Gideon Welles was born on July 1, 1802 in Glastonbury, Connecticut. He originally studied law but later became a journalist and founded the Hartford Times in 1826. He served as a Democrat in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1827 to 1835. President Abraham Lincoln named Welles Secretary of the Navy in 1861, and Welles built up the country's naval forces significantly in order to execute blockades against Southern ports. After Lincoln's death in 1865, Welles stayed on as Secretary of the Navy under President Andrew Johnson. He left the post in 1869 and returned to Connecticut, where he died on February 12, 1878.

Alexander Hamilton Rice was born in Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts on August 30, 1818. He graduated from Union College in 1844 and worked as a paper manufacturer in Boston before involving himself in politics. Rice served as the Mayor of Boston from 1856 to 1857 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1859. He served in this capacity until 1867 and sat on the Committee on Naval Affairs during the 38th and 39th Congresses. After leaving the House, Rice returned to Boston and later served as a Delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalist Convention (1866), as a Delegate to the Republican National Convention (1868), and as Governor of Massachusetts (1876-1878). Alexander H. Rice died on July 22, 1895 in Boston, Massachusetts and is buried in Newton Cemetery.