Fifty Years In The Northwest
interested himself in railroad enterprises, and has contributed
greatly to the prosperity of the city and State.
RENSSELAER R. NELSON, United States district judge since Minnesota
became a state, was born in Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York, May
12, 1826. His paternal great-grandfather came from Ireland in 1764.
His grandfather was born in Ireland, but came to this country in his
childhood. His father, Samuel Nelson, was associate justice of the
United States supreme court. His father served as a soldier in the war
of 1812, and the son located the land warrant given for his services
in Minnesota. The mother of Rensselaer was Catharine Ann (Russell), a
descendant of Rev. John Russell, of Hadley, Massachusetts, in whose
house the regicides Goffe and Whalley were concealed for years, and
where they finally died.
Rensselaer R. Nelson graduated at Yale in 1846. In 1849 he was
admitted to practice law. He came to St. Paul in 1850. In 1857
President Buchanan appointed him territorial judge, and in 1858,
United States district judge, which office he still holds. He was
married to Mrs. Emma F. Wright, a daughter of Washington Beebe, of New
York State, Nov. 3, 1858.
GEORGE LOOMIS BECKER was born Feb. 14, 1829, in Locke, Cayuga county,
New York. His father, Hiram Becker, was a descendant of the early
Dutch settlers of the Mohawk valley. In 1841 his father removed to Ann
Arbor, Michigan, where the son entered the State University as a
freshman, and graduated in 1846. He studied law with George Sedgewick
until 1849, when he emigrated to St. Paul, arriving late in October.
Here he commenced the practice of law, being associated with Edmund
Rice and E. J. Whitall. Subsequently, on the withdrawal of Mr.
Whitall, Wm. Hollinshead became a member of the firm. The partnership
continued until 1856, when Mr. Becker withdrew to engage in other
pursuits, since which time he has been engaged in forwarding the
railroad interests of the State and serving in various positions of
honor and trust. He served as a member of the constitutional
convention in 1857. In 1862 he was chosen land commissioner of the St.
Paul & Pacific railroad, and in 1864 was elected president of that
corporation. In 1872 he was the unsuccessful candidate of his party
for Congress.
He is a member of the Old Settlers Association, of which he was
president in 1873, and of the Minnesota Historical Society, over which
he presided as president in 1874. He was one of the original members
of the Presbyterian church in St. Paul in 1850. He has served in the
council of St. Paul, and as mayor. He has figured most creditably in
the business, political, social and religious life of his adopted
city, and is an admirable type of a public spirited citizen. Since
1885 he has served as railroad commissioner. In 1885, at Keesville,
New York, he was married to Susannah M. Ismon, an estimable lady, who
has made his home attractive. Their family consists of four sons.
AARON GOODRICH.--Hon. Aaron Goodrich, first chief justice of the
supreme court of Minnesota Territory, was born in Sempronius, Cayuga
county, New York, July 6, 1807. His parents were Levi H. and Eunice
(Spinner) Goodrich. He traces his ancestry back through the
Connecticut branch of the Goodrich family to a period in English
history prior to the advent of William the Conqueror. His mother was a
sister of Dr. John Skinner, who married a daughter of Roger Sherman.
In 1815 his father removed to Western New York, where the son was
raised on a farm and educated chiefly by his father, who was a fine
scholar and teacher. He then studied law and commenced practice in
Stewart county, Tennessee. In 1847 to 1848 he was a member of the
Tennessee legislature.
In 1849 he was appointed to the supreme bench of Minnesota Territory.
He filled the position for three years. In 1858, at the state
organization, he was appointed a member of a commission to revise the
laws and prepare a system of pleading for state courts. In 1860 he was
made chairman of a similar commission. In March, 1861, President
Lincoln appointed him secretary of the legation at Brussels, where he
served eight years. While abroad, by his habits of study and
opportunities for research, he laid the foundation of his critical and
somewhat sensational work, "A History of the Character and
Achievements of the So-called Christopher Columbus."
In politics Judge Goodrich was originally a Whig, and was a
presidential elector in 1848. He was next a Republican, and served as
delegate to the convention of 1860. In 1872 he was a delegate to the
Liberal Republican convention which nominated Horace Greeley for
president. In later years he voted with the Democratic party.
Mr. Goodrich was Deputy Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Freemasons in the State, was one of the corporate members of the State
Historical Society and of the Old Settlers Association, of which he
was for many years the secretary. In 1870 he was married to Miss Alice
Paris, of Bogota, New Grenada, a descendant of the old Castilian
family de Paris, an accomplished lady, who, with a daughter, survives
him. Judge Goodrich died in St. Paul in 1886.
NATHAN MYRICK was born in Westford, Essex county, New York, July 7,
1822. He came to La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1840. The writer first met
him at Prairie du Chien in 1841. He was one of the principal founders
of the city of La Crosse, managing a trading house in company with
Scoots Miller. He also engaged in lumbering on Black river. He came to
St. Paul in 1848, and has since made that city his home. He has been
an enterprising and successful trader with the Indians, principally
with the Sioux. Much of his trading stock was destroyed by the Sioux
Indians in the insurrection of 1862, but he has been recompensed in
part by the government. In 1843 he was married to Rebecca Ismon. They
have three children.
JOHN MELVIN GILMAN, son of John and Ruth (Curtis) Gilman, was born in
Calais, Vermont, Sept. 7, 1824. His father died in 1825. The son
received a good common school and academic education, graduating from
the Montpelier Academy in 1843. He read law with Heaton & Reed, of
Montpelier, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. During the same year
he removed to New Lisbon, Ohio, where he practiced law eleven years
and served one term (1849-50) in the state legislature.
In 1857 Mr. Gilman came to St. Paul, and formed a partnership with
Hon. James Smith, Jr., and later became one of the firm of Gilman,
Clough & Lane. Mr. Gilman served four terms as a representative in the
state legislature. His affiliations have been with the Democratic
party, for which he has been twice a candidate for Congress and
chairman of the state central committee. He was married to Miss Anna
Cornwall, of New Lisbon, Ohio, June 25, 1857.
CHARLES EUGENE FLANDRAU, son of Thomas Hunt and Elisabeth (Macomb)
Flandrau, was born July 15, 1828, in New York City. On his father's
side he is descended from Huguenots driven into exile by the
revocation of the edict of Nantes; on his mother's side from the
Macombs of Ireland. One of his uncles was Gen. Alexander Macomb,
commander-in-chief of the United States Army immediately preceding
Gen. Winfield Scott. He was educated until thirteen years of age in
the private schools at Georgetown and Washington, after which he spent
about three years before the mast; was at New York City about three
years, when he went to Whitesboro, Oneida county, New York, where he
read law and afterward entered into partnership with his father, being
admitted to practice in 1851. In 1853 he came to St. Paul with Horace
R. Bigelow and commenced practice in the firm of Bigelow & Flandrau.
In 1854 he removed to St. Peter and practiced law for several years.
This year (1854) he was appointed a notary public by Gen. Gorman.
In 1855 he was elected a member of the territorial council, and in
1856 was appointed by President Pierce United States agent for the
Sioux Indians. In 1857 he served as a member of the Democratic wing of
the constitutional convention, and in July of the same year was
appointed by President Buchanan associate justice of the supreme court
of Minnesota Territory. He was elected to the same office, on the
admission of Minnesota as a state, for a term of seven years. During
Gov. Sibley's administration, he acted as judge advocate general of
the State.
Judge Flandrau took an active part in suppressing the Sioux outbreak,
serving as captain, and later as a colonel, of volunteers. In 1864
Judge Flandrau resigned his place on the supreme bench and went to
Nevada Territory for a year; spent some time in Kentucky and St.
Louis, Missouri, and returned to Minnesota in 1867, locating at
Minneapolis, where he opened a law office with Judge Isaac Atwater. He
was elected city attorney and was president of the first Board of
Trade.
In 1870 he removed to St. Paul and engaged in law practice with
Bigelow & Clark.
In 1867 Judge Flandrau was the Democratic nominee for governor of the
State, and in 1869 for the position of chief justice. In 1868 he was
chairman of the state central committee, and a member of the national
convention that nominated Horatio Seymour for the presidency of the
United States.
Judge Flandrau was married Aug. 14, 1859, to Isabella Dinsmore, of
Kentucky, deceased in 1866. His second wife was Mrs. Rebecca B.
Riddle, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Feb. 28, 1871. His family
consists of two daughters by his first wife and two sons by his
second.
GEN. JOHN B. SANBORN was born Dec. 5, 1826, in Merrimac county, New
Hampshire, on the farm which had been in the possession of his
ancestors for four generations. After a common school education he
entered the law office of Judge Fowler, of Concord, New Hampshire,
where he remained for three years, when he was admitted to practice by
the superior court of New Hampshire, in 1854. In the following
December he came to Minnesota, where he has remained, a citizen of St.
Paul, and in the practice of his profession, except what time he has
been absent in the public service.
His public career began in 1859-60, in the house of representatives.
The following year he was sent to the senate, and that had adjourned
but a little over a month when he was appointed adjutant general and
acting quartermaster general of the State, and entered upon the
arduous duties of organizing the first regiment of volunteers in the
State for the war of the Rebellion.
In the following December he was commissioned colonel of the Fourth
Minnesota, and, with headquarters at Fort Snelling, garrisoned all the
posts and commanded all the troops along the Minnesota frontier during
the winter. Early in the spring of 1862 he left with his entire
command for Pittsburgh Landing, and was assigned to the command of a
demi-brigade, which he commanded till the evacuation of those works,
and was thereupon assigned to the command of the First Brigade,
Seventh Division, Army of the Mississippi, afterward the Seventeenth
Army Corps.
On the nineteenth of September following, with this brigade he fought
the battle of Iuka and won the victory for which he was promoted by
the president to brigadier general of Volunteers.
He participated in the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson,
Champion Hills, and the assault on Vicksburg--a portion of which time
he was in command of a division. After the surrender of Vicksburg he
was assigned to the command of the Southwest District of Missouri,
where, after the campaign against Price, he was promoted to brevet
major general.
After the close of the war, by a few months' campaign on the Upper
Arkansas and along the Smoky Hill river, he opened to travel the long
lines across the plains to Colorado and New Mexico, which had been