Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/588

 508 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY of St. Paul, formerly of Red Wing: "William Colvill wrote his name for the Union army at a meeting held at the court house in Red Wing immediately after the fall of Sumter. The state was then new, and Red Wing a frontier town, but made up of rep- resentative Americans. They had at that time almost the only institution of higher learning in the Northwest west of the Mis- sissippi, namely Hamline University. Among the residents of Red Wing at that time were Judge E. T. Wilder, a prince of lawyers; W. W. Phelps, ah orator .for any occasion; Judge Charles McClure, one of the sponsors at the birth of the Repub- lican party, whose clarion voice and patriotic utterances were heard in the constitutional convention as well as many gather- ings of a patriotic and religious nature in the early days; Jabez Brooks, profound scholar, who for many years held the chair of Greek in the state university: Edward Eggleston, professor at Hamline. and well known the nation over by his "The Hoosier Schoolboy.* Then, too, there was the Rev. Peter Akers. whose eloquence so impressed Abraham Lincoln with one of his anti- slavery sermons thai he said: 'Mr. Akers is one of the most im- pressive preachers 1 ever heard. Somehow I feel that I will have something to do with the abolition of slavery.' Colonel Robert Ingersoll said that Lincoln's soul took lire on that occasion. Then. too. there was the Rev. Matthew Sorin. the idol of the rostrum. His words were flaming swords and set fire to all hearts. Of such men. and scores of brighl young fellows from the village and Hamline University, the meeting was made up. When the call came for volunteers at the close of the appeal, two young men rose and ran over the backs of their seats in their haste to get through the crowd. They were Edward Welch and William Colvill. Welch slipped and fell on the last seat and in falling reached for the pen. But Colvill seized it. saying, 'You are next, Ed.' Then followed many others. "The company thus commenced was the first company out- side of the organized state militia to be offered to the governor under his call for one regiment. As soon as the governor's proc- lamation was issued, enlistments were commenced, and within five days the ranks of the Goodhue county volunteers were full, with men to spare. On Monday, April 22, 1861. the county com- missioners being in session, a petition signed by numerous citi- zens, asking for an appropriation by the county of the sum of five hundred dollars for the support of Goodhue volunteers dur- ing the time they are preparing and filling up their ranks, and for the support of their families during their absence, was re- ceived, 'whereupon, on motion, the sum of three hundred dollars was appropriated for the purpose.' It was further ordered that a committee of three be appointed to see to the wants of said