Fifty Years In The Northwest
in log buildings. Mr. Galvin had a school of Indian children. Near by
was an Indian cemetery--burying ground it could not be called, as the
bodies of the dead were elevated upon the branches of trees and upon
stakes to be out of reach of animals. The bodies were wrapped in
blankets and exposed until the flesh had decayed, when the bones were
taken and buried. Red Wing's band of Sioux Indians had their
encampment here. It is said that Red Wing, the chief for whom the
village and city was afterward named, chose for his burial place the
summit of Barn Bluff, and that when he died he was buried there,
seated upon his horse, with his face turned to the Happy Hunting
Ground, the Indians heaping the earth around him till a huge mound was
formed. The legend may need confirmation, but a mound is there to this
day, on the highest part of the bluff, and the high spirited chief
could certainly have wished no nobler grave.
Red Wing city bears few traces of its humble origin. It is a fine,
compactly built city, with handsome public and private buildings. It
was for some years the seat of Hamline University, now removed to St.
Paul.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
HANS MATTSON.--Col. Mattson is a native of Onestad, Sweden. He was
born Dec. 23, 1832. His parents were Matts and Ilgena (Larson)
Mattson, both now residents of Vasa, Minnesota. The son was educated
at a high classical school in Christianstad, and in his seventeenth
year entered the military service as a cadet and served one year.
Disliking its monotony, and having an adventurous spirit he embarked
for America, where he found himself abjectly poor, and worked as a
cabin boy on a coasting vessel, as a farm hand, and afterward with a
shovel on an Illinois railroad until 1853, when he secured a position
as an emigrant agent, whose business it was to select homes for
Swedish colonists. He, with others, came to Vasa, Goodhue county,
Minnesota, where he dealt in real estate, studying law meanwhile with
Warren Bristol. He was admitted to the bar in 1858. He was elected
county auditor the same year and served till 1860, when he entered the
army as captain of Company D, Third Minnesota Infantry. At the end of
four years he left the service with the rank of colonel. After his
return from the war he formed a law partnership with C. C. Webster,
and a year later he accepted the position of editor of a Swedish
newspaper in Chicago. In 1867 Gov. Marshall appointed him secretary of
the state board of immigration, which position he held several years,
doing the State excellent service. In 1869 he was elected secretary of
state, but before his term of office expired resigned to accept the
appointment of land agent of railway corporations, which enabled him
to spend four years abroad.
Col. Mattson was for some time editor of the _Staats Tidning_, a
Swedish paper in Minneapolis, and a large owner and general manager of
the _Swedish Tribune_ published in Chicago. He was a presidential
elector in 1876. He was again elected secretary of state for 1887-88.
He is a versatile writer and a fluent speaker, a frank, outspoken and
honorable man. He was married Nov. 23, 1855, to Cherstin Peterson, a
native of Bullingslof, Sweden. They have five children living.
LUCIUS FREDERICK HUBBARD was born Jan. 26, 1836, at Troy, New York. He
was the oldest son of Charles F. and Margaret (Van Valkenburg)
Hubbard, his father being a descendant of the Hubbard family that
emigrated from the mother country and settled in New England in 1595;
his mother coming from the Holland Dutch stock that has occupied the
valley of the Hudson river since its earliest history.
The father dying early, the son found a home with an aunt at Chester,
Vermont, until he was twelve years old, when he was sent for three
years to the academy at Granville, New York. At the age of fifteen he
was apprenticed to a tinner at Poultney, Vermont, and completed his
trade at Salem, New York, in 1854, when he removed to Chicago for
three years. He then removed to Red Wing, Minnesota, and started the
Red Wing _Republican_. In 1858 he was elected register of deeds of
Goodhue county. In 1861 he sold out his interest in the _Republican_
and ran for the state senate, but was defeated by the small majority
of seven votes. In December, 1861, he enlisted in Company A, Fifth
Minnesota Volunteers, and was elected captain. In March, 1862, he
became lieutenant colonel; in August, colonel; and for conspicuous
gallantry at the battle of Nashville was promoted to the position of
brigadier general. He participated in the battles of Farmington; of
Corinth, where he was severely wounded; of Iuka, the second battle of
Corinth; of Jackson and Mississippi Springs; in the siege of
Vicksburg; in the battle of Richmond, Louisiana; of Greenfield,
Louisiana; of Nashville, where he was wounded and had two horses
killed under him, and at the siege of Spanish Fort. He was mustered
out in October, 1865, at Mobile, Alabama. He was engaged in
twenty-four battles and minor engagements and won an enviable record
for his intrepidity and coolness. He returned to Red Wing with broken
health, the result of fatigue and exposure.
In 1866 he engaged in the grain business at Red Wing, and soon
thereafter in milling operations on a large scale in Wabasha county.
In 1872 he purchased an interest in the Forest mill, at Zumbrota,
Goodhue county, and in 1875, with others, bought the mills and water
power at Mazeppa, in Wabasha county, the mills soon after being
rebuilt and enlarged.
In 1868 he raised, through his personal influence, the money necessary
for the completion of the Midland railway, a line extending from
Wabasha to Zumbrota.
He subsequently projected and organized the Minnesota Central railway
(Cannon Valley), to run from Red Wing to Mankato. As president of the
company he secured the building of the road from Red Wing to
Waterville, about sixty-six miles.
In 1878 Gen. Hubbard was nominated for Congress in the Second district
of Minnesota, but declined. In 1872 he was elected to the state
senate, and again in 1874, declining a re-election in 1876. In the
senate he was regarded as one of the best informed, painstaking and
influential members. He was on the committee to investigate the state
treasurer's and state auditor's offices, and was largely instrumental
in recommending and shaping legislation that brought about the
substantial and much needed reform in the management of those offices.
He was also one of the three arbitrators selected to settle the
difficulties between the State and the prison contractors at
Stillwater. He was appointed commissioner, with John Nichols and Gen.
Tourtelotte, in 1866, to investigate the status of the state railroad
bond, levied in 1858, and finally settled in 1881.
On Sept. 28, 1881, Gen. Hubbard was nominated for governor of
Minnesota, and was elected by a majority of 27,857, the largest
majority ever received by any governor elected in the State. In 1883
he was renominated and re-elected by a very large majority.
Gov. Hubbard is an affable, genial, courteous gentleman, whose
integrity has never been questioned; a man of the people, and in
sympathy with them and the best interests and general prosperity of
the State.
Gov. Hubbard was married in May, 1868, at Red Wing, to Amelia,
daughter of Charles Thomas, a merchant of that place. He has three
children, two boys, aged seventeen and eleven respectively, and a
girl.
WILLIAM COLVILLE is of Scotch descent on his father's side. The
ancient homestead of the family at Ochiltree is mentioned by Sir
Walter Scott in his novel, "The Antiquary." On his mother's side he is
of Irish descent. His ancestors participated in the American
Revolution. He was born in Chautauqua county, New York, April 5, 1830;
was educated at the Fredonia Academy, taught school one winter, read
law in the office of Millard Fillmore and Solomon L. Haven, of
Buffalo, and was admitted to the bar in 1851. He practiced law at
Forestville three years, and then removed to Red Wing, Minnesota. His
first winter he spent in St. Paul as enrolling clerk of the
territorial council, and the winter following was secretary of the
council. In the spring of 1855 he established the Red Wing _Sentinel_,
a Democratic paper, and conducted it until the Civil War broke out. In
1861 he entered the service as captain of Company F, First Minnesota
Infantry, and served with that regiment three years, conducting
himself with such gallantry as to win promotion. He was wounded at the
first battle of Bull Run, at Nelson's Farm and at Gettysburg, the last
wounds received maiming him for life, and necessitating a close of his
military career. At the end of three years he left the service with
the rank of colonel, and edited the _Sentinel_ until January, 1865,
when he took his seat as representative in the legislature. At its
adjournment he was appointed colonel of the First Minnesota Heavy
Artillery which was stationed at Chattanooga till the close of the
war. Col. Colville was mustered out of the service with the brevet
rank of brigadier general. In the autumn of 1865 he was elected
attorney general of the State on the Union ticket and served two
years. In 1866 he ran for Congress in opposition to the Republican
nominee. In 1877 he was elected as a Democrat to the lower house of
the state legislature in the strongest Republican county in the State.
The same year he was appointed by President Cleveland register of the
land office at Duluth, to which place he has removed his residence. He
was married to Miss Jane E. Morgan, of Oneida, New York, in 1867, a
descendant of Elder Brewster, who came over in the Mayflower.
MARTIN S. CHANDLER, for twenty-two years sheriff of Goodhue county,
Minnesota, was born in Jamestown, New York, Feb. 14, 1827. He came to
Goodhue county in 1856 and engaged for awhile farming at Pine Island.
He was elected county commissioner in 1856, and served until 1858,
removing meanwhile to Red Wing, which has since been his home. In 1859
he was elected sheriff of Goodhue county, and held the office for
eleven consecutive terms, until 1882, when he was elected to the state
senate. He was presidential elector in 1872. He was appointed surveyor
general in 1883, which office he held until 1887. He was married to
Fannie F. Caldwell, of Jamestown, New York, in 1848. His only
daughter, Florence C., is the wife of Ira S. Kellogg, of Red Wing, one
of the oldest druggists in the State.
CHARLES MCCLURE was born in Virginia in 1810; was graduated at
Lewisburg, Virginia, in 1827; studied law and was admitted to practice
in 1829. He came to Minnesota and located at Red Wing in 1856, where
he opened a law office. In 1857 he was a member of the constitutional
convention, presidential elector in 1861, state senator in 1862-63 and
in 1864, judge of the First district, filling the vacancy caused by
the retirement of Judge McMillan. At the fall election of the same
year he was elected judge of the First district and served seven
years. This district embraced Washington, Chisago, Goodhue and Dakota
counties. Judge McClure is a man of unquestionable ability and
integrity.
HORACE B. WILSON was born in Bingham; Somerset county, Maine, March
30, 1821. His grandfather settled in Maine twenty years prior to the
Revolution. He had a fair common school education until sixteen years
old, when he attended the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, graduating four
years later. He devoted himself chiefly to teaching, and studied law
meanwhile, but never practiced. He taught in Cincinnati, Ohio,
Lawrenceburg and New Albany, Indiana, until 1850, when he was elected
city civil engineer, which position he filled six years. In 1858 he
removed to Red Wing, Minnesota, and taught, as professor of