John S. Pillsbury is born in Sutton, New Hampshire, in 1827. After arriving in Minnesota in the 1850s, he eventually found success and wealth in the flour-milling trade. He served as the state's eighth governor, arranging for the state to repay bondholders for the $5 million loan, which the railroads had defaulted on in 1858, and using his own funds to support operations at the state penitentiary, which the legislature had neglected to include in the budget. He ensured the success of the University of Minnesota, being one of three regents who put the university on firm financial footing, and he visited the campus almost daily for the last forty years of his life. He died on October 18, 1901.