Fifty Years In The Northwest
grandfather Durkee was in the French war of 1755. Mr. Rice was born in
Waitsfield, Vermont, Nov. 29, 1816; attended common school three
months in the year and a private school and academy in Burlington. He
went to Detroit, Michigan Territory, in 1835; was engaged in making
the first survey of the Sault Ste. Marie canal, made by the state of
Michigan in 1837, and went to Fort Snelling in 1839. He was post
sutler in 1840, United States Army, Fort Atkinson, Iowa Territory, and
was connected with the old fur company for several years. He was
elected delegate to Congress in 1853 for Minnesota Territory and
re-elected in 1855. He was elected first United States senator for
Minnesota, in 1857, admitted to his seat May 11, 1858, and served
until March 3, 1863. In 1860 he was a member of the senate special
committee of thirteen on the condition of the country. During his term
in the senate he was a member of the following standing committees:
Indian affairs, post office and post roads, public lands, military,
finance. He was on the last four named committees at the expiration of
the term of March 3, 1863.
In 1865 he was nominated for governor but was defeated by Gen. W. R.
Marshall. In 1866 he was delegate to the Philadelphia Union
convention. He also served in the following various capacities: United
States commissioner in making several Indian treaties; as a member of
the board of regents of the University of Minnesota; as president of
the Minnesota State Historical Society; as president of the St. Paul
Board of Public Works; and as treasurer of Ramsey county, Minnesota.
He is the author of the law extending the right of pre-emption over
unsurveyed lands in Minnesota. He has obtained land grants for
numerous railroads in Minnesota, and, with the assistance of Senator
Douglas, framed the act authorizing Minnesota to form a state
constitution preparatory to admission, fixing boundary, etc.
As a public man Mr. Rice has pursued a policy at once independent and
outspoken, not hesitating to express his convictions on the great
national questions of the day, and to place himself upon a national
rather than a party platform. During the war he upheld the
administration in a vigorous prosecution of the war, as the speediest
and most honorable means of obtaining peace. His letter to the St.
Paul _Press_ of Nov. 1, 1864, contains sentiments that must commend
themselves to every true lover of his country. We quote a few
extracts:
"I believe Gen. McClellan and Mr. Lincoln both desire peace--both the
restoration of the Union. The one favors the return of the Southern
States with slavery; the other wishes these states to return without
that institution. I believe that the revolted citizens forfeited all
rights they had under the constitution when they turned traitors; that
the Emancipation Proclamation legally and rightfully set every slave
free. I am as much opposed to again legalizing that institution in the
South as I would be to its introduction in the Northern States."
* * * "I am in favor of the return of the Southern States, and think
the day is not far distant when the same flag will float over us all,
and when that happy day shall arrive, I hope that the rights we enjoy
will be freely accorded to them, and no more."
* * * "When the Southern States return I shall be in favor of their
voting population being equally represented with our own, and no
further."
* * * "I think that in the long future, when all other of Mr.
Lincoln's acts shall be forgotten, his Emancipation Proclamation will
adorn history's brightest page. I am opposed to slavery for the reason
that _I am in favor of the largest human liberty_, and I can not
understand why some of our fellow citizens who come here that they
might be free can deny freedom to others."
* * * "I think it illy becomes those who took up arms to defend their
homes, their country, yea, liberty! to make overtures to armed
rebellion. I believe that by a rigorous prosecution of the war peace
will soon come, our liberties will be secured forever, and that
prosperity will follow. Union with slavery will be only a temporary
cheat, and can not last. Dissolution will bring ruin, anarchy and an
endless effusion of blood and money."
He has been a liberal contributor to the various public enterprises of
the city, to churches, public institutions and private parties. He has
built warehouses, business blocks and hotels. The park in front of the
city hall was donated by him. His name is inseparably interwoven with
the history of St. Paul and the State. Rice county bears his name. He
was married to Matilda Whitall, of Richmond, Virginia, in 1849.
EDMUND RICE, brother of Hon. Henry M. Rice, was born in Waitsfield,
Vermont, Feb. 14, 1819. His father died in 1829. He received a
somewhat limited common school education and spent most of his early
life clerking. In 1838 he came to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he read
law with Stuart & Miller, and was admitted to the bar in 1842, making
commendable progress in his profession. While a resident of Michigan
he was master in chancery, register of court of chancery and clerk of
the supreme court. In 1847 he enlisted in Company A, First Michigan
Volunteers, of which company he was made first lieutenant, and served
through the Mexican War until its close.
In July, 1849, he came to Minnesota Territory, locating in St. Paul,
where he became one of the firm of Rice, Hollinshead & Becker until
1855, when he embarked in railroad enterprises. In 1857 he was elected
president of the Minnesota & Pacific Railroad Company, and afterward
of its successors, the St. Paul & Pacific and the St. Paul & Chicago
Railroad companies. He has been long regarded as one of the most
energetic and competent railroad men in the State. Mr. Rice has
figured largely in the politics of the State, having served several
terms in the territorial and state legislatures. He was a
representative in the territorial legislature of 1851, a senator in
the state legislatures of 1864, 1865, 1873, 1874, and a representative
in the sessions of 1872, 1877 and 1878.
In 1885 he was elected mayor of St. Paul, and in 1886 was chosen
representative in Congress. Mr. Rice is an uncompromising Democrat in
his politics, and is so recognized by his party, which he served as
chairman of the state central committee in the presidential campaign
of 1872, and elector at large in the campaign of 1876. He was married
in November, 1848, to Anna M. Acker, daughter of Hon. Henry Acker, of
Kalamazoo, Michigan. Of eleven children, the fruit of this union, all
are living but the second daughter, Jessie, who married Frank H.
Clark, of Philadelphia, in 1870, and died in October, 1874. The eldest
daughter, Ellen, is the wife of Henry A. Boardman, of St. Paul.
LOUIS ROBERT.--Capt. Louis Robert was a descendant of the French
settlers who occupied Kaskaskia and St. Louis when they were in the
territory of Louisiana, then a French province. He was born at
Carondelet, Missouri, Jan. 21, 1811, and his early life was spent in
that region and on the Upper Missouri river. In 1838 he went to
Prairie du Chien, and in the fall of 1843 visited St. Paul and removed
thither the ensuing year, identifying himself with the interests of
that growing young city.
To say the least, he was a remarkable character. He possessed all the
politeness and suavity of his nationality, was impulsive, warm
hearted, generous and yet, as a business man, far-seeing and
loquacious. His broken English added a peculiar charm and quaintness
to his conversation, and he will be long remembered for his odd
expressions and his keen but homely wit. He was generous in aiding any
worthy object, and, as a devoted Catholic, gave liberally to the
support of his church. He donated valuable property to church building
and gave the bells to the French Catholic church and the cathedral in
St. Paul. His private charities were also liberal.
In 1847 Capt. Robert was one of the original proprietors of St. Paul.
He took a prominent part in the Stillwater convention of 1848. In 1849
he was appointed commissioner on territorial buildings. In 1853 he
engaged in steamboating, and at different times owned as many as five
steamers. He was also largely engaged in the Indian trade until the
massacre of 1862. He died, after a painful illness, May 10, 1874,
leaving an estate valued at $400,000. He was married in 1839, at
Prairie du Chien, to Mary Turpin, who, with two daughters, survives
him.
AUGUSTE LOUIS LARPENTEUR, the son of Louis Auguste, and Malinda
(Simmons) Larpenteur, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, May 16, 1823.
His grandfather, Louis Benoist Larpenteur, left France about the time
of the banishment of Napoleon Bonaparte to St. Helena, determined not
to live under the rule of the Bourbons. Auguste L., the grandson, was
reared in the family of his grandfather, his mother having died while
he was an infant. At the age of eighteen years, with his uncle, Eugene
N. Larpenteur, he came to St. Louis. Two years later he came to St.
Paul as clerk for Wm. Hartshorn and Henry Jackson, Indian traders. The
firm of Hartshorn & Jackson gave place to Freeman, Larpenteur & Co.
Mr. Larpenteur has been continuously engaged in commercial pursuits
since his arrival in St. Paul in 1843. He has seen the city grow from
a hamlet of five cabins to its present metropolitan dimensions, and
has been from the first one of its most enterprising and reliable
citizens. He was married Dec. 7, 1845, to Mary Josephine Presley. They
have five sons and five daughters.
WILLIAM H. NOBLES.--William H., son of Rev. Lemuel Nobles, was born in
the state of New York in 1816. In his early life he learned the trade
of a machinist and became a skilled artisan. In 1841 he came to Marine
Mills, but soon removed to St. Croix Falls and assisted in putting up
the first mill there.
He lived successively at Osceola, at the mouth of Willow river, and at
Stillwater. He was part owner of the Osceola mills in 1846, and it is
claimed that he built the first frame house in Hudson. In 1848 he
removed from Stillwater to St. Paul, and opened the first
blacksmithing and wagon shop in that city. He made the first wagon in
the Territory. He was a member of the house, fifth territorial
legislature, in 1855, from Ramsey county. In 1853 he made an overland
trip to California, and discovered one of the best passes in the
mountains. 1857 he returned and surveyed a government wagon road
through that pass. As a recognition of his services the pass received
the name of "Noble's Pass," and a county in Minnesota was also named
after him. In 1857 he laid out a government road from St. Paul to the
Missouri river. In 1862 he entered the army and was appointed
lieutenant colonel of the Seventy-ninth New York Volunteers, better
known as the "Highlanders." While on duty in South Carolina, a
personal collision with another officer led to his resignation. He was
afterward cotton collector for the government, United States revenue
officer, and master of transportation at Mobile. His health failing
during his arduous service, he returned to St. Paul, and died at St.
Luke's Hospital, on Eighth street, aged sixty years.
Col. Nobles was a man of immense vitality and energy, with a strong
inventive genius, by which he himself failed to profit; restless, fond
of travel, a little hasty and irritable, but possessing many admirable
traits. Mr. Noble was married in Illinois, prior to his location in
Minnesota, to Miss Parker, who survives him. Mrs. Nobles resides with
her family in California.
SIMEON P. FOLSOM, a younger brother of the author of this book, was
born in Lower Canada, near Quebec, Dec. 27, 1819. His father was a