USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Rock County, Wisconsin; a new history of its cities, villages, towns, citizens and varied interests, from the earliest times, up to date, Vol. II > Part 26
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Mr. S. D. Locke, of Janesville, invented a wire binder for harvesters.
C. B. Withington, of Janesville, in the later seventies invented a wire knot for binding grain with a harvester. In some way the McCormick Reaper Company, of Chicago, prevented his commer- cial use of the invention, and soon after the Appleby twine binder superseded all wire binders.
In this record we have given only a few of the more important inventions of Rock county men. A fuller investigation than we have been able to make would doubtless extend the record with yet more honor to our county.
XXXIV.
BIOGRAPHIICAL.
Henry Partridge Strong, M. D., was a lineal descendant of Elder John Strong, of the First Church of Northampton, Mass .; ordained there in 1630.
Henry was born at Brownington, Orleans county, Vermont, February 8, 1832, son of Elijah Gridley and Sarah Ashley (Part- ridge) Strong. After studying at the Academy in his native town, under Rev. A. L. Twilight, he elerked in a drug store in Montpelier. Vt., and studied medicine under Drs. Loomis and C. M. Rublee. From Castleton Medical college, Vermont, he graduated with honors in 1853. His parents having already, in 1851, removed to Beloit, Wis., the young doctor followed them, and in that year, 1853, began the practice of medicine and sur- gery at Beloit. He became the leading physician here in his time, was an outspoken opponent of all quackery and sham in any forms and always maintained a high standard of professional honor and practice.
In 1861 he enlisted in the army and was appointed surgeon of the Eleventh Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. In April, 1863, he was made surgeon in chief of the Fourteenth Division of the Thirteenth Army Corps. After the surrender of Vicksburg, his health being impaired, he reluctantly resigned his eommission in August, 1863, and returned to his praetiee in Beloit, Wis. For several years he was secretary of the State Board of Health of Wisconsin, and of the Wisconsin State Med- ical Society, of which he was elected president in June, 1870. He was a member of the American Medical Association and of the Committee on Publie Hygiene, censor of the Wisconsin Med- ical Society and correspondent of the Boston Medical and Sur- gical Journal and of the Buffalo Medical Journal.
In polities he was a staunch "Protective tariff" Republican, and in 1872 was made chairman of the Republican committee of
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
this congressional district. He was elected mayor of Beloit five times-1864, 1865, 1866, 1868, 1869. In 1870 he was appointed postmaster of Beloit and held that office until his death. He was one of the incorporators of the Beloit Savings Bank, he served the city as alderman and city clerk; he was a member of the First Congregational church of Beloit, and belonged to the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows lodge. He was also a member of the G. A. R., and as a Mason was connected with the Morning Star Lodge No. 10, Beloit Chapter No. 9, and Beloit Commandery No. 6.
On September 8, 1857, he married Sarah Maria, daughter of Rev. Dexter Clary, of Beloit. Their children were Caroline Stowe, Dexter Clary, Miranda Williams, Harry Clary, William Partridge, Russell James Clary, Dexter and Robert Gridley. (Russell J. C. Strong, M. D., of Beloit, is the only survivor.)
For many years prior to his death, Dr. Strong owned and directed an extensive stock farm of horses of Kentucky thorough- bred trotting blood. Dr. Strong was a man of positive character, sometimes brusque in manner, but always kindhearted and ready to help those in need. On June 20, 1883, he died, mourned by the whole city, and was buried here. On account of his interest in our public schools as a director for many years, that one near the city park is named for him, the Strong school. Dr. Clinton Helm, of Rockford, Ill., wrote of him February 25, 1908: "He was an independent thinker of great natural ability and mental force. He had much to draw his mind away from the close study required to master the present science of medicine and surgery, yet stood high in both."
James Woodward Strong. Born in Brownington Vt., Septem- ber 29, 1833, came with his parents to Beloit, Wis., in 1851. As a little child, he was so frail that his mother hardly expected to raise him; when fourteen years old he worked in a printing office for his board and a $7 overcoat as pay for one year's labor. By his next two years' service in a Burlington book store, he earned, besides his board, $125, and during that time, began studying Latin. Later he was helped by an academy teacher, Nathaniel G. Clark, who became a secretary of the American board. When seventeen years old, James, tall and slender, taught a mountain district school of notoriously rough boys and succeeded only by the force of his superior character. After the family moved to
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Beloit, and opened the old Beloit house as a temperance hotel, James attended the preparatory department of the newly started Beloit college.
January 12, 1852, he taught in the new brick building, Union school No. 1, in the city park, associated with Miss Emeline Fisher and Mrs. Carey; in the fall of 1853 he taught a district school in Newark until he was taken sick, and during the win- ter and in the spring of 1854 taught on the west side in the stone building, now No. 631 Bluff street, where B. C. Rogers was a later teacher. During that time he learned telegraphy, and in 1853 had charge of the Beloit office. In the summer of 1853, having narrowly escaped drowning in Rock river just below the dam, he took a journey for his health to central Minnesota, the yet unrevealed scene of his future life work. Entering the fresh- man class of the Beloit college in 1854, James W. Strong, not- withstanding many absences caused by sickness and outside work, graduated in 1858 at the head of his class. While at col- lege, James was home chore boy, prep. tutor, college monitor, telegraph operator, town clerk (as such taking the town and vil- lage census in 1855), member of two quartettes, church chorister, secretary of the Choral Union, of the Library and State Teachers' Association, and in 1856 was our first city superintendent of schools.
While conducting the railroad telegraph office at Beloit, he introduced to that work his younger brother, William B., after- wards the famous railroad general.
A term of service as telegrapher at the Madison office in 1858, and at the same time as legislative reporter for Milwaukee papers, was followed by another health trip to Minnesota with his class- mate, John H. Rogers. The next three years were spent as a theological student at Union seminary, New York. His eyes having given ont, a classmate, Eugene H. Avery, read the lecture notes to him for two years. September 3, 1861, Mr. Strong mar- ried, at Beloit, Wis., Mary Davenport (daughter of Elder Aaron Davenport, of the First Presbyterian church) ; her eyes and de- votion enabled him to graduate honorably from the seminary in 1862 (and have been important factors in all his successful life since).
Mr. Strong's superior voice had brought him a regular income in connection with various New York city churches, and he also
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
earned his way by teaching in families and private schools. After being ordained as a Congregational minister in 1862, he preached two years at Brodhead, Wis., and then in January, 1865, was called to the Congregational church at Faribault, Minn. In October, 1870, he was elected first president of the unnamed college begun at Northfield, Minn., five years before. On arriving there, one prominent citizen welcomed him with the remark : "We are glad to have respectable people come here to live, but the college has gone into the ground and it can never be resurrected."
President Strong, in December, 1870, secured from a Mr. Carleton, of Charlestown, Mass., and a Miss Willis, $1,500 and a new piano for the school. Going thence to see a Mr. Stone, at Hartford, Conn., he took a carriage ride with him, and they were run over by an express train, Mr. Stone being killed out- right. Mr. Strong was reported dead yet, by force of a good constitution, recovered, only to feel the effects of his severe in- juries for the rest of his life. That miraculous escape, however, led Mr. Carleton to conclude that the Lord had some great work for this young man to do, and that he, Carleton, should not lose the chance to share in it. He, therefore, sent the school $50,000 in cash, and it was named after him, "Carleton College."
In 1878 Mr. Strong visited Europe, traveling with the poet, Robert Browning, and saw Europe again in 1892.
The work of Mr. James W. Strong, during the thirty-three years of his presidency of Carleton college, is widely known. Within twenty-five years, he secured for that institution not only $700,000, but also a host of friends. His last great effort was to meet the offer of $50,000 by Dr. D. K. Pearson, of Chicago, con- ditioned on the securing of $100,000 more before January 1, 1901. Working to the utmost limit of his strength and to the last day of grace, President Strong met the condition, secured for the col- lege $150,000 of additional endowment and then asked release. December 4, 1902, the trustees voted him a well-deserved an- nuity as president emeritus, and released him with the poet's kind wish, "Late may you return to heaven."
Rev. Dr. Strong was president of the Congregational Home Missionary Society of Minnesota from its beginning in 1872 until his resignation in 1895, and has been a corporate member since 1871 of the American Board of Foreign Missions. He has also
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BIOGRAPHICAL
been a member of almost every National Council of his church since 1865, and is, perhaps, the only person now living, who was an active member of that mother of all subsequent Congrega- tional councils, the Boston council of 1865, which adopted at Plymouth the famous "Burial Hill Confession of Faith."
Dr. and Mrs. Strong now spend the winters with his younger brother William in California, but Dr. James also meets frequent engagements for preaching and lecturing. Of their three sons, the elder, William B. is head of the Milwaukee Drug Company (Wisconsin) ; the younger, Edward, is a successful tenor singer and teacher of voice culture in New York city, and Arthur is a gardener in Los Angeles, Cal.
Charles A. Gault was born April 3, 1847, in Manchester, Boone county, Illinois. His father, John Gault, came to Beloit from New Hampshire in 1844 and made brick on what is now known as the Slaymaker farm, about two miles east of the city. He married Harriet Ball, March 18, 1846, went to California in 1852, and died there in 1857.
Harriet Ball, the mother of C. A. Gault, was born in Hamp- shire, Long Parish, England, May 21, 1826. Her parents, Thomas and Miriam Ball, brought her to America in 1836, sailing from Portsmouth, England, April 6 and reaching Quebec, Canada, after a voyage of seven weeks and three days. Miss Ball came to Beloit in 1841 and lived at first in the family of A. B. Howe, South Mill street. She attended the school taught by Leonard Humphrey, 534 Public avenue, and took a prominent part in his first school exhibition, given March 16, 1843. Besides her son, Charles, she had a son, George B., born in 1849; died October, 1861. She enjoys a hale old age at her residence in this city with her son.
Charles A. Gault was educated at the district school, mainly, and occupied with farm life, being especially interested in horses. As a skilled player on the flute Mr. Gault was connected with early Beloit orchestras, played often in church choirs and still keeps his ability in that direction. Of late years he has been and still remains the trusted agent of General William B. Strong and manager of the general's large property interests in Beloit. Genial Charley Gault being one of the most popular men of our city and a good temperance man and Republican, his elec- tion to some public office was inevitable, and so he was chosen
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the mayor of Beloit and filled that office most acceptably for the term, 1904-1906. Mr. Gault is a prominent helper at Gridley chapel and is guilty of generosity in many other ways not so public. The only fault to be found with him is that he is not numerous enough.
John E. Houston. No history of Rock county would be com- plete without a mention of Mr. John E. Houston, who is one of the oldest residents of the city of Beloit.
He is descended from Rev. John Houston, who was born in Londonderry, N. H., in 1723, graduated from Princeton college, New Jersey, in 1753, ordained to the ministry September 28, 1757, and pastor of the church at Bedford, N. H., from 1756 to 1778. This John married Anna Peebles and they had three sons and two daughters. Although the father was a loyalist his oldest son, Samuel, served in the Revolutionary war.
There was a John Houston, an elder in the church at Bed- ford in 1803. Among the names of subscribers to build a meet- ing house in Bedford, April 19, 1831, is that of John P. Houston, apparently his son, who was captain of the Bedford grenadiers in 1832. In 1829 he had built a bridge and made that his business. In 1837 this Captain John P. Houston came to Beloit and was followed the next year by his wife and their infant son, then one year old, the John E. Houston of this sketch. The father, John P. Houston, framed the Goodhue flouring mill, built on the race just west of the Caleb Blodgett saw mill. That grist mill was afterwards bought and carried on by John's brother George as the Houston mill. That was "the old red mill" and stood directly across the street south from the old Russell residence, now 317 South Bridge street. J. P. Houston also helped frame our first wagon bridge, a trestle structure placed where the cen- tral bridge now stands; he framed the first bridge over Turtle creek and also the railroad bridge (Northwestern) over Rock river, completed December 22, 1854, and in both cases was pub- licly commended for the thoroughness of his work.
After completing his studies at the Beloit academy John E. Houston successfully taught a district school, east of Beloit, for several winters. Engaging first in the business of bridge building, he later was occupied with his brother in :the milling business. Finally in 1873 he established himself in the furniture and undertaking business in Beloit, which was continued until
JOHN M. WHITEHEAD.
799.
BIOGRAPHICAL
1898, when he closed out the furniture department and has since confined himself to his specialty as the city's oldest undertaker.
Since the year 1881 he has been an elder in the First Presby- terian church of Beloit, continuously reelected and still in active service.
On January 2, 1861, John E. Houston married Miss Mary F. Burr, an estimable young lady of Concord, Ohio, who is still at his side as a faithful life companion. Of their two children (daughters), one, Mrs. Hill, has supplied him with three charm- ing gradchildren.
Like other successful business men Mr. Houston has a hobby. In his case it is a large farm, three miles east of Beloit, where a comfortable country home offers a change from his city resi- dence. There he keeps fine stock in which he takes pride and this farm hobby not only gives him enjoyment, but also keeps him young and active.
Clinton Babbitt, who for fifty-four years was an influential citizen of Beloit, Wis., was a native of Westmoreland, N. H. He was born November 16, 1831, to Nathan G. and Eunice (Brew- ster) Babbitt, the former a lawyer by profession and an asso- ciate judge with the eminent jurist and legal authority, Joel Parker. Our subject's paternal grandfather was a physician and served as such in the Revolutionary War. His mother was a direct descendant of the noted Elder Brewster.
Our subject acquired his education in his native state, at- tending school at Keene, and on attaining his majority in 1852, removed to Beloit, where he made his home during his life time. From the first, he took an interest in all that related to the development and welfare of his adopted home, and with an abiding faith in its future, loyally and enthusiastically supported every movement tending to its betterment and growth. For a score of years Mr. Babbitt traveled on the road in the interest of business houses, but during thirty years lived on what became widely known as "Hemdoka Stock Farm," which he owned until about a year prior to his decease.
Mr. Babbitt was, throughout his life, a consistent Jeffersonian Democrat, and it was on the Democratie ticket that he was elected a member of the first common council of Beloit on its incorporation as a city. This first publie honor came as a sur- prise to him and his friends, who had little if any hope of elect-
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
ing their ticket. He next came prominently before the public as the Democratic nominee for congress in 1880, when General Hancock was the presidential nominee, but failed of an election. Ten years later, in 1890, he was again nominated for congress, and although his district was overwhelmingly Republiean, such was the effectiveness of his personal canvass of the district as "The Farmer's Candidate," that he was elected by a handsome majority. During his congressional term, he met Mr. William comradeship that drew them into most intimate fellowship and comradship that drew them into most intimate fellowship, and that the lapse of years never lessened. In congress he did good service and it was he who, when the matter of an appropriation for the World's Columbia Exposition was under discussion, sug- gested the compromise appropriation of $2,500,000, which was finally made. During President Cleveland's administration Mr. Babbitt served as postmaster at Beloit, with great eredit to him- self and eminent satisfaction to the city and community. As secretary of the State Agricultural Society, an office which he filled from 1885 till 1890, he rendered to the state most valuable service, having in charge the state fairs that were held in various parts of the commonwealth and with his headquarters at the state capital.
Mr. Babbitt was a man of pleasing personality, refined in his tastes, sympathetic, generous and open-hearted, and readily won and retained friends. His hospitalities were distributed with a lavish hand and he counted among his friends men high in the couneils and affairs of the state and nation; and all who eame within the range of his influence were attracted to him by the charm of his friendliness and the manliness of his character. He was domestic in his tastes and loved his home and family and here found his highest enjoyment.
(Allow me to add this anecdote : Mr. Babbitt and my father. though differing in politics, were always very good friends. While occupying one of our stores, many years ago, with a dry goods business, which for some reason did not succeed, Mr. Babbitt called one evening at our old home and said to my father : "I've got to fail. I have been advised to put away a small sum, pay what debts are owed in and around Beloit, then take the benefit of the bankruptcy aet and let my eastern creditors go unpaid. But somehow I don't like that plan. What would you advise?" Said
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BIOGRAPHICAL
father: "My advice would not be worth anything if you don't take it." Mr. B. replied, "I have so much confidence in your judgment that whatever you suggest I am inclined to do." Then father said, "Write to your eastern creditors telling them the situation, that on account of unavoidable business depression you cannot meet your obligations, but will turn in all your prop- erty and deal fairly by all your creditors, as far as your means will reach." "If I should do that," said Mr. Babbitt, "I would have nothing left." "Yes, you will," was the reply. "What would I have?" "Your credit." "Well," continued Mr. Bab- bitt, "that is the honest way. I like that, and will do it." Not many days after he reported results. "I wrote to my castern creditors exactly as we agreed and here is their reply : 'You are just the sort of man we don't want to have fail. Never mind our account. If you need new goods send to us and settle when times are better.' " Mr. Babbitt took them at their word and in due course worked his business out all right .- W. F. B.)
On June 10, 1857, he married Miss Sarah S. Johnson, of Salem, Mass., who, with five of the ten children born to them, survives. The surviving children are: Alice H., who is married to F. E. Lurton, and lives at Fergus Falls, Minn .; Arthur and Ralph, of Livingston, Mont., and Bertha and Edith, who live at home with their mother in Beloit.
The sudden death of Mr. Babbitt on the afternoon of March 11, 1907, came as a great surprise to his many friends in and about Beloit, and his demise was universally mourned as a pub- lie loss. His loss to the city, while keenly felt, is more poignant to his immediate family who, however, fine consolation in the thought that he left to them the rich heritage of an unsullied and honored name.
Julius M. Farnsworth, an active and prosperous man of affairs of Beloit, Wis., was born at Rockton, Ill., April 20, 1856, and is a son of James P. and Amelia (Clough) Farnsworth, na- tives of the states of Maine and New York, respectively. They were married in Michigan and thence in 1855 went to Rockton, Ill., and settled on a farm. In 1869 they moved to Newark town- ship, Roek county, Wis., but in 1872 retired from farming and took up their residence in Beloit, where the mother died in 1891 and the father in 1898. Our subject's grandfather, John, was born at Keene, New Hampshire, married Sally Patten, at Surrey,
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
Me., in 1809, moved from Maine (where James P., our subject's father, was born in 1810) to Eaton, province of Quebec, in 1812, thence to Michigan in 1834. They moved to Illinois, in the early fifties, and afterwards lived for a time in Wisconsin. He died at Oconomowoc, Wis., and she at Rockton, Ill., and their bodies are interred in the cemetery at St. Charles, Ill.
Julius M., acquired his primary education in the district schools of the neighborhood where he lived, and engaged in farming, until he was twenty-three years old; then after being employed in various occupations for six years, he removed to Chicago in 1885, where he spent seven years selling provisions, and in 1893 purchased a drug store, which he conducted for sev- eral years. Finding this suited to his tastes, and with a view to more thoroughly qualify himself for the work, Mr. Farnsworth took up a course of study at the Northwestern University School of Pharmacy, where he was graduated in February, 1896, and after being registered by examination before the Boards of Phar- macy in both Illinois and Wisconsin, in 1898 went to Beloit and purchased a site at No. 126 East Grand avenue, erected a two-story brick building, and opened a drug store, where he has since continued the practice of pharmacy with eminent success.
Mr. Farnsworth is also active in matters outside of his pro- fession, having been president of the Merchants & Bankers' Mu- tual Fire Insurance Company since its organization in 1901. During the year 1904 he served as president of the Wisconsin State Pharmaceutical Association, and at the present time- 1908-is president of the Rock County Druggist's Association. He is identified with the Knights of the Globe and the Order of Columbian Knights, and has been a member of the supreme lodge of the last named. In politics he is a Democrat, and in religious faith a Presbyterian, and for several years has served as clerk of the board of trustees, and as an elder and the clerk of session in the First Presbyterian church of Beloit, Wis. In the erection of their new and costly edifice, he has also been a prominent member of the building committee.
In 1879 Mr. Farnsworth married Miss Hortense Foster, of Beloit, who died in 1890, leaving one child, Elon, now seventeen years old. In 1892 he married Miss Eunice Babbitt, who died in 1901. In 1902 he married Mrs. Bessie Holden, a lady dis- tinguished for her domestic virtues and activities in church
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affairs, especially in the primary department of the Sunday school. They have one child, named Norma.
It is of historic interest to add a brief mention of our sub- ject's older brother, General Elon J. Farnsworth, the youngest general of the Civil War.
From a farm a few miles southwest of Beloit, in the year 1861, he enlisted in the Eighth Illinois cavalry as assistant quar- termaster, was soon elected a captain, and early in 1863 was made acting lieutenant colonel and chief quartermaster of the Fourth Army Corps under General Pleasanton. In May, 1863, he became an aide on that general's staff, and June 29, 1863, on the eve of the battle of Gettysburg, when one month less than twenty-six years old, he was commissioned brigadier general in Kilpatrick's division. On that famous field, July 3, 1863, after Pickett's charge had been repulsed, Farnsworth's brigade occu- pied a wooded hill to the left of Round Top immediately in front of the First Texas Regiment of infantry, which was posted be- hind a rail fence that had been made impassable for cavalry. Twice the Texans and their impregnable fence had been charged by the gallant First West Virginia Regiment, but in vain. Then General Kilpatrick ordered Farnsworth with his remnant brigade, about 200 troopers, to charge; that meant death for all of them, and Farnsworth, doubting whether he had heard the order aright, replied, "General, my men are too good to kill for nothing." Kilpatrick hotly retorted, "If you are afraid, I will lead them myself." The young general replied, "Take that back; I ask no other man to lead my men." Kilpatrick nobly apologized and the two had a short talk. Then General Farns- worth, at the head of his 200 troopers, charged through the Con- federate skirmish line and into the very jaws of death, as brave- ly as did England's ever famous 600. After penetrating the enemy's line and getting nearly out again with ten men left, he leaped his horse over a stone wall, and while charging the Fif- teenth Alabama with sabre raised, fell from the saddle pierced with five mortal wounds.
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