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1922 Portrait-William O. Vilter |
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History of Milwaukee, city and county, V3 1922 pgs 99 |
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4/9/2011 9:52:02 PM |
WILLIAM O. VILTER.
Among those who have been prominently connected with Milwaukee's commercial history in the making is William O. Vilter, who is the secretary and treasurer of the Vilter Manufacturing Company and who in all that he has undertaken has manifested a spirit of marked progress and enterprise. While success has been the ultimate goal of his business endeavor, he has yet found time for activity in various other fields and his social prominence is the result of unfeigned cordiality and deep interest in his fellowmen. He was a youth of nine years when he first knew Milwaukee—upon his arrival from Germany, his native land. His birth occurred in the grand duchy of Oldenburg, February 12, 1862, his parents being Christian and Elise (Meiners) Olímanns, whose family numbered four sons and a daughter: Anton, deceased; William O.; Theodore O., mentioned elsewhere in this work; Gustave; and Helen. The last two died in Germany in early childhood and the father passed away there, leaving the little family to the care of the widowed mother, who afterward became the wife of Ernst Vilter, long a prominent and honored resident of Milwaukee. It was in 1871 that the family crossed the Atlantic to the new world and Ernst Vilter became one of the partners in an enterprise devoted to the manufacture of machinery. He continued to make his home in this city until his death in 1888, his widow surviving him for almost a quarter of a century, or until the 9th of February, 1912. In 1900 and again in 1908, in company with her son, William O., she had made an extended trip through Europe. By her second marriage she had one child, Emil Vilter, who is now president and superintendent of the Vilter Manufacturing Company.
With the arrival of the family in Milwaukee, William O. Vilter resumed his education, which had been begun in the schools of his native country, and here he attended the German-English Academy and also ward schools of the city, completing a thorough course of study by graduation with the class of 1879.
Opportunity has ever been to William O. Vilter a call to action—a call to which he has made ready response. Alert and energetic, he has improved the opportunities which have come to him and step by step has advanced in his business career until he is today one of the dynamic forces in the commercial circles of the city. He knows what he wants and he gets it. He made his start as an employee of the hardware firm of William Frankfurth & Company and after a year entered the employ of Edward Barber, ? ?eal estate dealer, with whom he continued for two years. His association with the present business covers a period of forty years, his initial position being that of bookkeeper and correspondent with the firm of Weisel & Vilter, of which his father was the junior partner, and with the incorporation of the business in 1886, under the style of the Weisel & Vilter Manufacturing Company, he became the secretary. Following his father's death in 1888 he was elected treasurer of the corporation and has continued as secretary and treasurer to the present time. In March, 1893, the name was changed to the Vilter Manufacturing Company and this is today one of the oldest existing enterprises of Milwaukee, having been established in 1867. Their business is the building of ice-making and refrigerating machinery, improved Corliss engines and machinery for varied lines and special purposes. Their plant is one of the largest of the kind in the country and its product is sold throughout the world. The corporation enjoys a reputation for progressiveness, thorough reliability and enterprise—a reputation which has been won in no small measure through the efforts and the high standards of William O. Vilter of this review. He is an excellent executive and his administrative ability has been a definite factor in the constant growth and development of the business. He not only studies the problems of his individual enterprise but also the questions that affect the trade of the country and is a member of the American Association of Ice and Refrigeration, an organization of concerns and people interested in such industries. At the present time he is serving as chairman of its finance committee.
On the 12th of October, 1910, Mr. Vilter was married to Miss Elfriede Best, who was born and reared in Milwaukee, a daughter of Emil Best, one of the pioneer residents of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Vilter have a son, William B., born March 16, 1912.
While Mr. Vilter has always maintained an independent course in politics, he has nevertheless been an active supporter of many worthy civic enterprises leading to the development and up building of the city and to the promotion of its business interests. In the Association of Commerce, of which he is a valued member, he has served with capability on the committee on manufacturers and for several years has acted as its chairman. He is a member of the entertainment committee. He has also been a director of the Citizens' Business League for many years and this organization is now merged with the Association of Commerce as one of its departments. He has likewise served as president of the Milwaukee Manufacturers & Dealers Club, but his attention has been by no means confined to those things which have to do only with the material development of Milwaukee. For a third of a century he has been identified with the Milwaukee Musical Society, belongs to the Milwaukee Gymnastic Association and is a charter member and one of the incorporators of the Pine Lake Yacht Club. He is also a popular member of the Milwaukee Art Institute, the Wisconsin Club, the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the City Club and the Town Club. His friends—and they are legion—bear testimony to a genial disposition, a pleasing personality and many sterling traits of character and account him one of the popular residents of the city. His position as a representative businessman has long been established and he is one who never fails to reach his objective.
William O. Vilter. Definite prestige pertains to Mr. Vilter as one of the vital and progressive business men and loyal citizens who have contributed definitely and worthily to the industrial precedence of the Wisconsin metropolis, where he is secretary and treasurer of The Vilter Manufacturing Company, builders of ice-making and refrigerating machinery, improved Corliss engines, machinery for brewers and bottlers and varied lines of special machinery. The plant of the company is one of the most extensive of the kind in the United States and its products are sold in all sections of the country. The corporation has built up a reputation that constitutes its most effective commercial asset and he whose name introduces this paragraph has been a resourceful and valued factor in the upbuilding of the large and important enterprise, his status as a man of affairs and as one of the representative citizens of Milwaukee entitling him to specific consideration in this history of Wisconsin.
William O. Vilter was born in Fedderwarden, grand duchy of Oldenburg, Germany, on the 12th of February, 1862, and is a son of Christian and Elise (Meiners) Oltmanns, concerning whom more specific mention is made on other pages of this work, in the review of the career of their elder son, Theodore 0. Vilter, who is president of The Vilter Manufacturing Company. In the sketch of its president's career also is given adequate detail concerning this representative Milwaukee industrial corporation. The schools of his native place afforded William 0. Vilter his rudimentary education and he was nine years of age at the time of the family immigration to America, the new home being established in Milwaukee, where he continued his studies in the public schools of the Seventh ward and those of the Fourth ward, after which he entered the excellent German-English Academy of Milwaukee, in which he completed a thorough course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1879. Soon afterward he initiated his identification with practical business affairs by entering the employ of William Frankfurth & Co., hardware dealers, the establishment of which was situated at the corner of Third and Chestnut streets. About one year later he assumed a position in the employ of the representative real-estate dealer, Edward Barber, with whom he continued for two years. He made good use of the experience gained in these connections, and on the 1st of April, 1882, he became bookkeeper and correspondent for the firm of Weisel & Vilter, of which his honored father was junior member. When, in the year 1886, the business was incorporated under the title of The Weisel & Vilter Manufacturing Company he became secretary of the company. His father died in the year 1888 and he was then made treasurer of the corporation, the while he retained also the office of secretary, of which dual post he has remained the able and valued incumbent during the long intervening years. The title of the corporation was changed to The Vilter Manufacturing Company in March, 1893, and the enterprise dates its inception back to the year 1867, so that it merits consideration as one of the pioneer industries of Milwaukee, the name and fame of which city it has aided in exploiting. Mr. Vilter has been assiduous in his application to business, has shown much executive and administrative ability and has been definitely influential in the development of the extensive and substantial trade controlled by the corporation of which he is secretary and treasurer, his brother Theodore 0. being president of the company, and Edward F. Goes being vicepresident.
In the city that has been his home since his boyhood days Mr. Vilter has secure place in popular confidence and esteem and has identified himself closely and worthily with both civic and business interests. His loyalty to Milwaukee has been shown in deeds as well as words and he is distinctively one of its representative business men, besides being a popular figure in connection with social activities.
In politics Mr. Vilter maintains an independent attitude and gives his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, irrespective of partisan lines. He has heen an alert and influential member of the Milwaukee Merchants & Manufacturers' Association and served with special ability as a member of its committee on manufactures, a position of which he continued the incumbent for several years, within which he was chairman of the committee for two terms. He has been a director of the Citizens' Business League for the past decade, and as such he represented the organization as a member of the entertainment committee which had charge of the reception of the investigating committee which visited Milwaukee during the week of May 19, 1913, for the purpose of looking over the old state fair grounds, the latter committee having also given due inspection to grounds in other places in the state, as an attempt was being made to secure elsewhere the annual state fairs. The claims of Milwaukee were so efficiently presented, however, by representative citizens that the state fair was retained to the Wisconsin metropolis, as it properly should be. Mr. Vilter has also served as president of the Milwaukee Manufacturers & Dealers' Club and has otherwise shown himself deeply interested in all that touches the social and material welfare and progress of his home city. He is interested in the newly organized Milwaukee Western Electric Railway Co. and a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. He holds membership in the Milwaukee Musical Society, with which he has been identified for a quarter of a century; he was a member of the Milwaukee Turnverein for more than thirty years; he is a charter member and was one of the incorporators of the Pine Lake Yacht Club; and he is likewise a popular member of the Milwaukee Automobile Club, the Milwaukee Art Society, and the Deutscher Club. Both he and his wife were raised in the Lutheran faith.
On the 12th of October, 1910, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Vilter to Miss Elfriede Best, who was born and reared in Milwaukee and who has been a popular figure in representative social affairs in her native city. She is a daughter of Emil Best, a well known and highly honored pioneer citizen of Milwaukee, where he has long been interested in and actively associated with the Pabst Brewing Company. Mr. and Mrs. Vilter have a fine little son, William B., who was born on the 16th of March, 1912. Their home is located at 572 Marshall street and is known for its genial hospitality, with Mrs. Vilter as it gracious chatelaine.
Milwaukee, as well as the state in general, owes much to its loyal and representative citizens of German birth or lineage, and the reader of the pages of this publication can not fail to realize the truth of this statement, for among the strongest and best of the citizens represented is found a large and valued quota of those who claim the fine old Emipre of Germany as the place of their nativity or as the home of their ancestors. Mr. Vilter is a popular and valued representative of the German element in the. Wisconsin metropolis and, reared under American institutions and advantages, his loyalty can not be exceeded by that of any native son of the United States. |
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1922 Portrait-William O. Vilter
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