ARTHUR EMMETT RANSOM.

A good many disappointments have followed the entertainment of the hope that some day a fortune might be realized from the representations of attorneys who claimed to have discovered the existence of large fortunes in European countries to which American heirs were entitled. A. E. Ransom, however, is one of the heirs to a fortune of eighteen million pounds sterling lying in the Bank of England, about the existence of which there is no doubt, but to which the Ransom family in America have as yet been unable to establish clear title. Mr. Ransom is a native of Concord, Jefferson County, Wisconsin, where he was born September 30, 1866, the son of Nathaniel C. Ransom and Catherine Olivia Coggins (Ransom). Nathaniel is now a resident of Milwaukee. He was a member of the Forty-seventh Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers, Company H, and to his efforts in a large degree is due the progress made thus far in establishing the title of the Ransom family to the English property. The Ransoms came from England in the early part of the Eighteenth century. Arthur E. was educated in the public schools of
Wisconsin and the state university. He graduated from the high schools at Unity, Wisconsin, in 1883, receiving first honors and the prize for oratory. He entered the state university with the class of 1888, in his eighteenth year. He was a student at Madison when that institution was under the direction of President J. W. Bascom. While at the university he took a very active interest in the work in the military department, which was in charge of a regular army officer, thus insuring the best of discipline, and has been almost continually connected with the national guard work ever since. He became a member of Company E, of the Second Regiment, located at Fond du Lac, then joined the Sheridan Guard, Company A, of Milwaukee, remaining with them until the organization of Company H, Fourth Regiment, Milwaukee, of which he was made captain. In 1883 Major Ransom moved to Albert Lea. He was elected captain of Company I, Second Infantry, but resigned on December 15, 1895, on account of business which kept him almost constantly away from home, and accepted the position of aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Clough, with the rank of major. While in Milwaukee, prior to his removal to Albert Lea, Mr. Ransom was engaged in the capacity of private secretary to Mr. Rockwell, of the Rockwell Manufacturing Company. Upon his removal to Albert Lea, he became identified with the Ransom Bros. Company, wholesale grocers, as traveling salesman. He is widely acquainted in Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa. He had spent some time in studying law with the intention of making that his profession, but gave it up for the mercantile business. In that connection he became an expert accountant, and at one time charge of the English course and bookkeeping department of the McDonald Business Academy, in Milwaukee. His first dollar was earned by teaching school at Thorpe, Wisconsin, in 1883. In the fall of 1894, Mr. Ransom formed a partnership with Senator T. V. Knatvold and H. G. Koontz, known as the Ransom-Knatvold Manufacturing Company, for the manufacture of pipes. This business was sold within a year to Chicago buyers. He was chosen Chief