USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Beloit > Past made present : the first fifty years of the First Presbyterian Church and congregation of Beloit, Wisconsin together with a history of Presbyterianism in our state up to the year 1900 > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
In 1872 they saw their youngest son, Henry, ordained at Beloit, Wis., as another missionary to China. During that year Chaplain Porter was sta- tioned at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, and about 1875 at Fort Russell, Wyo- ming Territory. Unable to bear the malarial southern climate or the expo- sure of the northern post, Mrs. Porter spent most of two winters at the house of a cousin, Judge E. S. Williams, in Chicago, and in the always open home of another cousin, Prof. Wm. Porter, at Beloit. In April, 1879, all the fam- ily gathered here for Henry's marriage to a daughter of President A. L. Chapin, of Beloit College, after which the missionary children returned to China, and Mr. and Mrs. Porter to Fort Russell. But illness obliged the latter couple to leave soon for the more genial climate of California, and then finally to live with their son Edwards at Detroit, Mich. Their winters they now usually spent at Austin, Texas, and there they worked among the colored people. In one of the suburbs called Masontown stands a visible memorial of their love for that race, a little building, dedicated in July 1855 as Porter Chapel.
June 15th of that year, at Winder Street, Detroit, they celebrated their Golden Wedding. Later Mrs. Porter went for her health to Santa Barbara, California, and there in the early New Year morning of 1888, entered into rest. The remains were received and cared for by the Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior at Chicago, and the interment January 17th, 1888, was at Rose Hill Cemetery.
176
Rev. Jeremiah Porter spent life's declining days here in Beloit, tenderly cared for by the missionary daughter. His very presence was a benediction and that pure white hair over such a lovely spirit was a crown of glory. He died here in his 90th year and was buried by his wife.
THE LAST PICTURE, TAKEN 1889. JEREMIAH PORTER, D.D., SON HENRY AND GRANDSON LUCIUS CHAPIN.
DANIEL TOLL CONDE.
Another Beloit name which may be mentioned here, is that of Daniel Toll Conde, D.D., H. R., ex-missionary and an honorably retired member of our Madison Presbytery. He was born at Charlton, near Saratoga, N. Y., Feb. 3d, 1807, and died at Beloit, Wis., March 8th, 1897.
Mr. Conde was the great-grandson of Adam Conde, a French Huguenot Calvinist, who fled in the latter part of the seventeenth century to Holland, came thence to America, and was High Constable of Albany, N. Y., in 1724. Mr. Conde's mother, Hester Toll, was from Holland, and like his father Al- bert, was a most devoted christian.
After graduating from Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., and Auburn Seminary, Daniel married in 1836, Andelusia Lee, was ordained by the Presbytery of Buffalo as a missionary of the American Board, and with three other ordained ministers and twenty-eight lay workers, sailed from Boston Dec. 14th, 1836, for the then heathen Sandwich Islands. On the four months' voyage half the vessel's crew, including two of the officers, . became converted.
In that year (1836) began the great revival on those islands which lasted continuously through 1838, and brought into their churches, during the two years of 1839-'41, 20,297 native christians. The three or four native church-
177
es on the island of Maui, where specially Mr. Conde lived and labored, be- tween 1836 and 1856, received 4,740 new members.
D. T. CONDE, D.D , H. R.
His wife having died on the is- land of Maui, Mar. 30th, 1855, in 1857 Mr. Conde brought hisfamily to the United States and made Be- loit, Wis., his place of residence in 1863. April 26th, 1864, he married for his second wife (who survives him), Mrs. Hannalı H. Williams, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Mr. Conde was of a singularly reticent disposition, and while he attended our church few persons were welcomed behind the bar- rier of reserve which his nature or habit had set up. The writer seems to have been one of those few, and remembers various ear- nest talks with him which re- vealed a most conscientious and devoted spirit. At his residence here on Park Avenue he quietly passed away in his ninety - first year.
STEPHEN R. RIGGS.
One other missionary who should be especially remembered by us was the pioneer indian missionary, our Beloit townsman of recent years, Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, D.D., LLD. His father, Stephen Riggs, was for many years an Elder in the Presby- terian church of Steubenville, O., where this son was born. His mother, Anna Baird, was a pupil of Mary Lyon.
As a child Steplien was taught the Shorter Catechism, and in his later years wrote, " All through my life this summary of christian doc- trine has been to me of incalculable advantage. If I were a boy again I* would learn the Shorter Cate- chism."
Although associated here in Be-
S. R. RIGGS, D.D., LL.D.
*Mary and I, 1880, p. 4.
178
loit with the Congregational church, of which his second wife is a devoted member, he was originally ordained a Presbyterian minister (by Chillicothe Presbytery in the fall of 1836), and during his thirty-three years missionary labor up to 1870, as well as later, was in connection with Presbytery.
At the first meeting of the Synod of Minnesota after the Reunion, in 1870, Rev. Stephen R. Riggs was elected their moderator. His life and la- bors however, rose high above any denominational bounds and have secured to his memory the lasting respect and affection of all who knew him.,
That life is well described in two books of his, " The Gospel Among the Dakotahs," published at Boston in 1869, and "Mary and I," written here at Beloit, and published by W. G. Holmes at Chicago, in 1880. His greater published works were a Dakotah grammar and dictionary of about fifteen thousand words, and as the crown of his life, a translation of the whole Bible into the Dakotah language. (Begun by Dr. T. S. Williamson, 1837.) For an account of this most fruitful missionary service the reader is referred to the books mentioned.
(It may be said however in passing, that when the division of mission fields between the Congregational and Presbyterian Boards was made, after the Reunion of 1870, Mr. Riggs preferred to remain connected with his old field and with the American Board. He came to Beloit in 1865, and his wife Mary died here March 22d, 1869. On his way back from attending the Gen- eral Assembly at Detroit in 1872, he married a former teacher of the Hazel- wood mission, Miss Anna Baker Ackley, who still remains with us. Doctor Riggs died at Beloit, and is buried here. The massive block of Sioux Falls Dakota sandstone which marks his grave bears this simple inscription, "Ste- phen Return Riggs, born Mar. 23, 1812 ; died Aug. 24, 1883. Missionary to the Dakotah Indians.")
The next illustration will help make present to our minds some of that past, one of his experiences of "perils by the heathen." It is half of a stereoscopic view, taken by one of that company who were then escaping for their lives.
In 1854 Mr. Riggs left his first field, Lac qui Parle in extreme western Minnesota, for a station further down the Minnesota river valley at Hazel- wood, about eighty miles north-west of the present city of Mankato. When the sudden uprising of pagan indians began with a massacre at Acton, Minn., on Sunday, August 17th, 1862, the news reached Hazelwood Monday evening. About an hour after midnight all at the mission, including women and chil- dren, a newly married couple, visitors, and a young eastern artist named Ebell, who happened also to be visiting them, fled to an island in the Min- nesota river. Tuesday afternoon they were joined by a Mr. Orr, who had been shot and stabbed that morning, yet had managed to escape and find them. By Tuesday night they had safely crossed Hawk Creek, eight miles down the valley, and all day Wednesday they pushed on eastward over the prairie towards Glencoe. Thursday morning, after an all-night's rain, found them all cold, wet through and entirely out of cooked food. That noon, (Aug. 21st), after wading several swamps, they came to a clump of trees, which afforded wood enough for a fire, and camped down on the wet prairie (pro- bably about ten miles north of Beaver Falls) for the rest of the day. One of the cows was killed and pieces of the meat were toasted on sticks held over the fire. Dough was made of flour, water and salt mixed in a bag.
179
This was moulded on a box into thin cakes, the size of a hand, and placed on forked sticks over the fire (as Martha Riggs, now Mrs. Morris soon after wrote), " to bake if possible and to be smoked most certainly."
During that Thursday afternoon the artist above mentioned, Adrian J. Ebell, of New Haven, Conn., took the picture here given. A few days be-
fore he had come up to the mission at Hazelwood for the purpose of taking stereoscopic views, and in the sudden flight had managed to bring away with him the essential part of his appara- tus. In this view Mrs. Riggs and her daughter Anna, now the wife of Horace E. Warner, (Special Examiner, Pension Bureau, Washington, D. C. ) THE RIGGS COMPANY FLEEING FROM INDIAN MASSACRE IN 1862. are seated in the middle foreground, with Thomas L. Riggs lying down just behind them. In the left background the head of Mr. Riggs is seen immediately below the figure of the girl who is standing before a wagon wheel. He is one of half a dozen seated together on the ground and in the act of eating.
The whole company were nearer to being massacred that day than they knew at the time. A large party of hostiles had already started on their track and were only turned off it by the influence of the prominent indian, Peter Big Fire, a special friend of Mr. Riggs.
When the party had resumed their wearying journey eastward on Sat- urday morning, four of the men left them to go to New Ulm, and in less than an hour afterward, as was learned later, were killed by the Sioux.
Sunday, August 24th, the company being in reasonable safety, separa- ted, and on Monday the 25th the Riggs family, with the bridal couple, Mr. and Mrs. D. Wilson Moore, and Mr. Ebell, reached Henderson on the Min- nesota river, about forty miles south-west of St. Paul.
This was the war time in a double sense, and brings me by natural se- quence to the next topic of this book.
180
Our War Record.
(INCLUDING ALL KNOWN TO THE WRITER, WHO SERVED IN EITHER WAR,
AND WERE IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE FIRST PRESBY-
TERIAN CHURCH OR CONGREGATION, BELOIT, WIS.)
I. IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
Our first pastor, Rev. Alfred Eddy, was appointed Chaplain of the 4th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, by Gov. Richard Yates, Oct. 31st, 1861, to rank as Captain of Cavalry from Sept. 16th, 1861. He served about two years until illness obliged him to resign.
Rev. A. Wesley Bill (see page 63) enlisted as a private in Co. C, 66th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Sept. 20th, 1861. He served as a private until Sept. 1st. 1864, and was then made regimental Hospital Steward. July 4th, 1865, he received commission as 1st Lieutenant and Assistant Surgeon. He was at Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth, served in the Atlanta campaign, Sher- man's march to the sea, and was honorably discharged July 13th, 1865.
Prof. J. J. Blaisdell was Chaplain of the 40th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry.
Prof. H. M. Whitney (see page 62) served some time in the Christian Commission, and then was in the United States army about one year, com- ing out of it as a Serjeant Major.
Elder W. H. Beach (see p.95) enlisted May 1861, in Co. B, 1st New York Cavalry, and became Lieutenant and Adjutant of the regiment. He was in the battles of Mechanicsville, White Oak Bridge, White Oak Swamp, Antie- tam, Winchester under Milroy, Piedmont, Lynchburg, Winchester under Crook, Morefield, Martinsbugh, Va., under Crook, Winchester and also Fish- er's Hill under Sheridan, Front Royal, Mount Jackson, and in some forty skirmishes in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. He was discharged at the close of the war, July 7th, 1865.
Our pioneer Elder, R. P. Crane, (see p. 29) enlisted to serve as an army carpenter when about fifty five years of age, ( he was born at Colebrook, N. H., April 7th, 1807) and was stationed at Nashville, Tenn.
Elder H. B. Johnson, M. D. (see p. 106) was Surgeon of the 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commissioned July, 1862, and resigned at Murfreesboro, Tenn., on surgeon's certificate of disability, March 1st, 1865.
Elder Edward W. Robinson was in Co. E, 10th New York Volunteers.
OTHER VOLUNTEERS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.
Adams, D. A. (son of Deacon Adamns) enlisted in Co. F, 16th Wisconsin Infantry, and became Quartermaster Sergeant on Gen. Logan's staff.
Adams, Rollin N. (see p. 68), was of Co. B, 22d Wisconsin Infantry.
Brown, Wm. F. (the writer), served in Co. B, 40th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry of 1864, among the Hundred Days men.
Clark, William, was a Captain in Co. B, 1st Wisconsin Infantry.
NOTE .- In the preceding article no special mention has been given of that noble Pres- byterian missionary to the Indians, Rev. L. H. Wheeler, or of his wife. For a full account of them, with excellent portraits, the reader is referred to Davidson's Unnamed Wiscon- sin, pp. 165-173 and 229-274.
181
182
BELOIT, WIS., IN WAR TIME. VIEW S .- W. DOWN ROCK RIVER FROM MIDDLE COLLEGE.
Cochran, Martin Luther (son of Elder Wm. Cochran, p. 90), enlisted early in the war in Capt. Alexander Gordon's company (K, 7th Wiscon- sin, Iron Brigade) Volunteer Infan- try. He was a corporalat the second Bull Run battle (Gaines Mills) un- der Pope, was shot and left on the field, and the body was never found.
Cochran, William Avery (son of Elder Cochran), Co. B, 40th Wiscon- sin Volunteer Infantry, the Hundred Days men of 1864. He has served one term in our State legislature, and has been for many years, as now, principal of the Institute for Deaf and Dumb at Delavan, Wis.
Cooper, Charles J., enlisted 1862, in Co. I, 22d Wisconsin, and was transferred from the company to be HospitalSteward underSurgeon Geo. MARTIN LUTHER COCHRAN. W. Bicknell, also from Beloit. At the battle of Brentwood Station, Tenn., near Nashville, in 1863, part of his 22d regiment was captured, and about twenty days later he and others at Franklin Station were captured and sent to Libby prison, Richmond, Va. After only two days experience of prison life he was exchanged and return- ing north was in a hospital at St. Louis sick, and soon discharged as unfit for active duty. He worked for Edward Burchard at Lake Forest, Ills., six months. Then in the fall of 1864 Mr. Cooper re-enlisted (in the 40th Mis- souri) and served with that regiment until the close of the war. He was in A. J. Smith's army corps, was at the capture of the Spanish fort at Mobile, and then came north to Montgomery, Ala. He is living at Moline, Ills., engaged with his younger brother, Herbert.
Cooper, Herbert W., Co. B, 40th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry (Hun- dred Days men 1864). In later years he married the daughter of Judge Mills of Beloit, and is now a manufacturer of saddlery hardware, Moline, Ills.
Gammon, E. M., was a musician of the 5th Regiment Maine Volunteer Infantry from June 24th, 1861, to August 9th, 1862. He re-enlisted in the 30th Maine Infantry, July 23d, 1863, and was mustered out Aug. 20, 1865.
Holliday, Moffat, served among the Hundred Days men, 40th Wis. Hunt, Henry, was in Co. I, 22d Wisconsin Infantry.
Leonard, Horace Josiah, connected formerly with our Presbyterian church, but now with the First Congregational, Beloit, was born in St. Johns- ville, N. Y., Nov. 7th, 1839. He enlisted in Co. L, 1st Iowa Cavalry, June 13th, 1861, and served until mustered out April 1st, 1866, having never been wounded or sent to the hospital, or even to the guard-house. His four years and nine and a half months was the longest term of army service given by any man from this city of Beloit. He was in the battles of Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge, Little Rock, Ark., Bayou Metoe and Jenkins Ferry, Ark., and Lexington, Missouri, and is said to have been under fire forty days in suc-
183
cession. In 1866 he began here with his father the manufacturing of gloves and mittens, a business which he still continues.
May, A. M. (see p. 68) was in Co. B, 40th Wis. Vol. Infantry, 1864.
Merrill, John (son of Elder David) 40th Wis. 1864, Hundred Days men.
Merrill, Stewart (also son of Elder David Merrill) served in the 12th Wisconsin Battery of Artillery, and through the war.
McAlpin, John Alexander, enlisted March 12th, 1862, and was placed in Philips Battery of Artillery (Mulligan's Brigade), which was sent to Harpers Ferry and captured by Stonewall Jackson. Paroled and returned to Chica- go, he joined another battery, which went on the Morgan raid. Later, being with the 9th Corps, Burnside's command, he was in the battles of Blue Springs, Bull's Gap, Knoxville and Rodgersville, at which last engagement his company in two hours lost their guns and thirty-seven men. Having escaped that danger he was placed with another battery, marched with Sher- man to the sea, and was honorably discharged at the close of the war, June 26th, 1865.
Oakley, Frank W., a nephew of our A. P. Waterman, after en- listing in April, 1861, for three months and serving that term, re- enlisted for three years. In July, 1861, with his friend David Shirrell he helped raise a company, recruit- ed mainly in Beloit, which, as Co. K, 7th Regiment Wisconsin Volun- unteer Infantry, became a part of the "Iron Brigade." Of this com- pany K, Alexander Gordon, cap- tain, Mr. Oakley was made 1st Lieu- tenant. Very early in the war, while standing up to encourage his men, brave captain Gordon was killed by a sharp-shooter. August 23d, 1862, Frank Oakley was wound- ed at Rappahannock Station, Va. losing his right arm. He was soon promoted to the rank of captain, CAPTAIN FRANK W. OAKLEY. and later was made Assistant Quartermaster. He was afterwards ordered to Paris, Kentucky, and had charge of that important Q. M. department. He received also the brevet title of Major, and served until the close of the war.
Just after enlistment, Sept. 17th, 1861, Mr. Oakley married Miss Cyn- thia Gordon of Beloit (see p. 121), a sister of Alexander. When the war closed and Major Oakley had returned to Beloit, he became a member of the First Presbyterian church. In 1866 Major Oakley was elected City Treas- urer of Beloit, and served also about two and a half years as our Postmaster. In 1870 he was appointed United States Marshal, and served sixteen years. When Cleveland was elected, Marshal Oakley was retired for four years, but served one year in place of the Marshal, who died. He was then appointed and served for four years more, making in all 21 years of service as United States Marshal. In 1897 Mr. Oakley was made Clerk of the United States
184
Court for Wisconsin, a life office, which he still holds. When his residence was transferred to Madison, Wis., he and his very efficient wife (see p. 103) became and still remain members of the Presby- terian church of that city, now called Christ Presbyterian. Maj. Oakley's face ( which would be a fortune for a confi- dence man ), is a true index of that ster- ling character which deserves the pub- lic and private confidence that he has through all these years both received and honored.
HON. F. W. OAKLEY.
Peck, Burritt W. (see p. 124) served in the 4th Wisconsin Battery, 1862, and until the close of the war, 1865.
Peck, Charles C. (see p. 124) was a Hundred Days man, 1864.
Richards, J. V., served with Co. E, 31st Volunteer Infantry, July 10th, 1862, to May 23d, 1865. He was a Sergeant and was wounded.
Ross, James E., enlisted at the age of twenty-five in Co. B, 22d Wiscon- sin Infantry, and was captured and saw the inside of Libby Prison in Febru- ary, 1863. Paroled and sent to Benton Barracks, St. Louis, he was after- wards exchanged and transferred to a company in Fighting Joe Hooker's 20th army corps. Having been wounded at Dallas, Georgia, he never returned to the regiment. When fully recovered he passed the examination for officers, was made 1st Lieutenant 123d U. S. colored infantry and served through the war until Sept. 30th, 1865.
Shirrell, David, a member of the First Presbyterian church of Beloit, Wis., was elected 2d Lieutenant of Co. K, 7th Wisconsin Volunteer In- fantry, and was sworn into the U. S. service by Capt. Gordon, Aug. 20th, 1861. The company left Beloit for camp at Madison, Wis., August 29th, 1861. The 7th Regiment was official- ly placed in service Sept. 2d, 1861, and was assigned to the famous Iron Brigade of the army of the Potomac. 2d Lieut. Shirrell was later made 1st Lieutenant of Co. E, 7th Wisconsin, participated in many battles, and continued in the service until regu- larly discharged, Sept. 29th, 1864. Returning to Beloit after the war closed, and having married Miss Hat- LIEUT. DAVID SHIRRELL. tie Jackson of this city, (who survives him), Lieut. Shirrell in 1865 took up his residence in Buffalo, N. Y. That was his home for twenty seven years of active business and christian work until, after a long illness, he died there Oct. 13th, 1892, in his 57th year, and was buried at " Forest Lawn."
185
Smith, Austin E., enlisted for the war in Co. B, 22d Wisconsin Volun- teer Infantry, Aug. 15th, 1862, and was mustered out in June 1865. Smith, Oliver, served in Co. I, of the same regiment.
Spencer, Alexander, seems also to have been in that 22d Regiment. He died in the service.
Watson, James T., who used to sing in our choir, heard during several years the sharper tones of shot and shell. Enlisting as a private early in the war he soon became a Lieutenant, and for bravery and efficiency was promoted to be Major. He lives at present in St. Louis. His long continued and recently severe illness has prevented the writer's receiving an expect- ed outline of his honorable military service, which continued through the war. (See pp. 98, 104, 105.)
Watson, Simeon, another son of Elder Aa- MAJOR JAMES T. WATSON. ron Watson, was in Co. B. 40th Wisconsin Vol- unteer Infantry, one of the Hundred Days men, and is now a store keeper in the new territory of Oklahoma.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE .- Alfred D. Eddy, Esq., only son of our first pastor (see In Memoriam page at the beginning of this book), served among the Hundred Days men of 1864, in an Illinois regiment.
In regard to another of those before mentioned, the G. A. R. Past Depart- ment Commander for Wisconsin, Col. J. A. Watrous, when visiting the East Division High School, Milwaukee, some seven or eight years ago, told the pupils the following story, which one of those who heard it has recently repeated to me :
During the battle at Winchester, Va., under Sheridan, Sept. 19th, 1864, Gen. Averill, commanding the cavalry, was very anxious to capture two of the enemy's guns, which were so placed as to do us much damage. He called for volunteers for that hazardous service and at once enough men offered themselves and a young lieutenant. At first the General said, "You can't do it, boys." He let them go, however, with orders to dismount, leave a few men to guard their horses, and work their way up as near to the guns as possible before charging. They did so and then that little band, led by the young lieutenant, dashed across an intervening field and won the covet- ed prize. A reinforcement of cavalry promptly following secured what they had gained and covered their return to their horses and to the cheers of their comrades. "And that young lieutenant," said Watrous, "was your instructor, Wm. H. Beach." (See p. 95.) The girls clapped their hands and the boys all shouted, Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Beach ! Speech ! But what his speech was, or whether he gave one, this pupil did not distinctly remember. If my remembrance is correct our Mr. Beach, though a capable speaker, was not much of a fighter-with his mouth.
186
The One hundred Days men of 1864.
I. GOING OUT.
( For the benefit of a younger generation this article, prepared from old letters and my diary of that time, is added as a sketch of the romance of war.) The late Spanish or Cuban war enlisted a few of our young men and awakened in our state some popular interest. But the young people of to day have not felt and indeed cannot fully know that burning ex- citement which overflowed all our hearts in 1864. Then the very exist- ence of this nation was in danger. There was a high war fever and even the children had it.
Between the years 1861 and 1864 many loyal volunteers had gone to the front from our town and from the college here at Beloit, while we younger boys had been kept at home and at our books until 1864.
Early in that year, however, came the call for several regiments to serve for one hundred days and mainly on garrison or picket duty. They would set free and send to the front just as many of Grant's veter- ans and thus would render good service. To this romance of war even the parents of an only son could not object. College authori- A HUNDRED DAYS MAN. Co. B, 4oth Wis. Vol Inf., 1864. ties approved. Our beloved Prof. Blaisdell enlisted as chaplain and a prominent citizen, Alfred L. Field, served as quartermaster of the 40th.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.