William L. McQueen

Page 489. William L. McQueen. Both through his successful work as an agriculturist and through his able service as a member of the state legislature Mr. McQueen has won the confidence of associates and the esteem of acquaintances. Since 1896, when he removed from his farm in Sterling township, he has owned and occupied a comfortable home in Mapleton, surrounded by six acres of attractive grounds, within the town limits. Though somewhat retired from arduous cares, he still finds his time fully occupied in the management of his landed interests and the discharge of the duties falling upon him as a progressive citizen and public-spirited man, solicitous to promote the welfare of Blue Earth county. For a number of years he has been quite active in local politics. A number of township offices were filled with such intelligence and energy as to suggest adaptability for higher trusts, accordingly in 1906 he was elected to represent this district in the state legislature. The record which he left as a legislator reflects credit upon his ability and wise discernment. Never allowing his judgment to be biased by undue influence, he quietly solved the problems for himself and studied each bill brought before the assembly with a view to ascertaining its exact purpose and end. His support of the bill providing an appropriation for the Normal school was particularly appreciated by his constituents, owing to the fact that the Normal school is located at Mankato. Another bill which he assisted in passing provided a large appropriation for the Minneopa Falls state park at South Bend, three miles south of Mankato, a picturesque resort that enjoys a growing popularity. The McQueen family traces its lineage to Scotland, where James McQueen was an extensive farmer and leased large tracts of land. Among his children was William, a native of the shire of Stirling, and married to Margaret

Page 490. Keir, of the same shire. In 1850 after his marriage he brought his wife to the United States and settled in Wisconsin, where he took up a claim in the midst of a frontier environment. After ten years of pioneer existence in Wisconsin, he removed to Shelbyville in the southwestern corner of Blue Earth county, where he took up general farm pursuits. March 12, 1865, he enlisted in Company G, First Minnesota Infantry, under Colonel Mark W. Dowie, and was sent to the front with the regiment, being assigned to duty near the point where Lee surrendered. However, the war was near its end and he saw little active service, being honorably discharged July 14, 1865, and returning to his Minnesota home. In the spring of 1866 he moved from Shelbyville to Mankato and became interested in the manufacture of brick. After two years he bought and removed to a farm in Lyra township, and there he engaged actively in agricultural work until the fall of 1886, when he retired, removed to Mapleton, and there spent the balance of his life. Through all the years of his residence in Blue Earth county he was warmly interested in measures for the benefit of the county and the development of its material resources. For some time he served as county commissioner and he also filled other township offices. The only survivor of the four children of William McQueen is a son named in his father’s honor and born in Vernon county, Wisconsin, August 25, 1852. When the family removed to Minnesota he remained with an uncle in Wisconsin and attended district schools, receiving a fair education. In 1862 he joined his parents in Blue Earth county, where since he has been an enterprising farmer and popular citizen. In 1881 he bought land in Sterling township and remained until 1896 on the farm of one hundred and sixty acres which he owned up to 1900. The land is well adapted to general farming as well as the stock business and bears a reputation as one of the most fertile tracts in the locality. He now owns the old McQueen homestead of three hundred twenty acres in the township of Lyra. About the time of buying his Sterling farm Mr. McQueen married and when he settled on the new place he brought his bride here, so that they began housekeeping on their own homestead. January 3, 1883, he married Catherine E. Howieson, a native of Wisconsin and a member of a pioneer family of Sterling township, represented elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. McQueen have two daughters, Jennie E. and Jessie Margaret, of whom the elder is now engaged in the millinery business in Mapleton. The family are prominent in social affairs of the village and number their friends among the most cultured people of the community. In fraternal relations Mr. McQueen became affiliated with the Masons many years ago and still retains a warm interest in the blue lodge to which he belongs, contributing with accustomed generosity to its charities, as to other movements for the individual or common welfare. (History of Blue Earth County and Biographies of its Leading Citizens, Thomas Hughes, Middle West Publishing Company, Chicago, 1909)

Died March 2, 1920, in Blue Earth County, Minnesota