The three families of Thiers, Quarles, and French found their separate ways to Wisconsin from the eastern United States. The Thiers and Quarles families first settled in Kenosha and the Frenches in Milwaukee.
Family members were well educated, with the men receiving degrees from Harvard, M.I.T., the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin and entering professions in law, medicine, and business. The women were also well educated, with college attendance and degrees from Milwaukee Downer College, Vassar, Skidmore, and Brown University. Family members also traveled widely and European tours were not unusual. Many of the men were avid fishermen and had vacation ties to northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Both the Quarles and French families were regularly included in Milwaukee's Social Register and were financially secure, although this “social elite” status seems to have dissipated with the generation coming of age before and during World War II as the widening middle class encompassed them.
