- ESTEE, James Borden, manager for Wisconsin of the National
Life Insurance company of
- Montpelier, Vermont, was born in Milton, Rock county, Wisconsin,
February 8th, 1856. His father is a farmer in comfortable circumstances.
Of deep religious convictions, the bent of his mind has been
toward the religious and educational improvement of his community,
and naturally he has gained public confidence and respect for
his integrity and unselfish devotion to the public good. Mr.
ESTEE's mother's maiden name was Lucretia S. GREEN, a woman of
strong, practical sense, deeply attached to her children, and
taking great pride in the family standing. She was ingenious
and inventive, and had ability and desire to accumulate property.
- The paternal grandfather, Azor ESTEE, was a Baptist clergyman,
well known in New Jersey and
- eastern New York. The maternal grandfather, Winter GREEN,
was a prosperous farmer at Berlin, New York. The GREENs trace
their lineage back to colonial days.
- When James B. ESTEE was but two years of age, his parents
removed from Milton to a farm to
- the north of Peoria, Illinois. Here his youth was spent,
attending the district school when it was in session, and of
which he remembers little except its inefficiency. His schooling
was supplemented and greatly aided by instruction from his father,
which was given early and late, and oftentimes when the latter
was engaged in his daily labors, and the boy was seated conveniently
near. He had great aptitude for study, and his father an inclination
to encourage and direct it. Not being able to send his boy away
to school, Mr. ESTEE told his son, when sixteen years of age,
that he would give him this time provided he would earn money
and pay his way at school. This offer was accepted; and, having
earned something during the summer, he entered the Peoria normal
school in September, 1872, and graduated there from in June 1875.
Immediately after his graduation he attended a summer school
of science, conducted by Prof. WOOD the botanist, and a number
of other distinguished scientists. From 1875 to '80 he was engaged
in teaching, and at the same time pursued a wide and varied range
of reading and study, history and science being his favorite
topics. During the summers of these years he attended teacher's
institutes and summer schools, thus adding much to his store
of knowledge and to his equipment for teaching. At this time
he began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. William
BORDEN of Milton, Wisconsin, a cousin of his mother, and was
thus qualified to enter Rush Medical College. In 1880 he attended
one term at the normal school in Valparaiso, Indiana. In the
fall of that year he entered the Normal University, Illinois,
and by hard study completed the course in one year, receiving
diploma in May, 1881. While in this institution he carried off
the prize for oratory, and was chosen to represent the school
in the state oratorical contest. During the summer of 1881 he
received private instruction in Latin from Prof. Edmund J. James,
now of the Chicago University. During the two following years
he pursued a course of private study; and in the fall and winter
of 1883-4 he read law, in connection with his regular business,
in the office of CHAPIN, DEY & FRIEND, in Milwaukee. In following
this rapid sketch of the career of an ambitions student, one
cannot refrain from the reflection that while the business of
insurance has gained an accomplished agent in Mr. ESTEE, scholarship
and the class-room have suffered a serious loss. His scholarly
tastes, however, have not been lost in the rush of business,
but the continues, as time and opportunity offer, to make excursion
into the varied fields of literature, and to gather of their
choicest fruits.
- Mr. ESTEE came to Wisconsin in the late summer of 1878 to
assume the principalship of the
- public schools of Edgerton. At the end of the year he returned
to Illinois, where he remained four years engaged in study and
teaching. Coming again to Wisconsin, he was in business in Milwaukee
for a year, and then went to Dakota, where he was engaged in
banking and had other interests for three years. Returning to
Milwaukee in 1887, he has since made it his home, and been steadily
identified with its material interests.
- Mr. ESTEE began when a boy to earn money for his own individual
expenses and for his school-
- ing, his first efforts being in trapping and raising chickens,
and then in teaching, in all of which he was a pronounced success.
His first salary as teacher was forty dollars per month, and
from this it increased to one hundred and fifteen dollars; and
he received, in addition, may testimonials from school officials
as to the excellence of his work. As an evidence of his scholarship,
he passed the examination for state teacher's certificate, both
in Wisconsin and Illinois, being one of three successful candidates
out of fifty in the former state, and one of seven out of seventy
in the latter.
- He has been connected, as agent, with the Equitable Life
Insurance company, the Iowa Life, and
- is now general manager for Wisconsin of the National Life
of Montpelier, Vt. In these positions he has had the commendation
of the companies for the ability and integrity with which he
has represented them.
- M. ESTEE is a Republican, and during his residence in Dakota
he was actively engaged in political
- affairs. He was a delegate in every state convention, and
every convention of his county during his three year's residence
in the territory. He was also a member of the state central committee
and chairman of his county committee. He was clerk of the district
court of Sanborn county, and United States court commissioner
for the Second judicial district of Dakota. He wa also appointed
superintendent of census returns for Sanborn and Jerauld counties.
Since leaving Dakota he has retired from active participation
in politics, and devoted himself assiduously to business.
- He is a prominent Mason, being a member of Lafayette Lodge,
No. 265, F. & A.M., of which he
- is a trustee; Calumet Chapter, No. 73, Wisconsin Commandery,
No. 1, K.T., Wisconsin Consistory and Tripoli Temple. He is also
a member of the Calumet club and of the Wisconsin Life Underwriter's
association, of which he was three times elected secretary, and
is now president, and has three times represented it in the National
association.
- He was a member of the Baptist church when a boy, but has
not been a regular attendant in recent
- years. He was married, August 16th, 1883, to Miss Addie GILLAN
of Colfax, Illinois, and they have three children - Rush G.,
Wanda and Lorraine.
-
- [Taken from "Men of Progress: Wisconsin" (c)1897
The Evening Wisconsin Company, Milwaulee, pp. 180-182]
Courtesy of Lori
|