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John Lane Buell
Conspicuous
among the men whose achievements have resulted in the
development of the varied resources of the Upper
Peninsula is John Lane Buell, a pioneer explorer of the
Menominee Range and the
founder of Quinnesec, where he is a well known and
highly esteemed resident. Possessing rare judgment and
discrimination, thoroughly public-spirited and
progressive, he is always a leader in the establishment
of any enterprise with which he becomes associated. A
son of George P. Buell, he was born, October 12, 1835,
in Lawrenceburg, Dearborn county, Indiana, of
substantial New England ancestry.
His
paternal grandfather, Salmon A. Buell, the son of a
Revolutionary soldier, was born and reared in
Burlington, Vermont. Subsequently following the march of
progress, he removed to New York state, becoming a
pioneer settler of Scipio, Cayuga county, where he
bought land and was engaged in
tilling the soil until 1820. Again taking up the line of
march in that year, he started westward, going with
teams to Olean, where he embarked on a keel boat and
went down the Alleghany and Ohio rivers to Marietta,
Ohio. Going into the country about seven miles, he
bought a tract of land in Lowell, Washington county, and
was there employed in agricultural pursuits the
remainder of his life. To him and his wife, whose maiden
name was May Pearson, six children were born, as
follows: Salmon, Barnum, George P., Amelia, Priscilla
and Almeria.
George P. Buell was born, in 1801,
in Scipio, New York, and as a young man migrated to
Dearborn county, Indiana. A history of that county,
published in 1885, says that George P. Buell, in
connection with his brother-in-law, Luther Geer,
embarked in the mercantile business at Lawreneeburg,
Indiana, in 1820, and further says that at that time
pork was there selling for one dollar and fifty cents a
barrel, while in New York city it brought from ten
dollars to eleven dollars a barrel, and that Mr. Buell
immediately began buying hogs, which he shipped on
impromptu boats via New Orleans to New York. The
historian remarks that it was the first enterprise of
the kind in the west, and that for a number of years
Lawreneeburg was the center of the pork trade, of which
it had a monopoly. In 1835 George P. Buell retired from
the mercantile business, and having purchased a farm was
engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death,
December 31, 1862. The maiden name of his first wife,
the mother of his children, was Ann Lane. She was born
at Lawreneeburg, Indiana, a daughter of Hon. Amos and
Mary (Foote) Lane.
Born and reared in New York state,
Amos Lane migrated to the territory of Indiana in 1808.
He was a man of ability, well educated, and soon applied
for admission to the bar, but was refused on account, it
was said, of his friendship for Thomas Jefferson.
Crossing the river into Kentucky, he was there admitted
to the bar, and subsequently began the practice of his
profession. Returning to Lawreneeburg in 1814, he was
then admitted to the Indiana bar, and became very
successful as a lawyer. He was prominent in public
affairs, being a member of the first state legislature
and its speaker, and subsequently being elected to
congress, both in 1832 and in 1834. He passed to the
life beyond September 2, 1849, aged seventy-one years.
Among the children that he reared was General James
Lane, of Kansas.
George P. and Ann (Lane) Buell
reared the following children, namely: Salmon A., a
venerable man of eighty-five years, resides in
Minneapolis; George P., who died in 1883 at Nashville,
Tennessee, served in the Civil war as lieutenant colonel
of the Fifty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and at
the close of the war was commissioned colonel of the
Fifteenth Regiment, Regular Army, and breveted brigadier
general; John Lane, the special subject of this sketch;
Joana; Ann, a nun, belonging to the Sisters of
Providence, of Indiana, and known as Sister Cecilia; and
Julius, who entered the army as lieutenant of the
Colorado Rangers, died from the effects of wounds
received in an engagement at Fort Union.
Having completed his early studies
in the public schools of Lawreneeburg, Indiana, John
Lane Buell took a scientific course at the Norwich
Military Institute in Norwich, Vermont, which he
attended two years. Going to Kansas in the fall of 1857,
he spent a year in Leavenworth, and on October 20, 1858,
was one of a small band of venturesome youths that
started overland for Colorado, being the first to make
the trip from that place. On December 20, 1858, after a
tedious journey
of two months, the company
arrived at Cherry Creek, the site of the present
beautiful city of Denver. There were no
buildings there, but in what is now West Denver
but then called Auraria, there were two
buildings, one of which was occupied by Dick
Whooten, an Indian trader. The company finally
settled on the Platte river, six miles above the
present site of Denver, and soon conceived the
project of platting the city of Denver. Having
been so unfortunate as to freeze his feet, Mr.
Buell was unable to attend the meeting of the
projectors, and thus lost his interest in the
town site. In 1859, however, he surveyed and
platted the present city of Boulder, and in the
winter of 1859 and 1860 worked at Central City,
Colorado. Visiting the present site of Leadville
in the spring of 1860, he was there engaged in
mining for six months. In the fall of 1860, with
thirty-four companions, he went by way of Puebla
Taos to the valley of the Rio Grande, thence
down the valley to Mesilla, New Mexico, and from
there to the Pine Altos mines, where he was
employed a few months. In the spring of 1861 Mr.
Buell started for the Gulf of Mexico, going via
El Paso and San Antonio to Fort Davis.
By this time Texas had seceded, and General
Twiggs had surrendered the federal troops.
Traveling by night in order to escape, Mr. Buell
finally reached the Gulf and secured passage on
a vessel used in transporting paroled soldiers,
and on May 2, 1861, landed in New York. He
immediately entered the commissary department as
clerk, and in August, 1861, was appointed second
lieutenant in the Fourth United States Infantry
and for a time was stationed at Fort Columbus,
New York Harbor. Subsequently given charge of
the North Carolina prisoners, he took them to
Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, where he was also
given charge of the state prisoners of Maryland,
having the care of Mason and Slidell while they
were at the fort, and when they were released,
placing them aboard the British man-of-war. Mr.
Buell remained at Fort Warren three months, and
then went to Washington, where he was soon
appointed regimental quartermaster and
commissary. During McClellan's advance, he had
charge of the baggage and supply train of the
Third Brigade. After reaching Harrison's Landing
he joined his command and took part in the
second battle at Bull Run, and at Antietam had
charge of the second company of skirmishers
which carried the stone bridge across the creek
on September 16, 1862, and the following day Mr.
Buell had command of the two companies on the
right of the line of eight companies that were
sent across Antietam creek to cover batteries
operating in support of General Burnside, who
was making a desperate charge on the left wing
of McClellan's army. The officer in charge of
the land skirmishers made the fatal mistake of
marching them up to within one hundred yards of
the rebel breastworks on the Sharpsburg pike,
and before the error could be corrected he had
lost thirteen of his twenty-seven men forming
the company on the right, they being on elevated
ground and exposed to the rebel fire.
His father being ill and imploring him to come
home and take charge of his business affairs,
Mr. Buell resigned from the army after the
battle of Antietam and returned to Lawrenceburg,
Indiana. He subsequently served as aide-de-camp
to General John Love, who, in command of the
Indiana militia, operated against the forces of
John Morgan, the daring rebel raider. Entering
Harvard College in 1863, Mr. Buell studied law
for six months and then returned to
Lawrenceburg, where he was engaged in farming
until August, 1866.
At that time, on account of ill health. Mr.
Buell decided to try an entire change of
climate. He came to Menominee,
Michigan, and in
1867 put the machinery into the Jones mill on
the Bay shore, and for two years operated the
mill, in the meantime carrying on general
farming, publishing the Menimonee Journal,
and as opportunity occurred, practicing law.
In 1871 Mr. Buell paid his first visit to the
section known as the Menominee
Range, and on his second visit,
in May, 1873, commenced exploring and laid bare
the first merchantable iron ore ever discovered
on the range, finding it in the southeast
quarter of section thirty-four, township forty
north, range thirty, and naming it the Quinnesec
Mine. " The same year Mr. Buell took up a
homestead claim in the northeast quarter of the
northeast quarter of section three, township
thirty-nine north, range thirty, and in 1876 he
platted the village of Quinnesec, which was the
terminus of the railway from 1877 until 1880.
Since coming to the Upper
Peninsula Mr. Buell has been deeply interested
in everything pertaining to its development and
advancement, and has been both prominent and
influential in public affairs. Elected to the
state legislature in 1872, he became an active
member of that body, and had the distinction of
introducing the first ten-hour labor bill ever
submitted to the legislature. He also introduced
the first log lien bill, which was substituted
by a senate bill, and likewise introduced a bill
for the construction of the Marquette and
Mackinaw Railroad, but it was defeated on
account of the prejudice against land grants. He
made arrangements with the railway company for
the first excursion of the legislators and state
officers to the Upper Peninsula. In 1876 Mr.
Buell built the first wagon road made between
Twin Falls and ''New York Farm," and
superintended the construction of the iron
bridges at Twin Falls and at Iron Mountain.
On December 31, 1863, Mr. Buell married Ruth B.
Ludlow, who was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, a
daughter of Stephen Ludlow. Her grandfather,
John Ludlow, came to the Northwestern Territory
in 1810, locating in what was afterwards
Hamilton county, and served as the first sheriff
of that county. Stephen Ludlow was born May 5,
1790, in Morris county, New Jersey, and was
subsequently a pioneer settler of Lawrenceburg,
Indiana, where he was engaged in mercantile
pursuits for many years. In 1820 he was one of
the commissioners appointed by the legislature
to select four sections of land granted by the
United States as a site for the capital. The
commission met in June, 1820, and chose the
present site at Indianapolis. At the age of
seventy years, Mr. Ludlow accepted the position
of assistant United States surveyor, and was
active in the work for several years. He spent
his last days in Lawrenceburg, dying at a
venerable age. He married Ann Porter, a daughter
of John Porter. Mr. Buell was made a Mason at
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, October 16, 1856, and is
now a member of Norway Lodge. No. 753, F. & A.
M.
Source: Sawyer, Alvah Littlefield, "A History of the
Northern Peninsula of Michigan and its People." Volume III. Chicago:
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911.
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