FRANK M. EDDY of Glenwood, Pope County, member of congress from the Seventh District, is a striking example of a self-made man. Anywhere else but in a republic the door of opportunity never would have swung open before him, and his talents never would have been recognized. He would have lived and died in the humble station in which he was born, and in no large sense would the world have profited by his being in it, or even been ready to give him a hearing. Mr. Eddy comes from the sturdy Puritan stock of New England, and away back in the twilight days of the colonies his ancestors played no mean part in the successive stages of the political drama whose great climax was American independence. Early in the century one branch of this family settled in the then unknown West, and to this branch Congressman Eddy belongs.

He is a Minnesotan by birth, and bears the unique distinction of being the first of her native sons to be called to either branch of the federal congress. April 1, 1856, he was born at Pleasant Grove, Olmstead County, Minnesota, and when four years old followed his parents to Iowa. In 1863 the family returned to Elmira, Olmsted County, where young Eddy remained until 1867, when he settled in Pope County. In 1874 we find him again in Olmsted County going to school in the winter and during vacation season working in a brick yard in order to earn money with which to pursue his studies.  In 1878 his schooling was at an end, and he became a country school teacher. He taught one term in Filmore County and one in Renville County, and in the winter of 1879-80 he returned to Pope County, where he continued to teach for three years longer.

In 1883 Mr. Eddy was “cruiser” or land examiner for the Northern Pacific railroad company, a very humble position, but one which seemed to promise more in the way of opportunities than the schoolroom. The change was for the better, for in 1884 Mr. Eddy went into politics and became the Republican candidate for clerk of the district court of Pope County. He was elected and held this position for ten years, or until he was elected to congress for the first time, in 1894. He is also an expert stenographer, and was court reporter of the Sixteenth Judicial District for several years. To his education in English he has added a thorough knowledge of the Scandinavian language, and his studies in this direction have repaid him many fold in smoothing the difficulties of a political canvass in an agricultural district among constituents, a large portion of whom speak one or the other of those languages.

Mr. Eddy was elected to congress in 1894 by a plurality of about eight hundred votes over the sitting member, H.  E. Boen. The district was considered as being safely in the possession of the new Populist party, and his success was something of a surprise to those wild did not know the man and his almost limitless resources in politics. In 1896 he was elected a second time, his plurality being upwards of two thousand and two hundred. This last was a personal victory, for every Republican candidate for presidential elector and every Republican candidate on the state ticket went out of the Seventh District with a plural margin of votes against him. Mr. Eddy is one of the best campaigners in Minnesota politics, and his powers of endurance are remarkable. In congress he has fulfilled every pledge and came up to every expectation, he is a close observer, an intelligent and patient investigator, a thorough student of men and events, and one of the best posted men on the political issues of the day of whom the state can boast at this time, his growth to the full stature of public manhood has been very rapid. He promises to be an important factor in the life of this state for years to come.