USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 39
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
After preaching for a time in Chautauqua county, New York, and adjacent parts of Pennsylvania, he, in 1836, settled at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here he was engaged in preaching for nearly a year, and upon his removal, which was before the close of that year, settled at Roscoe, Illinois, and began the study of law. At the end of two years he went to Lock- port, in the same State, exchanged his theological for a law library, and was there admitted to the bar. Removing to Savanna, in Carroll county, he was there engaged in the practice of law for about two years, and in 1843 pushed northward into Wiscon- sin, and settled at his present home in Jefferson, where he practiced law in the State and United States courts until his death.
When Wisconsin became a State, in 1848, Mr. Holmes was chosen lieutenant governor, and served
219
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
in that capacity for two years. In 1832 we find him i in the State legislature, in which body he rendered valuable, efficient and lasting service.
In August, 1862, Mr. Holmes went into the army as quartermaster of the 22d Regiment of Wiscon- sin Infantry. He remained with the regiment un- til March 25, 1863, when he was taken prisoner, at Brentwood, Tenn., and sent to Libby prison. He was there confined until the 5th of the following May, when he was exchanged. Two days later he was sent to Annapolis, where he died the next
day. His remains were brought to Jefferson, and there buried according to the rites of the Masonic order.
In early life Mr. Holmes was a democrat, but acted with the republican party after its organiza- tion in 1856.
In 1836 he married Miss Ruth A. Hawley, of Milan, Ohio, by whom he had four sons, who are still living. Mrs. Holmes and three of her sons are living in Nebraska, while the other son, Edwin F. Holmes, is a merchant in Jefferson, Wisconsin.
CHARLES ROCKWELL,
FORT ATKINSON.
E' MIGRATION, it is said, tends to barbarism. If this be true, the rule has it exceptions. There are men who have taken their christian vir- tues and their consciences with them into the wil- derness, and there strengthened both. Charles Rockwell was the second man to pitch his tent on the present site of Fort Atkinson; and whether liv- ing among savages or civilized men, whether deal- ing with red men or white men, his dealings and actions have always been those of an honorable, upright business man. He is a native of Oneida county, New York, and was born May 11, 1810. His parents, Thomas B. Rockwell and Mary née Dunham, were from New England. His father moved from Oneida county to Stockbridge, Mad- ison county, when the son was seven years old. Here Charles lived during the next twenty years, dividing his time between farm-work and study in the district school until he was seventeen, when he learned and worked at the joiner's trade.
In 1837 Mr. Rockwell removed to the West, reaching Fort Atkinson in June of that year, and for a short time occupied a stable owned by Mr. Dwight Foster, the original settler of the place. There were few other families in the vicinity, but Indians, by the leniency of the government, were still very numerous. The land had not yet come into market, but Mr. Rockwell made a claim of one section and three fourths, upon which he performed a certain amount of work to prevent its being "jumped," and at the same time built him a log cabin one and a half miles east of the Fort, on Bark river. Soon afterward he built a free ferry at what was known as Rockwell's Crossing, keeping a scow
for teams and two or three canoes for footmen, every man doing his own paddling. In 1838, hav- ing made an addition to his cabin, Mr. Rockwell opened a store, a brother living in New York State furnishing the goods, which he shipped by water to Milwaukee, whence they were taken by ox teams - the journey of fifty miles occupying a week for the round trip. About 1841, not having the means to enter the land when it came into market, Mr. Rock- well resigned his claims to his brother, and, moving to Fort Atkinson, erected a house, and during the next thirty years was engaged at his trade. At first he used to lumber in the winter and fill con- tracts for building during the rest of the year. He built the first store in the place, which is still stand- ing on the northeast corner of Main and Milwaukee streets. He also built the first school house, a sub- stantial and well-finished frame building, twenty- three by thirty feet, at a cost of one hundred dollars -- a building which could not now be built for three hundred dollars. The house, for a time, was used for both school and church purposes. Mr. Rock- well was anxious to have some respectable place in the little village for Sunday worship, and, for the sake of securing the job and hurrying the work, took the contract at a low figure.
He has been a member of the Congregational church since seventeen years of age, and is now the only surviving constituent male member of the Fort Atkinson body. He has always maintained a con- sistent christian character.
He is also a member of the Royal Blue in the Odd-fellows order.
In politics Mr. Rockwell was a democrat until
220
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
1856, since which time he has voted with the repub- lican party.
He has been married three times : first, in 1833, to Miss Ann Maria Farrington, of Augusta, New York, who died one year later; July 4, 1835, he was married to Miss Caroline L. More, of Augusta, by whom he had three children, and who died in 1873; April 2, 1874, he was married to Miss Maggie Tel- fer, of Fort Atkinson. W. Adelbert Rockwell, the only surviving child by his second wife, is a joiner ; he is married, and resides near his father. When Mr. Rockwell settled at Fort Atkinson he purchased land, which he still works.
As showing the patriotism of Mr. Rockwell, the following incident may be related. Most of the cit- izens of Fort Atkinson made arrangements to ob- serve the "Centennial Fourth " at larger towns in the vicinity, but Mr. Rockwell thought some notice should be taken of so important a day at home. Since the local band had an engagement to leave town during the forenoon of the fourth, he sent
out an invitation to all its members and to several families in the village to take breakfast with him. He built a large bower the night before, after the neighbors had retired, and prepared a sumptuous feast. The band came early and marched through the streets summoning the guests, and at a season- able hour all sat down to breakfast, while over their heads waved a flag made years before by Mr. Rock- well's second wife, the faithful Caroline, who accom- panied him to his wilderness home nearly fifty years ago, and who was foremost in every patriotic and benevolent movement.
No man in the village has struggled harder or done more for the educational, moral, religious and general interests of the place, or is held in higher esteem by his neighbors. He was one of the first justices of the peace in the place, and tried the first case; was a supervisor for several years, and during one term chairman of the board, and has, in short, been honored by his townsmen with every office within their gift.
JOSEPH DORR CLAPP,
FORT ATKINSON.
A MONG the prudent business men and success- ful financiers of Jefferson county, Wisconsin, is Joseph D. Clapp, a native of Westminster, Wind- ham county, Vermont. He is a son of Caleb and Nancy (Dorr) Clapp, and was born on the 31st of December, 1811. His father, a carpenter and builder, and later in life a woolen manufacturer, owned a small farm, on which the son worked until his seventeenth year, at which time he became a salesman in a West India goods store in Boston, Massachusetts, where he remained until he attained his majority. About two years later, in connection with an elder brother, Mark R. Clapp, he bought a part of the old homestead, and remained upon it a year or two. Selling his interest, he removed to the West, and settled at the place which he afterward named Milford, in Jefferson county, Wisconsin, in the autumn of 1839. Here he entered lands and bought claims in connection with his elder brother ; built a log dwelling-house and a frame barn, and opened a farm, which he cultivated until 1857, when he sold out, removed to Fort Atkinson, and engaged in the banking business with his brother-in-law, Hon. I .. B. Caswell, member of congress from this
district. The institution was called the Koshkonong Bank, and was organized under the State law. In 1864 Messrs. Clapp and Caswell sold their interest in this institution, and organized the First National Bank of Fort Atkinson, Mr. Clapp taking the posi- tion of president, which he still holds.
By upright dealing and careful management he has attained a good degree of success, and lives in the enjoyment of a liberal competence. Public spirited and generous, he takes an active interest in all that pertains to the welfare of his village, and with wise planning, in an unostentatious manner, aids from time to time in carrying forward important local improvements.
In 1863 he was elected to the State senate for a term of two years, and during that time 'rendered valuable and efficient service on several important committees, and was known as one of the working members. (His brother Mark, who still lives at Milford, has also been a member of the legislature.)
Mr. Clapp has always been identified with the democratic party, and during the civil war was known as a "war democrat," and contributing liber- ally of his means in putting down the rebellion,
221
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
Mr. Clapp has been twice married : first to Zida Ann May, of Fort Atkinson, August 21, 1841, and the second time to Mrs. S. C. Weld, of Freeport, Illinois, September 23, 1869. The first wife died February 14, 1867. He has no children by either marriage.
In his religious views he is a Universalist.
Mr. Clapp is of a ruddy complexion ; is five feet seven and a half inches high, and weighs one hun- dred and sixty pounds. He has always been a man of temperate and in all respects excellent habits, and although sixty-five years old would pass for a much younger man, and gives every evidence of further years of usefulness.
PATRICK H. O'ROURKEL.D.,
MILWAUKEE.
P ATRICK HENRY O'ROURKEael and Elizabeth O'Rourk, was born in Granville, Milwaukee county, Wisconsin, August 28, 1847.
When but two years of age his parents removed to Lyndon, Sheboygan county, where he grew up on a farm, working hard for his father until he reached the age of sixteen, meanwhile improving every op- portunity for education that offered itself in the inter- vals of his labor. This routine of farm life, though hard and homely in its details, was productive of most beneficial results, and -as is usually the case - he acquired "a sound mind in a sound body," invaluable to his future advancement. He after- ward read law with Stephens and Flowers, at Madi- son, Wisconsin, and subsequently pursued a course of study in the law department of the University of Wisconsin, from which he graduated with the mer- ited degree of LL.D.
He was admitted to the bar in 1869, by Hon. Alva Stewart, presiding judge of the circuit, and
afterward of the supreme court of Wisconsin and the United States circuit court. In 1871 he was elected to the assembly from Sheboygan county, having an unprecedented majority, nearly equal to the full vote cast for his opponent, and found him- self, at the age of twenty-four, the youngest member of the house. In 1872 he was elected to the State senate from the first district by a handsome majority. In 1874 he settled in Milwaukee, and opened there an office for the practice of his profession.
In the same year he was married to Miss Frances A. Titus, of Wisconsin, an educated and highly accomplished lady, who as a wife is eminently fitted to exercise an influence for good over the fortunes of the rising young lawyer.
Mr. O'Rourk is yet in the morning of his career, but has already distanced many older competitors on the upward road to renown, and seems destined to rival the fame of the illustrious statesman after whom he was named.
HON. DANIEL HALL,
ILITERTOWN.
D ANIEI, HALL, a native of Greenwich, Wash- in the offices of Woods and Bowen, and of Judge Gardner. He afterward removed to Wisconsin and was admitted to the bar in Milwaukee in August, 1851. During the next month he settled in Water- town, Jefferson county, where he has since been steadily engaged in the practice of his profession, and is known as a wise counselor and skillful attor- ney, and where his legal services and ability are thoroughly appreciated by his fellow-citizens. ington county, New York, was born November 20, 1819, and is the son of Titus Hall and Sarah née Sybrandt. His parents were farmers by occupation, a class from whom spring three-fourths of our dis- tinguished men. The subject of this sketch aided his father on the farm until he was eighteen years of age. at which time he entered the seminary at Lima, Livingston county, New York, and prepared for col- lege. In 1842 he entered the sophomore class of Although in politics he was formerly a whig and is now (1877) a republican, and although living Union College, from which he graduated in 1845. Later he studied law at Lockport, Niagara county, , in a district four-fifths democratic, he has been
29
222
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
repeatedly elected to office- not, however, of his own seeking.
Mr. Hall was elected district attorney of Jefferson county for 1857 and 1858, and was a member of the legislature in 1870, 1871 and 1872, and speaker of the house during the last-named year. His record as a legislator is one of marked success and useful- ness. He was usually chosen to further some im- portant measure, and always accomplished the pur- pose of his constituents.
Mr. Hall attends the Congregational church. He is a liberal supporter of the gospel, and of all worthy benevolent enterprises.
He has been twice married : first, in June, 1846, to Miss Elizabeth T. Flagler, of Lockport, New
York, who died, May 24, 1847. On September 1, 1852, he was married to Miss Lucy B. Newhall, also of Lockport, and by her has had two children, one of whom, Arthur D. Hall, is now living. He is in the junior class of the Wisconsin State University, and is a promising young man.
Mr. Hall started life to become a lawyer and noth- ing else, and to this end has employed all his time and energies. At the urgent solicitation of his fellow- citizens, as is seen in this sketch, he has stepped aside on two or three occasions, for a short time, to attend to some important legislative matters, but when such labors have terminated he has gladly re- turned to his chosen profession, in which he is an eminent success.
GEORGE B. MINER, M.D., D.D.S.
MILWAUKEE.
G EORGE BARBER MINER was born in Og- T den, near Rochester, New York, March 10, 1818. He was the son of Dr. Amos and Alcy Case Miner. His father was a physician, as were many of his ancestors, and owned and resided upon a fine farm near Toledo, Ohio, to which he removed when George was fourteen years old, which his sons were trained to till while they lived at home. George Barber was selected as the son who should study his father's profession and succeed him in his practice. Accordingly, ere he had concluded his common school education, he was taught to compound medi- cines, and commenced the study of the theory and practice of medicine at the age of seventeen. While thus engaged in study, he for a year and a half had charge of the farm work, when he was sent to Ober- lin, Ohio, to pursue the regular collegiate classical course of study, but more especially to take advan- tage of the facilities afforded in the well appointed laboratory of Professor Doscone, the eminent sur- geon, for the study of practical surgery. He remained at Oberlin three years and a half, completing his studies at the age of twenty-three. Suffering from impaired health, instead of entering upon the practice of medicine he turned his attention to the subject of dentistry and joined Dr. Meacham, a skillful dentist, in a tour through the South ; while with him he perfected his knowledge in practical den- tistry, graduated regularly and received a diploma at the Cincinnati Dental College. He traveled in
the South in all about two years. In 1844 Dr. Miner removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he entered upon the practice of his profession, opening an office on the northeast corner of Main, now Broad- way and Wisconsin streets, where now stands the North-Western Insurance Company's building, with Dr. Fanies as partner, which partnership continued until 1850. He soon became known extensively as a skillful dentist, and his business steatlily increased, receiving no inconsiderable patronage from distant towns. His increasing business demanding more commodious offices, he erected the building formerly occupied by the First National Bank, on the site now occupied by that bank. In 1860, having sold his building on Wisconsin street, he removed to East Water street, and continued there until 1870, when he gave up his offices and partially retired from practice, other interests demanding his attention. Yet his many friends and patrons, unwilling to re- linquish their claims upon his professional services, he consented to continue his practice on a limited scale at his private residence on Wisconsin street.
From 1851 to 1859 he was a director of the North Western Life Insurance Company, was one of its charter members, and a prime mover in presenting the advantages and claims of this now great corpo- ration before the public. His religious views are those of the Congregational church, in which he was raised. In politics he was an old-line whig, and subsequently a republican. He assisted in raising
4 B. Menuro
225
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
men for the army of the rebellion and in equipping them for the field.
He married in Milwaukee, July 3, 1848, Marinda Seymour, a native of Batavia, New York. He has one daughter, wife of F. T. Day, Esq.
From ancient records we find that the first one who bore the name of Miner was Henry, who lived in the age of one of the Edwards of England, at Mendip Hills, in Somersetshire. The name of the armorial bearings was given by king Edward in acknowledgment of his services in providing an escort for the king on his way to embark for France. The king in giving him a coat-of-arms honored his
vocation by bestowing upon him the name of his trade as a sirname. His ancestors in this country were among the first settlers in Connecticut, one of whom became governor of the colony, and many of whom were active in the early Indian war, and sub- sequently in the great war of the revolution.
Dr. Miner's grandmother was the sister of the celebrated John Brown. Dr. Miner is a gentleman of highly respectable abilities in his profession, of exemplary morals and habits, and scrupulously exact in the discharge of his public and private duties. His virtues are most conspicuous in his social and domestic relations.
REV. SAMUEL E. MINER,
MONROE.
S AMUEL ELBERT MINER, whose name will be connected in history with the "electrical hypothesis of creation"-of which he claims to be the discoverer - was born in. Halifax, Windham county, Vermont, December 13, 1815, and is the son of Samuel Holman and Anna (Avery) Miner, of pure New England Puritanic stock. He is descended from an' ancestry of singular probity of character and remarkable vitality - living to great age, and transmitting family traits of character through a long line of descendants, commencing with Henry Miner, who came from England and settled in New London, Connecticut, upon a farm that has remained in the family name for some eight generations. They were all men of singular purity of character ; not one of them ever having been accused of crime. Their honorable English ancestry is attested by a coat of arms preserved in the family.
The father of our subject was remarkable for his breadth of character, great judgment and extensive information, and held a most honorable rank among the fathers of New England society, and was the trusted counselor and adviser of his neighbors and townsmen in all important matters. He was one of the pillars of the church, and was born in 1776 and died in 1862, in Smithfield, Pennsylvania.
His mother was the daughter of Captain Samuel Avery, a revolutionary hero, justly proud of his fam- ily name and of his honorable wounds in the cause of his country. She lived to the age of ninety years, and was wont, in her age, to tell the story of her father's wounds in battle, and of her thirteen other
relatives who were killed at the storming of Fort Griswold by the British under Arnold in 1781. She was a mother worthy of her noble parentage, and protested against the usage requiring women to "keep silence in the church," by leaving the Con- gregational and uniting with the. Methodist church, where she could express her views in class and prayer meetings. The ancestors of the Miner family for many generations have belonged to the Congre- gational church, and the titles of Deacon and Rev- erend seem to be hereditary in the family.
The early life of S. E. Miner was spent upon a farm, where he learned by experience to eat bread " by the sweat of his face," and employed his leisure hours in picking up stones, hoeing in the garden, or killing Canada thistles.
At the age of seventeen he went to Troy, New York, to learn the carpenter trade with a brother-in- law. Prior to the expiration of his apprenticeship he united with the Presbyterian church, and under a sense of duty, began a course of preparatory study for the ministry; entered the Oneida Institute, Whitestown, Oneida county, New York. Here he entered upon the great moral battle-ground of his life. The institution was established as a protest against American slavery, and the curriculum of studies was arranged with a view to qualifying its students for fighting Christian battles with bible weapons. Hebrew and Greek were made the prom- inent classic studies, and the Old and New Testaments were its text books. An institution so much at variance with the animus of the times, could hardly
226
THE UNITED STATES BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.
expect exemption from opposition and obloquy. The American Education Society withdrew its aid from the students, while the State refused a college charter. Hundreds of young men were thus made to feel more intensely the curse of slavery, and be- came the life-long persistent enemies of that institu- tion. After quitting Oneida College he supplemented its course by a year at the Burr Seminary at Man- chester, Vermont, which was devoted to the study of Latin. He entered the Auburn Theological Semi- nary in 1840, from which he graduated in 1843. During his entire course of study he found his trade a resource of great value, being often under the necessity of paying his way in school by the labor of his hands.
He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery, of Cayuga in the spring of 1843, and in the employment of the Home Missionary Society, commenced his labors at Madison, Wisconsin, in October of the same year, and was ordained to the Congregational ministry by the Presbyterian and Congregational con- vention of Wisconsin in 1844. The capital of the Territory of Wisconsin was then a village of three hundred inhabitants-but with surroundings of wild and varied beauty. Here he labored earnestly for three years, and under his ministry the first ecclesiasticał edifice of the place was erected at a cost of two thousand dollars - a sum equal to the entire wealth of the membership of the congrega- tion. In 1844 he was elected chaplain of the terri- torial legislature, and in 1846 was elected, with Rev. Thomas M'Hugh, of the Episcopal church, chaplain of the first constitutional convention of Wisconsin. At the adjournment of the convention he accepted a call from the Congregational Church of Elkhorn, Walworth county, where he labored with marked success for six years. During this period the slave- holding power in both church and state reached the apogee of its arrogance, and threatened to subordi- nate the whole nation to its influence. Our subject's training had fitted him for this emergency. He en- tered with all his strength and soul into the struggle, and wielded an influence second to none in the State, and to few in the country in crystallizing the then rapidly forming anti-slavery sentiment, which in 1860 swept the nation. He exchanged frequently with brother ministers, and in every pulpit and on every platform he earnestly preached an anti-slavery gospel. He had also some memorable encounters with temporizing and timid brethren of the ministry. These were by far the most important, though not
the most popular, years of his ministry. He next labored for six years as a missionary in Wyocena, Columbia county, where he gathered a congregation, erected a church of fine appearance at a cost of two thousand dollars, and also built a select school-house at his own expense - for which he secured an excel- lent eastern teacher-and was a member of the school board of the district and town superintendent of schools, and by his energy infused life and vigor into the people, which told powerfully on their insti- tutions ; so that on retiring he left the schools and churches of the village comfortably housed and firmly established. In 1858 he became pastor of the Congregational church of Monroe, where he labored one year with great success, erected a house of worship and strengthened the congregation. This closed his labors in the active ministry.
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.