©2008 Genealogy Trails
Olmsted County Biographies
EDWIN F. WHITING (1882), member of the Minnesota Legislature, representing the seventeenth district, comprising the counties of Lyon, Lincoln and Yellow Medicine, is the editor and proprietor of the Balaton Press-Tribune and an implement dealer of that village. He has lived in Lyon county thirty years and has taken a prominent part in the affairs of his county.Mr. Whiting is a native Minnesotan, having been born at Rochester October 10, 1861. He was educated in the Rochester schools and resided in that city until he reached his majority. He came to Lyon county in 1882 and engaged in farming in Custer township until the fall of 1901. That period of residence was punctuated occasionally by service as a traveling salesman for a year or two at a time.
in 1901 Mr. Whiting located in Balaton and bought the machinery, furniture and undertaking business of Urbane Wilhelm. Later he disposed of the furniture stock and has since dealt in machinery and attended to the undertaking business. He purchased the Press-Tribune in March, 1910, and has since conducted that journal. Besides his other interests Mr. Whiting has farming interests. He is secretary of the Union Land and Credit Company, an incorporated firm.
During the time of his residence in Balaton Mr. Whiting has held many offices within the gift of his neighbors. He has been a member of the Village Council since 1902, the last six years as village recorder. He was clerk of the School Board three years and a member of the Board of Health ten years. in 1910 Mr. Whiting was elected a member of the Legislature on the Republican ticket and now represents his district in the state's law-making body. Our subject is a member of the Masonic and Woodmen orders.
The marriage of Mr. Whiting to Lois M. Foster occurred at Rochester, Minnesota, April 8, 1881. She is a native of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. They have five children, as follows: Vera (Mrs. O. H. Herrmann), of Oakland, California; Foster P., of Balaton; Eva (Mrs. C. E. Weeks), of Balaton; Nina B. and Leda M.
The parents of Edwin F. Whiting were E. P. and Sarah A. (Rice) Whiting, natives, respectively, of New York and Pennsylvania. They were married at Princeton, Wisconsin, and in 1857 became residents of Olmsted county, Minnesota. Mr. Whiting became a prominent man in that county and served two terms in the Legislature in the seventies. He died in Olmsted county in April, 1883. Mrs. Whiting died at the home of a son at New Richland, Minnesota, October 8, 1910. There are seven children living of the family, as follows: Homer, Frank, Edwin F., Etta (Mrs. George Struble), Casius P., Jenny (Mrs. H. A. Bates), Arthur L. The eldest child of the family, Nelson P., is deceased.
(Source: "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota", by Arthur P. Rose, 1912)
BURT W. EATON
The City of Rochester, judicial center of Olmsted County, has its due complement of able and influential lawyers, and with all consistency may Mr. Eaton be designated as one of the representative members of the bar of this county, where he controls a substantial practice of general order, and he is also vice president of the First National Bank. He is known as a progressive and public-spirited citizen, besides which he is a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of this county, which has been his home from early childhood.
Mr. Eaton was born in Chautauqua County, New York, the place of his nativity having been the Village of Gerry and the date of his birth September 29, 1854. He is a son of Lyman L. and Corana (Martin) Eaton, both natives of the State of Vermont, where the former was born August 19, 1809, and the latter October 17, 1811, their marriage having been solemnized in the State of New York, to which the respective families removed from New England in an early day. Lyman L. Eaton died on the 9th of February, 1887, and his widow was summoned to eternal rest on the 15th of March, 1890. in the year 1855, when the subject of this review was an infant, Lyman L. Eaton came with his family to Minnesota and numbered himself among the pioneer settlers of Olmsted County, where he became a prominent and influential citizen, the owner of a valuable farm, which he reclaimed from the wilderness, and a successful business man. He early established himself in the mercantile business at Rochester, and here he conducted for many years a well ordered grocery store. His character and ability gave him secure place in popular confidence and esteem, and here he served continuously in the office of justice of the peace from 1858 until 1884 -- a remarkable record covering more than a quarter of a century. He was an unwavering supporter of the cause of the democratic party and believed earnestly in the principles advanced by its great leaders of the past, Jefferson and Jackson. He was a man of dignified bearing and fine intellectual powers, and his influence was potent in the furtherance of measures that conserved the general good of the community. Of the four children the only one now surviving is he whose name introduces this article. Lyman L. Eaton was a son of Sylvanus Eaton, who likewise was born in Vermont, a scion of a colonial English family in New England, and he became one of the early settlers of Chautauqua County, New York, where he continued to reside until his death, at an advanced age. Daniel Martin, maternal grandfather of Burt W. Eaton, likewise claimed the old Green Mountain State as the place of his nativity and was numbered among the pioneers of Chautauqua County, New York.
To the public schools of Rochester, Minnesota, Burt W. Eaton is indebted for his early educational discipline, and here he studied law under the effective preceptorship of the late Charles C. Wilson. He made rapid and substantial progress in his absorption and assimilation of the involved science of jurisprudence and was admitted to the bar on the 5th of December, 1879. During the long intervening period of thirty-five years he has been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession at Rochester, and he has long held prestige as one of the strong trial lawyers and well fortified counselors at the Olmsted County Bar. For the first decade of his professional career he was associated in practice with Frank B. Kellogg, who is now a resident of the City of St. Paul, and since the severing of this partnership he has conducted an individual law business, with a clientage of important and representative order. He is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association and the Olmsted County Bar Association, and by his character and services he has dignified and honored the profession of which he is a prominent representative and the state which has been his home during virtually his entire life thus far. Mr. Eaton is found arrayed as a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies of the democratic party, and while he has had no special ambition for public office his civic loyalty has prompted his service in various positions of trust. He was county attorney for one term, was for one term mayor of Rochester, and he has served also in the office of city recorder. Mr. Eaton has completed the circle of York Rite Masonry and is affiliated also with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
On the 15th of January, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Eaton to Miss Ella Butler, daughter of George H. Butler of Medford, Steele County, and the only child of this union is Elsie, who is now a student in the public schools of her home city. Mrs. Eaton is a leader in the social activities of Rochester, where she holds membership in the Congregational Church and is, in 1914, regent of the chapter of the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
BRIMMER, CLIFFORD CARL, born in Marengo, Iowa, June 22, 1892. Son of A. and Mary Ellen Scott Brimmer. Graduate of Marengo high school. B. S. in Agriculture Iowa State, also forty hours toward M. A. degree. Member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, Mason. Member of the Lions club. Married Grace C. Williams of Rochester, Minnesota, October 15, 1906. They have two children, Marjorie Ellen and Maurice Paul. He then engaged in farming at Kellerton, Iowa, from 1916 to 1924. Came to Tekamah in 1925 to teach Smith Hughes Agriculture in the Tekamah high school. Since he has been in Tekamah he has held a farm instruction school and has contributed to the Farm Journal since his first year out of college. He is an active member in helping the farmer.
(from "A History of Burt County, Nebraska: from 1803 to 1929", 1929)
WILLIAM H. HENDRICKS. A native of Olmsted County, Mr. Hendricks has gained secure status as one of its representative business men in his chosen sphere of enterprise and is engaged in the real estate and insurance business in the City of Rochester, judicial center of the county. He is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Olmsted County, where his parents still maintain their home.
Mr. Hendricks was born on the old homestead farm, in Cascade Township, Olmsted County, on the 3d of May, 1862, and is a son of John and Julia Ann (Stutes) Hendricks, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania, in 1835, and the latter in New Jersey, in 1837. The marriage of the parents was solemnized in the old Keystone State, whence they immigrated to Minnesota in 1855 and numbered themselves among the pioneer settlers of Olmsted County. The present thriving little City of Rochester, the county seat, was then a mere hamlet in the midst of the forest, and its chief attractions were a log tavern, or hotel, and a modest grocery store. in Cascade Township John Hendricks entered claim to a tract of Government land, and with the passing years he kept pace with the march of progress and developed from the forest wilds a fine farm. On this old homestead he continued to reside for fifty-five years, at the expiration of which period he sold the farm to his son, N. D. He still retains in his possession forty acres of timber land which he obtained fro the Government more than half a century ago. John Hendricks achieved worthy success through his energy, ambition and well ordered endeavors, and he is now living virtually retired in the City of Rochester, both he and his wife having a host of friends in this section of the state and being numbered among the venerable and honored pioneer citizens still residents of Olmsted County. They are zealous and devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; Mr. Hendricks is a staunch democrat in his political allegiance, and he is a charter member of the Rochester lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. John and Julia A. (Stutes) Hendricks became the parents of seven children, all of whom are living: Catherine is the wife of Thomas O. Crawford, of Rochester; Alice is the wife of Robert Elder and they reside in the City of Chicago; John W. is engaged in the grocery business at Rochester; N. D. owns and resides upon the hold homestead farm, as previously intimated; William H., of this review, was next in order of birth; and Ida S. and Anna J. remain at the parental home. The lineage of the Hendricks family is traced back to staunch Holland Dutch stock, and four representatives of the name were numbered among the settlers in New Amsterdam, the nucleus of the City of New York, in the seventeenth century. Nathan Hendricks, father of John Hendricks, the Minnesota pioneer, was born in Pennsylvania and there passed his entire life. John Stutes, father of Mrs. John Hendricks, passed his entire life in the State of New Jersey.
To the public schools of Olmsted County William H. Hendricks is indebted for his early educational advantages, and after leaving the Rochester schools he continued his association with agricultural pursuits until he had attained to his legal majority, when he left the home farm and assumed the position of clerk in a grocery establishment at Rochester. Finally he became associated with John W. in the purchase of a grocery store in this city, and they were associated in the conducting of the same for a period of eleven years. William H. then sold his interest to his brother and turned his attention to the real estate and insurance business, of which lines of enterprise he is now one of the leading and most successful representatives in his native county, his operations including the handling of lands in various sections of Minnesota and also in the State of Texas, and the insurance department of his business likewise being one of important scope.
Mr. Hendricks is found arrayed as a loyal and well fortified advocate of the cause of the democratic party, and he is now a member of the board of aldermen of Rochester, an office to which he was elected in the spring of 1914. He had previously served a number of years as city treasurer. Mr. Hendricks is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Court of Honor and his wife is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, besides which she is a popular factor in the representative social activities of her home city.
in the year 1890, in the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hendricks to Miss Ella Waterman, who was born and reared in that city and who is a daughter of the late William Waterman. Mr. Waterman was born in Massachusetts, of a fine old colonial family in New England, and he went to New Orleans in 1860. He espoused the cause of the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil war and served as a soldier during the entire course of that conflict. He was an expert accountant and continued his residence in New Orleans until the time of his death. It is a matter of authoritative record that he was a direct descendant of Miles Standish, the historic New England character. His son, William G., was a gallant soldier in the Spanish-American war and died in Savannah, Georgia, the day before he was to have been mustered out with his regiment. Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks have six children, all of whom remain at the parental home, namely: Margaret, Waterman W., Myrtie, Ruth, Robert, and Miles Standish.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
JAMES KELLY. A resident of Olmsted County, Minnesota, from early childhood, Mr. Kelly is a representative of a well known pioneer family of this section of the state, where he was reared and educated and where he has been prominent and influential as a business man and public official. His are the attributes of character that beget popular confidence and esteem and in the primary election of June 16, 1914, he was made nominee on the democratic ticket for representative of his district in the State Senate. Mr. Kelly is engaged in the real estate and insurance business in the City of Rochester, Olmsted County, and is also serving as city assessor and tax collector. Other public service which has made him well known was register of deeds and as township clerk of High Forest Township fifteen years.
James Kelly was born at Friendship, Allegany County, New York, December 12, 1852, a son of Patrick and Margaret (Kinney) Kelly. His mother was born at Brooklyn, New York, in 1831, and died January 25, 1907. Patrick Kelly was born in Ireland in 1829, and died January 24, 1907, just one day before his wife. He was brought to America when very young with his parents, who settled in New York State, where he grew up and was married. For a number of years he was a section foreman on the New York & Erie Railway. Patrick Kelly with his family arrived in Minnesota territory April 9, 1856, and he took up a section of Government land in Olmsted County and lived on it for thirty-five years. His brother, William Kelly, is still living on land he took up nearly sixty years ago from the Government. Of the ten children of Patrick and Margaret Kelly, six are living; James, Catherine Cronin, whose husband is a railway man in Chicago; W. J. Kelly, who is a log scaler at Fort George in British Columbia; P. R. Kelly, who conducts the largest clothing store in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Agnes Campion, whose husband is a farmer of Olmsted County; and Maggie, who is matron in the Cook County Hospital. The family are members of the Catholic Church and the father was a democrat in politics.
James Kelly spent his youth here while Olmsted County was on the Northwestern frontier, and his early education was acquired in a log schoolhouse in that county. He was well trained in the discipline of the home farm, and as a boy learned the blacksmith’s trade at Rochester, and followed that work for twenty-five years. Twenty-three years of this time were spent in Stewartville in Olmsted County, and his reliable workmanship, his genial personality, and his thorough business integrity gained him the absolute confidence of all who had dealings with him.
It was on his record, both in business and in minor public office, that Mr. Kelly was elected to the office of register of deeds of Olmsted County in 1898, and to assume the duties of that office he moved to Rochester in December of that year. Mr. Kelly made an efficient administration of the office during eight years, and since leaving the office has served as assessor. in 1907 Mr. Kelly established an office for insurance and real estate, and also does business in various other lines. He owns one of the fine homes in Rochester, worth $10,000, and has been successful in a financial way, all of it gained as a result of his hard work in earlier years and honorable dealings and good judgment as his means began to increase.
Mr. Kelly was married September 29, 1879, to Bridget Griffin, a daughter of James Griffin, one of the pioneer farmers and settlers of Olmsted County, who located in this section of Minnesota in 1855. They have one son, P. F. Kelly, who is in the insurance business in Rochester. Mr. Kelly and family worship in the Catholic Church, and in politics he is a republican.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
FRANK CHUTE since 1906 has been connected with the Rochester Postoffice. Born in Winona County, Minnesota, March 26, 1864, he is a son of John and Margaret (Daly) Chute, and a grandson of Zebulon Chute, who died in Ireland, and Thomas Daly, who came to the United States in 1848, settled first in Ohio and later moved in Missouri, and died in the latter state.
John Chute was born in Ireland in 1838 and was an infant when brought to the United States by his mother. The family located at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was educated and grew to manhood, and there he met and married Margaret Daly, who had been born in Ireland in 1835 and had been brought to this country in girlhood. Mr. Chute was employed in a Cincinnati packinghouse until removing to Winona County, Minnesota, in 1860, and there worked in a like capacity until 1864, which year saw his advent in Rochester. Here he was identified with the lumber business, and became prominent in democratic politics, and, being a talented public speaker, stumped the state for Gen. George B. McClellan in the fall of 1864. Both he and Mrs. Chute were members of the Roman Catholic Church. They were the parents of seven children, as follows: Charles, who built the Chute Sanitarium at Rochester, is now retired and a resident of Berkeley, California; John, a well-known citizen of Berkeley, where he is connected with the Gamewell Fire Alarm System; Frank, of this review; William, the proprietor of a successful billiard hall at Pasco, Washington; Margaret, who is the wife of James Mahoney, of Faribault, Minnesota; Zebulon, engaged in the plumbing business in New York City; and Nellie, who is the wife of F. H. Plumber, engaged in the advertising business in Chicago.
After securing his education in the public schools of Rochester, to which city he was brought as an infant, Frank Chute learned the trade of barber, a vocation which he followed until his appointment, in 1906, to the Rochester Postoffice. Here he has remained to the present time, a trusted Government employe, now holding the position of clerk in the mailing department.
Mr. Chute was married in 1894 to Miss Mary Connell, daughter of Patrick Connell, who was born in Ireland and was an early settler of Winona County, where he was engaged in the hotel business at St. Charles. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Chute: Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom are attending high school. The family is connected with the Catholic Church. Mr. Chute has been prominent in fraternal circles, being past councilor of the Modern Woodmen of American, exalted ruler of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias. A man of pleasing address and personality and an entertaining conversationalist, he has numerous friends in the community.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
GEORGE W. GRANGER. Observing closely the high ethical code of his chosen profession and standing as one of the representative members of the bar of his native county, Mr. Granger is engaged in successful practice in the City of Rochester, judicial center of Olmsted County, and his ability and professional loyalty are best indicated by the broad scope and important character of his practice, which extends into the various courts of Minnesota, both State and Federal. He is one of the broad-gauged and progressive citizens of the county which has ever been his home and in which he has not been denied the most gracious measure of popular confidence and esteem.
Mr. Granger was born on the old homestead farm of the family, in Cascade Township, Olmsted County, and the date of his nativity was April 5, 1869, He is a son of Abner and S. Louise (Topliff) Granger, both of whom were born in the State of New York, -- the former in 1840 and the latter in 1841. in their native state they were reared and educated and their marriage was solemnized. They came to Minnesota in December, 1867, and the father developed one of the valuable farms of Olmsted County, continuing to give his personal supervision to its operations, in farming and dairying, until 1899, when he retired from the active labors that had so long marked his industrious and successful career and removed to the City of Rochester, where his death occurred in April, 1912, and where his widow still maintains her home. Abner Granger was the first to develop a dairy business at Rochester and he built up a large and profitable business in this line. On his farm he gave special attention to the breeding and raising of high grade Holstein cattle and Percheron horses, and he was recognized as one of the most progressive representatives of the agricultural and livestock interests of this section of the state. He took a loyal interest in all that concerned the general welfare of the community, served as chairman of the supervisors of Cascade Township, and was accorded other evidences of popular appreciation and good will. He was a stalwart republican, and was affiliated with the independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and his religious faith was that of the Universalist Church, of which his widow likewise is a zealous member. Mr. Granger was a son of Julius Granger, who continued to reside in the State of New York until his death, as did also the father of Mrs. Granger, Harvey Topliff.
George W. Granger passed the days of his childhood and youth on the home farm and continued his studies in the public schools of Olmsted County until he had completed the curriculum of the Rochester High School, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1886. Thereafter he continued to be identified with farm work for two years, and then began the study of law under the preceptorship of Burt W. Eaton, a leading member of the Rochester Bar. He was admitted to the bar of his native state of the 6th of June, 1890, and thereafter was engaged in practice in Rochester as a member of the firm of Bear & Granger until 1893, after which he conducted an individual law business until January, 1898, when he formed a partnership alliance with Charles E. Callaghan, with whom he has since continued to be associated under the firm name of Callaghan & Granger, the practice of the firm having long been of representative order. Mr. Granger has proved his versatility and resourcefulness in many litigations of important order and is known as one of the strong trial lawyers and well fortified counselors of this part of the state. He served as county attorney from 1893 to 1899, is at the present time a valued member of the Rochester Board of Education, is a staunch adherent of the republican party, in behalf of hose cause he has given timely and effective service, and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with Rochester Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free & Accepted Mason, and the local organizations of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights of Pythias, in which latter he is past chancellor commander of his lodge. He was one of the organizers of the First State Bank of Rochester and has been a member of its directorate from the time of its incorporation.
On the 24th of June, 1896, Mr. Granger wedded Miss Ophelia Cook, of Rochester, who was summoned to the life eternal on the 5th of April, 1898, and who is survived by one daughter, Miss Ophelia Cook Granger, who remains at the paternal home. On the 14th of February, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Granger to Dr. Gertrude Booker, who was at that time a member of the clinical staff of the Mayo Hospital, in Rochester. She was graduated in the medical department of the University of Minnesota and is a woman of high intellectual attainments as well as of gracious personality, as shown by her popularity and prominence in the representative social activities of her home city.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
CHARLES E. CALLAGHAN. A prominent and representative member of the bar of Olmsted County, Mr. Callaghan has been a resident of Minnesota from his early childhood, the family home having here been established nearly half a century ago and shortly after the close of the Civil war, in which the father had served as a valiant soldier. He whose name initiates this review has achieved distinctive success in his chosen profession, is engaged in active general practice at Rochester, the judicial center of Olmsted County, served more than a decade as postmaster of this thriving little city, and has been an influential factor in the Minnesota ranks of the republican party.
Mr. Callaghan was born in the State of New York, on the 20th of May, 1863, and thus he was a child of two years at the time of the family immigration to Minnesota, in 1865. He is a son of Charles A. and Kate (Laughlin) Callaghan, both of whom were born in Ireland and both of whom were children at the time of the immigration of the respective families to the United States. Charles A. Callaghan and his wife were both born in the year 1839, the latter having been ushered into the world on Christmas day, and both were reared and educated in the State of New York, where their marriage was solemnized. Both were residents of Rochester, Minnesota, at the time of their death, Mr. Callaghan having passed away in the year 1909, and his wife having been summoned to eternal rest in 1901. Of their nine children all are living except one, and Charles E., of this review, is the eldest of the number.
When the Civil war was precipitated on a divided nation Charles A. Callaghan signalized his loyalty by tendering his services in defense of the Union. He enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirtieth New York Volunteer infantry, from which he was later transferred to the First New York Dragoons, and he served during three years of the long and weary conflict through which national integrity was preserved. His service was principally with the forces under command of General Sheridan, and he took part in all of the important battles in which that gallant officer led his valiant army. Mr. Callaghan was wounded in the engagement at Trevilian Station, Virginia, in June, 1864, and the bullet that passed through the body caused such severe injury that he was confined to the hospital for some time thereafter. His record as a soldier was marked by the utmost fidelity and valor, and he was ever found at the post of duty, bearing with fortitude the innumerable hardships and perils that marked the progress of the great internecine conflict. After receiving his honorable discharge Mr. Callaghan returned to his home in New York, but soon afterward, in September, 1865, he came with his family to Minnesota and numbered himself among the pioneer settlers of Olmsted County. Here he purchased a tract of land and in the course of time he reclaimed a productive farm and met with a fair measure of independence and prosperity. He retired from active labors a number of years before his death, and his sterling character gave him a strong hold upon the confidence and good will of the community in which he long maintained his home. He was unfaltering in his support of the cause of the republican party and was called to various minor offices in his township. He was a popular and appreciative member of the post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Rochester and served at one time as its commander, a fact that shows that he held the high regard of his old comrades in arms, in whom he maintained a deep and abiding interest. He was affiliated also with the independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his wife was a zealous member of the Baptist Church.
Charles E. Callaghan was afforded the advantages of the excellent public schools of Rochester, and here also he completed a course in Darling’s Business College. He early began to lend his aid in the work of the home farm and thus gained fellowship with honest toil and endeavor, thereby fortifying himself the more fully for the achievement of success through the application of his own energies and talents. Self-reliant and ambitious, Mr. Callaghan determined to prepare himself for active service in the exacting profession of which he is now an able and successful representative, He accordingly began the reading of law in the office and under the preceptorship of Haftan A. Eckholdt, who, now venerable in years, still retains his residence in Rochester. Under these favorable auspices and conditions Mr. Callaghan continued his studies for three years, and he then gave satisfactory demonstration of the solidity and breadth of his technical acquirements, as he passed an excellent examination before Judge Start, of the District Court, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1889. On the 1st of the following October Mr. Callaghan initiated an independent practice of his profession, and the stage of his activities has been continuously in the City of Rochester, where he has long controlled a substantial and representative law business, the same extending into both the State and Federal courts. in the spring following his beginning of practice Mr. Callaghan was elected city attorney, and of this office he continued the incumbent for two years. After an interim of two years he was again chosen as the incumbent of this office, in which he served four consecutive years. On the 1st of April, 1898, Mr. Callaghan received his commission as postmaster of Rochester, under the administration of President McKinley, and of this important position he continued in tenure for twelve years, his retirement having occurred on the 2d of February, 1901. He did much to bring the service of the office up to a high standard and his administration was specially commendable and satisfactory.
Mr. Callaghan has been unswerving in his allegiance to the republican party and has given yeoman service in the furtherance of its principles and policies, -- an active and influential figure in its local councils and as a member of various party committees. He is at the present time president of the City Charter Commission of Rochester, and he has constantly given evidence of his civic loyalty and progressiveness. in the York Rite of the Masonic fraternity Mr. Callaghan has received the chivalric degrees, in the Rochester Commandery of Knights Templars, and he is also affiliated with the consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite at Winona, besides being actively identified with the adjunct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
On Thanksgiving day of the year 1890 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Callaghan to Miss Clara B. Sanborn, a daughter of Artemus W. Sanborn, a prosperous farmer near Racine, Mower County, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Callaghan have four children: Howard, who is employed in a drug store at Vancouver, British Columbia; Lola, who holds a clerical position in her home city; and Helen and Gertrude who are attending the public schools of Rochester. Mr. and Mrs. Callaghan are members of the Universalist Church, and the family is one of prominence in the social activities of Rochester.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
MICHAEL D. HALLORAN. Engaged in the active and successful practice of law in Minnesota for nearly a quarter of a century, Mr. Halloran is now recognized as one of the leading members of the bar of his native County of Olmsted, with residence and professional headquarters in the City of Rochester, the county seat, and with a substantial practice that extends into all of the Federal and State courts in Minnesota. He is a scion of a well known and highly honored pioneer family of Olmsted County and one whose name has been worthily linked with the civic and industrial development and upbuilding of this favored section of the state.
Michael D. Halloran was born in Chatfield Township, Olmsted County, on the 12th of May, 1867, and is a son of Timothy and Catherine (McGuire) Halloran, both natives of Ireland, and both born in the year 1832, the parents of both having passed their entire lives in the fair old Emerald Isle. Timothy Halloran was reared and educated in his native land and became known as a man of alert mentality and mature judgment. He came to the Territory of Minnesota in 1856 and numbered himself among the pioneer settlers of Olmsted County. He obtained a tract of land in Elmira Township, and this old homestead, representing a Government claim, continued in his possession until his death. industry and circumspection brought to him well merited rewards with the passing of years and he became the owner of a valuable landed estate of 640 acres, in Elmira and Chatfield townships, besides which he was recognized as one of the progressive agriculturists and stock-growers of this part of the state, and as a citizen of utmost loyalty and public spirit. He was active in connection with political affairs in the county and in addition to being called upon to serve in various township offices, he also represented Olmsted County in the State Legislature. Both he and his wife were zealous communicants of the Catholic Church. He died on the 15th of November, 1913, honored by all who knew him, his loved and devoted wife, who had been a true companion and helpmeet, having been summoned to eternal rest in 1911. Of the four children the eldest is Dr. Florence J., who was named in honor of his paternal grandfather and who is a representative physician and surgeon in the City of St. Paul; Nora H. is the widow of John Manahan and resides at Chatfield, Minnesota; Michael D., of this review, was the next in order of birth; and Timothy is a successful farmer in Chatfield Township.
Reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, as have been many others who have achieved noteworthy success in the learned professions, Michael J. Halloran acquired his early education in the public and parochial schools of his native county, and his higher academic education was obtained in the celebrated University of Wisconsin, at Madison, in which institution he was graduated in 1888, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. in the law department of his alma mater he was graduated as a member of the class of 1890 and with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He made an admirable record as a student in both the academic and professional lines and at the university his literary ability gained to him the Shakespearean medal, -- a distinction of no insignificant order. After the completion of his law course Mr. Halloran engaged in the practice of his profession at Lesueur, in the Minnesota county of the same name, and there he built up a substantial and important law business. After an interval of ten years he returned to Olmsted County and for the ensuing five years was engaged in practice at Chatfield, near the old homestead farm. He then, in 1906, removed to Rochester, the county seat, where he has since controlled a large general practice, in connection with which he has appeared in important litigations in both the State and Federal courts, with victories that have given him high reputation as a versatile trial lawyer and well fortified counselor. He has served as county attorney of Lesueur County, and in 1893 he represented Lesueur County in the State Legislature, his political allegiance being given to the republican party, in behalf of whose cause he has been an active and effective worker. He and his family are communicants of the Catholic Church.
in the year 1890, shortly after his admission to the bar, Mr. Halloran was united in marriage to Miss Hannah Manahan, who likewise was born and reared in Olmsted County, where her father, John Manahan, was a prosperous farmer and highly esteemed citizen. Of this union have been born seven children, concerning whom brief record is given in conclusion of this sketch: Kittie, who was graduated in the Minnesota State Normal School at Winona, is now a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of her native state; Marie was graduated in the Rochester High School as a member of the class of 1913 and still remains at the parental home, as do also the younger children, all of whom are still attending school, -- Timothy, Mary Esther, Ralph, Grace and Angela.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
WALTER ECKHOLDT. in his native City of Rochester, the judicial center of Olmsted County, Mr. Eckholdt is the efficient and popular incumbent of the office of register of deeds for the county, and this preferment indicates beyond peradventure that he can not be given classification with the prophet of scriptural aphorism -- one is "not without honor save in his own country."
Mr. Eckholdt was born at Rochester on the 24th on August, 1873, and this date shows that the family name has been identified with the history of Minnesota for more than forty years, the record touching the pioneer era in this favored commonwealth. He is a son of Haftan A. and Adeline (Lane) Eckholdt, the former of whom was born in Norway, in December, 1843, and the latter of whom was born in Wisconsin in 1844. Haftan A. Eckholdt was a boy at the time of the family immigration from Norway to the United States, and the home was established in Minnesota in the pioneer days, he having been still a youth at the time of his father's death. His mother, a woman of sterling character and marked ability, was successful in the conducting of a mercantile business after the death of her husband, and he was reared to manhood as her assistant in the store. When the Civil war was precipitated Haftan A. Eckholdt subordinated all other claims to the call of loyalty, and enlisted in the Minnesota company of volunteers that was commanded by Captain Sibley. He was in active service about three years and made an admirable record as a valiant soldier of the land of his adoption. After the war Mr. Eckholdt took up the study of law, in connection with which he was finally graduated in the law department of the celebrated University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. For many years he was one of the leading members of the bar of Olmsted County, Minnesota, and was engaged in active practice in the City of Rochester, where he and his wife still retain their residence and where he is now living virtually retired, he and his wife customarily passing the winter seasons in the South since he withdrew from the active work of the profession of which he was long a prominent and honored exponent in this section of the state. Of the seven children five are now living, Walter, of this review, being the firstborn; F. R. is engaged in the practice of law at Eustis, Florida; Ella is the wife of Harry Dinsdale, a prominent civil engineer, long active in railway construction work and now in the service of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company at a high salary. Irving L. is engaged in the practice of law at Rochester, Minnesota, and is well upholding the honors of the family name; and Laura is a successful teacher in the public schools at Worthington, Nobles County. The parents are zealous members of the Baptist Church. Haftan A. Eckholdt has been a stalwart in the camp of the republican party, and in the earlier period of his professional career he accorded effective service in the capacity of county attorney of Olmsted County. His wife is a daughter of the late Carleton Lane, who was a native of Wisconsin and an early settler of Olmsted County, Minnesota. Mr. Lane developed a fine farm in this county and became a citizen of comparative affluence, the closing period of his life having been passed in the State of California; his lineage was traced back to staunch New England origin. Haftan A. Eckholdt has long been in affiliation with the Masonic Fraternity, in which he has received the chivalric degrees in the Rochester commendery of Knights Templars.
Walter Eckholdt was graduated in the Rochester High School in 1891, and his natural predilection led him to adopt the profession that has been signally dignified and honored by the character and services of his father. He entered the law department of the University of Minnesota, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1896 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Thereafter he was associated with his father in practice for one year, and he then turned his attention to the mercantile business, with which he continued to be identified for seven years, as proprietor of a well equipped general store at Rochester. in 1906 he was elected register of deeds of Olmsted County, as candidate on the republican ticket, and in 1906 he was reelected, his retention of the office having since continued by successive reelections and his administration having been altogether effective and acceptable. Mr. Eckholdt is affiliated with Rochester Lodge, No. 1091, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and is at the present time, 1914, lecturing knight for this order, besides which he holds membership in the local camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church in their home city. in the year 1897 Mr. Eckholdt wedded Miss Caroline Hubbard, who has been a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of Rochester, and the five children of this union are: Dorothy, Margaret, William H., Edith and Paul.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
Aldrich, Irwin D., 1864 - ?; born at Quincy, Olmsted co., Minnesota, June 3; came to Dakota in 1881 and grew up on a homestead in Grant County; educated at the State College, with post-graduate year at Cornel University. Superintendent of Schools, Grant County, 1895 - 1899; owner and editor, "Bigstone Headlight," 1900-21; State regent of education, 1901; secretary of board of regents, 1901 - 10 and 1914 - 20; State commissioner of immigration, 1920 - ?
Doane Robinson's Encyclopedia of South Dakota
HORACE H. WITHERSTINE, M. D.
Endowed by nature with keen intellectual powers and talents of a high order, Dr. Horace H. Witherstine has become not only one of the successful medical practitioners of Olmsted County, but has also attained distinction in public life, and by reason of his many years of medical practice and his prominence in political affairs is perhaps one of the best known men in his part of the state. Doctor Witherstine was born in Herkimer County, New York, April 14, 1852, and is a son of David and Margaret (Petrie) Witherstine.
Doctor Witherstine is of German ancestry on both sides of the family, his forebears having been residents of the Rhine country in the Fatherland. His paternal great-grandfather, however, was in this country during the period of the Revolutionary war, serving for seven years as a soldier in the Continental Army, and his maternal great-grandfather was a practicing surgeon during that period. David Witherstine was born in Herkimer County, New York, and grew up a farmer but in his youth also learned the printing trade, and during his later years was connected with newspapers as a writer. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, was for years connected with the Masonic Fraternity, and throughout his life supported democratic principles. His death occurred in 1865. Five children were born to David and Margaret Witherstine, of whom four survive: William, who is a lawyer of Herkimer, New York; Dr. Horace H.; and Mrs. Martha Wood and Mrs. Margaret Small, both residents of Herkimer.
Dr. Horace H. Witherstine passed his early life on his father’s farm in New York, and secured his primary education in the district schools, this being supplemented by a course in Fairfield Academy. Following this he was engaged in teaching school for a period of ten years, and then took up his medical studies at Rush Medical College, Chicago, from which noted institution he was graduated in 1886, at once opening an office and commencing practice at Rochester. His career as a practitioner has been a most successful one, and at present he is in the enjoyment of an excellent professional business. He holds membership in the Olmsted County Medical Society, the Southern Minnesota Medical Association, the Minnesota State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and through these avenues, as well as by extensive travel, reading and investigation, keeps in touch with the modern trend of though and experiment and advanced learning in the medical profession. Fraternally, he affiliates with the Masons, being a Knight Templar and a Shriner, and the independent Order of Odd Fellows. A democrat in politics, he has long stood high in the councils of his party, and for many years has been an incumbent of important offices. For a quarter of a century he has been a member of the school board, for twelve years was one of the working and influential members of the State Senate, and for five terms served Rochester as mayor. A glance over his history will show that his life has been one of the untiring activity and consecutive progress, and that he has so developed his talents as to grow in usefulness as well as in learning, thus making for himself a respected name and gaining a goodly measure of professional and political success.
Doctor Witherstine was married in 1880 to Miss Amelia T. Hatfield, of Olmsted County, and four children have been born to this union: Dr. William H., a successful physician and surgeon of Grand Forks, North Dakota; Vernon C., who is identified with the Great Northern Railway; Glenn, who is attending the University of Minnesota; and Lela Margaret, who is a student in the Rochester High School. The members of the family are connected with the Congregational Church.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
JOHN C. CRABB.
in every community there must be leaders. individuals not naturally demonstrative to too great a degree, with a high regard for the rights and privileges of others, and possessing proper ideas as to the best means of advancing the interests of their localities, are doubtless best fitted for leadership. They do not always attain to that position, but when they do their very character serves as a guarantee that the tasks entrusted to them will be well and faithfully performed and that their services will contribute to the material welfare. The gentleman whose name heads this review, John C. Crabb, postmaster of Rochester, has attained prominence and position through the possession of the qualities above delineated.
Mr. Crabb was born in Cascade Township, Olmsted County, Minnesota, May 1, 1860, and is a son of James and Lucinda (Thompson) Crabb. His father was born in Indiana, of Pennsylvania-Dutch parentage, and for some years conducted a store at Decatur, that state, but after his marriage came to Minnesota, and in 1855 located on a claim on the edge of Rochester. This he later disposed of and moved to Cascade Township, where he continued to be engaged in farming until his death in 1864. Mr. Crabb was also a local Methodist Episcopal minister of some note, and the first services of that denomination in Rochester were held at his home in 1855. A republican in politics, he was honored by election to a number of minor offices, in all of which he displayed his good judgment and public spirit. Of the eight children born to James and Lucinda Crabb, four died, those surviving being: Burns A., who is a prosperous real estate dealer of Watertown, South Dakota; Emma E., who is the wife of Mr. Miller and resides at Chelan, Washington; Edwin P., who is engaged in gardening at Rochester; and John C.
John C. Crabb was educated in the common schools of his native locality, a private school, and Winona Normal School, following his graduation from which he began his career as a teacher. For ten years he had charge of various schools in Olmsted County, and for a part of this period was principal of the graded schools at Glenwood. Upon giving up the profession of educator, he turned his attention to mercantile pursuits, and opened an establishment at Byron, where he was engaged in business for three years. He was then elected clerk of the District Court of Olmsted County, a capacity in which he served for twelve years, and at the expiration of his term of office embarked in the real estate and insurance business, with which he was successfully identified four years or until his appointment to the postmastership of Rochester, in February, 1911. He has continued to act in this capacity to the present time to the entire satisfaction of the people, who had appreciated his earnest efforts to better the service.
Mr. Crabb was married July 13, 1890, to Miss Alice M. Hannon, daughter of Leander G. Harmon, of Olmsted County, a farmer, and one daughter was born to this union: Elizabeth, who is now attending school. Mrs. Crabb died October 7, 1909, and Mr. Crabb was married January 10, 1912, to Miss Ellen Gran, of Wabasha, Minnesota, daughter of John E. Gran, a shoe merchant of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Crabb are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is popular and prominent fraternally as a member of the Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the Masonic Order, the independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights of Pythias, of which he has served as chancellor commander, and the Order of the Eastern Star. He has at all times taken an active interest in republican politics, having served as chairman of the Republican County Committee for ten years and as a member of the State Central Committee. He has shown his faith in the future of Rochester by his investments in real estate, and at this time is secretary of a land company. His contributions to the civic welfare of Rochester include his membership on the Public Utility Board and his presidency of the board that had charge of the electric light plant. A stirring, public-spirited citizen, Mr. Crabb has worked faithfully for the public welfare, and is well entitled to the esteem and respect which are so freely given him by his fellow townsmen.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
EDWIN C. HACKETT.
Like many others of the successful journalists of the Northwest, Edwin C. Hackett, city editor of the Post and Record, of Rochester, Minnesota, commenced his newspaper career in the humble capacity of “devil” and has devoted his entire life to the gathering and distributing of news, gradually working his way upward until he has reached an acknowledged position among the prominent and influential newspaper men of the state.
He was born in New York City September 9, 1879, and after securing a common school education entered upon his career in a printing office, where he learned the trade. Subsequently he traveled to various parts of the Northwest, holding positions on weeklies and dailies all over Minnesota and South Dakota, and gradually adding to his experience and his skill as a writer. Mr. Hackett came to Rochester, May 10, 1910, and became city editor of the Post and Record.
Mr. Hackett is a member of the Masons, and is prominent in that fraternal order, being master of Rochester Lodge No. 21, A. F. & A. M.; secretary of Halcyon Chapter No. 8, R. A. M., and recorder of Home Commandery No. 5, K. T. He is unmarried, and lives with his mother.
On June 14, 1914, Mr. Hackett was elected secretary of the Rochester Commercial Club. As a growing city the Commercial Club of Rochester has an important work to do, and in selecting Mr. Hackett for the important place of secretary has found a public spirited and energetic man to carry out the routine and special work of the club.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
WILLIAM H. MITCHELL.
The people of Olmsted County need no introduction to William H. Mitchell, the incumbent of the sheriff’s office since 1909, for his capable and conscientious services have been such as to keep him continually at the height of public favor. Mr. Mitchell came to the sheriff’s office from the farm, and has won the commendation of his fellow citizens solely through his own merit, his success being attributed to the fact that he has earnestly applied to his official work the same energetic and thorough methods which made his private ventures prosperous. A native son of Minnesota, Mr. Mitchell was born June 16, 1861, in Winona County, his parents being William and Sarah (Hall) Mitchell.
William Mitchell was born in Scotland, in 1824, and there grew to manhood and became a tradesman. He emigrated to America in 1852, feeling that in this country there existed great opportunities for success, and settled in Indiana, but after his marriage came to Winona County, Minnesota, and some years later moved to Olmsted County, where he purchased a farm and continued to follow agricultural pursuits until his death in 1886. Mr. Mitchell was a quiet, unassuming man, and did not seek favors in the field of politics, although he always stanchly supported republican principles and candidates. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and reared his children in that faith. While a resident of Indiana Mr. Mitchell married Miss Sarah Hall, who was born in 1834, in Canada, and still survives him, and they became the parents of a family of ten children, of whom seven survive: Clara, who married Walter Cady and lives at Dover, Minnesota; Agnes, who married George Stoddard, and lives at Plainview, Minnesota; William H., James, and electrician, living at St. Paul; Charles, who is a clerk at Dover; George E., a professional nurse of St. Paul; and Mark, who lives on the old homestead farm.
The public schools of Olmsted county furnished William H. Mitchell with his educational training and as he grew up he was thoroughly trained in farm work by his father. It was but natural that he should adopt agriculture as the field of his life activity, and so he continued until elected sheriff in 1909, although prior to this time he had shown official capacity as county commissioner for four years. Since 1909 he has been a resident of Rochester and has been a decided and desirable addition to its citizenship. He was re-elected to office in 1911 and 1913, and at this time is the candidate of the republican party for a fourth term. Sheriff Mitchell has shown himself a brave and fearless officer, with a high conception of the duties of his office, and a decided ability in running down the criminal element. During his administration Olmsted County has enjoyed practical immunity from lawlessness. He is past member of the Blue Lodge and a member of the Chapter and Knights Templar of the Masonic Order, and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Mitchell has succeeded in his various business ventures and is the owner of two valuable farms in Olmsted County.
in 1885 Mr. Mitchell was married to Miss Lucy Brown, a graduate of the Normal School at Winona, who prior to her marriage was a teacher in the county schools. Three children have been born to them: Marion, who married P. H. Coleman and lives in Canada; Doris, who is attending high school; and Bernice, who is a student in the graded schools.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
ALONZO T. STEBBINS.
A resident of Minnesota from his early youth, Mr. Stebbins is a scion of an honored pioneer family of this state and has here achieved distinctive prestige as one of the prosperous and progressive business men of Southern Minnesota and as a citizen of prominence and influence in public affairs, as shown by the fact that he has been called upon to serve in both branches of the State Legislature. He was long associated with his father in the hardware business in the City of Rochester, judicial center of Olmsted County, where he now carried on the enterprise in an individual way, and as one of the representative citizens of this part of the state he is entitled to recognition in this history.
Alonzo Thomas Stebbins was born at Mansfield, Bristol County, Massachusetts, on the 21st day of September, 1847, and is a son of Thomas Warren Stebbins and Harriet (Blandoin) Stebbins, the latter of whom died when Alonzo T. was but one year old. Thomas W. Stebbins likewise was born in the old Bay State, Vermont, and was a scion of one of the staunch old French-Huguenot families that fled their native land to escape the persecutions incidental to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and finally found the coveted freedom and independence in America, where the original progenitors of the name settled in 1634. Both the father and paternal grandfather of Thomas W. Stebbins were patriot soldiers of the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution, and his father likewise gave excellent account of himself as a soldier in the War of 1812. The subject of this review was about three years old when, in 1850, his father removed to Keene, New Hampshire, in which sturdy little New England town he acquired his rudimentary education. in 1857, when he was a lad of ten years, the family immigrated to Minnesota and his father became a pioneer farmer in Winona County, fully availing himself of the advantages afforded in the state of his adoption and having here continued his residence until his death, when more than eighty-five years of age, the closing period of his life having been passed in Rochester, where he was associated with his son in the hardware business, as already noted in this context.
After the family removal to Minnesota Alonzo T. Stebbins promptly resumed his studies, though he found ample requisition upon his services in connection with the work of the home farm during the summer months, his winters being available for the prosecution of his studies in the high school at Winona, after completing the curriculum of which he returned to his native state and completed a course in the Bryant & Stratton Business College in the City of Boston, in which institution he was graduated in 1865. He then returned to Minnesota and became a clerk in a hardware store at Winona, this representing his initial venture of an independent order, as theretofore his work had been at the home farm. Later he became bookkeeper for a prominent firm of grain dealers in Winona, and this position he retained until 1871, when, at the age of about twenty-five years, he removed to Rochester, where he associated himself with his father in the purchase of the hardware store and business of H. A. Brown, the new firm initiating operations under the title of Stebbins & Company, which is still retained, though the honored father died in 1902. in 1892 the firm of Stebbins & Company purchased also the hardware business of the A. Ozmun estate, and the same was consolidated with the regular business of the firm, the enterprise being now one of the most substantial of its kind, as well as one of the oldest, in this section of the state. Mr. Stebbins is a stockholder of the Minnesota Mutual Fire insurance Company, is a progressive and valued member of the Rochester Commercial Club, and was president and actively identified with the Southern Minnesota Fair Association for several years.
As a citizen Mr. Stebbins has been distinctively loyal and public-spirited and he has been an influential figure in political affairs in Southern Minnesota, as a stalwart and effective supporter of the cause of the republican party, his first presidential vote having been cast in support of the candidacy of General Grant, in 1868. From 1883 to 1885 Mr. Stebbins was a member of the city council of Rochester, and in 1889 he was elected representative of Olmsted County in the lower house of the State Legislature. He was assigned to various important committees and made chairman of the committee on insane hospitals, in which connection he did most effective service in promoting the erection of the hospital at Fergus Falls. in 1894 Mr. Stebbins was elected a member of the State Senate, and in this body he proved a most zealous and valuable worker both on the floor and in the committee room, having been chairman of the Senate Committee on insane Hospitals and having shown deep interest in bringing about the best possible management of these important state institutions. in 1910 Mr. Stebbins was again elected to represent his district in the Senate, and his broad and comprehensive knowledge of the state at large and the requirements for legislation, as well as control of the various state institutions, made him a leader in the deliberations of the Senate.
Mr. Stebbins has been a close and appreciative student of the history and teachings of the time-honored Masonic fraternity and is prominently identified with its various bodies. He is affiliated with Rochester Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Halcyon Chapter, No. 8, Royal Arch Masons; Home Commandery, No. 5, Knights Templar, being a thirty-second degree Mason; and Osman Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He has passed the various official chairs in his lodge, chapter and commandery and is part captain general of the Minnesota Grand Commandery of Knights Templar, besides being past grand master of the Minnesota Grand Lodge of the ancient-craft body. Mr. Stebbins is also found enrolled on the membership lists of each of the following organizations: Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Knights of Honor, and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He attends and gives consistent support to the Methodist Episcopal Church. His wife is a zealous member of the Episcopal Church.
in the year 1871, on September 26th, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stebbins to Miss Adelaide L. Stebbins, of Brookline, Windham County, Vermont, and they have two children: Mabel C., who is now the wife of William C. Webber, of Rochester, and George M., who is engaged in the practice of law at Roseau, the county seat of the Minnesota county of the same name.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
AUGUSTUS W. STINCHFIELD, M. D.
After many years of successful practice as one of the able representatives of the medical profession in Minnesota, Doctor Stinchfield retired from the exacting labors of his humane calling, which he had signally dignified and honored by his character and effective services, and he now gives the major part of his time and attention to his important banking and other capitalistic interests, being one of the influential citizens of Rochester, the thriving judicial center of Olmsted County and one of the important industrial centers of Southern Minnesota.
A scion of staunch English stock in both the paternal and maternal lines and a representative of families that were founded in colonial days in New England, that cradle of much of our national history, Doctor Stinchfield was born at Phillips, Franklin County, Maine, the 21st of December, 1842. He is a son of Jacob H. and Jane R. (Whitney) Stinchfield, both likewise natives of that same county of the old Pine Tree State, where the former was born in 1818 and the latter in 1820. The father devoted his entire active life to the industry of agriculture, of which he was a prominent and successful exponent in his native county, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1896, his wife having passed to the life eternal in 1878, both having been zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their seven children Doctor Stinchfield is the eldest of the three now living; Mrs. Minnie True is a resident of the State of New York; and Mrs. Clara Richardson still maintains her home in Maine. The father was a staunch democrat in politics, was a man of strong character and well fortified opinions, and his life was one of usefulness and kindliness in all relations of life. He was a son of Nathan Stinchfield, who likewise passed his entire life in the vicinity of Phillips, Maine, and whose father, John Stinchfield, removed from the southern part of the state to Franklin County, as the founder of the line of that has been so prominent in the civic and material activities of that section. Andrew Whitney, maternal grandfather of Doctor Stinchfield, likewise was a native of Phillips, Maine, where he passed his entire life, save for the period of his loyal service as a soldier in the War of 1812.
Well may one thus favored revert with satisfaction to the vitalizing and ennobling influences that surrounded him when he was reared to maturity in sturdy New England, whose sons and daughters have honored the nation from the earliest to the latest period of our national existence. Such fortuitous environment was that of Doctor Stinchfield, and in the common schools of his native place he laid the foundation for the broad and liberal education which denotes his strong intellectuality and mature judgment at the present day. After adequate academic training the doctor followed the line of his ambition by entering the Maine Medical College at Brunswick where he fortified himself fully in a preliminary way for the exacting demands of his chosen profession, his degree of Doctor of Medicine having been conferred by this institution and later it was his privilege to take a post-graduate course of one year in the medical department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and graduating from the Maine Medical College with the class of 1868.
Doctor Stinchfield initiated the practice of his profession in Southwestern Missouri, in 1870, and two years later he removed thence to Minnesota, which state has represented his home during the long intervening period of more than forty years – years marked by large and worthy achievement on his part. in 1873 he engaged in practice at Eyota, Olmsted County, and there he continued to maintain his residence for nearly a score of years, within which he built up a large and substantial practice and in his profession gained a reputation that extended beyond mere local environs. in 1892 the doctor, who had become a man of financial independence and no little influence, removed to Rochester, where he became a member of the firm of Mayo & Stinchfield and assisted in the organization and establishing of the infirmary which has since gained national reputation through the great prestige of the Mayo Brothers as skilled surgeons. With the infirmary or hospital the services of Doctor Stinchfield were held of the highest value, owing to his exceptional professional ability, and he did not retire from the work of his profession until 1908, when he withdrew from the firm of Mayo & Stinchfield.
Doctor Stinchfield was one of the organizers of the First State Bank of Rochester and became its first president, a position which he still retains. The bank is one of the substantial and well managed institutions lending to the financial prestige and facilities of Southern Minnesota, its operations being based on a capital stock of $75,000, its undivided profits in excess of twelve thousand dollars; and its deposits in excess of five hundred and forty thousand dollars. The Doctor is president also of the State Bank of Dover in the Village of Dover, Olmsted County, in the organization and incorporation of which he was primarily instrumental. Its deposits are above two hundred thousand dollars and the amount of deposits has been increased by fully one-half during the five years of Doctor Stinchfield’s administration as president. He is a stockholder also in a number of banking institutions in North Dakota, where he is president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Grandville and vice president of the Bank of Balfour, in the same county, McHenry. The financial precedence and executive ability of Doctor Stinchfield are further shown through his incumbency of the office of vice president of the Minnesota institution for Savings, in the City of Minneapolis.
in politics Doctor Stinchfield has ever given his allegiance to the republican party, and recent defections in the ranks of the party have not caused him to abate his loyalty to its principles At the time of the Civil war the doctor, who was not yet twenty years of age, enlisted as a private in Company F, Thirty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteer infantry, with which he served until the expiration of his 100 days’ term of enlistment, his more gracious memories of the great conflict by which the nation’s integrity was preserved being vitalized by his affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. He is affiliated with Rochester Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons’ Halcyon Chapter, No. 8, Royal Arch Masons; Home Commandery, No. 5, Knights Templar; and Osman Temple, St. Paul, of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the City of St. Paul. in a professional way he is identified with the Olmsted County Medical Society, the Minnesota State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Congregational Church.
in the year 1878 was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Stinchfield to Miss Martha J. Bear, daughter of the late Benjamin Bear, who was one of the early settlers and representative farmers of Olmsted County. in conclusion are given brief data concerning the four children of this union: Nellie M. is the wife of Dr. Wm. Braasch, who is a member of the staff of the Mayo Hospital, in Rochester; Minnie B. the wife of M. J. Brown, who is a son of Chief Justice Brown of the Minnesota Supreme Court and who is himself engaged in the practice of law at Bemidji, Minnesota; Lura is the wife of Dr. Henry Mayerding, likewise identified with the Mayo Hospital; and Alice, who remains at the parental home, is still attending the high school.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
JOHN E. MCGOVERN.
A native of Olmsted County and a scion of sterling pioneer families of this county, Mr. McGovern has here maintained his home from the time of his birth to the present and he is now conducting a substantial and representative general insurance business in this City of Rochester, the judicial center of his native county, besides which he is known and valued as a loyal and public-spirited citizen who has had much influence in civic and business affairs.
Mr. McGovern was born in Rochester on the 12th of December, 1863, but was reared on the old homestead farm in Haverhill Township. He is the eldest in a family of twelve children, all of whom are living. His father, Patrick H. McGovern, was born in the State of New York, in 1843, a son of James McGovern, who was born in Ireland and who was numbered among the pioneer settlers of Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming, to which noble vocation he devoted virtually all his entire active life; he was a resident of Olmsted County, Minnesota, at the time of his death and had been one of the substantial pioneer farmers of this county, where he established his residence in 1861, his son, Patrick H., having been a boy at the time of the family removal from the old Empire State to Wisconsin. Patrick H. McGovern was numbered among the representative agriculturists and influential citizens of Olmsted County for many years. He here established his home in 1861, and in Haverhill Township he developed one of the valuable farms of the county, this homestead being his place of abode until he was called to the life eternal, in 1904. He was an active and influential figure in the local councils of the democratic party and was called upon to serve as township trustee and assessor, as well as a member of the school board. Sincere and upright in all of the relations of life, broad-minded and public-spirited, he became well known in Olmsted County, where it may consistently be said that his circle of friends was limited only by that of his acquaintances. He was a zealous communicant of the Catholic Church, as is also his widow, who now resides in the City of Rochester. Her maiden name was Catherine McGovern and she was born in Ireland in the year 1844, being a daughter of Patrick McGovern, who likewise was one of the substantial farmers of Olmsted County, at the time of his death.
John E. McGovern gained his early education in the district schools of his home township and supplemented this discipline by a course of study in an academy at Rochester, after which he put his scholastic attainments to practical test and use by teaching three terms of district school. Thereafter he continued to be actively identified with the great basic industry of agriculture until he had attained to the age of thirty years when he left the farm and established his home in Rochester. Here he has built up an excellent business as underwriter for representative fire and life insurance companies, of which line of enterprise he is a leading exponent in his native county, with a supporting patronage that attests his ability and his personal popularity. Both he and his wife are earnest and valued communicants of St. John’s Catholic Church, of which he has been a trustee from the time of the organization of the parish.
A stalwart in the camp of the democratic party Mr. McGovern has served as chairman and secretary of its county committee in Olmsted County and showed much ability in the maneuvering of the political forces at his command, as did he also while he was the incumbent of the position of secretary of the County Committee. For eight years Mr. McGovern held the office of township clerk and for a similar period he served as a member of the Board of Education of the City of Rochester, of which he was chosen secretary. He was influential in effecting the erection of the new high school building and also gave liberal support in the erection of the Catholic parochial schools in Rochester. He is still the owner of valuable farm land in Olmsted County and gives to the same a general supervision.
in 1888 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McGovern to Miss Catherine Lawler, daughter of John J. Lawler and sister of Bishop Lawler, the executive and ecclesiastical head of an important Catholic diocese in Minnesota. Mrs. McGovern entered into eternal rest when comparatively a young woman and is survived by one child, Genevieve, who is now the wife of Frank Corrigan, residing in the City of St. Paul.
in 1896 Mr. McGovern wedded Johanna Norton, daughter of Patrick Norton, of Rochester, her father having been one of the first settlers in this now thriving little city. The eight children of this union are all attending school, their names, in respective order of their birth, being as here noted: John, Cyril, Norbert, Margaret, Mary, Francis, Catherine, and Joseph. The family is prominent and popular in the social activities of Rochester, and the home of Mr. and Mrs. McGovern is known for its gracious and unostentatious hospitality.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
John M. Rowley.
The thriving little City of Rochester has its full complement of progressive business men and loyal citizens, and of this number a popular representative is Mr. Rowley, who is one of the enterprising and reliable merchants of the city, where he conducts a substantial and well appointed clothing establishment, in which he handles also hats, caps and select lines of men's furnishing goods.
Mr. Rowley is a native of the Badger State and a scion of one of its sterling pioneer families. He was born at Baraboo, Sauk County, Wisconsin, on the 18th of December, 1859, and is a son of Martin V. and Nancy (Wilson) Rowley, both natives of fine old Steuben County, in the beautiful Lake District of the State of New York, where the former was born on the 8tn of March, 1838, and the latter on the 22d of April, 1837, their marriage having been solemnized at Hornellsville, in their native, county, in 1856. From the old Empire State the parents removed to Ohio, whence they later removed to Wisconsin, which state continued to be their place of abode until 1864, when the family came to Minnesota and settled in Rochester, which was then a mere village. Here Martin V. Rowley engaged in the work of his trade, that of blacksmith, and that he was, like Tubal Cain of old, a sturdy artificer and a man of might, is shown by the fact that lie continued to work at the forge up to the very day of his death. He was strong of brain and brawn, and his character was the positive expression of a true and loyal nature, so that he commanded the respect and good will of his fellowmen. He died in 1909, an honored pioneer citizen and successful business man of Rochester, and in this city his widow still maintains her home. Of the seven children John M. was the second in order of birth; Charles M. is engaged in the dry goods business in the City of Omaha, Nebraska; William H. is engaged as mail carrier at Rochester; Mrs. Julia Clapperton resides in California, her husband being a railroad man; Mrs. Sadie B. Upson maintains her home in the City of Rochester, New York, where her husband is living retired from active business; and Norman G., a traveling commercial salesman, resides in the City of Minneapolis. Martin V. Rowley was a stalwart republican in politics, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as is also his widow, and was affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was a son of John S. Rowley, who likewise was born in the State of New York, of English and Irish lineage. Hawley Wilson, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, likewise was born in New York State, where he passed his entire life, both the Rowley and Wilson families having early been founded in that favored old commonwealth of the Union. He whose name introduces this article is of the fifth generation in direct descent from John Rowley, who was a patriot soldier of the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution.
John M. Rowley was about five years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Wisconsin to Rochester, Minnesota, to whose public schools he is indebted for his early educational discipline. When a lad of twelve years, before the completion of his school work, he found employment in the local clothing store of J. D. Blake & Company, and he continued with this firm as a valued and efficient employe until he was admitted to partnership in the business. in 1897 he became associated with Henry E. Gerry in purchasing the entire business, and the enterprise has since been most successfully continued under the firm name of Rowley and Gerry. The establishment is metropolitan in its equipment and service and controls a substantial and representative trade.
Mr. Rowley is one of the liberal and progressive citizens who have aided materially in furthering the social and business prosperity of Rochester and in the county that has been his home from boyhood his quota of friends is filled to its utmost capacity. in politics he has ever given his allegiance to the republican party and he has been influential in its local councils. He is identified with the leading clubs and other social organizations in his home city and both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
For fully thirty years Mr. Rowley has been an appreciative member of the time-honored Masonic fraternity, and he has been zealous in its affairs, with the result that he is now one of its prominent and influential representatives in this state. He is past master of the Rochester Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; a member of Halcyon Chapter, No. 8, Royal Arch Masons; and also of Winona Consistory No. 4, Scottish Rite Masons, and is past eminent commander of Home Commandery, No. 5, Knights Templar, beside being, in 1914, given the distinguished preferment of grand commander of the Minnesota Grand Commandery of Knights Templar. in the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine Mr. Rowley is affiliated with Osman Temple, in the City of St. Paul. He also holds membership in the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of Honor.
in the year 1890 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rowley to Miss Nora Nelson, daughter of Andrew Nelson, a leading merchant and influential citizen of Rochester. The two children of this union are Walter Nelson and John M., Jr. The elder son, now a student in the medical department of Northwestern University, Chicago, wedded Miss Lillian Fitch and they have one child, Mary Virginia. John M. Rowley, Jr., is a student in the Rochester High School.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
Spencer M. Knapp.
One of the representative business men of the younger generation in his native city and county, Mr. Knapp holds the position of secretary of the Rochester Milling Company, at Rochester, the tine metropolis and judicial center of Olmsted County, where his personal popularity makes impossible any inferential application of the scriptural statement that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country."
Mr. Knapp was born in Rochester, Minnesota, on the 2d of April, 1890, and is a son of William H. and Mary Georgiana (Kelly) Knapp, the former of whom was born at Troy, Pennsylvania, November 23, 1854, and the latter at Painesville, Ohio, on the 1st of November, 1855, their marriage having been solemnized at Rochester, Minnesota, in 1887. William H. Knapp was reared and educated in the old Keystone State and in 1876, shortly after attaining to his legal majority, he came to Minnesota and established his residence at Rochester, where he entered the employ of John G. Blake, Id the retail dry goods business; later he was similarly associated with the mercantile establishment conducted by Leet and Knowlton, and finally he became the owner of a store devoted to the handling of china and other lines of crockery. With this enterprise he was identified for a number of years and about 1890 he accepted the position of steward at the Rochester State Hospital for the insane. He retained this executive position nearly fifteen years, was later concerned with the operation of the woolen mill in Rochester and finally he engaged in the operation of the Rochester Hour mill, with which he continued as the executive head until his death, on the 16th of December, 1912, his widow being still a resident of Rochester. William H. Knapp was a man whose uprightness, integrity and ability gave him inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem and he was long one of the influential citizens of Rochester, where he served as a member of the city board of aldermen and as president of the Merchants' Association. He was a staunch republican in his political proclivities and was an active and earnest member of the Congregational Church, as is also his widow, besides which he was affiliated with Rochester Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Halcyon Chapter, No. 8, Royal Arch Masons; Home Commandery, No. 5, Knights Templar; and Osman Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. This honored citizen is survived by two children, of whom the subject of this review is the younger. The older son, Harold W., who was born in November, 1887, is treasurer of the Rochester Milling Company.
Spencer M. Knapp duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools of Rochester and in 1908 both he and his brother became associated with the operation of the admirably equipped mill of the Rochester Milling Company, in which their father had been an interested principal. in 1911 Harold W. Knapp was elected treasurer and Spencer M. Knapp secretary of the company, and they have proved most progressive and successful executives. The Company bases its operations upon a capital stock of $35,000, and the maximum capacity of the mill is 200 barrels of flour a day. This represents one of the most important industrial enterprises of Olmsted County and the Knapp brothers are young men who give close attention to their business, the while they are liberal and progressive in their civic attitude. They are independent in politics, giving their support to men and measures meeting the approval of their judgment, and both hold membership in the Congregational Church in their home city. Mr. Knapp was married December 22, 1914, to Miss Maud Margaret Hooper. His brother, Harold wedded Miss Iva Grace Cowles, daughter of a representative farmer of Martin County, this state, the one child of this union being Harold Cowles Knapp.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
Arthur F. Kilbourne, M. D., superintendent of the Rochester State Hospital, at Rochester, Olmsted County, has been identified with this institution for a full quarter of a century, has become a recognized authority in mental disorders, and has shown unfaltering sympathy and devotion in caring for the unfortunate wards of the noble institution of which he is the executive head, even as he is one of the representative members of the medical profession in this state.
Dr. Kilbourne was born at Keokuk, Iowa, and is a son of Edward and Caroline Amelia (Foote) Kilbourne, both of whom passed the greater portion of their lives in the Hawkeye State. From the public schools of his native city Dr. Kilbourne entered the medical department of the University of the City of New York, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1883 and from which he received his degree of doctor of medicine. At the very inception of his professional career he gained experience that has been of inestimable value to him in the responsible office of which he is now and has long been the incumbent. Soon after his graduation he was appointed assistant physician for the New York City Hospital for the insane, and from 1884 to 1889 he was assistant physician at the St. Peter State Hospital at St Peter. in 1889 he was transferred to the State Hospital at Rochester, and on the 7th of June, 1914, was celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his appointment to the position of medical superintendent of this institution. The event did not pass unnoticed, as is shown by the following statements, taken from an article in a Minneapolis paper of June 12, 1914: "Dr. Arthur F. Kilbourne, superintendent of the Rochester State Hospital, was the guest of honor at a banquet last evening, tendered him by the staff and employes of the hospital, in honor of his twenty-fifth anniversary as head of the state institution. Two hundred and twenty members of the hospital staff gathered at the banquet table. Then Dr. Kilbourne was summoned from his apartments. The affair was a complete surprise. Dr. O. C. Hyerdale, assistant superintendent, was master of ceremonies, and Dr. R. M. Phelps, superintendent of St. Peter Hospital and formerly assistant superintendent of the Rochester institution, was one of the speakers. Dr. Hyerdale, on behalf of the employes and staff, presented to Dr. Kilbourne a jeweled watch. Dr. Kilbourne came to Rochester twenty-five years ago to become acting superintendent of the state hospital."
The doctor is actively identified with the American Medico-Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the Minnesota State Medical Society and the Olmsted County Medical Society. in the Masonic fraternity he has received the chivalric degrees and is affiliated with Home Commandery. No. 5, Knights Templar, in Rochester. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Episcopal Church.
At St. Peter, Minnesota, in 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Kilbourne to Miss Ella Donahower, and they have two children—Arthur Donahower and Katharine. The son is now employed in a wholesale dry goods establishment in the City of St. Paul, and the daughter is a student at Kemper Hall, a well known educational institution maintained under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Wisconsin.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
Hon. William B. Richardson.
The increasing tendency of the people of our progressive communities to choose their official representatives from the ranks of the men learned in the science of law is resulting in numerous advantages. This may be said to be but the natural result of a calling which fits its devotees for successful participation in various avenues of endeavor, and an excellent illustration of this fact may be found in the career of Hon. William B. Richardson, an attorney of long standing at the Minnesota bar, who is proving one of the best mayors the City of Rochester has had.
Mayor Richardson is a native son of Rochester, born November 10, 1874, his parents being Henry M. and Sarah J. (McCrillis) Richardson. James Richardson, the grandfather of William B. Richardson, was a native of the Green Mountain State, was a farmer by vocation, and held the rank of major in the home militia, known as the "Floodwood Regiment," so called because its members were compelled to drill with sticks of wood owing to lack of guns. He died at Waits River, Vermont, in December, 1863. He married Luanda Orcutt, of Ackworth, New Hampshire, whose brother, Hiram Orcutt, was a man of note during his day, having commenced teaching school as a lad of fifteen years and continuing to be so engaged until his seventy-second year. His career as an educator was confined to the New England states, and at one time he conducted an academy, many of his graduates being found in various parts of the United States, some in Olmsted County.
Henry M. Richardson was born March 10, 1844, at Waits River, Orange County, Vermont, and attended the public schools and a select school of his native place until reaching the age of eighteen years, at which time he responded to the call of his country and enlisted in Company D, Fifteenth Regiment, Vermont Volunteer infantry. He Commenced his military career in the defense of Washington, under General Hintzelman, subsequently served in the Army of the Potomac and participated in the battle of Gettysburg under General Howard, and was honorably discharged from the service August 7, 1863. Returning to his native state, he completed his education by taking up bookkeeping and higher mathematics, and in the spring of 1807 came to Minnesota, being followed here by his mother in February, 1868. Purchasing a farm near Viola, in Olmsted County, Mr. Richardson was engaged in agricultural pursuits there until 1881, when he was elected sheriff of Olmsted County, a position which he held until 1893, and also served as president of the city council of Rochester for four years. in 1893 he was elected to the legislature as a republican. He was long; active in the ranks of his party, was an influential factor in its councils and at all times advocated its best principles. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was fraternally connected with the independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and was a prominent Mason, belonging to the Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine. Both he and his wife were devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the faith of which he died, July 11, 1912, one of his city's best known and most highly esteemed citizens. On January 11, 1870, Mr. Richardson was married to Miss Sarah J. McCrillis, of Lowell, Massachusetts, and they became the parents of three children: Harold James; Edith M., who married A. D. Sanders, who is engaged in the plumbing business at Evanston, Illinois; and William B.
Harold James Richardson was born on a farm in Haverhill Township, Olmsted County, Minnesota, March 26, 1872, and received his primary education in the public schools of Rochester, graduating from the high school in 1899. After a classical course of one year at the University of Minnesota, he was compelled to give up his studies on account of ill health, but in 1900 graduated from the law department of the university with the degree of bachelor of laws. While in college he was a member of the athletic board of control and was president of his class. He is a member of the Delta Tau Delta and Phi Delta Psi college fraternities. For several years Mr. Richardson was engaged in practice in Rochester with his brother, but is now located in St. Paul, where he is in partnership with Judge C. M. Start. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Masons, and is past commander of the Sons of Veterans. Mr. Richardson served as county attorney from 1903 to 1909. On January 1, 1903, he was married to Miss Anna C. Reimers, daughter of John J. and Mary (Dinkeman) Reimers, of Rock Island, Illinois, and two children have been born to them: Mary Catherine and Susanne Edith.
William B. Richardson was primarily educated in the public schools, and in 1893 was graduated from the Rochester High School. After some preparation he entered the University of Minnesota, and was graduated in 1900 from the law department with his degree, and since that time has been engaged in practice in Rochester. A general practitioner, he has built up an excellent business, and stands high at the bar. Mr. Richardson has always taken an active interest in republican politics, and has served as judge of the city court for one term. in 1911 he was his party's successful candidate for the mayoralty, and in 1913 received the re-election. His administration has been characterized by business like handling of matters of civic importance and the innovation of needful reforms, and the chief executive has materially strengthened himself, as time has passed, in the confidence and esteem of the people. He is fraternally connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mayor Richardson has never married.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
John H. Kahler.
Among all the various lines of activity to which men devote their energies, none is more promotive of the reputation abroad of a progressive and growing city than that which furnishes a comfortable home for the traveler. Rochester, from the time when Henry Kahler & Son, in 1896, took charge of the Cook Hotel, has been noted
throughout Minnesota for the excellence of its hostelries, but it has been through the efforts and abilities of John H. Kahler that the city has come to be ranked among the foremost in their splendid accommodations, sumptuous furnishing and unexcelled cuisine. Since his arrival in Rochester, Mr. Kahler has contributed materially to the city's upbuilding and growth and has steadily advanced to the front rank among business men, being not only the owner of the Cook Hotel, but managing director of the Kahler and Zumbro hotels, commodious structures in which the visitor finds all the accommodations of home.
John H. Kahler was born December 10, 1863, in Canada, a son of Henry and Amelia (Aldworth) Kahler. The father, a native of Germany, was brought to America at the age of two years, in 1843, the family settling in Ontario, Canada. He was a harness maker by vocation, and in 1864 came to the United States, establishing himself in business in Michigan. in 1881 he took his family to Northfield, Minnesota, and in 1896 came to Rochester, where, with his son, John H., he engaged in the hotel business. Eight months later he disposed of his interests to his son, retired from active life, and moved to Granite Falls, Minnesota, where he died in ion. Mrs. Kahler, who was born in North Carolina in 1847, still survives.
The public schools of Michigan furnished John H. Kahler with his educational training, following which he adopted the trade of harness maker, an occupation which he followed until reaching the age of eighteen years, when he accompanied his parents to Northfield, Minnesota, and there received his introduction to the business in which he has since been so successful. On coming to Rochester, he assumed the management of the Cook Hotel, and eight months later became its sole owner by purchasing his father's interest. At first the house was patronized chiefly by commercial travelers, but later, under his management, became a refuge for patients and their friends coming to St. Mary's
Hospital. The influx of guests of that character became so great that they were turned away almost nightly from the hotels, and were compelled to lodge at private houses, and accordingly, in 1901, the Cook Hotel was enlarged and remodeled at a cost of $30,000, its capacity being thus increased one-third, so that at this time it can accommodate 120 guests. in May, 1907, Mr. Kahler further added to the hotel accommodations of Rochester by erecting the Kahler, a large brick sanitarium of three stories, to which an addition was made in 1910 and another in 1913. so that at this time it has accommodations for 125 guests. The Zumbro, built in 1911, was thrown open to the public in 1912, a five-story structure which accommodates 140 guests. Of the two latter hostelries Mr. Kahler is president and manager, while he still remains as sole owner of the Cook. Mr. Kahler has met with remarkable success as a hotel manager. He strives at all times to meet his guests' every wish, and their comfort is his chief concern. The houses of which he has charge are equipped with every modern improvement and convenience, and as a result they have become exceedingly popular with the traveling public and have a large and representative patronage. Mr. Kahler is a strong and vigorous man, active in his business pursuits and generous in his work of building up the city, and in all respects is a useful and honored citizen. He is fond of travel, and during the past twelve years has spent several months out of each twelve in Europe. Fraternally, he is connected with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Masons, in the latter of which he belongs to the Scottish Rite, the Knights Templar and the Shrine.
in 1901 Mr. Kahler was married to Miss Van Campen, daughter of C. Van Campen, who for years was connected with the Northwestern Railway, and an early settler of Rochester, and one child has been born to this union: Mary G. Mrs. Kahler is a member of the Universalist Church, and, like her husband, has many friends in Rochester.
Minnesota: Its Story and Biography, Vol. 2 (1915)
from the Minnesota History Bulletin, edited by Solon J. Buck
Volume I, 1915-1916
transcribed by Karen Seeman
from a memorial address delivered June 1, 1915 at the district court at Winona, Minnesota
Lloyd Barber
May it please the court to listen to a few words from me in appreciation of our departed jurist, the Honorable Lloyd Barber.
I saw him for the first time in June, 1858, at Rochester, Minnesota, where he had just opened a law office. He was then about thirty years of age, a man in vigorous health and in high expectation of a useful and distinguished professional career. The country round about the town of Rochester was then being settled and preempted. Its limpid streams, its fertile soil, and its healthful skies beckoned the industrious to its borders, there to acquire competence and content. A number of lawyers, among others Stiles P. Jones, Colonel James George, Judge Elza A. McMahon, and John W. Remine, had already preceded him. They were all trained in the old common law practice and held in contempt the new code in which law and equity were merged, but Judge Barber had studied and practiced the Field code in New York where it originated and whence it came through Wisconsin into Minnesota upon the organization of the latter as a territory. His familiarity with this new practice gave him a decided advantage over old practitioners. He was also a man who spent all his spare time in study and, as a result, he was able to speak with precision and authority upon doubtful questions. Courts listened to him with marked attention, and his clients were inspired with confidence. He became the leader of the Olmsted County bar, and his name was honored at the bank.
On July 6, 1864, Thomas Wilson of Winona, first judge of the third judicial district, was appointed by Governor Stephen Miller as a justice of the supreme court. A Republican judicial convention for the third district was then called by D. Sinclair, chairman, for September 7, 1864, at Winona, to nominate a candidate for judge at the approaching November election. Delegates were apportioned as follows: to Winona and Olmsted counties eight each, to Wabasha and Houston five each, and to Fillmore nine. The convention met and nominated Judge Barber; thereupon Governor Miller appointed him on September 12 to serve out the unexpired three and a half months of Judge Wilson's term. There was much talk at the time of giving the nomination to Chauncey N. Waterman of Winona, inasmuch as he was considered equally well qualified and as Winona could be more conveniently reached by the lawyers of the district. But Winona already had Daniel S. Norton as a candidate for United States senator, William Windom as representative in Congress, and Thomas Wilson as a justice of the supreme court, and these sagacious statesmen deemed it unwise to take everything in sight for Winona. The Democrats of the district, however, nominated Waterman, although he was a Republican, but at the election in November Barber received the greater number of votes, and served out his term of seven years with credit to himself and with satisfaction to the district.
The next convention for the third judicial district was held September 27, 1871, at Winona. Norton had been, in the meantime, elected United States senator and had served from March 4, 1865, until his death July 13, 1870; Wilson had resigned the office of chief justice July 14, 1869; and Windom had been chosen United States senator for the six-year term beginning March 4, 1871. Wabasha, Winona, and Houston counties now for the sake of convenience preferred Waterman for judge and he was nominated by the vote of these three counties. He was elected without opposition, and on January 1, 1872. Judge Barber's judicial career came to an end.
Soon afterwards Judge Barber removed from Rochester to Winona and opened a law office for general practice. But business did not come to him in satisfactory volume. A jurist retired from the bench rarely returns to the conflict and struggles of the bar with that confident air and with that aggressive, partisan vigor usually exhibited by the practitioner and so satisfying to the militant and often revengeful feeling of his client. in his years of service on the bench he acquires a calm, meditative, and judicial attitude. He does not fight his adversary with that desperate valor of the soldier who has burned his ships behind him, and he usually fails as a general practitioner, lie must secure permanent employment as general counsel for some railroad or other large corporation, or be driven out of remunerative practice by younger and more aggressive members of the profession. He learns too late the wisdom of the maxim that a lawyer should first acquire a fortune by industry, inheritance, or marriage before accepting judicial honors.
Judge Barber was born and grew to manhood on a farm in Steuben County, New York, in the midst of a lofty and broken country, whose waters in part flow southward to Delaware Bay and in part northward to Lake Ontario and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The hills lift their heads up to the higher currents of the sky, and the decaying mold, which trickles down their abruptly sloping sides, fertilizes the green valleys in between. Fortune was to the boy a stern and rugged nurse. Clad in homespun, he toiled early and late, in heat and cold. But dwellers amid such broken and lofty scenes acquire a love of home, a patriotic devotion to their firesides and green fields unknown to those who inhabit the dull, unchanging plains. Barber felt that love of his rugged home in all its magnetic force. He left Steuben the third time before he grew content to live elsewhere. When his law business failed to be remunerative, he sold his level prairie farm six miles northeast of Rochester and purchased some acres along the lofty bluffs eleven miles southeast of Winona. There among the towering hills he felt again that unspeakable satisfaction of his boyhood days, when in the old red schoolhouse he recited Sir Walter Scott's tale of that McGregor who would give his highland roof to the flames and his flesh to the eagles before he'd bow the head or bend the knee to the lowland lords of the plain below. He retained his residence and law office in Winona, but in later years the office was nearly always locked, and in 1908 he closed it and returned the key to his lessor.
His life was pure, his purpose noble, his conduct worthy of admiration. The Olmsted County bar in a body followed his remains to their last resting place in Oakwood Cemetery in Rochester, indulging a reasonable expectation that he, once their temporal judge, would find favor with the Judge Eternal.
Charles C. Willson
Rochester, Minnesota
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
HENRY J. PATTRIDGE (1878) is the senior member of the Tracy mercantile firm of Pattridge Brothers Company, the largest and one of the oldest business establishments of the city. The business was established in March, 1883, by Henry J. and Otis L. Pattridge and was conducted under the name of Pattridge Brothers until the spring of 1908. Then Clay B. Pattridge, son of the subject of this review, was admitted to the firm and Pattridge Brothers Company was incorporated. The officers are as follows: H. J. Pattridge, president; Otis L. Pattridge, vice president and treasurer; Clay B. Pattridge, secretary. The first home of the store was a small frame building on the site adjoining the First National Bank. The present structure, a double-front, two-story brick building, was erected in 1891 by H. J. Pattridge, the present owner of the building.
Henry J. Pattridge was born in Olmsted county, Minnesota, September 1, 1855, and O. L. Pattridge in Maquoketa, Iowa, August 12, 1853. They grew to manhood on their father's farm, which had been taken as a pre- emption claim in an early day. They accompanied the family to Spring Valley in 1875. in 1878 H. J. Pattridge moved to Marshall and for a few years was employed as clerk in A. C. Chittenden's store. He moved to Tracy in the spring of 1883 and with his brother engaged in the business with which they have ever since been connected.
The marriage of Henry J. Pattridge to Minniett Savage occurred at Marshall May 11, 1880. Mrs. Pattridge is a native of St. Charles, Minnesota. They have three children. Clay B., now a member of the firm; Vivian and Walter H. Henry Pattridge has served as member of the City Council and of the Board of Education.
O. L. Pattridge was married to Martha Parks at Pleasant Grove, Minnesota, October 11, 1877. Three children were born to them, only one living, Mark O. Pattridge, a practising dentist of Minneapolis. Both brothers belong to the Masonic fraternity.
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
OTIS L. PATTRIDGE (1883) is one of the founders and members of the firm of Pattridge Brothers Company, who conduct the leading mercantile establishment of Tracy. He was born at Maquoketa, Iowa, August 12, 1853.
At the age of one year he was taken with the family to Olmsted county, Minnesota, and there grew to manhood. Later he moved to Spring Valley, and in 1883 he located in Tracy and in partnership with his brother engaged in business. During the twenty-nine years the brothers have been in business in Tracy they have prospered. They are both interested in the Citizens State Bank and in partnership own several farms in Lyon county and one in Murray county. Otis Pattridge is a member of the Masonic lodge and has served on the Board of Education.
Otis Pattridge was married to Martha Parks, of Pleasant Grove, Minnesota. They have one child. Dr. Mark O. Pattridge, a dentist of Minneapolis.
The father of the Pattridge brothers is Albert Pattridge. He was born in Highgate, Vermont, October 22, 1829, and in an early day moved to Maquoketa, Iowa. There he engaged in farming and the blacksmith business. He pre-empted land in Olmsted county, Minnesota, in 1804, lived there twenty years, and then located at Spring Valley. He was in business in Minneapolis several years, and in 1891 moved to Tracy to make his permanent home. Although over eighty years of age, Mr. Pattridge is active and healthy and puts in regular hours as cashier at the store. He is a member of the Masonic lodge. The mother of the Pattridge brothers was Eunice Bradish, a native of Vermont. She died August 13, 1869. The two sons at Tracy are the only living children of the family. One daughter, Helen, is deceased.
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
ROBERT E. WILLIS (1886), after many years of business life in Tracy, moved to his farm, the northeast quarter of section 12, Monroe township, in the fall of 1911. He bought the farm in 1892 and had it farmed by a tenant until moving on the place himself. Mr. Willis owns two residence properties in Tracy and has charge of many acres or farming land in Lyon and Redwood counties, among them being the estate of W. H. Breckenridge, which he has looked after the past six years.
Our subject was born in Washington county, Iowa, October 29, 1852. When about six weeks old he was taken with the family to Ripley county, Indiana, and lived there until fifteen years of age, when the family again moved, this time settling in Olmsted county, Minnesota. There Robert resided until the spring of 1879, working on the farm. Then he went to Walnut Grove, Redwood county, and made that his home until moving to Tracy in 1886, where he remained until taking up his residence on the farm in 1911.
During his Tracy residence Mr. Willis worked ten years for D. H. Evans in the elevator and hardware store. Three years he served the city as policeman, and later he bought grain for Finch & Parker and for the Eagle Roller Mill company. Mr. Willis conducted a dray line seven years. Our subject was alderman from the first ward two years. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. lodge of Tracy.
Robert E. Willis was married March 10, 1879, to Anna Dunnett, at Rochester, Minnesota. Mrs. Willis was born near that city December 18, 1856. To this union have been born two children, Ralph A., on January 12, 1887; and Reid R., on January 7, 1892.
Robert S. Willis, father of our subject, was born in Kentucky May 4, 1819, and died at the age of eighty-two years in Minneapolis. He served in Company A, Eighty-third Indiana Regiment, during the war and was discharged on account of poor health after an active service of two years and seven months. His wife, Eliza (Richardson) Willis, was born in New York State and died in 1883, aged sixty-seven years.
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
SANDER SANDERSON (1892) is the owner of 340 acres of land on sections 29 and 28, Shelburne township, upon which he has resided for the past twenty years. He was born in Hollingdahl, Norway, May 6, 1847, the son of Sander and Turi (Larson) Olson, both of whom are deceased.
Sander lived in Norway until he was twenty-two years of age. He attended school until fourteen and thereafter worked at the tailor's trade. He came to America in 1869 and for the next twelve years worked in Olmsted county, Minnesota, as a farm laborer. He then moved to Lac qui Parle county, pre-empted eighty acres of land, and engaged in farming until the fall of 1892. At that time he purchased his Shelburne township farm and be has ever since resided on it. In late years he has turned the management of the property over to his sons.
Mr. Sanderson was a member of the Shelburne Hoard of Supervisors one year and has been a member of the school board of district No. 57 for about fifteen years. He is a member of the Norwegian Lutheran Synod church of Ruthton and was formerly a trustee of that church.
The marriage of our subject to Ingborg Starkson occurred in Olmsted county, Minnesota, March 17, 1882. She was born in the county in which she was married May 8, 1862, and is a daughter of the late B. Starkson, a pioneer of Olmsted county. The following eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson and all reside at home: Augusta Turina, born March 6, 1883; Berton, born August 12, 1885; Sander, born September 21, 1887; Louis, born July 29, 1890; William and Ida, twins, born March 28, 1893; Una, born October 8, 1895; Simon, born October 20, 1900.
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
JACOB A. RICKERT (1907), of Tracy, was born in Byron, Olmsted county, Minnesota, December 31, 1881, a son of Jacob A. and Annie B. Rickert. He received a common and high school education at Wahpeton, North Dakota, where his parents reside.
Mr. Rickert completed a course in the Law Department of the University of Minnesota In 1902 and practised law at Spokane, Washington, two years. He had banking experience with the First National Bank of Wahpeton, North Dakota, and the First National Bank of Lidgerwood, North Dakota. He moved to Tracy January 1, 1907, to take the position of assistant cashier of the Citizens State Bank, and was elected cashier one year later, a position he still holds.
At Spokane, Washington, in 1908, Mr. Rickert was married to Eva C. Lowry. Mr. Rickert is a member of the Board of Education and treasurer of the school district. He is treasurer of the Tracy Savings and Loan Association.
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
THOMAS I. CASTLE (1885) conducts a farm in Clifton township and is the owner of the south half of section 26. He raises Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs and has one of the best improved farms in the township.
William and Maria (Wilkinson) Castle, parents of our subject, were born in Yorkshire, England, and came to America in 1865, settling in Illinois and pursuing the occupation of farmers. Thomas I. was born In Will county, Illinois, August 20, 1875. He lived with his parents on the Illinois farm until he was ten years of age, at which time the family moved to Lyon county.
Thomas Castle received his early schooling in Illinois and later attended country school in Lyon county. His father upon coming to Lyon county had purchased the homestead right to the southwest quarter of section 26 and a tree claim to the southeast quarter of the same section, Clifton township. Thomas grew up on the farm and when twenty-two years of age he rented the southwest quarter of section 26 and later bought both quarters from his father, and he now conducts the half section.
July 4, 1903, occurred the wedding of Thomas I. Castle and Leora Dickerman. To this union have been born three children: Florence I., born April 5, 1904; Morris, born August 27, 1905, and Mildred, born January 30, 1907. Mrs. Castle was born January 6, 1877, in Olmsted county. Minnesota, and is a daughter of Eugene and Maribah (Templeton) Dickerman, natives of Vermont.
The Castles are members of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Castle is clerk of school district No. 50.
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
FRED W. COPELAND (1874) is a painter and paperhanger of Marshall. He was born in Olmsted county, Minnesota, on October 22, 1868, a son of Dr. J. F. and Lydia (Grossman) Copeland, natives of Pennsylvania. She died in June, 1875; Mr. Copeland is a resident of Marshall. They were the parents of three children, as follows: J. L., Fred W. and Lydia A.
Fred came to Lyon county in 1874 and located at Marshall, where he has practically made his home since, receiving his education In the Marshall schools. In December, 1883, he commenced learning the trade of painter at St. Charles, Minnesota, where he resided a little less than three years. He also learned carriage and wagon painting while there. He then returned to Marshall and has since lived there, following his trade.
Mr. Copeland was married at Minneapolis on March 14, 1906, to Mabel Crane, a native of Canada.
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
C. M. GOODRICH (1869), retired farmer and for the past rive years a resident of Garvin, is one of the comity's old settlers, he is the owner of 213 acres of well-improved land in Custer township and is a stockholder in the Farmers Independent Elevator Company of Garvin.
The Empire State is the birthplace and boyhood home of C. M. Goodrich. His father, Allen Goodrich, was a native of Connecticut, and his mother, Elizabeth I. Stevens Goodrich, was born in Vermont. Both are deceased. Our subject was born January 17, 1846, and his first years were spent in New York State. In 1854 he and his mother and two sisters moved to Wisconsin and made their home on a farm. The following spring they moved to Olmsted county, Minnesota, where they resided until 1858. Then until 1862 they lived in Waseca county. They returned to Olmsted county for another year's residence and later spent several years in Rice county.
In 1869 Mr. Goodrich and his mother came to Lyon county, and they took adjoining homesteads in Custer township in the early seventies. They were among the first settlers and their experience is the story of pioneer days, punctuated with struggles and hardships. Mr. Goodrich farmed on his homestead practically all of the time from the early seventies until he moved to Garvin a few years ago.
Mr. Goodrich is a member of the Masonic lodge. He is a respected citizen of the community and is enjoying a well-earned rest after a lifetime of hard and honest toll. He has watched the country grow and prosper from the time where there was only an occasional settler's rude cabin to be found within a radius of miles of unbroken prairie until the present day, with farms of rich land and modern buildings.
from "An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota" by Arthur P. Rose, 1912
transcribed by Karen Seeman
JOHN L. CRAIG (1872). On the southeast quarter of section 14, Monroe township, adjoining the city of Tracy, stands a little 12x14 hut, weather-beaten and worn but still enduring after forty years. Also on the place stands a modern and commodious residence which is in accord with the well-kept up-to-date farm of the owner. Attending personally to the management of the place is its owner, John L. Craig, veteran of the Civil War and one of the early settlers of this county, who only a few months ago celebrated his seventy-sixth birthday.
There was no Tracy when Mr. Craig came to the county in the spring of 1872 and homesteaded the quarter on which he now resides and there was no railroad running so far west at that time. The lumber for the little house which still stands on the farm was hauled from Marshall and this small hut, built from rough boards, was Mr. Craig's home for the next three years. In the fall of 1872 the railroad was built until 1875 there was no station, the trains stopping a mile east of the present townsite at a place called Shetek Crossing. In 1875 and for a year after, trains used the warehouse of Neil Currie for a station, and Mr. Craig was the first station agent. The town was then called Big Bend. When he first came to the county Mr. Craig's only neighbors were Ed. Mealy and David Stafford, who lived on Lake Sigel, two miles south, and Ed. Starr, whose homestead was a mile east. These were all. except a few families on the Cottonwood river.
Those early days were strenuous ones for the pioneers. When the grasshoppers were destroying the crops in Southwestern Minnesota in the seventies Mr. Craig went to Olmsted county and worked to support his family, while they remained In Lyon county on the homestead. During the first years of Tracy's history Mr. Craig started the first livery stable, in 1877. Before the railroads entered Pipestone Mr. Craig had the contract for carrying the malls from Tracy to Flandreau, South Dakota. His son John made the trips and a relief team was kept at Haycock Prairie, near Pipestone. After running the livery stable for a few years Mr. Craig sold out and took up farm work. He had always made his home on the farm, even when he was at work in the village.
Our subject was born in Eymouth, Scotland, January 10, 1836, and in 1854 he came to the United States and first settled in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, where he farmed for United States Senator I. P. Walker. Working there until the fall of 1861, he moved to Olmsted county, Minnesota, and continued farming until he enlisted in 1864. He served actively in the field until the battle of Guntown, Mississippi, where he was taken prisoner, and thereafter he was confined in prison until the close of the war. Returning to his Olmsted county home, Mr. Craig took up the management of the farm and in 1872 came West and took the homestead where he has since lived.
On August 12, 1858, in the town of Palmyra, Wisconsin, John L. Craig was married to Jeffery Craig, a native of her husband's old home in Scotland. Mrs. Craig was a helping partner through the stern years of frontier life. There are seven children living, Oliver L., John A., Douglas W., Arthur L., Carrie M., Cora B, and Jennie J. One child, Lillie D., is deceased.
Mr. Craig was a charier member of Joe Hooker Post No. 15, G. A. R., and was one of its early commanders and its first adjutant.
©2008 Genealogy Trails