USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 89
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Mr. Kimball was known in New York State as a free-soiler, that being the ticket which he voted in 1848. With a single exception, for the last twenty- one years, he has voted with the republicans. He was a delegate, in 1864, to the national convention which renominated Mr. Lincoln.
He is a member of the Temple of Honor, and for nearly two years was at the head of the local lodge, and is an influential man among the advocates of temperance, and an earnest promoter of the moral, literary and general interests of society. He attends the Congregational church.
Mr. Kimball has a second wife: his first, Miss Buttrick, of Clinton, New York, to whom he was married in 1852, died without issue in 1862. His present wife was Miss Richards, daughter of Rev. W. M. Richards, of Berlin, their marriage occurring in 1863, and they have six children.
EDWARD PIER,
FOND DU LAC.
T HE subject of this biography is a son of Calvin Pier, a tanner and currier, and later in life a farmer, and was born in New Haven, Addison coun- ty, Vermont, March 31, 1807. The maiden name of his mother was Esther Evarts, and her father was a soldier a short time in the revolutionary war. Ed-
ward attended school during the winter months after his seventh year, until he attained the age of twelve, when he terminated his school-days. He was early and thoroughly trained to work, and prob- ably no young Vermonter ever applied himself with more diligence to any and every task assigned him,
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or was more faithful in the discharge of filial obliga- tions. When he was twelve years old his family moved to the town of Ripon, in his native county, and there Edward passed his youth and early man- hood, the whole household living in rustic simplicity. The house was built in the woods, overspread by forest trees, and its chimney was made of boards, and up through it the children could look and see the birds which came to sing their morning songs.
In addition to farming Mr. Pier learned to make and mend shoes, being his own teacher ; for in those days on the Green Mountains, one of the great stud- ies was how to save the hard-earned money.
Hoping to find land easier to cultivate than the soil of Vermont, but without intending to slacken his industrious habits, Mr. Pier, on the 25th of August, 1834, started for that part of Michigan Ter- ritory which is now the State of Wisconsin. Five years before, June 2, 1829, he had been married to Miss Harriet N. Kendall, of Rochester, Vermont, who, with courage and a cheerful spirit, went with him to the land of the Menomonies and the Potta- watomies. Two brothers, Colwert E. and Oscar, also accompanied him. They arrived at Green Bay in just four weeks, a remarkably quick trip in those days. In the autumn of that year, Colwert, the eldest of the three Piers, made a prospecting trip, extending into Illinois; and in the summer of 1835 Edward made a still longer trip, extending into southern Illinois, where he purchased a herd of cows and young cattle for Charles D. Nash and drove them to Green Bay, a distance of four hundred miles, much of the way through a country of bridge- less streams.
In February, 1836, Edward Pier and his brother Colwert visited the present site of Fond du Lac, then without a white settler. Having heard favorable reports from the Indians, of the richness of the soil and the rank growth of corn, they returned to Green Bay, and in June following Colwert pitched his tent there, being the first permanent white settler in Fond du Lac county. A few days later his wife joined him. The next December, Edward, learning that Colwert was nearly out of provisions, started with a load from Green Bay, and came very near losing his life. The historian of Fond du Lac county states that soon after starting, on the 20th, a fearful storm of rain and sleet and driving and blinding snow set in; the next day was intensely cold, and Mr. Pier had to keep up the greatest activity to avoid freez- ing. While crossing Lake Winnebago, about two
miles from Taycheedah, the horse stumbled into an open crack in the ice, both hind legs going down. Mr. Pier detached the horse as soon as possible, but the ice broke, opening a space wide enough to let the animal into the lake. It was now so cold that water froze the moment it touched his person; yet the horse would perish if left there, and in his efforts to get the animal out, the ice broke again, and he fell in! Both were now struggling for life. By almost superhuman efforts Mr. Pier got out of the water, but the poor animal was freezing. Placing a shaft under its head he started for dear life for the only house in what is now Fond du Lac county, constant- ly and violently whipping his hands to keep them from freezing. Darkness came on; the wind and storm abated not; he became bewildered; at times supposed he was lost, but at length discovered a newly made cow-track in the snow, which he fol- lowed, and came to his brother's house,-more pleased than was Robinson Crusoe when he discov- ered human tracks on his island home. The brother that day had taken the same trail for Green Bay, and the two had passed in the blinding storm with- out seeing each other.
In March, 1837, Edward Pier settled near Fond du Lac, and on the 21st of the next month he and his brother turned the first furrows in the county, one mile south of where the court-house now stands, and six days later sowed wheat, oats and peas. The next year Mr. Pier had occasion to get a plowshare repaired ; the nearest blacksmith shop was twenty miles away, and he had to make three round trips, walking one hundred and twenty miles, before he could get the job completed. Where Mr. Pier stuck down his stakes forty years ago, he is found to-day. The city has expanded over part of his original farm, but he has a delightful homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, and a fine farm house. He has al- ways been a hard-working man and has been emi- nently successful. Although a farmer, he has also, at times, been engaged in manufacturing, merchan- dizing and banking.
Mr. Pier has held many trustworthy positions. He was one of the first county commissioners (super- visors) of Fond du Lac county, and was president of the board ten years. He was county treasurer one term many years ago; State senator four years, from 1856 to 1860; a trustee of the Insane Asylum at Madison for some time; superintendent of the poor of the county for ten years, and has been pres- ident of two banks in Fond du Lac city, and has
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discharged the duties of every office with conscien- tiousness and fidelity.
In politics he was originally a democrat, but since 1855 has usually voted the republican ticket.
On the 21st of August, 1864, Mrs. Pier, his early- chosen wife, true, confiding and faithful, breathed her last. She was a noble pioneer wife,- cheerful under deprivations, and hopeful when clouds seemed to gather. She was left an orphan when a young girl, and after living in different families, at length fell into the hands of one of the best of women, who, though lowly and poor in this world's goods, sur- rounded the young girl with such influences as made her, in after life, a model woman. Mr. Pier claims that whatever he has been to the community or otherwise is directly attributable to his excellent companion, the wife of his affections, the mother of his children, of whom he has four, three daughters and one son, the youngest daughter and son being twins. All are married and living in or near Fond du Lac. The eldest daughter, Ann P., the only one born in Vermont, is the wife of J. W. Carpenter, a merchant; the second, Ruth R., is the wife of L. J. Harvey, a contractor, and Carrie S. is the wife of Hamilton R. Skinner, a grain dealer. Mrs. Harvey was the widow of Captain Edwin A. Brown, who was killed in the battle of Antietam. Colwert K., the
son, is cashier of the Savings Bank of Fond du Lac. He was born half a mile from this city; has grown up, was educated and married here. He has four little daughters. He inherits his father's industry, and is one of the best business men among the younger class in the city. At the opening of the rebellion, in 1861, he enlisted in the Ist Regiment Wisconsin Infantry ; subsequently he was appointed colonel of the 38th Regiment, and though one of the youngest commanders of a regiment sent from the Badger State, he was among the most dashing, dar- ing and efficient. His regiment was mustered out of the service in August, 1865. Colonel Pier was one of the most active men in the State in estab- lishing a Soldiers' Orphans' Home, and has been one of the trustees since its origin.
Edward Pier has just rounded up his three-score years and ten; yet, having always been a man of temperate habits, he enjoys good health and is quite active. He has but few cares, and is surrounded with the comforts of a competency ; he is happy in being surrounded by his children, and is the embodi- ment of cheerfulness and sociality, and warms up with laudable enthusiasm as he entertains his visit- ors with reminiscences of frontier life. Probably no man in the county is more heartily esteemed by his fellow-citizens.
HENRY SHANFIELD,
MILWAUKEE.
T THE subject of this biography is a native of Syracuse, New York, and was born on the 4th of April, 1853; the son of Adolphus and Clara Shanfield. His father died when the son was but three years old.
Henry early developed a great fondness for literary pursuits, and while yet a youth had a strong desire to fit himself for the legal profession. He enjoyed good educational advantages, and at the age of thir- teen years closed his studies in the common schools of his native place.
In 1866 he removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, his present home, and entering upon a course of study in Spencer's Business College, graduated and re- ceived a diploma from the same, and subsequently turned his attention to the study of law. Later, however, having developed marked business capaci- ties, he abandoned his purpose of entering the law.
He first engaged in the insurance business, and met with good success, but relinquished it to accept a position as book-keeper in the wholesale dry-goods establishment of I. A. Levy and Co., where he re- mained about one year. At the expiration of that time, wishing to begin business on his own account, he leased first Hillbery Distillery, and shortly after- ward that known as the Pfril Distillery. During his first year in business he distilled five thousand two hundred barrels of liquor, and in the year 1874, nine thousand three hundred and sixty barrels.
As a business man Mr. Shanfield has been emi- nently successful, being endowed with the happy faculty of seizing current events and turning them to the interest of his business. He now (1877) owns an interest in a rectifying establishment, and also an interest in the Menomonee Distillery, the largest distillery in Wisconsin, having facilities for distilling
Mary"Shufico)
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eighteen thousand seven hundred and twenty barrels per annum. He began life with a capital of three thousand dollars, and by careful investments and judicious management, has gradually built up his business, and his name is now well and honorably known to the trade throughout the country. Though
still a young man, he has attained a success reached by few, and gives fair promise of becoming one of the most eminent business men of our country.
In politics Mr. Shanfield is identified with the democratic party, but is in no way a partisan. In his religious views he is liberal.
SAMUEL Y. BRANDE,
KENOSHA.
S AMUEL YATES BRANDE was born in Cas- tle Dorrington, Leicestershire, England, Octo- ber 1, 1818, and is the son of Rev. William Brande and Sarah née Yates. His father, a Baptist clergy- man, was born near Cambridge, and was descended of distinguished ancestors, whose history and pre- served genealogy dates back to the Norman con- quest, at which period they settled in England, being originally of French or Norman lineage. His mother was the second daughter of Samuel Yates, of Leicester, England, a noted stage proprietor. When he was two years old his father removed with his family from the church at Castle Dorrington to take the oversight of a new charge at the flourishing naval station of Portsmouth, where the boyhood of Samuel was spent amid naval and military specta- cles,-the immense dock-yard, with its celebrated machinery designed by Brunel, the engineer of the Thames tunnel; the ship-yards, forts and fortifica- tions, furnishing food for his youthful imagination. Here he attended a juvenile academy and was in- structed in the elementary branches of learning. An incident which occurred at this period, and which came near cutting short his career, making such an impression upon his childish mind that it is still as fresh and vivid in his memory as the day it occurred, is worthy of mention. He was one day playing with his school-mates in the mast-ponds at- tached to the yards, when he and another boy mounted a huge round mast to sail across the pond ; they reached the other side in safety, when his companion, accidentally or purposely, in getting off made the immense log roll, when plump went young Brande into the water. On reaching the surface, by a superhuman effort he managed to lay hold on the round and slippery timber, but how to get on board of it while it continued in motion, was the problem ; before he could do so his little remaining strength was all but exhausted. It was a moment
of awful uncertainty. He felt that his life hung by a thread. No one in sight; the cowardly boy, as soon as he saw his predicament ran away, leaving him to his fate. How he emerged from his peril is still shrouded in'mystery. It was especially notice- able to his companions that he evaded the pond and eschewed mast-riding for years afterward. At the age of ten years he attended a drawing-school, taught by an artist of the town, an excellent draughtsman, where he pursued that study as well as the art of writing,- occupations of which he was always fond, and in which he attained to a very high degree of proficiency,- his manuscripts at this day outrivaling the very finest specimens of typog- raphy. At the age of twelve he was sent to an academy of a high class, kept by an elder brother at the ancient town of Northampton, where he re- mained two years, giving some attention to the study of the Latin language and the higher mathematics. But his father's increasing family and limited for- tune at this time led him to look across the sea to America as the place where his children could have room to develop, and where he could find more cer- tain provision for them than in over-crowded Eng- land. One of the elder brothers of our subject, an adventurous boy of fifteen, had previously crossed the ocean alone, to become an apprentice to an uncle at Lansingburg, New York. Accordingly the whole family took passage in the good ship Colum- bia, Captain Delano, from Portsmouth, and arrived safely in New York in May, 1832, Samuel being then scarcely fourteen years of age. The family made a temporary sojourn at Lansingburg, while the father made a tour through northern Pennsyl- vania and attended the triennial convention of the Baptist Church in New York city. He finally re- solved to settle in Susquehanna county, Pennsylva- nia, whither he removed his family in the autumn of the same year, settling near the village of Montrose.
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Our subject remained in the family for four years and worked upon a farm, of which his father had become the owner, and became noted for the skill which he displayed in laying sloping stone-wall fences, which was and still is, the best farm fence in that part of the country. During the winters he taught the district school, often having for his pupils young men and women not only much larger but much older than himself.
Soon tiring of farming on the rocky hillsides he induced his father to allow him to learn a trade, or business. He had a strong predilection for orna- mental painting, of which his father could not quite approve; but the matter was finally compromised by his being bound an apprentice for the term of three years to a cabinet-maker at Montrose, Pennsylvania, and as the cabinet-maker was also the village house- painter, his predilection was in a manner gratified.
At the close of his apprenticeship he was induced to settle in Waterford, Saratoga county, New York. Although quite juvenile in appearance, just of age, he was a good workman, and was possessed of con- siderable confidence. He purchased an establish- ment there in 1839, which he carried on successfully for two years, and until the memorable fire of 1841, which destroyed the business portion of the village, in which he lost all his stock in trade. He remained another year in the vain attempt of restoring the business, but the town was damaged past immediate recovery ; hence he determined to go west, and ac- cordingly, in the autumn of 1842, he took passage on the line boat on the Erie canal, with his tools and personal effects, as far as Buffalo; thence on the steamer De Witt Clinton, and after a week's passage landed at Southport (now Kenosha), in the then Ter- ritory of Wisconsin, which has since been his home. He immediately erected a shop and commenced business in a small way, which he continued with success till 1850, when a combination of disasters visited the town and determined him to abandon the business of cabinet-making, as one at which he was not destined to succeed. For the next two years he was not engaged in any business, but in the autumn of 1852 he was elected registrar of deeds of Kenosha county on the liberty ticket, there being then three candidates in the field. Mr. Brande was one of the founders of the liberty party of Wisconsin, attended the convention that gave it birth in the Territory, and acted with it through its various stages until it was fully merged in the republican party. During his incumbency of this office his tastes had led him
to examine the land system of the United States, and to study its requirements, and he concluded that with his education and accomplishments as a penman, and the knowledge thus attained, he might be able to do a profitable business in the tracing of titles and in facilitating the work of transferring land. He immediately purchased an abstract of titles of that part of Racine county which had been made into the new county of Kenosha, spending six months at Racine in revising and correcting it. He commenced the work in June, 1855, and was thirteen years in completing the records to date, so as to be absolutely sure of his ground. His records, ab- stracts and indexes are, perhaps, the most complete and artistic of any to be found in the nation. The work is mainly in his own handwriting, and in uni- formity of style and beauty of workmanship rivals the finest products of the printing press, and will be an enduring monument to his skill and accomplish- ments as a penman, for they are preserved in a fire- proof building. With this enterprise he has also connected the business of administering estates, land conveyancing and the practice of law,- the latter he found to be an essential prerequisite to success in his business. Its study was therefore entered upon and he was admitted to the bar on the 23d November, 1866. In 1875 he associated with himself H. M. Thiers, and the business is now con- ducted by Brande and Thiers.
In the year 1857, with Jason Lathrop, he pub- lished a map of the city of Kenosha, which has since been the standard authority on questions within its scope.
Among his many other accomplishments is a de- cided taste for horticulture and matters related thereto, such as landscape gardening, the designing of exquisite patterns in flower beds, etc. In 1862 he designed the addition to the Kenosha cemetery, which has resulted in giving the city a place of sep- ulture beautiful and convenient. He has been pres- ident of the Kenosha Horticultural Society, and has done much by precept and example to promote the culture of flowering plants in his neighborhood. He has always tended his own garden and conservatory, which is a crowning testimonial to his skill and taste in that direction.
In the year 1847 he served as city assessor of Kenosha, and in the year following, as alderman of the first ward of the city.
His political views have always been republican, except during the second candidacy of President
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Grant, with whose views on reconstruction and civil service reform he was at variance; hence he sup- ported Horace Greeley. On the nomination of Mr. Hayes, however, he renewed his devotion to the old party, and is now a warm friend of the administra- tion. He was among the active patriotic citizens of Wisconsin during the late war, and was a leader in his locality in measures for filling the ranks with re- cruits, and in raising means for the relief of sick soldiers and their families. In [862 he was ap- pointed assistant United States assessor for the first district of Wisconsin, and held the office till 1871, when he resigned it because he could not conscien- tiously support the administration.
In religions opinions he was educated a Baptist, but about the year 1840 began to examine more
critically the foundations of his belief, and the result was a considerable modification of his old straight- laced faith, and, although not entirely in harmony with the views of the Unitarian creed, yet he can worship more comfortably with that denomination than any other.
On the 15th of November, 1844, he married Miss Elizabeth M. Holmes, a native of Courtland county, New York; born in 1822. Her father, Samuel Holmes, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and her grandfather, Raswell H. Holmes, was a soldier of the revolution. On the mother's side she is con- nected with the Sprague family, of Rhode Island. They have had four children, three of whom are liv- ing. Flora A. is the wife of George W. Hoyt, of Chicago, and Hattie lives at home with her parents.
HON. ALEXANDER L. COLLINS,
APPLETON.
A' LEXANDER LYNN COLLINS, son of Oliver and Catharine (Kellogg) Collins, was born in Whitestown, Oneida county, New York, March 17, 1812. His father, a farmer, joined the continental army when only sixteen years old, and served dur- ing the last five years of the war. He was also in the second war with England, and was a brigadier- general in command two years at Sacket's Harbor. Immediately after the first war with the mother country he settled on land in Whitestown, and reared and educated respectably twelve children, of whom Alexander was the tenth. General Collins died at the old homestead in 1838.
At sixteen years of age, with a common-school education, and a year's instruction at a grammar school, the subject of this brief memoir commenced teaching. At nineteen he entered the law office of Storrs and White, of Whitesboro; Mr. Storrs, an eminent statesman, being then a member of con- gress. In 1833 he went to Cleveland, Ohio, and completed his legal studies, and was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Ohio in 1835. He practiced in Cleveland until 1842, when he removed to Madison, Wisconsin, where he practiced for thir- teen years, most of the time in the well-known firm of Collins, Smith and Keyes, and ranked as one of the foremost lawyers in Wisconsin. He was also very highly respected for his high moral qualities as well as legal attainments.
In 1846 Mr. Collins was elected a member of the territorial council, and remained in that body until 1848, when the Territory became a State. He was a member of the first board of regents of the State University. In 1848 he was the whig candi- date for congress against Mason C. Darling, the whig candidate for governor in 1849 against Governor Dewey, and was twice supported by his party in the legislature for United States senator against Governor Dodge. He was chairman of the whig State central committee from 1852 until the party became disorganized. He was delegate to the national convention which met at Baltimore in 1852, and voted for Daniel Webster for three full days, and when General Scott was nominated on the fifty- fourth ballot, left in disgust, declaring that the dis- solution of the old whig party, so endeared to his heart, was drawing near. In 1855 Mr. Collins, aided largely by democratic friends, was elected judge of the ninth judicial circuit; after serving four years, by reason of impaired health, he was obliged to resign. As a jurist he was noted for his candor and impartiality, and for the easy dignity with which he wore the ermine. He was very much esteemed by the bar of the circuit.
On leaving the bench in 1859, Judge Collins joined Governor Doty in his land operations at Manasha, on what was then known as "Doty's Island." Two years later (1861), at the opening of
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