banker, b. Eastport, Maine. In 1847 he moved to Milwaukee and found work as a clerk in George Smith and Alexander Mitchell's (q.v.) Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Co. In 1849 he entered into a partnership with Samuel Marshall (q.v.), who had established a banking business in 1847. The Marshall and Ilsley firm conducted a private banking business until 1888, when it was incorporated under state law as the Marshall and Ilsley Bank. In 1853, Marshall and Ilsley organized the State Bank of Madison, the first state bank chartered under the free banking law of 1852. Ilsley was president of the Marshall and Ilsley Bank (1901-1904). He was also an organizer of the Milwaukee City Railway Co. (1865), a director of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., and president of the Milwaukee Clearing House Association at his death. He contributed to local philanthropies, and was a director of the Layton Art Gallery. J. S. Buck, Milwaukee under the Charter (2 vols., Milwaukee, 1884-1886), H. L. Conard, ed., Hist. of Milwaukee (3 vols., Chicago [1896]); Milwaukee Sentinel, Dec. 5, 1904; WPA MS.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

Learn More

Dictionary of Wisconsin History

Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.

[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]