History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 27

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
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USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 27

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No officer ever had more pride in his regiment and his soldiers were faithful to his orders. His regiment was the advance regiment of Franklin's Brigade, in Heintzelman's Division at the first Bat- tle of Bull Run, and there made a reputation which it increased at every battle, especially at Gettysburg. Upon the recommendation of Gen- eral Winfield Scott who had known him in Mex- ico after the battle of Bull Run be was appointed Brigadier General by President Lincoln,

After three years of service as Brigadier General he was mustered out and returning to St. Paul resumed his profession. From that time he held several positions under the city government. He died on the afternoon of the 25th of May, 1876.

GOVERNOR SIBLEY, A. D. 1858 to A. D. 1860.

No one is more intimately asssociated with the development of the Northwest than Henry Hast- ings Sibley, the first Governor of Minnesota under the State constitution.

By the treaty of Peace of 1783, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States of America, and the land east of the Mississippi,

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and northwest of the Ohio river was open to set- tlement by American citizens.

In 1786, while Congress was in session in New York City, Dr. Manasseh Cutler, a graduate of Yale, a Puritan divine of a considerable scientific attainments, visited that place, and had frequent conferences with Dane of Massachusetts, and Jef- fersou, of Virginia, relative to the colonization of the Ohio valley, and he secured certain provisions in the celebrated "ordinance of 1787," among others, the grant of land in each township for the support of common schools, and also two townships for the use of a University.

Under the auspices of Dr. Cutler, and a few others, the first colony, in December, 1787, left Massachusetts, and after a wearisome journey, on April 7, 1788, reached Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum River.

Among the families of this settlement was the maternal grandfather of Governor Sibley, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, a gallant officer of Rhode Island, in the war of the Rebellion, and a friend of Kos- ciusko.

Governor Sibley's mother, Sarah Sproat, was sent to school to the then celebrated Moravian Seminary at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and subse- quently finished her education at Philadelphia. In 1797 she returned to her wilderness home and her father purchased for her pleasure a piano, said to have been the first transported over the Alle- ghany Mountains. Soon after this Solomon Sibley, a young lawyer, a native of Sutton, Massachusetts, visited Marietta, and become acquainted and at- tached to Sarah Sproat, and in 1802, they were married. The next year Mrs. Sibley went to De- troit where her husband had settled, and she com- menced housekeeping opposite where the Biddle House is situated in that city. In 1799, Gover- nor Sibley's father was a representative from the region now known as Michigan, in the first Ter- ritorial Legislature of Northwest, which met at Cincinnati. From 1820 to 1823 he was delegate to Congress from Michigan, and in 1824 he became judge of the supreme court, and in 1836 resigned. Respected by all, on the 4th of April he died.

His son, Henry Hastings Sibley, was born in February, 1811, in the city of Detroit. At the age of seventeen, relinquishing the study of law, he became a clerk at Sault St. Marie and then was employed by Robert Stuart, of the American Fur Company at Mackinaw. In 1834 he was placed in charge of the Indian trade above Lake Pepin with

his new quarters at the mouth of the Minnesota River.

In 1836, he built the first stone residence in Minnesota, without the military reservation, at Mendota, and here he was given to hospitality. The missionary of the cross, and the man of sci- ence, the officer of the army, and the tourist from a foreign land, were received with a friendliness that caused them to forget while under his roof that they were strangers in a strange land.

In 1843, he was married to Sarah J. Steele, the sister of Franklin Steele, at Fort Snelling.

On August 6th, 1846, Congress authorized the people of Wisconsin to organize a State govern- ment with the St. Croix River as a part of its west- ern boundary, thus leaving that portion of Wis- consin territory between the St. Croix and Missis- sippi Rivers st Il under the direct supervison of Congress, and the Hon. M. L. Martin, the dele- gate of Wisconsin territory in Congress, intro- duced a bill to organize the territory of Minnesota including portions of Wisconsin and Iowa.

It was not until the 29th of May, 1848, how- ever, that Wisconsin territory east of the Saint Croix, was reorganized as a State. On the 30th of October, Mr. Sibley, who was a resident of Iowa territory, was elected delegate to Congress, and after encountering many difficulties, was at length admitted to a seat.

On the 3d of March, 1849, a law was approved by the President for the organization of Minne- sota teritory, and in the fall of that year he was elected the first delegate of the new Territory, as his father had been at an early period elected a delegate from the then new Michigan territory. In 1851, he was elected for another term of two years.

In 1857, he was a member of the convention to frame a State constitution for Minnesota, and was elected presiding officer by the democrats. By the same party he was nominated for Governor and elected by a sm ill majority over the republican candidate, Alexander Rin sey.

Minnesota was admitted as a State on the 11th of May, 1858, and on the 28th Governor Sibley delivered his inaugural message.

After a residence of twenty-eight years at Men- dota, in 1862, he became a resident of Saint Paul. At the beginning of the Sioux outbreak, Governor Ramsey appointed him Colonel, and placed him at the head of the forces employed against the In- dians. On the 23d of September, 1862, he fought

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the severe and decisive battle of Wood Lake. In March, 1863, he was confirmed by the senate as Brigadier General, and on the 29th of November, 1865, he was appointed Brevet Major General for efficient and meritorious services.

Since the war he has taken an active interest in every enterprise formed for the advancement of Minnesota, and for the benefit of St. Paul, the city of his residence. His sympathetic nature leads him to open Lis ear, and also his purse to those in distress, and among his chief mourners when he leaves this world will be the many poor he has be- friended, and the faint-hearted who took courage from his words of kindness. His beloved wife, in May, 1369, departed this life, leaving four chil- dren, two daughters and two sons.

GOVERNOR RAMSEY, JANUARY 1860 TO APRIL 1863.

Alexander Ramsey, the first Territorial Gov- ernor, was elected the second State Governor, as has already been mentioned on another page. Be- fore his last term of office expired he was elected United States Senator by the Legislature, and Lieutenant Governor Swift became Governor, for the unexpired term.

GOVERNOR SWIFT, APRIL, 1863 TO JANUARY, 1864.

Henry A. Swift was the son of a physician, Dr. John Swift, and on the 23d of March, 1823, was born at Ravenna, Ohio. In 1842, he graduated at Western Reserve College, at Hudson, in the same State, and in 1845 was admitted to the practice of the law. During the winter of 1846-7, he was an assistant clerk of the lower house of the Ohio Legislature, and his quiet manner and methodic method of business made a favorable impression. The next year he was elected the Chief Clerk, and continued in office for two years. For two or three years he was Secretary of the Portage Farm- ers' Insurance Company. In April, 1853, he came to St. Paul, and engaged in merchandise and other occupations, and in 1856, became one of the founders of St. Peter. At the election of 1861, he was elected a State Senator for two years. In March, 1863, by the resignation of Lieutenant Governor Donnelly, who had been elected to the United States. House of Representatives, he was chosen temporary President of the Senate, and when Governor Ramsey, in April, 1863, left the gubernatorial chair, for a seat in the United States Senate he became the acting Governor. When he ceased to act as Governor, he was again elected to

the State Senate, and served during the years 1864 and 1865, and was then appointed by the President, Register of the Land Office at St. Peter. On the 25th of February, 1869 he died.

GOVEENOR MILLER-A. D. 1864 TO A. D. 1866.

Stephen A. Miller was the grandson of a Ger- man immigrant who about the year 1785 settled in Pennsylvania. His parents were David and Rosanna Miller, and on the 7th of January, 1816, he was born in what is now Perry county in that State.

He was like many of our best citizens, obliged to bear the yoke in his yonth. At one time he was a canal boy and when quite a youth was in charge of a canal boat. Fond of reading he ac- quired much information, and of pleasing address he made friends, so that in 1837 he became a for- warding and commission merchant in Harrisburg.

He always felt an interest in public affairs, and was an efficient speaker at political meetings. In 1849 he was elected Prothonatary of Dauphin county, Pa., and from 1853 to 1855 was editor of the Harrisburg Telegraph; then Governor Pol- lock, of Pennsylvania, appointed him Flour In- spector for Philadelphia, which office he held until 1858, when he removed to Minnesota on account of his health, and opened a store at Saint Cloud.

In 1861, Governor Ramsey who had known him . in Pennsylvania, appointed him Lieutenant Colo- nel of the First Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers, and was present with his regiment on July 21st of that year in the eventful battle of Bull Run. Gorman in his report of the return of the First Minnesota Regiment on that occasion wrote: "Be- fore leaving the field, a portion of the right wing, owing to the configuration of the ground and in- tervening woods, became detached, under the com- mand of Lt. Col. Miller whose gallantry was con- spicuous throughout the entire battle, and who contended every inch of the ground with his for- ces thrown out as skirmishers in the woods, and succeeded in occupying the original ground on the right, after the repulse of a body of cavalry."

After this engagement, his friend Simon Cam- eron, the Secretary of War, tendered him a posi- tion in the regular army which he declined.

Although in ill health he continued with the regiment, and was present at Fair Oaks and Mal- vern Hill.

In September, 1862, he was made Colonel of the Seventh Regiment, and proceeded against the

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Sioux Indians who had massacred so many set- tlers in the Upper Minnesota Valley, and in De- cember he was the Colonel commanding at Man- kato, and under his supervision, thirty-eight Siox, condemned for participation in the killing of white persons, on the 26th of February, 1863, were executed by hanging from gallows, upon one scaffold, at the same time. This year he was made Brigadier General, and also nominated by the re- publicans for Governor, to which office he was elected for two years, and in January, 1864, en- entered upon its duties.

In 1873, he was elected to the Legislature for a district in the southwestern portion of the State, and in 1876, was a Presidential elector, and bore the electoral vote to Washington.

During the latter years of his life he was em- ployed as a land agent by the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad Company. In 1881 he died. He was married in 1839 to Margaret Funk, and they had three sons, and a daughter who died in early childhood. His son Wesley, a Lieutenant in the United States Army, fell in battle at Gettysburg; his second son was a Commissary of Subsistence, but is now a private; and his youngest son is in the service of a Pennsylvania railroad.

GOVERNOR MARSHAL, A. D. 1866 to A. D. 1870.

William Rainey Marshall is the son of Joseph Marshall, a farmer and native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, whose wife was Abigail Shaw, of Penn- sylvania. He was born on the 17th of October, 1825, in Boone county, Missouri. His boyhood was passed in Quincy, Illinois, and before he at- tained to manhood he went to the lead mine dis- trict of Wisconsin, and engaged in mining and surveying.

In September, 1847, when twenty-two years of age, he came to the Falls of St. Croix, and in a few months visited the Falls of St. Anthony, staked out a claim and returned. In the spring of 1848, he was elected to the Wisconsin legislature, but his seat was contested on the ground that he lived beyond the boundaries of the state of Wis- consin. In 1849, he again visited the Falls of St. Anthony, perfected his claim, opened a store, and represented that district in the lower house of the first Territorial legislature. In 1851, he came to St. Paul and established an iron and heavy hard- ware business.

In 1852, he held the office of County Surveyor, and the next year, with his brother Joseph and

N. P. Langford, he went into the banking busi- ness. In January, 1861, he became the editor of the Daily Press, which succeeded the Daily Times.

In August, 1862, he was commissioned Lieut. Colonel of the Seventh Minnesota Regiment of In- fantry and proceeded to meet the Sioux who had been engaged in the massacre of the settlers of the Minnesota valley. In a few weeks, on the 23d of September, 1862, he was in the battle of Wood Lake, and led a charge of five companies of his own regiment, and two of the Sixth, which routed the Sioux, sheltered in a ravine.

In November, 1863, he became Colonel of the Seventh Regiment. After the campaign in the Indian country the regiment was ordered south, and he gallantly led his command, on the 14th of July, 1864, at the battle near Tupelo, Mississippi. In the conflict before Nashville, in December, he acted as a Brigade commander, and in April, 1865, he was present at the surrender of Mobile.

In 1865, he was nominated by the Republican party, and elected Governor of Minnesota, and in 1867, he was again nominated and elected. He entered upon his duties as Governor, in January, 1866, and retired in 1870, after four years of service.

In 1870, he became vice-president of the bank which was known as the Marine National, which has ceased to exist, and was engaged in other en- terprises.

In 1874, he was appointed one of the board of Railroad Commissioners, and in 1875, by a change of the law, he was elected Railroad Commissioner, and until January, 1882, discharged its duties.

He has always been ready to help in any move- ment which would tend to promote the happiness and intelligence of humanity.

On the 22d of March, 1854, he was married to Abby Langford, of Utica, and has had one child, a son.

GOVERNOR AUSTIN-A. D. 1870 TO A. D. 1874.

Horace Austin, about the year 1831, was born in Connecticut. His father was a blacksmith, and for a time he was engaged in the same occupation. Determined to be something in the world, for sev- eral years, during the winter, he taught school. He then entered the office of a well known law firm at Augusta, Maine, and in 1854 came west. For a brief period he had charge of a school at the Falls of Saint Anthony.

In 1856, he became a resident of St. Peter, on

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the Minnesota River. In 1863, in the expedition against the Sioux Indians, he served as captain in the volunteer cavalry. In 1869, he was elected Governor, and in 1871 he was re-elected. Soon after the termination of his second gubernatorial term, he was appointed Auditor of the United States Treasury at Washington. He has since been a United States Land Officer in Dakota ter- ritory, but at present is residing at Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

GOVERNOR DAVIS A. D. 1874 TO A. D. 1876.

Cushman Kellog Davis, the son of Horatio N. and Clarissa F. Davis, on the 16th of June, 1838. was born at Henderson, Jefferson county, New York. When he was a babe but a few months old, his father moved to Waukesha, Wisconsin, and opened a farm. At Waukesha, Carroll College had been commenced, and in this institution Guv- ernor Davis was partly educated, but in 1857 grad- uated at the University of Michigan.

He read law at Waukesha with Alexander Ran- dall, who was Governor of Wisconsin, and at a later period Postmaster General of the United States, and in 1859 was admitted to the bar.

In 1862, he was commissioned as first lieuten- ant of the 28th Wisconsin Infantry, and in time became the adjutant general of Brigadier General Willis A. Gorman, ex-Governor of Minnesota, but in 1864, owing to ill health he left the army.

Coming to Saint Paul in August, 1864, he en- tered upon the practice of his profession, and formed a partnership with ex-Governor Gorman. Gifted with a vigorous mind, a fine voice, and an impressive speaker, he soon took high rank in his profession.

In 1867, he was elected to the lower house of the legislature, and the next year was commisioned United States District Attorney, which position he occupied for five years.

In 1863, he was nominated by the republicans, and elected Governor. Entering upon the duties of the office in 1874, he served two years.

Since his retirement he has had a large legal practice, and is frequently asked to lecture upon literary subjects, always interesting the audience.

GOVERNOR PILLSBURY-A. D. 1876 To 1882.

John Sargent Pillsbury is of Puritan ancestry. He is the son of John and Susan Pillsbury, and on the 29th of July, 1828, was born at Sutton, .

New Hampshire, where his father and grandfather lived.

Like the sons of many New Hampshire farmers, he was obliged, at an early age, to work for a sup- port. He commenced to learn house painting, but at the age of sixteen was a boy in a country store. When he was twenty-one years of age, he formed a partnership with Walter Harriman, subsequently Governor of New Hampshire. After two years he removed to Concord, and for four years was a tailor and dealer in cloths. In 1853, he came to Michigan, and in 1855, visited Minnesota, and was so pleased that he settled at St. Anthony, now the East Divi- sion of the city of Minneapolis, and opened a hardware store. Soon a fire destroyed his store and stock upon which there was no insurance, but by perseverance and hopefulness, he in time re- covered from the loss, with the increased confidence of his fellow men. For six years he was an efficient member of the St. Anthony council.

In 1863, he was one of three appointed sole Re- gents of the University of Minnesota, with power to liquidate a large indebtedness which had been unwisely created in Territorial days. By his carefulness, after two or three years the debt was canceled, and a large partion of the land granted to the University saved.

In 1863, he was elected a State Senator, and served for seven terms. In 1875, he was nomi- nated by the republicans and elected Governor; in 1877, he was again elected, and in 1879 for the third time he was chosen, the only person who has served three successive terms as the Governor of Minnesota.

By his courage and persistence he succeeded in obtaining the settlement of the railroad bonds which had been issued under the seal of the State, and had for years been ignored, and thus injured the credit of the State.

In 1872; with his nephew he engaged in the manufacture of flour, and the firm owns several mills .. Lately they have erected a mill in the East Division, one of the best and largest in the world.

GOVERNOR HUBBARD, A. D. 1882.

Lucius Frederick Hubbard was born on the 26th of January, 1836, at Troy, New York. His father, Charles Frederick, at the time of his death was Sheriff of Rensselaer county. At the age of six- teen, Governor Hubbard left the North Granville Academy, New York, and went to Poultney, Ver-

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mont, to learn the tinner's trade, and after a short period he moved to Chicago, where he worked for four years.

In 1857, he came to Minnesota, and established a paper called the "Republican," which he con- ducted until 1861, when in December of that year he enlisted as a private in the Fifth Minnesota Regiment, and by his efficiency so commended himself that in less than one year he became its Colonel. At the battle of Nashville, after he had been knocked off his horse by a ball, he rose, and on foot led his command over the enemy's works. "For gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Nashville, Tennessee, on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864," he received the bravet rank of Brigadier General.

After the war he returned to Red Wing, and has been engaged in the grain and flour business. He was State Senator from 1871 to 1875, and in 1881 was elected Governor. He married in May, 1868, Amelia Thomas, of Red Wing, and has three children.

MIRNESOTA'S REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

From March, 1849, to May, 1858, Minnesota was a Territory, and entitled to send to the con- gress of the United States, one delegate, with the privilege of representing the interests of his con- stituents, but not allowed to vote.

TERRITORIAL DELEGATES.

Before the recognition of Minnesota as a sepa- rate Territory, Henry H. Sibley sat in Congress, from January, 1849, as a delegate of the portion Wisconsin territory which was beyond the boun- daries of the state of Wisconsin, in 1848 admit- ted to the Union. In September, 1850 he was elected delegate by the citizens of Minnesota ter- ritory, to Congress.

Henry M. Rice succeeded Mr. Sibley as delegate, and took his seat in the thirty-third congress, which convened on December 5th 1853, at Washington. He was re-elected to the thirty-fourth Congress, which assembled on the 3d of March, 1857. During his term of office Congress passed an act extending the pre-emption laws over the unsurveyed lands of Minnesota, and Mr. Rice obtained valuable land grants for the construction of railroads.

William W. Kingsbury was the last Territorial delegate. He took his seat in the thirty-fifth con- gress, which convened on the 7th of December,

1857, and the next May his seat was vacated by Minnesota becoming a State.

UNITED STATES SENATORS.

Henry M. Rice, who had been for four years delegate to the House of Representatives, was on the 19th of December, 1857, elected one of two United States Senators. During his term the civil war began, and he rendered efficient service to the Union and the State he represented. He is still living, an honored citizen in St. Paul.

James Shields, elected at the same time as Mr. Rice, to the United States Senate, drew the short term of two years.

Morton S. Wilkinson was chosen by a joint con- vention of the Legislature, on December 15th, 1859, to succed General Shields. During the re- bellion of the Slave States he was a firm supporter of the Union.

Alexander Ramsey was elected by the Legisla- ture, on the 14th of January, 1863, as the suc- cessor of Henry M. Rice. The Legislature of 1869 re elected Mr. Ramsey for a second term of six years, ending March 1875. For a full notice see the 138th page.

Daniel S. Norton was, on January 10th, 1865, elected to the United States Senate as the suc- cessor of Mr. Wilkinson. Mr. Norton, who had been in feeble health for years, died in June, 1870. O. P. Stearns was elected on January 17th, 1871, for the few weeks of the unexpired term of Mr. Norton.

William Windom, so long a member of the United States House of Representatives, was elected United States Senator for a term of six years, ending March 4th, 1877, and was re-elected for a second term ending March 4th, 1883, but re- signed, having been appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Garfield.

A. J. Edgerton, of Kasson, was appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy. President Gar- field having been assassinated, and Mr. Edgerton having been appointed Chief Justice of Dakota territory, Mr. Windom, at a special session of the Legislature in October, 1881, was re-elected United States Senator.

S. J. R. McMillan, of St. Paul, on the 19th of February, 1875, was elected United States Sen- ator for the term expiring March 4th, 1881, and has since been re-elected for a second term, which, in March. 1887, will expire.

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REPRESENTATIVES IN THE U. S. HOUSE OF REPRE- SENTATIVES.

William W. Phelps was one of the first mem- bers of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota. Born in Michigan in 1826, he graduated in 1846, at its State University. In 1854, he came to Minnesota as Register of the Land Office at Red Wing, and in 1857, was elected a representative to Congress.

James M. Cavanaugh was of Irish parentage, and came from Massachusetts. He was elected to the same Congress as Mr. Phelps, and subsequently removed to Colorado, where he died.

William Windom was born on May 10th, 1827,in Belmont, county, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar in 1850, and was, in 1853, elected Prosecuting At- torney for Knox county, Ohio. The next year he came to Minnesota, and has represented the State in Congress ever since.

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History of Fillmore County, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 27

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: