USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of the state of Wisconsin : being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875 > Part 65
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He pursucd his medical studies in Palmyra, under Drs. Mcintyre and Peckham, and with Drs. Sayles and Stevens of Vernon, and took his di- ploma at the Fairfield Medical College, New York, in 1825. He removed to Milwaukee in 1848, having three years previously adopted the homeopathie doctrine of therapeutics, at that date little known In that region.
He has given to the public several valuable works. In 1855 he published a work on Intermittent Fever, which was then very prevalent in the West. A few years later, he published a more generally useful work, entitled " Practi- cal Homeopathy," designed for the use of families. He has also been a large contributor to the principal homœo-
pathic journals of the country. In 1859 he accepted a professorship of Materia Medica and Special Pathology and Diagnosis in the Homeopathic Medical College of Cleveland, which he held for three years. He has been a member of the American Institute of Homœopathy since 1847, once its presi- dent, and once Its annual orator.
He is now near seventy-four years of age, in excellent health, and performing all the duties of an extensive practice, with an activity and energy seldom sur- passed by young men.
For half a century he has been ear- nestly and conscientiously devoted to his profession, - twenty years an allo- path, and thirty a homeopath. His lectures and writings, incisive, and full of common sense, give evidence of vast philosophy and experience. He pos- sesses, as he deserves, the love and reverence of his many friends and patrons. His place will not be soon or casily filled when he shall be removed, as in the natural course of events he must be before many years.
HON. HORATIO NELSON DAVIS. - He was born in the town of Henderson, Jefferson County, N. Y., June 17, 1812; received an academic education. Was married, August, 1837, to Ciarissa Fa- nette Cushman, and removed to Wis- consin in August, 1838, first settling at Wankcsha, In this State, where he resided twenty-six years, engaged prin- cipally in the pursuits of agriculture. Was elected chairman of the board of supervisors of Waukesha six suc- cessive years, and was twice elected chairman of the county board. Was elected county treasurer of Waukesha County in 1847, and held the office by subsequent clections for six years. Was commissioned by Pres. Lincoln, March, 1862, captain and commissary of subsistence, and was raised to the rank of major by brevet in 1864. Left the service at the termination of the war, and settled at Beloit, Wis., where he now resides. Was elected president of the Beloit National Bank in 1865, and held that position by subsequent elections for cight years. Was elected mayor of the city of Beloit in 1872, withont opposition, and was again elected in 1873. Was clected to the State senate from the county of Rock In 1872, receiving a majority of 3,526 votes. Was again clected to the State senate in November, 1874. Was again elected mayor of the city of Beloit, April, 1875, without opposition. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have had born to them
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eight children, five of whom are living; | way to his new circuit, accompanied viz., C. K. Davis of Saint Paul, F. N. by his wife, whom he had just married, the eldest daughter of Gen. Collins, of New Hartford, Oneida County, N.Y. Davis of the city of Beloit, Mrs. Davies of Davenport, Io., Mrs. Washburn of the city of Beloit, and Miss Clittie E. Davis, now living with her parents.
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HON. J. D. DOTY. - James Dnane Doty was a native of Salem, Washing- ton County, N. Y., where he was born in 1799. In the year 1818 he settled at Detroit, Mich. ; and, a young lawyer, of good repute, he was the next year admitted to the Supreme Court of that Territory, and was the same year pro- moted rapidly to places of public trust, being appointed secretary of the legis- lative council, and clerk of the court.
Gov. Cass, in 1820, made his famous tour of the Great Lakes, and the Mis- sissippi to its sources, travelling a dis- tance of four thousand miles with his party, in five bark canoes. Mr. Doty was selected by the governor to com- mand one of the birch flotilla; C. C. Trowbridge and John H. Kinzie eaclı having charge of another. The trip from Detroit to Mackinaw and the Sault Ste. Marie consumed nearly ninety days, and was one of great difficuity and perii. It was on this occasion that Gov. Cass, supported by his assistants and canoe-men, in the presence of the assembled dignitaries of the fierce Chippewas, and in defiance of their menaces, pulled down the British flag, which those Indians had displayed on the American side of the straits on his arrival, and hoisted the stars and stripes in its place. Mr. Doty was present, and aided with his own hands in displaying the American flag. The party left Detroit early in May, trav- ersed the lakes, and reached the sour- ces of the Mississippi, held conferences with various Indian tribes, and re- turned the last of November. Mr. Doty, besides having charge of one of the canoes, acted as secretary of the expedition.
In the winter of 1822-23 Congress passed an " Act to provide for the Ap- pointment of an Additional Judge for the Michigan Territory," and to estab- lish courts in the counties of Michili- mackinac, Brown, and Crawford; the two latter counties embracing all that is now Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota. From the numerous ap- plicants for the piace, Pres. Monroe selected James D. Doty of Detroit for the new judge.
Judge Doty iost no time in entering on his duties as judge, - lawgiver to a country sufficient in extent for an em- pire. He repaired forthwith to Prairie du Chien, organized the judiciary of Crawford County, and opened court. It was no easy task to inaugurate jas- tice in these wilds, to create sheriffs, clerks, and jurors ont of half-breed Indian traders, voyageurs, and courriers du bois ; but the tact, talent, and per- severance of the young judge prevailed. Judge Dotyhad thought to make Prairie du Chien his resting-place, his home, but finally determined on a permanent residence at Green Bay, where he made his home for twenty years.
The judge proceeded to organize courts in Michilimackinac and Brown Counties, where he found the inhabit- ants generally disposed to render every assistance in bringing a wild country subject to law and order. The terms were held with perfect regularity throughout the whole district. He con- tinned to discharge his onerons duties for nine years, and until superseded by Judge Irwin in 1832. Relieved from the cares and responsibilities of the judgeship and courts, he immediately commenced, on his own resources, a personal examination, by repeated tours of the country that now constitutes Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. It was then inhabited and possessed by the aborigines. Hevisited every village of note, made himseif acquainted with, and gained the good-will of, the chiefs, and contributed in no smail degree to the good understanding which fol- lowed between the government and these savage tribes.
In 1830 Congress made an appropri- ation for surveying and locating a mili- tary road from Green Bay to Chicago and to Prairie du Chien. Judge Doty and Lieut. Center were appointed com- missioners, and surveyed and located these roads during 1831 and 1832.
Judge Doty's talents for usefulness were now conceded and appreciated by ali. The people of the district of Mich- igan, west of the lake. ciected him to the legislative council in 1834, in which he served with marked ability for two years. It was while he was a member, that the legislative conneil of that Territory began to agitate the question of a state government; which he was
Descending the lake from Green Bay to New York, In May, 1823, the writer found him in Detroit, already on the | first to introduce, and which finally
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prevailed. Returning from the legis- | Lincoln In 1861, first as superintendent lative council, he became an active operator in the public land sales, which were opened at Green Bay in 1835-36.
The rapid settlement of the country beyond the Great Lakes ealied for a new Territorial Government,-a separation from Michigan. Congress passed the aet creating the Territorial Government of Wisconsin in 1836. Hon. Henry Dodge received the appointment of governor, and assembled the first legis- lature at Belmont. One of the most important matters brought before that body, and to be settled by it, was the location of the seat of government. Judge Doty, though remaining in pri- vate life, had not been idle, and es- pecially was not uninterested in this matter of a capital for Wisconsin. There was great excitement over the matter in the legislature. While others were planning, Judge Doty was acting, He appeared at Belmont as a lobby- member; and almost before the Solons knew of it, by his superior tact, had brought about a vote fixing the seat of government at Madison, the beautiful place where it now is. There was a good deal of sparring and fault-finding with Doty and his management at the time; but all agree now that it was then, as it is scen to be since, just the right place for the capital.
Wisconsin, as an organized Territory, had now a delegate in Congress. Judge Doty succeeded Hon. George W. Jones in 1838, and served till 1841, when he was appointed governor of Wisconsin by Pres. Tyler, serving nearly three years, and was suceceded by Gov. Tallmadge. While governor, and super- intendent of Indian affairs, the Indians in Minnesota - Dakotas or Sionx, and Chippewas - began to be nneasy and troublesome. The War Department instituted a commission for conferenec with them. Gov. Doty, on account of his known acquaintance with Indian character, was selected as commis- sioner, and made two highly important treaties with the North-western Indian tribes, which, however, were not ac- cepted by the senate.
He was a member of the first Con- stitutional Convention in 1846; was elected to Congress from the third dis- trict under the State organization of 1848, and re-elected in 1851, and pro- cured, by his industry and influence, important legislation for the State and his constitueney.
of Indian affairs, and subsequently as governor of Utah; holding this last place at the time of his death, June 13, 1865.
Gov. Doty's last residence in Wis- eonsin was at Menasha, on Doty's Island, - one of the many villages that have sprung up under his influenee. He had two sons and one danghter. The eldest son, Major Charles Doty, late a commissary in the United States army, mustered out in April iast, now resides at Menasha. The second son, James, accompanied Gov. Stevens on his exploring expedition for a route for railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, and died in Washington Territory some years since. Mrs. Sarah C. Doty, the governor's wife, accom- panied him to Utah in 1864; was with him at his death; has since returned to Wisconsin, and now (1867) resides in Oshkosh, with her widowed daughter, Mrs. Fitzgerald.
HON. JEROME I. CASE. - The sub- ject of this sketeh was born in Wil- liamstown, Oswego County, N.Y., Dec. 11, 1819, and is the youngest of four brothers. His parents, Caleb and Debo- rah Case, were among the pioneers of Western New York, having moved at an early day from Rensselaer County to Williamstown, where with a family of little ones to support, and in limited circumstances, they commenced to clear up a farm in the then almost un- broken wilderness. Young Case was tims nurtured in a good school for the development of the two distinguishing elements of the American character, - an idea of nobility and an Idea of faith ; the nobility of labor, the faith in one's own powers.
His opportunities for acquiring an education were such as were afforded by the district selrooi, which he could attend only in winter. At the age of sixteen he had acquired a common- school education, and a reputation for trustworthiness beyond his years. At this time his father purchased the right to use and sell a certain primi- tive, one-horse, tread-power threshing- machine; and it is noticeable that Jerome, the youngest son, was selected to manage and use the machine. This apparently trifling cireninstance de- cided for young Case what should be his vocation. From the first he cx- hibited a fondness for machinery, and, in his first attempt, managed the rick- cty one-horse tread-mill to the eom-
In 1853 he retired once more to "private life," to be recalled by Pres. | plete satisfaction of himself and all
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parties concerned. This employment | through the country, threshing grain, he followed until 1840, when he became of age.
Jerome now determined to obtain as good an education as the schools of New York State could at that time give him. He accordingiy, in the fall of 1840, commenced the threshing- business on his own account. He had now, for the first time in his life, a distinct object to obtain; and he toiled with a heartiness and a perseverance that could hardly fail to bring success. In January, 1841, with the profits of his autumn's work in his pocket, he entered the Academy of Mexicoville, N. Y. It seemed to him that the object of his ardent desire, and for which he had long waited, was now within his grasp. Self-reliant, - looking upon toil as honorable, and labor as dignifying the laborer, -and strong of purpose, he devoted hinself chiefly to those studies that would best fit him for the work he had decided to undertake; viz., the construction of labor-saving machinery. He succeeded well In his studies; but he had raised a spirit that would not let him rest. Daily over his books, and nightly in his dreams, the inventive genius was ever busy; and the old tread-mill thresher was con- stantly before his eyes. At the close of the term he decided to leave the academy, and enter upon his life-work. He felt that he had a work to do, and an education to acquire, outside of books, among men, and that he had started too late to get a thorough knowledge of books, and accomplish what he intended to do afterward. Thus, at the age of twenty-two, with- out capital, or friends able to furnish him pecuniary aid, he began the career that was to terminate in making him one of the leading manufacturers of the West.
managing the machine himself, and constantly devising. during his hours of leisure, some improvement. In the spring of 1843, finding that his tread- mlil machine was nearly worn out, and conscious of his ability to greatly im- prove it, he set to work. with the aid of such tools and mechanies as he could find, to build and remodel, after some patterns made by himself, his old horse-power and thresher. When fin- ished, and put in operation, he found not only that he had made a machine vastly better than the old one he had been using, but also that he had made a better machine than he could buy at the East. His success becoming known, he soon found himself able to discontinue threshing, and turned his attention to the manufacture of ma- chines.
Up to this time invention had only succeeded in making what was called an open thresher; the grain, chaff, and straw being delivered together from the machine, requiring an after-process of winnowing in order to separate the grain from the chaff. In the winter of 1843-44 Mr. Case succeeded in making a thresher and separator combined, after a model of his own invention, which he had made in the kitchen of a farmhouse at Rochester, Wis. This was the first machine used in the West that threshed and cleaned the grain at one operation. It was a success best appreciated, most probably, by the man, who, for three years, had labored under every disadvantage to attain that result. In the fall of the same year Mr. Case rented a small shop at Racine, and undertook the building of a limited number of his new machines. Some adequate idea of the tempera- ment and indomitable perseverance of this man, as well as of the discouraging obstacles that he encountered, may be formed, when we state that the most experienced agriculturalists of the State, when told by Mr. Case that he was building six machines for sale, asserted, that, if they did work'satis- factorily, they would be more than were needed in the entire State.
Directly after leaving school, Mr. Case turned his attention again to threshing-machinery. In the spring of 1842 he procured, upon credit, six of these machines, and took them West with him, locating himself at Racine, in the then Territory of Wisconsin. The great agricultural resources of the West were at that time undeveloped; Constantly Improving, remodelling, and perfecting his machinery, Mr. Case, in 1847, erected his first shop, near the site of his present extensive manufac- tory. It was a briek building thirty feet wide by eighty feet long, and three stories in height. At the thine, he con- sidered it larger than he would ever but the attention of enterprising men had been directed to these broad and fertile prairies ; and the reading of Mr. Case had given him an idea of the pos- sibilities that lay hidden in them. Ar- riving at Racine, then a mere village, he disposed of all his machines but one, and with that he started off need, but thought he would put up a
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good building, that should be a credit in that open-handed charity which to the town.
Being now well established in busi- ness, he pursued with unflinching vigor the purpose of his life. The country was developing rapidly, the uncultivated prairies of 1842 becoming the richly productive farms of 1850. The demand for the J. I. Case Thresher and Horse-Power steadily Increased; and each year witnessed some new triumph of the designer's skill. Recog- nizing, with the true manufacturer's instinct, the fact, that, to be perma- nentiy successful, it was essentiai not only that his machines should be un- surpassed in excellence, but also that he should be able to manufacture them with the greatest possible economy of time and labor, he was constantly de- vising labor-saving machinery; and while he was bringing siowly but surely out of the primitive tread-mili of Oswego County the unsurpassed Thresher and Power at present manu- factured by him, he was at the same time constantly improving the machin- ery of his manufactory.
In 1855, only thirteen years from the time when he stood upon the threshold of his great enterprise, was success assured. He had triumphed over pov- erty, surmounted aii obstacles, and realized by his own exertions the ideal mechanism he had dreamed of in his youth, when he used to haul to market, over the corduroy roads of Oswego County, a load of wood to exchange for a barrel of sait. His extensive manufactory, of substantial brick and wood buildings, occupying in all its appointments several acres of ground, situated on the bank of Racine River, just inside the lake harbor, with its dock for vessels, its furnace, mouiding- room, paint-shops, beit-factory, and dry-kilns, and its vast work-rooms filled with perfect and complicated machinery, all systematized and organ- ized in as perfect order as a military camp, stands to-day a monument in itself to the inventive skili, keen fore- sight, and indomitable energy, of the farmer-boy of Williamstown, and en- tities him to take his place among those men of thought and action whose own exertions have made them the representative men of the West.
In 1849 Mr. Case married Lydia A., daughter of DeGrove Bull, Esq., of Yorkville, Wis., an estimabie lady, of whom it is sufficient to say, that in the practice of those domestic virtues which grace the wife and mother, and | Madison. - C. R. T.
adorns the female character, she is an ornament to the social position which her husband's eminent success has called her to occupy.
In 1856 Mr. Case, although in no respect an office-seeker, was elected mayor of the city of Racine. He was tendered the nomination again the fol- lowing year, but declined the position. Being urged by his friends to accept the nomination to the same office in 1859, he consented, and was elected a second time to the mayoralty of the city, over the Hon. John M. Cary, his competitor. In 1856 he was elected State senator, and served with ability for a term of two years in the Wiscon- sin senate, being noted in that body for his ready mastery of details, and great executive ability. In politics Mr. Case has always been identified with the Republican party.
Mr. Case still confines himself to business, and is regarded as one of the wealthiest citizens of Wisconsin.
HON. WILLIAM R. TAYLOR.1 - "He was born in the State of Con- necticut, Juiy 10, 1820. His mother, who was a native of Scotland, died when the subject of this sketch was three weeks old. His father, a sea- captain, was lost at sea, with his vessel, when the son was about six years of age. Thus totally bereft of paternal care and affection at this tender age, he was consigned to the guardianship of strangers, who re- sided in Jefferson County, in the State of New York, where he remained dur- ing his boyhood, subject to aii the hard- ships which characterized pioneer iife, and the stili greater hardships incident to the absence of natural care and sympathy. During these years he travelled on foot three miles to a country school, receiving but little in- struction. Failing into severe hands, before he was sixteen years of age, without money, patrons, or friends, he sought a better fortune. The chosen pathway was rugged and cheerless; but the spirit which gave force to his efforts was undaunted. His immedi- ate object at this time was education; and for many years he continued the struggle, alternateiy chopping cord- wood, working in the harvest-field, or at any other manual labor, in the mean time attending school, and fi- naliy teaching. The resuit was a good
1 Prepared by Col. W. B. Slaughter of
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academic education, and a certificate ! character of the man. In every re- of adinission to the third term of the sophomore year at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. But it was not des- tined for him to reap the full benefit of this enterprise. On the very day that the class of which he was a mem- ber left for Schenectady, to complete their collegiate course, he went into the sngar-bush, and with his own hands, and a team to haul the wood and sap, made eleven hundred pounds of sugar, and two barrels of molases, with which to pay tuition and board-bilis already contracted. We next find him engaged in conducting a seleet school, and then an academy.
" In 1840 he moved to Elyria, Lorain County, O., where he joined a class of forty-five young men preparing for teaching. About this time the school authorities at Laporte, in that State, were offering an extra price for any teacher who would assume the charge of their public school, - a school which had become a terror to all candidates for the place, because of the reputa- tion of the pupils for disorder and violence. The previous winter, no less than three excellent teachers had undertaken the task of teaching there, and failed; so that the school was entirely broken up. It was an oppor- tunity young Taylor coveted. During the third winter, under his manage- ment, it became the premium school of the county. We next find him running a grist-mill, saw-mill, and cupola-furnace, and regarded as the best moulder in the factory. Failing in health from over-work, he devoted his spare time to reading medieine, and, In the winter of 1845-46, attended a five-months' course of lectures and clinleal instruction in the Medical College at Cleveland, O. During his residence in Ohio, he was elected a captain (receiving every vote in the company), and then a colonel, in the Ohio militia.
" During the fall of 1848 he came to Wisconsin, and settled on the farm at Cottage Grove, in Dane County, where he now resides. His life for many years was one of great activity and unceasing toil. Not content with the ordinary labor of the farm, he resorted to the pincries in the winter months, and became identified with the hard- ships of that enterprising elass of our population who have contributed so much to the wealth of the State. The result of the severe experience we have narrated is manifest in the whole
spect the architect of his own for- tunes, he is necessarily self-reliant, independent, energetie, practical. hon- est in purpose, and kind in heart, methodical, and thoroughly system- atie in business. During his boyhood and early manhood, a pupil, teacher, miller, founderyman, raftsman, and himberman, by turns, and for twenty years a practical farmer, his sympathy for self-dependent laboring-meu, and his Interest in the prosperity of the industrial classes, are intuitive and sineere. Full six feet in height, with every musele of his frame educated to Its natural power, he is in person the embodiment of physical energy and strength, and a noble representative of the royal class of pioneer workingmen to which he belongs. In manner, as in mental disposition (though consti- tutionally diffident and reserved), he is pialn, dignified, and sineere. Hy- pocrisy, affectation, and deceit, in ail their phases, whether social, financial, or political, are to him extremely obnoxious. Honest and unaffected himself, he cannot tolerate others devoid of these qualities. His hard experience in life has taught him to be mistrustful of others, yet he is naturally confiding in those he deems worthy of his confidence and respect. Though practical and economical in the expenditure of money, he is lib- eral to the poor and the unfortimate. No one in distress ever appealed to him in vain.
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