USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 76
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In 1847 he moved with his parents to Dane county, Wisconsin, where he continued his studies, and for a few seasons taught district schools. His delight was in reading Dick, Rollin, Humboldt, and works on the science of astronomy. He was for some time a student in actual service, in the tele- graph office at Madison, and after completing his apprenticeship, and receiving a certificate from the telegraph company, complimenting his capabilities
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and a general knowledge of magneto-electricity, he was, for a season, placed in charge of the office. While serving in this capacity he made the acquaint- ance of Chancellor Lathrop, of the State Univer- sity, who especially urged him, as soon as duties then engrossing his attention should release him, to enter the University, with the view to a full course, but circumstances did not prove favorable and was not carried out, much to the regret of our subject.
After this he turned. his attention to the business of fire insurance, in which for some time he did a large and profitable work as agent for several East- ern companies ; also bought and sold bonds on com- mission, made loans, and located wild lands for those living in other States. He finally turned his attention to literary pursuits, which will probably prove to be his life-long work.
While acting as newspaper correspondent he in- terviewed Abraham Lincoln at his home in Spring- field, soon after his nomination to the Presidency, and from his report of the conference, which was extensively copied by the press, we make the follow- ing extracts :
. This being a prairie State, rail fences are not very plenty ; yet there may be seen flying from the lofty height of a ten-foot rail our good old flag, with the talismanic words, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, appended to it, from which one can discover that our candidate was once a "rail split- ter." ... One bright morning, amidst the clatter of hoofs and the rumbling of wheels, I was at the door and soon ushered into the parlor of our nominee, and, in response to my card, Mr. Lincoln glided down the stairs with the sprightliness of a boy of sixteen, and we were soon im- mersed in lively conversation as to the prospects, he re- marking, in answer to my inquiry, that the chances were somewhat against us, but at present very evenly balanced.
. . We stepped to look at some pictures hanging on the walls, among which was a fine large photograph of himself, and as he stood in front of it, said, smilingly : " That picture gives a very fair representation of my homely face." This incident I give to show that Mr. Lincoln does not flatter himself that he is a handsome man; but for all this, his nobleness and goodness of heart glowed in his countenance like the glory from the fountain of the Just. In reference to a picture of the candidate for vice-president he remarked : " I have not yet seen Mr. Hamlin; that one was sent me from Maine."" Your correspondent suggested that they would get together in Washington ere long. He talked freely of the Black Hawk war, in which he participated. . At the close of the interview he accompanied me to the sidewalk, and shook hands across the low gate in front of his door, saying, as he did so, " As you cannot get out of this town until about noon, suppose you come over to the State House." The offer was too tempting to be resisted : so, thanking him, I promised to call. While there, his little boy came in and asked for twenty-five cents with which to buy toys. Mr. Lincoln said : " My son, I shall not give you twenty-five cents, but will give you five;" and, with his thumb and finger, drew trom his vest-pocket the stated sum and dropped it on the desk before the boy, who, scorn- ing so small a bank account, turned away and disappeared. Mr. Lincoln said: "He will return for it as soon as he is satisfied that I will not give him any more." He did so in fifteen minutes, but said not a word. The equality of the
races had been a subject of conversation. Presently he said : " If the man comes with the key, I want to give you a book." He soon after excused himself, and returned in a moment with a copy of the debates between himself and Stephen A. Douglas. He leaned back in his chair until it rested on two legs, placed the book on his knee, drew from his vest-pocket a stub of lead-pencil two inches long, and wrote on the fly-leaf: "J. S. Bliss, Esq., from A. Lincoln;" . then turning the leaves to page 136, said : "I will just mark a paragraph referring to my views on the subject," and lightly touched his pencil to the place, marking also a para- graph on page 240. . . .
It is needless to add that the book referred to in the above extract is still a treasured keepsake in the family of Mr. Bliss.
In 1861-2 Mr. Bliss superintended personally the details of the great lecture tour of Bayard Taylor, over several States, with marked success.
In 1867 he arranged to go to Europe for health, culture, business and pleasure, and contracted with four respectable newspapers (two dailies and two weeklies), for a moneyed consideration, to furnish a certain number of descriptive letters from foreign lands; and about eighty such letters were published. He sailed for London in the steamship William Penn, and after a pleasant Atlantic voyage arrived in the English capital. From an elaborate journal of his travels we gather the following items: “Visited parliament, the courts, Greenwich Observatory, the British Museum; heard Spurgeon," etc.
He next visited the continent, and halted for a season at Paris; was present at the grand review of eighty thousand French troops by the Emperor Napoleon III, Bismarck, William of Prussia, and the Czar of Russia, which occurred in the Bois de Bou- logne, a few miles outside of Paris, on the 6th of June. This was the day when spiked helmets blazed in the sun, and the day and place that Zow- beski, the Polander, attempted to assassinate the Czar by shooting at him, our subject being about thirty rods distant at the time. The great Paris Exposition also came in for its share of attention.
Leaving the French capital, he passed through the Burgundy district to Dijon and to Geneva; thence up the lake of Geneva to Villeneuve, near which place is Byron's "Castle of Chillon." From Martigny he took passage on the back of that "un- certain " animal the mule, to the foot of Mont Blanc, thirty miles distant. The narrative adds :
It was the 13th of June. The mule was slumping to his knees and to the saddle-girth in the snow that was melting under the direct rays of a blazing sun that shot down between the terrific gorges. Ere long the Vale of Chamouny was under my feet, and, yonder, the venerable crown of Mont Blanc. Delight took possession of me, and I was lost in admiration, but was restored to consciousness by the treacherous beast, who left the ground on " all-fours"
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at once, and caused his rider to perform a parabola that would have made the reputation of any circus rider, could he have repeated it. However, I alighted square in the saddle again.
He slept that night at Chamouny, under the bald and frosty brow of Mont Blanc, and further on, in relation to crossing the great glacier the following day, he says :
Every rod of the treacherous pathway was sounded with the alpenstock. We came to other crevasses, and near to one was a loose rock as large as a parlor stove, which I slid along on the ice, and sent it whirling into the yawning gulch, down, down, DOWN, causing a shudder to creep over me as the reverberations came up from that frozen, crys- tallized cavern six hundred feet below.
It was his intention to have made the ascent of Mont Blanc with two other travelers, but, it being so early in the season, the three guides then in the valley would not undertake it. On crossing the rocky boundary via the great Simplon Pass of the Alps into Italy, his first experience in that sunny land was to ride in a scow-boat directly over the top of a small town, which just eleven weeks previously had sunk under the waters of the lake, with some of the inhabitants and all their earthly treasures. This was the small hamlet of Feriolo, situated on Lago Maggiore, a portion of which disappeared, and the cruel waters closed over it to the depth of eighty feet in some places.
Thence to Milan and the plains of Lombardy, Allessandria, and through the Ligurian Apennines to Genoa, Leghorn, and to the Leaning Tower, Pisa, and Florence. Returning to Leghorn, sailed down the Italian coast to Naples; thence to the ill-fated cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, that were swal- lowed up by the eruption of Vesuvius some eighteen centuries ago; thence to the volcano to see whence came so much misery, and descended with three traveling friends and a guide into the crater, which was well explored, as it was then in a dormant state. But the evidences, both above their heads and be- neath their feet, and the smoldering embers all around, made it uncomfortably warm. He says :
I took a leaf from my note-book and placed it in a cre- vasse, and it was soon destroyed by fire. Here we cooked a dinner by volcanic fires, and dined in the crater. One of the party lighted his pipe by dipping it into the hot embers. Though inactive, Vesuvius is just preparing for one of her grandest pyrotechnic displays. We heard the mutterings of the coming storm, and an explosion, far down in the depths of this awful Tartarean mystery, the sound of which gradually died away, while a sensation of dread crept over us, and we left in silence. A few weeks later these predic- tions were verified; and Bayard Taylor said " seven distinct streams of lava flowed down the sides of the mountain, deluging four hundred acres of land.
In the "Eternal City" he was so fortunate as to witness the eighteenth centennial commemoration of
the martyrdom of St. Peter. This great festival had been omitted one hundred years before, and sixteen popes had passed away since it was observed in Rome. Forty-six cardinals, four hundred and ninety bishops, and about twenty-five thousand delegated priests and ecclesiastics from every known country and every island of the sea were present. In speak- ing of the illumination of St. Peter's Cathedral he says :
From the castle of St. Angelo two deep-mouthed can- nons belched forth the signal to change the lights, and in two minutes twenty thousand burners were transformed trom a golden to a silver illumination by eight hundred Romans in charge. Then it was that the great ball glit- tered and scintillated like a diamond in the world's crown, and the ponderous dome seemed like a swinging globe pierced by a thousand miniature volcanoes, and St. Peter's looked, at the distance of half a mile, like a flickering tem- ple of vast proportions leaning against the Roman sky.
He explored some of the wonderful catacombs and the dark labyrinthian vaults of dead genera- tions, where the King of Terrors seemed to have taken up his abode. Also visited the islands at the head of the Adriatic, and was in Venice on the oc- casion of the visit of the Portuguese queen, and, with his comrades, participated in the gondola promenade on the Grand canal in the evening, that was given in her honor, the city of Venice being brilliantly illuminated at the time.
His European tour, which was quite thorough, and planned with consummate judgment, embraced also a visit to Vienna, which was then in mourning, as was all central and southern Europe, for the exe- cution of Maximilian in Mexico, the sad news of which had just been received; and as Francis Joseph, the Emperor, was absent mourning the death of his brother, permission was granted to visit the palace, which was all hung in emblems of mourning. We quote from another letter, dated Vienna, 1867 : "His room (Maximilian's) seems like silence mourning the absence of the Prince or Archduke at noon-day."
Leaving Austria via Linz and Salzburg into Ba- varia to Munich, Augsburg, crossing the Danube at Ulm into Wirtemberg, to Heidelberg, Frankfort-on- the-Maine, and Homburg, he tarried for a time and partook of the mineral waters for which the place is famous; thence to Castel, and down the "Winding Rhine " to Cologne, in Rhenish Prussia ; thence to the battle-field of Waterloo, in Belgium ;- his tour being brought to a close by way of Paris, London, Edinburgh, and the Scottish Highlands, crossing the "gathering-ground of the Clan Alpine " to Glasgow. On his return voyage he came near slipping over-
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board into the sea, while watching a Portuguese brig that was rolling at a dangerous rate during a wild gale of wind that was blowing at the time.
For a while after his return from Europe he de- livered some very interesting descriptive lectures on what he had witnessed while abroad; was also associate editor of the "Northwestern Advance," a paper then published at Janesville, devoted to the cause of temperance, being the official organ of the Good Templars of Wisconsin. He also contributed occasional sketches to "Silliman's American Journal of Science," New Haven, and reminiscences of for- eign travel to the "Inland Monthly Magazine," the "Schoolday Magazine," Philadelphia, and others.
He is manager of the Northwestern Lyceum Bureau, editor and compiler of the "Lyceum Maga- zine," published in the interests of lecturers, readers, concerts and literary societies; and has arranged lecture appointments for the greatest platform talent in the country, such as Wendell Phillips, Bayard Taylor, Dr. Holland, Schuyler Colfax, and many others. He superintended personally the great route of Horace Greeley in 187 1, and was with the philos- opher every day. It was Mr. Bliss who first offered the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, of London, nine hundred dollars per lecture for one hundred lectures to be delivered in America, and he received an autograph letter from Mr. Spurgeon, of which the following is a correct copy :
J. S. BLISS,-My Dear Sir:
CLAPHAM, LONDON, May 10, 1873.
I am unable to visit the United States; and, moreover, I am no lecturer. To preach Jesus Christ simply, in a plain manner, is all my ambition. Eloquence I leave to others. May you and your great country prosper under the blessing of God. Yours very truly, C. H. SPURGEON.
Our subject is also a distinguished member of the various temperance organizations of Wisconsin, and represented the Grand Division Sons of Temperance at the Seventh National Temperance Convention at Chicago, in June, 1875. This Chicago convention
elected Mr. Bliss as the representative from Wiscon- sin (there being one from each State in the Union) to the International Temperance Conference, to meet a year later (1876) in Philadelphia ; was also a delegate to the National Division Sons of Temper- ance, which convened in Philadelphia, June, 1876, and held its session in Independence Hall. He is also a Good Templar, and an Odd-Fellow, holding a respectable rank in that organization.
In 1874 he was unanimously elected Grand Worthy Associate of the Grand Division of Wisconsin Sons of Temperance; and after the expiration of this term of office he was commissioned, the following year (1875), district deputy Grand Worthy Patriarch. He is an honored member of the National Division of North America and the World, same organization, having been initiated into this, the highest branch of the order, at Providence, Rhode Island, July, 1875. He is a prominent member of the Temple of Honor and Temperance, and has been commissioned twice deputy Grand Templar; and is an officer in the Council of Select Templars, a higher branch of that order; is a member of the Round Table and honorary member of the Orophilian Lyceum of Mil- ton College. Again in March, 1877, he was commis- sioned district deputy grand worthy patriarch Sons of Temperance, and is one of the most active, use- ful and exemplary citizens of the State.
In politics, he believes in true republicanism, if its principles are carried out, but revolts at the un- principled intrigues of any party, and is somewhat inclined to a third party. He did eminent service to his country during the dark period of the rebel- lion by organizing Union leagues, promoting loyalty, and filling the military ranks with recruits.
He favors the Methodist Episcopal church, though not a member.
He was married in 1856, and has three daughters of promise, namely, Lizzie Jane, Myra Asenath, and Cora Elmina, born in the order named.
HON. IRA W. FISHER,
MENASHA.
I RA WILLMARTH FISHER, son of Austin Fisher, a farmer, and Luanna née Willmarth, is a native of Vermont, and was born October 15, 1833. He attended district school during the summers and winters until fifteen years old, and being of a studi-
ous disposition he learned rapidly and commenced teaching when sixteen. He followed that occupa- tion during winters, and worked at the carpenter and joiner's trade the rest of the year. After attain- ing his majority he worked on the home farm about
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three years, and in the summer of 1858 settled in Menasha, Wisconsin. There he has been engaged in various kinds of business. He spent two years in the mercantile trade, then was engaged three years in the milling and grain-dealing business, and for seven years manufactured a general line of wagon stock, in company with Daniel Jones. At the expiration of that time he resumed merchandis- ing, in connection with the forwarding and commis- sion business, in company with H. H. Plummer. They continued thus until the spring of 1873, when Mr. Fisher became a manufacturer of and dealer in masons' building material, and at the same time conducted a boating business. He has the happy faculty of turning his hand to almost any calling, and having good business tact has been successful in most of his enterprises.
Since he settled in Menasha Mr. Fisher has been a very useful citizen. He was town superintendent of schools for about three years. He was at one time a member of the board of supervisors, the school board, and the town and village board, and has al- ways been willing to give the time necessary to attend to local interests and advance local enterprises.
In the autumn of 1868 he was elected to the State senate, and in the sessions of the legislature held in 1869 and 1870 was among the most diligent mem- bers. During the last session his labors were espe- cially hard, he being chairman of two committees, the joint committee on charitable and benevolent institutions and State's prison, and also a member of the committee on banks and banking ..
In politics Mr. Fisher has always acted with the republican party. He is a communicant in the Bap- tist church, and his character stands high both as a business man and a Christian.
Mrs. Fisher was Clarissa Celia née Brown, of Ad- dison, Vermont. They were united September 15, 1856, and have had four children, two of whom, a son and daughter, are now living. In her early life Mrs. Fisher had quite a taste for painting, portrait and landscape, and has cultivated it more or less to the present time (1877). Some of her portrait painting is eminently praiseworthy ; her wax-work, too, is fine. But her indulgence in these branches of art serves only for recreation; she is thoroughly domestic, and gives her personal attention to house- hold matters.
EDWARD N. FOSTER,
FOND DU LAC.
E' DWARD NEWELL FOSTER, who for more than forty years has been a resident of Wis- consin, was born at Springfield, Massachusetts, July 9, 1810, the son of Edward and Rebecca (Strong) Foster. His paternal grandfather was in the conti- nental army, and bought his land in the town of Union, Connecticut, with continental money. His father moved to Augusta, Oneida county, New York, when Edward was one year old, and about twelve years later removed to Smithfield (now Stockbridge), Madison county. There the son worked on a farm and in a mill for twelve years, having meanwhile, during his earlier residence there, the educational privileges of a common school and a year's attend- ance at a local academy. In the autumn of 1836 he arrived at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in the follow- ing spring settled at Fort Atkinson, in Jefferson county, being accompanied by an elder brother, Alvin. · Dwight Foster, his eldest brother, had set- tled there during the previous autumn, being the first white man to build a house in that place.
| There Edward remained cultivating land and keep- ing a public house until 1848, when he went to May- ville, in Dodge county, and in company with his brother Alvin and others engaged in the milling business until 1864, when he removed to Fond du Lac. There, in company with General Hamilton, he was engaged in the manufacture of linseed oil until 1875, when he retired from business.
Although Mr. Foster has never been an office seeker, he has held several positions of trust and honor. His brother Alvin was the first sheriff of Jefferson county, being appointed by the governor ; and afterward served as deputy. Our subject was afterward elected by the people, and was the first person who held the office by their gift. He took the first census of Jefferson and Dodge counties preparatory to the Territory becoming a State. While living at Mayville he was a member of the general assembly during two terms, and has since been mayor of Fond du Lac for the same length of time.
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In politics, Mr. Foster was in early life a whig, and has acted with the republican party since it was originated. He is both a Freemason and an Odd- Fellow, belonging to the subordinate lodges. Al- though not a church member he has great reverence for sacred things, and takes the teaching of Christ for his guide in life.
His wife was Marietta née Rankin, of Mannsville, Madison county, New York, their union dating July 17, 1834. They have had five children, four of whom are living. The eldest son, Edward J., is a station
agent at Sheboygan. The two daughters are at home, and the other son is a railroad man at Reeds- burg, Sauk county.
Although in his sixty-seventh year, Mr. Foster, having always been of temperate habits, and taken the best of care of himself, stands perfectly erect, with all the dignity of matured manhood. He is not an old citizen of Fond du Lac, but has lived there long enough to acquire, by his correct busi- ness habits and exemplary life, the high esteem of his fellow-citizens.
HON. PHILETUS SAWYER, OSHKOSH.
T HE subject of this sketch, a native of Vermont, was born in Rutland, September 22, 1816. He is the son of Ephraim and Polly (Parks) Sawyer, who moved to Essex county, New York, when Philetus was only one year old. There his early youth was spent on his father's farm, in his father's blacksmith shop and in a neighboring saw-mill, with about three months' annual attendance at a district school, in which the simplest rudiments of learning were taught. At the age of seventeen he pledged his father one hundred dollars for the remainder of his minority, and from his wages in a saw-mill, in about two years, canceled this obligation, spending at the same time two more winters in the district school. After a short time he operated the mill on contract with good success, and in the autumn of 1847, with about two thousand dollars in his pocket, the fruit of his own industry, he removed to Wisconsin and settled on a farm in Fond du Lac county. Two years of half crops satisfied him that his fortune did not lie in farming. The Wolf River pinery, twenty miles north, was at that time attracting considerable attention, and in December, 1849, Mr. Sawyer re- moved to Algoma, then the nucleus of a village and now a part of the city of Oshkosh. The next spring he took a saw-mill, which he operated on a contract for a time, and not long afterward rented it, and in 1853 purchased it, in company with Messrs. Brand and Orcott, of Fond du Lac. Three years after- ward Mr. Orcott retired from the firm, and in 1862 Mr. Sawyer became sole proprietor of the property and business, paying Mr. Brand seventy thousand dollars and the amount he put in for his interest. The business had been carefully managed, and had
proved a marked success. About two years after- ward Mr. Sawyer took his only son, Edgar P. Saw- yer, into partnership with him, and during the thir- teen years they have been together they have accu- mulated a fortune of more than half a million dollars. This has all been done by careful attention to busi- ness conducted on the strictest rules of honor and integrity. He has always made his contracts defi- nite and clear; hence has had few misunderstand- ings and no lawsuits. He has always been lenient toward debtors, careful to oppress no one, and among business men has a reputation for correct practices as well as principles. He has a large in- terest in the First National Bank of Oshkosh.
Mr. Sawyer has been a favorite with the people in the municipality of the city, and in both the as- sembly and congressional districts. He was mem- ber of the legislature in 1857 and 1861; mayor of the city in 1863 and 1864 ; a member of congress from 1865 to 1875, when he peremptorily declined a sixth nomination. Nearly all those ten years in congress he was on the committee on commerce, and, though not the chairman, did the leading work. By his untiring efforts large appropriations were se- cured for the improvement of harbors in his district. For six years he had charge of all the appropria- tions for rivers and harbors in the United States. He was always very attentive to the wants of his constituents. During all the time he was in con- gress Mr. Sawyer was noted as a worker rather than speaker, and probably no member was more diligent than he.
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