HORACE AUSTIN Sixth Governor of the State of Minnesota, was born in Canterbury, Conn., October 15, 1831, and died in Minneapolis, Minn., November 7, 1905. He was Judge of the Sixth Judicial District, 1865-69, and was Governor from January 9, 1870, to January 7, 1874, and subsequently held several subordinate offices. HORACE AUSTIN SIXTH GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA January 9, 1870, to January 7, 1873 TH governors. HIS great and marvelous state-this infant Hercules has usually been careful in selecting its Their personality and characteristics have reflected the character and intelligence of our people, not perhaps as men of letters, not as orators, not as heroes laureled from the war, but as men substantially representative of the people who have chosen them. There are men of vital importance to the state, of whose service history takes but little heed. It is not the man of genius, nor the orator who is ablaze with wit, who does most and best for his country. But it is the man who, though unskilled in these brilliant arts, aids in keeping the state in the paths of justice and public righteousness, who brings comfort and happiness, contentment and prosperity to his fellows, who opens up the highways of commerce, who fosters schools and colleges, and in all proper ways brings to pass practical things for the state. In all, we have had eighteen governors, territorial and state. I would not attempt the appraisement of the intellectual character or quality of service of our gubernatorial roster. Every governor was in some peculiar degree the mirror of his times. His nomination and election were controlled by peculiar existing conditions. In all the roster of our chief executives there is little or nothing of which to be ashamed, and much of which we may justly be proud. Occasionally the public intelligence and the public conscience may appear to have slumbered, but uniformly public alertness and public scrutiny have secured the elevation of able men to the executive chair. Horace Austin was born October 15, 1831, at Canterbury, Connecticut. He was the son of a substantial farmer, and the family was of stern New England stock. He was reared on the home farm. His education, after the public school, was finished at an academy in Litchfield, Maine. Subsequently he taught in Belgrade Academy, of which institution he was for a short time the principal. From there he went to Augusta, Maine, and studied law in the office of the Hon. Lot Morrill, for many years a United States senator. Smitten with the Western fever, in 1856 he turned his ambitious footsteps to the West in search of home and fortune, and finally located at St. Peter, Minnesota. He was then twenty-five years of age. He at once began the practice of his profession as a lawyer. In 1862, on the breaking out of the Indian war, he promptly enlisted as a private in the "St. Peter Frontier Guards.' He was afterward made first lieutenant of the company. He was in the second battle of New Ulm. Immediately afterward the First Regiment of Mounted |