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 54
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In 1867 he removed to St. Albans and became associated with W. D. Wilson, and afterwards with A. P. Cross. There he was busily employed for seven years, and until his removal to the west. The practice extended into Franklin, Or- leans and Lamoille counties. It was of a general character, such as the country districts of New England furnished at that day-fuller of labor than profit, but giving a wide experience at nisi prius as well as in bank.
Mr. Benton had married in 1856, about the time of entering his professional life, Miss Sara Maria Leland, of Johnson, Vermont. Of four children born of the union, two had died in infancy and the health of two growing daughters was injuri- ously affected of the severe climate of that moun- tainous region. In the hope of benefitting the health of his family, he determind to move to a more inland region, and came to Minneapolis in 1875. The hope seemed to be realized for a time. The eldest daughter married Mr. R. M. Douglas, an accomplished young engineer, but in the win- ter and spring of 1882 both daughters succumbed to the malarial influences which so fatally pre- vailed at that period.
Col. Benton, on coming to Minneapolis, formed a law partnership with his younger brother, C. H. Benton, which continued until 1881.
In 1879 Col Benton was appointed city attor- ney of Minneapolis, holding the office until Dec- ember, 1881, when he resigned. It was a period of rapid development in the city and the city attorneyship assumed peculiar importance. Many claims for damages for personal injuries were
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made against the city, but not a single judgment was obtained. The first controversy with a rail- road company respecting the bridging of the tracks arose at this time, and was settled sat- isfactorily to the interests of the city. Upon his resignation, Col. Benton was appointed local attorney of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Mani- toba Railroad Company, upon an annual salary, but with liberty to engage in other prac- tice. Upon the merging of that company in the Great Northern Railway Corporation, his em- ployment was continued, and still exists. The labors of the position are varied and onerous, and have withdrawn him in a great measure from general practice. During the whole of this time the crossings controversy has been in progress, and has occupied the attention of the District and Supreme Courts of the state, and has been taken by appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Early in the controversy the Manitoba Company, under the judicious advice of their local attorney, came to a substantial agreement with the authorities of the city; but the interests and obstructions of other companies prevented a settlement until recently. The whole matter, so far as the west side is concerned, is now satisfac- torily arranged, and the improvements so long delayed are in progress. The question as to the east side crossings is still open, but negotiations for an adjustment are in satisfactory progress.
Col. Benton, representing, in the chief city on its line, one of the great railroad corporations of the northwest, has been called upon to investigate a vast number of claims for injuries to persons
and property. His services have been more than professional. In a quasi-judicial character, he has brought about settlements in most cases. When he has been convinced that a claim is fraud- ulent or unjust, he has brought all the resources of legal knowledge and professional skill to resist it ; so that few adverse verdicts have been rend- ered against his company. Suave and genial in his bearing, he is dignified at the bar, but uncom- promising and persistent in maintaining his posi- tion. No department of legal practice requires so close discrimination as that pertaining to rail- road litigation. The railroad attorney is often called on to argue before the court the nice appli- cation of legal principles, and almost always faces a jury sympathizing with his opponent. Col. Benton, by his candor, dignity, and learning, has been able to retain the confidence of the bench, while his diplomatic skill has not seldom won ver- dicts from reluctant juries.
But it is not alone as a lawyer that he has been distinguished. Colonel Benton has always, since he became identified with Minneapolis, been one of her most public spirited citizens. He has served upon the Board of Trade, and in various representative and consultative capacities. He is a pleasant and persuasive public speaker, and is ever ready to aid all movements for the good of community, or in aid of the unfortunate. He has a pleasant home at No. 1815 Hawthorn avenue, where are enjoyed the quiet but refined associa- tions of domestic and social life.
[The above sketch was prepared for the His- tory of Minneapolis by Munsell & Co.]
MAJOR JOHN ESPY,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
T HE subject of this sketch is well known in St. Paul as an able lawyer and financier, and as a man who has contributed largely to the growth and prosperity of that city. A soldier of distinction and a citizen highly prized for his lib- erality and public spirit, he is also a social, genial companion and a firm friend. He was born in the historic Wyoming Valley, at Nanticoke, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, September 21, 1842. Some of his ancestors attained great distinction, and
one of them, James Espy, a renowned meteorolo- gist, M. Arago, the eminent French savant, de- clared, " France has her Cuvier, England its New- ton, America its Espy."
The progenitors of the paternal branch of this family in America were George Espy, a native of the north of Ireland, who, as early as 1729, set- tled in Derry township, Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania, where he died in March, 1761, and Josiah Espy, who was born in the north of Ireland in
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John Teatry -
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1718, and died in Hanover township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. George Espy, son of Josiah Espy, was born in Hanover township, Lancaster (now Dauphin) county, Pennsylvania, in 1749, and died in Luzerne county, Pennsylva- nia, in April, 1814. He married Mary Stewart, a sister of Captain Lazarus Stewart. He was com- missioned a justice of the peace for the district composed of the townships of Hanover and Wilkesbarre, in colonial times. John Espy, the son of George Espy, was born in 1779, and died March 25, 1843. He was a man of honorable motives, hospitable and generally beloved. On April 5, 1809, he married Lavina Inman. She was born in 1787, and died in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, in 1876. She was the daughter of Colonel Edward. Inman, of the Revolutionary war. James Espy, eldest son of John and Lavina Espy, was born in 1811, and died in 1872. In 1841 he married Mary A. Miller (born December 26, 1818, died February 15, 1878), who was a daughter of Barnet and Mary (De Witt) Miller. Barnet Miller was the son of Andrew and Chris- tiana Miller, of New Jersey, and Mary De Witt was the daughter of Peter De Witt and Hannah Hill, who were of French nativity.
Our subject was the son of James and Mary A. Espy. He married, March 23, 1868, Miss Martha M. Wood ; she was born in Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl- vania, March 12, 1843. Her father, John B. Wood, was a successful merchant and banker of Wilkes- barre, and her mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Gore, descended from one of the oldest and most honorable families in America. Her remote paternal ancestors, John and Rhoda Gore, settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1635, and his great grandfather and five of his sons fought against the British and Indians in the Wyoming massacre. To Major and Mrs. Espy have been born four chil- dren, John B. W., born January 23, 1869; Lila Wood, born June 23, 1872 ; Maud M., born Feb- ruary II, 1875, and Olin, born July 27, 1877.
From the age of three to fourteen our subject was in the care of his paternal grandmother, Lavina Inman Espy, the relict of John Espy. She was a woman of many noble attributes of mind and heart-highly intelligent, courageous yet refined and affectionate. For her Major Espy retains profound veneration and the deepest re- spect. At the age of seventeen he entered upon
his life career, starting with a good common school education, good habits and an untiring ambition. He went west and settled at Burlington, Iowa. But the war of the rebellion broke out the follow- ing spring, and, with the blood of a long line of soldiers in his veins, he was one of the first to enlist in the Union army. In the month of April he enlisted in Company E, First Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, a three months regiment, called into service.by the first proclamation of President Lincoln. It was sent to Missouri, and formed a part of the gallant little army com- manded by General Nathaniel Lyon.
Young Espy was with his regiment in the expe- dition under General Thomas W. Sweeny to For- syth, Missouri, near the Arkansas line; was in the engagement at Dug Springs, and took part in the memorable battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri, August 10, 1861, when the lamented Lyon fell, and where the First Iowa lost one hundred and fifty-one men in killed and wounded. A few days after that battle, the time of his regiment having expired, he was mustered out of service.
Returning to Iowa he went to work on a farm, intending to re-enter the service at an early day, but the same fall he met with a serious accident. His left hand was caught in the machinery of one of the first sorghum mills ever set up in the State of Iowa, and so badly crushed that he was crip- pled for life. This physical disability, much to his disappointment, prevented his again becoming a soldier, and feeling the need of a better educa- tion, he returned to Pennsylvania and resumed his studies. He was graduated from the New Columbus Academy (Pennsylvania) in 1863 ; from Harvey's Institute in 1864, and from Albany (New York) Law School in 1866. From the last named institution he received the degree of Bach- elor of Laws, and also admitted to the bar of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1868. He at once entered upon a successful law practice, which soon became profitable.
He was made a director of Wilkesbarre Water Power Company and of the Kingston Passenger Railroad, which positions he filled ten years. He was one of the incorporators of the Coalville Pas- senger Railroad and a director of that corporation until he removed from the state. He was also one of the organizers of the Wyoming Camp Ground, a summer resort under religious influ-
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ences. In 1871 he was commissioned aide-de-camp, with the rank of major, on the staff of General E. S. Osborn, of the National Guard of Pennsyl- vania, and served in that capacity ten years. He took an active part in the suppression of the riots at Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1871 ; at Susque- hanna Depot, in 1877, and at Hazleton, in 1878. In 1871 he became a member of the banking house of Messrs. J. B. Wood and Company, at Wilkesbarre, and was connected with that institu- tion until its retirement from business in 1877, consequent upon the death of the senior member, Mr. Wood.
In December, 1879, Major Espy removed to St. Paul and resumed the practice of the law, and at the same time attending to his own business inter- ests. He has erected many elegant buildings in St. Paul, among which may be mentioned the well-known "Espy Block" on Fifth street. He was given the principal oversight of the erection of the hotel and amphitheater at Mahlomedi, and the construction of the Central Park Methodist Episcopal Church building devolved mainly upon him. Soon after his removal to St. Paul Major Espy was induced, by certain persons with a knowledge of his capacity and former experience, to interest himself in establishing a summer re- sort within easy access of the city, which should be under the restraining and elevating influences of religion and culture. He prepared the general
law now in force regulating the organization and maintenance of these institutions, and placed the bill in the hands of ex-senator D. M. Sabin, then a member of the legislature, for passage. Fore- seeing that there was a good opportunity to make a judicious investment, as well as to encourage a noble and praiseworthy undertaking, Senator Sa- bin proposed to certain of his friends in St. Paul and Stillwater to purchase a large tract of wild land, of about three thousand acres, on the bor- der of White Bear Lake. A corporation called the Wildwood Park Association was formed, and Major Espy was entrusted with the management of its affairs. The investment proved very profit- able, and the general success of the enterprise is mainly due to the skillful and sagacious manage- ment of Major Espy. About the same time he joined with other prominent Methodists in organ- izing and establishing Mahlomedi Assembly upon lands donated for that purpose by the Wildwood Park Association.
In 1866 Major Espy united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has continued with it, and is a consistent, active Christian gentleman. He is usually present at the general and annual confer- ences and other important meetings of the church, and is an active and efficient worker. His record is an honorable one, and he has a promising fu- ture and hosts of friends, and is surrounded by an interesting family.
PETER WOLFORD,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
DETER WOLFORD was born in York county, Pennsylvania, February 3, 1812. He began life on a farm which had been handed down from one generation of the family to another, from the time of the original transfer from the government until it passed from his father to him. This, in one of the original thirteen states, means consid- erably more than it does in the new west.
Early in life he married Mary Ann Carl, of the same county, and together they reared a family of five children, three girls and two boys. This union was dissolved by the death of his estimable wife, after a happy married life of over fifty-six years. He operated this farm on which he was
born, and which passed to him upon the death of his father, for a number of years. The farm- house was the popular rendezvous for all the so- cial gatherings in that part of the county. The house was large and commodious, and visitors were always welcome. A beautiful stream flowed across the farm, and the dam, the grist-mill,. large for its time, the saw-mill and the numerous tenements, in which lived the families of the farm hands, were notable characteristics of the place.
Early in the fifties the western'fever overtook him, and in 1857 he, in company with the late Mr. J. K. Sidle, made a reconnoitering trip west as far as Kansas City and Omaha, intending to
Peter Warford
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devote especial attention to the new State of Texas. In some unaccountable manner their attention was attracted to the rising young town of Minneapolis, and thither they journeyed. Ar- riving there in the summer of that year, they were so well pleased with the future outlook that they made some investments, and returned home, intending to arrange affairs and take up their residence in far-off Minneapolis.
Prior to his taking up his residence in the west, he, together with Mr. J. K. Sidle and Mr. James Blair, formed the banking-house of Sidle, Wolford & Company, to do a general banking business at No. 20 Bridge Square, Minneapolis. This was one of the first banks in the young town, and the only early bank that was success-
ful in its business. He remained only a few years in this corporation, withdrawing therefrom to conduct a commercial and mortgage loaning busi- ness by himself. This he has followed success- fully until the present writing.
He devoted himself entirely to his business, rarely departing therefrom to take speculative in- terest in real estate. Although receiving quite an estate upon the death of his father, his success is due largely to his devotion to business, and to his exceptionally good judgment and business ability. He earned for himself the reputation of always being lenient in business dealings where leniency was deserving.
The accompanying portrait is from a photo- graph taken in his eighty-first year.
GENERAL JUDSON WADE BISHOP,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
J UDSON WADE BISHOP is the eldest of a family of ten children, nine of whom are now in active life, one the wife of Hon. T. J. Bidwell, of Arizona, having died in 1876. His father, Rev. John F. Bishop, for many years a Baptist minis- ter of more than ordinary ability and reputation, died in 1859 in Jefferson county, New York, where his mother, Alena Brown Bishop, still resides.
His grandparents, Rev. Luther Bishop and Hon. Aaron Brown, were among the earliest set- tlers in that county, and, although dead for a number of years, are well and favorably remem- bered by the residents there.
Judson was born at Evansville, Jefferson county, New York, on the 24th day of June, 1831. He received an academic education at Fredonia Academy, Chautauqua county, New York, where his father was settled as pastor for several years, and later at Union Academy, Belle- ville, Jefferson county, New York, after the re- turn of the family to that county.
Leaving school at sixteen years of age, he was, until twenty-one, successively engaged as clerk and book-keeper in the same county at Belleville, Adams and Watertown ; taught school two win- ters, one at Woodville, and one at Clayton, and spent the last year of his minority in charge of a farm then owned by his father.
Civil engineering had been from boyhood his choice among the professions, and as soon as he was of age he began a thorough course of study for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York, then as now the leading engi- neering school in the country.
While thus engaged in 1853 he obtained employ- ment as draughtsman and assistant engineer at Kingston, Ontario, in the office of the Grand Trunk Railway, where by diligent use of his evenings for study, he completed the Institute course of study in engineering, earning meanwhile his own support, and also assisting the younger members of the family in securing an education. He remained at Kingston during the surveys, location and construc- tion of the Grand Trunk, and was assistant engineer in charge of the work during the last year of service there.
On completion of the road in 1857, he came to Minnesota, and was at once engaged in the pre- liminary surveys of the (now) Winona & St. Peter and the Southern Minnesota Railroads. These surveys were suspended by the financial crash in October, 1857, when he settled in Chatfield, Fill- more county. Here he spent a year as local sur- veyor and engineer, publishing, meantime, a map and pamphlet history of that county. In Sep- tember, 1858, he opened, as principal, the Chat-
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field Academy, but resigned the next spring to take a government contract for surveying in the now well-settled county of Cottonwood, then far beyond the inhabited limits of the state. Re- turning to Chatfield in October, 1859, he pur- chased the Democrat office there, and, as editor and proprietor, published that paper until the fall of Fort Sumter in the spring of 1861 opened the civil war.
On the first call for troops, he sold the newspa- per office and recruited a company of volunteers, which was among the first tendered, and accepted for the First Minnesota Regiment. That regi- ment was completed by the subsequent accep- tance of other companies more conveniently accessible to Fort Snelling, and, in consequence, Captain Bishop and his company were compelled to await the call for the Second Regiment, into which they were mustered June 26, 1861. Dur- ing four months thereafter the regiment was on duty in the state, Captain Bishop with two com- panies being stationed at Fort Ripley. But in October, 1861, the regiment was assembled and forwarded to the grand theater of war. For the next four years he was on duty with his regiment, or had it as a part of his larger command. For gallant and soldier-like conduct, no regiment has ever made a better record ; and to have been-as he was-the first man mustered into it, and the last man mustered out, is a military history he may be proud to leave to his children.
Honorable mention was repeatedly made of him and his regiment in the official reports of division and corps commanders, and especially by Gen. George H. Thomas, under whom they served for more than three years, beginning with the campaign that ended with the victory of Mill Springs.
Captain Bishop was promoted to major by com- mission dated March 21, 1862 ; lieutenant-colonel, August 26, 1862 ; colonel, July 14, 1864, and "for gallant and meritorious conduct " breveted brig- adier-general on April 9, 1865. He was mus- tered out with his regiment on the 20th of July, 1865.
The autumn and winter of 1865 he spent in surveying and locating the line of the (now) River Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad between St. Paul and Winona, and in preparing estimates for its construction. In the
spring of 1866 he took a large contract for gov- ernment surveying in the southwestern part of the state, completed it, and in November follow- ing located the line for a railroad from Chatfield to a junction with the Winona & St. Peter Rail- road, which was constructed twelve years later, and spent the winter following at Galena, Illinois.
In the spring of 1867 General Bishop was ap- pointed chief engineer of the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad, and placed in charge of the exten- sion from Belle Blaine westward. Forty-seven miles from St. Paul had then been built ; under his supervision, this railroad was completed suc- cessively to Le Sueur in 1867, to Mankato in 1868; Lake Crystal, 1869; St. James, 1870; and also the Sioux City & St. Paul Road, to Worth- ington in 1871 ; to Sioux City in 1872. During this period General Bishop resided at Le Sueur until the fall of 1868, and afterwards at Mankato.
On January 1, 1873, he was appointed general manager of both companies, and in May of that year removed to St. Paul, where he has since resided. The Worthington & Sioux Falls and various other branches, completing a system of more than a thousand miles of railway, now known as the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Rail- way, was thereafter constructed and consolidated under his management.
Notwithstanding his large responsibilities and exacting duties as a railroad manager, he also found time to perform other duties; was vice- president and director of the Citizens' National Bank of Mankato ; president and director in the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce; director in the Merchants' National Bank of St. Paul, and manager for several years of grain farms with about six thousand acres under cultivation.
After eight years' service as general manager of the St. Paul & Sioux City Railway system, he resigned in 1881 to engage in railroad build- ing as a contractor. In 1883 he organized the St. Paul Trust Company, became its president and has so continued until now. Under his manage- ment this institution has grown from a modest, experimental beginning to a very prosperous financial institution, with a paid-up capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and a fairly earned surplus of one hundred thousand dollars. Successful and prosperous in all his previous undertakings, it is now his ambition to
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make the St. Paul Trust Company a model in its line for efficiency and security, earning and de- serving the confidence of the public, which has always been so generously accorded to himself.
General Bishop was married on January II, 1866, to Miss Nellie S. Husted, only daughter of Lyman Husted, then a leading merchant of
Galena, Illinois. She died on the 19th of Septem- ber, 1878, leaving three sons, Charles Husted, Edwin Judson and Robert Haven Bishop.
He remarried on the 19th of February, 1884, Miss Mary Axtell, eldest daughter of the late Rev. Charles Axtell, and by this marriage has three daughters, Louise, Majel and Janette.
JAY COLLINS MORSE,
CHICAGO, ILL.
K EEN sagacity, comprehensive and ready judgment, the active memory, and perhaps more than all, the prompt and bold decision needed in great commercial enterprises and com- binations, are some of the most powerful attri- butes of the human mind. The possession of these qualities in an eminent degree by the sub- ject of this article, combined with strict integrity, renders him prominent in the history of the northwest. A native of Ohio, and born at Paines- ville, in that state, March 24, 1838, son of Collins Morse, a native of Brattleboro, Vermont. The mother of Jay C., before marriage, was Miss Fan- nie Curtis, from Massachusetts. His father's family removed to Lake county, Ohio, in 1830, or a little later, and settled near Painesville. At the age of six months our subject was deprived of a mother's tender care by her demise. His father was engaged in general business, its gen- eral features being in real estate and grain. He died in 1886.
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