Solon Huntington Clough “ A native of Madison County, New York, was born August 31, 1828. His father, Hamilton Clough, a merchant and public contractor, was a businessman of much note in his locality. Solon attended a common school most of the time in his younger years. He prepared for college at the Fulton Acad- emy, and after completing the freshman year at Hamilton College, spent about three years in the South, teaching a part of the time, but never reentered college. In 1850 we find him again in the State of New York. He studied law in Syracuse and Fulton, and after being admitted to the bar practiced in Oswego county until 1857, when he removed to Hudson, Wisconsin. It was the year of the great financial crash, and Hudson felt the depression in legal as well as “other business”. Mr. Clough formed a partnership with Mr. H. C. Baker, now of the firm of Baker and Spooner, and although forced to ” labor and wait,” he patiently toiled and overcame all obstacles, and after a few years was rewarded with a prosperous practice and a good reputation. In 1864, the eleventh judicial circuit having been created, he was elected as circuit judge, having previously removed at the people’s request to Polk county. The district comprised all the counties north of St. Croix to Lake Superior, and Judge Clough had the most extensive circuit in the State. He remained in Polk county five years, and being reelected in 1869 removed to Superior, at the head of Lake Superior, where he remained seven years. He retired from the bench at the end of twelve years, returning to Hudson in the autumn of 1876, and is now a member of the law firm of Clough and Hayes. As a jurist he was noted for the fairness and justness of his decisions, for his courtesy to the bar, and his clear-headedness and quick discernment of the legal relations and all bearings of every subject presented for his consideration. As a lawyer he is one of the most thoroughly read in St. Croix county. In politics he is identified with the republican party. In religious sentiment he is a Baptist. Mrs. Clough’s maiden name was Kate E. Taylor, of Fulton, New York. They had three children. He left Superior in 1895, at which time he was president and director at the First National Bank of Superior, which he helped found. He owned a lot more than that island on the waterfront. One of his daughters married Irvine Lenroot (also a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin), who also nearly became vice president under Warren J. Harding (1920 -- he delayed his decision too long, and Calvin Coolidge supporters moved in, and since Harding died in office, Coolidge became pres).
Judge Clough died in La Mesa, Calif., in 1910 at the age of 82.