Mandeville Treat Ludden (1830-1882), Mandeville Samuel Frost (1845-1922), Mandeville Tyler Mustin (1816-1908), Manderville Tilden Miller (1879-1943)

    A prominent figure in the county of Androscoggin, Maine, Mandeville Treat Ludden received a brief mention in yesterday's article on Liberty Haven Hutchinson, another influential Androscoggin resident and political figure. Hutchinson studied law under Ludden in 1871, and before getting too in-depth on Ludden's life this author should mention that there are some inconsistencies regarding the spelling of his unusual first name. The portrait of Ludden shown above (discovered in the 1982 work Historic Lewiston: Its Government) spells his name with an "r". There are other instances in Maine legislative manuals of this spelling, but the majority of the sources available on his life give the correct spelling as "Mandeville".    
  Mandeville T. Ludden was born in the town of Canton, Maine on February 17, 1830, the son of and attended the Maine Wesleyan Seminary as a youth. He began the study of law under his uncle Timothy Ludden and graduated in 1854 from the prestigious Harvard Law School. The earlier mentioned Historic Lewiston notes that Ludden had the distinction of being the first lawyer admitted to the Androscoggin County bar after that county's incorporation in 1854.
  On New Year's Day 1856 Ludden married Mary E. Jewett (1831-1912) and soon after settled into a law practice with his uncle Timothy in the town of Turner. Mandeville was elected as Androscoggin County attorney in 1863 and was reelected to further terms in that office, his service extending until 1867. Further honors were conferred upon him in 1867 when the citizens of Androscoggin elected him to the Maine State Senate, serving in the legislative sessions of 1868-1869. His term saw him as a member of the committee on the judiciary, and in 1868 acted as senate president pro tempore during the absence of President Joseph H. West.

    In the year following his senate service, Ludden moved to the neighboring city of Lewiston, and two years after his resettlement began service as Lewiston city solicitor. During his tenure as solicitor, he was also elected to the Common Council and Board of Aldermen, serving from 1871-1881. In his last year of service as an alderman, Mandeville Ludden was elected as the Mayor of Lewiston and would serve a one-year term in that post. 
   Shortly after the conclusion of his term Mandeville Ludden died at age 52 on September 21, 1882. A periodical of the time mentions that "in his decease the general public have sustained an inestimable loss" and that he "was a Christian man....respected and esteemed by all who knew him". The Eastern Medical Journal, Volumes I-II (where the above quotations were featured) notes that Ludden's death was "due to that almost always fatal malady, diabetes mellitus". He was later interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Lewiston and was survived by his wife Elizabeth, who died at age 81 in 1912.

From the Rhinebeck Gazette, January 8, 1910.

    Another "Mandeville" who made his name known in public service is Mandeville Samuel Frost of Rhinebeck, New York, who served as Township Supervisor (Mayor) of Rhinebeck for three terms. Born on July 30, 1845, in Clinton, New York, Mandeville S. Frost was the son of Samuel and Barbara Traver Frost. Recorded as attending the "district schools of Clinton" Frost would continue his education at the De Garmo Institute and in 1867 removed to Rhinebeck with his father, and would reside here for the remainder of his life. He married in Rhinebeck in November 1868 to Catherine Marquardt (1850-1928) and later became the father to eight children: Minnie L. (born 1869), Charles M. (1872-1895), Alvah G. (born 1875), Austin (born 1880), Benson (born 1883), Edith (born 1885), Ardelle (born 1888) and Florence (born 1890)

   During his long residency in Rhinebeck Frost served as a school teacher, and also worked at farming. He served at various times as town assessor and as a member of the Dutchess County Rebate Tax Commission, and in 1903 was elected as Supervisor of the town of Rhinebeck. Taking office in 1904, he would serve three terms in office, and upon his retirement from office in January 1910 was remarked by the Rhinebeck Gazette as being:

"A relentless foe of graft and dishonesty and has always been fearlessly outspoken in his oppression to such."

   A member of the St. Paul's Wurttemburg Church, Frost was also a stockholder in the St. Paul's Wurttemburg Cemetery Association. Mandeville Frost and his wife Catherine celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1918 and in 1922 he died at age 77. Frost was later interred at the Wurttemburg Cemetery in Rhinebeck and was survived by his wife Catherine, who died six years after her husband.

  Obscure Butler County, Ohio resident Mandeville Tyler "M.T." Mustin's placement here on the site rests on his one term in the Ohio State House of Representatives, his term extending from 1849-50. Little could be located on Mr. Mustin, and even though he lived to the great age of 92, no photograph or obituary for him could be found.

   Born in Virginia on September 22, 1816, "M.T." Mustin moved with his grandparents to Hardin County, Ohio at age four. They later relocated to the neighboring county of Butler, where during his youth "M.T." taught school. He decided to make teaching his lifelong vocation and is recorded as having taught for over forty years in the "townships of Morgan, Reily, Hanover, and Fairfield." He would marry in 1841 to Rebecca Hand, with whom he had five children.

  Remarked as "one of the Democratic leaders in Butler County", Mustin served Hanover township as its assessor in the mid-1840s and in 1849 began service as Butler County's representative to the Ohio General Assembly. His one term (1849-1851) is given praise in the 1906 Centennial History of Butler County, which notes that he:

"Introduced a number of important bills that became laws; had places on several of the leading committees; and in the general deliberations of the house was an active and influential participant."

Mandeville Tyler Mustin died four days after his 92nd birthday on September 26, 1908. He was later interred at the Oxford Cemetery in Oxford, Ohio.

   This interestingly named politician is Manderville Tilden Miller, a resident of Boone County, West Virginia who served two terms in the West Virginia state senate. Little information could be found on Mr. Miller, with the exception going to a small biography in the third volume of the History of West Virginia Old and New, published in 1923. The picture of Miller shown above (and very likely the only one available of him online) was discovered via the Find-a-Grave website, another one of my favorite internet haunts!
   Manderville T. Miller was born in Low Gap, Boone County,  West Virginia on December 31, 1879, the son of Silvanus and Susan Miller. As a youth, he attended schools local to the Low Gap area and in 1896 began a career as an educator. In addition to his aforementioned teaching career, Miller was also a prominent Baptist minister in the Boone County area and held a pastorate in the towns of Seth, Whitesville, and Chelyan, West Virginia for a number of years. The History of West Virginia gives note that Miller was "an eloquent preacher, and his earnest sincerity is very convincing whether his subject be a religious or secular one."
   In addition to these vocations, Manderville T. Miller married in 1899 to Ms. Flora Roberts, and nine children were born to the couple: Orin, Mallie, May, Norma, Opal, Ruby, Haddon, Frank, and Albert Sidney.
   In 1919 Miller was elected as the Superintendent of the Boone County school system and during his four-year term he is listed as having "thirty graded schools and 150 teachers under his supervision." His term as Superintendent concluded in 1923 and five years later Miller was elected to a seat in the West Virginia State Senate, where he represented Boone County. 
  Miller's term in the Senate concluded in 1932 and he died in the town of Madison, West Virginia on December 2, 1943, shortly before his 64th birthday. He was subsequently buried in the Boone Memorial Park and was survived by his wife Flora, who died in 1955.

Decimus et Ultimus Barziza (1838-1882)

Portrait from the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, April 1963.

   This wonderfully named political figure is Decimus et Ultimus Barziza, a 19th-century Texas resident who gained distinction as a soldier, author, lawyer, and member of the Texas State House of Representatives. When I first stumbled across this intriguingly named man several years ago, there were very few resources online that mentioned him at any great length. I'm pleased to report that the above fact has now changed, and one of these newly discovered resources (an archived April 1963 edition of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly) gives an excellent overview on Barziza's short life and how he received his odd name.
   The story behind Barziza's unique name begins in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he was born on September 4, 1838. He was the son of an Italian immigrant and Viscount named Filippo Ignacio Barziza and his Canadian wife, Cecilia Amanda Bellett. Decimus's father settled in Williamsburg, Virginia around 1820 and thereafter had a family that consisted of 9 children. In 1838 a tenth child was born, and after doing some celebrating with friends, Filippo realized that he had no idea what to name his newborn son. A friend who was with him humorously suggested the name of "Decimus et Ultimus" (which literally translates to "tenth and last" in Latin) and the elder Barziza decided to bestow that very name upon his son!
   Young Decimus studied at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and graduated from here in 1857. He removed to Texas with three of his brothers shortly after leaving college and once settled, began the study of law at Baylor University. He earned his law degree in 1859 and shortly thereafter moved to Owensville in the hopes of opening a law practice.
  Barziza's career as a lawyer was put on hold at the outbreak of the Civil War. Soon after the hostilities broke out, he joined up with the Confederate Army and served with the Fourth Texas Infantry. He later became a first lieutenant and served under the command of Gen. John Bell Hood. Barziza eventually became a Captain under Hood and saw action at the Battles of Manassas and Gettysburg. On July 2, 1863, he was wounded at the latter battle and was captured by the Union Army, spending the next few months as a prisoner of war in a camp hospital in Ohio. In 1864, Barziza and a number of other Confederate prisoners were being transferred by train to Point Lookout, Maryland, when he made good his escape by leaping through one of the train's windows.
  In the weeks following his escape, Barziza gradually made his way to Canada and would eventually manage to sneak back into the United States. After resettling in Texas in 1865, he published a memoir of his wartime experiences, entitled The Adventures of a Prisoner of War, and Life and Scenes in Federal Prisons: Johnson's Island, Fort Delaware and Point Lookout. One should also note that Barziza didn't publish these memoirs under his own name, but rather under the pseudonym "An Escaped Prisoner of Hood's Texas Brigade".

            This 1870s portrait of Barziza appears on the Legislative Reference Library of Texas website.

   In the years following the war, Barziza established his law practice and within a few years became known as one of the leading attorneys in his area. He made his first jump into politics in 1873, winning election to the Texas State House of Representatives from Harris County. Barziza proved to be busy as a first-term legislator, being named to the committees on Asylums, Commerce and Manufactures, Congressional Districts,  Constitutional Amendments, Education, Internal Improvements, Judicial Districts, State Affairs, and the Texas Central Railroad. He would also chair the committee on Public Lands and Land Office. Barziza was reelected to the legislature in 1876 and served until August 2nd of that year when he resigned his seat due to a clash with the House's majority party over a piece of legislation. 
  Barziza continued with his law practice in the years following his stint in the legislature and was also one of the founders (and later chairman) of the Houston Land and Trust Company. In 1878 he name was boosted by the Houston Age as a potential candidate for Lieutenant Governor, but nothing came of it. He died of an undisclosed illness in Houston, Texas on January 30, 1882, at age 44, and was subsequently buried in the Glendale Cemetery in Houston.
  

    This Ripley's Believe It Or Not write up on Barziza was published in 1965 in the Albuquerque Journal.