Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1897-12-22

keen appreciation Of the odd side Of
things. His first education was received
IN the old kinzie public school, building
from which a great many prominent Chi
cagO men started.
His father was a man of wealth and
political prominence. He gave to Chicago
the Schiller theater, st. Elizabeth's hos
pital, the House of providence and the
Altenheim. His wealth enabled him to
give his son a broad education. From
the Kinzie school he passed to Osna-
brueck, Hanover. A short season was
spent in the old University of Chicago OF
1861, and two years at st. Mary's of the
Lake. Preparatory to going to Yale he
read under Dr. Quackenboss, and then
entered the college in 1866, being gradu-
.ated in 1870 Later he read and studied
in Berlin and Heidelberg, Travelled, met
people and enjoyed seeing and doing.
In 1870 he married Miss Henrietta
Weir of Boston, the companion OF his
travels and public life, who now alone
survives him.
among strange people Mr.. Hesing re-
turned to Chicago to do work on his IA
theirs paper, the Stats Zeitung. He
started at the bottom as the devil of the
office, working up step by step, until he
was master of the editorial columns, and
after the death of Anton Hesing the
business and managerial head of the en-
tire concern. The paper has been and is
the foremost German daily publication Of
the West.
He was only % years Of age when Jo-
seph Medill, then mayor of Chicago, ap-
pointed him a member of the board OF
education, and eight years later he was
president of the county board OF educa-
ton. which then controlled the normal
school. At the advent of President Cleye-
land to the second term he sought recog-
milton as the representative of the Ger
A .oE( l, nd
the postmastership. Despite the opposi-
ton of John 2. Hopkins and a great
many other Democrats President Cleve-
land gave him the office. and he IN re-
turn gave the pOstoffice a shaking up it
never had experienced before. lie was
given the universal credit Of stopping
more ratholes in that institution than any
man. He was proud of his four years
record as postmaster and public opinion
generally held that he was entitled to be.
During his term of office he secured the
consolidation of the Chicago postal sys-
tenn abolishing fifty-nine offices and merg-
ing them into one. The number OF postal
stations were increased from twelve to
thirty-seyen and the substations from
twenty-four to fifty-eight, the stamp
agencies from 70 to 100.
He materially increased the number of
men employed in the postoifice and en-
gineered the movement which secured Tor
Chicago the immediate construction OF a
new S4,000,000 postoffice. The temporary
postoffice which he devised for the lake
front to take the place of the old one de-
molished has been pronounced to be IN
plan the model one of the world. lie re-
formed the collection and delivery serv-
ices, sought speed in handling mail, con-
stantly urged the extension of the postal
system in the city and gave his entire
time to his office He delivered the office
to his successor, Mr.. Gordon, with the
testimonial of the business public that he
had labored faithfully and produced won,
derful changes in the postal service of
the city.
Mr.. Hesing was ambitious. He made
no concealment of that fact. He was
fond of public officeholding, and he never
had enough of it, as he many times
frankly said. He was so Injured to seek
ing place that he bore with equanimlty
.caricatures of his beard and possessed a
scrapbook full of these, which he often
showed with great glee to his friends.
To be mayor of Chicago, to reach that
office with the enc orsement of the busl-
ness community, was Mr.. Hesings last
ambition and the one which probably had
much to do with his sudden death. lie
was nominated as nonpartisan business
candidate. but his effort was a futile one,
as the vote shows: Harrison Oem.) J,
144,91O; Sears Rep), 56,650; Harlan
Ind), 67291: Hesing -partisan)
10,l1l. MI HeSlnS fetreu TO MS eur
torial life, wounded. He had learned
one of the bitter lessons of practical pol
itcs.
The ancestry of the man was German.
His father was born at Vechta, Grand
Duchy of Oldenburg. His mother was
German born. He was intensely Ameri-
can, intensely a Chica goan. His turning
from q life he enjoyed in every hour to
the shadows of what is beyond must have
been with a sigh of regret.
-Four years ago Elias and Sarah Mag
nusen secured a divorce at Superior and
went their separate ways, Magnusen go
ing abroad while his wife went to live in
Michigan. Recently, in the course of a
suit over some property in Superior in
which another party was involved, it was
ruled by the court that the couple had new
i L. I