Trails-to-the-Past-Minnesota-Rice-Biograqphies-Progressive-Men

Minneapolis Journal 1897

GEORGE WASHINGTON BATCHELDER, of Faribault, Minnesota, was one of the pioneers of that city, and during his long residence has become one of the best-known members of the legal profession in Southern Minnesota. In addition to his eminence in the practice of law, Mr. Batchelder has been conspicuous in politics; always identified with the democratic party, he has been its candidate at various times for Congress, for justice of the Supreme Court, for state senator, and for mayor of the city of Faribault. Mr. Batchelder traces his ancestry back for one hundred and fifty years through a long line of New Englanders to Rev. Stephen Batchelder, who migrated from Surrey, England, about 1730, and settled in Hampton, Massachusetts. He was a Congregational clergyman. Among his descendants were Daniel Webster and John G. Whittier. The grandfather of G. W. Batchelder was a Revolutionary soldier. He lived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and moved with his family to Vermont about 1706. Here his son, John Batchelder married Alice Kittridge, who was a daughter of Samuel and Harriet Kittridge. The Kittridge family also came from Massachusetts, and emigrated to Vermont in 1800.

Mr. Batchelder attended the public schools near his home, and fitted himself for college at Phillip’s Academy, in Danville: entered the University of Vermont in 1847 and graduated in 1851 receiving the degree of A. B., and afterwards that of A. M. He was a member of the Sigma Phi Society, and also of the Phi Beta Kappa. To sustain himself during his college course Mr. Batchelder taught school during his vacations, and upon graduating, took charge of the graded schools of Windsor, Vermont. After one year at Windsor he went south and taught for another year in the Academy at Tazewell, East Tennessee. Another year was spent in teaching at Rogersville, East Tennessee. During all this time Mr. Batchelder was reading law, and in 1854 he was admitted to the bar. The following year he came to Minnesota, then a territory, and in May 1855, settled at Faribault. He has since resided at Faribault, and has been in continuous practice of the law. His first law partner was Hon. John M. Berry, late Justice of the Supreme Court of Minnesota. When Mr. Berry went upon the bench Mr. Batchelder became a partner of Hon. Thomas S. Buckham, now judge of the fifth judicial district of Minnesota. He now has associated with him his son, Charles, under the firm name of Batchelder & Batchelder.

Mr. Batchelder has been frequently honored by his fellow citizens with nomination and election to public office, though as a Democrat in a Republican state, county and district, the more important nomination was frequently not equivalent to election. He was a candidate for Congress in 1868 for the Southern District of the state. In 1871 and 1872 he served as state senator, and in 1888 was nominated by his party for justice of the Supreme Court. During the years 1880 and 1881 he was mayor of Faribault, and for fifteen years, ending in 1892 he served as chairman of the board of Education. Mr. Batchelder was married on July 12, 1858, to Miss Kate E. Davis, daughter of Cornelius Davis, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. They have three children; a daughter Georgia L. Batchelder and two sons Chas. S. and John D. Batchelder both of whom are in the legal practice.

CASSIUS M. BUCK Though comparatively but a young man as yet, Cassius M. Buck, cashier of the Security Bank at Faribault, is, through his strict fidelity to those principles which go to make up business success, one of the most successful bankers in the North Star state, having assisted in the organization of four different banks, and with all of which he is still connected.

He was born June 19, 1859, at Greenwood, Wright County, Minnesota, the son of William P. Buck and Margaret Cramer (Buck). William P. Buck was born in Ohio, and was by occupation a teacher, ranking high in that profession. He came to Minnesota in 1854. At the outbreak of the civil war he enlisted in Company D, First Battalion of Minnesota infantry, and served throughout the war. He was discharged at Jeffersonville, Indiana, and mustered out with his company at Fort Snelling, July 25, 1865; but, having contracted a fever in front of Richmond, Virginia, he succumbed to it at Fort Snelling before reaching home. His wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was born in Western Pennsylvania, but moved with her parents, when quite young, to Ohio.

Cassius received his early education in the common school at Watertown, Minnesota, and in the graded school at Howard Lake. When but twelve years of age he commenced clerking in the general store of his step-father, J. V. Pearson, continuing at this occupation for six years, with the exception of four months each year when he attended school. In the spring of 1880 he formed a partnership with Mr. Pearson and engaged in the business of shipping horses from Indiana and Iowa to Minnesota and selling them. This line of trade he followed until the fall of 1882, when he purchased the hardware business of Smith Bros. & Co., at Howard Lake, and conducted the business for nine years, it having become the largest hardware house in Wright county. In the fall of 1885, in connection with Lemuel McGrew, Mr. Buck purchased the Bank of Howard Lake (a private bank), which they still own. Four years later Mr. Buck organized the Bank of Dassel, now a state bank, and has been its president since its organization. In the fall of 1893 he assisted in organizing the State Bank of Annandale, and has been president of it since its organization. In July, 1894, Mr. Buck went to Faribault and was the principal organizer of the Security Bank of that city. He was elected its cashier, which position he has held since the organization of the bank. Mr. Buck has been very successful in his bank investments, all the banks with which he is connected having been a success from the time of their organization.

He is also the owner of a number of good farms in Wright County. He has always been a Republican in politics, and in 1888 and 1890 was congressional committeeman for Wright County. On May 9, 1894, he was married to Sarah E. Tolerton, daughter of James D. Tolerton, of Salem, Ohio.

CLARENCE PALMER CARPENTER His college the printer’s shop; from printer’s case to the editorial chair; newspaper publisher, attorney at law and secretary and stockholder in a mercantile company—this, in brief, is what has been accomplished by a young man of energy and perseverance, without the aid of fortune—it is, in a nut shell, the life history of Clarence Palmer Carpenter, of Northfield, Minnesota.

Mr. Carpenter was born at Eastford, Windham County, Connecticut, February 4. 1853, the son of Fredus C. Carpenter and Mary A. Gilbert (Carpenter). The father was a native of Connecticut, and of English descent, with a trace of Scotch blood, he is a brother of Judge J. H. Carpenter, of Madison, Wisconsin, and a nephew of Judge Carpenter, of the Connecticut supreme court. He was a school teacher in early manhood, but later in life an agriculturist. The mother of the subject of this sketch was a native of Massachusetts, and was a cousin of Dr. J. G. Holland. a prominent American author, and for many years editor of Scribner’s Monthly and the Century Magazine. The family came to Minnesota in September, 1855, when Clarence was but two and a half years old, and settled on a farm in the town of Lebanon, in Dakota County. At this time Minneapolis was the nearest post office to their farm, and the lumber for the house which they built, was rafted down from Anoka to Minneapolis and then hauled to the farm.

His educational advantages were limited, and were only those that could be obtained in the early district schools of Minnesota. At the age of sixteen he left home to learn the printer’s trade, beginning in the office of the Western Progress, at Spring Valley, Minnesota. Subsequently he worked for about two years in Faribault, and went from there to the Twin Cities, working at different times on nearly all the daily papers published there. Following the usual life of the old-time printer, and having a desire to see the country, he worked in printing offices in a number of the larger cities of different states. In the fall of 1877, Mr. Carpenter took a homestead and tree claim near Herman, in Grant County, Minnesota, going from Faribault, where he had been employed on the Democrat since the spring of 1876, on which paper he did his first editorial work. For the next six years he cultivated his claim and brought nearly three hundred acres under cultivation. During the winters he would devote his time to teaching school or working at his trade. The winter of 1881 he worked as proofreader on the Daily Union, at Jacksonville, Florida, and the following winter worked as night editor of the Fargo Daily Republican. In 1884 he established the Dakota County Tribune, at Farmington, Minnesota, and continued the publication of this paper until August, 1892, at which time he sold it.

He had, while working as a printer, begun reading law for recreation, beginning with Blackstone’s Commentaries. He kept at this for some years and was finally admitted to the bar in September 1890, and, in connection with the publication of his paper at Farmington, engaged in the practice of law. After the sale of the Tribune Mr. Carpenter spent a few months in the East in travel. Returning to Minnesota, he located at Lakeville and engaged in the practice of his profession. He also became interested in a general merchandise store, in connection with others organizing a stock company known as the M. J. Lenihan Mercantile Company, of which he is secretary and treasurer. In January, 1895, he purchased the Northfield Independent, enlarged the paper and put it upon a paying basis.

Though he usually affiliated with the Republican party, Mr. Carpenter has always been disposed to be independent. He was elected court commissioner of Grant County in the fall of 1883, but did not qualify, having removed from the county soon after. He served as second assistant clerk of the house in the legislature of 1887, and as chief clerk in the session of 1889. He was a delegate at-large from this state to the first People’s party national convention at Omaha, in 1892, and was one of the temporary secretaries of the convention. He was on the People’s party ticket twice in Dakota County for the office of county attorney, but the whole ticket was defeated each time. At present he is entirely independent in politics, and conducts his paper on the same policy. Mr. Carpenter is a member of the Odd Fellows, and was Noble Grand of the lodge at Farmington: of the Knights of Pythias: of the A. O. U. W., having served as Master Workman in the Lakeville lodge, and was a delegate to the grand lodge in 1896. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Northfield. July 28, 1885, he married Lulu M. McElrath, at Eureka, Dakota County, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter have one son. Park, born May 5, 1890, and one daughter, Delphine, born September 2, 1896.

THOMAS BURR CLEMENT is a banker living at Faribault, Minnesota. He was born on June 19, 1834 in Manlius, Onondago County, New York. His father, Frederick Clement, was a native of Madison County, New York, where he was born in 1799. He came of an old family of Duchess County, New York, whose members were prominent in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Frederick Clement inherited the military tastes of his forefathers, and in the old days in New York, was prominent as an officer in the state militia. He had four sons and three daughters, of whom only two sons are now living. One, the oldest of the family, Ozias, lives at the old homestead at Manlius, and the other is the subject of this sketch. Mr. Clement is also descended on his mother’s side from an old Colonial family. His mother’s maiden name was Olive Mallory and her family were old settlers in Connecticut.

As a boy, Mr. Clement lived at Manlius, attending the common school at that place. At the age of nineteen, after three years’ experience in a country store, he entered business for himself. In 1860 Mr. Clement visited Minnesota. In the following year he repeated the visit settling permanently at Faribault three years later, at the age of thirty, and continuing the mercantile business till 1868, when he organized the First National Bank of that place. He became its president and has remained in that position ever since. Mr. Clement is recognized as a “banker” in the best sense and as distinguished from a “money loaner.” He is quick to recognize in young men and young enterprises the necessary elements to success, and with these elements as security he takes particular pleasure in helping them along over the critical periods of inexperience and apparent uncertainty to final independence. His motto is: “Help others to help themselves.” As a financier he is always able to foresee remote consequences, and his ability is recognized beyond the bounds of his own community. During his long residence at Faribault, Mr. Clement has been a conspicuous figure in the life of that city.

He has been identified with its advances from the condition of a small village to that of a thriving young city. It has also been his part to be influential in the building up of the various educational institutions which have so conspicuously stamped upon Faribault its high character as a place of residence. Mr. Clement’s fellow citizens have not allowed him to remain a private citizen during this period. His first official position was that of mayor of this city, and in 1874 he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Minnesota Legislature for one term. He was elected to the State Senate in 1877, and was re-elected twice, serving ten years in all.

Twenty two years ago he became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota Institute for Defectives. This institute includes the State schools for the Deaf, the Blind, and the Feeble-Minded, all of which are located at Faribault. Mr. Clement has been president of the board during his membership in it, he was chairman of the Board of County Commissioners in Rice County for three years. During his service in the State Legislature Mr. Clement through large acquaintance and sound business ability was enabled to make himself a very useful member, both for the home community and for the state at large, he took an active interest in the important legislation enacted during the late 70’s and the early 80’s.

Mr. Clement was first married in 1856 to Miss Emma Jean Johnson, daughter of Wm. A. Johnson, of Fredonia,. New York. They had one child, named Ellen Olive who was born in 1857 and who is now Mrs. Charles Hutchinson of Faribault. Mrs. Clement died in 1865. In 1867 Mr. Clement married Miss Ellen F. Johnson, a sister of his first wife. They have had two children, both sons. The eldest, Thomas J. Clement, died in 1891, at the age of twenty-two years, having married Miss Lola Coffin, of Faribault. At the time of his death he was teller in his father’s bank. The second son. Hurlburt O. Clement, was five years his brother’s junior. He is now living at Faribault and is engaged in the bank with his father. Although not a member of any church organization Mr. Clement attends the Congregational church at Faribault.

THOMAS J. DOUGHERTY Several presidents have been born within the borders of the state of Ohio; and from Ohio have come many of the progressive citizens of the Northwestern states. Thomas J. Dougherty, postmaster at Northfield, Minnesota, was born at Marietta, Ohio, on September 15, 1856. When he was about three years old his parents removed from Ohio to Wisconsin, settling on a farm in St. Croix County. He received his early education in the public schools of the same county, and later spent two years in the St. Croix County Collegiate and Military Academy, a school which flourished for a short time at Hudson, Wisconsin. He then taught school in St. Croix and Polk counties for several terms.

Mr. Dougherty came to Minnesota in 1876 and became a citizen of Northfield, Rice County, where he has lived ever since. He first entered the office of Perkins & Whipple as a law student and remained with them until 1871, when he was offered, by Warder, Mitchell & Co., manufacturers of the Champion reapers and mowers, the responsible position of general collector for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and North and South Dakota. He accepted the offer thus made him and held the position for eight years, resigning in 1877 to enter upon the practice of law. He went into partnership with O. F. Perkins. This firm continued until 1893, when Mr. Perkins died, and R. J. Drake succeeded to his part of the business. The new firm thus formed still exists as Drake & Dougherty. In politics Mr. Dougherty is a Democrat, and has been a prominent figure in the political affairs of Northfield and Rice County.

At one time he was nominated by the Democratic party of his county as a candidate for judge of probate. He is a member of the Northfield city council, and the citizens of the Third ward have found his services so valuable that they have retained him constantly as their councilman since 1890. He has also served as a member of the school board during the last four years. In January, 1896, President Cleveland appointed him postmaster at Northfield. On October 5, 1882, at Hazelwood, Minnesota, he married Miss Katie Hennessy, of that place. Mrs. Dougherty died Nov. 26, 1896.

DONALD GRANT The fame of Donald Grant does not rest upon that fact alone, but it is interesting to note at the beginning of this sketch that to Mr. Grant is due the credit of having, as a contractor and railroad builder, laid more miles of track in one day than were ever built by any other road builder in the country. In the construction of the Great Northern from Minot to Helena, during the year 1887, he laid in one day ten and one half miles of track and on several occasions laid over eight miles a day the same season.

Donald Grant was born December 10, 1837, in Glengarry County, Ontario. His father, Alexander Grant, was for thirty years sheriff of that county. His mother was Catharine Cameron, a native of Scotland. Both father and mother were Highlanders, the ancestors on both sides having come from that sturdy race of people. Mr. Grant is six feet four in height, but so well proportioned that his unusual stature is not often noted except as he appears with men of ordinary size. Donald’s first dollar was earned working at seventy-five cents a day on an Ohio farm, where he had gone as a young man in search of his fortune. Carefully saving every possible penny he finally accumulated several hundred dollars. He took the money home to his parents in Canada, only to find when he arrived there that it was the issue of “wild cat” banks that had failed before he had the opportunity to use the money.

Mr. Grant began the business of railroad building in 1865. His first contract was a small one for ties for the Minnesota Central, now the Iowa & Minnesota Division of the Milwaukee road. He was also engaged in track laying on the same road from Faribault to the Iowa boundary. From that time until the present, over thirty years, he has been a railroad contractor. For the first fifteen years his career was one of varying success. The remaining fifteen years have been attended with remarkable success. Mr. Grant belongs to a class of men now passing away who introduced the railroad into the wilderness and the frontier, the forerunner of civilization. He was engaged in the building of parts of the Iowa & Minnesota road, the Hastings & Dakota, the Minneapolis & St. Louis, the Duluth & Winnipeg, the Southern Minnesota, the Wisconsin Central, the Canadian Pacific, the Mesaba road, the Winona & Southwestern, the St. Paul & Duluth and the Northern Pacific.

Mr. Grant is a Republican, but has never sought political preferment. He was, however, induced by the citizens of Faribault to accept the office of mayor. He accepted it for two terms, 1892 and 1893, chiefly from a sense of duty, being indorsed by both Democrats and Republicans for both terms. His business interests are large. The principle of economy and thrift which he adopted at the outset, together with his great business sagacity, has enabled him to accumulate a handsome fortune. He is interested in manufacturing enterprises, and is director in three banks. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of his business connections, he is a man of genial nature, and his success is largely due to his agreeable manners and superior business ability. He enjoys an enviable reputation as a man of integrity, and has the confidence of businessmen in a large degree. He is the chief owner of the Venezuelan concession to the company of capitalists, known as the Orinoco Company, and is also largely interested in the Rio Verde Canal Company, of Arizona. Donald Grant’s wife’s maiden name was Mary Cameron. They have had seven children, six daughters and one son. Their names are Samuel, Ellen, Katherine, Isabella, Emma, Mary , and Margeret Jane.

GEORGE HUNTINGTON has for seventeen years been professor of logic and rhetoric in Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. He has also during this time frequently supplied vacant pulpits in churches in the “Twin Cities” and elsewhere throughout the state. Professor Huntington. however, is more widely known for his literary efforts. He is almost constantly engaged in some form of literary work. His literary labors began in his student days and have been continued more or less regularly ever since. “Shining Hours” was his first book, a juvenile story published anonymously by D. Lothrop & Co. Other books from his pen are the “Spectre of Pratt’s Parish,” a satire on making finance the dominating consideration in parochial affairs: “The Rockanock Stage,” a story of parochial life in a small village; “Nakoma.” a story of pioneer days in Minnesota; “Kings and Cupbearers,” a tale of college life in the West; “Robber and Hero.” telling of the famous James Younger raid at Northfield, and “Maud Brayton.” a sequel to “Kings and Cupbearers.” Professor Huntington for a year or more edited the Sunday School Teacher, and for two or three years the Scholar, He has also been a contributor to a number of papers and periodicals, especially to The Interior, of Chicago, for which he has written both under his own name and under the pseudonym of “Parson Penn,” and The Advance, also of Chicago, for which he has furnished poems, articles, letters of travels, short stories and serials, many of his books being first published in serial form in this periodical.

Professor Huntington was born in Brooklyn, Connecticut, November 5, 1835. He is the son of the late Dr. Thomas Huntington, and Paulina Clark (Huntington). Dr. Thomas Huntington was a clergyman as well as a physician. He was not only deeply interested in the subject of natural science, but was also an enthusiastic student of theological subjects. Jedidiah Huntington was a clergyman as well as physithis sketch, was an officer in the Revolutionary War. He entered as a captain and was made colonel and Brigadier general and a member of Washington’s staff, and on his retirement was Breveted major general. He was collector of customs at New London, Connecticut, under four administrations; served as treasurer of the state, and as a delegate to the convention for the ratification of the United States constitution. Moses Clark, the maternal grandfather of Professor Huntington, was a substantial farmer and prominent citizen of Brooklyn, Connecticut.

George attended the district school and the village academy, In the dominating influences of his youth were received at his home. Here the boy was taught Latin by his father and drawing by his mother; surrounded by a cultured home circle he learned to read and think seriously, and here acquired the high character which he exhibited later in life. When but seventeen \ears of age he was teaching in a country school. It was at this time, through revival meetings conducted by his uncle, Rev. George Clark, that the youth became a Christian, and joined the Congregational Church. George’s parents, thinking that he had an special aptitude for mechanical pursuits, apprenticed him to the steam engine business in the shops of Corliss & Nightindale, in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1857 he went to Chicago to erect in the Flour mill of Adams Brothers the first Corliss engine used in that city, after which he returned to Providence, and having completed his preparatory studies, entered Brown University.

During his sophomore and junior years Mr. Huntington regularly supplied the pulpit at the Charles Street Mission, which he had helped to found. His health gave way under the strain of hard study and for a year he was compelled to live in enforced idleness. The next year was partially devoted to ministerial labors, and the year following to theological study at Andover. He was ordained in Central Village, Connecticut, in 1863, which was his first field. His next pastorate was in Charles Street Church, now the North Church, Providence, Rhode Island, where he remained five years. He removed from there to Oak Park, Illinois, holding a pastorate at this place for nine years. This he resigned in 1879 to accept his present position as professor of rhetoric and logic in Carleton College. Professor Huntington was married, June 30, 1863, to Caroline A. Mason, of Brooklyn, Connecticut. They have had but one child, who died in infancy.

WILLIAM FRANK SCHILLING In 1853 William Schilling came with his parents from Philadelphia to Carver County, Minnesota, and settled on a farm. A few years later he located in business in St. Paul, and was residing there when the war broke out. He offered his services to the country as a member of Company H, Fifth Minnesota, and served continuously until the war closed, gaining the rank of first lieutenant. After the war he returned to St. Paul, where he was married to Miss Mary Catherine Lallier. Shortly after they moved to Hutchinson, Minnesota, where to them was born, November 11, 1872. William F. Schilling, the subject of this sketch.

William attended the schools of Hutchinson, where he was under the tutelage of Hon. N. W. Pendergast, now state superintendent of public instruction. During the vacations of his last three years at school he learned, in the Hutchinson Leader office, the printer’s trade. It was there he earned his first dollar, folding papers for an old Washington hand press. After about a year spent in St. Paul, he returned to Hutchinson, and was employed for eighteen months on the Leader. Again he returned to St. Paul, where he was engaged in the printing business until August 20, 1891, when he was employed to take charge of the mechanical department of the Appleton Press. He remained there for over a year, serving also as assistant editor and solicitor. On April 6, 1895, he was employed as foreman of the Northfield News, in connection with which paper there was conducted one of the largest job printing establishments in the state. Mr. Schilling was placed in charge of this establishment as foreman until the following November, when the paper and its entire establishment were turned over by the proprietor, Hon. Joel P. Heatwole, to C. H. Pierce and Mr. Schilling, the latter serving in the capacity of city editor, a position which he now holds.

Mr. Schilling was reared in the Catholic faith, and is an active worker in advancing the interests of that church. He is a man of upright character and exemplary habits, a great lover of books and the possessor of one of the best reference libraries to be found in any private home in the state. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. While engaged in the printing business at St. Paul he became connected with the Typographical Union of that city, and is said to have been one of the youngest members ever admitted to the society, entering as a full member at the age of eighteen. When Mr. Schilling left the Appleton Press to enter the services of the Northfield News, the Press, in congratulating him upon his advancement, spoke of him as a young man of more than ordinary ability and industry, and as belonging to that class which invariably achieve success.

BENJAMIN B. SHEFFIELD Mayor of Faribault, is one of the younger and at the same time one of the very successful business men of Minnesota. He has lived in Faribault since he was a boy, and has grown up among its people, and made a remarkable success of what promised at the outset to be a losing business. He is very popular in his home, and has been twice elected mayor, the second time by a combination of both parties and without opposition.

Mr. Sheffield comes of good stock. His father M. B. Sheffield, a well-known businessman, was of a family which has always had the reputation of unimpeachable integrity and honesty. His wife was Miss Rachel Tupper, a daughter of a prominent family in Nova Scotia, a first cousin to Sir Charles Tupper now secretary of the Dominion of Canada. B. B. Sheffield was born at Aylesford, Nova Scotia, on December 23, 1860. His parents moved to Minnesota in 1865, Mr. Sheffield becoming a retail merchant at Faribault.

Benjamin grew up at Faribault and attended the public schools, and later spending five years at the Shattuck Military school, from which he graduated in 1880 with honors. He took the first oratorical prize, a gold medal, in 1877. He passed the examination at Yale College soon after his graduation from Shattuck, but for financial reasons did not enter college, but immediately went into business. Though only nineteen years of age he assumed the management of the Walcott Flour Mills for his father. These mills were at that time four miles from any railroad, and had been a losing business for all previous owners. There was at that time an indebtedness of $15,000 on the plant. In spite of the obstacles young Sheffield made the project go. For two years he actually did the work and took the place of three men. At the end of that time he had the satisfaction of seeing the property on a sound financial basis, and in succeeding years developed the business, brought railroads to the mill doors, and increased the capacity of the plant to one thousand barrels a day. On November 31, 1895, the Walcott mills were burned. While the mills were still burning Mr. Sheffield telegraphed for contracting agents to immediately plan new mills of one thousand barrels capacity. He formed the Sheffield Milling Company with a paid up capital of $200,000 had the new mill completed and in operation in about six months. In addition to the milling interest Mr. Sheffield is president of the Crown Elevator Company, owning and controlling a line of thirty elevators in North and South Dakota and Minnesota. Mr. Sheffield has been identified closely with the progress of Faribault. He has always been ready to foster any industry which might advance his city, and he has helped public enterprises with his personal office and his private funds. He is president of the Security Bank of Faribault.

In politics he has been consistently a Republican, and served as vice president of the city council for two years. He was elected mayor for the first term by the largest majority in the history of the city, and upon his second candidacy there was no disposition. Mr. Sheffield was married on July 18, 1889, to Miss Carrie A. Crossette. They have had two children, one of whom, Blanche aged five, is living. During his busy business life Mr. Sheffield has acquired the art of speech making and when occasion demands can deliver a graceful, scholarly address. At the time of the visit of the Episcopal Convention to Faribault in 1805 Mayor Sheffield who is also vestryman in Bishop Whipple’s Union Cathedral Parish, made the address of welcome which was regarded as a model of its kind.

ALBERT WILLIAM STOCKTON The subject of this sketch is a member of the state senate from the twentieth District, serving his second term. He is the son of John C. Stockton and Martha J. Sippy (Stockton) His father was a farmer in comfortable circumstances in Wisconsin, living a very quiet life, but honored and respected by his neighbors.

Albert William Stockton was born in Kosciusko County, Indiana, March 30, 1844. he removed with his parents to Richland County. Wisconsin, in the fall of 1855. He lived on the farm with his parents until the outbreak of the war, receiving a common school education. On August 22, 1862, he enlisted in Company 11, 25th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, going into camp at La Crosse. In September the regiment was ordered to Ft. Snelling to participate in the Indian war then raging, where the regiment was divided, the right wing going up the Minnesota river and the left going up the Mississippi, the companies being located at different points.

The company in which Mr. Stockton was enlisted was stationed at Alexandria. In December it was ordered to report at Ft. Snelling, and from there went to Camp Randall, Madison, Wisconsin. In February, the following year, the company went South, the first stop being made at Columbus, Kentucky. Mr. Stockton has an honorable war record. He served with his company continuously, not losing a day from sickness or otherwise, participating in all the battles in which the company was engaged until June 14, 1864, when he was severely wounded by a gun shot wound in the right thigh, at the battle of Peach Tree Orchard, in front of the Kennesaw Mountains, Georgia. Mr. Stockton, like thousands of others, experienced quite a serious time in various hospitals at Resaca, Georgia: Chattanooga and Nashville Tennessee: Madison and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. In June, 1865, he was discharged with his regiment at Madison. Wisconsin. He then returned home and for several years was engaged as a clerk in a general store. In August, 1872, he removed to Farinbault, Minnesota, where he has since resided.

Mr. Stockton has occupied many positions of public trust. He served as deputy county auditor of Rice County for twelve years. He then held the position of assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Faribault for two years. In 1886 he formed a partnership and has been engaged in the manufacture of flour and furniture ever since that time. He has, however, always taken an active interest in all enterprises tending to build up and promote the best interests of his city and county generally. For ten years Mr. Stockton has acted as chairman of the board of county commissioners of Rice County. In 1890 he was honored by the people of his district with an election to the state senate, and was re-elected in 1894. He has been active in promoting legislation lor the good of the community having served on various committees and occupied a position on the finance committee each term. In the session of 1895 he was chairman of the railroad commission. Mr. Stockton is held in general esteem by all who know him for his public spirit as well as for his admirable personal character.

JAMES WOODWARD STRONG The above name is inseparably associated with that of Carleton College at Northfield, which is recognized as one of the leading educational institutions of the Northwest. Mr. Strong has been president of this college since its organization in 1870, and to him is due the credit of bringing it to the high plane which it occupies at the present time. Dr. Strong was born of Puritan ancestry; he is a descendant, on the paternal side, of Elder John Strong, who came to America in 1630, and was the first ruling elder in the church at Northampton, Massachusetts, where he died in 1699. about ninety-four years of age. This founder of the American branch of the Strong family was the father of eighteen children, most of whom had large families. Many of their descendants have been prominent in the history of this country—notably Governor Caleb Strong of Massachusetts, and William Strong of the United States supreme bench. On the mother’s side the family connections were with the first president of Dartmouth College (President Eleazer Wheelock) and Prof. Bezaleel Woodward, who were in the fifth and sixth generation direct descendants from Miles Standish. Elijah Gridley Strong, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Brownington, Orleans County, Vermont, in 1803. He was a farmer and a merchant in moderate financial circumstances and a man of the strictest integrity. He was active in public affairs, served his county as a sheriff for twelve years, and was a leader in the advancement of the religious and educational interests of the community in which he lived. In 1848 he moved with his family to Montpelier, Vermont, and three years later to Beloit, Wisconsin, where he died in 1859. His wife, Sarah Ashley Partridge (Strong), was a native of Norwich, Vermont, coming of a family prominent in military affairs. She was left an orphan in infancy and was brought up by her uncle. Rev. James Wheelock Woodward, who held a pastorate in her native town. She was a woman of unusual strength of character, combined with delicacy and refinement. Her family government was almost ideal, and her memory is held in fond remembrance by her children. She died at Beloit, Wisconsin, in June 1865.

James Woodward Strong was born at Brownington, Vermont, September 29, 1833. His early education was received in a district school. Later he entered an academy at Montpelier, Vermont which was under the charge of Nathaniel G. Clark, who became secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and to whose personal influence young Strong owed a great deal in the shaping of his character. When but thirteen years of age the lad earned his first money working in a printing office in Irasburg, Vermont. from his fifteenth to seventeenth year he clerked in a bookstore at Burlington, Vermont. When his family came West and settled at Beloit, Wisconsin. James came with them and soon became a student at Beloit College, while pursuing his studies he was successively teacher in a district school, telegraph operator, city clerk and city superintendent of schools. He graduated as valedictorian of his class in July 1858. Overwork in college caused him a serious optical difficulty and during his senior year his lessons were learned by hearing alone.

After leaving college he was for a few months a telegraph operator and a reporter at Madison, Wisconsin. Having, however, decided to study for the ministry, he entered the Union Theological Seminary at New York, from which he graduated in 1862. For two years he held a pastorate in the Congregational Church at Brodhead, Wisconsin, whence he came in January, 1865, to the Congregational Church at Faribault. In 1870 Mr. Strong was elected president of a college which three years before had been located at Northfield, Minnesota. At this time, however, the college was more of an idea than an accomplished fact. Mr. Strong’s executive force and abilities as a leader and organizer soon inspired confidence and won friends for the enterprise. Through his influence William Carleton of Charlestown, Massachusetts, made an unconditional donation of fifty thousand dollars, and under his administration Carleton College has become one of the foremost educational institutions of the Northwest. Forbidden by his eyes, which have been a source of trouble to him since his college days, President Strong has been denied the privilege of special literary work and has written but little for publication, but has devoted himself successfully to laying the foundations of an institution broad in its curriculum, thorough in its culture and Christian in its spirit. The post-graduate course of Carleton’s “School of Pure Mathematics and Practical Astronomy,” and its special astronomical work and publications, have given the institution a reputation in Europe as well as in America. President Strong is one of the charter members of the Minnesota Congregational Club. For nearly a score of years he has been president of the Minnesota Home Missionary Society, and also a corporate member of the American Board of Foreign Missions.

For the past thirty years he has been a member of nearly every national council of the Congregational body held in this country. On September 3, 1861, he was married to Mary Davenport of Beloit, Wisconsin, a direct descendant of Elder John Davenport of the New Haven Colony. Three children have resulted from this union, William Brinsmade, Edward Williams and Arthur Dunning.

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