John Lane Buell

He spent two years at Norwich (VT), and went to Kansas in 1857. In 1858 he drove an ox-drawn wagon from Leavenworth, KS to Pike's Peak following the news of gold discovered on the South Platte River. Appointed from Colorado Territory, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 4th US Infantry to date from 5 August 1861 to fill a vacancy in Company B. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 25 November 1861, and served as the Regimental Quartermaster from 1 April to 31 July 1862. He was in Company G by Antietam.

He commanded Company E on the Campaign and led the first Federal skirmishers across the Middle Bridge over the Antietam on the morning on 16 September 1862.

He resigned his commission on 6 November 1862.

He attended Harvard Law School for 6 months in 1863, then returned to Laurenceburg, IN and farmed. He moved to Michigan in 1866, studied the law, was admitted to the Bar, and practiced in Menominee County, MI. He was a member of the State legislature 1873-74. He found iron ore in the Menominee Range in 1873, and pioneered and laid out the town of Quinnesec, MI in 1877. He had been an investor in a newspaper and took it over himself, publishing the Menominee Journal from 1876 to at least 1883. He was active in iron mining until 1905 or later.

Basic information from Carman1 and Captain Dryer's Report, with service dates from Heitman.2 Further details from The Western Historical Company's History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (1883), S.D. Bingham's Early History of Michigan, with Biographies of State Officers, Members of Congress, Judges and Legislators (1888), and the 1924 edition of Michigan Government Biographies. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

A photograph of him in about 1891 is in W.R. Nursey's The Menominee Iron Range.

10/12/1835; Lawrenceburg, IN

01/30/1917; Breitung, MI; burial in Iron Mountain Cemetery Park, Iron Mountain, MI