JACOB FRANCIS FORCE M. D., Secretary of the Northwestern Life Association, traces his ancestry on his mother’s side from the Adams family of Connecticut. Henry Force, great grandfather of Dr. Force, was a soldier in Col. Hazen’s Congress regiment. He was at the battles of Monmouth, Springfield, Cherry Valley, Yorktown and at the surrender of Cornwallis.

The subject of this sketch was born at Stillwater, Saratoga County, New York, March 2, 1843. He attended the village schools and Stillwater Academy. On leaving school he engaged in mercantile business, but at the age of nineteen, on August 13, 1862, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Volunteers at Troy, New York. He served in Co. K. as a private, corporal, sergeant and first sergeant. He was appointed first lieutenant of the Twenty-.second U. S. colored troops, December 1863, and promoted to the office of captain. September 30, 1864 he was severely wounded at Fort Harrison, near Richmond, and was discharged on account of his wounds, April 10, 1865. Dr. Force was at the surrender of Harper’s Ferry, September 15, 1862, at Gettysburg during the two days of the fight, at Mine Run, Bristol Station, Auburn Ford, Petersburg, Dutch Gap Canal, etc. On leaving the army lie returned to mercantile business for a time but soon took up the study of medicine. He had also, while engaged in Business, after the close of the war, taken a course of study at the Bryant and Stratton Business College in Newark, New jersey.  His medical studies were continued in the Albany Medical College, where he graduated in 1871.  The following year he came West and settled at Heron Lake, Minnesota, and engaged in the practice of his profession.

CHARLES R. J. KELLAM The subject of this sketch was born August 16, 1837, at the Choctaw Agency, Indian Territory.  His father was a Baptist minister who was sent as a missionary to the Choctaw Indians in 1836, soon after their removal from Georgia.  He afterwards founded the town of Charleston, Franklin County, Arkansas, as a merchant, and also continued to preach there as long as he lived. His wife was Elizabeth Pierson, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, educated at Newbury Female Academy. Charles R. J was educated by his father and mother, there being no public schools at the agency. He, however, attended an occasional term in the old log school until he was twelve years of age. He then attended the academy, which afterwards became known as Fayette College, at Fayetteville, Arkansas. His father having died while in his second year at college, Charles was compelled to leave school and begin work to support himself.  While at school he began to study medicine with a local physician. He taught in the public schools several terms and in this way earned the first dollar which he ever secured by his own efforts. August 16, 1856, Mr. Kellam was married to Sarah E. Carter, of Peacham, Vermont.  Five children were born, three of whom are still living.

In the fall of 1850, anticipating that serious trouble was imminent from the irrepressible conflict over slavery, Mr.  Kellam moved from Arkansas to Vermont. On April 15, 1861, he enlisted for three years, or during the war, but owing to some difficulties in the organization of the regiment was not mustered into service until the sixth of July. He went at once to the front and was a private in Company C, of the Third Vermont regiment. He took part in nearly all the battles of the Army of the Potomac up to the evacuation of the Peninsula.  October 6, 1862, he became ill and was discharged, but afterwards enlisted in the Ninth Vermont in 1863. He was promoted to hospital steward, U. S. A., and finally discharged at his own request, November 6, 1865. After leaving the military service he spent the rest of that year, and part of 1866, in Harvard Medical College, Boston, and practiced medicine in Vermont and New Hampshire. He graduated at Dartmouth Medical College in 1868, soon afterwards removing to Lynn, Massachusetts.

About this time his first wife died and he was married to Mrs.  Emma M. Noyes of Chelsea, Vermont. One daughter was born as the result of this marriage. In 1876, with broken health from overwork in his profession he removed to Minnesota, locating at St. Charles, where he practiced medicine until November, 1879. His second wife died at St. Charles and he removed to Heron Lake in 1879 to engage in the drug business.  Here he was married the third time, January 1, 1880, his wife on this occasion being Mary C.  Schermerhorn, of Albany, New York, who became the mother of eight children, all now living. By close attention to his affairs Dr. Kellam has been successful in building up a profitable business.