This county, a rich farming district, lies on the west bank of the Mississippi between Ramsey and Goodhue counties. It was originally well diversified with timber and prairie lands, and is well watered by the tributaries of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. Vermillion river, which flows through this county, has near its junction with the Mississippi a picturesque waterfall, now somewhat marred by the erection of mills and manufactories.

HASTINGS,

Lying near the mouth of the Vermillion river, is a wide-awake, thriving city, beautifully located on the banks of the Mississippi. It has a fine court house, good hotels, manufactories and business blocks. The Hastings & Dakota railroad has its eastern terminus here. The St. Paul & Milwaukee, Burlington & Northern railroads pass through the city. The river is bridged at this place.

FARMINGTON,

Near the centre of the county, on the Chicago, St. Paul & Minneapolis railroad, is a thriving business village. West St. Paul has encroached largely upon the north part of the county.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Ignatius Donnelly.—The parents of Ignatius Donnelly came from the Green Isle in 1817, settling in Philadelphia, where Ignatius was born, Nov. 3, 1831. He was educated in the graded and high schools of his native city, graduating at the latter in 1849, and taking his degree of master of arts three years later. He read law with Benjamin Harris Brewster, and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1852, and practiced there until 1856, when he came to Minnesota and located at Ninninger, and purchasing from time to time nearly 1,000 acres of land, devoted himself to farming, not so busily, however, as to prevent him from taking a prominent part in public affairs. A captivating and fluent speaker, and besides a man of far more than ordinary native ability and acquirements, he was not suffered to remain on his Dakota farm. In 1859 he was elected lieutenant governor of the newly admitted state, and was re-elected in 1861, serving four years. He served his district in the thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth congresses. During his congressional term he advocated many important measures, taking an advanced position in regard to popular education, and the cultivation and preservation of timber on the public lands. For his advocacy of the last named measure he was much ridiculed at the time, but has lived to see his views generally understood, and his measures to a great extent adopted in many of the Western States. He advocated amending the law relating to railroad land grants, so as to require their sale, within a reasonable period, at low prices.

When he entered Congress, he gave up his law practice, and since his last term he has devoted himself chiefly to farming, journalism and general literature. In July, 1874, he became editor and proprietor of the Anti-Monopolist, which he conducted several years. Within the last decade he has published several works that have given him both national and transatlantic fame. His works on the fabled "Atlantis" and "Ragnarok" prove him to be not only a thinker and scientist, but a writer, the charms of whose style are equal to the profundity of his thought. His last work on the authorship of the Shakespearean plays has attracted universal attention, not only for the boldness of his speculations, but for the consummate ingenuity he has shown in detecting the alleged cipher by which he assumes to prove Lord Bacon to be the author of the plays in question. The book has excited much controversy, and, as was to be expected, much adverse criticism. Mr. Donnelly was married in Philadelphia, Sept. 10, 1855, to Miss Catherine McCaffrey of that city. They have three children living.

Francis M. Crosby.—The ancestors of Mr. Crosby were of Revolutionary fame. He was born in Wilmington, Windham county, Vermont, Nov. 13, 1830. He received a common and high school education and spent one year at Mount CÆsar Seminary, at Swansea, New Hampshire. He studied law and was admitted to practice at Bennington, Vermont, in 1855. He served in the Vermont house of representatives in 1855-56. He continued the practice of law until 1858, when he came to Hastings and engaged in the practice of law. He served as judge of probate court in 1860-61, acted as school commissioner several years in Dakota county, and was elected, in 1871, judge of the First Judicial district comprising the counties of Goodhue, Dakota, Washington, Chisago, Pine, and Kanabec. He held the first courts in Pine and Kanabec counties. Judge Crosby is held in high esteem, not only by the bar, but by the people at large. He is gentlemanly in his manners, yet prompt and decisive in action.

He was married to Helen A. Sprague, in New York, May 13, 1866. Mrs. Crosby died in 1869. He married a second wife, Helen M. Bates, in New York, in 1872. They have two sons and three daughters.

Hon. G. W. Le Duc was born at Wilkesville, Gallia county, Ohio, March 29, 1823. His father, Henry Savary Duc, was the son of Henri Duc, an officer of the French Army, who came over with D'Estaing to assist the colonies in the Revolutionary struggle. The grandfather, after some stirring adventures in Guadaloupe, where he came near being murdered in a negro insurrection, escaped and came to Middletown, Connecticut, in 1796, where he was married to Lucy, daughter of Col. John Sumner, of Duryea's Brigade, Continental Troops, and a member of the Sumner family which came to Massachusetts in 1637. The father was married to Mary Stewell, of Braintree, New York, in 1803. The family name, originally written Duc, was changed to Le Duc in 1845. The grandfather removed to Ohio and founded the town of Wilkesville. G. W. Le Duc, the grandson, spent his early life at this place, but was educated at Lancaster Academy, a school that numbered amongst its scholars Gen. W. T. and Senator John Sherman, the Ewing brothers, and others prominent in the history of the country. He entered Kenyon College in 1844, graduated in 1848, and was employed for awhile by the firms of H. W. Derby & Co., of Cincinnati, and A. S. Barnes & Co., of New York. Meanwhile he studied law, and in 1850 was admitted to practice in the supreme court of Ohio. July 5, 1850, he came to St. Paul and engaged in selling books, supplying the legislature and the government officers at the Fort, but gradually turned his attention to practice in land office courts. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he enlisted, and was assigned to duty as captain A. Z. in the Army of the Potomac. During his term of service he was promoted to the grades of lieutenant colonel, colonel and brigadier general by brevet. Since the war his most important official position has been that of commissioner of agriculture through the administration of President Hayes. In 1856 he removed to Hastings, and has ever since been identified with the progress and prosperity of that city, and is the owner of large property interests there.

GOODHUE COUNTY.

This county lies on the west bank of the Mississippi river, between the counties of Dakota and Wabasha. It derived its name from James M. Goodhue, pioneer editor and publisher in St. Paul. It is a rich and populous county. The county seat is Red Wing, a thriving city of 7,000 inhabitants, located on the banks of the Mississippi a short distance below the mouth of Cannon river, and at the outlet of several valleys forming a larger valley, well adapted to become the site of a city. The hills surrounding the city are high, bold and many of them precipitous. Mount La Grange, commonly known as Barn Bluff, a large isolated bluff, a half mile in length and three hundred and twenty feet in height, stands between the lower part of the city and the river. Part of the county lies upon the shore of Lake Pepin, and includes the famous Point no Point, a bold promontory extending far out into the lake, with a curve so gradual that the eye of the person ascending or descending the lake is unable to define the Point, which appears to recede before him as he approaches, till at last it disappears, when looking backward he sees it in the part of the lake already traversed. Cannon river, a considerable stream, passes through the county from west to east.

Cannon Falls, on this river, once a picturesque and wild waterfall, is now surrounded by the mills, manufactories and dwellings of a flourishing village, named after the falls. Goodhue county was organized under territorial law. In 1845 the principal point was Red Wing. There we found a Swiss missionary named Galvin, an Indian farmer name Bush and the noted Jack Frazer, a half-breed trader, all living in log buildings. Mr. Galvin had a school of Indian children. Near by was an Indian cemetery—burying ground it could not be called, as the bodies of the dead were elevated upon the branches of trees and upon stakes to be out of reach of animals. The bodies were wrapped in blankets and exposed until the flesh had decayed, when the bones were taken and buried. Red Wing's band of Sioux Indians had their encampment here. It is said that Red Wing, the chief for whom the village and city was afterward named, chose for his burial place the summit of Barn Bluff, and that when he died he was buried there, seated upon his horse, with his face turned to the Happy Hunting Ground, the Indians heaping the earth around him till a huge mound was formed. The legend may need confirmation, but a mound is there to this day, on the highest part of the bluff, and the high spirited chief could certainly have wished no nobler grave.

Red Wing city bears few traces of its humble origin. It is a fine, compactly built city, with handsome public and private buildings. It was for some years the seat of Hamline University, now removed to St. Paul.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Hans Mattson.—Col. Mattson is a native of Onestad, Sweden. He was born Dec. 23, 1832. His parents were Matts and Ilgena (Larson) Mattson, both now residents of Vasa, Minnesota. The son was educated at a high classical school in Christianstad, and in his seventeenth year entered the military service as a cadet and served one year. Disliking its monotony, and having an adventurous spirit he embarked for America, where he found himself abjectly poor, and worked as a cabin boy on a coasting vessel, as a farm hand, and afterward with a shovel on an Illinois railroad until 1853, when he secured a position as an emigrant agent, whose business it was to select homes for Swedish colonists. He, with others, came to Vasa, Goodhue county, Minnesota, where he dealt in real estate, studying law meanwhile with Warren Bristol. He was admitted to the bar in 1858. He was elected county auditor the same year and served till 1860, when he entered the army as captain of Company D, Third Minnesota Infantry. At the end of four years he left the service with the rank of colonel. After his return from the war he formed a law partnership with C. C. Webster, and a year later he accepted the position of editor of a Swedish newspaper in Chicago. In 1867 Gov. Marshall appointed him secretary of the state board of immigration, which position he held several years, doing the State excellent service. In 1869 he was elected secretary of state, but before his term of office expired resigned to accept the appointment of land agent of railway corporations, which enabled him to spend four years abroad.

Col. Mattson was for some time editor of the Staats Tidning, a Swedish paper in Minneapolis, and a large owner and general manager of the Swedish Tribune published in Chicago. He was a presidential elector in 1876. He was again elected secretary of state for 1887-88. He is a versatile writer and a fluent speaker, a frank, outspoken and honorable man. He was married Nov. 23, 1855, to Cherstin Peterson, a native of Bullingslof, Sweden. They have five children living.

Lucius Frederick Hubbard was born Jan. 26, 1836, at Troy, New York. He was the oldest son of Charles F. and Margaret (Van Valkenburg) Hubbard, his father being a descendant of the Hubbard family that emigrated from the mother country and settled in New England in 1595; his mother coming from the Holland Dutch stock that has occupied the valley of the Hudson river since its earliest history.

The father dying early, the son found a home with an aunt at Chester, Vermont, until he was twelve years old, when he was sent for three years to the academy at Granville, New York. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a tinner at Poultney, Vermont, and completed his trade at Salem, New York, in 1854, when he removed to Chicago for three years. He then removed to Red Wing, Minnesota, and started the Red Wing Republican. In 1858 he was elected register of deeds of Goodhue county. In 1861 he sold out his interest in the Republican and ran for the state senate, but was defeated by the small majority of seven votes. In December, 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Fifth Minnesota Volunteers, and was elected captain. In March, 1862, he became lieutenant colonel; in August, colonel; and for conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Nashville was promoted to the position of brigadier general. He participated in the battles of Farmington; of Corinth, where he was severely wounded; of Iuka, the second battle of Corinth; of Jackson and Mississippi Springs; in the siege of Vicksburg; in the battle of Richmond, Louisiana; of Greenfield, Louisiana; of Nashville, where he was wounded and had two horses killed under him, and at the siege of Spanish Fort. He was mustered out in October, 1865, at Mobile, Alabama. He was engaged in twenty-four battles and minor engagements and won an enviable record for his intrepidity and coolness. He returned to Red Wing with broken health, the result of fatigue and exposure.

In 1866 he engaged in the grain business at Red Wing, and soon thereafter in milling operations on a large scale in Wabasha county. In 1872 he purchased an interest in the Forest mill, at Zumbrota, Goodhue county, and in 1875, with others, bought the mills and water power at Mazeppa, in Wabasha county, the mills soon after being rebuilt and enlarged.

In 1868 he raised, through his personal influence, the money necessary for the completion of the Midland railway, a line extending from Wabasha to Zumbrota.

He subsequently projected and organized the Minnesota Central railway (Cannon Valley), to run from Red Wing to Mankato. As president of the company he secured the building of the road from Red Wing to Waterville, about sixty-six miles.

In 1878 Gen. Hubbard was nominated for Congress in the Second district of Minnesota, but declined. In 1872 he was elected to the state senate, and again in 1874, declining a re-election in 1876. In the senate he was regarded as one of the best informed, painstaking and influential members. He was on the committee to investigate the state treasurer's and state auditor's offices, and was largely instrumental in recommending and shaping legislation that brought about the substantial and much needed reform in the management of those offices. He was also one of the three arbitrators selected to settle the difficulties between the State and the prison contractors at Stillwater. He was appointed commissioner, with John Nichols and Gen. Tourtelotte, in 1866, to investigate the status of the state railroad bond, levied in 1858, and finally settled in 1881.

On Sept. 28, 1881, Gen. Hubbard was nominated for governor of Minnesota, and was elected by a majority of 27,857, the largest majority ever received by any governor elected in the State. In 1883 he was renominated and re-elected by a very large majority.

Gov. Hubbard is an affable, genial, courteous gentleman, whose integrity has never been questioned; a man of the people, and in sympathy with them and the best interests and general prosperity of the State.

Gov. Hubbard was married in May, 1868, at Red Wing, to Amelia, daughter of Charles Thomas, a merchant of that place. He has three children, two boys, aged seventeen and eleven respectively, and a girl.

William Colville is of Scotch descent on his father's side. The ancient homestead of the family at Ochiltree is mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his novel, "The Antiquary." On his mother's side he is of Irish descent. His ancestors participated in the American Revolution. He was born in Chautauqua county, New York, April 5, 1830; was educated at the Fredonia Academy, taught school one winter, read law in the office of Millard Fillmore and Solomon L. Haven, of Buffalo, and was admitted to the bar in 1851. He practiced law at Forestville three years, and then removed to Red Wing, Minnesota. His first winter he spent in St. Paul as enrolling clerk of the territorial council, and the winter following was secretary of the council. In the spring of 1855 he established the Red Wing Sentinel, a Democratic paper, and conducted it until the Civil War broke out. In 1861 he entered the service as captain of Company F, First Minnesota Infantry, and served with that regiment three years, conducting himself with such gallantry as to win promotion. He was wounded at the first battle of Bull Run, at Nelson's Farm and at Gettysburg, the last wounds received maiming him for life, and necessitating a close of his military career. At the end of three years he left the service with the rank of colonel, and edited the Sentinel until January, 1865, when he took his seat as representative in the legislature. At its adjournment he was appointed colonel of the First Minnesota Heavy Artillery which was stationed at Chattanooga till the close of the war. Col. Colville was mustered out of the service with the brevet rank of brigadier general. In the autumn of 1865 he was elected attorney general of the State on the Union ticket and served two years. In 1866 he ran for Congress in opposition to the Republican nominee. In 1877 he was elected as a Democrat to the lower house of the state legislature in the strongest Republican county in the State. The same year he was appointed by President Cleveland register of the land office at Duluth, to which place he has removed his residence. He was married to Miss Jane E. Morgan, of Oneida, New York, in 1867, a descendant of Elder Brewster, who came over in the Mayflower.

Martin S. Chandler, for twenty-two years sheriff of Goodhue county, Minnesota, was born in Jamestown, New York, Feb. 14, 1827. He came to Goodhue county in 1856 and engaged for awhile farming at Pine Island. He was elected county commissioner in 1856, and served until 1858, removing meanwhile to Red Wing, which has since been his home. In 1859 he was elected sheriff of Goodhue county, and held the office for eleven consecutive terms, until 1882, when he was elected to the state senate. He was presidential elector in 1872. He was appointed surveyor general in 1883, which office he held until 1887. He was married to Fannie F. Caldwell, of Jamestown, New York, in 1848. His only daughter, Florence C., is the wife of Ira S. Kellogg, of Red Wing, one of the oldest druggists in the State.

Charles McClure was born in Virginia in 1810; was graduated at Lewisburg, Virginia, in 1827; studied law and was admitted to practice in 1829. He came to Minnesota and located at Red Wing in 1856, where he opened a law office. In 1857 he was a member of the constitutional convention, presidential elector in 1861, state senator in 1862-63 and in 1864, judge of the First district, filling the vacancy caused by the retirement of Judge McMillan. At the fall election of the same year he was elected judge of the First district and served seven years. This district embraced Washington, Chisago, Goodhue and Dakota counties. Judge McClure is a man of unquestionable ability and integrity.

Horace B. Wilson was born in Bingham; Somerset county, Maine, March 30, 1821. His grandfather settled in Maine twenty years prior to the Revolution. He had a fair common school education until sixteen years old, when he attended the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, graduating four years later. He devoted himself chiefly to teaching, and studied law meanwhile, but never practiced. He taught in Cincinnati, Ohio, Lawrenceburg and New Albany, Indiana, until 1850, when he was elected city civil engineer, which position he filled six years. In 1858 he removed to Red Wing, Minnesota, and taught, as professor of mathematics, natural science and civil engineering in Hamline University four years. In 1862 he enlisted in Company F, Sixth Minnesota Infantry, was elected captain, and mustered out at the close of the war. His military service was quite arduous, including campaigning against the Sioux until 1864, when the regiment was ordered South and attached to the Sixteenth Army Corps.

In 1866 he was appointed superintendent of schools for Goodhue county. In 1870 he was appointed state superintendent of schools, which position he held five years. He was elected representative in the state legislature in 1877, and subsequently he served four terms as senator, and was president pro tem. of that body during the trial of E. St. Julien Cox, and in the absence of the lieutenant governor presided during the trial. For the past few years he has devoted himself to civil engineering, and has had charge of the public improvements of Red Wing. In 1844 he was married to Mary J. Chandler, who died in 1887.

Among the prominent early settlers of Red Wing not mentioned in our biographical notices were William Freeborn, for whom Freeborn county was named, and who was a senator in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth legislatures. Judges Welch and Wilder, W. C. Williston and Warren Bristol, lawyers, both state senators from Goodhue, and the latter a judge in Arizona. Rev. Chauncey Hobart, D.D., a Methodist pioneer preacher, and author of a history of Methodism in Minnesota and an autobiography; Rev. Peter Akers, D.D., an eminent educator; Rev. M. Sorin, D.D., an eloquent preacher, and Rev. Samuel Spates and J. W. Hancock, prominent as missionaries, the latter the first pastor located in the village. Andrew S. Durant, first hotel keeper; Calvin F. Potter, first merchant. W. W. Phelps and Christopher Graham were appointed to the land office in 1855.

WABASHA COUNTY.

This county, named in honor of a Sioux chief, lies on the west shore of the Mississippi river and Lake Pepin, between Goodhue and Winona counties. It has a majestic frontage of bold bluffs on the lake and river. From the summit of these bluffs stretch away broad undulating prairie lands, with occasional depressions, or valleys, caused by the streams tributary to the river.

Wabasha village is the county seat. The county is traversed by the St. Paul & Milwaukee railway, and the Zumbrota Valley Narrow Gauge railroad has its eastern terminus at Wabasha village. A railroad from Minneiska to Eyota, in Olmsted county, through Plainview, also passes through this county. Lake City is a thriving village on the lake shore, beautifully situated. The Grand Encampment, located about two miles below Wabasha village, was once a point of great interest. It was from time immemorial a camping ground for Indians. It has an abundance of ancient mounds. The only people in the county in 1845, when the author first visited this section, were the Campbell, Cratt, Bessian, and a few other French families. Bailey and sons, Dr. Francis H. Milligan, B. S. Hurd, Samuel S. Campbell, a prominent lawyer, and Wm. L. Lincoln came later to Wabasha. Reed's Landing, at the foot of Lake Pepin, was early settled by Messrs. Reed, Fordyce, Richards, and others. This point controls an immense trade for the Chippewa river, which empties its waters into the Mississippi just opposite.

Nathaniel Stacy Tefft is a native of Hamilton, Madison county, New York, where he was born July 16, 1830. He was educated in the common schools and academy; in 1848 commenced studying medicine and received his diploma the same year at Cincinnati, after attending lectures at the medical college in that city. In 1856 he came to Minnesota and located in Minneiska, where he practiced medicine, served as postmaster, justice of the peace, and member of the legislature. In 1861 he removed to Plainview, where he has taken rank as a leading surgeon and physician in that part of the State. He has also served as member of the state senate (in 1871-72). The writer had the pleasure of meeting him in the legislature of 1858 and found him a strong opponent of the $5,000,000 bill. Dr. Tefft was married to Hattie S. Gibbs, of Plainview, Nov. 10, 1866.

James Wells.—In 1845 the writer found Mr. Wells living in a stone trading house on the west shore of Lake Pepin, on the first high ground on the shore above Lake City. Mr. Wells had a half-breed family and was very reticent in his manner. He was a member of the first territorial house of representatives. When the country became more thickly settled he went West and was killed by the Sioux Indians in the massacre of 1862.

WINONA COUNTY

Was named after the daughter of the Indian chief who, according to the well known legend, precipitated herself from the famous rock on the eastern shore of Lake Pepin, which has ever since been known as "Maiden's Rock." The county lies on the west shore of the Mississippi, below Wabasha county. The frontage of the bluffs on the river is unsurpassed for grandeur and beauty, the bluffs here attaining an altitude of six hundred feet above the river. The natural castles and turrets crowning these bluffs remind the traveler of the towns on the Rhine and Danube, and it is difficult to realize that they are the handiwork of Nature and not of man. The most striking of these bluffs occupies a position in the rear of the beautiful city of Winona, overlooking the city and the valley, and affording from its summit possibly the finest view on the river. The city of Winona lies on a spacious plateau between the bluffs and the river. In 1845 a solitary log cabin, the resting place of the mail carrier, marked the site, and a large Indian village, belonging to the band of Chief Wapashaw, occupied a portion of the present site of the city. All traces of this village have long since disappeared, and given place to one of the fairest and most flourishing cities on the river. The First State Normal School is located here. The St. Paul & Milwaukee railroad passes through, and the Winona & St. Peter railroad has its eastern terminus in this city. It is also the western terminus of the Green Bay & Mississippi. The Chicago, Burlington & Northern crosses the river here, and has a depot in the city.

Daniel S. Norton, at the time of his death United States senator from Minnesota, was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, in April, 1829. He was educated at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio; enlisted in the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1846 for service in the Mexican War; had his health seriously impaired in the service; spent two years in California, Mexico and Central America; returned to Ohio and read law with his father-in-law, Judge R. C. Hurd, practiced in Mount Vernon, Ohio, with Hon. William Windom and came with him to Minnesota in 1855, locating at Winona. Mr. Norton served as senator in the first state legislature, where the writer served with him on several committees, among them the committee on the $5,000,000 bond bill, a bill which Mr. Norton strongly and earnestly opposed, predicting clearly its disastrous results. He also served as senator in the legislatures of 1861-64 and 65, when he was elected to the United States senate, which position he held at the time of his death, in 1870. He was twice married, first in 1856, to Miss Lizzie Sherman, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, who died in 1862. The second time to Miss Laura Cantlan, of Baltimore, in 1868.

William Windom, a native of Ohio, came to Winona in 1855. He had been admitted to practice in 1853, and formed a partnership with D. S. Norton in Mount Vernon, Ohio, who came with him to Winona, where they continued their law partnership. Mr. Windom has been quite prominent in the politics of the State and county, having served in the United States senate two terms, from 1871 to 1883. He was also a representative in Congress from 1859 to 1869. He served as secretary of the treasury to fill a vacancy. During his congressional career he was an ardent supporter of the Union, and won the respect of the nation for his unswerving firmness in upholding his principles. He is a man of great executive ability, and has used his talents and his wealth, of which he has accumulated a considerable share, in the interests of the public. He has been heavily interested in the building of the Northern Pacific and other railroads, and in real estate. His opportunities have been great, he has wisely employed them, and richly deserves the success he has achieved.

Charles H. Berry, the first attorney general of the state of Minnesota, was born at Westerly, Rhode Island, Sept. 12, 1823. He received an excellent school and academic education, graduating at Canandaigua Academy in 1846. He afterward read law and was admitted to practice at Rochester in 1848. He practiced his profession at Corning, New York, until 1855, when he removed to Winona and opened the first law office in that city. He was associated until 1871 with C. N. Waterman. When Minnesota became a state, in 1858, he was elected attorney general and served two years. He was state senator in 1874-75 and has been United States commissioner since 1873. He takes great interest in local and state affairs, especially in educational matters. He has been for many years connected with the city school board and for eight years its president. He was also largely instrumental in locating the State Normal School at Winona. Mr. Berry is a Democrat in politics, is prominent in Masonic circles and a leading member of the Episcopal church. He was married to Frances E. Hubbell, of Corning, New York, Nov. 14, 1850. They have one daughter, Kate Louise, married to Prof. C. A. Morey, principal of the State Normal School.

Thomas Wilson was born in Tyrone county, Ireland, May 16, 1827. He received his education in this country, graduating at Meadville College, Pennsylvania, in 1852. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1855, and in the same year came to Winona and entered the law firm of Sargent & Wilson, known a few years later as Sargent, Wilson & Windom. He was a member of the Republican wing of the constitutional convention in 1857. He was elected district judge of the Fourth district, taking his seat in 1858, and serving six years. In 1864 Gov. Miller appointed him to a vacancy on the supreme bench, caused by the resignation of Judge Flandrau, and in the fall of the same year he was elected chief justice for a term of seven years. In 1869 he resigned this position to resume his law practice. In 1881 he was elected as a representative, and from 1883 to 1886, inclusive, as a senator in the state legislature. He was elected as a representative to Congress in 1887.

Thomas Simpson is of Scotch parentage, but was born in Yorkshire, England, May 31, 1836. He came to America with his parents when a child, to Dubuque county, Iowa. His educational advantages were good, and he learned, when not in school, to assist his father, who was a miner, smelter and farmer. He studied engineering and surveying with E. S. Norris, of Dubuque, and was engaged in government surveys from 1853 to 1856, when he settled in Winona, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1858, when he formed a law partnership with Judge Abner Lewis and Geo. P. Wilson. In addition to his law business he has been a heavy dealer in real estate and money loaning. There are few public enterprises in Winona which he has not actively promoted. He was a delegate to the national convention that nominated Lincoln for the presidency in 1864, also to the convention that nominated Grant in 1868. He served as state senator in 1866-67. He has been an influential member of the Methodist church. He was married Oct. 30, 1860, to Maggie Holstein, of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. They have three sons.

Wm. H. Yale was born Nov. 12, 1831, at New Hartford, Connecticut; was educated at Sheffield Institute; came to Winona in 1857, and practiced law. He was state senator in 1867-68, 1876-77, and lieutenant governor from 1870 to 1874.

Other prominent citizens of Winona are: Dr. James Monroe Cole, the oldest physician in the city; Royal Day Cone, one of the first merchants; Judge Wm. Mitchell; —— Norton, a lumberman and county treasurer several years; W. W. Phelps, first president of the State Normal School; —— Hough, builder of the first large hotel; Hodgins, Yeomans & Laird, lumbermen.