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APPENDIX III

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION OF 1846

DAVID AGRY, the only member of the convention from the state of Maine, was born at Pittston, August 2, 1794. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1815 he began the study of law and by 1818 was practicing in Bangor, Maine. A few years later he removed to Louisiana, practiced law at New Orleans and Shreveport, and after several years in the South made his home in New York City. In September, 1840, he removed to Green Bay. In 1842 he was elected to the territorial legislature and served until 1845. In that year he became county and probate judge for Brown, serving until 1846. In 1849 he was reëlected to the same office, which he held until his death, January 30, 1877. Wis. Hist. Colls., vili, 455. Wisconsin Bar Association Proceedings, 1881, 86.

ELIHU LESTER ATWOOD was one of the Massachusetts men in the convention, having been born April 30, 1806, in Alford, Berkshire County. In 1836 he determined to try his fortune in Wisconsin and reached Milwaukee in August of that year. In May, 1837 he moved to his claim in the township of Lake Mills, Jefferson County. Thither his father and several brothers and sisters followed him. His sister Nancy was the first teacher at Lake Mills; his son William Henry is thought to have been the first white child born in the township. In 1841 E. L. Atwood was clerk of the school district and two years later school trustee. His legislative experience was limited to the sessions of the first constitutional convention, after which he retired to his farm at Lake Mills, where he died October 24, 1874. Wis. Hist. Colls., xi, 430. tory of Jefferson County (Chicago, 1879).

His

BARNES BABCOCK was elected to the convention as a Democrat from Muskego Township, Waukesha County, whither he had removed in 1839 from Fort Ann, Washington County, New York. He was a farmer and an influential citizen of his county, which he served as supervisor in 1855. This office and that in the convention wherein he acted on the committee on miscellaneous provisions were his only political services. He was interested in the development of his community, aided in the growth of its schools, and helped to lay the foundations of the State Agricultural Society. He died at his farm in March, 1869. History of Waukesha County (Chicago, 1880), 903.

JOHN M. BABCOCK, farmer, was elected as a Democrat from Dane Township, Dane County, where he had settled in 1843 upon removal from Vermont. In the convention he served on the committee on admission of the state. He died at the age of forty-nine in the year Wisconsin became a state. Tenney, Horace A., and David Atwood, Memorial Record of the Fathers of Wisconsin (Madison, 1880), 37.

HENRY S. BAIRD was born in Dublin, Ireland, May 16, 1800, and was in his fifth year when his father, who had been concerned in the Irish movement under Robert Emmet, emigrated to America. The Bairds lived for several years at Pittsburgh, and in 1815 removed to Ohio. Henry was destined for the law and studied in 1818 with his father's friend, S. Douglas, in Pittsburgh; the next year he entered a law office in Cleveland, to which place the family had removed. By close application young Baird impaired his health and was advised to try the climate of Mackinac. He taught school here during the winter of 1823 and in June was admitted to the bar by the newly-appointed Michigan judge, James D. Doty. The next year Mr. Baird accompanied Judge Doty to Green Bay and finding the region without a lawyer determined to settle there. Returning to Mackinac, he was married August 12, 1824, to Elizabeth Thérèse Fisher of that place, a descendant of French and Ottawa families of the early Northwest. The life at Green Bay begun by the newly married couple the following September is charmingly described by Mrs. Baird in Wis. Hist. Colls., xv, 205-63. As most of Mr. Baird's clients were of French descent, his wife's services as translator and interpreter were of great value. He accompanied Judge Doty on his early tours for holding court and became acquainted with every section of the territory and with nearly all its early citizens. He obtained in a marked degree the confidence and esteem of all whom he met, and when in 1836 he was chosen member of the first territorial council, it was a natural sequence that he should be elected its president. At the close of the first or Belmont session of the legislature Governor Dodge appointed Mr. Baird the first attorney-general of the new territory, an office which he retained until March, 1839, when he resigned to attend to his private practice. In politics Mr. Baird was somewhat conservative. He belonged to the Whig party and was its candidate for governor in 1853. In the constitutional convention Mr. Baird was one of the strongest Whigs. He served on the legislative committee and was chairman for that on the organization of counties and towns. After the slavery issue grew threatening, he affiliated with the Republican party. As a rule Mr. Baird shunned political office, yielding only to a sense of duty in accepting public responsibilities. He was president of Green Bay village at the time it became an incorporated city in 1853-54, and was elected mayor in the years 1861 and 1862. In addition to the mayoralty, he rendered efficient service to the community and the nation during the troubled years of the Civil War. Again in 1871, when calamity in the shape of forest fires visited northeastern Wisconsin and relief was urgently needed, it was Mr. Baird to whom his fellow citizens turned to administer the relief fund with sympathy and impartiality.

From the time of his advent in Wisconsin Mr. Baird had been sought for advice and aid by every class in the community. Especially was he helpful to

the needy and oppressed Indians. In 1836 he was secretary of the commission that drew an important treaty with the red men at Cedar Point. Thereafter his services were in constant demand to settle the tribesmen's affairs. To the poor and destitute of the community he was ever an adviser and friend. In all that concerned Wisconsin's welfare he maintained a keen interest. He was interested in the founding of the Wisconsin Historical Society and in 1862 was elected vice president thereof, an office he held until his death. He promoted the Masonic order in Wisconsin and held many of its higher offices. He died April 30, 1875. Wis. Hist. Colls., vii, 426-43. Manuscript record.

CHARLES MINTON BAKER, Son of Robert Hall and Elizabeth Price Baker, was born October 18, 1804, in New York City. When Charles was an infant the family removed to Vermont, and there he grew up, entering Middlebury College in 1822. Owing to ill health he was obliged to leave college in 1823, and after a pedestrian tour through the eastern states he taught school for two years in Philadelphia. In 1826 he began the study of law at Troy, New York, where he passed three years in the office of Judge S. G. Huntington. In 1829 he married, and about the same time entered a law partnership with Henry W. Strong at Seneca Falls, where he practiced with a good degree of success until 1834. Then, his health again failing, he returned to Vermont and became a merchant. In 1838 Mr. Baker determined to remove to Wisconsin, whither Marshall M. Strong, brother of his former partner, had preceded him. Mr. Baker took up land near Lake Geneva and in December of that year was domiciled in the village of Geneva. He was the first lawyer in Walworth County; in 1839 he was appointed district attorney. In 1842 he was elected to the territorial council, wherein he served for four years. In politics he was a Democrat, and in the constitutional convention was chairman of the committee that prepared the judiciary provisions. His legal acumen was so great that in 1848 he was made one of the revisers of statutes for the state. In 1856 he was appointed circuit judge to fill a vacancy but refused to stand for an election. During the Civil War he efficiently aided the provost marshal in the first district. He died of apoplexy at his Geneva home, February 5, 1872. All who knew him testified to the purity of his life and character as well as to the breadth of his legal ability and judgment. Wis. Hist. Colls., vi, 436-39; Reed, Bench and Bar, 110.

HIRAM BARBER was a man of means who removed from New York in 1843 to invest in Wisconsin lands. Born at Hebron, Washington County, New York, January 25, 1800, he began his business career as a merchant in Warren County of his native state. In 1829 Governor Van Buren appointed him a local judge, a position he held until his removal to the West. Having become interested in lumbering he sold out his real estate, consisting of 8,000 acres of wild land and six sawmills, and bought a considerable tract of timber and virgin land in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Thither in 1844 he removed his family, and settled two miles east of the county seat, where he led the usual life of the pioneer, clearing and planting, contending with an occasional party of Indians, and opening sawmills, whose product he sold at Milwaukee and Racine. In 1848 he built the Dodge County courthouse

and in 1849 the Juneau hotel at the place of that name. Judge Barber's election to the constitutional convention was his first political office. In politics he was a Democrat, and in the convention served on the judiciary committee. In 1848 he was candidate for governor; after his defeat he was appointed by Governor Dewey for a six-year term on the first board of University regents (1848-54). He was a member of the state assembly of 1849, served several terms as chairman of the Dodge County board of supervisors, and in 1874 ran for Congress on the Republican ticket but was unsuccessful. During his latter years Judge Barber turned his attention to manufacturing. In 1863 he removed to Horicon and bought a half interest in the Van Brunt Company, which was engaged in manufacturing seeders. In 1870 he bought out the entire concern, but three years later sold it to his son and one of the Van Brunts. After his retirement from business he continued to live in Horicon until his death at an advanced age, October 23, 1888. Judge Barber had great faith in the progress of Wisconsin and contributed not only to its economic, but also to its intellectual and social development. In addition to his services as regent of the state University he was a charter member of the Wisconsin Historical Society and one of its vice presidents from 1849 to 1853. His services in developing Dodge County are recognized by its historians. History of Dodge County (Chicago, 1880), 408, 655-56; H. P. Hubbell, Dodge County, Wisconsin (Chicago, 1913), 90.

JOEL ALLEN BARBER, who was elected to the convention as a Whig from Lancaster, was a native of Georgia, Franklin County, Vermont, and a graduate of Vermont University. After studying law two years in Maryland where in 1834, at the age of twenty-one years, he was admitted to the bar, he returned to his native state and practiced for three years at Fairfield. In 1837 he removed to Lancaster, Wisconsin, and formed a partnership with Nelson Dewey for a land and legal business. The firm soon had a large clientage in southwestern Wisconsin. Mr. Barber's services in the convention were employed on the judiciary committee, in preparation of the article that evoked so much controversy. After the convention, Mr. Barber was for many years a county supervisor; he was president of his village in 1856, 1860-62, and 1870-71. He represented his district in the assemblies of 1852, 1853, 1863, and 1864, and in the state senate of 1856-57. Originally a Freesoil Whig, Mr. Barber became one of the founders of the Republican party in the state. In 1860 he was a Lincoln elector; in 1871 he was elected to Congress and reëlected for a second term. His newspaper, the Grant County Herald, was always imbued with Free-soil and Republican principles. His legal practice was large. His death, which occurred June 28, 1881, removed from the community a loyal, faithful citizen. C. N. Holford, History of Grant County (Lancaster, 1900), 111-13.

SAMUEL WOTTON BEALL was born September 26, 1807, at Montgomery, Prince George County, Maryland. He graduated in 1824 from Union College, and after studying law at Litchfield was admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen. In 1827 he married Elizabeth Fennimore Cooper, niece of the novelist; the same year the young couple removed to Green Bay, Wisconsin,

where in 1835 Mr. Beall was appointed receiver of the first land office opened in eastern Wisconsin. By 1837 he had acquired a vast estate in land, and returned to Cooperstown, New York, to make his home. The panic of 1837 having disarranged investments, the Bealls returned two years later to Wisconsin, settling in 1842 at Taycheedah, near Fond du Lac. Before leaving Green Bay Mr. Beall inherited from his mother a Maryland estate comprising thirty slaves; these he freed and devoted the entire proceeds of the estate to their support. Mr. Beall as a liberal Democrat was one of the five members of both constitutional conventions. In the first he represented Marquette, in the second, Fond du Lac County. In both he served on committees concerning general provisions. As the second lieutenant governor of the state, he presided in the senate with much ability. After the close of his term he aided the Stockbridge Indians in bringing their case before Congress and in securing a settlement of their land claims. For some years thereafter Mr. Beall practiced law and in 1859 visited Colorado where he is said to have been a founder of the city of Denver. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted as a private and rapidly rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Eighteenth Wisconsin. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh, but recovered sufficiently to participate in the seige of Vicksburg. During the latter years of the war Colonel Beall was in command of the Confederate prisoners at Elmira, New York. At the close of the war he received a federal commission for service in Montana, and while discharging the duties with which he was entrusted was shot and killed on September 26, 1868, at Helena. Manuscript record.

WILLIAM BELL of Walworth County was born in 1806 in Berne, Albany County, New York. He received a common school education and taught for a few years in his native state. In 1828 he removed to Albany where he learned the carpenter's trade and was employed as a builder until in 1837 he removed to Walworth County, Wisconsin. He was the first justice of the peace, the first postmaster of his district, and the first county assessor. In politics Mr. Bell was a Democrat, and in the convention was a member of the committee on the legislature. He gave two sons to the army during the Civil War. At its close he sold his farm and removed to Elkhorn, whence in 1870 he went to Lawrence, Kansas. There he was interested in horticulture and aided the State Horticultural Society. He died at his Kansas home November 8, 1876. He was a man of independent thought in both religion and politics, a sturdy patriot, and an excellent citizen. History of Walworth County (Chicago, 1882), 798.

STEPHEN O. BENNETT was a native of Milton, Saratoga County, New York, where he was born in 1807. In his boyhood he removed to New Haven, Connecticut, where he prepared for college, but his eyesight failing, he became a merchant, first at Albany and later at New York City. In 1832 Mr. Bennett removed to Ohio, and in 1840 settled on a farm in Mount Pleasant Township, Racine County, Wisconsin. In politics he was a Free-soil Democrat; as such he was chosen to the convention, wherein he served on the committee on amendments. Later he became a Republican. Mr. Bennett

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