Fifty Years In The Northwest
WM. H. YALE was born Nov. 12, 1831, at New Hartford, Connecticut; was
educated at Sheffield Institute; came to Winona in 1857, and practiced
law. He was state senator in 1867-68, 1876-77, and lieutenant governor
from 1870 to 1874.
Other prominent citizens of Winona are: Dr. James Monroe Cole, the
oldest physician in the city; Royal Day Cone, one of the first
merchants; Judge Wm. Mitchell; ---- Norton, a lumberman and county
treasurer several years; W. W. Phelps, first president of the State
Normal School; ---- Hough, builder of the first large hotel; Hodgins,
Yeomans & Laird, lumbermen.
CHAPTER XXIII.
MISCELLANEOUS BIOGRAPHIES.
PIERRE BOTTINEAU was born in the Red River settlement, now Dakota, in
1817. His early life was passed amongst the Ojibways in the employ of
various fur companies. He has lived an eventful life and endured many
hardships as a hunter, trapper and guide. He was early noted as a
pilot to and from the Selkirk settlement. In 1843 he removed his
family from Selkirk to St. Paul. In 1845 he removed to St. Anthony
Falls, east side, where he laid out an addition to the new village. He
was also, in 1851, the first settler at Maple Grove, or "Bottineau's
Prairie," in Hennepin county. When he came to Fort Snelling he was
employed by Gen. Sibley as a guide. In 1856 he assisted in selecting
locations for forts. In 1858, after the establishment of Fort
Abercrombie, he located the village of Breckenridge, now in Wilkin
county, Minnesota. In 1859 he accompanied Geologist Skinner in his
exploring expedition, having for its object the survey and location of
salt mines, and was guide to Col. W. H. Noble's wagon road expedition
to Frazer river. In 1860 he accompanied a military expedition with
Gov. Ramsey to conclude treaties with the Northern Minnesota
Chippewas. In 1862 he accompanied Capt. Fisk's Idaho expedition, and,
in 1863, Gen. Sibley's expedition to the Missouri. Mr. Bottineau now
resides at Red Lake Falls, Polk county, Minnesota.
ANDREW G. CHATFIELD, a member of the Minnesota district bench at the
time of his death, was born in the town of Butternuts, Otsego county,
New York, Jan. 27, 1810. In 1838 he was a member of the New York
assembly; in 1848 he removed to Racine, Wisconsin, where he was
elected county judge. In 1853 he was appointed associate justice of
the supreme court of Minnesota Territory, and he made his home on a
beautiful prairie in Scott county, on which he laid out the town of
Belle Plaine. He acted as judge four years and then resumed the
practice of law. In January, 1871, he was elected judge of the Eighth
Judicial district, which he held until his death, which occurred Oct.
3, 1875. Judge Chatfield was married in 1836. His widow and an only
daughter, Mrs. Cecilia Irwin, reside at Belle Plaine.
HAZEN MOOERS.--Biographical details of Mr. Mooers are scant and
unreliable. He was probably born about the year 1796. It is said that
he was in the battle of Plattsburgh, September, 1814, when he was a
youth of eighteen years of age, and that he acted as a guard in
protecting government and private property. We find by the Minnesota
historical collections that he came to Gray Cloud island in 1835 and
remained till 1843. It is probable that he remained there till 1848.
He was commissioner of St. Croix county, Wisconsin, in 1840-41 and
1842. When he came to Gray Cloud island he was accompanied by a Mr.
Robinson, and located in section 23. While at Gray Cloud he was
married to a daughter of Dickson, the trader, and sister of Mrs.
Joseph R. Brown. We have been unable to find mention of him later than
1848.
JOHN MCDONOUGH BERRY was born at Pittsfield, New Hampshire, Sept. 18,
1827. Mr. Berry received an excellent education at the Pittsfield
Academy, Phillips Academy and at Yale College, from which he graduated
in 1847. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He was in the
law office of Ira Paley, later chief justice of New Hampshire. In 1850
he was admitted to the bar at Concord, New Hampshire. He commenced
practice at Alton Corners, Belknap county, New Hampshire. Three years
later he came West and located at Janesville, Wisconsin. In 1855 he
moved to Faribault, this State, and at once came into prominence. In
1856 he was a member of the territorial house of representatives and
chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1862 he was sent to the state
senate from Rice county, and in 1864 he was elected associate justice
of the state supreme court, a position he has filled with honor to
himself and the bar. He removed to Minneapolis in 1879 and died there,
greatly lamented, Nov. 15, 1887. An obituary notice from the daily
press gives a fair estimate of his character:
"He was not a man that mingled much in society or put himself forward
on any occasion, yet he had a very social, genial disposition, and
every one that knew him valued the acquaintance highly. As a judge he
was universally esteemed. His decisions were always marked by a
peculiarly vigorous grasp of bottom facts. His mind was a naturally
judicial one. His own ideas were fresh and original, and his way of
expressing them unusually vigorous. He devoted himself wholly to his
judicial duties and to his family. He was a great reader and student
and a great home man. His affections were wholly centred in his wife
and children. His distaste for ostentation and publicity is evidenced
in his expressed wish for a private funeral."
He was married May 26, 1853, to Alice A. Parker, of Roscoe, Illinois,
who survives him.
MARK H. DUNNELL is of Scotch descent. He was born July 2, 1823, at
Buxton, Maine. He was raised on a farm, but graduated at Waterville
College, Maine, in 1849, and for three years following was engaged in
teaching. In 1852 he was elected to the Maine house of
representatives, and afterward served five years as state
superintendent of schools. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in
1856, and in 1860 practiced his profession in Portland. In 1861 he was
appointed United States consul to Vera Cruz, Mexico. Before going to
Mexico he was appointed colonel of the Fifth Maine Volunteers, and
participated in the first battle of Bull Run. He resigned his
consulship in 1862, and returned to Maine, where he aided the governor
in recruiting and organizing regiments for the military service. In
1865 he came to Winona, Minnesota, was a member of the Minnesota house
of representatives in 1867, and afterward served three years as state
superintendent of instruction. He resigned this office to take a seat
in Congress, and represented his district a period of ten years. He
was married Nov. 20, 1850, to Sarah A. Parrington, of Goshen, Maine.
They have three children living.
JAMES HEATON BAKER, son of Rev. Henry Baker, a Methodist preacher, and
Hannah (Heaton) Baker, was born in Monroe, Ohio, May 6, 1829. He
graduated at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1852. In 1853 he purchased
the Sciota _Gazette_, at Chillicothe, Ohio. In 1855 he was elected
secretary of state on the ticket headed by Salmon P. Chase as
governor. In 1857 he removed to Minnesota, where, for two successive
terms he was elected to the same office. At the outbreak of the Civil
War he resigned, and accepted a colonel's commission in the Tenth
Minnesota Volunteers. In 1863 his command was ordered to the South,
and he was detached and made provost marshal of St. Louis, and
subsequently of the department of Missouri, in which position he
served until the close of the war, he being meanwhile promoted to a
brevet brigadier generalship.
At the close of the war he was appointed register of the land office
at Booneville, Missouri, but in two years resigned and returned to his
farm in Blue Earth county, Minnesota.
In 1871 President Grant appointed him commissioner of pensions, a
position for which he was singularly well fitted. He resigned in 1875,
and was appointed by President Grant surveyor general of Minnesota.
Gen. Baker has been prominent in Masonic circles, and has contributed
much to the newspaper and periodical press. He was married Sept. 25,
1852, to Rose R., daughter of Reuben H. Thurston, then of Delaware,
Ohio, now of Mankato, Minnesota. This estimable lady died at
Washington City, March 21, 1873, leaving two sons, Arthur and Harry E.
Gen. Baker, since his appointment as surveyor general, has resided at
Mankato. He served in 1885 and 1886 as railroad commissioner for the
State.
HORACE BURTON STRAIT is of Virginia Revolutionary stock. He was born
in Potter county, Pennsylvania, Jan. 26, 1835. His educational
advantages were such only as the common schools afforded, and he is
largely self cultured. He came to Minnesota in 1855, and engaged in
farming near Shakopee, but in 1860 moved to the county seat, and
engaged in mercantile business. In August, 1862, he enlisted in
Company I, Ninth Minnesota Volunteers, commanded by Col. Alexander
Wilkin; was commissioned as captain, and in 1864 as major; was
mustered out at the close of the war, since which time he has been
engaged in milling, banking and farming. He was president of the First
National Bank of Shakopee. He served as mayor of Shakopee in
1870-71-72, when he was elected to Congress, and served by continuous
re-elections until 1888, when J. L. MaDonald became his successor. He
was emphatically a working member. He has been twice married. His
first wife died in 1872, leaving one child.
JUDSON WADE BISHOP was born at Evansville, New York, June 24, 1831. He
received an academic education at Fredonia Academy, and at Union
Academy, Belleville, New York. Leaving school at the age of sixteen,
he was employed for several years as clerk and book-keeper and in
teaching. Having a taste for civil engineering he fitted himself for
usefulness in that department at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
of Troy, New York, and in 1853 secured a position as draughtsman on
the Canadian Grand Trunk railway. At the completion of the road, in
1857, he obtained employment in railroad surveying, making his
residence at Chatfield until 1861, where he purchased a newspaper, the
Chatfield _Democrat_. At the first call for troops in 1861 he sold his
office, volunteered as a soldier, and was mustered in as captain of a
company in the Second Regiment, June 26, 1861. He was mustered out at
the close of the war with the brevet rank of brigadier general, and
resumed railroad work, in which he has since been active and
conspicuous. For some years he was manager of the St. Paul & Sioux
City. His connection with railroad enterprises necessitated his
removal in 1864 to Le Sueur, in 1868 to Mankato and in 1873 to St.
Paul, which has since been his home. He has also been a heavy dealer
in real estate. He was married Jan. 11, 1866, to Nellie S. Husted, of
Galena, Illinois, who died Sept. 19, 1878, leaving three sons, Charles
Husted, Edwin Judson and Robert Haven.
JOHN LOUIS MCDONALD.--The paternal ancestors of our subject were
Highlanders, of the clan "McDonald of the Isle." John Louis was born
in Glasgow, Scotland, Feb. 22, 1836; came with his parents to America
in 1842, lived a few years in Nova Scotia, then removed to Pittsburgh
where he received an academic education. He removed to Belle Plaine,
Scott county, Minnesota, in 1855, read law with Judge Chatfield, and
was admitted to practice at Shakopee in 1858, removing thither three
years later, and continuing in practice, serving as probate judge from
1859 to 1864 and publishing and editing the Belle Plaine _Enquirer_,
and later, the Shakopee _Argus_, serving two years as prosecuting
attorney, four years as superintendent of schools, two years as state
representative (1869-70) and three years as state senator (1874-75 and
1876). In 1877 he was elected district judge, and served seven years.
In 1888 he took his seat as representative in Congress. As a judge he