Bio of LANGDON, Robert Bruce (b.1826 d.1895), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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Vol III, pg 26-30
ROBERT BRUCE LANGDON
High on the roll of those whose names appear conspicuously and honorably in
connection with the industrial development of the west and the political history
of Minnesota, appears that of Robert Bruce Langdon. A native of the Green
Moun­tain state, he was born at New Haven, Vermont, November 24, 1826, and
traced his ancestral line back to England, although it was in the formative
period of American history that the progenitor of the family reached the new
world. His great-grand­father held a captaincy in a Massachusetts regiment in
the Revolutionary war and after the successful close of the conflict became a
resident of Vermont, settling in the neighborhood of New Haven in Addison
county, where several successive genera­tions of the family have lived. There
occurred the birth of Seth Langdon, the father of Robert Bruce Langdon, who
after arriving at years of maturity wedded a Miss Squires, also a representative
of one of the old families of that section.
Seth Langdon devoted his life to the occupation of farming and on the old
homestead Robert B. Langdon was reared, early becoming familiar with the work of
tilling the soil and caring for the crops. He pursued his early education in the
district schools and afterward benefited by a short course in a good academy of
New England. Naturally mechanical by nature and interested in activities of that
character, in 1848 he became foreman of a construction company engaged in the
building of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad in Vermont. After a brief period
thus spent he left his native state and made his way westward as an employe of
Selah Chamberlain, a railroad contractor, with whom he worked for a number of
years in Ohio and Wisconsin. Actuated by a most laudable ambition, however, he
at length engaged in business independently by taking a contract to fence the
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to Minnesota
Junc­tion. This really constituted his initial step toward a most successful
career as a contractor. He took up railroad construction work and in 1853 had
charge of the building of a section of seventy-five miles of the Illinois
Central Railroad, extend­ing from Kankakee, Illinois, to Urbana, Ohio. Later he
executed similar contracts for the Milwaukee & La Crosse and the Milwaukee &
Prairie du Chien roads and in 1858 it was under his direction that the first
ground for a railroad was broken in Minnesota. A little, later he went south to
build the Mobile & Ohio Railroad but after devoting two years to this project
was forced to abandon it because of the outbreak of the Civil war. He at once
returned to the north and continued his operations as a. railroad contractor,
being associated at different times with D. M. Carpenter, D. C. Shepard and A.
H. Linton. In partnership with these and others he built seven thousand miles of
railroad in the states of Vermont, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana,
Minnesota, Tennessee, Mississippi, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana and the Northwest
Territory in Canada. Not only was he widely known as one of the most prominent
railroad builders of the country but he also became inter­ested in the ownership
of some of these lines, acquiring stock and also serving as a director of some
of the most important railroad companies of the Northwest. He was likewise
elected vice president and a director of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad
and for a number of years was vice president of the Minneapolis, St. Paul &
Sault Ste. Marie Railroad. Even this did not limit the field of his activities,
for in 1866 he built the canal of the Minneapolis Milling Company and he was
also the president of the company which built the Syndicate block and the
Masonic Temple, in Minneapolis. He served as one of the directors of the Twin
City Stockyards at New Brighton and of the City Bank of Minneapolis and became a
partner in the wholesale grocery house of George R. Newell & Company, while he
also held in­terests in the Terminal Elevator Company and the Belt Railway,
which connects the stockyards with the interurban system of railroads.
In 1859 Mr. Langdon was married to Miss Sarah Smith, a daughter of Dr. Horatio
A. Smith of New Haven, Vermont. They established their home in Minne­apolis in
1866, having resided through the three previous years in Mendota, Minnesota,
after which Mr. Langdon continued to abide in Minneapolis until called to his
final rest. He was an Episcopalian in religious faith, belonging to St. Mark's
church. To him and his wife were born three children: Cavour S.; Martha A., now
Mrs. H. C. Truesdale; and Caroline B., now Mrs. W. F. Brooks, all residents of
Minneapolis, the son being mentioned elsewhere in this work.
Mr. Langdon always voted with the republican party from its organization and his
opinions for many years carried weight not only in local but in state and
national councils. In 1872 he was elected a member of the state senate and by
reelection was continued in the upper house of the general assembly until 1878.
Then after an interval of two years he was again returned to the senate and
served until 1885. Once more in 1888 he was nominated by his party for the
office but was defeated by the democratic candidate, owing to the Farmers'
Alliance landslide. His promi­nence and popularity in party ranks was indicated
in the fact that he never had an opponent for any nomination that he received,
being always the unanimous choice of the nominating convention and on each
occasion his nomination came to him un­solicited. He was many times a delegate
to the state conventions of his party and three times represented Minnesota in
the national conventions, attending in Cin­cinnati in 1876, in Chicago in 1884
and in Chicago in 1888. His senatorial record was one characterized by most
valuable service and the highest ideals of statecraft. In this connection a
contemporary biographer has said: "No man in his community ever took a more
active, intelligent and serviceable interest in the affairs of his locality than
did Mr. Langdon. In the molding of the destinies of Minneapolis and the state of
Minnesota during the active years of his life, his influence was wide­spread and
potential. He also had an extensive acquaintance with men of national reputation
and influence throughout the country, and this he made serviceable to his city
and state whenever he could do so. It was largely through his persuasive power
and country-wide acquaintance with the leaders of political thought in his party
that Minneapolis was selected as the meeting place of the republican national
convention in 1892, and he was a member of the general committee on arrangements
for it and chairman of two of its most important subcommittees, chosen because
of his great business ability and personal strength in his community and
elsewhere. Mr. Langdon was a gentleman whose counsel was eagerly sought by
various cor­porations and large institutions, not only in Minnesota, but
throughout the North­west, his reputation as a financier and a man of fine
business capacity being high and widespread. And his sterling traits of
character made him a strong man in every field of endeavor with which he was
ever connected. But his numerous and very exacting business undertakings did not
wean him from the studious habits formed in his boyhood and youth, and he
possessed a vast fund of general informa­tion gathered by reading, observation
and reflection. Few men were equal to him as a conversationalist on so many and
such varied topics of human interest and discussion." He possessed a genial
nature, a kindly spirit and a most charitable and benevolent disposition. He
gave generously to organized institutions for benevolent work and also to
individual cases but his charity was ever of a most unostentatious character. He
passed away on the 24th of July 1895, and from one end of the country to the
other, wherever he was known, deep sorrow was felt when the news of his demise
was received. He was honored by two towns, Langdon, North Dakota, and Langdon,
Minnesota, being named for him and this was but indicative of the high position
to which he had attained in business circles and as a statesman. One who knew
him well for many years said of him: "He was one of the noblest of God's
creations-an honest man in every sense. His word, was always as good as his
bond, whether in business, friendship or politics. He was a man who delighted in
serving his friends, who never lost an opportunity to recip­rocate the slightest
favors or courtesies, and his loyalty to friendships and business associates was
a matter of universal comment among all who knew him." While he won notable
success in business, while he gained a point of leadership in politics, it was
the nobility of his character that left an indelible impress upon the minds and
hearts of all with whom he came into contact.