A Curious Buckman Mystery

OK, we've discovered how St Michael's Catholic Church got its name, but I think we've neglected to mention who BUCKMAN was named for:

1892 plat

Just north of the Paul Hesch farm was a large tract of land that was owned by one Clarence B Buckman.  I'm not sure he ever actually lived there.  He wasn't the homesteading type, but he hired people to run cattle and grow crops there.  In the devastating tornado of 1886, his buildings were damaged and an employee died.  I don't know, either, how involved Clarence was in town business.  He wasn't part of village incorporation in 1903, but the place was already called Buckman by then.


Here's his Wikipedia bio:

 Clarence Bennett Buckman, (April 1, 1851 – March 1, 1917) a Representative from Minnesota; born in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; attended the public and normal schools; moved to Minnesota in 1872 and settled in what is now known as Buckman; engaged in agricultural pursuits and in the lumber business; appointed justice of the peace in 1873; member of the Minnesota House of Representatives 1881 – 1883; served in the Minnesota Senate 1887 – 1891 and 1899 – 1903; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth congresses (March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1907); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1906; deputy United States marshal 1912 – 1917; resumed the lumber business in Little Falls, Morrison County, Minnesota; died in Battle Creek, Michigan, March 1, 1917; interment in Oakland Cemetery, Little Falls, Minnesota.

 A person named Buckman from Bucks County implies quite a long family history here in the United States, I assume.  It's interesting that the Dehler family also came from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  They homesteaded just east of Clarence's land--probably some connection, I'd think.  Oh, and the Buckman Hotel in Little Falls was built by our man Clarence, too.

But all that's a digression--the MYSTERY involves Clarence (on the right) and a man I never heard of before last night:  Hanford L Gordon.  I found these two curious photos on the Minnesota Historical Society's website, photos taken in 1910 by Nelson, in Little Falls.  The two pics are really only remarkable if they're together, ya know?  They had to be friends, since the grouchy-looking, less serious one is matted and signed by both men.  

SO, Larry and I researched Hanford Gordon.  Turns out he was a Civil War Veteran who was back in Minnesota in 1910 for an Old Settlers Reunion, which Clarence probably attended too.  
Here's a bit of that highlighted webpage:

Hanford Lennox Gordon married Miss Sylvia Smith, of Ceres, PA, in February of 1858. Their daughter, Ada, was born in 1859. In the autumn of 1859, they headed west and settled in Clearwater, in Wright County, Minnesota. 

Hanford was a member of a local militia unit known as the Clearwater Guard. The unit was created in case a defense might be needed against the local Indian population. The Clearwater Guard met in a building owned by Lewis Mitchell. When war broke out, 8 of the 54 members enlisted in the First Minnesota. The others seven were George Fuller, Charles Geer, Lewis Geer, Lewis Mitchell, Alex Hyatt, Ellet Perkins and Carrol Clifford.  On May 21, 1861, Hanford Gordon left behind life as a 24 year old husband, father and attorney and took up the life of a soldier. The eight men from Clearwater were kept together and placed in Company D of the First Minnesota Infantry. Hanford was promoted to corporal. 

So, the Gordons lived in Clearwater, Mn before and after the War between the States.  Hanford was a war hero by the time CB met him, then.  They were both state senators, but not at the same time.  Hanford was 15 years older than CB.  Both lived in Minneapolis for a time in the 1880s, too.

Perhaps Hanford Gordon was CB Buckman's lawyer, and they became friends.  If these pics were taken by Nelson, then CB had invited Hanford to visit in Little Falls...OR  

Added August 2013:  Looking thru old Little Falls Herald newspapers that're now online, I'm finding references to a T C Gordon living in LF.  Hanford's son maybe?  That'd explain a lot ☺

Larry found a whole page with pictures of 270 members of the First Minnesota .  

Ahh, look--from Mitchell's 1915  History of Stearns County, Minnesota:

Now we know (more)!

☺

......................

BTW, here's one of those books, "Legends of the Northwest" , a book of poems 

by Hanford Lennox Gordon, digitized by Google.