Fifty Years In The Northwest
WILLIAM DREW WASHBURN, the youngest of the Washburn brothers, was born
at Livermore, Maine, Jan. 14, 1831. He worked upon his father's farm
until twenty years of age; prepared himself for college by his own
unaided efforts, entered Bowdoin College, and graduated in 1854. He
studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1857, and in the same year
came to Minneapolis as agent of the Minneapolis Mill Company, of which
he became a partner. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him surveyor
general of Minnesota. During his term of office, which continued four
years, he lived in St. Paul. On his return to Minneapolis he built a
large saw mill and engaged extensively in the lumber trade. He was the
chief mover in the Minneapolis & St. Louis and Minneapolis & Pacific
railways. He has a large lumber and flour mill at Anoka, and with
others erected the Palisade flour mill at Minneapolis. In 1878 he was
elected representative to Congress from the Third district and
re-elected in 1880. He has also served in the state legislature. He
was a principal proprietor of the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie &
Atlantic railway, and was elected president of the company in 1883.
Mr. Washburn has been successful in his business ventures, has
accumulated a handsome property, and been liberal in using his means
in the interests of Minneapolis and the State. He is eminently
practical in his business ideas and methods, and affable and
prepossessing in his manners. He married Lizzie Muzzy, of Bangor,
Maine, in 1850, and has two sons and two daughters living.
JOSEPH CLINTON WHITNEY was born in Springfield, Vermont, April 14,
1818. In 1829 he removed with his parents to Lower Canada, where he
remained till he was twenty years of age. He went to Oberlin, Ohio,
1840; graduated from the college in 1845, and from Union Theological
Seminary in 1849. The same year he removed to Stillwater, where he
organized the First Presbyterian church, of which he served as pastor
until 1853, when he was called to the pastorate of the First
Presbyterian church at Minneapolis, where he remained four years. He
removed to Forest City, Meeker county, but returned to Minneapolis in
1860. In 1862 he enlisted in Company D, Sixth Minnesota Volunteers,
and served three years. In 1865 President Lincoln appointed him
quartermaster with the rank of captain. In 1866 he returned to
Minneapolis and engaged in business. In 1867 he was elected state
senator from the Fifth district. Mr. Whitney has been greatly
interested in the cause of education. He was a principal mover in
establishing the public schools of Minneapolis, of Bennett Seminary
for Young Ladies, and of Macalester College. He is president of the
board of Bennett Seminary, and is one of the members of the state
normal board. He was married July 10, 1849, to Eliza Baird. They have
three sons and two daughters.
CHARLES HOAG was born in Sandwich, New Hampshire, in 1808. He received
a good education and taught school fifteen years. He came to
Minneapolis in 1852, and occupied various positions of trust, having
been a member of the first town council, the second treasurer of
Hennepin county, and the superintendent of schools four years,
commencing with 1870. Mr. Hoag suggested the name of Minneapolis for
the growing young city of his adoption. He was a man of marked ability
and refinement, and although a strong partisan his many admirable
personal qualities won the esteem of those who most radically differed
from him. He was twice married, his first wife dying in 1871. In 1873
he was married to Miss Susan F. Jewett who, with a daughter, Mrs. C.
H. Clark, and one son, Levi, survives him. Mr. Hoag died February,
1888.
FRANKLIN STEELE.--No other pioneer has been more prominent in the
early history of Minneapolis than Franklin Steele. A bold, sagacious,
enterprising man, he came in the very vanguard of civilization, and
promptly and fearlessly availed himself of the splendid opportunities
that this, then almost unknown, frontier afforded. We have not many
data of his early life, but his history since he set foot in Fort
Snelling is elsewhere given as a part of the early history of the
section in which he located, and need not be here repeated.
Franklin Steele was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He came
West by the advice of President Andrew Jackson, and arrived at Fort
Snelling just after the conclusion of the treaty by which the Indians
ceded their St. Croix lands to the government; whereupon Mr. Steele
visited St. Croix Falls, made a claim and proceeded to make further
improvements, such as building mills, as elsewhere narrated.
When appointed sutler of the army at Fort Snelling, he sold his St.
Croix claims and identified himself thereafter with the interests of
St. Anthony Falls and the section adjacent thereto, where he made
claims and improvements. Among other enterprises illustrative of the
faith of Steele and others in the future greatness of the prospective
river cities, the fact may be mentioned that an organized company
built a wire suspension bridge over the river just above the falls, a
work projected while the adjacent lands were still in the hands of the
government, and completed in 1855, at a time when such a structure was
most needed and advantageous.
Mr. Steele was a man of far more than ordinary ability. Col. J. H.
Stevens says of him: "He has been a good friend to Hennepin county,
and as most of the citizens came here poor they never had to ask Mr.
Steele a second time for a favor. Fortune has favored him, and while
many a family has reason to feel thankful for his generosity and
kindness, he constantly made money." The county of Steele was named
after him. Mr. Steele was married to Miss Barney, a relative of the
distinguished naval officer of that name. He died in Minneapolis in
1880.
ROSWELL P. RUSSELL was born in Richland, Vermont, March 15, 1820. His
privileges for education were limited. He came to Michigan in 1836 and
to Fort Snelling in 1839. He came from Prairie du Chien to the Fort in
a mackinaw boat, part of the way on foot over the ice, and suffered
much for want of food, sleep and from exposure. Mr. Russell remained
at Fort Snelling until 1845, engaged for two years in the Indian
trade, made a claim at St. Anthony Falls in 1847, and opened the first
store, in a log building, at that place. In 1854 he was appointed
receiver of the land office at Minneapolis. He has since been actively
engaged in farming, merchandising and real estate transactions. He was
the first chairman of the St. Anthony Falls town board, and has served
one term as representative in the state legislature. He was a true and
steadfast friend to his adopted city. He was married at St. Anthony
Falls, Oct. 3, 1848, to Marion Patch. They have a family of seven sons
and three daughters: Lucy C., wife of W. C. Colbrath; Charles M.,
Roswell P., Mary Bell, wife of F. M. Prince, of Stillwater; Carrie E.,
wife of F. L. Lovejoy, of Fargo, Dakota; Frank and Fred, twin
brothers; Geo. B. Mc----, died in 1881; William and Edward E.
HORATIO PHILLIPS VAN CLEVE was born in Princeton, New Jersey, Nov. 22,
1809. He was educated at Princeton College and West Point, graduating
from the latter institution in 1831. He served five years in the army,
resigning in 1836. He followed farming and engineering in Michigan
until 1856, when he came to Morrison county, Minnesota. In 1861 he
enlisted as a volunteer in the Second Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, of
which regiment he was commissioned colonel. He served during the war
and left the service with a major general's commission, and has since
served as adjutant general of the state of Minnesota. He was the
postmaster of St. Anthony Falls prior to the union of that city with
Minneapolis. He was married to Charlotte O. Clarke, daughter of Maj.
Gen. Clarke of the United States Army. They have seven children.
CHARLOTTE OUISCONSIN VAN CLEVE, a daughter of Gen. Clarke of the
United States Army, was born at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien,
Wisconsin, in 1819. Soon after her birth her father came up the river
on a flatboat to the site of Fort Snelling. They were six weeks making
the voyage. Miss Charlotte grew up amidst military surroundings, and
on a remote frontier, and was married at Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin, to
Horatio P. Van Cleve, when she had barely attained the age of sixteen
years. Her husband resigned his position in the army about the time of
his marriage, and removed to Michigan, but since 1856 her home has
been in Minnesota. Of her children six sons are living in Hennepin
county. A daughter is the wife of H. V. Hall, a missionary to the
Sandwich Islands. Besides her own family she has reared five orphans.
She is intellectually active and vigorous, takes great interest in the
reforms of the day, and is a noble specimen of the pioneer women of
the State. She is the founder of the Bethany Home in Minneapolis. She
has specially interested herself in the poor, the downtrodden and the
outcast classes of human society, and has exercised in this direction
an untold influence for good.
ARD GODFREY was born at Orono, Maine, Jan. 18, 1813. He came to St.
Anthony Falls in 1847, and was among the first to make improvements in
utilizing the water power furnished by the falls. He built a dam and
mill, and subsequently engaged in lumbering. In 1852 he settled on a
claim near Minnehaha falls, where he built a saw and grist mill, some
years later destroyed by fire. He was married in Maine, January,
1838, and has a family of six children. He still lives at his old
homestead near Minnehaha falls.
RICHARD CHUTE was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 22, 1820. He first
visited St. Anthony Falls in 1844, and built a trading house. He was
one of the firm of W. G. Ewing & Co. In 1854 he located permanently at
the Falls where he has been engaged in real estate operations, milling
and other branches of business. He has been successful in his
undertakings, and is a man of excellent standing in the community.
LUCIUS N. PARKER was born in Chester, Vermont, Dec. 11, 1823. He came
to Illinois in his boyhood and remained there till eighteen years of
age, when he came to Marine, Minnesota, and engaged in lumbering. In
1846 he was one of the proprietors of the Osceola (Polk county,
Wisconsin) mills. In 1849 he sold out his interest, removed to St.
Anthony Falls and carried the mail between St. Paul and that city. He
removed to the west side of the river, known now as Minneapolis, and
has since resided there. He was married to Amanda Huse in 1849.
CAPT. JOHN ROLLINS was born in March, 1806, at New Sharon, Maine.
While in Maine he followed lumbering and hotel keeping. In 1848 he
came to the Falls and engaged in lumbering, steamboating, milling and
farming. He was a member of the first territorial council of
Minnesota, in 1849-50. He was married to Betsey Martin at Newport,
Maine, in 1832. They have seven children living. Capt. Rollins died in
1885.
JOHN G. LENNON was born in Bolton, England, July 6, 1815. He came to
America in 1841 as supercargo of a vessel bound to New Orleans. In
1843 he located at St. Croix Falls, removed to St. Paul in 1848, and
in 1850 to St. Anthony Falls, where he entered the service of the St.
Anthony Outfit. In 1856 he engaged in the lumbering and mercantile
business and in 1859 removed to a stock farm in Sibley county. During
the Civil War he served as assistant commissary, and through Gen.
Sibley's Indian campaign. At the suppression of the Indian revolt his
regiment was transferred South and attached to the Sixteenth Army
Corps, under Gen. A. J. Smith and Division Commander Gen. Joseph Mower
and he served as quartermaster until mustered out at the close of the
war, when he returned to civil life and commenced dealing in real