The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume, Part 44

Author: American Biographical Publishing Company
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Chicago : American Biographical Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1108

USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 44

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Joseph was educated at the academy in his native village, a popular institution thirty years ago, and still in a prosperous condition. In 1848 he went to Buffalo, where for a time he was employed as sales- man in a grocery store. Later he learned the trade of reed-making in the melodeon factory of George A. Prince and Co., and in 1854 went to Boston, Massachusetts, and worked two years in the organ factory of Mason and Hamlin.

While in Buffalo Mr. Morrow spent a few months in a law office, and while in Boston continued the same line of study as he had opportunity. Near the close of the year 1856 he removed to the West, arriving in Sparta, Monroe county, Wisconsin, on the 17th of December. Here he at once resumed his law studies in the office of L. W. Graves, Esq., with whom, after being admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1858, he formed a partnership, which continued until the spring of 1864. At that time, by reason of impaired health, Mr. Morrow went to

Montana Territory, where he spent about three years. Returning, much benefited by the trip, he resumed his profession, practicing alone for several years. During the last three years he has been in partnership with Chas. M. Masters, under the firm name of Morrow and Masters.

In 1862 Mr. Morrow was a member of the lower branch of the Wisconsin legislature, being elected to fill a vacancy.

In 1870 he was elected district attorney, an office to which he was twice reelected, serving, in all, six years in succession. He is now president of the village of Sparta; and in whatever position he has been placed by the suffrages of the people he has shown himself competent, prompt and faithful.

Mr. Morrow early imbibed the principles of the democratic party, and having never changed his political opinions, is now a strong man in his party.

On the 9th of May, 1860, he was married to Miss Olive Graves, of Sparta, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Graves, an early settler in Monroe county. They have had one child, a daughter.

Mr. Morrow is a very public-spirited man, and was one of the foremost in bringing the Chicago and Northwestern railroad to Sparta, and has promptly lent a hand in every enterprise tending to further the interests of his adopted home.

HON. MARK BUMP,

BLACK RIVER FALLS.

T' HE subject of this sketch is a native of New York, and was born at Scipio, February 26, 18II. His father, Bethuel Bump, was a soldier in the war of 1812, from which he never returned -

though during what year, where, or how he died, the son never knew. At six years of age Mark went to live with a maternal uncle, Peter Tibbles, three miles from Attica, Wyoming county, New York, in the so

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called " Holland Purchase." Three years afterward, upon the death of his uncle, he returned to his mother and spent most of the next four or five years in school.

At the age of fourteen he cast himself upon his own resources, and during the next three years spent the summers in farm work, and attended school winters.

In 1828, at the age of seventeen, he went to Au- burn, and there contracted for a forty-mile mail route for the term of two years, at the end of which time he engaged as clerk in a hotel at Skaneateles. Leaving this place at the end of one year, he engaged in the same vocation in an Auburn hotel, where he remained until June, 1833, and then removed to Buffalo, and spent a few months in the Mansion House. We next find him conducting a hotel for other parties, at Huron, Ohio; then, in 1836, speculating in wild lands and village property, in Shiawasse, Michigan, and in 1839 and 1840 steamboating on the lakes. In December of the last-named year he settled at Lower Sandusky, now Fremont, Ohio, and during the next three years was engaged as an inn-keeper.

In March, 1843, Mr. Bump settled at Racine, Wis- consin, and opened a farm six miles from town. In 1845 he leased the Racine House, but abandoned it at the end of two years and returned to his farm. In 1851, in connection with another gentleman, he built a saw-mill at Omro, Winnebago county, Wis- consin, which he operated for two years; he then sold his mill and removing to Portage, there dealt

in real estate and lumber, and later, in merchandise. In August, 1855, he removed to Black River Falls, with a stock of merchandise. In 1859 he discon- tinued the mercantile trade, and for three years confined himself exclusively to the lumber business, which had from the start occupied more or less of his time and energies. In 1862 Mr. Bump again opened a store and continued in trade until 1871, when he again turned his attention entirely to the lumber trade.

In November, 1875, he was appointed county judge by Governor Taylor, a position which he still holds, making an efficient and popular officer.

Judge Bump has been twice married: first, to Eliza Chesebrough, of Auburn, New York, on the 3Ist of December, 1832. Mrs. Bump died in Buf- falo, of cholera, in 1834. His second marriage was on the Ist of December, 1836, to Laura Pierson Colt, of Huron, Ohio, who died August 8, 1876. He has no children living -had one child by his first wife, which died in infancy. He never had a brother and has no sisters living.

About two years ago he joined the Episcopal church, of which his second wife was an influential and active member, and is cheerfully awaiting the time when he shall join the loved ones who have gone before to the realms of bliss.

Personally Judge Bump is sociable, affable and companionable. He always greets one with a smile and seems on the best of terms with all men, and at peace with God.

LEVI M. VILAS,

EAU CLAIRE.

A IONG the prominent men of Wisconsin none is more deserving of an honorable mention than Levi Madison Vilas. His father, Judge Vilas, held high positions before leaving Vermont, his native commonwealth, and has been a member of the Wis- consin legislature three or four times. He was mayor of the city of Madison, and during the war was draft commissioner, and for twelve years was a regent of the State University. Well educated him- self, and a thorough appreciator of the value of learning, he gave his five sons the advantage of a college education, and thus aided them in laying good foundations on which to build. Two or three of them are lawyers, and, at middle life, are leading

men in their profession. William F. Vilas, of Mad- ison, has few equals in the legal profession in Wis- consin, and the subject of this sketch is among the foremost attorneys in the Chippewa valley.

Levi Madison Vilas, son of Levi B. and Esther Green (Smilie) Vilas, was born in Chelsea, Vermont, February 17, 1844. His parents moved to Madison, Wisconsin, when he was seven years old. He was kept at school during all his younger years, pre- pared for college at Madison, and graduated from the State University in June, 1863, and from the Albany, New York, Law School in May, 1864. After spending a year with his brother William, at Madi- son, he, in 1865, went into the quartermaster's de-

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partment of the United States army as chief clerk, and spent two years in that position at Alexandria, Washington, St. Louis, Fort Laramie, Wyoming Ter- ritory, and Fort Sedgwick, Colorado. At the expi- ration of that time he returned to Madison, and in June, 1868, settled in Eau Claire, where he has since attended closely to his legal profession.

In 1872, when Eau Claire became a city, he was appointed the city attorney, in which capacity he served one year. In 1876 he was elected mayor of the city, both political parties giving him a hearty support, and the manner in which he has discharged his duties shows the wisdom of their choice. The office sought him, not he the office. A lawyer by profession and from choice, it is with reluctance that he steps aside to occupy any official position.

In politics he is a democrat, though both in this

and in religion he is a man of broad and liberal views.

He was married on the 25th of August, 1869, to Miss Ella C. Slingluff, of Eau Claire, and by her has two children.

Few men reared in the State laid a better founda- tion than Levi M. Vilas. His literary education was thorough ; his opportunities for legal instruction the very best, and he is making good use of the advantages early secured. He is still a close and enthusiastic student. As a lawyer he is thoroughly posted ; he is especially powerful before a jury, and has no superior in Eau Claire county before the court.

Mr. Vilas is a man of fine physique, being five feet and ten and a half inches in height, and weighing two hundred and five pounds.

OTIS HOYT, M.D.,

HUDSON.

O NE of the oldest and best known citizens of St. Croix county, Wisconsin, is Dr. Otis Hoyt, a native of New Hampshire. He was born at Sand- wich, December 3, 1810, and is the son of George and Mary Hoyt. Both of his grandfathers (Hoyt by name) served in the revolutionary war. His father was a farmer by occupation. During his early life George attended the common school and aided his father on the farm, and at the age of four- teen entered the academy at Fryburg, Maine, where he prepared for college. In 1829 he entered Dart- mouth, from which he graduated in 1833. He then studied medicine there for a time with Professor Massey, and afterward completed his course of study at Philadelphia, graduating from Jefferson Medical College in 1836.

After two years' practice at Mason, New Hamp- shire, he removed to Framingham, Massachusetts, and practiced there until 1846, at which time he entered the Mexican war as a surgeon in the regu- lar army, and remained until the war closed. In April, 1849, visited Hudson, Wisconsin, but there being no house there in which to live, he went to St. Croix Falls and spent one year, and at the end of that time settled at Hudson. At that time there were more half-breed families than pure whites in the place, and more log cabins than frame houses. The white men with families were, P. Aldrich, Am-

asa Andrew, Moses Perrin, W. R. Anderson, John O. Henning and Joseph Tyler.

In 1851 Dr. Hoyt was elected to the legislature, and Hudson was so crowded at that time that he removed his family to Stillwater for shelter during his absence.

When the Doctor opened an office in Hudson, in 1850, there was no physician in the State within a hundred and fifty miles, the nearest one being at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. He often went from fifty to seventy miles to visit patients, and once went more than a hundred. Sometimes he rode a mule, and sometimes went on foot. He has walked sixty miles to see a patient, often thirty and forty ; and on one occasion, being compelled to remain out over night, near Snake river, with the thermometer thirty degrees below zero, he dug a hole in the snow, wrapped his blankets around him, and rested as well as he could. Having on two pairs of mocca- sins he took off one pair because they hurt his feet, and lost them by the wolves carrying them off while he slept.

In those early days the Chippewa Indians were very numerous in this part of the country, and the Doctor was often called to administer to them in his professional character. He was never a respecter of persons, and obeyed every professional summons, whether it was to an Indian wigwam near at hand

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or a white man's cabin a hundred miles away. He has always had a good reputation both as a medical practitioner and surgeon.

In September, 1862, Dr. Hoyt went into the United States army as surgeon of the 30th Wis- Dr. Hoyt has been twice married, his wives being sisters, namely, Mary R. King and Eliza B. King, of Ipswich, New Hampshire. By the first he had two children, a son and a daughter, who are still living. By the second wife he has had seven children, five of whom, daughters, are now living. consin Volunteer Infantry, but was on detached service most of the time, at different points. For a time he had charge of the hospital at Camp Ran- dall, Madison, and was examining surgeon sometime in the winter of 1863, and examined over eleven thousand recruits. He was medical director at Dr. Hoyt is a Knight Templar in the Masonic fraternity. Bowling Green and Louisville, Kentucky, and from July to November, 1864, was at Fort Rice, on the He is a little above the average height, slightly corpulent, and weighs two hundred and ten pounds ; has a ruddy face and pleasant expression. He has a jovial disposition, and possesses a happy faculty Missouri river. His experience in surgery during the civil war was of the greatest value to him, and fitted him for still greater usefulness in this line in his practice at home. He is known as one of the · of relating anecdotes and stories, a good supply of most successful surgeons in the State.

In politics he has been a life-long democrat, and

was once a candidate for Congress, running against C. C. Washburne, in one of the strongest republican districts in the State. He did not expect to be elected, and was not.

which he always has at hand. He is a true speci- men of the weather-beaten, robust and rosy pioneer.

WILLIAM W. FIELD, MADISON.

W ILLIAM W. FIELD was born at Lancaster, New Hampshire, October 31, 1824; his parents' names were Abel W. and Sally Field. His father was a common farmer, never owning a farm but living upon rented land upward of twenty-five years; and raising a family consisting of five sons and one daughter, giving each of them a good com- mon-school education.

William W. attended the common school in his native town, finishing his school education with two terms in the Lancaster Academy. At the age of seventeen he taught school in winter for three suc- cessive years, giving the proceeds to his father, and worked on the farm the balance of the year. At the age of twenty his father gave him his time, as he did each of his brothers, saying he would give him a year's time, but money or property he could not give.

nimore, Grant county, Wisconsin ; purchased land, moved into a log cabin, containing one room, painted it up with his own hands, plastered it with mud upon the outside, and lime mortar on the inside, and there went to keeping house and to farming. In 1865 he rented his farm and moved to Boscobel, Grant county, to enjoy better facilities for educating his children. He owned and worked a small farm near that village. In January, 1873, he moved to Madi- son, Wisconsin, where he has since lived.

He is very liberal in his religious views, belonging to no church or sect.

He was a whig until the organization of the re- publican party, and has ever acted with that party. He was a strong Union man during the war, and while he did not enlist and "step to the front," he did what he could at home to uphold the soldier in the field and suppress the rebellion.

In the spring of 1845 he left home with a portion He was elected to the office of chairman of the board of supervisors, and town clerk of Fennimore several times; chairman of the county board of su- pervisors of Grant county in 1861 ; and was elected member of the legislature from Grant county in 1855, 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1865; and the last two years was speaker of the assembly. He was elected of the thirty dollars in gold in his pocket, earned in teaching a three-months school the winter previous, and went to Medford, Massachusetts; worked on a small farm there for two years, then moved to Bel- fast, Maine, and engaged in the marble business with William H. Lane, a former schoolmate; remained there until September, 1852, when he moved to Fen- | one of the presidential electors at large on the repub-

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lican ticket in 1864. He was appointed member of the board of regents of the University of Wisconsin in 1871, and served on the board until the expira- tion of his term in 1873. He was elected a member of the executive committee of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society in 1867; has been a member ever since, and at the meeting of the executive board in February, 1873, upon the resignation of Prof. John W. Hoyt, was elected secretary of the society, to which position he has been annually elected since, and which office he now holds. In April, 1875, was elected secretary of the Wisconsin State Board of Centennial Managers.

Mr. Field was married October 31, 1850, to Mahala J. Howe, by whom he has three daughters, namely, Jennie, Ella J. and Cora I ..; the eldest, Jennie, graduated in 1874 at the University of Wis- consin, and the other two are attending the same college.

While Mr. Field's life has not attracted us by its brilliancy, nor astonished us by extraordinary dis- plays of power, it has interested us in its adaptability to circumstances by which he has been surrounded, in the earnestness of its purpose to be useful to the present generation, and to leave a praiseworthy example to those which follow.

HIRAM S. ALLEN,

CHIPPEWA FALLS.

T HE first permanent settler in Chippewa county, Wisconsin, and now one of the most venerable and venerated citizens of Chippewa Falls, is Hiram Storrs Allen, a native of the Green Mountain State. He was born in Chelsea, Orange county, New Hamp- shire, September 18, 1806, and has recently rounded up his threescore years and ten. He is the son of Sluman and Hannah (Storrs) Allen. His father, who was old enough to enter the military service before the close of the revolutionary war, was a distant rel- ative of Gen. Ethan Allen. In early life he was a tanner and currier, and later, a farmer and miller. Hiram worked on the farm and operated a small saw-mill until he was twenty-six years of age, enjoy- ing but very limited advantages in the common school during his boyhood.

In 1832 he turned his steps westward. He spent one year near Springfield, Illinois, another in the mines near Galena, and in 1834 plunged into the wilderness among the Chippewas, on the Red Cedar or Menomonee river, an affluent of the Chippewa river. There he purchased, of Street and Lock- wood, the first saw-mill erected on that stream, and engaged in the lumber trade and operated the Me- nomonee Mills until 1846, when he removed to Chippewa Falls. For thirty years he has been one of the leading lumbermen in the Chippewa valley, and has operated more or less in real estate. He also owns a flouring mill, and has been manufacturing flour as well as lumber during most of the time since he became a resident of Chippewa Falls. In the lumber department of his business he has usually

been connected with other parties, and is now a member of the firm of A. E. Pound and Co., lessees of the Union Lumbering Company's saw-mill and river works. This firm has the largest mercantile store in Chippewa Falls.

In politics, Mr. Allen was formerly a whig, and since 1856 has voted the republican ticket, but has uniformly declined to hold office even in the mu- nicipality of the city.

By strict adherence to principle and attention to business he has gained a liberal competency, and has few cares.

Mr. Allen attends the services of the Presbyterian church, but is not a member. He gives liberally for the support of the gospel and of all benevolent causes.

Mr. Allen was married in September, 1838, and has had eleven children, seven of whom are now living. His wife, a Demarie, is of French descent.

Prior to the time when Mr. Allen located in the Chippewa valley, parties had been there cutting square timber and shingles, but, having left, he was at that time the only white man in the valley. Indians owned the land, but were peaceable and friendly.

In all the early enterprises and improvements in this part of Wisconsin he was a leader. He aided in building small steamboats to navigate the Chip- pewa river, in surveying and opening public roads to the Mississippi and prominent points in other directions, and in establishing stage and mail routes. Later he has taken part in other grand enterprises.

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The railway from Chippewa Falls to connect with the West Wisconsin road at Eau Claire, which was completed in 1874, is largely owing to his influence and capital.

The lumbermen of Wisconsin are the princely men of the commonwealth, and its noblest builders.

The pioneers in particular were bold and persever- ing, and although they had their drawbacks by flood and fire they overcame all obstacles which disheart- en men of less stamina, and finally have been re- warded with that success which invariably follows honest, persistent effort.

WILLIAM T. GALLOWAY, M.D., EAU CLAIRE.

T' HE parents of the subject of this sketch, Duty and Martha Galloway, though having the same surname, were not related to each other. Duty Galloway was a Scotchman, and came to America when a young man, settling at Maitland, Canada, where he married, and afterward removed to Sack- ett's Harbor, New York (where William Tibbetts was born April 24, 1824). He was a tanner by trade, and moved to Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence county, when the son was two years old.

William was a self-reliant youth, and took care of himself after he was nine years of age, alternating between work and attending school, using all his surplus funds in gaining an education. He pursued a preparatory course of study at Pottsdam and Gouveneur, but did not enter college. At the age of nineteen he began the study of medicine with Dr. F. Cole, of Pottsdam, and attended a course of lectures at Castleton, Vermont, and graduated in 1845. After practicing about three years at Potts- dam he traveled through the South and West, and finally settled at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he practiced from 1850 to 1857. At that time he re- moved to Eau Claire, having been appointed regis- ter of the United States land office at that place by President Buchanan. During the four years that he served in that capacity he practiced medicine more or less, and has continued the practice, with a grow-

ing reputation, to the present time (1877). Though a general practitioner, he makes a specialty of dis- eases of women, and has eminent success. He also has a good reputation as a surgeon, and has traveled a hundred, and even a hundred and fifty miles to attend to difficult cases.

Dr. Galloway is a member of the Masonic frater- nity, and has taken the thirty-third degree.

In religious sentiment he accords with the Epis- copalians.

In politics, he has been a life-long democrat, and an active and influential man in the party. He was a delegate to the national convention held at Charleston in 1860, also to that in Chicago in 1864, and to that at Baltimore in 1872, and has attended nearly all the democratic State conventions held during the last twenty years. . He was postmaster at West Pottsdam under President Polk.

Mrs. Galloway was a daughter of Hon. N. P. Talmadge, United States senator from New York, and first territorial governor of Wisconsin. She was married to Dr. Galloway in 1854, and has one child, a son, now seventeen years old.

The Doctor has a light complexion, blue eyes, and a sanguine bilious temperament. He is a man of large physique, being six feet and half an inch in height, and weighing two hundred and thirty pounds.

CHARLES W. FOSBINDER,

MAUSTON.

C HARLES WESLEY FOSBINDER, of German descent, is the son of Enoch and Mary (Craw- ford) Fosbinder. His parents were industrious peo- ple of limited means, and at the time of Charles' birth, August 18, 1840, were living at Lakeville,

Oakland county, Michigan. The father was a farm- er by occupation, and in 1846 he removed to Ogle county, Illinois, and four years later to Adams, now Juneau county, Wisconsin, Charles remaining with his parents until he had attained his majority, and

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during each winter after his seventeenth year tanght a district school. He was endowed with a nat- ural and strong love for books, and fitted himself for an instructor, largely by private study at home, and in teaching he experienced the highest enjoy- ment, since he thus not only aided in expanding the minds of others, but also cultivated and im- proved his own.

Soon after the opening of the war of the rebellion, on September 24, 1861, he enlisted in the 12th Wis- consin Infantry, and went out as corporal, serving three years, though not all the time on the " tented field." In the skirmish at Coldwater, Mississippi, April 19, 1863, he received a serious wound (being the first man wounded in his regiment), a bullet passing through his left arm, breaking it and entering his left lung, lodging, it is supposed, near the heart, where it still remains, causing him great pain at times, and a trouble that increases from year to year. Having partially recovered he entered the hospital at .Madison, Wisconsin, as overseer of a ward, and acted in that capacity during five or six months. Mr. Fosbinder is a true patriot, and was a brave soldier; and has always regretted being

wounded in the heroic 12th's first engagement with the rebels.

After retiring from the military service he engaged in farming for five years, employing the winter months in teaching.

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The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume, Part 44

Author: American Biographical Publishing Company Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Chicago : American Biographical Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1108

Author: American Biographical Publishing Company
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Chicago : American Biographical Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1108