Wescott Wilken, a brother of Alexander, was born at Goshen, New York, in 1827, received a good education, graduating at Princeton College in 1843, and studied law at New Haven Law School in 1846. He practiced law in Sullivan county, New York, and was county judge four years. In 1856 he came to St. Paul and formed a partnership with I. V. D. Heard; was elected judge of the district court in 1864, and re-elected every succeeding term, without opposition.
S. C. Whitcher was born in Genesee county, New York, in 1821. He came to Amador, Chisago county, Minnesota, in 1853, and to St. Paul in 1858. He was married to Helen M. Olds, in New York, in 1840. Their two sons are Charles and Edward.
Maj. Thomas McLean Newson was born in New York City, Feb. 22, 1827, of Scotch-Irish parentage. His paternal grandfather was paymaster in the army during the war of 1812. His father, Capt. George Newson, commanded a military company in New York City for seventeen years. Three uncles were in the war of 1812. His father removed to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1832, and both parents died there in 1834. The son, after his parents' death, was placed in a boarding school. When he left the school he learned the printer's trade, and on arriving at his majority entered into partnership with John B. Hotchkiss in the publication of the Derby Journal, in Birmingham, Connecticut. During this period he wrote poetry, delivered lectures, and took an active part in political affairs. He was secretary of the first editorial association in Connecticut, and started and conducted for a year the first daily penny paper in the State. He was one of the originators of the reform school and an efficient promoter of its interests.
He came to St. Paul in 1853, where he was first associated with Joseph R. Brown in the editorial department of the Pioneer, but the following spring, in company with others, started the Daily Times, which he edited until 1860, when he leased the material to W. R. Marshall. The Press was the outgrowth of this movement. He was one of the founders of the Republican party in the State and was sole delegate of his party in Minnesota to the Pittsburgh national convention.
At the outbreak of the Rebellion he entered the service of his country, was commissioned commissary of subsistence and subsequently appointed acting assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain. At one time he was chief commissary at St. Cloud. He left the army with a splendid record for honesty and capacity, with the brevet rank of major, conferred for meritorious service, and the offer of a position in the regular army, which he declined. In 1866 he was commander and president of a company which explored the Vermillion Lake region prospecting for precious metals. He was the first to assay the iron ores, now so famous, in that region. In later years we find him prospecting amongst the Black Hills, enjoying the wild life of the frontier and devoting some attention to literature. While there he wrote a drama of "Life in the Hills" and delivered lectures at various times and places, achieving in this line an enviable success. Since this period he has written and published an interesting work, entitled "Thrilling Scenes Among the Indians," drawn from his own observation and experience; also "Pen Pictures and Biographical Sketches of Old Settlers of St. Paul, from 1838 to 1857," a rich and racy book of seven hundred and thirty-two pages, in which the driest biographical details are enlivened with amusing anecdotes and witty comments, in which naught is set down in malice, but every line glows with the genial spirit of the author. He has in contemplation another volume on the same subject. He has also published "Heleopa," "Indian Legends" and "Recollections of Eminent Men." Maj. Newson is a man of varied and miscellaneous gifts. He is a ready writer, a fluent and eloquent speaker, a journalist, a historian and the oldest editor in Minnesota. He is corresponding secretary of the National Editorial Association, and the first and only honorary member of the State Fire Association; he is a geologist, mineralogist and assayer, a member of the G. A. R., of the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges, and of the Junior Pioneers. He is broad-gauged and popular in his views and positive in the expression of his opinions. He was married to Miss Harriet D. Brower, in Albany, New York, in 1857, and has a family of five girls and one boy, May, Hattie, Nellie, Jessie, Grace, and T. M. Newson, Jr.
MAJ. T. M. NEWSON, THE OLDEST EDITOR IN THE STATE.
CAPT. HENRY A. CASTLE, ONE OF MINNESOTA'S PIONEER EDITORS.