Fifty Years In The Northwest
into the steamboat and transportation business on the Red River of the
North. From 1851 to 1855 Mr. Kittson was a member of the territorial
council, and was mayor of the city of St. Paul in 1858. He was the
oldest of the pioneers of Minnesota, except Joseph Dajenais, a French
Canadian, now residing at Faribault. Mr. Kittson died July 10, 1888,
on a railroad train near Chicago. His body was brought to St. Paul for
burial.
HASCAL RUSSELL BRILL was born in the county of Mississquoi, Canada,
Aug. 10, 1846. He was educated partly at Hamline University, then
located at Red Wing, and finished at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He studied
law and was admitted to practice at St. Paul in December, 1869, and
formed a partnership with Stanford Newel. Three years later he was
elected probate judge and served two years. In 1875 he was appointed
by Gov. Davis to fill the vacancy in the court of common pleas caused
by the death of Judge W. S. Hall, and a few months later was elected
by the people to fill the same position. In politics Judge Brill is
Republican. He was married Aug. 11, 1873, to Cora A. Gray, of
Suspension Bridge, Niagara county, New York.
WARD W. FOLSOM, brother of Simeon P. and W. H. C. Folsom, was born in
Tamworth, New Hampshire, Oct. 13, 1824, but in early life removed with
his parents to Skowhegan, Maine, and in 1846 came to Arcola,
Minnesota. In 1848 he removed to St. Croix Falls and in 1851 to
Taylor's Falls, where he kept the Chisago House and engaged in
lumbering until 1857, when he removed to St. Paul, which city has
since been his home. He was employed for three years during the Civil
War in the quartermaster's department at St. Louis, Missouri. In 1865,
with health greatly shattered, he returned to St. Paul. He was married
to Sydney Puget, of St. Louis, in 1852. They have two adopted sons.
GORDON E. COLE was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, June 18,
1833; received his education at Sheffield Academy, Massachusetts, and
at the Dane law school of Harvard University, from which school he
graduated in 1854. He practiced law two years in his native town, came
to Minnesota, and located in Faribault in 1847. In 1859 he was elected
attorney general and served three consecutive terms. He served one
year as state senator, and a year in compiling state statutes. He has
been a railroad attorney and has filled many honorable positions. He
was married in August, 1855, to Stella C. Whipple, of Shaftsbury,
Vermont, who died in June, 1872, leaving three children. Feb. 14,
1874, he was married to Kate D. Turner, of Cleveland, Ohio.
JAMES SMITH, JR., was born in Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, Oct.
29, 1815. He obtained a good practical, common school education, and
was besides largely self taught. He read law three years in Lancaster,
Ohio, was admitted to the bar in 1839, and practiced law in his native
town for seventeen years. In 1856 he came to St. Paul, where he has
been associated in practice with Judge Lafayette Emmett, John M.
Gilman and J. J. Egan. Since the building of the St. Paul & Duluth
railroad he has been its attorney, general manager and president.
Mr. Smith was in the state senate in 1861-62-63 and 67, and proved a
careful and able legislator. As a lawyer he stands deservedly high. He
was married to Elisabeth Martin, Jan. 18, 1848. They have four
children.
WILLIAM PITT MURRAY is of Irish descent. He was born in Hamilton,
Butler county, Ohio, in 1827; came to Centreville, Indiana, in 1844;
attended school there, graduated at the State Law School at
Bloomington in 1849, and the same year came to St. Paul, where he has
practiced law ever since. He has also taken an active part in the
politics of the city and State. He has probably assisted in the
passage of more laws than any other man in the State. He was a member
of the territorial house of representatives in 1852-53 and 57, and of
the territorial council of 1854-55, acting as president in the latter
year. He was a member of the Democratic wing of the constitutional
convention in 1857; was a representative in the state legislatures of
1863 and 1868, and a state senator in 1866-67, 1875-76, and has
besides served sixteen years in the city council of St. Paul. He has
been county and city attorney since 1876. He has been honored beyond
most public servants and has a county named after him. He was married
to Carolina S. Conwell, of Laurel, Indiana, April 7, 1853. They have
three children living.
HENRY HALE.--Judge Hale was born in Vermont in 1816; studied law and
was admitted to practice in his native state. He came to St. Paul in
1856 and opened a law office on Bridge Square. He took an active part
in the politics of the State and vehemently opposed the $5,000,000
loan bill. He has since retired from law practice, and is now a
successful dealer in real estate.
JAMES GILFILLAN, son of James and Janet (Gilmor) Gilfillan, was born
in Bannockburn, Scotland, March 9, 1829. His parents came to America
in 1830 and located at New Hartford, New York. He was educated in the
common schools, read law and was admitted to practice in 1850. He
removed to Buffalo, New York, where he practiced law until 1857, when
he removed to St. Paul and opened a law office. In 1862 he enlisted in
Company H, Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, became its captain
and before the close of the war was commissioned colonel of the
Eleventh Minnesota Infantry. In 1869 he was appointed to a vacancy on
the supreme bench of the State and again in 1875. The same year he
was elected to the office for seven years, at the end of which time he
was re-elected. He was married June 4, 1867, to Miss Martha McMasters,
of St. Paul. They have six children.
CHARLES DUNCAN GILFILLAN, a younger brother of James, was born in New
Hartford, New York, July 4, 1831. He was educated in the common
schools, Homer Academy and Hamilton College. After leaving college, in
1850, he located in Missouri, and a year later came to Stillwater,
Minnesota, where he read law with Michael E. Ames, was admitted to the
bar in 1853 and removed to St. Paul in 1854, where he engaged for
about twelve years in the practice of his profession. Since that
period he has been engaged in furthering various public enterprises,
among them the St. Paul Water Works, of which he was the founder and
for many years manager. He has occupied various public positions,
always with credit to himself. He was the first recorder of
Stillwater; was a member of the state legislatures of 1864-65, and
1876, and a member of the senate from 1878 to 1881, inclusive. At the
session of 1878 he was chairman of the railroad committee and the
committees on judiciary and education. In politics he is a Republican.
Mr. Gilfillan was married to Emma C. Waage, of Montgomery county, New
York, who died in 1863, leaving no issue. In 1865 he married Fanny S.
Waage, sister of his first wife. They have four children.
ALEXANDER WILKIN was born in Orange county, New York, in December,
1820. He studied law with his father, Judge Samuel J. Wilkin, and
practiced awhile at Goshen. In 1847 he enlisted in the Tenth New York
Regulars for service in the Mexican War, and was commissioned captain.
In the spring of 1849 he came to St. Paul; practiced law; was
appointed United States marshal in 1851, and served until 1853. He
visited Europe during the Crimean War, and studied the art of war
before Sebastopol. At the breaking out of the Rebellion, he raised the
first company for the first regiment, acted with conspicuous bravery
at the battle of Bull Run, and was commissioned major of the Second
Minnesota, lieutenant colonel in the same regiment, and colonel of the
Ninth Minnesota, all in the same year, 1862. He took part in the
Indian campaign, but at its close returned South, his regiment being
attached to the Sixteenth Army Corps, under Gen. A. J. Smith. He was
advanced to the position of brigade commander, and was killed at the
battle of Tupelo, Mississippi, July 14, 1864. Wilkin county,
Minnesota, bears his name.
WESCOTT WILKEN, a brother of Alexander, was born at Goshen, New York,
in 1827, received a good education, graduating at Princeton College in
1843, and studied law at New Haven Law School in 1846. He practiced
law in Sullivan county, New York, and was county judge four years. In
1856 he came to St. Paul and formed a partnership with I. V. D. Heard;
was elected judge of the district court in 1864, and re-elected every
succeeding term, without opposition.
S. C. WHITCHER was born in Genesee county, New York, in 1821. He came
to Amador, Chisago county, Minnesota, in 1853, and to St. Paul in
1858. He was married to Helen M. Olds, in New York, in 1840. Their two
sons are Charles and Edward.
MAJ. THOMAS MCLEAN NEWSON was born in New York City, Feb. 22, 1827, of
Scotch-Irish parentage. His paternal grandfather was paymaster in the
army during the war of 1812. His father, Capt. George Newson,
commanded a military company in New York City for seventeen years.
Three uncles were in the war of 1812. His father removed to New Haven,
Connecticut, in 1832, and both parents died there in 1834. The son,
after his parents' death, was placed in a boarding school. When he
left the school he learned the printer's trade, and on arriving at his
majority entered into partnership with John B. Hotchkiss in the
publication of the _Derby Journal_, in Birmingham, Connecticut. During
this period he wrote poetry, delivered lectures, and took an active
part in political affairs. He was secretary of the first editorial
association in Connecticut, and started and conducted for a year the
first daily penny paper in the State. He was one of the originators of
the reform school and an efficient promoter of its interests.
He came to St. Paul in 1853, where he was first associated with Joseph
R. Brown in the editorial department of the _Pioneer_, but the
following spring, in company with others, started the _Daily Times_,
which he edited until 1860, when he leased the material to W. R.
Marshall. The _Press_ was the outgrowth of this movement. He was one
of the founders of the Republican party in the State and was sole
delegate of his party in Minnesota to the Pittsburgh national
convention.
At the outbreak of the Rebellion he entered the service of his
country, was commissioned commissary of subsistence and subsequently
appointed acting assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain. At
one time he was chief commissary at St. Cloud. He left the army with a
splendid record for honesty and capacity, with the brevet rank of
major, conferred for meritorious service, and the offer of a position
in the regular army, which he declined. In 1866 he was commander and
president of a company which explored the Vermillion Lake region
prospecting for precious metals. He was the first to assay the iron
ores, now so famous, in that region. In later years we find him
prospecting amongst the Black Hills, enjoying the wild life of the
frontier and devoting some attention to literature. While there he
wrote a drama of "Life in the Hills" and delivered lectures at various
times and places, achieving in this line an enviable success. Since
this period he has written and published an interesting work, entitled
"Thrilling Scenes Among the Indians," drawn from his own observation
and experience; also "Pen Pictures and Biographical Sketches of Old
Settlers of St. Paul, from 1838 to 1857," a rich and racy book of
seven hundred and thirty-two pages, in which the driest biographical
details are enlivened with amusing anecdotes and witty comments, in
which naught is set down in malice, but every line glows with the
genial spirit of the author. He has in contemplation another volume on
the same subject. He has also published "Heleopa," "Indian Legends"