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

New Hampshire, Oct. 5, 1801. He followed the lumbering business on the Merrimac river in early life. He furnished the timber used in erecting the first factory in Lowell, Massachusetts, cut on the mountains of North New Hampshire. In after life he moved to the west end of Sebec lake, Maine, where he founded the town at first named Greely, but afterward Willimantic, now the site of extensive manufactories where the famous Willimantic thread is made. Col. Greely came to Stillwater in 1847. Born during the Revolutionary struggle, he lived to witness the marvelous growth and prosperity of his country and died during the first year of the war of the Rebellion. Aged as he was, having entered upon his eighty-fifth year, he was intensely interested in the issue of that struggle, and ardently desired to live long enough to witness the triumph of his country's cause. It was not to be. He sank peacefully to rest, Oct. 30, 1861, dying as he had lived, an honest man, his memory revered by all who knew him, and cherished by three generations of descendants. His children were three sons and five daughters--Sarah, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Greenleaf, and Phebe and Servia, wives of John McKusick. Miss Sarah alone survives. MRS. HANNAH GREELY.--Mrs. Greely, the wife of Col. John Greely, was born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, October, 1787, came to Stillwater in 1847 and died May, 1878, at the advanced age of ninety years. For sixty years she and her husband walked side by side. She survived him seventeen years, and, after a life well spent, resignedly folded her hands and sank to her last repose. ELAM GREELY.--Elam, son of Col. John Greely, was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, Aug. 13, 1818, and, with his parents, moved to Maine, where they made their home on Sebec lake. In 1840 Mr. Greely came to St. Croix Falls, where he was employed by the St. Croix Falls Company the greater part of the time until 1843, when he became a settler at the head of Lake St. Croix. He was one of the original owners of the first mill at Stillwater. In 1844 he sold his interest to John McKusick. The same year he was appointed postmaster at Stillwater. The office was located at the southwest corner of Main and Chestnut streets. Mr. Greely filled many offices of honor and trust meritoriously. He was a member of the third and fourth Minnesota territorial councils. In 1845, in company with Edward Blake, he did an extensive pine log business, running the logs to St. Louis, in which business he continued until the death of Mr. Blake in 1848. Mr. Greely early identified himself with the interests of Stillwater, of which he was one of the founders, and which owes much of its prosperity to his efforts. He was married in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1850, to Hannah P. Hinman, who, with three children, a son and two daughters, survives him. His oldest son died Oct. 21, 1876. Mr. Greely had many severe reverses in business, but by indomitable energy recovered from them, and was able not only to care for his aged parents, to bring them from Maine and keep them with him until separated by death, but to leave his family well provided for. He died suddenly away from home, Sept. 14, 1883. His body was brought to Stillwater for burial. HIMAN GREELY.--Himan, son of Col. John Greely, was born in Franklin, New Hampshire, October, 1828. He came to Stillwater in 1846, where he followed the business of lumbering. In 1850 he was married to Lucia Darling. After a brief residence in Stillwater, he removed to Beauford, Blue Earth county, where he remained until his death in