Richard Chute was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 22, 1820. He first visited St. Anthony Falls in 1844, and built a trading house. He was one of the firm of W. G. Ewing & Co. In 1854 he located permanently at the Falls where he has been engaged in real estate operations, milling and other branches of business. He has been successful in his undertakings, and is a man of excellent standing in the community.
Lucius N. Parker was born in Chester, Vermont, Dec. 11, 1823. He came to Illinois in his boyhood and remained there till eighteen years of age, when he came to Marine, Minnesota, and engaged in lumbering. In 1846 he was one of the proprietors of the Osceola (Polk county, Wisconsin) mills. In 1849 he sold out his interest, removed to St. Anthony Falls and carried the mail between St. Paul and that city. He removed to the west side of the river, known now as Minneapolis, and has since resided there. He was married to Amanda Huse in 1849.
Capt. John Rollins was born in March, 1806, at New Sharon, Maine. While in Maine he followed lumbering and hotel keeping. In 1848 he came to the Falls and engaged in lumbering, steamboating, milling and farming. He was a member of the first territorial council of Minnesota, in 1849-50. He was married to Betsey Martin at Newport, Maine, in 1832. They have seven children living. Capt. Rollins died in 1885.
John G. Lennon was born in Bolton, England, July 6, 1815. He came to America in 1841 as supercargo of a vessel bound to New Orleans. In 1843 he located at St. Croix Falls, removed to St. Paul in 1848, and in 1850 to St. Anthony Falls, where he entered the service of the St. Anthony Outfit. In 1856 he engaged in the lumbering and mercantile business and in 1859 removed to a stock farm in Sibley county. During the Civil War he served as assistant commissary, and through Gen. Sibley's Indian campaign. At the suppression of the Indian revolt his regiment was transferred South and attached to the Sixteenth Army Corps, under Gen. A. J. Smith and Division Commander Gen. Joseph Mower and he served as quartermaster until mustered out at the close of the war, when he returned to civil life and commenced dealing in real estate. In 1873 he returned to Minneapolis. He was married to Mary D. McLain in 1851. He died in August, 1887, leaving a widow and two children.
John H. Stevens.—Col. Stevens traces his ancestry to the Moors who, during the wars of the Alhambra were carried captive to France, where they became known as Huguenots. Driven by persecution from France to England, they emigrated thence with the Puritans on the Mayflower to America. Col. Stevens was born June 13, 1820, in Lower Canada, whither his parents had emigrated from Vermont. His father gave him an excellent education.
At an early day John H. came to the lead mines of South Wisconsin. During the war with Mexico he served as a soldier, and after the war, in 1849, came to the Northwest and located on the west bank of the Mississippi, at St. Anthony Falls, where he built the first frame house on the west side, on ground that afterward became the site of the union depot. He was a member of the lower house of the legislature of 1876, and has filled other public positions with honor to himself. He has been influential in municipal affairs, and always a staunch advocate of the interests of his city, county and State. He is the author of a book of "Reminiscences of Pioneer Life." He was married at Rockford, Illinois, in 1850, to Frances Helen Miller. They have one son, Francis H. G., and three daughters, Orma, Sarah and Kittie D., wife of P. B. Winston.
Caleb D. Dorr was born at East Great Works, Penobscot county, Maine. He became a practical lumberman, and, coming to the Falls in 1847, bought of Hole-in-the-Day, a Chippewa chief at Swan River, one hundred trees at five dollars per tree, for St. Anthony Falls improvements, the first timber floated down the Mississippi above the mouth of Rum river.
Mr. Dorr was in the employ of the government for ten years, locating state and school lands. He has followed the business of scaling logs, and has also been boom master. He was married to Celestia A. Ricker, of Maine, March 4, 1849.
Rev. Edward Duffield Neill, the well known author of the "History of Minnesota," was born in Philadelphia Aug. 9, 1823. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and Amherst College, Massachusetts, graduating from the latter in 1842. He studied theology at Andover Theological Seminary, Massachusetts, and in 1847 preached as a missionary amongst the miners in and around Galena, Illinois. He was transferred to St. Paul in April, 1849, where he organized a society and erected the first Protestant church building in Minnesota not on mission grounds. It was situated on Third and Market streets. He also built for himself, on the corner of Fourth and Washington streets, the first brick house in the city. In 1855 he organized the House of Hope society and acted as its pastor five years. He was also the prime mover in establishing the Baldwin School. In 1855 he secured the building of the St. Paul College, for some years conducted as a classical school and afterward consolidated with the Baldwin School. He was the first territorial superintendent of public instruction, in 1851-2, and served as state superintendent from 1858 to 1864. He was called to fill many educational trusts.
April 29, 1861, he was appointed chaplain of the First Minnesota Volunteers, and served as such over two years. He was with his regiment at the battles of Bull Run, Fair Oaks and Malvern Hill. President Lincoln appointed him hospital chaplain, he became one of the president's private secretaries, and continued in that relation during the presidency of Andrew Johnson. In 1869 President Grant appointed him United States consul at Dublin, where he resided two years. Returning to Minnesota in 1871, he removed to Minneapolis and conducted the Baldwin School and St. Paul College, under the title of Macalester College, and located his school in the old Winslow House, Minneapolis. In January, 1874, Mr. Neill connected himself with the Reformed Episcopal church.