His Dreams Came True!


                   SKETCH OF

COLONEL THOMAS B. STODDARD
    FIRST MAYOR of LA CROSSE


                By ELLIS B. USHER


THE history and progress of a
  . state, or a community is usually
found in the records of its best and
most public spirited citizens, and it
is greatly to the credit of commun-
ity spirit that these are the char-
acters to whom local pride pays its
enduring respect and gratitude.
   It is interesting, as well as im-
portant, to know these local pioneer
characters and to measure their ac-
complishments, that we may prop-
erly appreciate their motives, their
ideals, and do them justice. First
we must know them and their fam-
mily background.   Who was this
man, whence came he, and when?
           Born in x8oo
  The first mayor of La Crosse, Col.
Thomas Blankden Stoddard, was
born on Dec. 11th, 1800, at Canand-
aigua, New York. His father, Rich-
ard M. Stoddard, was a surveyor,
in charge of the survey of the "Hol-
land Patent" tract, of early New
York. His family was one of many
that migrated with the tide, from
Massachusetts, through Connecticut
to New York State, and later to the
"Far West."
  The Stoddard family, in America,
traces back to the earliest days of
the Massachusetts Bay colony. An-
thony  Stoddard came to Boston
about 1639, and was immediately
recognized as a man of value. He
was soon chosen a representative to
the general court of the colony, and
served, continuously, for more than
twenty years. He married twice and
had four sons and one daughter.
  The family, as it spread west-
ward, left evidences along the way.
One early and notable descendant
was John Stoddard, 1681-1748. of
Springfield, Mass., a man of note in


the colonies and especially in the
Connecticut valley. In the "Far
West" two national figures sprang
later, from Stoddard stock-Gener-
al William Tecumseh Sherman, dis-
tinguished in the Civil war, and his
brother, Hon. John Sherman, mem-
ber of the house of representatives,
United States senator from Ohio,
and secretary of the treasury in the
cabinet of President Hayes.
  On his mother's side, Col. Stod-
dard was also fortunate. She came
of another early and noted Massa-
chusetts family, which has retained
its prestige for brains and charact-
er, from the beginning of the colony
in 1629, to the present day. The
family, in America, was founded by
Sir Richard Salstonstall.
       Have Family Letters
  Among a small collection of pa-
pers, letters and   documents, to
which I have had access, now in the
custody of the library of the La
Crosse normal school, are letters
from  members of the Saltonstall
family, which plainly connect Col-
onel Stoddard's mother with that
family, and thus with the begin-
nings of "The London Company"
which founded "The Company of
the Massachusetts Bay," in 1629,
171 years before our Colonel Stod-
dard was born.
  The American Antiquarian socie-
ty, in a volume published in 1820,
has an account of Sir Richard Sal-
tonstall, of which the following
quotation is the substance:
  "He was an early member of the
company, and one of the assistants.
He was the son of Samuel Salton-
stall of Halifax, in the West Riding
of Yorkshire. His uncle, Sir Richard,
was Lord Mayor of London in 1597.