Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-12-11

army of the Confederate states. After
| the close of the Civil wssf he went
abroad and spent two years in special
studies at German universities. Upon
! his return to America in 1871, he became
! professor of chemistry and geology at
the University of West Virginia. where
| he remained until he Joined the faculty
of the University of Virginia at Char
lotteSvile. DIR. Fontaine has written nu-
merous books and papers on geology and
mineralOgy and is regarded as n high
authority on those branches of science
JOHN HERMAN CONVERSE. a
leader in American industries and one
of the owners of the Baldwin locomo-
tive works of Philadelphia was born in
Burlington, Vt, December ,, 1S40 and
received his education in the University
of Vermont. He began life as a news
paper man. Subsequently he went To
Chicago and entered the service of the
Northwestern railroad. Later he joined
the PENNSYLVANIA system at Altoona.
and IN 1870 he entered the employment
of the Baldwin Locomotive works, be-
coming member of the firm three years
later, MIR. Converse has been conspic
uous iii many benevolent and philan-
thFopic enterprises In church matters
he also has been prominent, In the
general Presbyterian assembly of 1900
he was chosen vice moderator and a
for worldwide eyangelistic campaign
to be conducted under the auspices of
the Presbyterian church.
CLEVELAND Able, distin-
guished meteorological. was born in New
York city, December ;, 1888. His edu-
cation was received at the College of the
City of New York, the University of
Michigan and Harvard university. Ia
1860 he joined the United States coast
survey and Cor the next four years was
engaged i'll computing longitudes, star
catalogues, etc. In 1864 he went to Rus
STA and for two years was an assistant
at the Imperial Central Astronomical OBJ
servatory at Paulkova. near st. Peters
burg, In 1S6T he returned to America
and became an assistant at the United
States Naval observatory. From 1865 tn
1873 he was director of the Cincinnati
observatory, where he established sys-
tenn of daily weather maps of the United
States, with n forecast of the weather
for Cincinnati and vicinity. This led
finally TO the adoption of the general
weather service in the United States.
| With this service DIR. Able has been
connected for nearly forty years. first in
| the United States signal service and later
i'll the weather bureau of the department.
| of agriculture,
JOSEPH LETTER, capitalist and
| NINE owner, was born in Chicago, DEE
cember 4, 1865. the son of LevNi n.
| Letter. the millionaire Chicago mel chant.
who !ied ia 1904 The younger Letter
was educated mt Harvard university.
where kS graduated in 1891. After he
| left college he acted as an agent for his
father i'll some of the atter's commercial
enterprises. In the autumn of 1897 he
came into public prominence in an en-
deayor TO corner" the wheat market. He
! huuEht Whpat on the Chicago board of
trade To such IA extent as to make him,
at the beginning of 1898. the largest iutli-
vidual holder of wheat in the history of
the gram trade, His deal collapsed, how
ever, and the consequence was that the
Letter fortune was depleted by several
millions of dollars The late Lady Cur
zon, whose husband was the British vice
roy IN India was Il sister of Mr. Letter.
and another of his sisters is the Countess
of Suffolk