USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 79
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ing previously spent a short time at a select school. At twenty-one he went to Kentucky, and taught both summers and winters for two years, and then returned to Indiana, and read law with R. L. Doug- lass, of Angola, Steuben county. He was admitted to the bar of that county, and removed thence to Berlin in November, 1855. The next year he com- menced legal practice, and still follows it, being one of the leading attorneys in the third judicial circuit. He is well-read, shrewd and skillful. He discusses points with the judge with great per- tinacity and with unusual success, and in every respect is a first-class lawyer.
With his professional labors Mr. Waring has united land operations with a good degree of suc- cess. While reading law in Indiana, he was elected sheriff of Steuben county, serving two years. He was the first mayor of Berlin, elected in the spring of 1857, and occupied that position four years ; has served three terms as district attorney, at one time for four consecutive years, and, a little later, for two; was deputy provost-marshal during the rebellion; was in the State senate in 1869 and 1870, being on the judiciary committee during both terms, and chairman of the committee on town and county organizations one term, occupying a high position in the Upper House, particularly during the second session.
In politics Mr. Waring is a republican, of whig
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antecedents, and a prominent man in the party in his part of the State.
He is a member of the Congregational church, and a man of exalted moral standing.
He was first married in 1843, his wife being Harriet A. Hopkins, of Angola, Indiana. They had two children, neither of whom are now living.
Mrs. Waring's death occurred February 15, 1873. His present wife was Miss L. White, of Berlin; they were married June 11, 1874. They have one child.
Mr. Waring is about the average height, solidly built, and weighs two hundred pounds. His habits are excellent ; he has taken superb care of himself, and would be taken for a younger man than he is.
REV. THOMAS J. RUGER, A.M., JANESVILLE.
R EV. THOMAS J. RUGER is one of the most respected clergymen of the Protestant Episco- pal church in Wisconsin. He was born in the town of Northumberland, Saratoga county, New York, February 25, 1802. In early life he worked on his father's farm, receiving the benefits of good public and private schools, and was, when quite a young man, a school-teacher for a year or more. Entering Union College, Schenectady, New York, at the age of twenty-two, he graduated, after pursuing its full course of study, with high honors. Soon after leav- ing college he was married to Miss Maria Hutchins, of Lenox, Madison county, New York.
In 1830 he became successor of Rev. Dr. Wilbur Fiske, as principal of Wilbraham Academy, in Mas- sachusetts, and two years later was appointed presi- dent of the Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, New York, which position he filled for a period of four years, when he resigned.
In 1836 he was ordained a priest of the Protestant Episcopal church, and accepted the rectorship of Christ Church parish, of Sherburne, New York, the duties of which office he discharged to the approval of his parishioners. In 1839 he was called to the rectorship of St. John's Church, Marcellus, in the diocese of Western New York. In addition to his pastoral labors he undertook the charge of the academy there, and satisfactorily conducted the institution for a period of five years. In 1844, while in attendance at the general council of the Protest- ant Episcopal church in the city of New York, he was introduced to Bishop Kemper, whose diocese then included the States of Indiana and Missouri and the Territories (now States) of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. The good bishop urged Mr. Ruger to remove into his diocese and become a helper in the Master's work of caring for the souls of the few people scattered over the great field under his
charge. Accepting this invitation he removed that same year to Janesville, Wisconsin, then a place of about two hundred inhabitants.
Trinity Church parish of Janesville was organized in September, 1844, Mr. Ruger being its first rector. He officiated also at Beloit and Milton, holding mis- sionary services at those points for a year or more ; at the same time the regular services at Trinity were not intermitted. In this field he labored faithfully, and with a great degree of success, for more than ten years, and built up a large parish. Commencing with not to exceed ten members of his church, it grew to the number of about two hundred commu- nicants within a period of about ten years. In 1855 he resigned the rectorship of Trinity parish, and retired from the active ministry.
Soon after his arrival in Janesville he organized a school of a high grade, called the Janesville Acad- emy, which afforded opportunities for acquiring a thorough education in English, the classics and mathematics. This school was well patronized and sustained by the citizens of Janesville and the Ter- ritory of Wisconsin at large, and did in its day a large amount of good.
After relinquishing the charge of Trinity parish he engaged actively in the work of cultivating and improving his farm. He enjoys the life of a farmer, feels the inspiration of the sunrise and the freshness of the morning, sleeping soundly after a day in the field. He has continued in this occupation of his youth to the present time (1877), with the exception of four years, during which he was postmaster at Janesville. As a farmer he has had fair success.
Mr. Ruger is a man of medium size, and has been physically strong and active, and, when in his prime, was slightly corpulent. He has been a great walker, and has been and is fond of out-door exercise and employment. His home and farm are a mile from
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town, and it has been his daily habit to walk back and forth, rarely if ever accepting the seat proffered him by his neighbors, who are accustomed to ride over the same road.
His sons, however, are not "farmer boys," and have not helped him much in ploughing and plant- ing. For one or another reason they strayed away from the farm, became soldiers, and engaged in the "learned professions." Nevertheless, in his four sons, as well as in his three daughters, he has been and is greatly blessed. All his domestic relations have been and are exceedingly and uninterruptedly happy. His social relations have also been pleasant. His life and manners are without ostentation, but the " daily beauty of his life " has been such that he has drawn around him, from the ranks of the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the simple and the wise, men, women and children who love and reverence him now, and who will honor and cherish his memory.
Mr. Ruger was endowed by nature with a mind of much vigor, and became proficient in the exact sciences and in literature, and gave much study and reflection to the immediate subject of his profession. As an orator, many of his clerical compeers were superior to him ; but as a writer and a reasoner, few, if any of them, surpassed him. His sermons were practical rather than doctrinal; and while he be- lieved in the creed of his church, and was ready to maintain it on every proper occasion, and to give a reason for his belief, yet he chose rather, as a means of greater good, to lay before his hearers those truths and principles which were delivered by the Master during the period of His ministry, and which, by the generations of men who have since lived, have been regarded as divine.
Mr. Ruger spent little time in recreation, rarely wearied, and never rested. During the active period of his clerical life the "summer vacation" had not come to be an incident of the clerical office, and he wrought on, through summer and winter, heat and cold, seeking to perform the trust of his high office acceptably to Him whom he served, and to the spiritual welfare and advancement of the people.
That he has performed that trust acceptably to Him whom he served many believe; that his minis- trations have been acceptable to the people is mani- fest. He continues to be a member of the diocese of Wisconsin, and has often been called upon by the wardens of Trinity parish and the wardens of Christ Church parish (Janesville) to officiate when either
rectory was vacant, or the rector was absent or ill. To these calls he has always responded.
But perhaps the respect and affection cherished for him and his kindly ways have been most pleas- antly and delicately shown by the frequent requests made to him by "contracting parties" to join them in marriage; by the desire of many parents that he should baptize their children; by the many requests of the sick and the afflicted that he should visit them, and by the many invitations he has received to come to the house of mourning, and help to bury the dead.
These things have been of frequent occurrence; and while they have been gratifying to Mr. Ruger, in that they have manifested the love of the people for their old friend and pastor, yet they have never been in anywise unpleasant or even suggestive of the thought that he was doing the proper work of the rector of either parish. Father Ruger fills a place in the hearts of his children in the church so properly, so acceptably, and so deservedly, that all regard his ministrations with favor and his benedic- tions as blessings. Thus, for many years, he has lived and worked in Janesville, beloved and re- spected as a man among men, and as a minister in the church, and has led a blameless life. If his life has not been faultless also, few of his fellow-citizens have noticed his faults, and none now remember hem or speak of them.
That branch of the Ruger family in America from which the subject of our sketch sprung, came, in the seventeenth century, from Holland to New York, then New Netherland. The ancestors of Mr. Ruger for three generations back were born in Dutchess county, New York. His father, Francis Ruger, was a son of John Ruger, who was a son of Phillip Ruger. His mother was Jane (Jewell) Ruger; she was of a Puritan family of Connecticut, of English ancestry. His grandmother, Katharine (Le Roy) Ruger, was of a French Huguenot family. John Ruger above named served in the army of the revo- lution, fought in the battle of Saratoga, and con- tinued in the army till the surrender of General Burgoyne, with the British army, to General Gates.
Maria (Hutchins) Ruger, wife of Rev. Mr. Ruger, is a daughter of Benjamin Hutchins and Jerusha (Bradley) Hutchins, both natives of Connecticut. Her paternal grandfather, Colonel Benjamin Hutch- ins, was a captain in a Connecticut regiment in the war of the revolution, was wounded in battle, and never recovered from the effects of his wound. Her
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grandfather, Bradley, also served in the continental army, was taken by the British, and died while a prisoner of war.
Thomas H. Ruger, the eldest son of our subject, is a colonel in the United States army, and rose to the rank of major-general in the volunteer army. He was born at Lima, New York, April 2, 1833, and entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1850; was graduated, standing third in his class, and assigned to the corps of engineers in the United States army. He remained in the army a year, then resigned, and read law in the office of Eldredge and Pease, of Janesville. He was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice as a member of the firm of Eldredge, Pease and Ruger, and con- tinued in practice until April, 1861. When the late war began he forthwith tendered his services to the government; was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 3d Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, sent to the field, and promoted to the command of his regi- ment. He served through the war as commander of his regiment, his brigade or division, and was actively engaged in many of the most important battles of the war. At the close of the war he was retained in the volunteer military service for over a year, and intrusted with the command of the dis- trict of North Carolina. In 1866 he received the commission of colonel in the United States army, and has been five years superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and is now (1877) in command of the military department of the South, with headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia.
Edward, the second son, by profession a civil engineer, volunteered and was commissioned cap- tain in the 13th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, in September, 1861, and served with distinction in the army through the war, and until 1869; was, with the rank of colonel, assigned to the charge of the Topo- graphical Engineers of the Army of the Cumberland, under General Thomas, and also served on the staff of General Rousseau.
William, the third son, a lawyer, volunteered in 1861, and entered the army as lieutenant in his brother Edward's company in the 13th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers; was appointed adjutant of the regiment before taking the field, and served with distinction through the war in the capacity of adjutant of his regiment at first, and soon after as assistant adjutant-general on the general staff; was seriously wounded in battle at New Hope Church, Georgia; afterward served on general staff in the Veteran Reserve Corps until October, 1865.
Henry H., the youngest son, also served in the army from the fall of 1862 to the end of the war. He is a physician and surgeon in practice, and resides in Dakota Territory.
Cornelia M. is the wife of J. J. R. Pease, a leading lawyer of Janesville, Wisconsin.
Addie, the second daughter, is the wife of Rev. George W. Dunbar, a chaplain in the United States army.
Augusta, the youngest daughter, is unmarried, and resides with her parents, who are now (March, 1877) both in good health.
EDWARD BAIN,
KENOSHA.
F DWARD BAIN, a native of Kinderhook, Co- lumbia county, New York, was born on the 9th of March, 1823, and is the son of Bastian and Moyca (Burgher) Bain. His father, who was of Scotch ancestry, was a frugal and well-to-do farmer, an influential man in his community, and much respected by all who knew him. His mother was of German lineage, and noted for the best qualities that distinguish her race. Edward re- ceived a good common-school education in his native place, and at Lenox, Berkshire county, Mas- sachusetts. After leaving school, at the age of sixteen, he spent a season in farm work, and in
1839 went to Albany and apprenticed himself to learn the hardware business, and remained in this situation until he attained his majority. In 1844 he removed to the West and settled at what was then known as Southport (now Kenosha), Wiscon- sin, his present home, and at once established himself in the hardware business, at which he continued with uninterrupted success for a period of twenty years, building up an extensive and prosperous trade. In 1852 his brother, Lewis Bain, became associated with him in business, the firm being known as "Bain Brothers." Meantime he commenced the manufacture of farm wagons, a
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business which proved so successful that he de- termined to make it his life work. Accordingly, in 1864 he sold out his interest in the hardware trade to his brother, by whom it is still conducted (1877), and since then has devoted his entire at- tention to the wagon manufacturing business. His wagons have become largely known and celebrated for their superior workmanship, durability, neatness and finish. Throughout his entire career Mr. Bain has shown remarkable talent and business capacity, and is widely known and eminently distinguished for his honest and upright dealing, his promptness in meeting his engagements, and for many noble and generous qualities of head and heart, some of which may be inferred from the fact that he has never been sued for a debt nor had a note protested.
His business has assumed very large proportions. Its magnitude may be inferred from the fact that he gives steady employment to over two hundred men, while his annual transactions amount to over six hundred thousand dollars. In 1876, notwithstand- ing the stringent times, his establishment made and sold over seven thousand wagons.
In religious sentiment he affiliates with the Con- gregational church, of which both he and his fam-
ily are worthy members. To his generosity and liberality are mainly due the construction of the beautiful and costly edifice of the Congregational church of Kenosha,-one of the finest ecclesias- tical structures in the State, and which will long remain a standing monument of his magnanimity and moral worth.
In political sentiments he has been identified with the republican party since its organization, but has never held nor had any desire to hold office.
He was married on the 20th September, 1847, to Miss Harriet M. Brockett, of Waterford, Sara- toga county, New York, a most excellent and unassuming lady, whose life has been largely de- voted to the welfare of others. They have three children,- one son named Charles, and two daugh- ters named respectively Frances and Carrie,- all of. whom give promise of future worth and usefulness.
By his excellent personal qualities Mr. Bain has won to himself many true and valuable friends. Generous to an unusual degree, genial and social, he is a most agreeable companion, being most admired by those who know him best. In his own home he is loved as a devoted husband and a kind, indulgent father.
DAVID GREENWAY,
DARTFORD.
T THE subject of this sketch, a native of War- wickshire, England, and a son of Thomas and Hannah (Padbury) Greenway, was born March 14, 1825. His father, a brewer, baker and inn-keeper, in the old country, came to the United States in 1835, and resided about fifteen years in Syracuse and Palmyra, New York, engaged in farming most of the time. David received a common-school education, and lived with his father several years after coming to this country. In 1850 he removed to Wisconsin, and settled at Ripon. The place had then only four dwelling houses, and they were poor shanties, and he built one of the first good houses there. He was engaged in the drug business about twelve years, and acted a long time as agent for an express com- pany. In 1866 he built the Oakwood House at Dartford, six miles west of Ripon, and the next season opened it as a summer resort. It was a bold venture, as there was no railroad to that place then, and his friends thought he was chimerical, and
prophesied a failure. Nothing daunted, however, he pushed forward ; patronage increased from year to year, and every season he enlarged his premises, adding one-fourth to his accommodations in the spring of 1877, and now has one building one hun- dred and sixty feet long, connected by balconies with other buildings used for dormitories, and four double cottages, with accommodations in all for three hundred guests. The Oakwood is one of the most attractive resorts for tourists in Wisconsin. A great many families from the South as well as from the large Northern cities, come here annually to spend months. The Oakwood House is only a few rods from Green Lake, which is one of the loveliest sheets of water found in the State. One of the Eastern newspapers thus speaks of the hotel, the scenery around it, and the lake :
Green Lake is situated on a station of the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac railway, the most of the distance to it being traversed, however, by the Chicago and Northwestern or Milwaukee and St. Paul roads. It is so secluded that you
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might imagine yourself lost in a romantic wilderness, until you have finished the lovely ride of over a mile, which brings you to the Oakwood House, and the whole lovety scene lies spread before you- a splendid hotel with verandas, walks and ornamental pleasure-grounds, a body of clear, green, translucent water, stretching away between beauti- fully wooded shores, and landscape pictures of surpassing beauty, greeting you at every turn, while over all broods the ineffable peace of Nature. There is no other lake in Wisconsin that possesses the cool, deep, green water that Green Lake has; there is no other lake possessing finer fish or more delightful scenes to charm the artistic soul - every day brings a new view from some different point of interest. The lazy tourist who wants rest can lie on the bank and watch the shadows through his half closed eyes, and note the silvery gleam of a fish as it " flops" under his gaze; or he can hold a rod, and only exert himself to land the big fish that catch at his bait; or he can float softly on the rocking wave, trolling leisurely as he goes. All along the banks of Green Lake stands the forest primeval, and here and there a smoke curls lazily from some camp and defines a picturesque outline against the sky. The air is full of delicious odors of earth and sky, and the cool, sea-like fragrance of the water is balsam to the weary lungs. Fash- ion worn and sickly women come here to rest and recu- perate, and the bloom of health glows on their cheeks before the season is over. Blasé men, tired of business and pleasure, find fresh interest in Nature, and take a new lease of life; and little, puny, town-reared children gain color and muscle, and do their parents credit. All this is gained from the resources of Nature. Art has given us the comfortable and luxurious Oakwood Hotel, with its cool, stately halls and piazzas, its pleasant parlors and family suites, and its spacious dining hall, where every luxury is cooked to please the appetite, and served up by competent hands. The great number of tourists attracted thither from New Orleans, Memphis, Vicksburg, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, New York and other cities, presents nothing like loneliness, and there are amusements in which all are free to partake-croquet, lawn parties, picnics, bowling alleys, billiards, walks, rides, boating, camping out, excursions and card parties, and charades within doors, when it rains, to say nothing of the brilliant hops. The family of the proprietor make it especially pleasant by their
kind attention to guests. Green Lake is ten miles long and from two to four miles wide, with a diversity of beau- tiful scenery that makes it forever new. Numerous elegant homes line its banks, and pleasure-grounds and picnic resorts are conveniently near. Lying back from its shores are fine farms in a high state of cultivation, and pedestrians will find themselves well repaid for a tramp of ten miles in any direction. There is something in the bracing air sug- gestive of such exercise ; for after a few weeks of lazy resting, all the veins and sinews tingle with health and new life, and the exercise of the fields is a pleasant change."
Invalids, and health and pleasure seekers gen- erally, may well "thank their stars" that such an enterprising, kind and obliging man as Mr. Green- way ever cast his eye on this Eden-like spot, and has made it what it is.
The wife of Mr. Greenway was Miss Caroline Chadburn, daughter of an English optician. They were married in Syracuse, New York, February 19, 1849, and have had five children, three of whom, one daughter and two sons, are still living. Nellie, the widow of the late Henry Mowry, of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, lives with her parents; the elder son, William, is married, and is clerk of the Oakwood; and George is also at home. Mrs. Greenway is a woman of fine social and lady-like qualities, and admirably adapted to preside in the parlors of a popular public resort.
The family are Episcopal in religions sentiment, and during the summer services are usually held once a day on Sunday, in the parlors. Perfect de- corum prevails in and around the house on that day. The family spend their winters in Ripon.
JABEZ N. ROGERS,
BERLIN.
TABEZ NELSON ROGERS is the son of Jabez Rogers, junior, and Sarah née Chipman, and was born in Middlebury, Addison county, Vermont, February 16, 1807. - Both of his grandfathers par- ticipated in the revolutionary war. Jabez Rogers, senior, was a commissary officer ; and Colonel John Chipman was a volunteer with General Ethan Allen, in the spring of 1775, to take Ticonderoga and Crown Point. He was at the capture of St. John's and Montreal, and participated in the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington. He was at Saratoga at the capture of General Burgoyne, in October, 1777; and afterward had the command of Forts Edward and George, successively. He was taken prisoner at the latter fort in 1780; was exchanged
in the summer of 1781, and remained a super- numerary until the close of the war. The Rogers family were among the early settlers in Addison county, and Jabez Rogers, junior, a merchant during most of his life, opened the first store in that county.
Jabez Nelson was educated in the common school and in Middlebury Academy, and at one time was intending to go through college, but abandoned his purpose. He went into a store while in his minority, and becoming attached to the mercantile business, followed it as long as he was a resident of Vermont. Leaving that State in 1833 he settled at St. Joseph, then in the Terri- tory of Michigan, and just coming into promi-
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