Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-03-12
OF NEAL BROWN
Presented to the Supreme Court, Tues
day, March 18th, 1918

day, March 18th, 1918
The presentation of the memorial
of Neal Brown to the Supreme Court
of the State, last Tuesday, was I'M
usual in the character of the memorial
and of the response. The committee
took their seats at the Bar of the
Court when the presentation was
announced by the Chief Justice and
the memorial was then read by Judge
Bump in a very effective manner.
The response by Chief Justice
Winslow was not only fitting tribute
to one of Wisconsin's great sons but
expressed the personal affection and
esteem of a very dear friend.
The Memorial
To THE SUPREME COURT OF THE
STATE OF WISCONSIN:
The undersigned committee, ap-
pointed by the Bar Association of
Marathon County, present to the
Court the following memorial of
Honorable Neal Brown, a member of
the bar of this Court, who died at Wat
kins, New York, on September IS,
1917:
Neal Brown was born in Hebron
Jefferson County, Wisconsin, February
2S, 1856. His parents, Thurlow Weed
and Helen Award Brown, came to
Wisconsin from Cayuga, New York,
in 1855, and settled upon a farm ii
Jefferson County, upon which Neal
worked in his boyhood. His father
was, however, chiefly engaged in the
newspaper business, which had been
his profession in New York. He was
also strongly interested in the aboli-
ton and temperance reforms of that
period and became famous as writer
and public speaker on those subjects.
He was a finely educated man of in
tense feeling and fervent magma
tion--an idealist, devoted to the re-
forms which he advocated.
His mother, on the other hand, was
distinguished for calm judgment and
practical business capacity.
Neal was the fortunate inheritor of
these qualities of both his parents. The
home was we'll supplied with books
and, although his general education was
in the common schools only, he early
manifested the love of reading and
the literary taste that distinguished
him in later years.
At the age of nineteen, he began the
study of law in the Office of Honorable
l.. b. Caswell at Fort Atkinson, and
in 1880 was graduated from the Law
Department of the University of Wis
| consin. The same year he entered
| upon the practice of law at Wausau,
Wisconsin, and thereafter was a resi-
dent of that city.
In 1885, with Louis A. Pradt and Or
| Ian 10 HOlway- now Adjutant General
| of Wisconsin-he formed a partner
| ship under the name of the Wausau
| Law and Land Association, Mr.. HOl-
| way having charge of the real estate
department. Some years later, Mr..
| Charles S. Gilbert succeeded Mr. Hol-
way, and in 1900 Fred W. Genrich be-
came junior member of the law firm
of Brown, Pradt and Genrich. During
the period from 1897 to 1900 the law
| firm was Brown, Pradt and Bump, the
| junior member being Franklin E.
Bump, now County Judge of Marathon
County
In the first years of his professional
| life, Mr.. Brown devoted himself ex-
| clusively and with untiring industry
to the study and practice of law and
became an acknowledged leader of the
State Bar. In 1909, he was chosen
| President of the Wisconsin State Bar
| Association. His industry and capa-
| city for effective work were eXtraordi-
| nary and resulted in a most unusual
| comprehension of legal principles. In
| addition, he had every equipment of a
| first class trial lawyer About 1896,
| he actively interested himself in the
| real estate business of his firm, and
| thereafter he and Mr.. Gilbert negOti-
| ated and took part in a large number
! of important real estate enterprises
and transactions in city property,
| farming lands and timber and mineral
lands in Wisconsin and in several
| other states, including the formation
| of several real estate companies.
| During the last ten years of his life,
| he turned his attention to the organi-
| cation of various industrial companies,
| beginning with the Wausau Street Rail
| way Com pany, now merged in the Wis
cOnsin Valley Electric Company,
whose plants and operations extend
| along the Wisconsin River from
| Merrill to Stevens Point.
The development of the water power
and establishment of the mammoth
plant of the Marathon Paper Mills
| at Rothschild was largely due to his
enthusiasm and tireless effort.
Of both of these organizations he
was not simply the founder, but the
inspiring genius.
Other important companies. in the
formation of which he took the lead
ing part, are Wausau Sulphate Fibre
company at Mosinee Great Northern
Life Insurance company and Employ
erS Mutual Liability Insurance COM
pany at Wausau and Chisolm Electric
company in Minnesota
In all of these enterprises Mr.
Brown showed business capacitv of
the highest order. undaunted courage
in the face of difficulties and dis
asters and a firm faith and opti-
| mistic vision that were an unfail-
ing inspiration to his associates.
Adding to this his great resources as
legal counselor, it is no wonder that
the experienced. successful. self-reli-
ant business men who were associ-
ated with him, came to have such conf
dence in his Judgment as to ask only
what Neal Brown wanted them to do.
Especial instances of his grasp of
legal and economic questions and his