USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 51
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warm friendships and of social habits, is happy himself and endeavors to diffuse happiness around him.
As a politician he is neutral, always voting for the man best qualified to discharge the duties of the office. During the rebellion he used his influence and also his money in its suppression. He was one of the directors of the Brewers' Insurance Company for some time and is now a stockholder. He made a trip in 1873 with his wife to Europe for her health, and traveled over a considerable portion of the con- tinent.
He was married March 25, 1862, to Miss Maria Best, the eldest daughter of Major General Philip Best. They have six children, and all are at home.
SAMUEL T. SMITH,
LA CROSSE.
S AMUEL TINKER SMITH, the first man to run a temperance and anti-gambling steamboat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, was born in Delaware county, New York, May 9, 1801. His maternal grandfather was a revolutionary soldier. His father, Noah Smith, was a native of Long Island, and his mother of Lyme, Connecticut. His father lived in Delaware county until 1812, when, with six other families, he moved to Ohio. Reach- ing Wheeling, West Virginia, they built a flatboat and floated down to Cincinnati, reaching there in October. The next year he moved to a tract of land three miles from the city, and opened a farm, Samuel at the same time becoming a clerk in a store, remaining in and near the city, merchandising and farming, until 1828. In April of that year he visited the Galena lead mines, and during the next month went into Wisconsin - at that time part of the Northwestern Territory. Stopping about half way between the present sites of Potosi and Platte- ville, he built a cabin and engaged in mining for one year. He afterward went to Galena and taught school two years, and there, in 1831, organized the first Sunday school in that part of the country. Returning to Cincinnati in 1832, he farmed a short time, and subsequently engaged in the mercantile trade in that city, and continued it until 1840. He then built his "Sunday keeping " steamboat, and ran it and others for nine years on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the tributaries of the latter.
In 1849, while his steamboat was at the St. Louis landing, it was burnt, with twenty-two other steam- ers and seven blocks of city buildings. Immediately after this calamity he opened a dry-goods store in that city. In July, 1851, he removed to La Crosse, then a village of about fifty genuine settlers. Here he continued the mercantile trade between two and three years, and in 1853 opened the land agency, which he has continued ever since, at the same time engaging more or less in farming.
Mr. Smith was early taught that riches take to themselves wings, and he was impressed with the truthfulness of the scriptural statement when, in the crash of 1837, he lost a round hundred thousand dollars, and half that sum in a similar visitation in 1857, to say nothing of the sudden reduction of his steamboat to ashes just as he had repainted it and was about to sell it, and minor losses in La Crosse by fires. Pecuniarily, Mr. Smith is in comfortable circumstances. His wealth, however, is not all of this world - he is "rich toward God." Few Chris- tian lives have been more consistent or more note- worthy. When he landed in what is now the State of Wisconsin, in 1828, he knelt down alone, in the solitude of the forest, under a large oak tree, and took possession of the land in the name of his Mas ter. Shortly after reaching La Crosse, on the 22d of January, 1852, he gathered the few Baptist peo- ple (fourteen in all) and a church was organized at his house. He brought with him to La Crosse three
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or four families, seven members of which were Bap- tists. He was chosen the first deacon, and has held that office for twenty-five years. The Congrega- tionalists met at his house on the same day and at the same hour, and the ministers present assisted each other in organizing the two churches. On the 22d of January, 1877, the two Christian bodies again met, and observed their quarter centennial, upon which occasion Deacon Smith read an intensely interesting history of the Baptist church.
He has had two wives, the first being Miss Martha Ellen Longley, of Cheviot, Ohio, to whom he was married in 1827. She died in 1834, leaving two children, one of whom is now living. To his second wife, Miss Sarah Hildreth, of Cincinnati, he was married in 1835. They have had eleven children, of whom five are living. Orren L., the only child by his first wife now living, is married, and residing in La Crosse. The eldest daughter, widow of the late Jacob P. Whelpley, with her three children, is living with her father; another daughter is the wife of W. L. Card, of Moberly, Missouri ; and a third is the wife of Spencer Way, of Rockford, Illinois. The other children are unmarried.
Of the many interesting anecdotes connected with Deacon Smith's nine years of steamboat life we
mention the following : As he was starting on his first trip from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, two fast young Southerners came on board, and before the boat was fairly under way began to inquire for the card table and the bar. Captain Smith politely informed them that there was nothing of the kind on board; that neither drinking nor gambling was allowed on his boat; that he had a good library and he hoped they would make free use of it, and that when they reached Pittsburgh, if they were not sat- isfied with the accommodations, he would refund the money. They used his books very liberally, one of them reading through Knowles's life of Ann H. Judson, and both becoming thoroughly absorbed in literary recreations. When near Pittsburgh they went on the hurricane deck and reminded the cap- tain that they were near the end of the voyage, and he asked them if they wanted their fare refunded. They told him frankly that when they came on board and found no bar, they made up their minds. to jump off at the first wood-pile landing; that on the whole, however, they had been greatly pleased, actually delighted, with the trip, and that if they ever had occasion to make the same trip again, if necessary they would wait three days for the sake of getting his boat.
ANDREW TAINTER,
MENOMONEE.
T' HE subject of this sketch was born at Salina, New York, July 6, 1823. Both of his grand- fathers participated in the revolutionary struggle of the colonies. His father, Ezekiel Tainter, was, in early life, a salt manufacturer; later he had charge of copper mines in New Jersey, and in 1828 re- moved to the West, and after spending about two years at Galena, Illinois, settled at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, whither he moved his family in 1832.
At first he furnished the garrison with wood, then beef, and subsequently engaged in merchandising and hotel keeping.
In his early days at Prairie du Chien, Andrew attended school when opportunity afforded, and when not thus engaged assisted his father in bus- iness, and for about three years prior to 1845, worked for a merchant. During this last named year he left Prairie du Chien; went to the Chippewa Val- ley, where he worked in a saw-mill and in the hay-
field, and in 1846 settled upon the present site of Menomonee, on the Red Cedar river. There he at first operated a lath-mill on shares, in company with Blois Hurd, with whom he afterward purchased a saw-mill. This mill he operated until the winter of 1849-50, when he engaged in making shingles and logging. In the ensuing August he became a member of the firm of J. H. Knapp and Co., since changed to Knapp, Stout and Co., and now the lead- ing lumber firm in the United States. His acces- sion to the enterprise gave it a new impetus, which contributed largely to its present prosperous con- dition. He was ready for any work, and knew how to dispatch it. During the first four or five years he gave most of his time to .looking after the logs, running the lumber to the mouth of the Chippewa river, and boating supplies thence back to the mill. Afterward his business became still more diversified. For about three seasons he was captain of a steam-
Apainter
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boat, running in connection with the lumber bus- iness. Of late he has been looking after the log- ging interests of the company, also the farms and mills, more especially those in Barren county. The company owns half a dozen large and well culti- vated farms and several smaller ones. The amount of its lumbering business is recorded in the sketch of Mr. Knapp, found in another part of this work.
Thirty-two years ago Andrew Tainter began with no capital other than his willing hands, a courageous heart, a robust body and a will-power that yielded to no difficulty. Above his pecuniary obligations, he had not a dollar in the world ; to-day he owns the finest residence with the most spacious and beau- tiful surroundings of any man in northwestern Wis- consin, and still possesses a perfectly sound constitu- tion, a rich flow of animal spirits, a cheerful heart, and, in short, the full capacity to enjoy his vast accumulations. He can dispense hospitalities with a royal whole-heartedness which a king might copy, if not envy.
Mr. Tainter's taste and talent is shown in the methods which he has invented for the comfort of
his family, his guests, and his domestic animals, including more than thirty deer, which he has in a park a few rods from his house. All that he pos- sesses he has earned by his own hands and by strictly honorable business transactions, and no man knows better than he how to dispense of his wealth.
Mr. Tainter is a republican in politics, but has uniformly declined to hold office.
On May 9, 1861, he was married to Miss Bertha Lucas, a native of Smyrna, New York. They have had four children, three of whom are now living.
Mr. Tainter has a fine physique, being five feet and eleven inches in height ; he stands firm and per- fectly erect and weighs two hundred and ten pounds ; and although for many years he was one of the hard- est working men in the whole range of the Wisconsin pineries, his shoulders look as though the burdens of life had rested lightly upon them. Few men are more active, or capable of performing more labor. The several farms which he has aided in opening show that while accumulating wealth for himself he has, in connection with the company of which he is a member, added greatly to the wealth of the State.
ANDREW S. DOUGLASS,
MONROE.
Ai NDREW STARRING DOUGLASS was born . in Oswegatchie, St. Lawrence county, New York, June 17, 1840, and is the son of Adam B. Douglass and Mary Ann Starring. His father, a native Scotchman, was born in Kelso, Roxboro' county, Scotland, a lineal descendant of the "ban- ished earl," and a member of the famous clan known as the " Douglasses of Hume." He came to America in 1836, landed at Quebec, and participated in the insurrection in Lower Canada in the following year, known as "the Patriot War." After tranquillity was restored, Mr. Douglass moved to New York State, where he remained till 1852, pursuing the avocation of husbandry, and also, during this period, developed a taste for fine stock, especially blooded horses, in the raising of which he took a deep interest. In the last named year he removed to Portage City, Columbia county, Wisconsin, where for five years he kept a hotel and continued to " patronize " fine horses. He was for several years owner of the famous racer, " Pinery Boy," and had under his charge " Medoc," "Highland Mary,"
"Amanda," and several other not less celebrated of the turf stock, besides a number of others designated " quarter horses." His taste and enthusiasm in this direction did much to improve the breed of horses in southern Wisconsin. In 1858 he moved to Mil- waukee and leased the " Cold Spring " race track, in the suburbs of that city, and engaged extensively in training horses. Thence, in the spring of 1859, he moved to Janesville, where he leased a farm and race track, and continued the business of horse training till 1867 with very considerable success, when he retired to a large farm in Rock county, near Brodhead, where he at present resides, doing an extensive granger business generally, making fine horses, however, a specialty.
His mother was a native of central New York, descended from the "Mohawk " Dutch settlers of that State, and a woman of considerable force of character. She died when our subject, her only son, was but nine years old. The father subsequently married Miss Julia A. Jay, of Chatauqua county, New York.
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During boyhood Andrew attended the district schools of his native State, and after his removal to Wisconsin, the Classical Institute of Portage City, where he studied the ordinary branches-including algebra, Latin and natural philosophy. He was a bright boy and a diligent student, being especially proficient in mathematics. He subsequently at- tended the high school of Milwaukee, under Profes- sor Larkin, formerly of Alfred University, New York, a very able teacher, and still later the high school of Janesville, from which he graduated in 1863. He afterward taught school one term at Indian Ford, in Rock county, and in the spring of 1864 enlisted in the 40th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and participated in the famous skirmish resultant on the " Forest raid " on Memphis. He was discharged from the service during the same fall.
In May, 1865, he began the study of law in the office of H. A. Patterson, of Janesville, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1866, and at once formed a partnership with his old preceptor, which continued till October, 1867, when he removed to Brodhead and resumed his profession on his own account. In 1868 he was elected to the position of district attorney for Green county, an office which he has held for four consecutive terms, being elected in 1870 without opposition. Mr. Douglass is one of the coming men of his profession. He is endowed with fine social qualities, which, added to his other accomplishments, give him great influence and con- stitute important elements of his success. As a law- yer he is especially able in the drafting of pleadings and legal papers, and is noted for his dexterity in the examination and cross-examination of witnesses ; but
his stronghold is his great earnestness before a jury- few men excel him in this respect. His careful dis- crimination and close reasoning rarely fail to dis- cover the strong points in his own case and the weak ones in that of his opponent, and ignoring all minor details he devotes his entire strength to these, often forcing a verdict in his favor when the weight of testimony seemed against him. These qualities, together with great force and purity of diction, and manifest rectitude of principle, have placed him in the front ranks of the profession, and render his success certain.
In politics he has always been republican. Dur- ing the late campaign he was secretary of the Hayes and Wheeler club of Monroe, and he has stumped his county and congressional district in every cam- paign since 1868. He has been clerk of the city of Monroe for the past three years, and is also secre- tary of the Green County Agricultural Society, and was among the organizers of the Janesville Young Men's Association, a literary society still in existence and doing an excellent work. He is also a popular member of the Masonic fraternity.
He was raised in the Universalist faith, but has now no pronounced religious views.
He was married on the 10th of November, 1868, to Miss Laura E. Welsh, daughter of John B. Welsh, Esq., of Vineland, New Jersey, a lady of preposses- sing appearance, tall and graceful, and endowed with a high order of mental talents, well developed by culture, and especially gifted as a linguist. They have three children, namely, Arthur Gordon, Mal- colm Campbell and Helen - all perpetuating good " auld " Scottish names.
ROMANZO SHARON KINGMAN,
SPARTA.
T THE subject of this biography is the son of Sharon Kingman and Abigail Thayer King- man, and was born at Madison, Lake county, Ohio, May 19, 1829. Some of both his paternal and ma- ternal ancestors participated in the bloody struggle which resulted in the independence of the colonies. His father was a joiner and builder, and removed to Chester, Geduga county, when Romanzo was two years old. Upon his death, which occurred when Romanzo was fourteen years old, the mother re- moved to Kingsville, Ashtabula county, where young
Kingman attended the academy till he was twenty- two years of age, teaching school during the win- ter, commencing at seventeen. During the last two years that he taught he gave considerable attention to medical studies, intending to enter that profes- sion ; but after removing to Sparta, Wisconsin, in 1851, he abandoned the idea of completing his medical studies.
When Mr. Kingman settled in Sparta, twenty-five years ago, Monroe county contained six families, and the country was almost an unbroken wilderness.
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He at once entered a piece of land, portions of which he cleared and cultivated, and for three years employed the winter months in teaching.
In 1854 he was elected register of deeds, and held the office two terms of two years each, and was also during most of that period deputy clerk of the court and of the board of supervisors, doing, in fact, most of the writing for the county.
At the close of his term of office he embarked in the real-estate and lumber business, and with the exception of one season, which he spent in the mines in Colorado, followed it steadily until 1862.
In 1863 Mr. Kingman went to Maine, and, in connection with other gentlemen, built, on the Pen- obscott river, sixty miles above Bangor, two of the largest tanneries in the United States. They con- sumed fifteen thousand cords of bark per annum. At the end of ten years he returned to Sparta, hav- ing been very successful in his Eastern enterprise. Here, in 1873, he engaged in the banking and real-
estate business with Mr. M. A. Thayer, and is now president of the bank for savings, a private and very prosperous institution.
Mr. Kingman is a republican in political senti- ment, but never allows politics to interfere with his business affairs.
He manages all his matters with prudence, and few men in Monroe county have been more suc- cessful.
In religious sentiment he is liberal.
On November 2, 1862, he was married to Mrs. Sillinda Packard, of Sparta.
Mr. Kingman's ancestors are noted for their great longevity. His paternal grandfather died in his ninety-seventh and his grandmother in her ninety- eighth year, and his maternal great-grandfather was one hundred years and twelve days old when he died. His mother is still living, being in her sev- enty-seventh year. Her mother died at eighty-five, and her father at ninety years of age.
HIRAM MEDBERY,
MONROE.
T "HE subject of this biography was born at Sar- atoga, New York, January 30, 1832, and is the son of Hiram and Nancy S. (Chambers) Medbery, natives of the same State.
In early life his father was engaged in mercantile pursuits, but later became a farmer, since this occu- pation was more in harmony with his tastes and dis- position. He was a man of unblemished moral character, of large intelligence, sound judgment, and considerable influence in his neighborhood. He was a distinguished Royal Arch Mason, and held many local offices, and was especially noted as an arbitrator. He was a genial and warm- hearted man, generous and liberal, ready to divide his last dollar with the needy. He died in 1864, regretted by all who knew him. The family is descended from English ancestors, who settled in Rhode Island about the beginning of the seventeenth century. His mother was of Scotch descent, her father being a native Scott, claiming lineage, on his mother's side, from Robert Bruce, the hero of Bannockburn. She exemplified in her person most of the characteristics of that remarka- ble people, and has transmitted to her son some of the same.
Hiram attended the district school in Broad- Alvin, a Scotch village in New York, till the age of sixteen years, when he moved, with his father and family, consisting of mother and nine children, to Walworth county, Wisconsin, where for four years he worked on the farm in summer and attended school in winter, and became an excellent mathe- matician and an expert in the Latin language. At the age of twenty he taught a district school four months, for which he received the round sum of sixty dollars, with which he started for Saratoga Springs, New York. On his way he stopped at Mil- waukee, and there invested twelve dollars of his savings in a new suit of clothes. Having completed his journey, he entered the law office of Augustus Backes, of that city, now chief justice of the su- preme court of New York. Here he was a diligent student for twelve months, clerking occasionally in an insurance office to aid in paying expenses, and. after a rigid examination by Judges Cady, Allen, Hand and James, of the supreme court, in open session, he was admitted to the bar, at Fonda, in that State, in 1852, and began his career as a lawyer in the village of Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. In three months he realized sixteen dollars over and
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above his expenses. He subsequently taught school three months in Troy, Wisconsin, and in the spring of 1854 went to California, where he operated for eighteen months as a civil engineer on the Middle Uba canal, Nevada county, civil engineering hav- ing been included in his school curriculum. For this service he received one hundred and fifty dol- lars per month, most of which he saved. In 1856 he returned to Wisconsin and opened a law office in East Troy, where he practiced for a year, with fair success. During this period he was offered the attorneyship of the Sugar River Valley railroad, which he accepted, and removed to Albany, Wis- consin, where the headquarters of the company were located. The enterprise, however, proved a failure, but he remained in that city till 1864. In 1859 he was elected district attorney of Green county, a po- sition which he retained three years. In 1862 he was appointed assistant assessor of the United States revenue department for the northern district of Green county, which was afterward enlarged to include the whole of Green and La Fayette counties. This position he retained till 1871, and until the district was consolidated with the second. In 1864 he moved to Monroe, the county seat of Green county, and in connection with his official duties continued his professional work. In 1867 he in- vested his surplus savings in real estate in the city of Chicago, and spent the year 1873 in that city, looking after his property, which, notwithstanding the fire and other casualties, has become quite re- munerative. In 1874 he returned to Monroe, where he has since resided, giving exclusive attention to his profession, with the most satisfactory results. He is now the leading attorney at the bar of Green county, and the peer of any in the State. His prac-
tice does not drift in any especial direction. He is able in all departments of the profession. In the cross-examination of refractory or equivocal wit- nesses he is inexorable ; one trial of his skill in this direction is generally sufficient. He is an acute thinker of the subjective school, possessing a deep and varied knowledge of men and things, quick perceptions, keen analytical mind, with irresistible powers of logic ; to which may be added a lively appreciation of the ludicrous. He is a clear-minded thinker, and rarely at a loss for words in which to express his ideas. As an advocate he is among the foremost speakers at the bar. Above all, he is a man of sterling integrity and thorough independ- ence of character, and his fame has spread far be- yond the limits of his acquaintance. Although somewhat reserved to strangers, among his friends and acquaintances he is genial, open-hearted and generous. A warm sympathizer with those in dis- tress, and ever ready, with heart, hand and voice, to aid the unfortunate.
In politics he has always been a republican of the most radical type, and has hitherto thrown his whole weight and influence into the scale in favor of his principles, though he has never been a candidate for any office before the people. He has been a Mason for the past twenty-five years.
He was married on the 4th of January, 1860, to Miss Lucy A. Royce, daughter of Newton B. Royce, Esq., of Janesville, a lady of much per- sonal beauty, tall, graceful and elegant, intelligent, cultivated, practical and pious. They have two children, namely, Jesse, thirteen, and Paul, seven years of age. The daughter, although still a child, has already developed rare powers as a writer of fiction.
JEFFERY A. FARNHAM,
WAUSAU.
HE subject of this biography is the son of Jeffery A. Farnham, a farmer, and Mary née Tracy, and was born at Scipio, New York, October 27, 1817. His grandfather was an English officer, who came to America during the French and Eng- lish war and aided in wresting Canada from France, and remaining in this country, settled at New Lon- don, Connecticut.
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