Jeremiah McLain Rusk

Jeremiah McLain Rusk (June 17, 1830 – November 21, 1893) was the 15th Governor of the U.S. state of Wisconsin from 1882 to 1889.
Biography.
Rusk was born in Malta, Ohio. He was a member of the Republican Party. He began his life as a farmer, then became an innkeeper and finally became a banker before the Civil War. During the war, he received a brevet appointment as a general and saw action with the 25th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry.
After the Civil War, he became a congressman in the United States House of Representatives. There, he became chairman of the Committee on Invalid Pensions. He was elected Governor of Wisconsin as a Republican in 1882. His most noted act during his governorship was when he sent the National Guard into Milwaukee to keep the peace during the May Day Labor Strikes of 1886. This led to the Bay View Tragedy, in which a number of workers were killed; Governor Rusk took most of the blame.
In 1889 he resigned his post as governor and accepted the new cabinet position of Secretary of Agriculture in the Benjamin Harrison administration. He lived, died and was buried in Viroqua, Wisconsin.