USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 40
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During the preceding four years of his life his re- ligious views had been gradually lapsing from the severe orthodoxy of the Presbyterian and Congrega- tional churches to broader conceptions of the divine love and of human duty. The fatherhood of God and the sonship of Christ seemed to him to include the whole human family, and he felt that he could not set bounds to the grace of God. If Moodys and Sankeys can bring the love of Christ to the out- casts of our cities and save them by hundreds, there is strength enough in that same love to envelop the world in its snowy robe of redemption,-the hem of the garment that can by a touch heal one diseased, has a virtue equal to the healing of all diseased ones. To refer this infinite power and love to the arbitrament of human wills and human opportunities seemed to him at variance with reason and revela- tion. The how of the great consummation of hu- man redemption he could not fathom, and feeling that he was no longer in sympathy with the leading tenets of his church, he retired from the ministry, and has since been devoting himself to business. He is a finished scholar, a profound thinker, and an in- exorable reasoner. For some years past his studies have been devoted to the subject of " Primary Forces," and have resulted in the promulgation of the " Elec- trical Hypothesis of Creation," of which he claims to be the discoverer, which is based upon the principle of evolution, commencing with the primary electrical currents of space. His views were brought out with great clearness and demonstration in a course of lectures delivered in Monroe in the winter of 1876. His theories are adequately set forth in the follow- ing extract from his introductory lecture which his
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subsequent discourses, supported by such an array of facts and illustrations, as remove them-altogether from the range of the improbable :
The first step in the Evolutionary process is the produc- tion of light, which is simply the magnetization of Elec- trical currents, and furnishes the basis of all aggregations and all control of matter. Polarized light is simply the Electrical Currents of Space prepared to enter into combi- nations of material structure. . The primary molecules of matter are here revealed in their perfection, possessed of the two governing forces of all material change and all me- chanical motion - viz., attraction and repulsion. Of these molecules science teaches that they are perfect magnets, having ends, sides and an equatorial center, and that they pass into the combinations of matter, under the control of their polar attractions. In such molecules there must be a metallic basis, with a treasured-up Electrical force. This is the Creative energy that Jehovah called to his aid in the beginning, when He "created the Heavens and the Earth;" and it is adequate to produce all the evolutionary forms of matter and of life, and all orders of growth are carried for- ward by the guiding presence of the attractions and repul- sions of magnetization. Thus we find currents of electricity compassing all space, and currents of magnetism filling all body, and light - the great agency that carries molecule and power over from the metallic force currents of space and building them into matter. Across this line-between body and space-which the light traverses, magnetic and electrical forces work as the balancing line of their diverse and yet correlate forces. When we carefully note the dif- ference between electricity and magnetism we shall find that electricity represents the currents of force that move through space, and that magnetisin represents the currents of force that move through body. Electricity may be gath- ered upon the surface of body, while Magnetism takes pos- session of every molecule of matter in body.
Another property of magnetism is that it always imparts polarity to matter, by means of which it becomes a great working power, revealing its attractions and repulsion at the most distant and opposite leverage points of the body, and that its attractions and repulsions are an exact balance that fix an equator of rest, from which currents move with equal resistance toward the opposite poles; and hence a body of matter constantly encircled with passing electrical currents, and thereby saturated with a constant supply of magnetic strength, that is delivered in polar attractions and repulsions, fulfills the true idea of a planetary body. Sun and planets are conceded by astronomers to be vast revolving magnets.
By referring to the law of magnetic control we learn that every magnet establishes around it a magnetic field commensurate with its size and strength. Such a body as the sun, revolving at the rate of four thousand miles per hour, with its polar forces discharging their oppositely mov- ing force currents into space eight hundred and eighty thousand miles apart, furnish a conception of mechanical power and motion that is adequate to the control of the mechanical order of the entire solar system. Add to this the conception of all the planets of the system with their poles in reverse order to that of the sun, also surrounded with their electrical circles commensurate with their mag- netic strength, with pivotal centers of motion, resting within the equatorial plane of the sun's oppositely revolving posi- tive and negative fields of circles, all moving in systematic order, and there is revealed to the mind a system of worlds and world-forces, mutually sustaining and controlling each other, that furnish a perfect ideal of perpetual mechanical power and order of motion. With such an arrangement of living globes and living forces the work of creation must go forward from its beginning so long as attractions and repulsions are supplied with their life throbs from the elec- trical strength of universal power. The mutual relations of sun and planet, together with their wonderful upholding power and sublime velocities, all find an explanation in the
electrical currents of space and the magnetic force currents of body.
This hypothesis represents light as a purely electrical illumination of magnetic bodies and as the active agency of magnetization. It regards all growing organizations of body as evolved under the play of electrical and magnetic forces, constituting each growing body a magnet. It also furnishes the passing step between the microscopic cells and the biaplasm (?) of the scientists and the true beginning of life. Positive and negative magnetic forces seek an attractive unity in matter that generates life. And in all this there is no rejection of the higher conceptions of Crea- tive energy that rest in such power. Magnetism is the working agency and the obedient servant of will-power. Neither Scientist nor Religionist can measure a soul or weigh a thought; and yet the human organism is a soul- ometer that gives to us constant exhibitions of magnitude of soul and weight of thought. Both Divine and human will are exalted to a throne of dominion where the swiftly mov- ing magnetic currents of body become their plodding ser- vants and their swift-winged angels.
The political views of our subject are governed by his religion ; hence he has always acted with the republican party, except in 1874-5, when he sup- ported the reform ticket.
In July, 1843, he married Miss Maria C. Kelley, of Oneida county, New York, by whom he had four sons and four daughters. One son died in infancy. His eldest son, Charles E., born June 4, 1844, was a student of Oberlin College, Ohio, in 1862, a youth of great promise, and enthusiastically devoted to the cause of freedom. Entered the army after the proclamation of emancipation, as a private in the 7th Michigan Cavalry, in which he was soon after promoted to the rank of sergeant and charged with important military trusts by his colonel. At the battle of Gettysburg, on the last day of that fearful struggle, in leading a cavalry charge to dislodge some sharpshooters, he was shot from his horse, his last act being a wave of his sword, emphasizing the command, "Forward, boys!" Thus gloriously fell one of the bravest soldiers and noblest patriots of the army. His body was identified and buried in the soldiers' cemetery at Gettysburg. His second son, Edgar S., at the age of sixteen, enlisted, in the spring of 1873, in the 7th Wisconsin Battery of Artillery ; was captured by the enemy at Humboldt, on the Mississippi, paroled, and soon after discharged from the service, being under age. He subsequently enlisted in the Ist Wisconsin Cavalry, in which he served honorably till the close of the war. He is now married and settled in Monroe. His eldest daughter, Ellen M., a young lady of excellent edu- action and great promise, died at the age of seven- teen years. The three remaining daughters, Fanny M., Anna Mary and Ellie Alice, and the youngest son, William Avery, are still living at home.
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In July, 1861, Mrs. Miner died. She was highly esteemed and loved by all who knew her ; possessed great fortitude, mingled with a remarkable gentle- ness of character; always hopeful, never repining, she made home happy and attractive, and her chil- dren were controlled without any ostentatious dis- play of parental authority. Since her death Mr. Miner has been twice married, his second wife
being Miss Lucy Evans, of Halifax, Vermont, who died September 17, 1869. She was an amiable and gentle step-mother, and left behind her a memory fragrant of good deeds and loving words. His third wife is Miss Olive Electe Haven, also a native of Halifax, Vermont, of whom it is sufficient to say that she makes home pleasant, and is held in the highest esteem by all who know her.
DANIEL B. DEVENDORF, M.D.,
DELAVAN.
T HE subject of this sketch, a native of Colum- bia, Herkimer county, New York, was born on the 17th of March, 1820, and is the son of Henry S. Devendorf and Elizabeth née Bellinger. His ma- ternal grandfather was a general in the war of 1812, and his paternal grandfather, too young to enter the revolutionary army, remained in and about Fort Plain, New York. His father, an influential man, was one of the first merchants of Mohawk, New York, known at that time as Bennett's Corners. Daniel was educated at Clinton Liberal Institute, Oneida county, New York, where he pursued a full course of study. His tastes, when young, were to become a mechanic and engineer, and to accomplish this he sold for seventy dollars a colt which his grandfather had given him, and worked until he had earned money enough to buy a trunk, and with this capital went to Ohio, intending to engage with a Mr. Shoemaker, to learn the civil engineering busi- ness. He was, however, disappointed in his purpose, the company with whom he expected to engage hav- ing suspended work. His whole plan was opposed to his father's wishes, who desired him to take the management of his farm, and accordingly he refused him any assistance. Failing to find employment, young Devendorf exhausted all his money, and while in this condition became acquainted with a man named Frank Wright, who had some capital, to whom he described an instrument which he had seen for producing daguerreotypes. Mr. Wright became interested in him, and offered to furnish him money if he would go to New York and purchase one of the instruments. The offer was accepted, and Mr. Devendorf soon found himself in possession of the second instrument that was taken west of New York. Going to Churchville, Monroe county, New York, where lived an uncle, a physician, he experi-
mented about three months, and finally succeeded in producing a passable picture, which he sold for one cord of wood to warm his office. Finding that he could not succeed as an artist, he abandoned his project, without a cent of money or a decent suit of clothes. For several months he remained unem- ployed, and had no money except what he earned by doing chores. Meanwhile his uncle had per- suaded him to study medicine and take care of his office. After reading here and with Dr. Wm. H. Fox for eight months, he entered Geneva Medical College, took three courses of lectures, and gradu- ated on the 25th of January, 1844, his father having supplied him with some means, finding that he was willing to assist himself. After graduation, he was ordered to Washington, to be examined as assistant surgeon for the navy, but was prevented from doing so by an injury received from a vicious horse, and upon his recovery, following the advice of friends, he established himself in his profession at Frankfort, six miles from his old home. During the next nine years he conducted a successful practice. At the expiration of this time he sold his interest to Dr. Perrin A. Skiff for one thousand dollars, agreeing not to open an office again in that place, and re- moved to Mohawk. Here he formed a partnership with Dr. C. A. Griffith, with whom he remained two years. He next practiced two years in Tonawanda, New York, and during this time organized a steam towing company for towing boats from Buffalo to the mouth of the Tonawanda creek. Owing to im- paired health he left the East in December, 1855, and settled at Delavan, Wisconsin, in the mercantile business. Finding this ill suited to his tastes, he closed it at the end of two years and resumed his profession, continuing in it till 1861, when he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Ist Regiment
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Wisconsin Volunteers. After the battle of Stone River, he was commissioned surgeon of the 19th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, then stationed at Norfolk, Virginia. With this regiment he lay before Petersburgh four months, and there was made med- ical inspector of the 18th Army Corps, and ordered to the office headquarters at Fortress Monroe, where he remained till 1864. He was also medical pur- veyor of the 18th and 19th Army Corps, stationed at Deep Bottom, Virginia. On the morning of the taking of Richmond, his regiment was on picket duty, and was one of the first to enter the city, and witnessed the great conflagration. At the close of the war he returned to his home in Delavan, and resumed his practice, and has continued it up to the present time (1876) with marked success.
In his political views Dr. Devendorf was formerly democratic ; but while stationed before Petersburgh, upon hearing the rebels cheering for McClellan, the
democratic candidate for President, he became a republican and still supports that party.
Before coming west he was secretary of the Utica and Mohawk Valley Plank Road and a large stock- holder in the same. He was also an owner in the addition to the village of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, known as the " Devendorf, Spencer and Malory Addition," and a partner in the first banking house established in that place.
Dr. Devendorf was married on the 20th of Octo- ber, 1852, to Miss Helena Dygent, of Frankfort, New York. Her father was superintendent of the canals, and also held a prominent position in the Custom House in New York city. Of their three children, one is a student at the Michigan University and the other two are living at home. In his early life the Doctor was under Universalist influences, but he is not at the present time connected with any church organization.
HON. HENRY F. C. NICHOLS,
NEW LISBON.
H ENRY F. C. NICHOLS, a native of New Hampshire, was born at Kingston, Rocking- ham county, February 9, 1833. His father, Nicho- las Nichols, a leather manufacturer, died in Febru- ary, 1876, aged seventy-four years. His mother, Mary J. (Bristow) Nichols, who is still living, is related to the Bristows, so prominent in New Hamp- shire, Rhode Island and other New England States.
When Henry was about eight years old, his family moved to Manchester, Hillsboro county, where he spent his boyhood in attending school, working in a cotton mill, and acting as clerk in a store. He pre- pared for college at Pembroke Academy and other schools, and in 1855 entered Williams College, from which he graduated in 1859. He was next engaged in teaching for two years at Canton, New York, and at the expiration of that time, with a view to enter- ing the ministry, entered Andover Theological Sem- inary, from which he graduated in 1864. During a part of this time he was engaged in the service of the Sanitary Commission in the South, and in the winter of 1864-5 in that of the Christian Commis- sion. Mr. Nichols was by nature peculiarly fitted for this work, and entered upon it with a zeal and devotion that resulted in great good to the noble cause. He left Andover with greatly impaired
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health, by reason of which he soon afterward abandoned his purpose of being ordained to the ministry.
With a view to engaging in the lumber business he removed to Wisconsin, and settled at New Lis- bon, in Juneau county, on January 1, 1868. Since that time until the present (1877) he has devoted himself steadily to this business, and attained that success which invariably follows honest, persistent and faithful effort.
Aside from his regular business his fellow-citizens have honored him with positions of honor and trust. In 1872 he was elected to the general assembly of his State, and during the sessions of that and the following year did valuable and lasting service, being at the head of several committees, and recog- nized as one of the active, working members of the legislature.
In politics he has always been a republican.
On the 12th of May, 1868, Mr. Nichols was mar- ried to Miss Nettie Williams, of Concord, New Hampshire, by whom he has four children. Mrs. Nichols is a descendant of the celebrated Ayer family, and niece of ex-Governor Isaac Hill.
Public spirited, generous and charitable, Mr. Nichols heartily sympathizes with every movement
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tending to the welfare of his community and of his fellow-men, and cheerfully does all in his power to further the interests of his town. He has been president of the village board, chairman of the county board of supervisors, and is now a very
active member of the local school board. A man of noble impulse and high aims, his influence has ever been on the side of right, and he enjoys the esteem and confidence of a large circle of true friends.
JONATHAN G. CALLAHAN, EAU CLAIRE.
T' 'HE subject of this biography belongs to a long- lived race. His paternal grandmother died at about ninety-five years; his father, Robert Callahan, lived beyond the age of ninety, and his mother, whose maiden name was Pettengill, lived to be nearly as old. Some of both his paternal and ma- ternal ancestors were engaged in the revolutionary war, and their descendants are an intensely patriotic class. J. G. Callahan, the youngest of eleven chil- dren, was born in Andover, Massachusetts, Septem- ber 2, 1823. He spent his younger years in obtaining an education at the common school in his native town and in Phillips' Academy. From sixteen to twenty years of age he was educating himself for a mer- cantile life in a local business house. About the year 1843 he went to Niagara Falls and took charge of the store of Mr. S. De Veaux, and soon afterward became a partner of that gentleman, and finally pur- chased his business interest. At the expiration of about ten years he removed to Oxford, Chenango county, and became a clerk in the mercantile house of N. C. Chapman and J. G. Thorp, who removed to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in 1857, and whom Mr. Callahan accompanied to this new country, after spending a short time in their employ at Clinton, Iowa. He is still doing business for the same par-
ties, who are now (1877) operating under the name of the Eau Claire Lumber Company. Mr. Callahan's business is that of purchasing clerk in the mercan- tile department, the purchases of which amount to about three hundred thousand dollars per annum. His position is a very responsible one, and he gives unqualified satisfaction.
In politics, Mr. Callahan is an unwavering repub- lican, but is greatly averse to holding office. He was the first president of the village of Eau Claire, being nominated and elected during his absence and without his knowledge, and received every vote cast. Three years ago he was nominated for the general assembly in his absence and was elected by a large majority, and consented to serve one term. The next year he was renominated, but declined the honor. While in the legislature he aided in securing the passage of the Dallas Improvement bill, and gave entire satisfaction to his constituents.
Mr. Callahan is a member of the Presbyterian church, and a liberal supporter of religious and other worthy benevolent enterprises, and a true friend of suffering humanity in all its phases.
He was married on the 19th of April, 1849, to Miss Maria S. Jones, of Erie, Pennsylvania, by whom he has two children.
WILLIAM NEWTON,
EAU CLAIRE.
W ILLIAM NEWTON, a man who has fol- lowed various callings, has attained success
in all. He has been a carpenter and builder, a cabinet maker and furniture dealer, a merchant, and a boarding-house and a hotel keeper. He was one of the early settlers of Wisconsin, is widely known and as widely esteemed.
He is a son of Charles and Jane (Burnett) Newton,
both of whose families were of English descent, and was born at Croydon, in Surrey, October 1, 1822. His father, formerly a grain and seed merchant, was after- ward postmaster at Croydon for several years, and his eldest son, Charles, has been postmaster at the same place for the last thirty years. At fifteen years of age William closed his studies in school, and apprenticed himself to learn the joiner and builder's
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trade. At the age of twenty-one he started in busi- ness for himself as a master builder and undertaker, continuing this business in his native town until the summer of 1847. He then started for the New World and the West, reaching Milwaukee on the first day of September of that year. When the chol- era made its appearance in Milwaukee in 1849 Mr. Newton pushed northward, and settled in Fond du Lac, then a village of less than two thousand inhab- itants. There he remained nine years, engaged in the manufacture and sale of cabinet ware, and meet- ing with good success. Becoming disabled through injuries received in the machinery, he was obliged to relinquish this vocation, and being attracted by the prospects at Eau Claire, then in its infancy, he settled there on the first day of June, 1858. At the first he engaged in the clothing business, later kept a boarding-house, and since December 20, 1865, has been proprietor of a hotel, making a model landlord. He is a man of fine conversational powers, polished and refined in manners, polished in conversation, polite and courteous to strangers, and obliging to everybody, and acts the part of a Christian gentle- man at all times. His influence in a public house and in the avenues of public life is wholesome -
restraining to the rude and encouraging to the best disposed and more refined.
Mr. Newton was reared under Episcopal influ- ences, and for many years has been senior warden in the Episcopal Church at Eau Claire. His older brother is warden in his native town, and his father and both grandfathers were wardens in the Estab- lished Church.
'Two years before he left the old country, Mr. Newton was joined in wedlock with Miss Mary F. Barnett, of Merton, in Surrey, a daughter of Joseph Barnett, a railroad contractor, who followed two of his children to this country in 1848, and settled at Fond du Lac. He was justice of the peace at that place for many years, and just after his demise a notice of his reelection to that office was found under his door. He was a man of exalted Christian character and a true friend of the people.
Mrs. Newton, who has, as she deserves, a wide circle of warm friends, is the mother of six children, four of whom - one son and three daughters - are living. The son, Charles B., is married, and engaged with his father in the Eau Claire House, and the daughters, Elizabeth, Sarah and Hattie, all well educated, are also with their parents.
HON. MARSENA TEMPLE,
MAUSTON.
M ARSENA TEMPLE, son of Barnard and Sarah Close Temple, was born in Middle field, Otsego county, New York, December 11, 1812. His ancestors were among the ardent whigs in the " times which tried men's souls," and some of them were participants in the struggle for independence. His father was a farmer by occupation, and he him- self worked steadily on the homestead until he was eighteen years of age, except during the winter months, when he went to the district school. Subse- quently he attended the Hartwick Academy and the Clinton Institute, in all about three years, teaching during the winter months.
In 1836 Mr. Temple began the study of law with Judge Morehouse, of Cooperstown, and was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1840. The next year he opened an office at Munnsville, Madison county, and continued in the law practice there, when not holding office, until 1855. In January of the follow- ing year, after visiting and traveling through the
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