The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 64

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 899

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After leaving college, in 1841, Mr. Bushnell spent a few months in the Theological Semi- nary at Andover, Mass., and several years in connection with the Western Reserve College as instructor, or as financial agent. On the 27th of April, 1848, he first came to Beloit, and entered upon the work of his life. That work was to enter into the plans and aspirations of such men as Stephen Peet and Aratus Kent for a Christian college, as a center of good for this region and for all men and all time. He said, " We can have a college here if we will make one," and so he set himself to the work of making a college, devoting to it not only his scholastic but his practical abilities. He applied himself not only to instruction but to agency for the college. He loved to suggest liberal things to a liberal man, but it chilled his soul to meet a selfish man. He loved to give better than to beg, and would rather earn an endowment for the college than to ask it. As other men apply themselves to get private fortunes, so he had an ambition to acquire resources to use for the public good. Thus, in his life, as in his education, his fer- vent spirit was always diligent in business. But all his business plans were full of his public spirit. As he identified himself with the college, so he identified the college with the commu- nity. Whatever would build up Beloit as a thriving and Christian place, concerned the college

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and concerned him, whether it were a Sabbath school or a church or a bank, a railroad or hotel; and so the city is full of the monuments of his energy and self-sacrificing public spirit. It should be added that it is no less full of the memories of that helpfulness in which his kindness was continually doing for all that had need.

His public enthusiasm repeatedly led him into enterprises commended rather as needed for the public good than as promising individual gain, and the crises which swept over the business of the country fell upon him as upon others, and his sense of justice and duty sometimes com- pelled him to put himself in controversy with many men; but it is rare to find in such a life & man of such transparent truth that no man ever impeached his motives.

He was elected to the chair of mathematics in the college, May 23, 1848. His business affairs compelled his resignation in 1858. He was re-elected in 1864, and continued in the discharge of his duties until March 8, 1873, when an attack of pneumonia removed him to a higher sphere of light and life.

The city, as well as the college in which he spent the last twenty-five years of his life, and indeed all places that had known him, are the monument of an earnest, a vigorous, a true and a faithful life.

WILLIAM GOODELL,

one of the pioneers of the anti-slavery, temperance and kindred reforms, and, for half a century, a zealous and laborious promoter of them as a public speaker, writer and executive office-bearer of voluntary associations, was a son of Frederick and Rhoda Goodell, and was born in Coventry, Chenango Co., N. Y., October 25, 1792-probably the first white child born in that vicinity. He was descended on his father's side from Robert Goodell, who came from England in 1634, and settled in Salem, Mass. Of the same ancestry are A. C. Goodell, Clerk of the Court of Salem, Mass., a man of rare antiquarian learning ; the late William Goodell, D. D., missionary of the American Board. and one of the translators of the Scriptures at Constantinople; and Capt. Silas Goodell, of the Revolutionary war. His mother was Rhoda Guernsey, a daughter of John Guernsey, of Amenia, Dutchess Co., N. Y. She was one of fifteen children, who all lived to have families, so that the grandchildren of John and Azubah Guernsey numbered ninety-one. Of the brothers of Rhoda, was Peter B. Guernsey, one of the pioneer settlers of Norwich, Chenango Co., N. Y.

When the subject of this sketch was five years old, his parents removed to Windsor. Broome Co. (then Chenango, Tioga Co.), N. Y. In his early childhood, William suffered a severe sickness, which left him for some time lame, so that he was confined first to his bed, and afterward to his chair, and it was some years before he recovered the use of his limbs. This long confinement fostered habits of thought and study which doubtless contributed largely to mould his character and shape his future. Debarred from childish sports, his mind was occupied with the study of such themes as the limited library to which he had access suggested to him. His mother, a woman of rare qualities of mind and heart, was his almost constant companion, and made an impress on his character that future years could not efface. Religious thought and feel- ing were stimulated, and aspirations and hopes inspired, which found expression only in the life of earnest activity which followed. His principal reading at this time consisted of the Bible, " Watts' Psalms and Hymns," "Hart's Hymns," "Methodist Pocket Hyinn-book," "Pilgrim's Progress," " Writings of Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe," "Wesley's Sermons," " Fletcher's Appeal," and some odd volumes of the Spectator and Guardian. Religious services in those primitive days were a rare luxury, and families frequently trudged through the woods on foot, or rode with ox teams for miles to hear a Methodist circuit preacher in a log schoolhouse.

Rhoda Goodell died in 1803, at the early age of thirty-seven, leaving five sons, of whom William was the second. With the breaking-up of the little family of motherless boys, William was transferred to the old Guernsey homestead in Amenia, where he attended the common school, and assisted in light labor on the farm. A year later, he was sent to the Goodell home- stead in Pomfret, Conn., where his widowed grandmother and her sons and daughters were living. His father died in 1806. At Pomfret he remained five years, attending the common schools,

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and working on the farm in vacation. Two good public libraries afforded him reading during the long winter evenings, but perhaps his highest educational advantage was the society of bis grandmother, Hannah Goodell, a woman of unusual mental ability and rare culture. She had been educated at Boston, was a convert of Whitefield, and a hearer of Revs. Nehemiah Walter. of Roxbury, and Thomas Prince. of the " old South ;" of Byles, Davenport and Edwards. In matters of history and general literature, she was a living and speaking library, with an exhaust- less fund of original anecdotes, particularly of the Revolutionary times in which she lived. and with some of the prominent actors of which she had been personally acquainted. She had decided opinions on all theological, ethical and political topics, and, indeed, was one of the strong-minded women of her times.

Being unable to obtain a collegiate education, William, in 1812, went to Providence, R. I., where he entered mercantile life as a clerk, and, rising rapidly in his new employment, he received and accepted, a few years later, an offer from a prominent firm to sail as assistant super- cargo in one of their ships bound for India, China and European markets. He set sail January 1, 1817, and in the two years and a half of voyages and of business transactions in foreign countries, learned much of mercantile life in foreign lands. On returning, in 1819, he engaged in mercantile enterprises at Wilmington, N. C., at Providence, R. I., and at Alexandria, Va. ; sometimes by himself, and sometimes on a larger scale in partnership with a capitalist of abun- dant means. At the South, he had ample opportunity to study the workings of the slavery system.

He was married, in 1823, to Clarissa C. Cady, daughter of Deacon Josiah Cady, of Provi- dence, R. I.

He first commenced writing for the press in 1820, in the Providence Gazette, in a series of articles against the then pending Missouri Compromise, which attracted general attention. From that time onward, he wrote for various periodicals. as he felt constrained to do. on the living issues of the day-religious, moral and political. A residence in New York City two years, from 1825 to 1827, compelled him to witness the controlling prevalence of vice, lawless- ness, crime, and commercial and banking frauds, sustained by bribery and corrupt political " rings," as in latter times, until, under judicial authority, it was decided that "a conspiracy to defraud is no indictable offense." Lottery gambling (under legislative charters, to build bridges, erect meeting-houses, endow colleges, establish schools, etc.) was everywhere popular and unquestioned. Then it was that he discovered his heaven-appointed life-work to be an uncompromising warfare with such gigantic public evils.

He commenced to edit the weekly Investigator, at Providence, in 1827. Two years later, he removed to Boston, connecting his Investigator with the National Philanthropist. In June, 1830, he removed to New York, where he continued his paper under the name of the Genius of Temperance. Here, also, he afterward edited the Emancipator. At Utica and Whitesboro', N. Y .. he edited the Friend of Man, from 1836 to 1842. Here, also, he issued his monthly, Antislavery Lectures, for one year, and commenced his Christian Investigator. Continuing the latter publication, he removed, in 1843, to Honeoye, Ontario Co., N. Y., where he acted as Pastor of an Independent Reform Church for several years. In connection with these different periodicals, he spent much of his time traveling, lecturing and holding conventions-sometimes on his own responsibility, at other times in the employ of some organization.

Returning to New York in 1853, he successively edited the American Jubilee, Radical Abolitionist and the Principia, the latter of which was continued, in connection with Rev. George B. Cheever, D. D., during the war of the rebellion and until after the death of Lincoln. After the abolition of slavery, he resumed his temperance labors, writing for different journals, to the time of his death. After residing in Lebanon, Conn., five years, he removed to Janesville, Wis., in June, 1870.

Besides writing pamphlets, essays and tracts, in large numbers, he wrote several vol- umes. as the " Democracy of Christianity," in two volumes ; "Slavery and Anti-Slavery," a history of the struggle; " American Slave Code " and " Our National Charters," showing the illegality and unconstitutionality of slavery, and the power of the National Government over

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

it; besides several volumes on religious and ethical subjects, still in manuscript. IIe assisted in organizing the American Antislavery Society, at Philadelphia, in December, 1833; the Liberty Party, at Albany, N. Y., in 1840; the American Missionary Association, at Albany, in 1846 ; the National Prohibition Party, in Chicago, in 1869; and participated in the re-union of Abo- litionists at Chicago, in June, 1874; also, assisted in preparations for organizing & Wisconsin State Prohibition Party, at Ripon, in October, 1874. His mental faculties remained unimpaired until his death, which occurred February 15, 1878. His wife died in the following April.

Their children are Maria G., wife of Rev. L. P. Frost, and Lavinia Goodell, attorney & law, of Janesville. One daughter died in infancy. They have four grandsons, of whom th eldest is Professor of Greek in Oberlin College, Ohio.

What Mr. Goodell's views were on reformatory subjects are, perhaps, sufficiently indicated in this sketch. It may be well, however, to add that he was, like most of the surviving Aboli- tionists, in hearty sympathy with the " Woman Suffrage" movement. His religious views were those commonly known as Evangelical, and he was a member of the Congregational Church in Janesville.

LOUIS POWELL HARVEY

was born at East Haddam, Conn., July 22, 1820, and removed with his parents, in 1828, to Strongsville, Cuyahoga Co, Ohio. He entered Western Reserve College at Hudson, in 1837, and pursued his studies two years, when he left on account of ill-health. He then engaged at teaching. which he followed at Nicholsonville, Ky., and subsequently was a tutor it Woodward College, Cincinnati. After two years spent in the latter position, he came on Kenosha (then Southport), in this State, and there opened an academy in December, 1841. Two years after, he added to the calling of a teacher that of editor of the Southport American. During the administration of President Tyler, he held the office of Postmaster at that place. In 1847, he married Miss Cordelia Perrine, and removed to Clinton, Rock County, where he pur- chased the water-power, built a flouring-mill, and engaged in merchandise, continuing there four years. He then removed to Shopiere, where he made his residence during the remainder of his life, engaging actively in mercantile and other pursuits.

His first advent into public life was as a member of the Constitutional Convention, which framed the State Constitution in 1847, and, although one of the younger members, he took an active part in its deliberations, and assumed a leading position. In the fall of 1853, he was elected a State Senator of the Southern District of Rock County, the Eighteenth District of the State at that date, and continued in that position four years, having been re-elected in 1855, and the last term of which he was President pro tem. In 1859, he was elected Secretary of State, which office he held two years, and was a member of the Board of Regents of the State University, from 1860 to 1862, and was ever found a true friend to the cause of popular education. In 1861, he was elected Governor of the State by a large majority, entering on the duties of his position on the 6th day of January, 1862. On the receipt of the news of the battle of Shiloh, Gov. Harvey felt it to be his duty to repair at once to the scene of action, and to do what was in his power to alleviate the sufferings of the wounded Wisconsin soldiers. His mission was eminently successful. and, after having faithfully performed this duty, he repaired to a steamer in the harbor of Savannah, April 19, 1862, to await the arrival of another that was soon expected, and which was to convey him and his friends to Cairo on their homeward trip. It was late in the evening, and the night was dark and rainy. The boat soon arrived, and, as she rounded to, the bow touching the one on which he stood, he took a step, as it would seem to move out of danger, but, by a misstep, or, perhaps, a stumble, he fell overboard between the two boats into the Tennessee River, where the current was strong and the water over thirty feet deep. Everything was done to save his life, but to no purpose. His body was subsequently found and brought to Madison for interment. His remains are deposited in the Forest Hill Cemetery. Gov. Harvey was in the forty-third year of his age.

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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY.

JOHN M. KEEP.

The subject of this sketch, who was the second son of Gen. Martin Keep, was born at Homer, Cortland County, in the State of New York, on the 26th of January, 1813. His parents were both from New England, and among the first settlers of Cortland County. After obtaining the rudiments of education at the district school, he at an early age entered the Cort- land Academy at Homer, where he pursued the usual routine of academic studies, and prepared himself for college. He entered Hamilton College in 1832 and graduated in 1836, and was one of the first members of the Alpha Delta Phi Society in that institution. The same year, he commenced his legal studies with Augustus Donnelly, a distinguished counselor at law at Homer, N. Y., and completed them with Horatio Seymour, Esq., at Buffalo. He was duly admitted to the bar, and commenced practice at Westfield, N. Y., and, in the year 1845, he removed to Beloit, in the State of Wisconsin, then a mere settlement, where he continued to reside until his death. Here he engaged, not only in a large law practice, but also took a very active part in all the enterprises that promised to promote the growth of the place and enhance the welfare of society. In the purchase and sale of lands, in the erection of buildings, in the promotion of institutions of learning and the construction of railroads, he took an important part, and in many of these enterprises was the animating spirit.

His mind seemed to grasp every subject, and his enterprise embraced every occupation. Though a lawyer by profession, and otherwise engaged in a variety of pursuits, agriculture did not escape his attention, or want his fostering care, for he knew that upon it depended the wealth, independence and morality of his adopted State. Whatever was good or useful, what- ever tended to elevate human nature or ameliorate the condition of mankind, was sure to find in him cordial support and efficient aid. The value of his labors is to be estimated chiefly by the results flowing from his great and active mind-a mind rich in the possession of every moral and intellectual quality. In the young and growing State and city of which he was a resident, no man impressed his name on more enterprises of private munificence or public utility.

In the spring of 1856, he was elected without opposition Judge of the First Judicial Cir- cuit of the State of Wisconsin, but, at the end of two and a half years, he was compelled to resign this laborious office on account of the loss of health, and the pressure of his private bus- iness. It soon became evident that consumption had fastened itself upon him, and from this time, the wasting of his bodily powers went on gradually. although he retained to the last moment of his life the full vigor of his mind.

Upon the death of Judge Keep, meetings of the bar were held at Beloit, Janesville and also of the First Judicial Circuit, and appropriate resolutions passed and eulogies pronounced upon the life and services of the deceased. At the meeting of the bar of the Circuit, the Hon. H. S. Conger, the present Presiding Judge, on taking the chair, said : "Judge Keep, however regarded, was no ordinary man. As a citizen, he was generous, benevolent and public- spirited; of great firmness of character, untiring resolution and indomitable energy. He was bold, fearless and independent in thought and action; more resolute in the accomplishment of whatever he regarded his duty than solicitous to win praise or favor at any sacrifice of princi- ple, however small."

As a lawyer appreciating the responsibilities and duties of the profession, no man had a higher regard for its honor or reprobated more earnestly its prostitution to base purposes.

Elected Circuit Judge in 1856, and holding the office for two years, until impelled to resign on account of the pressure of his own private business, he carried to the discharge of the impor- tant duties of that office great ability, unwearied industry, and honesty and integrity never assailed. In the language of another who knew him well, " he dignified the bench, rather than received dignity from it."

The death of Judge Keep was a great loss, not only to the profession. but to the com- munity at large. Calm, courageous. hopeful and trustful, he died as he lived, confiding in a faith that had never forsaken him, resigned to that Providence in whom was his trust, in the

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full possession of all his mental faculties, vigorous even in death, and meeting the great change with the courage of a philosopher and the hope of the Christian. As much as there was in his life to emulate, there is in his death found instruction equally valuable.

In religion, Mr. Keep was a Congregationalist, having united with that denomination at the age of sixteen years, and, like it, he was liberal and tolerant respecting the tenets of other denominations. He would tolerate every class of sincere professors, and protect them in their ideas of divine worship. In all the relations of life and the connections which he formed with various classes of people, he preserved unblemished his Christian character. His charities more than kept pace with his ability, and his pecuniary aid and legal advice were ever at the service of the poor and unfortunate.

Perhaps no better perspective of his life and character can be given than is contained in the following extract from a letter of recent date, from the pen of Hon. S. J. Todd, of Beloit, a long and intimate friend of Judge Keep :

" As long as his health would permit, his life was a very busy one, and unlike most men of active habits and whose mental processes are rapid, he had the faculty of steady, untiring perseverance. When he began to do anything, he never relinquished it until he had completed it, or until it became impossible. This faculty I have usually found to exist only in slow men, which John M. Keep was not. When I first knew him, he had been a resident of Beloit for six years. During this time, he was engaged in the practice of the law, and in the purchase and sale of real estate; consequently a very large number of men in Rock County and the adjoining counties of Boone and Winnebago, Ill., were living upon lands which they held under contract of purchase from him, and very many of these men-I think a majority of them- were always in arrears in the payment of principal and interest. He never declared a contract forfeited, and never brought suit against one of these purchasers so long as they stayed upon the land and exhibited a willingness to pay ; but, on the other hand, whenever they had been unfortunate from the loss of crops, or sickness, they were sure of substantial sympathy, which did not consist wholly of kind words, and he had the rare faculty of being charitable without assuming the air of patronage. These charities were large and manifold, yet they were given with so little ostentation that no one, however proud or sensitive he might be, was ever embarrassed or humiliated by receiving aid at his hands; and. more than this, he never spoke of these things.

" And this reminds me of another peculiarity in his character. He was the most reticent, self-reliant, self-controlled and the bravest man I ever met, without a single element of fear or diffidence, and, at the same time, he was the most truly modest man I have ever known, never exhibiting vanity or egotism, and consequently no man ever heard him exalt or speak boastingly of himself, or what he had done or intended to do. In this regard, he came fully up to Cur- ran's description of Grattan, in his reply to Lord Erskine's question : 'What does Henry Grat- tan say of himself ?' 'My Lord,' says Curran, ' Henry Grattan never speaks of himself. You could not draw an opinion out of him on that subject with a six-horse team.' Further. as a rule, he never spoke of his enemies nor of his controversies with them. No matter what the gravity or magnitude of their charges or accusations might be, he was too indifferent to them, or too proud, to condescend to make any reply or explanation. The consequence was that he sometimes suffered in the public estimation, and his best friends were often embarrassed by the contemptuous silence with which he treated the ground of these accusations. It is hardly nec- essary to speak of him as a Judge, a position he filled with such eminent ability. As I remem- ber him, he nearly realized my ideal of a Circuit Judge. There, as elsewhere, he was composed. patient and impartial, always easy of approach by every one, quick in his perception of every case presented for his decision, and never too proud to reconsider his own decisions when he found that he was in the wrong."

He died with the same steady composure that characterized him through life, thoughtful and considerate of those about him, until his last moment of life, when he closed his eyes in death,

" Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreamns."

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That Mr. Keep had enemies, no one is asked to doubt. All public men must have them, and the greater the man the more bitter and powerful his enemies, as a rule. The collision of claims and the collision of interests, an ardent zeal on one side or the other of a question, polit- ical antagonisms-all conspire to create opposition, denunciation and ill-will. He was not one of those who feared to do anything, lest he might do something wrong. He acted from principle, and when fully persuaded of the correctness of his position, never wavered or faltered in his course. If difficulties increased, his energy and resolution increased with them. If the circle of his confidential friends was contracted, it was not because he discarded friendships when they ceased to be profitable, but because he was reticent and self-engaged. He was never very com- promising or conciliatory in his deportment. There was austerity as well as frankness in his manner, that sometimes made him bitter opponents, but he had the happy faculty of retaining through life a host of warm friends, whose ardent love was proof of his private worth-more honorable to his character than even the prominence of his great abilities

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The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., Part 64

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 899

Author: Wesern historical company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 899