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 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68
During the year 1855, Mr. Smith went to Bur- lington, Iowa, on business, and thence extended his trip to the upper Mississippi region. On reaching St. Paul he was so favorably impressed with the then young city, that he made a business arrangement with the Hon. Lafayette Emmett. In the spring of 1856 he removed thither, and has ever since made his home there. He has been successively a member of the law firms of Emmett and Smith, Smith and Gilman, and Smith and Egan.
In politics, Mr. Smith was first a Whig, and on the dissolution of that party acted with the Re- publicans until 1872, when he joined the Liberal Republican Party, and has ever since acted with the National Democracy. In 1861-2-3 and in 1876-7 he represented one of the senatorial dis-
-
Er. byF & Kernan & CONT
James mine
853
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
tricts of Ramsey county, in the state senate, and was a member of the general assembly of Minne- sota from St. Paul, in 1879-81-83.
In 1861, Mr. Smith introduced into the state legislature the bill for the incorporation of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad Company, and aided in its passage. He assisted, as attorney, in the organization of the company, and in 1864 was elected a director, and he continued to hold
that office, and that of attorney of the company, until the organization of its successor, the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad Company in 1877, and has been a director in the last named company, and its attorney, ever since its formation. He was president of the company four years.
In 1848 he married Miss Elizabeth L. Morton, who also was a native of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. They have three daughters and one son.
ELI B. AMES,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
A MONG the Green Mountains, at Colchester, Vermont, on August 3, 1820, Eli B. Ames was born to William and Phebe (Baker) Ames. His ancestry, both paternal and maternal, is trace- able through many generations to the early set- tlers of New England in the seventeenth century. The original home of the family was in England. The father of Eli was born in New London, Con- necticut, and his mother was a native of Williams- town, Massachusetts. His early life was passed in the usual manner of a New England youth of that time. When a lad of twelve years his par- ents removed to Ohio, and there he received his early education in the district schools, which was supplemented by a course at the Painesville (Ohio) Academy. At the age of twenty he be- gan the study of law at Ottawa, and in 1842 was admitted to the bar, and removed to Hennepin, Putnam county, Illinois.
In 1844 he was appointed postmaster at Hen- nepin by Postmaster General Cave Johnson, under the administration of President Polk. He held this position until 1848, when he became probate judge. In 1851-52 he represented his county in the state legislature, and then became private secretary to Governor Madison.
In 1855 Judge Ames was appointed consul to Hamburg (then an independent city) by Presi- dent Pierce. His most important transaction was the formation of a postal treaty between Ham- burg and the United States, which was ratified, being entirely satisfactory, by both goverments. Under this treaty the transmission of mails between the United States and Hamburg were greatly facilitated, and the postage reduced
from thirty cents to ten cents. Judge Ames was much lauded for the able manner in which he conducted the negotiations. The affairs of his office were so satisfactory that the consulate at Hamburg was held open for his return for one year. He did not return, however, but settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June, 1857, where he opened a general insurance business, which he has conducted successfully ever since. He is very much devoted to his business, and is an inde- fatigable worker. He was the pioneer insurance agent in that section, and throughout his busi- ness career he has ever conducted his affairs in such manner as to merit and receive the esteem and confidence of both the insurance companies and the public. He is largely interested in finan- cial institutions of acknowledged stability, and is vice-presdent of the First National Bank of Min- neapolis, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the northwest.
He has always been esteemed by his fellow- citizens, and from 1861 to 1864 was secretary of the Minnesota State Senate. In 1870 and 1871 he was mayor of Minneapolis. Since then he has eschewed politics and devoted his time en- tirely to his increasing business.
On May 31, 1854, in St. Louis, Missouri, he married Miss Delia A. Payne. Three children born to them, Addie H., Alice D. and Agnes L. The last named died May, 1886.
Such is the biography of one who has passed through an active life of many years without the least blot ever touching his name. He has reached a high position in life entirely through his own exertions. / His constitution is rugged,
854
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
and his health is unimpaired ; conditions which he attributes largely to his early training, and the nutritive food furnished him in his childhood.
Judge Ames is a man of varied experiences, and has a wide range of information, which, with his fine conversational powers, render him a most
pleasing companion. He loves good-fellowship, and is warmly attached to his hosts of friends. He has a genial, sunny disposition, and cheerful temperament, and makes it his aim to make the most and best of himself and his surroundings, and to make the world better and brighter.
SAMUEL E. NEILER,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
A MONG the financiers of Minneapolis the name of Samuel E. Neiler is conspicuous. He has had experience under the various banking laws of our government, and has seen continuous service since 1851, and no man in the northwest is more conversant with financial methods and affairs than he. Samuel E. Neiler, son of Samuel and Sarah (Evans) Neiler, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in March, 1829. His early education was obtained in the public schools of his native county ; later, he attended the Tremont Seminary, in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
He began his business career as a clerk in the dry-goods establishment of Mr. D. Sower, and remained with him until he closed business. Then, in 1851, he began his career in connection with banking institutions, and became clerk in the private bank of Messrs. J. N. Waggonseller and Company, of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. He occupied a minor position, and in addition to his other duties, watched at night by sleeping in a rear room, and also swept and dusted the bank- room every morning. During this time the tele- graph line was built between Pottsville and Tam- aqua, and the office of the company was in the banking room, and Neiler was the operator. In 1853 he accepted a position in Erie, Pennsyl- vania, as teller of the Erie City Bank of that city. In 1854 he associated himself with Mr. William C. Warren, and organized the private bank of Neiler and Warren. This firm contin- ued until 1866, when it was dissolved, and in 1869 Mr. Neiler, associated with Dr. Hughes, Mr. Fox, C. B. Wright, Judge Ellis Lewis, of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and others, organized the West Philadelphia Bank, of which Dr. Hughes was elected president, and Mr. Neiler cashier. The enterprise was suc-
cessful from the outset, and is still in exist- ence (1892).
In 1872, in company with Messrs. Wright and Barney, of the United States Express Company ; Fargo, of the American Express Company ; Che- ney, of Boston, and D. Morrison and others of Minneapolis, Mr. Neiler organized the Northwest- ern National Bank. Of this bank Mr. Morrison was elected president and Mr. Neiler, cashier. In 1883 he organized the Union National Bank, hav- ing as his associates such men as Messrs. H. F. Brown, Governor Pillsbury, A. F. Kelly, A. H. Linton, Captain Snider, and other representative men of Minneapolis. The directors of the bank upon its organization elected Mr. Neiler, presi- dent; H. F. Brown, first vice-president ; A. F. Kelly, second vice-president, and H. J. Neiler, cashier. The capital stock at present is five hun- dred thousand dollars, and the institution, under the guiding hand of its president, has pursued a safe conservative policy, that has ever assured a successful career. The directorate is composed of the solid men of Minneapolis, and the bank is favored with a large line of depositors.
In 1857 Mr. Neiler married Miss Lavinia Jack- son, a daughter of one of Erie's first settlers, who was prominently connected with the improve- ment of northwestern Pennsylvania. In 1882 Mr. Neiler was called upon to mourn the death of his beloved wife, who had been his helpmate and companion for so many years. She passed away mourned by many friends, and leaving a family of three sons and one daughter. Mr. H. J. Neiler, the eldest son, married Miss Phelps, of Spring- field, Massachusetts, the daughter of Mr. H. W. Phelps, for many years a prominent resident of Springfield, but now a citizen of Minneapolis. They are blessed with two daughters.
..
855
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
During Mr. Neiler's active life great improv- ments in scientific and practical enterprises have occurred. He was one of the twenty-one gentle- men who surprised Mr. John Atkinson, superin- tendent of the Erie gas works, when, in 1852, he completed the construction of the plant for illum- inating that city. The twenty-one persons, all of whom excepting Mr. Neiler and Mr. Jacob Koch, have passed away, comprised Maj. Andrew Scott, of Erie; John McClure and Judge Miles, of Gi- rard; John and Samuel Rankin, of Greenville ; Messrs. Sherwin, Neiler and Cameron, of the Erie City Bank ; William L. Scott (afterward chairman Democratic national committee), John Hearn,
Geo. Morton, Henry Cadwell, Miles W. Caughey, M. W. O. Keith, Henry Whalen, of California ; Morrow B. Lowry, J. B. Johnson, Jacob Koch, Moses Koch, H. Sessions, all of Erie, and Robert Hill, of North East.
Throughout his career Mr. Neiler's record has been clean. What he has accomplished has been due to his own exertions, his close attention to business and to his honesty of purpose. He has surmounted many obstacles, and now, while still in the prime of vigorous manhood, he has reached a position of prominence amongst the eminent men, not only of Minneapolis, but of the entire northwest.
HON. MILTON R. TYLER,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
T HE gentleman whose name heads this sketch is an able lawyer, who has attained to the first rank in his profession by industry, persever- ance and integrity. He is a man of great ver- satility of talents, and he has had a variety of prac- tice in both state and federal courts. Exactness and thoroughness characterize all of his attainments. Having a perfect command of the English language, he makes a clear, strong and logical ar- gument. Being well advanced in all of the theories and technicalities of his profession, he is never taken by surprise. His management of a case is masterly, and in all things he is remarkably practical ; and he possesses a mental equipoise that peculiarly fits him for the investigation of legal questions. He has great power of analysis and condensation, and his reputation for upright- ness was never questioned. ยท
Milton R. Tyler was born under the shadow of Ethan Allen's monument, in Chittenden county, Vermont, March 18, 1835, the son of Daniel and Permelia (Farrand) Tyler. Daniel Tyler was both a farmer and mechanic. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and rendered efficient service at the battle of Plattsburg.
Milton R. was raised on the farm and attended school in the winter. He entered a preparatory school, and was soon far enough advanced to be- come a teacher. He taught at intervals for several years, thus acquiring funds to continue
his studies, and worked his way through college by teaching in vacations. He was graduated from the University of Vermont, at Burlington, with the class of 1858. He read law in the office of Hon. William C. Wilson, who was afterwards one of the justices of the supreme court of Ver- mont, and was admitted to the bar in Franklin county, Vermont, in 1860, and began practice at Irasburg, Orleans county, in that state, in April, 1861. He was made assistant secretary in the Vermont senate in 1862, and afterwards was elected judge of probate in Orleans county, and twice re-elected, holding that office three years. He went to Bakersfield, in Franklin county, Ver- mont, where he practiced law until 1871, when he removed to Burlington, Vermont. In the spring of 1873 he was elected city judge, and was unani- mously re-elected for three years, there being no candidate against him after the first election, and filled that office five years, giving excellent satisfaction. He was then made city attorney, and held that position two years.
In 1882 Judge Tyler moved to Fergus Falls, in Otter Tail county, Minnesota, where he practiced his profession until the spring of 1888, when he settled in St. Paul. He was president of the Board of Education, and in 1887 was appointed by Governor McGill one of the trustees for the Minnesota Hospitals for the Insane.
On March 18, 1862, Judge Tyler married Miss
856
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Elizabeth J. Wilson, daughter of Hon. William C. Wilson, his former preceptor, and a lady of rare attainments, accomplished and refined. They have two sons: Will. M., a salesman in one of the largest clothing houses in St. Paul, and Albert D., now in the senior class of the law school of the University of Minnesota.
Judge Tyler was raised a Congregationalist, and he attends the church presided over by Dr.
Smith in St. Paul. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been Master of three different lodges, and he has taken all the degrees in Odd Fellowship, and been a representative to the Grand Lodge of the United States.
In politics Judge Tyler is a Republican. Since coming to St. Paul his law practice has steadily increased, and his time has been fully occupied in attending to his professional duties.
HON. JOHN MELVIL SHAW,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
OHN MELVIL SHAW, a brilliant lawyer, J able jurist and gallant soldier, comes of heroic ancestry. The progenitors of his family in the paternal line were of English descent, and settled in New Hampshire about two hundred years ago. His grandfather fought with honor through the war of the Revolution, and lived be- yond the age of ninety, a man of great energy, highly respected and revered for his consistent Christian character, and who sought to rear his family in accordance with the principles which had been the guide of his own life.
The lineage of his maternal grandfather, Benja- min French, a beloved and honored physician, may be traced back to Thomas French, one of the first pilgrims of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, who founded in New England a family which has produced many noble men and women. Our subject also reckons his descent in the maternal line from Rev. Joseph Hall, graduate of Oxford University, and rector of Devon, who, in 1621, immigrated to Massachusetts. Judge Shaw's bent for the law seems to have been inherited, as his family annals contain the names of one noted chief justice and four other jurists of ability and repute.
The subject of this sketch arrived in Galena, Illinois, in the fall of 1851, being then a lad of seventeen years, with his parents, brothers and sisters. The family had left Exeter, Maine, the birthplace of all of the children, designing to settle near the Falls of St. Anthony, but naviga- tion had closed before they reached Galena, oblig- ing them to pass the winter in that city.
Ere spring the father had changed his plans as
to location, and identified himself with the " Farm and Homestead Association," a society then recently organized in New York city. Upon the opening of navigation he hastened to the town- site chosen by the society, at the mouth of the Rollingstone, six miles from the present city of Winona, placing his two sons upon a claim he had taken up just below St. Paul. The Rolling- stone enterprise originated in the brains of inex- perienced city men, and proved a failure. Mr. Shaw, one of the first to recognize its futility, was about to leave the place when his hitherto vigor- ous constitution succumbed to sudden illness, of which he died in the prime of his years, July 14, 1852.
The two sons, who had reached him only in time to receive his last counsels and dying bless- ing, rejoined the rest of the family in Galena, where they remained the next ten years. The eldest of these sons was John Melvil. The younger, then a lad of nine years, as Major George Kittridge Shaw, afterward served honor- ably in the Union army, and is now widely known in northwestern journalism. The untimely death of the husband and father left the family, which had removed to the west on account of financial losses, without the means of carrying to completion his well conceived plans, or ability to hold the lands in which he had invested the last remnant of a once prosperous fortune-lands which have since become valuable.
John Melvil, the eldest, had to bear the brunt of the struggle with adverse fortune. His heart was pure and his aims high. The hours snatched from his duties as accountant were given to study,
Koja : Wery History
John Melvil Shaw
857
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
which was often prolonged into the midnight hours. He read the best books and chose the best associates.
No city bore a prouder record in the war of the Rebellion than Galena. From Gen. U. S. Grant to the humblest private in the ranks, all did her undying honor. No town in our- country of the size of Galena has produced so many men who have won distinction in the different walks of life. Several of its youths, who, with " Young Shaw," as he was then popularly called, entered upon the stage of active life to make their own way un- aided, were to achieve national reputation. Among these may be mentioned his intimate friend and associate, John A. Rawlins, whose pro- fessional and military record belong to history, and Moses Hallet now, as for many years, judge of the United States District Court of Colorado. Others of his close associates of this period achieved brilliant success in business life. Of these we recall that genial gentleman, the late Phillip McQuillan, who afterward became a lead- ing citizen of St. Paul, and is reckoned among those through whose energy and foresight that city has attained its present rank as being, jointly with Minneapolis, the metropolis of the great northwest.
The father of our subject, John Shaw, was a man of sterling character. A man of that fear- less, uncompromising sort who could no more be moved from his convictions of duty than a rock from its base. He stood in the van of the tem- perance and anti-slavery movements, aiding with voice, pen and money those causes then so un- popular. To a logical mind and a vigorous intel- lect he united a literary faculty, which, so far as the engrossing pursuits of mercantile life allowed, he cultivated. Numerous articles from his pen appeared in the National Era, and other advanced publications of the day. This faculty has been inherited by his children, some of whom have achieved literary success. Upon arriving at Rollingstone he planted the first orchard in Minnesota. The " Minnesota History of Horticul- ture" recognizes him as the pioneer who solved the question of fruit culture in that state, and devotes an appreciative chapter to his memory, in which he is paid high tribute both as a man and a citizen.
The son, of whom we write, inherits his father's
positive yet kindly qualities, with traits of a more ideal sort derived from his mother, a women of deep poetic nature and rare beauty of character. Not long before her death, at the age of three score and ten, she said of this son, that he had never given her an unkind or unfilial word. In the spring of 1862, John M. Shaw left Galena, where he had been for a short time only a prac- ticing attorney, and settled in Plattesville, Wis- consin, where he entered. into a law partnership with Mr. John G. Scott, a young man of about his own age, and of rare accomplishments and ability. The prospects of the firm seemed bright; when a new call for troops being issued both partners felt impelled to forego all personal interests and rush to the defense of the imperilled country. Mr. Shaw was exempt from military service on account of a slight defect in the sight of one eye, but at a moment like this he desired no exemption from what he held to be a sacred duty. When the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin Regi- ment left for the seat of war the two partners went with it. John G. Scott, who had been authorized to recruit the company, as captain of Company E, and John M. Shaw as second lieutenant. Mr. Shaw's address to the regiment on that occasion is still remembered as a master- piece of impassioned, stirring and patriotic ora- tory. Upon the death of Captain Scott, which occurred the next year, and the resignation of the first lieutenant, Lieutenant Shaw became captain of the company. General J. M. Rusk, ex-governor of Wisconsin, and secretary of. agri- culture under President Harrison, then in com- mand of the Twenty-fifth regiment, gives Captain Shaw's military record as follows :
" John M. Shaw was commissioned second lieutenant of Company E, Twenty-fifth Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, September 9, 1862, and was mustered in September 14, 1862. He was detailed as A. A. Q. M., A. A. C. S., at Payneville, Minnesota, October 1, 1862 ; was re- lieved and reported to company for duty at Madison, Wisconsin, February 17, 1863 ; was de- tailed as judge advocate of general court martial at Columbus, Kentucky, February 25, 1863 ; re- lieved December 10, 1863; detailed on board of examiners for officers of Thirteenth Tennessee December 12, 1863 ; relieved January 21, 1864; reported to regiment for duty at Vicksburg,
858
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Mississippi, February 2, 1864 ; was with his com- pany on the march from Vicksburg to Meridian, Mississippi, and back to Vicksburg, thence up the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers to Waterloo, Alabama. Assumed command of company as second lieutenant at Waterloo on the third day of April, 1864; was promoted captain May 3, 1864. Was in command of company during entire campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, at battles of Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Nickajack Creek, Decatur and Atlanta and Jonesboro. Commanded company on march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, thence to Pocataglio, South Carolina; thence through South and North Caro- lina to Goldsboro, at battles of Salkehatchie Bridge, North and South Edisto rivers, Orange- burg and Bentonville, and all skimishes and actions in which the regiment was engaged during the entire march. He was detailed as acting provost marshal and judge advocate of First Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, April 6, 1865, at Golds- boro, North Carolina; relieved and reported to regiment for duty May 27, 1865, at Washington, District of Columbia. Was mustered out with his company at Washington, June 7, 1865. He served his country with ability and fidelity for the full term for which his regiment was in the ser- vice, and was a brave soldier and an accomplished gentleman, performing every duty imposed upon him with honor to himself and his command."
At the battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864, fifty per cent. of the men of his company were killed, wounded or captured. It was Captain Shaw's good fortune to go through the service unscathed, excepting that his health was seriously impaired by unusually severe exposure during the latter part of the campaign in the Carolinas. Upon the fall of Atlanta he was granted a month's furlough and proceeded to Minneapolis, where, September 27, 1864, he married Miss Ellen A. Elliot, daugh- ter of Dr. J. S. Elliot, a Minneapolis pioneer. The lady of his choice was a native of his own section of Maine and had been a schoolmate of his boyhood. She has always been an amiable, lovable woman.
His professional career is mentioned by Hon. Wm. Lochren, justice of the Fourth Judicial Dis- trict of Minnesota, an eminent lawyer and judge, who for over twenty years has been socially and professionally his intimate friend and associate, as
follows : "Mr. Shaw's education was obtained in the common schools at his home, supplemented with academic preparation to enter college, which was prevented by the death of his father, devolv- ing upon him, while a mere boy, the principal care of the family and the necessity of engaging in remunerative employment. But his habits of study and intellectual pursuits continued unabated, and produced such store of general and exact information as is seldom acquired with the help of the most liberal and extended education. With his varied studies in spare hours, during this period Coke, Blackstone and other law treatises, were investigated with such thoroughness that a single year's exclusive study and work in a law office, brought admission to the bar, and in 1860 he began the practice of law at Galena, Illinois. Soon the war of the Rebellion broke out and for a while the conflict between his desire to enter into his country's service in the field and his am- bition to rise in his chosen profession kept him uncertain as to his immediate future. But in 1862, having removed to Wisconsin, his patriot- ism overcame all other impulses and considera- tions, and he enlisted in the Twenty-fifth Regi- ment Wisconsin Volunteers, serving until the close of the war, as stated in another part of this sketch.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.