The Nature Conservancy has acquired 358-acre Clough Island in the St. Louis River Estuary near Superior, Wis., after a developer previously sought to build condominiums and a golf course. The island is located where the St. Louis River meets Lake Superior and is the largest island in the estuary. The Conservancy bought the island to preserve and retain the habitat for wildlife that includes native fish and migratory birds. Wildlife officials say as many as 230 species of birds have been documented using the estuary that’s also home to beavers, minks, river otters, muskrats, wolves, bears, bobcats and white-tail deer. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded a $1 million grant to help pay for the conservation and restoration of Clough Island through its National Coastal Wetlands Conservation. Clough Island is named for Solon H Clough, a prominent Wisconsin Judge and businessman (see following article) Clough Island looking Northeast. Lake Superior in background. Duluth, MN on left, Superior WI on right. 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 previ ously 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 have had three children. Note: This is not Solon H Clough (4471). 4471 was born in NH 1843, 15 years after Solon H above. Judge Solon’s father, Hamilton, was born in NH. Can you help trace him to JC of Salisbury?