In the early years of our nation’s history Dr. Gustavus Brown was a celebrated
physician, and became surgeon-general of the Revolutionary army. This fact is of interest
in the present connection, for the reason that he was the patron and educational guide of
Dr. Gustavus Brown Horner, the father of the subject of the present sketch. The
acquaintance of the two men had this beginning: Surgeon-General Brown was, by the special
order of General Washington, inspecting the Maryland troops and enrolling the names of the
able-bodied men, when he discovered the youth Gustavus Brown Horner, and recognized him as
his nephew. He took this nephew from the ranks, educated him in his marquee, or
surgeon’s tent, and made him an associate and assistant during the entire
Revolutionary War. Thus, enlisting as a patriot soldier at the age of seventeen, young
Horner soon achieved success in the medical profession, and in 1778 received from the
continental congress a commission as surgeon’s mate. Connected with the army in the
North, he was for a time stationed at Valley forge. During an illness of the Marquis
Lafayette, the general was placed under his especial care.
Soon after the close of the war (1783), Horner emigrated to Virginia and settled at
Farquier Court House (now Warrenton), where he married Frances Harrison Scott, a daughter
of Captain James Scott, a Revolutionary officer. Scott had clothed and armed his company
at his own expense, and served gallantly in the regiment commanded by Col. Thomas
Marshall, father of the famous chief justice. Among the eight children born to Dr.
Gustavus Brown Horner and Frances Harrison Scott, John Scott Horner was the third son. At
the age of ten he was sent to a private boarding school conducted by the Rev. William
Williamson, near Middleburg, Loudoun County, Virginia. Here the youth learned many
wholesome lessons, for Mr. Williamson was a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman with
considerable local celebrity as a man of learning, and a master of rigid discipline in
morals, manners, and even diet.
By the death of his father young Horner’s school education was interrupted; but in
1817 he entered Washington College, Pennsylvania, and two years later was graduated with
good standing from that institution. He immediately began the study of law with the Hon.
Thomas L. Moore, of Warrenton, Virginia; was admitted to the bar in due course, and
until1835 continued practice with profit and success in the counties of Farquier, Loudoun,
and Rappahannock. He achieved a wide reputation, especially as an advocate and criminal
lawyer, and in October, 1834, was married to Harriet L. Watson, daughter of James Watson,
of Washington, D. C.
Horner’s public life began in September, 1835, when without personal solicitation
he received a commission from President Andrew Jackson as secretary and acting governor of
the territory of Michigan. The territory had at that time not been very definitely
bounded, and extended practically from the city of Detroit, the seat of its government, to
the Rocky Mountains. (1) The office of governor
involved many difficulties, the settlement of pending questions requiring a delicate
sense, skill, and courage in their handling. It is noteworthy that President Jackson
selected Governor Horner as a man after his own mind, to meet the peculiar
responsibilities of the situation.
In particular, the boundary dispute between the state of Ohio and the territory of
Michigan was then at its most acrimonious stage. Troops of the two parties were in the
field, and a serious crisis was hourly expected. In briefest statement, this dispute arose
as follows: the act by which the territory of Michigan was organized described its
southern boundary as a line running due east and west through the southernmost point of
Lake Michigan. But the constitution of Ohio gave to that state, as its northern boundary,
a line from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan to the northernmost point of Maumee
Bay. Should the Ohio line be accepted, Michigan’s territory would be reduced. The
case was complicated by the accepted boundary lines of Indiana and Illinois, the details
of which it is needless here to describe.(2)
The part enacted by Governor Horner at this crisis is both interesting and important.
His aim was to persuade the contesting parties to delay action and allow the differences
to be settled by congress, and in this he succeeded. The conditions at the time were
primitive, and the border life rough and aggressive. Threatened by mobs, unaccompanied by
military escort, he made his way to the scene of strife, addressed and disbanded the
troops, and from them obtained definite action binding them to abide by the action of the
congress at its approaching session. This was a bold and successful stroke of
administration, and for these services he received the approbation of General Jackson and
his cabinet, and a vote of thanks from the state of Ohio.
As giving the shades of local and temporary coloring to this transaction, I quote at
length an article published in the wheeling (Va.) Gazette, under the date of
February 27, 1836:
We were a little startled two or three weeks ago on observing in the Columbia
"Hemisphere," under the head of "Renewal of Hostilities," a letter
from Toledo, giving the account of the perpetration of fresh disorders in the disputed
territory, from which we apprehended a reacting [reenacting] of the exciting scenes of
last summer. The account represented that the Michigan State authorities had attempted to
collect taxes from the residents of the territory in question; that this has been resisted
by the persons taxed, and that the Michigan Authorities had thereupon seized the cattle
and horses, which they proceeded to sell at public auction; that in addition to this
seizure, a dwelling house had been broken open and a large amount of personal property
taken and sold; that the Ohioans had in consequence collected in some force, and seized
the officer, who being set at large on bail had sworn vengeance, and was prepared to raise
a mob to carry his threats into effect. Such was the substance of the account, and the
history of the last summer having proved the utterly lawless character of the people in
the disputed territory, we daily expected to hear of these threats being carried into
execution, and were at a loss to know why they were not. The last Ohio papers, however,
give the reason, and in so doing so furnish testimony to the gallant bearing of the
pacificator.
It seems that as soon as intelligence of the excitement reached Detroit, the Governor,
unaccompanied, so far as we are able to learn, by a single person, set off with all
possible speed to the disputed territory. Though politically obnoxious to the turbulent
spirits he had to meet, he threw himself among them at the hazard of his life, and
commanded them to disperse and abandon their design. The hearts of the sternest cowed
under his rebuke, and the agitators of war became the suppliants of his clemency. In a
word, the men quietly returned to their homes, and perfect order was restored. No
parleying, no delay was admitted; the whole was the work of the instant, and the tumult
was thus subdued by the heroic bearing of the Executive, but for which the frontier might,
and probably would, have been desolated, the militia been called upon to repair to the
field of action at this inclement season of the year, and if blood were not shed an
immense pecuniary loss would at least have been sustained. Though politically opposed to
the appointment of the Governor, and though we wrote a paragraph or two at the time and
aided in the circulation of others, which reflected upon the sagacity of the President in
making it, yet we have not been prejudiced observers of that gentleman’s public
career. We have watched it impartially, and are compelled to admit that on all occasions
Governor Horner has proved himself equal to every emergency. It will be recollected that
he repaired to Michigan shortly after the mission of Messrs. Rush and Howard, in which
those gentlemen, among the most talented and distinguished in our country, utterly failed
to make any impression upon the semi-barbarians whom they went out to pacify and subdue,
and immediately after another distinguished citizen, Judge Shaler, of Pittsburg, Pa., had
declined a similar service. At this juncture Mr. Horner was appointed. He resided in the
interior of Virginia and was, as we have learned, in possession of a very lucrative
practice at the time of his appointment, and in accepting it made a great sacrifice of
professional emolument and domestic repose, and we question, when his appointment shall
expire by the recognition of Michigan as a State, if the National Executive can, by any
offer her can confer on him, more than compensate him for this sacrifice. On arriving
within the Territory in the prosecution of his duties, Gov. Horner’s address, as we
learn from an eye-witness, was consummate. It was the combination of personal
fearlessness, tact, and prudence. On one occasion, as we learn from the same authority, he
appeared in the midst of the Michigan troops who had threatened to assassinate him,
mounted a stump, and made an address which changed the lion of their natures into the
gentleness of the lamb, and all separated on terms of amity. He had so far trenched upon
the foothold of Gov. Mason, the popular idol, as to make it somewhat questionable whether
he had not gained a standing with the people equal, at least, to that gentleman’s.
Will not out Whig friends of the Richmond "Compiler," Fredricksburg
"Arena," and the Culpepper paper in Virginia, who with ourselves have done this
gallant officer inhustice, indorse the recantation of the wrong by copying this article?
By act of congress approved June 15, 1836, Michigan was admitted to the Union as a
state, but only on certain conditions named in the act, these chiefly relating to
boundaries. On account of the delay in the settlement of these conditions Michigan did not
come into full fellowship as a state until January 26, 1837. Pending the transition from
territory to statehood, Governor Horner in 1836, by direction of President Jackson, took
up his residence and headquarters on the Mississippi River, in Wisconsin. He was needed
there because of the hostility of the Winnebago Indians. In the spring of that year they
had made depredations on the defenseless inhabitants of the counties of Iowa and Grant.
Communications at this time were necessarily slow and difficult, and it was almost
accidentally that Horner learned that hostile Indians had surrounded Fort Winnebago
(Portage), apparently determined to capture the fort and its supplies, and if need be,
massacre the garrison. The number of warriors gathered for this purpose was about three
thousand.
With his characteristic promptness Governor Horner set out for the scene of trouble. He
was accompanied by Dr. Hill, a brave man and later one of the heroes of the Black Hawk
War, and by Gen. (afterward President) Zachary Taylor, who had under his command a hundred
and twenty men. The party ascended the Wisconsin River in open boats. On arriving at the
fort, Horner quickly took in the situation. With Jacksonian promptness he demanded a
council with the Indians, who represented through their chiefs that they were not
receiving from the United States the annuities long past due, and that they were
"falling to pieces" from lack of food. Upon hearing this, Horner set aside all
formalities, and promptly assumed the responsibility of issuing an order to deliver to the
starving Indians a half of the pork and flour in the military stores of the fort. By this
courageous and just act an Indian war was averted, and the governor received the personal
approval of President Jackson; what was more significant, congress granted him a thousand
dollars as a suitable recognition of his services.
As secretary of the new territory of Wisconsin, Mr. Horner organized the same on the
fourth of July, 1836, by administering the oath of office to Gov. Henry Dodge and the
judges of the supreme court—Charles Dunn as chief justice, and Alexander Frasier and
David Irwin as associate justices. He discharged the duties of secretary of the territory
from the date of its organization to June 18, 1837, under a commission signed by General
Jackson.
A misunderstanding arose in 1835-36 between Mr. Horner as acting governor of Michigan
and the legislative council representing the "contingent remainder" of ancient
territory that was not included in what became the state of Michigan. This
"contingent remainder" consisted of the counties of Brown, Milwaukee, Iowa,
Crawford, of our present state, and Dubuque and Des Moines, in Iowa, and had a total
population of not more than fifteen thousand. For the details of this misunderstanding the
reader may be referred to the extended account to be found in Moses M. Strong’s History
of the Territory of Wisconsin. The trouble arose from fixing what was assumed to be an
impossible date for the meeting of the legislative council.
It was charged that Governor Horner had by proclamation changed the time of meeting of
the council from the first day of January, 1836, to the first day of December, 1835. The
proclamation was dated only twenty-one days before the time therein fixed for the meeting,
and it was claimed that from the uncertainty of the mails and the inclemency of the
season, "it was impossible for the members to receive the necessary information to
reach Green Bay by the time fixed in the proclamation." None of the members were
present on the first of December. A quorum assembled on the first of January, 1836, but
Governor Horner himself did not appear at the session, and the members (with what now
appears to have been unseemly haste, for they did not await explanations) proceeded to
pass resolutions severely censuring the governor. In this connection the historian records
the significant fact that "the resolutions had no effect upon General Jackson,"
who doubtless saw that hasty action by men who could not wait for explanations is not
statesmanship. George H. Walker, of Milwaukee, one of the members-elect of the Green Bay
council, who did not attend the session, published in the Chicago American the following
communication, which throws light on the case with Governor Horner:
Having just seen a copy of the proceedings of the Legislative Council of Michigan
Territory, I perceive that the Council have passed strong censures on J. S. Horner, Acting
Governor and Secretary of said Territory. In justice to Governor Horner I feel it my duty
to state my belief of his intention to have gone to Green Bay, for on my passing through
Detroit, Mr. Horner communicated to me his intention of meeting the Council as soon as
possible. He then expressed a desire that I should remain , if convenient, at Chicago or
Milwaukee until his arrival. I have accordingly remained here in the daily expectation of
seeing him, and with the design of affording him such facilities on the route as my
knowledge of the country would afford, but have just learned of a gentleman from Detroit
that Gov. H. has been prevented from coming on by sickness which no human ingenuity could
foresee. These observations I make public, not with the view to throw the least blame on
the Council for passing the vote of censure. For, had I taken my place at the Council, I
would have added my vote to their resolutions, having no other information than such as
was before them. But I am desirous that all the facts should be known, so that the
citizens of the Territory may be able to view impartially the explanation which Governor
Horner will undoubtedly feel it his duty to make.
Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant,
George H. Walker
It is pleasant in these days of graft to put on record the official acts of a man whose
life is absolutely clean of defaults and peculations. As governor of the territory of
Michigan, and later still as register of the land office at Green Bay, no case has ever
been found in which he took advantage of his position and knowledge to enrich himself at
the expense of the general interests, or in such a way as to oppress or wrong his poorer
neighbor. The cases are many in which he succored the poor in their misfortunes or
mistakes, and no one in his trouble appealed to him in vain. As secretary of the territory
of Wisconsin he received the public money from the land office at Mineral Point to pay the
civil list of the territory and the legislative assembly, and that too without bonds. At
one time he was offered a bonus of a thousand dollars if he would exchange for bank paper
the gold and silver received for payments. He might with this paper have discharged his
obligations to the government and its employees. He declined the offer from a "stern
sense of duty," and paid all in good metal. At the termination of his office as
secretary his accounts and vouchers were returned to the treasury department and found
correct.
From the office of secretary of Wisconsin Governor Horner was transferred to that of
register of the Green Bay land office, to take place on the first day of June, 1837. Of
this change Governor Horner writes" "I was, without my assent or knowledge, and
not at the instance of friends, but by the machinations of enemies, by a fraud perpetrated
upon General Jackson during the last hour of the term of General Jackson, transferred to
the office of Register of the Green Bay Land Office. This order was made without a
moment’s notice of such an intention on the part of General Jackson, and occasioned
the loss of a fine Estate in the Mineral Country."
In the spring of 1837 Governor Horner made his way through was was then an uninhabited
waste, from Mineral Point to Green Bay, having no escort other than his Indian guide. The
emoluments of the land office at this early date were of course practically valueless, and
the governor therefore resumed the practice of law at his new home in Green Bay. This
practice proved lucrative, and with the money thus gained he became the first purchaser of
agricultural lands west of the city of Fond du Lac. These lands were choice parcels in the
counties of Marquette and Fond du Lac, and among them the land on which the more important
part of the present city of Ripon is built, including the water-power thereof, which he
purchased on November 5, 1838. The exact boundaries of the original tract owned by him in
the present Ripon are as follows: Beginning at the C., M. & St. P. R. R. on the North
side of Oshkosh street, and running thence west to a point midway between Hamburg and
Washington streets, thence south to Blossom street, thence east to the C., M. & St. P.
R. R., and thence north to the point of beginning, being eighty acres which it will be
seen includes the land originally platted as the village of Ripon. Thus Governor Horner is
fairly the original proprietor, and in a sense the founder, or Ripon. His connection with
Captain Mapes as promoter will be spoken of later.
We have seen that Governor Horner received his first appointment as register of the
Green Bay land office, from President Jackson; but by subsequent appointments from
Presidents Van Buren and Tyler he held the office for eleven years. During the earlier of
these years the office was both laborious and practically profitless, but afterwards it
became valuable enough to be a prize for political scheming. It was the habit of Governor
Horner personally to perform the duties of the office, and this he is said to have done
"without the loss of a single day from either sickness or absence." From an old
record I quote the following complimentary words:
During his administration the rights and interests of settlers were secured and
protected by his adjudications from the grasp of the speculator. He often rose at midnight
responding to the call of a settler anxious to prove up or enter his pre-emption before
the arrival of the speculator, and fed him at his table free of "charge." This
was a time of "wildcat" banking, but Governor Horner, to save the settler
trouble, would take the settler’s bank bills and give him in return a draft on the
Receiver. In such ways of human kindness he was always on the side of the poor man.
Governor Horner has often been heard to say that "the pleasure in after-life of thus
having assisted and befriended the poor settler afforded him more real happiness, in his
retirement, than all the honors and profits of office."
Having served under five presidents, and in conjunction with five receivers of the land
office, when his position became of real value to him he was removed from office on the
flimsy representation made to President Polk, that "he was an enemy of his
administration and a political disorganizer." The representation was so foolish that
the sagacity of Jackson would have seen through it at once; but Polk was not a great man.
Governor Horner was possessed of a sincere mind, and he never let himself down to intrigue
with political adventurers. His office had become profitable and was capital for
demagogues to trade upon, consequently matters took their normal political course.
At this time we find a decided change in the life of the subject of this sketch. He was
importuned by friends and relatives to return to Virginia or the city of Washington, and
begin life over again on the old fields. But he would no longer be an office-seeker, and
the instinct of true Virginia pride forbade his returning a comparatively poor man to his
wealthy relatives with a young family. In 1847 he removed to what is now known as
Westwood, a place of his own selection, the beautiful Horner farm on the south shore of
Green Lake, Wisconsin. Here in the winters of 1848-49 he felled the trees for a clearing,
and in the sprint-time held the plow, cultivated his garden with his own hands, and
courageously wrought as a thrifty husbandmen. But he was called forth from his retirement
by the needs of the public service. Although nominated for office by Democrats, we was
elected probate judge for the county of Marquette, which at that time included the present
Green Lake County, in spite of the opposition of a populat candidate, by the concurrent
votes of both Whigs and Free-Soilers. This was the fall of 1849, and he held the office
until the court was abolished, as to probate jurisdiction, in 1854, serving with ability
and fairness.
Governor Horner was the co-founded of the city of Ripon. David P. Mapes, in his History
of Ripon, p. 143, says:
At the time I purchased of Governor Horner he asked the privilege of giving the name to
our embryo city. This I granted with restrictions. First, that it should not be a personal
name. Second, that it should not be like any other name in the United States; for I had
seen great confusion in locating towns of similar names. Third, that it should not be an
Indian name, for our State was then being covered all over with "Waus" and
similar names, which were perfectly confounding to strangers. And lastly, that the name
should be short. The Governor’s ancestors came from Ripon, England: that name he
selected, and as it came within all the restrictions, I adopted it as the name for this
center.
Captain Mapes gives as the full title of his book, The History of Ripon and its
Founder, for he was accustomed to take to himself the sole credit of being the founder
of this city. The exact fact seems to have been that he and Governor Horner together
agreed to found the city, the latter furnishing the land, and retaining the right to name
the city and the principal streets, and the former acting as promoter, receiving for his
service sundry alternate lots. The modesty of the captain never stood in his way; but he
does not deserve the credit of having been a vigorous promoter.
Captain Mapes is right concerning the ancestry of the Horner family. They resided near
Ripon, in Yorkshire, England, and among them was his paternal grandfather, who emigrated
to Maryland at an early day, engaging in business as a wholesale importing merchant; also
Francis Horner, the parliamentarian. Many of the streets of Ripon bear names given by
Governor Horner in honor of members of his family, or of political friends, etc., as
appears from the following, which will aid in the perpetuation of his name and place as
founder: Watson, Blackburn, Jefferson, Cass, Houston, Washington, Henni, Spaulding avenue,
and Doty.
The last years of Governor Horner’s life were spent in dignified retirement, his
death occurring at Ripon on February 3, 1883, at the age of eighty-one years. His
mansion-like residence in this city, now occupied by a daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Burling,
with her husband, is one of the ancient landmarks of a solid man’s good taste and
strength. In the long years to come it will be pointed to as a fit monument for one of
"the brave men who pushed their way into the Western wilds, and moulded out of the
chaotic struggle of pioneer life, civilization, society, and government."
Personally, Governor Horner was a marked man. His form was erect even in age, his
presence being at once dignified and winning. His manners were those of the cultivated
gentleman of the old school, and his home life, surrounded by his three sons and two
daughters, was gentle, but firmly authoritative and wise. His moral instincts were keen,
as evidenced by the manumission of his slaves, his exact justice as an officer, and his
intelligent patriotism. The poor were never turned from his door unfriended, and his
hospitality to strangers was generous and free. His life was temperate, "abstaining
from the use of ardent spirits." I find in a writing left by him this quaint and
ingenuous confession: "I have deplored the early and continuous use of tobacco, and
bear testimony to its injurious effect both on the mind and the body, and I attribute most
of my sickness or failure in life to its effects." He was a sincerely religious man,
a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, whose worship he steadily sustained, even in
the primitive conditions of his Green Lake neighborhood.
I well remember him on one Sunday morning in the old white church of the Congregational
Society of Ripon, which is traditionally supposed to be the place where the first
organization of the Republican party was formed. President Merriman of Ripon College had
preached one of his masterly sermons, in the course of which he had presented his view of
the doctrine of the Trinity; Governor Horner tarried, not only to express his admiration
of the sermon, but with fine and characteristic courtesy to thank the preacher for the
help he had received toward comprehending one of the great doctrines.
I may fitly close this sketch by giving an extract from a brief biography found in
Tuttle’s History of Michigan:
Early in life Governor Horner distinguished himself by his advocacy of slave
emancipation, and the records of the Virginia courts show evidences of his success as an
advocate for slaves suing for freedom. His sincerity in the cause was proved by his
freeing the slaves descended to him from his father’s estate, an act performed soon
after he became of age, and one as rare as it was commendable at that early day.
Throughout his life Governor Horner was known as a man of great determination and courage.
Andrew Jackson remarked when appointing Governor Horner to settle the Northwestern
difficulties, "Now I have a man who will not fear." His utter fearlessness was a
distinguishing trait of his early public life, and was shown in his liberation of his own
slaves and by his adherence to the Federal Union during the late civil War.
(1) A. M. Soule, "Southern and Western Boundaries of
Michigan," in Michigan Political Science Association Publications, ii, No. 2,
p. 4, map; also Thwaites, "Boundaries of Wisconsin," Wis. Hist. Colls.,
xi, pp. 457-460.
(2) Soule, op. cit., pp. 15-37.
