The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1912-08-09
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1919
William Drew Washburn

ASA
William Drew Washburn, youngest
of a remarkable family, illustrated IN
his life the honoring of that obligation
which rests upon the we'll born.
His title to real nobility was won by
service and by sacrifice. The Wash
burns have been prominent IN the
annals of their country. One brother
served as Governor of his native Maine.
Another stood by the side of Grant in
the troubled days of the Civil War. A
third rose to the G~overnorship OF Min
nesota's n%eighboring state, Wisconsin.
William D. Washburn sat in both
Houses of Congress. A family thus
foremost in public service did not attain
it's eminence by chance. The Wash
burns were always accomplishers. But
thew never were compromisers.
William Drew Washburn, the young
est of these Maine brothers, is best
known to M%innesotans for what he did
in a material way for the State. He
built railroads almost out of air, when
the Twin Cities were threatened by a
combination of Chicago roads that
would have snuffed out this growing
market center. He went into Congress
and there rescued the Falls Of st. An:
thony from ruin. By preserving the
milling facilities of Minneapolis he did
more for the agriculture of the North
west than can now be readily under
stood. The Red River Valley was, and
would have remained, a wilderness but
for two neutrality-suspicious. provided
by James j. Hill, and a wheat market
which the labors of w. D. Washburn
insured.
"Noblesse oblige," which might well
have been the motto, as it was the
motive of his life, never led William
d. Washburn to take a lower stand
than his great name dictated. In pub
lie and private life he preserved a
purity of character which may with
profit be initiated by public men today,
but which was in him the manner born.
In his life he did nothing base. No
man ever accused him of duplicity or
He did not compromise his
convictions.
In the Senate he stood the only Re-
publican member who voted against the
last attempt at a force bill. He was
severely criticised. Ambitious enemies
seized upon it as ahandle for his defeat.
He took the bitter with the sweet in
public life. His vote was not to be
bartered even for a reelection. The
years have justified his position. He
was right and the passion of the day
was wrong. His devotion to his con-
viction was his reward in this instance,
as it was in others.
1t was once a profitable political jibe
to accuse him of being cold. But those
who knew him were charmed with the
Simple democracy of his manner He
was neither cold nor negative. He had
warmth, persuasion, conviction. He
charmed capital out of its hiding places,
and set it the task of building a new
Chicago here on the banks of the Mis-
sissippi. His faith moved mountains.
He left his monument in the railroads
he built that the Twin Cities might've.
A man of large ideas, Of broad plans,
he seldom met defeat in them, although
he sacrificed much of his personal for
tune in bringing them about. He lived
to see Minneapolis and St. Paul firmly
planted, their outlets secure, their trade
im~pregnable, their people employed,
their life developed from the hard ex-
istence of the pioneer to that of the
modern city dweller.
His earthly existence was complete.
His three score years and ten were
spent in the harness, and his evening
in the glow of the prosperity which his
masterful mind and guiding hand had
helped to create. Minneapolis Daily