Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 68

Stephen Miller in 1863, he succeeded to the command of the regiment, and remained connected with it to the close of the war, partic.i.p.ating in the battles of Tupelo and Nashville, and in the siege of Spanish Fort. Gen. Marshall won for himself an enviable record as a soldier, and was breveted brigadier general for meritorious services. In 1865 he was elected governor of Minnesota, and re-elected in 1867. On vacating the gubernatorial chair he resumed banking, and was made vice president of the Marine National Bank, and president of the Minnesota Savings Bank.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wm. R. Marshall]

In 1874 he was appointed a member of the board of railway commissioners. In November, 1875, he was elected state railroad commissioner, and re-elected in 1877. In politics he is Republican, in his religious views he is a Swedenborgian, being one of the founders of that society in St. Paul. He is a liberal supporter of religious and benevolent enterprises, and a man universally esteemed for sterling qualities of mind and heart. He was married to Miss Abbey Langford, of Utica, New York, March 22, 1854. They have one son, George Langford.

DAVID COOPER was born in Brooks Reserve, Frederic county, Maryland, July 2, 1821. He enjoyed good educational advantages, first in the common schools and later had as a tutor Rev. Brooks, a Methodist clergyman, an accomplished gentleman and scholar, who gave him thorough instruction in the sciences and cla.s.sics. In 1839 he entered Penn College, where he became a ready writer and pleasant speaker.

After leaving college he studied law with his brother, Senator Cooper, and in 1845 was admitted to practice. He practiced in several counties, showed rare ability, espoused with enthusiasm the politics of the Whig party, and on the accession of Gen. Taylor to the presidency, in 1849, was appointed by him first a.s.sistant judge of the supreme court for the territory of Minnesota. He arrived in Minnesota in June, 1849, and located in Stillwater; was a.s.signed by Gov. Ramsey to the Second Judicial district, and held his first court at Mendota.

He changed his residence to St. Paul in 1853, and, leaving the bench, devoted himself to law practice in St. Paul. He was a Republican candidate for Congress in 1858, at the first session of the state legislature.

He left Minnesota for Nevada in 1864, then went to Salt Lake City, where he died in a hospital in 1875. He was twice married but left no children.

BUSHROD W. LOTT was born in Pemberton, New Jersey, in 1826. He was educated at the St. Louis University, and studied law in Quincy, Illinois, being admitted to practice in 1847. A year later he accompanied Gen. Samuel Leech to St. Croix Falls, and was clerk during the first land sales in that region, while Gen. Leech was receiver.

The same year he came to St. Paul, settling down to the legal profession. He was a Democrat in politics, and held the office of chief clerk of the house in the legislature of 1851, being elected in 1853 and re-elected in 1856 as a representative. In 1853 he was beaten for the speakership by Dr. David Day, after balloting for twenty-two days. About ten years after this he became president of the town council for two years, and was city clerk for a year and a half.

President Lincoln appointed him consul to Tehuantepec, Mexico, in 1862, where he served until 1865. Mr. Lott was a charter member of the St. Paul Lodge, I. O. O. F. He died of apoplexy in 1886.

W. F. DAVIDSON, better known as "Commodore" Davidson, was born in Lawrence county, Ohio, Feb. 14, 1825. He was early a.s.sociated with his father in ca.n.a.l boating and river life and acquired a strong predilection for the pursuit in which he afterward became distinguished. His father was a Baptist preacher, and the influence of his teachings was apparent in many acts of the son's later life. His advantages for education were limited, as his chief training was on board the boats on which he was employed. In 1854 he came to St. Paul.

Before coming West he was interested in boating on the Ohio river, and was the owner of several steamers. His first work in Minnesota was on the Minnesota river, but soon afterward he became president of a company known as the La Crosse & Minnesota Packet Company. His experience and superior ability placed him at the head of river navigation, and for many years he had scarce a rival, earning by this supremacy the familiar cognomen of "Commodore," first applied to him, we believe, by John Fletcher Williams.

During ten years of his river life he resided in St. Louis. With the increase of railroads and the brisk compet.i.tion of later days, he gradually withdrew from the river trade and interested himself in real estate in St. Paul, buying largely and building many fine blocks.

Though never an aspirant for office, Commodore Davidson was public spirited and interested greatly in public enterprises involving the prosperity of St. Paul. He was married in Ohio in 1856, to a daughter of Judge Benjamin Johnson. He died in St. Paul, May 26, 1887, leaving a widow, one son and one daughter. Capt. Thomas L. Davidson is a brother, and Jerry and Robert R. are half brothers. Col. J. Ham Davidson, a cousin and a man of considerable oratorical ability, was a.s.sociated with him in business.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WM. H. FISHER.]

WILLIAM H. FISHER was born in New Jersey in 1844. He entered the railway service of the Dubuque & Sioux City railroad as check clerk at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1864, serving as such and in other positions of responsibility until 1873, when he removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, entering the service of the St. Paul & Pacific railroad as superintendent. He built the Breckenridge extension in 1877, and was influential in relieving the St. Paul & Pacific railroad and branches from financial embarra.s.sment, which resulted in the organization of the present St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba system. In June, 1884, he was elected general superintendent, and in June, 1885, president and general superintendent, of the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Company, which position he at present worthily fills.

CHARLES H. OAKES, the son of a Vermont merchant and manufacturer, David Oakes, at one time sheriff of Windham county, and judge of St.

Clair county, Michigan, was born in the town of Rockingham, Windham county, July 17, 1803. He received a common school education, and at twelve years of age went into a store and clerked until eighteen, when he came to Chicago as clerk for an army sutler. In 1824 he commenced trading with the Indians on the south sh.o.r.e of Lake Superior. In 1827 he entered the service of the American Fur Company, in whose employ he remained until 1850, his headquarters being most of the time at La Pointe. In 1850 he located in St. Paul. In 1853 he entered the banking firm of Borup & Oakes, the first banking firm in St. Paul, since which time he has lived a quiet and retired life, that contrasts strongly with the strange and adventurous life he led as an Indian trader. Mr.

Oakes' only public life was during the Indian outbreak, when he accepted a position as colonel on the staff of Gen. Sibley. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. By his first wife Mr. Oakes had four children, two of them daughters, now living. Sophia is the widow of the late Jeremiah Russell, and Eliza is the wife of Col.

George W. Sweet, of Minneapolis. A son, Lieut. David Oakes, was in the Civil War, and was killed in battle. The other child died in infancy.

Mr. Oakes was married to his second wife, Julia Beaulieu, of Sault Ste. Marie, July 29, 1831. She has had five children, but one of them now living, Julia Jane, widow of the late Gen. Isaac Van Etten. One of her sons, George Henry, was in the Civil War, and died two years after of disease contracted in the service.

CHARLES WILLIAM WULFF BORUP was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec. 20, 1806. He received a thorough cla.s.sical and medical education. In 1828 he emigrated to America, and, having abandoned his original intention of becoming a physician, entered into business, at first in the employ of John Jacob Astor. He became chief agent of the fur company on Lake Superior, with residence at La Pointe. In 1848 he removed to St. Paul and entered into a partnership with Pierre Chouteau. In 1854 the banking house of Borup & Oakes, of which he was senior partner, was established. Dr. Borup died of heart disease, July 6, 1859, but the banking business was continued under the firm name many years later.

He was married July 17, 1832, to Elizabeth Beaulieu, a daughter of Basil Beaulieu, a French trader of Mackinaw. His widow died in St.

Paul several years ago. Of a family of eleven children, nine survive.

CAPT. RUSSELL BLAKELEY, one of the best known of the early steamboat men, was born in North Adams, Ma.s.sachusetts, April 19, 1815. He spent a part of his early life in Genesee county, New York, where he received a common school education; emigrated to Peoria, Illinois, in 1836, where he engaged in the real estate business; in 1839 he removed to Galena, where he engaged in mining and smelting; in 1844 to Southwest Virginia, returning to Galena in 1847, where he became one of a steamboat transportation company. He was clerk upon the first boat on the line, the Argo. This boat sank and he was transferred to the Dr. Franklin, of which he became captain. He was captain of the Nominee in 1853, and of the Galena in 1854. This last named boat was burned at Red Wing, July 1, 1858. In 1855 he was appointed agent at Dunleith of the Packet Company, and soon afterward bought a leading interest in the Northwestern Express Company. The next year he removed to St. Paul. In 1867 he retired from the company. Of late years he has interested himself in railroad enterprises, and has contributed greatly to the prosperity of the city and State.

RENSSELAER R. NELSON, United States district judge since Minnesota became a state, was born in Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York, May 12, 1826. His paternal great-grandfather came from Ireland in 1764.

His grandfather was born in Ireland, but came to this country in his childhood. His father, Samuel Nelson, was a.s.sociate justice of the United States supreme court. His father served as a soldier in the war of 1812, and the son located the land warrant given for his services in Minnesota. The mother of Rensselaer was Catharine Ann (Russell), a descendant of Rev. John Russell, of Hadley, Ma.s.sachusetts, in whose house the regicides Goffe and Whalley were concealed for years, and where they finally died.

Rensselaer R. Nelson graduated at Yale in 1846. In 1849 he was admitted to practice law. He came to St. Paul in 1850. In 1857 President Buchanan appointed him territorial judge, and in 1858, United States district judge, which office he still holds. He was married to Mrs. Emma F. Wright, a daughter of Washington Beebe, of New York State, Nov. 3, 1858.

GEORGE LOOMIS BECKER was born Feb. 14, 1829, in Locke, Cayuga county, New York. His father, Hiram Becker, was a descendant of the early Dutch settlers of the Mohawk valley. In 1841 his father removed to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the son entered the State University as a freshman, and graduated in 1846. He studied law with George Sedgewick until 1849, when he emigrated to St. Paul, arriving late in October.

Here he commenced the practice of law, being a.s.sociated with Edmund Rice and E. J. Whitall. Subsequently, on the withdrawal of Mr.

Whitall, Wm. Hollinshead became a member of the firm. The partnership continued until 1856, when Mr. Becker withdrew to engage in other pursuits, since which time he has been engaged in forwarding the railroad interests of the State and serving in various positions of honor and trust. He served as a member of the const.i.tutional convention in 1857. In 1862 he was chosen land commissioner of the St.

Paul & Pacific railroad, and in 1864 was elected president of that corporation. In 1872 he was the unsuccessful candidate of his party for Congress.

He is a member of the Old Settlers a.s.sociation, of which he was president in 1873, and of the Minnesota Historical Society, over which he presided as president in 1874. He was one of the original members of the Presbyterian church in St. Paul in 1850. He has served in the council of St. Paul, and as mayor. He has figured most creditably in the business, political, social and religious life of his adopted city, and is an admirable type of a public spirited citizen. Since 1885 he has served as railroad commissioner. In 1885, at Keesville, New York, he was married to Susannah M. Ismon, an estimable lady, who has made his home attractive. Their family consists of four sons.

AARON GOODRICH.--Hon. Aaron Goodrich, first chief justice of the supreme court of Minnesota Territory, was born in Semp.r.o.nius, Cayuga county, New York, July 6, 1807. His parents were Levi H. and Eunice (Spinner) Goodrich. He traces his ancestry back through the Connecticut branch of the Goodrich family to a period in English history prior to the advent of William the Conqueror. His mother was a sister of Dr. John Skinner, who married a daughter of Roger Sherman.

In 1815 his father removed to Western New York, where the son was raised on a farm and educated chiefly by his father, who was a fine scholar and teacher. He then studied law and commenced practice in Stewart county, Tennessee. In 1847 to 1848 he was a member of the Tennessee legislature.

In 1849 he was appointed to the supreme bench of Minnesota Territory.

He filled the position for three years. In 1858, at the state organization, he was appointed a member of a commission to revise the laws and prepare a system of pleading for state courts. In 1860 he was made chairman of a similar commission. In March, 1861, President Lincoln appointed him secretary of the legation at Brussels, where he served eight years. While abroad, by his habits of study and opportunities for research, he laid the foundation of his critical and somewhat sensational work, "A History of the Character and Achievements of the So-called Christopher Columbus."

In politics Judge Goodrich was originally a Whig, and was a presidential elector in 1848. He was next a Republican, and served as delegate to the convention of 1860. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Liberal Republican convention which nominated Horace Greeley for president. In later years he voted with the Democratic party.

Mr. Goodrich was Deputy Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons in the State, was one of the corporate members of the State Historical Society and of the Old Settlers a.s.sociation, of which he was for many years the secretary. In 1870 he was married to Miss Alice Paris, of Bogota, New Grenada, a descendant of the old Castilian family de Paris, an accomplished lady, who, with a daughter, survives him. Judge Goodrich died in St. Paul in 1886.

NATHAN MYRICK was born in Westford, Ess.e.x county, New York, July 7, 1822. He came to La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1840. The writer first met him at Prairie du Chien in 1841. He was one of the princ.i.p.al founders of the city of La Crosse, managing a trading house in company with Scoots Miller. He also engaged in lumbering on Black river. He came to St. Paul in 1848, and has since made that city his home. He has been an enterprising and successful trader with the Indians, princ.i.p.ally with the Sioux. Much of his trading stock was destroyed by the Sioux Indians in the insurrection of 1862, but he has been recompensed in part by the government. In 1843 he was married to Rebecca Ismon. They have three children.

JOHN MELVIN GILMAN, son of John and Ruth (Curtis) Gilman, was born in Calais, Vermont, Sept. 7, 1824. His father died in 1825. The son received a good common school and academic education, graduating from the Montpelier Academy in 1843. He read law with Heaton & Reed, of Montpelier, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. During the same year he removed to New Lisbon, Ohio, where he practiced law eleven years and served one term (1849-50) in the state legislature.

In 1857 Mr. Gilman came to St. Paul, and formed a partnership with Hon. James Smith, Jr., and later became one of the firm of Gilman, Clough & Lane. Mr. Gilman served four terms as a representative in the state legislature. His affiliations have been with the Democratic party, for which he has been twice a candidate for Congress and chairman of the state central committee. He was married to Miss Anna Cornwall, of New Lisbon, Ohio, June 25, 1857.

CHARLES EUGENE FLANDRAU, son of Thomas Hunt and Elisabeth (Macomb) Flandrau, was born July 15, 1828, in New York City. On his father's side he is descended from Huguenots driven into exile by the revocation of the edict of Nantes; on his mother's side from the Macombs of Ireland. One of his uncles was Gen. Alexander Macomb, commander-in-chief of the United States Army immediately preceding Gen. Winfield Scott. He was educated until thirteen years of age in the private schools at Georgetown and Washington, after which he spent about three years before the mast; was at New York City about three years, when he went to Whitesboro, Oneida county, New York, where he read law and afterward entered into partnership with his father, being admitted to practice in 1851. In 1853 he came to St. Paul with Horace R. Bigelow and commenced practice in the firm of Bigelow & Flandrau.

In 1854 he removed to St. Peter and practiced law for several years.

This year (1854) he was appointed a notary public by Gen. Gorman.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Truly yours, John B. Sanborn.]

In 1855 he was elected a member of the territorial council, and in 1856 was appointed by President Pierce United States agent for the Sioux Indians. In 1857 he served as a member of the Democratic wing of the const.i.tutional convention, and in July of the same year was appointed by President Buchanan a.s.sociate justice of the supreme court of Minnesota Territory. He was elected to the same office, on the admission of Minnesota as a state, for a term of seven years. During Gov. Sibley's administration, he acted as judge advocate general of the State.

Judge Flandrau took an active part in suppressing the Sioux outbreak, serving as captain, and later as a colonel, of volunteers. In 1864 Judge Flandrau resigned his place on the supreme bench and went to Nevada Territory for a year; spent some time in Kentucky and St.

Louis, Missouri, and returned to Minnesota in 1867, locating at Minneapolis, where he opened a law office with Judge Isaac At.w.a.ter. He was elected city attorney and was president of the first Board of Trade.

In 1870 he removed to St. Paul and engaged in law practice with Bigelow & Clark.

In 1867 Judge Flandrau was the Democratic nominee for governor of the State, and in 1869 for the position of chief justice. In 1868 he was chairman of the state central committee, and a member of the national convention that nominated Horatio Seymour for the presidency of the United States.

Judge Flandrau was married Aug. 14, 1859, to Isabella Dinsmore, of Kentucky, deceased in 1866. His second wife was Mrs. Rebecca B.

Riddle, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Feb. 28, 1871. His family consists of two daughters by his first wife and two sons by his second.

GEN. JOHN B. SANBORN was born Dec. 5, 1826, in Merrimac county, New Hampshire, on the farm which had been in the possession of his ancestors for four generations. After a common school education he entered the law office of Judge Fowler, of Concord, New Hampshire, where he remained for three years, when he was admitted to practice by the superior court of New Hampshire, in 1854. In the following December he came to Minnesota, where he has remained, a citizen of St.

Paul, and in the practice of his profession, except what time he has been absent in the public service.

His public career began in 1859-60, in the house of representatives.

The following year he was sent to the senate, and that had adjourned but a little over a month when he was appointed adjutant general and acting quartermaster general of the State, and entered upon the arduous duties of organizing the first regiment of volunteers in the State for the war of the Rebellion.

In the following December he was commissioned colonel of the Fourth Minnesota, and, with headquarters at Fort Snelling, garrisoned all the posts and commanded all the troops along the Minnesota frontier during the winter. Early in the spring of 1862 he left with his entire command for Pittsburgh Landing, and was a.s.signed to the command of a demi-brigade, which he commanded till the evacuation of those works, and was thereupon a.s.signed to the command of the First Brigade, Seventh Division, Army of the Mississippi, afterward the Seventeenth Army Corps.

On the nineteenth of September following, with this brigade he fought the battle of Iuka and won the victory for which he was promoted by the president to brigadier general of Volunteers.

He partic.i.p.ated in the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, and the a.s.sault on Vicksburg--a portion of which time he was in command of a division. After the surrender of Vicksburg he was a.s.signed to the command of the Southwest District of Missouri, where, after the campaign against Price, he was promoted to brevet major general.

After the close of the war, by a few months' campaign on the Upper Arkansas and along the Smoky Hill river, he opened to travel the long lines across the plains to Colorado and New Mexico, which had been closed for nearly two years, and restored peace to that frontier. Upon a mission to the Indian Territory, to establish the relations which should exist between the slaves of the Indians and their former masters, he solved the questions and determined the relations, and established them upon a firm foundation in the short s.p.a.ce of ninety days.