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 47
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a view for miles down St. Croix lake. His home is all that could be desired.
In politics Mr. Staples has always been a Democrat, but to a business man of his ability, office was a burden. In 1849 he was Indian agent for Penobscot Indians living at Old Town, Maine. This, with the office of mayor of Still- water, held in 1886, are the only offices of promi- nence he ever held.
Mr. Staples married in 1839 Miss Caroline B. Rogers, of Old Town, Maine, who died in 1840. In 1841 he married Olivia J. Pettengill, of the same place, and has four sons and four daughters. In personal appearance Mr. Staples is large, and. as his portrait shows, is self-composed and good- natured. Though seventy-five years old, he is still full of physical and mental vigor. He con- stantly looks after the comfort and welfare of his employés, and has helped many to get a start in life. Few men have had the influence of Mr. Staples, and fewer have been so thoroughly iden- tified with the interests of the St. Croix valley. He is always accessible to the humblest, and one of the most cordial men to be found. For energy, will-power, sound judgment, and integrity, Mr. Staples has but few equals.
HENRY E. FLETCHER,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
H ONORABLE, practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, never fails of success. It bears one onward and upward, develops the individual character and powerfully stimulates the action of others. To healthful minds, with per- sonal application comes enjoyment and a sense of duty done. Then, too, progress is impossible without it. It is this unflagging spirit of indus- try that has laid the foundations and built up the commercial greatness of the northwest. The rapid growth of Minnesota and adjacent territory, while richly endowed by nature and possessing far-reaching possibilities, is largely attributable to the untiring energy of individuals.
Closely connected with the development and prosperity of Minneapolis stands the name of Ilenry E. Fletcher, a gentleman whose long business experience, intuitive knowledge of men,
rare executive ability and pleasant social qualities have won for him the highest respect and esteen of his fellow-citizens.
The subject of this sketch was born in Lyndon, Caledonia county, Vermont, July 31, 1843, being a descendant of one of the oldest pioneer families of New England. The genealogy of this family is traccable, to the northern shore of Lake Geneva, in that part of Switzerland known as Canton de Vaud. From this locality various members of the family journeyed to England, many settling therc. The carliest American ancestor, Robert Fletcher, was born in England in 1592, emigrated to America, 1630, and died at Concord, Massa- chusetts, April 3, 1677.
Capt. Joel Fletcher, a direct descendant of Robert, and grandfather of our subject, was born in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, November 26,
At & Dlchon
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1763. In 1793 he removed with his family to Vermont, encountering deprivation, discomfort and varied trials incident to pioneer life. Joel, the youngest of his nine children, was born in Lyndon, March 3, 1818, and was the father of Henry E. Fletcher.
Only the early childhood of Mr. Fletcher was spent in his native town, as when he was but a lad of twelve his father removed to St. Johns- bury, a town only a few miles distant, but one of the most attractive in the state, not only because of Fairbank's scales renown, but possessing in an eminent degree rare educational facilities and a high standard of intelligence. After acquiring an academic education, supplemented by a prepara- tory course, at the age of sixteen he entered staunch old Dartmouth, but was constrained to abandon his studies without completing the course by reason of ill health. Upon deciding to lead a business life, and finding that of wholesale flour and grain, in which his father had been engaged and had most successfully and ably managed since 1856, most congenial to his tastes, he entered the general office, first as bookkeeper and a little later as manager of a branch house established in Newport upon Lake Memphrema- gog, one of the most thriving and popular sum- mer resorts in northern New England. After a most successful business career of a few years Mr. Fletcher removed to Chicago in 1867, engag- ing in milling under the firm name of Marple & Fletcher, and just when the business outlook was most encouraging and the bow of promise hung high in the cloud of success, in a moment all hopes were blighted. A terrible explosion, a dis- astrous fire, and his entire investment was gone.
Early it the spring of 1869 Mr. Fletcher was recalled to Vermont by the failing health of his father. He immediately took charge of the busi- ness, thereby enabling his father to make a change of climate, when he at once sought the invigorat- ing air of northwest. The climatic change prov- ing beneficial, his last years were spent in Minn- esota, measurably in banking at Lake City, and subsequently, the last eighteen months, attending to varied enterests in and about Minneapolis. On the 16th of February, 1875, while on a visit to his family in Vermont, without the slightest pre- monition, he was stricken with apoplexy and peacefully passed away.
During the years Mr. Fletcher remained at St. Johnsbury he not only extensively enlarged the business established by his father, but became more and more identified with varied interests in town and state. He was vice-president of the Merchants' National Bank of St. Johnsbury from its organization, June, 1875, until he left the state in 1879.
While on frequent trips to Minnesota he became impressed with the wonderful resources of the northwest and the commercial and manu- facturing importance of Minneapolis, and in De- cember, 1879, removed to that city.
Anticipating for Minneapolis its rapid ascend- ency to the largest milling point in the world he at once engaged in his favorite pursuit of the manu- facture of flour, and immediately the firm of Sidle, Fletcher, Holmes & Co. was organized, erecting one of the best known mills in the far-famed Flour City (the Northwestern), now owned by the Consolidated Milling Co.
In 1882 he retired from the active management of the business, allowing his name and interests to remain until 1886. During these years he was also extensively engaged in the lumber business under the firm name of Fletcher Bros.
He was elected president of the Northern Pacific Elevator Co. in 1886, and upon his retire- ment one year later left the business in a most prosperous condition.
In 1887 one of the largest and most important industries to the business growth of Minneapolis, viz., the Minneapolis Stock Yards and Packing Co., was organized, Mr. Fletcher being one of its pro- jectors and prime movers ; was also elected its first president, which position he held until the fall of 1890.
When the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic railroad was projected in 1883, Mr. Fletcher was one of the incorporators, giving much of his time and attention to its construction. He was also treasurer and a director of the Min- neapolis and Pacific Railway, incorporated in 1886. These two roads were subsequently con- solidated as the Minneapolis; St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie, and in 1889 Mr. Fletcher resigned his directorship, severing his connection therewith.
In 1889 the City Elevator Co. was organized, Mr. Fletcher being its president and principal owner. He has also been president of the Green
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Mountain Stock Ranching Company since its organization in 1883. This company has large live-stock interests in Montana.
In political sentiment, Mr. Fletcher is a Repub- lican, but he has never aspired to any public office, merely discharging at the polls his duty as a citi- zen.
On the 18th of December, 1866, at Newport, Vermont, Mr. Fletcher was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca A. Smith. Two children, a son and a daughter, were born to them, both dying in infancy.
Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher are members of the Plym-
outh Congregational Church. For four years Mr. Fletcher was president of the Young Men's Christian Association, and his efforts in behalf of that deserving cause contributed much to its pros- perous condition.
The career of Mr. Fletcher can be summed up in very few words; it is characterized by great earnestness and an unwavering determination to succeed, and it affords a happy illustration of the power of perseverance and conscientious effort in elevating individual character, and of those vir- tues and principles embodied in a consistent and well defined life.
MERRELL RYDER,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
A MONG the many enterprising and prosper- ous merchants in the northwest, there are few whose business ventures are more interesting than those of the subject of this sketch.
Inheriting the courage and adventurous spirit of his patriotic and heroic ancestors; educated among the rugged hills of New England, and gaining inspiration from the bold scenery that surrounded his youth and early manhood, he came west, and for nearly forty years has been foremost in the line of trade to which he has given his attention. While he has been con- nected at all times with dealers on the remote frontier, and is not a stranger to the red men in their native wilds, he is a gentleman of refinement and culture, and is well-informed on almost any subject of general interest. As a citizen, no man stands higher, and those who are fortunate enough to know him, prize his genuine friend- ship, and respect him for his sterling qualities of mind and heart.
He was born on a mountain farm in New Hart- ford, Litchfield county, Connecticut, March 22, 1825. His father, Chester Ryder (whose family consisted of four sons and four daughters), was a farmer, and the youngest son of Sylvester Ryder, who located the farm when the country was in- habited chiefly by the Indians. Sylvester Ryder participated in the war of the Revolution, and rendered invaluable service to the cause of Amer- ican Independence. On one occasion, during the
winter. season, when a deep snow lay on the ground, he saved the patriot army under Wash- ington from a condition approximating starva- tion. Mr. Ryder was an acting commissary. The roads were impassable for the transportation of supplies by horse teams, and he secured a number of pairs of oxen to draw his conveyances, and by this means was enabled to convey supplies to the encampment of the army, and to relieve the famishing soldiers. The mother of Merrell was Esther Merrell, who married Chester Ryder in 1823. She was a daughter of Eli Merrell, a noted millwright, who, it is claimed, built the first saw-mill of the modern variety in the State of New York, and the first in the State of Ohio.
Merrell Ryder was educated in the common schools. At the age of eighteen he left the old homestead, and for three years thereafter was en- gaged in mechanical pursuits. At the age of twenty-one he engaged in merchandising in his native town, and continued in that business for seven years. He then sold out and removed to New York, and thence to the west in 1854. He was engaged for a portion of the year as a dealer in wool, hides and wheat, and during the fur sea- son was in the employ of the American Fur Com- pany, successors to the historic old company of John Jacob Astor. In the prosecution of his du- ties as an agent of the fur company, he visited the traders and dealers in furs and robes in the frontier towns and posts of the northwest over a
Merrell Ryder
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vast extent of the territory, and had many inter- esting experiences. He first visited St. Paul in the interest of his company in 1856, and the fol- lowing year went overland to Winnipeg, and was the first fur buyer there after the license of the Hudson Bay Company had expired. He has ever since annually met the northern traders at Winnipeg for the purchase of the fur crop of that region. He was a passenger on the first steam- boat that passed down Red River from George- town to Winnipeg, and assisted in staking the first corner lot on Main street in that city. In 1858 he settled in St. Paul, and has since con- ducted a store here, and has been engaged in shipping furs and skins to Europe, and in manu- facturing all kinds of fur goods. He is not only
the oldest established dealer in his specialty in St. Paul, but also the best known throughout that section.
In 1857 he married in Chicopee, Massachusetts, Miss Anna Corbin. To them were born four children, viz .: Georgia, now the wife of James B. Fishleigh, an attorney of St. Paul; Susie Will- iams, now Mrs. Frederic Swift ; Jennie, who lives at home with her parents, and Frank, who died at the age of eight years.
Mr. Ryder was schooled in the faith and doc- trine of the Presbyterian Church, but for thirty years has been a firm believer in communication with spirits, through their materialization, per- sonation and transfiguration through a natural law.
EDWIN SMITH JONES,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
E DWIN S. JONES was born June 3, 1828, at Chaplin, Windham county, Connecticut. His father, David Jones, was of Welsh descent, and his mother, Percy (Russ) Jones, was of Eng- lish ancestry. His father was a sturdy farmer, who tilled one of the hill farms of Connecticut. His mother died when he was but seven years old, and his father when he was ten. By reason of the death of his parents his education was simply that which could be obtained from the common schools of his neighborhood. But he was always a great reader of the best authors, and persevered in improving every opportunity which presented itself, and in his maturer years his readings of general literature, biography and travel, together with his varied and frequent trav- els through this and the old world, gave him a vast fund of information and knowledge.
Although possessed of means sufficient to sat- isfy every caprice, he adhered to the modest and unobtrusive habits of boyhood-a Puritan in tastes, inflexible in orthodoxy, but gentle, kind and considerate toward all, and ever anxious to help the young who manifested pluck and good habits. But all of his successes in life he attrib- uted to the industry and determination which he acquired as an orphan boy, when he was trying to make his way in the world. These qualities
were his capital, and he esteemed them of higher value than anything else. When he was sixteen years old he began teaching school.
In the spring of 1854 he removed to Minnesota, and settled at Minneapolis, then a straggling frontier village. Before leaving Connecticut he had commenced reading law in the office of Hon. J. H. Carpenter, at Willimantic, Connecticut. On reaching Minnesota he completed his legal studies in the office of Hon. Isaac Atwater, and was admitted to the bar in 1855, and remained with Judge Atwater until 1857. He continued his practice until 1870 (excepting the time when he was in the army during the war of the rebellion), and during that time he was for three years judge of the probate court of Hennepin county ; also, for a time, chairman of the board of supervisors of the town of Minneapolis, and for two years a member of the city council of Minneapolis, all of which positions he filled with credit. He was a soldier in the war of the rebellion, and was cap- tain and commissary of subsistence in the Union forces in the department of the gulf, at New Orleans, Port Hudson, Mobile, Shreveport and other points. Before the close of the war he was breveted as major.
On returning from the army he engaged in the practice of law until the year 1870, when he car-
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ried into effect a long-cherished plan of organiz- ing a savings bank in Minneapolis. Up to that time there was no savings institution in the city, and he was the first to mature and carry out such a plan. He founded the Hennepin County Sav- ings Bank, and was elected its first president, and held that office continuously until his decease. This bank has always been regarded as one of the soundest banking institutions in the north- west, and its management has been marked by prudence and caution.
Although ranked among the best business men of Minneapolis, of sound judgment, honest and straightforward, quick to see a business chance, and ready to forecast the future, it nevertheless was in the line of benevolent and moral activity that Mr. Jones was most conspicuous. As a Christian man his influence has been felt. Al- though he was a man who acquired wealth, and might easily have been one of the wealthiest men of his state had he retained and invested the money he made, his larger wealth consisted in what he had given away to advance the causes of education, morality and religion. No one knows of his private charities or his many substantial gifts to church and educational enterprises, except as they have been incidentally told by the recipi- ents of them. These matters he never mentioned, even to his intimate friends ; some of his gifts, however, are known. He successfully carried out his idea of an old ladies' home, and a home for aged ministers and their wives, and in 1886 he presented to the Woman's Christian Association
of Minneapolis, for this purpose, eighty acres of land on the shores of Cedar Lake, which, in years to come, will be a most munificent property in itself. For a considerable time he was a trustee of the Western Minnesota Academy, at Monte- video, and for several years trustee of Carleton College, at Northfield, to both of which institu- tions he was a liberal contributor. He was a trustee and patron of Chicago Theological Sem- inary and a corporate member of the American Board of Foreign Missions, to which, for years, he was a large and systematic giver. For his gifts to the free kindergarten for colored children at Atlanta, Georgia, it was named the Jones Kin- dergarten. At All Healing Springs, in North Carolina, four miles from King's Mountain, and near the South Carolina line, he, for several years, maintained a school for young ladies with a corps of teachers-the Jones Seminary, its special object being to give an education to the white girls of the mountain region of that section.
Edwin S. Jones was a man of great mental, moral and physical vigor. From his earliest boyhood industry and painstaking work ever characterized him. He threw great energy and enthusiasm into whatever he undertook. His final illness was caused by the powerful strain to which he had ever subjected himself. His last days were patient and cheerful ones, and he bore pain without a murmer. He peacefully departed this life on the 26th day of January, 1890, and left to his family and friends the heritage and memory of an honored name.
HON. JOHN S. PILLSBURY, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
TOHN SARGENT PILLSBURY was born in Sutton, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1828. His parents were John Pillsbury and Susan (Wad- leigh) Pillsbury. His ancestry is traced to Joshua Pillsbury, who came from England in 1640, and settled in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and who received from the crown a grant of land, por- tions of which remain in possession of the Pills- bury family to this day. Many of his descend- ants have filled positions of honor and trust, and have been noted for their personal integrity and
force of character. Micajah Pillsbury, the great grandfather of our subject, settled in Sutton, New Hampshire, in 1790. John's father was a manu- facturer, prominent in local and state affairs in New Hampshire. He died in 1857. John's educa- tional advantages were limited during his boy- hood to the common schools of his native town ; what he thus obtained he supplemented in after life by reading and study and close observation, and to such good purpose did he use his oppor- tunities that few men were better qualified for
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the practical duties and cares of a busy life than he.
He left school at an early age and commenced to learn the painter's trade. When about sixteen years old he abandoned painting, finding it ill suited to his tastes, and began clerking in a store in Warner, where he remained until he attained his majority, when he became associated, as a partner, with Mr. Walter Harrimon (who after- ward became governor of New Hampshire), and so continued for two years. He next engaged in merchant tailoring at Concord. During these years he had been watching the signs of the times, and became convinced that the best oppor- tunities for business success were offered in the west. Starting, therefore, in 1853, he made an extended tour throughout the western and north- western states, and in June, 1855, visited Minne- sota, and determined to settle permanently at St. Anthony.
His first venture was as a hardware merchant. His business was prosperous for about two years, but in 1857 he not only felt the depressing effects of the financial convulsion that swept over the country, but also suffered a loss of thirty-seven thousand dollars by fire, with no insurance. Such a calamity at such a time would have disheartened a less determined man. Not so with Mr. Pills- bury. Its effect was rather to nerve him for renewed effort. He worked with a will, never losing hope, and paid his indebtedness dollar for dollar. In five years he was again a prosperous, successful merchant, asknowledged as one of the best and most honorable business men in the state. The following incident illustrates the con- fidence in which he was held: Shortly after the fire he was compelled to make a large purchase to carry on his business. In payment he gave his personal, unendorsed notes for several thou- sand dollars. As he was about to return to Min- nesota the Boston merchant, returning him his notes, said : " You can keep them as well as I, and as fast as you pay a note and the interest thereon you can tear up the original."
He was elected to the city council of Minne- apolis in 1858, and held this position by re-elec- tion six years. At the opening of the war of the rebellion Mr. Pillsbury rendered efficient service in organizing the First, Second and Third Regi- ments of Minnesota Volunteers, and in 1862 he,
with others, recruited and equipped a mounted company, which was dispatched to the frontier to fight the Indians.
Politically Governor Pillsbury has been affili- ated with the Republican party since its incep- tion. He was elected state senator from Hennepin county in 1863, and filled that office by successive re-elections twelve years, and that, too, notwith- standing his district was Democratic by a majority of some four hundred. The comprehensive views and practical sagacity which marked his long career as a legislator led to a popular demand for his promotion to a higher sphere of usefulness, and in 1875 Mr. Pillsbury received the unsolicited nomination on the Republican ticket for the gov- vernorship of Minnesota, and was elected to that office by twelve thousand majority over his oppo- nent, Mr. D. L. Buell. In 1877, notwithstanding the Democratic and independent forces were united for Mr. William L. Banning, Governor Pillsbury was re-elected by an increased majority. After the expiraton of his second term he was solicited by the friends of good government to accept a nomination for a third term, but the demands of his private affairs made him reluc- tant to remain longer in the public service. He expressed a wish to retire, and pledged his sup- port to any nominee who should aim to consum- mate an honorable settlement of the "bond ques- tion." However, the nomination was pressed upon him, and after due consideration he reluct- antly accepted it. His opponent was Hon. Ed- mond Rice, of St. Paul, an estimable gentleman, widely known throughout the state, and respected by all persons irrespective of party. Governor Pillsbury was re-elected by a large majority. This was the first and only instance in the history of Minnesota in which any governor has been given three terms of office, but the people had such confidence in Governor Pillsbury that they cared nothing for political precedent.
The complete record of Governor Pillsbury's administration would overrun our space. He · restored the honor of the State of Minnesota by securing an adjustment of the long repudiated "bond cases." The grasshoppers had devastated the great northwest, and he not only recom- mended legislative action to relieve the sufferers, but also traveled incognito among these plague- stricken people and personally assisted them.
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One of the most interesting events of his admin- istration was the arrest and conviction of the Younger brothers, who attempted to carry their frontier lawlessness into Minnesota. They rode into the village of Northfield on a bright Sep- tember morning, in 1876, and attempted to rob the bank. Their desperate scheme was foiled by the heroic resistance of the cashier, at the cost of his life, and by the prompt rally of the citizens. Two of the bandits were killed, and the others compelled to take flight. At once the whole country was aroused in the effort to capture the outlaws. Conducting their retreat through the night and under cover of the " Big Woods," they kept at large for some days, and the governor was repeatedly urged to order out the militia. But, rightly judging that it was an occasion for vigilance and celerity of movement rather than military display, he declined the expensive resort to troops, and by the prompt offer of rewards- the responsibility of which he assumed-and with the information obtained from detectives and the persistent use of the telegraph, most of the sur- viving robbers were discovered, driven into a swamp and captured. They escaped trial by pleading guilty, and received life sentences, which they are now serving in the state's prison at Still- water. Governor Pillsbury also settled satisfac- torily some four hundred claims against the rail- roads of the state.
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