Arthur B. Ames Biography
As published in
"The City of Kenosha and Kenosha County Wisconsin: A Record of Settlement,
Organization, Progress and Achievement"
by Frank H. Lyman Vol. 2, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1916.
Prominent among the energetic, farsighted and progressive business man of
Kenosha is Arthur B. Ames, who in mercantile circles figures prominently as a
dealer in men's furnishing goods. Persistent purpose and indefatigable energy
have brought him to the front in mercantile circles and an analyzation of his
record shows what can be accomplished when one has the will to dare and to do.
Mr. Ames is a native of Fort Collins, Colorado, born August 15, 1871, and is a
son of Joshua B., and Elizabeth (Angier) Ames. Both were natives of New York,
and in the year 1860 the father went to Colorado, where he engaged in gold
mining. Subsequently he took up a Government claim near Fort Collins and devoted
his attention to farming and stock raising. In 1877 he removed with his family
to Storm Lake, Iowa, where he engaged in the clothing business until about 1890,
when he moved to Waukegan, Illinois, and engaged in the same business, afterward
removing to California, where he passed away on the 31st of May 1911. His widow
survives and is yet living in California.
After acquiring a public school education, Arthur B. Ames continued his studies
in Storm Lake Normal and Business College, and became the associate of his
father in the clothing business at Waukegan, so that he had practical training
in the line of work in which he is now engaged. He studied law under the
direction of the Chicago Correspondence School of Law, and was admitted to the
Wisconsin bar in 1906, but has never practiced. His knowledge of jurisprudence,
however, has been of value to him in the conduct of business affairs and in his
understanding of important public problems.
In the spring of 1893 that Mr. Ames came to Kenosha, where he purchased the
interest of his brother, Adelbert O., in a men's clothing goods store, which was
conducted under the name of Ames, Angier & Company, which had been established
the year previously. Later Mr. Ames bought out his partners, and has since been
sole proprietor of a business which is now extensive and important, being ranked
with the leading mercantile enterprises of the city. He started business at No.
302 Main Street, and afterward removed to the corner of Main and Market Streets,
where he remained for five years. Subsequently he was at the corner of Main and
Wisconsin Streets for eight years, and in 1907 he erected the Ames building at
169 Main Street, renting the upper floor for office purposes. The store occupies
the first floor and basement of the building, which is twenty-eight by
seventy-five feet. He carries a full line of men's clothing, hats, furnishings,
etc., and his trade is now very gratifying.
In 1900 Arthur B. Ames was married to Miss Harriet M. Butcher, a native of
Kenosha, and a daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Susan Butcher. They have become
the parents of two children, Kenneth S. and Warren W. Mr. Ames maintains a
nonpartisan attitude in politics. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons,
Knights of Pythias, and Modern Woodmen and his religious faith is indicated in
his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. He was a charter member of the
Kenosha Retail Merchants Association, and has always taken an active part in the
work of the association. He is also a member of the Kenosha Bar Association.
There have been no spectacular phases in his life record, but his life work is
none the less essential and none the less valuable to the community, for it is
the business man who pursues the even tenor of his ways that constitutes the
real source of the city's greatness and its stability. His diligence and his
determination have brought him the success which has been most honorably won,
making his name a synonym for commercial integrity as well as enterprise in
Kenosha's business circles.
Typed by: Michelle Laycock