Hananiah Darlington Pugh (1829-1913)

Portrait from the Lansing State Journal, January 6, 1913.

  Several oddly named postmasters of major U.S. cities have been found this year, and the name of Hananiah Darlington Pugh is by far the strangest. A Civil War veteran and former county superintendent of the poor, Pugh served as U.S. Postmaster of Lansing, the capital city of Michigan, being appointed by President Cleveland. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 6, 1829, Hananiah Darlington Pugh was the son of Meredith Darlington (1807-1866) and Jane (Stuart) Pugh (1811-1885). 

  Little information could be located on Pugh's formative years or education, and in 1854 married Mary Elizabeth Berry (1837-1890), with who he had 13 children. A veteran of the Civil War, Pugh served as captain of Co. I, 47th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry which was organized in Toledo in August 1861. Pugh's service extended three years, and was honorably discharged in October 1864. 

  Following his discharge Pugh removed to Lansing, Michigan, where in 1865 he purchased a tannery from the Lederer brothers, which he operated for four years. Pugh first entered Lansing politics in the late 1860s. He served on the board of aldermen in 1868 and 1870, and in 1875 was named as clerk of the state supreme court. Pugh served four years and at the end of his term unearthed a treasurer trove of historical documents while moving his office records, including papers signed by territorial Governor Arthur St. Clair, future U.S. President William Henry Harrison, and the oaths of office of Governors William Hull and Lewis Cass. 

  Pugh stepped down as clerk in January 1879, having been elected as Ingham County superintendent of the poor. He continued in that office until at least 1881, and in August 1886 was appointed by President Cleveland as U.S. Postmaster at Lansing. His term extended nearly three years, and was succeeded by Seymour Foster in June 1889. 

  Widowed in 1890, Pugh removed from Lansing a few years following his wife's death and settled in Corunna in Shiawassee County. Following his resettlement he remarried and died in Corunna on January 4, 1913, aged 82. He was survived by his wife and several children and was returned to Lansing for burial at the Mt. Hope Cemetery.

From the Owosso Times, January 10, 1913.

Lotie Irenus Minard (1837-1913)

Portrait from the History of the City of Nashua, New Hampshire, 1897.

   Snappily dressed and sporting a fine example of a 19th-century mustache, three-term New Hampshire state legislator Lotie Irenus Minard was a lifelong resident of Nashua, being born in that city on April 7, 1857, the son of Charles F. and Sarah (Gay) Minard. He would attend the public schools of Nashua and the Crosby Academy and as a young man went into railroad work, which he would follow for four years.

  In the late 1870s Minard entered into the shoe-making trade, and after several years of private work joined the manufacturing firm of Moody, Estabrook, and Anderson in Nashua. Minard would be employed there for seven years and in the mid-1890s was involved in the concrete business in his native city. On October 1, 1884, Lotie Minard married in Nashua to Josephine Hebert (1858-1934), to whom he was wed for nearly thirty years. The couple would remain childless.

  Remarked as having a keen interest in the political life of Nashua, Lotie I. Minard's first run at public office came in 1884 when he was elected to represent Ward 6 on Nashua's Common Council. In 1885 and 1886 he sat on the Nashua Board of Aldermen and in 1890 was elected to his first term in the state legislature, serving in the session of 1891-92. Minard would be returned to the legislature in November 1896, garnering 316 votes on election day. During the 1897-99 session, he would serve on the committee on the Revision of Statutes and won his third term in the house in November 1898.

From the Souvenir of New Hampshire Legislators, 1897.

   After his third term in 1901, Minard returned to his business interests in Nashua, serving as the treasurer of the Nashua Concrete Co. He returned to political life in 1908 when he began service as a Hillsborough County Commissioner, serving in that post for an indeterminate length of time. Minard died in Nashua on February 24, 1913, at age 63. He was survived by his wife Josephine, who, following her death in 1934, was interred alongside her husband at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashua.

Clesson Selwyne Kinney (1859-1913)

 

From The Irrigation Age, Volume 17, published in 1902.

    A distinguished figure in Utah legal circles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Clesson Selwyne Kinney also served one term in the Utah State House of Representatives, representing the county of Salt Lake beginning in 1905. Both before and after his time on the political stage Kinney maintained an avowed interest in a rather unusual non-political subject, irrigation and water rights. Viewed by many of his contemporaries as a true scholar on the history of irrigation in both ancient and modern times, Kinney authored many irrigation-related articles in agricultural periodicals of his time and is honored today as the newest biography to be added to the site.

    Born and raised in Ohio, Clesson Selwyne Kinney's birth occurred in the town of East Townsend on December 5, 1859, a son of Edwin and Elizabeth Godden Kinney. His education began in the Huron County school system and as a young adult studied at both the Dennison University and Oberlin Colleges. After spending a four year period (1877-1881) in the employ of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company he enrolled at the University of Michigan and graduated in the class of 1887, having earned his bachelor of arts degree. Following his graduation Kinney spent several months teaching mathematics

at a high school in Leavenworth, Kansas and later decided upon a career in law, being admitted to the Kansas bar in 1888. He married in Chicago, Illinois in December of 1889 to Antoinette Brown (ca. 1862-1946), with whom he would have one son, Selwyne Perez Kinney (1890-1976), later to become notable as an engineer and inventor. 

   Removing to Salt Lake City, Utah soon after his marriage, Kinney established a law office in that city and over the succeeding decades would devote himself not only to the practice of law, but to the "law of irrigation and water rights." Kinney became interested in the study of irrigation shortly after settling in the arid climate of Utah, and after years of study developed a reputation as one of the nation's foremost experts on water rights and irrigation properties. 

    Not content to just specialize in water rights as an attorney, Kinney also authored a four-volume masterwork on irrigation and water management, "Kinney on Irrigation and Water Rights", first published in 1894. Kinney's work gained him wide praise and it became "a standard, and is cited as an authority in all the courts of the West, and also the U.S. Supreme Circuit and district courts." He also authored numerous articles related to this subject for the Irrigation Age illustrated journal between 1896 and 1912, and in 1903 completed "Kinney's Digest of the Utah Reports" an extensive index for the twenty-six volume law reports of the Utah State Supreme Court. Active in the Utah State Bar Association for many years, Kinney served as the Secretary of that organization beginning in 1894.

  Kinney took no part in politics until November of 1904 when he was elected as a Republican to the Utah State House of Representatives. Taking office in January of 1905, Kinney served as the chairman of three house committees during his one term, those being the Judiciary, the St. Louis Purchase Exposition Commission, and the Committee on Rules. 

From the Irrigation Age, Volume IX, published 1896.

   After the conclusion of his term in 1907 Kinney returned to his law practice and continued to write, beginning work on the second edition of "Kinney on Water Rights and Irrigation" which was eventually published in late 1912. His later years were marked by his memberships in the Knights Templars and Shriners lodges, while also serving as Masonic Grand Master. In October of 1912, Kinney was a featured speaker at the National Irrigation Congress, where he would give his last public address. 

   Burdened by years of overwork writing and revising his manuscripts, Kinney left Utah in December 1912 out of concern for his health, vacationing in Honolulu, Hawaii. He spent the first two months of 1913 here and on February 17th died at age 53, being felled by illness at a dinner that was being given in his honor at the home of a local judge in Honolulu. After being cremated, Kinney's ashes were brought home to Salt Lake City by his wife Antoinette, and following her death in 1946 was buried along with her husband at the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in that city.

From the Salt Lake Tribune, February 19, 1913.

Eschines Pierson Matthews (1832-1913)

  Portrait from the Pioneer History of Milwaukee, Volume IV, 1886.

  Today's write-up centers on the life of the oddly named Eschines Pierson Matthews, a native Ohioan who sought his business and political fortunes in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Eschines ("E.P.", as most sources refer to him) and his brother Alonzo were the founders of the famed Matthews Bros. Furniture Company, one of the most prominent furniture manufacturing houses in the United States during the 19th century. While this fact alone makes Eschines Matthews a notable figure in Wisconsin history, it is his service as a Wisconsin state representative in the 1880s that earns him a place here.
  Considering that Matthews was a fairly prominent man in Milwaukee throughout the latter period of the 19th century, you'd figure that there would be at least one substantial biographical resource on him. Although there are a few brief mentions of him in various works chronicling Wisconsin history, the only one that can be considered "significant" is the 4th volume of the Pioneer History of Milwaukee, published in 1886. The portrait of Matthews shown above was discovered in this book, as was a good majority of the information that constitutes his profile here.
  Born and raised in Ohio, Eschines Pierson Matthews' birth took place in Painesville on September 11, 1832, the son of former state representative Anson and Betsy Durand Matthews. Eschines and his younger brother Alonzo (1835-1901) received their education in schools local to the Chagrin Falls area and attended Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. When both brothers reached manhood they relocated from Geauga County, Ohio to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in June 1857 and soon set about establishing the Matthews name in local business circles.
  Within a few years of their resettlement, the Matthews brothers had built a prosperous furniture store on East Water Street in Milwaukee as well as a manufacturing facility on River Street. Eschines and Alonzo were joined in the business by a third brother, John Quincy Adams Matthews in 1867 and he soon became a full partner. 
   The Matthews Bros. Furniture Company continued to grow throughout the 1870s and throughout that decade moved to larger quarters on more than one occasion. After two enlargements in 1879 and 1882, the company could boast of a payroll with over 200 men and an incorporated capital of over $100,000. The Pioneer History of Milwaukee also notes that the company showrooms were "filled with the most costly and elegant furniture to be found in the West, nearly all of which is the product of their own factory."A photograph of the Matthews Brothers building is shown below, as looked around the turn of the century.

  With his name now firmly established in the Milwaukee business community, Eschines P. Matthews entered city politics, and in 1878 was elected to a two-year term on the Milwaukee Board of Aldermen. This was his first attempt at public office, and James Smith Buck, author of the Pioneer History of Milwaukee makes note of  Matthews's disdain for political life, stating that "Indeed, such was the disgust engendered in his breast for anything remotely smelling of politics, by his short service in that body.......would tempt him to enter the arena of politics again". 
  The above observation proved to be somewhat premature, as Matthews did indeed venture into the field of politics once again. In 1880 he ran for and was elected to a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Republican. The 1881 Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin lists Matthews as defeating his Democratic challenger (George P. Harrington) by a vote of 1492 to 941. During his term, he represented the 4th ward of Milwaukee County and served on the committee on Charitable and Penal Institutions, and was chairman of the committee on Cities. A roster from the 1881 session (with Eschines P. Matthews's name highlighted in yellow) has been provided below.

  Eschines Matthews continued active involvement with his furniture company after his legislative term, and at the beginning of the 20th century, the company began the manufacture and sale of furniture pieces designed by eminent American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Eschines himself died at age 81 on July 30, 1913, and the company experienced a dip in business in the years following his demise. The company eventually closed its doors in 1937 after eighty years of business. The obituary of Matthews shown below appeared in the Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth on the day following his death. Curiously, it makes no mention of him having served a term in the Wisconsin legislature.

McKaskia Stearns Bonnifield (1833-1913)

   A pioneer citizen in both the Kansas and Nevada Territories, McKaskia Stearns Bonnifield was originally born in West Virginia on September 14, 1833 (the year 1834 is also given by some sources as his year of birth.) The Bonnifield family moved to Iowa when McKaskia was three, and it is interesting to note that he was one of 15 children born into the Bonnifield family before his father died in 1838. The few sources that detail Bonnifield's life mention him by the initials "M.S.", and when he was originally discovered by me, I had to do quite a search to find out what his first and middle names actually stood for!
   McKaskia Bonnifield attended the Alleghany College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and married in this town in 1855 to Laura Ames, with whom he had three daughters, Emily (1882-1927), Delia and Dora (1872-1928). After graduating from Alleghany, Bonnifield moved to Kansas, where he passed the state bar exam in 1856. During his stay in Kansas, Bonnifield was active in the Free-Soil Party movement and was elected to a term in the Kansas State Senate in the late 1850s. Strangely, considering the notability of this office, no sources mention how long his service was. He eventually left Kansas and resettled in Humboldt County, Nevada in 1862.
   Within a few short years of his moving to Nevada, Bonnifield became known as one of the leading lawyers in the territory and also staked a claim in the state's vast mining industry. Public office also beckoned to Bonnifield, and in 1868 he was elected to the Nevada Territorial Senate, where he served until 1872. In 1887 Laura Ames Bonnifield died after thirty-two years of marriage and two years later McKaskia remarried to Nellie Lovelock, a widowed resident of Winnemucca. In 1892 Nellie gave birth to a son, McKaskia Jr., who died a little over a year later on February 12, 1894.
   Further political honors were accorded to him in 1892 when he was named as a Democratic presidential elector, and is remarked by the History of Nevada: Her Resources and People as carrying "the vote of the state to Washington, the three electors casting their ballots engraved on silver plates." Three years after he served as an elector, Bonnifield was elected as an Associate Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court and served on the bench for six years. 
  After he retired from the court in 1901, Bonnifield reestablished his earlier law practice in the city of Winnemucca, Nevada, and also maintained active involvement in the Masons, Independent Order of Odd-Fellows and was a member of the local Methodist Episcopal Church. He died in Winnemucca on July 14, 1913, at age 79, and was survived by his second wife Nellie. The portrait of McKaskia Bonnifield shown above was discovered in the 1904 work A History of the State of Nevada: Her Resources and People. This book also stands as one of the few available resources that give a proper biography of Bonnifield and his political/judicial career.

                                                              Bonnifield in his later years.