USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 36
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ence, or pleads the cause of his client before a jury. His oratory is characterized by subtle discrimina- tion, by logical argument, and by forcible illustration. Notwithstanding the fact that he is always calm and collected when he rises to speak, he frequently be- comes impassioned in his utterances, speaking with great energy and rapidity, but without losing control of himself. In this as well as in many other respects his style of oratory bears a striking resemblance to that of the late Stephen A. Douglas. The power of an orator to command himself enables him to con- trol others. By its exercise he is enabled to lash the rowdy element of his audience into silence by a few pointed remarks, accompanied by an expressive look and gesture. General Smith's mind is also enriched with a vein of humor of which he some- times makes a very happy use in his public speeches. His perception of the ludicrous is quick and keen, and by a well-timed joke or repartee he excites the applause of an unwilling audience. In power of in- vective he has few equals ; it is a talent which, how- ever, he uses sparingly, and never unless strong provocation calls it forth. He has made many polit- ical speeches ; they embrace a large variety of topics,
and discuss all the issues which have agitated the public mind during the last twenty-five years. He may be deemed in the strict sense of the term a self- made man. He commenced his business life with a limited knowledge of elementary literature and science, and was dependent upon his individual ex- ertions for the means of subsistence. He had but little leisure for study or reflection, and yet he has been a close student and deep thinker. Self-reliance is the ground work upon which has been erected an intellectual temple of Gothic proportions, although not decorated with Corinthian capitals. He has a large library of well-selected books, and it has en- riched his mind with its treasures. It is the fruit of many years of discriminating purchases, and of large expense. As a conversationalist he is instructive and entertaining, and his social qualities endear him to a select circle of friends. Like other men gifted with extraordinary mental power, he has also strong passions, subject, however, to his stronger will. If the greatest conqueror is he who conquers himself, then he may aspire to that title.
" Not his the fortitude that mocks at pains, But his who feels them most and most sustains."
A. P. DICKEY,
RACINE.
N OTHING has added more to the renown of American industrial productions than the ingenuity displayed in the manufacture of articles of utility and labor-saving machines; and among these stand preeminently the fanning mills and separators now so universally used, and which effect with such precision the separating grain and seeds, and preparing them for market. One of the foremost manufacturers of these ingenious devices is A. P. Dickey, of Racine, Wisconsin. These machines were much needed. Mr. Dickey has devised an excellent machine, and hence his success; he has manufactured thousands, received prizes in all the principal exhibitions, and the sales are still increasing.
A. P. Dickey was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, March 24, 1818; is a son of John and Rhoda Dickey. His father was a merchant.
Young Dickey was educated at Geneseo, New York. He worked on a farm, and received a common school education, until he was sixteen
years of age, and then went to work in a fanning mill manufactory at Vienna, Ontario county, New York. He was one of seven brothers, who were all employed in the manufacture of fanning mills. He remained at Vienna two years, then moved to Sandusky, and after a year went to Pine Hill, Geneseo county, where he remained twelve years. He made many experiments, and the result of his labor and genius is the fanning mill, which is now known as the Dickey Fanning Mill, and has gained a world-wide reputation.
He was colonel of the 164th regiment, 6th brigade and 27th division of the National Guards of the State of New York, at Batavia. He held his commission under Governor W. H. Seward.
In 1846 he located at Racine, Wisconsin, where he has continued the same business up to the pres- ent time.
In 1840 he was married to Miss Sarah Babcock, by whom he had three children, all of whom are now married and residing at Racine. In 1854 his
A. Die Rig
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wife died. In 1855 he married Miss Lucy Ann Patterson : they have had two children -a daughter and a son.
The history of the fanning mills would be the history of Mr. Dickey, for these have been his life work, and he has accomplished much, and adapted his work to all the multifarious uses that can require the winnowing and separation of grain and seeds, whether on a small or large scale. The capacities of these mills are from forty to four hundred bushels an hour. The fans excel in the simplicity with which they separate the pure grain from every mixture, and the ease with which they deliver the several grades of wheat by themselves, as well as the rapidity of the work. His extensive business has called into practice facilities for transportation. His fan- ning mills are sold by all the dealers in the West ; he has filled orders from New York, Massachusetts,
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and even from Germany and Japan. To accommo- date this distant trade, they are made in such a manner as to be readily taken to pieces, and can be set up again in a few minutes by anyone competent to use them, so that the freight is reduced at least one half. No wonder that with such completeness and such facilities Mr. Dickey's trade has assumed large proportions. But Mr. Dickey's enterprise does not stop here, he has added a foundry business, also a machine shop. He manufactures steam engines and everything connected with farming implements ; his trade has become great and is still growing, and does honor to American genius and industry.
Mr. Dickey, in politics, has been a whig, but has voted with the republicans since that party has been organized. In religion, he belongs to the Congrega- tional denomination.
HON. ALEXANDER H. MAIN, MADISON.
A LEXANDER HAMILTON MAIN, a native of Plainfield, Otsego county, New York, was born on the 22d of June, 1824, the son of Alfred Main and Semantha Main née Stillman. His father, a native of Connecticut, removed to New York in his youth ; thence, in 1846, to Dane county, Wiscon- sin, where he still resides, and has been elected sheriff of his county. Mr. Main received his edu- cation in the common schools and academies of his native State, 'and at the age of nineteen years ac- cepted a clerkship in a store in Cuba, New York, and subsequently in Little Genesee, New York, where he continued as clerk until 1850, when he became a partner in the mercantile business, under the firm name of Main, Ennis and Co., in the same place, conducting the business with reasonable suc- cess until 1856, when he removed to his present home, Madison, Wisconsin, where, in partnership with his brother, W. S. Main, he resumed his merchandising, and continued it with varied success until 1860. In September of that year he became cashier of the Sun Prairie bank, in which capacity he served until he closed its business in the spring of 1863. In the autumn of 1862 he was appointed deputy assessor of internal revenue in the second district of Wisconsin, and about the same time established himself in the insurance business. From
that time until the present (1876), except during a period of six months of President Johnson's admin- istration, he has served as deputy assessor and deputy collector. In conducting his insurance he was alone until the spring of 1867, at which time he associated himself with Mr. John P. Williams, under the firm name and style of Williams and Main. In the fall of 1868 the firm name became Main and Spooner, Mr. P. L. Spooner, junior, becoming suc- cessor to Mr. Williams, who withdrew from the business. In February, 1874, Captain W. K. Barney purchased the interest of Mr. Spooner, and Messrs. Main and Barney continued the business until the death of Captain Barney in February, 1875, at which time Mr. Spooner resuming his interest, the old firm of Main and Spooner was reestablished. They now represent over twenty of the leading and most reli- able fire and life insurance companies in the United States and Great Britain, and do, probably, three- fourths of the fire insurance business for the city of Madison and surrounding country.
Politically Mr. Main is, and always has been since its organization, identified with the republican party, and in 1855, prior to his removal to the West, represented Allegany county in the New York legis- lature.
He is a thorough business man, possessing many
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· superior personal and social qualities, and in his varied career has maintained an upright character and spotless reputation.
Mr. Main has been twice married; first, in 1852,
to Miss Mary Cottrell, of Allegany county, New York, who died in February, 1862. He subse- quently wedded his present wife, Miss Emma Cot- trell, a sister of his former wife.
FREDERICK WILD,
RACINE.
F REDERICK WILD was born in Kinderhook, Columbia county, New York State, on the 22d of December, 1831. His parents were Nathan and Sarah Wild, who, as he grew up, placed him at Col- lege Hill, Poughkeepsie, where he went through a general course of ordinary English studies in a per- fectly satisfactory manner, as may be surmised from the fact of his graduating at the early age of eight- een. At this time his father, who was a cotton man- ufacturer at Kinderhook, placed Frederick Wild there for the purpose of learning the business in a thoroughly practical style. He accordingly spent about three years in the mill working under instruc- tions, when he was seized with an attack of the Western fever, an epidemic very prevalent at the time, and shifted his quarters in 1852 to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he worked in a general hardware store as clerk for about eighteen months, giving every satisfaction by the faithful performance of his duties in that capacity. He then came to Freeport, Illinois, where he got an engagement in the same business and remained there for the period of two years.
In 1856 he began his career as a railway man by being appointed to the position of general western freight solicitor by the agent of the New York and
Erie Railway Company, which post he filled for two years, and since that he has been engaged on several other railways in different positions, namely: On the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway, the Milwaukee and Lacrosse (now a branch of the Chicago, Mil- waukee and St. Paul), the Ohio and Mississippi, and also on the Western Union, where he first engaged in the year 1869 as general freight and ticket agent, which position he now occupies.
He attends the Episcopal church.
In politics he is a republican, and has been so ever since the organization of that party.
He was married on the ist of January, 1854, to Miss Eliza M. Ames, and has five children- three male and two female- who are all living at the present time.
Mr. Wild's geniality of temper, great social virtues and liberality have gathered for him a host of friends, not only in domestic and private life, but indeed wherever it has been his lot to meet persons in business. He has had great experience in rail- way matters, and it is well known that wherever he. has occupied a position his general good business qualifications as well as his civility and kindness to those working under him have made him par excel- lence the right man in the right place.
JAMES G. KNIGHT,
MADISON.
JAMES G. KNIGHT was born at Rexford Flats, Saratoga county, New York, August 12, 1832, third son of James Knight and Margaret Godfrey. His father was a prominent local politician. His father died in 1855; his mother died in 1846. He was educated at Albany, New York. His reading was various and extensive; his habits were exem- plary, and his occupation that of merchant. He moved west in 1856, and located in Darlington,
Lafayette county, then a town of three hundred inhabitants. He pursued a general mercantile busi- ness until the war.
He married in 1854, in Clifton Park, New York. His progress in business was satisfactory. He is liberal in all religious matters, and a generous sup- porter in money of churches. He has always been a democrat of the Horatio Seymour school in New York, and through the war the same, supporting
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McClellan for president. While in the army he was elected to all the local town offices repeatedly ; chairman of the town of Darlington for 1871, 1872 and 1873, and chairman of the county board of supervisors the same years; elected superintendent of schools of Lafayette county in the fall of 1873, and always running far ahead of his party tickets. He was a member of the State central committee for ten years, and an active reform chairman of congressional and county committees for years. In 1865 he assumed control of the "Lafayette County Democrat," published at Darlington, and has since managed the same, the most prominent paper in the third congressional district, and recog- nized as the leading reform paper in the southwest- ern part of the State. Present political views in accord with the reform or new democratic party of Wisconsin. He was appointed by Governor Taylor superintendent of the public property of Wisconsin, January 1, 1875. When the rebellion was inaugu- rated he took the position of Douglas, and assisted in organizing the first company from southwest Wis- consin, which rendezvoused at Fond du Lac. Join- ing the 3d Wisconsin Infantry, he served as lieuten-
ant until 1862, and was then commissioned by President Lincoln, for meritorious services, captain and C. S., and assigned to duty with the army of the Potomac. He served under McClellan, Meade, Hooker, Slocum, Williams, Geary and Ruger, until the winter of 1865. He then resigned his commis- sion, leaving the army at Atlanta, Georgia. He was in the battles of Winchester, Antietam, Chan- cellorsville, Gettysburg (as volunteer aid to General Slocum), Dallas, Atlanta, and all minor engage- ments.
He was married December 14, 1854, to Minerva Knowlton.
His grandfather, James Knight, was a soldier of the revolution under Gates, at Saratoga, where he was wounded. His grandfather, James Godfrey, was also a revolutionary soldier, both being originally from England. He was first president of the village of Darlington, delegate to the democratic national convention of 1868, at New York city.
Mr. Knight's moral and social qualities have com- manded for him the respect and esteem of the peo- ple with whom he has lived, and is most esteemed where he is best known.
ORIN G. SELDEN, M.D.,
TOMAH.
O RIN G. SELDEN is a native of Scotland, and was born in the city of Perth, April 3, 1817. His parents were Robert B. and Louisa (Balfour) Selden, the latter being a lineal descendant of John Balfour, of Burley, whom Sir Walter Scott immor- talizes in "Old Mortality." The Selden is an old English family of Kent and Sussex counties, whence they fled to Scotland soon after the Restoration. When Orin was ten years of age the family immi- grated to this country, settling on a farm in the town of Bristol, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, where the father still lives ; he is ninety-seven years of age, and justice of the peace, an office which he has held for more than forty years.
Orin had an early and insatiable thirst for knowl- edge, and from twelve to nineteen years of age attended the seminary at Haverhill, Essex county. When about seventeen he accompanied his father to his native land, visited the home of Robert Burns, and had the honor of taking the hand of Sir Walter Scott, incidents in his boyhood which he
has never forgotten and never recalls except with pleasure.
In 1836 he entered the office of Dr. Francis Batchelder, of Boston, where he remained, studying medicine and attending lectures, until March 9, 1840, when he graduated from what is now the medical department of Harvard University. The following June he opened an office in Dover, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, and there during the next thirty-three years was steadily engaged in the practice of his profession.
In November, 1873, Dr. Selden removed to Reeds- burg, Sauk county, Wisconsin, continuing his med- ical practice for three years, and in November, 1876, settled in Tomah. His fame had preceded him, and he was never more busily employed than at present. Indeed it seems impossible for him to retire from business, and although just rounding up his three-score years he has all the elasticity and activity, seemingly, of middle life. Though a reg- ular medical practitioner, he pays especial attention
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to surgical cases, of which he has a great many, and in which his army experience has essentially aided him.
In 1846 Dr. Selden went into the Mexican war as assistant surgeon of the 3d Ohio Infantry, serving till the conflict ended. In 1861 he was appointed surgeon of the 16th Ohio Regiment three-months men, and immediately after the expiration of that period was appointed surgeon of the 51st Ohio Regiment, with which he served until August, 1862, when, by reason of failing health, he resigned.
Early in 1876, when the State board of health was created, he was appointed by the governor as one of its members. In September of the same year he was appointed a delegate from the Wiscon- sin State Medical Society to the International Med- ical Congress, which met in Philadelphia on the 4th of that month, and took quite an active part in its discussions.
Though before the world as a medical man, Dr. Seldon pays considerable attention to various branches of science; geology and natural history being among his favorite studies. He is also well read in literature, and especially the English classics.
Though a Scotchman, and having a natural partial- ity for home authors, he can quote Chaucer, Spen- cer and Shakspeare quite as freely and fully as he can Burns and Scott. His great familiarity with standard authors is almost wonderful, considering the close attention which he has paid to medical science and the collateral branches, and the amount of medical literature of which he is the author.
He has had the ad eundem degrees of Doctor of Medicine conferred on him by Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio; Miami Medical College, Cincinnati; the Ohio Medical College, of the same city, and the medical department of Wooster Uni- versity, Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Selden is a Knight Templar in the masonic order and a member of the Odd-fellows fraternity. In religious sentiment he is a Presbyterian; in pol- itics, a democrat.
He was married to Miss Catherine Hall, of Tus- carawas county, Ohio, on the 15th of August, 1845. Mrs. Selden died October, 1876, leaving two chil- dren : Robert, a practicing physician at Dover, Ohio, the town in which he was born, and Mary, ' who keeps house for her father.
HON. WILLIAM R. TAYLOR,
MADISON.
W ILLIAM R. TAYLOR was born in the State of Connecticut, July 10, 1820. His mother, who was a native of Scotland, died when the subject of this sketch was three weeks old. His father, a sea captain, was lost at sea with his vessel when the son was about six years of age. Thus totally bereft of parental care and affection at this tender age, he was consigned to the guardianship of strangers, who resided in Jefferson county, in the State of New York, where he remained during his. boyhood, sub- ject to all hardships which characterized pioneer life, and the still greater hardships incident to the absence of natural care and sympathy. During these years he traveled on foot three miles to a country school, receiving but little instruction. Falling into severe hands, before he was sixteen years of age, without money, patrons or friends, he sought a bet- ter fortune. The chosen pathway was rugged and cheerless, but the spirit which gave force to his efforts was undaunted. His immediate object at this time was an education, and for many years he
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continued the struggle, alternately chopping cord- wood, working in the harvest field, or any other manual labor, in the meantime attending school, and finally teaching. The result was a good academic education, and a certificate of admission to the third term of the sophomore year at Union College, in Schenectady, New York. But it was not destined for him to reap the full benefit of this enterprise. On the very day that the class of which he was a member left for Schenectady to complete their col- legiate course he went into the sugar bush, and with his own hands, and a team to haul the wood and sap, made eleven hundred pounds of sugar and two bar- rels of molasses with which to pay tuition and board bills already contracted. Soon after, however, we find him engaged in conducting a select school. and then an academy.
In 1840 he moved to Elyria, Lorain county, Ohio, where he joined a class of forty-five young men preparing for teaching. About this time the school authorities at Laporte, in that State, were
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offering an extra price for any teacher who would assume the charge of their public school, which had become a terror to all candidates for the place be- cause of the reputation of the pupils for disorder and violence. The previous winter no less than three excellent teachers had undertaken the task of teaching there and failed, so that the school was entirely broken up. It was an opportunity young Taylor coveted. During the third winter under his management it became the premium school of the country. We next find him running a grist mill, saw mill and cupola furnace, and regarded as the best moulder in the factory; but failing in health from overwork he devoted his spare time to reading medicine, and in the winter of 1845-6 attended a five months course of lectures and clinical instruction in the medical college at Cleveland, Ohio. During his residence in Ohio he was elected a captain, receiving every vote in the company, and then a colonel, in the Ohio militia.
During the fall of 1848 he came to Wisconsin and settled on the farm at Cottage Grove, in Dane county, where he now resides. His life for many years was one of great activity and unceasing toil. Not content with the ordinary labors of the farm, he resorted to the pineries in the winter months and became identified with the hardships of the enter- prising class of our population who have contributed so much to the wealth of the State. The result of the severe experience we have narrated is manifest in the whole character of the man. In every respect the architect of his own fortunes, he is necessarily self-reliant, independent, energetic, practical, honest in purpose, kind in heart, methodical and thoroughly systematic in business. During his boyhood and early manhood a pupil, teacher, miller, foundryman, raftsman and lumberman by turns, and for twenty years a practical farmer, his sympathy for self- dependent laboring men and his interest in the prosperity of the industrial classes are intuitive and sincere. Full six feet in height, with every muscle of his frame educated to its natural power, he is in person the embodiment of physical energy and strength, and a noble representative of the royal class of pioneer workingmen to which he belongs. In manner, as in mental disposition, though consti- tutionally diffident and reserved, he is plain, digni- fied and sincere. Hypocrisy, affectation and deceit, in all their phases, whether social, financial or politi- cal, are to him extremely obnoxious. Honest and unaffected himself, he cannot tolerate others devoid
of those qualities. His hard experience in life has taught him to be mistrustful of others, yet he is naturally confiding in those he deems worthy of his confidence and respect. Though practical and economical in the expenditure of money, he is liberal to the poor and unfortunate. No one in distress ever appealed to him in vain. Conciliatory and forgiving to enemies, he never forgets acts of kind- ness to himself. Like Franklin, he has aided many young men in the commencement of their business career, and has been gratified with their success. He is an acute observer of things and of passing events ; with broad and comprehensive views he has accurate knowledge of men, has sound judgment, comes slowly to conclusions, but is firm in his con- victions, and energetic and thorough in execution. He is reticent, thoughtful and conscientious, hence rarely disappointed in results. Honest, he naturally exacts honesty in others ; kind to the weak and the good, but bold and daring in opposition to the vicious and to whatever he believes to be wrong. Retiring and diffident in deportment, he yet seems to have a reserved force equal to all emergencies. It is no mystery that this man has become the leader of the masses of the people in their struggle for political and financial reform in the administration of the affairs of government. He entered upon his present position with a large experience in public affairs. In fact, he has never been permitted to remain long in private life. He has been called to fill various town, county and State offices; has re- peatedly received every vote cast for chairman of the board of his town ; has been superintendent of schools; has been twice chairman of the Dane county board of supervisors, consisting of forty-one members ; has been county superintendent of the poor seventeen years; was trustee and many years vice-president and member of the executive com- mittee of the State hospital for the insane at Madi- son, from its reorganization in 1860 until 1874. In these various positions, in connection with his asso- ciates, he has handled hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funds, without suspicion of ever having abused the confidence reposed in him. He has been a member of both branches of the State legislature; served seven years as president of the Dane County Agricultural Society ; was chief mar- shal of the State Agricultural Society seven or eight years, and twice its president. During the war of the rebellion he was the first man in Dane county to offer a public bounty for volunteers, which action
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