USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of representative men of Chicago, Minnesota cities and the World's Columbian exposition : with illustrations on steel. V. 2 > Part 32
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Mr. Pillsbury has been so much pressed with business that he has rigidly refused positions in matters outside of his own concerns. He has been asked by many banks in Minneapolis to become a director, but has uniformly declined. In personal habits, Mr. Pillsbury is thoroughly domestic and democratic. His manner is cordial and considerate with rich and poor alike. Sim- plicity characterizes all 'his actions, and ostenta- tion and display are distasteful to him. He is a regular attendant of and generous contributor to Plymouth Congregational Church of Minneapolis, and for several years was president of the board of trustees.
One of Mr. Pillsbury's most prominent traits is his liberality, for which the Pillsbury family has ever been noted. His gifts are not confined by sectarian lines ; his charities are bestowed wher- ever worthy objects present themselves. In
this connection should be mentioned a system of profit-sharing, which prevails in the Pillsbury mills, whereby each year the employés are given a percentage of the earnings. In one year the sum thus distributed exceeded forty thousand dollars.
To close this sketch without speaking of Mr. Pillsbury's happy disposition, cordiality and kindness of manner towards all men, would be to omit the qualities which endear him to all with whom he comes in contact. No man ever envied his prosperity; his employés have been his strongest allies, and the laboring man regards him as a personal friend.
A most intense worker, he possesses the happy faculty of throwing off his business cares when mingling with his family and friends. He is thoroughly in touch with all that goes on in the world about him. The arts, science and litera- ture find in him a sympathetic devotee. To see him take from his well-selected library one of the last publications or a late magazine, and enjoy an hour's pleasure, one would hardly believe that he was looking at the largest and most successful flour manufacturer of the age. His family con- sists of his wife and his twin boys, John Sargent and Charles Stinson, who were born in Decem- ber, 1878.
HON. ALEXANDER RAMSEY,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
A LEXANDER RAMSEY, who was the first territorial governor of Minnesota, was born near Harrisburg, Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1815. On his father's side he is of Scotch descent. . His grandfather, Alexander Ramsey, was born in eastern Pennsylvania, and his father, Thomas Ramsey, near the town of York, York county, June 15, 1784. The latter was an officer in the war of 1812, and died when the subject of this sketch was about ten years old. His mother, Elizabeth Kelker, was a de- scendant of some of the carly German settlers of Pennsylvania. His parents were well-to-do, in- dustrious and thrifty people, and he was trained to the same habits. From them he inherited his strong and elastic physical constitution. One of
his earliest characteristics was a fondness for reading and study. During his boyhood he went to school to Mr. Isaac D. Rupp, an accomplished scholar, who afterward became eminent as an historian in Pennsylvania.
Left an orphan by the death of his father at quite an early age, young Ramsey became a protege of a grand-uncle, Frederick Kelker, a merchant of high standing in Harrisburg, in whose store he was for a time employed. While yet a youth he was employed as a clerk in the office of register of deeds of Dauphin county. He also worked some time at the carpenter trade. He was constantly pushing his studies, and at the age of eighteen he was enabled to enter Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsylvania, where he took
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a partial collegiate course, and in 1837 began the study of law with Hon. Hamilton Alricks, of Harrisburg. He completed his legal education at the law school of Hon. John Reed, at Carlisle, and was admitted to practice in 1839, when he was twenty-four years of age. Young Ramsey soon entered into quite a good law practice in Harrisburg. He devoted himself largely to the settlement and administration of estates, in which he was very successful and secured a large client- age. At this time, too, especially in the memor- able campaign of 1840, he became actively interested in political movements, and soon be- came well known as a zealous member of the Whig party. That year he was chosen secretary of the Electoral College of Pennsylvania and the following year (January, 1841) was elected chief clerk of the house of representatives of that state, succeeding the late ex-Governor Francis R. Shunk.
In August, 1842, Mr. Ramsey was nominated for congressman in his district, which then con- sisted of Dauphin, Lebanon and a part of Lan- caster counties. There was a warm contest in the legislature on the apportionment of that state, and the governor finally vetoed the bill. Mr. Ramsey was elected, but the election of course was void. He was nominated again in 1843 for the remainder of the term of the Twenty-eighth Congress, for the district composed of the coun- ties of Dauphin, Lebanon and Schuylkill, and was elected. William H. Barnes, in his " History of the Fortieth Congress," says of Mr. Ramsey's career at that time, that " he sustained and earned the reputation of a useful rather than ornamental member. He was more remarkable for his practi- cal ability and diligent attention to business than for any special efforts at oratorical display. So well did he fill his post that in 1844 he was again nominated and re-elected, and would undoubtedly have received even a third term but that he de- clined a renomination which was tendered him in 1846.
On September 10, 1845, Mr. Ramsey married Miss Anna Earl Jenks, a daughter of Hon. Michael H. Jenks, a judge for many years of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and a representative in Congress from 1843 to 1845. From this union were born two sons, both of whom died in infancy, and one daughter, Marion, now Mrs. Chas. E. Furness.
On retiring from his congressional duties March 4, 1847, Mr. Ramsey resumed his profession. In 1848 he was chosen as chairman of the Whig State Committee during the important campaign which resulted in the election of Gen. Zachary Taylor as president. In March, 1849, President Taylor tendered him the appointment of governor of Minnesota territory, then recently organized, and he accepted it. The commission was dated April 2, 1849, and he at once took steps to re- move to St. Paul, the seat of government, then a mere frontier village. He arrived there May 27, and at once commenced his duties as governor. Four days afterward, the other territorial officers having arrived, he issued a proclamation declaring the territory organized and the machinery of law in operation. Other proclamations followed, dividing the territory into legislative districts. ordering elections, appointing county officers, etc., and with the labor of organizing the machinery of government, superintending the affairs of several tribes of Indians, of which he was ex-officio super- intendent, and administering various trusts, his office was no sinecure. The first territorial legis- lature, which met in September, 1849, bestowed on one of the first counties created the name of the governor a just and well deserved compli- ment. This legislative body convened in two small rooms of a modest hotel known as the " Central House," on the banks of the Mississippi. The governor read his first message to a joint convention of the two houses, twenty-seven mem- bers in all, assembled in the hotel dining-room ; but it was one full of hope and prophecy of the future greatness of the new commonwealth.
Governor Ramsey took early measures to pro- cure the extinguishment of Indian titles, by treaty, etc., and by the negotiations made at Mendota and Traverse de Sioux in 1851 some forty million acres of what is now the most valu- able and fertile portions of the state were thrown open to settlers. In the fall of the same year he visited the Red River country, and made at Pem- bina a treaty with the northern Chippewas for the cession by them of thirty miles on each side of the Red River. This treaty was not ratified by the senate, but in 1863 Governor Ramsey, then senator, made another treaty, accomplishing the re- sults aimed at in the previous one, and thus threw the great Red River Valley open to settlement.
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Governor Ramsey's term closed in 1853, and he gave his attention more than previously to making investments in real estate in Minnesota, principally in St. Paul, in whose future he always had a strong faith. In 1855 he was elected mayor of St. Paul, and rendered valuable service. In 1857, at the first state election, he was nominated by the Republican party for governor, but was not returned. Two years later he was again nomi- nated for the same office, and this time received a handsome majority. During both of these closely contested canvasses Governor Ramsey made a number of addresses in various parts of the state. . He was inaugurated January 2, 1860. At that time the state was in debt, treasury was empty, taxes were difficult to collect, and many other troubles were to be contended with, but his ad- ministration was successful and the finances of the state soon showed a great improvement. At the time of the fall of Fort Sumter, at the opening of the civil war, Governor Ramsey was in Washington, on official business, and at once called on President Lincoln and tendered him a regiment of one thousand men from Minnesota, which was the first offer of armed support to the government, the president not having yet issued his proclamation calling for troops. During that year five regiments were recruited, equipped and drilled and sent by the State of Minnesota to the seat of war.
Governor Ramsey was re-elected in the fall of 1861. His second term was more important and trying than the first. The heavy calls for troops in the summer of 1862, five regiments being de- manded at once, called for energetic and per- emptory measures. In the midst of this urgency, while the state authorities were straining every nerve to fill its quota, came, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, the news of the Sioux massacre in the western part of the state. In a wonder- fully short campaign the savages were defeated and driven beyond the state; all their white prisoners rescued, and confidence and security re- stored to the western frontier.
In January, 1863, Governor Ramsey was elected United States senator from Minnesota, and in 1869, at the close of his term, he was re-elected for six years more. During this period he served as chairman on several important standing com- mittecs, and devoted much of his attention to
postal reforms. He introduced the bill for the repeal of the franking abuse, and secured its pas- sage, and visited France in 1869 to urge cheaper in- ternational postage, which was not long afterward adopted. The improvement of the Mississippi river and its navigable tributaries; the aiding of the Northern Pacific Railroad ; assisting Da- kota and Montana to obtain necessary legisla- tion, the encouragement of trade with Mani- toba, and other measures to benefit the north- west, found in Senator Ramsey a warm and active supporter. He was always prompt, vigi- lant and industrious. And it may be said that no one in either house of congress had the re- spect, confidence and good will of those two bodies to a greater degree than Senator Ramsey. The breadth of his views on all national topics, his good judgment and sagacity regarding all measures, his frankness and cordiality toward all his associates, gave him an influence and popularity among his colleagues. After the close of his congressional term in March, 1875, he enjoyed a period of rest from official life until December IO, 1879, when President Hayes tendered him the portfolio of secretary of war, which he accepted, and at once entered on his duties. On March 5, 1881, when the Garfield administration began, he vacated his official chair, which he had filled with much honor to himself and advantage to the administration.
On March 2, 1882, congress passed the. act to restrict the power of the polygamists in Utah, known as "the Edmunds law," and creating a commission of five officials to carry out its pro- visions. Senator Ramsey was appointed one of this board and elected its chairman. The com- mission proceeded to the discharge of their duties in August following. They usually made two or three visits to Salt Lake city each year, and their sessions lasted generally two months. Senator Ramsey served on this commission until 1886, when he resigned. This was the last public ser- vice in which he was engaged.
Mrs. Anna E. Ramsey departed this life No- vember 29, 1884, aged fifty-eight years. No biog- raphy of Senator Ramsey would be complete without also doing full justice to the memory of this superior woman. From the day of her ad- vent into Minnesota in 1849 to her death, Mrs. Ramsey was one of the foremost figures in social
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circles, both in St. Paul and Washington. En- dowed by nature with great personal beauty and a commanding and queenly figure and presence, with amiable and winning manners, she was con- stantly the center of an admiring circle of friends. She was foremost, not only as a generous sup- porter, but also as an active worker, in every charitable and benevolent movement in St. Paul, and was a devoted Christian. She presided with dignity and grace over her elegant home, and dispensed its hospitalities with a generous hand. Her death was a most sad event for her wide circle of intimate friends, who hold in loving remembrance her charming graces and noble, womanly qualities.
Always fond of reading and study, Governor Ramsey keeps abreast of the times and of all the movements of political and social life. He has always been active in every movement for the benefit of his city and state, and has con- tributed generously in aid of them. He has been since 1849 one of the most active members, and, most of the time, an officer of the Minnesota
Historical Society. He is also one of the di- rectors and president of the St. Paul Public Library. The Old Settlers' Association is an- other society in which he feels a great interest, and is one of the leading spirits at its reunions. He is also an honored member of the Minnesota Commandery Loyal Legion and of the Minnesota Club, and was for some time president of the Germania Bank.
He has hosts of friends, and everywhere that he goes in his travels he is sure of a cordial wel- come. In fact, Governor Ramsey is one who would attract attention anywhere. In his phys- ical appearance he is large and well formed, and has a countenance expressive of dignity and force, and always beaming with good humor. As a conversationalist he is very entertaining, having seen so much of men and things in his long and active life, and having a tenacious and well stored memory full of valuable reminscences. At all public entertainments. he is an honored guest, and his speeches on such occasions are interest- ing and full of humor.
J. FLETCHER WILLIAMS,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
J OHN FLETCHER WILLIAMS is a de- scendant, in the seventh generation, from John Williams, a native of Glamorganshire, Wales. His parents, natives of Pennsylvania, were both pioneers of the State of Ohio. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 25, 1834. He was educated at Woodward College in that city, and also at the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Dela- ware, from which institution he was graduated in the scientific course in 1852. After spending a few months in the attempt to learn engraving, he removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1855, and soon afterward was engaged to take charge of the department of city news on the Daily Minnesotian.
His success in the fields of journalism was of that high order which is appreciated by an intelli- gent public, in the clean daily newspaper, that feels and understands that the highest mission is to educate and build up. Mr. Williams devoted about twelve years to newspaper work in St. Paul, dividing the time between the Minnesotian, Pio-
neer, Press and Despatch, all daily papers. He established a reputation for marked ability as an historical writer in the early history and biogra- phy of Minnesota. His numerous articles in the different daily papers soon attracted the attention of the Minnesota Historical Society, and this was followed, in 1867, by his being elected its secre- tary and librarian, and he has devoted his best talents to the success and upbuilding of that society ever since. In 1869 he gave up journal- ism, and has since devoted his whole time to the interests of the society.
He is well known throughout the whole country from his many articles and exhaustive historical works, and has been honored from California to Maine by being elected corresponding or honor- ary member of thirteen historical and genealog- ical societies. He is the author of "The History of St. Paul and County of Ramsey," a large and complete work, which he published in 1876. He is a member of the American Historical Association,
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and corresponding secretary of the Old Settlers' AAssociation of Minnesota. He was a member of the St. Paul Board of Education for six years, and in 1873 was appointed by President Grant as United States Centennial Commissioner from Minnesota to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia.
He has had gratifying success in his labors for the Minnesota Historical Society. When he assumed charge of its work in 1867, it had but a mere handful of books of small value. Now it has a very valuable and well-selected library of thirty-two thousand volumes, and is the most prosperous and successful institution of its kind in the United States, and is mentioned with honor everywhere. Mr. Williams is still giving diligent and unremitting labor to its success, this
being his twenty-sixth year of continuous service. He is a highly respected member of the Odd Fellows Order, and has been honored with many important offices, among them in the grand lodge, grand secretary, grand master, grand representa- tive and, for the past twenty years, grand scribe.
Mr. Williams married, in 1857, Miss Kate Rob- erts, a native of Utica, New York. They have five children and three grandchildren. Mr. Wil- liams' personality is that of the polished, educated gentleman, who is considerate and kind to all. He is a charming conversationalist and a delight- ful companion. In a word, he is a whole-souled, Christian gentleman, who is highly honored by his fellow-townsmen, and a man who is striving to make as straight a path as possible for those who follow after.
HENRY G. SIDLE,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
H ENRY GODFREY SIDLE, the president of the First National Bank of Minneapolis, is the oldest bank officer in continuous service in the city, as he will readily be conceded to be the ripest in experience and most successful in finan- cial administration. For nearly thirty-three years he has been connected with the business which he now administers, and which has grown with mar- velous increase of business in the community, from a private banking house with a small capital to the leading bank in the city, with a capital and surplus of nearly a million and one-half dollars, and a deposit line of five million dollars. Before engaging in banking, he had a mercantile experi- ence of twenty-four years as clerk and proprietor of a store in his native state. His training was in the school of practical business and finances, which, with good judgment, an intuitive percep- tion and cordial and conciliating manner, have placed him at the head of the profession.
H. G. Sidle is a native of York, Pennsylvania, where he was born July 22. 1822. He was the youngest of three sons born to Henry and Susan- nah (Kootz) Sidle. The elder brother was the late J. K. Sidle, so many years his associate, both in the store in Pennsylvania and in the bank in Minneapolis. His great-grandfather, Godfrey
Sidle, whose name he bears, was a native of Ham- burg, Germany, whence he emigrated to this country in the early part of the last century. His grandfather served in the army of the revolution. The Sidles were farmers of laborious and thrifty habits. Henry learned the trade of a blacksmith, but engaged in merchandise, to which he trained his sons. Henry had the advantage of the sons of thrifty families of his time in public schools in York, and at the age of seventeen was taken into the store. After a clerkship of eleven years, his father relinquished the business to his two sons, .J. K. and Henry, who conducted it on joint ac- count for the next thirteen years. They had a large and prosperous trade, and enjoyed the con- fidence and patronage of the community where they had grown to manhood, but like so many ambitious young men they became dissatisfied with the limitations of an eastern town, though so thriving one as was York, and longed for the more abundant opportunities and broader field for en- terprise in the west. In 1857 J. K. Sidle made a tour through the west, and at Minneapolis found the conditions and prospects which satisfied him, and determined him to locate here. He had as- sociated with him Peter Wolford, a wealthy capi- talist of York county. They opened a private
H.S. Sidle
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banking house under the style of Sidle, Wolford & Company. Upon the completion of the Nicol- let House, the firm took one of the offices on the ground floor, fronting Washington avenue, and occupied it for many years. Henry continued to carry on the store at York, but visited his brother in 1858, and made observations of the place and its prospects, determined not to relinquish a pros- perous business until he had practical demonstra- tion that a better one awaited him. This was soon furnished by the prosperity which attended the new banking firm, and in 1863 the store at York was sold, and Henry joined his brother at Minneapolis, and entered the banking firm in which, however, he had an interest from the start. In 1865 the banking firm of Sidle, Wolford & Company was dissolved, Mr. Wolford engaging in other business. The Sidle brothers now organ- ized a bank under a state charter, under the name of Minneapolis Bank, with a capital of fifty thou- sand dollars. It issued circulating notes, and car- ried on a regular banking business of deposit, dis- count and circulation. J. K. Sidle was president, and H. G. Sidle, cashier. When the national banking system was established, taxing the circu- lating notes of state banks out of existence, the First National Bank of Minneapolis was organ- ized in 1865, and the business of the Minneapolis Bank transferred to it. It was the continuation of the old bank under a new name, with the same capital, officers and business. The bank was very successful at the start, and has always enjoyed the fullest confidence of the community. Its chief officers were indefatigable in their attention to its interests, and confined its operations to the legiti- mate business in which they were engaged. They never speculated or engaged in outside opera- tions except as an investment of surplus capital. The capital of the bank was successively increased, as its enlarging business required, to one hundred thousand dollars, four hundred thousand dollars, six hundred thousand dollars, and finally, about 1879, to one million dollars. While the bank was always managed by the Sidles, so that it was familiarly spoken of as the Sidles' Bank, it had, nevertheless, a substantial board of directors, who represented in the fullest degree the conservative and substantial element of business in Minneapolis.
Upon the lamented death of J. K. Sidle in 1888, the board of directors unanimously elected 1
H. G. Sidle to the presidency, and appointed his sons, Henry K. and Charles K., cashier and assis- tant cashier, which positions they still hold. Dur- ing the period of thirty-five years that the bank has been in operation, more vicissitudes in the financial conditions of the city, and of the coun- try at large, have occurred than have happened in a whole century at any other time, not to speak of the three far-reaching and devastating panics which have paralyzed the financial machinery of the country once and again, forcing the suspen- sion of the metropolitan banks; the inflation following the rebellion ; the suspension of specie payments in the whole country, and again their resumption, causing wide fluctuations in values, and shaking the whole fabrics of credits, have made banking a difficult and hazardous business. To these general embarrassments have been added others of local, but not less dangerous, influence. At the very outset the failure of all the banks of circulation in the state, outside of Minneapolis, spread general distrust as to their stability. Then the changes incident to a growing community, where all were comparatively new-comers, the en- couragement given to adventurers and the conse- quent difficulty of correctly estimating values and credits, have made the conduct of a banking busi- ness one of great embarrassment. To have suc- cessfully piloted a bank through such vicissitudes with unvarying success, illustrates the rare quali- ties of the financial pilots better than any words of eulogy. Mr. Sidle has been interested in other lines of business by the contribution of cap- ital, chiefly in lumber and milling. He has also taken his share of financial burdens in carrying on the various railroad enterprises which have kept Minneapolis at the front of a commercial metropolis. Few realize the great benefit to indi- viduals and the community, which the banker often confers by a wise extension of credit in a critical emergency. How many worthy men are saved from ruin, and useful enterprises from dis- aster and failure, by the help extended in an emergency, none but the recipients know. To be able to do these kindly acts and save his bank from loss, requires sound judgment, and wise discrimination, as well as kindly nature. How often, too, a refusal of aid, dictated by a better knowledge of the situation than the asker can in his interested situation possess, is regarded as
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