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 35
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Mr. Welles has contributed liberally to religious and educational institutions. His gifts, amount- ing to fully seventy thousand dollars, to the Fari- bault institutions, which else would hardly have survived. His former classmate, Chief Justice William E. Curtis, one of the leading trustees of Trinity College, wrote, soliciting Mr. Welles to become a candidate for the presidency of that in- stitution, which at that time controlled property valued at one million three hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Welles being already committed to the Faribault institutions, and having too many
interests in the northwest to permit of his leaving Minneapolis, he was forced to decline the honor tendered him.
The different religious denominations of Minne- apolis have been bountifully aided by him. He has donated fully twenty thousand dollars from his private purse to aid them in their different enterprises, and, together with Mr. Franklin S. Steele, with whom he had been associated in busi- ness from July 1, 1853, until the death of Mr. Steele, which occurred September 10, 1880, he has donated property worth now (1892) some four hundred thousand dollars. To St. Mark's Church they donated seventy feet at the corner of Hennepin avenue and Fourth street, the site now occupied by the Kasota Building. To the First Baptist Church they gave a lot sixty-six feet front by one hundred and sixty-five feet deep, at the corner of Third street and Nicollet avenue, which was traded for the property on which the Lumber Exchange Building is erected; to the Second Baptist Church, one hundred and four and two- thirds feet on Hennepin avenue; to the Episco- pal and Catholic churches Mr. Welles has given some twenty thousand dollars, to which might be added numerous donations of larger and smaller sums to hospitals, churches, educational institu- tions and other worthy charities.
Mr. Welles has been a constant friend to the people of Wilkin county, and Breckenridge, its county seat, in particular, from the date of the organization of the county, and has made many generous donations for their benefit, among which may be mentioned a quarter of a block for school purposes. An entire block for the site of the present handsome court house, which cost forty- thousand dollars, and lots amounting to an entire block for churches of various denominations. In addition to the above Mr. Welles presented, a few years ago, to the village of Breckenridge about one hundred acres of land adjoining the village, which is now known as the Welles Park and Fair Grounds, and which is used for county fairs and similar purposes, and equipped with fair buildings, race track, etc. The value of this donation is es- timated at ten thousand dollars. Since the donation of this tract of land Mr. Welles has pres- ented to the village, lots and real-estate mortgages to the value of nine hundred and sixty dollars, the proceeds of which are to be used for the
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planting of trees and otherwise beautifying the park and fair ground.
On May 3, 1853, Mr. Welles married Miss Jerusha, daughter of Joseph Lord, of Glaston- bury, Connecticut. They have six children, viz., Henrietta, Catherine J., Henry H., Harriet L., Caroline E. and Frances S.
An intimate friend says of Mr. Welles: "He has always been a student, and few men have a better knowledge of English literature. He is a profound thinker and especially interested in philosphical studies. He is a most generous man, always ready to give to works of benevolence ; no man in Minnesota has taken a warmer interest in
the founding of the schools at Faribault. In the infancy of these schools he was the wise counselor and steadfast friend of Bishop Whipple, and has been a trustee from the date of their organization, over thirty years ago. He is a communicant of the Episcopal church, honored and beloved by all who know him as an upright man of unsullied reputation, an earnest Christian, and a wise and generous philanthropist. In manner he is retiring and modest, preferring the society of friends and the endearments of home to the honors of his fel- lows. In a word Mr. Welles is one of those who try to live by the old prophet's law, 'do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God.'"
HON. CHARLES D. KERR,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
T "HE subject of this sketch is a gentleman of fine scholarship, a close student, a clear, persuasive reasoner, and during his practice at the bar, was considered a wise, reliable counselor, conscientious to a marked degree in the fulfill- ment of his duties to his clients, and tenacious in the advocacy of their rights. The most impor- tant cases were confided to him, and his opinions on legal questions were cagerly sought. He pos- sesses a mental grasp which enables him to take in the manifest bearings of a subject, to perceive its resemblances and harmonies, as well as its in- consistencies, at a glance. He has a judicial mind without bias. His critical analysis of a sub- ject covers all of its points. His opinions have always been characterized by the utmost fairness of spirit, depth of learning and thorough research.
The following is taken from the "History of St. Paul :"
" The Hon. Charles D. Kerr, one of the best known lawyers of St. Paul, and at present one of the judges of the circuit court of the Second Judi- cial District of Minnesota, was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 9, 1835. He comes of a very honorable and somewhat dis- tinguished ancestry. One of his great-grandfath- ers on his father's side was William Rush, a brother of Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His mater- nal grandfather was M. Regnand, a French jurist,
who was presiding over the superior court of the Island of St. Domingo at the time of the great uprising of the blacks under Toussaint L'Ouver- ture, and the frightful massacre of the whites which followed. His property on the island was all either destroyed or confiscated by the insur- gents, but his life was saved by the fidelity and devotion of a faithful slave, who warned him in time to enable him to make his escape by swim- ming to a vessel in the harbor, on which he sailed to Philadelphia, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Very early in Judge Kerr's childhood his par- ents moved from Philadelphia to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he grew to young manhood, and received his scholastic training and education. His father died soon after going to Jacksonville, and the widow, through misfortune and the dis- honesty of certain parties who had been intrusted with her means, soon found herself in very straightened circumstances, with a family of five little children looking to her for support, mainte- nance and rearing.
From this time forth throughout his youth and early manhood, the career of Judge Kerr was an almost continuous struggle against adverse cir- cumstances. As the eldest son, upon him de- volved, in a large measure, the support of the family, and this care received his first and best attention. All of his educational and other ad-
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vantages were acquired under circumstances which would have discouraged many another, and were entirely the result of his own labors and exertions.
In the year 1857, after a long and hard strug- gle with poverty and other disadvantages, he was graduated from Illinois College, at Jacksonville, having taken a full classical course. Two years later, in 1859, he entered the law office of Hon. Samuel F. Miller (late one of the justices of the United States Supreme Court), then of Keokuk, Iowa, and during that year and the following was a hard, close student of the law. He was an orig- inal Republican, and took an active part in the presidential campaign of 1860, which resulted in the election of Lincoln and Hamlin.
In the spring of 1861 he was admitted to the bar, and was attending his first term of court as a lawyer at Carthage, Hancock county, Illinois, where he had located, when Sumter was fired on. At the first call for troops he was enlisted and was mustered into service as a private in Com- pany D, Sixteenth Regiment of Illinois Volun- teer Infantry, on the 26th of April, 1861. In September following he was commissioned adju- tant of the regiment, and by a series of promo- tions, all honorably and worthily attained, finally reached the position of lieutenant-colonel, with which rank he was mustered out July 27, 1865, after a service of four years and three months, nearly all of which was spent in active duty in the field. He was commissioned as full colonel a short time before he was mustered out, but not in time to have that rank appear on the rolls at Washington before his discharge, so that it could receive official notice. Colonel Kerr's military ex- perience, while in the main very arduous and try- ing, was more than ordinarily eventful, and much of it somewhat conspicuous. His regiment was the first federal organization from another state to enter the State of Missouri, and performed in- valuable service during the summer of 1861 in guarding the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, and in repressing numerous organizations of secessionists in northern and central Missouri. The regiment, too, won the esteem of all parties in Missouri, not only for its general good soldierly conduct, but for the gentlemanly and honorable bearing of its officers and men toward all classes of citizens. Subsequently it was connected with
the Army of the Cumberland and the Fourteenth Army Corps, and participated in all of the cam- paigns, and nearly all of the achievements of those two distinguished military organizations. On December 26, 1863, it re-enlisted for three years more as one of the first veteran regiments of the Army of the Cumberland. It took part in the engagements about Corinth, Mississippi, and Murfresboro and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the famous hard-fought Atlanta campaign, in the celebrated " March to the Sea," and through the Carolinas, as well as numerous engagements and campaigns of the Army of the West in the early stages of the war. About two years of Colonel Kerr's military service were spent on staff duty. Prior to the battle of Chickamauga he was on the staff of Brigadier General James D. Morgan, and subsequently, including the battle of Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, etc., he was with the accomplished soldier, Major General Jefferson C. Davis. He saw a great deal of the war, and was a participant in many of the most influential campaigns and de- cisive engagements. He is one of the few officers who remember clearly what they saw, and he has the capacity, in a very accomplished degree, to put his recollections on paper. His paper on " Sherman's March to the Sea," is one of the most entertaining in the collection of the Loyal Legion, and is a valuable contribution to history. After he was mustered out, in August, 1865, Colonel Kerr realized that his health had become greatly impaired by the hardships of army life, and he came to Minnesota in hopes that its much lauded climate would bring him relief and restor- ation.
In September he came to this state and located at St. Cloud, where he resumed the practice of his profession, in partnership with the Hon. James McKelvey, who afterwards served for six- teen years as a judge of the Seventh Judicial District. After Judge McKelvey's elevation to the bench, Colonel Kerr was in partnership with Hon. W. S. Moore, now of St. Paul, and later with Hon. L. W. Collins, now one of the justices of the Supreme Court of Minnesota. He estab- lished an extensive practice throughout the northern half of the state, and made for himself an enviable reputation. In 1873 he located in St. Paul, where he has since remained actively en-
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gaged, almost literally absorbed in his profession. He has won for himself the name of an able and honorable lawyer, and has been very largely suc- cessful. He is noted for his careful and thorough methods, spares neither time nor labor in the ex- amination and preparation of his cases, is devoted to the interests of his clients, and in the language of a brother attorney, " he tries a case for all there is in it, and is very rarely caught napping." He is of a judicial turn of mind, and brings to the trial of a cause all of the law there is on the sub- ject, going carefully over the ground and develop- ing every pertinent and relevant point. As an advocate, while he is not what is sometimes called brilliant, he is an earnest, forcible speaker, unaffected and plain in manner, but interesting and convincing. Since 1885 he has been at the head of the well-known law firm of Kerr & Rich- ardson. All of this, however, as to Colonel Kerr's characteristics as a practicing lawyer, may be said in the past tense, since he is no longer in practice.
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In February, 1888, he was unanimously in- dorsed by the Ramsey County Bar Association for appointment as one of the two additional judges for the Second Judicial District recently authorized by the legislature. The indorsement was unsolicited, but was in its nature a most ex- alted compliment to the worth of the recipient, and as such was duly appreciated. On the 14th
the appointment was made by Governor Merriam, and at the same time Hon. L. M. Vilas was com- missioned as the other judge of the district. Judge Kerr's elevation was greeted with great satisfaction by his brethren of the bar, by the press of the city and by all classes generally. With one accord it was agreed that the appoint- ment was most worthily bestowed."
In 1890 Judge Kerr was endorsed by all three political parties, and he was elected as his own successor without controversy or opposition.
Judge Kerr has always performed his full duty as a citizen ; he has taken a deep and active in- terest in municipal affairs, and has been influen- tial in shaping them. For several years he was mayor of St. Cloud. Since coming to St. Paul he has, during the past six years, served two terms as alderman and one term as president of the common council of the city. He was also for two terms a member of the Board of Education, and for one term president of the board. He is also a member of the State Bar Association, one of the members of the board of governors of Ram- sey County Bar Association, and belongs to the Acker Post, G. A. R., and to the Loyal Legion. Of the last-named organization he was senior vice- commander of the department for the year 1888.
In 1874 he married Miss Mary E. Bennett, of Rochester, New York. They have two sons and a daughter.
HON. ANDREW R. McGILL,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
A NDREW RYAN McGILL was born at Saegertown, in the county of Crawford, State of Pennsylvania, on the 19th day of Feb- ruary, A. D. 1840. His father, Charles Dillon McGill, was the youngest son of Patrick McGill, who came from County Antrim, Ireland, about A. D. 1774, participated in the struggle for American independence, and after the war settled in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, and married Anna Baird. In 1795 Patrick and wife, with their eldest son, then an infant child, emi- grated on horseback to the western part of the state, in that region that, in 1800, was set apart as Crawford county. He here secured a tract of
several hundred acres of land and erected thereon the future home of the McGills, the first house erected on the site of the future town, and here his sons and several grandsons were born, among them the future governor of Minnesota.
Charles Dillon McGill married Angeline Mar- tin, of Waterford (Ft. Le Boeuff ), Pennsylvania, a daughter of Armand Martin, a soldier of the war of 1812, who was a son of Charles Martin, a Revolutionary soldier, who was retained in the United States army after the war, and commis- sioned a lieutenant of the Second Regiment of Infantry by George Washington, first president of the United States.
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Mary Ryan Martin, the mother of Angeline, was the daughter of John Ryan, another soldier of the Revolution, whose settlement in western Pennsylvania was contemporaneous with the McGills, and her mother was a Himrod, of Ger- man extraction, and allied to the Vincents and other old families that have furnished many names illustrious in American history.
We might go back beyond the seas and show that the McGills are an ancient family of some renown, that rose to distinction in arms and at the bar in Scotland in the sixteenth century, and that in 1689-90, during the struggle between James II and William of Orange for supremacy in Ulster, they were found arrayed with their compatriots on the line of the river Bann, at Londonderry, and in the battles of the Boyne; that it is a name alike emblazoned in heraldry, and written in the records of attainder and con- fiscation, contributing its full quota to the history of the turbulent past, but we forbear. The aver- age American does not care to trace his lineage beyond our Revolution. That were an epoch sufficiently glorious from which to begin dates.
Angeline, the mother, died when her son Andrew R. was seven years old. She was a lady by intuition and culture ; kind, considerate and gentle, a loving mother and devoted Christian, and her departure was an irreparable loss to her young family and her numerous friends.
In 1840 Saegertown was a place as quaint as its name implies. Trade and commerce followed the lines of the great lakes and navigable rivers, and the secluded valley of the Venango was a stranger to the bustle and traffic of more favored localities. Good schools, however, had been established, and were liberally sustained, and to these young Andrew gave early and studious attention. The Saegertown Academy afforded a good opportunity to acquire an education, and the course taught in this institution completed the scholastic advantages of his youthful days. When not in school he labored on his father's farm, and was considered a success, both as a farmer boy and a student.
At the age of eighteen years, in 1859, having determined to teach school, he went to the State of Kentucky, secured a position as teacher and entered upon the discharge of the important duties pertaining to the profession. In those
days the state named did not afford northern men of loyal sentiments a pleasant place of resi- dence. The times were turbulent, treason ram- pant, rebellion imminent, and proscription and outrage became matters of daily routine, and in 1861, when the war broke out, social order was practically at an end, and the successful prosecu- tion of educational work out of the question. Mr. McGill returned north, and June 10, 1861, arrived in Minnesota.
Events now crowded rapidly upon the young man. He became principal of the public schools at St. Peter, and in August, 1862, at the age of twenty-one, he enlisted in Company D, Ninth Regiment Minnesota Volunteers, became first ser- geant of his company, which, previous to going south, asssisted in suppressing the Indian out- break of that year. In 1863 he was discharged for disability, and soon after elected county superintendent of public schools, and filled the position two terms. In 1865 and 1866 he was editor and proprietor of the St. Peter Tribune. He was also, in 1865, elected clerk of the district court of Nicollet county for the term of four years, and devoting much of his time to the study of law under the tuition of Hon. Horace Austin, judge of the district court, was admitted to the bar in 1868, with flattering commendations from the learned court for the scope and solidity of his legal acquirements.
In 1860 Judge Austin became governor of Minnesota, and Mr. McGill was selected as his private secretary, and in 1873 appointed insur- ance commissioner of the state. This position he filled for thirteen years with such efficiency as won for him distinction throughout the country. His methods of supervision of the great interests involved proved satisfactory to all concerned, and his opinions on insurance laws and sound methods in the insurance business had the force of stand- ard authority. His twelve published reports as insurance commissioner attest his capability as an executive officer and his qualifications for a wider range of statesmanship.
In 1886 the Republican state convention nom- inated him as their candidate for governor of Minnesota. The campaign which ensued was the most extraordinary in the history of the state. One of those crises that periodically arise in the progress of moral and political development was
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pressing upon the country with all its disintegrat- ing force, severing party affiliations and substi- tuting that chaos in which chronic agitation delights. The moral sentiment of the country justly demanded reformatory legislation in refer- ence to the liquor traffic, which, under existing management, had evolved an appalling aggrega- tion of evils. The Prohibitionists would be satis- fied with nothing short of total extirpation, while the dealers, grown rich and powerful in the busi- ness, rallied their forces to defend their vested interests.
In this condition of affairs the Republican party of Minnesota declared in favor of "local option and high license." This action was offensive to both of the high contending belliger- ents, and they forthwith ceased to war upon each other and trained their batteries upon this new obstacle to the consummation of their purposes. The Republican party was thus thrown upon the defensive, while the Democrats, ever true to their own integrity, massed their forces with a single view to success, conscious that they alone would be the beneficiaries of all defections that were depleting the ranks of their opponents. The bat- tle became vindictive and furious. Greed, avarice and fanaticism were inspiring elements in the onset. The stills of a hundred cities, east and west, poured the "munitions of war" into the camp of the enemy, and every fragment detached from the citadel of defense went to build up the lunettes of the assailants. Never before was the old party brought into line under such a combina- tion of disadvantages, or placed in such a perilous position. Its certain defeat was predicted every- where outside the state.
Governor McGill was a young man whose capi- tal consisted of an unassailable character and record. He was entirely too human to entertain etherial notions of government, and stood on a plane of honest, moral integrity, altogether too high to bend to doubtful methods for sordid ends. He proved to be the man for the emergency. Behind him was the prestige of twenty-five years of success without the score of a single failure. He had the confidence of those who knew him. The solid, thinking men of the state rallied to his support, and he courageously led them on to a splendid victory. Considering the issue, the nature and resources of the opposition, and its
determination to win at any hazard or cost, it was the most important victory ever won by the Republican party in Minnesota.
Good government cannot be attained without strict attention to minor details in executive mat- ters. So-called " brilliant men " often deal in glit- tering generalities, calculated to attract popular attention and win transient personal aggrandize- ment, while the "weightier matters of the law are left undone." The true statesman, however, will garner and aggregate executive accessories with a view to future beneficient results. Gov- ernor McGill, on assuming the duties of chief executive, unostentatiously carried strict business methods into all departments of the government over which the law gave him control. The execu- tive chamber was open and accessible to all men, and no transactions were tolerated that would not bear the light of day. Cabals, juntas and rings, seeking preferment and dishonest gains at the expense of the public, found no abiding place at the capital during his administration.
When the legislature assembled, January 5, . 1887, the governor, in language that could not be misconstrued, called their attention to pledges made to the people of the state upon which both they and he had been elected to office, and declared that he stood ready to do his part to redeem those pledges in good faith. He recom- mended a revision of the railroad laws relating to transportation, taxation, grain storage, wheat grading, watering of stocks, etc .; also amend- ment and simplification of the tax laws, regula- tion of the liquor traffic, abolition of contract prison labor, establishment of a soldier's home, bureau of labor statistics, state reformatory, and other measures of local significance, and most of these recommendations received due legislative attention, and it is a matter of current political comment that in no administration in the history of the state were the pledges and promises to the people so faithfully kept.
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