CANUTE R. MATSON,
was born in Norway in the year 1843. He emigrated with his parents to America in 1848, and settled in Walworth county, Wisconsin, but removed in a short time to Dane county, Wisconsin, where in 1858 he entered Albion Academy, and as a natural sequence of his insatiate thirst for knowledge he made rapid progress maintaining ever a prominent place at the head of his class. He was a student in Milton College at the opening of the war. The inherent patriotism of a noble nature had been fanned into a flame by the institutions of American freedom, and he at once offered himself as a sacrifice, if need be, in the defense of his adopted country, by enlisting in 1861 in the Union army as a private soldier in Company K, Thirteenth Wisconsin Infantry. In 1862 he was made commissary sergeant. He was raised to lieutenant of Company G., in 1864, and was acting regimental quartermaster at the close of the war in 1865, and received his honorable discharge bearing the untarnished reputation of a brave soldier and a noble officer.
He afterward obtained a position in the post office where he published the Postal Record, an official paper of the department.
In 1868 he was elected clerk of the Police Court. In 1871 he was accorded the power to appoint, and also the supervision of the deputies. In 1875 he was appointed justice of the peace. In 1878 he was admitted to the bar. He ran for sheriff in 1879 and was only defeated by a very small majority in favor of his opponent. He served two years as coroner, being nominated by acclammationacclamation when he satisfied all parties of his intent, and ability to perform the duties of his office with credit to himself and honor to those by whose effort he had been placed in so responsible a position.
In 1882 he was again a candidate for the office of sheriff through the importunities of his friends, and was barely defeated by S. F. Hanchett, who in selecting a chief deputy made the wise choice of C. R. Matson, which position he filled to the close of the term, giving entire satisfaction to all parties with whom he came in contact in connection with the discharge of his official duties.
He has obtained all the honorable and responsible positions which he has filled solely upon his merits, and has retained them with the confidence of the public, by the efficient and impartial manner in which he has served the people of Cook county.
He was installed in the office of sheriff of Cook county Dec. 6, 1886, enjoying still the confidence of the people. He is a man of great heart, broad and deep sympathies, yet unswerving in the administration of the law as a sacred obligation he owes to the public, and in the years to come history replete with the sayings and doings of the great men of to-day will shed a halo of glory forever upon the name of Canute R. Matson as a brave, true and noble man, and the most prominent Scandinavian leader of the era in which he lived, having left an example worthy of emulation by those who shall come after him.