Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/341

 WASHBURN

WASHBURN

Wells ; removed to Davenport, Iowa, in 1839 ; was surveyor of Rock Island county, 1840 ; admit- ted to the bar, March 29, 1842, and removed to Mineral Point, Wis., where he engaged as a land agent and in 1852 he established the Mineral Point bank. He was a Whig representative from the second Wisconsin district in the 34th-3Gth con- gresses, 1855-61, and was a delegate to the peace congress held at Philadelphia in 1861. He was commissioned colonel of the 2d Wisconsin cav- alry, Oct. 10, 1861, and served under Gen. Samuel R. Curtis in Arkansas, taking part in the battle of Grand Coteau, and was commissioned brig- adier-general, U.S. v., July 16, 1862, and major- general, Nov. 29, 1862. He commanded a de- iachment of the 16th army corps. Army of the Tennessee, in the Vicksburg campaign, May 1- July 4, 1863, and was assigned to the general command at Haynes Bluff, June 8, 1863. On the surrender of Vicksburg, he was given com- mand of the 13th army corps and sent to the De- partment of the Gulf. On Nov. 29, 1862, he at- tacked Fort Esperanza on the coast of Texas and caused its evacuation. He was given command of the district of west Tennessee in April, 1864, and held this office until May, 1865, when he re- signed his commission. He was a Republican representative from the 6th district of Wisconsin in the 40th-41st congresses, 1867-71 ; was gov- ernor of Wisconsin, 1872-74, and was defeated as candidate for U.S. senator in 1875 by Angus Cameron. In 1876 he built a flour mill in Minne- apolis, Minn., where he introduced the patent pro- cess of milling. He was president of the Wiscon- sin Historical society ; founded the Washburn observatory connected with the State University of Wisconsin in 1878, and was a life regent of the University. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by the University of Wisconsin in 1873. He bequeathed his country home, Edge- wood, near Madison, to the Dominican Sisters to be used as a school ; $50,000 to found a public library at Lacrosse, Wis., and $375,000 for the establishment of an orphans' home in Minneapolis. He died in Eureka Springs. Ark., May 14, 1S82.

WASHBURN, Charles Ames, editor, was born in Livermore, ]\Iaine. Marcli 16, 1822 ; son of Israel (1784-1876) and Martha (Benjamin) Wash- burn. He was graduated from Bowdoin in 1848 ; studied law, and in 1850 removed to California and engaged in journalism. He was editor and proprietor of the Alta Californian at San Fran- cisco, 1853-58, and of the San Francisco Daily Times, 1858-60. He was a presidential elector-at- large in 1860 ; was commissioner to Paraguay, 1861-63, and U.S. minister-resident, 1863-68. During the war between Paraguay and Brazil, in 1868, he was accused of conspiracy against President Lopez, but escaped to the U.S.S. Wasp.

He returned to California, but later removed to Morristown, N.J., where he invented the tj-po- graph, a form of typewriter. He is the author of : Philip Thaxter (1861); Gomery of Montgom- ery (1865); A History of Paraguay (2 vols. 1870); Political Evolution (1887), and From Poverty to Covipetence (1887). He died in New York city, Jan. 26, 1889.

WASHBURN, Elihu Benjamin, statesman^ ■was born in Livermore, Maine, Sept. 23, 1816 ; son of Israel and Martha (Benjamin) Washburn ; gi-andson of Capt. Israel and Abiah (King) Washburn. His grandfather was an officer in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war, and a descendant of John Washburn, who ■was secretary of the Plymouth colony in England, emigi-ated to America in 1631 and settled at Duxbury, Mass. His father settled in Maine in 1806, and engaged in ship-building at AVhite's Landing on the Kennebec river in 1808. He at- tended the public schools and obtained employ- ment as a printer on the Christian Intelligencer at Gardiner, Maine, 1833-34 ; taught school, 1834- 35 ; was employed on the Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, 1835-36 ; studied law at Kent's Hill seminary and with John Otis in Augusta, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He re- moved to Galena, 111. , and entered into partner- ship with Charles S. Hempstead, whose daughter he married, and their son, Hempstead Wash- burn, born Nov. 11, 1852, became maj'or of Chicago in 1891. He was a delegate to the Whig national convention at Baltimore, May 1, 1844, and again, June 16, 1852, in the same city. He was a Whig representative from the Galena dis- trict of Illinois in the 33d-40th congresses, 1853- 69 ; serving as chairman of the committee on commerce, 1855-65, and on the joint committee on the impeachment of President Johnson. General Grant was largely indebted to Represen- tative Washburn for favors received at the hands of congress both during and after the civil war and for the bills creating him lieutenant-general and general. He opposed subsidies to railroad companies, and all extravagant appropriations for public improvements, and his opposition to questionable use of the public money made him known as the '' Watch-Dog of the Treasury." He was appointed secretary of state in the first cabinet of President Grant in 1869, which office he resigned a few daj^s after to accept that of U.S. minister to France. He was in Paris during the Franco-German War ; was the only foreign minister to continue at his post, and opened the doors of the Americnn embassy to all foreigners seeking protection from tlie fury of the Com- mune, and when the empire was overthrown, he was the first foreign representative to recognize the new Republic. He returned to the United