USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 100
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Professor Rankin was married to Miss Mary Nickell, of Waukesha, July 9, 1867, and by her has had three children, two of whom are now living.
COLONEL CHARLES D. ROBINSON,
GREEN BAY.
P ROMINENT among the leading men of Wis- | was for one or two terms clerk of the court. With consin is he whose name heads this sketch. these exceptions he has held no official positions, and although he is an active politician, prefers to stand with the " rank and file " of his party. A native of Marcellus, New York, he was born on the 22d of October, 1822. While yet a child he re- moved with his parents to Brockport, New York, and At the opening of the rebellion in 1861 he ten- dered his services to Governor Randall in any ca- pacity in which he might be useful, and was at once assigned to the staff of Brigadier-General Rufus King, who was then organizing the Ist Wisconsin Brigade. With General King he participated in the movements of the army of the Potomac during 1861 and 1862, and having a natural aptitude for engineering operations was assigned to build several military bridges, one of which was the bridge across the Rappahannock, at Fredericksburg, over which marched the first northern army that occupied that city. In the latter part of 1862 his health became so impaired that he was obliged to return north, and obtaining a leave of absence reached his home in a very precarious condition. Finding that his complete recovery was doubtful he resigned his commission. Near the close of the war he was ten- dered by the governor the colonelcy of the 50th Wisconsin Regiment, then organizing at Madison, but hostilities having practically ceased by the sur- render of General Lee, he declined the honor. was soon afterward left an orphan by the death of his father. Prior to his twelfth year he received such school privileges as his circumstances would permit, and from that time until after he attained his majority earned his living by clerking in a store and working at the printer's trade. He had been employed in a printing-office at Buffalo, New York, prior to 1846, but during that year settled at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in connection with his brother established the "Green Bay. Advocate," a paper which has been published continuously under the same firm-name and in the same politics (demo- cratic) for more than twenty-eight years. In 1850 Mr. Robinson was elected to the Wisconsin legis- lature, and in the following year he was elected sec- retary of state for a term of two years, ending December 31, 1853, receiving his election by a ma- jority of twelve thousand. He was afterward can- didate for governor, but was defeated by a majority of eight thousand. He has also been mayor of his city two terms, and during his early residence there
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His restoration to health came very slowly, and it was several years before he could again engage in active business. In 1868, with his wife, he erossed the ocean, visiting England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and Holland, the journey occupying one year and completely restoring his health. During his travels he wrote a profuse series of letters to his papers at home, which, for vivid descriptive qualities and pleasant treatment of topics pertaining to those countries, have been widely admired.
Although not brought up in the more abstruse branches of education, Colonel Robinson has, in the course of his editorial and practical career, made his way through the most accessible fields of modern culture, and is noted for his interest in edu- cational and charitable institutions of the times. He has had a place on the board of visitors to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and at different times to the Wisconsin State University at Madison. He has lectured before various college
societies in Wisconsin, and since the establishment of the two Wisconsin State hospitals for the insane has been on the board of management of one or the other of them.
As an editorial writer he is eminently successful. His paper has been marked with a broad and genial treatment of the topics of the times. Although a democrat in principle, he does not always adhere to the closely-drawn party lines, but exercises a gener- ous liberality. However hot a political campaign may have been, no man's personal character has ever been assailed by his paper. This doubtless accounts for the long and prosperous career of that sheet, together with the fact that its principle has been to preserve in its columns that courteous and unexceptionable language, self-respect and gentle- manly conduct which are required in the home and parlor.
Mr. Robinson was first married in 1847, to Miss Sarah A. Wilcox, who died in 1852; in 1854 he married Abbie C. Ballou, of Rhode Island.
RICHARD L. GOVE,
WAUKESHA.
T' `HE present popular president of the village of Waukesha belongs to that class of citizens who believe that in building up and beautifying their town they benefit themselves. Hence such men are public-spirited and full of enterprise, and constantly planning to make attractive their village or city, as the case may be, that visitors and per- manent settlers may be drawn thither. Waukesha has a score of such men - men who had foresight to see that this village must become a summer re- sort for pleasure-seekers as well as health-seekers; that with its natural advantages and a little wise expenditure of money it could be made one of the most popular resorts in the State. They therefore set themselves to work and made it such. Of the younger of this class of men none is more deserving of mention than Richard L. Gove.
He is a native of Vermont, a son of Elijah Gove, a farmer, and Emeline E. Wright, and was born at Ludlow, June 18, 1833. Both his paternal and ma- ternal great-grandfathers were participants in the long struggle for independence. In 1843 Elijah Gove immigrated to Wisconsin Territory, and settled on a farm at Waukesha, Richard, now ten years
old, and having an independent, self-reliant spirit, with his father's consent resolved to take care of himself. With this in view he became a clerk in a store, with a salary of twenty-five dollars and board for the first year, with the privilege of attending school a certain amount of time. His salary was raised from year to year, and he acted as clerk for several years, attending school four or five months in a year- always a tuition school - and defraying the expenses of the same out of his own funds. Prairieville Academy, now Carroll College, was then in its incipiency, and he attended that institution a few terms.
Early in 1852 he spent a short time as clerk in Peoria, Illinois, and going thence to Detroit, Michi- gan, graduated from Gregory's Commercial College ; and at the close of that year went to Port Washing- ton, Wisconsin, and started the "Ozaukee County Advertiser," a paper which is still published. This he edited and published about eight years, and at the same time acted as postmaster, having received his appointment from President Pierce before he was twenty-one years old. He was holding that office in July, 1861, when, with a lieutenant's com-
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mission, he recruited men for the Ist Wisconsin Cavalry, joined the regiment at Ripon, and was made adjutant of the same. He went to the front as a "war democrat," and probably no man who fought the rebels despised more heartily their at- tempts to destroy the Union. He was mustered out with the regiment at the expiration of his term of service; but before this time, in 1862, he re- turned to Wisconsin, and with a little aid from ser- geants recruited nearly three hundred men in about ten weeks to fill up its decimated numbers. It is doubtful if any more efficient recruiting was done in the State during that memorable year.
On leaving the service in 1864, Mr. Gove re- turned to his first Wisconsin home, and there made a permanent settlement. Opening a boot and shoe and general furnishing store, he has since continued to conduct it with good success. He has also dealt considerably in real estate, in which he has had still greater success. Everything he touches seems to turn to money. He put up the beautiful Gove block, built of stone, in 1871, and has built and owned some twenty dwelling-houses during the last few years, half a dozen of which he owns and rents. He has an elegant residence on Wisconsin street, with most of the attractive surroundings which taste can suggest and skill execute.
Mr. Gove was elected president of the village in 1865, 1867 and 1877, and now holds that position, making a very active and efficient executive. He is thoroughly identified with all local improvements, and no one rejoices more than he in the growing population, wealth and beauty of the home of his adoption.
Mr. Gove belongs to the fraternity of Odd-Fel-
lows, and has passed all the chairs. He is a mem- ber of the Baptist church, and a liberal supporter of religious, benevolent and educational enterprises.
On May 1, 1859, he was married to Miss Jennie A. Stone, a niece of H. O. Stone, of Chicago. They have five children : Ione, born October 17, 1860; Richard L., December 22, 1865 ; Jennie May, April 26, 1868; Fra Belle, March 13, 1870, and Jay, March 23, 1877.
Both the parents of Mr. Gove are living in Wau- kesha, his father being in his seventy-seventh year, and his mother in her sixty-seventh. He has two brothers and two sisters; the brothers, Londus E. and Jesse M., being engaged in business in Mil- waukee; Frances, the elder sister, is the wife of Hon. E. S. Turner, of Ozaukee county, Wisconsin, and Ione is the wife of Col. Daniels, now of Wash- ington, District of Columbia, and formerly State geologist of Wisconsin ; the younger sister is an authoress, an elegant performer on musical instru- ments, and one of the most noted singers at the na- tional capital.
Mr. Gove has a light complexion, bordering on the florid, and bluish-gray eyes; is five feet and nine inches tall, and weighs one hundred and sev- enty-five pounds. He has a young appearance, and, though born in 1833, would be taken for a man un- der forty years of age. His manners are cordial; his disposition social and lively, and he has the well- merited reputation of being a first-class entertainer. On public occasions, such as a Fourth-of-July cele- bration, or any gathering requiring superior mar- shalship, the headwork and general engineering usually devolves on him, and he is equal to any emergency.
JAMES HUTCHINSON, MINERAL POINT.
T HE subject of this sketch, a native of Newton Stewart, Tyrone county, Ireland, was born on the Ist of March, 1819, the son of Christopher Hutchinson and Sarah née Hill.
James received a common-school education, and after closing his studies worked on his father's farm until he attained his majority.
Leaving his native country about 1840, he emi- grated to the United States and settled at Mineral Point, in Iowa county, Wisconsin, and engaged in
mining for six years. Upon the discovery of the Lake Superior copper mines in 1846, he removed thither, and was there engaged in mining for one year, and while thus employed lost his right arm and right eye by an accidental discharge of a blast from a copper mine at Lac La Belle. As soon as he had recovered sufficiently he returned to Mineral Point and began to learn to write with his left hand. The town having just been incorporated, he, in 1847, was elected clerk of the corporation, and held
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that office for one year. In the autumn of the fol- lowing year he was elected clerk of the city court on an independent ticket, and held that office dur- ing eight successive years. Close confinement, how- ever, seriously impaired his health, and in 1857, with a view to regaining his strength, he removed to a farm of five hundred acres, which he owned, five miles from the village. Renting his farm in 1862, he engaged in the grain and stock trade; not liking this business, he abandoned it at the end of two years, and in 1864 turned his attention to the lumber trade, which he has continued with good success up to the present time (1877).
In 1869 Mr. Hutchinson was elected mayor of the city, and again elected in the spring of 1875.
In political sentiment he was formerly a whig, but since the organization of the republican party he
has been identified with that body, though he is not a politician.
His religious training was under Episcopal influ- ences, his parents being members of that church. Upon settling at Mineral Point he found no Episco- pal church in the place, and his religious views hav- ing materially changed, he, in 1843, united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and has continued a zealous and consistent member. He has held vari- ous offices in the church, and lends hearty sympathy and cooperation to every benevolent and worthy enterprise.
Mr. Hutchinson was married on the 17th of No- vember, 1849, to Miss Phillippa J. Cox, of Mineral Point, a daughter of James and Phillippa Cox, of Cornwall, England. They have had eleven children, of whom eight are now living.
SATTERLEE WARDEN,
DARLINGTON.
T `HE Wardens were among the very early set- tlers in New England, the original family com- ing to this country in the second or third vessel after the Mayflower. A generation or two later, members of the family found their way into the State of New York. The father of our subject, Allen Warden, was living in Sempronius, Cayuga county, when the son was born, November 12, 1812. The War- dens, though not a very numerous family, are found in most of the States of the Union. Some of them spell the name Worden. Commodore Worden is a descendant of the same ancestor as the subject of this sketch. The mother of Satterlee was Sally Satterlee, and her father was a major in the conti- mental army. Allen Warden, a miller and general contractor, moved to Auburn at an early day, and there the son attended a common school, finishing his education at a high school in Geneseo, Living- ston county. In 1834, having previously had some experience in the business, commenced milling for himself in Auburn. In 1840 he went to Clarksville, Tennessee, and built the first flouring-mill having a smut machine in the State, and manufactured choice merchant flour, and converted wheat into something more than a bartering cereal. He remained there until 1853, and then sold out and spent a year or more in traveling, and in 1856 settled in Darlington, Wisconsin. Here he commenced operations by
purchasing J. M. Keep's flouring-mill, which he operated for six years; then built a larger one ten miles below on the Pecatonica, which he still owns.
Meantime Mr. Warden has had other enterprises on his hands, the most important one being in Kan- sas. In 1874 he went to Irving, Marshall county, on the Big Blue river, and succeeded in building a dam at that point, an undertaking which skillful engineers had regarded as impracticable. A com- pany from western New York had preceded Mr. Warden, taking a civil engineer with them, and after making a careful examination, abandoned the idea of securing water-power at that point. The dam which Mr. Warden built marked an epoch in the history of Irving which is now regarded as the hand- somest town in the State.
Up to a recent date Mr. Warden has lived a very busy life, and has succeeded in his several under- takings. His home in Darlington is very pleasant, --- a large brick house, standing near the center of an entire square, with primeval forest trees, transplant- ed evergreens and other sylvan adornments sur- rounding it.
In politics Mr. Warden was originally a whig, and of late years has acted with the republicans. While residing in Tennessee, in 1853, he disposed of his property there and returned to the North, because he saw that a civil war was approaching, predicting
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at that early date, eight years before it came, that it was inevitable. While a resident of New York, in 1837, he was appointed by Governor Marcy brig- adier-general of the seventh brigade of infantry, and served about three years.
On July 19, 1832, he was married to Miss Harriet Randall, of Cortland, New York, daughter of Gen- eral Roswell Randall, and a sister of Hon. Henry S. Randall, formerly secretary of state of New York. They have had ten children, five of whom are now living. A promising son, Randall, a member of the Wisconsin State University, was drowned in the Pecatonica river while bathing, August 21, 1876.
The only son living, James S., is an attorney and banker at Irving, Kansas. One daughter, Elizabeth W., graduated at New Haven, Connecticut ; another, Harriet, at Ann Arbor, Michigan ; and the other two, Caroline Merriweather and Sally, have not finished their education.
Mr. Warden has a dark complexion, gray eyes, and a good head of snow-white hair; is six feet and two inches tall, weighs two hundred and sixty-four pounds, and stands as erect as in early manhood. He has a very robust appearance, a symmetrical form, and strangers would single him out as a man of mark.
EUGENE F. WARREN,
ALBANY.
E UGENE F. WARREN, a native of Fort Cov- ington, New York, was born June 30, 1833, the son of Lemuel Warren, a native of Mount Pulus, Vermont, and Betsey R. née Richardson, a native of Washington county, New York. The father had been quite wealthy, but through speculations and ill health lost his fortune, and when Eugene was five years old, with his wife and family, consisting of five sons and three daughters, he removed to the west with a view to bettering his condition. Landing at Milwaukee on the 5th of July, 1838, he went thence with ox teams to Janesville, which at that time com- prised about five houses, and there, with the aid of his wife and three eldest sons, and daughter, who taught a small school, managed to eke out a living. Soon afterward he moved on to a farm in the town of Union, now the town of Center, twelve miles from Janesville ; and here our subject began farming, his first work being to drive a yoke of oxen. When he was thirteen years old his father died, and his three eldest brothers, William, Zebina and John, having begun work for themselves, and his three sisters, Maria, Louisa and Elizabeth, having all died within six months, he, his mother and brother Lemuel were left alone upon the farm.
His opportunities for gaining an education were limited ; he attended school during three months each winter, and also received instruction from his mother, who had formerly been a teacher, and to her our subject feels himself indebted for his early education. At the age of twenty-one he removed to Albany, and with a capital of five hundred dollars,
with his brothers Lemuel H. and John H., engaged in the mercantile trade, the partnership continuing for sixteen years. At the end of that time he pur- chased the interest of his brothers and continued the business in his own name for five years. In August, 1861, while in business with his brothers, feeling that one of them should go into the army, and that he was best fitted by reason of previous military experience, he enlisted in Company E, 13th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was soon promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, and continued in the service until 1864. In 1862 he was in the army of Kansas. In the following year he was sent to the army of the Tennessee, and was at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, and while here was detailed judge advocate of a general court mar- tial. During the three months that the court was in session fifty-two cases were tried, and five men received the death sentence. Through his military career Mr. Warren maintained an untarnished char- acter, and made a record of which he may justly be proud. One week after he had returned to his home he received from the secretary of war an ap- pointment as captain in Major-General Hancock's corps, but his brother John having accepted an ap- pointment as United States revenue collector, and his brother Lemuel being in very poor health, he was obliged to decline the appointment and give his attention to his business interests.
In 1869 Mr. Warren erected a large flouring mill on the site of a mill built by his brother Zebina. (This brother had died years before and his mill
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had been carried away by high water.) The invest- ment proved a good one, since the mill produced annually thousands of barrels of flour and thousands of tons of feed. Since the close of the war Mr. Warren has been engaged in a limited manner with his brothers in the mail and stage business, con- ducting from eight to fifteen routes in 1871. Since that time the business has been increased, and at present (1877) they are operating two hundred and twenty routes, employing hundreds of men and horses. In 1874 he sold his interest in his store, having been in business for more than twenty-one years.
The success which has crowned the work of our subject is due to those habits of perseverance, in- dustry and frugality which were early taught him at the hands of his parents, and which have marked
his whole life. His mother lived with him until 1871, when she died at the age of seventy-seven years.
Mr. Warren was married at Oregon, Wisconsin, on the 9th September, 1855, to Miss Sarah S. Gleason, who has cheerfully shared with him all the vicissi- tudes of his life. Mrs. Warren's parents moved to Wisconsin from Owego, New York, when she was a child. Her father died soon after their arrival, leaving her mother in delicate health with seven children to support.
In 1863 Mrs. Warren accompanied her husband through the hardships and privations of his camp- life. They have had five children, namely, Mary, Nellie, William, Grace and Charles. William died in 1867 at the age of three years; the others are liv- ing at home.
JEHIEL SMITH, M.D.,
WAUKESHA.
EHIEL SMITH, who for thirty years has been a J practicing physician in Waukesha, Wisconsin, is a son of Stephen Smith, a millwright, and Sally née Hadley, and was born in Bath, New Hampshire, August 25, 1803. His mother was a native of the town of Hadley, Massachusetts, and some of her near relatives were participants in the war for inde- pendence. Jehiel spent most of his time in school until seventeen years of age; then went to Boston, Massachusetts, and commenced "carving out his own fortune." He there' studied medicine with Elias Smith, a brother of Dr. J. V. C. Smith, and editor of one of the first medical periodicals pub- lished in this country. He attended medical lec- tures at Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hanover, New Hampshire, and Woodstock, Vermont, though not during consecutive years. Being obliged to defray his own expenses, he progressed slowly, and prac- ticed in the intervals between attending lectures. Dr. Smith followed his profession in various New England towns until 1847, when he settled in Wau- kesha, which has since been his home. He has had an experience of forty-five years in the healing art. A few years ago he went to Cincinnati, and attended a course of lectures in the Ohio Medical College ; at the same time, not feeling fully satisfied with the exclusive practice of the allopathic system, he attended a course in the Cincinnati Eclectic Med-
ical College, and received his last diploma from that institution.
In 1872 Dr. Smith started what is known as the " Lethean Mineral Spring," located at his own door, in the center of the village. The water has been carefully analyzed, and is shown to have excellent medicinal qualities. One gallon of it contains 19.263 grains of soluble salts, as follows : Chloride of sodi- um, o.695 grains ; sulphate of sodium, 0.881 grains ; bicarbonate of soda, 1.286 grains; bicarbonate of lime, 9.498 grains; bicarbonate of magnesia, 5.922 grains; bicarbonate of iron, 0.097 grains; alumina, 0.101 grains; silica, 0.783 grains. The Lethean Spring water is sent to all parts of the United States and the Dominion of Canada, and works as a won- derful remedial agent in curing diseases of the liver, kidneys, bladder, throat and lungs. It is the large percentage of carbonated alkalies and alkaline earths, with a weak chalybeate, that gives this water its great therapeutic value.
Dr. Smith has been a member of the Presbyterian church since he was fifteen years of age, and bears an irreproachable character.
He is now living with his fourth wife. His first was Martha H. Sargent, of Boston, Massachusetts; his second, Mary M. Walbridge, of Brookfield, Ver- mont; and the third, Laura Potter, of Lisbon, Wis- consin. His present wife was Julia L. Willard, of
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Williamsport, Pennsylvania; she is a well educated woman, a good writer, and a valuable assistant to her husband in his profession. Dr. Smith had five children by his first wife, and two by the second, but one of whom, a daughter, is now living; she is
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