Henry Hastings Sibley.—The father of Gen. Sibley, Judge Solomon Sibley, of Massachusetts, was a well known pioneer of the Northwest. He settled in Ohio in 1795, but two years later removed to Michigan, which he represented as delegate to Congress in 1800. In 1799 he served as member of the first legislature of the Northwest Territory. He was judge of the supreme court from 1824 to 1836, and died in 1846, universally lamented. The mother of Gen. Sibley was the daughter of Col. Ebenezer Sproat, and a granddaughter of Commodore Whipple of the American Navy. She was a cultured lady, of unusual personal beauty and of rare accomplishments. She was married to Judge Sibley in 1802, and died at Detroit Jan. 22, 1851. Henry H. Sibley was born in Detroit, Michigan, Feb. 20, 1811. He received an academic education, and two years' tuition in the classics. In 1828 he came to the Sault Ste. Marie and secured employment as a clerk. In 1829 he entered the service of the American Fur Company at Mackinaw. In 1834 he came to the mouth of St. Peter's river, to the post afterward known as Mendota, as the agent of the American Fur Company. He made the journey from Prairie du Chien, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, on horseback. At that time there was but a single civilized habitation on the way. In 1836 he built a stone house at Mendota, the first in Minnesota, in which he resided twenty-four years. This house is still standing. He continued to act as agent for the American Fur Company until called to act as delegate to Congress for Wisconsin Territory west of the St. Croix, in 1848. Mr. Sibley, when elected, was a citizen of Mendota, Clayton county, Iowa, but the question of citizenship was not raised. He was recognized as the ablest and best representative that could be chosen for the difficult task of securing the organization of Minnesota Territory. In this he was successful. In the fall of 1849 he was re-elected as a delegate from the new territory he had been instrumental in forming, and served in that capacity until March 4, 1853, rendering the Territory important services. In 1855 he was elected a member of the Minnesota territorial legislature from Dakota county, and in 1857 was a member and president of the Democratic wing of the constitutional convention. On the admission of Minnesota as a state he was elected governor, taking his seat May 24, 1858. His term expired Jan. 1, 1860. Aug. 19, 1862, his successor, Gov. Ramsey, appointed him commander of the forces sent to quell the Sioux outbreak. He marched with his command in pursuit of the Indians, defeating them in several skirmishes and battles, releasing 250 captives held by them and capturing about 2,000 prisoners, over 400 of whom were tried by court martial and sentenced to be hanged. Of this number thirty-eight were executed at Mankato, Dec. 26, 1862, President Lincoln having pardoned the remainder. Col. Sibley was commissioned brigadier general for his gallant services, and retained in command of the frontier. In 1863 he led another expedition into the Indian country, driving the hostiles across the Missouri river, and returning to Fort Snelling in September. The years 1864 and 1865 were employed in securing the defense of the frontier. Nov. 29, 1865, Gen. Sibley was commissioned major general for efficient and meritorious services. He continued in the service until August, 1866, when he was relieved of his command and detailed as a member of the commission to negotiate treaties with the hostile Sioux and other bands on the Upper Missouri river.

In 1871 Gen. Sibley was elected to represent the Fifth ward, St. Paul, in the legislature. He became a resident of St. Paul in 1862, but, in company with Louis Robert and A. L. Larpenteur, had entered land for the town site there as early as 1854.

Gen. Sibley has been for several years president of the Gas Company, director of the First National Bank, director of the Sioux City railway, etc. He has at different times filled other responsible positions; has been park commissioner, president of the Historical Society, president of the Chamber of Commerce, and was once the candidate of his party for Congress, but unsuccessful. He has contributed many valuable papers to the State Historical Society and has written much on topics relating to the welfare of the State, of which, with the exception of his personal friend, W. T. Boutwell, he is now the oldest resident.

Gen. Sibley, for his integrity, persistent devotion to the welfare of the State, for his indomitable persistence in upbuilding its interests, has won a lasting place in the confidence and respect of the people. His history is inseparably interwoven with the history of the State, and he is justly regarded as one of its first and best citizens. The town and county of Sibley bear his name.

He was married May 2, 1843, to Sarah J., sister of Frank Steele. Mrs. Sibley died May 21, 1869, much respected for her many virtues and rare accomplishments.

Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial governor of Minnesota, was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Sept. 8, 1815. His paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish. His mother was of German descent. His parents were Thomas and Elisabeth (Kelker) Ramsey. His father was an officer in the war of 1812, and died when the son was but ten years old. Frederic Kelker, an uncle, assisted in the education of the son, who in turn assisted as salesman in the store of his uncle. At the age of eighteen he entered Lafayette College; at Easton, Pennsylvania; attended college but a short time, when he commenced the study of law with Hon. Hamilton Alricks, of Harrisburg, graduating afterward in the law school at Carlisle, and commenced the practice of law in 1839. He commenced his political life in 1840, the year of the Harrison campaign, and was made secretary of the electoral college. In 1841 he was appointed clerk of the Pennsylvania house of representatives. He was in the lower house of Congress from 1843 to 1846, and was renominated for a third term, but declined. In 1848 he was made chairman of the Whig state central committee, and the following year was appointed governor of the newly formed territory of Minnesota by President Taylor. He entered upon his duties as governor in May, 1849. The territorial government was organized in June, and the governor issued his proclamation establishing three judicial districts, and providing for the election of members of the first legislature. He served as governor four years. In 1855 he was elected mayor of St. Paul. In 1857 he was candidate for governor of the State, but was not elected. He was elected to that office in 1859, and re-elected in 1861. In 1863, before the expiration of his second term, he was elected to the United States senate, and re-elected in 1869. March 4, 1875, he accepted the position of secretary of war in the cabinet of President Hayes, and for a time was acting secretary of the navy. In 1883 he was appointed chairman of the Utah commission under the Edmunds bill.

In the various departments of public service to which he has been called, Gov. Ramsey has acquitted himself well, displaying rare qualities of statesmanship. He is remarkable for his caution, which leads him sometimes almost into conservatism, but results have generally proved the sagacity of his apparently tardy movements. He is a master in the exercise of a wise caution in the conduct of public affairs. He has, in fact, great political sagacity. He has made several favorable treaties with the Indians, being empowered during his term as governor to act also as superintendent of Indian affairs.

During his two terms as state governor, he rendered the country great service by his prompt response to the calls for volunteers and his decisive and unwavering support of the general government. He also acted with great promptness and resolution in the suppression of the Indian outbreak. As a senator he supported all measures for the prosecution of the war for the preservation of the Union; advocated the abolition of the franking privilege and assisted in procuring aid for the building of the Northern Pacific railroad, favoring the project of three trunk lines between the Mississippi and the Pacific States and the general plan of aiding these roads by the donation of alternate sections of public land, and was also active in promoting the improvement of the Upper Mississippi and navigable tributaries.

In person Gov. Ramsey is a hale, hearty, and well preserved gentleman, who is passing gracefully into what with many is the season of the sere and yellow leaf. He is genial and pleasant in his manners, and would impress the ordinary observer as one whose "lines have fallen in pleasant places," and who is the happy possessor of a good digestion, a serene temper and a clear conscience.

On Sept. 10, 1845, he was married to Anna Earl Jenks, daughter of Hon. Michael H. Jenks, for many years judge of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, a lady of rare accomplishments, and in every way fitted to shine in the society into which she was introduced as the wife of a governor, senator and cabinet officer. In private life she was not less noted for her kindness of heart, amiability and christian virtues. This estimable lady died in 1883, leaving a daughter, Marion, the wife of Charles Elliott Furness, of Philadelphia.

Maj. Wm. H. Forbes was born on Montreal island, Canada, Nov. 3, 1815. His father was a Scotchman by birth, and was a member of the Hudson Bay Company as early as 1785. Maj. Forbes was educated at Montreal, where he also served an apprenticeship at the hardware business, and afterward became junior partner in the same establishment. At that time Montreal was the chief depot of supplies for the Indian trade of the Northwest, and the reports which continually came to him of that romantic region, together with the sight of the Indians and voyageurs returning with their furs, so excited his love of adventure that he resigned his position as partner in the hardware business and accepted a clerkship with the American Fur Company. John Jacob Astor was then president. The conditions were that the clerk should speak and write the French language, which Mr. Forbes could do with facility. Having engaged as clerk, his outfit was conveyed in bark canoes from Montreal, in charge of fifty men enlisted for a three years' cruise. Their route lay by way of the lakes to La Pointe, on Lake Superior, and up the Brule river, from which the canoes and baggage were carried across to the waters of the St. Croix, and descended thence to the Mississippi. From the Sault Ste. Marie to La Pointe they were transported on one of the company's schooners. They arrived at Mendota in 1837. Gen. Sibley was then in charge at Mendota. Mr. Forbes clerked for him ten years, and in 1847 took charge of an establishment belonging to the company (called the St. Paul Outfit), and became a resident of St. Paul until his death, twenty-eight years later. Mr. Forbes was a member from St. Paul of the first territorial council, and served four terms. In March, 1853, he was appointed postmaster at St. Paul by President Pierce, and held the office three years. In 1853 he also formed a business partnership with Norman W. Kittson for the general supplying of the Indian trade. In 1858 Mr. Kittson retired from the firm, but the business was continued by Maj. Forbes until 1862, when the Indian outbreak put an end to the trade. During the campaign he served as a member of Gen. Sibley's staff, and acted as provost marshal at the trial of the three hundred Indians condemned to death. At the close of this campaign he was commissioned by President Lincoln commissary of subsistence in the volunteer service with the rank of captain. He was elected auditor of Ramsey county in 1863, and served two years, though sometimes absent on military duty. In 1864 he was ordered to the district of Northern Missouri as chief commissary, remained two years and was breveted major. In 1871 he was appointed Indian agent at Devil's Lake reservation, which position he held at the time of his death, July 20, 1875.

Maj. Forbes was twice married; first in 1846, to Miss Agnes, daughter of Alexander Faribault, by whom he had one daughter, the wife of Capt. J. H. Patterson, United States Army; again in 1854, to Miss A. B. Cory, of Cooperstown, New York, by whom he had four children, three of whom are living.

Henry M. Rice.—The family of Mr. Rice came originally from Hertfordshire, England, to Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1638. Members of the family figured conspicuously in the struggle for American independence. His parents were Edmund and Ellen Durkee Rice. His grandfather Durkee was in the French war of 1755. Mr. Rice was born in Waitsfield, Vermont, Nov. 29, 1816; attended common school three months in the year and a private school and academy in Burlington. He went to Detroit, Michigan Territory, in 1835; was engaged in making the first survey of the Sault Ste. Marie canal, made by the state of Michigan in 1837, and went to Fort Snelling in 1839. He was post sutler in 1840, United States Army, Fort Atkinson, Iowa Territory, and was connected with the old fur company for several years. He was elected delegate to Congress in 1853 for Minnesota Territory and re-elected in 1855. He was elected first United States senator for Minnesota, in 1857, admitted to his seat May 11, 1858, and served until March 3, 1863. In 1860 he was a member of the senate special committee of thirteen on the condition of the country. During his term in the senate he was a member of the following standing committees: Indian affairs, post office and post roads, public lands, military, finance. He was on the last four named committees at the expiration of the term of March 3, 1863.

In 1865 he was nominated for governor but was defeated by Gen. W. R. Marshall. In 1866 he was delegate to the Philadelphia Union convention. He also served in the following various capacities: United States commissioner in making several Indian treaties; as a member of the board of regents of the University of Minnesota; as president of the Minnesota State Historical Society; as president of the St. Paul Board of Public Works; and as treasurer of Ramsey county, Minnesota. He is the author of the law extending the right of pre-emption over unsurveyed lands in Minnesota. He has obtained land grants for numerous railroads in Minnesota, and, with the assistance of Senator Douglas, framed the act authorizing Minnesota to form a state constitution preparatory to admission, fixing boundary, etc.

As a public man Mr. Rice has pursued a policy at once independent and outspoken, not hesitating to express his convictions on the great national questions of the day, and to place himself upon a national rather than a party platform. During the war he upheld the administration in a vigorous prosecution of the war, as the speediest and most honorable means of obtaining peace. His letter to the St. Paul Press of Nov. 1, 1864, contains sentiments that must commend themselves to every true lover of his country. We quote a few extracts:

"I believe Gen. McClellan and Mr. Lincoln both desire peace—both the restoration of the Union. The one favors the return of the Southern States with slavery; the other wishes these states to return without that institution. I believe that the revolted citizens forfeited all rights they had under the constitution when they turned traitors; that the Emancipation Proclamation legally and rightfully set every slave free. I am as much opposed to again legalizing that institution in the South as I would be to its introduction in the Northern States."

* * * "I am in favor of the return of the Southern States, and think the day is not far distant when the same flag will float over us all, and when that happy day shall arrive, I hope that the rights we enjoy will be freely accorded to them, and no more."

* * * "When the Southern States return I shall be in favor of their voting population being equally represented with our own, and no further."

* * * "I think that in the long future, when all other of Mr. Lincoln's acts shall be forgotten, his Emancipation Proclamation will adorn history's brightest page. I am opposed to slavery for the reason that I am in favor of the largest human liberty, and I can not understand why some of our fellow citizens who come here that they might be free can deny freedom to others."

* * * "I think it illy becomes those who took up arms to defend their homes, their country, yea, liberty! to make overtures to armed rebellion. I believe that by a rigorous prosecution of the war peace will soon come, our liberties will be secured forever, and that prosperity will follow. Union with slavery will be only a temporary cheat, and can not last. Dissolution will bring ruin, anarchy and an endless effusion of blood and money."

He has been a liberal contributor to the various public enterprises of the city, to churches, public institutions and private parties. He has built warehouses, business blocks and hotels. The park in front of the city hall was donated by him. His name is inseparably interwoven with the history of St. Paul and the State. Rice county bears his name. He was married to Matilda Whitall, of Richmond, Virginia, in 1849.

Edmund Rice, brother of Hon. Henry M. Rice, was born in Waitsfield, Vermont, Feb. 14, 1819. His father died in 1829. He received a somewhat limited common school education and spent most of his early life clerking. In 1838 he came to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he read law with Stuart & Miller, and was admitted to the bar in 1842, making commendable progress in his profession. While a resident of Michigan he was master in chancery, register of court of chancery and clerk of the supreme court. In 1847 he enlisted in Company A, First Michigan Volunteers, of which company he was made first lieutenant, and served through the Mexican War until its close.

In July, 1849, he came to Minnesota Territory, locating in St. Paul, where he became one of the firm of Rice, Hollinshead & Becker until 1855, when he embarked in railroad enterprises. In 1857 he was elected president of the Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Company, and afterward of its successors, the St. Paul & Pacific and the St. Paul & Chicago Railroad companies. He has been long regarded as one of the most energetic and competent railroad men in the State. Mr. Rice has figured largely in the politics of the State, having served several terms in the territorial and state legislatures. He was a representative in the territorial legislature of 1851, a senator in the state legislatures of 1864, 1865, 1873, 1874, and a representative in the sessions of 1872, 1877 and 1878.

In 1885 he was elected mayor of St. Paul, and in 1886 was chosen representative in Congress. Mr. Rice is an uncompromising Democrat in his politics, and is so recognized by his party, which he served as chairman of the state central committee in the presidential campaign of 1872, and elector at large in the campaign of 1876. He was married in November, 1848, to Anna M. Acker, daughter of Hon. Henry Acker, of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Of eleven children, the fruit of this union, all are living but the second daughter, Jessie, who married Frank H. Clark, of Philadelphia, in 1870, and died in October, 1874. The eldest daughter, Ellen, is the wife of Henry A. Boardman, of St. Paul.

Louis Robert.—Capt. Louis Robert was a descendant of the French settlers who occupied Kaskaskia and St. Louis when they were in the territory of Louisiana, then a French province. He was born at Carondelet, Missouri, Jan. 21, 1811, and his early life was spent in that region and on the Upper Missouri river. In 1838 he went to Prairie du Chien, and in the fall of 1843 visited St. Paul and removed thither the ensuing year, identifying himself with the interests of that growing young city.

To say the least, he was a remarkable character. He possessed all the politeness and suavity of his nationality, was impulsive, warm hearted, generous and yet, as a business man, far-seeing and loquacious. His broken English added a peculiar charm and quaintness to his conversation, and he will be long remembered for his odd expressions and his keen but homely wit. He was generous in aiding any worthy object, and, as a devoted Catholic, gave liberally to the support of his church. He donated valuable property to church building and gave the bells to the French Catholic church and the cathedral in St. Paul. His private charities were also liberal.

In 1847 Capt. Robert was one of the original proprietors of St. Paul. He took a prominent part in the Stillwater convention of 1848. In 1849 he was appointed commissioner on territorial buildings. In 1853 he engaged in steamboating, and at different times owned as many as five steamers. He was also largely engaged in the Indian trade until the massacre of 1862. He died, after a painful illness, May 10, 1874, leaving an estate valued at $400,000. He was married in 1839, at Prairie du Chien, to Mary Turpin, who, with two daughters, survives him.

Auguste Louis Larpenteur, the son of Louis Auguste, and Malinda (Simmons) Larpenteur, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, May 16, 1823. His grandfather, Louis Benoist Larpenteur, left France about the time of the banishment of Napoleon Bonaparte to St. Helena, determined not to live under the rule of the Bourbons. Auguste L., the grandson, was reared in the family of his grandfather, his mother having died while he was an infant. At the age of eighteen years, with his uncle, Eugene N. Larpenteur, he came to St. Louis. Two years later he came to St. Paul as clerk for Wm. Hartshorn and Henry Jackson, Indian traders. The firm of Hartshorn & Jackson gave place to Freeman, Larpenteur & Co. Mr. Larpenteur has been continuously engaged in commercial pursuits since his arrival in St. Paul in 1843. He has seen the city grow from a hamlet of five cabins to its present metropolitan dimensions, and has been from the first one of its most enterprising and reliable citizens. He was married Dec. 7, 1845, to Mary Josephine Presley. They have five sons and five daughters.

William H. Nobles.—William H., son of Rev. Lemuel Nobles, was born in the state of New York in 1816. In his early life he learned the trade of a machinist and became a skilled artisan. In 1841 he came to Marine Mills, but soon removed to St. Croix Falls and assisted in putting up the first mill there.

He lived successively at Osceola, at the mouth of Willow river, and at Stillwater. He was part owner of the Osceola mills in 1846, and it is claimed that he built the first frame house in Hudson. In 1848 he removed from Stillwater to St. Paul, and opened the first blacksmithing and wagon shop in that city. He made the first wagon in the Territory. He was a member of the house, fifth territorial legislature, in 1855, from Ramsey county. In 1853 he made an overland trip to California, and discovered one of the best passes in the mountains. 1857 he returned and surveyed a government wagon road through that pass. As a recognition of his services the pass received the name of "Noble's Pass," and a county in Minnesota was also named after him. In 1857 he laid out a government road from St. Paul to the Missouri river. In 1862 he entered the army and was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Seventy-ninth New York Volunteers, better known as the "Highlanders." While on duty in South Carolina, a personal collision with another officer led to his resignation. He was afterward cotton collector for the government, United States revenue officer, and master of transportation at Mobile. His health failing during his arduous service, he returned to St. Paul, and died at St. Luke's Hospital, on Eighth street, aged sixty years.

Col. Nobles was a man of immense vitality and energy, with a strong inventive genius, by which he himself failed to profit; restless, fond of travel, a little hasty and irritable, but possessing many admirable traits. Mr. Noble was married in Illinois, prior to his location in Minnesota, to Miss Parker, who survives him. Mrs. Nobles resides with her family in California.

Simeon P. Folsom, a younger brother of the author of this book, was born in Lower Canada, near Quebec, Dec. 27, 1819. His father was a native of New Hampshire, and while he was yet young returned to that state, removing subsequently to Maine. Mr. Folsom came West in 1839, settled in Prairie du Chien, and not long after engaged as clerk to Henry M. Rice at Fort Atkinson. In 1841 he returned to Prairie du Chien and for two years acted as deputy sheriff, one year as surveyor of public lands, and two years as surveyor of county lands. In 1846 he volunteered as a soldier in the Mexican War, but the company was sent instead to garrison Fort Crawford, where he remained one year. On July 25, 1847, he landed in St. Paul, and has been engaged most of the time since in the surveying and real estate business. He was city surveyor of St. Paul in 1854, member of the school board in 1858-59 and 60, and served three years as a soldier in the Seventh Minnesota during the Civil War. He has one son, Simeon Pearl, Jr., and one daughter, wife of J. B. Pugsley.

Jacob W. Bass was born in Vermont in 1815; came West in 1840 and made his home at Prairie du Chien, where he kept a hotel and ferry and engaged in general business. While a resident of Prairie du Chien he was married to Martha D., daughter of Rev. Alfred Brunson. In 1844 he purchased an interest in the Chippewa Falls mills, but in 1847 sold out, and removed to St. Paul, where he engaged in hotel keeping in a building made of tamarack poles, on the site of the present Merchants Hotel, and known as the St. Paul House. In July, 1849, he was commissioned postmaster, as the successor of Henry Jackson, the first postmaster in St. Paul. He held the office four years. He left the hotel in 1852. He has since resided in St. Paul, where he has been engaged at different times in the real estate and commission business and at farming. He has two sons. The oldest, a graduate of West Point, holds a commission in the United States Army; the youngest is in business at St. Paul.

Benjamin W. Brunson, son of Rev. Alfred Brunson, of Prairie du Chien, was born in Detroit, Michigan, May 6, 1823. He came with his parents to Prairie du Chien in 1835. He purchased an interest in the Chippewa Falls mills in 1844, and in 1847 came to St. Paul and assisted in surveying the first town plat. He laid out what was known as "Brunson's addition." He was a representative in the first and second territorial legislatures. He served three years during the Civil War as a member of Company K, Eighth Minnesota Infantry, first as a private, then as an orderly sergeant, and later as second lieutenant. He has followed surveying many years, and has held several responsible positions. He was married at St. Paul and has two sons and one daughter.

Charles D. and Abram S. Elfelt.—The parents of the Elfelt brothers came from San Domingo to the United States in 1801, on the establishment of a negro republic on that island, and settled in Pennsylvania, where Abram S. was born in 1827 and Charles D. in 1828. In 1849 the brothers removed to St. Paul and established the first exclusively dry goods store in Minnesota, their building standing near the upper levee at the foot of Eagle street. They also built the hall in which the first theatrical performances in St. Paul were held. This was the building now standing on Third and Exchange streets, which was erected in 1851. At that time it was the largest building in the city, and many of the old residents remember the ceremonies attendant upon the raising of the frame. The dramatic hall was in one of the upper stories, being known as Mazourka Hall. The materials used in its construction were brought from long distances, coming up the river by boat, and the laborers employed on the building were paid five dollars a day for their services. Into this building the Elfelt brothers transferred their store, stocking it at first with both dry goods and groceries, but afterward limiting their trade to dry goods exclusively.

Mr. Abram Elfelt originated the first Board of Trade, in 1864, and when that body was merged into the Chamber of Commerce became one of its directors. The brothers were public spirited and enterprising, and always took a great interest in the welfare of the city. Abram S. Elfelt died in St. Paul in February, 1888.

D. A. J. Baker was born in Farmington, Maine, in 1825; attended school at New Hampton, New Hampshire; studied law and was admitted to the bar in Kennebec county, Maine, in 1847; came to St. Paul in 1848, and in 1851 made his home in the locality now known as Merriam Park. It is on record that Judge Baker taught one of the first public schools in the territory of Minnesota. He, with others, pre-empted the land and located what is now Superior City, Wisconsin, but sold his interests in that city. He was appointed to a judgeship in Douglas county, Wisconsin, in 1854, and served three years; was county superintendent of schools in Ramsey county for twelve years, and was a member of the Democratic wing of the constitutional convention in 1857. He has been a dealer in real estate. He was married to Miss Cornelia C. Kneeland, a sister of Mrs. Dr. T. T. Mann, and late widow of James M. Goodhue, in 1853. Mrs. Baker died in 1875. Maj. Newson, in his "Pen Portraits," says of her: "She was an affectionate wife and a devoted mother, and amid all the trials and vicissitudes incident to the ups and downs of an old settler's career, she never murmured, never complained, never fretted, never chided; always cheerful, always hopeful, casting sunshine into the home and weaving about all those she loved golden chains of unbroken affection."

B. F. Hoyt.—Rev. B. F. Hoyt, a local minister of the Methodist church, and a prominent pioneer of 1848, was born at Norwalk, Connecticut, Jan. 8, 1800. He removed to New York State, and later to Ohio, where he married and resided until 1834, when he removed to Illinois, and in 1848 to St. Paul. He purchased the property bounded now by Jackson, Broadway, Eighth and the bluff for three hundred dollars. The following spring he laid it out as "Hoyt's addition." He dealt largely in real estate and at various times held property, now worth millions. He was instrumental in the erection of the Jackson Street Methodist church, and aided in, the endowment of Hamline University. He died Sept. 3, 1875.

John Fletcher Williams, secretary of the Minnesota State Historical Society, is of Welsh descent, John Williams, a paternal ancestor of the seventh remove, having come to this country from Glamorganshire, Wales. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 25, 1834. He was educated at Woodward College and Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating from the latter institution in 1852. He came to St. Paul in 1855 and engaged in journalism and reporting for about twelve years, during which time he acquired a thorough knowledge of city and state affairs and an acquaintance with the pioneers of the State, which knowledge he utilized in writing biographical and historical, sketches, his principal work in this line being the "History of St. Paul," published in 1876.

In 1867 he was elected secretary of the State Historical Society. Upon him devolved the duty of arranging its volumes and collections and editing its publications. Most of the memoirs, and historical sketches are from his pen. He has gathered manuscripts and material for a history of the State which will ultimately be of great value. He is the honorary corresponding secretary of the Old Settlers Association, not being eligible to active membership in that body, which requires a residence dating back to 1850. Various diplomas have been conferred upon him by the historical societies of other cities and states.

In 1871 he was appointed by President Grant a member of the United States Centennial commission from Minnesota, and served as such to the close of the International Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.

John Henry Murphy was the first medical practitioner in St. Anthony Falls, he having made that city his home in 1849. Mr. Murphy was born Jan. 22, 1826, at New Brunswick, New Jersey. His father, James Murphy, a shipbuilder, was a native of Ireland; his mother, Sarah (Allen), belonged to an old New Jersey family. His parents removed to Quincy, Illinois, in 1834, where John Henry obtained a good high school education. He studied medicine and graduated from the Rush Medical College in Chicago in 1850, and returned to St. Anthony Falls, which he had made his home the year before. In this place he lived and practiced his profession till near the close of the war, when he removed to St. Paul.

In the summer of 1861, when Dr. Stewart, surgeon of the First Minnesota Infantry, was captured at Bull Run, Dr. Murphy took his place and served for six months, and afterward as surgeon of the Fourth and Eighth Minnesota Infantry. Dr. Murphy was a representative in the territorial legislature of 1852, and a member of the constitutional convention, Republican wing, in 1857. As a man and a physician Dr. Murphy has an enviable reputation. He was married to Mary A. Hoyt, of Fulton county, Illinois, June 28, 1848. They have five children.

W. H. Tinker was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1813; was married to Elisabeth Barnum, at Rockford, Illinois, in 1840; came to Prairie du Chien in 1843, and to St. Paul in 1849. He engaged for awhile in tailoring, then in selling groceries, then clerked for S. P. Folsom & Co., and also in the recorder's and marshal's offices. At one time he owned eight acres in the heart of St. Paul, for which he paid two hundred and eighty-four dollars, which is now worth a quarter of a million.

George P. Jacobs was born in Virginia in 1832; was educated at the Virginia Military Institute; came to Pierce county, Wisconsin, and engaged in lumbering, afterward in farming and lumbering. He has resided in St. Paul since 1870.

Lyman Dayton was born Aug. 25, 1809, in Southington, Connecticut, and was early thrown upon his own resources. He commenced as a clerk in a store in Providence, Rhode Island, and by faithfulness and industry became in time a wholesale dry goods merchant. His health failing, he sought the West in 1849, and selected for his home a high bluff, to which his name has been affixed, near the city of St. Paul. He purchased over 5,000 acres of land in the vicinity. The bluff is now covered with palatial residences, business, church and school buildings.

Mr. Dayton lived much of his time at a village founded by himself at the junction of Crow river with the Mississippi. The village bears his name. He was one of the proprietors and first president of the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railway Company, and gave much of his time and means to promote its interests. He died in 1865, leaving a widow (formerly Miss Maria Bates) and one son, Lyman C., a heavy dealer in real estate.

Henry L. Moss.—Mr. Moss is of English descent. His ancestors came over prior to the Revolution, in which later members of the family took a prominent part in behalf of the colonies. He was born in Augusta, New York, and graduated at Hamilton College, New York, in 1840; studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1842 at Sandusky, Ohio, where he practiced until 1845, when he removed to Platteville, Wisconsin, where he became an associate with Benj. C. Eastman until 1848, when he removed to Stillwater. He was the second lawyer in this place. In 1850 he moved to St. Paul. He served as the first United States district attorney for Minnesota Territory, holding the office from 1849 until 1853. He was reappointed to this office under the state government in 1862, and served four years. Mr. Moss is a worthy member of the Presbyterian church. His moral character and natural abilities have commended him for the positions he has so satisfactorily filled. Mr. Moss was married to Amanda Hosford, Sept. 20, 1849.

William Rainey Marshall is of Scotch-Irish descent, and of good fighting stock, both his grandfathers participating in the Revolutionary struggle. His father, Joseph Marshall, was a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and his mother, Abigail (Shaw) Marshall, was born in Pennsylvania. William R. was born in Boone county, Missouri, Oct. 17, 1825. He was educated in the schools of Quincy, Illinois, and spent some of his early years mining and surveying amidst the lead regions of Wisconsin. In September, 1847, he came to St. Croix Falls, and made a land and timber claim near the Falls on the Wisconsin side (now included in the Phillip Jewell farm). While at St. Croix Falls he sold goods; dealt in lumber, was deputy receiver of the United States land office, and took an active part in the boundary meetings. He was elected representative in the Wisconsin assembly for the St. Croix valley in 1848, but his seat was successfully contested by Joseph Bowron on the ground of non-residence, he residing west of the line marking the western limit of the new state of Wisconsin. During the latter part of the year 1847 he had made a visit to St. Anthony Falls and staked out a claim and cut logs for a cabin, but partially abandoning the claim, he returned to St. Croix Falls. In 1849 he returned to St. Anthony Falls and perfected his claim. In the same year he was elected representative to the First Minnesota territorial legislature. In 1851 he removed to St. Paul and engaged in mercantile pursuits, becoming the pioneer iron merchant in that place. During this year he was also engaged in surveying public lands. In 1855, with other parties, he established a banking house, which did well till overwhelmed by the financial tornado of 1857. He then engaged in dairy farming and stock raising. In 1861 he purchased the St. Paul Daily Times and the Minnesotian and merged them in the Daily Press. In 1862 he enlisted in the Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and was made lieutenant colonel of the regiment. On the promotion of Col. Stephen Miller in 1863, he succeeded to the command of the regiment, and remained connected with it to the close of the war, participating 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.

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 classics. 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 assistant judge of the supreme court for the territory of Minnesota. He arrived in Minnesota in June, 1849, and located in Stillwater; was assigned 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 associated with his father in canal 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 competition 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 associated with him in business.

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 embarrassment, 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 shore 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 classical 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, Massachusetts, 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 associate 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, Massachusetts, 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 associated 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 constitutional 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 Association, 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 Sempronius, 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 Association, 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, Essex 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 principal 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, principally 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.

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 constitutional convention, and in July of the same year was appointed by President Buchanan associate 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 Atwater. 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 assigned to the command of a demi-brigade, which he commanded till the evacuation of those works, and was thereupon assigned 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 participated in the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, and the assault on Vicksburg—a portion of which time he was in command of a division. After the surrender of Vicksburg he was assigned 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 space of ninety days.

In 1866 he was appointed, with Gens. Sherman, Harney, Terry, and Senator Henderson, a special peace commissioner to the Indians, and for eighteen months served upon that board. This commission visited and made treaties with the Camanche, Cheyenne, Arrapahoe, Apache, Navajo, Shoshone, Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arrapahoe, and Crow tribes; and with the Ogalalla, Brule, Minneconjon, Sausauche, Black Feet, Umkapapa, Santee, and Yankton bands of the Sioux nation. They settled upon and recommended to Congress a fixed policy to be pursued toward the Indians, which, while followed, resulted in comparative safety to the frontier, and greater economy in the service. Since these services the general has devoted himself entirely to his profession, and with more than ordinary success.

John R. Irvine was born in Dansville, Livingston county, New York, Nov. 3, 1812, and was brought up there till seventeen years of age. His education when a boy was obtained at the common schools, and was quite limited. From seventeen to twenty years of age he lived in Carlisle and other places in Pennsylvania, during which he learned the trade of plastering, and was married in Carlisle in 1831, to Miss Nancy Galbreath. Soon after his marriage he returned to Dansville. The following spring he went to Buffalo, New York; in the spring of 1837 emigrated to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in the spring of 1840 removed to Prairie du Chien.

While in Prairie du Chien Mr. Irvine kept a grocery. During that time he made two trips to St. Paul—the last one with a team loaded with provisions, on the ice the most of the way—and on the third of August, 1843, arrived in St. Paul with his family. On his arrival he bought of Joseph Rondeau a claim of 240 acres of land, afterward converted into Rice & Irvine's addition, Irvine's enlargement and Irvine's addition to the city of St. Paul, including most of the present city from St. Peter street to Leech's addition, for about $300. Mr. Irvine entered it in 1848. The east 80 acres of a quarter included in this claim Mr. Irvine sold to Henry M. Rice in 1848, and in the winter they laid off Rice & Irvine's addition, and commenced selling lots and making improvements on the property.

Since living in St. Paul Mr. Irvine has been engaged in farming, milling, storekeeping, working at his trade, and managing his estate. He was one of the earliest settlers of St. Paul, whose life amidst its many changes has been contemporaneous with its history from the very beginning. Mr. Irvine has had eight children, seven of whom, namely, six daughters and one son, are living. Mr. Irvine died in 1878.

Horace Ransom Bigelow was born in Watervliet, New York, March 13, 1820. His father, Otis Bigelow, was a Revolutionary patriot and soldier. He received a good education at the schools of Sangerfield and the gymnasium at Utica. He spent part of his early life in farming and teaching. Later he studied law and was admitted to practice in 1847, in Utica, where he entered into partnership with E. S. Brayton until 1853, when he removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, in company with Charles E. Flandrau. He has since devoted himself almost exclusively to his law practice, which includes almost every branch except criminal law. In June, 1862, he was married to Cornelia Sherrill, of Hartford, New York. They have four children.

Cushman K. Davis.—In the quaint little Quaker village of Henderson, New York, in a small house built partly of logs, and mossy and venerable with age, on June 16, 1838, Cushman Kellogg Davis, late governor and present senator from Minnesota, was born. His father, Horatio N. Davis, removed to Wisconsin in August or September of the same year, and settled on the present site of Waukesha. His father was quite prominent; had served during the Civil War, and retired from the service with the brevet rank of major; had held various municipal offices, and had been a member of the Wisconsin senate. Cushman, his oldest son, received as good an education as the times afforded, at the common schools, at Carroll College, a Waukesha institution, and at Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he graduated in 1857. He read law with Gov. Randall, was admitted to the bar in 1859, and practiced at Waukesha until 1862, when he enlisted in the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry, going in as first lieutenant of Company B, but was adjutant general under Gen. Gorman most of the time. At the end of two years, with broken health, he resigned his commission and settled in St. Paul in partnership with Gen. Gorman. In 1867 he was elected a representative in the state legislature, and served one term. He was United States district attorney from 1868 until 1873, when he was elected governor. He served two years, and was the youngest man who has been elected to that office. After leaving the governor's chair he resumed his law practice until the senatorial election of 1887, when he was chosen to succeed Senator McMillan in the United States Senate.

Senator Davis has devoted some time to general literature. His lecture on "Feudalism" was delivered in 1870, and this lecture probably secured him the nomination for governor in 1873. He has also lectured on "Hamlet" and "Madam Roland," and in 1884 delivered a lecture before the Army of the Tennessee and in 1886 a lecture to the graduating class at Michigan University. He also published a book entitled "The Law in Shakespeare," which attracted considerable attention. He was married to Miss Anna M. Agnew, of St. Paul, in 1880.

S. J. R. McMillan was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1826. He spent part of his early days in Pittsburgh; received a collegiate education; studied law; was admitted to practice in 1849, and came to Stillwater in 1852, where he established a law office. In 1858 he was elected judge of the First district and served until 1864, when he was appointed to the supreme bench. He was elected to the position in the fall of the same year and served until 1875, when he was elected to the United States senate. He was re-elected in 1881, and was succeeded in 1887 by Cushman K. Davis. He removed to St. Paul in 1865.

Senator McMillan has had an honorable career and is greatly respected as an upright, conscientious, active and thoroughly practical man. He was married at Pittsburgh in 1852, to Harriet E. Butler. They have three sons and three daughters.

Willis Arnold Gorman, second territorial governor of Minnesota, was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, Jan. 12, 1816. He received a good literary education, and his parents having moved to Bloomington, Indiana, he graduated at the law school connected with the State University at that place. He commenced practice at Bloomington and was quite popular as a lawyer, but even more so as a party leader, and was elected to the legislature six times in succession. At the breaking out of the Mexican War, in 1846, he enlisted as a private in the Third Indiana Volunteers, but was appointed major. He won the reputation of a gallant, dashing officer, and was promoted to be colonel of the Fourth Indiana, which he helped recruit. He served till the close of the war. On his return to Indiana, in 1848, he was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1850. In May, 1853, he was appointed by President Pierce governor of Minnesota Territory. In 1857, at the close of his term of office as governor, he was elected a member of the constitutional convention, and was also an unsuccessful candidate for the United States senatorship. In the spring of 1861, at the breaking out of the Civil War, he was appointed colonel of the First Minnesota Infantry. For bravery at the first battle of Bull Run he was commissioned brigadier general. He was mustered out in 1864. Returning to Minnesota he formed a law partnership with Cushman K. Davis. In 1869 he was elected city attorney and held that office till his death, which occurred at St. Paul, May 20, 1876. He was twice married, first to Miss Martha Stone, of Bloomington, Indiana, in 1836. She died in March, 1864, leaving five children. In April, 1865, he was married to Miss Emily Newington, of St. Paul.

John D. Ludden was born in Massachusetts, April 5, 1819; was educated at Williston Seminary, and came West to the lead mines of Wisconsin in 1842. In 1845 he came to St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, remained at this point and at Taylor's Falls until 1849, when he made his residence at Marine Mills, Minnesota. In 1857 he changed his residence to Stillwater, and in 1861 became a citizen of St. Paul, where he still resides. He was a member of the second, third and fourth territorial legislatures. From 1854 to the present time he has been engaged chiefly in lumbering. He is a man of pleasing address, of good business talent and thoroughly reliable.

Elias F. Drake is a native of Ohio, in which state he lived until 1861, when he came to St. Paul. His boyhood days were spent on a farm; later he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and still later studied law under the instruction of Justice Swayne of the United States supreme court, and was admitted to practice in all the courts of Ohio and in the United States court. After a short and successful term of practice, he became cashier of the State Bank of Ohio, and in that capacity spent ten years of his life. During that time he served three terms in the legislature, being speaker one session, during which the late Gov. Swift was clerk of the house.

In politics Mr. Drake was a Whig, and afterward a Republican. During his residence in Ohio he was active in promoting the improvements of the country, successfully building several leading turnpike roads and a few railroads.

In 1861 he came to Minnesota, and, put in operation the first railroad in the State, a road between St. Paul and St. Anthony Falls. In 1863 he was president of the Winona & St. Peter railroad during the construction of the first ten miles. Soon after, he, with some associates, took hold of the Minnesota Valley railroad, and completed it to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1872. He is president and land commissioner of this company. Mr. Drake represented Ramsey county in the state senate in 1874-75.

Norman W. Kittson was born at Sorel, Lower Canada, March 5, 1814. In May, 1830, he engaged as an employe of the American Fur Company, and in that capacity came to the Northwest. From the summer of 1830 to that of 1832 he occupied the trading post between the Fox river and the Wisconsin. The following year he operated on the headwaters of the Minnesota, after which he spent a year on Red Cedar river, in Iowa. In 1834 he came to Fort Snelling, where he was sutler's clerk till 1838. The winter of 1838-39 he spent with his friends in Canada. On his return in the spring he began business on his own account in the fur trade, at Cold Springs in the vicinity of Fort Snelling, which he continued till 1843, when he entered the American Fur Company as special partner, having charge of all the business on the headwaters of the Minnesota, and along the line of the British possessions, and operating in that field till 1854. During that summer he entered into partnership with Maj. Wm. H. Forbes, in the general Indian trade, at St. Paul, and went there to reside in the fall of that year. The partnership continued till 1858, and Mr. Kittson continued his northern business till 1860, when he closed out. In 1863 he accepted the position of agent for the Hudson Bay Company at St. Paul, and went into the steamboat and transportation business on the Red River of the North. From 1851 to 1855 Mr. Kittson was a member of the territorial council, and was mayor of the city of St. Paul in 1858. He was the oldest of the pioneers of Minnesota, except Joseph Dajenais, a French Canadian, now residing at Faribault. Mr. Kittson died July 10, 1888, on a railroad train near Chicago. His body was brought to St. Paul for burial.

Hascal Russell Brill was born in the county of Mississquoi, Canada, Aug. 10, 1846. He was educated partly at Hamline University, then located at Red Wing, and finished at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He studied law and was admitted to practice at St. Paul in December, 1869, and formed a partnership with Stanford Newel. Three years later he was elected probate judge and served two years. In 1875 he was appointed by Gov. Davis to fill the vacancy in the court of common pleas caused by the death of Judge W. S. Hall, and a few months later was elected by the people to fill the same position. In politics Judge Brill is Republican. He was married Aug. 11, 1873, to Cora A. Gray, of Suspension Bridge, Niagara county, New York.

Ward W. Folsom, brother of Simeon P. and W. H. C. Folsom, was born in Tamworth, New Hampshire, Oct. 13, 1824, but in early life removed with his parents to Skowhegan, Maine, and in 1846 came to Arcola, Minnesota. In 1848 he removed to St. Croix Falls and in 1851 to Taylor's Falls, where he kept the Chisago House and engaged in lumbering until 1857, when he removed to St. Paul, which city has since been his home. He was employed for three years during the Civil War in the quartermaster's department at St. Louis, Missouri. In 1865, with health greatly shattered, he returned to St. Paul. He was married to Sydney Puget, of St. Louis, in 1852. They have two adopted sons.

Gordon E. Cole was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, June 18, 1833; received his education at Sheffield Academy, Massachusetts, and at the Dane law school of Harvard University, from which school he graduated in 1854. He practiced law two years in his native town, came to Minnesota, and located in Faribault in 1847. In 1859 he was elected attorney general and served three consecutive terms. He served one year as state senator, and a year in compiling state statutes. He has been a railroad attorney and has filled many honorable positions. He was married in August, 1855, to Stella C. Whipple, of Shaftsbury, Vermont, who died in June, 1872, leaving three children. Feb. 14, 1874, he was married to Kate D. Turner, of Cleveland, Ohio.

James Smith, Jr., was born in Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, Oct. 29, 1815. He obtained a good practical, common school education, and was besides largely self taught. He read law three years in Lancaster, Ohio, was admitted to the bar in 1839, and practiced law in his native town for seventeen years. In 1856 he came to St. Paul, where he has been associated in practice with Judge Lafayette Emmett, John M. Gilman and J. J. Egan. Since the building of the St. Paul & Duluth railroad he has been its attorney, general manager and president.

Mr. Smith was in the state senate in 1861-62-63 and 67, and proved a careful and able legislator. As a lawyer he stands deservedly high. He was married to Elisabeth Martin, Jan. 18, 1848. They have four children.

William Pitt Murray is of Irish descent. He was born in Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, in 1827; came to Centreville, Indiana, in 1844; attended school there, graduated at the State Law School at Bloomington in 1849, and the same year came to St. Paul, where he has practiced law ever since. He has also taken an active part in the politics of the city and State. He has probably assisted in the passage of more laws than any other man in the State. He was a member of the territorial house of representatives in 1852-53 and 57, and of the territorial council of 1854-55, acting as president in the latter year. He was a member of the Democratic wing of the constitutional convention in 1857; was a representative in the state legislatures of 1863 and 1868, and a state senator in 1866-67, 1875-76, and has besides served sixteen years in the city council of St. Paul. He has been county and city attorney since 1876. He has been honored beyond most public servants and has a county named after him. He was married to Carolina S. Conwell, of Laurel, Indiana, April 7, 1853. They have three children living.

Henry Hale.—Judge Hale was born in Vermont in 1816; studied law and was admitted to practice in his native state. He came to St. Paul in 1856 and opened a law office on Bridge Square. He took an active part in the politics of the State and vehemently opposed the $5,000,000 loan bill. He has since retired from law practice, and is now a successful dealer in real estate.

James Gilfillan, son of James and Janet (Gilmor) Gilfillan, was born in Bannockburn, Scotland, March 9, 1829. His parents came to America in 1830 and located at New Hartford, New York. He was educated in the common schools, read law and was admitted to practice in 1850. He removed to Buffalo, New York, where he practiced law until 1857, when he removed to St. Paul and opened a law office. In 1862 he enlisted in Company H, Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, became its captain and before the close of the war was commissioned colonel of the Eleventh Minnesota Infantry. In 1869 he was appointed to a vacancy on the supreme bench of the State and again in 1875. The same year he was elected to the office for seven years, at the end of which time he was re-elected. He was married June 4, 1867, to Miss Martha McMasters, of St. Paul. They have six children.

Charles Duncan Gilfillan, a younger brother of James, was born in New Hartford, New York, July 4, 1831. He was educated in the common schools, Homer Academy and Hamilton College. After leaving college, in 1850, he located in Missouri, and a year later came to Stillwater, Minnesota, where he read law with Michael E. Ames, was admitted to the bar in 1853 and removed to St. Paul in 1854, where he engaged for about twelve years in the practice of his profession. Since that period he has been engaged in furthering various public enterprises, among them the St. Paul Water Works, of which he was the founder and for many years manager. He has occupied various public positions, always with credit to himself. He was the first recorder of Stillwater; was a member of the state legislatures of 1864-65, and 1876, and a member of the senate from 1878 to 1881, inclusive. At the session of 1878 he was chairman of the railroad committee and the committees on judiciary and education. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Gilfillan was married to Emma C. Waage, of Montgomery county, New York, who died in 1863, leaving no issue. In 1865 he married Fanny S. Waage, sister of his first wife. They have four children.

Alexander Wilkin was born in Orange county, New York, in December, 1820. He studied law with his father, Judge Samuel J. Wilkin, and practiced awhile at Goshen. In 1847 he enlisted in the Tenth New York Regulars for service in the Mexican War, and was commissioned captain. In the spring of 1849 he came to St. Paul; practiced law; was appointed United States marshal in 1851, and served until 1853. He visited Europe during the Crimean War, and studied the art of war before Sebastopol. At the breaking out of the Rebellion, he raised the first company for the first regiment, acted with conspicuous bravery at the battle of Bull Run, and was commissioned major of the Second Minnesota, lieutenant colonel in the same regiment, and colonel of the Ninth Minnesota, all in the same year, 1862. He took part in the Indian campaign, but at its close returned South, his regiment being attached to the Sixteenth Army Corps, under Gen. A. J. Smith. He was advanced to the position of brigade commander, and was killed at the battle of Tupelo, Mississippi, July 14, 1864. Wilkin county, Minnesota, bears his name.

Wescott Wilken, a brother of Alexander, was born at Goshen, New York, in 1827, received a good education, graduating at Princeton College in 1843, and studied law at New Haven Law School in 1846. He practiced law in Sullivan county, New York, and was county judge four years. In 1856 he came to St. Paul and formed a partnership with I. V. D. Heard; was elected judge of the district court in 1864, and re-elected every succeeding term, without opposition.

S. C. Whitcher was born in Genesee county, New York, in 1821. He came to Amador, Chisago county, Minnesota, in 1853, and to St. Paul in 1858. He was married to Helen M. Olds, in New York, in 1840. Their two sons are Charles and Edward.

Maj. Thomas McLean Newson was born in New York City, Feb. 22, 1827, of Scotch-Irish parentage. His paternal grandfather was paymaster in the army during the war of 1812. His father, Capt. George Newson, commanded a military company in New York City for seventeen years. Three uncles were in the war of 1812. His father removed to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1832, and both parents died there in 1834. The son, after his parents' death, was placed in a boarding school. When he left the school he learned the printer's trade, and on arriving at his majority entered into partnership with John B. Hotchkiss in the publication of the Derby Journal, in Birmingham, Connecticut. During this period he wrote poetry, delivered lectures, and took an active part in political affairs. He was secretary of the first editorial association in Connecticut, and started and conducted for a year the first daily penny paper in the State. He was one of the originators of the reform school and an efficient promoter of its interests.

He came to St. Paul in 1853, where he was first associated with Joseph R. Brown in the editorial department of the Pioneer, but the following spring, in company with others, started the Daily Times, which he edited until 1860, when he leased the material to W. R. Marshall. The Press was the outgrowth of this movement. He was one of the founders of the Republican party in the State and was sole delegate of his party in Minnesota to the Pittsburgh national convention.

At the outbreak of the Rebellion he entered the service of his country, was commissioned commissary of subsistence and subsequently appointed acting assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain. At one time he was chief commissary at St. Cloud. He left the army with a splendid record for honesty and capacity, with the brevet rank of major, conferred for meritorious service, and the offer of a position in the regular army, which he declined. In 1866 he was commander and president of a company which explored the Vermillion Lake region prospecting for precious metals. He was the first to assay the iron ores, now so famous, in that region. In later years we find him prospecting amongst the Black Hills, enjoying the wild life of the frontier and devoting some attention to literature. While there he wrote a drama of "Life in the Hills" and delivered lectures at various times and places, achieving in this line an enviable success. Since this period he has written and published an interesting work, entitled "Thrilling Scenes Among the Indians," drawn from his own observation and experience; also "Pen Pictures and Biographical Sketches of Old Settlers of St. Paul, from 1838 to 1857," a rich and racy book of seven hundred and thirty-two pages, in which the driest biographical details are enlivened with amusing anecdotes and witty comments, in which naught is set down in malice, but every line glows with the genial spirit of the author. He has in contemplation another volume on the same subject. He has also published "Heleopa," "Indian Legends" and "Recollections of Eminent Men." Maj. Newson is a man of varied and miscellaneous gifts. He is a ready writer, a fluent and eloquent speaker, a journalist, a historian and the oldest editor in Minnesota. He is corresponding secretary of the National Editorial Association, and the first and only honorary member of the State Fire Association; he is a geologist, mineralogist and assayer, a member of the G. A. R., of the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges, and of the Junior Pioneers. He is broad-gauged and popular in his views and positive in the expression of his opinions. He was married to Miss Harriet D. Brower, in Albany, New York, in 1857, and has a family of five girls and one boy, May, Hattie, Nellie, Jessie, Grace, and T. M. Newson, Jr.

Col. Alvaren Allen was born in New York in 1822; came to Wisconsin in 1837, and to St. Anthony Falls in 1857, where he engaged in the livery, staging and express business. In 1859 he followed railroading; in 1873 he bought Col. Shaw's interest in the Merchants Hotel of St. Paul, for $40,000, and Col. Potter's interest for $275,000, property now held at $500,000. In 1887 he rented the property to Mr. Welz. Col. Allen is a genial man, and has friends all over the continent. He was the second mayor of St. Anthony Falls, and has held various public positions in St. Paul.

Harlan P. Hall.—The writer has been unable to obtain any sketch of the history of Mr. Hall. We have to say that he has been an enterprising journalist in St. Paul. He was the founder of the Daily and Weekly St. Paul Dispatch; also of the St. Paul Daily and Weekly Globe. He is a fluent, versatile writer, and a genial associate.

Stephen Miller, a native of Perry county, Pennsylvania, was born Jan. 7, 1816. Being in straitened circumstances he early commenced a life of toil, supported himself and to a great extent educated himself. In 1858 he removed to St. Cloud, Minnesota, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1860 he served as delegate to the Republican convention at Chicago that nominated Lincoln for the presidency. In 1861 he enlisted as a private soldier, but rose rapidly from the ranks, being commissioned as a lieutenant colonel of the First Minnesota Infantry, then as colonel of the Seventh Minnesota Infantry. He was in command of this regiment at the execution of the thirty-eight condemned Indian murderers at Mankato. In 1863 he was commissioned as brigadier general but resigned to accept the position of governor of Minnesota. In 1871 he removed from St. Paul to Windom. In 1873 he was in the Minnesota house of representatives. In 1876 he was presidential elector. In 1839 he was married to Margaret Funk, of Dauphin county, Pennsylvania. They have had three sons. One son was killed at the battle of Gettysburg. Gov. Miller died in 1878, at Windom, Minnesota.