User:Jonwurl/HoraceRubleeDraft

Horace Rublee was a Wisconsin journalist and newspaper editor, Republican party leader, and ambassador to Switzerland. He was born August 19, 1829, in Berkshire, Vermont. In 1839, his father moved to what was then the pioneer western town of Sheboygan 1839, where he had an interest at a saw mill, and in June 1840 the rest of the family joined him.

The Rublee family was among the earliest of young families who settled there from New York and New England. Influential was Horace Greeley and the New York Tribune, which was subscribed by many in the area, and Combe on the Constitution of Man. There was a debating society well attended by these pioneers in nearby Sheboygan Falls, and among the philosophical trends was Fourierism.

For the season of 1843-44 a school opened, and Rublee was one of the first two students. The teacher went to Sheboygan Falls for debating societies, and "he loaned me Scott's 'Lady of the Lake,' 'Nicholas Nickleby,' 'Oliver Twist' and several of Bulwer's novels, which helped to pass the school hours, and wonderfully shortened the long winter evening." Thus Rublee was immersed in a society of intellectual ferment, with many influences of high literature.

He taught school briefly starting at age 17, spent a year at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and returned again to Sheboygan County to teach.

Rublee then began his political and journalism career in 1852, when he moved back to Madison. He was legislative reporter for the Madison Argus and Democrat in 1852-53. In 1853 started work with at Wisconsin State Journal, and in 1854 purchased a part interest in the paper. He was secretary of the state mass meeting held at Madison, July 13, 1854 which formed the state chapter of the Republican party. The party had been started in embryonic form in March in Ripon, but this mass meeting was the first serious establishment of the party as a lasting organized political force. He was Republican party chair 1859-1869, and in 1868 a delegate to the national Republican convention.

In 1869 Rublee was a candidate for the US Senate, although this was prior to the Seventeenth Amendment according to which voters became empowered to directly elect US Senators. The candidacy and campaign while not a secret from the public, was carried out almost entirely behind closed doors. Later that same year, Rublee was appointed Ambassador to Switzerland by President Ulysses S. Grant, serving until 1877. In consequence of this appointment, he sold his interest in the Wisconsin State Journal.

When he returned to Wisconsin after his ambassadorship, he again assumed the chair position of the Republican party, serving from 1877-1879. In 1878 he settled the 'Greenback Controversy' which threatened to seriously divide the party. In 1879 he went east and served as editor of Boston Advertiser for one year.

After he returned to Wisconsin, in 1881 he and associates purchased the Milwaukee Daily News and renamed it Republican and News. In 1882 he purchased the Milwaukee Sentinel and merged the Republican News into it. He remained the editor of Sentinel until his death in 1896. During his life in Milwaukee, he lived on fashionable Prospect Avenue, home of the cream of Milwaukee's social, political and business elite.

He died October 19, 1896 in Milwaukee.