JOHN MELLEN THURSTON.

THE

HE history of the country does not furnish a better illustration of a self-made man, than is shown by the record of Mr. John M. Thurston.

At the age of forty-three years he is general solicitor and legal adviser of the greatest railway system of the continent; has achieved a National fame as an orator second to none, and is already looked upon as one of the coming leaders of the Republican party. What he has won has been the result of hard work, manly independence and great ability. Commencing life as a poor boy; compelled to labor with his hands for daily bread, he has risen above the circumstances of birth, and is an illustrious example of the possibilities of our civilization and free institutions.

He was born in Montpelier, Vermont, on the twentyfirst day of August, 1847. His family, on his father's side, was descended from John Thurston, who came from Suffolk in England, and settled at Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1636. There were three Thurstons who arrived in New England at about the same time and are supposed to have been brothers. From them have descended almost all of that name now living in the United States.

Mr. Thurston's mother's name was Ruth Mellen. Her family originally came from Ireland. They were among the first settlers of what was then known as the "Hampshire Grant," which is now the State of Vermont. His grandfather, John Mellen (after whom our subject was named,) and his brother Thomas were in the battle of

Bennington under General Stark. His grandfather Thurston was a soldier in the War of 1812, and his great-grandfather a Revolutionary patriot, having also served as a soldier in that struggle.

Mr. Thurston's father was Daniel Sylvester Thurston. He was one of a large family born in Orange county, Vermont. One of his brothers,Elisha Thurston,worked his way through college, took up educational pursuits, was professor in various institutions of learning, and at one time was State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Maine. About the time of the commencement of the Kansas troubles, he moved to that State, engaged in the practice of law, was very active on the side of the Free-Soiler, and about 1860, at the time of his death, was Mayor of Manhattan, Kansas.

The father of Mr. Thurston was, for the greater portion of his life, a farmer.. For a few years prior to emigrating from Vermont, he was engaged in conducting a tannery; was also for some time a member of a mercantile firm. In 1854, he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he remained for four years, and then went to Beaver Dam, in the same State. He was a man of very great natural ability; took an active part in all public affairs, and is said by those who remember him, to have been a forcible and direct speaker, although he rarely took part in public discussions. At the inauguration of the Civil War, he enlisted in the First Wisconsin Cavalry, notwithstanding the fact that he was fifty-four years of age. His enlistment as a private was was made prior to the organization of the Regiment, but with the promise that he should receive the appointment of Regimental Wagon-Master. Before the Regiment left the State, however, he received a commission as Second Lieutenant of the Seventeenth Wisconsin Infantry, generally known as the "Irish Brigade," and assisted in recruiting a company for that Regiment. Before the

Regiment left the State for the seat of war, it went into winter quarters late in the fall of 1861, at Madison, the capital, where it was overtaken by violent storms and severe weather before it could be provided with the proper shelter. In consequence of this exposure, the old gentleman was attacked with congestion of the lungs, and just before the Regiment departed for the front, he was carried to his home at Beaver Dam, on the supposition that his illness would necessarily be fatal. One of his last official acts before he left, was to resign. his commission, so that an active man could be appointed in his place to take the field.

Recovering from his severe illness, to the surprise of everyone acquainted with him, the following summer, 1862, he again enlisted as a private in the First Wisconsin Cavalry, and with that organization participated in the campaign against the "Guerillas" of Missouri. He remained on duty with his company until the spring of 1863, when he was sent home in a dying condition, living but a few days after arriving there. His family at that time consisted of his wife, three married daughters, one unmarried, and the son, John Mellen, who was now compelled to help support his mother and the rest of the family, as they were left almost wholly without means. The brave young fellow took hold of anything he could find to make honest wages. Every summer, from the time he was fourteen years old, he worked in the harvest fields of Wisconsin, and in the autumn hired out as an attendant to a threshing machine, receiving for his employment, about thirty dollars a month.

In 1865, when but seventeen, he went to the great City of Chicago, to accept a situation as driver of a horse and wagon for a wholesale fruit and fancy. grocery store, of which Matthew, Graff & Co., located on South Water street, were proprietors. For this work young Thurston received ten dollars a week, out of which he

was obliged to pay his board. Continuing at it for a year, he discovered that except a new suit of clothes which he did not have at the commencement of the year, he was no better off than when he begun.

He then returned to his mother's home at Beaver Dam, and for three winters engaged in fishing through the ice and trapping, employing a number of boys to work for him on shares, he furnishing the necessary outfit. He also drove a team over the lake twice a week, purchasing fish, which he shipped to Chicago; and during the time he was engaged in this business, made it quite profitable, one winter clearing nearly $1,000. During this period he attended the public schools of Beaver Dam, for a portion of the time keeping up in all the classes, though he was absent, necessarily, the greater part of the year.

In the spring of 1866, he left the public schools, and entered Wayland University, an institution in Beaver Dam, which, at that time, had a full preparatory and collegiate course, ranking with the average Western Denominational College. This was a Baptist institution, and was really a very good school. It was kept alive by that sect of Christians in Wisconsin, but it met the fate of a great many of its class. During the time young Thurston was there it was closed for want of funds to carry it on, and he was compelled to leave with the other students. This disaster occurred in the summer of 1868. He had managed to attend school about half of each school year, though he had kept up with his classes, so that when the institution was compelled to close, he had but one more year to study there to complete the full course of the College, but this collapse of the College ended Mr. Thurston's school days.

He now determined to study law, and to that end entered the office of Mr. E. P. Smith, an eminent attorney of Wisconsin, for many years a practitioner at the