Liberty Dodge Packard (1831-1895), Liberty Haven Hutchinson (1844-1882), Liberty Webster Foskett (1840-1923), Liberty Emery Holden (1833-1913), Liberty Eaton Fellows (1834-1912), Liberty Hall (1826-1891), Liberty Walkup (1844-1922)

From the Illustrated History of South Boston, 1900.

   Today's profile will be the largest yet written, as this author has located several political figures with the given name Liberty. The first to be profiled is Liberty Dodge Packard of Boston, Massachusetts. Besides having some truly impressive side whiskers and a name that brings to mind a car dealership, Packard was a leading physician and public servant in his native county of Suffolk.  Liberty D. Packard was born on September 13, 1831, in North Bridgewater (now Brockton), Massachusetts, one of seven children born to Liberty (1808-1894) and Mary Dodge Packard (born 1810). Packard attended local schools and also attended the Adelphi Academy. He began studying medicine early in his life and was also tutored by Dr. Alexander Hinchborn of North Bridgewater. 
  Packard enrolled at the Harvard Medical School in 1860 and graduated with a degree in medicine from the Homeopathic Medical College of New York in 1862. On September 15, 1853, Liberty Packard married Ms. Lucy Ann Kingman (1830-1919), with whom he would have the following children: Ernest Kingman (1856-1877), Nellie Hall (born 1863), Lillie Mansfield (born 1863) and Mary Wallace (born 1869).
  Within months of his graduation from the Medical College Packard established a practice in East Boston and later moved his practice to South Boston, where he resided until his death. Sources of the time mention his caring demeanor and diligence when making house calls, with The Illustrated History of South Boston noting that Packard "was a friend as well as physician to many families, and his books show thousands of calls made for sweet charity's sake." 

L.D. Packard during his legislative service, 1872.

   In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Packard gained local distinction as a public official and educational leader. His name is listed amongst the past presidents of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society and also as a senior member of the American Institute of Homeopathy. From 1867-71, 1883, and 1888-1891 he held a seat on the Boston School Board, eventually serving as the chairman of its South Boston division. His patronage of Boston's educational system is noted by the Illustrated History of South Boston as one of Packard's lasting attributes, stating that"hundreds of South Boston boys and girls have received their diplomas from his hand, and often he has been called "the teacher's friend"".
  While Packard was active in medical circles in the South Boston area, he would also enter the political life of his region. In 1872 he was elected to the Massachusetts General Court, representing Boston's 12th district. He served in the 1873-74 session on the Joint Committee on Education and at the conclusion of his term returned to practicing medicine. In his later years, Packard served as a visiting physician to the Perkins Institute for the Blind and later at the Massachusetts School for Feeble-Minded Children. Packard would die of a heart ailment on January 5, 1895, at his home in South Boston. He was survived by his wife and children, with a burial location for him being unknown at this time.

  This well-dressed gentleman is Liberty Haven Hutchinson, a Maine resident who served as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives from 1881-82. He was born in the town of Milan, New Hampshire on March 1, 1844, the son of Edwin and Elizabeth Ann (Flint) Hutchinson. Hutchinson received his education in the schools of Coos County, New Hampshire, and later graduated from Bates College in 1871. Shortly after completing his schooling, Hutchinson began reading law in Lewiston, Maine under another oddly named political figure, Mandeville Treat Ludden (who would go on to serve in the Maine State Senate). Hutchinson passed the Maine state bar exam in 1872 and soon after opened a law practice in Lewiston. 
  Hutchinson practiced law in Lewiston from 1871-75 and later established a firm with future Maine Supreme Court justice Albert Russell Savage. In addition to his practice, Hutchinson held a seat on the Lewiston school board for an indeterminate period and was a Sunday school superintendent at the city's Unitarian Church. He married Mary Wyatt Emery in November 1869 and had five children, Annie Luella (born 1870), Albert Savage (born 1871), Edwin Liberty (born 1872), Mary Elizabeth (1874-1899) and Grace Lyndon (1879-1904).
  Liberty Hutchinson's career as an attorney eventually led to his being nominated for a seat in the Maine State House of Representatives. He won election to this body in 1878 and subsequently served in the sessions of 1879-80, and 1881. In the last-named year, he was elected as Speaker of the House by a unanimous vote and was the incumbent in that post at the time of his death on September 9, 1882. Just 38 years old, Hutchinson's untimely death curtailed an already impressive political career and had even been talked of as a potential candidate for Congress in the months prior to his death.
  In a small addendum to this passage, it seems that a penchant for odd names ran in the Hutchinson family. Liberty H. Hutchinson had a younger brother named Freedom (born in August 1847) who also engaged in the practice of law and later served as a city councilman in Newton, Massachusetts.

Portrait from the Souvenir of New Hampshire Legislators, 1897.

   Next up is Liberty Webster Foskett, a resident of Cheshire County, New Hampshire who served two terms in his state's House of Representatives. Born in Winchendon, Massachusetts on February 8, 1840, Liberty W. Foskett was the son of Asaph and Lovice Albee Foskett. He attended schools local to the Winchendon area and saw action during the Civil War as a member of the 36th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He would be wounded in action in June 1864, and at the time of his honorable discharge in November of that year had attained the rank of First Sergeant.
   Foskett married on February 1, 1870, in Keene to Eliza Melvina Kendall (1845-1928). The couple were wed for over fifty years and would remain childless. Following his marriage and relocation to New Hampshire, Foskett maintained memberships in various fraternal groups in the area, including the local G.A.R. Post and was later elected as Grand Master of the local International Order of Odd Fellows lodge. 
  Liberty W. Foskett entered the political life of Keene with his election to the Keen Board of Selectmen, representing Ward 2 in 1885. In 1893 the citizens of Cheshire County elected him to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives, where he represented Ward 2 of the town of Keene. He was subsequently reelected to the legislature in 1896, and in the 1897-98 session sat as a member of the committee on the Soldier's Home. 
   Liberty Foskett's life after leaving state government is largely a mystery, although it is known that he died in Keene on April 14, 1923, at age 83. He was survived by his wife Eliza, who, following her death in 1928, was interred alongside him at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Keene.

   The fourth Liberty to be profiled here is Liberty Emery Holden, a prominent Ohio publisher and man of affairs. Holden wore many hats during his life, being an educator, publisher, businessman, mining magnate, civic leader, and public official. Holden earns placement here on the site due to his service as a two-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Ohio.
  Liberty Emery Holden was born in Raymond, Maine on June 20, 1833, the son of Liberty and Sally (Stearns) Holden. He attended local schools and would graduate from the Waterville College in Maine. He enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the mid-1850s and earned both his A.B. degree (1858) and A.M. degree (1861) from that institution. He later began a professorship at the Kalamazoo College, lecturing in "rhetoric and English Literature" from 1858-61, and resigned from that post in 1861 to accept the position of Superintendent of Schools in Tiffin, Ohio. Holden married in Kalamazoo in August 1860 to Delia Bulkley (1838-1932), to who he was wed until his death. The couple's fifty-three-year union produced nine children: Charles Emery (1861-1871), Albert Fairchild (1866-1913), Liberty Dean (1869-1906), Delia (1871-1947) Roberta (1876-1950), Emery (1879-1913), Guerdon (1881-1959), and Gertrude (1881-1967).
   Having entered into law studies during his residency in Kalamazoo, Holden continued reading law after his removal to Ohio, studying under Judge J.P. Bishop. He was admitted to the bar in 1863 but elected not to engage in practice. A year previous, Holden relocated to East Cleveland, a move that proved wise. Holden's move proved to be a boon to his financial status, as he accumulated a fortune through real estate transactions during residence in that area. In addition to real estate, Holden had a hand in a variety of public ventures in East Cleveland/Cleveland, including backing the construction of gas and water mains. Holden would further aid this area in the field of education, and as president of the board of education for nine years, was instrumental in the construction of the East Cleveland High School. This period also saw Holden become a prime mover in the annexation of East Cleveland into the city of Cleveland.
  Looking for new business ventures, Holden saw lucrative opportunities in mining in the Lake Superior region, and by 1872 had become the manager of the Pittsburgh and Lake Angeline Mines located in Ishpeming, Michigan. A prodigious producer of iron ore, this mine was managed by Holden until 1874, when he began to look beyond Ohio for new mining interests.  Finding that the Utah Territory fit the bill, Holden removed to Utah in 1876, where he invested heavily in that territory's silver mines. Holden's business connections in Utah extended until 1893, and having accrued a wealth of knowledge on mining and metallurgy during the period, was a delegate to Washington in 1882 to argue on behalf of the Utah Mine Protective Association. In 1885 Holden again visited the nation's capital, this time as a delegate and executive committee member of the National Bimetallic Association.

                                            Holden as he appeared late in life from the Fourth Estate, 1913.      

   Liberty Holden's residency in Utah saw him be a founder of the Salt Lake Academy in Salt Lake City and would serve as its president. He returned to Cleveland in 1880 and soon began pursuing a new interest: publishing. In 1884 he and a group of investors acquired the Cleveland Plain Dealer for $100,000 and under his ownership, the Plain Dealer grew into "one of the largest, most liberal and influential papers in the United States." During his stewardship of the Plain Dealer, Holden was able to advocate the tenets of bimetallism (reflecting his earlier silver mine interests) and had a writing and speaking style that was praised as "forceful, decided and instructive." 
  It wasn't until 1888 that Holden was elected to his first public office, that of an Ohio delegate to the 1888 Democratic National Convention. He again served as a delegate to the 1896 Democratic Convention, proudly supporting candidate William Jennings Bryan, another leading advocate of bimetallism. In the early 1900s, Holden was elected as the first mayor of Bratenahl, Ohio, a satellite village located within Cleveland. His full dates of service as mayor remain unknown at this time.
   As he entered his seventh decade, Holden remained one of Cleveland's leading public men, and the following list is but a snippet of the organizations and businesses Holden headed or was affiliated with during his life:

• President and proprietor of the Hollenden Hotel and the Hollenden Hotel Company.
• President of the Plain Dealer Publishing Company.
• President of the Maple Leaf Land Company.
• President of the Hub Transfer and Storage Company.
• A director of the First National Bank of Cleveland.
• A director of the Cleveland Transfer and Carriage Company.
• A director of the Western Reserve Insurance Company.
• A director of both the Haskins Realty Company and the Lennox Realty Company.
• Vice-President of the Western Reserve Historical Society.
• Trustee of the Lake View Cemetery Association of Cleveland.
• Trustee of the Western Reserve University.
• Trustee of Adelbert College.
• Chair of the Building Committee for the Cleveland Museum of Art.
• Chair of the Municipal Association of Cleveland.
• Chair of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.

From the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 11, 1901

  Liberty E. Holden died at age 80 on August 26, 1913, in Mentor, Ohio, and was later interred at the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. In July 2013, one year after this article's publication, I was able to make an extended visit to this cemetery to photograph the gravesites of several curiously named politicians. Among these is Liberty E. Holden, who was entombed in the lavish mausoleum pictured below. Also buried in this cemetery were Cleveland mayor Rensselaer Russel Herrick, U.S. Congressman Lycurgus Luther Marshall, and Ashtabula County Judge Quintus Flaminius Atkins. And now some photos of the trip!

Resting on the steps.

   Liberty number five is Liberty Eaton Fellows who served terms in both houses of the Iowa legislature and as a district court judge. Born in Corinth, Vermont on August 22, 1834, Fellows was the son of Hubbard (1800-1862) and Mary (Eaton) Fellows. He received his education in his home county of Orange, and during his youth resided on a farm in his native county.
  After attending the Thetford Academy, Fellows relocated to Wisconsin in 1856 but would reside there only briefly. In 1857 he resettled in Iowa and for the next several years engaged in farming, "clerked in the county offices", and on Independence Day 1861 married Mary Sophronia Reed, a native of Allamakee County. Eleven children were eventually born to the couple, including the following: Wilson Reed (1862-1936), Albert (1864-1932), Lura (1866-1948), Ella (1870-1901), Roger Lee (1872-1936), Jennie (1877-1956), Liberty Eaton (1879-1950), and Grace Caroline (1885-1913).
  After turning his attention to law studies in the early 1860s, Fellows was admitted to the Iowa State Bar in 1862. Three years after entering into his profession, the citizens of Allamakee County elected Fellows to a seat in the Iowa House of Representatives. He took his seat in January 1866, and during the 1866-68 session was a member of the committees on Schools and the State Library. In November 1867, Fellows won the first of two consecutive terms in the Iowa Senate, and from 1868-72 served on the committees on Banks, Public Lands, Schools, and Ways and Means.
  In addition to government service, Fellows was active in several nonpolitical areas, including a two-year term as Grand Master of the Iowa Masonic Lodge, a trustee for the Upper Iowa Hospital, and a trustee for the Insane Asylum in Mt. Pleasant.
   After leaving the Senate in 1872 Fellows returned to his earlier profession as an attorney. In 1889 he was appointed by Governor William Larrabee as Judge for Iowa's 13th Judicial District. He served on the bench until his death at age 77 on July 17, 1912. The Iowa Grand Lodge Bulletin (where the above picture of Fellows was located) gives notice that his death was as a result of pneumonia, which he had contracted the previous winter. Fellows was survived by his wife Mary, who died at age 83 in 1922. Both were subsequently interred at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Lansing, Iowa.

  In this April 10, 2012 update to Liberty Eaton Fellows' article, I want to give a big thank you to a very helpful reader named Kitty who posted on this site's Facebook page. Kitty also graciously provided me with a portrait of Liberty E. Fellows that I had never seen before, and that photograph has been posted above. Amazingly, other people are researching some of these infinitely obscure people and it's even more exciting to note that some manage to stumble across my own odd little corner of the internet here!

  The bearded gentleman pictured above is Liberty Hall, a Minnesota resident who is as equally obscure as the man who preceded him here! Hall was a native of Maine, being born in Oxford County on July 27, 1826, the son of Jeremiah and Sarah Knight Hall. 
  Liberty Hall received a common school education in his native Maine and in 1854 married Rochester, New York native Maria Cobb. Their union produced five children, three of whom lived to adulthood: Clifford F., Harry L., and a daughter, Maria. It has also been found that Hall remarried at some point late in his life to Lenora Ricker. The Minnesota Legislative Reference Library also records him as a book agent before his service in state government.
   Liberty Hall relocated to Minnesota in 1866 and is listed in the History of Minnesota, Volume 4 as the publisher of the Glencoe Register newspaper. In 1871, he was elected to the Minnesota State House of Representatives from McLeod County but was unable to take his seat due to his opponent (Lawrence Gillick) contesting his election. This electoral quagmire was later settled and Hall was officially seated in January 1872. During his brief tenure in the legislature, Hall served on the committee on education and was remarked as doing "noble work in assisting to raise the standard of the public schools of McLeod County."
   Hall's term concluded in January of 1873 and in 1877 was a candidate for the Minnesota State Senate. The election proved to be a nail-biter, with Hall losing by only 15o votes. Liberty Hall died in McLeod County at age 64 on June 21, 1891. The rare portrait of him shown above was discovered in a Minnesota State Atlas published in 1874. This atlas also contains a large sketch of the Hall homestead in the village of Glencoe, Minnesota.

                         This humorous article on Liberty Hall appeared in the NY Times in 1877.

From "Rockford Today", published 1903.

   Next up is the outstandingly named Illinois resident Liberty Walkup, a man who exemplifies the definition of a "renaissance man". If the name "Liberty Walkup" isn't familiar to you, it should be. Mr. Walkup is often credited as the inventor of the airbrush (more on that later) and in addition to this invaluable work was also a Civil War veteran, bible salesman, artist, and art instructor. Walkup earns a place here on the site due to his 1912 candidacy for the Illinois State Senate on the Prohibition Party platform.

  Born on July 14, 1844, in Pine Creek, Illinois, Liberty Walkup was the son of Samuel (1811-1890) and Sophia Ruggles Walkup (1819-1883). His odd first name is given note in the Rockford, Illinois history entitled Rockford of Today, published in 1903. This work notes that it was an "old family name and was brought to this country by Puritan fathers. The parents of Mr. Walkup in bestowing this name upon their son conveyed an heirloom to him of high distinction, of which he has reason to be proud".

  Liberty Walkup attended schools local to Ogle County, Illinois, and in 1862 signed on for service in the Civil War, enlisting in Co. K of the 92nd Regiment Illinois Volunteers. He was injured during his service and was honorably discharged in 1863, whereafter he returned to Illinois. He later moved to Iowa, and in 1869 he married Phoebe C. Johnson (1849-1926) and had one daughter, Eva Alberta Walkup (1869-1872). During the 1870s Walkup taught school for a time and was later employed as a bible salesman for an indeterminate period.

  Walkup relocated back to Illinois in 1881, settling in the city of Rockford. Around this same time in Iowa, a certain Abner Peeler was putting the finishing touches on a new invention of his called a "Paint Distributor", in reality, the first airbrush. Mr. Peeler sold the rights to his invention over to Liberty Walkup and his brother Charles in April of 1882 for the price of $700 for the invention's design, and a further $150 for two prototypes that Peeler had made. Charles Walkup eventually lost interest in the venture, leaving his younger brother to build on the purchase they had made. 

  Liberty Walkup established the Airbrush Manufacturing Company in his hometown of Rockford in 1883, and in the succeeding years it grew into a highly successful business, with the Rockford of Today noting in 1903 that "there is no product of Rockford's many industries that is more widely known or highly appreciated." In 1884 Walkup patented the production model airbrush and in 1886 was awarded the prestigious Elliott Cresson Medal from the Franklin Institute for his improvements to the airbrush. Several years after winning this medal Walkup founded the Airbrush Journal, a periodical devoted to his trade.

  In 1912 Walkup became a candidate of the Prohibition Party for a seat in the Illinois State Senate. Running to represent Illinois' 10th District, he was one of four candidates vying for the seat, and on election day came in fourth place with only 768 votes. A result from that election appeared in the 1912 Illinois Blue Book and is shown above. Walkup passed away a decade later on October 19, 1922, at the age of 78, and was interred at the Mt. Zion Cemetery in Oregon, Ogle County, Illinois. Phoebe Johnson Walkup survived her husband by four years, dying in 1926 at age 76, and was also buried at Mt. Zion.