Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-05-04

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management of large amount of reaI
estate in New York and elsewhere
many extensive building operations and
large transactions upon the Stock Elk
change any one of these various
branches forming more extensive bus
mess in itself than is carried on by
many man who deems his time and
attention tasked to the utmost. He
lived in probably the finest house ever
built by any private eitizen of the Uni
ted States, and died-we hesitate to
say it-without grieving anyone beyond
his own immediate circle of friends.
Not, be it Thoroughly understood, that
there was any lack in him of personal
or mercantile integrity; so far from
this being the case, no man ever stood
higher in reputation than he; nc
breath of scandal ever dared to blow
upon him, no shadow of suspicion, nc
hint of trickery ever sullied his fair
name his bare word was as good as
another mans bond a most important
in some respects indeed, the most i'm
portant official position in the country
was once offered to him--a position de-
handing from its incumbent at once
the highest financial ability, and the
most scrupulous honesty. What then
was lacking? Why has this man thus
gone to his grave followed by so little
of the regret of his fellow-citizens =?
To answer these questions let US look
at the career of his neighbor who, like
him, had an aim, and like him reached
his goal.
In his earlier days this second of the
two had very scanty opportunities for
education. The poorest boy or girl in
this community has better chance of
learning than he had, and he grew to
manhood knowing little more than how
to read, write fairly, and cipher in the
first four rules of Arithmetic. We
who write these lines remember seeing
the old gentleman for the first time
when he came into our Sunday School
room years ago, and thinking how very
queer he looked and how many mis-
takes in Grammar he made when he
spoke, as he often did, to the little
folks there assembled. His ignorance,
and his own keen perception of it,
have been blessing to thousands and
and will be blessing to thousands
more for years and years to come, for
out of them grew his noble ambition
which was to build an institution in
which any branch of human knowl-
edge might be studied by any boy or
girl free of all cost excepting that of
time and labor.
He also prospered in business, and
as money came to him he also carefully
invested it and worked hard, for many
years with his own hands, to get more.
When we were very, very small we
heard it said one day that he had
bought the house in which we then
lived, and where we had been born,
and that he meant to buy the whole
block Of ground upon which it stood
for the purpose of building thereon
what we supposed was to be great
hotel Years passed by however and
nothing further was heard of the plan,
about which we had entirely forgotten
when passing the old house one day,
we saw workmen busy pulling it down,
and crossing the street to inquire what
was going on, We learned that the long
talked-of building was to be at last
erected.
It made very slow progress, fer it
was built in a most substantial and
costly style, altho' it was generally
thought to be very ugly in appearance.
No one knew what it was intended for
and much small wit was expended upon
the old gentleman nondescript as it
was often called, until one fine morning
after it's completion the great city wax
ed up to learn what one noble man had
done for it.
Neither our space or our present pur-
pose will admit of our giving anything
like detailed description of this great
gift. The building contains reading
room WHERE papers and magazines from
all the leading cities OF the world are