USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 64
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works will live in the memories of the thousands whom he has educated, and will be transmitted through them to other generations.
He has been twice married. His first wife, Miss Elmina E. Coon, a graduate of De Ruyter Institute, was a most amiable and accomplished lady. She died six months after marriage. His second wife, Miss Ruth Hemphill, is a graduate of Alfred Uni- versity, New York, and has taught in the schools with him a portion of the time for twenty-five years.
Mr. Whitford is a strong-built man, with dark hair, full beard, ruddy cheeks and sparkling blue eyes. He has a full voice in speaking, and mani- fests great earnestness of manner.
HON. THADDEUS C. POUND,
CHIPPEWA FALLS.
T HADDEUS COLEMAN POUND was born in the town of Elk, Warren county, Pennsyl- vania, December 6, 1832. His ancestors on both sides were Quakers, deeply imbued with the sterling principles taught by the wise and sagacious Penn ; and they sought to ingraft upon their children these cherished sentiments of love, honesty and goodwill toward man, preëminent among the sect. His par- ents, Elijah and Judith Pound, could only give to their family a home of the most primitive style, scarcely containing the necessaries of life. In 1838 the family removed to Monroe county, New York, where, in the following year, the mother died, leav- ing to her sons all that she had to give, the sacred memory of a mother's prayers and a loving heart, with the teaching of one conscious that
" Who gives to posterity an illustrious son Confers an honor upon the State."
Four or five years later we find the family in Rochester, the father and sons working in a woolen factory, Thaddeus at first receiving one shilling a day, his business being the assorting of wool, the initiatory step to " sorting " on a larger scale in other branches of business.
In the spring of 1847 the family immigrated to Wisconsin, and shortly afterward located in Rock county, renting a farm on Catfish Prairie ; and here, even amidst the drudgery of farm and honse- hold duties, the boy felt the glowing inspiration of Western life, and improved the fragments of time snatched from labor, having an eager love of learn-
ing, until at the age of fifteen he was installed as teacher in the home district. This experience, so often a stepping-stone to American fame and for- tune, brought the subject of our sketch to Milton Academy, in Rock county, where, between working in harvest-fields and teaching during vacation, he continued several terms. For the purpose of secur- ing better opportunities in his pursuit of a liberal education, he taught, for a time, a high school at Caledonia, Livingston county, New York, and availed himself of the superior facilities for instruction to be had at the Rushford Academy in Alleghany county, of the same State. In the spring of 1856 he removed to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Here, starting on the first round of the ladder, as a book-keeper, he has risen by virtue of his inherent powers and persever- ance to be the acknowledged leader in the public enterprises and improvements of the Chippewa Val- ley. For twenty years in this his chosen home, while engaged constantly in lumbering and the at- tendant mercantile and agricultural pursuits, he has found time and means to forward many public measures which will ever stand in north Wisconsin as monuments to his sagacity, zeal, perseverance and liberal hand.
From 1862 to 1869 Thaddeus C. Pound was the senior partner and manager of the firm of Pound, Halbert and Co. He is now president of the Union Lumbering Company, organized seven years ago.
Thus far the life of Governor Pound has been an unbroken series of triumphs. Every move he makes
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he makes to win, and he does it. Few men of his age in the State of Wisconsin have had so many " blushing honors" conferred upon them. He was a member of the popular branch of the legislature in 1864, 1866, 1867 and 1869; was elected lieutenant- governor in 1869, and a member of congress from the eighth district in 1876, being at this time a mem- ber of the Forty-fifth Congress. In the legislature Governor Pound was distinguished for his good judg- ment and commanding influence in the committee room; for his coolness, clearness and resource in debate on the floor, and his success in carrying through measures of the greatest importance to the State, and especially his part of it.
In 1864, while a member, he placed on record an opinion, in which he asserted "that congress was the rightful guardian of all streams open to inter- state commerce and navigation." This became the key-note of the most exciting contests ever intro- duced into Wisconsin legislation, and, under the name of the "Dells bill," it has for years continued to be the all-absorbing question.
As the presiding officer of the Wisconsin senate, Mr. Pound's fine personal appearance, self-preserved and courteous manner, made him a favorite presid- ing officer, and his impartial rulings and marked executive ability drew from all persons and parties
honorable recognition. It is safe to predict that the same traits of character by which he is dis- tinguished at home will make him a useful and influential member of congress.
As a public benefactor, he is endeared to every citizen of his city and county. Lavish of his own means for the public good, he has devoted his whole energies to increase the prosperity of his locality. He conceived, organized, pushed to completion and put in operation the Chippewa Falls and Western Railway, of which he is president, without a dollar of foreign aid. He is also president of the Chip- pewa Falls Northern and Eastern Railway Com- pany, recently organized.
In summing up the character of Governor Pound, we may say that he has a cool, cautious and saga- cious mind, is genial in disposition, possessing the magnetic presence; warranting the prediction that his public career will continue to be commanding and successful.
This light sketch conveys but an imperfect idea of the "Thad. Pound "-as he is familiarly ad- dressed-known to those who come in daily con- tact with him, and experience his warm friendship, noble impulses, great kindness of heart, exceeding charity, and witness that honesty of purpose that never wavers, no matter what the consideration.
DR. GEORGE H. McCAUSEY,
JANESVILLE.
G EORGE H. McCAUSEY was born in Mar- I cellus, Onondaga county, New York, August 28, 1843, his parents being Charles and Mary (Watts) McCausey. His father was descended from Scotch ancestors, who were among the first settlers of New York city, and was a man possessed of forethought, sagacity and a stern persistence-characteristics so peculiar to the Scotch people. His mother was pos- sessed of exquisite tastes, being an enthusiastic lover of the fine arts and an incessant reader, and showed more than ordinary interest in the education of her son. She kept him in some of the best institutions of learning in New York State until her death, which occurred in 1860, when his studies were temporarily interrupted. He had been an ardent student of the different branches of natural science, having a spe- cial partiality for the study of chemistry and the modern languages, his early intention being intended
to prepare himself for teaching. The next four years of his life, however, were devoted to farm labor, an industry for which his previous course of life had totally unfitted him, and which was wholly contrary to his natural tastes. Accordingly, at the age of twenty-one years, being free to follow the bent of his inclinations, he bid farewell to the home of his youth, divorced himself forever from a business with which he could have no affinity, and entered upon the study of the profession of which he is now one of the foremost members. His education in the art of dentistry, which was acquired under the direc- tion of private instructors, extending over a period of nearly nine years, was thorough and complete.
He removed to Janesville, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1872, and at once resolved to make himself a home in that city. With small means, but full of youthful vigor, he procured an office and commenced
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work. Dependent entirely on his profession, with his kind and gentlemanly deportment and superior skill, he soon made numerous friends and established a profitable business. His aim was to gain an honor- able position in his profession, which he felt must be done by diligent study, superior workmanship, and constant intercourse with his professional confrères. . Now, after four years' effort, he finds himself enjoy- ing a lucrative practice, with the growing respect and esteem of a constantly widening circle of friends and patrons.
He is a member of the Janesville Chapter, No. 5, R. A. M .; Western Star Lodge, No. 14, A. F. and A.
M .; Memorial Lodge Knights of Honor, No. 318; Wisconsin Lodge I. O. O. F., No. 14, and a member of the Crystal Temple of Honor, No. 32, an advanced temperance organization. He is also incumbent of the chair of junior warden of Western Star Lodge, A. F. and A. M.
On the 25th of June, 1872, he married Miss Estelle A. Reynolds, at Auburn, New York, she being a native of Lowell, Massachusetts. He resided at Auburn, being connected with the office of Dr. G. W. Tripp (one of the most prominent dentists of central New York) prior to removing to Janesville in the autumn of that year.
JOHN D. MARKHAM,
MANITOWOC.
T HE subject of this biography, a native of Es- sex county, New York, was born in the town of Wilmington, April 23, 1828. His parents were Nathan B. Markham, a lumberman and iron manu- facturer, and Susan née McLeod, the former being of English and the latter of Scotch descent, though both of his parents were natives of New England. His paternal great-grandfather was a captain in the navy during the war for independence; his grand- father was a private soldier in the same war, and his maternal great-grandfather was a prisoner in the Bastile, France, during the French war. Our sub- ject is the eldest of a family of six sons and four daughters. Four of the sons are lawyers in Wiscon- sin, two of them living at Milwaukee and one at Neenah.
During his youth John worked at the iron manu- facturing trade in Wilmington, attending school during the winter months, until he attained his ma- jority. At the age of twenty-two he began to study law with Kellogg and Hale in Elizabethtown, Essex county, New York, both of them since members of congress, and was admitted to the bar at Elizabeth- town, July 2, 1855. Settling in Manitowoc in May of the following year, he has had for twenty-one years a steadily growing legal practice, extending into all the courts of the State and to the supreme court of the United States, he having been admitted to practice in the last named court at Washington, District of Columbia, in 1867.
As a lawyer he has much professional courtesy, and is popular at the bar. He works up his cases
with the greatest care, and is faithful to his client. He is strong before a jury, and a well-posted, clear- headed court lawyer, and an honor to the legal pro- fession.
Though an ardent republican, Mr. Markham has not been very active in politics, and has held but few offices. He was district attorney two terms, from 1859 to 1863; a member of the board of su- pervisors about three years, and has held one or two minor offices. He has been urged to accept a nomination for congress, and on one occasion, when Mr. Sawyer was the successful man, Mr. Markham came within three votes of being nominated. He is, however, more of a lawyer than politician, and may well be satisfied with his position in the tenth judicial circuit.
Mr. Markham was very influential in getting the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western railroad to Manitowoc. He was a director of the road at the start and for several years thereafter, and is a leader in all local projects for the improvement of the city. He has spent two or three winters at Washington, District of Columbia, and has been instrumental in securing large appropriations for the improvement of the Manitowoc harbor.
He was married in October, 1856, to Miss Mary Burt, of Jay, Essex county, New York. They have two sons and one daughter. Mrs. Markham is a well-educated lady, and a member of the Presbyte- rian church, and her husband is a trustee of the same society.
Mr. Markham has a very large law library, of
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which he has made and is making the best of use. Five attorneys now living in Manitowoc read with him, and most of them are doing well. Being the oldest legal practitioner in his city, Mr. Markham
has a warm solicitude for the local profession. For all his neighbors he has a kindly regard, and he is a man of pleasant address and of excellent social qualities.
DAVID W. CARTWRIGHT, MILTON.
D AVID WARREN CARTWRIGHT, a native of Berlin, Rensselaer county, New York, was born March 11, 1814, and is the son of David Cart- wright and Abigail née Warren, and a cousin of the late Rev. Peter Cartwright, the celebrated pioneer missionary of Illinois. His father was the youngest in a family of nine children (seven boys and two girls), all of whom lived to maturity. The Cartwright family is of English descent, the ancestors having settled in America some four generations ago. The grandfather of our subject, who had for several years prior to the revolution been the captain of a whaling vessel, was pressed on board an English man-of-war, from which, after three years, while in the West Indies, he succeeded in making his escape, and took passage in an American vessel bound for Rhode Island. There he married and made for himself a home, and uniting with the colonists of that State served faithfully throughout the long struggle for independence.
David's early education was quite limited, his at- tendance at the district schools of the period being confined to a few months. He was, however, en- dowed with rare mental gifts, which he has culti- vated by study and observation, becoming one of the most acute and remarkable men of his day. From his earliest recollection he has been a close observer of animal nature, especially of the wild ani- mals inhabiting the forests and prairies of the West; and to discover their habits and modes of living, and to arrange for their capture, has always been his delight.
In the year 1833 he moved from Rensselaer to Alleghany county, in his native State, and while residing in the latter place first followed hunting with the idea of pecuniary gain, his success exceed- ing his most sanguine expectations. He seemed to possess an intuitive adaptation to the chase, and determined thereafter to make hunting the specialty of his life.
In 1834 he was united in marriage to Elcy Mapes,
of New York State, and in 1842 removed to Jeffer- son county, Wisconsin, and settled in the midst of a heavy timbered section known as Bark Woods. At that time there was no settlement and no roads, but Indians and game were plenty, so that he was at no loss for occupation ; swarms of bees were numerous and their honey was abundant. During the summer months, therefore, he frequently engaged in honey gathering with good success. As soon as the weather became too cold for this business he commenced to hunt deer, and was again successful. During the first winter spent in Wisconsin, he and an associate together killed upward of seventy-five deer, besides a number of wolves and wild-cats. His honey, deerskins, etc., he sent to New York, where they found a ready market, and with the proceeds he paid for his western home. Since that time it has been his custom to hunt some five or six months during each autumn and winter.
In the early spring of 1852 he started, in company with two others, from his home in southern Wiscon- sin to conduct a party of adventurers across the plains to California. In these days of palace cars, fast-mail trains and luxurious living, when after bid- ding an Atlantic home good night one can soon say good morning at the Golden Gate, we can scarcely realize what a formidable undertaking this journey was a little over twenty years ago. After a wearisome march of nearly five months, much of the time through a country infested by hostile Indians, and separated from the refining influence of civili- zation, they reached their destination in safety. Mr. Cartwright bought a gold-claim some three miles from Yreka, from which some two hundred dollars' worth of ore was taken the first day of working; but the gold soon became exhausted, and not being in sympathy with the business he returned to his favor- ite pursuit, which he found not only more agreeable but more profitable, as venison then and there sold readily for twenty-two cents per pound. One day while in search of deer he came very unexpectedly
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upon three huge grizzly bears, who showed fight. He succeeded in killing one of them after a some- what exciting and protracted combat, but the others made good their escape. He remained in California about four months, when failing health rendered his return to Wisconsin necessary. Passing through the Golden Gate he came by way of Aspinwall, and has remained east of the Rocky Mountains every since, pursuing his chosen avocation.
In 1868 he removed to Milton, Wisconsin. Since that time it has been his custom to spend the sum- mer months on the peninsula of northern Michigan in the region of Lake Superior ; and he has become so familiar with the country as to offer himself as a guide for visiting or exploring parties to those regions. Besides the places already mentioned he has also hunted in Iowa, Minnesota and northern Wisconsin.
Mr. Cartwright had often been requested to put in book form the result of his observations of the habits and customs of the many wild animals which inhabit this western country, and with which he was so familiar, his knowledge of woodcraft, and also to give some account of his experience as a hunter. Accordingly in 1875 he published a "Natural His- tory of Western Wild Animals," a work which con- tains about three hundred pages, nineteen full-page illustrations, and which embraces two parts, namely, " The Hunter's Art and His Game," and " Narratives of Personal Adventure." In the first part he de- scribes the modes which he has employed for find- ing and capturing the various wild animals of the northern and western States. Some of these modes he learned from other hunters and trappers, but most of them he discovered himself. They show the most intimate acquaintance with these animals,
and superior skill in what he calls "outwitting them." The description of the game is especially valuable to the student of natural history. It is taken very largely from his knowledge of their homes and their habits, and from his personal scru- tiny of their physical structure, and partakes, there- fore, of the nature of an original contribution to the subject. Under "Narratives of Personal Adven- ture " he gives accounts of some of the most inter- esting events in his combats with the wild animals in the course of his varied experience. To the general reader this is the most acceptable portion of the work, and exhibits very fully the courage, the endurance and the remarkable shrewdness of the author.
Mr. Cartwright is a member of the religious de- nomination known as Seventh-day Baptists, and a blameless and exemplary member of society.
In politics he is strongly republican, and a wise, useful and patriotic citizen.
He is thoroughly temperate in all his habits, and has, during most of his life, used neither whisky nor tobacco. His transactions with his fellow-men have been uniformly governed by the strictest principles of rectitude, and there is not a single blemish upon his reputation. He enjoys the fullest confidence of his old neighbors and the many hunters with whom he has been associated for forty-five years. He is a very companionable man and enjoys an evening with his friends relating accounts of his adventures with the animals through his long career.
His union with Miss Mapes was blessed with a family of eight children, five sons and three daugh- ters, five of whom survive, namely : Jonathan, Charles, Paul, Darius and Eva De Ette. The other three died in infancy.
HON. THEODORE PRENTISS,
WATERTOWN.
T THEODORE PRENTISS was born September 10, 1818, at Montpelier, Vermont. He is the eighth son of Samuel Prentiss, who was at one time chief justice of the supreme court of Vermont ; United States senator for about ten years, and sub- sequently judge of the United States district court. The maiden name of Theodore's mother was Lucre- tia Houghton. Both of his grandparents and his paternal great-grandfather participated in the revo-
lutionary war, and the latter, Colonel Samuel Pren- tiss, was commander of a regiment in that sanguinary struggle. The subject of this sketch pursued a course of study in the academy in his native town preparatory for college, and in 1838 entered the University of Vermont, but left during the same year by reason of ill health, and went south. Re- turning in 1842, he studied law in his father's office at Montpelier, and was admitted to the bar in 1844.
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Attracted by the superior inducements to young attorneys at the West, he removed to Wisconsin in October of the same year, and in February, 1845, settled at Watertown. Here, for more than thirty years, he has continued in the practice of his pro- fession, and has long stood among the leaders of the Jefferson county bar. He has recently devoted considerable attention to real-estate operations, and has been very successful, and lives now in the en- joyment of a liberal competence.
Mr. Prentiss was a member of both conventions which met to form a State constitution. He was a
member of the legislature in 1861, and during the same year was elected a member of the board of regents of the university, and has been three times elected mayor of Watertown. In all his official ca- pacities he acted with uprightness and fairness, and left them with an untarnished name and a spotless record.
On the 4th of December, 1855, Mr. Prentiss was married to Miss Martha J. Perry, of Montpelier, Vermont. They have had three sons. They are members of the Episcopal church, and are promi- nent in Watertown in all benevolent operations.
GEORGE M. STEELE, D.D., APPLETON.
T HE subject of this biography is of Puritan stock. His paternal ancestors immigrated from the Old World about 1635, and settled in Dor- chester, Massachusetts, and afterward joined the Hartford Colony. His mother was Jerusha Rich Higgins, whose ancestors were among the early settlers on Cape Cod. He was born in the town of Strafford, Orange county, Vermont, April 13, 1823. His father, Rev. Joel Steele, a Methodist minister, and an itinerant for nearly forty years, died in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1846. George left home when about ten years old, and lived on a farm in Vermont until of age, with not more than twelve weeks of schooling each year. He resolved at that late period in life to have, if possible, a liberal education; and entering Newbury (Vermont) Academy, prepared for college, teaching and doing various kinds of work to aid in defraying his ex- penses. He entered the freshman class of the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, in September, 1846, and graduated in course. He afterward taught three years in Wilbraham Acad- emy, Massachusetts, employing his leisure, mean- while, in the study of theology. Entering the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1853, he preached in Fitchbury, Lowell, Lynn, Boston, and other places in Massachusetts, until 1865, when he accepted the presidency of Lawrence University, and moved to Appleton, Wisconsin. This institution was founded in 1847, and took its name from Hon. Ames A. Lawrence, of Boston, Massachusetts, he having, a year or two earlier, pledged ten thousand dollars toward endowing a school in the Lower Fox
Valley, provided the Methodists of Wisconsin would raise an additional ten thousand dollars for the same purpose. They did so; the preliminary steps were taken ; a building was erected, one of the first on the site of the present city of Appleton, and the school opened November 12, 1847, with Rev. W. H. Sampson as principal, and three assistants. Rev. Edward Cooke, D.D., of Boston, became president in 1852. The next year the corner-stone of the present three-story stone structure, sixty by one hundred and twenty feet, was laid; the first college class was graduated in 1857, and the whole number of graduates is now about two hundred. R. Z. Mason became president in 1861, and was succeed- ed, four years later, by Dr. Steele. Connected with the university are a good collection of apparatus, a valuable cabinet and museum, and a library of about eight thousand volumes.
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