with a little more experience, until in the course of years they had built up quite a lumber trade. The fact that they came from New Brunswick and were familiar with logging and driving of logs, was undoubtedly a strong factor in their favor. It took, however, many years of hard, intelligent and well considered labor coupled with a life of economy, self-denial of rest and comfort, to make that success in life which came to them in the prime of manhood as the reward of their grit and perseverance, and steadfast adherence to their rule of faithfully redeeming every business promise or obligation made. -After fortune began to smile upon the brothers, .Alexander Stewart stayed at Wausau, and his brother John took to fanning in Illinois on a large scale. .Alexander Stewart remained in business at Wausau until the end of his life, through all the changes and vicissitudes which business had to contend with in earlier days : but with his inborn shrewd Scotch business sense, hard times never struck him unprepared. He was frugal and economic in his habits, never branched out beyond his means, never unduly stretched his credit. From personal experience he was familiar with every branch of the lumber industry from estimating the number of feet which would be gotten out of a tree, to the logging, driving, sawing the logs and marketing the lumber. The business was carried on by him and his brother in partnership, even after his brother had made his home on' the Illinois farm, but .Alexander Stewart conducted it personally and managed it, until it had grown to such dimensions as to demand the supervision and management by others in the many branches which had grown out of the original enterprise.

In the flush times after the war, the brothers John and Alexander Stewart laid the foundation for the wealth which became theirs in after years. They had formed a friendship with W. D. Mclndoe and had their logs sawed at his mill for years, and after his death in 1872 they acquired the mill property by purchase and later formed the A. Stewart Lumber Company, with Alexander Stewart as president. For over thirty years this concern was the largest industrial concern in the whole Wisconsin valley, but the business was not confined to that territory alone. It conducted mills in other states, notably Michigan, Arkansas, and California, and had more than thirty lumber yards in the western states. Much of the boasted business enterprise of Wausau is due to the aid directly or indirectly given by Alexander Stewart, some of which would not exist but for his fostering care in times of need. In the last thirty years of his life he was practically connected with every important enterprise in central and northern Wisconsin ; he had had many special partners in various trades and business transactions, and his connection with each and all of them was clean and honorable. He was the largest labor employer in this territory and always fair and just to his employes; even in the days when working men found it hard to get their earnings and had often to resort to the courts because of the scarcity of money, and law suits for wages were common, it was the common talk among laboring men that A. & J. Stewart, or the Stewart Lumber Company were always prompt in their pay. Alexander Stewart interested himself in everj^thing which was for the interest of his home city. He was essentially a man of affairs ; enterprising, calculating, taking a broad view of business life. He was quick to grasp opportunities which others would let pass without taking advantage of, and his business sagacity caused much of the growth and the upbuilding of the city of Wausau.

Alex. Stewart was a man of channing personality; he was a good conversationalist, spoke entertainingly on the topics of the day, and a thoroughly well informed man. He loved to meet his friends and acquaintances in a social way and talk interestingly on the subject which engrossed public attention as well as of the important events of the past; he had a fund of pleasing recollections of early times, of the struggles of the pioneer days and its amusing incidents. When called upon to help in a worthy cause, which was frequently the case, he w-as never known to refuse assistance. As might be inferred from what has been said, he was a man of strict integrity and honor.

He had always taken an interest in the political affairs in his congressional district, and although not crowding himself forward, he was nevertheless a powerful political factor. After his business had been fully organized and in the hands of thoroughly competent persons, mainly Mr. Walter Alexander, secretary and treasurer of the Alexander Stewart Lumber Company, he felt that he could give some of his years to the service of the people, and he became a candidate for political honors which were freely accorded to him by party friends. In 1894 he was nominated for member of Congress by the Republican party and elected by a big majority over his opponent, the sitting member, and twice re-elected, each time with an increased majority, and declined a nomination for the fourth temi.

As a member of Congress he was given a place on the important committee in Indian Affairs, and on manufactures. Prompt in his attendance in the sessions of Congress, he was attentive to the business of his constituents, especially in matters of pensions and better postal facilities. It is not generally known but a fact nevertheless, that much of the credit of obtaining a public federal building in W^ausau is due to him. He had secured the insertion of an appropriation for the building in the public building bill of igoo, which was ready to be passed and become a law', when the administration was desirous of making a show of economy, and the bill was not passed on that ground. But the chairman of that committee, Mr. Mercer of Omaha, was sure of re-election, and he gave his word to Mr. Stewart that the appropriation would be inserted in the next bill, whether Mr. Stewart would be a member or not.

Mr. Brown of Rhinelander, the new member, introduced a new bill which was of course referred to the same committee, of which Mr. Mercer was chairman, again inserted in the general building appropriation bill and passed, including the appropriation for the Wausau building. It is true that Mr. Webster Brown secured the same, but the way for a smooth passage was already paved by Mr. Stewart. W'hile A. Stewart served his second and third terms, he was accompanied to Washington by his family, where he had built a fine mansion for their reception. He spent the last years of his life with his family at the capital city during the winter months and the sessions of Congress, returning with them to Wausau with the milder climate.

About two years before his death he had the misfortune to fall while paying a visit to the Rothschild Paper Mill, in which he was largely interested financially and broke an arm. The injury w?as not serious and the break was healed in a comparatively short time, but for a person of his age, he being then eighty years of age, it did sap his vitality. He was not the same strong man after the accident as before and a decline became visible. Expecting to gain new strength from the mild climate of California, he went there to recuperate, spending the winters of 1909 and 1910 in that state, returning sicker, however, than when he went. Shortly after Christmas of 191 1, feeling somewhat improved, he went with his family to Washington, but his span of life was measured, and he died there on the 24th day of JMay, 19 1 2. His body was taken to Wausau and was buried in the W'ausau cemetery on the 27th day of May following.

His body rests in the family mausoleum which was not wholly completed until after his death. He was born September 12, 1829, at New Brunswick of good old Scotch ancestry; married to Miss Margaret Gray, a native of York, New Brunswick, at Chicago, and their union was blessed with tiiree children : Margarete J. married Lindley, Mary E. and Helen G. who survive him. and who have taken up their residence at \^^ashington. D. C. Mr. Stewart's family life was an exceedingly happy one.

He was one of the few still living pioneers of the Wisconsin Valley, particularly of Marathon county, but their numbers can now be counted on the fingers of one hand. They were a good strong race. Alexander Stewart one of the strongest among them. He will be long and kindly remembered for his many sterling good qualities.

Joseph Dessert

Among the men who opened up Marathon county, reduced the wilderness and brought it to its high state of industry, and one who led in the cultivation of the soil, proving its excellent agricultural character years before it was settled upon by fanners, one who succeeded by sheer force of character, integrity, industry, and perseverance in spite of the drawbacks which discouraged so many others was Joseph Dessert, whose name has been frequently mentioned in connection with the early history of the county.

He was born at St. Joseph, Maskenonge township near Quebec. Canada, on January 8. 1819, and traces his genealogy back to Antoine Deserre. who was married in Quebec in 1674. His father was Pierre Dessert, who was the fifth of that name to reside on the fann where Joseph Dessert was born. His mother was Josephte Beaulieu Dessert. His father died in 1830. and by his last will divided his farm among the two oldest sons with the obligation upon them to pay the expenses for an education of their younger brother Joseph. The other cliildren were otherwise provided for. Joseph continued to attend the Catholic parish school, and later to learn English, he was sent to a school in New Brandon, sixty miles distant from his home, which he attended until the fall of 1838.

Having completed his education, he went to work for his brother, who was engaged in getting out ship timber for the English market. That timber was run down in rafts into the St. Lawrence and delivered at Quebec. On his return from his rafting trip he became a clerk in a store in Maskenonge until the spring of 1840. His steady habits attracted the attention of the American Fur Company, and relying on his sobriety and honesty, that company sent him as their agent to the Lake Superior region in 1840 to carry on the trade with the Indians. When the Chippewa tribe made their treaty with the government in 1843 and the whole tribe was assembled at La Point, he had learned suificiently of that idiom to be able to act as interpreter between the Lidians and the government to their mutual satisfaction. While in the employ of the company he had to visit their several posts on the upper Mississippi besides the Lake Superior posts.

In the spring of 1844 he was informed that one of his aunts was very ill and desired to see him, in consequence of which he returned to Canada to visit her, arriving at her home on July 4th and remaining with her until September. Intending to return to work for the company he went to Detroit expecting to catch the last boat for Lake Superior, but the boat had gone when he arrived there. He then concluded to reach Chequamagon by the Indian trail up the Wisconsin river.

He took a boat to Milwaukee, went from there to Portage, where he met Daniel Whitney, who took him to his mill at Whitney Rapids, and from there he started up north, knowing that there was an Indian trader by the name of Dupre,* located somewhere near where Little Bull was. No doubt he had heard of this route from Indians while he was north, or possibly also from one of his uncles, one of which was stationed at one time at Green Bay and another at the mouth of the Eau Pleine river.

Having heard of a place called "Little Bull," no doubt from Whitney. he started for that place, and struck first the Indian trader who was about ten miles below. He stayed with him for two weeks, probably waiting for his trunk which he had left at Whitney's, then started for Little Bull, arriving there on the 20th day of October, 1844, and then went to work for John L. Moore, who had built his mill two years before. That was his beginning as a lumber man in Marathon county. His tnmk was left at Fort W'inne-

It has been stated how he worked as a jobber logging, and after five years of hard work associated himself with William Pentecost, James Etheridge and Henry Gate, and they rented the mill from John L. Moore and commenced to make lumber on their own account. They operated the little mill together until 1852, then bought it and ran it until 1854. At the time Etheridge sold out to his partners and the business was carried on by Dessert and Gate until 1859 when Dessert became sole owner, he, Dessert, agreeing to pay all the debts of the firm, and Gate for his share taking out a team of horses, with which he carried on a stage line from Stevens Point.*

The next five years were years of anxiety and incessant labor for Joseph Dessert; it required all his business acumen, thrift and economy to conduct the business over the shoals of adversity and depression of that time. The lumber business was carried on under the disadvantages of early times which had driven many of the pioneer lumbermen out of business, which is evidenced by the frequent changes in the ownership of the mills in the period from 1849 to 1870.

From the time that Joseph Dessert rented the mill in 1849 until it shut down for good in 1903. he retained the controlling interest therein, and under his management it became one of the largest, if not the largest, saw mill on the Wisconsin river and remained uninterrupted in operation for over half a century, which fact speaks volumes for the business energy, economy, integrity, and enterprise with which he conducted his ever growing business. Dessert was essentially a man of affairs ; economic in his private expenditures, he was generous with his employes, sympathetic and warm hearted ; his word was at all times as good as his bond, his hand always extended to honest newcomers. "Little Bull Falls" became the thriving little village of IMosinee. and the farming lands west were largely taken up by men who had earned the means to purchase them in his mill, and many after starting their farms returned to work there to earn the ready money with which to carry on their improvements, which fanns are today among the finest in Marathon county.

Indeed there are but few of the early settlers in the present towns of Mosinee, Gassel, Marathon, and Wien who did not at one time or another work in Dessert's mill or camps, and there earned the means for laying the foundation for their competency: by investing in farm lands. With his employes he was deser\'edly popular; he was just and generous to them, * This agreement is fully referred to in Cliapter 10 of this book.

And Represextative Citizens 595

extending a helping hand when help was needed and beneficial. Until his business had grown too large to be supervised by him alone, he was his own boss; he knew every man by his first name. One of the pioneers himself, knowing his own worth and having a just pride in his own personality, he respected the honest toilers and dealt with them on a footing of equality rather than with the insulting condescension of the parvenu, and they looked upon him as their best friend.

Joseph Dessert was one of the first to see the productiveness of the lands in Marathon county and engaged in farming at an early date. When the first settlers came to Marathon City, they found there his farm, cleared over thirty acres and in good cultivation. This farm became one of the largest in the county, having 150 acres cleared and in the best state of cultivation when he sold it for $12,000 about fourteen years ago, and today it would easily bring $25,000.

When fanning was sufficiently advanced to warrant the venture, he built a grist mill in Mosinee, which was swept away by the flood in 1881 and was not rebuilt. He also owned a tannery which was ruined by the same flood. His work in the county board has been referred to in these pages, which was always for the good.

In 1880 he took his nephew, Louis Dessert, in partnership and later with Henry M. Thompson, his son-in-law, organized the Joseph Dessert Lumber Company, which operated until 1903, when the timber owned by the company was all manufactured, and age and other circumstances made retirement from business congenial. Joseph Dessert married Miss Mary E. Sanford at Waukesha in 1862. Two children were bom of that marriage, one dying in infancy, and the other, Stella, became the wife of Henry M. Thompson of Milwaukee. The greatest sorrow came to him when his wife died at Mosinee on the first day of July, 1881, and her loss was greatly mourned by the people of Mosinee, with whom she lived, like her husband, as the best of neighbor and friend, always helpful.

W^hen the flood in 1881 had swept away the grist mill, tannery, office building and ruined the saw mill, he was thoughtful of the men in his employ and gave orders that they should be given work as soon as the flood subsided, in clearing away the debris, all around it, even before he had time to plan for the future. He knew his losses, but at the same time his mind was also concerned about his men, knowing that a long delay or non-employment would work a great loss for them, and so he set them at work just to have them employed.

firm of Dessert & Gate, we cite : A Canadian who had worked for them took a note for the amount due and departed for home. More than twenty years afterwards he came into Mr. Dessert's office with the note and asked for payment. Dessert told him he would pay it, and did so, with interest up to 1870 as that was the time when he paid all those debts and would have paid this note had it been presented. Of course the man was glad to get his money and interest besides, which he never expected

In 1898 he built a good substantial brick building for a library^ building and for eight years paid every item of expenses of the institution including the salary of the librarian, and in 1906 donated it to the village by deed, at the same time donating a thousand dollars for keeping it up. It is an imposing structure, with reading room, store room and librarian room and spacious hall on the second floor as an entertaining hall, rostnun and footlights, opera chairs and drop curtains and fine sceneries. There is a cloak room in connection with the box office and the building itself is 72x36 feet.

Foreseeing the end of the lumbering, Henry M. Thompson removed to ^Milwaukee in 1902, and Joseph Dessert soon followed, remaining with his daughter to the end though visiting annually the scene of his former activities. \\'ithin a short time of his death he was in the possession of his mental faculties, and noticing the gradual decline of his physical powers he met the end with the fortitude which characterized his whole life.

The love of the pioneer was with the land where he had spent his youth, manhood and ripe old age. and it was his desire to be buried in the cemetery at Mosinee. His body was borne to the grave by fonner employes, e\ery one of whom had been in his employ for a quarter of a century.

The pioneers were a noble race, Joseph Dessert the peer of the best of them. His was a long life, full of labor and usefulness, and standing at his bier, it could truthfully be said of him that the world was better for his having lived in it. He died in Milwaukee on the 31st day of December, 1910.

Charles A. Single

Charles A. Single was born in Hartford, England. He came to Milwaukee with his stepfather, Thomas Youles, in 1844; but did not stay there a long time. In 1845 he drifted up to Grand Rapids and next year he was with his brother Benjamin Single on Little Rib for whom he worked until 1850, when he moved to Wausau. Soon after coming here he commenced the building of the Forest House for a tavern, which he enlarged from time to time, until it was the largest hotel in the pinery widely known throughout the same. He was elected the first sheriff of Marathon county in the first election held after the county was organized. After the completion of his hotel he built the Forest Hall, the first large public hall in which the sessions of the circuit court were held from 1856 to 1868 when the first courthouse was finished.

He enlisted in the war between the states and was honorably discharged, after having contracted sickness which disabled him from further service. After his return home he was appointed deputy provost marshal, and in 1870 received the appointment to take the census of this county. He was a man of great intelligence who could wield a trenchant pen as well as a lumberman's ax when occasion demanded, but had also a vein of humor which never ran dry. He had confidence in the future of the country, and he planned to benefit and open up the country. For upwards of twenty years he was a member of the county board and was always found in the foremost ranks in the great work which had to be done to get a railroad to Wausau. But he is best remembered for his kindness and goodness of heart to the unfortunate ones. He was brave and hospitable. The Forest House was a home for all, rich or poor, and many a poor, crippled injured man was nursed and cared for by him and his very estimable wife. One poor young chap who had his leg torn off by a cable in trying to land a raft in Sturgeon eddy, was cared for by C. A. Single for months until he got well, without fee or reward. At the blowing up of the Judson mill at the foot of Marshall hill in the winter of 1867-68, where a number of men were injured, Gerry Judson, the owner, and another man killed outright, he was there with the physicians, bandaging, caring for and taking the wounded to the Forest House for nursing. He had a natural aptitude for setting bones, and common surgical work, and was never known to charge anything for such ser\- ice. The pinery boys looked upon him as their friend, for they knew that their well being while in the hotel was looked after with almost parental care. \\'hen the Forest House burned down in 1878, not only Wausau but the Wisconsin Valley pinery lost a landmark, and when C. A. Single died in 1880 he was more missed from the community than any other man.

All through life he was a consistent Republican, and as such a frequent contributor to the "Central Wisconsin," never wavering in his attachment to that party. He was only fifty-eight years of age at the time of his death, and his wife, who had been his faithful helpmate and true companion, sharing with him his early privations with the bravery of the pioneer wife sur- vived him and died at Wausau on June 24, 1897. C. A. Single no more than most others of the pioneers accnmulated weaUh, and at best left only a fair competency for his wife after his death.

Hon. Bradbury Greenleaf Plumer

Hon. Bradbury Greenleaf Plumer was another of the pioneers who came with the intention to remain and grow up with the country. He came from his native state New Hampshire in 1854, engaged in lumbering after his arrival, and after a few years acquired the Barnes mill and later the Lyman saw mill, which was situated on Plumer's Island between the Plumer and Clarke mill, a little south of both, receiving the water by means of a conductor from the mill pond.

He was of sturdy New Hampshire stock, self-reliant, far-seeing, a man of big brain, self-willed, true as steel, yet tender hearted and sympathetic. He sened with distinction in the Legislature in 1866, but later he was averse to office holding. As a mill owner he gave encouragement to men of small means to embark in the lumber business, and his saw mill did most of the custom sawing for smaller operators, partly because the mill was best adapted for that purpose, and partly because of the accommodations held out to them. L'ntil the railroad came to \^^ausau and lumber had to be rafted and floated down the river, it was unprofitable to raft what was then termed "cull lumber,'' and as a rule, cull lumber was left to the mill owner, who took it instead of charging for the sawing of the same. It is safe to say that the cull lumber in those days was superior to the common stock today, and most of the buildings in Wausau were sheeted with cull lumber, the rotten part being sawed out by the carpenter's hand saw, and the rest was fine lumber. Farmers would come to Plumer's mill and buy a pile of culls in bulk, and take it home for houses and barns. With the German population he was immensely popular. He seemed to understand their native traits better than most Americans, and at their festivals he was alwavs an honored guest.

He looked for^vard to better booming facilities, and with that end in view created the Baetz Island boom, which was the most valuable part of the Wausau boom in after years. He also had confidence in the agricultural productiveness of Marathon county, and encouraged farming bv helping them in many ways, and as one instance of his interest it may be said that he together with August Kickbusch gave the eighty acres of land as a gift to the Agricultural Society for the purpose of holding annual fairs thereon.

And Represextative Citizens 599

This fair ground is the best and finest in the state, and steps should be taken to secure the same for all times to come. That was the intention of the donors, and now that they are dead and the society is incorporated, this important step should not be overlooked. Nobody can foretell what may happen in the far future, and it would be well if steps were taken to make another use of the fair grounds except for such purposes an impossibility, guarding against any contingency which may in the future arise. B. G. Plumer interested himself in stock raising, and to further encourage farmers, imported a registered full blood "Durham," an animal which had taken first prize at state fairs, at great expense to give farmers an opportunity to improve their stock, of which many availed themselves.

In all public enterprises he was always in the front ranks. He was the most popular chief of the ^'oluntary fire department, although or rather because he insisted on discipline and promptness. He was the principal stockholder in the Wausau gas works, Avhich were erected in the year 1884, which shows that he was looking fonvard to the greater Wausau of today. His sudden death on July 22, 1886, cast a gloom over city and county, especially over the older German farmers who regarded him as their best friend. He died unmarried and a biograph}'- of others of his family appears in the sketch of his brother, D. L. Plumer.

Frederick W. Kickbusch

Frederick W. Kichbusch was another of the pioneers and distinguished citizens of Marathon county. Arriving in Wausau in i860, he worked for one year with a relative on a farm in the town of Stettin, then entered into a partnership with his brother, August Kickbusch, which continued until 1869, when he withdrew and started in the lumber and manufacturing business alone.

In the decade from 1850 to i860 some enterprising men drove cattle from here up to the Michigan peninsula in hopes of getting a cash market for them, but they were in most cases doomed to disappointment. F. W. Kickbusch made two trips with cattle up here, but in neither case was the venture profitable. These cattle were fattened by grazing all summer and fall, but the trip could not be made until the swamps were frozen to enable them to pass over. It was late in the fall when the drive could begin, and the beasts suffered for lack of food and rest and could not arrive in good condition. The trip on the men was as hard too. Night after night they had to camp out in the cold, there being only a few stations where beds, shelter and food could be had. Those were trips which only pioneers could undergo, men used to all sorts of hardships. After a few experiences of this kind cattle driving was discontinued.

After lumbering until 1871, running one or two fleets to St. Louis in each year, he, with George Werheim as co-partner, erected the first sash, door and blind factory and a planing mill on the ground where now stands the Northern Milling Company plant. This mill was operated until 1882 when it burned in the winter, unfortunately without any insurance, the loss falling alone on F. W. Kickbusch because he had bought out his partner the previous year. Undaunted by the heavy blow, he immediately started the erection of a flour and feed mill which though it changed ownership, has been in continuous operation since, now the property of the Northern Milling Company. He also built and carried on a general merchandise store which he sold to his son-in-law, Charles E. Wegner, about the year 1893, who has conducted it since with the same success.

F. W. Kickbusch was elected county treasurer in 1872 and twice reelected, and in 1877 was elected member of the assembly, after a spirited contest, he being then the candidate of the Greenback party, his election being due rather to his own personal than to his party strength.

For many years- he served as a member of the county board and as alderman. His firmness and decision forced a much better contract from the Holly Manufacturing Company, which was awarded the contract for the building of the waterworks than would have been otherwise obtained. The council w-as equally divided on the question of building, and although bids were advertised for and received, the letting of the contract was yet hanging fire. There were several propositions before the council, not greatly differing in price, and the bid of the Holly Manufacturing Company seemed to be the best for the city. But it, like all other plans, provided for a simple frame building for the engine house or pumping station. Mr. Kickbusch opposed the letting of the contract unless the company would agree to erect a solid brick building, according to plans and specifications drawn up by Mr. Koehler, a Wausau architect. On the question of building the council was nearly equally divided and the vote of ]\Tr. Kickbusch was needed to let any contract. Of course the erection of such a building as contemplated by this plan would cost several thousand dollars more than the building proposed by the contract of the bidding parties, all of which were wooden ones. The agent of the Holly Manufacturing Company was present and said he could not consent to the change, pleading "want of authority," whereupon Mr. Kickbusch declared that he could not and would not vote to let a contract which would put machinery upon which so much depended in what he contemptuously designated as a woodshed, and remonstrated with the council not to let any contract. A recess was then taken, and after a hurried consultation and reconvening, the representative of the Holly Manufacturing Company with a heavy heart and in violation of instruction (as he said) consented to and made the change, agreeing for the company to build the pumping station as planned by Mr. Koehler, a solid substantial brick building at the original price bid for. Had the frame house been built, it is very probable that it would have been burned down, to the great damage of the entire system, and to the courageous stand taken by F. ^^'. Kickbusch no doubt such a calamity was averted.

In 1893 he was appointed by President Cleveland as consul to Stettin, one of the largest ports in Germany. Shortly before his temi expired he resigned his post and returned to W'ausau where he took up his milling again, greatly enlarging and improving it and conducting the business until the beginning of 1905, when he turned the plant over to his son, Frederick W. Kickbusch, Jr., and to his daughter, Pauline, who operated it for several years under the name of Kickbusch Milling Company, and later sold out to the Northern Milling Company.

On Easter of the same year, accompanied by his wife, he departed for Germany to drink the healing waters of Kissingen and Karlsbad, in hopes of curing some internal afflictions from which he was a sufferer. He returned in the fall somewhat benefited but not radically cured.

F. W. Kickbusch was a member of the voluntary fire company from the very beginning in 1869 and several years its foreman. He was also for three years president of the State Firemen's Association. He was a man of attractive appearance and much intellectuality, a lifelong Democrat, excepting only his short adherence to the Greenback party from 1877 to 1879, and exerted a great influence in the councils of that party, which was always exerted for public good.

He died on the 12th day of December, 1907, and was buried with the honors of an Odd Fellow, to which order he was greatly attached, belonging to both the subordinate, the Grand Lodge, and Grand Encampment.

He came with his parents to ^Milwaukee in 1857 from Pomerania. Germany, where he was born, and to \\'ausau in i860, which has been his home until his death. On October 28, 1864, he was married to Miss Mathilde Braatz. whose father was one of the pioneers in the town of Berlin in this county, and four children, Emma married Wegner, Mathilda married Paff, Fred. W. Kickbusch, Jr., and Pauline married Schwanberg, were born to them to bless their union. His widow and children survive him.

The 1 6th Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin consists of the counties of Marathon, Lincoln, Oneida and Vilas, with a population of 100,000 in roimd numbers and vast property rights. The Circuit Court in the state of Wisconsin is the only court of unlimited jurisdiction in all cases affecting personal and property rights, and is therefore as important if not more so than the Supreme Court, which is chiefly an appellate court. It is apparent, therefore, that the office of circuit judge is of the greatest responsibility as well as of the highest honor. The far greater part of all litigation ends after a full and fair trial in the Circuit Court, and only a limited number of cases are taken to the Supreme Court on appeal.

Much of litigation is determined by the circuit judge by hearing the case or preliminary motions at chambers, which means at his office in the court house in the place where he resides, which in the case of Judge A. H. Reid is the city of Wausau, which practice brings many litigants and their attorneys from outside of this county to the city of Wausau. The highly important labor of Judge A. H. Reid has been mentioned in Chapter 23, entitled "Bench and Bar," and the following is a short biographical sketch supplementing what has been said under that head :

Hon. Alexander H. Reid, circuit judge of the i6th Judicial District of Wisconsin, was born March 31, 1864, in Dodge county. Wis., and is a son of J. D. and Janet (Gourlie) Reid. The parents of Judge Reid were born near Glasgow, Scotland, were reared and married there and came to the United States in 1848. For a .short time they resided in New York and then went to Nashville. Tenn., where the father, a stone cutter by trade, had charge of the stone work in the construction of the Capitol there. Thence he removed to Joliet, 111., where he owned and operated stone quarries. In the fifties he went to the newly opened gold mining regions in California, and at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war he was contracting on railroad building in Iowa. He purchased a fann some time afterwards in Dodge county, \\'is., which he operated during the rest of his active life and died there in 1907, at the age of eighty-six years; his wife passed away in 1905 aged eighty-three. They had ten children born to

Alexander H. Reid was reared on the home farm in Dodge county and had good educational advantages. In 1888 he was graduated from the academic department of the University of Wisconsin, and in 1890 from the law department, in the same year being admitted to practice. Prior to this he had spent some time in the educational field as a teacher, alternating teaching and studying with farm work. He entered upon the practice of his profession at Merrill, in Lincoln county, and became a member of the law firm of Curtis, Curtis & Reid, for eighteen years practicing as a member of the Lincoln county bar. Li the summer of 1908 he was appointed to the bench, and in the spring of 1909 was elected to his present office. Judge Reid has long been a member of the county, state and American bar association. In politics he is a Republican. He has sen'ed on the library board and also on the board of education, and while living in Lincoln county was president of both bodies for a number of years. When called to the bench he left a substantial practice for higher honors and in the same year moved to Wausau.

In 1891 Judge Reid was married to Miss Addie Lindley, a daughter of J. S. Lindley, of Dane county, and they have one daughter, Jeanette, who was a student in Downer College, Milwaukee. Judge Reid is a member of the Universalist church. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks and the Modem Woodmen of America, and socially is identified with the Wausau City and Wausau Country clubs.

Hon. Willis C. Silverthorn

Hon. Willis C. Silverthorn has been frequently referred to in these pages as one who has acted an important part in his life in Marathon county and in this state. He came to Wausau in 1864 a young man and opened a lawyer's office. His ability was soon recognized, and he was elected district attorney in the same year and twice reelected. From this time on he was a strong and growing figure in the councils of the Democratic party of the state. He was member of the Assembly in 1868 and 1874, and was nominated and elected in the fall of 1874 for senator of the Twenty-first Senatorial District, and was the first Democrat to overcome the big Republican majority, this district being composed of the counties of Waupaca, Shawano and Marathon. His successful opposition to the issuing of $250,000 bonds bearing 10 per cent interest to the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company has been related and his manful stand ahnost solitary and alone on this issue in his home city, and how his vindication came in the course of time, and his connection with the law firm of Silverthorn & Hurley.

Several times he was called upon to lead the forlorn hopes of his party in congressional district and state, as when he was nominated for member of Congress in 1880 for the Eighth Congressional District, which was overwhelmingly Republican, and which at that time included nearly onethird of the whole state in territory. In 1884 he was nominated for attorney general and made a canvass of the whole state. In the memorable campaign of 1896 he led the Bryan forces as the Democratic candidate for governor, speaking in nearly every hamlet, and while defeated, had the satisfaction of running nearly 5,000 votes ahead of the presidential candidate. His high character and standing at the bar in the sixteenth judicial circuit of the state induced Gov. Ed. Scofield to appoint him circuit judge in place of Hon. C. V. Bardeen who had been appointed justice of the supreme court. In the ensuing election he was elected for the full term as circuit judge and reelected in 1904.

Meanwhile his private business had assumed large proportions and he resigned in 1908 to devote his time to the affairs of the Northern Chief Iron Company, in which corporation he had a large interest, and in which he is secretary, occasionally seeking recreation in travel.

With D. L. Plumer and his brother. George Silverthorn, he organized the banking firm of Silverthorn & Plumer in 1869, which later merged into the First National Bank of ^^'ausau.

Hon. W. C. Silverthorn was born in 1834, in Toronto, Canada, and came with his father, George Silverthorn, to Jefferson county, Wisconsin, where the father engaged in farming, and died at Oakland in 1872, having become a man of means and acquired a farm of 640 acres. W. C. Silverthorn's early youth was spent on his father's farm, and after passing through the common school, he attended Albion Academy and the state university at Madison. Following his college training, he studied law in the law office of Braley & Smith at Madison, and was admitted to the bar in 1863. first practicing his profession at St. Louis, Missouri, but coming to Wausau early in 1864, which has been his home ever since. He was married in Madison to Miss Maggie Virginia Meyers, who was born at Bowling Green, Kentucky, and who died January 29, 1878, leaving three children: Willis V., now of Sawyer county; Margaret Grace, now Mrs. H. H. Hadley, and Nellie C.. who resides at home.

and they have three children: James C, Ida Hermione, and George P. Mrs. Ida M. Silverthorn is a daughter of James Single, one of the honored pioneers of Marathon county, the youngest of the three brothers, Benj. T., Charles A., and James Single, frequently mentioned in former chapters. The family are among the founders of the St. John's Episcopal church of Wausau, and Mrs. Silverthorn is a member of the Ladies' Literary Club and other societies.

Miss Nellie C. Silverthorn has been the first librarian of the Wausau Library, interesting herself with her father in the work since its inception, he having been the founder of the "Pine Knot Library," which became the nucleus of the present public library. At the time of her resignation she received the thanks of the Library Board for faithful and proficient services rendered.

Hon. Daniel Longfellow Plumer

One of the pioneers who have witnessed the progress of Marathon county from its wild and uncultivated state to its present proud position as one of the foremost counties as regards agriculture, industries and general culture, and who had his full share in the accomplishments of these results, is Hon. D. L. Plumer of Marathon county.

He came to the village of \\'ausau from his native state, New Hampshire, in 1857, when the whole county, including Merrill and all territory north to the state line, had less than 500 inhabitants. He started in life as a surveyor and the reliability of his work recommended him to town and county authorities for making all needful surveys. His work soon took him into the northern parts of the state and thus he became early familiar with the resources of central and northern Wisconsin, and a strong believer in its future greatness. \Mien after years of hard work, and through his own personal efforts, fortune began to smile upon him, he was always ready to assist with his means any enterprise promising to benefit the people of this community. The larger part of his manhood was spent in public ser\nce as related in the pages of this book. In political creed Mr. Plumer is a Democrat and on many occasions has been called upon for active service by his party. For seven years he was supervisor of the village of Wausau and mayor, many more years county surv^eyor, served as member of assembly and as delegate at large to the Democratic National Convention in 1900, and for six years served as member of the Board of Regents of the State Llniversity.

He is president of the First National Bank of Wausau, president of the Northern Chief Iron Company, and one of Wausau's most substantial citizens and has been identified with its interests since 1857. He was born in Rockingham county, New Hampshire, July 3, 1S37, and is a son of Abraham and Sarah (Longfellow) (Cilley) Plumer.

The first of the Plumer family to come to the American colonies was Francis Plumer, in 1633, and his descendants settled in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, taking part in the early Indian troubles, in the War of the Revolution and later in the War of 1812. On the maternal side. Gen. Bradberry Cilley was a distinguished officer in the War of the Revolution. The later generations of the family cared less for military life, and the father of Daniel L. Plumer spent his days as an agriculturist. In his family of seven children, the fourth born was named Daniel Longfellow.

After his school days were over, Daniel L. Plumer prepared for a future career by learning civil engineering. He came to \\'isconsin and located at \\'ausau in 1857, starting to work at lumbering and became interested mainly in timber lands and the manufacture of lumber until 1890. As early, however, as 1867 he started a private bank, doing a brokerage business with the Bank of Marshall & Ilsley of Milwaukee as correspondents and after a couple of years he with W. C. Silverthorn and George Silverthorn opened a regular bank, doing business under fimi name of Silverthorn & Plumer, which bank was reorganized as the First National Bank of Wausau in 1882. Mr. D. L. Plumer has been president of this bank since its organization, but his banking record covers a period of forty-five years. It was mainly through his influence that the First National Bank erected its splendid banking house, beginning building in the fall of 1890 and had it ready for occupancy after New Year, 1892, which was at the time and is yet, the finest bank and office building in Wausau.

D. L. Plumer has other interests, being financially interested in many important enterprises, and is president of the Northern Chief Iron Company, which corporation owns extensive iron ore mines on the Gogebic range in Wisconsin.

In 1869 Mr. D. L. Plumer married Miss ^lary Jane Draper, a daughter of Josiah Draper of Otsego county, N. Y. One son was born to them, Abraham L., who died in infancy. ]\Irs D. L. Plumer has taken great interest in all the work of the Ladies' Literary Society, and in the public library of Wausau, of which she has been an active working member for years, and in a quiet retiring manner extends needful help where needed. In political creed Mr. Plumer is a Democrat and on many occasions has been honored by his party. He served one temi as a member of the Legislature of Wisconsin, three terms as mayor of Wausau, many years as county surveyor, and for six years was a member of the Board of Regents of the University of AVisconsin. He has witnessed the growth of Wausau from a town of 500 inhabitants to a city of 18.000 population.

Hon. John Ringle

For conspicuous pubHc service of many years, for results accomplished as a legislative as well as an executive officer, the record of Mr. John Ruigle is an enviable one. From the time he first entered public service in 1872 as county clerk, until the present time when the exigency of the times - brought him forward again as mayor of Wausau, his public service in one position or another has been referred to in previous chapters. To be in the glare of public scrutiny, and able to hold the trust and confidence of the people for nearly half a century in so many different public positions, speaks volumes of a person's integrity, capacity and honesty.

Hon. John Ringle, present mayor of Wausau, and first vice president of the First National Bank of this city, was born October 2, 1848, at Herman, Dodge County, Wis., and is a son of Bartholomew and Amalia (Pick) Ringle. The parents of Mayor Ringle were born in Rhenish Bavaria and came to America in 1846, taking up their residence on a farm in Dodge county. Wis., in May, 1859, coming to Wausau. There were five sons and three daughters in the family, John being the youngest born of the sons and the fifth of the family in order of birth.

John Ringle was eleven years old when his parents came to Wausau and here he attended school until he was eighteen years of age. He then taught school for one year, following which he served as deputy county clerk. In 1872 he was elected county clerk of Marathon county and served continuously for six years, after which he went into the real estate business. His friends, however, were not willing that he should retire from public affairs and elected him in 1879 to the Wisconsin General Assembly, and again in 1880 and once more in 1881, and in 1882 elected him to the senate for a term of four years. He had also been, in the meanwhile, honored locally, being elected mayor in 1884. serving for one term and during that administration the contract was let and the present system of waterworks was built. In 1892 he again became a member of the general assembly and from 1894 until 1898 ser^'ed as postmaster of Wausau, appointed by President Cleveland during his second term. For a number of years he served as a member of the city council and was chainnan of the countyboard and was made president of the building committee when the present fine courthouse was erected. In the spring of 1912 he was elected for a term of two years as mayor again of W'ausau, an office which he honors equally as it honors him. His political affiliations have always been with the Democratic party and at one time he was his party's nominee for state treasurer. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880 that nominated General Hancock for the presidency, although, on account of the high waters at that time, he almost failed to make connection with Stevens Point, being obliged to travel in a skiff with many elements of danger surrounding. In 1892 he served again as a delegate to the Demo- 'cratic National Convention. He has been prominent also in business and was one of the organizers of the Ringle Brick Company, of which he is president; he is ^-ice president of the ]\Iathie Brewing Company, and president of the Clay ^Manufacturers' Association, while his banking interests are also important.

In 1872 Mr. Ringle was married to Aliss Augusta Engel, of Wausau, and to that marriage five sons and four daughters were born, namely: Gustav, who is in the lumber business: Edward, who is a clerk in the Wausau postoffice: Oscar, who is a member of the law firm of Regner & Ringle at Wausau; John, Jr., who is teller in the First National Bank at Wausau: Leander, who is manager of the Ringle Brick Company; xAnnie, who is the wife of Dr. G. A. Thielke of Wausau; Beatrice, who resides at home: Leonora, who is the wife of Abraham Ringle of Jersey City, N. J. ; and Valeria, who resides at home. The mother of the above family died in 1894. The second marriage of Mayor Ringle took place in 1895, to Miss Louisa Kemmer, of Zweibruecken, Germany, who died without issue in 1905. The present wife of Mayor Ringle was formerly Mrs. Augusta Frey, a widow. They enjoy a beautiful home, the residence standing at No. 108 Grand avenue. Mayor Ringle has always been interested in the public schools and is a member of the board of education. He is a Mason, belonging to the Blue Lodge and Chapter and is identified also with the Odd Fellows at Wausau. He and family belong to St. Paul's Evangelical church.

Hon. Walter Alexander

The public life and fame of a citizen is the property of the people of the community in which he lives; they esteem the man whose achievements in life are the result of honest efforts, intelligently and perse\-eringly pur- sued. The man of capacity, of integrity and probity of character is the man whom the people deHght to honor and in whom they bestow their confidence. In all the qualities of mind and heart which compel esteem and the respect of the people generally, none stands higher in the good opinion of the people of Marathon county than Hon. Walter Alexander, who has proven himself a leader in affairs affecting to a high degree the welfare and prosperity of Wausau and Marathon county.

The political arena did not attract him to any considerable extent, he being content to serve his home city one or two terms as alderman, and discharging his duty as a citizen in quietly casting his vote, only going out of his usual course when in his judgment the interest of the whole country demanded more than usual activity from every man. But as a leader in business affairs he had no superior, and he proved himself as faithful in this field as in all other walks of life. The same integrity of purpose characterized him when chosen by his party to represent it in the arena of politics.

He was elected as a delegate to tlie national Republican convention in 1900 and chosen as one of the committee to deliver to President William McKinley the notification of his re-nomination to the presidency. But higher honors awaited him which were, however, not willingly granted, which were gained only by the force of his character, and in the reliance of the people of his (the tenth) congressional district in the rectitude of his own intentions, which made him the choice of his party as a delegate to the national Republican convention of 1908 for William H. Taft in opposition to the ambition of Sen. Robert M. La Follette, who contended with William H. Taft for the same place. When Mr. Alexander assumed this duty which was rather averse to his natural inclinations, submitting only to the urgent demands of friends whose friendship he valued highly, and agreeing with them in political sentiment, he was opposed by the whole strength of the political machinery of the state which the senator held in the hollow of his hand, but his election in spite of this handicap was the expression of the people in his personal honor and integrity, and their confidence in him. He was elected as the only Taft delegate in ^^'isconsin. which was an election by popular choice at open primaries, not in an indirect way picked in caucus by other delegates.

While the administration of William H. Taft has already passed into history, it is too early at this date to pass upon the merits or demerits of the same: but history written in coming years, free from the passions and the excitement of the recent contest, may give approval to some of the meas-

Among the men who are developing the donnant forces of this valley which will make it in not far distant time, the center of industry in the state, Walter Alexander stands in the front rank. His life has been one of unremitting activity, his early years full of toil, devoted to honorable pursuits, and guided by intelligence and experience, he was remarkably successful.

\Vhen fortune had bestowed her favors upon him, he remained the same unassuming, modest man he had been while still battling for success, simple in his manners and tastes, and did not use the means so earned for the gratification of idle desires or in pursuit of hollow pleasures, but employed them in founding, and assited in founding useful enteq^rises which at the same time enure generally to the welfare of the people of the Wisconsin valley.

He had his training under his uncle, \\'alter D. Mclndoe, where he learned from personally taking part therein, the lumber business from the cutting down of the tree through all its stages to the putting the manufactured product on the market. There is one authentic incident in his life, which shows the metal there was in the boy when not yet of age. It occurred in the year 1870, when the \\^ausau boom had ver}^ little storage capacity. In that year there was an unusual large quantity of logs to be sawed at the three mills at Wausau, owned by Mclndoe, Plumer, and Clarke. The freshet came early, and logs were coming down fast, quicker than expected, filling up the boom and being pushed and pocked by the boom crew e\-en up stream to fill every available nook and comer of the same. Millions were still above, which unless stopped from coming down and arriving, were liable to break the boom and pass by, to the great detriment of log owners and manufacturers, or because being mingled with logs destined for points below, Stevens Point and Grand Rapids, could not be held here in a jam, but must be passed on below, taking with them the logs intended to be manufactured at Wausau. In this emergency it became necessary to stop the drive at once. Stopping a drive means to call ofif the men who are keeping the logs afloat ; they will not float many miles in a swift river like the Wisconsin with its many shoals and rapids, because the current in the center will w^ash them ashore, or onto the islands and bars where they ground, or into dead water sloughs. The largest drive, belonging to Walter D. Mclndoe and one belonging to John and Alexander Stewart, were still behind in the neigh1)orhood of Grandfather Falls. This drive had to be stopped and quickly, too. There was no time for hesitation or vacillation ; it was not the time to send an untried man with this important message; the trip could only be made on horseback, over soft sticky roads, over a territory nearly uninhabited, there being then not over a dozen farm clearings between Wausau and Merrill, and an unbroken wilderness from there to Grandfather Falls.

Walter Alexander was ordered by his uncle to go up there and stop the drive. It was late in the afternoon when he was told to go. He asked no questions; there was no time for parley. He lost no time in getting ready, but was ready. Saddling a horse he started immediately, riding on through the night in darkness to reach the driving crew at Grandfather Falls or thereabouts. He reached the crew in the morning before breakfast and stopped the drive. This may now seem to have been an easy perfonnance. Let some one try to ride over such a rough road in the darkness of night only five or six miles, and he will change his mind, especially when it is remembered that the distance to be covered by Mr. Alexander between late in the afternoon and daAdight next morning was thirty-six miles, made in the spring with the frost just out of the ground and every creek high, and to be forded. His experience with laboring men made him their friend ; no employer of labor was ever held in higher esteem in the ^^'isconsin valley because he always took an interest in his men.

His gift to the city of ^^'ausau of "Mclndoe Park" in memory of his uncle has been referred to and he has generously assisted philanthropic institutions : he has seen the city grow from a hamlet of less than 500 to a city of over 18.000, much of the growth of which is due to his public spirit and enterprise. He is at present officially connected with, or financially interested in more than twenty industrial concerns, in this state, in the south and west. Ever since the organization of the A, Stewart Lumber Company, for many years the largest lumber manufacturing concern in the Wisconsin valley, he has acted as secretary and treasurer for the same, but his business is not confined to the lumber industry alone.

He is president of the Wausau Paper ^Nlill Company, vice president of the Marathon Paper Mills Company; president of the Marathon County Bank; vice president of the National German American Bank, and a director in the First National Bank of Milwaukee.

Mr. Alexander comes of good Scotch ancestry, being bom in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 14th day of June, 1849; his parents were John Alexander and his wife Jane, a sister of W. D. Mclndoe. They emigrated to America in 1858 and settled in Portage county where the father, a farmer, engaged in agriculture, and died in Wisconsin in 1900 at the age of seventy-three years, surviving his wife by three years, she having died in 1897 at the age of seventy-two years. They were the parents of five sons and four daughters, of whom seven are still living. Of these children Catherine died unmarried; Anna, now deceased, was the wife of Thomas Blair Sheridan of Waupaca county; Walter was born next; Hugh, a son, lives at Wausau, Wis. ; Margaret, a daughter, is unmarried ; Mclndoe Alexander, a son, resides in Owatonna, Minn., where he is engaged in lumber business; Taylor, a son, is a resident of Wausau, \\'is. ; John Alexander, a son, is in lumber business in Aurora, 111., and Jean, a daughter, is the wife of F. G. Dana, of Milwaukee, Wis.

After the death of Walter D. Mclndoe in 1872, the business was continued by John and Alexander Stewart, Mr. Alexander becoming a partner three years afterwards.

Walter Alexander was but nine years of age when he came to this country with his parents and passed his early boyhood days at home with his parents at Buena Vista, Portage county, and with his uncle at Wausau, his home being really at the latter place, where he went to school. After finishing the course at Wausau which was then rather elementary, he spent some time at Ripon College from which institution he returned to \\'ausau to take a course of training in his uncle's saw mill and lumber business which gave him the education which made him what he became in after years.

He was married to Miss Sarah, a daughter of Cyrus C. Strobridge and Lydia, his wife, in 1874, which nuptials were the social event at the time, the groom being one of Wausau's most popular young men and the bride the most chamiing of the many handsome young ladies, distinguished alike for her personal attractions as for the goodness of heart and culture and refinement, and the many wishes for their future happiness were fully realized. The father of the bride, C. C. Strobridge, was one of the pioneers of Wau.sau and most respected citizens as a man of sterling integrity; he was for years engaged in the commercial and lumber business at Merrill and Wausau.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander is blessed with four children, namely: Walter D., who was married to Aliss Esther Law, and who is engaged in lumber business in Bloomington, 111. ; Judd. a son, unmarried, who is associated with his father; Ruth, an unmarried daughter, at home and another son at home, Ben. Mrs. Walter Alexander is a very prominent member of several societies, and universally beloved for her benevolence and affiliations with charitable institutions and the unpretentiousness of her aid rendered in cases where it is needed. In her endeavors in this respect she has the co-operation of her husband as in all her other charitable work. The members of the family are affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church.

Hon. Neal Brown

Hon. Neal Brown is one of the distinguished men of Wausau. He was born on a farm in Jefiferson county and formerly took pride in the assertion that there is no work on the farm which he has not done or cannot do. Nevertheless he preferred mental to manual labor, graduating from the law department of the state university in 1880 and coming to Wausau, opened his law office in the fall of the same year.

Of course clients did not come to him in alarming numbers for some time, but he plodded on, got into courts, and after a few years had established a remunerative practice, not only in state courts, including the Supreme Court, but including the federal courts as well. When the Law and Land Association was formed in 1885 he became the head of the legal department and since that time, until recently when he gave his time to other business, had been very successful as a practicing attorney. As a lawyer he had his successes and his defeats, as every lawyer with a large practice has, but he never lost a case for lack of preparation or the best presentation of the case on his part, but simply because his client's case deserved defeat. He was elected as a Democrat to the State Assembly in 1890, and to the State Senate in 1892 and made a good record as a legislator. To him was due the extension of the lien law, securing to the laborer his wages for all work done on all products of the forest, where there formerly was no lien, except on logs. His friends lovingly refer to him as the orator, philosopher and litterateur of Wausau, and he may justly claim all these honorable titles. Twice he made a political canvass of the state, not as a candidate for ofifice, and it was the unqualified opinion of his party friends that his speeches were eloquent and effective. He is equally strong as a forensic debater, which is conceded by all his brother attorneys. In the session of the Legislature of 1893 he received the vote of the democratic minority for United States Senator, and in 1908 the democratic primary nomination for the same high office and the vote of his party for this high office in the Legislature in the next session.

Neal Brown is entirely at home with the old and new classics, has published himself essays on literary topics, and published a book entitled "Critical Confessions," which was favorably received by the literary critics and secured him a place among literary men. In later years he has been called to address chambers of commerce in jMilwaukee and Boston and other important business bodies. His addresses and writings show him to be a man of original thought and a correct reasoner, impatient of the shams and shallow pretensions, which in these days are attempted to be passed off as statesmanship.

In later years he has withdrawn from active law practice, and had given his thought and ability to the organization of large business enterprises, such as the Wausau Street Railroad Company and other large business concerns. The water powers of the Wisconsin, which were formerly in three hands, the owners of the saw mills, have been under his guidance largely, united in one strong company, but instead of three owners there are now a hundred owners, nearly all in the city of Wausau, stockholders, and the power - electrical power - drives wheels in many factories in this city and lights it and more will be developed.

It was through his efforts, after years of perseverance, that a company was organized to develop the water power at Rothschield, of which he was the president, and through his effort again that a large number of men, capitalists, took over the rights of this company and actually developed the power and built up the ^larathon County Paper ]\Iill, one of the largest business concerns of the county.

He is directly interested in that paper mill and one of the directors of the corporation. He has pro\"ed an organizer of large capital by uniting many men of moderate means, and in that must be regarded as one of the best resourceful businessmen of the \\'isconsin valley. He loves nature above everything, even business, and at his summer home on the Plover river entertains his friends during fishing and hunting season in a royal manner.

But the people of ^^'ausa^^ love him best as the man who has changed the drean>' aspect of our cemetery into a beautiful grove of trees and cultivated grounds, so that our grief for our dead departed ones is softened by a visit to their last resting place, rather than increased by the desolation of the place. '

Neal Brown comes from good old Connecticut stock. Ebenezer Brown, his great grandfather, was a soldier in the American Revolution, and Hon. Neal Brown preserves as a family reliquy a powder horn worn by Ebenezer at the siege of Boston. His father was Thurlow Weed Brown, editor of the Cauga Chief at Auburn, N. Y., in the early fifties. He married Helen Alward, and the family moved to Jefferson county, Wis., where Neal was bom. His father and his aunt, Emma Brown, edited the Wisconsin Chief in Ft. Atkinson. Thurlow Weed Brown died in 1866 and his wife in 1890. The son Neal Brown graduated from the law department of the Wisconsin University in 1880 and came immediately thereafter to Wausau.

Hon. Louis A. Pradt

Besides Hon. Alexander Stewart, who for six years represented the ninth congressional district of Wisconsin, which included JMarathon county, this county had another representative in the city of Washington, in the person of Hon. Louis A. Pradt, not in the halls of Congress, but in another and very important position of assistant attorney general connected with the Department of Justice, appointed to that place by President William McKinley in 1897 and reappointed in 1901. His official duties required him to represent the government in all cases brought by claimants against the United States in the Court of Claims, the only court where a private party can sue the government. Claims for o\'ercharges on tariff duties against the revenue department; for spoliation, and all sorts of claims against the government, are litigated and disposed of in this court, and not a few seemingly preposterous claims are coming up for adjudication, and as an instance of this sort of claims made against the government only one need be mentioned, although claims of that kind are not over rare. In his tenn of office there was a claim filed Ijy the heirs of a deceased person for millions of dollars. The curious part of it was that the original claimant had made his will, disposed of all his property to his heirs, and never mentioned this claim against the government. Thousands of claims are filed every year and the office was and is no sinecure, but requires thorough knowledge of law and application to dry legal work, and diligence to dig out the real facts in each case, which are mostly hidden by claimants to the best of their ability.

Appeals from this court are directly taken to the highest court in the land, and it became the duty of Mr. L. A. Pradt, the assistant attorney general, to represent the government in the Supreme Court of the United States. Nevertheless while at "\^''ashington he was always glad to meet and extend a friendly hand and welcome to any of his old neighbors and acquaintances, a true, faithful representative of the hospitable spirit 'of Wausau.

able members of the bar at Wausau, to which city he came as a practitioner in the law, immediately following his graduation from the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. He was born in Pennsylvania, and is a son of Charles and Esther Pradt.

In 1856 the parents of Mr. Pradt came to Sheboygan county, Wis., where he was reared and received a public school training, and in 1872 he accompanied them to the western part of Marathon county. For twelve years he occupied his time mainly in teaching school, both in Sheboygan and Marathon counties, and then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated in 1881, in the same year being admitted to the bar and his first law office was opened at Wausau. In 1884, with others, he organized the Wausau Law and Land Association, four of the original members subsec^uently retiring, but Mr. Pradt and Hon. Neal Brown remaining and, with Frederick W. Genrich, who was admitted to the firm in 1899, continuing the old organization under the present fimi style of Brown, Pradt & Genrich. This is a very influential body, made up of veteran lawyers, and its connections with important litigation cover all this section. In 1896 Mr. Pradt was elected city attorney of Wausau and serv'ed as such until 1897, when he was appointed by the late President McKinley, assistant attorney general of the United States and his home was in the city of Washington during the succeeding nine years. In 1906 he resigned this office and went into private practice in the capital, all this time continuing his association with the firm at Wausau. In the summer of 1909 Mr. Pradt returned to Wausau and this city continues to be his home. His public services were in every way creditable and during his many years of Washington life he formed many permanent friendships with other able and prominent men from all over the country. During his long absence from this city he never forgot, in all the stress of great public business, the interests of Wausau and in every way possible to him advanced its enterprises. He organized the Wausau Country Club, of which he was elected president and still serves as such. In his political affiliation Mr. Pradt has always been a Republican and from 1891 until 1897 served as chairman of the Marathon County Republican Committee.

In 1890 Mr. Pradt was married to Miss Charlotte Atwater, of Milwaukee, and they have three children : Louis, Alan and Charlotte. Mrs. L. A. Pradt, herself an accomplished musician, is the president of the Ladies' Tuesday Musical Club, and delights in receiving at her home the literary and music-loving people of \\^ausau.