History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its cities, towns, resources, people

              716 HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.
1859 and was appointed registrar of the United States land office.    He died in Menasha, September 12, 1874, aged 79 years.
Abel Keyes, his son, who was engaged with him in the saw¬ mill enterprises in Menasha, was born in Northfield, Vermont, in 1822. While always residing in Menasha, he was for,many years engaged in prospecting for iron in. northern Michigan and became the owner of large tracts of pine lands in Wisconsin and was at one time a very wealthy man. He died in Menasha in 1900. Flis brother, Mr. Oliver A. Keyes, was born in the same place in 1831, resided in Menasha most of his life, and died in 1906. His son, Oliver, is train dispatcher on the C, M. & St. P. railway, and his son, Arthur, is traveling freight agent on the C. & N.AY. railway.' Their brother. Judge Elisha W. Keyes, of Madison, was- admitted to the bar in 1850 and has ever since been one of Wisconsin's leading public men, twice defeated for the United States senate, and.to this day a prominent leader in the Republican party. A painting of Capt. Joseph Keyes hangs in the rooms of the Historical Society at Madison. His old colonial frame residence still stands at the head of Keyes street, on Doty island. Here he had a wide apple orchard and vineyard which in its prosperous days was a beautiful home prospect.
Mr. Charles Hunter had a bankrupt paper mill at Fond du Lac. Mr. Henry Hewitt, Jr., was the assignee of Potter & Duch¬ man's sawmill, on the south end of the dam. The fee to the land of the mill site was owned by Mr. P. V. Lawson and leased with a mill privilege and 1,500 inches of water. The fee in the land is still owned by the estate of P. V. Lawson. The two bankrupt concerns named joined in 1876. The paper-making machinery was moved to Menasha and installed in a large frame mill building erected on the new mill site and painted red. Four thousand dollars was taken in stock in Menasha by Mr. P. V. Lawson, A. J. Webster, Reuben M. Scott, Flenry Hewitt. Curtis Reed and Lewis H. Brown. It was operated as a straw board mill a few months with Mr. John T. Woodside as manager, but for lack of funds closed down. Col. H. A. Frambach in 1878 borrowed $2,500 and ran the mill nine months and retired with a profit of $5,000, which he took to Kaukauna and made the be¬ ginning of a fortune. About 1883 the mill burned and the site was idle until Mr. Charles B. Howard purchased the lease and laid the foundation of two fortunes. The last time he retired from the site he carried away a half million dollars.
Many attempts have been made in Menasha to make a success