Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom
1827. Mr. Berry received an excellent education at the Pittsfield
2191 words | Chapter 200
Academy, Phillips Academy and at Yale College, from which he graduated
in 1847. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He was in the
law office of Ira Paley, later chief justice of New Hampshire. In 1850
he was admitted to the bar at Concord, New Hampshire. He commenced
practice at Alton Corners, Belknap county, New Hampshire. Three years
later he came West and located at Janesville, Wisconsin. In 1855 he
moved to Faribault, this State, and at once came into prominence. In
1856 he was a member of the territorial house of representatives and
chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1862 he was sent to the state
senate from Rice county, and in 1864 he was elected associate justice
of the state supreme court, a position he has filled with honor to
himself and the bar. He removed to Minneapolis in 1879 and died there,
greatly lamented, Nov. 15, 1887. An obituary notice from the daily
press gives a fair estimate of his character:
"He was not a man that mingled much in society or put himself forward
on any occasion, yet he had a very social, genial disposition, and
every one that knew him valued the acquaintance highly. As a judge he
was universally esteemed. His decisions were always marked by a
peculiarly vigorous grasp of bottom facts. His mind was a naturally
judicial one. His own ideas were fresh and original, and his way of
expressing them unusually vigorous. He devoted himself wholly to his
judicial duties and to his family. He was a great reader and student
and a great home man. His affections were wholly centred in his wife
and children. His distaste for ostentation and publicity is evidenced
in his expressed wish for a private funeral."
He was married May 26, 1853, to Alice A. Parker, of Roscoe, Illinois,
who survives him.
MARK H. DUNNELL is of Scotch descent. He was born July 2, 1823, at
Buxton, Maine. He was raised on a farm, but graduated at Waterville
College, Maine, in 1849, and for three years following was engaged in
teaching. In 1852 he was elected to the Maine house of
representatives, and afterward served five years as state
superintendent of schools. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in
1856, and in 1860 practiced his profession in Portland. In 1861 he was
appointed United States consul to Vera Cruz, Mexico. Before going to
Mexico he was appointed colonel of the Fifth Maine Volunteers, and
participated in the first battle of Bull Run. He resigned his
consulship in 1862, and returned to Maine, where he aided the governor
in recruiting and organizing regiments for the military service. In
1865 he came to Winona, Minnesota, was a member of the Minnesota house
of representatives in 1867, and afterward served three years as state
superintendent of instruction. He resigned this office to take a seat
in Congress, and represented his district a period of ten years. He
was married Nov. 20, 1850, to Sarah A. Parrington, of Goshen, Maine.
They have three children living.
JAMES HEATON BAKER, son of Rev. Henry Baker, a Methodist preacher, and
Hannah (Heaton) Baker, was born in Monroe, Ohio, May 6, 1829. He
graduated at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1852. In 1853 he purchased
the Sciota _Gazette_, at Chillicothe, Ohio. In 1855 he was elected
secretary of state on the ticket headed by Salmon P. Chase as
governor. In 1857 he removed to Minnesota, where, for two successive
terms he was elected to the same office. At the outbreak of the Civil
War he resigned, and accepted a colonel's commission in the Tenth
Minnesota Volunteers. In 1863 his command was ordered to the South,
and he was detached and made provost marshal of St. Louis, and
subsequently of the department of Missouri, in which position he
served until the close of the war, he being meanwhile promoted to a
brevet brigadier generalship.
At the close of the war he was appointed register of the land office
at Booneville, Missouri, but in two years resigned and returned to his
farm in Blue Earth county, Minnesota.
In 1871 President Grant appointed him commissioner of pensions, a
position for which he was singularly well fitted. He resigned in 1875,
and was appointed by President Grant surveyor general of Minnesota.
Gen. Baker has been prominent in Masonic circles, and has contributed
much to the newspaper and periodical press. He was married Sept. 25,
1852, to Rose R., daughter of Reuben H. Thurston, then of Delaware,
Ohio, now of Mankato, Minnesota. This estimable lady died at
Washington City, March 21, 1873, leaving two sons, Arthur and Harry E.
Gen. Baker, since his appointment as surveyor general, has resided at
Mankato. He served in 1885 and 1886 as railroad commissioner for the
State.
HORACE BURTON STRAIT is of Virginia Revolutionary stock. He was born
in Potter county, Pennsylvania, Jan. 26, 1835. His educational
advantages were such only as the common schools afforded, and he is
largely self cultured. He came to Minnesota in 1855, and engaged in
farming near Shakopee, but in 1860 moved to the county seat, and
engaged in mercantile business. In August, 1862, he enlisted in
Company I, Ninth Minnesota Volunteers, commanded by Col. Alexander
Wilkin; was commissioned as captain, and in 1864 as major; was
mustered out at the close of the war, since which time he has been
engaged in milling, banking and farming. He was president of the First
National Bank of Shakopee. He served as mayor of Shakopee in
1870-71-72, when he was elected to Congress, and served by continuous
re-elections until 1888, when J. L. MaDonald became his successor. He
was emphatically a working member. He has been twice married. His
first wife died in 1872, leaving one child.
JUDSON WADE BISHOP was born at Evansville, New York, June 24, 1831. He
received an academic education at Fredonia Academy, and at Union
Academy, Belleville, New York. Leaving school at the age of sixteen,
he was employed for several years as clerk and book-keeper and in
teaching. Having a taste for civil engineering he fitted himself for
usefulness in that department at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
of Troy, New York, and in 1853 secured a position as draughtsman on
the Canadian Grand Trunk railway. At the completion of the road, in
1857, he obtained employment in railroad surveying, making his
residence at Chatfield until 1861, where he purchased a newspaper, the
Chatfield _Democrat_. At the first call for troops in 1861 he sold his
office, volunteered as a soldier, and was mustered in as captain of a
company in the Second Regiment, June 26, 1861. He was mustered out at
the close of the war with the brevet rank of brigadier general, and
resumed railroad work, in which he has since been active and
conspicuous. For some years he was manager of the St. Paul & Sioux
City. His connection with railroad enterprises necessitated his
removal in 1864 to Le Sueur, in 1868 to Mankato and in 1873 to St.
Paul, which has since been his home. He has also been a heavy dealer
in real estate. He was married Jan. 11, 1866, to Nellie S. Husted, of
Galena, Illinois, who died Sept. 19, 1878, leaving three sons, Charles
Husted, Edwin Judson and Robert Haven.
JOHN LOUIS MCDONALD.--The paternal ancestors of our subject were
Highlanders, of the clan "McDonald of the Isle." John Louis was born
in Glasgow, Scotland, Feb. 22, 1836; came with his parents to America
in 1842, lived a few years in Nova Scotia, then removed to Pittsburgh
where he received an academic education. He removed to Belle Plaine,
Scott county, Minnesota, in 1855, read law with Judge Chatfield, and
was admitted to practice at Shakopee in 1858, removing thither three
years later, and continuing in practice, serving as probate judge from
1859 to 1864 and publishing and editing the Belle Plaine _Enquirer_,
and later, the Shakopee _Argus_, serving two years as prosecuting
attorney, four years as superintendent of schools, two years as state
representative (1869-70) and three years as state senator (1874-75 and
1876). In 1877 he was elected district judge, and served seven years.
In 1888 he took his seat as representative in Congress. As a judge he
is thoroughly well informed, clear-sighted and impartial.
THOMAS H. ARMSTRONG was born in Milan, Ohio, Feb. 6, 1829. He
graduated from Western Reserve College in 1854, commenced the practice
of law at La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1856, practiced at High Forest,
Minnesota, until 1870, when he discontinued practice. Three years
later he moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota, and established the Freeborn
County Bank.
Mr. Armstrong has acted a prominent part in the legislation of the
State, having been a representative in the legislatures of 1864 and
1865, and, as lieutenant governor, president of the senate for the
four succeeding terms. He was elected speaker of the house in the
legislature of 1865. As a presiding officer he was courteous,
dignified, and fair in his rulings, and an excellent parliamentarian.
April 1, 1868, he was married to Mrs. Elisabeth M. Butman, daughter of
John Burgess, of Cleveland, Ohio.
AUGUSTAS ARMSTRONG, a younger brother of the foregoing, and a
prominent citizen of Albert Lea, died in 1873.
MOSES K. ARMSTRONG, another brother, has represented Dakota in
Congress.
JAMES B. WAKEFIELD was born at Winstead, Litchfield county,
Connecticut, March 21, 1828. He graduated at Trinity College,
Hartford, in 1846; studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1851;
came to Shakopee, Minnesota; practiced law two years and removed to
Blue Earth City. He has been called to fill various and responsible
public positions. He was a member of the legislature several terms,
serving as representative in 1858, 63 and 66, and as senator in
1867-68-69. He served as deputy Indian agent at the Lower Sioux agency
from 1856 to the Indian outbreak, and in 1869 was appointed receiver
of the Winnebago land office, which position he held six years. From
1875 to 1879 he served as lieutenant governor of Minnesota, and from
1884 to 1886 as member of Congress. He served as a delegate to the
Republican convention which nominated President Grant in 1868, and to
the convention which nominated President Hayes in 1876. Mr. Wakefield
was married in August, 1864, to Miss Nannette Reinhart, of Blue Earth
City.
WILLIAM WALLACE BRADEN was born in Iberia, Ohio, Dec. 3, 1837. He was
educated in the district schools and reared as a farmer. In November
he came to Fillmore county with his father, and engaged in farming. He
was a member of the legislature in 1866-67, and has served three
terms as county treasurer. During the Civil War he served three years
with the rank of lieutenant, and then of captain in Company K, Sixth
Minnesota Volunteers, and was for some time detached from his command
as provost marshal of Southern Missouri, with headquarters at
Springfield. Capt. Braden is prominent as a Mason, and as a Republican
takes an active interest in the politics of the State and nation. He
was elected state auditor in 1881, and re-elected in 1885. He was
married March 7, 1866, to Addie Griswold, of Pennsylvania.
REUBEN BUTTERS was born in Union, Lincoln county, Maine, May 26, 1816.
He received such education as could be obtained at winter schools, and
employed himself chiefly in clerking and mercantile pursuits until
1851, when he came to Minnesota and became the first permanent settler
in the Minnesota valley above Shakopee. He made the first claim at Le
Sueur, having, in connection with Messrs. Thompson and Lindsey, a
station at that place, also at Kasota. He has been engaged chiefly in
farming. He has also a stone quarry and store in Kasota, and does a
fair amount of trading. Mr. Butters was a member of the first state
legislature, and has served seven or eight sessions since. He was
county commissioner many years. In politics he is a Democrat.
Mr. Butters has been twice married, first in November, 1847, to
Elizabeth Hill, of Cleveland, Ohio, and second in May, 1861, to Mrs.
Mary E. Rogers, of Maine. He died March 29, 1888.
MICHAEL DORAN, a most successful business man and prominent in
political affairs, having served six terms in the state senate, was
born in the county of Meath, Ireland, Nov. 1, 1829. He received but
little education before coming to this country in 1850, when, although
over twenty-one years of age, he obtained two years' schooling. He
landed in New York City, remained in the State about a year and
removed to Norwalk, Ohio, where he farmed and kept a grocery store. In
1856 he came westward and located at Le Sueur, where he engaged in
farming. In 1860 he was elected county treasurer and served and held
the office eight years. Since 1870 he has been engaged in banking,
farming and real estate operations. He is also one of the owners of
the elevator and flouring mill at Le Sueur.
In politics he is a Democrat and was an elector on the McClellan
ticket. His senatorial terms were from 1872 to 1875 and 1877 and
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