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 62
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In 1871 he was elected to the state senate from Le Sueur county and served for a number of years in that capacity. Although with the mi- nority, his influence was felt in many direc- tions. In 1864 he was chosen as a delegate to the Democratic national convention that nomi- nated George B. McClellan for the presidential candidate. He has been a delegate to every convention since then, except that of 1880. In 1884 he favored the nomination of Grover Cleve- land, and he has always been a warm admirer of the man. In 1888 he favored his renomination, and in 1892 he was one of the first of the Dem- ocratic leaders to declare for Cleveland, and he was also one of his strongest supporters before the convention assembled, during its session and
after he was nominated. He labored hard, spar- ing neither time nor labor to aid the Democracy and to assist in electing Grover Cleveland. He was always sanguine of Democratic success and prophesied the result very closely.
The sound judgment which characterized Mr. Doran's business career and won him success, he brought to the management of his party, which was confided to him by the convention of 1882, which made him chairman of the state committee and continued him in that place of leadership until 1888, when he was made the member of the national committee from his state by the unanimous vote of the delegation.
This brief sketch of Mr. Doran's business and political career bespeaks the qualities which have distinguished it. Courage, tenacity of purpose, business and political sagacity, strong common sense, unwavering loyalty to friends, unselfish and retiring, a determined and aggressive oppo- nent, these are the qualities by which he will always be readily recognized by friend and foe alike.
HON. CHARLES B. ELLIOTT,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
T HE subject of this sketch was born on a farm near Chester Hill, in Morgan county, Ohio, on January 6, 1861. He comes of good New England ancestry, the name of Elliott or Eliot, as it is sometimes spelled, being closely con- nected with that of Winthrop, Dudley and Win- slow in our country's early history. His great- grandfather came to Ohio soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, when the territory was first opened for settlement, and began the clearing of a farm in the densely timbered country near Ma- rietta. His father, Edward Elliott, was born in Morgan county, in the valley of the beautiful Muskingum river, and lived there for over forty years, when he removed to Iowa. His mother, Anjaline (Kinsey) Elliott, was also a native of the same county and state.
Young Elliott spent the first fifteen years of his life on the farm, engaged in the usual duties of a farmer's boy, working in the summer and attend- ing the district school during the winter season.
When fifteen years of age he received the advan tage of a winter at a high school in the neighbor- ing village of Pennsville. In the spring following he obtained a teacher's certificate, and taught a country school during the next year. About this time his father, having lost all his property, removed to Iowa, and young Elliott went to Mari- etta, Ohio, and entered the preparatory depart- ment of Marietta College. During the next three years he pursued the classical course of study, broken by intervals of country-school teaching. The sickness of his mother obliged him to leave, and, instead of returning to finish his studies at Marietta, he entered the State University of Iowa, and graduated from the department of law in June, 1881, being then under twenty-one years of age. As he was too young for admission to the bar, he entered the law-office of Brannan & Jayne, at Muscatine, Iowa, where he remained until the spring of 1882. In the meantime he had become a contributor to the Central Law
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Journal of St. Louis, and in April of that year was offered and accepted a position on the edi- torial staff of that journal, and removed to St. Louis. Here he spent about a year and a half, devoting all his time to the preparation and writing of special matter for the pages of the Central Law Journal, Southern Law Review, and Western Jurist.
Failing health, caused by overwork, drove him from this congenial labor, and necessitated a removal to Dakota. For about a year he resided at Aberdeen, South Dakota, representing, as agent, the Muscatine Mortgage and Trust Com- pany, and was a member of the law firm of Elli- ott & Dennis.
In January, 1885, after a summer and fall spent in travel, Mr. Elliott removed to Minneapolis and resumed the practice of law. He soon gained an extensive and lucrative business, which he re- tained, until appointed judge of the Municipal Court, on January 15, 1891, by Governor Mer- riam, to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna- tion of Hon. George D. Emery.
During the first three years of Judge Elliott's residence in Minneapolis he pursued a post-grad- uate course of study in history and political sci- ence at the University of Minnesota, and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.) in 1888, it being the first time the degree had ever been conferred by the university. The same year the department of law was organized by the uni- versity, and Judge Elliott became a member of the faculty, and has ever since been Lecturer on corporations, insurance, and criminal law.
His selection and appointment as judge proved to be a wise one, as he filled the office so satisfac- torily, that he was nominated without opposition for the same position by the Republican party in 1892 and endorsed by the Prohibition party, and was elected on November 8, 1892, for a full term of six years, by the largest majority given any can- didate on the ticket. His record on the bench has been an enviable one, and his decisions, when appealed from, have almost without exception, been sustained by the Supreme Court.
Judge Elliott has also been connected with several large financial institutions, and is now a director of The Savings Fund Company, one of the best known and most substantial institutions of the city.
In politics he has always been a Republican, inheriting its principles from his father, who was a strong abolitionist, and before the civil war more than once gave succor to, and harbored fugi- tive slaves in their endeavors to secure their liberty.
Judge Elliott became an Odd-Fellow in 1887, and being active and progressive in the order, as in everything else, has held all the offices in a subordinate lodge, and is Past Grand of Ridgeley Lodge, No. 108.
On May 13, 1883, he was married to Miss Edith Winslow, of Muscatine, Iowa, a descendant of the famous New England family, and a lady of culture and refinement. Three children have been born to them; all of whom are living: Charles Winslow, aged six years; Eugene Edwin, four years ; and Ethel, two years old.
Being of Quaker and Congregational ancestry in religious matters, Judge Elliott and his family, while not members of, are regular attendants at the First Congregational Church.
This sketch would hardly be complete without some record of Judge Elliott's literary work, be- cause many know him through his writings who know him not as a lawyer and a jurist. For sev- eral years he has been a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, Political Science Quarterly, and other leading journals and reviews. His monograph en- titled " The United States and Northeastern Fish- eries," published in 1887, was cited as the highest authority on the subject on the floor of the United States Senate, in the discussion of the fisheries treaty during Cleveland's administration. His reputation as a writer on questions of international and public law is recognized by the leading au- thorities of this and foreign countries. A list of the writings of Judge Elliott fills two pages of the report of the American Historical Association, and includes "The United States and Northeastern Fisheries, (1887);" "The Behring Sea Question," Atlantic Monthly, 1890;" "The Legislatures and the Courts," Political Science Quarterly, 1890; "A History of the Supreme Court of Minnesota;" and "Lectures on Private Corporations," 1892.
He is an active member of the American His- torical Association, and of the American Acad- emy of Political Science ; he is also a member of the Advisory Council of the World's Fair Auxil- iary Congress.
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His private library is large and very select, and probably contains a more valuable collection of foreign works on political science and jurisprudence than can be found in many private libraries in the west. Such a record of industry, perseverance, and strong determination to succeed, together
with the great success attained by one so young in years, entitles Judge Elliott to a place among the representative men of the northwest, and is deserving of study and imitation by every ambi- tious boy who must carve out his own fortune by his own efforts.
WILLIAM AUGUSTUS BARNES,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
F OR a period of a little over twenty years Mr. W. A. Barnes has been a citizen of Minneapolis, engaged in real estate, loans and insurance, and has not only been active and suc- cessful in business, but has been one of the most efficient of her many public-spirited citizens in promoting the material prosperity of the city, as well as in establishing institutions of learning, religion and charity. The beginnings of his life were in humble circumstances, and he grew to manhood through years of severe toil at a me- chanical trade, with few opportunities for intellec- tual improvement. Few men have struggled with sterner resolution against adverse circumstances, or practiced self-denial with more firm and steady purpose to overcome them, or achieved a higher satisfaction in rising by laborious steps to a posi- tion of competency, influence and respect.
The grandfather of Mr. Barnes was a well-to-do farmer, living in Glenham, Dutchess county, New York, and his grandmother belonged to a family of Greens, who were from New England. His father, William Barnes, and his mother, a Lee, removed from Dutchess county, New York, where they were brought up, to western New York in 1830. They were members of the Baptist church, intelligent and respected in the community, but poor in this world's goods, the father following the occupation of an operative in woolen mills.
W. A. Barnes was born March 28, 1840, in the town of Manchester, Ontario county, New York. He was the youngest of a family of five children. His earliest recollections were of an humble rented home at Factory Hollow, a little hamlet where was situated a woolen factory in which his father was employed.' The family removed to Honeoye Falls, Monroe county, where, at the age of eleven, the lad was put to work at manual labor in the
woolen mills, which he followed without intermis- sion until he reached his majority. A single term at the common school comprised the entire schol- astic advantage of his life. The rudiments of learning obtained in infancy at his mother's knee, with hours snatched from the busy labor of his apprenticeship devoted to reading such books as fell in his way, gave him the learning which, improved by a diligent reading of the best books in later life, have given, if not a methodical, at' least a comprehensive education.
At the age of eighteen, dissatisfied with the portion of his earnings which was appropriated to his apparel, he made an agreement with his father by which he should receive his own wages, paying a stipulated sum for his time. The result was a surplus of three dollars at the end of the year, which was loaned upon a promissory note at seven per cent. interest. This beginning of accu- mulation was followed through the remaining years of a busy life, during which expenditures have been kept within income and a surplus left over for investment. About this time he was thrown out of work by the burning of the woolen mill, losing a part of his wardrobe. He sub- mitted himself to examination and was granted a certificate to teach school, obtaining a school in a district adjoining that of his home at thirteen dollars a month, boarding round. There were six weeks before time to open the school term. He hired out to a neighbor for four weeks, husking corn, digging potatoes and getting in buckwheat, the wages for which, paid in produce, furnished a load of potatoes, apples and buckwheat, which he sent to his parents for their winter's supply. The remaining two weeks were put in in wheeling dirt to a dam, twelve hours of work for a day's labor, for which he received six dollars and board, a sum
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which sufficed to replenish his apparel sufficiently to make him presentable to his school patrons. He taught three months, earning thirty-nine dol- lars. At the close of the term the school treasury was empty, and he was obliged to return home without his pay. When he learned that the treasury was in funds he walked thirty miles to the treasurer, received his money at nine P. M., and started home. When ten miles on the road he was so exhausted that he was compelled to ask lodgings of his old employer, and the next day reached home with his thirty-nine dollars, the fruit of three months' labor and a walk of sixty miles to collect it. In reviewing this year of his life Mr. Barnes says: "I think I struggled harder that year and the next with hard work, hardship and poverty than I ever have since."
It was at the age of nineteen that Mr. Barnes made his first real estate venture. It was the purchase of a one and a fourth acre lot in the village of Honeoye Falls for two hundred and twenty-five dollars, payable in four annual install- ments. Upon this lot he put up a small house, buying the lumber and obtaining the carpenter's work on credit. When finished his parents were installed in the house, the first roof of their own that had ever been over their heads, and they con- tinued to occupy it as long as they were able to live alone. The bills were paid and the lot con- tract cancelled out of his earnings, some of which were obtained by working extra time after the twelve hours that constituted a day's labor.
In the spring of 1862 he commenced working on a farm. He was then in his twenty-second year. The war had been in progress nearly a year, and he found himself unable to resist the patriotic ardor which impelled the youth of the country to arms. Yielding to the appeals of the government, he volunteered, and was mustered into the service at Rochester, New York, in July, 1862, and was assigned to Company D of the One Hundred and Eighth Regiment of New York Infantry. The regiment joined the Army of the Potomac under General McClellan, and partook of its entrenchings, marchings and bat- tles, which the history of the war times exhibits in detail. He was in the decisive battle of Antie- tam, and at the battle of Fredericksburg he was so seriously wounded that he was sent to the hospital at Point Lookout, Maryland. As he con-
valesced he was appointed ward-master of one of the wards in the hospital. General Butler granted him a furlough to attend the military school which had been established at Philadelphia, after which he was ordered to Washington for examin- ation, and was promoted to the rank of first lieu- tenant and returned to Point Lookout to await an assignment to duty. A commission was made out and forwarded to his regiment, assigning him to duty in a regiment of United States colored troops then garrisoning Fort Pil- low. The commission was suppressed by the officers of his former regiment, the One Hundred and Eighth New York, and never reached him. The unworthy act of his comrades saved his life, as the colored regiment to which he had been assigned was, upon the capture of Fort Pillow by General Forrest, murdered almost to the last man. A new commission was in due time made out, assigning him to Company D, Twenty-fourth Regiment United States colored troops. Before this regiment had been fully organized and made ready for service Richmond had been evacuated, Lee had surrendered and the war was over. His regiment was selected to serve as guard of honor for the body of President Lincoln on its passage through Philadelphia, after which its officers were detailed for service in the Freedmen's Bureau. Lieutenant Barnes was stationed at Clarksville, Virginia, as assistant superintendent of the Freed- men's Bureau. When superseded by civil officers he was ordered to Richmond and discharged. On his return he tarried at Washington and witnessed the grand national review of the Union armies, a sight never to be forgotten, and to be seen only once. At the termination of the war he returned home and engaged in business with his elder brother, Alexander, at Rochester, New York, where he remained two years, and then sold his interest in the business to his brother.
While living at Rochester he met Miss Cathe- rine J. Roycraft, a daughter of Joseph Roycraft, a farmer living at Ogden, Monroe county, . New York. Yielding to a mutual attraction, they were married October 3, 1867, at the resi- dence of Mr. Corser, in Buffalo, New York. The newly married pair proceeded to their new home, where he entered again the employment of the proprietors of the woolen mill which had been rebuilt. He worked in the mill eight
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months of each year and taught school four months. No time was suffered to be idle. The day after work in the mill ceased school was begun. No holidays were allowed. Even on the Saturdays of the school session he chopped cord- wood for the neighbors, and thus preserved un- broken his rule to make income exceed expendi- tures. This employment was continued until he decided to accept an offer from Mr. E. S. Corser to join him in business in Minneapolis.
Mr. Barnes arrived in Minneapolis April 11, 1872, and formed a partnership with Mr. Corser on the first day of the following May in the real- estate business, to which was added loans and insurance. An office was opened in the First National Bank building, opposite the Nicollet House, where the partnership business was carried on for twelve years, and until it was dissolved by limitation.
A partnership was then formed consisting of W. A. Barnes, Alexander Barnes, C. W. Sexton, Frank H. Barnes and Henry F. Wyman, in the same business, and occupying the same office that had so long been the headquarters of Corser & Co. Having some years before purchased the Barton Block on upper Washington avenue, the firm of W. A. Barnes & Co. occupied one of its lower rooms in 1889, where their office has re- mained to the present time. Thus the business has been carried on for more than twenty years, but with one change of location.
At the outset Messrs. Corser and Barnes, be- lieving that in helping to build up the enterprises, especially those of a manufacturing character, of Minneapolis, they would effectually forward their own interests, determined upon a liberal and en- terprising policy. They have been most efficient in attracting such establishments and in contrib- uting and assisting to raise such financial assist- ance as was needful to secure them. The method adopted was usually to furnish a site or secure subscriptions of stock in the proposed undertak- ing. Thus, by the union of mechanical skill and experience, with the capital requisite to carry on the business, many important manufacturing plants were secured to the city, adding to the volume of its business and diversifying its pro- ducts, and augmenting its population by the large number of operatives, with their families, neces- sary to operate them. This in turn furnished new
tenants for houses and customers for lots, as well as contributing to the general augmentation of values, and thus materially helping in building up the city.
Among the important establishments which were brought here through the personal endeavor of Mr. Barnes, and in almost every instance by a liberal subscription by his firm, are the North- western Stove Works, the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company, the Swinburn Printing Com- pany, the Minneapolis Knitting Company, the Minneapolis Plow Works, the Tilden Heater and Closet Company, the Northern Car Company, the Gold and Silver Reduction Works, the Esterly Havester Company, the T. J. Preece Mercantile Company, and the Minneapolis Glass Company. Of most of these corporations Mr. Barnes is a director, of many of them he is president, and of some he is secretary and treasurer. To them all he has contributed not only capital, but much labor and careful oversight.
Besides these business connections he is 'a director of the Flour City National Bank, with its capital of one million dollars, and also of the Citizens' Bank. He is president of the Realty Company, capital one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and of the Real Estate Corporation, with the same amount of capital, and secretary and treasurer of the Minneapolis Hosiery Company, capital stock one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He was one of the original members of the Business Men's Union and chairman of its miscellaneous committee.
In connection with Messrs E. S. Corser and C. P. Lovell he is a proprietor of the beautiful Oak Park addition, bounded by Sixth and Plymouth avenues and Fourteenth and Twenty-second streets north. During the depression of 1878-9 Messrs. Corser and Barnes built about fifty houses and four stores, giving employment to many mechanics and laborers.
These enterprises have not been ephemeral, but having been established with good judgment and backed with sufficient capital, have, most of them, become substantial and permanent institu- tions. They have added thousands to the popu- lation of the city and swelled its property valua- tion by millions.
In politics Mr. Barnes has been a Republican, though he has declined all political positions,
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believing that official life is in no sense compati- ble with business success.
His religious connection is with the Baptist Church, in which he was nurtured. The Society of Christian Endeavor and Young Men's Christian Association have his warm sympathy. He believes in common schools, in Sunday-schools, in public libraries, in university extension lecturers, and in all measures calculated to enlighten and educate the masses.
In furtherance of his charitable inclinations he was active in soliciting funds and co-operating in the establishment of the Minneapolis Hospital College, of which he was a director and treasurer, an institution since incorporated into the State University and made the instrument of its med- ical instruction.
Yet not content with crowding the business hours of the day with labor, as in youth when pressed by the need of subsistence, he devoted the time usually given to recreation to additional toil, so in mature life, he has devoted an average of four hours per day, outside of business time, to intellectual improvement. His reading has been extensive and thorough. Among the subjects and authors that have engaged his attention have been,
first, the Holy Scriptures, which he has read and re- read from year to year. Then commentaries upon the weekly Sunday-school lesson, as prescribed by the committee for international study ; Hume, Guizot, Green and Fisk in history; the belles letters of Irving, Longfellow and Whittier; meta- physics by Bacon and Drummond, with biogra- phies, poems, books of travel and explorations, and a judicious selection of light literature by Scott, Hawthorne, Bulwer and Lew Wallace. Even the ponderous annals of Josephus have re- ceived his patient attention. War histories and biographies have been a favorite subject of read- ing. Thus no less than one hundred and forty books have been gone through within the last six years. Through much travel he has added the fruits of observation to the study of books.
Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have three children : Kate Augusta, born May 15, 1869; William Elwood, born March 20, 1871, and Alexander J., born April 5, 1882.
Of medium height, Mr. Barnes is portly, with an open, pleasant countenance. His conversation is fluent and his movements active. Enterprise, unwearied industry, integrity and unbounded faith in Minneapolis are his characterictics.
JASPER N. SEARLES,
STILLWATER, MINN.
I T is not only the privilege, but also the duty, of every man to make the most of his oppor- tunities and endowments. Talent, application and energy furnishes the source of true American nobility, and he who rises above the masses of mankind and becomes a factor in the develop- ment, preservation and prosperity of his country, deserves favorable mention in its history.
Jasper N. Searles belongs to this class. He was born on November 9, 1840, at North Royal- ton, Ohio, and removed with his father's family to Minnesota in 1855. Mr. Searles is of English descent. His father was Jonathan D. Searles, who immigrated from New York to Ohio at an early day. His mother, Harriet, née Bronson, was from a distinguished family. Mr. Searles at- tended the district schools, afterwards the Cleve- land schools, and then pursued an academic
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