Bio of Tefft, N. S., M.D. (b.1830) Wabasha Co., MN
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This bio comes from "HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY" 1884.
Check out Barbara's site for more great information on this book:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwabbio/wab1.htm
There are also some pictures and information from descendents for some 
of the bios on her pages.

Tefft, N. S., M.D., pioneer doctor, physician and surgeon of Plainview,
was among the earliest settlers of the county of Wabasha in the spring of
the year 1856. He transferred the field of his labors from Minneiska, July
3, 1861, to his present location. The opportunity was afforded him at the
commencement of the settlement by J. Y. Blackwell, who offered, if he
would come and pre-empt a quarter-section, to provide all the money, and
give him half the property so obtained; but this he saw fit to decline. He
was born in Hamilton, Madison county, New York, on July 16, 1830, and
received an academic education at Fredonia, Mayville and Panama. His
parents, Jeremiah and Sarah (Sweet) Tefft, were descendants of the early
Rhode Island families, Commodore Perry (of revolutionary fame) and his
father being classmates at Newport. Mr. Tefft commenced reading medicine
in 1848 with Dr. James Fenner, of Sherman, Chautauqua county, New York,
whence the family moved with the doctor in embryo, at about five years of
age. He attended two full courses of lectures, 1851 and 1852, in
Cincinnati, graduated, and after a four years' practice at Sherman, pushed
westward across the Mississippi, and located at Minneiska, Wabasha county,
sixteen miles from his present home. Here he officiated in the triple
capacity of doctor, postmaster, and justice of the peace. Dr. Tefft held
the office of county physician of Wabasha county during 1882, and some
time previous for three successive years. He became a member of the first
state legislature of Minnesota by election in the fall of 1857, again in
1861, and in 1871 was returned to the senate. He is a member of the state
medical association, and has a reputation for miles around as an operative
surgeon, equaled by few and excelled by none. In politics the doctor was
originally democratic, with a strong tincture of free-soilism, so that he
naturally became a republican when that party sprang into existence, and
in this respect his sentiments remain unchanged. During his whole life he
has been conspicuous as an enterprising and influential citizen. A genius
of a mechanical turn, he invented the first automatic binder that made all
the motions in binding grain by machinery, and his thoroughly practical
idea of the application of permanent magnates as a motive power, he gives
to others of more leisure and opportunities of development. As a member of
the I.O.O.F., the doctor has passed all the chairs, and at the meeting of
the grand lodge of the State of Minnesota, June 5, 1883, was unanimously
elected deputy grand master of the state. As a gentleman of culture,
though a man of extremes in his likes and dislikes, he is at once affable
and unostentatious, and universally admired both in and out of his
profession for his ability and genially courteous bearing. He is a strong
believer in the doctrine of evolution, and, as a Freethinker, does not
scruple on any and all occasions to express his disbelief in orthodoxy.
One son, the only child born to Dr. Tefft by his wife, formerly Miss
Hattie S. Gibbs, of Plainview, to whom he was married November 10, 1866,
now sleeps in Plainview cemetery in a unique miniature vault, surmounted
by a marble slab bearing the inscription: To Little Clyde, only son of N.
S. and L. S. Tefft, died August 17, 1870. This loss to the doctor was a
severe blow, and one difficult to overcome, for to the little one he was
passionately devoted.
War of Rebellion (Civil War)