Fifty Years In The Northwest
closed for nearly two years, and restored peace to that frontier. Upon
a mission to the Indian Territory, to establish the relations which
should exist between the slaves of the Indians and their former
masters, he solved the questions and determined the relations, and
established them upon a firm foundation in the short space of ninety
days.
In 1866 he was appointed, with Gens. Sherman, Harney, Terry, and
Senator Henderson, a special peace commissioner to the Indians, and
for eighteen months served upon that board. This commission visited
and made treaties with the Camanche, Cheyenne, Arrapahoe, Apache,
Navajo, Shoshone, Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arrapahoe, and Crow
tribes; and with the Ogalalla, Brule, Minneconjon, Sausauche, Black
Feet, Umkapapa, Santee, and Yankton bands of the Sioux nation. They
settled upon and recommended to Congress a fixed policy to be pursued
toward the Indians, which, while followed, resulted in comparative
safety to the frontier, and greater economy in the service. Since
these services the general has devoted himself entirely to his
profession, and with more than ordinary success.
JOHN R. IRVINE was born in Dansville, Livingston county, New York,
Nov. 3, 1812, and was brought up there till seventeen years of age.
His education when a boy was obtained at the common schools, and was
quite limited. From seventeen to twenty years of age he lived in
Carlisle and other places in Pennsylvania, during which he learned the
trade of plastering, and was married in Carlisle in 1831, to Miss
Nancy Galbreath. Soon after his marriage he returned to Dansville. The
following spring he went to Buffalo, New York; in the spring of 1837
emigrated to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in the spring of 1840 removed
to Prairie du Chien.
While in Prairie du Chien Mr. Irvine kept a grocery. During that time
he made two trips to St. Paul--the last one with a team loaded with
provisions, on the ice the most of the way--and on the third of
August, 1843, arrived in St. Paul with his family. On his arrival he
bought of Joseph Rondeau a claim of 240 acres of land, afterward
converted into Rice & Irvine's addition, Irvine's enlargement and
Irvine's addition to the city of St. Paul, including most of the
present city from St. Peter street to Leech's addition, for about
$300. Mr. Irvine entered it in 1848. The east 80 acres of a quarter
included in this claim Mr. Irvine sold to Henry M. Rice in 1848, and
in the winter they laid off Rice & Irvine's addition, and commenced
selling lots and making improvements on the property.
Since living in St. Paul Mr. Irvine has been engaged in farming,
milling, storekeeping, working at his trade, and managing his estate.
He was one of the earliest settlers of St. Paul, whose life amidst its
many changes has been contemporaneous with its history from the very
beginning. Mr. Irvine has had eight children, seven of whom, namely,
six daughters and one son, are living. Mr. Irvine died in 1878.
HORACE RANSOM BIGELOW was born in Watervliet, New York, March 13,
1820. His father, Otis Bigelow, was a Revolutionary patriot and
soldier. He received a good education at the schools of Sangerfield
and the gymnasium at Utica. He spent part of his early life in farming
and teaching. Later he studied law and was admitted to practice in
1847, in Utica, where he entered into partnership with E. S. Brayton
until 1853, when he removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, in company with
Charles E. Flandrau. He has since devoted himself almost exclusively
to his law practice, which includes almost every branch except
criminal law. In June, 1862, he was married to Cornelia Sherrill, of
Hartford, New York. They have four children.
CUSHMAN K. DAVIS.--In the quaint little Quaker village of Henderson,
New York, in a small house built partly of logs, and mossy and
venerable with age, on June 16, 1838, Cushman Kellogg Davis, late
governor and present senator from Minnesota, was born. His father,
Horatio N. Davis, removed to Wisconsin in August or September of the
same year, and settled on the present site of Waukesha. His father was
quite prominent; had served during the Civil War, and retired from the
service with the brevet rank of major; had held various municipal
offices, and had been a member of the Wisconsin senate. Cushman, his
oldest son, received as good an education as the times afforded, at
the common schools, at Carroll College, a Waukesha institution, and at
Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he graduated in 1857. He read law with Gov.
Randall, was admitted to the bar in 1859, and practiced at Waukesha
until 1862, when he enlisted in the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry,
going in as first lieutenant of Company B, but was adjutant general
under Gen. Gorman most of the time. At the end of two years, with
broken health, he resigned his commission and settled in St. Paul in
partnership with Gen. Gorman. In 1867 he was elected a representative
in the state legislature, and served one term. He was United States
district attorney from 1868 until 1873, when he was elected governor.
He served two years, and was the youngest man who has been elected to
that office. After leaving the governor's chair he resumed his law
practice until the senatorial election of 1887, when he was chosen to
succeed Senator McMillan in the United States Senate.
Senator Davis has devoted some time to general literature. His lecture
on "Feudalism" was delivered in 1870, and this lecture probably
secured him the nomination for governor in 1873. He has also lectured
on "Hamlet" and "Madam Roland," and in 1884 delivered a lecture before
the Army of the Tennessee and in 1886 a lecture to the graduating
class at Michigan University. He also published a book entitled "The
Law in Shakespeare," which attracted considerable attention. He was
married to Miss Anna M. Agnew, of St. Paul, in 1880.
S. J. R. MCMILLAN was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1826.
He spent part of his early days in Pittsburgh; received a collegiate
education; studied law; was admitted to practice in 1849, and came to
Stillwater in 1852, where he established a law office. In 1858 he was
elected judge of the First district and served until 1864, when he was
appointed to the supreme bench. He was elected to the position in the
fall of the same year and served until 1875, when he was elected to
the United States senate. He was re-elected in 1881, and was succeeded
in 1887 by Cushman K. Davis. He removed to St. Paul in 1865.
Senator McMillan has had an honorable career and is greatly respected
as an upright, conscientious, active and thoroughly practical man. He
was married at Pittsburgh in 1852, to Harriet E. Butler. They have
three sons and three daughters.
WILLIS ARNOLD GORMAN, second territorial governor of Minnesota, was
born in Fleming county, Kentucky, Jan. 12, 1816. He received a good
literary education, and his parents having moved to Bloomington,
Indiana, he graduated at the law school connected with the State
University at that place. He commenced practice at Bloomington and was
quite popular as a lawyer, but even more so as a party leader, and was
elected to the legislature six times in succession. At the breaking
out of the Mexican War, in 1846, he enlisted as a private in the Third
Indiana Volunteers, but was appointed major. He won the reputation of
a gallant, dashing officer, and was promoted to be colonel of the
Fourth Indiana, which he helped recruit. He served till the close of
the war. On his return to Indiana, in 1848, he was elected to
Congress, and re-elected in 1850. In May, 1853, he was appointed by
President Pierce governor of Minnesota Territory. In 1857, at the
close of his term of office as governor, he was elected a member of
the constitutional convention, and was also an unsuccessful candidate
for the United States senatorship. In the spring of 1861, at the
breaking out of the Civil War, he was appointed colonel of the First
Minnesota Infantry. For bravery at the first battle of Bull Run he was
commissioned brigadier general. He was mustered out in 1864. Returning
to Minnesota he formed a law partnership with Cushman K. Davis. In
1869 he was elected city attorney and held that office till his death,
which occurred at St. Paul, May 20, 1876. He was twice married, first
to Miss Martha Stone, of Bloomington, Indiana, in 1836. She died in
March, 1864, leaving five children. In April, 1865, he was married to
Miss Emily Newington, of St. Paul.
JOHN D. LUDDEN was born in Massachusetts, April 5, 1819; was educated
at Williston Seminary, and came West to the lead mines of Wisconsin in
1842. In 1845 he came to St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, remained at this
point and at Taylor's Falls until 1849, when he made his residence at
Marine Mills, Minnesota. In 1857 he changed his residence to
Stillwater, and in 1861 became a citizen of St. Paul, where he still
resides. He was a member of the second, third and fourth territorial
legislatures. From 1854 to the present time he has been engaged
chiefly in lumbering. He is a man of pleasing address, of good
business talent and thoroughly reliable.
ELIAS F. DRAKE is a native of Ohio, in which state he lived until
1861, when he came to St. Paul. His boyhood days were spent on a farm;
later he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and still later studied law
under the instruction of Justice Swayne of the United States supreme
court, and was admitted to practice in all the courts of Ohio and in
the United States court. After a short and successful term of
practice, he became cashier of the State Bank of Ohio, and in that
capacity spent ten years of his life. During that time he served three
terms in the legislature, being speaker one session, during which the
late Gov. Swift was clerk of the house.
In politics Mr. Drake was a Whig, and afterward a Republican. During
his residence in Ohio he was active in promoting the improvements of
the country, successfully building several leading turnpike roads and
a few railroads.
In 1861 he came to Minnesota, and, put in operation the first
railroad in the State, a road between St. Paul and St. Anthony Falls.
In 1863 he was president of the Winona & St. Peter railroad during the
construction of the first ten miles. Soon after, he, with some
associates, took hold of the Minnesota Valley railroad, and completed
it to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1872. He is president and land commissioner
of this company. Mr. Drake represented Ramsey county in the state
senate in 1874-75.
NORMAN W. KITTSON was born at Sorel, Lower Canada, March 5, 1814. In
May, 1830, he engaged as an employe of the American Fur Company, and
in that capacity came to the Northwest. From the summer of 1830 to
that of 1832 he occupied the trading post between the Fox river and
the Wisconsin. The following year he operated on the headwaters of the
Minnesota, after which he spent a year on Red Cedar river, in Iowa. In
1834 he came to Fort Snelling, where he was sutler's clerk till 1838.
The winter of 1838-39 he spent with his friends in Canada. On his
return in the spring he began business on his own account in the fur
trade, at Cold Springs in the vicinity of Fort Snelling, which he
continued till 1843, when he entered the American Fur Company as
special partner, having charge of all the business on the headwaters
of the Minnesota, and along the line of the British possessions, and
operating in that field till 1854. During that summer he entered into
partnership with Maj. Wm. H. Forbes, in the general Indian trade, at
St. Paul, and went there to reside in the fall of that year. The
partnership continued till 1858, and Mr. Kittson continued his
northern business till 1860, when he closed out. In 1863 he accepted
the position of agent for the Hudson Bay Company at St. Paul, and went