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Frank Amos, one
of the most prominent business men of Oshkosh and a co-partner in the
Hollister-Amos Company, was born in London, England, on May 2, 1840, and
came with his parents to this country in 1848 and settled in Racine,
this state. Mr. Amos lived in Racine for a number of years, going
thence to Burlington, Wisconsin, where he engaged in the business of
farming. On November 27, 1862, he was married to Miss Caroline L.
Loomis of Burlington, a cousin of Col. S.W. Hollister. In 1866 Mr. and
Mrs. Amos came to Oshkosh to live, and he engaged in the business of
wood selling and occasionally in the winter time a logging contractor.
In 1882 Mr. Amos, with the late John Stanhilber and Col. S.W. Hollister
bought out the lumber and sawmill business of Messrs. Mead & Ripley, and
the business was afterward conducted under the firm name of the
Stanhilber-Amos Company. In 1893 Messrs. Hollister & Amos purchased the
interest of Mr. Stanhilber and the co-partnership under the name of the
Hollister & Amos Company was formed and continued up to the time of Mr.
Amos’ death.
By a strange
coincidence, Mr. Amos’ partner, Mr. Stanhilber, also died of apoplexy
about one year after retiring from business. During several months
previous to his death he had determined to retire from business, and
consequently purchased from the company of which he was a member the
large stock farm near Fond du Lac during the summer of 1901. Many
improvements were made on the place and new buildings erected. and it
was arranged that after January 1 Mr. Hollister was to purchase the
interests of Mr. Amos in the lumbering business and Mr. Amos would
remove to his farm, where he would spend the remainder of his life in
time comforts earned by years of hard labor. His death occurred at his
home. No. 703 Algoma street, on Tuesday, December 10, 1901. Besides his
wife, Mr. Amos is survived by one daughter, the wife of Mr. J. G.
Morris, vice- president and general manager of the R. McMillen Company
and one brother, Arthur Amos, who lives at Kimball, Nebraska.
Mr. Amos was a man of
sterling integrity, upright and respected. He was industrious and had
succeeded in accumulating a comfortable fortune and never forgot or
neglected the less fortunate his donations, however, were always made in
a quiet unostentatious way, characteristic of the man. He was modest and
retiring, and the comforts of his home life were sufficient to occupy
his attentions, and he was consequently not a member of and secret
society, although a good neighbor and citizen.
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