Bio: Bird, Claire Brayton (1868 – 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Bird, Kreutzer, Rosenberry, Okoneski, Brayton, Swain, Warren, Mylrea, Marchetti, Eaton

----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Bird, Claire Brayton (27 October 1868 – 19??)

CLAIRE BRAYTON BIRD, attorney at law, and member of the firm of Kreutzer, Bird, Rosenberry & Okoneski, was born at Jefferson, Jefferson County, Wis. October 27, 1868. His ancestries on both sides were pioneers in the very earliest settlement and building of the state.  

His paternal grandfather, Col. A. A. Bird, was employed to lay out the site of the city of Madison, and to build the first capitol building, when that location was chosen for the capitol site of the state. He started with a party of forty men from Milwaukee, went through the forests to the four lakes, building his own roads and bridges, platted and laid out the city of Madison, built the first capitol building, the first court house, hotel, depot, south building of the University, and other 53 buildings. He was also sheriff of Dane County, and mayor of Madison. As soon as the capital city site was established and sufficient housings for the family prepared, the eldest Colonel Bird removed his family from Milwaukee to that city. There his son Col. George W. Bird grew up went through the schools, including the University; studied law, enlisted in the army, after which he practiced law at Jefferson, where his children were born. He removed back to Madison in 1886, and there practiced law until his death October 1, 1912. He was well known throughout the entire state as a leading Democrat, and one of its best lawyers.  

On his mother's side, his great-grandfather, Jeremiah Brayton, moved into the Rock River Valley and established a small colony of original homesteaders. His daughter, Louise Brayton, was the first school teacher in Dane county. She subsequently married George Swain, who died in middle manhood leaving two children, a son and a daughter. The son, then the sole support of the mother and daughter, enlisted in the 29th Wisconsin, and gave up his life in the Vicksburg campaign. The daughter married Col. George W. Bird. They had five children of who three are living, to wit: Claire Brayton Bird, Hobert S. Bird, a lawyer in New York City, and Louise B. Warren, the wife of a Chicago architect.  

Claire Brayton Bird was graduated from the University of Wisconsin, in the collegiate class of 1889 and the law class of 1891. In 1892 he came to Wausau, became the junior member of the firm of Mylrea, Marchetti & Bird, which firm terminated in 1900, when it was succeeded by his present firm.

On June 20, 1892, he was married to Miss Laura Eaton of Muscatine, Iowa. They have two children: Marie, now a student at Downer College, Milwaukee; and George, student at Lake Forest Academy. He is prominently identified with the Masons (of which Lodge he is now Master), the Elks (of which he has twice been Ruler) and other fraternal societies.  

He has devoted himself during his twenty years residence here, almost exclusively to the practice of law. While he has taken advantage of the financial opportunities resulting from the growth of northern Wisconsin, so as to acquire for himself a substantial competence, yet he has never allowed the matter of outside investments or such other distractions to divert his attention from his main purpose and business of practicing law in this community. He is considered one of the most effective lawyers in argument of legal propositions to the court as well as able advocates before a jury that we have had in Wausau. Aside from court practice, (which is getting to be less and less important in the work of a lawyer) he is also considered a very wise and safe counselor upon whose opinion of the law and advice as to policy, clients are accustomed to rely with safety.  

Mr. Bird has taken an active interest in the welfare of the Baptist Church of this city, being what may properly be called a Liberal Baptist. He has also been active in politics though not seeking office. Of late years he has affiliated with the Republican Party, but has always been independent and outspoken in his views and has never been a partisan of either wing.