Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom

ancestors were early colonists from England. Alfred E. commenced the study of medicine in 1832. He occasionally taught school and worked at his trade of brickmason. He also varied his labors by publishing an arithmetic. He came West in 1838, locating first at Springfield, Illinois; concluded his medical studies at Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1845. Before leaving Illinois he was elected to the state senate. In 1851 he came to St. Anthony Falls, made a claim, and entered into partnership with Dr. J. H. Murphy. In 1852 he served as surgeon at Fort Snelling, and in 1853 was elected to the territorial legislature as a member of the house. In 1854 he was elected probate judge; in 1857 member of the Democratic wing of the constitutional convention, and in 1860 became a member of the state normal board. During the remainder of his life he devoted himself to the practice of medicine, but also served the public in many positions of trust. He died Dec. 24, 1874. His wife and five children survive him. ALBERT ALONZO AMES, son of Dr. A. E. and Martha (Pratt) Ames, was born at Garden Prairie, Illinois, Jan. 18, 1842. He received a high school education at Minneapolis, studied medicine at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and graduated February, 1862. In August, 1863, he enlisted in the Ninth Minnesota Volunteers, but shortly after was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Seventh Minnesota Volunteers. He served for awhile in the Indian campaigns. In the fall of 1863 the regiment was ordered South. In July, 1864, he was commissioned as surgeon of the Seventh regiment in place of Dr. L. B. Smith, killed at Tupelo. He was mustered out of service at the close of the war with an excellent record as a physician and surgeon. After the war he devoted himself to the practice of his profession and to public services in Minneapolis, excepting a period of six years spent in editorial life in California, first on the staff of the _Daily Times_, and later as managing editor of the _Alta Californian_. At the death of his father, in 1874, he returned to Minneapolis and resumed practice. He has filled the following positions of trust: 1867, member of the Minnesota legislature (house); 1875, member of the city council; 1876, mayor of Minneapolis; 1877, Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor (not elected); 1886, Democratic candidate for governor (not elected); 1886-87-88, again mayor of Minneapolis. Dr. Ames is a member of such prominent fraternities as the Masonic, Odd Fellows, Druids, Knights of Pythias, and Order of Elks. Dr. Ames was married April 21, 1862, to Sarah, daughter of Capt. Richard Strout, of Minneapolis. JESSE AMES was born in Vinalhaven, Maine, Feb. 4, 1808. From the age of fourteen till his retirement in 1861, Mr. Ames devoted himself to a seafaring life. At the age of twenty-three he was captain of a schooner, and afterward of different ships, brigs, barks or schooners, all of them in the mercantile trade. He made between twenty and thirty voyages to Europe, circumnavigated Cape Horn several times, and sailed twice round the globe. Few men have seen more of the world. His last voyage was from New Zealand to London, where he sold his ship, and, coming to America, found him a beautiful home in the North Star State. He is a resident of Northfield, and is, with his son John T., the owner of the well known flouring mills at that place. He was married Oct. 27, 1832, to Margaret Tolman, of Rockland, Maine. They have two sons, one of whom, John T., is a resident of Northfield. The other son, Adelbert A., won distinction during the Civil War, leaving the service with the brevet rank of major general. Since the war he has served as senator from Mississippi, and as governor of that state. CADWALLADER C. WASHBURN.--Hon. C. C. Washburn was a man of rare nobility of character and possessed of an acute and powerful mind. He used his great talents for the good of the country. He was a man of philanthropic impulses and great generosity, as the following munificent gifts to the public will attest: _First_--To the state of Wisconsin, in 1876, an astronomical observatory, located on the university lands at Madison, in style of architecture and apparatus to carry into execution the design of the institution, equal, if not superior, to that of any like institution in the world. _Second_--The donation of his "Edgewood Home," near Madison, Wisconsin, for educational purposes. _Third_--The generously established school located on the shores of Lake Harriet, near Minneapolis, "The Washburn Home for Orphans," for the poor and unfortunate children of Minnesota. Mr. Washburn was born in Livermore, Maine, April 22, 1818; lived at home until 1838, and devoted some time to obtaining a classical education. In 1838 and 1839 he taught school and clerked in Hallowell and Wiscassett, Maine. In the spring of 1839 he came West to Davenport, Iowa, and was employed a few months with David Dale Owen, on geological work. In 1840 and 1841 he studied law at Rock Island. Illinois. In 1842 he settled in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and was admitted to practice law at Lancaster, Grant county, in Judge Dunn's court. He continued in practice at Mineral Point; also engaged in real estate and dealing in land warrants, and in 1852 established the Bank of Mineral Point. Mr. Washburn was elected representative to the thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and fortieth congresses. In February, 1861, the house appointed a special committee of thirty-three members on the state of the Union. A majority of the committee reported an amendment to the constitution of the United States, making slavery perpetual. Mr. Washburn and others made a minority report against making slavery perpetual. On this report we subjoin his remarks: "If this Union must be dissolved, whether by peaceable process or through fire and blood or civil war, we shall have the consolation of knowing that when the conflict is over those who survive will be what they never have been--inhabitants of a free country." Mr. Washburn changed his residence to La Crosse in 1861. He received a colonel's commission to recruit a cavalry regiment that year, and subsequently was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He was elected governor of Wisconsin in 1872. In 1876 he erected a large flour mill at Minneapolis, which burned in 1878. It was soon after rebuilt. In this mill he introduced the first Hungarian patent process for making flour used in America. Mr. Washburn died at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, May 14, 1882. His body was brought to Wisconsin and buried at La Crosse. [Illustration: W. D. Washburn] WILLIAM DREW WASHBURN, the youngest of the Washburn brothers, was born at Livermore, Maine, Jan. 14, 1831. He worked upon his father's farm until twenty years of age; prepared himself for college by his own unaided efforts, entered Bowdoin College, and graduated in 1854. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1857, and in the same year came to Minneapolis as agent of the Minneapolis Mill Company, of which he became a partner. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him surveyor general of Minnesota. During his term of office, which continued four years, he lived in St. Paul. On his return to Minneapolis he built a large saw mill and engaged extensively in the lumber trade. He was the chief mover in the Minneapolis & St. Louis and Minneapolis & Pacific railways. He has a large lumber and flour mill at Anoka, and with others erected the Palisade flour mill at Minneapolis. In 1878 he was elected representative to Congress from the Third district and re-elected in 1880. He has also served in the state legislature. He was a principal proprietor of the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic railway, and was elected president of the company in 1883. Mr. Washburn has been successful in his business ventures, has accumulated a handsome property, and been liberal in using his means in the interests of Minneapolis and the State. He is eminently practical in his business ideas and methods, and affable and prepossessing in his manners. He married Lizzie Muzzy, of Bangor, Maine, in 1850, and has two sons and two daughters living. JOSEPH CLINTON WHITNEY was born in Springfield, Vermont, April 14,