USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 69
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ardent whig, and for three consecutive years, 1847, 1848 and 1849, represented the town of Rowley in the State legislature. In 1866 and 1867 he was in the assembly of Wisconsin, being sent there by his republican friends. He made a wise and prudent legislator, and, during the latter session, was one of the most influential members in the lower house.
Mr. Proctor is a member of the Presbyterian church, the superintendent of its Sunday-school, and a very active man in different branches of Christian and benevolent work. The poor have no better friend in Neenah than he. In his Christian and charitable labors he has a thorough sympathizer and cooperator in his wife, who was a daughter of Myron Phelps, of Lewiston, Illinois, and to whom he was married June 10, 1858. They have had seven chil- dren and lost two. Mrs. Proctor is a well educated woman, and is ardently devoted to the interests of her home, and is a thoroughly devoted Christian wife and mother.
Mr. Proctor has often been urged to accept other offices besides those which he has held, but of late years has uniformly declined everything of the kind. He prefers the quiet and peace of domestic life to the excitement of public positions, and is quite will- ing to leave such places to men more ambitious of such honors. In his private sphere, probably no man in Neenah is more useful, and none is more highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens than John Proctor.
HON. ELIPHALET S. MINER,
NECEDAH.
T HE family of which the subject of this sketch is a member is one of the oldest in this coun- try. Their coat-of-arms is in the Hartford, Connec- ticut, Museum. The line of ancestry is traced back in England to 1339, through nine generations.
Thomas Miner, who was born in England in 1608, immigrated to America in 1630, and is believed to be the ancestor of all the Miners in this country. It is a family embracing a large number of ministers and eminent scholars. The father of Eliphalet S. Miner, Rev. Jesse Miner, was a Presbyterian preacher, who lived at Madison, New York, where the son was born, March 20, 1818, and in 1828 removed to Green Bay as a missionary, under ap- pointment of the American board, to labor among
the Stockbridge Indians. He died one year after- ward, when the widow and children returned to New York, and settled at Paris Hill. Eliphalet was soon sent to live with an uncle in western New York, remaining there until 1834; he then removed to Illinois, and lived on a farm twenty miles south of Chicago about six years. In 1840 he went to Joliet, where for two years he was the proprietor of a pub- lic house. He next pushed northward into the Wis- consin pineries, settling at Grand Rapids in 1843, and there followed the mercantile business until 1851, when he settled in Necedah, his present home.
During the past twenty-five years he has been a prominent lumberman and merchant, and is now a member of the well-known firm of T. Weston and
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Co. He is a superior business man, and has been eminently successful. Since he came to Wisconsin his services have often been called into requisition by the people, and he has always discharged his duties with the utmost fidelity.
He was the first postmaster at Grand Rapids, and while residing there was for some time a county commissioner; was also the first postmaster at Ne- cedalı, which position he has held, with the exception of about two years, since he settled in the place.
In 1864 he was elected to the general assembly, and reëlected the following year. In 1870 he was sent to the State senate, and there served as chair- man of the committee on claims, a position which calls for the hardest work in that body. During the same year he was appointed by Governor Wash- burne to visit all the State institutions. He was county judge when Adams and Juneau formed one county, and in that office, as in every other, was prompt and efficient.
He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order, and also grand senior warden and trustee. In re- ligious matters he is liberal in his views. In politics, he has been a prominent member of the republican party since the whigs disbanded.
In November, 1845, he was united in marriage with Miss Serena Elliott, of Hazel Green, Grant county, Wisconsin, and by her has had seven children, six of whom are still living.
As already intimated, Mr. Miner belongs to a venerable and distinguished family, and his life- record, here briefly outlined, shows that he has really and highly honored the name. He was early left an orphan, with only a common-school edu- cation, and was therefore, in a great measure, thrown upon his own resources. He is emphatic- ally a self-made man. With him, pedigree counts for nothing; the measure of his worth to the world must be estimated solely by his own endeavors and deeds.
HON. JOSEPH B. HAMILTON,
NEENAH.
PROMINENT among the leading and influential men of Neenah is the subject of this biography, a native of Lansing, Thompkins county, New York. He was born on the 10th of June, 1817, his parents being William and Elizabeth (Bower) Hamilton. His father was a farmer by occupation. This branch of the Hamilton family is of Scotch-Irish descent, the great-grandfather of Joseph immigrating from the north of Ireland sometime prior to the revolutionary war, and settling in one of the middle States. His grandfather served in that war, and his father in the second war with England, being sta- tioned at Fort Erie, near Buffalo.
Joseph was reared on his father's farm, and at- tended the common schools, and at the age of eighteen spent one term at the Aurora, Cayuga county, Academy. He engaged in teaching during the following winter, and then for about seven years alternated between teaching and attending the Caze- novia Seminary ; at twenty-five commenced reading law with Smith and Walker, of Genoa, still teaching during the winters; and completing his law studies with Rathbun and Walker, of Auburn, was admitted to the bar in New York city in April, 1845. He practiced in Mecklenburgh, Schuyler county, until
1849, and in October of that year opened an office in Neenah, Wisconsin, at that time a village of less than three hundred inhabitants. He was elected district attorney for Winnebago county two years afterward, and served in that capacity through 1852 and 1853. He was chairman of the board of super- visors in 1856, president of the village in 1857 and 1858, and State senator in 1863 and 1864. While in the senate he was a member of the judiciary com- mittee, and chairman of the committee on federal relations and internal improvements ; he was also on the committees on militia and education. His ser- vice in the senate being during the war of the rebellion, he gave enthusiastic support to all war measures. His patriotism was never doubted, and in every way he honored his position in that body. At the close of his last session, March, 1864, he re- ceived from the hands of Gov. Lewis an appoint- ment as county judge, to fill a vacancy, and served out the unexpired term of Judge Washburne. At its close the people elected him for four years more, his residence during most of this time being at Osh- kosh, the county seat.
Since his return to Neenah Judge Hamilton has served two years as city attorney, the only officer of
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the kind the city ever had, the office being abolished at the end of his term. He is now giving his entire time to legal practice, and has a remunerative and prosperous business.
He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and has been senior warden of the blue lodge in Neenah, and king of the royal arch.
In politics, Judge Hamilton was formerly a free- soil democrat; he has acted with the republican party since 1856, and is one of its influential mem- bers in his city and county.
In religious sentiment he is a Methodist, and has
sometimes superintended the Sunday-school. In various ways he has made and is making himself a very useful citizen.
Judge Hamilton is now living with his second wife. The first, Mary C. née Jaycox, of Mechlen- burg, New York, to whom he was married in 1847, died in 1854. They had two children, one preced- ing, the other following her to the land of spirits. His second wife was Mary A. née Kimberly, of Neenah. Their union occurred in November, 1867. They have had three children, only one of whom is now living.
COLONEL THEODORE CONKEY,
APPLETON.
T HEODORE CONKEY has been a resident of Wisconsin for more than thirty-five years, and was one of the original surveyors of the land on which Appleton now stands. He is a native of New York and was born in Canton, St. Lawrence county, December 11, 1819. His father, Asa Conkey, a farmer, was a soldier in the second war with Eng- land ; his mother was Mary Nash. He received an academic education, and remained on the farm until 1841. Removing to the West at that time he stopped a few months at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. In the spring of 1842 he went to Madison, where he taught a school for nearly two years. He then engaged in civil engineering, and followed it steadily for about seven years, making United States government sur- veys, mainly in Wisconsin, and largely from Apple- ton northward and eastward to the Michigan line ; his home during this time being at Fond du Lac. At first he worked under General Ellis, an older man and more experienced surveyor, carrying the chain. Being slender in form at that time General Ellis expressed doubts about his being able to en- dure the hardships and mosquitoes of the Wisconsin swamps, but in a short time the General was quite willing to surrender the compass into the hands of Mr. Conkey at least half the time.
His settlement in Appleton dates from July, 1849, when the place contained only seven or eight fam- ilies. It needed not much of a prophetic vision to see, at that time, that enterprising men would gather around the Grand Chute, utilize the water-power, and build a city. Here Mr. Conkey built a saw-mill for himself, and then, from 1852 to 1857, was inter-
ested in the construction of the Fox and Wisconsin river improvements, operating in connection with Morgan L. Martin, now of Green Bay. In 1859 and 1860 he was engaged alone in filling a contract to build a lock and improvement at Rapid de Croche. Prior to taking this contract he had built a flouring- mill at Appleton with three sets of burrs. This property he disposed of in 1861, at the opening of the rebellion, and raising a company joined the 3d Wisconsin Cavalry (commanded by Colonel Barstow) as captain of company I. He served with his regi- ment in the southwest and on the plains nearly four years, and was mustered out of the service at the close of the war as lieutenant-colonel of the regi- ment. He was a bold, dashing officer, and richly merited his promotions.
Returning to Appleton in November, 1865, Colonel Conkey repurchased his old mill property, added four more sets of burrs, and has now (1877) one of the best mills in his part of the State, and is produc- ing from fifty thousand to sixty thousand barrels per annum.
Colonel Conkey was in the State senate in 1851 and 1852, and in the general assembly in 1857. In politics he has always been identified with the demo- cratic party.
He attends the Episcopal church.
Mrs. Conkey was Cynthia F. Foote, of St. Law- rence county, New York. They were married in June, 1848, and have had four children, three of whom are now living. The eldest child, Alice F., is the wife of A. J. Reid, of the Appleton " Post."
Colonel Conkey has from the start been thorough-
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ly identified with all local projects which he consid- ered would be for the benefit of the place. He takes great pride in the prosperity and beauty of his early adopted home.
In stature he is five feet ten inches high and weighs fully two hundred pounds; he has a ruddy complexion, a very healthy look, and although much exposed in middle life in surveying through swamps during almost all kinds of weather, and in building
dams, often in the water from morning till night, he hardly knows what illness is. As a business man he is cautious, shrewd and plucky, and has been very successful. He owns a large frame dwelling which stands on the high bank of the Fox river, and has a commanding view of one of the most picturesque valleys in northeastern Wisconsin. He has a little deer park adjoining his premises, and surroundings comfortable enough for a prince.
ABIJAH W. BALDWIN,
JANESVILLE.
T HE subject of this sketch was born on the 3d of December, 1828, in Otselic, Chenango county, New York, and is the only child of Lewis Gassett and Nancy (Colt) Baldwin, and is descended from Eng- lish ancestors who settled in New England before the revolution. His grandfather, Levi Baldwin, par- ticipated in the struggle for independence in his na- tive State, Vermont. His father was a very indus- trious and intelligent man, scrupulously honest and exact in all his dealings. This line of the Baldwin family has produced a number of distinguished Bap- tist ministers and other professional men who are scattered over the eastern and middle States. The family is also noted for great longevity, many of its members attaining to great age. The Rev. Levi Baldwin, an uncle of our subject, died a few years since in Pennsylvania, past the age of ninety years. The name of Baldwin ranks with the proudest in the Green Mountain State.
His mother was the daughter of Amos Colt, of New York, a relative of the manufacturer of the cele- brated Colt's revolvers. His maternal grandmother was a Webster, a branch of the family to which the celebrated Daniel Webster belonged. From this ancestor he inherits his middle name.
He was raised in his native State, where he at- tended the district schools during a portion of each year, spending his summers in farm labor, thus acquiring a taste and fondness for agricultural pur- suits which has clung to him through life.
In 1844, at the age of fifteen, he removed to Wis- consin with his parents and settled at Milton, where his father carried on the business of a mechanic, which he has since pursued at times. He entered the Milton Academy at its opening in 1844, under the tutelage of Rev. B. C. Church, afterward under
that of Rev. S. S. Bicknell, and remained under the care of this institution some four years, teaching junior classes a part of the time during the last two years in mathematics and the Latin language. After passing through the full course of study of the insti- tution and receiving a diploma, he taught district schools in the same. neighborhood for three years, and at the same time read law privately under the direction of the late Chief Justice Whiton, spending one summer in the office of Judge Noggle, of Janes- ville, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1856. He afterward opened an office in Milton, where he practiced his profession for five years with very flat- tering success. His preferences, however, were for agricultural pursuits, for which in early life he had acquired an unconquerable fondness, and accord- ingly in 1861 he purchased a very desirable farm in the neighborhood of Milton Junction and has since devoted himself mainly to husbandry.
In 1868 he was elected to the office of circuit clerk of Rock county, and is still (1877) the incum- bent of that office, having since been three times unanimously nominated and elected by his party, there appearing no other candidate against him, a circumstance which demonstrates his popularity and efficiency as a public officer more conclusively than any other species of indorsement could do. Twice was he urged by the nominating committees of his party to accept a nomination for the lower branch of the legislature and once for the senate, but pos- itively declined to allow the use of his name on either occasion.
He served one term as superintendent of the schools of Milton, was town clerk for eight consec- utive years, assessor for one term, chairman of the board of supervisors of the county for three years,
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a trustee and secretary of the board of trustees of Milton College for the past twelve years, and is one of the most influential and useful men of the county.
He has always been republican in politics, his first vote having been cast for John C. Fremont for Pres- ident and his last for R. B. Hayes for the same office.
In religious belief he affiliates with the Unitarian denomination of Christians, and is an officer of All Souls Church, Janesville.
He is a distinguished member of the Masonic fra- ternity ; was initiated in Janesville Lodge, No. 55, in 1861. He demitted from Janesville Lodge and was instrumental in the organization of a lodge at Milton, being one of the charter members of that organization. He subsequently served as master of Milton Lodge, No. 161, for three years. Is a mem- ber of the Janesville Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of which he has occupied the position of high priest for the last seven years, having been annually elected thereto. He has been for the past two years emi- nent commander of Janesville Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar, and is now grand treasurer of the Grand Commandery of Wisconsin. He is also pre- siding officer or dictator of Memorial Lodge, Knights of Honor, Janesville; also a member of the Temple .of Honor, and fills one of the offices in the higher degrees of that order.
In stature Mr. Baldwin is of medium size, with blue eyes, light hair and a full face. He has the carriage of a polished, dignified and courteous gen- tleman. His appearance and his conversation are winning and inspire confidence at once. He has a mind of unusual clearness and steadiness; always
calm, self-possessed and self-reliant. His knowl- edge on the subjects which he has studied is practi- cal and always ready. He succeeded excellently as a teacher, but his influence in the public positions which he has held, and for which he has special qualifications, is most marked and satisfactory. He has peculiar insight into the necessities and intrica- cies of his work, and shapes his statements in the clearest and most accurate forms. As a public offi- cer he is bland, courteous and accommodating, and deservedly popular, and nowhere more so than in the town where he has resided the longest and filled so many positions. He has the faculty of attaching most firmly to himself friends who remain constant and trusting in their esteem and affection. While ambitious for public preferment, he never sacrifices his honor or integrity to gain office; he would sooner lose his position than injure a friend in seek- ing after place or power. He has a keen compre- hension of the needs and motives of men, and while planning most successfully, his movements in secur- ing their support has sustained a character of the most undoubted uprightness. He is genial and companionable at home, and is now in the full strength of his powers.
He was married October 15, 1856, to Miss Morcie, daughter of Holmes Hammond, formerly a farmer of considerable standing in Vermont, now a resident of Clinton, Rock county, Wisconsin, a very esti- mable and highly accomplished lady, who received her education at Milton College. They have had three children, one of whom died in infancy, and two survive, Carrie May and Emma E. The eld- est is developing considerable talent in oil painting.
A. HYATT SMITH,
JANESVILLE.
T HE history of A. Hyatt Smith is, in a large measure, the history of the State of Wisconsin, and more especially of its incipient railroad system, with which he has been largely connected. He was a man of remarkable energy and tenacity of pur- pose, though of varied talents and endless resources. One of the first settlers of Janesville, where he owns much valuable property, he is still among the most enterprising and useful citizens of the place. The following is but a sketchy outline of his most versa- tile and eventful life.
He was born in New York city February 5, 1814, and is the son of Maurice and May (Reynolds) Smith, natives of Westchester county, New York. His father was born among the bloody scenes of the revolution, near what was known as the "neutral ground," inside the American lines. His grand- father was one of the unfortunate "Sugar House " prisoners, as was also his maternal grandfather. The greatest pleasure of his early life was to listen to these old patriarchs fighting their battles over again, and relating the history of their sufferings as
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prisoners of war. The impression left in his youth- ful mind was so vivid that for many years after he never could pass the old "Sugar House " without a shudder of horror and a chilling of the blood.
On the breaking out of the terrible yellow-fever scourge in New York in 1822, his father fled from the city, settled in Ulster county, New York, and purchased a saw and flouring mill on the Wallkill, some fifteen miles northwest of Newburg, where he resided a few years. As compared with mills of the present day, these were very simple and prim- itive structures, but they made a lasting impression upon the mind of young Smith, and gave him a taste for milling that he has never lost. During the same period his father also served as justice of the peace, and his mind was much exercised with the mysteries of the law; so that the old mill and the justice's office perhaps exercised as great an influence as any other agency in forming the plans of his career, as machinery and the law have been his hobbies through life. He has often been heard to say that he would rather own a flouring-mill than a gold mine and would rather practice law than preach the gospel.
The ancestors of our subject were among the first settlers of Long Island. Two brothers named Smith, from England, arrived in Boston about the year 1650, and five years later removed to the island, where they became possessed of large grants of land, and were known respectively as the "Tangiers Smith " and the " Bull Smith," one having been governor of Tangiers, and the other the owner of the only bull on the island, or at least on the section of it in which the latter resided. There were also two other families of Smiths residing on Long Island, known as the "Rock Smiths" and the "Blue Smiths." Many anecdotes and reminiscences are related of the " Bull " and his owner. It is recorded of him that on one occasion, desiring to extend his borders, and destroy the Indian title to a consider- able tract of land, he laid many devices, and, among others, addressed himself to the stomach of the old Nesaquake chief. His good wife was celebrated, among other things, for her apple dumplings, and the old chief not being well skilled in the use of the fork attempted to help himself to one of them with his hand, but the delicate pastry crumbled through his fingers and fell on the table. A bright idea flashed through the mind of the Indian. He was familiar with Smith's bull, who was the terror of all the papooses in the surrounding forest, and he re-
plied to his next application for a land grant by offering him all the land he could ride around on that wild bull, with a string of Mrs. Smith's famous dumplings around his neck without breaking. Smith and his good wife were equal to the emergency. He trained the bull, she made the dumplings, and he quietly rode around the desired tract, which the old chief, as good as his word, relinquished in his favor. That land to this day is known as Smithtown. This was about the year 1663. Smith was a mem- ber of the colonial legislature known as the King's Council, and rode his bull frequently, after this memorable event, to New York to attend the meet- ings of the council.
Benjamin Thompson, in his "History of Long Island," speaking of Richard (" Bull ") Smith says :
It is probable that horses were very scarce during the first settlement of this town, or that they had not as yet been introduced, which accounts for Mr. Smith having made use of a large bull for many purposes for which horses were afterward used, which caused him to be desig- nated as the " Bull-rider," and his posterity to this day to be designated as the " Bull Smiths," while the descendants of William Smith, of Brookhaven, are as familiarly known as the "Tangiers Smiths," he having once filled the office of governor of Tangiers.
This family seems to have been early in the struggle for independence. Thompson copies from the records of the town the following resolution :
At a town mecting held in Smithtown, August the 9th, 1774, it was resolved that we declare ourselves ready to enter into any public measures that shall be agreed upon by a general congress, and that Solomon Smith, David Smith and Thos. Treadwell be a committee for said town to act in conjunction with committees of other towns in this county, to correspond with the committee of New York, and the said committee is fully empowered to choose a del- egate to represent this county at the general congress, and that said committee do all that shall be necessary in defense of our just rights and liberties against the unconstitutional acts of the British ministry and parliament.
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