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Progressive Men of Minnesota
Minneapolis Journal
1897
 FRANK ELMORE BISSELL is a physician in
general practice at Litchfield. He was born at Hartford,
Wisconsin, December 27, 1845, the son of Cyrus Bissell
and Amanda Case (Bissell). His parents were farmers and
descended from the French Huguenots. They moved from New
England to Western Reserve, thence to Wisconsin in the
year of his birth, while it was yet a territory. The
great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch on his
mother’s side was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
Frank attended the common
schools of Hartford, and continued his studies in the
University of Wooster, Ohio, his parents having resided
for a time in that vicinity on the Western Reserve. He
graduated in 1869 from the Charity Hospital Medical
College at Cleveland, and after two years spent in
southern Wisconsin he moved to Minnesota in 1871,
locating at Litchfield. He has been a resident of
Litchfield ever since and engaged in the general
practice of medicine, the only intervals being about two
years spent in Stearns County, and about four months
spent in traveling in Europe, visiting the hospitals in
those countries, and studying for his profession. When
Dr. Bissell was seventeen years of age he enlisted in
the United States navy, at Cincinnati, and served on the
United States steamer Lexington. He received an
honorable discharge in 1865 as surgeon’s steward.
He has always been a Republican,
and his first presidential vote was cast for U. S. Grant
in 1868. He was a member of the Minnesota legislature in
1878 and 1879, served several terms as alderman and
president of the city council of Litchfield, and is at
present mayor of that city. Dr. Bissell is a member of
the State Medical Society: also a member of the G. A.
R., and Past Commander of Frank Daggett Post. He is also
past medical director of the Minnesota Department G. A.
R. He is a member of the Trinity Episcopal church, and
one of its vestrymen. He was married in 1875 to Miss
Addie F. Simons. They have two children. Emily M. and
Frank S. Dr. Bissell has achieved success in his
profession by faithful and diligent application to its
duties, and pays high tribute to the Christian character
of his revered parents who instilled in him in early
youth the love of virtue and the principles of upright
manhood.
 VIRGIL H. HARRIS judge of probate of Meeker
County was born at Newark, Ohio, May 14, 1840. He is the son of
Daniel and Martha (Dowling) Harris. The founders of the
Harris family in this country were among the earliest
settlers in Virginia, and their descendants are
scattered all over the Southern States. Ephraim Harris,
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a
personal friend of Aaron Burr, who had the famous duel
with Alexander Hamilton. He was present and took part in
the first declaration of independence at Charlotte,
North Carolina, two years previous to the signing of the
formal declaration, Ephraim migrated from Kentucky to
Ohio in company with Daniel Boone taking a claim on what
is now a part of the city of Newark. The Dowling family is
of Irish descent, Virgil’s maternal grandfather, having
thrashed a British landlord for not returning the
salutation “Good morning” in a proper’ manner, decided
it was good policy to move West. Martha Dowling mother
of the subject of this sketch, was born in Pennsylvania,
and moved to Ohio with the family in 1825, locating near
Frederick. As an illustration of the hardships of life
of the pioneers of that day it might be mentioned that
this young girl walked barefooted and drove cattle all
the way from Pennsylvania to Ohio.
Young Harris received his
early education in the traditional log schoolhouse near
his home, and later took a complete course in a business
college at Ashland, Ohio, and at Indianapolis, Indiana,
with a high school course at Bucyrus. Ohio. In 1862 he
joined Company B One Hundred and Eleventh Ohio Volunteer
Infantry, at Fostoria, Ohio, and served three years in
the Civil War, He had an honorable war record, fighting
in all twenty-eight battles with the armies of the
Cumberland and Ohio. After his discharge from the army,
he returned home and worked on the farm. His health
having been considerably impaired from a sun stroke
while serving in the army, Mr. Harris decided to come to
Minnesota, and in February, 1870, he located at
Litchfield, where he has lived ever since. His attention
has been chiefly devoted to the drug business, which he
carried on from 1873 to 1890. He also built and is owner
of a brick block in Litchfield,
He is a Republican in politics, and
in 1896 was elected to the office of judge of probate of
Meeker County, which office he still holds. He has had
the office of mayor of Litchfield, chairman of the board
of county commissioners, and justice of the peace. He is
a member of the I. O. O. F.. the A. O. U. W., and the G.
A. R., being past commander of the Frank Daggett Post.
Litchfield, and junior vice department commander of
Minnesota. His religious affiliations are with the
Christian Church.
In 1868 he married Lizzie H. Hill, of Marion
County, Ohio, four boys resulting from this union,
Bertillon Emmit, John F., Maro A. and Ernest V. Mr.
Harris has devoted some of his leisure time to Classical
Literature, and is at present engaged in a forthcoming
work entitled “A Trip Through Hell—An Epic of the
Unseen.” which will be copiously illustrated and
published in the near
future.
 AUGUST T. KOERNER now serving a second term
as treasurer of the State of Minnesota, is a German by
birth. In 1843 he was born at Rodach, Saxe-Coburn-Gotha,
and until he was fifteen years of age the fatherland was
his home. It was there that he attended the common
schools, and leaving school at fourteen years of age,
his parents being poor, began to learn the trade of a
toy maker. After working at this trade for about a year
he came to America alone and without friends to carve
out his fortune among strangers. This was in
1858.
The three years that
intervened before the commencement of the civil War he
spent in Indiana and Missouri. April 17, 1861, at the
age of 18, he enlisted for three months in Company C,
Sixth Indiana volunteers, and re-enlisted at the end of
this short service for three years in Company H
Twenty-sixth Indiana volunteers. January 31, 1864, he
was discharged, but became a veteran on the same day,
and received his final discharge June 25, 1865, after a
continuous service of four years, two months and eight
days. He can talk from personal experiences of the
campaign in West Virginia, including the battles of
Phillippi, Laurel Hill and Carrack’s Ford, and of the
year and a half during which the Federal forces chased
Price through Missouri. In the Missouri campaign, at the
skirmish of Prairie Grove, he was wounded. He participated
next in the siege of Vicksburg, and then followed his
regiment into Texas and Louisiana, closing an honorable
military career at New Orleans, where he was given his
final discharge.
Mr. Koerner was a bookkeeper
at Troy, Illinois, for about two years following the
close of the war, and then, in 1867, came to Meeker
County, Minnesota, settling on a farm near Litchfield.
For the thirty years that have ensued, Litchfield has
been his home, and the reputation which he acquired
there among all with whom he came in contact, for
integrity, industry, sound business judgment, and
unswaying loyalty to his friends, is the foundation upon
which his splendid public record has been built. In his
early manhood days he was a Democrat, and from 1868 to
1874 he was a member of the Greenback party; but since
1874 he has been a Republican. In the village
of Litchfield, during the early days of his residence
there, he filled a number of minor offices, among them
that of village clerk. From 1878 to 1884 he was register
of deeds of Meeker County. In 1891 President Harrison
appointed him postmaster at Litchfield, a position which
he resigned in 1892, preparatory to becoming a candidate
for membership in the lower house of the legislature. He
was elected, and during the session of 1893 this record
was such as to commend him to the Republican party as a
suitable candidate for state treasurer. He was elected
to this high office in the fall of 1894, and re-elected
in 1896. In the spring of 1894, Mr. Koerner associated
himself with S. W.
Leavitt, ex-state senator, at Litchfield, for the
organization of the Meeker County Abstract and Loan
Company and was chosen president of the company, a
position he still holds.
He is a member of the Christian
church at Litchfield. Since 1868 he
has belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
and since 1878 to the Masonic fraternity. He has been
commander of Military Commandry, No. 17, Knights
Templar.
For years he has been an enthusiastic member of
the G. A. R., and Frank Daggett post, No. 35, once
honored him by making him its commander. Mr. Koerner
married Miss Kate McGannon, of Litchfield, while a
resident of Troy, Illinois. Of six children born of this
union, three survive: Mamie, the eldest, is the wife of
William Miller, of Litchfield; P. C. Koerner is a clerk
in the state treasurer’s office; Pauline, the youngest,
is a girl of thirteen, at
home.
 JOHN T. MULLEN
It is a fact, almost without exception, that the
publishers of the successful country papers have grown
up to their prosperity through years of “hard knocks.”
It seems to take a period of rough treatment to properly
season a country editor. John T. Mullen, the editor and
proprietor of “The Litchfield Saturday Review,” has
attained his position after a youth of hard work and
through his own unaided efforts.
Mr. Mullen is by descent a
Scotch-Irishman. His grandfather, John McMullen, came to
New York from Ireland and thence to Indiana. After a
time another John McMullen in the same community proved
too much for the patience of the Scotchman, and to avoid
the constant confusion resulting from the identity of
the names, he dropped the “Mc” and became plain John
Mullen. Horace, son of John Mullen, was born in New York
and was a member of Company K, Fiftieth Indiana
Volunteers, serving through the war and being honorably
discharged as a sergeant. He married Miss Elizabeth
Jayne, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy
Jayne, who were residents of Indiana at that time, but
who came to Meeker County, Minnesota, twenty-five years
ago. Mr.
Jayne is still living at the age of eighty-seven;
his wife died May 24, 1896, at the age of eighty-nine,
after a married life of over sixty-five years.
After the war Horace Mullen,
with his family, came from Vernon, Indiana, and
“homesteaded” land five miles south of Litchfield. They
lived on this farm until 1874, when they moved to
Litchfield. Mr. Mullen died March 29, 1876, and his wife
January 20, 1884. Mr. Mullen was a contractor and
builder by trade. Mr. and Mrs. Mullen had six
children. Their first born. Walter, died when two years
old. The others are Mrs. Nellie M.
Magnuson, wife of M. F. Magnuson of Kimball Prairie,
Minnesota; Laura B., John T., and Elizabeth, all living
at Litchfield, and Leslie, living at Campbell,
Minnesota.
John T. Mullen was born July 4,
1869, on his father’s farm near Litchfield. The death of
his father when he was but seven years old and of his
mother when he was fifteen left him to secure his
education and make his living almost from boyhood. He
earned his first dollar, before he was eight years old,
sawing wood. From that age on he attended school as much
as possible in the winter, but was always constantly at
work in the summer and often much of the time during the
winter months. In the winter of 1886 he commenced
learning the printer’s trade in the office of the
“Litchfield Saturday Review,” then owned and edited by
Lewis A. Pier. Young Mullen learned the trade rapidly
and soon became the job printer of the establishment and
later foreman. On July 26, 1890, he purchased the plant
and business and has since conducted the paper himself.
Since becoming owner he has enlarged the paper to eight
seven column pages and has made it a leading paper in
the county and the central part of Minnesota. At the
same time he has built up an excellent job
business. A
strong Republican, Mr. Mullen has been aware of the
imperfections of his party and his paper has been in a
measure independent. He never hesitates to point out the
faults of his party as he sees them. When the campaign
of 1894 opened he was made chairman of the Republican
county committee of Meeker, and with well organized
forces gave the county the hottest campaign it had ever
seen, with the result that, for the first time in the
county’s history, every candidate on the Republican
ticket was elected. Mr. Mullen is a member of the
Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, A. O. U. W. and Modern
Woodmen.
Mr. Mullen was married October 20, 1896, at
Evansville, Minnesota, to Miss Marie
Davidson.
 JONATHAN WESLEY WRIGHT The subject of this
sketch was born July 14, 1851, in what was then Russell
County, Virginia.
His father, Solomon H. Wright, was a farmer and
blacksmith of moderate means. His mother, Elizabeth
Colley (Wright), was the daughter of a wealthy slave
owner in “the Old Dominion.” His ancestry on his
father’s side was Irish, and on the mother’s, Welsh and
German. They were all sturdy pioneers among the early
settlers of North Carolina and Virginia, and
participated in the strifes with the Indians in Colonial
times and in the Revolutionary War.
Jonathan Wesley attended the
only school available in those times to the middle
classes—the old-fashioned subscription school, which he
attended four terms. The outbreak of
the war when he was only ten years of age put a stop to
his further schooling for the time being. Solomon H.
Wright, his father, was a loyal Union man, and had his
property destroyed by the rebel guerilla bands which,
infested that part of the South. He was drafted into the
Confederate army, but deserted and had a price set on
his head for capture. This, in 1863, forced him with his
family to leave “between two days” and seek protection
in the North.
He lived in Ohio till the war
was over, when he moved to Minnesota, settling in what
is now Collinwood Township Meeker County, October 20,
1865. Here was led the ordinary frontier life, Jonathan
Wesley attending the nearest district school. He
commenced teaching when twenty years old with the
purpose of earning sufficient money to obtain a better
education. He afterwards attended the State Normal
school at St.
Cloud for two years, resumed teaching and reading
law as time permitted, until the fall of 1879, when he
received the Republican nomination for county
superintendent of schools and was elected. This office he
held until January 1, 1887. He has held various
political positions since, such as assistant enrolling
clerk of the house in the Minnesota legislature of 1887:
assistant register of deeds and assistant postmaster at
Litchfield, under Aug. T. Koerner, now state treasurer.
January 1, 1893 he was appointed postmaster at
Litchfield by President Harrison, and still holds that
office.
Mr. Wright has always been a
stalwart Republican and an ardent supporter of
Republican principles, and has always been identified
with all efforts for the promotion of education in the
communities in which he lives, having served as a member
of the Board of Education of Litchfield for the past
fifteen years in the capacity of secretary. He has also
taken an interest in National Guard matters, and for
seven years was a member of Company H., National Guard
of Minnesota, and when mustered out was orderly
sergeant. He is a member of and secretary of Golden
Fleece Lodge, No. 89, A. F. & A. .M., and also a
member of Camp No. 2990, Modern Woodmen of America. Mr.
Wright is a member of the Trinity Episcopal church, of
Litchfield. He was married November 24, 1877, to Alice
E., daughter of Hon. Charles E. Cutts of Meeker County.
They have seven children. Charles Cutts,
Lulu C, George B., Cushman K. D., Alice R., Clara H. and
Newell.
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