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was chosen as a presidential elector; and in 1880 he was elected to the California senate. Mr. Chase was a fluent lecturer and spoke much for antislavery, temperance, and other reforms. He was in later life a spiritualist and always a radical in his point of view. His autobiography is entitled Life Line of the Lone One (Boston, 1858). S. M. Pedrick, "The Wisconsin Phalanx at Ceresco" in Wis. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1902, 190-226.

WILLIAM HENRY CLARK was born June 16, 1812 in Madison County, New York, and educated at Hamilton Academy, where he was a fellow student with William Pitt Lynde and Harlow Orton. He removed in 1842 to Wisconsin, settled at Prairie du Sac, and there taught school during the first winter. He was a lawyer of ability, the only representative of Sauk County in the first constitutional convention. In politics he was a Democrat, and in the convention was a member of the committee on municipal corporations. He lived for many years at Baraboo; sometime in the seventies he removed to Wood County, where he died September 14, 1879, at Dexterville. State Bar Association Report, 1881, 257; History of Sauk County (Chicago, 1879), 457-58.

SAMUEL T. CLOTHIER, a native of Massachusetts, as a Democrat represented the Cold Spring district of Jefferson County in the convention. In that body he was not a member of any of the standing committees. He seems to have removed soon afterward from the state, and his later history is unknown. Tenney and Atwood, Memorial Record.

EDWARD P. COOMBS, who represented Richland County in the convention, was the brother of John Coombs, first permanent settler in that county. The brothers were natives of Devonshire, England. Edward emigrated to the United States before the War of 1812 and took part in that struggle for his adopted country. After the war he settled in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, whence in 1834 he came West to the lead mines and entered lands in Lancaster Township, Grant County. Mr Coombs was so well pleased with Wisconsin that the next year he brought his family, consisting of wife and six children, to their new home in Wisconsin. In 1838 John Coombs crossed the Wisconsin River and explored the Richland County region; in 1840 he persuaded his brother Edward to accompany him, and the two built the first cabin in that county. Edward Coombs never moved his family from Lancaster, but he spent part of each year at his new residence. During the winter he worked at his trades of carpentering and blacksmithing, and left near Lancaster many specimens of his skill. He died near Lancaster in March, 1849. History of Grant County (Chicago, 1879), 558-59; History of Crawford and Richland Counties (Springfield, 1884), 769-70.

JOHN COOPER was born in 1810 in the state of New York. Some time before 1842 he removed West and settled on a farm in Greenfield Township, Milwaukee County. In 1842 he was commissioner of highways, and in 1846 was elected on the Democratic ticket to the constitutional convention wherein he was appointed to the committee on legislature. Mr. Cooper was a prominent Baptist, a pioneer member of the Greenfield Baptist church. He lived a long

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JAMES DUANE DOTY

From an oil portrait in the Wisconsin Historical Library

life of quiet usefulness, and died at his son's home in North Greenfield (now West Allis) early in December, 1901. Milwaukee Journal, December 5, 1901.

HOPEWELL COXE was born at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, June 28, 1812. At twenty years of age he began the study of law at Williamsport in the same state, and in 1838 was admitted to the bar. In 1842 Mr. Coxe removed to Kentucky and three years later sought a new home in Wisconsin Territory. A few months were spent in Milwaukee; in 1846 he settled at Cedarburg. In the autumn of that year Mr. Coxe was chosen probate judge; this office he held for eight years. During that time he was elected as a Democrat to the constitutional convention and served on the finance committee. At the expiration of his judicial term he removed to Hartford, in Washington County. Thence he was sent to the state legislature of 1857. He continued the practice of law at Hartford until his death, June 16, 1864. Mr. Coxe was recognized as a lawyer of ability, and his comparatively early death was a loss to the Wisconsin bar. State Bar Association Proceedings, 1881, 253.

JOHN CRAWFORD was born December 4, 1792, in Worcester County, Massachusetts, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Early in the nineteenth century the Crawfords removed to Chester, Vermont. After his mother's death in 1810 young John left home and was for several years a sailor on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. He made his home in St. Lawrence County, New York, married there in 1814, and served in the state militia, rising through the several ranks to that of major general. In 1836 General Crawford removed to Michigan City, Indiana. The same year he visited Milwaukee and became interested in a company for a lake steamboat; this steamboat he obtained at Detroit, and on June 14, 1837 arrived in it at Milwaukee. It was the first vessel to enter the river and dock as far north as the present Chestnut Street at Kilbourn's wharf. That autumn, however, the Detroit was wrecked off Kenosha; thereafter General Crawford was employed by Byron Kilbourn in navigating a harbor vessel. On his second visit to Milwaukee in 1837 General Crawford entered a claim for land in Wauwatosa Township, which became his permanent home. He was a member of the territorial legislature in 1846 and in that of the state in 1854. Having been elected to the constitutional convention on the Democratic ticket for Milwaukee County he was placed on the militia committee. In 1866 he was a county supervisor. In all offices he acted with fidelity and energy. He died March 25, 1881 at his home in Wauwatosa. History of Milwaukee (Chicago, 1881), 1639; Manuscript record.

THOMAS CRUSON was born in Mason County, Kentucky, December 10, 1802. At the age of twenty-two he left home for St. Louis, and two years later ascended the Mississippi to the lead-mining region, where he became one of Wisconsin's early prospectors. Early in 1827 he was at New Diggings, where he enlisted during the excitement over the Winnebago outbreak in Dodge's company of rangers. By 1829 Mr. Cruson had removed to Platteville, where three years later he married, and became one of the town's leading citizens. He was elected to the territorial assemblies of 1838, 1839, 1840, 1845, and 1846, and was also commissioner for Grant County. In politics Mr. Cruson was a Whig; in the convention he served on the amendments committee. In all

official positions he acted with prudence and ability. In 1850 he emigrated to the gold fields of California, and there in 1853 his family joined him. He died October 16, 1882, at Placerville in that state. History of Grant County (Chicago, 1879), 677; Manuscript record.

WILLIAM M. DENNIS was born in Rhode Island in 1810. In 1837 he came West with some capital, and after a few months in Milwaukee decided to locate at Watertown where he became the first postmaster. Mr. Dennis was elected to the convention as a Democratic delegate from Dodge County and worked energetically on the committee on education. In 1848 he was elected to the first state senate, and in 1853 was returned for the assembly. In 1854 Mr. Dennis was appointed bank comptroller for the state and held the office for four years. At the expiration of his term he became president of a Watertown bank and was for many years engaged in financial matters. In 1862 he was mayor of Watertown. His connection with the Watertown railway bond cases made him somewhat unpopular in that city, and after the Civil War he never again held public office. He died at Watertown July 18, 1882. Wisconsin Souvenir from Johnson and Fuller (binder's title, Madison); Wis. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1916, 279, 281, 285-87.

NATHANIEL DICKINSON was born December 20, 1810, at Calais, Vermont, to which place his father had removed twenty years previously from Massachusetts. The elder Dickinson was a veteran of the War of 1812. His son grew up in Vermont, became a carpenter and builder, and prosecuted his trade at Boston in 1836, and at Haverhill, New Hampshire, from 1837 to 1843. In the latter year he removed to Wisconsin and settled with his family at Burlington, Racine County. There he was justice of the peace, and town supervisor for four years, two years of this time serving as chairman. To the convention he was elected as a delegate and served on the committee on boundaries. While at Burlington Mr. Dickinson enrolled in the state militia and was commissioned captain. In 1854 he removed to Walworth County, living in Spring Prairie for six years, in Delavan for three, finally becoming a resident of Elkhorn, where he died March 14, 1883. Tenney and Atwood, Memorial Record, 70; Manuscript record.

JAMES DUANE DOTY, the first United States judge in preterritorial Wisconsin, was born November 5, 1799 at Salem, Washington County, New York. In 1818 he removed to Detroit; the next year he was admitted to the territorial bar. During his residence at Detroit he was secretary of the exploring expedition undertaken in 1820 by General Cass, through Lake Superior to the headwaters of the Mississippi. The following year Mr. Doty visited Washington and was admitted to the United States Supreme Court. During his stay at Detroit he was a member of the territorial council and clerk of court. In 1823 he received the appointment of judge for the territory west of Lake Michigan, and the following year removed his family to Green Bay. His first term of court was held at Prairie du Chien, and for nine years he rode the circuit throughout what is now Wisconsin. In 1832 he was superseded because of a change in the federal administration. He was, however, soon appointed road commissioner to lay out the military road from Fort Howard

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