USA > Michigan > Gratiot County > Biographical memoirs of Gratiot County, Michigan : compendium of biography of celebrated Americans > Part 44
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years Lenox, Massachusetts, was his home, and the "House of the Seven Gables" was produced there, as well as the " Blithedale Romance." In 1852 he published a " Life of Franklin Pierce," a college friend whom he warmly regarded. In 1853 he was ap- pointed United States consul to Liverpool, England, where he remained some years, after which he spent some time in Italy. On returning to his native land he took up his residence at Concord, Massachusetts. While taking a trip for his health with ex- President Pierce, he died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, May 19, 1864. In addition to the works mentioned above Mr. Hawthorne gave to the world the following books: " True Stories from History," "The Won- der Book," "The Snow Image," "Tangle- wood Tales," "The Marble Faun," and " Our Old Home." After his death appeared a series of "Notebooks," edited by his wife, Sophia P. Hawthorne; " Septimius Felton," edited by his daughter, Una, and "Dr. Grimshaw's Secret," put into shape by his talented son, Julian. He left an unfinished work called " Dolliver Romance," which has been published just as he left it.
A' BRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth presi- dent of the United States, was born February 12, 1809, in Larue county (Har- din county), Kentucky, in a log-cabin near Hudgensville. When he was eight years old he removed with his parents to Indiana, near the Ohio river, and a year later his mother died. His father then married Mrs. Elizabeth (Bush) Johnston, of Elizabeth- town, Kentucky, who proved a kind of fos- ter-mother to Abraham, and encouraged him to study. He worked as a farm hand and as a clerk in a store at Gentryville, and was noted for his athletic feats and strength, fondness for debate, a fund of humorous
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anecdote, as well as the composition of rude verses. He made a trip at the age of nine- teen to New Orleans on a flat-boat, and set- tled in Illinois in 1830. He assisted his father to build a log house and clear a farm on the Sangamon river near Decatur, Illinois, and split the rails with which to fence it. In 1851 he was employed in the building of a flat-boat on the Sangamon, and to run it to New Orleans. The voyage gave him a new insight into the horrors of slavery in the south. On his return he settled at New Salem and engaged, first as a clerk in a store, then as grocer, surveyor and postmaster, and he piloted the first steamboat that as- cended the Sangamon. He participated in the Black Hawk war as captain of volun- teers, and after his return he studied law, interested himself in politics, and became prominent locally as a public speaker. He was elected to the legislature in 1834 as a " Clay Whig," and began at once to dis- play a command of language and forcible rhetoric that made him a match for his more cultured opponents. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1837, and began prac- tice at Springfield. He married a lady of a prominent Kentucky family in 1842. He was active in the presidential campaigns of 1840 and 1844 and was an elector on the Harrison and Clay tickets, and was elected to congress in 1846, over Peter Cartwright. He voted for the Wilmot proviso and the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum- bia, and opposed the war with Mexico, but gained little prominence during his two years' service. He then returned to Spring- field and devoted his attention to law, tak- ing little interest in politics, until the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1854. This awakened his interest in politics again and ยท he attacked the champion of that measure,
Stephen A. Douglas, in a speech at Spring- field that made him famous, and is said by those who heard it to be the greatest speech of his life. Lincoln was selected as candidate for the United States senate, but was defeated by Trumbull. Upon the pas- sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill the Whig party suddenly went to pieces, and the Re- publican party gathered head. At the Bloomington Republican convention in 1856 Lincoln made an effective address in which he first took a position antagonistic to the ex- istence of slavery. He was a Fremont elector and received a strong support for nomina- tion as vice-president in the Philadelphia convention. In 1858 he was the unanimous choice of the Republicans for the United States senate, and the great campaign of de- bate which followed resulted in the election
of Douglas, but established Lincoln's repu- tation as the leading exponent of Republican doctrines. He began to be mentioned in Illinois as candidate for the presidency, and a course of addresses in the eastern states attracted favorable attention. When the national convention met at Chicago, his. rivals, Chase, Seward, Bates and others, were compelled to retire before the western giant, and he was nominated, with Hannibal Hamlin as his running mate. The Demo- cratic party had now been disrupted, and Lincoln's election assured. He carried practically every northern state, and the secession of South Carolina, followed by a number of the gulf states, took place before his inauguration. Lincoln is the only presi- dent who was ever compelled to reach Washington in a secret manner. He es- caped assassination by avoiding Baltimore, and was quietly inaugurated March 4, 1861. His inaugural address was firm but con- ciliatory, and he said to the secessionists: " You have no oath registered in heaven.
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to destroy the government, while I have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it.' He made up his cabinet chiefly of those political rivals in his own party- Seward, Chase, Cameron, Bates-and se- cured the co-operation of the Douglas Dem- ocrats. His great deeds, amidst the heat and turmoil of war, were: His call for ' seventy-five thousand volunteers, and the blockading of southern ports; calling of con- gress in extra session, July 14, 1861, and obtaining four hundred thousand men and four hundred million dollars for the prosecu- tion of the war; appointing Stanton secre- tary of war; issuing the emancipation proc-
Jamation; calling three hundred thou- sand volunteers; address at Gettysburg cemetery; commissioned Grant as lieuten- ant-general and commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States; his second inaugural address; his visit to the army be- fore Richmond, and his entry into Rich- mond the day after its surrender.
Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth in a box in Ford's theater at Washington the night of April 14, 1865, and expired the following morning. His body was buried at Oak Ridge cemetery, Springfield, Illinois, and a monument com- memorating his great work marks his resting place.
TEPHEN GIRARD, the celebrated S
philanthropist, was born in Bordeaux, France, May 24, 1750. He became a sailor engaged in the American coast trade, and also made frequent trips to the West Indies. During the Revolutionary war he was a grocer and liquor seller in Philadelphia. He married in that city, and afterward separated from his wife. After the war he again engaged in the coast and West India trade, and his fortune began to accumulate
from receiving goods from West Indian planters during the insurrection in Hayti, little of which was ever called for again. He became a private banker in Philadelphia in 1812, and afterward was a director in the United States Bank. He made much money by leasing property in the city in times of depression, and upon the revival of industry sub-leasing at enormous profit. He became the wealthiest citizen of the United States of his time.
He was eccentric, ungracious, and a freethinker. He had few, if any, friends in his lifetime. However, he was most chari- tably disposed, and gave to charitable in- stitutions and schools with a liberal hand. He did more than any one else to relieve the suffering and deprivations during the great yellow fever scourge in Philadelphia, devoting his personal attention to the sick. He endowed and made a free institution, the famous Will's Eye and Ear Infirmary of Philadelphia-one of the largest institu- tions of its kind in the world. At his death practically all his immense wealth was be- queathed to charitable institutions, more than two millions of dollars going to the founding of Girard College, which was to be devoted to the education and training of boys between the ages of six and ten years. Large donations were also made to institu- tions in Philadelphia and New Orleans. The principal building of Girard College is the most magnificent example of Greek architecture in America. Girard died De- cember 26, 1831.
I OUIS J. R. AGASSIZ, the eminent nat- uralist and geologist, was born in the parish of Motier, near Lake Neuchatel, Swit- zerland, May 28, 1807, but attained his greatest fame after becoming an American citizen. He studied the medical sciences at.
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Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich. His first work was a Latin description of the fishes which Martius and Spix brought from Brazil. This was published in 1829-31. He devoted much time to the study of fossil fishes, and in 1832 was appointed professor of natural history at Neuchatel. He greatly increased his reputation by a great work in French, entitled "Researches on Fossil Fishes," in 1832-42, in which he made many important improvements in the classification of fishes. Having passed many summers among the Alps in researches on glaciers, he propounded some new and interesting ideas on geology, and the agency of glaciers in his "Studies by the Glaciers." This was published in 1840. This latter work, with his " System of the Glaciers," published in 1847, are among his principal works.
In 1846, Professor Agassiz crossed the ocean on a scientific excursion to the United States, and soon determined to remain here. He accepted, about the beginning of 1848, the chair of zoology and geology at Harvard. He explored the natural history of the United States at different times and gave an impulse to the study of nature in this country. In 1865 he conducted an expedi- tion to Brazil, and explored the lower Ama- zon and its tributaries. In 1868 he was made non-resident professor of natural his- tory at Cornell University. In December, 1871, he accompanied the Hassler expedi- tion, under Professor Pierce, to the South Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 14, 1873.
Among other of the important works of Professor Agassiz may be mentioned the fol- lowing: "Outlines of Comparative Physi- ology," "Journey to Brazil," and "Contri- butions to the Natural History of the United States." It is said of Professor Agassiz,
that, perhaps, with the exception of Hugh Miller, no one had so popularized science in his day, or trained so many young natural- ists. Many of the theories held by Agassiz are not supported by many of the natural- ists of these later days, but upon many of the speculations into the origin of species and in physics he has left the marks of his own strongly marked individuality.
W TILLIAM WINDOM. - As a prominent and leading lawyer of the great north- west, as a member of both houses of con- gress, and as the secretary of the treasury, the gentleman whose name heads this sketch won for himself a prominent position in the history of our country.
Mr. Windom was a native of Ohio, born in Belmont county, May 10, 1827. He received a good elementary education in the schools of his native state, and took up the study of law. He was admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice of his profession in Ohio, where he remained until 1855. In the latter year he made up his mind to move further west, and accordingly went to Minnesota, and opening an office, became identified with the interests of that state, and the northwest generally. In 1858 he took his place in the Minnesota delegation in the national house of repre- sentatives, at Washington, and continued to represent his constituency in that body for ten years. In 1871 Mr. Windom was elected United States senator from Min- nesota, and was re-elected to the same office after fulfilling the duties of the position for a full term, in 1876. On the inauguration of President Garfield, in March, 1881, Mr. Windom became secretary of the treasury in his cabinet. He resigned this office Oc- tober 27, 1881, and was elected senator from the North Star state to fill the va-
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cancy caused by the resignation of A. J. Edgerton. Mr. Windom served in that chamber until March, 1883.
William Windom died in New York City January 29, 1891.
D ON M. DICKINSON, an American politician and lawyer, was born in Port Ontario, New York, January 17, 1846. He removed with his parents to Michigan when he was but two years old. He was educated in the public schools of Detroit and at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. In 1872 he was made secretary of the Democratic state central committee of Michigan, and his able man- agement of the campaign gave him a prom- inent place in the councils of his party. In 1876, during the Tilden campaign, he acted as chairman of the state central committee. He was afterward chosen to represent his state in the Democratic national committee, and in 1886 he was appointed postmaster- general by President Cleveland. After the expiration of his term of office he returned to Detroit and resumed the practice of law. In the presidential campaign of 1896, Mr. Dickinson adhered to the " gold wing" of the Democracy, and his influence was felt in the national canvass, and especially in his own state.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR, the founder of the Astor family and fortunes, while not a native of this country, was one of the most noted men of his time, and as all his wealth and fame were acquired here, he may well be classed among America's great men. He was born near Heidelberg, Ger- many, July 17, 1763, and when twenty years old emigrated to the United States. Even at that age he exhibited remarkable
business ability and foresight, and soon he was investing capital in furs which he took to London and sold at a great profit. He next settled at New York, and engaged ex- tensively in the fur trade. He exported furs to Europe in his own vessels, which re- turned with cargoes of foreign commodities, and thus he rapidly amassed an immense fortune. In ISII he founded Astoria on the western coast of North America, near the mouth of the Columbia river, as a depot for the fur trade, for the promotion of which he sent a number of expeditions to the Pacific ocean. He also purchased a large amount of real estate in New York, the value of which increased enormously All through life his business ventures were a series of marvelous successes, and he ranked as one of the most sagacious and successful business men in the world. He died March 29, 1848, leaving a fortune es- timated at over twenty million dollars to his children, who have since increased it. John Jacob Astor left $400,000 to found a public library in New York City, and his son, William B. Astor, who died in 1875, left $300,000 to add to his father's bequest. This is known as the Astor Library, one of the largest in the United States.
CHUYLER COLFAX, an eminent
S American statesman, was born in New York City, March 23, 1823, being a grand- son of General William Colfax, the com- mander of Washington's life-guards. In 1836 he removed with his mother, who was then a widow, to Indiana, settling at South Bend. Young Schuyler studied law, and in 1845 became editor of the "St. Joseph Valley Register," a Whig paper published at South Bend. He was a member of the convention which formed a new constitu- tion for Indiana in 1850, and he opposed
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the clause that prohibited colored men from settling in that state. In 1851 he was defeated as the Whig candidate for congress but was elected in 1854, and, being repeat- edly re-elected, continued to represent that district in congress until 1869. He became one of the most prominent and influential members of the house of representatives, and served three terms as speaker. During the Civil war he was an active participant in all public measures of importance, and was a confidential friend and adviser of President Lincoln. In May, 1868, Mr. Colfax was nominated for vice-president on the ticket with General Grant, and was elected. After the close of his term he re- tired from office, and for the remainder of his life devoted much of his time to lectur- ing and literary pursuits. His death oc- curred January 23, 1885. He was one of the most prominent members of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows in America, and that order erected a bronze statue to his memory in University Park, Indianapo- lis, Indiana, which was unveiled in May, 1887.
W ILLIAM FREEMAN VILAS, who at- tained a national reputation as an able lawyer, statesman, and cabinet officer, was born at Chelsea, Vermont, July 9, 1840. His parents removed to Wisconsin when our subject was but eleven years of age, and there with the early settlers endured all the hardships and trials incident to pioneer life. William F. Vilas was given all the advantages found in the common schools, and supplemented this by a course of study in the Wisconsin State University, after which he studied law, was admitted to the bar and began practicing at Madison. Shortly afterward the Civil war broke out and Mr. Vilas enlisted and became colonel
of the Twenty-third regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers, serving throughout the war with distinction. At the close of the war he re- turned to Wisconsin, resumed his law prac- tice, and rapidly rose to eminence in this profession. In 1885 he was selected by President Cleveland for postmaster-general and at the close of his term again returned to Madison, Wisconsin, to resume the prac- tice of law.
THOMAS MCINTYRE COOLEY, an em- inent American jurist and law writer, was born in Attica, New York, January 6, 1824. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, and four years later was appointed reporter of the supreme court of Michigan, which office he continued to hold for seven years. In the meantime, in 1859, he became pro- fessor of the law department of the Univer-
sity of Michigan, and soon afterward was made dean of the faculty of that depart- ment. In 1864 he was elected justice of the supreme court of Michigan, in 1867 be- came chief justice of that court, and in 1869 was re-elected for a term of eight years. In 1881 he again joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, assuming the professorship of constitutional and adminis- trative law. His works on these branches have become standard, and he is recog- nized as authority on this and related sub- jects. Upon the passage of the inter-state commerce law in 1887 he became chairman of the commission and served in that capac- ity four years.
JOHN PETER ALTGELD, a noted American politician and writer on social questions, was born in Germany, December 30, 1847. He came to America with his parents and settled in Ohio when two years old. In 1864 he entered the Union army
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and served till the close of the war, after which he settled in Chicago, Illinois. He was elected judge of the superior court of Cook county, Illinois, in 1886, in which capacity he served until elected governor of Illinois in 1892, as a Democrat. During the first year of his term as governor he at- tracted national attention by his pardon of the anarchists convicted of the Haymarket murder in Chicago, and again in 1894 by his denunciation of President Cleveland for calling out federal troops to suppress the rioting in connection with the great Pull- man strike in Chicago. At the national convention of the Democratic party in Chi- cago, in July, 1896, he is said to have in- spired the clause in the platform denuncia- tory of interference by federal authorities ill local affairs, and "government by injunc- tion." He was gubernatorial candidate for re-election on the Democratic ticket in 1896, but was defeated by John R. Tanner, Re- publican. Mr. Altgeld published two vol- umes of essays on " Live Questions," evinc- ing radical views on social matters.
DLAI EWING STEVENSON, an Amer_ A ican statesman and politician, was born in Christian county, Kentucky, October 23, 1835, and removed with the family to Bloomington, Illinois, in 1852. He was admitted to the bar in 1858, and set- tled in the practice of his profession in Metamora, Illinois. In 1861 he was made master in chancery of Woodford county, and in 1864 was elected state's at- torney. In 1868 he returned to Blooming- ton and formed a law partnership with James S. Ewing. He had served as a pres- idential elector in 1864, and in 1868 was elected to congress as a Democrat, receiv- ing a majority vote from every county in his district. He became prominent in his
party, and was a delegate to the national convention in 1884. On the election of Cleveland to the presidency Mr. Stevenson was appointed first assistant postmaster- general. After the expiration of his term he continued to exert a controlling influence in the politics of his state, and in 1892 was elected vice-president of the United States on the ticket with Grover Cleveland. At the expiration of his term of office he re- sumed the practice of law at Bloomington, Illinois.
S IMON CAMERON, whose name is prominently identified with the history of the United States as a political leader and statesman, was born in Lancaster coun- ty, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1799. He grew to manhood in his native county, receiving good educational advantages, and develop- ing a natural inclination for political life. He rapidly rose in prominence and became the most influential Democrat in Pennsyl- vania, and in 1845 was elected by that party to the United States senate. Upon the organization of the Republican party he was one of the first to declare his allegiance to it, and in 1856 was re-elected United States senator from Pennsylvania as a Republican. In March, 1861, he was appointed secretary of war by President Lincoln, and served until early in 1862, when he was sent as minister to Russia, returning in 1863. In 1866 he was again elected United States senator and served until 1877, when he re- signed and was succeeded by his son, James Donald Cameron. He continued to exert a powerful influence in political affairs up to the time of his death, June 26, 1889.
JAMES DONALD CAMERON was the eld- est son of Simon Cameron, and also attained a high rank among American statesmen. He was born at Harrisburg,
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Pennsylvania, May 14, 1833, and received an excellent education, graduating at Princeton College in 1852. He rapidly developed into one of the most able and successful business men of the country and was largely inter- ested in and identified with the develop- ment of the coal, iron, lumber and manu- facturing interests of his native state. He served as cashier and afterward president of the Middletown bank, and in 1861 was made vice-president, and in 1863 president of the Northern Central railroad, holding this position until 1874, when he resigned and was succeeded by Thomas A. Scott. This road was of great service to the government during the war as a means of communica- tion between Pennsylvania and the national capital, via Baltimore. Mr. Cameron also took an active part in political affairs, always as a Republican. In May, 1876, he was appointed secretary of war in Pres- ident Grant's cabinet, and in 1877 suc- ceeded his father in the United States senate. He was re-elected in 1885, and again in 1891, serving until 1896, and was recognized as one of the most prominent and influential members of that body.
A DOLPHUS W. GREELEY, a famous American arctic explorer, was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, March 27, 1844. . He graduated from Brown High School at the age of sixteen, and a year later enlisted in Company B, Nineteenth Massachusetts Infantry, and was made first sergeant. In 1863 he was promoted to second lieutenant. After the war he was assigned to the Fifth United States Cavalry, and became first lieutenant in 1873. He was assigned to duty in the United States signal service shortly after the close of the war. An expedition was fitted out by the United States government in 1881, un-
der auspices of the weather bureau, and Lieutenant Greeley placed in command. They set sail from St. Johns the first week in July, and after nine days landed in Green- land, where they secured the services of two natives, together with sledges, dogs, furs and equipment. They encountered an ice pack early in August, and on the 28th of that month freezing weather set in. Two of his party, Lieutenant Lockwood and Ser- geant Brainard, added to the known maps about forty miles of coast survey, and reached the highest point yet attained by man, eighty-three degrees and twenty-four minutes north, longitude, forty-four degrees and five minutes west. On their return to Fort Conger, Lieutenant Greeley set out for the south on August 9, 1883. He reached Baird Inlet twenty days later with his entire party. Here they were compelled to abandon their boats, and drifted on an ice-floe for one month. They then went into camp at Cape Sabine, where they suf- fered untold hardships, and eighteen of the party succumbed to cold and hunger, and had relief been delayed two days longer none would have been found alive. They were picked up by the relief expedition, under Captain Schley, June 22, 1884. The dead were taken to New York for burial. Many sensational stories were published concerning the expedition, and Lieutenant Greeley prepared an exhaustive account of his explorations and experiences.
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