MARY SATHER INTERVIEW WITH WARREN P. KNOWLES MS: Today we have a much honored guest; this is Warren P. Knowles, former Governor Knowles. We are conducting this interview at Warren's brother's, the late Robert Knowles, and Mrs. Lucille Knowles. The address is Route 2, Box 9, New Richmond. The setting is just above the "ne1v holes 11 of the golf course. We are in a beautiful setting of pines and is one of the move lovely homes in New Richmond. Directly south of here is Hiway 64. Let's talk about your background. What is your address and what are you doing? WPK: I am in Milwaukee and have been since 1971 when I retired as governor & I am living at 3039 E. Newport Avenue and have since I moved from Madison. At present, I am Chairman and President of Newton Funds, an investment fund firm in Milwaukee which has growth equity funds. I have been in that position since August 1, 1985. My work address is 3030 Kilbourn, 2 East Plaza and I occupy an office on Suite 1150. MS: The date today is 12/27/85 and Warren is spending Christmas with Lucille and her family. Do you like Milwaukee? WPK: Very much. Having been born in northwestern Wisconsin, it was a change for me to move into a metropolitan area but Milwaukee is a city of villages, 16-20 villages and it is a small town which has grown into a megalopolis. MS: One of the reasons you have settled in Milwaukee is because you spent a great deal of time in the southern part of the state because you were governor. Let's review that history. WPK: I was born in River Falls on August 19, 1908, and I lived there with my parents. In 1926 I graduated from high school and was president of my class and participated in a great many sports. We had basketball, football, baseball track and chorus. My father was Warren P. Knowles and he was born in River Falls. His father was Warren P. Knowles and his grandfather was Warren P. Knowles who was born in New Hampshire but moved to Wisconsin in 1837. His father was a captain in the Civil War, Warren P. Knowles II, and he died when he was very young. My father died in 1939 at the age of 60. He had been elected County Judge of St. Croix County and held that position for 25 years, prior to his death. My mother was a daughter of Dennis Dineen, & Anna Dineen, of Irish descent. Dennis was born in County Cork and Anna was born in County Wicklow. They came to the U.S. via Canada and settled in Hammond, WI where Dennis ran a country store and became postmaster in 1932 when Roosevelt was elected. They were Catholic and my mother grew up in River Falls where her father had sent her for an education. They had a good normal school and my mother and aunt, Mae Doar (Mrs. w. T. Sr.) both graduated from the normal school at River Falls. 2 MS; Were they the only two children in the family? WPK: They had another sister named Lottie and 4 brothers: Andrew, Emmett, Dennis and John. I knew all of them during the time I was growing up. My grandfather was a patriarch and active in the Democratic Party and active in forming the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin, an insurance company. I later went to school at Carleton in Northfield, MN and graduated in 1930. I was president of my class and played football. MS: You were into politics early. WPK: I never really aspired to a political career. MS: Are you Warren P. Knowles IV? WPK: Yes, my middle name is Perley, which undoubtedly was a family name. You can trace it to the New Hampshire people of English descent. My father was Welch and English and he always told me that Peregrine White was my 42nd cousin who was the first white child born on the Mayflower. So I am I have traced it back and did have relatives who came over on the Mayflower so I 1 m entitled to be a member of the Mayflower Society. I have tried to trace the descent of the Perley 1 s. All they find is that it was a family name. My brother has a son whose name is Warren and I insisted he be Warren Patrick rather than Perley, and his son is Warren Paul so it is a succession of the WPK name. MS: The grandfather from the East, did he come directly here? WPK: In the Knowles family he went directly to Hudson and worked in a quarry outside of Wilson and was a mason by profession. He came here and started building and located in River Falls in 1840 and lived there. MS: Does family history indicate why he left the East? WPK: I think it was at the time that everyone was going West. The records at Gilmanton, N.H. were burned and there is no record on that phase. I tried to get a secretary in the governor 1 s office there to help me and she said once, 11 Mr -"nw1ps_ vou know that Gilmanton, NH was often referred to as Peyton Place and I wonder if you want me to go on with this. 11 I almost let it go. MS: So, your mother Anna & Warren Knowles met in River Falls? WPK: They were married in 1906 in River Falls. My father had never studied law except in the office of a man named Ferris White who was the renowned lawyer and he passed the bar and practiced law from 1906 until he died in 1939 at age 60. 3 I graduated from Carleton and these were very trying years. 1929 was the stock market crash. I then went to the University of Wisconsin and then was totally on my own in getting through the University and I graduated in 1933 and I had intended to practice with my father who had a partner named Doolittle. They had gotten a lot of notoriety from a partnership called"Know-Less and Do-Little". In 1933 my uncle Tom Doar had married my aunt Mae and he had a good practice in New Richmond. He had a man working for him named Ed Casey, a local boy who had studied law and was working in the office and he contracted osteomyelitis and they took off his leg and he died. I graduated in June, 1933 and my uncle called and he was up against it. He had no one in the office and asked if I would be interested in practicing with him. I talked it over with my father and he and Tom Doar were very close and he suggested it would be good for me to have the diversity of that kind of law and also Mr. Doar had an outstanding trial practice. So I came to New Richmond in 1933 and I made $50/month for the first 6 months. I lived at Ernie Bell's resident on West 6th St., paid $5/week for my room and I ate most of my meals at Paul Albrightson's for about a dollar a day so I had about $15 a month to spend. I bought a car from Joye Johnson and paid $750 for the car and I paid it up over the years. It was a new car and I was flying high. I stayed with Mr. Doar until 1941 when I was elected to the state senate. During that time when I was in New Richm,ond I was elected to the County Board after a fellow named Will Burroughs,who ran a woodworking shop, died and he had been on the Board. Carl Friday had run against him and Mr. Burroughs said, "Mr. Friday can take as many vacations as he wants but the only vacation I get is when I go down to the County Board." Obviously he won. He died in office and John Van Meter was Mayor of New Richmond and he asked me if I would succeed him on County Board and from that time on, I had some interest in politics. I enjoyed my 6 years on County Board. Jim Frawley was chairman and Frank Van Someron. Jim Frawley was a long-time County Board member who was a powerhouse. He was chairman of the Hiway Committee and there were about 30 members on the County Board then. Anyway, in 1940, Kenneth White was the senator from the Tenth Senate District which comprised St. Croix, Pierce, Pepin and Buffalo counties and he came to me and said, "You've had some experience and I think you should run for my seat because I am going to be called into active duty. He was a Commandant in the Nat'l Guards. I ran for office and he also had told 5 other fellows the same thing, so I had Fred LaGrandeur, Carl Simonson, Grover Brockland and someone else running from every county. I won the primary and later on, the general election and took office on January 1, 1941 and served in the state senate from 1941 to 1955, ran for lieutenant governor in 1954 at the request of Walter Kohler who was then governor and entering his third term and I had been his nominator and then his state chairman in 1950, 1952, and 1954 and he asked me to run. During the period of 1940 - 1954 I was an active participant in the legislative process in Wisconsin 4 and had gained somewhat state-wide recognition.