Fifty Years In The Northwest
Falls branch of the St. Paul & Duluth railroad since its organization.
He was married in 1859 to Abbie Shaw, in St. Paul.
EDDINGTON KNOWLES was born in Kentucky in 1821; came to St. Croix
Falls in 1844, and followed lumbering. He was married to Ann Carroll
at Taylor's Falls in 1854, and made his residence at Taylor's Falls.
He enlisted for service during the Rebellion in the Third Minnesota
Volunteers, but was discharged for disability before the close of the
war. He died at Hayward, Wisconsin, in 1883, leaving a widow and three
children. His oldest daughter is the wife of Douglas Greely, of
Stillwater. His body was brought to the Taylor's Falls cemetery for
interment.
DR. LUCIUS B. SMITH.--Dr. Smith was the first regular physician in
Taylor's Falls, having located here in 1854. He was born in Berlin,
Erie county, Ohio, in the year 1824. He was married in 1849, and after
some years' practice of medicine in his native town he came West and
located in Taylor's Falls, where he resided until 1862, when he was
appointed surgeon of the Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, in
which regiment were many of his friends and associates. He performed
well his duties in that position, but was killed on the day preceding
the battle of Tupelo, the division to which he belonged having been
ambuscaded by Forrest's troops. His remains were carried to the field
of Tupelo and there buried, but have since been removed to Kahbakong
cemetery, at Taylor's Falls. Dr. Smith was a tall man, of fine
presence, with the air of an officer, for which reason, doubtless,
some sharpshooter singled him out for destruction. Dr. Smith left a
widow, one son, Charles, and one daughter, Mary, the wife of J. W.
Passmore. His widow was married to E. D. Whiting. Both are deceased.
WILLIAM COMER was born in Cheshire county, England, in 1812; was
married to Elisabeth Davis; came to America in 1846 and located in St.
Louis, where he remained until 1852, when he removed to Pike county,
Illinois. In 1854 he removed to St. Croix Falls and in 1855 to
Taylor's Falls, where he has since resided. He has been treasurer of
Chisago county two terms, and four years register of the United States
land office. For a number of years he has held the position of town
and bridge treasurer. He and his two sons, George and William, are
engaged in the mercantile business. His daughter, Eleanor, is the wife
of Benj. Thaxter, of Minneapolis.
DR. ERASTUS D. WHITING.--The Whiting family, consisting of three
brothers, Erastus D., Selah and Charles B., came to Taylor's Falls in
1855, and for many years were prominent merchants and business men in
the village. Erastus D. Whiting was born in Vernon Centre,
Massachusetts, in 1811. He was educated in the common schools and at
Westfield Academy. At the age of sixteen he commenced reading medicine
and graduated at the Ohio Medical College in 1832. He practiced three
years in Ashtabula, Ohio, and twenty years in Pike county, Illinois.
When he came to Taylor's Falls he retired from practice and engaged in
the mercantile and lumbering business until 1867. During this time he
served in two sessions of the Minnesota legislature as representative,
1860-61. In 1869 he visited Europe. He died in Taylor's Falls in 1880.
He was twice married; first in 1837, to Emily Bradley, who died in
1866; and second in ----, to Mrs. Smith (widow of Dr. L. B. Smith),
who died in 1872.
SELAH WHITING was born in Connecticut; came West to Pike county,
Illinois, in 1836, and to Taylor's Falls in 1855. He engaged in the
mercantile business. His wife died in 1867. He died in 1868.
CHARLES B. WHITING was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut; came to
Pike county, Illinois, in 1836, and to Taylor's Falls in 1855. He was
associated with his brothers in the mercantile business. He was
register of the land office four years and served as United States
marshal during the war. His first wife died in Taylor's Falls. He was
married to Flavilla Blanding in 18--. Mr. Whiting died in 1873.
FREDERIC TANG was born in Prussia in 1819. He learned the trade of
house carpenter and served in the Prussian Army one year. He was
married in Germany, in 1850; came to America in 1852 and to Taylor's
Falls in 1856. He served three years in Company C, Seventh Minnesota,
during the Rebellion. One son, Frederic, resides at Taylor's Falls,
engaged in lumbering. His oldest daughter, Pena, is the wife of Ernest
Leske, of Taylor's Falls. His second daughter, Bertha, is the wife of
David Bowsher, of Dakota. Mr. Tang died in November, 1887.
WARD W. FOLSOM was born in 1822, in Tamworth, New Hampshire; was
married to Matilda Stedman in 1844; came to Taylor's Falls in 1856,
where he kept a boarding house for several years. He died at his home,
Sept. 28, 1884. His eldest son, Charles W., was editor of the Taylor's
Falls _Reporter_ for several years. He was married to Luella Gray in
1865. He died in 1872. Edward H., his second son, for some years has
edited the Taylor's Falls _Journal_. He started and conducted for some
years the Stillwater _Lumberman_. He was married to Susie Way, in
September, 1868.
GEORGE W. SEYMOUR was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, in
1828, and came to Taylor's Falls in 1857, where he has since resided,
following the occupation of druggist, but occasionally holding a town
office. Mr. Seymour held the positions of postmaster and justice of
the peace for several years, and has been secretary of the Taylor's
Falls & Lake Superior railroad since its organization. Mr. Seymour is
an active member of the masonic fraternity, an ardent Democrat and
thoroughly trustworthy and reliable as a man and friend. He is
unmarried.
JAMES A. WOOLLEY, a native of England, came to Taylor's Falls in 1857.
He was an engineer and in my employ as engineer and foreman in the
pinery for fourteen years, during which period our association was
quite intimate, and I learned to know him and esteem him as a true
friend, and faithful to all his obligations as a man. He was a true
Christian and died in full hope of immortality. He promised, when he
knew himself to be dying, to return to earth and revisit me if
possible, but so far has not returned. He died in 1874. His family
removed to Dakota. His oldest son, John Alley, was killed in
Washington Territory by a premature explosion of a blast in a mine, by
which nineteen others were killed at the same time. Alida married
William McKenzie and resides at Grand Forks, Dakota. Frank W. F., the
youngest son, also lives in Dakota.
PATRICK CARROLL, was of Irish birth. His wife is a sister of Patrick
Fox. He is about ninety years of age. They have had two sons, Joseph
and one drowned, and three daughters, one the wife of E. Knowles,
deceased, the other two becoming respectively the first and second
wife of John O'Brien. Mr. O'Brien has two daughters, Minnie and
Lizzie, and three sons, William, Joseph and Daniel.
JOSEPH CARROLL was born at Davenport, Iowa, in 1840; came to St. Croix
when a boy, early in the 50's, and worked for his uncle, Patrick Fox,
in the pinery; was married to Mary Cotter at Davenport, Iowa, in 1858.
He resided at Taylor's Falls until 1861, when he enlisted in a Kansas
regiment. He was severely wounded at Springfield, Missouri. He was
subsequently transferred to a heavy artillery company of colored
troops from Tennessee, and commissioned a lieutenant. He was at Fort
Pillow during the massacre, was taken prisoner and confined at
Andersonville eighteen months. After his dismissal he went to Memphis
and was employed in the police service until 1867, when he and his
wife died of yellow fever, leaving two daughters, one the wife of
Edward St. John, of Marine, the other of Geo. W. Booth, of Taylor's
Falls.
REV. E. E. EDWARDS was born in Delaware, Ohio, Jan. 26, 1831; was
educated at Indiana Asbury University, and has been employed most of
his life in educational work, serving as president of Whitewater
College, Indiana, professor of Latin in Hamline University, professor
of natural sciences at St. Charles and McKendre colleges, and
president of the Colorado State Agricultural College. Mr. Edwards came
to Taylor's Falls in the winter of 1860, and remained two years as
pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, and teacher in the Chisago
Seminary. During the last year of the war he was chaplain of the
Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. In the winter of 1885 he again
became pastor of the Taylor's Falls Methodist Episcopal church. He was
married in 1854 to Alice L. Eddy, of Cincinnati, Ohio. His family
consists of four sons and one daughter.
STEPHEN J. MERRILL was born in Schoharie county, New York, in 1827;
came to the St. Croix valley in 1848, and to Taylor's Falls in 1861.
He was married to Caroline Nelson in 1861. They have six sons and one
daughter. He has a beautiful and well improved homestead within the
town limits, adjoining the cemetery.
NOAH MARCUS HUMPHREY was born in 1809, at Goshen, Smithfield
Connecticut. He removed to Ohio in 1833, served in the Ohio
legislature in 1852 and 1853, and was for six years judge of probate
court in Summit county. He was married twice, the second time to Mrs.
Young, in 1840. His first wife left two children, Mark, for some time
a resident of Taylor's Falls, now deceased, and Laura, wife of David
Caneday. Judge Humphrey has been justice of the peace in Taylor's
Falls for twenty years, and postmaster for as many more. He was judge
of probate court for ten years, and has recently been re-elected to
that position.
ROYAL C. GRAY was born in Bakersfield, Vermont, October, 1832. He
spent his early life in Vermont and Massachusetts. He came West in
1850, and located in Kanabec county, where he farmed and kept a public
house at Greely station, on Kanabec river, until 1860, when he
returned to Massachusetts. In 1864 he returned to the St. Croix valley
and located in Taylor's Falls, where he still resides. He has been
employed by the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Company for ten years as
surveyor and explorer, and holds some valuable pine lands. In 1861 Mr.
Gray was married to Ann Eliza Johnson, in Massachusetts. They have one
son, Orin.
JOHN PHILIP OWENS.--William Owens, the father of John Philip, came to
America from North Wales, and served as a soldier in the war of 1812.
John Philip was born Jan. 6, 1818. His father died seven years later,
and the son was brought up on a farm by a stepfather. He received an
academic education at Cincinnati, Ohio. At the age of seventeen he
commenced learning the printer's trade, served as an apprentice four
years, and graduated on his twenty-first birthday. Having some means
inherited from his father, he commenced a newspaper enterprise at
Cincinnati, invested and lost all his money. For several years he was
engaged as a reporter and assistant editor on various papers in
Cincinnati, Louisville, Vicksburg and New Orleans. In 1849 he formed a
business partnership with Nat. McLean, of Cincinnati, to establish a
paper at St. Paul. He arrived at St. Paul May 27th of that year. The
first number of the _Minnesota Register_ was printed in Cincinnati and
brought to St. Paul for distribution in July. In October the paper was
united with the _Minnesota Chronicle_, and so published until July,
1850, when it was discontinued. In 1851 Mr. Owens and G. W. Moore
started the _Weekly Minnesotian_, adding in 1854 a daily and
tri-weekly edition. The _Minnesotian_ was ably edited, and was
Republican in politics. Owing to poor health, Mr. Owens sold his
interest in the _Minnesotian_. In 1862 he was appointed quartermaster
of the Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. This regiment did service
in the State during the Sioux War, but in 1864 was ordered South and