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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Redfield Proctor Biography PROCTOR,
Redfield (1831-1908). An American political leader and cabinet officer. He
was born in Proctorsville, Vt., and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1851 and
from the Albany Law School in 1859. He served throughout the Civil War, rising
from a lieutenancy in the Third Vermont Volunteer Infantry to be colonel of the
Fifteenth Vermont, taking part in the battle of Gettysburg. After some practice
of law he devoted himself to his extensive quarry interests, in which he
accumulated a large fortune. After several terms in the State Legislature,
during which period he was author of the law authorizing formation of
corporations, he served from 1876 to 1878 as Lieutenant Governor, and from 1878
to 1880 as Governor. In 1889 he entered the cabinet of President
Harrison as Secretary of War, resigning in 1891 to accept an appointment as
United States Senator, succeeding George F. Edmunds. He was elected for a full
term of six years in 1893 and was reëlected in 1899 and in 1905. Early in 1898
he visited Cuba to inform himself as to conditions in the island, and on the
information obtained by him, especially regarding Weyler's reconcentrado system,
the McKinley administration's decision to adopt a
policy of intervention is said to
have been largely based. |