Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/151

 HISTOEY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 107 prosperity of the city, he became fired with the enthusiasm of the other pioneers of those days, and returning east, he settled up his business affairs there, again coming to Red Wing in the spring of 1856. Here he remained from that date until the time of his death, with the exception of some trips he made for the benefit of Ins health. lie first became engaged in the mer- cantile business, which he continued for some time, working also in the store of Mclntire & Sheldon. In 1860 he became a partner with T. 1-5. Sheldon in the forwarding and commission business, in which he remained until IstiT. when failing health necessi- tated his partial retirement. He became a director in the First National bank and continued in this capacity until 1880. In 1887. with B. B. Herbert and others, he started the Red Wing Building Association, of which he was secretary. First elected mayor of Red Wing in 1868, he was several times re-elected, and filled flic position with dignity and ability. Aside from his other interests he was a stockholder in the local potteries. In 1880 lie went to California in search of health, and three years later returned someAvhat benefited. His death, April 11, 1887, at his home in Red Wing, was the occasion of the following obituary notice, which expresses the feelings of those with whom he w^as associated: "Until compelled by failing health to retire, he was actively employed in some department of practical busi- ness in which the prosperity of tin 1 city was more or less directly identified. Never a strong man, he had the time and the energy and the pluck to devote to the public as w T ell as to his private interests, when that public — as on more than one occasion it did — demanded his services. As mayor of the city for successive terms, and in the discharge of other public trusts, his labors are remembered with gratitude. They were uniformly in the direc- tion of public interests, intelligently understood and appreciated, and from that line of action nothing could swerve him. In public, as in private, those who knew him best esteemed him best. In the family and home circle he was ever the kind, con- siderate husband, father and friend, thoughtful for others to the last. A true and noble and manly man has gone from among us. The world is better for such as he." Mr. Hodgman was married May 13, 1862, at Red Wing, to Harriet Kellogg, one of the first music teachers of Red Wing, a musician of much ability and a graduate of the Young Ladies' Seminary of Music, at Coopers- town, N. Y. She was the daughter of Joseph and Harriet (Kingsley), Kellogg, natives of New York state. Her father, a harness maker by trade, died in his native state in 1850, and his widow came to St. Paul with her family in 1853. In 1856 they came to Red Wing, where she died in May. 1S65. To Mr. and Mrs. Hodgman was born one son, Leonard W.. July 13. 1863, at