soldier. He received a good education at the schools of Sangerfield
and the gymnasium at Utica. He spent part of his early life in farming
and teaching. Later he studied law and was admitted to practice in
1847, in Utica, where he entered into partnership with E. S. Brayton
until 1853, when he removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, in company with
Charles E. Flandrau. He has since devoted himself almost exclusively
to his law practice, which includes almost every branch except
criminal law. In June, 1862, he was married to Cornelia Sherrill, of
Hartford, New York. They have four children.
CUSHMAN K. DAVIS.--In the quaint little Quaker village of Henderson,
New York, in a small house built partly of logs, and mossy and
venerable with age, on June 16, 1838, Cushman Kellogg Davis, late
governor and present senator from Minnesota, was born. His father,
Horatio N. Davis, removed to Wisconsin in August or September of the
same year, and settled on the present site of Waukesha. His father was
quite prominent; had served during the Civil War, and retired from the
service with the brevet rank of major; had held various municipal
offices, and had been a member of the Wisconsin senate. Cushman, his
oldest son, received as good an education as the times afforded, at
the common schools, at Carroll College, a Waukesha institution, and at
Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he graduated in 1857. He read law with Gov.
Randall, was admitted to the bar in 1859, and practiced at Waukesha
until 1862, when he enlisted in the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin Infantry,
going in as first lieutenant of Company B, but was adjutant general
under Gen. Gorman most of the time. At the end of two years, with
broken health, he resigned his commission and settled in St. Paul in
partnership with Gen. Gorman. In 1867 he was elected a representative
in the state legislature, and served one term. He was United States
district attorney from 1868 until 1873, when he was elected governor.
He served two years, and was the youngest man who has been elected to
that office. After leaving the governor's chair he resumed his law
practice until the senatorial election of 1887, when he was chosen to
succeed Senator McMillan in the United States Senate.
Senator Davis has devoted some time to general literature. His lecture
on "Feudalism" was delivered in 1870, and this lecture probably
secured him the nomination for governor in 1873. He has also lectured
on "Hamlet" and "Madam Roland," and in 1884 delivered a lecture before
the Army of the Tennessee and in 1886 a lecture to the graduating
class at Michigan University. He also published a book entitled "The
Law in Shakespeare," which attracted considerable attention. He was
married to Miss Anna M. Agnew, of St. Paul, in 1880.
S. J. R. MCMILLAN was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1826.
He spent part of his early days in Pittsburgh; received a collegiate
education; studied law; was admitted to practice in 1849, and came to
Stillwater in 1852, where he established a law office. In 1858 he was
elected judge of the First district and served until 1864, when he was
appointed to the supreme bench. He was elected to the position in the
fall of the same year and served until 1875, when he was elected to
the United States senate. He was re-elected in 1881, and was succeeded
in 1887 by Cushman K. Davis. He removed to St. Paul in 1865.
Senator McMillan has had an honorable career and is greatly respected
as an upright, conscientious, active and thoroughly practical man. He
was married at Pittsburgh in 1852, to Harriet E. Butler. They have
three sons and three daughters.
WILLIS ARNOLD GORMAN, second territorial governor of Minnesota, was
born in Fleming county, Kentucky, Jan. 12, 1816. He received a good
literary education, and his parents having moved to Bloomington,
Indiana, he graduated at the law school connected with the State
University at that place. He commenced practice at Bloomington and was
quite popular as a lawyer, but even more so as a party leader, and was
elected to the legislature six times in succession. At the breaking
out of the Mexican War, in 1846, he enlisted as a private in the Third
Indiana Volunteers, but was appointed major. He won the reputation of
a gallant, dashing officer, and was promoted to be colonel of the
Fourth Indiana, which he helped recruit. He served till the close of
the war. On his return to Indiana, in 1848, he was elected to
Congress, and re-elected in 1850. In May, 1853, he was appointed by
President Pierce governor of Minnesota Territory. In 1857, at the
close of his term of office as governor, he was elected a member of
the constitutional convention, and was also an unsuccessful candidate
for the United States senatorship. In the spring of 1861, at the
breaking out of the Civil War, he was appointed colonel of the First
Minnesota Infantry. For bravery at the first battle of Bull Run he was
commissioned brigadier general. He was mustered out in 1864. Returning
to Minnesota he formed a law partnership with Cushman K. Davis. In
1869 he was elected city attorney and held that office till his death,
which occurred at St. Paul, May 20, 1876. He was twice married, first
to Miss Martha Stone, of Bloomington, Indiana, in 1836. She died in
March, 1864, leaving five children. In April, 1865, he was married to
Miss Emily Newington, of St. Paul.
JOHN D. LUDDEN was born in Massachusetts, April 5, 1819; was educated
at Williston Seminary, and came West to the lead mines of Wisconsin in