Brittingham Viking Organization - Wisconsin Alumni Association

Helpful Numbers and Web sitesThe following listing of Web sites and phone numbers may be helpful on your travels toMadison. If you have any other questions, your Viking hosts are happy to assist you inany way they can. Their names and e-mail addresses are listed at the end of this document.You may also find information about your hosts online at uwalumni.com/bvo.Van Galder Bus Service to and from Chicago O’Hare Airportwww.coachusa.com/vangalderBadger Cab Taxi Service608-256-5566www.badgercab.comDane County Regional Airportwww.msnairport.comGreater Madison Convention and Visitors BureauMaps of the city and information about all that Madison has to offer can befound at www.visitmadison.com.Brittingham Family HistoryPater familias Thomas Evans Brittingham was born in 1860 in Missouri. After havingfinished his studies, he spent some time in Colorado and California before finallysettling in Wisconsin in 1885 where he co-founded the Brittingham and Hixon LumberCompany. Thomas Brittingham served as the company’s president, guiding its expansioninto a chain of 24 lumberyards in several states — one of the largest retail lumberyardchains in the country.Thomas and his wife, Mary Clark Brittingham, had lived in three different houses nearthe UW-Madison campus in the first decade or so of their marriage, but had always beenlooking for a more permanent residence. When they finally found a beautiful spot in theHighlands where in 1916, they had prominent Madison architect Frank Riley designthem a grand Georgian-style home, which they named “Dunmuven.”Although the Brittinghams loved to entertain and travel — eventually visiting over 30countries and 20 states, they had a strong social consciousness, which compelled themto contribute time and resources to the city and university. The Brittingham name isscattered throughout Madison: Brittingham Park, the Brittingham Gallery at theChazen Museum and on the statue of Abraham Lincoln atop Bascom Hill.Thomas and Mary Brittingham had three children: Margaret in 1892, Harold Hixon in1894, and Thomas Evans, Jr. in 1899. As adults, all three Brittingham children steeredthe University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Brittingham Fund established by the wills of theirparents, but Thomas Evans Brittingham, Jr. was both the most active and the most publicin managing the fund.