that railroad, to Deadwood in the mining district of the Black Hills, a distance of 250 miles through the Sioux Reservation. By this route they carried the mails, express, passengers, and freight brought by this railroad for the Black Hills, until 1881, when the Chicago and Northwestern railway company completed its line to Pierre on the Missouri river.

For the next four years this company, under the direction of Captain Blakeley and Mr. Carpenter, who had purchased the interests of the other stockholders, carried mail, passengers, freight, etc., between Pierre and the Black Hills, owning for this purpose 300 horses, 500 mules, and 1,000 work oxen, besides also hiring for the freighting business at times nearly as many more.

Another transfer of location of this business was made in 1886 to the terminus of the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley railroad, a part of the Chicago and Northwestern system, on its extensions to western Nebraska and northerly by a branch to the Black Hills. With the completion of this branch railroad, in 1891, the last opportunity for employment of such methods of transportation of this magnitude closed. The stock and vehicles that had been used were therefore gradually disposed of and the business terminated, the oxen being grazed for a year on the ranges west of Pierre and sold as beef on the Chicago market. At this time of retirement from active business, Captain Blakeley had attained the age of seventy-six years.

During the last ten years of this transportation company's operations, they carried as express matter, under strong guard of messengers, practically all of the gold and silver product of the Black Hills district, the values at times reaching $300,000 for a single trip.

Other financial enterprises in which Captain Blakeley had interests included the First National Bank of St. Paul, being one of its original stockholders; the St. Paul and Sioux City railroad, of which he was also an original stockholder, and was a director from 1866 to 1880; the St. Paul, Stillwater and Taylor's Falls railroad, being a charter member and the first president of the company organized for its construction; the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, in which he was

a director during more than thirty years; and the Rock County Farming Company, in which he was a large stockholder and president, joining with Mr. Horace Thompson in the purchase of 22,000 acres of land. This last venture entailed considerable loss, following the death of Mr. Thompson, its business manager.

Captain Blakeley aided in organizing the St. Paul Library Association, and was its first president. He was active in founding the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, and was a member of its board of directors during twenty-one years, being its president for the last two years, and being recognized at the time of his retirement as the father of that organization. He was president of the St. Paul Bethel Association, of the Oakland Cemetery Association, and of the Old Settlers' Association of Minnesota.

He became a member of the Minnesota Historical Society in 1864, and was a member of its council continuously from that date until his death. He was president of this society in 1871, and was a vice president continuously since 1876. No other member was more devoted to its interests, and during his last years he greatly enjoyed reading in its Library and there meeting old friends whom he had brought as pioneers in the early years of Minnesota.

Fletcher Williams, in his History of St. Paul, published in 1876, remarked: "If Captain Blakeley would write a faithful account of steamboating in those days, with his personal reminiscences of men and events, it would make an interesting chapter of our pioneer history." This was done, as already mentioned, in the years 1896 to 1898, when two valuable historical papers were prepared by Captain Blakeley for this society. In his studies for the second paper, relating to the Upper Mississippi, he carefully reviewed the records of the earliest explorations of this region, beginning with Groseilliers and Radisson in the years 1654 to 1660.

Politically, Captain Blakeley enthusiastically supported the principles of the Whig party until 1856, then becoming a Republican. He voted in the presidential campaign of that year for Fremont, and four years later for Lincoln. He was repeatedly chairman of the State Central Committee, and of the Ramsey County Committee for the Republican party.

Religiously, he firmly believed in universal salvation. He aided to organize the Universalist State Convention in 1866, and ever afterward was a member of its executive board of trustees, being for many years the president of its meetings. He was the president of the First Universalist Society of St. Paul since 1866.

Tracing his lineage from the first Pilgrims of Plymouth, Mass., he became a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants of New York.

Four children were born to Captain and Mrs. Blakeley in Galena, Illinois, and six in St. Paul. Eight of these survived their father, namely, Henry, born November 27th, 1854; William, born December 17th, 1857; Sheldon, born July 1st, 1860; George Samson, born October 11th, 1862; John Marvin, born June 14th, 1864; Ellen, born November 27th, 1865, married to Thomas L. Wann, April 26th, 1887; Frank Drummond, born December 18th, 1867; and Marguerite Elizabeth, born October 6th, 1872, married to Harold P. Bend, October 28th, 1897.

The latest work of Captain Blakeley was a compilation, chiefly from the Library of the Histcrical Society, supplemented by much correspondence, showing the ancestry of himself and his children. This work, which is left in manuscript, he intended to publish after its revision by others of his kindred.

During the last few months, most of his bodily powers gradually failed with the weakness common to old age; but his hearing, sight, and mental powers, remained nearly in their ordinary vigor till a few days before his death, which occurred at his home in St. Paul, February 4th, 1901. He went cheerfully from this mortal life, with clear Christian faith in a better and immortal future life.

WARREN UPHAM.

OTHER DECEASED MEMBERS OF THIS SOCIETY,

1898-1901.

FRANKLIN G. ADAMS was born in Rodman, Jefferson county, N. Y., May 13th, 1824, and died at his home in Topeka, Kansas, December 2d, 1899. He was elected a corresponding member of this society February 8th, 1897. He was brought up on a farm, and had only a common school education; but after removing to Cincinnati, in 1843, he spent the next several years as a school teacher, and as a law student, graduating from the law department of the Cincinnati College in 1852. He came to Kansas in 1855; was register of the United States Land Office in Topeka; was probate judge of Atchison county; and from 1876 until his death was the very efficient secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society.

LEVI ATWOOD was born in Chatham, Mass., in 1824, and died at his home in that town September 3d, 1898. During many years he was an editor of the Chatham Monitor; and he was town clerk and treasurer twenty-six years. April 10th, 1876, he was elected a corresponding member of this society.

WILLIAM M. BUSHNELL, elected to life membership in this society April 14th, 1890, was born in Lafayette, Stark county, Illinois, January 23d, 1853, and came to Minnesota, settling in St. Paul, in 1874. He was engaged here in the sale of agricultural implements and machinery during eleven years, and afterward in real estate business. In 1889 he was president of the State Agricultural Society. He died January 1st, 1901, in Monterey, Mexico.

ALEXANDER H. CATHCART was born in Toronto, Canada, July 24th, 1820; and died at his home in St. Paul, October 3d, 1899. At the age of eleven years he began as an apprentice

in the retail dry goods business, which he followed about fifty years. In 1841 he removed to Montreal, and later to New York City, whence he came to St. Paul in 1850, being one of the earliest merchants here. He was a charter member of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce. January 15th, 1856, he was elected a life member of this society. In 1864 he was elected to its Executive Council, and served six years. Later, he was again a councilor from 1882 to 1885, and from 1888 to 1897.

ROBERT CLARKE, publisher, bibliographer, historian, and archæologist, died at his home in Cincinnati, Ohio, August 26th, 1899. He was elected a corresponding member of this society November 9th, 1868. He was born in Annan, Scotland, May 1st, 1829; came, with his parents, to Cincinnati in 1840; was educated at Woodward College; was author and editor of numerous books of Ohio history; and was publisher of many important historical works.

ELLIOTT COUES, who was elected an honorary member of this society May 14th, 1894, was born in Portsmouth, N. H., September 9th, 1842, and died in Baltimore, Md., December 25th, 1899. He graduated at Columbian University, Washington, D. C., in 1861; entered the United States Army as a medical cadet in 1862, and two years later became an assistant surgeon. From 1876 to 1880 he was secretary and naturalist of the U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, under direction of Dr. F. V. Hayden. During thirty years Dr. Coues was active as an author and editor of works of ornithology and other branches of zoology; and in recent years he was editor of new editions of the reports of Lewis and Clark and of Pike, and the journal of Alexander Henry, works of great importance for the early history of the Northwest.

CHARLES P. DALY, jurist, was born in New York City, October 31st, 1816; and died at Sag Harbor, N. Y., September 19th, 1899. He had only a scanty school education, and early went to sea before the mast, thus serving as a sailor three