Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1893 — JERRY RUSK NO MORE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JERRY RUSK NO MORE

DEATH OF WISCONSIN’S FAMOUS EX-GOVERNOR. Plain, Honest and Unpretending, He Was Popular with All Classes of People—Was Harrison's Secretary of Agriculture— Three Times Governor. End Came Painlessly. r " r ' Ex-Governor Jeremiah Rusk died Tuesday morning at 8 o’clock in his home at Viroqua, Wis. He had been ill for two months, suffering from inflammation of the prestate gland. Dr. John Hamilton, of Chicago, performed an operation on Mr. Rusk some time ago which sos a time promised to be successful. The ex-Governor was possessed of a powerful constitution and rallied after the operation to such an extent that tho * friends and even the physicians hoped for ultimate recovery” As late as the night before his death callers at the residence were told that the patient was improving and favorable reports were sent

throughout the country. Mr. Rusk was exceedingly weak, however, from the effects of morphine and almost constant pain, and when he suffered a relapse during the night it was known that the end must come soon. Sketch of Hig Career. Jeremiah McLain Rusk was born in Morgan County, Ohio, June 17, 1830, and his youth was that of a farmer boy acquiring a common school education. In 1853 he located lands in the then new and distant region of Vernon County, Wisconsin, where he had since resided. He entered the ranks of the ■Wisconsin volunteers in 1802, and was Major and Lieutenant Colonel of the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin, which was a part of General Sherman's command from the siege of Vicksburg-tiil the close of the war, and in 1805 he received from the President the brevet of Brigadier General for gallant and meritorious services. In 1866 he was elected Comptroller of Wisconsin, and continued in that office two terms; and in 1870 he was elected to Congress, where ho remained an active and useful member three terms, in one of which he was Chairman of the House Committee on Pensions. He declined the tender of appointments from President Garfield, and in 1882 was elected Governor of Wisconsin, and re-elected in 1884 and 1886. In the discharge of his duties as Governor, and particularly in the trying days of riots at Milwaukee, he won the Commendation of the country, and with the zealous support of the delegation from his own State, he was prominent as a candidate for the Presidential nominatian at the Republican National Convention of 1888 in Chicago. President Harrison, who was then nominated, gracefully remembered Gov. Rusk by inviting him to a seat in the Cabinet as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture; and this department, which had just been raised to a cabinet dignity, found in him, for four years, an efficient head in organizing and developing its resources and possibilities of usefulness to agricultural interests. One feature of his work in this direction was to introduce the system of microscopical examination of the meats, whereby the foreign market for the American product was enlarged. The Governor retired from office with the Harrison administration, and there was good promise that his public career was not closed.

Regret at Washington. Washinfiton Genuine regret is expressed at the death cf “Uncle” Jerry Rusk. Of all the members of the Harrison administration he was the most popular. He had a kindly soul, and everybody who was anybody liked him. He was a plain, blunt man. He had no use for executive session business, red tape or cabinet secrets concerning affairs in which the public was interested. Milwaukee —The news of the death of General Rusk spread rapidly through the city, and the feeling of sorrow was universal and sincere. The news came in the nature of a shock, inasmuch as bulletins from the bedside of the distinguished patient had been such as to encourage hope. Indianapolis—Ex-President Harrison received the news of General Rusk’s death this morning and was much affected. He expressed the deepest sorrow at the taking off of the venerable member of his official family.

JEREMIAH M. RUSK.