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 40
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and an indulgent mother. She had deep-seated religious convictions, and had a marked influence in training her children to ways of upright and honorable living. They had eleven children, ten of whom grew to maturity and married and had children of their own. Among those were Israel Washburn, Jr., who became governor of Maine, and subsequently a member of congress. Elihu B. Washburn, who was a member of congress, secretary of state, and minister plenipotentiary to France during the Franco-German war; Cadwal- lader C. Washburn, a member of congress, a major-general during the war of the rebellion and governor of Wisconsin ; Charles A. Washburn, United States minister to Paraguay, and Samuel B. Washburn, who was a United States naval officer during the civil war. Our subject was the youngest of this family, all of whom grew to ma- turity in their native town of Livermore, Andros- coggin county, Maine, where they shared in the simple social life of the community and drew vigor from the labors of the farm, and inspiration amid the hills and meadows, and lakes and flash- ing streams of their rural home.
William's boyhood did not differ materially from that of other New England boys, the sons of intelligent farmers. His older brothers had entered professional or public life while he was yet in his teens, and the influence of their exam- ples inspired him with high ambitions and noble purposes. After closing his studies in the com- mon schools, he was sent to Gorham, and later to Farmington Academy, and at the last-named pre- pared himself for college. In the fall of 1850 he entered the classical department of Bowdoin College, and was graduated with the degree of A. B., with the class of 1854. He then became a law student and clerk in the office of his brother Israel, and in 1857 completed his legal studies at
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Bangor, in the office of Hon. John A. Peters, now chief justice of the state of Maine. Mean- while he secured a clerkship in the United States house of representatives, under Gen. Cullom, where he had an opportunity to observe the methods of transacting business in the nation's parliament, as well as to make the acquaintance of the public men of the period, contemporaries of his three brothers, who were members of that congress, representing the widely separated states of Maine, Illinois and Wisconsin. In May, 1857, being then little more than twenty-six years old, and endowed with a vigorous constitution and a liberal education, and inspired with a high ambi- tion, he turned his steps westward, foreseeing in the then undeveloped country opportunities for realizing his fondest hopes. Already, the region around the Falls of St. Anthony was attracting
much attention. His brothers had acquired property interests there, and other friends from his native town were settling there. These con- siderations led him thither, and he accordingly settled at Minneapolis, and soon afterwards opened a law office. But the law practice then was meager in this new country, consisting chiefly of land cases, and its forum was more in the land office than in its courts. Mr. Washburn found in it little to satisfy his ambition. He, however, took an active interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of Minneapolis, and the development of his adopted state's resources. He became president of the Board of Trade, and corresponding scretary of the Union Commercial Association, and when the " five million loan bill," which proposed a loan of the credit of the state in the interests of railroads, was proposed, he was among those who heartily opposed the unfortu- nate measure. The Minneapolis Mill Company had been chartered in 1856, with a capitalized stock of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The company owned the land on the west side of the Mississippi river adjacent to the falls. Soon after his arrival Mr. Washburn was made secre- tary and agent of the company, and entered with eagerness upon his duties. Among the stock- holders were Hon. Robert Smith, a member of congress from Illinois; Mr. Washburn's brother, Cadwallader, and Messrs. D. Morrison, Leonard Day, Jacob S. Elliott, George E. Huy, M. L. Olds and several others. Under Mr. Washburn's
management a dam was built, and other improve- ments were in progress, when the work was checked on account of the financial panic that then swept over the country. The company was able to complete its dam and a small section of its canal, so as to admit of the erection of saw- mills and other manufactories, but had a large debt and many unpaid stock assessments. Mr. Washburn labored unceasingly with increasing embarrassments, and during the first five years, secured, in addition to saw-mills, the erection of the first merchant flour mill built in Minneapolis. The "Cataract " was the precursor of a business that has become not only one of the leading in- dustries of Minneapolis, but also world-wide in fame. While others lost heart in carrying along an enterprise which gave little encouragement for any immediate returns, and allowed their stock to be forfeited, Mr. Washburn worked with unabated zeal. He saw the importance of having the water powers utilized, and offered liberal terms to attract buyers, so that most manufacturing enter- prises located on the west side, although the east side property offered better mill sites. For many years the improvements outran the income ; but Mr. Washburn was building for the future, and time has vindicated the wisdom of his policy. Water-powers which originally rented for seventy-five dollars per mill, commanded one thousand dollars; the dam is filled with saw- mills; the canal is lined with flour, paper, woolen and other mills, and the whole enterprise has become a source of unexampled prosperity to the city.
In 1889, the property of the Mill Company, together with that of the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company, and the principal flour mills, passed to a new company of English and American stockholders, who invested many mil- lion dollars in the enterprise. Mr. Washburn originated and conducted the negotiations, and remains a director in the new company.
In the spring of 1859, he returned to his native state, and on April 19, married Miss Lizzie Muzzy, daughter of Hon. Franklin Muzzy, of Bangor, and returning, built a small house in the lower part of town and went to housekeeping. In 1861, Presi- dent Lincoln appointed him surveyor-general of Minnesota, and the next four years he made. his home in St. Paul. During that time the pine-
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timbered lands in the northern part of Minnesota were surveyed and put upon the market, and he purchased large tracts, and, associated with others, under the name of W. D. Washburn and Com- pany, cut large quantities of logs, drove them to the boom at Minneapolis, built a large saw-mill at the Falls, opened lumber yards, and engaged largely in the lumber trade. About 1872, the firm built a large saw-mill at Anoka, also planing mills, dry houses and all necessary equipments, and did an extensive business, handling as high as twenty-five million feet of lumber per year. He also engaged largely in the manufacture of flour ; he helped in building and operating the Palisade Flouring Mill at Minneapolis, built in 1873, and, under the name of W. D. Washburn and Company, built a flouring mill at Anoka in 1880. His business interests were, in 1884, incor- porated as the Washburn Mill Company. The mills at Minneapolis and Anoka had a daily ca- pacity of twenty-five hundred barrels of flour. These lines of business were carried on until the year 1889, when the lumber business was closed and the flouring business with the mills was trans- ferred to the new company that acquired the mill company under the style of Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company. He still remains a di- rector of the company, and, with Mr. Pillsbury, is a local manager of that extensive business.
Mr. Washburn has also been largely instru- mental in developing the railroads of his state. In 1870, with other Minneapolis men, he contracted to build the Northern Pacific Railway through the state from the St. Louis river to the Red river, and satisfactorily completed the work in 1872. He was a leading spirit in building the Minne- apolis and Duluth, and the Minneapolis and St. Louis railways, and was president of the com- pany (which comprised, besides himself, his brother, Governor Washburn, and other enterpris- ing citizens of Minneapolis), which constructed the roads, and had the burden of its financial management.
Twenty-five years ago Gov. Israel Washburn addressed the citizens of Minneapolis, advocating the construction of a railway line by the way of the Sault St. Marie, connecting with the Canadian system, and making the shortest and almost an air-line to an Atlantic port, at Portland. The conception assumed bodily shape when his
brother, W. D. Washburn, took up the idea, organized a company, became its president and financial manager, and pushed the work to com- pletion in an incredibly short time. The leading idea was to serve the large milling interests of Minneapolis, and the producers of the northwest, by opening a new and competing line to the east, and emancipating them from the monopoly of the old lines around the south shore of Lake Michigan. The line completed, it remained to supplement it by a line which should extend from Minneapolis into Dakota. This Mr. Washburn accomplished by organizing the Minneapolis and Pacific railway Company, and completing the line into Dakota, and by connecting lines to a junc- tion with the Canadian Pacific Railway at Regina, thus making part of a great transcontinental line, bringing Minneapolis two hundred miles nearer the Pacific coast than by any other line.
This gigantic work successfully accomplished, except the completion of the Pacific connection, Mr. Washburn retired from the management to devote himself more exclusively to his public duties.
·Like all his brothers, Mr. Washburn has had a decided taste for politics, and since early man- hood has been the recipient of political honors. He has always belonged to the radical wing of the Republican party ; but in all legislative enact- ments, touching every great political issue of the country, he has always advocated practical meas- ures in statesmanship. As early as 1858 he was elected to the general assembly of Minnesota, but the delegation chosen that year did not take their seats, owing to a change of apportionment. He served as a member of the Minneapolis school board two terms, beginning with 1866. In 1870, he was again elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, and served through the important session of 1871, working and voting to subjugate the railroads to public authority. From 1878 to 1884 he was a member of Congress, being twice re-elected, each time by largely in- creased majorities, and accomplished much for his district. Through his influence the national government erected at Minneapolis a fine building for the federal courts and postoffice, and under- took the system of reservoirs at the sources of the Mississippi river.
The crowning honor and most serious respon-
Roberto Russell
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sibility of his life occurred in 1889, when he was chosen to represent his state in the United States Senate for a term of six years. A very impor- tant measure was introduced by him in the Senate at the present session (1892), aiming to suppress the business of dealing in "options " and " futures " in suppositous wheat and other agri- cultural products. Having closed the greater part of his business enterprises, he is free to de- vote himself to public duties. For two summers he has, with his family, made excursions to Europe, visiting especially the northern countries whence so many citizens of Minneapolis have emigrated.
Senator Washburn has been favored through all his life with good health. He has a strong constitution, great vitality, and an easy and agree- able manner. His unfailing courtesy attracts those of highest social position, while it does not repel the humblest. His disposition is genial, and his temper exuberant. In debate he is not florid, but argumentative and practical, preferring to convince the judgment rather than captivate
the fancy. In conversation he is engaging, draw- ing from a store of rich and varied experiences. Withal, he is a man of positive opinions, and of sufficient strength of will to hold them, until a good reason is shown for their change.
Accompanied by his interesting family, Mr. Washburn has always maintained a high social position at the National Capital, and there, as at his own home, is the center of a wide circle of devoted friends. For many years he lived at the corner of Seventh street and Fifth avenue, in Minneapolis, but some years ago he built an elegant home on a high, wooded tract of ten acres, at Third avenue and Twenty-fourth street, now known as " Fair Oaks," and where a refined and hearty hospitality is dispensed with a gen- erous hand.
Of eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Wash- burn, four sons and two daughters survive. The eldest, William D., Jr., is a graduate of Yale, married and a journalist. Another son has artistic tastes and ability. The others are in school.
HON. ROBERT D. RUSSELL,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
R OBERT D. RUSSELL is a prominent law- yer. He is well versed in the elementary principles of the law, and familiar with all branches of his profession. He possesses that mental equipoise which is often called sound judg- ment, and has a natural mental grasp which en- ables him to take the manifest bearings of a sub- ject, to perceive its resemblances and harmonies as well as its inconsistencies, at a glance. His critical analysis of a subject covers all its points. He is careful and deliberate in forming an opin- ion, and there are few lawyers on whose conclu- sions and opinions greater reliance may be placed. His mind is subtle and analytic, and inclined to be judicial in its nature. He is remarkable for clearness, and although possessing a vivid imagin- ation, he is inclined to be practical and logical, and is always consistent. He has a perfect com- mand of the English language, and in illustration he is peculiarly happy, while in his legal argu- ments he is direct, pointed and strong. In his
literary or political addresses, personification, hyperbole, simile, contrast, allusion and antith- esis succeed each other in rich and varied pro- fusion.
Mr. Russell was born in St. Louis, Missouri, March 9, 1851, the son of Charles E. Russell and Louise (Matthews), his wife. She was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and belonged to one of the old and well-known families of that place. The father of our subject came to this country from England at an early age ; he was a successful me- chanic.
The eldest brother of our subject, Walter S. Russell, a minister, of the Christian denomination, and a distinguished scholar, was elected president of Berean College at Jacksonville, Illinois, when he was but twenty-seven years of age. The other brother, Sol. Smith Russell, is the famous come- dian and actor, whose mirth-inspiring faculties are too well known and highly appreciated to need description here.
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Robert D. learned the tinner's trade, and worked his way through school, and graduated from Illinois College, at Jacksonville, with the highest honor of his class, that of being valedic- torian. He is now a trustee of his alma mater. He read law in the office of Hon. Isaac L. Morri- son, of Jacksonville, and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois at Ottawa at the September term, 1874. He opened an office in Jacksonville, and soon established a good prac- tice. He served three terms as city attorney. In 1883 he removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and after establishing a large practice, he was elected city attorney in 1888, and re-elected in 1891. He has conducted important cases with decided abil- ity, and saved the city large sums of money by his professional industry and knowledge, com-
bined with his eloquence and skill as an advocate. He has hosts of friends, and is ranked among the leading attorneys and most popular citizens of Minneapolis.
In 1891 he was nominated on the Republican ticket for judicial honors as an associate of Judges Young and Hooker. The nomination was rati- fied by the entire bar of Minneapolis as one of the very best that could have been made. And it was made without solicitation on his part. Mr. Russell was tendered the appointment to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. John P. Rea, resigned, but declined the honor.
On September 7, 1876, he married Miss Lillian M., daughter of Rev. A. L. Brooks, a Presbyte- rian minister of Danville, Illinois. Of five children born to them, but one, Dorathy, survives.
CADWALLADER COLDEN WASHBURN,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
A MONG that sturdy band of pioneers who re- moved to the northwest from New Eng- land, no man has filled a more conspicuous or admirable place than Governor C. C. Washburn, a grand and manly figure, transcendent in his qualities of mind and heart, and endowed with commanding personal traits.
The ancestors of the Washburn family were of the brave old Pilgrim stock, and dwelt in the quiet little English village of Evesham, near the Avon. When the days grew evil in England, John Washburn, secretary of the Plymouth colony in England, sailed across the sea to Massachusetts, where he married Patience, the daughter of Francis Cook, one of the passengers on the " Mayflower." They settled at Duxbury, one of the sea-shore towns of the Old Colony. In the direct line of his descendants came Israel Wash- burn, who was born in 1784, in the town of Rayn- ham, near Taunton, in Bristol county, Massa- chusetts. In June, 1812, he married Martha Benjamin, the daughter of Lieutenant Samuel Benjamin, a brave old soldier of the Revolution, who began his campaigning at the battle of Lexington, and remained in service until after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, not being out of active duty for a single day. After these
many years of patriotic devotion, the veteran hero returned to his native region and married Tabitha, the daughter of Nathaniel Livermore, of Watertown, Massachusetts. The newly wedded couple settled in the hill town of Livermore, near the Androscoggin river, in Maine, and soon afterwards, Israel Washburn, after experimenting at teaching and shipbuilding on the Kennebec, came up here and founded a trading post. Israel Washburn and his wife had eleven children, ten of whom grew to maturity and married and had children of their own. Among these were Israel Washburn, governor of Maine in 1861-63, also member of congress from 1850 to 1860; Elihu B. Washburn, twenty years a member of congress, secretary of state in President Grant's cabinet, and U. S. minister to France ; Charles A. Wash- burn, U. S. minister to Paraguay ; Samuel B. Wash- burn, a naval officer during the civil war ; William D. Washburn, surveyor-general of Minnesota, and member of the forty-sixth, forty-seventh and forty- eighth congresses, and at present U. S. senator from Minnesota, and the subject of this sketch.
C. C. Washburn was born at Livermore, Andros- coggin (then Oxford) county, Maine, on the 26th of April, 1818. The parish and neighborhood in which he was brought up was distinguished for its
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strong Universalist spirit, and many of the lead- ing citizens adhered to that faith. Among these adherents were the Washburn family, who at- tended the church as long as they remained at Livermore, and contributed liberally to its sup- port. The Universalist Church was built in 1828, near the Norlands (as the Washburn homestead is called), and for over sixty years has been a con- spicuous landmark in that section.
Our subject's education, as far as text-books go, was limited to the teaching received at the dis- trict school, a few rods from his father's door. But greater than the works of the rustic peda- gogue was the wise training given him by his parents, added to the fine nature inherited from them. When he reached the age of eighteen he went into a store and served some three years as a clerk. This experience was followed by a period of school teaching down at Wiscasset, a bright little seaport on the Maine coast. Then came a time of service as clerk in the post-office of Hallowell, on the Kennebec river, during which he gave earnest attention, to the study of surveying. He also devoted some attention to reading law under the direction of his uncle, Reuel Washburn, a lawyer living at Livermore.
In 1839, Mr. Washburn bade farewell to the state of his birth and sought the broader oppor- tunities of the undeveloped west. He taught school at Davenport, Iowa, and was engaged in David Dale Owen's geological survey of Iowa, at the same time carrying forward his law studies until he was admitted to the bar. Thus he speedily gained a sure foothold in the country of his adoption ; and in 1840, he received the ap- pointment of surveyor of the County of Rock Island, in Illinois. Another move was made in 1842 to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where he de- voted himself to the practice of law. Following this intricate profession with unremitting dili- gence, he soon attained considerable distinction and found himself favored with a large practice, both in law and in surveying.
He formed a partnership with Cyrus Woodman, agent of the New England Land Company, which lasted more than twenty years. Their business consisted largely in clearing and establishing the new settlers' titles to their homes, matters of much difficulty and great importance to their clients. During a score of years spent in these
pursuits, Mr. Washburn acquired a wide circle of acquaintances throughout Wisconsin, and the general regard for his ability and integrity com- pelled his entrance into public and political life. Entering public land for settlers, locating Mexi- can war land warrants, and establishing the strong and always solvent Mineral Point Bank, the two partners drifted naturally, and by easy stages, from law to finance, and broadened their acquain- tance and opportunities.
In 1855, Mr. Washburn was elected to Con- gress, where he served three terms (until March 30, 1861), and then declined a re-election. His congressional career was marked by great sagacity of policy, and by a firm patriotic stand on all the great questions then agitating the country on the eve of the civil war. At the outbreak of the war, Mr. Washburn enlisted in the federal army, and remained in active service until the close of hostilities. He began his military career as colonel of the Second Wisconsin Cavalry, a fine regiment which he had raised, and served with such efficiency that President Lincoln commis- sioned him as brigadier-general in June, 1862. The perilous Arkansas campaign of 1862 called forth Colonel Washburn's most strenuous efforts, and his achievements at Tallahatchie and in open- ing the Yazoo Pass and at Grand Coteau, where his conspicuous valor saved Burbridge's entire division, were celebrated throughout the army of the west. In November, 1862, he became a major general, and held as such an important command during the Vicksburg compaign. After the fall of Vicksburg, General Washburn was placed in command of the Thirteenth Corps and ordered to active service in the Gulf states. At the head of these brave troops he performed various brilliant achievements along the Texas coast and finally captured the strong, casemated and iron-clad works of Fort Esperanza, at Pass Cavallo, defending the approach to Matagorda Bay. After a long season of warfare on the Gulf coast, General Washburn went up to Memphis and succeeded General Stephen A. Hurlburt in command of the military district of West Tennes- see. He held this important post nearly the entire time until the end of the war.
After General Washburn had resigned his com- mission and returned to Wisconsin, he was again elected to Congress, where he served during the
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eventful epoch from 1867 to 1871, as a Republi- can representative of the Sixth Wisconsin district. In November, 1871, he was elected governor of Wisconsin, a high and responsible office, which he filled successfully during two years, 1872 and 1873. Finally retiring from public life Governor Washburn devoted himself to the administration of his great and varied business affairs, which in- cluded the lumber mills in connection with the extensive woodlands he had acquired before 1850 ; the water-power at St. Anthony's Falls, of which he was one of the largest owners ; and property to a considerable amount on the Minne- apolis and St. Louis and other railroads.
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