school and academic education. When seventeen years of age he began
the study of medicine in Cincinnati Medical College, but did not
complete the course. In 1842 he came to Menomonie Mills, Wisconsin,
and engaged in lumbering until 1846. In 1847 he was connected with
government surveys, and the same year located in Stillwater. He was a
representative in the first, third, and last territorial legislature,
also a member of the extra session in 1857. He was mayor of Stillwater
in 1860-61. In 1862 he enlisted in a company of sharpshooters, which
was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. He was promoted to be
captain, and provost marshal in the second division of the Second Army
Corps, and one of Gen. Gibbon's staff officers. He was in fifty-four
battles and skirmishes, in some of which over 100,000 men were engaged
on each side. He was wounded four times, once severely, by a bayonet
thrust received in a charge at the battle of Petersburgh. He served
until the close of the war, and received a special and honorable
discharge from his commander, Gen. Smyth, on the face of which are
recorded the names of the battles in which he participated. In 1867 he
removed from Stillwater to Minneapolis, where he has held the
positions of land examiner and auditor of Hennepin county. He has the
distinction of being the first Odd Fellow initiated in Minnesota.
Sept. 21, 1850, he was married to Jane M. Stough, of Pennsylvania.
MORTON S. WILKINSON.--The record of Mr. Wilkinson, though brief, is
brilliant. He was born in Skaneateles, Onondaga county, New York, June
22, 1819; received an academic education in his native town; read law;
was admitted to the bar at Syracuse, New York, in 1842; commenced
practice in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, and in 1847 came to Stillwater.
Mr. Wilkinson was the first practicing lawyer northwest of Prairie du
Chien, was the prosecuting attorney at Judge Dunn's court in
Stillwater, June, 1847, and was a member from Washington county of the
first territorial legislature in 1849. He removed to St. Paul in 1850,
to Mankato in 1857, and in 1859 was elected United States senator. In
1860 he was one of the commissioners to compile the state statutes. In
1868 he was elected representative to Congress and at the close of the
term was re-elected. From 1874 to 1877, inclusive, he served as state
senator from Blue Earth county. Mr. Wilkinson is an eloquent and
forcible speaker, and a man of unusual ability, a sound and logical
reasoner, and withal fluent. He has been twice married. His first wife
was a daughter of Rev. Lemuel Nobles, of Michigan. Mrs. Wilkinson died
in Michigan. He married a second wife before coming West. They reside
in Wells, Minnesota.
WILLIAM STANCHFIELD.--Mr. Stanchfield was a native of Maine, born in
the year 1820, was married to Mary Jackins, in Bangor, Maine, in 1840,
and came to Stillwater in 1846, where he engaged in keeping a hotel on
Main street, which was burned while he was in charge. Mr. Stanchfield
died in 1850, leaving a widow who subsequently married Harvey Wilson,
and an infant daughter, who became, years after, the wife of George
Davis.
THOMAS RAMSDELL.--Mr. Ramsdell was born at Falmouth, England, Dec. 28,