USA > Michigan > Gratiot County > Biographical memoirs of Gratiot County, Michigan : compendium of biography of celebrated Americans > Part 53
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brigadier-general of the state troops. He left the country at the close of the war and did not return until 1867. He died Decem- ber 15, 1885.
A USTIN CORBIN, one of the greatest railway magnates of the United States, was born July 11, 1827, at Newport, New Hampshire. He studied law with Chief Justice Cushing and Governor Ralph Met- calf, and later took a course in the Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1849. He was admitted to the bar, and practiced law, with Governor Metcalf as his partner, until October 12, 1851. Mr. Corbin then removed to Davenport, Iowa, where he re- mained until 1865. In 1854 he was a part- ner in the banking firm of Macklot & Cor- bin, and later he organized the First Na- tional bank of Davenport, Iowa, which commenced business June 29, 1863, and which was the first national bank open for business in the United States. Mr. Corbin sold out his business in the Davenport bank, and removed to New York in 1865 and com- menced business with partners under the style of Corbin Banking Company. Soon after his removal to New York he became. interested in railroads, and became one of the leading railroad men of the country. The development of the west half of Coney Island as a summer resort first brought him into general prominence. He built a rail- road from New York to the island, and built great hotels on its ocean front. He next turned his attention to Long Island, and secured all the railroads and consoli- dated them under one management, became president of the system, and under his con- trol Long Island became the great ocean suburb of New York. His latest public achievement was the rehabilitation of the Reading Railroad, of Pennsylvania, and.
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during the same time he and his friends purchased the controlling interest of the New Jersey Central Railroad. He took it out of the hands of the receiver, and in three years had it on a dividend-paying basis. Mr. Corbin's death occurred June 4, 1896.
JAMES GORDON BENNETT, SR., was one of the greatest journalists of America in his day. He was born Septem- ber 1, 1795, at New Mill, near Keith, Scot- land. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Aberdeen to study for the priesthood, but, convinced that he was mistaken in his vocation, he determined to emigrate. He landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1819, where he attempted to earn a living by teaching bookkeeping. Failing in this he went to Boston and found employment as a proof reader. Mr. Bennett went to New York about 1822 and wrote for the news- papers. Later on he became assistant editor in the office of the "Charleston Courier," but returned to New York in 1824 and endeavored to start a commercial school, but was unsuccessful in this, and again returned to newspaper work. He continued in newspaper work with varying success until, at his suggestion, the "En- quirer" was consolidated with another paper, and became the "Courier and En- quirer," with James Watson Webb as editor and Mr. Bennett for assistant. At this time this was the leading American newspaper. He, however, severed his con- nection with this newspaper and tried, without success, other ventures in the line of journalism until May 6, 1835, when he issued the first number of the "New York Herald." Mr. Bennett wrote the entire paper, and made up for lack of news by his ·own imagination. The paper became popu-
lar, and in 1838 he engaged European jour- nalists as regular correspondents. In 1841 the income derived from his paper was at least one hundred thousand dollars. Dur- ing the Civil war the "Herald " had on its staff sixty-three war correspondents and the circulation was doubled. Mr. Bennett was interested with John W. Mackay in that great enterprise which is now known as the Mac- kay-Bennett Cable. He had collected for use in his paper over fifty thousand biographies, sketches and all manner of information re- garding every well-known man, which are still kept in the archives of the "Herald" office. He died in the city of New York in 1872, and left to his son, James Gordon, Jr., one of the greatest and most profitable journals in the United States, or even in the world.
LIVER WENDELL HOLMES, a noted American, won distinction in the field of literature, in which he attained a world-wide reputation. He was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 29, 1809. He received a collegiate education and grad- uated from Harvard in 1829, at the age of twenty, and took up the study of law and later studied medicine. Dr. Holmes at- tended several years in the hospitals of Europe and received his degree in 1836. He became professor of anatomy and phys- iology in Dartmouth in 1838, and re- mained there until 1847, when he was called to the Massachusetts Medical School at Boston to occupy the same chair, which position he resigned in 1882. The first collected edition of his poems appeared in 1836, and his "Phi Beta Kappa Poems," "Poetry," in 1836; "Terpsichore," in 1843; "Urania," in 1846, and "Astræa," won for him many fresh laurels. His series of papers in the "Atlantic Monthly," were:
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"Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "Pro- fessor at the Breakfast Table," "Poet at the Breakfast Table," and are a series of masterly wit, humor and pathos. Among his medical papers and addresses, are: "Cur- rents and Counter-currents in the Medical Science," and "Borderland in Some Prov- inces of Medical Science." Mr. Holmes edited quite a number of works, of which we quote the following: "Else Venner," "Songs in Many Keys," "Soundings from the Atlantic," "Humorous Poems," "The Guardian Angel," "Mechanism in Thoughts and Morals," "Songs of Many Seasons," "John L. Motley" -- a memoir, "The Iron Gate and Other Poems," "Ralph Waldo Emerson," "A Moral Antipathy." Dr. Holmes visited England for the second time, and while there the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the University of Edinburgh. His death occurred October 7, 1894.
R UFUS CHOATE, one of the most em- inent of America's great lawyers, was born October 1, 1799, at Essex, Massachu- setts. He entered Dartmouth in 1815, and after taking his degree he remained as a teacher in the college for one year. He took up the study of law in Cambridge, and subsequently studied under the distinguished lawyer, Mr. Wirt, who was then United States attorney-general at Washington. Mr. Choatebegan the practice of law in Danvers, Massachusetts, and from there he went to Salem, and afterwards to Boston, Massa- chusetts. While living at Salem he was elected to congress in 1832, and later, in 1841, he was chosen United States senator to succeed Daniel Webster, Mr. Webster having been appointed secretary of state ander William Henry Harrison.
After the death of Webster, Mr. Choate
was the acknowledged leader of the Massa- chusetts bar, and was looked upon by the younger members of the profession with an affection that almost amounted to a rever- ence. Mr. Choate's powers as an orator were of the rarest order, and his genius made it possible for him to enchant and in- terest his listeners, even while discussing the most ordinary theme. He was not merely eloquent on the subjects that were calculated to touch the feelings and stir the passions of his audience in themselves, but could at all times command their attention. He re- tired from active life in 1858, and was on his way to Europe, his physician having ordered a sea voyage for his health, but had only reached Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he died, July 13, 1858.
D WIGHT L. MOODY, one of the most noted and effective pulpit orators and evangelists America has produced, was born in Northfield, Franklin county, Massachu- setts, February 5, 1837. He received but a meager education and worked on a farm. until seventeen years of age, when he be- came clerk in a boot and shoe store in Boston. Soon after this he joined the Con- gregational church and went to Chicago, where he zealously engaged in missionary work among the poor classes. He met with great success, and in less than a year he built up a Sunday-school which numbered over one thousand children. When the war broke out he became connected with what was known as the "Christian Com- mission," and later became city missionary of the Young Men's Christian Association at Chicago. A church was built there for his converts and he became its unordained pas- tor. In the Chicago fire of 1871 the church and Mr. Moody's house and furniture, which had been given him, were destroyed. The:
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church edifice was afterward replaced by a new church erected on the site of the old one. In 1873, accompanied by Ira D. Sankey, Mr. Moody went to Europe and excited great religious awakenings through- out England, Ireland and Scotland. In 1875 they returned to America and held large meetings in various cities. They afterward made another visit to Great Britain for the same purpose, meeting with great success, returning to the United States in 1884. Mr. Moody afterward continued his evangelistic work, meeting everywhere with a warm reception and success. Mr. Moody produced a number of works, some of which had a wide circulation.
JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN, a financier of world-wide reputation, and famous as the head of one of the largest banking houses in the world, was born April 17, 1837, at Hartford, Connecticut. He re- ceived his early education in the English high school, in Boston, and later supple- mented this with a course in the University of Göttingen, Germany. He returned to' the United States, in 1857, and entered the banking firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co., of New York, and, in 1860, he became agent and attorney, in the United States, for George Peabody & Co., of London. He became the junior partner in the banking firm of Dabney, Morgan & Co., in 1864, and that of Drexel, Morgan & Co., in 1871. This house was among the chief negotiators of railroad bonds, and was active in the re- organization of the West Shore Railroad, and its absorption by the New York Central Railroad. It was conspicuous in the re- organization of the Philadelphia & Read- ing Railroad, in 1887, which a syndicate of capitalists, formed by Mr. Morgan, placed on a sound financial basis. After that time
many other lines of railroad and gigantic financial enterprises were brought under Mr. Morgan's control, and in some respects it may be said he became the foremost financier of the century.
THOMAS BRACKETT REED, one of the most eminent of American states- men, was born October 18, 1839, at Port- land, Maine, where he received his early education in the common schools of the city, and prepared himself for college. Mr. Reed graduated from Bowdoin College in 1860, and won one of the highest honors of the college, the prize for excellence in Eng- lish composition. The following four years were spent by him in teaching and in the study of law. Before his admission to the bar, however, he was acting assistant pay- master in the United States navy, and served on the " tin-clad " Sybil, which pa- trolled the Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi rivers. After his discharge in 1865, he returned to Portland, was admit- ted to the bar, and began the practice of his profession. He entered into political life, and in 1868 was elected to the legislature of Maine as a Republican, and in 1869 he was re-elected to the house, and in 1870 was made state senator, from which he passed to attorney-general of the state. He retired from this office in 1873, and until 1877 he was solicitor for the city of Portland. In 1876 he was elected to the forty-fifth congress, which assembled in 1877. Mr. Reed sprung into prominence in that body by one of the first speeches which he delivered, and his long service in congress, coupled with his ability, gave him a national reputation. His influence each year became more strongly marked, and the leadership of his party was finally conceded to him, and in the forty-ninth and fiftieth
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congresses the complimentary nomination for the speakership was tendered him by the Republicans. That party having obtained the ascendency in the fifty-first congress he was elected speaker on the first ballot, and he was again chosen speaker of the fifty- fourth and fifth-fifth congresses. As a writer, Mr. Reed contributed largely to the magazines and periodicals, and his book upon parliamentary rules is generally rec- ognized as authority on that subject.
C LARA BARTON is a celebrated char- acter among what might be termed as the highest grade of philanthropists Amer- ica has produced. She was born on a farm at Oxford, Massachusetts, a daughter of Captain Stephen Barton, and was educated at Clinton, New York. She engaged in teaching early in life, and founded a free school at Bordentown, the first in New Jer- sey. She opened with six pupils, but the attendance had grown to six hundred up to 1854, when she went to Washington. She was appointed clerk in the patent depart- ment, and remained there until the out- break of the Civil war, when she resigned her position and devoted herself to the al- leviation of the sufferings of the soldiers, serving, not in the hospitals, but on the bat- tle field. She was present at a number of battles, and after the war closed she origi- nated, and for some time carried on at her own expense, the search for missing soldiers. She then for several years devoted her time to lecturing on "Incidents of the War." About 1868 she went to Europe for her health, and settled in Switzerland, but on the outbreak of the Franco-German war she ac- cepted the invitation of the grand duchess of Baden to aid in the establishment of her hospitals, and Miss Barton afterward fol- lowed the German army She was deco-
rated with the golden cross by the grand duke of Baden, and with the iron cross by the emperor of Germany. She also served for many years as president of the famous Red Cross Society and attained a world- wide reputation.
CARDINAL JAMES GIBBONS, one of the most eminent Catholic clergymen in America, was born in Baltimore, Mary- land, July 23, 1834. He was given a thorough education, graduated at St. Charles College, Maryland, in 1857, and studied theology in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, Maryland. In 1861 he became pastor of St. Bridget's church in Baltimore, and in 1868 was consecrated vicar apostolic of North Carolina. In 1872 our subject be- came bishop of Richmond, Virginia, and five years later was made archbishop of Bal- timore. On the 30th of June, 1885, he was admitted to the full degree of cardinal and primate of the American Catholic church. He was a fluent writer, and his book, "Faith of Our Fathers," had a wide circulation.
C HAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW .- This name is, without doubt, one of the most widely known in the United States. Mr. Depew was born April 23, 1834, at Peekskill, New York, the home of the Depew family for two hundred years. He attended the common schools of his native place, where he prepared himself to enter college. He began his collegiate course at Yale at the age of eighteen and graduated in 1856. He early took an active interest in politics and joined the Republican party at its for- mation. He then took up the study of law and went into the office of the Hon. Will- iam Nelson, of Peekskill, for that purpose. and in 1858 he was admitted to the bar.
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He was sent as a delegate by the new party to the Republican state convention of that year. He began the practice of his profes- sion in 1859, but though he was a good worker, his attention was detracted by the campaign of 1860, in which he took an act- ive part. During this campaign he gained his first laurels as a public speaker. Mr. Depew was elected assemblyman in 1862 from a Democratic district. In 1863 he se- cured the nomination for secretary of state, and gained that post by a majority of thirty thousand. In 1866 he left the field of pol- itics and entered into the active practice of his law business as attorney for the New York & Harlem Railroad Company, and in 1869 when this road was consoli- dated with the New York Central, and called the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, he was appointed the attor- ney for the new road. His rise in the rail- road business was rapid, and ten years after his entrance into the Vanderbilt system as attorney for a single line, he was the gen- eral counsel for one of the largest railroad systems in the world. He was also a director in the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, Michigan Central, Chicago & Northwestern, St. Paul & Omaha, West Shore, and Nickel Plate railroad companies. In 1874 Mr. Depew was made regent of the State University, and a member of the commission appointed to superintend the erection of the capitol at Albany. In 1882, on the resignation of W. H. Vanderbilt from the presidency of the New York Cen- tral and the accession to that office- by James H. Rutter, Mr. Depew was made second vice-president, and held that posi- tion until the death of Mr. Rutter in 1885. In this year Mr. Depew became the execu tive head of this great corporation. Mr. Depew's greatest fame grew from his ability
and eloquence as an orator and " after-din- ner speaker," and it has been said by emi- nent critics that this country has never pro- duced his equal in wit, fluency and eloquence.
P HILIP KEARNEY .- Among the most dashing and brilliant commanders in the United States service, few have outshone the talented officer whose name heads this sketch. He was born in New York City, June 2, 1815, and was of Irish ancestry and imbued with all the dash and bravery of the Celtic race. He graduated from Columbia College and studied law, but in 1837 ac- cepted a commission as lieutenant in the First United States Dragoons, of which his uncle, Stephen W. Kearney, was then colo- nel. He was sent by the government, soon after, to Europe to examine and report upon the tactics of the French cavalry. There he attended the Polytechnic School, at Samur, and subsequently served as a vol- unteer in Algiers, winning the cross of the Legion of Honor. He returned to the United States in 1840, and on the staff of General Scott, in the Mexican war, served with great gallantry. He was made a cap- tain of dragoons in 1846 and made major for services at Contreras and Cherubusco. In the final assault on the City of Mexico, at the San Antonio Gate, Kearney lost an arm. He subsequently served in California and the Pacific coast. In 1851 he resigned his commission and went to Europe, where he resumed his military studies. In the Italian war, in 1859, he served as a volun- teer on the staff of General Maurier, of the French army, and took part in the battles of Solferino and Magenta, and for bravery was, for the second time, decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor. On the opening of the Civil war he hastened home, and; offering his services to the gonoral gov-
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ernment, was made brigadier-general of volunteers and placed in command of a bri- gade of New Jersey troops. In the cam- paign under McClellan he commanded a di- vision, and at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks his services were valuable and brilliant, as well as in subsequent engagements. At Harrison's Landing he was made major-gen- eral of volunteers. In the second battle of Bull Run he was conspicuous, and at the battle of Chantilly, September 1, 1862, while leading in advance of his troops, Gen- eral Kearney was shot and killed.
R USSELL SAGE, one of the financial giants of the present century and for more than an average generation one of the most conspicuous and celebrated of Ameri- cans, was born in a frontier hamlet in cen- tral New York in August, 1816. While Rus- sell was still a boy an elder brother, Henry Risley Sage, established a small grocery store at Troy, New York, and here Russell found his first employment, as errand boy. He served a five-years apprenticeship, and then joined another brother, Elisha M. Sage, in a new venture in the same line, which proved profitable, at least for Russell, who soon became its sole owner. Next he formed the partnership of Sage & Bates, and greatly extended his field of operations. At twenty-five he had, by his own exertions, amassed what was, in those days, a consid- erable fortune, being worth about seventy- five thousand dollars. He had acquired an influence in local politics, and four years later his party, the Whigs, elected him to the aldermanic board of Troy and to the treasuryship of Rensselaer county. In 1848 he was a prominent member of the New York delegation to the Whig convention at Philadelphia, casting his first votes for Henry Clay, but joining the "stampede " which
nominated Zachary Taylor. In 1850 the Whigs of Troy nominated him for congress, but he was not elected-a failure which he: retrieved two years later, and in 1854 he was re-elected by a sweeping majority. At Washington he ranked high in influence and. ability. Fame as a speaker and as a polit- ical leader was within his grasp, when he gave up public life, declined a renomination to congress, and went back to Troy to de- vote himself to his private business. Six years later, in 1863, he reinoved to New York and plunged into the arena of Wall street. A man of boundless energy and tireless pertinacity, with wonderful judg- ment of men and things, he soon took his place as a king in finance, and, it is said, during the latter part of his life he con- trolled more ready money than any other single individual on this continent.
R OGER QUARLES MILLS, a noted United States senator and famous as the father of the "Mills tariff bill," was born in Todd county, Kentucky, March 30, 1832. He received a liberal education in the com- mon schools, and removed to Palestine, Texas, in 1849. He took up the study of law, and supported himself by serving as an assistant in the post-office, and in the offices of the court clerks. In 1850 he was elected engrossing clerk of the Texas house of rep- resentatives, and in 1852 was admitted to the bar, while still a minor, by special act of the legislature. He then settled at Cor- sicana, Texas, and began the active prac- tice of his profession. He was elected to the state legislature in 1859, and in 1872 he was elected to congress from the state at large, as a Democrat. After his first elec- tion he was continuously returned to con- gress until he resigned to accept the posi- tion of United States senator, to which he
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was elected March 23, 1892, to succeed Hon. Horace Chilton. He took his seat in the senate March 30, 1892; was afterward re-elected and ranked among the most use- ful and prominent members of that body. In 1876 he opposed the creation of the elec- toral commission, and in 1887 canvassed the state of Texas against the adoption of a prohibition amendment to its constitution, which was defeated. He introduced into the house of representatives the bill that was known as the "Mills Bill," reducing duties on imports, and extending the free list. The bill passed the house on July 21, 1888, and made the name of "Mills" famous throughout the entire country.
H AZEN S. PINGREE, the celebrated Michigan political leader, was born in Maine in 1842. Up to fourteen years of age he worked hard on the stony ground of his father's small farm. Attending school in the winter, he gained a fair education, and when not laboring on the farm, he found employment in the cotton mills in the vicinity. He resolved to find more steady work, and accordingly went to Hopkinton, Massachusetts, where he entered a shoe fac- tory, but on the outbreak of the war he en- listed at once and was enrolled in the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. He partici- pated in the battle of Bull Run, which was his initial fight, and served creditably his early term of service, at the expiration of which he re-enlisted. He fought in the battles of Fredricksburg, Harris Farm, Spottsylvania Court House and Cold Har- bor. In 1864 he was captured by Mosby, and spent five months at Andersonville, Georgia, as a prisoner, but escaped at the end of that time. He re-entered the service and participated in the battles of Fort Fisher, Boyden, and Sailor's Creek. He
was honorably mustered out of service, and in 1866 went to Detroit, Michigan, where he made use of his former experience in a shoe factory, and found work. Later he formed a partnership with another workman and started a small factory, which has since become a large establishment. Mr. Pin- gree made his entrance into politics in 1889, in which year he was elected by a surpris- ingly large majority as a Republican to the mayoralty of Detroit, in which office he was the incumbent during four consecutive terms. In November, 1896, he was elected gov- ernor of the state of Michigan. While mayor of Detroit, Mr. Pingree originated and put into execution the idea of allowing the poor people of the city the use of va- cant city lands and lots for the purpose of raising potatoes. The idea was enthusiast- ically adopted by thousands of poor families, attracted wide attention, and gave its author a national reputation as "Potato-patch Pin- gree."
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