Col. Samuel McPhail was born in Russellville, Ky., May 2, 1828, and died near Taunton, Minn., March 6, 1902. He served in the Mexican war, later coming to Minnesota, where he founded the town of Caledonia and with David Carrothers laid out the town of Beaver Falls in 1866, selling his interest in 1867 to William C. Essler. He was admitted to the bar in 1867 and was one of the attorneys in the first case tried before the district court in the county. Some time after selling his interests in Beaver Falls he removed to Redwood Falls, a few miles across the river. He served in the early part of the Civil was a captain of scouts in Missouri and in the Sioux war of 1862-3 as colonel in the First Minnesota cavalry.