USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 69
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ability. Although naturally possessed of a strong, sound and vigorous phy- sique, the two years of exposure, privation and hardship such as are always found in the strenuous life of the soldier in time of war, necessitated a rest. In the following June, he re-enlisted in the regular army, and was soon there- after assigned to duty in the War Department at Washington, D. C. After a year he was discharged from the military service by order of the Secretary of War, to accept a civil position, and was then placed in charge of an important bureau in that department. In his official position he was brought in close re- lations with President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary-of-War Stanton, the Ad- jutant General of the Army, and others at that time prominent in public life. He was in attendance at Ford's Theater, April 14, 1865, and witnessed the assassination of President Lincoln, an event which ever thereafter remained vividly in his memory. While discharging his duties in the War Department he entered the law department of Columbian College, at Washington, and in 1868 graduated with high honors, standing near the head of a class of over one hundred. The same year, before his graduation, he was examined, and admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and thereafter was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. In the spring of 1871, he was tendered a commission as first lieutenant in the regular army and offered an assignment on the staff of the general in command of the department of California. Though he had a liking for military life, he felt it best to decline this offer. In June, 1871, he resigned his position in the War Department to enter the practice of law.
He immediately came to the Northwest to examine various pine lands. Upon reaching St. Cloud he decided to locate here, and accordingly formed a partnership with Edward O. Hamlin, who had formerly been judge of the Fourth Minnesota Judicial District. Judge Hamlin being at that time advanced in years, retired from practice in the fall of 1873, and re- turned to his old home in Honesdale, Penn. Mr. Searle continued to practice alone for a few years until he became senior member in the firm of Searle, Searle & Tolman. When F. E. Searle withdrew from the firm in order to engage in the banking business, the law-firm of Searle & Lamb was formed. A year later, it was succeeded by the firm of Searle & Stewart, which con- tinued until November. 1887, when Mr. Searle retired from practice, and went on the bench of the Seventh Judicial District.
Not the least of Judge Searle's activities found expression in the politics of the nation, state, county and city. While always an ardent Republican he was not so firmly committed to party rule that he followed it blindly, but wherever and whenever criticism was due he did not hesitate to criticise, to condemn, and to suggest new lines of thought and action. His political belief was that this is a country of law declared through the medium of party, and that the will of the people finding expression in party platforms should be carried into practical effect by those elected upon such platforms. He held many important political positions and was the recipient of political fa- vors at the hands of the chief executive of the nation, the chief executive of the state, and the people of his district, his county and the city of his home.
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In the spring of 1875 he was elected city attorney of St. Cloud, and served continuously for eight years. At the general election of 1880 he was elected county attorney of Stearns county, and though the county was strongly Demo- cratic he received a majority of over eleven hundred. He was appointed United States District attorney for the District of Minnesota, in April, 1882, and served until December, 1885, when he resigned to give President Grover Cleveland the opportunity of appointing his successor. He took an active part in the Republican state and national campaign in the fall of 1884, and was a member of the Republican State Central Committee in 1886 and 1887. On November 12, 1887, he was appointed district judge of the Seventh Judicial District, by his friend, Governor A. R. McGill, and was re-elected without opposition in 1888, 1894 and 1900; and had his health continued would have been elected again in 1906. In 1892, after a vigorous contest with H. C. Kendall, of Duluth, he was nominated as the Republican candidate for Con- gress at the Congressional Convention held at Duluth. In the district outside of St. Louis county he ran ahead of the state ticket headed by Governor Knute Nelson and the national ticket headed by President Benjamin Harrison, over a thousand votes, but the opposition in St. Louis county defeated him by a bare 254 votes. He made an enviable record on the bench, and won spe- cial credit by his decision in the notorious "Pine Land Ring" and other cases. The same qualities which united to make Judge Searle a good lawyer served him equally well in discharging his duties as a judge. He was honest, pains- taking and trustworthy. In the investigations essential to a correct decision, he was just as patient and just as thorough as if conducting a case in a court for a client of his own. There was perhaps no judge of his period in this state more industrious in the examination of authorities, and none more desirous of reaching the right conclusions. In the cases of criminals he felt that no man was so bad but what some good could be found in him, he be- lieved that the good could be brought out and developed by right surround- ings; he made his sentences as light as was compatible with justice, and he never sentenced a prisoner without words of encouragement as to what he might in the future do with a life of which he had thus far made such ship- wreck.
In going upon the bench, Judge Searle sacrificed a large law practice, for aside from his general practice he was local attorney for the Northern Pacific ; St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba ; Great Northern, and "Soo" Rail- roads, and his personal clients were numbered by the hundreds.
Judge Searle was ready at any time, and at all times to lend a hand to help any enterprise that promised to promote the material welfare of his fellow man, his city, county, state or nation. The extent of his benefactions will never be known. It was his delight to aid the poor or the needy, without letting the giver be known, and he joyed in finding worthy boys and young men and bestowing help, not in the way of charity, but in a spirit of older- brother helpfulness. His daily progress to and from his office left a trail of cheer and comfort, and no matter how dreary the day or depressing the circumstances, no one ever met the judge without feeling better.
The principal avocation of Judge Searle when not occupied with his law
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books, was farming and stockraising. In his boyhood years, in western New York, where he lived on a farm with his father, it was considered the best evidence of thrift, prosperity and character, to be the owner of broad acres of fertile farming lands, and of fine herds of blooded stock. Judge Searle's earliest ambition was to excel in the business of his kinsmen, and the ideals, cherished for so many years, began to bear fruit when he purchased a tract of wild land on the banks of Lake Pleasant. He cleaned off the first brush from this tract, erected houses and barns, and gradually bought other land until his property entirely encircled that beautiful lake. He established one of the finest herds of full-blooded Shorthorn cattle in the Northwest, and won prizes not only at the Minnesota State Fair but also at the International cattle exhibit at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1892. Everything about the place was in keeping with his cattle. All the stock was of the best, and the judge and his good wife took a deep interest in each individual animal. A splendid herd of Angora goats was another feature of the place. The great tract of Lakeview, stretching away from the picturesque lake on all sides was as beautiful an estate as one could imagine. Neat buildings, beautiful groves, fertile tilled land, rippling brooks, sunlit meadows, and browsing cattle and goats, all tended to make a landscape pleasing to the eye and gratifying to the senses, and placed Judge Searle among the pio- neers who had brought the wilderness under control and contributed to the agricultural prosperity of the state. Judge Searle lived to see his hopes for this farm realized in the fullest sense, and after he was stricken, this beautiful place was one of his great comforts and delights, his active mind still di- recting its work.
Judge Searle was a man of wide experience, of keen intellect, of sound judgment, broad sympathies and forceful character. While his chief work, it is true, was for over forty years the study, practice and administration of the law, and while his farm occupied his spare time in his adult years, never- theless he always took an active interest in the social, industrial and political affairs of the state and nation as well as in the activities of his own immediate locality. Socially he was a member of the Masonic body, being a Master Mason, a Royal Arch Mason, and a Knight Templar. He was also a member of the Knights of Pythias, the B. P. O. E. and of the Grand Army of the Republic. In the latter organization he was especially prominent. He was a charter member of James McKelvy Post, No. 134, of St. Cloud, and on Oc- tober 24, 1896, was appointed aide de camp, with the rank of colonel, on the staff of the commander in chief. During the succeeding year he was a mem- ber of the National Council of Administration, and held the position of senior vice-commander of the Department of Minnesota for 1898, and attained the high honor of department commander in 1899.
In the prime of his life, at the height of his success, at the period of his greatest usefulness, Judge Searle was suddenly stricken. Ever mindful of his duty as a patriot he had gone to Long Prairie, in Todd county, to deliver an address on Memorial day to the soldiers and citizens, and in that place, at the hotel, on the night of May 29, 1906, he suffered a paralytic stroke which rendered him unconscious for a time, and from the effects of which he never
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fully recovered. The best medical attention, the constant services of a spe- cially trained nurse, the loving care of his devoted wife, to a great extent alleviated the suffering incident to his illness, and these with his own brave spirit, kept him comfortable and hopeful of ultimately regaining his former activity. For three and a half years he and his friends continued their en- deavors and their hope for the restoration of his health, only to be disap- pointed at last, when, after a second and third stroke, the end came at 9:30 o'clock on the evening of December 12, 1909.
The bar, the press and the public united in tokens of esteem and sorrow. Humanity had lost a friend. The world recognized that he was a wise and fearless judge, whose capacities were equal to all demands made upon him. He was a brave soldier and served his country well and faithfully. He was a most excellent citizen, public spirited and progressive. He stood for all that was good in life and against all that was vicious. A wise judge, a brave sol- dier, an able lawyer, a patriotic citizen has gone to his eternal reward. The world is better for his having lived, and has lost much by his death.
Dolson B. Searle was married February 16, 1875 to Mary Elizabeth Clarke, the daughter of Anson B. and Mary Ann Clarke. She was born in Hubbards- ton, Mass., and spent her early life in Worcester, Boston and Cambridge, in Massachusetts. In his wife, Judge Searle found an intelligent, sympathetic and understanding helpmeet. They worked and planned together, and it was at the moment which it seemed that all their fondest hopes had reached fruition that the judge was so fatally stricken. The Searle home was bright- ened a brief time by the presence of a daughter, Ethel Elizabeth. The bright- ness of her parents' hearts, the sunshine of the neighborhood, she died at the age of three years and a half, and left a vacant place in the home that was never filled.
Loren Warren Collins was born at Lowell, Mass., April 7, 1838, of old New England stock. He was the son of Charles P. and Abigail C. (Libby) Collins, and was descended from Benjamin Collins, who was born in England and settled in Salisbury, Mass., in 1660, and John Libby, who settled near Boston, Mass., about 1638. His ancestors served in the French and Indian War of 1760, King William's War, the defense of Fort Edward and Black Point, and in the Revolutionary war. They also held many positions of trust and responsibility in civil life. One of them was the last colonial governor of New Hampshire.
Charles P. Collins was for many years an overseer in cotton factories at Lowell and at Cabotsville, Mass. The family moved from Lowell to Cabots- ville in 1840. In 1851 the family moved to Palmer. Charles P. Collins came west in 1853 after he had returned to Massachusetts from a trip around the Horn and to California. He made the trip around the Horn in the ship Edwin Everett in 1849 and returned by crossing the isthmus of Panama.
In Minnesota Charles P. Collins took government land on Eden Prairie in Hennepin county. His family came west in 1854 and settled on the Eden Prairie homestead.
Loren W. Collins' first business venture. was raising water melons and
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the market was St. Anthony Falls, now a part of Minneapolis. The trans- action netted him $10 and required a three day trip. The cattle were fed in a grove near where the Nicollet hotel now stands, and the river was crossed in a ferry, about where the stone arch bridge now is.
In the fall of 1855 Charles P. Collins and his family returned to Massa- chusetts. In the spring of 1856 he returned to Minnesota and settled at Lewistown on the Canon river about five miles from Northfield. There he built a hotel. In the fall of 1856 Loren Collins returned to Minnesota and joined his father at Lewistown. In the fall of 1858 the boy obtained a posi- tion as teacher of a small country school about two and one half miles up the river from Canon Falls. For teaching a four-months' term he received $60 and with this as his sole asset he went to Northfield in the fall of 1859 and began the study of law in the office of Smith & Crosby.
In 1862 the firm of Smith & Crosby dissolved and Loren Collins remained with Judge Crosby until August when he enlisted as a private in Company F of the Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. The company had been re- cruited at Hastings by Captain John Kennedy. Ten days afterward he was commissioned second lieutenant of the company, the men having indicated their choice by ballot.
Loren W. Collins served through the entire war with the Seventh regi- ment. With the command he participated in the first and second Sibley cam- paigns against the Sioux Indians. The first expedition ended with the battle of Wood Lake, where the Indians were routed, five white captives recovered and several hundred Indians taken prisoners. Among the prisoners were the 38 Indians afterward hanged at Mankato. Company F was on duty at the exe- cution. In the spring of 1863 the regiment participated in the second Sibley campaign, marching into North Dakota.
At the close of the Indian war, in the fall of 1863, the regiment was or- dered south. At St. Louis Lientenant Collins was detached from his regi- ment and detailed to the provost guard military police. The city was at this time under military control and for three months Judge Collins served as head of the military police, a position of great responsibility. He then re- joined his regiment in the south and until the close of the war was engaged in the operations against the Confederate forces.
At the decisive battle of Nashville, Lieutenant Collins was on the staff of Colonel S. G. Hill, commander of the Third Brigade, First Division, Six- teenth Army Corps, and was with Colonel Hill when the colonel was killed. Shortly after the battle Colonel William R. Marshall of the Seventh regiment recommended the promotion of Lieutenant Collins for gallantry and efficiency in the service. His recommendation was acted upon and Lientenant Collins, who had become a first lieutenant Jannary 8, 1863, was made a brevet captain.
Mustered out with his regiment in St. Paul in August, 1865, Captain Collins returned south and for six months served in Alabama as an agent of the Federal department of the treasury. He then returned to Minnesota and settled in St. Cloud in May, 1866, forming a nominal law partnership with Seagrave Smith, who later moved to Minneapolis and became a district judge.
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In 1868 Captain Collins formed a law partnership with Colonel Charles D. Kerr which continued until Judge Kerr moved to St. Paul in 1872. He was also associated in the practice of law with Theodore Bruener.
In the fall of 1866 Captain Collins was elected county attorney as a Re- publican in the face of a heavy Democratic majority. He served three terms. He was city attorney for four years and mayor of St. Cloud in 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1880. In 1881 and 1883 he was a representative in the Minnesota legislature. In the term of 1881 he was chairman of the Normal School Committee and had an important part in the location of the Normal School at St. Cloud. In the session of 1881 he was one of the house board of man- agers in the impeachment proceedings against Judge E. St. Julian Cox. In 1883 he was chairman of the committees on finance and temperance.
In April, 1883, Captain Collins was appointed judge of the Seventh Judi- cial district by Governor Lucius F. Hubbard to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge James M. MeKelvy, his personal friend. In 1884 he was elected. In November, 1887, Governor A. R. McGill appointed him associate justice of the Supreme court to succeed John M. Berry. In 1888 he was elected by a majority of 46,432. Judge Collins increased this majority in 1894 to 49,684. In this campaign he ran against Judge John W. Willis who was nominated on a fusion Populist and Democratic ticket. These were the largest majorities that any candidate on the state ticket had received up to that time. His work on the supreme bench for the 17 years of his service is embodied in more than 1,500 written opinions.
On December 28, 1900, Judge Collins was tendered the office of United States senator to succeed Senator Cushman K. Davis. The offer was made by Governor John Lind following Senator Davis' death. The high honor Judge Collins refused for personal and political reasons.
Judge Collins resigned from the bench in 1904 to become a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor. He was defeated in a bitter pre- convention campaign which resulted in the election of John A. Johnson, a Democrat.
Retiring from the bench at the age of sixty-six, Judge Collins took up the active practice of the law in Minneapolis. He served one year as presi- dent of the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company, but resigned to devote his entire time to his law practice. At the time of his death he was in partnership with Leo K. Eaton.
While returning from the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Los Angeles in September, 1912, Judge Collins was stricken with a recurrence of heart trouble. Two years before he had recovered from a serious attack of the same disease, but although he made a brave fight he died September 27 in his Minneapolis home. The funeral services were held in Unity Church, St. Cloud, September 29, and interment was in the North Star Cemetery. At the funeral services, conducted by Rev. Paul Dansingberg of the Unitarian Church, assisted by Rev. E. V. Campbell, of the Presby- terian Church, addresses were made by Judge Ell Torrance, of Minneapolis, former commander in chief of the Grand Army and one of Judge Collins'
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closest friends; S. H. Towler, commander of the Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion; W. P. Robers, state commander of the G. A. R .; C. F. Mac- donald, commander of James M. MeKelvy post, G. A. R., of which Judge Collins was a member; former Governor S. R. Van Sant and United States Senator Knute Nelson.
Judge Collins was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Society of the Colonial Wars, and the Sons of the Revolution. He served as state commander of the Grand Army and the Loyal Legion and as judge advocate general of the Grand Army. For many years he was a member of the nation council of administra- tion of the Grand Army and at the time of his death was a member of the executive committee of the council.
Judge Collins was a Mason and an Elk. He was a Unitarian and served as president of the State Unitarian Society.
October 22, 1912, the state supreme court held a memorial session for Judge Collins. Addresses were made by Chief Justice Charles M. Start, Marshall B. Webber, Wallace B. Douglas, Charles W. Farnham, J. N. Searles, Ell Torrance and L. K. Eaton.
In his address Judge Torrance said, "He was a learned, clear headed, right minded, honorable and just judge. He met all the requirements of his great office. He had great capacity for work, and was a man of extraor- dinary industry. Patient, tireless, painstaking, he could not rest content with a single duty unperformed. He had an attentive mind and retentive memory. He grasped with readiness the facts in a case, even to the minutest detail, and with ease arranged them in orderly sequence so that, with the law clearly in mind, he could speedily reach a conclusion.
"Among the illustrious names that have adorned the bench and bar of Minnesota none will shine with a clearer or steadier radiance than that of Judge Collins. He was a lovable man, a good citizen, a true patriot, a devoted husband, an affectionate father and a sincere friend. He was a many sided man, but at all times and everywhere he was sincere, steadfast, and depend- able. He had a sane and wholesome mind, always hopeful, optimistic and of two evils he rejected both. He looked upon the bright side of life and the windows of his soul opened to the south and to the sunshine. He did not, as many do, regard the age in which he lived as a sordid one. While recognizing the evils in society and the importance of their correction, he believed that the world was growing better every day and that belief helped to make the world better."
Judge Collins married Ella Stewart, a member of the St. Cloud Normal School faculty September 4, 1878, at Berlin, Wis., Miss Stewart's home. Three sons were born to them: Stewart Garfield, a civil engineer of Duluth; Louis Loren, city editor of the Minneapolis Journal, and Loren Fletcher, an archi- tect of Minneapolis. Mrs. Collins died in St. Cloud May 31, 1894. A daughter, Estelle, the eldest child died in St. Cloud May 31, 1894.
Henry Chester Waite. Minnesota was fortunate in the type of men who were in charge of her destinies in her formative period. The territory escaped the lawless life that has been a part of the early history of so many of the
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western states. The men who came here were for the most part, not transient adventurers, but men of worth, ability and probity, looking for a place to establish themselves permanently. Some of the best of the sons of the East- ern states found their way to the upper Mississippi valley, and with courage and high resolve set about establishing communities where education, right- eousness and character should be the foundation stones. Among these men, the subject of this sketch deserves a prominent place. The first lawyer in St. Cloud, an early miller, merchant and investor, a member of the Minnesota Constitutional Convention, occupying a seat at different times in both houses of the Minnesota Legislature, a deep reader and student, a poet of consider- able ability, and a man of spotless character; he was a gentleman of the old school, and the real extent of his influence on the growing city of St. Cloud can never be measured.
Henry Chester Waite was born June 30, 1830, in Rensselaerville, Albany county, New York, and was taken as a boy of four years to Chautauqua county, in the same state, spending his youth in Pomfet and Gerry. He pre- pared for higher studies at Fredonia and Jamestown, and in 1849 entered the junior class of Union College, at Schenectady, N. Y., from which institution he was graduated at the age of twenty-one. He read law with Emory F. Warren, of Sinclairville, and was admitted to the bar at the term of court held at Angelica, Allegheny county, in 1853. He at once came west to Wis- consin, and made the acquaintance at Madison of Alexander Botkin and Thomas Hood with whom he formed the law firm of Botkin, Hood & Waite. In the spring of 1855, he came to St. Cloud, and was the first attorney to open an office herc. Hc at once became interested in public affairs, and was sent to the constitutional Convention, taking his seat on the Democratic wing of that famous hody. Soon after his arrival in St. Cloud, he joined his brother- in-law, Thomas C. McClure, in a private banking business. In 1865 he became registrar of the United States land office. Four years later he engaged in milling operations at Cold Spring. With this beginning he branched out into numerous enterprises, and his interests were extensive. He was a member of the firm of Clarke, Waite & McClure, which operated extensively in deal- ing and contracting in the northern part of the state. He was interested in several mining ventures, he had mining interests, he engaged in merehan- dising, he invested in many lines, and in connection withi all this made a hobby of managing and operating his splendid farm of 640 acres near the city limits of St. Cloud. He sat in the lower house of the Minnesota legisla- ture in 1863 and in the upper house in 1870, 1871, 1883 and 1885. He also occupied various other offices of private trust and public honor. Mr. Waite was one of the pioneer settlers of central Minnesota, and being a man of strong convictions and force of character, was one of the leaders in the de- velopment of this part of the state. Although his business activities were extensive, he was in reality a student, and his greatest pleasure was found in the fields of literature. He was fond of poetry and wrote verse of no inferior merit. His last years were spent on his farm, where he passed away November 15, 1912, holding the respect and esteem of all who knew him. On New Year's day, 1860, Mr. Waite married Mrs. Maria D. Paige, daughter
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