History of Faribault, (Rice County) Minnesota United States of America

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Biographies:

John Baptist Faribault, pioneer, was born in Berthier, Quebec, about 1769. He was brought up to a commercial life and in 1798 became agent for the American fur company of the northwest of which John Jacob Astor was president. He made the voyage from Montreal to Mackinaw in a canoe with nineteen men, and there, under the direction of an Indian guide, traversed the wilderness to the residence, at Port Vincent on the Wabash, of General Harrison, then governor of the territory of Indiana. In this journey he suffered great privations and after obtaining a permit to trade with the Indians he established himself at the port of Des Moines. He then advanced into the Indian country to Saint Peter, where he tried to teach the Sioux Indians agriculture. He married a half breed woman and educated his eight children under adverse conditions. After ten years with the Astor company he established himself as a trader and made a fortune, which he lost in the war of 1812, in which conflict he took sides with the Americans, although many fur traders led the Dakotas, Ojibways and Winnebagoes to join the British. He was arrested while on business at Mackinaw, as a traitor to the British government. His adventures while trading with the Indians were of the most startling character and on several occasions he barely escaped from the savages with his life. He was the first white man to cultivate the soil northwest of Des Moines on the Mississippi and his influence was potential between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers as far as the Red River of the North. In 1840-43 he built at his own expense St. Paul chapel, the first Roman Catholic church erected in Minnesota, and which gave the name to the future city. He spent the last of his days at Faribault, a city founded by his son Alexander, and in the organization of the state a county was named for him. He died at Faribault, Minn., in 1860.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Samuel Buel, clergyman, was born in Troy, N. Y., June 15, 1815; son of Judge David Buel, an eminent lawyer. He received his education at Williams college, from which he was graduated first in the class of 1888. He studied at the Episcopal theological seminary at Alexandria, Va. After twenty years of ministerial and missionary work in various parts of the country, he became tutor at Kenyon college, professor of ecclesiastical history at Seabury divinity school, Faribault, Minn., in 1867, and professor of systematic divinity and dogmatic theology in the General theological seminary in New York in 1871, where he continued to teach until poor health compelled him to resign in 1888, when he was made professor emeritus. The General theological seminary gave him the degree of S.T.D. in 1885, the degree having been conferred on him by Columbia college in 1862. Of his published writings the best known are: A Treatise of Dogmatic Theology, The Apostolical System of the Church Defended, and Eucharistic Presence, Sacrifice, and Adoration. He died in New York city, Dec. 30, 1892.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor