USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 67
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number of the "Sentinel." In January, 1853, he settled in Appleton, and on the 24th of the following February started the Appleton "Crescent," and has been its editor ever since that date, except during short intervals when absent on military or official duties.
On the 4th of January, 1862, Mr. Ryan was mustered into the service as a private in the 3d Regiment Wisconsin Cavalry ; soon became quarter- master-sergeant, and remained in the field until January, 1864. Returning to Appleton he resumed his editorial duties on the "Crescent," wielding his pen with unabated vigor. As a writer he is quick, pungent and forcible, and is widely known and highly respected among the journalists of Wisconsin. Mr. Ryan has diversified talents, and has held
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several important offices since he settled in Outa- gamie county. He has been clerk of the court two terms, county judge two terms, member of the gen- eral assembly one term (1865). During the last four years he has been justice of the peace, and be- sides is engaged to some extent in other enterprises. As a business man he is prompt, energetic and up- right, and has attained an enviable success.
In politics, Mr. Ryan was formerly a whig. On the dissolution of that party he became a democrat, and was a presidential elector on the democratic ticket in 1868 and 1876, and is a very influential man in the party.
In Odd-Fellowship he is also prominent. Has been grand master of the State, and for four years represented the order in the Grand Lodge of the United States. He attends the services of the Con- gregational church.
He has had three wives and two children, one by his first wife, who was Laura E. Knappen, of Platts-
burg, New York, and one by his second wife, who was Calista M. Crane, of Appleton. His third wife, who is still living, was Martha S. Driggs, of Fond du Lac.
In stature Mr. Ryan is a little below the average height, and compactly built, with a large head, de- cidedly silvered on the top. He has a round, full face, a pleasant expression of the countenance, and a good deal of bonhommie, making him very genial and companionable.
His younger brother, James Ryan, who has been with him in the publishing business for twenty-three years, and who is local editor of the "Crescent," and general superintendent of the printing office, is a little taller, of scarcely less solid build, of pleasant address, and, like his brother, an indefatigable work- er. He is not only a practical printer, but a practi- cal business man, and is held in high esteem. He has been city treasurer of Appleton, and has just vacated the office of State senator.
COLONEL GEORGE B. GOODWIN,
MILWAUKEE.
T "HE subject of this sketch, a native of Living- ston county, New York, was born on the 18th of December, 1834, the son of Simeon S. Goodwin and Elizabeth née Albright. His father, a black- smith by occupation, was a hard-working man who, by constant toil, accumulated capital sufficient to enable him in the latter part of his life to engage in carriage-making on a large scale. His mother, a woman of great physical endurance, was possessed of fine mental endowments; she reared nine chil- dren, George B. being the second. After closing his studies in the common school at Mount Morris, Livingston county, New York, our subject prepared for college under Mr. H. G. Winston, now of Racine, Wisconsin, to whose careful training he is largely indebted for his success in college and in his subse- quent life. He entered Genessee College in the winter of 1851, and remained until 1854, main- taining a high standing in all his studies and tak- ing a special interest in the work of the literary societies. In 1854, owing to a dissension among members of the faculty, through which a partisan feeling arose among the students, he, with several fellow-students, withdrew and entered the senior class at Williams College, Massachusetts, then under
the charge of Mark Hopkins. At the end of one term, the trouble at Genessee College having been adjusted, he, with some others, returned and gradu- ated in the fall of 1854. Having decided to enter the legal profession, in order to secure the necessary funds to pursue his studies, he engaged to teach a district school at Cuylerville, New York, on the con- dition that if he kept the school during the entire term he should receive fifty dollars per month, otherwise forty dollars per month, for the time. He taught the full term. In 1855 Mr. Goodwin entered the Albany Law School, and in the winter of that year was admitted to practice in all the courts of the State. In the spring of 1856 he married Miss Har- riet C. Decker, of Lyma, New York, and with money barely sufficient to defray his traveling expenses, removed to the West, settling in May, 1856, in Menasha, Wisconsin. On the following 4th of July he delivered an oration on Doty's Island to a large concourse of people, and thus became widely known. He engaged in his profession with great zeal. He tried his first case at Oshkosh, whither he walked, a distance of sixteen miles, carrying his lunch in his pocket. After winning his case he returned home in the same manner. During the first few years his
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practice was largely in the United States Land Of- fice and in justices' courts throughout the western counties. He took an active part in the campaign of 1856, stumping for Fremont. He also wrote for the press, and with Hon. S. A. Harrison, of Mil- waukee, organized the first republican club of Men- asha.
In 1859 he was elected to represent the North Assembly district of Winnebago county in the State legislature, and during the session introduced a bill providing for the resumption of the land grants which had suffered through speculations of the Chi- cago and Northwestern Railway Company, as shown in the report of the legislative committee of 1858. The measure, however, was defeated, although it passed in the committee of the whole. He also took an active part in behalf of the people in all matters of retrenchment. He was chairman of the commit- tee on printing, and as a compliment to his judg- ment displayed while fulfilling his duties, he was elected an honorary member of the Wisconsin Edi- torial Association. Mr. Goodwin took a prominent part in the political discussions of 1860, and, at the opening of the war, actively engaged in raising re- crnits. In 1862, together with Colonel C. K. Pier, of Fond du Lac, and Major J. D. Wheelock, of Hartford, he organized the 2d Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, and offered it to the State, without pay, except expenses of rations, etc. The project, how- ever, failed, and in 1863 he was sent to Washington with authority to offer the services of the regiment to the general government through Secretary Stan- ton, who took the matter under advisement, and finally decided that an independent organization could not be accepted until the thinned ranks of the old regiments were filled. Mr. Goodwin re-
turned with the promise that the regiment would be among the first that would be thereafter ac- cepted. Accordingly, in the spring of 1864, the adjutant-general of the State ordered the regiment into camp within ten days to await further orders. Colonel Goodwin promptly responding, at once pro- ceeded to fill up the ranks, and by the Ist of June was in camp at Milwaukee. It became the 41st Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and ren- dered faithful service until mustered out. In the spring of 1865 Colonel Goodwin removed to Mil- waukee, his present home. There he became attor- ney for the United States Express Company, and continued to act in that capacity until it was merged into the American. In 1870 he was appointed United States assessor of internal revenue, and held that office until it was abolished by act of congress. Under his management the office was honestly and ably administered, and the revenues largely increased. In 1867 he, after much labor, succeeded in reorganizing the old Milwaukee Light Guards. During two terms of Governor Fairchild's administration Colonel Goodwin was on his staff. He aided materially in organizing the Wisconsin Central Railroad, of which he is now attorney. During the fall and winter of 1875-6, Colonel Good- win was associated with Hon. Mat. H. Carpenter on the defense of the celebrated crooked whisky trials, which occurred during that time in Milwau- kee. After retiring from the office of United States assessor he associated with himself Mr. R. K. Adams, their practice being conducted under the firm name of Goodwin and Adams. In the spring of 1876 Mr. Goodwin withdrew from this firm and became associated with Hon. N. T. Murphey, under the firm name of Murphey and Goodwin.
HON. JOHN T. KINGSTON, NECEDAH.
PROMINENT among the worthy self-made and influential men of Juneau county, Wisconsin, is John Tabor Kingston. A native of Illinois, he is a son of Paul and Isabella (Garrison) Kingston, and was born in St. Clair county, January 31, 1819. His father and his uncle, John Kingston, were the per- sons who supplied General Jackson with lead from Missouri, to be used on the 8th of January, 1815. His maternal grandfather, James Garrison, was a
member of the first colony which settled in Illinois, known as Emancipation Baptists, and was a man of great influence. He represented Illinois in the Ter- ritorial council, when the whole of the Northwest was included in it. Paul Kingston moved with his family to Lewiston, Fulton county, in 1829, and three years later settled at Plainfield, in Will county.
In 1834 John went to Racine, Wisconsin, and located a claim and lived there for a time. He
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then spent a year at St. Charles College, Missouri, and returned to Wisconsin in 1842, located at Grand Rapids, and engaged in the lumber business. Sub- sequently he spent two years at Plover, and in 1848 settled permanently at Necedah, on the Yellow river (Necedah being the Indian name for yellow). Here Mr. Kingston has steadily pursued his business, extending it from time to time, until the firm of T. Weston and Co., of which he is a member, has become the leading firm of the kind in his sec- tion of the State. It conducts a large store in connection with the lumber business, and does a mercantile business of about seventy-five thousand dollars annually.
While living at Plover Mr. Kingston was clerk of the board of supervisors, register of deeds and sur- veyor of Portage county, clerk of the court, and postmaster. In 1856 and 1860 he was elected to the State senate, serving four years in that body. In 1870 he was appointed trustee of the Hospital for the Insane ; two years later, for the Northern Hospi-
tal, of the same kind, and in 1874 was elected to the general assembly. There, as in the upper branch of the legislature, he was a very active and service- able member, being a member of the committee of ways and means; of a joint committee on charitable and penal institutions, and other important commit- tees. His services to the State, rendered in various capacities, have been eminent, and are highly appre- ciated. At home he has been president of the vil- lage board for many years, and has held all the more important local offices.
In politics he voted the whig ticket until that party dissolved, since which time he has acted with the republican party.
In June, 1850, he was married to Miss Hannah Dawes, then of Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, and formerly of the State of Maine. They have had eleven children, six of whom are now living (1877).
Mr. Kingston is a leader in the noblest sense, not only in business and among local politicians, but in many benevolent and moral enterprises.
LUTHER A. COLE,
WATERTOWN.
T HE second man to settle in Watertown, Wis- consin, was Luther Anderson Cole, a native of Orleans county, Vermont. He is the son of Ebe- nezer and Martha (West) Cole, and was born in Charleston on the ist of November, 1812. His father was a farmer and carpenter, and Luther worked at both kinds of business with him until his twentieth year, when he spent a few months in a brickyard. He never had any education ex- cept what he gained at the common school, and that was quite limited. Soon after attaining his majority he became enamored of the West, and in December, 1834, removed to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked at his trade one season. Going in a sailing vessel and via the lakes to Grand Haven in the same State, he remained there until May 10, 1836, when he settled in Milwaukee, and immediately commenced work at his trade.
On the 27th of the following December Mr. Cole removed to Johnson's Rapids, now Watertown. There was then one log house in the place, occu- pied by Timothy Johnson and family. The Win- nebago Indians were on the west side of Rock river, and the Pottawatomies and Menomonees on
the east side, but they did no mischief, except to pilfer when they had an opportunity. Soon after settling here Mr. Cole whipped one of the Indians for stealing, and that put a stop to the business for some time. John West Cole settled at Water- town a month after his brother, and Ebenezer W., the eldest son in the family, came a few years later. Another brother, Zenas Cobb Cole, has lived there at times, and they are all enterprising men.
On reaching this place, his future home, our sub- ject built a log house and entered a claim of a quarter-section of land, which is now in the sixth ward of Watertown, in Dodge county, yet in the city limits. He continued to clear land until it came into market. He proved his preëmption in 1838, and in March of the following year, when the sales occurred, he bought lands not only here, but in Dodge county twenty miles northward.
As early as 1837 a dam and saw-mill were built here on the east side of the river; Mr. Cole aided on both, working at one dollar per day and board ; and in 1842 he and E. S. Bailey purchased this mill property on the east side, consisting of seven hundred and fifty acres. They soon erected a
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grist-mill, and added other mills from time to time. Luther Cole and his brother John were the pioneer merchants in Watertown, building a small frame store in 1841, and stocking it with about one thou- sand dollars' worth of merchandise. Milling, how- ever, has been Mr. Cole's main business, he having followed it for twenty-eight years. Some years ago he built a saw-mill and grist-mill in Nebraska, and a flouring-mill a little later, in Colorado. He has since sold all his mill property, both here and else- where, and is now (1877) living at his ease and in independence.
Mr. Cole has held several town offices. He was sheriff of Jefferson county in 1844 and 1846, and member of the lower branch of the legislature in 1859.
In politics, he was a whig until the dissolution of the party, but since that time has been a re- publican.
In 1842 he returned to his native town in Ver- mont, and married Miss Mary Jane Brackett, by whom he has had four children, two of whom are now living. The elder, Uranah, is the wife of F. L. Clark, of Port Huron, Michigan ; the other, Guy L., is a student in the State University.
HON. GEORGE GALE,
GALESVILLE.
T HE late Judge Gale, in honor of whom the town of Galesville was named, was born at Bur- lington, Vermont, on the 30th November, 1816. His grandfather, Peter Gale, also a native of Vermont, served in the continental army during one or two campaigns, and his father, whose name also was Peter Gale, was one of the "minute-men " of Barre, Vermont, in the second war with Great Britain. His mother, Hannah Tottingham, was of genuine Puri- tan stock. George's father moved to Waterbury, in his native State, in 1824, and there opened a farm; and the son, after arriving at a suitable age, divided his time between farm work and attending school. At the age of sixteen he had developed a remark- able thirst for knowledge, and thenceforth found his recreation in study rather than in field and forest sports; and, with little assistance from a teacher, in the course of three or four years fa- miliarized himself with several branches of the physical sciences, and made great progress in the higher mathematics and natural history.
In March, 1839, Mr. Gale commenced reading law at Waterbury Center. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, and during the same year removed to Wisconsin, and settled at Elkhorn, in Walworth county, and there at once entered upon the practice of his profession. Ten years later he removed to La Crosse, continuing his legal practice and serving in different honorable positions connected with his profession.
In 1853 he purchased two thousand acres of land on the present site of Galesville, and secured, during the next January, the organization of the county of
Trempealeau, with the county seat at Galesville. He founded the Galesville University, endowing it to the amount of ten thousand dollars, platted the town, and in 1857 settled on a farm of four hun- dred acres one mile west, building on it a large and beautiful house. Owing to failing health he, in 1862, went to the South, and there spent three win- ters, but, receiving no permanent relief, died of con- sumption in April, 1868.'
During his eventful career he filled many offices, and all to his credit. In 1848 he was a member of the convention which formed the present State con- stitution ; he was district attorney and State senator while in Walworth county, and in 1851 was ap- pointed brigadier-general of the militia. He was judge of La Crosse county for four years, and circuit judge for six years, commencing January 1, 1857.
During his busy life Judge Gale performed no inconsiderable amount of literary labor. He con- ducted the "Western Star" one year at Elkhorn ; edited the "Wisconsin Farm Book " in 1846, a work which was revised and republished in 1848, 1850, and 1856; wrote and published a valuable work on " The Upper Mississippi," and also spent consider- able time on the Gale family records, and wrote a great deal for the county papers.
The wife of Judge Gale was Gertrude Young, of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. They were married December 5, 1844, and had three children, all surviving him. George and William are lawyers in Winona, Min- nesota; Helen, the youngest, is the wife of Hamilton J. Arnold, of Poughkeepsie, New York.
As a citizen, Judge Gale was a projector of noble
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enterprises, and a leader in prosecuting them. In developing the educational interests of Galesville and Trempealeau county, he did far more than any other man. As a jurist; he was fearless and fair, clear in his perceptions, and impartial in his judg-
ment and decisions, always doing what he thought was right without regard to its effect on himself or any public interest. Such men are an honor to the State, and their pure-minded, upright and candid efforts will be cherished with fond remembrance.
AHIRA B. SAMPSON,
GRAND RAPIDS.
O F the present citizens of Grand Rapids, Wis- consin, the first to see the place was Ahira Beach Sampson. He was at one time the only white man within ten miles of the site of the town, and, within the domains of the Menomonees, he lived in peace with the red men. He was born at Wilmington, Clinton county, New York, November 18, 1813, his parents being Philemon and Nabba (Dilno) Sampson. The Sampsons came from Ver- mont, and some of Ahira's ancestors participated in the revolutionary war. His father, a Methodist preacher, remained on the circuit in New York State till well advanced in years, and died about the year 1862. His mother died when he was about twelve years old.
Ahira attended school more or less until the age of seventeen, when he apprenticed himself to a car- penter in Keesville, Essex county. Following the carpenter and joiner's trade at the East until 1834, he during that year removed to Helena, Iowa county, Wisconsin, and there continued his trade two years. At the expiration of that time he settled upon the present site of Grand Rapids. Ten miles below, at Whitney's Rapids, on the Wisconsin river, were two or three families, who had built a log shanty in Grand Rapids, on what is now Water street, nearly opposite to where the Congregational Church now stands. Here for a short time Mr. Sampson found shelter, and employed himself in hewing timber.
Shortly afterward he leased the Whitney mills, owned by Daniel Whitney, of Green Bay, and oper- ated them for seven years. He then returned to Grand Rapids, and during the next two years kept a hotel. Having built a mill two miles below the town, on the west bank of the Wisconsin river, he operated it for six years. Selling his interest, he engaged in the lumber trade, and bought and sold lumber, running it to the Mississippi river, and thence to St. Louis, and retired from business about 1870. He has a wide and established reputation of always being a fair dealer, with exalted notions of probity. In all business matters he is very candid and conscientious, and would under no considera- tion intentionally wrong a man.
Mr. Sampson is a member of the Methodist church, and a district steward. His Christian rec- titude and sincerity are marked features of his char- acter. He usually votes the republican ticket, but not unless the nominees are good men. He has held some town and county offices, but has always preferred his legitimate business to political honors.
On the 4th of February, 1838, he was married to Miss Jane Teal, of Ohio. They have one son, Henry A., living at home.
Personally Mr. Sampson is a quiet, domestic man. He is happy in the home circle, and more ambitious to have the good will of his neighbors than the ap- plause of the world.
CHARLES ESSLINGER,
MANITOWOC.
C HARLES ESSLINGER, a native of Bavaria, Germany, was born in Amorbach, Unterfranken, November 1, 1809. His father, Adam Esslinger, a carpenter by trade, and his mother, Catharine née Bopp, were both of Amorbach. Charles received
his education at a German gymnasium, and, after closing his studies, became a jeweler and watch- maker, and, with that trade well learned, left his country on the 26th of June, 1837, and arrived at New York on the 7th of September following. After
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carrying on his business about two years in that city he, in April, 1839, removed to Buffalo, and remained there eleven years.
Mr. Esslinger came to this country an enthusiastic lover of pure democracy and universal freedom. He joined the democratic party in good faith, and, while aiding to raise a hickory pole in Buffalo during the Polk campaign of 1844, came very near losing his life by the pole falling and fearfully bruising his head and left leg. But when, in 1848, the demo- cratic party bowed down to the slave power of the South, he withdrew from that party, adopted the Buffalo platform, "free soil, free speech and free men;" and the day after the nomination of Van Buren and Adams on that platform, he issued the first number of the "Free Democrat," a German paper, which he conducted with marked ability dur- ing that campaign. The writer of this sketch was then a resident of Buffalo, and well recollects hearing Mr. Esslinger speak more than once in public meet- ings, and with what a storm of applause he was often greeted. He made a gallant fight for freedom, and has never abandoned its cause.
In the spring of 1850 Mr. Esslinger moved to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where he still resides (1877). His business capacities and executive abilities were soon discovered, and he had not long been a resi- dent of the place before he was called to positions of trust. Three times he was elected president of the village, three years he was alderman; and after serving sixteen years as postmaster, under appoint- ments of President Lincoln and General Grant, he
has just been reappointed under the new civil ser- vice reform rules by President Hayes-a well merited compliment to Mr. Esslinger's honesty and efficiency.
While a resident of New York city, on the 26th of July, 1838, Mr. Esslinger was married to Miss Sophie Johanna Schlick, of Sachsen, Altenburgh. They have had eleven children, five of whom are now living; two of them, a son and a daughter, are in the post-office with their father, where they are highly esteemed for their fidelity and business tact.
Mr. Esslinger is a man of versatile talents. He can not only make a good political speech, which he continues to do in exciting campaigns, but a good literary speech at a festival, or a stirring oration on the fourth of July. At the "Centennial Fourth " he not only did the talking in German, but arranged the programme, which was truly a novelty -a full- rigged ship, with Indians throwing the tea overboard; Washington and his generals, with band of music; Kosciusko and his guard of Polish infantry in their uniform of the last century; Pulaski and his guard of Polish uhlaners, eighty in number; Washington, Baron Steuben, Lafayette, De Kalb, and the five committeemen appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence, all in proper costume; and other original and striking features. So pleased were the citizens with his programme that they serenaded him twice in a single evening. No man in Manito- woc has a stronger hold on the affections of the people, or is more thoroughly awake to the interests of the place.
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