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During his terms of office Governor Pillsbury retained his business interests. In 1872 he en- gaged in the manufacture of flour in Minneapolis with his nephew, Hon. Charles A. Pillsbury, and his brother, Hon. George A. Pillsbury, the firm being known as C. A. Pillsbury and Company. To this firm Fred. C. Pillsbury, a son of George A. Pillsbury, was afterwards admitted. Their business is the largest in its line in the world, and the products of their mills are carried all over the world. The mills have a capacity of ten thousand barrels per day. Governor Pillsbury is also identi- fied with the lumber and real-estate interests of the northwest ; he has also been connected with' the construction of railroads, and he is largely interested. as a director, in the Minneapolis and St. Louis and the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroads. For many years he has been a director in several leading Minneapolis banks. His business judgment has been sought
by all, and he has always been looked up to as a discreet and wise counselor. Among his chief characteristics are simplicity of manner and sym- pathy for those in need of help.
Since the establishment of the University of Minnesota Mr. Pillsbury has taken the deepest interest in its welfare, and as the state has in- creased in population and wealth, and the de- mands for a higher education also increased, his ambition for the development of the University has kept pace with her increasing needs. The demands of the University for new buildings, and particularly for a large hall of science, became pressing in the winter of 1888-9. April 16, 1889, the matter was under consideration before the regents and a committee of both houses of the legislature. No one knew what to do. Finally Governor Pillsbury arose and gave a hasty recital of the institution's history, concluding as follows : " As the state has not the funds I want to help this University myself. I have long had the inten- tion of leaving something for it. I think I can- not do better for the state that has so highly honored me, for the University that I so much love, than by making a donation for the comple- tion of these buildings, and I propose to erect and complete science hall at an expense of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, more or less, and present it to the state, and all I ask is to know that these land grants be kept intact, and this institution be made one that this great state may be proud of ; that may be adequate to the needs of the state, an honor to it and a lasting monument of the progress which is characteristic of this state, now and in the years to come-some assurance that when I am dead and gone this institution shall be kept for all time, broad in its scope, powerful in its influence, as firm and sub- stantial in its maturity as it was weak in the days that saw its birth."
The effect of these words was electrical upon the people of Minnesota. The legislature ·has- tened to do him honor, and place on record a formal vote of thanks. The students of the Uni. versity, in a public reception, could not find lan- guage sufficiently strong to express their feelings of gratitude. President Northrop, in his bacca- laurcate address on Sunday, June 2, 1889, referring to Mr. Pillsbury and his noble gift to the Univer- sity, said, " The names of George Peabody, whose
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monument may be seen in Harvard and Yale, and men who within the last few years have done great service to humanity by unprecedented gifts, especially Otis, Hand and Slater, all of Connecti- cut, will readily occur to you; and I am sure that as I speak all of you are thinking of the re- cent noble gift to this University by our friend and neighbor, Governor Pillsbury. It is not the first time he has shown his generous interest in this institution; indeed, it is owing to him that the University exists at all, for by unwearied efforts of his, the University was rescued from hopeless debt, even before it was organized for work. During all the years in which that able scholar Dr. Folvell, the first president of the Uni- versity, was laying its foundations and wisely planning its educational work, Governor Pillsbury was the sagacious counselor, the earnest friend, the faithful regent, watching over the financial interests of the institution with ceaseless vigi- lance, ever ready to sacrifice his time, his busi- ness and his ease, to its welfare. By his kindness and charity in his daily life, by his public spirit, his wise services to the state, in both legislative and executive positions, his free-handed benevo- lence to the suffering people of the state in the time of great trial, and his firm, determined stand for the honor of the state in the time of great public temptation, he deserves to be remembered with gratitude by the people of this state to the remotest generation. But for no one of his many noble deeds will he be longer remembered than for this his munificent gift of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the state and the
University, at a time when the financial condition of the state made it impossible for the legisla- ture, however well disposed, to grant the money which it needed to carry forward its enlarging work. He has shown himself wise in making this gift while he lived, and might justly hope to witness in the increased prosperity of the Uni- versity, the fruits of his own benevolence. He has shown himself wise in estimating money at its just value-not for what it is, but for what it can do-not as something to be held and loved, and gloated over, or to be expended in personal aggrandizement and luxury, but as something that can work mightily for humanity, which can reinforce even the educational power of a sov- ereign state, which can enrich human minds, and thus lift up into the greatness of a noble citizen- ship the sons and daughters of the northwest."
Governor Pillsbury married, in Warner, New Hampshire, November 3, 1856, Miss Mahala Fisk, a lady of rare qualities who has always been deeply interested in all his projects, and who has seconded all his efforts. She was the daughter of Captain John Fisk, one of the descendants of Rev. John Fisk, who emigrated to Windom, Massachusetts, from Suffolk, England, in 1637. Of four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Pillsbury, Addie, who was born in October, 1859, and who was the wife of Mr. Charles M. Webster, is de- ceased ; Susan M., born June 23, 1863, is the wife of Mr. Fred. B. Snyder, a prosperous young at- torney of Minneapolis; Sarah Belle, born June 30, 1866, and Alfred Fisk, born October 20, 1868, live with their parents.
HON. GEORGE A. PILLSBURY,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
G EORGE A. PILLSBURY, second son of John and Susan (Wadleigh) Pillsbury, was born in Sutton, New Hampshire, August 29, 1816. After receiving a thorough common-school educa- tion in his native town, he began his business life at the age of eighteen as a clerk with Mr. Job Davis, a dealer in fruits and groceries, under the Boylston Market, in Boston, Massachusetts. At the end of one year he returned to Sutton, and at once engaged in the manufacture of stoves
and sheet-iron ware with his cousin, John C. Pillsbury.
On February 1, 1840, he went to Warner as a clerk in the store of Mr. John H. Pearson. Five months later he purchased the business, and for nearly eight years he was identified with it, either on his own account or in partnership with others. His partners during this time were Henry Wood- man and H. D. Robertson.
In the spring of 1848 he took a position
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in a wholesale dry-goods house in Boston, but in 1849 returned to Warner, and engaged in busi- ness there.
In 1844 he was appointed postmaster at War- ner. In 1847 he served the town as selectman ; in 1849 as selectman and town treasurer, and in 1850 and 1851 he was elected representative to the general court, and during his term he built the county jail at Concord.
In November, 1851, he was appointed by the Concord Railroad Company their purchasing agent, and upon assuming the duties of the posi- tion in December following, removed his family to Concord. He occupied this position continu- ously until July, 1875. During his administration of the office, which was always satisfactory, his purchases amounted to more than three millions of dollars, and he settled more cases for claims against the road for personal injury resulting from accident and fire, than all other officers combined. In all of his long term of office his relations with the officers of the road were uniformly agreeable.
During a residence of nearly twenty-seven years in Concord, Mr. Pillsbury was called upon to fill many positions of honor and trust, and he did much towards developing and beautifying that city. He was one of the committee appointed by Union School District to build the high school, and several other school buildings that still stand. He was interested in the erection of some of the handsomest business blocks upon Main street, and several fine residences were built by him.
In 1864, Mr. Pillsbury, with others, organized the First National Bank of Concord. He was a member of its first board of directors, and in 1866 became its president, and continued in office until his departure from the state. In 1867 he was instrumental in securing the charter of the National Savings' Bank, of which he was president from the time of its organization until 1874, when he resigned. During his connection with the First National Bank, it became, in proportion to its capital stock, the strongest bank in the state, and its standing is equally good to-day. Up to December, 1873, when the treasurer became a defaulter, the National Savings' Bank was one of the most prosperous institutions of its kind in the state : but this defalcation, coupled with a general business depression, necessitated closing its doors. It eventually paid nearly all of its indebtedness.
Mr. Pillsbury was for many years a member of the city council of Concord. He was elected mayor in 1876, and re-elected the following year. During 1871 and 1872, he was a representative in the New Hampshire legislature, and in the latter year was made chairman of the special committee on the apportionment of public taxes. In 1876 the Con- cord city council appointed him chairman of a committee to appraise all of the real estate in the city for the purposes of taxation, and in this ca- pacity he personally visited every residence within the city limits.
In the spring of 1878, he removed to Minne- apolis, Minnesota, where, with his, two sons and brother, he was extensively engaged in the manu- facture of flour. His leaving Concord was the cause of universal regret. Complimentary resolu- tions were unanimously passed by both branches of the city government, and by the First Na- tional Bank, the latter testifying strongly to his integrity, honesty and superior business qualities. Resolutions passed by the First Baptist church and society, were ordered to be entered upon the records of each organization. The Webster club, composed of fifty prominent business men of Concord, passed a series of resolutions expressive of regret for his departure from the state. A similar testimonial was also presented to Mr. Pillsbury, which was subscribed to by more than three hundred of the leading professional and business men of the city, among whom were all the ex-mayors then living, all the clergymen, all the members of both branches of the city gov- ernment ; all the bank officials, twenty-six law- yers, twenty physicians, and nearly all the busi- ness men of the city.
In Minneapolis, Mr. Pillsbury has won the respect of all business and professional men, and endeared himself to all with whom he has become intimately acquainted. He is a member of the firm of Charles A. Pillsbury and Company, the largest flour manufacturing firm in the world. He is also president of the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis.
The following extract is from The Northwest, a popular monthly magazine published in St. Paul, Minn. :
" More than a year ago the writer said, in the columns of The Northwest, that if any man in Minneapolis were asked to whom the city
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chiefly owed her prosperity, there would be no hesitation in his answer, 'the Pillsburys.' Since then the people of Minneapolis have had no cause to change their opinions, while last spring they gave a somewhat emphatic utterance to them, by electing one of the members of this remark- able family, the Hon. George Alfred Pillsbury, to the mayoralty of the city by an overwhelming vote. A liking for hard work and a belief in its virtues seem to have been early rooted in the Pillsbury family, for in England, more than two centuries and a half ago, they bore for their motto, Labor omnia vincit, but in all the genera- tions of the Pillsburys since then who have lived and worked, from English Essex to Massachu- setts, New Hampshire and Minnesota, it may be doubted whether any one of them has better de- served to bear the motto than the present mayor of Minneapolis. It was Lord Brougham who was advised by a friend 'to confine himself, if possible, to the work of five ordinary men,' but his toiling lordship himself. might have been envious of the downright hard work which Mr. Pillsbury has got through in his life. Setting his early life aside for the present, the mayor has only been in Minneapolis six years as yet. During that time he has been the president of the Minneapolis Board of Trade, of the City Council, of the Homeopathic Hospital, and the Minneapolis Free Dispensary, and is still presi- dent of the Chamber of Commerce, of the Pills- bury and Hurlburt Elevator Company, of the Board of Water-works, of the St. Paul and Minne- apolis Baptist Union, and the Minnesota Baptist State Convention ; and vice-president of the Min- nesota Loan and Trust Company, member of the board of Park Commissioners, director of the Northwestern National Bank, the Manufacturers' National Bank, Minneapolis Elevator Company, and a trustee of institutions innumerable. All this, besides mayor of the city.
Mr. Pillsbury has shown a capacity for hard and honest work, incomprehensible to most men. This alone would compel the respect of his fellow- citizens, but by his generosity, his warm-hearted- ness and unostentatious charity he has also won their affection. No stranger could read his public record without admiring the man who could live such a life."
Some six years have passed since the above
was written, and Mr. Pillsbury is still active and vigorous. In 1885 he was chairman of the com- mittee to build the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce Building.
In 1886 he was chairman of the committee to build the First Baptist Church in Minneapolis, the largest and most costly church edifice west of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Pillsbury, and their two sons, Charles A. and Fred. C., at their own ex- pense, placed in this church the largest and best organ in the city, at a cost of eight thousand five hundred dollars.
Mr. Pillsbury has always been a friend and supporter of the cause of education. He was a member of the board of education of Concord, and contributed liberally towards the endowment of Colby Academy, of New London. In Min- nesota he has served on several committees to build school-houses, and has been elected a mem- ber of the board of education. He has also been much interested in an academy located at Owa- tonna, Minnesota. He has built, at his own expense, a ladies' boarding hall, connected with the academy, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. The name of this academy was changed in 1888, by the state legislature, from Minnesota Academy to "Pillsbury Academy," in honor of Mr. Pills- bury. In 1889 he erected a new building for this institution at a cost of forty thousand dollars. The building contains recitation rooms, library and reading rooms, offices, a chemical laboratory, a gymnasium, bath room, a study room, a chapel and a spacious auditorium.
At the annual meeting of the American Baptist Missionary Union, held in Minneapolis in 1888, Mr. Pillsbury was elected its president. This organization has its headquarters in Boston, and has in charge all the foreign missionary work of the Baptists in all the northern and some of the southern states, distributing annually nearly half a million dollars for mission work in foreign fields.
Although severed from his old friends and companions in the east, Mr. Pillsbury has not permitted time nor distance to lessen his love for his old home. In 1890 he donated to the city of Concord, at a cost of seventy-five thousand dol- lars, a free hospital, to which he gave the name of his wife " Margaret Pillsbury ;" to Warner he donated a free public library which cost sixty
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thousand dollars : to Sutton, a soldiers' monu- ment.
The following extract is from the Concord Evening Monitor of July 25, 1890:
"MR. AND MRS. PILLSBURY .- The earth's best product is noble manhood and womanhood. Hon. George A. Pillsbury is a noble man. There is no mission higher than the alleviation of human suffering. His generous gift to our people of a general hospital is a splendid beneficence that touches every individual heart here with profound gratitude. It is an institution that comes home alike to the needs of the educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, the high and the low. He could have done nothing better for us. Everybody in the community is glad and thankful that such excellent provision is to be made for the care of our sick and injured, and everybody here is deeply grateful to the very considerate and kindly gentleman, our former fellow-citizen, for the great general good he has done.
"As to the institution, our people will take early and appropriate opportunity to express formally and unanimously their earnest apprecia- tion. As to the public-spirited and noble-souled benefactor himself, and his estimable wife, Margaret, for whom the elegant and commodious new hospital is named, there is only one senti- ment-Heaven bless Mr. and Mrs. Pillsbury.
" Mr. Pillsbury, with comparative ease, might have written his personal check and turned it over to a citizen's committee, to found and endow a capacious hospital, but this modest man, with a great, warm heart, and his lovely Christian wife, left their sumptuous home in Minneapolis that they might come among their old friends and neighbors in this state, and have the pleasure of doing, as it were, with their own hands the grand public work they are accomplishing. He brought his own architect ; he selected and purchased the lot of his choice for the building: and he will personally superintend its construction.
"Office and fame have no allurements for him. He is one of the few capitalists who is perfectly satisfied with his wealth. He enjoyed its honor- able accumulation ; he will now take equal pleasure in its generous and discriminate expendi- ture. Nobody covets his riches; everybody wishes that he had a still larger fortune to give
away in public bequests. He and his wife are here now, with no possible object except to do good, and to renew old friendships and associa- tions, and to pay respects to the people who delight to respect and honor them.
" We only seldom have such visitors. Think of it, a happy and handsome married couple, so ad- vanced in years, and yet so remarkably well pre- served : so wealthy and, yet so unostentatious ; so distinguished, and yet so humbly affable and generous ; so blessed with this world's favors, yet possessed of such excellent native sense; so public-spirited and beneficent, so charitable, kind and tolerant towards all-they present indeed a rare and touching sight, one to be cherished in our recollections, beloved and welcome sojourners is our peaceful and beautiful city.
"An institution is defined to be the lengthened shadow of a man. George Alfred Pillsbury will have many worthy shadows, and long after he and his gracious wife have gone from us, perhaps forever, fevered lips. of invalid sufferers will whisper prayers of thankfulness that will be encomiums on this good man and women more eloquent and touching than any we could pro- nounce. Many who are now well and strong may fall victims to the afflictions of life, and have occasion from disease or accident to feel by per- sonal experience the active goodness of Mr. Pillsbury in presenting to this municipality the splendid city hospital he is now building for our people."
The Soldiers' Monument at Sutton was dedi- cated on September 1, 1891 ; on October 2, 1891, Pillsbury Free Library at Warner was dedicated, and on October 5, 1891, the the Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital was dedicated. All of these events were celebrated by the most imposing and impressive ceremonies. On the evening of the day last named, . the citizens of Concord tended Mr. and Mrs. Pillsbury a recep- tion of surpassing grandeur, unequaled by any attempt of the kind ever before made in that city of culture and réfinement.
Mr. Pillsbury married on May 9, 1841, Miss Margaret S. Carleton, daughter of Henry and Polly (Green) Carleton; of three children born to them, two sons survive, a daughter died in in- fancy. Their sons, Charles A. and Fred C., are representative men of the great northwest, and
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are hardly less prominent than their worthy father.
and results seldom disappoint him. In public life, his administration of affairs has always been most satisfactory and able, and has won for him universal esteem."
The following is from the History of Merrimac County, New Hampshire: "George A. Pillsbury is a gentleman of great personal magnetism, This life-history shows not only what can be achieved, in a worldly sense, by ambition and perseverance, but also that a generous-hearted man is most akin to his maker, and that the consciousness of having accomplished some good for one's fellow-beings counts more toward happiness than the possession of all of the wealth of the Indies. George A. Pillsbury has done nobly in this life, and has left a lasting monu- ment in the hearts of many whom his generosity has relieved from suffering ; and many who have received his unostentatious charity, doubtless genial and affable in manner, and possessed of entertaining and attractive conversational powers. Warm hearted and generous, he is ever ready to respond to calls of distress, not only with good counsels, but also with more substantial aids, as many an unpublished charity in Concord will at- test. All who approach him are sure of a kindly greeting, and any petition for favors receives a patient consideration and courteous reply. With the young he is very companionable, and with his conversation and liberal views of life he is able to impart much valuable advice and information. . pray for a long and happy life for George A. In his enterprises he looks beyond the present, Pillsbury.
HON. CUSHMAN K. DAVIS,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
T HE subject of this sketch is widely known. He is not only a profound lawyer, but he is thoroughly versed in the whole circle of litera- turc. He is well advanced in all of the theories and technicalities of his profession, and is an ad- vocate of remarkable brilliancy-lucid, logical and eminently practical in making application of the law to the facts, and his judgment is of high order. His addresses on literary subjects and those of a political nature are often illustrated with rhetoric, but in his legal discussions he is direct, pointed and strong, and since he has been in public life he has rightfully gained the reputa- tion of a statesman of high rank, whose good sense and honesty has made him conspicuous before the eyes of the nation.
Cushman Kellog Davis is a son of Hon. Hora- tio N. and Clarissa F. (Cushman) Davis, and was born in the town of Henderson, Jefferson county, New York, June 16, 1838. Both families are of English descent, the Davises early settling in New England. Roswell Davis, the grandfather of our subject, was one of the pioneer farmers in Henderson. Horatio N. Davis removed to Wis- consin when Cushman K. was two months old, and settled where Waukesha now stands, farming
fifteen years. During the rebellion Horatio N. Davis was commissioned captain in the commis- sary department by President Lincoln, and was subsequently breveted major by President John- son for meritorious services. At the close of the war he returned to Wisconsin, and removed from Waukesha to Beloit. From Beloit he removed to St. Paul, where he now resides. He has held various municipal and county offices, and has been a member of the Wisconsin senate. He was president of the Beloit National Bank eight years, and was one of the leading men in Rock county.
Cushman, his eldest son, was educated at Car- roll College, Waukesha, and in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, spending one year in the latter institution, and graduating in 1857. He read law with the late Governor Randall, of Wau- kesha, was admitted to the bar in 1859 and prac- ticed law at Waukesha until the second year of the rebellion. In the summer of 1862, when the call was made for six hundred thousand men, Mr. Davis enlisted in the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry, going in as first lieutenant of Company B. His company was in the Army of the Tenn- essee, and he was repeatedly called upon to serve as judge advocate. He was adjutant general
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