Thomas and Katherine McNeill

Both Thomas and Katherine NcNeill were well known figures in the Sheboygan chair making industry. Thomas, originally from Boston, moved to Sheboygan when he was a child. He eventually became involved in the Phoenix Chair Company, ran by Thomas Blackstock. Later, Thomas and Katherine were instrumental in running the Sheboygan Chair Company. Both Thomas and Katherine are buried here in Calvary Cemetery.

Thomas and Katherine McNeill were heavily involved in the chair industry in Sheboygan, and can actually thank Thomas Blackstock (also featured in this tour) for giving them their start.

Thomas McNeill was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 1, 1854. Soon after his birth, his family moved to Sheboygan where they owned a farm. Sadly, his father died in 1855 and his mother in 1857, leaving him and his sister orphans.

Although adopted by their aunt, they grew up in poverty. One day, James H. Mead – whom the Mead Public Library is named after – found Thomas out on the street on a school day. When he discovered he couldn’t afford to go to school, he gave him books to study and learn from instead. This instilled a lifelong love of learning in Thomas. Much later when the Sheboygan Board of Education was established in 1887, the once poor, uneducated orphan who couldn’t afford to go to school became the board president.

After working as a child on farms and with timber companies, he started working for the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railroad in 1867, where he quickly rose through the organization. He started by working odd jobs, but soon took favor with officials because of his willingness to work and learn, and for his natural sense of business. By 1874, Thomas was made the accountant for the Master Mechanic. The Northwestern railroad bought the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac in 1880 and although offered a position to stay with the new company, Thomas decided to leave.

Marrying his wife Katherine Kane, a Sheboygan native and daughter of local pioneers, in 1877, they considered moving to Oshkosh, but changed their plans when Thomas Blackstock offered him a job as bill-clerk at the Phoenix Chair Company. Just as he did in the railroad business, Thomas impressed those higher up and continued to rise within the company.

After learning the chair trade at the Phoenix, he left in 1888 to reorganize the Sheboygan Chair Company, which had previously been known as the Sheboygan Manufacturing Company. With a new direction and under new management, Thomas became the treasurer and purchasing agent.

As his son Harry grew older, he too decided he wanted to join the chair business. Thomas helped his son organize the McNeill Chair Company in 1915, but he continued as the treasure for the Sheboygan Chair Company until his death on March 12, 1934.

Harry McNeill became the president and treasurer of the McNeill Chair Company, and his mother Katherine actually served as the vice president. An unheard-of role for a woman at the time. Katherine died August 25, 1940, at the age of 87.

In 1944, his late father’s company absorbed the McNeil Company and Harry became the president of the Sheboygan Chair Company until his retirement in 1951.

They say like father like son, but Thomas McNeill’s grandson Don did not follow in the chair manufacturing business. Instead he became a voice heard coast to coast every morning at 8am. 

Don McNeil, born and raised in Sheboygan, hosted the longest running daily network radio show in history, Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club. Starting in 1933 when Don was 25 years old and continuing until 1968, the Breakfast Club was on the top of the ratings charts for 3 decades. It featured interviews with famous guests and celebrities such as Jimmy Stewart and Bob Hope, but also everyday people from the audience.

The show included the famous “March Around the Breakfast Table” at 8:30am which invited listeners to literally get up and march around the kitchen table to help get the blood flowing in the morning.

If you’re interested in hearing the show that continued to rule the airwaves even after the boom of television in the 1950s, you can find some shows on YouTube and Spotify. Visit the Sheboygan County Historical Museum to see some video clips included in our Harmonizing Heroines: Sheboygan’s Chordettes Exhibit which also features other famous Sheboygan natives.

From the Portrait and Biographical Record of Sheboygan County, Wis., 1898:, Sheboygan History. Accessed October 27th, 2023. https://www.sheboyganhistory.com/b/mcneill.htm.

Lord, Jane. Don McNeill, Winnetka Historical Society. Accessed October 27th, 2023. https://www.winnetkahistory.org/gazette/don-mcneill/.