USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 29
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 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105
163
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
and on his farm may be found some of the best blooded cattle in the country. His sympathies are humane and generous; the churches, the colleges, the public institutions, as well as the poor of the city, bear grateful testimony to his kindness and generosity.
Mr. Durand has a well developed physical organi- zation, indicating activity and endurance. He has a large brain, without idiosyncrasies, which would have distinguished him in any profession to which he would have directed its energies. His mind is far-reaching, all-embracing, and while it delights in the investigation of elementary principles, the details are never so minute as to escape its observations. His self-knowledge, acquired by long and patient study, has given him accurate knowledge of others. His calm judgment, unclouded by passion and un- warped by prejudice, enables him to perceive the truth, which is the source of all true greatness, as well as of happiness. To have given full occupation to his large brain, his profession should have been that of a statesman whose business it is to make laws for the government of men, success in which is the most difficult thing in the universe, for man him- self is the universe in miniature. Circumstances turned Mr. Durand's mind in a different direction, and no one subject being found sufficient to occupy all of his thoughts and energies, they have been directed in a variety of channels, and happy results have followed. His life thus far has been one of endless toil and beneficent influences, social, moral and religious. His example is calculated to inspire
the idle boy with the love of industry, and the strug- gling boy with the hope of distinction. Nature never intended that such powers as she gave to Mr. Durand should be wasted upon the desert air, but that upon whatever theater these powers may have been exerted, her purposes should not be dis- appointed.
Mr. Durand was married in 1838, to Caroline B. Cowles, of Meriden, Connecticut. Has three daugh- ters, all of whom are members of. Vassar College. His wife died, and he married the daughter of the late Dr. V. White, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She was educated at the Troy Seminary of the late Madame Emma Willard, and for some time a suc- cessful teacher in Brooklyn, New York. Nature endowed her with capabilities of a high order, and her mental faculties have been cultivated with great care. She is not only familiar with the philosophies as taught in the ancient classics, but has kept pace with the modern writers upon science, art, literature and taste. She has been a close student, is an accu- rate thinker, a skillful painter, an accomplished reader. With her mind thus stored with ancient and modern lore, with her cultivated taste and retentive memory, she is, as a conversationalist, brilliant, fas- cinating and instructive. Her domestic qualities are equally remarkable. She presides over her house- hold with womanly tact and grace ; is a loving wife, an affectionate stepmother, that "rara avis in terris;" a hospitable hostess and a genial companion. Her deep sense of Christian piety and her devotion to re- ligious duty are her crowning characteristics.
THOMPSON M. WARREN,
BARABOO.
T HOMPSON M. WARREN was born May 10, 1812, at Buckfield, Oxford county, Maine. His father's name was Andrew Warren, and his mother's Polly Alden. They were of the old New England stock. His mother was a descendant of the Miller family, who were active patriots during the revolutionary war. He was educated at the Clinton Institute in New York, his studies being con- fined to the English branches. His father being in humble circumstances, he started for New York city at the age of seventeen, where he arrived with one dollar and fifty cents in his pocket, with which he commenced the book trade. He remained there
about five years, then removed to the city of Albany, where he engaged in mercantile business and where he remained about the same length of time. He sold out there and removed to Herkimer, Herkimer county. He staid there about two years. In 1840 he went to Chicago, and from there to Dixon, Illi- nois, where he remained six months, then removed to Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Here he did a large and paying business in general merchandise, in com- pany with his brothers, Marcus and A. Warren, junior. He sold out there in 1845, and went to Sauk City. In the spring of 1846 he settled upon a farm in the town of Roxbury, Dane county, and
164
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
went into the business of buying and selling land and loaning money, which he still follows. Finding that his surroundings in Roxbury were not what he could wish, and as there were no educational advan- tages, he removed to Baraboo, where he now lives, in a large stone house, situated on a slight rise of ground just north of the town, and surrounded by large forest trees. He visited Chicago in 1872, and with his brother bought four hundred acres of land, seven miles south of the court-house, near Oak Park, and adjacent to the Pacific railroad, which he still possesses. He paid about four hundred thousand dollars for it.
He was raised a Baptist, but finding the doctrines too rigid, he became a Universalist, but has held Unitarian views since he came to Wisconsin.
He was a whig until the organization of the repub- lican party ; since then has been a republican.
He was married in October, 1855, to Katherine McKennan, of Herkimer county, New York. He has five children, three boys and two girls.
Mr. Warren has a large library of well selected books. Is a great admirer of Dr. Franklin, and has a work written by him in 1793, called the " Prompter," which he talks of having republished at his own expense.
HON. ARTHUR B. BRALEY,
MADISON.
A RTHUR B. BRALEY was born at Perry, Wyoming county, New York, on the rith of February, 1822. He was the only son of Rufus and Hepzee Braley. His father was born in the town of Adams, Massachusetts, and was among the early settlers of Weston, New York. His mother's maiden name was Foster, and her father, Daniel Foster, was a soldier in the revolutionary army, and was at the battle of Monmouth Church.
Arthur B. Braley had the misfortune to lose an excellent father when he was fifteen years of age. This great bereavement practically threw him upon his own resources. His education at that time was limited, with the exception of some two or three terms in what might be called a select or private school. His habits in early life were formed under the influence of a most excellent mother, and were consequently good. His mother was a member of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers. In the pure faith of that sect she lived and died ; her life exemplified its purity, and her death its power. After the death of his father he went to live with a wealthy relative The generosity of a friend supplied him with the means, and he occu- pied many a leisure hour in perusing the works of the immortal bard of Avon, whilst hidden from the eye of his watchful guardian. His stay, however, in the house of his relative was short, and once more he returned to his home, where, at least, his mind was free to read the plays of Shakspeare, the poems of Burns and Byron, the novels of Scott, or history, as he might choose.
In the spring of 1843 he ventured out into the world in search of fortune, and his first landing place was Erie, Pennsylvania, where he spent some weeks among friends; thence to Cleveland, Colum- bus, Cincinnati, and to the blue-grass region of Kentucky. In the fall of 1844 he returned once more to New York. In the ensuing spring he began the study of law, making use of borrowed books for that purpose. The next winter was spent in the beautiful Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, famous in history and in song. After teaching three months in this charming valley he returned to his native place, and in the spring of 1846 immigrated to Wis- consin ; settled first at Delavan, where he completed his legal studies, and in 1848 visited Madison, where he was admitted to the bar by the presiding judge. He came to Madison to reside in the fall of 1852. Upon the organization of the capital city in 1856, Mr. Braley was elected to the office of police justice, which place he held for three successive terms of two years each. In 1864 he was chosen alderman of the first ward, an office which he held for three years. At the opening of the presidential campaign of 1864 he took editorial charge of the Wisconsin " Daily Patriot," a position which he retained until after the election. As a political editor he took a high position in the ranks of the fraternity ; his articles were admired for their vigor and power. At the close of the presidential campaign he vacated the editorial chair and returned to the duties of his profession. In the spring of 1868 he was elected city attorney of Madison, and in the summer and
A.A. Braley
165
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
fall of the same year he became principal political editor of the Madison "Daily Democrat," which position he resigned at the close of the presidential election. In the spring of 1869 he removed to the village of Waukesha, Wisconsin, where he remained until the fall of 1870. While here he had the mis- fortune to lose his only remaining child, a bright and promising boy of six years. Saddened beyond expression by this terrible blow, he returned to Madison, where he still resides. In the spring of 1872 he was elected police justice without oppo- sition, and this court having been reorganized and converted into a municipal court for the city and county in the spring of 1874, he was chosen judge of this court without opposition by the electors of Dane county for the term of six years.
He was married on the 11th of February, 1855, at Madison, to Miss Philida Stevens. The fruits of this union have been three children, none of whom
survive. The first, a daughter, lived to be a year old; the second, a son, died at six; and the third only lived three months. These sad bereavements have cast a gloom over the lives of both father and mother which no earthly light can dispel.
In the midst of his professional and official duties he has found leisure to write a good deal for the press. His efforts in the editorial line have already been alluded to, but in addition to these labors his in- dustrious pen has been almost continuously em- ployed for twenty-five years in furnishing articles of either a political or literary character for various newspapers through the West. His criticisms upon Shakspeare have attracted especial attention. As a judge he is distinguished for the clearness of his views of the law, as well as for the strict impartiality of his decisions; as a citizen he is patriotic; as a politician, uncompromising in his principles; and as a man, sincere and devoted in his friendships.
HIRAM H. GILES,
MADISON.
H IRAM H. GILES was born in New Salem, Franklin county, Massachusetts, March 22, 1820. His parents were Hon. Samuel Giles and Hannah Foster Giles. He was reared on a farm. His father was in fair circumstances for a New England yeoman, and was at one time a member of the Massachusetts State senate.
Hiram was educated at New Salem Academy, and was preparing for college in 1837, when his health failed, and he was compelled to relinquish the purpose which he had in view. He then went to Chautauqua county, New York, where he joined a brother who was lecturing on electricity, traveling in Ohio and spending the winter in Kentucky and Tennessee.
He returned to Fredonia, New York, in the spring of 1839, and soon afterward began a more extended lecturing tour, traveling two years over parts of the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the pro- vince of Upper Canada. He was successful in his undertaking, and although but twenty years of age won for himself many laurels in the field of the lecturer. He became tired of travel, and entered Fredonia Academy with health restored. Confine- ment to study so affected him that he abandoned its
pursuit, and came to Wisconsin Territory in 1844, traveling on foot over much of the southern portion. He returned to New York State, and was married in the autumn of 1844 to Rebecca S. Watson. He again returned to Fredonia, and taught the village school during the winter.
In the spring of 1845 he removed to Harbor Creek, Pennsylvania, where he resided for two years; thence to Wisconsin Territory in 1847. He settled in Dunkirk, Dane county, and engaged in the occupation of a farmer. Shaken by the ague too much to have farming prove successful, he removed to Stoughton in 1853, where he was known for many years as an eminent and upright business man, advancing the improvements of that village in various ways, and taking an active part in the Uni- versalist Society and Sabbath school.
Two daughters and a loving wife have made his home a happy and peaceful one.
He was educated an Orthodox Unitarian of the style of that denomination from 1830 to 1840; but he relinquished all of the orthodox, and became a firm believer in the final restoration of all men to holiness and happiness. He has been prominently connected with the Universalists of Wisconsin for a number of years.
22
166
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
He was a democrat in boyhood, but cast his first vote for the whig candidate for President in 1840. He joined the republican party at its first organiza- tion, and has remained with it.
He was elected to the assembly from the south- east district of Dane county in 1852, carrying a strong democratic district upon the bank issue. He took a prominent and independent part in the per- fecting and passage of the first banking law, as shown by the reported debates in the papers of that session. He was the whig candidate for Dane county for the senate in 1853, and was defeated. He was again a candidate in 1855, and was elected ; then reelected in 1857. He was president of the senate in 1859. He took a prominent and influ- ential part in the legislature during his senatorial terms. He opposed the bestowing the land grant upon the old La Crosse company in 1856, and was one of the few who took no bonds.
He signed the total abstinence pledge when fifteen years of age, and has ever since been an earnest advocate of temperance at all times and in all places. He was for six years the head of the Independent Order of Good Templars in Wisconsin, and built up the order in its membership from six thousand to twenty-four thousand. He has full faith in the power of persuasion to reform men, and of conviction to redeem them. He does not believe in law as a reformatory measure. His public addresses and his writings have been philosophical and practical, seek-
ing at all times to convince the judgment rather than to excite passion.
He was assistant assessor of internal revenue under General Atwood for four years from Septem- ber, 1862. He was appointed by Governor Randall one of the trustees of the insane hospital at its first organization in 1860, and acted until appointed by -Governor Fairchild on the State Board of Charities and Reform in 1870.
He removed to Madison in the autumn of 1869.
He was reappointed on the State Board of Chari- ties and Reform by Governor Taylor, and in that sphere has greatly aided in the accomplishment of a noble work. He carries a record of diligence, per- severance and philanthropy that is worthy the com- mendation of the aged and the imitation of the youth of Wisconsin.
Mr. Giles has much more ability than is generally ascribed to him. He is self-reliant, self-taught and self-supporting. He has a large fund of knowledge, acquired by observation and experience. It is not theoretical, it is not metaphysical, but practical and philosophical. The writer of this sketch had the pleasure of listening to one of his lectures profess- edly on the subject of temperance; it was, however, an essay on the philosophy of physical, moral and intellectual life, the most interesting of all subjects to a rational mind. No intelligent person could have listened to it without instruction, no lover of morals without improvement.
REV. STEPHEN PEET, BELOIT.
A S an illustration of the truth that men's deeds live after them, no worthier can be found than that presented in the case of him whose name heads this sketch. Stephen Peet, a native of Sandgate, Vermont, was born on the 20th of February, 1797. During the following year his parents removed to Lee, Massachusetts, where he passed his boyhood and at the age of sixteen united with the church. Soon afterward he went with his family to Ohio, and there, by the death of his father, was at the age of seventeen thrown upon his own resources, and thus early in life developed that independence of charac- ter which so signally marked his subsequent career. Although dependent upon his own exertions for means he resolved to enter the ministry, and after
his primary education completed his preparatory course of study at Norfolk, Connecticut, under the tuition of Rev. Ralph Emerson, He entered Yale College in 1819, and graduated with honor in 1823. His theological studies were pursued partly under the direction of Mr. Emerson and partly at Prince- ton, New Haven and Auburn theological seminaries, and on the 22d of February, 1826, he was ordained pastor at Euclid, Ohio. During the seven years of his ministry in this place his work was greatly blessed, and one sermon especially is said to have been the means of numerous conversions, including five prominent lawyers. While here he became deeply interested in the sailors on the western waters, and the work so grew upon him that he
HikuPect.
167
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
resigned his pastorate and devoted himself exclu- sively to it. While engaged in the Bethel cause, between 1835 and 1837, he resided at Buffalo, New York, and in addition to his other duties edited the " Bethel Magazine and the Buffalo Spectator," a religious paper, afterward merged in the New York "Evangelist."
In October, 1837, he removed to Green Bay, Wis- consin, and became pastor of the only Presbyterian church then existing within the present limits of the State. Two years later he secured the erection of a house of worship at a cost of three thousand dollars, and heard the tones of the first church bell in the State, it being the gift of John Jacob Astor, and val- ued at five hundred dollars. In 1839 he made a tour through the Territory in the interests of the American Home Mission Society, seeking out its moral destitutions and wants preparatory to estab- lishing churches. In this tour he traveled five hun- dred and seventy-five miles; visited sixty-four fami- lies and thirty-one different places ; preached four- teen sermons; delivered one temperance address ; attended one funeral; organized one church; ad- ministered the communion three times and baptism twice; attended the meeting of the Presbytery and distributed many testaments, tracts and children's books. In 1839 he accepted a call to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church, in Milwaukee, and there labored faithfully till 1841, when he was ap- pointed general agent for the American Home Mis- sion Society for Wisconsin. The good resulting from his work in this capacity can never be estimated. Possessed of energy and decision, connected with business tact, zeal, indomitable perseverance and devoted piety, he was preëminently suited to the work, and prosecuted it with an ardor most credita- ble to himself and with a success which entitled him to be regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of the State. He aided in organizing a large proportion of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches, and was influential in forming the convention in which the churches of these two denominations were harmoniously united. In his repeated journeys across the prairies and through the forests he was often subjected to perils and self-denials, yet he was cheerful and happy in the work of preaching the gospel to the scattered sheep of Christ's flock, of comforting the lonely, rejoicing with the strong and helping the weak. Though the full results of his work can never be known here, enough have ap- peared to attest his eminent usefulness as a faithful
servant of God, destined to be crowned with honor in the great day of the Lord's appearing. Not only was his heart engaged in the work of spreading the gospel and establishing churches, but he was always deeply interested in institutions for Christian educa- tion. He was an early supporter of Western Reserve College, and furnished from his church one of the three members of its first graduating class, who is now (1876) a minister of the gospel. More fitly than any one else he may be called the father of Beloit College. Resigning his agency for the American Home Mission Society after some eight years' ser- vice, he labored nearly three years as financial agent for the college, and was successful in securing a large portion of its early endowments. The first subscrip- tion of one thousand dollars, from Rev. Henry Bar- ber, came through his agency, and was followed by seven thousand dollars from the citizens of Beloit, ten thousand dollars from Hon. T. W. Williams, a relative of his family, and ten thousand dollars from the self-denying missionaries of the Northwest. On the foundation thus laid in faith and prayer and self-denial has been built up and made a blessing to both church and state.
In 1850, from overwork, he was prostrated by an illness that seemed his last. His physicians de- spaired of his recovery and he had even given direc- tions for his funeral. At his request he was left alone, and prayed till he became impressed with the conviction that he should recover. Calling his phy- sicians, he said, "Gentlemen, I have all confidence in your judgment, but I am assured that the Lord has yet four or five years' work for me to do," and to the surprise of all he at once began to mend. His next field of labor was at Batavia, Illinois, where he preached for nearly three years to the Congrega- tional church, and during that time initiated and carried to success a plan for an academical institu- tion as a tributary to Beloit College. The crowning effort of his life was yet to be undertaken. He had long cherished a desire to establish a theological seminary, through whose graduates he should con- tinue to preach the gospel after his death. With his characteristic energy he entered upon the work. Within one year the plan of the Chicago Theological Seminary had been matured, the board of trustees appointed, the charter secured, and subscriptions raised to the amount of fifty thousand dollars. But he was not permitted to see the accomplishment of his purpose. Returning March 14, 1855, from the East, where he had been laboring in the interests of
168
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
the institution, he called a meeting of the directors for the 27th, to organize, elect professors, and trans- act any necessary business. On the following day he was attacked with chills and fever, which resulted in inflammation of the lungs, of which he died at three o'clock on Wednesday morning, the 21st. His work was done, and peacefully and gently he entered into his rest. His funeral, which occurred on Friday, the 23d, was conducted by the Rev. J. C. Holbrook, who preached from John xvii, 4 : "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." His body
found its last resting place in the cemetery at Beloit, within sight of the college he had loved and labored for.
Thus ended the life of a true man. He is gone, but his work still lives. The train of those who perpetuate his work is still moving on; the churches which he planted in the wilderness, the sermons which he preached, the schools established, the acts of charity and deeds of love, all live to commemorate his name, and their influence will be ever expanding with the lapse of time.
MOSES M. STRONG,
MINERAL POINT.
M OSES M. STRONG is of Puritan stock. His paternal ancestor, Elder John Strong, immigrated to America in 1629, and settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts .- He died at the age of ninety-four years, at Northampton. The father of Mr. Strong was educated as a lawyer, and became distinguished at the bar. In 1825 he was called to the bench, whence he retired to private life.
Moses McCure Strong was born at Rutland, Ver- mont, May 20, 1810. He derived his earliest edu- cational instruction from his mother. He was five years at the village school, thence went to the grammar school at Castleton, Vermont. In 1825 he entered the freshman class of Middlebury College, Vermont. Three years after, he joined the senior class of Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1829. Having graduated, he entered the law office of Rodney C. Royce, and at the expiration of one year he entered the law school at Litchfield, Con- necticut, where he remained one year, when, after a thorough examination in open court by the judges and members of the bar, he was admitted to practice in all the courts of Connecticut. In 1836 he re- moved to Wisconsin.
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.