Clan William: Senator James Rood Doolittle

Senator James Rood Doolittle, who served as Senator to Wisconsin, was arguably, Abraham Lincoln's best friend. Senator Doolittle's line from William Munson is as follows:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson >  Martha Munson > Reuben Doolittle > Reuben Doolittle > James Rood Doolittle

Doolittle was born on January 15, 1815 in Hampton, New York, "on the shores of the Poultney River..."[1] to Reuben Doolittle, Jr. and Sarah Rood.

As a young child, the family moved to Wyoming County, NY. J. R. went to the Middlebury Academy prep school in Wyoming Co. and to Geneva (later Hobart) College, where he graduated top of his class in 1834. 

J. R. then moved to Rochester to study law. In 1837, the year he was admitted to the bar, he married Mary Lovina Cutting, who had also attended Middlebury Academy. They moved to Warsaw, New York in 1841. He had some interest in politics and from 1845-1849, he served as District Attorney of Warsaw County. He identified at the time as a Democrat. In 1847, he jumped into the anti-slavery movement as a Barnburner. In 1848, the Democrats ran General Lewis Cass, who believed states should have the option of allowing slavery. Democrats were split on this stance, and J. R. firmly stood on the side that opposed slavery and broke off into leadership of the Free Soil Party. As a leader in this faction, J. R. wrote what would become the Cornerstone Resolution:

"Resolved: That while the democracy of New York represented in this convention will faithfully adhere to all the compromises of the Consitution and maintain all the reserved rights of the states, they declare, since the crises arrived when that question must be met, their uncompromising hostility to the extensioin of slavery into territory now free, or which may be hereafter acquired by any action of the government of the United States."

Finally, he became one of the leaders of the new Republican Party. Back home, his family had grown to five children by the time he and his wife moved to Racine, Wisconsin in 1851. J. R. practiced law, became a judge, and in 1857, ran for his first of two terms as a US Senator as a moderate Republican. In 1852, his final child, Sallie, would be born. 

During his terms in office, he became a favorite advisor of many.  He helped unify the young party - his speaking powers were strong and persuasive. J. R. made an excellent nominating speech on behalf of  Abraham Lincoln at the Republican National Convention. When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, J. R. became not only a trusted advisor, but according to Leonard Swett, advisor to Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln would say of him:

"During the years 1863 and 1864...often I saw Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Dolittle together, and often heard the president speak of him in his absence. The most cordian and friendly relations existed between them, and the president always spok of him in terms of warmest friendship and esteem." 

Once, while perusing a list of senators who would hopefully support Lincoln's re-nomination, Swett asked the president: "You don't consider all these your friends?" Replied Lincoln, "No...when you speak of friendship, I sometimes thought Doolittle was the only real friend I had here." James was frequently invited to breakfast with Lincoln, famouly riding his warhourse, Chacamauga, to the White House early in the morning."

Upon Lincoln's assasination, the president became Andrew Johnson. Johnson won the next election, but he would face many challenges.  J. R. supported Johnson's opposition to "radical reconstruction." J. R. was working in direct opposition to the instructions he received from the Wisconsin legislature and he was censured by his constituents. The legislature than passed a resolution directing J. R. to resign. It was supported by the then governor, Governor Fairchild. Doolittle refused. At the end of the day, J. R. was not going to be re-elected and his days in politics would be, for all intents and purposes, over. J. R. switched back to the Democratic Party after a brief foray with the new political party formed on the basis of Johnson's reconstruction model.

J. R.  then went to Chicago and started up his law practice. He continued to maintain his residence in Racine, but began teaching law at the Old University of Chicago, serving as acting president for one year, and remained on the Board of Trustees until his death. In 1884-1885 he served as president of the Chicago Board of Education. 

He died 27 Jul 1897 in Providence County, Rhode Island. 

The story of James Rood Doolittle is far more complex and interesting than can be addressed in a short introductory blog post and his impact was great. I hope that if you love history as much as I do, you take some time to learn more.

[1] https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2012/05/north-country-abolitionist-james-rood-doolittle.html

[2] https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS7121

[3] https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40193846.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A29994e1078884e9453d23f35113198f0&ab_segments=&origin=

[4] https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS7121

[5] https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=fvw-pamphlets

Clan William: Gladys Pease and Archibald Ellsworth Minard

Sen. James Rood Doolittle with
children (Sara seated)

Those Munson women seemed to attach themselves to some high-achieving men. In this case, Gladys
connected herself to Archibald Ellsworth Minard, a Harvard graduate who would travel west to North Dakota. The Clan William connections is as listed:

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Martha Munson > Rueben Doolittle > James Rood Doolittle > Sara Lovinia Doolittle > Gladys May Pease m. Archibald Ellsworth Minard

Gladys came from "good stock." Her grandfather was Senator James Rood Doolittle, an attorney, who had hailed from Hampton, Washington County, New York. He had relocated to Racine, Wisconsin in 1851 where he was elected judge of the first judicial circuit in 1853 and then in 1857 began serving two terms as a US Senator. He later was a professor of law at Chicago University and was a trustee of same.

The marriage of her father, Edwin Hatfield Pease and mother, Sara Doolittle, was the social event of the year in Racine in 1879. Edwin had served as a private in the Civil War in Company F of the Illinois 93rd Infantry Regiment. A manufacturer/businessman of good repute in Racine, he died of complications of the flu/pneumonia at age 49 in 1890. Gladys was the fourth of the five children, born in 1887.

Archibald Ellsworth Minard

Sara Doolittle Pease married John Adams Prindle, a widower with five surviving children in 1895. In 1900, the family moved to Springvale, Stark, North Dakota to pioneer. Sadly, John died in 1907 in Fargo, North Dakota.  In 1910, Sara relocated to the Sioux City, Iowa area and lived with her son the veterinarian, Edward Pease, for a few months, then she moved in with son H. T. Pease in Deer Park, Washington, where she died on 27 Jul 1911.

Daughter Gladys had made a "good marriage" with Archibald Ellsworth Minard, a native of Novia Scotia born in 1878, who had emigrated to the US when he was 11 years old.  Archibald received his degrees from Harvard and became a professor of English and Philosophy at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University). The couple had married in 1908 and proceeded to have four children; two boys and two girls. 

Professor Minard served as interim president for three months in 1929, then became the Dean of the School for Applied Arts and Sciences the same year. He would hold that position until 1949. 

Gladys died in 1939 at the age of 48. She had just seen her daughter Lois married in 1936 and son Edwin in 1938. 

Archibald remarried in 1941 to a widow with two grown children, Elita Gustava Olson McArdle. 

One of the noteworthy things that Archibald did while at NDAC, was to write the school song, the lyrics of which are today, quite awful, but for the time, far less offensive:

...He wanted to incorporate the school colors, yellow and green, with North Dakota’s landscape and characteristics. Minard thought he could use his song as well for the State’s song. Minard wrote the lyrics and then took the song to Clarence Putnam, the head of the music department at the time. “The Yellow And The Green” did become the University's official school song, but it did make it as the state’s song as Minard would have hoped. Instead, Putnam wrote the music for what became the state's song in 1947 and used the lyrics from James W. Foley’s “The North Dakota Hymn.” There has been some controversy surrounding the school song. In the third stanza of the song, it speaks of the red man scavenging the land for scraps, while the white anglo saxons prevail and conquer the prairies...https://pocketsights.com/tours/place/Archibald-Minard-6511:809

In 1949, Minard retired as Dean, but continued to teach philosophy at the School. The former Science building, built in 1902 and which had a fourth floor added in 1919, was named after Minard in honor of his 46 years of service at NDAC. The fourth floor of the building was where dances were held. In 2011, the building collapsed in on itself and would not be revived until 2013. It is still in use.

Minard died on 09 May 1950 died at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he had been hospitalized for four weeks. Son David lived nearby.

Minard Hall, former Science Hall at NDAC

 

Jacob Smith: Setting the Record Straight

Old Fennimore: Sixty years after the Jacob Smith Family Arrived

This is my response to Ancestry Family Trees that have Jacob Smith dying in May of 1858 in
Fennimore, Grant County, Wisconsin. It is my belief that this is wrong.

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Jacob Smith is my 3GG. It is believed he was born in 1798 in New Jersey or New York (no confirming documents have been discovered) and also that his father was James Smith (reportedly of New Jersey), who later moved to Ohio. There are available records of the existence of both James and Jacob in Ohio. 

Jacob married Mary Catherine "Cathie" Randolph at an unknown location and date. In 1820, Jacob was living in Richland, Belmont, Ohio and in 1840 he was in Smithfield, Jefferson, Ohio. Birth records of his children also detail that the Smith's lived in Guernsey, Ohio (1822) and Harrison County (1826 until at least 1831) before ending up in Jefferson County.

In 1846, Jacob's oldest son James and his wife had their third child, John Richard, in Grant County, Wisconsin; their previous child, Alexander, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio in 1845. So, we can presume, since they all went together, that they arrived in Wisconsin in late 1845 or early 1846. Jacob and children are all reflected in the 1850 census in Grant County.

Oddly enough, there was a second Jacob Smith living in the Fennimore area at the same time my Jacob Smith lived there. It is his death date that is attributed in error to our Jacob Smith. 

This was easily disproved through two documents: The obituary of the "other" Jacob Smith and the probate documents of the same "other" Jacob Smith.

First, the obituary: 

"Mr. SMITH was born in Wayne county, Penn., March 19, 1829, son of Jacob and Sophia (WHEELER) SMITH. His father was born east of the Green Mountains, in Vermont, in 1802, and his grandfather was a clergyman of the Methodist Church, and lived in New England al his life. Jacob SMITH was the youngest son in a family of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, all of whom were given Bible names, as was the fashion of the times. The sons were called Simeon, Reuben, Daniel, Abram, Isaac and Jacob. The names of the daughters cannot now be obtained, as that generation has passed from earth. In 1824 Jacob SMITH married Sophia WHEELER, who was born in Massachusetts, her birth occurring the same year as her husband's. She as a daughter of Simeon and Polly (NOBLE) WHEELER. Her mother was a daughter of Capt. Charles NOBLE, a Revolutionary soldier, who died before the close of the Revolution, from disease contracted in the service. Melford Pratt SMITH therefore is a great-grandson of a Revolutionary soldier. The NOBLE family was long prominent in Massachusetts. Four brothers came from England in early Colonial times, and from them are descended the greater part of the NOBLES in the United States.

In 1826 Jacob SMITH, with his wife and only child, removed to Wayne county, Penn., and in 1853 the parents, with their family, then consisting of six children, came to Grant county, Wis., and settled on a farm in the town of Fennimore. Within six years after their arrival five of the family had passed away. The parents and three of their children, Algernon and Celestial and Cecilia (twins), had succumbed to sickness, and gone on "to join the great majority," The children reached maturity before they died. The mother's death occurred in 1857, and the father's the following year. There are now living of this family, Esther (the wife of O.N. SMITH, of Eau Claire, Wis.), Melford P., and Alfica (of Iowa)."

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Last Will & Testament of the "Other" Jacob Smith

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In the end, we are put in a place that the best we can narrow down my Jacob Smith's death date to between the census of 1850 to the census of 1860, where in 1860 his wife is found living with his mentally disabled son and spinster daughter in the home of their son William Custer Smith in Fremont Township, Butler County, Iowa. 

We may never know what exactly became of Jacob, but there is a high likelihood he did not ever come to Iowa with several other members of the family, but died in Grant County.

 

Clan William: The Mines of Platteville and Eddie Lee Dalen

Early Lead Mines of NW Illinois/SW Wisconsin

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson >  Samuel (2d) Munson > Calvin Munson > Randil Munson > Harlow B Munson > Lucy J Munson > Eddie Lee Dalen

Many of my ancestors relocated to Southwest Wisconsin from places like Ohio (both the Munsons and the Smiths, where their combined story started in Grant County). There were many opportunities in the Driftless Area that included all of Southwest Wisconsin. The Driftless Area was marked by the more rugged terrain than that of its neighboring plain states. This area was bypassed by the last continental glacier eons ago.

This terrain also made it prime for mining. The existence of valuable lead was discovered before the White Man settled the area. In the 1820s, mining began from Galena, Illinois north up the Galena River into Wisconsin. Thousands of Cornish miners flocked the area to work the mines, something they had generations of experience with in their native Cornwall, England. As time went on, many of those miners moved on to new mines in Michigan and elsewhere. I mention this because I have a bevy of Cornish immigrants on my mom's side.  

The peak of production in this area ran until the 1850s, but continued on for decades more on a smaller scale. Many of those in the area farmed and mined part time. 

Platteville, the later home of Charles Dennis Dalen and his wife Lucy Jane Munson (also a descendant of my previous story's Randil Munson - son of Calvin, who was big brother to my 4th GG Freeman Munson). 

Charles & Lucy's children were born in the township of Lima in Grant County, just a hop and skip from nearby Platteville. Charles was a farmer with five children: Francis, Arlington "Arlie," Charles Bird, Eddie Lee, and Frederick Louis. 

Platteville had so many mines operating over the course of time, that the town's design was affected. The streets had to be designed and built to avoid mine pits, so the town's roads are notoriously not-straight. And, unlike many mining towns, when mining died out, Platteville continued to thrive due to the establishment of The Academy (1839-1866), which evolved into the Normal School. The Mining and Trade School took the space in Rountree Hall when the Normal School moved to a new location and later became the Wisconsin Institute of Technology. Both became part of the UW-Plattesville campus in later years. Because of the deep ties to engineering, Platteville continued to thrive to today, bringing with it engineering companies who liked having engineering students so close at hand.

Platteville Miners

To return to our story, in 1905, the Trego-Anthony Mines were still operating. The Anthony was located at the east end of the Trego Mine (both located near today's Platteville Country Club). The Anthony mine was owned by one company, the Trego Mine was owned by HF Trego from 1901-1905. "It had a gravity mill and the concentrates were 25% Zinc and 25% Iron. There were many shafts and one adit to provide access to the mine; the main northeast Trego shaft is 90-feet deep; the main Anthony shaft is 75-feet deep."5

Young Eddie Lee Dalen, who most often went by "Lee," began working at the Trego Mine in Platteville in early 1905. He had the job of dumping the cart of mined ore. Somehow, he got caught up with a descending cart and was dragged down the shaft, falling onto a descending cage, being dramatically grabbed by the leg by his boss, and smashing himself onto some timbers. The early report expected him to survive, but his injuries were too great and he died on August 27, 1905. He was 22.

1. Zinc Ore Mining References: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-026/#tid6

2. Platteville Mining Photo: http://www.miningartifacts.org/Wisconsin-Mines.html

3. History of Platteville: https://www.platteville.com/our-city/history-of-platteville

4. History of Platteville:  https://www.platteville.org/community/page/history#:~:text=The%20community%20of%20Platteville%20began,lode%2C%20in%20November%20of%201827.

5. History of Trego Mine: US Geological Survey Professional Paper, Issue 30

6. History of Platteville: https://catalog.uwplatt.edu/undergraduate/about-uwplatteville/history/

7. Mining Map of Illinois/Wisconsin: https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/tp/id/45908

Jacob Smith: Bits and Pieces for Discussion Including the Custer Connection

JAMES SMITH > JACOB SMITH m Mary Catherine Randolph

Rumley Township is at the top in Harrison County
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I've been incredibly frustrated by my inability to move my SMITH line beyond 3GG Jacob Smith and
his purported father, James Smith. Anectdotally, James is Jacob's father and they were originally from the Monmouth, New Jersey area before moving to Ohio somewhere before 1830.

1830 Rumley Township Census
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Also, little is known about Mary Catherine Randolph, Jacob's wife, who went by "Cathy" from what I've learned. Jacob's son, John R. Smith married Susan Randolph, who I will guess is a relative of Cathy, but again, I have nothing. I've got a couple lines of inquiry I'm pursuing, but records are spotty in the wilderness during this time and without birth or death records, it's going to be non-definitive, even if I feel I've solved it.

One thing of the family legends I was able to confirm is that my 2GG, William Custer Smith, did indeed most likely get his middle name from George Armstrong Custer's father, Emanuel Custer. The legend had it that the Custer's were great friends of the Smith in Rumley Township, Harrison County and sure enough, I find them both living there in 1830.  Emanuel and Jacob were contemporaries.

Jacob's father, James, may be living in Cadiz Township at this time. In 1820, the James Smith family was located in Belmont County, which is adjacent to Harrison County. In 1820, James and family lived in Belmont County.

A Little About EMANUEL CUSTER

I believe that either Henry Custer or Nevin Custer is the man on the far left 3rd step,
James Calhoun is seated, 2nd from left.
It is probably Thomas Custer next to Calhoun and G. A. Custer is on the top
step, center, his wife Elizabeth Bacon seated to his right. The man below Elizabeth and below Emanuel
I've not identified. Emanuel is in the top right on top step sitting in a chair.
Photo shared on Ancestry by Connie Fullmer

Emanuel Custer was born and raised in Allegany County, Maryland. He was born 10 Dec 1806. His

Emanual and Mary
Image Courtesy 1881 Courthouse
Museum, Custer SD

first wife was Matilda Viers, whom he married in Maryland in 1828. They had three children, two of whom died young. Upon Matilda's death in 1835 in Harrison County, he married Mary Ward Kirkpatrick in 1836. The couple had at least seven children and widow Mary brought a daughter to the marriage. The two oldest, James and Samuel, died before their first birthdays. The arrival of George Armstrong Custer, later youthful West Point grad and Civil War Army General; and later yet, failed battle strategist at Little Big Horn, was the oldest of Mary's surviving children.

Emanuel and Mary were settled in Harrison County by 1830. After serving in the US Civil War himself at a quite advanced age in his 60s, he and his wife moved to Monroe County, Michigan, where they both died. The Smith's moved on to Grant County, Wisconsin in the mid-1840s.

In between, though, the Custer Family rallied at the time of the Civil War and beyond as part of the Cavalry. Four members of the Custer's immediate family died at the Battle of Little Big Horn:  Brevet Maj Gen (Lt Col) G. A. Custer, his brother Boston Custer, brother Capt Thomas Ward Custer (two-time Medal of  Honor winner), and brother-in-law, Lt James Calhoun, husband of Margaret Custer, along with nephew Harry Armstrong "Autie" Reed (a non-military member of the group) and other Custer friends. The historical perspective of G. A. Custer has been tipped on its head in the past decades as the "heroic" nature of their deaths at the hands of Chief Sitting Bull and his army of Native Americans, but it was surely a profound loss to Emanuel and Mary Custer which ranks up there with the tragic loss of the five Sullivan Brothers of Waterloo, IA during WWII in terms of family service tragedy.

Hannah Cooper Haas of Spring Grove

WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER > HANNAH COOPER m Valentine "Feldy" Haas

Hannah Cooper and Valentine Haas (front)

W. L. Cooper and his wife Elizabeth Beams can be read about here. Their second oldest child, Hannah, was born 23 Oct 1832 in Clark County, Illinois. Her parents ultimately ended up in Rock Grove, Stephenson County until the death of W. L. in 1886.

Hannah met and married Valentine Mornica "Feldy" Haas, son of David Haas and Barbara Mitterling in April of 1857 in Spring Grove. Born, on 22 Jan 1830 in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, Feldy came with his family to northern Illinois in 1850. David and Barbara settled on Section 33 of Spring Grove, Green County, Wisconsin, in 1856. The town was just over the border from Illinois. The land there was very rich and had been settled a few years earlier by hardy settlers and was thriving. The couple had six children, including the eldest, Valentine. Barbara died in 1859 and in 1864, David married the widow of Samuel Snyder, Mary Lawyer. That couple had at least three children in addition to her child from her previous marriage. They remained there until 1868, when they moved to Section 27, where they would remain. David died in 1880 and his wife Mary died in 1917 in Beloit.

In the meantime, Valentine would marry Hannah on 02 Apr 1857 in Spring Grove. From 1857 to 1863, the couple lived in Stephenson County. The first of their dozen children started arriving in 1858. According to one family chronicler, the reason Valentine was called "Feldy" was because he always wore a felt hat. He was a carpenter by trade. From 1863 to 1869, the couple tried out farming in Chickasaw County, Iowa, near Bremer County, Iowa, where many Cooper cousins had ended up. It was during their time there that the same family chronicler states that Valentine helped build the famous Little Brown Church in the Vale, located in what was Bradford, Chickasaw County.

James Bruce Barn, Stephenson County
built by the Haas Bros. and J Shaffer, 1914

Then, the couple moved on to Spring Grove and farmed on 40 acres near Tyrone.

The "Haas Brothers," sons of Valentine and Hannah's, were noted for building most of the round barns in Stephenson and Green Counties, along with Haas son-in-law Jeremiah Shaffer. What I don't know is which of the brothers participated in the barn building or if all did. Most of the historically relevant barns were built between 1910-1920. Sons Emanuel, Ira Edward "Ed", Lloyd, and Luther, are all listed as carpenters and brother Homer was listed specifically as a barn carpenter, all in the 1910 Census. Henry was listed as working at the Fire Department, Clarence worked as a  tinner (tinsmith),  and George was farming in 1910.

Valentine died 04 Nov 1911 at age 81. Their single son George was farming and lived with them at that time. Hannah survived until 10 Aug 1925. She was still living with son George on the farm when she died. George died 24 Nov 1941 in Albany, Green County at the home of his sister and brother-in-law Florence and Jeremiah Shaffer.